An interesting “side effect” of the canonization of the “classic era” meaning “younger era” is that the classic era now reads as “cute fun times” before the core cast became teenagers/tweens and things got super, super complicated.

Because the characters are “younger,” there’s an air of “little rascal innocence” to everything they do now. The new releases like Mania and Superstars now feel like little throwbacks to the young heroes just learning how to work together and make a difference in the world.

I don’t think this is a bad thing at all.

Even after Ken Pontac and Warren Graff leaving Sonic, Sonic fans still badmouth these two

Honestly i always feel bad to these two writers, while their writings (the dialogues they made for Colors, Gens, forces and their story in lost world and tsr) can be a bit hit or miss on some areas, i can appreciate the friendship of Sonic and Tails and how they handle Eggman there

Obviously they are flawed but not to the point of receiving such harassment and threats, that shit awful and the fact they demonize these two disgusted me so much.

Ps : sorry for the wall of texts

No need to apologize!

And yeah, this fandom's had such a track record of constantly spitting the face of people no longer involved with the franchise anymore; like, it's not even unique to Pontaff (which, mind you, doesn't at all excuse how nasty the fanbase is to them).

Not gonna lie, the thing that worried me about the news that Ian Flynn was brought in to write the story for Frontiers (and a lot of people, believe it or not) was how it set such a terrible precedent for how Sonic fans are. Like, they'd go "The Big Bad Pontaff are FINALLY gone, guys! It only took sending death threats, personal attacks, disgusting emails, and generally unsavory behavior, but WE WON GUYS!! IT'S A GREAT YEAR TO BE A SONIC FAN!1!!11"... and then, they wonder why they're seen as overtly entitled adult babies.

And, of course, it's apparently happened just like I said it would.

The ask box is still off so I can’t receive messages about tonight’s big news so here’s just some thoughts

Movie sequel trailer: Looks great! I am genuinely so happy that this looks like an actual Sonic the Hedgehog movie and not just a family road trip comedy-adventure film that happens to have Sonic in it. Tails, Knuckles, a Robotnik who actually (mostly) looks the part now, Chaos Emeralds, Buzzbombers, the Tornado, the Ice Cap snowboard sequence. All fantastic stuff. And like many others, I’m glad to see Knuckles get some respect, and I like the one single line of Idris Elba’s performance that we heard. What a turnaround these movies have had

Sonic Frontiers: Cautiously optimistic! Open world games are very played out right now and this could easily just be another trend chaser, but I think there’s a lot of potential for fun with running around a big, beautiful open world at super high speeds as Sonic. It is probably not going to be the 3D momentum-based game about Sonic rolling around on slopes that old school fans and fangame creators have wanted for years, but I never expected that. I am a little surprised that this teaser didn’t show, like... rings, or any obvious gameplay elements in the world, though. But it is kind of neat to see the series go back to a more “realistic” environment. It’s been a while. Overall this trailer is taking itself a bit more seriously without going grimdark, and I think that’s something a lot of Sonic fans have been asking for

Of course, the big news that overshadowed all of this for me is the announcement that Ian Flynn is “penning Frontiers’ narrative.” No matter how the gameplay turns out, I am absolutely excited about the story. I’m trying to temper my expectations because, as I’ve said many times, writers can often only do so much on a (presumably) gameplay-first project like this. Is Ian really in charge of the story, or is he simply writing a script to fill in the blanks of a premise provided by Sonic Team? It’s too early to say, and Ian might not be allowed to share details yet. But he could really have a lot of fun with this if he’s allowed to fill this open world with fun little bits of story, and I hope that’s what he’s getting. The #1 thing I’ve wanted out of an open world Sonic game since we got those leaks is silly little side quests that let the supporting cast shine, and Ian is the perfect man for that job. (And god, if they let him put Tangle and Whisper in it...) Again, not trying to get my hopes up. In many cases game writers don’t have much creative control over the broad strokes of a game’s story. But at the very least, I think the banter will be a step up from the Pontac and Graff scripts, which is something to be excited about in my book

Despite how questionable their work on Sonic has been, does it bother you how the fan base acts like anyone involved are criminals or wish for the worst to happen to them, like Aaron Webber, Iizuka, and so on? I think to myself, “All this hostility over a video game?”

Of course it does. It's yet another example of the fandom taking things way too seriously (which is ironic for a franchise starring a carefree protagonist).

No one is saying you can't criticise Iizuka's decisions, or dislike the Twitter's memes, or take issue with the flaws of the games themselves. But you can do those things without making it heated and personal. The people associated with Sonic are regular people at the end of the day, they're not responsible for war crimes. Telling a voice actor to kill themself achieves nothing outside of revealing your own dickery.

Also, while a large analysis can sometimes be necessary for certain cases... they really aren't in this case. I get we all have our passions, but if you need to go on for a whole hour just to explain that you don't think Pontac and Graff are funny writers, maybe you're a little bit obsessed.

🔥 for the Sonic series as well ;)

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

Hoo boy you just opened another entire can of worms here

So uhhh let’s get started shall we?

First of all, people need to stop bitching about whether or not the classic games are the best or the Adventure-era games or the modern games. All Sonic games have their ups and downs. To say that their greatness stopped after [insert Sonic game here] is really rude and puts down a lot of other people who genuinely like the series and all it has to offer.

With this in mind, I genuinely like Sonic ‘06…at least, in theory. If Sega hadn’t rushed it the way they did (and I feel awful about all the pressure that was put on them in order to put something out there), then I’m sure we would have had a genuinely excellent game and we definitely wouldn’t have as much of a divide in the fandom. Of course, I am not without my fair share of opinions on it, though.

Let’s just get right down to it, shall we? We didn’t need Elise and that awkward “romantic” subplot. It felt kinda…forced in some ways? Furthermore I don’t even think that the princess in the story should have been Elise. It should have been Blaze. She could still be the same character implemented in the exact same way and everything, but carrying all of Elise’s role in the story would have made SO much more sense. It would give her a larger reason to be a part of the storyline, too. Also…SOL Dimension? SOLeanna? SOL Emeralds? SOLaris? Sega missed out on a golden opportunity here. I think they should hire me for a remake of this game.

Speaking of Blaze, WHERE WAS SHE IN FORCES?! I know she’s gonna show up in IDW at some point, I think, but if the Phantom Ruby can mess with other dimensions, then Blaze popping up in the in-game story could have made sense. Also, where was Big in all this? Where was Cream? And her mom? And most importantly, where were all the Chao and the animal buddies? Sonic games aren’t the same without Chao :(

Now let’s change the subject here and get to the voice actors. I genuinely like this voice cast a lot. Roger’s voice still sits a little too deep for a 15 year old, I think, but he delivers the snark so well it’s grown on me.

I like that Cindy Robinson doesn’t sound too Minnie Mouse with her take on Amy, but I still like Liza Ortiz’s slightly better since her 12 year old voice is a little more believable.

Quinton Flynn makes a good Silver. His voice doesn’t bite as much as Pete Capella’s voice used to. Quinton sounds much…calmer? But he still manages to capture both the vulnerability in his voice and the strong sense of justice he maintains.

Kirk Thornton is doing an amazing job with Shadow. I know he had a little bit of trouble adjusting in earlier games but he has improved so much. I don’t like his take on Boom!Shadow, though. He didn’t have to make him sound so gruff.

Kathleen Delaney’s voice for Rouge was absolutely atrocious. Bringing Karen Strassman in was such an enormous relief. I like how she implement’s Rouge’s coy and witty nature, but Lani Minella still holds out as my #1 Rouge VA.

Speaking of Rouge, people need to understand that Rouge is not just your stereotypical “sexy female character”. Being flirty and confident is party of her personality, yes, but it’s both of those things that contribute to what is undoubtedly the biggest part of her character: her wits. Rouge can use what her mama gave to manipulate any enemy ever and later physically kick their ass in a matter of seconds. That’s pretty badass, in my book.

Speaking of female characters, Amy is more than her crush on Sonic, and the writers need to figure this out. Amy is a dedicated girl who throws her heart and soul into all that she does, and if she’s ever fighting alongside her friends, she’ll fight to the death for everyone there that she loves. Yeah, she just so happens to be more vocal and physically aggressive than most, particularly when it comes to Sonic, but she is only 12, after all. And even then, her crush has been significantly toned down, which I appreciate, since it means the writers are finally getting it.

Speaking of the writers, I notice that a lot of people complain about Pontac and Graff’s way about writing storylines for a lot of the games recently. And yes, that is true; while I do like the way they write humor, the things I don’t like are the plotholes that seem to stay empty at times, and some minor characterization things. While they do get the big picture about certain characters’ thoughts and actions, it’s the small stuff they seem to overlook, and missing all the small things can add up and make the characters overall attitude in a game seem off.

Speaking of characterization, I’m still bitter about the way they handled Infinite’s backstory. SO MUCH MORE could have been done with him, and yet his motivation for becoming what he became was chalked all up to simply being bored with the current state of the world. I’m not bitter lol

Lastly, let’s get to ships. There are a few that I’m not completely on board with, and shipping Knuckles with Rouge basically tops the list. I always feel like I’m one of the only people on this hellsite that doesn’t ship the two together (anyone who knows me knows that Shadouge is my OTP for the Sonic series). I just feel like there’s a stronger bond and overall sense of closeness that Shadow and Rouge has that Knuckles and Rouge doesn’t. Most of the time, their interactions are generally negative and sometimes even played up for comic relief. I don’t see those kinds of interactions culminating into a relationship, I just don’t.

I’m not on board with Sonaze, either. Sorry guys! I feel like Blaze wouldn’t want to ruin one of her first real friendships with someone who she used to hate. Friendship has become something really special to Blaze, and trying to move beyond it, especially with someone who is not on board with romantic relationships most of the time, would probably not be the best move to make, anyway. I think it’s for the best if she left her friendship as it was.

Shadamy is a little unsettling. Shadow saw a comparison in Amy to Maria in Sonic Adventure 2, right? So at best, I think he sees her as something akin to a little sister figure, just like how Shadow saw with Maria. Also, I haven’t seen much interaction between the two of them since then (with a few minor exceptions, of course). So…how would that make any sense? (It’s through this reasoning that I can’t ship Shadow with Maria, either. Aside from the fact that she’s a literal human. Who is also currently dead.)

With all the times Sonic and Shadow have faced off against each other, I don’t see Sonadow happening. While they do harbor a mutual respect for one other, their personalities clash immensely, and pointing out their shit to each other every time that happens can turn ugly very quickly. The fact that it’s been going on for so long only justifies that reasoning further. (Sorry, guys!)

Phew. Okay. I’m done. Hopefully I don’t get crucified or burned at the stake or anything for this. (Especially that last bit. I swear I’m not homophobic, at least…I try not to be. Anyone who follows me would know that I try to educate myself on any LGBT+ issues as much as I can.)

Uhhh so that’s that. Hope you enjoy reading through all of this!