Character Dynamics - What They Could Have Been

[SenEDDtor Missile]

So if you didn't notice, I posted a really long status post regarding a Sonic/Amy/Shadow dynamic that I think could have developed post SA2, but I decided to expand on this since it frankly seems like something that's way too extensive and complex to just be relegated to a status update. Here's the original post to get things started:

So I want to make a post about a hypothetical character dynamic between Sonic, Amy and Shadow, in a non-shipping related fashion:

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TL;DR Version: Amy's relationship with Sonic could have been a parallel with her relationship to Shadow, in that she sees Sonic as an idol and wants a deeper relationship without truly understanding him, but she sees Shadow as a person who can be better and has a deeper relationship with him but she and Shadow have no romantic interest in each other at all. Sonic also unintentionally allows for Amy to keep her delusions because his tendency to run from her keeps her from really having the deep understanding of him she has with Shadow, or his brotherly relationship with Tails that lets Tails know about the full character of Sonic rather than an idealized smokescreen.

LONGASS VERSION:

Basically, I think something that they really missed an opportunity in is in regards to how Amy and Sonic's relationship and how it relates to a Shadow Amy relationship (again, not romantic, just in general). Amy as we all know hero worships Sonic and is madly in love with him/has a massive crush on him, and Sonic overall doesn't reciprocate. What I find interesting is that if things had been expanded on, this relationship could have served as a parallel to how she treats Shadow; as someone who she tries to empathize with and is overall more likely to treat as a person.

This is likely because Sonic to Amy, while certainly a friend, tends to be more of an idol figure and a celebrity to Amy than an actual person. Her vision of Sonic is very idealized, and it's clear that she tends to gloss over the fact that he does have serious flaws unless they happen to directly impact her in a negative fashion.

A key example is like in Sonic Riders where Sonic's little stunt to save her causes her to get angry because it could have hurt her as well.

Ironically, this idolization problem can partially be placed on Sonic's tendency to never really stick around or run away whenever something annoys or discomforts him. It means that he's never really around long enough for Amy to really form a strong opinion about what he's really like, and can be perceived as him playing hard to get at best, and also means that she never really gets to see his flaws at play either, or she only hears about them second-hand, and thus can easily dismiss them.

Key examples include:

Sonic 06: Silver accuses Sonic of being possibly responsible for a future catastrophe. Granted it's legitimately ludicrous and it's easy to understand why someone would find it too over the top, but the fact that Amy doesn't really make any effort to understand what Silver means in greater clarity does end up giving the impression she just dismisses anything that puts Sonic in a bad light.

Sonic Lost World: This one admittedly is a bit of a stretch and is more about the secondhand bit, but she only bears witness to Sonic doing good via the MilesElectric, but doesn't bear witness to the arguments he and Tails and Eggman have, thus again preventing any of his flaws from being known except probably secondhand.

Tails in many ways has a lot of similarities to Amy in that he was also saved and definitely probably might have hero-worshipped Sonic when he was younger, but being more consistently in contact with Sonic would mean that he'd have more interaction and thus is more aware of Sonic's flaws, thus tempering any worship into respect and brotherly love, while also making him more willing to rib Sonic about his flaws. Funnily enough that's kind of the impression I have about Sonic Boom Amy as well, since being on a small island and interacting with Sonic more often means Boom Amy has less of an idealized perspective on Boom Sonic compared to her canon counterpart, but can still find good qualities about him.

Now by contrast, despite Amy and Shadow only really getting the one scene in SA2, I honestly think she treated him more like a person than in most of her scenes with Sonic combined, and why I think if they had more scenes together in other games, they would probably have a far deeper and more meaningful relationship (not romantic) than Amy would ever really have with Sonic.

The main reason why?

Because while she's only seen Sonic at his best, and always when he generally never lets his guard down, Her primary interaction with Shadow has her seeing him at his absolute WORST. His lowest point. His rock bottom. Resigned, Melancholy, and overall clearly flawed and HUMAN. She saw a person in need, a person who clearly was strong, but needed more than just power, but needed someone to talk to. This I think was extremely important, and allowed her to see past Shadow the "Edgelord", Shadow the Badass, and instead see Shadow for the regular hurting person he was at heart, and thus could empathize with him on a personal level that she never really does with Sonic.

This in my opinion, if it had ever been expanded on pre-current Sonic, would have meant that she and Shadow would probably have a far more normal relationship, since she's under no delusions about what he really is and would be willing to try to bring out his best without overlooking his problems, and Shadow of course would probably be much softer with her since she's honestly trying to help him.

Of course, I also think this could add a comedic element as well, since what if everyone who doesn't know about her personally sees Amy as trying to have two hedgehog boys with her, with Sonic as the celebrity cool guy and Shadow as the bad boy, when in reality she just has a kinda friends but mostly fangirl relationship with Sonic who she DOES want to have a relationship with, and a deep relationship with Shadow but they both have no romantic feelings for each other whatsoever.

 

But that's just my two cents. What about you guys? Are there any character dynamics that you think could have existed, been fleshed out post (whatever game you think missed out on opportunities for), or just felt like elaborating on?

[DabigRG]

I saw this way back when and meant to look at it, but forgot until just now.

Yeah, that is a little ironic, I guess.

 

Looking at the thread title, though, did you plan on doing more?

[DabigRG]

Was gonna put this random thought in the Fix thread, but I think here could be a more deserving area: Should Sonic Heroes have had Chocola as Cream's temporary partner and/or just had Cheese be the one captured?