#I have... thoughts on that game

[clockwise-works]

Interested to read your Sonic bitching. 1, 7, 9, 13 for that fandom specifically?

Thanks for the ask, maniskillingus! (I need a shorter name to refer to you as lmao) Sonic bitching, huh? Well you'll learn, I can bitch about ANY of these damn games. Also, sorry for the late response! I got a little carried away with this... Also, there ARE hot takes below. Consider yourself warned.

1. The character everyone gets wrong.

So this is a little tough, ngl. In the 30 something years of this franchise, Sega has created SO many different iterations of these characters that it's... well it's hard to really define what a character "is". With that being said... Amy.

Amy's been relatively fucked in terms of fan perception for literal decades. She was initially conceived as a character who had a crush on Sonic, yes, but that wasn't ALL there was to her character. In the beginning? Yes. But, that was Sonic CD, a 16 bit 1993 game with no dialogue and barely even 2 in-game cutscenes. Every other character was a one dimensional character trait. Sonic was the main character who was cool and fast. Tails was the player 2 (that is literally it). Robotnik was the evil scientist. She, like many other characters, started out simple, yes, but grew over time without losing that core idea.

In Sonic Adventure, she finds a little bird that's being chased by an

Robotnik robot, and immediately decides to protect it. She does end up getting captured, yes, but she doesn't sit until the blue bastard shows up and rescues her, no. She protects the little bird from a Gamma (who she quite literally says she knows he'll hurt both of them), questions his logic, and is asked why she cares for someone she knows nothing of, before Gamma ultimately let's her go. Is it clunky. Oh absolutely, they don't really answer Gamma's question explicitly, instead she just tells him "love isn't part of his programing, you are missing out on something good" which reads to me as her basically saying she doesn't need to know anything about anyone to have a love or care for them, it's inherent. Her compassion towards the little bird and questioning Gamma's logic both results in her freedom, and is a part of Gamma's arc in growing beyond his coding.

And then when Eggman orders Gamma to dispose of Sonic, Tails, and Amy later on the Egg Carrier, her compassion from earlier pays off again as she pleads for Gamma not to fight, in which we actively see him fighting against his coding and agrees! She then STOPS SONIC from destroying Gamma, once again proving her inherent kindness. Sonic could've and would've trashed Gamma with ease, so that was completely in favor of Gamma, going against someone she loves to save another person.

She does this again in Sonic Adventure 2! Throughout the entirety of the game, she was the ONLY ONE on the hero team to actually attempt to reach out to Shadow. Sonic NEVER does. It's on sight for those two every time they meet up. Sonic NEVER has a moment where he argues for Shadow to be better, to turn over a new leaf no matter how much the IDW comics try to retcon his personality into. But Amy does. She's the ONLY one to actually ask Shadow to help save the earth, arguing for the good of mankind in spite of learning what the government did to Shadow and the entire Ark. And he agrees! Her words resonate with him and help him remember that Maria wanted him to protect earth. To the point he agress to fulfill his promise to Maria... AND AMY! Even directly stating her! Once again, yes, there were scenes of her having a crush on Sonic, like breaking him out of prison (another good scene of Amy showcasing she's not just a damsel in distress, this will be important later btw) but that wasn't ALL there was to her! She was compassionate to Shadow in A2. She went out of her way to save Elise in 06. While Heroes does kinda just write her down to "chasing Sonic", a byproduct of that games rather flat and simple writing to the point most characters are one note, she's now playable and does cool shit. She's fully capable as her own person AND as a team. Sure, it was mainly gameplay reasons to have her play similar to other Speed characters, but that's still a part of the game and the representation of her. She can fight Eggman robots just like everyone else, and can lead a team.

Now, I'm not saying Amy had this perfect characterization and the fans simply fucked it up, no. The biggest misconception and "joke critique" DID have a foothold within the franchise, such as Sonic X, Sonic Battle, and Sonic Chronicals. But honestly? Those at times absolutely abysmal portrayals (seriously what the fuck was Battle and Chronicles doing💀??? Giving Amy body dysmorphia??? Jesus man) shouldn't have been the main thing people take away in regards to her character. Almost ALL the characters had their points of having badly written characterization up until 06, such as Shadow and his "angst amnesia", and "stupid Knuckles" to the point Sega attempted to... overcorrect. For Shadow, they made him a villian in Boom and now he's kinda just... there (I'm not counting Prime, I didn't want past season one but people say he was written good), REALLY leaned into the dumb Knuckles joke until forces, and Amy...

The biggest takeaways for Amy's character was that she was "lovesick for sonic" and "pathetic damsel in distress" so Sega leaned HARD into the other direction.

For the Boom show she was more of a feminist, independent strong woman, but given that show was a comedy that would sometimes joke about her hypocrisy or shortcomings (think Knuckles feminist joke), I don't necessarily want to focus on that. Instead, I want to focus on Amy now.

After the release of Sonic Frontiers, people (especially Sonic Twitter) raved about how the game "fixed Amy." That she was now a good character. ...uhhhh what? I mean ok, I get it in regards to the 2010's, in which her personality was representing in... Sonic Gens (where she had maybe three cutscenes with a speaking role), Sonic Lost World (where she, once again had maybe three cutscenes), and Forces where she actually had SOME weight in the story being the resistance's... something. Basically in Gens she was represented with a background joke of her attempting to hug Sonic as he pushes her away and hits Knuckles for insulting Sonic, in Lost Word she showed surface level worry for the kidnapped critters and worry for the world dying, and in Forces she kinda just directed everyone to where they needed to go. So Frontier's attempting to course correct THAT under representation is fine!

It's... it's the sense that Sega has removed those traits of her bold affection of Sonic, her bubbly and outgoing personality, her capability and accomplishments, and pretend she always relied on others to put Frontiers up on a pedestal. That they retroactively attempt to convince us that Amy was someone who ALWAYS needed saving and that she has to "grow past her crush on Sonic". To me, it's a cheap way to get Twitter brownie points for "fixing Amy", (They do this with Knuckles and Tails too btw) to the point they even included a line in the Final Horizons update where Amy says "I'm not longer a damsel in distress you know." ...SHE WAS A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS IN CD! A GAME FROM 19-FUCKING-93! WHAT DO YOU MEAN "ANYMORE"??? YOU HAVENT BEEN ONE IN THIRTY YEARS. SHE HAS SAVED SONIC AND THE WORLD AS MANY TIMES AS SONIC HAS SAVED HER!

This is one of my biggest gripes with Frontier's writing. It wants this praise for "fixing these characters" when at best the characters announce they're "gonna make a change", and in the case of Knuckles and Amy pretend any and all growth she had/times he left the island never happened so Frontiers can act like IT'S the game to make that change.

And the fans ate it up. Shit, even for a hot minute I thought it was... something. But it's really not, they really didn't 'fix' Amy, they just removed any parts of her character that people overly inflated during the 'Dark Ages' and made her a simple "I'm just one of the boys, I'm a capable woman now" to avoid that misunderstanding, when she WAS ALREADY THAT!

Idk, maybe that didn't really fit the question, but people mass misunderstanding and grossly inflating Amy's character traits that could be seen as negative to the point Sega overcorrected, and now we have a "girl hedgehog with tarot cards" and fans love it. Because they're convinced "loving Sonic" was the entirety of her personality and with it now striped away she's now a better character.

...she doesn't even really use her hammer anymore, man... She had it for one move in Frontiers, and used it ONCE in a Dream Team cutscene... even Origins introduced the hammer as a Insta-Shield comparable move, but got rid of it in Superstars... give her the hammer, man...

7. What character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how the fandom acts about them

These follow up questions won't be as long so don't worry. Uhhh, this one's a little tricky, because I haven't ben part of the Sonic fandom nor have I even considered myself a Sonic fan since Forces, so I'm not too certain how fandom acts about these guys outside the core cast in Frontiers.

I guess Eggman? I gotta be honest, I didn't like the Dadbotnik route taken with Sage, it felt really underdeveloped (to the point they included a 'sad song montage' flashback showing all two cutscenes we saw of the two, one watched not even an hour prior) and Boom introduced this "angry old man yelling" skew of his character that hasn't really gone away. Eggman's NOT Boswer. He's not this goofy guy who 'loves his daughter ai and robot son and bakes cookies and yells about menial stuff', he's a maniacal and destructive man fueled by arrogance and pride. He had SWAGGER. The man carried himself like an actual doctor with menacing dialogue and pure confidence in his brilliance, but is now kinda just seen as a "a wacky mad scientist that just HATES that hedgehog but also has a 'respect' for him that he WILL monologue about" (gee I'm so glad THAT carried over from the IDW comics, I love it when characters bluntly explain retcon their stances on each other).

Idk, I just don't like how the fandom has reduced him down to 'Eggdad'. For jokes and funny fan comics? Sure. I got no problem with that. But an actual evaluation of his character, deeming this as 'character growth' and not just a complete personality shift? Nah, I don't fuck with it chief.

Man, two rants back to back inadvertently praising the Adventure era? I don't even really like those games 💀

9. Worst part of canon

FORCES.

I mean not really, I'm sure it could be the constant retcons or even the 'Everything is Canon' mindset we now have, but Forces kinda did fuck up the IDW comics ngl. At first they just followed up the storyline of Forces with a Metal Sonic post story and the restoration of the planet, but it now feels like the comic is in constant 'damage control' from that game. The now-renamed-Restoration is STILL around, a dominant part of that world's worldbuilding, and has lead the world to feel more 'superhero-y' with organized mass teams.

idk, maybe it's the IDW comics just starting to lose me, especially after issue 50, but man am I sick of the Restoration, and that and a couple other things are a result of Forces. Fuck Forces. All me and my homies hate Forces.

13. Worst blorbofication

I deadass don't fully understand what 'blorbofication' is. Is it when people mass take a character they like, and slowly turn them into something else entirely such as some fans infantilizing BotW Link? If so... Idk, I guess Silver...? Idk, I mean he's a character who was SO dedicated to save his home he was willing to kill a man, but grew to not want to lose Blaze to do so, but still ultimately did so. He's angry at the state of his world, has to constantly come back to fix it, yet remains positive in a world and time lacking it.

Sometimes fans write him as this goofy precious child that needs to be protected and I don't really fuck with that. I mean the dude was willing to obtain a body count, but fans... and TSR with the "in your dreams, Sonic" line have kinda funneled him into this sweet baby boy who's a dumb piece of shit. Look at him, so innocent! 🥺

[voltaical-art]

HE WAS SEVENTEEN. AGHHH ULDER WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU

[malinaa]

if i think about the hunger games in peeta's perspective i WILL start sobbing

[sneebl]

yeah this sums it up pretty well

[museaway]

✍️ more fic writer asks!

reblog & your followers can send asks with the questions they’d like you to answer!

the last sentence you wrote

a character whose POV you’re currently exploring

how you feel about your current WIP

a story idea you haven’t written yet

first sentence of the fifth paragraph of an unpublished WIP

the word that appears the most in your current draft (wordcounter.net can tell you)

your preferred writing fonts

if you had to write a sequel to a fic, you’d write one for…

start to finish, how long did it take you to write the last fic you posted?

what is the longest amount of time you’ve let a draft rest before you finished it?

a WIP you’d like to finish someday

a trope you’re really into right now

a fandom you’re thinking about writing for

where do you get your inspiration?

favorite weather for writing

favorite place to write

talk about your writing and editing process

if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic

in what year did you publish your first fic?

when did you publish your most recent fic?

do you ever worry about public reaction to what you’re writing? how do you get past that?

pick three keywords that describe your writing

how do you recharge when you’re not feeling creative?

besides writing, what are your other hobbies?

are you able to write with other people around?

your favorite part of the writing process

your least favorite part of the writing process

how easy is it for you to come up with titles?

share a fic you’re especially proud of

[composeregg]

edit (10/23/2024) now that the poll is over: Original version, with 10 questions, from April 2023 here

And, given that the original is from April 2023, that means I can very easily say:

No, this was not an ISAT reference!

Just because I use parentheses and 2nd person pov and love the same concepts of what a time loop can do to a person doesn't mean it's ISAT

(Yes, I like ISAT, the original poll is why I was recommended the game! But if you look at the original, you can see all the origins of the options to choose from, including what spurred me on with the moss option from the replies)

If I were going to make something for ISAT, I would never be so vague, you can simply look at my ao3 for proof of that

[cissa-calls]

Watching the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is realizing that despite the obvious implication that Lucy Gray is the songbird and Snow is the Snake…it’s likely the opposite.

Lucy gray controlled the snakes and used them as her weapon of choice, the snake biting him was Lucy’s kiss goodbye. She is the snake.

Snow sold Sejanus out through the jabberjay’s, they were his tool to fly back home and back into power. He is the songbird.

But at the same time…as in her Ballad, Lucy Gray flys away with the mockingjays after she sings the Hanging Tree one final time while fleeing Snow. She is physically a songbird. And Snow chose to work with Dr. Gaul, who created and controlled those snakes. He was the snake who betrayed his friend.

Who is the songbird and who is the snake? It’s unclear, but isn’t that the mystery?

[devsgames]

Me: "hey game developers, especially AAA ones, are getting laid off en-mass and it's awful for our industry" Gamer: "well I only play INDIE games and the problem with AAA games is they are creatively bankrupt"

Me, slamming my fists on the table like a baby: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THIS IS ABOUT A BUSINESS PROBLEM PERPETUATED BY CAPITALISM NOT A STATEMENT ON CREATIVE DECISION MAKING"

[marimbles]

my favorite thing about zagreus is that he’s the ultra-cool prince of the underworld, son of the god of the dead, skilled warrior protégé of Achilles himself, tall dark and handsome, completely shredded, with the dopest heterochromia ever, leaving sparks in his wake while he struts around like he owns the place (cause he kind of sort of does). BUT he’s also the most pitiful, disaster-level idiot in the underworld.

He got fired from his nepo job for being lazy and unfit for office work. Whenever he talks to the worker shades in the admin office they all roll their eyes at him. despite his elite training he can only progress toward the surface with endless redos and the constant help of every Olympian AND Cthnonic god. his room is a dump. he’s absolutely terrible at playing the lyre. His outfit is designed after his dog. He is sopping wet from his last dip in the pool of Styx 100% of the time, and every time he fails at escaping the whole house can see his walk of shame while Hypnos loudly makes fun of him for dying AGAIN. And all of this is magnified 10x if you’re bad at the game. incredible story design.

Zagreus’s initial inadequacy makes for an even more compelling narrative that feels extra rewarding with each level of progression. And this is all reflected so well in his attitude as a character. He’s such a fascinating mix of brazen confidence and good-natured humility. He may seem like an entitled brat on the outside but he’s incredibly heartfelt and generous to those around him—not just to those of similar status but also to the nervous housekeeper and his angry ex and the trapped souls he comes across in his journeys. he goes out of his way to help people even while he is trying to reach his own goal. and he never gives up, even when it seems impossible. his repeated failures just serve to emphasize his greatest strengths: resilience, determination, hope, and genuine care for the people in his life.

what a character, man. what a game ✊

[ruushes]

🗣️ pay ‼️🗣️ attention ‼️🗣️ to ‼️🗣️ him ‼️

[musubiki]

balor 🥰

[tibby-art]

wild life thoughts

[uncharted-constellations]

Them, your honor

Anyways thank you echoes for giving poor a-ttp link a rest

[crazytrashpolice]

Quick! Do this Picrew and uQuiz!

Picrew

uQuiz

(Both of these are not mine but I thought it would be fun to do! Credits to the ones who made them.)

No pressure tags!:

@vampires-r-cool, @silvernmoonlace, @lunar-jewels

And obviously whoever else wants to join :)))

Update: apparently the Picrew doesn’t work anymore. But feel free to keep reblogging and doing the Uquiz. Remember to give credits to whatever Picrew you’re doing!

[chloesimaginationthings]

MIKE MOVE ASIDE ITS MY FUCKING TURN😍😍😍😍😍😍

YOU GUYS went crazy for FNAF movie Vanny 😭

[wynandcore]

Saw the sonic 3 trailer are you telling me the movie based on Sonic Adventure 2 is Not anti-military??? No anti-authority theming here?? Nothing?? The game where a kid gets gunned down? Where Shadow’s grief and hate for humanity is BECAUSE of the military?? Where Sonic runs from the cops and is consistently annoyed at their existence?