A question of the monarchy on Mobius.
A long time ago, I saw some article, probably by R, on how the Mobian government worked. It said something about a beneficial monarchy where the King/Queen served the planet, and the Mobians, in turn served the King/Queen. According to this article, because Mobians do not have it in their natures to conquer and destroy, like humans, the House of Acorn was able to rule peacefully and prosperously for many centuries.
Well, looking back at this, I just realized that this doesn't exactly work. In order for that system to work, the Mobians must have overidden the selfish tendencies of human nature somehow, or never had them in the first place. It seems that evolution must have split into two branches; the evil Overlanders, inheriting all the vices of human nature, and the Mobians, who inherited all the virtues. Or maybe not; it's just a speculation on my part.
Nonetheless, it's safe to say that Overlanders were born to be greedy power-control freaks, while Mobians by nature are peaceful and rational. Right?
But wait a second! In order for the Mobians to have over-ridden human ambition, they would have also gotten rid of traits like greed, jealousy, vanity, arrogance, and other vices that sow the seeds of ambition in the first place. So, if Mobians are not power hungry by nature, then they also must not be greedy, jealous, vain, or arrogant, right? Well, if we look at St. John, Sonic and Antoine, we can see that these traits are still there….
You can look at any other FF too. Sally is paranoid, Rotor is a push-over, Tails is gullible… you get the point. All the FFs have very human weaknesses that, under the right circumstances, could turn them into the next Robotniks. Yet, somehow, these weaknesses are also the strengths of the FFs. Sally's paranoia is very important in that she knows the risks of a mission very well and has probably saved many lives by not underestimating the enemy, Rotor doesn't let arrogance blind an important decision, Tails is extremely loyal in good times and bad, and Sonic's ego has probably saved the FFs in many close calls because he had the confidence to take a risk. In this way, the strengths of the Freedom Fighters are also their weaknesses and their weaknesses are their strengths.
Suppose Sally wasn't paranoid, Rotor was more assertive, Sonic was modest, Tails took an objective look at a mission before he jumped in, Antoine decide to keep out of Sally and Sonic's business and Geoffrey acted decently. Face it, nobody would read the comics if that happened.
I don't suppose any of the FFs would have much of a personality or a fighting chance if they did everything all the time for what was good for Mobius without personal gain. I doubt that Mobians are by nature more or less human than humans. A Mobian or Overlander will always have human nature, but it is not his species or society that determines whether his traits are faults or strengths. He alone will decide whether to put them to great accomplishments or great evils. Heroes are made, not born.
-My $0.02,
Stormtrooper 87