Popular and unpopular Sonic opinions you agree and disagree with!

[DabigRG]

6 hours ago, RedFox99 said:

I don't like the Fleetway comics' artstyle. It just looks too weird for me.

Yeah, admittedly it looks pretty weird at times. 

[Skull Leader]

I prefer Boom Knuckles over the main series version of the character.

Looking back, ever since the first Sonic Adventure, Knuckles was becoming a less fun character personality wise. Heck, he barely even chuckled like in the old days and instead was represented more as this guy who was always angry and hardly smiled to look more "badass". 

Then there is the mess he was left in by Sonic Team having no idea of what to do with him to keep the character around despite the stories hardly providing anything that would need his presence. Likewise, his role was not well defined as he was still sold to the audience as a rival... despite not having anything to compete about with Sonic, and the same thing can be said about him being a "close" friend since hardly we ever saw him show that he cared for Sonic or was willing to do things, let alone sacrifices, like Tails and Amy did.

In contrast, the Boom version of Knuckles has something the original doesn't: he's actually consistent.

First thing, unlike the serious Knuckles of the main universe, this one is a goofball, and while I can understand why some people may think that he further contributes to "staining" the image of Knuckles in general, I beg to differ, as it's not as if him being selly could be worse than being shoehorned for mundane reasons as delivering letters in 06. Personally, while some of the gags can feel lazy (like in RoL where he can't tell left from right) there are also moments where I wonder if he actually does this to troll the others (like in Chez Amy, where after being told that he is wearing the hat backwards and spins so it points in the same direction as the others, the only character that corrects him is Tails either because he is being nice or because he's the only character that actually believes Knuckles to be slow).

Some of the pluses is that Boom Knuckles actually has a legit bro thing with Sonic, and seeing them together kind of reminds me of Reese and Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle. That's right, unlike the ambiguous relationship between Sonic and Knuckles in the main games, here the're just as much friends with each other as Sonic is with Tails and Amy.

Then there's also the wackiness that Boom Knuckles brings, either by recollecting past events from his very peculiar point of view, in which he is the lead alpha character (superpowers included) and Sonic is the nerdy, cowardly guy that wants to be like him when he grows up, to there being an actual paralell dimension where this is actually a thing.

Yeah, Boom Knuckles may not have his role as the guardian of some candy colored McGuffing thingie, nor is there any lore or backstory about him... but, wanna know something: who cares? If anything I'm glad that this version of the character is not tied down to such things that would only impose an unecessary limitation on the character or lead to his appearances be questioned.

If anything, this version of Knuckles can actually stand out from the rest of the characters on it's own merits, unlike the main version which is just one more serious looking, never smiling guy among other similar characters like Shadow.

[Cuz]

Maybe around the time Sonic X came out or Riders, but I thought his personality from SA1-Heroes was leaning towards a chiller laid back character. The never chuckles thing honestly never held up as more then a meme. He practically chuckles the line "Ah, we got this" to Tails in Heroes, and ruminating about his lot in life as in SA1 isn't something I think a character prone to anger is apt to do.

As for my unpopular opinion I don't think guardian of the floating island is as limiting a setup as people make it out to be. That place is so much larger then the 3D games can fool you into thinking. You should be able to get more then one or two stories out of that setting.

[Skull Leader]

But then you'd pretty much have to chain down Eggman into absolutely needing to rely on the Master Emerald to push forward his plans just so that Knuckles can have reason to keep showing up... I don't think that would be fair to the doc.

If there is one thing I really dislike, is keeping characters around at the expense of downplaying others and personally, I prefer for Eggman to try new things, especially when he is much more important to the franchise than Knuckles or Shadow.

 

On another opinion, I remember back in the days of SLW how the developers announced with pride the "parkour" mechanics. Personally, I always thought that the older Genesis games had more or less the "feel" of that sport since knowing how to use the environment rewarded the more skilled speedrunners with a sense of accomplishment.

It's kind of like Iizuka talking about ceiling-run for Sonic 4 when the classics had some of it too, and much better executed.

[DabigRG]

Quite frankly, I kinda wish SEGA put more effort into properly resolving character/story arcs and progressing them to a point where they'd be comfortable enough to have them do other things without people having to obsess over feeling they are being shirked or limiting.

Thus far, there's really only one character to properly do that.

[Skull Leader]

31 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Quite frankly, I kinda wish SEGA put more effort into properly resolving character/story arcs and progressing them to a point where they'd be comfortable enough to have them do other things without people having to obsess over feeling they are being shirked or limiting.

Thus far, there's really only one character to properly do that.

Ironically, it's the characters whose story arcs are not solved who can continue to appear without the reason of their presence being brought into questioning.

Eggman's story will not end until he has gained absolute control to the world or is stopped for good, both of which are extremely unlikely scenarios... Plus he kind of IS the guy who kicks off any and all of Sonic's adventures by stirring trouble.

Tails' too won't be concluded anytime soon because while Sonic was what inspired the young fox into trying to be like the big blue hero, he still is a kid who has insecurities, but can still man up when needed, like SA1 showed on the last part of his story. 

Same goes for Amy, whose story can only conclude by winning Sonic's heart, and for who the opposite outcome is not even a choice. : P

These three characters IMO are designed on purpose to remain on this sort of  "in progress" state that allows them to continue to stay relevant (especially in Sonic's life), more when their very particular purposes (trying to conquer the world, assist Sonic or be the one who helps others/redeems bad guys) can be used continuously and on top are linked directly to the protagonist character.

On the other hand, characters like Knuckles, Shadow or Silver are built more around a very particular story arc, and maybe squeeze one or two more stories if there are any loose ends left, but once they've been concluded, there is no much reason to give them any bigger roles, or even show up. Sadly they're not very versatile characters that can branch into other stuff without loosing the identity of whom they are. Perhaps they could appear again, but I doubt that it would be on the same scale like during their original debuts.

[SBR2]

I honestly think the only pre-Colors games with decent stories are Shadow's story in 06 and Black Knight. 

[DabigRG]

18 minutes ago, Skull Leader said:

Ironically, it's the characters whose story arcs are not solved who can continue to appear without the reason of their presence being brought into questioning.

Eggman's story will not end until he has gained absolute control to the world or is stopped for good, both of which are extremely unlikely scenarios... Plus he kind of IS the guy who kicks off any and all of Sonic's adventures by stirring trouble.

Tails' too won't be concluded anytime soon because while Sonic was what inspired the young fox into trying to be like the big blue hero, he still is a kid who has insecurities, but can still man up when needed, like SA1 showed on the last part of his story. 

Same goes for Amy, whose story can only conclude by winning Sonic's heart, and for who the opposite outcome is not even a choice. : P

These three characters IMO are designed on purpose to remain on this sort of  "in progress" state that allows them to continue to stay relevant (especially in Sonic's life), more when their very particular purposes (trying to conquer the world, assist Sonic or be the one who helps others/redeems bad guys) can be used continuously and on top are linked directly to the protagonist character.

Tbf, those few in particular don't really count since they are main characters who have been around since the days when all you really needed was "Villain" and "Kid Sidekick" to start with and justify their consistent presence.

Plus, what "arc" does Tails even have? 

20 minutes ago, Skull Leader said:

 

On the other hand, characters like Knuckles, Shadow or Silver are built more around a very particular story arc, and maybe squeeze one or two more stories if there are any loose ends left, but once they've been concluded, there is no much reason to give them any bigger roles, or even show up. Sadly they're not very versatile characters that can branch into other stuff without loosing the identity of whom they are. Perhaps they could appear again, but I doubt that it would be on the same scale like during their original debuts.

Shadow is actually the one character I was alluding to.

Really, his problem is that his 'reputation and tonal context means it's kinda hard to just have him show up without something epic and intense going on to mandate him being around to automatically invoke the Godzilla Threshold and/or reveal what's really going on. 

Silver also qualifies to a lesser extent, though he's a weird mix of mostly only showing up when something particularly big is happening anyway.

Knuckles, on the other hand, is actually in a position where stands. Like the afformentioned three, he was introduced during the latter parts of a period where having this constant intensity and direness to his character wasn't necessary. His closest thing to a proper arc off the top of my head was in Adventure 1, where he partially learns more about his heritage and ultimately accepts to his duty just being something he has to look over after expressing a minor crisis about it. Which is fine for at the time, but the fact is Knuckles is in a unique position where the original concept and context of his creation leaves him more open to flexible uses than most characters that came after him. Thus, my point is it would have been relatively easy to have him openly pursue his hobby and connections with Sonic as a compromising growth of his previously loner character, especially since  not only can he sense when something is wrong but Eggman has seemingly long since lost interest in the Master Emerald. 

After all, there's little to nothing stopping major characters from having another arc or at least some recess time after their done with the initial ones.

[Skull Leader]

I think with Shadow the issue is more about what unique reason does he have to stay around? Sure, the guy cut ties with his past and moved on, and while it can be argued that he can now carry with his promise to Maria of protecting the world, there is the situation of Sonic already doing that job (not to mention how in stories like 06 or Forces, Shadow steals the spotlight bybbeing treated as the more important character while Sonic is just there), as well as the other issue you brought about the tonal thing, which makes Shadow feel a bit off compared to the rest of the characters as he is pretty obvious to be the result of that phase Sonic Team went through during the 2000's.

With Knuckles, while Eggman has definitively lost interest on the ME, there would be a chance to do things if it weren't for the franchise being about Sonic, and since the possibility of a spinoff is a boat that sailed a long time ago... Yeah.

I think that for characters like Knuckles, Shadow and others, the best solution would be to have them make playable appearances that have non impact on the story. After all, why should story have to get in the way of what is actually fun? At least this way they're not limited to just party-games, racing titles or games for mobile devices.

[Cuz]

The doc doesn't need to attack the island directly to affect the island. When he split the planet apart for Unleashed one of the questions on my mind was how that affects it, not just because what the island is parallel to isn't so solid anymore, but also the invading Gaia monsters. Basically anytime there's an invading army laying waste to the planet, I'm abnormally interested in Knuckles efforts to kick them off his sky rock, which we never see. Same with Black Doom, but no there he's off assisting GUN with ancient ruins for some reason.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Skull Leader said:

I think with Shadow the issue is more about what unique reason does he have to stay around? Sure, the guy cut ties with his past and moved on, and while it can be argued that he can now carry with his promise to Maria of protecting the world, there is the situation of Sonic already doing that job (not to mention how in stories like 06 or Forces, Shadow steals the spotlight bybbeing treated as the more important character while Sonic is just there), as well as the other issue you brought about the tonal thing, which makes Shadow feel a bit off compared to the rest of the characters as he is pretty obvious to be the result of that phase Sonic Team went through during the 2000's.

 

That's...essentially what I was trying to say. :neutral: 

1 hour ago, Skull Leader said:

With Knuckles, while Eggman has definitively lost interest on the ME, there would be a chance to do things if it weren't for the franchise being about Sonic, and since the possibility of a spinoff is a boat that sailed a long time ago... Yeah.

I think that for characters like Knuckles, Shadow and others, the best solution would be to have them make playable appearances that have non impact on the story. After all, why should story have to get in the way of what is actually fun? At least this way they're not limited to just party-games, racing titles or games for mobile devices.

 

On that, I can definitely agree. 

[Sonic Fan J]

To be fair with Knuckles in Unleashed, while he could have easily joined the adventure with his knowledge about the Chaos Emeralds helping drive things forward at a brisker pace, he could have just as easily been dedicated to controlling the Dark Gaia horde on Angel Island, even going so far as to drop whatever he was doing when the planet split to get back and make sure the ME was safe. Though @Skull Leader is right that story reasons shouldn't prevent a character from being playable if they are fun. Just imagine if you could have unlocked Knuckles for the Werehog levels but instead of stretching he glided and so on. The potential for a bit of non-story related fun was there with only needing to address some graphical instances with replacing stretching with some equivalent ability of Knuckles'.

[DabigRG]

7 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

To be fair with Knuckles in Unleashed, while he could have easily joined the adventure with his knowledge about the Chaos Emeralds helping drive things forward at a brisker pace, he could have just as easily been dedicated to controlling the Dark Gaia horde on Angel Island, even going so far as to drop whatever he was doing when the planet split to get back and make sure the ME was safe. Though @Skull Leader is right that story reasons shouldn't prevent a character from being playable if they are fun. Just imagine if you could have unlocked Knuckles for the Werehog levels but instead of stretching he glided and so on. The potential for a bit of non-story related fun was there with only needing to address some graphical instances with replacing stretching with some equivalent ability of Knuckles'.

Come to think of it, he probably could've potentially just cut the Chaos Emeralds back on using the Master Emerald. And even if he could'n't, that still would've added to the story/lore regarding how powerful/complicating the Gaias' energy are. 

[Sgt Nate V]

do you know what silver should've done when he found out elise was the real iblis trigger?

Spoiler

kill elise

 

[Diogenes]

But Elise dying is how Iblis was released in the first place.

[Skull Leader]

7 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

But Elise dying is how Iblis was released in the first place.

Wasn't that thing supposed to be released by making her cry?

Now that I think of it, this just makes Mephiles plan sound even more ridiculous when you think how it basically consisted in making a girl cry. 

[Diogenes]

2 minutes ago, Skull Leader said:

Wasn't that thing supposed to be released by making her cry?

That's one way. But when Team Sonic ends up in the future they find out Elise died when Eggman's ship went down, so it must have been released then.

[Sgt Nate V]

49 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

But when Team Sonic ends up in the future they find out Elise died when Eggman's ship went down, so it must have been released then. 

nah she probably cried then died

[Diogenes]

Surely she'd cry when Silver force-choked her to death or whatever too.

[Cuz]

4 hours ago, Sonic Fan J said:

Just imagine if you could have unlocked Knuckles for the Werehog levels but instead of stretching he glided and so on. The potential for a bit of non-story related fun was there with only needing to address some graphical instances with replacing stretching with some equivalent ability of Knuckles'.

Yeah, that would of been great, Unleashed didn't resonate with me as strongly as some precisely because of how under-utilized the extended cast was. A stop over on Angel Island, or bumping into Shadow or Rouge in Empire city would of gone over well with me. It's like... I don't expect the characters to bend towards the story, to go chasing after it, but for the story to bend to them.

[Skull Leader]

2 hours ago, Sonic Fan J said:

To be fair with Knuckles in Unleashed, while he could have easily joined the adventure with his knowledge about the Chaos Emeralds helping drive things forward at a brisker pace, he could have just as easily been dedicated to controlling the Dark Gaia horde on Angel Island, even going so far as to drop whatever he was doing when the planet split to get back and make sure the ME was safe. Though @Skull Leader is right that story reasons shouldn't prevent a character from being playable if they are fun. Just imagine if you could have unlocked Knuckles for the Werehog levels but instead of stretching he glided and so on. The potential for a bit of non-story related fun was there with only needing to address some graphical instances with replacing stretching with some equivalent ability of Knuckles'.

That's one way, though personally, I would use instead the characters that were already involved, like Tails on the day time stages while Amy displays her unmatched hammering skills on the werehog stages. But that's just me. XP

Anyway, another opinion: I think Big the cat had the superior music team out of all characters in Sonic Adventure. It's just such a fun and catchy tune.

[Iko]

5 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

Anyway, another opinion: I think Big the cat had the superior music team out of all characters in Sonic Adventure. It's just such a fun and catchy tune.

I agree.

 

Opinion: I think that Infinite should stay as a recurring character, and Shadow should leave GUN and act on his own.

I think that Shadow would benefit from the presence of Infinite as part of the recurring cast, because I think he should become Shadow's rival, he should be to Shadow what Eggman is to Sonic.

Why I think this is a good idea?

-The two characters are equally edgy, you can make spin-offs, sub stories, scenes etc. about those 2 characters and have a consistent tone and mood.

-Infinite has a reason to be angry with Shadow and to hate him, despite what he did in Sonic Forces (AKA ignore him).

-The Phantom Ruby is a pretest to create surreal environments, make crazy stuff happen, and connect different worlds and times without need to justify it in the plot (basically Sonic Mania), and this allows for potential creativity.

-Shadow would be able to act as a bad guy again, because he finally has an enemy to disrespect and insult: this way he would return to his personality from Adventure 2, something that he can't do with Sonic anymore because he became a friend now.

-Being a GUN agent never worked for him, in general there is no place for GUN in the Sonic universe, it's just unfitting and I hope it will be mentioned rarely or never in the future.

-Being busy with Infinite gives him a reason to not show up every time the world is in danger. Shadow is just as strong as Sonic and he wants to protect the world, ok, so why in a lot of games the world is in danger and Shadow doesn't show up? It's OK he does not show up, but Infinite would give him a lore reason to not show up (even when not explicitly mentioned).

Also, I like the idea of Infinite wanting to take his revenge on Eggman for using him as a battery for his mech and trying to kill him, occasionally helping Sonic and friends indirectly, due to the fact of having a common objective; at the same time, Eggman would act passive-aggressive toward him and call him a failed experiment not even worth caring about (making him rage even more, offcourse).

[Sgt Nate V]

8 hours ago, Diogenes said:

Surely she'd cry when Silver force-choked her to death or whatever too.

I was thinking more of a force-neck-snap but ok that's a nice loophole

[Red Hot Jack]

This is gonna sound unpopular, but you know, it's a post made by me, so of course it is XD

I'm kinda annoyed by the fact that Blaze seems to be more popular than Amy, in my humble opinion it's the fact that Blaze is a kickass, but I believe Amy is even more of a kickass than Blaze. Blaze is supposed to be badass because of her superpowers, and she is put in a role and a situation where she's the hero like Sonic and guardian like Knuckles, plus she has an interesting shy personality so she's really top and OP, a bit like Shadow, a complicated hero with superpowers, and I don't mean to say she is like Shadow, but there is a similarity. 

Amy, on the other hand, is put into the role and situation of the damsel in distress and a NPC, so she's already in disadvantage, but despite that, she STILL manages to be a kickass, she's a force of nature, she's got a bit of a temper, she's veeeery emotional, she is perhaps vulnerable due to her emotions taking the upper hand, but that's what I love about her, plus she's a fangirl and damn, she's so strong, both physically and morally strong, she's definitely some sort of Princess Leia character, so she's more of a princess than Blaze to me, Blaze may be noble of soul, which is cool, but Amy is such a fun character, that's why I love her. And I'm glad in Forces she was a big part of the resistance, even though the game kind of snobbed her, she doesn't have many moments compared to let's say, Knuckles. I really loved her in issue 2 of IDW, she has been more independent lately, but since Sonic Adventure.

And yes, I'm writing this fan fiction that is about Amy, so I feel like I really know her, it's also about the other girls like Blaze, Cream and Sticks, but Amy is the heart and soul of it, and I'm really proud of how it's turning out, I've done 5 chapters, and for a change, it's the girls who have to save Sonic, which is a fun idea that I had, and these girls really know how to work together and be friends, besides being strong women on their own.

So yeah, you have got to know Amy to really have an opinion on her, it really depends on how she's written, what is her role depending on the game. Games often focus on the Sonic & Tails dynamic, but in my story it's all about Sonic and Amy and not just as a power couple.

[WakanoBaka]

6 minutes ago, Jack the Maniac said:

This is gonna sound unpopular, but you know, it's a post made by me, so of course it is XD

I'm kinda annoyed by the fact that Blaze seems to be more popular than Amy, in my humble opinion it's the fact that Blaze is a kickass, but I believe Amy is even more of a kickass than Blaze. Blaze is supposed to be badass because of her superpowers, and she is put in a role and a situation where she's the hero like Sonic and guardian like Knuckles, plus she has an interesting shy personality so she's really top and OP, a bit like Shadow, a complicated hero with superpowers, and I don't mean to say she is like Shadow, but there is a similarity.

 

I'd have to kindly disagree with you on that, purely because(from a writers stand point) I find Blaze's crush on Sonic a lot more hilarious and fitting than the clingy fan girl that wanted Sonic's approval...and then when she got it, decided to go into full 'I wanna ACTUALLY marry him now' mode.

 

That and I have fascination with pyrokinesis abilities in general so I'm a bit bias...