“Everyone likes to come up with new Metal-versions of characters, and Archie/Ian handled robians and the Egg Bosses really well. But only the likes of AoStH (and rarely StC I think) truly gave badniks, robots built mostly from scratch, a significant amount of agency as full blown characters with some sense of personality. Given that world isn't the most grounded (as much as I love it), Badnik-Characters in game-canon has even more potential.” Thank you so much, I thought I was the only one who thought Badniks and entirely robotic characters could have personalities. It’s really nice to see someone who cares about the unconventional bots, and I really appreciate the work you put into all of them.
@putuksstuff @exhausted-drone
Thank you, all of you! I try my best, and thankfully I don't have any concerns of "marketing" or whatever else holding me back, haha. I can sort of understand the logic that keeps it from happening in actual canon games.
"They're Enemies. Use 'em for homing attack chains, don't assume any of them are sentient. People relate more with fleshy characters that can express themselves better. If we're gonna design a new character, they should be something people are more comfortable with and aren't cannon-fodder."
Meanwhile, the mario fandom has a metric butt-ton of fans that adore goombas and koopa troopas and dry bones and hammer bros and boos, etc, and that's even ignoring the mario RPG games that give them even more personality and presence (ignoring Sticker Star, anyway....)
It just feels... Off. Like I get that you can always assume a badnik is kind of a hostage situation... except when you have Metal or Omega who conveniently never get addressed as to what powers them half the time. Or how badniks in Unleashed and other games just didn't run on animals. Or how Sonic doesn't exactly attempt to save any animals that get freed over bottomless pits.
Clearly there can be simple ways to communicate a sentient badnik is special. We already assume the power source thing is a non-issue if it's not being addressed. Just say the non-sentient ones usually run on animal batteries, and special ones get more specialized, sustainable power sources. Every reason you can give against the idea is basically moot because the series breaks its own rules on almost everything with every other installment.
Just give us a cute Motobug that says things. Just give us a Crabmeat that likes to play catch. Take the Portal Turret route where they're deadly but also really, really cute. Everyone wants it deep down, some just don't know it yet. i am ranting and this is getting long and i probably need to stop
