Sonic the Hedgehog: A Perfect Character (Video Essay)

onic the hedgehog the character has been around for nearly 30 years and shows no signs of stopping as a sonic fan myself I decided to set out on a journey to discover just what exactly made this character so great to answer this question I've decided to look through the characters past games comics and TV shows to find out just what it was this is Sonic the Hedgehog the perfect character [Music] [Music] now I'm going to explore Sonic as a character built for storytelling in gameplay and how those two individual components have been used in excellent ways in and out of gameplay first let's tackle Sonic's character Sonic the Hedgehog is the perfect example of what is known as a flat character art character arcs and fiction are split into different categories such as the positive character art and the negative character arcs which are the two most common in fiction the point of a positive character art is to have a character start off believing in a lie which they are consumed by but over the course of their story they realize the truth and no longer believe in the line in contrast the negative character art is the opposite which the character goes from believing in the truth and then is changed to believe in the lie instead but Sonic is an example of a much more difficult arc to write as kmy 'ln states in a flat arc the character starts out already in possession of the truth and then uses the truth to bring positive change in the world around him this means although the character may grow immature in terms of how they act throughout the story their beliefs and actions are always working towards the same goal in their change is not the point of the story Sonic at his core well I'll just let him explain it go it's what I do just keep moving doing good saving folks and living as free as the wind living by my way my own way going through past sonic media such as Sonic SatAM or Sonic X you can see that Sonic never really changes it can be argued that by the end of Sonic X he's more mature than he started off but he never changes his beliefs by the end of the series thus he's still a flat character now Sonic being a flat character is such an amazing tool for storytelling as a writer myself I always pay attention to how authors do what they do and not to say positive and negative arcs are bad or even worse but a flat character art is more flexible when put into storytelling and is a natural catalyst for the plot to happen in for change to occur in both other characters and the world why you may ask simple with Sonic being a flat character you can put him in his typical action-adventure setup or perhaps a mystery story maybe a zombie apocalypse story like I said if a character doesn't have a flat arc they can still be great characters but the story usually is in service of their change and you need to wait for their arc to come to a point of completion before you can put them into new scenarios in a new story Sonic being a flat character means that the entire cast in the Sonic series and its world regardless of how unclear it can be sometimes has him as a natural catalyst for change whether that be positive or negative now I know I said he didn't change much in the cartoons but before I talk about this characters other fantastic aspects I want to address this change in the games you remember that video I showed you about Sonic at his core well no game quite captures that magic like I don't mean to skip over the importance of si1 but all these points that about to make kind of work for both games so let's just combine both of those into this one section of the video psychic in the inventor games is faced with situations he's never really handled before yeah he's been to space but now he's dealing with an evil faker he's being labeled a worldwide terrorist sonic in these games it was really the first time that we got a true glimpse at his personality in his true character he was filled with snark and attitude as he always was but let's face it he was a little bit more rude in these games but he always had his heart in the right place so even if he was cocky and overconfident he was always trying to do the right thing next we have [Music] he is still clearly in his adventure mindset of immature behavior but you can tell he still had complete trust in his friends and was less rude to the likes of Knuckles and it came more from a place of cocky friendly banter even going so far as to compliment knuckles taking him by surprise now when the years following some call him a blank character but I couldn't disagree more honestly he was stagnant and uninvolved in shadow but I know six he went through a pretty large character change he was no longer cocky and confident but instead he acted more like a friendly adventurer ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in need with minimal amounts of attitude other than to Eggman of course as he had more friendly banter with knuckles and members of team dark I'd say it was like this and unleashed as well peak friendly sonic lets : if I could describe Unleashed in one way it would be he's now before I move on I need to talk about this scene people always gush over the opening to unleash and don't misunderstand me that opening is great it's gorgeous beautiful animation and completely encapsulates everything great about Sonic and Eggman but when compared to this it's just wow it's so good the entire environment is so foreign to Sonic even for a character such as him who's had a long strained history of wacky adventures but even so after being randomly summoned the first thing he does is catch his chili dogs you can see it through this although it's a strange event he isn't really scared so much it's just taken aback not even really truly surprise just took mild confusion as merlina ask for forgiveness due to her abrupt summons he just looks at her and of the demons and King Arthur and makes a clear assessment of the situation and then effortlessly with a cocky smile on his face takes down hordes of demons in stares King Arthur's straight in the face even though King Arthur has a dominating presence you can tell an Unleashed in Black Knight he isn't ever overconfident by having a loudmouth he's definitely all about what he's always been all about but would rather put his money where his mouth is straight off the bat first you actions rather than words but still spouts a cocky one-liner when he gets the chance his more attitude 90s heavy interpretation and is more modern friendly interpretation I love for completely different reasons and some that are similar even if I do prefer the more friendly sonnet but the reason I wanted to describe his changes is because it shows how sonic has grown in matured over the years and it's something I loved ever since I first played on leash you might even compare the character to a classics shown in protagonist akin to the likes of Goku specifically even though from colors onward he was well written horribly to say the least now I can't avoid talking about this if I'm going into Sonics character because wow I have no clue how you screw up this bag like okay pond tack and graph clearly didn't know the first thing about Sonic as a character after being handed this gaming icon they still didn't put forth the effort to write the character correctly let alone the rest of the Sonic cast unless Sega themselves are trying to change the characters for the worst the utter lack of understanding and respect to this series in the writing Department isn't helped by the fact that not only is the writing inaccurate to the characters but it's just bad unfunny jokes that would even make the youngest of children wince but I cannot deny that at least did sonic forces I think they nailed Sonic's personality he's cocky and spouting some actually pretty funny one-liners at times during cutscenes and yet he's still super supportive of his friends with that friendly banter he's known for with the ensemble cast it's a great combo of the more actions speak louder than words friendly sonic I love and the 90s attitude but as you can see Sonic has matured over the years to be more modern but still retains his old ways filled with cocky behavior he's just smarter of knowing when it's appropriate to get away with the sick long liner but the reason for Sonic's changes why I believe he's such a perfect character story about government experiments her fighting gods and even about him in the ultimate life form along set a time traveler all banding together to turn into super forms using mystical emeralds that held sacred by an ancient hidden a tribe it all works regardless at the execution of some of these examples I believe it to be 100 and impossible for those stories to still not work on paper heck with a couple of rewrites they work in such emotionally impactful ways sonic is a perfect device for storytelling and is a character with endless potential but what does this mean in terms of his gameplay this will without a doubt be a shorter section of the video as I believe it's almost self-explanatory Sonic as previously mentioned is all about moving forward and helping people as I said lends itself to excellent and natural storytelling but seeing as these are often story driven games even when the story's at its bland is it's perfect for gameplay too Sonic and his Need for Speed is such a perfectly awesome combination I don't need to explain its design it's perfect you see it and immediately go it's Sonic and even if you don't use scene and you understand his personality and is craving for speed at a single glance which is exactly why his games are so captivating during the era he was created Sonic was made to be bigger better faster and that's exactly what he was but as the years went on it became apparent that he needed to be grander and more ambitious which as I just explained with this character it practically demands scope Sonic and design personality and gameplay demand presence in scope if you play a sonic level and don't walk away thinking it is the fastest grandis adventure you have ever been on then something is very wrong Sonic's natural personality and his need for speed is what encourages you to want to go fast in gameplay his active character makes you as the player want to take him on this grand journey going as fast as you possibly can thus as simple as it may be sonic games shouldn't be easy to make the character was born from a need for success and ambition to conquer the videogame King and if he isn't written programmed and represented with that demand for spectacle and respect he deserves well then that's not the Sonic I and an entire generation grew up with hope I've made my point clear about my love for this character and the endless potential he has in any media he takes Foreman I knew this video would be one of my most passionate I love this character with all my heart I have my whole life my first-ever video game was Sonic Adventure 2 and as I continue to venture to tell my own stories express my own opinions and try to make characters just as fantastic as Sonic I hope you understand why sonic viewed from a narrative stance and gameplay stance is without question a perfect character [Music]

Channel: It'sNickForShort

Views: 77,206

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Id: 9SHoNjWzjqI

Length: 12min 0sec (720 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 10 2020