sonicgarden/content/characterisation/amy.md

The Great Amy Rose Debate

Amy is a character that have receved a lot of criticism, and that also have a lot of people that also love her. I remember during the Adventure era where she was called as a "stalker" and stuff (I won't use the more ableist ans sexists attack that she received). So there is often the question : is Amy a "bad character" ?

There is a distinction to make between "bad character" with "badly written", for me.

Amy's base are kinda solid (even if she fall a bit too much in kinda cliché tropes, but eh it's also part of Sonic's fun to be full of clichés), the issue is that she have been flanderized (then "counter-flanderized") too much, reducing her at some of traits (Battle, Riders and 2006 being the biggest offender, she wasn't too bad in Heroes, even if Heroes' writing isn't perfect), and they they tried to much to remove quirk (even if she finally had some lines/jokes in Forces, and a really nice arc in IDW to be frank).

So I'll developpe all this, and talk about the "Amy hate".

My beef with Amy between 2003 and the early 2010s

I like Amy, and that's why I think some of her moment where really bad, and have been written have suffered a lot from making her a "joke character". Her characterisation have been pretty bad/inconsistent since Heroes, where several issues made more visible the flaws in writing, and where on level that irked a lot of fans.

• In Heroes, she can seems dismissive of other, and it was the beggining of "you'll marry me Sonic", which was less present in SA/SA2. It's IMO the least annoying one of that era, especially as everybody is a bit more cartoony in this game, so it makes sense. But it was for many people the beggining of how they're introduced to the character (Sonic Heroes was a game a lot of people picked after Sonic X).

• In Battle, the "boxercize" thing and how it's shown to make Cream pretty uncomfortable and even afraid. Also, that most of her story is just a joke about how because of Tails she act like Emerl is her and Sonic's kid. Can be funny for some, but was cringe for many people. And for me… it was bad.

• In Sonic Riders, she is again a tag-along in the story, and just serve as a joke "ah ah she is violent" at the end.

• In Sonic 2006, the infamous line of "between the world and Sonci I choose Sonic", after all the preceding issues, was also something that annoyed a lot of people.

• I won't even begin to talk about Free Riders.

Making her just a "joke" in some games didn't help too (Riders & Battle), and Sonic didn't have enough moment where they got genuine friendship, while he had plenty of moment where he was annoyed with her, or even frightened. I kinda think that the games helped that matter of fact, nearly showed that hating/disliking Amy as "something normal". So I kinda see why it happened, even if I think it wasn't the goal : it was more a "rule of funny" that wasn't found very funny by everybody. I'm not saying that nobody should find those moments funny (there are some that I find pretty funny even, like in the end of Secret Rings), but it resulted in making more and more people dislike Amy and find her "abusive".

IMO that's also a bit of an issue to the storytelling of the game post-SA2 : only the "epic character" where the core of the stories, and the other where a bit left aside. I'm not saying that nobody should like her because of all that, or that she is a bad character. But these issues participated to create a deformed vision of her that was strongly disliked by a part of the fandom.

Something that also makes people feel that "Amy is a bad character" is that some of her "worst moment" tends to generate really strong emotions : I can see the issue in playing for laugh someone attacking someone else they're in love for petty reason, or the character being shown making a child afraid of their exercize that are also battle (especially for people having been beaten up as children, seeing Cream being afraid of Amy insisting for them to fight each-other can be really violent).

So basically, she have been inconsistent, had some moments that where strongly disliked by a lot of fans and in many games, she have been treated as a joke, in the middle or more serious stories.

The opposite direction trap

After that, they fell in the opposite trap : making her too "nice" when she is supposed to be a bit of a brat (like most Sonic character have quirks and aren't perfect). Amy isn't some kind of "angel girl who is always nice and adorable". What have to be done is to balance that with other traits and heroïsm to create nice stories. (In the Adventure for instance, it was her being able to connect with people like Gamma or Shadow, while the most she did to him was to simply annoy him)

During the Boost era, she became less significant, but didn't have some moment like that (she have some horny moment in Forces as her "two Sonic is like a dream" (honestly maybe one of the two jokes of Forces that made me laugh), and her voice in Generations/Lost World is... something, but nothing that annoyed as many people as the implication of Cream being afraid of Amy's boxercize for instance). It's not without issue, as she lacked IMO some direction, some "core concept". Now what is the best between the two, I'll leave that to personal tastes. In Boom, there was the issue of inconsistency, with Amy being pretty different in all incarnation of Boom depending of who wrote her.

It's better now

That's why a lot of people during Archie post-reboot and IDW think that Ian fixed Amy (I personally prefer a bit Evan's Amy, which I feel is way more fun) : he mixed some of the elements and gave her more "shining moments" (which I think is even more important than the actual characterisation). Now we have other character respecting her, her moments with Sonic are less cringy as he react better, she don't have moments where they entirely botch her character like before, no joke about how she is "delusionnal", and she got one big story arc using her character to give an interesting life lesson ("helping people is good, but you can't be everything they need").

I feel that the last part is also pretty important : she isn't only "relevant" to the plot, she is also a big part of the plots' messages. I feel that the games have still a way to go, as in Frontiers she didn't have big moment that highlighted what she wanted for herself. But the overall franchise is taking a big step toward better depiction of Amy.

To make an excellent Amy, you have to balance her quirks ("chasing Sonic", angryness, etc) with "cool" sides and stories. I feel that the best writer of Amy is Evan Stanley (which makes most of the character really funny, I really like how quirky they are). And avoid falling into the pitfalls or making us feel that the character is cruel or acting bad toward other character we care about when they're not supposed too.

Does the character deserve all the hate ?

Well, I think that the previous section make understandable that my answer to that is "no". I also think that there are also some instances of her characterisation that get too much criticism.

If some moments like how Amy act toward Cream in Battle are really bad for instance, some other are overhated : Amy annoying Sonic in SA2 during the jail, Amy in Sonic Heroes annoying Sonic. Character annoying other character is nice. People aren't perfect in real life, and shouldn't in story. We shouldn't conflate "this character can be annoying" with "this character in unlikable". It's an issue that happens a lot in fandom. On that point, I think that the fandom over-react and want too much characters to be "perfect", and forget that Amy is a bit bratty sure... but every Sonic character have their moments like that.

Now, being deeply unconfortable with the moments when she threaten other character is more understandable. Especially for people that have suffered from abuse or bullying. I especially think about her interactions with Cream in Sonic Battle. In this kind of case, I totally can understand why on those case, people will strongly dislike the character.

There also some questions of sexism (both on some people that simply dislike female character, and on some fans of Amy that "transform" her to suit their vision of a "perfect girl"). A lot of people disliked Amy because she was a too "girly" character, and didn't fit in their vision of Sonic. Cream suffered a bit of the same kind of hate at the beggining.