In this post I’ll be explaining exactly why Whisper’s character in IDW Sonic is basically stuck, but first we need to clear something up. Every time Whisper shows up, people ask why she is always so moody and sad, and why she never gets to have fun or do slice of life stuff. Even though this gets explained over and over, I think what’s needed is an example, so let’s consider what options actually exist for her now that Mimic, her sworn enemy, is dead.
So the naive answer would be that now she can finally move on, but that’s not really possible. If we break down her possible paths, there are basically two main routes: she can deal with her trauma, which is her being sad and moody in every scene, or she can work towards a new goal, which would have to be taking out the main series antagonist, Eggman. However, SEGA is never going to let her actually kill Eggman, so that route is already a dead end. If you try to put her in fun scenes or slice of life stories, it just does not work because her entire personality is still built around trauma and feeling empty after Mimic is gone.
Now, you might be thinking, if she does get over her trauma, maybe she could be more interesting, but if that happens she basically just becomes another Tangle. Tangle already fills the role of the energetic, fun character, so Whisper would just be Tangle 2.0, but with a mask. There is no unique angle left for her. On top of that, she has to stay around because she is important for merch and marketing, so the writers are forced to keep using her even if she has nothing left to actually do.
The writers have created a character who is stuck in a permanent holding pattern. With Mimic gone, there is no natural direction for Whisper’s story to go. She cannot have meaningful development, she cannot have fun, and if she ever does, she just overlaps with Tangle.
