I was reading your sonic characterisation post (specifically, sonic in the games is unrelatable and that's a good thing), and thought about OSP's view of his contrasting movie characterisation- movie Sonic's arc is *becoming* game sonic in a way that makes sense, because in movies he has to be introduced to a younger audience before they go play the games.
Game sonic being functionally perfect works because his character arc, if you could call it that, is applying his skills to be the kind of person the rest of his cast and the plot need. Frontiers was the closest we've gotten to an "arc" from him in some time, and that was again being the person his friends need as *they* grow and change, to become "game sonics" on their own. IDK, I just think it's neat. Sorry this is a bit disorganised I just really liked your post.
Hey, thanks for sharing your thoughts! I appreciate that you liked my post enough to think more deeply about it and consider it in the context of the writing and handling of movie Sonic, because how these characters compare and contrast is an interesting discussion, albeit one that is hard for me to have specifically due to the wide celebration of the Sonic movies being seen as amazing video game adaptations by the general populace.
At this point in time, I don't agree with the notion that movie Sonic is becoming game Sonic. Honestly, it stopped being Sonic the second he was given a dead owl mom and a traumatic backstory to encourage the viewer to feel bad for him, so whatever they do now is for naught unless they just completely ignore that backstory they already established and make it ineffectual to all of his motivations and decisions, which would just create a new problem of being, generally, pretty bad writing. If it is a goal to get new fans to play the games, then it is rather questionable to present a completely different Sonic as encouragement when there's no guarantee they will even enjoy game Sonic if they enjoy movie Sonic.
Even if this was what they were going for, the concept of forcing myself to suffer through years of sequels to see the main character be like what they were in the source material is a practice in "cinematic universes" that shouldn't be normalized as much as it is. If I end up enjoying the sixth movie because they finally made Sonic act like Sonic that still leaves five movies over the span of >10 wasted years that I dislike (because, among other reasons I do not enjoy these movies, Sonic's character is perhaps the biggest.) Quite frankly, they already made their message loud and clear by throwing out game Sonic right away and just doing what they want in accordance with current consumer trends, so for my own sanity, I'm going to assume that they are never going to make movie Sonic faithful for the sake of capital returns instead of convincing myself of the false hope that it might happen someday in the next decade.
I feel I must emphasize, with the point you brought up about how movie Sonic is different because of a younger audience: Sonic was always for a younger audience. Sonic games are already for children. He didn't need to become Sonic, he just was already Sonic. I see what you're saying with Frontiers and how it can mirror movie Sonic growing into his own like Amy/Knuckles/Tails grow into their own. The thing is, characters besides Sonic serve a different role than Sonic himself, which is why they even exist in the first place. Switching the roles here is missing the point, because these are not interchangeable aspects of the characters. They achieve opposite effects. The reason Sonic doesn't tend to have a full-on narratively-focused arc where he changes fundamentally is not because Sonic has no weaknesses, or because he's literally perfect. It's because none of his weaknesses are treated, by the narrative, as things to be fixed. When this is flipped on its head, he is being presented as the antithesis of this concept, which therefore removes the feeling that this character is Sonic the Hedgehog.
This idea that movies about preexisting franchises need to ease in slowly into things by writing the characters as different characters in a banal real life world to appeal to the new generation/people new to the franchise may be a popular trend these days, but it's ultimately not true. Movies can be anything, and with the right execution, can communicate anything. They can be faithful and appeal to new audiences, these are not mutually exclusive at all like so many people argue them to be. The key difference between games and movies is that games have additional gameplay elements that add to the storytelling that movies do not, so movie writers should consider how to supplement this. It's actually an interesting topic that is outside of the scope of this ask right now.
I may have rambled a bit long, but these feelings have been stewing for a while in my chest. Thanks for taking the time to read!
based on siggie's merhog silver au bc i fuck with that
Sonic pauses with his chopsticks halfway to his mouth, a slice of tuna sashimi held between them. He's being watched—which isn't an uncommon occurrence when he's on the pier, but this time the gaze affixed to his face is particularly intense.
The merhog's iridescent eyes are aimed unerringly at his face. They never actually close; when it blinks its eyes are momentarily covered by a translucent film that clearly still allows it to see. That level of intense scrutiny definitely took some getting used to when the merhog first pulled himself halfway out of the water next to Sonic's seat at the pier. Even now it's a little much, sometimes.
Sonic looks hesitantly between his chopsticks and the merhog. "Do you want some?" He moves the chopsticks in the merhog's direction. After a second has passed without it taking the proffered food, Sonic frowns. "Or is that, like, canniba—"
In a flash, the merhog leans forward and snatches the fish from between the chopsticks. Sonic gets his first good look at its teeth when it does so—and it kind of takes his breath away.
The merhog's mouth is full of not just one, but several rows of razor sharp teeth. It reminds Sonic of other sea creatures he's seen: anglerfish, moray eels, even sharks. Definitely not the teeth of a herbivore; this guy is a predator, through and through.
It's not really surprising, then, that the merhog bites off much more than just the piece of tuna; most of Sonic's chopsticks come with it, bitten cleanly off by the merhog's bite.
Sonic watches it eat. It doesn't even chew, just swallows the entire thing in one gulp. Sonic spares a moment of concern for the wooden chopsticks the merhog just swallowed—but before he can really start to worry, the merhog makes a sound like a cat hacking up a hairball and spits the pieces of wood onto the pier.
"Okay..." Sonic says slowly. He sets his now useless chopsticks down without looking away from the merhog. "So, clearly eating fish isn't a problem for you."
The merhog, as always, doesn't answer. All it does is tilt its head slightly to the side, eyes going milky as he blinks. And why wouldn't it? Just because Sonic now knows it could easily take a chunk out of him doesn't mean it couldn't do that before. If the merhog was going to attack him, it would have.
Still. It's probably stupid—not to mention incredibly dangerous—for Sonic to do what he does next. He can't help it; he wants another look at those teeth.
He picks up another piece of sashimi between his fingers and holds it out. After another moment of stillness the merhog moves to take it again—but Sonic moves before it can, hooking the fingers of his free hand around its cheek and pulling its mouth open.
The merhog stares at him with an expression Sonic can't interpret as anything other than confusion. Still, he knows better than to assume the merhog behaves the same way mobians do, and for a second his adrenaline spikes as he thinks I'm absolutely going to get my fucking fingers bitten off.
He doesn't. If anything the merhog opens its mouth even wider, tilting its head back to give Sonic a better view. His tongue looks surprisingly similar to Sonic's own, aside from the grayish-blue color—but when he twists it to lick at the fingers in his mouth its feels surprisingly hard, kind of rigid. Fascinated, Sonic releases the merhog's cheek and presses two fingers against that tongue, stroking across the surface of it. Then, because the merhog still isn't showing any signs of biting his hand off, he runs the tips of his fingers along the sharp edges of its teeth.
It's at that moment that Sonic thinks what the fuck am I doing? and withdraws his hand. "Sorry," he says, even though the merhog can't understand him. "Here." He tosses the fish in the merhog's direction. It goes slightly wide; Sonic is expecting the merhog to dive for it, but instead the piece gets enveloped by a sort of teal energy and floats gently into the merhog's mouth.
Yeah. Yeah, okay. Might as well. Sonic's life is already weird enough with a mythical creature hanging around all the time. Why shouldn't it have telekinetic powers?
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