#Vision's writing hasn't really developed or changed to reflect this

[brw]

Thinking about The Vision.

[beevean]

Huh, interesting. He does also say that things could very easily change "10 issues from now," and that video is from 3 years ago, so it may not reflect Sonic Team's current vision. Also from that clip, it sounds like the games have more freedom to change the status quo of the characters than a licensed comic adaptation, and any changes would have to be reflected in the comics. Sega and Sonic Team are also wildly inconsistent (as you pointed out,) which I imagine would be annoying for any writer.

3 years ago was 2019, not that long ago, especially since the series was almost dormant from 2017 to 2022 - not much to change there

Yeah, he did say that the comics are subjected to the games' canon. And, well, that's the bare minimum :P IDW didn't start as a complete spinoff like Boom, it was meant to continue from Forces, so yes it was born almost as a "temporary" canon until the next game dropped. The moment it was decided IDW was set in the games' canon, Flynn had to play by the games' rules.

The thing is that I can't really comment on Flynn saying "oh we have to respect the game's whims" because IDW only existed in a context of no games so far. From 2018 until today, we only got Team Sonic Racing (which was a fairly minor game with a simple story and clearly had no impact on IDW), Sonic Colors Ultimate (a remake) and Sonic Origins (a collection). Frontiers will be the first major game since Forces... but it will still be influenced by Flynn, so I seriously doubt that something would happen that will force him to change the IDW canon. My point is... will we ever see if Flynn will really stay by his words? ALso because, in a far more recent podcast, he said "this is how Sonic is, by SEGA, and this is me basically spelling it out for anyone who hasn't quite figured it out by this point", and well, he sounds very confident that he's writing the original Sonic, not just an interpretation that might change eventually.

Sonic Team are also wildly inconsistent (as you pointed out,) which I imagine would be annoying for any writer.

Sonic might change from writer to writer, like going from being hyperactive in ShTH to being emotionless in '06 (that portrayal is indefensible, but I don't know where bad writing ends and rushed development begins) but there are some core concepts that have always been consistent and that make Sonic recognizeable as Sonic, from Sonic Adventure to Sonic Forces. If you're interested, there are at least two posts I can link that argument that IDW Sonic is extremely OOC once you get past his superficial traits. Let's just say that I very much do not agree with his assessment that IDW Sonic is SEGA Sonic, and it has nothing to do with Sonic Team :P

Flynn also apparently struggles to write Shadow, which is why he stopped including him (don't have proof of this though, if someone else has it I'd appreciate it!), which makes me wonder... is it really this hard to write Sonic characters? Especially for someone who is praised for working in the franchise for 15 years?

[alannah-corvaine]

So I'm reading fanfiction again (it's been a while) while in the process of developing my Dragon Age OCs as I play through the games, and I'm thinking a lot about both character development and writer development.

I started writing and posting fanfiction was I was 14 or 15 and picked it up again heavily in my early to mid 20s. I'm almost 33 now, and I find it fascinating to see how what I look for in characters has changed so much.

Full disclosure, I still dick around with ff.net instead of AO3 because that's where I started and I can't bring myself to leave yet. I don't know if there's an age demographic difference between the two.

But what I'm getting at is that it's suddenly so easy to spot the younger writers. The painfully shy and awkward and insecure OCs are a dead giveaway, the relationships are rushed instead of growing organically, and I recognize it because that's what I used to write too. I don't think it's a bad thing, we write what we know and it helps us work through it, ya'll know how it goes.

But we change, and I guess I'm just realizing I've changed too. I don't write those OCs anymore because I'm older and far more sure of myself and who I am, and now my characters reflect that too.

Alannah was one of those characters.

Anyone that's been following me for a very longass time might remember that when I was first started writing her, she was that shy awkward girl with crippling insecurities who could barely function in society. Eight years on, she has changed so much, so much that she no longer resembles my original vision for her, though the fundamental building blocks of her are still the same.

She changed because I changed, and even though she was never meant to be a self-insert, there's so much of me in her that it's hard for me to argue that she hasn't been a vehicle for me to deal with my own shit, even as she's meant to have her own story. And really, is that not the same thing I was doing when I was 14?

I'm looking at the OCs I'm creating now versus Alannah at her starting point and the difference nearly 10 years makes is...idk, it's a lot. Alannah isn't my oldest OC, but she is my longest running, and I think she'll always be the most special because she's changed and grown with me.

tl;dr: growing up is wild, ya'll.