One thing that annoys me a lot is when people act like Sega is forcing Sonic not to cry, when in reality Sonic is the one who doesn't want to cry, nobody else is influencing him
I hate the trope “men don’t cry” as much as anyone else who doesn’t think men have to be peak virility, but some characters (and people) just don’t cry that much because that’s how they are
A good change. Aside from that creepy-ass cyclopic eye in the pencil sketch that I can’t look at for more than 2 seconds, Sonic simply doesn’t cry like that. That doesn’t mean he can’t show sadness.
And besides, there are some kinds of pain that trascend tears anyway, which in my opinion is a more interesting concept - not something I’d expect in the Sonic franchise though
In the games it’s very rare to see Sonic sad, and when he is the models don’t quite convey well the emotion...
(I don’t really like how now the eyelids work as eyebrows, but it’s just a nitpick of mine)
But IDW has done an excellent job at portraying a distraught Sonic without making him cry, just with subtle details around the eyes, the expression, the body language...
I understand that some of SEGA’s restraints can feel arbritrary (like forcing Shadow to be Vegeta 2.0 throwing his character arc in the trash), but I don’t really have an issue with this one. Yes, I like when Sonic shows more emotions than “cocky” and “determined”, and that’s why I appreciate what Lost World did, but I’m okay with Sonic never crying