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Which character is the most unnecessary?


Rowl

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We all know how much critiques and the internet love to bitch about Sonic and his shitty friends. Even us fans complain a lot of the huge cast of characters this series has. There for I wonder, if their a character or even a bunch of them, that you yourself can consider as completely unnecessary for the series. A character that is either useless for the overall narrative and contributes nothing to the world of Sonic? I personally have a handful of them.

Big the Cat

He can be pretty entertaining some times (although it is most of the time accidentally) and out of all the characters he has the most unique design, I consider him to be a pretty pointless character. He is more a character that lives by himself and stays out of all the action and the adventures. Big is not a person, that wants to fight. He just wants to relax and fish with his best pal who happens to be a frog. He feels completely out of place in a series that is all about been part of a huge, action heavy adventure.

The Babylon Rouges

The problem with those three is, that Sonic and his friends already have enough rivals. Sonic himself already has Knuckles, Metal-Sonic, Shadow and Silver four big rival characters. Jet is really the fifth wheel in this scenario. Plus Jet, Wave and Storm are to much tied in in the Riders series, which it seems has been cancelled for good. And with out a new Riders game, I do not really see them been used anymore.

Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel

Two characters that have the same powers as Sonic other two best friends and even have the same colors scheme with mighty been red and Ray been yellow. I really no point in those two is we already have Tails and Knuckles feeling in similar roles.

Sticks the Badger

She felt so unnecessary for the Boom universe. For me it feels like she was only created, so that the Boom series can have its own character to promote the games. And yes, that is all what Sticks is for me. Plus, she was always the one character who was left out of the group if the writers only wanted to use four of the five main characters. 

Cream the Rabbit

She kinda has also no point in this universe anymore. She is a character that is kinda the sidekick of Amy. And Amy herself isn't really often used in the more resent games. So if Amy doesn't show up, than their is also no real point for Cream anymore. Also kinda like Big she is more a character that enjoys the more quiet times in life.

Those are all so far. Any character that you kinda see as pointless? 

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I would say Cream the rabbit which is a shame because she has a cute design and could be a parrel to Tails, but with Sonic Team saying she cant fight anymore due to her pacisme its really hard to have her in a franchise where there is a lot of battles and fights

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1 minute ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

I would say Cream the rabbit which is a shame because she has a cute design and could be a parrel to Tails, but with Sonic Team saying she cant fight anymore due to her pacisme its really hard to have her in a franchise where there is a lot of battles and fights

She can´t fight under Sonic Team, but evidently she can under Demiurge... same for Big

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27 minutes ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

 but with Sonic Team saying she cant fight anymore due to her pacisme

is this actually a thing or is this another mandate meme?

Anyway, I don't really think any character is unnecessary. They all contribute something to Sonic's World™ to varying degrees. Yeah, Big, for instance, tends to stay out the action, but there's no harm in having him around in the background. It's kind of nice to have a more chill character that just wants to live a humble fisherman's life to contrast with all the AW YEAH COOL ADVENTURE WOOOO people.

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I think a lot of characters are unnecessary because they fill very similar roles. Shadow is just another version of Metal Sonic, only with an edgy backstory and personality. Just as an example.

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Norman the Polar Bear from Sonic Rush Adventure! He ruined the franchise!

..ow, from the Main Cast? Personally, this cast is the reason I love Sonic, it what makes him unique to me. Even if they aren't used. I'm glad they exist somewhere, even just so people can draw cute fan arts of them

image.thumb.png.f0caeb0780612262484f6541158f6dc3.png

But if I must point someone it would be Orbot and Cubot.

I said it before: they have a very large presence in the franchise, despite fairly small fanbase and their main job is to take (mostly weak) comedy, which often leads to undermining Eggman as a villain.

I don't hate them (they made me laugh few times in Archie or Boom), but ultimately I just don't care about them and see that they do the most damage, unlike Storm the Albatross who barely exists at this point.

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I feel most of the characters besides Sonic, Eggman, and maybe Tails and Knuckles are all pretty irrelevant. Not because they bloat the cast (though they sometimes do), but because SEGA never gives them any relevant things to do. When was the last time in the game canon that the Chaotix were actually detectives? When's the last time Rouge stole something? Why the fuck does Silver keep coming back to the present if his own future was saved? Why does SEGA always have a villain that they NEVER use again? WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T THEY LET SHADOW DIE!?

There's only one reason we keep seeing these characters: SEGA wants to bloat the cast to give them the illusion of them doing something, when in reality, it always appears that they are doing NOTHING of significance. 

I wouldn't mind all these characters if they actually served a purpose. I want SEGA to give them relevancy. Use them when it's needed for the plot, not just to show them off and go "Hey, remember So-and-So? Well get used to them, because they ain't doing SHIT!" It's just aggravating to see these characters being hated because SEGA is too lazy to integrate them into the story right.

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57 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I feel most of the characters besides Sonic, Eggman, and maybe Tails and Knuckles are all pretty irrelevant. Not because they bloat the cast (though they sometimes do), but because SEGA never gives them any relevant things to do. When was the last time in the game canon that the Chaotix were actually detectives? When's the last time Rouge stole something? Why the fuck does Silver keep coming back to the present if his own future was saved? Why does SEGA always have a villain that they NEVER use again? WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T THEY LET SHADOW DIE!?

There's only one reason we keep seeing these characters: SEGA wants to bloat the cast to give them the illusion of them doing something, when in reality, it always appears that they are doing NOTHING of significance. 

I wouldn't mind all these characters if they actually served a purpose. I want SEGA to give them relevancy. Use them when it's needed for the plot, not just to show them off and go "Hey, remember So-and-So? Well get used to them, because they ain't doing SHIT!" It's just aggravating to see these characters being hated because SEGA is too lazy to integrate them into the story right.

And even then Tails and Knuckles are only relevant due to the Classic sub-series. In the Modern games, however, Shadow had somewhat of a point due to his DLC and a good portion of the cast will be relevant in TSR. 

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2 hours ago, Plasme said:

I think a lot of characters are unnecessary because they fill very similar roles. Shadow is just another version of Metal Sonic, only with an edgy backstory and personality. Just as an example.

So aside from the main thing that makes them different, they're the same huh.

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7 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

So aside from the main thing that makes them different, they're the same huh.

This surprisingly applies to a lot of characters.

Based on the arguments of some.

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This is kind of a pointless thread.

Most Sonic characters are at the very least built to exist and play a role in the story that they debut in so they can't really be described as useless. The themes Sonic Adventure 2 explores cannot be explored with any of the existing characters, so Shadow and Rouge's existence is justified. You can't have Sonic Riders without the Babylon Rogues, even if the Sonic games they aren't in wouldn't be enhanced by their presence. 

The Modern games have a lot off "loose end" characters like Orbot, Cubot, most of the Deadly Six etc that you can make massive changes to without altering the story, but even in that case you can't outright remove them without replacing them with something else. Orbot and Cubot's botched cleaning job in Sonic Colors leads to the reactor exploding at the end, and the Deadly Six put pressure on the characters that lead them to make mistakes and start arguments despite their lack of a character driven motivation. 

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Everyone outside of Sonic and possibly Eggman. Considering those are the only two active characters. The rest either exist due to nostalgia or to serve to say boring things they don't want Sonic to say. Could very easily get rid of everyone else with how unnecessary they feel as of late.

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Ah shit, really? You're doing this?

Oh boy.

 

I guess for the sake of it, I'll just say Zomom and to an extent Zeena if we're just looking at the Deadly Six as a functional group in Lost World.

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I mean every post in this thread is mentioning side characters, but are Sonic and Eggman themselves even necessary? 
Is the Sonic series as a whole even necessary?
Is Sega even necessary?
Are video games even necessary?
Is entertainment even necessary?
Is culture even necessary?
Is society even necessary?
Is the human race even necessary?
Is Earth even necessary?

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46 minutes ago, dbzfan7 said:

Everyone outside of Sonic and possibly Eggman. Considering those are the only two active characters. The rest either exist due to nostalgia or to serve to say boring things they don't want Sonic to say. Could very easily get rid of everyone else with how unnecessary they feel as of late.

Except in Mania, IDW, TSR, Episode Shadow...

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Since there's an inevitable lull, I guess I'll take this opportunity to explain what I mean.

Basically, "unnecessary character" doesn't fully amount to much in a videogame setting, much less one as vibrant and on the move as Sonic. Many characters were added to serve some sort of purpose, whether to be representing a particular gameplay element or just adding a particular spice the other recurring characters don't quite add for the current recipe; many characters also are either one shots or recurring characters that aren't always needed for subsequent games to work and thus just exist harmlessly offscreen. Additionally, it can easily just amount to "I don't like this," "who cares," or "do we even need to consider this anyway." Indeed, many of these few actual comments just say "most or all of them," implying lack of a constructive point or worse, an aversion for actually thinking about it. 

Now in some cases, there can indeed be a statement about whether a role couldn't have been handled by a different character or if there was much of a need to begin with, so there's a little bit of room for talking there. But for the most part, it just seems like a floor rented for idle or misaimed slinging, which is sorta the vibe I get the OP.

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38 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Except in Mania, IDW, TSR, Episode Shadow...

Well TSR like any Mario Spin off does need more characters. It's a party game that needs a character count.

The rest is debatable. You could not have anyone else in Mania, IDW, and not even make Episode Shadow period. They're Superfluous. Considering the lax writing you can pretty much reduce character count quite easily since they don't want to anything with said characters.

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23 minutes ago, dbzfan7 said:

Well TSR like any Mario Spin off does need more characters. It's a party game that needs a character count.

The rest is debatable. You could not have anyone else in Mania, IDW, and not even make Episode Shadow period. They're Superfluous. Considering the lax writing you can pretty much reduce character count quite easily since they don't want to anything with said characters.

Mania’s characters exist for gameplay variety. Admittedly, Forces and IDW’s casts mostly exist for marketing.

 

On-Topic: Any villain from 2013 onwards, right down to the Heavies.

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4 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Mania’s characters exist for gameplay variety. Admittedly, Forces and IDW’s casts mostly exist for marketing.

I know they do but you can just have Sonic alone in Mania and the game wouldn't really lose quality all that much. The core would still exist. Everyone else who does shows up feels like they're there to just show other peoples favourites are there...and that's about it.

When I think integral, I think people you can't possibly write out without needing to change much. Sonic really is the only one who fits that, and commonly Eggman. Everyone else more or less can be written out without much effort. Sonic's hyper competent so he doesn't need help, so kiss pretty much everyone else goodbye because of that. Simply make it so destroying a machine is enough, and you don't need Tails in the corner. Bye Tails. Then you pretty much are good to go. A tiny rewrite like that is how easy it is to be rid of other characters. To be rid of Eggman just don't have a technology using enemy, and then you can toss him too. But he has more staying power because you need a protag and antag. Though it's not like we can't have another villain instead. It can be feasible.

I want better representation, but it's not hard to just be pure Sonic only in core games. When we get to party games then we can't have Sonic only of course. So things like racing titles or mobile games like Sonic Runners and Speed Battle need more characters as incentives for playing more/money.

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7 minutes ago, dbzfan7 said:

I know they do but you can just have Sonic alone in Mania and the game wouldn't really lose quality all that much. The core would still exist. Everyone else who does shows up feels like they're there to just show other peoples favourites are there...and that's about it.

When I think integral, I think people you can't possibly write out without needing to change much. Sonic really is the only one who fits that, and commonly Eggman. Everyone else more or less can be written out without much effort. Sonic's hyper competent so he doesn't need help, so kiss pretty much everyone else goodbye because of that. Simply make it so destroying a machine is enough, and you don't need Tails in the corner. Bye Tails. Then you pretty much are good to go. A tiny rewrite like that is how easy it is to be rid of other characters. To be rid of Eggman just don't have a technology using enemy, and then you can toss him too. But he has more staying power because you need a protag and antag. Though it's not like we can't have another villain instead. It can be feasible.

I want better representation, but it's not hard to just be pure Sonic only in core games. When we get to party games then we can't have Sonic only of course. So things like racing titles or mobile games like Sonic Runners and Speed Battle need more characters as incentives for playing more/money.

Knuckles successfully kept the Heavy King at bay in Mania. Tails flew Sonic to his destination in Mirage Saloon as Knuckles defeated Badniks on the ground. But I agree Sonic should be made less hypercompetent. But it seems to me that Mania is making inroads to it.

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10 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Knuckles successfully kept the Heavy King at bay in Mania. Tails flew Sonic to his destination in Mirage Saloon. But I agree Sonic should be made less hypercompetent. But it seems to me that Mania is making inroads to it.

I mean Sonic initially had his own plane, so I don't see why he can't pilot himself. Knuckles and heavy king is a good point, though you could just write out that bit without much difficulty at all if you wanted to. I'm sure we can justify some things in Mania for other characters to a degree, but it's not like they are damn essential to it. When it comes to Mania, playing as Tails and Knuckles is more considered a neat bonus than a great necessity. For some games multiple characters are what holds it all together, but I wouldn't say Sonic is one of them in it's core titles. Like Birth By Sleep couldn't work without all 3 characters. Telling it with one, especially with it's limited resources wouldn't do it.

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7 minutes ago, dbzfan7 said:

I mean Sonic initially had his own plane, so I don't see why he can't pilot himself. Knuckles and heavy king is a good point, though you could just write out that bit without much difficulty at all if you wanted to. I'm sure we can justify some things in Mania for other characters to a degree, but it's not like they are damn essential to it. When it comes to Mania, playing as Tails and Knuckles is more considered a neat bonus than a great necessity. For some games multiple characters are what holds it all together, but I wouldn't say Sonic is one of them in it's core titles. Like Birth By Sleep couldn't work without all 3 characters. Telling it with one, especially with it's limited resources wouldn't do it.

Because then there’d be nobody to attack the airborne Badniks and jump off to storm the train. Sonic wouldn’t stand much of a chance against the mini-boss without Tails to fly him. 

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11 minutes ago, dbzfan7 said:

I mean Sonic initially had his own plane, so I don't see why he can't pilot himself. 

Was the plane really even a thing before Tails was introduced, though?

Because remember, Tails is "canonically" the oldest Sonic character that isn't Sonic, Eggman, and depending on the exact dates, Mighty and Ray.

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3 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Because then there’d be nobody to attack the airborne Badniks and jump off to storm the train. Sonic wouldn’t stand much of a chance against the mini-boss without Tails to fly him. 

Well the plane usually has some form of projectiles when they want it to XP. But if we want to be realistic if Sonic jumped off that plane he'd go soaring way back from wind resistance alone XD

Just now, DabigRG said:

Was the plane really even a thing before Tails was introduced, though?

Because remember, Tails is "canonically" the oldest Sonic character that isn't Sonic, Eggman, and depending on the exact dates, Mighty and Ray.

Well one of the backstories is Sonic comes in with his plane, which Tails discovers. So that at least should tell us Sonic can fly it. Heck in ASRT he pilot both a boat, car, and plane. I don't think it's a stretch to say he couldn't do that stuff. Now swimming...that is where he's gonna need some help.

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