What's the beef with Cream the Rabbit?

[BubbleButt TV]

I'm not entirely sure what the general consensus on Cream is, but I think she's neat. It's always just bizarre and funny to see such passionate hatred for her.

According to Wikipedia, Thomas East of Official Nintendo Magazine ranked her as 5th worst Sonic character, Christian Nutt of Gamespy called her "dopey-looking" and Jim Sterling (at the time writing for GamesRadar) said "she represents everything wrong with Sonic characters" and said that her name was too random.

This, to me, is so baffling! She's literally one of the most inoffensive characters ever invented! Hell, I'd actually take Cream over Silver or Omega any day. 

This is going to sound super harsh but I also think it's important to note that these critiques all come from fully grown adult men who seem to have underestimated the actual appeal that cute characters like Cream can have to little kids. One of my younger cousins is always telling me about how much she likes Cream in Sonic Dash. 

With that in mind, seeing adults saying things like "this innocent cute little rabbit literally represents everything wrong with sonic characters!!" kind of makes you cringe a little lol. There are so many worse characters to choose from.

I also came across this video where this guy basically says that they should kill off Cream or relegate her to an extremely minor role on the same level as Froggy:

I grew up with the Advance games so of course this character was always going to have a special place in my heart and obviously I don't think she's objectively the greatest thing ever haha. I was just really surprised to see this much hatred for a character that I always considered harmless.

Is this a major thing? Is she really this badly hated or is this all blown way out of proportion? Maybe someone here passionately hates this character and I'd like to know why.

[JezMM]

The examples you listed are definitely extreme cases, I think the by-and-large concensus with Cream is apathy rather than hatred.  There are definitely some immature fans who consider character worth to be directly proportional to their fighting ability, but again, best to ignore that too.

I think why most people are apathetic is that they never really did anything interesting with her (and they certainly aren't lately).  I personally feel (I don't know for sure if this is agreed upon) that her best roles were in Sonic Battle and Sonic Rush where she wasn't really necessarily a hero, but had a big effect on the characters who were (Emerl and Blaze respectively).  I feel like plenty of adult fans feel that her immaturity doesn't really match up with the idea of her being a superhero like the rest of the cast, and that her playable appearances are sort of exaggerated just so she can keep up with everyone else.  But the issue is they don't really do anything interesting with her storywise to make up for the fact that she isn't a fighter most of the time.  She makes for a great support character but they don't really use her for that, and they don't really even try to write her in a way that makes her engaging for those who just see her as a little kid.  There are definitely stories out there that can evoke empathy in a player by caring for a kid character even if that kid character has no practical benefit for the hero - only emotional.  But Sonic writing staff don't really have the sort of direction to explore those ideas.

In a game where there are multiple characters like the classics but only the Sonic playthrough is technically canon, there's no reason not to include her as an optional Beginner's character like Advance 2 did, where she served VERY well as such.  Of course they haven't been making any such games in the modern branch where she exists recently.  But with the games they've been making lately, I can see why there'd be no room for her.  Forces would've been a bit of a grim situation to put such a delicate character into.

[Polkadi~☆]

It's all blown way out of proportion.

There are so many worse Sonic characters, who are geniunely bad. Infinite, Black Doom, the Deadly Six, Big the Cat, etc. In comparison, Cream is harmless. She was a fun character to play as in the Advance series, and no more from that. Going forward, she's a party character, someone who exists in the franchise. No longer does her existence actively affect anything, not that it ever did.

Children also like the character, providing a child character for the series where Tails does not fit.

So, why panic and say she is everything wrong with the Sonic franchise? Her entire existence has done nothing.

...Maybe it's the voice?

 

When it comes to Sonic the Hedgehog in journalism, I find it hard to trust anyone to give a fair opinion.

[StaticMania]

Passionate hatred? Outside the fanbase she'd be no more hated than any other one of Sonic's "poopy" friends.

Inside the fanbase the people who don't like her just find her boring.

It's pretty clear cut.

[DabigRG]

Quote

What's the Beef with Cream the Rabbit, by Bubblebutt TV 

 

Anyway, from what I hear, it's some combination of:

• Some players not feeling safe playing as a cute little rabbit girl instead of some "cooler" teenage animal 
• Her voice (most understandable under 4kids)
• "Just being cute"
• Being more pacifist in an action adventure series 
• Not getting much character development 
• Allegedly stealing traits from nice little kid Tails and positive girl Amy
• Apparently being more Japanese than most of characters

Me personally, she turned out to be one of my favorite game characters when I actually made a list, though I was always somewhat fascinated by her.

Oh shoot, I remember that video!

[SBR2]

I think the examples you listed are the types who only want Sonic and Eggman but only if he's called Robotnik and no talking or "Shitty Friends".

[Harkofthewaa]

3 hours ago, JezMM said:

There are definitely some immature fans who consider character worth to be directly proportional to their fighting ability, but again, best to ignore that too.

Those fans haven't played games like Sonic Advance 2 or Sonic Riders where Cream is broken as hell. Honestly, the type of people who hate Cream are either going to be people who hate the concept of a child character in general or the crowd who hate everyone who isn't Sonic/Tails/Knuckles/Shadow/Eggman on principle. 

 

[thumbs13]

From what I've heard, it's more from a story perspective and people thinking Cream doesn't have much to offer.

I don't think I've heard anyone criticize her gameplay/spinoff appearances before.

[Diogenes]

Cream's far from being the worst character ever or anything like that, but she's boring and unnecessary. Mechanically she's basically just a Tails clone with a homing projectile that often trivializes combat. She's not awful to play as (no more than the average for whatever game you're looking at, anyway), but she wasn't really meant to do anything particularly unique, since she was designed to slot into Heroes' rigid team system. And as a character, she's never been shown to have any kind of goals to pursue, she's treated like an actual 6 year old rather than a child prodigy, and she's either a pacifist or at least combat-adverse in a fairly action-heavy series. All that adds up to a character without much to actually do besides show up and be cute.

[StaticMania]

12 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

All that adds up to a character without much to actually do besides show up and be cute.

With this series' story telling, that's pretty much all she could've done anyway.

[JezMM]

6 hours ago, Harkofthewaa said:

Those fans haven't played games like Sonic Advance 2 or Sonic Riders where Cream is broken as hell. Honestly, the type of people who hate Cream are either going to be people who hate the concept of a child character in general or the crowd who hate everyone who isn't Sonic/Tails/Knuckles/Shadow/Eggman on principle.

I think the same fans would probably consider her playable appearances to be an overexaggeration like, at least I personally, do.  Like it seems "out of character" for her to be spin attacking badniks like the rest of them, and I feel that was only done for the sake of gameplay.  I feel like Sonic X formed a lot of my opinions on "the canon Cream" because every character in that show resembles their canon-selves in terms of fight abilities except for her.  When she fights at the end of the Sonic Battle arc, it's a BIG deal and one of the emotional high points for the series that she is pushed so far.

I mean as fans we can argue til the sun rises about what gameplay elements are canon or not, but personally it seems out of character for Cream to be a fighter to me, considering she never fights in any of her non-playable appearances.  I imagine canonically she is just superpowered enough to keep up with her friends but ultimately Cheese does all the offensive/defensive work for her when she's up against danger by herself.

Granted, it's hard to come up with a role for her that isn't just getting kidnapped or to act as a face of normality/home base (see: Amy and Knuckles in Lost World).  You'd need to have her in mind from the very start of drafting out the overall plot to find something engaging to do.

[Harkofthewaa]

I forgot to mention Sonic Chronicles where Cream fulfills more of a support role, using techniques to heal her allies and refill their MP (or whatever it's called there, haven't played that game in years)... and she's even more broken in that game when she's in character than out of it. I think her reduced role in the series is for three possible reasons:

1. In most games where she is playable as a separate character (Advance 2 & 3, Riders, and Chronicles just to name a few) she tends to be a bit... overpowered. One could say that the reason for this is for her to serve as the easy mode since she exists as the kid appeal character, similar to how Tails was in the Classic days. And for the last decade or so there haven't really been any Modern games that needed a character for that purpose.

2. She's a kid appeal character in a series that doesn't have a use for one at the moment. Seriously, what role could she possibly had in Forces other than serving tea to everyone at the home base or having a throwaway line *cough Charmy*. As for TSR, there's really no excuse. 

3. Some higher up at SEGA just hates her and wants her gone (again, why is she not on Team Rose in TSR?).

[Kellodrawsalot]

I think most people already said it, that she's kinda boring. Which is a shame because she is a pretty cute looking character but There isnt anything that really drives her. We know Amy wants to be Sonic's girlfriend, we know Tails wants to be a hero just like Sonic, we know Knuckles...wants to protect the master emerald, We know Rouge wants to steal gems, it would have been nice if Cream had something that drove her too.

 

That and with Sega's mandates saying she cannot be shown fighting in combat (at least in the comic books anymore) they kinda erased the gimick of a girly bunny kicking robots butt. Would be nice if she became the ''white mage'''of the group.

[Red Hot Jack]

I'm really not interested in her character type, I know she pleases the japanese crowd though. They really love moe types, which is why Cream was in an anime.

I really think there are better characters, even Infinite is more interesting. But TBF, every character has potential, this is why I did interesting and new things with Cream, to explore her character, in my fan fiction.

Anyway, the fact that they are axing Cream is nothing new, her last amor appearance was 8 years ago. So... She missed out Sochi Olympics, replaced by Espio and Charmy, she was replaced in Boom by Sticks, because she didn't fit in a comedy, she missed out Rio Wii-U in a playable role, even where the Babylon and D6 were playable, she wasn't in IDW season 1, not in Forces, and obviously got snobbed in favor of the Chao in TSR. Sega must really dislike her. I feel bad for her fans.

[DabigRG]

I'm trying to think of something to say that I haven't covered already by this point.

[Marco9966]

2 hours ago, Jack the Shadow said:

I'm really not interested in her character type, I know she pleases the japanese crowd though. They really love moe types, which is why Cream was in an anime.

I really think there are better characters, even Infinite is more interesting. But TBF, every character has potential, this is why I did interesting and new things with Cream, to explore her character, in my fan fiction.

Anyway, the fact that they are axing Cream is nothing new, her last amor appearance was 8 years ago. So... She missed out Sochi Olympics, replaced by Espio and Charmy, she was replaced in Boom by Sticks, because she didn't fit in a comedy, she missed out Rio Wii-U in a playable role, even where the Babylon and D6 were playable, she wasn't in IDW season 1, not in Forces, and obviously got snobbed in favor of the Chao in TSR. Sega must really dislike her. I feel bad for her fans.

There is hope for the IDW comics, maybe she can be a big part of the new restoration group led by Amy, more repair than fighting.

[Red Hot Jack]

21 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

There is hope for the IDW comics, maybe she can be a big part of the new restoration group led by Amy, more repair than fighting.

I'm not saying she's permanently axed, she can come back, and of course the comics but I meant in major appearances. It's just that Sega forgets her or just dislikes her at this point.

[Salamander]

14 hours ago, BubbleButt TV said:

This is going to sound super harsh but I also think it's important to note that these critiques all come from fully grown adult men who seem to have underestimated the actual appeal that cute characters like Cream can have to little kids. One of my younger cousins is always telling me about how much she likes Cream in Sonic Dash.

I've heard much the same about the baby characters in Mario Kart.  Sometimes it's important to remember that not all of the characters are for us, the adults arguing about talking animals on the Internet.

It's still true that Cream hasn't had a good showing in a while, though.  I sense that she flourishes in multiplayer or multiple playable character games; and outside of that it's difficult for her to be relevant unless you're making more of a commitment to storytelling and world-building.

[Delta Starfire]

JezMM hit the nail on the head for my opinion of Cream, at least initially. I was very apathetic towards her for many years. I never hated her, I never even particularly disliked her. She was just there in some of the games I played early last decade and she was in Sonic X. The last game I must have played her in was Sonic Chronicles, which I had forgotten she was even in, and I don't know if she's been in any since. (To be fair, I haven't played every Sonic game basically since the XBOX 360 days, because I could never have afforded all the consoles needed to play them.) So, for me, I had no real feelings towards her one way another -- at least, not until I read the comics, where I grew to really quite like her. (This was true for many characters in Sonic lore I'd d been apathetic to or even actively disliked, honestly.)

The advantage of comics is that they don't have to be non-stop action. They can stop and focus on characters for a bit and tell stories that don't need to end with boss fights, so you can get a lot more characterisation in. Of course, games can and should be able to tell good stories with good characters, and I think Cream would make a fine NPC at the very least, with the right kind of writing. I think she was good in Sonic Rush, for instance. But I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for some truly excellent writing from Sonic Team.

[Myst]

I've grown to tolerate her over the years, but when she first debuted I found her quite annoying. 

For me personally, I find her too cute. Sonic characters, imo, are supposed to be 'cool' and have 'attitude' but Cream is like, a character geared for little girls and just makes the Sonic brand look wimpy.

The same can be said for Charmy.

[Nicky Nicardo]

Personally, I don't hate Cream at all. I don't really have much experience with her and her character outside of a few episodes of Sonic X that I watched a looooong time ago.

I DO remember finding her high-pitched voice in the English dub annoying when I had to listen to it for long periods of time, but that's about it. xD

[StaticMania]

10 minutes ago, Myst said:

Sonic characters, imo, are supposed to be 'cool' and have 'attitude' ...

That's totally the mindset to have when the very next characters introduced to the series after Sonic and Eggman are Tails and Amy who...weren't either of those things.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

There is no beef, only rabbit stew.

Morbid jokes aside, I tend to forget she exists 90% of the time, mostly because she either tends to be too similar to Amy in her sweet moments, or just doesn’t really do anything to leave an impression on me.

[DabigRG]

35 minutes ago, Delta Starfire said:

 at least, not until I read the comics, where I grew to really quite like her. (This was true for many characters in Sonic lore I'd d been apathetic to or even actively disliked, honestly.)

The advantage of comics is that they don't have to be non-stop action. They can stop and focus on characters for a bit and tell stories that don't need to end with boss fights, so you can get a lot more characterisation in. Of course, games can and should be able to tell good stories with good characters, and I think Cream would make a fine NPC at the very least, with the right kind of writing. I think she was good in Sonic Rush, for instance. But I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for some truly excellent writing from Sonic Team.

Pretty much.

Cream's more passive yet amiable temperament means she works well in character interactions, which many of her game appearances are relatively terse or just a little shallow with.

This is also likely why her bond with Amy never properly developed--their first meeting alone was offscreen with a brief summary in the manual and their in-game conversations outside of Battle and maybe Free Riders were somewhat limited, not to mention that I recall Cream having more chemistry with Big than either had with Amy.

19 minutes ago, Nicky Nicardo said:

 

I DO remember finding her high-pitched voice in the English dub annoying when I had to listen to it for long periods of time, but that's about it. xD

Yeah, Rebecca Honig was probably the worst of the 4kids actors because of that on top of that odd monotone way of delivery some of the others had.

[Pawn]

 

19 hours ago, BubbleButt TV said:

According to Wikipedia, Thomas East of Official Nintendo Magazine ranked her as 5th worst Sonic character, Christian Nutt of Gamespy called her "dopey-looking" and Jim Sterling (at the time writing for GamesRadar) said "she represents everything wrong with Sonic characters" and said that her name was too random.

I'm pretty sure Jim Sterling stated that during a time when the cast had become needlessly bloated. She was created expressly for the purpose of filling out Amy's team in Heroes and not much else. Using her as a go-to example of over-saturation made sense, since she never had anything unique to offer in the first place. We have a cutesy girl in Amy, flight abilities in Tails and so many Chao that Cheese is really nothing special. What stands out the most about her is just how bland and innocuous she is in a franchise full of characters with crazy superpowers and varied personality traits.

As little as I care for Omega, the Babylon Rogues or Silver, they at least possess enough abilities, motivations and/or comedic value to lend them some baseline appeal. Sadly, she has none of those things. It's appropriate that her mother's name is Vanilla, honestly. I'd rather Marine replaced her, if Amy must have a sidekick.