The Rise & Fall of Starline | Sonic Speed Reading

The compilation of every Sonic Speed Reading for the IDW series following the aftermath of the Metal Virus all the way up to issue 50! Following the journeys of new friend, Belle, and the machinations of the infamous Dr. Starline, as well as the beginning of new foes Surge and Kit. Now without the baked in ads so you can enjoy in a seamless, chunky video!

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro
01:05 - Bad Guys
35:08 - Chao Races/Intro of Belle
1:17:01 - Sonic in the Backrooms
2:01:41 - Zeti Hunt
2:27:29 - The Forest Fire
2:46:56 - The Road to 50
3:00:56 - Imposter Syndrome
3:36:56 - Issue 50
4:13:30 - Outro

[Brucifer]

HOLY SH*T Starline questioning Eggman about theme parks made me realize something about Eggman's design. His labcoat, its obviously not a traditional labcoat like most evil scientists like Dr Wiley. Its a red tail coat with gold trimming and black pants, the EXACT outfits Carnival/Circus Ringmasters use 🤯🤯🤯

[kap]

Starline made the mistake every villain, from Archie to IDW, makes when choosing to go against Eggman. They overestimate themselves and underestimate him.

[ratte]

The battle between Eggy and Starline is exactly why Alfred voices him so well: the duality of (Egg)man, if you will.
Eggman is a comic villain, but when he gets serious there is almost NO stopping him; similar to Alfred’s sudden voice swaps a la “Don’t you dare call me that again.”

[rockamillion]

Dr Starline has quickly become not only one of my favorite Sonic villains, but one of my favorite villains in general. His arc was incredible and his story had an amazing ending.

[ShibuNub]

I was initially apprehensive about this arc, seeing it as filler after the amazing Metal Virus saga, but honestly I think this one is better. The stakes are lower and everything is slower paced but Surge and Kit are genuinely engaging enemies and Starline really stepped up his game from ‘affably evil’ to ‘degenerate scumbag’. Killing him off was a great unexpected choice (even if they leave it a bit ambiguous in case they go back on their decision)

[Adahy_Bullet]

Zavok is honestly a homie in this arc so far and I'm all for it. That whole "You don't need him... Don't limit yourself by trying to be Eggman. Surpass him." is honestly amazing advice.

[ImHyperLOL]

1:17:48
“Belle is looking a little concerned, and who can blame her, she does have a couple of teenage boys with knowing smirks on their faces, guiding her to an abandoned part of town, in a janky toolshed”
Best quote I’ve ever read, hands down

[Derpinator]

The best way I can put the difference between Scourge and Surge is that while Scourge is what Sonic could be if he rejected the world, Surge is what Sonic could be if the world rejected him. As a tenrec with only one (debatable) friend in the whole world, she clings to her rage, hatred, and sorrow because it's all she has, while Sonic has dozens of friends and a life full of pleasure, hope, and happiness.

[ilikeyoutube]

Belle dealing with the loss of Mr.Tinker doesnt have to only represent the death of a parent. Recently i've been going through something similar. My parent was never a good parent, i just convinced myself they were. lived my life to earn/ deserve the scraps of conditional affection theyd throw my way. i'm now seeing how wrong the dynamic is and how its been a detriment to me forming healthy bonds.

it's hard. i keep pleaing with them, telling them how i feel, how their actions hurt me, giving them things they can do to improve our relationship and they dont. they wont. i know but, i dont want to believe....

so belle talking to eggman over the tablet, the conversation, how he sees her only as an object, a way to applaud himself, his shameless evilness, her dropping the tablet to cry, i feel it. when you realize this stuff, theres no going back despite how much you want to. all those mannerisms they had before take on a new meaning. u see THEM. u realize neither of u ever truly saw each other and, now u can see them but, theyll always refuse to see u.

[thatonepersonyouknowtheone]

the complete and utter psychological devastation of discovering that not only is your only creator (read: parent) gone forever, but that he's been replaced by his polar opposite, who's currently torturing your friends, destroying the planet, and openly is a man who'd use you and his other creations as mere mindless pawns to his own end, and he's just taunting you about that fact, seemingly under the belief that the man he replaced was never real and most likely being right about it, Evan does such a good job capturing the indescribable pain poor Belle must be in through this series, good lord, give a doll a break.

[AlexSzubka]

Starline was such a neat villain. If they do merge the IDW and Game Canon worlds together (which apparently something like that is going to happen) I would love to see Starline be a main villain for a game or two.

[playerback]

Starline's faults is underestimating his opponents low intelligence and high and should have had a back up plan for contigences against them.

His fall was necessary.

[matthewhanf]

Man, Starline really does help make this series for me. It's such a joy to read when he's around!

[Heartnix]

IDW sonic is just so fun, I love how mature he is, it seems to be a natural evolution of the character and is great. Safe doesn't mean that is boring, it just make sense some time.

[_pitako]

Surge and Kitsunami quickly went from characters I was apprehensive about to antagonists I love. They really give off the impression of looking at Sonic and Tails through a sort of funhouse mirror. Surge takes all of Sonic's bravado and snarkiness and turns it up to an 11, while Kit takes Tails's nerves and submission from his early years with Sonic and does the same. And they manage to do this without seeming like off-brands or rip-offs. They are their own characters, and I love them

[BVasquezp]

I feel like the constant questioning of Sonic's morals will eventually reach a breaking point. When all the new villains finally pile up and do something drastic we will get to see what Sonic trully looks like unfettered. We may even get a return of fleetway SS.

[videogollumer]

I'm still a little surprised that Starline was killed off before Mimic. At the same time; I now feel like Starline's story was meant to be that of a self-destructive person. He borrows many traits from a number of iconic literary figures, which isn't uncommon of modern fictional characters. I feel his most notable similarities are with 19th century fellow self-destructive characters Victor Frankenstein, Captain Ahab, and Inspector Javert. He shares with Victor the desire to do very taboo things, Victor making a man and Starline trying to bring Eggman back, only for things to spiral out of control because of them doing such things and consecutively making the situation worse through their decisions down the line. He shares with Captain Ahab the desire to pursue their goals, even to their detriment; this is best shown by how Starline pursues Tails into the building that he himself sent an avalanche hurtling towards in Issue 36, similar to how Ahab pursued Moby Dick until he was killed by the whale. Finally, he shares with Javert the inability to break from their way of thinking to the point where they realize that they were wrong, they couldn't pick up and move on and thus condemned themselves.

[Yuti]

I would like to eventually see Starline return as a villain who becomes fully separate from Eggman and how he handles that, the mental spiral of Starline in the tape that shows him after being disbarred is an incredible moment and to see something like that become his character, as someone who tries and tries but always fails and, unlike Eggman, each loss really badly messes with his head, where he tries to look extremely deeply into how he could’ve lost and loses his mind from it

I know that sounds pretty dark, but we’ve sort of already had that with how Starline ended and with that tape
Plus, Eggman is pretty limited in only doing robotic stuff, and while that can get very cool with his more elaborate creations, Starline could really bring something new to the table in his more organic work if in the future, he becomes a returning villain

[mauroperez]

Dr.Starline has become to be one of my favorite sonic villains. Seeing him grow into his own was a neat journey starting from the Bad Guys miniseries to issue 50. We can't forget about his two creations, Surge and Kit, who helped to propel Starline into a true sonic villain in terms of how he created them. To take a quote from Sonic Adventure 2, "You've turned into a big-time villain doctor." Despite his hard work, he never let go of his obsession with Eggman. Everything he did was all for Eggman and to rule beside him. However, like Eggman said, he doesn't share and Starline of all people should know that about his idol. It's no wonder that Eggman was able to utterly defeat him, not just by being himself, but to use Starline's obsession with Eggman's past exploits against him. Only time will tell if the platypus will come back outside of flashbacks and visions since his death was a left ambiguous.

[J.R.Unbound]

I've just realized. Starline's hair looks like toothpaste.