#and I figure Eggman is counting on the fact he can defeat Silver in battle to ensure that the ruined timeline can come to pass

[true-blue-sonic]

You know, because being a hedgehog from the future, I always wondered if Eggman sees Silver as a threat since silver only comes when things are dire. Do you think Eggman would try to use Silver to get info on the future or perhaps try to dispose of him first, so he doesn't warn sonic and co.

I have wondered that before as well: you would indeed say that Silver arriving means that Eggman was going to win, but now might not due to Silver's influence. But the way I think Eggman works regarding Sonic and co. is that Eggman just goes do whatever, be it Emerald-gathering, evil-monster-freeing, base-building, and so on, and only during those things or afterwards do Sonic and co. notice he's up to something again. They don't actively seem to chase each other down before they can do anything, so to say: Eggman goes do His Evil Stuff and only once he begins actively causing trouble do the heroes intervene. They don't try to stop him while he's just keeping to himself (even though he's 100% planning evil things in that time), and in the same vein, Eggman doesn't seem to actively try to bring harm to Sonic's friends. You'd say it's easy enough to find out where, say, Tails is currently hanging out and then just bomb the hell out of him to rob Sonic of his best friend and most helpful companion, but Eggman just... doesn't. I figure his reasoning is that it wouldn't be fun that way, or that it would be too easy a victory? Or he knows that harming any of Sonic's friends will bring upon him a vengeance no-one knew Sonic could contain...

As for Silver specifically, I do think he could be a thorn in Eggman's side specifically, because his presence indeed means that Eggman's chances of winning are greatly diminished now. But Eggman absolutely strikes me as the kind of person who still believes himself to be capable of coming out on top despite literal time travel at play to stop him, so I doubt he's too impressed with Silver and his actions. It's just a bit annoying that we don't have any stories with Silver in a central role again, so we can see if his first action is to go to Sonic and friends to warn them, or take the fight to Eggman. He does the former in the Forces prequel comics, so unless Eggman is somehow able to find out where Silver is to intercept him the moment Silv enters the past, it might not even possible to dispose of him before everyone is warned. But I do quite like the idea Eggman would capture Silver to make him tell all about what the ruined future is like, if only so he can gloat about it! Silver would be beyond peeved and angry, though that's not stopping Eggman. As it stands I doubt Eggman would either capture or kill Silver unless there's a clear reason for him to do so/they cross each other in battle for the latter, since he seems sure enough of himself to deem victory inevitable despite having the literal protector of the future try to put a stop to it. And I don't think Silver is itching for that to change anytime soon!

[nervouswreck-96]

Getting something off my chest

This is going to sound unbelievably selfish to some people, so bear with me. It involves a certain character I hold dear to my heart.

So far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with some aspects of Sonic Forces’ story, and unpleasantly surprised by others. The quality of the cutscene animation appears to be worse than the average SFM project, let alone Unleashed/Generations, which is disappointing considering this is supposed to be Sonic’s grand breakthrough into the PS4/XB1 generation. It’s not clear why Classic Sonic is even here if they were going to also include a voiceless, interchangeable Create-a-Character. And “Fist Bump” can go fuck off and die in the wilderness.

Still, the snippets of characterization I’ve seen are, for the most part, a drastic improvement over *dry heave* Lost World. If the Japanese promos are to be believed, Knuckles is no longer cheap comic relief, and will actually have a purpose and a chance to develop his character. They seem to be taking steps to give the other side characters more of a role than in Generations, even though they aren’t playable (which, again, why?! They’re clearly doing something off-screen!), even Silver, who hasn’t really had anything major since Black Knight - if that even counts.

Sonic’s character - not the cutesy faux-classic version, but the modern-day Sonic that Sega seems to forget exists - may be back in form, at least going off the tiny portions of gameplay footage I’ve looked at. The major dynamic between him and the aforementioned interchangeable OC seems to be the focus of the story and his character arc, similar to how other Sonic stories have developed him through his relationships with new characters - Rush with Blaze, SatSR with Shahra, Unleashed with Chip, SatBK with Caliburn and Merlina, etc. Still, it’s too early to tell, and for all I know, maybe he’s still the complete idiot he was in *dry heave* Lost World.

Still, there is one reservation I have before I completely accept this story.

There is still the matter of one Miles “Tails” Prower.

For years, Sonic Team hasn’t really figured out how to handle the character. In fact, most modern adaptations seemed to do a better job than the creators themselves (see: Sonic Boom...the show, not the games).

Here’s the skinny. In Sonic Adventure, his story was special among the six in the game because it served as one long character growth arc that you - as the player - got to experience through his eyes. Seeing the story end with Tails defeating Dr. Eggman all on his own, by both defusing a bomb and fighting off a giant mech in the middle of the city, was the perfect conclusion to an arc that essentially brought him out of Sonic’s shadow. The development of Tails as an independent character continued in Adventure 2, where we see him come to Sonic’s rescue, coordinate a mission to infiltrate Eggman’s island base and another mission later on to sabotage the Eclipse Cannon with a fake Chaos Emerald, and take down Eggman in mech-to-mech combat (for the second time) as a revenge act for Sonic’s apparent death. In SA2, he took on the role of leader for the first time, even before Sonic stepped into a pneumatic tube unsure whether he would see the light of day again.

And then...THWACK! All that development thrown out!

For the next few games, his characterization jumped all over the place. Sometimes he regressed to more childlike behavior (Heroes/Battle - though that may have been the English voice actor fooling me), sometimes he showed no real personality whatsoever (’06, Unleashed), sometimes he had no real purpose other than to serve as an exposition fairy (the Rush games). Others fared better, with the first Riders game giving him a real rival for the first time, as well as a chance for his combined insecurity and determination to shine through.

The best portrayal during this time, in my opinion, came from Shadow the Hedgehog (strangely enough), where he went solo to look for that DAMN FOURTH CHAOS EMERALD (yes, that very same one), and later in the game, to save the president’s airplane from a swarm of Black Arms. As he tagged along with Shadow, he showed off aspects of his character we never saw before, such as his hatred/fear of enclosed spaces and his tendency to geek out when he sees revolutionary new technology.

When Pontac and Graff took over, starting with Sonic Colors, a more snarky and cynical side of Tails began to surface. By now, Tails had grown up, remaining close to Sonic but not exactly worshipping him as much as he used to. Some of Sonic’s snark had rubbed off on him, but not enough to make him seem like a clone of Sonic. In fact, the two bounced off each other quite well in some scenes (although the actual dialogue sometimes left a lot to be desired.) At first, it seemed like natural character development, the next step in the bond between him and Sonic, which hadn’t really been explored in almost a decade.

And then Lost World happened.

Never has there been a more thorough character assassination since a certain Beatle picked the wrong time to leave his apartment in 1980.

You see, even though there were inconsistencies with Tails’ character over the years, there was usually one thing in common. He wasn’t a total dickhead. In fact, he was one of the more quiet and polite characters in the entire series, which helped to balance out Sonic’s looser, more aggressive personality (at least in theory.) Leave it to Lost World to change all that.

There were lots of problems with Lost World’s story. In fact, there are so many I probably haven’t even thought of all of them yet. But Tails’ characterization in that game was the worst offense of all, at least to me, a longtime fan of the franchise and of that character.  When I first watched the cutscenes, I thought it was some sort of Ghostbusters II situation, where the Deadly Six had some sort of substance that turned everyone against each other. Sadly, no.

Watching him mouth off to everyone around him, inexplicably accuse Sonic of trusting Eggman over him (in the middle of a time-sensitive mission, mind you), and come out as the ultimate hero of the story after having learned nothing from the experience...I can’t even begin to describe the frustration. Seeing people try to defend his change of character on the basis of “oh, you’re complaining because he’s not a perfect angel 100% of the time”, only made it worse.

Seeing as how Lost World was the last canon Sonic game up to this point (not counting Mania), this is pretty important. And when I saw this rumor floating around for Forces, my hopes weren’t exactly raised.

It’s hard to discount this rumor, considering it came before the official reveal of the game’s name and features, and yet accurately noted the custom character and the details of the storyline. For me, this is 100% accurate until proven otherwise.

With the revelation of cutscene snippets, it seems that this scenario may sadly be coming true.

Now, maybe there is a chance that they can handle this “giving up” thing in a decent manner. Maybe something happens that demoralizes him in a way that we, as viewers, can understand. However, that’s still a hard sell to me considering all he’s gone through to this point in canon - especially seeing Sonic blown out an airlock in SA2 and then fighting back against Eggman mech-to-mech. Not to mention the Tails over in Sonic Boom, and the classic Tails in Sonic Mania, who actually DO STUFF.

So why did I just waste your time with this long rant?

I care about the stories in Sonic games. I care about what the characters do, feel, and say outside of gameplay, or even inside of it. And that goes for all of the characters. But for Tails, it’s a special case. Along with Sonic himself, he’s my favorite character in the entire franchise, a character I can both identify with and look up to when written properly. Unfortunately, it seems to me that I love Tails more for what he could be rather than what he is. I look for things in his portrayals that add up to a full character, but there is so much inconsistency throughout the games it’s really hard to tell who he is. Sometimes he’s a brave, headstrong fighter on Sonic’s level with added smarts. Sometimes he’s a timid Non-Action Guy who relies mostly on technology and inexplicable knowledge. Sometimes - okay, once - he’s a snarky asshat I want to punch in the face. And other times, he’s barely a character at all.

Give them credit, Sonic Forces has taken great pains to restore the credibility of Sonic stories after the non-story that was Generations, and the catastrophe of Lost World’s story. But one more slip-up with Tails...just one...and it may be a deal-breaker for me, regardless of any other positives.

I know, it’s incredibly selfish of me to say this, considering that there are fans of so many other characters who have been waiting for them to get their chance to shine. Knuckles, Silver, Rouge, the Chaotix...we haven’t seen them at their best for years. For most of them, Sonic Forces is their first big appearance since Generations, if you can even call Generations a big appearance for them in the first place.

But to a certain extent, we haven’t really seen Tails either. In Lost World, we saw his evil twin, who will be hereafter referred to as Miles. Miles’ personality traits are the exact inverse of the proper Tails - snarky, lazy, smug, arrogant, and if these leaks are to be believed, a dirty coward*. No other word for it - coward.

My headcanon is that he somehow replaced Tails for that one game, and Tails hasn’t been seen since. My hope is that Miles is long gone, and Tails emerges just in time for Sonic Forces. But all signs are pointing to no.

* And yes, I know you’re gonna bring up that moment from Unleashed, but there he had a reason to run away. Those weren’t Eggman’s robots, those were Dark Gaia’s minions: monsters he had no knowledge of at that point. Not to mention, it was the middle of the night, and they looked like ghostly figures. He had every right to be freaked out.