May I ask, what are your thought on a story involving Sonic's struggle during a emotional crisis but he still acting like himself most of the time?
honestly i think that's the most in-character kind of sonic story you can have - one that's been told in different ways multiple times in the games already.
he's faced god-level destruction of a major city, been a victim of false accusations and a manhunt from the police and military for crimes he didn't commit, had his whole body infected by the most concentrated doses of primordial dark energy from an ancient god, and ran on a ticking timer of his fast dwindling life force. these are crises running on different levels of physical and above all emotional stakes that anyone else would have understandably crumbled under at least once or twice.
and throughout all those things, while undeniably showing that he cares in the way that he perseveres, sonic remains emotionally resilient and positive. even when he thought he was going to die near the end of sa2 by eggman's trap, he gives parting words to tails and amy, reassuring them, as opposed to talking about the ordeal he's stuck in. plenty of other examples in the games abound that i won't go into here.
i think the stand-out feature about sonic is how exceptional he is in how steadfastly ordinary, positive, and kind he remains in the face of crises, physical or emotional.
this is something i think many fans of sonic misunderstand about sonic being 'an ordinary guy' - take this excerpt from matthew salesses' craft in the real world referring to kazuo ishiguro discussing how to establish the norms and expectations of a storyworld:
once I heard Kazuo Ishiguro talk about strangeness as a dial, that he thinks of it as turning the dial up or down, that if a tiger walks into a boardroom and everyone freaks out, the dial is turned down to our “reality,” and if everyone ignores the tiger, the dial is turned far up.
this is the point: if someone treats extraordinary things as if they are ordinary, and thus react in ordinary ways, the very ordinariness of their behaviour becomes extraordinary.
sonic has showcased such an extraordinarily ordinary reaction to various crises - his brand of ordinary leaning towards a steadfast positivity and not thinking all that deeply of what he feels he needs to do. even when he's actively dying. games written by sonic team, particularly before sega had pontac and graff took over writing from colours onwards, are very consistent in this characterisation of sonic. it also remains in his portrayals for short stories that sonic channel has written.
on another note, this is one of the many reasons i find portrayals of sonic in the american comics, especially idw that narratively claims to be continuous to the games, to fundamentally mischaracterise him. they feature plots with stakes either equal or comparable to what sonic has faced before - including when he is steadily dying or completely taken over by dark energy in ways that physically hinder him - and have him lose his cool and get into frustrated arguments with other characters. such a characterisation becomes jarring to fans who got to know sonic through the games, where he remains enviably steadfast and level-headed in times of objective, world-ending crises. in the comics, sonic is swayed by the negative emotional tone or frenzied nature of the crises set by the plot. in the games, he is not - thus he becomes an emotional anchor and inspiration for not only his friends but also the player.
this is also why i love the murder of sonic the hedgehog and sonic and the blade of courage. while they add their own flair and interpretations of various character details, they get the core of sonic stories unfailingly right - in times of heart-pounding, anxiety-inducing crisis, sonic is an unflappable inspiration.
sonic's emotional resilience and jaw-dropping levels of ordinariness is also why he's so damn frustrating to eggman. because villains love nothing more than to see the hope, joy, and any will towards resistance drain from the eyes of those who oppose them. and a well-written, true-to-character sonic never, ever lets that happen. because he is unflappable.
p.s. (even though this isn't a letter) sonic showing surprise or frustration to unexpected negative developments is not an automatic sign of him being (checks dictionary confirming 'flappable' is not a word and checks for antonyms for 'unflappable' instead) volatile, easily agitated, or touchy. it's all about extents and denying black-and-white conceptions of both emotion and thus characterisation decisions. sonic being a layered character despite his deceptively simple (and true!) presentation as an ordinary guy is comparable how deceptively accessible his visual design is. in other words, he is as difficult to write well as difficult as he is to draw well: he has a iconic design recognisable even if a kid with shaky hands doodles him, but it takes so much attention, care, and honestly even expertise to draw him right. same goes for writing him
