LOOKIT MY HOT TAKE ON SONIC 06 YOU GUYS!1! (insert cold take)

2026-04-17T05:17:53Z

Every time I see someone announce their "hot take" on Sonic 06, saying that they like Princess Elise for her "great potential", then go on to say that her romance/crush on Sonic is "questionable" and should be removed, I roll my eyes so hard.

LIKING ELEMENTS OF SONIC 06 FOR THEIR "POTENTIAL" IS NOT A HOT TAKE. Not even remotely so. I see a take along these lines about as often as I see outright hate for Elise; it's become a cold take by now.

Now, for my (actual?) hot take: I really don't think these fans like Elise that much. They often don't even bring up what gives her potential in the first place. Is it her emotional discipline keeping a god under lock-and-key for half her life? The power Iblis brings her in gameplay? Her stoicism, humility, and selflessness? Those traits are subtle, but still there. See, it's always about removing something, not expanding on the so-beloved traits that are already there.

Her feelings for Sonic being romantic in nature arguably further characterizes her as being relatively sheltered from things that could potentially bring her grief again. Not to mention that friendships can also be poorly written; changing the nature of their relationship won't change the issue that the dialogue gets stale at times (Sonic doesn't display much of his usual lighthearted/jokestery tone around her, feeling a bit excessively polite for my taste), and the constant abduction meant they didn't get to know each other that well before the Last Story.

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Not prompted by me scrolling past yet another one of these on AO3

2025-04-28T01:18:57Z

One of my pet peeves is when I come across a fanfic rewrite of an unpopular official work, and the summary is just...like...a combination of the author self-aggrandizing and/or talking about how bad the original is, listing all the things they didn't like, and then stating what they'll do to fix it. And their dislikes/fixes are things that many fans have proposed before.

I get being upfront about what your story will be about, but if they can't be bothered to make their summary a more interesting read than a random forum post fantasizing about a hypothetical rewrite, why should I be bothered to read it?

Each author is different. Each rewrite is different. But here they are, deliberately emphasizing the same-ness of it to other people's ideas, making it sound as cookie-cutter as possible!

I think the best summary is a coherent hook for a story that stands on its own, and, as odd as it sounds, doesn't rely too much on the idea that it's a rewrite. What I mean is, hypothetically, if the original work that prompted it were to vanish from existence, would the fic still sound like something worth clicking into?

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pengilly

LOOKIT MY HOT TAKE ON SONIC 06 YOU GUYS!1! (insert cold take)

Not prompted by me scrolling past yet another one of these on AO3