Who is your favourite side character?

[Cortez]

When we do favourite character lists Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Eggman always dominate everyone's responses and despite the fact I hate alot of them I think it's time to give the side characters a chance to shine.

My personal favourites are:

Marine the Raccoon: As if you didn't see this one coming, I love everything about Marine. In a series filled with dark troubled characters it was a breathe of fresh air to have a completely ridiculous character thrown in to make light of every situation with her nonsensical dialogue. She's irritating to the point where other characters can't even put up with her and I love that.

Wave the Swallow: It annoys me that she will forever be tied to the Babylon Rogues as I feel her design and personality outshines the other two members by LIGHTYEARS and if she were to ditch them I feel she's good enough of a character to be part of the main series. No other character is as much of a complete bitch as she is, she's shown to be genuinely impressed by Tails' Extreme Gear but tells him it's shit anyway because that's just who she is. Also S-U-C-K, SUCK.

Emerl: Turned into a serious whingey fuck after getting all 7 Chaos Emeralds but around the 4-5 mark his silly shenanigans really made me laugh, especially his conversations with Knuckles and Amy. I loved how we finally had a robot character with a funny personality rather than the BRRRRZZZZ KILL ANHILIATE stuff we usually get. Oh well he's dead now so I guess it doesn't matter anyway ;_;

Vector: Was annoying in ShTH but in Heroes he really stood out as a character. I loved how a Sonic character could talk about normal everyday things like paying the electric bill for the office without the Chaos Emeralds being involved in some shape or form. Chronicles kinda raped him by implying the Chaotix was a government run detective agency though, I preffered the idea of it being self-run and them performing tiny tasks like finding lost toys (as the Heroes manual suggests) as they never get any well paid work.

So yeah, you can't choose a main character basically.

[Diogenes]

Marine the Raccoon: As if you didn't see this one coming, I love everything about Marine. In a series filled with dark troubled characters it was a breathe of fresh air to have a completely ridiculous character thrown in to make light of every situation with her nonsensical dialogue. She's irritating to the point where other characters can't even put up with her and I love that.

Seconding this. Marine is pretty awesome because she doesn't clog things up with overwrought drama and she's not just another addition to the lineup of superpowered hotshots. She's upbeat and energetic, which fits well with the usual tone of the series, and she's amusingly cocky, and the writers didn't hesitate to call her on it. I'd really like to see her get a playable role sometime...or at least show up again and not fall into the void of Cool Characters That Sonic Team Forgot About alongside Fang and the like.

Also: Omega. People have complained that he's just a ripoff of Gamma, but in a way he's more of a parody. Whereas Gamma gained a conscience and set out to do good, Omega is petty and sort of childish and his main goal is just to destroy things to prove he is the best. It's kind of lighthearted and silly, even though he's on "Team Dark". And, y'know, it's just hard to dislike a killer robot with a huge arsenal; it's kind of a shame that Heroes was the only time it was really put to use.

[Meow]

Marine is awesome, I really enjoyed her in Rush Adventure. She made me laugh and I think it was the fact that now we had an obnoxious character that was actually intended to be that way for comedic effect, it just worked. She just fit the tone quite well and I am thankful she didn't end up as Cream 2.0.

Jet The Hawk is another favourite of mine, while I have not played Riders 2, I will say that his arrogance, lazyness, and just his attitude reflected back to me more of what Sonic SHOULD act like (or how the 90s somewhat portrayed him in the cartoons/comics) cause he was kind of a dick sorta. Jet's voice aside haha, he was a really cool character and I like his design.

The last would be Shade, I think she is the best new character in the series and I would love to see her become part of the main cast in some form. Then again I really liked what Chronicles did with the whole Echidna backstory in general. It was well done, and she was a well done character.

[Badnik Zero]

Did people not like Marine when she debuted? I'll cast the fourth vote for her. It was new to have our heroes dragged around by some hyperactive girl. It's usually Sonic who's chasing trouble. I don't usually laugh at games, but her sprites are too funny. When she puts her hands up in the air and hops around.

Can I say Chip, or is he a one shot protagonist? I don't think I can.

Rouge's terrible performance in later games put me off of her, and even when I first saw her something about her design bothered me. But Chronicles and a replay of SA2 had me liking her again. Okay, she was kind of a main character in SA2, but maybe that's her problem. She's always taking a backseat.

I like that her role in the series allows her to be a bitch without apologizing, and I wish they'd play with her gem obsession and thing with Knuckles more.

Johnny from SRA had a nice design. Torpedo plus shark is a winning formula. He's like a Jet the Hawk on the water, and an emerald villain like Fang.

Edited May 25, 2010 by Dabnikz

[Semi-colon e]

Silver if he counts. He's angsty, but well meaning, and his insecurity is something new for the Sonic series considering how confident everyone else is about their abilities and whatnot. Of course he wasn't handled that well in 06, but much better than almost everyone else (especially Knuckles). His uncertainty about doing the right thing wasn't too overblown and it would have been awesome if they focused on the moral rights and wrongs of his plot rather than the YOU'RE THE IBLIS TWIGGA bullcrap we had to put up with. All he wants to do is be a hero really and save the world, which is admirable considering everyone else is either an anti-hero or is a hero for the fun of it (Sonic).

And everyone in Team Chaotix - I love Charmy's annoyingness, Espio's parody ninja stuff but a well intentioned hero, and Vector's surprising brains and, in Heroes, how all three interacted felt so much more natural and amusing then the other three teams. They should appear more often and together. Espio also joined up with Silver in the Rivals games, but I don't really know much about that. I'm sure it was interesting to see.

[Iceman Etika]

Emerl: Ah yes, one character that provided me with many laughs. Especially since Sonic Battle is my favorite Sonic game of all time, I have thoroughly examined his personality at all the stages he began to talk, and his logic always remained the same, but the way he talked would change though.

Really fun though. When I saw they bought him back as Gmerl for Sonic Advance 3, I was hoping that he'd be reanimated with his old persona intact, but sadly no.

I take the opinion that Emerl needs a comeback in some form or fashion.

[Tori Himemiya]

Emerl might not count as a side character because he was the main focus in Sonic Battle. He even had his own episode too. But then he blew up and ended up being recycled as a mid-boss.

Not to mention he overthrows Eggman in the extra stage.

And he doesn't even appear elsewhere. Its like he really did die. D:

Gamma is an intersting character though he might fall under side character now. He was the first robot to show character development. And ended up "dying" for the greater good. Gamma has popped up quite a bit dispite his "death." He was an unlockable character in Sonic Shuffle and he has a new model by the name Chaos Gamma in Battle. But however he became Eggman's guard robot and was just mad because he didn't had his emerald. He did developed but not much. Also Omega spiritually stole Gamma's role. I did like Gamma's development, something Omega lacks of but what can you do with a kick ass robot that wants to destroy?

Oh and Big the cat. He was hated to the point that you liked him. Come on. He's a big fluffy cat looking for his best friend. What's there not to love?

Edited May 25, 2010 by Malice Misery

[Vertekins]

I thought Tikal was very interesting. Her powers and incorporeal existence are quite uncommon. I mean, only a few characters have ever had the power to travel to the past and interact with everything in the past as if they have a solid existence there WITHOUT a source of power to pull it off with and Sonic was the only other character who had an existence outside his body akin to Tikal's spirit orb (His blue wind-like apparition form). She also has a lovely and calm, benevolent personality and apart from Shade, is the only female echidna so far shown in the games, which leads me onto another thing; Is Echidna gender strictly one-sided? I.e Males far outnumber females and this could have ultimately led to their extinction after the Chaos incident? There's a good few male Echidna warriors in the past who claim that their grandmother called the creatures around the shrine Chao. Tikal's grandmother is identified as the one who called named the species, so are these Echidna warriors Tikal's brothers/cousins? Or do the Echidna's name their matriarch "Grandmother" without having a blood relation to her?

Either the Echidna species birth very few females, they're inbred or their females are VERY cloistered. It seems the same with the Nocturnus.

[Badnik Zero]

I forgot to mention Shahra and Merlina. Whoever this girl is she's interesting. She probably plays a pivotal role in every storybook universe, and she makes a good companion for Sonic. Unlike that other human girl. Well she's not exactly human, but you know what I mean. She's got somewhat of a traitorous streak in the games too, which makes you wonder who she could be in the real world. Love interest for Robotnik? I heard someone suggest she's just an ordinary librarian who cares for these books. And maybe enters them in a NiGHTS kind of way. She should cameo in the next big game as a regular person, it'd make me really happy.

Edited May 25, 2010 by Dabnikz

[Chooch]

Emerl is fucking awesome. One of the best characters ever created for the series. Ability wise personality wise, whatever else.

Seeing him mature and evolve over the course of Sonic Battle was an amazing treat.

[Dr. Crusher]

I'm not entirely sure what does and doesn't count with the term "side character", so I'll just talk about characters that have only been in (so far) one game and/or always on the sidelines.

E-102 Gamma is the better Proto-Shadow as I see it. He's a standard Robotnik creation, gets a conscience courtesy of Amy not moaning about Sonic for more than five seconds, goes out to right his (or rather, Robotnik's) wrongs by offing his offspring and "freeing" them, and eventually offing himself to join them. Forget overly-dark plots about time travel or gray morality - that right there is deep enough for me. It's simple, it's easy to understand, and it's beautiful. Gamma is a character that Shadow failed to be - one that served his purpose and departed, being fondly remembered in our hearts. Forever.

Then again Battle featured Chaos Gamma, but technically he's not the real Gamma, so it's all good. Too bad Shadow never got a clue from ol' E-102...

Tikal the Echidna is probably the only level-helper character I could fully tolerate and enjoy, Bad-Good helpers not included.

There's more than that obviously - in the midst of bitter, angry echidnas who only care about power and... more power I guess, particularly the mighty one known as Pachacamac, there resides said chief's daughter, who's long absence has greatly upsetted me to no ends (inb4Gamma/Shadow Hypocrite). She wasn't totally annoying like freaking Omochao, no, she just remained her friendly orb/echidna self and got the job done. Tikal cared about both her clan and fellow soon-to-be bats*** lunatic Chaos, even if this revelation was greeted with old father's commands of his groupies to run over her and some Chao friends (what a b**tard - Robotnik should take notes from this guy). She didn't try to be annoying or fast or something else that she's clearly not - she remained as herself. It's difficult to explain.

Overall, I thought she was a really nice character, and it's a sad sight to see that she's basically ended up as a part of the Rejects Gang with Nack and the rest - c'mon SEGA. Trade Tikal with Shadow! C'mon - you know you want to. Besides, when there's a Tikal, there'll probably be a Chaos as well, and I think we can all agree that we'd like to see him again too. When was the last time we saw him, Battle?

King Boom Boo is a good Giant Space Flea From Nowhere boss to me. I feel he could be the King Boo of the Sonic games, and not just because he has "King" and "Boo" in his name - he could show up from time to time, serving as a random boss within all the masses of evil Badniks and machines. In terms of evilness and threat-level, he'd be in the "middle ground" - much more than silly hooligans like Nack, but not as much as full-blown supervillains like Robotnik. He would have an army of the ghosts from SA2, and maybe even the ghosts from Sandopolis Zone. He can't be a "king" of nothing after all.

E-123 Omega is absolutely hilarious. While he was truly great stuff to begin with, Chronicles came along and now he can use his MEATBAGS to counter attack Robotnik's PINGAS. And seeing him read the credits while trying (and failing) to make jokes despite being a machine... gotta love it. In fact, I'd say those were some of the best Sonic credits ever. The only thing that would have made those credits even better is by having the Sonic 3 Credits theme playing with image montages of Robotnik in the background.

By the way, I believe Omega counts since he's never really that important in all his roles - usually he's either just a fellow Shadow rookie or just another member in the group. So yeah, Omega rocks. Here's hoping he keeps ranting about organic beings in the very near future.

Emerl/G-Mel was a nice experiment - I could understand why his attitude kept changing - the Emeralds affected him greatly after all. Seeing him slowly but surely develop and gain more powers and emotion as time went on with each inserted Emerald was definitely something to behold. It was awesome to see Sonic and Tails and all the rest and even lousy old Shadow joining in to help him in life and make him feel confident about his skills... and then even moreso when Robotnik revealed himself to be the true b**tard he really is and shot all those hopes and dreams down, forcing Sonic to kill the maniac Gizoid. Clearly a depressing challenge.

Luckily he's not truly dead, as Tails was a good sport in modifying G-Mel's body to be Emerl's new home... but ever since then he's been unnecessarily absent. We see Cream a fair bit, and even Vanilla occasionally, but no G-Mel? I don't get it. He doesn't have to make a spectacular appearance or anything - just have him join Sonic or Tails in a duo/trio taking on Robotnik's armies and you're set. Simple.

The G.U.N Commander is the So Bad It's Good type. He's so much of a hypocritical idiot and a large ham that I love it. Now if only G.U.N wasn't so much of a generic military unit...

Sonic Man was the only worthwhile Sonic 2006-exclusive character. Bring him back. I don't even care if you don't appreciate him, just bring his sorry ass back - and promote him to be the Sonic equivalent of Captain Quark.

Marine the Raccoon is a BIG refreshment from Shadow and the like. After the onslaught on darkness and despair that was Sonic 2006's storyline, it was good to be immediately comforted by this strange loony austrailian raccoon girl and her ships. She was fun and happy, which was always one of the points of the entire Sonic feeling, if that makes sense. I know many will disagree with me on this, but she didn't actually annoy me. Like, at all. I mean, I get angry at Amy being a retard but I don't get bothered by Marine's babbling. Never. Not at the beginning. Not at the middle. Not at the end. Even with RIPPER this and DUNNIE that, I just carried on with the game, going "oh, that Marine". Hell, I'd even go as far as to say that the whole "you're a nuisance" bit near the end made me frown, but I suppose it was necessary in order for her to develop. She even said in the ending that she would be "grown up the next time they (Sonic & Tails) visit"... which makes it all the more upsetting if we never see her again.

Like I've said many times beforehand, should she appear again (and damn I really hope she does), just expand on her "mystery" Egg Wizard-stopping powers (water powers would likely be the most logical, for obvious reasons), make her a bit more mature, don't go as overboard with the austrailian gig, and there you go. Also, I'd like to see her make more of her own ships, like how Tails makes his own planes. Of course, she shouldn't just do that alone like what Tails does these days - in fact, I suppose Marine could serve as Blaze's Tails - the proper competent kind of Tails that is, not the Post-SA2 hold-hands Tails.

Well yeah, I suppose most people prefer Cream to be Blaze's Tails, but screw it - I'd take Marine over Cream anyday.

In fact, just do us all a favour and fuse Blaze's dimension with Sonic's dimension permanently. Makes a whole lot of things much easier. There would be no migranes for whenever Blaze or Marine show up. Heck, we might even see more of the Coconut Crew, they were cool. Now we just have Silver and Nega to deal with...

Johnny is another Rush Adventure-featured character that I loved. I'd have included Whisker as well, but since he was the "main" villain (before more awesomeness was processed in the form of a Hijack By Robotnik), I suppose he doesn't count. Johnny didn't do much, just challenge you to the Chaos Emeralds and a duel fight with you pitted against him and Whisker - and that's why he (and Whisker) get points. After all the stupid robot traitors who overthrow Robotnik because they're not man enough to accept that they're the b**ches, it was a pleasant surprise to see Johnny (and Whisker) stay loyal and do their damn jobs. Sadly Whisker passed away due to Ghost Titan Asplode, but since Johnny just ran away and never actually died, I'd like to see him again (preferably working for Robotnik rather than Nega). Unlike all of Sonic's other "rivals", who want revenge or live alone or have tragic pasts or whatnot, Johnny just wants to be the best and doesn't feel like letting some punk blue hedgehog take the title from him. Which may also apply to Jet, and he's alright as well, but I just like Johnny more.

I also think that Johnny may be one of the (game-exclusive, meaning not including Scratch/Grounder and the like) very few "important" Robotnik robots that doesn't resemble another character - Sonic's got Metal Sonic and Mecha Sonic, Knuckles has Metal Knuckles and Mecha Knuckles, Tails has Tails Doll, Robotnik has Egg Robo and Whisker, Emerl has G-Mel, all E-Series look slightly like each other, and there's all those Shadow Androids. But Johnny not only has his own unique form, but he's got a torpedo for a f***ing head. And he calls himself the goddamn "Sultan of Speed". My god, Johnny's just made of awesome. End of story. Definitely one of Robotnik's greatest creations as far as I'm concerned.

Also 100% more CHECK THIS OUT.

Shade the Echidna doesn't tickle everyone's fancy, I can kinda guess that. They say things like "oh it's just Blaze in echidna form" and "meh just another blank emotionless character with no personality other than being a Fake Badass", and I can see what they mean. This is largely why I wish Chronicles 2 would just show up and happen - because that would likely develop her into more than what she currently is. Remember, unlike many other characters who usually have their magical mystery problems/story resolved in a day, Shade's story isn't over. It's likely that she wouldn't appear in anything else but a second Chronicles (which is a shame IMO) and for the sake of development, I, as with Marine, would really like to even so much as see Shade again let alone expand on her.

Nevertheless, I still like her for what she is at the moment. I don't see her as a Echidna-Blaze or a Shadow 3.0. I know it's been done various times before (read: Knuckles and Silver, funnily enough), but I always like a good "sees the error of his/her ways" story, especially when it comes in the form of a traitor backstabbing her in light of his true goals (the proper good S3&K Robotnik kind, not the "rahh you want to control everything I want to destroy everything rahh" giant monster kind). Even more epic when said traitor happens to be the leader. Speaking of which, Imperator Ix is another character that I like, but as with Whisker, he probably doesn't count since he's the primary villain.

Anyways, back to Shade - she seems to be well-rounded overall - she's not whiny and annoying like Amy, she's not weak and useless like Cream, she's not a total bitch like Wave, she's not... "revealing" like Rouge - no, she's cool enough to fight the good fight and seems to care about her teammates and generally hopes for the best for the Nocturnous and the world. She's also not insanely overpowered like Shadow and Co. fellow crew members, so yeah. That helps.

Professor Pickle is a good example of how you can still make non-Robotnik humans important without screwing the whole thing up. He didn't steal anyone's spotlight - he just served as a jolly old fellow that worked alongside Tails and told Sonic the important details. Hey, he didn't get kidnapped more times than Princess Peach/whine endlessly and turn off a machine that sends Sonic back to his home world/turn into Super Pickleman and defeat Perfect Dark Gaia alongside Super Sonic whilst ignoring Tails, and that alone gives him my respect.

Plus, y'know, cucumber sandwiches.

Unleashed NPCs were really nice. Sonic 2006 and even SA1's NPCs were rather... bland. None of them were ever that unique aparty from the aforementioned epic Sonic Man. Then Unleashed came along and gave us wonderful and colourful gems such as a top-hatted gentlemen with a Chao puppet and a man who tries to come on to Sonic. Unlike "normal" humans, these designs felt more right for a Sonicy world IMO. They didn't look out-of-place when sat next to Sonic. Screw what others say, I liked the Pixar-ish designs. I'll take those over any Soleanna citizen anyday.

There's more to come, but that'll do for now.

[Vertekins]

Unleashed NPCs were really nice. Sonic 2006 and even SA1's NPCs were rather... bland. None of them were ever that unique aparty from the aforementioned epic Sonic Man. Then Unleashed came along and gave us wonderful and colourful gems such as a top-hatted gentlemen with a Chao puppet and a man who tries to come on to Sonic. Unlike "normal" humans, these designs felt more right for a Sonicy world IMO. They didn't look out-of-place when sat next to Sonic. Screw what others say, I liked the Pixar-ish designs. I'll take those over any Soleanna citizen anyday.

Indeed. Unleashed's NPC's were chock full of character and charm. What's not to love about Teanchai's possessiveness of his daughter, Rudy in Adabat? Or the painfully shy Wentos and his freaky talking Chao handpuppet? Or dare I say Anastasia's distaste for Eric's jibber jabber in Apotos whilst she's lost her teeth? Or Denise's eternal frustration with Mauro's antics in Spagonia?

Honestly, if they can create such endearing human characters like they did in Unleashed, I am fully in support of humans in Sonic games.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

For me, it would have to be Rouge, Metal Sonic, Charmy, Chip, and Merlina.

Rouge, because there aren't many characters who are in her position. She's a government spy, and does her job effectively. I don't know, there's just something that attracts me to strong female characters who maintain feminity while not being such a sex object. Okay, you could argue that Rouge is a sex object...by appearance, but if you take a look at the character side of her, you'd see more of a stronger person. Yes, she's flirtatious, no one will (or should) deny that, but being a flirt isn't the same as being a sex object, and we usually associate that more towards bimbos, of which Rouge is not.

Metal Sonic, because of the potential really. He was the first effective clone of Sonic, but he still falls short in comparison to Shadow. Metal has so much potential to become more than what he is, but Shadow has already done almost everything he could have and more. His ability to copy is the only thing that Shadow does not have, and even then we got Emerl for that. Regardless, I think there is some greater use for this guy, tho too bad Sonic Team is barely using him. Heroes was a good start, only for it to fall apart in the end.

Charmy. A lot of people hate the guy because he's annoying, but I like him because that was the freaking point in his characterization. A silly, hyperactive character who provides some form of comedic relief. I'll admit, he hasn't done too much of it, but just thinking about what he could be is just interesting.

Chip. Seriously, Chip dodged a BIG ass bullet (more like a cannonball *rimshot*) in Unleashed. I practically went along with everyone else's thoughts on what he might be, while at the same time giving him the benefit of the doubt as to what he could be. He could have easily been a character which I wouldn't care too much about, or a character I could end up liking, and he actually became the latter. Chip doesn't really talk too much for the most part, which is kind of ironic considering that he has the mentality of a child. He's almost like Charmy, except he's much less hyper in comparison. It was really predictable that he would end up becoming Light Gaia (okay, maybe not as predictable as I thought, but we did expected it somewhere around the game), but other than that, the guy actually brought out some good traits in Unleashed's story that I thought couldn't have been done without him.

Merlina, only because of the plot twist in SatBK. Seriously, whoever wrote that story deserves a medal for successfully pulling off a decent plot twist that hasn't been done as well since SA2. I thought that she would be on the good guys side, and honestly, it was that front that she had that made sure no one saw comming that she would be the main antagonist. What's even more so is because she wasn't exactly anything you would call a villain either. She wanted to make sure that the land she lived in never ended, and I think that's all something we would relate to. But still, it's not often that we get a twist like that, and even more so that we get an actual villainess in the series.

A few things that irk me a bit tho...

Gamma is a character that Shadow failed to be - one that served his purpose and departed, being fondly remembered in our hearts. Forever.

Since when does any character serve a single purpose and depart? There really isn't any character who serves that role unless the writers decide to do so, and if the character can be put to more than one use, they should be all up for it. I mean, you could say the very same thing for Metal Sonic in CD, Knuckles after S3&K, or Blaze in Rush, or Silver in 06, and especially Big during his first role in SA1 (lord knows that we didn't want to see him again until we felt a little lukewarm for him). But they've all been put to more than just one use, so I doubt Gamma OR Shadow (and any other character for that matter) are just limited to just one purpose.

Then again Battle featured Chaos Gamma, but technically he's not the real Gamma, so it's all good. Too bad Shadow never got a clue from ol' E-102...

He doesn't need to.

He does his own thing. (yeah, he could've done better, but still )

Edited May 26, 2010 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Aquaslash]

Well, let's take a look at my favorite 5 characters:

1. Sonia

2. Silver

3. Metal Knuckles

4. Metal Sonic

5. Eggman Nega

It seems my favorite characters ARE side characters =P

[Dr. Crusher]

Since when does any character serve a single purpose and depart? There really isn't any character who serves that role unless the writers decide to do so, and if the character can be put to more than one use, they should be all up for it. I mean, you could say the very same thing for Metal Sonic in CD, Knuckles after S3&K, or Blaze in Rush, or Silver in 06, and especially Big during his first role in SA1 (lord knows that we didn't want to see him again until we felt a little lukewarm for him). But they've all been put to more than just one use, so I doubt Gamma OR Shadow (and any other character for that matter) are just limited to just one purpose.

I'll give you Metal, but Knuckles/Blaze/Silver/Big have one thing over Gamma - they didn't die.

Yeah, they could bring back Gamma, they could do it at any point in time - but it would just mess things up. Besides, Gamma's not Gamma without the bird inside him.

To be fair, I do wish Silver would just go away.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I'll give you Metal, but Knuckles/Blaze/Silver/Big have one thing over Gamma - they didn't die.

Technically, neither did Shadow when he survived in Heroes somehow...

Still, character's don't need to die to be said to fulfill their purpose and leave/perish.

Blaze and Silver would've just stayed in their respective dimensions, Knuckles could've stayed on the floating island, and Big...well before he eventually got a lot of fans, we could've just not seen him again.

But since Metal fits the bill exactly in regards to Shadow and Gamma, he's a prime example of a character who could "die" and comeback with a better (or at least a bigger) purpose. My point is that there's no such thing as a character with just one purpose, and yes you could very well say that for bland characters like Elise.

Yeah, they could bring back Gamma, they could do it at any point in time - but it would just mess things up. Besides, Gamma's not Gamma without the bird inside him.

Get him a new bird then? To be fair, the animal wasn't really much of a concern until the end, and I don't exactly think it was the bird that was controling him than it was the actual robot glitching up it's main programming somehow.

But I digress. If it was easy for Metal Sonic to comeback, the same can be done for any character that meets a similar demise so long as there is no ambiguity in their supposed deaths/departure. It would've been easy to bring Shadow back without mucking up his character with the whole amnesia thing in Heroes - ShTh.

Still, that's all I really wanted to say. I'm just not someone who likes thinking that a character has one purpose and that's it.

Edited May 26, 2010 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Arioch]

Vector has always been my favorite side character. I've always been fond of detective characters, and he fits the bill. As one of the members brought to our attention he's a normal character. Talking about paying his bills.

Another individual that has appealed to me is Rouge. The fact she's a spy and isn't one to use her sex appeal for every scenario (if she's even used it), earns respect in my book. Most characters in her shoes are developed the same way, as ChaosSupremeSonic brought to our attention, as an sex object.

[Chaosmaster8753]

Well, let's take a look at my favorite 5 characters:

1. Sonia

2. Silver

3. Metal Knuckles

4. Metal Sonic

5. Eggman Nega

It seems my favorite characters ARE side characters =P

Sonia wasn't a side character.

[Nepenthe]

Back on the subject of Gamma and Shadow's deaths: The two events are different which is half of why comparing them seems silly. The former's was a necessarily evil while the latter's was a tragic happenstance, hence why they should be treated differently. The other half of my reasoning comes from the notion that the actual validity of Shadow's good-doing now seems as if it was dependent on his death, and I think such a conclusion misses a huge point. I mean, you don't chide a fireman who rescued a family because he was successfully resuscitated. =/

But I didn't come here to defend Shadow; I came here to praise Chip! I love that little bugger. He plays his role as a classic comedic sidekick to a T. He annoys and even argues with the main hero at the audience's pleasure and tries his best to put on a brave front in the heat of battle. But when push comes to shove, he is a true friend to the hero and has his back, and is actually capable of defending himself and the hero despite his cowardice or lacking ability to be threatening most of the time. CSS makes a good point in that he doesn't talk too much, which plays well to his strength as amusing background fodder. He's a fun distraction from otherwise arbitrary scenes; My favorite example of such is his epic journey to get some more tea in Professor Pickle's lab, especially since it took me awhile to notice how quickly he snatched the kettle off the table. At the risk of ire, I would say that if Chip didn't have the whole god baggage weighing his down from even canonically appearing anymore, I would seriously want him to be a regular sidekick.

[gato]

So yeah, you can't choose a main character basically.

So I can't talk about Big?

...

Anyways, I have a big ass post but the electricity went out and I don't want to do it again, so long story short:

I like the Chaotix for being a team with such a difference betweem their members, one could only ask why they are thogether, maybe they met in the 32x era dn they became friends after that...

I like all the Sonic Rush Adventure cast, they were a blow of fresh air in a series wich was going in a really serious direction, villains like Whisker and Johnny were something I really missed, Marine was awesome from begining to the end and the coconut crew were some really good NPC's, everyone wich their distinctive character and personalities (I think the NPC's in unleashed follow a similar line) , anyways, I don't know if I should include Mini & Mum as part of the cast..

I like Tikal because she had one of the most epic backstories in the sonic series, actually, she is one of the few characters in the sonic series who has a (somewhat) complete backstory (or at least we know who was her father, we can't say the same about the rest of the cast).

I could same pretty much the same about gamma, also, it's kind of sad watch the whole life of a charater in like... 1 hour (depending how good you are at the game, it could be less).

Sonicman: he is awesome and he needs to come back, period.

I also like Omega, I love how it starts like another shady guy (lol) and slowly starts to care for his teammates, actually, since Shadow lost his memory in Heroes, I could say he got through the same development as his robotic friend (?).

Wave, I like her because she is kind of different to the rest of the female cast, I pretty much agree with Prof. K J

Emerl: this only character (gameplay and personality wise) made Sonic Battle one of my top ten Sonic games.

EDIT: I also forgot, the whole cast of unleashed is awesome, except for Dark Gaia.

Now I want some cucumber sandwiches. I'm surprised nobody mentioned them in the "make me a sandwich" topic.

Edited May 26, 2010 by imarafan

[agoodusername]

First is a tie between Blaze, Silver and Marine. Blaze had the bad past which kinda killed everything that was cool about her! I mean, she has a great character design, great skills, she acted as comic relief in SRA whenever you got to Sky Babylon, and when she does open up to new people, she can be very lovable, also she has a great sense of maturity, and is very trustworthy. Silver had the depth of his immaturity clashing with his sense of justice that pretty much no character has, also I love his design. Marine was just so original and fresh, she made one of my already favorite games, even better!

Second would be, if it counts, Old Man Owl. I don't even need to say why.

Third is the Robot that Eggman hung out with in Unleashed, that guy's advice was hilarious.

Fourth is either Prof. Pickle, cause everything about him is awesome.

Fifth would have to be Chip, while he is sort of a rip-off of Marine, he was still a pretty funny character, and actually made me successfully laugh while playing a Sonic game that was not Sonic Rush Adventure.

Edited May 26, 2010 by Edge

[Cortez]

Sonia wasn't a side character.

Yeah but she's not a main character in the games so it still counts I suppose.

I'm only really counting Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy and Eggman as the 'main' characters since they're the most recurring and have the biggest roles.

[agoodusername]

Yeah but she's not a main character in the games so it still counts I suppose.

I'm only really counting Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy and Eggman as the 'main' characters since they're the most recurring and have the biggest roles.

And it's sad, because if you look on this site... nobody likes Shadow! *shot*

Also, "Who is your favorite side character- Let's bring out the love" I see what you did there...

Edited May 26, 2010 by Edge

[Frozen Nitrogen]

Rouge: The bat is fun because, amongst a horde of heroic, chivalrous forest critters who want to dave the world then dance around in the sunshine, she's pretty much the opposite of what Sonic Team is - a self-inteested bitch. Just play Battle - some of her bitch lines against Amy are brutal. Sonic states outright that none of the others trust her in Chronicles; not because she's inherantly evil like Robotnik, but rather because they all know she's only looking out for herself.

Her relationship with GUN is ambiguous and interesting; at times, she can be a diligent operative (SA2), but when a mission doesn't interest her she approaches it with complete disregard (Chronicles, where she gets you to stop bringing her tech and is relieve when you promise to drop it, so she can get back to important things "like sitting around looking pretty").

Espio: He's kinda the minor-character version of Fleetway Knuckles these days - a Zen warrior-monk who finds himself in the company of irresponsible hotheads. Also, he can turn invisible and walk up walls. Awesome.

Edited May 26, 2010 by Frozen Nitrogen

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

And it's sad, because if you look on this site... nobody likes Shadow! *shot*

Uh-huh?

Well as long as I'm carrying nukes, I think I can force everyone to like Shadow.

Edited May 26, 2010 by ChaosSupremeSonic