#I don't like prime sonic at all he feels like an entirely different guy

[shootyrefutey]

honestly I need something big to get me watching sonic prime, lost all interest after they introduced the jungle world

[mama-qwerty]

Prime S3 Thoughts - Gnarly

Let's round out the last of the Shatterspace Knuckles.

Let's talk about Gnarly.

This guy. Right here. Lookit him. He's so adorable.

Gnarly is essentially the Sticks of Sonic Prime. And Sticks was kind of a fun character for a show like Sonic Boom, which in itself bent more toward the "wacky sitcom" end of the scale in terms of feel of the show.

But in Sonic Prime, it's a schtick that doesn't quite stick.

I've theorized in the past that Gnarly represents Prime Knux's sensitivity to chaos energy, and that's what he's sensing from the trees and vegetation around him. Which is why he's anxious and nervous. Hearing all that ambient noise in your head 24/7 would be enough to make anyone jumpy and twitchy.

But the writers seem to want to play with the aspect of "What if Knuckles was crazy and paranoid and a borderline conspiracy theorist?"

Which, yeah, I guess that would be a very sharp departure from Knuckles' usual personality. If Ren is in the middle of a spectrum, being more balanced with how Prime Knuckles usually is, and Dread is on one end with a lot of over-confidence and bravado and self-interested intent, then Gnarly would be on the other end, feeling anxious and nervous and like the world is a dangerous place. He's timid and fearful whereas Dread is confident and forceful.

So, yeah, I get that he had to be very different from Prime Knuckles. But there were other ways they could have taken him that didn't reduce him to a one-joke gag character.

Gnarly was the least fleshed out Knuckles, which is fair I guess, considering the Boscage Maze scavengers were the least developed of the three groups we see in the Shatterspace. Their entire plotline felt like a side quest--the hero goes there to complete some little quest so he can continue on the *real, more important* main quest. Thus, the people he encounters there are generic NPCs who aren't all that memorable or important in the grand scheme of things.

Not to mention, there's only so much time in a show like this, and it's not like they could have cut out about half of that looong fight in the 3rd season to replace with actual character interactions and growth.

Ahem. Back to Gnarly.

This adorable little echidna was delegated as the gag character. The one joke "ha ha, he's so crazy" guy who spouted weird things and trusted no one. Used sparingly, that may have worked. But the writers made it his entire defining trait, which I guess goes completely against the whole "Knuckles is a trustful soul" thing, so makes a certain degree of sense.

His role as "dude completely removed from reality" was practically shoved in our faces with this scene:

Not gonna lie. This gave me Boom Knuckles vibes. And maybe that's what they were going for? It's like they had no idea what to do with Gnarly.

But bear with me. This is how I would have handled him.

He's still nervous. Still anxious. Still jumpy and twitchy. He hears and feels and sees things the others don't, thanks to his incredibly high sensitivity to chaos energy. He doesn't understand why he's so different, why he senses these things, and it low-key scares him a bit.

BUT, he is also very alert. Very much a detail person. He notices things the others don't, alerts them to danger, and gets 'vibes' when something doesn't feel right. He's their early warning system, and they look to him when faced with unusual situations. He's not the plan guy, he leaves that to Prim.

The scene above could have been handled using this characterization, by having him pause for a moment when Prim asks for ideas, to which he would respond with something like:

"The Birdbots average 62 seconds between patrols around the citadel. I saw an alcove about twenty feet diagonally to the right of us as we were climbing, so if we hide in there until the Birdies pass, we should be able to make it to the next outcropping before their next pass over if we hoof it."

And, as is customary in these types of shows when a character displays any kind of competence that goes against their usual personality, Prim and Hangry would stare at him for a few blinks before Prim would smile and say "You heard the echidna. Let's get a move on."

He's still a Knuckles. He's still clever and good at using his environment to his advantage. And honestly, Gnarly would be especially good at using the environment to his advantage, considering where and how he grew up. Thorn's rampage meant his environment was the danger, and he would need to figure out ways to survive it on the fly.

I'm disappointed we didn't have more scenes with Gnarly, or with all three Knux interacting. That would have been fun. But I suppose that's what fanfic is for, and I've put them together plenty of times in my Knucklesverse au ficlets.

This echidna is just damn adorable in all his iterations.

[crusherthedoctor]

"It doesn't matter. The vast majority of the loudest fans have already made their mind up. They swear that he's not a bad guy after all. And with how fans have grown to easily influence the official side of things (exhibit A: Ian Flynn being everywhere), it's likely that their interpretation will be pandered to no matter what their intention originally was."

Not trying to start a fight here, but this post felt a bit too... defeatist. You say there's more that annoys you about the current trend, but (genuinely curious) is there, aside from being fatigued by fandumb's bs (and people outside the fandom)?

And believe me, I do understand it. Sometimes it really does feel like it's you vs the world. And your worry in particular seems to be that the loudest voices in the Sonic fandom (which are often also wrong and/or biased) can end up becoming influential to some extent, which will only validate said voices (and people outside the fandom, since those voices will be the only ones heard) and make them stronger, especially in light of recent events given the new general perception of this being "the rebirth of the good old Sonic".

With Eggman's view on Maria's death and Sage's general existence as recent catalysts, you are correct in that the fandom already has a predetermined view of him being "not so bad". Moreover, I'll say the fandom is fully willing to incorporate any canon aspect into that interpretation, no matter how contradictory. But honestly, is it really the fault of Sage as a character that the fandom takes everything about her backwards? Even back when she didn't exist, back when Belle didn't exist, back when Eggette didn't exist, the fandom was going through the exact same motions with Metal and how Eggman clearly thinks of him like a son and that's a tell-tale sign that he is dad of the year. Some even went through the same with Orbot and Cubot. Some even did it with the E-Series. If Sage didn't exist, the fandom would continue being the same, just with a different character as a catalyst.

This is all just a general part of the fandom existence, one that's not even unique to Sonic, even if in lesser capacity. Is it unfortunate? Yes. Is it unfair? Yes. But sometimes things just are, and you gotta live with that and persevere.

As for Flynn, to me, a person who doesn't like the comics, he just feels like a living marketing gimmick to Sega. They know his name (and to an extent, the comic) drums up attention and so they wave his name around in attempt to sell their games to all the possible audiences. Don't take this as me saying your feelings are unjustified, I'm only saying you don't have to take it all beaten down.

Sorry if what I said was too blunt or harsh. I'm relatively new to your posts, so I don't know the finer details of what the fandom put you through, but I think you are letting them influence your thoughts too much, basically handing them the victory over you. Let dumbasses be dumbasses, you keep being you and doing what you like. There are more voices like yours out there than you may think, they will hear you. Just don't give up. Be as stubborn as Sonic is.

Not trying to start a fight here, but this post felt a bit too... defeatist. You say there's more that annoys you about the current trend, but (genuinely curious) is there, aside from being fatigued by fandumb's bs (and people outside the fandom)?

If you call this defeatist, I'd like to see what you think about all the people who spent the entire previous decade lamenting repeatedly how they're drifting away from Sonic due to their disapproval of the Pontaff games.

I've already made clear that I don't think the other characters' writing and overall handling have been up to par either (with exceptions, such as Dream Team). I've already made clear that I have other issues with Frontiers/IDW/Prime, such as the way plotting is approached in general, including the trend of casual retcons. I've already made clear that I don't even like the gameplay of Frontiers all that much, meaning I'm not particularly hyped about the possibility of that being the norm going forward (disclaimer: I'm actually open to, er, open world gameplay, but not like this).

And believe me, I do understand it. Sometimes it really does feel like it's you vs the world. And your worry in particular seems to be that the loudest voices in the Sonic fandom (which are often also wrong and/or biased) can end up becoming influential to some extent, which will only validate said voices (and people outside the fandom, since those voices will be the only ones heard) and make them stronger, especially in light of recent events given the new general perception of this being "the rebirth of the good old Sonic".

I wouldn't be concerned about it if there wasn't already a precedent for it, meaning it's likely to continue happening.

With Eggman's view on Maria's death and Sage's general existence as recent catalysts, you are correct in that the fandom already has a predetermined view of him being "not so bad". Moreover, I'll say the fandom is fully willing to incorporate any canon aspect into that interpretation, no matter how contradictory. But honestly, is it really the fault of Sage as a character that the fandom takes everything about her backwards? Even back when she didn't exist, back when Belle didn't exist, back when Eggette didn't exist, the fandom was going through the exact same motions with Metal and how Eggman clearly thinks of him like a son and that's a tell-tale sign that he is dad of the year. Some even went through the same with Orbot and Cubot. Some even did it with the E-Series. If Sage didn't exist, the fandom would continue being the same, just with a different character as a catalyst.

Yet another opinion I've expressed multiple times beforehand: I don't care for Sage even on her own merits due to how boring and - for how much she was hyped up as Eggman's greatest creation yet - surprisingly and consistently incompetent she is. Her dragging Eggman down is merely the cherry on top of the shit cake.

And you're absolutely right, fans have indeed already used Metal Sonic and other characters for this sort of thing before, and would have continued doing so regardless... but that doesn't mean SEGA themselves should be egging them on, intentionally or unintentionally. They could have simply continued right along, but instead they've provided their own semi-legitimate ammunition for these fans to go "See??? See???", thereby making it a whole lot more inescapable than ever before. And considering how it's a tale as old as time that other villains in the franchise are regularly praised for being "truly" evil, such as Mephiles for example, it's obvious that they just want Eggman out of the way so that the Real Villains can take center stage.

This is all just a general part of the fandom existence, one that's not even unique to Sonic, even if in lesser capacity. Is it unfortunate? Yes. Is it unfair? Yes. But sometimes things just are, and you gotta live with that and persevere.

Just because it exists in other fandoms, and has been a thing since fandoms have been a thing, doesn't mean I can't complain about it. Especially with how long I've endured it. With all due respect, this falls into whataboutism territory.

As for Flynn, to me, a person who doesn't like the comics, he just feels like a living marketing gimmick to Sega. They know his name (and to an extent, the comic) drums up attention and so they wave his name around in attempt to sell their games to all the possible audiences. Don't take this as me saying your feelings are unjustified, I'm only saying you don't have to take it all beaten down.

You know what else they can easily use to drum up attention, knowing fans would go crazy for it?

Portraying Eggman like this. Because it's been established that fans (generally speaking, not referring to literally every single person in it) think Eggman is stale and one-note unless he's a father figure or brings up a moral standard every time he speaks.

Sorry if what I said was too blunt or harsh. I'm relatively new to your posts, so I don't know the finer details of what the fandom put you through, but I think you are letting them influence your thoughts too much, basically handing them the victory over you. Let dumbasses be dumbasses, you keep being you and doing what you like. There are more voices like yours out there than you may think, they will hear you. Just don't give up. Be as stubborn as Sonic is.

Sonic is a fictional character who can conveniently be written to have that level of stubbornness no matter what he goes through. I'm a real person, not a product of the writer's pen, and reality is rarely as straightforward.

I've dealt with alienation for over a decade. I've dealt with on-and-off harassment for over a decade, which has only increased in frequency ever since IDW became a thing and I started criticising it (before you ask, the harassment I screencap and show in posts only makes up a small percentage, there's a lot more that I don't bother showing because it would be redundant). Various details about me that are beyond my control, such as my autism or simply being a white male, have been repeatedly brought up and jeered at despite not being relevant to my Sonic opinions. No matter how concise I attempt to be in expressing my opinions, people are guaranteed to paint said opinions in a false and overly simplified light just to portray me as an idiot who doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about. When I experienced an attack in real life in 2019, people cheered it on and expressed to my face how they were disappointed that I wasn't killed. When I experienced a different incident last year, I didn't even go into details publicly because I knew they'd cheer that one on too. When I lost my grandmother, they celebrated her death just because it was me. My friends have been frequently subjected to similar harassment and abuse over the years, either because of their own opinions, or because they happen to be friends with yours truly. And every time I show a little bit of frustration, or fatigue, usually within my own lane at that, I'm the one who is portrayed as a deranged maniac who is out to make people suffer, while the fans who throw around death threats like they're candy, either to me and my friends or to people associated with the franchise, curiously don't get held up nearly as often for their behaviour.

It's very easy to wave the finger at me and tell me to not give up, take it on the chin, and so on. But this isn't about them "having the victory over me". This is not a video game. This is real life. Mental health is important, more important than painting a fake smile as I sit through an insufferable, volatile, hypocritical, emotionally draining echo chamber of a video game fandom just because "Sonic would peservere through it". Trying my best is one thing, and I always will try my best, but I can't pretend to be someone I'm not. I'm allowed to get upset. I'm allowed to get tired. I'm allowed to admit that I feel more welcomed and respected regardless of differing perspectives in other fan communities. I shouldn't be held up to a near-impossible standard while other people in the same community scream bloody murder over the slightest things on a regular basis.

[gear-project]

Annon-Guy: Continuation of Artificial Life Discussion.

How would you classify A.B.A., Ramlethal, Noel and Es than? (Ram and Es' stories especially move me and touches a lot as they develop their emotions and humanity, being more human than Ariels and Unomaru could ever be.)

Ram, Noel and Es get treated badly by antagonists as I said and that's despicable in my honest opinion, which is nice that Sin, Ragna and Touya accepted them. Even Sol had to admit he was wrong about Ramlethal, Elphelt and Jack-O' not having real emotions.

Even though A.B.A didn't face such prejudice and considers herself superior, she still is alive like anyone, learning as life goes on.

It may just be me looking on the bright side of things, me wanting to accept people regardless of race/species or just being a brave reckless fool, but that's ultimately how I roll as I like to think that way. Such a thing is even brought up with robots from Mega Man Archie compared to artificial life forms like a certain black hedgehog that Sonic respects.

That's how I'd feel if anything like a Valentine, Homunculus, Prime Field or Embryo Storage. Of they did evil, I'd stand against them, but of they're a good person, I'd be their friend.

It'd be no different from anyone of our own race. I understand if you feel different, but that's how I feel.

Following up on your previous ask (had to take a break from last time):

A.B.A. already states that she is not Human, and that is of no concern to her, mostly because Humans are little more than a trifle in her eyes.

It's not necessarily that she ENTIRELY looks down on Humans, so much that she has beliefs and confidence in herself that trancends that concern.

Fitting in with Humans isn't as important to her as making an impact on existence on her own merits would be, in other words.

Moving right along, we'll mention Ramlethal and Elphelt here… Bedman goes out of his way to state that despite how Ramlethal was raised, she is just a normal human girl. And even Slayer says that Ramlethal was a mere child blessed with unnatural gifts that the world barely has any right to judge. The same could be said of Elphelt.

Also it is not that any of them didn't face prejudice… all of them did, even if it wasn't obvious or apparent.

Humans are very quick to fear what they don't understand… A.B.A. included.

Now, to touch on characters like Es, Noel, and even The Origin… a lot of their story isn't entirely told, but the parts that are tell us that they did what they could to live as Human as they possibly could.

Noel enjoyed living among Humans, even had a family, a mother and a father… and both parents still loved Noel and trusted in her to make the right choices in life.

That's called unconditional love. And it reflects Noel's determination to save everyone around her who suffers from their situations.

All the more reason why Mu-12 felt so betrayed when she fell in to Izanami's trap in Central Fiction's events. It took Ragna himself to rescue her from that fate, and Ragna wasn't even aiming for Mu-12 as his final goal on a list of people he wanted to save!

Of all the distorted feelings they faced, only Ragna truly understood the situation more than anyone else… forgoing his own wishes, forgoing his own feelings, he sought to save everyone, even if it meant denying everyone of their dreams (at first).

Es's situation was bound by an indeterminate possibility, one that she could not foresee until Ragna fulfilled his purpose. It took Ragna and Naoto Kurogane's actions to fix Es's future to a degree as well.

Setting all that aside for a moment, understand that Boundary Contact Mediums weren't INTENDED to be Human at the outset… and yet, because they observed aspects of the Boundary, BECAME HUMAN… whether Humans wanted to admit that or not!

Embryo Storage (ES) was part of that fate… even if she had an artificial beginning… she became Human after all was said and done.

The same was true of Valentines, as well as a certain MERCILESS APOCALYPSE…even Ariels "became" Human!

What makes people Human isn't necessarily their biochemistry, genetics, gender, or their family heritages… it's the fact they develop a Heart, a Will, a Spirit, and a Mind of their own that is meant to be respected and acknowledged.

Perhaps it is true that the previous generation of Humans have a limited understanding of what it MEANS to be Human… but that's true of anyone who hasn't studied the Human Heart or Human Spirit.

You have to make contact with other people to even begin to understand them.

[semi-sketchy]

I guess I'll give my Sonic Prime thoughts now.

Yeah the show is pretty ehh and honestly I don't feel like trying to write a deep dive into why right now, so this is just my ramblings.

Many people have already criticized how poorly paced season 3 was, how bad Thorn's episodes are, what that ending even was (seriously, where did Shadow even take the Prism...? Did everyone else make it back to their worlds okay...? WTF was the outcome with Nine?) I agree with that so I'm not gonna repeat it all.

The premise itself had more potential, but it's just so...generic. I know, the idea of Sonic traveling across a multiverse of other canons was never going to happen, but the alternative of Sea World™ and Jungle World™ were so bland it hurts.

I wonder if part of the visual blandness is from the 3D. I know, as a show and not a movie, it has a very different budget, but I believe Boom had better and more lively environments. It's like the entire set modeling budget went to New Yoke while everywhere else got completely shafted.

Which...why was New Yoke the only place that got an Eggman? Er...Eggmen? Like I know the idea of there only being one Sonic is because he broke the Prism, Shadow doesn't have counterparts because he wasn't in the cave, but neither was Big? Like happy to see Big, but also I'm wondering where the consistency is.

Though all the counterparts are so stereotypical it hurts. I think Dread was the one I found the most compelling, though maybe I just like pirates. Also is it bad when Chaos Sonic showed up and even Sonic was like "do you EVER shut up?" all I could think about was IDW like that guy was ANNOYING AF

As for Sonic, he is VERY vocal in this show. If he's not talking, he's grunting or screaming. It's like the audio department didn't know what to do if a character wasn't making noise, like YouTuber who constantly uses jumpcuts to hopefully keep your attention. That's what it felt like. In a cinematic story, sometimes silence is better, but nope! Sonic is falling again! He got hit! He's running really fast! It's like they use the same 3 high energy sound clips for the whole show and I just got tired of it. It's not the VA's fault, this is entirely on the audio mixing/direction and it's only really a problem with Sonic because he's made out to be a clumsy, lovable and meme-worthy dork.

Sonic himself really is the biggest problem for me. Even putting aside how OOC he is, his shtick is just...tiresome. He's the idiotic embodiment of stereotypical ADHD. He's designed to be marketable as a silly internet blorbo rather than a compelling character. It's kind of hard to look past how the show heralds him for his emotional talks bringing everyone together when it's so...shallow.

There are some parts of the show I found compelling, like I know many disagree with this, but honestly? Shadow was the best part. Sonic and Shadow fights are cool and I liked how he had a solid reason to be angry. Not like Boom where he just shows up to kick Sonic's teeth in because he can. No, Sonic broke reality and Shadow is pissed about that! Trying to simply fix it himself when he's been watching Sonic stumble through all these Shatterspaces going "huh aren't you my friends?" eight times like an absolute buffoon tracks to me. Maybe if Sonic was written competently I would think it's silly, but if Sonic is going to be this dumb, yeah Shadow was right to try and take the reins. Although I realize the biggest reason people like him is because Sonadow, I'm just happy to see him not being a mean edgelord.

I don't really have more to say about the series than this because it's just a bowl of nothing soup. I can see an attempt to blend action and comedy, similar to Boom, but the jokes aren't funny and the action isn't exciting. Boom recognized its strong suit was comedy and focused more on that while Prime just slowly got worse.

Legit the only thing that improves over the course of the series is the overuse of flashbacks, thankfully that's relegated mostly to season 1, but everything else just goes downhill. The pacing suffers, dialogue gets repeated at agony and Prism Sonic wasn't even made interesting.

The conflicts aren't good, the slapstick is bad and honestly the best joke in the series is when they all had to keep pausing and ducking under the laser in episode 2. The whole thing is just so...forgettable.

I think at some point in a year or two, after I get through all the other Sonic cartoons, I'll rewatch Prime and see if I change my mind at all. Though for now, I'm glad it's finally over.

[beevean]

(Same anon as before)

Haha, sorry for making you think of Tangle's and Whisper's apology😅 But I must say, that is also something I had in mind when I wrote that I didn't expect the other characters to give Silver the apology he likely deserves if they go the route of the others ragging on him first. So far, I do not think that route is entirely proven with the solicit only stating "Awkwardness ensures.", but... Meh, I truly just have a bad feeling about it, not helped by the whole bit of the hasty accusations and what happened in Archie beforehand. I would not be surprised if 'Silver acts like an idiot and the others are snapping at him for getting in the way and being distrusting of this Cool New Diamond Cutter' were to happen, let's put it that way.

Honestly, with "I hate when the story is about characters making a fool of themselves" you hit the nail on the head: we know it is going to be incredibly cringe and awkward and uncomfortable! The solicits of both issue 63 and 64 state as much! ("But he's too busy being star-struck over Whisper to notice that he's interrupting their training!" and ".... he jumps to a conclusion that leads him to some hasty accusations. Awkwardness ensures." as prime examples.) And it might just be a complete disservice to Silver's character, both personality- and power-wise (you are NOT going to tell me Silver's PK is less powerful and skilled than Whisper's Wispon usage. Meteor Smash, anyone? Stopping the Eclipse Canon beam in that Sonic Channel story?), on top. Hopefully the plot line of Sonic and Blaze will indeed be something better handled than what the Silver and Diamond Cutters plotline is shaping up to be.

The thing is that "Character spends the entire runtime pointing out that Something is Wrong, gets arbitrarily brushed off, they are eventually proven right" is just... such a cliché plot. I'm pretty sure it's a stock episode in every Western cartoon. At least one can argue that the Whispangle Drama was supposed to teach a lesson about trauma and how to handle it (even if it was utter shit at it), but this is just a time waster - we know that the new guy is Mimic, it's so obvious from the cover, what's the point of going through this song and dance? Unless there's some Big Twist about it... and uhhh don't trust IDW with twists anymore...

Also yeah, you know what? Why is Silver even a Whisper fanboy? Whisper may be cool as a sniper, but Silver is by far one of the most OP people in the Sonicverse. This is not like him being amazed by the desert because it's still better than the future he grew up in, so he clearly has different standards of what counts as impressive, it's just... she uses Wisps, big deal, he can fucking stop a meteor thrown at him by a demigod.

In fact, I'll say that in general, the way Silver was used to introduce Whisper is... not very good. Compare this:

Tangle's introduction, where she displays her combat prowess and immediately befriends Sonic, showing her attitude and dorkiness in a natural way...

... and Whisper's, where before we actually see her in action, we get told by a canon character about how Amazing and Cool she is (let alone that said canon character is warped OOC), because she saved his life, yeah the random sniper is so fucking awesome man, trust me! Funnily enough, the first time we see her, she's just struggling to open a door, lmao.

(also i just realized that calling whisper "guardian angel", something she was never referred to since then, implies that they're all christian)

(and sonic is being a dick. in other news, water is wet)

Basically, it's amateur fanfiction-tier writing, which is odd because Flynn nailed it with Tangle.

Sorry for the tangent 😅 I guess I'm trying to say that Silver's writing in IDW has always been severely flawed and this plotline just sounds like it's going to be very annoying, unless you love uwu Cute Dork Round-Eyed Silver-kun. Which is most of his modern fans, from what I gather.

[skelekin]

Sonic Prime Season 2/Season 1 part 2 thoughts and critiques

Nobody asked but I'm gonna share em anyway, minor spoilers ahead

Stuff I liked:

Shadow. Good god how refreshing it is to see a portrayal of Shadow that isn't one-note and sucks ass. his voice is closer to his original SA2 depiction, him beating the snot out of Sonic isn't entirely unprompted and random, and honestly his scenes may have carried this entire season. The interactions he has with Sonic are also fantastic and oooogghh gay

Sonic!! I'll be honest I really have a hard time understanding ppl's issues with his characterization here; he's a naive, impulsive, rebellious teenager that wants to see the good in the world. I like that I actually get to see him make mistakes, jump to conclusions, and be scared or sad. This is the kind of thing I feel like ppl have been ASKING for from him so I don't quite get the pushback

Nine is great as ever, definitely a highlight of this entire series and he could possibly end up having one of the best character arcs in the franchise

Chaos Sonic!!!!! Wowie what a fun dude, his segments made me smile the most

Animation is once again super bouncy and fluid with dynamic shots, you can tell action is this team's bread and butter (to a fault at times, but I'll get to that later)

Stuff I didn't like:

Good GOD is the pacing bad. Honestly I think it might be worse than season 1, there were so many times where I thought to myself "nothing is happening", and desperately wished they used the little time they had per episode to flesh characters out or have some more world building.

On that, as great as the action animation is, these scenes easily take up two thirds of each episode and it gets very, very boring after a while. It becomes difficult to appreciate them when they seem to just never end. There were so many times when I would become relieved when they finally took a pause, only for that relief to vanish a minute later when the egg council throws out more of the same exact cannon fodder for yet another battle scene

And speaking of the egg council, oooh boy did they get grating. I get this is a kids show, I'm not even expecting like ATLA levels of villains here, but they feel straight from Disney Junior. The concept of eggman cloning himself and having each one represent a different aspect of his psyche is fantastic, but it's completely squandered on one-dimensional tropes that tell literally the same exact jokes word for word, there is nothing intimidating about them

Like I said I desperately kept begging for SOME level of adequate screentime to flesh out the characters and other worlds, but as is, aside from Nine, the other versions of these guys just have One Bit and their worlds again feel ripped from Disney Junior. I was holding out hope that since season 1 had to introduce all of them that season 2 would get to show more, but no. Pirate world where they all go yar har and that's it. Jungle world where they do battle cries and that's it. Despite being the crux of the entire premise of this show they're painfully uninteresting

Where is Shadow!!!!!! What little we see of him is fantastic, too bad he's barely present! They hyped up his elevated appearance so much and seeing him hardly get to do anything was such a let down.

Chaos Sonic, as fun as he was, was only present for one episode. Why

It's very saddening to see this show fall into the recent trap plaguing media aimed at younger audiences where everything is dialed up to 11 nearly All the Time. The samey stock background action music hardly ever stops, once again these guys can't seem to go one minute without punching swarms of copy paste goons, we must keep jingling the keys because how else will we keep kids' attention. I think back to how 4Kids added unecessary music queues to every single action when adapting Sonic X and how much worse it was for it

Overall Prime has been really frustrating because there's so many glimmers of potential on display that get bogged down by the fact that they're just not willing to fully commit to and take any risk on. Idk how much of that is the team's fault, I don't doubt the possibility that higher up the chain some suits are holding their vision back. It just sucks bc I really, REALLY want to like this show more, but I can't really say it's more than just. Okay

I hope season 3 is able to reel it back in

[game-boy-pocket]

So... Nintendo Direct thoughts I guess.

I joined a little late, so honestly, I just fast forwarded through all the games I didn't care about. Kinda the way to go tbh.

I still don't know about pokemon man. Everyone is saying "Yeah it's poorly made but it's one of their better games in a long time" but like I don't know how much I trust a pokemon fan's opinion on that that... you know I preordered Violet, after Legends Arceus left a good impression on me. But I cancelled it after some financial harships started happening and now I feel like I dodged a bullet.

Sonic Super Stars is looking pretty good, I really... really wish Fang was playable... I know he's a bad guy but I love him so much and have always wanted him to be playable... I'm just glad he's back at all, and his 3D model looks decent.

That "Saturday Morning Cartoon" inspired game intrigues me but like they shouldn't have had the boring Nintendo Direct narrator talking over the trailer and let the game speak for itself, show it's personality a little... does it have cheesy filmation style dialogue?? Also their villain looks kind of lame compared to like, Skeletor or Prime Evil.

Still not sure about Splatoon 3. It just looks like more of the same to me, I am kind of curious, but at the same time, it feels too late to start now... then again, if the game really is as samey as it looks, I could probably just coast on what I know from Splatoon 1 and 2.

I have no interest in Detective Pikachu as a franchise and the fact that his personality just seems to be "I love coffee" does not endear me to the character.

Super Mario RPG

Holy Fucking Shit

I didn't think the maniacs would do it.

When I heard the rumors I was like "Yeah right... this does not fit in line with the current corporate image of Mario, they're not gonna do it, and if they do, they'll butcher the art style"

I was so fucking wrong, it looks amazing. They even made Mario all squat and pudgy like the original game, I love it so much, and it looks like there are new cinematics... possibly even entirely new sections of the game what with Bowser riding his Clown car with the others.... that or they're new special attacks. I can't fucking wait you guys it looks so fucking good, I hope they consider making it a franchise again. I still have the original game but I am going to buy this day one.

We even saw Boshi briefly, and the spines still have their weird shapes. I have no reason to believe they'll change Terrapins into standard looking Koopa Troopas now. Literally all my fears are gone.

Don't know what to think about the Peach game. I make it no secret, I'm kind of over the whole arts and crafts aesthetic in games and a game that's just a stage play seems no different. I'm not even sure what kind of game it is. I just would have wanted another platformer. I guess I have to see more.

Luigi's Mansion 2 coming to Switch is a pleasant surprise. I wonder if we're going to enter an age of 3DS ports, because I can think of several 3DS games I want to see on Switch. Kid Icarus and A Link Between Worlds chief among them Luigi's Mansion 2 is my least favorite in the series, but it's still a good time. It not being on handheld makes me more likely to replay it. I do think they could have enhanced the visuals a little more though.

Too little too late with Batman. I already bought it on PC. I would have bought the Arkham Trilogy day one if it launched earlier in the Switch's life. But i'm glad the option is there for people.

I'll be honest I thought Dragon Quest Monsters looked pretty "meh", and I don't know if it's just a bad trailer or what, but the fact that the Solo, the Hero from DQIV shows up, immediately got my interest, he hs my fave hero design, and I was happy he was a skin in Smash Bros... still, man, this looks like a 3DS game... How can they be releasing this after Dragon Quest XI?? Also, is the playable character the bad guy from DQIV? I played the NES version so I didn't really see his human form.

Not much to say about Pikmin. It looks like Pikmin. Which is a good thing. But I don't know how eager I am to play it. Not a day one purchase, but an eventual purchase.

I am tempted by the Metal Gear Solid collection but it has so much extra shit that I don't really need which probably jacks up the price and I think I might prefer playing MGS1 on a CRT anyway. But man it's jsut been so long since I played Metal Gear that I don't even care I just want a way to play it. I'm just glad it's not a fucking Cloud game.

Penny's Big Breakaway had my attention just from the character designs, it screams Playstation 1 platformer. Like Mega Man Legends or Tail Concerto or something. And it's a 3D platformer... but when I heard the Sonic Mania team is working on this, i'm all in. I just wish the enemies weren't just a bunch of dopey looking birds, I want a least some kind of cool factor in the game. But yes I will be keeping my eye on this one.

Mario Kart 8 DLC looking okay. I expected Petey. He's cool I guess but i'm not gonna play as him. I'll be happy to see him on the track though. He was kind of a big part of Mario History in the Gamecube and Wii era.... Wiggler though? Meh... and KAMEK. He should have been in the base game imo, he should be a mainstay in every spinoff, he should have been introduced with the Yoshi's Island course... I'm very happy to have Kamek here. The course looks interesting too. Glad it appears to be another new course.

The new Wario Ware....... looks like Smooth Moves 2. Was the boring Nintendo Direct Narrator doing a Wario voice or did Wario get a new voice actor?? Anyway. I'll keep an eye on this. Smooth Moves was my 2nd Fave Wario Ware game, so this shows potential.

I was pretty bummed out when they mentioned Tears of the Knigdom, and it was only to announce some Amiibos... I still can't even find the Link Amiibo. They look nice though. It will be nice to have a Ganondorf Amiibo that doesn't look like shit. ( No offense to TP Ganondorf fans, but you gotta admit, the first wave f Smash Bros Amiibos is kind of rough ) ...I hope this isn't a deconfirmation of DLC. I really want more of this game, now that the main story is done and my list of side quests is rapidly shrinking, I'm getting sad about the inevitable end of one of my fave Zeldas.

And the big one

Super Mario Wonder

I'll admit I was disappointed that it was doing 3D again instead of a hand drawn style...

But the characters look so good now. They actually look more like 3D models of Koichi Kotabe's artwork. Mario and co are so expressive, their stances are not nearly as boring as the New Super Mario Bros games, their animations are so good, calling back to Mario 3 and Mario World with the blurry feet and airplane run, Mario actually HAS facial expressions now... and holy shit is fucking DAISY playable? Without sacrificing Toad? This is pretty huge! The enemies are looking really cool and stylized too, they all seem to have gotten model upgrades!

I will say... this is reminding me a little bit of Kirby Return to Dreamland, which... is worrying to me. That "wonder Flower" reeks of a Kirby gimmick, and I honestly find that Kirby's gimmicks lately just kind of slow the flow of the game, and often times just feel like all flash and no substance. "ooh I destroyed a hole room of enemies with a really big sword that I was forced to pick up" like I don't actually feel like I accomplished anything with that... I hope I'm wrong.

Also, I heard the rumor that there would be elephants... I don't like elephants. I thought I'd hate Elephant Mario... but you know what, he makes me smile.

I am so excited for this game.

This was definitely one of the better Nintendo Directs in a while, it won't top the back to back Banjo in Smash and Tears of the Kingdom reveal for me, but i'm pretty happy with what's on the horizon.

[sonicku]

My thoughts on the new Sonic Prime clip, along with Prime!Tails as a whole.

(Before we start, I'll be refering to the Tails from the first shatterverse as 'Prime!Tails' and Modern Tails as 'Tails'. Just because I don't think theres a general consensus yet, and we haven't seen much of the other shatterverses as of posting.)

Okay! Now for the actual meat of this! First, I'll talk about the more practical side of things.

I have to start by saying that I LOVE how expressive their new models are, along with how they're used. Even with the BOOM cartoon (which I love, by the way) they were never this fluid and expressive. And do I even need to mention it in comparision to the games? Like, I love that they tried more in Frontiers with the faces, but this is leauges above it. Even the ears move! The ears!

With the pixel art animation, I do have to admit some bits seemed a bit janky, expecially Sonic's sprite. HOWEVER, the shot of Prime!Tails at his workbench was absoloutley gourgeous in my opinion. And my opinion is always correct. /j

The voices definitely take getting used to, but I've already warmed up to Prime!Tails' Ashleigh Ball within a few rewatches of this clip. Something about his more mature and... depressing voice and direction is so fitting for this itteration of the character; though I do wonder how it will feel with other shatterverse versions of him.

Prime!Sonic, however? I don't know, he's just... different. Not better, not worse, just a change I've got to get used to. I joined this fandom in the Roger Craig Smith era, and even going back to Sonic Adventure threw me off with the voice of Ryan Drummond. So it'll take me time to get a feel for Deven Mack, but I've got my hopes up that he'll be a great Sonic!

Okay, more story based stuff now! Before I gush, I need to get one nitpick out of the way that made me want to bite the writers ankles. THE TORNADO IS SONIC'S PLANE, NOT TAILS'. I'm willing to accept this as an alternate fact of the Prime universe, but it's such a weird discrepancy to have? Maybe he was just making it sound cooler for the poor guy. In which case, fair enough Prime!Sonic, fair enough.

I've always loved the dynamic between Sonic and Tails, but this clip is making the reason why even clearer to me. Sonic, for Tails, represents loved ones who support you and your disability. I'll be using this as an autism allegory, since that's my experience.

If you find the right people, and they are out there, they can help you experience the postitives of your disability even through all of the pain it's brought to you. For Tails, it's his bullying and the power of flight. For me, it's my alienation and heightened connection to things I love. Tails had Sonic, and I had my autstic friends, and autistic partner.

But Prime!Tails had no connection. He had no Sonic. He's spent a life with no support network to help him through this, and to bring out the best in him. All he's had is a cold, ablist world, one that broke him down for years until he snapped. Until everybodies lack of passion took the spark he had left. Until he fought back with violence and anger, a face pained like no eight year old's should ever be.

They're two sides of the same coin, and from the start, the same person. Whether there was people around him who loved him and accepted him was all that stopped him Tails from tearing himself apart all those years ago. He could have been Prime!Tails with different circumstances, and vica virsa.

It makes me wonder, though. With the different shatterverses, will his mental state change too? There's no reason to believe that the others are as cold and heartless as the first, so perhaps he was able to find his place in the world, even without Prime!Sonic. I think that would be important to show; there isn't one set person who is the saving grace, it's a series of people, a series of actions, an entire enviroment.

There's been a lot of thoughts in my head about this so I might be forgetting some, I'll reblog with extra if I remember anything. TLDR? This clip was fucking incredible.

[tracingpapier]

watched the first ep of sonic prime, my thoughts below!

umm i do get kinda critical about it so if you don't wanna hear that then just skip this one i guess! also slight spoilers maybe? i'm writing for readers who have already seen the first episode.

writing/plot

okay so first and foremost the first episode, shattered, did NOT have to be that long. i feel like very little happened or was communicated given the length of the episode, in the sense that they spent so much time reiterating that "wow, sonic's in a different place!". i get that it's a kids show, but i doubt kids need the premise beat into their heads this heavily. sonic spends so much time just running around questioning everything that's going on to the point where it's redundant. i think that could've worked if it came out of a reluctance to accept the change in reality around him, but i definitely think it came off more as him just being kind of... dumb? i don't know how many of the games are canon to this show, but we've seen this exact kind of set-up in the storybook games and to my memory he was a lot quicker to pick up on "oh, my friends are different people here" than in shattered. i feel that sonic trying to get nine to "remember" him was way too drawn out.

it's worth mentioning that sonic x does have a really similar premise: sonic gets separated from his friends and ends up in a whole new world. although the world in shattered is much more dystopian, both worlds are pretty immediately hostile to sonic, and yet i feel that sonic x had a much stronger opening. (and, like, i'm not the biggest sonic x guy myself. it has nostalgic qualities for sure, but i'm not a "stan", y'know?) i think a lot of prime's pacing issues just stem from the fact that this opening episode is 45~ minutes long, having too much run time to fill with minimal set-up. i'm anticipating that the rest of the episodes, being shorter, will be better paced!

the voice actors were fine! deven christian mack gave a performance very similar to roger craig smith, sometimes i thought it might actually be him haha. i thought he was good (if you like roger's take on sonic, you'll like deven's)! everyone else's performances were satisfactory, but nothing to write home about as of yet. knuckles' voice sounded forcibly deep sometimes? and sometimes the deliveries could be meh, but other than that everything was fine.

okay, i have to say it: the dialogue was very mid-tier, sometimes even downright bad. it really seemed like they were trying to go for snappy, quirky dialogue but oh boy it did not land for me personally.

i really hope they don't go with a "sonic has to learn to be a good friend" narrative that they kind of seemed to be setting up. i feel like one of sonic's defining character traits is that he's, like, already a good friend? i'm not really interested in a narrative where he has to learn to "listen to his friends better". he already does that just fine in other media.

quick note: i'm definitely interested to see where they go with shadow's character! i am so happy that they're not just framing him as "evil" immediately. or like overly dickish. thank god.

also baby eggman was funny. i like his silly baby mech.

animation

i liked the animation! very fluid and nice in some parts. i'm personally not super big on 3D animated tv shows --i find that it can be hard to pull off good-looking 3D with a tv budget-- but i didn't mind it! the models i'm not entirely sold on, but i think it looked good overall. i like that they weren't afraid to push the expressions. i think i would've liked it more had they gone with something that looked more akin to the bad guys movie that came out recently, but again, i'm sure there's a budgetary difference there, just based on assumption.

ok that's all for now! i'm hoping things get a little better as it goes! also please keep in mind that i am quite literally Just Some Guy on the internet sharing his thoughts about a cartoon for children. my opinion on this only has as much meaning as you give it. if you like it that's totally fine and i'm happy you enjoyed the show! please keep that in mind before taking to the notes and typing up a reply :,)

tl;dr i think the show has a solid premise and an okay start, and i'm hoping the show gets better as it goes (and with less run-time to fill lol)!

[crusherthedoctor]

It's been so weird being a Sonic fan recently. I see masses of fans praising the ever living hell of Frontiers, the movies, IDW and now Prime, and I just... don't get it? I can't really "see" what they see in these that make them the "gold standard". Couple that with the surreal amount of protection Flynn has been getting from the fanbase on Twitter and I now feel very..."alienated", thinking that maybe I'm wrong. Have you guys been feeling like that? What's the best advice in moments like this?

It also doesn't help when you're constantly subjected to grade-A shittiness and genuine harassment for having different opinions, and no one bats an eye, but the moment you vent in a mildly irritable way, everyone bands together to show their concern for your "troubling behaviour". Not that the fandom was perfect beforehand, but ever since Flynn gained as much influence as he currently has, it's only gotten worse. It really has become unbearable. People really do show cultish tendencies with that guy, and to a lesser extent the rest of the Archie/IDW crew.

I wish I could offer something more original than "don't back down", but despite all the bullshit I've seen and received, I've stood by my opinions throughout it all. Not just because I know I can back them up with logic, but also because I think it's important to hold true to one's feelings, and be honest with them, instead of parroting the popular consensus for no other reason than because it's the popular consensus. I refuse to be turned into a drone who forms their conclusions entirely around what popular YouTubers are saying.

[beevean]

Gonna be honest, I feel like Flynn just is burnt out from writing Sonic or what's going on two decades. Like I'm not familiar with the guy but like. He started writing for it because he liked Archie Sonic specifically. (obviously he did play some of the games before. how much he remembered from them is a different kettle of fish XD)

And now Archie Sonic is dead - sure he's gotten to write for Frontiers in SOME capacity. But how long does he ant to write for Sonic? Does he really want to be known as just the Sonic writer? Especially after the Mega Man comic's mixed success and collapse into seeming obscurity.

Then there's the whole being almost deified by a chunk of fandom that also crosses into the "SEGA literally stole my tax returns" territory.

His bad takes and some of his behavior aside I feel kinda bad for the man XD

The way he talks about playing the games and reading Archie is so different that I can say that he's an Archie fan before he is a Sonic fan.

"I made an effort to play the entire library, to some degree or the other..."

"I grew up reading the books! I was a walking encyclopedia!"

Tell me it doesn't sound like he played most of the games one time when he was a kid and then not bothered again, while he was obsessed with Archie :P

I don't know the details of his job. I don't know if he can leave now, nor really if he wants to. But, my opinion of him aside, he should absolutely take a break. Not only he's been writing for 16 years, but recently he's been involved in so many projects! IDW, the Encyclospeedia, Prime, Origins, Frontiers, you could even count the Bumblekast... one man can't do all of this at once. I used to say the same about Ohtani being left alone for years, and I like his work, but you can tell that he was exhausted by the time he worked on Forces.

Stanley can help him with IDW, but after Frontiers, he should stay away from Sonic for a while. Yes, I'm biased :P but there's the serious risk of a burn out.