Characterization in the Sonic Franchise

I meant to post this a day or two ago, but didn't for whatever reason, so let's try again.

Imo, some are putting way too much stock into the idea of Sonic's 90s 'tude, because this was something that was always played up in (Western) auxiliary media. The advertising, the cartoons, the comics, etc. Sure, Sonic has always been impatient and irreverent towards those who would try to hold him down, but in the classic games the extent of that was his idle animations, which seemed to come more from a place of genuine frustration at having to stand still rather than trying to get on the player's nerves.

Ultimately, I think Sonic has stayed at the same at his core through the mainline games - a highly individualistic character who, while laid back, is at times fallible to fighting first and asking questions later. He has always had a strong sense of justice because of his individualistic nature. He's never not been a hero. I think *that's* what makes him cool; being true to himself and not allowing the world around him to dictate who he should be or what he should do. I also think that never needs to change. It should always be relevant to Sonic's target audience of kids and young teens to have a character they can identify with who will tell them to do the right thing at the right time, but to never allow anybody else to make those choices for them.

What has changed is that Sonic has indeed being given more and more importance in his world, which makes sense up to a point. He's saved the world from Eggman every single time (eventually, in the case of Forces), whether that's with or without his friends. However, I do feel like this shouldn't be at the cost of the supporting cast, who were portrayed as almost helpless without him in Forces, and have otherwise been doing nothing since Unleashed.

Otherwise, the only persistent changes in Sonic's characterisation are the increase and subsequent decrease of his softer emotional scenes that coincide with the start and end of Jason Griffith's time playing the character (see 06, Secret Rings and Black Knight where he's giving ASMR pep talks to young ladies with questionable subtext), and the change in delivery of Sonic's humour. From Colours onwards, Sonic's humour became a little more dorky imo, and I'm fine with that to be honest. His jokes can be a little more self-aware these days, intentionally played as a little awkward (a well oiled machine fighting a...well oiled machine...) as opposed to the one-liners of the Adventure days that were a lot straighter in their delivery. I don't feel like either approach is outright better, and the character could naturally go either way depending on the situation, so I don't have a problem with the new delivery sticking around, so long as they know when to straighten up a delivery to really sell the drama or awe of a moment.

 

So according to Ian Flynn, he has confirmed that Sega have straight up dictated that Shadow's motivations are no longer for the sake of his memory to Maria, but because he wants to fight strong opponents and nothing more. So essentially, he's only interested in fighting for the sake of fighting with no greater meaning.

And at that point, Flynn just kind of threw his hands up and decided to take a break from writing him, because he can only rationalize these decisions so much. He's pretty much admitting that it makes no sense whatsoever, but he's powerless to do anything about it.



You gotta love how Sega just...are willing to assassinate their own characters like this just because its convenient, but whatever.

 

This is so unbelievably stupid I 100% believe it's true, it's Sega we're talking about here after all
Man, maybe it's just my nostalgia talking but Shadow used to be so goddam cool. Now he's just fucking lame.

 

At this point, I'm just willing to say that I like him a lot less and just leave it at that. He used to be one of my favorites, but if this is the direction they're gonna commit to with him then I honestly can't say I care much about him anymore.

If people prefer him like this and think this is a good direction for the character well....power to you, he's pretty much exactly like what people mocked him for; a bland, generic edgelord with a derivative design and a cliche personality.

So, *shrug*

 

I think Sonic was cool in the Classic games because he wasn't a tryhard. He was a just a character with a cool design in an excellently designed platformer. It's not really different from the way, say, Metaknight is cool in Kirby Super Star. He just has a cool design, is a fun boss fight, and is in a great game. I think the success of those early sprite games is because they were very simple and didn't labour the point. And I think in games especially it's easy to forget that many characters are considered cool just because they look cool. I really love FF7 and think Sephiroth is a well-written character, but I, like a lot of teenagers, thought he was cool simply because he looked cool. Think about Metal Sonic. What really is there to him? He's a cool robot with great theme songs and boss fights. That's about it but he's a great character. I think when characters have the three aspects of gaming down (great design, music theme, and fun gameplay), it's pretty hard for them not to be cool.

Ever since the games started to go downhill they tried to recapture Sonic's coolness in terms of his personality and have just keep banging on the topic too much. As much as I like Shadow in SA2, he was guilty of this too, constantly going on about "I'm the coolest". But I think that his character was endearing enough in SA2 where you could overlook the poor, more tryhard, aspects of his character. And like Sonic, ever since they couldn't capture him again, they went way overboard with his personality (StHG and Sonic 06 especially). Now they don't really know what to do with him. If they just made a Sonic game where you could play as Shadow, he was fun to play, and had great theme songs, he would start to recover in popularity.

 

When the games started focusing more on narrative and characterization; they could no longer just rely on just aesthetics, they had to tell a story to sell you on the characters. Yes, Shadow has a cool design and that's partially responsible for his popularity, but I don't think he would have taken off like he did if that's all he had. Because like you said, Metal Sonic existed already and Shadow needed some way to set himself apart from him.

I think we're past the point where these characters can just exist and people will accept them no questions asked, but that's just me. I suppose when you have a series built on "cool" characters, maintaining that is difficult as hell.

 

That's a waste of an extremely popular character tho.

I think some people just want an easy "solution" rather than actually addressing the problem itself. Killing Shadow off is "easy", stripping him of all of his recognizable traits is "easy".

But nobody ever really considers just...respecting his his story while also finding new ways to use him? That's definitely easier said than done, but fuck, I'd respect that a lot more than the copout answers I'm usually given. I dunno, I just feel like people just default to the easy way out either because they don't care or just never liked Shadow to begin with.

And fine, but then why ruin things for the people that DO like him? Its pretty obvious that he's popular, so why ruin it?

 

It boggles the mind as to how the people making these decisions could possibly think this was a good idea. In my opinion, part of Shadow's appeal is that he was a subversion of evil doppelganger; he was very much his own character with his own goals and motivations, and defeating Sonic was second to those in SA2, simply clearing a roadblock.

In the Archie comics, I feel that Shadow flourished under Ian's pen. He was distant and cold at times, being calculating and at times utilitarian, but never an outright, unprovoked asshole to those around him. The living weapons angle between himself, Metal Sonic, Gamma and Omega in the first Sonic Universe arc was a brilliant direction for the character. The decision to make him into a pastiche of early Cell saga Vegeta has sapped him of everything interesting. I feel that I'm someone who often resists the idea that Sonic characters as they are presented nowadays are fundamentally different from their iterations 10 or 20 years ago, but with Shadow I just can't reconcile that. Every piece of meaning has been torn away from him and what's left is soulless and derivative non-character. I sincerely hope people continue to make a noise about this and that it's pedalled back on sooner rather than later.

In fact, I'm going to start writing an incensed letter to Cisneros right this second!

 

If Flynns not gonna write Shadow anymore then I wholly support him. It's what I would do in his situation: just let Sosukebosuke be a grinch in his own little corner of the world while writing the actually interesting stuff with characters that I don't have to pull Matrix stunts to be able to write decently.

 

I'm sorry, but I don't want Shadow to be angsting about his past for the rest of his entire existence. SA2, had that been his only appearance, would've wrapped up his arc perfectly: realizing that obsessing over the past and revenge is wrong and making a sacrifice to preserve the future of others. But when they brought him back in Heroes with the amnesia plot, it solidified him as "the angsty character", and he almost immediately went from "rivaling the main character in popularity" to "laughingstock mostly popular with kids who started with his debut game". I thought Shadow was at his best in 06 (one of the VERY FEW things that game did right): they stuck with the ending of his arc from ShTH of making a conscious decision to not dwell on his past anymore, and find a new path in life. Sure he no longer fits the mold of Stock Shonen Rival (TM), but let me let you in on a little secret...That's OK. It's perfectly OK for Shadow's character to evolve in a different direction than he started. The problem afterward was the same problem a lot of Sonic characters have now: After Unleashed they've made a conscious effort to throttle back the number of characters in each plot (excepting Generations and Forces, as anniversary games), so he has no role in the story, but he's still popular so they don't wanna piss off his fans by phasing him out entirely, so he's just...around...doing nothing. Either give him a real role again or phase him out.

...he was a popular character. It's the same way that X-Men became Wolverine And Friends, Power Rangers became Tommy And Friends, and Despicable Me became Minions. Media always try to capitalize on whatever characters end up popular, for better or worse.

 

There are plenty directions you can take Shadow's character if you want him to have a substantial role, while also being an ideological rival and foil to Sonic. This isn't an either or thing, he can be his own character while still being a rival to Sonic.

 

The alternative to constantly angsting over your past doesn't have to be acting like it never happened...

 

I honestly think Evan handles it pretty well for the most part; she's forced to make him into a jerk, but at the very least she gives him inner monologues so the reader is more privy to his thought process, so he comes off as a bit less one-note. And more importantly, she gives compassionate moments, even if they're not as overt.

So with Evan, Shadow comes off more as someone who has trouble expressing himself beyond violence, but his actions expose that he's kinder than he's willing to let on. It's not ideal, but it's a much acceptable characterization than simply being discount Vegeta.

 

An overly caring Shadow would be cringe as heck. If it were me, they'd bring back his old voice (and running animation, for Christ's sake) and give him a new theme song. It's all about execution, really.

Leave ma boi alone.

 

I'll admit, SA2 running animation definitely made him look like he was schmoving.

Ok that's it, no more topic derailing.

 

Shadow should absolutely care, but most people show that they care in different ways. Shadow's way should be carefully considered, efficient action that speaks louder than words. Maybe he's not the most sociable and is hesitant to share plans or get others involved, but his promise to Maria should define him as a character.

"Give them a chance to be happy."

Like SA2/Shadow or not, this seems like an easy enough character to write that would fit in with Sonic's ongoing heroics just fine.

I think they're just struggling because they have themselves caught in an Amy Rose situation. They're trying to keep the character around but they're also trying to shave some of the more controversial edges off to make them more likable. I think this is a reasonable enough way to approach unnecessary additions like aliens, but not the story that makes up the core foundation of the character. At some point, sega just has to accept that some of these characters are going to rub people the wrong way for a variety of reasons and that's fine. A character that doesn't bother anybody is usually a boring one.

I also think that there might be some of their focus on nostalgia driving this. Shadow's peak as a character is considered to be when he was actively opposing Sonic, so they've given him a more abrasive personality so those clashes can happen more often.

 

The fierce and "abrasive" personality is something I personally like about Shadow's current depictions. He is unfortunately quite one-dimensional about it, though, especially in the new comics.

Shadow's a really tough character to work with, because his whole character is based on lore and backstory that has long passed, and rather sloppily at that. It can often make it feel like he doesn't have a reason to stick around. I like him, especially as a rival to Sonic, but I have yet to see him work very well as a supporting character. Sonic '06 was definitely an exception to that, though. If his role as a straight-man in that story were merged with his current bad attitude, I think he'd be pretty well off.