Special Statement: About-Face

Our team is hard at work on a more balanced, tempered editorial response to the events of the last two days. But this will not be that.

I am mad. Our community is mad. Fans from far and wide, casual and hardcore, longtime and first time, are mad. The rest of the world, frankly, is laughing at us.

And for what? A two and a half minute clip? A clip few will be able to rationally digest amid both impossibly high and impossibly tempered expectations? A clip that confirmed the worst fears of some and elevated those of others? A clip that several of Sonic’s original caretakers reacted to using terms such as “worried” and “sorry?”

I am mad because the cries of It’s just a trailer fail to contextualize what this week and that trailer means for a community long scorned with only occasional glimmers of promise. The calculated and deliberate delivery of a widely panned and mocked trailer about a character already widely panned and mocked for the numerous missteps of his creator and caretaker over the years meant for the largest stage available to all stakeholders involved in some time elicits the type of nostalgia Sega has taken great pains to erase, but fans remain knowing all too well: The cheap shots, the snickers, the memes, conflict, and confusion that all equate to the four words that only foster more malaise–Sonic was never good.

Both the trailer and reaction to it failed to inspire hope those chains will ever break inside the pop culture zeitgeist. There is plenty of blame to assign for it.

Director Jeff Fowler has made himself an easy target by today vowing that design changes are “going to happen.” It is a staggeringly high promise for a work now under as much microscopic scrutiny outside our community as in. With the promise comes concerns of unexpected “crunch” times for the film’s CG and VFX team–the mere possibility of which has already been condemned by several–to say nothing of the possibility of a outright delay to accommodate, risking many millions of dollars in lost revenue should this slip beyond the Holiday season, a cost neither Paramount nor Sega can afford to let slip through amid rumors the film is already over budget. There are licensing issues to consider. Fowler may never work on anything meaningful in Hollywood again if he cannot deliver.

Executive Producer Tim Miller does not have the same personal stakes, with a director credit for Deadpool under his belt. But his haught is absolutely the source of this horror, and cannot go unchecked. In December, Miller afforded these words to IGN when the original silhouetted trailer debuted:

I don’t think SEGA was entirely happy with the eye decision, but these sorts of things you go, ‘It’s going to look weird if we don’t do this.’ But everything is a discussion, and that’s kind of the goal, which is to only change what’s necessary and stay true to the rest of it. He’s not going to feel like a Pixar character would because I don’t think that’s the right aesthetic to make it feel like part of our world.

It may have been his contractual right for Miller to dismiss the feedback. It may have been his creative responsibility, given Sega’s own gaffes made with their flagship IP. But Miller’s decision has how proven to be a lesson in brand mismanagement, misdirection, and mistrust, magnified by the near impossible set of scenarios now in front of him and his team after the Internet put fresh batteries in its megaphone. This arrogant display of overconfidence is not limited to Miller; it may well have been aided and abetted by the positive response two separate cuts of the trailer received in April at CinemaCon. But if Miller has any integrity, he will not leave first-time director Fowler out to dry.

The same can be said for Sega and its employees. Today in its official stream, the newest member of the Sonic social team, Mini-Kitty, only about a month and change into her tenure with the company, was put in the unfortunate, uncomfortable, and unnecessary position to relay this statement about the movie:

Unfortunately, we cannot comment on it too much from our side, but I do encourage you to follow the movie’s channels…and the filmmakers may be able to answer your questions a bit better than we can right now.

Aaron Webber would eventually appear on stream, but remained focused on a planned TSR playthrough. Observant fans on Twitter noted Webber liked and perhaps retweeted Fowler’s statement on his personal account–as did I–only to see those indications vanish from his timeline a short while later.

Webber’s sound of silence here is a rare misstep for the community veteran who cut his teeth and earned my and others’ respect successfully navigating similar community crises with reason and calm, albeit not quite on the scale as this. This is not the time for Webber or anyone at Sega who cares about their flagship IP to remain silent. The company gave up its plea to ignorance the moment their logo was juxtaposed to Paramount’s in the trailer released Tuesday. It may well be mandated by Sega that Webber not speak, and that in of itself may say how Sega feels about what’s happening, but his voice and others are sorely needed to help all of us see this to the end.

And what of all of us? I am reminded of a smaller but similar chorus that sang when green eyes were first introduced to the sidescrolling Sonic world in Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, itself remembered now as a lukewarm stepping stone toward Sonic Mania. A simple matter, and likely an easy matter for Sega and Dimps to have adjusted at the time, it ended up unconsidered amid more significant changes and a delay caused by the more uproarious response to the game’s entire contents being leaked. And why would it, I wondered at the time–it was a superficial matter that ignored more serious trouble.

Now, everyone has their eyes on a easily avoided matter with no good solutions and serious consequences for a franchise and fandom’s reputation again at stake.

I now look at how this week has transpired, and see those green eyes as the first “inch.” Eye complaints became physics complaints. They then became gimmick complaints, and stage complaints. Small inches on the road to repair lead you to the mile markers, and if you’re not careful, you’ll pass them blissfully unaware of how you got there. Our community, with significant outside assistance, has hit another mile, and I suddenly don’t see those green eye complaints as so pedantic anymore. Then, as potentially now, accountability was the catalyst, but not the cure-all.

Does this mean being loud, angry, and uncompromising on the Internet works? Or will it cause more problems without solving the original one? We’re all about to find out, and that’s why it’s so hard for anyone to relax.