Thoughts on "Sonic X":
If all of you saw my review of "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" last post, you'd think I'd consider it one of the worst Sonic cartoons ever made, but it's not the worst! No; that title would have to go to "Sonic X" or maybe "Sonic Boom!" If people think "Sonic Underground" is bad, I don't really agree at all; OK, sure, we didn't need musical numbers and the voice-acting of Sonia, Sonic, and Manic wasn't good, but the musical numbers only lasted about a minute and I think that Sonia and Manic are very likable characters. I'll talk more about "Sonic Underground" in a later post, though, because I want to talk more about "Sonic X."
If people think that Chris Thorndyke is the worst character of "Sonic X," I don't agree at all. I think he's a very nice kid who just has some issues like being clingy and being prone to being kidnapped. If people are going to say that he's a bad kid for wanting to spend time with his parents, that's stupid! Now, I'm not trying to insist that parents shouldn't ever work; I don't hate Chris's dad and I don't hate Chris's mom, either. But why can't Chris's dad and mom have local jobs that can pay them well and let them spend time with Chris?!?
Now, I will say that Chris was foolish to take Sonic with him after Sonic's friends went through the portal, but Sonic also made a mistake, too! You can't tell me that Sonic couldn't have just ran through the portal when it was time to say good-bye, plus Sonic is usually impatient, so even if Chris wanted to have Sonic be with him, Sonic probably would have taken off from Chris anyway and told Chuck to fire up the portal! So it's really more Sonic's fault than Chris's that Chris ran away with Sonic, not the other way around! Also, Chris did apologize to Sonic for how selfish he was to keep Sonic with him and he was even crying, so I'm not going to stay mad at Chris:) I think that like Princess Sally Acorn from the Archie Sonic comics, he's a horribly over-hated character.
The only real complaints that I have about Chris is that he's not a competent fighter and that he's clingy, but that's all. Other than that, I think he's a nice kid. But I really do not like all of the other characters in "Sonic X" at all with the exceptions of Ella, Decoe, Bocoe, and maybe to some extent Chris's parents, Tanaka, and Sonic, and while I don't really hate Tails and Cream, I just kind of find them bland. I do like Ella being awesome like in that cruise episode where she was using the X Tornado against Eggman and I liked her being good at cooking, plus I do like Tanaka's dedication to protecting Chris. And I do like Decoe and Bocoe because they're nice robots who don't tediously argue with each other like Scratch and Grounder did in "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog."
And despite me kind of picking on Chris's parents, I never said once that I hated Chris Thorndyke's parents! If you want really bad parental figures, well, Chris's parents could kind of qualify, but they're not as bad as someone like Timmy Turner's parents in "The Fairly OddParents" or Peter and Lois Griffin from "Family Guy" could be. At least Chris's mother Lindsey and Chris's dad Nelson definitely love Chris and care for him, and that's great:) For instance, I think it's sweet when Chris hugs his mother in the episode where he along with Sonic and his friends find some ghosts, and while I do think it's stupid of Chris's parents to ditch their jobs when Chris has a cold in one episode, I find their care for him genuinely heart-warming:) And when they hear about Chris running away in the episode called "Friends Til the End" of "Sonic X," Chris's parents want to do anything to get Chris back, so that's dedication right there.
But what did the writers of "Sonic X" do to Sonic and all of his friends in that show?!? Sonic's not supposed to be anti-social! I don't remember him being anti-social in the Archie Sonic comics, unless maybe you could count those "Mobius: 25 Years Later" stories examples of him being anti-social. But at least he can still be likable sometimes like when he cheers up Chris in the "Party Hardly" episode, he spends a whole day with a wheelchaired girl named Helen, and he didn't even get upset or angry at Chris in the season 2 finale episode.
But Sonic's still a "Gary Stu" pretty much like he was in "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog." Sure, he's not a sadist using disguises, but can someone seriously tell me that it takes one spin-dash to defeat a machine of Eggman?!? Bosses in Sonic games take at least 3 hits to kill (or 8 if you're playing classic Sonic games like "Sonic 1" and "Sonic 2" for the Sega Genesis), so I don't understand why a single hit would kill a machine that Eggman's piloting! Also, a lot of Sonic's friends are pretty much incompetent in "Sonic X!"
If you want to know what I'm talking about, watch all the episodes of "Sonic X" on YouTube and look at the list of usefulness and incompetence of Sonic characters and even human characters at the link https://crystalmaiden77.wordpress.com/2020/12/15/sonic-x-character-usefulness-and-uselessness/. "CrystalMaiden 77" makes great content that reviews stuff that's Sonic-related and other things, and I am most sincerely grateful for the reviews and other Sonic content she has made on her YouTube channel. Anyway, I guess Sonic, barring his anti-social tendencies, isn't a bad character, and at least sometimes, he's still likable. But what did "Sonic X" do to some characters like Amy, Rouge, Knuckles, and Shadow?!?
I wouldn't say that it was games like "Sonic Rush" and "Sonic Riders" that started making characters like Amy and Knuckles unlikable. No; "Sonic X" started that trend since it started airing in the United States in September 2003! It makes me sad that because of "Sonic X," Amy and Knuckles are hated, especially Amy:( Poor Amy, what did "Sonic X" do to you?!?
I loved Amy's portrayals in "Sonic Adventure 1" and "Sonic Adventure 2!" I loved how she could reason with Gamma and Shadow to become good in either of those games, saved a bird in "Sonic Adventure 1," and stood up to Zero like a boss in "Sonic Adventure 1!" Also, she hardly chased down Sonic in "Sonic Adventure 1," and while she did chase down Sonic more in "Sonic Adventure 2," at least she still had her heart in the right place and she was willing to help her friends. But hardly any of that is present in "Sonic X!" Instead, Sonic has practically every good reason not to date Amy because in that show, she's bossy, abusive, hot-tempered, overly emotional, and immature!
I think that that show is why you see Amy want to beat up Sonic in "Sonic Heroes" so that she can marry him, plus I also think that Amy's behavior in "Sonic X" is also a precedent for why Amy seems to beat up Cream in "Sonic Rush" and want to threaten Sonic with violence in that same game! Why can't Amy be like she was in the Sonic Adventure games?!? Having Amy want to date Sonic isn't bad in and of itself, but not when she's an immature, violent, bossy, and overly emotional fangirl! Of all the things I could consider Mina in the Archie Sonic comics, she might have been immature and a little emotional, but she was never violent or bossy to Sonic in those comics of her own free will like Amy was in "Sonic X!" And at least Mina was like Sonic in practically every aspect minus being cocky.
Sadly, those are not the only complaints I have about Amy in "Sonic X!" If people think Princess Peach gets kidnapped too much in Mario games (sorry for bringing that analogy up), then Amy, Tails, and even other characters like Chris, Cosmo, and Cream kind of put Princess Peach's kidnappings to shame. And even Sonic and other characters like Knuckles and Rouge aren't immune from being incompetent in "Sonic X," sadly:( I don't mind if heroes are at least incompetent sometimes, but you can't have them always be incompetent!
And what did they do to Knuckles?!? OK, sure, Knuckles's characterization isn't as bad as it is in "Sonic Boom" (trust me, I'll get to that later!), but I still don't like it. Knuckles doesn't have to be an idiot who hates Sonic for no good reason and he doesn't have to be an antagonistic and hot-headed jerk! He also doesn't have to be tricked by Eggman! At least in "Sonic Underground," he had a good excuse to be tricked by Sleet and Dingo in one episode where he thought Sonic, Sonia, and Manic were enemies, but after some talking, Knuckles patched things up with Sonic, Sonia, and Manic:)
But in "Sonic X," for one episode when Eggman tries to get Knuckles to get revenge on Sonic, Knuckles infuriatingly goes along with Eggman's plan! Why?!? While Knuckles isn't wrong to think that Sonic is indeed being selfish to not look for Chaos Emeralds because Sonic certainly is at least sometimes in "Sonic X," why can't those two have a little chat and try to patch things up?!? Sonic can run faster than the speed of sound and it should probably take him seconds or maybe even one or two minutes at most to find all of the Chaos Emeralds so that he, Amy, Tails, Cream, Knuckles, and Rouge can all go home!!
Also, even Shadow has some blunders, plus it doesn't help that he can be a jerk sometimes as well! If people think Sally's slap from issue #134 to Sonic of the Archie Sonic comics was bad, well, it kind of was, but at least Sally apologized for it to Sonic later in issue #187. But Shadow didn't even apologize for not even telling any of Sonic's friends why he was after Cosmo in an episode where Shadow was planning to kill Cosmo! If Shadow wasn't going to attack Chris in one episode because of Chris reminding Shadow of Maria, why couldn't he have held back against Cosmo?!? He could have even warped away the micro-transmitter that was in Cosmo and he could have used Chaos Control to have Dark Oak sent into the sun or something like that, but he didn't do any of those things💢!!!
In addition, I don't see why there's any good excuse for "Sonic X" to not have Mobius as the main setting, and I do mean zip!!! If the Archie Sonic comics, "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog," and even "Sonic Underground" could have Mobius as the main setting, then there is no good excuse for Mobius to not be the main setting. This might come as a shock to some Sonic fans who are reading this, but I don't hate humans existing in the Sonic universe. I don't think "Shadow the Hedgehog" was a bad game because it had aliens called the "Black Arms"; I'd say it was a below average game because of poor game-play idea execution and poor story-telling. The Black Arm aliens in "Shadow the Hedgehog" just looked far too unfitting for a Sonic game, which didn't help matters.
And yes, there are aliens in "Sonic X." No, I don't necessarily hate their presence; I can live with it since they're not as horrible-looking as the Black Arms aliens from "Shadow the Hedgehog." The aliens you see are plant aliens, and one of them is named Cosmo, and she's fine as a character. I don't get why she's Tails's girlfriend, however, because those two don't really have any sweet moments together and they don't really share the same interests, either! Also, I don't see why there has to be a space odyssey that lasts for practically a whole season of "Sonic X" because "Sonic X" isn't "Star Wars" or "Star Trek!"
I don't mind if the Sonic franchise has things like humans or aliens, but there needs to also be fantasy things in the Sonic franchise like rings and magical jewels like Chaos Emeralds, and I don't need Earth to be the main setting of a Sonic franchise! At least "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog," bad as the writing in that show could get a lot of the time, had the common sense not to take place on Earth, and it had Mobius as the main setting along with some Chaos Emeralds. Even "Sonic Underground" did that as well since Sonic and his siblings Sonia and Manic had magical medallions, and there was at least one Chaos Emerald along with an oracle who could use magical powers! So what was the excuse of "Sonic X" to not take place on Mobius most of the time?!? Even the Archie Sonic comics did that right even if Mobius shouldn't have also been the same planet as Earth (yes, that stupid thing did happen in the Archie Sonic comics, but at least it was still a fantasy place).
Also, I don't really like the voices for characters like Knuckles, Rouge, Cream, and Cream's mom Vanilla! I can tolerate Amy's voice in "Sonic X," but people who complain that she sounded like Minnie Mouse under Cindy Robinson kind of need to understand that Lisa Ortiz kind of made Amy sound like Minnie Mouse, too! I know that a lot of people liked to complain about Lani Minella's voice-acting as Rouge, but at least she knew how to make Rouge sound young in "Sonic Adventure 2" and "Sonic Heroes!" Knuckles sounds too much like a grumpy old man with his voice; at least Scott Dreier knew how to make Knuckles sound good in "Sonic Adventure 2" and "Sonic Heroes!"
In addition, I think that Cosmo shouldn't have been killed off in "Sonic X" because that was just horribly mean-spirited towards Tails; look at how sad he was when he was about to kill her:( I felt bad for him:( Also, why do the Metarex think it's a good idea to destroy planets?!? I think it would have been better to conquer planets instead of destroying the planets because you can't have something to rule over if you destroy things like water, trees, and buildings!
The very idea that people like the Metarex would want people killed instead of conquering planets just sounds dumb to me! I also find it dumb that Sonic couldn't have just beat Dark Oak instantly when he was Super Sonic or that Sonic couldn't have defeated Dark Oak when he was super, period! Super Sonic is pretty much invincible and I seriously doubt that a Metarex could have defeated him, so there was no excuse for Super Sonic to just scatter the Chaos Emeralds like an idiot! Also, Cosmo very realistically would have likely died if she crashed on Sonic's planet, plus Dr. Eggman would have killed Sonic at worst if he found him or put exploding nanites in him at best!
"Sonic X" is just a confusing mess and it has everything that kind of caused people to look at the Sonic franchise as a joke. It caused people to hate characters like Amy and Knuckles, it doesn't really have good writing, plus a lot of the voices stink, and other characters like Amy and Knuckles are portrayed as incompetent, unlikable, or both. So, yeah, if you're looking for a good Sonic show, you're not going to really find it in "Sonic X" at all. If you were to ask me if I have any problems with "Sonic X," well I'd say yes, but none of them are really Chris Thorndyke, and I think people need to forgive him because he did feel remorse for kidnapping Sonic just like Sally felt bad for slapping Sonic in issue #134 in issue #187 of the Archie Sonic comics! My biggest problems with "Sonic X" are 1. that there's not enough good action scenes, 2. some of the characters (except ones like Chris and Ella) are unlikable, incompetent, or both, 3. plots are mundane, and 4. the main setting isn't Mobius!
I know that I might have given "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" a lot of trash-talk in one of my previous posts, but it's not out of hate for Sonic; it's because I love Sonic and because I want his franchise to succeed whether it's in games or any other type of media like cartoons, media, and more. Besides, I know that at least some people hate "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog," and while I don't necessarily blame them for feeling that way, at least it did some things right. I liked how Sonic cared for Tails, I liked how Sonic liked flirting with some girls, it was kind of interesting seeing Sonic act like a villain, and I liked that the main setting was Mobius. Also, it didn't feel like forever when you were watching the show! Sure, "Sonic X" isn't a technical train-wreck, and there are some good episodes, but a TV show or a cartoon that bores me or aggravates me (or even both) is one that fails, and what else can I really say after that?!?
I'll tell you what I can say: I'm going to talk about some re-visits to other franchises I like such as Mega Man and Fire Emblem, plus I'll give you an idea of what foods I like:) Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not just a Sonic fan! Plus there are other games that I have enjoyed in the past like "Freedom Planet" and "Fur Fighters" that I would like to revisit and talk about! I'll get back to talking more about Archie Sonic comics and other Sonic stuff like "Sonic Underground" and "Sonic SatAm" because I'm not done talking about that blue hedgehog! So with all of that said, have a great day and take care:)
