HOME | DD

Pink Menaces — Description

I'm gonna formally resign from the Sonic fandom by saying something no one on either side is going to like: I hate the fact that they got rid of Amy's crush on Sonic... but I also kind of understand why they did it.
Younger me had a respect for Amy because she introduced me to the whole girl-with-a-crazy-crush archetype. You know the one - not quite a yandere (a quasi-yandere, maybe) but not altogether sane either. They cropped up a lot in cartoons from the 2000s. And they were all pink, for some reason.
I always thought these characters were cute as the dickens. I'm a generally unromantic person and I don't go for shipping, but I found the dynamic sweet and funny. It was a change of pace from the whole "loser guy tries to impress a girl who's out of his league" schtick, without the saccharine sappiness of a lovey-dovey couple. It's not lost on me how this is quite a man-centric way of looking at things.
I think what saves them for me is the fact they're heroes. They're not like one-off villains you side with the protagonist against. You can empathize with their crush and you can empathize with the protagonist's lack-of-crush. It's not a battle either of them need to win, it's just their dynamic as friends, or at least good-natured rivals.
Yeah, yeah, "this kind of relationship is bad in real life" - if you do it in real life, it's 'cause you're a damn fool. But these is cartoons here; they're not known for their realistic relationships. As long as you stay true where it counts, you can get away with a lot. And yeah, yeah, "it wouldn't be so funny if the genders were reversed" - that's only because men are by default ugly meatheads. You find me a man in real life who can match the aura of an adorable rabbit-cat-bear hybrid and then we'll talk.
But you're right - it's easy to get this wrong. The character's crush shouldn't be their whole personality, it should arise from their personality. They should be every bit as quirky even without the crush. But Flanderization is like death for cartoon characters - eventually it comes for us all. It certainly came for Amy, who got something of a stigma for being a crazy obsessed stalker. For what it's worth, I can buy Amy thwacking people with hammers if it's to protect Sonic... they just forgot the "to protect Sonic" part.
In fairness to Sega, dropping that aspect of Amy's personality was probably the only "right" decision they could make. All people see of her is this hysterical woman whose whole character revolves around a man, and if that's the main female character you have... it's not exactly flattering to women, right? So I get toning it down, but... I don't like Amy being toned down along with it, y'know? I don't like her losing what makes her weird. Weird is good. I know Sonic the Hedgehog isn't a "cartoon" cartoon, but its characters could stand being weirder.
Is this too pink? I used a pink overlay to cover up the fact I can't do clouds.