With the news that Ian Flynn will be writing Sonic Frontiers and that Amy is apparently going to have a major role I feel the need to bring peoples, or at least the people happen upon this blog, attention to this.
These are snippets from one of the early scenes of the IDW Sonic comics as well as one of my favorite moments in this franchise. Sonic and Amy team up during Sonic's escapades to clean up what's left of Eggmans robots after the events of Sonic Forces. Specifically this is just after a fight. Amy and Sonic are chatting about what comes next, wondering if these coordinated robot attacks are coincidence or intentional, etc. But the thing I really like about this scene is the banter between these two, how confortable they are talking to eachother, the little jabs they take, even Sonic inviting Amy to come with him to invesrigate and her turning him down. This is the first time in this entire franchise I've actually seen Sonic and Amy as friends. Two people who enjoy each others company and want what's best for the other. This is a far cry from Amy's introduction in 1999's Sonic Adventure, where when Amy shows up she immediately asks for a favour almost instantly her greeting and Sonic acts like he just got cornered by a funking puma.
But you see this contrast is a big part of what makes this scene so good! Back in Adventure both Sonic and Amy were younger, their relstionship less developed. She was a fangirl and he was a kid who'd probably never had this much romantic attention from anyone before, so of course they reacted like they did. But now? They're older, they've spent a lot of time together and they've both developed a mutual respect for one another. Hell it even follows up on Amy's SA1 ending where she announces to herself she'll make Sonic respect her, and lo-and-behold... he does.
And yes she still is romantically interested and yes he still clearly doesn't know what to do with that, but it's different now. Before, as I said, Amy was a fangirl and was infatuated with Sonic. Now? She's still very open with those feelings but they've also clearly developed into a real, very deep, love for him. She loves him so much, infact, that she's hugely pulled back on how pushy she is about it but rather, even while expressing her feelings, she's still on task as to the greater issues at play and is more than happy to forego spending more time with him in order to attend to her own responsibilities. If you think back to Sonic X Amy would never. She's grown, a lot.
And then there's Sonic. Back in the day he acted like a wounded wild animal desperately trying to escape a predator whenever he was in the same room as her. But here? He's joking with her, treating her like a friend and equal, even asking her if she wants to join him on his own mission to help with cleanup. He's grown past being a teenager who's freaking out because a girl is showing interest in him for, probably, the first time in his life. A LOT of interest. And sure he's not asking her to marry him on the spot like the shippers want, but it's clear he's happy and comfortable being around her.
I say all of this because one of my favorite aspects of Ian Flynns writing is how he does character interaction and relationships, discount Vegeta Shadow aside, and that's an aspect that I've felt has been missing from Sonic games since Sonic Colours. We've spent a decade of characters throwing their one character trait at each other and so the prospect that the cast will have more complex dynamics and actually feel like friends who care about each other like real people REALLY exciting. And this scene with Sonic and Amy shows why.
Anyway thanks for coming to my Hedge Talk.
