By Marigold K.
When I say "progressive videogame icon," Sonic the Hedgehog isn't quite the first character that'd pop in your head, is he? I wouldn't blame you - between the loop-de-loops, springs, dark and broody characters that get spin-off titles with guns in them, rings, magical emeralds, buggy videogames, and badniks, it's easy to forget how this impossible-in-every-way-imaginable hedgehog got his start covertly spreading an environmentalist message.
With the Paris climate agreement a mere four days behind us, setting off our first global effort to tackle the issue of climate change, I figure it's time we took a little look back on Sonic (and the franchise as a whole)'s history in both promoting and spreading (secretly, or, as of recently, openly, which we'll get to later in the article) progressive ideas. From the triumphs to the failures, the missteps and their many wonderful and proud moments of success.
It was 1990 when Sega ordered their in-house development studio (AM8) to develop a game and a new mascot for the company. Alex Kidd had been an earlier attempt, though that proved to be a disappointment once everyone realized Alex Kidd had the likability and lasting power in pop culture of... wow, I really can't think of anything as boring and uninteresting as Alex Kidd.
In any case, they wanted a character that would grab people's attention away from rival company Nintendo's mascot Mario, and it was Naoto Ohshima that ultimately came up with the idea of a hedgehog protagonist. Soon after that, they turned to Yuji Naka, who helped make a relatively-fun (your mileage may vary, as with anything Sonic-related) platformer to go along with the character.
Unbeknownst to Sega, however, Yuji Naka had ambitions of adding a layer of environmentalist subtext to what was supposed to simply be Sega's answer to Nintendo's Mario.
Dr Robotnik is a slightly radical representation of all humanity and the impact humanity is having on nature. In 1991, it was a very sensitive subject to talk about the environment and while I had my viewpoint, I did not speak of it. With Sonic, I was given an opportunity to express my views in a different way and did so, showing Robotnik using pollution and creating machinery which desecrates the environment and it is down to Sonic to change his ways. |
Now, bearing in mind that this was released in 1991, this was pretty subtle stuff! Starting off with the untampered landscape of Green Hill Zone, and, from then on with each zone, the world around Sonic becomes more and more industrialized and polluted. The deep blue sky that you see in Green Hill Zone are long gone and missed by the time you make it to Star Light Zone, and the gorgeously green grass that you last saw in Marble Zone with either rock or metal.
This continues on into Sonic the Hedgehog CD (and, to an extent, 2, 3, & Knuckles), with the natural, unsoiled world of the past, the mechanized, dreary future, and the present, middle-ground of the two. Together, they tell a modest little tale of nature and its inhabitants winning out against the manifestation of cruel industrialism in Doctor Robotnik (we'll get back to him later).
I wish I could say that the original games were all just innocent fun and weren't at all sullied by, say, an iffy commercial that unfortunately may have influenced a juvenile resistance to criticism of beloved characters/franchises demonstrated by some video game players, and another example of the tired damsel-in-distress trope being the only time at this point in the franchise we would ever have a female character outside of non-canon material, but, it brings me great displeasure to say - I cannot.
The former could be excused as an admittedly-foolhardy attempt thought-up by some group of out-of-touch Sega employees to appeal to the boys I can assume they thought were going to be the only ones playing the game (ugh), but the latter plays into, at best, a sense of apathy towards woman characters and how they were portrayed (at worst, sexism) that wasn't just an isolated product of its time--but, to an extent, resonated for quite a long while after the Genesis-era had run its course. That's not to say it was all bad - the Sonic franchise actually does sometimes care for the quality of their games' writing, as we saw in the Sonic Adventure titles.
Progress.
Beginning with Sonic Adventure, not focusing on Tikal for now, given the fact that they didn't spend much time fleshing her character out, here in this game we have the first playable character in a main series Sonic game that is a woman, and, on top of that, that honor is Amy Rose's! Yes, that damsel-in-distress I only mentioned not one paragraph ago is now a great example of how you can take a character that was once a little on the regressive side and turn her into a very good and, in the game's finest moments, empowering character in her own right! She has her own mission in her story entirely unrelated to Sonic (though that doesn't stop him from showing up and being uncharacteristically rude to her in some of the game's lesser moments, though that lets up later on near the end), having her learn independence from Sonic (which we see her follow-up on in the sequel) and having her befriending of a robot be the driving force of a major conflict resolution that more than likely saved Sonic's life! All in all, this was a spectacular (arguably flawlessly-executed) turn for Amy's character. One that won't soon be forgotten.
With Sonic Adventure 2, while they did manage to find a new woman character to exist solely for the purpose of furthering other, male characters' development, we not only got to see Amy continue her character arc from the last game into this one (though ultimately her role in the game is, unfortunately, dramatically downgraded from the last game), we also got a whole new woman character by the name of Rouge the Bat. Rouge is a typical example of the femme fatale trope - 'sexy,' formidable, and super competent at what she does. She's very independent, has a penchant for jewelry and butt-kicking, and, while having some possible chemistry with both Knuckles and Shadow, it doesn't define her. This is monumental for the Sonic franchise--they got it right and they got it right away. It's momentous, it's a huge sign of progress, and, thankfully, it's not entirely undone by later games in the series! If the tight game mechanics, large-scale 'deep' (for a children's game) story, and the now-famous Chao Garden weren't enough to earn this game the acclaim it's received from a large portion of Sonic fans, I honestly don't know what could.
Two years later, Sega released a game called Sonic Heroes. This game's not so divisive, as the general consensus on this game within the Sonic fandom is that it wasn't very good. And while I'm one of the few who really likes it, and on the surface it's a testament to how the franchise's diversity has increased as of late - We have three playable woman characters in a game with four teams (two of which being on the same team, making up the majority of the team!), and while the men are still of the majority of playable characters in this game, it's still absolutely worth celebrating how far they had come.
Then they decided Doctor Robotnik (or, Eggman, at this point) was a feminist.
Back when manuals were a thing that existed and they had things in them and maybe even color, Sonic Heroes got a manual. One that described Doctor Eggman (the main villain of the series, bent on world domination) as the following, "Eggman is a romanticist, a feminist, and a self-professed gentlemen." And while on the very next line it mentions his charms, perhaps implying that his being a feminist is one of them (which would be very nice of them), that they wrote this into a main villain who wants to conquer the world raises several red flags! Especially given the sad fact that, all the good that comes from including the characters having been stated, no one else in this game (neither the women, nor the men) makes any effort to be a positive representation of feminism, which means for any kid that read the manual and played the game, "a feminist" was something evil people were. That was deeply irresponsible of them, and, thankfully, they seemed to wise up about it a little after Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was released, as after that game we never heard another word of Eggman being a feminist, and, less thankfully, we don't ever hear of the concept of feminism in the sonic universe ever again (though it could be argued that the people at Sega just aren't equipped to handle the subject so, if they won't make an effort to understand it better or hire someone who does, it's best they stay away from the subject so no further harm is done.)
After Sonic Heroes, anyway, we got some other women in the Sonic universe. Some good, some complicated (it'd take a whole article too unpack Princess Elise the Third's character, an article that I may have to do in the future), nothing irredeemably bad, per se, and... nothing particularly great, either. The Sonic franchise seemed to move away from its roots in environmentalism as the last we saw anything like it, to my knowledge, was the appearance of a recycling bin in Sonic Adventure 2 in City Escape. One would be forgiven for thinking Sega was making an effort to distance this franchise away from politics, in order to avoid alienating fans and losing sales... Then, 2015, on the 26th of June (the day when the SCOTUS ruled in favor of marriage equality) this happened.
There. Right there. That is what a hero looks like.
Today, Sonic the Hedgehog's main claim to fame is his new spin-off/side-reboot series Sonic Boom, with toys, video games (including a now-infamous one on the Wii U), and a charming little cartoon show too. I haven't been able to keep up with it, to be honest (I'll make sure to rectify that one of thse days), but it seems to have good intentions and I'm glad it's around, making Sonic into a character that kids with and without video game-playing devices will be able to see and connect with. I do sincerely hope we get to see more of Sonic and the others tackling social issues, 'cause Sonic wasn't meant to just be a hero for the Sonic world. He's our hero too.