I always found Amy's marrying sonic obsessing was very very annoying. Reducing that is Alright with me. I also find hyper aggressive feminism annoying too though so I guess I just can't win.

Ian Flynn is literally just trying to maker her slightly more mature, capable and confident. Before Amy has always just been either seen as annoying or just a love interest for Sonic and nothing more than that. While hardcore fans will say that's wrong that's exactly what most people see her as. She doesn't feel important. Amy has a big role in the comics but in the games she's nothing. If Amy didn't exist in the games the story would be the same however if she didn't exist in the comics it would change a lot

one critique i have of this critique is the 2nd challenge for sonic in the final horizons actually is designed within the games parameters, it just doesnt convey that at all. instead of cylooping those enemies as u showed in the clip, the intended way to beat them is to use your parry (which is a consistent theme with a lot of the challenges). the enemies throw their big spinny spikes at you, you parry, wail on them in the two seconds you get, the parry the spikes again to wail again. my critique of that section is that they literally never tell u that. it took me actually half an hour of trying that challenge over and over again until i figured that out. i just figured i was doing suboptimal combos or something. so yeah it IS designed with intent with realistic expectations of player performance. the real problem is the lack of communication on how to achieve those expectations. even just a little text blurb of the koco saying something like "try parrying" upon defeat would completely fix the issue i feel like sega was really just swinging and missing with this game

Honestly I knew that a lot of English translation just didn’t truly fit with the Japanese portrayal. I did not know there was more behind the scenes that cause the misrepresentation. And all the hate towards Sega made it hard to know what was true or not. I’m glad and happy you put this essay so perfectly together. Showing scenes and clips from Ian and the games, as well as the IDW. I feel much more informed now.

reducing the relatioship's presences as amy's major defining trait is not a bad thing. However tearing it out of her soul and replacing it with boring, corporate generic female character is not it. the point of all of these games, from the start at least i always thought was to show that sonic is a catalyst for change, inspiring something better in the people he's around including amy. He's MEANT to be flawless. He's that role model we all look up to. He can be arrogant, he can forget the value of his friends from time to time. But he should never, ever be insecure. Sonic's fundamentals are meant to be deep rooted, do what he thinks is right, whether that be freeing small woodland animals, or saving the entire planet. i was honestly super upset when you showed that one panel of sonic being insecure, because that is not sonic. He is meant to uplift others with his very presence, not be weighed down by his own insecurities. Not to say the character they're portraying is a bad character, but it just isn't the right one. Linking it back to amy, sonic is meant to inspire her to be the best person she can. While I was fine with frontiers' plotline, it sort of tackles what I've just been saying about sonic a bit on the nose with all of its characters but whatever. I think if the crush has been completely written out by the next game, that's when I'll start seeing a problem. Honestly though, if they play there cards right, this could be a much better approach for the relationship WHILE being meaningful character development. Rather than trying to force sonic into liking her, amy could instead play more to trying to impress sonic through feats of her own, ultimately becoming a stronger, more independent and mature person because of it, while still keeping her roots. Ian needs to work on evolving the characters while respecting what came before, not throwing out the bits he doesn't like. To be honest that actually seems like a really nice continuation of her adventure arc, I really hope they go with that. watching this with some of those bumblekast and twitter takes doesn't inspire much hope for that though.

Dont worry I wont let it👍

I am... conflicted on some things. I agree Sega is at fault to some degree for not setting guidelines for their characters. As someone who makes characters and writes, this is basics; this is why people have reference sheets for their OCs, movies/shows have their bibles, and rules of where the line is. Look at Disney; they have so many rules when it comes to licensing their characters...and for good reason. They're targeted more towards children and there is a lot they need to consider. Sega, I feel, definitely needs to set those boundaries. Especially after Ian said Shadow would want Sonic to touch him in a specific way. Hold up, i am not knocking the ship, just the comment. Considering the franchise os geared towards a younger demographic, that is not something that should be said about th characters by a *professional working in thr industry*. If that's your headcanon, totally fine but please keep those remarks in adult spaces? That said, I definitely feel there needs to be a separation of canon and fandom. I understand teasing some ships to keep the fans happy. If Sega is okay with that, cool, but it should not be so...blatant? Keep it to fan service if you absolutely must include it and not your head canons. I've seen this play out with Star vs. The Forces of Evil; do not let the ships drive the plot. This is when Ian should have contacted them and asked an extensive list of questions about th characters. As a professional, I cannot imagine not wanting them to sign off on something. Even if i am given free rein, it is better to triple check when it comes to creative works. My interpretation of something is not the same as another's...and with this being a franchise that produces products that may go into my portfolio and resume, I would be making absolutely everything I do is to the letter. Which is why I'm so bothered by Ian's comments and behaviors. And I definitely do not want a bunch if homogenized characters. We have such a vast cast we could do so much with, they all deserve to be their own characters. That's just my two cents at this moment. I'm sure I'll have more to say if/when I do more extensive research. I'm curious what theyre cooking up but also apprehensive.

Why was I blocked?

Another Monroe Sonic banger!

no it doesn't

I never played GG, and probably never will because of this mental gymnastics some people take when it comes to character types like this. But it pisses me off when they press an existing character through a play-dough mold to make them fit a narrative which didn't exist before then.

Bridget has canonically had years to be a man. She just didnt feel comfortable about it and she transitioned to a girl in Strive. Its just a new character arc, not a retcon

I usually dislike femboys because they come off as fetishy, but videos like this and your channel made me realize it was just a form of expression and helps push away gender stereotypes. I hope you continue making videos Dimitri!

Idk if you knew, but some people have been giving you some homophobia allegations based on the last points. Just figured you should know.

My wallet will thank me when I refuse to buy these "games".

30:30 mistake shes 6

its weird that people that responded to your last video about bridget hasnt responded to this one, also weird that they dont have as much evidence to prove it as you do. but if there is let me know

I thought that Ian Flynn don't want people to use fragments of the podcast?

Bro this guy is so based for pointing out the stupid crap that's going on in modern gaming Because he's like Femininity is Stupid From the point of view of modern writers And that's a mistake they're making Cause it's not a bad thing

Yeah uh.. I think I get it now.. I still like the current amy but damn.. like really? Why can't a female be a female nowadays!? Honestly it makes no sense! Honestly now I'm kinda rethinking my plan on making my oc cannon or at least known to SEGA now because if she does end up cannon id want her to stay exactly how I wrote her to be instead of a marry sue like a particular sonic oc that looks like a maria clone that has a creator that just so happens to be a huge PEDOPHILE! Honestly that'd be a nightmare.. can we just NOT have so many female characters written like this? Like I'm fine with being more then just a girl character but come on man girls have compassion! Wheres that? The world needs more femininity.. and thats what I wrote my oc to be.. a feminine character that loves shadow and would do anything to make him happy.. but now I'm starting to think "hm.. should I try making her known to SEGA? Are they gonna misunderstand the whole point of who she is? What if they butcher her into a marry sue that knows everything and is really strong and instead of focusing on shadows happiness and doing whatever it takes to make him smile there just gonna make her really fucking strong to the point where she's not relatable at all and everyone hates her?" I don't want my character to turn into a marry sue matter of fact the only reason she isn't a marry sue is because 1: I put a lot of thought into her story and 2: I liked zer0's oc and decided to take inspiration and make my own but instead of making her a hedgehog I made her into a completely different species and gave her an actual story and personality.. the complete OPPOSITE of elina! But if Sega ruins that I'm gonna be pissed! She's supposed to be loving like Amy but also sassy and confident like rouge! It's like if you took Amy and rouge and blended them together that'd be violet not some marry sue that's good at everything.. we already have enough marry sue's in the franchise at it is we don't need another one..

Honestly i been studying sonic characters lately due to my rewrite and Amy really is misunderstood and honestly as a person who found Amy is annoying at first when i younger but now days i love her character due to two reasons reason 1 my gender identity because she kinda one of the reasons i realize I'm non binary and reason 2 i realized when i got older that shes amazing its just the 2010's games and fandom that messed her up as well as the fandom and for how much i love ian Flynn as a writer he is changing her and its honestly sad shes just a compassionate character she deserves so much and i have been writing her the best i can as much i been writing shadow and sliver (who are both also misunderstood by fandom) I'll be honest i hope both Amy and silver get so much more

29:24 I'd retract the generalization. Otherwise, we are chill. I won't dismiss it but it's just that the placement of female characters in media is already shifting. Sonic Team having two characters in mind that are action-oriented. Its best to just skip it especially when the next character to compare should have been Blaze or the omitted Rogue. Especially with their character arcs. The writers were seeking elements from Amy's character as the baseline and placing unique dynamics into Blaze and Rouge. Love the Sonic X Rouge because she has a buddy-cop relationship. Blaze is still a struggler, kind of like Sally as a fighter but in a way of self-isolation. Essentially Amy has been deconstructed by most to say she had no other character trait beyond Sonic. Its fine for her to be a normal anthropomorphic static character but not to be a voice piece for writer's complaints for an already great character. I forgot Cream but she is also denoted into the "damsel" role despite being more of a friend seeker and finding courage. Finding her friend group and not be underestimated in fighting for peace.

Bro is cooking utter shit

It took me a while to watch this video but I assure you that I agree with everything you said and I'm going to separate it into two parts, starting with Amy's part: I confess that the only flaw I saw in Amy back in the day was that some writers exaggerated the fact that she loved Sonic, which made her seem like a one-dimensional character who only thought about that, even though she was already a good character before that. But some people don't see that and think that for a female character to be good she has to be less... feminine and more of a "girl boss", even though being feminine never stopped characters from being strong, charismatic, bubbly and even having flaws, because those are things that make them interesting (just look at the old female characters, for example). Amy could already be both a supporting character, whether as physical or emotional support, or as a proactive character alongside others and the same thing goes for the powers part, I don't see a problem in exploring new powers for Amy like her having magical abilities or something like that because even if she's not on the same level as Sonic, Shadow or Silver it's cool to see her having her own highlight in this area like the others and developing in this kind of having a little more of her own style. But I think one good point is that IDW made Amy more like a "normal girl", which in my opinion makes her a little more flexible for the stories in general, and from what I saw in the Phantom Rider arc (issue 69-75), Evan Stanley managed to create a good balance between the characteristics of the "old Amy" and the "new Amy". I think this works, now a problem that bothers many fans and I understand this is the projection of the narratives of the staff members onto the characters as happens with Sonic, is he a hero? Yes, but he is a hero like Goku or Luffy because he is a character with a static arc, Sonic does what he thinks is right and as a CONSEQUENCE he earns the title of hero, he doesn't do this to gain fame or change the villains, all this happens as a consequence of his actions, wanting to bring other perspectives like the fact of showing mercy to enemies sometimes brings more problems than it solves? Okay, I think it's a cool idea, but it has to be done without changing the characterization of the characters. Sonic can have flaws like being arrogant, after all, he's not a perfect being. He feels emotions and makes some mistakes, but he wasn't made to be "relatable" like these people try to do, as if they projected their flaws onto the character. He was made to be someone who does what he thinks is right, gives his best, and inspires others to do the same. As a comment I saw once said, "Enough relatable characters! I don't want characters that reflect my flaws. I want amazing characters that inspire me to be a better version of me every day!" As for the staff's behavior, it's sad, revolting and regrettable at the same time. We're here to receive flowers and tomatoes, so the minimum level of professionalism that should be required is to have an open mind and know how to accept criticism. Negative comments and insults are different from criticism and vice versa. If someone is really a fan and likes something, they'll criticize what they don't like or what isn't good and will give their opinion so that the product can be improved in the future. This in turn helps anyone to improve their work. As another comment I saw once said, "being a Sonic fan is complicated within this fandom. We criticize and make suggestions so that we can have something better than what we currently have. It's normal, but for some people, if we do that, we're called boring, ungrateful or that we're not satisfied with anything. But if we don't say anything and just accept it, we're called conformists." But these people who say they're fans are so selfish and hypocritical that it's actually funny, because it seems like they're only good when they meet their personal desires, like "screw it, what's good for the franchise or what the majority wants?" want, the only thing that matters is what I want" and if you make any criticism or question or even share your opinion or even if you make a simple joke you are attacked, suffer threats and those who are supposed to be a good example seem to encourage this and sometimes even participate like a bunch of immature children (like Daniel Barnes who seems to waste more time in fights on the Internet than working to make a good product) and when they are criticized or questioned they become protective of each other as if they were saints who never make mistakes and should never be criticized or questioned, besides that one of their worst flaws is that they seem to prefer to care more about likes, retweets and having their name inoculated for any shit except because they did a truly great job, now I want to know: how does Sega not see this?! There is this shit and bigger shit happening involving the IDW staff (which I won't comment on at first but if you know or research you will see that the hole is much deeper and there is much more shit than what appears in the video) and they do nothing about it?! Are they living with this or will it take mass complaints for them to take a action? I even saw someone questioning this too because the situation with Archie was shit but this one seems to be going on the same level or even worse.

Very cute tumbmail

Amy and sonic have really good writing in Sonic Chronicles on Ds

Thank You

I 1,000,000% agree with your position and ideologies of Amy's original character direction. Amy is sweet and adventurous and chases the freedom and fun that Sonic embodies, and that's why she loves him. Why can't that continue? i never saw Sonic and Amy as having a "toxic relationship". I see them as friends who could become an actual couple at the end of the road, after the adventures come to an end and it's time to start a new journey together. Don't remove Amy's femineity!

This is divisive.

Let's face it; this isn't about Bridget. It never was. It was about controlling men more and more. The innate misandry in society is reaching dystopian levels. There's also some extremely deep homophobia from this entire debacle but see, they'll desperately, violently try to hide that concept since transphobia's just so much more of a buzz word now than a homophobia used to be. Time to accept the reality that is upon us; homosexuals are out, transexuals are in. They're the 'current thing'. Just like homosexuals....They too will eventually be replaced.

I don't understand you all. This nonsense about femininity is crazy. Amy is indeed very feminine, she won't stop being feminine because she's strong and she was never meant to be considered normal. Using an image from a game of a bald woman or talking about lesbians or gays to support your argument is ridiculous. and a specific detail in the video is wrong, Sonic is heroic, but in a very different way. Current Amy is not a "girl boss" she just exists. She's not the typical girl boss stereotyp she's just boring and generic like every IDW character and the dials are the main horrible thing.

46:51 Is that the same Arin from Game Grumps? What happened to him? Did he have a mental breakdown about games he hates or something?

49:56 whats wrong with it tho

Shadow sonic best friends

Sonic not gay shadow not gay

I revisit this channel to watch this specific video once again for the 7th time to remind myself why I love sonamy since I was a young teen. Thank you Dimitri 🙏

Bro, you said everything in my heart... It's really the same way I see Amy and Sonic.. I can now relax with the idea of them being canonically in love and having some romantic moments in the future (confirmed) is something cool, and many would love, accept, and approve.. Thank you from a Sonic fan and Sonamy lover 💙🩷

I just hope Movie 4 can give Sonic and Amy a dynamic where they play off each other, understanding each other references, etc

I can admit I wasn't a fan of Amy when I first saw her. My first exposures to the Sonic Series was Sonic X, AOSTH, Sonic Rush, and Sonic SATam. So, I was admittedly annoyed by Amy when I would see her in Sonic X when compared to seeing Sally in Sonic SATam. But as I grew older, and started playing more games, reading more comics, and watching more shows, I started to miss that Amy. Now, she doesn't feel like anything anymore. I still like Sally, but she isn't part of the Mainline series. Amy is. When I first started to read the IDW comics, I found a lot of problems in how Sonic was portrayed, but shrugged it off because everyone else seemed to like it. But when it came to the shipping, I immediately knew people would go for Tangle and Whisper. While I see why people would put them together, these two always had a sisterly feel to me personally as someone that has grown up around mostly women (Sorry to those that actually like this ship). All in all, I feel like Ian isn't really doing much when it comes to the characters of the Sonic series, just shoving in a reference or two just to keep a fan satisfied. And the sad thing is that it worked on me for a little bit. This video helped me revisit those previous feelings, so thanks

Those people are the reason why gatekeeping is coming back on trend

Dimitri Monroe are you....an artist? Because that comment about "Don't even know to draw amy" so are you an artist

This argument just reinforces the need for media literacy. I think people who enjoy anime need to understand that they are allowed to enjoy it, but the problematic aspects of it can still be viewed as an issue, I think the real problem is that it feels uncomfortable to confront these and recognise the issues in art, but all art is created by a person who in themself is a product of their environment. Japan is a different culture, and it isn't fair to (in bad faith) compare bad aspects of another culture to the accepted aspects of your culture, but in that same sentiment, is it really "ruining" to adapt a piece of media to the sensibilities of another culture. Also, if the conversation is in good faith, it doesn't make someone a "soyboy" to point out objective flaws in media. I personally believe that the localised version of media should really only be done for the dubbed version of media, because it genuinely feels disingenuine to blatantly mistranslate the words over original audio. For this reason, it would be sensible to have a way to have a faithfully translated and unaltered version of the authors work, so that the story, characters and ideas can enter freely into the global marketplace of ideas, and so the author isn't silenced, because free speech is definitely a human right. If you're a big fan of Miyazaki (which the majority of anime fans are) he famously has talked on the topic of issues in the anime industry, but it isn't as simple as "anime was a mistake." Miyazaki himself isn't without criticism as well, approach life with more nuance, don't just jump to absolutes,a nd always remeber that your own culture isn't the only culture. If you want more on the topic i highly would recommend this video by "Moon Channel" kzbin.info/www/bejne/f36Vh3yBm8aMZrssi=Ky3K6OrEvGYjEsA6 but also diversify your sources, research, form your own opinion and don't fall into the trap of bad faith arguments, the internet loves to funnel its users a toxic echo chamber.

24:07 People also keep forgetting that they are literally kids. If they were adults, they would definitely have a pretty healthy relationship. Cause they already do tbh

Bring back my backboned, based, genki-girl Sonic simp 😭

8:18 100%, They need to commit to a good long term story and tell it in the right order. I loved Shadow Gens but honesty I'm a bit annoyed they won't tell stories worth telling and won't just tell it in an order people can follow... plus the retcons they made towards Amy in Sonic Gens were a bit strange since Gens isnt even canon(Blaze can't exist since she dies in 06, and Silver is in the far future...). Making Amy less of a Sonic fanatic would be cool, but they don’t do it in a cool way... Ya it's a mess

6:05 idk... literally all of Amy's personality was being obsessively in love with Sonic. Exploring how she has to come to terms with him 100% not interested would have been more interesting for HER CHARACTER than ignoring who she was to force her into a more rational individual. Or you could have said "we don't like Amy's personality(cuz I sure don't either) so we wanted to reboot her into the Sonic Boom TV show Amy(someone everyone loves) going forward!" Currently I'm not a fan of OG Amy nor the modern current Amy in 2025. Sonic Boom TV show Amy was perfection imo. She was smart, cool character design, still loved Sonic but in a more normal way, and just nice to listen to. On 1 hand, I'd love it if Amy just got rebooted to Boom Amy, but on the other hand I think it would suit the series better if she logically evolved from her obsessively Yandere self into someone else... I don't want this strong female sh*t that they're forcing onto her that makes no sense for her. It feels like an agenda cuz they won't even admit old Amy was annoying. They're acting like she always had so much love to share and isn't annoying....

Well, I don't I need to dig around for evidence and explanations anymore because this video sums it up beautifully and neutrally. This video will be my main argument for my friends from here on out until everything goes back to normal. We are nostalgic for a reason. Don't forget that fact of life.

Personally, I do think we have to accept that sonic will be moving towards having fans in charge for the most part. Rather than say the wrong person is doing it, I think we should be using the fact that they're involved in the fandom to hopefully get them to listen and improve the issues we're seeing with these characters. Big issue with that is, as you say, the highly toxic fandom. I do think we need to allow differences from what the older games established about some characters moving forward in part, but we absolutely should not completely lose what made those characters good. Like, I disagree that Amy's character should stay the same as there were issues in my eyes, but I agree that she shouldn't stop loving sonic or lose her femininity. I think she should grow past the slightly obsessive feeling writing she used to have, just not lose it entirely. I could be talking bullshit though ngl

great work on this video, also keep doing what your doing. And if you get hate don't listen to them, people use emotion instead of common sense. God bless.

I'm not sure of this tone of this video on this subject, but I wanted to perhaps start a dialogue here. Having headcanons is OK. Even if you write professionally, you can have your ships, projections of your own experiences, etc. However, when you write professionally, there are standards that you must follow, for the sake of consistency. Something that's hard about the modern media landscape is that we often see creators as both their professional selves *and* their fandom sides (even for those who don't take a leadership role in fandom and, say, just have Tumblrs from before their careers). How can we allow people to have both these aspects? My first idea is some kind of tone tagging system, but I know that tone tags aren't widespread in usage (and in multi-language communities, like the Sonic community, I wonder about accessibility of that information). I'd love to hear some other ideas!