What do you think of the idea of romance in the Sonic series?

[ShadowSJG]

So we have seen forms of romance in the series(i.e, the archie comics). I was wondering, how does everyone view this?

[Diogenes]

The series has enough trouble just trying to tell simple action stories, and it's already turned a lot of people off of most of the cast. Romance is really not the kind of thing it should be worrying about at this point.

[ShadowSJG]

I agree, bu how do you regard the romance done in the comics?

[Shaddy Zaphod]

The comics have too little time to tell their stories as-is. The amount of romantic melodrama that crowded things back in the early 2000's and kept real plotlines from progressing was abhorrent.

[TomatoGhost]

As the games are now, noooo. The writers are barely concerned with proper character development so any kind of romance would just feel forced and unnecessary.  I'd like to see the series get back to having character development like we saw with Shadow, Silver and Gamma but the series is going in a much more Saturday Morning Cartoon direction. Continuity doesn't really apply. 

(Here's hoping Sonic 2017 defies that)

[SonicComicFanboy]

Nope, Nope & Nope!  We have had decades of crazy Somamy & Sonally fans fighting with each other!  We don't need any of the main cast romantically involved!  Supporting characters like Antoine & Bunnie being married is fine, as would say Cream's mom Vanilla getting remarried, or them introducing her Husband if he turns out to still be alive somehow.  But I say leave Sonic, Knuckles & Tails away from any cannon long term romances be it in games, toons, comics, whatev.

[Salamander]

A bit of teasing or flirting is probably about as far as the games should go.  Enough to provide that little bit of depth without actually having to spend much time on it, which I suspect a lot of Sonic fans would have little patience for.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Remember Knuckles and Rouge in Sonic X? That's the amount I would like. Even SonAmy was done fairy well. It was in 'no confirmation zone', but shippers had few episode to enjoy. This would be perfect way to insert romance for main cast. (read: teams from Sonic Heroes, Blaze, Silver, Sticks, Eggman, Metal, Babylonians). It's cute, keeps shippers happy, but most importantly doesn't steal too much time.

More supporting cast, like SonicComicFanboy said, can do whatever they want. As long as action and adventure are the main focus, we're good.

(Also, it should be well written, obviously).

[ShadowSJG]

1 hour ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Remember Knuckles and Rouge in Sonic X? That's the amount I would like. Even SonAmy was done fairy well. It was in 'no confirmation zone', but shippers had few episode to enjoy. This would be perfect way to insert romance for main cast. (read: teams from Sonic Heroes, Blaze, Silver, Sticks, Eggman, Metal, Babylonians). It's cute, keeps shippers happy, but most importantly doesn't steal too much time.

More supporting cast, like SonicComicFanboy said, can do whatever they want. As long as action and adventure are the main focus, we're good.

(Also, it should be well written, obviously).

So you're saying Shiptease, rather than outright shipping?

[MetalSkulkBane]

Pretty much. I think it's the closest to satisfy everyone.

[SonicComicFanboy]

 I would agree that teasing is pretty much as far as they need to go for core characters like Sonic, Tails & Knuckles.

 

  I'm not against romance mind you, just don't think Sonic is the best character to do heavy romance with,  As much as I love the comics I always found his relationship with Sally later on when it go so drama filled to be kind of annoying, and Amy being defined by her one-sided crush on Sonic in the early comics, the Sonic-X anime & the Adventure games was always kind of annoying as well.  I kind of like what the comics do now where Sonic will occasionally tease Amy or Sally at times instead, fits his character better IMO.

 

  Although If they ever did make any of the game characters in a cannon relationship, I could totally see Shadow & Rouge in a Bulma/Vegeta kind of realationship XD.

[TB100]

i'll accept some ship teasing every now & then. (Perferably none with Sonic IMO.)
But I would prefer it if the franchise stays away from that path, especially given the franchise's writing.

[Your Vest Friend]

In the current era, there's not even so much as ship-teasing, except with Amy still having her crush on Sonic. Anything else regarding romance has been pretty much cut out. 

And it's probably to do with that demographic double-down. People who appreciate ship tease are usually not in the male 7-12 demographic, so it's not necessary to appeal to them. 

Even in the comic right now you have...what...one married couple, one one-sided crush that could potentially become romance and one one-sided crush that could never be reciprocated. Compared to how it was even under Flynn's pre-reboot run, that is scarce. 

[Big Panda]

I'm fine with ship-teasing.

Neither confirms nor denies anything.

[ShadowSJG]

I agree with ship tease as well

[Sega DogTagz]

10 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

In the current era, there's not even so much as ship-teasing, except with Amy still having her crush on Sonic. Anything else regarding romance has been pretty much cut out. 

Way to crash the Sonic X Zeena boat. She even expected flowers

 

I don't see the games veering off into the romance category anytime soon, however with the heavy focus on teamwork, friendship and trust that the series has always gone on about, you can almost guarantee that we will continue to find ship-tease worthy moments out of all the games that bother to feature an extended cast beyond cameo status.

Sonic can't even say goodbye to Blaze anymore without half the internet jumping to conclusions. Just how it is.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I mean the idea could work well if one could develop it organically and make it so that it isn't a central focus.

But I'm not seeing that come to fruition anytime soon. Maybe flirting and teasing, but that's about it.

Even then, not so sure about the whole thing given the fun-if-a-little-toxic shipping wars, so it's probably best avoided anyway.

[Drawloverlala]

i think is not necesary to get to put something technically romantic between two characters or even confirm if they have something more, if they develop a nice bond between those two characters the public might ship them anyways  
 

[SpongicX]

I personally hate the idea of shipping in the Sonic series, I only support the idea of couples when there seem to be hints that apply to them. I hated how Sonic was treated in the old cartoons and Archie comics, where he would get all lovey dovey, have hearts in his eyes, and start drooling over Sally, or some hussy... The only Sonic couples I support are Sonic and Amy, Silver and Blaze, and the more recent Tails and Zooey. I only support these 3 pairings, because there's actual depth to them. Too many fans across different websites just pair Shadow with Amy, or Tails with Cream, without giving any good reasoning for how or why these couples should exist. The worst part is how many of these fan artists who draw Shadow with Amy, or Tails with Cream seem to actually believe these characters are canonically in love, which just comes off as embarrassing.

However, random pairings of Sonic characters are no where near as annoying, or disturbing as people shipping Sonic characters with their stolen made up recolored original fan characters. I can not stand those type of images...

I support Sonic and Amy, they may not be official, but there is a lot of chemistry between these two. Sega has teased and showcased enough instances across the games, comics, and even tv shows, that show Sonic really is hiding his real feelings from Amy. Sega could easily come forth and tell everyone that Sonic and Amy will never be a thing, but they don't do that. They are in a tough spot though. They fear if they come out and admit it's real, then many SonAmy haters will start hating the series, but if they come out and say Sonic doesn't love Amy and never will, then the mast majority of SonAmy fans will hate the franchise as well. Sega is currently better off with constantly teasing Sonic's interest in Amy, instead of flat out confirming or denying it, in order to go in between the SonAmy supporters and the SonAmy haters.

Sonic is not sure how to handle these feelings for her, and would rather focus on protecting the world, or enjoying his freedom, instead of settling down with Amy. I love that struggle Sonic has with Amy, he has too many conflicts, and immature behaviors for him to want to start dating Amy. His feelings for Amy are similar to how a young boy acts around his first crush. He knows he has feelings for her, but his feelings can get disrupted by the things he doesn't expect to come from romance. Sonic is always fine around Amy, until she starts putting pressure on Sonic, about stuff like having a future together, or embarrassing him in front of his friends. No point in describing how passionate Amy is about her love of Sonic, that's already obvious. It can also be argued that Sonic intentionally pushes Amy away, in order to protect her. He's aware of how open she is about loving Sonic, which can make her an easy target for bad guys to use, in order to use her as bait to set up a trap for Sonic. Amy on the other hand doesn't care, because she has faith that Sonic can handle anything. Amy has matured a lot over the years to be less helpless as well, which also seems to allow Sonic to feel more comfortable around her. He seems to be more aware that she can take care of herself a lot better than she used to. Keep in mind that Amy used to be the damsel in distress in the Sonic series for quite some time, yet Sonic Riders from 2006 was the last time in the main series, where Amy was held hostage. You could argue that she was a hostage in Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, but that was a TV Show Spin off game, a different version of Amy, and was only put in as an excuse to have Sticks be playable instead or programming in Amy as a fifth playable character. (Which they luckily fixed in the spiritual sequel Fire and Ice.)

I support Silver and Blaze, just for their role in Sonic 06, alone. Say what you want about how bad that game was, but the story and interactions between Silver and Blaze was brilliant. The viewers have no idea how these two met, or how long they've been fighting Ibliss, but many could already sense a strong bond between them. They had a spark that implied they both look at each other as more than just friends, without confessing though. The part where Silver and Blaze got separated in the end was pretty heart breaking for me, the music helped set a dramatic tone, that made it sound like a tragic romantic ending. We've seen many scenes in Sonic games, where friends of Sonic had to separate from tragic occurrences, yet none of them came close to the emotion between Silver having to lose his best friend, Blaze. Not even the scene in Sonic Adventure 2, where Eggman traps Sonic in a capsule, and drops him into deep space was as heartbreaking as seeing Silver helplessly watch Blaze sacrifice herself to save him, and the world.

Finally, Tails and Zooey. Too bad Zooey will likely be stuck in Sonic Boom, because she is a cute love interest for Tails. The episode Tails's Crush had such a cute premise, and surprisingly ended with Tails getting the girl in the end. Why is Tails the only character who actually lands a girlfriend in this series? LOL, it's already happened with Cosmo in Sonic X, and now with Zooey in Sonic Boom.

I would mention Knuckles and Rouge, but Sega keeps writing out Rouge to be too much of a tease, who only seduces men to get what she wants. She only flirted around with Knuckles in SA2 and the ending to Sonic Heroes, but after that, there really isn't much else between the two. They instantly went back to head butting rivals, and have no romantic spark between them anymore. So yeah, Rouge doesn't seem to be the type of character who is looking for love, she's too busy sharing more love for jewels, and how she can seduce men into taking jewels from them... 

 

[kadybat]

No Sonic ship will ever become canon. Ever. Not a single one. No matter how hard you beg and plead, it'll never happen. They'll make winks and nudges at Sonamy fans and that's all we'll get forever and that's probably for the best. 

THAT SAID, my favorite ships are aged-up Sontails, Sonadow, and Blaze/Amy. Those are the best possible Sonic ships, don't even @ me. Shipping is good and pure and Sonic boys are better off being gay because it's more cute that way and literally the only reason anyone ships anything is cuz it's cute. 

[Chris Knopps]

...Wasn't this part of the plot in both Adventure games?

Sonic and Amy in the first, Knuckles/Shadow/Rouge triangle in the second...

...Then there was Sonic and Elise...

Kind of been there, done that, worked out "meeeeeeh" to "WTF?!!" for everyone involved.

[Ayliffe]

The only acceptable ship that I'd want to even remotely become canon... is Sonic X Chili Dog :V

[FoxDude8]

Not really related, but I found some bias. Solise shippers come in, people accuse them of disgusting beastiality fetishes. Shadia shippers come in, people think it's adorable and amazing. Okay, they're both beastiality, but Shadia is also incest AND pedophilia!

[Dr. Detective]

Considering how my enjoyment for the Archie Comics shot up a good 70% (totally well calculated number) when the reboot did away with the romance angle, it'd be particularly dishonest of me to act as though the inclusion of romance wasn't a direct hindrance to my personal experience.

Whether it's good or badly done, the most I feel I could tolerate is something akin to cute glances and gestures of love rather than something that treated it as though it was narratively driven. 

Like, the occasional blush or the cute, small side story of having a little tea party amongst one another might be okay but if it's this back and forth nonsense pertaining to the soap opera instinct one has to artificially create and extend a "relationship" to absurd levels that see them fighting, breaking up, getting back together, dealing with new love rivals, and gross kissing scenes that are actually gross  then no. I can't stand pandering for the sake of fueling that easily exploitable market that eats whatever slop you throw at it by doing whatever they can to shove two main male and female characters in a story together despite whether or not they actually like each other that way or ignore whether or not they have any cocking chemistry with one another. It's not on for me.

But I'm not really worried about that. I'm still holding out for them to get back to writing adventure stories again. I know Sonic called their little stroll through the Museum of White Space in Generations an "Adventure" but the day I accept that as an "Adventure" is the day I actually decide that watching paint dry is an applicable extreme sport. 

[Omario]

I'm not a fan of it. When it comes to the main series of Sonic games, very rarely has there been any romance in the stories and when there was, it was pretty awful (I hope I don't need to mention the story I'm talking about here). Do I think there should be romance in Sonic stories? No thank you. This series has enough problems when it comes to story and writing on its own and the last thing we need is romance. And even without all of that I just don't like the idea of these cartoon characters, most being underage, getting all lovey with each other. It just never went down with me and I don't get why so many fans obsess over ships, especially considering none of the main characters have ever liked each other in THAT way, and besides Amy Rose none of them have ever shown to have a crush on the other in any way.

The franchise is better off without it.