How and Why - Silver the Hedgehog

[Soniman]

Why does this character exist?

It's honestly been bugging me for the longest time but I can't for the life of my think of any reason for how Silver can be a permanent fixture in the Sonic Universe and not be thrown to the scrap yard like Mighty, Nack (both of whom would have more to offer), and Bean/Bark before him?

His character is from the future, which already makes him a incredibly difficult character to write in non-spinoff stories because he NEEDS a reason to interact with Sonic and the other characters, and before you bring up Knuckles I mean yes you have a point there but I think being in the future is a lot more drastic then being stuck on an island. And speaking of, his goal is to save his future, and once that's done, then what? Well we dont know, after 06 Silver just seems to have no goals of his own, there was the rivals series where he had to save a DIFFERENT future from an Eggman Nega (which is it's own can of worms) so at best he's just Sonic of the future fighting a different Eggman which makes him even more redundant. At least Shadow's character still had somewhere to go after his own past subplot was resolved, he was an agent for G.U.N and learning to work as a team with Rouge and Omega, its something new and diffrent. Silver is just fighting for a future that can perpetually never be fixed.

He also has no major relationships with any of the characters, the exception to that being Blaze which was violently (and thankfully) rendered non-canon and thus he currently has no one and thus little investment because for all his future fighting, you just get the feeling he's the only one in the future. 

Gameplay wise his telekensis was slow and methodical, completely opposite of standard Sonic gameplay. There's not much you could really do with his abilities that would help him meld with the Sonic gameplay one expects, it gives him less reason to even appear, yet he still does pretty consistently.

I just want to know why Silver continues to exist in the games, what is his point? What is there left to do with him? Comics are one thing since character's goals and motivations can change depending on how the story moves along and Silver is an exception (also his future is more of a dystopia then a apocalyptic setting which gives him a lot more room for his character to work with) then a  but in the games where gameplay is prioritized over deep story telling, Silver is left without a niche to fill.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

He exists for the same reason Shadow does, because weather people like it or not, he's popular and he's not as hated as many think he is - or want him to be. I mean if he was so hated, why put him in spin offs and why do so many fans request for him to be in the games? Also his boss fight WAS better in Sonic Generations.

Another thing is that does there NEED to be a reason why a character is still in a series or in a game? Why do we need to prove to you why we want or why a character should be in a series? Ultimately, that is up to SEGA to decide and to be honest, Silver is already retired along with the other character who aren't Sonic, Tails or Eggman.

 

[Salamander]

18 minutes ago, Soniman said:

It's honestly been bugging me for the longest time but I can't for the life of my think of any reason for how Silver can be a permanent fixture in the Sonic Universe and not be thrown to the scrap yard like Mighty, Nack (both of whom would have more to offer), and Bean/Bark before him?

Mighty, Nack, Bean and Bark are all much older characters from a very early period in the franchise's existence, and I recall a TSS article highlighting them as among characters not designed by Sonic Team itself.  Silver, meanwhile, is a much more recent character, objectively far less obscure, given considerable spotlight in his debut game, character design ownership presumably unambiguous.  Sonic Team rarely throws away major characters these days if they can help it; the only one I can think of who hasn't shown up at least in sports spin-offs is Chip, but that probably has more to do with his miniscule size than anything else.  Essentially, therefore, it seems to me that Sonic Team felt they had no reason not to bring Silver out again a few more times after his debut.

[Indigo Rush]

Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic the Fighters, Knuckles Chaotix and SegaSonic Arcade were not high profile games. 

Sonic 2006 was a high profile game. 

This is why.

[Soniman]

7 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

Sonic Triple Trouble, Sonic the Fighters, Knuckles Chaotix and SegaSonic Arcade were not high profile games. 

Sonic 2006 was a high profile game. 

This is why.

I guess it just strikes me as odd, like at least Shadow was popular at some point and had Sonic-like gameplay. Silver is just a character that doesnt leave Sega with many options story/gameplay wise, and its not like his name would be a big draw for people like Shadow would be

[Wraith]

He doesn't really exist in the games aside from spinoffs and Sonic Generations. They don't really use him for anything that matters and I think it's going to stay that way for the reasons you mentioned.

[Nepenthe]

I'm not sure why later characters need a continuous reason or multiple arcs in order to reappear in games where people have simultaneously made it clear that good storytelling doesn't matter in this series, while the earlier characters distinctly don't have this burden. I'm also unsure of why Silver cannot form relationships with other characters, or why his gameplay isn't allowed to change to better suit popular interests but Sonic's is allowed to do so at the drop of a hat. The only thing anyone has on him is his being in the future, but considering the games play with time and time travel relatively often anyway I'm not sure why it's an automatic disbar either (I mean, there's been a technique in the series that plays with time for 15 years now). And as Wraith said, his last few appearances have simply been roster padding for spin-offs. Really, what is the point of this topic aside from acting like Silver is relevant in order to shit on him?

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

Silver can form relationships with other characters if they allow him to. Like I said, unless the character is Sonic, Tails or Eggman, the character isn't worth shit to SEGA. I do understand he cannot show up willy-nilly.... I mean I am a fan of Jet, but I cannot say Jet should just show up just because. Of course you need good story telling. 

But who is to say that Silver can't form relationships or help Sonic out? All he needs is a reason. If Blaze can leave her kingdom to visit Sonic I don't see why Silver can't leave his future to visit Sonic. I been wanting a game where Silver and Sonic form a relationship plus is helps Sonic.

Also, Silver was friends with Espio in Rivals. So that counts as a relationship.

[Dr. Detective]

Silver was a character created specifically to recapture lightning in a bottle within the same vein as Shadow the Hedgehog. Although the attempt this time around was a lot more manufactured, obvious, and less successful.

When it comes to Shadow, whether you like the story or not, his popularity was granted to him by the fanbase when SEGA or whoever at Sonic Team decided to actively create a character and give them a meaningful backstory that wrapped itself up in a full and complete narrative by the end of the game. We know this because Shadow died at the end of it and probably wouldn't have come back had what they created not proven to be as successful as it was. Flash forward a bit and Shadow takes a hit because the way his character gets handled from then on is almost complete and utter garbage and his game almost completely ruins his legit cool image by way of super-imposing a fake one with a goofy teenage edge that was so sharp one could cut their finger just holding the case of the game.

With Sonic 06 the obvious intention was to recapture a lot of the success they had garnered from the Adventure games. To do that, instead of taking what they did and genuinely trying to write something decent and allowing the fan reaction to do the rest, they ripped themselves off and manufactured a bootleg by-product of what they originally thought was the reason people loved those games.

Silver was created as a character specifically designed with the intention of being popular and he was always going to be shoehorned into future games down the line. This is made extremely obvious because at the time in which Sonic 06 was being promoted, Sonic and the Secret Rings was also being promoted and we found out that he was playable in the party mode there. And even more jarring was that Sonic Rivals was also being promoted at the same exact time as well. He was already slated for future appearances in two more games despite the fact that his first official appearance hadn't even happened yet. I remember one person even making the comment on the Sonic Rivals footage about how we didn't have to worry about how slow Silver was looking in the Sonic 06 footage because "Look at how FAST he can go in this Rivals game!" 

Cut to now and Silver's notorious for how slow he is despite the Rivals game. In fact, Silver's reception after Sonic 06 was one of universal, seething hatred from the fans at the time. It was rare to come across anyone on the net who liked him and anyone who tried to argue for him sounded like they were barely able to form coherent thoughts. Probably out of fear of getting clawed to death by the hate squad.

That's not all though. The clear cut intention for Silver's backstory being as dark and gritty as it was came with the staple of sympathy that they figured they could bank on when it came to how they managed to be successful with it back in Adventure 2. On top of that, they told themselves that Blaze was a popular character and that they wanted her in on 06 too. "Let's just toss in all the popular things! Who cares if it connects to anything? Do you love this game now? We have the popular bits! We've got the coolest stuff!"

So when they included Blaze, the cheap tactic they used to exploit the fanbase was to team her up with their fresh new character Silver. A psychological method that works on the level of saying that because this popular character has this connection with our new character, more then likely the stats concerning his popularity will boost. Even better that she's a female because it means we can bank on the rapid fan couples thing. Even better that he's also a hedgehog because hedgehogs are the most popular unless you were a character conceived in the classic era or you weren't created with a deep, in-depth background and don't have a serious demeanor. If you're a modern character without at least one of those things then you're fucked as far as SEGA's concerned. But they will try and make Jet playable in as much stuff as they can at least. I commend them for that.

All this isn't to say that I hate Silver. I don't. I think he's got a nice personality and even when I was shitting on his story arc back then I always did kind of like his design. Admiration for that design has dwindled over the years due to recognition that his spikes might just be a bit too much on the ridiculous side but whatever. It's not really his character that's the issue.

The issue is the more obvious stance that as a character his function within the franchise is hampered by the kind of person he has to be. In order for his appearances to make any semblance of sense, they have no choice but the explain in a time-travel plot line. This was where they fucked up on the insistence that he absolutely needed to be someone who stuck around before they thought over how they were going to comfortably allow him to stay. Sure, they can pimp him out by forcing him into three games at once during his debut and give the impression that he's here to stay but people are still going to be confused by it when his story gimmick is so situational and, quite frankly, extremely dangerous when it comes to incorporating it into a narrative. Most are going to end up asking what even the point is.

It'd be fine if they had some sort of idea in mind going forward with him but they very obviously did not. They wrapped up his story in 06 knowing full well that he was going to appear in more shit. Why the hell would they do that? It's not like Shadow who died and wasn't in any promotions for future titles at the time. Silver was in several trailers for different games in 2006 before Sonic 06's release. Who thought that was a good idea? What's worse is that Silver is the absolute worst kind of character you could have done this with because, as we all know and should know by now, Time Travel is Bullshit. 

Seriously, fuck time-travel. I don't ever want to see it in my Sonic games again. 

And fuck the Time Eater while we're at it. You fucking suck Time Eater! You hear me?! You're a piece of shit!

There are write-arounds to Silver's issues but SEGA's never going to find and use them properly. They fucked up Blaze's story to beef up Silver's popularity. They handicapped themselves by closing the book on what could feasibly be seen as one-off story for Silver so that they could bring him back in Rivals. They fucked up Eggman Nega's backstory and made it so that he was a descendant of Eggman, which in and of itself is a bad idea because it fucks up the suspension of disbelief concerning the back and forth Sonic and Eggman have during the current time. The only way that could be fixed is if it's revealed that Silver actually comes from an alternate timeline or something but it won't.

They're not going to bother. There's no real point to Silver's gimmick if he stays in the past either (and not only that but it'd be extremely irresponsible and messed up for him to compromise the future by doing so if he has nothing to save it from). 

They're in a bit of a rut when it comes to his character story wise for certain. Gameplay wise... I... guess Rivals sort of showed us how it could be done but I don't... really think so? Not yet at least. I don't care about his speed. He can be slow in 06 and fast in Rivals. Gameplay inconsistencies don't mean much to me considering Sonic Team changes how Sonic runs and plays every few years. I'm more speaking about how they'd incorporate his powers into the mix. As fun as it'd be to be like Silver in Generations, the gameplay for it seems like a rough challenge. But that's speaking only in terms of whether or not he ever gets used again in the main narrative.

At the moment, I'm sort of doubting it but there's a heavy change he still might. Of course, if he does, prepare for more time travel...

 

[KoDaiko]

Silver exists because he was one of the protagonist for the plot in Sonic 06. He keeps appearing because, well, since he seem to travel back to the past several times to save the future/his world (Rivals) since 06 never happened, and after saving his world (I think he says it in one of the games) he still get dragged in a problem with the others (Generations), or go meet Sonic and his friends (anything he appear as cameo in). His gameplay is very different, but depending on the game there are many others that doesn’t have the same style as Sonic and what people may see as annoying. I think he has some flexibility, because you can change his ability/gameplay and justify it as psychic powers. He also makes a nice boss, since his telekinesis allows more variety of attacks.

While it’s true he cannot make frequent appearances in the main series because of his future-psychic character, you can say “why does [character] exist? They need to go to the scrapyard!” to any other Sonic character that doesn’t make appearance in the main games anymore because of the lack of emphasis in storytelling and lack of ties to the story or character. Many of them also don’t have much connection/relation with one another. But they are all “Sonic’s friends/rival” and will appear as cameo/playable in spin-offs;  and if their major place to thrive is in the spin-offs, I can’t see any problems with that. Most character has a hard time being included in non-spinoffs nowadays anyway. I already gave the examples, but anyone other than Tails (occasionally Amy and Knuckles) are pretty much out. To appear they either need to be relevant to the plot, need a reason to either interact with Sonic, or be in the place where Sonic happen to be: Knuckles actually hang around with Sonic and Tails a lot so I see no problem...but Chaotix/B.Rogues/Shadow's team need a reason to be there, Big only appear as a cameo, and Blaze is a guardian in another dimension which is similar to the future situation. 

I personally liked Silver and Blaze's sibling-like relationship because they were both sorta loners separated from Sonic’s world and their personality sorta balanced each other. But Dr. Chaotix’s points allow me to see why he is seen as a failure and hated by some people. I still don’t see why he needs to disappear permanently though.

[Shadowlax]

2 hours ago, Mikyeong said:

He exists for the same reason Shadow does, because weather people like it or not, he's popular and he's not as hated as many think he is

Ehhhhhhh... I don't know about that 

 

Back to the task at hand, to explain it simply, you know how pokemon made lucario and he was the hot shit and everyone called him edgy because he was the new hot Pokemon. And represented a sort of generation split in where the direction the series was going. Much like a certain black and red hedgehog. 

After this they tried to capitalize on this again, with zoroark, it failed and lucario took over that gen and subsequently the next one. That's silver silver is zoroarck, he isn't bad, but he was put against lighting in a bottle and it didn't work for people. Bonus people found him whiny and annoying. Bonus sexism bounus, he took a cooler character, blaze and and had her interjected into his bunk ass story which made people hate him more. Showing several problems with the franchise as a whole at once. 

[Muscles Maximum]

Silver has only appeared in 06, which has never happened, Rivals, which gave him something new to do since 06 wrote itself out of history, and Generations, which had a time distortion plot going on anyway. Aside from those games and some spin offs, Silver really hasn't appeared or done anything significant.

I'll say Silver in Generations was the best boss fight in the whole game. So without him, what's left? Perfect Chaos? Shadow maybe?

There's no reason why they couldn't have a new time travel plot, and for this series it's nothing new. They could do it and it'd be fine. If they made a new game with a time traveling plot and Silver was in it would you be upset? For them not using Silver anymore, would you like it best if sega wouldn't even include Silver in spin off games like Riders or Mario & Sonic?

Or better yet if sega actually goes and includes other playable characters again in their games would you be upset if they had Silver playable? Even if he had nothing to do with the story like Amy in advance 2?

There's no reason they couldn't have Silver interact with and make friends with other characters. He partnered with Espio in Rivals 2 and most people seem to enjoy their interaction. I know I definitely do.

There's also no reason they couldn't have him fit in gameplay wise. I mean, look at the Rivals games. I remember playing Sonic Unleashed when that was still the latest game and I wanted a 2 player racing mode like SA2B so bad. I pictured characters like Silver, Shadow, and Blaze boosting around. He'd fit right in. Look at generations too, the dude can fly around pretty darn fast. Even in cutscenes in 06 he does this.

It seems like you're trying to pretend like Silver is an important and entirely relevant character just to have an excuse to complain about him. I'll say nepenthe put it best.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

7 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

Ehhhhhhh... I don't know about that 

 

Back to the task at hand, to explain it simply, you know how pokemon made lucario and he was the hot shit and everyone called him edgy because he was the new hot Pokemon. And represented a sort of generation split in where the direction the series was going. Much like a certain black and red hedgehog. 

After this they tried to capitalize on this again, with zoroark, it failed and lucario took over that gen and subsequently the next one. That's silver silver is zoroarck, he isn't bad, but he was put against lighting in a bottle and it didn't work for people. Bonus people found him whiny and annoying. Bonus sexism bounus, he took a cooler character, blaze and and had her interjected into his bunk ass story which made people hate him more. Showing several problems with the franchise as a whole at once. 

Rant: I understand that people are royally pissed off at how Blaze was treated in Sonic 06; I was one of those people. However, Silver didn't ruin in, the people who wrote the story did. He isn't a real person who ruined a good female character and forced her into his story. I mean I do understand why people would say that however if they had a good writing team, they could have been the best of friends which I'd like to see. Who's to say they can't do that?

As for the Pokemon example, yeah Lucario was popular along with other familiar faces but Zoroak wasn't that big a failure as he had a ton of fans and about 2 movies made on them, I will agree that Lucario craze came about again haha (though I thought Blaziken had it beat)

[Shadowlax]

42 minutes ago, Mikyeong said:

Rant: I understand that people are royally pissed off at how Blaze was treated in Sonic 06; I was one of those people. However, Silver didn't ruin in, the people who wrote the story did. He isn't a real person who ruined a good female character and forced her into his story. I mean I do understand why people would say that however if they had a good writing team, they could have been the best of friends which I'd like to see. Who's to say they can't do that?

As for the Pokemon example, yeah Lucario was popular along with other familiar faces but Zoroak wasn't that big a failure as he had a ton of fans and about 2 movies made on them, I will agree that Lucario craze came about again haha (though I thought Blaziken had it beat)

I dont think anyone is accusing the actual fictional character of doing that. What we are doing is saying he and his story represent a larger problem that had been happening ( and arguably still is) happening with female sonic characters and the kind sexist ideas that sort of fuel those problem. The main problem in this instance , the female character having to accompany the male character and not the opposite. And a bonus general blund unknowing disregard for how well your female character was recived. It was revealed recently the guys at sonic team strait up forgot her backstory and just threw her in with silver. Thats the type of respect female characters for the longest had bern given in this series and blaze was a prime shitty example of it. They are accompany to men, not the opposite

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

I do want to address this part

1 hour ago, Apple Kid said:

t seems like you're trying to pretend like Silver is an important and entirely relevant character just to have an excuse to complain about him. I'll say nepenthe put it best.

He may not be relevant in the games, but he is still popular. So of course people are going to complain about him because they cannot forget about him. Example; I dislike Black Doom but I can get over it and forget because he only appeared in one game; but Silver is often trotted out along side Shadow and Sonic, so the more he is in the spotlight, the more people will complain. 

So in that sense, out of the games, he is relevant because people still want him around.

[Muscles Maximum]

I get what you're saying, I'd like Silver to stick around too. But when I say he isn't important, I more mean that he hasn't done anything significant game wise, in a very long time.

[ShadowSJG]

I personally don't see the hate behind this character tbh. I like him, especially after reading the comics. I hope sega does more with him.

[Phos]

They wanted a character to use the telekinesis abilities from their canceled game, "Fifth Phantom Saga", and apparently to make Dio Brando references. Really the only non spinoff I can think of that he's been in is Generations, unless you think Rivals was a big deal?

The cynical side of me can't help but think that it's a bit goofy in a fan fic-ish sort of way that he got paired with Blaze like that, in such a contrived manor. 

Hard to say if it's more likely or not, but it's also possible that the reverse happened and that they had already done a bunch of work on blaze and needed a way to write her into the story, but it doesn't seem that likely to me. 

[Alice Twilight]

I think they just wanted to drive home that Sonic the Hedgehog is based/rippped off on Dragon Ball as for his existence. I read somewhere that they said Silver is essentially just trunks.

There's a lot of characters in these games that should just be retired, say for example Colors, Generations and Lost World are the new standard for story telling and tone for the franchise is there really any place for a hedgehog that comes from a post apocalyptic world? I'm down with most of these guys being just cameos.

[Blacklightning]

33 minutes ago, Komaru Naegi said:

There's a lot of characters in these games that should just be retired, say for example Colors, Generations and Lost World are the new standard for story telling and tone for the franchise is there really any place for a hedgehog that comes from a post apocalyptic world? I'm down with most of these guys being just cameos.

Nevermind that Sonic as of late has already been a largely Sonic-only fest anyway - that "post apocalyptic world" was the result of an entity that the events of 06 effectively erased from time anyway, so there's really nothing stopping them from re-writing Silver's future in much less dire straits. And even if they didn't there's no reason they still can't weave it into a story, or even stop it from being a factor altogether. The actions of the current villain affect his future, so he comes back to set things right again. Maybe at one point he just decides he likes our present better and stays there to protect the people of his timeline by proxy. Who knows. Point is, it's not as black and white as "they don't fit the theme", and even if it were, it'd just be as simple as re-writing them to fit it.

I mean fuck, look at this guy.

Sakurai took a franchise so sugary and sweet that he regularly names whole stages after desserts, and threw a dark, brooding swordsman into it without batting an eyelid or compromising any of the existing tones. You tryin' to tell me Sonic can't do that? Frankly I beg to differ.

[Bowbowis]

I don't think Silver's being from the future is as big of a restriction as it may seem. There are several scenarios which would allow him to be involved in the story without rehashing '06 or flat out ignoring his origins. Just a few off the top of my head:

• Role Reversal: Sonic and the others travel to the future to assist Silver with a major threat in his time period.
• Tech Recovery: Eggman steals an advance weapon from the future. Silver travels back in time to stop him from unleashing it.
• Terminator Plot: A villain from the future escapes into the past. Silver follows hoping apprehend them.
• Reverse Terminator Plot: Silver is forced to flee from the future, Sonic and the others help him escape from his pursuers and set things right.
• Personal Reasons: Something happens to one of Silver's friends in the past (e.g. Sonic pulls a heroic sacrifice to stop a villain) and he travels back to save them.
• For Want of a Nail: Silver tries to prevent some tragedy in the past, only to create an alternate timeline where things are even worse and has to fix his mistake.
• Temporal Knight Errant: More of a status quo shift. With the future in relatively stable condition Silver dedicates himself to traveling through time and offering aid to those who need it, with Sonic and co. frequently being among those who need it.

Gameplay wise there's nothing saying he has to move at a snail's pace, even if you don't make him as fast as Sonic. The walkers in SA2, for instance, are a good example of characters being slower without actually being slow. I also don't think his moveset in '06 is actually all that incompatible with Sonic, it just needs to be tweaked to keep the pace up. For example, let him use his stun/throw while moving so he doesn't have to stop to attack and make his stun a projectile so he isn't forced to wait around and play defense when he has no ammo. Also, expand on his abilities, he can do a lot more with the objects he's carrying than just use them as projectiles. He can use them to hit multiple switches at once, he can slam them on the ground to activate pressure plates, he can gather them in front of him to form barrier, he can make columns out of them to prevent crushers from falling, he can create stairs to reach high ledges, he can build bridges to cross large gaps. The sky's the limit really. If properly polished and actually given the chance to grow Silver's gameplay has the potential to be really fun.

[Tara]

I honestly think that even if Silver were given a proper role where his character wasn't god awful, they'd have to do something extra hard to remedy the sheer apathy I feel toward his character in general.  To put as swift and simply as possible, I guess Silver just isn't a character I look for in a Sonic game.  It's a very similar problem I have with Shadow, except at least Shadow has the benefit that I liked him in SA2 (and I've heard post-reboot Archie Shadow is cool, too).  Silver's personality just strikes me as boring, especially compared to the more colorful (both literally and figuratively) cast of characters like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and even the Chaotix (though I'm not a big fan of what Heroes did to them, either).

That's not to say, though, that he has no reason to be retooled or made better.  I don't think anything about his character is "opposite" of Sonic, even taking into account the more lighthearted tone of the current series.  In my personal opinion, Silver's telekinesis is no less contrary to Sonic gameplay than Gamma's shooting stages, and I don't mind it in concept.  I thought it was a novel idea, and aside from that horrific desert golf mini-game, it was probably the less miserable part of '06.  It just needed to be slightly faster-paced and, you know, not overrun with bugs and glitches.

At this point, the continuity of the Sonic games basically boils down to "whatever you feel like accepting at any given point in time," because it's all over the place.  So I don't think we'd be losing too much of value if we retconned Silver's backstory a little or just went the Knuckles Chaotix route and said "Oh, that thing was never canon to begin with!  This is actually his 'debut' appearance!"  The same could probably be said about most of the non-primary characters, in fact, so as far as I'm concerned, Silver is fair game for insertion, amendment, or just flat out deletion for all I care, just like all the other characters that had short or one-game lifespans and then were never seen or referenced again.  Not to say I wouldn't like to see characters like Nack the Weasel again, but there's nothing about him that elevates his level of importance to me, as far as the games go.

[Dr. Detective]

11 hours ago, Apple Kid said:

There's no reason why they couldn't have a new time travel plot, and for this series it's nothing new. They could do it and it'd be fine.

Oh no. There's plenty of reasons why they absolutely should never do another time travel plot again. Unless someone walks in and decides to fully rip-off the rest of what they stole from Trunks in Dragonball by clarifying that he comes from an alternate future and the shit he does in the past doesn't affect the timeline Sonic's apart of then, I really don't ever want them touching it.  I know I already ranted about this in the passage above but it's seriously gotten that confusing and convoluted with them to the point that I clench up at the mere mention of it now. It kind of amazes me that despite how simple Generations is, there's still people who aren't sure they want it to be apart of the canon because of how screwed up contemplation over the Silver and Blaze stuff is in that game. I mean, they have no choice or say in the matter but that kind of sucks if you're someone who does care about what they can salvage from the story.

I certainly hope no one ever trusts them with a time travel plot again. 

[LATER BUDDY]

Honestly, if they wanted to actually have him around still, a super easy fix to give him a general purpose while maintaining his origins is to simply have him be a simple plot device like how Tails is. Tails is Sonic's best friend and resident tinkerer, so what does Silver have? He's a psychic dude from the future right? They could honestly just have Tails have another new convenient device that allows Sonic and company to communicate with Silver in the future? For what reason? Have Silver give the warnings that his timeline isn't right/bad right now, and give insight to Sonic and his friends to help with whatever doomsdayish phenomena of the week is happening in ____ Sonic game.

But is that needed? Not really. Neither is Knuckles 99% of the time but hey look at that lug still hanging on tight. My point is just give these one-off rival-esque characters a new lease on life, and make it extremely simple that can be used in just about any situation; that's how Tails and Amy manage to stick around in just about every installment ever. While yes, having multiple Rivals for Sonic can be fun and interesting, over saturation makes them less serious, and honestly I only peg Metal Sonic as Sonic's actual rival anymore. I mean come on, his sole purpose is to be Sonic or better and elminate the existing one, and when destroyed the main antagonist is directly involved to repair him or make him stronger. Shadow's credibility has gone out the window ages ago and is quite literally that high-schooler hanging out under the tree at a park smoking leaving everyone wondering "why do you even come here." 

But seriously, the bad wrap all these B-listers and under characters get are from them coming off one-off scenarios that either renders them too specific and need to stay to their origin game, or resolved to a point where they don't need coming back. And that "wanted" I highlighted at the beginning was to emphasize the point that a majority of these characters can honestly die off or be left to a party-game list like the Olympic games. I think the Sonic franchise has been in such a weird spot lately that bringing forward the cast isn't pressing because they don't have the demand while Sonic himself is struggling to remain relevant today.

That said, I want to point out however. Sonic Boom, while not everyone's favorite sub-franchise of Sonic, was incredibly genius in the fact that it allows all these other Sonic characters to thrive in a plot and character driven world, while the core franchise can continue to hone in on perfecting Sonic himself with gameplay, design, and story with minimal side character support. Once they get the ace in the bucket, I'm sure other fan favorites will emerge back into the main Sonic world.

That's my thoughts anyway, I could be way off and everyone disagree, but that's the real way of looking at it in my perspective anyway

[KHCast]

Why not just have his backstory be that he's from the future, and now lives with Sonic and co? I mean the games already fuck time travel logic and rules, so don't see why they couldn't. Could create funny moments where silver basically is shitting on the way people in that time period live, or making side jokes about the present.