Ah.... the 90s. I can't fathom what it's like living at the that decade. A lot of people would say it's the last good decade before everything went to shit for them.
For me however, it was the 2010s where everything went to shit.... at least for me. I consider the 2000s to be the last good decade and the only good decade of the 21st Century.
But there is one thing about both the 90s and 2000s that has not aged well.
And that's...... well..... let this TV TROPES article tell you the first half of it:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MascotWithAttitude
DAMMIT GEX!!! WHY'D YOU HAVE TO BE THE STAR FOR THIS BLOGPOST
So what's with this once popular thing called TUDE which was so rampant back in the 90s?
Well..... it was a thing that executives did in order to capitalize on the success of
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG on the SEGA GENESIS (MEGADRIVE in Japan and Europe)
But here's the thing about SONIC that's not true about TUDE which is another reason for me to antagonize executives.
Just because SONIC has TUDE, doesn't mean it's his only defining trait. Just any other character for their own successful franchise, SONIC actually is an all-around character with other bits and pieces of personality that balanced out his personality.
He cares for his friends like Tails
Deeply respects his friend/rival Knuckles
Shows admiration for Amy Rose
And feels sorry for the Shadow the Hedgehog, especially for all the tragic stuff the Hedgehog had to go through
Even Sonic is portrayed as an all-around type of guy in the various cartoon and anime productions out there.
So why can't executives understand that?
Because MONEY!!!!
(I'm stuck using this image of Mr. Krabs and his money because I don't have an image of him frothing over keeping his money to himself.)
And not just money but also their misunderstanding of what it really means to do your market research.
They think they know what Children or Tweens know that they want.....
They think they know what Teens or Young Adults want right?
WRONG!!!!
And just to prove my point of WHY EXECUTIVES ARE WRONG ABOUT THEIR ALLEGED EXPERTISE OF MARKET RESEARCH, Let me share a meaningful metaphor from THE SIMPSONS.
Remember that 1991 episode where Homer designs a car for his Half-Brother?
Well remember how pissed his brother was towards his executives over their out-of-touch nature?
That's how I feel about Tude Marketing.
With that, it paved way for the likes of characters in both Cartoons and Video Games where the rule was that TUDE had to be in their character and design.
This gave way for the likes of GEX.
Early on, his personality was GRATING in the 3DO days but thankfully, Crystal Dynamics toned down his narcissism during the character's waning days before his eventual dormancy.
"I still have my loyal fans to keep me alive."
Others such as Bubsy, Croc, BUG, James Pond, just to name a few, they've all crashed and burned...
Of all the 90s SONIC clones to survive besides GEX, Jazz Jackrabbit is the only other standout.
And Cartoons were not immune to this but I don't have any examples to show off due to market oversaturation and most of the good cartoons that I find or even watch don't have that TUDE Mold so it really makes it hard for me to use Cartoon Examples so I'm stuck with video game examples since it's so prevalent.
Notice I haven't talked about anime characters with TUDE? I didn't want to mention anime characters because I know how rabid most otaku are, especially the JOJO fandom so picking fights with that particular fandom is not going to be pretty....
"Don't make me go all OMAE WA MO SHINDERU on you TUDE Mooks."
And to prove that Sonic is not all about TUDE, here's a photo of him recoiling over how his copycats tried and failed to emulate SONIC.
"PATHETIC.... Even Crash Bandicoot and SPYRO have long since abandoned TUDE in favor of likability for newer fans. "
There is a variant of TUDE that permeates female characters out there but that's a different topic to discuss and therefore is far different from TUDE. But I've seen that it affects those types of characters so I've done what I can to make sure I don't write and design my own characters into acting like that.
I really need to update these designs. They come from way back before I settled on the final designs for these characters.... except for Hayden since his design is fleshed out.
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