Sonic the Hedgehog
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Sonic the Hedgehog is the titular protagonist of a long-running series of videogames, with cartoon, anime and comic spin-offs. Debuting in the early 90s, he was originally a legitimate rival for Mario in terms of popularity and influence, but his games fell into a spiral of decline in the early 2000's that it never fully recovered from.
In a nutshell, Sonic is a super-fast blue-furred anthropomorphic hedgehog who constantly works to thwart the schemes of the local robotics-obsessed Mad Scientist; one of the first things that divides the infamously fractious Sonic fanbase is whether they call Sonic's enemy by the name "Eggman" (his original name in Japan, and which he was retconned to in English during the 2000s) or "Dr. Robotnik" (the more menacing name that the English distributors came up with for him during the 90s). He has an enormous array of possible allies in this fight, mainly because his continuity has splintered into a wide array of different branches, creating a sprawling and messy multiverse.
Supporting Cast
Miles "Tails" Prower(get it?): A young(4-8) years old) fox-boy who has two tails(hence the nickname) for no explained reason, and can use them like a propeller to move fast and even fly. Tails is a mechanical genius despite his young age, and idolizes Sonic much like a little brother.
Amy Rose: A pink hedgehog with a big hammer and a bigger crush on Sonic. How annoying she is about it(and how well Sonic handles it) varies a lot between games and other adaptations.
Metal Sonic: Robotnik has tried the old "Evil Robot Duplicate of the Hero" schtick a few times, this is probably his most successful.
Knuckles the Echidna: A red Echidna with dreadlocks(that he can glide with) and spiked fists(for punching). Eggman tricked him into fighting Sonic when they first met, but they became friends after Eggman's true nature came out. A grumpy loner who falls just short of being an edgelord, especially compared to...
Shadow the Hedgehog: a.k.a. Edgelord Sonic. Genetically engineered to be the ultimate life form, the fact that only brings him about even with Sonic is telling. Is willing use guns, that's how edgy he is. His character was so utterly fucked by his game that Sega has basically restricted his use for once every blue moon.
Rouge the Bat: Not Rogue, though she arguably is one. A white-furred spy and jewel thief who is probably sexier than a character in a series mostly made for kids should be. Teases Knuckles a lot (arguably because he guards the biggest gem on the planet), and has a genuine soft spot for Shadow, whom she often works with alongside E-123 Omega, a rogue Eggman robot.
Cream the Rabbit: An adorable six-year-old bunny who accidentally got kidnapped by Eggman once, and still hangs around the heroes from time to time. Lives with her mother Vanilla (who also got kidnapped by Eggman another time) and their pet Chao, Cheese and Chocula.
Blaze the Cat: This flame-empowered Princess from another dimension is effectively her world's counterpart to Sonic, fighting to defend her world from its own Eggman.
The Chaotix A trio who work as detectives and troubleshooters, They are Vector the Crocodile, the leader (who is kinda sweet on Cream's mom), the ninja Espio the Chameleon and the childlike Charmy Bee. The comics sometimes giving them additional members, notably Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel, two obscure old-school buddies of Sonic's. Charmy could practically get his own entry here because he has had some seriously messed up backstories. See, in the games, he was supposed to be a 6 year old kid... but the English translator flubbed it and thought he was 16. So both the Fleetway and Archie Comics naturally thought it was okay to give him some "teen appropriate" stories. [There's actually a youtube video on the topic], but in a nutshell:
- Fleetway: From the start, he was depicted as being the one guy on the Chaotix that everybody hated. Like, they literally tell him to his face that he hates him, which Charmy always brushes off because he genuinely thinks they're his friends.
- Archie: His best friend died of a drug overdose in front of him. His kingdom was wiped out by Robotnik, who murdered almost the entire population with his "Egg Grapes", a machine that sucks the life out of living creatures to store it in batteries. Charmy himself was put in one and got out alive, but was permanently braindamaged to the point he was left with the intellectual and emotional capacity of a six-year-old, with his former girlfriend Saffron now having to be his caretaker. Oh, except that due to the Ken Penders fiasco, Saffron then had to be written out of the story, which was achieved by having her banished to another dimension with Charmy never getting a chance to say goodbye. Honestly, being retconned into just being a six year old kid by the big setting reboot was a step up for the little bastard!
Other Characters
Wisps: Originally from the game Sonic Colors, these weird little Squid/Jellyfish aliens have different colors and powers. In Sonic Forces, the Mobians developed Wispons, guns that channel the power of Wisps to fight against Eggman.
Sally Acorn: Sonic's love interest in the Archie and SatAM continuities. Princess of a kingdom on Mobius, she now helps Sonic lead a resistance against Robotnik. A version of her also appears in Sonic the Comic.
Bunnie Rabbot: Another Archie/SatAM character. She was a rabbit who got captured by Robotnik's goons, but Sonic rescued her before she was fully Roboticized, effectively making her a cyborg with metal legs and an arm. Her fighting ability and mildly flirtatious nature made her a bit of a proto-Rouge, and indeed the latter's introduction to the Archie continuity involved a fight between the two.
Nicole: Oh this is a fun one. Nicole originally appeared in SatAM as a hand-held computer Sally carried around for hacking and other purposes. It was carried over to the Archie continuity, where it got smarter, eventually gained a body(a Lynx), and became a character in her own right.
Shortfuse the Cybernik: From Sonic the Comic, Shortfuse was a squirrel who got Roboticized, but managed to regain his free will. He's kind of a cross between Shadow and E-123 Omega (and a bit of Boba Fett), though he predated them both. Probably a mistake on the writer's part, since they gave him ultra-indestructible armor (seriously; the guy spent several months sitting at the bottom of a lava pool and was totally unharmed, just bored) and a burning grudge against Robotnik, but they couldn't let him actually beat the big bad of the series.
Grimer Wormtongue: A Goblin Scientist who served as Dr. Robotnik's henchman in the Sonic the Comic series. Named after Grima Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings.
Snively: Robotnik's nephew and chief minion in SatAM, eventually adapted to the Archie comics too.
Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts: Robotnik's minions in Adventures, based off Badniks in Sonic 2. They're about as smart as you'd expect minions in kids' shows from the 80's and 90's to be. That is to say: Not.
Sonia and Manic the Hedgehog(s): Sonic's triplet siblings from Underground. Sonia was raised by a wealthy family and is accordingly pompous, fashion-obsessed and a bit of a snot - she has Sonic's super speed, but doesn't like to use it for fear of messing her hair. She very rarely busts out her "Sonia Spin", where she twirls like a hyper-speed tornado, and relies on her magical laser-blasting keytar. Manic was stolen from the stoop his mom left him on to be adopted by a thief who thought he was a bundle of valuables, and was subsequently raised as a thief. He doesn't seem to have super speed like his siblings, but his magical drumset can generate earthquakes.
Guardian Unit of Nations (G.U.N.): A predominantly Human military organization first appearing in Sonic Adventure 2. Clashed with both Eggman's forces and Sonic and his friends a number of times in the 2000s, but as of late has fallen out of focus.
Chris Thorndyke: A 10-year-old who befriends Sonic in Sonic X when he saved him from a swimming pool his first night on Earth(for all his powers and abilities, Sonic can't swim). Generally hated by the audience, since he's the obvious "kid self-insert character" that most kids don't like in their xenofictional cartoons.
Topaz: A Human G.U.N. agent from Sonic X. Works with Rouge a lot.
Cosmo: An alien plant-girl who was Tails' love interest in the latter part of Sonic X.
Sticks the Jungle Badger: From the Sonic Boom series, Sticks has lived alone for most of her life, and is a little bit crazy.
Tangle the Lemur: From the IDW comics, Her long, extendable tail is her primary method of attack. Based off a very early concept for Sonic (the same one that eventually became the game Ristar).
Whisper the Wolf: Another IDW character. A sharpshooter with a gun that can take different forms by merging with Wisps. She was part of a Mercenary team called the Diamond Cutters, but one of the team betrayed the squad to Eggman, killing everyone but her. She is currently good friends with Tangle. Whisper and Diamond Cutters were based off the bosses from Metal Gear Solid (naturally, she's Sniper Wolf).
Doctor Starline: A Platypus in the IDW continuity who was a big fanboy of Dr. Eggman. He worked with him on a few schemes until he couldn't ignore Eggman's flaws, and began to strike out on his own, to show Eggman how it's done. To begin, he made his own versions of Sonic and Tails, the lightning-shooting Surge the Tenrec and water-manipulating Kit the Fennec, who promptly turned on him. Starline is missing, presumed dead, but his creations still want to kill Sonic.
Scourge the Hedgehog: Originally Anti-Sonic, an OG-Archieverse character who's a parallel version of Sonic from the Star Trek Mirror Universe zone of Moebius - aka, the reverse world where heroes are villains and viceversa. Initially just looked like Sonic in a biker jacket and shades, later got a redesign where he went green and picked up a set of scars on his chest. With the new look came a new, more competent attitude.
Longclaw: An Owl who was Sonic's mother figure in the CJI + live action film, which is widely regarded as one of the very few decent videogame movies.
Mega Man: Toward the end of their Sonic comicbook run, Archie also managed to get the license to make comics for Capcom's Blue Bomber. Naturally, Archie decided to do a crossover between the two: "Worlds Collide". It did so well, they made a sequel, "Worlds Unite", which involved even more Sega and Capcom characters.
Tekno: A female bird character in Sonic the Comic who is Amy's best friend. Widely suspected by the fans to be Amy's lesbian lover after Amy gets over Sonic.
Games
Sonic is resident of some alternative reality "Earth" where sentient animals and humans coexist (American localization fucked it up and called planet "Mobius") which Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik was trying to conquer with an army of robots powered by brainwashed animals that Sonic was trying to save. Later Eggman dropped the forced mecha piloting angle for just straight up using AI and occasional recruitment of elder gods.
Comics
There are currently three major comic continuities, technically four.
Sonic the Comic was a British line that nobody heard of outside of England until the internet got involved. Heavily based on a scrapped concept for a western Sonic origin story, where Doctor Robotnik was formerly a kind scientist called Kintobor who worked with Sonic to drain the world's evil with Chaos Emeralds before a lab accident turned him into the fat mad scientist we all know. Initially more game-accurate than the Archie comic, as time went on it diverged into its own direction with plots involving evil fish-aliens and Arabian Nights themed planets smaller than an atom. The most infamous original element is Super Sonic being portrayed as a psychopathic split personality caused by Sonic being exposed to too much Chaos Energy, which eventually managed to get his own body seperate from the original Sonic and become a recurring villain.
Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog was the original American comic line, which became the basis for Sonic SatAM - see below. This is divided into two sub-continuities; Pre- and Post-Super Genesis Wave(The Super Genesis Wave being one of those big Crisis On Infinite Earths/Flashpoint-style continuity super-retcons. The real reason for which being a lawsuit regarding one of the writers, a man named Ken Penders. See a more appropriate Wiki for the full ugly affair, but the most important part being that Penders left the company and took nearly everything he contributed to the universe with him.
IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog is the latest Sonic comic line, and trying its hardest to adhere to Sega's new rules for Sonic's universe, setting itself directly after Sonic Forces.
Both Sonic the Comic and Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog have unofficial online continuations of their continuities, not related to Sega but continuing the canon of their respective comics.
Cartoons
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: Basically a Looney Tunes style fast-paced gag-a-minute action comedy with Ren & Stimpy style surreal artwork. Smallest cast of any continuity, boiling it down to Sonic and Tails for the heroes, and Robotnik with his three bumbling robot minions/"sons" (Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts) for the bad guys. Infamous source of memes due to the "Youtube Poop" reworking of the series. It should be noted that this show, SatAM, and Underground all had Sonic voiced by Jaleel White, who played uber-nerd Steve Urkel on the 80's/90's Sitcom Family Matters.
Sonic SatAM: Technically just called "Sonic the Hedgehog", this cartoon, based very loosely on the Archie comics, earned its moniker due to airing at the same time as AoStH above, but on Saturday mornings. In contrast to the light-hearted, goofy tone of its brother, this show was dark, revolving around Sonic and a small band of Freedom Fighters conducting a desperate guerrilla campaign against Dr. Robotnik and his legions of Swatbots and Badniks, who has conquered the world with the aid of the Roboticizer: a horrible machine that can transmute any living creature into an obedient robotic slave. One that still retains its original consciousness, just locked away in a corner of its own mind, screaming as it watches its body do whatever Robotnik commands. Was cancelled due to insufficient ratings at the end of the second season.
'Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie: An animated film that was assembled from the two episodes of a failed Sonic anime pilot. Set on a completely different world to Mobius, called "Planet Freedom", the plot is that Sonic is forced by Robotnik to venture to Robotnik's fortress in the sub-world of Planet Freedom to thwart "Metal Robotnik", an evil robot that kicked Robotnik out of his home and has now tampered with a hyper-powerful generator that is building up to a planet shattering explosion. It ultimately ends with Sonic clashing against Metal Sonic, an evil robot clone of himself. After a legal fuckup that's almost foreshadowing what would happen years later with Penders, Sega ended up losing the rights to everything that Studio Pierrot invented for the movie (and considering that this was back when the Sonic franchise was only five years old, with the original Genesis games being all they had to work with, that was quite a bit). This is why Knuckles isn't allowed to wear a hat to this very day.
Sonic Underground: The first Sonic cartoon of the 2000s, presenting a slightly less grimdark version of SatAM; in this one, Sonic is one of three royal triplets prophesied to, at the right time, reunite with their mother the queen and bring about the downfall of Robotnik, who has overthrown their family and brutally reigns over Mobius. Until the time is right, the triplets play in an underground rock band to try and motivate the demoralized denizens of Mobius to rise up and join the resistance.
Sonic X: The first Sonic cartoon of the 2010s, this anime started as an adaptation of Sega's 2000s Sonic games, but set on Earth and with an annoying human kid sidekick. Also debut of Sonic's Super Badass edgelord Arch Rival Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Boobs(Bat).
Sonic Boom: A slapstick, goofball comedy series. While the game it was based on was lackluster, many appreciated the clever jokes and gags in the show. It also didn’t shy away from poking fun at the sonic franchise itself, or the reputation of Sonic fans for being weirdos.
Sonic Prime: Now the newest TV series, this one running on Netflix. Sonic and the gang(now plus Rouge because apparently they didn't want Amy to be the only girl on the team) are battling Eggman when he tricks Sonic into shattering a crystal called the Paradox Prism. This also shatters Sonic's world into several alternate dimensions. Now Sonic has to figure out how to recover the pieces of the Prism and put his world back together, while dealing with alternate versions of his friends and enemies.
Films
In 2019, previews were released for a feature film by Paramount Pictures. Fans HATED it, mostly for the attempted realistic redesign of our protagonist, which fell right into the Uncanny Valley. Paramount actually delayed the release of the film by a year while they totally re-did Sonic's design, which was much appreciated by the fans. While it was in many ways a standard Buddy/Adoption flick, it did have a lot of heart, and more importantly Jim Carrey being his Jim Carreiest playing Dr. Robotnik.
To the surprise of everyone, it worked, in basically the same way the 1989 version of Batman worked (ie, letting the villain's much better actor eat the scenery). It worked well enough to earn a sequel, which brought in Tails and Knuckles and set up for a third installment to add Shadow in December 2024.