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Description
Oh Sally, I don’t think there is a character that has been as controversial in their own fandom for as long as you. Since her inception in the early 90s, she has been both loved and hated by Sonic fans. And now that Ian Flynn, the head writer of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, in which she is a star of, is giving her a redesign, her status as base breaker has just received more fuel. However, when you look read the hate she gets, a lot of her hate seems trivial. “Ugh! She’s naked”, “she's a bitch”, “she’s ugly”, “she’s a slut” (Really, guys?). While most of her complaints are immature and seem to lack any basis, I have to ask, does it come only from immaturity? I would say yes, but after watching all of SATAM and reading most of the Archie comics, I have to say, while nothing about her was hateful, I always had this off-putting feeling about her whenever she was in focus, but I could never put my finger o. While her most common complaints are juvenile, I think the people are noticing this problem with her but choose to pick on her appearance or other tangible details. However, after analyzing her character for over a year, I think I might have discovered why Sally acorn get so much hate. However, before we go into that, let’s take a look at her character.

Princess Sally Acorn has been a part of the Sonic Franchise since her inception in Sonic the Hedgehog series, also called SatAm in 1992. In her youth, she was trained in martial arts, technology and in strategy to be a great princess and leader. After Robotnik took over her land and banished her father to the Void, she became the leader of the Freedom fighters to defeat Robotnik. As leader, she is the most mature and calm of the cast, placing her into the voice of reason or only sane man position. Personally, she is said to put a huge amount of pressure on herself to make the best decision whenever possible. She is shown to have talents in strategizing, martial arts, and being well versed in technology, 3rd most behind Tails and Rotor. Over the course of the story she has had several love interests and romances, such as, Geoffery St. John, Antoine D'Coolette, Monkey Khan, Knuckles the Echidna (yep…), and the Blue Blur himself. She is shown to be on good terms with the rest of the freedom fighters, but can only be emotionally open and vulnerable with Sonic, sometime being immature and selfish around him. Because of all these traits and not being a damsel, she has been nicknamed the Tomboy Princess.

So, after that you see why she is hated, right? Yeah, I need to clarify, huh? Ok, in order to explain why this profile leads to her being hated, I need to expound on and somewhat refute the most “mature” complaint that is launched at Sally; her being a mary sue. Now I don’t like this term in the first place, because due to overuse and lack of consistent context, the term barely has a definition anymore. Hell, even tvtropes, who has the best definition, rambles on about what the term means. However, to sum up their definition, a Mary Sue is a character who is breaks the audiences’ suspension of disbelief that they can exist in the narrative’s universe, usually by being treated differently than their other cast members. Does the term apply to Sally Acorn? Well, mostly no. Why? Well, one of the main complaints of Mary sues is that the story will revolve around them and make it seem that they are the most important in the universe for shallow reasons. While Sally also gets this complaint, she actually has the reverse problem. She’s whatever the story needs.

Most conventional stories usually try to have characters, events and moral woven into the growing narrative. However many writers usually tend to focus on one over other elements, as Ian Flynn and many of the writers over Sally, tend to be more event focused. Now this isn’t a bad thing in general, but Sally problem arises with how the events are written. In both Satam and Archie, the writers will create a certain event, shenanigans will occur and Sally will come in and either solve it or come up with the perfect strategy to solve it, usually without hassle, such as the fight between Elias and Amadeus. While in general, this is lazy writing as having one character come in to solve the conflict, this technique causes 2 problems for sally’s character profile.

First, she is rarely challenged as a character. Usually setting up a character to have conflicts that match their weakness usually helps them grow as characters and have them be more accessible to the viewer, like Sonic having to deal with water to save others or Knuckles dealing with his naïvety. Sally however is never challenged her on weaknesses event though she is supposed to have weaknesses. So this means she is a Mary sue? No. Why? Usually, stories with Mary sue have the plot show how the character is the greatest thing ever. Sally, however, actually is there to make the story look good. When she solves a conflict, it’s not because she is the chosen one or because of her unique talents, it’s because the story needs someone to resolve the problem (quickly) and the writers have Sally do it. In Satam, need someone to program a building to explode? Let’s not have Rotor, the designated tech expert, do it, just let Sally take care of it. In Archie, need someone to talk to a bird? Oh, Sally can talk to birds fluently, even though, all of them are talking animals. Elias and Amadeus are about to fight to the death? Sally can come in, use mean look and have them drinking tea with no consequences. This is why her abilities list is so strange, in comparison to Sonic, Tails or even Amy. Her abilities are what the story requires to complete.

Speaking of her abilities, let’s move into her second problem. Since her character is defined by what the story’s needs, this leads her into being well… boring. To prove this let’s take a look at her ability list from Sonic Wikia, which has the longer one I might add. Sally has the abilities of: Hacking, acrobatic skills, diplomatic experience, leadership skills, martial arts skillszzz, zzszkilled strategiszzzzzz…, swimmmmingssszzzzzz…. WHAt?! What happened? I didn’t fall asleep… My point is, in a world where a girl can fly by using her ears, this list is underwhelming. But this is just the tip of this iceberg. Her personality shows this off a lot more.

A character’s personality is regularly defined by what characteristics and behaviors they display, but can also be helped by actions they take outside of what the plot needs to complete. Rouge, for example, is greed and manipulative. Outside of Shadow, she shows no loyalty to anyone and will betray anyone to achieve her goal, which is usually getting a jewel. While this seems like a horrible person, this is a clear personality. Since, Sally is written to be only to be the voice of reason, the writers end up trapping into this category without any room to be wrong and even quirky, leaving her coming off emotionless a lot of the time. This is also why her relationship list is longer than the other characters, the writers can only get an emotion out of her when she bouncing off of another character, namely Sonic. However, this still would not be a good argument for her being a Mary sue. While many Mary sues tend to be the only sane man, they are usually shown to be more emotional and more interesting than their other cast members. Sally is just the voice of reason, she has no personality quirks or traits that make her stand out from her cast. Even if you think her character is more intricate than this, there is a bigger problem.

So if I have been spending so much time disproving that Sally is not a mary sue, why did I bring it up in the first place? Remember the main reason characters are marked as mary sues is because they are written vastly different in comparison to the rest of the cast, usually by their character profile or how they contribute to the story. Have you notice I have been comparing Sally only to Sonic characters? Sally’s biggest problem is her character being written is vastly different in terms of the rest of the cast. While it is true that characters in a story should be different from one another, they should not differ on the fundamentals of their profiles. All of the characters from the games are 2-Dimensional archetypes that have easy to read personalities, generic abilities that usually tie into their characters, and cartoony or cliché weaknesses. Even if you want to argue Sally has a personality, abilities, weaknesses, they are not written or executed in the same manner as the others. Are these characters perfectly written? No, all of these characters could use more pathos and depth to their characters. But Sally is actually worst as she doesn’t have these traits or she does and they are poorly used.

“But you’re comparing her to SEGA characters. You should compare her to Archie characters!”

Here’s the thing, I was originally going to compare her to other Archie Characters, except I ran into a problem. Most of them fall into this category. While some of them can be like the Sega cast, Mina and Nicole, (although, the later is a bit too Over Powered), the rest either are woefully underdeveloped, (Bunnie, Rotor to name a few) or they are written just as generically as her (Monkey Khan, Geoffery St John). While some of the cast also is written like this, it does not excuse Sally, because John and Monkey Khan are side characters who brought in when the story needs them while Sally is a leading character who is usually is interacting with archetypal characters.

Having a character be so different from the rest of the cast they interact with without being justified is a problem as it brings up the question of “why is this character so different” in the back of the audience’s mind and there is no real answer. She might have weaknesses, but they are not criticized or challenged like the SEGA cast. She might have she might have abilities but they are not as active or tied in with her character like the others. She could even be considered to have a personality, but it’s not archetypal or displayed in the same way as the others. She not too perfect to exist, she too empty to exist.

Before Sally fans start insulting me in the comments, I would like to say I am not the only person who has noticed this, Ian Flynn did as well. The whole point of Sally, and the rest of the Satam cast, getting redesigned is to make them more consistent with Sega cast and to calm down the hate she gets. While her design is different from the Sega cast, this won’t solve anything because it doesn’t have anything to do with her character. While people complain about her design, if that was the actual problem, her hate would not have lasted for 20 years. Just because they complain about something, doesn’t mean that is what bothers them. In this case it is because they probably didn’t know how to voice their opinions about her as we tend to encourage analysis and critique of movies and stories, not characters.

Now am I trying to defend the slut shamming? No, slut shamming or name calling is any way is immature, and is not tolerable in any setting. But am I trolling Sally fans? No. I am saying this because I want these problems to be fixed with her character. She needs to be a consistent level with the rest of the cast and she needs to be able to have a character that can exist without plot requirement, ergo make her interesting on her. Because going around saying that she is perfectly written is not helping anyone, including Sally.

However I don’t think these are going to be fixed. Why? Next time. Archie Sonic series analysis.

See you next time.

Description
Oh Sally, I don’t think there is a character that has been as controversial in their own fandom for as long as you. Since her inception in the early 90s, she has been both loved and hated by Sonic fans. And now that Ian Flynn, the head writer of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, in which she is a star of, is giving her a redesign, her status as base breaker has just received more fuel. However, when you look read the hate she gets, a lot of her hate seems trivial. “Ugh! She’s naked”, “she's a bitch”, “she’s ugly”, “she’s a slut” (Really, guys?). While most of her complaints are immature and seem to lack any basis, I have to ask, does it come only from immaturity? I would say yes, but after watching all of SATAM and reading most of the Archie comics, I have to say, while nothing about her was hateful, I always had this off-putting feeling about her whenever she was in focus, but I could never put my finger o. While her most common complaints are juvenile, I think the people are noticing this problem with her but choose to pick on her appearance or other tangible details. However, after analyzing her character for over a year, I think I might have discovered why Sally acorn get so much hate. However, before we go into that, let’s take a look at her character.

Princess Sally Acorn has been a part of the Sonic Franchise since her inception in Sonic the Hedgehog series, also called SatAm in 1992. In her youth, she was trained in martial arts, technology and in strategy to be a great princess and leader. After Robotnik took over her land and banished her father to the Void, she became the leader of the Freedom fighters to defeat Robotnik. As leader, she is the most mature and calm of the cast, placing her into the voice of reason or only sane man position. Personally, she is said to put a huge amount of pressure on herself to make the best decision whenever possible. She is shown to have talents in strategizing, martial arts, and being well versed in technology, 3rd most behind Tails and Rotor. Over the course of the story she has had several love interests and romances, such as, Geoffery St. John, Antoine D'Coolette, Monkey Khan, Knuckles the Echidna (yep…), and the Blue Blur himself. She is shown to be on good terms with the rest of the freedom fighters, but can only be emotionally open and vulnerable with Sonic, sometime being immature and selfish around him. Because of all these traits and not being a damsel, she has been nicknamed the Tomboy Princess.

So, after that you see why she is hated, right? Yeah, I need to clarify, huh? Ok, in order to explain why this profile leads to her being hated, I need to expound on and somewhat refute the most “mature” complaint that is launched at Sally; her being a mary sue. Now I don’t like this term in the first place, because due to overuse and lack of consistent context, the term barely has a definition anymore. Hell, even tvtropes, who has the best definition, rambles on about what the term means. However, to sum up their definition, a Mary Sue is a character who is breaks the audiences’ suspension of disbelief that they can exist in the narrative’s universe, usually by being treated differently than their other cast members. Does the term apply to Sally Acorn? Well, mostly no. Why? Well, one of the main complaints of Mary sues is that the story will revolve around them and make it seem that they are the most important in the universe for shallow reasons. While Sally also gets this complaint, she actually has the reverse problem. She’s whatever the story needs.

Most conventional stories usually try to have characters, events and moral woven into the growing narrative. However many writers usually tend to focus on one over other elements, as Ian Flynn and many of the writers over Sally, tend to be more event focused. Now this isn’t a bad thing in general, but Sally problem arises with how the events are written. In both Satam and Archie, the writers will create a certain event, shenanigans will occur and Sally will come in and either solve it or come up with the perfect strategy to solve it, usually without hassle, such as the fight between Elias and Amadeus. While in general, this is lazy writing as having one character come in to solve the conflict, this technique causes 2 problems for sally’s character profile.

First, she is rarely challenged as a character. Usually setting up a character to have conflicts that match their weakness usually helps them grow as characters and have them be more accessible to the viewer, like Sonic having to deal with water to save others or Knuckles dealing with his naïvety. Sally however is never challenged her on weaknesses event though she is supposed to have weaknesses. So this means she is a Mary sue? No. Why? Usually, stories with Mary sue have the plot show how the character is the greatest thing ever. Sally, however, actually is there to make the story look good. When she solves a conflict, it’s not because she is the chosen one or because of her unique talents, it’s because the story needs someone to resolve the problem (quickly) and the writers have Sally do it. In Satam, need someone to program a building to explode? Let’s not have Rotor, the designated tech expert, do it, just let Sally take care of it. In Archie, need someone to talk to a bird? Oh, Sally can talk to birds fluently, even though, all of them are talking animals. Elias and Amadeus are about to fight to the death? Sally can come in, use mean look and have them drinking tea with no consequences. This is why her abilities list is so strange, in comparison to Sonic, Tails or even Amy. Her abilities are what the story requires to complete.

Speaking of her abilities, let’s move into her second problem. Since her character is defined by what the story’s needs, this leads her into being well… boring. To prove this let’s take a look at her ability list from Sonic Wikia, which has the longer one I might add. Sally has the abilities of: Hacking, acrobatic skills, diplomatic experience, leadership skills, martial arts skillszzz, zzszkilled strategiszzzzzz…, swimmmmingssszzzzzz…. WHAt?! What happened? I didn’t fall asleep… My point is, in a world where a girl can fly by using her ears, this list is underwhelming. But this is just the tip of this iceberg. Her personality shows this off a lot more.

A character’s personality is regularly defined by what characteristics and behaviors they display, but can also be helped by actions they take outside of what the plot needs to complete. Rouge, for example, is greed and manipulative. Outside of Shadow, she shows no loyalty to anyone and will betray anyone to achieve her goal, which is usually getting a jewel. While this seems like a horrible person, this is a clear personality. Since, Sally is written to be only to be the voice of reason, the writers end up trapping into this category without any room to be wrong and even quirky, leaving her coming off emotionless a lot of the time. This is also why her relationship list is longer than the other characters, the writers can only get an emotion out of her when she bouncing off of another character, namely Sonic. However, this still would not be a good argument for her being a Mary sue. While many Mary sues tend to be the only sane man, they are usually shown to be more emotional and more interesting than their other cast members. Sally is just the voice of reason, she has no personality quirks or traits that make her stand out from her cast. Even if you think her character is more intricate than this, there is a bigger problem.

So if I have been spending so much time disproving that Sally is not a mary sue, why did I bring it up in the first place? Remember the main reason characters are marked as mary sues is because they are written vastly different in comparison to the rest of the cast, usually by their character profile or how they contribute to the story. Have you notice I have been comparing Sally only to Sonic characters? Sally’s biggest problem is her character being written is vastly different in terms of the rest of the cast. While it is true that characters in a story should be different from one another, they should not differ on the fundamentals of their profiles. All of the characters from the games are 2-Dimensional archetypes that have easy to read personalities, generic abilities that usually tie into their characters, and cartoony or cliché weaknesses. Even if you want to argue Sally has a personality, abilities, weaknesses, they are not written or executed in the same manner as the others. Are these characters perfectly written? No, all of these characters could use more pathos and depth to their characters. But Sally is actually worst as she doesn’t have these traits or she does and they are poorly used.

“But you’re comparing her to SEGA characters. You should compare her to Archie characters!”

Here’s the thing, I was originally going to compare her to other Archie Characters, except I ran into a problem. Most of them fall into this category. While some of them can be like the Sega cast, Mina and Nicole, (although, the later is a bit too Over Powered), the rest either are woefully underdeveloped, (Bunnie, Rotor to name a few) or they are written just as generically as her (Monkey Khan, Geoffery St John). While some of the cast also is written like this, it does not excuse Sally, because John and Monkey Khan are side characters who brought in when the story needs them while Sally is a leading character who is usually is interacting with archetypal characters.

Having a character be so different from the rest of the cast they interact with without being justified is a problem as it brings up the question of “why is this character so different” in the back of the audience’s mind and there is no real answer. She might have weaknesses, but they are not criticized or challenged like the SEGA cast. She might have she might have abilities but they are not as active or tied in with her character like the others. She could even be considered to have a personality, but it’s not archetypal or displayed in the same way as the others. She not too perfect to exist, she too empty to exist.

Before Sally fans start insulting me in the comments, I would like to say I am not the only person who has noticed this, Ian Flynn did as well. The whole point of Sally, and the rest of the Satam cast, getting redesigned is to make them more consistent with Sega cast and to calm down the hate she gets. While her design is different from the Sega cast, this won’t solve anything because it doesn’t have anything to do with her character. While people complain about her design, if that was the actual problem, her hate would not have lasted for 20 years. Just because they complain about something, doesn’t mean that is what bothers them. In this case it is because they probably didn’t know how to voice their opinions about her as we tend to encourage analysis and critique of movies and stories, not characters.

Now am I trying to defend the slut shamming? No, slut shamming or name calling is any way is immature, and is not tolerable in any setting. But am I trolling Sally fans? No. I am saying this because I want these problems to be fixed with her character. She needs to be a consistent level with the rest of the cast and she needs to be able to have a character that can exist without plot requirement, ergo make her interesting on her. Because going around saying that she is perfectly written is not helping anyone, including Sally.

However I don’t think these are going to be fixed. Why? Next time. Archie Sonic series analysis.

See you next time.