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June 25, 2020 |
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Commentary for June 25, 2020: So, if you guessed Tails was about to break out the Cyclone, you guessed right. Well done. What else could she have meant by the “heavy artillery”, after all? Now, in the original Eon’s Comic, Tails was captured by GUN along with Amy in Station Square, where the two of them had gone to help Sonic. GUN was being a lot less subtle in the original version and the heroes were well aware of the fact that nowhere was safe. Tails’s workshop was still raided in the end, but that was to capture Cream along with Tikal, who was also staying there for some reason. (If you’re wondering about Tikal, she’s still a guest at Silky’s villa and GUN is not after her.) But why is GUN going after all these people, anyway? Well, in-universe, there are reasons, and I don’t want to show my hand just yet by telling you what they are. But as for the artistic reasons, when I originally wrote this story back in 2003, we were a few months into the Iraq War and the War on Terror was in full swing. This story was how I dealt with my anger and frustration about what was, let’s be perfectly honest, a racist, imperialist war led by the United States that my country willingly participated in, knowing damn well it was founded upon a bogus premise. Thousands died to steal Iraq’s oil and increase American military influence in the Middle East. And the War on Terror was an absurd forever war used by the USA to justify torturing and permanently imprisoning people without trial just on suspicion of being connected to the people behind 9/11. So I wrote a story about unjust military action and wrongful imprisonment. It was clumsy and clunky, but I was seventeen years old and full of anger and passion over something I felt so hopelessly powerless to stop. And I still feel angry about that all these years later. So much so, in fact, it’s difficult for me to articulate it. And I think, even if those issues aren’t fresh, they’re still relevant. This is why I’ve tried to re-create this story arc thematically as faithful to the original as I can, even if the story details are a little different here and there. The only real change to the theme is the undercurrent of fascism within GUN that wasn’t prominent in Eon’s Comic until much later. But given the state of the world and the rise of fascism in places like the USA, the UK, and so many others that it almost feels easier to list the countries that aren’t at risk of it, I feel it’s an important theme to be tackling in fiction right now. And to those who think Sonic shouldn’t be political, there’s politics in every story, bub. Sonic the Hedgehog is essentially the story of an anarchist superhero, standing up for the environment and for the oppressed and downtrodden against a villain who is basically a metaphor for capitalist exploitation. Sonic has always been political and I’m never stopping. Credits: GUN mech sprites originally by Kompi. |
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Eon's World is a fan comic created by Bethany Turner. All characters are copyright
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