What would make them better?

I'd like to see Tails as more of a sidekick than a Mr. Fix it, and maybe make Sonic a little less "safe" and try harder to give him more of a personality than "I love all my friends even though half of them tried to kill me (Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Amy, Big, Cream, etc) on multiple occasions!" I'd like him to be more laid back, but snappy when he needs to be, like in Sonic the OVA. Keep Robotnik EXACTLY as he was in Unleashed, but maybe with a bit more maniacal like he was in SA2, just not too much. He was legitimately funny in Sonic Unleashed, I'd like to see more of that in the future. Knuckles should also stop being an annoying stupid asshole and retain his mysterious badass status that he had in SA and SA2, now he's just a stupid dick that hangs around Sonic when he has nothing better to do.

 

Where the fuck did you come from and where can I find your gallery/blog/portfolio <3

 

How to improve Sonic characters.

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik/Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Amy stand in a room. Shadow, Silver, Rouge, et al. go stand in another room. That room has a bomb in it. The bomb explodes, killing everyone. All that's left is Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik/Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Amy.

It's simple. Get rid of those not necessary, and keep the ones who are.

 

Sonic- needs to be a jerk. He's a douchebag. People are like "hey sonic wait up I'm an orphan" and his response should be "SYKE*zoom".

Tails should be the lil' kid trying to prove himself to Sonic.

Amy should either go fully Harley Quinn or become a cool girl with a crush on Sonic.

Big should appear in every game, as cameo.

Knuckles should flex his muscle go around on his island being a quiet, noble hero that only punches things when required, but damn if he doesn't love it.

Eggman should go Joker, then. Evil AND goofy.

Metal Sonic boop beep boop bloop.

 

Mostly this. The 'easily forgiven anti hero' role is also something that perhaps should be fixed. I'd like Shadow and Omega to be more morally ambiguous but I don't want them to be glorified and best friends with the heroes they constantly backstab because of it.

Personally I think Sonic is fine outside maybe his development with other characters, most of his friends seem kinda despensible to his life, the story seems to suggest he mostly just runs around and ventures for months on end and only visits his 'friends' when he needs them for a mission. The one character who actually wants to get involved with Sonic's life is heavily repelled by him. Have him gain a more casual chemistry with the others, show him hanging out with them especially Tails (I liked his interaction with Chip in Unleashed for this very reason, especially the extra CGI movies). Don't go to the extent of what they did with Sally in SatAm/Archie and make him useless without another character directing him, but show they matter to him rather than just being 'there'.

Tails needs to be more than a Fixer Sue, as many say his OVA persona was a good compromise, a tech wiz but still balanced with childlike aspects and naivete. A character can be gifted in one aspect and inept in the other. Also like Sonic develop his bonds, especially with his surrogate brother.

I think Eggman is fine in his comical persona, just ditch the stupid 'usurped by generic 'better' villain' gimmick every game, it's old. Let Eggman hold on his own for once and put some other villains in separate titles instead (eg. Merlina). I think this would give a better opportunity to develop some equally interesting villains outside 'monsters on a leesh'.

Knuckles needs to regain stronger bonds with Angel Island, he doesn't have to be limited to it all the time, but I don't think he fits as Sonic's sidekick either. Also I like his comical aspects but I don't think he should be limited to them, I don't really like him full on serious like in Chronicles either. A serious minded character with frequent 'not so above it all' blundering moments I think makes for a more complex character concept. Not to mention his bumbling is more humorous when he has a dignity to lose anyway.

I prefer Amy in her ditzy bratty persona as it's nice to have a female that can be as wacky and abbrassive as the male leads, just don't overdo it and make her a violent nutcase like she was in later Sonic X. Also her crush with Sonic should stay but don't make it her sole schtick. Develop plausible interactions and bonds with other characters. Sonic X actually started off well in this regard (eg. an assistant for Tails, big sister for Cream, on off bickering or attempts at friendship with Knuckles) but as said diluted it in favor of making her a manic 'don't make a girl angry' clitche.

Shadow I don't think works as a GUN agent. Why did they make a clone of Sonic on the same alliance as him? Have the guy work on his own accord again, which means having some basic nobilities and scruples but taking occasional immoral duties for his own means, if 'The Doctor' has something he wants or he believes his goals of 'Eggmanland' are just or helpful in his own cause, he will work for him and even antagonize Sonic if worst comes to worst. That said don't have the whole cast love him despite being a backstabbing manic douche like they did in Sonic X and his title game (hey you tried to kill Cosmo and beat most of us to a pulp an hour ago, wanna join our team?). Shadow has flaws in his actions and his relations with others should be handled realistically because of it. Same for all the other easily forgiven Knight Templars in the series. They can be in a sympathetic light but not a positive one.

Rouge and Omega need more solo spotlight. Omega doesn't work as a sidekick, he will ally with Shadow if neccessary and even show a bond with them but he has his own mission. Perhaps also look into his amnosity with Eggman (I liked their brief interaction in the comic backstory, showing Omega as disobedient and impudent even before his betrayal). Rouge well, I think they need to decide whether she is a trusted goverment agent or a deadly criminal. These two roles don't exactly seem interchangable and if they are, logical reprecussions should be shown.

 

Thank you so much!

Haha!
Well, I don't have anything too professional at the moment, but I have been posting fan work on personal art threads recently, one of them local.

 

Awesome art, dost she not produce?

Anyways, the post that Frozen Nitrogen posted.... This one.

Yes. This sounds like greatness. I want to see a Sonic related story pull this off. Even if it's just a one time thing, we need to see this. No moronic, gullible Knuckles, No Mr. Fix It, No incompetent arch enemy... THIS.

 

I personally would rather that Eggman stayed as an 'Affably Evil' villain with some basic scruples and complexities, there have been enough irredeemable cardboard 'Complete Monster' villains as of recently anyway, let's keep at least one whimsical 'loveable' one.

Anyway I could argue as to whether evil would make him any more competant. If anything SatAm Robotnik acting more evil took from him. He was trying to pollute the world into an inhabitable wasteland that would likely be unable to support even him, he regularly abused and tempted the rebuttal of his second in command while giving him nearly the same amount of knowledge and accessability to his mechanics and industry as himself (which actually DID came back on him in the comics), backstabbed every cohort he had for the sheer fun of it directly before destining them to turn against him, and repeatedly lost focus on maintaining control of his empire in favor of his obsession with Sonic, who even then he usually chose to put in some easily escapable death trap than just shoot and ensure his disposal. SatAm Robotnik actually more or less fits the 'Stupid Evil' trope, he was sadistic and void of scruples, and it actually hindered him more than Eggman.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StupidEvil

Next Gen aimed for a more serious and sinister acting Eggman, and it added up as nothing more than a cosmetic, with him being even less effective a villain in the main story.

 

Most characters just need better written dialogue, which could easily be fixed by a better translator or better writers.

Shadow is done. His story is told, let him die with at least A LITTLE dignity.

 

Amy is fine. But she should be able to fucking tell between a black silver and blue hedgehogs. Real hedgehogs can tell from each other with their nose, cant they? Also I think the series should have a more real life based stuff, like how hedgehogs go in groups, or what I said earlier.

BOO HAUNTED HOUSE!

And what about mighty ray and fang? And team chaotix (I haven't seen them in 06 or unleashed)

 

Vector was in Chronicles (for 2 lines of dialogue), and Espio was in Rivals 2 (teaming up with SILVER, lolwut).

 

This. Evil doesn't mean more effective, and I'd rather have a whimsical Eggman that shows himself as a credible threat and an interesting character, than a complete monster Eggman that can't even muster being more menacing than cheap knockoffs of Chaos and Shadow.

 

But Nextgen Robotnik was honestly interesting in himself, and incredibly threatening at the same time. Just that they put him in a situation where he was constantly busy stealing a princess rather than doing what he did for the rest of the game, and that was be an incredibly intelligent, suave and cunning villain with deadly warfare. Easily the coolest version of Robotnik ever (yes even the design; haters gonna hate).

 

Yet I think suave doesn't fit him that much; I like my "Hohohoho"ing, megalomaniacal, scenery-chewing Eggman too much. Is it too much to ask for him to be actually threatening besides that?

 

I guess the Eggman we have now would work if he just occasionally turns on the intensity. His comic capering slipping away for cold hard evil in the last boss would only make said finale seem more srs business than if the Doc had been a complete monster all game.

Case in point: Egg Walker.

 

I'd like him to be suave and a calm threatening villain, but still has a menacing chuckle, maybe with a bit of that "hohohoho"ing in it. But the more he's pushed off the edge he becomes a madman with intent to demolish any small thing that stands in his way, along with his over-the-top giggly remarks to double how insane he's going.

However having Robotnik as a sympathetic villain is okay I suppose, just as long as it never reaches the levels of Heroes, Shadow and Sonic X; where he's mostly just a goofball with little intention of any malice. Unleashed had the right thing in mind for this (as WELL as making him a threat) but suffered modern-game-syndrome and was overcast by demonic final boss thing again.

 

Couldn't you say the same about his comical roles. Cartoony Eggman had as much the opportunity to be a threatening main villain (case in point the Genesis/MegaDrive games) but the problem is whatever the depiction they seem to bawk at putting him as the final climatic threat and invent a monster if solely for it to feared and hated in his place. It's a boring case of 'only cardboard complete monsters can be full on villains', hense why hardly any vaguely sympathetic characters aren't heroes nowadays.

Should you forget that the following game Eggman reverted to his comical Affably Evil persona and then DEFEATED SUPER SONIC in the first cutscene (all while still dancing around and laughing in a cartoony fashion). None of the sinister monster villains have ever accompolished that, in fact the only other character to do so is the similarly decayed Knuckles. Perhaps that is kinda his shtick, like The Joker or Disney villains like Shere Khan and Jafar, Eggman's whimsical and hammy persona makes his genuinely threatening mallice all the more jarring.

 

Um, was that post finished? What's he being pushed off of?

Oh, and I'm all for the "hohoho"ing. Amazingly he can do it without sounding like Santa, in Sonic Rush anyway. Those voice clips really made the boss fights for me. "Get ready to be schooled!"

 

I fixed my post. My phone was being stupid when I edited my post.

 

I get what you mean, it's nice to have him sympathetic, but he has to have some amount of evil. You have to know the world would be a worser place if he won and the heroes are actually in danger if they don't take action. Otherwise it starts to give this Elmer Fudd/Team Rocket vibe where the heroes start to look like bullies who are just disproportionately attacking some harmless idiot.

Sonic X definately took his bumbling goody goody role too far, though admitedly he didn't start off too bad in early episodes, a large amount of characters at least took him seriously, he even had that sort of composed swave attitude a few occasions despite his comic relief. I think he was at first merely underwelming due to the ridiculously laid back and invincible Sonic he was paired with, who could smugly take him down with one punch. Even AoSth Robotnik worked with a more emotional and fallible Sonic that he could actually mess with and look menacing against.

But yeah they have to get rid of this 'usurping monster lackey' plot point, not just for Eggman, it's a really old shtick. And none of the villains are getting enough credibility from just making Eggman look like a patsy. Merlina if anything came out better because she was placed in her own game rather than some generic cohort for Eggman and thus was allowed to get her own separate development and spotlight.

I suppose if it's worth anything modern Eggman at least has karma by his side, in that whenever he decides to take action against the cohort that doublecrossed him he's actually rather competant and effective as a hero, in comparison to SatAm Robotnik that was reduced to a sniveling toadie the first instance a real threat came along.