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Sonic's ideal characterization topic


Chaos Warp

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Yeah it sure is. It's not like this hasn't been discussed to death so many times in the past. :V

So apparently character topics are the new gameplay topics.......

But back to topic.

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Sonic Colors Sonic + good jokes + in moderation = my ideal Sonic.

Considering how much of Colours was jokes, It`s kinda hard to pin down his character, at least that`s what I find.

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Considering how much of Colours was jokes, It`s kinda hard to pin down his character, at least that`s what I find.

Seeing as how Generations was basically his Colors persona minus the jokes, I can't imagine it would be that hard.

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Seeing as how Generations was basically his Colors persona minus the jokes, I can't imagine it would be that hard.

..............Okay......you got me there.

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Honestly, the main thing I liked about Sonic in Colours was his interaction with Tails. It's the first time since Sonic Adventure that they really felt like "brothers" to me. The one time he was 100% serious wasn't too bad (that one cutscene in Asteroid Coaster), and I liked how protective he was of Tails at the end.

My only problem was with the cutscenes before the other boss battles (and some of the ones after them, except the brainwashing one), which were basically just for jokes. Why not have Eggman there, so Sonic is at least talking to someone?

The sad thing is, I was hoping the good interaction between Sonic and Tails was a sign of things to come once other characters showed up. Then Generations happened, in which a lot of characters returned...only to have Sonic not say anything to any of them. :/

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The sad thing is, I was hoping the good interaction between Sonic and Tails was a sign of things to come once other characters showed up. Then Generations happened, in which a lot of characters returned...only to have Sonic not say anything to any of them. :/

Yeah, this pissed me off so much. That's the main reasons why I wanted the other characters to come back to see Sonic interact with his friends but they're just background characters that contributes very little to the story. :\

Edited by sonfan1984
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The problem with the aspects of Sonic having a short temper and being impatient is that they have been plastered onto Knuckles circa Sonic X, which was NEVER a thing in the games until that point, and I would like to see that removed from Knuckles' traits and given to Sonic (but much more dialed back).

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The problem with the aspects of Sonic having a short temper and being impatient is that they have been plastered onto Knuckles circa Sonic X, which was NEVER a thing in the games until that point, and I would like to see that removed from Knuckles' traits and given to Sonic (but much more dialed back).

I don't think there's anything wrong with both of them having a bit of a temper, just show a difference in temperament. Sonic just gets visibly annoyed or irritated and would probably make some snide remarks, while Knuckles would completely blow his stack and easily riled up.

Knuckles being angry is pretty much accepted as his character now, so that's not changing. I just think Sonic needs to show that even he gets annoyed and irritated with people, just in a more subtle way to separate him from Knuckles.

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My characterization for Sonic would be his thirst for adventure and his heroism from the games, SATAM, and Sonic X with his screwballish antics and wits from AOSTH and Sonic X, and coolness of the Roger Craig Sonic.

Edited by Anthony D.
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Sonic Unleashed Sonic is his best charecterization to date. Of course, that's probably due to my bias towards Jason Griffith and Unleashed in general but still...

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Sonic has been kind of off character in pretty much every 3D Sonic game where he could really express character. SEGA's old marketing said he had an "attitude," and yet in most games he acts like a generic hero with almost no personality. They've been getting better about this as of late, but he still doesn't portray much of this "attitude" that SEGA originally wanted him to. I think the best example of how his personality should be was in Sonic the Movie. He was very obstinant and reluctant to help simply because it was on Eggman's terms, and he constantly showed off the fact that he was a stubborn and short-tempered character with, indeed, an attitude. I also think Martin Burke's voice did an especially good job of bringing this to life.

Edited by KatamariParadox
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^ Sooort of a agree, though I think it seems kind of bizarre to say he's off-character in pretty much every 3D Sonic game, I mean, we got that he's impatient, cocky, dude with tude, and for me the only one that's genuinely missing in 'pretty much every' 3D Sonic game is impatience.

There is the question that can it even be classed as off-character if that's the way he acts in pretty much every 3D Sonic game? Don't get me wrong I do think it should be there,and it is in the manuals which might suggest they do want something they are for some reason not achieving.

I don't particularly see how their getting better as of late if your referring to the two latest games, to be honest it looks like they're confusing 'long windedly saying that he's superior to his enemies' with 'attitude'.

I mean, I guess it is attitude, it's just not the kind people mean when they say 'tude', otherwise Robotnik would be a dude with tude.

On a last note, Sonic had me fangirling all over the place in SaTBK

Edited by Mysterics
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If we're going to be taking into account old PR in the discussion, it would help to define some terms. Specifically: What does "attitude" even mean? Is it cockiness? Is it douchiness? Is it impatience? Is it rebelliousness? Is it sticking to your guns about your morals? Is it merely being an animal mascot with personality? What exactly describes this demeanor called "attitude?"

I always get the feeling that when someone says they want Sonic to have more "attitude," they simply want him to act like a jerk, the usual examples to illustrate this point of view being either his Fleetway or OVA characterization. But being a jerk, at least intentionally, isn't a primary facet of Sonic's personality as illustrated in the overwhelming majority of the games. He's roughly always been a do-gooder with a straightforward and idealized set of ethics concerning right from wrong, sprinkled with some good ol' impatience and the habit of spouting Spiderman-esque cheesy one-liners whenever he talked. How cheesy and how hyper he may be in a particular game may vary, but with arguably the only exception being Chronicles, he's never been the kind of "attitudinal" character that possesses a mean spirit.

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Sonic's attitude never manifested itself as him being a jerk, or at least it shouldn't be, I always saw his attitude just in the way he carried himself; somebody who has nothing but confidence in their abilities with the actual competence to back up their claims, now granted how this is presented varies from game to game; In the storybook games its manifested in a "never give up" type of attitude that's common in most modern day Shonen manga while in Colors/Generations displays it in his cheesy one liners and overall flippant attitude.

Which version is "better" is entirely up to preference, but ideally I'd like a hybrid of the two to satisfy both parties with Sonic maintaining his wacky sense of humor and fines he had in Colors, but keep the defiant and determined self when things his the ceiling. He should never be an outright jackass though, at least intentionally.

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Edit: trust me to write an essay on something formulating a theory when the answer was under my nose,

the literal dictionary definition is 'a hostile manner' which I guess 'sass' and 'arrogant' could be categorised under, of which leads us back to what I said about Robotnik, he does technically have it, but he isn't what people think of when they say a character has attitude because he has it in the normal-villainous-sense, and it's just not right seeing Sonic long-windedly say he's better than his enemies and rail off goofy puns in the same fashion as his rival.

For future reference.

]

If we're going to be taking into account old PR in the discussion, it would help to define some terms. Specifically: What does "attitude" even mean? Is it cockiness? Is it douchiness? Is it impatience? Is it rebelliousness? Is it sticking to your guns about your morals? Is it merely being an animal mascot with personality? What exactly describes this demeanor called "attitude?"

I always get the feeling that when someone says they want Sonic to have more "attitude," they simply want him to act like a jerk, the usual examples to illustrate this point of view being either his Fleetway or OVA characterization. But being a jerk, at least intentionally, isn't a primary facet of Sonic's personality as illustrated in the overwhelming majority of the games. He's roughly always been a do-gooder with a straightforward and idealized set of ethics concerning right from wrong, sprinkled with some good ol' impatience and the habit of spouting Spiderman-esque cheesy one-liners whenever he talked. How cheesy and how hyper he may be in a particular game may vary, but with arguably the only exception being Chronicles, he's never been the kind of "attitudinal" character that possesses a mean spirit.

Edited by Mysterics
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Well, the question then becomes: when has Sonic ever not extensively acted like he was confident and in control (regardless of whether or not he truly was)? The closest you get to that is the Werehog debacle, but even that's undercut with his belief that he has little to worry about with Chip around, and even then Chip says he wasn't controlling Sonic's sapience anyway. Sonic is such a naturally cool and confident character that even he doesn't know it at times; that's one of the absolute basics of the character even the most untalented of writers we've had can nail to some degree.

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When thinking about Sonic's characterization, I'm thinking more about the context he was brought into in the first place.

1990's - Globalization, Environmentalism, Irony, Rave, Grunge, Britpop, Anti-Thatcher/Reagan groups winning after a decade of struggle, The Slacker movement.

...These are joke right?

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In short, Sonic is Sonic, not Commander Shepard.wink.png

I have nothing against the concept of the dialogue tree.

I do however dislike the dialogue tree when;

1 - It gives totally out of character dialogue options. There's no charm at all when a dialogue tree's options portray a character as being completely contrary to what they actually are. I only like dialogue tree's when they can provide scenario's that are believable. Out-of-character responses aren't believable.

2 - It doesn't go anywhere i.e Giving specific responses affects things later in the game. To my knowledge, there was only a tiny, tiny handful of alternate scenario's that can play out depending on response in Chronicles such as the SonAmy-implying scene in Chapter 10 and the fight with the Echidna pirates.

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I have nothing against the concept of the dialogue tree.

I do however dislike the dialogue tree when;

1 - It gives totally out of character dialogue options. There's no charm at all when a dialogue tree's options portray a character as being completely contrary to what they actually are. I only like dialogue tree's when they can provide scenario's that are believable. Out-of-character responses aren't believable.

2 - It doesn't go anywhere i.e Giving specific responses affects things later in the game. To my knowledge, there was only a tiny, tiny handful of alternate scenario's that can play out depending on response in Chronicles such as the SonAmy-implying scene in Chapter 10 and the fight with the Echidna pirates.

And I agree, my point was just that in Mass Effect it's the player who shapes who Commander Shepard is, you give him a background and heck you can even give him a first name(Commander Shitstain Shepard reporting for duty!(lol duty, git it?)) .

With Sonic it does'nt work because he's already an established character.

So yeah, I completely agree.tongue.png

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My first post was too light considering the fact I'm such an aficionado of Sonic's character, so I find the need to elaborate further.

Use Storybook series Sonic as the basis. Whip in some snappy wit as seen in Colours, that smooth talker edge which allows him to dish out the wisecracks with no hesitancy. Roger is excellent at doing this through his Sonic voice, just listen to how he eloquently does it in this cutscene, it just slides off his tongue;

There should always be a sense of sincerity and caringness regarding how he interacts with close friends and how he can seemingly pick up on their concerns (I.e Chip worrying about his memory, Shahra's concern for getting him involved and such). This is epitomized in his interactions with Chip and Shahra and even Merlina. He is not utterly repulsed by Amy. That's an interpretation the fandom made and exagerrated more and more, not helped by English language versions of the games making Sonic out to be someone who is acting out of pure obligation when he saves Amy, therefore putting more distance between them than there really is. He gets put off by her advances but he certainly doesn't regard her as an extreme annoyance and/or an object of revulsion.

I think that there should be an element of short-temperedness there that is exacerbrated by impatience. The manual profiles seem to love consistently documenting this trait of Sonic's character but the only game where this personality trait was truly prevalent was Sonic Adventure and Sonic Unleashed whilst he was in Werehog form and very occasionally in SatBK. As usually calm as Sonic is, it'd be interesting to see him get a little frustrated now and then as you'd expect given the 'short temper' trait consistently outlined in descriptions of his personality and it'd show that even his benign-ness has it's limits in certain situations.

He is prideful and can be a touch arrogant but still knows where to draw the line regarding this because he still has a well-developed sense of modesty. And he does not hesitate to dole out credit where credit is due. He can act 'cheesy' and such but handles it in good nature if others pull him up over it and doesn't really show shame over it either if others find him 'weird'.

In conclusion, Sonic should be Ultimate Paragon Hero® with a touch of Endearing Quirkiness®, but only where it doesn't cause serious conflict.

I really don't see how that makes for a very interesting character. It makes for an interesting character in the sense that he most certainly becomes Spider-man in your scenario, but outside that I'm not seeing any real meaty bits of characterization in there that Webhead hasn't already covered fifty times by now. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying he needs to be a jerk or loaded up with negative traits to be interesting, but expanding on the current ones and having other characters react to them would be a lovely step in the right direction. For example, how do all his friends feel about him never bothering to call them until the next catastrophe rolls around? Why does he care so much for new friends only to discard them? How would he react if someone knocked him down a peg? How could his pride get him into trouble? etc.

The flaws that the games acknowledge Sonic possessing are almost always played for laughs, and it'd be a nice change of pace to play them for drama. Not, like, Shadow Angst levels of "drama," but y'know, have some real conflict introduced thanks to them. I guess my ideal Sonic would be one that possesses the likable traits of the blue blur without handwaving away their repercussions, y'know?

EDIT: Oh! And before I forget, it would be nice if Sonic acted a bit more like a teenager. He always seemed way too cool and collected to be one, to the point that I question if any of the writers have even heard of high-school.

Edited by Soma
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^^Since when does Sonic "discard" friends? Either they leave him of their own accord or certain circumstances aspire to separate them, but I've never seen Sonic turn his back on anyone he's befriended, unless you're counting Generations....which is...eh.

I do agree that some of Sonic's less than desirable traits should be shown to have serious consequences rather than downplaying them or using it as a source of comedy; I mean he's impulsive, arrogant, and impatient, surely they can give him some character development by actually deconstructing these traits and have Sonic to work around them. It would make him a better character overall, and wave the notion that he lacks growth.

Edited by The Batman
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