The way I heard it, Archie was given some production materials from the show beforehand and they wrote the comic from that — since it takes less time to put out a 22-page comic than a 22-minute fully animated cartoon episode, it came out first despite being derivative. The fact that certain details changed in between the production stage and the finalized cartoon is supposedly the reason for things like Archie Sally being pink in her initial appearances, they didn't get the memo on that and had to correct it later.

From what I heard, both the comic and the cartoon were being produced simultaneously, but problems with the latter's productions delayed it a year, meaning the former was using the initial info for the latter, in its first few comics; this may also be why a few fans think the early comics were more inspired by The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog instead of Sat AM, because of its lighter and more goofy atmosphere - the early drafts for the cartoon was more goofy and lighthearted, with a less threatening Robotnik and more appearances by the badniks (including Scratch and Grounder, which are based on the original game badniks, themselves).

It's due to a huge edit war a few months ago concerning Rotor's sexuality. No, seriously.

Okay. Just wondering. ^^;

Yeah, is this page ever going to be unlocked? I mean, it happened months ago, and I thought it was only temporary.

I'm worried if it gets unlocked it will bring that guy back.

I don't think that's going to happen. The issue's pretty much done and dusted, and I doubt the issue will come up, again.

somehow I doubt that

Having looked through that flame war, it seems to me that it was less over a contentious issue than it was over a contentious person. It's the same person who resorts to name-calling, telling people they have no right to discuss or dispute his allegations, trying to threaten them with banning — for wanting to continue to DISCUSS the issue, on the DISCUSSION page. "That guy," indeed. I think he WILL come back if the page is unlocked, given that I've seen him elsewhere on Tropes. But that's not a good reason to keep this page locked for more than half a year. The solution should be to warn/ban HIM.

Again, the issue is over, long over, and I don't think he'd waste his time trying to dredge it back up, again. Depending on which guy you're talking about, I've either not seen him on, at all, since the incident, or have not seen him engage in any other such flame wars on here, and considering that one of those guys IS me, I think we can safely say there's no risk to opening this page back up for editing, since that's a Dork Age I really, REALLY don't want to dredge up, again.

I know, it doesn't seem like a very sincere statement coming from one of the two guys involved in the flame war, and I'm not trying to defend myself with this, but here's what happened: the issue was over an Edit War. When it started, news of the alleged Word Of Gay for the comic was out, and I decided to put in some of the pertinent tropes related to it (mainly, well, Word Of Gay and Unfortunate Implications). The edit war started with the other guy (I don't recall him using a screenname on here, either) making a bunch of Justifying Edits to those tropes and the contents therein, because he felt that they weren't pertinent to the comic, and it devolved into what you saw.

The incidents you might be recalling on other tropes likely was a similar edit war on the Wall Banger page, where the other guy or someone similar decided to make similar justifying edits to the examples given for the Sonic comic on there, not just mine but other people's, as well (if memory serves me correctly, that war started with a justifying edit about someone else's entry about Sally blowing Sonic's concern about insane Eggman off).

I will admit that, with those wars, I got a bit too upset and fanned the flames more than I should have, and I will accept a warning for that. However, as I said, I haven't engaged in such flame wars on here, since that incident, and I don't plan on doing so, in the future, even if this page is opened up again; hell, I've even edited a few of my entries for the Word Of Gay and Wall Banger pages, to acknowledge the other guy's arguments (mainly how stupid in hindsight the writer's plans for the Word really were). I have also not seen the other guy around, any more, so while I can't say for certain that he's gone, I can say with relative confidence that he's given up on continuing this as much as I have.

Bottom line, I doubt there'll be any danger to opening the page back up; I doubt the other guy will return, and I'm not going to stir up that beehive, again. As you said, it's been over half a year since it happened; I think it's safe to say that it's a Dork Age for everyone involved that they all wish didn't happen and won't want to risk bringing up, again.

Agreed. Then again, the same is true of almost any locked page (I've long been driven crazy by outright errors on pages that I can't fix because they're locked). A locked works page is perhaps the worst kind, especially in the case of an ongoing work such as this one.

If you want it unlocked, try going to Ask The Tropers and request it to be unlocked. I'd do it myself but I don't think I know enough to argue for it.

I wouldn't say it's darker, just more complicated. It started off pretty dark, what with the world being taken over and all. And it had a fairly large cast, so they could get a lot of stories out of them. More importantly though, it's a comic that's run nonstop for over a decade, and has kept it's storyline from remaining static. That is how it's built up such a large fanbase, because of how nuanced the characters have become.

The storyline is not that difficult, it's Sonic and Tails and a whole bunch of new characters fighting Eggman, who in this storyline is an actual threat.

It's pretty similar to Sonic The Comic, and basically every other non-Japanese pre-Adventure Sonic continuity. Eggman/Robotnik took over the world, and a gang of random Expies of game characters plus random people have to stop them.

However, now they're basically soldiers trying to stop a Robotnik clone.

I don't object to it, though I feel that perhaps the name "Archie's Sonic The Hedgehog", or something like similar would be more appropriate.

I do believe you are correct. Archie's Sonic The Hedgehog sounds good. (And if it's a bit unwieldy, we can still make it the official page and have Archie Sonic as a redirect).

Maybe make Archie Sonic Archie'sSonicTheHedgehog and Archie Comics Sonic The Hedgehog all redirect.

We need that many? If Archie Comic's Sonic The Hedgehog is better than Archie's Sonic The Hedgehog, let's just use that, with Archie Sonic as the easier-to-remember redirect plus the artifact title — since it's got an apostrophe, it'll need a third redirect anyway at Archie Comics Sonic The Hedgehog. Don't want to overdo it.

I don't think you can overdo it. It's just easier since it could e named so many ways.

I don't think there's an official policy against multiple redirects of that type, although I've seen people complain about them as a pet peeve. H'okay, but I definitely think we should only have one name with an apostrophe. Otherwise the "alt titles" will wind up looking very strange...

Anyway, moved. ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog, ArchieSonic, Archie Comic's Sonic The Hedgehog, ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog and ArchiesSonicTheHedgehog will all get you where you want to be.

Looks good. Maybe now we can get a real character page.