Amy's Sidekicks, the Success of Tails, and the Ever Growing Team Rose

[Sonic Fan J]

This will be kind of a wide encompassing topic as the subject matter has a bit to do with an almost consistent failure to establish a sidekick character for Amy. So for this thread I would like to address the hows & whys using the series most successful side kick as an example. Additionally, I would like to contrast the singular sidekick in Tails vs. Amy's ever growing team (bear with me here since I know in no continuity has all of the following characters been on Team Rose) to see what exactly wen't right or wrong. Further, if you feel any of Amy's sidekicks has ever succeeded in the role and was just under used feel free to expand on those thoughts here.

 

So starting off, in my exposure to the series I am aware of Amy have 3 sidekicks over the years; Tekno the Canary, Cream the Rabbit, And Sticks the Jungle Badger.

Arguably, Cream is the only true sidekick here but her success at the role is rather questionable. Firstly, she has her own sidekick who actually plays off of her compared to her relationship to Amy where really she just seems to be the victim of undue abuse (I've seen the reason for this being argued as Cream stealing Amy's more endearing attributes but even if Amy was played up as straight genki girl I think Cream would still get exasperated with her). Secondly, Cream seems to have no interest in Amy in demonstrated ways that I can think of especially when you compare her interactions with Amy to with Blaze. In further contrast, that is what made Tails such a great sidekick to me in the early days was his hero worship of Sonic, and desire to be like him thus striving to keep up with and partake in Sonic's adventure. Cream shows no such interest in or relationship with Amy and even her kind heart and good nature which is what got her involved with Blaze isn't demonstrated in any way to why she would accompany Amy. Not surprisingly, there is almost no official interactions left between Amy and Cream as presented by SEGA.

Next up we'll look at Sticks who was made to be Amy's best friend in the Boom! franchise but the absence of use of both characters over it's short life leaves little work with here. If Amy were to have a more genki girl representation I could see Sticks as an unwilling sidekick (kind of similar to how Cream comes across to me) who eventually warms up to Amy and becomes protective of her just due to the pink rascals earnestness. However, Amy has nearly no genki girl traits in Boom! and like Cream, Sticks shows little interest in Amy or any desire to be even closer too her making their pairing come across as insincere. This could just be me missing things for not seeing all of Boom! (I know no excuse with it on Hulu these days since I have an account), but even Tails in Boom! is constantly trying to be a part of Sonic's lifestyle and tries in his own way to keep up with his hero. So to me it really is no surprise that SEGA will say that Amy is Sticks' best friend but won't say the same in reverse

Lastly we have Tekno. Now I have almost no experience with the Fleetway Comics so my knowledge is from word of mouth and wiki research (I know, not a reliable source) but from what i know I have grounds to work with. Firstly, what I like about Tekno is as a character she has the potential to be to Amy as Tails is to Sonic on the tech side of things (also like Marine to Blaze to an extent). Further, as  a character who started as a semi-villain of sorts Amy's ability to make friends with nearly everyone would play well with a converted villain. Add in Amy's genki girl traits and a level headed survivor like Tekno would be a great foil to Amy's excitability. Unfortunately I now have two problems. As someone unfamiliar with the Fleetway Comics I have no idea how invested in Amy and influenced by her Tekno is which makes it difficult for me to vouch for her any further. The second problem I have is from what I know of the Fleetway Amy she has none of her SEGA traits meaning that there exists no evidence of how Tekno would react to a more traditional representation of Amy. While there is plenty of room for conjuncture everything further falls apart as SEGA does not acknowledge or own Tekno making it outright impossible for Tekno to be a successful sidekick (bar SEGA buying the character rights)

 

Taking these examples, and currently ignoring that Amy is not the main character, the biggest failing that seems to be consistent in my observations is that none of them have a personal investment in Amy as a person (Tekno excluded from lack of knowledge on my part) unlike Tails with Sonic. This lack of personal investment to me is a major reason all of these characters fail to be for Amy as Tails is Sonic. But another reason could be just Amy's approach to people in general.

 

Team Rose, established in Sonic Heroes, is Amy's official team who goes adventuring with her... kind of. Unlike Team Sonic which is arguably the most popular team up in the franchise (sorry Triple S fans) Amy's team lacks a permanent roster and those member who have been part of her team have very strong views about them throughout the franchise. Looking past Cream who seems to be the only permanent member and has already been covered above, you officially have Big and Vector, and then by fan affiliation you might also include Blaze and Marine if you feel so inclined. The problem of course with these characters is that Big is primarily disliked beyond as meme material, Vector is a member of the Chaotix and was only included in Team Rose by force in Free Riders, Blaze is arguably the main character of the Sol Dimension, and Marine and Amy have only truly interacted in the Archie Comics. All of that said however, as Amy has a way of befriending people it is very easy to see everyone as rotating honorable members of Team Rose just to help Amy out if they're nearby in regards to being friends with her (what happened in Free Riders I wonder?). If Sticks were to make the full jump over to the main line even she could and the same goes for Tekno. Having a rotating cast is spectacularly eay for Amy who befriends people with ease adn unlike Sonic keeps in touch with more than just those fast enough to keep. However, we now come to the primary problem with Team Rose;

Amy is not the main character.

While arguably Amy's ability to make friends and keep in touch with them holding an ensemble cast together is a great asset for a main character (honestly taking in how Amy is in IDW issue 2 I could see her being the main character in a tactical rpg) , this is Sonic's franchise and an ensemble cast for Amy would fall to the wayside in no time. An investment in Sonic and Eggman could easily remedy that but that would still effectively cancel out any focus on an investment in Amy making most attempts to make them a sidekick for Amy fail from the get go. That does not necessarily mean though that Amy could not still have a sidekick of her own, they just need to be handled properly. While Tails is a fine example of a sidekick handled well I'll actually use Rouge for my example. While technically the leader of Team Dark in the grand scheme of Sonic's story she is shown beside Shadow who is someone that Sonic interacts with on various levels. As a result, any time Shadow is in use it is no surprise to see Rouge show up since she is for the most part his boss. Where she fails though is that while she has a great excuse to appear, she see's next to no use regardless because she has no investment with Sonic instead interacting usually with Knuckles and completely regulating her to the background when Shadow is not the focus. This means to overcome this problem with a potential sidekick for Amy a character who is invested in Amy but interacts with Sonic is needed. To me the best type of character to fill this role is someone who acts as a foil to Amy's infatuation and more energetic traits but enjoys Amy's bubbliness and wants to spend as much time with her as they can while simultaneously disapproving of Sonic for the danger he causes Amy to put herself in as she chases after him (the jealousy angle could also be played here but I don't need it). To me this type of character could work best as they would be invested in Amy,  have reason to interact with Sonic, and would only need to be designed in a way that they can keep up with and partake in all of the crazy adventures (their reason to be there at all being covered just by their investment in Amy making it easy for them to pick fights with Eggman even).

 

So, while in my opinion a sidekick can work for Amy, none have worked yet because they have not been built with an investment in Amy and while considering that Sonic is the main character. At this point I'll ask who disagrees, agrees, or would take a different approach. Further, would you choose to better use an existing character or create a new character to fill the role. Me personally, I could see re-purposing Tekno if SEGA acquired the rights to her based off of my knowledge, but I could also see a new character being made. If you asked me to design one off the top of my head I'd use a pangolin with a protective big sister personality who adores Amy's cuteness and just want's to protect her (I can so easily see them already curling into a ball around a confused Amy protectively).

[ClassicKnuckles]

What about Big the Cat, he's a pretty good fit for the role, and I think they work well together.

[Sonic Fan J]

1 minute ago, ClassicKnuckles said:

What about Big the Cat, he's a pretty good fit for the role, and I think they work well together.

The thing about Big (who is fairly divisive in some circles), is that he isn't really an adventurer and would rather stay at home leisurely enjoying his quiet life with Froggy from what I could tell. While I have no doubt that he would help Amy out if she asked I just don't seem him enjoying a continuous high speed global adventure in pursuit of Sonic no matter the danger. On the other hand, make Amy the main character in a tactical RPG and I would want that behemoth in my party stat XD

[Salamander]

I feel like part of the difficulty in conceiving of a sidekick for Amy is that there remains some question over who exactly Amy is.  Just what is her character?  Civilian?  Obsessed romantic?  Professional strategist?  Maybe what she needs is a friend who's more grounded; who remains stable and comparatively normal even as Amy throws herself into whatever role she's most needed for today.  I'm not sure Cream is mature enough for that, unless you were to age her up very slightly and describe the two as just old friends.  Sonic has adventures with his sidekick; Amy's sidekick is someone who just wants to drink tea at the local café.  There's a certain balance to that.

[batson]

Honestly, to introduce a completely new character as Amy's sidekick at this point in the franchise would feel very forced and difficult to digest as Amy has now been around for 25 years. It's simply to late for that, in my honest opinion. Heck, personally I'm still having some trouble accepting Cubot and Orbot as Eggman's supposed sidekicks.

I think we're pretty much stuck with Cream being the only truly reccurring sidekick for Amy, despite how little chemistry the two actually share. Frankly the ONLY reason they ever got paired up together in the first place is because they are both girls. That's litteraly all there is to it. The only other girl in the franchise (of any notability at least) at the time their allience was forged was Rouge, and of course she wasn't a good fit for being Amy's tag-along for many reasons.

[Fire-N-Space]

Amy needs a sidekick that acts more like her someone who likes being romantic, shopping, cute and can keep up with Sonic like Amy herself. Also writers need to stop trying to "fix" her personality by saying she is obsessed every time she thinks about Sonic then sticks her to desk job to say she has matured.

[Sega DogTagz]

Cream lacks the authority or the willpower to be an effective foil to someone with as overpowering a personality as Amy. Whereas Tails, established through years of a brotherly bond with his mentor, neatly skips over that shortcoming despite his age - Cream isn't as developed or as lucky in that department. A good recurring duo needs to offer something unique to both parties involved. Tails can stand up to Sonic. He can make fun of him, he can call him out and he can praise him, all without stepping outside his defined character traits. Cream can't do that to Amy. She can try to stand up to her, voice her opinions about Amy's more frantic behaviors, but even in the comics where there relationship is "better", Amy is still so much more of a dominant personality that any criticism is most likely to be brushed aside while the pink pioneer stays the course. Sonic Battle, where all characters involved where pretty much the most extreme version of themselves, showed that best. Amy was delusional, and working herself half to death via extreme fitness - And Cream, the closest thing she had to a best friend, couldn't even get close to getting through to her.

Much like how Sonic's personality couldn't re-buff Marine (he just didn't have it in him), Cream just lacks the sheer force of will to be the foil Amy really needs. And in the rare cases that she does step up, Amy is so much more ingrained in her own mania that she tends to ignore her anyway.

 

That leaves a really short list of characters that could make a good recurring duo with Amy. Knuckles comes to mind, as his stubbornness to his own agenda in combination with his love/hate relationship with Sonic would work well to foil Amy, however it would immediately beg the question of who would be the sidekick in that situation. Knux takes priority there.

Blaze, who has one of the most stern no-nonsense personalities in the franchise has had some potential there too. She's shown multiple times that she wont put up with Amy's obsession and has directly challenged her to that end. But like Knuckles, her combination of strong will, speed, power and canon plot importance means she's more likely to take the primary position in a match up with Amy. Our current incarnation of Blaze is a sidekick to no-one.

 

Amy needs a character that she can outshine, while also keeping enough of that character relevant enough to be able to meaningfully stand up to Amy...

 

uhh...

 

Developing Cream might be the best option here.

 

 

[E-122-Psi]

The thing is that Team Rose were mostly prevalent in games that ironically didn't do a great deal of developed interactions. Even Sonic and Tails weren't that developed in chemistry early on, despite Tails' bond with Sonic being a large part of his individual development. Characters bounced off a few quirks and running gags but otherwise development and substance was solitary if at all.

Cream also had the problem of being only in interpretations with little to no heavy interactions or where Amy was horribly flanderised. The fact Cream herself hasn't got a ton of substance as a character doesn't help. She's sweet and nice to the point of being a little meek, there's potential there but she hasn't branched out much.

Sticks was an interesting counterpart to Amy in Boom but a large part in that was also Amy's changed personality, she was far more high strung and feminine with Sticks playing the more genki girl role. It could still work with game Amy's more mutual footing (one of the reasons Tails works better in some interpretations is that he still has a hyperactive streak to match Sonic's so they have SOMETHING in common) and I suppose if Stick's is acting like the wild nut job it downplays them turning Amy into a psychopath as well.

[Your Vest Friend]

Honestly, I'd read the narrative in a completely different way, and a way I've been meaning to talk about in more depth; team Rose used to be a thing (like, a much bigger thing), but since, say, 2010, it's basically lost any sort of prevalence it ever had. Colours and Free Riders kind of tried keeping them together, but since then Amy has basically been absorbed as a fourth ancillary member of team Sonic (when it's not limited to the triple threat in the likes of Mania and Runners, Runners Adventure not even bothering to keep any of team Rose around). That leaves Big a free agent so to speak (which, given by his plot contributions in the past 8 years, seems to be how ST see him), Blaze to be grouped with Silver, but then leaves Cream without a real niche.

And that's the part that I really wanted to focus on, because she more than any other recurring character (aside from maybe Omega, who came back in a big way in Forces. I wouldn't even call Big part of the recurring cast at this point) has had a harder and harder time keeping relevant. I can see they're making some efforts to sort of group Cream with Blaze (and Silver by proxy I guess), but without the opportunities of character demonstration that the 00s offered it's still pretty weak. 

Sticks I wouldn't even count. She may have been called Amy's best friend in Boom, but she was just another member of team Sonic there, not Amy's sidekick. 

[DabigRG]

Oh, isn't this a cute site! I considering poppin with a similar thread a while back but never decided to actually go through with it.  Good on ya, mate!

While she has never really been a favorite of mine as far as I recall, I will say that Amy is one of those characters that I've grown to appreciate on some level in relatively recent years. It's peculiar to think that after being a damsel to Metal Sonic in her debut Amy was seemingly being habitually built up in subsequent appearances as becoming stronger, faster, more skilled, and generally as something of a heroine in her own right.

• She was a participatory joke character in the /sidespinoff adventures
• Made the leap to Lethal Joke Character by Fighters
• Sonic Adventure had her take up the seemingly innocuous task of protecting Lily from ZERO the Chasemaster, which coincided with keeping the Blue Emerald away from Eggman for a while, convincing Gamma that he doesn't have to listen to Eggman and protected him when Sonic and Tails are about to destroy him(which caused the E-series robot to defect from Eggman), and then managed to destroy ZERO after reuniting Lily with her family. The ending of her story even has her vow to be more independent and less reliant on Sonic because she wanted him to respect her.
• While Adventure 2 had her be a joke character again, she still personally infiltrated Prison Island, freed Sonic from his cell, and later pleaded with Shadow to help save the world from Gerald's revenge program, inadvertently jogging his memory in the process.
• Then the Advance games had her official transition into the classic Sonic gameplay style(for the most part) to help the others stop Eggman's plan and later undo the Genesis Wave.
• Sonic Heroes had her essentially formed her own Team for a bit by reuniting with Big and even ending up gaining something of a passive sidekick of her own in the form of Cream the Rabbit, both of whom were looking for their missing pets who just happened to be swiped by someone who appeared to be Sonic.

This notably stopped during 2004, where she either incorporated her intimidating temper from Sonic X and/or fell back into a role resembling her original one.Either way,  I kinda wish SEGA would become more explorative again and give Amy(and some of the other characters) a significant role again, namely one that capitalizes on what her character is capable of and has grown to be able to offer.

 

Meanwhile, to get back on topic, I hadn't gotten very far in StC, but the Sonic Boom subseries gave her Sticks the Jungle Badger as both another personal friend, foil, and testament to her ability to influence people. I'm hoping that the Mario&Sonic Olympic Game crossovers and the IDW comic are an indication that she may properly immigrate to the Main series as well and thus encourage SEGA to give Team Rose more limelight again, among other things.

[Fire-N-Space]

Just now, DabigRG said:

Oh, isn't this a cute site! I considering poppin with a similar thread a while back but never decided to actually go through with it.  Good on ya, mate!

While she has never really been a favorite of mine as far as I recall, I will say that Amy is one of those characters that I've grown to appreciate on some level in relatively recent years. It's peculiar to think that after being a damsel to Metal Sonic in her debut Amy was seemingly being habitually built up in subsequent appearances as becoming stronger, faster, more skilled, and generally as something of a heroine in her own right.

• She was a participatory joke character in the /sidespinoff adventures
• Made the leap to Lethal Joke Character by Fighters
• Sonic Adventure had her take up the seemingly innocuous task of protecting Lily from ZERO the Chasemaster, which coincided with keeping the Blue Emerald away from Eggman for a while, convincing Gamma that he doesn't have to listen to Eggman and protected him when Sonic and Tails are about to destroy him(which caused the E-series robot to defect from Eggman), and then managed to destroy ZERO after reuniting Lily with her family. The ending of her story even has her vow to be more independent and less reliant on Sonic because she wanted him to respect her.
• While Adventure 2 had her be a joke character again, she still personally infiltrated Prison Island, freed Sonic from his cell, and later pleaded with Shadow to help save the world from Gerald's revenge program, inadvertently jogging his memory in the process.
• Then the Advance games had her official transition into the classic Sonic gameplay style(for the most part) to help the others stop Eggman's plan and later undo the Genesis Wave.
• Sonic Heroes had her essentially formed her own Team for a bit by reuniting with Big and even ending up gaining something of a passive sidekick of her own in the form of Cream the Rabbit, both of whom were looking for their missing pets who just happened to be swiped by someone who appeared to be Sonic.

This notably stopped during 2004, where she either incorporated her intimidating temper from Sonic X and/or fell back into a role resembling her original one.Either way,  I kinda wish SEGA would become more explorative again and give Amy(and some of the other characters) a significant role again, namely one that capitalizes on what her character is capable of and has grown to be able to offer.

 

Meanwhile, to get back on topic, I hadn't gotten very far in StC, but the Sonic Boom subseries gave her Sticks the Jungle Badger as both another personal friend, foil, and testament to her ability to influence people. I'm hoping that the Mario&Sonic Olympic Game crossovers and the IDW comic are an indication that she may properly immigrate to the Main series as well and thus encourage SEGA to give Team Rose more limelight again, among other things.

Amy wanted Sonic to respect her so he would end up falling for her and not to be less reliant on Sonic but to be closer to him. I don't see what makes her a lethal joke character.

[DabigRG]

8 minutes ago, Fire-N-Space said:

Amy wanted Sonic to respect her so he would end up falling for her and not to be less reliant on Sonic but to be closer to him. 

True.

8 minutes ago, Fire-N-Space said:

 I don't see what makes her a lethal joke character.

She utterly wallops people and demolishes robots with a squeaky magic toy hammer that gives off heart symbols, babe. Both while maintaining and sometimes even channeling her crazy love for Sonic.

 

[Sonic Fan J]

No long time StC fans here yet so I guess Tekno can enjoy a cup of coffee while waiting for anyone to speak on her account. So then, that leaves seemingly Cream and Sticks to look at, and likely the question of how to integrate them, or develop them to play off of Amy without just disappearing to the background due to having no involvement with Sonic and Eggman.

 

As stated by many though Amy has strong force of a personality when not written down to be as inoffensive as possible (really wish they wouldn't do that), that someone without as much force of personality will be drowned out. This is kind of interesting dilemma to face though since I've seen it argued that Sonic and Tails have no personality yet when Amy is paired with them she doesn't override Sonic at least. that may simply be a testament to good writing in those instances or the established history between Sonic and Amy creating a level playing field where the two of them bounce off of each other easily. There can be no question that such a scenario does not exist with Cream or Sticks that allows them to bounce off of Amy and Amy off of them. Really, if Amy is approached from the angle where she gets along well with most people and can nearly befriend anyone then the only angle that can be taken in her interactions to create a foil for her is her obsession with Sonic. From what I can tell she needs to be challenged both about having it and also the ends to which she will go for it. This challenging does not have to be negative as it could be positive if she is called out at not yet succeeding and being questioned (possibly even encouraged) about how much harder she's going to try or what she will try next. Even just using basic options to keep her involved with a Sonic plot, there's preempting to his next destination, taking on Eggman herself, gathering the Chaos Emeralds for Sonic in foresight of potential future trouble (adding back in her penchant for fortune telling and dousing), and so on. The problem though is I don't see either Cream or Sticks being capable of challenging Amy by virtue of their meekness and all around zaniness respectively.

 

Perhaps a different approach could be taken which also addresses the lack of use of the recurring cast. As I stated above numerous times,  Amy's ability to befriend people effectively allows Team Rose to grow and have a highly exchangeable roster. If this is combined with Amy's tendency of attempting to follow Sonic anywhere and everywhere he goes you end up with a formula that looks something like this;

 

Main Character - Sonic on some adventure or another (Eggman optional as the reason for the adventure)

Recurring Cast - Tails and Amy following Sonic as sidekick and fangirl(/ attempted sidekick #2)

Rotating Roster - brought in by Amy to help her track down/help out Sonic dependent on the circumstances and location of the current adventure

 

While not perfect by any stretch of the imagination it allows for further use of the extended cast through Amy's ability to be excused for appearing in any Sonic game and her ability to motivate people into going on adventures as well. If approached from this direction it also gives Amy a unique place in the group if one prefers the Core Four approach; Sonic is the lead , Tails the direct help, Knuckles the powerful artifact expert and treasure hunter, and Amy the recruiter for those situations where none of them can handle it with their specializations  as her ability to network means she knows more people than the others as well as their strengths and specialties. But this is just one possible approach and does not address the fact that SEGA has yet to succeed in giving Amy a sidekick that works like Tails does for Sonic. Perhaps though that is why SEGA has just decided to let Amy become more of a permanent fixture as an ancillary member of Team Sonic so they can just sweep that failure under the rug. It wouldn't be the first time SEGA has conveniently dropped something because they couldn't make it work.

[Emerald Chaos]

My question is, why does Amy "need" a sidekick character? What does it add? What incentives would a hypothetical sidekick character have for being Amy's sidekick, so on so forth.

As you said, Amy is not the main character. Her primary motivation in the games is attempting to get Sonic's attention, it isn't exactly the kind of thing which calls for a sidekick, nor is it the kind of thing that from an outside perspective is admirable in the sense of "I want to follow in this person's footsteps" ala Sonic and Tails.

[Sonic Fan J]

2 minutes ago, Emerald Chaos said:

My question is, why does Amy "need" a sidekick character? What does it add? What incentives would a hypothetical sidekick character have for being Amy's sidekick, so on so forth.

As you said, Amy is not the main character. Her primary motivation in the games is attempting to get Sonic's attention, it isn't exactly the kind of thing which calls for a sidekick, nor is it the kind of thing that from an outside perspective is admirable in the sense of "I want to follow in this person's footsteps" ala Sonic and Tails.

Honestly, I never thought she needed one but, between Fleetway and later on SEGA, for some reason attempts were made to pair her up with other characters. As the long term success of such an action could be considered to have failed and Amy still persists as the love struck girl who chases Sonic it goes to show it was never really a necessary concept. Necessary or not however, it was attempted and the question I should probably ask is, since SEGA once a long tome ago succeeded with Tails for Sonic, why couldn't they succeed with someone for Amy when they tried? The general consensus so far seems to be more a matter of simply not making a strong enough character personality-wise who is also relevant to the main narrative or Sonic. As for what such a character would add, that's entirely dependent on what type of character you plug in the role. My personal approach from a narrative stance would be to put someone there who questions Sonic's very way of life and the influence he has on those around him in contrast to Tails and Amy who are glad to become adventurers themselves and follow/chase after Sonic blindly. Truthfully though such a character would also have to act as a foil to Amy's obsession while having concern for her to justify adventuring with her in the place so they could butt heads with Sonic. The biggest problem to such an approach though is you risk creating too in depth of a character which clashes with the simple bases of adventuring hero with an attitude,  hero idolizing kid, and excitable determined fan girl that Sonic, Tails, and Amy are built from respectively. It's to me one of the reasons that Knuckles and Shadow (as well as Blaze and Silver to an extent) are difficult character to make use of is because they have too much depth compared to Sonic. If you look at some of the more easily used characters like Eggman and Metal Sonic you'll find they are also very simple in their base construction as childish evil scientist and robot version of hero. I could also throw in Fang,  treasure hunting scoundrel, Marine, adventure seeking girl, and Omega, vengeful abandoned robot, as characters who have very simple bases that should make them easy to use. At the end of the day though, what a character should bring is a new interaction with sonic without being more complex than him so as to be easily usable and not risk over shadowing him. If I was to take my approach and have to simplify it further I would probably go the route of overprotective cute thing loving big sister. The reason being is it creates a conflict with Sonic (the overprotective aspect), shows an investment in Amy (the admittedly shallow loves cute things aspect plus the overprotective aspect), and gives a reason to help Amy while she goes adventuring in search of Sonic (the loves cute things aspect creating internal character conflict as they find Amy unbearably cute while flirting with or trying to impress Sonic). It's a simple concept that can be both shallow and deep and even has the potential to resonate with certain fans who also enjoy the cuteness that Amy can exhibit.

 

All of the above said however, I still believe your question of if Amy even needs a sidekick can be answered with a simple no. The question of if it could have succeeded or be made to succeed is a lot more complex and opens plenty of avenue for discussion. As I demonstrated above it can be surprisingly easy to come up with archetypes that work with Amy, don't override Sonic while having reason to interact with him, and do not have so much depth as to start becoming out of place in a series that usually starts with simple character concepts and bases.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I must agree with E.C. above me. Quite a big topic, it just... why Amy needs a sidekick? Does Silver need one? Or Knuckles? Shadow?

Shadow has Rouge? Ok, does Rouge need a sidekick? Or Omega, (just to cover all bases)?

Besides, Tekno and Sticks weren't her sidekicks. They were her friends. Amy had no authority or anything over them.

[Sonic Fan J]

1 minute ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I must agree with E.C. above me. Quite a big topic, it just... why Amy needs a sidekick? Does Silver need one? Or Knuckles? Shadow?

Shadow has Rouge? Ok, does Rouge need a sidekick? Or Omega, (just to cover all bases)?

Besides, Tekno and Sticks weren't her sidekicks. They were her friends. Amy had no authority or anything over them.

I unfortunately can't answer the why does Amy need a sidekick question because you would have to ask SEGA who decided to try a run at it. What I'm asking is why didn't it work and could it be made to work since SEGA was successful with Tails? Or perhaps would it be better to continue along the path of Amy being the link to the larger rotating cast who Sonic rarely interacts with without someone else shoving them in his face. While I've made arguments for multiple cases here the bottom line is that SEGA made the attempt and thus my questions are made because of that attempt. I personally don't think that Amy needs a sidekick, but believe that it could have been successful even if I feel that SEGA's attempt failed.

 

On your other questions, Silver benefits from a moral compass to balance out his naivete, Knuckles really just needs to do his job (guarding the Master Emerald involves more than just sitting around on Angel Island since the Japanese Chaotix manual shows us that Knuckles will leave the island to investigate things that it reacts to which opens up all kinds of story avenues), Shadow as you say has Rouge, and technically one could say that Rouge has Shadow and Omega since they are part of team dark which she leads. As for Omega, definitely not, they'd just cramp his style.

 

Since you did ask though about other characters needing sidekicks or not, I will ask you to consider that I have seen parts of the fan community that want to Tails Doll to be Metal Sonic's sidekick and hoped Gold in the Archie Comics would be a sidekick for Silver (though a fair bit of what I saw they just wanted a sidekick for Silver to end his affiliation with Blaze - who was given Marine as a kind of sidekick which I mostly saw acceptance of due to parallels between Sonic and Blaze, and has Cream considered as a sidekick by others). So the question could potentially extend beyond just Amy as you asked, but the reason I asked about Amy is because  i noticed in most media she seems to have someone paired up with her and it is frequently construed as an attempt to give her her own sidekick. 

 

Lastly, thanks for the input on Tekno since internet research on her character and relationship with Amy can be rather difficult to extract anything of value from especially with countless people putting in their own two cents. As for Sticks... well, seeing how Boom! Amy frequently tried to exert authority over everyone from what I saw it could be argued they were all Amy's sidekicks if authority over a sidekick is a necessity for such a relationship. Further if it is, in my quick character example above Amy's would have indirect authority over such a character through her perceived cuteness overriding reasonable though so I guess I was covered there even without thinking about it XD.

[Shadowlax]

21 hours ago, FFWF said:

I feel like part of the difficulty in conceiving of a sidekick for Amy is that there remains some question over who exactly Amy is.  Just what is her character?  Civilian?  Obsessed romantic?  Professional strategist?  Maybe what she needs is a friend who's more grounded; who remains stable and comparatively normal even as Amy throws herself into whatever role she's most needed for today.  I'm not sure Cream is mature enough for that, unless you were to age her up very slightly and describe the two as just old friends.  Sonic has adventures with his sidekick; Amy's sidekick is someone who just wants to drink tea at the local café.  There's a certain balance to that.

....

I really fucking like this idea. This is a good idea. There is a lot of humor , and meta humor that could be mined out of this.

[Sonic Fan J]

2 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

21 hours ago, FFWF said:

I feel like part of the difficulty in conceiving of a sidekick for Amy is that there remains some question over who exactly Amy is.  Just what is her character?  Civilian?  Obsessed romantic?  Professional strategist?  Maybe what she needs is a friend who's more grounded; who remains stable and comparatively normal even as Amy throws herself into whatever role she's most needed for today.  I'm not sure Cream is mature enough for that, unless you were to age her up very slightly and describe the two as just old friends.  Sonic has adventures with his sidekick; Amy's sidekick is someone who just wants to drink tea at the local café.  There's a certain balance to that.

....

I really fucking like this idea. This is a good idea. There is a lot of humor , and meta humor that could be mined out of this.

I hadn't really thought about it when I first read but I like this idea as well. It goes with a lot of what I said  though with a sidekick character having to be invested in Amy to some degree. In this case they obviously enjoy Amy's company and would pretty much follow her on adventures just because of that even as they spend most of heir time just dealing with Amy's impulsiveness. It can even go with the concept of not being fond of Sonic since he is the root cause of most of Amy's spontaneous adventures which would create banter between the two characters.

[Shadowlax]

1 minute ago, Sonic Fan J said:

I unfortunately can't answer the why does Amy need a sidekick question because you would have to ask SEGA who decided to try a run at it. What I'm asking is why didn't it work and could it be made to work since SEGA was successful with Tails? Or perhaps would it be better to continue along the path of Amy being the link to the larger rotating cast who Sonic rarely interacts with without someone else shoving them in his face. While I've made arguments for multiple cases here the bottom line is that SEGA made the attempt and thus my questions are made because of that attempt. I personally don't think that Amy needs a sidekick, but believe that it could have been successful even if I feel that SEGA's attempt failed.

As much as I like amy, I kinda don't feel like amy is that character. Blaze, shadow, the chaotix, rouge  , silver all have a enough stuff going on to have whole worlds of characters that sonic might not ever see. Amy's just ...kind of a girl who likes sonic, who might occaionally go on an adventure. I just don't see her circle being that big

1 minute ago, Sonic Fan J said:

 

On your other questions, Silver benefits from a moral compass to balance out his naivete, Knuckles really just needs to do his job (guarding the Master Emerald involves more than just sitting around on Angel Island since the Japanese Chaotix manual shows us that Knuckles will leave the island to investigate things that it reacts to which opens up all kinds of story avenues), Shadow as you say has Rouge, and technically one could say that Rouge has Shadow and Omega since they are part of team dark which she leads. As for Omega, definitely not, they'd just cramp his style.

The issue with knuckles doing his job, is that in most circumstances doing his job effectively means he isn't around. Outside of situations like forces, his time would be best spent guarding the master emerald. And that's the issue sega runs into when using his character. I would argue he may need a new job. 

And I dunno about side kick, but more time traveling folk for silver to hang out with would be neat

Nah, Shadow has rouge. You can argue who leads that team as much as you want. You can't argue who's the point man doing everything and who all the stories are about and who's the important one. I mean I wish rouge was more important, but that requires team dark not to be athing. As long as team dark is a thing, the focus will be on shadow , and that sorta sucks

 

 

[StaticMania]

38 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

...had no authority or anything over them.

Just because someone's ya sidekick doesn't mean you have authority over them...

Character dynamics determine that...

[Shadowlax]

1 minute ago, Sonic Fan J said:

I hadn't really thought about it when I first read but I like this idea as well. It goes with a lot of what I said  though with a sidekick character having to be invested in Amy to some degree. In this case they obviously enjoy Amy's company and would pretty much follow her on adventures just because of that even as they spend most of heir time just dealing with Amy's impulsiveness.

 

1 minute ago, Sonic Fan J said:

It can even go with the concept of not being fond of Sonic since he is the root cause of most of Amy's spontaneous adventures which would create banter between the two characters.

This is what I kinda want. They could have a lot of meta level discussions about characters in the franchise because in that moment its just two friends talking about not " main character A talking to main character B " with the world on the line. 

Just 

Quote

 

C:" Sonic's a bum" 

A:" Sonic isn't a bum! He's a hero, MY hero. He's saved the world " 

C:" A lot of you all save the world, he's a bum who crashes on an 8 year old's couch " 

A:" He's having a rough time... Being a hero to the people doesn't pay the bills you know!" 

C:" Doesn't shadow work for an organization that literally pays for everything he does and he makes enough money to have a vehicle collection " 

A:"Money can't bu you happiness... You always were fond of edgelords" 

C:" I HAVE REFINED TASTES " 

 

Or

Quote

 

C: Can I ask you something?

A: That's technically asking me something. 

C: Sigh " what's knuckle's deal, why does he keep the master emerald in plain sight where everyone knows where it is " 

A: " He's thinks rougher than the rest of them, tougher than leather. People aren't gonna try him " 

C: "But what about the multiple times that happened"

A: "I didn't say he was smart "

 

Funny joke stuff

1 minute ago, StaticMania said:

Just because someone's ya sidekick doesn't mean you have authority over them...

Character dynamics determine that...

Eh you kinda do. 

The whole side kick angle is kinda determined by who has the role of who's in charge in whatever is going, and what the story is being focused on. 

 

[Sonic Fan J]

7 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

As much as I like amy, I kinda don't feel like amy is that character. Blaze, shadow, the chaotix, rouge  , silver all have a enough stuff going on to have whole worlds of characters that sonic might not ever see. Amy's just ...kind of a girl who likes sonic, who might occaionally go on an adventure. I just don't see her circle being that big

That's understandable, it was more of a suggestion based on her ability to make and keep in touch with friends. Most of these ideas I'm throwing around are again really more of questions about the whole idea of giving Amy a sidekick and it's lack of reasonable success and how such a mentality might or could have worked.

9 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

The issue with knuckles doing his job, is that in most circumstances doing his job effectively means he isn't around. Outside of situations like forces, his time would be best spent guarding the master emerald. And that's the issue sega runs into when using his character. I would argue he may need a new job. 

It's the problem with Knuckles' popularity and character construction to be sure. It's why I like the Phantom Ruby as a plot device. It's a powerful artifact that would obviously mess with the Master Emerald and that gives Knuckles all the reason in the world to head out on an adventure. As the series is about Sonic however and people like seeing Knuckles with Sonic to make it work we kind of have to accept the contrivance of giving Eggman whatever the Master Emerald is reacting to if we want the two together. It's just one of those situations where a contrivance is probably the best solution.

13 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

Nah, Shadow has rouge. You can argue who leads that team as much as you want. You can't argue who's the point man doing everything and who all the stories are about and who's the important one. I mean I wish rouge was more important, but that requires team dark not to be athing. As long as team dark is a thing, the focus will be on shadow , and that sorta sucks

It would be fun to see the roles reversed at least once though to see how Team Dark's mission look from the POV of the actual leader. Just like with Knuckles though, this is another situation where a character's popularity dictates what goes on instead of any type of in world logic as the starting point of a story.

[StaticMania]

3 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

Eh you kinda do. 

The whole side kick angle is kinda determined by who has the role of who's in charge in whatever is going, and what the story is being focused on.

Only if said character roles are acknowledged in universe. Sonic doesn't exactly tell Tails what to do when they fight together, Sonic's big brother role to Tails is separate from their hero and sidekick dynamic.

Amy would only have authority over Cream not just because she's 6, but because Cream's too passive...

[Sonic Fan J]

9 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

 

This is what I kinda want. They could have a lot of meta level discussions about characters in the franchise because in that moment its just two friends talking about not " main character A talking to main character B " with the world on the line. 

Just 

Quote

C:" Sonic's a bum" 

A:" Sonic isn't a bum! He's a hero, MY hero. He's saved the world " 

C:" A lot of you all save the world, he's a bum who crashes on an 8 year old's couch " 

A:" He's having a rough time... Being a hero to the people doesn't pay the bills you know!" 

C:" Doesn't shadow work for an organization that literally pays for everything he does and he makes enough money to have a vehicle collection " 

A:"Money can't bu you happiness... You always were fond of edgelords" 

C:" I HAVE REFINED TASTES " 

Or

Quote

C: Can I ask you something?

A: That's technically asking me something. 

C: Sigh " what's knuckle's deal, why does he keep the master emerald in plain sight where everyone knows where it is " 

A: " He's thinks rougher than the rest of them, tougher than leather. People aren't gonna try him " 

C: "But what about the multiple times that happened"

A: "I didn't say he was smart "

Funny joke stuff

I love these and wish I could use more than one thumbs up widget to express it XD