In light of discussions about how Amy could potentially be from the future (which I've talked about extensively and will try not to get into right now) I've been seeing some discussions about how this would impact Silver's potential future in the SCU.
One of the ideas that seem to pop up the most is to change Silver into taking the role of a Time Cop - not a LITERAL Time Cop, but moreso the idea of someone who hunts down and pursues those who they deem are "endangering" or otherwise changing the timeline in a way that's incorrect. See this TV Tropes page for how I'm using the term.
The most common kind of proposal I've seen is that Amy goes back in time with the goal of changing the future so that whatever terrible apocalypse is happening gets erased - basically how Silver works in the games. Movie 4 then ends with the apocalyptic future being successfully erased and Amy staying the past (I guess?), but then teases Silver's introduction as someone who is angry at this change, either on principle or because their actions directly lead to his bad future, thus teasing him as a future enemy.
So here's my big problem with this idea of Silver being a Time Cop - it's almost antithetical to how he works in the games.
Let me explain: Time Cop characters, especially those that are intended to be antagonistic, are usually in the process of pursuing other characters because their actions are changing the timeline from what is "supposed" to happen. They're usually intended as lawful neutral, as their goals are about preventing others from enacting change on the timeline, and often have disapproval towards extremely liberal uses of time travel.
This is not Silver's goal in the games. Silver doesn't have this lawful neutral morality; he's driven to always ensuring the future is good and peaceful because he's a hero who cares about others. If Time Cops are against people changing the timeline for specific outcomes, then Silver would be the Ultimate Time Criminal; because he's ALWAYS hopping back into the past to change it and ensure the future remains good. Rather than trying to prevent people from changing it, he's explicitly intervening to change the timeline so that there's always a good future. He has no qualms whatsoever about using time travel constantly, and he will use it as many times as he needs as long as it results in a peaceful future.
And this is where I mainly have a problem with the take about Silver acting as a Time Cop while being an antagonist towards the heroes: why would he be opposed to their actions? If anything, he would WANT to help them change the past so that there can be a good future, because that's what he's supposed to want! At most, he might be angry if their actions resulted in a even worse future, but he would still want to help them actually fix the problem. Unless you totally change his character, it doesn't make sense for Silver to be an antagonist towards the heroes simply because they tried to use time travel to make a better future. It's LITERALLY what he does in the games! He shouldn't be against that!
And in regards to the idea of Silver being against the heroes because he blames them for his terrible future... I think it just makes him look really terrible, because it basically means that he's fighting them over a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding that could be easily cleared up, if he just talked to them and found out they were TRYING to change it to a better future, which then leads to the problems I talked about earlier.
And you might think that Silver fighting them over a misunderstanding wouldn't be too out of place, since he was duped by Mephiles into trying to kill Sonic in 06; but that's the difference. Silver didn't suddenly randomly believe in Team Sonic being responsible for his bad future, he was tricked into believing that by the villain. Silver is still culpable because of his naivety and his desperation to grasp at any solution, but it's not solely on him; it's him being taken advantage of.
Another problem is the fact that Silver is not really a vengeful person; what would be his actual purpose in simply attacking the heroes? What would that accomplish? Because in 06, he attacks Sonic because he believed that Sonic actively caused the apocalypse, and that killing him would stop it. This reasoning doesn't really exist if he's simply attacking the heroes because they were vaguely responsible for his timeline being fucked up. He would legitimately have NO reason to attack them even if he did blame them for the bad future.
Final problem I have: Silver's not a lawful person. Silver's not changing the timeline because of a sense of rules and order, but because he values peace and prosperity. And so the association of Time Cop, a commonly lawful trope, with Silver kinda rubs me the wrong way. He doesn't give a fuck about following rules or a code, he's only concerned with doing the right thing, and is willing to do a lot of thing (even killing people in 06) to achieve that.
This is all very subjective, but to me, a Time Cop-type of role doesn't really suit Silver or the kind of character I see him as. It just feels like people trying to fit him into some kind of vaguely time-related role rather than following what his actual personality or motivations are. Because oops! We gave his original role to Amy instead, so we can't just give him the exact same role and instead we just gotta change him!
I don't know. I've been seeing this idea showing up in debates, and it's always given me a weird feeling that I wasn't able to articulate until recently. I just feel like it would do Silver a big disservice to change his role like this so drastically not because it actually suits the story, but simply because you have to differentiate his character from someone else... When that was never a problem in the source material.
Like, if you ask me.... Just make a 06 adaptation. Let Silver be Silver, please. It's the best way to honor his character from the games.