Western Animation / Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)

aka: Sonic Sat AM

In case you didn't get the memo, he's the fastest thing alive.

Blue streak speeds by
Sonic the Hedgehog
Too fast for the naked eye
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic! He can really move!
Sonic! He's got an attitude!
Sonic! He's the fastest thing alive!

— Sonic's Bragging Theme Tune

Sonic the Hedgehog is a cartoon adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog produced by DiC Entertainment, and currently distributed by DHX Media. The cartoon is quite unique for airing simultaneously with another, entirely different cartoon based on the exact same character: Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Being the more serious of the two, it is a very sharp contrast to its similarly named but much more comedic weekday counterpart. The show is commonly known as Sonic SatAM (as in Saturday Morning, when it aired on the American ABC network) to distinguish it from the other show, which was aired in syndication on weekdays. It premiered on September 18, 1993, replacing Goof Troop on the 9:00 AM time slot. It was bumped to the 8:30 AM time slot for season two, where it remained until it ended on December 3, 1994; reruns aired on ABC until June 3, 1995.

The series features Sonic as the primary member of the Freedom Fighters, a closely-knit resistance force attempting to overthrow the dominion of Dr. Julian Robotnik, a genius dictator who has already conquered most of the planet Mobius and turned it into a cold, urban, metal nightmare. All of the conquered peoples are forced to undergo roboticization - a process that turns living creatures into automatons that serve his empire as forced laborers.

The series fell victim to the demise of many Saturday Morning Cartoons, being abruptly cancelled after two seasons on a Cliffhanger, on a total of only 26 episodes. Even when it was originally aired on ABC, it was preempted in many markets: some viewers didn't see the show at all until it was re-aired on USA Network.

Sonic Spinball is based on some of the show's concepts. Sega had also planned to make a proper spinoff game of the show, but that was also cancelled.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) was licensed as a spin-off of this show, though the comic book got to the consumers first. Despite being officially licensed as a spinoff and using many of the same characters, the comic bears little similarity to the shows' overall plot.

A crowd-funded third season produced by fans is currently in production. A teaser trailer was released in April of 2022, with the theme song covered by Johnny Gioeli of Crush 40. It is hoped a full-length pilot will be considered by SEGA and Wildbrain when completed, though given that both are currently occupied with Sonic Prime and the former wanting to distance themselves from this particular incarnation of Sonic, chances of them picking this up is low.

In addition to the aforementioned Adventures, this show is not to be confused with Sonic Underground (of which writer Ben Hurst also wrote a few episodes), Sonic X, the Sonic animated film, Sonic Boom, the 2020 movie of the same name or Sonic Prime (of which Ian Flynn of the Archie Comics acts as a consultant).

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The show provides examples of:

Tropes # to C

• Abhorrent Admirer: In the mandated Breather Episode "Ro-becca", Rotor constructs a female cat robot who is supposed to be his lab assistant, only for it to fixate obsessively on Antoine, who inadvertently activates her before she's finished. With tacky hair, a screechy voice, and an intimidating stature, the love-struck android pursues the poor coyote rain or shine.
• Abusive Parents: Dr. Robotnik is actually Snively’s uncle. He's still the closest thing his nephew has to a father, and he treats him like crap. As a result, Snively has grown an utter dislike of Dr. Robotnik and plans to overthrow him.
• Action Girl: Bunnie, Sally, and Dulcy all do their fair share in the fight against Robotnik. However, Bunnie - specifically - was inexplicably downgraded to Faux Action Girl in the second season.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Doctor Robotnik plays it straight. In the games, he's portrayed as a clownish and whimsical Mad Scientist who is surprisingly threatening in a fight but largely incapable of gaining or maintaining his goal of world domination.^note Despite the West's best attempts to harden him up In this series, he is a high-ranking military genius and war hero who became the de-facto reigning Overlord of Mobius in a very carefully planned hostile takeover. He has so much power now that he usually doesn't need to fight his enemies directly: he just uses his Swat-Bot army from a distance, living quite comfortably in his lair - though some enemies can spur him into more direct action. He is also treated very seriously until his Flanderization in the second season, and even then he was a major threat to the point of possible global genocide.
  • It's a well-established fact in multiple media that Sonic cannot swim at all. In this cartoon, Sonic can swim just fine. Additionally, he's surprisingly very good at analyzing Robotnik's defenses, improvising battle plans, and turning virtually anything into a weapon on very short notice. Living on a planet that's controlled by a genocidal madman and leading the resistance against him for years will do that to you.
• Adaptational Villainy: Dr. Robotnik. While he was always a villain and is still a villain here, Julian Robotnik is much more monstrous, scary and competent than his video game counterpart, Ivo Robotnik.
• Adaptational Wimp: Tails in the earlier games was a Lightning Bruiser who was almost as fast and powerful as Sonic. In order to give its original characters more screentime, the show changed Tails' role from Sonic's sidekick and main ally to a Tag Along Kid who only rarely ventured outside of Knothole Village and tended to play the role of Distressed Dude.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • The cartoon treats "Hedgehog" as Sonic's surname, making his full name Sonic Hedgehog. In the games, he has no given surname, with the "the Hedgehog" being merely a title that references his species.
  • In the official Sega of America backstory, Doctor Ivo Robotnik was the Superpowered Evil Side of kindly scientist Doctor Ovi Kintobor. Here Doctor Robotnik (note the lack of "Ivo") was simply the pseudonym of an evil scientist whose real name was Julian.
  • Joe Sushi was renamed Rotor Walrus.
  • Johnny Lightfoot was Gender Flipped into Bunnie Rabbot.
  • Played With in regards to Antoine. In the show's production bible his last name was D'Coolette, which was never mentioned show's first season, but was mentioned in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) which had been in development at the same time as the show but due to Production Lead Time would debut months ahead of the first episode. However the second season of the cartoon would ignore this and instead use Depardieu as Antoine's surname.
• Adopted to the House: In "The Odd Couple", Sonic's hut gets destroyed in one of Dulcy's crash-landings. He moves in with Antoine until the storm blows over and he can rebuild his hut. Being a homage to the series of the same name, Sonic is the Oscar to Antoine's Felix. At the end of the episode, Sonic decides to rebuild his house, storm or no storm. However, a tree falls on Antoine's house, quicky turning it into a Here We Go Again! situation.
• Affably Evil: Naugus seems surprisingly friendly and easy-going when the Freedom Fighters meet him. However, he's got a score to settle with Robotnik, and is willing to do anything in order to get his revenge.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Sonic tends to call Sally "Sal" and Tails a whole host of nicknames.
  • Bunnie tends to call Sonic "sugah-hog", Sally "Sally-girl", Antoine "sugah-'twan" and Tails "sugah-Tails".
  • Tails calls Sally and Bunnie "Aunt Sally" and "Aunt Bunnie". The former more than the latter.
• After the End: At the start of the series, Mobius is not in a good place, what with civilization all but broken down and 90% of the entire planet's population enslaved as robots. The few survivors either moved underground or fled into the wilderness before forming scattered pockets of resistance.
• Age Lift: Tails is eight years old in the games of the time. In this series, he is age lifted up to ten - the same age as his voice actor.
• Air-Vent Passageway: This is one of the Freedom Fighters' favorite ways of getting around Robotropolis. Since the main characters are so small, it makes sense.
• The Alcatraz: Ironlock Prison was one of these when it was in use.
• Aliens Speaking English: Mobians are definitely not human. They all speak English anyway, and Antoine speaks French.
• All Bikers are Hells Angels: In "Fed Up With Antoine", Antoine comes across a biker gang known as the "Nasty Hyenas" who promptly makes him their king. The other Freedom Fighters discover the Nasty Hyenas regularly eat their own king and rush off to save Antoine.
• All Work vs. All Play: In the second season, Sonic tends to treat missions to Robotropolis like a game and fool around, while Sally is a humorless workaholic who constantly berates him for being reckless. Sonic's careless attitude tends give an opening for the villains.
• And I Must Scream: Roboticized victims remain fully aware of everything they do while under Robotnik's control. As Uncle Chuck states when restored: "we just can't do anything about it."
• Androcles' Lion: In "Blast To The Past", Sonic and Sally save Dulcy's mother, Sabina, from several SWATbots. She later returns the favor by destroying Robotnik's airship, and saving Sonic and Sally from the ensuing fall.
• Animal Facial Hair: Uncle Chuck sports a large, bushy mustache and equally bushy eyebrows. The King has a mustache.
• Animal Stereotypes: Sonic SatAM plays around with these. Some characters fully embody their species' tropes while others turn said tropes on their heads. Some do both.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog is a competent survivalist who uses his spines as a signature Rolling Attack.
  • Princess Sally (who is supposedly a squirrel) is notably athletic and acrobatic.
  • Bunnie Rabbot is a cute and friendly rabbit who likes both carrots and boys. She likes boys a lot. She's also ridiculously dangerous in a fight.
  • Antoine the Coyote is a complete coward and ditz, even though he was originally conceptualized as a competent rival to Sonic.
  • Tails the Fox is shown to be quite crafty and clever.
  • Rotor Walrus was originally going to have perpetually fishy-breath, but that was dropped from the show before it aired.
  • Lupe is a Noble Wolf... with a name that means Wolf.
  • Ari the Ram is tough, fearless, and willing to use his head.
  • The Nasty Hyenas are, well... nasty.
• Animation Bump: Some episodes such as "No Brainer" have a slightly wackier, more expressive method of animating the characters compared to the rest of the series.
• Another Dimension: Travelling to bizarre alternate dimensions to collect important magical stones was a mainstay mechanic in the Sonic games of the time. In particular, Sonic CD featured Time Stones, which were used to undo the damage Robotnik had already done to Little Planet. Taking from this, the episode Blast To The Past had Sonic and Sally travel through one of these^note Based heavily on M. C. Escher's Relativity to collect the Time Stones in an attempt to defeat Robotnik before he could conquer Mobius. An earlier episode also introduced The Void: a dimension of pure magic from which no one can escape.
• Apocalypse How: Thanks to Robotnik, Planet Mobius has experienced a worldwide societal collapse, and is steadily progressing towards the total extinction of all life on the planet unless he can be stopped.
• Appropriate Animal Attire: Mobians as a species don't seem to have a nudity taboo of any kind. Far and away most Mobians - male and female - wear no clothing at all, or whatever they specifically need for a job - Freedom Fighters often wear bandoleers, gloves, boots, and nothing else. Mobians that do wear the "normal" amount of clothing for a human^note Such as Bunnie and Antoine are typically shown to be particularly fussy or obsessive about their appearance. The two-part episode Blast To The Past reveals that before Robotnik took over, Mobians wore more clothing in general, but there's still no sign of any nudity taboo.
• The Archmage: Naugus was originally the King's court wizard. He was one of the few beings War Minister Julian actually feared - even his technology couldn't hope to control or harm someone so incredibly powerful. So, when Naugus decided to explore the Void, Julian took the opportunity to trap him inside it.
• Arc Words: At the end of "The Void", King Max tells Sonic "Take care of her" when he refers to Sally. In "Spyhog", Uncle Chuck tells Sally "Take care of him" when he refers to Sonic.
• Argument of Contradictions:
  • Some arguments between Sonic and Sally devolve into this.
  • As revealed in "Blast to the Past Part 1", they've been arguing like this pretty much all their lives. Sally's older self even lampshades this after overhearing her younger self and Sonic's argue over whether his messy eating and subsequent belch was cool or disgusting: "*sigh* Some things never change."
• Armies Are Evil: During the Mobian Great War, Robotnik proposed to the King - Princess Sally's father - that he could win the war by personally leading an army entirely comprised of Peace-Bots (later known as SWATbots): robotic super soldiers of his own design. This landed him the job of being head of the King's War Ministry. After winning the war in the King's favor, Robotnik used that same army to overthrow the King in a Military Coup. Though the SWATbots are clearly able to think and act on their own, they are just machines: they are all programmed with a total and unwavering reverence to Robotnik and never fail to follow their orders, no matter how heinous, no matter how cruel.
• Art Evolution:
  • Many character designs were changed for the second season, if even just slightly (like giving Bunnie pupils) or drastically (looking at Rotor, you wouldn't recognize him from season one to season two).
  • Also, during season 1 the animators seemed much more concerned with their artwork keeping with the show's "realistic" physics. In season 2, although the characters seem more artistically complete, the focus on smaller details falters. Not quite Off-Model, more like Off-Scenery. Shading, actual muscle movements, and realistic ("gritty") fragmentation effects on the backgrounds as lasers hit walls are all examples.
• Artificial Intelligence: Unlike all the other machines in Robotnik's army, the SWAT-bots are shown to be quite sentient. They have separate identities, have varied emotions (including fear), engage in small talk, and it's recognized that their skill increases with experience. Occasionally, Robotnik even executes them for incompetence. The Freedom Fighters destroy them by the dozens, and it never morally affects them in any way.
• Artificial Limbs: Dr. Robotnik's left arm is robotic, Bunnie Rabbot's left arm and both of her legs are robotic.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Tails started out in the series as a Tagalong Kid with moments of minor usefulness. In the second season, his role was substantially expanded in the last few episodes to TV Genius - the first time that Tails ever showed any great intelligence. He was also apparently supposed to become even more prominent if the show hadn't been canceled.
  • Originally, Sally Acorn was a very minor character from the original Sonic the Hedgehog (specifically, she's one of Sonic's animal friends who Robotnik captured, and is freed when Sonic breaks her out of a badnik). She had her own official merchandise as early as 1991. The cartoon upgrades her to Sonic's love interest and main ally. Her presence in the cartoon made her so popular that an official statue of her standing alongside Sonic was placed near the entrance the SegaWorld theme park in Sydney, Australia]], and on arcade cards from the same place.
• Ascended Fridge Horror: The early video games did not explore the process of roboticization in much depth, other than implying that the robots were more like mecha being piloted by a brainwashed animal (hence why a random critter pops out of one and runs away when a Badnik is smashed). This show thoroughly explores the agony, Body Horror, and Loss of Identity implicit in being transformed from flesh into an obedient robot.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Due to being the youngest of their group, Tails is doted on and fussed over by the whole team of Freedom Fighters.
• Badass Adorable: Most of the Freedom Fighters qualify.
• Badass and Child Duo: Whenever Sonic and Tails team up, this trope is in effect: Sonic is the experienced and pragmatic one, while Tails is optimistic and surprisingly intelligent kid.
• Badass Native: The Wolfpack are a tribe of Native American styled anthropomorphic wolves with a long-running warrior tradition. They're one of only a very few peoples who survived a direct attack from Robotnik's forces.
• Bad Boss: Robotnik very frequently vents his frustrations out on his subordinates, mechanical or otherwise - even for failures they had no responsibility for. In Hooked on Sonics, he executed a SWAT-bot for failing to save the Shredder when the problem was an inherent design flaw. Snively ends up being the target of most of his hostility, and in the final episode, when his greatest project is destroyed, Robotnik outright sentences Snively to die in the exploding city out of fury (ironically this act would end up saving Snively who escaped through safer means than him, while ensuring his own demise). Even in his better moods, his relationship with his nephew is not affectionate to say the least.
• Badbutt: Sonic and Bunnie have the edgiest dialogue in the cast, complete with some fake cursing.
• Bald of Evil: Robotnik is completely bald. Snively only has five hairs on his head. He used to have more.
• Beautiful Void: The Void is a vast, empty dimension. When inside it, a person can see everything on Mobius, and magic can allow a person to do quite literally anything except escape or interact with the outside world. Robotnik used it to exile the wizard Naugus, who used his magic to shape the Void into a beautiful crystalline city designed to resemble Mobitropolis.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Robotnik isn't exactly incompetent, but he is prone to great outbursts of rage with Snively as the main target. Snively despises Robotnik.
• Big Brother Mentor: Sonic takes Tails on training missions and teaches him the finer points about being a Freedom Fighter.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Sonic and Sally share two big kisses in this series.
  • Their first big kiss (in Hooked on Sonics) came about as a result of Sonic showing off to Sally how much better he was at kissing than she was. Interestingly enough, the kiss was slow and intimate - two things one wouldn't normally associate with someone like Sonic.
  • Their second big kiss in "The Doomsday Project" came about after Robotnik's defeat. Unlike the first, it was completely spontaneous, and involved an abrupt mutual embrace.
• Big Eater: Sonic can pack away a massive amount of food.
• Big "NO!": Sally getting roboticized (in Sonic's bad dream) in "Sonic's Nightmare". Robotnik also gives these out a couple odd times he is foiled.
• Big "SHUT UP!":
  • A funny moment in "Sonic and the Secret Scrolls". The heroes' plane is diving out of control and Antoine is yelling manically.
    All: Antoine, SHUT UP!
  • From the same episode:
    Antoine: BUNNIE! WOULD YOU PLEASE TO BE SHUTTING UP YOUR OWN FACE?!
• Billions of Buttons: Parodied in "Sub Sonic" when Sonic sabotages Robotnik's oil drilling operation, though he takes out the drilling probes with their emergency destruct button first. ("I wonder what'll happen if I punch all these buttons? Only one way to find out!") He proceeds to do just that while singing a slight remix of the song he sang earlier in the episode, thus causing the drilling platform's destruction.
• Bittersweet Ending: Unlike most media, and due to the show's setting, not every episode ends on a high note. Despite beating Robotnik, sometimes those victories result in losing something or someone.
• Bluff the Impostor: "Sonic and Sally" had Sonic bluff a robot impostor of Sally with a long and rather complicated handshake that they tended to use. However, he changed the last part from a thumbs-up to a thumbs-down. When Sally followed along and didn't correct him, Sonic knew she was an impostor.
• Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Antoine is pretty good at this.
  Antoine: She was making me a bookcase!
  Rotor: You mean basket case.
  • He even messes up ones from his own language.
  Antoine: Sacre bleu cheese!
• Body Horror: Roboticization is not a pleasant experience: it involves physically transmuting flesh, bone, organs and blood into metal, cybernetic components and oil. It's little wonder why Bunnie is yearning for the day she can change herself back into a normal rabbit again.
• Bond One-Liner: Sonic likes to mess with people. So when fighting SWAT-bots, or Robotnik, he has a tendency to brag at their expense both before and after defeating them.
  Sonic: "Yo! Bot-butts! Looks like you could use a shower!" (proceeds to bury a pair of SWAT-bot mechs under a small mountain of scrap metal)
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Robotnik was portrayed far less competently in Season Two compared to his portrayal as a manipulative and cunning foe in Season One. While in his past he was able to make lengthy charades to maintain his plans for power, in Season Two, he just can't help from screwing up at the most inappropriate times.
• Bragging Theme Tune: The opening theme song is definitely an example.
• Brainwashed: The Roboticizer essentially does this to its victims, making them unable to act without being given orders first. Robotnik has programmed his roboticized minions to attack and detain any non-roboticized individuals that they encounter. In addition, Lazaar's magical computer has a "submission spell" which can be used to control a person's will in the same way - Robotnik uses it to control Sally and Bunny in Super Sonic.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The end of the season 2 premiere episode ends with Sonic grabbing the iris-out.
• Breather Episode: Thanks to executive insistence that the show was too dark, the second season has two comedic episodes by mandate, both of which consisted of two 15 minute shorts rather than a full 30 minute episode. While the regular episodes had very dark themes, and were typically about the characters fighting Robotnik or uncovering clues from the past, the first of these irregular two-in-one episodes involves Antoine being kicked out of the Freedom Fighters and joining a gang of biker hyenas, and Sonic telling ghost stories to Tails and Antoine. The second two-in-one episode involves Sonic's house being destroyed during a snowstorm and moving in with Antoine, which drives him nuts, and the second segment was a more Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog-style episode where one of Rotor's robots falls in love with Antoine and keeps stalking him. As you can tell, Antoine is the most prominently featured character in these episodes.
• Bridal Carry: Sonic carries Sally in this fashion whenever they escape from danger. This even occurs in the theme song!
• British Brevity: Two seasons, each 13 episodes, curiously brief for a kids' show. It was planned to have a third season which would presumably have been the same length.
• Broken Aesop:
  • In "Game Guy", the heroes meet a strange freedom fighter called Ari. Although Sonic wants to trust him, Sally wants to err on the side of caution. Eventually Ari leads Sonic into one of Robotnik's traps in exchange for the freedom of his own teammates. When it becomes apparent to Ari that Robotnik has no intention of honoring his end of the deal, he "proves" himself trustworthy by freeing Sonic from the trap, sacrificing himself in the process. At the end of the episode, Sonic gently chides Sally for not being trusting enough, and Sally admits she was wrong despite the fact that everything that happened in the episode proved that she was right. Note she does add playfully how careless Sonic had been however, which he can only sulkily accept.
  • This is a role reversal of the Season 1 episode, "Warp Sonic", in which Sally was shown to be wrong for not listening to Sonic's claim of a mysterious Freedom Fighter named Griff being untrustworthy. The dichotomy between these episodes shows the difference in the character writing between the two seasons: Sonic playing the fool to Sally's unerring wisdom becomes a recurring theme in Season 2.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Sonic and Sally play around with this trope. Sonic isn't commonly known for his brooding, but in this series, likely thanks to the greater stress Robotnik gives him, he definitely has his moments of being a stubborn, irritable jerk. Sally is often the only one who can get him out of those moods, and get him to see better, more moral alternatives.
• Brought Down to Normal: Sonic loses his speed in the ironically named episode, Super Sonic.
• Bullet Seed: Muttsky, who has been roboticized, can use this as an attack.
• Bust-Contrast Duo: Princess Sally and Bunnie Rabbot demonstrate a mild example of the trope. Sally is a bookish and serious Deadpan Snarker who tends to be fairly arrogant. Bunnie loves to have fun, and is always consummately friendly and polite. Between them, there is a definite contrast in bust size: Sally has a very small bust, sometimes to the point that it's practically invisible, while Bunnie has a larger bust with defined cleavage. She's also the better fighter of the two.^note (The second season contains a few Off-Model moments where Sally has nearly as much bust as Bunnie does. In general, though, she's virtually flat-chested, and she doesn't have any angst about this at all.)
• Butt-Monkey: Antoine and Snively are both whipping-boys who exist primarily for comic relief. Robotnik also becomes a bit of this in the second season, especially in any scene involving Naugus.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: The eyes at the very end of the last episode.
• Can't Catch Up: Antoine to Sonic, both literally and figuratively. He was nowhere near as fast or competent as Sonic, and despite his efforts, he couldn't make Sally admire him as much as she does Sonic.
• Captain Crash: Dulcy almost always messes up her landings. The only time she doesn't is when she's carrying another dragon's egg.
• Card-Carrying Villain: This trope is not as prominent as one would expect. He can be quite boastful of his evil if and when can actually gain something by boasting, but otherwise he cares far more about expanding his influence than bragging about how evil he is. Case in point, upon learning that a slumbering Evil Sorcerer with a Magical Computer awaits someone "vile" enough to awaken him, Robotnik uses his evil reputation to convince the wizard's Guardian Entity to let him pass... just so he can try to steal the computer.
  Robotnik: I want the location of Lazaar's lair. Name your prize.
  Lazaar's guardian: You intend harm to my master.
  Robotnik: Oh, you wound me dear guardian! I merely want to wake the grand wizard and honor his evilness! We have much in common.
  Lazaar's guardian: ...yes. I can see that.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • In "Sonic and Sally", Tails is the only one who knows that Sally has been replaced with a robot.
  • Sally after she travels back in time and tries to convince her father than Julian is evil.
  • A less serious example in "Spyhog". Antoine genuinely did rescue Sally during a mission, but he plays up the story so much as he's retelling it’s that it's no wonder Sonic didn't believe him.
• Catapult Nightmare: Sonic's nightmare has him waking up like this in the beginning of the self-same-titled episode.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • For Sonic, it's "Gotta juice!" and "way past cool!"
  • For Bunnie, it's "Oh, My Gods! Oh my stars!".
  • And for the Freedom Fighters as a whole, it's "Let's do it to it!"
• Characterization Marches On:
  • Most of the cast were at least moderately goofier in the pilot episode.
  • Snively was actually a sincere Yes-Man to Robotnik in Season One, even taking pleasure in what rare praise he received from his Bad Boss. In Season Two he blatantly loathes Robotnik and plots behind his back.
  • In the pilot and odd early episodes, Rotor was more clumsy and dorky, a role that was associated more with Antoine and Dulcy afterwards.
• Chaste Toons: This cartoon introduced Uncle Chuck and Snively Robotnik, meaning that Sonic has an uncle and Robotnik is an uncle. Neither Sonic nor Snively's actual parents are ever referenced.
• Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: The second season made Antoine into this, to the point that he once tried to sell out the Freedom Fighters to ensure his own safety.
• Chekhov's Gun: In Season 1, an episode has the Freedom Fighters discover a species of "metal-eating" plants that instantly corrode metal into dust upon contact. The plants' harmless seeds are harvested before the episode is over, but they aren't ever brought up again. In the final episode of the series, we discover that Rotor's been developing metal-eating balloons (water balloon-like thrown projectiles) that instantly corrode metal into dust upon contact.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Season 3 would've made Naugus into the Big Bad if the series hadn't been cut short.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Sonic and Sally are revealed to have known each other since the age of five in "Blast to the Past", and the two grew a strong relationship before finally (openly) revealing their feelings for each other in "Doomsday".
• Childhood Friends: "Blast to the Past" reveals that the main Freedom Fighters have known each other since they were little kids.
• Child Soldier: Almost all of the Freedom Fighters are teenage or younger, and they all fight against Robotnik and his armies.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Cluck and Muttski completely disappear in the second season without any explanation, never to be seen or referenced again.
• Civilization Destroyer: Doctor Robotnik has personally ended multiple civilizations almost entirely. He roboticized 85% percent of Mobitropolis' population on day one of his rule, turning 90% of the city itself into his personal headquarters and war factory. From there, he spread his forces across Planet Mobius, encountering and destroying most of the Wolfpack, and various other civilizations left unnamed, known only by the ruins they left behind. Then there's the environmental cost - the polluted runoff of his operations utterly destroyed a vast underground kingdom as a side effect of his war efforts, leaving the ruler of the place as the Last of His Kind and horribly mutated. He won't stop until all of Mobius is either roboticized or dead.
• Civil War: The war against Robotnik for Mobius is technically this, as Robotnik used to be the King's Minister of War, and the King's daughter is one of the most important Freedom Fighters.
• Cliffhanger: The Season Finale to Season Two was also The Series Finale. While the Freedom Fighters celebrate their triumphant victory, Snively is still around and planning to take over where Robotnik ended. And we see glowing red eyes from his accomplice who remains in the dark, unseen.
• Combat Parkour: Both Sonic and Bunnie fight this way - using acrobatic movements both to reposition themselves and dodge incoming attacks. With enough speed, Sonic becomes a Bouncing Battler instead.
• Computer Voice: All robots in the series speak like this, from Lazaar's computer of magic spells, to the SWAT-bots, to Sally's personal computer, Nicole.
• Continuity Snarl: Blast to the Past's retcons created a number of problems:
  • It established that the King had been cast into another dimension right before Robotnik took over, and had been there since then. Except that in Sonic Boom, Sonic and the gang discover an old message left by the King to Sally in an old prison in the "regular" dimension.
  • It retconned Robotnik into having taken over when Sonic and the gang were little kids, as opposed to shortly before the start of the show^note implied by the intro showing a grown Sonic running into Mobotropolis and pointing out Robotnik's ship to a flesh-and-blood Uncle Chuck. The problem is that Antoine had been established to have been a member of the kingdom's Royal Guard before Robotnik's reign. With the new lore, he would have been too young for this.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In "Spyhog", Snively tortures Antoine by offending his refined tastes in food: using too much batter for a crepe suzette, and using margarine for escargot.
• Cool Aunt: Tails affectionately refers to both Sally and Bunnie as "aunt". Whereas Sally takes on a paternal role, Bunnie is more sisterly.
• Cool Big Bro: Sonic is effectively a mentor to Tails. He also treats him as a brother, even calling him "li'l bro" on more than one occasion.
• Cool Big Sis: Bunnie essentially takes the role of being Tails' big sister, teaching him when and how certain behaviors are appropriate.
• Cool Old Guy: Uncle Chuck. Where do we begin? He's the only person to make a full mental recovery from being Roboticized - a feat he accomplished with his sheer force of will. He's also a technological genius, a spy for the good guys, as well as polite and well spoken.
• Covers Always Lie: The art promo of the series on Netflix. It's the DVD boxart. of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog volume 1, which also has that show's version of Robotnik, Scratch, and Grounder on it. The only thing there from this show is the logo and Lazaar's guardian in the background.
• Crapsack World: When Robotnik overthrew the monarchy with his technologically advanced robotic army, he immediately started conquering the rest of the planet with the goal of roboticizing absolutely everyone. The result of this has been years of world-spanning, one-sided conflict, causing extensive damage to all civilization and most of the environment. The series begins ten years after Robotnik won: The native populations have all either been captured or forced into hiding, leaving behind nothing except empty, decaying cites where proud cultures used to stand. Nothing opposes him now but small groups of freedom fighters attacking from hidden bases, and they don't have it easy: the entire planet is against them. Yet, for all of that, they are making slow progress towards victory.
• Criminal Amnesiac: Sonic falls into this trope in "No Brainer."
• Cursed with Awesome: Bunnie Rabbot lost half of her body to the Roboticizer and gained super strength in the process.
• Cute Bruiser: Bunnie Rabbot is a cute little Southern Belle with a bubbly personality. She also happens to be a Child Soldier and Cyborg with Super-Strength and substantial martial skill, and despite the apparent weight of her mechanical parts, she is amazingly agile. Anger her at your own peril.
• Cute Indignant Girl Stance: Sally does this in some of her exceptionally childish arguments with Sonic, even adding a tantrum-esque foot stomp to the mix.
• Cut Short: The series ended on a cliffhanger in which Dr. Robotnik appeared to have died but his increasingly dissatisfied henchman Snively has plans to usurp his place as the series' primary antagonist, revealing a threatening new foe, shown out of the darkness with menacing red eyes. Whoever this new character was, viewers never found out, as the series was abruptly cancelled. Writer Ben Hurst revealed his plans for a third season where the mysterious red eyes belonged to Naugus, an Evil Sorcerer who Robotnik betrayed years prior.
• Cyber Cyclops: SWATbots have a single red glowing visor, and surveillance orbs have a single camera eye.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: The Roboticizer doesn't only transform a person's body - it also hijacks the mind, stealing the victim's free will and reducing them to little more than a slave. However, this only happens if the victim's head is roboticized - Bunnie Rabbot is partially roboticized herself, and since her head was unaffected, she retained complete control of her mind.
• Cyberpunk: The world has become an industrial nightmare. Cybernetics and other technologies have transformed society in negative was. Young streetwise punks flaunt the law, conducting guerrilla raids to overthrow a corrupt government. Coming off the heels of the 1980's, it's no surprise that this show would feature these themes.
• Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: Robotopolis has consistently crummy weather. It's either heavy rain and Dramatic Thunder, or at the least very densely fogged with pollutants at all times.
• Cyborg:
  • Bunnie was in the middle of being roboticized before she was rescued at the last second; as a result, both of her legs and one of her arms are robotic. However, she retained her free will and gained Super-Strength in the bargain.
  • Robotnik has a mechanical arm, robotic eyes, and robotic ears. This was thanks to Sonic knocking him into the roboticizer's beam while it was active, and is the reason why Robotnik has such a personal hatred for him.

Tropes D to F

• Dangerous Device Disposal Debacle: Uncle Chuck created the robotocizer for the purpose of allowing the elderly to live longer by converting their flesh into cybernetics, but discarded the invention after it turned out it also robbed people of their free will in the process. Leaving the blueprints unattended was the pivot in Julian Robotnik's conquest of planet Mobius.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • This cartoon is easily the darkest incarnation of the Sonic franchise, detailing a world where Robotnik won, and used his technology to turn nearly the whole world into an industrial wasteland dystopia and turn most of the population into robotic slaves. The heroes have it very hard, and even if they manage to win, it will be a very long road to full recovery.
  • Watching the pilot episode reveals that the series is darker and edgier than itself originally was. Much of the animation in the pilot (particularly Sally and Bunnie) has a much brighter, softer look than the actual show and the tone is much more whimsical.
  • This show is also far more serious than the other shows that DiC Entertainment has produced before or since.
• Deadpan Snarker: Most characters have their moments of this, but Sonic, Sally, and Snively were the most prominent examples.
• Death World: Robotropolis is not a nice place. The city is surrounded on all sides by a vast, noxious wasteland where nothing lives except the odd roboticized rat. The outskirts consist of literal mountains of garbage that form a wall all around, and dangers inside the city include pools of acid, toxic lakes, noxious fumes, and vast amounts of lethally dangerous machinery, ranging from broken things that Robotnik simply doesn't use anymore, to power plants and factories that were never built for safety in the first place. As if that wasn't enough, the city itself is under constant surveillance and patrolled 24/7 by relentless mechanical warriors and drone aircraft that are hell bent on roboticizing or killing anything that lives.
• Defanged Horrors: This show has an awful lot of intentionally scary content, especially for a Sonic cartoon. All of it helps to establish the dreary atmosphere of a world where Robotnik won.
  • The visuals in Robotropolis are quite dark and oppressive.
  • Aside from the existential horror of being roboticized, the sight of a Roboticizer in action is terrifying all on its own. the Roboticizer itself is a metal tube with a single window, which a Mobian captive is tossed into, and sealed inside. The moment the machine activates, the captive goes into visible shock as they see their body changing into metal - causing their hair to fall out - and then they scream in obvious agony moments before falling completely silent. Then they just casually step out of the machine in their new metal body like nothing ever happened, conveniently pre-programmed to serve their new master.
  • This also impacts many character designs: Robotnik◊ himself◊ is the most notable example, but other examples include roboticized creatures◊ and the horribly mutated subterranean king in Sub Sonic.
• Defiant to the End: When Sally gets captured by Dr. Robotnik in "Sonic and Sally", he demands her to tell where Knothole is located. Sally's response: "Sure I will. When you get a life."
• Degraded Boss: The Doomsday Test Pod in "Cry of the Wolf" proved itself to be an almost indestructible, robotic version of the Implacable Man: it took dozens of satchel explosives, multiple shots from a tank's laser cannon, and was buried under tons of stone, and was still fighting at 100% until it was coerced into a super-powerful lightning storm. In "The Doomsday Project", the pods can be taken down in one shot by balloons filled with some kind of corrosive chemical, though that may have been derived from the metal-eating plants (see above Chekhov's Gun entry) shown in a previous episode. However, they are still invulnerable to normal attacks.
• Demoted to Extra: Bunnie and Rotor both get far smaller roles in season two than they had in the first season. In particular, Bunnie's role as The Big Guy was taken by Dulcy.
• Denser and Wackier: While it was nowhere near the levels of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, the second season had considerably more humor and silliness. It’s possible that this was a response to complaints that the show was too negative. For example:
  • There were occasions where cartoon physics were randomly implemented, such as Sally being able to run almost as fast as Sonic at the end of “No Brainer” or Dulcy inhaling so much that her chest inflated to twice its normal size.
  • There were more jokey shorts with Antoine in the spotlight.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: Robotnik's motivation is very simple - he wants to control everything on Mobius.
• Determinator: Antoine, Tails, Sonic, Sally, and Robotnik all demonstrate great tenacity, sometimes to a fault.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Robotnik's method of rule resembles this trope: he's already conquered the planet, so he's generally content to send his robot armies to do his dirty work for him instead of getting directly involved in a fight. That said, there are exceptions that will cause him to get directly involved.
• Dirty Coward: Antoine, initially more of an arrogant Lovable Coward, was Flanderized into this trope later on, at least once offering to switch sides when the Freedom Fighter base had supposedly been found. Even Snively found him to be a "little worm".
• Disappeared Dad: Sally's father, King Acorn. He has been trapped in The Void.
• Damsel in Distress: Though a competent Freedom Fighter, Sally falls under this role on several occasions. Antoine also plays a male variant on occasion.
• The Ditz: Antoine and Dulcy tend to be very air-headed. Bunnie can be a bit dense as well, but to a far lesser degree.
• Dodge the Bullet: Sonic uses his Super-Speed and Super-Reflexes to avoid weapons throughout the series, more explicitly in Season 1.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: These start with the first episode in the series. Robotnik's plan is to air-drop a newly invented tree-killing chemical to destroy the Great Forest, exposing Knothole Village. You might happen to notice that the chemicals are colored orange.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": In the pilot episode, Sally indicates that she prefers not to be addressed as "Princess", because - as she sees it - "in the Great Forest, titles are meaningless". This is mimicked by a robot duplicate of her in the show proper.
• Doomed Hometown: Mobotropolis - the hometown of the Knothole Freedom Fighters, and the first city to me taken during Robotnik's campaign.
• Doomsday Device: The Doomsday Project, which was central to the show's climactic story arc.
• Doom Troops: SWAT-bots fit the bill. Jet black, heavily armored, mono-eyed robots with unnecessary spikes jutting from their heads and joints, and deep mechanical voices.
• Downer Ending: "Ultra Sonic", "Sonic Conversion", and "The Void" all end on a low note for the heroes.
  • Bittersweet Ending: However, they also end with the team stopping Robotnik's current scheme and some small ray of hope of retrieving their lost companion.
• Dragon Ascendant: Snively was shown stepping up to this role in the final episode after Robotnik fled, but the series was canceled before he got to do anything.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Snively in the final minutes of the series finale was revealed to be this.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Sally, Bunnie and Antoine do this in "Sonic's Nightmare", to less-than-desirable results. They do it again in season 2 with better results.
• Dumb Muscle: Dulcy isn't the "sharpest tool in the shed" by any means. She makes up for her brainless nature by being the second strongest Freedom Fighter behind Sonic, and the only one who can fly.
• Early Adaptation Weirdness: The series has almost nothing in common with the post-Sonic Adventure games, to the point where it seems like an In Name Only adaptation. This is because at the time this show was made, Sonic Adventure did not exist yet, and the Genesis games didn't have much plot or characterization to work with aside from a vague Green Aesop and slight Cyberpunk themes. So, the writers decided to exaggerate the core plot of the first two games: Sonic's little animal friends are now equally anthropomorphic co-stars with Sonic, the "protect nature" message is made into a major subplot, the villain Dr. Robotnik is made substantially more dangerous, and Sonic was given a Love Interest because Sega hadn't decided to make him a Celibate Hero yet. Furthermore, the show notably deviates from the Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females trope that would later become firmly established in every main game following Adventure, something which carried over to the comic adaptation of the show.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the first episode, Sally had pink fur and black hair while NICOLE was a desktop computer.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The pilot episode, "Heads or Tails", has several noteworthy differences from the series proper:
  • The episode has a much goofier tone that wasn't revisited until the second season was forced to lighten up.
  • The overall coloring and animation is brighter and lighter.
  • Knothole and Robotropolis are different in appearance than in later epsiodes with former having its residents living in literal treehouses as opposed to wood huts.
  • Sally has pink fur and black hair, rather than the brown fur and hair she has in the rest of the show.
  • NICOLE is a computer monitor on a wheeled stand, rather than a handheld computer.
  • Buzzbombers appear in this episode, attacking Knothole, making them the only enemies from the games to directly appear in this series. They are never seen again.
  • It was strongly implied that the robots had at least some free will. Two SWAT Bots slammed a door in Snively's face and laughed at him, only to be cowed when the latter threatened them with a remote. The Buzzbombers also retreated despite Robotnik's orders.
  • Sonic is a cross between a Lazy Bum and Bunny-Ears Lawyer. He doesn’t pull his weight when it comes to work at Knothole, but won’t hesitate to rescue his friends or fight Robotnik.
  • Tails acts more like a four-year old than a ten-year old. It's also implied in spite of that, he's a lot more involved in the freedom fighter's missions than he was later in the series with Snively identifying him as a freedom fighter & saying he often accompanies Sonic and him being somewhat involved in the defense of Knothole against the buzz bombers.The motherly relationship he has with Sally is also downplayed with him simply refering to her as "Princess Sally" as opposed to "Aunt Sally" and Sally herself not being as overly protective of him, only showing minor concern over him going to Robotropolis with Sonic.
  • The episode's title doesn't have the word "Sonic" in it (though that naming scheme was dropped in the second season anyway).
  • Rotor is purple rather than blue, and has a different, goofier looking design. Archie Comics would keep the sillier design and purple coloration for their adaptation.
  • The first Season of Fastest Thing Alive was sung by Michael Tavera, instead of Noisy Neighbors. Season 2 and post-1994 airings of Season 1 replaced it with the Noisy Neighbors version.
• Ears as Hair: In the Denser and Wackier pilot, Bunnie is shown using curlers on her ears.
• Earth All Along: According to the show's third season outline, Mobius is a post-Apocalyptic version of Earth. It explained Robotnik and Snively's presence as them having been in a space colony when the Apocalypse happened, resulting in them being among the few humans still alive. This was backed by an episode featuring a third human in the form of an old wizard who had been in slumber for centuries.
• Earth Drift: In the pilot episode, Sonic mentions Axl Rose by name while playing an electric guitar. This is a show that takes place on Planet Mobius in the 33rd century. During an episode of the second season, Robotnik makes reference to "Topeka" but then immediately muses that he doesn't know where it is. No more references to real life places or people are made after this. It's worth noting that the original plan for Mobius was that it was post-apocalyptic Earth, though this is never expressly stated in the show itself thanks to its premature cancellation.
• Ecocidal Antagonist: Dr. Robotnik, of course. In the "Blast To The Past" two-parter, when he's beginning his coup, one thing he does is take a whiff of the smog his machines are creating, and enjoys it with glee.
• Egopolis: Dr. Robotnik takes over Mobitropolis and renames it Robotropolis.
• Empathy Pet: Cluck is Robotnik's empathy pet. His emotions towards anything are closely synchronized with his master's, whether it's felt towards his subordinates or enemies. Robotnik also dotes on Cluck constantly, so much so that he talks to it in his first appearance.
  • In Sonic's Nightmare, there's a moment where Sally, Antoine and Bunnie are captured by SWAT-bots. Ever the Defiant Captive, Sally expresses her distaste by implying that Robotnik is "too chicken" to face them himself. Robotnik appears immediately afterwards, having clearly overheard her. Though he maintains a placid tone, Cluck can be seen expressing his carefully repressed anger by snapping at her face.
• Emperor Scientist: Robotnik conquered Mobius with his machines, and held on to it for 11 years.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Sally becomes this in the last episode, when she uses the Deep Power Stones along with Sonic to destroy Robotropolis.
• Endangered Species: All life on Mobius is endangered. Robotnik has already destroyed most civilization in the world, roboticizing every living thing unlucky enough to cross his path. Even more, the pollution he leaves in his wake as his war factories expand production is steadily destroying the biosphere, killing off everything else that remains. He has no intention of stopping until everything on the planet is either roboticized or dead.
• Epic Fail: Antoine's martial arts training results in him getting flung into Sonic's house after running into a twig.
• Episode Title Card: Every episode of the series began with an expressive title card.
• Everything Sounds Sexier in French: In the mandated Breather Episode Ro-Becca, Antoine gets a very aggressive female robot to fall in love with him with his French accent. After a few minutes of trying to elude her in vain, he finally repels her with a surprisingly convincing Ahnold impression. Then he accidentally attracts her again by relapsing back to his French accent. Sonic later unintentionally attracts Robecca's attention with a little French of his own...
• Evil Is Hammy: While this shows' Robotnik's is much darker than most other versions of the character, he still makes a habit out of chewing the scenery.
• Evil Is Petty: Robotnik actively belittles his minions (usually Snively) and gloats over his roboticized slaves.
• Evil Knockoff: In "Sonic and Sally", Robotnik had kidnapped Sally and replaced her with a robot double that was so convincing, it fooled almost everybody. Tails was the only one who realized something was off, and Sonic only began to catch on as well after Tails had warned him. In the end, Sonic was able to trick Robotnik by switching Sally out with the very same robot.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Robotnik has a series of evil laughs, ranging from low, menacing chuckling to full on deranged cackling. He's voiced by the incredibly talented Jim Cummings (1952).
  • Snively gave a crazy laugh when he believed that Robotnik died with the Doomsday Project. The nearby being with the red eyes gave a creepy chuckle too.
• Evil Overlord: There's a reason the Freedom Fighters want Robotnik overthrown. He's a petty, violent sociopath who won't be happy until the entire planet obeys his every whim and everything that doesn't is dead.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Robotnik's speaking voice - provided by Jim Cummings - is a 291 low, menacing drawl with a metallic reverb that only seldom rises above a whisper.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In "Sonic Conversion," the Freedom Fighters finally manage to make a working de-roboticizer, and use it to revert Bunnie back to normal. Seeing this, Sonic retrieves his Uncle Chuck from Robotropolis and brings him to Knothole, where the same process is used to change him back as well. Later, it turns out that the effects are only temporary: Bunnie's arm and legs revert back to cybernetics, causing her to break down into tears. Sally makes an attempt to comfort her and reassure her they'll restore her back to normal again in due time... only to realize that if the deroboticization on Bunnie was only temporary, then the same thing will happen to Uncle Chuck, immediately creating an enemy agent inside Knothole.
  Sally: It's okay, Bunnie. We'll get you back to normal again. Listen, all we have to do— Oh, no!
  Bunnie: What?
  Sally: Uncle Chuck!
• Eye Beams: Lazaar's Guardian uses these as its main weapon.
• Family of Choice/True Companions: The Freedom Fighters are clearly a tightly-knit group of friends, all of whom have lost their actual families and so turn to each other for that kind of support; Tails even considers Princess Sally his "Aunt", and she treats him very much like her own son at times]]. Likewise, Sonic and Tails have a very brotherly relationship.
• Fan of the Underdog: Tails is the only one who can bear Antoine's self-aggrandizing stories. Sally also defends him at times.
  Sally: Come on Sonic, Antoine has his good points.
  Sonic: You mean besides his head?
  Sally: *thinks desperately* Errrr...he has a nice haircut.
• Fat Bastard: Dr. Robotnik is definitely one of the bigger versions of the character, even larger than the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog incarnation, and every single fiber of his being is incredibly repulsive.
• Faux Action Girl:
  • Bunnie is demoted into this in the second season.
  • Lupe is boasted as a capable and wise leader of the Wolf Pack. However, she and her team spend both of their appearances as The Load, left in the sidelines in the first and getting captured in the second.
• Faux Affably Evil: Dr Robotnik is shown to be a complete sociopath with a goal to destroy all organic life on Mobius. He will happily take the shortest path to victory and has no qualms about killing or roboticizing literally everything and everyone that lives, including children. Despite all that, he is also well cultured and erudite.
• Fiery Redhead: Sally has her moments of this.
• Fighter-Launching Sequence: The Stealth Bots always have a scene like this when they launch.
• Fireworks of Love: After destroying the Doomsday Project, Sonic and Sally declare their love for one another and kiss during the celebration in Knothole. Still harbouring residual energy from the Deep Power Stones, this causes firework-like explosions to go off above them. This also doubles as a...
• Fireworks of Victory: See Fireworks of Love above.
• Flanderization: Between the two seasons of the show, most of the main characters had parts of their personalities exaggerated to the exclusion of other important personality traits. In addition, the remaining characters were made far less prominent.
  • Robotnik was plainly shown to be completely without limitations in his very first appearance in the Lighter and Softer pilot episode: it was made very clear that he actually would just kill or immediately roboticize any of his enemies at the first opportunity he got, with no warning or scruples. In the Darker and Edgier episodes that followed, this trait was only magnified, resulting in him using any personality flaws and or feelings of attachment he could see in others as weapons against them. This pragmatic part of him is very, very reduced in Season Two: while in his past he was able to make lengthy charades and carefully laid his plans to expand and maintain his power, in Season Two, Robotnik just can't resist wasting huge amounts of time gloating over his enemies instead of finishing them off. This extends to his entire motivation for conquering Mobius: in season one, he was in it to ensure that he alone was in control, the second season changed his motive to a love of how pollution smells.
  • Sonic was originally a somewhat Book Dumb hero with a not totally undeserved, but still problematic arrogant streak. He was a master of Improv Fu, and when he slowed down and stopped letting his ego dictate his actions, he could be quite perceptive and even a bit manipulative. In the second season, this was exaggerated to complete idiocy and borderline narcissism, making him so cocky and incompetent that more than half of the episodes are devoted to him making some sort of error out of recklessness and needing to be bailed out by the rest of the team. In addition, his tendency to improvise simply disappeared, and got replaced with simply abusing the heck out of his speed.
  • In direct contrast, Sally had her positive aspects exaggerated: In season one, she was a Foil for Sonic, often unnecessarily competing with him out of selfish pride, and suffering similar Break the Haughty moments. In Season two she acts as his Hyper-Competent Sidekick to accommodate his increased recklessness. Case in point: "Sonic and the Secret Scrolls" from Season 1 is a role reversal of later episodes' standard formula, with Sonic playing The Straight Man to a blundering plan of Sally's.
  • Antoine was always rather pompous and cowardly. But, in the first season, he was an endearing sort of annoying: he had some problems speaking and understanding English, but he had relatable motivations, and amount of lucidity and nobility that extended to a showing of surprising competence.^note He once used a Batman Gambit against Robotnik that almost perfectly worked]]. However, the second season exaggerated every part of him so incredibly hard that he became a full time Straw Loser who is hardly able to coherently think, or even form a functional sentence. He can barely go five seconds without saying or doing something stupid or narcissistic, and even tried to sell out the Freedom Fighters for his own safety.

• Foot Popping: In the final episode, Sonic kisses Sally, whose foot "pops" off the ground.
• Forbidden Zone: Simply labelled as such, it's a hazardous slum of Robotropolis where the wizard Lazaar rested.
• French Jerk: Antoine was quite rude to Sonic.
• The Friends Who Never Hang:
  • In season one, the main team was Sonic, Rotor, Sally, and Bunnie, with Rotor being Sonic's closest friend and confidant, and Bunnie being Sally's closest friend and confidant. In Season 2, Sally rarely ever interacts with Bunnie, while Sally replaced Rotor as Sonic's confidant, making them both largely irrelevant.
  • The characters who interacted the least were Tails and Rotor, which is ironic given that they're both tech-savvy.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Sally often calls the title character "Sonic Hedgehog" when she gets angry. Apparently, that's his actual full name.
• Functional Magic: In this cartoon, magic is itself a studied science. The episode "Super Sonic" features Lazaar, a wizard who built a literal Magical Computer with an index of specific spells. In addition, the Power Rings that Sonic uses are made from ambient magical energy harnessed through a machine made by Uncle Chuck. Because the Deep Power Stones generate the same type of energy as what's contained in the rings, Sonic can use them in the same way.
• Furry Female Mane: This trope is in play, though some female characters choose to keep their hair short. Sally and Lupe both have a mane of hair, while Bunnie only has a tuft of fur on her forehead (despite sometimes treating her ears as hair). Most male characters have just fur, though Antoine has a blond cut and some elderly characters such as Uncle Chuck and King Acorn have mustaches.

Tropes G to J

• Gasshole: Sonic projects quite the belch whenever he's he had a chili dog, much to Sally's disgust.
• Genius Bruiser: Rotor, who was the smartest and one of the strongest members of the Freedom Fighters. Robotnik also fits this trope by way of his mechanical arm, which demonstrates great strength.
• Ghost City: Mobius is full of these - vast cities and city-sized complexes outside of Robotropolis that are absolutely, completely, empty of any life except for plant overgrowth and what few birds and rats avoided being Roboticized.
• Gilligan Cut:
  Sonic: Well this hedgehog's never giving up!
  Sonic: I give up! Suckers!
• Good Bad Girl: Bunnie is unambiguously a G-rated version of this trope^note She is a Explosive Breeder rabbit, after all. At one point she casually, yet seriously jokes about eyeing Uncle Chuck. She is very flirty, and wears a somewhat skimpier version of a well-known sexy outfit. Along with Antoine, Bunnie is one of only two characters in the show who will fuss over their appearance, and is the only one to wear makeup. She's also easily the sweetest character in the cast, and has a good rapport with nearly everyone: a Femme Fatale she is not. Page 12◊ of Sonic SatAM's Universe Bible reveals that she isn't at all picky about love - she has her eye on nearly every male in the cast except Tails.
  Bunnie: "Speaking of be-hinds,... I dearly love boys. I can sit for hours and watch em' walk by one by one. Um-um."
• Goshdang It To Heck: Bunnie frequently uses "colorful metaphors" when surprised. Sonic does too, but less frequently. They also cuss outright, but that's always obscured through a careful choice of words or cutting them off before they actually say it.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Dulcy's and Lupe's names, which mean "sweet" and "wolf" respectively.
• Great Offscreen War: The Great War mentioned in "Blast to the Past part 1". No reference is ever made to it outside of one line from King Acorn. Additionally, it's revealed in various episodes that Mobitropolis was not the only power on the planet, however, everything left of the other cultures on the planet is unpopulated ruins.
• Green Aesop:
  • Taking cues directly from Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog CD,Sonic SatAM features a message about preserving nature. The show is a a refreshingly subtle example of this trope, as a result of adhering to Show, Don't Tell via the distinct contrast between Knothole Village and Robotropolis^note Robotropolis is visually based directly on the appearance of Scrap Brain Zone from Sonic 1, but with a cooler color palette, though it has the red sky in some concept art. rather than resorting to preachy diatribes a-la Captain Planet.
  • In addition, as with Sonic CD, technology itself is not the problem: the problem is Robotnik. Mobius was already enjoying advanced computer technology, Magitek, robots and flying machines... machinery only stared destroying nature after Robotnik took over and perverted it's use.
• Green Rocks: The Deep Power Stones, the Power Rings, and the Time Stones.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: A memorable example can be found in "Sonic Conversion".
  Robotnik: Snively, what color is my heart?
• Guardian Entity: Lazaar has one that ensures that only someone "evil enough" may approach him while he sleeps.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: Robotnik wants everything on Mobius roboticized or dead - nothing less will do. On the other side, the Freedom Fighters explicitly mention that they want Robotnik dead, and it's obvious they wouldn't shed a single tear for Snively, either.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Snively used to have long wavy hair before a time-traveling Sonic accidentally (or not-so accidentally) blew it off.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Most of the good guys are missing clothing in some way. In the main cast, only Antoine and Bunnie avert this trope, and they are both shown to be rather obsessive over how they look.
• Harmless Electrocution: In "Ro-Becca", Antoine gets struck by lightning and then shoots dozens of feet into the air, wailing like a dying cat, only to land right in Ro-Becca's arms.
• Hartman Hips: Sally has these, depending on the artist.
• Hate Sink: In most of his incarnations, while Robotnik is selfish and cruel, he doesn't actually hate life - he's really an Attention Whore who wants the world to respect his genius. His plans are generally incompetent, and his evil nature is sometimes overcome with a pang of remorse, so it's difficult to really hate him. Here, however, those few redeeming features are stripped away and replaced with pure seething sadism and malicious intent, making him truly repulsive and despicable.
• Headbutting Heroes: Sally and Sonic often compete with each other. Also, Sonic and Antoine often argue with each other or competing for Sally's affections. (Though that particular "competition" is very one-sided) As Sally once inadvertently pointed out, should one get captured, the other likely wouldn't even lift a finger if she didn't lecture them enough.
• The Heavy: Robotnik. With very few exceptions, he drives the plot of nearly every episode, typically in the form of him doing something to obtain a powerful artifact, create an unstoppable weapon, and/or destroy the Freedom Fighters.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: For most "No Brainer", Snively, with the help of a "memory scrambler" device, has brainwashed Sonic into working for the bad guys, but by the end, the tables have turned, and Sonic brainwashes Snively. While he doesn't really force Snively into doing anything directly helpful for the good guys, Snively does physically attack Robotnik when he sees him, thanks to Sonic filling his freshly-laundered brain with insults about Robotnik. It doesn't end well for Snively. But then again, for Snively, nothing ever does.
• Heel–Face Turn: Lazaar the wizard once terrorized Mobius through the power of a spell-casting computer he created, which he filled with evil magic. For reasons unknown, he went to the Forbidden Zone, sealed himself inside a massive fortress full of all manner of deadly traps, and put himself into a magical sleep for centuries until someone vile enough came along to awaken him. During that sleep, he dreamed for centuries, reliving every evil act he ever committed. He eventually came to regret being so evil. Unfortunately, destroying the magic computer would release all the evil inside and cause a catastrophe, so upon being awakened, he took his magical computer and willingly left Mobius into another dimension to guard it, presumably for eternity.
• Heinous Hyena: The Nasty Hyenas in "Fed Up With Antoine/Ghost Busted", are a biker gang who who come from a cannibalistic tribe who always eat their king.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • In "Ultra Sonic", Sonic and the team convert Uncle Chuck back to their side, but by the episode's end, his robotic programming reverts him back into a mindless drone, and the team are forced to abandon him. The normally overconfident and optimistic Sonic completely breaks down into tears as a result.
  • Sally has a similar, albeit more subtle one after her father returns to the title vortex of "The Void".
• Heroic Sacrifice: Cat in "Sonic Boom", Ari in "Game Guy" and Uncle Chuck in "Blast To The Past Part 2."
• Heroic Willpower: After several brief periods of freedom thanks to the Power Rings, Sir Charles (or "Uncle Chuck") ultimately breaks free of Robotnik's control this way.
• Higher-Tech Species: Humans to Mobians. Julian Robotnik actually made it possible for King Acorn to win the Great War by giving his forces advanced technology and an army of Peace-bots - once the war was over, Julian used that army to take the throne by ordering the machines to only respond to his voice commands.
• Hi, Mom!: In the pilot, Sonic, Tails and Rotor are confronted with a surveillance orb. It's just Robotnik and Snively at the other end, but Tails still says this phrase.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: The Freedom Fighters' most common tactic is to sneak their way close to some important asset Robotnik has, blow it up, and run. They're forced to fight this way: Robotnik's power is too great for them to oppose in any conventional manner.
• Hologram: Various technologies around Mobius can produce detailed holographic projections, that can be used as maps, reference material, or interfaces.
• Home Base: Knothole Village is the Freedom Fighters' Home Base, Robotropolis is Robotnik's Home Base.
• Honorary Uncle: Tails calls Sally "Aunt Sally," Bunnie "Aunt Bunnie", and everyone calls Sonic's uncle "Uncle Chuck."
• Horrifying the Horror: As these pages have established, this version of Doctor Robotnik is a thoroughly nasty and scary individual. Naugus makes him quiver in terror at the mere sight of him.
• How Do You Say: Antoine:
  Princess, I hate to be a, how you say, worryworm...
• Humanoid Female Animal: All female Mobians - except for dragons like Dulcy - are humanoids with Non-Mammal Mammaries.
• Humanity Is Advanced: Over the last two decades, Mobius has seen sudden and extreme technological advancement, so much so that the population's entire way of life was irrevocably changed: portable computers, Artificial Intelligence, cybernetics, holographic interface technology, the deployment of fully automated warfare and directed energy weapons... all of it is derived from Human technology.
• Humans Are Bastards: Robotnik and Snively are the only two human characters in the story. Neither of them are a shining example of humanity's positive virtues.
• Humble Pie: Sonic several times over after his arrogance screws up a mission. Sally is made to accept this at least once too. Antoine also admits his mistakes after nearly dying in "Hooked On Sonics".
• Hypnotize the Captive: Sally becomes the victim of magical hypnosis twice in the series - once in each season.
• Hypocrite: Griff in "Warp Sonic" finds out about the Freedom Fighters power ring source. He declines a comrade's suggestion to ask for their help since he believes they can't be trusted, and makes an elaborate plan to trick Sally and steal it from them instead.
• An Ice Person: Surprisingly, Dulcy is one, being able to shoot ice beams through her nose.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode in Season 1 (except for the pilot, "Heads or Tails") had "Sonic" in the title. Super Sonic, Ultra Sonic, Hooked on Sonics, etc.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Bunnie Rabbot hates having robotic body parts.
• I Kiss Your Hand: Sonic does this to Sally towards the end of the finale, a gesture which is generally unlike him.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Done by Sonic in "Sonic Conversion" to keep his robotizised uncle from doing the same to Tails and Antoine. It worked.
• Ill-Timed Sneeze:
  • Tails suffers one of these in the pilot episode, blowing his and Sonic's cover right in front of Robotnik and a series of Swat-bots.
  • Antoine gives himself away with one while hiding from Ro-becca.
• Implied Death Threat: This trope sums up Robotnik's relationship with Snively. In one episode, he threatens to turn Snively into a paperweight.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: Bunnie's outfit is a leotard that makes her look like a Playboy Bunny. The top section is both backless and strapless, with a décolletage so low that it should logically fall off on its own. The only ways it could possibly stay up are by double-sided sticky tape, magic, or anti-gravity.
• In a Single Bound: Sonic can jump quite high and far.
• Individuality Is Illegal: Robotnik runs the planet, and his society doesn't tolerate freethinking individuals of any stripe. Individuality is ruthlessly suppressed by either forcible transformation of the offender into a robotic slave, or death - whichever is more immediately convenient.
• Industrialized Evil: Robotropolis is totally and completely devoted to roboticizing all living things as quickly and efficiently as possible, and killing whatever can't be roboticized. As such, the entire city is little more than a combination of a prison, a processing plant, and a war factory. Literally billions of Mobians were systematically roboticized there over the course of a decade.
• In the Hood: Sonic wears a red hooded cloak to hide his identity in "Sonic Racer" when he arrives in Robotropolis to race against the robotic cheetah. It doesn't fool Robotnik at all.
  Robotnik: "Well well, what do we have here? Little red rodent hood?"
• Insult Backfire:
  • When Robotnik orders Bunnie shot with a paralyzing ray in "Super Sonic":
  Sally: You are a miserable creep, Robotnik.
  Robotnik: Why, thank you, princess.
  • And again in "Blast To The Past":
  Chuck: You're pure scum, Julian.
  Robotnik: I relish the thought.
• Insufferable Imbecile: Antoine is a pompous, cowardly, French Jerk who is also clumsy to the core and extremely incompetent.
  • Downplayed with Sonic, who can be arrogant and reckless, especially in Season 2, is a Mr. Vice Guy at best, and cares deeply about his friends (Antoine is debatable, though). He is also a master at Improv Fu (at least he used to be).
• Interspecies Romance: Sonic and Sally, a hedgehog and a chipmunk, respectively.
  • Also attempted with Ro-Becca and Antoine, a robot cat and a coyote.
• Insult of Endearment: Sonic and Sally often do this to each other.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Most of the Freedom Fighters and Uncle Chuck Hedgehog. Of course, it's most because his nephew is the show's star. The same could also be said with Tails and the rest of the Freedom Fighters.
• Interrogation by Vandalism: Snively tortures Antoine by cooking escargot in margarine.
• Is the Answer to This Question "Yes"?: Sonic makes extensive use of this. "Is grass green? Is water wet? Is the sky blue? Is dirt dirty? Do bears-"
• I Surrender, Suckers: In "Sonic Conversion", Sonic pretends to give up so he'll be taken to Robotnik and the roboticizer. When Robotnik demands to know why he's there, Sonic hams it up, saying he can't take the stress anymore and his nerves are shot. Robotnik is unconvinced, and after a little banter, orders the SWATBots that brought Sonic in to put him in the roboticizer anyway. They grab Sonic, but he quickly trashes them and takes Robotnik for a spin in his own command chair as a diversion before getting to the true purpose of his mission: stealing parts from the roboticizer to fix the deroboticizer the Freedom Fighters have been working on.
• It's Probably Nothing: In Sonic and Sally, this trope is used, bizarrely, between two SWAT-bots — who you'd think would have no business having separate thoughts. The two bots are in a hoverpod which happens to detect Bunnie with a built in heat sensor. The pilot is about to open fire when the co-pilot mentions that substation electricity interferes with the heat sensors. They opt to ignore her heat signature and move on.
  • In "Blast to the Past Part II" (which as the title suggests, mostly takes place in the past), Snively tells Robotnik that "a very fast blue hedgehog" prisoner escaped, but Robotnik dismisses this ("Blue hedgehog? ... Hmm... Ah, nothing to fret about."). Obviously this is played for irony, but exactly why he dismisses this is debatable. Arguably, he might have thought it was only five-year-old Sonic because he doesn't know the latter's older self (the actual escaped hedgehog) is running around too. Yet when he later sees security footage of Sonic and recognizes his name (provided by Snively) as that of Sir Charles' nephew, he only questions what Sonic's "doing so far from home" instead of the age discrepancy. Unless he didn't know past Sonic's precise age.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Sonic can be incredibly arrogant and frequently butts heads with the other Freedom Fighters (usually Sally or Antoine, even if the latter usually deserves it). He is altruistic to a fault however and in his reckless enthusiasm, he is only looking out for others.
  • Antoine, who although being a cowardly, pompous oaf has proven to be unquestionably loyal to Princess Sally, and on occasion shown traits of Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass when one of the others was in trouble, like when Sonic was about to be ambushed from behind by a Nasty Hyena.
• Just Before the End: In Blast to the Past, Sonic and Sally use the Time Stones in attempt to go back before Robotnik took over and prevent his rise to power. It didn't work.
• Just Eat Gilligan:
  • Why the team always take Antoine to missions over more useful (or at least less detrimental) Freedom Fighters is never explained.
  • At least one episode showed that Sonic can easily break into Robotnik's lair and deliver a Curbstomp Battle as a distraction. Why in over a decade of warfare has he never attempted to capture or destroy Robotnik this way is unexplainable.
• Just in Time: Sally was nearly turned into a robot in "Sonic and Sally", but Sonic managed to rescue her and replace her with the fake at the last moment.

Tropes K to O

• Kangaroo Pouch Ride: Dulcy the dragon has a pouch for her passengers.
• Kid-Appeal Character: Antoine has his moments of this, although this mostly falls to the role of Tails.
• Killer Robot: Almost every robot built by Robotnik is one of these.
• La Résistance: The Freedom Fighters are fighting to remove Robotnik from power and free their enslaved loved ones.
• Lack of Empathy: Robotnik has this in spades. Snively, while mostly only following orders, isn't exactly resentful about sending a good few Freedom Fighters to the robotocizer either.
• Lady and Knight: Sonic and Sally fit this trope. Sonic certainly isn't a proper knight, but he's the leader of a Freedom Fighter cell that has putting Sally back on the throne as a primary goal. Sally herself is a warrior princess who often fights at his side despite being rather disapproving of his brash behavior.
• Lame Rhyme Dodge:
  Snively: Your stupidity will ruin everything, you ugly boil.
  Dr. Robotnik: What was that, Snively?
  Snively: I said the doomsday machine is going to need more oil, sir.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Robotnik has a way of causing his own downfall through his own insufferable hubris. Shortly after he begins Roboticizing the inhabitants of Mobitropolis, he underestimates the ability of a hedgehog who he has seen running at Supersonic speeds. Said hedgehog spins Robotnik around, causing him to fall into an active roboticizer, which costs him his arm. Additionally, he bullies his own Sycophantic Servant into becoming hateful and rebellious. Unfortunately, (for him) he never learns from it.
• Last Fertile Region: When Robotnik overthrew the monarchy with his technologically advanced robotic army, he immediately started conquering the rest of the planet with the goal of roboticizing absolutely everyone. The result of this has been years of world-spanning, one-sided conflict, causing extensive damage to all civilization and most of the environment. The series begins ten years after Robotnik won: The native populations have all either been captured or forced into hiding, leaving behind nothing except empty, decaying cites where proud cultures used to stand. The Great Forest - home of the Knothole Freedom Fighters - is one of the few areas that Robotnik hasn't touched yet.
• Last of His Kind: Thanks to Robotnik, the suburban monarch in "Sub Sonic" is the sole survivor of his kind. Also, Dulcy is close to becoming this.
• Left Hanging: The final episode ends with Robotnik's sinister plot to launch doomsday pods all over Mobius ruined, and the city of Robotropolis can return to Mobotropolis as Dr. Robotnik is left to an unknown fate. Sonic and Sally realize their emotions for each other and kiss. But that's not it—Snively tells Sonic not to be so happy as it's now his turn, and a mysterious red-eyed figure (revealed in a later interview to be Ixis Naugus) laughs threateningly. Sadly, the show was canceled after Disney took over ABC.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: On occasion, sometimes without actually saying "Let's split up". Episodes include "Sonic and Sally", where Sonic, Sally and Bunnie go in different directions to detonate a robot factory, and later on when Rotor and Bunnie take care of said factory while Sonic rescues Sally. In "Ultra Sonic", where Sonic and Sally go one way to look for parts for a new project, and Rotor, Bunnie and Antoine go another, and later on when Rotor, Antoine and Sally go one way to get to a set of controls, while Sonic, Uncle Chuck and Bunnie go another to get to another set.
• Lighter and Softer:
  • Season 2 is a lot lighter in tone than Season 1 was. This was a decision made by executive mandate, and accomplished through a mix of much goofier presentation and heavy Flanderization. Despite the added difficulty, the second season did manage to keep dramatic storytelling intact, especially prior to the final episode, however, the changes in tone are extreme and highly distracting. As a direct example, look at the contrast between two episodes in which Antoine gets captured.
    • In Season 1's Hooked on Sonics, Antoine grows ever the more jealous of Sonic's relationship with Sally, to the point that he tries to capture Robotnik alone in order to get her attention... and proceeds to almost pull it off by deliberately manipulating his ego. Taking a Power Ring, Antoine sneaks into the city, handily evades the security, and intentionally addresses Robotnik through one of his surveillance drones, informing him that he will give him the ring if he agrees to meet him at the city limits in one hour, alone. Robotnik replies by dispatching hover-units to his position to take it by force, only for Antoine to disappear. Robotnik immediately orders Snively to ready his hovercraft so he can make the meeting.^note Being a sociopath, one of Robotnik's biggest flaws is his impulsiveness - a flaw which Antoine just manipulated.]] At said meeting, Antoine proceeds to lure Robotnik into a simple trapping pit. The plan worked in every single way, except for the fact that Robotnik can fly. Robotnik takes the ring, uses it to power a weapon that can track Sonic even at his best speed, and sends Antoine to be roboticized. Sonic spends the rest of the episode unable to use his speed, lest he be fired upon, and barely manages to rescue Antoine. The only thing funny about the entire episode is Antoine's misuse of some words.
    • In Season 2's Spy Hog, Antoine is searching for Uncle Chuck to warn him that Robotnik's onto him. Chuck finds Antoine first, and whispers a greeting, which startles Antoine and causes him to fall through an air vent and land right next to Snively, who just happened to be nearby. Snively has Antoine strapped to a chair, looks up his personality file on a computer, and proceeds to "torture" him by preparing French cuisine incorrectly.^note This in itself is a direct contrast to Season 1's Sonic Boom, in which Cat was treated to actual torture (albeit off-screen) that left him noticeably tired. Sonic, who also just happened to be nearby, drops in and saves Antoine effortlessly. Throughout the entire episode - and season - Antoine's word-butchery is massively exaggerated and his grasp on reality itself is very, very, fleeting.
  • Dulcy, a comical dragon, was added to the main cast without any introduction or explanation.
  • The pilot episode (the one where Sally was pink and the Freedom Fighters fended off a squadron of Buzz Bombers with water balloons) is lighter and softer compared to the rest of the first season.
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • In the games, Sonic is traditionally a Fragile Speedster: while he's great at dodging, he's far from being the hardest hitter, and can't do much damage at all if he doesn't take the time to get up to speed first. Here, he can punch and kick robots with enough force to launch them several feet (though it makes sense that he could kick that hard), and when already running, he can use his momentum to throw armored things multiple times his size with enough force to shatter them. He is also the only Freedom Fighter to have broken security cameras by throwing junk at them...with ONE hand.
  • Dulcy, being a dragon, is both very strong and very fast, especially when she "Cracks The Whip".
• Like an Old Married Couple: Sonic and Sally's arguments with each other fit this to a T, thanks to their differing personalities and mutual stubbornness.
• Like Brother and Sister: Tails has this relationship with both Sally and Bunnie. In the series' bible, the former even describes him as the little brother she always wanted but never had.
• Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Planet Mobius has both anthros and humans living on it. Much more of the former than the latter.
• The Load: Antoine. He is incredibly cowardly and almost never contributes anything of value, yet for some reason they frequently bring him along on action missions.
• Lovable Coward: Arguably what Antoine was aimed towards, though Flanderization leaned him more along the lines of a Jerkass Dirty Coward and an Upper-Class Twit.
• Loveable Rogue: Sonic fits the bill.
• Low-Angle Empty World Shot: This filming style is used liberally to emphasize the devastation Robotnik caused.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Robotnik and Snively both qualify. Naugus may as well.
• Magic Countdown: In the opening, the timer Sally sets actually counts down faster when it's not onscreen.
• Magitek: The plot of "Super Sonic" involves an ancient computerized spellbook that actually traps concentrated evil inside it.
• Make-Out Kids: Both of Sonic and Sally's big kisses were made during a celebration in full view of the rest of the Freedom Fighters.
• Make Way for the New Villains: Had the series continued, Naugus would have taken over as the main villain, with Robotnik reduced to his lackey.
• Malaproper: Antoine has problems with English. In his world, a fool is a fuel, bingo is pronounced gringo, and fertilizer is fraternizer.
• Malevolent Mugshot: Robotnik really likes to look at himself - his face is emblazoned on various buildings and statues throughout Robotropolis and beyond.
• Malicious Misnaming: Sonic almost always refers to Robotnik as "Robuttnik." Additionally, Robotnik tends to call Sonic a "miserable rodent" when talking to him.
• Manly Tears: At the end of Ultra Sonic, when Uncle Chuck's personality is taken over again by Robotnik's programming, Sonic cries.
• Matter Replicator: Star Trek style food replicators exist in Robotropolis.^note (rather neatly explaining how Robotnik can eat if he's intentionally destroying the biosphere)]] In addition, the Roboticizer - as an extension of this technology - can replicate flesh over a machine to create a Terminator-style Meat-Sack Robot for infiltration purposes.
• Maurice Chevalier Accent: Antione speaks with a thick, sterotypical French accent
• Meaningful Echo: Near the end of the Season 1 episode "Sonic and Sally", after stopping Robotnik's current plot, Sonic smugly tells him that he came close, "but close only counts in Horseshoes." One season later, toward the end of "Blast to the Past, Part 2", Sonic and Sally argue about whether or not going back in time was a total waste:
  Sonic: We still didn't stop Robuttnik!
  Sally: But we came close!
  Sonic: Sal, this ain't Horseshoes!
• Meaningful Name:
  • The name "Robotnik" is derived from "robot", which is Polish. The literal definition of "robot" and the original context around the word fit everything about the character to perfection.
  • The "Bunnie" in "Bunnie Rabbot" is a rather clever Multiple Reference Pun: she's literally a bunny whose outfit closely resembles a Playboy Bunny. Additionally, bunnies are well known for rapidly multiplying - it's little wonder that much of her dialogue can be interpreted in less-than-innocent ways. "Rabbot", of course, is a reference to the fact that she's a Cyborg.
  • Sonic is named for the fact that he runs at supersonic speed.
  • Dulcy's name is Spanish for "sweet", and she is a very nice dragon.
  • Lupe, whose name means "wolf".
  • It's probably more a coincidence than anything else, but Sally's name comes from a Hebrew word meaning "princess".
  • Ari from "Game Guy". He's a ram, which is often associated with the zodiac symbol Aries.
• Meat-Sack Robot: Sally's villainous replacement robot in Sonic and Sally is one of these. A metal endoskeleton surrounded with artificial flesh copied from the real thing.
• Mechanical Animals: Doctor Robotnik has a mechanical bird that he keeps perched on his left shoulder, much like a Pirate Parrot. Robotnik has named his bird Cluck, and Cluck lives to annoy and ridicule Robotnik's henchman Snively.
• Mechanical Monster: Reflecting their maker, most of Robotnik's machines are designed in the spirit of cold, ruthless efficiency. However, he occasionally indulges himself in making1 more eccentric designs based on various animals. The animal designs are rare, and tend to be both larger and substantially more powerful than his standard machines.
• Mega City: Robotropolis is a fantastically large city, and all of it is devoted to building and directing an unending supply of war machines to conquer Mobius and roboticize all life.
• Mind-Control Device: In "Super Sonic", Robotnik uses a stolen crystal computer's "submission spell" to control Princess Acorn and Bunny.
• Mirror Character: Sonic and Sally may seem like complete opposites at first glance, but they are quite similar on a closer look. They are both arrogant for rather legitimate reasons, they are both quite snarky, and in the end, they are both willing to put aside their personal feelings to do what is best for their team.
• Missing Mom: Sally, Tails, and Dulcy.
• Modest Royalty: 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.
• Mortality Phobia:
  • Nicole actually has this. After Sally and Bunnie go missing in The Void, Sonic, frantic with worry, asks Nicole where they went. Nicole tries to explain what happened using her typical Exact Words and computer speak ... which only frustrates the already frenzied Sonic into shaking her violently. Nicole quickly started experimenting with using Sonic's lingo to communicate.
  • This was Chuck's motivation to build the Roboticizer. It was originally built to help the elderly live longer, but had the side effect of Brainwashed suppressing a person's free will.
• The Most Wanted: How Sonic is regarded by Robotnik's forces is is wrapped up in one line: Alert! Priority One: Hedgehog. Any nearby bots drop whatever they're doing to pursue.
• Muggle–Mage Romance: Sonic has Super-Speed, Super-Strength, and Super-Toughness, and is the only one who can use the Power Rings. Princess Sally is a Badass Bookworm. They're the Official Couple.
• Multi-Directional Barrage: Each of Robotnik's Doomsday pods is covered with life-energy draining laser cannons on all sides, allowing them to lay waste to everything in their surroundings in mere seconds.
• Murder by Inaction: In a couple of instances, Sonic's hatred of Antoine actually reached such a level that he seriously considered leaving him at the mercy of Robotnik. Sally goaded him into rescuing him however.
• Myth Arc: The Second Season has one, focusing on the magical Deep Power Stones.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Robotnik's Japanese moniker of Dr. Eggman was given a subtle nod— Robotnik's citadel seems to be egg-shaped.
  • Sonic has used variations of his Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog counterpart's "I'm waaaaiiiiiiitiiiiiing…" catchphrase. He even said Hey, That's My Line! to Robotnik on one occasion.
• Nature Is Not Nice: Aside from Robotnik's pollution, the rest of Mobius is an utterly beautiful planet... that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. Mobius has flesh-eating plants, plants secrete oil that can disintegrate anything it touches, naturally occurring explosive crystals, and predatory life forms. Even so, the planet never comes anywhere close to the lethality of Robotropolis.
• Nature vs. Technology: Mobius used to be an advanced, but fairly Solar Punk civilization. When Dr. Ivo Robotnik conquered it, it became an oppressive, polluted Crapsack World inhabited by mindless machines (many of which having once been innocent mobians who were robotized). The Freedom Fighters — led by Princess Sally Acorn and Sonic the Hedgehog — have since been living in the forest, planning their resistance against Robotnik.
• Never Say "Die": Nope. Death is very directly mentioned in multiple episodes.
  • Sonic and the Secret Scrolls sees Robotnik and Snively blasted over a high mountain ledge, and Bunnie says, in shock, "Robotnik dead! I don't believe it..." the episode closes with them both climbing to safety.
  • The Void, when Naugus and the King begin turning into crystal:
  Naugus: I misunderstood the Void's properties - it's drawing our life force. The only place I can control it is there. We must return, or we'll die.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: 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.
  • Weirdly, Sally seems concerned that the possibility of their younger selves knowing their identities could be problematic so she and Sonic go by aliases. However, on at least two occasions, she uses Sonic's real name to refer to the older hedgehog with his younger self within earshot (and one of those time she does so right in front of the younger Sonic) yet the younger Sonic doesn't catch on.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sonic and Antoine and Sally have all ruined more than one plan due to their bumbling or arrogance.
  • Uncle Chuck was unintentionally a pivotal part of Robotnik's takeover of Mobius by creating the robotocizer and leaving its blueprints out in the open, allowing Robotnik to steal the design and pervert it.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: This comes into play in the second season thanks to Flanderization. Princess Sally is gentle and rational, Sonic is altruistic but arrogant and hot headed, Antoine is cowardly, but not malicious.
• The Nicknamer: Sonic, Bunnie, and Dulcy all tend to invent nicknames for people they particularly like or dislike.
• Non-Lethal Warfare: The series is set in a world where the heroes are a small band of Freedom Fighters struggling against difficult odds, so they had to have some losses eventually. However, the writers weren't allowed to show any death. 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, missiles, and so on, but they predictably never actually hit anyone.
  • Early in the second season, a temporarily de-roboticized Uncle Chuck explains that the mind actually doesn't go away: the roboticized person is alive and fully aware of what is going on around them, but they cannot control themselves.
  • In the first episode, the Freedom Fighters fend off Robotnik's robots by flinging water balloons at them. The rest of the season saw them use bombs for that same purpose.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Basically Dulcy's defining characteristic. She acts like she's being scolded by her "Ma" every time she crashes.
• No-Respect Guy: Antoine.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Sally, though usually Only Sane Man to the other Freedom Fighters, could be arrogant and fallible at times. This more commonly happened in the first season.
  • Though the show boasted a far more sinister and fearsome rendition of Dr. Robotnik, he couldn't go completely without comical moments. His fear-driven demeanor throughout "The Void" in particular is quite clownish.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Snively is treated as a worthless toady by Robotnik, and something of a laughing stock to most of Freedom Fighters. However, he has come closer to invading Knothole than his uncle ever did (through sheer luck), and in the planned Third Season he would have briefly taken over as Big Bad during Robotnik's absence.
• Not the Intended Use: Uncle Chuck invented the Roboticizer to help older people live longer by replacing their decaying bodies with cybernetics. He abandoned the project after discovering that it also removed people's free will, however, he made the mistake of not destroying his research. Robotnik found the blueprints and made his own Roboticizer, gleefully embracing the horrific side effects as he used it to turn all the people of Mobotropolis into his willing robotic slaves.
• Occupiers Out of Our Country: The Freedom Fighters want Robotnik and his robot army gone from planet Mobius.
• Odd Couple: This trope was shoehorned into one of the eleven-minute Antoine episodes when Antoine is forced to live with Sonic, who conspicuously becomes more of a comedic sociopath. The episode is actually called "The Odd Couple".
• Oddly Small Organization: The Knothole Freedom Fighters have fewer than 100 members, total, and out of those, less than two-dozen regular fighters.
• Official Couple: Sonic and Sally. They greatly differ in their personalities and way of handling things, but are very much in love, and often fight side-by-side. They're so official that they fight together in the opening.
• Official Kiss: Sonic and Sally get one of these at the end of the second season. Though they had already kissed before, this one was entirely spontaneous and had no ulterior motive.
• Ominous Floating Spaceship: This is an inversion of the trope: Dr. Robotnik is a human, and his Cool Spaceship, the Destroyer, wipes out nearly everyone in Mobotropolis. It seems to be a gigantic floating roboticizer. As it passes overhead, everything underneath it is either instantly killed or transformed into machinery and infrastructure as if by Grey Goo.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Sally supplies mainly in computer knowledge and hacking, but is also shown to have archeological knowledge and is implied to be as profound a mechanic as Rotor, not to mention the most dominant Only Sane Man of the team. Given a lot of this was expanded as her role became larger, it may also count as The Main Characters Do Everything.
• Only Sane Man: Most of the characters take turns at this trope, but Sally does the most often.
• Orphaned Etymology:
  • Sonic name checks Axl Rose in the show's pilot episode.
  • 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.
• Orphaned Series: The series was cancelled after two seasons, despite the cliffhanger ending and a third season being planned.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Dulcy the dragon is a complete klutz with a child-like mentality, and while she retains flight and other mythical powers, only once do we actually witness her breathe fire (to destroy an antenna). Instead, she breathes ice. Dragons also have kangaroo-like pouches where they hold their young, and according to Dulcy, newborns are fed off milk produced by their mother.
• Our Founder: There was once a marble statue of the King outside his palace in Mobitropolis. After his takeover, Robotnik swapped it out with a metallic statue of himself.
• Out-of-Character Alert: A variation of this occurs in "Sonic and Sally". Sally has been replaced with a robot duplicate, and the robot says a multitude of things she would never say.
• Out of Focus: Despite playing a big part in the games, Tails is more of a background character who is given the occasional Day in the Limelight.

Tropes P to T

• Painful Transformation: The roboticization process takes an organic being and turns its skin, flesh, and bones into metals, its blood into oil, and its nerves into wires and circuitry... without anesthesia.
• Parental Abandonment: Thanks to Robotnik, most of the Freedom Fighters are effectively orphans.
• Parent Service:
  • While it's much less extreme than most examples of this trope from the 1990's, this trope definitely still applies. Sally, Bunnie, and Lupe in particular all have mildly sexy character designs.
  • Bunnie Rabbot in particular is more typical of 90's parent service. Her flirty disposition, innuendos, backless outfit^note (itself a pun on a Playboy Bunny) and large bust almost make her seem like a proto-Rouge.
• Parenting the Husband: An unmarried example occurs with Sonic and Sally: she constantly tries to keep Sonic in line and endlessly chastises him for taking risks or going outside of her plans, regardless of whether or not they work. In the second season, it's actually justified thanks to Sonic being flanderized to the point where he needs to guidance to avoid endangering himself and at times the entire team with his recklessness.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Sonic and Sally, quite often.
• Password Slot Machine: Sally and NICOLE hack into something of Robotnik's this way. A train and some acrobatics were involved in this scene as well. Notably it fails because they take too long and are captured by a patrolling SWAT-bot.
• Pet the Dog: Robotnik is a sadistic monster of the highest order, but he will affectionately pet and dote over his beloved Cluck endlessly. Curiously, however, Cluck completely disappears in the second season, thus eliminating Robotnik's one humanizing aspect.
• Phantom Zone: The Void is a zone full of nothing at all except limitless magic that exists outside Mobius. Those within cannot affect anything on the outside. A powerful magician can effectively do anything in the void, including see out of it, but cannot escape. Robotnik likes using it to trap those people that he especially hates.
• Phrase Catcher: "Shut up, Antoine!"
• Pinball Zone: "Game Guy" saw Robotnik put Sonic in a pinball machine. This was a direct reference to Sonic Spinball, which not only had dark visuals to match SatAM's atmosphere, tone and color scheme, but also included cameos of Bunnie, Muttski, Sally, and Rotor.
• Planet Baron: As in the comics, Eggman seeks to control all of Mobius by hook or conversion into robot slave.
• Playing with Fire: Dulcy, who is a fire breathing dragon.
• Poirot Speak: Antoine painfully mixes English and French in his sentences and his accent makes certain words impossible to interpret, much to the confusion of the other characters.
• Poke the Poodle: The infamous "Margarine!" scene.
• Polluted Wasteland: Robotropolis is depicted as being a dark, polluted, and industrialized city, and its immediate surroundings are fittingly littered with garbage and toxic waste.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: Subverted. In the episode, "Hooked on Sonics" it looks like Sonic has fallen to this after Sally gives him a peck on the cheek... but he gets back up, says he was just kidding, and that the kiss wasn't that great. He then shows her what a real kiss is, much to Tails' disgust.
• Potty Emergency: In the pilot, Tails tells Sonic that he has to go to the bathroom, and starts shaking up and down.
• Power Loss Makes You Strong: "Super Sonic" involved Sonic losing his speed and saving the day without it.
• Princess Protagonist: Despite being seemingly the only remaining Mobian of Royal Blood, Sally hasn't changed her title from "Princess" to "Queen". This is because doing so would be admitting that her father is dead. Also, despite being the Princess of Mobitropolis, she is no ruler: she would be if Robotnik hadn't taken over. Instead, she's a high-ranking member of the Freedom Fighters, which are led by Sonic. She also doesn't like to be called Princess as long as her throne isn't in her control.
• Punny Name: Bunnie Rabbot.
• The Purge: Robotnik's ongoing program of roboticization is this: anything that has even the slightest inkling of free will is systematically hunted down and forcibly converted into a slave, trapped inside a robotic body that isn't theirs to control.
• Quarter Hour Short: The two Breather Episode pairs mentioned above were made in this format.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Freedom Fighters consist of a super-fast hedgehog, an innocent two tailed fox, a tomboyish chipmunk princess, a sweet half-roboticized rabbit, a cowardly coyote, and a walrus who's good with tools. They 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 Mobitropolis from his control.
• Ray Gun: The primary weapon of everything. Unlike most Western examples, they were portrayed as very fast-moving, potentially deadly weapons throughout Season 1, and they usually either exploded on contact, or reduced things to ash.
• Reality Warper: Naugus.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Robotnik's robe is purple and pink, with a giant collar for some reason. He also has pink sheets on his bed.
• Real Name as an Alias: When Sally travels back in time and meets her past self, she introduces herself as "Alicia". Past Sally comments that's her middle name.
• Recycled Premise: Executive producer Robby London had previously worked on She-Ra: Princess of Power which explains why both shows have a lot of similarities in setting and story.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Uncle Chuck and Robotnik; this is how the latter was introduced actually. There's also the glowing red eyes in the final scene of the series, which Word of God revealed as belonging to Naugus. Subverted with Uncle Chuck after he breaks free of Robotnik's control, after which he only uses this to blend in with the other roboticized Mobians.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Sonic and Sally. Ironically, "Red Oni" Sonic has blue fur, while "Blue Oni" Sally has red hair.
• Red Right Hand: Dr Robotnik's left arm is cybernetic. It's all thanks to Sonic.
• Red Shirt:
  • Cat makes his debut at the start of "Sonic Boom" and while he demonstrates personality, he is quickly captured.
  • At the beginning of "Blast to the Past Part 1", along with Sonic and Sally, we are introduced to two freedom fighters we've never seen before - guess who get promptly robotised!
• Reforged into a Minion: Robotnik's purpose for the roboticizer is to systematically hunt down his enemies and have them turned into programmable servants.
• Refuse to Rescue the Disliked:
  • In "Hooked on Sonics", 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.
  • As his lair is being torn apart by a super-charged Sonic and Sally in "The Doomsday Project", a very bitter Robotnik refuses to give Snively access to the only nearby escape pod. Snively, having predicted as much, had implemented his own backup form of escape. Snively got out fine, while Robotnik's transport got caught in the blast as the city was destroyed.
• Remembered Too Late: In Sonic Boom, Antoine screws up a mission, forcing everyone to flee. Cat was captured during the escape, and no one noticed he was missing until it was too late to save him.
• Remember the New Guy?:
  • Dulcy the Dragon. She just suddenly appears in the second season premiere as if she was one of the Freedom Fighters the whole time.
  • Similarly, Cat was introduced as a Freedom Fighter in Sonic Boom with little fanfare, with Sonic and co acting all familiar with him.
• Retcon: Originally, the show's background had Robotnik taking over the world shortly before the start of the show^note implied by the intro showing a grown Sonic running into Mobotropolis and pointing out Robotnik's ship to a flesh-and-blood Uncle Chuck. However, Blast to the Past changed that so that he took over when Sonic and the gang were little kids, creating a number of problems, as well as some awkward questions, such as to when it was that Bunnie was half-roboticized. Originally this had happened during Robotnik's takeover, but the new lore has escaping him and joining the Freedom Fighters while still a full Mobian.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Naugus wants the same thing the Freedom Fighters do. Unlike them, doesn't care HOW he gets his revenge, only that he does.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Villified: The Freedom Fighters take great care to avoid causing Collateral Damage, preferring things like sabotaging generators or uploading viruses into Robotnik's computer network over blowing up factories. Of course, this might have something to do with the fact that Robotnik's factories are typically staffed by roboticized Mobians. Also, the Freedom Fighters are in fact staging a counter-revolution, as Princess Sally is the daughter of the former ruler whom Robotnik deposed in his takeover.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves:
  • For defecting along with his Uncle Julian and assisting in the coup and robotocization of millions of innocent people, Robotnik "promotes" his nephew Snively to his personal toady and punching bag.
  • Also Ari, after capturing Sonic for Robotnik in return for releasing his Freedom Fighters. He sticks to his word and hands them back...robotocized, Ari himself barely avoiding the same fate. Shortly afterwards, though, he gets sucked into The Void.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Sonic is very quick to make rhymes and puns.
• Right-Hand Cat: Robotnik's pet Cluck is a creepy looking mechanical chicken ^note (based on Clucker badnik from Sonic the Hedgehog 2) with a sharp serrated beak and the ability to fly. Aside from the beak, he is mostly harmless. Robotnik dotes on him endlessly. He doesn't appear in Season 2 at all.
• Right Way/Wrong Way Pair: Sonic and Sally. Originally, they were an even handed contrast of meticulous and spontaneous approaches]], but they evolved into this as a result of Flanderization in the second season, with Sonic becoming more reckless and Sally being portrayed as more tactful.
• Rings of Activation: In "Sonic and Sally", Robotnik captures Sally and places her in a containment tube identical to one housing an android. Pink rings pass over both Sally and the android as the latter is transformed into a perfect replica of Sally.
• The Rival: Antoine tries to rivals Sonic in terms of winning Sally's affection... he's no contest. In one episode, a Mobian named Griff had his eye on her as well. He seemed like much more of a challenge, until it's revealed that he was only using Sally to get close enough to steal Knothole's Power Stone.
• Robo Cam: Robotnik's Stealth Pods are hovering, automated surveillance cameras.
• Robot Girl:
  • A mean one appears in "Sonic and Sally".
  • Ro-Becca, from the self-titled episode.
• Robot War: Dr. Robotnik only uses robots in his military.
• Rolling Attack: As always, Sonic's signature move is his Super Sonic Spin (Spin Dash).
• Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Romantic - Robotnik's industrialized city and roboticised minions are evil, while the heroes live in the forest and are led by royalty.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Princess Sally. Granted; when your kingdom is now controlled by a megaolomanical tyrant intent on turning all living creatures into soulless machines, the options are few but to get some dirt under one’s fingernails, royal stature notwithstanding.
• Sacrificial Lamb: "Sonic Boom" introduces us to Cat: an elderly member of the Knothole Freedom Fighters, most of whom are teenagers. He quickly establishes himself to be a voice of reason who is quite willing to put himself in danger to save his allies. Unfortunately, that willingness gets him captured: when a mission in Robotropolis goes awry, Cat takes it upon himself to direct the SWAT-bots away from everyone else... and ends up bound and brought before Doctor Robotnik, who politely asks him to reveal the location of Knothole village. Cat refuses, and is tortured off-screen. Sonic manages to track down Cat's jail cell later on, finding him looking the worse for wear. Before he can attempt a rescue, Cat informs him that Robotnik has found Princess Sally - the very person they're fighting to put on the throne. She's gone off searching for evidence that her Father might still be alive. Cat insists that Sonic leave him behind because her safety comes first. Sonic goes to protect her, promising to return, and he does - only to find Cat's cell empty.
• Sapient Eat Sapient: The plot of "Fed Up with Antoine" features Antoine becoming king of the "Nasty Hyenas", a splinter group from a cannibal tribe that eats its own king.
• Say My Name: Robotnik nearly always refers to Sonic as "the hedgehog" or derogatory names such "rodent". Oddly, he gladly refers to his other foes such as Sally and Chuck by their first names alone.
• Scavenger World: Robotnik doesn't recycle. Instead, he throws his trash out of the city and leaves broken machines lying around to rust. As a result, the Freedom Fighters are keen to scavenge the outskirts of Robotropolis for any waste they can use.
• Scenery Gorn: The damage and destruction caused by Robotnik is on full display in well-detailed background artwork.
• Scenery Porn: The various backgrounds this cartoon were given a lot love, especially in the first season.
• Science Fantasy: The series uses this trope very liberally. There are robots, lasers, power generators, and computers existing alongside wizards, curses, and explicitly magical artifacts. The show treats magic as a distinct and reproducible science in its own right: magic can be studied like anything else and is typically harnessed through technology.
• Science Is Bad: This trope may seem like it's at play, but it's not. It's directly pointed out that Robotnik's machines are only evil because he uses technology to do evil things — not because technology is inherently bad in and of itself. Case in point, the Roboticizer was created by Uncle Chuck to allow elderly and terminally ill people to live longer: when he realized it also had the side effect of making them into mindless automatons, he immediately shelved it with the intention of not using it at all until and unless he could figure out a way to remove that side effect. Things only went bad when Robotnik stole it and started converting every Mobian he could get his hands on into a robotic slave.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Robotnik steals a computer of magic spells from the formerly evil wizard Lazaar, and Sonic attempts to get it back. When asked why he can't just destroy the computer, Lazaar says that would release all the evil it contains.
  • Naugus is an evil wizard who is trapped in the Void, incapable of exit lest he crystallize and die.
• Sealed with a Kiss: The final episode ends with Sally and Sonic sharing their second Big Damn Kiss.
• Secret Handshake: The Knothole Freedom Fighters have an interesting secret handshake that can be freely used between two people or multiple persons at once, which they typically use right before embarking on a mission. In "Sonic and Sally", Robotnik replaces Sally with a robot duplicate. It's good enough to pass muster for most of the episode, but when it fails to perform the secret handshake, Sonic realizes something's up.
• Servile Snarker: Snively often makes snide remarks about Robotnik behind his back, especially in Season 2.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The premise behind the "Blast to the Past" two-part episode. Sonic and Sally fail in their attempt to stop Robotnik's takeover in the past, but do succeed in preventing the capture of Sally's nanny.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Antoine wears a military dress uniform.
• Sheep in Wolf's Clothing: Uncle Chuck used his Unwilling Roboticisation to act as an inside agent for the Freedom Fighters. At least, he did after he regained control of his mental faculties.
• Ship Tease: While Bunnie is flirty in general, she has a particularly obvious crush on Antoine, despite being fully aware of and acknowledging his cowardly nature. In fact, her interest in him is especially noticeable when he gets nervous.
• Short Teens, Tall Adults: Most of the main teenage group of Freedom Fighters are dwarfed by other older groups. Granted, species may have something to do with this, but even then King Acorn is almost twice the size of his sixteen year old daughter.
• Shoulders of Doom: Dr. Robotnik has massive shoulder pads and a cape for maximum Evil Overlord effect.
• Shout-Out: The show has quite a few references to science fiction shows and movies of the period.
  • The tune that plays when Sonic uses a Power Ring is actually a segment from the proposed orchestral theme of the show. It notably sounds quite similar to the title theme from Back to the Future.
  • Robotnik and many of his robots have glowing red mechanical eyes that are more than a little evocative of Terminators, from the eponymous franchise. Even more, Robotropolis is full of smog, junked machinery, flying machines, and armies of robots, all grimy and very darkly colored except for neon-bright laser-fire. The overall visual style is directly comparable to (but toned down from) the war sequences from the Terminator films.
  • Nicole looks like the tricordersused in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There are plainly visible food replicators in Robotropolis. Also, Sonic's top speed according to himself is "Warp seven".
  • Lazaar's speech pattern is a duplicate of Jedi Master Yoda's. In addition, Dr Robotnik's Bad Boss tendencies often give off serious Darth Vader vibes. At one point he loses his cool talking to a SWAT-bot:
  Robotnik: You have failed me for the last time!"
  • Jim Cummings voices a hyena in one episode.^note This may actually be Actor Allusion; the two were produced at the same time.
  • Ultra Sonic features a massive robotic dinosaur named "Dinobot". A name that should sound familiar to any fan of The Transformers.
• Silence, You Fool!: Robotnik doesn't value Snively's input beyond simply providing relevant information: anything beyond that and he gets quietly told to zip it. The second season made this Robotnik's default response to him, only in hammier form.
  Robotnik: Shut up, Snively.
• Single-Episode Handicap: Done twice. The first is when Robotnik builds a machine to track Sonic when he runs at super-sonic speed, and the second is when a wizard puts a spell on Sonic that prevents him from running fast, holding his speed ransom until Sonic reclaims a computer of magic spells that Robotnik stole.
• The Singularity: Robotnik's arrival on Mobius, and subsequent participation in the Great War triggered extremely rapid technological advancement that basically reinvented the entire planet.
• Sinister Surveillance: Robotnik often made use of stealthy, floating camera robots to spy on Sonic and his friends.
• Sketchy Successor: Robotnik gets the job of dictator of Mobius by kicking the previous ruler into another dimension. He then proceeds to turn Mobius into a polluted, mechanical wasteland where he alone gets to live in luxury (barring his nephew Snively, who while being regularly put down is at least not actively hunted).
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • Antoine.
  • Played with at the end of "Drood Henge", when Sonic was playing up how great the Batman Gambit that stopped Robotnik's plan of the episode was. When Sally calls him out on being egotistical, Sonic simply points out that plan wasn't even his, it was thought up by Tails.
• Smooch of Victory: Sally gives these all the time.
• Smug Snake: Dr. Robotnik in the second season, as his overconfidence and increasing obsession with Sonic begins to hinder his plots (as well as becoming slightly more comical and bumbling in tone). His nephew, Snively, also counts.
• Smug Super: Since he is genuinely competent and heroic, Sonic has no problem constantly bragging about it. In fact, he is arrogant to the point that more than a few of Robotnik's schemes were designed to manipulate his ego.
• Sorcerous Overlord: The evil wizard Lazaar was this in the distant past, using his computer of magic spells to rule over Mobius with an iron fist. Sometime after that, he grew remorseful of his evil, and decided barricade himself and his computer inside an incredibly deadly magical fortress in the Forbidden Zone and put himself into suspended animation.
• Southern Belle: Bunnie fits the trope, however, she is much more of a tomboy than most examples.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Variation: In the episode "Game Guy" Ari gets sucked into The Void. A book called Sonic: Friend or Foe was made based on this episode, and in it Ari escapes with Sonic unharmed.
• Space Jews: Antoine, a cowardly coyote like character, has a French accent.
• Spell Book: Subverted by Lazaar, who used a computer of magic spells, which is functionally identical beyond the user interface.
• Spiritual Antithesis: To Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. In that cartoon, Sonic is just in for a thrill, and Dr. Robotnik is goofy and incompetent. In this show, Robotnik is extremely menacing, has already conquered most of the world, and Sonic is one of the few people who stand between him and total world domination.
• Spock Speak: Sally does this on occasion. Her computer, Nicole, does this constantly. When Sonic insists that Nicole explain herself "in English", she starts using more slang than even Sonic does, much to Sally's dismay. Sonic, on the other hand, approves of the change.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Sally and Antoine are Sonic's main team in the large majority of missions in the second season.
• Spot the Imposter: The episode "Sonic and Sally".
• Squashed Flat: In "Ro-Becca", Sonic and Rotor knock down a door that Antoine was standing behind. As they leave, the door goes back up, and we find that Antoine got flattened.
• Stalker with a Crush: Ro-becca's crush on Antoine is entirely unrequited, and she pursues him relentlessly.
• Standard Sci-Fi Army: Robotnik commands a mixed battle force composed of robotic infantry, armored cars that can transform into walkers, attack aircraft that can double as hovering tanks, aerial bombers, Attack Drones, and the occasional Mechanical Monster. The Freedom Fighters have to make due with simple infantry, forcing them to use guerrilla warfare.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Thanks to his Flanderization in season 2, Robotnik would occasionally have Sonic at his mercy, and then proceed to take his sweet time dealing with him. Snively usually asks why Robotnik doesn't just roboticize him.
• The Starscream: Snively constantly grumbles over having to serve the Doctor, but doesn't actually attempt to harm him. By the Second Season he has blatantly come to resent his uncle's abuse and makes a few shrewd plans behind his back, attempting an attack on Knothole while Robotnik was gone and making alterations to his base that would ultimately save his life when it was destroyed. He simply plays along until Robotnik is electrocuted in the final episode, then is seen donning his uncle's trademark yellow cape.
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: In "Super Sonic", the wizard Lazaar speaks similarly to Yoda, reversing nouns and verbs.
• Straw Loser: Among the Flanderization the cast receives in season 2, Antoine has it the worst, becoming a bastion of negative human qualities and with few redeeming ones to compensate. In general, if one character has a flaw, Antoine has it ten times more.
• Stronger Than They Look: Though in the games Sonic is a Fragile Speedster, here he can both punch and kick with enough power to destroy armored robots [[note]]His ability to kick that hard makes sense given his speed, but one would not expect him to be able to punch with the same force, and when already running, he can throw things multiple times his size and far above his weight with his momentum. He is also the only Freedom Fighter aside from Rotor to have broken security cameras by simply throwing junk at them with ONE hand.
• Suave Sabre: Antoine wields a sabre as part of his royal 19th century "Officer and a Gentleman" design and fancies himself a heroic, intelligent, and dashing Freedom Fighter much like the typical image of sabre-wielding heroes in uniform. Most of the time, however, he's a pompous and rude Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey who often prefers to stand back rather than face danger.
• Super-Soldier: The SWATbots fit this trope in season 1. Compared to the countless other generic robots Robotnik uses, the SWATbots represented a far superior danger; they were intelligent, incredibly tough, and well organized. Only Sonic or Bunnie could take them head on, and even then, they were both more likely to run. On occasion the SWATbots would even use specialized weapons to take Sonic down, such as portable Hedgehog-seeking missiles. In Season 2, the SWATbots were downgraded to standard, dumb Mecha-Mooks that any sufficiently skillful Mobian could defeat.
• Super-Speed: Sonic the Hedgehog is able to casually run faster than the speed of sound, and can use the Deep Power Stones to boos his speed even farther. Sally gains this in the last episode, as she uses the Deep Power Stones along with Sonic.
• Super-Strength: Bunnie, by way of cybernetics, possesses incredible strength: enough to effortlessly smash through armored robots and heavy blast doors with a single punch. Sonic and Rotor also have surprising physical strength, but nowhere near as extreme as what Bunnie has.
• Supervillain Lair: Robotropolis is pretty much a Supervillain Lair the size of an entire city - it's from there that Robotnik monitors his various planetwide operations and organizes his battle plans.
• Sycophantic Servant: In the first season, Snively is far less hateful towards Robotnik and even seems to enjoy getting his rare praise. It's easily inferred that Robotnik's Bad Boss traits eventually resulted in a case of Broken Pedestal, causing Snively to hate his uncle and want to get rid of him.
• Tagalong Kid: Tails to a degree, but not to the extent he was in the games. Begins to be averted in "Drood Henge", in which he revealed that Sally taught him some hacking skills, and he proved himself to be resourceful, clever, and great at coming up with plans.
• Talented Princess, Regular Guy: Played With. While Sonic's Super-Speed, Super-Reflexes and Power Rings make him blatantly superhuman, he is somewhat average in terms of intellect. Even without his powers, he is good at Improv Fu and can be very perceptive. On the other hand, Princess Sally is a Badass Normal with incredible hacking and computing skills, almost as good a mechanic as Rotor and a trusted tactician.
• Techno Dystopia: Robotropolis is a city where Individuality Is Illegal, and conformity by transformation into a mindless robot is state-enforced through an army of robot soldiers. Also, the city is continually expanding.
• Technologically Advanced Foe: There's not much the Freedom Fighters can do to match Dr. Robotnik on any technological level. They're forced to steal and use his weapons whenever they can.
• Teenage Wasteland: Thanks to Robotnik's sudden conquest and subsequent campaign against life itself, most of the adult population on Mobius was captured and roboticized, leaving survivalist teenagers in charge of almost everything. The Knothole Freedom Fighters, Lower Mobius, and the Nasty Hyenas are all led by teenagers.
• Teen Genius: Sally and Rotor are both incredibly intelligent for their age.
• That Man Is Dead: Robotnik seems to see his life before conquering Mobius this way. From "Blast To The Past" part 2:
  King Acorn: You can't win this, Julian.
  Robotnik: The name is no longer Julian; from this day forward, I am Robotnik.
• Theme Music Power-Up: The unique tune that plays when Sonic uses a Power Ring is actually a segment from the proposed orchestral theme of the show. The entirety of it can be timed to match the opening of the cartoon.
• This Cannot Be!:
  • Sonic says "What, I don't believe it!" when the Doomsday test pod continues to reactivate and attack them no matter how many times they trash it.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Though they will definitely use any weapon they can find, the preferred weapons of the Knothole Freedom Fighters tend to be absurdly powerful concussion grenades, which they use to destroy Robotnik's factories and other infrastructure. Additionally, the Wolfpack Freedom Fighters used thrown satchel charges to damage the Doomsday Test Pod.
• Time Travel: In the two-parter "Blast to the Past", Sonic and Sally have to both think of the place they want to be while joining the Time Stones. Sonic's mind wanders, placing them just in time to re-live the very holocaust they were trying to prevent.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Inverted. Girly-girl Bunnie is the more badass of the two, while tomboy Sally is the strategist and often a Damsel in Distress. Played with more in the later episodes, where Sally became more egotistical, while Bunnie's Action Girl traits disappeared.
• Took a Level in Badass: Tails went from a kid that didn't go on missions in the first season to a fully-fledged Freedom Fighter in the second.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: In Season 1, Sonic is somewhat egotistical and Book Dumb. Other than that, he is a thoroughly competent and quick-thinking Guile Hero who was far kinder than he lets on. In Season 2 he became a brainless Jerk Jock that constantly looks down on his friends and endangers them with his arrogant blundering.
• Trademark Favorite Food: This series and it's weekday counterpart established Sonic loves chili dogs. This trait was eventually added to the Sonic games.
• Transhuman: Robotnik and Bunnie are both cyborgs by partial roboticization. Bunnie gained Super-Strength, while Robotnik gained hidden weapons and robotic eyes.
• Trickster Mentor: The wizard Lazaar, who sent Sonic on a mission to retrieve his computer and also took away his speed, presumably to make sure he keeps his promise, but also that Sonic could learn to use his intellect and wits instead.
• Troubled Abuser: While still implied to have been a monster beforehand, Robotnik was constantly intimidated by his former master Naugus. In turn, Robotnik is extremely abusive and domineering to his subordinates, especially Snively, who frequently laughed at Naugus' treatment of him.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Most of the Knothole Freedom Fighters are between 14 and 16 years old. Looking at their day-to-day behavior, you'd be forgiven for thinking they're a bunch of Bomb-Throwing Anarchists; they routinely make and use bombs, hijack transport convoys and military vehicles, plant spies in critical places to subvert authority, free prisoners of war, blow up factories, sabotage power plants, destroy airfields, steal resources to live, and openly discuss their intentions to kill Dr. Robotnik, all in the name of saving their home planet.
• Try Not to Die: Some episodes would heavily imply this trope when the Freedom Fighters would mobilize.
• Two Girls and a Guy: Sonic is the guy, Sally and Bunnie are the girls. They've all known each other since childhood and work together quite well despite their differences.
• Two Girls to a Team: Bunnie and Sally were the only regular females in the cast before Dulcy showed up in Season 2.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: The series is set a decade after Robotnik succeeds in conquering Mobius and enslaving its people.

Tropes U to Z

• Underground City: In the episode Warp Sonic, the Freedom Fighters discover an underground city of the "Apocalypse Bunker" sort directly below Robotropolis. Called Lower Mobius, it is populated by surviving Mobians who are hiding from Robotnik and his army.
• Undefeatable Little Village: Knothole Village is kept hidden within the vast Great Forest. It's imparitive that it stays that way or else nothing will stop Robotnik from invading. Robotnik does know it's somewhere in the forest and tries many schemes to find its exact location.
• Underside Ride: "Spy Hog" has the Freedom Fighters sneak into Robotropolis by way of riding on the bottom of a hover vehicle using magnets strapped to their hips.
• Unexplained Accent: Antoine has a French accent for no reason, besides the fact that he's a coward. Bunnie's southern dialect and Robotnik and Snively's British accents have no explanation at all.
• Unique Protagonist Asset: Taking inspiration from and expanding upon the collectible rings from the video games, the Power Rings - one of Uncle Chuck's inventions - are the result of harnessing magic through technology - they're made by a machine hidden under the lake in Knothole's grotto that concentrates the ambient magical energy radiating from a Power Stone into a physical, power boosting item that rises to float over the lake every 12 hours.^note Later reduced to 24 hours after Sonic gives half of the Power Stone to Griff to save Lower Mobius. Sonic is the only individual that can access the power in rings with his mere touch, an act which temporarily boosts his already impressive speed and power to utterly incredible levels.
• Unwilling Roboticisation: invokedIn which Sonic SatAM takes an idea from the Sonic games of the time,^note Chiefly Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog CD and adds a substantial dose of Ascended Fridge Horror. This show is both the The Trope Namer, and Trope Codifier.
  • In the early Sonic video games, Robotnik's army was almost entirely comprised of "Badniks" - machines powered by sapient animals that are trapped inside. Far from being a controllable suit, these robots do as Robotnik tells them to: the creature inside has no control over the actions of the robot they're encased in. This creates some obvious horror regarding what it's like to be a voiceless drone who can't do anything but watch as the machine shell commits it's crimes. Fitting its Darker and Edgier premise, Sonic SatAM took that idea and played it frighteningly straight while making it even worse.
  • The Roboticizer doesn't trap animals inside a robot suit that acts on its own. It transforms the victim's flesh, bones, nerves and blood into motors, metal, circuitry, and oil... without anesthesia.^note The fact that this process is immensely painful is maintained in both the cartoon itself and the comic adaptation. It also suppresses the victim's free will, forcing them to acknowledge and serve Robotnik as their lord and master in accordance with their new programming. The worst part? The victims are fully aware the entire time that they're active, watching helplessly as their body works against their will for a raving, genocidal maniac.
  • The Roboticizer wasn't even meant to cause harm. It was invented to cheat death. Sonic's uncle, Sir Charles, who was getting on in years, invented the machine to allow the elderly to live longer lives by converting their flesh into cybernetics. When it turned out it also robbed people of their free will, he discarded the invention... leaving the blueprints unattended. Once Julian Robotnik got his hands on the plans, he began laying plans to conquer planet Mobius.
  "We know everything. We just can't DO anything about it." - Sir Charles Hedgehog
• Urban Warfare: A lot of battles in this the series take place within the city streets of Robotropolis; the Freedom Fighters use the confusing layout of the place to their advantage, using the back alleys and sewers to avoid aerial surveillance and strike from unexpected locations and disappear as quickly as they arrived.
• Vanilla Edition: While Shout! Factory's old DVD was packed with special features, the 2023 DVD set by NCircle has the episodes...and nothing else. The episodes aren't even in order like in the old set.
• Vehicular Assault: Robotnik's forces use a wide assortment of armed and armored vehicles in the sky and on the ground. As such, this trope appears in nearly every episode. The Freedom Fighters are prone to stealing said vehicles for their own use as well.
• Villainous Breakdown: In the final episode, as his Doomsday Project is exploding, Dr. Robotnik starts to lose it and starts screaming like a madman. He starts out in a shocked tone that becomes progressively frantic with blind rage:
  Robotnik: I really... hate... that hedgehog. I hate him. I HATE him. HATE HIIIIIIM! Hate! Hate! HATE! HAAAAAAATTTTTEEEE!!!!
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Snively is generally comical compared to his evil uncle, Dr. Robotnik.
• Villain Decay: In the second season, Robotnik became a victim of Flanderization; his arrogance and pride were played way up while his tendency to manipulate the heroes and make quick and effective improvisation were almost totally erased, leaving him much more silly and much less competent than he had been before. By the end, even Snively is calling him out on his stupidity. Robotnik's voice also lightened up to reflect this change, losing its creepy metallic filter while Jim Cummings started using a more comedic vocal range instead of the low, slow and intense tones he'd been using before.
• Villain World: Robotnik controls most of the planet, and the heroes are struggling to take it back.
• V-Sign: In Sonic Past Cool, Sally makes one of these at a moment where most of the Freedom Fighters are trapped under a forcefield.
• Warm-Hearted Walrus: Rotor the Walrus is a friendly Gadgeteer Genius and a huge help to the heroic Freedom Fighters.
• War Is Hell: The fight for Mobius is a Civil War - Robotnik used to be the King's War Minister, and his opposition includes the King's daughter. Ben Hurst, the main writer of the show, insisted that the heroes should suffer some losses: Sonic and Sally both lost their father figures ^note Though Uncle Chuck was eventually able to resist Robotnik's control, the King can't exit the Void at all without dying, Tails lost both his parents, and Bunnie lost half of her body to the roboticizer. Several sympathetic characters are unceremoniously roboticized or thrown into the Void, never to be heard from again. Finally, the destructive aftermath of Robotnik's conquest can be seen everywhere on the planet.
  Lupe: After Robotnik captured my father and Roboticized most of the pack, a few escaped; although not without reminders [touches the scar under her left eye]. Only ten of us are left now. We returned to find our land being destroyed by the test pod.
• The War Room: Robotnik is most often seen inside personal his war room in Robotropolis, watching his city through countless remote cameras as he carefully develops his plans. He also builds smaller versions of this room for his various bases around Mobius.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Despite all their durability and fire power, the SWAT-bots are not fully waterproof; rain doesn't affect them, but toss them into a sufficiently large body of water and they will short circuit.
• We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: The series' entire premise is an example of this trope with a twist: it's and inversion of Type 2, with humans playing the part of the alien invaders. Robotnik and his nephew Snively manipulate their way into positions of power, and then exploit their positions to cause global genocide.
• We Have Ways of Making You Talk: This happens twice in the show, once in the first season, and again in the second. Thanks to the second season being much more silly and much less serious than the first, the way it's handled in both cases greatly differs.
  • In The Season One episode Sonic Boom, Cat uses himself as a distraction a few minutes in, and gets himself captured by Robotnik, who proceeds to promise him that if he reveals the Freedom Fighter's base, he will not be Roboticized.^note Knowing Robotnik, this is either a case of Blatant Lies or Exact Words. When Cat resists, Robotnik proceeds to torture him off-screen for information. The tone of the scene is fully serious.
  • In Season Two episode Spy Hog, Antoine is captured by Snively and tortured for the same reason, but using a different method; he offends his refined tastes in food by butchering French cooking. Unlike Cat's torture from before, Antoine's "torture" is unreservedly comedic in tone.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Sonic and Sally delve into this trope whenever they argue.
• We Need a Distraction: Sonic's role in missions often boils down to getting the SWAT-bots' attention while everyone else sabotages Robotnik's stuff. Robotnik hating Sonic so much that all of his robots have Sonic listed as "Priority One" tends to help, though that directive can be overridden.
• Wham Line: There is one that stands out as a whole:
  Uncle Chuck: "The roboticiser, I know. I invented it."
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The first season had at least one episode where Sally is searching for her father. In the second season, she finds him, but no attempt was made to connect it with the clues found in her previous searches.
  • In "Blast to the Past", Sonic and Sally alter the past to ensure that their nanny survives to the present day, and it's revealed at the end of the episode that she does — and is never seen again afterward.
• What the Fu Are You Doing?: Antoine tries to learn martial arts ("King Fu") from Bunnie in "Fed Up With Antoine", and clumsily epic fails at it for the most part, spouting Funny Bruce Lee Noises and making a mess of things. Subverted temporarily late in the episode when he flying kicks an enemy that was sneaking up on Sonic and subsequently demonstrates how he did it. But then he mistakes Bunnie's praise of the latter for the opposite, fumbles Demonstration #2, and lands on Dulcy's foot. Distracted by the pain, she wrecks the hut they're in.
• Wheel o' Feet: Sonic's running animation looks like this. It is directly based on his running animation from the games. In the finale, Sally demonstrates this trope along with Sonic as he shares the energy of the Deep Power Stones with her.
• Will They or Won't They?: It's hinted that Bunnie has a crush on Antoine, yet puts little effort into winning his heart because Antoine is obviously into Sally.
• With Friends Like These...:
  • Antoine acts like a stuck-up jerk towards Sonic an awful lot, and Sonic constantly insults Antoine. While Sonic does show that he cares about Sally, Tails, Rotor, and Bunnie, it's really hard to tell if he cares at all about Antoine. In "Hooked on Sonics", when Antoine gets captured, Sonic just labels him an idiot and outright refuses to go after him. Sally is unable to really retort that Antoine would actually save him if the roles were reversed, only coaxing him into the job by reminding him of the potential danger if Robotnik gets a hold of the power ring he had at the point of his capture.
• Women Prefer Strong Men: In "Hooked on Sonics", Rotor suggested to Antoine that this trope is why Sally prefers Sonic over him. It definitely seems to be the case, as she is more openly romantic towards him when he's recently done some amazing thing.
• The Worf Effect: Naugus introduces his power by effortlessly immobilizing Sonic with his magic.
• A World Half Full: Dr. Robotnik takes over the world, turns most of it into polluted ruins, and turns everyone he captures into robotic slaves, so the people struggle day in and out just to live; the show's premise is as dark as an early nineties Funny Animal show can get. Then comes the heroes, who are bright and competent enough to screw the bad guy's plans continuously and spectacularly.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • The exact line is said by Robotnik, verbatim, to an ill-fated SWATBot in "Hooked On Sonics".
  • Enraged at his defeat, Robotnik kicks his nephew out of the only escape pod and leaves him to die in the detonating base. Snively had predicted this would happen and had created his own means of escape, while Robotnik's pod ironically got caught up in the base's destruction.
• Your Size May Vary: NICOLE would vary from the size of a pocket calculator to the size of a textbook between appearances. She was supposed to be portable enough to be carried on Sally's boot.

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"Let's do it to it."

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