It’s Been Years And It Still Baffles Me How Fuckin’ Hard The Sonic X Writers Went In The Third Season.

It’s been years and it still baffles me how fuckin’ hard the Sonic X writers went in the third season. Like, the setup with the space thing with the aliens that threaten galactic genocide, sure, fine. It’s probably on the darker end of Sonic plots, but sight unseen, I’m like 85% sure there’s an Archie Sonic arc that’s somehow more horrifying. Whatever. That’s all more or less within the bounds of expectation.

But the payoff of all that Mass Effect shit?

“Hey kids, wanna see Tails in catatonic emotional shock with a thousand-yard stare asking everyone to leave him alone before shooting his best friend at his romantic interest and possibly kill both?”

“Wanna see every step of him gradually losing his resolve and breaking down, trembling all the while, utterly unable to bring himself to shoot his best friend at his romantic interest and possibly kill both?”

(Note how he furrows his brow deeper, as if to steel himself, before the dam bursts.)

“Wanna see him lash out in anger and frustration over broken promises before Dr. Eggman steps in as the voice of reason?”

“Wanna see him emphatically refuse again to shoot his best friend at his romantic interest and possibly kill both after said romantic interest asks him to shoot her again?”

“Wanna see him on the verge of what is almost certainly a confession of love mere moments before pushing the button and ensuring his romantic interest dies by his hands?”

“Wanna hear the old ED about a love that cannot be, as the blast travels towards his love interest and she imparts her final words?”

“Oh yeah, also, you can’t hear it, because that song’s playing over it, but he’s definitely screaming his lungs out in what is almost certainly the most intense emotional anguish of his life. See?”

“And hey, as a bonus, in the next and last episode, not only do you get to hear him scream her name,”

“but you also get to see him realize that his best friend couldn’t bring her back!”

“That’s what you want out of your Sonic the Hedgehog show, right?”

(You can hear his throat giving out as he wails in that last one, by the way. Look it up, good stuff.)

Someone on that production team either really hated or really liked Tails, because anything less cannot adequately explain why someone not even old enough to be a tween had to be put through an emotional wringer this extreme as the conclusion to an entire season of a Sonic anime.

And, I don’t know, I feel like someone at Sega and/or Sonic Team had to sign off on all of this? Like what the fuck, guys? Did you all just decide “Yeah, Tails can have some time in the spotlight, and a romantic interest, and severe emotional trauma as a direct result of having to kill said love interest, as a treat.”

I’m not saying they shouldn’t have, but holy shit.