Humans Belong In Sonic Games | Characters In-Depth 

I’m all for Sonic people and humans living together side by side.

I actually LIKED the idea of coexistence between Humans and sentient anthropomorphic creatures. But then, Sonic Colors, Sonic Forces and the IDW comics makes it feel like they've been retconned aside from Professor Gerald and Maria along with ARK.

"There are two worlds. The human world and Sonic's world." "Then how why are the Mystic ruins only a train ride away from Station Squa-" "BECAUSE SHUT UP!!"

I wonder if that's the reason why the Sonic Movie worked.

I mean no one questions the humans in Looney Tunes

Sonic Team in general has an issue with throwing away good ideas from poorly received games. Why was Unleashed's gameplay and world so different from '06? Because the team heard people trash the game for the ideas not being executed well, treated it like how Mermaid Man acts to the word "evil", and threw it all out because "nobody wants this stuff." Humans were doing great, and were fitting in even better with the redesigns in Unleashed! They complimented Sonic and friends, like bread with pasta;not necessary, but it doesn't feel complete without it. Next thing you know, the amusement park is empty in Colors, which is never explained and makes no sense, and Forces was Forces! Come on Iizuka, bring man back!

I agree! Humans make it better, along with a proper hub world to explore

Playing SA2 as a kid, it gave me a great sense of comfort seeing humanity coexisting with Sonic and all characters. Like myself, my family and everything I knew could be envisioned with it all. It gave me quite a boost in my childhood, made life seem more bright. I totally agree humans don't need to be involved with every arc of Sonic the Hedgehog, but just the thought of us existing alongside, it's made me want to become the best I can be. I know Sonic Team is really trying to satisfy everyone, experimenting with new concepts and whatnot, but in my support, everything this channel stands for for Sonic is the greatest path. Giving kids something relatable with fantasy aspects. (I hope I worded this right) Characters In-Depth, I truly thank you for making these videos. Truly. I hope they're viewed by a great number of people.

The Unleash humans have really good designs

Can you talk about the Chaos Emeralds next? Because they haven’t been relevant since Sonic Generations Story-wise.

If humans do come back into Sonic games, I would love a mix of the humans from Sonic adventure and Unleashed. And the violent temper isn't that bad, he believes Shadow was the reason Maria died. And I for one liked Unleashed.

The need to bring them back. I liked the concept of Humans and Anthros living together.

You have no idea how many people in the community defend this bullshit about Two Worlds its frustating Thank you for making this video, I missed people talking about humans

Right, I'mma defend the Commander: The Commander (I'll use his Archie name of Tower for sake of ease) was a child when he was on the ARK, his parents presumably researchers since they supposedly died on the ARK. He was one of the many civillians "saved by GUN" after "Gerald's experiment" killed the researchers and Maria, the latter he saw as like a big sister. To everyone else, this faceless, nameless "experiment" was to blame for the awful tragedy and GUN were the heroes that saved all they could. To Tower, he was the only one who actually saw this experiment, and later in life would learn that its name was Shadow. Tower has both a name and a face to put to the supposed murderer of everyone he ever loved. Keep in mind that Tower was just a child when all this went down - so when it all happened he cemented in his mind the fact that the black hedgehog he saw was a monster and that GUN were heroes of justice. That mindset stuck for his entire life because there was never anything to challenge that notion, nothing that he saw at least. So when Shadow saved the world, to him it was just an act, or perhaps Shadow only did it because he had his own plans. There was no way Shadow was a hero because, well, he's an evil monster that massacred everyone on the ARK. The ones who saved his life said so after all. It's only when Tower meets Shadow on the ARK that he sees reality doesn't meet expectation. Shadow isn't the merciless killer he's supposed to be. Shadow wasn't the heartless monster in Towers' mind. Shadow even said he would accept death if what Tower said was true. Suddenly, Towers has that reason to question what GUN had told him 50 years ago that he never had before. Ultimately, Towers is a parellel to Shadow in that game. Where Shadow is blinded by his desire to know his past and misses what's happening in the present, Towers is blinded by what he "knows" of the past, what he "knows" to be true, and that interrupts his ability to see what's happening in the present. And nobody else can sympathise with him because he's literally the only person on Earth who was both a survivour of the ARK incident AND who knows the identity of the supposed culprit behind it. By the end of the Last Story, both Shadow and Towers realise their mistakes and resolve to make amends, looking towards the future and working to protect the peace Gerald and Maria wanted. It's sad that the only closure we ever get between them is a single piece of dialogue in the Expert Mode where Towers apologies to Shadow and invites him to dinner (possibly serving Steamed Hams)

"Humans belong in Sonic games" Dr Eggman: Am I a joke to you?

I'd feel better if videos like these, that communicate my opinions on the series, were the ones getting millions of views, instead of the ones that say that sonic stories shouldn't be serious and that colors is the best.

THIS! THIS THIS THIS! Sonic's world isn't completely realistic, but it isn't SUPER fantastical either! The humans have heart and purpose!!!! One of my favorite examples is Sonic helping Helen the wheelchair girl from Sonic X #DON'T BE SPECIESIST AGAINST HUMANS! (Sonic X might've played into the whole two worlds thing. And people at least seem to like the idea of Eggette. And personally, I think an "animé Pixar" style like how Marza's Twitter draws Lah could work for humans if they ever get brought back.

If they do bring back humans, I want them to be anime styled like in SA1.

I missed that idea of humans and animals being together in peace. It just feels wholesome.

It annoys me when people say "It makes no sense to have Sonic and his friends being the only talking animals in a world of humans without some kind of explanation" because they themselves are totally ok with Eggman being the only human in a world of talking animals with no explanation! It's just a world where the two coexist! Why is that so hard to comprehend?

Not gonna lie, living side-by-side with anthropomorphic animals would be awesome. Why you do this, Sega??

In Shadow The Hedgehog I feel like the GUN commander is supposed to represent Shadow and how far he’s come so Shadow can have that moment where he reflects and has the heart to heart with him. The GUN commander, just like Shadow was in SA2, was out for revenge, no matter the cost.

Without humans NO SHADOW. End of story.

Shadow doesn't make sense to exist in the cannon without humans

Professor Pickle was so funny and entertaining in Unleashed. I want him back.

I gotta admit, I like the idea of Commander Abraham/ the gun commander’s character drive; being so driven into grief to the point of revenge no matter what onto a specified person. A great contrast to Shadow’s grief which turns to a generalise revenge in rage. Unfortunately I’m sorry if people did like the character, the execution of the character was horribly done.

I remember someone made a review of the Sonic movie and they said "I don't really like that Sonic met up with humans," and it was just stupid for me to comprehend since they've always had these human friends.

Iizuka has said wierd stuff about sonics lore b4, IE mighty, ray, fang, bean, and bark only exist in the classic universe when there is no such thing, did they all die b4 sa1 or something.

My idea : animals coexisting with humans since the creation of earth

You’ve made some good points in this and brought some very clear reasons as to why there can’t be a “human world” and “anthro world”. I thought of the two biggest reasons so far is Shadow and Knuckles. Shadow’s whole existence wouldn’t be a thing if it wasn’t for humans, yet he’s in the “anthro world” in Forces, and where is Angel Island? If its in one world and Knuckles hangs out in the other for a good amount of time then he’s being extra lazy with his job and conflicts the whole story and background established with that. I swear I never understood or felt what “retcons” were in story telling until now, even though I’ve seen and heard people bring it up countless times. The two worlds thing has to be the most retcon-iest retcon I’ve ever seen. No way.

I really think they should’ve just done what they did with the post-reboot Archie comics where the world is filled with both humans and animals living side by side

Every time I hear someone say "humans don't belong in a Sonic game", I think to myself, "So then what's Dr. Eggman to you? A bonobo? Gorilla?" It's just so counter inductive when people think like that. But, you have to admit "Sonic Colors" and "Generations" are good games not for story, but because of the gameplay. So why remove them from the cannon?

I’m on the “humans and anthropomorphic species exist in the same Earth” train. It’s just weird to think that Eggman is the only human idea.

Just because you can't see the humans in certain games, doesn't mean they don't exist. There's EVIDENCE IN THE CLASSIC GAMES they exist. Also look at Mega Man. I don't see very many humans. BUT THEY EXIST

as a sonic fan i fucking hate how Sega got rid of the human in the series i miss i wish i can controll sega and make human in sonic world again

I think the "two worlds" retcon is kinda dumb tbh, but also I would liek to see background characters that aren't *just* humans. Would be nice to have a mix of humans and anthro characters walking around. Most of the places we've seen in the games with humans are probably just mainly populated by humans because general preference of people. Maybe human people tend to go to bigger cities while animal people prefer smaller villages? Of course that doesn't stop places like Mazuri from existing where the population is humans with what I'm pretty sure is a tribe of natives. ...Been a while since I played Unleashed.

I think in future games instead of having NPCs be just animals or just humans, it should be a mix of both.

I always thought humans belonged in Sonic especially since our main villain is a human lol. Sonic unleashed does the human characters the best in my opinion too because they’re nice and cartoony, like Sonic is supposed to be

lolsonic game journalists: "eww, what's a cartoon hedgehog doing with humans, running through cities, and having stories..?! i miss the genesis era" >eggman is a *fucking* human, sonic runs through cities every *other* day in every genesis title, and sonic 3 and knuckles had a form of narrative, that was a big appeal for combining both cartridges. the most hilarious thing about bashing the franchise ign style, is how contradictory and hypocritical it is, stemming from people who's only exposure to sonic was sonic 1 in passing, and like 3 twitter memes. humans belong in sonic games; that's how it should be.

This makes me really want to see a new Sonic series that incorporates humans into the narrative. Like, it could be kinda like April in TMNT where maybe Sonic and the others meet a human girl who’s a tech genius or something (like a rebooted version of Hope Kintobor from the Archie comics). While Sonic X definitely had its flaws (the 4Kids dub certainly didn’t help), I will say that I think it’s the 2nd best Sonic story to incorporate humans next to Unleashed. Yeah, Chris wasn’t a good character, but the stuff with Helen was amazing, Chuck was pretty fun and had good chemistry with Tails, and the humans had a freaking point within the show.

I almost shed a tear of happiness when you suggested every game in the last decade being removed from canon, I've been wanting this since... Well since Boom at the latest... Going back to the ONE WORLD canon and back to the meaningful storytelling of Adventure/Unleashed is all I ask of this franchise that just keeps on trying it's best to distance itself from those times...

I'm more accepting of the two-worlds thing because Sonic X already did that before we had any serious drama with game continuity issues. That said, making it an excuse to leave the human world out entirely isn't gonna fly with me. In fact, I think a game where you end up having to jump between Earth, Mobius, and perhaps even the Sol Dminension would be a cool concept they haven't touched on yet for a game...

There's only one place humans don't belong in Sonic. As a love interest.

I also think the fact that there were comparatively few antro animals in the older games made Sonic and his friends themselves seem a bit more special. Instead of wondering why some antros have cool gameplay powers and the others don't.

Honestly, I think that a big reason why we like the human-anthro dynamic is because it allows for us to relate to the world and stories more. Other than the fact that we are humans ourselves which allows for us to put ourselves in the place of people seen I games like sonic unleashed. The anthro designs in Sonic have one of the most generic foundation to them. How many characters have one big eye instead of two? How many have relatively spiky hair? How many of them share the same shape as sonic. Characters like Rouge, Blaze, Cream, and even Big the cat become memorable despite of them being a side characters. Because they stand out. A lot more than people like silver, or espio, or Jet. Characters like Tails, Amy, Shadow, and knuckles get a pass because they were the Original characters and among the first to incorporate the sonic style. Like compare designs from Zelda to designs from Sonic and they have a more distinct character designs. Characters like midna, Majora, Ganondorf, the 4 heroes from Botw, the many iterations of Link and Zelda, among other characters.

6:05 Always had this thought myself, these past stories have ruined so much to the point that I can't and don't want to consider them canon, every last one of em, of anything, either remove em entirely or rewrite them. Another thing, one yhing that doesn't make sense at all is Eggman being the only human around now, it feels out of place in some ways I guess and doesn't feel right, although I guess it makes SOME sense yhat he'd want to take over a different world from his own, it'd be much easier than taking over a world that already has a government and all. Even then, humans need to come back.

Sonic without humans is like Mario without Mushrooms or Link without a Sword

I honestly prefer if they balance the style between SA and Unleashed. It doesn't matter on the origin of the character's creation, what matters is that they should be consistent with the world around them. Take note that Sonic's design has some inspirational aspects from cartoon characters. From lanky legs to his one-eyed appearance, putting him beside characters, such as Elise or Pickles, will make him stand-out as if he doesn't belong there. "But dude, what about Kingdom Hearts, huh?" The main reason this works is that some of those human characters are intentionally not part of that world to begin with.

I personally like the humans designed from Unleashed

Welp it been confirmed both anthro and human live together in earth so that’s great news

Agreed. Humans deserve to appear in more Sonic games. I'd love to see them in Sonic X style, but in 3D. Also, this franchise needs multiple species, such as Mobians, humans, humanoids, animals, androids, skrulls, vampires, sphinx, mermaids, centaurs, lamias, Wisps, Marmolins (as seen in Sonic X EP69), Seedrians, Chao, fairies (like in Shuffle), unicorns, dragons, animals (real life), demons, angels, monsters, etc.

God, the human characters in Unleashed were amazing. I loved when you put the world together and you would see one person from a country visiting the other.

This might be the most important Sonic-related video I've seen to date. I needs to be seen by more people. The constant splitting of Sonic's canon across separate worlds is just insulting to fans of the earlier games, and it needs to be retconned back.

I really do miss the *"Looney Tunes"* Vibe where all Humans and Anthros live together in 1 World in the Sonic Franchise, truly a real big Bummer that they have to go for a more *"Mickey Mouse"* Anthros only World after the Post "Sonic Unleashed" Era.

Saying that the humans live on an entirely different world than Sonic is the equivalent to if the people behind Origami King stated that the reason no original characters have been appearing is that they all live in the storybook world, and Mario likes to explore the papercraft world. It doesn't make any logical sense, has no in-game signs pointing to this, and is invalidated by the fact that Sticker Star took place in a storybook too.

Humans are to Sonic what actual uniquely-designed Toads are to Mario. Both added variety and personality to their respective worlds, and the fans want them back.

If sega doesn't includes humans, the least they could do is only include Eggman's family Maria, Gerald, and hell even others.

6:30 "if we have nothing to fight for, then why should we care?" WELL, SEGA!? YOUR MOVE!

Gotta say, been watching all your Sonic videos, you've basically been describing why I love this franchise. Keep up the good work!

Sonic forces was the perfect time to bring back Humans. G.U.N could send solders to fight the illocutions

My headcanon is that the world is a gigantic version of earth that is cut in two halves: one filled with humans and other filled with Anthropomorphic animals.

I'M ALL FOR WORLD BUILDING! WHERE DID IT ALL GO?!?!?! (For reals though...ever watch a scene from the O.G DragonBall where there are just Anthros and Humans Co-Existing and you were all like "This is pretty much Sonic's world!"?)

i'm glad they brought back humans in the movie maybe that might encourage sonic team to bring them back into the games

I think both anthros and humans as citizens work well, just humans can work as well since it helps the main characters stand out

I always felt it weird that eggman was the only human in forces

Thanks goodness for tails tubes for clarifying that human live in continents while mobians (anthropomorphic animals) lives exclusively in islands

this explains why there hasn't been one epic sonic game finale after unleashed, everything feels so empty, specially colors and lost world, i miss how bad ass every final stage and boss was, even in 06, humans make us care about the story, and it made sonic and company feel like true heroes that saved millions of lives, they tried to populate the world with animals instead of humans in forces, but it didn't gave me the same feeling, they looked generic and lifeless and since we never interact with them in the game besides the avatar, it makes things worse.

I wish SEGA would take their time to look at videos like yours to take some time to shape their sonic lure good! It seems like they only only respond to negative reactions. They heard how everybody hates Elise and Chris so BOOM humans are retconned. And when they do hear positive reactions, they shape it weird (like bringing classic sonic to forces cuz everybody loved his levels in generations). I feel like if you're trying to create your own story with your own world, then you should trust your vision. Not everybody will like it, but it doesn't matter! (Pun not intended). It's your story! See it through the end! Great vids dude!

All sonic needs is decent well written characters, human or not human.

If your going to add Human, have them fit in the Art style of the Sonic Universe in a Cartoon mix with Anime style Never go realistic Human in 06, they were boring

This is a really great video that made me think about humans in sonic games. Thank you (BTW, talk about Rouge next)

Oh my god finally a Sonic fan that agrees other humans makes sense in Sonic games Dr Eggman having a grandfather and cousin and mother and father makes sense.

Why do people hate having humans in the games even though robotnick is a human to me it dosent make sense when robotnick is the only human

Unleashed had the best example

I just assumed the master emerald allowed Angel Island and its inhabitants to jump between the two worlds with chaos control or something similar.

Goddamn it why do you take the words out of my mouth? Seriously, your videos are legit taking the words out of my throat, but better than I could.

This is why I hate the "classic" feel being forced into the modern games. Like Sonic 06 wasn't bad because of the humans.

Last time I convince that to the community, they bombard me with hate comments

The way I see it, there are pros and cons to both points, wether there are two worlds or one, from a story prospective and since the retcon, I don’t know if that’ll change any time soon, but there’s always fanfictions and head canons, like if I was to make Sonic story, I would have the two worlds thing be a thing in it until a cataclysmic event merges the two worlds into one

Anyone else think an anime-esque style would work best? Winx Club, She-Ra, Avatar LOK/TLA. All are western shows with anime influence and I love it. I can see any of these styles working well with the Sonic characters.

I don't think the new games could still be canon, just like... re-retconned, like how Forces acknowledges Generations and Generations acknowleged everything previously, but then the newer titles should like everything is still one one planet, if you know what I mean.

It’s a good thing that “two worlds” thing was a translation error :) When translating with a proper understanding of Japanese, it’s much, much clearer that he meant there are different societies in Sonic’s world: societies of anthro characters, societies of humans.

Also what happened to the plotline being about eggman trapping animals in his robots? It felt way more satisfying when you destroyed a robot, knowing you just saved a life than just destroying them for boost (or in classic sonic's case no reason at all.)

I think the most important thing to do when bringing back humans is making sure they fit next to EGGMAN and not the Sonic characters. I know it sounds contradictory but even though I think the Unleashed humans were pretty close to Sonic's style, I then felt like Eggman was out of place in comparison. Eggman is obviously a human that no matter what has always fit into the Sonic style but the Unleashed humans felt like a different attempt entirely. Rather than asking for "anime" styled humans, I'd instead suggest humans done by Japanese artist that has a stronger western influence in their style, like a mesh between the two to bridge the gap. Say the lead character designers at Studio Trigger (see their anime Brand New Animal) and others on the scene...

I agree with everything except for getting rid of all the games from the past decade. Rather I would have games like Colors be remade/retold with the Adventure/Unleashed aesthetic. I really loved the concept of Eggman's Interstellar Amusement Park, and it would've been really fun to see an Unleashed style hub world in each of the 6 world's with interaction with with park attractions and people who either give you interesting tips or side missions or simply talk about how they feel in Eggman's park. Personally, I feel like Colors is the game I would salvage that would greatly benefit in being remade with a better narrative and have the human aspect added.

I actually liked the G.U.N commander.

I still hope that, now that the previous writers have left the Sonic series, they will install Ian Flynn as the new writer for the main games. He also hates the two worlds thing, so he might be able to fix things if he was in a position like that. :'D

Thank you, RU-vid Recommendation for this jam-channel. C:

Why on EARTH does your voice give me so much ryan drummond vibes?

6:35 *inserts Megaman X4 What am I fighting for scene *

I didn't realize how weird it was for there not to be humans in Sonic's world, until that amusement park in Sonic Colors was completely empty! Especially in the cutscenes there's literally no one there! Eggman keeps talking on the radio as if there are actually people there, but there aren't any. Also the thought never occurred to me that G.U.N would totally do something about Eggman trying to take over in Sonic Forces.

Dude... this is perfect....

Possibly as a side effect of this Shadow was degraded from a proper anti-hero role to a malicious bully because no humans besides eggman means his entire backstory is gone and with it his character development.

I agree, I want humans back in Sonic games. In more recent ones we haven’t really seen them. In Sonic Forces it was just a bunch of animals and no humans, besides Eggman. All the animals looked very similar to another anyway. Eggman was taking over 99% of the world and yet there were no humans to witness it, just animals...

I mean even Mario is on edge for this.

Eggman is a human and people forget that sometimes.

I used to think that the humans were the problem in Sonic 06. I was wrong. If they make the humans not so dead eyed, I'm all for it! Elise wasn't a bad character. She just looked so creepy!

Correction: SOME HUMANS belong in Sonic Games. We can forget Chris and Elise exist

case in point half off shadow's character arc is derived from his interactions with maria

If they make a Sonic Adventure remake and they replace the humans with those anthro things from forces I swear-