Oh Poncho, a deep analysis of the green hedgehog’s psyche is exactly what I’m looking for and I will be thrilled for that day when that’s all unleashed.
I also wonder, only because I see nobody else talking about this, if you can, are you able to share briefly on what did Zobotnik mean by remolding Scourge into a force of good?
It’s just the way he phrased that, made me think Scourge was going to be USED as a living weapon of some sorts. This is a version of Eggman after all.
And it’s those choice of words that made me had a thought about…,I know IDW and Archie have two different continuities, but Kit’s line from issue 56 comes up because of those kind of intentions. (And people do compare Surge to Scourge a lot, y’know how it goes.)
“All that matters is what we can do. How can you change us. So you can prove your way is right.”
While it can be argued how it’s not exactly true in IDW’s case, I think it was gonna be actually true in Scourge’s case had they succeeded in his rehabilitation. It’s not about him becoming a good person or even resolving his clear mental issues. That therapy was “optional”. He’s always been labeled as the Evil or Anti Sonic. Why actually change him? The Zone cops have been shown to leave certain things the way they are even if detrimental for some universal balance. *issue 197
We just never get to see what these supposed reformed criminals look like, and Zouge’s therapy seems to rarely stick considering how quickly the inmates seem to resort back to their own ways despite months of “progress”.
I might be looking too deeply and too literally into the lines myself, but still, the implications.
Oh yeah, thanks for the meme btw.
Personally, I don’t think Zobotnik was ever molding Scourge to be a force of good; I mean, look at the tactics. He basically encouraged other inmates to beat the crap outta scourge until he was mentally broken. That’s not how you rehabilitate someone; that’s how you make someone a soldier, like you said.
What probably messed me up the most about that arc is how close zobotnik got to basically brainwashing him.
I mean, man’s support system was already trash, and he was pushed far enough to not trust the little support he had. If Fiona wasn’t able to talk him out of it (aka boost his ego), he might have been stuck in a baddd situation.
Scourge is also the perfect candidate for that kind of manipulation; he’s got a fragile ego and he can’t handle the kind of humiliation he was going through.
But considering Zobotnik, I have a neat theory… in that arc, you can see a great bit of tension between Zonic and Zobotnik. Zonic is top zone cop, and Zobotnik is just a warden (dude obviously wants more power). Maybe that’s why zobotnik was ‘rehabilitating’ scourge—he was the first alternate sonic that ended up in zone jail and he wanted to use his power to take over. Idk.
God now I’m imagining this as an au.. my brain… scourge in an enerjak like situation would destroy me bro
