by E-122 Psi on September 17th, 2010, 7:44 pm
If I can say this in an inoffensive and solely opinion based manner, I'm not that big on these concepts either. NICOLE's 'infant's brain in a jar' concept just comes off as way to grim a concept. Seriously after reading some of the concepts from darker portrayals like the two comic series and other somewhat creepy fan media on sites like DA, that's actually one of the most macebre and distressing story concepts I've ever heard for a Sonic story.
I get Hurst wanted Robotnik to be essentially 'evil personalified' but I think there is a limit to what portrayal of 'evil' you can display in a kids show, you can make disgusting Complete Monsters but you can't have them doing stuff like raping women, killing babies and hacking people to death, the idea of him essentially killing a child's body and placing it's brain in a mechanical trophy of sorts and then torturing it by essentially turning parts of it on and off all for the sheer sadistic kick of it I think kinda crosses the line (especially abiding by the fact she is a friend of Sally's and thus likely only a five year old infant like her).
The story method NICOLE was placed in Sally's possession doesn't seem that well devised either. You have to abide by the idea that Robotnik was incredibly unsavvy (in contrast to his first season counterpart) to believe he could grant NICOLE so much power and then not expect reprecussions out of it (then again he did basically the same to Snively), though I admit this may be realistic for a guy that unstable and sadistic.
One of the reasons I liked SatAm was because it was one of the few interpretations that could balance 'dark' concepts well and lightly enfused it with whimsical elements to make a merely somewhat atmospheric family adventure, so it's kinda a shame for me that it was ultimately going to end up akin to other projects like Sonic X and Archie where it doesn't seem quite sure whether it was working with a goofy kids cartoon or an R rated sci fi horror (certain revisions in Season Two like the 'living death' robotocizer status (explained by perfectly stable old toughie Uncle Chuck no less) could be a hint to this evolution).
I get a few people like the 'darker' concepts however and since it is very early drafts perhaps such critisms are unfair, but there's just my two cents.
Some of the other elements take interest however, interesting how Rotor seems to get more significant mentioning while Sally and Bunnie are hardly refered to at all, especially considering the near opposite development of Sal and Rotor in Season Two. Sonic maturing a little sounds like a good concept too.
'Master entry confirmed - Enemy located - Terminate the enemy.'