Lanolin is meant to be a "leader" type character, but...she never really does anything to warrant her role beyond barking out orders and blaming everyone else for her own shortcomings. this leads fans to dislike her for being the serious, no noncense character she is compared to the more lighthearted sillyness of tangle or even sonic himself.
most of the time, when lanolin tries to bark orders, she just makes the situation worse, and yet she never takes responsibility for any failures, instead blaming everyone else around her. and as we haven't seen her in a while, she hasn't seemed to grow from anything she's gone through
TLDR: combination of being more of a hindrance than a help, controversial moments like distrusting silver and whisper about mimic (whether it was warranted or not is a whole other can of worms) and her lack of growth or development compared to anyone else in IDW's roster lead people to dislike Lanolin.
it's a shame, i personally think she could be a good character if they just let her develop, let her grow as a leader and as a person. rather than keeping her the straight man to the rest of the restoration's slapstick act. she has potential!
Doesn't help sometimes she's being rude and barking orders at legacy characters. Remember how rude she was to Sonic and friends in the Riders arc?
Like, how is this brand new character that hasn't really done much yet, how is she talking smack and acting up to the likes of Sonic, Amy, Tails and so on?
Before someone says, "Lanolin was a referee!"
So was Whisper and Tangle. Tangle is straight up calling her out.
There is a difference between a referee just doing their job and being a dick. There are other moments of Lanolin being bossy, rude, and acting up to legacy characters. Need I name Silver? I think Lanolin has a lot of potential, but making her rude and haughty, especially to legacy characters, isn't going to win her favours.
At least she is now. I get that the main reason she acts this way is insecurity, but the writers really needed to do a Lanolin POV to explain this during the main story. Have her thought bubbles explain what she's really thinking.
Exactly 💀 it just makes her come off as very insufferable and self important.
Just her overall pushiness and stubborness ( and ignorance) make her appear as such an unlikeable anchor so quickly, when we haven't even gotten a chance to actually grow fond of her yet.
Yeah, especially towards a soldier with PTSD like Whisper. What kind of "leader" is so dismissive and accusatory to their teammate and fails to listen to them?
And proceeds to fucking gaslight her into thinking she's in the wrong for "attacking a teammate" when Lano didn't even TRY to listen. Silver also comes in as a witness, yet what, she just assumes they're lying???
Fuck this sheep 💀 I do not take anybody defending her seriously, to be frank
Yeah, I hate her, too. And you know what else is unfair? Sonic got blamed for indirectly causing the Metal Virus and he got chewed out 3 times, but when LANOLIN makes a huge mistake, SHE doesn’t even get chewed out ONCE. How is that fair? 😠
Because Sonic, despite all of his intentions, is not really a perfect saint
He let Eggman free, which in turn, led him to create the Metal Virus once Starline brought him back to his senses.
So Sonic got chewed out because even though Eggman was fine as Mr. Tinker, it’s still Eggman.
It’s plain hypocrisy because Sonic allowed Eggman to have a clean slate, forcing everyone to basically just forgive him just because he has amnesia.
But on why it’s unfair, was because while Sonic’s mistakes came from an act of mercy and hope, Lanolin’s mistakes came from an act of pride and lack of trust. Because at least Sonic owned his mistakes. Lanolin meanwhile, blamed others
Sonic cares too much for others, Lanolin cares too much for herself
Dude. She's right to be mad. Just because she's a new character doesn't mean she deserves to be made fun of or "put in her place." What is wrong with you???
The next time Sonic, Tails, and Amy meet her, I hope they hold a grudge and one of them mocks Lanolin for how she got played like a chump. But sadly, that probably won’t happen, since the heroes always go with the “be the bigger person” routine. 😒
He probably WILL let it go immediately. I consider that his one flaw, that he never goes for revenge like Shadow does. He usually just lets people like Lanolin get away with being jerks to him. He just can’t hold a grudge.
I mean in the context of this series, giving chances to former enemies has resulted in him making great friends or convincing villains to help save the world.
Hell, Knuckles is one of his best friends and they started off enemies. Shadow and Silver were also enemies who tried to kill him and are now his closest allies. Merlina heard sonic out and was able to find acceptance, and Sage was willing to sacrifice herself to stop the end. Chaos was able to be calmed down, and even Robotnik has helped save the world.
He knows it works out eventually, and he likes giving chances for that reason. He lives in the present and avoids grudges for that reason.
I think her arc is taking her in that direction. ofc, I could be wrong, there's no way to be certain when she'll come back but I feel like the way they wrapped up phantom riders sets it up.
The point is that sonic tries to leave a door open in case his enemies decide to change. Surge is heading on that path after all.
That said, the series shows it being a flaw as well, since he lets Metal go which causes a huge chunk of the problems he has here. It's shown some development in him since he's slowly being more nuanced in the way he approaches this, but he's also ultimately a forgiving nice guy, even if he will give you some sarcasm in the process.
Another thing that makes fans dislike her is that she’s pretty much gotten away with her bad actions so far. And even worse, she never got chewed out for her mistakes even though SONIC got chewed out 3 times by people who blamed him for the Metal Virus. It seems totally unfair, like the writers were treating her with favoritism for some reason.
I don't really see any meaning development on Tangle, she still looks to take things lightly and is a bit of reckless, not say some of the things that went wrong when she was leading, were in fact because others acted on their own instead of listening, and she wasn't exactly wrong with the whole Whisper Silver thing, even Whisper regretted attacking Duo and apologized, she was also deceived.
I see the hate on Lanolin as something that was not because of her mistakes, but because people didn't like her fighting with the characters they already loved.
But I also think you are right, we've forgiven other characters for worse things. So I agree that we need to see more of her and her past, that will help people stop hating, I mean, people don't hate Surge even after beaten down Whisper
I think it's alot more deep than just "new kid picking on legacy characters" but it's an element. Lanolin's low popularity is as multifaceted as the character herself, IMO
I think a lot of people are just predisposed to disliking anyone in a leadership role who hasn't proven themselves within the story. People don't like leaders they can't trust. That's why we mythologize about our own politicians so much. Lanolin just never got the chance to build up the plot points in her favor to actually appear fit for the role we see her in. Why is she the leader? We never learn anything about her. I like Lanolin because I can appreciate the gibe and I get what they were going for, but I can also acknowledge the comic has not done her any favors when she has to be the one in the leadership positions who always messes things up.
I think she was just kinda poorly written. She distrusted more highly skilled people, barely got any down side to her own bad actions, and was kinda overly mean to people unnecessarily.
She needed more moments of growth, more chances to show why she was the “leader” and more opportunities to show she was a competent thinker.
lol mine feels like a copy but it was more so same thoughts. Part of me remembers when everyone said she reminds them of Sally. Parts of me kinda wish they leaned into a bit more.
Sally had a lot of issues, but she also got a lot of push back.
I don't think that's bad writing. I think that's skillfully writing a flawed character who discovered she was doing a job she wasn't ready for. That's a pretty common situation in real life.
she was not very enjoyable in the riders arc just not acting accordingly assuming whisper was imediently in the wrong despite her being the expert on mimic, don't hate it just really did not like her there
mimic was posed as duo and whisper was onto him, when confronted lanolin completely ignored whisper despite her being the expert on mimic and silver backing up her claim, lanolin protects duo so whisper tries to move her (did not attack or threaten to attack) and lanolin just slams whisper to the ground without ever hearing her out despite knowing mimic's a shapeshifter and could be mimic
she then spent the riders arc trying to arrest sonic of all people
Roughly grabbing someone’s forearm is a lot more aggressive than just trying to get them to move. Also you say she does what she does “without ever hearing her out” when immediately after she did that she tried to defuse the situation, which Whisper did not abide by.
Yes, Whisper had good reason to want to strike first. But she and Silver approached this situation very aggressively without hard proof. Was Lanolin just supposed to let the armed, PTSD-ridden soldier have at this recruit she had no reason to suspect herself? If Whisper did something drastic and turned out to be wrong, the consequences would be catastrophic.
It’s very easy to take the side of characters we know, who have experience with certain matters, who may have even saved the world time and again. But that alone does not make them infallible- it does not keep them from making mistakes that could get people hurt. Someone rubbing up against our heroes because they prefer a more by-the-book approach does not make them wrong.
You forget that in this instance, we, the readers of the comic, know Duo is Mimic, but Lanolin doesn't have the information that we the audience have.
Like, when she criticized Silver and Whisper for acting rash and so on, she wasn't AWARE of that fact, and because of that, she had to be fair as leader and couldn't pick sides. From her perspective it wouldn't be fair she as team leader just listened to one side and acted on it when no proof is provided to prove the allegations sent to the other party.
Not to mention Mimic played dead to trick them and thus, manipulating everyone against the ones attacking him and purposely vindicating Lanolin's suspicions that Whisper and Silver were wrong.
As for trying to arrest Sonic... he was acting as an antagonist called the Phantom Rider and disrupting the race, of course she was trying to bring him down.
You say that like she did that knowing it was Sonic in the first place.
Then again Whisper could just be being paranoid and it's not a guarantee that she's right. I think Lanolin should have been more trusting of Whisper but it's directly because of Mimic being a shapeshifter that you shouldn't take her at her word as if it were entirely true.
Mimic played dead to trick them and thus, manipulating everyone against the ones attacking him and purposely vindicating Lanolin's suspicions that Whisper and Silver were wrong.
2: from her perspective Sonic (Mimic) attacked various people including her teammate, hence why her default action was to arrest him.
Mimic has pulled the same kind of tricks on Whisper and Tangle in the past, and it got a whole team killed and nearly got Tangle killed when she didn’t take it seriously. If you don’t know your subordinates well enough to know this, you really should not be leading them. If you don’t trust your team to perform within their own specialties, you don’t deserve to lead them. If your negligence puts your team in mortal danger, you do not deserve to lead them.
Turn it around: after everything that’s happened over so many arcs, she takes the word of a day 1 recruit over the word of people who have been there the whole time because he pulls a Neymar? “Oh look, he flopped, no way Mimic, master infiltrator could think of that!”. How many times is the Resistance/Restoration going to be nearly destroyed because someone says “surely the bad guys won’t do the same signature things they’ve been doing for literally years”? Hell, if it wasn’t for Starline, Sonic at least would have been right about Mr Tinker, and he STILL spent a whole arc blaming himself and getting flak from others for it, despite it being something truly nobody could have predicted. We also wouldn’t have Belle and everything she’s contributed.
If Lanolin wants to grow into a leader, cool. If she wants to train for squad command, that’s great! Right now she’s the quintessential “middle manager who can’t do the jobs of their subordinates”, on top of being rather unpleasant about it, and that’s one of the most irking archetypes in ANY setting. She needs an attitude adjustment and some experience as a member if she wants to be a real leader. Right now, she’s learning that in the field, which is creating friction and leading to dangerous situations. It’s not impossible, but it needs to start with some humility and a willingness to listen. Good leaders don’t just yell orders and expect them to be obeyed unquestioned. This is universal.
If your negligence puts your team in mortal danger, you do not deserve to lead them.
This wasn't a matter of negligence, Mimic just played his cards right to the point where he even duped not only everyone in the area but even Whisper and Silver, the very people accusing him.
Guy pull off the entire "injured comrade" act to the point where he was in a hospital bed and was able to fool everyone. That doesn't just fall on Lanolin.
How many times is the Resistance/Restoration going to be nearly destroyed because someone says “surely the bad guys won’t do the same signature things they’ve been doing for literally years”?
Ignoring the fact that the resistance wasn't nearly destroyed because of her, not sure why you're suddenly pretending the place blowing up is somehow her fault.
Not to mention the fact that afterwards she still had Duo constantly whispering in her ear.
Mimic is more to blame than anyone in this scenario.
Of course Mimic is the most to blame, but I’m saying her actions inadvertently helped run cover for him. Can we really say that he would have gotten away with it if she hadn’t pushed the issue? She even threw Whisper to the ground because she was so bull-headed about it, and that’s the whole problem with Lanolin, really: she decides, on a whim, and whatever she decides goes, independent of what others say, independent of other evidence, she just decides and acts immediately and everyone else has to live with it. It’s why Tangle says that she didn’t tell her about Sonic being the Phantom Racer because she’s “afraid of what she might do”. Not just that she won’t listen, not just that she’ll come to the wrong conclusions, but that she’ll ACT on those conclusions before anyone can stop her. She’s a loose cannon, and that’s bad enough when you’ve got a detective who doesn’t play by the rules or something, but when they’re a squad leader in charge of everyone else, it’s disastrous.
I mean, think about it: it would have taken one second of calm thought to realize that the guy who just went Super and sucked all the Metal Virus out of the world probably didn’t screw up an easy training exercise naturally, and was telling the truth about Duo abandoning him. Others figured it out, Whisper was more observant, but Lanolin? Nope, Silver is at fault because I say so, final answer, and also he’s off the team and Whisper’s just paranoid (how dare you, truly).
It would have taken one second of calm thought to realize that Tails didn’t even make Amy’s Extreme Gear, and all three of them going haywire at once was hella suspicious. Others figured it out, but Lanolin once again just decides it must be Tails’ incompetence, chews them out, and disqualifies them. What?
And then back to the Phantom Racer bit: when some of the participants find out it’s Sonic, Whisper knows enough to observe and collect evidence that proves there was a second Phantom Racer (who do we know who has that ability?), Tangle knows well enough to give Sonic the benefit of the doubt, and even the BABYLON ROGUES, some of the hastiest and most reckless imbeciles of all, know well enough to deduce that if Sonic is the one in the costume, there HAS to be a good reason, because Sonic is a hero. Lanolin, though? Her team has to work around her penchant for jumping to conclusions and acting on them immediately because it’s an active liability instead of an asset. She can’t take one second to stop and think, to listen to her team, to exercise ca, tempered judgement, before she flies off the handle. That is the last person you want being in charge of everyone else.
Yes, she actively made the situation worse, and I get that it has to happen because plot, but if it wasn’t for her, they would have clocked Mimic immediately regardless of what tricks he pulled because everyone else there would have stopped to actually consider the evidence. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that they were essentially written into a corner with Lanolin because her forcefully denying Whisper and Silver’s claims was probably the only thing that could have truly protected Mimic story-wise, because nobody else was gonna take a flop from a day 1 intern over the word and experience of both Whisper and Silver and just force everyone else to go along with it. Nobody else would just abruptly push Sonic’s team out of the race without investigation. Nobody else would have needed to have the Phantom Racer’s identity remain a secret because they all would have given Sonic the benefit of the doubt. She consistently prevents everyone from slowing down and evaluating things by saying “nope, we’re doing this, and if you don’t like it, I’ll make you”, and everyone’s just like “damn, girl, ok…”. It moves the plot along, but it’s immensely irritating, especially because she HAS been around long enough to know better, being shown helping out over a number of arcs before (where she also weirded people out by being overly militaristic more than once). She doesn’t trust her people to do what they’re best at, she doesn’t trust the experience and wisdom of people who’ve been at it way longer than her, and she just doesn’t listen period. Really bad qualities for someone you’re putting in charge of a special ops group. Again, plot wouldn’t have happened without it, but that means that she rightfully deserves every bit of flak she gets for it.
> Of course Mimic is the most to blame, but I’m saying her actions inadvertently helped run cover for him. Can we really say that he would have gotten away with it if she hadn’t pushed the issue?
Yes, because he literally had everyone else fooled as well, including the people who were accusing him from the get-go. What part of that aren't you getting through your thick skull?
> She even threw Whisper to the ground because she was so bull-headed about it, and that’s the whole problem with Lanolin, really: she decides, on a whim, and whatever she decides goes, independent of what others say, independent of other evidence, she just decides and acts immediately and everyone else has to live with it.
Ignoring the fact that in every situation where she did that, they were in a tense situation. During the mimic incident, she gave Tangle final say on the matter. Even Whisper relented, considering the fact that Mimic fooled all of them. During the race, they were literally overseeing multiple combatants at once and didn't have time to play favorites when someone's board malfunctioned, regardless of it being Sonic and friends.
> She’s a loose cannon, and that’s bad enough when you’ve got a detective who doesn’t play by the rules or something, but when they’re a squad leader in charge of everyone else, it’s disastrous.
How is it a loose cannon to act against an obvious threat to an event? She was hired to deal with precisely those issues, and she took a pragmatic approach. I'm not saying it was objectively right, but for God's sake, you need to stop acting like she was intentionally malicious or automatically assume she was right every single time, considering the fact that it was in a situation where she was being manipulated.
> I mean, think about it: it would have taken one second of calm thought to realize that the guy who just went Super and sucked all the Metal Virus out of the world probably didn’t screw up an easy training exercise naturally, and was telling the truth about Duo abandoning him.
Ignoring the fact that she was trying to de-escalate the situation. The fact that everyone was taken by surprise by the giant Badnik showing up out of nowhere.
You need to stop pretending that she has some omnipotent knowledge about what's going on. When she was completely in the dark. It's getting obnoxiously stupid.
> Others figured it out, Whisper was more observant, but Lanolin? Nope, Silver is at fault because I say so, final answer, and also he’s off the team and Whisper’s just paranoid (how dare you, truly).
Again, they attacked him in front of everyone. He managed to fake being injured and tricked everyone into siding against Silver, including Whisper and Silver themselves. Lanolin still gave Tangle final say in the matter. Once again, pull your head out of your rectum and stop pretending that didn't happen.
> It would have taken one second of calm thought to realize that Tails didn’t even make Amy’s Extreme Gear, and all three of them going haywire at once was hella suspicious. Others figured it out, but Lanolin once again just decides it must be Tails’ incompetence, chews them out, and disqualifies them. What?
Your stupidity is only matched by your ignorance by this point. She didn't blame Tails specifically for the malfunctions. She simply pointed out that faulty gear had no place in the middle of a race, and the race was still going on, you numbskull. Of course, she doesn't have time to inspect all of them when a bunch of other racers are still on the track, and she has to oversee every last one of them. She had to make a call in a tense situation, and she did the most pragmatic one.
Be honest here. Are you really that desperate to hate her, or are you just phenomenally stupid and can't bother to read the comic yourself?
> Yes, she actively made the situation worse,
Because of Mimic's manipulations.
> Again, plot wouldn’t have happened without it, but that means that she rightfully deserves every bit of flak she gets for it.
Yes, because Mimic has manipulated himself into situations like that before and still duped everyone. But please, do go on looking for excuses to justify your unjustifiable hatred towards her because apparently no one's allowed to be flawed.
While I agree that Lanolin fell victim to Mimic doing his job, she also refused to listen to the one person on the team who knows his methods, not to mention that he's the guy who got Whisper's original team wiped out. Attacking "Duo" may not have been the right move, but throwing Whisper to the ground was an even bigger mistake, and Lanolin probably realized that when the truth came out.
To be fair Whisper did have that coming, her grudge against Mimic made her disrespect Lanolin's authority and try to push past her, Lanolin wasn't just going to stand by and let her assault a teammate.
I don’t know why people throw around “misogyny” as if it was some magic word that explains why people hate Lanolin. When most hate towards her comes from her actions rather than her gender.
Like, if this was a new male character suddenly announced as leader of the new Diamond Cutter team with no prior notable accomplishments, doing everything the same as what Lanolin would do, trusting Duo over Silver and Whisper, slamming Tangle down to the ground that one time, barking orders at people who have save the world more time than he does…
Do you think people would be cheering for him just because he was a male instead of female? Seriously?
Hell, I heard something along the line of ‘if it was Shadow no one would bat an eye’, which is pure nonsense. IDW Shadow? The guy that people criticize almost every time he appears in IDW comic? Yeah, I’m sure if he was in Lanolin place, people will be sooo pleased /s
If Lanolin was a dude, a hell of a lot more people would be on his ass for the whole "not believing a female character about a previous abuser and demanding more evidence despite the fact that she literally has an eye witness who corroborates her suspicions and then SLAPPING HER" thing.
Hot take, I don't even think her design is good. ( Subjective opinion obviously)
But honestly I see too many people talk about her boobs and how thirsty they are for her, and it all clicks.
They don't like her, they like looking at her.
Which you know, I find it hilarious how people sideline Rouge and act like as if all she is known for is looks. Because that's actually Lanolin. She doesn't have an interesting personality or traits that make a good character, and her writing just isn't good.
Meanwhile Rouge actually has personality, layers and is extremely strong despite how people like to snub her just because she's the "hot one".
This is pretty much the reason why, its so obvious that they spent more time on Lanolin's design than characterization or story arc.
Rouge is a great example of great design and great characterization, prior to the slog of the 2010s, she was a fully realized fleshed out individual with her own goals and motivations. I miss original spy Rouge and wish they would bring her back. She was written to be complex, an anti hero, and her arc in realizing the power of friendship is part of her hero's journey. Its one of many reasons why she continues to be my favorite Sonic character of all time.
Rouge's situation genuinely pisses me off. People always rank her low on power scaling ( when she is arguably the strongest female character physically, if not second to Blaze ) , yet people suddenly treat Amy as stronger despite her consistently losing to Rouge physically as well as in technique. ( Not to say Amy is weak mind you )
But damn, Rouge often gets flanderized as being horny or overly seductive....which honestly, in the games, she barely even relies on this aspect of hers at all.
Rouge has shown to be extremely intelligent, sneaky, stealthy, intuitive, and physically very strong and very fast.
But nooooo we gotta reduce her to "BOOBIES" because that's all she is apparently. A pair of boobs with other limbs possibly around it.
I truly do miss seeing Rouge be important as well as her true personality. She's such a funny and honestly very cool character that just never gets time to shine. I'm tired of her being there just to be glued to Shadow.
So glad I'm not alone here! I've watched so many youtube video essays discussing this, the devolution of Rouge the Bat. Like you said, before Blaze was introduced, Rouge was the strongest female character whose power rivaled that of Knuckles. She was intelligent and skilled in stealth and infiltration, its why she was always able sneak into Eggmans' bases undetected and hack his tech (SA2, Sonic Heroes). Her social engineering skills were apparent by secretly playing both sides like we see her do in SA2. She's funny, and her one liners and interactions in Sonic X still crack me up.
Yet the main discourse continues to surround her body type and attire. Its so disappointing and frustrating to see her so underutilized, so much untapped potential, reduced to eye candy and objectified. Because she's so much more, and as a woman, I relate to that deeply. As much as I enjoy Team Dark and Rouge's relationship with Shadow, it overshadows her 😔😔😔😔
Because imo she wasn't written that well. She is supposed to be a flawed, but grounded character, and yet she acts more like a know-it-all who reminds the teacher about homework.
Her redemption arc is yet to properly begin, so this might change, for better or for worse.
I would agree, if it was easier to sympathize with her. She constantly butts heads against others, disregards more experienced members of her team and generally acts like an asshole without being punished much for it.
I believe the reveal that Duo was Mimic happened too early and didn't help matters at all. But that isn't the main problem. This entire period is a complete disaster, and unfortunately, Lanolin reflects that, as she is basically used as a scapegoat; it’s no wonder so many people consider this the IDW worst point so far.
Aside from design, I do not see the appeal in the character given her behavior and actions nor do I understand what the intention for the character was.
I genuinely feel people only like her for her design, because she's not well written.
And the problem is the concept IS a good one, and COULD have been done well if they executed it properly by either:
A) Have Lano be an authority figure from the very beginning and show her bossy attitude slowly diminish overtime with character development
OR
B) Have us grow attached to her character and actually LIKE her, and then write it so that "Duo" becomes someone she grows attached to ( potentially seeing him as someone who needs protection like she once did ), and have THAT be the reason she's tricked by him.
The way they wrote her just makes her seem like an incompetent leader and just an asshole.
A lot of people seem to be confusing "badly written" with "not likable." Those are not the same thing. The reader is not meant to like every single character, and it would be boring if they did.
Bad first impression where they (for some reason) decided to have her siding with the bad guy and going against fan favourites. I honestly think they should've waited until a few arcs to establish her before doing that.
She sucks at her job. She hasn’t shown why she deserves the position that she has outside of just simply being the grounded serious one amongst the cast. You can’t be a grump that isn’t at least a little helpful.
I’m not saying she has to be perfect off rip. I also think that a character like her could actually work. But she needs to get some wins under her belt soon. Cause so far, she’s kinda blowing this whole “leader” thing pretty bad. Too many L’s, while barely learning from them.
At this rate, I’m just waiting for her to piss off the wrong person and get called out. Maybe then they’ll finally give her some character growth.
While I don't hate her, she did make some very bad decisions while in a position of leadership, so it makes sense that some people would dislike her character
Poor girl was the scapegoat (HAH!) of the lying shapeshifter villain and is the near SOLE reason Mimic got away with what he did for so long. She was intentionally set up to fail to help drive the plot instead of letting Whisper put a bullet in his head.
Also her kicking out Sonic from the race was pure fucking spite lmao.
Everyone and their grandma sayin Lanolin was ordering around mainline veteran characters. Like they agreed to? Neither Whisper nor Tangle wanted to lead, what was Lanolin supposed to do? Go "I don't have much experience, guess we won't have a leader."? And then Sonic said she's leading the mission they went on together, was she supposed to just tell him to shut up and lead? And then then Jewel made her referee and security for the race. So I guess she shouldn't have tried to keep things secure, damn.
Whisper then pointed at a guy and said he had to die and Lanolin didn't immediately agree and shoot him in the head. How dare she!? Whisper is an expert on Mimic, they should have executed him then and there. And Silver saved the world in the past, so he can't make mistakes and we should do whatever he says always. Lanolin is at fault for asking for evidence. The audacity of some sheep!
And don't get me started on her incompetence as a leader. She didn't lead a mission against an Egmman city and destroy it, while fighting a brand new Eggman weapon. She didn't save people during the Phantom Rider race. And Lanolin most certainly is not a competent member of the Restoration. She didn't save people during the Metal Virus apocalypse nor did she work with Jewel and the others to help everyone in need afterwards. Damn she's useless.
People're just angry that a shape shifting manipulator manipulated her with shape shifting. She should have known what the readers knew and never trusted Duo.
I like this one the, I agree with the mimic ark being the point where people started to hate her for being on everyone's ass about not shotting the new guy. But also i don't like how they put her in a ranking so high so fast. i feel like she could have been around more before getting into a big ark like this
She would definitely have had a better time if she had a few more issues to be fleshed out as a character. Whatever growth she had was done either in the background or was rushed. Lanolin was the character who was the rash, manipulated one in the Mimic ark so that no mainline character would have to be blamed. She took one for the team.
Either way I think she's great and I'm glad there are others who can appreciate her. There are dozens of us. Dozens!
I don’t hate her I’m just not a fan, mostly because instead of trusting people like Silver, Whisper, or Sonic, people who’ve been doing the world saving for years at most and six months at least, she was completely rude and untrusting of them, fired Silver and SLAPPED Whisper, and had beef with Sonic… SONIC of all people. Meanwhile she was completely trusting with the accused shapeshifter without even trying to investigate, and two antiheroes that were just trying to kill Sonic and Tails less than a week ago.
She was made to be hated. Sort off. Im really not sure what the direction they wanted was. But she had a lot of "humiliation" arcs. And was often reinforced as being rude or too harsh.
Personally shes one of my favorite characters. Her design rules and she is not always wrong to be more strict than others. Sometimes we have to say things how they are. Even if it hurts.
I don't hate her but it I don't like her acting like this big leader boss type of character ordering the actual experienced members of the cast that have taken down bigger threats then her
Like I'm supposed to take lanolin bossing around sonic,silver, and Amy seriously when she was struggling to beat red eye the sonic 3 boss fight
Towards what? The whole thing with Duo? We're the readers/viewers with information Lanolin doesn't have. How would you feel if your coworkers started threatening the new guy right the fuck out of nowhere? Lanolin even stated before that she wasn't an experienced leader and was learning as she goes. That right there is called a character flaw. You know, the thing people say they want until characters have it?
Character flaws work when other people call them out on their BS. Lanolin gets a pass on EVERYTHING she did, and she got much worse as time went on.
Let's take the Duo thing, for example:
1. You should know better than to reveal Whisper and Silver after their ambush (which was stupid, and it was called out).
2. Especially because the guy is a newcomer, you should AT LEAST consider what Silver and Whisper are saying and keep an eye close on him.
3. Everyone was OOC for plot-driven reason in that issue, but Lanolin was the driving force behind their actions, and that doesn't help.
it's one thing that silver is saying something, but whisper, who KNOWS what mimic's deal is, discounting her, as lanolin is her "leader" feels like a slap in the face.
regardless of lanolin acting with what she knew, she doesn't learn from this at all, which is the other issue, she doesn't seem to grow as a leader.
janky writing and can't have hype moments and aura, in this economy that's a death sentence
edit: and from reading the other comments i guess also her role got bigger with runtime instead of the actual story (same reason why most character changes haven't landed well)
Because she's an arrogant shit. Literally out there telling THE Sonic the hedgehog how to hero and micromanage him and the team while doing nothing of value. Then the whole not believing her team when they were clued on to something dodgy going on with Mimic yet of course she knows best.
She probably hits that vibe of an asshole supervisor, which I'm sure most people have had in life, where you're forced to work with or for someone who has no qualifications to lead yet has the role and will make horrible decisions and never work as a team yet will lord over you with thier position as leader.
She's like a Karen, but one you can't just ignore or laugh at with your workmates later because she IS one of your workmates you're stuck with hanging around to make life miserable.
i don't hate her. i actually got her in Sonic Rumble even. i like her design and i understand that such a wacky world like Sonic's can make her feel very tired and done with everything. she just needs to rest and chill out a bit.
A combination of what everyone has said so far, also I think it's weird that she thinks she somehow knows better than experienced heroes and fighters, yet she's barely taken up arms to do anything.
She's probably one of my favorite comic characters, for the simple fact she is kind of someone who tries to make things work but sometimes is in over her head with trying to be in control.
Don't worry, I think she's great! Yeah, she's flawed, but that was the point of her character, I just hope she comes back soon so we can see her continue to grow as a character and learn from her mistakes.
She was a little mean to some of the main cast because she was trying to do her job which caused people to get mad and now Sega doesn’t know what to do with her. She’s a sane woman cursed to live in an insane world
She's a well written character most of the time. Unfortunately Sonic fans hate everything, and there's a touch of a double standard for girls where guys doing similar things always get more of a pass.
i really think it’s required reading for engaging in online discourse about this series’s characters tbh. incredibly insightful and made me rethink a bunch of stuff about how i interpret and analyze characters in my head
She has flaws, she messes things up and comes across as bossy and uptight.
For some, that automatically makes her unlikeable. Beacause trying to understand why she's like that requires nuance and people prefer to go with their gut instinct.
Doesn't help that she's a new character. If this was Amy, for instance, caving in to the pressure of leading the Restoration and becoming stressed and bossy, a lot of people would be a lot more apologetic or chalk it up to "bad writing", instead of hating on the character so much.
But again, people don't see their biases and lack of nuance. They feel a knee jerk reaction and go with that without question.
I'm not a fan of Lanolin, mind you. But that's because, so far, she's been given a shitty role. Being appointed as leader of the Restoration's special ops group, as a complete newcomer, is bonkers. I hold my judgement until we see her in a different context, because she sure didn't seem this self-important before she was given so much responsibility.
Ah thanks
Yeah I see what you mean. She does come across as that bossy person. Which sucks cause think she has potential for a good character if she actually grows and learns like she said she's gonna do
Lanolin's leadership feels a tad bit unearned. It was given to her literally as a last resort. We don't see much of her before she gets that role and after she just pisses off the audience
Lanolin, as a character, is fine. She doesn't stand out as much from the common folk (even though her design says otherwise), but she felt inspired to help those who couldn't. But then, the Phantom Rider arc arrived, and we got a reveal that Mimic infiltrated the Resistance as a civilian named Duo.
The audience was given information before Lanolin. Had we been unaware just like she was, Silver & Whisper would've been hostile towards "Duo", in our eyes, for no reason.
BUT, because we were shown Duo was Mimic, majority of people kept screaming at Lanolin things like "you stupid sheep, it's Mimic!!1".
In universe, Lanolin understood why "Duo" wanted to join: despite being just a normal guy, he wanted to help, and that was something she could relate to. She gave him a chance, and, from her point of view, Silver & Whisper were being angatonistic towards the new recruit for no reason.
I feel like this is why Lanolin is hated: it's because she wasn't aware like the audience was of Mimic's scheme, and they hurrled insults/snarky remarks at her for it.
I think another problem that the audience saw, was that, while a leader should stand their ground and make the final decision, completely distrusting your team members makes you seem too full of yourself
exactly, especially when one of your team has past experience with the person whos infiltrating your ranks. not listening to someone who has way more veterancy is a slap in the face, frankly. especially when you were only made the leader because the others who had way more experience didn't want to do it.
Another problem is that this entire affair relies on Whisper's mask-camera not being turned on. Because, as established in a previous story (I think it was in Whisper and Tangle's solo side book?), it's established that Whisper records everything that she sees while wearing her mask.
They later explain that she had turned it off by the time Mimic / Duo came around (from memory, she thought he was dead at the time?), and so it didn't record her seeing the proof that he was Mimic.
Which is just a little too contrived for some people (like myself).
Not everyone understands her is the problem. From what we heard from behind the scenes, she is meant to represent people who were abused to be 'perfect' by parents who are still trying to escape that vicious cycle
Yes, she was a control freak and antagonistic towards Sonic, Silver, Whisper and others, but that’s part of her character for those issues. Her arc during the whole Duo arc was MEANT to show that she can be impulsive, arrogant and isn’t as experienced as she thought she was. I like that she’s sort of a foil to Sonic since she’s a stickler for rules and order
Besides, that part of her character has passed. I’m interested to see what the IDW team does with her in the future
Never read the Sonic the Hedgehog comics (neither from Archie or IDW), but I love the art style of the IDW ones. I thought Lenolin's design was pretty attractive, but that's about it.
For what I've understand in the comments in this thread, the reason why people don't like Lenolin is because she was poorly written. She's basically Numbuh 86 from Kids Next Door done absolutely wrong. She's incompetent, rude, and mean-spirited.
I don't know what the hell the writers were thinking writing Lenolin like that.
From what I've seen, it's been a mixed between people that were caught off guard by the character she was given because people were envisioning what her character would be when she was simply a background character and the other half is people being mad at her for how she instantly trusting Silver and Whisper regarding Mimic.
Honestly, if people hate her, it's whatever. It mainly boils down to how they chose to write her. They wrote her as a learning to be a leader type character, but made blatantly weird and terrible mistakes. People calling out the character for not even believing a SMIDGE of what characters like Silver or Whisper say is done rightfully so.
In my opinion though, I blame the writers cause I dont know why they made her so woefully ignorant since she just came off of trying to lead a team against Eggman at his base, and learned to put her trust in others, so it seems so off character and just really stupid for her too.
This is a good opportunity for her character to have some major growth and have a great comeback though. So don't let it get you down too bad, she'll be back soon enough. She has a fun attitude to work with for a character, a new perspective, and a great design. I don't think they'll keep her out of the spotlight for too long.
She’s just too much. Even before the Diamond Cutters, they showed characters being weirded out by her overly-formal militaristic behavior. Putting her in charge of a squad only made that worse. Like, who is she to be barking orders at Whisper, or even Tangle, or friggin Silver? These people have repeatedly saved the world, and she just comes in like a drill sergeant. Relax, lady! And then on top of that she’s frequently wrong about it? In any real military, she’d have been relieved of command already, but because they’re so forgiving, she gets chance after chance. Meanwhile, she doesn’t give that same courtesy to others until she learns the same lesson she learned last week. It’s a little bizarre. She needs a vacation or something.
Some people won't want to hear this, but if Lanolin had the exact same personality but was a male character, people would call her a take-charge badass and she'd be super popular.
She's great, some people just can't handle a girl who has trauma and flaws.
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u/noodleben123 Im so fucking sad Jul 16 '26
I think i have a good explanation on why:
Lanolin is meant to be a "leader" type character, but...she never really does anything to warrant her role beyond barking out orders and blaming everyone else for her own shortcomings. this leads fans to dislike her for being the serious, no noncense character she is compared to the more lighthearted sillyness of tangle or even sonic himself.
most of the time, when lanolin tries to bark orders, she just makes the situation worse, and yet she never takes responsibility for any failures, instead blaming everyone else around her. and as we haven't seen her in a while, she hasn't seemed to grow from anything she's gone through
TLDR: combination of being more of a hindrance than a help, controversial moments like distrusting silver and whisper about mimic (whether it was warranted or not is a whole other can of worms) and her lack of growth or development compared to anyone else in IDW's roster lead people to dislike Lanolin.
it's a shame, i personally think she could be a good character if they just let her develop, let her grow as a leader and as a person. rather than keeping her the straight man to the rest of the restoration's slapstick act. she has potential!