#and than stone and robotnik were perfect and robotnik obviously comes back alive and well in sonic 4 i don't know what you're talking about

[i-am-trying-my-best-okay]

The sonic movie franchise would've been better if Tom and Maddie weren't a part of it and this is a hill I will die on. Like, to me, their addition to the movie just feels like it takes away from Sonic's potential character development and his connection to the other characters, and now I must make my own canon.

In the first movie, Sonic is shown how as a child he can't stay in one place for long; he just naturally longs to move about, to go anywhere and everywhere. But that instinct of his is what ends up killing his guardian in the end, landing him in the human world. Now, Sonic has the ability to travel the world in like a minute, but he doesn't. Because in his mind, his inability to stay in hiding was what got Longclaw killed, and now he's scared to do it again. We see scenes of little Sonic attempting to leave Green Hill, a place he can very easily hide out undetected, but in the end he can't, overcome by his guilt and fear. So he stays in Green Hill, slowly growing more unstable through his isolation and confinement. So he talks to himself constantly, basically just saying every single one of his thoughts out loud, taking on different personas to have conversations (I thought that part of the movie was sad but very interesting for his character and I'm kinda sad they didn't do more with it). Then this all came ahead with the baseball thing, and Robotnik and Stone are called in (I change nothing about Robotnik and Stone they're perfect thank you). Now Sonic, he knows he needs to go to the mushroom world, but if he does, he feels he'll lose any connection to another living individual, even if it is all in his head. He doesn't want that, but he knows staying in Green Hills will get him caught eventually, so he resolves to leave to somewhere else in the world. It's a struggle for him to leave the town, with him basically having an argument with himself, but he manages it. Then for the rest of the movie we see Sonic moving around the world, talking to himself all the while, skipping town when Robotnik is on his trail, slowly being able to trust that venturing out won't be the end of the world. But at some point Robotnik gets too close, and although Sonic gets away, there's collateral damage. This causes Sonic to spiral in self hatred, screaming at himself. He passes out at some point, then has a dream about Longclaw. During this dream, she helps him realize that it's not him being free that's the problem, it's him running away. After Sonic fights, that's when he'll be truly free. Though, it's also during this dream conversation, that Sonic says something like "I know you're not really Longclaw; she'd tell me to keep running, to keep hiding." And dream Longclaw just smiles and Sonic wakes up. Then he goes off and faces Robotnik, with Robotnik ending up in the mushroom dimension, and Sonic now has a better sense of himself. He's forgiving himself for what happened, and allowing himself to be who he really is; someone who needs to act of their own free will, who wanders around at the speed of light, who faces problems head on.

In the second movie, Sonic is still on Earth; he wanted to explore every bit of it before resolving to move on. Trouble was, now he's seen all of it, and he has no idea where to move on to. He feels stuck, having no direction, all while monologuing this to himself as he always does. Then Robotnik and Knuckles come bursting in (keeping the scene of them meeting), with Knuckles yelling about the Master Emerald. They fight, and Knuckles is kind of weirded out about how Sonic is just saying every single thought that comes into his head, just kind of taking it as Sonic being cocky and a yapper (I want Sonic's habit of talking to himself due to isolation to be misunderstood like this by basically everyone he meets and only those that really know him know the truth of why he does it). Then Tails bursts in, and I want Tails to be there also for the Master Emerald, having tracked its location to Earth, wanting to study it for science purposes. He doesn't know anything about Sonic, but he heard their fight and thinks Sonic knows the location of the Emerald. So he snatches Sonic up and they break away. (Also, I'm aging Tails up to be 12 instead of 8, it just makes more sense to me. He can still be younger than the rest of the gang just not like, a baby hanging out with a bunch of teenagers) Tails quickly finds out that Sonic knows nothing about the Emerald, which is frustrating, but Sonic brings out his magical map, and the two agree to find the Emerald together. Now, Sonic could honestly care less about the Emerald, but he's thrilled to have someone to talk to finally, with Tails making the same conclusion about him that Knuckles did. Meanwhile, Tails has no time for this nonsense of bonding or whatever, he doesn't have time for that; he's a scientist! He never needed anyone and he's not going to start now! This is a temporary partnership and then they'll go their separate ways (It's giving Tails has always been ostracized by society due to his two tails and seen as less than, dehumanized for his physical appearance, so now he's closed himself off from anyone before they have the chance to hurt him). They really are a "has been isolated for so long and is desperate for this opportunity to be around someone" and "has been constantly surrounded by awful people so now wants to self isolate" duo, and they deal with that as finding the Emerald shenanigans ensue. Meanwhile Knuckles and Robotnik are crashing in from time to time, a violent race towards the Emerald (I like what they did with Knuckles character, making him this dimension-wide known fighter who is still grieving not only his family but his entire species). Knuckles feels like he must carry the weight of the Echidna's, that by being the very last of his people his each and every action must be in their honor, not really considering himself an individual. On the Tails and Sonic front, let's say at this point they failed to get the compass, Tails is injured but still functioning, and they secretly followed Robotnik and Knuckles to get the Emerald. Now, Tails has basically had enough of Sonic at this point; not because he doesn't like him, but because he can feel himself growing closer to him, and that scares Tails so much. So he starts arguing with Sonic, saying horrible things to try and push him away. At some point in the argument, Sonic is like, 

"I don't understand why you're acting like this! What did I do wrong?"

"Yeah, you don't get it, do you? People just do this Sonic, they say and do horrible things when you don't deserve it, that's how it works (projecting his trauma)! You don't even know that?" 

"No, I don't!" 

"Of course you wouldn't, there's just nothing wrong with you is there?"

"Well I wouldn't know would I; you're the first person I've actually spoken to in over a decade!"

Tails is flabbergasted at this; Sonic had just seemed so bright and carefree up to this point, if a bit manic. He honestly hadn't thought of Sonic going through hardship. And Sonic, now that they've had a moment to calm down, is thinking over what Tails said, the obvious hurt in it. But before they can unpack any of that, they have to do Emerald shenanigans, the fight ensuing and the Robotnik betrayal. Tails and Sonic get temporarily separated, with the rescuing under the water scene. Then Tails finds them again and does the last push to get them both out of the water, now all on the beach. And so there they were, three broken down kids with the world falling apart around them. They end up talking, revealing these little secrets about themselves, finding the ways they are similar. Then they team up to defeat Robotnik, and the whole thing with Sonic and the Master Emerald, with them promising that they should protect it rather than use it, mostly because Sonic reveals how he almost lost himself to the power while using it. And so now the three have each other in a little makeshift family. Sonic learns how to have genuine connections with others rather than desperately trying to force one (though he still has that manically talking to himself habit), Tails learns that it's okay to open yourself up and be close with the right people (though he still has those trust issues), and Knuckles learns it's okay to make decisions that he thinks are right and not solely focus on making decisions he thinks the echidna's would have wanted (though he still carries that "I'm an inter-dimensional warrior and must act accordingly" mindset). They're not perfect, but they have each other, and they find comfort in that.

And then in the third movie, the three of them actually have left Earth, doing their own thing. Knuckles has been all over so he knows places they can go (Tails is not overly fond of going back to his own home), though Knuckles often forgets wherever he went he was kinda violent so wherever they go they're often met with fear and/or hostility. Still, they make it work; Knuckles isn't used to settling down in one place, and Sonic and Tails are super hyped to constantly be on the move, to see new things (Tails sometimes complains if he was studying something and they have to go, but they always promise to either take it with them or come back in secret for Tails to study it, which they always do follow up on). Besides, they consider each other to be their home, so it doesn't really matter where they are. Anyway, they go back to Earth because that's where they hid the Master Emerald, being the most obscure planet ever, and Tails is picking up some sort of vague sciencey related troubles back on Earth on his monitor (Shadow breaking out; keeping all the Shadow flashback scenes). So they go back to Earth to the source of said disturbance and find Shadow, the fight ensuing. As for Shadow, before this we saw him hunting down any trace of Maria, hoping that maybe what he saw was wrong, that she somehow survived, only to be proven wrong, and we watch his breakdown, see his resolve to have it all burn. Anyway, after the fight Stone finds them, and they temporarily team up with Robotnik, since Stone, having done his research, says that to his knowledge it seems like Shadow is planning on world domination or something (he's not). And Robotnik wouldn't want that because that's HIS job, and the gang doesn't want that because that would make where they hid the Emerald less than safe. Knuckles, having been betrayed once before, isn't on board with this, but takes on the "the enemy to my enemy is my ally FOR NOW" warrior mindset and resolves to kill him ("Fine, 'maim him'; ugh you guys are so sensitive" - the two are trying to break Knuckles overly murderous tendencies, to only murder when strictly necessary) afterwards. Sonic is cautious, since Robotnik is literally the embodiment of everything Longclaw has ever warned him about, but being his all over the place self he is the most willing to do this team up. Tails, with his trust issues having self, is even more hostile than Knuckles is. And he's incredibly protective over Sonic and Knuckles knowing what Robotnik has tried to do to both of them. Tails also bumps heads with Robotnik when it comes to genius level mechanic stuff, both of them thinking they're more smart and more capable than the other. Anyway, shenanigans ensue, and Robotnik meets his grandfather and such. And then, instead of Tom getting life threateningly hurt, it's Knuckles and Tails getting badly injured. And now it's Sonic that has to deal with it, trying to make sure they don't die. He can't go to the hospitals; they aren't people, they won't know what to do with them. So it's this tense moment of Sonic trying to medically keep Knuckles and Tails stable, pulling out his scarce knowledge of injuries, getting them to a safe place. He gets them as stable as he can, and he watches as his only two friends in the world, his makeshift family, struggle to hang on. So Sonic loses it, and breaks the group's promise and gets the Master Emerald to fight Shadow. But eventually, with Sonic so close to the kill, he sees how Shadow wants to die, wants everything to die with him. They talk of their grief, how Sonic wanted everything to die too, but he kept going. Things progress; Robotnik sacrifices himself for Stone, Knuckles and Tails show up to the fight despite being injured and barely conscious, and Shadow "dies" (he's coming back). When it's all over, Sonic apologizes for taking the Emerald, and though the other two forgave him, he tells them to hide it somewhere and not tell him where, so he won't get any more ideas to use it again, acknowledging how similar he is to Shadow in this regard. 

I just feel like taking Tom and Maddie away leaves more room for the story and characters to grow.