For me, Sonic and Shadow should always have a more or less Goku and Vegeta element to them. Goku/Sonic the good hearted guy that listens to his instincts and implusives even if its not always a good idea; but overall wants the best for everyone. Vegeta/Shadow the gruff and more world weary warrior, who puts a lot of thought into his actions, sometimes cuaght up in his own ego but usually does the right thing. Largely their conflicts with each other being more down to their world view then anything else. One annoyed becuase the other can't seem to take anything seriously, and the other wanting him to just lighten up and have fun occasionally.
It keeps them rivals, becuase of how yin/yang they are, they each need the other more then they might care to admit. It keeps Shadow as the 'darker sonic' without having him be all angsty emo asshole 24/7, that he tends to get pidgeonhole'd into. Just let him be the more pragmatic, get the job done efficiently, and just let their personalites clash. Neither side being fully right or wrong, but sometimes one is more effective then the other.
I like that in two of the worlds, Amy is just this big bad ass; Rusty becuase she's basically become Bunny, and Throne who just get really sick of everyone's shit.
Also, I have this vague feeling that each world has a corrupted version of Sonic's freind. New Yolk, is of course Nine who never had Sonic to save him from bullies so became very insular and cares more about himself then others. Thorne, where Amy is normally seen as kinda the one that holds everyone togeather, is the one tearing things apart. Dread has a lust for a powerful crystal shard that he wants all to himself.... So I wonder if we will see Rouge and Big with similar corrupted counterparts? Though they might be harder to inverse. Also wonder if Grim is empty becuase it's supposed to be the "main" green hill, or if it was meant to be Shadow's world, but since he was midst Chaos Control and wasn't shattered, thus doesn't get his own world since the real him is stuck in Shatterspace?
Going off the theory of the worlds being based on twists of the characters, Thorn is a take Amy's compassion for others but also extending to plants. She snaps when seeing someone weaker being picked on and saw that in exploiting the land's resources. While Knuckles wanting a jewel is obviously a play off the Master Emerald, having him goofy and partying all the time is an inverse of his normally stoic personality. And while Nine is obvious (and overtly stated) Rusty Rose is Amy in a world where such compassion would be punished and erased.
So thinking of Rouge, her main traits are liking jewels, being a government spy who deals with secrets, and being someone who will take darker actions for the greater good. I can see various worlds where these concepts could be played with. Admittedly, Big seems harder to get a read on what traits they could focus on. Perhaps an inverse of his laid back, normal guy aspects?
I think the Grim is supposed to be a world with no friends rather than Shadow's world. The reason why is due to the palm tree (and maybe the loop) being used as a sort of universal constant. A world without any friends winds up being a void.
Not reading the past messages until I finish the season but I saw the first ep and animation is nice but the flashbacks don't seem to be needed, unless it gives important info later.
Love this Tails. The council makes me think of Koopa Kids. Don't like the shoes.
Not reading the past messages until I finish the season but I saw the first ep and animation is nice but the flashbacks don't seem to be needed, unless it gives important info later.
I've been thinking about this and while I mostly agree with it, usually comparing Shadow to Vegeta is done negatively. I wonder if, while still inaccurate, it would be better to have Shadow lean more toward Proto Man instead. But we'll have to see. I've genuinely enjoyed Shadow so far in the show when I'm usually critical of him so they're doing good unless they drop the ball.
Also, things I've noticed upon a second watch:
Some fans have called Sonic dumb for not figuring things out but it more looks to be a case of him simply not being genre savvy.
So far, No Place (the pirate dimension) is the only Shatterspace where Amy has not been accompanied by the pink Flicky so far. Not sure if that's due to the writer's not having an idea what to do without forcing the Flicky or if it will show up later.
I have a suspicion that the Council will get ahold of the green shard from Bosscage Maze (the jungle dimension) seeing as it's separate from Thorn and the Scavengers.
Likewise, I have an odd feeling Rusty Rose will make a heroic sacrifice by the end.
Each alternate form of Amy has tried to kill Sonic at some point.
The background anthropomorphic characters are actually adorable.
Sonic has traversed dimensions once so far just through raw speed instead of touching a shard. Possible Sonic CD reference?
I've been thinking about this and while I mostly agree with it, usually comparing Shadow to Vegeta is done negatively. I wonder if, while still inaccurate, it would be better to have Shadow lean more toward Proto Man instead. But we'll have to see. I've genuinely enjoyed Shadow so far in the show when I'm usually critical of him so they're doing good unless they drop the ball.
To me, Shadow, Vegeta, and Protoman are all kinda in the same archetype. All are sorta reflections of their heroic counterparts. How they may go about it differs, but Vegeta (especially modern family man Vegeta) is about the right degree of friendly/annoyed with his counterpart. He's not outright hostile, without good reason, he recognizes his counterpart as nessicary but still wants to be better then them. They work better togeather then seperate, becuase one makes up for the other's short comings. A lot of this can be said about Protoman, maybe even Zero to some extent as well, but to me this is ideally how Shadow should be. He's gotten over his semi-irrational hatred of humanity, he's gotten over his origin drama, as well has his whole existential crisis. He should be more settled into being who he is, rather then being kept in his angsty emo badass phase that people like to keep shoving him in. Sonic being a faker/imposter shouldn't bother him anymore, becuase by now he's seen that Sonic might not the ideal hero in his eyes, he's saved everyone at great cost to himself many times. There needs to be SOME respect between them, just as Vegeta eventually gained respect for Goku.
I mention Vegeta, becuase I personally feel he has one of the best villian to hero journeys. He starts off at the big bad, gets beaten and left to lick his wounds; Next time we see him he's still largely an antagonist, but he smart enough to realize that no matter what his plans are he needs Goku and friends to get anywhere against Freeza. He also seems to devolpe very minute respect for some of them. His biggest turning point is the whole Android/Cell Saga where he's in pure anti-hero mode, He's still out for himself and blind to his own ego and ambition, but he's not a threat to the heroes anymore. By the end, his current personality is fatially wounded as he's started to see how he gets in his own way. Buu saga really is kinda his best showing, we see that he's been in sort of a holding pattern and has just 'accepted' things, and we even see him being a half decent father and husband. His villian turn in this arc is purely understandable, becuase what's left of his pride and ego make him question his current life choices, the regression works and is honestly kinda realistic. It's what leads him to realizing how wrong he's been all this time and leads to his self sacrafice. By the end of the Saga, he's accepted that Goku might always be better then him as a fighter and is fine with that. With Super we see how much more chill he is, even willing to debase himself to try to keep Earth and his family alive. He still wants to best Goku, but its no longer the same obession it used to be. He has fully embraced being a hero and protector, even if he's rather blunt and brutal about it now and then; becuase sometimes you have to be.
Anyways, off of that tangent:
I don't get the Sonic is Dumb discussion. Sonic as I keep saying is about instinct. And yeah, I kinda don't like going back to the dragonball comparison; but Sonic, even in frontiers, is kinda slow on the uptake about things like this. Multiversal theory is just something that's over his head, its not the wheelhouse of what he is good at. Goku likewise also isn't dumb, Goku is brilliant... as long as it comes to fighting and trusting his instincts. But outside of that, if its not something he instinctly understands, he's complerely lost. Sonic understand speed, he understand his freinds enough to know when he's fucked up, he understands how to fight very effectively. And this is why Shadow needs to beat some sense into Sonic, becuase Sonic has NEVER, in any carnation, been that good at stopping and thinking. Usually his closest friends can get him to consider these things, but Sonic kinda doesn't have them atm. So Sonic seems even more clueless then he normally does.
Green Shard is another one I don't understand, most people dismiss it as being meaningless to the plot. But it's not, it shows that there is more then one reality out there and that each is gonna have a shard. JUst becuase it not part of the Chaos Council plot atm, doesn't mean it won't be. It's like people don't understand storytelling anymore.
The reason I don't like Shadow being compared or made similar to Vegeta is because it tends to be early-series Vegeta that he's most often compared/made similar to. The specific version of Vegeta who's still an arrogant jerk who hates everyone and openly thinks he's better than everyone. It's how we got the Boom version of Shadow acting the way he does, constantly trying to pick fights with Sonic and say stupid stuff like "Your friendship and compassion is pathetic and weak!" And I honestly feel it's because casual audiences of DBZ remember the first half of DBZ (Saiyan Saga and Freeza Saga) better than they remember the second half (Cell Saga and Buu Saga) in which Vegeta had his best developmental growth as a character. And because of that, whenever Sega or one of their licensees try to make Shadow more Vegeta-like, it's usually that early-Vegeta depiction that they draw from, keeping Shadow locked in the rut of angst and arrogance he so badly needs to get out of.
The reason I don't like Shadow being compared or made similar to Vegeta is because it tends to early-series Vegeta that he's most often compared/made similar to. The specific version of Vegeta who's still an arrogant jerk who hates everyone and openly thinks he's better than everyone. It's how we got the Boom version of Shadow acting the way he does, constantly trying to pick fights with Sonic and say stupid stuff like "Your friendship and compassion is pathetic and weak!" And I honestly feel it's because casual audiences of DBZ remember the first half of DBZ (Saiyan Saga and Freeza Saga) better than they remember the second half (Cell Saga and Buu Saga) in which Vegeta had his best developmental growth as a character. And because of that, whenever Sega or one of their licensees try to make Shadow more Vegeta-like, it's usually that early-Vegeta depiction that they draw from, keeping Shadow locked in the rut of angst and arrogance he so badly needs to get out of.
I blame the fact that the first half of ther series got replayed so much more then, then the back half. I remember How Toonami, would just keep replaying the same episodes endlessly (up the the Ginyu Force fights) becuase that's all the dubbed DBZ the had. It was a big deal among my friends when it finally got to the next episode.
Thank you for pointing this out. I think that Frontiers is part of the reason why people are saying this but there's any number of things ranging from different tone to intended ages that skews things. Plus, not only did Sonic wind up having plot points repeated to him on Ouranos Island, from the beginning Amy stated stated that they needed to find Tails since he's the smart one.
It's like people don't understand storytelling anymore.
I wonder if it's a problem with modern media. There's so much that's flash and no substance and people are too impatient to wait. I've got the feeling that the show will have some surprises that will be revealed later but the season was broken up to preserve suspense. Especially considering some people will binge and then instantly post spoilers. There's also the fact that enjoying different media lends insight into some stories. Actually, I have a rant I need to pull out of the spoiler...
Okay, so Forces has a number of problems. I don't think anyone will call it perfect, even if they enjoy it. But there's one complaint that bugs me. Why do so many not seem to get the Phantom Ruby? Like there seems to be a notion that "if it's just illusions, no one should be hurt by it" and some arguments about consistency since there are times it clearly affects reality. While somewhat agree with the latter, I scratch my head about the former. Both fantasy media and The Matrix show that if the mind perceives something as hurting the body, you actually get hurt. Even more so, Sonic's world literally has magic and the Phantom Ruby sits in a general space as the Chaos Emeralds.
No, the Christmas sale hasn't started yet. This is their semiweekly "here are some games that are cheap, probably because they've been out for a long time and nobody wants to pay full price anymore" thing.
No. I hate the binging method and will not watch a show that way. I feel like details stick with me better if Ive had time to sit and think on episodes instead of just cramming 8 episodes worth straight into my brain.
Plus it extends the amount of time I have with something I enjoy instead of letting it become disposable.
While the Shatterspaces seem to focus on a character, the colors of each shard may correspond to the environmental destruction each world suffers.
Red: Raw environmental destruction due to New Yolk City's industrialization. Possibly referencing "lasers".
None: Possibly the emptiness of The Grim.
Green: The overgrowth of Bosscage Maze.
Blue: The global flooding of No Place.
So the world of the yellow shard might be a desert. If so, it might fit into a theory I had about the next world having cowboys (well, technically rodeo clowns but that's a more complicated theory).[/spoilers]
Also, has Sega said anything about merchandising for Prime? Sonic's new gear screams "to sell toys" to ridiculous levels.
