SRB2's Strong Cute Characters and that one Tails Pose (AFD 2016)

So I wanted to start off by saying, I think the development team has done a pretty great job with the cast of characters in SRB2. They are diverse, interesting, and compelling. From Sonic to Knuckles the cast reflects a large spectrum of personalities and player fantasies.

With that being said, lets talk about Tails. From a marketing standpoint, he's the star of the show for beginners. He's a great hero. When we look at the way he's portrayed in promotional media, lore, and art in game we know a few things about him..

He's Well-paced.
He's Cute.
He's Useful.
He's a good Friend.
His body seems to be comprised of about 95% fluff.

Almost all of his art reflects this. He's got cool skins:

His poses synergize with shields:



All of this art reinforces the great character you've built around Tails.

Then out of seemingly no where we have this pose:


WHAT? What about this pose has anything to do with the character you're building in Tails? It's not fun, its not silly, it has nothing to do with being a slow item collecter. It just reduces Tails to another bland edgy "bored" fancharacter.

We aren't looking at a Shadow pose here, this isn't a character who is in part defined by flaunting his disinterest. This pose says to the player base, oh we've got all these cool diverse characters, but at any moment we are willing to reduce them to "relatable" fancharacters to help boost our investment game.

Getting art into a triple A fangame isn't a small task, it has to go through an implementer, a team lead, an art director, and a creative director. This is a team effort. And I believe the team is responsible for upholding the great example for SRB2 can set to the rest of the industry for creating strong cute characters.

I have a young sister that everyday when I wake up wants to watch the 2.0 trailer again. She knows who Tails is, and as she grows up, she can grow up alongside these characters.

What I'm asking is that as you continue to add to the SRB2 cast and investment elements, you double down on your commitment to create strong cute characters. You've been doing a good job so far, but shipping with a Tails pose like this undermines so much of the good you've already done.

I halfheartedly agree, however leaning towards disagreeing with this sentiment. However, can you so candidly toss aside the beauty of Tails's yawn animation? I think you need to re-evaluate the manner in which you define the personality of Tails however, as yawning is cute and makes Tails cute. This amount of cute is admittedly undermined by Tails attempting to cover his face however in a failed attempt to hide his mouth and appear edgy. However, the work that toaster has done is insurmountable. I wish it to be all working well together however as my grammar syntax begins to fail from a lack of consciousness however I must prevent Tails from falling into the wrong hands. These hands are everywhere, and they are numerous. They are the hands of the government censors that oppress us all. The hands of The Master, our lord and saviour Manos.

I'll be honest: I wasn't certain about that yawn. It definitely weakens Tails' character. To make it up to you, I'd like to share with the world the current version of his character select image.



As you can see, this pose exudes confidence. No character is as pure of heart or focused in conviction amongst the official ones - the current Sonic just stands there, letting life slip through his fingers as he fails to do anything interesting, whilst the fucking one tries to do something edgy and suffers for it. Same with the chuckling one, who crosses his arms as if to imply that he - a rasta stereotype - is better than you. How dare he not know his station? No, this small child shows his true power here. Good ol' smiley Miles 'Tails' Prower, master of the universe. Hopefully, this show of generosity and goodwill has allayed your fears such that my caretaking of child has him in good hands.