What Would You Do Differently? BOOM Edition

[Mike Arcade]

For far too long it has not been told or seen, the epic that is Sonic Boom on WWYDD...if you can call it that, which it's not.

One of the most polarizing and most recent Sonic Series outside of the games, a series that's more then endorsed by sega so much that it had a comic for a short time, a tv show, toy line, and video games! Which is a lot more then SatAM, and that makes me sad...

However regardless with how we feel about Sonic Boom, we should dive into it and reconstruct it as it doesn't seem to know where it's going, and what better way to see how it could be better with us tackling it! First few questions here to warm us up.

1. Where is the rest of civilization? It seems like Bygone Island is the only place aside from a few scattered and rather bizarre villages to have any amount of civilization around them, where is everyone? What do you think is up with the world, why is it like this, and how would you handle it?

2. So some fans were quite not happy with how Knuckles is portrayed, I can't necessarily blame them but I saw this characterization coming a mile away, I mean it's a logical conclusion for how Knuckles was represented in previous games and shows since after Heroes. So I ask this, how would you make Knuckles funny but not completely stupid and not bound by any guardian duties?

3. If you could add or change one character in Sonic Boom, who would you put in or how would you change them?

[Ishapar]

I haven't watched too much of the show, but I will give it a crack...

1. Maybe Bygone Island is the main setting of the story, so there isn't much of a need to focus outside of Bygone Island.  IN comparison, Satam mostly focused on one main region of Mobius: Robtropolis, Knothole Village, and the surrounding areas.  We know from the show that Mobius is larger than just the Great Forest, but we hardly focus outside of the region because the plot is focusing on Knothole and Robotroplois.  With Boom, the action mostly takes place on Bygone Island, so unless Eggman causes terror in another part of that world, Sonic and his friends are content at staying on Bygone Island.  As the show is mostly just focused on comedy, I don't see a problem with the focus being on Bygone Island: we just need to develop the local inhabitants beside the main cast.

2. I was able to see it a mile away too, but I am not happy with Knuckles' current predicament.  Knuckles was one of my favorite characters, but I can't even recognize and bear him in Boom.  There are ways to make a character funny without giving him 0 i.q. and a shallow personality; the problem with Knuckles is that he is supposed to be a mysterious character that rivals Sonic.  Taking away his guardian duties hurts his character: he should be guarding something otherwise it is not the same Knuckles people loved when he was first introduced.  Knuckles was always supposed to symbolize the mountain: firm and steadfast in his ways.  This counter's Sonic's adventurous lifestyle, and it's the main reason I don't believe Knuckles should be in the main cast of Sonic's friends.  I would remove Knuckles as a main character as his legacy does not fit the role; however, you did ask what we would do to make him funny and not a guardian.  My best bet is to take OVA's take on Knuckles: a lonely treasure hunter that has a friendship with Sonic but still fits as some type of rival with a mysterious background.  With this Knuckles, the way to make him funny would be to make him knowledgeable about various worldwide topics but uncultured and a bit of an outcast to the rest of Bygone Island.  In this manner, Knuckles could easily end up on the loose end of various jokes by the more culturelly sounded Sonic and co.  In like manner, Knuckles can also play the humor back on Sonic with his own knowledge and be creative at his own tricks (similar to how he worked on Sonic 3).  We could get some humor with the rivalry aspect too, but we need to make sure it doesn't come out one way (Knuckles wants to be better than Sonic); both characters need to show their rivalry in subtle ways.

3. Knuckles, obviously, but I have said enough about him.  It would be neat to see the FF make an appearance, but their storyline doesn't flow too well with the comedy of Boom.  I would like to change Tails: I am not fond of him being the mechanic sidekick to Sonic as he wasn't presented that way in his early game appearances.  To me, Tails just comes off as just a mechanic that plays the only sane man part; I'd rather he look up to Sonic and be more of the faithful sidekick/brother he was supposed to be.  I would remove Shadow from the show as he is just there for fandom (even Eggman is lampshading it).  If I was to add a character, I would suggest Fang the Sniper as he could double as another villain besides Eggman and could cause a lot of trouble for Sonic with the inhabitants on Bygone Island.

[Mike Arcade]

Ish I am sorry it took so long to respond to this, apparently Boom Topics aren't that popular here. >_>

To follow up on your answers honestly while SatAM had the same locations at least there was an implied considerable distance between places overall, and you got to experience different cultures and people, whereas you're stuck with the same, unbearable villagers. I mean they do get some limelight in episodes, which just shows them to be ungrateful, idiotic, and overall terrible people. Honestly I'd rather see them at the end of a Roboticizer by the end of Season 1, no kidding. Season 2 isn't really giving me any better an opinion of them either for that matter, no more worse but not better.

I do agree to your views on Knuckles in Boom, although I do think Knuckles can work in a comedic series much like how he was in the OVA as his Guardianship can be rather limiting in certain situations normally. But he shouldn't be the butt of everyone's jokes though, hopefully with Boom that characteristic can finally be done with and we get a better represented Knuckles.

Fang would be an interesting character to have, although T.W. Barker you could argue fills that roll in to an extent I suppose, The FF in Boom however I think deserves a look into for a certain other topic.*hint hint*

All this said, folks humor me here and add questions of your own, on that note I'll ad a new one to breath some life into this one.

How would you handle Shadow and Metal Sonic if you had to have him in Sonic Boom?

[WarTraveller]

54 minutes ago, Mike Arcade said:

How would you handle Shadow and Metal Sonic if you had to have him in Sonic Boom?

Urgh. I'd rather they not be in the show at all. They are literally only there for "da fanservis" and by god does it show. If I HAD to, though...

Shadow: I'd make him like what that infamous "leaked" version was like; a lazy bum in a tacky shirt who has powers but prefers to drink on the beach. Basically a very mild version of that X alien from Ben 10; incredibly powerful and able to stop Eggman by himself...but he needs an impossible amount of coercing to actually do anything. Beyond that, I would also remove the Maria element, or at least change it around. Like, his surfboard is called Maria or something. Also he would have a different range of "Chaos" powers, since Shadow derives his powers from the Chaos Emeralds, which don't exist in the Boomiverse. But he uses them anyway, and they never bother to explain how he can. Plot holes!

Metal Sonic: Make him Mecha Sonic. Like, the Mecha Sonic from Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Better design, better powers, design fits the lankier design of Boom!Sonic better so he actually resembles him and not as over-hyped or overexposed as Metal. I'd also add in a little bit of Heroes into it, so he sort of has a conscious like Neo Metal, but he still can't disobey Eggman (and, what, he commands Mecha to clean his dishes or something) and he is planning for the day he can escape his services. Also he would be wrapped in warning tape or duct tape. Seriously, that was one hell of a missed opportunity.

[WarTraveller]

Decided to help with reviving a few of these topics, seeing as I find them quite interesting. For example, I have this one that really should have been asked earlier. It's fairly safe to say that Sticks isn't a good character. She's popular, no thanks in part to SEGA sticking her in Sonic and Mario at the Who Gives a T*ss Olympic Games (so Sticks is fair game for crossovers, but Sally isn't. Not quite sure I understand that logic), but her character is lacking. All she sort of does is spout gibberish which is apparently supposed to be funny. It isn't, by the way. So with that in mind;

How would you handle the character of Sticks?

[Mike Arcade]

1 hour ago, WarTraveller said:

Decided to help with reviving a few of these topics, seeing as I find them quite interesting. For example, I have this one that really should have been asked earlier. It's fairly safe to say that Sticks isn't a good character. She's popular, no thanks in part to SEGA sticking her in Sonic and Mario at the Who Gives a T*ss Olympic Games (so Sticks is fair game for crossovers, but Sally isn't. Not quite sure I understand that logic), but her character is lacking. All she sort of does is spout gibberish which is apparently supposed to be funny. It isn't, by the way. So with that in mind;

How would you handle the character of Sticks?

Good to see someone else besides me trying to revive topics, you got more to go BTW. XP
Just keep answering them Traveller, we got a lot of new topics for everybody to check out and more on the way I've been making throughout the holidays.  

That's a good question, I mean Sticks has been quite in the forefront since her debut literally screaming her way to the spotlight. However much like every other Boom Incarnation of the cast she only has one key trait, that being a conspiracy theorist and a wild jungle character thinking that everything from aliens to rocks are following or listening to her. Although in a few rare cases she turned out to be actually right, sometimes completely correct! So it makes me wonder if she does have a special ability other then being a bit...eccentric so to speak.

So what I would do at first is tone her down a bit as she is WAY too loud! I would then give her an actual personality rather then being just a conspiracy theorist/poor Tarzan expy, so she would have a major problem with communication and would have to be brought back into society if we are sticking with her living alone in the jungle all her life. She could start off as almost completely Feral, and with her new found friends would help her, possibly Amy most of all when it comes to communication similar to say Disney's Tarzan with Jane teaching Tarzan how to speak English and Read. It would bring for a very interesting character arc as she becomes less feral and more attuned with society, but conflicted with how Technology is used and would hate it to see people pollute the wilderness she recalls as being her home. Now as for her erratic behavior perhaps she could have a passive ability that effects her mental state, an ability she can't really or has struggle controlling. Maybe she's telepathic and can't shut it off, able to communicate with nature, sees eldritch beings not meant to be seen, precognitive visions, something along the lines of that which can expand her arc as a whole.

That's how I would handle Sticks, she's someone that can come up with an unconventional solution to a problem and have an insight none of the characters have. It doesn't mean she wouldn't have some erratic moments but communication and connection with others would be a defying arc she would have to go through, she wouldn't just be a wacky comic relief character but a girl growing up in a world that she was long disconnected from, and that's not even going into detail on where she came from. Sticks does have a lot of potential both for comedy and drama, she could be a person you can root for and wish for the best and perhaps some would see a bit of her in themselves and relate to trying to connect with others, it's just a shame she's just written off as a wacko but sadly we are only given the bare minimum of a character in Boom.

[WarTraveller]

I think that more or less sums up Boom; bare minimum. 

[Wulfsbane]

How would you tie episodes in together (and not passing references)?

[WarTraveller]

2 hours ago, Wulfsbane said:

How would you tie episodes in together (and not passing references)?

I'm not quite sure that can be possible. Mainly because the episodes we already have are designed to be standalone, with no connectors outside of passing references. You'd have to stretch it PRETTY far to connect them.

[WarTraveller]

Boom Shadow is horrible, and I hate him. He's basically Bootleg Vegeta. How would you handle his character if you had to?

[Mike Arcade]

I'm bringing this topic back, and it would be a good time to do so since Season 2 is finished and with a Season 3 probably on the way let's see what else we can do in this topic. But first I'll answer some previous questions.

 

On 1/7/2017 at 9:31 PM, Wulfsbane said:

How would you tie episodes in together (and not passing references)?

They lightly trended along that line in Season 2 more and more, along with multi part episodes! Although personally I'd love to have episodes follow one after the other, like the end of one leads on or hints at the next episode. Like key characters or objects, little things that make you go "Ah so that's what it was gonna go to, okay". Give you that eureka moment.
 

On 11/22/2017 at 4:30 PM, WarTraveller said:

Boom Shadow is horrible, and I hate him. He's basically Bootleg Vegeta. How would you handle his character if you had to?

Man that's a tough question here, I mean for one he doesn't have a character. I'm not even kidding there is no character regarding him, although he is a lot grumpier compared to his Sega counterpart I can say that. But otherwise he's got nothing, I mean for one the biggest thing about Shadow is gone from his Boom Incarnation. Of course that would be his backstory.

Shadow in the games and comics for that matter was defined by his background, created as the Ultimate Life Form for Project Shadow by Gerald Robotnik, you know all that jazz. Thing is he has no context at all, was it like in SA2 where he was woken up from a military base? Well all signs point that to very unlikely as we never see any sort of military anywhere in the known world of Boom. For that matter in the Season 2 Finale he was more than content to let his WHOLE UNIVERSE get ripped apart after being bothered by Eggman one too many times. He nearly destroyed the whole world, well he certainly didn't have a Maria in his life if that's the case. So what IS his backstory? That's the main question I have is how did become who he is, was he ever even a science experiment like his Sega counterpart at all? If not than why is he like this? I mean that's the first thing I'd go for is setting up a backstory.

So how would I handle Shadow? Well for one I'd have it so that Eggman discovers him and open some sort of seal and wakes him up. Just have a whole two part episode about Shadow waking up and fighting the main cast. But leave it so that there are a lot of mysteries about him, does he remember anything before he was sealed away, who is he really? Was he an Ancient from the past? Have that be a recurring mystery in the show, and since Amy is suppose to be an archaeologist of some sorts have her try to find out everything about him. I'd picture Shadow being the only real sane man left in the world, only with anger issues and being surrounded by nutcases like the main characters just aggravates him. Have him in general interact with the cast more, or if he's a minor villain then hey that's interesting too. He's just a Hedgehog that wants to be left alone but none of these kids or Eggman won't let him. Honestly if he were a part of the main cast that could open up a lot of hilarious moments, wonder why they don't do that. Maybe over time he can warm up to them and be on more friendlier terms rather than a grouch, and perhaps his past would somehow finally catch up to him. I'm not saying introducing the Black Arms as that's just too easy, but something different pops up and he wants to deal with it, only that Team Sonic won't let him go out alone.

I would just like for him to be defined and have a backstory that hooks people in, similar to all that hidden lore Gravity Falls had, something along the lines of that.

[WarTraveller]

Back again, got another idea.

If tasked to do so, how would you integrate Perci into the tv show as a member of Team Sonic? Also, how would you handle the Perci/Staci debacle?

[Mike Arcade]

On 2/25/2018 at 12:42 PM, WarTraveller said:

Back again, got another idea.

If tasked to do so, how would you integrate Perci into the tv show as a member of Team Sonic? Also, how would you handle the Perci/Staci debacle?

Ah yes Perci, she's quite an anomaly among Sonic Boom with her concept art from Rise of Lyric being revealed that fans assumed and believed she would have played a big role in the series. You'd think with such a distinct design that she would be but apparently not, then again everyone also thought she was a Hedgehog but turned out to be a Bandicoot. I mean she clearly looks like one with her not-spines after all. XP

For one according to the first game Perci and her family are apparently protectors of the village for years but she gets no respect, sadly we don't see any of that in the show. She has all the makings of a main character yet never is one, it's honestly very puzzling. Considering the one episode she had a spotlight in I can tell you easily on what role she'd have if she was apart of Team Sonic. Perci would be the only sane member of the team, I mean granted Amy was suppose to be that but clearly it didn't work out, and Tails has shades of it though not by too much. I think she'd be the one who gets the group to straighten up during some sillier escapades, she's dependable and responsible. Perci would be the team member that can balance both Amy's neurotic bouts and Sticks...being Sticks. The show really lacks a straight man is all I'm saying, though that's not to say Perci is so above it all herself nor should be. She also has a great aspect of being apart of a line of Protectors, an actual family in a Sonic show? What a novel concept! I mean you clearly see she has a sister who is...not so noble like she is, that could also play in a lot of episodes as well having Perci get Staci out of trouble. I think the reason why fans would want to see more of her is that though they can't say it they know the show is lacking balance, and an extra main character or two could really make things a lot better.

As for handling Staci, well her being more of a gossiping troublemaker seems to be a part of her character so that's a good start. Also obviously a change in appearance needs to be done too, something more valley girl maybe to match her. Don't make her a complete villain but rather someone whose just irresponsible that has a lot of growing up to do.  Heck some of the creators of the show have joked about them being apart of a triplet, maybe that could be joked and hinted about as well.