Lanolin the Sheep

This particular panel honestly broke my heart

She looks so sad and distraught here, it honestly breaks my heart.

Lanolin initially joins Sonic's team to help bring a strong leader (Because apparently Knuckles wasn't enough) and she starts out as a great, kinder leader than how she was in the normal canon.

However, Silver has trust issues with her due to reading a fanfic of her online (Think Ultron styled crap), and she overhears him discuss his trust issues to Sonic and how he thinks Lanolin isn't exactly fit for a leader.

After this, Lanolin decides to be a bit more harsh on Silver as payback.

Thoughts?

I want Sega to add Tangle, Whisper, Lanolin, and other characters from the Sonic IDW comic series to be appear in the main Sonic video games; now that I heard Sonic mentioned Tangle in Sonic Frontiers. Sega should not ignore characters like Blaze, Silver and Cream. They deserve a lot better. Don't you think so?

Heya everyone! Today I'd love to talk about an IDW character everyone seems to hate: Lanolin the Sheep.

So there's this website where I personally always read IDW, along with annuals, and also stuff like the Shadow manga and other stuff:

(Link removed due to the rule I didn't know about)

And, why I am saying this is because I happened to read the comments under Issue #74 (the latest one), and saw 2 comments that caught my eye, so I decided to share. So, the first comment I stumbled upon was apparently left by the user who got to talk to Evan Stanley herself about Lanolin and her writing. Here's what the comment says:

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Okay, things are speeding up and I know a lot of people must be pissed off or confused about Lanolin and I am too, like. I even got to talk to Evan Stanley on Tumblr and she told me that she understands the fact that some people don’t like Lanolin and she even recognizes that part of that is the way she writes the sheep’s reaction to certain issues, the idea is for her to be a character who tries to follow the rules to the letter which makes her not very flexible like Sonic and company and this seems to be a point of development for her that is being worked on little by little, but now speaking personally after reading this issue the talk about Phantom Rider being a criminal doesn’t seem to make sense, he didn’t invade the competition to hurt anyone or steal the prize, he just invaded the race and drew attention to himself and nothing more so Lanolin seems to be just paranoid about him and because Phantom Rider is Sonic the others should already be more aware that there is possibly something he wanted to investigate and because he was disqualified he couldn’t go in there as himself, simple. She also said that part of Lano’s harsh attitude is due to Mimic’s interference, who, as an infiltrator, uses Duo’s “innocent and naive” attitude to instigate internal friction and create a rupture between them so he can attack Tangle and Whisper when they are alone. I understand all of this and I know it’s hard to write a good story with deadlines to meet, but I think it could be better and more understandable. Maybe making Lanolin apologize to everyone in public after hearing all the explanations would alleviate the bad impression of the character a little, like “she made a mistake but at least she acknowledged it, I hope it doesn’t happen again.”

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Credit for this comment goes to Denki_art.

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The second comment:

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What she did isn’t rational, but I feel like at this point it should be clear that Lanolin is a typically logical character with big anger issues. The comics don’t really show it that well… (check Adam Bryce Thomas’s twitter…) but she HATES Sonic. Remember that Lanolin is basically the only character that wants to IMPROVE the status quo. Basically all of the main cast enables Eggman to continue threatening the world despite him nearly ending it multiple times at this point. Sonic is practically the personification of that carelessness. For a grounded character like Lanolin who took up arms to keep Eggman from threatening the world, she can only despise Sonic for constantly beating him but never dealing out some form of justice to keep the world safe.

Really annoying that Lano’s execution is so sketchy because she’s supposed to be this complex, realistic character that deconstructs Sonic but in practice everyone seems to misunderstand the character.

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Credit for this one goes to UnitySonic.

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My personal opinion: When people say they hate Lanolin, I can perfectly understand why. There are some moments where I just feel like I should hate her and I kinda do, in terms of feeling kind of annoyed with her behavior, especially towards Sonic. But on the other hand, for some reason I feel like I can't bring myself to HATE the character. Hate is like... A too strong word in this case or something I guess. Damn, it's just hard to describe. It's like I enjoy the character but at the same time I don't, and I do feel the reason to hate her so it's supposed to mean I do, but I don't... What's going on with me??😭 I'm just curious if anyone has ever got the same feeling, like, maybe in general. It doesn't necessarily have to be about Lanolin even. But okay, back to the topic. I wanna point out one of the moments that people often take as an example to describe the reason for hating Lanolin: when she took Duo's side and didn't believe Silver. I personally think people are overreacting. Just think about it: was it really Lanolin's thought? I mean, let's see. Maybe she knew Silver was kind of naive and that's why she didn't believe him about Duo. Besides, they had absolutely no evidence to blame Duo that he's Mimic. So Lanolin, again, is the type of character trying to follow the rules, meaning she probably just wanted to be fair, and most likely got mad at Silver or something about accusing Duo of something he didn't do. (Even though he did, but again, they didn't have any proof)

I feel like there's more to it, I mean, the Lanolin topic in general, but this is all I have to say for now.

Thoughts?

I don’t know what the writers are planning on doing with this garbage character. She’s nothing but a jerk

Her bullying Silver was bad enough, now she’s trying to pick a fight with Sonic?😂😂 she aint $#%& without her Wisp, wth does she plan on doing to Sonic. one roundhouse kick to the head and she’s done.

I think I can see the inspiration for this character but at this point I'm starting to think shes just a undercover Eggman spy or something. SOMEONE has to put her in her place, Sonic, Amy, Tangle, Whisper, ANYONE. She’s worse than Shadow when he’s being written bad! Speaking of Shadow… I wouldnt mind at all if he gave her the Metal virus treatment and Chaos Control’d her straight to the sun.

WHO is gonna check this lady.

When Mimic is eventually ousted, he ends up crippling Whisper in whatever plan he had in mind and manages to escape. Leaving everyone defeated for now.

Silver is quick to remind everyone that he was right all along and blows up at Lanolin, claiming none of this would've happened if she had just listened to him. Lanolin is taken aback due to the shock of the revelation, but Silver continues to cut into her; bringing up all the times she's compromised the team to facilitate herself and accuses her of being more focused on making herself look good rather than the wellbeing of everyone else or the mission.

Tangle surprisingly takes Silver's side and too calls out Lanolin (though she's moreso driven by Whisper being injured).

With Silver's words slicing deep, combined with everything that's happened, Lanolin finally breaks; completely defeated and having no idea what to do or how to fix anything.

Once word spreads about Lanolin's quick trust of Duo over Silver and the subsequent lead up to Mimic's reveal, the Restoration is torn: some blame solely Mimic for deceiving everyone, while others say Lanolin deserves some blame for not being vigilant enough, and some even accuse her of being an accomplice of Mimic and deliberately helping him.

All this culminates with Lanolin ultimately deciding to leave the team, and go out on her own. The team is divided: some like Amy and Tails wanting to work things out, while others like Tangle, Silver, and even Sonic saying her leaving is for the best (some being more hostile than others). Whisper tries to remain neutral, but it's clear she harbours some resentment towards Lanolin herself, both for gaslighting her into believing Silver was wrong, and being the catalyst for her injuries.

Jewel reluctantly relieves Lanolin of her duties and she takes her leave, with some members wishing her the best, others showing indifference, and others thankful to be rid of her, with Silver coldly stating, "Stay out of my way".

After this, Lanolin disappears for quite a while, with no one knowing where she's gone or what she's doing. I'd have her travel somewhere to learn self-discovery and self-discipline, making her less headstrong and opening her mind.

Once she does return, she's the one who duels Mimic one-on-one, with intent on vanquishing him for good, even at the cost of her own life. Despite being content with going down to stop an enemy, she is saved by Tangle and Silver, who see firsthand that she's changed.

This would lead to her slowly reintegrating into the team, though in less of a leader role.

Verdict?

What are your voice actors choices that are fitting the IDW comics characters's personalities and Appearance?

This is something that has baffled me every time Lanolin is written by Evan Stanley, and that's that we haven't had more humanizing moments. To me it's like Adam Malkovich in Metroid Other M. She shows NO signs of hesitation when kicking Silver out or when telling Team Sonic to get out of the race which makes her seem cold and distant. And the worst part is that it would take so little to have fixed it, simply having a scene where she cries alone after kicking out Silver or showing her having a sad expression when kicking him out would show that she is still human or maybe having it be Mimic's idea to kick Silver out and only did it because she thought he would quit otherwise.

I decided to draw lanolin as green leaf from the Korean tv series, rainbow bubblegem.

Her wisp looks sad for her, too. I knew she messed up with the situation involving Mimic and Clean Sweep Inc., and she would get an earful later, most likely from Whisper, but it must have been some conversation if she's like this.

1. Sonic

If you wait 3 minutes in Sonic CD, Sonic will jump off-screen, resulting in a game over.

2. Tails

Tails's voice actor in Sonic Heroes is William Corkery, who is the son of Vector's voice actor in that game, Bill Corkery.

3. Knuckles

Knuckles's favorite food is grapes, and this is carried over in Sonic Generations.

4. Amy

Amy replaced Flicky as the fourth playable character in Sonic Drift.

5. Eggman

Eggman was actually considered for the role of the main protagonist before ultimately becoming the main antagonist.

6. Cream

Cream is the youngest female character in the main canon.

7. Big

Big shares a lot in common with Blaze. They're both purple cats, they both have the same tail style, and both of their names start with the letter, "B".

8. Rouge

Rouge is one of two characters in the main canon to mention her mother without us seeing her, the other is Zomom.

9. Shadow

Shadow was originally named, "Terios" during SA2's development and even looked more like Sonic. For whatever reason, though, they changed his design and name.

10. Omega

In Sonic Chronicles, Omega calls his friends, "meatbags". This is a reference to Bender from Futurama.

11. Vector

Vector was conceived all the way back for Sonic 1, where he would have been in a band consisting of himself, Sonic, a rabbit, a monkey, and a parakeet.

12. Espio

Espio's current voice actor, Matt Mercer, also voiced Spyro in Skylanders: Imaginators.

13. Charmy Bee

Along with Amy, Charmy first appeared in the Sonic manga before being introduced in the games.

14. Metal Sonic

Metal Sonic's eyes turn green during his victory animation in one of the Mario and Sonic games.

15. Fang

Fang has gone by several names throughout the series. One of them is Jet the Jerboa, which was his scrapped name.

16. Bean

Bean is the son of Bin from Dynamite Dux, making Pin his uncle.

17. Bark

Bark is the only original playable character made specifically for Sonic the Fighters. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Espio, Fang, Metal Sonic, and Eggman were well established beforehand, Bean is based on the Dynamite Dux as previously mentioned, and Honey the Cat is based on Honey from Fighting Vipers.

18. Silver

Many fans believe Silver is somehow related to Shadow, since they both have chest fur and in Sonic in the Black Knight, Shadow plays the role of Lancelot, the father of Galahad, played by Silver. When asked on Facebook, however, Takahashi Iizuka debunked this theory.

19. Blaze

Blaze might be bilingual, as in Sonic Rush Adventure, she was able to read Babylonian text in Sky Babylon.

20. Tangle

Tangle is a comic book character. Ergo, she doesn't have a voice actress. However, we get a hint as to what she sounds like in Tangle and Whisper issue 2, where Mimic calls her a "rube" and a "yokel", implying that she has a country accent.

21. Whisper

Whisper is the first Sonic character from the comics to have a plush toy.

22. Lanolin

Lanolin shares her name with a character from U. S. Acres, created by Jim Davis, the man behind Garfield. I don't know if this was intentional, but man is it funny.

23. Mimic

Save for the deceased members, Mimic is one of the two Diamond Cutters to not be playable in Sonic Dash or Speed Battle, the other being Lanolin.

24. Starline

Starline is the first character in the IDW Comics to die in the present day, but the fourth one to die period. The first three were Slinger the Ocelot, Claire Voyance the Monkey, and Smithy the Lion.

25. Clutch

Clutch is of retirement age.

26. Belle

Belle's name and the fact that she was created by Mr. Tinker may be a reference to Tinkerbell from Peter Pan.

27. Nite and Don

Nite and Don were confirmed to be dating some time in 2022.

28. Surge

Surge is the second character based on the Ashura glitch from Sonic 2, the first being Scourge from the Archie Comics.

29. Kit

Kit is based the kitsune, a mythical Japanese fox.

30. Jewel

According to Ian Flynn, Jewel's favorite food is double sauce chicken wings.