Episode 48 | Yassified Astrophysicist Lady Knuckles

We finally got it. We got yassified astrophysicist lady Knuckles.Archie Comics’ Sonic the Hedgehog #3400:00 Intro10:09 To ‘Bot Or Not To ‘Bot! Part One25:06 To ‘Bot Or Not To ‘Bot! Part Two35:51 To ‘Bot Or Not To ‘Bot! Part Three55:17 A Sense of History Part One01:21:43 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 Hedgehogreminding you to familiarize.
Oh my God. Familiarize it's.

(00:20):
Familiarize. I I understand.
I understand. OK, wait, let's walk.
Familiarize. Nope, I can't say.
Do it again. Slow you're You're adding
something, You're adding something I.
I like to add your. Your brain is checking.
Out I like to add flair to the words I'm sorry.
Repeat, repeat, repeat after me FA FA mill your your.

(00:45):
Eyes. Eyes.
Familiarize. Nope.
Yeah, it was close. I had it.
So growing up, I had a speech impediment.
And so those laughing, you're laughing at someone who had a
speech impediment. But then I never learned, So
what the fuck am I doing? But my friends used to make fun

(01:05):
of me and like, sit down and teach me how to say words for
like hours at a time. So for the longest, I always
remember Apocalypse because I used to say apocalypse.
It was just all peace. So.
And yeah, everyone thought that was funny, just like how
everyone thought that familiarize was funny.

(01:28):
Welcome to an oral review of Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog
reminding you to familiarize yourself with what a real gun
sounds like going off near you and far away from you.
You can do this virtually by looking up gun range videos on
YouTube. For Americans, going to a GUN
range unfortunately has a range of political implications.

(01:48):
Check the owners of the range before going, and weigh the cost
of not going versus swallowing your pride.
Always use proper ear protectionfor firearms.
You'll only look stupid when you're constantly asking people
to repeat themselves because of your hearing, because of your
damaged hearing. Being familiar with what a gun
sounds like may help in identifying a dangerous

(02:09):
situation sooner. 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 yeah, just remind yourself that to, to look that up because
popular media is important and it does have an effect on
people. And guns don't sound the way you

(02:31):
think they do. They really don't.
They're either deafeningly loud to a degree that you just don't
understand, or they're actually a little like in the distance.
It's like a, it's like a, it's like a wind and a snap, Like
it's a, and then a snap. And there's, there's a lot of
like cackling that you don't realize.

(02:51):
If you hear the cackling, that means the shots are being fired
somewhat in your general direction.
Or someone's lap. You can again look up those.
Either that, yes, either way, sink into the ground and take
cover. Those are whether I'm being shot
at, which I've never never happened to me, thankfully.
But whether I'm being shot at orif someone is making fun of me,
I immediately duck and cover andand and hang on for dear life.

(03:15):
Yeah, that's, that's normally mymy strategy too.
I just kind of curl up into a ball.
Yeah. And then I kind of rock back and
forth. I find it very soothing.
I had a Speaking of crying. I I had like a little bit of a
mental breakdown this morning. Not not like a real mental
breakdown where I was crying. I shouldn't be so flip with that

(03:38):
terminology, I suppose. But I was writing today's script
slightly hungover from a weddingand I, I, I've never used
ChatGPT and I was just like, I just want to see what happens if
I type in like write, write a summary slash script based on
the Sonic Archie comic, right? And I did it and it does give

(04:02):
you a pretty decent synopsis of like what happened, right?
And it broke me because it citesits sources and all of its
sources is coming from a blog called Hedgehogs Can't Swim dot

(04:25):
blogspot and a good name for a blog.
Looking that up. And it's literally just this
dude essentially doing what we do on the podcast, but writing
it all out. And he does like a summary of
like every single episode. And so when I typed in the jet
GPT of like, hey, do summary of this episode, it just lifted all

(04:45):
of this dude's information. I guess I shouldn't say dude, I
don't. I didn't look the gender or
anything. But the author.
Yeah, and you know, dude is non gendered and so I looked at this
dude stuff and like the the so we got a summary.

(05:05):
It's plagiarism. They're.
Plagiarism, of course. And and like it just, it just
pissed me off so fucking much because I'm like this dude took
like did so much work. I, I think he does the whole
series. I and I don't know if the dude
sucks or not. I'm not vouching for him.
I assume he doesn't suck 'cause if you're into Sonic we
unfortunately. Have to kind of say that with we

(05:26):
have to say that with Sonic fanswhere it's like they could suck.
We don't. I don't know if not the dude's a
Nazi I I did not get that far but I assume.
Or they're the coolest person onearth.
We genuinely have no idea, but Chad GBT is effectively.
Just stealing all of. This dude, we knew this.
We knew this. But yeah.
And it just it just. Like to the umph?
Degree and well, and the other thing that really pissed me off

(05:51):
is like, obviously it takes out all of the dudes like writing
style and whatnot. So it's very like to the point
and quick, which I suppose if you're doing it from like an
academic standpoint of like, hey, I want to like quickly,
just get this information. It could be nice, I guess, but
the thing that really made me angry is at the end, it gives

(06:12):
you like an overall impression, right?
And it tells you ChatGPT just tells you the impression.
And I'm like that just kind of annoys the shit out of me
because it's just telling you what to think without like
letting you come to these thingsnaturally.
So that was it. Just made me really sad this

(06:37):
morning. Interesting tool.
Maybe I'll use it in the future for something else, yeah.
I don't know if I ever did an introductory script for this,
but no ChatGPT or just AIAI in general.
What it's doing is like it is robbing people, particularly
youths, people who are brains are still developing.

(07:01):
It's robbing them of the the exercise of brain of thinking.
I'm critical exercise of thinking, yes not.
Even just even thinking. Basic thinking I'm I'm not
joking. I'm not even making a joke.
Literally they are being robbed of it.
I I always think back to my English teacher.
My English teacher in high school showed me the value of

(07:22):
math because he, he was like, Hey, I'm just like you guys.
He was telling the classes like,hey everyone, I'm just like you.
I, I don't care about these formulas.
And honestly, 80% of it you willnever use for the rest of your
life. And once you leave school.
But the act of doing that stuff,it's not about the formulas,
it's not about the exact word problems, etcetera.

(07:45):
It's about exercising that part of your brain and thinking in a
different way because not you, you don't do anything like those
formulas probably ever again forthe rest of your life, but you
want to get it going. And yeah, exercise that part of
your brain. And it, it helps in ways that
honestly, we probably don't evenfully understand yet, or maybe

(08:06):
neurologists do. But there is that value to it.
And he's just like, you know what?
After that, I never truly, or atleast not that hard, complained
about math class ever again because it was like, yeah, that
is, that's actually important. The same way it's like, yeah, in
no scenario are you actually probably ever going to need to

(08:27):
do the exact exercise of like a push up, right?
At what point do you actually need to go on the ground and
push the ground? But.
One day we. Question the value of a push up.
Move the rotation of Earth just slightly off and you know,
probably to avoid a asteroid coming.

(08:47):
So that that's why we train for that moment instead of lifting
up the cities, we push the planet.
That's our strategy. That's a.
Good strategy? I think so.
My other really quick rant is fucking So I try to buy these
things in advance because we're going to get to them one day.

(09:07):
I bought Sonic Prime season 1 and 2 right?
Oh shit. But season 3 came out and they
never came out with like individual discs.
So I had to go and buy this fucking steelbook because it's
the complete collection of seasons 1-2 and three because
they they're not releasing a season 3 individually.

(09:30):
So people who are like me who are dumb and just assumed they'd
buy like make a third season arestuck with an incomplete series.
So. I'm surprised you didn't just
wait until all three, all of theseasons were out.
Seasons 1 and 2 Got, they were like $5 each.
It was probably that cheap because they knew that they were

(09:51):
never going to complete them. So and plus it's Netflix, so the
moment it came out on Blu-ray, I'm like a little nervous that
they'll never do another run. Fair enough.
That's that's actually really that's real.
Yeah, all right. You know what else runs Sonic
the Hedgehog in issue #34? Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog

(10:15):
#34 cover date May of 1996. Tabot or not?
Tabot Script by Angelo De Cesareand art by Brian Thomas.
Have we ever seen a Brian Thomasbefore?
This is the first time I've seenBrian Thomas, so I have
thoughts. Oh yes, I do as well.

(10:35):
There's there's a chance, maybe they, I think they're brand new,
but there's a chance always leaving the store open that
they, maybe they worked on things beforehand in like a
lesser capacity. But I this name really stuck out
to me as a new name. I just want you to know that I
spent too long trying to think of a way to incorporate the
soliqui of a Hamlet, but like turning it to bots and after

(11:03):
like 20 minutes of looking at it, I was like, you know what,
I'm just going to write the script.
This is too much of my time. I can't do this right now.
That's a me move. I would do the same thing and
that's all. That's also how you know this
script is not truly done in ChatGPT or any kind of AI.
Oh, I could have just wait, wait, wait.
No OK AI is poison and every time you use it it's technically

(11:27):
hurting things more I. Agree unless.
To bot or not to bot? We open on Uncle Chuck and
Muskie getting zapped by some energy beams.
The two of them are in excruciating pain.
The beam disappears. We zoom out and see that we are
inside Rotor's lab with Rotor manning the controls and Sonic

(11:49):
watching. The beam was a DE roboticization
energy beam, or at least an attempt.
At 1:00, Roeder proclaims that unfortunately, only Robotnik can
turn Uncle Chuck and Mutsky backinto their biological
counterparts. This does beg the question, why
change back? Uncle Chuck probably only had a
few more good years in them, if that.

(12:11):
And dogs only live like what, 8 to 12 years?
Frankly, I only see positives. No longer needing to sleep is a
huge plus, and think about how high Uncle Chuck could jump with
those robotic legs. Either way, Roeder wants to keep
running tests to see if he can turn them back.

(12:32):
Unfortunately for Uncle Chuck and the Freedom fighters, time
is running out. We cut to the center of
Robotropolis, where Robotnik is showing civilly his newest top
secret project, an army. From now on, Snively, you can
call me General Robotnik, Supreme commander of the

(12:52):
greatest fighting force in the history.
Very impressive, Sir. I mean, general.
But why? Because I've declared Total War
on Sonic and the Freedom Fighters.
For that reason, I've created the Ultimate Combat Machine.

(13:13):
The combat. I mean the combat.
Imagine an entire army of invincible soldier bots, all
with a single purpose to get that miserable hedge rat and his
friends. Tomorrow I will launch an all
out attack on the Great Forest. When the Freedom Fighters come

(13:36):
to the rescue, an army of combats will overwhelm them by
sheer force of numbers. But it must be a surprise
attack. Snively.
That's why you must not breathe a word to anyone or anything.
That's an order. Unfortunately for Robotnik,

(13:58):
Dulce the Dragon was right outside his window.
She was spying on Robotnik and overheard everything.
She flies off to tell the Freedom fighters what she's
heard. She debriefs the freedom
fighters. Sally states that they need to
destroy all the combats now while they are all together in
one place. Uncle Chuck speaks up and says

(14:19):
that's a job for him since he knows Robotnik's headquarters
better than anyone else. He also volunteers Mutsky, which
is kind of messed up. Like how much free will does
that dog have? And does he fully understand the
mission he's about to head off on?
That's messed up, Chuck. That's fucked up, Chuck.
End of part. One I went back and forth trying

(14:39):
to decide if I want to say that's fucked up or not and I
decided to keep it clean. So way to ruin my the integrity
of my script. Dominic Sync, I got bots.
I'm on to you. You don't come on bots.
On bots? No, not yet they don't.
They don't exist yet. The sex bots.

(15:01):
They will though, and I will. That's.
Why? He's doing it, right?
Let's start with first. What do we think of the first
part, which is, I mean, it's, it's fine.
What do you think of Robotnik's plan of building?
Have you ever been impressed? Have you ever Have you ever been

(15:22):
impressed by a Part 1? Yeah, when Robotnik built the
chainsaw time machine. OK, so you want you want cool
things to happen in your Part 1?This is a cool.
I want cool things to happen. Yeah, of course I want cool
things to happen. Dominic, what kind of critique
did you just do? So let me get this straight.

(15:43):
You want your parts to be good. No, I didn't.
I didn't mean you're right. You're right.
I understand. I'm being a Dick.
No, no, I know, I know. But like I didn't mean cool in
the general sense of good. I meant cool as in cool in that
sense. So in like the combos, what do
you what do you think of the combos?
So. Let's let's one I hate the

(16:06):
design. There's I I they're hard to look
at. I, I think this is just like a
more of a, like an artistic right?
Where it's just like, if I saw that design in real life, I'd
probably be like, that's fine. But in terms of like looking at
it inside the comic, I find it really annoying.

(16:27):
I think it's the colors more than anything.
Yeah, well, and the problem is they're camouflaged, but they're
all standing at attention in a row, so they're camouflaging
into each other. So.
And maybe, yeah, I don't know, Robotnik is wearing like a

(16:49):
General Patton, kind of. No, no.
He's not wearing I, I know what you're saying, but if you look
closely in the in the third panel of that of that general
page, it's actually a piccolo. It's.
A. It's an Imperial German piccolo.
That was my next thought actually.
So I'm glad you said that he is wearing sunglasses, Robotnik.

(17:12):
And I think Robotnik should be wearing sunglasses all the time.
Of course, I'm a firm believer that every character should be
wearing sunglasses all the time,so.
You want the rewrite where it's just everyone's wearing glasses?
Yeah, 1000%. No, I, I understand why you said
why you said patent because the the speech bubble was cutting it
off. And yeah, yeah, sunglasses don't

(17:34):
really don't. Well, OK, unless you're like a
biker, but that's post war. Anyway, the point is honestly, I
think, I think his, I think Robotnik's like general uniform
actually does go. I think it actually looks good,
but it mismatches with the army of robots behind them.
So I'm, I'm in agreement with you there.
I I, I, I actually kind of adorehow a Robotnik looks in this

(18:00):
uniform. I think he looks fantastic.
That's The thing is that like, we hate authoritarianism on this
podcast, but goddamn the aesthetics kind of go sometimes.
Well, OK, if the the this specific aesthetic works for
Robotnik, if I saw someone trying to bust that out in real
life, I would make fun of him for being a dork.

(18:24):
Yeah, 80 years ago you could have done that.
The reason why I'm just like this is fine is it's it's such a
simple plan. I'm gonna attack Sonic with an
army. And the the frustrating thing is
just like, or, or maybe this is not a frustrating thing because

(18:47):
there's like an implication hereright where he's fed up.
He is like done with fucking Sonic.
And like his speech is just like, I've declared Total War.
And so this is him being like, you know what, I'm going to do
it. I'm just going to go kill him.

(19:08):
I'm tired, I'm done. He keeps fucking with my shit.
I'm going to just March over there.
I'm going to burn down the Knothole, I'm going to burn down
the Great Forest, and I'm done. And I like that implication
because it means that like, up until right now, Sonic has just
kind of been like, we interpret things as Sonic is on Robotnik's

(19:32):
mind all the time because we're kind of always seeing things
from like Sonic's perspective, right?
But there's an implication here where, like, Robotnik actually
has like a lot going on and Sonic just kind of pops in and
out and annoys him. And he's never like taking the
time to be like, really try to kill him, right?
Like I, I kind of like to view it as like he's got a lot of fun

(19:56):
wacky ideas and he's like, I'm going to try it.
You know what, let's, let's build a, like a battering ram
that walks. Let's see if that'll get them.
You know, let's build a time time machine out of a chainsaw.
Let's, let's just mash 2 objectstogether and see what happens.
And this is him done. This is him not having fun

(20:16):
anymore. This is him.
Like I'm just the fucking, I'm building an army.
Let's go do it. So I I like it from that aspect
of the story. Yeah, I, I, I.
It it really did. It stuck out to me too, because
it's like, what were you doing before?
I know you said just said all ofthat, but like, I don't know,
dude, like you kind of took overa whole continent at least,

(20:40):
right? A whole country took out a
Kingdom and then drove an entirepopulation underground for the
most part, Right. And put them into hiding and in
this genocidal conflict. What what was it before if not
Totalla Krieg, Right? Yeah.
Kuzesta Krieg. Yeah.

(21:00):
And like, it's it's good. I think the Total War was like
before issue one. Yeah.
I do. So I didn't call it out in the
script. It's a really dumb fucking
detail that is actually, I thinkjust funny, which is it's it's
so one of Robotnik's like head chambers is just kind of like a

(21:23):
giant glass Dome that's like on the top of it, like an H shaped
building. And we, I don't maybe this was
there before and I just never noticed, but there's a bunch of
gargoyles around it now. And, and I think they
specifically did that so that Dolce wouldn't stand out

(21:46):
standing next to the Dome so that she can overhear whatever
conversation is happening. So I just.
Think it kind of doesn't make sense for him to have it doesn't
make sense for him to have gargle in in the close up.
They are like they are stylized gargles.
But still, I feel like you wouldn't do that.
I agree. I still feel like you wouldn't

(22:07):
do that either. I I still feel what and and this
is Dolce never shows up again inthis in this issue specifically,
I I still don't feel she still feels out of place.
And it's not just because I didn't know of her as a
character before this before this series.
You and I started reading this together.
It's more so like, yeah, it's like a Dragons are mythical and

(22:29):
they don't quite fit into this woodland creature.
So I know that the the Saturday morning show definitely had
magic. So Dragons wasn't like yeah and
she's from the hood show so it it makes sense.
I agree it IIA 1000% agree. I don't think she should be in

(22:52):
this comic so. Or at least.
Or she just feels out of place. Exactly.
Maybe like a maybe like a like abat like a girl bat with big
tits, no. So in terms of the.
But then but then get breast reduction.
You don't want too big of tits. Yes, Honestly, yeah, No, really,

(23:15):
really. For the record, I have nothing I
so going back to that rant from like 1012 episodes ago or
whatever that. Was like half a year.
Ago yeah, really I have nothing against like well endowed people
I really don't it's more so justthe fact that.
No one, no one, no one thought that you did until right now

(23:39):
when you had to specifically be like, look, big boobs on women,
it's fine. No one, no one thought you were
being like, I hate women with big boobs.
I just. I just feel like I needed.
To. I think that.
Well, now I do. I think you hate women with big
boobs. Just like big yeah.

(23:59):
You know who hates big boobs? The women who have them.
Yeah, a lot of the time, I know,I, I, I know some women who've
had breast reductions because they had some pretty big
knockers. Jesus Christ, I thought they
were going to say back issues. She did she it was legitimately
it made her life suck a lot. Yeah, but anyway, no, just more

(24:24):
so the symbolism of what she is to the.
So although I will, I will applaud modern Sonic community
that it is somewhat toned it down that like I'll say even say
significantly than it was in theearly to mid 2000s
comparatively, comparatively, she is actually like a person
now Rouge the bat. She's a bat, not a person.

(24:50):
Do we want to wait until the endof the issue to talk about
Brian? Yeah, I, I was, I was
specifically holding off till the 'cause I might make
references to certain panels where I'm like, we should just
do the whole. Thing.
All right, let's move on. Yeah.
Tubot or not. Tabot Part 2.
As gloomy night falls on Robotropolis, Sonic, Uncle Chuck

(25:14):
and Mutsky are outside Robotnik's headquarters.
Uncle Chuck is opening all the doors since Robotnik hasn't
changed the access codes since Uncle Chuck was last on site.
The three of them rush in and find the army of combats not
activated and standing at attention.
Sonic leaves to plant all the bombs, and while he's gone,

(25:36):
Robotnik spots Uncle Chuck and Mutsky on his security system.
He remotely zaps Mutsky and Uncle Chuck and they turn back
into their brainless robotic selves.
Sonic returns and is captured byUncle Chuck, Robotic and Snively
presumably. Oh, sorry.
OK. Oh, you don't.

(25:57):
You don't use the Oxford comma. No, I've never understood how to
use it. Oh really?
Wait, which one's the Oxford comma are?
You serious? So the Oxford comma is so let's
say you have three items, Uncle Chuck, Robotnik, and Snively.
You put a comma between Uncle Chuck and Robotnik, but you
Oxford comma dictates that you should also use one between

(26:17):
Robotnik and so Uncle Chuck comma, Robotnik comma and
Snively. Oh see, I I never do the one by
and. Yes, that that is that's, that's
a lot of people. I use the Oxford comma because
and look, I'm not criticizing. You I'm just criticizing.
Because I was, that was, yeah, I'm, well, I, I, I'm not really,

(26:40):
it's not like your fault. It's more so because like,
that's how you were raised. That's fine.
But it's more so it was, it sounds like it was the school's
fault. Honestly, kind of I think it is
doctrines. It is a doctrinal thing.
I personally do not like it because, or rather, I prefer
having the Oxford comma because it is better to in my opinion,
it's generally better to have more information than to not.

(27:03):
And there's the there's the classic joke of oh, This is why
you need the Oxford comma, strippers JFK and Stalin.
If you only have strippers commaJFK and Stalin, then it just
sounds like JFK and Stalin are are strippers.
Well, I mean, I don't know theirwhole life, so maybe there was a

(27:26):
time period. Yeah, Stalin was a murderous,
dictatorial piece of shit, but he did look damn good when he
was younger. JFK He was a pillow Princess in
the sense that when he was fucking because of his back
problems in in endured by from his service in World War 2
because his boat got blown up. He, he, he never really, he was

(27:49):
drugged up during his entire presidency.
Like that is, yeah, like honestly, kinda.
And like, but it was because he was in constant pain, like
constant pain. He was in more pain than FDR,
cause at least FDR didn't feel anything, you know, with his
condition. Whereas with JFK it was just

(28:11):
just constant pain. And so when he was when he's
fucking Maryland or when he's fucking anyone, when?
He was fucking gay best friend. Yeah, honestly, he just kind of
laid there. He just kind of sat there.
He was a pillow Princess. OK, here we go.
Sonic returns and is captured byUncle Chuck Robotnik and Sibley,
presumably to taunt Sonic. Nice uniform, Robotnik.

(28:34):
Did they kick you out of the marching band for swallowing the
drum? Speaking of marching bands,
tomorrow we're going to have a parade and you're going to lead
it. Dawn the following day at the
edge of the Great Forest Buns, Tails and Antoine are running up
to Sally. They report that no explosion

(28:57):
ever happened last night. While Sally deduces that they
must have been captured, she sees something off in the
distance. She pulls out her binoculars and
spots Robotic and Snively driving a tank with Sonic the
Hedgehog tied to the front of the tank, actually welded to the
front of the tank. Actually, that's actually

(29:19):
pretty. That's actually honestly kind of
funny. He's.
He's being maxed, yeah. Yeah, that, that, that.
Thank you. I was trying to pinpoint where
were those from. Was that in the earlier ones or
was that like a Fury Rd. OK, OK.
She spots Uncle Sally spots Uncle Chuck and Mutsky marching
alongside the tank. Seeing the size of Robotnik's

(29:42):
army, Sally immediately gives up.
We have no choice but to gather up all the free mobiens and take
them to our underground sheltersand say goodbye to our home in
not whole village. We cut the Sally and buns
guiding the villagers to the underground shelters when she
sees Robotnik standing in front of the entrance to the

(30:04):
underground shelter. Perhaps they should not have
shared the location with Uncle Chuck.
End of Part 2. I mean, we already we already
comment on it, but it's pretty rad that Sonic is straight up
like strapped to the front of a tank as Robotnik and Snively
drive him towards not whole village, forcing him to watch

(30:26):
like yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah, it's it is, it is very
good. Like it.
It always made me wonder. It's like, yeah, human Shields.
Why don't we do that as much? What?
What do we? Like.
It's 2020. Yeah, it's 2025.
We have no morals anymore. We just, we just gave up.

(30:47):
We just gave up on it. Like mask off.
Just start using. Just start scrapping, strapping
people as people. That's great.
I mean, yeah, why not, man? The more the the more people you
strap to each other, the thickerthe the armor OK?
Yeah, that's just science. So so it it's implied that the

(31:09):
the that knothole is the above ground village, but they still
maintain that underground presence.
So there is a it's not a retcon now, because before we were
complaining about a retcon. Now, it sounds like that at some
point along the lines which happened, not during the comic
that we know of, not during stories, but it seems like it's

(31:31):
implied that they start Knotholewas underground and then they
slowly but surely moved everything not whole back to the
surface, but was still within the great forest.
And then they still maintain theunderground portion as like
either shelter, like emergency shelters like we see now, or
like a military apparatus like that is a military base now,

(31:55):
which makes sense. So in that way it negates the
retcon and instead weaves it into the story.
How do you feel about that? I think that's good.
That's a good. I mean there there's just an
implication of like not hole is growing and they got too big for

(32:17):
their underground base and they needed to go above ground.
So of course I I'm doing that implication right.
But I I like it in the context of they started off smart.
They're like, we need to obviously be underground.
He has control of the whole continent.
And then they got too big and they're like, well, I guess it's

(32:41):
going to be a little bit more dangerous.
But I mean, we can't just like kick people out, right?
We can't do the, oh, we can only, we can't Gernlagen this,
we can't have only like 30 people in the village.
And I don't know if you've seen Gernlagen, but they have, like,
yeah. And you get too many people, you
just got to kill them or send them off to, you know, on their

(33:03):
own towards Robotnik. Yeah, no, honestly, like, OK,
any chance I can get to Rep thisgame?
But freedom fighters, right? You start off in an in the
underground sewers of New York during of occupied New York
City. And each major story section
takes place during like a duringlike a whole season of the year.

(33:24):
And every, every season that changes every time the story
progresses, you see more and more tents, underground tents in
your, in the sewer system, like people are, the resistance is
growing, people are joining. And that's a very nice touch
that I, I appreciate. So we don't see too much of it.
It's, it's honestly, there's really not much to go off, but
just through text alone, just through that alone, that's

(33:47):
that's what we want. We kind of want to see things
shown in that way. But you know, it is what it is
and that's all right. How do you feel about the I'll
I'll I'll mention this. This isn't even a a a shoot.
What's this? I'm sorry, this isn't even a
Brian Thomas thing. Just in general.

(34:07):
How do you feel on page 6? Or at least I'm on Page Six of
the actual pages of the comic console.
Yeah, it's page 6. It's, that's, yeah, it's at,
it's at the bottom panel where it's, it's like zoomed out.
It's showing all the bots in, ina, in formation in at attention
and they're all like bright neonpink.

(34:27):
How do you feel about that? I mean that that's that happened
because the colorist was like, I'm not fucking doing this.
I'm not going to sit down and docamo for every single yeah, they
they did it earlier and so I waslike, they already did it once.

(34:48):
They don't need to do it again. I don't I don't I get why this
happened. I don't hate it.
It's fine. It's an artistic choice.
I well, both artistic and like logistical choice.
So I just wanted to appreciate that real quick.
I do want to mention here in thesmack dab in the middle of of
the of the episode, but still, Idon't want to acknowledge that
sometimes we don't give good artenough dues.

(35:11):
We're just a critiquing, critiquing, critiquing.
And I do want to say last issue,there was some really good like
splash pages, which was the the Supersonic and Hyper Knuckles
special. I do want to give a shout out
that the artist did very well. There was some really cool
splash pages, particularly in that part 4 of Knuckles and
Sonic going at it. That was really fun and cool.
So shout we don't we don't give enough credit to the good art

(35:34):
out there. And I just want to do that on on
our behalf. I call it Spaz when I really
like Spaz's stuff. Yeah, yeah, Spaz, that's I
think, I don't think anyone was really thinking about that.
But everyone else credit where credit is due for the others.
So yeah, OK, here we go. Tabot or not Tabot Part 3.

(35:54):
Robotnik is standing in front ofthe Freedom Fighters and the
villagers of Nothole Village. You can stop some of us
Robotnik, but you can't stop allof us.
Someone will find a way to bringyou down.
I'm not afraid, Princess. You see my combats are
programmed to seek out all non robotic mobians and nothing can

(36:17):
prevent them from following orders to destroy the great
forest down to the last twig youwere there.
There you finish. They pass on you.
That was Antoine. Oh wouldn't I combats?
I, your Imperial leader, commandyou to remove all Mobians from

(36:40):
the Great Forest, even if you have to destroy it.
Robotnik starts laughing to himself.
When they're done marching through your Great Forest, your
laughter change its name to the Late Forest.
Robotnik then notices that all the combats are marching in the

(37:02):
wrong direction and March off ofa Cliff, IE my beautiful
combats. I, I mustn't panic.
After all, the Sonic is still myprisoner.
Without him, the Freedom Fighters are finished Snively
roboticized the hedgehog immediately.

(37:22):
That's in order. I can't do that, General idiot.
What do you mean you can't do that?
Why not? Robotnik turns around and sees
Sonic controlling his tank and pointing the barrel of the gun
right at Robotnik. Just then, Mutsky jumps up and

(37:44):
starts attacking Sonic. Meanwhile, Uncle Chuck shows up
in a hovercraft for Robotnik to escape.
Uncle Chuck flies Robotnik and Stiveley to safety.
But what's this? Everything has gone exactly to
plan. What?
How impossible? Perhaps Rotor can explain.

(38:05):
The last time I tested Uncle Chuck and Mutsky, I inserted A
neuro. I inserted A neuro overrider
into their neural networks and allowed them to keep control of
their minds even when Robotnik tried to realign them.
Than Uncle Chuck and Mutsky we're only pretending to be
robots. That's right, Tails.

(38:27):
Uncle Chuck reprogrammed the combats to act on his command.
Not Robotniks. That's why they marched into the
sea. We cut to later in the day,
where Uncle Chuck has stopped byto say goodbye.
He's choosing to say undercover at Robotropolis since Robotnik
thinks he's under his control. He'll be a perfect spy.

(38:51):
I don't know how to end this one, sorry.
So what do we think about this? First of all, you're really at
the end of your rope. And I just want to say thank
you. Thank you for hanging on and
doing this this script. Nick really I, I want people to
know that we've talked about this off off camera, but like

(39:13):
the hardest job objectively is probably the editing, but the
hardest job for us is the scriptwriting.
Like for both of us, for Nick and I, it's way harder to do the
script than it is to do editing because editing is kind of
objective, more or less. Obviously it is a fine art,
don't get me wrong. But especially with podcast

(39:33):
editing, it's more or less very straightforward and you know
exactly what you need to do and what, what you envision.
Script writing, especially like what we do as critique and
comedy, etcetera. It's.
Comedy is a strong word, so thank you for putting that in
there. Yeah, no, honestly, thank you.
Of course, man, thanks for thanks for the shout out.

(39:55):
So I'm going to open with, I think it's fucking bullshit how
this goes the like the so there's there's a part of me
where I'm like, if this is the solution you came up with during
writing for. Creating these guys then do

(40:16):
something else like I, I, I don't know where they're so I
guess there's like an implication that these guys are
stronger than swap bots, right? And but I mean.
They're like super battle droidsrather than the regular battle
droids from Star Wars. And like they didn't really

(40:36):
describe like how much more powerful they are or anything.
So like we, we don't really knowwhat these things were capable
of and then. They're meaner.
They look meaner, yeah. But like they could.
And that's arguable, actually, yeah, I think.
The swap bots actually look moreintimidating because they have,

(40:59):
I do too well, 'cause these guyslook like they're designed by a
child, like they, they look borderline like action figures,
while the swap bots have like a scientific feature vibe to them.
These these command bots, com bots were very like, I feel like

(41:20):
this is what I would have came up with when I was in 7th grade.
And it like 6th, 5th, 4th, 1st grade where I'm just like, yeah,
I'm going to make them tall and camo and they're going to have
spiked shoulders and for some reason like thick arms, like a
Mega Man blasters. The the spike the spikes on not

(41:41):
like spikes shoulders. They literally have like spikes
pointing out their shoulders. Yeah, exactly.
Which is it's so try hard. It's it's actually really funny
in in a not in an intentional way.
Yeah, exactly. I they were trying to design
something that looked intimidating and ended up just
designing something that looked kind of dorky, I think.
I think, But ignoring that 'cause I mean, that is just like

(42:05):
a style thing, right? Like, there are probably some
people out there looking at thisbeing like, we are dumb because
these guys are cool as shit. Yeah.
And we don't want you listening to this podcast if that's your
you. Know it.
It really feels like 'cause so the major plot development in
the meta, or rather not in the meta or in the, in the, the

(42:27):
macro, the macro, right, the overall plot is that Uncle Chuck
is now a spy. Yeah, he's, he's, he's pulling a
double where it's like, oh hey, robot, I'm in Robotnik's good
graces. So I'm going to, yeah, I'm going
to be an informant from the inside while I'm still, but
don't worry guys, I'm still good.
That's the major development. It sounds like they started from

(42:50):
there and worked. Backwards.
Oh, they 1000% did. That's.
That's that's what it feels likethey were like, OK, we need this
plot development. Well, OK, big threat.
What's the big threat? Worse robots.
OK, what do they do? They're green.
And that's that's it. Like, that's genuinely what it
it comes off as. And it's like, oh, how do we

(43:11):
solve the issue of these big robots?
Uncle Chuck reprograms them. Yeah, like that's it's, I hate
when things are. I mean, this is too easy, right?
It's oh, Rotor implanted a thingto make it so Robotnik can't
take over again. It's like, OK, sure.

(43:35):
And then Uncle Chuck was able tojust program the robots to walk
off a Cliff and it's like, OK, So what was the point of
anything? I mean, the point was to get
Uncle Chuck to be a spy, but like outside of that, I was just
like, this is. How you get there matters.
How you get there makes a good story, makes it compelling

(43:56):
really. And I I understand that yes, the
twist was kind of actually, no, it wasn't.
That at all? They had an excuse.
They had an excuse in the sense that oh, they did all the
zapping in the beginning as testing, but we didn't know that
neuro overrider thing existed. That's just something I like.

(44:19):
It is I, I, I believe that rotoris capable of making that.
It's not 100% bullshit, but it'sstill bullshit because OK, if
you don't hint at that at all, if you don't show that maybe
they're they were anticipating, they don't show that they were
anticipating this. Well, then now you just
anything's possible, anything's possible.
Any twist is possible and that'sreally obnoxious.

(44:42):
It's the I know the discourse around twists is very long,
storied and very, very much in the fine details, but this ain't
it. This, this ain't it because it's
it's two twists stacked on top of each other in the sense that,
oh, Uncle Chuck is actually good.
He didn't get changed. And then also, oh, he overrode

(45:03):
all the combats and made them walk into the ocean.
That's it's, it just feels cheapin that way.
And it goes against the concept of like, I don't know what the,
the, the Hitchcockian sense of, of, of suspense where it's like,
OK, you could show just an explosion in a, in a stadium of
people, or you could show the bomb and then the bomb getting

(45:27):
to the stadium of people. And then you're wondering the
whole time, is it going to go off?
Yeah, well, in. Like so this feels insane
because Uncle Chuck technically showed Robotnik where the like
hidden underground entrance is to they're like shelter, right?

(45:49):
And then on top of it, you, I mean, we are operating under the
idea that Robotnik doesn't know we're not whole villages, even
though they've shown him literally viewing it on like
security cameras in the past. So but ignoring that he, he
technically doesn't know where it's at.
And I mean, if there, it's, if it's an escape shelter, you have

(46:11):
to assume it's pretty close to the village.
So you kind of just gave him like a 2 mile radius to check
out to find the village, right? Yeah, it's actually not good at
all. You could try to argue that.
It's like, Oh, well, Robotnik, or rather like you need to burn
something in order to gain Robotnik's trust.

(46:31):
Like you're trading a little bitof safety of not whole village
and the underground whatever forto or in order to get Uncle
Chuck to in order to get him infiltrated properly.
It still doesn't come off that way.
You could, again, you could argue I'm pulling defense for
the sake of defense, but you could argue, Oh, that is one of
the many secret entrances into knothole into the actual core of

(46:55):
the underground section. You could try and argue that
because remember during when Sonic was was had amnesia and he
was speeding through the the underground tunnels and sadly
was going to kill him. You could argue that's one of
like 50 entrances to undergroundand they burned one and they can
always make more. That's that's my excuse.

(47:17):
I don't like it too much, but that it's there.
But. Yeah.
Before we start talking about the art, what's your like
overall thoughts? We're just not good, right?
Yeah, so it's it's subpar in that way.
The coolest thing, the the coolest thing is honestly
Robotnik's outfit. Yeah, yeah, I was very enamoured

(47:39):
with that outfit. So let's talk art.
I it feels like. No pencils by aught.
Pencils by aught. It feels like they're like, can
you draw Sonic in Robotnik? And he was like, yeah, of
course. And he like submitted that

(48:00):
because I think Sonic looks fineand I actually kind of like a
lot of how Sonic looks in this and Robotnik looks fantastic,
though I guess he is wearing like not his usual outfit, so
maybe his like he wasn't wearingthat.
I don't know if it would look asgood, but everyone else looks

(48:20):
insane. Like calling out.
We'll go to page 5. How Sally looks kind of talking
at the panel. She looks insane.
Yeah. Or.
It feels weird, man. Yeah, yeah.
This, this guy, his eyes, he, it's like the proportions of the

(48:45):
face are wrong and everything just comes out weird.
Like page 10 when Sally like he's trying to go for somber,
but he Sally says and say goodbye to our home in that
whole village, but like she justlooks dead.
She looks annoyed. That's.
It yeah, and and specifically the best one by far.

(49:07):
Like top tier art one second I got to find it like I actually
laughed out loud when I saw it'son page 11.
Is it page 11? Antoine was it looks so funny in
this. He could not nail down Antoine
at all. Like every single panel looks

(49:28):
funny, but specifically page 11 is literally comedy gold.
It's so good like. I, I already so usually the
intro if If you're watching thison YouTube, Go watch this on
YouTube. I'm, I do, I do the intro gag,
which is picking like 4 random panels out of context.
That doesn't mean that it's not a commentary on like, oh, this

(49:51):
is bad. It's more so just funny out of
context, right? I'm, I'm stretching it.
But in this case it was more so yeah, it didn't look too good.
And that was one of them. I knew that was going to be one
of them. We were going to talk about it.
No way we weren't going to. And it just looks, it just looks
so weird going to the next page,page 12.
Look at Snively dead center. Yep.

(50:11):
Well, honestly, Snively, the best Snively is actually page 15
when he's on the plane. Yeah, sorry.
So I, I, I feel bad. We should be describing this for
our our audio listeners. Yeah, it's, it's just everything
looks thin. Everything looks just like like
the proportions are. Well, actually in that case, his
whole neck is just wrong. Like his whole neck is just

(50:33):
twisted completely. Yeah, I don't.
Know well and so OK the problem with this art style like I like
he he tried making everybody animal size to which I actually
appreciate I think they should be like animal size but this
this guy cannot nail down faces which is interesting because it

(50:54):
seems like everything else is great.
His designs of the world I thinklook fantastic.
I mean you look at the image of snakes a snake wow, what am I
Sonic strapped down to a tank. I think that looks fantastic.
You get honestly one of my favorite images of Robotropolis

(51:21):
yet of it's very stylized where the city is like gold and then
Robotnik is like a very it it looks blue, a blue egg just kind
of like in the center of Robotropolis.
What what page it is? Page 2?
Oh, Oh, yes, OK. I I think that looks fantastic.

(51:41):
It it? Yeah, I agree.
It it looks it's it's gold, but it looks it looks like sickening
or like it looks sick. Not in like a cools kind of like
sick. No, just like literally sick.
Well, in in what's what I liked about it, I I looked at it and
then meet like the first time I had this thought was it almost
looks like because of how the city is designed, it's got a lot

(52:05):
of wires going into the egg at the bottom.
And with this art direction, it kind of makes it seem like
Robotnik is sucking all the lifeout of everything around him
into his, like, main command center.
And so everything else just looks dead.
And the only thing that looks alive is his egg.

(52:26):
And I was like, that's fantastic.
I think that's great art direction.
Yeah, 'cause it lends itself to the character.
Exactly. And the ideology, it's, it's
like, hey, shout out when it's good.
We hopefully if we're on our game, we will shout it out.
And that, that's a great shot. Yeah, and like, I hope this guy
keeps on. I hope he didn't like flop this

(52:48):
and they're like, you can't do anymore because I like a lot of
the ideas he's going for. And I think he just needs to
learn how to do whatever. Like you can learn how to do
this better the the faces and once the faces are down, yeah, I
think he would be fantastic. And yes, we can't draw, Nick and
I can't draw, but we can critique things because we want

(53:10):
things to be better. Just so that's been said.
I there is an inconsistency too.Like look at look at page one,
that very first page and it's look at the bottom with, with
rotor, right? So rotor looks like that.
Cut to scroll to the Part 3 and it is page like 15.

(53:31):
Yeah, the snout. So this is like he looks, he
looks like a Chuck e cheese. He looks like a Chuck E Cheese.
Yeah, he, he super does. And it does actually make me
wonder if like he, like this is one of the earlier ones and he
drew it and got feedback and because the difference between
those two are huge. And I assume these aren't like

(53:53):
done in order, right? Like.
No, well, I, I don't know. I don't know, but I'm in the
same way that movies are never filmed in order.
It's I'm, I'm assuming that too.So we acknowledge, we
acknowledge time constraints. We acknowledge that artists are
never paid or, or appreciated enough.
We do want to say that. But at the end of the day, what

(54:15):
we see is what we get. And we're just we, we got to, we
got to talk. About it before we end our
critique of this issue Not issuebut story I I forgot to call out
Sonic didn't tell Sally his planwith Uncle Chuck and everything
and I think that's insane. And she calls it out, but it's

(54:38):
still dumb. Yeah, I was just like, that's
the one part. Like you can do your secret
thing to everyone else, but you got to let Sally in on these
types of plans because that's insane.
And maybe she would. She would have been like, hey,
don't tell Robotnik where the secret entrance is to just

(54:59):
wanted to call that out. There is a an obscene amount of
hey I know I got a plan but it can only work if no one else
knows about it. I feel like that's not a good
idea. I feel like everyone keeps
learning this lesson, if that. Are we, are we ready for
knuckles? This like 8 page monologue.

(55:23):
OK, this is the comic that I think people came to see 'cause
we are getting some hardcore enchidna this.
Is literally just like let's do a Lord dump.
So, and this is only Part 1, I'm.
And I, I, I fucking love this shit.
I fucking. Love it.
I, I am an I I I both love it and hate it.

(55:46):
I'll, I will say that. Oh, let me, let me also say I
fucking hate it, but also I fucking love it.
OK, here we go. Here we go, Here we go.
Oh also, by the way, this episode is not coming out on
Monday because we are talking about so many, so many panels.
That's going to take me so long.OK, here we go.
Here we go. Sonic's friendly nemesis

(56:07):
Knuckles. A Sense of History, Part 1
Script by Mike Ginternovich and Ken Penders.
Penciled by Ken. Pencil I wanna quickly point
something out. I feel like we always say this
is like, I mean, and and it does.
I mean, based on the writing styles we've seen, it does seem
very Ken Heavy. But pretty much every single one

(56:29):
of these stories has been a duo with Kanternovich and Penders.
So I feel like we we keep on leaving Kanternovich out of it
when we're like, Oh yeah, this is a Penders 1.
And I feel like that's we're notdoing Kanternovich.
That's justice, right? Maybe he's the reason why this
is insane. Well, we'll see if history turns

(56:49):
out that maybe he doesn't want his name on it.
I don't know, I genuinely don't know.
OK, here we go. Knuckles is still looking for
the Chaotic Screw when he happens upon Mount Fate.
This sends him into a monologue that you will now hear, which is
the entire issue. Buckle up.
Dad told me the tale of that peak's fateful birthing and the

(57:13):
way things used to be before theGreat Betrayal.
His stories claimed that long, long ago and kidna civilization
was the most advanced on Mobius.Our city's gleaming Spires rose
high into the sky, though the island itself did not.
We were grounders there, but ourambitions touch the stars

(57:37):
themselves. That's awesome.
Sounds like a slur. Why do you why?
Just like Hack. I don't know, man.
I, I was, I, I like sat there for a little bit debating.
Do I want to work this in as like a joke or something because
it's so weird. Yeah.
No, no joke. Sorry.
I'm sorry to interrupt, but likestraight up it's like I know

(57:59):
it's world building and I it's actually very believable that
they would have terminologies and nicknames for certain
things. Well, man.
They for an advance they really make some sense.
I feel like they could have comeup with something better than
Grounders. I don't know.
Yeah. Anyway, well, we were ground.
We were, we were grounders. Hard arc.

(58:22):
We were grounders back then. But our ambitions touch the
stars themselves. That's how some distant
relatives of mine were alerted to the danger from on high.
We see 2. We see two scientists looking
through a telescoped. We see two scientists looking
through a telescope, shocked. Later in the Hall of Learning.

(58:43):
A later in the Hall of Learning.Well.
A Diana. Joke I I literally think that's
what they're going for. It looks like the Hall of
Justice. In the Hall of Justice.
Yeah, that like that's not a bitthat that that is.
It looks like Krypton it. Looks a little bit like old old
old. I was gonna save this, but he's
just doing. Sorry, we're totally
interrupting Superman. This is just fucking Superman.

(59:06):
Yeah, and I. I was just like you.
You could lift it this much because he's just doing
everything is I'm surprised theywere like we got to keep one
echidna on the ground to as we lift this island up and he will
be our savior. He he will absorb the asteroids
like whatever radiation and he can glide.

(59:29):
And these are. I'm sorry, these are.
Yeah. So.
So if that means this is Krypton, later in the Hall of
Learning, a dire announcement was made, one which shook
society to its very core. OK, so this is this is this is
Enchidna Krypton, right? This is effectively like the
opening of the first Superman movie.
Yeah, like 70s. Superman movie.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK.

(59:49):
Members of the scientifically contact calculations and
Kannopolis is doomed. If I knew you were gonna do
that, I would have put one sentence all around your room so
that you can look and then say the one sentence and then look
over there and say the other sentence.

(01:00:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I so.
So to set the scene, set the scene in this hall of learning.
It is one echidna, a lady scientist actually, who is
showing like, hey, this is what we discovered and I'm showing
the scientific can you can you do?
Brando, but with a woman voice. No, let's just do Brando.

(01:00:31):
I'm, I'm with you on that for, for the record, for that, for my
joke. I, I feel like people need to
understand how funny I am. Is Brando famously at at a
certain point of his life, decided to stop learning lines.
And so in order to act, he, he claimed that it felt more

(01:00:51):
natural and like it would make the character seem like he's
like reacting to these things and thinking in the moment,
right. And so they would put like cue
cards all around the room so they can go and look at that and
then stay the line and then, youknow, so forth and so forth.
But you can see his eyes moving so every single time there's

(01:01:15):
like a close up you can just seehim reading it's it's.
I watched Superman one recently and it just really pissed me off
Sorry. Or or in the case of the
Godfather, you just had straightup like James Caan.
He while he's back to the cameraand and Brando is just reading
like a stapled like script to his shirt.

(01:01:37):
For the record, I respect it. I, I, I think Brando's red as
hell. Yeah, no, no, he one of the
greatest actors of the 20th century, maybe of all time.
Yeah, you're wrong. Just not Tom.
Cruise, but I don't know man, Tom Cruise, he was never based
as fuck as as as Marlon Brando. That's.
True, Tom Cruise was never based.

(01:01:59):
Citizens, members of the scientific elite, according to
our calculations and Kannopolis is doomed within a month,
possibly only a week. This great white.
Comet will come crashing down upon us.
How was that? How was that brand I?
Loved it. Oh, thank you, thank you so

(01:02:20):
much. The scientists all mumble in
fear and ask if anything can be done.
Perhaps, perhaps I have a daringplan.
Unfortunately, this plan did notcenter around sending blue
collar salt of the Earth drillers to the comet, so this

(01:02:41):
is back to Knuckles. So like lemmings, the populace
filed out of the city, intent not on evacuation, but
excavation. Together they scoured the
countryside in search of the rarest of all commodities, Chaos
Emeralds. As they worked, the threat
loomed large over the head of every Enchidna, both the tall

(01:03:05):
and the small. Time grew short and the
emeralds, a dozen strong, were delivered, then placed within
the caverns below. The Enchidnas place all the
Chaos emeralds into the chamber,and the island starts floating
up just as the comet crashes into Mobius.

(01:03:28):
Having severed all ties to gravity, the island would float
alone and apart forever. It was a grand day in Enchidna
history. Little did we dream that our
salvation would one day give birth to the Mount Fate and the
greatest menace of all. End of a Sense of History, Part

(01:03:54):
1. So we.
And we and we end, let me say this, we end in interesting
thing that we end on 2nd to lastpage is that while the the the
floating island is floating awayin the distance.
Lovely shot. We see.
It looks like could be adult hedgehogs setting down some kind

(01:04:16):
of home or like claiming the land.
So that's interesting. Yeah.
You think this could be Sonic's parents?
No, because this this is impliedto be like thousands of years
ago. No, maybe not.
Thousands. Thousands.
Did they say thousands? Well, I mean, we, we've seen the
floating island many times and there's no buildings on it.

(01:04:37):
So it's been long enough that these buildings have been like
demolished and like he's in ruins, right.
And I I assume the ruins that he's in are the ruins of oh God
the fuck did they call this place and and the.

(01:04:58):
Yeah, the big crater, yeah. Echidnaopolis.
Echidnaopolis. Yeah, so overall, I I fucking
I'm so pissed. I mean I already know I said it
but they just lifted they they just did Superman.
Like borderline 1 to one insane.And on top of it, comets, if I

(01:05:20):
remember correctly, are not a threat because they're mainly
made of ice and gas, and asteroids are the ones you need
to care about. Yeah, I I concur.
But you know, whatever out of everything here.
Oh, that, that's not, that's a small detail.
That's not even an issue. I will say this is this is

(01:05:42):
effectively Superman if they just listened to to Jor El.
No, this is Superman if they listen to an insane person who
decided to lift the island instead of just building a new
city like a mile away like. Or or or just finding.
There's no way it was easier to move the whole island than it
was to destroy the asteroid. I agree, there's no way.

(01:06:04):
Well, we don't. Actually know if they know Space
Flight or not. But wait, it was actually, I did
find it really funny. I didn't quote it, but they're
like, they're trying to show howsmart the scientists are.
And so one of the first lines the scientists says is just
like, and there we go. We've been charted the entire

(01:06:26):
Alpha Quadrant, which implies that they charted all of this
section of space, right? And then they're like, wait a
minute, a comet. And and they're like, we don't
know when it's coming. It could be tomorrow, it could
be a month from now. And I'm just like, you were able
to chart all of this like space,but you're not smart enough to
figure out when an asteroid is going to come hit you.

(01:06:49):
I don't know. I thought that was very funny.
That's actually like one of the basic, yeah, basic components of
like astrophysics where it's like, you can calculate that
speed, you can do it. If you can do that, you can do
that. And that goes to and look, I'm
no astrophysicist, of course, but it goes to show it's like.
Or an asteroid physicist. It's very obvious when writers

(01:07:11):
don't know what they're talking about, right?
It's it's like write, you need to write what you know or be so
well researched that there's no question about it.
So shout out to the ones who do that research to be fair and
then to come back to it. But to be fair, like they didn't
have the Internet back then. So it's, or at least you know,

(01:07:32):
the widespread Internet. So it's not as easy to glean
this information, but you can still go to a library and and
kind of figure that out. And this is long past Paul Sagan
and all the. Stuff.
Yeah, this. Is the night 96 they had?
The Internet in 96. They had the Internet, but maybe
they didn't have that readily access information like I I
don't know, I'm trying to run a defense here.

(01:07:53):
But ultimately it comes down to,yeah, they didn't really know
what they were talking about. They're just trying to do
Superman. They're doing Superman 1st and
then coming to it later in everyother way.
Shout out to the I don't think they ever named the the female
scientist the female Anchidna scientist.
But she has a she has a turban, but it's comprised of, it looks
like it's comprised of one of her dreadlocks.

(01:08:15):
Yes. I want to shout that out because
I think that kind of works. OK, it's you don't think so.
I it, I think it looks insane, but I think everyone looks
insane. So maybe, maybe you don't listen
to me on that one. The the issue, the the issue,

(01:08:37):
the issue, the problem, the thing that makes Inkidopolis and
the Inkidna Society so funny to me.
And I think it's, I think it's the core of the issue here, not
an issue, but problem. It's that they all just look
like knuckles knockoffs. That's the problem.

(01:08:59):
I mean, yeah, I think that's what it is.
And therefore it's hard to just not think, oh, that's knuckles,
but a but a lady, oh, that's knuckles but a scientist, oh,
that's knuckles but a child, etcetera, etcetera.
Instead of coming up with a whole range of Enchidna types

(01:09:21):
where, OK, this one's purple andlooks a little different with
completely different dreadlocks and looks, you know, has a cool
new design. And I understand there's like a
cost effectiveness to it there. And yes, I understand that
humans also kind of look all similar until maybe you get to
different parts of the world where they don't look so much as

(01:09:45):
similar, at least with like skintones and and shapes and sizes
and all that stuff. But and yes, it is a city.
So I am acknowledging all of that.
It's not a it's not a whole planet, but a city of people.
But if you still have the problem of everyone just kind of
looks like Knuckles the Enchana.And that's that's why it's so
funny. That's why I think it has this

(01:10:07):
weird, I don't want to say uncanny valley, but it's just
uncannyness to it. And that's a subtle implicit
joke, not intended, but it's an unintended humor that
underscores all of the society and I think all of Penders work,
Penders and Katarovic's work with this specific subset of of

(01:10:31):
of of the lore. I don't know.
What do you, what do you think? Yeah.
Do you think the echidnas are racist?
Is that what's happening here? Because they have the Super
advanced society and rather thanmove down the street, they

(01:10:52):
decide to lift their whole society up into the sky.
There's not one visitor in in the cop in the fucking place.
Like they're all red knuckles characters.
And at first I was just like, oh, this probably happened
before, like other like animals and what not evolved to being

(01:11:13):
what they are, right. But then immediately they they
threw a wrench in that because the hedgehog looking characters
show up as soon as the island leaves.
And I don't know there's is there words in the sign for you?

(01:11:36):
OK, I wasn't sure if that was just like, 'cause I think it.
No, it according to this No, it's still blank.
That's annoying. So then what are they doing?
Well, OK, that could be like, tome that's like the the
international sign for sale, notinternational sign.
But yes, it's like it's like a for sale kind of thing.
So it's like a joke. But yeah, so they're these these

(01:12:03):
hedgehogs are wearing clothes. So that implies like
intelligence and whatnot. And there are no visitors on.
He's using a tool and he's usinga tool.
And like, on top of it, it seemslike the moment this island like
got lifted up, they show up, they're like, oh, we can come
here now. That's a good point.

(01:12:26):
And you know what? This society is, is is now in
ruins, all right? We know it to be in ruins
because that's the present. So this past, it sounds like it
does turn into a into a Krypton situation where through their
own hubris, something happens and they they fall prey to it.
Maybe, I don't know. I mean, I hope so.

(01:12:47):
I'm I'm always a fan of that type of story of like your own
hubris. Racist getting there.
They're just desserts, yeah. Yeah, fuck racist.
And and like, it's, I am so intrigued by how what direction
they're going to go in because there has to be a reason why

(01:13:09):
they wouldn't leave the island, right?
Because otherwise this is just insane.
All of this is absolutely insane.
There has to be a specific reason why they're like, we
can't leave this spot. We need to take it with us.
Could, could they? Could it have been a comic game
thing? This is This is May of 96.

(01:13:32):
In in what way though? In the oh, the Sonic game has a
floating island. Well, we need a floating island,
but we can make our own Lord. Oh, I mean exactly.
Why? But in the you're talking about.
You're talking about the logic. The logic within the context of
the comics. OK, OK, yeah.
No, the only reason why there's a floating island is because of
Sonic 3. Yeah, but it it, it comes off

(01:13:55):
that way where it's like their supremacists somehow.
Well. It's it's, it's literally the
only thing that makes sense to me.
Because otherwise why don't theyjust build the city like a few
miles? Like, OK, I get that you made
the city and it's gonna take a lot to rebuild, but like, it's,
it's not gonna destroy the world.

(01:14:16):
We know that. To be to be fair, here's the
thing. The only way.
Sorry, here's the thing. The only way this makes sense to
me is if the asteroid hits comet, whatever, and like,
Mobius is just completely wiped out.
Just completely destroyed. And yeah, like it's, it's pretty
much a civilization reset. And they acknowledge that.

(01:14:37):
And that's why they're like, we need to be above the clouds in
order to like, survive and like grow food.
And, and that I think that I respect.
I think that's cool as hell. I think that would have been a
really good direction to go in instead of whatever this was.
In that panel where they're showing, in that panel where

(01:14:59):
they're showing the scientific community, she specifically says
in Kidnapolis is doomed, not Mobius or the planet is doomed,
it's just the city. That could be a hubris thing
where it's like, oh, the only thing that matters is in
Kidnapolis. So that could be, that could be
it. They could have.

(01:15:20):
You could still imply that. Oh no, we do.
Oh no, we do know that it's going to be a a planet killer.
So therefore we have to save ourselves.
So there is that. That is kind of a stretch.
I or rather they could have portrayed that more.
I think I I concur, but for the most part, this is just crazy.

(01:15:40):
Shout out to Bobby Schroeder, who's Tumblr.
Thanks, Ken Penders, we follow and the reading order.
We follow that pretty much religiously for, for our guide
as our guide through this, this whole journey.
And this panel where she's showing the the scientific
community is, is like an out of context.
One of her, one of the panels she she puts out of context and

(01:16:03):
it's so funny. Like it legitimately is an
insane panel just how it is. And again, like I was saying,
it's just because everyone lookslike a knuckles knock off.
Well, that's it. And they all look.
It's funny because to me it's funny because of how intense
everyone is. Or like you got 1 knuckles being
like this and everyone else is like kind of squinting and

(01:16:24):
looking at the it's. I think it's a very funny image
because of that. Like, like you look, you have
dreads. Dreadlocks at at least in the
black community, is one of the most treasured like hairstyles
that you can. And the reason the reason is
because you can do so much with it.
Here everyone, almost everyone has the exact same hairstyle.

(01:16:45):
There is in the center there of that image you can see it seems
to be a feminine presenting person with a yellow shirt and
it's like instead of locks, theyhave like it's just one long
flow of hair. Do you see that?
Yes. Yeah, so there's that variety,
which I appreciate. I like that.
But still, everyone, it looks like everyone.

(01:17:06):
Oh, OK. No, no, I take it back.
Duh. I mentioned this earlier.
The the the IT looks like she's holding, is holding, has a
turban. No.
OK. OK.
No, no, no, no. This is good.
This is good. Sorry.
The more I'm looking at it now, I was thinking about that one
image. Sorry.
Kudos. Kudos.
I was incorrect. The more I look at it now, there
are different hairstyles. Look below that that panel
someone has like a Mohawk thing someone else has.

(01:17:27):
OK, then. Hey, you know what?
I defeated my own point. Excellent, excellent.
I do like that it just looks like though every like I guess
Knuckles has like the default haircut it seems.
Yeah, he doesn't know how to stylize it cause 'cause.
He didn't have anyone to stylizebefore.
Have you seen the movie True? Yeah.
Have you seen the movie True Lies?

(01:17:49):
Oh yeah, I love that movie. Do you think the panel on page 7
where they're kissing or about to kiss?
Yeah, while the comet strikes Mobius.
Do you think that's a direct reference to True Lies?
Like the ending? Because the the the strike
specifically looks like a nuke. And so I'm like, I think I think

(01:18:13):
Ken Panthers was just like, I want to true lies this, which I
respect. That's a good move.
More movies should be like real lies.
Yeah, yeah, there's a panel thatgot cut out where it's like
take, take off your shirt and doa dance.

(01:18:37):
I just wanted to do a joke, turning off the light.
Sorry. True Lies is great.
More people need to watch True Lies, one of Cameron.
That scene is great dude. J Willie Curtis can get it.
Yeah, agreed. You I I I So I've I've shat on
Ken Pender's art. So I'm going to call out, which

(01:18:59):
is arguably one of my favorite images that this comic has
produced so far. So thank you, Ken.
Is it It's insane because it's when the floating island starts
floating there. It seems like it was just like
on a village of ants. And the image of the ants
looking up and like, scared is like just really funny to me.

(01:19:26):
So, so I that actually does stick out to me.
Like it's not a throwaway to to me, it's, it's actually a really
cool emotional beat. Now, when you say a, a village
of ants, you're not implying that it's an actual like, like a
large, like these are anthropomorphic ants.
No, no, no. These are literal small ants.
I think these ants are huge. Look how big they are when they

(01:19:49):
are at the edge of the crater. No, I think that's that that's
that's So this you think this islike zoomed in like a?
1000 times because I thought those are like 6-6 foot tall
ants. No, OK.
It I, I, I see why you say that because the facial expression on

(01:20:15):
the ants lends itself to them being yeah, exactly and full,
full size. So that's not good if the intent
was to be literal tiny ants 'cause they look they look like
sentient. Which then if they are sentient
and how messed up is it that into?

(01:20:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They just built it right on top
of them, huh? Well, you could argue because
they're ants, that's how they live.
Wow, you sound just like an echidna right now.
It's pretty good. It's pretty good, yeah.
No, I I like it though 'cause itis like a a cool emotional beat.

(01:20:58):
Yeah, no, no, I, I, I, I do like, I legitimately do like the
idea of it. It's just how it was drawn.
There's no perspective. So I I was confused a little bit
there, yeah. Yeah, you know.
No, I mean honestly, like Ken's art was actually pretty, pretty

(01:21:22):
solid on this one, I think. I.
Maybe there's some perspective things, but you know.
Let me, let me it's. I've seen much worse.
Yeah, it it was fine on this one.
I don't have any real call outs and that's the issue.

(01:21:43):
Only 381 left to go. I'm Nick.
I stream at twitch.tv/mojo source and my personal blue sky
is at Mojo source. And I am Dominic, you can follow
my jazz adventures and people power adventures in Chicago just
pieced together a an Instagram reel which was me filming
basically how the police kettleda a March and kind of a

(01:22:08):
breakdown on how on how they didit with using bicycles.
Fun fact, Chicago Police Department, they use bicycles to
great effect for police violence.
And in order to get ahead of protesters, they use it as
improvised barricades. They use it as a weapon.
They use it to go faster than the actual protesters to do
quick block offs, create flash points.
Very interesting stuff. You can also find me on Blue Sky

(01:22:29):
at Don Guan. You can follow us on socials
that got to talk fast TikTok. It's got to talk faster.
We also have a video version of the podcast where you can follow
along with panels and watch our handsome basis.
You can write in the show at Sonic Grams.
Write in at the show at Sonic Grams.
I got to talk fast.com. Ask us questions, provide
corrections, and give us your opinion of this week's issue.
Don't forget to like to subscribe to our channel and

(01:22:52):
remember when life keeps going fast.
You got to talk fast and just get through it.
My son. My son, this is a small place to
play, but I do love you. I do love you, my son.
Brilliant. It's in the back of the throat.

(01:23:12):
It's in the back of the throat and it's high pitched and it's,
oh, it's so good. You know else is in the back of
the throat. Those those come back.
Gotta Talk, Gotta Toss, Gotta Talk Fast was written by Nick
Folkerts and edited by Dominic Guanzon.
Intro and outro themes recorded by Dominic Guanzon Gotta Go
Fast. Originally composed by Norman J

(01:23:34):
Grossfeld, Joseph Garrity and Russell Velazquez.