Can sprites be combined and removed?

So I've seen sprites on Sonic whose IDs look like "WALKA2E8." And then there's its reversed sprite, "WALKA2E8." Technically speaking, can you remove the latter, since it's just reversed from the first sprite. On a similar subject, there's a "WALKA1" and "WALKD1." Can these be combined?

ThatOneGamingDude // T1GD said:

So I've seen sprites on Sonic whose IDs look like "WALKA2E8." And then there's its reversed sprite, "WALKA2E8." Technically speaking, can you remove the latter, since it's just reversed from the first sprite.

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What do you mean? You mentioned the same sprite twice.
(By the way, they're not "IDs", they're quite literally sprite names.)

ThatOneGamingDude // T1GD said:

On a similar subject, there's a "WALKA1" and "WALKD1." Can these be combined?

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Both sprites are not a mirror of the other one - they have unique features for different parts of the walk animation. It would look very weird if you tried.

I meant "WALKA2E8" and "WALKE2A8"
I also meant "WALKA1" and "WALKE1"
Also the first set is kinda clear to me now that the latter is not possible, I just read it wrong.

It's not quite clear to me what do you mean by "removing" WALKE2A8 because WALKA2E8 exists.

As for the other set,

look at Sonic's mouth.
The artist that sprited Sonic added a little detail where Sonic's mouth stays at his left side.

You can't merge both sprites without losing that little bit.