A while back, a friend of mine Tohokari-Steel made a post sharing a YouTube comic dub of a story featuring the characters Vector, Espio and Charmy from the Sonic series. It kind of... awakened something in me.
Really, my first foray into DeviantArt was through Sonic. Yep. I was one of those guys. And this made me remember a lot of good memories.
So, I couldn't help but binge a lot of Sonic analysis videos, and, to my surprise, I ended up loving Sonic and his friends more than ever before. In a way, they held up better.
See, there's this lovely channel called Characters In-Depth and another one named JebTube who helped me see these characters in a much more positive and endearing light, along with the games they starred in. How Shadow really got over himself after the end of SA 2 and, even in Heroes, he rejected the whole angst of the moral dilemma over who he really is. Shadow was not born an edgelord, he was twisted into being one.
Then you got Silver, who had a tough break from his debut. I honestly connect with him more than any other, mainly because he's an optimist with the heart of a child who wants to be a part of a world that's not a living hell, who really just wants friends to talk to.
And Knuckles, while he started cocky in Sonic 3 (And Knuckles), he turned out to be a more quiet and introverted character than I remembered. His naivety is from social ineptitude born out of isolation.
Gamma's sacrifice, Tails' independence, I could go on...
But mainly, I discovered a new reason to love Sonic himself: He's the epitomy of an adventurer. This guy tries out new things wherever he goes and never says no to a challenge. Snowboarding? Sign me up! Car racing? Sure! Board racing! Awesome! Getting launched out of a goddamn cannon? LET ME INNNN! And it's that positive, never-say-die attitude that affects everyone around him... kinda like Captain America and Superman. He helps others grow and develop by encouraging them to try new things.
Hell, even the live action movie has him positively influencing the main character with his example.
So, yeah, I just felt like gushing about this. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for this kind of writing to come back in Sonic games... someday.