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No. 224258
>>224251 Maybe I should clear this up. I'm pointing out that you're calling the early issues "a time when things were poorly done" as if these things weren't poorly done throughout the entire history of the comic. As if the FF groups where the majority of its members weren't a waste of the audience's time were the standard instead of the exception, even in the modern book. As if things weren't far, far more shoddily done for the next 130 issues after those characters were introduced, and as if the majority of the 30 or so after that weren't messy, poorly constructed stories intended to clean out all the book's previous problems.
On the next point, I don't see how discussing how much the book needs a ton of organizations that are just regional versions of the core cast is fundamentally a discussion of canon, or how their location in space-time affects the dynamics of the groups. We're talking about character and group concepts worth revisiting, not "Well but this wasn't in Mobius Prime so it's okay!"
On whether the Brits were the "standard" kind of FF group...what the hell are you talking about? We have plenty of proof: the comic is right there. Do you see any other groups with two major characters, three "supporting" members, and a literary theme between the members and each member generally has a role? No? You mean your average group is comprised of a small set of animals native to the region and only two or three of them actually have any defining characteristics before Ian started working with them? Well then I guess they aren't your average group, are they? They're a group that actually works in the "Freedom Fighter" group mindset because their inspiration IS a band of freedom fighters. Other groups don't work as well.
>I mean, you're just talking out your ass if you think there's any good reason why Thorn the Lop or Munch the Rat are less "redundant " than any of the other misc Freedom Fighters. What makes them more relevant than Barbie Koala or Larry Lynx? Nothing. Oooh, picking the last minute replacement of an established character and the quiet guy and comparing them with two of the most /exemplary/ characters in all of the Freedom Fighter groups instead of an actual set of miscellaneous members, like say comparing Quail or Avery with Wombat Stu, PB Jelly, or Lyco. You're good at this.
>The comic didn't need bigger threats than Robotnik/Eggman most of the time. And because of this small scope groups like the regional Freedom Fighters were really redundant. >And still, a lot of the time they did have their own villains, Crocbot for instance. You know, it's funny. You say "a lot of the time", but the DUFFs were pretty much the only group with their own dedicated villains. They had Crocbot, and then Bill switched sides. Everyone else had...well the Mercians had Antoine's dad for like, one issue. Annnnd then not really anything else until the Dark Egg Legion. It's almost like the Legion was created to give the groups villains and something to do because they were heavily redundant!
>We've already been over this Yes, we have! >>224194 If you recall, we went over this before. There's no real point in creating a bunch of groups that essentially function as clones of the main cast's dynamic. There's no essential difference between Monkey Khan being the protector of his village and having a supporting cast and the Downunda Freedom Fighters except for (wait for it!) the fact that one's far less lazy than the other. One of them allows for a different set of character relations, a different hierarchy, and acknowledges that these characters are NOT equal in terms of importance. Barby and Walt had interesting quirks and made sense as defenders of Downunda. Emu is fun comic relief, but he doesn't NEED to actually be part of their group to serve a function. Wombat Stu is a non-entity, and so was Bill until he turned. So let's ask ourselves: why are they a Freedom Fighter group? What does them being a group actually add? Stu was never likable or important, even under Ian, so why is he there? Why don't we just have two general "Defenders of the Outback" who are at odds with each other and have trouble working together, one of the natives and their friend is the hippie comic relief, and another old friend of theirs turned on them but is actually a double agent? What is actually lost by not lazily tossing them into a group but instead treating them as a set of characters tied to a particular location? It worked out pretty well for Khan, despite how little we saw Stormtop. Works pretty good for Silver, people liked his little supporting cast he was building up.
The point is that the old Freedom Fighter knockoffs were established back in a simpler time. These groups weren't MEANT to last, but they worked well for the stories that were told and with enough elbow grease some of them continued to not be terrible. The problem is that these characters weren't thought through on a larger scale. Their place in the world wasn't considered that heavily, and most of them were created just so the writer could make a bad pun. Where the comic is now, there's no need to just go and create more Freedom Fighter groups. It's okay for the comic to break new ground and establish actual cities, territories, cultures, and other kinds of structures for characters to be carried in. Sticking to just "Freedom Fighters of XXX" is unnecessarily limiting the writing.
There are FF groups that work. Bow's merry band of thieves works. The Sandblasters worked. The one group that comes closest to the success of these two groups has a member that nobody cares about and is generally unliked and unnecessary. Most people would be hard pressed to /define/ the Artic Freedom Fighters' personalities. Most readers weren't sure if Leeta and Lyco were new characters or not when they joined the Secret Freedom Fighters and you'll be DAMN lucky to find someone who knows more than two other names from the Wolf Pack. There's nothing wrong with using the Freedom Fighter template, but it should only be used where it actually works.
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