“Duality” A Bold New Moebius II - Sonic the Hedgehog #190
Last time on the Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective, The Anti-Mobius gang invades freedom HQ while the Choaix is away fighting the Dark Egg Legion.
We get some opening banter between Sonic and Scourge and then the big battle beings.
Everyone pairs off, Antoine finally getting a crack at fighting Patch and Bunnie still going after Boomer. I’ll come back to the Patch vs Ant stuff in a minute but lets focus on Bunnie for now.
She’s paired off with Boomer not only because of their similar power sets but also because the contrast in how they view said powers. Bunnie may have accepted herself for who she is, but she still resents the fact that her choice was taken away from her. And she can’t fathom why anyone would give up being what is to her mind “normal”.
While Boomer’s reasoning is fairly shallow, he’s a bully who gets overlooked by the bigger bads and naturally craves validation same as all bullies do, it’s the seed of an an idea that will grow in future stories concerning Bunnie’s character: questioning the validity of cybernetics both her own and that of others.
Sadly said stories are a ways off, as this is possibly the most development she gets during the entirety of the Eighth Era.
During the skirmish Scourge almost gets sent back to his world. Angry at the thought of losing, he threatens his team and we see some hints as to how he came to power.
I can’t remember if it is outright stated later, but it’s heavily implied here that Scourge actually did gouge Anti-Antoine’s eye out and gave him the moniker of “Patch” as an insult.
The Suppression Squad now genuinely fear Scourge, unlike before, and follow his orders mainly out self preservation.
You can’t feel too sorry for Patch though, because he’s also a lying abusive murdering psychopath. While I’m sad that we never saw Bunnie, Ant, and/or Sally thoroughly trounce his ass, it is nice to know that karma did it for them.
More fighting ensues, more banter, and some more insights into Ali’s and Miles’s motivations occur, and then we reach what is perhaps the most important scene in the whole arc.
I’ve talked about Antoine’s change in behavior since his capture several times before on this blog. We’ve also seen one or two hints that Bunnie herself has notice this change as well. This, however, is the first and sadly only time where we get an on panel confrontation revolving around it.
Antoine claims that he only desires to protect Bunnie. That the reason he wishes to fight Patch is not for revenge but in order to keep everyone safe.
It’s a sweet moment, but is it fully true?
Make no mistake, everyone’s safety comes first when Ant’s concerned. I have no doubt that he genuinely believes that what he does is for the greater good. But killing someone out of fear, even a reasonable fear, is still killing someone, and Antoine never says that he wouldn’t strike Patch down if given the chance. So does he really desire revenge and is using “protection” as a justification for his actions? Or can he no longer see the difference between the two when it concerns his family?
We’ll never get an answer, but I personally believe that Ant is the only core Freedom Fight who would kill, and possibly already has. And Patch is probably at the top of his hit list, if he ever went down a darker path.
Especially when Patch continues to pull shit like this.
Guys, I can’t. I just can’t. There’s not enough words in my vocabulary to process everything that’s going on in those panels; the angst, the horror, the dread, the relief, the love, the devotion, the squees of a dying fangirl…. It’s too much.
So I’ll let someone else do it for me! XD
I found this fanfic a while back that relates Antoine’s point of view during these events. It’s by VideoGameAddictsLtd and It’s just so good!
A Second in Eternity
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Read it guys! You won’t regret it.
So after this bit of drama the battle wages on with neither side gaining any ground. Sally therefore calls for a retreat and Bunnie provides cover for everyone.
I think this a new power for her. She’s had shields before, yes but not ones that worked like that. She also hasn’t had once since before her upgrade.
And we think we get our first hint that Bunnie’s powers can have a bit of wear and tear on her body. A plot point for a later arc. Though you could also infer that Boomer just hit her really, really hard too. Either way, Ant’s concerned for his wife and it’s uber precious as always.
This issue technically concludes this “arc” but not the whole story. This would be Flynn’s first foray into multi-part epics that spans across more then one arc. For better or for worse.
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