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blueikeproductions · 2 years ago

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For a while I’ve been wondering if the Transformers might be in a bit of a rut with its villains. Ever since IDW in particular leaned hard into making the Decepticons more of an oppressed group fighting against (implied) tyranny, it kinda feels like the series has lost its primary villains, especially Megatron who has fairly consistently been portrayed as more of an anti-hero in more recent stories.

Because of this, a lot of stories post Aligned have desperately tried using other villains but none of them have really stuck as mainstays.

Cyberverse and WFC tried bringing back the Quintessons, but neither really left much of an impression, despite CV handling the group better. Both Quints just kinda confusingly show up with an intent to destroy for vague reasons, and then leave. Both shows also tried to use the Mercenaries but both just used them so horribly… Not helped is both sets of Mercs were all Decepticons, making it feel more tonally confused. RiD15 got this right by having Autobot bounty hunters in addition to Decepticons post war to make it less … one sided.

Prime Wars tried to have non Decepticon antagonists as well, but Starscream, Trypticon, Menasor, Overlord, Rodimus Unicronus, and Megatronus are all labeled Decepticons, so … which is it…?

It feels like, similar to Sonic fans making observations about Eggman, that Hasbro and current creatives want to move away from using the Decepticons as villains, but don’t really seem to know what to do without them.

There’s this confusing back and forth where they can’t seem to fully divorce themselves from the Decepticons, using some in non Decepticon but still Decepticon roles that I don’t understand, especially in Cyberverse’s case, why they just weren’t rabble rousing Decepticons in a post war setting. (There was Megatron X, Tarn, and the Perfect Decepticons, but they too feel like they were meant as a separate, non-Decepticon faction at times like I dunno, Horrorcons or Vehicons.)

The live action movies are similarly in a weird spot where Megatron steadily became less prominent in favor of other villains, one villain being an Autobot even, to the point he has no role in Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts. While the Bee Movie did use Decepticons effectively in their traditional roles, we now have Beasts…

Now you’d think the obvious thing would be to use the Predacons as galactic beast machine overlords or something, opposite the Maximals, but instead we have the Terrorcons led by Scourge. That in itself isn’t bad, but it still feels like that same reluctance in using Decepticons, as the Predacons are typically the descendants of them, so a weird reluctance by association… (Doubly confusing as some Terrorcons are former Decepticons, continuing that weird tonal confusion.)

This wouldn’t bother me so much if Hasbro just came right out and admitted they want to retire the Decepticons as antagonists and they want to focus on a new evil faction going forward in newer (non-G1) media. Rise of the Beasts feels like that’s them indirectly admitting it, but then we have EarthSpark.

EarthSpark is basically Rescue Bots but aimed at teenagers. (They say it’s a kids show, and it is, but let’s be honest, most children’s media above kindergarten nowadays is more openly made for teens and college aged adults. Quick aside, Rocko’s Modern Life and The Brave Little Toaster is a fun instance in the 90’s where both was actually made with adults in mind, but when they found out kids were watching the most, they toned it down. Gargoyles meanwhile, was made for kids specifically, but was also made by a team that wasn’t trying to make (as much) of a point above all else…) Anyhoo like Rescue Bots, the focus is more on a team of young new Autobots (again let’s be honest, until told otherwise the Terrans are all functionally Autobots) navigating life with their new found family. While the Decepticons are villains this time, they’re limited to mostly being an inconvenience in favor of the new lead villains Agent Croft of GHOST, Dr. Mandroid and his Arachnamech droids. Both are a call back to Marvel TF human villains who don’t trust any Transformer and want to hunt and exterminate them all. These two are really fun, though they admittedly lean a little too much into a current “only white people can be villains thing” I’m not fond of (some of my favorite baddies from other stuff are other ethnicities as well!), but they’re both otherwise very solid and have that honesty of Hasbro wanting to try new villains outside of the Decepticons. But because fans are always weird about humans, the Decepticons have to be the “true” focus, but that doesn’t really work very well in a show that wants to paint the Earth bound Decepticons in a sympathetic light (particularly Tarantulus and the Cassettes) like IDW and Cyberverse did…

It does appear ES is at least partially aware of this, and it feels like they’re making Shockwave the new Decepticon leader in the absence of Megatron (again kind of harkening to Shockers’ role in Marvel), with the assumption Shockwave will take control in season 2. It would be fittingly logical, still having the new human villains but also reinvigorating the Decepticons with a cold, merciless yet logic driven leader not bound by petty things like a conscious. However there’s still the mystery of what happened to Cybertron. The earth bound Transformers are cut off from Cybertron and seem to assume the planet is gone and their race near extinction up until the discovery of the Terrans. Now there’s a separate discussion entirely here, but what I want to focus on is Cybertron. Some of us have wondered if the planet is not only still intact but the remaining Autobots and Decepticons are still fighting up there. Why wouldn’t they? Shockwave wants to continue the war, and other Earth Decepticons are also itching to settle old scores when the time comes, so it stands to reason the Cybertron Decepticons are doing the same. It’s led to some theories that the Cybertron bound Transformers may reestablish contact with Earth, with the Decepticon leader of Cybertron looking to rescue Megatron and take over the mudball he was trapped on for decades. Who would be the leader? A friend has been gunning for Deathsaurus in particular, but I’d say any previous Emperor of Destruction type Decepticon would work well: Deathsaurus, Scorponok, Galvatron, Magmatron, Cryotek, Overlord, Tarn, Straxxus, etc. Some theories have also leaned on a group of evil Terrans, possibly led by a Terran version of Beast Wars Megatron as synergy for RotB and general Beast Wars resurgence purposes. Both takes would be interesting, especially with the ever common observation the wars never truly end (it’s why I don’t have high hopes for the returned peace in Cyberverse with the twitchy Shadow Striker and immature Bumblebee as new council members), that it stands to reason the Terran Transformers might have their own war later on…

My point otherwise is if Hasbro wants to truly commit to non Decepticon villains going forward than actually commit to the bit and not be wishy washy about it. Mandroid, and Scourge seem to be the step in such a such a direction.

However if they want to retain the Decepticons as the primary villains, but not have Megatron as the leader anymore, then pick a new leader and commit. Part of why I enjoy RiD15 so much is that it wasn’t afraid to experiment in that context, with such leaders like Steeljaw, Glowstrike, Scorponok, Saberhorn, Cyclonus and Motormaster all serving as fun leader types for what they were at the time. Personally I’d enjoy Optimus vs Scorponok again, or an Optimus/Predaking, Fire Convoy/Black Convoy, and Bumblebee/Steeljaw style match up. Bumblebee continuing to be the main focus probably implies more of a Bee/Steeljaw thing in the future and I’ll gladly take it.

I think what I’d prefer at this point is a new evil faction since that’s what it feels like it’s going anyway, be it something like Blendtrons, Terrorcons, Predacons, Vehicons or a brand new kind of ‘Con. Terrorcon feels like the faction Hasbro wants to use specifically from Prime and now the Movies, though it’s continued usage will likely depend on RotB…

#macadam #macaddam #transformers #transformers earthspark #decepticons #blueike productions #blatherin blatherskite #transformers war for cybertron #transformers robots in disguise #transformers Cyberverse #transformers rise of the beasts

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beevean · 3 years ago

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Compilation: the Sonamy dynamic, explained in Seaside Hill Paradise (2022)

[translator’s note: the original article was written in Spanish by @latin-dr-robotnik]

Today we’re going to talk once again about the star of our show, this time to put in order some recent writing pieces and concepts.

In the last 5 years, the discussion around Sonamy made giant leaps. Old preconceptions about Sonic’s creators, the relationship between East and West, and even the importance of certain continuities over others have been made obsolete, even abandoned by the fandom in favor of more updated news.

In this period of time, we saw the death of Archie Sonic and Sonic Boom; the birth of IDW Sonic; the establishment of Sonic Studio, a studio in charge of every aspect about Sonic (except videogame development); and the retirement from the series of the writers Ken Pontac and Warren Graff (2010-2019), who have been replaced by famous Archie and IDW writer Ian Flynn to write Sonic Frontiers.

Even in the fandom itself, these five years have considerably affected the conversation. Personally, I’ve been involved in Twitter and Tumblr, and the kind of debates, investigations and conclusions drawn by all these interactions have completely turned upside down my understanding of the Sonamy dynamic in more than one occasion.

This is why today we’re going to make a compilation of the articles and information about Sonamy that we hosted on Seaside Hill Paradise since 2017. Depending on the case, we could add more recent and complete information that helps us understand certain concepts tied to the dynamic.

The format will be simple: we will put the articles in chronological order, from the oldest to the most recent, followed by a short summary and some notes that can include corrections or concepts to be aware of (because they weren’t explained well at the time or because the fandom gained a better perspective with time).

Are you ready? Let’s begin from the oldest article, the one who kickstarted this important era of the blog.

April 12th 2018: «Opinión: ¿SonAmy en IDW Sonic? [Updated: June 2019]»

[translator’s note: the article was never translated in English because deemed outdated]

Summary: this article was originally published just after IDW Sonic #2 had come out, and it reports the drastic change that the relationship between Sonic and Amy underwent compared to other media of the time (Forces, Boom, and the last issues of Archie). It was updated in 2019 during the Metal Virus arc, and it presents some questions about Sonic’s reactions in front of Amy, mainly the question “is he in love with her?”. The original conclusion also compares Sally Acorn expecting that Sonic changes for her in Archie Sonic, versus Amy assuring Sonic that “it’s all the reasons I love you”, signaling a change in the franchise as a whole.

Notes: this is an old article, it doesn’t fully cover IDW Sonic but there is another, more recent article that is more updated. This article is also rather cruel towards Sally Acorn in her worst moments in the Bollers era of Archie Sonic. Nowadays I’m not so keen on these low blows on Sonic and Sally’s dynamic.

September 26th 2018: «SEGA and the eternal issue of the Sonic-Amy dynamic»

Summary: the origin of this article comes from an official SEGA merchandise page that mentioned the celebration of the 25th birthday of “Sonic’s girlfriend”. This sparked a discussion on the differences between East and West when it comes to the dynamic, using as reference three publications of a renowned writer of fanfics and analyses on Amy: Cutegirlmayra. The conclusion offers a reflection on the new ways Sonic and Amy could be together, focusing on their love for adventures, and that they could work as an adventuring couple, one that doesn’t really need kisses or hugs or great love gestures to show how much they appreciate the company of one another.

Notes: in this article I didn’t give enough credit to the games from the Adventure era onwards. Despite some bad translation from Japanese to English, the games still kept some nods and special moments that make Amy shine above the popular conception of “desperate fangirl” that took hold in the fandom. The next article will be about Amy as a character.

This article was also once again cruel towards Sally Acorn and put emphasis on her worst moments in Archie, which I now regret. Sally is a complex character, with her good and bad parts in the various eras she went through (SatAM, Archie Sonic pre-#50, Archie Sonic pre-Flynn, Archie Sonic pre-reboot and Archie Sonic post-reboot); analyzing her would take much more effort than a simple mention of the kind of romantic relationship SEGA of America presented to the Western side of the Sonic fandom.

However, the conclusion of the article is still relevant nowadays, and until a certain point IDW Sonic did focus exactly on what I said worked between them. We’ll see what will happen with Sonic Frontiers.

March 27th 2019: «I love you – Forbidden words in Sonic»

Summary: this article is a reflection on that famous scene in IDW Sonic #2, and the impact that the words “I love you” have in this series: they had never been mentioned outside of Archie Sonic, and both Sonic X and Sonic Lost World omitted any potential “I love you”. The article continues with an explanation of “SEGA’s mandates”, a series of restrictions unknown to the general public that Sonic writers and sponsors have to follow; they were introduced after the mess that were the romantic stories in Archie Sonic, especially during the Penders-Bollers era. And lastly, the article comments on the flexibility of these mandates, and how they allowed to imply that there’s something between Sonic and Amy, in IDW Sonic, Sonic X, or games like Unleashed and Lost World. Nevertheless, it was stressed that the Sonamy dynamic has first and foremost a strong symbolic component, and that in cultures like the Japanese one they’re accepted as a couple and that’s it.

Notes: nowadays, the idea of SEGA’s mandates lost a bit of its strength. While it’s not a question that they used to exist at least, and writers like Ian Flynn talked about their restrictions more than once, the reality is that it doesn’t look like the mandates are as strict as we thought. The general vibe in the fandom is that the Japanese vision of the dynamic between Sonic and Amy is slowly permeating in Western material as well, and that anyway, thanks to Sonic Boom, we’ve seen how flexible these “mandates” are. The way Sonamy is understood and written has changed, and there’s not need for it to go against the limits SEGA puts, as they’re there for a reason.

April 28th 2019: «Sonic Unleashed: Chip, Sonic, Amy and emotional support»

[translator’s note: the original article was never translated in English, but the gist of it is covered in the Tumblr post above]

Summary: this is the second most important article on the blog, after SEGA and the eternal issue of the Sonic-Amy dynamic. A Sonic Unleashed analysis that was inspired by a comment made by Cutegirlmayra on Amy’s role as the source of emotional support for Sonic, and the latter inspiring Amy to be better every day. The article also analyzes Chip’s role and his relationship with Sonic, compared with an entire secret subplot that develops between Sonic and Amy and that can be easily ignored by the player; but if they do, they’ll lose a ton of essential information about their relationship, which is seen in the cutscenes and Amy asking Sonic on a date at the end. Lastly, the article puts the spotlight on Kiyoko Yoshimura, Sonic Unleashed’s writer, and her relationship with Shiro Maekawa, the main writer of the majority of the games from Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) to Sonic and the Black Knight (2009). Maekawa and Yoshimura wrote together many episodes of Sonic X (the series considered to be the closest to Sonic Team’s “true vision”, according to them), and Yoshimura wrote many important episodes for the development of Sonamy, including episode 5 and 9, on top of being the story editor of the Metarex saga. The article concludes with a reflection on the changes in the way Sonic Team and SEGA handles the characters and the stories of the games after Yoshimura and Maekawa left the series.

Notes: there’s an entire extra section about Maekawa’s role in the franchise that wasn’t included. We’ll explain more about it in the FAQ section of this article, but in an interview with Emi Jones I found out that Maekawa mentioned the existence of a team dedicated exclusively to check the representation of the characters according to a general guideline (no mention of the famous “mandates”). Maekawa was part of this team.

This article is one of the mandatory reads of this blog and almost entirely reshapes the way we understand Sonic Unleashed. However, it’s not complete, and months later I wrote another essay about the characters of the game, including a piece on how Amy trusts Sonic, and how bad she felt that the entire world gave up when it looked like the end was near. I’ll save this discussion for the article about Amy Rose.

Many parts of the English post have been used as reference for the “Sonic Unleashed Manifesto”, a thread created by the SonAmy Central account on Twitter. I recommend reading it, as it includes many extra nods that are not present in the article.

May 18th 2020: «SEGA and the eternal issue of Sonic’s girlfriend» [SHP #200]

Summary: the 200th article of the blog is about the idea of Sonic having a girlfriend, and analyzes three “girlfriends” in particular that existed in the history of the blue hedgehog: Madonna, Sally Acorn and Amy Rose. At the end, the article comments on which of the three “girlfriends” still exist and what kind of relationship has been established in the last years, concluding with a reflection on the control that SEGA of Japan has over the characters, and the current state of the relationship between Sonic and Amy.

Notes: this article is, in its own way, a compilation of Sonic’s main relationships throughout his existence. It’s less cruel towards Sally Acorn, but once again I must stress that nowadays there’s still a lack of a more in-depth looking of her character, with the good and the bad, and not just her love story with Sonic.

The information is still relevant to this day, and to me, the perspective that it offers about the changes in the discussion of these topics is important to understand what I said at the beginning: in the last 5 years, the discussion around Sonamy made giant leaps.

The article also includes a mention to the excellent thread made by Yvanix Rose on Sonic X Episode 52. [translator’s note: the thread is in Spanish]

August 12th 2020: «No soy inconveniente para mi novia»

[translator’s note: the article was never translated into English]

Summary: this article was inspired by a Japanese screenshot of Sonic Battle, where Sonic supposedly says “I’m not inconvenient for my girlfriend”. It was followed by an analysis of the reaction of the fandom, memes in favor or against it, and comments on the censorship of SEGA of America compared to the perspective of SEGA of Japan.

Notes: “I’m not inconvenient for my girlfriend” is not a correct translation. My friend and collaborator Beevean says that a more accurate translation would be “I’m sorry, but I don’t need a girlfriend [because I already have one]”. Beev pointed out that the structure of the sentence in Japanese is ambiguous, not spelling out in an explicit way that Sonic might already have a girlfriend (or might not even be interested in one), and that the English translation, “I have enough girls chasing me as it is”, is not as bad as we believed.

December 3rd 2020: «SEGA and its more recent Sonamy side – more canon than ever»

Summary: this article was an end-of-the-year checkpoint to sum up everything that happened during that time, including all the hugs that followed the latest update of Sonamy in IDW Sonic (up to #36), and an entire SEGA Shop merchandise line exclusively based on the love between the two. The article concludes with an explanation on what really happened, on SEGA opting for supporting Sonamy like this because the ship sells. However, there is also room for discussion, where SEGA seems to be considering the idea of establishing once and for all that Sonic and Amy have a strong bond, that whether they are friends or the mysterious “something else” they are willing to give the life for the other if necessary, and a possible approach to ideals closer to the Japanese vision of the characters.

Notes: the information in this article is still accurate. What we still don’t know is if SEGA really intends to get closer to the Japanese version of Sonamy, and if they’ll go deeper in the future in games like Sonic Frontiers and the Sonic Prime series. As of February 2022, Sonic and Amy are the only protagonists of Frontiers that have been confirmed by the Game Awards 2021 trailer; some rumors say that they’ll be one of the main focuses of the game. We just have to wait and see.

March 23rd 2021: «Opinion: how could Sonamy progress in IDW?»

Summary: this article was inspired by a question I got about the future of the dynamic in IDW Sonic. The main theme is to understand the opportunities and limitations of the dynamic, the point their interactions could reach until the mystery of whether they’ll eventually get together is completely solved. It also comments on the necessity of separating Archie from IDW, and it concludes with a reflection on the possible future of this particular continuity.

Notes: the article only refers to the IDW Sonic canon, but it still helps to expand our knowledge of the Sonamy dynamic in the main canon, assuming that the words used by people like Evan Stanley can be applied there. We’ll go back to these ideas in the next section.

May 13th 2021: «Sonamy Paradise – a reflection on recent and future events»

Summary: this article is a compilation of the opinions of friends and collaborators of this blog on the Sonamy dynamic and where they think it’s going. We included Beevean (translator and collaborator of SHP in many articles), Jessica (friend and the person behind a petition for a series based on IDW Sonic), Mort (SHP staff, co-host of the SHPodcast and the person behind the channel Sonic Caos), Yvanix Rose (translator, SHP staff, collaborator, part of Sonic Stage Argentina, wife) and Facu (SHP staff, co-host of the SHPodcast, part of Sonic Stage Argentina, the person behind the channel Geshinro).

Notes: the opinions of this article were influenced by two central events that happened at the time: the “leak” of “Sonic:Rose” (or Sonic Unlimited, which may or not be Sonic Frontiers), and the events of IDW Sonic. The article might be considered outdated depending on each case.

A Sonamy FAQ

After summarizing all the articles, I’ll answer a list of frequently asked questions about the Sonamy dynamic, to clear up some concepts that may not be totally clear.

Question: What is SEGA’s official position about Sonamy?

Answer: Amy always called herself Sonic’s girlfriend, as said in her Sonic Generations profile; but complementary material like magazines, manuals and passing comments like in Sonic Heroes (especially in the US manual) and Mario & Sonic in the Olympic Games always hinted at the fact that Sonic might be hiding his true feelings. In 2018, the official SEGA Shop described Amy as “Sonic’s girlfriend” in its 25th anniversary merchandising line, which was never fixed despite the fans immediately noticing it (today that page is gone because the merchandise is no longer sold).

Aside from that, SEGA is always ambiguous on the canonical state of the ship. SEGA of Japan usually shares on social media images where the two are together, like plushies in pretty places, while the Western branch make memes that can even end up rather aggressive, like the infamous image of Sonic rejecting Amy’s advances with the description “Friend Zone – Stage 5”. SEGA’s official position is to never confirm anything in canon, but at the same time alluding to something more, mainly because the ship still sells. Occasionally, Amy has been defined as “Sonic’s self-proclaimed girlfriend”; other times they say she’s just Sonic’s girlfriend, but mainly as a joke, especially to fluster Sonic like in the Twitter Takeovers.

In different occasions, certain fleeting comments alluded to a possible stance, but they are not real confirmations of anything. For example, in Sonic and the Secret Rings, a section about Sonic CD says that Amy is “Sonic’s always cheerful love interest” (note: this appears only in the English version, NOT in the Japanese version, so I was advised to take it with tweezers, lots of tweezers actually), or a 1994 sticker magazine that included mentions of Amy’s effect on Sonic, “capturing his heart with her beauty.” Details that have always circulated in the fandom, but it is worth clarifying that they should be taken with a grain of salt.

Yuji Naka, in an interview from 2004, explained that Sonic X was much more in line with Sonic Team’s vision at the time. Information that complements the interview with Maekawa on how SEGA supervised this kind of things and the vision of the Sonic Team writers about Sonic X and the game canon.

Question: Who are Shiro Maekawa and Kiyoko Yoshimura? Why are they so important?

Answer: they were two of the main Sonic Team writers in the 2000s. Maekawa worked between 2001 and 2009 and wrote games like Adventure 2, Heroes and Black Knight, helped to fix Sonic ‘06 as much as he could, he helped supervise Sonic X, and was part of a SEGA team dedicated exclusively to oversee the representation of the characters (confirmed in an interview with Emi Jones from a few years ago)

Yoshimura had a central role in Sonic X, writing different episodes: for example, episode 9, the beach one where Amy gives Sonic a special bracelet made by her. Being the editor of the story of the Metarex saga, she also wrote the famous episode 76, the one where Amy fully plunges herself in the aquatic planet to save Sonic without considering that she might not be able to get out of it alive, but in the end both of them are safe, together. She also helped Maekawa writing the dialogue of Sonic ‘06 while he fixed the story, and then she wrote the story of Sonic Unleashed.

Kiyoko Yoshimura wrote this episode and the story of Sonic Unleashed, among other things.

Both where essential in this particular era of Sonic, and they wrote many of the most iconic Sonamy moments. Considering that Maekawa rewrote ‘06’s plot and Yoshimura the dialogues, they were probably the ones behind the infamous Trial of Love, where the player has to choose between Elise or Amy: if they choose Amy, the oracle comments “I see. You’ve chosen your long-time love”. There’s also the possibility that their individual projects were connected, like for example Unleashed’s date (Yoshimura) with Black Knight’s date (Maekawa). Regardless of their contributions to Sonamy, after they left Sonic Team, the way the characters were written and interacted with each other clearly changed.

Maekawa and Yoshimura worked on this. It doesn’t matter whether ‘06 is canon or not: this reflects the stance of the Sonic Team writers in the Adventure era. It’s impossible to talk about those games without mentioning their contributions.

Question: What does Sonic think about Amy? Does he like her?

Answer: Sonic’s real feelings for Amy were always kept a secret. Recently, he looked much more relaxed about her in the different interpretations of the character (Boom, IDW, even the Sonic Channel story based on the two of them), unlike in the past where Sonic used to run away as soon as Amy mentioned his name. In Western portrayals, like the Twitter Takeovers and panels like the 25th anniversary celebration and Sonic Boom 2014 (actually a sneak peak of some of the episodes of the first season), there’s the tendency to put Sonic in uncomfortable situation where he’s forced to admit his feelings for Amy, and where Roger’s talent to make Sonic sound agitated shines.

Then there are exceptional cases like Sonic in Sonic X episode 52: the meaning of the white rose and Sonic’s censored words in the Japanese version [translator’s notes: it’s Yvanix Rose’s Spanish thread], which leaves fans wondering if Sonic really said he loved Amy… until in the French dub Sonic directly says that he has “loved her since forever”. The analysis of Sonic’s feelings is never quite simple, and indirect elements and different symbols are often used (two songs that talk about lovers: Hikaru Michi and Natsu No Hi, a rose, a particular gesture, his own body language) to try to allude that there is something more, without necessarily saying it and risking an essential modification to the status quo of the relationship, regardless of whether it’s the games, a series or the current comics.

(Edit: Yvanix Rose informed me that the current streaming version of Sonic X uses a third unknown song, and that more importantly they cut the line where Sonic openly declares his love for Amy. Of course, the original version was never intended to come out with Sonic saying “Of course I love you Amy, since forever!”, because even in the Japanese dub, the one the French dub is based on, censored it, probably for being too forward for someone like Sonic; and in other versions like English and Latin Spanish they changed Sonic’s words to be less… obvious, but they can’t hide this information from the new generation of fans. We all know what French Sonic said, loud and clear: “Bien sûr que je t’aime Amy, depuis toujours!”)

Let’s not forget that Sonic X is considered the show “most faithful to Sonic Team’s true vision”.

Question: what will happen with Sonamy in IDW Sonic?

Answer: Their relationship is in a very comfortable place right now. We’ve seen multiple times over the past four years that Sonic is much more willing to go on adventures with Amy (ex: IDW Sonic #14), and Amy has been able to express over and over again her excitement at seeing Sonic, including a good amount of hugs (and Sonic accepts them so calmly, something unimaginable decades ago). I doubt that things will go beyond these displays of affection, but the comic has all the potential to explore the in different aspects: adventures, combat, and even those quieter moments at the end of story arcs of high tension and action. IDW Sonic doesn’t have to, neither will follow in the footsteps of pre-reboot Archie Sonic, but the Sonic-Amy relationship can be expressed in a variety of ways that don’t require traditional romantic displays, like kisses or big declarations (except for that one time in IDW Sonic #2 when Amy said she loves him just the way he is, but she has always been more emotionally expressive than Sonic).

Evan Stanley (artist and comic writer) said not much long ago:

«They like each other, but Sonic just isn’t the kind of guy who is going to make goo-goo eyes at Amy or perform grand acts of romance. If you wanna see that, that’s what fan works are for.»

Question: is SEGA going to confirm Sonamy in an official way someday?

Answer: The possibility of it being “confirmed” in a traditional way is not in their dynamic: a declared engagement, with kisses and romantic dates and all kinds of typical romantic interactions… is not how Sonamy works.

Relying on this traditional definition to gauge the canonical status of the relationship is the quickest way to conclude “they’re never going to be together”, but the reality of the dynamic is different. Although the origins of Amy’s character can be traced to ideas that were left hanging after scrapping Madonna (Sonic’s first “girlfriend”, with elements such as the red dress or the fact that she was the one chasing after him), and to SEGA’s clear intention of creating a love interest who was “Mickey Mouse’s Minnie” (as Naoto Ohshima mentioned), from the beginning her character had the additional twist that Sonic is never going to completely reciprocate her feelings (translation: he’s not going to turn into Mickey Mouse singing about how much in love he is). The idea that the Sonic creators always defended is that he is not necessarily interested in such a relationship, who still has “the heart of a young boy” (that is, he’s immature for some things). In any case, Naoto Ohshima himself has expressed that, if one day Sonic grew up, he would probably choose Amy as his partner: the closest thing to an “official” confirmation from the man who created the character.

Although she doesn’t have the necessary authority to speak for the main canon, Evan Stanley explained the official position on the dynamic:

Sonic Team’s official stance is that while Sonic does like-like Amy, he’s simply not interested in a serious relationship at this point in his life. Amy knows this, and is content with being good friends. Not every story needs to have an intense romance, and not every character needs to be into that. There’s plenty of fan-made content to provide it if you really need that fix.

None of this is new information, but it’s important to keep in mind that SEGA’s stance hasn’t changed in three decades. What did change were how Sonic and Amy’s interactions have been adapted from Japan to the West, giving the impression that Sonic can’t stand Amy, when the original intention was that he doesn’t know how to react, and probably doesn’t even fully understand what he feels for her.

In short: it’s been confirmed that Amy was created to be Sonic’s love interest, what will never be confirmed is a traditional engagement in-universe. In any case, in Japan they’re still seen as a couple, and from time to time SEGA of America and SEGA of Europe take advantage of opportunities to remind us that both hedgehogs could be something more or not, a bond much deeper than one of best friends… Who knows! This is what SEGA wants.

The collaboration with Hot Topic in 2020 was completely focused on Sonamy. These things don’t happen for no reason, they’re personally checked and approved by SEGA. SEGA of America, in this case.

Question: B-but the creators said that Sonic is never going to get married! And anyway many of them no longer work for SEGA, so their current opinions don’t matter anymore!

Answer: Two things:

1. The fact that Sonic will never get married and “settle down” doesn’t mean that he’s never going to feel love, or affection that goes beyond mere friendship. While getting married and adopting a domestic life is clearly out of character for Sonic (outside Mobius 25 Years Later), there’s a whole world of possibilities to mix adventurous elements with an added touch of clues about a potential romance or something else (Sonic Boom, for example, used secret dates and confirmations from supporting characters, since officially Sonic couldn’t show any interest in Amy). Reducing the validity of an affective bond to how likely two characters are to get married is a very reductive and naive way of understanding the way in which such bonds can be established.

2. Although it’s been 15 years since Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima have worked at SEGA, they continue to give their opinions about Sonic to this day. Their comments don’t usually contradict official stances that have existed since the time they worked at the company, and that probably they themselves promoted in the first place. Ohshima did not start to believe in the last 5 years that Amy would be the ideal romantic interest for Sonic, she was always created with that intention and he, as Sonic’s creator, knows the limits of the character and his potential reactions to different situations. Neither Naka nor Ohshima can accurately predict the future that lies ahead with Frontiers and beyond, but they are not two nobodies, they know Sonic’s character more than we do.

Question: why is Sonic Unleashed such a frequent topic?

Answer: In recent years, Sonic Unleashed has become something of a “Sonamy temple” due to how the many layers of references and nods to the ship. As mentioned above, in this blog we published an article about a whole subplot between Sonic and Amy, that deals with the emotional support that she gives Sonic at a time when he has to travel around the world without stopping for a minute, and when he must deal with his own wildest form: the Werehog. There are also tons of nods from NPCs, ranging from comments on their relationship to a love story that almost entirely mirrors the dynamic that Sonic and Amy have (Ana and Musaid’s story). All of this material has been recently archived by SonAmy Central, including some of the material I used for my writing.

Kiyoko Yoshimura really shined in writing this world adventure, and only now fans have begun to investigate and discuss the extent of the references that she included in the dialogues and the different substories of Unleashed. And we explained earlier why she was so important to this era of Sonic.

Question: How does Sonamy work?

Answer: As we’ve said so far, their dynamic works for two reasons: the ambiguity of Sonic’s feelings, and Amy’s determination to stay by his side, either as his best friend or in her quest to eventually become something more. Over the years we’ve seen that their points of view can complement each other to some degree, and that there are ways in which Sonic inspires Amy to be better every day, and she gives him all her support and faith during the best and worst of times. In this regard, I want to share an excerpt that a friend of mine, Rachel, wrote a few days ago about the way their dynamic works and that, in my opinion, is a brilliant explanation:

(Context: a chat about how easily certain characters can be shipped with others, especially Amy).

«By contrast, Sonic in canon is probably the least shippable character. I think I made a SonAmy essay some time ago about it, but tl;dr since he isn’t tied to anyone and is pretty private when it comes to his most intense feelings (love, sadness, etc.) Despite being and extrovert through and through, his heart remains a mystery for all of us as well as for his friends. Yet Amy is still his canon love interest, and their interactions have changed a lot across the years and the medias. What are they? What does Sonic feel for her? How do two characters who appear so different and even incompatible at times manage to bring out sometimes the best, sometimes the less pleasant aspect of each other? And how do they surpass their flaws and manage to prove time and time again that they have, in fact, one of the strongest bonds in the entire series- platonic or otherwise? That’s why it’s all geometry shapes and maths, because they are the real deal in canon and they are such the anti-Mickey/Minnie that it shouldn’t make sense, yet somehow it DOES.»

There’s also the memorable time when Ian Flynn (writer of Archie, IDW Sonic, the Sonic Forces prequel comics, and now Sonic Frontiers) defined Sonamy’s strengths, though it’s worth noting that his comment is mostly referring to Archie Sonic which is more a decade old, and that Ian, like Evan, doesn’t have the full authority to talk about the dynamic in the main canon, at least not until Sonic Frontiers comes out and we see exactly how his writing (which does directly affect the relationship of the characters in IDW Sonic) is moved to an official context of a Sonic Team video game. Let’s take his words more as a guide on how to consider the dynamic:

This is how their dynamic works. Amy puts all her trust in Sonic because she knows that he’ll always do the right thing, no matter how much it causes the whole world to turn against him; and if he wouldn’t, she would be the first to fight him because she’s still her own character at the end of the day, with her own thoughts and ways of looking at life. Sonic often shares the most essential elements of Amy’s thinking, particularly her willingness to help others without expecting anything in return, but sometimes they clash, and it’s that clash that sparks the differences that can be more comical (Amy is very expressive with her feelings, Sonic is reserved and prefers to not openly show emotions) or more serious disagreements (Amy insists that Sonic must protect the little birdie from SA1 while he, most likely not understanding the seriousness of the matter yet, believes that it’s unnecessary and absurd).

When everything works well, all the situations in which Sonic has shown himself to be up to the challenge inspire Amy to improve, to work on that courage that has evolved a lot since her encounter with Metal Sonic on Little Planet. Sonic is not stupid either, because he knows very well that Amy is up to the task and that she has helped the main group on more than one occasion (such as SA2), and although sometimes it can lead to a setback, Sonic never rejects Amy’s support. Together they form this odd friendship that can occasionally suggest something else, regardless of whether Sonic feels more or less uncomfortable when it happens, but it doesn’t negatively affect his interactions.

It’s that tug-of-war that makes Sonamy work the way it has for almost three decades. Sometimes Amy pulls the rope to see how far she can go, but she lets go when things get serious and she brings out her true empathetic and heroic side. Sonic is usually more focused on pursuing the next adventure, but he doesn’t mind if Amy decides to join, and is willing to defend her first thing if she’s in danger, even though he knows very well that it can end in a hug that is uncomfortable for someone like him, who doesn’t know exactly how to feel or show his deepest emotions.

And the truth is that, when they’re given the chance, they make for an excellent team.

Conclusion and acknowledgements

This article was originally meant to be a simple compilation of the articles on this blog followed by some quick questions about Sonamy… and well, let’s say it’s been extended to unthinkable limits.

In the last 4 years, Seaside Hill Paradise embarked on the endless journey of studying and understanding the Sonamy dynamic from multiple perspectives. As you may have noticed, the articles have covered everything from general aspects to specific cases, such as Sonic Unleashed and IDW Sonic. The reality is that the topic is not easily exhausted, and there is much more to discuss in the future, so it seemed relevant to me to compile all the progress we’ve made so far: all our writing pieces and the references we have used to reach the conclusions in the FAQ section.

One of the reasons this article got so long, and to whom I owe the greatest thanks of all, is my dear Yvanix Rose. Thanks to the information, the translations, the different corrections and warnings that she gave me, the article has slightly more complete answers, with their respective links to the original sources. Obviously it’s not the first time that we have worked together in these four years (I usually link to her blog when Spanish translations are available, especially the Sonic Channel stories), but for this article in particular I wasn’t planning to consult so much extra material, and her help ended up being a lifesaver. This is not all the available Sonamy information, and I know that she’s working on a huge project to finish the whole puzzle, so all I will say for now is that I look forward to the moment when we can see the fruit of that hard work ❤

Me giving my thanks for contributing to this article ❤

I also would like to thank my friend Rachel, who without even meaning to she managed to write one of the best summaries I’ve read recently of the Sonamy dynamic. Despite my experience in the fandom reading a lot of cute things on these two characters, her message really took me by surprise. I hope that you don’t mind me sharing your piece!

And finally, I’d like to thank the entire Sonamy community in our official Discord server [translator’s note: the server is mainly Spanish speaking]. This group, made up of artists, writers and referents from different parts of the fandom like the Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr communities, has helped a lot in sharing and discussing the different aspects of the dynamic. In their honor we created the so-called “Sonamy Guard” on the server, and I can personally confirm that they’re some of the most active, nice and intelligent people we have in our side of the fandom. Any doubt, any question you might have, they’ll always have an answer to give or a discussion to spark, and if you’d like to participate, then I highly recommend you to join our server.

That’s all for now. As we have finally laid out some groundwork for the knowledge of this blog and where SEGA and Sonic Team stand on the dynamic, I think it’s finally time for us to get into the discussion of Amy’s character: who is she, what makes her strong, her relationship with Sonic and her independent side, and many aspects that sometimes seem to go unnoticed in the fandom in favor of the outdated and even problematic stereotype of the “unbearable fangirl.” See you next time!

#sonic the hedgehog #amy rose #sonamy #translation #long post #super duper long #you thought 6000 words of advance analysis was long?#these 7000 words make that look like a grocery list #man #also to me it feels like sonamy articles are a bit harder to translate lol #but it's worth it #read all of this please #a very well put together compilation :)

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inevitably-johnlocked · 3 years ago

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I'm recently seeing posts where they write "BBC Sherlock fans don't Interact" and. Idk I guess I'm just confused? And wanted to ask someone also in the fandom.

Why would someone not want other fans interacting? We all love the same charecters? We all love Sherlock and Watson? Why does it make a difference how you got to know them?

Idk. You see the same in the star trek fandom. People who got into trek will sometimes say "IF YOU LIKE DISCO YOUR NOT A TRUE FAN" and it never made sense to me cause like. We both like the same show? We just got into it differently?

Idk idk. I'm just confused

Hi Nonny!

Yeah, it's SUPER weird, but it's their blog, so and whatever makes them happy. It could be a variety of reasons: perhaps they had a bad experience and it's for their own mental health (which is completely valid) OR it could be the alternative and they just prefer to be in an echo-chamber, which I think is a not-good thing, but again, not my blog and not my choice.

A very small (and loud) minority of people think only the BBCS fandom is the "most toxic" fandom on Tumblr as if any other sect of any fandom doesn't have toxic people in it, or, on the flip side of the coin, they're very militant about the "purity" of fandom (and I won't go into that at all, because it's upsetting and gross). Hell, I found out years ago (and still recently) I'm blocked by a big name popular Benedict blog simply because of my username, and I have NEVER previously interacted at all with them, nor have I ever tagged any of their Ben posts with Sherlock tags because the one time I tried to reblog from them, I couldn't (even though like.... I checked the tags of the posts and a lot more controversial tags are on those posts than I ever would have put on them). It's so ridiculous, BUT it's their right and their blog, so I suck it up and move on, their loss. I'm too old to care anymore. I get salty for 2 seconds when I realize I can't reblog a post still, and then move on.

Granted, in the hey-day of the Sherlock fandom, it was a goddamned mess, lots of in-fighting and harassment, and a lot of cliques and gatekeeping and "if you're not this, then you're that" thinking, and I understand if they probably had a bad experience from that. Nowadays, though, I find it's a lot more community-focused in the parts of the fandom I lurk in because it is all about sharing our love for all versions of Holmes, and I try to encourage interactivity here.

Maybe I just have dealt with so much shit in my life that after 40 years it just... I'm tired. I don't CARE. I just want to enjoy my time here now, and I do that by creating a blog I enjoy. Just as those people who have "dni"'s on the posts, in a way, I suppose, are creating a place they can be happy in. I may not agree with it, and I can have contradictory opinions about it, but again, not my place to tell them how to run their blogs, and that's that. I would be a hypocrite if I said otherwise, since I have told people before "it's my blog, if you don't like it, block me and be happy". So, as I said, be salty, and move on, their presence (or lack there-of) is not worth your time, especially when 90% of the fandom is generally welcoming and encourages interaction and community and a general love for all-things-ACD/Holmes.

On the point of "real fans", I've discussed "real fans" before, and how fucking stupid this term is. There's no such thing; I still consider myself a Sonic fan (the first fandom I was ACTIVELY a part of in the same capacity as I am in this one), even though it's been years since I engaged in fandom content.... if you want to talk about toxic fandoms... WOOO be part of the Sonic fandom in the late 90s/early naughts.... EEE. The term, to me, just screams "gatekeeping" to the worst degree. It's in all media types of fandom too: Music, TV, books, movies, SPORTS... I can't even.

So on that count, Nonny, I'm just as confused as you are. If that's the case, then I guess I'm not a fan of Star Trek either because I've only watched TNG and own the complete first-distribution box sets with the coloured sides that were 100$ each season, know really stupid nitpicks and facts about TNG, and only watched the TNG movies and the new-Trek movies, all 6 of which I own and watch and love dearly... But nope, not a real fan because I don't like TOS. *shrugs*. Fucking ridiculous.

The way I see it, you spent money and time into and/or got ENJOYMENT from an IP, then you're a fan. Period, end of sentence.

ANYWAY, all that said, Nonny, I understand it's super upsetting to see those kind of things, especially if we're just here to make friends and talk about the things we all have in common, but we don't know their situation or personal history with the fandoms themselves. If they don't want to interact with you, then it's their right to not do so. Just continue on your merry way; there's WAY more people who DO want to chat than there are not. And, if some day they choose to want to interact with various sectors of the fandom, then we can only welcome them and show them the GOOD stuff we have to offer: fanfiction, fanart, gifsets, silly posts, and just all around good cheer. And in the case of my blog, MAYBE show them that some of us are just as disappointed about BBC Sherlock too, hahah.

Hope you have a good day Nonny. You are always welcome here, regardless of fandom or area of adaptation of fandom, heh. <3

Feel free to add on, all.

#steph replies #chatting with nonnies #fandom life #some negativity #tumblr things #sherlock fandom #my thoughts

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fmdxsuji · 3 years ago

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five-track playlist: songs that would be on the soundtrack of a movie made about suji’s life

one. b612 by oh my girl

when looking at the lyrics alone, this may sound like an odd choice, but i feel like sonically, this works pretty well as the first track in suji’s life. it’s reminiscing of an opening sequence of a little suji playing around in her front yard back in england or hanging around the park of her sister. the title is in reference to the novel the little prince, and i felt that was relevant because suji’s life in england consists mostly of her feeling like an outsider or an alien

two. airplane mode by fromis_9

this would be played around the time that suji makes her way to korea for the first time. it’s a family trip initially, but it’s also where her life completely changes once she’s spotted by a gold star media casting manager. while the original song is mostly about spending peaceful time with a special person, in suji’s case the lyrics would be more a conversation to herself. how it’s okay for her to take the move to korea and go against her parents’ wishes. how it’s okay for her to be a little selfish and go after what she wants

three. space by seventeen

the lyrics of this song talk about a lot about feeling lost in space, having all these uncertainties and questioning oneself repeatedly, and i feel that’s accurate for suji’s trainee life. she trained for a pretty long time, and she was always doubtful about whether it was the right choice or not. she was practically alone in korea, and gold star had a good lineup of trainees which meant her future was uncertain. it was a pretty difficult place in her life which is why this song, both lyrically and sonically, would fit well

four. echo by sf9

this is also another track that i think simply fits more sonically in suji’s life rather than the lyrics pertaining to a specific incident or whatever. it’s not as dramatic or minor-sounding like space, but it still has that mellow vibe to it which is exactly what suji would have been feeling around her third or fourth year with equinox. she was in a pretty unstable place, and this song sounds like something that would come up in the background when the main character in a movie is lying down in bed and going through their own thoughts

five. 10 reasons why i love you by lee seokhoon

a complete mood change! but this song is for present-day suji who is in a much better place than her past. a lot of her past was uncertainty and being worried but nowadays, she’s quite satisfied with where she stands in life both personally and professionally so everything around her seems nice. this song is a complete love song and is sung very often at weddings and honestly, she’s in a good mood most of the times these days so it seemed fitting

#famedtask12 #( ♡ * // playlist. )

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latin-dr-robotnik · 4 years ago

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You mentioned western localizations messing with Amy. Can you elaborate if you don't mind?

Of course!

I think the first thing to keep in mind throughout all of this is that I was referring to the old notion of “Amy is a psycho girl chasing after someone who isn’t remotely interested in her”. This is the big impression Sonic games (and I guess to some extent Archie Sonic, but I don’t want to get in there) left on fans during the 2000′s, and it comes mostly due to two main reasons:

The differences in western culture versus japanese culture (how we see relationships in general, the actual tropes surrounding Amy, etc.)

How the actual localization process was handled for each game, like the way Amy acts toward Sonic and other characters, how the games play said acts (cute vs annoying) and the way Sonic reacts to her presence.

It’s no secret that localization works during that era were spotty at best (that’s why you hear Ryan’s Sonic yelling “teriaaaa!” in SA2, or the general weirdness surrounding SA1), and while I personally don’t blame the people that worked on localizing the games (after all, the overall quality of videogame storytelling was pretty shaky back in the early 2000′s), I can’t ignore just how damaging those works ended up being for the canon. For example, cutegirlmayra talked about the differences between japanese and western Sonic for years now, take this quote from her post, a quote that I believe nails this whole thing on the head:

America treats Sonamy much like they do their franchise, a meme or joke to be poked fun of. Whereas, with a much more refined atmosphere, Japan treats Sonamy as an endearing and lovely couple. Though both resign to say they can’t really see Sonic ever ‘settling down’ or really being focused on romance. And,… that makes since to me. Knowing who Sonic is. But even that doesn’t mean he can’t have a crush XD (The heart wants what the heart wants, lol!)

More recently, stuff like “Unfortunately, I’m not inconvenient for my girlfriend” came to light, and that’s one of many examples where japanese Sonic was way ahead of its western self. This particular quote is from Sonic Battle and in the english version you don’t get anything remotely similar to that, instead Amy is left to look like she’s a crazy stalker, or that Sonic doesn’t accept her advances to a degree (that’s one major problem, how western Sonic tends to feel like he’s actually rejecting Amy while she keeps on trying.) It’s not coincidence that Sonic Battle is regarded as one of the worst portrayals of Amy in a Sonic game.

If you start digging on what the creators actually intended for Amy, you'll find lots of good intentions toward her and the framing of her dynamic with Sonic (which isn’t the only aspect of Amy, mind you, but my claims about western localization originally came from a SonAmy post so I naturally focused on that, sorry haha.)

For example, last year I looked into how Sonic Unleashed handled SonAmy, and while my initial research was pretty sweet (the english version of Unleashed!Amy is really good if you spend time talking to her), the real kicker came as soon as we (me and cutegirlmayra) started looking into interviews with ex-Sonic Team writer Shiro Maekawa and cross-referencing information regarding the actual writers that were involved during that 2000′s era. The result? There was an entire council at SEGA of Japan dedicated to approve the way Sonic characters were presented in all official media, and they approved all of the key SonAmy moments back then, even more that western audiences didn’t get to see (more on that below.) Most if not all the japanese Sonic writers involved in that era (Maekawa was both a writer and part of said council) left around the end of the decade, after Sonic Unleashed (2008) and Sonic and the Black Knight (2009), and ever since that most of the problems shifted from “this is how SEGA of America is localizing Sonic games” to “this is the very poor state of Sonic writing in general”, so, dead end for now.

Then you have situations like with Sonic X, a show handled by Sonic Team and the official Sonic writers of that era working in some of the most iconic episodes... just to see their work censored by 4kids in America and the subsequent dubs that used that version as a basis (from what I’ve heard not all dubs are censored, though.) That’s why you’ll see fans imploring you to watch Sonic X in japanese instead of the english dub, since the series was a lot more involved with the pairing and the general simbolism of some of its touching moments (they used actual love songs for them, for crying out loud), which led to some funny facts, like how the Latin American Spanish and the French dub both ignored the mandate about muting Sonic’s words to Amy in Episode 52, leading to moments like Sonic promising Amy he won’t leave her again (LatAm) or just straight up telling he loves her (the french were on fire with that one.) Sonic X was the one true vision of Sonic Team, and the way it was butchered for western audiences is still baffling to this day.

So, what’s the deal with Amy then? In theory she’s a cheerful, happy-go-lucky girl with a very strong sense of justice, super-determined to help anyone in need (even enemies like Metal Sonic) and, depending on the situation, pretty impulsive. She’s particularly loyal to her friends, and she acts like the emotional support of the group. You’ll see her filling that role regardless of how good or bad the localization is (SA2 Amy helped Shadow realize his true purpose, Heroes Amy is the beating heart of her whole team, Unleashed Amy is the only one who doesn’t lose hope on Sonic when Perfect Dark Gaia rises); yet the ways by which these traits were shown in the games varied a lot, and that’s how we reached a point where a good chunk of the fandom thinks Amy is a stalker. Japan portrayed her acts as cute, as very respectable traits of a great female character; the west portrayed her mostly as a nuisance the gang had to carry around, even to the point of misinterpreting some of her quotes that aren’t actually bad (for example: “If I had to choose between the world and Sonic, I would choose Sonic!“ in Sonic ‘06.) And while this is no longer the case, nowadays there’s a whole different discussion surrounding making Amy better by making her “more mature” (which is also another topic raised here in the west, like, this whole discussion never ends! haha)

I feel like I got lost and came back several times while writing this reply. At the end of the day, it’s a long topic to tackle and I think the best I can do right now is forward you some more information. My friend beev did some great work translating my own Spanish articles tackling the Japan vs Western differences (it’s pretty much most of this reply.) And then there’s @skull001, he’s very vocal about the ways Amy’s character was messed with (including stuff like Amy being missing from the back of Advance 1′s box, the Sonic X english dub or the fact SEGA is still reluctant to count her as part of Team Sonic), and if there’s someone I’d listen when it comes to knowing pretty much everything about Amy, it’s gotta be him... and cutegirlmayra, of course. I hope this helped, though!

#ask latin dr robotnik #sonic the hedgehog #amy rose #sonamy #sega #hannahcbrown #i'm sorry this took way too long to write haha

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frostiifae · 4 years ago

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Why do we hate Nintendo?

Today, organizers of the The Big House online tournament announced that they received a cease and desist order from Nintendo.

What is Slippi?

Project Slippi is, essentially, an add-on to the existing Dolphin emulator for Gamecube games. Its purpose is to bring the features of modern online gaming to Super Smash Brothers Melee, a game which was released very nearly 20 years ago and is no longer in production, but remains a popular competitive game with an active scene.

Slippi has been a godsend to the Melee community during the pandemic. It offers incredibly high-fidelity gameplay with random matchmaking and tournament support, and the developers have emphasized making the game experience itself as close to local play as possible. It’s been so successful that the Big House - a series of major annual tournaments that have been running for almost a decade - decided to host their 2020 tournament purely online using Slippi.

Who care about Melee? Why aren’t they just playing Ultimate instead?

If you ask a Melee player, they will go on and on about the improved framerate, responsiveness, and other such technical advantages Melee has over Ultimate. I’m going to talk about something else instead.

It’s culturally expected nowadays that when a new game in a franchise comes out, you stop playing the old game and play the new game instead. But if you apply this way of thinking to any other form of media it’s completely ridiculous. It’s like saying there’s no reason to watch documentaries from the 80s and 90s, because documentaries about the same subjects have been remade more recently. Media exists as a product of its time. It might contain valuable historical insight that remains precious to us for centuries to come. Or, it might just be better. Maybe the older documentaries are more informative, or maybe they’re more engaging to watch. Games work the same way; people will always have their preferences about which game in a series is their favorite, and choosing to play an older game you prefer - especially if you’ve got a lot of friends to play with you - isn’t at all an entitled thing to do.

The problem with digital media is that having a movie or game by itself isn’t useful. Me owning a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is useless if I don’t also have a Sega Genesis to run it on - and that system is useless if I don’t have a working controller to use to interface with the game. Melee has been facing this problem for years now, as copies of Melee itself and Gamecube systems and controllers become more exclusive and more scarce. There aren’t new games or systems coming onto the market to replace what’s being lost - there are only a finite number left, and when the last one breaks, Melee will effectively cease to exist.

Ok, well, that’s sad and all, but Slippi is an emulator, right? And emulating is illegal!

Emulating is legal... sort of. Emulation has hidden behind a vague phrasing of copyright law that suggests that, when you own a piece of digital media, you have the right to make copies of it for your own personal use - you just can’t distribute those copies. Owning an emulator, or the ROMs needed to play games on that emulator, isn’t strictly illegal... but distributing those things is.

The idea here is, in theory, you could very thoroughly mod your Gamecube to connect to the Internet and play with modded firmware using Project Slippi. Modding isn’t illegal, so if you have your own GameCube and your own copy of Melee, which you purchased legitimately, then doing this is absolutely legal. And it probably is what people are doing! Definitely, probably. I’m sure it’s not as hard as I make it sound. Don’t worry about it!

Point is; distributing ROMs is what’s illegal, not playing them. The Big House isn’t distributing ROMs, so they’re not doing anything illegal. And Nintendo knows that; they took a different approach. Instead of claiming that using Project Slippi is against the law, they instead simply informed TBH that they don’t have permission to stream or host a tournament using their game.

Obviously, Nintendo owns the rights to Melee, and that means they have the right to decide who is and isn’t allowed to stream their game and why. The Big House didn’t break the law, but that doesn’t mean they have the legal standing to challenge Nintendo’s order - let alone the financial resources or emotional stamina needed to get into a legal battle with a company of that size.

I don’t see the problem. Nintendo has the right to do this. Isn’t this what everybody does?

No.

Age of Empires 2 came out in September of ‘99, and it has remained a niche but thriving competitive RTS game over 20 years since then. Fans had to keep the game fresh on their own via modding in new map support and even new civilizations.

In 2012, Microsoft decided that the game’s consistent support from its fans deserved an offering, and they decided to make an HD rerelease. That’s really cool of them! They also contacted the developers of one of the most popular fanmade expansions, Forgotten Empires, and worked it into an official expansion, called The Forgotten! AOE2 has continued to grow and thrive ever since, receiving enough attention to call for TWO MORE EXPANSION PACKS, and of course leading to the Definitive Edition release last year. Embracing fan support of their outdated product has given Microsoft the opportunity to make money off of something that should be long dead, and now it’s bigger and better than ever before.

If you ask folks within the fighting game community, you’ll find this isn’t an isolated story - for example, Arcsystems notably once incoporated a fanmade mod that improved netplay into an official patch, lending official developer resources to the group to help them get the job done. When your fans care so much about a game you’ve made that they’ll put in the time and the effort to make that game better and more accessible for everyone, a lot of developers are happy to honor and embrace that effort, and in doing so, they stand a lot to benefit - their games get better, and they might even be able to make enough money back on those improvements to keep growing the game even further.

So if other developers aren’t doing this, why is Nintendo doing it? Simple: They don’t like the idea that people are playing old games. They want everyone playing the most recent offerings, no questions asked. To them, “rereleasing” Melee is out of the question; Smash Ultimate is the only “canonical” version of Smash. Don’t play anything else. Don’t try to buy anything else. This is the only game that exists.

So what? I don’t care at all about Melee. Why does it matter that Nintendo wants people to stop playing a 20-year old game?

The short answer is because it sucks that Nintendo holds the rights to something they don’t care about and aren’t using, and that they’re using those rights to legally bully people who love their games and want to make them better and more accessible to other people. Regardless of how you feel about Melee or its community, it’s a simple fact that the people who are building Project Slippi and running tournaments love the game more than just about anybody else. For Nintendo to order a C&D against a passionate fan project is a bummer - but for them to do so in regards to a game that they’re not making anymore is downright unfair. They would rather protect their ability to maybe make more money on Melee later, than allow the existing scene to thrive in a way that does literally no harm to them.

Nintendo’s well-known and aggressive policy of shutting down fan-made projects and communities of all kinds has only one objective in mind: they want absolute control over everything that they’ve made. From a certain naive point of view, this is fair, right? But if you take this to its logical extreme, then that means Nintendo has the right to prohibit things like fanart or fanfiction, which doesn’t really seem that fair. Where should the line be drawn?

This is just another battle in a war that has been fought over the last 200 years regarding the idea of a “copyright”, and what gives a person the right to decide how other people will consume media they publish. It has never been about the rights of writers, musicians, or game developers - it has always been about publishing rights. Publishers want exclusive control over the things they publish, because holding exclusive control makes it much easier for them to make money from their products.

We have a legal term for when a single entity has exclusive control over a commodity in high demand - that’s called a monopoly, and it is illegal. Monopolies pose a serious threat to consumers because they can price their goods however they like, extorting their consumerbase or simply making their product inaccessible except to an elite few, which isn’t considered fair. So if that’s the case, why aren’t video game publishers considered monopolies? It turns out some people in the past believed they should be, and publishing companies have been doing all sorts of legal acrobatics for years to avoid it. Free Culture makes for a good read on the subject, if you’ve got time. (Chapters 6 through 9 are particularly relevant to today’s issues with streaming games and music.)

A lot of people don’t seem to understand the damage that Nintendo’s ridiculous monopolizing practices have done to their own gaming community. It’s absurd of them to expect people to continue to pay for new releases of the same games on virtual console, not just once but every time a new generation of “virtual console” is released - and yet they keep doing it, and it’s just one of many ways they continually screw over their customers at a chance for a few more bucks, and somehow most of their audience thanks them for it.

So what exactly do you want me to do?

Nintendo’s tried to suppress Melee tournaments in the past, but were forced to reverse their decisions following massive public outcry by the competitors and their fans. Regardless of how you feel about Melee in particular, what Nintendo is doing is scummy and actively malicious to the people that love their games, and the fact that they’re doing it again proves that they’re not interested in learning their lesson. Folks on twitter are using the tag #FreeMelee to protest; lending your voice for a tweet or two can only help.

More generally, though, all we can really do is be critical of Nintendo’s games and actions, and to ask ourselves whether we’re really getting what we’re paying for. Nintendo will continue to take everything you offer them and will never be satisfied; they will do whatever they think they can get away with - and if their fans never challenge them, they’ll assume they can get away with anything, and that’s bad for everybody - but it’s worst of all for the people who ostensibly love and support Nintendo the most.

#long post #free melee #ssbm #i don't normally make big long posts like this. reblogging would mean a lot to me but it's also ok if it doesn't go anywhere #it was mostly a stress relief exercise

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crusherthedoctor · 5 years ago

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I'm glad you haven't become obsessed with politics, it's one reason why you're one of my favorite blogs on this site, and you're funny and intelligent

Thanks. ^^

Yeah, I've seen how obsessing over politics has negatively affected people who I once respected, and how it's turned them into raving maniacs, oftentimes bloodthirsty ones at that. And more to the point, I'm simply not interested in discussing politics anyway, which isn't a crime because shockingly enough, I'm not a politician, and therefore I'm under absolutely no obligation to talk about it. This will NOT be changing anytime soon... or at all. I find that talking about all things Crash Bandicoot and Sonic the Hedgehog is more productive of my time. :P

In fact, you want to know why I rarely talk about politics, aside from having no desire whatsoever to do so (and aside from the occasional talk about ableism and the sort, if you consider it an example of such)? Because hand on heart, I don't know a goddamn thing about politics. And unlike everyone else on Tumblr, Twitter, etc who is clearly on the same level as me in that field, I don't pretend to know about things that I don't. I'm not bragging, and I'm not ignorant, let alone deliberately so. I'm just being honest about the reality that I'm hardly the most informed person about these things, and as such, there's no point in me building up the illusion that I am. Not to mention that with how much clickbait and propaganda you see spread around, it's often hard to keep track of what's the truth and what isn't at all times, so that's even less reason to act all omniscient about the matter.

That said, even if I WAS more knowledgeable about politics, I still wouldn't bother discussing it, because fuck that noise. :P Especially on a site that many of us treat as an escape from all that. If someone goes on my blog - my blog with a Spyro the Dragon background - and they get disappointed when the guy with an OC avatar who gushes over a fictional scientist shaped like an egg doesn't want to engage in politicial discourse, then I'm glad they were disappointed, because it's pretty obvious that I'm just not that kind of guy.

People seem to get it in their heads that if you're not going on about political stuff, it means you're blind to what's happening in the world, or that you don't care about your fellow humans. That couldn't be further from the truth, at least in my case. It's not that I don't care about what happens in the world... I just don't make that my identity. I'm a person at the end of the day, not a drone.

Incidentally, this is also why I rarely read or watch the news nowadays. Again, not because I don't care or don't pay attention, but because it's another example of the media acting as though the bad side of the world is the only side that exists, and that there isn't just as much good to counter it. And to think the people who eat that philosophy up have the nerve to lecture us about not thinking in black and white.

But you know what? For all their so-called enlightenment, I'm better off than these clowns. I pity the folks who can't go one minute of their lives without making everything political, then openly wonder to themselves why no one can stand to be in their presence. I also pity the children they may or may not have, as it can't be pleasant to have a fearmonger for a parent.

These guys ought to realise that it's not the end of the world, and that we should savor the good as much as we denounce the bad. They should just relax and have a Winston break already.

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#Crusher's Asks #Opinion

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skull001 · 5 years ago

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Don't you think it's funny how some people ignore how much the writing affects the characters' roles in the story, like with the Sonic franchise? I also saw how that person claimed Knuckles was a protagonist in SA2, lol.

I think a lot of people ignore those consequences because they don’t like to think for themselves. That’s why they simply accept what the creators say and refuse to question things... or at worse, if they see people who do, will claim that you’re not a real fan”, lol. (I suspect this is the reason why other fans don’t like to openly talk about themes such as this that appear to be “controversial”)

I have always questioned the validity of things like the Sonic-Tails-Knuckles trio because it hardly feels like the close team that Sega/Sonic Team claims that it is. Between Sonc and Tails there is no question that there is a real chemistry, but Knuckles feels more like a third wheel because he lacks a genuine motivation for wanting to become involved in Sonic’s life or pursue a bond. With Sonic, his dynamic is often one of confrontation, while with Tails there is hardly any interaction at all besides a mere few line in Sonic Heroes.

Only reason I see him being thrown in with Sonic and Tails is because of the random luck of appearing in the 3rd game of the Genesis/Megadrive trilogy. He was popular in the same way Shadow was after his debut in SA2, but that alone does not mean they are characters who are meant to be that important.

In the case of Tails, he is important not because he was in Sonic 2. Heck, he could be introduced in any other moment of the franchise’s history and he would still be that kid who wants to follow Sonic on his adventures because he wants to be like Sonic. The same thing can be said for Amy, who has as much motivation to follow Sonic and become a part of his life.

IMO, these are the only two characters that can have an ever lasting level of importance in the franchise. The rest of them are characters who either have a one-time co-protagonist role (usually in their debut title) or have very minor roles because they’re mostly meant to serve the purpose of populating Sonic’s world, but are hardly associated with Sonic beyond a mere acquaintance.

And while Tails’s relevance is for the most part respected, Amy’s is sadly not, because even if she has a role to play, she will be displaced by Sonic Team for all of the worng reasons, from pandering to nostalgia or popularity, to even mindsets that IMO have no place in today’s society such as “who would want to play as a pink girl?” that I loathe so much. Worse, they’ll also rob her chance to be in the spotlight in very shameful ways like seen in Sonic Forces just because they couldn’t think of a better way to make Knuckles matter.

In complete contrast, a character like Knuckles and even Shadow will find themselves thrown in for fanservice pandering, a very careless approach that can have consequences, like how Knuckles is nowadays perceived as a joke because of how ST uses lazy excuses such as him being tricked again by Eggman, or just being there to remind us he exist yet add nothing. Shadow was victim of this too with Sonic Boom, with his personality being butchered as much by turning him into a jerk who antagonizes Sonic because he dares to have friends.

Now Sonic Team IMO had plenty of time in the last couple of decades to address such issues, such as having given Amy her rightful spot as the third member of Team Sonic, while developing for Knuckles a true personal reason or motivation to make him want to pursue a friendship with Sonic. (Yes, only the characters who pursue this by their own will can qualify, because it’s the only way they can keep up with a freedom-loving character who is tied down to nothing and no one)

IMO, the classic trio is something that needed to stop existing a long time ago. But because Sonic Team has the wrong belief that the Genesis trilogy was the end-all-be-all of the franchise, they’ll do things such as leaving out a character that by all rights should stand on the same level as Tails. They betray the franchise’s very theme of friendship if the importance is defined by character popularity or other such artificial criteria and favoritisms. I mean, they’re leaving out the one character that can act as the “heart”, which is funny because is a lot of alt. media like comics and animation, it’s neither Sonic nor Tails, but Amy who seeks to have a friendship with Knuckles and who offers him the most compassion and understanding. She’s the link that would allow him to feel like an actual part of the team because she’d also be the one that would seek for the other two to make him feel at home and become part of the family.

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zijunyang · 5 years ago

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Pop Music and Feminism: How Pop Celebrities except Taylor Swift and Beyoncé use their platforms to fight against social justice

Over the past years, there has been a growing norm of sexual assault and harassment towards women within the music industry or from other mainstream media. Such cases of women harassment have led to the development of various organizations, both locally and internationally, to root for women empowerment within societies. Consequently, female artists within the music industry have stood up against multiple cases of abuse and harassment directed towards them and their counterparts. They have been standing up against the vices through the music songs that they are writing and singing or through making use of the societal positions they are holding to influence others towards standing against the vices. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are two of the most well-known musicians when it comes to Pop culture and Feminism areas. However, there are a large number of other female artists who are using their voices to do the same thing — inspire and empower young girls all around the world.

Musicians like Janelle Monáe, Halsey, Grimes, FKA Twigs and Kacey Musgraves have been in the frontline in this battle in multiple ways; they have promoted feminism and girl power within the music industry through their songs and various initiatives they have championed. They have also been using lyrics and their person to encourage equality and discourse within society. They have been writing songs that are aimed at allowing women to express their anger and dissatisfaction confidently, show their pride as women and well as advocate for their freedom within the society.

Grimes

As one of my personal favorite artists of all time, Grimes's uniqueness and boldness really help her to get a place in the music industry nowadays. Her album sales or singles sales are not really pleasant, but she is considered one of the critics' favorites, especially when she released her album "Visions". The story behind the album "Visions" was described as completely dark. Two of her best friends died and she experienced an unforgettably horrible sexual harassment that made her scared of men for a while, which also created one of the greatest song of all-time "Oblivion". The message of this song is extremely important for the women nowadays because it talks about something that most women have been through. Pitchfork named this song as the second best song of the decade, which is also the best song of the decade as a female leading song. NME ranked this song number 229 of 500 Greatest Songs of all time. What makes this song so special is the message and her expressions. It is absolutely amazing to see Grimes's whole process of getting through her terrible nightmare in this song. She started this song by expressing her fear of men. "Cause someone could break your neck, coming up behind you always coming and you'd never have a clue." ("Oblivion" Grimes 2012).

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That was not the only time Grimes decided to do something for women. Back in 2013, when she officially finished her Grimes World Tour, she spoke up against Sexism publicly. “I’m tired of men who aren’t professional or even accomplished musicians continually offering to ‘help me out’ (without being asked), as if I did this by accident and I’m gonna flounder without them, or as if the fact that I’m a woman makes me incapable of using technology. I have never seen this kind of thing happen to any of my male peers” (Grimes, 2013). While she was defending herself, Grimes actually pointed out an very horribly interesting situation for women in the music industry. She is a singer, as well as a producer, director and song writer, which is considered exceptional talented. Nonetheless, she claimed that men who are not even good at producing music would “offer help” without even asking Grimes’s opinions. This is not the first time that a celebrity talked about women in the music industry are underrated and are seen as “toys” being controlled over by men. Not all of them are brave enough to speak about it because may ruin their careers. Take Kesha as an example, she and Dr.Luke, a considered professional producer, had gone through a lot in the court. Kesha claimed that Dr.Luck had sexually offended during her early years of her career (which is the era of her albums “Animal” and the EP “Cannibal”). It took her years to confront to this and unfortunately Kesha did not get a glorious victory. Taylor Swift is dealing some similar problems recently with the 2 owners of her previous record company Big Machine Records. Female artists in the music industry have to work harder than male artists to get a place, and will still be underrated by them. Grimes may not influence or change the situation, but is definitely a great try and provided references for women who are planning to step into this music business industry.

Grimes is always bravely outspoken, and this is why I always believe she should have a higher place in the music industry for her to be able to make a real difference with her powerful thoughts and her fearless heart.

Janelle Monáe

During an interview, Janelle Monáe stated that she wrote the song in response to the threats that were directed towards her rights as “a woman, as a black woman, and as a sexually liberated woman.” During the interview, she mentions various lines within the particular song such as “Black girl magic, y’all can’t stand it, y’all can’t ban it…” she proceeds to quote the next line which states that “we gave you life, we gave you birth, we gave you God, we gave you earth.” Such lines are seen to be motivating women by reminding them of their worth in the society as well as how prominent their existence is to the community (Dworsky, 34). As a result, she is seen to be advocating for women’s empowerment and respect for women within society. Through her song ‘Django Jane,’ Janelle Monáe is seen in the video to be tackling interdisciplinary concepts of feminism that are embodying feminism, racism, and sexuality. In this track, Janelle Monáe talks about the power of a woman in conjunction with her accomplishments. The truck is promoting feminism and girl power by giving the women in the society strength, courage, power, and ability to stand against the vices that are channeled towards them.

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Janelle Monáe, in another song, features another female ‘Grimes’ in the producing another song titled ‘Pynk’ in this song Janelle Monáe is sonically, aesthetically and lyrically articulating a vision of women liberation as well promotion of equality among all races within the society. Within the song, Janelle Monáe creates an environment where cis men are seen to be developing jealousy for not being established women. This she does by empowering women through the song by singing that, “cause boy, it’s cool if you got glue, we got the pynk.” All through the music video, Janelle Monáe is also seen to be paying homage to feminism being distancing women from boys as she gives various incidences where the two populations have different abilities (Dworsky, 34).

She as well motivates and encourages women by telling them that their abilities are way more superior to those possessed by men. She encourages women to live the best life they have always desired and also to ensure that no one comes between them and their happiness. Janelle Monáe as well takes to various social media platforms where she engages her followers on various issues that touch on equality and discrimination of the minority groups within the society. This is also an indication of various ways in which Janelle Monáe is promoting feminism and girl power within the music industry.

Moreover, Janelle Monáe featuring Erykah Badu recorded a song named QUEEN, in the song she is seen to be promoting women empowerment in various activities and ways. An interview, Janelle Monáe stated that the song was meant to encourage and motivate anybody who is suffering or had suffered marginalization, inclusive of the oppressed women of the society. She uses the song to provide hope to the marginalized group within societies that they are not limited to specific achievements. Still, instead, they as well bear the ability and capability to realize their goals for life. According to Janelle Monáe, through the video for the song, the major marginalized group highlighted in the video are women. Therefore the song QUEEN is seen as a tool for advocating for and promotion of feminism within the music industry and the society at large. This is evident from the lyric of the song that states, “they call us dirty cause we break all their rules down, and we just come to act a fool, is that all right? (girl that’s all right).” Thus the lyrics for this song are, in particular, advocating and supporting feminism and girl power within the society and by far the music industry.

Halsey

Halsey’s accomplishments in the music industry is unquestionable. Although she may not be a huge superstar like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, her contributions in women’s rights are remarkably incredible. She has been actively engaged in a large number of activities that are about fighting for equal rights, as well as actively expressing her opinions on multiple social media like Twitter and Instagram. She is gradually taking over the name of ��New Feminist Icon” in the past few years.

Last year, one of the most fascinating moments in the 2018 Women’s March was when Halsey delivered an incredibly stunning and empowering speech called “A Story Like Mine”. In the poem, Halsey tells about her best friend Sam’s raped experience and how horrible it was dating back at adolescence, she also tells about her personal stories with guys that she used to be in relationships with. Unfortunately, these stories were not really pleasantly developed. In the last part of the speech, Halsey started to raise up awareness and started to express what was on her mind. With honesty, bravery, anger and power, she marked herself as a phenomenal real girl warrior. She had provided so many inspirations in the speech. The day after she gave that speech in New York City, she went trending on Twitter, as well as the hashtag #WomensMarch2018. She also put her attitude and her thoughts into her music. When she wants to fight for LGBT rights, she released "Strangers" featuring Lauren Jauregui, a girl she asked to collaborate with because she was part of the LGBT community, and she rejected Katy Perry because she is not one of the community. She also released a single this year, which is called "Nightmare". It is an very aggressive and somehow powerful anthem. Some people may criticize this song because of the genre makes it sound like a violently abreact and the lyrics are too angry. This was actually her intention. She made several pop songs and those so-called “radio-friendly” singles which she proved that she has the ability to please the general public audience. However, she chose to release a punk rock single, which is unlikely to be played by a large number of radio stations. The track "Nightmare" is a great to show her attitude, and a great way to fight against those who are being toxic to women. Therefore she made this track sound aggressively dangerous, including straightforward lines like ""Come on, little lady, give us a smile", No, I ain't got nothin' to smile about", as well as "I've been polite, but won't be caught dead, Lettin' a man tell me what I should do in my bed". ("Nightmare" by Halsey)

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Halsey is still rising up, and I believe more and more women and girls will be empowered by all of her movements that she dedicated to.

FKA Twigs

FKA Twigs, as well through her song Papi Pacify is also seen to be advocating for and promoting feminism within the music industry and by extension, the society at large. She expresses the power of female beauty and how important, beautiful women re to society; she mentions that all women are beautifully beautiful in their distinct ways. FKA Twigs also stresses sexuality in her song, where she advocates for the respect that the women sexuality deserves from their male counterparts. The video of the song contains various scenes where she is physically abused by a man when performing her song; she is seen not to be dwindled by the harassment and abuse directed to her by the man. Instead, she pushes forward into finishing her performance (Derbas, 188). The scene ends by showing how FKA Twigs got physically overpowered by the man, and this particular scene is seen to be promoting feminism by portraying the picture that men physically abuse women. They get overwhelmed despite their efforts of resistance, and this is because men are physically advantaged compared to women. Therefore, FKA Twigs wrote the song intending to encourage and motivate women not quickly to give in to the demands of their oppressors, but instead, they should stand against such persons for they as well have rights that should be respected. This move is seen to be promoting girl power and feminism within the music industry and the general society.

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FKA Twigs also champions for girl power and feminism in her track named Figure 8, where she is seen to be advocating for equality in the society through respect of rights of women and other oppressed populations of the society. Having been subjected to various acts of racial abuse and oppression of her sexuality, she states in the lyrics that “let me live, through you vice, mass appeal, I feel in ten breaths it’s a miracle if we are still alive.” She goes ahead and says that “you can control me, but only when I tell you to.” FKA Twigs uses this song to encourage women and the oppressed in the society that they are in charge of various happenings that go on in their lives, and they can control whatever injustice that is done to them (Derbas, 190). Another incident where FKA Twigs is seen to be promoting feminism and girl power is through her song called ‘I’m Your Doll’. The video of the song has an incident where FKA Twigs is using a doll to represent the beautification of women; this is meant to pass to the women that they bear the responsibility of shaping their beauty to whatever standard perfectly suits them. The involvement of the female doll in her video was meant to bringing the picture that taking away the autonomy of women against their consent is a way of violating the rights of women.

Lastly, FKA Twigs uses her song named ‘In Time’ to address various people who, at one point in time, tried to have a troll on her and other women. In the song, she tells these people that they got a damn god heart for having a troll on her as well as the women population at large. Other than Janelle Monáe and FKA Twigs, there also exist several female artists who are promoting feminism and girl power within the music industry and society at large. An example of such artists as Beyoncé, who though her songs are seen to be passing feminism messages to her listeners across communities.

Kacey Musgraves

Another women in the industry who has a fearlessly outspoken mind is Kacey Musgraves, a beloved country singer who won several Grammy awards and created a number of hits. She is also one of the critics’ favorites because of her lyrics contain both simplicity and bravery in every song. However, the only difference between Kacey and other women I had mentioned in this research paper is that Kacey is the only one who claimed was not a feminist. “I just write about life. It's not a girl power thing. I guess I am an opinionated woman, so maybe I could be perceived that way, and that's also not a bad thing to be. But [my music's] not intended to be that. It's just about people, really. And me." (Independent Woman, Published Jul 03, 2015 by Stuart Henderson). She declares her statement, but this does not make her lyrics less empowering.

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Kacey is always highly praised by music critics because her rebellious honesty, including Pitchfork, Billboard and Rolling Stone. Honesty seems to be the key to open her heart, and also a key to help open other women’ minds. One of her most controversial songs is “Follow Your Arrow”. “If you save yourself for marriage, you're a bore,If you don't save yourself for marriage, you're a whore-able person” (“Follow Your Arrow”), the lyrics are straightforward and genuine, and also easily be resonated. She came from a small village in Texas where women are mostly living their lives within different kinds of stereotypes. Instead of growing up in a big city and having strong and powerful slogans to fight for Girl power, Kacey escaped from her hometown and wrote about her truths. To her, maybe it is just like a dairy, but to the world, to those who had been in the same situation or are right now living in that reality, it really helps them to open their hearts since it resonates so much. “If you can't lose the weight, then you're just fat, But if you lose too much, then you're on crack, You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't, So you might as well just do whatever you want” (“Follow Your Arrow”). The song “Follow Your Arrow” covers more than just one thing. It contains almost all the controversial things people in the country music industry are not dare to talk about. She covers religions (“If you don't go to church you'll go to hell”), LGBT rights (“kiss lots of boys, Or kiss lots of girls, If that's something you're into”), Women’s rights, which are mostly equal rights. Somehow she managed to put all these information in one song and releases it to inspire people. It had won several big awards including Song of the Year for Country Music Awards at 2014. Rolling Stone ranked this song number 39 on its list of '100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time’. Billboard also listed this song as the second best song of 2013. Those well-known music critics recognized her lyrics and I believe whoever listens to this song will gasp in admiration. What I personally love about this song is that it sounds like an attack, an attack with attitude mixed with aggressive and soft emotions. She is probably the bravest woman in the country music industry of this decade who were not scared of telling the truth.

Conclusion

There are so many more musicians like these brilliant women. Some of them may not be famous, but without a huge fan base does not mean that they are not doing good enough. What makes their power so important is the message they are trying to give, and the community they are trying to influence. I hope the world will have more Taylor Swift and Beyoncé to help women stand out, and the fighting of equal rights will finally comes to an end.

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fibula-rasa · 6 years ago

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The Vamps — Part Two: Theda Bara and the Star Image

Theda Bara was born in the shadow of the Egyptian pyramids–the daughter of a French actress and an Italian sculptor. Her betrothed is a skeleton.

Theodosia Goodman was born to a middle-class family in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was the daughter of a Jewish haberdasher.

In the early years of the film industry, there were no stars. Film producers knew that allowing for name recognition would empower their performers to make demands–like greater pay. So, the performers in films were routinely uncredited. Around 1910, that began to change. When The Biograph Girl, as she was known, moved to a different studio, her name was finally made known to the public: Florence Lawrence.

An aside: If this seems wild to you, think about modern television commercials. Before he jumped to a different company, how many people repeated the phrase “Can you hear me now?” without knowing the actor (Paul Marcarelli) from the Verizon commercials? Nowadays, what with google and social media, this isn’t quite as common but, still, How many people know the names of those Sonic guys (who are clearly in purgatory btw) but know their gags well? (Their names are T.J. Jagodowski and Peter Grosz.)

Once Florence Lawrence became The First Movie Star, it didn’t take long at all for the trappings of the star image’s constructed reality to develop. Movie fan press began covering the “private lives” and habits of performers. Studio employees built biographies for film performers that better matched their on-screen personas than their actual background. The performers themselves were variably complicit in the smoke and mirrors act. That’s not to suggest that everyone accepted these tales as the gospel truth. Much of the gossip press and movie fans simply had fun with it. That’s right, smarks are as old as kayfabe.

Theda Bara’s burst onto the screen in 1914 was an immediate draw. As the concept of film stars was crystalizing the film star’s image was intentionally muddled with the characters that they interpreted for the screen. In Bara’s case, Fox studios started fleshing out Bara’s Vamp pedigree. The Vamp archetype itself had taken form over the past decade [see Part 1], but Bara would give life to the paradigm. That first biography above is what was reported to the fan press by Fox’s press agents. The skeleton boyfriend was suggested by the copy to accompany a promotional photo shoot where a scantily clad Bara drapes herself beside a prone skeleton. The ties to Spiritualism are clear. Death was by no means a finality to Bara’s romance.

Bara swiftly became one of the biggest stars of film in the teens–alongside Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford–The Vamp, The Tramp, and The Sweetheart. As movie fandom grew and the Los Angeles colony of filmmakers coalesced, concerns arose about the real, unconstructed lives of the performers. For Vamp types in particular, the question of their IRL morality was important to address in order to maintain their popularity. If anyone actually believed Bara was a sex-crazed goth, that could spell trouble for her career as the public began to care about film-star morality. In a May 1918 issue of Photoplay, Bara was asked about her morality to which she responded:

‘People write me letters,’ she said smilingly; ‘and they ask me if I am as wicked as I seem on the screen. I look at my little canary and I say “Dicky, am I so wicked?” And Dicky says, “Tweet, tweet.” That may mean “yes, yes,” or “no, no,” may it not?’

Coy and quirky answers aside, Bara continued to be a popular draw for Fox. In 1917, she took on the ultimate Vamp role, Cleopatra. The film is now believed lost, but at the time, it was her biggest hit. As her contract with Fox was running down, Bara began to campaign for non-Vamp roles. After that contract expired, that’s what she tried to pursue. It didn’t really work out and she eventually opted to retire from acting in 1926.

Bara made forty films in her roughly twelve-year-long film career. Unfortunately, only a handful of her films are still extant. So, how has Bara’s image persisted so strongly more than a century after her debut when there’s so little of her work for admires to engage with? Well, there’s a lot of potential answers to that question.

For one, the character of Theda Bara, the film star, was very well-limned and much of that promotional material has survived. The photographs and accompanying promotional copy paint a vivid picture that people still respond to today. I can tell to you that, as a teen, when I was encountering Bara’s photographs in a book I was immediately dedicated to seeing her films. The heartbreak that came with discovering how few of them exist and were readily available to watch in the late 1990s was real. It’s a story that’s still repeated today.

Bara’s acting style probably contributes to her persistent popularity as well. She was part of an acting tradition that involved the repetition of specific expressions and gestures to interpret a characters’ emotions. This style translates beautifully into still photographs. It’s not a stretch to suggest that it’s easier with Bara than many other lost film stars to extrapolate what their films and performances were like.

Also, Bara herself lived on, continuing to play with her image–even parodying herself in her final film appearance in 1926.

Additionally, by chance, one of Bara’s most popular surviving films is A Fool There Was (1914), the film that officially solidified the Vamp archetype. From the material we have, film fans and scholars can use Bara handily to build narratives about the emergence of the star system and fan interaction. So, Theda Bara, The Vamp, has lived on regardless of the dearth of surviving film. Feels pretty Spiritualist in itself, eh?

Learn How to Get the Look BELOW THE JUMP

The Costume

To build yourself a Theda Bara costume, this are the key elements I would focus on:

The Makeup

Bara did her own makeup and costuming for many of her films. It was common practice at the time. So, like later-Cleo Elizabeth Taylor, Bara’s makeup is pretty consistent across her films. Authenticity be damned though, because you are making a costume for fun in 2018, not to be photographed on orthographic film in 1918. I chose maroon-red for my eyeshadow because I thought it would be more striking and, in black and white, would photograph darker than a cooler shade.

The key shape is curvy, elongated eyeshadow in a single color, well blended into a dark liner shade. Bara has pretty round eyes, so you’ll likely want to line your waterline with a lighter shade–white if you wanna be really striking, a nude lighter than your skin tone if you wanna play it low key. Your eyebrows should be straight and drawn out as long as the eye makeup.

The lip shape is small, but not a pucker-pout. Focus on the sharpness of the cupid’s bow. I chose a color in harmony with the eyeshadow, but any deep red or pink would do.

Blush and contour? Skip it. First because you need to cherish the gothy pallor. Second because it would look incongruous with this makeup style. Film stars of the era didn’t typically wear rouge because, on film, it would come off as a deep shadow. The gaunt look wasn’t very fashionable.

The Hair

You have lots of freedom here. Bara had long, thick, and curly hair but as bobs became more fashionable, she often pinned it up into a messy faux-bob. The latter is what I went with. I brushed and pinned the hair on the crown of my head forward to make an era-appropriate pouf.

Head gear is a good choice. I actually pinned a necklace into my hair but if you have any art-nouveau or ancient-Egypt inspired pieces, you’re set. It might sound a little wild, but a dead flower crown would be so on brand.

The Clothes

Scanty. The most important skin to flaunt is around your neck and collar bones. For dress/skirt length, you should go close to floor-length if possible. The fabric should ideally be drapey and/or gauzy. Now, if it’s cold where you are around Halloween, an extra-large scarf would be a good call.

Read Part One

Part Three: Pola Negri & Exoticism coming Thursday!

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jjjjjjjjjjjjjim · 4 years ago

Audio

How to be more consistent in your music

This song used to be under my high school's band name (probably finished around 2014), but was composed, recorded, and produced wholly by me. Eventually I grew a distaste for the track and deleted it off social media. Nowadays I do not hate it; I find it interesting in retrospect.

Despite being an indie pop/dream pop sort of hybrid, the song flows like a progressive track. It has wildly different passages and only two repetitions in its structure. The lyrics go from surrealism to a more grounded, sarcastic romance, depicting how confused I was about my feelings for my first girlfriend. I also sounded like an asshole in the lyrics. I was an asshole.

Anyway, this track exposes one of my recurring problems as a bedroom musician, something you might encounter yourself: a desire to explore all ideas, without an ability to remain in a coherent path. For a single song, this might or might not work (here it sort of doesn’t). For a whole album, it can be curious, though it is often jarring because we tend to grasp for some sort of pattern in a band's or artist's release.

In similar fashion, it can be awful when all songs in an album sound exactly the same. Of course it varies from genre to genre, taste to taste, moment to moment... in the case of my releases, I strive for some uniformity while still exploring diverse ideas. This was a difficult balance to achieve, and I am still in the process of perfecting it.

If you are a musician/producer that found this in the depths of the internet by accident, below are 4 things you can do as a bedroom musician to try and improve uniformity in future releases and projects.

1. Focus around your genres. (The Gravitational Center Analogy) Lay down the genres you associate with the release you want to work on. Maybe you have some in mind now, and it could be that as the composing and recording stages flow, the genres you want to focus on change. Let's take my high school band: we were an indie rock and dream pop outfit. That was our sonic basis.

Now visualize all of the associated genres as gravitational centers, like stars. They might be closer or farther away, but are close enough that they interact in some way.

Around those gravitational centers will be every possible sonic element of your songs: the way the guitar sounds, the way the bass sounds, the drums, the vocals, the lyrics, the song structures, the time signatures, the downbeats... those elements are like planets or asteroids, and they orbit around the gravitational centers, sometimes making complex dances between them.

This is how your music is supposed to be. It needs a coherent relationship between said gravitational cores, which can only be observed when it has a logical interaction between the elements orbiting around them.

In plain terms, it means that the focus should not be ON your genres, but AROUND your genres. Genres are not monolithic entities fully embodied by bands or artists. They are in fact those vague notions (those gravitational cores) that we pin-point only by observing elements that tend to orbit around them.

What elements did I want to take from dream pop for my high school band? I wanted the simple, airy, reverb-laden guitar lines, and the distant vocals. I had to concentrate on that. What did I want from indie rock? The basic yet prominent bass lines, and the tight drum beats. I had to concentrate on that.

So I shouldn't focus on the genres, but indeed on the elements that I associate with those genres. This gives me something much more concrete to work with than a general term and a list of bands.

A huge influence on my music at the time was Deerhunter, but here even Deerhunter is a vague “gravitational core”. What release of theirs influenced me the most back then? It was their second and third albums: Cryptograms and Microcastle respectively.

A lot of my time was spent listening to the songs in those two albums and asking myself what was in those songs that I'd like to have in my music. It was mostly the guitars, the reverb, and at times the drums.

To no surprise, for good part of my life after that I mostly played simple dream pop riffs with the same tones I developed out of studying Cryptograms. I had understood the elements I desired, learned how they worked, redeveloped them in my own way, and applied them to my own compositions. Dissolve and coagulate.

This takes time and patience, especially in your road to create the musical personality for an entire project. Don't try to expedite it.

2. Start testing it out with songs. If you are a bedroom musician, you will try out those elements by recording or producing instrument/vocal tracks. If you are a band, it's either that, collective composition, or jamming. I'll focus on the case of bedroom musicians, as that is what I did the most.

This is time for you to start thinking of riffs, harmonies, melodies, beats, maybe even vague timbres. Whenever an idea pops in your head, take the opportunity to grab an instrument or open your DAW and bring that to life as fast as possible. Once it has been established, record it with your phone or whatever is at hand.

Listen to the repertoire of musical elements and motifs you have and ponder about them. Think of what music could be built around them. When you feel ready, properly record a motif on your DAW and start building around it.

This is an early stage. You are trying to achieve those elements you thought of in the first step, so you shouldn't be afraid to trash whole racks of effects, re-do entire guitar timbres, re-record lines, change the composition entirely, reprogram the drums all over... no matter how much effort is necessary/lost, admit when some element is unbecoming, and do what you must do to approach a sound you enjoy.

The result will either be exactly what you imagined, or something different that still sounds satisfying to you. Regardless of whether this will all be kept for the final version of the song, the process is what reinforces your ability to remain musically coherent.

This is a thing I lacked entirely in my past projects. Whatever I recorded at first was what I'd have in the end. Whatever I mixed for the first time drilled into my mind the notion of what the song was going to be forever. My perception of a track was like a stone sculpture. However, that couldn't be farther from the truth, as a song can change if provided the possibility. All I have to do is abandon my perception of what it is and go back to pursuing what I wish for it to be.

3. Use a single set of philosophies for each release. Imagine a hypothetical Nirvana album. All of the songs have the popular trio, however, a part of the album has been mixed by Steve Albini, another part by Butch Vig, and another by Jack Endino, all of this done in the exact same studio.

It's safe to say that hypothetical album would sound like a chimera. It would probably sound sick, albeit absolutely bonkers, like the producer couldn't settle on a sound, or like the band had to change recording studios every week or so.

That's because the mixing obviously changes the way a song sounds. Many people would be able to tell that “Breed” is a Nevermind song, because the mixing is particular to that album, which was done by Butch Vig. In another case, “In Bloom” has two versions: the first one is similar to how Bleach sounded (I don't know if Jack Endino mixed it), and the other is a clear fit with Nevermind. If you added the old version of In Bloom to Nevermind, it would sound like a bonus track.

This enlightens the fact that you should maintain a single set of production and mixing philosophies for each of your releases, especially when you are dealing with “band” music. Avoid using too many different amplifiers and microphones, changing your guitar's pickup position unnecessarily, or singing with completely different intonation for each song. If you are going to route all instrument tracks to a room reverb channel, try to ensure it is similar or the same for every song. Be precise with the EQ and compressors, and try to approximate the same feel on the frequency spectrums of songs within the same release; if one song sounds too rich in the lows and the next too rich in the mids without apparent reason (e.g. different instrumentation), that can sound quite off.

This is also something I completely ignored in the past, and the results were atrocious. I only ever hit a good spot with production/mixing consistency in two releases: once accidentally in a 3-song demo, and the second time in my latest release. The secret is to focus, be patient, be open for repetition, and understand your limitations.

4. Once you've walked far, walk back for a while. Yes, this sounds counterintuitive, perhaps frustrating, but you have to do it. Once you got however many songs in the process of producing a release, make a hypothetical track list and pay attention to how the songs would interact. Do they work genre-wise? Do you feel your release would occupy a space too broad stylistically than what you'd deem preferable? Separate the songs that don't function well together and remove them from the release. Any empty space can be filled by future compositions. Culling songs like this will hurt, it will feel like wasted work, nonetheless, this can be extremely important to achieve uniformity.

I only recently learned to do this well, and of 7 songs I had for the EP I'm working on currently, I culled a bunch (most being genuinely good songs) down to 3. Now I am composing new music to have more material for the release.

Take into account two Radiohead releases: Kid A and Amnesiac. Amnesiac is dubbed by some as “Kid B”, because it was recorded at the same time as Kid A, and its release might seem like an afterthought in a certain way. Some songs feel like B-sides despite being great compositions. “Knives Out”, for example, has a chord progression incredibly reminiscent of “Paranoid Android” from an even earlier release. (Quick and dirty as I got lazy, but should play it yourself to notice the way they are composed is too similar for coincidence. Paranoid: Cm, A#/Cm, F/Cm, Gm, Em7 || Knives: Cm, A#6, G#Maj7, Gm, F6, E7)

Why did Radiohead choose to cull all the Amnesiac tracks off Kid A? The reasons are many. But Kid A and Amnesiac are very functional albums on their own, and even though some songs could be exchanged between them (“In Limbo” may have been a good fit for Amnesiac too), they work smoothly with the track listing they ended up with.

Keep in mind that the songs which ended up in Amnesiac didn't get kicked out of Kid A for being worse songs, but for not fitting what Radiohead envisioned for the album. Understand that you aren't going to choose the best songs, the songs with the best hooks, or the songs that sound the coolest. You are going to select good songs that create a coherent body for your release.

Radiohead are kings of doing this. Some of their best songs are B-sides or even demos: 4 Minute Warning, Go Slowly, Fog, How I Made My Millions (you can hear Yorke’s now deceased ex-wife in the background)... their quality alone wasn't enough for Radiohead to select them as part of a main release's track list.

Beach House is another good example. When replying to someone who said all their album tracks sounded like B-sides, they agreed, and explained that was by design. Beach House isn't selecting all their poppy songs to populate their main releases, but the ones that better exhibit their vision. For better uniformity, you should try doing similar.

#indie pop #bedroom pop #music production #bedroom music #my music #music tips

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fluidsf · 5 years ago

Photo

Fluid Sonic Fluctuation 113

Síria: Boa-Língua

as kindly provided to me as a review copy by Crónica

released March 17, 2020

Catalogue number: 155

Welcome to review number 113 on Fluid Sonic Fluctuations in which today I’m featuring the fairly recently released album by Síria titled Boa-Língua. I received this album as a review copy linking to a Bandcamp download code from the Crónica label. Crónica is the label which actually inspired me to start this blog and over the last two years I’ve often featured and reviewed various Crónica releases both new and old on this blog. Just like I did with Quantum Natives I’ll give a bit of a description of Crónica both for people who haven’t checked out the previous reviews as well as keeping in line with my now even more expanded review style. Crónica is a Portuguese mixed media label founded by a group of sound artists, experimental musicians and audiovisual artists that include Miguel Carvalhais (who’s most in charge of the label nowadays and has mastered and designed many of its releases), Pedro Tudela, who both form the duo @c, an immersive sound art and abstract experimental music project that often utilises field recordings and collaged abstract musical and non-musical sounds to create immersive cinematic experiences based on a philosophical attitude to sound as well as deep listening into various sonic environments. I’ve reviewed various @c works on this blog before. Other founding members of Crónica include experimental musician Pedro Almeida (Pal) and visual artist Lia who uses custom programming to create her moving and captured abstract visuals. Quite matching in spirit to @c’s sound works Crónica’s releases form an ever-continuing chronology of sound, music and noise on various formats including cassette tape, free download, CD and limited edition vinyl releases. Crónica’s discography is a mixture of Sound Art pieces, often conceptual and free-spirited experimental music and Electro-Acoustic Improvisation as well as inventive and often enjoyable forays into composed field recordings and the more arty side of Noise. Now let’s have a look at the contents of the review copy of Boa-Língua by Síria that I received. The download I received includes the album cover artwork in good resolution, the 9 album tracks in 24-bit/44.1kHz high resolution audio as well as a PDF file that contains the album’s tracklist, credits, release description and liner notes. The liner notes by Síria herself give a good impression of the concept and sonic approach Síria used when she recorded the 9 pieces that feature on the album with improvisation that goes beyond simply performing and an element of deep introspection being key elements to this album’s development. A nice short text that you can read alongside checking out the music. What is of interest for now is the background of Síria and the other artists who contributed to the music or whose music Síria sampled / manipulated to create her music. First of all, Síria herself, is a solo project by Portuguese sound artist and experimental musician Diana Combo. As also introduced by the PDF files, Síria is an extension of Diana’s other music project EOSIN, a project that mixes Turntable Music style experimentation, field recordings and other sound sources to create at times eerie and mysterious abstract sonic images, Síria mixes this approach with Diana’s vocals which in the case of Boa-Língua she doesn’t manipulate that much but mostly works as a main thread carrying the pieces of music, often using (traditional) Folk songs or as in some pieces on this album rather expressive (wordless) vocals sometimes using an invented language. Under the name Síria Diana has released two albums on Crónica, has appeared on compilations on Tropical Twista Records and Discrepant and has created a remix for Sontag Shogun released on Youngbloods. Tiago Martins has done “post-production” of the album at his own Fisgastudio, which as I could hear it on the album consists of the connecting the songs together as well as nicely balancing out Síria’s vocals with the instrumentation of her pieces. Miguel Carvalhais did the mastering for this album, which like other masters he did for releases I previously reviewed is rather crisp and clear sounding, a notch compressed in this case perhaps though, but it does keep the vocals quite on the foreground and it’s not reducing the balance of the instrumentation of the music too much and indeed Miguel also created the artwork for this release which features photos by Síria herself of this subtly painted statue of a nude woman which is not quite matching my own interpretation of the music as you will soon notice but does form nice striking imagery that does encompass the general surreal ambience of the album quite well. Amongst the sources of songwriting, samples and recordings Síria used in her pieces we find that first song Canção do Gato is a version of a song that Tiago Pereira recorded for his continuing project A Música Portuguesa a Gostar Dela Própria which documents Portuguese folk songs as sung by local citizens through his audio and video recordings. Nos Montes was remixed by @c who have released albums on labels like Variz, Crónica, Fuga Discos and Grain Of Sound, have been featured on albums and compilation released by labels like Loop, AntmanuvMicro and Variz and are also credited on releases on Dead Motion Records, Ilse and a free Edition Der Standard release. Senhora dos Remédios is a version of a song sang by Portuguese singer Catarina Chitas and features a sample from Portuguese mixed media artist Maile Colbert. Belgian Shepherd is a remix of a track of the same title by Portuguese experimental music artist Rui P. Andrade of his 2017 album All Lovers Go To Heaven, originally released on ACR. Rui has released albums using his own name on labels such as BRØQN, Etched Traumas, Haze and Colectivo Casa Amarela, has appeared on releases on Darker Days Ahead, a compilation by Indie Rock Mag, a split EP on Enough Records. Rui’s credits includes musical work on releases on Zigur Artists, Pale Blue and Warm Winters Ltd. Rui nowadays makes music under his alias Canadian Rifles which he mostly releases on his own Eastern Nurseries tape label. Through Síria’s remix (originally released on the Island Fever compilation by Portuguese experimental music label Colectivo Casa Amarela) I’ve already caught some glimpses of Rui’s sound work and based on the strong bassy resonant noisy drone elements I heard I can tell his solo works and label output will definitely be worth checking out too. Ay Işığında is a version of a song as originally sung by Azerbaijani singer Nərminə Məmmədova. Finally, For Ghédalia and Boa-Lingua feature recordings made by Los Niños Muertos which is a duo made up of Portuguese electric guitar improviser and experimentalist André Tasso (who's also part of the big Ensemble MIA, an international collective of experimental musicians and improvisers who participated in the Encontro de Música Improvisada de Atouguia da Baleia organised in May 2016) and Bruno Humberto (a conceptual artist in a wide array of fields in contemporary arts whose works often use the location of the installation or performance as part of the artwork and who also utilised absurdism in interesting manners as part of the Gazpacho Unlimited theatre group). Now let’s dive into Boa-Língua’s music and sonic imagery.

Boa-Língua starts with the piece Canção do Gato which quite perfectly introduces the sonic imagery that this album conjured up in my mind which is that of a wandering soul on a mysterious journey who encounters all kinds of strange rituals and at times dystopian Industrial environments. The piece feels like we’re inside a circle watching an eerie entrancing ritual happen, with Síria’s vocals working as if they’re the chant forming the ritual itself, combined with the gong like percussion which emits a bassy and resonant but also quite wavy continuous droning and helps to create that nocturnal mysterious atmosphere. The song itself sounds more uplifting than the eerie gong drones suggests which makes for a great intriguing juxtaposition of musical elements and the filtered walkie-talkie noise like rhythm in the first half of the piece adds a bit of surrealism to the piece as it feels quite like a small undefined cloud drifting by, momentarily obscuring the ritual. Síria’s vocal performance itself also got some great details in it too, as she holds the notes of each repeated melodic phrase as if they’re looped and also giving the song a bit of sharp resonant edge, very nice to hear. Afterwards we travel into darker, more dystopian territory with Nos Montes which features Síria’s wordless vocals and various layers of (field recording) manipulations, loose percussion, warbled pitch adjusted vinyl records as well as eerie glassy crystallised textured and choppy fluttering bits of Noise swirling around in the centre of the stereo image as well as as between the left and right channels in a subtle manner. Our aforementioned wandering soul has now arrived in an Industrial landscape in which alien machinery seems to be ever whirring, squeaking and clicking, with the workers in this factory or perhaps even simply a workshop appear to be processing glimmering minerals which radiate vivid blue-tinted rainbows. Warbled voices and strangely dropping tones feel like the wandering soul is slowly getting both frightened and confused by her surroundings, her wordless singing feeling like a soft lullaby like song she sings to comfort herself. Her voice distorts and repeats as the environment changes and while the music follows more of a slow evolution of texture rather than reaching a real climax, the various details and new sounds fading in through the layers of Industrial sound make the immersive sonic experiments that much richer. Like many of the pieces on this album, Nos Montes is connected quite directly to its following piece with the jester like tambourine pattern at the end smoothly moving into the beginning of the following track Senhora dos Remédios. @c’s (remix) contribution to Nos Montes sounds a bit more metallic than I heard before from the Portuguese duo and is a bit more subtle in this case with many of the sonic layers sounding like directly from Síria herself. The depth, panning and immersive acoustic effects definitely make me think of @c’s work in a more direct manner, but I can say that this mixture of contributions to one piece of music definitely works quite seamless instead of being a piece where you can clearly hear “another artist joined as a collaborator” so excellent work in here indeed. Following track Senhora dos Remédios uses a sample by Maile Colbert (possibly a field recording) sounding like hissy wind and we can hear the return of the gong percussion from Canção do Gato at the start of the piece, blending with jester tambourine rhythm. This piece feels quite like our wandering soul has reached a more quiet part of the factory / workshop where we can only hear the hiss of pipes leading to the machinery in the main hall. Síria’s way of singing the song makes it sound quite ghostly and a bit like a lament, the stereo panned delay effect also adds this feeling of being inside the mind of the wandering soul. The second voice in the song feels like the wandering soul is imagining this second voice as a memory from a time long ago. A sweet introspective piece of music which does retain that nice Industrial edge the album has in a great manner. Belgian Shepherd then follows, a quite minimalist piece in which Síria’s vocals feature in a more subtle manner than other the other tracks on Boa-Língua. Now it feels like the wandering soul has moved to another spot in the factory, one in which distant sounds of machinery can be heard. Featuring distorted rhythmic glitch bass, a scraping mechanical resonant metallic drone, as well as burst of dust-laden steam and distant clanging metal poles and racks the Industrial landscape where our wandering soul finds herself has become a bit less archaic and morphed into a more efficient, cold and high-tech sci fi type of gears. Additional excellent details to the piece are the entrance in which high pitched glitched tones as well as a metallic violin like glassy screeches seem to introduce the wandering soul’s desperation as she’s trying to find a way out of this dark landscape, her warm wordless vocals being both cries for help and again a means to try to calm herself down and focus. A great mixture of contemporary minimalist Glitch elements and classic Industrial textures from what I can hear in the piece, Rui P. Andrade’s original version of this piece of which we’re now hearing Síria’s remix must be a fine entrancing piece of Drone / Noise work as all the textures as well as rich manipulations of the elements suggest the source material (which Síria also added on in this remix, which should be noted) definitely has some great creativity and an inspired personal touch to it too. Great work. Afterwards in Yarın the wandering soul has finally got out of the factory and returned to the mysterious ritual we saw before which has now progressed. Featuring long long resonating and decaying cymbal droning which is rich in many eerie and filtered sounding overtones as well as an additional layer of low (synth) frequencies which create a brooding rumbling foundation of the piece the ritual like nature of this piece is much darker. Yet Síria’s vocals are quite uplifting and positive sounding, with her voice overtaking the darkness more in this case than becoming encompassed within it. The double tracking of her vocals does create these curious sonic phenomena however, like her voice detaches itself from her as a separate second “out of body” entity and swirls around within the diffuse flowing liquid tonal mass of the ritual music. A few rays of sunlight are shining through the clouds of the morning to come for the wandering soul but the water drops at the end of the piece predict that the ominous events she encounters aren’t over yet, with the room acoustic of the field recording suggesting a narrow hollow space she soon finds herself in, perhaps a dungeon. Danse Macabre, the piece that follows is quite self-explanatory based on the titled. Indeed the piece feels quite like the sonic depiction of ghosts dancing around in a circle in the dark night. In this case however, it’s obviously the wandering soul who’s growing more and more confused and frightened by feelings that she can’t escape this strange world of mysterious ancient rituals and dystopian cold Industry all that easily. The piece feels quite “classic” in that it has a mostly pure Ritual Ambient sound with a lot of eerie resonant slow percussion rhythms, droning vocals and strange mouth sounds with which she creates strange laughing and screeching noises and spooky wails. However there are also little bits of crackling Noise hidden in the background as well with which Síria does underline her signature sound in this piece, they’re equally eerie in that they’re so “light” in the sonic imagery that you might even mistake them for rustling leaves or tree branches outside your house (this is especially the case on headphones). Further details that are particularly great about this piece are the highly resonant droning overtones mixed with the hollow water drops in the beginning of the piece creating some extra eerie gloom as well as the way Síria’s vocals form their own texture and intensely droning tone at the end of the piece, a very immersive listening experience once again. Ay Işığında follows with a similar kind of Ritual Ambient kind of ambience fading through the water drop sounds into nicely rising and falling waves of gong resonances backed by tinkling cymbals. Our wandering soul appears to have escaped her gloom and is now walking towards a beach with the aforementioned gong resonances feeling like the eerie gloom still surrounding her until the point that some lovely hollow, wooden like turntable needle and mechanism manipulations enter sounding a bit like rowing pans for that nice notch of surrealism in the mix. Síria performs the song Ay Işığında (as originally sung by Nərminə Məmmədova) with much positive emotion and there’s some lovely spacey delay effect on her vocals again but what I like even more about this piece is the way the piece’s subtly moving drone moves into sonic imagery involving soft “caressing” vinyl crackles and the sound of the sea, the swirling waves of water carrying our wandering soul to what appears to be an exit of the fever dream like landscapes she find herself in. The vinyl crackles also appear to hint at the subconscious meaning of “this is all just memories, you’re not actually experiencing this in real life”. Very intriguing. For Ghédalia then is a piece which is a bit more abrasive for its first half featuring screechy high pitched feedback tones but does flow into a more subtle kind of ambience afterwards. Dedicated to the cult Avant-Garde Folk experimentalist Ghédalia Tazartes the piece does indeed recall the curious kind of mixture of Noise, Folk and Tribal like elements I remember from listening to one of his albums a long time ago. This is also a piece which does move a bit out of the flow of the pieces that came before it as it features some more abstract experimentation within it. Síria is performing ornamental wordless vocals in this piece mixed with additional filtered vocal drones making for curious swirling drone around her. She also creates clicky bass drum like percussion using her mouth (though this seems to be more like a layering of two elements in fact). Curious are also the organ like tones in the first half of the piece. Whilst moving into a different kind of textural style, I can still apply my imagined imagery of the wandering soul to this piece as being a ritual she created and is performing on her own. This piece uses recordings by André Tasso and Bruno Humberto and I can definitely say that based on what I found about André, the guitar Noise elements are created by him and add some great rawness in terms of texture to the piece, very nice. Final piece Boa-Língua puts more focus on the recordings of guitar feedback manipulation as well as some sweet woodblock / stick percussion courtesy of André Tasso and Bruno Humberto in terms of instrumentation with Síria’s vocals being more like chanted mantras. The instrumental backing has a great physical touch to it in terms of texture, with the guitar also sounding a bit like an alarm; Síria’s calm vocals give the impression of our wandering soul slowly waking up in her bed in the morning with her thoughts still going through a bit of a confusing haze (the feedback instrumentation) and her wake up alarm having an oddly harsh sound to her ears. Still, she’s safe and sound and thereby we also come to our listening journey of Síria’s excellent Boa-Língua. I awards Boa-Língua a Polar Vision at the frequency of a wandering soul travelling through possibly imagined landscapes full of mysterious rituals, dystopian Industrial landscapes and a surreal experience of past memories. The album’s consistent flow of often vocal lead pieces of rich experimental music make for a great listening experience in Síria’s personal, inspired sonic world that blends “physical” Noise experimentation, Ritual Ambient influences, an inventive approach to using her voice in her music and a great feel for the cinematic side of Sound Art and texture based ambiences. This is a great recommended listen for fans of the more musical side of Sound Art, experimental approaches to Ritual Ambient, Turntable Music as well as a more varied approach to using Noise and Free Improvisation in more subtle manners. Síria’s song based approach also makes the music more accessible for listeners who aren’t very familiar with experimental music in general. Definitely get this album.

You can order Boa-Língua by Síria as a limited edition cassette tape and download from the Crónica Bandcamp page here: https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/boa-l-ngua

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beevean · 4 years ago

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SEGA and the eternal issue of “Sonic’s girlfriend”

[Translator’s note: here is the original article written by @latin-dr-robotnik, originally written on the 18th of May 2020]

Today we’re going to talk about one of the aspects SEGA is more secretive about: Sonic’s relationships.

[Translator’s note: this article was written to celebrate Seaside Hill Paradise’s 200th entry. If you’re fluent in Spanish, I highly recommend you to check it out! And if you aren’t, go follow Latin’s Tumblr blog if you haven’t already and you’re into Sonamy, analyses, gushing about music and shitposts.]

This article concludes my Sonamy trilogy, and I recommend you to read the previous two articles: “SEGA and the eternal issue of the Sonamy dynamic” and “’I love you’ – forbidden words in Sonic”. This means this is a shipping article – if you’re not interested into another essay about the love life of a blue hedgehog, I can redirect you to other articles such as “Sonic and speed: are we misunderstanding them?” and “What went wrong with Classic Sonic’s music in Sonic Forces?”.

Everybody else, welcome to today’s article!

It should be noted that this article focuses more on the semi-official and strictly official aspects, since there is really not much to say about the fandom. Nowadays the fandom has a relatively peaceful coexistence, creating art, fanfics and more, for all kind of ships; sometimes there’s an occasional fight between ships or a ship that clearly is not appropriate… but besides that, everything seems relatively calm, at least in my experience and compared to other fandoms.

Too cool for relationships...

Few things are as mentioned and yet silenced by the official SEGA media as the fateful words “girlfriend” and “Sonic” put together. In official terms, Sonic has always been this young, cool hedgehog, with a pure love for nature and never too worried about life, but with a moral code that makes him fight against injustices. During his first years, Sonic was almost impatient and a little emotionally distant, although as it was the ‘90s and things were not so clear for the young SEGA star, different interpretations would take the character through different paths - some more radical than others. As the years went by, and going through many redesigns, certain aspects of his personality would be perfected, exaggerated, or even flanderized. His position on relationships, on the other hand, would remain relatively constant over the decades, with a few particular exceptions.

The this is that Sonic, in the words of his own creator Naoto Ohshima, has always been considered “a young man with a child's heart”, which has helped to substantiate and understand why the character would remain relatively distant from his feelings, and much closer to his own interests associated with the life of adventure.

... or is he?

Despite everything I just said, they tried in many occasions, if not succeeded, to give Sonic a girlfriend, with various results.

As carefree as Sonic is, and as much as SEGA tried to clarify this point over and over again, the people behind his character have always tried to introduce one or more relationships into his life. Even Naoto Ohshima himself has made his own suggestion as to who might be a hypothetical partner for his character. The different interpretations I’ve mentioned have tweaked Sonic’s character to make it more apt to certain types of dynamics, and the cultural gap between the East and the West (which I analyzed a few years ago with the first article of this “trilogy”) also has a considerable impact on the type of relationships that would be established for Sonic from very early in his history until today.

Author’s note: the concept of “Sonic + human woman” of 1990 wasn’t completely forgotten, no no, it was brought back 16 years later, in… well… the worst way possible.

Let’s see an example. Going back to his very origins, in his pre-Sonic 1 sketches Sonic was often depicted with a stereotypical damsel in distress, Madonna, his own “Princess Peach” that ended up being scrapped for many reasons, including the similarities with Super Mario. As the years have gone by, this concept has not disappeared, but rather the writers and directors of the series have taken it down different paths over time. While Madonna was too cliché, other candidates for the role of “Sonic’s girlfriend” would quickly appear to try different dynamics, directly or indirectly endorsed by SEGA.

Sally Acorn

For many years, Princess Sally was for Western fans the first person who came to mind when they thought of “Sonic’s girlfriend”. Since 1993, and for 2 more decades, her relationship with Sonic has gone in many directions, but fundamentally the most amazing thing about this whole situation was that she was Sonic’s official girlfriend (at least in the Archie Comics canon). It was also one of the many headaches for SEGA in the last decade.

Originally a fellow fighter against the macabre Robotnik from the 1993 animated series Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic and Sally’s relationship was always marked by their opposite personalities; while Sally tends to plan ahead and is much more focused on the seriousness of the task, Sonic was the type to destroy robots first and think later. “Opposites attract,” they say, and by the (premature, I might add) end of that series both were already more than friends. They had already kissed a couple of times.

At the most critical moment in their relationship, Sonic, after a year of being missing in space and presumed dead by everyone, returns to Mobius only to end up back in potential danger, decides to ignore the wishes and warnings of Sally, who’s clearly emotionally traumatized and stressed by both the general situation and the responsibilities she had to carry out for her kingdom in the absence of her parents. The result of this explosive cocktail was one of the most infamous scenes in all of Archie Sonic, "the Slap", where Sally finally reacts violently to Sonic's selfish statements. The hedgehog's response? Well, a long exposure to the screams about her experience - also traumatic - up to that point. In the end, both end up screaming and crying in front of virtually everyone.

What followed in the next decades was an expansion of that original SatAM canon in the Archie Comics, in which its various writers introduced varying degrees of drama and increasing conflict to demonstrate the strong bond between them, destabilizing or even stabilizing it again, multiple times. They would be together for some time, then they would be apart, eventually rekindling the flame of love passionately, until a final sacrifice on their part and the eventual resetting of the entire Archie Sonic canon.

In their last years, after the Super Genesis Wave, Sonic and Sally’s relationship went back to being platonic. a good friendship with the advantages and disadvantages of their personalities - Sally’s leadership and Sonic’s extreme confidence - while the focus was put on the flourishing relationship between Sally and her best friend (and old computer!) Nicole.

Regardless of the way their relationship ended, it's undeniable that Sally has left a huge mark. Being a product of the West, her existence was never really accepted by the Sonic’s Japanese creators, but because the bulk of the fandom is here in the West, Sally's presence has been strongly associated with Sonic, the Freedom Fighters, the comics... and also the ship wars between her and the character we’re going to talk about next. Her very existence was a living contradiction to the Japanese central canon, an official girlfriend who broke all the ideas that existed for Sonic in terms of his conception of relationships and lead him through unique paths. Whether for better or worse, Sally broke the mold.

Eimi. Rosy. Amy Rose.

On the opposite side of the spectrum there’s Amy, a character that was originally conceived as the Minnie to Sonic’s Mickey, but with her own dynamic.

Despite Amy’s existence being strongly tied to Sonic’s, once again Sonic Team tried to avoid the classic cliché (in this case to copy Mickey and Minnie), opting then to establish Amy as the one interested in a relationship, while Sonic runs away from this idea. For this dynamic to keep working, Sonic’s feelings have to be kept hidden, with excuses like his “shyness”, which leads to ambiguity, or because, as said before, of his “child’s heart”.

The most interesting thing is that Amy kept her canonical status of “self-proclaimed girlfriend” since 1993, which makes her “official” and “not official” at the same time, but there are some traces left from the Sonic manga of 1992 (which in turn influenced Amy’s original design), where a prototype version of Amy (or, as it was spelled there, Emi/Eimi) played the role of Sonic’s girlfriend (or Nicki’s, to be more precise). With this detail in mind, Amy can be considered, at least in the East, the very first “Sonic’s girlfriend”, even before Sally – but her situation is much more complex.

Sonic Mega Drive (top) and Sonic Boom (bottom), representing some differences in different Sonic continuities.

In any case, the manga would be the first and only time Amy was officially considered “Sonic’s girlfriend”, because in the following decades and in several continuities the core of their dynamic shifted to Amy chasing Sonic. Both would get closer or further away depending on each case (in Fleetway, for example, Amy ends up marrying another character, while in Archie Sonic there would be only a few instances of potential interest, quickly overshadowed by convenience or other things directly or indirectly related to Sally), but generally no continuity would establish an official relationship. In some cases, such as Japan, it wouldn’t even be necessary to clarify the state of the relationship, since their cultures accept more easily the dynamic that Sonic Team proposed as an “official relationship”. Just looking at the artwork highlighted on Sonic Channel (run by SEGA of Japan) shows how much more accepted the relationship is, even though Sonic Team’s official artwork still avoids any kind of public confirmation. (Author’s note: I’ve written more about Amy according to the East and the West in the first article of this trilogy)

Unlike Sally, there is no “opposites attract” situation between Amy and Sonic, and, at first, there is no prior friendship from which a potential relationship could flourish. We witnessed their dynamics from the first moment they met, and it would not be until years later that there would be a minimal basis for interaction from which various official continuities would bring both characters closer together.

Technically Amy already knew that her destiny was tied to Sonic and the events of Sonic CD on Little Planet, thanks to her tarot cards (an element that has disappeared since then), but for Sonic it was just another day of adventure, and although we’ve seen how Amy's feelings have progressed, mostly in Adventure 1 and 2, Sonic has never reflected on his personal feelings; it’s an aspect of the hedgehog that to this day remains a mystery to the audiences.

Also unlike Sally, Amy has appeared in multiple continuities of all kinds and because of that her relationship with Sonic has been affected in various ways. The main videogames canon has remained ambiguous and unchanged for 25 years: Amy would stay close to Sonic and offer some good moments to reflect on her feelings about him (some of which I mentioned in my post about Sonic Unleashed and Amy’s emotional support), while Sonic would remain distant, uncomfortable, shy, and, more recently, potentially affected by her apparent loss.

Sonic X is the first official attempt (by Sonic Team no less) to offer an expanded view of our characters. There’s a lot of discussion about how Sonic is slowly opening up to Amy’s advances, and these developments follow a line that we discussed in previous articles of this trilogy, and how, during the 2000s, the Japanese writers of the series kept slowly deepening the interactions between the two, reaching very important symbolic moments like Sonic X Ep. 9, 52 and 76, among several others. I am purposely leaving out specific details to direct your attention to this fantastic thread by Yvanix Rose that highlights some key details about how this continuity worked the Sonic-Amy dynamic. [Translator’s note: the thread is in Spanish]

Sonic X, episode 76.

Another essential continuity for the development of this dynamic was Sonic Boom, since, despite having been a separate continuity with its own interpretation of the characters, its existence managed to influence the main canon in some way in the years that followed its original release in 2014.

Sonic Boom made two important changes in the dynamic: Amy did no longer externalize her feelings with the same frequency or intensity (speeding up a process that already started in the main canon in 2008), and Sonic was noticeably more nervous and insecure of his feelings for her, even being jealous in several occasions. These changes got the dynamic closer to the “friends who have secret feelings to each other but they’re too shy to admit it” trope, and in the second season it could even be said that there are signals of the “secretly dating” trope. Nothing was officially confirmed yet, but the changes to the dynamic offered a fresh perspective to work from: winks and inferences about a relationship that was not talked about but seemed to happen behind the scenes.

Sonic Boom S1E16.

Sonic Boom’s approach also opened the door to working a little more on the characters’ new personalities. Taking a little inspiration from the original foundations of Sally and Sonic’s relationship, Boom now presented situations where Sonic and Amy’s perspectives actively clashed with each other, leading to discussions and moments that showed a little more of the mundane details of the friendship they had, rather than appealing to more classic behaviors of the main canon, like Sonic leaving the scene in a hurry. Considering the way things turned out the last time we saw this kind of dynamic on screen, it was pretty safe to assume that their new opposites were now attracted; the implied secret dating and so on only helped to give it more sustenance - which the fandom would eventually take to the extreme.

And lastly there’s IDW Sonic, the comic series that replaced Archie Sonic after its cancellation in 2017, and the most recent arc that offers an interesting perspective. Starting its continuity from the end of the events of Sonic Forces (which at the same time took on certain characteristics from the post-Boom era, particularly as far as Amy is concerned), IDW Sonic didn’t waste any time in presenting the way in which it would carry out its dynamic between Sonic and Amy.

Amy makes her feelings for Sonic very clear, and he is surprised but unable to match them. However, Sonic doesn’t want to outright reject her, and suggests that she come with him; she refuses, claiming that she has duties to the Resistance, setting the tone for the rest of the series. (IDW Sonic #2)

“Sonic’s girlfriend” today

As I mentioned earlier, after the reboot Sally was no longer considered Sonic’s girlfriend, and her disappearance after the cancellation of Archie Sonic in general is a sign that we may not see her ever again, even as a friend. As of today, in 2020, only Amy has been left in her “unofficial, but…” state, with various minor events taking place both in the main canon and in IDW Sonic:

In 2018 the official SEGA shop wrote a description for a piece of Amy Rose merchandise that said “celebrate 25 years of Sonic’s girlfriend”; the mistake wasn’t immediately corrected, despite the fandom pointing it out immediately.

The video game canon has remained dormant, with Team Sonic Racing in 2019 featuring more of a regular friendship between Sonic and Amy, sharing rivalries and quiet moments alike.

On the other hand, since IDW Sonic and Sonic Boom laid their foundations, we've begun to see a certain shift in the way the two characters are presented. While we’ve talked about IDW Sonic already, Sonic’s social medias have done multiple “Twitter Takeovers” where Sonic characters answer questions from fans, and Sonic has always answered more like his version of Boom to the inevitable question about Amy and his “feelings”.

Recent official animations like Sonic Mania Adventures and Team Sonic Racing Overdrive have shown Amy flirting with Sonic in a more casual way.

The current dynamic seems to be pointing towards “Sonic’s hidden feelings”, and I think we are at a perfect point to change the approach. SEGA in general seems more open to the idea of bringing these characters closer, probably as a marketing strategy, but without yet separating themselves from the central ideas that defined the dynamic for the last two and a half decades.

Conclusion

The idea of “Sonic’s girlfriend” has been one of the most experimental and controversial in the almost three decades that this series has been around for. SEGA has opened the door to all kinds of ambiguities, developments and interpretations, all with their pros and cons, instead of settling on a definitive position. As iconic as these characters, conceived as Sonic’s “romantic interests”, have become, they have also had their share of criticism and controversy, especially in the fandom.

The presence of Amy as the only “official but self-proclaimed girlfriend” today says a lot about the control SEGA (specifically SEGA of Japan) regained over the characters, after decades of interpretations that offered different alternatives with various degrees of success. At her best, Sally represented an ideal relationship with Sonic, much more complete and profound than the back-and-forth game between Amy and Sonic. But at her worst, this same relationship represented everything wrong that could happen by associating Sonic with the emotional spiderweb of a romantic relationship. SEGA hardening its control over the characters seems to have put an end of this type of situation where Sonic ends up being involved in a romantic telenovela, but at the same time it has revitalized the flirting game and the implicit associations that give fuel to the fandom fire.

From my humble interpretation, I think we’ve reached a point where Sonic and Amy have shared enough stories and moments to solidify the core aspects of their personalities and their friendship, allowing them to take the next step, which is to play around with the idea of “something else”. 25 years ago it was hard to see how these two characters could work together beyond “it’s SEGA’s word”; today there’s enough of a story to find a rhythm and chemistry for them, and the series of situations they've put themselves in (e.g. IDW Sonic’s plot arcs) are increasingly helping this case. The topic of “Sonic's girlfriend” may be a controversial one for SEGA and the fandom in general, but the doors have slowly been opened for this debate to develop and be investigated with interesting results, and I think that, in this new decade of 2020, there’s a unique potential to explore this kind of discussion, without sacrificing in any way the central principles of Sonic as a character. Thank you for joining me in these 200 entries, and hopefully we’ll see each other for many more.

#sonic the hedgehog #amy rose #sonamy #translation #analysis #long post #happy birthday latin!#this one was so hard #i had to cut a lot of shp-related parts sadly #but this whole project was very fun and enlightening

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gothrapxxx · 6 years ago

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What you will see in this article is really the very beginning of hardbass culture. Hardbass is basically sub category of electronic music, which naturally originated in Russia, somewhere in 2000's. It is characterized with fast tempo, strong bass beats (AKA donk bass), with periodic lyrics. Gown code is typically budgety clothing, a lot of frequently Adidas tracksuit. Holy providers of hardbass culture are gopniks, which are typically seen crouching in groups, drinking and, naturally, doing hardbass. Here in next couple of minutes you will discover whatever about the normal gopnik specimen in his natural environment. As we stated, hardbass began to develop in Russia, specifically in St. Petersburg, with leaders like DJ Snat, Sonic Mine and X Job. After couple of years, it began to spread out via VKontakte, Russians variation of Facebook, and by 2010, different "copycat" artists and videos of EDM music began to sprout all over Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. People were crouching and pump dancing in classrooms, busses, work stations, shopping centers, basically all over. Later on, individuals started doing this pump dancing thing at popular landmarks and places in their home town to show something in your city that you're proud off, and to reveal that you enjoy your city. In some nations hardbass was utilized for a somewhat various purpose, like a form of public rebellion, such as in Serbia, where people were using it to object about Kosovo, or Chile, where trainees utilized it to protest against the government cutting funds for education. However, in all fairness, EDM is a form of (hillarious) dance and we need to utilize it and understand it as a form of socializing and entertainment, while revealing yourself! Some of the most popular artists nowadays are DJ Blyatman, XS Project, Hard Bass School, YURBANOID, Party Factory etc. Get in your Adidas, get a bottle of beer and hardbass the night away! Everything began as a type of joke that went too far-- four men from St. Petersburg were attempting to mock stereotyped gopniks (low-life Russian goons) however ended up winning their praise rather, and then the entire thing went viral worldwide. You have most likely seen it, at least in a video. A couple of guys and sometimes females worn tracksuits, their faces often covered with masks or balaclavas, collect in a circle and move their bodies (or in some cases just their heads) to really loud and primitive music with distinctive basslines and a quick pace. The whole picture is stunning as hell.

What is a Gopnik?

Gopnik is a stereotype and subculture in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other previous Soviet republics to refer to young men of often lower-class suburban areas coming from families of bad education and income.

Forget ballet. In the 2010s, it was a distinctively Russian kind of music called hard bass that conquered the world. However before this, it discovered its way to the hearts and ears of countless Russian people. In an extremely strange method. As typically occurs in Russia, people took something foreign and then Russified everything the method to the bitter end. Hard bass traces its roots back to pumping home, a Western-born genre of techno with a fast pace and balanced bass area (Klubbheads are a good example of pumping home). But then it ran into some serious Russian culture phenomena. Ironically, for the innovators of hard bass, integrating Western rhythms with the tracksuit attire worn by gopniks (minor goons or scallies) was simply the way to have a laugh. As Lenta.ru put it, the hard bass motion was originally meant as mockery of the "rave gopniks" who would attend big rave parties but had no idea what rave culture was originally about (peace, love and techno). Therefore it was that in 2010 4 youths living St. Petersburg published a video on Youtube teasing the ludicrous dancing of gopniks-- moving your ankles around and stomping your legs backward and forward. While dancing, it is also important to make a special gesture with your hands clenched into fists and only a thumb and little finger protruding. The "song" that they performed to was quite simple: "Raz-raz-raz, eto hard bass!" (something like "Hey-hey-hey, this is hard bass!" in English) but it also included a little bit of healthy way of life propaganda. The people mentioned that their archenemies are various type of chemically produced drugs and that they consume only kvass. Naturally, this too was a joke teasing gopniks' pride in their supposedly healthy way of life-- healthy mainly in the sense that they wear tracksuits every day.

Maybe the paradox was too subtle though because lots of actual gopniks who viewed the video didn't detect it and related to it on a genuine level. No drugs, an easy dance and music to squash the ground to-- what's not to like? Therefore it was that this strange new style, purposefully elegant and unreasonable, started to grow in popularity. With time, the scenario grew quite complicated, with two different types of EDM fans emerging-- those who regards liked it and those who were making fun of it. Sometimes the line between them was (and is) really thin, so now when you see the current amusing video with a bunch of individuals dancing to hard bass in tracksuits, it is hard to inform if they are major hardline gopniks or just fooling around. The hard bass fan website hardbas.ru informs us "It is the pursuit of positive energy and aversion to trick oneself with drugs that is behind the hard bass philosophy. Hard bass will assist make your life more vibrant and more favorable." That seems a little bit pompous, but who we are to evaluate? Then suddenly, the author diverts off in a suspicious political direction: "In numerous cities, hard bass is likewise a Russian option to Lezginka (a national Caucasian dance that individuals of Caucasian origin in some cases perform in the streets)." There are conservative activists amongst hard bass fans, and in 2013 they even attempted to perform "a hard bass protest" dance in the center of Moscow but were apprehended by the authorities. However, hard bass is, as a general guideline, not about politics. It assisted Russia draw attention from the West, albeit in an unusual way. Many Youtube bloggers now mimic the Russian accent and explain how to behave like a real Russian patsan (a more considerate term that gopniks use to explain each other) by crouching, taking in sunflower seeds, wearing Adidas tracksuits and, of course, dancing to some premium EDM music. Simply keep in mind that this all began as a parody. What basically began as a Russian take on hard home has spread out across the world through social networks and developed into a form of viral demonstration. Regional hard bass crews organize flash mobs called "mass attacks," where packs of masked youths "pump dance" strongly in public while baffled passerbys get speed and try their finest to avoid eye contact. The entire ritual is filmed and submitted onto YouTube, where-- rather than curl up and die under a barrage of keyboard warrior hate-- it's handled to motivate new hard bass crews that have grown westward across the continent.

What is hardbass music?

Hardbass or hard bass (Russian: хардбасс, tr. hardbass, IPA: [xɐrdˈbas] is a subgenre of electronic music which originated from Russia throughout the late 1990s, drawing inspiration from UK hard house, bouncy techno, Scouse home, and hardstyle. Hardbass has become a central stereotype of the gopnik subculture. Coming From Saint Petersburg in the early 2000s, hard bass resembles every other variety of generic dance music popular with young Europeans who dress specifically in spending plan sportswear: 150-160 BPM, four-to-the-floor beats, and cheesy '90s synths. This is basically Russian donk. The only real distinction is that instead of hearing a Boltonion drawl chewing on a Greggs cheese-and-onion piece tell you to "put a donk on in it," you periodically get a Russian MC spitting something in Cyrillic that I've been too horrified to penetrate Google translate. Championed by home-grown manufacturers like DJ Snat, Sonic Mine, and XS Job, local record label Jutonish was your one-stop shop for all your hard bass needs. By all accounts, hard bass wouldn't remove outside of Saint Petersburg for the next few years, and even Muscovites appeared to choose listening to the sound of rusting Soviet machinery grind into disrepair over the St. Pete's noise, however ultimately, hard bass' mundanity would be what moved it into the global awareness.

The reality that you might drop a hard bass track at a gabba night in Holland, or a poky rave in Spain, indicated that there was a great deal of cross-pollination between the scenes, with European DJs dipping into hard bass parties in Russia and vice-versa. This is how Dr. Poky, the primary face at Sound Makers records, stepped out from a sea of gurning faces and became the hard bass messiah, preaching the pump bass gospel by means of a grassroots Facebook marketing campaign. Originally from Russia's eastern steppes, Dr. Poky first transferred to Madrid, where he made a name for himself as DJ in the local "poky" scene, prior to eventually settling in France. It was on a fateful journey to Russia that he initially encountered the notorious hard bass "pumping dancers." "When I DJed in Russia in 2009, I saw some video online of 2 or 3 people dancing in the street to hard bass as a joke," Dr. Poky told me over Skype, "They put the video on the internet, on a program called VKontakte." If you're unfamiliar with bootleg social media platforms, VKontakte is Russia's answer to Facebook, with a 195 million profile-strong following, mostly based in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Kazakhstan. Hard bass now had an audience, and as we have actually seen in the aftermath of "Gangnam Style" and Soulja Young boy, with enough inexpensive laughs and a viral video, you too can leave your grubby mark on the globally connected loins of contemporary popular culture.

By 2010 copycat videos began appearing in Belarus, Ukraine, and across Russia. Pumping dancers were pump-dancing in classrooms, in shopping center, on mass transit, on football pitches, and even on the actions of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre in Minsk. Groups could be as small as three or four guys (and it's pretty much always men) or as huge as several dozen, however the basic objective is to get as many people as possible pump-dancing at an inventive location that no one has ever tried before, or someplace where you make the most significant nuisance out of yourself-- and if you don't get it on video, it didn't occur. Simply in case you're having difficulty picturing pump dancing, let me break it down for you: envision a lot of hunched-over men treading grapes, arms bent at the elbow, hands formed into beach bottom "hang loose" gestures, casually flailing their forearms up and down. That's pump dancing. Straight from the off, a few typical threads began emerging; the pumping dancers were constantly big on reppin' either their nation or their native city, and the majority of the videos were shot at distinct regional landmarks likely to feature in regional tourism board sales brochures. "It has to do with showing the city where you live, the piece de resistances, to reveal it's real. This is my city and I love it-- we dance to hard bass here too," reveals Dr. Poky. Another commonality was an overarching sense of manly hostility, and budget plan sportswear. Mass attacks appear like fight scenes from hooligan flicks like The Football Factory. In one Ukrainian video, 2 groups of hooded youths approach each other in a city underpass, hands raised overhead and chanting as if there's a lot of obscenely paid too much professional athletes kicking a ball around nearby. After a brief pause, they charge at their equivalents in a relocation that reminds me of a wall of death that I saw at an Agnostic Front program when I was 15, prior to getting into fits of pump-dancing upon effect. It resembles enjoying a musical adaptation of the 2011 London summer riots composed by Blackout Team. In all fairness, this isn't simply distinct to EDM; one of gabba's most significant anthems is "Rotterdam Hooligan" by the Rotterdam Horror Corps that samples the impassioned chants of Feynoord fans. Pondering hard bass' sustaining appeal with football hooligans, Dr. Poky explains, "It's easy for them to bring individuals and make a video. It's affordable promo to show how hard they are." I'm pretty sure dancing hasn't been used to intimidate people given that the Jets and Sharks threw down in West Side Story, but whatever.

Eventually in late 2010, hard bass slipped under the digital Iron Curtain and made its method onto YouTube, pump dancing into the collective global awareness. Throughout 2011, hard bass crews grew in Slovakia, Serbia, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic. In Belgrade, one mass attack brought in around 200 barely-pubescent kids, while others took place as far away as France, Spain, and even Chile. Mass attacks were progressively happening beyond government buildings and, to the inexperienced eye, should have appeared like political protests through ham-fisted line dancing. Were they attempting to state something to politicians? Dr. Poky discusses: "Some people make videos since they like hard bass and desire share it with the world, however some other individuals use it to promote their own agenda. In Chile, trainees utilized it to protest against the federal government cutting cash for education, in Serbia for example, some of them used videos to oppose about Kosovo." The first team to explicitly utilize hard bass as a political platform were Russian group Hard Bass School," who saw themselves as an eastern bloc Minor Risk. As Dr. Poky elaborated: "You have some video on Web with a guy cigarette smoking, then some guy comes and states 'Why do you waste your money and time smoking cigarettes or taking drugs? You must be using a Hard Bass School t-shirt and dancing to Hard Bass!'" Yeah, let's get high on tee shirts! In Belgium, Jeune Nation, the Hitler Youth-esque junior wing of Francophone nationalist motion, NATION, utilize0 EDM in their never-ending fight versus Islam. With Halal dietary standards ending up being increasingly typical in supermarkets and school kitchens throughout Charleroi, they unceremoniously took the streets last April wearing pig masks and staged a mass attack in defense of their inalienable right to pork products. Political gains were limited, but sighs of exasperated offense were at an all time high. Over in the Czech Republic, anti-authoritarian hard bass teams are persuaded that the recession marks the start of a counter-cultural revolution, as Mord discusses: "Society is staggering on the edge. Today's financial crisis is not just an affordable problem; it's a crisis of culture. We believe that this crisis is a significant one and that a big social shift and transformation is on the horizon. We want to contribute."

Okay, however isn't pump dancing a little bit of an unclear method to make a statement? Why don't you make some banners and yell cute mottos like everybody else does? Team member Mord argues, "That's simply another system-approved kind of habits. How can you protest against the system if you continue to play it's video game? How you wish to change guidelines if you behave by the guidelines? Take a look at the Occupy Wall Street movement. Where are they now? What did they really accomplish?" But how exactly is rhythmically imitating the early stages of the white wine making process a better revolutionary method than civil disobedience? "Think about the symbolic power! Groups of masked people making sounds and dancing where they're not expected to is a lot more outrageous than ten times as many individuals marching with banners and screaming mottos! We are provoking people to think a little bit more about what they see around them; people are desensitized to opposing crowds, but everybody responds to hard bass." Though Nenad, from Serbia's hard bass team, added a more level-headed answer: "To us, it's a kind of mingling and home entertainment and it lets us reveal our viewpoint. We won't change anything, however a minimum of we get to show our position."

What is EDM music?

Electronic dance music, also called dance music, club music, or merely dance, is a broad variety of percussive electronic music categories made mainly for nightclubs, raves and celebrations. And I think that's the real point of electronic songs-- it's simply kids trying to run the hormone onslaught of teenage years as finest they can and hope it brings them some sort of purpose and belonging. When one Prague hard bass crew got together to go garbage selecting in a regional forest, I don't think a number of them truly offered a shit about the environment, or dreamt of trolling Japanese whaling vessels with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, they probably just wanted to hang out with their friends. Due to the fact that, basically, the age of puberty sucks and not everyone gets to be prom queen, so why not indulge in hard bass?

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