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The relevance of Sonya

StormGoddess

Your mind tricks won't harm me!!!
i've noticed an increase in Sonya hate recently and I have no idea where it's coming from, I always thought she was awesome. It's sad she doesn't have her classic moves in MK11, but I always liked her, especially her and Johnny together and now with Cassie, it reminds me so much of my parents and I and I'll always have a soft spot for the Cage family because of that.
it seems alot of people here just doesnt like the human characters unless you are a earth born cowboy. LOL
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

anyway Sonya's gameplay never looked better IMO, i am still not a fan of the voice acting but I'll live...
 
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B. Shazzy

NRS shill #42069
Hello and thank you for your opinion.

1) She was getting hate way before even the email leak.

2) A character can be 'ugly' and valuable, no?

3) She is not a Cage. Too many ninjas I'd say.

4) Highly subjective. She is the single most interesting character to me and other people. Meanwhile I find Scorpion extremely boring.
Any character on the internet can get hate

This game is built on a few things and sex appeal was one of them. Expect backlash when something changes

That point is moot. Its family drama, nobody cares

Well Id reckon people think scorpion is interesting than Sonya. Showing the characters side by side to people, guess which is more recognizable. Just how things are.
 

Leo

Noob
Gotta love the usage of sweeping generalizations in order to promote negativity, especially in a thread whose sole purpose was so positive :rolleyes: Anyway...

I could go on and on about how much I like the character, but I'll keep it succinct and just add that, the way I see it, Sonya has that "Batman" factor going on: a regular human in a world of fantastical "metas", who not only manages to keep up, but also surpasses many of them. In my opinion, that's a handful of times more appealing and interesting than mere aesthetics, or "cool power, bro!" Outwardly, this is just some blond chick standing next to demons and monsters, and yet, look at the story of MK so far (especially recent games), and she's kicking ass left and right, and leading the defenses of the planet. I just love the ever-living-crap out of that aspect of her character: looks like she should be an underdog, but ends up proving consistently to be a top contender. That's just dope as all hell.

Additionally, I'm one of those people who welcomes and embraces the drama in the story that is not reliant on fighting and violence. I don't like one-dimensional things, and I don't like superficiality--I like it when a story has many moving parts of varying degrees and importance to the over-arching plot, and especially so, I enjoy characters who are human, and relatable. I understand that it's MK--it's a fighting game, and it must rely on fighting. But why not have real characters in its plot? I love the comic interactions between Sonya and Johnny in MK9, the levity it added to everything else, and how it developed into an actual rocky relationship, where they're saving the world together one moment, and nurturing a broken family the next. They came out the other side as much more complex, mature individuals, and through this, helped elevate the tone of the story in much the same way. I know and understand that Scorpion's the "mascot", and easily recognizable across genres, but objectively, he hasn't added anything to MK to the point that Sonya and Johnny have, especially in recent games, and so I will respect these two infinitely more. And I'd wager that NRS agrees with me, going by MK9 and MKX: they've been using Scorpion as he should be used, as a marketable character, and utilizing the likes of Sonya to broaden the story, aid in its progression, and elevate it.

As for the apparent "hate"--I don't see it; at least not to an extent that's more egregious than any other. Every character gets their share of hate for various reasons, and when I've seen Sonya hate in forums, it's nearly always been from those who want to target her for having "stolen the spot" of their favorite character whom they haven't seen in a game in years. And that's just shaky "hate" at best, baseless whining at worst; as if her absence in the game would have automatically meant that their favorite would suddenly show up. That's not how that process works, guys and gals. No Sonya would have just meant no Sonya, it wouldn't have meant automatic Fujin or Rain or Havik or whomever else. It's also worth pointing out that negative talk around Sonya seems to be reserved for online forums. I've read more than a few articles about MK11 that have referred to her as "fan-favorite", especially back during the Rhonda reveal trailer, and I was heartened by the myriad positive comments on YouTube videos and the like, and by the amount of people freaking out about her potential "death" after the IGN Cassie/Raiden intro. So the consensus, it seems, is that when it comes to the general audience, she's very well-liked, and a staple of MK--and luckily, NRS is perceptive of this, as they've been doing a great job with her for years, story-wise and gameplay-wise. And I simply cannot wait to get my hands on her very soon (come ooooon, beta).
 

Vslayer

Juiced Moose On The Loose
Lead Moderator
Gotta love the usage of sweeping generalizations in order to promote negativity, especially in a thread whose sole purpose was so positive :rolleyes: Anyway...

I could go on and on about how much I like the character, but I'll keep it succinct and just add that, the way I see it, Sonya has that "Batman" factor going on: a regular human in a world of fantastical "metas", who not only manages to keep up, but also surpasses many of them. In my opinion, that's a handful of times more appealing and interesting than mere aesthetics, or "cool power, bro!" Outwardly, this is just some blond chick standing next to demons and monsters, and yet, look at the story of MK so far (especially recent games), and she's kicking ass left and right, and leading the defenses of the planet. I just love the ever-living-crap out of that aspect of her character: looks like she should be an underdog, but ends up proving consistently to be a top contender. That's just dope as all hell.

Additionally, I'm one of those people who welcomes and embraces the drama in the story that is not reliant on fighting and violence. I don't like one-dimensional things, and I don't like superficiality--I like it when a story has many moving parts of varying degrees and importance to the over-arching plot, and especially so, I enjoy characters who are human, and relatable. I understand that it's MK--it's a fighting game, and it must rely on fighting. But why not have real characters in its plot? I love the comic interactions between Sonya and Johnny in MK9, the levity it added to everything else, and how it developed into an actual rocky relationship, where they're saving the world together one moment, and nurturing a broken family the next. They came out the other side as much more complex, mature individuals, and through this, helped elevate the tone of the story in much the same way. I know and understand that Scorpion's the "mascot", and easily recognizable across genres, but objectively, he hasn't added anything to MK to the point that Sonya and Johnny have, especially in recent games, and so I will respect these two infinitely more. And I'd wager that NRS agrees with me, going by MK9 and MKX: they've been using Scorpion as he should be used, as a marketable character, and utilizing the likes of Sonya to broaden the story, aid in its progression, and elevate it.

As for the apparent "hate"--I don't see it; at least not to an extent that's more egregious than any other. Every character gets their share of hate for various reasons, and when I've seen Sonya hate in forums, it's nearly always been from those who want to target her for having "stolen the spot" of their favorite character whom they haven't seen in a game in years. And that's just shaky "hate" at best, baseless whining at worst; as if her absence in the game would have automatically meant that their favorite would suddenly show up. That's not how that process works, guys and gals. No Sonya would have just meant no Sonya, it wouldn't have meant automatic Fujin or Rain or Havik or whomever else. It's also worth pointing out that negative talk around Sonya seems to be reserved for online forums. I've read more than a few articles about MK11 that have referred to her as "fan-favorite", especially back during the Rhonda reveal trailer, and I was heartened by the myriad positive comments on YouTube videos and the like, and by the amount of people freaking out about her potential "death" after the IGN Cassie/Raiden intro. So the consensus, it seems, is that when it comes to the general audience, she's very well-liked, and a staple of MK--and luckily, NRS is perceptive of this, as they've been doing a great job with her for years, story-wise and gameplay-wise. And I simply cannot wait to get my hands on her very soon (come ooooon, beta).
<3

I agree with every single word you said. Literally.

Also, if that Cassie/Raiden intro is real I will legit cry.
 
Reactions: Leo

Leo

Noob
Thanks!

Unfortunately, it seems to be; sort of. Apparently, Current Sonya gets trapped in rubble at the end of Chapter 1, Cassie's. And Young Sonya is assumed to be the relevant one for most of the campaign, based on the trailer. We won't know the real implications of either one of these things until we play through the story (or indulge a likely leak :D), but this does seem to be confirmed. It's just making me even more anxious.
 

Vslayer

Juiced Moose On The Loose
Lead Moderator
Thanks!

Unfortunately, it seems to be; sort of. Apparently, Current Sonya gets trapped in rubble at the end of Chapter 1, Cassie's. And Young Sonya is assumed to be the relevant one for most of the campaign, based on the trailer. We won't know the real implications of either one of these things until we play through the story (or indulge a likely leak :D), but this does seem to be confirmed. It's just making me even more anxious.
I saw the video too and I'm telling you, if Cassie cries, I'll cry. But, with the timelines merged maybe they'll just keep young Sonya?
 

STB Sgt Reed

Online Warrior
First, I just wanna say that your story about how Sonya was so important to you was awesome and it brings the feels for sure. Great post.

That said,

Sonya is just ok to me. I can do with or without her.
But the reason I think she's getting more hate than usual is because she's being voiced by a very polarizing personality in rousey. Personality, I can't stand her and her VA skill in the game is non existent so it makes me like the character less.

Add that in to the fact that a lot of people see Cassie and Sonya as redundant (and it doesn't help that they gave Cassie a drone which sonya has had before and sort of has in this game) and well, it's easy to see why there's so much hate.

In a game filled with sorcerors, gods, monsters, horror movie icons (unfortunately), magical ninjas, etc... plain humans are a little lacking and people think they are taking roster spots away from others.
 

pure.Wasted

'ello baby, did you miss me?
I think it has a lot to do with, as you said, the way she's been written in MKX. She's the bad guy in the family, the mom that isn't there for her daughter and destroyed her marriage because of her work. I even felt myself siding with Johnny on that because I don't think anyone should ignore their family for work - and I feel like that's what ticked a lot of people off about her. That and she seems so angry and a bit too stern all the time.
As someone who's never been a huge fan of Sonya -- but always respected her place within the canon -- I think MKX did her pretty dirty.

And it's not because it gave her a flaw. Characters with flaws are INTERESTING!

It's because we only got to see the flaw and nothing else.

She's supposed to be this bad-ass general who made the difficult decision to focus on her work (protecting her family) rather than her personal life (actually being with her family), right?

So if we wanted to see a balanced view of her as a character, we would have to see the failures of her personal life (on full display in MKX) and the success of her work.

Uh... what success? Where? She doesn't get any credit for anything that goes right in the game, excluding I guess the Quan Chi nut punch that happened years ago. MKX writers didn't give it to her.

She's the one who approves Cassie's team going out to retrieve the amulet, but Cassie's the one who gets the in-story props for succeeding (temporarily). And Johnny and Cassie feel like the ones who get props for Cassie's team saving the world at the end, even though again, it was Sonya's decision to get them involved. She's also the one who approves the plan for Jax and Kenshi to capture Quan Chi, but Jax is the one who gets the props in-story.

If we saw both sides, we could say "she sacrificed her personal life to protect her family and she protected her family so that makes her somewhat noble and admirable." This is the argument Shawn Kittelsen makes in the comics. But we only saw the negative side. She sacrificed her personal life, seemingly, for nothing at all.

Hopefully since Shawn will be writing MK11, we will get a more three dimensional view of Sonya. She deserves it.
 

Vslayer

Juiced Moose On The Loose
Lead Moderator
As someone who's never been a huge fan of Sonya -- but always respected her place within the canon -- I think MKX did her pretty dirty.

And it's not because it gave her a flaw. Characters with flaws are INTERESTING!

It's because we only got to see the flaw and nothing else.

She's supposed to be this bad-ass general who made the difficult decision to focus on her work (protecting her family) rather than her personal life (actually being with her family), right?

So if we wanted to see a balanced view of her as a character, we would have to see the failures of her personal life (on full display in MKX) and the success of her work.

Uh... what success? Where? She doesn't get any credit for anything that goes right in the game, excluding I guess the Quan Chi nut punch that happened years ago. MKX writers didn't give it to her.

She's the one who approves Cassie's team going out to retrieve the amulet, but Cassie's the one who gets the in-story props for succeeding (temporarily). And Johnny and Cassie feel like the ones who get props for Cassie's team saving the world at the end, even though again, it was Sonya's decision to get them involved. She's also the one who approves the plan for Jax and Kenshi to capture Quan Chi, but Jax is the one who gets the props in-story.

If we saw both sides, we could say "she sacrificed her personal life to protect her family and she protected her family so that makes her somewhat noble and admirable." This is the argument Shawn Kittelsen makes in the comics. But we only saw the negative side. She sacrificed her personal life, seemingly, for nothing at all.

Hopefully since Shawn will be writing MK11, we will get a more three dimensional view of Sonya. She deserves it.
I have to agree with you. That IS a really good point. By trying to shine the spotlight on Cassie, they put Sonya on the backburner, but excluding her from a lot of things in the story was a fail on the writing department because they could have shown us some great mother/daughter moments and make us feel for Sonya and her struggles, like they did with Johnny.

Hopefully they will give her better stuff this time around, she definitely deserves better.