#especially for an obscure fandom

[raytm]

trying to find someone to engage with a ship with you is like going papspsppspsps to a cat.

[sonknuxadow]

to be honest i have mixed feelings on the idea of the freedom fighters ever coming back . because yeah i like them and i wouldnt mind getting to see them again. but the version of the sonic world theyre associated with is so different from the games that i feel like they cant just be thrown into the games or idw sonic with no changes. like maybe they could be introduced as a separate branch of the restoration or something but i feel like the group dynamic would be a bit different from before considering in every continuity theyre in sonic and tails are part of the freedom fighters too and have known those guys forever. or maybe they could just pretend theyre old friends of sonics who have been here the whole time and just havent shown up onscreen before but personally i dont really like that idea and cant put into words why. idk

[trans-cuchulainn]

it's weird how "things i care about" and "things i blog about" are overlapping but very distinct circles. like yeah i care obsessively about the ulster cycle and also blog about it constantly but there are so many things in my life that i care about that i just..... don't post about. so many books i enjoy that i have nothing to say other than maybe sometimes reblogging a post about them when it comes my way. so many things that i'm secretly feral about but do it all inside my own head

[whiskeyswifty]

.

[whatudottu]

Because I've been steamrolled by another character to hyperfixate on completely out of the blue, I feel the need to talk about TFA Soundwave and his siphonophoric ass- yes, I said siphonophore, now read under the cut to find out more-!

Aside from me now suddenly getting attached to another minor character (not as fucked over as Skyke but an extra episode is STILL just 2 total episodes), I caught the curiosity bug and looked a little deeper into this bastard, and here I am sharing it.

As a refresh, Soundwave in TFA was a 'gift' for Sari with the actual motivation to be used as Megatron's new body; the method to do so being the Key and the Allspark energy it uses. Now, in terms of all the Earth sparked cybertronians (not to be confused with Earthspark), you can probably pit the two types of mecha into 'Key-born' and 'shard-born'. You get the Dinobots as the first Earth cybertronians firmly in the 'key-born' category and the Constructicons (+plus unrelated Wreck-Gar) in 'shard-born', and considering the methodology used to make Soundwave- well- SOUNDWAVE was the Key, you'd also think that he'd also be as such fitting in with 'robots Sari tampered with and Megan profited off of'.

Well- to say that Soundwave's transformation from simple Earth music bot to fully forged and sparked cybertronian was actually complete would be - perhaps - a lie.

Megatron had originally wanted Soundwave to at the very least stick around Sari long enough to fully upgrade into his new body, his cybertronian body fueled on by the Key and it's Allspark energy, and to probably remain under his command just long enough for a transfer of some sort. It is Soundwave's act of defiance, a shock to even Megan, that cut the ties between the full frame upgrade and the actual upgrading of his processor.

It was Soundwave's rebellion against the (presently) organic Sari that prevented him from being 'Key-born'.

That's not to say he isn't sapient, more that it is to say he's significantly more different in comparison to other Earth-born cybertronians.

Soundwave becomes the Soundwave Megatron designed him to be only after making the upgrade himself, with a lot of smaller Detroit robots serving as the materials to build up his frame, himself the personification of the Earth robot revolution. And when he is summarily defeated by Bulkhead (and later by Optimus in 'Human Error') all the parts that were his body shattered into the scrap parts of possessed robots passed their usefulness. All that remained of Soundwave was a little section of his original make that just so happened to be where the Key would be used.

Soundwave became a little cassette.

Bestie I swear to god-

Seeing as how his minicons Laserbeak and Ratbat don't transform into cassettes themselves (bass and keytar respectively), plus are probably part of the 'shard-born' half of Earth cybertronians, I think that it'd be a fucking hilarious reversal if the Cassetticon for the Soundwave fam was SOUNDWAVE HIMSELF! Like, if it ends up that Laserbeak and Ratbat have more cybertronian of a spark than this bitch then his siphonophoric ass has got to find that fucking shard-

And yes, back to siphonophores.

So, I love me some siphonophores, love the bitches that group together to form one being, love me that so much. I think if Soundwave were a siphonophore cybertronian frametype, it would certainly fit with the whole hypocrisy of his mentality, of unleashing a 'robot revolution' by uh... mind controlling robots to be free from their servitude by organic hands.

His spark's in the right place (buried deep within minibots or toy Soundwaves) but perhaps being like a day's worth of being vaguely sapient might kinda skew that revolution to be 'i want you to be free the way I define free' and boop I've made another mind controller a siphonophore eep-! (would be a great time to put in a link, were it not a link to a collab with a friend's deactivated blog and also not even transformers related 😔)

Considering the title of siphonophores in a more general sense are 'colonial species', a Soundwave built up as a colony of robots (so far only Detroit tech robots) and presents himself as this signal for a revolution, I think it's awfully fitting that the mentality of 'be free MY way' could be boiled down to 'be my body'. Because as a cassette - or perhaps more a cassette RECORDER or tape deck - Soundwave literally cannot move and has to rely on his music in order to get anything done, to get others to do the things he needs them to do FOR HIM. To escape from the Autobots a second time he needs Laserbeak - one of the instruments TO HIS VERY MIND CONTROLLING MUSIC - to snatch him out of there to rebuild another day, to gather enough stray robots to become a colonial system of machines in order to function as 'cybertronian'.

I just... think I really like siphonophores, man. I think they're real neat little cities, yeah? And I think Soundwave's network of robotics is just being head by someone who's like... idk give or take a few Earth months/years between Sari's season 1 birthday and Earth's season 3 Christmas old, significantly less than even the youngest of young bots (though Dirtboss and the Luna-born clones are like... the youngest newsparks) and most certainly an age that even humans would find young.

Idk, maybe Soundwave using all this Earth tech is not getting the parts that he actually needs to be actually officially a cybertronian, even if perhaps he remains a siphonophore type frame. Perhaps, with a special delivery from Megan himself all the way from Kaon, a colony of cybertronian made minicons could help connect the missing piece.

Eh, I'm just rambling at this point.

Anyway; *rotates TFA Soundwave in my head* *rotates TFA Soundwave in my head* *rotates TFA Soundw-

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

Wait everyone shut up about the green show for a second. What’s everyone’s favorite David Ogden Stiers role BESIDES Ch*rles?

[no1ryomafan]

My tradition for when I start a new obscure anime is to always go on ao3 to see if there’s a tag and the reaction from me is always one of three things:

“Oh wow this tag actually has surprisingly decent amount of stuff even if it hasn’t been updated much as of late. Still not 100 fics or anything but good to see about 20 that aren’t crossovers.”

“Oh there’s like- one fic in this tag huh. And it was years ago… And everything else is crossovers for some god foresaken reason. I’m gonna have to write something for this eventually.”

“Why the FUCK does this not have a tag do I really have to do this myself?!”

And the only reason I’m not writing more fics for everything I watch since they tend to fall under the second and third option or even if they don’t I end up liking what I watched a lot is because a red robot looms in my mind preventing me to write anything else- Also I’d get really exhausted from carrying so many fandoms when getter already drags me oml.

[pasta-pardner]

logically i know that jawnbie has very little fan content because he has (proportionally) very little screen time compared to other characters in the red dead franchise... but consider the following:

- i think he's hot

- i think he's interesting

- i think he should have more fics/art/gifsets

[littlemissuicidex]

☆ooc;

[lordkairos3626]

Gotta wonder why when sports fans dress up as their favorite players/write things on their bare chests/wear bikinis or minion onesies or dress up as a literal baby it’s seen as “a good crazy, fun, creative, etc.” and just generally receive positive reception.

But when furries spend thousands of dollars and hours on their suits and when swifties dress up as a reference to their favorite tour outfit/era/song/lyric it’s “childish/immature/cringe/obsessive, etc.”

[cack1e]

a friend showed me this page and i cant get over the comments. people making tierlists and being able to name miis from pictures alone. there are people with names like “DaisukeHater225”, in reference to a mii. these people are so dedicated to miis, it’s wonderful

[spurnedadulthood]

hello, could you please set your queue to every 6 or 12 hours? to have it go off every hour is clogging my dash. not to be rude your message could be read in an unfavorable light the way you point out that only three muses connected with kensuke while you go and take your partners for granted. it was borderline passive aggressive if not downright guilt trip and it might not be your intention. i’m sure you are a wonderful person with many ideas if given the chance and it might be the wording in that post. i wish you the best of luck

First of all, I apologize for clogging your dash, but at the same time, you could always just unfollow if it bothered you that much? Like, due to the fact differing timezones is a thing, I wanted to ensure more people see my post so they can decide from there whether or not they want to unfollow/block me.

Second of all, I've been gone for a long while, so like I already said, everyone I was writing with either broke mutuals with me during my absence, became inactive, deactivated, or retired from the RPC entirely, so I don't know what you want me to say? Besides, I think you're overestimating how large my writing pool is, because not only is it rare for my threads to ever advance past two notes, it's not as though I had people clamoring to write with me; in fact, getting more interactions on here has often been akin to pulling teeth for the last two years and I'm not joking when I say the last notif I ever got was in February 2, so I have no idea what 'roleplay partners' I managed to take for granted, when really, it's the other way around.

I mean, you can say 'lack of activity doesn't reflect interest' all you want, but besides my own reblogs, my activity page literally shows two other notifs, and I can't even scroll down it... because nothing past it exists, and most of my followers I do have are inactive, because again, I have not been here.

Like, the whole reason I ended up vanishing from Kensuke's blog to begin with was because I was disheartened by how hardly anyone interacted with him and that has sadly been a reoccurring thing that happens again and again. Seriously, not only do the starters I write for people tend not to get replied to, I frequently get flaky muns essentially wasting my time and getting my hopes up for interactions... so when you consider how Kensuke is a character from a very niche series, how unwelcoming the RPC is towards characters from less than mainstream fandoms, and how dead tumblr RP has recently been, it's only natural for him to only have three bonds at best...

I mean, you might not like it, but it's the factual truth? And I'm not the type to really sugarcoat things, so as far as I'm concerned, actions speak louder than words; therefore, I don't really get the sense many are still interested in Kensuke as a muse. In fact, maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm genuinely confused on how it's guilt-tripping/passive-aggressiveness when I say that as a result of a lot of people moving on from tumblr roleplay (whether it's because they deactivated or retired from the RPC) and people I've been writing with understandably blocking me, Kensuke no longer has a lot of muses left that have a bond with him... so if people end up taking that the wrong way, then I don't know what to tell them, other than the fact I have legit been gone for a long time, so not many of my old roleplay partners are still around?

Either way, I do not appreciate the fact you didn't even bother to address this privately with me and forced me to unnecessarily post this on the dash where everyone could potentially see, so until further notice, I'm disabling the anonymous function... because I really would not prefer dragging this out longer than it has to be dragged out. I will, however, do as you request and space out my queue to post every 6 hours, but next time, please message me privately if you have any concerns.

[aroaceleovaldez]

okay last one for the night but. honestly i really hate how the franchise has been using loyalty to Rick as a shield for so long. If Rick was involved in a project or not doesn't matter, especially not anymore.

ReadRiordan and the publishing for the franchise has been using this tactic for ages - they obscure if any writing related to the series wasn't written by Rick unless it's special circumstances. It's near impossible to find out who the ghostwriters are (Stephanie True Peters and Mary-Jane Knight). TSATS was promoted as the first time we got a non-Riordan (Rick or Haley) author working on one of the companion novels despite having seven already existing ghostwritten books in the series. The only reason Mark Oshiro was emphasized so heavily for TSATS was because they also work as a sensitivity reader for topics such as queer identity, and Rick had received backlash in the past for being a Straight Cis Old White Guy repeatedly falling into bad habits (that he hasn't broken out of) with certain characterizations that he kept doubling-down on or retconning into oblivion. The show emphasizes that Rick was involved, but the LA Times article brings into question exactly how much he was involved, and it doesn't even really matter either way. The ReadRiordan site actively avoids putting any writing credits on their articles (or art credits...) or anywhere on their site.

Practically the entire fandom unanimously agrees the musical - which had zero involvement from Rick - is the best adaptation of the series so far, including the TV show. Some of the best writing to come out of the series recently was the stuff ghostwritten by Stephanie True Peters (Camp Half-Blood Confidential, Camp Jupiter Classified, Nine from the Nine Worlds, etc). And yet when promotional stuff is posted about CHB:C, there's clearly coded language used to hide the fact that Rick himself didn't write it. Yes, that's how ghostwriters work, but at this point we should really stop pretending "Rick Riordan" isn't just a pen name for a group of authors like "Erin Hunter" and that Rick is actually writing everything in the series. I can easily look up and see which Animorphs books were ghostwritten, and who those authors were. I can find every "Erin Hunter" easily listed on official sites. And yet most people don't even know the Riordanverse franchise has ghostwriters at all.

And the franchise is still trying to use the "Tio/Uncle Rick" stuff. Author loyalty and marketing parasocial relationships isn't going to save the franchise when the author himself can't hold up his own original themes or even keep basic series bible details straight, and especially not if the editors are barely if at all doing their job. And please at least get a goddamn series bible by this point.

[toysrguts]

can i request sally face relationship headcanons maybe??

sally face fandom is sooo dead:(

sally face realtionship hc's!!!!

i dont write this kind of stuff usually but i actually had a lot of fun with this ^___^ i hope its everything u hoped for 🙏🙏

sal:

•his love language is quality time, he loves spending time with you even if youre just doing nothing together

•your presence is very comforting to him

•isnt physically affectionate unless he knows youre 100% okay with it

•once he gets comfortable around you he will not let go he loves cuddling

•your dates are more lowkey like playing video games or having movie nights

•writes little songs for you and plays them on his guitar

•the best listener, you can yap all day and you will have his full undivided attention

•you can feel the shift in his behavior when hes in public with you vs being alone with you. he can let his guard down when its just the 2 of you

•communicating is hard for him but he is very understanding

•has a lot of deep conversations with you

•at night especially is when he opens up most, and you find it really endearing

•he has insomnia so sometimes you stay up all night talking or doing other things

•he loves how good you are with gizmo, hes basically your child

•gets so flustered when you make eye contact with him so naturally because hes insecure and sensitive about his face

•your acceptance of him means a lot to him

•literally melts when you play with his hair or scratch his head

•has abandonment issues and often worries hes not doing enough but you do your best to reassure him

•he can also be really clingy but he knows when to give you your space

•gives you really meaningful obscure compliments constantly, he finds all your “imperfections” beautiful

larry:

•very loving but also likes to mess with you and is such a tease

•will randomly come up behind you and pick you up when you least expect it

•he loves playing with your hair, especially when youre in bed together he’ll run his fingers through it until you fall asleep

•takes you to all of his secret hangout spots around nockfell for smoke seshes and picnics

•although he can be intense sometimes, hes really gentle with you and knows how to calm you down when youre overwhelmed

•loves getting you little gifts when you least expect it

•he frequently invites you over for painting dates

•also treehouse dates!!!!

•falling asleep up there and getting to watch the sunrise together

•PLEASE steal his clothes he loves that shit

•especially when you give them back and they smell like you

•taking you to concerts and shows is like his favorite thing ever

•not afraid to show affection with you in public

•you're his and everyone needs to know

•when he gets comfortable you get to see a different side of him

•hes usually loud and silly and annoying but he has an emotional and vulnerable side that only you really get to see

•acts of service are his love language fs, he cooks and cleans for you all the time

•hes definitely the jealous type

•someone complimenting you is fine, but if he catches someone flirting with you hes throwing hands

•sharing music with you is his favorite past time

•picking up cd’s from the music store and blasting them on his stereo together

•or on public transport where each of you has an earbud in

•lisa LOVES you and is always so welcoming whenever you come to stay with larry

•makes special burned cd mixes for you and labels them with sharpie and doodles little things on them

ash:

•you are her entire world she cannot be away from you for more than 5 minutes

•thinks your eyes are really pretty and you catch her staring into them every so often

•makes really heartfelt handmade gifts for you (like one of her “little dudes”)

•tries to make you laugh when youre sad

•it works like 99% of the time

•takes you everywhere on her motorcycle

•“hop on loser, we’re going to mcdonald's”

•takes a lot of pictures of you together and hangs them up on her wall

•can always sense when something is wrong and always knows how to make you feel better

•writes you little love letters every so often so you never forget how she feels about you

•will beg and pleade to let her do your makeup

•its mostly just an excuse to get close to you and get to sit on your lap :3

•also loves styling you in different outfits even if you dont wear them out, youre like her own personal model

•has like 20 different nicknames for you

todd:

•he smells sooooo good

•like pine and cedar wood 🤤🤤🤤🤤

•and dont get me started on his hair

•its so fluffy and smells amazing he loves when you run your fingers through his curls

•loves taking you out and spoiling you because you deserve it

•so chill and easy to communicate with, your comfort and happiness is his number one priority

•very protective over you but he tries not to be overbearing

•talks about you to literally everyone when youre not around

•remembers all the little details about you that you would expect him to forget

•the biggest nerd ever and loves yapping at things he likes, but he loves hearing you talk about your interests even more

•if you get obsessed with something like a video game or tv show he will not rest until you get him into it too

•if you crash at his place, expect breakfast in bed

•if youve had a bad day hes there to pamper you and give you everything you need

•“i got you this cuz it made me think of you” as he holds out a rock in his hand

•seems really serious and intimidating but youd be surprised

•hes such a dork when you get to know him

•drives you around literally everywhere, he loves traveling with you with the windows down and the radio blaring

[thankskenpenders]

Amy's fortune cards

The Sonic fandom has long been the kind of fandom that takes minor details very seriously, for better or worse. On the one hand, this means fans will really dig for the diamonds in the rough, latching onto fun character interactions, animations, bits of background worldbuilding, and more in pieces of Sonic media that many would write off as "the bad ones." But it also feels like every week another needlessly hostile debate over Sonic minutia erupts on Twitter, whether it's over individual lines of dialogue, fanart that makes Tails' shoes blue, or the ideal length and volume for Sonic's quills.

So it was probably inevitable that a fandom-wide debate would erupt upon seeing Amy's new gameplay style in the DLC for Sonic Frontiers, which takes the once-obscure fact that she enjoys reading tarot and shines a spotlight on it like never before.

I mean:

The thing is, while I basically always try to tune out Sonic fandom bickering... for once, I kind of sympathize with the detractors? Don't get me wrong, I like Amy's tarot stuff, and people on all sides of the discussion are being overly nasty about their opinions, as usual. (Sonic Twitter remains my personal hell.) But when I set aside the hyperbole and zoom out, I do think I understand why some fans are put off by the sudden shift in focus for the character, even if I think it's cool.

It's complicated. Let me attempt to present the cases for and against Amy's fortune cards

For years, I was always one of those fans who thought it could be fun if they played with Amy's tarot reading, or even leaned into some kind of magic with her. Part of that is my own biases showing, but there's just something that makes sense there, especially when you look at Sonic, Tails, and Amy as a trio. (I would argue that's the real "Team Sonic" these days, especially in the comics where Knuckles is more likely to be stuck on Angel Island or otherwise doing his own thing.)

You could argue that Tails is all about logic, relying on science and technology and deductive reasoning to solve problems. But Amy is all about emotion. She wears her heart on her sleeve, is extremely empathetic, and is very prone to magical thinking - both figuratively and sometimes literally. Her origin story has always been that her tarot cards told her it was her destiny to meet Sonic on Little Planet. She's claimed to be able to "sense" peoples' presences - particularly Sonic's. She's the type to believe that The Power of Love is a literal magical force. So, on some level, it makes sense to mirror Tails's science by having Sonic's other best friend believe in magic. And then Sonic is somewhere in the middle, primarily following his own gut instincts but taking advice from both of them as needed. This isn't totally accurate to how their dynamics actually function in canon stories, but I think it's a mode that could work for them.

Going off of that, it's fun to lean all the way into Amy being a magical girl, or even a witch, using her fortune telling as a foundation. Take, for example, this version of Amy from Diana Skelly's old Sonic cast redesigns from before she freelanced for Archie and IDW. This is one of MANY such redesigns for Amy.

Fast forward to the 2020s, and Amy's tarot cards are, in fact, finally getting brought up again in canon. Which is fun! I like seeing that. I like all of the individual stories involving Amy's fortune cards. This is a fun character trait for Amy, a fun nod to old lore, AND a fun storytelling device, all in one. It's really cool that the Sonic universe has its own thematically appropriate arcana, and that the cards are getting made as physical merch. And sure enough, the official card backs and borders were designed by none other than Diana Skelly, in yet another cool example of an ascendant fan leaving their mark on the series.

BUT... when you step back and look at the big picture, I get why some fans find this shift in focus jarring. At the moment, it's starting to feel like every new story about Amy involves her fortune cards to some degree.

The most recent mainline comic arc to feature Amy as the lead character, 2021's Trial by Fire arc, prominently features a sequence where she reads fortunes while camping with the girls. The Origins version of Sonic CD now bookends the game with scenes of Amy and her tarot cards. Sonic randomly mentioned it in a scene in Frontiers. And now, just this week, we got the (very cute, gorgeously illustrated) Amy's 30th Anniversary comic with a story revolving around Amy's tarot cards, followed the very next day by the Frontiers DLC in which she gets a brand new tarot-based moveset. Even her base melee attack now has her throwing tarot cards instead of swinging her hammer. Again, I like all of these individual things, but after years of it almost never coming up at all, it's VERY noticeable that Amy's tarot cards are suddenly everywhere.

To be fair, I'm looking at this from the perspective of a superfan who's actively following ALL Sonic media. Casual fans - especially kids - aren't necessarily going to be reading the comics every month, buying the thousandth rerelease of the Genesis games, or playing the ultra-hard new alternate ending DLC for a game that came out last year. Each of these stories is going to be someone's introduction to the idea that Amy can read tarot, and that's probably part of the idea behind this unified push.

But to play devil's advocate, for my fellow superfans, I understand why it feels like a very minor footnote of Amy's character is suddenly becoming the entire focus of her personality. While Amy has always been said to enjoy fortune telling, that wasn't really a character trait in and of itself, but rather an example of her being a typical girl who hopes she'll be able to find true love one day. It's less that Amy can literally predict the future and more like her using a cootie catcher or going "he loves me, he loves me not" while picking the petals off of a flower. So I get not vibing with this stuff, or feeling like it's being pushed very hard out of nowhere.

What I don't agree with are comparisons like "it's like if they made Knuckles' moveset revolve around him liking grapes." Like, I get it. Ian Flynn loves shoehorning in his little winking references for us nerds, and mentions of Amy's tarot cards were previously on the same level as other random bullet points from old Japanese manuals. But a multifaceted hobby like fortune telling that opens up so many narrative and aesthetic possibilities is obviously very different from having a favorite food. It's ALWAYS been a part of her story, not just a random fact, and there's no reason why the fortune telling can't be elevated to something more.

And, hell, even if it wasn't an established character trait, there's nothing inherently wrong with injecting new ideas into a character. One of the best Amy stories in recent years, the Free Comic Book Day special "Amy's New Hobby" written by Gale Galligan, came up with the idea that Amy's secretly been drawing little comics about her and her friends. Is this based on Lore? No. But it's cute, and helps tell the story of a younger Amy who's still coming out of her shell as both a hero and a friend.

Certain fans are also looking at Amy's Frontiers moveset and using it as evidence that once again the Vile American Contributors like Ian are CORRUPTING Sonic Team's perfect vision of Sonic with their misinterpretations. And like. Come on. Ian does not control the gameplay. He's a freelance writer. The tarot stuff is clearly something that Sonic Team likes if they made it the basis of Amy's new moveset - and, you know, if they keep approving comics and animations about Amy's fortune telling. None of this gets made without their blessing, and lord knows how much they can micromanage shit and shoot down ideas over the most minor of details.

Like, yeah, Amy's fortune telling was probably conceived less as a sign that she Knows Magic and more as a pretty mundane hobby for a lovesick young Japanese girl to have. But you're gonna sit there and tell me that using Amy's tarot cards for more than that could only be the result of a cultural misunderstanding? That nobody in Japan uses tarot card theming and aesthetics (or the general idea of magical cards) for the cool factor? Stardust Crusaders? Persona? The Astrologian class in FFXIV? Cardcaptor Sakura?? Hello??? Do you think Capcom put Gambit in Marvel vs. Capcom ironically because they thought using magic to throw cards at people was stupid? There's tons of precedent for this! It's nothing like Knuckles throwing grapes at people, be for real.

Giving Amy a very magical girl-esque moveset also just makes a lot of sense. For decades her hammer attacks have literally made sparkly heart shapes appear around her. Leaning into both that and her tarot cards in her new moveset makes a lot of sense to me.

But, admittedly... I do think it's very odd that her hammer is treated as a secondary element here, rather than having her primarily use her hammer and adding the cards for extra flair. If hitting the attack button made her swing her hammer instead of throwing cards, I'm not sure we'd even be having this discussion right now.

But the tarot-cycle and Amy riding her hammer like a witch's broom are fucking SICK and I will not concede on this point

The thing is, this whole fortune card discourse is but a small piece of a bigger problem. Amy's been a character who needed some work for ages, but there's basically nothing you can do with her without pissing SOMEONE off.

Years of stories where Amy's crush was her primary motivator and Sonic went "Ew, cooties!" have lead many casual fans to believe that being Sonic's obsessive fangirl is Amy's entire personality. At best people might call her Sonic's Minnie Mouse. This isn't just a matter of Amy having haters within the fandom - venture outside of that bubble and you'll realize that this is how MOST video game playing people seem to see her to this day. I don't feel like this is a fair assessment of the character, but this idea didn't come from nowhere. No matter how much good deeply entrenched Sonic fans may see in their old dynamic where Amy perpetually chases Sonic, this is a very real problem that Sonic Team has to contend with for their leading girl. Of course all those games where the way-past-cool protagonist thought Amy was annoyingly clingy and tried to get away from her made people think less of her.

If new stories were to go back to emphasizing Amy's crush on Sonic a little more, they'd probably be taken as confirmation that Amy's just the girl with a crush on Sonic and that this is her entire personality. Conversely, when the crush is played down, you piss off the hardcore SonAmy fans who don't seem to understand that they're Charlie Brown and Sega is Lucy holding the football. You can't win.

And so here we are. In the absence of what was once her defining trait, now reduced to an occasional blush or wink in Sonic's direction, new stories are trying to mine Amy's past for additional material to work with. Having been a thing fans wanted to see for years, right now we're getting a lot of tarot, but we're also getting reminders of her compassionate nature and her desire to go out of her way to help the little guy. This is an ongoing process. I continue to hope that her bubbly, exuberant demeanor can shine more in future stories. Now, I also hope that the tarot stuff gets balanced out a little better with other traits of hers. But I don't want it to go away. I think it's fun.

This course correcting is far from exclusive to Amy. Knuckles is getting stories that remind us that he's a competent fighter, an experienced treasure hunter, and even a self-taught archaeologist after years of him being perceived as either the dumb one or just the guy who stands in front of the Master Emerald all day. And Tails has been getting some stories reminding folks that he's a capable hero in his own right and not just Sonic's timid kid sidekick.

But no supporting character will ever compete with the sheer number of new ideas Sega has tried with Sonic himself. Like Amy, his Frontiers moveset has also given him half a dozen new superpowers that he never had before, from the Cyloop to air-slicing projectile attacks to his own take on Shadow Clone Jutsu and beyond. He's also been a hoverboarder, a swordsman, a time traveler, an Olympic athlete, a racecar driver, cursed with a Flame of Judgment, imbued with alien power, a fucking Werehog with stretchy powers, and on and on and on.

If Sonic can do all that, Amy can try out using a tarot-cycle.

Anyway TL;DR the REAL problem with Amy's current characterization... is where the FUCK is Amy's bestie, Honey the Cat???????

[stoat-party]

More Obscure Facts About Fallout 4 Companions*

*Now with slightly more unverified psychoanalysis!

X6 gets anxious at the thought of large crowds.

Codsworth likes to imagine being a father to a little robot son. Hang on, buddy, I’m getting my six hundred pounds of scrap metal out of storage.

MacCready seems to have lived in Bigtown for some period of time, or at least visited enough to have memories there. Also, the Lone Wanderer (or one of their companions/Sidney) told him about their encounter with Button Gwinnett.

Despite having little empathy for the people of the Commonwealth, Cait often becomes distressed imagining the victims of the bombs, especially when children are involved.

Danse believes that pre-war healthcare and scientific research should have been publicly owned. He hates corporations in general, especially Vault-Tec.

Nick not only loves poetry, but he’s also able to recite several famous poems such as Ozymandias and The Raven. He’s very sad to see destroyed books at the library.

It’s been confirmed by a non-Deacon source that he spent a month as a ghoul. (Somehow.) NPC dialogue implies that he was telling the truth about disguising himself as a woman for awhile, too.

Apparently Piper was a complete nightmare as a child. She would steal her dad’s pistol, shoot the combat inhibitors off robots, and let them run through town.

There’s some sort of debate in the fandom about whether Curie was originally a Miss Nanny or a Mister Handy, but she confirms in dialogue that she was a Miss Nanny.

Nick can feel pain! :(!

Deacon likes molerats, hates killing them, and wishes he could domesticate them. He should visit Sloan.

A probably incomplete list of things Danse wishes he could do: Fishing, watching a movie, playing/watching baseball, seeing a show at an amphitheater, bowling, shopping

TBH I was wrong on the last post. Preston doesn’t like swimming, his dialogue is tagged as sarcastic there. In my defense, he’s got depression and tends to speak flatly. That means that not one single companion likes to swim, except Strong who doesn’t care.

Despite maintaining there’s a difference between robots and synths, Nick believes in robot rights and often encourages robots not to think of themselves as slaves.