#One of the most underutilized character in all of Sonic

[wherearetherobots]

Been thinking about Silver lately.... And just how much he deserves better.

[edgy-ella]

IDW SONIC READERS, PLEASE READ THIS!!!!

I am begging you. On my hands and knees. Begging. More so than anything else I’ve asked of this fandom.

Please please buy the Fang miniseries when it comes out

Don’t just read it. Buy it. I will admit that I’m very guilty of reading through a lot of IDW Sonic through…less than legal means, and I know I’m not alone in that regard. But I think it’s really important that for this miniseries in particular, you actually go out and buy the damn thing. Show your support with your dollar.

Really think about it for a second—they gave Fang his own miniseries. Fang! An underutilized, underrated fan favorite for sure, but hardly a mainstay of the series. I’m sure that this was at least somewhat prompted by Superstars, where Fang is a major antagonist…but Bean and Bark weren’t in that game, and it already received its own online promo comic prior to the game’s release (notably, with Fang as the star).

Classic Sonic stories have also exclusively been relegated to one-shots in IDW, not a full on miniseries like what Fang is getting. Basically all of the IDW Sonic miniseries we’ve gotten so far have been plot relevant side stories to the main IDW comic that focus on side characters with little to no involvement from Sonic himself. Tangle and Whisper, Bad Guys, Impostor Syndrome…the only odd man out besides this Fang miniseries is Scrapnik Island.

Really think about it for a second. FANG is getting his own focus comic BEFORE KNUCKLES.

And that’s why it’s so important that we buy it.

I think Sega is using this comic to test the waters to see if people like Fang and want to see him in more future projects—be it comics, games, or even cartoons. But there’s more to it than just that.

See, Superstars hasn’t been doing that great. I know I said in an earlier post that people seemed to like it, but I retract that statement. It was damned by faint praise at launch, and now most of the discussion I’ve seen surrounding the game revolves around its flaws (chief among them being the middling OST and that the Steam version stealth installs an Epic Games service along with the game). No sales numbers have been projected as of writing, but it’s definitely been beaten out by Mario Wonder and Spider-Man 2.

So, Classic Sonic games aren’t doing too hot right now (I’m sure that many modern fans are jumping for joy at the prospect). But the classic characters are.

People really like the extended classic Sonic cast, just as much as they love the extended modern cast. From my experience, the two fan favorites are Mighty and Fang. Fang stands out to me in particular for a couple reasons: people were really upset that Sega specifically said no to Fang, Bark and Bean coming back after Ian snuck in a reference to them in IDW Sonic #3 (using their old team name from Archie, the Hooligans), and the fanmade 16-bit remake of Triple Trouble, Fang’s debut game, received private praise from many members of Sega and Sonic Team. People like Fang and the media he’s in, and Sega is starting to take notice. That’s why we’re getting this miniseries.

That’s why it’s so important that the miniseries sells well. If the big boys at Sega and Sonic Team see Superstars’ iffy reception but see Fang’s comic sell above expectations, then Sega will want to continue to use Fang (and potentially other “classic” Sonic characters as well) in more narrative driven projects. That means modern Sonic.

“But Sega won’t let any classic Sonic character into a modern Sonic project!” I hear you thinking. And to that I say, so? Sega changes its mind all the time. Remember that whole two worlds nonsense? That was thrown out with in Tailstube. Characters debuting in Boom and the comics were previously barred from the mainline games, but they’ve broken that “rule” in both Speed Battle and Frontiers. Hell, they’ve even been talked out of some of their sillier comic mandates, like characters not being able to wear different clothing.

For all their flaws, Sega does listen, and money speaks louder than anything. If this miniseries fails, Sega will just assume that people aren’t hot on Fang or the extended classic cast anymore and throw them back in the bar. But if the comic sells well, then Sega might take it as a sign that, hey, people like this character (and his two lackeys), we should put him in projects that fans are more interested in. Mighty and Ray probably wouldn’t be too far behind, especially given Mania’s success. Whether that means comics or games, modern or classic, who knows. What’s important is that it sends the right message to Sega, and they will listen to their consumers. That means us. If we don’t support this miniseries now, we might have to wait another thirty years for another chance.

[swagbonkoperaweasel]

Two points before you go any further:

1. If you don’t want to see any negativity about Sonic movie 3, just SCROLL please…

2. I know it’s not supposed to be SA2 the movie. I KNOW. I don’t need any reminders.

Even though I’ve already accepted that Amy Rose isn’t in the movie, I’m still incredibly upset by it. As you’ve seen from the reception of the trailers and marketing, this movie means a lot to Sonic fans because it is taking great inspiration from arguably the most beloved Sonic game: Sonic Adventure 2.

SA2 is important to so many Sonic fans (myself included) because it has one of the best stories in the franchise and for a lot of us, it was a childhood game that we never forgot. I remember watching my cousins go through the game, I would ask them questions, I just had such a huge fascination for Sonic, and I still do, and it is the Adventure games I have to thank for that. Amy became my favorite character because she was pink, cute, and had a fun personality. When I saw Shadow in the post credits scene of Sonic 2 I was absolutely THRILLED because SA2 is my favorite Sonic game and I was excited to see them interpret it into a movie.

Now that the trailers and all the advertisements have come out, I’m still thrilled, but I am genuinely just sad that Amy isn’t in this movie. I wish I wasn’t, but that’s just how I feel. I’m making this post because I see people saying “It’s not SA2: The Movie, don’t expect there to be all the plot points and characters from the game!” And while I don’t disagree, I just need to put this into perspective.

For people who are huge Amy Rose fans, this is a genuine letdown for us. We are going to see everyone else be overjoyed over their favorite characters having references from the games, from SA2 especially, and we just… aren’t gonna have any references for our favorite character. For a game and a movie as important as this one, I think we’re allowed to be upset that Amy isn’t gonna have any part in it. Some of us have been DREAMING of seeing her on the big screen being a part of this momentous occasion that is Shadows story. As a kid Amy’s moments in the game made me SO happy. I know her characterization isn’t the best in this game but I really thought this movie could correct that.

I know some people are going to disagree with me and that’s OKAY. But I’m tired of Amy fans being dismissed and told to just wait. Amy is a character that has been mischaracterised and underutilized for such a long time. We care about seeing her in a good light and we are allowed to be upset when she’s always pushed aside to make other characters look good.

[maplethedarkshine]

Sonic movie 3 review (Spoilers free)

Just my opinion, please let’s be civil about disagreements 😭😭😭

Ok, soooo… It was exactly what I was expecting, like, precisely, and I was expecting a great movie so I ain’t complaining, but it- idk, it felt predictable?

I don’t mean it in a bad way, I loved the movie, but I feel like if you know about Sonic and are decent at theorizing you can almost 100% tell what will happen, I think that only like 4 things genuinely took me by surprise

Which- like, it’s not necessarily bad, but it felt a little less hype, it’s like you could already see the movie just from the trailers.

I don’t think that’s a fault of the movie itself though, after all it’s a SA2 adaptation, so of course it was going to follow almost the same story

For example, Sonic 2 the movie adapted Sonic 3, but Sonic 3 is such a lose story that they could stir away from the original material a lot and still keep the general premise, while SA2 is a much more lore and story heavy game, so they couldn’t do a lot of changes without loosing the main substance- and I’m not saying that they didn’t changed anything. They were lots of changes, and one particularly big one, but not enough to feel THAT far from SA2

Which, again, it is a good thing, but that makes it so (at least in my opinion) Sonic movie 2 ended up being more exciting that the third, even if I think Sonic 3 was overall the better one

As for characters, Sonic locks the fuck in after a certain thing happens and stays like that the entire movie, and it’s glorious. The fandom owes an apology to movie Sonic he was A BEAST.

I feel like he grew a lot in this movie and I’m so happy about it. Like, in the post credits scene he was such a cocky bastard and I love that. I love him he was so cool I hope he stays like this for Sonic 4

Tails was done SO god in this movie, the directors took the “he’s barely in the movie” criticism from sonic 2 TOO personal and made him the most useful mf on the movie.

He’s the one doing the plans, he saves everyone’s ass multiple times. He’s great, dare I say the best character? Tails’ fans won with this one

Knuckles doesn’t stay far behind either. I was worried that he’d be nerfed from the trailers but no, he also saved everyone’s ass multiple times, he wasn’t watered down, he was still glorious. Also what a surprise the flames or disaster weren’t used, which, good, I fucking hate the knuckles show let’s pretend it doesn’t exist.

Shadow… was ok. Don’t get me wrong, I loved him, but like… He felt underutilized? He wasn’t ACTUALLY underutilized, he appears a lot, but like- he barely feels like he has a presence in scene until the last minute?

This didn’t felt like Shadow’s movie, it felt like Sonic’s movie- which, duh, or course, he’s the main character. But like, Sonic 2 was knuckles’ movie, he was the main guy, and it FELT like it, while that wasn’t the case with Shadow here

And I get why they did this, I mean Sonic 2 was Knuckles’ movie SO MUCH that Tails was barely a character. In this one everyone got their spotlight in exchange of making it less about just Shadow and more about everyone… Which is objectively good, ok? But I WANTED it to be Shadow’s movie, you know? Hell, I brought my Shadow plushie to the function, so, while it was the objectively best decision to make, I am personally the ever so slightly disappointed. Shadow was still great, but I wanted more of him, most of Shadow’s character is what’s already in the trailers, that’s what I’m saying

And I feel that the fact that there’s gonna be a Shadow spinoff confirmed held his character back. His backstory was barely explained, and I’m suspecting that they’re holding it for the Shadow series, which… Good, but that sacrificed a bit of his character in the movie, since they barely tell the audience shit about his lore

Anyways, human characters great, I’m not going in detail about them, but I liked them- the commander specifically, such a great guy. And agent stone was spectacular as always. I just wished that Jim carrey’s characters were more serious, which is a bizarre thing to say about Jim Carrey, but I felt like they overdid the comedy with him a but TOO much. Specifically with Gerald, he should’ve been more of a serious character but eh, it is what it is…

From the few flashbacks she had I loved Maria, she had so much personality in so little time. I get you Shadow, I’d also try to destroy humanity over that little girl.

THE POST CREDITS SCENE THOUGH. I’m not saying anything, but that elevated the movie for me a 100%. It was such a hype moment, I was more hyped with it than with Shadow at the end of Sonic 2, because with this I don’t know what the hell are they planning for Sonic 4 and I LOVE THAT

I want the post credits scene tattooed. No, I want to BANG the post credits scene, that shit is going to my hear me out cake

It’s also just such a gorgeous movie? Visually stunning? Such an upgrade from Sonic 2. It’s a visual pleasure oh my god.

Surpisingly it’s not a musical disappointment. There’s was only like 1-2 game songs but the soundtrack was good (except the credits song I still don’t like it but whatever)

Anyways, I’m giving the movie a 25/30. Sonic 2 gets a 24/30 and Sonic 1 a 19/30. Even though I enjoyed Sonic 2 the ever so slightly more I think Sonic 3 is objectively the better one

Anyways go watch the movie already

[fleetways]

the actual, real-life metal sonic as we see him in sonic heroes hasn’t been featured in a main series sonic game since…sonic heroes

even if you count sonic rivals (which is a spinoff) as canon to the main timeline, this was the last time we saw the actual metal sonic in a story (in 2007):

after this, metal has only appeared in spinoffs (sonic free riders, tsr), alternate universes/the past (sonic boom, generations, mania), or as an illusion (sonic forces)

we see that eggman took away his ability to speak in sonic rivals, and likely most of his agency/free will, but after that, we don’t see the bot again!

so where is he?

i know idw comics did a story explaining metal’s absence in forces and currently is the only media where metal sonic plays somewhat of a major role in the story

we know certain aspects of idw sonic are canon to the main series (characters mentioned in sonic frontiers, for example), but that does not mean that game universe = idw universe. IDW is based off the games, so while we can take game events to have occurred in the idw universe the reverse is not necessarily true. it’s impossible to say if we’re supposed to take this version of neo metal sonic as the same one we saw in sonic heroes, but until sega comes out and actually says events in idw = events in game universe, I am inclined to think not.

Anyways, the actual metal sonic hasn’t been a major player in a game since sonic rivals, and in fact chronologically hasn’t been featured as himself at all since then! I loved metal sonic in heroes, so Im begging that he’ll get to play an actual pivotal role in a main story again soon (of course, he’s in good company for underutilized “major” characters: see cream, blaze, silver, shadow, etc. etc.)

[fruitsofhell]

It's time for me to unleash the inner crazy Metal Sonic lover within myself and talk so so much about this mother fucking fucker Chaos Sonic!!! (image taken off a post by @/littleaipom)

Ok so what I love so much about Sonic Prime is how much mileage it's getting out of the multiverse concept. It's a good multiverse cause it's surprisingly simple compared to the sort of MCU clusterfuck we associate the term with now. It's just Sonic AUS! And I really love that cause to me if anything screams Sonic media, it's AUs and canon divergence and wacky takes. I think this series is great at that, internally and with inspiring that in fans. What also makes it so great in Sonic Prime is that it has so much confidence in that. In the entire show the only normal characters are Sonic and Shadow, everyone else Sonic makes a connection with is a whole new spin on the old cast and its GREAT. I love Nine to death especially, he's definitely one of the best shatterverse characters.

But I think I have a definitive new favorite character now in Chaos Sonic, because he is that fresh new confident take on an old character but with such an underutilized one in Metal Sonic. I adore Metal Sonic, he's my favorite Sonic character and in my opinion the absolute most slept on. Sonic's robot doppelganger should absolutely have as much love as Shadow - his more serious and hardened antihero rival - and Knuckles - the stubborn immovable object to Sonic's steadfast unstoppable force. But he doesn't!! And it's tragic!! There is so much to do with Metal, with the Sonic created by the man who hates him more than anything, one of his first true rivals who was made to be his perfect antithesis, yet we get so little. But atleast in Chaos Sonic we get an awesome fucking take on him!! It's not Metal, but like I said about Sonic Prime as a whole, I LOVE how this show plays with the characters.

I see a lot of people pitting Chaos and Metal Sonic against each other or putting down one when talking about the other, but they're really just amazingly complimentary takes on the same character. The way it would be weird as hell to say either Nine or Tails is the better version of the character or something. Chaos Sonic's personality is of course what stands out the most between him and Metal Sonic, and while for some people it makes him unbearable or insulting to the OG Metal, it's one of the things I love most about him too. It's the complete opposite of what Metal and most robo-doppelgangers in the series, and especially Metal, are known for. Metal Sonic is all of Sonic's deadliness but none of his heart - he is a Sonic stripped of everything that makes him that energetic blue hero and reduced only to his power, speed, and obedience. He's a very cold a serious take on the robo-doppelganger that encapsulates the theme of classic Eggman, which was to do what nature did but better and deadlier. He's a very dehumanizing take on what Sonic is to his enemy, a potential tool like the rest of the animals and natural resources he abuses. Chaos Sonic is less like the (classic) Sonic Eggman wishes he had, but what (modern) Sonic is to him - this annoying, vain chatterbox who still manages to trounce you no matter how little he takes the situation seriously. Metal Sonic feel like a cold and calculated project driven by nothing but Eggman's frustration that something free and alive that he should have control over him still eludes him, and Chaos Sonic like just a project of pure spiteful mockery. Which I think very well represents how the relationship between Sonic and Eggman has changed to pit them more often as equals with their back and forths. And I really love how well both of them use this assignment to bring out these different aspects of Eggman and Sonic's relationship.

I think Chaos Sonic also specifically speaks to the New Yoke universe very well more than just being Sonic but more annoying. He is absolutely annoying and talkative just to mock Sonic, but stuff like his comments about Sonic being "smelly" and how he wants to be a brand star bring to mind really fun ideas about how he's like a commercialized version of Sonic too. I would love if he was integrated into New Yoke and you could see the Egg Council using him as a brand and he just loves it because he's an equally capitalistic jerk. It's a fun twist on Sonic's ego next to the more obvious one, that if Sonic didn't have his convictions he would very easily fall in line with the vanity of Eggman's worldview. Those are the moments that kind of make me wish that normal Metal Sonic had more speaking roles where him being an anti-Sonic in ideology could show. We atleast have the funny projection of him torturing animals from Sonic CD. I do still think that through Metal's sole commitment to beating Sonic and proving himself superior he does an equally good job at being that ideological opponent though, just in a quieter way befitting his era. Chaos Sonic represents Sonic's vanity in a personality sense with his want to be in the spotlight, and Metal Sonic in purely mechanical sense - just wanting to prove nothing but the fact he is better. And that single-mindedness makes him a great foil to Sonic who is a very wild and free-spirited person and never lets his ego and need to be the best define him more than his loyalty to those ideals. Meanwhile Metal Sonic entirely defines himself by his abilities and need to be a specific identity created by others. Something that makes him really damn tragic in a way I wish for the life of me was explore more.

Chaos Sonic doesn't HAVE to be an existential tragic mess... but I mean if they're gonna bring him back, he should have moments of that on top of just being awesome to watch fight and emote. OH MAN I HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN INTO HOW EXPRESSIVE HE IS. Once again, something totally different from Metal Sonic that only improves both characters in my eyes. I can't get enough of either of them! Whether it's Metal Sonic's intimidating silence or Chaos Sonic's "teehee giggle ^_^" attitude towards violence, I think both have some great chilling moments to them. Chaos Sonic's voice too is so good, it's probably my favorite voice performance in the show. It just has so much energy, and makes every line sound so genuine no matter how stupid. But at the same time he has good range too! When his voice gets low and serious or angry it's effective (atleast to me)! I mean that guy managed to make "You're too slow!" sound playfully venomous, I love it. With Metal Sonic it's maybe a bit harder to pin down what makes his stoicism work so well. Every character in the classic era was silent to a degree, so it's hard to say his silence stands out. But that's actually I think where I'd say his lack of expressiveness is genius. He manages to mimic the look of Sonic in body and face so much more naturally than any of the other doppelgangers but still in this sleek and blank way that is just amazing. Like I stare in awe at the design of this beast. Classic Sonic is very good at providing character through expressive animation and sprites, and Metal Sonic's lack of any yet ability to still feel like he has the face of a character and not just some robot makes him intimidating.

Which brings me to their overall designs. Metal Sonic is such an enduring Sonic character despite the long list of robo-Sonics because as I was saying before, the design is just too good. It is beyond aesthetically pleasing, straight up gorgeous - which makes him so effective. He truly does feel like Sonic's equal and possibly even superior in mechanics and LOOK, he makes his mechanical and flesh peers look clunky and outdated by comparison. Sonic but polished to an unnaturally perfect finish, with those dead glowing red eyes that house none of his soul. Genius fucking design. I woefully cannot say that I think Chaos Sonic is an equal in that, but it might be physically impossible to make a better Metal Sonic, and he does come damn close! Specifically because he does take the cue of the more natural eyes (every other sonic-robo has some sort of distinctly robotic visor), but still does something new and catching with it in the bike helmet-like screen. It takes everything perfect about that aspect of Metal and builds on it for this version of him, the dark void of blank pixels is replaced with a very beautiful yet icy blue that contrasts the red eyes very well. I've seen many fan designs that use those red eyes for expression, but it is best a choice here than on the original Metal for the reasons I said above. It's so clear how much fun the animators are having with using them to emote without making it feel too natural by giving him a mouth or something. I also really like his chest rocket, it feels a lot more streamlined than Metal's, which helps with how energetic and mobile he is. Metal screams sleekness and speed, but in a very artificial way with how much his rocket takes up his design. Like I said, there's no beating Metal due to the sheer simple brilliance of his design that is totally a product of such a complex concept being perfected in the classic era. In general Sonic Prime tends to make designs a bit more complicated than what would pass as the peak of series design, but they still own in their own right. Chaos Sonic is a great example of this where he is noticeably more busy of a design than Metal but with very clear shapes and colors that make him fit in with the overall series style.

All this praising and blabbering to say. Metal Sonic is the most important thing to me, and Chaos Sonic is also the most important thing to me cause he and Metal just complement each other so fucking good. That's really what a good alternate take on a character should do! Feel fresh but still very flattering to the blueprint, explore different directions the original character could've taken to make you appreciate the execution of those aspects even more. Chaos Sonic is the best example of the show next to Nine. When I think deeper about it some of the other shatterverse versions don't go AS HARD with this, but they all feel like fun takes that do feel like they came from aspects of the original characters. Plus, that's why Nine is the hook, he is a very well developed "what if" for Tails that explores how much of a difference a friendship can make in someone's life. I also just in general really enjoy it when a story says, "Yeah, sometimes people react to issues by being antisocial as easily as they react by being docile when they don't have the space to be sensitive". It's not like... handled explicitly with that much nuance, but the nuance is there in my heart. Also damn, speaking of Nine I didn't even bring up how cool "Eggman (kinda) tricks Tails into making a Metal Sonic using his knowledge of the real Sonic" is. It's epic, and I actually really hope it's more explored, as well as Chaos Sonic in general. I feel like the writers, animators, and VA had way too much fun with him not to bring him back. I would love nothing more as a poor starving Metal Sonic stan-peasant...

[crusherthedoctor]

Your hottest Sonic takes?

Most of these are ones you'll already know, but here goes. I'll number them in no real order because bullet points always get lumped together when I use them no matter how I space them, which bothers me lol. And as always, these are just the ones that come immediately to mind, as I'm sure to have plenty more (I'm not a contrarian for contrarian's sake, I swear D:).

1. Just because I take faithfulness to the game canon seriously - hence my disapproval for adaptations that change shit for the sake of changing shit out of a misplaced sense of superiority - doesn't mean I think the game canon is perfect. Putting aside the obvious questionable quality of certain installments, there are also certain traditions in the games that I don't exactly appreciate, and refuse to tolerate them just because I'm apparently expected to (ie: the friends standing around being cheerleaders while Super Sonic does his thing, Eggman being usurped and/or forced to team up with Sonic so damn often, characters having a limited range of interactions with other characters, certain characters being rather obnoxiously OP, etc).

2. IDW Sonic is still a holier than thou asswipe whose actions and overall behaviour don't line up with how great and virtuous he supposedly is. Prime Sonic is still an unbearable dumbass, and the show and characters are grilling him for the completely wrong reasons.

3. If your only idea for redeeming Tails is making him a yes-man for Sonic, then I don't think you actually care about Tails aside from how good he makes Sonic look.

4. Shadow coming back after his not-death doesn't undermine SA2's ending. But him coming back so soon afterwards kind of does. They should have waited a lot longer before bringing him back.

5. Rouge is not a villain. Rouge is not a villain. Rouge is not a villain. And outside of her jewel obsession, she's not even that majorly anti-heroic after SA2.

6. Eggman is a villain. Eggman is a villain. Eggman is a villain. And you can flesh him out without softening him up. Pre-Frontiers games already did it FFS.

7. Just because Cream is a little girl, and acts appropriately for the most part compared to Tails, doesn't mean she should be infantilized by the other characters and by the writing. She's more capable than she's given credit for.

8. Merlina isn't that amazing. Better than the Mephiles-tier villains of course, but she still fell short of her unique concept.

9. Erazor Djinn AKA Qui-Gon Djinn AKA Tonic Djinn AKA Other Djinn Pun is the best villain who isn't Eggman, an Eggman robot, affiliated with Eggman, or Chaos.

10. I've made my apathy for Silver well known during the last few days cause of all the IDW Silver discourse, but I'll take it one spicier step further: when people defend him by saying he earned his place, I think "...Did he?"

Make no mistake, he absolutely does not deserve to be treated like garbage by the IDW crew either way, but compared to other recurring game characters, including similarly divisive ones like Shadow, I've always felt as though he was shoehorned into later games because he was already set to as the hot new character of the initially anticipated '06, rather than earning his place more organically if you get me. And when people say how awesome it was that he almost killed Sonic effortlessly twice in '06, I ask myself when Sonic getting textbook Worf'd in a game with his name on it was considered a good thing. I mean, is that the level of '06 stanning we're at now?

Or maybe I'm just letting my bitterness at (IMO) better characters remaining one-offs do the talking. I'm willing to admit that I am indeed bitter about that. :P (Also, I'd like to apologise to Silver fans for harping on about him like this a lot as of late. I really have nothing against his level-headed fans, and I still sympathise with them on his poor treatment in the comics despite my apathy towards him.)

11. Forces is one of Eggman's best showings despite the underutilized premise. That fans' only idea for "fixing" the game is usurping him with Infinite and/or the Phantom Ruby says a lot about how much they want him to be out of the way.

12. I don't understand why the in-game racing banter in TSR is taken so seriously. Speaking as someone who otherwise takes characterization very seriously, this is like if people started shitting on Mario Kart because of Luigi's death stare.

13. Other games are objectively worse (like '06 and Chronicles), but Frontiers is my personal least favourite Sonic game for... well, nearly everything about it. And neither Sage or The End are as deep or as fans make them out to be.

14. At this point, I separate the IDW characters into two categories. The first category consists of the characters who I just hate or find lame full stop (Surge and Kit, Rough and Tumble, Mimic). The second category consists of the characters that I think could have had potential if it weren't for the awful writing, that I begrudgingly feel somewhat bad for as a result, and as such would be willing to attempt to redeem if I could (Tangle, Whisper, Lanolin, Starline before he got turned into Toothpaste Snively).

15. I respect Daniel Barnes, his work and understanding of Sonic's character in particular is certainly of a higher quality than that of Flynn and Stanley, and he also has more integrity to be sure. But I can't currently buy into the full hype since I wasn't that interested in Scrapnik Island, and since I'm very cautious of the golden pedestal mentality, since that's how people like Flynn got as far as they have in the first place, I really wish the fans who are as tired of Flynn and Co's antics as I am would keep that in mind.

16. I prefer What I'm Made Of over Live & Learn.

17. I'm not a literal "Classic Good, Modern Bad" type of fan, but the things that I appreciate most about Sonic games tend to be associated more in the public consciousness - at least in terms of gameplay, use of playable characters, and aesthetics - with classic and classic-in-spirit games.

18. AoStH is better than SatAM because it had Long John Baldry. *dab* And SatAM was the first serious split in the franchise, and the influence of said split continues to this day with the Freedom Fighter stans and their desire to make everything like SatAM/Archie, meaning I wholeheartedly wish this show never existed. *double dab*

19. I don't have a guilty pleasure, because that would imply I feel any guilt for enjoying them. I enjoy 3D Blast as a fun little time waster without any shame, and I have ironic enjoyment for ShtH, also without any shame.

20. If you use mandates as an excuse for bad writing, I officially cannot trust anything you have to say on the writing, the characters, and probably the entire franchise.

[nuttyrabbit]

I’d like to hear what you have to say about IDW.

Alright, let's do this then! I'm not gonna make a big mega review, because frankly I don't think I need to, but I'm just gonna run down some things I like and don't like about the comic just to get it out there, and I'm gonna do it in a "Like-Dislike-Like-Dislike" format just to make things interesting.

With that being said, let's rock and roll

LIKE- The Art

For whatever problems IDW may have, one the most consistently good things about the comic has been its art. Whether it be Archie vets like ABT, Yardley, and Skelly or newcomers like Mauro, Thomas, and Foundraine, IDW has looked consistently fantastic! Some of the action scenes in this comic are some of the best action scenes I've ever seen in any Sonic media (especially anything drawn by ABT. Y'all accuse me of having Ian as my husbando, but the closest thing would be ABT because that man physically CANNOT FUCKING MISS)

Many of the covers especially are some of the best Sonic has ever seen, PERIOD

This cover in particular is something I'd love to have framed

IDW is just a consistently gorgeous comic, even moreso than Archie at its peak with a few exceptions. Also helps that IDW has multiple good inkers and colorists to help the lines pop out, which was an issue I had with Archie

DISLIKE- The Setting

The thing is, I don't inherently dislike the setting of IDW. Setting it past Forces was a good move and setting it in something similar to the games was also a really good call. While I greatly prefer the mix and match setting of the reboot, there is a charm to a more simple, gamelike setting

The problem is that the setting, at least to me, is too simple. At any point it feels like there's maybe 4 locations on the planet: Resistance Base, Eggman Base, Sunset City, and Forest. There are a couple other named locations like White Park, Angel Island and Spiral Hill and that one camping site, but for the most part it feels like the comic ping pongs between these fairly generic locations. As a result, the comic world feels shockingly small in terms of scope and wonder, which is something weird to say about Sonic of all things, a game franchise which has done wonders in taking the hedgehog to various weird, wacky, and cool locales.

It also doesn't help that unlike the games or other comics or even stuff like the OVA and Prime, a lot of the locations don't really have a tangible history or interesting visual motifs, so they just kinda fall flat

I'm not expecting the comic to go full Archie reboot and have a MASSIVE world full of named locations established with DEEPEST LORE from day 1, since that was an extraordinary situation that kinda hurt the comic long term, but having a bit more variety would help the comic loads.

As is, most of the comic's settings just kinda blur together for me to the point where something like Eggperial City just seems like another Eggman base to me. Unfortunately, given what Ian's said about developing the setting (I.e he won't for asinine reasons), I doubt this'll change any time soon, which is a crying shame

LIKE- MOST of the New Characters

While I'm known as an Archie diehard, I'll fully admit that I do like quite a bit of the IDW newcomers. Tangle, Whisper, Starline, Surge, and Kit are characters I've all found to be enjoyable or compelling to some degree. Other characters like Clutch, Rough, and Tumble are also quite enjoyable, though severely underutilized.

IDW has done a pretty solid job (FOR THE MOST PART) of introducing and establishing new characters that add something interesting to the comic at large, and I'm glad to see that some of them have begun making the leap to the games

DISLIKE- Belle

Yeah, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, I think Belle sucks hard. The concept is fine, but the problem is that A: you know where this shit is going the moment she shows up and B: it takes fucking FOREVER to get there.

Like by the time Belle has her big confrontation with Eggman in issue 50, I'm just rolling my eyes because we knew this was coming and it's just kind of a lame part in an otherwise really cool issue.

Also she just feels like a lesser version of at least 3-4 different characters, including IDW Mecha Sonic. Scrapnik Island is just Belle's arc but actually interesting

Yeah, I just don't think Belle works and is probably the only major dud of the new roster, but man she is a BAD dud. Like the kind that drags down every arc she's in.

Like- Some of the Canon Portrayals

When it comes to portrayals of the canon cast, IDW is a fairly mixed bag, and I think a fair deal of them are abjectly weaker than both game and Archie portrayals (Team Dark being THE most egregious example of this, but Eggman also kinda falls into this)

With that being said, I still do like some of the canon cast in IDW.

Sonic: For all the flak Sonic gets and despite how annoying some of his long-winded speeches can get, I do for the most part like his portrayal. I think having him wrestle with morality, while a bit tedious at times, is interesting, and he still has quite a few moments that make me go "That's my Sonic!" Still inferior to post-SGW Sonic and ESPECIALLY Adventure-era Sonic (who is my eternal GOAT)

Amy: Despite people accusing Amy of being a Sally clone (an accusation which I always find hilarious because it's thrown at ANY female character in a leadership position), she also gets a few pretty solid moments throughout the comic (mainly before and after the Zombot arc). Not as good as Archie Amy but still aight

Silver and Blaze: It's nice to see Silver and Blaze have consistent characterizations and for the latter to not job horrifically. They have good chemistry with each other and the rest of the cast and are a pretty welcome presence, especially since they show up more than once every 600 issues.

The Chaotix: I also like the Chaotix and think they get a lot of really strong moments. Probably one of the few abjectly great parts of the Zombot arc was how they were done

Zavok: Turns out the moment you take Zavok away from the D6 and put him with real characters he actually becomes mildly interesting

The Others: Characters like Cream, Tails, Vanilla, Orbot/Cubot, etc aren't amazing but they're perfectly fine so I'll put them in the good side.

But yeah, I think a few characters get pretty decent characterization with some really strong moments here and there. Though the issue is that none of these portrayals are really the peak of these characters. The most I can say for some of them is that they're good, but there's rarely a moment from most of these examples where I'd point to them and go "This is the perfect way to write this character

DISLIKE- Other Canon Portrayals

Here's what you were probably here for, so let me do this bulletpoint style

Eggman- Isn't as menacing as Archie nor as goofy as his best showings in the games. He has some pretty great moments here and there, with him mulching Starline being a highlight, but he's kinda disappointing overall, especially compared to what's been done before

Knuckles: It's cool they remembered his duty to the Master Emerald and got rid of that dumbass "military leader shit" (which they still kept in Frontiers for some weird fuckin reason. Dunno why they're pushing that). Shame that means he basically sits in the background for most of the comic because there's no Sonic Universe equivalent (which I'll get to). His characterization is okay but MAN compared to all the cool stuff he got to do in the reboot it's very disappointing

Omega- He's still funny, but god it just ain't the same. This is a case where I think the Archie version was just flat out better. He, Amy, and Shadow are the biggest cases of "Archie just did you better"

Shadow: Do I even need to explain this? It's discount Vegeta/Sasuke/Vergil. He's an arrogant prick without anything that made him interesting. Comparing him to Archie is comical since the latter clears so hard it isn't even funny. But fuck, I'd even take Prime Shadow or hell, Boom Shadow over IDW, because at least the former has a reason to be pissy and the latter is at least funny. IDW Shadow is just miserable every fucking time he shows up and I can't tell if it's because the restrictions are that bad or it's because he's just not fun to write, but it sucks. I love Shadow, he's a great character, but every time he shows up I groan. It seems like Sega's gonna be a bit more lax with him, so hopefully that changes things but yeesh

The Deadly Six: It's a shame that Ian couldn't make the Deadly Six outside of Zavok worth a shit, especially since he decided to show them into two separate fucking arcs. I'm not gonna pin my dislike of their portrayal entirely on the comic because I just don't like them, but I am gonna give it shit for using them twice, once in an arc where they didn't belong

The Babylon Rogues: I'm not a fan of the Babylon Rogues, but even I can tell that outside of Jet's sacrifice in the Zombot arc, they've been done exceedingly dirty. That one annual story with Jet and Whisper may be one of the worst stories in IDW Sonic that shit was BAD

Metal Sonic: He's portrayed okay in these comics but my issue is more the shit around him. Sonic trying to redeem him and getting rebuked the first time was interesting stuff. The 2nd time made sense. Beyond that it's gotten obnoxious

LIKE: The Minis

While I dearly miss Sonic Universe and think the comic could use an equivalent (more on that next section), I think the minis we get each year are pretty damn good!

Tangle and Whisper, Bad Guys, Imposter Syndrome, and Scrapnik Island have ranged from good (T&W) to some of the best stuff IDW has put out ever (Scrapnik Island). They're paced well, drawn well, and have really cool shit happen in them. Scrapnik Island in particular was really, really cool and I found Barnes' pacing and character work to be even better than Ian and Evan in places and think he should get a shot at writing some mainline stories.

Also the specials have been pretty good, with the 30th Anniversary Special being extremely pleasant

DISLIKE: Plotting (Or lackthereof)

Now we're getting into some of the nitty gritty.

The big issues with IDW's plots are threefold, so I'll tackle each one individually

Pacing. Evan and Barnes are generally fine with this, but my god Ian Flynn still doesn't know how to pace a story that's more than a couple issues. The Zombot Arc is the absolute worst fucking caes of this (You could cram that entire story into 6 issues and it'd be significantly more effective), but stuff like Eggperial City and even Surge's storyline are also examples of this. So many of the things he plots just drag on and on and repeat themselves ad nauseam in terms of plot beats and even what the characters talk about.

It's an issue that's more readily apparent when reading on a monthly basis as opposed to on a trade basis (where the pacing is less noticeably bad because it's written FOR trades like many modern comics are, much to their detriment), but it's still really bad nevertheless. The only times it hasn't been with Ian are during the minis where, surprise surprise, having to do your story in 4 issues means you gotta actually tighten things up and cut filler.

Again, Evan and Barnes don't seem to have this issue, so a lot of this is on Ian. I like the dude's writing but holy fuck he is still SO bad about this

2. Repetition. I talked about this in a sense in the pacing section by talking about how repetitive Ian's plotting and dialogue can get because of the poor pacing, but I wanna talk about it in a different sense. A lot of IDW's plots are uh, very repetitive, especially as of late. It boils down to "Eggman is doing a thing, go look into it/stop it" a LOT. I know Eggman's the main villain and all but I swear the schtick of "We gotta go check out the Eggman base and fight badniks" has gotten very, very old. Even the Surge and Kit arc ended in "Go to the Eggman base" Arcs like Chao Races and Camping are welcome breaks because they involve the characters doing other shit.

It also ties into my complaints about the setting being small because it often feels like characters just have nothing better to do than go raid Eggman bases and fight Badniks. I know it's an action comic and all but maybe actually utilize some of your smaller villains? Maybe make some new ones? Or maybe even invent some weird new locations for your characters to check out and switch things up? Just an idea.

I keep bringing up that this comic needs a Sonic Universe equivalent and I really believe this because it'd not only give characters like Knuckles, Shadow, and the Chaotix more time to shine, but it'd also give some fantastic diversity in terms of plots. Like while Sonic is fighting Eggman for the billionth time, maybe the Chaotix are doing actual detective work or Knuckles is exploring some ancient ruins and finds a weird new thing he's gotta deal with or an ancient secret he's gotta unlock.

Post reboot Archie benefitted greatly from this since while the main comic was mostly Sonic and co doing shit with Unleashed, Universe was exploring and expanding the world and giving the side characters way cooler shit to bounce off of, making the setting not only feel larger, but also making it feel more varied.

3. Long Term Plans (Or lackthereof)

This one ties a lot into my complaints about setting, but it's strange seeing a Sonic comic do so little in terms of setting up mysteries or future plot threads (that aren't solved IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE CURRENT ARC ENDS), and it also results in a comic that feels more constrained. It gives so little to really talk or speculate about. Maybe it's more a fandom thing for me but I enjoy it when media drops cool background stuff for the viewer to speculate about and make the world like a puzzle the viewer has to piece together. It adds so much to a story and narrative when a viewer can pick up on little plot threads and watch them come together over time.

LIKE Action

This one's simple. IDW has a lot of really well drawn, really interestingly written action bits. Any time there's an action scene, no matter how mundane or banal, it's always gonna look fantastic

Like DAMN. And that's not even an ABT action scene.

DISLIKE: Too Self-Contained

Okay this is a weird complaint but I really don't like that the comic can't explicitly draw on locations and plot elements from not just the games but other side stuff. I get why, but it's also lame because one of the coolest parts of reboot Archie was seeing what insane stuff the comic would pull from and reinvent.

Also it's absolute bullshit they can't bring back the Hooligans and Battle Bird Armada. Like come the fuck on, those are good villains

RAPIDFIRE TIME

Okay so I've been typing this up for way longer than I anticipated so I'm just gonna rapidfire a bunch of other shit I like and dislike

Like: Neo Metal Sonic being the first villains rules and that arc is really fun

Dislike: The Zombot Arc. It's got cool ideas but it goes on for fucking ever and devolves into misery porn pretty hard. Also I don't care if the Zeti were always planned, them being there sucks **IAN**

Like: The fact that Ian isn't the only person writing. I've been saying since Archie that a revolving team of writers would be cool and lo and behold, we've gotten that. Very cool stuff

Dislike: No Off-panels. It's a crime we don't have those because they're funny

Like: The cool outfits the cast wear in Chao Races. I love alt outfits

Dislike: "No alt outfits outside of very special exceptions". See above

Like: IDW actually puts out trades on time.

Dislike: Wispons are overused as FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. I get randos having them and Whisper specializing in them but I don't think Lanolin needed to have one. It's creative yeah but just give her sound powers

FINAL THOUGHTS

Okay so clearer I had a lot to say about IDW Sonic, and I was deliberately being as general as possible to try and write this up fairly quickly. It's a comic that I find to be decently enjoyable, but also very noticeable flawed and ultimately kinda lacking in some key aspects. I like the comic well enough but it's never clicked with me in the same way other Sonic media like Archie did. I'm hopin in the future that some of these issues I've listed are remedied and that the comic continues to find success.

But yeah, this was fun, albeit exhausting, to write up. So to close this out, I'm gonna give it a numerical ranking

As of now, March 21, 2023, I give IDW Sonic a 6/10 (For context I'd give the reboot a 7.5 overall and the pre-reboot a 6 as well)

[peppermintbubble]

I watched Sonic Prime episode 9 yesterday on Youtube and it was so COOL! I've liked all of Sonic Prime so far but this episode, this damn episode, man. A must watch for any Shadow fan! I've already watched it... Several times.

I can't put my finger on the why or how, but both Sonic and Shadow look extremely adorable in this show. Maybe it's just the high-quality animation giving them more life than the games most of the time or maybe there's something about how the proportions on these versions are but they're just so cute! I like the slight fur/spine texture on them as well. I'm so, so happy with Shadow's characterization in Sonic Prime. He feels so spot-on. Not to mention that Ian Hanlin is actually my new favorite Shadow VA! He's like a good version of Jason Griffith. He isn't a bad actor by any means, but I always felt like him doubling as both Sonic and Shadow was a choice that limited his acting in both roles. (Let's not even talk about Jet.) His Shadow voice always sounded a bit forced and unnatural to me if that makes sense, like he had to try too hard to put on a voice. Presenting Shadow as serious, analytical and goal-oriented guy but with the caveat he may deduce things wrong, overestimate himself or underestimate others feels just right. Him being annoyed by Sonic but ultimately having a level of respect for him feels just right. Sometimes Shadow has been shown off as overly cocky or overly stubborn in a way that annoys me but here it just feels right! Like he is a very adamant and even stubborn and headstrong character with more confidence in himself than anyone else, but they don't overdo it in a stupid way. Like he feels cool and strong but not like a flawless character. I also just like getting to see Sonic and Shadow interact with each other when no one else is there. It's interesting. Oh, and Shadow's off-handed comment to Sonic where he says "The only me" feels like it holds a lot of weight. Maybe it's just me fangirling but he's been "copied" so much in the games and his whole arc was about defining his own identity so I just appreciate that line a lot,mundane as it may be.

Shadow's facial expressions in the show are extremely reminicent of the pre-rendered cutscenes from Shadow the Hedgehog game... I don't know if the people working on Sonic Prime did look at those but either way they nailed it! It was also wonderful to see Shadow do Chaos Control teleporting in a way similar to that game as well! I'll deduct just one point for the removal of Shadow's fangs, but from what I can tell none of the characters have sharp teeth in Sonic Prime so eh, whatever. It's consistent to the overall style, it's fine. Oh and I also love how much they utilize Shadow's air shoes in this show. They're woefully underutilized in the games, even though we know from his very debut scene in SA2 that they can propel his whole body weight in the air. The IDW comic's been more creative with the shoes too, thankfully.

And don't get me started on the Sonic VS Shadow fight scene! It was so COOL! So well choreographed and animated with a lot of different fun moments! These two characters are kind of evenly matched in terms of how powerful they are and have similar skillsets, but this episode also wonderfully highlighted some of their differences. I love that! Sonic's speed is his main attribute always and even though Shadow is also a fast boy I've at least always perceived him as one of the more skilled characters in the Sonic cast when it comes to just combat. I think the people who designed this fight scene looked at it that way, too, since Shadow outwits Sonic via fighting skill. But either way, getting to see characters who are kind of evenly matched fight it out is immensely satisfying and you get to see really cool moments. My favorite parts of the fight scene are Shadow grabbing that glove tech piece from Sonic's hand with his teeth, and also that he pulls off an extremely classic Shadow pose at one point. You know his character render from Sonic 06 and some other games? That pose? Was it purposeful or am I crazy? Either way it was a nice touch.

I don't have any point to writing all this other than the fact I wanted to yell about my favorite character getting some awesome screen time in Sonic media again. After eating the decent scraps I got in Sonic Forces this show has been very, very good to me! XD I've been enjoying Shadow in the IDW Sonic comic too of course, but an animaed walking and talking character is always a different kind of treat. This Sonic Prime episode was just. Mwah. Chef kiss. So good.

[obligatebureaucrat]

God IDW Sonic 58 is fucking PEAK! I have to scream into the void about this, so beware spoilers!

I get so much unspeakable joy from seeing so much of the cast get to just banter and be cool. Maybe I’m just riding the high, but Silver helping Amy demolish a badnik with a hammer 10x her size while Sonic just watches like it’s the coolest thing ever is easily one of the top moments in the series for me. I haven’t had this much fun with the series since the Battle for Angel Island.

Plus I love how Eggman’s funky crystals are actually giant fake chaos emeralds. That’s a really fun way to expand on that underutilized element from SA2.

And that’s not the only underutilized thing making a comeback! Getting to see Eggman’s VR world being used again, now in a major arc, is very nice. I particularly appreciate how it’s both a major problem and massive opportunity for the Diamond Cutters (though I’m sure their scouting mission won’t be as clear-cut as Lanolin hopes).

Oh yeah, the Diamond Cutters! While they didn’t put me into the same frothing hype that the game characters did, their stuff was still excellent. Lanolin continues to be a great character. The perspective of someone who’s competent but in way over her head is appreciated.

The Tangle and Whisper resolution was really nice! I’ve seen a few people say that Whisper didn’t need to apologize or that it shouldn’t have wrapped up this quickly. I absolutely see where they’re coming from and it would’ve made sense if Whisper had stayed pissed for the whole arc, but I don’t think I would have enjoyed that as much, personally. This might be the most important moment of Whisper’s character arc: the moment when she’s finally able to start looking forward more than looking back. And I’m a sucker for that shit.

So yeah, it’s a breezy issue all about friendship and being cool as hell, which is enough to make me feral. I love these rainbow rats so much

[alfairy]

My thoughts on Sonic 2 right after my first viewing (HUGE SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE AND POST CREDITS SCENE)

Remember, spoilers under the cut!

OK SO RIGHT OFF THE BAT, THE MOVIE BLOWS THE FIRST ONE OUT OF THE WATER. MORE LORE, MORE CHARACTERS, MORE ACTION

WACHOWSKI PARENTS ARE CANON!!! SONIC CALLED TOM “DAD” AND THEY WERW LIKE LETS GO GET OUR KID, I WAS SCREAMING

So Longclaw really did die…. ;-; Longclaw lives truthers are probably crying rn. We’ll never forget you

Fan artist and fanfic writers are gonna have a field day

The only thing I kinda disliked was that the wedding and GUN arrest scene went on too long. I turned to my mom and was like “when are we getting back to sonic” but the human characters are all very enjoyable and Rachel was hilarious and gets her time to shine

Sonic and Tails friendship was so cute! Personally, I felt Tails was a little underutilized in the film, but I loved the bond between him and Sonic, and how Sonic quickly became so protective of him!! Quickly stepping into that big brother role!

Knuckles did not disappoint, and he was so badass while also simultaneously being stupid as fuck, we love you king. Easily one of the best characters, everyone in the theater was dying laughing at him, but it never felt like the filmmakers were belittling him or making a joke of him, most of his humor comes from him not understanding earth culture and being so serious and blunt about everything.

Also side note, I found it weird that he’s literally standing 2 feet behind Robotnik and Stone at one point while Robotnik is causally mentioning within earshot how he’s gonna backstab him later to steal the emerald. And he just…. Doesn’t hear or react at all??? They’re right in front of you dude. I guess he was focused on something else lol.

LITTLE BABY KNUCKLES!!! He was adorable and it looked like he had a nice father. Ken Penders is probably throwing a bitch fit watching that scene and we all know it. Die mad about it 💕 We now know what baby Sonic and baby Knuckles looked like, and it’s a crime we haven’t gotten to see Baby Tails yet. O wait…. Tails still is baby….

So stonebotnik is canon right. Or at least as canon as it can get in order to sneak past the censors lol. Stones got it BAD. The maid outfit made me SCREAM

THE TEMPLE SCENE. My sonknux peeps… If u know u know… 👀

The filmmakers rlly were like “we’re gonna make sonic get beat the fuck up and pass out and almost die so many times 💕”

Knuckles, unironically: let’s punch him in the dick that’s the most vulnerable area

Living Chaos Emerald theory doesn’t appear to be canon, so Sonics powers are still unexplained. Which is weird since they make such a big deal about them in the novelizations and previous movie. Then again, Knuckles has powers and it’s never really explained, so it’s whatever I guess. Maybe they’ll bring it up in the third movie, since a certain you know who is coming ;)

SO MANY REFERENCES TO THE VIDEO GAMES IN THE FINAL FIGHT OMG

SUPER SONIC AHSHDIEKDIIDJEJEJSJD HE WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. i was kinda scared for a moment when they were like “that’s not the sonic u know anymore he is consumed by power” and then he summons a chili dog out of thin air and everyone’s like “o never mind he’s fine”

Idk how Robotnik could survive that fall, but Stone is fine so I guess he’s in hiding somewhere. Maybe in movie 3 he’s partially robotizied? Who knows? They never found him but we all know he’s lurking out there

THE POST CREDITS SCENE….. just…. OOF. People in the theater GASPED out loud when they said “we found a file from 50 years ago,” like we all KNEW in that moment. This movie still had its light hearted fun moments in it, but honestly if they’re gonna be covering a Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation, or the third movie is based loosely on it, then I think the third movie is gonna be a WHOLE lot darker. Cause you can’t have Shadow without Maria, and we all know what happened to her….. if sonic 2 is about found family, sonic 3 will be about ANGST

[beevean]

When I said I wanted a more humanized side of Eggman, I didn't mean strip away his hammy charm and completely defang him! The whole father-daughter bond thing with him and Sage should have been tailor made for someone like me. But Eggman felt more like some tired old dude, than the enjoyable hammy bastard he's supposed to be, and him and Sage barely interact with each other enough, or not any differently than Eggman does with his other creations, for him to suddenly soften up so distractly all of a sudden. Eggman isn't exactly someone I would see as being comfortable to openly show a softer side to someone he may even genuinely care about, and if he did it more likely would be begrudgingly. Even the most infamous people in real life still had at least one person they genuinely loved or cared about- but they still did the fucked up shit they did at the end of the day. If anything keeping Eggman as a bastard who just happened to grow more attached to one of his creators as if it was his own child would have been much better, because it shows what a seemingly "normal" person can still be capable of. You can still genuinely love someone and be a shitty person at the same time, English script writer/s! Especially since something like love can easily become a corrupt or twisted version of it, by villains especially. Who's to say that Eggman's idea of love, or a paternal relationship, would be anywhere the same as ours?

I really don't think I'm asking too much at all for Eggman to just feel like himself. I wouldn't have had any problem at all with him developing paternal feelings towards Sage at all, otherwise.

I think the problem is that we see so little of Eggman, because he's banished into Cyberspace for too long. We don't see him doing anything heinous, because as a character he's barely there. Well, he laughs at Sage's story of the Titan kicking Sonic's ass, and he laughs at Sonic becoming comatose, but he doesn't do anything, he doesn't harm people, he doesn't enslave the Kocos, his only role in the story is creating Sage.

His scenes are mainly interactions with Sage, and he goes from treating her like normal to "I'm proud of you" to "dear daughter" too abruptly.

"Ah, but he loves her due to his narcissism, because she shows how talented she is!" No, I don't get that feeling. Compare English and Japanese scripts again:

JP!Eggman does sound like his good ol' self, like he only cares about Sage for what she is (a very complex creation), rather for who she is (a surrogate daughter).

Also, as others have pointed out, why would he grow so attached to an AI who clearly displays independent thought? Sage insists that Eggman should team up with Sonic despite Eggman's constant insistence that he doesn't want to: this alone should make him furious, that an AI dares to contraddict him.

Eggman's biggest issue in Frontiers is how underutilized he is, IMO. Were he the main villain, maybe the contrast between his heartlessness and his soft spot for Sage would have felt more natural. Maybe. Like this, it's just jarring, like Eggman isn't himself.

[greenyvertekins]

I feared that IDW would turn into the remnants of an undead continuity, then Surge happened and she killed any kind of interest I used to have for this comic. And not just that, it seems that the same problems that plagued Archie Sonic for years are infecting this comic: The OCs steal all the spotlight, the main cast is underutilized, action for the sake of it, inconsistent and/or badly written characters (on the canon side), and that Scourge expy that doesn't even try to hide the "inspiration" to which I feel the next batch of new characters will follow the same filosophy. Probably what I don't like the most is that no other character is involed in this whole ordeal, just Sonic and Tails feat. the OCs, we have a glimpse that they still exist every now and then but no one is aware Surge got the newest plot device that could make her a huge threat to everybody.

Says something about Flynn's utter amateurishness as a writer that he's still not grown out of writing habits he should've shook-off over a decade ago i.e Treating characters like chess pieces than actual individuals with pre-established mannerisms and outlooks, using amnesia/brain damage as a convenient tool for re-characterization.

[sonknuxadow]

i love that most of the new characters introduced in idw sonic are girls bc as much as i love the girl characters from the games there is a bit of a gender balance problem in the main cast. like theres a lot of girls in the sonic series but other than amy and rouge theyre all underutilized, underdeveloped, or only have one major appearance outside of spinoffs

[spicysonictakes]

Chris Thorndyke is... not the worst possible child stand-in? Like, his existence makes sense. Kids shows do need to have at least one character that’s relatable enough to allow them access to the world of whatever it is. But he’s still ultimately kind of unnecessary since he 1) isn’t great at being relatable, 2) isn’t the only character in the show with the potential to act as a stand-in (and is certainly less interesting than the other options), 3) weakens the plot and setting of the show by acting as a weight and tether to the rest of the characters in a way that doesn’t complement the show’s premise, and 4) has way too much emphasis put on him for a character that doesn’t fit in with the other characters in the show and isn’t all that likable.

After the timeskip, these issues become way less notable, but only because by that point he mostly gets relegated to side character status and doesn’t have too much bearing on the plot and direction of the show. Also, he’s significantly more likable. In the first seasons, though, Chris’s spotlight ends up just overall weakening the show, and let’s take a second to walk through exactly why.

1) He isn’t relatable.

The number one thing that a child stand-in needs to be is relatable to the kids watching. The point of Chris is for the audience to see the bond Chris has with Sonic and his friends and feel like they’re in on that; Chris may not be a supersonic hero, but he hangs out with one, so that makes him (and the audience) cool by proxy. However, Chris himself doesn’t really do much to support that image. For one, he’s super rich and the only thing that seems to go wrong for him is that his parents aren’t around a lot, because they work. While those would be fine on their own, anyone watching would love being put in Chris’s shoes and the parent thing makes sense and adds something to his character, the fact that Chris nonetheless is very moody (against what the audience might feel in his situation) and in fact ends up causing a significant number of the show’s conflicts for no easily understandable reason makes him seem a lot less like someone the audience can relate to than someone the audience is supposed to have an opinion about, good or bad.

Compare to another audience stand-in in the Sonic franchise, the avatar from Sonic Forces. Whether or not you think the avatar was a good inclusion to the game, you probably don’t have too many strong opinions on them as a character; you aren’t supposed to. They have an impact on the plot, but not because their personality is a given way that makes them take given actions; their impact is supposed to stand in for your impact, and their relationship with Sonic is supposed to stand in for yours. Not all stand-ins need to be THAT much of a blank slate, of course, but giving a stand-in traits that could make them in any way unlikable, someone the audience could conceivably disagree with, is very counter-intuitive toward making them relatable and, thus, an effective stand-in.

Chris acts halfway between a stand-in character and his own unique character and, as a result, ends up mostly failing at being either.

2) He didn’t need to exist.

The reason why the production team probably thought Chris (or, more generally, a stand-in character) would be necessary for Sonic X is because Sonic is meant to act as a larger-than-life hero; that is, they didn’t want to sacrifice Sonic’s static moral-touting character from the games in order to make him a more relatable, growing protagonist that could carry the story. As such, they felt they needed to add a new character who was meant to grow and change along with Sonic’s lessons in heroism.

The problem is, not every character in Sonic X is Sonic, and the other characters could have played that role just as well, if not better.

The first name that comes to mind is Tails, but Amy, Cream, and even Knuckles have also been used in the past as foils to Sonic, making mistakes and changing in response to Sonic’s actions in the exact way that Chris was made to. In fact, this even comes up in the show; at multiple points during the Sonic Adventure and Adventure 2 arcs, Chris ends up doing the same things Tails or Amy did in the original game, but with significantly less impact since he... well. He isn’t Tails or Amy.

This all adds up to both Chris’s inclusion feeling redundant and the non-Sonic main characters feeling underutilized. In particular, Chris’s arc feels like it would have made a lot more sense and felt more meaningful if it was given to Tails, who has in the past had arcs based around feeling like he needs Sonic in order to be important or successful. In fact, if Chris’s spot was given to Tails, that arc would make even more sense since it would be able to actually be resolved; Chris’s arc never ends up resolving, since... he does end up needing Sonic, actually. Without Sonic, he isn’t really all that interesting. That particular arc would work much better on Tails, who is a VERY interesting and fun character, even without Sonic.

3) He weakens the show.

This point was already touched on earlier, but Chris’s inclusion isn’t just unnecessary. It actually, in a way, takes away from what the show could have been. What he ends up becoming over the course of the first part of the show is a stable rock that Sonic and the rest of his friends can orbit around but always come back to; he becomes the arbiter of the show’s status quo, if you will. This is a problem because the status quo he sets up isn’t one that works well with this particular set of characters.

Sonic’s whole shtick is that he’s a free spirit who doesn’t like being tethered to anywhere, anyone, or anything that he doesn’t want to. You’d think that one of those things he wouldn’t want to be tethered to is a mansion where he has to hide against his will, or a kid who clearly can’t keep up with him. In fact, this comes up in the second episode; he tries to leave, but Chris ends up convincing him that Sonic needs his help, only for it to turn out that... really, he didn’t. He needed Tails’ help, but again, Chris isn’t Tails. Thus, by the end of the conflict, it’s been proven that Sonic really doesn’t need to stay.... and yet, he still does. He stays with Chris for his entire time on Earth, despite the fact that he really had no reason to outside of liking the kid, and he had plenty of reason to want to leave.

Okay, maybe if he just up and left, that’d make Sonic kind of a jerk. But the point still stands that Sonic isn’t really the sort of person that would go back to a mansion at the end of the day, hiding away out of “necessity” that he knows more than anyone isn’t necessary. The way the story frames it is as Chris helping, but again, Chris isn’t actually helping, and neither is his grandpa; everything that the status quo perpetuated by Chris’s continued existence in the story provides is either unnecessary or actively detrimental to the end of seeing Sonic do cool Sonic things! It ends up feeling very forced, and you can’t help but feel that Sonic and friends would be doing much better if left to their own devices, not needing to constantly deal with a friend that doesn’t and can’t help. Sonic doesn’t need to slow down for Tails or Amy or any of his other friends, but he does for Chris, and that isn’t fun to watch.

Chris just doesn’t have a place in the story, and forcing it makes him feel like a nuisance more than a likable character.

4) He became the show.

This is the big one. Sure, Chris isn’t a good character for the show he’s in, but that wouldn’t be such a big deal if he weren’t made so important so constantly by the narrative.

Nearly everything that happens in the show has something to do with Chris even when it doesn’t need to; he tags along on adventures he can’t possibly help with, he’s always given input on decisions that have very little to do with him, and he ends up causing way more conflicts than he resolves. The result of this is that, wherever he is and whatever he’s doing, he feels shoved in. The viewer simply can’t get a break from Chris Thorndyke, the stand-in, while characters that are meant to draw their attention, like Knuckles (in particular), get shunted to the side and used only sparingly.

While Chris has all the traits and makeup of a side character (and maybe even an alright side character at points), the way he’s presented is as not only a main character, but THE main character, maybe even more than Sonic! This is despite all of the problems mentioned earlier and the more general fact that he just doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the cast.

For all intents and purposes, Chris Thorndyke is Sonic X, and as a result, Sonic X sometimes feels forced and pointless.

Now, I personally really like Sonic X, actually! It has a lot of things that I absolutely adore, like the characterizations of most of the Sonic characters and the occasionally very interesting attempts at telling original stories that are still based on the setting and characters that the gameverse set up. But still, it has a lot of problems, and a lot of those problems were either directly or indirectly caused by the unnecessary inclusion of Chris’s character.

Chris as a character isn’t terrible; he’s just a kid. The Sonic series has a lot of kids, some of which do much less than Chris does. Nonetheless, the way he was integrated into the show was just so messy, pointless, and ultimately harmful to the story as a whole that I can’t help but think the show could have been much better without him.

(He was perfectly fine in the Metarex saga, though! Again, they managed to fix most of this for the last season. That’s good, at least.)

[cyberramblings]

Sonic & Tails: Ideas for a new Sonic Plot and Partner System

So, first off, there is a game called Sonic & Knuckles. It is basically just the second half of the overly ambitious Sonic 3. It is not Sonic 4, but it is a standalone game. Anyways, there isn’t a game called Sonic & Tails yet, so let’s make that happen.

Regardless of that, I wanted to talk about my vague conceptualizations of a Sonic game plot. I WANTED to continue my thoughts on other Sonic characters, but my stupid brain can’t stop thinking about “what if Sonic and Tails fought?” Again, this is getting into some borderline fanfiction territory, but I write the blog AND the rules.

Piggybacking off my previous post detailing my thoughts on Tails, I had said that I liked the idea of Tails taking over Robotnik’s lab after he is defeated once and for all (or temporarily, I don’t expect Sonic Team to kill off the main villain, as much as I’d pseudo-ironically love Sonic Adventure 3 to open with Eggman’s funeral while Sound of Silence plays like the overly edgy funeral scene from Watchmen 2009).

Now, this is also getting into some serious Marvel Civil War or Batman v. Superman territory, but stick with me. I feel like one of the most underutilized aspects of Sonic as a series is the cast of characters. Maybe it is just me, but I feel like Sonic fans want to see their favorite obscure character return or see as many characters as possible. Even the most trivial characters have a cult following in the weird Sonic fandom. It was really cool to see the obscure Sonic the Fighters characters return for a boss fight in Sonic Mania, even if they were just an illusion. I am proposing a Sonic game where nearly every characters returns to make up the boss fights.

Now, the first issue with this idea is that typically the “rival” battles in Sonic are a bit hit or miss. Fights against playable characters in the Adventure IMO felt pretty flat and uninteresting. Now, 2D Sonic has some better boss battles against the likes of Metal Sonic and Knuckles and the same goes for Generations, so maybe those could be emulated. Regardless of gameplay, I’d like to see all the weirdies like the playable cast of Sonic Heroes, The Fighters, Emerl, Blaze, Gamma E-102, etc. return at least as boss fights, if not as playable characters, even if they are just piloting the mechs that would typically be piloted by Eggman. I get zero excitement from fighting Eggman anymore, but just put Rouge’s model in the cockpit and suddenly its way cooler with more potential for unique boss dialogue.

So far I have proposed a Civil War-style plot where Tails goes a little bit off the deep end and a Sonic game where the boss fights are all the beloved recurring characters. It should be obvious how these two parts fit together. Perhaps the dual story structure of Adventure 2 is overplayed by this point, but obviously it would fit in with these ideas.

To get into the nitty gritty and provide an example of what I am imagining, consider Metal Sonic. I can easily see a plot that starts with Tails reconfiguring Metal Sonic to be “good”. This bring back a classic character in a new way and allows for a lot of angles for the plot to go, of course borrowing from various Iron Man plots and the Buffy-bot from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

One idea from Sonic Adventure that I would really like to see return is the ever-evolving nemesis concept. Even if Sega never really brings back Chaos, I’d love to see a rival that increases in power as the game goes along. This could totally tie in with my previous idea, with Metal Sonic becoming more powerful over the course of the game, possibly with the acquisition of the Chaos Emeralds like Chaos does. Metal Sonic already has been shown to take on a few different forms, such as at the end of Sonic Heroes.

Another story beat that I’d like to see replicated is the end of Adventure 2 where Sonic and Shadow have to team up. Now, in this hypothetical Sonic & Tails game, that would obviously be Sonic and Tails teaming up, but I’d also love to see them bust out Mecha Sonic as a kind of retconned prototype of Metal Sonic from Sonic 2/3 as a last resort too.

I also love the story beat of all the playable characters at the end of Sonic Adventure bringing the depleted Chaos Emeralds to Sonic for the final fight. I would love to see something like this but a little more weighty. I have a clear mental image of something like the Breath of the Wild loading screen that shows your level of progress though the game, but instead with Sonic endlessly walking towards the camera as the game loads, surrounded by more and more characters walking towards the screen as you rescue/recruit them.

Personally, it seems like Sonic games struggle to balance multiple playable characters, so I’d settle for something like Advance 3 where you pick a partner that enables new moves. I would prefer to find a way to include every possible character as playable, but I would settle for a 3D Sonic game where Sonic (and maybe characters that control near identically like Metal Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, etc.) is the only playable character, with characters like Tails, Knuckle, Amy, Big, etc. are relegated to the partner role, but swappable.

Playable Characters:

Sonic: Everything normal

Metal Sonic: Just make him control like he does in Adventure 2: Battle, so faster than Sonic but with less moves. I don’t think Metal Sonic has ever been canonically playabe, only appearing as a boss fight or playable in racing games or bonus modes, so that would be my biggest request.

Shadow: Just Sonic but slipperier and please give him a teleport instead of a homing attack

Silver: Again, just Sonic but make his double jump more offensive to represent his telekinetic abilities

Blaze: Her name is BLAZE and she has FIRE POWERS in Rush and Rush Adventure, so please just make her control like Sonic but with a fiery homing attack or her fire hover from Rush

Espio: Just give him some kind of limited invisibility or maybe the tornado attack as a reference to Heroes

Mighty: He could probably be thrown in with his moves from Mania, but this is reaching

Jet: Probably asking too much, but he’s never been playable in non-racing game, so even seeing him with his board in a main game as a kind of joke would be cool

Assist Characters:

Tails, Cream, Charmy: Obviously, limited flight with slightly different characteristics. Cream could alternatively have the Chao attack from Advance

Knuckles, Rouge, Tikal: Either a limited glide or the digging

Amy: Piko Piko Hammer as an attack or as a big jump. She could also maybe be a Sonic-like characters, but I feel like she was shoehorned into the speed role in Heroes

Big: I just like seeing this dumb idiot return. It seems like asking a lot for the fishing rod to be used as a grappling hook, so maybe he could just have a big area attack

Fang/Knack, Bark, Bean: I mean, maybe just show up and fistfight some enemies?

Vector: Something music based, realistically

Chaos: Again, this is reaching, but maybe this ties into Tails taking over Eggman’s research

E-1XX Alpha, Gamma, Omega, etc: It is asking a lot to have all the robots return, but I’d love to see them all as slight variants of “shoot a bunch of missiles” or limited hovering

Omochao: Personally I’d love to see this little guy as an assist who just never shuts up, maybe with some hidden secret-unlocking potential

Vanilla: She doesn’t have a lot of game appearances, I’d take anything

G.U.N. Commander: Again, I just think this would be kinda funny. He could summon robots or just fire missiles

Eggman Nega: Not sure why he would help the main characters, but I’m always rooting for weird stuff like this

Wave, Storm: They could function like Tails/Knuckles or grant a temporary board for tricks or whatnot, maybe like the skateboard powerup from Sonic Generations

Tails Doll: This is dumb, but it would be fun to see as a little throwaway easter egg

So, that was a bunch of random nonsense directly from my brain, but you probably get the idea: find a way to include a lot of characters in the plot and the gameplay. Do I expect any of this to ever happen? No. And honestly, I’d prefer to see another game where I can actually play as characters like Rouge, the robots, Amy, and Cream.

ONE LAST THING: There should really be a Sonic rhythm game. They have so much music, both the classic songs as well as the Crush 40 songs, with tons of remixes of both already existing and even more possible. It would fit perfectly with the gameplay of Sonic, you could just have the notes appear as obstacles or powerup boxes. There are a million different ways to slice it, but it just makes too much sense to ignore. I don’t have enough ideas to make a separate post, though. Maybe I’ll make a playlist sometimes of songs I’d like to see included, but the issue is that it would be way too many songs. As with the main point of this post, I would love to see many different playable characters with very slight changes to their properties.

ONE LAST LAST THING: Since Sega hates localizing Puyo Puyo games, they should just make a new Mean Bean Machine with HD graphics and all the various Sonic characters represented somehow and then release it internationally either as Mean Bean Machine or just Sonic Puyo Puyo. Again, I didn’t have enough ideas for a whole post.

FINAL FINAL FINAL RAMBLES: I kinda wanna play Sonic 06 since I actually just recently found out that Rouge, Omega, and Blaze are playable, but the disc is 20 bucks at gamestop for 360. I also kinda wanna play Unleashed, but not enough to buy it. I really get more excited when more characters are playable, which makes me wish I enjoyed playing Sonic Battle more. I also have my eye on Chronicles if I can ever get the patience to actually sit down and play it. At this point, I should just make my own dang original game or story inspired by the things I like about Sonic.