I really like tiering/noting my thoughts on various characters and ships as I get more familiar with sonic. These are my current charts so far, but I plan to update them as I learn more. Some of these have paragraphs of thought behind them while others I just clap my hands with glee when I see them. Starline isn't really equatable to the others, me and him have a parasitic relationship that just isn't clear on a tier list.
More detailed gushing below (I can do actual character analysis but not here lol):
Starline: Long story short, I consider myself to have a Starline shaped hole in my head. In my head there is only Starline and Starline-related topics. He has done a lot for me. I never thought I could feel such an intense way about a character before. I have a WIP essay about him clocking in at about 2k words right now before I add the extra sections. I have to have him filtered out on social media because if I see his face or a mention of him unexpectedly it really throws me off guard. I still cannot tolerate a physical form of him despite there being a decent quantity of fan-merch for a comic villain. When they finally release that Starline plush I will be crucifying it. On a surface level it can just be seen as a crush but he genuinely does something awful to me and I haven't been able to extract him from me via art and other creations. This is excellent for making art, not so much for feeling normal and not like one has a suspiciously platypus-shaped Achilles heel.
Mimic: Similar category than Starline minus the intensity. The Shattered Diamonds short story changed my life for the better and power of friendshipped me, which is embarassing at my age. It's good to have that character that gets you into therapy but like come the fuck on him really?
Amy: Amy is just one of my favourites, initially (like most Sonic characters), I didn't 'get' her or her appeal, but I think as time has gone on I've just started to genuinely love her for how free she feels to express herself. I really like the more modern angle of being very self-expressive and also physically strong, almost an all-rounder. Compared to the other core characters who are not as expressive and also not women, it can feel a little sexist still, but honestly I feel her standalone and with how much work has been done for other female characters in the franchise makes it worth it for me. I really adore her.
Eggman: Honestly, mostly grew on me because of Starline. He's so theatrical! It's great! A cartoonish villain! I use him to represent me in some circles because he's just that cool. I love his egoism and the range of stories he can be used for; he can be goofy or menacing or both depending on the requirements, and there's always some bullshit where he's like haha I made the theme park that kills you like he's not taking over the world anytime soon even if he threatens mobians with a gun sometimes.
Surge: She's just like me frfr OTL OTL OTL OTL OTL On a more serious note, she is just like me frfrfr We gave a character piercings and cool electrical powers and she turns rainbow at one point. It may seem like my liking of her and Starline crossover but no absolutely not. One man's love revenge is another woman's horror story and I love it!!!! We gave the character bodily autonomy issues and a lack of self esteem and codependency. They kept making characters after this for some reason, unsure why! I'm so so so excited to see where they go with her and the upcoming conflict with Kit like holy shit can you imagine. She was suicidal (based on her hallucinations) without the eventual betrayal like holy shittttt. Genuinely one of the most compelling elements of the comics to date (#87)
Lanolin: THEY WRONGED MY QUEEN. I initially fell in love with her bc of her design, not enough characters have big poofy hair that clearly takes 3 hours to condition and brush through in the shower. I really love how bossy she is, and her implied internal conflict with how she treats others and how she views them? Her characterisation did fall off but the foundation is strong enough for her I swear. She's some much needed conflict on the hero side and I think they can have her actually pull it off this time. Her and Sonic should talk more, maybe even some of the more morally gray characters who don't automaticallhey side with Sonic such as Rouge or Shadow.
Thunderbolt (AKA The Freak):
I first saw her in a shipping tier list of her and Eggman, an image of which took me out because what on earth ????
Is this ???? Who is The Freak??? At the time I didn't know the archie reboots were in a vaguely similar style to the IDW comics, so I just ended up spending half of the time reading the IDW comics going 'Damn, and Eggman has to deal with whoever that freak is after too!'. They never came up and I was so confused until I randomly saw fanart of her and I genuinely have never hunted a character down so fast in my life. And it turns out she's incredible! She's what Starline wishes she could be (more about that in the contaianment zone). Pop off you know what you want in life and it's Eggman. Her design is so cutes too!! She wags her tail when she's excited!! She also has electricity based powers. She's one of the few Sonic characters with a sense of mass and weight!! Big Ears!! I could go on.
Jet: Sonic ragebaits him and he gets sooooo mad but he's also good at what he does. He's just really pathetic about it. It's his first time of someone being mean to him, ok? :[ It's hard being the best racer and-- wait did Sonic just win?
Tangle: Bad day and then I see image of Tangle YIPPEE WAHOO!!!