I have a plan to "fix" Game-Canon Amy Rose

[MetalSkulkBane]

5 minutes ago, Sparky said:

 Not even Eggman is an exception, cause he's just as fast and strong as everyone else.

??? From where? His run speed in Sonic 2? Olympic games? Glitch that allows you playing him without mech in SA2?

To me she's "normal" cause of her background. She's not a thief, detective, super hero, guardian, or a princess. She (and whole team Rose) are civilians that sometimes fight evil cause this is the right thing to do, not because it's their "job".

[Wraith]

14 minutes ago, Sparky said:

I don't get why everyone believes that Amy is "normal". She's been faster than sound ever since Sonic Advance 2, she's capable of spinning and homing attacks as of SA2 and Sonic Heroes, and so on. Magic and hammer stuff aside, from a physical standpoint she's just as super as the others. The idea of her being normal and stuff only comes from SA1(Adventure AND Advance) portraying her as very slow and incapable of spinning, relying on the hammer to do pretty much anything, and not doing much of anything in her initial debut (CD) in-game other than hug Sonic. That changed once SA2 (Adventure AND Advance) and Heroes came around. She is not the closest thing to a normal girl in the series. None of these characters that have been playable and stuff are "normal". Not Cream, not Rouge, not Big, No one. They are ALL super. Rouge's hips can cause earthquakes, and she can shoot some wave of black darkness or something. Cream can fly with her ears and she's nearly as fast as Sonic. Big can spin and homing attack and keep up with Amy and Cream (who are both supersonic) and stuff, even though he's meant to be the slowest or something. Flashy superpowers didn't start with Silver and Blaze, it's been apart of each character from the very beginning, and there isn't an exception. Not even Eggman is an exception, cause he's just as fast and strong as everyone else. 
 

Sonic is a primarily gameplay focused franchise and not at all a story based one. Characters gain and lose abilities as needed. I guess some moves and powers are ambiguous, but moves strictly from multiplayer modes like Rouge's Black wave can be considered non canon because if it wasn't, why hasn't she used it in a cutscene or something when she's in a scrape? It's simply there for gameplay balance. That's all.

 A lot of Sonic characters have some sort of superpower, sure, but a fairly big chunk of them really don't. Tails just has a quirky mutation from birth that he takes advantage of. Rouge is just a sharp and talented thief. Amy, for the most part, is portrayed as a normal girl who knows how to handle herself. Even in SA2, an example you bring up, she doesn't display any supernatural abilities. She just sneaks around.  Across the main games she's pretty consistently just a female hedgehog with a hammer. Sometimes she can run fast and curl up but is still noticeably slower than Sonic is. Nothing wrong with that.

[Muscles Maximum]

I think some people take the word 'normal' too seriously. No one has argued that Amy isn't able bodied. 

People are arguing she isn't some magical girl with crazy mystical powers.

[E-122-Psi]

On 11 August 2016 at 0:15 AM, ChikoLad said:

Boom Amy is OK but I think she's too much of the stereotypical "arrogant smart girl that's better than all of the boys" type of character. Like the really try hard kind of "strong female character".

You know I don't really mind that personality, largely because unlike most 'strong female characters' they actually play the arrogance straight and have her 'I know better' attitude play at her expense. The problem however is that while I see such a personality working perfectly for another character like Sally Acorn (ironically), it's not really how I see Amy. I know Amy has a bit of an ego throughout most interpretations, but she doesn't seem this sort of stuck up curmudgeon whose always sneering and rolling her eyes at her friends' mindless fun. The best ones are usually pretty lively and childlike, if having a bit of a bratty temper (emphasis on bratty, not psychotic).

Her personality in the first few episodes was better balanced, since she had a bit of this lucidity and over eagerness to direct others while remaining bubbly and 'in on the fun'. Basically Boom Amy's smarts mixed with Game Amy's temperament.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

In a series with a hedgehog who runs at ludicrous speeds and can cause chaos control, a fox who uses his tails to fly and has an IQ close to 300, an echidna who has large hands that he climbs, punches at brute force with and can glide, a hedgehog who can cause chaos control with one emerald and considered the ultimate life form (say no more), a pyrokenitic cat, a telekinetic hedgehog and much more, I consider Amy to be the normal girl of the series.

[JezMM]

Amy is normal to me in the sense that she lives a life of peace inbetween games.  She just likes to hang out with friends and do her own thing.  Sonic is constantly adventuring, Tails is constantly building things, Knuckles is constantly dry-humping guarding the master emerald whether Eggman is making a nuisance of himself or not.  She is not built for adventure like the other three but she tries anyway.

Now granted, she's far from the only character in the series who fits the idea of "normal but answers the call to adventure anyway", but she is the only main, primary character who is like this and she contrasts with the other three nicely as a result.

[Hedgehugs]

Removing Amy's crush on Sonic will change her into a completely different character right now. A change that will probably get most Amy fans mad (Sonic fans hate change, lmao). I think they should keep the crush, but lower it down some. Kinda like what Archie is currently doing to her. Maybe get her into some of the action so she doesn't have to focus only on Sonic. 

Seeing Amy interact with other characters pleases me, but she's so attached to Sonic that she doesn't have much of a relationship with anyone else besides him anymore.

[Green Eyes]

I kind of like the idea of Amy being the "weapons girl" using her hammer as both a melee and ranged weapon, and also using it to vault her self or launch another character(like she does in the Sonic Advance games).

The phycic abilities thing, I mean it HAS been bought up in the Sonic Channel comic, so it's not like it's no longer canon, she also seems to have some uncanny intuition that could be chalked up to powers so there's that.

 

[Ajavalo]

I like how Amy was portrayed in Sonic Unleashed, the Sonic Boom spinoff and Sonic Lost World (increasing order). The latter two are proof that Amy can work as the fourth member of Team Sonic, aiding S, T and K in their adventures. I want this done in Project 2017, but maybe I'm asking too much.
On the other hand, the psychopatic portrayal of her in Sonic Heroes made her a horrible character, and they brought back that trait in Generations for some reason...

[SonicFreak94]

The problem with characters like Amy and Cream is that they simply are not cut out to be protagonists in an action game by design. 

Story-wise there is very little Amy or Cream can do in an action game besides having to be rescued. Gameplay-wise they have nether powerful nor interesting abilities that could work in such a fast paced game. On the other hand Rouge has far more potential in a story while Blaze has far more potential to have good gameplay.

Regardless, Amy's personality rarely goes deeper than the  "IM THE GURL CHARACTER XD" stereotype. That makes the franchise look even more immature than it already does. Yet SEGA continues to ignore Rouge and Blaze while Amy is now regarded as the fourth member of team Sonic thanks to Boom.

In short I think all of this attention Amy is getting has made a negative impact on her character.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

5 minutes ago, reflection_of said:

Story-wise there is very little Amy or Cream can do in an action game besides having to be rescued.

...Mind if I ask why?

Seriously, why can Amy (or Cream, but this thread's not about her) do nothing but be rescued? Sure, she's played the role of damsel in distress in the past sometimes, but not always. She's clearly capable of fighting Eggman's robots and taking part in adventures. If you think she's not motivated to do so, well, she is, especially if it means helping her friends or someone in need, as she has shown in the past.

I seriously don't get where this opinion comes from.

[StaticMania]

Just now, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

I seriously don't get where this opinion comes from.

It's probably because her personality isn't anything more than..."Girl" and if she wasn't ever playable, the attitude would kind of be understandable.

[SonicFreak94]

19 minutes ago, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

...Mind if I ask why?

Seriously, why can Amy (or Cream, but this thread's not about her) do nothing but be rescued? Sure, she's played the role of damsel in distress in the past sometimes, but not always. She's clearly capable of fighting Eggman's robots and taking part in adventures. If you think she's not motivated to do so, well, she is, especially if it means helping her friends or someone in need, as she has shown in the past.

I seriously don't get where this opinion comes from.

Amy has been able to defeat some of the weaker robots but in terms of advancing the main plot Amy has done relatively little action wise. She can do fine as a side character but her personalty and underwhelming physical ability make her a poor candidate for a role as the central heroine that people have been making her out to be lately.

She just doesn't have enough "action hero" in her. 

[D.H]

I really don't get this idea that Amy doesn't fit as a main character in the series.

She's defeated numerous Eggman's robots (including Zero), has gotten herself out of trouble without Sonic's help (SA1, Runners), and has even helped Sonic out in the past (SA2, & if you wanna count it, 06).

She is more than capable of being a lead heroine in the series. 

And it's not like Amy hadn't done anything to advance the main plot. In SA2, it was her scene with Shadow that lead to him remembering Maria's promise, & helping Sonic against Biolizard.

[MainJP]

16 hours ago, Celestia said:

...That said, I always thought it was more fun to assume Amy really can pull hammers out of thin air...somehow. I know it's a classic cartoon physics gag, but in a franchise full of weird superpowers, it's--okay, it'd be the weirdest one, probably. XP

As it turns out, that's actually a real super power: http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Object_Creation

Wouldn't really be a far fetched ability in a series full of super powered characters I guess.

[KoDaiko]

I never thought about Amy getting her piko hammer out of nowhere as magic since everyone else seem to keep their stuff in their butt somewhere and pop them out when they need it.

[JezMM]

Shit Amy has done, in the console games at least:

SA1 - Amy's story, speaks for itself

SA2 - Weirdly pathetic after what she did in SA1 but still has a crucial role in the Last Story and manages to get around Prison Island pretty well by herself until Eggman shows up.

Heroes - Rallies and leads Cream and Big in saving their friends, goes through pretty much all the same shit the other teams do in their stories.

Shadow - I'm not really sure what the heck she was doing in Eggman's castle with Cream but the game is notable for being the first time she's able to keep it in her pants when she's around Sonic.

2006 - Again, is able to be mature and quickly and calmly protect Sonic from Silver even though it's the first time she's met him in ages.  Later sneaks into Eggman's base and helps break Elise out.  In the finale she recovers a Chaos Emerald just like everyone else.  Naturally this was all retconned, but the cancelled timeline still shows that these are actions Amy is capable of.

Riders - In the first and third games she competes in the tournaments equally with everyone else (even if she did sadly get her psychotic stalker crush behaviour from Heroes back for Free Riders).  In the second game she is actually trying to investigate the gravity ring thing she found by herself before coincidentally running into Sonic.  Goes on to successfully distract and ward off Storm without instruction or guidance from the others.

Unleashed through to Lost World - Sadly not much at all despite being present, bah.  Was Zero Gravity really the last game where she had a significant role?  Lame.

Naturally in the handheld games, Amy fought alongside everyone in the three Advance titles, if we assume the canon story is that all five characters were working together.

 

Amy's done plenty and whenever someone says "she's just there to be kidnapped" or "she's just a girly girl and nothing else" I make a serious judgement on that someone based on how quickly they write off Amy as being that, as if that fucking matters anyway in how capable she is.

Like, "girly" girls can't be heroes now?  Pray tell, why?

[Scape]

2 hours ago, reflection_of said:

The problem with characters like Amy and Cream is that they simply are not cut out to be protagonists in an action game by design. 

Story-wise there is very little Amy or Cream can do in an action game besides having to be rescued. Gameplay-wise they have nether powerful nor interesting abilities that could work in such a fast paced game. On the other hand Rouge has far more potential in a story while Blaze has far more potential to have good gameplay.

Regardless, Amy's personality rarely goes deeper than the  "IM THE GURL CHARACTER XD" stereotype. That makes the franchise look even more immature than it already does. Yet SEGA continues to ignore Rouge and Blaze while Amy is now regarded as the fourth member of team Sonic thanks to Boom.

In short I think all of this attention Amy is getting has made a negative impact on her character.

I write 5000 words suggesting how Amy could become a more impactful protagonist and what you add to the conversation is "give her less attention"

[StaticMania]

Just now, JezMM said:

Amy's done plenty and whenever someone says "she's just there to be kidnapped" or "she's just a girly girl and nothing else" I make a serious judgement on that someone based on how quickly they write off Amy as being that, as if that fucking matters anyway in how capable she is.

Like, "girly" girls can't be heroes now?  Pray tell, why?

People tend to forget that she's only been kidnapped twice...in the games.

[Scape]

I don't see what's wrong with the idea of her being the one to look after the Flickies/Wisps/etc. And I really like the idea of her using her car to run errands, but then using the skates out of concern for the environment.

[Wraith]

5 hours ago, reflection_of said:

The problem with characters like Amy and Cream is that they simply are not cut out to be protagonists in an action game by design. 

Story-wise there is very little Amy or Cream can do in an action game besides having to be rescued. Gameplay-wise they have nether powerful nor interesting abilities that could work in such a fast paced game. On the other hand Rouge has far more potential in a story while Blaze has far more potential to have good gameplay.

Regardless, Amy's personality rarely goes deeper than the  "IM THE GURL CHARACTER XD" stereotype. That makes the franchise look even more immature than it already does. Yet SEGA continues to ignore Rouge and Blaze while Amy is now regarded as the fourth member of team Sonic thanks to Boom.

In short I think all of this attention Amy is getting has made a negative impact on her character.

Blaze has been a literal clone of Sonic by design in pretty much all of her appearences. How does that make her more interesting than Amy, who often has a completely different moveset than any other character in the series? Sure, she doesn't have the stereotypical supernatural powers that Shadow Silver and Blaze do, but her quirky moveset just makes her more unique. Don't we want more of that?

And I mean, sure, Amy's personality isn't that indepth most of the time, but that goes for pretty much the entire cast? She doesn't have less depth than the average Sonic character. I'd argue you're doing her arc in SA1 a disservice by thinking this. 

[Nepenthe]

This super power thing's a bullshit excuse. Every game has been in service of gameplay meant to entertain versus gameplay meant to actually be reasonably representative of Sonic's or anyone else's maximum physical capability (including boost gameplay, given that every ability he has aside from boosting is mediocre), meaning game designs that are pared down and made universal to support a cast of varying ability. So long as any given character can run and jump, they can be made playable in a Sonic game. 

Same goes with the story bit. Amy has only been a unique damsel case like three or four times out of twenty-ish appearances, over ten of which you actually play as her.

[StaticMania]

Just now, Wraith said:

Blaze has been a literal clone of Sonic by design in pretty much all of her appearences.

Except for Sonic Nex Gen and Black Knight. 4 playable appearances...thas a 50/50 split of clone-ness and uniqueness. Fair enough.

[Lord-Dreamerz]

13 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Two extra thing I would change about her if I had a time machine: her design and name. Now it's too late, we grew accustom to them. But in world where everyone had meaningful names, "Amy" sounds bland. Her design could use more touches, but most importantly she needs dress that hides her panties.

It's kinda hard to imagine what else they could had named her tho? Hammer? which only even works if you ignore she didn't start off with her hammer. Pinky?... That'd be awful. I'm cool with Amy. And lets try not to make this weird, but I don't really agree with her "needing" a longer dress or whatever to hide her vague cartoon butt, It's not a problem with characters like Minnie mouse, so I don't see it as a problem with Amy. Plus I can't help to think folk truly worried about it just comes from cultural differences, because from a Japanese media standpoint it's a non-issue. And for something trying to appeal to western tastes more we have Boom Amy. Regardless it's a non-issue.

[SonicFreak94]

5 hours ago, Scape said:

I write 5000 words suggesting how Amy could become a more impactful protagonist and what you add to the conversation is "give her less attention"

How Amy "could" be an impactful protagonist not how Amy IS an impactful protagonist. The premise of your topic is "fixing" Amy because she is broken. 

That being said your suggestions failed to convince me that Amy is worth "fixing" while there are other female protagonists who already work perfectly.  

Amy taking care of flickies just doesn't seem that exciting to me.