#Swifty the Shrew

[lovelylivewirez]

BAR FIGHT BAR FIGHT BAR FIGHT!!!!

My piece for @sthbigbang, based on @bitttertrees' fic, Castles and Creepy Creatures!

Check out @hel-helly, @dragonofthedepths, and @madcatscookiejar's pieces for this fic too, as well as everyone else's work for the event!

Designs + rambles under the cut!

I designed each characters' in-game outfits! You'll see them in everyone else's pieces as well :]

First up, Sonic's a bard! His outfit is simple enough, more for practicality than anything. I wanted to add just the tiniest bit of flair with his earings though, as well as keeping a hint of his out-of-game appearance with some sports tape/bandages on his legs. The design of his lute is kind of meant to invoke swirling winds.

Knux is a barbarian! His outfit is mostly inspired by typical DnD barbarian designs + a bit of Karlach from Baldur's Gate 3 (never played it, but our writer sent me her design for inspo). His great axe is mostly based on Sir Gawain's twin blades from Sonic and the Black Knight!

Amy's a paladin! Her armour is heavily based on the Paladin Amy skin from Sonic Forces Speed Battle and Sonic Dash, though a bit simplified and altered to seem more practical. Her hammer is a simplified version of the one from the skin as well.

And lastly, Sticks is a warlock! Her outfit is meant to look like something she quickly put together for the sake of looking like a warlock for the game. Her staff is just a prop she found, and you can see her regular clothes under her cloak!

I had a great time working with everyone and I hope to participate in future Big Bangs! (Perhaps... as a writer? Nah jk... unless...?)

[atwas-gaming]

Sonic gets a speedy green rival that's totally full of himself and, IMO, kinda ugly.

Why does this sound so familiar?

Ok, maybe the rest of these guys aren't so ugly, but they're still speedy and green and totally full of themselves, and rivals for Sonic.

I sense a pattern emerging...

[mixierupperc20]

I was rewatching Sonic Boom on YouTube (because I can), and I came across the episode with this guy

He's an Egg Tech or batnik based on speed and bro-gility he's supposed to be the cool guy that's says dude all the time

I know Sonic Boom isn't light by many in the Sonic fandom but I was kind of wondering why he didn't even get a cameo as a background character even if he wasn't the egg Tech in the new IDW storyline

That's when I joined a Discord and found out that everyone hates this guy. I don't hate him, I think he's kind of neat. though I wonder what would happen if him and Belle met

[lazyvase]

Yknow, day and night people praise Surge for being a replacement to Scourge (and they’re 100% right to do that. She deserves it.)

But what no one ever acknowledges is that there was a green, mammalian, super speed sonic mirror rival before her.

I’m of course talking about the Sonic Boom TV series original character: Swifty the Shrew.

Swifty here is a parody of Sonic's too school for cool attitude (you know what I mean). He even managed to get under Sonic's skin. He outsoniced Sonic. What makes Swifty fun is that Sonic has to deal with what he puts Eggman through everyday. The annoying showboat to an extreme. Sonic gets a taste of his own medicine. "Radical Speed" indeed.

[mechaneo]

Every green character in Sonic is an asshole

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

i cannot watch blue with envy without thinking of it in the context of sonic being post-sonjet. the episode where sonic hates this guy for doing skateboard tricks and being cooler than him. to me he just sounds like hes thinking of jet and going 'oh not another one'

[0rb0t]

I HAD NO IDEA THAT SWIFTY THE SHREW IN SONIC BOOM WAS VOICED BY THE GUY WHO VOICED MICHELANGELO IN THE 90s LIVE ACTION TMNT MOVIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M POGGING OUT!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVED THOSE MOVIES!!!!!!!!!

[sonicautismswagbattle]

[sonicpoorlittlemeowmeowshowdown]

swifty the shrew vs boom shadow?

SONIC POOR LITTLE MEOW MEOW JUST FOR FUN ROUND

(RESULT DOES NOT COUNT TOWARDS THE FINALS)

[sonicshipbattles]

Round One - Bottom Right

This poll is for the Sonic/Mike ship vs the Sonic/Swifty ship vs the Sonic/Sticks ship, all from Sonic Boom These ships are in a threeway poll because they received less nominations All ships included were submitted to us. This tournament does not accept insults towards either ship - use propaganda to uplift your fave, not put down the opponent

[e-121phi]

idk if ofthers get it but the latest surge in swifties feels exactly like if people suddenly got really into justin bieber again

[atwas-gaming]

Finally have a chance to watch the rest of the Swifty episode. Halfway thru the race and thinking, he's gotta be pulling a Cecil Turtle trick.

(That is, there's more than one of him.)

[krafterwrites]

The episodes of Boom that I'm most excited to see when I start watching it are the "guest star" episodes (The two with Shadow, the one with Vector, and the one with Metal Sonic), the one with Swifty the Shrew, and the one where Sonic slowly gets turned evil by a mech

[cloudsoffire]

Misogyny in Sonic Boom

Most of you are already familiar with the 3d animated Sonic Boom cartoon running from 2014 to 2017. Despite the lackluster critical reception of the games, the show has a dedicated following, and a ton of good reviews. I myself am a fan. However, there are plenty of things to criticize. In the body of this post, I'll be addressing the misogyny present in the series.

To begin, let's talk about that one moment with Amy and Knuckles. Because when feminism is brought up in regards to Sonic Boom, this clip is often what comes to mind.

It's funny, sure, but it's also not an incredible moment. Amy's characterization here is also lackluster, but let's focus on Knuckles. sure, what he's saying sounds good to a general audience, but if you think about it even a little, it quickly falls apart.

In this scene, we see Knuckles, a man, talking down to Amy, a woman, about female empowerment. What he says is wrong as well. Breaking of gender roles is an exception because we live in such a gendered society. It's something that we should call attention to and celebrate. It isn't the status quo, and what he's saying is extremely liberal. We all know women are just as good as men at doing stuff, so why say it? Why draw attention to it? Why disrupt society? They're bad arguments. Arguments that come out of the mouth of a writer instead of Knuckles.

That's not where it starts, though. That episode is actually from season two. But rather than going moment by moment, episode by episode, we'll be breaking down how both Amy and Sticks, are treated by the narrative.

Amy is a feminist. But in an extremely watered down sense. She talks about gender equality, but in a way that's played for laughs. And you know it's just for comedy because of all the other stuff she does. In "My Fair Sticksy," Sticks is invited to an awards ceremony for saving the town. Rather than allowing her to go as herself, Amy takes the opportunity to force femininity and gender roles onto her, a complete 180 from the female liberation she touts throughout the show. Sticks saves the day by tossing Amy's teachings aside, but that doesn't really change anything. It just shows that Sticks herself is unchangeable, not that gender roles imprison society.

So Sticks is the one who breaks away from societal expectations in a meaningful way, right? Well, sort of. She's paranoid, lives in a hole in the ground, digs through the garbage, she's not exactly ladylike. But that doesn't protect her from the writers.

"Blue with Envy." A green shrew named Swifty comes to town, sporting shutter shades and bastardized 90s slang. The episode's twist is that Swifty is actually several robots built by Eggman to usurp Sonic. But before their big race and Sonic's subsequent banishment, Swifty wins over the hearts of the village. This includes both Sticks and Amy, who actually faint over him. Sticks even says she'd disable her traps if he came to visit her, to which Amy responds by saying she never disables her traps.

And there wasn't even any mind control going on there, unlike in "Battle of the Boy Bands." It doesn't speak to Amy or Sticks' characters, specifically because of that, but the episode itself does use them to make fun of the stereotypical "fangirl". Which is at best low hanging fruit and at worst actively misogynistic. There is nothing wrong with liking a boyband or any other media, so long as you don't buy merch with food money or use it to harass people. But that's not a thing unique to women. There are plenty of men who live on instant ramen because they buy stuff for their interests. But the way those men are talked about is way different from how people describe women who are into things like boybands. There's another post I saw a while back that digs into this and it's not the main topic of this one, so I won't go too far into it.

As a whole, Amy's character is "the overbearing feminist," a tired archetype, but she's also meant to be hyper-feminine and proper. This could work if she just found that identity the most comfortable and still supported others, but instead she tries to get people outside the norm, like Sticks, to conform.

Sticks breaks the mold on the surface, but she's still a woman, and you know how women are.

They're treated badly by the plot, the writers make them say things just for the audience to laugh at them for being women, and as a whole it's just kinda gross.

This is getting long but I'm sure there are other things online that go into much more detail that I did. I didn't read any of them so I'm not 100% sure on that, but it's so blatant I'd be genuinely impressed if they didn't exist.

[quinnwolfess]

what does Stardust think of Swifty the Shrew?

"Oh, he's such a showoff!"

Not really interested. Might look at his tricks for a moment, but overall, doesn't have much care for him.