t4t-hantunia

[t4t-hantunia]

my charmy bee design

[t4t-hantunia]

From the artist that brought you disgusting grub charmy- it's scrungly street kid espio!

[t4t-hantunia]

WASP REVIEW - CHARMY BEE (SONIC THE HEDGEHOG)

[Image IDs: A piece of official Charmy Bee artwork and an official 3D render of the same character /End IDs.]

Apologies in advance to fans of Charmy Bee. I will preface this review with this: I really love the designs in the Sonic franchise, and I'm perfectly fine with Charmy as a character (apart from some weird things that are supposedly in the comics), Chaotix wouldn't be the same without him! but uh... Yeah, of the characters in the main Sonic games, this is probably one of the Least Good designs. The designers of Sonic Team already don't have a perfect history of making their anthro animal designs as accurate as they could be to the real thing, which usually turns out fine, but how do they fare when making an insect in their trademark style?

Well, let's get straight to it, with this bee's physical appearance. When it comes to the aspects that are fairly acceptable to me, we got only four limbs, and the lower pair appear to technically be misplaced on the body, but that's perfectly ok, given this is an anthropomorphic design. I'm not gonna get mad over a bug with human hands either, given the fact I've done that myself, quite a bit, although I do think it would be fun if they gave him an extra set of arms just to add to the bee aspects of the design. Furthermore, I'm fine with an arthropod mouth being simplified or altered into a more cartoony and/or mammalian mouth, although they could have given him big ol' mandibles and had him be just as cute!

[Image Source: PBS, Nebraska Public Media | Image ID: An illustration of a honey bee (female, worker) showing its body parts as labelled. Mandibles, antennae, eyes, thorax, abdomen, stinger, foreleg, middle leg, forewing, hind wing, and hind leg (with labelled pollen basket) /End IDs.]

Moving on to the rest, though, it's unclear whether or not his mesosoma/thorax and metasoma/abdomen are properly segmented with the shirt on, but it appears as though they might be fused into one segment? His body doesn't seem to have much in the way of segmentation in general, which is strange. The antennae are striped all the way down, which, they should be one solid color. He has only two wings, as opposed to the four on a real bee. He also shouldn't have a stinger, only females such as the queen and the worker bee have these, as the stinger is a modified ovipositor, built to inject venom, as well as for its primary purpose, that being, to lay eggs. Oh, and his helmet would be covering up his ocelli as well!

But then, we get to the most egregious aspects, and... I mean, do I have to say it? Take away the tacked on stinger, antennae, and wings, and this is just another hedgehog. Little guy is about 80% mammal. His arms and mouth area are colored like human skin, and seem to be just as smooth, no chitin nor setae to be found. He has a nose, which, he really shouldn't! He already has antennae with which to smell things!! And the only thing about his eyes that can be called "compound" is the classic Sonic character feature of having gigantic mammalian eyes that are fused straight down the middle like a visor.

[Image Sources: Jupiter's Wasp House, ie Myself, and photomacrography.net forums, Charles Krebs | Image IDs: Two photos, one of a black, yellow, orange, and white feeding from a pink and white flower, followed by a closeup of a honey bee's head /End IDs.]

It's unfortunate, because I think they could've done something really unique, especially considering how uniquely shaped his fellow Chaotix member, Vector The Crocodile is!

Another thing I have to question is, how exactly does he age? Barring the comic canon here, and the weird and insulting brain damage storyline within, he's canonically very young in the games, roughly 16 in Chaotix according to the English manual, though in Heroes he's instead seemingly portrayed as being about 6. Which brings up the question of if he was ever a larva. My assumption, if he was more like a real bee, would be yes! If we're scaling things up, then probably from birth through toddler age. But he's not quite like a real bee, is he? Maybe he was just, essentially, a smaller version of his current self, as is the case with many other types of animal.

[Image Source: Wikimedia Commons, Waugsberg | Image ID: A photo showing eight bee larvae arranged in order of age as they mature and harden into their pupae /End IDs.]

Small side note, apparently, in the comics, he was a prince, which I suppose it's fair enough if we're translating the many social structures of other animals to something more recognizable to us humans, but if every child of the queen became a prince or princess, then every bee in the colony would be a royal, as all honey bees are the young of a queen. Also, the colony wouldn't have a king! A honey bee hive is a matriarchy through and through! If you want an insect king and queen pairing, you'll have to turn to the termites of Blattodea, as Hymenoptera tends to be a bit of a girl's club. Yet again, this is Ken Penders lore we're talking about here, so it matters not.

So, what can be said about his abilities and behaviors? We already covered that he, strangely, has a stinger, which he uses to attack as most stinging bees do, though he's not very aggressive, which is about accurate. I don't think he's ever shown making honey (like a worker bee) nor feeding on honey, or nectar, nor directly from flowers, but do correct me if I'm wrong! He has, at least, been shown to be able to mysteriously warp between flowers, which is quite odd, yet also quite cool, I would say.

He is also, or at least was originally, quite a fast flier! As the Japanese manual of Chaotix supposedly states "He was the first insect to cross the speed of sound", or alternatively that he was the first to break the sound barrier, depending on which translation you read, although this is clearly not quite the case later on. He's still fast, but not enough to break the sound barrier. Honey bees are, in fact, quite fast for their size, reaching a top flight speed of about 20mph (~32kmh), and this is a series where the fastest thing alive is a damn hedgehog, so I can let this one slide. Though, it does seem like a bit of a missed opportunity to make seemingly the fastest insect in this universe a honey bee rather than, say, a dragonfly, the fastest of which, reach about 35mph (56kmh).

All in all, though, Charmy Bee, while a charming fellow, isn't quite up to snuff when compared directly to the real thing. Understandably enough for the Sonic universe, but still kind of disappointing, taking all things into consideration, and the near complete departure from arthropodal anatomy is enough to dock a significant amount of points. So, sadly, I'll have to give him...

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Overall: 3.5/10

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Leave your wasp review suggestion in the replies, tags, or askbox!

[t4t-hantunia]

charmy doodles while i get thru gifts/reqs ‼️‼️🫵 his funny little bee wings are interesting to me + my idiot brain is looking at images of bee pupae from time to time like "howd he get from here to there" but its sonic so whatever . it doesnt have to make sense so it never does i gotta like 🫵👁️👁️☝️ tough it out

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I drew Tails with blue shoes, based on a coloring error from old concept art, mixed with his color scheme from the 90s cartoons because I like how different it looks, with so many Sonic characters wearing red.

I also made Charmy Bee look more like an insect, based on his first two designs from an obscure manga & this one fire ant character (Archimedes) in Archie Sonic

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Charmy Bee from Sonic The Hedgehog eats stickers!

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Season of Sonic - Day 12 Bonus - Charmy

Free bee! Wheeeeeeee

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can i be honest i despise when people depict charmy as spending the chaotix’s money wildly irresponsibly (something i’ve seen MULTIPLE TIMES!!!!!!) like i know he’s a little kid but he’s smart (he is literally a detective) and also vector doesn’t really hide from him that they don’t have much money (all the talk about having to get money to pay rent in sonic heroes)

and maybe i’m just reading too much into it but it feels incredibly infantilizing especially since he exhibits adhd traits and is often headcanoned as having adhd. people love infantilizing people with adhd i see it so much in fandom spaces

and maybe it’s just Projection™️ but as someone who was constantly told as a kid that i/we can’t get something because we don’t have the money for it i just can’t understand how people can look at a character who would have that same experience as me and think that he would waste a bunch of funding on candy or something just because he’s a hyperactive kid

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ALRIGHT, GRUB CHARMY TIME

(keep in mind i am not an entomologist i just did some cursory googling about bee larvae and mushed some headcanons together)

when vector (at 14 years old) first finds charmy, he looks like the one on the left. he's almost completely immobile as a pupa, but as he develops, he gets more responsive to touch and sound. he was abandoned, and vector took him in. the right is after a while more of development. he DOES have wings but they're hardly visible and still attached to his body. he's sticky and cool to the touch

after a while longer (i imagine a month or two), charmy gets visited by the eyeball fairy overnight and his eyes open. they're still not fully developed, but he starts to be able to look around; this is around the same time that he becomes a bit more mobile. he isn't fully mobile, but he can extend his limbs and wiggle and look around. his exoskeleton is still hardening - it feels gummy and weird, like old memory foam. he can very stiffly crawl by six months

after about a year, charmy's wings and antennae have detached from his body, his exoskeleton has hardened up completely, and he's starting to buzz around! this is around the time he becomes fully capable of mischief. he's still not very good at walking OR flying, but by god he'll try his best to get to the cookies on the top of the fridge. he's finally fully active, responsive, and curious! it's when vector and espio finally actually know what they're in for with this kid

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an even younger charmy bee was prone to ruining people's gardens by rolling around in them. he still does that but only when vector isn't looking and he leaves vanilla's garden alone. also silver's because he doesn't want to be thrown into orbit. espio unleashes charmy on some sunflower farm and he pops up from the flowers somehow just covered in pollen. after they get home vector cant stop sneezing and he can't figure out why

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charmy may be a bee (wild if true) and thus pollen naturally gets stuck in his fuzzy body. what they don't tell you is that dust, lint, and feathers also get stuck in there when you're a bee of his size. and because he's six he does NOT do a good job of keeping all that stuff out of his fuzz. he's a little flying sneeze machine but he himself is immune

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Charmy Bee vs. Candy Shop

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A real Sonic fan never speaks ill of Charmy Bee

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You go down just like Holy Charmy Charmy on a, Charmy on a cross

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I think either in the idw comic or whatever sonic media, that blaze should interact with the chaotix.

Like she needs help with something and they claim to be experts, so she invites them back to her dimension to look for the said thing. Because they think “oh a royal hired us we’re eating warm food tonight, boys!”

After the case is closed, she’s very grateful. They ask about payment, and she gives them the currency from her dimension.

The currency is unusable back in the chaotix’s dimension.

They do not in fact get warm food that night.

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Sonic game where Eggman kidnaps all the "important and dangerous" characters, leaving behind Tails, Cream, and Charmy. He thinks Tails is nothing without Sonic and will just fall into despair again (like with Infinite) and hide away again. Cream and Charmy are just annoying children to him, not a threat.

That was Eggman's first mistake.

These are the three most feral children known to man. They were raised by equally feral teenagers who have faught gods on multiple occasions and won. They have seen and been through absolute bullshit! And you dare underestimate them???

Tails: Little bro has the morality of a roulette wheel if his love ones are in danger. He is looking for ANY excuse to crashout. Sure, he's a bit of a scaredy cat at times but also he's fucking 8yrs old. But that doesn't matter right now because being scared don't mean shit to him when his big bro and friends are in danger. He has lost Sonic once and was too scared to do anything but Chaos be dammed if he's EVER gunna let that shit happen twice. Gerald Robotnik would quake in fear at the weapons of mass distribution this child would create just to save his brother. And don't think it's just his brains you need to worry about, this boy has been hanging around and rough housing with Sonic and Knuckles for YEARS. When it comes down to it not only will he throw hands but he WILL bite a bitch if he has to.

Cream: As innocent and unsuspecting as she maybe this little girl hands around team dark and team rose all the time. Though one seems much more intimidating than the other DO NOT BE FOOLED!!! Amy and Bigs are absolute heavy hitters and have taught Cream all the basics to defend herself if need be. This little bitch is STRONG! Like damn near Knuckles and Amy strong! Amy gave her one of her old "light weight" hammers as a gift and that shit weighs at least 80lbs. That's not even mentioning all the hand to hand combat Rouge and Shadow have DEFINITELY taught her in secret. Let's also not forget that she can command an army of Chao to attack at will if need be.

Charmy: The most feral of the three. He picked up some ninja skills from Espio and is just as clever in problem solving as Vector. Little bro can sneak up on you out of nowhere then kick you ass! You don't think he can? Bro flies around carrying a lanky teenage ninja and a grown ass crocodile, the fuck he can!! He is just as much if not more of a menace to society as Tails is. Also you just stole the two most important people in his life and you think he's gunna let that slide? Nah, he is going to kill you! Well maybe not "kill you, kill you" but he'll get damn near close to it. Also, bro is the biggest instigator, he's going to be egging Tails and Cream to do some reckless shit just because he knows it'll cause Eggman a lot of personal stress and because he thinks its funny. Dude is petty as hell and WILL be praying for your downfall.

So yeah, by the end of it Eggman was absolutely cooked by a group of elementary school students. 🤣

[t4t-hantunia]

Charmy Bee; Sonic Channel