Let Me Keep You

Short fluffy Venom comic I recently drew! Ideas came from a talk with @glasspunkart, @sleepyoceanprince and Liza on the symbrock discord. Drunk Eddie being cute was toooo fun to not draw it!! [click on it for better resolution! Or look at it here on AO3]

Nobody knows what I see

Hazard x Reader [FLUFF VERY FLUFF]

A/N: I was working on a doodle page of hazard and this song started to play and HOW CAN I NOT WRITE SOMETHING WITHOUT IT????

Summary: “you can see the value your friendship where others might not”

The diner wasn’t much to look at. Cracked linoleum floors, buzzing neon lights, and coffee that could strip paint off a wall. Most people wouldn’t give it a second glance, but for you and Hazard, it was something else. A place where the world slowed down, where the weight of life felt just a little lighter.

When you walked in, the familiar jingle of the bell overhead greeted you. Hazard was already in his usual spot, sprawled in the corner booth like he owned the place. His blonde hair was tousled like he’d been caught in the wind, his leather jacket half-slipped off his shoulders. He was flicking a sugar packet between his fingers, his gaze far away until he spotted you.

“Finally” he said, his Scottish burr rich and teasing. “Thought ye’d got lost or somethin’. No like ye to keep me waitin’, eh?”

“I had stuff to do” you replied, sliding into the booth across from him.

“Aye, stuff” he echoed, smirking. “Ye mean procrastinatin’ like always?”

You rolled your eyes, but his grin was infectious, tugging at the corner of your lips. “You’re impossible.”

“And yet” he said, leaning back with a mock-dramatic sigh, “here ye are. Back again. Glutton for punishment, are ye?”

The waitress arrived with your usual orders—a mug of coffee for you, a plate of fries for him. You both murmured your thanks, the easy silence between you settling in as comfortably as a favorite song.

It was Hazard who broke it, as he always did. “Ye ever think folk look at this place an’ just see a shitehole?”

You raised an eyebrow. “I mean... they’re not wrong. But it’s got character.”

“Character” he repeated, his smirk softening. “That what ye tell yerself aboot me, too?”

You snorted, taking a sip of your coffee. “Oh, absolutely. ‘Character’ is my very first thought when I think of you.”

He laughed, his voice low and warm. “Ah, go on then, make me blush. But ye dinnae need tae lie, love. I know I’m a handful.”

“You’re more than a handful, Hazard” you said with a grin. “But maybe I don’t mind that.”

His laughter faded into a softer smile, his eyes lingering on you. Most people wouldn’t understand why you stuck around Hazard—he was trouble, plain and simple. But you saw more in him than that. Where others might see recklessness, you saw loyalty. Where they might see a mess, you saw someone who’d always be there when it counted.

And maybe that’s why you kept coming back.

“Why d’ye keep showin’ up here wi’ me, eh?” he asked suddenly, breaking into your thoughts.

You blinked, caught off guard by the question. “Why not?”

“Nah, I mean it.” He leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table. “Most folk’d take one look at me an’ bolt, but you... you’re still here.”

“Maybe I just like the coffee” you teased.

He snorted. “Aye, sure. We both know it tastes like piss.”

You laughed, shaking your head. “Alright, fine. Maybe it’s because I know you’re more than what you let people see.”

His smirk faltered, replaced by something softer. “Ye really believe that?”

“I do” you said firmly.

Hazard looked down at the table, his thumb brushing over a scratch in the wood. “Most folk don’t, ye know. They look at me like I’m a bloody trainwreck, waitin’ tae happen.”

“Well” you said, leaning forward, “they’re idiots.”

He glanced up, meeting your gaze, and for a moment, the usual teasing in his expression was gone. “Ye’re somethin’ else, ye know that? Always seein’ the best in me, even when I dinnae see it maself.”

The jukebox hummed on, the soft melody of Harvey filling the air. Hazard reached across the table, his rough fingers brushing yours. “Ye ever think about leavin’ this place?”

“Sometimes” you admitted. “But I can’t imagine going without you.”

His lips quirked up, but the grin was softer, more sincere. “Good. ‘Cause if ye’re leavin’, I’m comin’ wi’ ye.”

“Is that right?”

“Aye” he said, his voice low and certain. “Ye’re stuck wi’ me, love. That’s just how it is.”

Your heart twisted at his words, the warmth in his gaze grounding you. “I think I can live with that.”

“Good.” He grinned, squeezing your hand gently. “Now, where d’ye think we’ll end up, eh? Some big city? Or maybe a wee cottage somewhere wi’ nae one tae bother us?”

You laughed softly, shaking your head. “As long as you’re there, I don’t care.”

Hazard’s smile widened, and in that moment, you knew you weren’t just someone who saw the good in him—you were his anchor, his safe place, just as much as he was yours.

“Alright then” he said, leaning back with that boyish grin you couldn’t resist. “Just us, aye? Against the world.”

“Just us” you agreed, your hand still warm in his.

As the diner lights buzzed softly above you, the rest of the world faded away. And for once, it felt like enough.

I love theses guys SO much 🥹🥹

Overwatch Headcanon:

Hanzo and Genji's dragons are the opposites of them. They reflect what they needed to learn when they were younger.

Genji needed to learn responsibility, so his dragon (Soba) is serious and is almost like a stern parent.

Hanzo needed to learn how to let loose and not be so serious, so his dragons (Udon & Ramen) are utter goofballs.

Genji learns to be serious, so now he takes it upon himself to teach Soba how to have fun. Soba is reluctant, but she loves her master so she is willing to learn.

Hanzo is slowly learning not to be so serious all the time with his dragons help. But sometimes they're too much to handle and go out and cause mayhem. Soba feels like she has to teach them to tone it down.

Greetings! I know youve done genji, but have you done smooches from blackwatch!genji?

HI ANON! God, blackwatch genji is so girlfriend and sad, so this is perfect for smooches! Thanks a ton anon, sorry this took so long lol

"You look tired," you said, cupping Genji's face.

"I am tired." he said back, not once looking at you.

"Come to bed with me."

"I can't do that. I'm busy."

You huffed and laid your chin on his desk. Genji was always working and it wasn't even for the better. His eyes were so dark and overall, he looked like he needed a fifty year nap.

You tilted Genji's chin over so he could look at you and his gaze immediately softened.

"What?" he whispered.

"I'm tired."

"Then go to bed."

"Not without you." You sat up and moved the mask away from Genji's mouth. He hated the way his scars looked so much that he his his face even around you.

He tried to put it back on, but you grabbed his hands.

"Genji. We're both tired. Come to bed with me."

He thought about it for a minute looking between you and his computer screen. Finally, he sighed. "Okay." he said, shutting his computer.

You held Genji's hands and nearly dragged him up the stairs feeling just how tired he was due to how he was moving.

You both threw on something comfortable to sleep in and immediately wrapped each other in your arms.

"I love you, Genji." you said before bringing your lips to his.

You pulled away and noticed the huge smile across his face and he held you down on the bed and you both nearly attacked each other with kisses and giggles.

It didn't take long before you passed out in each other's arms.

<3

~~~~~

overwatch masterlist | pinned post

2023 @tonberry-yoda – do not repost or claim ANY of my work as your own! likes, reblogs, and comments are not only welcome, but appreciated

~~~~~

post of my love for Arcee's character!

"Please..." A desperate plea to the light. To the Traveler. "Bring him back." The emptiness etched at the soul, clawing its way out like darkness dancing just out of reach. Despite the brightness that seemed all encompassing, it was only hollow aching that accompanied the truth.

"It's just a Ghost." Tightness clenched at a throat shaking with grief. The tremble in a voice laced so deep that knees shook, fingers unsteadily holding onto the shell of a once brilliant little flicker of light. He couldn't be gone; that wasn't how this worked...

"You raised an army—you can bring back one Ghost!" Sharp nails tipped with anger lashed out at the Traveler and its silence—its reluctance to bring. Him. Back!

Silence.

Deafening silence greeted grief like an old friend, in a warm embrace that brought trembling shoulders and shuttered eyes. It was just one Ghost, why couldn't it be brought back? Why was it okay for him to die to save the Traveler. It wasn't fair!

"He sure shined bright back there, huh?" Cayde. 

A voice of mirth and chaos, held dim by the reality of the situation. 

"Cayde..." Misty eyes watched Cayde, his face plates shifting into an expression that could only be described as solomn. A new wave of pain, of panic crashed down. Drowning. This is what it felt like to drown. No air, no surface to breach. Only the heavy weight of pain and acceptance.

"'What comes from the light, returns to the light.' My gal sundance told me that." Small glances down at the lifeless shell clutched tightly in quivering hands. "She also said we're all connected. Guardians, Ghosts, the Traveler..." Nervous glances into the endless light, the sparkle of regret meeting decisiveness in light-filled eyes. 

No.

"Now you tell the others this was my choice. My Light. Nobody makes my fate but me." 

No.

Delicate touches, holding hands that couldn't stop quaking. Deteriorating pockets of light, convalescing Ghost. 

"You're my Favorite. Don't ever forget that." 

No!

"Don't..." A breath of air. "Don't!" A panicked shout. "Cayde, please!" Unwavering hands held firm, pinching Ghost between surety and hesitation. "I just got you back! Don't do this! I'd rather lose my light than be without you again!" A pause in the transference of light back to life.

"You'll be fine. You always have been, always will be." A flash, blinding and filled with warmth. Light snuffed out darkness, filled holes and chased away the shadows. Solid ground beneath boots.

A gasp.

"Guardian... there you are." A weak sigh.

It wasn't the Traveler that brought back Ghost. It was Cayde. In still weak hands, Ghost's light flickered with more than just the Traveler's power. Cayde was there, his sacrifice. His final death.

Knees hit rocks, cracking audibly as a scream rend through the air, echoing off the figments of reality the Traveler had crafted. Shattering pain, tearing at lungs that so desperately needed air. Another scream rose, dancing with the echoes of the first into a chorus of anguish. One light lost to return another. A trade that was undeniably uneven in the Pale Heart of the Traveler, where light flowed aplenty. 

"He shot me. With my own gun! And he's STILL. HERE."

"Crow is not Uldren."

"Just like I'm not Cayde."

“I see you still have Ace.” A voice coos, floating to the left of the guardian,

The guardian haulted at the familiar voice, a shadow that claimed their friends voice to turn them into twisted malice to torment.

The guardian took a deep breath trying to steady themselves. Continuing on through the depths of the Leviathan. To hunt down and put an end to the floating faces.

The nightmare of Cayde 6 hovered beside the Guardian, watching them move through the Leviathan. It made a point to make as much noise as possible, so that it could get under the guardians skin.

It watched them silently before speaking. “So you’re not going to address me at all?” it asked, its voice tinged with a hint of annoyance.

The guardian kept walking. Trying to push through the shadows taunts. "It's not Cayde-" They mutter softly. Mostly to remind themselves,

It chuckled at the Guardian's muttering. "And how do you know that?" The shadow asked, floating right in front of the guardian cutting them off.

It leaned in close to the Guardian's face. "What makes you so sure that I'm not him?" It asks with a familiar smirk,

The guardian glanced up meeting its red optics. "Caydes dead." Moving passed the nightmare uneasily. Just trying to focus on the task at hand, praying the shadow would go away.

The nightmare chuckled at the Guardians attempt to ignore him, moving back behind them, continuing to taunt.

"Such conviction. So sure of yourself that you know the truth." It mused. "But is it really the truth?" It said, suddenly appearing in front of them again, stopping them from moving.

It leaned in close enough, almost enough to touch. "Or is it a lie to ease your conscience..." It whispered softly. "Because there's one problem you failed to address.."

The guardian looks up silently. Their fists clenching and unclenching uneasily. Remaining silently for a few moments too long. They turn their head away trying to remain composed despite their heart beating loud enough in their ears.

The nightmare could see the anxiety that was beginning to build on the Guardians face. It knew it was getting to them, which was exactly what it intended.

It chuckled darkly at their silence, “Can’t bring yourself to speak, can you?” It said, moving closer. “Come now, you used to be so talkative.” The shadow muttered sarcastically, "Here I'll give you a hint....his first name is Uldren and his last name is Sov." the shadows voice bleeds with anger.

"Crow is not Uldren." The guardian mutters quietly. Their composure failing as they hesitantly step back,

The nightmare laughs at their words, "Oh, so you do speak." The shadow says in a condescending tone.

It steps closer, its body practically touching the Guardian's now. "You really think that by giving him a new name changes who he is?" It sneers, "he's still the same person that killed me, that took my life!" It says, itss voice becoming more sinister. It shifted away before turning back,

"That's what you tell yourself isn't it?" The nightmare replied, following them. "You say he's not Uldren anymore, that he's a different person. But the question is, do you really believe that?" The shadow questioned, towering over the guardian menacingly.

The guardian stumbled backwards staring up at the nightmare their eyes widened. "Hes-"

The shadow was quick, and grabbed the Guardian by the collar of their armor and yanked them closer. It gripped their armor with a tight grasp and held them up in front of its face, "He's what?" The nightmare said, its eyes flashed red. “Finish the sentence."

The guardian stiffened at The Shadows hold. "Hes not Uldren- he-" They stammered out.

The Guardians answer caused the nightmare to grip tighter on their collar, "He’s not Uldren you say? Then who is he?” The shadow demanded in harsh tone. It leaned in closer to the Guardians face. “Answer me! He used my own gun to kill me and he's STILL. HERE." It seethed angrily.

The shadow threw the guardian down and scoffed. Vanishing into the darkness leaving them to stew in their thoughts.

Cayde-6 practice doodles

I’m going to make this post as an intro to Sonic characters for people who don’t know them. For fun.

And also because the new Sonic Movie series I just feel like there are a lot of potentially newer Sonic fans or people who blur the two and they’re really not the same character.

I mean, Movie!Sonic gets the goodwill and acceptance of fans, even though he’s not the game Sonic, because of how genuine and earnest the effort is. And it is genuine and earnest, but it’s also hit or miss. Plus like 1% of my friends know anything about Sonic, so I’m going to make this little post both to remind new Sonic fans of who the characters actually are, from the games, and also to introduce them to my friends. Because they’re all basically confused that I like Sonic.

Starting with the main four you see everywhere:

Sonic the Hedgehog

(I’m not going to go into like, Classic Sonic vs Modern Sonic or the different genres of games and gameplay or whatever. I’m just going to talk about the general characterizations of the character. If you want history, here, in a nutshell: SEGA made an old-timey pixel game to give them a mascot that could rival Super Mario Bros. and they did it in a smash-success with a much more brightly-colored and, at the time, much more sophisticated and cool character than Mario. And then in the 90s he got upgraded to the sleeker, less-cartoony anime character you see everywhere, but people got sad and missed his retro look, so now sometimes his Retro Self makes an appearance as it’s own character.) Sonic’s two superpowers in his natural state are that he can go fast and roll into an energized ball. But he never had lightning in his quills—he just has quills, and it’s implied that they’re sharp, so he can roll up really fast and make himself a spiky wrecking ball.

There are no canon explanations for why he can do the super-speed thing. It’s just his thing. It’s also not treated, in any game, like an amazing Chosen One ability; generally, the Bad Guys tend to go “you think your speed will save you?!” Or something like that. Nobody reacts like he’s got superpowers. Everyone reacts like this is a normal thing for a blue hedgehog to be able to do. Also, nobody is like “after” his “power.” People in general mostly treat Sonic like he’s a really athletic guy who happens to be cool, and the thing they’re most in awe of is generally his personality. Since this post is about characterizations, let’s talk about that personality.

The whole point of the Sonic Story, always, is “Keep Moving Forward.”

Sonic himself is the main propellor of that theme. He’s a teenager (loosely) and he’s heroic, and he’s cocky and committed to doing things “his own way.” He has theme songs about it. But all of those aspects of who he is are just the shiny package around the Main Point of him, as a character: “Keep Moving Forward.”

Sonic never gets angsty. Sonic will not get bogged down in grief. Sonic refuses to dwell on failure. (He also refuses to accept failure but that’s kind of adjacent.)

Even the game mechanics of him, as a character, are all centered around that theme. Sonic games aren’t about speed, as in, how fast you can go. They’re about momentum. When something stops you, you get up and try to build up speed and work through the level again. Literally. The character falls into spikes, loses all the rings (points, second chances) he was carrying? He gets up and dashes forward again. But here are some story examples:

In the most-beloved Sonic game of all time Sonic gets tricked into locking himself in an escape tube and getting launched into space in front of his grieving friends. He doesn’t panic or freak out. He puts on a cocky grin and says, “it’s up to you now!” And gets blasted away. But even then he doesn’t give up, he tries something that should-be-impossible just to see if he can, in his final moments. And it works.

Even in the worst game of all time Sonic makes a really close friend (yeah that’s what we’ll call it) and risks everything including his own life to save her over and over, and in the end they find out that to save the world they have to rewrite time and erase their moment of meeting. And Sonic goes, “Just smile, and do it,” basically.

In the anime a beloved little girl who had a love interest in the main cast and who’s story was the central plot of the second season sacrifices her life and has to leave Sonic and all his friends behind to do so. And while they all grieve and are devastated (and so’s the audience,) Sonic comforts them, but serenely goes, “It was really great having you around, Cosmo!” And blasts off to his next adventure.

In the same anime the audience-surrogate character, Chris, a little human boy who loves and befriends Sonic, has to leave him to go to his own dimension not once but twice, and the final time he’s blasting off in a trans-dimensional rocket and he it’s on a schedule so nobody even knows he’s leaving, let alone tell him goodbye, he’s crying, the other characters are reacting sadly in future-flash-forwards, but then Sonic just appears, speeding along to keep up with the rocket’s trajectory, and cheerfully goes, “I’ll be seeing ya, Chris!”

Not once but twice special friends of his that he’s dedicated to helping die in the video games, both times because he didn’t react quickly enough—which is his whole thing, speed—but after a moment of grief he gets up and figures out a new path to keep carrying on with the adventure.

He gets sickened at least four times I can think of off the top of my head—usually with a magical or digital or technological curse or malady of some kind. Every single time, the affliction usually has something to do with Sonic having the choice to either feel sorry for himself/focus on himself, or fix his eyes on the goal and keep moving forward. For example, he gets hit with the Cyberspace corruption because he keeps accessing a forbidden dimension to free his friends, even though he knows it’s killing him to do so. Or with the zombot plague, it literally can only be kept in remission if he keeps moving forward physically and refuses to slow down. 

All of this is not to say that Sonic doesn’t ever experience grief or rage. That happens all the time. But it’s usually just a brief reactionary moment, and it propels him to win a fight or keep going—and he never takes it too far and gets murderous or vengeful. (Once he almost did in the anime but he stopped, and that’s where the whole “Dark Sonic” you may see floating around comes from.)

But the point is, he’s a positive character, a very secure, very confident character. He knows exactly who he is. He knows exactly what he wants to do. He likes doing it with friends, but he literally will save the world by himself every time, for the rest of time, if for some reasons his friends won’t go with him. Often a staple of the character is that he will run off when everyone else is having a victory party, or he’ll disappear before the people he’s saved can thank him: because he’s just as happy chasing adventure on his own as he is with any friends. 

So Movie Sonic gets that wrong. 

Super Sonic, also, they get wrong. The whole point of Sonic being able to turn into Super Sonic is this Chaos Emerald thing—here, really quickly: the Chaos Emeralds are very powerful mystery items that, when they’re all together, have the power to create change, or “grant wishes,” based on what the heart of the user is feeling. If that sounds vague, it’s vague on purpose so they can do just about anything when the storytellers need them to. But suffice to say: they’re almost always used like batteries, sometimes batteries to empower “Transformations,” and if someone transforms with them into something evil, they turn grey and appear to lose their power. 

BUT SUPER SONIC can fix them. It’s just Sonic, nigh-invulnerable, glowing gold and able to fly—specifically because he’s such a positive guy. It’s literally his positivity that turns him into Super-Sonic. 

And in the movies, he turns into Super Sonic to grimly end a big fight, or to get revenge on Movie Shadow. When in actuality, he should be grinning and flashing around happily. “Super Sonic” is short for “Super Positive Sonic.”

So that’s Sonic. The main point of the character is that everybody else in the story is weighed down by:

failures

insecurities

the past

legacy, 

their heritage, 

and one or two of them are even slowed down by fears for the *future* as a change of pace. 

But Sonic is consistently associated with the confidence and cockiness that comes with “living in the moment” and “keep moving forward.”  

So the next three or four characters are very influenced by Sonic, for that reason. 

Miles “Tails” Prower

Tails is Sonic’s best friend and is treated like his little brother. He’s a technology whiz, and he has a huge brain. They’ve really been capitalizing on that in the most recent portrayals of Tails, especially in the movies: he’s the “gadget guy” and he speaks in technobabble. 

But the part of Tails that was really awesome, the part that actually had an arc, didn’t have much to do with his big brain, in the beginning. It had more to do with a) his young age and b) his mutated tails. 

Because focusing on those two things made him a great example of one of those Character-Focuses that Sonic does not get weighed down by: Failure. Or, more precisely I guess, Insecurity.

Because of his two tails and his young age, Tails meets Sonic and he thinks Sonic is the most amazing person in the world. He’s cool and confident and really capable. Sonic lets Tails follow him around, and from Sonic, Tails learns how to use his mutated tails and believe in himself. Because every time he falls or fails, Sonic sets the example of, “get back up and keep moving forward.”

Not that the technology-thing isn’t a big part of Tails, too. His name is a pun on “Miles Per Hour.” Which is a way to calculate speed. So as a character, Tails is always running calculations: he’s always trying to see if he measures up (to Sonic), see how to solve things, comparing himself to Sonic. So over and over the games sort of have him “come of age.” He’s usually separated from Sonic in some way, or Sonic appears to “die,” and Tails is left to save the day. Usually he does. 

But the main point is that, even in the games themselves, Tails is an example of how “Keep Moving Forward” is too hard for anybody to do if they don’t have friends. Actually, all three of Sonic’s main-friends are examples of that lesson. Tails, for example, can pick Sonic up after he falls into pits or low areas in the game levels, and carry him out so he can keep running. It’s like a metaphor. 

Generally, the appealing thing about Tails is that he’s always there for Sonic and he has total faith in Sonic—and Sonic returns that favor by having total faith in Tails.

Knuckles the Echidna

Knuckles is Sonic’s first “rival,” which turns out to be a recurring character-type in the franchise. But because he was the first, now he’s just one of Sonic’s best friends. (He also introduced “lore” to the Sonic games. Before Knuckles, they were sort of cartoons.)

Knuckles is can hit really hard, climb walls, dig, and glide (by catching air in his dreadlocks. So. If that doesn’t scream “Rad Red.”) 

Knuckles is a dupe in the movies, and he’s a dupe in the games. But that’s only one facet of his character. Remember how I said Tails is the Character-Focus of “Insecurity?” Knuckles has a Character Focus of “Heritage.” You can see that in the movies, too. They did an okay job with Knuckles. 

Basically, Knuckles is the last of an extinct race, and his job is to guard a really big magical Emerald called the Master Emerald. The Master Emerald can trump the Chaos Emeralds, and it sits in a big shrine on an island, and causes that island to float (it’s called “Angel Island.”)

Because every other echidna is wiped out, Knuckles doesn’t have anybody to ask for advice on the best way to do his job, or protect his home (he’s basically a crabby hermit.)

So he just does it his way.

But that’s the thing about Knuckles, and about Sonic rivals. They usually take one character trait of Sonic and then SPIN IT OUT OF CONTROL.

So, Sonic likes to do things “his own way,” right? Knuckles likes to do things his own way too—but like, on steroids. He won’t budge if he thinks the Master Emerald is in danger, and he prioritizes it over everything, everything else. If the world is in danger but the Master Emerald is ALSO in danger, Knuckles usually says “let the world burn, I have to save this Emerald.” Or his island. Whichever comes first. 

Sonic’s more “adaptable” than Knuckles, is what I’m saying.

While Sonic would never be saddled with a type of “guardianship” that forces him to stay in one place and never grow, Knuckles refuses to abandon his post, ultimately. You do see him grow a little bit: he does go on adventures with Sonic and Tails, so he’s not always chained to the Master Emerald and his island like a Guard Dog. But he still takes that same singleminded approach to every problem: for example, in the anime, when they think their little girl pal Cosmo might be a spy, Knuckles is like “okay then let’s take her out…”

… because he starts to see whatever his mission is as the new metaphorical “Master Emerald Which Must Be Protected At All Costs.”

Whereas Sonic would never do something like that. Sonic always believes in doing things his own way: but his “own way” would never hurt somebody who’s only-bad-by-accident. He’d find a way to stop the bad guys and save the naive person they’re using. Knuckles would just punch everything—innocent, misunderstood, doesn’t matter.

But I will say, the thing Sonic teaches Knuckles (because remember, it’s always Sonic teaching other characters) is that he can adapt. He can change his mind. The first thing Knuckles changes his mind about is Sonic himself. 

When they meet, Knuckles has been tricked by Eggman (main bad guy) into thinking Sonic is after his Master Emerald. Sonic turns out to be the hero, and Knuckles gets a little more open-minded from that point on. Now they’re friends.

One of the other prime examples of Knuckles learning to be more open-minded is his repeat-rival/lover: Rouge the Bat.

(Rouge is a super-spy-jewel-thief-treasure-hunter. She comes to steal the Master Emerald, and Knuckles throws hands, in his usual straightforward way, and doesn’t like Rouge. Except he does. And after saving her life, she gives him back what she’d stolen—and he apologizes to her for being too rough and from then on they have like a flirtatious maybe-friendship maybe-rivalry. So there’s another example of him changing his mind, opening it up, a little.)

Amy Rose

This is the Girl Character. She just showed up at the end of Sonic Movie 2. She has undergone the most change out of the Main Four over the years, because…well, because this is the West, and because ideas about what an acceptable Girl Character can be have changed.

For better or worse, Amy Rose is Sonic’s Love Interest. She’s introduced as a fangirl of Sonic’s who is rescued by him—because he’ll rescue anyone, not necessarily because he has any special interest in her—and then she follows him around.

Amy’s “powers” are that she can run fast (to keep up with Sonic) but she’s got a really big hammer. That’s it. (We don’t know where it came from or how she always has it with her or what it’s made of, it’s just a big hammer.)

Her deep backstory (which faded away in the early 2000s but is making a reappearance because it’s “trendy” to be a witch nowadays,) is that she had special tarot cards that told her Sonic was going to have a big impact on her life, or was her destiny, or something like that.

Bottom line: she steadfastly believes that Sonic is her One True Love. 

Sonic, initially, was portrayed as running away from her affection because he’s either not interested or he just doesn’t want to be tied down, and she’s clingy and possessive.

And initially, Amy was portrayed as chasing after him endlessly, no matter what. That was her character. But slowly, they’ve added in stuff and reshaped her so that she has her own fighting ability (big hammer) and is more about “loving all creatures in general” than “obsessively loving Sonic.”

The thing that I would say stays thematically similar about Amy, even from her damsel-in-distress-clingy days, is that she never gives up.

So her Character-Focus is “Insecurity” like Tails…but more intensely. More like “Self Focus.”

Amy’s whole sense of who she is comes from Sonic, and how close she is to him. But he literally won’t stay close to her, so she complains and gets mad and keeps trying. But her first big moment of “character development” comes from watching Sonic, who never focuses on himself—he always looks at what needs to be done for the day to be saved, and wastes no time feeling sorry for himself or wondering if he can do it. 

Amy starts realizing that she should stop focusing so much on herself and how people treat her, and focus on “helping others.” That happened late in the story, around the time Shadow the Hedgehog was introduced. But since then she’s slowly but surely become more (bland) about “helping others” than “helping herself,” so that’s been pretty consistent.

And of course, the Villain. 

Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik

Eggman is the villain, he’s only recently become more than one-dimensional, and he was intensely unlikeable (except ironically) until recently. But his whole thing is that, as a character, he’s Sonic—if Sonic were an opposite-day parody of himself. 

Instead of a cute/cool animal Eggman is a gross bloated human.

Instead of a fun-loving free spirit Eggman is a calculating mastermind usually encased in a fortress or battle-mech.

Instead of saving creatures Eggman imprisons them to power his robots. 

Instead of enjoying nature, by the way, Eggman wants to pave over everything and populate the world with robots.

Instead of living and letting-live Eggman wants everyone to obey his every command.

Instead of having friends he cares about and would do anything to save Eggman has manipulated and double crossed every non-machine relationship he ever has.

But paradoxically, some things about him and Sonic are similar. 

Sonic does things his own way and won’t let any circumstance or person change that—so does Eggman. (They have a theme song about this.)

Sonic stubbornly refuses to give up—so does Eggman.

Sonic chases every impulse—so does Eggman.

Sonic is cocky and won’t be intimidated by eldritch powers or unstoppable forces way over his head—same for Eggman.

Sonic is competitive and will sometimes do things just for the thrill or just to prove he can—so will Eggman.

Sonic picks himself up after failure and tries again, and can’t be kept down—so does Eggman.

Recently they’ve tried to make it Eggman’s “thing” that he’s kind of a lonely soul. That nobody has ever appreciated his genius, so he’s content to remake the world to be full of robots—but whenever he has the opportunity to feel kinship with mankind, he actually begrudgingly finds a way to welcome it. 

The movie did just recently start nodding at that character-theme. But this first happened in the early 2000s, when he started the adventure off chasing his grandfather’s legacy, and ended it by helping Sonic and the gang save the human race. He’s also helped end alien invasions, and in the anime, actively fights aliens, too. It’s culminated nowadays in Eggman creating a little Artificial Intelligence girl named SAGE who he winds up feeling affection for and wishing she could remain his “family,” (which isn’t really character growth, because he always wanted to invent a world of his own where non-organic life forms adored him, so.)

Now he’s getting likeable. His sheer tenaciousness and the fact that when the chips are down and non-mortal, evil entities threaten the world, he jumps in and draws the line out of stubborn “if I can’t have the world nobody else can” is weirdly likeable. 

Let’s talk about just one of the other characters you’ll hear about, so they’re definitely going to be in the movies at some point:

Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow I’ve already made more than one post about. He’s bizarre, on the surface. If I try to explain to you that Shadow is not a cartoon hedgehog like Sonic—he’s a Frankenstein’s monster made of alien DNA invented to cure all disease and grant the human race immortality while inexplicably being shaped like a hedgehog and wearing rocket-skates and shooting lightning out of his hands and teleporting—

then you’re going to go “that’s so weird.”

And it is.

But they managed to make it feel totally acceptable and correct in every iteration.

In the movie, he’s not a science project brought to life by a mad scientist made from the DNA of an alien and a hedgehog. He’s just an alien, himself. So that’s…that’s somehow more believable.

In the games, however, Shadow the Hedgehog is Sonic’s thematic shadow. He was thought up as this dark, twisted version of Sonic himself.

The best way I can describe it, and the most succinct way, is:

Shadow the Hedgehog is Sonic the Hedgehog, if Sonic had, at a young age, saved a bunch of birds from Eggman’s robots only to have those birds turn around and peck Tails, his best friend, to death right in front of him, burn his home to the ground, and somehow lock Sonic away to stew on that traumatic event for 50 years afterward. He’s like an alternate-universe Sonic, where instead of positive and carefree, Sonic is negative and full of nothing but cares.

Shadow was created by Eggman’s grandfather. In the movie, Eggman’s grandfather is a psychotic old villain bent on revenge. But in the games he was a kindly old genius who just wanted to use his intellect to benefit the world, starting with his sick granddaughter, Maria. He made a ton of stuff, it all pops up in the games all the time, but the main two things he made were a) Shadow himself and b) a big space station that doubles as a giant laser cannon.

It’s a laser cannon because he was hired by the military to make weapons. He kept cheating them out of weapons and inventing like, healing pouches and living water-robots and stuff, instead, though. Shadow was supposed to be a weapon—a living weapon—but Eggman’s grandfather doubled his purpose and used him as a part of his research into curing his sick granddaughter Maria. 

Shadow came to life on the space station and spent an undetermined amount of time bonding with Maria, his only friend, and testing out his superpowers, and dreaming about the day they’d go to earth, the planet he was made to protect. Shadow’s superpowers are: teleportation, time-warping, and controlling Chaos Energy (he can shoot lightning out of his hands and turn into a living energy-bomb.) But then the military got scared of what he could do, even before he’d really done anything, and raided the space station. In all the confusion, they captured Eggman’s grandfather and chased Maria and Shadow into the escape-pod room. She knew they were after Shadow, so she made him promise to live his life protecting the people of Earth and giving them a chance to be happy (which is a very Sonic the Hedgehog wish to make) and then jettisoned him out of the space station. But not before one of the military soldiers got trigger-happy and shot her to death in front of Shadow’s eyes.

So. You know. The humans he was brought into existence to protect murdered the little girl best friend he was brought into existence to cure. And then her sacrifice almost didn’t matter because they captured him anyway and locked him away and he woke up looking for revenge. 

But then Sonic (and AMY people forget AMY) showed up and stopped Shadow, and reminded him of Maria’s real wishes, and his real purpose. So from that moment on, Shadow becomes this self-sacrificial character.

But remember, all Sonic Rivals (and Shadow is the Ultimate Rival of Sonic) take one character trait of Sonic’s and they blow it way out of proportion. So which one is Shadow’s? 

Shadow has a lot of the same character traits as Sonic. He is cocky, but with him it usually comes off as “I’m objectively the most powerful thing ever created.” He is competitive, but with him, again, it’s usually just to prove the previous statement. He is caring about his friends, but not demonstrably caring; it’s all hidden. He is a teenager, but because of everything about his existence, you can’t tell.

So what does that leave us with?

Shadow is basically Sonic’s “Never Give Up” mentality, on steroids. But like Knuckles with the “I Do Things My Own Way” extremity, Shadow usually takes his borrowed-Sonic-trait way too far. Sonic will never give up on reaching the goal, but he will change the goal if it means some good will come out of it. For example, in one of the video games based on King Arthur’s Knights (stop laughing, it’s the best one) Sonic has to reach a certain milestone within a time limit to be knighted and save the world. He doesn’t let villains, traps, or rivals get in his way—but as soon as a little girl is crying on the side of the road he willingly drops all chances of getting to the milestone in time and becoming a knight…and potentially even saving the world. Just because he’s not going to leave a little girl crying on the side of the road.

In another example, Sonic always jumps into smashing Eggman’s robots with both feet. But when Amy tells him one of Eggman’s strongest series of killer robots is actually “nice,” he shrugs and goes “whatever you say” and moves on immediately.

So Sonic will never give up on his goal—unless he finds out there might be a chance for somebody to do the right thing. Even if he doesn’t believe in that person, and he’d rather fight them and get it over with, if one of Sonic’s friends protests, Sonic is easygoing, shrugs his shoulders, and believes in his friend’s judgement. Because for Sonic, it’s not a personal vendetta. He’s too cool to make everything about himself.

But Shadow? It takes a lot to convince Shadow that when someone does something wrong, they shouldn’t immediately be neutralized. Even though he, himself, was wrong and had to learn to do the right thing once. His “Never Give Up” mentality is very “Mission: Complete.” Mostly because he was invented to save everyone, but the people he had a personal interest in saving all got tragically murdered a long time ago. So now he does everything out of a sense of grim duty, and gets very little pleasure out of it.

That’s kind of the beauty and tragedy of his character, and it’s why it’s so fun to watch him interact with Sonic. Because any time he has to team up with or duke it out with Sonic…you see that deep down, Shadow enjoys the competition. And it’s fun to see him just enjoy something. That’s what Sonic brings out in him.

The main thing Sonic brings to the table with a character like Shadow is that Shadow is entrenched in the Past. And Sonic is all about Keep Moving Forward. So Shadow takes that lesson more like “marching orders” than Sonic’s “race” mentality. But it’s still a cool dynamic.

Anyway. There are many more characters that are awesome. I particularly like the “Redeemed Robot” characters, and there’s this interdimensional Princess who’s awesome, too, and many people are going to be mad that I didn’t include Metal Sonic on this post.

But this is just the rough overview. If you’re not into Sonic, that’s fine. But just to set the record straight on one of my favorite franchises ever: it has a profound point, the main character is as likeable as say, iconic characters like Percy Jackson and Luke Skywalker, and the movies are nice because they’re a genuine labor of love, but not because they get Sonic exactly right.

That’s all.