What if the Sonic franchise tried going overly edgy?

[IHaveACaseOfSonicMania]

I remember wanting to make a fan game, I only made games on Scratch, that was about Team Chaotix but it would be like Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Not only that, but once I thought to myself, "Hey, you know who'd make a good movie for the Sonic Boom universe... of course it's James Gunn!", but without going too mad with power, but I dunno, James Gunn? But one day I thought of this and now that I have this account, it's time I ask you all for your thoughts on what that would be like. I'm saying like an M rated version of an official Sonic product, go wild with hilarious ideas.

Personally, I imagine it being that Sonic's humour becomes more raw and he gets fed up with Eggman and kills him.

[Lorekitten]

They sort of tried that with the Shadow game, and look where that got them. Don't get me started on the Shadow game.

In all seriousness, a darker Sonicverse game with morality choices could've been cool if handled properly and respectfully, but giving Shadow a gun and having him shoot cops and use the same two PG-rated swear words over and over and over was definitely not the way to go.

[castell-neath]

It already tried going Edgy, and it was not well recieved lol.

Its called Shadow The Hedgehog and its not been re-released or ported since 2004/05. Sega may have even deleted the base code so it cant be revisted! I heard a rumour they tleven tried employing MIB to mind wipe the entire population until it was pointed out to them that MIB are ficticious. Thats how out of touch with reality Sonic Team were at this point. Lol

Jokes aside, 06 was a bit more "mature" but despite some decent ideas, they just totally failed to land it correctly resulting in the Elise debacle.

On the other end of the spectrum, Colours was a bit too silly at times too. Its hard to get the balance right

[IHaveACaseOfSonicMania]

I could kinda imagine some kind of plot with Rouge that would have the weird tone of Birds of Prey and the fantabulous emancipation of one Harley Quinn. That is what I'm thinking of, not edgy in a embarrassingly hilarious way, but overly edgy with a cherry on top that would be just so amazingly hilarious. Like, demented.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Look, I LOVE THE FUCK out of edgy stuff. I can’t get enough.

That said, there’s a good way to do it and a destructive way of doing it, and going overly edgy is what I would consider destructive. I was there at ground zero before ShTH was announced and that was a case study of how Sonic shouldn’t do edgy. I’d rather not have this franchise—and especially the fandom—go through that again. 

Edited January 5 by CrownSlayer’s Shadow

[IHaveACaseOfSonicMania]

1 hour ago, IHaveACaseOfSonicMania said:

I could kinda imagine some kind of plot with Rouge that would have the weird tone of Birds of Prey and the fantabulous emancipation of one Harley Quinn. That is what I'm thinking of, not edgy in a embarrassingly hilarious way, but overly edgy with a cherry on top that would be just so amazingly hilarious. Like, demented.

By the way, I meant it would be hilarious if Sonic did go this far as to go to the tones of Birds of Prey. I wasn't saying Birds of Prey is a bad movie for its tone, I actually like it.

But also, thinking about, if they actually did do this kind of thing, I would understand why. I think Sonic is a bit of a super hero, which is why he has so many games with either a tone like Sonic Colo(u)rs, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic 06, and Frontiers. But I am sure Sonic would never go as far as something you'd see on Adult Swim, after all this series was always made for kids. I'm asking for something bonkers, make up what you would think if a Sonic game went even edger then Shadow the Hedgehog.

[Failinhearts]

I think the hard pill to swallow that would prevent an overly edgy reboot is the current identity of the brand, and its main sources of income. Yes, the games are one thing. But Sonic is a kids franchise that makes Sega absolute bank just on merchandise and licensing alone. Its the amount of things with Sonic's face slapped on it that kids would beg their parents to buy that keeps the hedgehog relevant even through the droughts.

Of course there are franchises that managed to dip their toes into adult only territory, like the aforementioned DC, Doctor Who, Marvel, etc. So it's not impossible. But I think to make those steps, you need to start by creating something relatively distant from the brand with vague connections, which then ease deeper into the greater mythology where it just becomes commonly accepted.

I'm saying this here for this silly what-if topic, cause I want my idea to be in the mindset of "how would I create such a spinoff to ease the idea of more mature entries into the Sonic franchises?"

My idea? A GUN spinoff.

GUN has been out of the spotlight for a while where it isn't considered an integral part of the Sonic brand anymore aside from the movie. That's the perfect kind of topic you can mold something new out of. Focusing on a military organization tasked with having to face threats, either of this world or more otherworldly, dark implications that Sonic left behind in the wake of his adventures.

It can help flesh out more mature ideas that otherwise couldn't be tackled previously. Sonic always runs off to his next adventure as other people are left to pick up the pieces. Imagine seeing that from the perspective of an organization like GUN, or the United Federation over things like the Earth being blown apart? The life of the planet being sucked from it? Etc?

 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Team Dark in Archie Sonic gave us moments of a “GUN Spinoff” with the Universe sub series just like that to an extent. 
 

You could make a sort of “remnant group” still around after Forces if they still had something left.

Edited January 5 by CrownSlayer’s Shadow

[Wraith]

Sonic should only be dark insofar-as it tricks children into think they're consuming something darker or deeper than what they're actually consuming ala Sonic Adventure. That's the whole "not your mom's platfomer" angle that made it famous.

It shouldn't actually cross those lines and indulge those things.

[ChaosCTRL]

When I was like 7, I hadn’t consumed much Sonic media, and for some reason my brain combined Big and Froggy together, like Froggy was an enormous anthropomorphic frog. The idea terrified me, and in not sure why.

Now that I’m grown, not many Sonic characters genuinely creep me out. Mephiles and his weird red flesh eyes are kinda creep me out.

[Danj86]

As some have pointed out, they dabbled in edginess back with Shadow The Hedgehog and arguably Sonic 06. If my memories are factual, 06 was once considered some sort of reboot to the franchise.

That was actually the only time I fell from the franchise so my first reaction would be to suggest against it.

But with Shadow specifically, (The Game.) I feel their interpretation of edginess came across more as immaturity. I mean that absurd line in which Shadow is riding a spaceship that belongs to Sonic and Tails is almost the perfect example of trying to be edgy but just coming across as immature.

"This is like taking candy from a baby, which is fine by me."

It's also possible to see this scene while mostly acting as a Hero so it's narratively dumb too. Oh yeah, it also, also makes Shadow look like a moron because that Chaos Emerald he steals was clearly powering the spaceship he was currently riding to the Ark, a place he wanted to get to.

06 did a slightly better job at coming across as...well...not really edgy, just mature. Perhaps that was because of the very realistic style graphics because it certainly wasn't because of the dialogue or acting...