I think what trips people is that the conflict between Sonic and Eggman is foundational to the entire franchise; anything and everything else is secondary to it, and it's meant to be your lighthearted, classic good versus evil conflict. But then the series introduces things like the Government, Eggman having a grandfather and cousin who were murdered by said government, and a whole slew of characters with stories and character arcs that exist outside of the central conflict of the series. Those things aren't really contradictory to each other, but I don't think much thought was put into these elements and how they fit within that dynamic; it's why you get games like Sonic 06, where Sonic & Eggman are the least relevant characters in the game. Or things like the comics, which kind of pulls the rabbit out of the hat and forces the reader to question this whole thing, when you're not really supposed to think that much about it. At least with Batman and Joker, the former not killing the latter is a foundational part of his character, and we've had various what-if stories showing what would happen if that happened. YMMV on how well-written they are, but they at least answer the question.
None of this has had anything to do with continuity or "the idea of being consistent", but I hope you understand that everything you're suggesting is a lot less consistent than just continuing to make unique and fun episodic stories about expressive heroes and villains fighting. To be clear, I wasn't suggesting that you were asking for Sonic to have a backstory, just using that as an example of wanting context where it isn't actually needed, which is the point I'm making. And case in point, jumping to "Eggman is too evil to live" is making a value judgement without knowing it. Here's a fun thought experiment for you: if you asked SEGA whether Eggman has actually killed anyone, what would they say? I think it's entirely possible that they would tell you nobody has died by his hand. So is it really justified to say Sonic needs to kill him? That sounds to me like what you want is more villains, not darker themes or arbitrarily killing off the main villain. The series could do all of that. But to be clear, me saying Sonic is not a cop was an example of extremely un-complicated morality with an extremely obviously correct answer. Bud I don't know how to tell you this, but that's not what Frontiers is about. Sonic Frontiers is still a story about Sonic being a fun cool hero. The fact that it takes a somber atmosphere for all of one island and they're exploring a dead society doesn't change that. I think you're asking for something that doesn't exist here.
I think they would say yeah, he hasn't killed anyone. I'd think that's bs, but eh. And no, I wouldn't want sonic to kill Eggman. I have more thoughts on the matter, mainly in regards to how we approach writing Eggman, his role in the world and the consequences of his actions, but it'd be more of a mess than all of my other posts.
I think the closest potential tone-match for sonic, or at least what I would like to see the series be more like, is One Piece. One piece centers on a gang of colorful characters venturing off to a series of strange islands, having episodic adventures that usually revolve around the emotional arc of a native to that island, and fighting one of several new and recurring villains along the way. The Sonic Was Always Good series by pariah is what I'm mainly thinking of with this, but the best sonic stories always have a core message that their trying to get across, just like the best one piece arcs. And both series develop these themes usually by introducing a character who has been affected by those themes in some way, instead of having characters openly exposite on those themes. Like in one piece's Drum Island, the whole arc is about non-violence, and the villain tries to use his ability to literally merge himself with a gun but can't because the gun had been turned into a bird house by the kindly doctor character. One piece is generally goofy and light hearted with lots of gags and silly character designs, but can also go into pretty dark territories as well. Right now I'm thinking of sonic's "paramilitary organization assassinates child with aids, in space" to one piece's "mad scientist gets a bunch of children addicted to crack so he can perform fatal experiments on them without them running away". Luffy and Sonic are even kinda similar as characters. They are both strong willed characters who act good out of impulsiveness instead of an active desire to be a hero, and positively affect the lives of the people around them by doing so. While luffy is obviously written to be more dumb they are both smart when it comes to intuiting people's emotions. And Marine the Racoon is a lot like Usopp but yall arent ready for that one. Also, on the topic of killing people, Luffy also doesnt have a kill count (at least on screen), not because he;s opposed to killing but he just lacks object permanence and the second he's not actively being threatened by a villain he doesn't care anymore. That's how I think sonic should be, he doesn't really mind if eggman dies or not it's just once he blows up his robot or the death egg or whatever he figures the job is done and goes home. I don't really like when sonic has some deep philosophical reason for why he refuse to kill eggman, like in the idw comics. Something from one piece that I think Sonic could do taking, is that the world of one piece is really built to have a long running adventure. Many people have said this, but one piece could go on practically forever just by introducing new islands. And the structure of the grand line and the fact that most characters are either pirates or marines means that any are could reintroduce pretty much any character and it would make sense. But in sonic, you can tell the story writers really struggle to justify some of the things they want to do. Characters like Knuckles, Silver, Blaze, Marine, are so pidgenholed by their backstories that you kinda have to ignore it if you want them to show up. And sonic has certain things in it like GUN and humans in general where it really doesnt make sense sometimes when they DONT show up. So yeah if I was writing sonic the hedgehog and I had full creative liberties I'd be making it a lot more like One Piece. I'd also introduce a unified power system a la devil fruits/haki that explains sonic's speed, blaze's pyrokinesis, and Chaos Control. It would be explained in depth and it would have charts and diagrams with percentages and there would be hour long youtube video essays explaining how it works. That's my ACTUAL unpopular opinion.
Sounds like you just want One Piece with Sonic characters. And considering how much of One Piece revolves around characters being beaten to a bloody pulp, I really don't think that it's a franchise Sega ever would or should imitate.
I think the dissonance some people describe when talking about sonic(well, they don't anymore. Sonic fans have basically shouted this discussion down along with a few other topics that were common in the 2010s) isn't that the idea of cartoon animals exploring serious subject matter is bad, but that the design of the series is literally dissonant. Sonic characters are sleekly designed with the bare minimum amount of detail and little attention paid to logic or realism, and yet they're constantly placed in realistic environments. They seem designed for action and stylish, consequence free violence yet they spend an alarming amount of every game standing around and monologuing while tragic back stories about death and genocide are thrown around left and right. The idea of the back stories of just about any character created in the 90s is considered laughable, but any character after that it's to be expected. Shadow and Blaze are both characters that have about 3 games focused on them each and you still have fans clamouring for more details. I don't think any of this is dumb on the fan's part btw but if you want a more consistent experience than shit doesn't matter sometimes and really extremely does other times it can be frustrating
Despite never reading One Piece, I was pretty onboard until this here and then I remembered the thread we’re in lol.
This is why I've always said that the series has always been at odds with itself in terms of identity. Ironically, the juxtaposition between everything you just described has become the series' identity itself. But it's absolutely maddening if you're someone who prefers something more consistent on either side of the spectrum.
*giga chad meme* Yes. Considering things like the idw comics have tended to go in a more action-oriented direction, I dont think having some blood for sword slashes or when someone gets hit really hard would be that bad. This might be more applicable to japanese media like one piece, but one piece is read by pretty young people (it's targeted to like, 12 year olds), and the blood has never been a problem. It's just that sega seems to want to aim the series at like, LITTLE little kids, so you're probably right that theyd never do it.
One Piece doesn't even do this, is the funny thing. It's nowhere near the power complications of JoJo, and even that series is still pretty digestible when you have context. Anyway I like One Piece and I think Sonic could learn from a lot of it in terms of good character writing and storytelling, One Piece having a big crazy world with interconnected areas and different alliances and disputes, the characters all having specific and varied dynamics, this stuff makes sense. However, Sonic should not be like One Piece. One Piece is a long-form serialized narrative that builds up an entire world and characters with a myriad of dynamics, growth and change, over the course of dozens of story arcs and over 25 years of continuous, unbroken storytelling from the perspective of one author's unified vision. Sonic not only isn't like that, it never could be, and it probably shouldn't either. Sonic is six years older than One Piece, but it is entirely episodic (it's just a straight-up lie to call One Piece episodic, even between story arcs there are tons of very necessary connections). It's made for each new game to be someone's first. Sonic is the product of many authors with many different ideas about what the series should reflect. Slowing down and telling you about the evils of chattel slavery and apartheid works in One Piece because the systems of dominance and control have been present, characterized and built-up in One Piece for eleven and thirteen years of weekly chapters respectively. Sonic hasn't even attempted anything remotely similar to that, and it's because when it has motioned in that direction, you get the half-baked robian oppression of the Archie comics, or "none of this is good Vector, that's why it's called war". Sonic Forces, for example, sucks because it has no tension, because it fails to portray a world truly under Eggman's control, because it's villain is completely shallow and has a stupid motivation, and because the characters have very little connection to the events of the plot, or even each other, for the most part. Having Infinite crush a skull in his hand, bathed in blood and standing atop a pile of bodies while telling you he Fucked Your Mom...that would be darker! Hell, things like that have happened in One Piece, other than the Fucking Your Mom part. It would raise the age rating to "mature". But what it wouldn't do is make anything about the story better. It would be much worse, in fact, even if you did a version of that that wasn't the obvious joke version I wrote. It's furthering the misguided belief that a story being dark is the same as it being compelling, and that is, ironically, a very childish thing to believe. This is an adolescent's idea of how to make a story better, to equate "suitability for children" as inversely proportional to being a good story. A significant portion of fans don't even think there should be dialogue, and I think it's a little dismissive to say they're just coming at it from the perspective of wanting the series to be for tiny children. Sonic is a game, and a fast-paced action game at that. Games tell their stories a certain way, and if they want to maintain their pace (a very important thing for Sonic) you just can't bog the audience down with depression all the time, especially when a huge part of the appeal of the series is the thrill of blasting through colorful and varied worlds. I don't think Sonic needs to get any darker than it has been in the last decade, and the suggestion that this is somehow childish is frankly absurd. I don't expect Homer Simpson to reckon with the long-term effects of systemic racism either, and that show's not even for kids.
I don't really get a lot of your criticisms here? About one piece being episodic, yes there is an over arching story and no you can't actually plonk each arc wherever you want. But there is a definite 'default state' where every arc starts and ends, that being the strawhat crew sailing the grand line on their pirate ship, and as long a story starts and ends there you can basically justify it as plausibly fitting in the timeline. This is how all the movies and games start their plots. Additionally, this default state is flexible enough that you can have pretty much any story follow from it. The grand line is so difficult to navigate that you have to traverse by island hopping, so if any past character returns it makes sense because they are a pirate going along the same series of islands. Want Bellamy to show up 500 chapters later? Sure, here's a deep backstory too. Want Lucci to come back after 800 chapters? Yeah, and he's even got a powerup! And the fact that all the characters are pirates means that they have no greater obligations that would impede them showing up for an adventure or two. Yeah, characters like Robin and Zorro all have stuff they want to do, but it coincidentally all involves going on wacky adventures. The 'default state' of sonic on the other hand... well, there isnt really one, but whatever they do have isn't really condusive to the type of story telling the series wants to do. The past couple games have started with sonic and tails in the tornado chasing eggman, which isn't even what they do by default, the story just starts in media res with eggman already doing something evil. When stories dont start in the tornado, it's in some generic grassy plain (Green hill, i guess. Do they live there? does sonic have a house???) When characters like amy or vector show up its usually just they coincidentally happened to be visiting the same foreign country at the same time, or completely unexplained. And when characters like knuckles or silver show up, you have to field questions like "Why arent you guarding the master emerald? Why arent you in the future??" That's the point i was getting at, I think sonic should have a more defined "default state" that stories start and end at, and can justify fun stories without needing to stretch to justify itself. About sonic having darker themes... I really think youre boxing ghosts here. Like I don't think I said any of that. I did say that sonic can have some light blood as like attack effects, because thats common in anime and there is a difference between "having blood" and "having gore". Sonic shouldnt be gorey, yeah, I'm talking about indiana jones stuff. Contrary to what you might think, one piece doesnt usually "slow down and talk about the evils of chattel slavery". It's a shonen manga after all and knows that that wouldnt be interesting to it's target demo. Instead, what it usually does is introduce an arc specific character that is affected in some way by injustice who goes on to befriend luffy, and as luffy tries to defend his friend he inadvertently fights against that system of oppression. The brutality of the world is very much focused on how it effects specific characters, which i think does make it more digestible to younger audiences. Like in sabaody, they become friends with Camie who gets kidnapped by slavers. Luffy punches the guy who was trying to buy her, not because he has a considered stance against slavery but just because he was defending his friend. So no, im not saying infinite should be covered in blood saying he fucked your mom. I dont even know what point you were making. Im not advocating for anything that would make sonic M rated when i say it should be like one piece, because, shockingly, one piece isnt M rated! No but they did make a whole episode called "Homer's Phobia". They have several episodes about 'darker' themes, and it still managed to be suitable to families all the same.
Bringing up One Piece as a point in comparison to the norms of the series has a bit of merit to it, at least regarding a specific point... For example, IDW attempted to make use of Shadow as a direct consequence to Eggman's alleged danger to the world after Forces, since Shadow is one of the few characters in the cast that will go to extreme measures to achieve what he thinks is right. I think people in general appreciated that choice for his character, but it became a problem later on when the comic kind of just forgot about that point of view, and was no longer proactive to see Eggman dealt with, in spite of the context they had created. This applies to how the comic itself largely abandoned that angle overall, but also handling of characters including Shadow. Ian later answered that Shadow is apparently no longer supposed to hunt down Eggman, because "He doesn't count as a strong foe" anymore after he was defeated. This is surprising, since from first glance it would have seemed like the writers were backing off the story themselves, but it was instead required of them to move characters like Shadow on from this point. This results in the entire Sonic cast pretty much being negligent of Eggman in the context that IDW frames him in, while also ejecting a character practically handmade for this role out of it for a borderline asinine mandated reason. Meanwhile, characters like Lanolin or Whisper are still allowed to view Eggman the way they do, talking about the lives lost because of his actions, and as a result become the only proactive components of the entire cast towards Eggman himself, at least in regards to "taking him seriously". So how exactly are the stories supposed to morally handle Eggman as a serious threat, if that's so incompatible with the main cast that none of them can respond in a way that "makes sense" after the fact? And now the cast created for this reason are actively calling out the main cast for their negligence, sometimes even actively villainizing them? On top of that, in what realistic context does enforcing that conclusion to Shadow not undercut his own characterization created for the specific moral disagreements he is supposed to have with everyone else? Meanwhile, over in One Piece land: One Piece specifically goes out of its way to avoid dealing with villains in the way that would otherwise be expected of the characters in a more realistic narrative. Instead it uses a more idealistic framing of the characters and their conflicts, what defeat means to the characters, and how important the "strength" of their beliefs are. If the Sonic series used the morality of defeating enemies this way, saying "Eggman has already been defeated" suddenly starts making more sense than the more realistic moral framing IDW takes. Suddenly Shadow deciding to move on from Eggman isn't framed as negligence, it's a judgement call that Eggman and what he represents isn't that dangerous when contrasted with themselves. Does this make sense in a realistic context in One Piece or Sonic? Not at all. But that's apparently (or supposedly in Sonic's case) not the point of the narrative they want to tell, and the judgements and mindsets of the characters themselves are supposed to represent something slightly different. Will Sonic stories ever embrace this angle of storytelling to their benefit? Who knows. But contrasting this issue that the Sonic series has trouble with understanding to one of its contemporaries like this should, at the very least, give some insight in how similar they might be.
That's not what "episodic" means. Arcs being to some degree self-contained is an inevitability in any story that has structured story arcs. That does not mean that the story is not still entirely serialized, on either a macro or micro level. They also don't all start the same way unless you really generalize. A good number of them start with the heroes going to a specific island specifically as a consequence of the events of the previous part of the story, not just because the grand line has magnetic fields forcing them to take specific routes. And I mean, the crew has ten people, and over the course of the story (especially post-timeskip) has taken on like eight or nine important passengers that have stuck around across arcs that require a ton of contextualizing to make sense. It's only "basically justifiable" if you make it so basic that nothing even matters. This is just strange. Protagonists are often reactive, it's not a flaw. What's the default state of Son Goku? Hanging around training I guess? But that's never the instigator for a story in Dragon Ball, it's almost always that some strong dude interrupts him. Sonic's "default state" as you put it is exactly what we always see, and usually do, in any Sonic game that doesn't start with Eggman: he's a nomadic dude who runs around seeing the world and sometimes helping out people he comes across because it's fun. There's nothing about that that needs fixing. With regards to other characters, saying that needs more justification is slightly less silly, but it ultimately doesn't require the heroes to be anything like One Piece and constantly be called to a given problem as a matter of necessity. There are some stories those characters just shouldn't be in at all! If you gave Knuckles a reason to be away from Angel Island, it wouldn't make his presence in Lost World any less silly. Do you know what happens at the end of the first Indiana Jones movie, dude? Regardless, none of this actually matters. What actual worth does blood have here? To convey battle damage? Is that the only way to do this? Do we have a particular reason to give up the more obviously appealing thing for the sake of realism that ultimately doesn't add much? It's just weird. I didn't say anything about Luffy. Whether the protagonist has a complete picture of what they're fighting has nothing to do with whether the story itself is directly delivering exposition to the audience about what it's themes and politics are. And uh, no, Sabaody and Fishman Island do exactly that. Fishman Island in particular has long flashbacks dedicated to the history of segregation between races and the stochastic influence that the racism of other fishmen had on Hody and his gang despite them not experiencing personal injustice. I'm wondering if you maybe just think I said "Luffy turns to the camera and says ACAB", which is not what was meant (although Sonic himself has done this). Yes that's because anime doesn't get M ratings. I'm pretty sure most of the violence in shonen, if it were represented unabridged in a game, could get it an M rating. Marineford has a gaping bloody hole in one character's chest and another having half of his head lobbed off. The latter of these was explicit enough that the anime itself changed it. Dragon Ball has tits with nipples at multiple points (also Goku slapping the pussy), there's a reason those never get adapted into games with ESRB ratings. And my point is that the way you're viewing darkness or violence is one which seemingly portrays a linear relationship between them and the quality of the product, and I presented an exaggerated caricature of why that's silly. If Infinite's pile of bodies isn't an objective improvement to Forces, a smaller amount of blood wouldn't be either. And if you saw that episode, you'd realize that it does not actually deal with homophobia, the societal issue. It deals with homophobia, the product of Homer Simpson's personal insecurities, wherein John Waters is basically a prop for him to bounce off of. And it's a great episode! But my point is that it's not the show meaningfully exploring the complete ramifications of this theme, and the same is true for most episodes you would probably call "dark". Sonic just isn't going to reach that far down and I think it's silly to begrudge him for that. If I want a silly cartoon that still has dark themes, I'll just go watch Bojack Horseman again. That show did more to comment on the real-world implications of homophobia with Herb Kazazz and Angela Diaz in the background of a flashback than most shows do with entire episodes dedicated to the subject, and it's not even about that either!
If there's one concrete similarity between One Piece and Sonic, especially when it comes to how villains are handled, neither series usually expects you to think or care about the villains' fate once their respective stories are over. We don't see what happens to Eggman in Sonic 1 after he crashes his Eggmobile into Scrap Brain Zone, and someone with no knowledge of other Sonic games could feasibly assume that he died there. Similarly, Arlong's fate in One Piece's East Blue Saga was also left ambiguous. He was never seen again after he was buried in the rubble of Arlong Park, and his fate wouldn't be explained until 40 volumes later. Both these series run on a "Nobody dies unless it's explicitly shown" -principle, which is almost the inverse of the western comic book death. The latter is clearly what western comic book writer Ian Flynn is more familiar with, so it comes off as no surprise to me that he feels the need to explicitly explain that neither Sonic or Eggman can die.
I think you are nitpicking my wording instead of my point. I am saying that one piece's world is better suited to long form story telling than sonic's. No, it isnt actually episodic, but it would be incredibly easy to tell an episodic story within that world as evidenced by the non-canon movies. If sonic want to be able to tell more stories that are set in the same world without contradicting eachother, I think it could take some inspiration from the writing one piece. You dont understand what im saying. Ive made it clear i think the straw hats are almost entirely reactive because they never take an active stance against evil, they just happen to get into situations with evil people hurting their friends. Also the obsession with tragic backstories tends to make people into reactive characters, but whatever. I prefer sonic being a reactive character, its just we dont SEE him react, the stories start with him already mid-reaction. It's like if a one piece arc didnt start with them finding and landing on an island, but just smash cut to them already on an island looking for the bad guy. I dont know how to tell you this, sonic is not a nomad. He was at one point but that has long since been retconned. When was the last time a story started like that? Heroes? Unless you count superstars, it's not really clear if they went to the island to find eggman or not. More often than not, sonic has been depicted as living in green hill and he occasionally leaves when he thinks eggman is up to something. The point is that it's cool. Most action anime has blood. You call having no blood "obviously more appealing" which is just your taste not an objective fact. If you have character that can punch holes through mountains and wield giant swords I think a couple of squibs here and there would be cool. Frankly the amount of blood people spill in one piece and jojos makes it less realistic, not more. Ok. I have no idea who you are arguing with, but its not me. I have not at any point said "darker stories are better" or that stories need blood in them to be good. You can have good stories that arent violent and bad stories that are. My point is that, at its best, sonic has ALREADY told stories similar in tone or structure to one piece, but one piece does it better. Sonic already has 'violence', the idw comics are an action series. Sonic already liberates enslaved creatures. Sonic has already had stories with deeper themes. I think sonic specifically should take inspiration from one piece, because that was already the direction it was heading. One piece isnt even that dark! Its read by 12 year olds!! A guy makes a pasta mech by making noodles come out his nose! It's a very silly series and the 'dark' elements are only used sparingly and neutered by being in the same scene as a guy who has an apple for a head. Dawg. I know. Thats literally what im saying. Even in one piece, even at it's darkest, the exploration of themes is done exclusively through how it effects the characters. Slavery is bad because of how it affects Kuma, Bonney, Koala, and Shirahoshi. And they make all the slave owners look ugly so you know theyre the bad guys. its really not that deep of a dive into the subject. And like. Sonic ALREADY is about slavery. Eggman kidnaps animals and enslaves them as robots. Like Sabaody does not get significantly darker than Gamma's story in SA. That is part of my point, the best sonic stories already has relatively dark themes in ways that are suitable for children, one piece just has better execution.
Putting blood in a Sonic game would be more disgusting than appealing, IMO, especially given Western sensibilities on this sort of thing.
so literally yesterday I finished up Tails' story in Sonic Adventure and was hit with just how funny the entire scene with Eggman trying to nuke the city was. And I almost swear it's intentional. You have Deem Bristow acting the weary, tired guy like his rent depends on it, followed by the game playing straight that firing a missile at the city is horrifying (but also slightly defanged by how the stupid thing has his face on it), followed by a beat of just awkward silence because it didn't work as the cherry on top of Eggman's No Good Very Bad Day, and it's fucking funny! Eggman is so done! ...in the same game where it's played for horror when Chaos literally destroys the city. Hell, right after Speed Highway Eggman comes down in an off-brand AT-AT and it's played straight too. I think SA2 is where the juxtaposition really gets weird but SA1 was also walking that line before then hahahahah
"One Piece could be episodic if it wanted" isn't really that productive a point, though. Lots of serialized stories could stop being serialized without that much work. Sonic isn't great at long-form storytelling, but it's also not trying to be. Moreover, all that Sonic needs to not contradict itself is for people to check its work for obvious mistakes, it's not so difficult that they would need to entirely rework the status quo. You're making this a bigger problem than it is. That's just wrong. The Straw hats are not explicitly setting out to fight evil, but they are incredibly proactive. The entire series happens because Luffy is constantly, actively pushing it forward with his ambition. They're constantly beset with problems they could ignore if they wanted, but take them anyway. They don't really care about Vivi at first, but they want to take down Baroque works anyway. They only fought Eneru because Luffy wanted to see Skypeia. All of Thriller Bark happened just because Luffy saw a talking skeleton and thought it was cool. They were the lynchpin in the plan to take down Kaidou, and that carried them through half of the damn series. Sure, they always grow to like the beneficiaries of these alliances, but it's constantly treated as a stepping stone in Luffy's journey to become king of the pirates. I had to look at how each game starts, and that's really just not accurate. SA1 starts with Sonic just hanging out, and working backwards from cops chasing Chaos is part of discovering the story. SA2 pulls a similar trick, cutting into Sonic mid-capture because the audience is supposed to wonder what the heck is going on. Heroes is a lot like SA1, with Eggman/Metal actively inviting them to try and stop him. Shadow starts with the invasion, and Black Doom's invitation. Rush and Battle, same thing, Sonic is just running around being a cool guy and then something happens at him. Unleashed, Colors, Lost World and Frontiers all start with the heroes in active progress toward the central point of the story, but you're placing an awful amount of weight on the idea that we need to see them reacting and deciding to set out ten minutes before the opening cutscene, which is almost always easy to infer. It sounds like you just want the pacing to be shit, really. You "don't know how to tell me" that because it's not true at all. Sonic is consistently just shown hanging out wherever. It's not his fault SEGA just happens to like spamming Green Hill at us. In no game has that been established as Sonic's home, Forces just says he likes it there. You're telling me to not only assume that any game where Sonic already knows he's near Eggman started with him in Green Hill before that, but also that apparently we need to see this as an audience or it makes the story worse. No, I said "more obviously appealing". As in, a broader appeal to audiences. Sheesh, who's nitpicking wording now? No, actually, just because there is an unrealistic amount of blood does not make it less accurate than being cut in half with a giant sword having none at all. It was bluebobo, but I mean. You responded to the entirety of the post, so. And the ways in which you've suggested it take inspiration are bad ideas. There's no confusion here. Absurdism is not the opposite of maturity. I brought up Bojack for a reason. That show literally does have an episode plot with deadly pasta threatening to destroy an underwater city, and needing a crack-team of uber-driving orcas with mass-ordered spaghetti strainers to save it. That doesn't make it "actually not a dark show", it's still a supremely fucked-up portrayal of generational trauma, addiction, depression, misogyny, and about a hundred other things causing its cast pain. As opposed to what? Stories about slavery where it doesn't effect people? The first slaves you see in One Piece aren't named characters you already care about, and it's posited as the reason for many of the villains acting the way they do. The system of governance and nobility created Arlong and Doflamingo, it's not just about the heroes protecting their own. One Piece, famously a series where only villains look weird and only heroes look cool. Also, what? The nobles all dress and groom similarly, but there's plenty of diversity in their appearance. I feel like you just don't understand the difference between portraying an evil society with an exploitative system that no one person can change on their own and the paths of organization and reinforcement towards revolution that span decades versus making one guy that one dude has to beat to solve every problem over and over. Sonic the hedgehog is not, and likely never will be, a systemic critique, and that brings with it a ton of different standards for how it's conflict is written. If you want One Piece, just go read One Piece. Also, no actually, seeing the slave auctions firsthand and a dude trying to kill himself by biting his tongue off so he doesn't get sold is quite a bit more intense than the robots exploding and the birdies going free. And the key point there is "suitable for children". Because it's not even about child suitability so much as it is abstraction and metaphor. Sonic is a series that deals in symbols, it's not strictly representational. You're asking for something that is much more matter-of-fact in a way that disagrees with what the core of Sonic has pretty consistently remained since the first game. I like the Archie comics, but their world is a different one from the main canon. The IDW comics aren't contradictory in this manner.
I think Sonic CD is the best Sonic game. I used to say Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (Complete) was but my appreciation for CD has only ever gone up. I think it has the best aesthetic. The level challenges catch you off-guard. It takes some work to bop through those things in Collision Chaos Zone. I have thought Sonic CD as the best in the past. So, I am coming back to that assessment. Sonic 3 is a very close second place.
Probably unpopular, but I don't like how Sonic X Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings and The Jet Black Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog are introducing that G.U.N. had a space fleet 50 years ago. It just seems strange that they had this fleet of ships in orbit 50 years ago. And where have they gone since? They would have been useful during the events with the Death Egg, or the events with the ARK in Sonic Adventure 2 (which was now unguarded by G.U.N., apparently?), or the events in X-Zone, and so on. I'm aware they had floating carriers in Shadow the Hedgehog, but I didn't mind those since I thought they were reverse engineering the Egg Carrier that crashed off Station Square from Sonic Adventure. That technology looked pretty much where it was in the 1990s, bar the robots and the ARK itself, until Robotnik's antics and Miles Electric started causing tech to leap suddenly. But no, apparently they just had that technology sitting quietly in the background all this time when it could've been super useful?
