The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 132

The 25 Recap - 6th Era

So this might be the most decisive of eras yet…

The 6th era includes….

• Sonic the Hedgehog 126-150

“Two steps forward one step back” is the phrase that comes to mind when discussing this era. A lot of effort went in to reexamining what went wrong in previous eras and improving upon those problems, while also setting up a whole host of new bullshit to work through. And then there are many instances where the writers prove they didn’t learn a damn thing. 

Major events of the era are….

• Sonic figures out the Bem cured Robians and meets Tails’s parents while traveling through space - StH 129 
• Sonic returns home and finds he’s been gone for a year - StH 130 
• Mecha and Adam are introduced - StH 130
• Mobuis Years Later series begins - StH 131
• Bunnie’s and “Antoine’s” breakup is revealed - StH 133
• Sally breaks up with Sonic in the infamous slap moment - StH 134
• “Antoine” becomes King Max’s personal bodyguard - StH 134 
• Tommy Turtle joins the FFs - StH 137 
•  Finitevus and Knuckle’s baby brother Mace is introduced - StH 139
• Angel Island is rescued from Eggman - StH 141
• The Egg Grapes are first seen - StH 141
• Amy officially becomes a Freedom Fighter - StH 142
• M25YL ends - StH 144
• Shadow meets Hope - StH 145
• Nicole and Sally swap bodies temporally - StH 146 
• The Chosen One Arc finally comes to an end - StH 149 & 150 
• Scourge replaces Sonic and reveals that “Antoine” was Patch all along and the real Twan is held captured on anti-mobius - StH 150

Favorite thing about the era: Consequences 

My biggest complaint about the previous era is that nothing felt like it mattered. Individual stories had little impact with those around them and even important ones were handled with little gravitas. Here though, there’s more of an effort to have interconnected stories and a fully fleshed out world. Actual story arcs return, Knuckles and the Chaotix are part of the main cast and not off doing their own thing, events that were previously seen as insignificant or were ignored for a long time come back to bite the characters in the ass, and most importantly events during this era set up important developments for later on.

Least favorite thing about the era: Character Assassination

Or should I say attempted character assassination. Fortunately other writers would come in and fix or better yet build off of the OOC writing that was rampant during this era. Creating arguably stronger stories and better character development out of the mistakes of this era. That is perhaps why I don’t hate the 6th era as much as most. I knew before going into it that most of the out of place character moments would right themselves out. (Well that and there are some genuinely damn good arcs here)   

However, I don’t blame a single person for despising the writers for what happened during this era. Characters like Rotor becoming cheap mouth pieces for the creators’ political beliefs despite not fitting the character’s previous seen actions. Sally being deliberately written as unlikable just to jump start yet another forced love triangle. Antoine being written as a villain, undoing years of character growth, all for sake of contrived drama. Ugh!   

Favorite Antoine Story: “Hero to Zero In No Time At All” Sink or Spin I - StH 150 by Ken Penders    

I would include the whole arc here, but half of it is in the next era, so… meh. This story technically wins by default as this is the only story to feature the real Antoine in the era. Outside of the pointless flash back in “One Part Ooh-La-La and Two Parts Treachery!” it’s really Patch on screen. That said this is still a major, major development for Twan. One that will come to shape his character from now on. 

Favorite Bunnie Story: “Finale” Home IV - StH 133 by Karl Bollers    

Bunnie has more of a presence during this era than her significant other, but she still winds up taking the back seat a lot to the other power players of the book. (ie. the game characters) Home is the only story where she gets to physically take part in the proceedings and one of the few times she’s saved the day since the 2nd era. It also has the added bonus of furthering her development by introducing the break up. And regardless of how poorly that plot point would develop later; it’s effective and well handled here. 

Favorite Buntwan Story or Moment: Bunnie missing Antoine in “Love and Loss” - StH 144 by Romy Chacon and Jon Gray (uncredited) 

So the only time we see Bunnie and the real Ant together is during the flashback in StH 137. Unfortunately that story A. shit and B. completely redundant as it tells us nothing new about the characters or their relationship.  

However “Love and Loss” makes the absence of their romance the focus. Reaffirming why they’re such a great couple while also revealing new insights into their flaws as characters and how that effects their romance together. 

If the comic took more time for introspective stuff like this instead of the “oh he loves me; he loves me not” bullshit, I would probably be a bit more favorable towards it’s romantic drama. It of course becomes all the more frustrating when you realize that Romy Chacon wrote both this and “One Part Ooh-La-La and Two Parts Treachery!”. Which means the writers are capable of doing more, they’re just too fucking lazy or too self adsorbed do so. 

Favorite Single Story: “Circuit Me" - StH 146 by Romy Cahcon 

While I’ll praise some of the arcs during this era, the one off stories were a mite on the weaker side of things.  "Circuit Me” stands out because it happens to have some emotional heart to it. Nicole finally learns about human emotion as she and Sally switch places. This also becomes a starting point for both Nicole’s character development and some major plot points in the future. 

Favorite Story Arc: Return to Angel Island - StH 138 - 141 by Karl Bollers 

While Home is still one of my favorite arcs its held down somewhat by Bollers more annoying excesses *cough* the slap *cough* . However,  Return to Angel Island, is near perfect. Showcasing just how good Penders’ concepts and ideas could be in the hands of other writers. And while the relationship drama is still present it’s handled much more maturely and shown to have real consequences on the characters’ behaviors and outlooks outside of just will they/won’t they triangle BS. 

Favorite Artist: Jon Gray 

I was a fan of Jonathan Gray’s work long before I started reading Sonic. He’s done a lot of work for various Disney comics and I find his unique style very appealing. There’s a lot of flow, energy, and movement to his action. Even in more subtle scenes, like the one above, he has a clear way of presenting emotion through a character’s body language. He’s also fantastic at large group scenes, giving everybody, no matter how minor, a story of their own in the background. His world just feels alive. 

I know that he’s not everyone’s tastes, but I often point to his work when I’m trying to describe the difference between personal style and actual bad art. Like Spaz or Sam Maxwell, Gray’s art can be off model and exaggerated but there’s an intended purpose behind that. These artists have control and can reel in the excesses when needed and unleash their zany action upon the page to give the illusion of movement. Unlike say, Ron Lim or Jerry Gaylord who also frequently go off model due to personal style, but lack energy or focus. Making their subtle scenes stiff and their action scenes poorly laid out and confusing.  

Yeah, I still maintain that this isn’t the absolute worse era, but it’s still pretty damn close. Fortunately there’s a light at the end of the tunnel folks. So tune in next week when we start on the 7th era and the end of the Bollers/Penders run.