Miki

Last time we had 50…. Now the TADC fan community is at 107 PLUS SOME!

(Credit under cut!)

So, here we have Silver. I’ve seen a lot of people think he looks silly, mostly because of his unorthodox quills, but I think that’s largely what makes him look so cool and unique. We know hedgehogs can have bangs already because of Amy, but Silver’s are styled so differently; he takes an aspect of Sonic character design and turns it on its head (no pun intended).

Also worth noting about his bangs is that they were inspired by a maple leaf, which is interesting in context because Silver had never even seen a leaf before travelling back in time during 06.

And of course there’s the rest of his quills, which I just really like because again, they’re different from everyone else’s while being completely plausible within the laws of Sonic character design. And the fact that his hair is styled differently from everyone else’s also makes perfect sense in context, because he’s from the distant future; of course diffferent hairstyles are going to be in fashion by then.

(His quills are also positioned in a way that you can see his ears at most, if not all angles, which I just think is neat. Nails in the fact that he’s a hedgehog somehow.)

I also love the way his eyes are shaped. They’re narrower than Sonic’s and Amy’s, indicating his more serious nature, but they’re not as sharp as Shadow’s, making it easier for him to pull expressions that seem more happy or childlike–again, something that works great in context because there are quite a few scenes in 06 where he’s just in awe of how beautiful the world is.

There’s the black lines around his eyes that may or may not be eyeliner as well, and there’s no specific reason I love them so much other than they look cool. It’s one of Silver’s many defining features, and it’s nice to see a guy character with similar eyeliner to the girls of the franchise once in a while.

While we’re still on the topic of his eyes, I really love that they’re golden. They can look amber in certain lighting (like in the picture above), but it’s not a color we see that often in the Sonic franchise and is usually reserved for magical and/or obscure characters. Blaze and Espio are prime examples of this, and Blaze is even from another dimension! They definitely signify mystery and magic in this series, and what better character to put them on than the one with telekinetic powers?

Now, a few notes before we go on to the details of his outfit: the patch of fluff on his chest is a nice touch, because again, we know that hedgehogs can have that because of Shadow, and again it’s taken to something of an extreme–but not so far that it becomes ridiculous. His arms being the same color as his fur also makes his design flow together much nicer than if they were skin-colored.

The fact that he isn’t candy-colored like the majority of Sonic characters is a beautiful creative decision. His fur ranges from being light grey (hence his name) to white depending on the game, which means that any color you do put on him is going to stand out very nicely. Even his eyes are an example of this. Going for a light, non-flashy color like this is all the more important once you start putting glowing, neon Tron lines on him. Too much color would be harder on the eyes.

Speaking of which…

I could not be happier with those Tron lines. They don’t do anything too complicated, because again, this is a Sonic character; a certain level of simplicity is required. One of my favorite parts about them is that they travel onto his gloves, something that looks really cool and accentuates the fact that he’s from the future. I don’t know how easily we can put glowing lines on fabric nowadays, but it’s certainly not something you see in everyday clothing, so it still stands out in the best way possible.

And again, there’s color schemes to consider. The gold of his cuffs (which look like they’re made out of metal–another brilliant decision on the designers’ part) bring out the color of his eyes really well, and the blue lines match his shoes.

Actually, let’s talk about those shoes for a minute.

I couldn’t find a lot of pictures where you could see the soles of his shoes, but they stand out to me every time I see them so it was worth the search. They’re teal hexagons linked together by a line, which just screams futuristic and looks ridiculously cool to me. They’re also slightly heeled, which I approve of immensely.

But going on to the rest of his shoes, the color scheme is great, mixing light and dark blue along with the gold of the cuffs. There’s also the small red rectangles on the top. I’m not sure what they’re supposed to be, if anything, but it adds a nice little splash of primary color to the whole thing, which keeps him from having a two-toned color scheme but doesn’t overdo it, either.

I just also like that they’re boots. Aside from Jet, he’s the only male Sonic character to wear boots, to the best of my knowledge. Hmm… combined with the thick eyeliner, I wonder if Silver looks more feminine to people in-universe? Something to think about.

So, to summarize, Silver has an amazingly unique character design that fits in perfectly with the rest of the Sonic cast. He stands out in a room, but he’ll still feel like he belongs there. And that’s the goal of any good character design, particularly in Sonic: every character is meant to bring something fresh and new to the table, and Silver accomplishes that in so many ways, from simply looking awesome to matching his setting and role in the plot perfectly.

(His powers are also one of the coolest things to grace the Sonic franchise, but that’s a post for a different time.)