Media Essays: Five Female Sonic Characters Who Deserve Better

Oh Sonic, with a franchise as big as the hedgehog’s, there’s gonna be lots of female characters in there, and with a franchise this big, there’s gonna be a few characters who could get written with many of their fans less happy with them. I’m the Wandering Fox and I’m taking a look at five female Sonic characters who I feel were badly handled. Keep in mind this is my opinion, and you might not agree with me. With Sonic having been around for over thirty years, the franchise has created many female characters and guess what? They ain’t stopping, as for last year we had Sage, the A.i daughter of Dr Eggman, and this year we’re getting Trip the sun gazer lizard. But there have been many female characters who got bad writing handed to them, and I wish these “writers” actually figured things out. Here we go. We begin at number 5 with.

Bunnie Rabbot

Bunnie was a sweetheart who captured the hearts of many with her cowgirl behaviour, her gentle friendliness and being a cybernetic rabbit, even capturing the heart if a teacher of mine who loved doing her voice. Bunnie had quite the story to her, being related to a crime family, halfway robotised, going toe to toe with Mecha Sonic, trying to rekindle her friendship with her uncle, being married to Antoine, the girl had a lot to her. Being a good friend of Sally Acorn, and being a housemate of Fiona Fox, she had the social group. But what happened? Being married and the Mecha Sally arc. First of all, I’m not against her and Antoine being a couple, they are a cute one, the strong sweetheart and the clumsy but loyal guy. Its just the thing is, that's all both became of each other, she was his wife, he was her husband. Obviously we did have that arc where Bunnie fought her uncle but once you have Bunnie and Antoine overbearing Tails on his solo arc, and Antoine has been reduced to being her husband, and Bunnie became a mere side character to Sally as a friend. And obviously Mecha Sally, the over bloated arc Flynn should’ve wrapped up as soon as it began. Bunnie was injured while fighting a Titan Metal Sonic with Ixis Naugus crystallising her, he undoes it and she gets organic limbs again…only thing is those limbs were robotic, they weren’t her original Robian limbs, and brushing it aside as “magic” was a lame excuse. The idea of Bunnie being organic once more is an interesting idea, but the thing was Flynn tried cramming this into a long bloated mess of a story which saw the Freedom Fighters literally butchered, because we gotta go edgy with Sonic, haven’t we? Bunnie was turned into an idiot in the Mecha Sally story, she escorts Elias out of New Mobotropolis with only a hoverboard, and gets beaten up by Mecha Sally, and then watches her husband get injured by a Metal Sonic. You’d think Bunnie would’ve had a gauntlet of sorts on her to help her fight, but no, she goes out with only a hoverboard. Then what happens? She leaves the Freedom Fighters, go to her uncle to get cybernetic limbs. Yeah, and all the while Rotor made a nanite suit! If Bunnie stuck around, she might’ve had a nanite suit instead! Then what happens? Don’t know, because of the lawsuit, and Flynn didn’t think he’d have to cut the story down with the troubles the lawsuit was causing. The Mecha Sally story could’ve been resolved if Sonic jumped on the Master Emerald, turned super, flew to the Death Egg, grab Mecha Sally, break the Death Egg, and get Mecha Sally back home. What we got was Flynn desperately trying to cling onto his big edgy story instead of understanding his own flaws and the risk of the lawsuit. Bunnie is last with her uncle, and replaced by a SEGA game version of her! Oh, and Scourge the Hedgehog basically molested her and he got away scot free. You want to know what I would’ve done? Expand on Bunnie’s criminal family, have her friendship with Sally be a centre of an arc, Bunnie fearing her friends don’t trust her but learns they do. Bunnie and Antoine can still be married, just let them interact with more characters. If you want to make her organic again you’d have to find her Robian limbs to turn her back to a Mobian and have her understand though she had cybernetics, it wasn’t those which had her as a Freedom Fighter, it was herself. Bunnie, you deserved better. We come to number 4.

Blaze the Cat

Blaze, probably the second or third most popular female Sonic character behind Amy and Rouge. A princess of the Sol Isles, with pyrokinesis, a cold behaviour at first but becomes a lot more kinder, and having a friendship with Cream, you’d think Blaze would be given much more dignity in the franchise? In a way, they’re kinda getting better with her thanks to Murder of Sonic, but Blaze hasn’t been treated well. The games didn’t do much with her after 06, with a alternate version of her appearing in Sonic and the Black Knight, and she basically became cheerleader for Sonic in Generations, and being with Silver in almost every scene afterwards. I do like Blaze with Silver, but they don’t just revolve around each other, the Rival Games did more with Silver without Blaze. The biggest insults towards Blaze are in the comics, mostly from Archie. I haven’t read much of her from IDW but I heard she is with Silver a lot there. The Archie Comics did her dirty, from her being easily defeated by SWATBOTS, and Sonic, to her being made into a punching bag for both Rouge and Captain Metal and she gets kidnapped a lot. Ian Flynn and Tracey Yardley both wrote her with a lot of disrespect. Flynn apparently said Blaze was not interesting enough. Uh, heh, mate, I think you best look in the mirror and recall you overpowered an already lame evil copy of Sonic. Funny how you came and said you love Blaze but your handling of her says otherwise. But to then tell us he doesn’t think Blaze is interesting enough is him basically being a bum about her. You can do a lot with Blaze.

But hey, Tracey Yardley has her as a joke even outside comics as how he had her eat Cosmo. Uhhhh. Tracey, I got something to say to you. Cats do that if they’re feeling sick. Blaze can go to the toilet if she’s feeling sick.

(additional comment from themediamanblog) Also how is this meant to be funny? It's not. It's essentially making Blaze a child-murderer. That's not funny, it's pretty damn depraved. X( Blaze has pirate villains, you have a lot to draw inspiration from, there’s the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Captain Hook, Edward Teach, Sinbad, you look at those and take inspirations from them, or maybe other mystical creatures. There’s her being royal as well, give her a few enemies in royalty. Or I don’t know, have her be more friendly with Marine. With Blaze being a princess, id like to know more of her life as one and what else her family does. Does she do more than guard the Sol Emeralds? Other things she does? Blaze did get written better in Murder of Sonic, coming over to have a bit of a laugh and for friendship. Blaze is being written well in Murder, but of course, the future for her will be left to SEGA if they can help her. We come to number 3. Rouge the Bat

A character who is a charmer, a thief, a agent, and a loyal friend, Rouge the Bat is a interesting character in the franchise, from her flirty banter with Knuckles, to being a agent for GUN, to becoming the most trusted friend of Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge is a character who I think oughta be handled with care. Just a big shame we didn’t get much of that in Archie. Both Ken and Ian did her dirty, from a lame as hell cat fight between her and Bunnie, to kissing Knuckles’ dad, being a jerk towards any other girl from Julie Su, Amy, Cream and Blaze, and being a absolute greedy bitch in Treasure Team Tango, constantly backstabbing Amy and Blaze, arguing with Shadow, and wanting a Sol Emerald despite knowing Blaze needs it to keep her world intact, Rouge was an utter wench in Archie. Of course, she in some manner helped Scourge get what he wanted, killing a lot of Moebians to get what he wanted, and does she end up feeling guilty? Uh, no. Where’s the Rouge who would give up her life for another? Where’s the Rouge who said she would be by Shadow’s side if he was betrayed? I don’t think I can see her, all I see is “Witch in Bat’s Clothing”. Oh yeah, she was bad in one of the Riders games, but kinda everyone was badly written in it. At least in Sonic Prime for the brief moment she’s there, she at least is wanting to help Sonic stop Eggman from stealing the Paradox Prism, but even then, she’s not there much, only her counterparts. Gonna tell you, don’t listen to Flynn on what he says about Team Dark, he says they aren’t friends which contradicts what we have in the games, and if anything, he doesn’t get how to write Rouge the Bat. But these last couple of female characters were butchered, in some part thanks to Flynn, Karl Bollers, Ken Penders, and others. Sally Acorn

Yeah, I think Sally was badly handled in a lot of Archie Sonic. I know some people think she’s a Mary Sue, and I disagree. Sally does have some sweet things about her, being motherly with Tails, her snarky flirty banter with Sonic, caring for her friends, and her being a Princess having to fight a monster who took her family away from her….yeah, they had to screw her up. I think this all began with the 130s. Having Sonic come home with him in space, Sally is overwhelmed with him being back and having had a whole year thinking he was dead, it left its deep scars on her. With such a scar, it left Sally fearful of him being hurt and she had a moment of sheer fright at him breaking his arm. Sally then basically begged Sonic to stop fighting and to just be by her. Sonic turned this down then she slapped him. Yeah….this was badly handled. On one hand Sally shouldn’t have slapped him and Sonic should’ve understood what this all did to her, yet on the other Sally should’ve been made to understand Sonic wouldn’t stop and Sonic could’ve gently spoken with her about it. Sally might’ve been a deep mess, but she’s a smart girl, she would’ve listened. Who’s to blame for it? There’s a lot of mess there. Jon Grey says it was all down to Karl Bollers, but Karl said Jon was the editor on the book and wanted him to have Sally slap Sonic. I honestly don’t know who’s being honest here. Ken Penders made things disgusting by having it be revealed Sally and Geoffrey had sex, while Sally was underage… Then to make things more annoying, Sally begins dating Monkey Khan. Y’know, the guy who tried to make her his bride and lock her up against her will? Yeah, he did say sorry and he was brainwashed back then, but with such a thing for her to go through, Sally wouldn’t have given him a thought. Ugh, gives me Fifty Shades of Grey feels. Then we get to Mecha Sally. Yes, oh yes, the story Ian Flynn couldn’t help but try to do even though there was a lot to quickly stop the entire arc. After Sally has been roboticised, we have Eggman take a blowtorch to her head and alter her body, taking out certain bits and replacing them with mechanical ones….Sally basically was chopped up. Aaaaaaand she is replaced by a SEGA take on the character who looks more like her daughter Sonia.

Sonia

and Sally. Basically, Sally died as Mecha Sally, her brain was removed, twisted into a monster, all for Ian to try and be edgy and go for a Darth Vader character….Ian, Claudia is a weak Darth Vader, Mecha Sally is a weak Darth Vader like Claudia. Darth Vader was actually SMART! He was more than some big guy in dark armour, he commanded respect, was a clever fighter and actually did stuff. Mecha Sally was just another Eggman robot.

What do these characters have in common? Oh, it’s because they’re crappy Darth Vader characters. Mecha Sally was just another mindless drone of a robot you had who could have been saved easily, but the characters were juggling the idiot ball. Ian doesn’t have all the blame, Karl and Jon do as well, yet for Sally to end her career in the old timeline as a mindless robot is one big writing fart. Then we come to number 1. Fiona Fox

Fiona is the worst Sonic villain in my opinion. Why? Oh, let’s see, her timeline was messed up, going from a child to a sixteen year old in one year, to dating Sonic even though she had no interest in him prior, was then molested by Scourge, ran away with him, slapped Tails, helped him kill many Moebians, and is a big giant idiot. And all of this could’ve been avoided if Ken and Karl took a look at her timeline and go “Hang on, this doesn’t add up”. Fiona was messed around with in terms of her age. Auto Fiona was built from the remains of Robo Sally, and was made to look like Fiona as a kid to lure out Tails. Fiona was about Tails’s age by then, and there’s a shot of which I’m confused by in the battle against the Xorda. Fiona still looks like an eleven year old here.

How on Earth did she become a teenager!? In one year!? Tell me Ian, tell me Ken, how!?

Here, Fiona is clearly the same age as Tails at the creation of Auto Fiona. Also, two years to get out of the prison? Auto Fiona was sent to find Tails right after she was made, so mind telling me how if she can grow by two years yet Tails hasn’t? Look at Fiona recounting her story to Mighty, she’s roughly the same as she was in the flashback. Flynn messed that up even more with a flashback in Lockdown Scourge’s Sonic Universe story with her wearing her bodysuit. All of this was taking place in one year, how did it become two? What a mess. Then she basically became Sonic’s girlfriend, for him to get over Sally, and to keep her away from Tails...wow, good work, Sonic. But as this was happening, Evil Sonic was still blue and was going around acting like Sonic. He basically molested Bunnie, and we know he had Fiona thinking he was Sonic...with someone who’s got a dark childhood like Fiona and blaming Sonic for it, you’d think meeting Evil Sonic, and maybe sexually interacting with him, you’d think Fiona would be horrified and tell everyone of what he'd done. But no. Instead, she runs away with the guy who molested her, her friends, slaps Tails who did nothing to her, and helps Scourge conquer Moebius. I’m going to spell it out for you. Scourge pretended he was Sonic. He made out with a few girls in Knothole, acting like Sonic, tricking them into thinking he was someone they trusted. You know what that is? It’s a case of the R word, Scourge did it to Bunnie, he did it to Fiona. Fiona hated Sonic for not helping her and not killing Robotnik because he conquered Mobius. But she ran away with the guy who r***ed her and Bunnie, and helped him take over Moebius and made many suffer…hey, Ian, your “bad girl” here is an IDIOT! Fiona hated Sonic because he wouldn’t kill Eggman, killing him would have helped Mobius, yet she then goes and conquers a whole planet with the guy who did horrid stuff to her and her friends…Fiona, you are an idiot. And Ian Flynn is to blame for her turn to villainy. Ian kinda knows he messed up big on her betrayal. Buuuuut, he’s tried to cover the disgusting stuff Scourge did by saying on his message board it didn’t happen…yeah, that’s on your message board Ian, not in the comics, Scourge did those things. I don’t get why you love him so much? But yeah, what a character for girls to read on about. A girl who somehow aged up in one year, gets together with the guy who went around sexually bothering her, and have her kill a lot of Moebians. Yeah, Fiona to me is the worst Sonic villain, the worst female Sonic character as well. Oh, but what would I have done? Oh, well, I don’t know, maybe I would have gone to Karl and Ken and say “Guys, her age doesn’t match up, Auto Fiona was made from the remains of Robo Sally, made to resemble Fiona as a kid, Fiona was a kid back then, you can’t age her up”. Ugh, going down this rabbit hole was horrid, if only Ken Penders and Karl Bollers were actually thoughtful, if Ian Flynn can get better with his writing, and we actually have female Sonic characters written with respect. But still, do you think there’s others who could have been written better?