The Most Divisive Sonic Character

Throughout Sonic the Hedgehog media there are a handful of characters that people will pick out and dislike for one reason or another. Recently in the IDW run there has been a character who has stirred up quite the controversy and now is considered by many a controversial hero. Today I'll be breaking down everything you need to know about Lanolin, and why some fans have switched up on her.
#idwsonic #lanolin #sonicthehedgehog
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[@PolkaDotAfroCircus06]

Here before Iggy pfp guy shows up, Lanolin reminds me of early Comics Tony Stark, she's a character who's humanitarian side is outweighed by her desire to protect the innocent, even if in turn its that lack of care that can cause distress and problems for her, it's a genuinely interesting dynamic for a Sonic character, someone who's so certain of her plans being successful, that deviation seems to stab her in the heart.

[@PolkaDotAfroCircus06]

Not to mention I just appreciate a character who is TRULY no nonsense and how that effects the plot going forward

[@Unkn0wn.m3]

Lanolin has one of the best IDW Sonic comic designs in the series and I love her for that, my problem however stems from how her rise to becoming a hero is insignificant compared to the characters that have experience, yet she would rather put her trust in others like she has the experience and knowledge of someone like sonic to make decisions like that, the tipping point for me was how she was talking down to silver when his responsibilities in being a hero extend beyond time, he has been a hero way longer than her, has experienced a ruined future and has actively taken a front line position to prevent that, meanwhile on her first mission as a leader of a unit she crumbled at the first sign of trouble.

[@samuraiforever9120]

I actually like the character it's just that most it felt weird she put her trust in others rather than question certain individuals like Duo being too perfect or know that silver is a devoted restoration ally and if he was saying something off. meanwhile she should have saw something was odd with tails gear since he was known for being precise. so if his extreme gear acted odd it should've been a red flag for being sabotaged and voiced that she'll look it to it.

[@lovjam16]

I like lanolin, I just want her to try and relax and try a bond with tangle and whisper as not just teammates but friends as well, that why she can have better confidence in herself and her skills to be able to stand with Sonic and the other.

[@whiten4635]

To be fair being a leader isn't a lenient task. While most sonic characters have been able to maintain a positive mindset throughout most given scenarios, to be honest it's a unrealistic. Lanolin reactions and attitude has a lot of realistic attributes to it. In real life cases leaders usually have to maintain a strict, and objective perspective in most given scenarios. Alongside the fact that lanolin is a character prone to stress which is something we don't really see in a lot of sonic characters so lanolin having a lack of confidence in her abilities and struggling to maintain a deep friendship with tangle and whisper is justifiable. You can't really expect all the sonic character to face dangerous threat with a confident smirk on their face

[@Ando1428]

I'm still thinking that she is waiting for it. Two of your group think the new guy with a transformation trick. The wisp should be able to pick him out. Too.

[@loiiysailor1177]

Adam himself makes it clear that her smiles early on are fake, looks like Lanolin has been very stressed lately, so she not miss sunshine along with the cast , there's even stretches of her not liking the hero Sonic how he does things that is justice to him , she is surrounded by OP characters who they can end Eggman in anytime and she frustrated that she part of it and not mention she just a originally sheep girl with a bell for a weapon, it makes me understand what she coming from that she the underdog of the series, Lanolin is not my favorite character am not a big fan of disrespecting the same heros that save her life she is an interesting character, A lot of others say she is similar to Dr.Starline who also admires someone who he looks up to but is disappointed by the results, looks like she's gonna do the same thing with Sonic, I think it is coming soon in future issues, if she leaves the restoration people are wondering if she will meet with Shadow who also disagrees with Sonic's heroism I was worried they'll make her a simple bossy sheep girl as a comedy relief or something I am glad they didn't do that, am curious what type of character development that she will have

[@RobertJames-i8j]

I guess we can all thank Mr Thomas for how much he loves his creations and how he goes with making Lanolin more sympathetic and having her let her feelings out. he's basically a light mirror version of Ken Penders.

[@sophiaho2341]

a Lanolin centric video!!? don't mind if i do one thing i know few people notice already is Lanolin is very similar to Starline in many way, they were inspired by two respective people Starline with Eggman, Lanolin with Sonic. Staline was so inspired by Eggman's intelligence, charisma and his strong sense of world domination that he wants to rule the world alongside him as his rifht hand man his equal but when he actually get to know Eggman up close and how he truly operates Starline grew disappointed and frustrated at how the mad doctor do about defeating the heroes that he tries to fix how it should be done by deciding to overthrow Eggman and take over his empire and begin his own plan of world domination and history repeats itself with Lanolin after being inspired by Sonic's heroism leading to her joining the resteration in hopes of making the world a better place and be something more than just a helpless bystander but overtime just like Starline, Lanolin grew disappointed and frustrated in secret upon seeing how the restoration only focuses on making humanitarian efforts instead of making plans to defeat the villains head on and ending them for good that when she rises up the ranks, she purposes many ideas to improve the restoration and attempts to militarized it, i think what's interesting is her perception and relationship with Sonic in general since he was her hero and she looks up to him but when meeting him in person and seeing how his methods of defeating Eggman make her slightly resent him leaving her jaded at this realization because as far as she remembers she thought there always something keeping him from ending Eggman for good but when she finds out he just decides not to, she thinks back to all the times Eggman terrorize many parts of the world and damage he had done as well the carnage that is Sonic saving the world resulting in more damage than before and seeing how reckless his actions were which is why she always be prepared with plan instead of reckless going into battle when fighting and her words backfires on her in the lastest arc where she disregard people's safety when she attempts to capture the Phantom Rider as well her underestimating her friends and teammates experience as heroes and being dismissive towards their warnings about the potential enemy spy in the group leading to her unintentionally jeopardize the whole restoration and indirectly helps the villains succeed in their plan of world domination and her going by book authoritarian mentality is blinding her to point she's being manipulated by the villains to turn against the heroes and from figuring things out by herself, i hated Lanolin when i first read the idw comics but overtime after growing passed my hatred towards her i gained a new appreciation for her as a character

[@Ace0-i]

This trope happens all the time in media, I can't believe this fanbase sometimes

[@RysGameZ]

I am personally not too fond of Lanolin. At the end of Urban Warfare, I expected her character to slowly grow until she became a great leader. Since even after her character arc in that saga, she wasn't even close to being very experienced as a leader yet. Plus, this would give the writers more time to give us more insight on her character. However, they just skip all that, which gives me a very bad taste in my mouth, especially with the fact that Whisper and Silver both get criticized by her and Duo gets the long end of the stick. (And no, she was definitely picking favorites because he does even get criticized by lanolin in any way.) Plus, the only way to get even a grasp of her character is to look at the concept art, or else she just seems like an ***hole. Plus, she doesn't have any good chemistry with any of the cast. Tangle and Whisper just begrudgingly obey her and she doesn't even get criticized by any of the other cast. There's not even interesting dialogue or comedy except for one instance. Combined with the fact that her moveset is barely used and you get, at least in my opinion, a very boring character. Plus, there is a difference between an ***hole with compelling, interesting and/or redeemable qualities and just an ***hole

[@Mighyz]

This character is a lot more interesting than I thought at first I didn't like her but I think that opinion has changed thanks to this video, also don't like how they done Silver like that lol.

[@RobertJames-i8j]

Yes, Lanolin was so much likable, tolerable and helpful in the urban warfare arc, but the misadventures and phantom riders arc have her slowly being overcome by obsession to be secure and perfect, which unfortunately has given her tunnel vision

[@humblearts-3115]

I haven't caught up with the IDW comics but I certainly noticed the hate on Lanolin online. Thanks for the concise analysis! Oh man, do I dislike when people hate on characters for things that they aren't aware of. If anyone started flipping out and trying to assault someone else in front of me, regardless of my relationship with either of them, I'd kick the assaillant out too, no questions asked 😅As I said, I don't have the context because I didn't read the issues, but that's wildly inappropriate behavior if everyone else in the room isn't on the same page. That being said, I should probably go check out those issues now because that sounds like an interesting plot.

[@azurethegamerkobold5434]

For me personally while i do like Lanolin it feels like the writers are trying really hard to make people mad. Because while i agree letting silver just trash duo was dumb. Her also not wanting to hear Whisper out and look into the matter is equally awful. She KNOWS mimic is a shape shifter, why would she ignore that? I think that's the major issue. Its not so much that she's stern, or bossy is she comes off downright mean and hateful about it. This was really exemplified in the riders arc, where sonic amy and tails gears malfunctioned. Rather then being worried about there safety she just badgers them to get off the field like they did it on purpose. The issue for me is that... She's losing her empathy... that sweet natured girl that we saw through all the early comics is kind of being erased in favor of bitchy boss girl. the way silver was handled was equally bad because rather then sitting silver down and explaining why she had to remove him. Making him understand it was more of s suspension... cause someone got hurt. But no she just kicked him out and never bothers to check on him. infact worse then that she makes TANGLE vote him out and puts her on the spot! Ever since the Duo Arc lanolin has slowly lost what people enjoyed about her in favor of making her very antagonistic... this is more an example of bad writing, but i HOPE she redeems herself realizes she messed up and apologizes. But if this is the new lanolin we can expect i dunno if i'll keep enjoying her character...because the character i liked seems to have died.

[@whiten4635]

To be fair unlike a lot of sonic characters, lanolin is a very dynamic character. The events in forces and idw has changed her a lot. Especially the metal virus and the forces war. I feel like its important to remember that idw writing is different from the games. Characters who dealt with traumatic events usually have a change I'm development in idw and lanolin is no exception. And as for duo situation you gotta look at it from lanolin perspective. It's obvious that she's in a lot of mental stress after eggperial city so her judgement might have some impairment. And while she is aware of mimic ability to shape-shift their really was no way to prove duo was mimic. Duo in lanolin eyes seemed like a kind hard working rookie trying his best similar to how lanolin was in the beginning. So seeing her teammates who are all seasoned fighter bullying the new guys due to his "slip ups" really could have rubbed lanolin the wrong way and seeing silver "supposedly hurting duo" was the straw the broke the camels back so seeing silver as liability isn't a uncalled for decision. Overall my point is lanolin may seem harsh in the way she acted but in her eyes she's just trying to do the right thing. While it would have been nice for her to trust her friends over duo, they had no proof duo was the mimic and their wasn't really anyway to prove it without doing something inhumane like torture.

[@loiiysailor1177]

Adam said she was faking her smile, so she faking her nice personality, shes struggling to be taken seriously

[@solidmario64]

I'm honestly happy that you made this video. It practically explains my thoughts on Lanolin as a character AND the fact her antagonizing and hate by fans seems unjustified.

[@RobertJames-i8j]

I agree. Lanolin had made some bad calls and Whisper, Silver and team Sonic were more in the right than she was in their respective scenes, and she does deserve some small kind of comeuppance by getting humbled and eye-opened, Mimic's reveal being the catalyst, but she has potential to be a better person, and it's still possible for her to redeem herself and imprive her behaviour, and not go down the same path as Starline did

[@joopvanhedel1372]

One problem she has that is out of her control is being put in the same group as whisper and tangle. Those two characters are so popular that not only are they in two mobile games, but Sonic Frontiers even has a reference to them, they can easily make it into an official main series or spin-off game

[@Preteristboy]

Honestly, I'm waiting for her Starline moment when her bad choices come crashing down on top of her (not literally, but still) and she learns that the heroes actually do know what they're doing due to their superior experience, even if their styles may clash and they don't always see eye to eye. I do want her character to become more fleshed out and her perspective to be explored. What makes a character compelling are the lies that are a part of their worldview and the moments that happen to them that clashes with those lies, and ultimately how they choose to go forward from there.

[@cherry_bomb8807]

I like lanolin Also her design cute

[@pixelgoat7317]

Kind of reminds me of Pom from Fighting Herds XD

[@DragonStar524]

The Duo arc is why I think she's so divisive in the first place. Lanolin is a good leader. Lanolin chewing out Whisper and Silver for not trusting Duo is ironic since shes not listening to them or their side. She's not trusting HER team, but is still in her infancy stage of being a leader. So i dont really think she deserves the hate.

[@RysGameZ]

I think it's because she should have had more screen time and the fact that.even though she completed her character arc in urban warfare, she was still far from being an actual great leader. So lots of people were expecting her to gradually become more experienced at being a leader. But then that whole thing is just skipped and lots of people likely had a bad taste in their mouths. Combined with the fact that the Misunderstanding trope is one of the most hated tropes in fiction. And you get a recipe for disaster.

[@DragonStar524]

@@RysGameZ I can see that. We only get snippets and dialogue of how she made her way to the role of field leader. But the way she leads is in stark contrast to who is on her team. Tangle is a loose cannon, Whisper finds it hard to trust others and prefers working solo, while Lanolin is a very by the book, no nonsense leader. So yeah there is some tension. She's trying to form a cohesive unit that doesn't really follow her way of thinking.

[@whiten4635]

To be fair silver and whisper had no proof duo was the mimic. And even if she took that into consideration their was no way for her to prove that without coming of as unfair as it would seem like she's favoring other teammates from hunchs and hearsay. It's tough but fair

[@RysGameZ]

@@DragonStar524 I'm fine with that type of leadership. However, I would expect more pushback from the other two, Especially Tangle with the fact that she is not the type to listen too much to rules. Plus they barely have any symmetry with one another. Since Lanolin is the straight man of the group, she doesn't have much good dialogue between Tangle and Whisper. Combined with the fact that Whisper is also very serious as well and doesn't have much dialogue. And lastly, Tangle (She, in my opinion got butchered the most as soon as she entered the diamond cutters.), who you would expect to have great dialogue with lanolin because of their opposite ideologies, with one being a chaotic good and the other being a lawful good. But for some reason tangle just begrudgingly follows her orders without any pushback (Except for one small instance). Now you're left with a team who's 66% silent and serious. And the other 34% being reduced to a very boring character.

[@RysGameZ]

@@whiten4635 But here's the thing, Whisper has the most Intel on Mimic out of anyone in the HQ. I know Lanolin is the straight man of the group, however, that doesn't mean that she couldn't have heard her out. Meanwhile, she sides with Mimic without any proof other than eye testimony. Just like Sliver and Whisper.

[@samirrabdelah5178]

whaaohw u make this vid fast i remember the last idw character analys was since years ago for me

[@kingcamelot1395]

With her creator revealing that Lanolin has an overbearing mother, I've heard theories that after this arc, Lanolin's really gonna start beating herself up about not being able to see the signs that she, as a leader, should have seen. She'd quit the Restoration and go back to her mother, and it would fall on Tangle and Whisper to bring her back. Regardless of what path the story takes, Lanolin owes a lot of apologies to a lot of people.

[@Fractorification]

I think that a lot of people need to understand is that Lanolin being unlikeable, or at least this uptight, is intentional. These are obvious character flaws that are supposed to cause friction and drama within the group. Even her Diamond Cutter members have butt heads with her, intentionally or not. So. It’s baffling when some of her defenders on Twitter insist she’s doing nothing wrong and place the blame on the legacy characters, completely missing the point of her arc. Yes, Sonic and his friends are reckless but there’s a method their madness. They’re in no ways perfect and their methods can be questioned, but they always pull through in the end, proving that hope and friendship can prevail. Sonic is a character that’s all about Freedom and doing this his way. Lanolin, on the other hand, is a woman of action with cynical view of the world. We’ve seen in some comics by her creator on Twitter how she resents Sonic for being so carefree and choosing not to end this eternal conflict with Eggman. And we’ve seen this resentment be harboured not just with him, but with her teammates. And given the events of the latest issue, she’s not gonna be too happy with them after finding out how they lied to her about the Phantom Rider’s identity. But just like Starline, her worldview is also flawed. She’s being duped by Mimic who infiltrated their team, and was responsible for a massive accident risking several lives after attacking the Phantom Rider. The comic as a whole seems to be exploring how different ideals are flawed. There’s not right answer even when we think we have one. So maybe the lesson we have to learn from this is perhaps there’s a middle ground you can reach in between? That being said. The execution of these ideas have not been perfect. As others have pointed out in this comment section, Lanolin’s introduction was also very rushed as they try to prop her up as this tough soldier, barking orders and berating heroes way more experienced than her. It didn’t really help her case that most of her development into a soldier happened off-screen either.

[@milkmasterbr3900]

Like other people, i also like Lanolin, but she reallu belived a new guy over a hero from the future who can see a problem that will be a bigger problem later!

[@whiten4635]

To be fair lanolin is a team leader thus she has to put biases aside over objective decision. It'd be a different scenario if their were literal evidence of duo/mimic manipulation but their wasn't. It was all hunches and all of duo attempts were chocked up to slip ups and it makes sense since duo is supposed to be a newbie. Her siding with duo over silver makes sense since their really isn't proof of duos action and theirs no way to really prove duos is the mimic without acting biased and favored or inhumane for example torturing.

[@mr.unsmiley8656]

When I think about it more, my problem isn't just that she's insufferable and incompetent (it's IDW, I've come to expect that,) it's that most of her fits seem like they're just there to move the plot along. Neat design tho.

[@somepenguin508]

Personally, I don't dislike her or her personality, quite the opposite. I think out of all the IDW original hero characters, Lanolin is the one I can talk about the most. But I'm not going to lie, as one of the least experienced members, I really do interpret her unwillingness to back down and soldier mentality, quite arrogant considering characters like Silver have far more accolades, are known restoration allies and have been in this line of work way longer than she has. She's a leader, sure but she has less experience than everyone else on the team. It's like a math teacher trying to lecture a mathematician in my eyes.

[@ashemabahumat4173]

She can't just trust her friends, and its not for the kind of reasons Whisper can't. While I like her, its pretty clear that we aren't supposed to side with her on how she does things. Its one thing if she's the "sorry, those are the rules" kinda person but she's not. She's a "100% by the book, and I won't listen to your concerns" kind of person. Her position has definitely went to her head

[@whiten4635]

To be fair she's doing what a leader should do act objectively without bias. Without reasonable evidence she has no reason to suspect duo especially in her eyes he's a rookie who tends to slip up and she used to he in a similar position so she's just trying to support him the best she can. And seeing silver and whisper two veterans in combat picking on duo over suspicions without proof could have definitely rubbed her the wrong way. And being honest their really isn't a way to prove duo is the mimic just yet without acting biased towards her other teammates despite duo being a team member himself, or acting inhumane like constant investigation and spy, or torture.

[@lance2580]

Does anyone want to see Ashlyn Madden voice Lanolin? I always imagine Ashlyn's Neera Li voice coming out of Lanolin's mouth. It just works!

[@lance2580]

Heck, Ashlyn already did voice acting for _Shin Megami Tensei V,_ which counts as a SEGA game, right?

[@Ando1428]

I didnt know she was unliked.

[@jillgrimwater3726]

The fact that she's willing to trust a complete stranger over friends and people who have saved the planet many times despite learning who Mimic is and how he works is why she is a foolish and hypocritical character.

[@ChaosHero]

To me lanolin sound like a slytherin

[@rubymoon72]

My problem with Lanolin as a character is that, she clearly don’t respect Silver as one of the main members of saving the world from Eggman. She respect and trust Sonic words to a possibility of failing the mission vs trusting Silver and Whispers words and maybe keep an eye on Duo and keep Silver on the team, clearly she is not following her own policy of diversity of mind.

[@hazerddex]

silver hasn't done a whole lot canon wise. remember 06 events never happened they got erased from history. so silver first showed up in rivals which was mostly inter dimensional stuff. i think forces is the first game he really had a earth centered plot line outside time travel. so i don't think many know who silver is.

[@jillgrimwater3726]

​@@hazerddexhe also helped sonic save the world from the metal virus.

[@justmadgamers9724]

@@hazerddex He also helped stop neo metal along with Blaze, fought along side sonic and even saved him in a fight with an infected shadow, fought against the deadly six 'morbid' character (i forget his name. Zor, I think) along side Whisper, and others that Im sure that I'm forgetting. She was present for all of that or atleast should have been privy since she was with the restoration at this time. And she didn't get turned so she had to known what silver had done to save everyone. Her reaction to silver and whisper wasn't one of respect toward experienced warriors who have been around the block. It was one of ignorance and arrogance. There has to have been a better way to write this conflict...

[@apgIII]

It's like. Real wife you can

[@sonicthehegheghog321]

14:18 I feel the demand of Lanolin "having to trust Silver" ignores how that would be, by definition, a form of nepotism, because is only based on the fact "Silver is Silver" rather than Lanolin having more than Silver's words, which she doesn't xd. Counting the fact she want so hard to be good leader, I can't help but think that not trusting Silver was the right move, maybe no the more nice one, but being a good leader is also about hard decisions xd

[@JakeThehedgehog-m1x]

I always knew there was something going on about her character and some controversies here and there but i Never knew why she was hated so much also...i thought amy is the most divisive sonic character but ok.

[@naitsabes6222]

Trust me , no other sonic character will ever be close the levels of how controversial Amy is 😭

[@JakeThehedgehog-m1x]

​​​​​@@naitsabes6222 what the...you again!? Everytime someone talks about her an entire video about her comes up i see you every where this is honestly creepy everytime I commented something about her i saw you in my comments are you following me!?

[@MrCynor]

@@JakeThehedgehog-m1x he wants you

[@lindseykarndt]

What's that song you played at the end?

[@clownsingularity]

“most” lol alright lets forget about half of sonic’s characters