My Honest Opinions On Tails The Fox.

WARNING

(This post may sound like the pretentious whining of an over-sensitive man

I apoligize in advance.)

When I was young I didn’t really care much about Sonic The Hedgehog.

To tell the truth, I was actually more of a Mario fan which lead me to have a bit of a distain for the Sonic series, since it was obviously the opposing series.

It was only recently that I had started dipping my toes into the series and well…

Take a look at me now.

Upon my deeper look at the franchise and it’s characters however, one character stood out to me.

A clever little fox cub… with two tails.

Tails The Fox

(AKA. Miles Prower)

I don’t know what it was about him that was so appealing to me.

Maybe it was his adorable design, his two tails, the fact that he was a fox character who wasn’t portrayed as a sneaky villain, or maybe the fact that he was able to fly a cool airplane despite being just a kid, but I fealt myself drawn to Tails and wanted to know more about him.

Question is…

who is Tails?

Well, According to the Japanese Game Manual for Sonic 2, Tails was a little, shy, fox cub with two tails. He would often be teased by the other animals for his two tails, something we see illustrated in Sonic Origins and Sonic Prime. All of that changed however, when he met Sonic. From then on he would follow behind Sonic no matter what, and Sonic was just like “Sure, you do you”

Tails wanted to be like Sonic. He wanted to be just as cool as him.

And thus began the dynamic duo of Sonic and Tails, with Tails being like the brains to Sonic’s brawns.

Later on in Sonic Adventure 1 however, Tails had a bit of an epiphany. Being isolated from Sonic in a terrible situation, he realized that he wasn’t gonna be able to rely on Sonic forever and that at some point he was gonna have to become his own hero, and with that in mind he single handedly defeated Eggman, saving Station Square from being blown up, winning him immense praise from the citizens.

This character developement continued through Sonic Adventure 2 where he went over and saved Sonic from a highly guarded military prison, helped track down Eggman’s hiding place as well as the Presidents limo, and even managed to create a fake Chaos Emerald that looked so convincing that Sonic could actually use chaos control with it (something which seriously saved his ass)

Without mentioning the rest of the series, this is who Tails/Miles is.

Now, I should state that I have autism.

(☆Tadaah!… I guess☆)

I had never considered my diagnosis as much of a problem, since I went to special schools for autistic kids like me. However, it was and is still a struggle to my day to day life, and so something about the story of a young, genetically diseased kid, who had always been oppressed by others for his illness, becoming friends with a great hero and through that friendship, learning to overcome his fears and become a hero himself, just warmed my heart.

I will always say that while Sonic is the rolemodel, the one you want to strive to be like, Tails is the underdog, the one you can see yourself through and thus can see how you too can become a rolemodel yourself.

This is why (In spite of everything) I consider Tails my favorite Sonic character.

That’s right, Tails/Miles Prower is my personal favorite Sonic character.

Now, you might think that my next point is going to be me pointing out all the flaws with Tails as a character, after all as great he is concept wise, his execution is a bit lacking and inconsistent.

I could do that, but that’s not why I decided to make this blog.

I wanted to make this blog because I feel like there’s something wrong with the fandoms perception of Tails that has always plagued me.

Warning!

This is where my negative feelings come out. You can stop reading if you don’t want to be insulted.

I do not want to be like one of those parents who will try to ban a book, stating that it’s “Ruining The Children” Nor do I actively want to change peoples whole way of thinking. I just really want to get something off my chest that has been bugging me for a long while, and you are more than free to disagree.

The thing is just that I feel like there’s a large portion of the fandom that enjoy seeing Tails suffer relentlessly, for almost no reason.

I see it all the time on my feed. Tails getting insulted and bullied by not just enemies but friends too. Tails getting abused. Tails getting stomped on.

There’s full on 2 minute compilation videos of Tails being abused, with the :satisfied: emoji at the end.

It’s like he is some kind of pin cushion for sadistic people to prick their pins into.

Then there’s this constant joke about how Shadow has “Beef” with Tails.

Personally I could babble on about how that characterization makes no goddamn sense and is stupid and lame, but then we’d be here all day.

<tails, the weakling>

“HAHA🤪🤪🤪 Shadow just hit a struggling, eight year old child in the face, ISN’T THAT FUNNI!?”

no…

it’s not…

it makes me want to die.

<Tails, The Dorky Loser>

In almost every EXE story, Tails is almost always the first one to die. Even when Sonic isn’t trying to kill him, he still dies in brutal ways, and y’know, when it happened the first time maybe there was some shock to be had, but it feels more and more like an excuse to just kill him off, to the point where there’s even a horror story titled “Tails Abuse”

TAILS ABUSE!!

How on the nose can you be?

<Tails, Victim #1>

It’s not just in the fandom that I notice this however.

This may be paranoia (And it most likely is) but throughout the latest IDW comics, I find it hard to find any moment where one of Tails’s plans or inventions has actually worked perfectly. Even when they are a success, they are always flunked off by some other issue. I understand that he’s not supposed to be a perfect character (I definetely don’t want him to be a boring Mary Sue) but is giving a bit of a victory really that hard?

I know Ian Flynn is trying his best, but it’s like something just keeps on getting in the way.

<Tails, The Pathetic Failure>

It’s gotten to the point where some people are even considering that SEGA should kill him off. That’s right, killing Tails off like this is some kind of Batman Comic or something. Before Sonic Forces Released, some actually thought that they would kill Tails off in that game.

I saw a poll for it and everything.

<Tails, The Pointless Sidekick>

My main question is Why?

What posseses people to hate a small kid so much that they’d consider him having his throat slit as the peak of comedy?

The most common reason is stated to be Sonic Forces and the Colors Era.

In Sonic Forces, we saw Tails literally cower before Chaos 0 (A character that Tails has already thought before) only to be saved by Classic Sonic like he’s some kind of Damsel In Distress.

If I had my way I would make it so that those events never happened, but alas Here we are.

There’s no denying that this scene left a bad taste in many peoples mouths, and that is commonly stated to be the reason why so many people have somewhat given up on Tails as a character, combined with how Tails had mostly just been in Sonic’s shadow for a lot of the Colors Era.

Is it really so hard to move on though?

I mean, you’d think that after Sonic Frontiers and some of the other stuff there would be a little less Tails haters, but no.

Here’s a thing that I’ve noticed however.

Already long before Sonic Forces, many people still didn’t like Tails that much.

When the Adventure games came out, some people complained about how Tails was annoying, which is sad considering that the Adventure games gave Tails the most character progression.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t on some level understand where they were coming from. Some of the voice acting in the english dubs of the Adventure games is atrociously bad, and Tails suffers immensely because it straight up sounds like his voice actor was reading the script while recording (Not to insult the voice actor, It’s just that he clearly wasn’t given much training,

only going to show how much the English dubs kinda Suck!)

I’d say even from the very beginning there has been a distain for Tails.

It’s likely that some just couldn’t accept that a cool dude like Sonic would actually enjoy hanging out with a nerdy little freak like Tails, so they would try to make their relationship as toxic as possible. I think that’s the process that went through the American Sonic Adventure writers heads, since they gave Sonic some very brutal lines like “Tails, What am I gonna Do with you?”

So if it’s not just because of Sonic Forces ruined everything, then it’s likely because some people just hate children.

That’s a wild speculation, but not impossible.

Thing that bothers me the most with all of this though is that, Tails is not just an ordinary kid. He’s a child prodegy with a genetic disease that though secretly being a gift, had always been treated like an illness.

You don’t just bash Mozart’s head against the toilet seat for no reason. That’s just cruel.

<Tails, The Annoying Child>

Now, though it seems that a large part of the fandom enjoys using Tails as a doormat, there are many people who atleast try to make Tails “Great Again…” so that’s good, right?…

Right?…

Well… problem is that some peoples methods of doing so are not the best, which leads to the

“Evil Tails Characterization”

The characterization where, either out of envy, trauma, or being bullied so much, Tails basically just says “F##k it” and betrays and kills everyone he’s ever loved.

Happy story am I right? :neutral_face:

What’s that?

I’m not smiling?

WELL OF COURSE I’M NOT!!

<Tails, The Secretly Psychopathic Traitor Who Will Betray Everyone In The End>

How does making Tails a villain solve anything!?

All it does is prove why people were “right” to mistreat him in the first place.

My main problem with this characterization is that it goes against everything he stands for. The moral of Tails is that “You can do great things, no matter if you were born with two tails or just with one”

Having Tails suddenly become a villain would literally tear down all of that character progression that he gotten.

It’s like building a house but then tearing it down because one of the windows were dirty.

Having Tails turn into the villain pretty much takes his message from “You can do great things no matter who you are” to “Nah, B##ch. You’re hopeless”

Like, I can’t wrap my head around how stupid of a decision that would be.

And I know what you’re probably saying.

“But, What about Nine!? He was Tails but evil, which means that Tails must secretly be evil”

Now, though I haven’t watched Sonic Prime yet, I can already tell that Nine isn’t supposed to be a picture of who Tails is deepdown inside, and more of what Tails could have become, had he not met Sonic.

Over all, I’m just not a fan of this characterization, and I desperately don’t want it to become the canon, no matter how messed up Tails has become.

<Tails, The Villain>

So how I see it here is that there are two sides. The sadistic people who hate Tails and will do anything to see him get tortured relentlessly,

and the edgy nihilists who believe that the only way to improve his character is by having him turn to the dark side and betray everyone.

<Tails, The Coward>

And so the wheel spins around.

<Tails, The Untrustworthy Foe>

<Tails, The Living Punching Bag>

<Tails, The Selfish Man>

<Tails, The Submissive ######>

<TAILS, THE CRYBABY>

<TAILS, THE WORRIER>

<TAILS, THE FIRST ONE TO DIE>

<TAILS, THE NERDY BURDEN>

TAILS, THE ONE WHO SHOULD DIE

TAILS!!

TAILS!!!

…

…

I feel weak

I can’t take it anymore.

Everytime I see this fox get abused, insulted, mistreated, misjudged, it feels like a dagger is piercing into my soul. Everytime I see him cry, I just want to give him a hug saying “Don’t Worry. It’ll be alright”

I wouldn’t feel so bad if it wasn’t because I see some of myself in him. The young kid with potential, who is unable to show those talents because of one “flaw” in his construction.

I know that he is just a fictional character, and that I’m crying about something unimportant, but I still feel myself connected to him in a way.

I want to see him happy.

I want to see him succeed.

This is why I often get so much enjoyment out of playing games like Sonic Mania as Tails, not because the gameplay is fantastic or anything (It’s definetely easy) but because seeing Tails do heroic feets of bravery, just like his bro Sonic, just makes me feel so happy inside.

I’m sorry if I got a little bit emotional and accusatory here.

Truth is, though I said that a lot of the fandom is split up into two sides, I know deep down inside that that was an excaggeration. Every once in a while I find a comic or fanfic that gives me what I want. A story where Tails isn’t portrayed as a weakling or a coward, nor a twist villain or traitor. They’re hard to find behind all of edgy nihilism, but when I do I’m always more than happy.

Either way, I feel like Tails is a tainted character. His story and character has so much potential, and though the series managed show some of it, it’s like it all just fell apart, and now the character is almost stuck in limbo.

But…

That’s pretty much why I’m here.

A bit of a shameless plugin sure, but in case you didn’t know, I am currently writing a novelized retelling of Sonic The Hedgehog, which I plan on making a full on book series where I retell the entire Sonic series from the bottom, adding several changes to make it more consistent and complete.

Out of all of the reasons why I wanted to do this, one of the biggest reasons was none other than Tails himself.

I want to save him.

I want to see him become the hero that he was always destined to be.

I want to see him tear down all the preconsumptions, and prove that you truly can do great things no matter who you are!

Though I haven’t gotten to him yet, since I have to get through Sonic 1 and Sonic CD first, you can bet that when I get there, I’m gonna try my best to revive his character in a new and fantastic way.

Until then, I can only hope that things will look up for him.

Maybe he’ll get a spin-off game at some point, I hope.

Until that day, all I can say is…

“Believe in yourself, my two-tailed prince, because you’re moment will come”