The Sonic the Hedgehog series has a large fanbase with a rich history dating back to the 1990s. Naturally, throughout the years many fan ideas have popped up and become commonplace in the fandom. Quite a large amount of fanon is due to mixing adaptations (most prominently the Archie comics) with game canon.
Setting-based Fanon
- While Sonic games aren't particularly known for having great continuity, one persistent fan theory would make Shadow, the series' resident Sonic clone, literally a copy of (Super) Sonic, despite having been genetically engineered fifty years before the series began. In Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic faces off against... well, Knuckles in the Hidden Palace Zone, a secret holding place for the Master Emerald. In the background of the battle is a mural that depicts a glowing, hedgehog-shaped thing flying and fighting a giant robot over an Emerald in what is Foreshadowing for the last level, in fact a prophecy created thousands of years earlier by the ancient Echidna civilization. Later in Sonic Battle, reading the diary of Professor Gerald, Shadow's creator, shows that the man has spent a great deal of time researching the very same Echidnas that made the above mural. This is insignificant on its own, until one considers that Shadow resembled Super Sonic much more than he resembles Sonic; both hover above the ground in place of running, both have tussled, unkempt-looking spines, both have red eyes, both are immortal (though in different ways), and both possess extraordinary control over the Chaos Emeralds. Although the implications of Sonic being a warrior of prophecy and Shadow being a copy of him via that prophecy could easily become one of the deepest aspects of the entire plot, it unfortunately doesn't seem like it will be capitalized on.
- Another version of this theory is that Sonic was born the original Ultimate Life Form while Shadow was just Gerald's attempt. Shadow himself suggests this in Sonic Adventure 2 if the final battle goes on long enough and the player is controlling Sonic at the right time.
- Other suggestions based on the above are that Professor Gerald was not trying to copy history; rather he believed the mural was indeed of a warrior of prophecy and in his arrogance thought he could fulfil the prophecy, which was why he created Shadow in the image of Super Sonic, and a hedgehog. Justified in that Gerald wasn't the sanest of individuals even before he went crazy — and he did originally want Shadow to be a protector for Earth.
- While the Ancient Echidnas might not know what it is, Gerald would understand that is a robot in the mural. He might have assumed it was one of GUN's robots that Super Sonic fights.
- There was a theory going around for a while that the Babylonians built Emerl, due to the text calling the awakened Gizoid a god at one point, and the legend stating that Babylon was destroyed by an angry god for their hubris. Naturally, Chronicles laid this one to rest... at least before the game was rendered non-canon due to legal issues.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) created a bit of a Continuity Snarl with Blaze the Cat; in Sonic Rush (her introduction) she was supposedly from another universe, while in 2006, she was from the future. However, in the end of 2006, she was sealed in another dimension. While 2006 ended with a Reset Button, fans attempted to reconcile the two plot lines by stating that the dimension Blaze sealed herself in was the one from Rush. Rush Adventure, which was released after '06, Jossed this theory, as it's stated that Blaze belongs to a royal family that has existed in that dimension for generations. According to Iizuka at Summer Boom 2012, Blaze is indeed from the Sol Dimension (as seen in Rush), although that doesn't quite explain why she's in Crisis City in Generations with the implications that she remembers being at Crisis City (unless you want to Hand Wave it as a Mythology Gag of sorts). However, Shiro Maekawa, the writer of '06, did imply
that the idea of Blaze sealing herself into the Sol Dimension and having '06 connect to Rush was his original intent, even if SEGA's decree holds priority over his own. - A very common concept in fan fiction is that only certain people, usually called "Chaos Adepts," can use the Emeralds and their powers. Usually, they also can't be human. In canon, however, anyone who has actually tried has been shown to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds, with about two-thirds of the main cast using them at least once. The closest this comes to canon is Shadow and Knuckles, who have a few unique powers due to being genetically engineered for them and having a connection to the Master Emerald, respectively; and Omega once implying that Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have similar abilities to Shadow.
- Related is the above idea is that Tails can't use them, despite Word of God stating that the only reason he doesn't is because he's young and inexperienced; that he's used them since then; and Omega, as mentioned, referring to Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles as "Shadow-like."
- The whereabouts of most of the characters parents are never discussed and most characters live on their own despite being Kid Heroes. Fans have come up with common explanations, with most characters conveniently being orphans.
- According to fans, Maria Robotnik died in the 1950s or early 1960s. This is despite the games having no stated time period. They don't look very futuristic, so fans assume they take place contemporary with their releases. Maria's clothes and the general atmosphere of the flashbacks seems to allude to the mid-1900s as well. If we're going by Sonic X, however, Maria actually died in the 21st century (Gerald's diary is dated to "20XX").
- There is no official game-canon term for Funny Animal characters aside from them simply being another form of "people". Terms have been thrown around like "anthros", "fauna", or just "animals", but by far the most common one is "Mobian". The term comes from old westernized canon (and even cartoon adaptations) where Sonic lived on a planet called "Mobius" and all anthropomorphic animals were "mobians". It's used even by those who acknowledge that games take place on Earth. Sega has vetoed all references to "Mobius" with the cancellation of the Archie comics, meaning the species is highly unlikely to be named "Mobian" in the games officially.
- The fandom has been very slow on the intake that the games don't take place on a planet called "Mobius" that is populated by Funny Animals. They take place on a planet that is officially either "Earth" or "Sonic's World". Said planet prominently features humans alongside talking animals. In fan works, you'll typically see Sonic's planet be referred to as "Mobius" (even in ones that otherwise follow game canon). In order to make Sonic's world sound more fantastic, it's named "Mobius" rather than just "Earth". A large reason for this confusion is due to the popularity of the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) comic, which, prior to the Continuity Reboot, did take place on Mobius. Many adaptations such as Sonic X and Sonic Boom also have Sonic living on a World of Funny Animals, which strengthens the belief.
- The placement of the Game Gear/Master System games in canon is not entirely clear, but many fans tend to place them in an Alternate Continuity instead of trying to place them alongside the other games. Mainly due to the games sharing a few inconsistencies with the other entries (most notably the fact that the 8-bit titles consist of only six Chaos Emeralds akin to the first game, as opposed to seven as would be the norm in later titles).
- Humans and Funny Animal characters live separately for the most part. Humans generally prefer urban areas and/or large countries, while animals prefer more rural areas and/or islands. In human-centric areas like Station Square and Central City, Funny Animal characters are the Token Minority, while the City from Sonic Forces is predominantly animal oriented. This fanon is used to explain the lack of animal NPCs in games and explain why Sonic Forces has no humans. Word of God explains it as Sonic Forces taking place on a World of Funny Animals, but this isn't confirmed in-game, so fans have made up theories about where the humans are — especially as GUN, an organization made up of humans, has been given the Chuck Cunningham treatment since Sonic Generations. This has become Ascended Fanon as of the first episode of TailsTube.
- It's often mentioned in fan works (especially Shadow/Maria or Sonic/Elise ones) that, while human/Funny Animal relationships are not illegal, they are looked down upon by both species.
- Outside of fanfics who feature OC hedgehogs, hedgehogs are deemed a rare species of Funny Animal. They're not a dying species like echidnas, but they're not commonplace. This is used to explain why Sonic keeps on getting mistaken for hedgehogs that he looks nothing like.
- Prior to Shadow the Hedgehog possibly retconning this, some have interpreted that in Sonic Adventure 2 GUN was working independently of the President of the United Federation, and that Rouge specifically only answered to the President as opposed to both. This is often used to explain why the President tasked her to clandestinely collect data on Eggman and Project Shadow from GUN or the ARK, along with why GUN still antagonized her just as tenaciously as they did all the other heroes and villains of the story.
- The vast majority of fanfics treat the wrist-mounted communicators from Sonic Boom as existing in the game and comic continuities, as it allows for convenient communication between characters. Sonic Forces and the IDW comics clearly have communication channels like this although the devices responsible are never shown.
Character-based Fanon
- Everybody knows Sonic's hydrophobic... except he isn't; he has a normal fear of drowning considering he can't swim. Sonic's "hydrophobia" is only shown in one episode of Sonic Underground, has been expanded to a few episodes of Sonic X where he wouldn't even go to the seaside when he had a choice (while quite a few SegaSonic sources even say he loves the seaside), and popped up in Sonic Boom. To be fair, after Labyrinth Zone, we wouldn't be surprised if it made him hydrophobic.
- Thanks to Sonic and the Black Knight having Shadow as Lancelot and Silver as Galahad, many fans considered the similarities between the two (certain abilities, personality traits, species, and possessing chest hair) and the fact that Shadow is immortal while Silver is from the future, and decided that Shadow is who Sonic Team has in mind as Silver's eventual father. Other evidence cited includes: A major point made is that the Round Table had lots of good, strong and famous knights, and Silver, not being a part of the story itself, could have been any one of them, but Sonic Team chose Galahad, son of Lancelot and said to be the most righteous knight of all. And they get a special winning animation in the Sochi Olympic Games too, which is intended for characters with some kind of relationship. There's a lot of father-son feeling in theirs, with Shadow looking sideways at Silver, and Silver trying to copy Shadow and look tough, when most of his winning poses have him floating around like a kid. Silver is an expy of Trunks and Shadow is often compared with Vegeta due to being The Rival of Sonic, who were father and son. This has since been Jossed by Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka when asked about it on his Facebook page, but fans continue to interpret them as such anyway.
- Though the most common theory was that Silver is Shadow's son (often with Amy) or descendant, the second most common theory is that he's Sonic's and Amy's Kid from the Future.
- The fact that Amy herself has displayed slight psychic affinity through her tarot readings and a supposed Psychic Radar (which Cream dubs the "Sonic Radar") only fuels the theory that she might be Silver's mother, regardless of who the father is.
- The game Shadow the Hedgehog gave the titular character the ability to carry and use weapons, usually guns of one type or another. Some fans had already decided that, because (in canon) someone very important to him was shot, Shadow hated guns and would never use them. To be fair, reasons for this assumption also included his rather pronounced superiority complex and the fact that he could throw Chaos Spears around with his mind, thus rendering common ballistic projectiles somewhat redundant.
- Almost any time someone draws (or writes) Amy as a teenager or adult, she's depicted with long quills (or outright hair) that go past her shoulders. The main exceptions are Sonic the Comic Amy and Sonic Boom Amy, who keep their bob haircut.
- Bean and Bark as villains is this. Their official bios don't imply they're villainous at all and it's implied they're friends of Sonic in the official backstory to Sonic the Fighters. However Bean's mischievous nature and bomb affinity, and Bark's imposing design and stern expression made fans believe they were. This isn't helped by the bios being Japanese-only. Sometimes they are an outright Terrible Trio with Fang. It was eventually made Ascended Fanon in the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) series, a cameo in Sonic Generations, and being mimicked together in Heavy Magician's battle in Sonic Mania.
- The default wolf Avatar◊ from Sonic Forces who is used in most of the game's promotional material has been nicknamed "Gadget the Wolf" by the fandom despite only ever being called "buddy" or "rookie" in-game. He is universally used in fanart to portray the Avatar consistently, instead of having a different appearance every time.
- Infinite pre-Phantom Ruby is often called "Zero", based on a name used in some of his concept art. On the BumbleKast, Ian Flynn stated Infinite is his birthname, but that won't stop fans.
- Sonic is sixteen as of Sonic Generations. This also explains the deeper voice of Sonic's post-Colors English voice actor. Sega, however, treats the game as an Ageless Birthday Episode and thus Sonic is still fifteen... until that was quietly removed by Sega in favor of a Vague Age in 2022.
- Amy using "Sonikku" as an Affectionate Nickname is near-omnipresent in fan works. This comes from the Japanese pronounciation of Sonic's name.
- A number of fans believe that Sonic is a nickname and his real name is "Maurice", which he hates. This is due to the Archie comic having Sonic's middle name as Maurice prior to the Truer to the Text reboot. His first name was supposed to be "Olgilvie", however that was never written into the comics. Other Archie comic writers have ignored that as his name and treat "Sonic" as his name.
- Fans like to interpret Maria Robotnik as a Child Prodigy due to her being from a family of super-geniuses. Sonic Channel appears to have made this aspect canon, as its February 2022 art shows and describes Maria passing a highly difficult school exam with ease.
- There's a belief that Maria was a bit of a trouble-maker due to being the only child on ARK, with her sweetness being somewhat deliberate.
- A number of fans believe that Tails is really a girl who is mistaken for a boy or passing for a boy. This is due to people mistaking him for a girl (including some translations) and the belief that he assigned female at birth. An alternative take on the theory is that he's a trans boy. These fanons are fairly popular with LGBT+ fans and have gained traction in recent years.
- For whatever reason, both fans and haters of Amy Rose have a tendency to exaggerate her post-flanderization love towards Sonic to the point where she's a yandere.
- It's common for Sonic to call Amy "Ames" as a pet name in Sonamy fics or fics where they both have a friendly relationship. The IDW comics made this Ascended Fanon.
- It's also common in Shadamy fics for Shadow to call Amy "Rose".
- Tails is assumed to be an orphan. Alternative, he was abandoned by his parents for having two tails (this takes some inspiration from AoStH).
- Sonic is typically seen as either having just run away from home to be by himself (this comes from an old backstory from Sonic the Hedgehog Technical Files that Sonic used to live on Christmas Island until he became bored and left) or being an orphan as well, which is actually implied by some supplementary material.
- Amy canonically lives by herself according to various titles. Fans often either have her as living with her parents or have her parents be an important presence in her life. This is in order to emphasise her "normality" compared to everyone else. Amy usually gets her pelt colour from her mother. Some fans have Amy being adopted by humans, which explains her unusual name. The alternative is that Amy is an orphan, explaining why she lives alone.
- Vanilla is Cream's single mother, however Cream's dad is never referenced. Thus most fans pin him as dead, with a less common take being that he abandoned Cream and Vanilla.
- Knuckles is the last echidna alive but it's never specified what happened to his parents. It's generally assumed they were killed somehow. A variation that isn't incompatible is that Knuckles was born already alone, as echidnas hatch from eggs and Knuckles doesn't remember his parents.
- On the Sonic/Amy shipping side of the fanbase, fan-sons will usually be given a speed-related name, like "Dash" or "Flash", while daughters usually have more typical names. If the children aren't either blue or pink, they will have purple fur. Only on rare occasions will fan-daughters have names that relate to being fast, such as Mehira.
- Sonic/Amy works often treat the most famous Ship Tease moments from Sonic X as having (loosely) happened in game continuity, particularly the lucky charm scene from the Beach Episode.
- The theory that Shadow's memories of Maria are fake and that he never met her. This was an idea that was toyed around with, but the games later went with Shadow's memories being true. In Sonic X, however, it's implied that Shadow's memories are false and that he never even met Maria (for example, his view on her death and the view given by her killer are different).
- Though not the most common fanon, many fans believe Amy's full name to be "Amelia Rose". In canon, it's just "Amy Rose". One game showed that her full name is "Amy Rose the Hedgehog", but that hasn't appeared elsewhere and usually "the [x]" is treated as a title.
- Most characters who aren't referred to with a "the [x]" title are given the title anyway. Examples include "Tails the Fox", "Merlina the Wizard", or "Infinite the Jackal".
- Sonic's aversion to romance is more because he's scared of settling down and giving up his free lifestyle than an actual lack of interest in relationships.
- Tails hates being called "Miles". This fanon likely originates from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. An alternate, though not incompatible, fanon is that Tails will stop going by "Tails" when he's older.
- Tails is usually depicted and referred to in fan works as either having red, orange, or yellow fur (or a mix of those, like yellow-orange). According to Adventure 2 at least, his fur is "fox brown". Later games and media, however, do consistently refer to his color as yellow... Even if he actually looks reddish or orange.
- Maria being twelve at the time of her death is cited as fact. While this is the case in Sonic X according to All There in the Manual, in the canon of the games, she has a Vague Age.
- Cream being either the result of a Teen Pregnancy or Vanilla having had her in her early twenties. Vanilla has a Vague Age, but she looks pretty young and 20-year old Vector likes her in Sonic X so fans typically pin her as in her late-20s at oldest.
- There's a trend amongst fans to give the male characters clothes as they grow into adults. This can be anywhere from just shirts and jackets to the characters being Fully Dressed Cartoon Animals. Oftentimes this is done because it's an easy way to distinguish between their teen and adult designs, besides only height.
- Depictions of adult/teen Tails in particular tend to darken up the tips of his ears and limbs, so he can better resemble his species. He will also often wear goggles and look closer to a stereotypical mechanic or scientist.
- Adult Cream is almost always indistinguishable from Vanilla in fan works.
- Shadow's favorite colour is often attributed as either black (because of his fur), blue (because of Maria's eyes and her preference for blue), or rock colorsnote (obviously dark and edgy as Shadow).
- The leader of G.U.N. is named Abraham. This comes from the Archie comics and has been adopted for game canon by fans as well.
- The name of Shadow the Hedgehog's hypothetical daughter will usually be Maria, as a honor to the girl Shadow befriended and lost in his early days.
- If Maria Robotnik was revived, she'd be a yellow-furred hedgehog. This is due to a commonplace fan design for "Maria the Hedgehog".
- Similarly, when fan artists redesign Elise into animal character, she is often made a bird such as a phoenix or a pidgeon.
- The idea of Shadow transforming into a human so he can love Maria the human, due to Bestiality Is Depraved, does exist,note but is much, much rarer than the Maria the Hedgehog concept mentioned above.
- Some fans will make it so that Silver's circular Tron Lines on his gloves as part of his body. Some will also do the same with Blaze's red gem/bindi on her forehead.
- Chaos, the water god-like being, will be used in place of God in some expressions in some fan works, such as "Oh my Chaos!" Other gods, such as Light Gaia, may be used, but Chaos is rather the most common.
- In fan art depicting the characters as human, there are a few frequent elements: Tails will wear goggles, Sonic will have Shonen Hair, and Knuckles in earlier days of the fandom was depicted to be a white Long-Haired Pretty Boy. However, the assumption that the latter would be white, while not completely falling out of favor, has waned over time, and Knuckles nowadays is more commonly drawn as a darker-skinned Dreadlock Warrior (which does have basis in Knuckles originally being conceived as a more overtly black-coded character as well as the ancient Echidna clan being based on the Mayans; whether Knuckles is depicted as black or a Latino of Maya descent depends on the fan).
- Shadow will often be black or at least darker-skinned than Sonic, and wear dark leather jackets with fur trim on the collar to emulate his usual look.
- Rouge, interestingly, is frequently drawn as a white-haired Spicy Latina, since her actual skin is already pretty olive-colored to begin with (and her white fur is seemingly exclusive to her head).
- Many fan works like to make Blaze dark-skinned due to her bindi, which is caracteristic of South Asian cultures. It helps that some of her concept artworks had her even more Arabian/Indian-inspired than her final look ended up being.
- Silver is frequently humanized into an Italian man because of his original concept name, "Venice".
- If there's the Jackal Squad, there must be other squads consisting of canines, such as a Fox or Wolf Squad.
- Amy Rose will have a Flower Motif concerning roses (her last name, duh) and rose metaphors will be common in fan works focused on Amy.
- Maria was fond of music, in particular 1940s-1950s jazz such as Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. This rubbed off onto Shadow.
- A number of fans believe that Amy is either colorblind or nearsighted because she's mistaken both Shadow and Silver for Sonic.
- In the Shadow DLC of Sonic Forces, Rouge and Shadow make mention of an "Intelligence Division". Fanon is that they're referring to G.U.N, who is otherwise absent in the game, instead of the Resistance.
- It's never mentioned what happened to Maria's parents, so fans assume she is Conveniently an Orphan. One of her parents, usually her mother, died of NIDS themself. This is supported by Japanese info describing NIDS as a "hereditary immune deficiency syndrome", meaning Maria inherited it from her parents.
- Canonically, Sonic's full name is "Sonic the Hedgehog"; however, many fan works tend to have his full name be Sonic "Needlemouse" instead.note
- Whenever the female Funny Animals are shown with midriff-baring outfits in the games, their stomachs tend to be of the same fur color as the rest of their bodies, as opposed to being the same color as their muzzles like with male characters such as Sonic and Tails. Fan artists, however, generally prefer to use the latter style when depicting the gals in more revealing outfits, or as Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animals in the same vein as Sally Acorn and the guys in general (if not for other purposes). In Amy's case, it has become a trend to give her a heart-shaped, peach-colored patch of fur (or skin) on her exposed chest when appearing unclothed, usually to better emphasize her characterization as a Love Freak and make her a true Distaff Counterpart to Sonic.
- Fan artists often give Amy a turtle neck dress collar as opposed to the white stripe her dress sports in-game canon.
- The heights of Sonic and the other characters. While the Sonic channel lists Sonic's height as 3'3" or 100 cm, a lot of games are pretty inconsistent in Sonic's size. Most infamously are the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games which has Marionote and Sonic at the same height. A common fanon for Sonic's height is his classic version being 3'3" and Modern Sonic being 5'1", with the other characters' modern design's height being added or subtracted with the same number difference from Sonic's height on the Sonic Channel.
- Whether it's OVA-related, a fan redesign, or an AU fan comic, Knuckles' fedora from the OVA tends to make a reappearance in different fan works. The hat's reappearance in Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle added fuel to this fire.
- Fan art commonly depicts Blaze as being aquaphobic — to an even greater extent than Sonic — by virtue of being a cat. This is in addition to her canon fear of heights, as seen in Sonic Rush.
- Thanks to the discovery of one piece of official art miscoloring Tails' shoes as blue◊ in 2020, it has become common in more recent fan works to depict Tails as wearing blue shoes instead of his canon red ones, due to fans feeling that blue better compliments his orange/yellow fur than red does.
- While Classic Super Sonic is canonically depicted to have the same black eyes as his normal form, it’s not uncommon to see him portrayed as having green eyes in fan works instead, largely due to his in-game sprite from Sonic 3 & Knuckles depicting him with them. Some even use the idea of him gaining green eyes after turning Super as an In-Universe explanation as to why Sonic had suddenly gained green eyes in his later appearances.
- A common fan theory as to why G.U.N. mistook Sonic for Shadow and arrested him in Sonic Adventure 2 is that they didn’t actually mistake him for Shadow, but rather, they used him as a scapegoat to cover up the existence of Shadow to the public. While this does make sense given the agency’s morally ambiguous nature, there’s nothing in-game to explicitly suggest that this is the case. However, Shadow's recap for Radical Highway has him ponder whether GUN is actually aware of who he is.
- Shadow liking Kill la Kill is a somewhat common idea amongst fans due to how similar Shadow and Ryuko are. Funnily enough, this has become Ascended Fanon via the Twitter Takeovers.
- In regards to why he went from Dr. Robotnik to Dr. Eggman In-Universe, the common fan theory is that he deliberately reclaimed it, with the intent on taking what was originally an mocking insult given to him by Sonic and co and to turn it into a powerful and feared name. This has become Ascended Fanon as of the second episode of TailsTube, with Sonic Frontiers further confirming it through an Egg Memo.
- While not supported by any canon material, a common theory as to why Sonic couldn't do the Spin Dash in the first game is that he was somehow injured and crippled by Eggman prior to the game's events.
- While Word of God has stated that Shadow, Rouge and E-123 Omega are not friends and are merely acquaintances and allies at most, fans tend to view them as True Companions, if not a Found Family instead. It doesn't help that the games are not really consistent on their exact relationship.
- Shadow having yellow-green blood, much like the Black Arms goons he massacres through his title game. This is supported by Black Doom's lines about Shadow sharing the same blood as his, although there's also the possibility that Doom is just speaking in a figurative sense. The fact that the Black Arms were originally supposed to be red-blooded (before changes were made to not challenge the censors too much) can also make things pretty confusing.
- A fair amount of the fanbase believes that Maria spent a significant amount of time weakened or even bedridden by her disease, with Shadow often doing his best to make her feel better in either heartwarming or hilarious fashion.
- From the tail end of the 2010s and beginning of the 2020s, Shadow has somewhat shifted away from a tryhard edgelord to a more genuine weirdo who just happens to like things that are considered edgy. This mainly came from the Twitter Takeovers, which include gems such as Shadow liking to eat coffee beans (because he doesn't want coffee flavoured water), wanting to open up an orphanage for all the kittens of the world, and being a Taylor Swift fan. Naturally, no matter how odd his behaviour ends up being he'll always treat it with utmost seriousness, usually to the confusion of those around him. This interpretation of Shadow is somewhat canonized through The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a visual novel written by the same social media team that wrote the Twitter Takeovers and have a few references to them.
- While Sonic, Shadow, Amy and Silver are all hedgehogs, fandom sometimes has fun debating their specific hedgehog subspecies. While Sonic and Shadow tend to vary a lot, Amy is almost always agreed to be a four-toed hedgehog due to her smaller size and shorter snout, while Silver tends to be thought as an European hedgehog because of his debut game's general theme.
- A sillier example. but ever since the initial script for Sonic Lost World had leaked before the game's release, people took immediate note of the hilarity of the dialogue's surprisingly violent language. Two of Zazz's lines in particular, "You're going home in a box!" and "I'm gonna skin you alive!", quickly made the rounds, with the former being spun from its original threatening intent into Zazz having an affinity for literal cardboard boxes.This became a universal part of his character for a LOT of fans, especially in more comedy-focused works.
- In canon, Shadow was already created as looking like a teenager and is (suppossedly) ageless. However, it is not uncommon for many fans, especially those who are artists, to disregard that and instead portray Shadow as having been a child during his time at the ARK and Maria being something of a older sister to him, not only because a younger Shadow is considered to be adorable, but also beacuse it would make the experience of him loosing Maria much more impactful, in a similar manner to Bruce Wayne.
Comic Books and other Licensed Media
- Sonic the Comic:
- Amy and her friend Tekno as a Battle Couple. This is due to to their Pseudo-Romantic Friendship combined with the fact Amy's crush on Sonic is near-nonexistent in the comic. This is Ascended Fanon as of a Sonic the Comic – Online! comic written by one of the original comic's writers.
- Super Sonic is usually referred to by the Fan Nickname of "Fleetway". Fleetway published the comic but many mistake it for Super Sonic's name.
- By the end of Sonic the Comic, everyone being older than their game canon ages. The comic keeps their ages intentionally vague; however, there are implications that Sonic and Knuckles are at least eighteen and Amy is never treated like an eight year old. It's generally assumed that Amy is in her mid-to-late teens, Tails is nearing teenagehood, and the rest are in their late teens or early twenties.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)/Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- Any time Bunnie Rabbot appears in fanart, there is a good chance she will be depicted with breasts on par with Rouge's — especially when placed next to Sally Acorn — or as an Amazonian Beauty. Often both.
- Fans tend to latch onto Sally Acorn's Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal design due to deviating from the main series's infamously strict "dress code", and frequently attempt to provide some in-universe justification as to why Sally doesn't wear a full outfit like the rest of the female cast. This generally ranges between two intepretations: Sally being an Innocent Fanservice Girl who simply dislikes wearing clothes and finds being "nude" to be more comfortable, or Sally being a Shameless Fanservice Girl who deliberately rebels against the setting's dress code, often to make a feminist statement. In either case, expect her to assert that her own fur is sufficient when questioned.
- A fan artist depicted Prince Elias as having a ponytail in erotic art of him, prettying him up a bit. Now it's rather easy to find fanart of Prince Elias as having a ponytail, which has led to some folk who are fans of the comic continuity without reading the comic itself (gushing about shows you don't watch?) finding themselves surprised when official art "cuts off" Elias' ponytail.
- In her earlier appearances where she wore nothing but accessories, Fiona Fox feature peach-ish-colored belly fur. Fanon often portrays her midriff-baring, post-Face–Heel Turn redesign with this design trait, even though Fiona's belly fur color is now consistent with the rest of her body in canon.
- Sonic Underground:
- If Amy is emigrated into Sonic Underground fanon, she is crowned Sonic's queen consort and rules Mobius with him (despite it being heavily implied in the show that all three triplets were to be ruling together even though by virtue of Sonic being the eldest he is to wear the Crown). In addition, their children (normally the firstborn of them) are heirs to the kingdom. She is also sometimes even made the fourth member of the band too, with her own medallion(s) and instrument to play in the musical numbers (usually a bass guitar or a piano similar to Sonia's). In addition, while queen consorts on Earth have little to no power per se (even when their position is constitutionally or statutorily recognized), Amy would at least be afforded some of the powers that Sonic would have as King.
- While the identity of Queen Aleena's husband, the true King of Mobius, remains a mystery in the show, many fans speculate that it could be a version of Jules Hedgehog from the Archie comics.
- Sonia and Manic don't have known eye colors. In fan works, they're almost always given blue and brown eyes.
- The Sonic Boom incarnations of the characters being older than their mainstream versions. Fans aren't are concrete on Sonic and Knuckles' ages, though Amy is seen as a teenager and Tails is seen as being at least ten years old. This is due to their more mature-looking designs and older-seeming personalities. Word of God, however, is that they're the same age as their normal incarnations (i.e. Amy is twelve and Tails is eight).
