#dynamic characters

1. That's how television storytelling works, this isn't a first person perspective story like a book or video game, you need other characters and their perspectives

2. This is not some unique to disney sw thing or even a new thing in general, shows/movies/etc have used a character's name for clout and at the same time given attention to other characters before, its an old trick

3. At no point was this show advertised as being Maul only, the only thing that "implies" (if you only think for no more than five seconds) no one else would get attention in this show is the title, which is nonsense, in any case, from the start the marketing has prominently featured Devon and Lawson, it has been very clear from the get go that they are important (more so than the background nightbrothers everyone obsesses over) and this is their story too, and that they have their own supporting characters (Daki, Two-Boots, Rylee)

4. Relating to that, Maul is an established character, Devon/Lawson aren't, we need to get to know them, we don't with Maul, we know who he is

5. Maul has a fundamental limitation that Lawson and Devon don't have, his fate is already written, and he has the same mindset that he has now when he dies 17 years later, this means he cannot grow as a character, or if he does grow hell just regress back to what he was before, thus the show needs characters capable of growing and changing with the circumstances, Maul on the other hand is doomed to fail, he will lose it all and die on tatooine, the peak of his accomplishments and relevance being when he killed Qui-Gon in tpm 27 years ago, but Devon and Lawson's fates are undetermined, they can grow

Maul is a static character, Devon and Lawson are dynamic characters, and if you spend too much time with Maul, his inability to grow and change becomes a problem, as you're just focusing on a guy who will never change, that's bad writing and storytelling, and it struggles to keep audiences interested

Ironically, Maul here is in the opposite situation of what he was in Clone wars relevant to other characters

In clone wars Maul was the one who's fate was unwritten, while almost everyone else had already been decided by revenge of the sith

But in Shadow Lord Maul's fate is decided, he will die in 17 years on tatooine, but what will become of Devon, Lawson, etc is unknown

6. Maul is the reason the plot happens, it all comes back to him, he is why these characters are here and involved in what he's doing, he brought Devon and Lawson in, they are people of interest to him, they are extensions of Maul's story, Lawson being Maul's major opponent and Devon struggling with the choice to join or oppose Maul

7. Less is more, yknow Maul wasn't in TCW or Rebels that much right? He's only in 6 episodes of the original (2008-2014) run of tcw, 5 episodes of the revival (2020) run of tcw, and 5 episodes of Rebels

That's 16 episodes, Maul only appears in 16 across two shows that have over 200 episodes between them

But he makes an impact with those few appearances, and as a stated in point #6, everything in this show comes back to Maul, even when he's not there on screen he's there

8. Speaking of episode numbers, using less of Maul and giving time to other characters (who were actually advertised as being major characters not just random side characters you latched onto and decided were important because you liked them) is important because we have far less runtime overall

We only have 10 episodes of 20-30 min runtimes, this is the shortest animated show season we've ever had, the glory days where clone wars, rebels, and resistance got 20 episodes a season and ample time to play around with the setting and characters are over, hell we're not even getting 16-ish episodes a season like bad batch did, even an 8 episode live action show season has more run time as they've got 30-45 min episodes

I don’t find myself thinking about Silver a lot, and that’s a bit of a crime honestly. But when I do, I’m struck by how in the weeds I become about his existence. Silver the Hedgehog starts as a young boy with psychokinesis* born into a world on fire. He wants to fix it but doesn’t know how.

*worth mentioning here that while Lore™️ consistently refers to Silver’s power as psychokinesis (the ability to control minds and conjure specific actions from people), his powers in practice are actually much more aligned with the definition of telekinesis (the ability to control objects and manipulate their movement in space).

He despairs with Blaze over the life they live and the nerve-ending cycle of it all, then meets a mouthless hedgehog who claims to have all the answers. In his desperation, Silver clings to the sliver of hope he provides… and this is something I think we often find ourselves forgetting.

Silver never had the power to travel through time—at least, not independently. Mephiles did. Later on, the game establishes that two people can open a time portal through the power of our favourite plot device, the Chaos Emeralds, via Chaos Control.

Through Contrivance’s Paradise, Silver (and company) were just… able to time travel because that’s what the plot needed, but Silver, as an individual, never had the embedded power to travel through time.

I’m still endlessly annoyed that this anniversary game didn’t shoehorn an excuse to bring back the time stones from Sonic CD, but alas.

Silver was barely a figment in the canon imagination after Sonic 06. His appearances in Rivals are just excuses to reintroduce him into the series (because, remember, Sonic 06 removes itself from the timeline by the end of its story), and his appearances there don’t mention his time travelling at all. He appears (for kinda no explainable reason) in Generations, but then… nothing! Absolutely nothing… for FIVE YEARS.

And yet, in 2025’s mainline canon, Silver is just the Time Traveler™️. Since Sonic 06 never happened, the nature of Silver’s time travel beyond Sonic 06 has always been vague, at best. 

The running logic seems to be that Silver, through no intentional act of his own, is sent into the past when something catastrophic needs to be stopped. Silver is a being somehow tied to the fate of the world. Silver has been chosen by Time itself to protect it… which is something I kind of love, to be honest.

If Sonic is just a hedgehog who showed up one day and decided to do good, then Silver is a sort of divine guardian of his travels.

It’s taken canon a bit of time to settle into this interpretation, but the IDW comics have taken pretty much any opportunity they can to establish this fact as fact.

In issue 3 of the Sonic Forces prequel comics, Silver returns from the future to warn Knuckles about the Eggman Empire’s success, which implies that Silver has some sense of control over his time travel.

In mainline IDW 8, Silver returns to the present after winning the war didn’t save his future, under the same pretense that he can just… do that.

However, by the end of the Meal Virus comic arc (IDW 12-29), in a pretty monumental move for his story, Silver’s future is officially saved.

IDW 31

Now, having done the damn thing and guaranteed a Good Future™️, Silver is free to be a kid again… and for his efforts, as I intend to argue, Time rewards him…

…by sending him back to the past where all the bullshit is happening lmao. Hear me out.

In the IDW Sonic 2022 annual, Silver returns to the present, but this time he has no idea why or how*. This is when canon decides to remove the pretense of Silver having active control of his time traveling. It’s largely implied that Silver will be in the present for the foreseeable future (no pun intended).

*I’ve included the proof for this below as it’s more directly relevant to another point I’m making in a moment.

With the inauguration of Fast Friends Forever, the SEGA initiative that champions friendship through a lore-centric focus on Sonic and his friends in and out of the games, Silver’s time travel is explicitly explained as external to his control.

By IDW 58, Silver is roped back into the mainline plot, and it’s made abundantly clear that he no longer has  never had the ability to travel freely through time.

So, Silver’s arc becomes about finding his place and trying to live life without the demand of proactivity—to enjoy the moment while making the most of the life he has.

But… why? Why must he do this? Why take him down this road?

Silver the Hedgehog starts as a young boy with psychokinesis born into a world on fire. That world no longer exists.

Silver the Hedgehog became a young boy with psychokinesis born into a world dominated by the Eggman Empire. That world no longer exists.

Silver the Hedgehog further became a young boy with psychokinesis left behind by a world decimated by metallic disease. That world no longer exists.

With every trip to the past, every day saved, Silver rewrites his own life for the sake of his world—so much so that there’s nothing for him when he returns. His entire world has changed. People he might have known before cease to exist as they once were.

When Silver saved his future, he sacrificed his place within it—because once he saved his future, his future ceased to exist. Instead, a new future curates itself in Silver’s absence because he wasn’t there to be a part of it.

Returning to the IDW 2022 annual:

It seems that Time has sent him back to the place—the time—he belongs… where he has unwittingly planted his roots.

Something which Espio so elegantly points out.

Thanks to his sacrifices, Silver is no longer the Omen of Disaster. He’s Silver the Hedgehog: the psychokinetic. Silver the Hedgehog: the kid.

People always saying ‘forever a Luke Castellan understander, never a Luke defender’ Ok but I am, like… what else do you suggest he does? The action that needed to be taken had to be very big, visible to the gods, and it had the effect the gods, if it had effected humans, nothing would happen, if it effected the world, nothing would happen, if the plan did not directly piss off the gods, nothing would happen, because in the Percy Jackson series, more than half of the gods are almost completely incapable of doing anything that benefits anything but themselves.

Most if not all of his overly violent and/or inappropriate actions (I’m not saying he was perfect) were heavily influenced, or done while under control of Kronos. And it’s not like Luke lacks apathy, like, yes he has anger issues, but a lot of people do, I do. People see him framed as a villian and then make any of his other negative trait so much more amplified because he is villian, if Percy had anger issues (which he kind of does) it makes him of a real hero, more down to earth, but when someone with a negative connotation has the EXACT SAME TRAIT, it makes him horrible and unredeemable.

like at this point just say you lack emotional maturity

People always be saying ‘they’re two sides of the same coin’ (Percy and Luke) Then fucking treat them as such, both should have had the same opportunities, and yet people are saying ‘I laughed when he died!’ like just say you’re 5. He is not a flat character, for the amount of posts I see talking about how we make other characters flat, such as Nico, Leo, and Annabeth, you forget to make someone who needed understanding the most, a dynamic character in your mind.

Whumper who screams and yells as if someone's chasing them, even when it's long since Whumpee submitted.

Whumper who fiercely states Whumpee as their own, yet treats them as a burden.

Whumper who locks the door thrice and checks it twice.

Whumper who hates Whumpee to their guts.

Problem: The Characters Are All Stereotypes

Solution: To be more than a collection of tropes, characters must be emotionally differentiated, possess myriad insecurities, battle visible and invisible vulnerabilities, willingly blur their own logic to achieve what they perceive as necessary, and debate their own flaws. Solid characters, well-rounded characters, and well-defined characters give readers a reason to stay engaged.

To craft these characters, authors should be conscientious of what internal rules the story's characters follow, what flaws these characters must overcome, and what trajectory each character arc takes in parallel to the overall narrative arc. Not every character needs to know who they are or how they want to influence the story to stick in readers' minds, but the author should have a good grasp how the character grows (or regresses) relative to how they engage the story's central conflict or theme.

Writing Resources:

10 Traits of a Strong Antagonist (Fiction University)

The No-Effort Character Sheet for Lazy Writers (justsomecynic; ahbwrites)

How to Write Deep P.O.V.: 8 Tips and Examples (Now Novel)

Character Flaws: Creating Lovable Imperfections (Now Novel)

How to Use Character Flaws to Enrich Your Writing (Perpetual Stories)

Character Flaws: When Is Too Far Too Far? (The Character Therapist)

20 Powerful Romance Tropes (and How to Make Them Original) (Jericho Writers)

Does Your Character Have a Secret? (Writers Helping Writers)

Creating Villain Motivations: Writing Real Adversaries (Now Novel)

Some Quick Character Tips (Coffee Bean Writing)

Dynamic vs. Round Characters: Who Needs a Character Arc? (The Novel Smithy)