Why Sonic's Character Is Amazing & How Pontac And Graff Ruined It 

So, what were your thoughts about the character of sonic the hedgehog? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

The reason Sonic was written so well in the 2000s was because a level designer named Shiro Maekawa became the writer for games such as SA2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic 06, Zero Gravity, Black Knight and he was also supervisor of Sonic X

Sonic's view of good or evil can also be seen in the beginning of the Black Knight, where Merlina and Caliburn warn Sonic that if he kills King Arthur, he will be branded for regicide, but Sonic simply does it anyway because he doesn't care what other people think of him as long as he does what he believes is the right thing to do.

Sonic in 2009: Every world has its end, I know that's kinda sad but, that's why we have to live life to the fullest in the time we have. Sonic one year later: *BaLdY mCnOsEhAiR*

Even when Sonic _was_ a Saturday morning cartoon show the writers put effort into it.

Sonic in 1998 to 2009: Cocky teenager with a sense of adventure and freedom. Sonic in 2010: Self-aware dude-bro. Also, thanks for including that Sonic and Helen moment in Sonic X. Finally someone notice that.

I think Ryan Drummond and Jason Griffith represented Sonics character the best in the games. No offense to Roger Craig Smith but Ryan and Jason just made Sonic feel so natural.

The fact that Sega hired people who know NOTHING about Sonic to write for Sonic is probably one of the stupidest things to ever happen to the series. As for Ken Pontac, the biggest problem of all aside from his obvious lack of interest in the series is the fact that he didn't understand what made Sonic so important, and he had 10 years to figure it out. That's more than enough time to learn about how the characters should be handled. This is also why the characters don't feel right nowadays. Both he and Warren Graff originally wrote for Saturday Morning kids TV shows then applied it to Sonic games which have usually always aimed themselves more towards teenagers, and the fans reacted poorly to their work. What did they THINK was going to happen?

Black knight always gives me chills. Unfortunately most people hate it because “hurr durr , cartoon hedgehog with a sword bad”.

The biggest shame is that Roger Craig Smith is a great voice actor wasted by terrible writing

Sonic is at his best when he is the classic Superman type character: A man, well, a hedgehog; with great powers that can give him basically everything that he wants, but chooses to use it to help people within his reach (figuratively AND literally) instead of appointing himself as some kind of saviour god. Not to mention for a character who's all about adventures and going fast, he sure has a lot of patience to stick around and solve problems that ultimately doesn't concern him.

You should've mentioned the part in Sonic Adventure when Chaos became Perfect Chaos and Tikal suggested to seal Chaos back into the Master Emerald, which Sonic said that it wouldn't work cause it would cause Chaos to feel the same anger and sadness it felt. Sonic actually cares about Chaos's feelings despite trying to kill him on separate occasions.

I find Roger's best Sonic performance in Sonic Boom. In Boom, Sonic often displays emotions that a teenager nearing adulthood has, making Roger better in Sonic Boom, though that's what I think.

"This isn't a Saturday Morning cartoon show." TBF, Sonic had one of those and it was better than anything Pontaff ever farted out.

So melina realised that Arthur and the knights led to a dead end in that sense and so decided to go for full on underworld and have a "kingdom that lasts forever", where no one is really living in that sense The most surprising thing for me was that sonic grasped the gravity of the situation and goes back to his roots, can't say I ever realised sonic was this deep of a character

I honestly think the Sonic series has devolved into what it is today because of all the negative feedback people were constantly giving the older stories. Even when the plots and characterization were at their best it still didn't stop people from giving (in my opinion, mostly unfair) criticisms. You know the ones. "I don't wanna sit through all these stinky cutscenes! Just let me play the game! Why is it so edgy and emo? Sonic can't be serious, he's just a silly cartoon animal! I don't care about all of these stupid characters, they're all annoying and pointless, and they should get rid of 'em and just have Sonic! Why does Sonic have yucky green eyes, lanky arms and legs and has those ugly gold buckles on his shoes? And why is Sonic in a city? That makes no sense! He should be in places like Green Hill and Chemical Plant! Why is he talking to humans? Humans were never in the old games, so why are they here? And where's Robotnik; who's that Eggman freak? And why do they keep making those awful noises from their mouths; Sonic should NEVER speak! Urgh, they've just ruined EVERYTHING about the Sonic games! These people know nothing about Sonic!" After years of that crap, I honestly think Sega have just decided "Well, if that's what the fans want, we'll give it to 'em!" It's even worse when they listen to all of the haters and detractors. It's like they've gone "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Hey look guy's, we hate Sonic too! Isn't he lame? So you like us now, right? Are we cool? We're cool, right?" I honestly think that the current writers are the least of the series problems. It truly feels like Sega have gone to them and said "Meh, just make a stupid story for dumb kids! No one cares so don't even bother putting any effort in!"

I'll sound like a nostalgic fan, but can we agree that even with it's downs, the considered "Dark Era" had better writting and tried something new everytime? Because since Colors, not only Sonic feels kinda wrong, but also the characters doesn't feel like they were, and lost their essence as characters. The Dark era did a lot for all the characters, but sadly that's not the case anymore.

i'm still shocked that sega hired people who knew nothing about the series to be the writers seriously i have no idea why sega thought that would be a good idea

>It's not a Saturday Morning cartoon Meanwhile, Batman TAS: * LAUGHS IN COMPLEX STORYLINES AND CHARACTERS *

It's so refreshing to hear fans express their problems with recent Sonic games. There was certainly a section of the fandom that hated modern games and wanted to go back to 2D, but reviewers who have a strong, biased hatred towards the series (IGN and G4) certainly made it worse. On the bright side, I think Pontac and Graff are no longer writing for Sonic. Thank heavens. Plus, Toshihiro Nagoshi becoming creative director of Sega could be a turning point for the series.

Takashi Iizuka lies at the heart of this issue, wanting to effectively make Sonic a cheap laugh for children because he feels the dev team was "cursed" to make serious stories as if a blue cartoon hedgehog who runs real fast, collects rings, and smashes similarly bright and cartoony robots shouldn't have any sort of serious attempt at storytelling, disrespecting the works of writers who have made driving and magnetic stories. The "Animation Age Ghetto" has claimed yet another beloved character.

I just want a story that's heartwarming and actually feels natural and replicates why I loved the older scripts before 2010s, I loved scripts from games leading to Forces but after Forces and looking back, I feel like an idiot thinking it's fine because I'm now seen as hypocritical....

Last good written game was black night after that they went for a stupid comedy route which made colors and generations unbearable💎

I think there is something you are missing. I was born in 1988, and I also grew up with the "Dark age" of Sonic. I guess my phase of growing up was postponed. I couldn't stand people who argued (with a great force) that Sonic should be happy go lucky with no complex characterization at all. It's not that those people didn't care or disregard the change of Sonic's character. The FORCED this change of character and actively worked in defending it and maintaining it as the new norm. The only people who went against the mainstream opinion back then were Roger van der Weide, and the SA3 crew. And that was it. And we were defeated. The whole world argued against us and we basically lost. We were a punching bag for everyone, including the Aaron Webber, the famed Sonic Twitter guy. Everybody joined the happy go lucky crowd. We were the "toxic fanboys" that the fanbase wanted to get rid of allegedly. The interview where Pontac confessed he didn't know anything about Sonic was done by Roger van der Weide. People act today as if this interview is new. It was done shortly after Sonic Lost World came out. Back in the day, people actually DEFENDED Pontac even after they learned about this. Why you ask? Well, according to the "popular" opinion at that time, Sonic's stories were universally bad prior to 2010. They were described as try-hard edge fests that made you cringe and were only good to attract the most unsavory individuals to the franchise. Which is why a clean slate was needed and thus a writer who specifically didn't know the Sonic's story was the best way how to cleanse the franchise. According to the only people that were heard back then, Sonic's story was too much polluted with Shadow (who was understood as the worst character ever), and so it was for the best to just forget all stories altogether. That's partly why this direction lasted as long as it did. And that's why it still lasts. You are the first person I hear who says he played Sonic Colors when he was 10 and thought the story was bad even back then. The ENTIRE argument the defenders of the new Sonic characterization used was that this new infantile direction is better for kids. I always said it's not true. But well, what could I do. Nobody believed me. I wasn't a kid. The people arguing against me weren't kids either. "Everyone" hates the writing now. But believe me, it wasn't like this. Just 10 years ago to 5 years ago, everyone was praising the new writing. And I mean EVERYONE. It was so bad that a recurring phrase started appear in almost every talking point from the defenders of the "modern Sonic". The phrase was "it's a breath of fresh air". It was "a breath of fresh air" that Sonic stories were no longer serious, that Sonic's character was flanderized, that his friends were no longer playable and turned into jokes... all of that was "breath of fresh air". And the phrase started being uttered by the official developers in interviews and the Boom show-runners as well. Notably, it was used by Stephen Frost, Rise of Lyric lead dev, and Christian Whitehead - lead developer of Sonic Mania, among many others. And don't think those people changed their minds either. It was because the fanbase was dominated by people with certain ideological bent that made it extremely uncomfortable for other people to criticize the game's new direction. Those corporate slaves were omnipresent and tireless. They defended the new joke ridden scripts to the death. The RU-vid comment sections only changed recently when those people finally left the Sonic franchise. Because honestly, they never played the games, nor did they ever have any investment in the franchise. They were there only for the drama and they loved picking on Sonic fans who hated this new direction. Also, good thing to note is that the only game Pontaff really wrote for was Sonic Lost World. The other games they just localized. And despite they surely made some lines sound much worse than they were in the original, they are not at the source of what is wrong with Sonic. It's the Sonic Team. The problem is the ideology that never changed and cannot changes since many devs still adhere to it. It's gameplay supremacy, destruction of story, minimization of character, and endless returns to Green Hill Zone.

Poor Roger Craig Smith, shame since he is my number one favorite voice actor of Sonic. He had to work with a crappy characterization. :(

That’s insane…because even a freaking Wikipedia page, heck even the fandom wiki explains each character and their relationship with everyone clear enough to get a good start on the character. And it doesn’t help that I’ve heard rumors about IDW writers having to follow certain rules imposed by Sega for each character which has affected some character developments (example would be Shadow on the metal virus arc). I haven’t read the story but there was an interview that kind implied that this happened….

"Just because your target demographic is children doesn't mean you can get away with lazy writing." Sadly this is becoming all too common. It's not just Sonic that's suffering from this.

We need the real sonic back not that faker we had in the 2010s

Sonic is a funny little guy. He's not just a cute little hedgehog who likes to go fast and joke around, he's not furry Goku or Spider-Man, he's a young man who aspires to bring hope to others and motivate them in his own cool way, and do what's right. He's like a harbinger of good, but not just another annoying Gary Stu. A good mascot has to have a personality, and I believe that the Sonic I know is that and far more.

“Every World has it’s end.... I know that’s kinda sad but... That’s why we gotta live life to the fullest in the time we have.” - Sonic the Hedgehog, 2009 This quote here is what defines Sonic, he is the embodiment of freedom, living life to the fullest. That’s why I love his character. But ever since Colors on he’s just been a mouthpiece for “Friendship this. Friendship that. Baldy Mac Nosehair.”

Odd note: the torture was a translation error, though forces itself is better in Japan

Do i need a reason to wanna help out a friend? It was never about chivalry for me, i just gotta do what i gotta do, that's all Every world has it's end, i know is kinda sad, but that's why we have to live life to the fullest in the time we have What you see is what you get Nothing starts until you take action, if you have time to worry, then run He was what he was, a brave and heroic Hedgehog who gave his life to save his planet.... Shadow The Hedgehog What would that change, it will not change how he feels inside And credit where credits due "Hey Sonic, enjoy your future it's gonna be great" That's Sonic The Hedgehog for me

you got it 100%. sonic and the black knight nailed sonic's personality 100%. every game after it was just horrible in terms of sonic writing

The script writers should just use Black Knight as refrence, Sonic's personality reached it's highest point in that game.

Sonic and the secret rings/Black knight had amazing writing. Its a shame they were spinoff sonic games.

Sonic CD,Adventure 2,Unleashed,and Black Knight are the best characterizations of Sonic

For what it’s worth I was initially engaged with Colours’ story and liked its jokes after them being explained. I was 5. (Maybe even 4)

Damn the older style of editing has such a massive difference, time and experience does crazy things

I also don't like how weird SEGA treats Sonic when it comes to the non-game media. Apparently the comics have strict mandates, like the concept of currency can't exist, yet Pontaff are allowed to drag Sonic through the mud in the games. I get having a tighter leash on things, but it seems like SEGA honestly couldn't care less about the games, so why are they so strict about the comics? I know Kenders didn't help, however, being strict in one medium and not in the other is completely hypocritical. Especially since the comics were never canon to begin with. I really think they should be more strict on how the scripts are translated so we don't get OOC Sonic the Jerkhog the whole time. Then again, I have similar issues with how Nintendo treats Paper Mario. Only "vanilla" incarnations of Toads, Koopas, Goombas etc are allowed, despite it being a spin-off series that should inspire creativity. Why are they so protective when it comes to spin-off titles, yet main titles can do whatever they want? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Out of nowhere I know but I wanted to bring up a good sonic moment, Now 06 wasn't exactly one of the highlights of the character writing but something that always stuck with me was sonic saying "nothing starts until you take action, if you have time to worry, then run", love that line but something I never understood was people not understanding the quote, thinking that Sonic is telling them to run away from their problems which that isn't the case at all he's telling you to take action and face your problems head on, when he says run I just always took it as a double meaning because taking action for Sonic IS running, Y'know, sonic the hedgehog....fastest thing alive

It's uncanny how much this whole thing reminds me of Dragon Ball Super, and Goku in specific to be exact; another character with a flat character arc who inspires literally everybody around him that eventually just devolves into caricature of its former self, that almost entirely exists to be a jokes mouthpiece. I know the Vegeta / Shadow comparison has been made too, which is also really just more fuel to the fire. I guess that's just what happens when a company prioritizes appealing to the kids for money over creating a character kids AND anyone else can enjoy.

Finally Black Knight gets some love. This game was so inspiring to me as a kid :') Love your vids btw

The divide in Sonic’s stories I noticed, and that I’ve noticed ever since I was a kid, is that every game pre-Colors had a story I genuinely cared about and enjoyed. All the characters had personalities and arcs I wanted to see play out, and I gave a shit about what happened to everyone. Unleashed, Black Knight, Adventure 2, hell, even parts of 06 and the lighthearted, leaner story of Heroes are all adventures I remember fondly. Ever since Colors came out, I find any attempts at being serious to be cringy since they frequently come out of nowhere and have terrible writing. I don’t give a shit about any character from the franchise anymore, and the stories feel like they have no stakes. I’m quite frankly embarrassed whenever I’m watching a cutscene from any of the games past Colors and someone walks into the room, like I’m watching a magical girl anime or porn or something. I don’t have that issue with any game pre-Colors.

Funfact: Sonic wasn't happy go lucky in the classics either. If anything, he lightened up over the years. Before Sonic1, he didn't take Eggman seriously at all, but come Sonic 2 and he proclaims the guy as his archnemesis while he witnesses the mad Doctor burn down a forest. Then he casually proceeds to break the divine seal over the 7th Chaos Emerald(Yeah, that is an actual thing) just in case it might be useful in a fight. The only reason why people generally don't notice all this stuff is because it is confined to the manuals and even then, some info was exclusive to japan. Anyways, in SA1 and 2, he was around this level of serious still, but from Heroes forward, he started to be a lot more like he usually was before the conflicts started, with that original attitude being implied in the intro of CD where he doesn't expect trouble to show up(He just wanted to see little planet). The only times he became really serious again were when he was risking his life against deities more powerful than him and not being serious then would be supremely dumb. Now after the funfact about why him being serious is completely in the game of the series, here is my actual take: I just like when he acts through his ideals. In Unleashed Wii(Unwiished), he 1v1s Perfect Dark Gaia not because of his own beliefs, but because he gave Chip his word that he will help. And whenever he actually does fight for his own beliefs, he still does not yield until the fight is over. Heck, he was ready to have the fight of his life against arthur before he was forced into the entire sword legend-questline by Merlina and that is what makes him amazing.(In the similar way my favorite line in 06 makes Silver amazing, actually.) In modern games, one still has that general idea somewhere, but the emotion just isn't there. The closest we get is Lost World with him being shown sad and actually challenged by the villains a little bit, but that's really all. He does not get very vocal about his emotional pain at all, other characters do most of the talking. It is the first time since Secret Rings where he has a major moment of loss and we don't get to feel it properly. And well, that entire thing with ideals I talked about before? Yeah, that's gone completely and it sucks. Also, this is only relating to the characterwriting. I actually think the basic plot in Black Knight makes so little sense and is so broken(I legitimately began picking apart the entire thing analytically at some point) that it doesn't even matter, but that is a diffrent topic entirely.

I appreciate the IDW comics saying the Baldy McNosehair thing twice. The first time, it was pretty funny in the context, and the second time was Eggman screaming that it was never funny in the first place

As someone who was young and had no access to any Sonic games (thus, not knowing what he was actually like), my jaw dropped when I heard the line "Every world comes to an end. I know it's kinda sad, but that's why we have to live life the fullest with the time we have"

I feel like Takashi Iizuka would now know what it was like to be Tomoyuki Tanaka when reflecting on the Godzilla movies of the 60s and 70s... "The character change was responsible for his decline...It was a mistake."- Tomoyuki Tanaka

If I had to choose, I would like Shiro Maekawa to return to write the Sonic games and then Ian Flynn to do the localization in English

The amount of joy I felt when I paused this video to see who was writing for Sonic Frontiers and was given Ian Flynn's name is immeasurable, what a fantastic development

I heard post 2010 sonic the japanese had to change the script due to how awful the american writing was.

I hope sonic’s character gets a soft reboot in the new game.

To quote Characters In-Depth on Colors Era Sonic: "He never shuts the hell up, he's always always always always always always always *quipping!"* And I couldn't agree more.

It's actually amazing how people are praising aspects of Sonic's "dark era" games. The effort put into those games by the writers to create dynamic stories actually makes me love that era much more than what we have today.

It's my understanding that Pontac and Graff did not write the story for Forces. Rather, they were in charge of localization. That line from Knuckles, saying that Sonic had been tortured by Eggman for months? That was them. It doesn't even make sense, given that Sonic appears to be perfectly fine when we see him, but Pantaff wanted to make the story...darker...I guess. The problems with Sonic's writing run much deeper than just Pontaff, but they certainly weren't helping. Sonic Team has absolutely no idea what they're doing.

His Black Knight characterization definitely seems like what I've always pictured. Also you don't have to know anything about something to make it good; unfortunately those writers don't know how to make something good. You can take a fresh voice, even if they don't know about the history, and turn it into something new that is still good.

Someone later on: But PJ, they can't write balanced stories anymore because of Sonic 06. It's no use. Me: Let's start embracing what that game did right. Every dumpster fire has a silver lining.

I think "It doesn't matter" is one of the best character ballads ever written.

The point about Ian Flynn writing for the games has aged remarkably well

While not my ideal interpretation of sonic I still like the colors interpretation of the character. "I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm sure what I'm gonna do" is one of my favorite lines from the game because I feel like it encapsulates Sonic's philosophy when it comes to being a hero . To him being a hero was about doing the right thing and making that the priority. He didn't know what was going on but it didn't matter to him as much as getting those wisps out of there. As for baldy nose hair I like it because it's not Sonic's nickname for eggman, it's the wisps. Sonic just adopts it and I think that shows how much sonic has grown attached to them. If I were to describe the writing in colors it's unpolished. Because I feel like there's some really good stuff there but they're not used to their fullest potential. Take tails being mind control for instance. I think they could still have sonic not fight tails and that could be effective storytelling if they would've put more emphasis on Sonic's thought process in the situation. He could've doubled down and outright refuse to fight his best friend. You could even have tails fight sonic anyway while sonic refuses to fight back. I feel like they layed down some great groundwork but they didn't double down on much of it. I feel the same for the other mainline games after colors but I feel this way the most about because i think the least has to be changed to make it more enjoyable to the general fanbase

I watched this whole video and man. You’re such an underrated channel. I agree with all of your points you made, ugh when my Internet stops acting crappy I Fr am gonna share this video out to my friends cuz I feel this videos needs more attention

Sonic post-2010 feels like how Robotnik sees Sonic lol

The moment he started doing his "come on, why don't you laugh?" That was when I laughed, just his sheer holding you at gunpoint energy made me laugh more than sonic has my entire life, I didn't even know there were new writers fucking up his character, I just assumed the writers didn't know how to give sonic his full potential Also unrelated but I would love to see Dark Sonic be used in a sonic game

“A children’s story that can be enjoyed only by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” -C.S. Lewis

Kid Games in the 2000's weren't afraid to have dark toned stories and serious characters. Sonic 06 may have a lot of issues but I love the game cause it has a pretty serious story and Sonic isn't annoying constantly cracking jokes in every voicline. Instead he made jokes when things were more calm, but nowadays his constantly making random jokes and acting goofy and I can't help but get annoyed by it. Now whenever I play a Sonic game I always try turning off the voices and skip the cutscenes cause I know Sonic will say something ridiculous and won't take horrible things seriously. Now we have Sonic Project 2022 and Sonic Prime, I feel like these may be Sega's last chance to turn Sonic into a TRUE heroic, serious, and sometimes funny protagonist that I and many others want him to be just like in the old days. I don't know what Sonic's future will lead to if "Sonic 2022 and Sonic Prime" fails much like Sonic Forces. I'll still support Sega and Sonic but I really need the creators to learn how to make good and difficult Sonic games again with interesting and darker serious stories. I'll still love Sonic and if we don't get a more serious story then I'll just make comics with serious toned stories like I always have been!

24:11 idk if im the only who thinks this, but i disagree HEAVILY with the notion that Sonic's characterization in Colors is equivalant to saturday morning cartoon writing, especially when by the time colors had come out, Sonic had 2 Saturday Morning cartoons, Sonic The Hedgehog(SatAM) from the 90s, and Sonic X from the 2000s. and in both of those shows Sonic is nowhere near as unlikable as he is in colors. i know when people say "saturday morning cartoon writing" its probably a generalization for cheesiness or something. but idk, as someone who grew up on Sonic X, and LOVES SatAM, the saturday morning cartoon comparison doesnt exactly hold up.

I've come to the belief that Ken and Warren are corrupted writers, they dont care about the universe they're writing for and want us to hate the characters and the franchise, like every character aren't good especially Sonic and they want to twist their character just so we can now kill the IP and forget about it, let go of our attachment to the characters so the IP is no longer able to survive.

I fully expect that iconic line "What you see is what you get!" In every Sonic character analysis video. Because of how true it is.

I always like to compare sonic forces and sonic satam as a great example of how much they changed. Both are about sonic and friends fighting back against eggman who controlled the world. And even more recently the sonic boom series season 2 is better than the game wrighting at the moment. I just hope the new director (the guy behind yakuza series) can save it. I always liked sonic at his weakest, because he felt more real. Like smug ova sonic, angry satam sonic and confused boom series sonic to name a few.

I must say: Ian Flynn does an *excellent* job writing Sonic in the comics

When Sonic does something like that, everybody bitch, but when Kirby or Mario (on RPG series) does something like that, everybody loves it.

The irony of the "dumbing down" of Sonic characters to appeal to kids is that.... everyone who grew up on the genesis games and adventure titles WERE KIDS

Colors was my first game when I was a little little kid so I can't stay too mad at it through nostalgia, but I will admit that even as a kid I didn't care for the characters only the gameplay, levels, and alien designs. When I had played the ealier games and gotten a better look at Sonic's character..... yeah somethin was off in Colors. (I still love the aliens though)

"What you see is what you get" perfectly describes pontac and graff's idea of the character of sonic

2000’s Sonic: “Wait that’s!” 2010’s-2017’s Sonic: “That Fake Hedgehog of all places!” 2000’s Sonic: “I FOUND YOU….. FAKER!” 2010’s-2017’s Sonic: “Faker? I think you’re the fake hedgehog around here! You’re comparing yourself to me? Ha! You’re not even good enough to be my fake!” 2000’s Sonic: “I’LL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS!”

1998 - 2009 was Sonic's character at his best.

THANK GOD FOR IAN FLYNN.

7:05 This is even shown in Smash Ultimate when he tries to save Pikachu from Galeem controlling his speed instead of just going at top speed to try and save himself.

Are Pontac and Graff really finally gone? If so, good, because I don't understand how they could have the lead writers be people who know nothing about the series, and I especially have no idea how they were kept for over 10 years. As long as they're replaced by Ian Flynn or just someone who's a good writer and knows about the series, then the future is looking brighter than it has in the past decade.

Definitely a little late to the video but really enjoyed it! Excellent work (gonna go binge all the others now lol). I did want to share one of my all time favorite sonic moments, which comes from Unleashed. I think the cutscene’s name is “No Reason?” Once Chip learns of his identity he heads off to finish the job alone, figuring it is his responsibility after all. He has a pretty heartfelt goodbye with sonic and heads off but sonic drags him back and simply tells him he’s coming along too. Chip asks why, this is none of sonic’s business. And sonic’s response… “Do I need a reason to want to help out a friend?” Really tugs at the heartstring and I think it’s a great message for people of any age to hear. Dude was my role model growing up, and I still feel inspired by dark age sonic even today. Just wanted to share that, keep up the great work

I think it'd been cool if Shiro Maekawa, the lead writer for SA2, Heroes, and Black Knight, to come back to the series. Even if his ideas for Shadow would've had him get ZX'd from the franchise.

Ian Flynn is da best

The IDW comics are the only vein ATM of any justice being done for, well anyone. It's unfortunate too, since they have to comply with particular outlines for the characters and not deviate from sonic always winning to keep it "on brand" (to me, a buckshot solution to the old Archie comics soap opera arcs) so they can't develop characters much further in a long term fashion, just put them on new adventures. Though this did leave more room for the new characters to grow into stuff people like. Here's hoping the 2022 game will change things up a bit with characterization.

SEGA should have fired them the second they confessed to not looking at any previous Sonic media

PJ: The fact that these writers went out of their way to fix the mistakes made by these idiots is all the more reason to hire Ian Flynn. Sonic Frontiers: Write that down.

Personally, growing up through all the iterations of a TALKING sonic, I love Roger Craig Smith’s voice for sonic, it’s perfect for Sonic’s personality, much like how it is for his role as mirage (I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers for apex took some idea from him voicing sonic). It sucks it’s being wasted on terrible writing, BUT, Ian Flynn is working on the new sonic game so I can’t wait to, hopefully, see good utilization of sonic and his VA

7:06 remember in smash bros ultimate trailer, when for a split second you can see Sonic slowing down to help Pikachu before both got hit by the light thingy

Can’t wait for you to talk about the changes to the other characters in the series since 2010. And hopefully the new Netflix show Sonic Prime could redeem Sonic and everyone else. Perhaps have the arguments you made such as having the other characters change him apply in Prime. Honestly, he needs a backstory that is canon to the games. And since the writers for the show are saying that they are “adding on” to the game universe, that could also apply.

Flanderized is a good way to describe the characters nowadays

All I’m saying is that I am SO glad that sonic team decided to get a new writer with Ian Flynn for sonic frontiers someone who not only is a fan of the franchise but was also a writer for the idw comics so it’s safe to say that he definitely understands the sonic franchise

I bet the reason why they kept those 2 clown writers for a decade is so they drive away fans of the 2000s sonic games so that way they can just focus on a new audience

To be fair that whole thing about Sonic being tortured is just a mistranslation. Original Japanese script never mentions any torture. Only that he was kept near Death Egg in a prison.

I’m starting to think this guy is what got sega to hire ian flynn to write for frontiers.

A small idea I had for the Balby Mcnosehair line is have him say it once to go into the final boss fight imagine how much better it would be "Come on Baldy Mcnosehair let's finish this no more toying around".

I'm not a big Sonic fan, and I always used to roll my eyes when people said the stories from the modern/colors era sucked. "It's just Sonic, what's the big issue?" Queue me getting older and remembering the dissapointment I had from Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon's story and its complete lack of originality, then going "Oh." as I watched a couple of videos on it. I don't think EVERY piece of kids-related media needs to have a complex story with character arcs, you can have your Spongebobs and your Avatars together. But writing these long stories where all that happens is characters cracking jokes and Sonic being the only one that contributes anything to whatever the cause of the week is is a bad idea. Forces was almost a step in the right direction, I appreciate Sonic's friends trying to form a resistance and it does make sense they would rescue Sonic from Eggman, of course. But then Sonic's months-long torture doesn't have a single effect on him, Tails makes Luigi look like the Doom Slayer, general Knuckles thinks of a battle strategy in five minutes and gets nearly everyone killed in an equal amount of time... Yeah, really starting to see what everyone was talking about.

The funny thing is that Sonic Riders and Zero Gravity were ALSO in a Saturday morning cartoon style. But what's the difference? THE WRITING IS ACTUALLY GOOD

Black Knight and Unleashed were honestly love letters to Sonic as a character. In my opinion, those games narratively are the peak of the series.

Legit feels bad for Roger that his start to fill in big shoes was met with thw unorganized alienated version of who he was suppose to be. Thankfully tho despite the main games being kinda meh, Boom Sonic, and the Twitter Takeoevers, even animated shorts for Team racing & rise of the wisps really show he can be a good Sonic... oh also the wreak it ralph movies. Tho again when people will think of him, it's gonna be just "BALDY MCNOSEHAIR"

24:41 Fun fact, apparently this line wasn’t in the Japanese script. So that’s probably why there’s a bit of a clash between why Sonic act perfectly fine compared to what is being said.

More people should bring this up since story was literally prevalent in every game up until the 2010s even in the classics

The thing that sets Sonic apart from most gaming icons is that he actually has a personality that is shown beyond his design. You can gather that Mario is whimsical and energetic from his design. But in his games? He’s nothing more than that, one could argue that Mario’s just a husk rather than a character. Link in all his games except Breath of the Wild is the same, in his exterior he’s a courageous and brave hero…but that’s it once you get to the game. Simple characters aren’t bad, but a common thing amongst video game icons is that they tend to be annoyingly and boringly simple. Sonic is different. From his design you can gather that Sonic is cool, cocky, and has an attitude. Once you get to the games pre-2010? He’s chill, carefree, and heroic. Even philosophical at times, he prefers his life to be free as the wind, and fights against any kind of oppression big and small. He has an odd ability to bring people together, and even characters like Shadow or Silver (initially people who tried to kill him) respect him for his friendly attitude. He doesn’t do good because he has to, not even because he wants to, but because it feels natural for him and he’s just good-hearted by default. He won’t crumble because it doesn’t feel right to him, he won’t give up because it’s not his style, and any attempt to take freedom or good away from someone won’t slide because he simply doesn’t want that. That’s the Sonic I hope Ian Flynn gets and writes in Frontiers and beyond, so far he’s got it right but I hope he maintains that.