This is moving the goal posts really, really, really far my guy. I get where you’re coming from, you’re talking about Sonic the Fighters, but there’s no other way I can say this other than “that doesn’t count.” Like, Princess Peach is in Smash Bros., but in how many other games has Peach been a “fighter”? Two
in 40 years? (this is a whole other can of worms to unpack, though) Listen, it’s going to be very easy to get lost in the weeds in something like this, and people are going to get the wrong idea about picky minutiae. I have no interest in that. I think a woman can be anything she sets her mind to and there should be no limits getting in her way.
Including just chilling out. But when it comes to characters like this, it feels very clear to me that Amy Rose has been co-opted into becoming something else, because girls are not allowed to be anything BUT strong right now. And I don’t just mean physically strong. Don’t misread that or move those goal posts, either.
In real life, not all women want to be strong. And shouldn’t that be okay, too? Why’s Amy Rose gotta be a front line warrior? Why does she have to be transformed to bear that burden? It’s the fantasy character design problem but pulled in another direction. By that I mean, there’s a common point of comparison where it will show character designs for male characters, and they can be fat or ugly or strong or scary, and then it shows women and they are all some variant of a human bikini model.
Except now, instead of a bikini model, it’s “girlboss.” We cannot show women as anything except strong role models or else it’s the patriarchy. Nobody gets to just
exist. Honestly, if Sega wants to give Amy a character, maybe this is the angle to explore: Maybe she doesn’t really like all this fighting stuff, but she does it because it’s what Sonic does. She likes Sonic, she wants to stay with Sonic, but keeping up with him is dangerous and maybe it’s a confidence thing, you know? Maybe she’s afraid but we visibly see her find strength. (But again: that means she’s
subservient to a man, and that’s the patriarchy. That’s not role model behavior!) The idea that a switch flipped in her one day and suddenly she’s this hyper competent superhero… especially when we have examples of other women now who have always been strong and didn’t inherit it through a company mandate… Amy did not grow into this, she got replaced. And that will always be weird to me. It’s as weird as Knuckles
suddenly being assigned to military commander after years and years of jokes about what a gullible idiot he is.
Sega has put her character into a very weird position and I’m not sure I like the direction they’re trying to take her, is all. They’ve pulled the ejector seat lever on basically everything that used to define her and are trying to wholesale turn her into something else – “girlboss” or no (you could argue, depending on when you look at her, that they’re also turning her into a Lisa Simpson). My suggestion in the last ask wasn’t necessarily about making her unable to fight. I think she could do with a character developing moment where we see her find her confidence. I am willing to swallow a lot as long as you frame it as a moment of change and growth but they didn’t really do that. I blinked and suddenly she’s this super advanced tarot card witch who has no problem matching the skills of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, when these games used to make it clear she’s
not like that.
So if something changed from “in most games she’s very slow and her gameplay is centered around hiding” to “she can solo an ancient guardian”, it would be nice if they at least showed us that growth. That kind of glow up is the heart of most stories! Don’t handwave that away! It’s important! I wouldn’t complain so much if there was a reason. But there wasn’t a reason, and the credits teaser in the Sonic 3 movie felt like the straw that broke the camel’s back, even if that’s a different version of the character. The poor girl is completely lost right now, I think. Can’t do anything with her without upsetting
someone.
