“Line of Succession Part 1″ - Line of Succession I - Sonic the Hedgehog #155
To the surprise of no one, it’s revealed this issue that “Antoine”, a.k.a. Patch, was the one poisoning the King and most likely the General as well.
Meanwhile, it’s revealed that Sonic and Fiona are now in a relationship and Tails is jealous.
“Since when?” You may ask. After all weren’t they building up to a Bunnie/Sonic relationship all this time? Also why? Fiona just stated two issues ago that she still blamed Sonic for leaving her behind in Robotnik’s prison and thought he was selfish. And before you say “well Scourge charmed her”, we never actually saw the two of them together in issue 150; we’re just told through editor text boxes that he flirted with her.
I give Bollers a lot of shit for his cliched and forced romances, but at least he bothered to establish those relationships first. However, Penders’ romantic drama is just pointless and thrown in here without any thought what so ever.
(P.S. It’s still weird that Tails got upset over “Sonic” and Bunnie making out. I don’t know why the comic feels the need to bring that up again. It makes it look like Tails is in love with Sonic instead of Fiona)
Anyways due to the King’s illness worsening, he cuts his world tour short and places Sally in charge permanently; on one condition that is.
This is the biggest criticism I see hurled at this story; Sally’s lack of agency. And to be fair I can see where they’re coming from. After all, if Max is too ill to lead then Sally would be placed in charge regardless of his blessing and once in charge she can do or not do whatever the hell she feels like. There’s no logical reason for her to be forced into an unwanted marriage.
But abuse isn’t logical.
That’s what we’re seeing here. This is what we’ve been leading up to since issue 59, way back when Max first revealed the Source of All. Remember the Source told him that she would marry Antoine; it just failed to say which Antoine it would be.
Basically, after all of the manipulation, lies, and emotional abuse over the years, Sally’s lost control over her life. Yes, she could logically tell her dad to fuck off and do what she wanted, but that wouldn’t be in line with her character thus far. And honestly breaking away from such relationships is rarely that easy.
Now you could make the argument that Sally should never have been written into an abusive relationship begin with, or that after this story she should have made more of an effort to escape. Those are legitimate complaints. But within the context of the ongoing story, her behavior here does make sense.
Of course this news doesn’t go over well with Bunnie.
Babe? So are you two dating or not? Since when did you ever call her “babe’? Did Penders forget that this is the real Sonic and not Scourge?
Turns out that Bunnie is still in love with Twan, once again to the surprise of no one.
But enough of her feelings, which have been the primary focus of the “dark Antoine” arc up till now, lets focus on Sonic and his feelings instead.
Yeah, I’m not going to lie, I sometimes hate the fact that Sonic’s the main character of this series. He often steals panel time away from far more interesting characters.
And no I’m not delusional or anything. I fully understand why he is the main character and that it’s something that’ll never ever change regardless of medium. But lets face it, Sonic is constantly surrounded by a unique and likable supporting cast that quite often gets the shaft in terms of story development.
Also, there’s this….
Ummm…Sonic, Sally’s not beholden to tell you a damn thing. She broke up with you, remember? And regardless of my personal feelings about the slap, she has every right not to have you involved in her relationship decisions.All this talk about how she hurt you and how it’s all her fault only serves to make you look bad, not the other way around.
Any hoo, Sonic is stopped at the gate by “Antoine” and they duke it out.
I love this scene. In fact there are a lot of little moments that I’ve cut due to time and their lack of plot reverence that I personally enjoy. If there’s one thing that this story does really well, it’s that it makes Patch a credible threat. He’s not only manipulative and conniving, but a physical force to be reckoned with. One that can and has taken on Sonic and won.
In fact I would argue that Patch is the most effective villain in the entire comic. In that he’s the one to accomplish the most without deteriorating due to diminishing returns. Think about, Snively and Linda are enjoyable characters but they aren’t real threats, Robotnik/Eggman, Mammoth Mogul, and the like start of competent but slowly lose their effectiveness due to constantly losing, while characters such as Scourge, Fiona, and Jack Rabbit can be interesting but their goals are generally more petty and focused on one individual rather then bringing harm to everyone, and Dimitri, Gefforey, and Thrash are more anti-villains then anything.
So that pretty much leaves who? Finitevus and the Iron Queen are pretty much the only other big bads to be serious threats to world but they don’t have the psychological edge that Patch does. Patch is both a villain who threatens the realm and one who personally harms and challenges our main heroes. But most importantly, he very nearly wins. I’ll get into it more next issue, but basically the only thing that stops him is the plot convenience fairy.
Speaking of being a manipulative asshat, after his altercation with Sonic, Patch visits Sally.
Ooooh, he’s good; acting like he’s just as much a victim as her, reinforcing the same bullshit about “duty” that her father has ingrained into her since childhood, pretending to still be her childhood friend that she’s known and trusted for years. This conversation would be almost sweet if it wasn’t for the fact we know who he really is. It’s easy to see from this scene just how Patch managed to replace Antoine with little suspicion despite the obvious changes in behavior. He knows just when to drop the cold exterior to keep people guessing.
The next morning, the King has gotten worse and Sally’s come to a decision.
You know it’s not explained very well about why Sally changed her mind. I’d like to think it’s a misguided attempt to honor her father’s dying wishes rather then “duty” or “obligation to the kingdom”. Especially since there is no real political, strategic, nor moral reason for her to marry anybody. The only reason this is a dilemma to begin with is because Max’s a jerk.
So we therefore end this part of the arc on Sally’s and “Antoine’s” wedding, while Sonic rushes off to find a way to stop it.
I do like Sally’s internal monologue here as she tries to justify to herself this horrible mistake. Especially the part about how the real Antoine has a lot of good qualities that she does like. Just the other day @nuttyrabbit asked me how I think a real Sally/Antoine relationship would play out, particularly if they came together early in the comics run. And I honestly do think they would be good for each other if they got together naturally and didn’t have this predestination forced down their throats. And if, you know, Patch and/or the Source of All wasn’t a total dick manipulating events.
The rest of the comic is a dumb and unimportant backstory for Ducly. Pay it no heed.
Next time we’ll finally conclude the dark Antoine arc. However I make no promises as to when the next review will come out. I’m going out of town next weekend and the weekend after that is my birthday. But rest assured I won't leave you hanging for too long viewers.
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