Re: Sonic and Co

From: Matt Penna <mpenna_at_vivanet.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 23:06:46 -0500

>
> Has anyone ever noticed...Sonic and Co, NEVER seem to age, or Grow.

     Well, I suppose there are a couple of ways to look at this. In most of
the fan-fic which is written by all of the Sonic fans, the storyline is very
serious and plausible. (IMHO, these stories seem to work better.) Because of
this serious tone and parallel to our reality, I assume that, if the stories
went on for a long enough time, the characters would age, grow, and
eventually die. ("Bloodlines" is a good example of this. If there are others
which follow this trend, I apologize to the respective authors, as I haven't
had time to read them yet.) However, in the Archie series, the games, and
the other "official" Sonic fare, no one ever seems to age. Perhaps it's
because the creators and authors adopt the standard cartoon character ideas
and eliminate aging all together. Think about it. Out of all of the cartoon
characters out there, how many have ever aged? Sure, some have had
birthdays, but never on a regualr basis , plus they never change otherwise.
    One example to the contrary would be "For Better or For Worse", the
syndicated comic strip. The characters age just as realistically and
perfectly as their real-life counterparts. On the other hand, Garfield has
birthdays every year but doesn't really change. He technically should have
died a few years back from old age. (He's turning 18 in a few months.) From
Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin always goes on summer vacation, yet always goes
back to First grade with Susie Derkins and Miss Wormwood. (Alas, no longer.)
Many of the other cartoons which have been on the comic pages for decades
haven't changed much at all. (Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible, Etc.)
     Even though i said up above that I prefer the stories with a serious
tone(I am NOT flaming the other authors. Their work is equally enjoyable,
but on a different level. I could only hope to write so well.), I'm not sure
I would want Sonic to age very much. If he grew older, he would gain
maturity at the expense of his natural spunk and cool attitude which define
the character we all love. We all change with time. Maybe the characters'
creators didn't want them to change because they liked them the way they are?

Just my thoughts...

-Matt


Received on Mon Jan 29 1996 - 23:57:59 PST