Sandbox / Sonic The Hedgehog Heroes Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog

^{Click here to see Sonic's classic design.} 

"What you see is what you get, just a guy that loves adventure. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!"

First Appearance: Rad Mobile (cameo)

Debut in-series: Sonic the Hedgehog

Voiced by: Takeshi Kusao (Japanese, 1993), Toshio Furukawa (Japanese ads), Jun'ichi Kanemaru (Japanese, 1998-present), Tomokazu Seki (Werehog form, Japanese, Sonic Unleashed), Keiko Utoku, (Sonic the Hedgehog CD), Meg Inglima (English, Sonic's Schoolhouse), Ryan Drummond (English, 1999-2004), Jason Griffith (English, 2005-2010), Roger Craig Smith (English, 2010-present)

The main character of the franchise. A blue anthropomorphic hedgehog with attitude and plenty of personality who lives up to his name by being able to run at superhuman speeds. Not much is known about Sonic's past aside from that he was born on Christmas Island. One day on South Island, he noticed all of his animal buddies began disappearing and the culprit was none other than Dr. Eggman. After foiling the doc's plans, Sonic would then make it his business to do in whatever Evil Plan the doc cooked up, establishing their long rivalry. Over time, Sonic has faced bigger and larger threats alike while making a whole slew of allies along the way.

Sonic is described as the wind; unpredictable, and always moving from place to place and never settling down for long. Laid-back, carefree, and armed with a wit as sharp as his quills with an ego to match. He also has a compassionate side and deep down, a heart of gold that always wishes the best for others.

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• Ace Pilot: Technically, the original Tornado airplane belonged to him. He can fly it just as well as Tails does; he just prefers to let Tails fly because it's more fun for him that way.
• Ageless Birthday Episode: Despite it being his birthday in Sonic Generations, he's still 15 years old (or at least, Sega of Japan never bothered to update his character page).
• All-Loving Hero: As far as the games go, no matter what happens, Sonic never holds grudges and easily makes friends out of former enemies. If it's to save the world, he won't even hesitate to work alongside Eggman without a second thought, although he wouldn't exactly be happy about it.
• Always Accurate Attack: His signature Homing Attack that he has had since Sonic Adventure, which is usually shared with other "Speed"-type characters. Sometimes, it's shared with all of the characters.
• Always Someone Better: To Metal Sonic.
• Ambiguous Disorder: Some fans have picked up on some of Sonic's mannerisms as being symptomatic of ADHD. Examples include his impulsive behaviour (to a fault, as in Sonic Lost World), his tendency to be jitterish, his dislike of standing still (demonstrated in both Classic and Modern era games, wherein Sonic will tap his foot and impatiently glare at the player, or glance up at the timer. He also has a habit of stretching consistently while waiting for the player), as well as his excessive activity (constantly looking for adventure).
• Anti-Hero:
  • Played with. While Sonic has his faults, they don't get in the way of his heroism. However, as his own theme song (see Sonic Adventure) states, he doesn't like to follow others' values or beliefs and lives by his own morals and codes, and always makes his choices based on what comes naturally to him by his own feelings. He also has a propensity for a lot of vandalism in his heroic acts. Still, deep down, he will always come out as the hero who saves everyone at the end of the day. Usually, though, his rare unheroic acts are ultimately still for the greater good.
  • While he ultimately comes out as the hero, Sonic Adventure 2 includes him destroying countless military robots (before even having any idea that Eggman was up to something), resisting arrest by escaping from GUN, breaking out of Prison Island, and hijacking the president's car.
  • In Sonic Unleashed (and arguably Sonic Generations), he causes what must be millions in non-Eggman property damage during his daytime runs.
  • Sonic Colors starts with him deliberately vandalizing Eggman's park despite not (yet) having any evidence of Eggman's wrongdoing.
  • In Sonic and the Black Knight, he even willingly attempts to become the story's villain by killing King Arthur to save Camelot from his tyranny. He even lampshades it. But to be fair, King Arthur was the real villain at the time.
  Sonic: I told you, I don't mind playing the bad guy once in a while.
• The Anti-Nihilist:
  • In Sonic and the Black Knight, he expresses such a view to Merlina. As he points out, every world will eventually end; the only thing you can do is live your life to the fullest in the time you have.
  • This exact outlook of his, unknowingly to some, was established all the way back in the very first game in the form of a Tagline on the Japanese box art:
  "Don't just sit there and waste your precious time. When you want to do something, do it right away. Do it when you can. It's the only way to live a life without regrets."
• Arch-Enemy: To Eggman and Metal Sonic.
• Art Evolution: Sonic has gone through a lot of redesigns in the series, most drastically his design overhaul from Sonic Adventure and onward. The only other character that exceeds him in redesigns is his own opponent, Dr. Eggman.
• The Artifact: While his spinning moves have always been a hallmark of the character's abilities, some aspects of them eventually became obsolete in the context of later entries. For instance:
  • Sonic's Spin Dash move, a staple ability since Sonic the Hedgehog 2 that was meant to make it easier for Sonic to gain momentum and attack (plus making it easier to go up slopes), was largely downgraded in power as an ability and basically made obsolete around the later 3D and Sonic Rush games, due to the new boost ability essentially serving the same purpose as it and its sister move, the Super Peelout, but without the idle charge-up time needed. Later games such as Sonic Unleashed eventually dropped the ability to use the move altogether, although it still makes appearances in side-scrolling titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and Sonic Lost World.
  • Likewise, the Spin Attack, Sonic's basic method of simply ramming into enemies while spinning in air, was made obsolete in the 3D games as of Sonic Adventure, due to the introduction of the Homing Attack (which made an early bird appearance as a shield in Sonic 3D Blast). While his Spin Attack is still a main move in the side-scrollers, the homing attack still accompanies it as a backup move now.
  • Sonic's initial purpose as a character became this over time. Sonic was originally conceived by Sega not only as their mascot, but as a direct competitor and the antithesis of the Super Mario Bros. video game series. Once Sega dropped out of the hardware business and started publishing games on Nintendo consoles, and when Sonic and the plumber had a few crossover games together, that aspect of Sonic was simply made obsolete and was dropped altogether in favor of solely being Sega's flagship franchise, and a friendly competitor to the Mario franchise instead.
• Badass Adorable: Even Sonic has his moments where he just looks cute, mostly pre-Adventure.
• Badass Armfold: He does this sometimes, often when he's bored.
• Badass Boast: He's let out a few over the years, and he backs each one up in spectacular fashion:
  • "You can't stop me this time! There's only one REAL Sonic!"
  • "What you see is what you get, just a guy that loves adventure. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!"
  • "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog! I have no master except the wind that blows free!"
  • "Eggman! I AM going to save this planet, and I AM going to free these aliens! No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me! We can save ourselves a lot of time and broken robots if you just quit now!"
  • "The only thing that's gonna get conquered is your face, Eggman!"
• Badass Bookworm: No genius, but he is a fan of literature such as the Arabian Nights; not only did he go into that world, he does occasionally mention reading up on a few things.
• Badass Cape: As Excalibur Sonic◊.
• Badass in Distress:
  • In Sonic Adventure 2, where he escapes from GUN once, but is captured again (partly due to Shadow). He gets rescued by Tails and Amy. Averted in the original Japanese version, whose script makes it clear that he intentionally let himself get caught.
  • In Sonic Forces, he was taken down by Infinite and is held captive in the Death Egg.
• Badbutt: One of the poster children of this trope. Which makes sense, considering how fitting the archetypical badass into a kid-friendly environment has been a primary hallmark of the series since its inception.
• Bash Brothers: Has been this with Tails since Sonic 2. He also plays this with Knuckles when the two put aside their differences, which is also the case with Shadow. He even does this with his past self in Sonic Generations.
• Berserk Button:
  • At least three: don't mess with his friends, threaten the peace, freedom, and/or well-being of others, or call him a rat. He won't take it well. Erazor Djinn managed to press all of those buttons in the same game! To say it didn't end well for him would be putting it mildly.
  • If you hurt Tails, Sonic will stop at nothing to destroy you.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's probably the nicest character next to Tails, Amy, Big, and Cream, but push his buttons and... well... Erazor Djinn ^note and Eggman sometimes learned the hard way. This trait is even mentioned in some of his official Japanese profiles, which state that he's good at keeping his cool even under pressure, but on the rare occasions he get angry, he shows a really mean side of him that surprises those who know him.
• Big Brother Mentor: He's this to Tails in most of the games and adaptations. He also acts like this to the Avatar in Forces.
• Big Brother Instinct: Sonic tends to be pretty laid-back and easygoing, but the second Tails is in any sort of trouble, he shapes up extremely quickly.
• Big Damn Heroes: Expect this trope to happen once a game.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: The entire conflict with the Time Eater in Sonic Generations takes place during his birthday; in fact, the creature crashes Sonic's birthday party.
• Black-Hole Belly: He literally becomes one in the DS version of Sonic Colors when he transforms into the Violet Void form. He will even consume the entirety of the Frigate Skullian, provided its HP meter is depleted enough.
• Blood Knight: Downplayed. While he doesn't go out of his way to seek a conflict or hurt people, there is no doubt that Sonic loves a good fight with anyone that can challenge him. The thrill of the adventure is what he lives for. Just look at his reaction◊ to fighting a Chaos Emerald powered up Metal Sonic from Sonic Mania Adventures. As he himself once said:
  Sonic: "An adventure's no fun if it's too easy."
• Blow You Away: Ever since Sonic Adventure 2, he could use wind-based attacks, some of which use his great speed, some of which don't, although the games never elaborate much on this.
• Blue Is Heroic: Arguably the poster child of this trope in video games. His blueness represents freedom and clear blue skies, as well as his generally easygoing nature. This is put in contrast with Eggman's redness as well as Knuckles's intense red and Shadow's red accents.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Generally very excitable post-Adventure and willing to take down anyone threatening the world.
• Book Dumb: Downplayed. Sonic is often shown to be highly resourceful and even has plausible showings of wisdom. He's also been shown as being capable of operating the Tornado with equal proficiency to Tails, and clearly values literature. However, he isn't the most educated guy around, usually requiring more intellectual teammates such as Tails to explain the science of it all.
• Bold Explorer: Adventurer-type example: he's always in the mood to see his world and what it has to offer, which ties in with how the series changes settings now and again.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • The character most likely to do so, as seen in Sonic Colors.
  • Even in his first appearance, he would stare at the screen and tap his foot impatiently if left idle, and in CD, he would outright leave and cause a game over if left in that state for long enough.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He's one of the fiercest and most influential people on the planet, but he spends much of his time roaming the world or relaxing and only saves the heroics for when it's appropriate.
• Brought Down to Normal:
  • In Sonic 3, Knuckles cancels out his otherwise very powerful Super Sonic form with a single punch, and this also knocks the Emeralds out of him.
  • In the opening of Sonic Unleashed, Eggman uses a machine to force Sonic out of his super form and rip the Chaos Emeralds from him, which in turn causes Sonic to gain the new Werehog form from Dark Gaia's energy.
  • Occurs in Sonic Labyrinth when Eggman takes his speed and ability to jump by replacing his shoes with slow-down versions of his own creation. However, he can still Spin Dash just fine.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Amazing feats and adventures come naturally to Sonic, which is part of where his cocky attitude comes from. While this aspect of his personality has been played up occasionally since the beginning, his tweaked characterization starting from Colors put more emphasis into just how routine these things have become for him.
  Sonic: No seriously, we beat (Eggman) every time. It's like our job or something.
• Calling Your Attacks: "Sonic Wind!" "Chaos Control!" "Speed Break!" "Time Break!"
• Catchphrase: "I'm Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog!"
• Character Development: If Generations is any indication, Sonic became less quiet and more extroverted as time went on.
• Characterization Marches On: The degree of his personality tends to vary from game to game, especially in the 3D era. He had a fairly neutral personality in the likes of the Adventure duology of games, Unleashed, and the Storybook games; being fairly confident in his abilities, but knowing when to get serious when a real threat presented itself, and equal parts of quirk and kindheartedness. In Sonic '06, the quirky parts of his personality were written out and he became sort of a straight-laced hero. Then, beginning with Sonic Colors, probably to circumvent that problem and as the result of a new writing team, they take his personality in the opposite direction and make his quirks much more prominent, a cocky jock who almost rarely stops going on about how awesome he is and very rarely takes a threat seriously. Lost World seems to downplay this slightly by having his cockiness screw him (and the world) over, showing a more insecure side to this personality.
• Celibate Hero: While he's aware of Amy's infatuation for him, he prefers to keep away from her when she acts on it. He's not interested in Rouge's flirting, either. He shows a surprising tender side when interacting with Blaze, but that's more because he's trying to get her to open up and he's one of her few true friends rather than anything romantic.
• Chekhov's Skill: He saves himself from one of Eggman's death traps in Adventure 2 by performing Chaos Control with a fake Chaos Emerald. He learned it by watching Shadow perform it.
• Chick Magnet: Downplayed. He ends up lampshading this in Sonic Battle: "Got enough girls chasing me as it is."
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Most bios state that he can never leave troubled people alone due to his sense of heroism and great kindness.
• Clothes Make the Legend: Sonic's shoes are the most iconic part of his design, to the point that Sega has a rule that he cannot be shown without them or taking them off.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Averted: both the US manual and tie-in comic for the original game suggested that the source of Sonic's speed is his shoes, but this was never taken as canon, not even in other Sonic continuities from the early days — even the early Promo Comic dismissed that idea, and the game it was promoting said otherwise in the same manual! ^note It's possible, though, that it was meant to refer to the speed-up Item Box. However, it is commonly accepted that Sonic's shoes are instead designed to protect his feet from the friction and heat gained from going as fast as he does.
• Commitment Issues: One interpretation of Sonic's aversion to romance is him being scared of settling down and giving up his free and adventurous lifestyle.
• Competition Freak: Sonic hates losing races, as shown in Sonic Riders, but especially if someone cheats at it.
• Conjoined Eyes: The standard design for himself and some of his friends.
• Continue Your Mission, Dammit!: His impatience and snarky attitude towards the player for hold-ups shows in some of his idle animations. He'll even give you a Game Over if he's kept waiting too long in Sonic CD.
• Cool Big Bro: To Tails. Cream also views him this way, and he could be considered one to Blaze as well, despite only being a year older than her.
• Cool Car: Some supplementary material back in the day stated Sonic didn't like cars because he doesn't need them and would only drive one to keep things fair in racing competitions. However, Tails' original designer Yasushi Yamaguchi has stated that the reason he gave Tails a favorite car was that Sonic actually was associated with one even back then: the Lamborghini Countach, which is one of the cars the Cyclone in Sonic Drift was modeled after.
• Cool Plane: The Tornado. Which belonged to him at first, not Tails, contrary to popular belief.
• Cool Shades: Wears some in the Sonic Riders series.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Depending on the Writer, he can be somewhat bumbling and a bit exuberant in personality at times. His bouts of skill and heroism, however, are usually no less pronounced.
• Cute Bruiser: Even in his Modern form, Sonic is only 3ft tall. The latest games, such as Colors, Generations, Lost World, and Forces, appear to have made him even shorter (the Avatar is noted to be taller than him regardless of what species they are). Sonic also displays some other adorable characteristics, but this doesn't mean he should be underestimated.
• Cute Little Fangs: Was intended to have these from the very beginning until Sega of America had their final say on his design. However, if you look close enough at a few models, Sonic does have fangs (especially noticeable in Sonic '06). Sonic's Werehog form has prominent fangs as well.
• Dance Battler: Many of his moves are based off of techniques seen in the likes of Break Dancing and Capoeira.
• Dangerous 16th Birthday: The entirety of Sonic Generations, where your present from your favorite villain is having your friends petrified in this side of White Space.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • The Werehog, Darkspine, Violet Void, Purple Frenzy, and Black Bomb forms certainly look evil. However, they do not act evil, nor do these forms carry out evil actions. Quite the contrary, actually. Some of them, however, do make Sonic much more aggressive.
  • This is even touched upon a bit in Sonic Unleashed. Sonic is just too heroic and kind-hearted to give in to Dark Gaia's evil, even while in his Werehog form.
    Sonic: Even at night, when I'm like this, I'm still myself. Not like all the other people we've seen. You must have been protecting me this whole time.
    Chip: I haven't done anything, Sonic. You're the reason you haven't changed at all. You're too strong to lose yourself.
• Deadpan Snarker: Played straight in the video games and most adaptations, with Sonic Storybook Series, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Lost World being some prime examples. Other portrayals remove the "deadpan" part.
• Decomposite Character: Since the "Classic Era" Sonic and "Modern Era" Sonic are officially considered separate characters now as of Sonic Forces retconning them into separate dimensions, there are minor, but noticeable divergences in certain traits of each eras Sonic now. For starters, Classic Sonic is completely mute now (whereas he had the rare speaking appearance in a few classic era games and media) whereas Modern Sonic is much more of a chatterbox, and both characters have distinct movesets and gameplay styles from each other. Classic Sonic is also more impetuous, less jaded, and a bit more serious than his modern day counterpart.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Lost World deconstructs Sonic's Leeroy Jenkins. As if to parallel his bullet-like speed, Sonic kind of has a one-track, arrogant mind, and when he sets his mind on a goal, he will not rest until it is carried out, and this can make him do some very impulsive, foolhardy stuff. Lost World shows just how this type of mindset can backfire. Sonic impulsively kicking away Eggman's Cacophonic Conch allows the Deadly Six to rebel against Eggman, leading to them using Eggman's Extractor machine to drain the world of its energy, nearly killing Amy and Knuckles. It happens again later in the game where Sonic's recklessness causes Tails to be captured and nearly turned into a robot.
• Defeat Means Friendship: With the exceptions of Amy, who was a Fangirl, and Tails, who either idolized him or was orphaned and bullied, almost all of his friends and allies had to be "befriended" before they joined up with him.
• Demoted to Extra: There are a handful of games where he only makes brief appearances.
  • Knuckles Chaotix only had him appear in the Good Ending. He was originally planned to be the star of the game, as proven by the Sonic Crackers prototype, but Sega of Japan was worried that the series' brand image would've been hurt if Sonic headlined a game for the 32X add-on, which even they realized would be a flop, so they made Knuckles the game's star instead, and had Mighty the Armadillo fill in for Sonic during the gameplay.
  • He only makes an indirect cameo appearance via an item in Tails Adventure.
  • In Tails and the Music Maker, he only gets what amounts to a glorified cameo, as the focus is on Tails.
• Depending on the Writer: Generally speaking, Sonic's personality is of the fun-loving and kindhearted guy who loves adventure, with something of an arrogant streak. The degree to which he leans in depends entirely on the continuity and adaptation. See Characterization Marches On above.
• Destructive Savior: In Unleashed and parts of Generations, he causes a lot of property damage in his runs through the stages.
• Deuteragonist: Classic him is this in Generations, and plays Tritagonist in Forces, being one of the playable characters, with exclusive stages meant to emulate the old 2D games.
• Determinator: Nothing slows him down for long.
• Determined Expression: His in-game sprites in the classic era depict him this way.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • He has defeated, among others, a fully powered-up water god, a time god, a dark earth spirit, and a mechanized Eldritch Abomination. He did defeat all of them in super form (aside from when he defeated said water god without the need of his super form a second time), but it's still impressive.
• Didn't Think This Through: Sonic's unerringly stubborn towards following any ways outside his own and loves to charge in with reckless abandon. It's not really a matter of arrogance, so much as he simply believes in himself and his ability to succeed just that much. Unfortunately, when the go-to tactic is "bull in a china shop", Sonic has found his approach causing him to get in over his head quite frequently, on average needing Tails or another member of his circle of allies to get him out of danger, assuming they're not the ones in danger because of his devil-may-care actions.
• Does Not Like Spam: It is strongly implied in Sonic Unleashed that he does not like seafood, going by the extremely low EXP gainage after he is fed it.
• Doesn't Like Guns: He openly admits in Shadow the Hedgehog that he "wouldn't be caught dead" utilizing guns and other firearms. He doesn't mind other people using them, though, so it's less of a dislike for them, and more a matter of him simply preferring to use his speed to fight. He has no problem using skeet guns in the Olympic game series for events, though.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": He clearly dislikes being referred to as "Master" by Shahra in Sonic and the Secret Rings and insists on being called by his name. He also dislikes being called "Mr. Sonic", as Cream and Elise find out.
• Dual Boss: As one of the potential final bosses of Shadow the Hedgehog, he fights you alongside the GUN Diablon mech.
• Eagleland: Type 1. Take his snarky attitude, like of extreme/fun activities, and add in a "free spirit" cowboy personality, and you have Sonic in a nutshell. The fact that his main colors are red, white, and blue helps.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Sonic's first game appearance, predating his full-fledged debut, actually was as a knick-knack hanging inside the player's car in the Sega arcade game Rad Mobile.
• Easily Condemned: Clearly his reputation as the hero of Earth didn't stand for much in Sonic Adventure 2, considering GUN and the police were after him for a crime he obviously didn't commit, but that was due to them wanting to cover up the existence of Shadow, and Sonic made a perfect patsy for his crimes.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Sonic the Hedgehog CD conveys who he is fairly well, showing his great acrobatics, difficulty traversing water, and running into Eggman's next plan with no idea what's in store for him. All without talking.
  • The intro to the original Sonic The Hedgehog simply has him do his signature finger wag to establish him as THE Mascot with Attitude.
  • Sonic Riders does this in its opening cutscene, quickly showing us how Sonic's Chronic Hero Syndrome, interest in extreme sports, and love of competition come together when he's given a new skill to master and a new rival to beat.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Louie Montaine in Sonic Unleashed loves to go on about how hot he finds Sonic and lusts after his body after every successfully cleared mission he offers.
• Experienced Protagonist: The origins of his rivalry with Dr. Eggman have never fully been touched on, so by the time the first game starts, he's already mixed it up with the doctor before.
• Expressive Ears: They'll flick frequently when he's irritated with waiting (Sonic the Hedgehog 4's Idle Animation) and lie forward or sideways when he's asleep, disappointed, or feeling sick.
• Expy: Collect all seven Chaos Emeralds and at least 50 rings, and jump into the air. Sonic will turn into Super Sonic! His fur will turn gold, his eyes will turn green (or red) and... wait, is that you, Goku!?
• Extreme Omnivore: Eats anything, even moldy/rancid food (if Unleashed is anything to go by). Taken to the extreme in Sonic Colors when he absorbs Purple or Violet Wisps and morphs into a Purple / Violet monstrosity that chomps down on anything, even robots and other metallic objects.
• Extremity Extremist: In battle, Sonic uses his feet more than his fists, combining this with Dance Battler.
• Eye Color Change: Sonic's eyes are normally green, but when he goes Super Sonic, they turn red.
• The Face: He's easily the most social of the three, and usually does all of the talking.
• Face Palm: Does this fairly frequently.
• Fastest Thing Alive: Sonic can reach speeds up to mach 1 on his own foot power. In most instruction booklets and official bios, he is referred to as "the fastest hedgehog◊" or "the fastest supersonic hedgehog◊" in the world. On at least one occasion in Sonic Riders, Jet says Sonic has a reputation for being "the fastest thing alive". His only rival on foot is Shadow, who keeps up with him using hover skates.
• Fatal Flaw: Sonic can get rather cocky and reckless in the face of danger, something that can often be exploited by his foes or lead to him making rather dangerous mistakes. How prominent this is varies from media to media, though it has cost him dearly at least once in just about every interpretation. This is taken to the highest degree in Sonic Lost World, when his recklessness causes the Zeti to break free from Eggman's control and become a larger threat than Eggman himself was, and later when his recklessness causes Tails to get kidnapped.
• Final Boss: He is the final opponent in Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog's Dark stories.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Just about a number of characters started off as Sonic's enemies or opponents at one point or another, but they're now all invaluable friends/allies to him. The prolific examples include Knuckles, Shadow, Blaze, and Silver.
• Flight: But only when he's Super Sonic.
• Flying Brick: As Super Sonic.
• Foil: He has quite a few. Notable examples include:
  • Dr. Eggman, being a scientist who wishes to rule through technology and totalitarian rule to Sonic's nature-loving idealism.
  • Back when they were still adversaries, Knuckles. Red Oni to Sonic's Blue, his strength to Sonic's speed, and his stationary lifestyle to Sonic's nomadic one.
  • Shadow. They're on very different ends of the Idealism vs. Cynicism scale and often come to blows because of it, and this is after Shadow's Heel–Face Turn in his own game. Before said Heel–Face Turn, practically every meeting between the two got rather... violent.
  • Blaze. Her introversion to his extroversion, her insecurity to his confidence, her fire to his wind. Though their relationship is much friendlier than the other examples, as Sonic tries to look out for her, and they mutually and openly respect one another.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric and sanguine.
• Friendly Rivalry: With Knuckles, as the two are now on good terms. This was a one-sided case with Shadow, who isn't interested in "friendly competition" as Sonic puts it in Shadow the Hedgehog. In the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series, he also has a friendly rivalry with Nintendo's mascot Mario.
• The Gadfly: He loves getting a rise out of his enemies, which is why he taunts them with such irreverence. This is proven in spades during his second encounter with Zeena in Sonic Lost World.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Sonic's current voice actor Roger Craig Smith was once asked to say a parody of Vic Mignogna's infamous "dead sexy in a miniskirt" line but apply it to Eggman, in Sonic's voice. It's not like it was included in an actual Sonic game, but Sonic The Hedgehog has still said the word "sexy".
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: He's the final Dark Side story boss of Sonic Adventure 2 and insists on constantly running away from you, only stopping to fire off his signature move when there's enough space between Shadow and him.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: His trademark pose.
• Golden Super Mode: Super Sonic, perhaps the second most famous variant after the Super Saiyans.
• Good Is Not Soft:
  • Back in the very first game, you had the choice to either let Dr. Eggman flee or destroy the Egg Mobile and watch him plummet to his apparent doom (not that Sonic wants Eggman to die). His ass-kickings of the doctor in the early mangas show that the second option was probably the canon one.
  • In Sonic Adventure 2, when Sonic is captured by G.U.N and being transported to prison via helicopter, he busts out and takes out everyone aboard but the pilot.
  Sigma-Alpha 2: "The hedgehog is gone, he's taken out everyone aboard and..."
  • His mocking of the despairing Metal Sonic in the end of Sonic Heroes could come off as downright cruel and cocky, if it weren't for how monstrous Metal has been beforehand.
  • His sealing away of Erazor during the ending of Secret Rings comes off as this ^note particularly compared to how he treated Chaos, who had a similarly tragic past, in Sonic Adventure, and would have been disproportionate if Erazor hadn't established himself as a truly irredeemable villain beforehand.
  • In Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic defeats King Arthur by killing him.
• Gratuitous English: He started getting this when later games started to play up his 'tude more, as well as a nod to his international popularity; exclusive to the Japanese version, of course. And even before the games started giving him and the other characters dialogue, official Japanese material advertised him with English phrases like "His name is Sonic" or "The most famous hedgehog in the world".
• Grind Boots: While everyone gains this ability by the time of Heroes, Sonic Adventure 2 has Sonic sporting a pair of Soap shoes (in their trademark red-and-white color scheme), due to a deal between Sega and the Soap brand.
• Heal Thyself: In Sonic Battle, his "Sonic Heal" ability is described as him using his supersonic speed to heal damage.
• The Hero: In both senses. He's the main character of the series and the leader of "Team Sonic".
• Heroic Safe Mode: In most modern incarnations, his response to most tragedies is to simply keep going.
• Heroic Willpower: Present to a truly ludicrous degree. He can shrug off a mind-controlling corruption without even being aware of it. Curiously, this didn't work in Sonic Rivals 2. The Ifrit gains control of his mind (if you're playing as Tails) with ease.
• Hero on Hiatus: When he temporarily dies in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), he's out of commission and it's up to the other characters to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds to bring him back.
• Hidden Depths: Assuming the tidbits revealed within are canon, the Twitter Takeovers reveal some surprising aspects of his character.
  • His favorite musical genre, as opposed to everyone assuming it's Rock, is actually Mongolian Throat Singing.
  • The version of him acting as an Animated Actor in the Takeovers is a Shell-Shocked Veteran who, understandably, considers Sonic '06 a traumatic Old Shame (particularly the game's infamous Signature Scene, Princess Elise kissing him).
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: He never uses Chaos Control unless he absolutely has to.
• Homing Projectile: He can turn himself into one using the Homing Attack.
• Hope Bringer: Is established as such in Forces. After his defeat and apparent death at Infinite's hands in the beginning, Vector even notes that with Sonic gone, people all over are falling into despair. During the Final Boss, Tails outright declares Sonic their "shining hope."
• Hot-Blooded: He's fairly passionate about saving the world from Eggman through-and-through.
• Hurricane Kick: An R-Trigger trick in the Advance series.
• I Am Not Weasel: He's... ahem... rather temperamental about being called a rat rather than a hedgehog throughout Sonic and the Secret Rings.
• "I Am" Song: They call him Sonic. 'Cause he's faster than sound, he keeps on jumping around.
• I Got Bigger: Sonic Generations confirms that "Modern" Sonic is the older version of pre-Sonic Adventure "Classic" Sonic.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Throughout the whole series, he pulls this against Perfect Chaos in Sonic Adventure, and he tried this against Emerl the Gizoid in Sonic Battle. In Emerl's case, it only partially worked, and the result? A sad ending.
• Image Song: "It Doesn't Matter" and "His World". "Endless Possibilities" for his relationship to his Werehog form and Chip.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Mephiles stabs him to death just to get an emotional response out of Elise and therefore unseal Iblis out of its person-shaped can. Thank goodness the Chaos Emeralds are capable of resurrecting the dead...
• Improvised Parachute: He can actually use his cranial quills and hands to catch air like a makeshift parachute in order to make his descents through air slower in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Him, Shadow, and Silver all share the exact same height and weight of 3 feet and 3 inches, and 77 lbs.
• Informed Attribute: Some of the game manuals describe him as being hot-tempered. This contrasts with the actual games, where he's simply cool and confident. Certain games such as Adventure 2 and Lost World show him losing his cool, albeit in a rather controlled and heavily provoked manner, leaning it more into Beware the Nice Ones than a defining attribute to the character. Certain alternate interpretations are more aggressive, though.
• Informed Flaw: Word of God has stated that not having a full eight hours of sleep can severely affect Sonic's ability to function and also has a large impact on his running. This is never actually seen in the games, however.
• In-Series Nickname: Rouge calls him "Big Blue".
• Intergenerational Friendship: He's almost twice the age of Tails.
• Invisible Anatomy: Along with the other anthros, he does not appear to have toes when depicted barefoot.
• Invincible Hero: Sonic never loses against Eggman, or any other villain for that matter. At worst, they'll just temporarily incapacitate him. Even killing him, which Mephiles the Dark succeeded in doing in Sonic 2006, was a short-term setback for Sonic thanks to the Chaos Emeralds.
• Involuntary Shapeshifter: In Unleashed. He can't stop his Werehog transformation from occurring at night or, in the case of the Wii version, in darkness within the Gaia Gates. He can temporarily revert back into normal form when in light or when exposed to light, but once he steps back into darkness, it's only a matter of time before he'll transform back into Werehog form. However, contrary to popular belief, Sonic did not consider the Werehog form a bad thing, and even enjoyed it in spite of it obviously handicapping his latent speed abilities, while giving him some new ones in turn.
• Jack of All Stats: Most of the cast is capable of using his signature moves (Spin Dash and Spin Jump) along with other abilities, but Sonic tends to be the most well-rounded in using his signature abilities.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. He's not without his follies, but for the most part, the Heart of Gold part mainly overshadows the Jerk part; in this case, since his jerkish tendencies only show towards his enemies and he is generally nice towards everyone else.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Pulls this off in Sonic and the Secret Rings, inflicting painful and humiliating wishes onto the Erazor Djinn before sealing him in his lamp forever and tossing it into a lava pit. In any other context, this would be shockingly cruel for Sonic, but Erazor has been shown to be a thoroughly despicable and irredeemable character throughout the game and openly mocked Shahra's death, calling her weak, so there's no denying he deserved his fate.
• Kid Hero: He is only 15 years old in the present games, and was likewise this in the original games, until it was retconned to make him much younger during the Genesis years.
• Knight in Shining Armor: What Amy sees him as. She's not too far off the mark, though, as Sonic is pretty selfless and some of his dislikes includes seeing people cry and any form of oppression upon others. He's also a bit of a Chick Magnet due to his kindness.
• Large Ham: His personality is very boisterous and magnetic. When he makes the scene, he will be sure to let everyone there know (subtlety is not a prominent trait of Sonic). He also likes to quip and taunt when he's in the middle of a skirmish, probably rivalling Peter Parker in terms of how much snark he dishes out.
• Last-Second Showoff: All the time, almost as often as when he's a Leeroy Jenkins.
• The Leader: Headstrong type for all of Team Sonic and Charismatic type for the cast of heroes as a whole.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Varies depending on the story.
  • Even at his mildest, Sonic has no patience for waiting around or discussing tactics. Other than the Sonic Storybook Series, he rarely, if ever, gets called out on this even if it's invoked.
  • This is played straight in Sonic Lost World, however, when, despite Tails' warnings, Sonic kicks Eggman's conch away. Said conch was the only thing keeping the Deadly Six under his control, and they promptly attack everyone in sight, which prompts a retreat. Tails and Eggman do, in fact, call him out on it.
• Leitmotif: Sonic The Hedgehog Title Theme overall and for Classic Sonic, Live & Learn for Modern Sonic are the most recurring. He also gets a new theme song every other game (see Image Song above for examples).
• Le Parkour: Mostly shown off as Scripted Events or as cutscenes in most 3D games, it becomes a full-fledged game mechanic in Sonic Lost World, which gives him the ability to run and jump along walls and ceilings, complete with Speed Echoes.
• Limited Wardrobe: Is virtually never seen wearing anything save White Gloves and his pointy buckled shoes in every Sonic continuity. The only exception was his Soap Shoes in Adventure 2, after which he went back to his traditional "outfit". Sega also has a rule that Sonic is not allowed to take off his shoes.
• Loveable Rogue: Downplayed: while generally having a strong sense of justice, he is willing to go against the law, especially if they are after him.
• Magic Pants: Applies to both the Werehog and Darkspine forms. Werehog loses his gloves, then gains them back upon transforming back into normal form, whilst Darkspine loses his shoes, socks, and gloves and gains them back within a split second of turning back into normal form.
• Magnetic Hero: Very easily makes friends and allies, even from former enemies. There are times when he doesn't try to make friends with anyone, he just does.
• Mascot with Attitude: The Trope Maker.
• Master Swordsman: In Sonic and the Black Knight. Despite probably never using a sword before in his life, he manages to slay a dragon with just a training sword. And when he picks up Caliburn, he goes on to defeat the three Knights of the Round Table and King Arthur himself. Granted, a big part of his swordsmanship is him using his speed to utterly blitz the enemy.
• The McCoy: He definitely fits this to a "T" among Team Sonic in the games.
• Meaningful Appearance: Acquired green eyes when he's in his Super form in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, acquired these in his regular form from Adventure onwards.
• Meaningful Name: He is called Sonic for a reason.
• Mellow Fellow: Certain interpretations convey him as thoroughly easygoing and hard to break, rarely holding grudges against even antagonistic characters. Other interpretations are subverted as he can be more Hot-Blooded.
• Mighty Glacier: In his Werehog form, he loses most of his trademark Super-Speed in exchange for Super-Strength and stretchy arms.
• Mirror Boss: Acts like this against Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2 during the first boss fight against him. He does it again in the final Dark Side boss, with the exception of him having access to his Sonic Wind move whilst Shadow doesn't have his Chaos Spear.
• Miscarriage of Justice: He was sent to prison in Sonic Adventure 2 so that GUN could use him as a patsy for the crimes of Shadow, whose existence they wanted to keep covered up.
• Monochromatic Eyes: His Darkspine form has them.
• Morphic Resonance: All of Sonic's forms share common design aspects to the 'normal' form. The Wisp forms also share yellow, pupiless eyes, ears, and spiky protusions (except for Violet Void form, which has only the eyes and mouth, and Blue Cube form, which only has the eyes and inner ears). All of these design aspects resemble the normal form's eyes, ears, and quills to a great extent.
• Mr. Vice Guy: Some versions of him are very prideful. He sometimes prioritizes his beauty-sleep a little too highly, as well but as noted, he's still a good person.
• Multiple-Choice Past: Outside of a brief mention of his birthplace being Christmas Island, he's never really been given an official backstory in the games. Supplementary material either had Sonic has a magical hero who sprung to life after the death of a kind-hearted pilot who had him as a mascot or a normal hedgehog who gained superpowers in the same freak accident that turned "Dr. Kintobor" evil.
• Mysterious Past: The only things ever revealed about Sonic's past is that his rivalry with Dr. Eggman predated Sonic the Hedgehog and that he was born on Christmas Island.
• The Name Is Bond, James Bond: Inverted somewhat in his Catchphrase "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Interestingly, in Japan, he likes to spice it up with his tendency for Gratuitous English. For instance, a Japanese Sonic Adventure advert has him introducing himself with "My name is Sonic! Sonikku za Hejihoggu da!", and later ending with "Ore wa Sonic! Tsk tsk tsk tsk! Sonic the Hedgehog!"
• Nature Lover: Stated to have an appreciation for the beauty of nature.
• Nerves of Steel: For the most part, at least in the games.
• Nice Guy: Probably the best example in the series, as Sonic is often noted for his compassion and selflessness.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: There are a few examples of Sonic unintentionally causing a lot of mistakes.
  • In Sonic Unleashed, his arrogance and fixation with belittling Eggman instead of paying attention to what he was doing was ultimately the catalyst of the game's plot and his Werehog transformations.
  • In Sonic Colors, when he destroyed Rotatatron/Globatron, an arm got lodged into a nearby structure, which turned out to be part of the mind control cannon. When Eggman tried to fire it, the cannon backfired. The resulting energy created two things: a Nega Hyper-Go-On black hole that consumed the amusement park and, if evidence is correct, the primordial essence known as the Time Eater. Basically, Sonic caused Sonic Generations to occur by destroying the first boss of Colors.
  • In Sonic Lost World, he's pretty much responsible for the Deadly Six betraying Eggman and attempting to conquer the world for themselves by disposing of the Cacophonic Conch Eggman was using to control them without even bothering to find out what it was. Then he does it again, this time, causing Tails to be trapped inside a capsule and turned into a robot.
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Towards Amy when she's frustrated.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: He ends up walking away from those falls with no injuries at all. This makes sense, as he can survive collisions at supersonic speeds, far faster than his terminal velocity would be.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: A notable handicap of his—if it weren't for the rings protecting him, he'd have been roadkill years ago. This can be chalked up to Gameplay and Story Segregation however; Sonic has often been shown to be able to take a reasonable amount of punishment before going down, and sometimes the attacks he goes through are reasonably powerful enough (or relevant to the plot) that it mandates him taking lethal damage, even if he had a ring or his Super Sonic form on hand—such as two occasions in Sonic 3 ^note  Knuckles literally cancels out Sonic's super form with a single punch in the opening, and the final boss of the first half of Sonic 3 can cancel out Sonic's super form by grabbing him and slamming him into the ground). and one point in Sonic 2006.
• One-Man Army: Technically, he's a "One Hedgehog Army". Wherever he runs, expect lots of trashed robots in his wake. Don't believe it? Watch the prologue to Unleashed.
• One True Love: According to the "Test of Love" in Sonic '06, his soulmate choices for life are narrowed down between Amy and Elise.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: After Mephiles kills him in '06, his ghost/spirit appears in the form of a gust of ethereal blue wind that only Princess Elise can detect.
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: Sonic the Werehog◊ in Sonic Unleashed. Even the "werehog" term was originally coined by the fans, and Sega just shrugged and went, "eh, why not?"
• Out of Focus: This actually happened to him in a certain period of time in the series, despite the series named after him. In Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow was the character with more plot focus, backstory, and Character Development in that game. This continued through Sonic Heroes and into Shadow the Hedgehog, where Shadow actually displaced Sonic as the main character as well as Sonic '06, where both Shadow and the new character Silver displaced Sonic.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Threatening any harm to Tails, the closest thing to a little brother he has, will show you even something as silly looking as a blue hedgehog will make you cry.
  • He serves as one to Emerl in Battle. Earlier on, he was more of a Big Brother Mentor to Emerl, but as time progressed... He nearly has a Freak Out when Emerl is on his death throes.
• Parental Abandonment: In most incarnations, his parents (or lack thereof) are not referenced even once.
• Personality Powers: He is one free-spirited wanderer with Super-Speed powers. He also has some level of aerokinesis, which again, reflects his carefree nature and inability to stayin one place for long.
• Pinball Protagonist: He was afflicted with this horribly in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), in which the most influential roles are delegated to Shadow and Silver and he barely gets anything of noteworthiness done in the grand scheme of the story.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: 3'3'' tall, 77.2lbs in weight, and yet he can defeat monstrosities like this with only the shoes on his feet.
• Power of the Void: He becomes a living, moving void in Violet Void form that consumes nearly anything he comes across and becomes bigger in the process.
• Power-Strain Blackout: Overuse of his Super form can cause this due to the amount of energy required to sustain it.
• Pragmatic Hero: Very much this in Sonic and the Black Knight. He was fully willing to allow The Grand Kingdom to come to an end rather than allow Merlina to use her magic to make it eternal, though it should be noted her attempt at making it eternal would have drowned the world in dark magic.
• Pretender Diss: Done in Sonic Rivals towards Metal Sonic.
  Sonic: A copy is still just a copy! It'll never be able to top the original!
• Primary-Color Champion: He has blue fur and wears red sneakers with yellow buckles on the straps.
• Protagonist Without a Past: Aside from his birthplace being Christmas Island, nothing is known about his past.
• Pride: He's fully aware of his Super-Speed, and he's proud of it.
• Promotion to Parent: Most (if not all) incarnations where Tails isn't living independently has Sonic being the one who takes Tails under his wing.
• Punny Name: His Super Sonic form.
• Razor Wind: His Sonic Wind attack, as depicted in Sonic Adventure 2.
• Real Men Wear Pink: One of his hobbies includes admiring flowers.
• Rebellious Spirit: Downplayed example. Although he tends to live by his own moral code and disregard authority, he never intentionally breaks the law, and he doesn't seem to have a problem with society in general. Even if he can be a Destructive Savior at times, it's almost always unintentional collateral damage, and the law doesn't hold it against him.
• Red Is Heroic: While primarily blue, his red sneakers are one of his most iconic items.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: In addition to the aforementioned above, he's also got this dynamic with likes of Shadow, Blaze, and Dr. Eggman (Red to the former two, Blue to the latter).
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Especially Classic Sonic.
• The Rival: Sonic has many of them. The current primary ones are Shadow and Jet. Knuckles once served this role, but he has since grown out of it.
• Rivals Team Up: With Knuckles, then Shadow, then Blaze, and then Silver.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: At least, as far the games' version of the Blue Blur is concerned; according to Sonic and the Black Knight, he's the genuine King Arthur.
• Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: While he's nowhere near as rude, Sonic is the cocky and snarky hero in contrast to Tails' level-headed and mild-mannered personality.
• Running Gag: He tends to fall flat on his face when falling from great heights from Sonic Adventure onwards.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Oh so much in Sonic and the Black Knight. He'll willingly become a king slayer to do what is right.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If he is left still for three minutes in Sonic CD without doing anything, he'll say "I'm outta here" and leave, resulting in a game over.
• Seen It All: By Generations, he's been through so much and seen so many crazy things that the situation with the Time Eater and being trapped in the White Space gets little reaction from him.
  Tails: Totally strange.
  Sonic: No stranger than rescuing genies in magic books, or saving aliens in an interstellar amusement park.
• Ship Tease: Has a lot of these.
  • He gets this with Amy. In Sonic Unleashed, Sonic feels depressed after Amy didn't recognize him as a werehog, thinking she mistook him for someone else again and in a one-off dialogue sequence the player can either accept or decline Amy's offer to a date; Sonic and the Black Knight seems to have went with the former option being canon.
  • Shares one with Blaze in the end of Sonic Rush. He and Blaze have a long stare at each other and are trying to hold on to each other as long as possible before they get separated — Sonic's holding on with both hands. It's as if they're both reluctant to part ways.
• Showy Invincible Hero: Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations are very good examples. There is no question Sonic will win, the only matter is how will he win, how cool he looks when he wins, and how much fun the player will have when he wins.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Besides snarking at his opponents, he can deliver these on occasions:
  • In Sonic Adventure 2, he gave one to Shadow, saying that he will make him take back those words about him "not being good enough to be his fake".
  • There are several of these in Sonic and the Black Knight when Sonic confronts Merlina, who explains that the only way to save Camelot from its tragic fate is to use the power of Excalibur's Scabbard and the Underworld to make it eternal, only to have Sonic reply "What good is a world that goes on forever!?" The conversation even ends with this great exchange between the two characters:
  Merlina: My sorrow at its ruin runs deeper than the depths of the underworld... do you not understand?
  Sonic: No! And I don't want to!
• Signature Move: The Rolling Attack in its many forms such as the Spin Dash, the Homing Attack and the Hurricane and Rapid Strikes from the old mangas, even though most of the other characters can roll around, too. In Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Wind was his special attack.
  • The Sonic Boost has become his signature move as of the Modern era games, where he even lacks the ability to do his old Spin Dash.
• Sigil Spam: Sonic makes a lot of cameo appearances in other Sega games. He even appears in the Sega CD and Sega Channel boot up. He is their mascot, and they want you to know it.
  • In-Universe, you'll see Sonic's mug frequently pop up on objects like the 1-Up monitors and the Sonic Item from Tails Adventure, to mugshots on casino slot machines. Sonic the Fighters even has a Sphinx with his face carved onto it!
• Simple, yet Awesome: His key gimmick is simply running really, really fast. It looks cool, it's fun to do in-game, and it's how he saves the world time and again.
• Sleepy Head: He appears to have a habit of momentarily dozing-off in idle animations.
• Slide Attack: Occasionally used as one of his rare non-spinning means of melee.
• Small Town Boredom: One official source states that Sonic only began exploring because he was bored with his birthplace, Christmas Island.
• Smarter Than You Look: Especially considering some of his earlier portrayals. He is far from stupid.
• Smug Super: While how much one may vary between different media, one thing that's constant is Sonic's ego.
• Spectacular Spinning: His primary method of attack, the Spin Attack, and its variations such as the Spin Dash and Homing Attack.
• Spirited Competitor: Being the cocky guy he is, he loves to race others in order to prove the he is faster than them.
• Sprint Shoes: The first European/North American game manual mentioned that Sonic's speed comes from his power sneakers, although this bit of info is never taken as canon. However, video monitors in the classic games award Sonic with power-up shoes that allow him to go even faster than normal.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: He's got the equivalent of spiky hair, a strong sense of justice, is fueled by the Power of Friendship, and (particularly in spin-offs) loves to compete with other speedsters to see who comes out on top. Even when a giant alligator chases down the team in a jungle level, his only response is "Interesting, let's see who's faster." Unsurprising since the series has several Dragon Ball Shout Outs, including 7 Cosmic Keystones and a Golden Super Mode that makes his hair stand on end.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Depending on the game or the situation, Sonic can go from outrunning planes, missiles and a black hole to be being unable to catch Eggman, an overweight human, when the latter is running on foot.
• Super Drowning Skills: In most of the 3D games. He instead has Walk, Don't Swim in 2D.
• Super Mode:
  • Super Sonic◊, which makes him glow, fly, and takes his already established Super-Speed up to eleven. Yuji Naka said it himself that this form was inspired by Super Saiyans. It shows well.
  • There's also Hyper Sonic, Darkspine Sonic, and Excalibur Sonic.
• Super-Speed: He's called "Sonic" for a reason, It's basically his trademark. (His top speed has never been canonically established, though he's shown to be capable of breaking the Sound-Barrier whenever he kicks into high gear).
• Super-Strength: Though it arguably draws from his speed more than anything, he can ram through cars, robots, and rock walls and not slow down. The Sonic Boost especially shows this.
• Super-Toughness: Zigzagged. When spinning or boosting or with a ring on hand, he can handle smashing through legions of robots or dense objects at supersonic speeds, which would basically turn any real life thing into roadkill in seconds. When he's not doing these or doesn't have a ring on hand? He's as fragile as a newborn and can die from even colliding with another hostile object.
• Swiss-Army Hero: And then some! Especially in Sonic Colors. He can turn into a laser, cube, black hole, rocket, explosion-generator, organic Hover Tank, ball of spikes, drill, and a purple monstrosity that eats and grows in size with each eaten object.
• A Taste of Defeat: Naturally, no villain has stopped him from saving the world, but he has had his ass handed to him on rare occasions.
  • Eggman managed to outwit him in his super form at the start of Sonic Unleashed.
  • Silver just plain humiliated him in Sonic '06.
  • In more petty competition, Jet canonically beat Sonic in the World Grand Prix finals in the first Sonic Riders (albeit by cheating). This also marks one of the few times Sonic is genuinely enraged.
  • In Sonic and the Black Knight, Merlina beats him silly and breaks Caliburn while he can't even touch his enemy. It takes getting his newest Super Mode to turn the tables.
  • In Sonic Forces, Infinite serves his ass on a silver platter. Oh, and Eggman conquers the world.
• Taught by Experience: In Generations, he's able to defeat Perfect Chaos in his normal form, when he previously needed to become Super Sonic to do so. He even states this as a strength in Forces, where he's able to put up a decent fight against Infinite, whose Establishing Character Moment was curb-stomping and nearly killing him.
  Infinite: Impossible! Your abilities exceed your previous data!
  Sonic: Unlike mechs, I can grow. I get more powerful every second!
• Teleporters and Transporters: Has the ability to teleport by using Chaos Control in-tandem with a Chaos Emerald, whether it's fake or real.
• Teleport Spam: He loves doing this in the last Dark Side Story boss in SA2 if you get too far ahead of him.
• Thrill Seeker: His love for adventure and excitement is a large part of the reason he fights Eggman and other Big Bads.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Eggman tries to murder him by doing this. Fortunately, he learned how to use Chaos Control just in time.
• Time Master: Using Chaos energy, he can warp time and space, but is not as proficient as Shadow, nor does he use these abilities very frequently.
• Took a Level in Badass: He defeats Perfect Chaos in Sonic Generations in normal form without resorting to transforming into Super Sonic. On top of that, in the teaser for Sonic Forces, it's shown that Classic Sonic has perfected the Sonic Boost.
• Tornado Move: In Sonic Rush, in the boss fight against him as Blaze, one of his attacks is him spinning around while airborne, which creates a massive vortex that sucks her in. The Blue Tornado in Sonic Heroes does the same thing, but on a much smaller scale.
• Totally Radical: He dips into this at times in his modern depiction, though this is actually averted in Colors, where he actually gets to use relatively modern slang like "epic".
• Touched by Vorlons: He gains the ability to shapeshift into various forms by fusing with Wisps temporarily.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Chili dogs in most adaptations, and later, including the games.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: In Sonic Lost World, he disposes of the Cacophonic Conch Eggman was using to control the Deadly Six without even bothering to find out what it was or what it did, which enables the Deadly Six to turn on Eggman and usurp his plans and operations, making them a bigger threat than before.
• Transformation Trinket: Chaos Emeralds, Super Emeralds, World Rings, Sacred Swords, and Wisps. All of them are catalysts for his transformations.
• Troll: Sonic loves to get a rise out of his enemies.
• Tsurime Eyes: As Super Sonic and in his Werehog form.
• Turn the Other Cheek: Going hand-in-hand with Fire-Forged Friends and Magnetic Hero, Sonic's kindness and compassion are matched only by his capacity for forgiveness. Many of the friends he made, such as Silver and Shadow, once tried to kill him, but he never holds it against them.
• Übermensch: Sonic stated in Sonic and the Black Knight that he'll fight for what he believes in and he doesn't care whether that means he's the hero or the villain. Similarly, his Image Song "It Doesn't Matter" states that he doesn't care who's right and who's wrong, and he just lives by his own feelings. He and others also describe him as being "free like the wind", and he makes it clear that he both dislikes being restrained and dislikes it when others are oppressed, too.
• Unable to Cry: In the majority of media Sonic has been featured in, he's remarkably stoic and does not show sadness, loss, and/or disappointment in the form of tears.
• The Unfettered: A mild version; he wouldn't hesitate to put his life on the line for a friend, but he also wouldn't want to endanger his friends and is very protective of them.
• Unstoppable Rage: Darkspine Sonic in Sonic and the Secret Rings doesn't stop expressing his hatred, rage, and sadness until Alf Layla Wa Layla goes down.
• Unwitting Pawn: Has a tendency to accidentally further Eggman's plots.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: In addition to Knuckles, he kind of has this with Shadow to some extent.
• The Voiceless: His younger self is this in Generations.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Upon absorbing a Wisp, he can choose to make use of its Hyper Go-On power in order to change form.
• Walk, Don't Swim:
  • Sonic's major weakness is that he can't swim, so when he gets in water, he merely floats down or runs and jumps very slowly in it. Often, falling into a large body of water will also result in him immediately sinking to his death. Apparently, the reason Sonic has this weakness in the first place is because Yuji Naka, at the time the first game was made, erroneously assumed that hedgehogs were incapable of swimming, so he incorporated this into the gameplay.
  • In the swimming event of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, he manages to work around this weakness by wearing a lifejacket.
• Walking the Earth: When not saving the world, he's always running from place to place, but he'll immediately rush to the scene if someone is up to no good. Takashi IIzuka said in a 2017 interview that Sonic does not have a house. He's just constantly on the move and enjoying wherever life takes him.
• Wall Jump: First appeared in an unconventional form in Sonic Heroes, where it's used to cross chasms with walls on either side. Starting in Sonic Unleashed, he has a more conventional Mario-style Wall Jump.
• Weaksauce Weakness: He can't swim.
• The Worf Effect: Though he's pretty much an Invincible Hero, there are some occasions where he gets beaten by more powerful characters.
  • He gets punched out of his super form by Knuckles with one punch, in his debut!
  • Sonic and his friends all had trouble defeating Chaos, as the first villain ever.
  • Also against Shadow in his solo game, if the player chooses to go against him.
  • He also gets beaten by Silver twice, much to the point where he had to be saved by Shadow the second time, and to run away in the meantime.
  • Gets killed by Mephiles but fortunately for Sonic, it didn't stick.
  • Several times by Eggman when inside of some giant robot.
  • Merlina as the Dark Queen beats him and Caliburn black and blue before they go Excalibur Sonic with the Sacred Swords.
  • He gets kicked around like a ball by Infinite in one battle.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Not him, as Sonic and the Black Knight proves. Sonic is apparently inclined to live life to the fullest in the time he has and stresses to others that they should do the same.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He occasionally mentions that he doesn't like water in games such as Sonic and the Secret Rings and Sonic Colors DS, as well as the various comics and animated series he features in. Considering that the drowning music so often heard in underwater stages is considered to be the most frightening thing in the entire franchise, this is entirely justified.
• Willfully Weak: It's implied through Cutscene Power to the Max and certain scripted events that Sonic holds back his full speed. Whether it's to challenge himself or if it tires himself out to use his full speed is uncertain.
• With Friends Like These...: Often with Knuckles in the earlier games. Also with Shadow to some extent, and let's not get started with Jet.
• Would Hit a Girl: He's fully willing to engage in a fight against Blaze in Sonic Rush when Blaze picks one with him and also fought Amy, Cream, and Rouge in Sonic Heroes. He also had no compunctions about attacking Merlina when she revealed her plans as the Dark Queen in Sonic and the Black Knight. In all cases, of course, it applied as self-defense.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: In Sonic Lost World, he disposes of Eggman's Cacophonic Conch, telling the doctor outright that it's never a mistake to "throw his toys away". Unfortunately, in this case, it was a mistake: the conch was a Restraining Bolt that Eggman was using to control the Deadly Six, who waste no time in usurping Eggman's Badniks and turning on him.

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