You guys wanna know why Tails isn't cool anymore?
Maekawa. Fucking Maekawa.
That talentless hack characterized him as nothing but a cocksucker to Sonic who sits on his mech and does fuck-all. And somehow has the power to bullshit a fake Chaos Emerald into existence? Then does fuck-all with it ever again.
He took the focus off Tails as an action character, took the focus off Tails as a friendly rival to Sonic (which I am going to clarify here since I get so much flak for this regularly. Knuckles is not a friendly rival for Sonic since they are not friends. Their Advance 3 depiction has Knuckles is the one character Sonic is displeased to be partnered with. They constantly butt heads in an antagonistic role to one another. Sonic and Tails compete for fun and bring out the best in each other. At least, they did before Tails' character was ruined by Maekawa.), and downplayed him. In Heroes they outright assassinate Tails' character by making him a little kid afraid of the supernatural. In the storybook games, he isn't important. He does nothing in 06. Maekawa didn't know how to write Tails and western writers used Maekawa as a template to make Tails into a stand-in for Sally. A tactician who does nothing but toy with a tablet and get kidnapped. Some lines for 'Tails' in colors are riffing on Sally lines in SatAM. Especially with the translator. The Roboticized Tails in Lost World was overtly riffing on Mecha Sally in Archie. It's why Tails pleading for Sonic in Forces is pathetic. For Sally? It'd be fine. She doesn't have powers. She isn't a speedster hero. She's Sonic's girlfriend who relies on him to be the brawns to her brains. For Tails? Pathetic character regression since the audience knows he used to be a hero. You could remove Tails from Colors and replace him with Sally and it'd solve all my problems with that games' plot, hell, just have a tie-in manga or story on Sonic Channel about him going on an adventure with Amy on Earth or something. That'd be fun.