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Sonic Characterization at its Best, Worst, and how to move forward.


dbzfan7

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4 hours ago, Diogenes said:

Second, the scene absolutely has a story purpose; 

This is true.

4 hours ago, Diogenes said:

Oh but it's "cool" and that makes it okay

It's also reasonable within context.

4 hours ago, Diogenes said:

 as if that attitude hasn't been an albatross around this series' neck.

Hey, you leave Storm alone, Harper!

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On 11/28/2018 at 7:45 PM, E-122-Psi said:

I have to credit Lost World for at least TRYING in that regard, making him a flawed but still reasonably likeable character that works within the realms of the game version's personality. It felt like the first game that was actually trying to be something of a character study for Sonic himself. The main qualm being the story itself was rather hap hazardously made, and they also had to deal with Tails as well, who has been so flat throughout the 3D titles that I think they struggled to even grasp the premise of a flawed personality for him.

I think the best balance would be his more laid back wisdom heavy variant seen in most Japanese games, while still having a bit of that flawed careless side we see in the Western version. I don't mind Sonic not being outright arrogant and abrasive like some of his western cartoon/comic counterparts, but stuff like Sonic X taught me that a perfect Sonic can be kinda dull, and, given he's still usually kinda smug, even a bit insufferable at times. There has to be a BIT of fallibility about him.

It's kinda like Bugs Bunny, yeah his appeal is in how competent and crafty he is, and how damn aware of it he is too, but every now and then he does get knocked down a peg and we get a sign of humanity from him, since as the creative team acknowledged, being a one note winner all the time can make for a boring, and sometimes even unlikeable character.

The Pokemon series seems to have done a similar thing with Ash Ketchum, while previous series interchanged with making Ash a buffoonish abrasive character or an idealised and competent, if somewhat boring character, the Sun and Moon series seems to be going for a bit of both, a very charming and warm natured character but with a heavy clownish side. Basically a character that can get the job done but is clearly not always in their comfort zone about it.

 

On 11/28/2018 at 8:07 PM, Cuz said:

Think I'm one of the few who actually liked Sonic X!Sonic. Admittedly he wasn't enough of a friend to his friends, that's gotta change, but otherwise he was much more reserved and introverted then his game counterpart, or really any counterpart has ever been. Like they sort of doubled down so hard on the beach bum aspects of "Cool" they twisted it into something else. I find it fascinating, whatever it is.

Still, I generally think there's more potential for Sonic with a larger then life Bugs Bunny route than more traditional character writing .

You know what the biggest problem with Sonic X Sonic was?  He barely existed.  Simply being more of an introvert isn't in itself ruinous to Sonic's character, but the problem is that when he and other characters split up--which was often--the narrative tended not to stay with Sonic.  A lot of people love to blame those darn Japanese young-uns being unable to empathize with an anime protagonist that didn't look like themselves, but in reality it isn't just Chris who took up a lot more focus than Sonic; it was most other humans and most other anthropomorphic animals.  Sonic was usually only there when it was time to fight Dr. Eggman, and when you factor in how they retooled the rings into a deus ex machine used to instantly defeat enemies he'd have to go super against in the games, Sonic wouldn't be there for long.  Also, he often seemed to like sleeping better than running.  The verdict may be out on how you make Sonic's personality interesting, but at least making his trademark action fun should be straightforward--yet somehow, they fucked Sonic up on this basic level.  I have no idea why, save that they just didn't want to draw action scenes.  Which for an anime, is really pathetic.

So what are my thoughts on how Sonic should be written?  I am admitting up front that my only impression of "modern" (which here means Pontaff) Sonic is Sonic Colors, so he might have gotten better since.  For all he know, he might even have gotten worse.  However, my take based on that is that I do think Sonic should take things more seriously, but by that I don't mean that he can't make jokes.  I don't even mean that his jokes can't be corny.  Sonic, to me, is entitled to be corny or maybe even annoying.  However, I think that his joking around should be more a part of his battle plan, or at least his swagger.  Sonic should be hurling his quips during battle like taunting an enemy for being too slow to hit him and making the enemy too mad to focus well on fighting.  When Sonic is just smack-talking pre-fight, against enemies that barely react, it feels more like he's delaying fighting the good fight because he loves to hear himself talk.  Sonic having an ego in itself is okay, but Sonic slowing down in service of that ego when there's trouble; that is bad.  They could make stupid jokes a lot more bearable just by saving them for dialogue during gameplay.

Sonic Colors seems to be increasingly under fire for starting a lot of comedy trends that have worn out their welcome by now, and my opinion of it is that many of Eggman's PA announcements are funny (if predictable), but not much else is--and I think I know why, too.  Pontac by him own admission isn't a Sonic fan; he has no real emotional investment in this series or what is happening in it, so he can gel naturally with a villain whose humor makes light of his evil plans.  Put this level of detachment in a non-villain, though, and you just get characters who feel...detached.

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