Legacy

So, this was inspired by 's response to my last little shot at the comics, that being to link me to a pre-existing video inwhich he explained the motive Flynn has for doing this, and whether he wants to push back his story or not.

He bascially said that Flynn's hand is forced into it by SEGA and Capcom, and he's dragging out the story arc so that when people think of the comics, they'll think of "that two-year-long thing with Mecha Sally". He wants to leave his mark by making a story that's double the length of the Iron Dominion Arc Mess, regardless of whether the plot chosen has what's needed to last that long, which, from the filler, the padding, and five months worth of delays, it doesn't.

Funny, I really doubt it would matter all that much if 'At All Costs' got finished before the crossover started. Or maybe it would have been done by now if they hadn't repeated the story structure for 3 issues, running from 236-239, basically consisting of "Heroes find Sally. One hero fights Sally. Hero beats Sally. Sally still escapes for reasons that only make sense when explained in Cybertronian." Or maybe if the plot hadn't been diverted for Endangered Species and it's villain that looks like the result of a drunken tryst between the Werehog and Lien-Da, especially when it makes Knuckles look like an asshole who will only get involved in a situation if it threatens the Echidna, and not when his actual friends need his help.

I also find it funny that Flynn's mark on the comic, as he put it, will be a reminder of a crappy story that was held up repeatedly, left unfinished for four months, padded, repeated the same plot structure for 3-4 issues, put shock value before logical sense, used 'A Wizard Did It', made the heroes look like assholes and idiots, had a load of plotholes, and had several readers supporting Geoffrey over Sonic in the infamous trial scene.

Furthermore, he can boast all he likes about his two-year-long story, but the fact of that matter is, that subtract the crossover and 242, it's seventeen months. If we discard the repeated storylines (238 and 239), it's fifteen months. If we remove 240, since that too was pretty much all filler, then it's fourteen months.

And it's not like it had to be that way. Have the first half focus on Mecha Sally, but at the end of the first year, have her free will restored, but her Mecha form remain, and the arc continues, as the FF now have to pursue Naugus, free Geoff, and force Naugus to deroboticize Sally, who all the while is threatened by Eggman's attempts to use the Iron Queen to regain control over her.

This also highlights a failure in communication. As I've stressed before, Paul Kaminski stated that Mecha Sally would be in her current state for 'up to a year.' Not 'over a year', but 'up to'. Meanwhile, Flynn's intention all along has been to make a two-year long story arc. So either Flynn did not tell Kaminski, making him look like a liar (by accident, of course), or Kaminski lied.

Also, before the Mecha Sally arc, The Iron Dominion arc was generally considered one of the worst arcs, or at least the weakest, even by some Flynn fans, probably having something to do with how long it was dragged out. Meanwhile, his strongest arc-based work in Sonic material is definitely in Sonic Universe, like the Shadow and Silver Sagas.

In other words, his strongest arc work is limited to four parts, and his weakest was the year-long story. Maybe that should give a few hints that he writes better when it's not a painfully long story.

I think Archie need to learn the meaning of 'quality over quantity'.  If you can write shorter stories better than longer ones, do shorter ones. Don't try to show off. It backfired last time, and it's backfired this time.

Sure, you've gotten people talking, but you've gotten people like me talking, cynical, bored critics, advising potential new readers to stay the hell away, and only read them online if they're really curious, and certainly not pay for them.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have fanfiction to read and write.