Sonic The Hedgehog / Tropes M to R

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Tropes Numbers-B | Tropes C-E | Tropes F-L | Tropes M-R | Tropes S-Z

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Franchise Examples Zone Act 4:

M

• Mad Love:
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Thunderbolt the Chinchilla serves Dr. Eggman primarily out of sheer, unrequited adoration. It's to the point where she has a Stalker Shrine in her bedroom with her face crudely plastered over photographs of Eggman and his robots.
• Mad Scientist:

  • Also Eggman's grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, brilliant scientist who designed a working orbital space colony and dabbled with artificial life forms among other things. He was driven insane after his granddaughter was killed by G.U.N. The depths of his hatred for the world and his desire to destroy it shocked even Eggman himself.

  • Dr. Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). He tends to act quite kooky and hammy, and is an evil scientist hired to hunt down Sonic and aiming to find the source of his powers for his own ends.
• Made of Explodium:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006):
    • If a player attempts to ride a speedboat up a wooden incline. Upon hitting the water again, the speedboat promptly explodes, presumably from fall damage.
    • Even more baffling is the sequence where the player has to destroy a train while chasing it with a machine gun equipped motorcycle... and at least TWICE the motorcycle explodes for no apparent reason.
    • Cars will spontaneously explode in the event that they flip over and get stuck. Having the vehicle flip itself right-side-up instead would have made too much sense, and probably would have involved at least three loading screens.
    • In the Sonic Riders games, anything punched out of the way by a Power-type character will be flung into the distance and explode. This includes crates, boulders, canisters, stone columns, statues, plants, giant bowling pins, and police cars. In addition, in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, large objects lifted into midair using Gravity Dive will explode after being used as stepping stones. This includes trucks, chunks of stone walls, metal panels, and even water bubbles.
  • In Sonic Underground, the SWAT-bots tend to explode at the slightest inconvenience.
• Magic Skirt:
  • Zig-zagged with Amy Rose in the games post-Sonic Adventure. The 3D games surprisingly avert this trope, regularly having the character's panties on display from the constant jumping and fighting she does, with early betas for Adventure even having her skirt lift up when falling. The 2D games play this trope more straight however, with Amy holding down her dress whenever possible while falling or doing activities that would result in an upskirt shot. Note that we said whenever possible: you can't hold down your dress when you're using both hands to, say, hang onto a rocket for dear life during a bonus stage, after all.
  • Sonic X: Cosmo's skirt always covers her nethers no matter what position she happens to be in. Cream and Amy don't get the same treatment. In some episodes, they even don't wear any panties.
• Magic Countdown:
  • Zig-zagged in Sonic Adventure 2. Eggman explicitly instructs that a bomb be set to blow in fifteen minutes. After the five minutes of the Security Hall stage go by, we see that Rouge is in a holding cell with the bomb counting down past 10 minutes. The following stage has the time limit of 10 minutes, so not counting the duration of the boss battles and cutscenes it's accurate… then there's a stage with an eight-minute timer. A more traditional example occurs when Shadow reaches the bomb. The bomb bleeps to indicate when a second passes, even when the camera isn't facing it. There are more bleeps than there are seconds on the clock. The 8-minute level is on the hero path, however, while the 10-minute level is on the villain path. It's possible to complete the 10-minute level in under two minutes, followed by a quick boss fight, leaving eight minutes for the hero path to get out of there (and for Shadow to actually reach Rouge in the vault).
  • In the opening of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), the timer Sally sets actually counts down faster when it's not on-screen. Potentially justified in that a few seconds could have been skipped between some of the camera changes (though that would be odd).
  • Sonic X has the timer on Eggman's detonator during his second attack on Prison Island. We see it countdown to ten seconds, then nine... then we cut to Chris pleading with Shadow to go back and rescue Sonic... about thirty seconds later, the timer ticks down to zero.
• Magitek:
  • The Chaos Emeralds from the games. You know the drill by now. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the Great Eggman Robo uses the Master Emerald for a Wave-Motion Gun while Mecha Sonic super charges himself with it to enter a Super Mode. In Sonic Adventure 2, it's shown that it's possible to create a fake Emerald that can actually be used to perform Chaos Control. The same game also revealed that Professor Gerald Robotnik created the Eclipse Cannon, a powerful Kill Sat fueled by the seven Emeralds. Sonic Battle has Eggman shatter a Chaos Emerald and use the shards to power his army of Phi robots. In Sonic Advance 3 Eggman uses the Emeralds to break the world into pieces, something he goes on to do again in Sonic Unleashed.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): The plot of "Super Sonic" involves an ancient computerized spellbook that actually traps concentrated evil inside it.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • The Iron Queen, a Technomage who can control the electrical impulses found in all active electronics and send him out at will. As you can imagine, she's quite dangerous to opponents who are partly or completely robotic.
    • Dr. Eggman, as a man of science, complains about Chaos Emeralds being their own explanation, and having no logic to their power. Snively reminds him that he powers his own technology with Chaos Emeralds on a regular basis; Eggman concedes, but points out that he doesn't have to like it.
    • In Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, both Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily come up with the Chaos Devil, stated to be a "fusion of magic and machine" (Chaos being a water god, Yellow Devil being a blob robot).
  • The seven Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald were described as magical in Sonic X (and their effect on Sonic and Shadow could be said to be magic), yet were often used to power technology based equipment, such as Eggman’s robots, and the Sonic Driver.
• Malevolent Architecture:
  • Every game ever made. Let's run through some examples:
    • Every Eggman's base seems to consist of nothing more than endless rooms filled with deathtraps, bottomless pits, robots, and Spikes of Doom, along with a few things that vary depending on the game. Justified in those cases, as Eggman can fly around in his Egg Mobile and he wants to give Sonic a hard time upon entering them.
    • One has to wonder about when Aquatic Ruin Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was more than just ruins. It's full of arrow-shooting devices, Spikes of Doom and loops, among other things.
    • Speed Highway from Sonic Adventure, and Radical Highway from the sequel. They're both floating highways with 360 degree loops, traps and bottomless pits all over the place.
    • Hang Castle from Sonic Heroes. Turning the castle upside down just to open a door?
    • The majority of Sonic Unleashed is like this, as most of it takes place in urban areas right by where people live. Cobblestone roads in Apotos have flamethrowers and beds of spikes installed in them with hovering moving platforms nearby. The walled city in Mazuri requires its inhabitants to swing from pole to pole as spike balls float around (though this may just be part of the city's defenses, as Sonic is traveling through its citadel). Fountains in Spagonia shoot Sonic to the rooftops. Giant stone walls with narrow gaps on the floor randomly block major roads in Shamar's capital city. Highways in Empire City have ramps, very sharp turns with no guardrails, and explosive roadblocks. The waters near the villages in Adabat have violet vertical jets of water and columns prone to collapsing as you approach them.
    • The front of Spagonia University in Sonic Generations has axes swinging like pendulums all over it. It is otherwise averted for most of that stage, as the danger comes either from Eggman putting enemies and death traps in front of Sonic or Sonic traveling through areas people wouldn't normally go.
• Malevolent Mugshot:
  • In the games, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik's face has shown up on bases, spacecraft, and many other kinds of vehicle, Humongous Mecha, Mecha-Mooks, item containers and even a wall decoration...
    • In the bad ending of Sonic CD, when Eggman's personal transport is destroyed by the heroes, the EXPLOSION is actually shaped like his face. How or why he designed it to be able to do that, no one will ever know.
    • Since Sonic Adventure, Boss Subtitles show all of his vehicles are named Egg-something.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, Eggman shoots a missile at Tails' Tornado, and the resulting explosion is shaped like his face.
• Malicious Misnaming:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic often calls Knuckles "Knucklehead" after the latter does something particularly unintelligent. He also calls Eggman "Egghead" on occasions.
    • To coincide Eggman's Japanese name with his Dub Name Change, Sonic canon is that "Eggman" was an insult used by Sonic and friends for Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Eventually (as in "By Sonic Adventure 2") he reclaimed it and calls himself "Dr. Eggman" as well.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Underground, Sonic almost always refers to Robotnik as "Robuttnik".
• Market-Based Title:
  • The Games:
    • The European boxart and cartridge art for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 renders the title as simply Sonic 3, as did some contemporary media.
    • Many of the Game Gear and Master System games have different titles across regions: Sonic Chaos is known in Japan as Sonic & Tails, Sonic Triple Trouble is Sonic & Tails 2, and Sonic Blast is G Sonic.
    • Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island was known as Sonic 3D Blast in America.
    • The Sonic Compilation cartridge for the Mega Drive was retitled Sonic Classics for its later US release.
    • The Xbox 360/Playstation 3 compilation Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection was renamed to simply Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection in Europe.
    • In some regions, Sonic the Fighters was renamed Sonic Championship.
    • Sonic Unleashed was known as Sonic World Adventure in Japan. During development, it was going to be part of the Adventure series, but it eventually became too different from those games.
    • Sonic Boom is known as Sonic Toon in Japan. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is Sonic Toon: Ancient Treasure, Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal is Sonic Toon: Island Adventure, and Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice is Sonic Toon: Fire & Ice.
    • In international releases, Sonic Generations retained the same name on both consoles and 3DS but in Japan they were suffixed with the subtitles "Shiro no Jikou" ("White Time and Space") and "Ao no Bouken" ("Blue Adventures"), respectively.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
    • The film is called Sonic: The Movie in multiple countries, including Japan, France, Spain and Latin America. Some territories, however, simply translate the original title, like Quebec (Sonic le hérisson) or Hungary (Sonic, a sündisznó).
    • The movie is called 音速小子 (Yinsu Xiaozi, "Sonic Kid") in Taiwan.
    • Polish adds the subtitle "Szybki jak błyskawica" ("Fast as lightning").
• Mascot with Attitude:
  • Sonic is, of course, the Trope Maker. He is an unusual example in that his type of attitude flip-flops Depending on the Writer. He was intended from the start to be this heavily: he originally had Cute Little Fangs to make him look tougher, was a Chick Magnet with a hot Token Human girlfriend, was the lead singer of a rock band, and fought monsters... But Sega of America thought this was too hardcore for their target audience and asked Sega of Japan to tone him down. In the end, America and Europe depicted him as the (now conventional) Totally Radical type, while Japan went with a less conventional approach, characterizing him as laidback but rebellious, self-confident and cheeky (with early Japanese depictions being closer to his early "bad boy" personality, minus the human girlfriend). Later on, he started getting depicted more "cutesy" in the merchandising, until Sonic Adventure attempted to restore his Japanese portrayal, after which said depiction was adopted worldwide. Then came Sonic Heroes, which made him more friendly and warming. Sonic Colors, however, gave him a more stereotypical personality (ie: cocky, sarcastic, impulsive, excessive quipper) very akin to the old Western portrayals^note not very surprising, being the first Sonic game whose script was done by an American writer:
    Dr. Eggman: This amusement park was constructed entirely out of a sense of remorse for my past transgressions, and is in no way associated with any sort of evil plot or premeditated misdeeds.
    Sonic: Well, that's a relief.
  • The DiC cartoons took the attitude part to the point of parody, especially SatAM, which depicted Sonic as always showing off and using Totally Radical expressions and catchphrases. Sonic the Comic has him as a genuine Jerkass and a Big Brother Bully. Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie and Sonic X were closer to his "laidback but rebellious" Japanese depiction, although he was depicted much more friendly (if somewhat aloof) in the latter.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic is faster than sound.
    • Knuckles has spikes on his fists.
    • Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik:
    • "Eggman" with his Classic Era Jumpsuit◊, designed to make him look like a walrus; it doubles as a Shout-Out. (The yellow triangles from his cape represent the teeth, in case you are wondering; the rest is plain obvious).
    • Fang the Sniper has an enormous fang (almost a tusk, even) sticking out of his mouth.
    • Amy Rose. The name Amy also means "beloved" or "love". Her surname, "Rose" is French for "pink", and is also a symbol of love.
    • Big the Cat is both tall and fat,
    • Rouge the Bat often wears makeup.
    • Espio the Chameleon is a ninja chameleon. His name comes from both the Spanish term for to spy and the word "espionage".
    • Charmy Bee is charmingly cute.
    • Shadow’s name refers to his dark past and mysterious ways.
    • Shadow, Cream, and Silver also have names that refer to their fur colors.
    • Blaze the Cat has fire powers.
    • Marine the Raccoon loves ships and the ocean.
    • The Babylon Rogues. Jet the Hawk is a speed maniac hover-boarder and his teammates/siblings names, Wave the Swallow (the calm and relaxed one) and Storm the Albatross (the big and strong one) follow suit.
    • Sonic Adventure:
    • One meaning of the name Tikal is "Place of Voices". Now consider what happens which you bump her orb of light. It also refers to the site of an ancient Mayan civilization, which reflects her culture’s similarities to the Mayans in general. Similarly, her father Pachacamac is named after an ancient Peruvian temple.
    • Erazor Djinn from Sonic and the Secret Rings is a double, as he wields a giant straight razor like a sword and wants to erase the 1001 Arabian Nights.
    • Shade the Echidna from Sonic Chronicles dresses in dark blue/black.
    • Sonic Unleashed:
    • Invoked where Sonic gives Chip a.k.a ( The Light Gaia) a name due to his favorite food: chocolate chip sundae supreme ice cream.
    • Professor Pickle likes cucumber sandwiches.
  • invoked In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Julie-Su's mother was named "Mari-Su", which certainly fit the view of Julie's half-sister Lien-Da as a sickeningly perfect being.
• Mecha-Mooks:
  • In the games, outside of the occasional fight with Dr. Eggman and a few other choice characters, robot mooks are pretty much Sonic's only enemies.
• Mechanical Animals: While these days his bots are more generic, Eggman originally favored the badniks, robotic animals that rather effectively showcased his corruption of nature. Crabmeat (who resembles a crab) and Catakiller (who resembles a caterpillar) are two of the best known from the games, while Scratch (who resembles a rooster), Grounder (resembles a groundhog), and Coconuts (resembles a monkey) were made popular in animation.
• Medium Awareness:
  • In the games, Sonic is this. In the side-scroller games, he will get very impatient and give the player an annoyed look if the player does nothing. In the 360/PS3 versions of Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Generations, he will watch his score for the stage get tallied up. In the Wii version of Sonic Colors, he will call the Rotatatron the BBBE^note Best Boss Bashing Ever and will destroy the scores in an attempt to obtain extra lives.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog and the Silicon Warriors:
    • Sonic mentions the reader and the fact he's in the book several times, with the added bonus that he knows he's normally a videogame character too, commenting that the Mystic Cave Zone had great background music.
    • Later when the inhabitants of Green Hill Zone are infected by a virus we get this gem:
      'But aren't we videogame characters anyway?' asked Tails, who had joined them by the ailing rabbit.
      'Well normally, yes' Sonic agreed, 'but at the moment we're characters in a book. Look, this talk is all getting very complicated, and we've got a real problem to deal with here.'
  • Characters in Sonic X frequently make reference to being in an anime (though only in the original Japanese version) - usually Sonic, but Dr. Eggman occasionally does it too. In one memorable episode, Eggman actually took over the show, changing the name of it to "Eggman X" (complete with new title card). Sonic eventually defeated Eggman by sending him down a maze where the right path was marked by the correct answer to a Yes/No question. The last question was "Who's the main character of this show?" with one path marked with a picture of Sonic and the other with a picture of Eggman. Eggman, naturally, went down the "Eggman" path (even though his robots actually admitted the right answer was Sonic), which naturally led to a trap. (The 4Kids Entertainment dub changed the last question to "Who's the coolest guy around?".) In another episode, Team Chaotix learned what had happened while they were away by watching Sonic X on DVD, even arguing about whether to skip the opening song or not.
  • Pretty much all of the main characters in Sonic Boom, but Sonic, Sticks, and Knuckles take the cake.
    • Sonic notes he has lots of fans, but most of them criticize everything he does. This is much more likely referring to his real world fans.
    • Knuckles notes that fans say he's too tall and talks about his character description. Also insults the writers at the end of each cliff hanger.
    • Sticks talks a lot to the viewers. She probably used to think they there just because she's crazy.
• Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic Generations has the current Sonic, Tails and Eggman bumping into the versions of themselves from the 16-bit era. Classic Tails and Classic Eggman can talk but classic Sonic is The Voiceless (both modern Sonic and Tails are fully voiced).
  • The cover of one collection of the early issues of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) has the three different versions of Sally Acorn (her regular appearance, her orange furred – blonde haired appearance from the pilot mini-series, and her pink furred – black haired appearance from the early issues) staring at each other in confusion.
• Mêlée à Trois:
  • The Games:
    • The final boss of Sonic Adventure sees Perfect Chaos break free of Eggman's reins after obtaining the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds. Eggman tries to stop it himself but only ends up with another destroyed Egg Carrier on his hands before Super Sonic steps in and cleans up the mess.
    • The entirety of Shadow the Hedgehog is one huge war between G.U.N./Sonic Heroes, the Black Arms, the Eggman Empire, and the titular hedgehog himself, who can side with whoever the player wants to.
    • The True Final Boss of Sonic Mania pits Super Sonic against Eggman and the leader of the Hard-Boiled Heavies, Heavy King, in the middle of a tug-of-war between Eggman and Heavy King over the Phantom Ruby. The battle is fought as a Dual Boss where Sonic fights both of them, each of them trading places whenever the other is hit.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • In one issue: Sonic vs. Scourge vs. Shadow vs. Amy vs. Rosy vs. Rob 'O vs. Metal Sonic vs. Silver... with absolutely no real clear way to tell who's fighting who and when. Though it quickly turns into everyone vs. Scourge when he turns Super.
    • At issue 162-164, an all-out battle for the crown of Acorn was fought between The Freedom Fighters, Mammoth Mogul and the Destructix, and Ixis Naugus and the Arachne. Naugus joins with Mogul during the battle when he was told by him that Mogul was the founder of the Order of Ixis, turning the battle into a simple two-sided war. The battle was interrupted by Dr. Eggman, however, and he captures Mogul, Naugus, and their forces back to his capital prisons. The Freedom Fighters won, but at the cost of Sir Connery.
    • And during one of the Sonic Universe arcs, we end up with Team Rose (Amy, Cream and Cheese, and Blaze), Team Dark (Shadow, Rouge, and Omega), Team Hooligan (Nack, Bean, and Bark), and the Babylon Rogues all fighting each other over a Sol Emerald. Teams Rose and Dark briefly team up, but by the end of the story, it quickly devolves into a four-way battle.
    • A later Sonic Universe arc, Pirate Plunder Panic, briefly becomes one of these as Team Rose and the rival pirate crews of Captain Metal and Captain Whisker fight over control of the last Sol Emerald. However, Whisker's crew gets taken out pretty quickly, leaving it a normal two-way fight.
• Men Don't Cry:
  • Sega enforces this with Sonic. It's extremely rare for him to be depicted crying in canon. Whether it's due to his gender or due to it being Out of Character for his character is hard to distinguish.
  • The staff of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) got called out by Sega for depicting Sonic crying (even though he had technically just lost a family member) and were forbidden from doing so in future episodes.
  • Sonic's face was changed in one issue of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) to tone down his tears due to this trope. However, Tropes Are Not Bad; the altered pencils are generally considered an improvement, as the original really did go overboard with the waterworks considering this is Sonic we're talking about.
  • Sonic cries when Johnny dies in Sonic the Comic, but all we see are him being teary eyed and the next panel has everyones' back turned.
  • Sonic (amazingly enough) cries at the very end of the second season finale of Sonic X, presumably over the inevitable prospect of leaving Chris. The viewer never sees either his eyes or face directly. The writers don't believe it's in Sonic's personality to cry openly as in general (but particularly in this series), as the character is supposed to be The Stoic. There was actually some flak for this at the end of a later series wherein some fans were disappointed by Sonic's inability to react after they were forced to kill Cosmo, as expressing his emotion at the event and his role in it would have been out of character.
• Merged Reality:
  • In Sonic Rush, Eggman's theft of the Sol Emeralds from Blaze's dimension is causing it and Sonic's dimension to merge together. Eggman and his doppelganger Eggman Nega plan to build a transdimensional Eggmanland in the wake of the collision, but the heroes are able to stop them before both worlds are completely ruined. It's also noted that this is only happening because the two sets of Emeralds aren't being controlled properly, and once Blaze learns how to properly utilize the Sol Emeralds' powers she's able to traverse the dimensional barrier between the two without risking the dimensions.
  • In Sonic the Comic, during the Shanazar arc, Sonic and Robotnik are shrunk down and sent to Shanazar, a sub-atomic universe with an "Arabian Nights" Days flair. Near the end of said arc, Robotnik creates a Dimension Blender device, intending to use it to enlarge Shanazar until it occupied the same space as Mobius, merging the two planets together, with Robotnik planning to retake control of Mobius in the ensuing chaos. However, Robotnik's plan backfires when Mobius and Shanazar fuse together without any ill effects; instead, new Zones are added to the planet and portals to various worlds and dimensions on Mobius, including various points in time in Earth's history, are opened.
  • The end result of the Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide Crisis Crossover's ending towards Sonic's World in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics). Thanks to Eggman's mucking, Sonic's World is now one part "Mobius Prime" and one part "Mobius Genesis", resulting in a blending of game and SatAM elements, among other cosmic retcons (Eggman's main base being the Metropolis Zone, Knothole being situated in the Wood Zone, Mobotropolis now in Westside Island...).
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name:
  • In the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)'s volume 0, Sonic says, "Ha! 'Speed' is my middle name! Actually, it's 'Maurice', but don't tell anyone, OK?", in response to Princess Sally asking him if he could keep up with her.
  • Done in Sonic Boom by the eponymous character.
    Sonic: Capable is my middle name.
    Knuckles: I thought your middle name was The.
• Mickey Mousing:
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), the entire scene with Robotnik conducting experiments on Sonic's dropped quill (and discovering its potentially unlimited power) is interspersed with him busting out various energetic dance moves along to The Poppy Family's Where Evil Grows. Even the actual experimentation is timed perfectly to the music.
• Milestone Celebration:
  • The games have gone through several, starting in 2001:
    • The tenth anniversary was celebrated with Sonic Adventure 2, which saw the release of a "Birthday Pack", which included the game, a commemorative coin, a soundtrack CD, a booklet on the history of the franchise, and a special binding to hold them together.
    • The fifteenth, in 2006, with Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
    • The 20th anniversary game (2011), Sonic Generations, builds off the successes of Sonic Colors and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 one year prior. Its biggest selling point is the return of the classic, black-eyed Sonic, running alongside the modern, green eyed one, each with their respective, seperate gameplay in a time travel plot that revisits areas from the preceding nine main games of the series. The plot is even based on a time-altering villain crashing Sonic's birthday party.
      
      It's not just the hedgehog celebrating his 20th birthday —- the Vocaloids get in the act in a minor way, as the third title of Sega's Project Diva series of Vocaloid Licensed Games, released just a few days after Generations, includes a Vocaloid cover of "Live & Learn" in the bundled bonus CD and an in-game Sonic costume for Miku because of Generations (in contrast the other Sega-themed costumes in the series^note culled from Space Channel 5, Valkyria Chronicles, Virtua Fighter and Virtual-ON were included merely for the sake of Shout Outs).
    • Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces were both made for the 25th anniversary. The former is a Retraux 2D platformer headed by several Promoted Fanboys, while the latter brought back Classic Sonic again for a Crisis Crossover. Perhaps thanks to lessons learned after Sonic 2006, both games were released the following year (2016 marks 25 years since the release of Sonic the Hedgehog). Sonic Mania in particular launched with a celebratory limited edition physical release that includes a code to download the game, a statue of Sonic standing on a Genesis that plays the "SEGAAAA" fanfare, and a gold ring inside of a replica Sega Genesis cart.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Issue #25: Sonic CD adaptation
    • Issue #50: Conclusion of the "End Game" story arc, where Dr. Robotnik is Killed Off for Real.
    • Issue #75: Following the development from #50, an alternate-universe Robotnik resembling the games' "Eggman" version is instated as the new Big Bad.
    • Issue #100: Freedom Fighter reunion
    • Issue #125: Sonic is apparently killed
    • Issue #150: Evil Sonic mucking things around
    • Issue #175: Eggman destroys Knothole and completely defeats Sonic.
    • Issue #200: Sonic foils another one of Eggman's schemes which causes him to go through a massive Villainous Breakdown that he completely loses what left of his sanity and put out of commission. Leaving the way for Snively to take over and kickstart the Iron Dominion arc.
    • Issue #225: Sally is apparently killed and kicks off the Sonic: Genesis storyline
    • Issue #250: The beginning of the third and final act of the Crisis Crossover Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, setting up the massive Cosmic Retcon that would befall the "Prime" Zone after the crossover ended. Ironically, the narrative of the issue as a standalone would be more befitting a Mega Man milestone than a Sonic one, as the bulk of it is a Big Badass Battle Sequence against nearly every Robot Master to have ever existed.. Originally, it was supposed to have been the conclusion of the Mecha Sally storyline.
    • Issue #275 is the second to last issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Unite storyline.
    • Issues #288 - 291: "Genesis of a Hero" retells the events of the Genesis games and Sonic CD to match up with the new canon.
    • Sonic: Mega Drive is a one-shot created for the 25th anniversary and tells a storyline that takes place after Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Also despite its nature as a one shot, Word of God confirms that it's canon to the comic's story. Its success led to two sequels called The Next Level and Overdrive.
  • Sonic Universe:
    • It was supposed to celebrate its 50th issue with a tale set outside of the Archie continuity: an epilogue story for Sonic Underground. The story was supposedly supposed to occure later, but has certainly been scrapped since Archie abandoned the license.
    • Sonic Universe #25 kicked off Silver's storyline.
    • #75 is another Metal Sonic-based story.
  • Knuckles The Echidna #25 had Knuckles be fully reunited with his father Locke.
  • Sonic the Comic celebrated its 100th issue (and, by extension, 200th week in existence) by ending the Robotnik Rules arc, which had been going on since issue 9.
• Minion with an F in Evil:
  • E-102 Gamma of Sonic Adventure was for the most part an emotionless droid just trying to follow his master Dr Eggman's orders. Then he meets up with a little pink hedgehog and her pet bird. We'll leave it at that.
• Minor Living Alone:
  • The Games:
    • According to Sonic Adventure, twelve year old Amy lives alone in an apartment in Station Square. By Sonic Battle Amy's moved to Central City.
    • Tails is eight years old with no family in sight. He apparently lives by himself. Tails Adventure takes place even before he met Sonic but Tails lived alone even then.
  • The Freedom Fighters in Sonic the Comic all seem young however they live alone. Only Tails has a known reason for being alone. His family lives in another Zone.
  • When we see twelve-year old Amy's house in Sonic X, there are no signs of any parents. There's even a sign in front of it that says "The House of Amy Rose".
• Misplaced Retribution:
  • The Games:
    • In Sonic Adventure 2, Professor Gerald, understandably grieving for the death of his granddaughter, went insane and blamed all of humanity for her demise and used his final days alive to commit a mass genocide rather than, you know, rightfully blame G.U.N. who stupidly thought it was a good idea to shoot a twelve year old girl in the first place. And of course, G.U.N. over-reacted because Gerald was committing high treason by working with an alien conqueror to create a super-soldier. Shadow nearly followed through with Gerald's plan too, at least until Amy set him on the right track.
    • In Shadow the Hedgehog, the reason the G.U.N. Commander hates Shadow so much is because he was Maria's friend on the Space Colony ARK, and G.U.N. considered Professor Gerald's creation of him too dangerous, causing G.U.N. to shut down the ARK, arrest Gerald, and kill Maria and the scientists. He blames Shadow for Maria's death just for being created rather than blaming Gerald for creating him, or G.U.N. for actually shooting Maria.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Thrash the Devil, like the other dwindling Mobian-type Tasmanian Devils, had been told that the echidnas were evil due to the fact that, centuries ago, a group of scientists modified them, turning them into Devil Dogs slowly over the years. Thrash ended up getting his revenge, leading to the last leader of the Devils realizing that what she had told the other Devils had Gone Horribly Wrong: Thrash had sent every last echidna outside of Knuckles himself into another dimension out of spite.
• Mixed Animal Species Team:
  • The Games:
    • The first team to ever appear in the series is Team Chaotix (consisting of a echidna, a chameleon, a crocodile, a bee, and an armadillo) first appearing in Knuckles Chaotix.
    • Sonic Heroes has four playable teams, each with their own storyline: Team Sonic (hedgehog, fox, and echidna), Team Dark (hedgehog, bat, and a robot), Team Rose (hedgehog, rabbit, and cat), and the return of Team Chaotix (chameleon, crocodile, and bee).
    • Sonic Riders has the same teams as Sonic Heroes (except for Team Chaotix), as well as the Babylon Rogues (consisting of a hawk, a swallow, and an albatross).
    • In Sonic Forces, after Dr. Eggman takes over the entire world and Sonic disappears, his allies form The Resistance to counter it.
    • Sonic Mania Plus' Encore Mode allows you to play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty, and Ray (a hedgehog, fox, echidna, armadillo, and flying squirrel, respectively), and switch between each character when you find special power-ups.
  • In Sonic the Comic, Sonic is the lead member of the Freedom Fighters, which are a group of Funny Animals trying to overthrow the tyrant human Dr, Robotnik. The main cast consists of: Sonic (hedgehog), Tails (fox), Johnny (rabbit), Porker Lewis (pig), Amy (hedgehog), Tekno (canary), and Shorty (squirrel).
• Modest Royalty:
  • Blaze the Cat from the games is a princess, and wears a relatively simple purple jacket and white pants. It is fancier than what most characters wear (mostly by virtue of being more than most characters wear), but not unduly so. She also dislikes being addressed as "Your Highness".
  • From Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): Princess Sally, though heir to the throne of the House of Acorn, is far too busy leading a resistance movement of desperate refugees from Doctor Robotnik's regime, to bother with the niceties of being a Princess.
• Monster of the Week:
  • In Sonic X, the first 26 episodes of the first series had Dr. Eggman's randomly-deployed robots, each one with an E-(insert number here) as their serial number, and the first 11 episodes of the first half of the second series had random Metarex encountered by Sonic and co. along their journey to save the universe from the Metarex.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Pretty much a staple of the games. Things can go from humorously comedic to dark and apocolyptic in a manner of moments.
    • Sonic Adventure 2 starts out as a very lighthearted, silly and quite random kid's game. There are hints of darkness here and there; Shadow's flashbacks, the references to "terrorists" and "weapons of mass destruction." But lots of kid's stories have a dead sibling and lots of them involve terrorists and WMDs even if they don't usually call them that. The game does a complete 180, however, the second Gerald appears. His last words at his public execution and the things revealed in his diary may well make this one of the darkest games ever to be marketed towards children.
    • An admittedly minor example: the victory jingle from Sonic Chronicles. It's odd to lurch from the game's sinister, driving battle music to... cheering children?
  • Sonic X, the original version, at least, has a fairly emotionally heavy ending to the second season, what with Sonic explaining to Chris why he stayed behind and Chris's reaction. Following into the dub-only season 3, which starts with... a really bad pun.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), the scene with the tiny robot removing the roof of Tom's car and turning into a sticky bomb starts out as being Played for Laughs — but isn't very funny when it explodes and Sonic is caught in the blast, knocking him unconscious.
• Morality Pet:
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Agent Stone is the only person Robotnik shows any form of kindness to as Robotnik compliments how he makes lattes and even makes a rock named Agent Stone on the mushroom planet showing he did miss Stone despite claiming he wouldn't miss him when they departed earlier in the film.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate:
  • The games have Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik: Evil. Nobody has any idea what Ivo's doctorate is in. Probably engineering, if the robots he designs are any indication.
  • Dr. Eggman from Sonic Boom. Evil, only kinda harmless. The episode "Mister Eggman" reveals he actually didn't get his doctorate in Evil Science, so he went back and got his degree since without, everyone started calling him Mr. Eggman, which was a bit less intimidating.
  • Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). He insists on being called a doctor. And certainly likes less than savory approaches to science, down to saying to a KO'd Sonic that he'll love dissecting his body.
• Motor Mouth:
  • The Games:
    • Marine the Raccoon from Sonic Rush Adventure is something of a Motor Mouth, while fitting in every single piece of Australian slang ever conceived.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic doesn't get a lot of people to talk to, so once he does, it's hard to shut him up. Even when Tom and Maddie step outside to have a moment to themselves, Sonic's still talking in the other room, even though no one's listening to him. Even before Sonic gets anyone to interact with he's seen talking to himself repeatedly, which is implied to be a coping mechanism to deal with his loneliness.
• Mr. Vice Guy:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic is very prideful, making him cocky or reckless in the face of danger, but is an easy going All-Loving Hero in every other area.
    • Rouge the Bat is a government spy with a bad habit of being greedy and obsessive with jewels.
    • Despite being helpful to the heroes and being dedicated in guarding the Master Emerald, Knuckles suffers about three vices. One, he's quite prideful about his strength. Two, he's envious of Sonic's freedom and carefree nature. And three, he has a very short temper which can make him difficult for others to get along with him.
    • Tails is very intelligent, but retains a very childish demeanor, making him impudent or over excitable.
    • The Chaotix are basically this personified, a misfit gang of so-called detectives who ultimately have good intentions at heart. Vector is extremely brash and rough around the edges and is horrible with money, but notices things others don't and offers his services free of charge to those that deserve them. Charmy is incredibly hyper-active and childish, yet is only occasionally mischievous. Espio often fails to successfully reign in the excesses of his two partners, but is otherwise extremely competent and dedicated towards whatever mission he's assigned to.
  • Pointed out in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), where Scourge, one of Sonic's many, many antagonists, observes that they share the same arrogance and vanity, though that he lacks what he describes as a "limiting factor" - Sonic's moral compunction.
  • The heroic hedgehog siblings on Sonic Underground each have their own short-comings: Sonic is the bravest of the three, and therefore the most brash. Sonia is whiny and overly-concerned with petty things like dirt and dust, but has a host of technical and social abilities to make up for it. Manic, meanwhile, struggles with the kleptomaniac impulses he learned growing up (he was raised by a thief), but otherwise is the most laid-back and approachable of the bunch.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Rouge the Bat was a bizarre attempt at trying to introduce this kind of character into games otherwise aimed at kids. Besides her exposed cleavage and tight-fitting jumpsuit (which could be replaced with an even more skimpy outfit in the original Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure 2), she even acts promiscuous and flirty with the other characters.
  • Due to Art Evolution in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), a significant portion of the comic (Issue 60s-180s) turned the resident heroines Bunnie Rabbot and Sally Acorn much more humanoid. The former wears bunny outfit's top, the latter is next to being literally fur-naked. While it was toned down post-180s, it was pretty much rendered null after the Continuity Reboot.
  • Maddie Wachowski in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). One of her first scenes is her in gym wear doing yoga exercises. It's played for laughs, though, since Sonic thinks she doesn't have bones (and nicknames her "Pretzel Lady" for it) and has trouble himself copying her moves.
• Murder Water:
  • Sonic Adventure has Chaos, the God of Destruction (allegedly), a Chao mutated by Chaos Energy seemingly made of water and with mainly water-based skills. When he grew to his full power in said game, he caused Station Square to become completely flooded.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, we get the Chaos Devil (Chaos forcefully controlled by a Devil core). It's a pretty deadly opponent, being able to take on Sonic and Mega Man while using its Chaos Fluid to negate the Devil weakness.
• Muscles Are Meaningless:
  • Knuckles in the games is roughly the same size as Sonic and has skinny arms like the rest of the characters, but has the power to match the likes of Vector, Storm, Big, Omega, Wario, Bowser, and even Donkey Kong.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Knuckles and Mighty are both roughly the same size as Sonic (Knuckles is a little shorter) but possess incredible strength. In Mighty's case, he was given super strength by Mammoth Mogul, while Knuckles was experimented on at birth.
• Musical Nod:
  • The Games:
    • "You Can Do Anything (Toot Toot Sonic Warrior)," the Japanese theme of Sonic the Hedgehog CD, is a lyrical remake of the Green Hills stage theme from the GameGear/Master System version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
    • The final segment of Sonic Adventure's Windy Valley is accompanied by the Green Grove theme from the Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast. Likewise, the latter's Panic Puppet (Act 1) theme is used in the former's Twinkle Park level.
    • White Park Zone Act 2 from Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II manages to cram part of the Twinkle Park: Pleasure Castle theme from Sonic Adventure into one of the bridges.
    • In Sonic Generations, the solo of Classic Sonic's remix of Escape from the City is the beta version of the theme, plus the second verse gets Auto-Tuned to the melody of Endless Mine.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), while Tom and Maddie are painting the interior of their house during the ending, a simple piano arrangement of the series' Bootstrapped Theme Green Hill Zone is played in the background.
• Musical Pastiche:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles had a different music composer than the first two games, hence the absence of the original title theme, but the main boss theme is a pastiche of both the miniboss theme(the second part) and the Sonic 1 boss theme(the first part, somewhat more resembles the Final Boss version).
    • Sonic Adventure 2's various level themes often echo "Live and Learn," the game's theme song.
    • In Sonic Unleashed, the first few seconds of the opening cutscene music sound remarkably like something from Star Wars.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • The Games:
    • In Sonic Adventure 2, Tails responds with jaw-dropping, wide-eyed shock after he accidentally tells Eggman that the chaos emerald Sonic gave him is a fake. Sonic is blast into space shortly after, and it's obvious that the fox feels somewhat responsible for it.
    • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), this is what you're bound to feel like after an Eldritch Abomination named "Mephiles the Dark" reveals to you that you've captured and imprisoned one of your best friends in the Bad Future and it's all but confirmed that you were literally forced to do so against your will. Their future self may have been Driven to Suicide after the event via self-deactivation. Despite their rather villainous traits, one must feel really sorry for E-123 Omega and what happened to Shadow the Hedgehog.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), this is Sally's reaction when she regains her memories as Mecha Sally, going into Heroic BSoD over how she nearly killed her friends and family.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic has this reaction immediately after inadvertently causing an electromagnetic blast at the baseball park, having lost control of his anger over being alone.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Games:
    • In the IOS remake of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, one can place a green Grounder robot into a level using Debug Mode. Wonder where that's from?
    • In Sonic Riders, "You're supposed to be the fastest thing alive?"
    • Sonic's pose in the character select for Sonic and the Black Knight and one of Classic Sonic's level clear poses in Sonic Generations both look like Sonic's official render in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
    • In the Xbox 360/PS3 versions of Sonic Unleashed, you can buy chili dogs, Sonic's favorite food from the animated series of the '90s.
      
      And then, the intro scene of Sonic and the Black Knight has him landing in the realm of King Arthur... holding chili dogs.
      
      Used as a Brick Joke in Sonic Generations, where Sonic's special present is a chili dog, but he doesn't get to eat it before the Big Bad attacks. At the end of the game, he returns to his time and catches the dog, which is still warm.
      
      "Who ordered the chilidog?" from The Stinger of some of the commercials for the new Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games in London.
    • Once Classic Sonic appears in the trailer for Sonic Forces, he strikes a pose◊ very similar to Sonic Adventure's box art◊. (It also resembles his pose after beating Metal Sonic in Generations.)
    • Sonic Mania has its own page.
  • Archie Comic's Sonic the Hedgehog has it’s own page.
  • In Sonic X, not only Sonic does have to have rings in order to use his attacks, he's also very afraid of water. He does a "Sonic Says" joke in the first episode, too. These are references to his depictions in the American cartoons from the '90s.
  • Sonic Boom has its own page.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) Has its own page.

N

• The Name Is Bond, James Bond:
  • The games inverts this: "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog!"
  • One episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog does a direct James Bond shout-out by having Sonic refer to himself as:
    "Hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog."
• Names to Run Away From:
  • The Games:
    • Dr. Eggman and his original name Dr. Ivo Robotnik.
    • Fang The Sniper.
    • Chaos from Sonic Adventure (especially in his/its One-Winged Angel form).
    • E-123 Omega.
    • Blaze the Cat. Her powers are the same.
    • Black Doom from Shadow the Hedgehog.
    • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) has a twofer in Mephiles the Dark.
    • The Final Boss of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity is named Master Core: ABIS.
    • The virtual reality-warping soldier that serves as Dr. Eggman's Dragon in Sonic Forces is named "Infinite", though how the name correlates to him in any way is never explained.
  • The genocidal Julian Robotnik from the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), who makes every other version of Robotnik/Eggman look like Julie Andrews.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Scourge the Hedgehog, an Evil Counterpart of Sonic.
    • Would you trust a group calling themselves Team Hooligan to abide by the law?
  • In Sonic the Comic, Super Sonic's In-Series Nickname is demon.
• Narcissist:
  • The games' Big Bad Dr. Eggman fits this in addition to being The Sociopath. Not only does he name almost every damn thing he invents the "Egg (fill in the blank)", he's constantly making giant robots and other likenesses of himself and even puts his face on nearly everything, as well as claiming multiple times to be the smartest person in the world.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Dr. Robotnik is an incredibly insufferable egomaniac. It's to the point that he spends half the time in the presence of others telling them how much better he is than them. The fact that he keeps Agent Stone around as his Yes-Man shows that he needs constant reaffirmation to his ego. His Establishing Character Moment shows him constantly asserting his dominance over the military crew he's working with, belittling the major's credentials without letting him get a word in edgewise, and almost immediately telling him that his men work for Robotnik now.
• Nature vs. Technology: The series has usually held this to be an underlying theme, with Robotnik's technology and bases shown as killing off nearby natural places, and Sonic and friends trashing said bases in kind. However, Sonic CD decides to Take a Third Option: Getting Good Futures in each zone shows nature and technology working together to flourish in ways that neither could accomplish on their own.
• Never Say "Die":
  • The Games:
    • Averted in most games. Death gets referenced nonchalantly and several games discuss the ARK massacre that also involved Maria (who couldn't be older than thirteen) being killed. Sonic Heroes, one of the most kid-friendly titles, has at least three references to death in its dialogue.
    • The Sonic Advance manual referred to lives as "tries" as well. For example: "Gain an extra try".
    • Sonic Colors manual refers to "losing a try." The earliest Sonic games referred to lives as chances, though, so this may be a case of returning to its roots.
    • In Sonic Forces characters go out of their way to cut off before saying the 'd' word and use various euphemisms. The exception is the villain Infinite. He says the word "die" at least once.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Played literally; at one point, when Sonic and Tails are rushing toward a wall, Tails says "It's a dead end!" Sonic replies, "Hey, Sonic the Hedgehog never says dead!" In general, the show tended to avert this, but that was just a really weird incidence.
    • The Sonic Says short on child molestation discusses the concept in the vaguest terms possible to appease the network censors, never getting more specific than "[when] someone tries to touch you in a place or in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable".
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and Sonic Underground, characters who are "roboticized" are functionally dead to (and mourned by) the heroes, although some get better.
  • One episode of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) sees Robotnik and Snively blasted over a mountain ledge, and Bunnie says in shock "Robotnik's dead?!" Of course the show closes with them climbing to safety.
  • Sonic X: Exaggerated in the dub, which went out of its way to make sure nobody died; 4Kids didn't just replace instances of 'die' and 'kill', they also added dialogue to make sure viewers couldn't even interpret people as dead.
    • In the Sonic Adventure arc episode with Perfect Chaos, several fighter planes are downed while in combat with the monster. The camera shifts to a few people that are lamenting the condition of the city, and then, offscreen, you hear a voice that says "Don't worry! The pilots are okay!" What's even worse is that said people shouldn't even be in the city. They were all evacuated according to an earlier TV report.
    • The treatment regarding Maria. In the video games, she was shot dead/fatally wounded by a G.U.N. soldier. This is canon, and plays a good part in Shadow's storyline. In the dub, Maria was instead 'taken away' (though from the dialogue and sloppy editing, one could argue that they meant 'take her BODY away'). Not only does this completely fuck up Shadow's motivation (Did Maria die of her NIDS off-screen? If Maria is still alive, why is he trying to help destroy the planet rather than trying to find her and where is she now?), it also ruins a particularly dramatic scene where we see the soldier who killed Maria has serious mental issues from the experience.
    • Molly from season 3. In the original, she is given a touching Heroic Sacrifice, while in the dub, she just flies off in the middle of the battle, talking about how she won't stop fighting, and then never shows up again, for some reason. The editing is so jumpy, sloppy, and awkward it's hilarious. Seeing how it was carried out, it's still quite obvious that she died and that something was done to the footage.
  • Subverted in Sonic Boom, where Sticks outright tells Eggman's Robot of the Week "you can't kill me" in the first episode, right after she fails to say that it can't "obliterate" her. Because it's named the "Obliteratorbot".
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), When Tom tells Sonic what a bucket list is without saying he'll die.
    Tom: It's a list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket.
• Never Shall The Selves Meet:
  • The Games:
    • Through the mixed-up and convoluted story of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), this essentially takes place. There probably isn't a time where there aren't at least two Sonics/Silvers/Shadows running around at the same time, just in different locations. For example, late in the game, Sonic, Silver, and (strangely) Blaze find themselves on a cliff, while Doctor Eggman's Egg Carrier crashes into the side of a mountain, leaving Sonic to believe Elise is dead. Silver then suggests Sonic goes back in time to rescue her. While this happening, Sonic has already done so. He and Elise had already escaped the crash just as the carrier exploded. Then again, while there are multiples running around, they don't end up meeting each other, hence this trope being played straight, if unintentionally.
    • Averted in Sonic Generations. The entire gimmick of the game revolves around both Classic and Modern Sonics (and they meet up rather quickly.) In addition, there is also a meeting up of Classic and Modern Tails and Classic and Modern Eggman - who both pilot the final boss.
    • Sonic Forces sees Modern Sonic team up with Classic Sonic (now retconned to be Alternate Universe counterparts to each other, rather than the present and past versions of one Sonic). Again, an aversion as nothing bad in terms of space-time seems to happen.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM): In "Blast to the Past", Sonic and Sally travel back in time and meet their past selves. Nothing bad happens from this and the past selves don't know who they really are.
  • In a Sonic the Hedgehog in the Fourth Dimension, older and younger selves could co-exist, but not touch: if they did, they melted together somewhat painfully to become one self. Sonic did this ("Now I'm twice as cool"). He also did this with the evil anti-Sonic, Cinos, causing some alarm as to whether good or evil would win out in the resulting Sonic. Good won. Imaginary creatures threatening to rewrite history kept people from asking too many questions. Still, at the end, it was two positive Sonics plus one negative Cinos, which should equal one positive Sonic.
  • In the Sonic Boom worlds, having two of the same individual in the same dimension will eventually result in a universe-destroying paradox. This was first discovered in "Two Good To Be True" as a result of two versions of Knuckles hanging around. Later, in "Where Have All The Sonics Gone?", Morpho made sure to send their Sonic to a dimension where there were no other Sonics to avoid this happening. Later, when Shadow decides to "to heck with everything" in "Eggman: The Video Game", he intentionally takes Eggman and his Lord Eggman counterpart prisoner in order to create an anomaly.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • The Games:
    • The Game.com commercial for Sonic Jam featured sped up footage. The actual game is an extremely slow compilation of levels based on the Mega Drive games.
    • Game trailers for Shadow the Hedgehog all show extensive footage of Shadow riding that snazzy motorbike of his. In the game, the bike is only available in one level, is a hidden item, and has probably got the worst handling of any vehicle in the game. It also lied about the quality of the cut-scene graphics. 90% of the trailer is from the intro-sequence of the game. Worse, a few other seconds were taken from other cut-scenes mid-game, but upon playing the game, they are the only ones with high-quality CGI. That's right; the cut-scenes that were in the trailer were better animated than the cut-scenes not in the trailer.
    • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) had trailers showcasing lots of features and animations the game was supposed to have, but thanks to the game not being thoroughly tested and invokedbeing rushed out the door for the holiday season, many of the features shown in the trailers are not present in the actual game. Even several pieces of animations are missing in the final build while the trailer showed them off.
      
      A rather infamous case is the playable demo for the Xbox 360 version of the game — a much more polished version of an earlier PS3 demo, with many glitches and problems corrected. Unfortunately, that demo was made only for advertisement purposes — the game was actually being made for the PS3, and would be ported to the 360. As a result, this more polished, glitch-free version was discarded by Sonic Team, who never got around to implementing the demo's bug fixes in the final game.
    • There's also these two early trailers of Sonic Unleashed, which only shows off Sonic's speedy daytime gameplay, with the nighttime Werehog gameplay nowhere to be seen.
    • Sonic Boom has gotten accusations for having earlier trailers with graphics that rival almost anything else on the WiiU, compared with the pre-release gameplay footage that... doesn't.
    • Sonic Mania has promotional material for the game which suggested Dr. Eggman created the Hard Boiled Heavies. In the game proper, he sends a squad of normal Eggrobos to seek the mysterious gemstone, which is what actually transforms them into the Hard Boiled Heavies.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
    • The first trailer shows Sonic causing the EMP blast by running down a remote road too fast. The accident actually happened at a baseball field. Speaking of...
    • The second trailer implies the accident was the result of Sonic running too fast scoring points, being reckless, not caring about any collateral damage he may be causing. In the actual film, however, it's an Angst Nuke, as Sonic's loneliness and frustration from ten years of forced isolation finally boil over. He also reacts to the EMP with immediate horror, and it's implied he didn't even know he could do that.
    • And on that note, the trailer makes it appear that Sonic is enjoying his life on Earth despite being alone. This isn't the case at all: he was forced out of his own home planet to escape capture and hasn't interacted with anyone in ten years, turning him into a depressed loner.
    • The trailers also show Sonic wearing his signature red shoes throughout, while in the film, he spends most of his screentime wearing worn-out mismatched grey shoes. He wouldn't receive his red shoes until about two-thirds into the movie.
    • The second trailer also shows Sonic running around the Green Hill Zone-esque island on his homeworld as a teenager. In the film, Sonic was forced to flee from his homeworld as a small child and has not returned since.
    • Some lines from the movie are used in different contexts between the trailer and the movies. For example, Sonic saying "Gotta Go Fast!" isn't said when he's about to start running along the Montana desert highway, but rather after being woken with smelling salts.
    • The trailers played fast and loose with the detail of why Sonic is on Earth. The first trailer and the international version of the second trailer states Sonic came to Earth to save it, but in the actual film the actual reason why Sonic is on Earth is that his adoptive mother Longclaw sent him to Earth a decade ago to protect him from an echinda tribe after his power. The US version of the second trailer was more honest about this, with Sonic talking about how on his world "people were always after my power".
• New Powers as the Plot Demands:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006):
    • Silver manages to instantly learn chaos control during a fight with Shadow despite having no prior knowledge of it. Sonic pulled off something similar in Sonic Adventure 2, albeit sometime after learning of it from Shadow.
    • Also introduced in this game is the ability to create a space time rift via a double chaos control. Said portals seem to function however they need to depending on what the scene requires.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Sonic's "Super Peel-Out" maneuver became this in the early comics. In Sonic CD, the Super Peel-Out was nothing more than a way to get Sonic to reach high speeds without being a ball. In the comics, it was used for other methods, including limited flight and the ability to deflect attacks.
    • NICOLE, a small handheld device with utilities ranging from a translator, laser device, a protective forcefield and a scanner that can devise info and history from almost any object or area. In later issues NICOLE was evolved into the powerstation for New Mobotropolis from which she can transport or materialize almost any entity to the heroes' convenience, though at least by this point her multiple powers are becoming less of a surprise.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), during the final battle Sonic suddenly has the ability to drain the energy from the quill that Robotnik is using to power his equipment.
• Nice Guy:
  • The Games:
    • Tails is easily one of the nicest characters in the cast, and is even perfectly alright with accepting Eggman as a friend if he doesn't have an evil scheme at the moment.
    • Cream the Rabbit is also very friendly, befriending the formerly distant Blaze the Cat, which allowed her to start working with Sonic and avert a multi-dimensional calamity.
    • Sonic himself is a very kind person - a bit rude at times, but it's more playful than anything else -, always going out of his way to help people and never asking anything in return.
    • Amy Rose counts as well despite sometimes acting inappropriatley towards Sonic. She seems to be a Friend to All Living Things and even puts her life on the line to protect a (non-sentient) bird in the first Sonic Adventure.
    • Silver the Hedgehog, despite his failings, nevertheless has a kind heart and always has it in the right place, caring incredibly about his allies and the future in general.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM):
    • Sally, while sometimes irritable and somewhat bossy, is still mostly humble, gentle, and down-to-earth.
    • Bunnie Rabbot, in spite of her robotic strength, is probably the sweetest character on the show, being well-mannered and even a Cool Big Sis to both Tails and Sally.
    • Tails is a mild-mannered, sweet-natured and kind kid with a big heart for everyone he meets (Robotnick and Snively excluded).
  • Mighty the Armadillo from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics). Unlike most beings on Mobius, Mighty is so damn strong that nothing really poses a threat to him. Mighty uses this strength to benefit those that are weaker, including his less-brave friend Ray the Squirrel and his long-lost sister Matilda. The only time that Mighty loses it is when he perceives harm as having come to his friends.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
    • Sonic the Hedgehog. Maybe even more so than his gaming counterpart; while gaming Sonic has a good heart and an easy going personality, he also has something of an attitude. In the movie, he's much more cheerful and outwardly friendly to all creatures, most likely due to his want of friends, and will put his life on the line to protect others.
    • Tom and Maddie's niece JoJo becomes one of Sonic's friends and is the one who gives him his iconic shoes.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • The Games:
    • This was played in Sonic Adventure where Knuckles was tricked into fighting Sonic. During their fight, the two collided with each other, resulting in Sonic fumbling the two remaining Chaos Emeralds (one of them being green, which Knuckles thought was a piece of the Master Emerald). This gave way for Dr. Eggman to steal them and power up Chaos into his fourth form. So Knuckles allowing himself to get tricked by Dr. Eggman resulted in a Physical God powering up. Considering that this was the second time Knuckles was tricked, Sonic wasn't impressed:
      Sonic: "Smooth move, knucklehead!"
    • In Shadow the Hedgehog, the title character gathers the Chaos Emeralds... which the Big Bad uses to start stealing the earth's energy. Oops. Hell, Shadow's entire backstory is one big example. Professor Gerald attempts to create the Ultimate Life Form by allying himself with the Big Bad (Black Doom) to cure Maria, then decides to double cross him by building the Eclipse Cannon. Unfortunately, the UN realized that what Gerald was doing was wrong and sought to stop him. The end result saw Maria killed by GUN soldiers, leading Shadow and Gerald to proclaim vengeance on the world. How do they do that? Gerald rigs the Eclipse Cannon (and thus the Space Station ARK) to initiate a Colony Drop once the weapon is armed with all seven Chaos Emeralds. And who's the wonderful person who does this? Why, Gerald's own grandson, Dr. Eggman, of course!
    • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Mephiles' role as the villain may be entirely the fault of Shadow. When he and Silver went back to seal away Mephiles and Iblis respectively, it appeared that Mephiles was simply trying to escape the lab. However, Shadow pursued him anyway and sealed him in the Scepter of Darkness for ten years; long enough to make anyone go Ax-Crazy.
    • In Sonic Colors, when Sonic destroyed Rotatatron/Globatron, an arm got lodged into a nearby structure, which turned out to be part of the mind control cannon. When Eggman tried to fire it, the cannon backfired. The resulting energy created two things: a Nega Hyper-Go-On black hole that consumed the amusement park and, if evidence is correct, the primordial essence known as the Time Eater. Basically, Sonic caused Sonic Generations to occur by destroying the first boss of Colors.
    • Sonic Lost World:
    • The basic plot gets started because Sonic rushed into a fight without proper intel:
      Sonic: Gone! (kicks the giant seashell Eggman was holding into the distance) Eggman's shell is gone! Ha ha!
      Dr. Eggman: That was a mistake...
      Sonic: Whatever! When is it a mistake to take your toys away?
      Dr. Eggman: When it's the only thing keeping six angry Zeti from controlling my mechs, you moronic hedgehog!
    • Later in the game, Sonic ends up almost triggering a trap, but gets Tails captured instead.
    • In Sonic Forces, "Episode Shadow" reveals that Eggman taking over the world was pretty much caused by Shadow humiliating a mercenary and telling him how weak he is. He flips his lid and joins Eggman, becoming Infinite.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Locke wanted to prepare his son Knuckles for a horrible threat he sensed in a premonition. To prepare, he did genetic experiments on himself, so Knuckles would inherit the genes, and exposed Knuckles' egg to Chaos energy from the Floating Island's emerald. While this gave Knuckles more potential than any previous Guardian, said power was stolen by Mammoth Mogul, causing a chain of events that nearly destroyed the multiverse.
    • When Knuckles first obtained his Super Mode while searching for a spare Chaos Emerald for his island, he fought Super Sonic in a hidden zone seconds from Robotropolis. Sonic tried to stop fighting, Knuckles kept pushing things until the zone was destroyed, destroying innumerable Chaos Emeralds, and exhausting their transformations before they could use them to defeat Robotnik. The spare he did get ended up getting absorbed into the Master Emerald anyway.
    • The Brotherhood of Guardians had a major tradition not to interfere with anything unless it actively threatened their interests. During the last year or so of Robotnik Prime's reign of terror, he found the Floating Island, weaponized it, tried to crash it onto the Great Forest, and crashed the first Death Egg into it and tried to sink it into the ocean. Not once did they raise a finger to stop him. Even more, they didn't raise a finger to stop Enerjak, the Dark Legion, Mammoth Mogul or Dr. Eggman when he was at his weakest. Because of this, when Sonic was presumed dead, Eggman was able to catch up technologically, ally himself with the Dingos, and invade Angel Island, bringing down Echidnaopolis and allowing Dr. Finitivus to ambush and imprison the Brotherhood in the Twilight Zone.
    • One storyline had Dr. Eggman initiate Operation: Clean Sweep, a Cosmic Retcon that SHOULD have erased Sonic. Instead, it turned Mobius into its video game counterpart. Sonic turns Super Sonic and tries to reset things. However, because he had only barely started to remember the correct timeline, he couldn't prevent much else beyond saving Sally from being killed, doing so futzes up reality, causing a chain of events including re-allowing roboticization, restoring Ixis Naugus' other personalities, restoring Bunnie Rabbot's cyborg limbs to flesh and bone, causing Antoine to be critically injured, the Freedom Fighters to break up, and worst of all, giving Sally A Fate Worse Than Death - becoming Mecha Sally.
  • In Sonic Underground, the Oracle tells the Queen the prophecy of Robotnik's rise and eventual fall thanks to her and her children. He then proceeds to use this knowledge as Unsportsmanlike Gloating against Robotnik, thus alerting him the threat's existence in the first place and motivating him to actively seeking them out.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)'s central conflict happens because Tom shoots Sonic with a tranquilizer dart, accidentally sending all of Sonic's power rings to San Francisco. The resulting road trip from Montana to California is because Tom agrees to help Sonic retrieve the power rings. On top of this, Tom also handed over one of Sonic's quills to Robotnik since Tom just left it lying around his house instead of hiding it in his pockets.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • In Sonic the Comic, Sonic's Superpowered Evil Side Super Sonic was sealed in the Black Asteroid but was able to escape by charging himself up so much that he made himself into a sort of electron bomb in order to destroy the Asteroid. The explosion produced an electro-magnetic pulse that spread all over planet Mobius, which caused the totally unintentional side effect of deactivating all of Robotnik's Badniks and computers, and contributing to the end of Robotnik's dictatorship; all Super Sonic intended to do was to escape the Black Asteroid, and then kill Sonic and then everyone else.
  • In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad", Scratch and Grounder actually succeed in capturing Sonic and locking him in a cage. Then Coconuts shows up, and ties them up in a rope so he can claim the reward for himself. Sonic then points out to Coconuts that if the rope breaks, Scratch and Grounder will escape, and convinces him to put them in the cage. Coconuts does so, and Sonic escapes, locking all three robots in the cage.
  • In Sonic X's third series the Metarex kidnap Sonic's friends in order to blackmail him into revealing all his abilities to them. Given that Sonic was on a superpowered crazy kick thanks to Dark Chaos Emeralds littering the building at the time, this turned out to be an even worse idea for them than threatening Sonic's friends usually is. Whether the good guys or the bad guys won, it looked bad for everyone. It's Eggman and his allies who burst in, destroy the attacking Metarex, save Sonic's friends while nobody's looking and ends with Eggman of all people reprimanding Sonic for losing his temper.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide has Sonic and Mega Man attempt to use Chaos Control to fix their worlds. Mega Man's set back to normal, but Eggman's desperate attempt to win ends up messing up Mobius, turning it into a different world... as well as voiding all of his victories, restoring the Freedom Fighters to the point where they Took a Level in Badass and giving them more allies to use in their fight. His actions also had the benefit of cancelling out, at this time, nearly all of the other villains and assorted threats in the comic, with only those from the games and American cartoons still around.
    
    To top it off, as Eggman adapts to the new timeline he says that his new memories will overtake his old ones. It was his realization that Sonic's an embodiment of chaos that drove him to make the tech that led to the crossover and slowly tear apart the Freedom Fighters to begin with. Once his memories fully adjust, he'll become less of a threat than before.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between:
  • The Games:
    • We have the trio of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Tails is the mild-mannered best friend of Sonic, Knuckles is the tough, hot-headed friendly rival, and Sonic mediates the two, combining the kindhearted attitude with his cocky and snarky attitude (although it's mostly geared towards his foes).
    • Team Dark consisting of Shadow, Rouge, and Omega is a downplayed example. Rouge is the closest to nice in the group and by far the most social, Shadow is in-between in that he appears to be very cynical, egotistical, and moody, but is caring to others even if he doesn't show it, and Omega is the mean one due to being a Killer Robot who's on the team for the sake of destruction and considers just about anyone who's not Shadow or Rouge to be expendable.
    • The Babylon Rogues follow this trope too. Storm defaults to being the nice in the trio due to him being the most sympathetic in the group, Wave is in-between in that she appears to be very snobbish, but is the sanest of the group and Jet is the mean one to due to him being a trademark immature Jerkass for the sake of being short-tempered.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) formed one in the second season. Princess Sally is gentle and rational, Antoine is a pompous Dirty Coward, while Sonic is altruistic, but arrogant and hot-headed. Antoine and Sonic sometimes interchange, Depending on the Writer (in some episodes Antoine is more just harmlessly stupid, with Sonic as a bullying Greek Chorus to his antics). Sally can also sometimes be snarky and easily agitated, but usually still maintains the 'nicer' role in comparison.
• The Nicknamer:
  • Bean the Dynamite from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) is quite the nicknamer. He's called Sonic "Speedy McQuickness", "Mr. Needlemouse" and "Speedy Cheese"; called Tails "Propellor Butt"; called Amy "Piko Piko Valkyrie" and "Shouty Hammer McPain"; called Jet the Hawk "Jettinson Q. Hawkington" and called Blaze "Little Miss Flaming Lilac". He also named one of his bombs "Jamie-Kendall Duckingworth III". Unusual in that the nicknames he gives are always longer than the real names.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic spent his life on Earth eavesdropping on Tom and Maddie Wachowski, giving them the nicknames "Pretzel Lady" for Maddie's dexterity in practicing yoga, and "Donut Lord" for Tom because of his penchant for eating donuts (and talking to them). And of course, he calls Robotnik "Eggman" because his drone army shares a white color scheme and ovoid shape which makes them resemble eggs.
• Ninja:
  • In [the games, Espio the Chameleon, ever since the Chaotix crew's return in Sonic Heroes. Complete with invisibility powers and giant shuriken.
  • Sonic X has Espio the Chameleon. He is (unlike the others in his group) calm and collected. As a part of the Chaotix detective agency, he made his debut in episode 39 (a loose tie-in with the game Sonic Heroes). That was, however, his only appearance on Earth. In fact, that was his ONLY appearance in the original 52 episodes! He would later go on to appear in episode 59, where he is again seen with the Chaotix crew. During season 3 he became more of a prominent character. The appearances of the Chaotix were strictly for filler episodes until episode 74, where they became background characters for each of the remaining episodes, participating in combat against the Metarex. Akin to his video game counterpart, Espio uses all manner of Ninja skills to battle opponents. His trademark ability is to turn invisible to sneak up on his enemies. He also uses a variety of weapons including an enormous collection of shuriken, and even threatens Sonic's life at one point with one of his kunai ninja knives.
• Noblewoman's Laugh:
  • The Games:
    • In the Japanese incarnations of the games (especially the more recent of each), the Mad Scientist Big Bad Dr. Eggman gained a laugh rather like a Noblewoman's Laugh consisting of a long "OH" followed by a varying number of "HO"'s to increase comedic value. It is one of Eggman's most memorable traits in Japan that was almost never heard in American dubbing until Sonic Rush and Sonic Unleashed. It's also occasionally heard during gameplay in Sonic Adventure 2.
      
      In Sonic Colors, he actually laughs too loudly and injures himself.
      Eggman: HOOOO HOHOHOHO — ow... I think I gloated so hard, I pulled a muscle!
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • The Mad Scientist Dr. Eggman in the games is a parody of Theodore Roosevelt.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog has Wes Weasely, an Honest John who shares Phil Silvers' voice, clothes, and glasses. In "Sonic Gets thrashed" one of the robot rejects is a robot chef named "Wolfgang Puke".
  • Sonic the Hedgehog in Robotnik's Laboratory has mentions of Schwartzneggbot and Robot Di Nero. There is also a mole (which are known for being almost blind) called Stevie; who is a singer.
  • The sequel Sonic the Hedgehog in Castle Robotnik has assistant director Spielbot and the author apparently had it in for poor Arnie as he's depicted as Thug; an extremely dumb Barbarian Hero who speaks in monotone and the only line he can remember is from a previous movie 'Hasta la vista'.
  • Sonic Boom parodied Justin Bieber in the episode "Battle of the Boy Bands," with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles creating an in-universe Stylistic Suck boy band to stop Amy's obsession with pop star Justin Beaver.
  • Dr. Robotnik’s appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) seems to take cues from Friedrich Nietzsche.◊ Fitting, really, considering that Robotnik thinks himself an intellectual Übermensch.
• No Ending:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic Chaos simply rolls the credits after the final boss is beaten. If you collect all the Chaos Emeralds as Sonic, the only change is that you see his image running inside them.
    • Knuckles Chaotix later had it worse. It has a dramatic bad ending if you fail to collect the Chaos Rings, but if you succeed... You just get the title screen with Sonic and Tails slapped to the background for whatever reason!
    • The endings of Sonic Rivals qualify. Despite four of the main characters completing their respective missions (Sonic rescuing Amy, Knuckles retrieving the Master Emerald, Shadow rescuing Rouge, and Silver defeating Eggman Nega), they set off to rescue the other victims that are trapped in the cards.
    • Combined with Sequel Hook. Sonic Chronicles ends with Sonic and friends learning that Eggman has taken over the world. And then they thank Bioware for being awesome.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) series played this straight twice. The original universe was in the middle of a story arc where New Mobotropolis was being manipulated by Naugus while Sonic was chasing after a robotized Sally among a slew of other storylines going on. Just as they succeed in capturing her... their universe ended up going through a Cosmic Retcon thanks to a ugly legal battle, ultimately leading to a lot of storylines never being resolved. The post-reboot comic, while wrapping up the first major story arc, was canceled in part 3 of a Milestone Celebration of past games, leaving ongoing plotlines unresolved.
• No Immortal Inertia:
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog/Knuckles the Echidna, mad scientist Dimitri, after messing with a Chaos Emerald, wound up absorbing its power, and was trapped under a mountain for hundreds of years. Knuckles accidentally 'woke' him up, and Dimitri, now calling himself Enerjak, set about to conquering Knuckles' home land. However, when Mammoth Mogul came to the scene, he used the Sword of Acorns to drain all of the Chaos energy from Enerjak, and all those years definitely caught up to him. He was forced to live in an entirely robotic body just to survive, and many issues after that, only his robotic head is alive. (If you can call that 'living'.)
  • In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnikotep IV actually disintegrates after having the Chaos Emerald of Immortality taken from him by his descendant — however, he seems vaguely happy about this because it frees him from having to deal with a mummified blue hedgehog.
• Non-Humans Lack Attributes:
  • The games primarily features animals without clothing (or very little anyway, as they usually at least wear shoes and White Gloves), except in case of the females (and Charmy Bee, who wears an orange vest and a flight helmet). None of the male characters are shown to have genitals, thankfully. Even Charmy.
  • Sally Acorn in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) can be either fully nude save for boots, or wear only an open vest. Either way, she has obvious breasts without nipples.
• Non-Lethal Warfare:
  • In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Tails works out a way to send the Nocturnus echidnas back to their own dimension in a non-lethal manner. Enemy Mine Dr. Eggman seems almost affronted by the fact that "It won't hurt them? Not even a teeny bit?"
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM):
    • The cartoon was set in a world where the heroes were a small band of Freedom Fighters fighting against difficult odds, so they had to have some losses. However, they also could Never Say "Die". The solution? Robotnik's main way of disposing of his enemies was to "roboticize" them—that is, use a machine to turn them into mindless robots that would follow his orders. This was very effective, as the person's personality essentially "died", and they were also forced against their will to act as Robotnik's soldiers. Robotnik's forces also used laser weapons, but predictably, they never caused any fatal damage. Early in the second season, a temporarily de-roboticized Uncle Chuck explains that the mind actually doesn't go away, and the roboticized person is simply aware of what is going on around them without any way to control themselves. It's debatable as to whether this made it better or worse.
    • There's also the first episode, where the Freedom Fighters fend off Robotnik's robots with catapults shooting water balloons at them.
• Non-Mammalian Hair:
  • Sango Morimoto's design for Charmy (a bee) in the manga gives him bright pink hair. Other artists scrap the hair, as did Sega when they made him a Canon Immigrant.
  • Tekno from Sonic the Comic is a canary with green hair on her head.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries:
  • The Games:
    • Wave the Swallow, per usual for the post-pubescent cast, of Sonic Riders, though there is as much official art of her being flat-chested as official art showing budding of the chest. The in-game model tends to the former.
  • In all comics attached to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise — Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Sonic the Comic, and Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) — each of which ran separate series with their own continuity, all the female characters have breasts, regardless of what sort of Funny Animal they are. It makes a minor semblance of sense with placental mammals (which make up the majority of the cast), such as hedgehogs, foxes, wolves, bats, squirrels, squirrel/chipmunk hybrids^note Princess Sally from "Archie's Sonic", and rabbits, but it doesn't stop there; even the echidnas, marsupials, birds, and reptiles have humanlike breasts. Of course, given that the series is a World of Funny Animals, humanlike anatomy on nonhuman creatures is par for the course^note though Barbie Doll Anatomy is in full effect, given that the series is meant to be family-friendly.
    
    Only Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) bothered to justify this (and all the Interspecies Romance going on amongst the cast) by revealing that all Mobians are the result of genetic nukes being dropped on Earth by the Xorda during an intergalactic war with humanity, which had the side effect of causing animals to rapid evolve via their DNA blending with that of humans. However, this explanation may not apply to the universe after the Genesis Wave, and the series didn't survive long enough for another explanation to be given.
  • Cosmo from Sonic X. In a climactic moment near the very end of the series, she suddenly transforms from a child around Tails' age to a full-grown adult, complete with breasts and child-bearing hips... in spite of the fact that no other female of her species, including her mother, is portrayed with these. Furthermore, the scene comes complete with gratuitous close-ups of her swelling bust and posterior, which makes the whole thing more than a little bit worrying.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*:
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) this is a major characteristic of Dulcy the dragon. She acts like she's being scolded by her "Ma" every time she crashes.
  • In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Coachnik", when Scratch and Grounder get hit by a train from a tunnel that Sonic painted over, the former declares "But I can fly! I'm the Swan Queen!"
  • Sonic Boom:
    • In the episode "Circus of Plunders", after Sonic and company (save for Tails) perform at the circus, Knuckles (who was the human cannonball) has suffered a head injury and asks, "What time does the show start?"
    • In the episode "Sleeping Giant", after Tails is swatted out of the sky by the rock giant, Knuckles headbutts it. This just causes him to stagger off in a daze and say, "Yes, Grandma, I will have another gingersnap."
    • In the episode "It Wasn't Me, It Was the One-Armed Hedgehog", when Knuckles is blasted by Metal Sonic, he blurts out, "My cupcakes are missing, Grandma!"
• Non-Standard Character Design:
  • The Games:
    • Rouge the Bat is an anomaly in the otherwise noodle-limbed character designs in the series, since she has a much more anthropomorphic figure, complete with human-like breasts and legs suggesting actual anatomy.
    • While most of characters are based on animals and follow a strict design style, the Deadly Six from Sonic Lost World are instead based on demons (specifically Youkai), and look very out of place. Justified by the fact they are native to a different planet.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • The original SatAM cast looked the same when the comic-only cast were introduced, many of which were taller and had more humanistic builds (and were more prone to having hair). Art Evolution made characters look even more out of place. It wasn't until around issue 160 or so that the character designs finally became consistent.
    • Nack, Bean, and Bark, whose designs are drawn in the "classic" style (i.e.: short and chubby) of the old games, look really out of place next to the modern designs of rest of the cast. This is because they never received any "modern" redesigns in the games due to their absence in newer games, and Archie didn't bother updating their look beyond changing their eye colors.
    • The SegaSonic design characters like Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles clash with the Canon Foreigner characters. Most of the Archie original characters don't follow the design scheme of the Sega characters or the SatAM characters. Thus we get characters with Furry Female Manes^note A few Sega characters, like Vanilla and Blaze, have hair, but it's very sparingly used and typically matches their fur colour, more humanoid designs, and fully dressed male characters. The Continuity Reboot redesigned several characters, most notably Sally and Antoine, to look more Sega-esque.
  • The SegaSonic characters in Sonic the Comic look almost nothing like everyone else. Fleetway original characters are usually drawn with more traditional humanoid proportions compared to the Sega ones.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • The episode "Zoobotnik" featured Katella the bounty huntress who was drawn more human like than the rest of the humanoid characters.
    • Even Sonic and Tails are this, as they're from the games, and the show's character design style doesn't really match the game style. Likely the reason Robotnik was redesigned for the show.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), instead of being an anthropomorphic animal character in Sonic's world, Longclaw happens to be a normal great horned owl who is giant and can talk.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The Games:
    • Eggman's explanation in Sonic Generations involving his defeat in Sonic Colors definitely comes off as this to those who had not played Colors, especially considering far more people have played Generations than they have Colors.
    • In Sonic Lost World, Tails mentions having once built a television set out of paperclips and having reprogrammed a supercomputer with nothing but dishwashing detergent and a toothpick.
  • Near the beginning of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Robotnikland", Scratch and Grounder notice that Dr. Robotnik has eaten eggs for every breakfast for the last 10 years, so they decide to surprise him with something different. Scratch pushes the presentation on Grounder, who complains that the last time he surprised Robotnik, the latter made him spend a week as the anchor for his yacht (Grounder is a robot, and does indeed look heavy enough to be used as an anchor).
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
    • Per Vice Chairman Walters, Robotnik played major roles in the coups of Pakistan and Azerbaijan, neither of which are elaborated on in the Pentagon meeting. Tellingly, not only do the personnel not acknowledge the coups in question (which imply heavily that their details are classified from the public), but the Navy Chief of Staff adds that the latter country "isn't even a country." One is left to imagine what he exactly meant by that.
    • Robotnik notes that as a child he was punched in the face by a bully, and in retaliation the bully ended up having to eat from a straw for a year. He doesn't elaborate on what he did to said bully.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup:
  • In the games, it's actually not uncommon for Dr. Eggman or any of his henchbots to haul out old Eggmobiles, bases or the like. As early as Sonic 3 & Knuckles did these things get reused.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Apparently, the intelligence-boosting microchip that Dr. Robotnik was researching in "Grounder the Genius" had only a one-in-a-million chance of being successfully created. Once that one was inevitably destroyed, his computer informed him that he'd be once again subject to that probability if he were to try to recreate it. Uh...
    • Averted during the Chaos Emerald Saga. Robotnik strands Sonic and Tails in the past by destroying Sonic's time travelling shoes. Sonic responds by writing a note in a treasure chest, knowing the shoes' inventor will find the chest in the present and get him to send a new pair of shoes to get them out.
• No-Sell:
  • In the first chapter of the Dash & Spin: Chousoku Sonic manga, when Dr. Eggman tries getting Sonic's feet stuck to the floor by some glue substance to make him helpless. However, Sonic just pulls his feet out and gives chase, mildly annoyed that he now got chunks of concrete stuck on his shoes.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), during the Bar Brawl, not only does Sonic try to take down a thug by hitting him in the head with an unbreakable bottle, he also tries to do some Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs. Nothing works.
• No Sense of Direction:
  • Sammar in Sonic Unleashed. She starts out lost in Apotos, and after you help exorcise her demons, she thinks she's able to get back on her way home, only to get lost again a few more times.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic is fast, but he's ultimately not from Earth and doesn't know how to get exactly where he needs to go. When Tom tells him San Francisco is directly west (from Montana more southwest) Sonic zooms off, only to return a moment later wet and a fish on his head saying he hit the ocean.
• No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom:
  • The Classic Era had some of this. In particular, Carnival Night Act 2 in Sonic 3 & Knuckles is one long winding path from beginning to end, lacking the forks and junctions in possible paths that are characteristic of 2-D Sonic stages. The same applies to Sandopolis Act 2 from the same game, Metallic Madness Zone 2 in Sonic the Hedgehog CD, and both Acts of Titanic Monarch in Sonic Mania, though all of them have shortcuts that are either hidden or difficult to execute, whereas Carnival Night Act 2 has none whatsoever.
  • Speed-oriented levels in Sonic Adventure 2 tend to be extremely linear, usually consisting of a single path with very few or no alternate routes.
  • Some of the games released between 2007 and 2009 are sometimes criticized for being speedy games that have too much running and not enough platforming rather than the other way around. Conversely, the games that tend to receive this criticism, such as Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, generally feature a decent number of alternate paths (with, in some levels, two goal rings at the end of each route) and more collectable items than earlier 3D games.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic had a birthday in Sonic Generations. He's still fifteen years old. Humorously, before Sonic Adventure, his canon age was sixteen. He seems to be aging backwards! Also in Generations, he, Tails and Eggman are depicted as having aged quite a bit since their 16-bit days, not even being able to fully recall their early adventures in Chemical Plant or Green Hill Zone despite the above. His newest English voice actor as of Sonic Colors uses a noticeably deeper voice than previous ones. However, nothing points to Sonic actually aging.
    • The series has this trope in spades; none of the characters seem to grow any older than the age in which they were introduced, and some (like Charmy Bee) actually had their ages and mannerisms adjusted to be younger than what they were before.
    • Amy Rose seems to be an aversion, having aged from 8 to 12 between Sonic CD and Sonic Adventure, which seems reasonable... But is weird alongside Knuckles, who went from 15 to 16; Tails, who remained 8; and Sonic, who, as mentioned above, went from 16 to 15.
    • Infinite lampshades this in Sonic Forces. He mentions that Sonic and Tails (who are 15 and 8 respectively) have been fighting Eggman for decades.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), the characters age, but very slowly. Over the span of twenty years of comics, Tails aged from ten to eleven and Sonic was seventeen at one point. For the most part, their ages are ignored. This was all reversed in the Continuity Reboot as characters were aged into their SegaSonic canon ages (Tails is eight, Sonic is fifteen, etc).
  • In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic has two birthdays. Tails is still 4 1/2 over the course of the series.
  • Years have been stated to have passed in Sonic the Comic but no one has aged. Certain characters appear to have aged, but it's just their appearances making them look older; for example, Amy looks older with her quills in a bob than she does with them in her "classic" upright style. Sonic's age has never been stated, so it's possible he was a kid at the start of the comics (his human design looked young) and has aged to his game counterparts age by the end. Or even older, given that Sonic was seen at Spike's Place, a bar in the Metropolis Zone, in Issue 82's story Running Wild (though he didn't drink), and Knuckles was seen in a saloon in the story "The Good, The Bad and The Echidna".
• Not-So-Harmless Villain:
  • Dr "Eggman" Robotnik plays into this manner in the later games. He's even more clownish and bumbling as ever, however his plans are more stable, and manage to take Sonic by surprise a few times. Even his super form gets neutralized by one of the doctor's machines after taking him too lightly. But the moment that really takes the cake was Sonic Forces, where he once again attempted to Take Over the World... and actually succeeded!
  • Dr. Robotnik of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is largely considered far more incompetent than most other incarnations of the doctor, however, he has been shown to be pretty clever several times over and many of his inventions, as goofy as they are, are very elaborate or at least work as he intended. Case in point, the last few episodes of the series revolved around a Time Travel plot where Robotnik and Sonic were trying to collect the Chaos Emeralds. Seeing as this is Sonic we're talking about, Robotnik always proved too slow and didn't manage to get a single emerald ... until the very last one. And then with that one he managed to collect the rest in a single episode and nearly destroyed Sonic and friends.
  • In Sonic X, Eggman alternates between being highly competent and not competent at all, so much so that it comes as quite a surprise for some when he talked Dark Sonic out of a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, while his even more harmless robot buddies held off a Metarex leader. In earlier episodes at least, Eggman was actually genuinely formidable against most human forces and the majority of the main protagonists. It is only against Sonic that he falls in a flash (and he did give him a run for his money a few odd times). He also seems to become incredibly more competent whenever he forced to team up with Sonic.
• Not So Invincible After All:
  • The Games:
    • The player will still drown underwater or get crushed by moving platforms while invincible in the games.
    • Sonic the Hedgehog 3:
    • Ice Cap Zone Act 1 has a Knuckles-exclusive area where you must glide from wall to wall and avoid spiked balls. If you use debug mode or a glitch to get Super Sonic into the area, the spiked balls will damage you anyway, and since the damage knocks your ring count to 0, it ends your Super status. However, in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, this is corrected and the Super and Hyper characters can touch the spike balls with no repercussions.
    • The Launch Base Zone final boss Big Arms. If Eggman manages to catch you in the robot's arms, he'll carry you up and body slam you, causing you to lose your rings, even in Super Mode, causing you to revert to normal.
  • In season 3 of Sonic X when Yellow Zelkova tries to carry out his master's orders to kill Sonic and friends. His battle with them takes place on a Volcanic Planet as he viciously battles to the death with Knuckles where not only does Zelkova's armor get destroyed, revealing his (and Dark Oak's) race's true appearance, but also is knocked off a cliff and slides into molten lava in a VERY familiar scene. Chris even acknowledges this trope in the English version of the series:
    Chris: He thought he was invincible...
• Not So Stoic:
  • In the games, Sonic the Hedgehog has always been the unflappable hero with grin and a joke, never letting anything or anyone stop him. However, Sonic Lost World heavily tests that as the Deadly Six's actions leads to a Dwindling Party, the lowest Sonic goes is jabbing one of Tails' devices and shaking his head in defeat when no one answers, knowing no one is going to.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • After Zonic makes Sonic kill an alternate version of his father and Sonic blows up at him, Zonic reminds him that it was technically his father too.
    • A lighter example comes when Espio is told that he can return to Angel Island with his friends. He reacts with unbridled joy, before quickly clearing his throat and apologizing for the uncharacteristic outburst.
• Not That Kind of Doctor:
  • The games have Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. We never find out what his doctorate is in, but it's probably some kind of physics or engineering degree, if his robots are anything to go by. Considering his studies on Sealed Evil in a Can, he also may have some kind of ancient history degree.
  • Dr. Eggman manages to put a rather cruel twist on this trope in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics). One of his minions confronts him about the cybernetics that were given to their crippled and diseased sister, stating that they aren't curing her like he said they would. Eggman then cheerily explains that, not being a medical doctor, he didn't know what her condition even is, but went through with it anyway because he could use the threat of letting the minion's sister die to keep them both in line.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…:
  • The games might be the largest offender of this trope since Sonic's ability has always been to run really really fast. Not necessarily stop super fast. (Likewise, he doesn't suffer fall damage.) The closest the games get to depicting wall crash damage is to make him flatten against the wall, fall on the ground, and promptly spring back up, Disney-style (this was to be depicted in Sonic 2 and Generations, but cut out; it only appears in other 3D games like Sonic Unleashed (PS 2); the Sonic 2 Nick Arcade Prototype has this feature fully implemented.)
    
    In-game, you actually do slow down to a stop. During cutscenes, he skids to a halt. Make of that what you will.
    
    In Sonic Generations, a skill called "Stop on a Dime" allows Sonic to slow down quicker.
    
    Also, he does fall into Bottomless Pits.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, Shadow catches a falling Dr. Light after he was thrown out of Eggman and Wily's floating base.
• Number Two:
  • Tails serves as this to Sonic in the games and the most likely to tag along in his adventures. He even sometimes takes over in Sonic's absence.
  • In Sonic the Comic, the role of Number Two is taken by Amy Rose she leads the Freedom Fighters when Sonic is unable to (i.e. Sonic has turned into Super Sonic or Sonic is trapped in the Special Zone).
  • In Sonic X, Tails is often seen leading the other characters during Sonic's absence. Sonic also refers to Tails as My right-hand man!

O

• Obi-Wan Moment:
  • In Sonic Universe issue #3, E-102 Gamma confronts E-123 Omega and Gamma is shown to easily overpower Omega despite Gamma being such a weaker unit. He realizes Omega would be a better choice to return to GUN with and quickly implants a virus in Omega that grants him emotions just before Omega obliterates him. As he's doing this, though, he's telling Omega that he could destroy his body, but not his soul. Omega's response? "Robots don't have souls." He gets one.
  • Sonic X:
    • E-102 Gamma in the Sonic Adventure adaptation, after getting mortally wounded by his defeated brethen E-101 Beta, he exclaims in horror as the fellow bot explodes, only to express relief when his animal battery emerges safe, before shutting down himself. Granted Gamma is a robot with limited sentience, but since his final emotion was "relief" it still counts.
      Gamma: I'm relieved...Gamma: Mission Complete....
    • In the Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation, just before being ejected into space and blown up (not really) Sonic looks at his friends, says "hey, it's okay" before telling Tails to finish what he started. He's still smiling as he's blown out of the Space Station. Tails finishes what he started. Awesomely.
      "For the first time, Sonic has asked me to do something for him... I won't give up! I won't let him down!"
• Obnoxious In-Laws:
  • In one episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnik is about to marry the guest character of the week. His mother crashes the wedding and instantly starts a room-destroying fist fight with the bride, for no apparent reason.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Maddie's sister Rachel doesn't like Tom, to put it nicely. Even before he became a fugitive, she would jump on any flimsy excuse to tell Maddie to divorce him. She becomes so obnoxious that she has to be tied up to a chair to stop her from being a nuisance. Her daughter Jojo on the other hand is a sweetie who loves her "Uncle Tommy" very much, perhaps even more than her mom, since she doesn't seem to particularly care that her aunt and uncle tied her mom to a chair.
• Obviously Evil:
  • The Games:
    • Black Doom in Shadow the Hedgehog. He is gigantic, has nearly godlike powers, is the head of an empire in space, has an ultra deep voice, can detach an eye from himself to observe things in detail and to accompany allies, desires total power and control, has a near infinite army of bloodthirsty monsters, and is named Black Doom. For some reason, Professor Gerald Robotnik, himself a good man at the time he met Black Doom, thought that helping Doom get the Chaos Emeralds was a good idea.
    • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), the villain of the game introduces himself as Mephiles the Dark. When asked about himself, he falls silent and changes the subject. He looks like an evil twin of Shadow the Hedgehog (who himself already looks like an evil twin of Sonic the Hedgehog). It's almost mind-boggling that Silver didn't realize Mephiles was a bad guy the very first time they met. He moves like a puppet, has soulless, feral eyes, and NO MOUTH (yet his face moves when he talks). And that's when he is a Shadow doppelganger, to say nothing of his powered up form, which is crystal-like, emits blue flames, and has red scleras with green glowing cat irises. On top of that, his name is a corruption of Mephistopheles.
    • The Deadly Six in Sonic Lost World. Their name says it all, but the leader of them, Zavok, is the biggest example as he is a giant horned demon with a predominately red and black color scheme.
  • Dr. Robotnik wears black with the later addition of red for Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), is a total dick to everyone he interacts with, installs ominous glowing eyes in his robots, and wants to capture Sonic for his own nefarious purposes.
• Official Parody:
  • Big's Big Fishing Adventure 3: The Trial is a web browser game developed by Sega of Virgin Islands that makes fun of both the games and Sega themselves.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter:
  • The Games:
    • The series Hand Waves this by having Dr. Eggman seemingly get the funds for his schemes from Casino Night Zone. Doesn't do so very well because Sonic tends to gain far more rings than he loses whenever he passes through the Zone, making it far more generous than any real-life casino. Sonic Battle also went into much more detail about this: Eggman has his robots often commit small-time thefts too petty to attract the attention of Sonic, and he also sells stripped down versions of his robots to other corporations and companies to have a steady supply of cash while keeping the real good stuff for himself.
    • In addition to selling Guard Robos for extra cash in Sonic Battle, the Sonic Riders series reveals that he also owns two companies, Robotnik Corp — which sells air boards — and MeteorTech, a company that develops security robots. Yet another company, Eggman Enterprises, is mentioned in Sonic Colors, although it may be the same company as Robotnik Corp.
    • Beyond just "monetary" issues is the fact that Eggman's machines must require an utterly massive amount of natural resources and time to construct (not even factoring in R&D time), yet he always has some new, extensive machine on the ready when his last one fails. It doesn't help that beyond all the robots he has built, he has seemingly no other sentient biological creature with any significant role in his operations.
    • One of the most notable examples is in Sonic Adventure. The Egg Carrier, an absolutely massive aerial battleship is destroyed. Near the end of the game, Eggman reveals that he had another one.
    • Even more absurd then the Egg Carrier was the Death Egg, which first appeared in Sonic 2. It was a giant space station, similar to the famous Death Star. How could Doctor Eggman pay for that? It was explained in Sonic 3 & Knuckles that he was at least trying to repair rather than replace the Death Egg, but that doesn't explain the numerous extra space stations he whips up in the Sonic Advance Trilogy.
    • In Sonic Unleashed, Eggman produces a fleet of entirely expendable space ships solely for the purpose of luring Super Sonic into attacking his hidden superweapon.
      
      Ditto for the Egg Fleet and Final Fortress. Hell, every ship in Final Fortress could very well be a fortress in themselves.
    • One of E-123 Omega's lines in Sonic Heroes is "Worthless consumer models!," implying that Eggman produces and sells lower-quality robots for personal use.
    • Seemingly justified in Sonic Mania, when Dr. Eggman gets the Phantom Ruby. Not only does it morph his Egg Robos into the Hard-Boiled Heavies, it can also bend reality and send Sonic & friends into his old bases, complete with newly rebuilt robots and machines.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), considering Robotnik's claimed territory is all but one forest on an entire planet and started with a successful coup on the primary goverment, he's got a whole planet to mine for resources to justify this trope.
  • In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnik played it pretty straight, considering how many massive schemes he could off every Saturday morning. Interestingly, his lair is destroyed at the end of "Robo-Ninjas" and stays as such, implying Sonic had finally drained his bank account enough through his victories to prevent its reconstruction.
  • In Sonic Underground, Robotnik uses the Bread and Circuses trope to keep the upper crust of Mobius in line. They keep funding him, and he keeps them living in relative peace.
  • In Sonic Boom, Eggman owns a legitimate business called Eggman Industries which supplies all purpose products across the world. This is apparently what allows him to work on taking over Seaside Island and start this continuity's version of Eggman Land.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Near the end of the Death Egg miniseries, Sonic has just defeated his oversized robotic double, Silver Sonic. Robotnik decides go after him, wearing his Eggs-O-Skeleton powersuit. He flies up to where Sonic is, gloating on how he'll easily crush the blue blur...only to find that Sonic has climbed into Silver Sonic's empty shell, wearing it like armor!
    • And just about everyone has one when, in Issue #224, the new Death Egg is seen hovering over New Mobotropolis.
  • At the end of Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide, Sonic and Mega Man are set to utilize Chaos Control to fix the damage done to their worlds. However, Eggman refuses to remain beaten and decides to attack Sonic while he's preparing his own Chaos Control attack. Then, when Sonic launches it, Eggman hits it with a laser, distorting it! Sonic's last words before everything goes white is "'What did you just do?!"
  • Sonic X:
    • Dr. Eggman gets a lot of moments quite often throughout both the first and second series, especially on moments when his plans have been or are about to be foiled, or when his Robots Of The Week have been or are about to be destroyed, like in Episode 13 when he realizes that his Guerra-Hard robot (E-18) is about to explode after being pummeled by Sonic with both of the Chaos Emeralds he snatched back from it in hand, and in Episode 58 when he, Decoe, Bocoe, and their Egg Octopus are about to be pummeled by Sonic.
    • Also, in Episode 9, Eggman's robot Serpenter destroys Amy's lucky bracelet that she had made for Sonic from the seashells she collected at the beach that she, Tails, and Cream were having fun at in the process of the Quizon coming together to form it. And Amy reacts to the destruction of her bracelet with a "This Cannot Be!" line. Not only does Amy cry over said destruction of her bracelet, she doesn't take that too well and has her Berserk Button pressed, hitting Eggman with a This Is Unforgivable! and afterwards proceeding to kick both his and Serpenter's asses, and that's where Eggman gets a moment where he realizes that he shouldn't have made Amy this pissed off at him and that now that he has done so without knowing it anyway, he's completely and totally screwed.
    • In Episode 1 before that, Sam Speed, a hot-shot racer who loved being called the Highway Star or the Speed King due to his love of quick speed, got his own moment when he saw that Sonic was going even faster than him by using what he called a "Sonic Boom", which actually refers to him going even faster than his already insanely fast speed that he goes when he runs. Since then, he's gotten a lot better and become friendly rivals with Sonic in terms of racing speed.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
    • Sonic has this reaction when he accidentally causes a blackout during a moment of depression while at the baseball field and running to relieve his pent-up stress.
    • Tom when he finds out he's labeled as a terrorist on the news due to being dubbed an accomplice for punching out Robotnik.
    • Sonic again when goes into super speed while at the top of the San Francisco building where his rings fell to counter Robotnik's missile barrage. Just as he's heading down it to save Tom and Maddie (he pushed them off to save them), Robotnik activates a device in his drone that siphons energy from the quill he found earlier and allowing him to enter hypertime too. Sonic turns around just in time to see him come barreling right for him and firing another missile.
    • Maddie has one at the end when, after being teleported back to Green Hills by Sonic, she remembers that she left her sister tied to a chair at her home in San Francisco.
• Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List:
  • In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode, "Sonic's Song", when Robotnik gives Scratch and Grounder the coordinates to where they're supposed to attack;
    Grounder: (Reading from paper) "Single, 700-pound villain looking for suitable companion..."
    Robotnik: (Embarassed) Whoops, uh, wrong paper, give me that. (Snatches paper back)
  • In the Sonic Boom episode, "Spacemageddonocalypse", instead of giving Knuckles instructions on how to operate his Solar Convergence Device (with pictures), Tails accidentally gives him his shopping list, leading to this line;
    Knuckles: Milk, tomatoes, tail conditioner? These instructions are more complicated than I thought!
• Older Than They Look:
  • Tails in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) talks and acts like he's younger than his 8-year old counterpart from the video game series, but he is apparently 10, according to Sally in "Drood Henge".
  • Invoked in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). Since the bar doesn't allow kids inside, Tom tells the bar waitress that Sonic isn't a kid, he is really a 40-year-old man with a skin condition that turned his skin blue and stunted his growth. Also, he's wearing a mask.
• Ominous Pipe Organ:
  • The Games:
    • A creepy, if not disturbing example exists in Sonic Adventure 2/Battle's Chao Garden. A special organ jingle plays instead of the designated one for your Chao's new alignment if it evolves into a Chaos-type
    • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), an organ plays in the scene where Mephiles kills Sonic.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: In "Sonic's Song", Robotnik is infuriated when everyone starts singing a song about Sonic, so he creates a robot to destroy all music, except for the Villain Song that he writes about himself, which he plays on a pipe organ.
• Once per Episode:
  • The Games:
    • Starting with Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, has an Achievement for beating the first Act of the game in under a minute.^note Sonic Colors doesn't have this achievement, but it doesn't have ANY achievements due to its console. Played with in Sonic Forces, which has the 60-second requirement in the demo but not in the full game, though it does have a 60-second Achievement in Classic Sonic's first stage.
    • Every mainline Sonic game after Sonic Adventure always has someone say "Long time, no see!", sometimes multiple times per game.
• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • The Games:
    • Tail's real name, Miles Prower, usually isn't mentioned in the games at all. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 did, and was the only game to call him "Tails", the quotes representing the fact that it's not his real name.
    • Dr. Ivo Robotnik gets dubbed by the rest of the Sonic Adventure cast as "Dr. Eggman" (which is actually what his name is over in Japan). It's supposed to be an insult (and Robotnik doesn't like it) but by Sonic Adventure 2, he doesn't seem to care. In fact, he refers to himself as "Dr. Eggman" and has ever since, which earns him a spot on this trope. As of Sonic Generations, nobody calls him Dr. Robotnik anymore.
  • Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) was revealed to be the title character’s nickname. His Embarrassing Middle Name was Maurice, and his actual first name was never revealed^note Writer Ken Penders had planned to reveal it as Olgilvie, but quit the comic before he could do so.
  • Sonic the Comic:
    • Shorty the Squirrel is known by his nickname of Shortfuse the Cybernik.
    • Tails is never called by his real name, except in the Nameless Zone. In the Nameless Zone he is known by his real name "Miles Prower". In the Chemical Plant Zone he is known by a different nickname, that of Zonerunner.
    • Oscar the Pig is better known by his nickname of Porker Lewis.
  • This was a plot point in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Some two-tailed foxes show up claiming to be Tails' parents, and Sonic realizes later they must be fake because they called him "Tails" right off the bat instead of "Miles", when the former was a nickname that Sonic gave him.
• Only One Name:
  • In the games, most of the cast only have first names and a title, "the (species name)". Exceptions include Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose, and Charmy Bee.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, Sara's last name is never given. Her dad is only referred to as Mr. President.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
    • Rachel and her daughter JoJo’s last name is never mentioned.
    • Agent Stone’s first name is never mentioned.
• Open Heart Dentistry:
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), the Anti-Mobius version of Doctor Robotnik is Doctor Kintobor, a vet. In a related matter, the Evil Alien Xorda also once said the Mobians are 90% identical to humans in their genealogy, although lord only knows how the internal anatomy of a Mobian is arranged...
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Tom brings an unconscious Sonic to Maddie, but despite her being a Kindly Vet, she's hesitant to do anything to Sonic with him having an alien physiology. Tom asks if she has smelling salts for animals, but she does have "human smelling salts" in her first-aid kit, which snap Sonic awake.
• Orange/Blue Contrast:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic and Tails, where the titular hedgehog and his fox companion are colored blue and orange, respectively.
    • Shadow the Hedgehog — although not orange-colored — features an orange aura in his spin-related attacks to contrast Sonic's bright blue color.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic is of course bright blue and his electrical powers tied to his Super-Speed manifest in blue lightning. Robotnik meanwhile has his lab decorated in red lighting, his robots prominently use red lights in their designs, and later in the film Robotnik swaps out his black coat for a red coat with red goggles.
• Origins Episode:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) has the "Genesis of a Hero" storyline (Issues 288-291), which shows how Sonic and the other Freedom Fighters came together as a team in the new backstory of the post-Super Genesis Wave continuity.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) showcases a scenario explaining how Sonic entered the human realm and met — and fought — Dr. Robotnik for the first time.
• Orphaned Etymology:
  • The very word "hedgehog" is this. Hedgehogs in Sonic's world aren't found in hedges nor do they have hog-like snouts.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM):
    • In one episode, Sonic asked Nicole to repeat some Techno Babble "in English."
    • Lampshaded in "Sonic Conversion".
      Robotnik: Oh, please. Something is rotten in Topeka... wherever that is.
    • Sonic also name-checks Axl Rose in the show's pilot episode as well. But then again, the third season was going to reveal that Mobius is a far-future Earth.
  • In Sonic the Comic, Sonic exclaims "Hallelujah" in one issue. Mobius is an alien planet with no humans and no Hebrew language (it's a transliteration of "הַלְלוּ יָהּ" or "hal'lu Yah", meaning "praise God").
  • The Metarex from Sonic X have plant-based names like "Dark Oak" or "Black Narcissus", despite they have never having visited Earth and in fact come from a whole other universe.
• Out-of-Character Moment:
  • The Games:
    • In the first battle with Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2, he will say "I'm the coolest." after being hit the first time, which is way out of character for a distant and troubled hedgehog.
    • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Amy — who's (in)famous for her crush on Sonic — doesn't react in the slightest when Princess Elise is designated to give a True Love's Kiss to the hero.
    • Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed has Shadow the Hedgehog acting rather peppy. Normally you'd think he'd just quietly sit in his car and focus on winning, but no, he'll stand up out of his seat, pump his fist and take a bow, all whilst...smiling. He's especially happy when he comes first in a Grand Prix, where he can be seen wide-eyed and smiling, pointing his fingers and dancing around. This is especially odd considering the previous games in the series were significantly more accurate to his portrayal while still allowing him to bounce and jump around as much as anyone else.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • This ends up happening to Rotor Walrus in an ill-fated attempt at Characterization Marches On; to explain why Rotor chose retirement on the Council of Acorn over being a full-fledged Freedom Fighter, it's revealed in issue #215 that, during a missing year in the comics when Sonic was lost in space and presumed dead, Rotor attempted to take his place out of boredom and a sense of wanting to be useful, and wound up nearly killing his friends in the process. Please note that this is a supposed geek who is claimed by the same writer who did this story to have taught Tails everything he knew about mechanics, and is famous for preferring being Mission Control over being a hero.
• Overly Narrow Superlative:
  • The Games:
    • Compared to his other, more impressive, title "the fastest thing alive," it's a little underwhelming for Sonic to be more commonly referred to as only "The world's fastest hedgehog." Then again, the few other hedgehogs in the series do prove themselves competent speedsters from time to time.
    • Shadow the Hedgehog, in one of his game's Multiple Endings, promises to become the most powerful hedgehog in the universe!
  • In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic (unsurprisingly) fails to lift Tails' spirits when he's down in the dumps on one occasion by saying that he's the fastest, coolest two tailed fox he knows.
• The Owl-Knowing One:
  • Old Man Owl from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie is a fairly slick aversion; maybe he was at one point, but emphasis on the fact that he's known as Old Man Owl. The guy's senile as a head of Wensleydale and his vision is so bad even those cokebottles he wears don't do him any good.
  • Harvey Who, an extremely minor character from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) series is this as a member of the Kingdom of Acorn's Secret Service. However, King Max portrayed him as a Cassandra Truth sayer, ignoring his advice and leading to the downfall of his kingdom ^note Unless it's retconned out, Max admitted back in issue 58 or so that he and all previous kings had bonded with a magic pool called "The Source of All", essentially a counterpart of The Force, to guide their actions so he probably wasn't as skilled at the whole king thing as he thought.. He sees Max's son, Elias, as a worthy holder of the crown and is working to help him get it back.
  • Longclaw the Owl from Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) is wise, motherly and was responsible for giving Sonic the Power Rings.

P

• Painting the Medium:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog CD has a subtle one concerning its soundtrack, tying with the time travelling gimmick: in the original Sega CD release, the music tracks for Present and Future areas are in Redbook Audio, while the Past songs are in analog PCM (and thus, of lower quality).
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) seems to enjoy messing around with comic book conventions:
    • Zonic the Zone cop comes from a "perpendicular" world; he's always shown floating sideways, sometimes with his feet resting on the side of the panel. One story from Zonic's perspective was printed entirely on a 90° axis from normal.
    • In issue 50 when the Ultimate Annihilator fires and seemingly consumes Sonic and Dr. Robotnik the color instantly drains from the page to show how everything is being utterly destroyed. The next page is almost entirely blank until a panel border and Sonic's hand appear at the bottom to show that Sonic survived.
    • In one issue a bunch of continuity callbacks and references in one scene causes the Clue from Ed. to grow increasingly disoriented as it has to keep popping up to inform the reader of when things happened.
    • In issue 252 Sonic alludes to events that have been retconned away (he's the only one who remembers they happened) a Clue from Ed. comes up like usual to tell the reader when it happened only to say "STH#... wait a minute...".
• Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females:
  • The Games:
    • In the games all but two (Charmy Bee and Imperator Ix) male non-human characters wear nothing but shoes and gloves, and all females are fully clothed.
    • Averted in Sonic Lost World with Zeena of the Deadly Six and Sally Acorn from Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) although their designs aren't suggestive.
    • Zigzagged in Sonic Forces. The default outfit for the male avatar has him wear only gloves and shoes, and the default female avatar wears a bodysuit, playing the trope straight. However, it's entirely possible to dress a male avatar in full clothing, and some of the bodysuits, or rather the tattoos and fur patterns that replace the default bodysuit, allow you to fully undress a female avatar.
  • Like their main game counterparts, the male main characters in Sonic Boom usually wear only a shirt at best while the girls wear full outfits. This is lampshaded in one episode when Amy makes a bet that the loser must do the winner's laundry for a month and Sonic points out that it's unfair since he and Knuckles almost never wear clothes. Most male characters tend to follow the same pattern, though full outfits do show up on special occasions.
• Papa Wolf:
  • The Games:
    • Shadow the Hedgehog. Just try and devastate the world he promised to protect. You're going to end up a black mark on the floor. Even if you're a Physical God, demigod, or what have you. It also wasn't a good move for those soldiers to shoot Maria either. It sent Shadow on a total "annihilate all humans" kick. At least until he remembered Maria's last words, to protect humanity.
    • Threatening any harm to Tails, the closest thing to a little brother Sonic has, will show you that even something as silly-looking as a blue hedgehog will make you cry.
    • Chaos from Sonic Adventure. You dare hurt any Chao he protects and he will show you why he is called the God of Destruction.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Tom Wachowski becomes fiercely protective of Sonic over the course of the movie, even going so far as to adopt him.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • In the original four part Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) comic, Sonic manages to fool Robotnik into thinking he's been roboticized with just some fake teeth and glasses. Then again, that's what Robians looked like back then.
  • In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic could fool anyone by sometimes wearing only glasses and a wig or wearing only a vest and sunglasses.
  • Sonic Boom:
    • In the episode, "Buster", Orbot and Cubot rob a deadly equipment warehouse wearing only poorly-drawn masks of Sonic and Tails, respectively.
    • Subverted in the episode, "Where Have All The Sonics Gone?"; Morpho, being a shapeshifting robot from another dimension, can disguise himself perfectly as Sonic. It's the fact that he knows nothing about Sonic, and therefore can't act like him, that makes his disguise paper-thin.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Sonic's "disguise" when at the western bar is a red shirt and a hat. Somehow it works, and no one but Tom finds anything strange about a little blue skinned humanoid around. A waitress believes Sonic to be Tom's child, and the sheriff comes up with a lie on the spot to justify his appearance.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • The Games:
    • It's easier to list who is over 18 or has parents or guardians. You'd think the social workers would come poking around to see why there is an eight-year-old living on his own in the middle of a factory, with a 15-year-old best friend that's constantly running away, and cart him off to a care home; apparently not.
    • Blaze the Cat is a 14-year-old princess who guards the Sol Emeralds, her world's equivalent to the Chaos Emerald. In Sonic Rush, she tells Sonic that she had always been alone; but in the sequel, Sonic Rush Adventure, it's stated that she has a living family, although they are unseen.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Name a character. Chances are that they went parentless or are missing a parent or two. Of the main Freedom Fighters, only Antoine and Bunnie are parentless after the initial war with Robotnik. The Chaotix aren't so fortunate - nothing is mentioned of Vector's family or Espio's father, Mighty and Ray's parents are MIA, Julie-Su's parents were killed by her stepsiblings, Charmy's presumably died when Eggman attacked Mobius after Sonic's disappearance and Knuckles' parents got divorced with his father performing a Heroic Sacrifice to save him.
    • The Continuity Reboot universe reset the parental listings for the characters with the Sega games-based characters never being mentioned outside of Cream and her mother Vanilla and Sally, Rotor and Antoine having just fathers (though Rotor would rather not deal with his wspecially since he's an Egg Boss working with Eggman).
  • As with the games, there's a noticeable lack of parents in Sonic the Comic. Tails is the youngest (at least under fourteen by the final arc), but his parents are never mentioned, even in flashbacks or when he went to his home Zone. Knuckles is the only one with an explanation: his are dead because he is Really 700 Years Old.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
    • Sonic's parents are non-existent. His only parental figure is another older animal, this time an owl.
    • Dr. Robotnik. He grew up in an orphanage, he never met his parents and when Tom pointed out he was breastfed by his mother, Robotnik called him a braggart.
• Parental Bonus:
  • In episode 17 of Sonic X, the Monster of the Week references Cutey Honey by imitating Honey's catchphrase. The catchphrase in itself isn't particularly naughty, but you wouldn't expect Sonic X to reference a franchise infamous for its borderline hentai content...
  • "Speed Me Up" from Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) has the line "do the dash like Tay K". While this will fly over the little ones, the bigger ones, who may know Tay K as a rapper convicted of murder, will be surprised.
• Parody Sue:
  • Infinite from Sonic Forces has many invoked Villain Sue traits. He's faster than Fastest Thing Alive Sonic and effortlessly curb stomps him, beats up powerful heroes like Silver and Omega easily, recruits a Legion of Doom consisting of some of the franchises most powerful villains subservient to himself, is single-handedly responsible for Eggman's takeover of the world, and every other sentence he speaks is about how awesome and powerful he is. Fans have also noted he checks off a lot of boxes for edgy OC villains produced by the fandom. He's actually nothing more than a sadistic bully whose one real power is Your Mind Makes It Real illusions that make him appear all powerful and the other villains are just illusionary copies. Once ways around it are found, he's not nearly as invincible as he likes to pretend he is and Eggman could dispose of him whenever he saw fit, which he ultimately does.
  • Swifty the Shrew from Sonic Boom is a walking play on this trope. He wows the cast, shows up Sonic himself, and basically crowd-pleases... at first. As time wears on, the entire main cast join Sonic in finding him irritable, and with how regularly he appears in front of Sonic during their race, it becomes clear he's also a cheater. There's also the fact he's just one of a line of mass-produced drones Eggman made to help facilitate the construction of his new amusement park, which is how he was able to cheat in the first place. After peer pressure from Amy pushes Fink to revoke Sonic's banishment, the Swifties are rapidly disassembled.
• Pet the Dog:
  • The Games:
    • During Sonic Adventure 2's final story, Eggman sets aside his rivalry with Sonic and company to stop the ARK from crashing into the earth. While the credits roll, we see Eggman having a friendly conversation with Tails about how he used to idolize his grandfather (the man responsible for almost destroying the world this time).
    • In Sonic Heroes, E-123 Omega is generally rude, antisocial, and utterly obsessed with killing Eggman to prove his own superiority. When the group encounters several pods containing android copies of Shadow, Shadow and Rouge begin to worry that the former may also be an android. Omega's response is to comfort Rouge in his own way.
      Omega: You know about cloning... the original must exist somewhere.
    • In the final story of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Eggman assists Sonic's friends in bringing him back to life to stop the end of all existence.
    • In Sonic Lost World, Eggman falls off a cliff as a consequence of trying to keep Sonic safe (they're teaming up against a bigger threat), though in this case, he had engineered his sacrifice so he would be able to surprise Sonic later on after the bigger threat was taken care of.
    • Shadow was absent at Sonic's birthday party in the beginning of Sonic Generations. At the end of the game, he reappears at the party with everyone else. Instead of going back to whatever he was doing before, he decides to stick around, though he does keep himself in the background.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog has Doctor Robotnik and "Fuzzy-Wuzzy", his old favorite toy and only real friend. Yes, Fuzzy-Wuzzy is a robot bear that can turn from a creepy teddy-bear into a horrifically real two-headed four-armed grizzly, but Robotnik still cares for him deeply. When Sonic disables Fuzzy-Wuzzy by tying him to an electric fence, Robotnik is horrified at the fact his friend is being hurt and falls on his hands and knees before Sonic, pleading with the hedgehog to save Fuzzy-Wuzzy and promising to be good if Sonic will.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, when Metal Sonic "kills" the real Sonic, he gives Old Man Hoot the clothes that he was apparently planning to leave him in his will.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), the nicest thing Dr. Robotnik does throughout the course of the film is compliment the way Agent Stone makes lattes when the latter offers him one. He also names a rock "Agent Stone" on the mushroom planet showing that, despite claiming he wouldn't miss him when they departed, he truly did miss Agent Stone.
• Physical God:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Any Echidna who absorbs enough Chaos energy becomes the immortal demigod Enerjak, and are only ever defeated by being imprisoned in an over the top way (trapped under a castle's rubble, shot into space, etc.), or having their powers mystically removed, not in physical combat. And to give an example of how strong Enerjak is in any incarnation, when Knuckles was tricked into becoming him, he ended up singlehandedly destroying Eggman's entire army and reducing his city to rubble.
  • Sonic the Comic:
    • Doctor Robotnik becomes a Physical God after absorbing the power of the Chaos Emeralds in Robotnik Reigns Supreme arc becoming a Omnipotent, Omniscient Reality Warper.
    • Super Sonic seems to verge on this, especially towards the end of the arc where Sonic was trapped in the Special Zone. Besides his immense strength and speed (both enough to easily annihilate enemies who Sonic was all but helpless against) and flight, he's also so powerful that the Omniviewer was unable to stop time for him (only slow it enough to ensure that crossing several inches would take years) was able to remain fully aware even while in a state of slowed time, and was able to gather enough charged particles to turn an asteroid into a miniature sun (which then exploded with enough force to bathe the entire surface of Mobius in a powerful electromagnetic pulse). It's occasionally said that he is powerful enough to destroy a planet.
• Pickup Hierarchy:
  • Primary: Animal Capsules, Chaos Emeralds (in games where they're plot-relevant), Sol Emeralds, Sun and Moon Medals (Sonic Unleashed), Flickies (Sonic 3D Blast), Upgrades (Sonic Adventure & Sonic Unleashed), Scrap (Sonic Rush Adventure), World Rings (Sonic Storybook Series), Keys (Sonic Generations)
  • Secondary: Red Star Rings, Robot Generators, Metal Sonic projectors, and Time Stones (Sonic CD), Chaos Emeralds (in most games where they're not plot-relevant), Upgrades (Sonic Adventure 2 & Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)), Scrap (Sonic Riders), Chaos Rings (Knuckles Chaotix), Emblems, Emerald Shards
  • Tertiary: Rings, Pearls (Sonic Storybook Series), Small Animals, EXP (Sonic Unleashed), Power Cores (Sonic Heroes)
  • Extra: Lost Chao (Sonic Adventure 2), Chaos Emeralds (in Sonic Colors and Sonic Lost World)
• Pinball Zone:
  • The Games:
    • Almost every game in the series has at least one level where Sonic is buffeted about by flippers, bumpers, and the like (usually within levels decked out with a full casino theme, starting with Spring Yard and moving on to Casino and Carnival Night Zones), and Sonic Spinball was devoted entirely to the idea of Sonic being the pinball. The in-series tradition may have started because, since Sonic can curl into a ball and move rapidly and the series already featured him careening wildly around loops, through the air, and off of springs, putting him in a pinball machine wasn't much of a stretch.
  • The Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) had an episode that put Sonic in a pinball machine, presumably inspired by his game counterpart's frequent pinball adventures.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog had an episode that was clearly inspired by Sonic Spinball, and he ends up in a giant pinball machine in "Robotnikland".
• Point That Somewhere Else:
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) #237, the Felidae Emissary does this when threatened with a spear.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), When Crazy Carl threatens to fight Robotnik, he stands too close to Wade, and has to push the chainsaw he is holding away from him.
• The Points Mean Nothing: In the 8- and 16-bit games, as well as Sonic Mania, you obtain extra lives with points, but beyond that, scoring isn't a particularly meaningful endeavor since there's no high score tables, not even offline ones, and there are countless exploits that let you earn massive amounts of points (albeit slowly), so score isn't terribly indicative of the player's skill. The points become nigh-obsolete come the Sonic Origins Compilation Re-release of the four mainline Genesis games, specifically in Anniversary Mode; since finite lives have been done away with, points are only used to earn Coins now, and even then there's more lucrative sources of Coins.
• Pokémon Speak:
  • The Games:
    • The Chao have done this starting with Shadow the Hedgehog. The way they talk is by repeating "Chao". This also includes Cream's pet, Cheese. They did this in earlier games as well, but usually spoke in childlike gibberish.
    • In the Sonic Runners Halloween Event, the boos, the ghosts that appeared in the haunted stages in Sonic Adventure 2, communicate by saying "boo".
• The Pollyanna:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic. Even when things get really bad, he (almost) never lets up his carefree nature.
      "It doesn't matter now what happens, I will never give up the fight..."
  • Subverted in Sonic X by Cosmo, whose entire family was wiped out by the Metarex right in front of her and who has frequent feelings of self doubt, Survivor's Guilt, shame for her own hatred of the enemy and unworthiness.
• Posthumous Character:
  • Maria and Gerald Robotnik have been dead awhile but still factor into the plot such as in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Battle. Their memories are very important to Shadow the Hedgehog and his motivations.
  • An odd thing concerning Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) as many characters tend not to mention parents and it's assumed that many of them were dead due to the Robotnik War. Then, after it, they all come out in droves, revealing that they're not really dead.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia:
  • Subverted on Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), in one episode, it seems like Sonic's gone catatonic after being kissed by Sally, but he gets back up and says he was just kidding, and that the kiss wasn't that great. He then pulls her in and shows her what a real kiss is.
  • In Sonic X, episode 45, Rouge defeats Tails in the face-off using this as her secret weapon. Which is probably referencing a scene in Sonic Battle where if you lose a fight with Rouge, she kisses you.
    Tails: Wh-wha?
    Rouge: Aww. You're blushing.
• Potty Emergency:
  • In the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) pilot Head or Tails, Tails tells Sonic that he has to go to the bathroom, and starts shaking up and down.
• Power Dyes Your Hair:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic has his Super Form; after collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds, he turns gold, his eyes turn red, and is basically invincible.
    • This is taken up to eleven in Sonic 3 & Knuckles with Hyper Sonic. Sonic's fur changes colors 14 times a second in this form, following the pattern of white, green, white, orange, white, gold, white...7th emerald color, white, green.
    • When Blaze the Cat becomes Burning Blaze via the power of the Sol Emeralds, her lavender fur turns pink.
    • Silver the Hedgehog has his white fur turn golden-yellow when he enters his own Super State. Like with Sonic, his eyes also turn red.
    • Shadow's black fur turns into a golden lemon-cream color and his eye color becomes completely ruby red. Other than that, his additional fur colors, and quill style remains unchanged.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Knuckles' fur turns green after he evolves into Chaos Knuckles.
    • Before becoming Scourge, Evil-Sonic had blue fur just like Sonic. After exposure to the Master Emerald, his fur turned green and he gained a boost in strength and stamina. He also had a super state of his own, which turns his fur purple. This transformation occurred when Scourge used the Anarchy Beryl in his throne to transform in order to combat the combined might of Sonic, Amy Rose, Rob O' the Hedge, Silver, Shadow, Metal Sonic and Rosy the Rascal, who all decided Scourge was a legitimate threat and decided to work together.
• Power Incontinence:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • When Mina Mongoose first awakened her Super-Speed, she had absolutely no idea how to control it, slamming into things at high speeds. She's forced to ask Sonic for help, though she also uses that time to show off her crush for him, too.
    • When Knuckles accidentally awakens his Chaos Force powers following an attack by the Dark Legion that tossed everyone save Knuckles and a captive Julie-Su into another dimension, he ends up glowing green and accidentally unleashing a lot of power. When the echidnas in Albion find out about this, they attempt to suck his powers out. All he does is blow up the machine and turn the poor sap at the controls into Doctor Finitevus.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), whenever Sonic's sufficiently upset or distressed, his powers overload in the form of light-blue electricity. The first time this happens, the plot-inducing power surge occurs. He learns to control it in time to put an end to Robotnik.
• Power Limiter:
  • In the games, the gold rings on Shadow's wrists act as a limiter, but he's only ever removed them once in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). When Mephiles surrounds Shadow by duplicating himself several hundred times, Shadow removes the rings from his wrists and proceeds to curbstomp the entire clone army. He immediately puts them back on afterward.
• The Power of Friendship:
  • The games seems keen on the theme of friendship.
    • In Sonic Adventure, the power of friendship restored the Chaos Emeralds' power after they've been drained by Perfect Chaos, giving Sonic the means to go Super in order to stop the rampaging beast from destroying the world. Justified in that the Emeralds' powers are activated and fueled by emotions (be it positive or negative), so Sonic and his friends opted to "channel" their positive emotions to restore them.
    • The general theme of Sonic Rush, where the power of friendship allows Blaze to access the power of the Sol Emeralds and go Super to stop the Eggmen from taking over the world.
    • Displayed in Sonic Forces. When Eggman is shocked that Sonic and the Avatar character got out of Null Space, Sonic explains that he had help from said Avatar. In the second instance, Infinite scorns the idea of friendship, but Sonic shuts him up by telling him the help of his friends has brought him this far to stop him and that his power influenced by the Phantom Ruby is the real illusion.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Tom mentioning Sonic as his friend is enough to pull Sonic onto his feet again.
• Powered Armor:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • During the original "Death Egg Saga", Sonic, Tails and Robotnik all donned powered armor, though Sonic and Tails' were quite unconventional — Sonic rode around in the shell of Silver Sonic while Tails rode around in the shell of a SWATBot.
    • Rotor Walrus has taken up wearing Powered Armor when he decided to return to active duty.
  • In Sonic the Comic Robotnik wears War-Armour to battle Brutus which has a distinctive green and purple colour scheme, much like the battle-suit worn by super-villain, Comic Book/Lex Luthor, it also has a hose-like weapon that sprays liquid nitrogen which alows Robotnik to destroy Brutus.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • The Games:
    • In the Japanese audio for Sonic Adventure, Sonic says "shit" once. Translated to something along the lines of "darn" in the American version.
    • Another mild example: in Sonic Heroes, Vector calls Rouge a "broad" in the cutscene preceding the Team Dark/Team Chaotix boss battle.
    • A milder example comes from Sonic and the Secret Rings: when wondering what possessing all seven World Rings could do, Sonic ponders, "It might even open the gates of hell.."
  • Sonic X:
    • In Episode 2 of the Japanese dub, Sonic says "Shit! Let's go." right in front of Cream.^note Though it should be said that the rough Japanese equivalent, "Kuso!", is considered a relatively minor swear by the standards of that language. Jun'ichi Kanemaru later admitted that he ad-libbed Sonic saying "Shit!". He also used "Damn!" in another episode.
    • Also, this exchange in the Japanese version of Episode 5.
      Eggman: Your weakness is water! [points to Chris, Tails and Amy trapped in a robot across a lake] Can you cross the water to get to E-47?
      Sonic: Well now, I wonder... [runs around the lake to knock out the robot and free Chris, Tails and Amy]
      Eggman: Damn!
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Robotnik gets one when Tom tries to stop him from killing Sonic by brawling him from behind.
    Robotnik: Who the hell do you think you are?
• Pride:
  • The Brotherhood of Guardians in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) massively prided themselves on their old Guardian traditions, leading them to think that threats like Dr. Robotnik wasn't a threat to them at all. When Eggman took Robotnik's place, they still weren't concerned, even when Princess Sally came to them, begging for help. To their shock and horror, Eggman eventually caught up to them technologically and helped cull the Echidna population greatly. Oops.
  • Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). More or less the same like his game counterpart, as he view himself as an incredibly handsome hedgehog and always confident that no one capable to keep up with his super speed until Robotnik use one of his quill to power up his hovercraft and match his speed.
• Princess Protagonist:
  • Blaze the Cat, the Princess of her world, is one of the main playable characters of Sonic Rush and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
  • One of the protagonists of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) is one Sally Acorn, the princess of the former Acorn Kingdom which Robotnik took over. She leads the Freedom Fighters, of which Sonic is a part of, in the hope of taking it back.
• Prison Episode:
  • Sonic Adventure 2 sees Sonic taken to Prison Island after being mistaken for Shadow. A handful of stages take place on the island, some within the prison complex itself.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog has "Sonic Breakout", which is about in-universe cartoonist Sketch Lampoon going to prison for making fun of Dr. Robotnik... and Sonic deliberately letting Robotnik's minions catch him so as to get behind bars to escape from prison and take Sketch with him.
• Product Placement:
  • Sonic Adventure 2 replaces Sonic's trademark shoes with a pair from the brand Soap. And yes, there are Soap Shoes ads in quite a few of the levels. It should be noted that Soap shoes aren't really normal shoes, they've got a sideways bite out of the sole so that you can grind on railings, which was exploited as a gameplay mechanic. Later games gave Sonic his old shoes back but kept the grinding move. Sega's deal with the company covered the Battle rerelease, but the company went bankrupt before the HD version of the game could be released, resulting in ads previously for Soap being replaced for ads for the fictional "Speed" brand... using the same font and design.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog in the Fourth Dimension at one point has Sonic playing on his "sleek" Game Gear.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
    • Tom's truck is a Toyota Tacoma. It gets harpooned through the back windshield and seat to the dashboard and the entire top gets sliced off by a drone's laser cutter, but hey, it still drives!^note May we also mention that the Tacoma is the North American successor of the infamously indestructible Toyota Hilux? A brief shot of the front of the truck before he and Sonic enter the bar has the Toyota emblem briefly visible, though slightly obscured due to the night sky.
    • Averted with Olive Garden. Despite its' slogan being recited twice in the movie, with the second time being when the government offers the Wachowskis a Comically Small Bribe of a fifty-dollar Olive Garden gift card to keep quiet about Robotnik. Writer Patrick Casey stated in an AMA that it was included as a joke, and that the studio wasn't paid for it.
    • Maddie offhandedly mentions that she was using Zillow to look up a place to live in San Francisco, and this is accompanied by the camera lingering on her laptop, displaying Zillow's site, for a few seconds. However, it comes with a punchline of an apartment running for the bargain price of $4,300 a month. Welcome to the Bay Area!
    • A subtle one at the bar scene: while there are plenty of beer brands visible, one that stands out is a Busch beer sign, which takes up a good part of the upper screen at one point. A Freeze-Frame Bonus during Sonic's Bullet Time sequence also shows him passing through said sign.
• Protectorate: Within the main Sonic the Hedgehog continuity, Knuckles is the guardian of Angel Island and the Master Emerald that keeps it floating in the sky. Adaptations and spin-off games usually have Knuckles retain this role, but not always.
• Psmith Psyndrome:
  • In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Dr. Robotnik sends a ransom note to Sonic, where he spells kidnapped with a c. Apparently "that's how everyone will spell it," after he takes over the world.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Scourge renames his home dimension "Moebius' to differentiate it from Mobius-Prime. Word of God states that it's pronounced the same as "Mobius" and points out that the characters don't seem to get confused despite being unable to see the speech balloons.
• Psychopathic Man Child:
  • The Games:
    • Shadow the Hedgehog, despite his cynical nature and acting more mature than his chronological age (he's actually only a few years old), but in other respects he comes across as one of these. He looks up to his friend Maria, whose terminal illness he was created to cure. They reflect on what life must be like on earth. Even after her death, he shapes his life like a fairy tale, would do anything Maria asked him, and often whines pitifully about who he is and what he's there for. He also thought that the peaceful Maria would want him to avenge her by destroying the planet, is obsessed with his status as the ultimate lifeform, values human life and happiness very little unless he associates it with Maria or himself, and loves guns.
    • Despite being an Evil Genius, Eggman is very immature. He's prone to temper tantrums whenever Sonic beats him or when things don't go his way, and several of his bases throughout the series are giant amusement parks.
  • Dr. Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). His very hammy personality and delight in being evil show him as a very childish and immature man. He is also very petty, as shown when he makes things personal with Tom after being punched in the face by him.
• The Psycho Rangers:
  • The games played with this trope a few times.
    • They had a set of Psycho Rangers as early as the Saturn era. In Sonic R, there were Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, and the Tails Doll whom Robotnik created to give Sonic and friends a hard time.
    • In Sonic Adventure 2, Team Dark consisted of Shadow, Eggman, and Rouge: three villains with the same powers and move sets as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles respectively. They'd return with some adjustments as an Anti-Hero Team in Sonic Heroes: Rouge moved from Knuckles' counterpart to Tails', and Eggman was replaced by new character Omega, who filled the "Anti-Knuckles" slot.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), there's at least three groups.
    • The Suppression Squad, Mirror Universe counterparts of the Freedom Fighters.
    • The Destructix, a group of mercenaries led by Scourge the Hedgehog, Sonic's Mirror Universe counterpart, and his girlfriend Fiona Fox
    • Eggman later unleashed a series of Metal-series bots comprised of Metal Sonic, Metal Tails, Metal Knuckles and Mecha Sally.
• Punch-Clock Villain:
  • The Games:
    • Rouge the Bat. She steals jewels whenever she likes and manipulates people to do so, but she's doing it all for herself, and when she's not stealing things, she's just your regular gal who likes a good night on the town.
    • The Babylon Rogues and E-102 Gamma from the same series. E-102 only tries to kill Sonic out of peer pressure, and the Babylons are racers and thieves.
    • Orbot and Cubot, Eggman's two robot lackeys, are also an example. Despite working for Eggman, the two are quite friendly and have nothing personal against Sonic and co. In fact, Orbot admires Sonic and would rather work for him than Eggman.
• Purple Is Powerful:
  • The Games:
    • Espio the Chameleon is this for Team Chaotix, having studied in the ways of ninjutsu.
    • Knuckles the Echidna sports purple eyes and is shown to have incredible powers
    • Blaze the Cat has purple fur and wears mostly purple - she's a princess, protector of the Sol Emeralds and controls fire.
    • Big the Cat also has purple fur. Despite being a Gentle Giant, he is the strongest character in the franchise, being able to lift up a car as if it was a toy.
  • Nicole the Holo-Lynx from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) wears a predominantly purple outfit. As an AI, she's the most powerful when she's in the digital world.

Q

• Qurac:
  • One episode of Sonic Underground featured Tashistan, a desert country with clear Middle Eastern architecture and a currency consisting of "dinars" and "rials" (which are both real currencies used in real Middle-Eastern countries). It's ruled by a Sultan, and this being Sonic Underground, it's a rather poverty-stricken place. At one point Sonic and Manic cross-dress as stereotypical Middle-Eastern dancers for... some reason or another.

R

• Race Against the Clock:
  • The Games:
    • Sonic Adventure 2 features Dr. Eggman giving the entire world 24 hours to surrender before he fires the Eclipse Cannon. Later on, his grandfather's program is set into action, destroying everything in 27 minutes, 53 seconds.
    • In Sonic Heroes, Dr. Eggman threatens to unleash his new weapon in 3 days. It's really Metal Sonic.
    • Sonic Forces also features a premise similar to the Sonic Heroes example above. The Resistance is given 3 days before Dr. Eggman destroys the entire world.
  • An early issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) has Sonic being told by Princess Sally to find Nack the Weasel or be exiled for disobeying a royal order. Because really, giving a super speedster 48 hours is like telling them "take your time".
  • In the Sonic Boom episode "Late Fees", Sonic has 7 minutes to return Amy's book to the library, or she'll have to pay late fees. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem for Sonic, but it seems on this day, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. He still manages to make it just in time.
• Racing the Train:
  • Sonic is famous for his speed, so naturally, he will occasionally have to outrun trains:
    • In Sonic Heroes, Rail Canyon Zone and Bullet Station Zone are set within a network of Dr. Eggman's supply trains. Occasionally, one (or more) of those trains will suddenly start moving in front of Sonic and the others, requiring them to outrun it, though if you're good at the Flight characters' hovering, you can just let the trains pass by without harming anyone.
    • Sonic mostly just runs through train crossings as the locomotives are passing by in the Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) stage Radical Train, though towards the end, Sonic encounters a runaway passenger train with a bomb attached to it that Sonic has to catch up to and disarm before it explodes.
    • In Sonic Free Riders, Rocky Ridge is an 18th-century mining town. One version of the racetrack has the racers travel along two sets of railroad tracks with steam locomotives sometimes traveling through, requiring the racers to dodge them as they appear.
  • In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode, "Full-Tilt Tails", when Tails steps on a piece of speedamint gum, he becomes as fast as Sonic. He decides to show his newly-acquired speed to Sonic by racing a speeding train. However, when he gets ahead of the train, he gets stuck in the tracks, leading Sonic to rescue him.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • By issue 235 of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Sonic has put up with a lot of crap, including Sally being roboticized and Antoine having been rendered comatose after saving Elias and the Acorns from Metal Sonic. When Silver shows up from the future, this time believing that Antoine himself is the traitor to the Freedom Fighters after already having falsely accused Rotor and Sonic himself, Sonic smashes through the wall of his house and literally drags Silver to the hospital to show him Antoine, proving that Silver's accusations are once again wrong. They then subsequently find a note from Bunnie stating that she had left to "make things right", upon which Silver begins to accuse Bunnie of being the traitor solely on the evidence that she left without telling anyone; Sonic finally blows his stack and gives Silver a major "The Reason You Suck" Speech, declaring that there is no traitor, that he believes in his friends, and they're all much better heroes than a "flake" like Silver could ever hope to be, before ordering him to just Get Out!.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), when Sonic plays baseball by himself, he hits a ball out of the park, pretending that he just scored a game-winning home run. He acts excited until he looks into the stands, and sees them completely empty. Sonic's frustration and sorrow over being alone for so long finally boil over, causing him to run around the bases so fast that he causes an EMP, kick-starting the rest of the plot.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits:
  • The various teams that congregate in the games. Special mentions go to Team Dark and Team Chaotix.
    • Team Dark consists of a brooding loner who also happens to be the series'sUltimateLifeForm, a gorgeous, opportunistic thief who really has a thing for jewels, and a psychotic robot, who, motivated by revenge, seeks to destroy all of his creator's other robots. The only reason said robot doesn't blow up everything is because he's kept in check by the other two.
    • Team Chaotix is allegedly a troop of detectives who consists of a loud-mouthed rough-and-tumble leader who's secretly brilliant but always having money troubles anyways, a super-serious and stoic master of stealth who acts as though he should be in a different genre, and an annoying Bratty Half-Pint who is on the team for no real reason.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), the Freedom Fighters consist of a super fast hedgehog, an innocent two tailed fox, a tomboyish princess squirrel/chipmunk hybrid, a sweet half robotized rabbit, a cowardly coyote, a walrus who's good with tools, and are later joined by a clumsy but good natured dragon and the fast hedgehog's robotized uncle. They band together to fight the evil Dr. Robotnik and free the Kingdom of Acorn from his control.
• Randomly Gifted: The source of Sonic's Super-Speed has never been given an explanation. This applies to some other characters' abilities such as Tails' and Cream's ability to fly, Blaze's pyrokinesis, and Silver's telekinesis. The most notable aversions of this trope are Shadow whose chaos powers are explicitly stated to be a result of genetic manipulation by his creator, and Knuckles whose strength is an ability native to his echidna tribe.
• "Rashomon"-Style:
  • Sonic Adventure does a watered-down version. It has six different main storylines which intersect every so often, and at every intersection point the dialogue is slightly different between the versions used in each character's story. Sometimes this is used more like other examples, in which multiple characters are present at the same event, and whichever character you're playing as ends up being the one to take charge. (Example of this: The battle against E-102 Gamma. In Sonic and Tails' storylines, the character you're playing as is about to beat Gamma but Amy steps in to stop him. In Gamma's storyline, Gamma is about to beat Sonic but Amy stops him instead. Amy's storyline goes with Sonic' interpretation of events, but with Gamma still holding ground beforehand.)
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) there was the story "Total Re:Genesis", in which Uncle Chuck tries to find out what happened between Sonic, Sally, Antoine and a Combot army. The three Freedom Fighters attempt to paint a picture of what happened with them as the hero, but Chuck gets tired of it and asks NICOLE, Sally's handheld computer, to show the real events.
  • The Sonic Boom episode, "Fire in a Crowded Workshop" has Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and Perci all giving different accounts of what happened when they came across Perci's broken bicycle. All of them are obviously falsified somewhat, with everyone making themselves out to be the Only Sane Man of the bunch. As it turns out, the most truthful account is Perci's, and the truth about how the fire in the workshop started is Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy all contributed to the fire, but the cause of the fire is Tails' security system short-circuiting.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • In issue #175, Dr. Eggman lays down a brutal one, along with an epic beatdown, on Sonic.
      I'm surprised you retain your confidence after so many failures, or did you forget what happened to Tommy Turtle and Sir Connery? You never deroboticized your friends and family. And your father is still a robot! Or how about your love-life, eh? Sally, Mina, even Fiona! So... How come you're all alone? [...] I want our last game to have some merit. [...] You thought your pithy resistance actually had some kind of toe-hold against my empire? The world fell to me so quickly, so easily, that I was left with nothing to do! I allowed you Freedom Fighters to exist so that I might entertain myself! I will concede that you all have won my war game more times then not, but so what? Is Mobius any more free now than it was years ago? [...] Hahaha! Oh, your futile actions amuse me so! You'll never win this battle, Sonic, you can't! You were finished before the Egg Fleet even began bombardment. This battle suit is specifically designed to match and outclass your speed and strength! [...] Like I said, Sonic... You're outmatched, outclassed... you're not fast enough... you're not strong enough... and you certainly aren't smart enough to defeat me. [...] I'm not playing with you, rodent. Run— Run all over the world and try to start a new Freedom Fighter group. You will find no one. So run — For the rest of your life — and never escape the humiliation of today.
    • In a rare heroic example of the trope, Sonic fires one back in issue #200.
      Sonic: Impressive resume, Doc. You missed a couple of key points, though. Like how a group of kids with no real training took back that city. And you croaked, more or less.
      Dr. Eggman: I came back! I took the city back!
      Sonic: Yeah, what... for a month? Tops? And then you goofed and let the whole thing get nuked by missiles! And now the slag powers New Mobotropolis, so thanks for that!
      Dr. Eggman: Shut up!
      Sonic: And about that empire of yours... you know about all the places you don't control, right?
      Dr. Eggman: Trifles! Specks on the windshield!
      Sonic: Hahaha! In denial, Doc? The United Federation alone has at least a half-dozen city-states in it! And then there's all the Freedom Fighter groups fighting you all over the world every day. And you aren't too popular in the regions that you DO outright control. You can't really claim to "control" the planet when you're fighting for it your every waking hour! Sure, you beat me fair and square not long ago. I'll give you props for that. But how many badniks have I stomped? How many times have I sent you packing? I've beaten you before, Eggman. A lot. And I'll do it again.
    • ...and then he rubs more salt in the wound by picking up the fallen dictator's spectacles, and kneeling beside him, saying, "I'll be content with "Nyah nyah" and "I win."
      
      ...and immediately comes to regret it after seeing the aftermath. Though it was foreshadowed that this would have happened, speech or no speech, Sonic goes on to muse that things "went too far" in the next issue.
    • Following this turn of events, Snively takes his uncle's place and stuffs Eggman, now a gibbering wreck, into a cell, gleefully handing one of these any spare time he has. This turns on him when Eggman regains his composure. When Snively continues to insult from outside his cell, having now made an alligence with the Iron Queen and fallen in love with her, Eggman laughs at him and hands it back, reducing him to a sobbing wreck.
      Snively: I have everything I want now, Uncle. I have power, I have authority, and I've found love. Love you fat fool. Why would I want to go back to being your toady? Sonic's been chased out of the city, I'm with Regina and I've never been happier. Why on Mobius would I want that to change?
      Eggman: GWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! Regina? Regina Ferrum? The Iron Queen?
      Snively: Y-yes, we're in love.
      Eggman: Ha-ha-ha. You deluded little twerp. She doesn't love you. She's a manipulator. She played you for a sap, and you? You CAN'T love! The only person you care about is you. You'll save yourself before even thinking about her. She's just a stepping stone for you, only you've fooled yourself into thinking otherwise.
      Snively: N-no! Y-you're wrong! Our love is real, and you can stay here and rot!
      Eggman: (Evil Laugh) You'll be back Snively! You'll be back!
    • Issue #192 has Jules delivering one to Scourge that actually sends him away in tears.
      Jules: I want you to understand I will do whatever it takes to keep my son safe.
      Scourge: Cute. Trying to prove you're not afraid of me?
      Jules: What's to be afraid of? This world is filled with heroic beings that fight a single great evil. That tells me that your world is full of cowards, each doing their part to ruin their world. That's why you don't scare me — because I know, at your core, that you're a coward, too.
      Scourge: Coward? I conquered a planet on my own!
      Jules: You brought a different brand of ruination.
      Scourge: Try again, pops. On my world, we had a time called "The Great Peace". My dad was part of that. Brought everyone together in one big group hug. Ten years later, everything had stagnated and fallen apart. I didn't ruin the world. I woke it up!
      Jules: That's your answer to it all? Violent takeover and anarchy?
      Scourge: Not really anarchy since everyone bows to me. Since you seem so hung up on correlations, how do you like this one: Sonic's dad isn't really a Mobian anymore. My dad simply isn't.
      Jules: Are you trying to shock me? Intimidate me? That falls short when the world-conquering "king" has to sneak in during the middle of the night to get a leg up on my boy.
      Scourge: Sonic's good at smashing bots. Wanna see what I can do?
      Jules: I am not your father. I was on the front lines of the Great War. I won't go quietly. And while you may not care about the loss of your Jules, I'm certain my son will be very upset. Do you want that on your head too?
      Scourge: (starts to tear up and leaves) Just a bunch of empty words. You're no different from my old man after all.
    • Come 4 issues later where Sonic delivers a bit of his own to Scourge after tricking him into depowering.
      Scourge: Cheated... me... I'm... King... Conquered... This whole planet... You're... nothing...
      Sonic: (swats the crown off of Scourge's head, shattering it completely) You're a bully and that's it. You take the easy, nasty way out and get the quick reward. Big whoop. I do things the right way. I help others to make something bigger and better than just mean. The good guys always win in the long run. And there isn't anybody who can run longer or better than I can.
    • Issue 235 has Sonic handing out a scathing one to Silver, after the former is fed up with the latter's Inspector Javert tendencies. For emphasis, Sonic delivers it by first smashing Silver through a wall, and nearly spin-dashing him to oblivion.
      Sonic: Listen! There. Is. No Traitor. I believe in my friends. I believe you're a flake. Each one of them is a hundred times the hero you want to be. Now. Get. Out. Go. Home. Get out of my sight.
    • Issue 240 has Ixis Nagaus given three in a row. The first is by Mina Mongoose's mother, who decides that NICOLE should return from her exile, pointing out that former Mobian Council member Rotor's team protected New Mobotropolis than he ever did after he took up the throne and ousted Elias. The second comes from Alicia Acorn, who ends up driving him away when Ixis attempts to tempt Max Acorn so he can take over his body. The last comes from Sonic's parents who prove that they were some of the few people who question why they'd trust a man who'd spent most of his time fighting their kids.
    • E-123 Omega gives one to E-102 Gamma in Sonic Universe #3 whilst on a mission to find and destroy his older counterpart — calling him obsolete compared to himself and daring to try and harm him. In response, Gamma delivers a speech of his own in cold monotone as he counters the argument, punctuating it by knocking the walking arsenal onto his metallic backside with a few well-placed shots.
      Omega: Surrender, brother. Do not embarrass yourself further. A single one of my shots would tear through that old armor of yours. I detect smoke. Is that your grav-linked jet disc? Pathetic. You would not get far with it, even if it were in perfect condition. You are outdated, brother. Slower, weaker. You cannot outrun me... and that pitiful gun of yours cannot harm me.
      Gamma: E-123, codename Omega. The last of my line. I downloaded your file. Your armor is heavy — but so are you. Your speed is great — but you're unwieldy. Your jets are stronger — but you're louder. I do not have such limitations. I am nimble. I cover ground more easily. As for weaponry...
      (takes three precise shots at Omega, downing him) You are a walking arsenal. I am an assassin.
  • Sonic X:
    • Eggman gives one to Chris when he thinks he's lying about not being responsible for the time freeze.
      Eggman: You're the one who's lying to yourself. You don't wanna accept the truth. Deep down, you know once Sonic is gone, your life will have to go back to the way it was before. Your days of adventure are at an end, boy, just like your friendship with that hyper-annoying hedgehog. All your dreams have been shattered, haven't they? Life is like that, kiddo. Take it from somebody who knows! Whenever you reach too high, life smacks you down! But on the bright side, at least you and I won't have to see each other ever again.
    • Earlier in the series, Eggman also gives one to Sonic after he gets corrupted by extreme anger and negative Chaos Emerald energy into Dark Super Sonic. In particular, calling him out on losing himself to them and neglecting saving his friends like he had intended.
      Eggman: Settle down, Sonic! I don't think I've ever seen you this worked up, before.
      Decoe: You're not the only one having a bad day, you know!
      Bocoe: Our trip was a real space odyssey!
      Eggman: We had some... mechanical difficulties. For some reason, the Egg Drive got scrambled up! Space travel's tricky, I've warped past so many planets, I'm starting to see stars.
      (Eggman suddenly turns serious)
      Eggman: Listen, Sonic. I'm really disappointed in you. From now on, be careful not to let your temper get out of control. Or one of these days, you might find you're always angry! Just like another hedgehog we know. You should get out of here. Don't worry about your crewmates... Shadow already rescued them.
      (Sonic snaps out of his rage upon realising)
  • In the Sonic Boom episode "Just a Guy", Sonic ends up being ostracized by the village for referring to Mike as "just a guy" and the villagers as "you people", in spite of all the times he's saved them from Eggman's evil schemes, and the fact they themselves had said that Mike was "just a guy" as well. After a passive-aggressive remark from Amy during her sensitivity training group, he finally snaps and calls the whole village out on their hypocrisy and taking what he does for granted, followed by him — as it turns out, temporarily — quitting the hero business;
    Amy: Alright, perhaps our enthusiasm yesterday was a bit premature, seeing as it turns out (glares at Sonic) some people still have a long way to go in their training. But, I'm sure we'll all learn to be compassionate, after tomorrow's... SENSITIVITY TRAINING CAMPING TRIP!
    (Everyone except Sonic starts cheering)
    Sonic: (furiously) You know what I think is compassionate? Saving the village from Eggman. Like, every week! But do I get any props for that?! NO! Everyone just goes around gasping at me when I call a guy "a guy", or people "people"!
    (they gasp at him, thus proving his point)
    Sonic: I QUIT HEROING! AND I QUIT THIS STUPID GROUP! (throws down his hat and storms out)
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Dr. Robotnik tends to give these out in quick succession to whomever he feels isn't complying with his demands in the manner to which he is accustomed.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over:
  • The Games:
    • Shadow the Hedgehog has always been black and red, the universal colours of badassery. Before his Heel–Face Turn, it screamed 'bad guy', and even afterwards he's an Anti-Hero.
    • The race he was created from, the Black Arms, are red and black a lot.
    • Dr. Eggman generally dresses in a red jacket with black pants, and many of his robots (such as E-123 Omega) have a similar color scheme.
    • Zavok from Sonic Lost World is also red and black in skin color, as he is the leader of the Deadly Six and is certainly cruel and merciless.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Dr. Robotnik initially wears a black suit and coat, but once he gets into his prototype hovercraft, he swaps it out for a black and red flight suit and goggles that look more like his traditional outfit.
• Red Herring:
  • In Sonic Boom's episode "Inn Sanity", Eggman finds out that a secret reviewer is going to show up to review his hotel. In a prime example of Lampshade Hanging, a red heron shows up to the desk and introduces himself as "Red Herring", with Eggman assuming he's the secret reviewer. He's not. (It's Amy).
  • Towards the beginning of Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), a scene with Maddie's sister Rachel (who hates Tom and constantly tries to convince Maddie to divorce him) and a meaningful-looking shot of Robotnik's drone riddling a photo of Maddie and Tom with bullets suggests that the shenanigans of the movie might put a strain on Maddie and Tom's relationship. This never happens, Maddie is amazingly patient with the shenanigans Tom's apparently gotten up to even before she sees the wounded humanoid hedgehog he's been protecting, and in fact Rachel spends the entire second half of the movie tied to a chair where nobody, not even her own daughter, will listen to her.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed:
  • Various characters of the games started off as enemies of Sonic. But even after they joined his side, they can still be found clashing against Sonic on occasion due to circumstances or contrasting lifestyles and personalities.
    • Knuckles started off as a Hero Antagonist to Sonic, thinking he was out to steal the Chaos Emeralds. After learning Dr. Eggman's lies, he graduates into a grudging, yet loyal friend to Sonic, and also a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
    • Shadow pulls a Heel–Face Turn after Amy convinces him to save the world, thus sacrificing himself to prevent the Space Colony ARK from crashing to earth. Even after his return to the series (amnesia aside), Shadow still remains stoic, deadly serious, and quite cold towards everyone around him and remains as The Rival to Sonic.
  • Much like the game continuity, Shadow in Sonic X pulled a Heel–Face Turn by sacrificing himself to save the world from the Space Colony ARK. In the Metarex saga, however, Shadow returns (with his memories erased), still the Perpetual Frowner, still cold and aloof around others, and still ruthless in his goals, even to the point of fighting Sonic and his friends if it's necessary. Believe it or not, he's largely more ruthless and less personable than his game incarnation (who mellowed out a bit more after his own title game).
• Refuse to Rescue the Disliked:
  • In the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) episode, "Hooked on Sonic", Antoine ends up captured by Robotnik in a reckless stunt with a power ring. While the other Freedom Fighters are horrified, Sonic just snarks it's his own stupid fault and refuses to go on a rescue mission. When Sally's chiding doesn't budge him (even she can't earnestly suggest Antoine wouldn't do the same to him), he begrudgingly goes through with it after she points out the more pragmatic issue of Robotnik using his power ring against them.
  • In the Sonic Boom episode, "Translate This", Tails invents the Universal Translator, or U.T. for short. U.T. reveals Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks' inner thoughts, causing them to argue with each other. When Dr. Eggman finds out about this, he swaps the real U.T. out for an identical robot that deliberately says bad things about Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks. Tails finds out about this, and tells his friends that they have to save the real U.T.. Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks all refuse, remembering that all U.T. ever did to them was make them argue with each other, thus leaving Tails to resuce U.T. on his own. Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks all decide to save Tails after U.T. sends them a message revealing that he needs their help.
• Remember the New Guy?:
  • The Games:
    • In Sonic Adventure 2, it's implied that Knuckles has had to deal with Rouge a few times before this particular time when the Master Emerald was stolen.
    • Dr. Eggman was given two robot minions; Orbot, introduced in Sonic Unleashed, and Cubot, introduced in Sonic Colors. Despite having never been seen before, they speak as if they've been around to witness Eggman's failures since the beginning.
    • Sonic Frontiers confirms the canon existence of both Sticks the Badger and Tangle the Lemur, whose only appearances in the main series were Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle (alongside fellow comic mainstay Whisper the Wolf), respectively. Both games are Loose Canon spinoff titles, with one crossing over with an entirely different IP, and have no mention outside of either entry until Frontiers; despite this, Tangle is one of the people Sonic recalls if you spend enough time running around, and Amy considers taking Sticks on a roadtrip during the True Ending, implying that they're already close friends.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Dulcy the Dragon just suddenly appears in the second season premiere as if she was one of the Freedom Fighters the whole time. Semi-justified in that there appeared to be a Time Skip between seasons 1 and 2, so it's likely that she joined up during that time frame.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • Dulcy the Dragon was fitted in with nothing more then a small back-up story introduction which gave her backstory and essentially went "She's been part of the Freedom Fighters all this time! Honest!" Post-Super Genesis Wave, Dulcy has been reintroduced to the (extended) cast. As this was in a story arc that added several characters, and showed flashbacks to her introduction (in the past of the new universe) it was less jarring than the first time.
    • Lampshaded example when Dr. Eggman meets a leader of one of his armies known as Axel the Water Buffalo. He's quick to say he recognizes him and recruits him in trying to get to the Death Egg II. Orbot's quick to point out that they've never seen him before and Eggman has already figured that out - he admits that he was too hasty in stopping Super Sonic's Chaos Control, and realizes that a lot of the universe has been altered.
• Reset Button:
  • The Games:
    • A reset happens in the bad ending for Sonic the Hedgehog CD. Eggman presumably uses the Time Stones to CTRL-Z everything you did in the game.
• Reversible Roboticizing:
  • In Sonic Lost World, Tails is roboticized towards the end of the game thanks to the Deadly Six, but manages to mess with the process enough to retain his free will. He still shows up with mechanical bits grafted to his body, including something that suppresses the natural blue of his eyes for a more gray color. By the end of the game, he's completely back to normal, with no visible signs of any invasive technology on his body.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), eventually a way to reverse roboticization was discovered, though Bunnie didn't get her organic limbs back until an encounter with Naugus even later as she needed to replace the roboticized limbs with prosthetics before the discovery.
  • In the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode, "Let's Meet Sonic!", Lord Boxman uses a Master Emerald-powered machine to turn K.O. into a Metal Sonic Expy called "Metal K.O." He is easily turned back to normal after being submerged in water and Sonic spin dashes into him.
• Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony:
  • In one issue of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Robotnik was getting ready to cut a ribbon for some sort of ceremony. At that moment, the Freedom Fighters (minus Sonic, who is stuck in the past) charge onto the scene and start attacking the robot soldiers. Robotnik responds "Oh no! I can't escape! Mother told me never to run with scissors!"
  • In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode, "Sonic Gets Thrashed", Robotnik plans to open a luxury resort, with the intent to trap the citizens of Mobius inside it and enslave them. On the day of the grand opening, Sonic, Tails, and the robots of Scrap Valley sabotage Robotnik's plan so that the resort will collapse when he cuts the ribbon (and it does).
  • In the Sonic Boom episode, "Nutwork", Mayor Fink attends one for the grand opening of a giant scissor factory. However, he has a tough time cutting the ribbon with a pair of small scissors. In a later scene, Mayor Fink is trying to cut coupons with a giant pair of scissors, and says he wishes he had a smaller pair.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
    • This comes up during the Mobius: X Years Later stories. After the timeline gets altered, some handy Applied Phlebotinum allows Sonic and several of the other heroes to remember the unaltered reality. The same Applied Phlebotinum also allows Lien-Da to remember as well, while King Shadow is able to remember simply because of his Chaos powers, which are themselves a loose form of Reality Warping.
    • In the post-Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide universe, leftover residue of the Super Genesis Wave built up in NICOLE allowed the Freedom Fighters and Naugus to remember the old universe, however, as Eggman pointed out, it was only temporary and once it wore off, their memories of the old universe would fade away.
  • In the episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog where Robotnik, Scratch, Grounder, Sonic and Tails go back to an Ancient Egypt-like era, Scratch and Grounder make it so that two of Sonic's ancestors don't meet, resulting in Sonic not being born. But though Sonic disappears from existence, for plot convenience Tails is still there and remembers him, allowing him to set Sonic's ancestors back up.
• Rival Turned Evil:
  • Shadow from the games becomes this to Sonic in his own game if you choose to join Black Doom by completing the one of the dark missions in G.U.N. Fortress, Black Comet, or Final Haunt.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Sonic's old rival Geoffrey St. John was revealed to be working for Ixis Naugus, and is implied to have been working for him for some time. As it turned out, Geoffrey has always worked for Naugus — as in, before either was even introduced into the comic — so this isn't so much "Rival Turned Evil" as it is "Rival Who's Always Been Evil But Playing Good".
• Road Trip Plot:
  • The Sonic Boom episode "Planes, Trains and Dude-Mobiles" has Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles going on a road trip to participate in a concert. Despite the number of bathroom breaks, tourist trap stops, and a run-in with the police, they make it to their destination. Only to find that their concert isn't for another month.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Tom and Sonic are forced to hit the road when Robotnik tracks them down, Tom more or less unwittingly having to go on the lam to protect Sonic as well as get to San Francisco to get his warp rings back.
• Robo Speak:
  • The Games:
    • While not exactly monotone, E-102 Gamma from Sonic Adventure does sound calm at all times. He talks to himself a fair amount, and while this doesn't hinder him at all, it doesn't make much sense, outside of letting players and viewers in on his data processes. Oh yeah, and stock phrases: "Insufficient data." "Does not compute." "Accessing data."
    • E-123 Omega from Sonic Heroes, on the other hand, gets an angry monotone, but better lines ("WORTHLESS CONSUMER MODELS!"). Interestingly, his voiced renditions of stock answers like "Affirmative.", "Negative." or "Illogical, does not compute!" fit his serious but also very angry character quite well. In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), he sounds more robotic, to a fault.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog and the Silicon Warriors, our hero is trying to taunt a computer and has little success, until he unleashes an epic stream of invective in the spirit of this trope:
    "You vacuum tube! You low resolution one K valve driven punch-card programmed obsolete pile of junk! You nasty black and white two bit console!"
• Robot Master:
  • Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). He builds drones, giant robots, and flying machines. He says he does this because machines can only perform in their designated capacity, unlike humans.
    Robotnik: The time for talking is over! It's time to push buttons!
• Robot Names:
  • The E-Series robots from the games all have this style of name, with E followed by a number. E-102 Gamma, and E-123 Omega are the main examples.
  • Bunnie Rabbot of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) is another cyborg example of this naming convention.
• Robot Wizard:
  • In Sonic Heroes, one of the robots in Hang Castle and Mystic Mansion is the Egg Bishop, which can cast a healing spell on any robots it is near, including itself. When flipped over with a tornado jump, the Egg Bishop becomes the Egg Magician, which retains the healing spell, and also cast a spell that can drain rings from any team players within range of it.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: In "The Magic Hassle", Coconuts, a robotic monkey, buys a series of magic tricks from Wes Weasley to catch Sonic and get on Robotnik's good side, since Robotnik always assigns him to janitorial work, which he hates. Among the things Coconuts buys are a disappearing spell, a ghost-conjuring kit, a mastodon bone that can turn things to stone, and a bad luck emitter. Coconuts even dons a wizard's hat and cape as he performs these magic spells. At the end of the episode, Weasley forces Robotnik to pay a 359 million Mobium I.O.U. debt, and Robotnik chases him and Coconuts away with the bad luck emitter.
• Rousseau Was Right:
  • Sonic X has at least one moment that alludes to this; during the Metarex saga, the dub tries to explain Knuckles' getting tricked by Eggman by saying that he believes everybody is capable of good, or of turning over a new leaf.
• Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick:
  • Tails from the games is known to be mild-mannered and humble than Sonic, who is a bit cocky, but is nonetheless a nice guy.
  • Sonic and Tails in Sonic the Comic. Unlike the games continuity where he is laid-back and nice (though cocky), Sonic is terribly rude, self-centered, and immature while Tails is the nice one who would always be on the receiving end of Sonic's bullying.
• Running Gag:
  • The Games:
    • If it's an entirely 2D Sonic game, expect there to be a pit with two springs facing each other in at least one level.
    • Ever since Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Knuckles has the tendency to believe in Eggman's lies that Sonic is the bad guy, leading him to fight against Sonic until he realizes that he's been duped by the evil scientist.
    • Starting at Sonic Adventure, every now and then Sonic will fall from the sky, and land on his face ^note While he did fall from the sky in Sonic 2, he was caught by Tails. Sonic Unleashed even uses the gag as Book Ends to the story.
    • At least one character has said "Long time no see" in almost every game since Sonic Adventure.
    • In Sonic Adventure, Tails says this to Sonic in Sonic's story, and Amy says it to Sonic.
    • In Sonic Adventure 2, Knuckles says it when first meeting up with Amy and Tails, and Rouge says this to Knuckles just before their boss battle against each other.
    • Sonic Heroes:
    • Sonic says it to Tails and Knuckles in the opening cutscene for Team Sonic's story, and Rouge says this to Team Sonic before the Team Sonic vs. Team Dark battle.
    • Metal Sonic also says this to Sonic at the start of the final boss battle; one of the few cases where it has been a long time.
    • In Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic (see a pattern here?) says this to Shadow when you run into Sonic at the beginning of the very first stage.
    • In Sonic Rush, Blaze says this to Eggman Nega when she first meets him in Sonic's side of the story.
    • In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Sonic and Rouge both say this at multiple points each in the game.
    • In Sonic Rush Adventure, Eggman says this the first time he encounters Sonic in the game.
    • Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. Wave greets Tails with, "Long time no see, shorty!"
    • In the 3DS Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Tails says it towards the fog impersonating Mario & Luigi. Too be fair, they probably haven't seen each other after the winter Olympics.
    • After being absent from the core games since Sonic Unleashed, the catchphrase returned in Sonic Forces. Sonic says the line to Infinite in one of their later encounters. He also greets Classic Sonic with the variant, "It's been generations since I've seen you."
    • Starting with Sonic Adventure 2, Amy thinks someone else is Sonic, runs up behind them out of nowhere, and hugs them, and seconds later Amy sees she was mistaken.
    • Also, beginning in Sonic Unleashed, Eggman has a tendency to do his Evil Laugh before suddenly lapsing into a coughing fit.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
    • Sonic's constant griping about his hatred of mushrooms after learning his other option is to live on the mushroom planet.
    • Sonic has some nicknames for people around town. Tom is Donut Lord for how he "interrogates" his donuts and Maddie is "Pretzel Lady" for how she does yoga on her back porch. In his big confrontation with Robotnik, he starts calling him "Eggman" since all his drones are egg-shaped.

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Reader got through Act 4.

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