#may make a post about how movie will be different from SA2 because there’s a lot to unpack there

[vetiversstuff]

Stuff I’m excited for in Movie 3:

Shadow coffee beans

Seeing gross lab experiments and shit

Biolizard animated?

Maria and Shadow interactions, seeing life on the ARK, seeing Maria’s character better

Sonic meeting another hedgehog like him for the first time (ever?)

Quicksilver fight scene between Sonic and Shadow playing the perfect song for a scene like that

Sonic’s reaction to Shadow being able to teleport behind him and slam him into a wall (I’m expect one (1) wall slamming at least)

MOTORCYCLE SCENE. Please for the love of god.

One (1) at least one (1) usage of 70’s talk

Y’all think Shadow knows the Cold War’s ended by now?

The possibility of baby Shadow

Shadow being introduced to emo music ? As a treat?

Sonic and Shadow’s super forms animated in space are going to be jaw dropping and ethereal

Homoromantic undertones

Shadow revisiting the ARK with No Surprises playing and you know I don’t even care for the song but it fits so well

They should let Shadow kill

They should let him scare Sonic but genuinely. Like Sonic tries to get through to him but Shadow’s just so fucking malicious and jaded he’s like “what if I just kill people because I can?”. Because Sonic is convinced he can be redeemed and has a motive. “I can’t be saved because there’s nothing here to save. And I’ll kill you if you don’t kill me first.” Maybe a little far fetched but really just let him be a tad unhinged. His memories are fucked and he wants to destroy the world. Let it be quiet, it’s scarier that way. Imagine soft-spoken Shadow whispering in your ear that he’ll let you kill him right now. He’s not actually like that, but he’s trying to get Sonic out of his way. It’s a bit cynical and funny to him.

His skating animated

Maria flashback lol 😂😂😂

Imagine they don’t show Maria getting shot (for obvious reasons) but they show Shadow’s reaction to it. Personally, I would add a little blood spraying on the escape pod but again, this is why I’m not in charge of making kids movies.

I want to see sickly Maria. Nasal cannula, maybe even a crutch showing why Shadow had trouble getting her to outrun the invasion. Speaking of that, wouldn’t it be cool to have like, blaring lights and shit during that scene. A message to evacuate. Etc.

Chaos Spears are going to look so cool

If we got a scene where we see how the escape pod lands that would be so sick. I remember, I either read something or saw art of Shadow, alone in the escape pod in the middle of the ocean. And like, the waves were crashing and shit and it was dark and amazing.

Crush 40 and 90’s grunge and one 70’s song or 2 depending on what they choose for inevitable motorcycle scene (please)

#might add more later #shadow the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog #sonic movie 2 #sonadow #sonic movie 3 #did you guys see how bloodshot his eyes were #favorite lunatic #they should put Come as You Are in it #tell me what you want in the comments I’m so curious #also make one of them cry #I want to see tears and scrunched up noses and pathetic sniffs and wiping snot away with the back of your hand #may make a post about how movie will be different from SA2 because there’s a lot to unpack there

[welcome-to-green-hills]

Wait hold up if G.U.N was created as an after effect of Sonics and Dr. Robotniks fight in San Francisco, what does that mean for Shadow?

Wasn’t G.U.N the organisation that hunted him down and was the cause of Maria’s death? Unless I’m remembering it wrong, which I might be tbh. Does that mean there was another unit monitoring Gerald and deemed him too deadly or was it still G.U.N that just reformed on a larger scale after the SF fight.

I can see higher ups being aware of Project Shadow but how much do they really know?

Aaahhh the SCU actually looking at consequences of the previous films is refreshing and interesting to consider, it’s actually a really intriguing part and hopefully it’ll be done well!

Hey Hon!❤️✨

You’re correct in G.U.N.’s origins in the game! Don’t worry, I promise. I know that the Adventure games and Shadow’s game are a bit hard to come by, but you’ve got the general idea correct. (This is the post in reference if anyone is curious).

We must remember that these movies are going to be a bit different from the games. The movies use the backbones and “meat” of the games in order to tell their versions of the story. Some of it will require knowledge of the games while others may try and spin a concept in a different light.

We know what Guardian Units of Nations is because we’re diehard fans. Beginner and casual fans might not know. And that’s okay! We know that they’re a nation’s defense force; a military organization established to respond to major criminal cases and domestic conflicts (SA2’s Hero/Dark game guide). That’s kinda like saying they’re the equivalent of modern day military, right? The movie’s explanation for G.U.N. might be that they’re a military branch that responds to conflict both domestic and international. It would make sense. General Walters works at the Pentagon, wears various combat badges, share his unit ranking, and all that jazz. So, yeah! It’s quite possible for G.U.N. to be a newly established task force, but have recruiters transfer to a new branch. They probably are relatively new.

As for knowing who Shadow is, it’s quite possible that he could be an X-File of sorts in this scenario. In all honesty, it really wouldn’t surprise me if he was classified as something like that. We know that Shadow’s both a weapon and a cure. It’s very possible for higher-ups to know his existence, have it filed/redacted somewhere in archives, and having high-ranking officials know about him. As of right now, we don’t know what Shadow’s fate will be. It’s really up to him to determine that.

Honestly, anything is fair game at this point! I’m excited to see what’s brought to the table for this one.😁

#sonic movie #sonic movie 3 #Sonic m #sonic movie spoilers #sonic movie 3 spoilers #Sonic c #sonic cinematic universe #mystery anon #off topic

[rollflasher]

Another Sonic ramble

So once again I’m here with one of my rambles about my incredibly subjective view of how the Sonic series should be handled! *Beat*

...anyway.

So, one of the more recurring opinions on the fandom is that Sonic games should be written by Ian Flynn, I have talked before about the gripes I have with his writing and why I disagree with this but this post is not entirely about him, but rather a more general topic that has been bugging me for a long time.

The other day I was watching a video speculating about the upcoming Sonic Rangers, there’s not much to write home since it was pretty well made but there’s a particular part that inspired me to do this post and talk about it with other fans to discuss it.

See, at one point the video critisized the fact that Sonic Forces was written by a Japanese writer because they have to re-write the script in English and that can cause problems with localization, and that it would be better to have western writers from the get-go since Sonic’s main demographic comes from there, while making an off-hand suggestion that Ian Flynn could be a main choice. While I can see where they’re coming from, my response was a simple:

‘‘Absolutely, not’‘

See, I have a lot of issues with this to put it bluntly and I’ll try to break them down and explain them the best I can since they’re pretty subjective in nature, but I’m bringing this up because I want you guys to share your thoughts as well.

So, why does it bug me so much the idea of Sonic being handled by western creators?

In my case, the main reasons are because Sonic loses a core part of it’s appeal because of this, the fact that SEGA of Japan seems to have a better grasp of the franchise’s tone and characters and there’s the very subjective point that, in my eyes, American versions of Japanese franchises were always nothing more than dumbed down products of the source material.

To start with my first point, whenever someone talks about Sonic’s creation, a lot of people are quick to point out that our favorite blue hedgehog and his games were inspired by western pop culture and cartoons, and that is true, however oftenly they forget to mention a core thing that not only inspired, but also formed part of the core identity of this franchise.

Sonic is very inspired on anime, and at heart this franchise is a shonen.

(This image by The Great Lange expresses more clearly what I mean)

Generally, the most acknowledgement anime gets on it’s hand on Sonic is the mentions of Sonic being inspired by Dragon Ball, particularly the Super Saiyan, but there’s so much more than that, as Sonic blatantly takes inspiration from Studio Ghibli films specially in games like Sonic 3, which draws a lot of inspiration from Laputa: Castle in the Sky, this great post shows proof that this is not a coincidence.

And it doesn’t stop there, Shiro Maekawa himself has stated that SA2′s story (and in particular, the characters of Shadow and Maria) draw a lot of inspiration from the manga Please Save My Earth.

Even Sonic’s character design resembles shonen protagonists moreso than the main characters of silent cartoons, don’t believe me?

Sure, Sonic has a cartoony anatomy, no one can deny that, but he also exhibits a lot of traits from shonen characters such as spiky hair/quills (?), dynamic posing, a confident, courageous and energetic personality and most importantly, fighting spirit.

If you compare Sonic’s personality and more specifically, his abilities and moves to, say, cartoon speedy characters like the Road Runner, there’s a pretty big disconnection between him and western cartoon characters. Hell, this disconnection is even just as present if you compare him with a character like The Flash from DC.

Simply put, Sonic acts, moves and more importantly, fights like a shonen anime character. He doesn’t just go Super Saiyan and that’s it. Here’s even a quick comparison if necessary.

And this is important because this doesn’t apply just to him, but the whole franchise as a whole and when it takes a more western approach, all of these details are kinda lost or more downplayed, of course this depends on the artists and there’s YMMV at hand, but I think my point is clear.

My second point is...SoJ has consistently proven they have a much clearer grasp on how Sonic’s world and characters are compared to SoA.

Hear me out, yes, Sonic 06 and ShtH exist and yes, SoJ is not perfect by any means. But hear me out...when did the characters start to get flanderized and turned into parodies of themselves? In the 2010s...and when did SEGA move from Japanese to western writers in the games?

Of course it was more then that since there’s a whole tone shift that came with this decade and the new writers, but it’s not a coincidence that when writing in Sonic started to decay, western writers also happened to get on board with the games.

Besides that, SoA has a wide history of not getting Sonic’s tone and characters, from how they made media without much of Sonic Team’s input, to altering how characters are seen in the west. (Such as how they amped up Sonic’s attitude in their media or how the English scripts of the games featured things like Sonic seemingly barely tolerating Amy while the JP scripts portrayed this as Sonic just not understanding girls all that well instead, or for more recent examples, the addition of the ‘’torture’’ line in Forces). Not only that, but even ignoring obvious infamous writers like Ken Penders, even the ‘’best’’ writers from the western side of Sonic are still not above of giving us Pontaff-esque gems.

Like this one.

Or alternatively, I feel like sometimes western writers on Sonic rely a bit too much on their personal vision about Sonic which may or may not be a good thing, clear examples of this are Ian Flynn himself and Pontaff.

By contrast, while SoJ has it’s own share of notorious inconsistencies when dealing with writing (The 2000s era is a big offender), it seems that for them Sonic hasn’t changed much and this is visible not only on the JP scripts of the Modern games which are for the most part better than the ENG ones, but also things like the Sonic Channel comics and the recent one-shots they made with Sonic interacting with the cast show that for all intents and purposes, the Japanese’s staff vision of Sonic is much more clear and consistent compared to the west. Because of this, I’d rather have a good Japanese writer on Sonic games with the localization being focused on being faithful with the original script than have a more western writers dramatically changing the characters. (I don’t mention the tone since either way, SEGA is the one in charge of that and the writers have to follow that)

My last and very subjective point is that, at least for me, everything SoA does with Sonic involving the writing and canon feels like a dumbed down version of the source material. One of the reasons it bugs me so much that in the latest decade Sonic has taken a more western direction is because a lot of what I pointed out gets lost as a result, even if some of those elements are still there, you can tell they’re more downplayed with products like the Tyson Hesse shorts having a more predominant cartoon direction. If any of you have been following my blog for a long time, you should be aware that just because I prefer the Japanese Sonic content doesn’t mean I won’t give the western products a chance, my enjoyment for Mania, the Tyson Hesse shorts and the movie should be a testament of that, but at the same time I can’t help but being sour about the fact that because of these products, we don’t have stuff like a new anime for Sonic or even a serialized ‘’main’’ manga as an alternative for the comics, and my hype for these products is generally more subdued as a result since I’d wish SEGA rather spent that money and resources on more Japanese content than just merchandise.

In particular, because Sonic is a Japanese franchise with a notorious inspiration from anime, what I get from this is a pretty big contradiction. I know Sonic is much more popular on the west but...is it really necessary for his game or products to be handled by western creators to keep their appeal?

For instance, imagine if Dragon Ball’s manga and anime got replaced by western comics and animated series because of it’s world-wide appeal, would that really be the same?

Or imagine the same thing with Fullmetal Alchemist, a pretty aclaimed anime that has a lot of western influence. Would it really not matter at all if it’s Japanese products were replaced with western ones?

At least for me, it wouldn’t.

And what I said about American versions of Japanese franchises being nothing more than watered down versions of the source material? I have that view because of countless examples.

Mega Man and how the English manuals removed a lot of important information about the story of the Blue Bomber’s game and world, causing a lot of plot holes in the process.

American remakes like Godzilla 1998 or Dragon Ball Evolution being an in-name only version of the source material.

Or the many censored anime English dubs from the 2000s, for instance, whenever I see the Yu-Gi-Oh! dubs, I only see a very dumbed down and childish version of a show that was originally a shonen.

And I know that all of these things don’t have to necessarely get lost since every creator is different and there’s franchises like Avatar which are made on the west but draw a lot of inspiration from anime and I’m aware of that, and I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to say that American writers are not allowed to work on Sonic, what I’m trying to say is that inevitably there’s always gonna be some culture dissonance and clash when writers from another culture handle a foreign franchise. And even with examples like ATLA, I think being made by one culture while being inspired by the other is actually a big part of these franchises appeal and it’s something that can’t simply be replicated by handing it to creators from that specific culture they draw inspiration from.

I think James Rolfe’s quote about the same thing with the Godzilla franchise sums up how I feel about this.

‘‘It’s like champagne, anybody can make their own and call it champagne, but unless it’s from Champagne France, it’s not real champagne’‘

So, this last part was very subjective, but I think this post in general sums up why I dislike so much the idea of Sonic having western writers specifically in the games or just focusing more on that side in general.

But what do you guys think? I guess I am too biased so that’s why I wanted to ask for opinions and discuss this topic.

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic musing #opinion