#crusher's asks

[crusherthedoctor]

In your opinion, do you feel like Sonic is a Gary-Stu? It really seems like he can say or do no wrong no matter what he does or who he interacts with, don’t get me wrong, main character, but idk he feels like an all powerful entity rather than “just a guy who loves adventure”. The only time he actually feels like a character is in Sonic Boom (despite being a grumpy twat) and Twitter Takeover and idk how I feel about that lol

Overall, no. Sonic is the central protagonist, and also one who is meant to inspire, so it's to be expected that he gets away with a lot of big moments. He's also not an outlier within his own franchise since you have characters like Knuckles, Shadow, and Blaze alongside him.

While there are some gripes towards how the rest of the cast are usually treated, as well as Sonic's quips towards Eggman often being seen by fans as proof that the doctor is a joke and thus not main villain material, ultimately those are more to do with their narratives as a whole, rather than Sonic's contribution specifically (eg: said plots bringing in villain replacements and doing the cheerleader schtick with the cast). You don't need to change anything about Sonic in order to solve those issues. Or to put it in another way, you can elevate the others without bringing down him.

I do think that Sonic's flaws can be downplayed compared to those of the other characters, but unfortunately, writers can't seem to rectify that without going too hard the other way and revolving the entire plot around what a fuck up he is so that everyone can give him endless grief over it, like in Rise of Lyric and Prime, or portraying him inaccurately and claiming the flaws he exhibits are those he always had when they're not, like in IDW.

[crusherthedoctor]

Do you headcanon Sonic is an morally ambiguous character?

No. Black Knight's portrayal receives a lot of buzz over him saying he doesn't mind playing the villain now and then, but fans tend to read into that too literally. He's referring to how others perceive him and that he considers it no big deal if he's doing what he feels is right (the only exception to this is when he's been painted as something he's not, or framed for something he didn't do).

Sonic is a hero through and through. He just so happens to also be ruthless with villains when he deems it necessary, and he does heroic feats not out of a sense of obligation, but because he just wants to do it. In Black Knight's case, despite Sonic's image to the cast in-universe, we - the audience - know that he's making the best decision without a doubt.

Being a true blue hero with his characteristics is part of what makes Sonic unique. Making him go full anti-hero flattens his character and appeal, in the same way that Mr. Principles from IDW reduces him to the superhero mentality when the entire point is that he doesn't operate with that mindset.

[crusherthedoctor]

Hot take: while there's nothing wrong with an attempt to make Sonic lore more consistent and better explained, I just hope that there are still some mysteries left unanswered you know(i.e the origin of the chaos emeralds and master emeralds, what makes Sonic so special and where he's from, etc). Otherwise there would be no more discussion or intrigue.

This isn't exclusive to Sonic, but the fictional world feels a lot smaller when everything is conveniently linked to each other, and nothing is allowed to merely exist in the same universe. SA1 expanding on S3&K's lore regarding Angel Island is fine because that's focused and restrained, whereas the Frontiers and Archie method of trying to connect ALL the lore, ALL the plots, ALL the characters, sucks out the appeal and makes everything a lot more boring.

It's the same reason why I'm tired of multiverses. The goal is to be grander in scope, but all it does is render everything insignificant, thus making it harder to stay invested in what's going on with the characters.

[crusherthedoctor]

What's your opinion on 'sibling coded'?

It's dumb.

Many supposed headcanons of this type aren't genuine, it's just a means to shame people for shipping any characters at all, even if they have no biological relation whatsoever. You can pull this card with any pair of characters if you're delusional enough, and they have, so its status as a blunt object to use against fans indulging in what is ultimately harmless fun is obvious. (Disclaimer: Yes, there are ships that I scoff at, but only due to lack of interest or fatigue towards overexposure. Not because of this nonsensical line of reasoning.)

Like a lot of things among the internet landscape, much of it can be chalked up to overcorrection. For years, folks have been complaining that not every meaningful connection between two or more characters needs to be of a romantic or sexual kind. This would be a reasonable point in isolation, but now? Everyone is siblings your honor, and any hint of something else, even officially, is demonized like a little kid scared of getting cooties. I don't see how that's any more varied, because when you think about it, it's just the same problem as before but with triple the restrictions. What are you allowed to do with characters? Nuclear family, and that's it. Sounds tedious, I'll pass.

[crusherthedoctor]

The sad part is that most hardcore Lanolin defenders that label people as "sexist" for not liking or criticizing her for valid reasons are the same people who wouldn't hesitate to throw 2000s Amy and Princess Elise under the bus with takes actually fueled by misogyny.

So yeah, I can't take a lot of their counter arguments for Lanolin that boil down to "you're misogynistic" seriously with that in mind

For a fandom that nowadays consists of many a nostalgia boner for the 2000s period of the franchise, it seems a lot of them weren't around to see the nitty gritty of it and the discussions that followed, because in case anyone forgot, they could get pretty questionable and straight up ugly. Maybe those are going through their own revisionist history too lol.

Amy was done very dirty more than once in that era, with Battle!Amy being particularly baffling given that everyone else in that game was portrayed fairly well for the most part, so what the hell happened with her. Then you have Chronicles, X, and although her portrayal overall in Heroes was actually not that bad, that one scene with Team Sonic was an unfortunate stain that painted perceptions for the worse. This tends to get ignored nowadays after fans called Tails in Forces unacceptable.

As for Elise... do I need to go into her notoriety during that time? Do I need to point to all the cartoon fan-shorts that included a potshot at her expense?

They received their share of criticism back then, some legit, others bordering on actual sexism. You can largely get away with criticising Elise to this day. Only when it pertains to comic book gals is it suddenly sexist to criticise a female character. This isn't IDW-exclusive: Archie stans will never let it go if you criticise Sally.

[crusherthedoctor]

Another problem I have with lanolin is just the fact that all we see of her is just this bossy annoying and control freak, aside from one moment in urban warfare, there's nothing like hobbies, other part and all making her one dimensional.

That's why I made the meme about fans not being able to list a redeeming quality for her.

I know some protagonists can be less pristine than others, but usually they have SOMETHING to get you to root for them, and that's the case even within IDW itself. Despite their own moments of being victim to bad writing in the comic, Tangle is generally a fun-loving ball of energy who's easy to get along with, and Whisper is generally compassionate and polite in spite of her trauma. Even Jewel, weird airship stunt notwithstanding, is at least an actual friend of Tangle's.

What does Lanolin have going for her? They focused so hard on making her flawed that they forgot to give her anything else, so she only ends up being annoying and deflating any enjoyment you might be having, which is the biggest cardinal sin a character can commit, far more than "this villain did villainous things" ever will be despite what fandom would have you believe. Whatever your character's alignment is, and what their actions lead to, there needs to be a source of investment. And the only investment in this case is wanting to take Tangle and Whisper away from this cunt. So I don't think that counts.

And then you get people trying to flip the script and say that this all intentional. Even if that was actually the case, the Deadly Six swooping in to remove Eggman from his main villain position for the zombot arc climax was also intentional, and guess what: that was a terrible idea too. So was Sonic lecturing Surge on what a great guy he was.

You can't criticise Lanolin because leave her alone, she's trying her best, and you can't criticise Lanolin because she's supposed to be an arsehole and you hate problematic female characters. Which one is it. Get out of here, Jimmy Neutron.

[crusherthedoctor]

This comment

That reminds me, one bit I'm pleased with in the Stellar prologue is Sonic replying to Trudy's question on why he'd want her to tag along for the adventure with a simple "Why not?" with the usual smile.

I made a point of keeping it short and sweet while summing up who Sonic is as a character. If it were Mr. Principles, he'd be going on a lot longer, and probably degrading Trudy as well in the process.

[crusherthedoctor]

What's your favorite eggman's mech in each main games ?

Only the mainline games? So I can't include everyone's favourite boss Egg Saucer™ from Sonic Advance 2™ on the Game Boy Advance™? :<

On the plus side, that still means a lot of good ones to go through. >:] This isn't necessarily about how they function as boss fights, it's mostly on their designs or how they're used in context. Beware: most of these choices are predictable.

Simple, but a classic. Eggman introducing himself to gamers by swinging his ballsack establishes his character without the use of words.

Also a classic despite being completely laughable. I'll take this over a cyber truck any day of the week. The fact that they used this for Eggman's choice of vehicle in CrossWorlds made me shockingly happy for how minor it may seem to others (despite my criticism towards the way Flynn tends to handle them, I'm not against references, I just prefer it when they do it in a surprising and clever way).

How long did it take him to put all that bling on it.

I don't have anything unfunny to say, I just think it's a neat lava submarine.

The original "I built it like me fr" mech. I especially love its iteration in the second movie where it might as well have been the Titanic Monarch with how massive it was, on top of being pretty faithfully recreated design-wise. The movies may have their flaws, but people who say they never acknowledge the games seem to ignore this guy marking the entire climax of movie 2 for some reason.

Everyone loves to snark and cinemasins about obvious weakspots or curious design choices on other contraptions, but they can't say shit about this one, because this is flawless. It's so simple, but so beautifully effective.

I really like it in a symbolization sort of way when Eggman corrupts and weaponizes ancient monuments. Same deal with the Rusty Ruins boss. This one has a very interesting design too.

Death Egg Robot if it were featured in Absolute Batman. The Great Eggman Robo is good on its own, but it reaches top tier for context, that being the way it caps off a game that consistently showcased Eggman's relentless determination to win, including in the fight itself via making a run with the Master Emerald even after his mech went down the drain. And then Doomsday Zone after all that. This is Lex Luthor levels of unshakable hatred for the hero.

(Also, I don't know if it was an intentional reference to the Robo, but I think it's neat that the final boss in Lost World also has asymmetrical eyes.)

a really fucked up snake

Is it strange to call this one underrated? Yeah it's a famous boss and has get a load of this going for it, but I don't think enough praise is given to its bizarre design. It's like the proto-Egg Dragoon in that regard. Also has possibly the greatest explosion for any boss in the series, complete with the music dramatically cutting off and going silent the whole time. They went so extra for something that still didn't kill him.

Eggman uses Sonic's weakness of tall girl legs against him. Too bad he's fighting Tails. Seriously though, we all remember the classic moment where famous goober Dr. Eggman threatens to skin a kid. And Tumblr wants me to think he'd be horrified at Sage saying a swear word.

Yeah, I may find it slightly underwhelming that he's stuck in this one during the whole game for gameplay reasons, but in isolation, it is a handy mech. I remember when I first got to the second Tails VS Eggman fight as the former, and I hadn't completed the Dark Story yet, so I wondered where the fuck he got that red armor that was nowhere to be seen in the previous cutscene.

Before someone tries to be smart, the real Eggman used it in Generations 3DS. I know it must be hard to come up with new variations of the giant-Eggman-mech-that-looks-like-him trope for a series as long running as Sonic, so it's nice when they experiment and give us bangers like this. They had to have known this was a good one because it inspired its own donut steel in the form of ShtH's Egg Breaker.

I can't blame them for constantly bringing this one back. Look at this masterpiece of deranged genius, with two awesome boss fights for the price of one. I love how in Generations, they gave it the Egg Viper tail and the Egg Wyvern wings: I prefer that unexpected but delightful means of Eggman reusing old mechs over IDW's interpretation that he's apparently incapable of innovating in any way at all except during leap years.

Cool clockwork motif, plus it triumphantly represents Eggman finally overcoming the usual results of the giant monster trope before IDW and Frontiers made like DSP and regressed. We don't get a lot of insight on the creature itself, but I enjoy speculating on the horrific angle of it being mechanized against its will. It's the Badnik philosophy turned up to eleven.

the first form looks like the villain lyric from the acclaimed platformer sonic boom: rise of aids

I don't know why it has Doc Ock arms, but I'm glad they put them there. And I know Doomsday Zone did it first, but I still adore the concept of Eggman being mad enough to store a second mech inside the first one in the event of defeat. "Eggman can't plan" FUCK OFF Even moreso with its presentation, with the way it slowly builds up anticipation before pulling a chestburster. Even the sound design, like many aspects of Sonic Forces, is underrated here.

I like the samurai spin, and how it plays around with the Great Eggman Robo strategy. Also I hope this guy continues to haunt many fans' dreams. It's what they deserve for what they've done to my old man-shaped boy.