This comic run of Sonic's isn't immune from its characters making stupid decisions.
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- In Issue #3, Sonic and Knuckles enter Barricade Town and discover that it's been taken over by the Skunk Brothers, Rough and Tumble. They confront them and prove to be more than the match for the villainous duo. When they realize how outmatched they are, the brothers pull out Wispons. Sonic aims to avert their assault by calling out to the Wisps.
You'd Expect: That Rough and Tumble would fire the Wispons while Sonic is talking and wide open for attack, thus making it harder for him to appeal to the Wisps.
Instead: They just stand there and let Sonic do his whole speech.
Results: The Wisps leave the duo's Wispons, leaving them helpless to defend themselves against Sonic and Knuckles. - At the beginning of Issue #12, Sonic and Tails have Metal Sonic held captive and come to a decision on what to do with him.
You'd Expect: Considering Metal Sonic's inherently evil programming, the inevitability of him being livid over his recent failure and his previously stated desire to find Dr. Eggman, they would shut him down and seal him away in a stasis tube or cell where he couldn't do anything, thus removing him as a threat (even if it were just for the time being).
Instead: Tails repairs him just enough so that he can move around, then Sonic offers him a truce (which he rejects in disgust) and lets him go free, believing that he won't be a threat anymore with Dr. Eggman now turned into the kindly Mr. Tinker.
Results: Metal Sonic finds Mr. Tinker 2 pages later and sparks his old memories, changing him back into Dr. Eggman, who repairs Metal Sonic back to full power and instigates the Metal Virus plot. - In Issue #17:
- Vector gets called out for trapping an infected citizen in a car cage by Charmy.
You'd Expect: For Vector to hammer in to the six-year old that this is a Zombie Apocalypse. Infected means game over. Nothing can save them outside of a created vaccine.
Instead: He resorts to placating Charmy by telling him that they will come back for the infected after the non-infected are safe.
Results: Charmy predictably files off to his doom after the normal people have been evacuated. On that topic... - Charmy thinks that one of the citizens, who was only partly infected when he first saw her, and walled off by Vector, may still be able to be rescued.
You'd Expect: Charmy could take an aerial view, as Vector did not put a ceiling on the cell, and he could confirm the citizen’s infection status before quickly bailing upon seeing the fully infected citizen.
Instead: Charmy lands on the enclosure, within reach of the infected citizen.
Results: While he’s able to react to the target of his rescue being fully infected, his surprise causes him to lose balance and fall into the hoard of zombots outside of the enclosure, getting himself infected.
- Vector gets called out for trapping an infected citizen in a car cage by Charmy.
- In Issue #19, Team Dark is defending Sunset City from the zombot horde. Shadow's rather miffed with Sonic for not letting him kill Eggman when he had the chance.
You'd Expect: Shadow would let Omega, who can't be infected, fight the robots and focus on rescuing people.
You'd Also Expect: Should he opt to engage the horde, Shadow would utilise the full extent of his Chaos powers to take out as many enemies as possible. Other than going melee, he would use Chaos Control for evasion, Chaos Spear for ranged attacks, Chaos Blast for Area of Effect attacks (a godsend when dealing with a huge group of enemies like the zombot horde), and lastly, take off his inhibitor rings and mow down the horde like what he did to the Mephiles clones in Sonic '06.
Instead: He declares himself the Ultimate Lifeform, believing himself immune to infection, and starts fighting the zombot horde directly. Using melee attacks.
Results: He is overwhelmed and becomes fully infected, becoming the most dangerous zombot and turning the situation from manageable to potentially apocalyptic.
Even Worse: Shadow saw that he was becoming infected while using melee attacks, and decided to keep fighting anyway. This was after he saw Sonic's state and told that if he became infected he could likely run it off with his blistering speeds like Sonic was, Ultimate Lifeform or no. He may be prideful and angry with Sonic, but he's not usually an idiot. - In Issue #23, Starline points out to Eggman the possible risk of infection from the Metal Virus while on the Faceship.
You'd Expect: Eggman would create an antidote or a vaccine to his own creation.
Instead: Eggman arrogantly proclaims there's no need for a vaccine, and his plan for avoiding infection is essentially not to touch any Zombots.
Result: Eggman has no means of combating the virus when it inevitably spirals out of his control and threatens to destroy the world outright. - In Issue #26, Cream has been informed of what the Zeti can do, of how vicious they are, and how bad their situation is. She's been asked by Gemerl, her guardian, to stay behind on Angel Island and not confront Zeena, the Zeti Gemerl was assigned to fight, but Cream decides to go against Gemerl's wishes.
You'd Expect: Her to immediately attack Zeena if she must go along with this, given that not only is Zeena incredibly dangerous on her own, but she currently has zombots flanking her that could infect Cream with a single touch, if Zeena is given any chance to use them.
Instead: Cream runs up to Zeena, and demands that she give up the Emerald.
Results: Zeena laughs in her face and takes control of Gemerl, ordering him to attack Cream. - Better example from Issue #26; Sonic and Co have to do a simultaneous, coordinated attack on the Deadly Six in one last chance to save the world from the Metal Virus.
You'd Expect: The heroes would keep Gemerl far away from any of the Deadly Six so the Zeti wouldn't take control of him, preventing him from being used against them.
Instead: Sonic decides to send Gemerl at Zeena, completely alone, despite acknowledging how risky it was.
Result: Gemerl enters the portal to Zeena and is immediately taken control, despite her not even paying attention to him, and it's only because Cream forced herself into the fight that the heroes have a chance at getting Zeena's crucial Chaos Emerald despite Gemerl being taken over. And even then, Cream is grabbed and infected with the Metal Virus, forcing her to drop out, and Gemerl decides to stay with her.
Worth noting: Per word of Ian Flynn, it was originally going to be Knuckles on the away team to stop one of the Deadly Six, but Executive Meddling forced it to be changed to being Gemerl instead. - In Bad Guys, Starline breaks a group of well-known villains out of prison so he can form a team to begin his plan of taking over the world for Eggman.
You'd Expect: Starline not to break Zavok out of prison, given that his attempt to use him before went horribly wrong and nearly killed everyone.
Instead: He breaks Zavok out of prison, albeit planning to get rid of him later. Starline also breaks Mimic out of prison, who can shapeshift and mimic people down to the voice and also has a valid reason to be distrustful of Starline, since Starline is a former flunky of Eggman.
Even Worse: Starline then gives the entire group Power Cores (and doesn't even think to booby trap them) and logs all of his plans, including killing everyone as soon as they are not useful to him, with only a password and voice recognition as security.
Results: Mimic finds Starline's plans and tells Zavok about them. Zavok and Mimic then betray Starline as soon as they get what they want, and convince Rough and Tumble to join them as well, leaving Starline in a 1v4 against four super-powered villains with only an unequipped Tricore as his fallback. - In Issue #37, Belle was assigned to the Machine Shop division of the New Restoration HQ. It has been known to the heroes from the previous issues that she kicks on involuntary reflex whenever her tail gets pulled.
You'd Expect: To practice basic OHSA and tie up her tail in case it gets caught on something while notifying her superior and co-workers about this issue.
Instead: She just gets assigned there with no precautions added while keeping her co-workers and superiors in the dark.
Results: Belle's tail inevitably gets caught under a wheel and gets pulled while she herself was carrying a box, kicking it right into a rope holding up a boat which causes it to snap. The falling boat would have been smashed if it wasn't for Tangle using her own tail as a makeshift rope. - In Issue #45, Tails has given his prototype camping gear to Amy, hoping to get some feedback from her when she and the girls (Belle, Tangle and Jewel) return from their camping trip.
You'd Expect: Tails to also include some 'essentials' (e.g. a box of matches) to go with the camping gear.
You'd Also Expect: Tails to ensure that the instructions on the manual for building a tent are written in plain English.
Instead: He mainly focuses on the 'high-tech bell and whistles' and half of the manual contains geometric equations (which are hard for Jewel to understand).
Results: Jewel and Tangle struggle to build the tent (with hilarious results) and only Belle has a solution to help make a bonfire. - Also from Issue #45; it is revealed that Belle is understandably afraid of fire due to her wooden body.
You'd Expect: Mr Tinker to have considered not building a lighter into any one of Belle's fingers, in case she accidentally sets things (and potentially herself) on fire.
You'd Also Expect: Mr Tinker to have put a decent-sized flashlight into any one of her fingers for her to use.
Instead: None of those thoughts had occurred to him.
Results: Belle has no choice but to use the lighter to see in the dark. She gets startled by a Motobug, falls back, and hits her head on a rock, rendering her unconscious with the lighter still on. She later comes to during the forest fire (just a few feet behind Kit and Surge, to boot) and sure enough, her hand is roasted; Tangle ultimately has to bandage it with her sports tape. - Imposter Syndrome #3 has Surge and Kit find out the truth about their past by hacking into Starline's archive files.
You'd Expect: That Starline would account for this possibility and either set up a system that alerts him if any intruders peek into his files or leave fake vlogs if he really felt the need to keep making vlogs detailing his plans.
You'd Also Expect: Starline learns from the last time two intruders hacked into his computer systems and not leave vlogs detailing his plans. Or at the very least make sure that the doors are resistant to any external tampering.
Instead: Kit and Surge find out that Starline had overwritten their previous personalities, brainwashed them to serve their roles and didn't even bother to record their pasts, leaving them with no real answers regarding their former identities.
Result: Starline catches them, tries to fight them both and gets a taste of his own medicine. Kit and Surge then resolve to follow Starline's plans only so they can stab him in the back later down the line. - In Issue #50, Belle notices a decommissioned Metal Sonic in Eggtropolis and seems conflicted on how to deal with the robot.
You'd Expect: Belle to resist the urge to help Metal Sonic, given that he was the one who restored Eggman's mental state, leading to the Metal Virus outbreak.
You'd Also Expect: If Belle had suggested fixing Metal Sonic, Sonic and Tails would stop her in her tracks and explain to her why doing this would only cause trouble and grief for everyone, speaking from their own experiences.
Instead: Sonic gives Belle permission to fix Metal Sonic, telling her to be careful.
Result: Metal Sonic is fully repaired, but safe from Starline's control signal, and returns to Eggman's side. He comes after the heroes (and Kit, who's with them) in the next two issues and even slaps Belle when she stands between him and Sonic, cementing how royally she screwed up. - Also from Issue #50, Sonic offers a hand to Surge to save her from falling to her supposed doom.
So You'd Expect: Surge to take up Sonic's offer and then, with the right timing, zap Sonic to catch him off-guard and throw him into the Bottomless Pit, ending him for good.
Instead: She zaps him as he tries to help her, smugly claiming that she got the last hit in.
Result: She falls to her supposed doom as the building rumbles and caves in, with Sonic calling after her. - In Issue #56, Tails tries once more To Win Without Fighting against Kit, apparently succeeding when the latter stands down.
You'd Expect: Tails to make sure Kit was on his side this time, since not only has Kit turned on the heroes once by this point but may also have learned from his defeat against Tails in their previous battle.
Instead: Tails automatically assumes he's gotten through to Kit and lets his guard down.
Result: Kit turns out to have faked surrender, sidelining himself only to sell his deception, and catches the heroes off-guard after thwarting Eggman's betrayal. With Surge in tow, he verbally stings the game characters and leaves them to die, much to Sonic and Tails' dejection. - In Issue #63, Mimic, who's infiltrated the Restoration for Clutch as "Duo the Cat", has successfully duped Silver and the Neo Diamond Cutters, but fears the former could jeopardize his cover and decides to pick on him.
You'd Expect: Mimic to wait for just the right moment to strike; the girls are observing him and Silver, and Mimic knows only too well how attentive Whisper is (plus, her mask lets her zoom in on any suspicious moves).
Instead: He subtly kicks the back of Silver's foot as the girls look on; Lanolin and Tangle don't catch this, but Whisper does.
Even Worse: While leaving Silver to get eaten by a giant Chopper, Mimic lets his true form's Black Eyes of Crazy show through his disguise, believing his secret will die with the hedgehog.
Results: Naturally, Silver busts free and lives to tell the tale. Whisper later sets out to investigate the mishap and approaches Silver for answers. When Silver reports the eye color change, Whisper realizes "Duo" is in fact Mimic and resolves to hunt him down. This should be the end of it, but... - In Issue #64, Silver and Whisper attempt to expose Duo as Mimic, as they do not have hard evidence for this outside of their own findings which are not conclusive enough. Silver only has his own word which is clearly rebuffed by Lanolin while Whisper saw the tripping happen due to her mask.
You'd Expect: For the duo to confide in the other Diamond Cutters or even the other heroes first in private about this possibility first before doing anything while digging for any info on "Duo the Cat". It is shown previously that Mimic/Duo is clearly using any public attempts to expose him to earn sympathy and win any suckers over. Even better, if Whisper's mask is in recording mode, show the footage of him tripping Silver to the others to at least show that "Duo" is hiding something malicious.
You'd Also Expect: For Silver to just yank Mimic's gloves off, as they cover his hands which cannot be properly disguised, which is something that Whisper should know about from their time together as Diamond Cutters. If this would make Silver look like a douche, politely ask "Duo" to take his gloves off and enquire why is he so secretive about it when he refuses instead. Checkmate. Even if Mimic somehow managed to disguise his hands, at least being polite would not make Silver and Whisper look like paranoid psychos.
Instead: Silver and Whisper don't do any of this and go guns blazing in public to force Mimic out of his disguise when secretly endangering him doesn't do the trick; the latter was done with Silver's powers, the color of which make it very obvious that it was his doing, digging himself deeper. This leads to a brawl between Whisper and Lanolin, while "Duo" exploits Silver's attempt to interrogate him by feigning injury while in his psychic grasp.
Results: "Duo" has his cover reinforced even more than ever, Silver is booted out of the Neo Diamond Cutters by Lanolin and Tangle's vote (which plays into Mimic's plan of getting rid of Silver in the first place), and Whisper is temporarily benched on the grounds of being emotionally unstable. Whisper even gives up on the idea that "Duo" is Mimic when she sees what all this has done to her team!
Even Worse: Due to being "injured", Mimic/Duo is offered an admin role by Jewel as compensation, effectively handing him information on the Restoration on a silver platter. His mistake turned into a checkmate due to the heroes' sheer incompetence! - Issue #66 has a couple of these that as, Sonic would call them, "big oofs".
- The Rabbit Family's kitchen has became a battleground between Gemerl, Cream, Cheese and Chocola against Rough and Tumble. The ensuing brawl has the dinner prepared nearby being used as weapons, much to Cream's dismay. Thankfully, the roast is safe in the oven as it was still being prepared when the fight started. And then Cream hears the oven finish cooking.
You'd Expect: For the girl to focus on getting the two burglars out of her house first before even thinking about touching the oven. The oven goes by a set timer and wouldn't operate any further without outside input. If she is really worried about the roast being overcooked, just open the oven door for a quick sniff for any burnt smells before shutting it.
Instead: She brings out the roast right into the open battlefield, apparently more focused on it being well-done over dealing with the intruders.
Results: It predictably gets crushed soon after it was brought out. She's very lucky her mother is in a very forgiving(?) mood. - Clutch is a known criminal tycoon who has resumed operations in the vacuum left behind by Eggman and has encountered the various members of the cast before in various escapades. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Gemerl, Belle, and Team Dark found out about his less-than-ethical Chao races (#33-#36) while the Chaotix busted one of his criminal operations by accident (#48). He only escaped those encounters due to feigning incapacitation/defeat and then violently resisting arrest when the heroes thought they'd gotten the best of him.
You'd Expect: For any of the above-mentioned cast to warn law enforcementnote and the Restoration that a powerful crime lord is active and to keep tabs on him if arresting him isn't an option.
Instead: They never told anyone else about him.
Results: Clutch is able to literally walk right into Restoration HQ and sign a deal with Jewel. Whatever it is, it would definitely be rigged in his favour.
- The Rabbit Family's kitchen has became a battleground between Gemerl, Cream, Cheese and Chocola against Rough and Tumble. The ensuing brawl has the dinner prepared nearby being used as weapons, much to Cream's dismay. Thankfully, the roast is safe in the oven as it was still being prepared when the fight started. And then Cream hears the oven finish cooking.
