Episode 44 | There's Some Penders Showin' In Those Pencils

Steve Irwin provided his voice for the animated film Happy Feet, as an elephant seal named Trev. The film was posthumously released in November 2006, and it was dedicated to Irwin, as he died during post-production two months prior.[72] Another, previously incomplete scene, featuring Irwin providing the voice of an albatross and essentially playing himself, was restored to the DVD release.[73]Archie Comics' Sonic The Hedgehog #3100:00 Intro06:29 A Robot Rides the Rails Part One13:47 A Robot Rides the Rails Part Two20:38A Robot Rides the Rails Part Three40:59 Lots...and Found! Part 142:27 Tundra Road Part One01:10:45 Outro-----Gotta Talk Fast is an oral review of Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog. Way past cool.LINKS: https://gottatalkfast.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Got to talk fast. Got to talk fast.
Got to talk faster, faster, faster.
Got to talk fast. Welcome to an oral review of
Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog, reminding you that a
multipolar world isn't necessarily a better one.
In geopolitics, multipolarity isthe theory where there exists a

(00:21):
distribution of power amongst nations and other actors in the
world. Ever think about the fact that
we opened this podcast on a guy who's like, pretty much
illiterate? Do you think that's like scaring
people away from watching the podcast?
No, because it's funny. If it if this wasn't a cold

(00:45):
read, this would sound really nice.
I could do it, I just need one. It's called the bit.
For most of human history, therehas existed multipolarity.
See how much better? That's something.
This culminated in the World wars. after World War 2, the
world settled largely into a bipolar world, the US and the

(01:08):
USSR. Since the Soviet collapse, the
US has reigned supreme in a unipolar centered around itself.
There has been much death and injustice during this time, and
we acknowledge seeing this as privileged Americans.
However, consider the imperial clash of egos that came before.
Be careful about multipolarity. For the sake of multipolarity,

(01:30):
we need equality among among people, not necessarily among
nations. I'm Nick and except for this
intro, I wrote the script. And I'm Dominic, and except for
this intro, I haven't read any of today's script.
And that intro is mostly spurredon by the fact that at the
Mayday protests last week, a couple weeks ago, I encountered

(01:53):
A gentleman who was pro who who was anti Ukraine and very much
conceding to Russia in their imperialism, in their
imperialist war, the invasion ofUkraine.
At the Mayday protests he had a very, very large banner that was
very it was called. What else was he pro?
That's what I I had like a 10 minute conversation with him.

(02:15):
And that didn't come up. No, it was more of a interview
where I just let him talk and hespoke into my microphone.
Didn't publish any of it, but hespoke and he was, he was very
clearly pro Russian because it'sall the Russian talking points
that I'm, I'm used to because I,I've delved into the, the
Ukraine, the Russian invasion ofUkraine and that the whole

(02:36):
situation for several years now.And it's all the talking points
were there. And I'm, I think he's sincere in
his, what he thinks is his leftism and his political left
leanings, but he's doing it for all the wrong reasons.
Because if you are a based leftist, then you will be
against imperialism no matter what.

(02:58):
Because his leftism effectively boils down to being anti
American to be multipolar for the sake of multipolarity.
Whereas. OK, that makes a little bit more
sense. I needed that kind of context
'cause this was mumbo jumbo to me that was all garbage.
Yeah, Yeah. No, it's in terms of how, you

(03:21):
know, how the politics lays there.
It's one of those situations where think less about the thing
you honestly should think less about, the high, high, you know,
politics of it all, and think more what is happening on the
ground, which is, yeah, no, there's a genocide happening in
Ukraine where Russia is kidnapping Ukrainian children,

(03:43):
where Russia is doing cultural erasure of whole swaths of that
region. And it is effectively, it is
effectively a war of imperialism.
Now, is the war in Ukraine fueling America's military
industrial complex? Yes.
Whose fault is that? Putin's.

(04:04):
Right. And America's and America.
'S but but who opened up that market?
Yeah, not America, right? Russia opened that market by
igniting a war that should not have happened.
I mean you could argue this is America's fault because we back
in the 90s maybe we helped convince a certain country they

(04:26):
didn't need nukes. That.
And if Metal Gear Solid taught me anything, it's that every
country needs nukes or else theywill be invaded.
But that is the future that we are heading towards and it is so
the audience may not necessarilyknow that we have our failures
geopolitically have been so bad in that front where we have

(04:50):
effectively rewarded North Koreafor building a nuclear weapon
system apparatus. We have.
We we penalize Libya for abandoning its nuclear, which is
which is good that it doesn't have nukes.
I'm glad Libya doesn't have nukes, but they were penalized
for not having for Gaddafi was penalized for not having nukes,

(05:11):
which is sad because you know, obviously he's a terrible
person, obviously, but that's the future we're headed towards
Saddam. Horrible, horrible person we
are. We were wrong to invade Iraq,
but we effectively penalized them for not having nukes.
Well, I mean, the mere fact thatwe invaded Iraq is proof they

(05:31):
didn't have nukes. Yes, also that as well.
Which is always the one I because we're like, we got to go
find those nukes. Like we wouldn't be there if
they had nukes. What the fuck are you talking
about? That's a different sorry.
That's that's we're getting veryoff track.
We're getting extremely off track.
The point is, I am very criticalof the United States.
Thank you for its piece by piecepolicies.

(05:55):
But when it comes to Russian imperialism, that doesn't make
me pro American, that makes me pro the people of that region,
right? People power, People power.
I think, as I was alluding to earlier, we need to expand the
nuclear program so that every person has their own nuke.

(06:16):
And again, based on Metal Gear Solid 3, I know that handheld
nukes are a thing. Thank you Davy Crockett.
And yeah, we should all have Davy Crockett's.
A Robot rides the rails. Part 1.
We open on Sally in the middle of Robotropolis.
She's alone except for her trusty sidekick slash

(06:38):
supercomputer Nicole. This is foolish Princess.
We came to gather information, not go off on some wild
adventure. We're freedom fighters, Nicole.
That means we have to be ready for anything at a moment's
notice. That doesn't mean operating
without backup. We cut to Sally plugging Nicole

(06:59):
into a supercomputer. Nicole starts downloading the
data and comments how large the files are.
I'm not surprised if this latestproject of Robotnix is even half
of what we've been told. Alarms start blaring.
Sally asks if Nicole is done downloading the data.
The answer is no, but Nicole establishes a radio link.

(07:20):
Sally grabs Nicole and starts running.
Sally finds a bridge with a train running under it.
Sally, you're not going to do what I think you're going to do,
are you? Sally jumps onto the moving
train and lands safely. We cut to Rotor, who is with the
rest of the Freedom Fighters monitoring her movements.

(07:40):
The Princess is on the move, fellas.
Robotnik must be shipping his Dynamic 3000 ahead of schedule.
Dynamic. What's this?
Only Robotnik's latest super robot.
This one, however, is meant to maintain Robotnik's control over
the western portion of the continent.
Our agents, Our agents in Robotropolis have been compiling

(08:02):
information on this one for sometime, and Sally thought it was
worth going in and personally checking it out.
And with Nicole to assist, she had a better than even chance of
getting us the additional information we need to deal with
this latest threat. Sonic then speeds off to
Robotropolis to see if he can help Sally.

(08:23):
The other Freedom Fighters get into their private jet they've
apparently had. We cut back to Sally exploring
on the train where she stumbles upon a golden machine.
Sally takes out Nicole to scan the machine, but something is
interfering with its sensors. Just then, 2 dark hands come out
from behind and grabs Sally and covers her mouth.

(08:45):
Because outside the train, Sonicis running along it and just as
he's about to jump onto the train, a turret pops up and
shoots a laser at him. Ladies and gentlemen, the
unthinkable has happened. Sonic the Hedgehog is dead.
End of Part 1. I don't know why they got me.
Because it's a funny bit. It's always a funny.

(09:05):
Bit it's been a minute. That's why it's like, yeah.
Well, they haven't killed him ina while.
No, they haven't. I mean, I'll always do it every
single time it happens. Thank you.
Because one time that he's goingto actually die, he's going to
actually throw me for a little bit.
Whatever. It's simple set up, nothing to
really not much to say other. This this issue came out in 96 I

(09:31):
believe. Fuck, I forgot to include it.
That's OK. Yeah, that feels right.
At some point in 96 and it was this is this is written by Ken
Penders potentially, but someoneelse and penciled by Ken
Penders. Oh, script and pencils, OK.
Script and penciled by Ken Penders, which.
Why does this look much better than the other one that he

(09:52):
penciled where he looks like a fucking dumb ass?
For the record, it's a little better it's there's some penders
still showing in on the pencils.No no no, what I'm saying this
is also penciled by him and everything looks like a fucking
dumb ass, you know what I mean? Yeah, you know, he was.
He was busy that day. Sorry, back back to the comic.

(10:13):
Why do they have like a a private plane?
This is the first we've seen this right?
I believe so. They're trying to do like a what
is it the X-Men? The is it called the X Jing or X
Jet? They're definitely trying to do
that X-Men thing where they can just fly off at any time, which.
There there is a precedent in that rotor builds vehicles all

(10:33):
the time. And I think in the in the latter
part of this issue he revisits avehicle.
But for this one specifically, Idon't think we've seen it before
and it's a little, it's a littlehokey and unbelievable that a
jet that nice with a hanger thatbig is under the control of of
the freedom fighters because they usually hijack A robotic

(10:55):
vehicle well. I mean yeah, but also they do
have the small Sonic plane, it just seems.
Yeah, the the. Well, it's not called the
Tornado, but it's the. Tornado.
We're going to know it as the tornado, yes.
So I just find it interesting. Why did they need to take this
huge big thing when when they have an established small plane?

(11:15):
That that I believe multiple people have written before like
they they just hang on the wings.
Yeah, which is funny, but it's, yeah, this is well, that could
be a response directly to that, which is that, well, I didn't
want all 5 freedom fighters, which Bunny is on this issue,
but all the freedom fighters arenot on this.
I can't just I'll be clinging tothis plane all the time.

(11:35):
Sure, maybe getting ahead of ouryou know what, No, I'll I'll say
it against thing. What do you think of the the set
up so far? I mean, I don't know, you know,
I'll, I'll say what I was going to say is I don't get what's
happening here. Only in the context of I
shouldn't say I don't get what'shappening.
I thought this issue was going to be, there was a set up in the

(11:57):
Tales mini adventure where they were like Robonics, like I got
to go deal with something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I thought this was going to be the issue that deals with that,
but Tales is here. Yeah.
And so I'm like, I don't know, they they like teased like thing
happening in the mainline Sonic.So.

(12:17):
We get some parallel motion. That's cool.
Yeah, but like it never happenedbecause at first I was like,
well, maybe it was the last issue and I just like missed it.
But Tales was in that one too, so I don't know.
I went back and checked. So I I don't know that that just
I I'm not. We picked up on the hit, so
reward us, Adam. We didn't get that reward so.

(12:39):
It's not even like a reward. I was just like I don't a pay
off I I just don't get what the point of that fucking line was
in the last issue. And the farther we get away from
it, the less it makes sense. Yeah, 'cause they can.
They can reference it later. But I don't know well.
I think the release is it's thiscame out around the same time,
so I think weird tangents, I know.

(13:01):
No, that that I I was thinking about that too.
Yeah, there, there's not much tosay.
It's a setup. I I appreciate the train heist
thing of it all. Less of a heist, but you know,
more of a sabotage mission. Like, OK, this is some actual
freedom fighter shit. This is some real asymmetrical
warfare. You said Ken Pender's.
Penciled and penciled and wrote it, yes.

(13:24):
I do find it extremely funny that back-to-back we have
someone getting someone sneakingup and just like getting their
hands put over their face and like maybe get potentially
getting kidnapped. The the character that does it
definitely points to to a lot ofthat.

(13:45):
So let's let's let's move on, shall we?
A robot rides the rails Part 2. We open on this, we open on
this. Jeffrey Saint John releasing
Sally from his, I imagine, very weak grip.
Sally asks what is this fucker doing here, and he responds by
kissing her. A quick and friendly reminder

(14:06):
that Sally is 16. Is she really in?
Are you just basing that off thewiki?
I mean she is at least 16 or 17 under. 18.
She's under 18. OK, a reminder, a quick and
friendly reminder that Sally is 16 and this dude is based on
Gotta Talk Fast Math 28. She pushes him away and asks

(14:28):
again, what is he doing here? Simply put, Love me and the
lads, all right, are here to putthe kibosh on Dingo there.
After all, he's not just any ordinary mechanoid Robotnik is
sending out ought to your neck of the woods.
He's a tiger of deadliest stripes.
We cut back to Sonic, who has miraculously survived a direct

(14:50):
hit from a laser. He's disoriented, unsure of
where he is, when Antoine flies by in their plane.
They drop a ladder for Sonic to grab onto, and they fly above
the train. We cut back onto the train with
Sally and Jeffrey Saint John. Sally asks where Jeffrey Saint
John's men are, and he informs her that they're up front, about

(15:10):
to stop the engine. Just then, the train starts
screeching to a halt, knocking Sally and Jeffrey Saint John to
the ground. It seems Jeffrey Saint John's
men have triggered the fail safe.
When they cut the power. The golden machine starts
whirring. The golden machine stands up.
Nicole pipes up and suggests a retreat.

(15:31):
The machine is unfortunately blocking their exit.
We focus back on Sonic and Tails.
Sonic has let go of the ladder and Tails is holding Sonic
flying towards the train. He flies over and gently drops
Sonic onto the train. Sonic starts running on the roof
when a golden fist pops up in front of him.
Then the whole machine pops out.Sonic tries a trusty spin dash,

(15:56):
but bounces off and lands insidethe train compartment with Sally
and Jeffrey Saint John running up to him.
Sally calls out Sonic's name andJeffrey Saint John, immediately
clocking Sonic as a threat to his pervy relationship with
Sally, tries to egg him on by asking Sally if this is a
trainee of hers. Sonic starts ignoring the Golden

(16:16):
Machine and almost throws a punch at Jeffrey Saint John, or
at least I like to think he did.When the Golden Machine starts
transforming, the machine, whichoriginally looked humanoid by
design, has transformed into a more spider like machine.
The Golden Spider machine is standing on top of the roof of
the train. Antoine and Rotor are following

(16:37):
the train and see this all happen from above.
Rotor warns Antoine not to get too close, which Antoine
immediately agrees to. Unfortunately for them, this
golden spider go go gadgets extensions arm and grabs the
plane from below end of Part 2. I just fucking hate Jeffrey
Saint John so much. He's not.

(16:59):
So he he, he comes off as a scumbag.
He comes off as a huge scumbag, which if that's the intent,
congratulations, but I think tennis.
He's he's supposed to be cool asfuck.
Cool dashing, you know. Suave.
Suave James Bondish. Yeah, elements of of James Bond.
And it's like not coming off at all.
He comes off as like such a piece of shit.
Yeah, 100%. The way he grabbed Sally.

(17:20):
Yeah, super pervy and like, inappropriate.
They've only met one time before.
Granted it was like a three day like excursion.
Yeah, that, but. That can be a lot, That can be a
moment, especially if she's beenaway for a while and and all
that stuff. And they did share a kiss at the
end of Sally's miniseries, but still comes off very, very

(17:43):
fucking pervy and weird. Yeah, I just.
I fucking hate this guy, that's all.
Like there's not even much to say.
It's just like, what a piece of fucking shit.
I'll open this up. Could it be our our 2025
sensibilities? No, I would have hated this
dude. In the 90s.
OK, so this is. 95 ish 9596 whenever this came.

(18:05):
Out. Yeah, so I'm like 5 years old.
I would have clocked him. I would have been like this
fucking piece of shit. But also, it would have been
more like this piece of shit's getting in the way of my fucking
Sonic fucking Sally. It's honestly the yes, very
true, very true. The scroll up just a tiny bit.
So just the way Ken draws these,it's holistic, right?
The way Ken draws his his characters, his versions of the

(18:28):
character, they're much taller. He human not humanizes, but they
have human proportion. Yes, which adds to the.
Well, and it makes it they look too lanky.
Yeah. I I do not like his art style at
all for this. The very next panel there, it
doesn't show as much, but when you go full body shot, but then

(18:52):
it's it, it doesn't come off right.
Like so yeah, obviously this is a very visual thing, but it's so
for audio listeners, sorry, but it's it just doesn't come off
right compared to like when Art Mcwhinney does it and it's
they're a little shorter, they're a little cuter.
It's more like Disney esque in that sense.

(19:13):
So it isn't. It's drawing so.
But I mean, there's not much to this middle.
There's not much this whole thing.
But I did think at one point in time they were setting up.
I thought when this was happening that this was like the
machine that ends up going to Australia in the mini series.

(19:34):
See, at first I thought it was that golden gorilla from a what?
That would be cool with the giant like timepiece that he
has. I think so, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that, that dude was fucking radish it.
The one where he convinced whereSally convinced the gorilla.
I was like, sorry I've got a boyfriend without establishing
that with Sonic first. Yeah.
Even Sally's not into this. Yeah, that's the thing.

(19:56):
In this in this specific part, she's not into it.
It it is just very funny that Ken that's an accident on Kens
behalf. 100% his intent was to be was for Sally to be finding
all over him as well. That does not come off as all at
all. Yeah, and and it does in the
next one, in the next issue next.

(20:18):
Story, story. So yeah, next part of this.
Part of the story. But this, this is what she's
she's very much just like, dude,what are you not?
What the fuck? Which is the correct?
Which is the correct way to do it?
But if his intent by the end of this story, well, you'll know.
But yeah. This is actually one of those
few times where I'm like, let's just go to the next one so that
we can like, talk about it. A Robot rides the rails Part 3.

(20:41):
Sonic Sally and Jeffrey Saint John are in the train
compartment above them. A golden spider has the Freedom
Fighter's private plane trapped inside its mechanical claws.
Inside that plane, Roeder and Antoine, maybe Tails.
We haven't seen him for a while.Get back Sonic.
That's more Australian, sorry. He said dingo earlier so he
might be Australian. That's the I hate that I like.

(21:05):
He said dingo though he. Did, which is like so like I I
was giving him the this was manyissues back, but we talked about
it where it's like, oh OK, sure,English guys do say mate, that's
not an exclusively Australian thing is.
Ken just obsessed with Australia.
I just Steve Irwin is big at this point, right?
I'm not joking. He's a he's a part of these that

(21:26):
guys. He's beloved.
Well, OK, wait, wait, wait. Real question.
OK, Crocodile Hunter, pretty bigin the mid 90s.
He's beloved and he should be beloved.
Crocodile Hunter? No.
What's with Steve Irwin? Steve.
Irwin is the Crocodile Hunter. He's pretty big right now.
Crocodile Dundee. Different guy, yeah.

(21:48):
But yes, I know that's the pointI'm trying to make.
He has a pretty big movie aroundthis time, right?
I think it's 80s. I think it's early 90s.
You could be right, I don't know.
I I never really watched those movies.
I I, I saw them when I was very young.
Yeah, yeah. But I'm like, does America kind
of have like a weird Australia obsession at this time?
I think so. I think partially because of,

(22:13):
well, I think mostly because of I, I truly don't know the
history of that. I think so I definitely higher
on people's radar than before. Steve Irwin genuinely being like
the one Australian everyone knows.
I mean, Mel Gibson has a problemwith what you just said, but.
But like he he, he doesn't come off as Australian.
No, he doesn't. Like he just comes off as

(22:33):
racist. Exactly.
He he made an effort to to be America.
To hide his Australian. Whereas Steve Irwin is like,
that's so brand, yeah. And that's awesome.
So yeah, I, I'm, I'm going to keep them as, as like chav
English. I I think that based on the fact
that they were doing a James Bond thing.
It makes so much it. Makes more sense.
Yeah, All right, here we go. Get back Sonic.

(22:54):
Sonic the Hedge. Get back Sonic the Hedgehog and
watch a real professional at work.
That'll be the day. You could teach me a trick or
two. Clyde.
Clyde. Interesting insult.
I do my usual sleuthing and discover some interesting
information. The name Clyde is not mentioned
in the Bible. According to cougartown.com, the

(23:14):
name is defined as follows. Noun.
A person that one insults or dislikes.
A clumsy person. Of course, this doesn't answer
why the name Clyde is an insult.An answer that seems to be
commonly repeated is that it wasbased off the orangutan in the
1978 smash hit Every Which Way But Loose.

(23:35):
Back before those pesky animal rights activists got in the way
of making art, we America specifically used to make buddy
movies with animals all the time.
The log line of Every Which Way But Loose is this, a trucker and
bare knuckle brawler roaming theAmerican West in search of a
lost love while accompanied by his pet orangutan Clyde.

(23:58):
If I was a producer, I would have thrown all my money at this
project. Still, I don't buy the idea the
name slash insult came from thismovie.
Unfortunately, I have entered real dead Internet theory
territory and I actually do not trust most of the information
I'm finding on this subject. However, I did find one piece of

(24:20):
information that sounds far morecompelling than most.
Angelfire.com/jazz/the Copa Roomslash Rat Pat Lexicon dot HTML
is a web page dedicated to the slang of the Rat Pack slash Rat
Pack wannabes. I might have been on this
website. For the record, the website the

(24:42):
the word is defined as such. Clyde, a word used to cover a
multitude of personal observations.
Example given I don't like her, Clyde means I don't like her
voice. This to me makes sense,
especially when you think through the evolution of words.
I can see something as popular as any which way but loose
taking a word that some common slang among the cool kids and

(25:06):
dumbing it down to just meeting people you think are dumb.
Though I acknowledge that this is me choosing what to believe,
I also still do not understand how Clyde became this insult
among that generation. Sally asked Nicole on what to do
next. I've been going through the
files we downloaded and I've learned the Dynamic 3000 has 2

(25:28):
weaknesses. 1 It can only react to a given situation, it it
cannot anticipate actions. For example, it reconfigured
itself from one form to another as a reaction, as an attack from
multiple opponents. 2 Confirmingthe information Roder received
from our agents. It can be deactivated with an

(25:49):
electronic Pulse Scrambler plugged into its central
processing unit. Therefore, you must exploit the
first weakness in order to take advantage of the second.
Just then, a claw comes from above, grabbing Sally.
A rejection, if you will, of everything Nicole literally just
said. Sally has taken no actions

(26:11):
towards the Golden robot. If anyone should have been
grabbed, it should have been Sonic.
Sonic jumps up and tries to spindash the machine, but a laser
zaps him out of the air again. Jeffrey Saint John takes out A
Bola net gun and shoots it at the robot.
Very Australian. I feel like I don't know if it
is or isn't, but that fellow Australian to me.

(26:33):
It does nothing. Sonic whips out a knapsack that
has a doohickey that Rotor provided that should scramble
the robot's electronics. Sonic says he'll distract and
for Jeffrey Saint John to followup.
Sonic spin dashes and is able tobreak the arm that is holding
Sally. Jeffrey Saint John rushes under
her and catches her safely. Sonic then calls out to Rotor

(26:55):
and Antoine to see if they have any tricks up their sleeve.
They do. Antoine reverses flight course
and starts trying to fly the ship in the opposite direction,
dragging the golden machine. With the machine off balance,
Sonic rushes over with the device Rotor gave him and
inserts it onto the back of the machine.
The machine blows up, We cut to the side of the train, now

(27:19):
stopped. The Freedom Fighters are
stealing cargo from Robotnik, hoping that the train was
transporting useful supplies andequipment.
Sally and Jeffrey Saint John saygoodbye by kissing each other in
front of everyone. Sonic thinks to himself that
Sally is trying to make him jealous and that two can play at
that game. Well gang, who do you think

(27:40):
should win the hand of the fair Princess Sally?
Write to us and stay tuned for more in the future.
Issues end of Part 3. I fucking hated this whole
thing. Dude, it sucks because I was
actually really excited about like, oh, we're doing some real
like rebel shit. Yeah, like the like a train
sabotage is classic. That's logistics.

(28:02):
That's intercept rotor mentionedagents.
I'm like, OK, that's, that's, that's pretty cool stuff.
And I, I like the idea of two rebel groups being involved on
the same mission and like, they're different cells.
They're different rebel cells. And you know, because they're so
decentralized and isolated, I'm still manning all of this by the
way. And because they're so, you
know, I think they, they don't know what, that they're

(28:24):
attacking the same thing and that causes some issues.
And you know, it's very classic rebel shit, the way it comes
off. It's not done well.
It's. Like the one of the most boring
issues yet and it was mainly banking on like the relationship
between Jeffrey, Saint John, Sonic and Sally.
This is like, yeah, that's the true, that's the true emotional

(28:47):
heart of this whole story that it's banking on.
And I do like some of it, but the execution is not good.
No, the execution's trash. I I think all of the core ideas
are there, and the core ideas are fine.
The execution is just fucking trash.
Like, like, look at that go downone page.
Look at that one panel where Sally's being caught by Saint

(29:10):
John. She looks bored as shit.
She. Doesn't like bored as.
Shit like she should be. Like unimpressed.
Yeah. And also I feel like Sally could
have landed fine on her own. She didn't need to be caught.
No, I think what should have happened is she fell, lands on
her feet, Jeffrey Saint John goes, puts the thing in the CPU

(29:30):
thing and like Sonic save Sally,Jeffrey Saint John destroys the
machine. Instead you get Sonic saving
Sally, Sonic destroying the machine, and Jeffrey Saint John
catching Sally, who probably didn't need to be caught.
I get, I get it because it's in service to the well, you know,
she likes him and all that stuff.

(29:50):
But man, I, I see. The thing is, I know exactly
what Ken is trying to do, but it's just not coming off well at
all. Sally is not having the proper
reactions. Jeffrey Saint John comes off as
a pervy douche and you know. And I hate the setup for this
fucking robot. Yeah, the whole idea.
I mean, don't get me wrong, it'sactually a cool idea, but he

(30:12):
just ignored it. He ignored the own rules that he
like set up within the issue. He was like, it only can react.
It's like, OK motherfucker, why did it grab the plane?
The plane didn't do anything. Why did it attack Sally?
Sally didn't do fucking Jack shit.
Like this is just like, don't, don't impose these fucking rules
if you're not going to follow them.

(30:32):
I was fine with a robot just attacking shit.
You tried to make your shit cooler and you just made it like
so. It just doesn't work in the
world you created. It, it sucks really hard too,
because it was in the, it was like such a wordy, like a logic
train. It was a little confusing for
me. I mean, I understand the heart
of it, but especially for a kid like that or a, a teen that's

(30:54):
it's a little kind of convoluted, which is fine.
If you pay that off, you can do it right?
Because now I'm really confused.Like it's a little wordy, the
explanation, fine, but then you don't do that at all.
So now I really lost in the darkhere.
I was I, I was already upset at the fact this fucker came here
and then on top of it, they're trying to do this like cool shit

(31:18):
with the robot, but like they did I I was just so annoyed and
and I hate the fact that the like I don't I, I, I don't like
it, but I accept it because of the setup of like rotor was
monitoring this and he was probably he had some idea what
was on the train. So he gave Sonic that thing that

(31:39):
can just kill it in one go and whatever, but.
That's yeah, it's, it's a bit of.
AI, I'm always just like, yeah, but also how boring because it's
like you set up this cool premise of a guy of a guy, a
machine that can only react. Come up with a clever idea of

(32:00):
how to defeat something that can't learn but can only react.
That's that's really what I was waiting for.
And then you just do it with the, oh, just insert the USB.
Yeah, I'm like. OK, well then don't don't set up
this cool. If anything, save that premise
for in your back pocket so you can do it properly later.
There's been there's been enemies in other franchises,
other media that I think been like that before.

(32:22):
We can literally only react. I I'm failing to remember which
ones. But that's just strong idea
because that's a huge like weakness.
But you compare that with a a big power, like make it very
power and it they even hits thatit because I think Sonic spin
dash does nothing to it. Yeah, and I think it's because
it's gold. That's implied.
Was was Sonic able to just spin dash the the golden gorilla?

(32:47):
I don't think that's implied at all.
OK. Oh no, it's it's because like,
this is a very well most. It's implied by the fact that
most bots are just metal or just, you know, not gold,
whereas this one is gold. Universe salamanders, not gold.
Crap, but he was just big. I'm just saying.
Yeah, but anyways, Sonic just can't spin Dash his way out of

(33:08):
this one, which is fine. That's that's cool.
But he technically kind of does because he spin dashes to get
Sally free. OK, yeah, so there.
It's not. It's actually, you know what?
No, it's not following that logic either.
I know this gets worse. Well in like the setup is
actually perfect for Sonic and Jeffrey Saint John because

(33:31):
Jeffrey Saint John is a more of a thinker, or at least they
would like us to believe that. And Sonic is a more like I'm
just going to attack. I'm going to doer the the idea
of a thing that only reacts is like Sonic's greatest like
weakness. And Jeffrey Saint John could

(33:52):
have like gave him hint. Like it could have been a whole
thing of like Sonic trying to fight and like losing over and
over again but being strong enough to take him on.
And Jeffrey Saint John not beingstrong enough to take him on but
can like give Sonic ideas on howto take him on.
And Sonic getting over his ego and listening to this fucking

(34:15):
guy so that they can together take down this machine.
Fabulous outline of a story. Fabulous outline and great
ideas. I just, I, I just don't, It's
not, it's not why I, I, I feel like I'm such a Dick, but I'm

(34:36):
just like, why are you making the story?
Like what? What?
What did we learn about people? The literally the one cause
because like the backdrop of thetrain heist intercept is
anything that that can happen atany point in time.
Yeah. The real The real thing here is

(34:57):
the the love triangle or love pyramid I should say which which
is that the the 2 characters love 1 character and.
So so this whole setup was. Just for the kiss.
It's really just for the kiss and the tension between Sonic
and John St. John.
It was up to me yeah, if I wrotethe story and I had that

(35:17):
intention that like idea yeah, Ido a very similar concept,
right. In fact, I I do really like the
idea of a train heist. What you do?
Again, this is just how. I would do it.
Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah.
Ken, let me tell you how to do your job. 30 years later, you
get it. So Sally's like kidnapped onto

(35:38):
the train can't be found and Sonic meets Jeffrey.
Saint John doesn't know who he is because they obviously don't
know who like each other are. And then they actually become
buddy buddy and they're like. But then that flips.
Exactly. When Sally's like oh shit those
are my 2 boyfriends. Yeah, like they become like

(36:00):
super fucking tight by the end of it.
And then Jeffrey Saint John kisses Sally goodbye.
And then Sonic is just like, what?
You guys have a history? Yeah, and then that's and then
Sonic like instantly is just like Stonewalls as fucker and
he's like, I don't like him. Ah, man, I'm imagining like,
like Sonic and Saint John are like Snowpiercer, like going

(36:21):
through that shit. And then by yeah, by the fuck
that's good, That's good, damn it.
Look at how bad that panel is with Tails and Ants.
It's like, yeah, it's pretty bad.
I feel bad judging drawing because I can't draw for.
Shit. No, of course, yeah.
But I'm not getting paid to draw.

(36:42):
I'm not getting paid to draw. And no, honestly, this is called
critique. We're critiquing and you don't
have to be able to do something to be able to critique it and
look it. The reason why it feels bad is
or look why the the reason why the penciling is not great
there. Why it feels not great is
because there's much better penciling in the next story or

(37:03):
the sorry, the. Not the next.
Story. Not the next story, but the
story at the end and throughout the rest of the series.
So in fact, Spaz draws the cover.
I want to look at the cover again.
It's I think it says spaz at thebottom right.
No, it does. I know it does because I
remembered saying it. Yeah, that's a better.
It's really good. Classic Robotnik.

(37:23):
Yeah. She's snively in the snively of
the pilot's seat or the the conductor's seat.
Oh, yeah, right. A little hidden thing there.
Oh, yeah. He doesn't even show up in the
story, but it's it's fun. I mean robotics.
Not even a train conductor actually.
Yeah, actually, actually, go go up.
The robot's not gold in the cover.
Yeah, so not implied I. Don't know why he's gold in the

(37:46):
story. They do that all the time.
That's a thing in comics where I.
Don't know if that's a thing in comics.
It's a thing in these comics. Got you.
I think it's because I assume they send like concept drawings
of what it is to the person doing the cover and then like
the coloring doesn't like meet the.

(38:08):
I feel like there's probably some real choices made on
coloring based on how expensive ink is.
We've talked about this. Yeah, yeah.
And so they'll decide something is like gold.
But in the concept it was like more of a.
Like this one has three colors. Yeah, he, yeah.
Silver, pinkish and like whatever and purple.

(38:29):
Yeah, very. Why can't I think of his name?
Starscream. Yeah, actually, Yeah.
Thank you. It was giving Starscream.
No, no, I was just, I was shocked that you do exactly what
I was thinking. That's all.
And I feel like there was someone along the lines like I
don't want to fucking do. It's going to be all gold.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then that that changes

(38:50):
things because it implied to me that it is literally gold and
that it gives AI don't know. I think it was better because it
then it implies that Sonic can'tdo the thing the.
Fucking Green Lantern. Yeah.
Is that his weakness? He can't do gold.
Yeah, so his weakness was the color yellow and which is?
What Sinestro has got? And wood.

(39:11):
Wood. OK, sure.
Yeah, why not? I mean, they they, they, they,
they, they do a whole thing to wreck on that because they're
like, it's trash. So like but like they made it
like a comic book event and it was I think it was called like
Darkest Night or something that.Was a big one.
I've heard it's a big one. I don't.
Yeah, I never read it, but I I had a friend.

(39:33):
I, I have a friend who's like a huge comic book nerd and would
tell me all about all the arcs and stuff.
And this one actually did sound pretty cool to the point where I
was maybe going to read it because I had something to do
with like a Dragon was like the you know what?
I'm not going to attempt it. Yeah, yeah, it's fine.
It's fine. I I have the same thing where

(39:53):
people tell me about stories allthe time.
Fear itself was like captured inside, like the Green Lantern's
rings, and therefore it was likeyellow and that's that was like,
it was a cool concept. So verdict on this one.
Sonic did not need to be shot twice for this.
Poor story, poor execution of the.

(40:16):
Story yeah, this sucked I just fucking.
And it feel, it feels especiallybad because this is like the
core story. This is it.
This is what people talk about when they're talking Archie
Sonic. I, I feel like they're talking
about something else. I feel like this is not, I feel
like no one's fucking talking about this.
If people, if this is, if This is why I'm reading this fucking

(40:37):
comic, we might have to have a conversation about continuing.
No, I have faith in people. I like when people say like
Archie is both like insane in both like good ways and bad
ways. This, this isn't it.
We're not even scratching the fucking surf.
Fair enough. I, I believe I, I agree with
that. I'm, I've changed my mind on

(40:58):
that. Here we go.
Next story. Lost and found script by Mike
Kanternovich and Ken Penders. Penciled by Ken Penders again.
Knuckles is standing alone in the ruins of a city.
He begins thinking to himself. Charmy Espio, Mighty Vector, the
chaotics are missing and it's all my fault.

(41:18):
Knuckles begins wandering the ruins.
Ah well, maybe I can share some of the blame with Archimedes.
Not sure where Mr. Mystery is holding them, but but I can't be
far off from these ancient ruins.
He's probably lurking in the shadows, laughing his full head
off. So many as 1A security camera
spots knuckles from afar, hidden.

(41:40):
We cut to the inside of a control room with the shadow of
a cricket being casted onto the control panel.
Oh, I do in kidnap. In fact, my eyes are everywhere.
Peekaboo. I see you, but you don't get a
big picture. You can't even see what's under

(42:01):
your nose. End of whatever the fuck this
part is of lost and found. This is actually Part 1.
Is it actually no, it feels likePart 2 because it's.
But it's a continuation of. You're right, you're right.
It does say officially lost and found Part 1, but it's a
continuation of that previous chaotics thing.
Yeah, yeah. Waste of time.
Just included in the fucking thing, yeah.

(42:22):
I I. We've talked about this, we've
talked about this in the last part.
It's just we I don't like those teases.
Here we go, Next part Rotor in Tundra Rd.
Part 1. Roeder is sleeping peacefully in
his bed when a radio screams outhis name.
Roeder wakes up stunned and confused.
Sally and Sonic rushed to his room to see if he's OK.

(42:44):
Well, I guess I had a nightmare that sounded especially Western.
I'm sorry, I thought I had something from this old radio,
but it hasn't worked for years. It's an antique, my first piece
of electronic equipment. I've kept it for sentimental
reasons. It was a gift from a woman's
voice booms over the radio. What is Rotor's mom?

(43:10):
I think. I think she sounds exactly the
same as Rotor but an octave up. Rotor help?
Us, it's going to be really funny when we do as a little
brother because it's going to betwo octaves up the voice.
Is Rotor's mom, though she livestoo far away for radio signals

(43:31):
to reach Knothole. We cut to the command center
with Rotor doing some analyzing.He concludes that the signal is
coming from the north. Rotor starts heading out, and
Sonic tries to tag along. Rotor stops him, saying this is
something he needs to do alone. He heads to his Bathysphere,
which is a submarine from one ofthe prequel comics from one of

(43:51):
Gotta Talk Fastest Lost episodes.
Rotor heads N, muttering to himself.
A quick reminder that Rotor has a mother and a baby brother
named Skeeter. No mention of a father.
Rotor slides onto land and immediately finds his baby
brother and his mom. They are standing almost at
attention, staring off into the distance.
They have no reaction to the appearance of Rotor.

(44:13):
Rotor starts walking around and notices that everyone is
standing at attention. I should also mention this is
taking place in the Arctic NI believe.
Yeah. OK, Just then, Robotnik's voice
booms across the frozen tundra. Attention, walrus slaves.
You will all proceed inside to the hidden fortress within this

(44:37):
iceberg. If you disobey, you will be
clubbed by my merciless ice bots.
Ice bots are just SWAT bots withsquare heads and I presume
different innards so as not to freeze in the cold weather.
They also carry clubs. We cut to inside the hidden
fortress. Rotor is pretending to be a
slave like the rest of them. Robotic appears on a giant

(44:59):
monitor. Robotnik bids you welcome.
Earlier today I detonated A neuron bomb over your colony.
The fallout has short circuited your brains, making you my
mindless thralls. Soon the entire frozen North Sea
will be mine. At first I was going to have you

(45:19):
help me melt the polar ice caps creating a water world, but the
budget was way too high. So on to Plan B.
With your help I shall build a giant freezer unit ushering in a
new Ice Age destroying all non robotic life on Mobius.

(45:40):
Can I get an Amen? The walrus say the words Amen in
unison. Rotor says nothing and ice bot
notices and calls them out. Robotnik over the monitor
notices that it's Rotor and demands his capture.
Rotor punches the ice bot and starts fleeing.
Another ice bot runs up and throws his trusty club at Rotor,

(46:02):
hitting him in the head. Rotor is knocked out and falls
into the ocean ladies and gentlemen and envies.
The impossible has happened. Rotor the walrus is dead.
End of Part 1. That's rough, Very rough neuron
bomb. I'm going to start on the thing

(46:22):
that I hate. I always get really annoyed when
people are just like, this is a thing I got to do by myself.
It's I don't, I don't know, I'm just maybe I'm like an idiot,
but I've never been in a situation where I'm like, this
is a thing I need to take care of by myself.
I don't. That just seems that just always

(46:44):
rubs me the wrong way. For like, moralistic reasons, if
it's for like, I got to do this by myself because this is
fucking embarrassing. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's that's
extremely relatable. This is like, did you ever play
Fallout 3? Yeah, So the end of Fallout.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So.
For our viewers or listeners, the end of Fallout 3 you affect
spoilers for a decade old game. You have to go into a extremely

(47:05):
irradiated thing to do somethingto end the game.
One of your companions. Optional companions that you can
have. It was so it was like you have
to like turn on a water valve orsomething.
Yeah. Yeah.
The only way to go turn on the water valve is to go into this
container and it's gonna flood with radiation.
Yes, Sorry. Continue.
And kill you one of your optional companions, which is

(47:28):
kind of bullshit because the thethe companion is like shoved in
your face for a mission but. Like right before this too.
He's a super mutant, and super mutants are infamously
completely immune to any irradiation damage, right?
They feed off the radiation. If anything they get stronger
off the radiation. So when, when you, if you make

(47:52):
the smart and obvious decision to be like, Hey, Fox, the name
of the the mutant is Fox. Hey, can you do this for me?
He straight up says to you, no, this is something you have to
do. Which is the biggest piece of
bullshit in the history of any gaming RPG where the highest
tension possible, the ending of your story is, Hey, I'm going to

(48:14):
die by radiation. If I if I don't do this, someone
will die for radiation. Can you do it, Mr. Immune?
And he's like, Nah, no, you, youshould do it.
I'm pretty sure they patched in later on an option for him to do
it because it was so hated or. It could have been a mod but
either way I I don't even remember.
I just remember it being the biggest bullshit and it is

(48:36):
infamous. It is very infamous as a
bullshit ending or a bullshit lack of option.
I think it's kind of fuck they these ice spots have clubs the
seal. Clubbing is really funny to me,
just the term seal clubbing, like it's such a violent thing
for these creatures that are really cute so.

(48:59):
It's, but these are walruses. I'm yeah, you're right.
You're right. They're not clubs, They're not
walruses. They're they're they're seals.
But still, it's fucked up. Yeah, it's a it's been a saying
for a while now. I mean.
Seal clubbing. It's it's just always been a
thing. Yeah.
It's just like it. It just seems weird.

(49:21):
I don't know well. It's just it's, that's what it's
the de facto saying. It's like seal clubbing.
I I understand. It's just like when you when you
just take it a step back and think about it.
It's fucked up. No, I'm talking about in the
concept of Sonic. It's fucked up.
Why? Why?

(49:42):
He is literally like taking control of these guys like
through like a neuron bomb, right?
Like he, he can, he can shoot lasers and like blow these
people up literally at any moment.
It's a choice to have clubs and to like, merciless, mercilessly

(50:05):
kill these fucking walruses if they step out of line.
Like full on Robert De Niro untouchables.
Like beat them to death. This is literally like kind of
the one of the more fucked up things Robotnik has done so far
because every single time he's like taking control of someone
it's like through the threat of like instantly dying.

(50:25):
This is like a slow and painful death, and he's doing it because
what? It's it's racist.
Yeah, it's actually racist. Yeah, which is in line for
Robotnik is just like I'm I'm shocked that this is.
Actually that also implies that it that there is already a long
standing stereotype of of OK if they're a seal or a walrus then

(50:49):
you club them to death. Which means it must have
happened at some point in time. Where like I wonder if it's like
a hate crime too? I, I also, I mean, yeah, because
I mean, these are all sentient beings.
I also there's like a low key kind of like an implication of
like they're actually clubbing these seals for like their fat
and stuff. Yeah.

(51:11):
And but like they never moved onfrom clubs.
Particularly heinous that's that's actually the the
dissonance of a high tech independent self thinking robot
clubbing you to death. The most low, The first weapon
to ever exist. Probably and and like the clubs

(51:34):
they use straight up look like caveman.
A true club, not a stick. Yeah, like, definitely.
I could picture a caveman havingthis.
Yeah. Weird.
Yeah. I don't know, the neuron bomb
thing bothers me 'cause it's like that's not how that works
at all. Yeah.

(51:54):
If anything he should he should have just done hypnotism.
Like straight up the swirl. I will say I'm normally as a
normally huge complaint but I will say the water world gag
actually made me laugh. Yeah, of course, 'cause it's
water world and it's just The funny thing.
Yeah, it worked in this context 'cause it didn't feel like too

(52:15):
big of a call out. Yeah.
But it's just more people shouldwatch Water World, the
Director's cut. Is it good?
It's more water. World.
I mean, yeah, if if you watched Water World and was like, there
should be more of that. Let me tell you, the director's
cut has like 45 more minutes. Oh shit, I mean objectively the

(52:41):
directors cut of Water World is a much better movie and it makes
way more sense. OK.
So is it like a Blade Runner situation?
Yeah, OK. Yeah, I, I don't know.
I've that's what I've heard. Is that blade?
Have you never seen Blade Runner?
No, because I specifically have,I need to actually, so I
actually do need to ask you. It's like, what's the better?
What's the version of Blade Runner that I should watch the?

(53:02):
Director's cut. Director's cut.
Yeah, exactly, 100%. OK, In fact, you can.
It's literally. Right there you.
Can borrow it. I have been to the Waterworld
ride or not right the experience.
I love the. I think it's still in operation.
I think so too. Which is incredible that like a
movie that doesn't have like anycultural staying power.

(53:25):
I feel like. I feel like Gen.
Z doesn't know Waterworld. I don't think the millennials
barely know. So So actually, that's a good
point. Waterworld was at one point in
time the most expensive movie ever to be made, and it was a
subpar movie. And it's essentially just like

(53:45):
Mad Max on water. But man, Waterworld's a pretty
good fucking movie, except for the like kind of rapey stuff in
it. But I mean, it was a 90s movie.
There's. No, you're not wrong.
You're not wrong at all. Just just like Jeffrey Saint

(54:07):
John. Yeah.
But in any case, it's I, I have been to that experience like 3 *
3 separate times on three separate occasions.
And yeah, I think the. Each time it's baller, right?
Each it is pretty good and each time it's rather that is the

(54:28):
cultural that is now the cultural staying power of of
that whole thing is the is the experience at Universal Studios,
Yeah. Which is very funny.
Yeah, me too. All right, grab your guitar.
No, it's time for Sonic Grams. You can write to Sonic Grams.
Oh yeah, it's a legally distinctSonic Grams.

(54:50):
It's an unaffiliated Sonic Grams.
We made our own Sonic Grams. All right.
Our first e-mail is from Whale Fox Johnson.
Hello. Got to talk fast, crew.
I like that crew. It implies we'll get more
people. Yeah.

(55:10):
Been an avid listener for months.
Thank you. A little bit about me, My first
video games I ever played were Sonic Adventure DX and Legend of
Zelda. Majora's Mask.
Man, video games have really gone downhill for you.
Starting with those bangers in 2002 to 2003.
You can probably guess which twofranchises I became more of a

(55:30):
fan of. I find that I now start my week
by opening up YouTube to catch the latest Gotta Talk Fast
episode. Thank you so much.
That's so kind of you. Wow, that actually put a smile
on my. Thank you for the support.
I have a few questions for Nick and Dominic before the podcast
got sorry, I can't I I need to like print these out in the

(55:52):
future. So.
I have a few questions for Nick and Dominic before the podcast
gets too into the Pender's Fuck About starring Knuckles arc.
It's all worth it, I promise, and away from the early years of
the Archie comics. So for Nick, what are your two
favorite Sonic moments? And what are your two favorite
Robotnik moments so far? I think 2:00.

(56:12):
That's a that's a big ask. It is a big ask.
I can tell you right now, my favorite thing Sonic has done so
far is when he went back in timeand had that dinosaur fucking
chomp on him. Yeah, And Sonic decided to just
cut off all of his teeth and then let that dinosaur live so

(56:34):
that he's going to go, like, he,like, marched off into the
sunset, like, prepared to die because he can't eat anymore.
Definitely by far the coolest thing Sonic has done.
Metal. Absolutely.
Not, and it was just a good issue all around.
Coincidentally, my favorite thing Robotnik has done is when

(56:55):
he did The Time Machine, he madethe chainsaw time machine.
Do you remember that? Yes, that was insane.
Yes, yeah. So unnecessary, but kind of
awesome. Brilliant move by Robotnik
Classic. So honestly probably my favorite
issue so far because of those things alone.

(57:15):
He did ask for two. I know I those are the those are
immediately the first things I thought of.
I for Robotnik. I also love the fact that he
made a giant ape and just kind of like let him loose on an
island and like, just like abandoned him, like let him eat
bananas all the time. Like what?

(57:37):
He didn't need to eat. It was so weird.
I love, I love Robotnik. He's he's the best.
But the real answer's got to be the fact that no, that you know
what? That is the real answer.
What about do you have a second Sonic moment?
Yeah, man, I mean, there's got to be.
It's just like what I'm like, you know how you just kind of
blank sometimes? All the time.

(57:58):
Let's let's do yours and then maybe I.
Circle back, we'll circle back. We'll circle back.
Yeah. For Dominic.
How would you? Oh sorry no.
When he decided to get really racist that one time and decided
to dress up as like a Romani person, banking on the fact that
evil Sonic would just like do a hate crime.
Those are so random. Is it weird that my two favorite

(58:25):
things that Sonic has done is like objectively evil things?
I don't know, I'm just saying they should let Sonic cut loose
more often. That's those are really good
moments for. Dominic, how would you of your
own opinion rank the Freedom Fighters by favorability?
And what is your favorite story concept?
Example? Alien abduction, multiverse,

(58:47):
Sonic getting hit with antimatter and pretends to be a
ghost before his matter regenerated, Robotnik using
double S to trick the heroes, etcetera.
Honestly choosing. Through honestly choosing
through some of these might comedown to how the story.
I agree how the story executed the concept rather than the
strength of the concept themselves.

(59:09):
I and I definitely. Understand.
I mean the the one that we just did like the strength of the
concept is very strong. It's just horrible execution.
To, to answer that part of the question, I, I love just any
general resistance movement concept.
So you're doing like, like, yeah, train sabotage.

(59:29):
You're doing like Intel. You're doing secret stuff trying
to infiltrate Robotropolis. It's not it's it's not the
perfect environment for it because Robotropolis is
literally just one mega enemy base.
Like there's no actual, like youcan't do French resistant shit
in Robotropolis because it's Robotropolis.
There's no one to resist. Yeah, it's all robots.

(59:50):
Yeah, exactly, 100%. So there it does lose some of
that angle. I don't blame them for that
because the the concept of of ofRobotnik really dominating
seemingly 90% of at least the continent is really, really cool
1. So anything that they involved,
anything involved with doing that stuff, I prefer that over

(01:00:11):
the. Big multiverse, you know, space
stuff and and all the highfalutin sci-fi concepts and
outlines because it's more out there and I can't really relate
to it as much. Whereas especially in this and
under this administration and in, in these times, it is far
more believable to see them blowing up pipelines, to see

(01:00:34):
them, you know, or blowing up the casino of, of, of the, of
the powers that be. Not that I endorsed that or
anything, but it's, it's more interesting to to see that play
out. So I'll, I'll say anything like
that. And honestly, I now that was
more of an end result of blowingup the casino, honestly.

(01:00:55):
Yeah, The, the, the most recent issue of them doing the train
sabotage the train intercept while having the the 2 loves and
stuff. Fantastic premise.
Fantastic premise. Yeah, as a concept, let's say
ranking the let's do core freedom fighters well.
I was going to quickly. I'm shocked you didn't call out
because I feel like the concept would have been like your number

(01:01:17):
one. I just think the execution
maybe. I probably forgot.
I was going to say the Sally miniseries.
I feel like the concept was right up there.
You have going out with like a small team meeting another like.
Yeah, you're right. Mercenary group.
Another cell, another cell and they're not even a mercenary

(01:01:39):
group. They are, they work for the
previous regime, so and they still do the the regime in
exile. So honestly, you're right, that
is definitely up there as well. And again, the execution suck
the whole Jeffrey Saint John like fake out, whatever.
It really, it breaks my heart because it's such a really,
really good, really good, reallygood foundation there for some,

(01:02:03):
but. Also like I can never hate that
issue because it introduced Hamlin arguably like the star of
the Archie Sonic comics. Hamlin and tales are
legitimately like. Top tier.
Hot heads and that makes them really fun to watch.
Yeah. So I'll go with either one of
those two ranking the freedom fighters.

(01:02:24):
OK, so Hamlin like S tier? Well, I I feel like core, core,
just core, just core. Bunny's up there just because
she is such a interesting character with her half robot
situation and her being the ace card in terms of strength.
I do like my Sonic a lot. His concept of being the hot, of

(01:02:44):
being like, you know. I need this numbered.
Who Who's your OK? OK, let's do this right.
That's tier ranking. This is how you get famous, I
think. OK, who?
So let's establish who is the core Bunny.
Sonic, Sally, Rotor, Antoine, Tails.
So it's like 6 I think that I counted.
Do you want to throw in Nicole? OK, sure, Nicole will go to dead

(01:03:08):
last. Also side note, I I apologize
I'm interrupting your thing. I just realized fucking Uncle
Chuck wasn't in this issue. He's just around.
No, I, I think we talked about that last time where the whole
point, not the whole point, but Uncle Chuck's purpose is to be

(01:03:29):
an emotional anchor for Sonic, so he doesn't necessarily need
to be there. But but he's he's at the like.
Have him sweeping in the background.
I agree. I.
Agree. That would be good.
That would be good. There's, I mean, look, you don't
see Hamlin every issue unfortunately, but he he's it's
implied that he's there, right? No, he's off doing loser freedom
fighter shit. No, they they look no, no, no,

(01:03:53):
no, there are freedom fighters, you know, at the Bay.
It's implied there's a whole Society of up to 1000 people in
Knothole. But if you had of those core
freedom fighters that I mentioned earlier, man, number
one, I think it has to be Bunny just OK.
OK. Are we talking about concept or
like actual execution of everything?
I think it has to be execution. I don't, because when you do

(01:04:15):
concept, you're filling in your own fucking.
I agree. I concur.
I concur. That's really, really difficult
to say. I think #1 has to be Sonic just
because he does so much funny shit.
So much funny shit on top of being, well, just because we
have the most time with him and no matter how crazy or lack or

(01:04:40):
even lackluster and nonsensical his stories can be, at least he
has that funny foundation to him.
That I can't get tired. The the fatigue doesn't wear
that doesn't wear me on as much as as everyone else after that.
Oh man, tail tails oscillates between annoying and also like

(01:05:01):
really fucking funny and cool. Because he is.
He is portrayed as such a hot head and that is not his.
I don't think that's his shtick at all.
He's supposed to be. Well, maybe not, maybe he is.
That is your. Stick I mean, I think you can't
think about the video game versions of these characters.
These guys are their own things.And in this universe, it seems
like Tales is a hot head. Yeah, Tales is a hot head.

(01:05:23):
Immature and but but really a gogetter trying to constantly
prove himself. So like, what's it the term like
small Dick energy or inferioritycomplex, right?
Somehow for me that's endearing in this particular case.
Usually it's a big turn off for for people, but for tales it
just kind of works. And so so there's that.

(01:05:44):
Also he got beat up a lot in hisown miniseries which I thought
was hilarious. I I, you know, I'll do my own
rankings after this because I want to do it too.
After that, Rotor's cool. Roeder's probably the most
useful freedom fighter of them all, and the most I.
Mean outside of Sonic, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're right, You're
right. But yeah, so as a support, he is

(01:06:04):
very, a very good support. And he honestly deals with a lot
of intelligence as well, in addition to his inventions and
as a mechanic. Until he becomes an alcoholic.
And but he's very useful and he's solid.
He's a very good foundation. So that's three.
Oh no, did I say I think 4? So Sonic Bunny, Tails, rotor,

(01:06:26):
Sally man, Sally's a bit of a let down bigger win than I
thought supposed to be like the the, the, the, the core of this
unit. And she is, but it's she's had
some very bad leadership choices.
In the past she did have some good leadership choices though.
Specifically, remember when Sonic was coming in with the
flood? No, no, not the flood, but when

(01:06:47):
Sonic was coming in and she was just like, something's off,
close the gates. That was a great, that was a
great example. That that, that moment alone, I
was just like, OK, Sally's actually pretty fucking cool,
even. Give me more of that and I'm
she'll. That's the.
Thing is, we need more of that. Yes.
Yes, and she hasn't done much ofthat cool shit since.
And honestly, it's like I'm downfor the love pyramid but that.

(01:07:11):
Oh yeah, the she's down. No, no, no, no, I'm cool with
that. I'm cool with that.
She can be a better ranking character even in spite that or
that can enhance her honestly, give her some flaws.
But it's so it's portrayed so horribly, it's done so horribly
that it just does not work at all.
So it it honestly brings her down and it makes her look like,

(01:07:32):
you know, this waffling, you know, object of everyone's
desire. And I, I, I, I'm not
articulating it very well, but it brings her down, brings her
down South. And then Antoine is treated more
like a gag. No opportunity for him to shine
at all. So I think he's at the bottom of
the ranking. I think I've listed everyone.
I think so, Although, hey, Nicole, if you count Nicole.

(01:07:54):
Nicole is a joke. Yeah, yeah.
So so Antoine at the bottom, Sonic at the at the top.
All right, tales number one. Easy Sonic #2 Rotor buns.
Sally Antoine. If if buns was more.
Consistent if buns wasn't even in the stories.

(01:08:16):
I feel like half the time they forget buns exist.
Like this one for like. This, yeah.
Why isn't buns here? Take it down that fucking thing
all by yourself. If she, and this is again,
ranking based on what we saw, ifwe were doing like concept, I
would be buns would actually probably be #1 for me, I, I, I
adore the idea of buns, but theydon't use her.

(01:08:37):
So like how can I even like her if they don't develop her?
And Sally truthfully at one point in time was probably the
bottom. But her doing that like cool
shit to Sonic recently, I was just like OK, I got my.
Amnesia Sonic. Amnesia Sonic.
Yeah. Yeah, she might.
She might become way higher if she does more cool shit like

(01:08:59):
that. Are there any auxiliary
characters that you would rank higher than the Freedom
Fighters? Hamlin.
Yeah, that's my answer too. Hamlin and Robotnik.
Yeah, was Robotnik for you 2? Oh well, OK, I I thought you
were talking about freedom fighters specifically.
Oh, just any character. Yeah, any character.
Robotnik is just really fun, OK?He's fun to voice.

(01:09:20):
He's probably my favorite voice to do easily, hands down.
As a character. Yeah, obviously.
I I adore the man. A great character, no doubt
about. It yeah, he's kind of my
favorite. No, it's it's Robotnik and
Hamlin and you know, crab meat is pretty high on my list.

(01:09:42):
And I mean I haven't seen her since, but hopefully Fiona comes
back. Fiona.
Fiona, the robot lady that Talesfell in love with.
Oh yes, yes, there's a good opportunity for stuff to happen
there too. Yeah.
So yeah, who'd I say my favoritewas Tales.
Tales. OK, good.
Yeah, cuz. Cuz he's like Hamlin.
Yeah, core part of the team. Yeah.

(01:10:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Tales is definitely my favorite
character. Yeah.
You're rooting for him. You.
You want him to. Honestly, it was the Fiona thing
that really put him over the edge.
If it wasn't for that, Sonic probably would have been my
number one. But all of the Fiona stuff, I
was just like, man, sales is fucking great.
That's some real shit. That's some real shit, yeah.

(01:10:23):
That's what I'm saying. Like do interesting character
moments and I'll like like the characters more.
All right, thank you very much, Whale Fox Johnson.
I think we've I think we've seenyour comments before on the
YouTube channel. So keep keep dropping the
comments and we appreciate it. All right, we have more emails,
but we will get to them hopefully next week.

(01:10:45):
And that's the issue. Only 383 left to go.
I'm Nick. I stream at
twitch.tv/mojosaurus. My personal blue sky is at
Mojosaurus. And I'm Dominic, you can follow
my jazz adventures in Chicago atBlue Collar Jazz.
I recently just released an article.
I don't know if I mentioned thislast week I released an article
on the video game music scene that is really having a, a good

(01:11:11):
time, a renaissance in in Chicago because it's it's a big
scene in New York, but it's, andit's been a bit of a scene in
Chicago and I'm, I don't know everything about the scene.
So maybe it's been a thing for awhile, but it's really come
together because here in Chicagothey are hosting trying to get
more monthly a video game music jam and that seems to be

(01:11:34):
building. So check that out article on on
You can find links on my blue onmy Instagram at Blue Collar Jazz
and my personal blue sky at Dongone.
You can follow us on socials. I got to talk fast.
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(01:11:54):
Ask us questions, provide corrections and give us your
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Fast and just get through it. I.
Love you. Gotta Talk Fast was written by
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(01:12:15):
Intro and outro themes recorded by Dominic Guanzon gotta go
fast. Originally composed by Norman J
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Gotta talk, gotta talk, gotta talk, gotta talk, gotta talk,
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(01:12:41):
fast. Gotta talk fast.
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