Sonic the Hedgehog, being a decades long franchise with a fanbase notorious for disagreeing about everything, is no stranger to this at all.
Comics
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- Ken Penders' take on Knuckles was once well received by the fanbase, seen as good enough to star in his own miniseries and ongoing. In fact, it was once believed that Knuckles was more interesting than Sonic himself at that point, as the former was stuck in rather underwhelming stories. However, around the same time as the backlash against the Echidnas fans went back and found Knuckles to be sorely lacking as a protagonist, finding him boring, a Spotlight-Stealing Squad for Sonic, and having needlessly convoluted stories surrounding him, in particular, an incredibly large extended family tree. Reports that Penders himself bragged about being responsible for the character's popularity in the games did little to help, nor did the Adventure games fleshing out the original version of Knuckles, which only made this version seem even more bland.
- Geoffrey St. John was once one of the more popular characters of Ken Penders' run, thanks to his badass skills as a spy, his introduction in the Princess Sally mini-series which saw him play off Robotnik for Sally Acorn's benefit, his love triangle with Sally and Sonic, and him appearing in several of the comic's most notable stories, including EndGame. Conversely, his revisioning by Ian Flynn, in which he was Retconed into being an apprentice of Naugus, and saw him openly side with the Ixis wizard after his wife's apparent death, proved to be divisive at best, with many seeing it as an attempt to fix something that wasn't broken. However, he faced significant backlash in the wake of the legal issues surrounding Penders, with many retrospective readers coming to find severe flaws with his character. This included his relative lack of depth outside being a James Bond-like spy, the fact that he turned out to be more important to the Princess Sally mini-series than Princess Sally herself, him believing in Sonic's guilt during EndGame despite all evidence to the contrary, and, most infamously, his aforementioned relationship with Sally, despite later stories indicating he was 20 and she was 15note . This, in turn, caused a reappraisal of Flynn's take on Geoffrey, seen as him trying to breathe new life into an otherwise unusable character, helped by greater knowledge of his plans for the character had he been able to. These days, with Ken Penders continuing to flaunt his ownership of the character, almost all praise Geoffrey gets comes from how Ian Flynn wrote him, with any discussion of how he was before either holding him up as an example of how bad Penders' characters could get, or just flat out overshadowed entirely by the extreme Values Dissonance in his relationship with Sally.
- The comic's version of the Echidnas were once relatively popular, seen as expanding one of the more interesting bits of backstory in the games into a unique culture and piece of worldbuilding. By The New '10s, their popularity diminished, thanks to Sonic Adventure offering their own take on the Echidnas, and the general backlash against Penders and his run on the comic. This led to a far more critical look at his creations, with many viewing his version of the Echidnas as uninspired, both in writing and in design, and that the comic focused way too much on the lore surrounding them at the expense of everything else. As a result, they're now one of the least popular elements of Penders' run, to the point where many praised Ian Flynn for heavily downplaying and ultimately removing them.
- Locke, Knuckles' father, was at one point viewed as an imperfect but well-intentioned father motivated by making sure his son was ready for whatever crisis came his way. His Heroic Sacrifice in the "Enerjak Unleashed" Story Arc, as well as Ken Penders admitting to basing him partially on his own father, further cemented him as a tragic figure and a fairly popular character among fans. However, as greater knowledge of emotional abuse came about in later years, many fans found his actions towards Knuckles, ranging from endangering his son's life over what most people would write off as just a nightmare, to flat out abandoning him after making him believe that they were the last echidnas alive, to be much worse in hindsight, not helped by how easily Knuckles forgave him. He's now widely considered to be one of the worst characters Ken Penders ever created for the comic, if not the worst.
- Drago Wolf was always a hated character, but the reasons for why have changed considerably. At his debut around the "EndGame" arc, Drago was viewed as one of the most despicable characters in the entire comic, thanks to selling out his comrades in the Freedom Fighters and the Wolf Pack, getting Princess Sally nearly killed and Sonic framed for it, using Hershey the Cat, his own girlfriend, as a pawn in his scheme and then hitting her when she starts to suspect him, and generally being a greedy, arrogant Jerkass. As such, many enjoyed seeing him getting his comeuppance at the hands of Hershey. By The New '10s, a combination of fatigue from his continued appearances as a member of the Destructix, most of which gave him little to actually donote , and the more negative reappraisal of "EndGame" as a whole, caused the fanbase's reception of him to shift to a poorly written villain. Many soon found his reveal as the traitor to be lacking in actual impact, as he's only introduced in the issue immediately prior to the story arc, acts immediately suspicious when he shows up, and is given little development or fleshing out. In addition, his means of taking out Sally — namely, convincing Hershey to wear a lifelike Sonic suit that, unknown to her, has eyepieces that cause her to see Sally as Snively — was also heavily criticized, being viewed as both needlessly complicated and utterly ridiculous. To sum up, Drago went from being seen as a truly heinous villain who furthered the story to a mishandled nuisance who actively dragged it down.
- Sonic the Comic: For much of the 2000s, the general view of the comic's incarnation of Sonic was that he was an arrogant jerk and bully who belittled just about everyone around him, even his traditional best friend/surrogate brother Tails. However, as the fandom aged and those who grew up with the comic became better integrated, many fans started to warm up to him; arguing that for all his flaws, he did genuinely care for his friends, was absolutely livid any time harm came to them, and took his role as Mobius' protector very seriously past his cocky attitude. The existence of Sonic the Comic – Online! also helped redeem StC's Sonic in the eyes of many, as it not only directly explored how his abrasive attitude caused tension with his teammates, but also showed it massively backfiring when Grimer engineered events to turn everyone against him.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): During the early days of the comic, Lanolin the Sheep was an Ensemble Dark Horse due to her Sweet Sheep design and Moe nature, and fans were excited every time she was able to make background appearances through the requests of Adam Bryce Thomas, her creator. After becoming an Ascended Extra and being made into the leader of the Neo Diamond Cutters, she still retained a strong fanbase, with many praising her by-the-book leadership as being the second coming of Sally Acorn. However, after the events of the Misadventures arc, Lanolin swiftly ended up becoming a Base-Breaking Character, as while her fans still appreciate her design and her newfound confidence, detractors of her started coming out of the woodworks accusing her of being a poor excuse for a leader who should really know better than to implicitly trust sketchy characters such as Duonote over veterans such as Silver and Whisper.
Video Games
- Sonic's supporting cast in general underwent this, even as certain characters remained popular. In the early days, Tails and Knuckles quickly became popular and iconic after their introduction for livening up the cast and providing slight shake-ups to the gameplay. Then came Sonic Adventure, which had six playable characters, each with wildly different and gimmicky gameplay, and all their stories had to be played to unlock the True Final Boss. This style continued until Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and each time the playstyles besides Sonic's earned more and more criticism. This, combined with new characters like Shadow and Silver being divisive, led to many gaming outlets espousing that Sonic's supporting cast hurts the series and it should stick to him alone, which led to Sega's marketing for Sonic the Hedgehog 4 making this an explicit selling point. After that game's divisive reception fans looked back and felt the hatred for the supporting cast was overly harsh, and that it wasn't fair to blame awkward gameplay decisions on the characters. This in turn led to wider appreciation for the supporting characters and their moments of good writing in the Adventure games, comics and cartoons. By the The New '10s the colorful cast of characters was now viewed as one of the franchise's biggest selling points, and many heavily criticized Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations reducing most of them to supporting roles at best. When games in The New '20s like Sonic Frontiers (via post-launch updates) and Sonic Superstars reintroduce multiple playable characters with their own attributes, and games like The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog explore the cast in more innovative ways, it was met with high acclaim.
- Out of the original Sonic Adventure's six playable characters, easily the least popular of the bunch was Big the Cat. Not only did he have to contend with four series mainstays (and well-received fellow newcomer E-102 Gamma on top of them), but his Simpleton Voice and mandatory Fishing Minigame grated on players so much that he became despised outright. In spite of the occasional further appearance, Big remained one of the most hated characters in the series, and he was Demoted to Extra in the years that followed. That all started to change in 2016, where he garnered an ironic fandom that gradually turned unironic, resulting in people re-examining his first appearance and taking note of the positive and likeable qualities he demonstrated even back then. Nowadays, you'll find more fans of Big thanks to being characterized as a Gentle Giant and one of the more ordinary members of the cast, his Odd Friendship with Amy and Cream in Sonic Heroes, and that same game making him deceptively versatile. Compared to his debut game, his main series return in Sonic Frontiers was met with more applause than scorn, though it's probably helped by his fishing minigame being optional this time as opposed to a required part of the game.
- When he debuted in Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow the Hedgehog became an immediate fan-favorite thanks to his portrayal as a dark Anti-Hero with a tragic backstory and an interesting character arc, which was viewed as helping the franchise grow with its audience. However, his popularity declined thanks to subsequent games doubling down on his initial acclaim, bringing him back from the dead in Sonic Heroes, giving him a spinoff title with Shadow the Hedgehog (which was criticized as overly edgy to the point of self-parody), and giving him a bigger role in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) than Sonic himself. Fans started to see him as a Creator's Pet who embodied the biggest excesses of the post-Genesis Sonic games, and Sega responded in turn by heavily reducing his prominence in later games, not having a playable appearance until Sonic Forces in 2017. However, as fans grew increasingly critical of the Lighter and Softer entries for their flippant, self-referential tone, Shadow was reappraised as a symbol of when the franchise actually took itself and its characters seriously, even if not always successfully. Though he still gets some mockery for his badbutt edginess, it tends to be far more in good fun than based on actual disdain.
- Cream the Rabbit was originally considered an annoying saccharine Kid-Appeal Character with an irritating high-pitched voice, especially among non-Japanese fans. (Her Japanese Politeness verbal tics being kept in the dub and coming across as jarring for her age didn't help matters) She was Demoted to Extra only a few years after her debut, with Sonic Rush being her last major story role for a while. As time went on, fans begun to look back fondly on her game-breaking power in most of her playable appearances, viewing her as a Memetic Badass. She was also appreciated for being a genuinely competent female character in spite of her age, and fans lamented spinoff media treating her as Just a Kid who shouldn't be fighting. When Sonic Dream Team not only made her playable for the first time in nearly a decade, but also had her central to its story, this was met with widespread praise.
- Upon introduction in Shadow the Hedgehog, Black Doom was widely criticized for his generic, clichéd villain personality and design which also clashed with the series, and seen as too over-the-top to take seriously and contributed unwelcome additions to the lore. In short, he was seen as the face of everything ridiculed with this games Darker and Edgier tone and how it wasn't a fit for the series. But after subsequent Lighter and Softer games became increasingly criticized for being basic and non-serious, fans were hype for the darker Sonic Forces, whose villain, Infinite, intentionally embraced clichés and was over-the-top, only for the story and character to be seen as disappointing for not coming off as serious, such it displeased fans of the darker and lighter approaches. Thus, Black Doom became better received as a more successful integration of darker elements, as it took itself seriously, working in spite of the tonal clash or entertainingly bad at worst, unlike Infinite's deliberate self-parody. Such fans were excited for Doom's return in Sonic X Shadow Generations.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (2006):
- When the game first came out, Silver the Hedgehog was quite hated by many players mostly due to how their first impression of him was them fighting against him in a really difficult boss fight that highlighted the game's lack of polish, in addition to them finding him to be full of wangst and making incredibly poor decisions; in particular, how easily he trusted Mephiles's lies about Sonic being the Iblis Trigger despite his clearly shady nature. However, after his future appearances had him be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap — in addition to how many games that got released after 06 had fans feeling as if the Sonic Team were overcorrecting the mistakes made in 06 — many tend to look back at Silver's role in his debut game more favorably, as they found him to have a very deep and interesting character arc that many games within The New '10s tend to lack; given that Silver does call his own mission into question at several points, and his inability to communicate is seen as a compelling flaw. They have also praised Silver's friendship with Amy in the game, and also pointed to moments where he expresses wonder at how the world used to be as indicators of his Hidden Depths.
- Out of all the characters introduced in the game, Princess Elise III was easily the least popular, thanks to her realistic design clashing heavily with the more cartoonish looking animals (with the fact that many players found her in-game character model really creepy-looking not helping matters), her constantly having to be rescued by other characters, her never crying once over the course of ten years, and, most infamously, her romance subplot with Sonic, which was seen as very forced and highlighted the aforementioned clash of character designs, not helped by how her first kiss with Sonic happened while he was dead. As such, many actively praised the Reset Button Ending for erasing the romance, and hoped that she would never appear again. However, in the years that followed, many fans actually came around to viewing her in a more positive light, citing her tragic backstory of losing her mother and father at a young age, her character arc where she learns to open up, Lacey Chabert and Maaya Sakamoto's performances, and arguments that a lot of what made her hated had more to do with the art direction and the writing surrounding her than any faults of her own. Elise's breakdown in the last story where she hesitated to blow out the flame and said she didn't care what happened to the world was also used by her detractors to deride her as being selfish, but many people now view it as a powerful moment of weakness and understand that from Elise's perspective, she was about to lose the only friend she ever had. While she still remains a divisive character, (and SonElise remains a fringe pairing at best) outright hatred has died down considerably. Indeed, when she made a surprise cameo
◊ in Sonic Channel's April 2023 calendar story, it was widely praised for redesigning her to be more in line with humans from Sonic Unleashed onwards; such a positive reception would have been unthinkable in the past.
- Sonic Unleashed:
- While the Werehog had always been a Base-Breaking Character, fan reception (at least from its detractors) was especially vitriolic at the time of this game's release. For one, it debuted just two years after The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, leading to accusations of Sega stealing the idea of a werewolf alter-ego from that game. This was also when the Sonic franchise was still in its most infamous Audience-Alienating Era after the release of Sonic 06, when fans were averse to anything too experimental for the franchise. Over time, both of these sentiments have faded away, and some fans have warmed up to the Werehog; fan art is made to this day, and is even applied to characters other than Sonic. This is, however, mostly limited to the dedicated fandom, as casuals and outsiders still have their fair share of criticism for the Werehog.
- When the game was first released, Chip was viewed as, at best, as nothing memorable, and at worst an annoyance. However, as the game gradually became Vindicated by History, many fans warmed up to Chip, finding him adorable, funny, and having a surprising amount of Hidden Depths for what was superficially a comic relief character, in particular The Reveal that he is actually Light Gaia, the Good Counterpart of Dark Gaia, which remains a well regarded plot twist.
- Sonic Colors
- When' was first released, the Wisps were well received, thanks to their cute designs and serving as the main gimmick of the game. As the decade continued however, many started to grow sick of them, thanks to their appearances in Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces being seen as inferior, them constantly appearing in other games and media, long after they were really relevant and seemingly at the cost of the more universally beloved Chaonote , and the general backlash around The New '10s games and their Lighter and Softer storylines. While they aren't outright hated, they've become much more divisive in the years since Colors release, with many viewing them as a symbol of the worst excesses of "the meta era".
- Sonic's snarky and more comedic characterization was once widely embraced by the fanbase, seen as perfectly fitting in with the game's Denser and Wackier tone and tone, hearkening back to how he was portrayed in English language media in The '90s and generally giving him some of the funniest lines in the game, most famously "No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me!". However, over time, the games of the decade would return to this characterization, regardless of whether it fit the tone of the game. This is largely due to the growing prevalence of fans who grew up with the serious and melodramatic stories of the mid-late 2000's Sonic games (most notably 06 and Black Knight) joining and receiving a bigger voice in the fandom, This would in turn lead to many fans going back to the original portrayals in Colors and Generations and viewing them with a more critical lens, with many feeling that it made him more immature than funny at best and an uncaring Jerkass at worst; with many singling out the "Baldy McNosehair" gagnote as an example of bad humor. Greater knowledge of the Japanese scripts (which portrayed him closer to how he was in previous games) did little to help.
- Sonic Generations: When Classic Sonic was first revealed during the initially announcement trailer, many fans were ecstatic, viewing him as a perfect celebration of Sonic's history and the franchise's evolution over 20 years. By the release of Sonic Forces, however, he had become an extremely Base-Breaking Character, with many finding him be lacking in any real depth or personality, getting too much promotion and marketing even after Generations, and having long overstayed his welcome. Indeed, when it was announced that Classic Sonic would be appearing in Forces, the result was more confusion than elation, especially since he was starring in Sonic Mania around the same time. Not helping was the English version of Forces implying he was retconned to being from another dimension rather than the past self and seemingly altering Sonic's history.note After a string of Sonic Frontiers not featuring him at all aside from a flashback, Sonic Superstars being released, the IDW Comics having his own stories where he talks, and sources such as TailsTube confirming he is still the Sonic of the past, he started gaining a vindication. The current consensus is he works so long as he is in his own adventures and doesn't act as a crutch for Modern Sonic or the franchise in general.
- Sonic Forces: Infinite was widely derided upon his introduction for being an overly edgy, brooding villain who rivaled Shadow in being the franchise's ultimate edge-lord and came across as a canon version of a try-hard, "cool" Original Character made by young fans of the series. Not helping matters was how easily he was defeated in the final battle and his backstory being revealed to be laughably petty, causing him to be deemed a Memetic Loser as a result. However, it's been increasingly theorized that he was actually meant to be a parody of the same OCs that he was negatively compared to. With this theory in mind, more fans have started to view Infinite as a hilariously genius deconstruction of people who constantly hype themselves up as the best thing around. While he still receives criticism, most of it is related to him being wasted potential rather than an inherently ridiculous character.
Western Animation
- Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog:
- It's hard to believe nowadays, but this show's version of Dr. Eggman (known by his Sega of America name, Dr. Robotnik) was once viewed as a pathetic villain that only existed for Sonic to thwart every episode, and infinitely less cool than SatAM's darker version of the character. Once the show was commonly used for YouTube Poop and became Vindicated by History, he gradually became a Fountain of Memes due to his hamminess courtesy of the late Long John Baldry (a solid chunk of the show's memes come from his deliveries alone), as well as being an effective villain when the writing calls for it; with Supreme High Robotnik being considered a prime example. It also helps that his first name "Ivo" is the mainline Eggman's real name, giving the character some grounds for influencing the official canon. In the current day, AoSTH Robotnik enjoys a reputation opposite the one he once had, being a great deal more popular (and quotable) than Julian.
- Scratch and Grounder, Robotnik's Bumbling Henchmen Duo, were similarly seen as lame and initially perceived as annoying by the early fandom. The same circumstances behind Ivo's rise to fame also apply to these two, as more fans found them to be genuinely funny due to their antics while catching Sonic, in addition to the scenes they share with their boss. Their constant Ho Yay also helped their standing, due to a greater appreciation for LGBTQ+-coded characters in media. The last factor in their favor is them becoming a Fountain of Expies for characters with a similar dynamic; not just in the future cartoonsnote , but most notably in the main games' Orbot and Cubot. Needless to say, fans were stoked when these Nincombots — along with Coconuts — appeared in the Archie series after being absent for over a decade.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM):
- The show's incarnation of Dr. Eggman/Robotnik, given the first name "Julian", was once considered to be the definitive version by many for years, thanks to Jim Cummings' performance, his dark and menacing presence, and the general Sacred Cow status of SatAM at the time. However, as the fanbase aged, and the games and other media largely embraced the Japanese interpretation of Eggman as a sillier character who was nevertheless still capable of being a genuine threat, many began looking back at Cummings's Robotnik less fondly, finding him boring, one-dimensional, and trying way too hard to be scary, which only made it that much more noticeable when he underwent Villain Decay in the second season. While he isn't completely hated, considering him the definitive version of the character is nowhere near as common, with many who do largely seen as doing so mainly out of Nostalgia Filter.
- Princess Sally Acorn was, at the time of the show's release, easily one of the most popular characters created for the show, with many praising the character for her romance subplot with Sonic, being a competent female leader during a wave of feminism in the 90's, and her character arc being one of the centerpieces of the show's Myth Arc. By the end of the 2000's, she had become a Base-Breaking Character, thanks to her lack of appearances in modern media outside of the SatAM inspired comic book, which itself featured several poorly received creative decisions involving her, and she gained a reputation for being too perfect, largely fueled by how the second season toned down her flaws. Ship-to-Ship Combat and intra-fandom rivalry also played a part in this, as many Amy Rose/Sonamy fans were often harassed by die hard Sally fans, especially Sonsally shippers. However, by the end of the 10's, the hatred against her died considerably, with renewed nostalgia for SatAM, a better received character arc in Archie, and the shipping wars dying down considerably. While not quite as popular as in the 90's, Sally is still one of the most popular characters to come out of SatAM, and there is a significant push to see her become a Canon Immigrant to this day.
- NICOLE, while never hated by the fanbase, was generally ignored by the fanbase during SatAM's initial run, being seen as nothing more then Sally's handheld computer. However, her character would receive an upsurge in popularity thank to two events. The first, was a highly praised storyline from Archie, in which NICOLE developed into a fully sapient individual in her own right, even adopting a Mobian Lynx holographic form. The second was the revelation that, had SatAM continued to a third season, it would have been revealed that NICOLE was actually a Mobian who had her mind forcibly uploaded into a satellite by Robotnik, and that she had reduced her mind to her present-day self out of fear of becoming corrupted by her newfound power. This led to many to reinterpret her as one of the most interesting characters in the series who didn't get to realize her full potential, and remains a firm fan favorite even now.
- Dulcy the Dragon was once the most hated character in the cartoon's run, mainly due to her showing up at the beginning of Season 2 without a proper introduction, some viewers finding her Motor Mouth and crash-landing running gag to be annoying despite Cree Summer's best efforts, and Bunnie Rabbot being Demoted to Extra in the same season. The fact that she was added because the executives wanted another female lead didn't help matters, which is why many were shocked that she was one of Ben Hurst's favorites. Since then, the hate for her has died down somewhat, with Dulcy gaining a small fanbase of her own. Points in her favor include her being a dragon — a then-unseen character type in the Sonic universe — her fire and ice breaths giving her plenty of offensive potential (her raid on Robotnik's latest trap shows what happens when she gets serious, something that would have happened more often had the show not been abruptly cancelled), her Cute Clumsy Girl antics not grating on new viewers as much as they did older ones, and her updated design in the rebooted Archie run being instantly praised. The last factor in Dulcy's perception evolution was Sonic Superstars, which heavily features dragons in its narrative including new character Trip the Sungazer's Super Mode, effectively making the species' existence canon to the games. As a result of everything thus far, Dulcy's initial hatedom seems to mostly be a thing of the distant past; with much of her criticism nowadays stemming not from her character, but from how wasted she was as one in hindsight.
