Poor poor Earthbound. 😛
Now what about dat Custom Robo, goddamn! You mean I have to go to bootleg Virtual-On (Gundam Versus) and LBX just to get that fix?
Archive for October, 2020
At the moment, I don’t really… have much to talk about.
Anywho, fun little… idea, maybe, hopefully. I kept looking over old drafts of posts I just… didn’t feel like finishing up. One reason or another. Hell, some of these I forgot what I was typing up. So… lets check em out.
“MARIO IS A WEAPON”
Judging by the title of this one, I assume I was trying to come up with some theory or explanation as to why Mario keeps getting used in arguments, and not just for Sonic games. I’ve seen Nintendo fans use this fucking franchise for EVERYTHING!
While watching a video by that guy who… probably cares a bit too much about Fox and Krystal’s relationship, it’s actually weird to find someone who was invested in the lore of a Nintendo game. Imagine that. Finding something other than “gameplay” to extol the virtues of! While I don’t find the same level of quality in Star Fox Assault as did the Command Destroyer (Character Analyzer…. can’t remember his youtube name to save my soul), it’s clear the enthusiasm is there. Star Fox, out of all Nintendo franchises, has something resembling an actual continuity. Something that connects each and every game to each other. Not some episodic mess that only exists to justify gameplay. You actually have an established universe… even if it only exists for 4 games. Sure you have Metroid, but no one talks about it, and after Other M, for damn good reason. And I’d be lying if I said Assault wasn’t the most interesting game in the whole series (even if it ain’t the best).
I jumped ship from Nintendo to Playstation because, as I saw it, Nintendo had no vested interest in making good content. And so far, that remains to be the case even to this day. Good content is something that is outsourced to 3rd parties (KOEI and Platinum), while Nintendo rides on the success of their name brands alone. While people talk about Breath of the Wild’s success, no one really talks about Breath of the Wild itself. No one talks about what makes it so interesting to behold. It’s just a game that is popular based purely on it’s success. The same holds true for Super Mario Odyssey. At the very least, you have people talking about thingss they enjoy doing in Animal Crossing, but you rarely see people talking about things they enjoyed in the recent Mario and Zelda games. Only of their successes and reception. It’s a similar thing I’ve noticed about NSMB. It succeeds, but rarely will you find people talking about what they enjoyed.
Success by itself is worshipped and glorified. People don’t care how or why it succeeds, the fact that he/she/it did is all that matters. IN general, it shouldn’t be a bad thing. People or things that produce positive results should be looked at as examples on how to achieve a similar level of success. However, what ends up happening is that people only look at the success and think only of the “what”. Instead of looking at the “How” and the “Why”, they only focus on the “What”. And by focusing so much on the “What”, you get a lot of bad habits. The game industry is incredibly guilty of focusing on the “What” of success. It leads to copy cat behavior. People looked at the “What” of Capcom’s many…. many successful games and produced a bunch of forgettable trash that are left awash to the flames of history. QTE’s are an annoying example. We’re still dealing with them after 2 console generations, and no one likes them. Many people looked at “What” Super Mario 64 was, and were surprised to find that a lot of them couldn’t replicate the success it had.
What people constantly fail to understand is that in many cases, success is more circumstantial than it is purely based on quality. Timing is often key.
I think I just got tired of talking about Mario and Nintendo shit in general, and didn’t feel like delving any further into it. Sides, I think this was good enough. 😛
“BLACK GAMERS DON’T HAVE STANDARDS”
This one I was admittedly frustrated when writing it. I was watching some black youtuber playing Fortnite with these 2 white guys and they were… literally calling him a ni**er throughout the video (can’t find it anymore), and this…. idiot was just laughing it off like it was good clean harmless fun. And I had seen this idiocy over and over, I was basically venting under the veil of intellectualism.
Since Gamers are outcasts by nature, they have since decided that, likely for the salvation of their egos, that they are higher than the rest of society, and have taken solace in their degeneracy. The racist vitriol over Xbox Live, the lack of ass washing, the petty internet flamewars over what console is the best, it’s all here.
The battle between fans and SJWs is not one that is fought for representation or free speech, but rather one waged for the gratification of egos. One needs only look at the response toward black characters to see that such petty war is built on lies of righteousness.
People will put money toward whatever suits their interests. Often times, it’s not a matter of quality that begets success, it’s usually a political agenda that is being fulfilled. Fiction that has characters with realistic features and bodies (particularly women) are shunned because it signifies a denial of sexual enticement for the (white) male demographic. They DEMAND sexual content because for them, they feel entitled to a woman’s body.
When people try to explain that they wanted the Sonic Movie to succeed for the purposes of gaining Transformers-like traction, I feel insulted. Sonic fans were just thirsty for success, not quality. An unfortunate predicament we find ourselves in during the modern age is that meritocracy is nonexistent. People have discovered long ago that people will pay money for something so long as it serves some sort of need or desire. Afterall, “quality” isn’t so easily determined by how well done a work is considering people have different standards.
Then the George Floyd riots popped off, and I personally didn’t think it was appropriate to go any further.
“MCU RANTING”
After the Endgame review, I had this in mind. Just going through the ebb and flow of the MCU franchise and why it turned into a giant pile of shit.
So now that Endgame is over, I wanted to talk about how the MCU came to be so muddled and forgettable, and why people love it so damn much. And I tried to analyze what people saw in this movie to the extent that they themselves may have mis-analyzed certain characters and their motivations. As well as how Civil War royally fucked the MCU. I shouldn’t be giving these films anymore attention than they deserve, but ignoring them won’t do anything. And what little I shit on won’t stop people from getting on the hype trains.
So here we go.
Iron Man 1 came out a year after the disasters that were Spiderman 3, Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Transformers. And for a long time, I always thought it would be interesting if they did an Iron Man movie. I’m one of the few people who watched the Iron Man Cartoon back in the 90s (I think it was season 2), and… I wasn’t even aware of who Iron Man was in relation to Marvel, I thought it was a random cartoon. Then, I see him in a fighting game with Spiderman and Captain America…. and Ryu, and that’s how I learned he was actually a Marvel Character. So, when the internet was a thing, I had all the time in the world to nerd out to who Iron Man was in the comics…. and I find that he was a total jackass. The unbelievable shit he pulled in the comics makes his Animated counterpart look like a saint. Well, I don’t remember Iron Man’s personality all that well from the cartoon, but the one thing I always took note of was his battles with the Mandarin. It was cool to see these battles between science and magic! Before I even knew that Mandarin’s powers came from 10 alien rings. But, when I said it would be interesting, I meant in terms of translating that CARTOON into the big screen. At the time, I really didn’t know all that much about Iron Man, but I did know about Whiplash from the cartoon, and thought that was the dumbest choice of a villain. But… 2008 was still in the era where Comic Book movies were forced to be “realistic”, which is why we had cloud Galactus. And in large part, because movie studios kept forcing the movies to be realistic, is why the MCU gets so much praise. Nostalgia Critic’s characters keep hammering it in that it’s like the comic books are coming to life on the big screen, and it’s probably because the adaptations are finally… FINALLY allowed to flourish as they did in cartoon form.
So…. after Iron Man 3, I kept asking the same question… over… and over… and over again. Why… did they FUCK UP…. the Mandarin!? And WHY do people love Iron Man 3 so damn much!?
It’s one of the most baffling things they ever pulled, especially when considering how accurate Loki and Red Skull were designed and portrayed. You would think they would have the same level of respect and integrity for the Mandarin. But… Disney has quite an audience in China, so they changed his ethnicity. Well, they already made Black Widow an American woman when she’s supposed to be Russian and a hardass, and people kep hammering it in that “well changes have to be made for the movies” and all that mess…. but…. that “reveal” that he was just some random actor!?
I…. I couldn’t contain my anger! Iron Man 3 was supposed to be that illustrious battle like in the old cartoons!
I really…. just didn’t want to talk about the MCU anymore. Damn sure didn’t want to give it anymore attention than it deserved. It was exhausting going through a whole decade of nonsense movies just to get a finale that was absolute shit and was already ruined by Civil War. Basically, Civil War was the most interesting story of all the MCU that it spoiled me. I no longer cared about those goddamn Infinity gems, I cared more about the warring factions, the politics of being heroes, all that interesting shit. Thanos? Fuck Thanos! I’d prefer a Civil War 2! Er…. not that new shit with a mutant prophet.
“NAMCO NARRATIVE” and “NAMCO SEX APPEAL”
After playing Code Vein and Jump Force, I had seriously considered ranting about Namco’s idiotic design philosophies. I had already done one for their fake difficulty, and was on route to do 2 more.
Stop me if you heard this one.
1 or 2 friends venture out into the world to stop some grand evil or save the world from ruin by doing some designated quest that involves restoring temples or spirits, usually in 4s, in order to stop the tides of destruction befalling them. Along the way, these 2 blokes meet new friends with their own backstories and agendas that may or may not have anything to do with the 2 friends’s quests, but will be revisited once or twice throughout the story as an extended break from the main story… in order for them to get over some sort of character flaw that often involves defeating some random villain who has a beef with said character. However, when they near completion of the main goal, they start seeing how evil and demonic their quest had been, and they try to change course. But they can’t because the bad guys won’t let them. Then, they are saved by some bullshit which may or may not involve the alleged death of a comrade, and their quest continues to the point that they find out their worlds are not what they appear to be. That their worlds were created or brought upon by some divine plan or emergency back up plan. Then the goal becomes freeing themselves from said world or divine plan to make a better future for themselves, often neglecting the characters who’s stories we were forced to experience if only to pad out the length of the game.
That’s Tales of Symphonia, but could also be substituted with Tales of the Abyss… sort of, or Tales of Xillia. Or Tales of Zesteria. Or hell, with CODE VEIN. Just with a few mild differences in details and events, they often play out the same. The characters are always a part of some community or organization with very strict rules and customs that the characters may or may not break of their own volition. The characters themselves always have backstories or introductions that take an extended break from the main plot just to divulge in a useless segment that involves helping said character with their problem and grudges, and then we go right back to the main plot which is often convoluted and hard to follow in order to explain how the ridiculous concepts work in practice. And then by the end of the games, we always have the main villain monolog about his pretentious goals for remaking the world, and the entire ensemble cast of characters announce that they will win because of their variation on the power of friendship.
It’s nothing new for the Japanese to be as repetitive as can be. A lot of their successes can be attributed to never straying from a formula so long as there are people willing to stomach it again and again. I would guess that Japanese audiences are often unwilling to deviate from their routine tastes. But then again, Namco has had a bad habit of ignoring concerns of their own Japanese audiences on more than one occassion. No I do not know if it is the result of Namco or Bandai (probably the latter as everyone blames them for Namco’s downfall), but whatever the case, the company overall doesn’t seem to give one bloody shit about what their audiences think. They will maintain course regardless of what complaints befall them. So… who knows if people actually like the stories in the tales/God Eater/Code Vein games or not? From what I’ve read, very few people actually do, and have far more complaints than praise. Though, that’s only the American side, and we know how little of a fuck the Japanese would give of our complaints and concerns (unless they’re Nintendo and you’re gay). I just find very off putting that, not jut the tales games, but seemingly all of their animu inspired games have the same basic storyline and flow. God Eater is like this. GE3, it’s starts off with you and 2 other blokes, and then you go on this desert wide adventure, meeting new characters and taking a break from the plot to divulge on their bullshit like anyone really cares, and then ending off with the entire cast getting preachy about what they’re made of and how they can go beyond the impossible, right before doing the impossible because of course they do, and then just moving on with their lives as though they never really knew each other. Then you might have a side story/sequel where they do the exact same thing all over again.
The issue I take with this sort of narrative focus is that more often than not, most of these characters are going to be poorly written, and events unfold in such a way that the characters that you may care for will get sidelined in favor of the writer’s personal pet.
Sorry, my complaints of Zesteria got mixed in there somewhere. What I meant to say was that often times, the cast is much larger than it needs to be, and often we have to take an extended break from the main plot and deal with each and every single one of these character’s backstories and personal issues. Stuff like this really only works for tv shows, but… this is a game. I don’t want to have to deal with the sideplots of the characters that I am given to complete the game. They’re not so important that a good portion of the game should be devoted to them when their stories rarely ever move the plot forward.
And
SJWs have made their mark on the world of entertainment in ways that should never have been possible. Even the saviors of sex appeal, Japan, has started to bow down to their whims.
Simply put, I got bored. Made the mistake of writing several posts at once.
“CUSTOMERS vs FANS”
This one was intended to be a expansion of an earlier post.
Lemme tell you all something about how you’re SUPPOSED to treat customers. Say you’re working in a retail store which requires you to deal with customers. Customers are the primary source of income for many businesses, they don’t have the luxury of benefactors like Marvel does where they just have endless money to blow on their own egos. For many businesses, the customer is the primary, if not the ONLY, source of income. What that means is you are going to do whatever it takes to PLEASE the customers! So if you’re working as a stock laborer in a retail store, you’re busy trying to finish your work and load up all the shelves, but then a customer stops you in the middle of your work and asks for your assistance. Let me tell you one thing you are NOT going to do, no matter how much shit you talk online in your private circles, no matter how much you hate dealing with customers, how much you brag about all the BAD customers you’ve told to fuck off, you are NOT going to tell that customer who stopped you in the middle of your work… to fuck off!
You’re not going to tell that customer that he or she needs to wait until you are finished working! No, you are going to stop what you are doing IMMEDIATELY, and you are going to ASSIST that customer on the spot! And for all you beatnik mother fuckers who are just looking for an argument, yes, directing that same customer to another employee counts as assisting that customer because you pointed them in a direction of someone who is more competent and capable than your worthless ass! You stop what you are doing and help that customer! Cause here’s what’s gonna happen if you don’t! You tell that customer to wait, and they’re going to LEAVE! OOPS! You’ve just lost a potential buyer! They’ll probably go around on some online review site and talk about your horrible service! Perhaps they’ll find another employee who WILL assist them on the spot. That’s all well and good, but you’ve already tainted their perception of the store! You’ve communicated to them that you don’t care about their needs or wants! So they’re less likely to come back!
It’d be one thing if you tried to help them but couldn’t, and that could be for any reason. You might not have what they’re looking for. Not your fault. You don’t where the item is or what they’re talking about. Again, not your fault. Now if the customer is REASONABLE… ok? If the customer is REASONABLE, then they’ll still look at it as “well at least you tried. Thanks anyway”. See the thing is even if you COULDN’T help them, at least you put in the effort anyway! You’ve generated good will. They might not come back, but they MIGHT… put in a good word for yah so that you have customers coming in regardless. See, the thing I noticed is that customer service, no matter what form it takes, can be the real deal breaker for many people. Unless the business you run deals with tangible goods that people need, the amount of effort you expend to help the customers with whatever problems they have will ultimately determine if they come back for more. You don’t want to have a shitty business and be a shitty person along with it.
That’s why you have people getting fed up with Sony, they make lousy products, they’re losing customers to Microsoft (ironically seeing how Microsoft had the worst customer service out of all 3 console manufacturers back in the 7th generation), and they’re setting up all these rules and boundaries for how YOU get to purchase their fledging products. Sony consistently makes poor products, consistently BREAKS their own products, tells you that there’s nothing they can do if it breaks, or accuses you of having modded your console if it breaks as a result of a damn system firmware update. Everyone is looking at the PS5 funny because of Sony, not because of the console itself. As far as anyone is concerned, it’s just another damn box to play games. The problem is the COMPANY RESPONSIBLE FOR IT! If you’ve got a shitty track record to customer satisfaction, you got people looking at YOU funny style, not the products you produce. Now in all candor, the PS5 can still do well because historically speaking, gamers tend to gravitate towards products made by shitty people. The shittiest people in the industry tend to succeed because gamers don’t see themselves as customers. They merely see themselves as FANS! Others are junkies, but the majority of gamers only see themselves as fans.
That’s something that people don’t understand. Fans are not effective in making changes to a series or franchise that they love because they’re constantly communicating their consent. A fan is just short for a “Fanatic”. A fanatic is a person who has wild, excessive, or even UNREASONABLE enthusiasm for the object of their fandom. They’re almost a religious cult! Religious cults make tributes of praise and worship (all that damn fanart out there). That’s what a fan amounts to. Unwavering support. Religious zeal. Excessive Enthusiasm. Fans make tributes. Customers make demands. Fans often want nothing in return. Customers do. Fans will make excuses for the failures of the people who serve them. Customers will make demands. Because you see, Customers know that they are using their own MONEY! When you use your own money, you expect to GET something! And if you can’t get it, your money is WASTED! I’m breaking this down in such a way that treats people like they’re retarded, I understand that. But I’m breaking it down like this because a lot of Sonic fans are still in grade school or college. These people have yet to work a job. They don’t understand the dynamic of customers and businesses because they haven’t worked a day in their lives yet! This is why businesses try to skew their products toward young people, because young people have no experience of how the world works! The dynamic of customer and business is foreign to them. So if you talk about games or movies, all they can say is that they are fans. They didn’t put up any MONEY for it, so they can’t have a demand!
People, if you think like a fan, you are going to BUY a product even if you KNOW you are going to hate it! You know why!? Because it ain’t about what YOU like! It’s about validation! You want to show other people that you are a real fan of the object of your fandom! So you buy the product anyway. Because you want to prove to some jackass online that your opinion is VALID! Because you want to review the product on your blog. You want to INCREASE YOUR PROFILE! You want to INCREASE YOUR IMAGE! You want to PROVE TO OTHER STRANGERS that you are indeed a fan! Fans are concerned about how OTHERS VIEW THEM! Remember how Sonic fans kept trying to police other Sonic Fans on how they conduct themselves in the face of other fans, not wanting to appear like a bunch of crazy furries or furfags or w/e the fuck they call themselves. Not wanting to appear as though they are entitled or unpleasible fans. Fans have ANXIETY over how other people view them! And that extends to the people who produce the products that they are drawn to.
They are so concerned, so SCARED of how people view them, they will do everything their power to avoid upsetting people. THAT INCLUDES REFUSING TO MAKE DEMANDS! To demand something is to communicate that you are ENTITLED to something! Fans and Gamers don’t like to be labeled as “entitled” because it has negative connotations. So they won’t make demands because it could be seen as being “Negative”. It could be seen as infringing on the creative process of the people who make the products you want to “support”. Not necessarily “enjoy” but to support. Don’t demand anything because “it’s not fair to the people making the product”. “Let them tell the story THEY want to tell”. For fans, it’s not about their wants or desires, it’s about supporting the creators and their vision! Fuck your demands and desires!
A customer will NOT think like this! A customer only cares about his or her needs first and foremost. They won’t give 2/5ths of a fuck about the people making them. You know why? Because customers care about saving money. They don’t want to spend their “HARD EARNED MONEY” on something that might be shit, so they are cautious and conscious of a product’s cost and quality. They won’t blindly spend money to uplift a store or a producer because that person or store has no tangible benefit to them as people. Fans are like blind sheep.
Honestly couldn’t get through to finishing it. October has been a really stressful month so far, and I couldn’t get through with it. All it’s gonna do is confuse people anyway.
Honestly speaking, videogames have become so… boring as of late. There’s controversy everywhere, but there’s always controversy. PS5 has this BS of applying for a console as though it were a job application which is just… ridiculous on several levels. We’re still in the middle of a pandemic for Amma’s sake, but the game industry wants to pull this nonsense. It’s getting colder so we’re gonna get an increase in Covid cases, we’ve got domestic (WS) terrorists trying to kidnap Governors and shit, Ghana has a Chinese Chief, Kamala Harris got kids buck dancing at rallies, people obsess over flies and shit, and all I’ve been doing was playing New Gundam Breaker. It’s crap. But it’s the only Gundam game where I can use a GMIII. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW RARE IT IS TO PLAY AS A GMIII IN THESE GAMES!?
Besides that, I’ve just been busy with some side projects. I finally found someone who can assist me without a tight schedule getting in the way.
I’m pretty sure I had more, but my other drafts got wiped with my old phone, so… yeah.
Wow. Just… wow.
It took a bigger pile of shit… to beat out what was already shit.
Lets have a moment of silence for good taste. It too has been taken hold of by Covid-19, and took it’s last breaths.
I’m reminded of Nostalgia Critic’s review of the live action Lion King Movie, having a skit of him cursing spoofs of the hollywood movie crowd in which their horrid work schedule is so stressful that they just don’t want to think, and that Hollywood is great for that. Perhaps that tweet one of you guys sent me was more truthful than not.
That said, Crash 4 apparently failed. Conjecture from what I’ve read on youtube.
Alright, I don’t know why people are still arguing about this, or maybe it’s contained to Sonic Twitter and is more evidence that I must stop reading it, but it’s so…. fascinating, yah know? It’s like a train wreck surrounded by a crescendo of hippies and fat chicks and guys wearing pink. And occasionally a MAGA loving freak of nature!
So people are STILL at war…. over Sally vs Amy. I did NOT think the comics were more fierce than the games, but I suppose since the only topic people can think of when concerning the games is how much better Crash 4 is, there’s nothing else of worth. People are still talking about Thanos and the MCU movies, but you hear jack shit of the Sonic Movie even though it’s…. ugh… STILL the most successful movie of 2020, a year that is currently known for it’s disasters. Truly a sign of things to come! Maybe it’s the Gods punishing the world for it’s horrible horrible taste in American cinema, idk.
Anywho, Amy Rose, why does she still have her would-be defenders when it’s clear why people are not fond of the idea of her being the leader of the Freedom Fighters or…. w/e resistance movement they have in IDW. At this point, it’s clear the writer has a hard on for this character, and by the sounds of it, is desperate to turn her into a mary sue if only to spite fans of Sally Acorn. That’s just a little conjecture on my part. Defenders would often argue that Amy Rose is deserving of her position because of small instances of her showing leadership skills in previous installments of the comics, and what little they could compile from the games. How sad that Sonic Heroes can only get attention for the sake of argument and not because its the last Sonic game that everyone can agree showed that Sega gave a shit. Maybe not for testicular fortitude, but I digress. The defenders of Amy’s position (and unfortunately her character as well) are missing the point, though it’s easy to see why. The arguments against Amy’s new found promotion are strictly focused on her record.
You see, Gamers, fans of movies, and entertainment in general… are honestly the only groups of people who are attacked (viciously in some cases) for their preferences. Twitter has become a battleground of labeling people any kind of cancel bullshit you can think of. If you want less gay content in the shit you watch and play, you are homophobic, for one. OR you don’t like the idea of… say… an all female Ghostbusters team! I… probably shouldn’t open up that can of worms, but you get what I’m saying? Nowadays, you can’t exactly say you don’t like certain things happening in your entertainment (unless it deals with black people ALA Fan4stic) without facing a barrage of labels. And again, connoisseurs of entertainment (online) care too damn much about their image because they’re trying to win the respect of their peers. You want to have a voice, but there’s all these unwritten rules you have to follow just to have a voice. Certain phrases and viewpoints that you simply cannot have lest you face the fucking fury of the internet. Even drawing a picture is worth a thousand words. So you have to damn near tiptoe around every single detail. You have to say certain things like “I’m not against female characters” or “I’m all for gay couples, but-“, that kind of shit.
So when people are trying to argue why they don’t want Amy Rose in the position of leadership, you can’t merely say “I don’t like this cunt in general, and I just think Rouge or Blaze would’ve been better choices because they’re simply BETTER CHARACTERS“, nooooo, that would be seen as “petty“, or even “toxic“, or “you just can’t handle it“. Or at the very least “that’s not a good reason for her not to be so and so” (which is a complete lie) So instead, you have to think up an argument for why you’re against something, and that ultimately goes down to picking shit apart. This devolves into people going back and forth talking about how Amy has been a good leader in some cases. All that does is say that “Hey, ANY character could’ve been fit for the role of Freedom Fighter Team Captain because there have been SEVERAL characters in this franchise that have displayed leadership qualities, even Knuckles who’s been devolved into a fucking idiot for the majority of the series, so what makes the CUNT so special!?” Nothing! She just won the lottery and was picked by the writers. The internet environment has forced people to become dishonest with themselves and their feelings on certain matters because they do not want other faceless people to ignore them for their own egotistical views.
That’s funny. People go online to escape the real world… only to be faced with the same social environment from the real world. But…. this is not a case of capability, but rather of preference. People… simply… do not find Amy to be an interesting character. Lets go over this.
No one batted an eye when Knuckles was given the role of resistance leader in Sonic Forces. Infact, I think I’m the only one who called out how ineffective he was as a resistance leader (IE Operation Big Wave which cost them unnecessary lives and troop numbers). Everyone else was just plain giddy when he was revealed to be the leader of the resistance. Know why? Because people actually LIKE Knuckles, and would prefer that he gets some sort of redemption after 17 years of being turned into a goddamn moron. And if it were Shadow, Rouge, Blaze, or even Silver, no one would care either. These are all likable characters with interesting concepts and background stories.
Amy does not have anything of tangible interest to people, which is why she gets more flack than everyone else. Amy’s most unique trait is her infatuation with Sonic. Without that, she’s just a background character who gets handed the leftovers of everyone else’s stories. Exhibit A, Sonic Adventure 1. What can you get from Amy’s story that you couldn’t already get from Tails? Tails’s story is essentially proving that he can get shit done without Sonic as a crutch. Amy’s story is no less different with the addition of turning Gamma into a good guy (which… couldn’t be done without that bird, but I digress). A lot of people will say that her role could’ve been done by another character. That says her role in SA1 isn’t so significant that it warrants much attention and reverence. Gamma doesn’t do anything except blow himself up, and contributes nothing to the overall story, so Amy’s role is worthless. She… kinda does the same thing in SA2, talk a bunch a shit that causes Shadow to kill himself too, the difference being that Shadow actually did something useful.
Holy shit, Amy Rose is the Grim Reaper!
After those 2 games, Amy’s character is essentially ruined. Now she becomes a pushy, self-centered cunt which we have to overlook because she led around a team of a child and a retard. HOLY SHIT, GREAT LEADERSHIP SKILLS! I mean the JEWEL THIEF manages to command a team of a homicidal robot and homicidal Bioweapon, Sonic leads around a boy genius and a hot headed guardian, and the detective can amalgamate to any kind of team unit and take charge without issues, but AMY ROSE gets all the praise because she led a team of children, Pokemon rejects, and a mentally disturbed cat who’s a doormat for anyone who comes sniffing around.
What has Amy actually done that has made her a more interesting, appealing, and dynamic character that sets her apart from every other character in this franchise? Amy is woefully dull, and the only way for anyone to pay attention to her is through her negative traits. Being externally belligerent. Turning Amy into an unlikable cunt was the wrong way of making her interesting. Flanderized or otherwise, that is now Amy’s most distinguishable trait other than being horny. Actually, you’ve practically stripped out that latter part, so the only thing we have on this bitch is that she’s kind of a dick. Her interactions with other characters are limited, but usually boil down to pointless insults and retorts that come out of nowhere. Taking a dump on Vector because she lost a race, pushing around Knuckles any chance she gets, dissing Blaze before a race, threatening her friends with physical harm if she doesn’t get her way, and we’re supposed to ignore all of that because she’s “sassy” in the comics and Boom. You can point out all of those good qualities, and that still wouldn’t be enough to make her an INTERESTING character! A character’s unique qualities is what people notice, not their interchangable ones. Amy can be helpful and caring, but so can every other character with the exception of Omega. Amy has leadership qualities just like Sonic, Vector, Rouge, etc. Amy needs something else that sets her apart, and all she has is her infatuation with Sonic…. which is now downplayed. An appealing character often has little to do with their “good qualities“.
What makes Amy a good leader “in context”…. won’t matter compared to what makes Amy a good leader in the eyes of fans. They don’t find Amy interesting, and at worst, finds her just plain annoying. Now if that’s too petty of a reason, consider this. In Dragon Ball Z, Gohan was intended to be the new main character, and the entire series more or less focused on him (and Vegeta) while Goku was just a dues ex machine who fixes all the problems. So after the Cell saga, Gohan had saved the world from total annihilation. Goku was dead, and was happy to pass the torch on to Gohan, being confident in him to be Earth’s protector. This was Gohan’s time to finally shine. We had seen this character struggle throughout the course of the series with conflicting desires. Gohan never wanted to be a fighter and… in some cases, preferred studying over fighting. He was terrified of every villain that came his way. But over the course of the series, he had become a hardened warrior through trauma, abuse, and even his own pride. This guy had gone toe to toe with an onslaught of villains who could kill him if they really wanted, and even in his weak state was able to match the strengths of villains that were too strong for him (Frieza form 2 after Krillin gets murked.) After the cell Saga, Gohan had finally solidified himself as a true warrior worthy of being called a “Z fighter”.
And the fans didn’t give two shits.
They decried the decision to have Gohan as the new main character. Their reasons? Because they liked Goku better! Goku was their favorite character. Goku was the face of Dragon Ball, and the series wouldn’t be the same with Goku on the sidelines. The fans didn’t give any lousy excuses as to why they hated Gohan as the main hero, they just wanted Goku back. So the writers jumped through hoops to revive Goku, and make him the hero again. And the crowd couldn’t be happier. Fuck Gohan’s journey, fuck his progress, and fuck anyone who liked Gohan. Goku was their guy, and they would be damned if he were to get replaced.
You see, THOSE fans… were honest with themselves and with the creators. They said simply “We fucking want Goku, not Gohan“. And they received him. They didn’t talk about Goku’s qualities and contributions to the Dragon Ball World that made him worthy of being the main character, or why Gohan didn’t deserve the role, they just said “GIVE US BACK GOKU!” Same thing with the Mass Effect protests. The fans didn’t give two shits about the creator’s vision, or artistic license, they wanted their happy ending where they get to save the universe, fuck whatever alien fetish bitch they married ingame, and be content with the fact that their efforts meant something.
You know why they were honest with what they wanted? Because they don’t merely see themselves as just “fans”. They see themselves as “customers”!
A fan is just a person who “likes” the franchise, psychologically. They talk about it, they might do fanart, make fangames, etc. Fans make ” celebratory tributes” about the franchise. Mindless praise, half the time. But a customer? No. A customer is a person who “invests” in the franchise, financially. They PAY for it. They put MONEY into it. They practically FUND the sequels for it. When someone puts down money for something, they EXPECT to get SOMETHING out of it! They don’t just sit around and blindly accept the shit that comes out of these companies like a FAN would! A Customer WANTS SOMETHING from the franchise.
Sonic fans are just that. “Fans”. A lot of them don’t put money into Sonic products and act just like fans. They just sit around and talk about bullshit like green eyes and whether or not Shadow can legally fuck Maria. They draw nonsense pictures of memes and shit that amount to nothing. They don’t WANT anything out of Sonic anymore, they exist to create psychological masturbatory tributes to the series. Because they don’t invest in the franchise, they don’t see themselves as customers. Thus, there is no demand. A customer makes demands, a typical fan does not.
Fan: They SHOULD do something differently with this story. The way it is now DOESN’T really work for me.
Customer: They’re GOING to do something differently with this story. The way it is now ISN’T going to work for me!
IIRC, Satoru Iwata said it best. “The customer has a right to be selfish“. Which is ironic because Sonic FANS worship and glorify Nintendo like they’re god’s gift to gaming, but completely ignore a dead man’s words for the sake of their own egos. But that’s neither here or there. The reason this war persists is because the fans are acting like mere fans. They’re debating whether or not a character deserves to be in a position of leadership rather than DEMAND that they change it to someone else. Or what? Have the “fans” been ignored for so long that they no longer expect the creators to listen to them?
Hell, that might be the case. The AMERICAN entertainment industry has declared war on the fans AND paying customers, and no one would joke that the comic book industry isn’t a part of the equation. For all we know, Amy Rose is a stooge for the feminist agenda. 😛
You don’t have to explain why you “think” a character is undeserving of a certain status in your favorite works. If you put money into something, then dammit, that’s all the reason you need! You didn’t pay to see a character you despise be uplifted at the expense of characters you actually enjoy! People get indignant about where their tax money goes into, and that’s mostly because you are FORCED to pay taxes in the first place! You don’t have a choice unless prison sounds good to you. Fiction is an intangible good. You don’t need any of it to sustain you. You need food, water, electricity… hell, nowadays you even need the internet! You don’t need a videogame, a comic book, or a damn Netflix account. And with most of it’s content being shit anyway, you’re probably better off waiting for the dvds to come out. The fact that you put money into the pockets of these writers/creators is something that they should be grateful for. There are more important things to spend money on than a comic book. So at the very least, those filthy bastards in the Comic Book industry should actually listen to w/e complaints you have regardless if they sound petty or not! It doesn’t matter if your reasons aren’t good enough!
That’s the worst thing that’s come out of the internet. Now you have to prove why you don’t like something, even to the bastards who wrote it! Johnathan H. Gray or whoever did “The Slap” did the most damage he could to the Archie Comics, and insults the people who paid for it. He should never be allowed to work in the industry ever again. You destroyed the image of a character that people adored to pursue your own ego. With bastards like this, you don’t need “fans” to argue with, even the damn producers are against you! You wanna pick a fight with a voice actor, just name drop “Mike Pollock”, he’ll be on the take like a Saturday night whore. “Fans” become rhetorical shields for bad behavior in the entertainment industry, and they’re too busy trying to get attention to notice. They want validation more than they want quality from their preferred fiction, that’s why they argue so damn much. Trying to prove who has the most knowledge of w/e they psychologically invest in. All that says is that you attach yourself to a work of fiction in order to boost your profile, that’s a person without demands. They’ve communicated that they are perfectly fine with how things are, and at the very worst, would fight against the people who want (possibly) “beneficial” changes. Fans make no demands.
That’s what’s become of the American Entertainment industry. Everyone became “fans” than they did customers. So everyone in the industry is running rampant with all this degenerate behavior. The Game Industry is now prone to the same filth as Hollywood, overrun with sexual assault deviants and physical abusers. People who cheat other people out of their money. And instead of being run out or even killed, they continue to plague the industry like roaches. No one made demands anymore, they just consumed.
You don’t have to “prove” to other fans why you don’t like Amy Rose in the role of leader, you didn’t give them your money, did you?
Conflicting Views 