(Sonic Movie Topic) Longclaw the Owl

[Rabbitearsblog]

So, how do you all feel about Longclaw the Owl in the Sonic Movie?  I thought that she was a pretty interesting character, despite her short screen time.  I would love to know more about her character and how she found Sonic in the first place and if she knows more about his powers than we are led to believe.  Hopefully, the sequel might shed some light on her character.

 

 

[Sega DogTagz]

I really like what we've seen of Longclaw. I've long been an advocate of the few and far between motherly figures in the franchise, as they lend a bit of credence and levity to a series filled with unsupervised teenagers. Its nice to have some actual adults in the room from time to time with some normal responsibilities that are straightforward and easy to grasp. It gives you options for expanding the narrative and also helps to ground satellite characters place in the world.

Since most of what we know about Longclaw is conceptual (and thusly subject to change) she is pretty much a blank slate. Still, I think there is a lot of potential there for story-telling, and furthermore as Sonic's adopted Mother, she tip-toes around or flat out ignores almost all of the "tricky" parts of telling Sonic's origin story. It's a nice lesson-learned from other mediums.

Also, I like that they classified her as part of a warrior race. Not only does that mean Bird Mom can fight, but its a nice nod as to where her impressionable little son got his heroic mindset. If Longclaw is the last of her kind, part of an order that defended peace and balance of all Living Things, then Sonic is the next generation torch-bearer of that standard. Nice little destiny arc there.

[Rabbitearsblog]

1 hour ago, Sega DogTagz said:

I really like what we've seen of Longclaw. I've long been an advocate of the few and far between motherly figures in the franchise, as they lend a bit of credence and levity to a series filled with unsupervised teenagers. Its nice to have some actual adults in the room from time to time with some normal responsibilities that are straightforward and easy to grasp. It gives you options for expanding the narrative and also helps to ground satellite characters place in the world.

Since most of what we know about Longclaw is conceptual (and thusly subject to change) she is pretty much a blank slate. Still, I think there is a lot of potential there for story-telling, and furthermore as Sonic's adopted Mother, she tip-toes around or flat out ignores almost all of the "tricky" parts of telling Sonic's origin story. It's a nice lesson-learned from other mediums.

Also, I like that they classified her as part of a warrior race. Not only does that mean Bird Mom can fight, but its a nice nod as to where her impressionable little son got his heroic mindset. If Longclaw is the last of her kind, part of an order that defended peace and balance of all Living Things, then Sonic is the next generation torch-bearer of that standard. Nice little destiny arc there.

I agree with this.  I like the idea of Longclaw being from a warrior race. I hope they explore this a bit more in the sequel.

[Polkadi~☆]

We know nothing about Longclaw, and anything we do know doesn't feel like it makes for an interesting character in Sonic's world when put in a lineup with other characters (even compared to Vanilla, the only mainline mother character). I get that people can get invested in an idea, but that idea is about all that Longclaw has, for we only see her for a minute which was used purely to spout exposition. There's not much of a personality, and her realistic design stands out even in the context of the movie.

At it is, I can't see any reason to pay her much mind, being pretty much a leftover fragment from a scrapped version of the Sonic movie.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

With the announcement of a sequel, I personally hope she’s not a one-shot character. Nothing says a wasteful to me like a character connected to a major one that’s just offed and is not brought up again in a future installment.

Even if she turns out dead from her sacrifice, we could at least learn more about her post-humously.

[Rabbitearsblog]

1 hour ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

With the announcement of a sequel, I personally hope she’s not a one-shot character. Nothing says a wasteful to me like a character connected to a major one that’s just offed and is not brought up again in a future installment.

Even if she turns out dead from her sacrifice, we could at least learn more about her post-humously.

That's how I feel about it.  It would seem like a waste of an interesting character if they just killed her off without explaining much about her character.  At least, it would explain more about Sonic's backstory if she was at least used a bit more in the plot, even if it's posthumously. 

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

I like her. Sure, we didn't get to see much of her, but I think that's not unusual for a mother character. She's an important influence on Sonic's life and therefore the rest of the story even if she didn't get much screen time. She has a nice design even if it's not exactly Sonic-y. And I have a soft spot for parent characters, especially adoptive ones. I absolutely hope she's explored more in the sequel, and will be disappointed if she isn't.

[Rabbitearsblog]

1 hour ago, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

I like her. Sure, we didn't get to see much of her, but I think that's not unusual for a mother character. She's an important influence on Sonic's life and therefore the rest of the story even if she didn't get much screen time. She has a nice design even if it's not exactly Sonic-y. And I have a soft spot for parent characters, especially adoptive ones. I absolutely hope she's explored more in the sequel, and will be disappointed if she isn't.

Me too.  It would be a shame to throw her character out the window when she seems to bring in some substance to Sonic's back story and maybe the world that Sonic had come from.

[Simasuu]

I STILL haven't seen the movie but when I saw this character I thought of someone else . . .

 

[Rabbitearsblog]

2 hours ago, Simasuu said:

I STILL haven't seen the movie but when I saw this character I thought of someone else . . .

 

Oh yeah!  I was wondering if the character was inspired by Old Man Owl in a way...

[Shadow Chaos Control]

Perhaps Longclaw is an Owl of Gahoole? She does live in another dimension. 

[Nathan]

It would be great if she  was the younger version of the old owl man from the sonic ova it’s obvious not tho because she female 

[Shadow Chaos Control]

On 11/12/2020 at 4:46 AM, Simasuu said:

I STILL haven't seen the movie but when I saw this character I thought of someone else . . .

 

Old Man.. hahahaha OVA is the best. 

[Wildcat]

I hope she survived. No reason to forget her just because she hardly appears. Surely her few details can be built on.

I would not mind seeing the lizard warrior they originally planned either. I wonder what he was all about.

[Rabbitearsblog]

9 hours ago, Wildcat said:

I hope she survived. No reason to forget her just because she hardly appears. Surely her few details can be built on.

I would not mind seeing the lizard warrior they originally planned either. I wonder what he was all about.

I'm not sure if the lizard warriors would work in the story lines they are preparing for future movies.  I mean sure, they could find some way to put them in the movies, but the lizard men were apart of a much different project before the final results in the movie and I think that the crew are trying to be more faithful to the games from this point forward.

[Wildcat]

4 hours ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

I'm not sure if the lizard warriors would work in the story lines they are preparing for future movies.  I mean sure, they could find some way to put them in the movies, but the lizard men were apart of a much different project before the final results in the movie and I think that the crew are trying to be more faithful to the games from this point forward.

Ya I guess he could show up after Robotnik is supposedly defeated as a new threat. Well assuming enough sequels are made to introduce another main villain.

[Rabbitearsblog]

On 11/19/2020 at 5:07 PM, Wildcat said:

Ya I guess he could show up after Robotnik is supposedly defeated as a new threat. Well assuming enough sequels are made to introduce another main villain.

I am curious about what villains they will introduce in later movies (if such movies are made).  Will they use the well known villains from the games like Chaos, Gerald Robotnik or Dark Gaia or will they start making up villains for future movies, like the lizard men?

[Guest]

When I first saw Longclaw, I was... not a fan. Idk why but something about them shoehorning in a random owl bothered me. I swear I nearly walked out of the cinema when they introduced that story line lol. (Then again, as a Sonic fan, I should be used to that kind of thing.)

But she's growing on me. She's not a bad character, it was just random how Sonic's backstory was made up on the spot like that.

[Rabbitearsblog]

32 minutes ago, Angyu said:

When I first saw Longclaw, I was... not a fan. Idk why but something about them shoehorning in a random owl bothered me. I swear I nearly walked out of the cinema when they introduced that story line lol. (Then again, as a Sonic fan, I should be used to that kind of thing.)

But she's growing on me. She's not a bad character, it was just random how Sonic's backstory was made up on the spot like that.

When I first saw Longclaw, I was a bit surprised at her appearance.  She was quite different from what we expected from Sonic the Hedgehog, but she started to grow on me because her appearance actually offered some backstory to Sonic, something that we never seen in the games and I appreciated the movie's attempt at giving Sonic some kind of backstory.  I just hope that they expanded on her character in future films if she appears in them.

[Wildcat]

8 hours ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

I am curious about what villains they will introduce in later movies (if such movies are made).  Will they use the well known villains from the games like Chaos, Gerald Robotnik or Dark Gaia or will they start making up villains for future movies, like the lizard men?

I would love to see Chaos but I think he’s more likely to be under someone else’s control like he was in SA. Perfect Chaos looks like a reptile. If they want to reuse the lizard warrior he could be the one trying to unleash him.

[Rabbitearsblog]

9 hours ago, Wildcat said:

I would love to see Chaos but I think he’s more likely to be under someone else’s control like he was in SA. Perfect Chaos looks like a reptile. If they want to reuse the lizard warrior he could be the one trying to unleash him.

Yeah, I can see Chaos being under someone's control.  Maybe the movie might extend on Chaos' thoughts about being forced to attack people against his will and either the Echidnas or possibly the lizard people would be responsible for controlling Chaos.

[Scritch the Cat]

As a viewer, I had no particular aversion to her.  In a far off alternate universe where I was the story editor for this movie, I’d have advised the writer(s) to scrap her, or if they really wanted to keep her, do a major rewrite to justify her.  Longclaw as she existed in that movie was fundamentally tied to the premise that Sonic’s powers can be harnessed by collecting pieces of him, and thus he and those close to him are always in danger; a story concept that I always disliked for Sonic and in fact, still do even though the film managed to be enjoyable despite it.  It feels like a lazy excuse to have both a conflict and some emotional manipulation, and that these are there at the expense of what the story was about in the games makes it hard for me to forgive.

Beyond that, though, Longclaw as written didn’t even fit well into that problematic plot.  She raises too many questions that a film like this absolutely shouldn’t.  If a hedgehog is being raised by an owl, people will wonder what happened to his biological parents.  They may well assume that they were the first victims of villains attempting to steal Sonic’s powers, but that assumption poses another question; why wasn’t Sonic traumatized and put off from relationships even earlier?  Finally, dangling all of these vague details about Sonic’s backstory just rubs in how little the film is set on Sonic’s homeworld and makes the absence even more irritating.

Of course, the flip side of this rant is that a sequel spending more time on Sonic’s world could actually answer those questions and totally redeem Longclaw for me.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Trying to be objective, Long Claw is barely a character, what we seen really isn't that great. Just a protective mum. She's mostly a plot device to set a scene.

The reason people get invested in her is because

A ) By association, to main hero.
Because whole point of Baby Sonic was to manipulate us into liking those characters (I don't mean that in a bad way, technically every story wants to make you like a characters)

B ) By Promise she represents: Sonic World
It's miracle how well movie did, considering that we all wanted to see Mobius, not boring Earth. But by existence of her (and to lesser extent, those echidna) , there is implication that writers have interests and plans about Mobian side of things. Even if sequels stay on Earth (hope not), she creates a mystery and I always appreciate that kind of fanfic fuel.

And side note, she's good addition to Sonic Lore-Wise. Unlike adding yet another main cast member like Sticks or Tangle/Whisper, she's what I call "satellite characters". She fills out a niche without taking too much time from established cast.
We don't know anything about Sonic's childhood (Archie Comics aside) but early  canon implied he was orphan raised some wood animals. Long Claw is just fleshing out this idea. Even if you prefer Jules, Bernie and Chuck (Archie/Satam), Long Claw isn't his biological mother, so your headcanons can still work.
As her own character she's expansion of Flickies Island, where birds traveled between words through Warp Rings. Coincidence? Maybe, but it's still crazy to think that even by accident Sonic's Lore is getting reinforced.
The only thing I don't like about her is her designs, it's way to realistic and plain. If games plan to really adapt her (which I would be fine with), they either need to make her more mobian like OR embrace the fact that she's different and establish she's from completely different species that Mobians (ironically we already have Babylon Rouge, decedents of aliens, but shush. Maybe they ancestors mated with mobians and each generation was more Sonic-like).

 

[Domino]

7 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

The only thing I don't like about her is her designs, it's way to realistic and plain. If games plan to really adapt her (which I would be fine with), they either need to make her more mobian like OR embrace the fact that she's different and establish she's from completely different species that Mobians (ironically we already have Babylon Rouge, decedents of aliens, but shush. Maybe they ancestors mated with mobians and each generation was more Sonic-like).

Have "Mobians" as a singular species ever been a thing outside of the Archie comics? I see a lot of fans use that term when talking about other continuities, but those parts of the franchise never seem to refer to the animal characters' species beyond "the hedgehog," "the cat," "the rabbit," etc.

 

I think the real reason Longclaw looks so different from other Sonic characters is because her design is a holdover from the movie's original visual direction. The filmmakers probably didn't think it would be worth it to redo her model when the movie's CG character designs got so drastically course-corrected for Sonic's redesign.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Personally I need word to describe Sonic like characters. "Talking animal" is both broad and uninspired, "Furry" has specific implication. Like it or not, Mobian is best we have. Even "Antro" isn't good enough. Sonic style is very characteristic, way different from Star Fox or Zootopia.