FULL interview with Ken Pontac

[Kuzu]

The argument in question was caused by Tails if I recall.

[Diogenes]

Unless some dialogue or something occurs in the game that I'm not aware of, watching the cutscenes in a vacuum puts Sonic into a no-win scenario specifically because everything seemed tenuously hunky-dory until he had to mediate Tails and Eggman beating up one another. Sonic doesn't know what to do and gets a lot of shit for it.

Is that necessarily a bad thing? Tails wasn't happy with the suggestion at the start, and I figured he just sort of stewed in it until it boiled over, and seeing Sonic try to mediate rather than being on his side made it sting. And Sonic stumbling into a no-win situation...well, that's the kind of thing that happens, since people aren't always totally open about their feelings.

(eugh, double checking the cutscenes I keep seeing the scene where Sonic's mouth is on the wrong side and it's...eughhhh...)

[Nepenthe]

The argument in question was caused by Tails if I recall.

 

Yeah. Basically the way it comes off as is:

Sonic: I don't want to work with you. I have an idea on how to handle this.

Eggman: I know your idea and its batshit insane.

 

Tails: I agree.

Eggman: Just get me to the machine so I can shut it off.

Sonic: Assisting you is mortifying but fine, we'll help.

 

*Later* Tails: Eggman, your machines suck.

Eggman: I'm going to fuck you up, you mutant shit-stain.

Sonic: We can't fuck each other up, remember guys?

 

Tails: Why do you trust Eggman?!

Sonic: 8| I cannot even.

 

So yeah, I assume something was a bit lost in translation, because there is little build-up to the actual cut-off point between the acceptability in helping Eggman and where Sonic's trust presumably goes over the line.

 

Is that necessarily a bad thing? Tails wasn't happy with the suggestion at the start, and I figured he just sort of stewed in it until it boiled over, and seeing Sonic try to mediate rather than being on his side made it sting. And Sonic stumbling into a no-win situation...well, that's the kind of thing that happens, since people aren't always totally open about their feelings.

(eugh, double checking the cutscenes I keep seeing the scene where Sonic's mouth is on the wrong side and it's...eughhhh...)

 

The thing is, Sonic blatantly admits he didn't want to be working with Eggman either, saying he'd need a shower after they were done. Neither he nor Tails wanted to be in the situation, but they accepted it as the lesser evil. And frankly, working together requires that everyone retain some mutual, baseline respect for one another, and beating on each other doesn't meet that criteria. Sonic was mediating the situation for the sake of the plan everyone had already agreed to. And as a result, Tails gives him the business for "trusting Eggman," which was rationally unfair to Sonic. Fair enough that Tails' emotions were running high over the deal and they boiled over, but in the end, Sonic still came off as wrong anyway. He apologizes to Tails for entering the deal despite the circumstances under which they both did!

 

Compound onto that the thought of losing Tails on his watch, and having lost Amy and Knuckles for a moment in the apocalyptic scenario, well, I feel more sorry for Sonic than I do Tails. He was kinda treated like shit from every angle and every character except Orbot, and we're supposed to just kinda go along with it and accept that he deserved it mainly for making a snap decision in the beginning of the game. 8|;;

[Kuzu]

Yeah. Basically the way it comes off as is:

Sonic: I don't want to work with you. I have an idea on how to handle this.

Eggman: I know your idea and its batshit insane.

 

Tails: I agree.

Eggman: Just get me to the machine so I can shut it off.

Sonic: Assisting you is mortifying but fine, we'll help.

 

*Later* Tails: Eggman, your machines suck.

Eggman: I'm going to fuck you up, you mutant shit-stain.

Sonic: We can't fuck each other up, remember guys?

 

Tails: Why do you trust Eggman?!

Sonic: 8| I cannot even.

 

This is kinda what I was getting at, but apparently it just went over people's heads. :\

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

So we have Sonic not in the right all the time...and they still fudge it up?

 

I mean, it's minor (or maybe not considering the pages of debate), but still?

[Diogenes]

Well, the way I see it Sonic is still the leader, at least in Tails' eyes, so he was willing to try to go along with it. It's not like there was any point where Tails formally agreed, and he certainly didn't like the idea when Eggman brought it up.

And I don't think Sonic's unsympathetic in that scene, either. Part of the reason why it's so interesting is because both of them have fair points, and both of them are making mistakes. There's no malice between them, but tension builds up anyway.

[Nepenthe]

This is kinda what I was getting at, but apparently it just went over people's heads. :\

 

Well, the thing is, I disagree with you in the context of looking at this from Tails' POV, because I felt his emotional responses to everything were pretty darn good, and I'll continue to defend his character portrayal in this game moreso than I will the situation set-up. But in terms of how Sonic is treated, the story seems to be coming off more as a vehicle to just tear him down and make him blatantly wrong so he's more imperfect and in a position of having to deal with internal struggles. It's noble, but I mean, we kinda got the idea when he kicked the Conch away that he is prone to mistakes anyway. Really, in thinking about it, Tails himself is barely the problem, but rather a mere part of it. The problem is that Sonic wasn't given a fucking break, even when he deserved one as in the cutscene where everything regarding the team-up goes to shit. Everything Sonic did was wrong either through his own rationale or just his inability to save the day, and he was only in the right when Tails was there in the decision-making process.

[Kuzu]

Well, the thing is, I disagree with you in the context of looking at this from Tails' POV, because I felt his emotional responses to everything were pretty darn good, and I'll continue to defend his character portrayal in this game moreso than I will the situation set-up. But in terms of how Sonic is treated, the story seems to be coming off more as a vehicle to just tear him down and make him blatantly wrong so he's more imperfect and in a position of having to deal with internal struggles. It's noble, but I mean, we kinda got the idea when he kicked the Conch away that he is prone to mistakes anyway. Really, in thinking about it, Tails himself is barely the problem, but rather a mere part of it. The problem is that Sonic wasn't given a fucking break, even when he deserved one as in the cutscene where everything regarding the team-up goes to shit. Everything Sonic did was wrong either through his own rationale or just his inability to save the day, and he was only in the right when Tails was there in the decision-making process.

 

Admittedly I was kinda looking at things from Sonic's perspective, which is where my original argument came from. From Tails's POV, sure his attitude is very justified, but from Sonic's, he didn't do a damn thing to entice Tails's wrath considering, like you said, he also consented to the team up as well. Basically Tails come off as a jackass because his anger is directed towards Sonic, who doesn't really deserve it because he didn't do anything wrong.

[Nepenthe]

Well, the way I see it Sonic is still the leader, at least in Tails' eyes, so he was willing to try to go along with it. It's not like there was any point where Tails formally agreed, and he certainly didn't like the idea when Eggman brought it up.

And I don't think Sonic's unsympathetic in that scene, either. Part of the reason why it's so interesting is because both of them have fair points, and both of them are making mistakes. There's no malice between them, but tension builds up anyway.

 

That's the thing. No one liked the idea of teaming up, aside from Eggman who used it as a predictable front to set up for the final bout, and even then on some internal level he probably had some issues with it as well. The sniping from Sonic and Tails probably didn't help. But Sonic and Tails shared that commonality at the very least until Tails felt that Sonic's continuous going-along with it was crossing a personal line.

 

And I never said Sonic was unsympathetic. Rather, he's the most sympathetic character in the whole game from my current viewpoint. Even if I were to assume that the argument was perfectly rational, or at least an understandable result of emotions boiling, it still doesn't change the fact that the moral ambiguity is completely lost in the end. Sonic is considered wrong by the fact that he had to apologize, and Tails accepts it without really making mention of what Sonic must've been going through or how he acted towards him. He's chastised for acting on his impulses, he's confronted as being the bad guy when he tries to do the opposite and show caution in a situation no one called out until then, he loses all of his friends, and basically Tails solves it all with a toothpick and some keyboard action. Sonic got completely shafted by nearly everyone for using all of his options and came out of it not really growing as a character. I frankly feel sorry for him.

[Vertekins]

I'd be really put-out if the utilization of Sonic in the future amounts to him being perpetually labeled and used as a character who's only interesting when he's failed at something. Especially when previous games have proven that Sonic has been an interesting and sympathetic character without making him culpable for something as a result of impatience/Impulsiveness.

 

Or if he's essentially condemned to "Do a Knuckles" and keep acting like an impulsive dumbass with no real indication that he's learned from impulsive actions that have cost him and others before akin to how Knuckles was condemned to being duped on a daily basis in multiple Sonic continuities.

 

There's far more to Sonic's negatives and character than his impulsiveness.

[Aquaslash]

While I've not beat the game yet, I really like Tails's portrayal in this game moreso than in previous titles.  I did think that Tails getting mad at Sonic was completely stupid, baseless, and rather childish.  Which is exactly why it worked.  Tails has been acting rather mature for his age for a good long while, so it was very neat to see him regress into to basically acting his age.  I think the relationship between Sonic and Tails is the best it's ever been.  They're brothers in arms now, and I'd hate to see any of that for some silly regression into Adventure era elements.