side argument but I really hate the flattening of timelines that modern fandom gets to do with wikis etc in stuff like this. Yes, the cards predate the hammer- as a one-off mention in a manual. The cards were never relevant until the fact they could easily be mentioned in online databases made that information as easily accessible and available as the actual traits that were used for years and defined the character. It's like how you can have a villain be unused for decades and be irrelevant, but it was in an early story of a hero, and the early story appears when googling the hero, so the villain suddenly is relevant again because new materials google the hero to research how to write it. it's not inherently a bad thing that old concepts get a second chance at relevancy like this, but I really wish people would acknowledge that they were irrelevant in the first place.
One-off mention? Why do so many here believe that? The Sonic CD manual wasn't the only place that mentioned her tarot card hobby. Nor was this just some obscure trivia on some fan wiki. During the Adventure era (and even later) SEGA would be mentioning her tarot cards in her bio again and again. It even got directly referenced in Sonic Battle: In 2004, the Archie Sonic comics mentioned her tarot cards to be as dangerous as her hammer. But I do admit that for the longest time they were horribly underutilized in actual gameplay. Frontiers finally gave her card abilities the spotlight it long deserved. Mileage may vary on if this was an overcorrection on SEGA's part. But I hope we'll keep seeing both her hammer and her cards in future games.
Feels like nobody noticed she liked cards until Sonic lore nerds started fixating on it. A couple vague mentions without even showing them don't really count as a fundamental character trait to me, especially compared to how the hammer was used in those times.
They're a fundamental character trait in the sense that she would never have met Sonic without using them. Which is why, in 2012, Archie Sonic featured them prominently as part of their "Genesis: Awakenings" literary story. Archie understood that they are a core part of her identity.
The cards weren't "underutilized" in game-play... Nobody expected the cards to be a game-play mechanic to begin with. It's just a neat bit of trivia about the character. They don't have to come back for game-play either, Frontiers just used the concept of Cyberspace to do something completely different, but that's fine for a one off. And the only thing to really worry about from them becoming so prevalent is them ending up like Chili-dogs for Sonic, where that's the only thing Amy's ever allowed to be interested in. At least fortune cards are just a bit more flexible than a favorite food.
They cards were a gameplay ability in Sonic Chronicles... For the longest time, SEGA sat on an interesting mechanic that should have appeared in Sonic '06 instead of her bizarre invisibility ability.
No, I'm sorry, but that one line of dialogue in Battle is insanely obscure. I've played they Battle many times and haven't picked up on that, probably because it's easily written off as being a fairly regular turn of phase. It just means "I had a hunch". If you didn't already know Amy was into tarot/fortune cards, you would think that such a line indicated such. And Eggman mentioning them in 2004 Archie is not a compelling argument either. The comics weren't widely read back then, especially not outside of North America. If anything, I'd say that it's the influence of comic fans and comic contributors that have influenced the main series to make the cards a mainstay. It's always seemed to me that most people were introduced to the concept of Amy's tarot cards through the Archie comics (or indirectly by someone talking about the comics). A small subset of the fanbase, particularly those into the comics, really zoned in on the cards as a way of expanding upon Amy's role, and that's her is to where we are today. So why do so many people believe that they were a one-off mention? Because they were barely more than a foot note to most people! A line in couple of profiles, a line in Battle and a worthless status move in Chronicles... That's it. People here on this very site had been Sonic fans over two decades before the tarot cards were ever bright to their attention. Every inclusion before Origins is a deep cut, and it's you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel to call them an intrinsic character trait before that time. Her hammer on the other hand has been a part of almost every one of her appearances in either story, gameplay or both.
(me with an uno reverse card): You forget! in the original japanese, they actually said Adios shadow the hedgehog! Ok so I tried looking up the PikoPiko Hammer toy and the piko piko sound effect to get a more clear definition, but it's hard to find resources in english. I found this and a lot of other pages that say 'pikopiko' just means 'video game bleep bloop sounds', however the jp wikipedia page for the toy itself says it was invented in the 60's, so before that could possibly be why it's called that. As far as I can tell, and I don't have any definitive source on this I just don't feel like looking any more, Piko Piko doesn't really mean 'Squeaky', it means something like a soft chirping or a light tapping. So I guess the closest english parallel would be 'bonk' or 'doink' or "bop".
The community (and I mean this particular place) has been willing to legitimize obscure, underused elements forever by talking about how they were there before, however brief -- or even nonexistent -- those appearances may have been. Why are the cards suddenly such an issue? Let her have her fortune-telling. Actually, you know what? I hope they overcorrect and make her some sort of Gen Z witch who hexes the moon on Tiktok, reads natal charts and manifests stuff. And it works perfectly on absolutely everything, except winning Sonic's love. That'd be nice.
Genuinely I think this would be the most acurrate way to update the original intent of the character, and I'm not kidding.
Tails being a mechanic and a nerd has never been necessary, either. Whatever that means. It was also this obscure trait that only ever appeared in like, the end of an AoStH episode and was very vaguely hinted at in Sonic 2, and maybe it's in the manuals too. Who knows! Also his profile in Sonic the Fighters may have mentioned it. Yet, when Adventure and Adventure 2 play this trait front and center, almost more than the fact that he can fly with his tails, it's not a problem, now is it? It adds to his character. It's thematically coherent, what with him embodying the idea that being a techie isn't inherently evil. Being a little nerd is a cool thing to do. But when it's Amy, noooooo that's suuuuuuuch a problem
Amy is actually an occult researcher and has the most esoteric knowledge of occultism and abandoned knowledge from around the world, and can scare you with how obscure she can get. Everyday she bothers Knuckles to translate some ancient text she found from god knows where, and he's very tired.
This is about preferring the hammer as a weapon but yeah I'm just attacking poor tiktok zoomers or whatever. Funny you have to project so much onto Frontiers' tarot cards that don't even function as tarot cards in order to defend them.
Citation needed. Again, I have to say that I enjoy Amy having an interest in fortune cards. I think it's a neat and distinct trait that doesn't overlap with any other characters in the series. And as we see in Origins, she's a bit even most reliable of readers, purposefully reshuffling the deck to get what she wants. But the fact is that it was totally negligible and easily missed throughout the series' entire history until 2022 when suddenly it was ham-fisted to the forefront of Amy's character. It came at the same time that Amy's personality and known behaviours were significantly changed too. Isn't that all the problem is? That Amy has undergone sudden, noticeable changes that may or may not be everyone's individual likings?
They turned him into Mr. Exposition later on. Him being a mechanic is not a problem. Bad comparison. Try again.
