Just like every other major fandom out there, Sonic’s fan base has its fair share of theories
about the franchise – or rather, ‘conspiracies’, as tends to be the preferred term online.
From Robotnik’s motives to Tails comings and goings to Sonic’s potential for power,
there’s a lot of speculation about what we don’t know about the blue blur.
While there’s a lot out there that pertain to the comics and to Sega as a company, for
the sake of this list, we’re pretty much sticking to theories about the characters
in the games.
So with that in mind, here’s our list of the top 10 Sonic Fan Theories.
10 Tails Tracking Device In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, you may notice that
every time Sonic speeds ahead of Tails, or loses his best pal in the midst of action,
Tails always manages to find his way back to Sonic.
Why is that?
Well, this theory suggests that Tails has placed a tracking device on Sonic – which
wouldn’t be out of Tails’ technological capabilities.
And whereabouts would he have snuck that?
On Sonic’s shoes, of course.
Cause realistically, he’d probably pick up on a tracking device being attached to
his body or his gloves.
Here’s hoping Tails didn’t knock Sonic out and pop it into the hedgehog’s body.
9 Yuji Naka It’s no secret that over the years employees
of Sega have acquired a bit of disdain for their company’s mascot and money maker.
And as this theory speculates, Sonic’s creator Yuji Naka was one of those Sega employees
to partake in the low Sonic inspired morale.
The concept is that Naka actually hated Sonic, and wanted the character out of the spotlight,
hence creating Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, which was a Gamecube game that really
emphasized how it was developed by the same creatives on Sonic Team.
Flash forward several years later, and this theory was only further fueled by a blog post
published by an ex-employee named Ben Andac who claimed that at the time he worked at
the company, Sonic Team had incredibly low morale concerning the blue hedgehog – he
also posted other information about Sonic Unleashed and NiGHTS that proved to be true,
so doesn’t seem like it was published in an attempt to slander the company out of personal
disdain.
That all being said, the theory about Yuji Naka kind of adds up, especially considering
the little care that Sonic games have gotten from developers at Sega in
8 Knuckles Wasn’t Tricked When we first meet Knuckles the Echidna in
Sonic 3 and Knuckles, the character is ‘tricked’ by Robotnik into thinking that Sonic was the
bad guy.
One theory online suggests otherwise, advocating for Knuckle’s intelligence.
From the brain of screwattack.com user Ultraguy, this theory points out a tapestry that appears
in the Hidden Palace Zone – one of a figure that looks like Doctor Eggman holding Master
Emerald while a figure that looks like Sonic faces off against him.
Many picked up on it as a little bit of foreshadowing for the final boss battle in that zone.
But Ultraguy’s theory plays with the idea that perhaps Knuckles had seen that mural,
and based on how Eggman holds the Emerald in it, it looks as if he’s trying to protect
it rather than steal it.
This could have mislead Knuckles into believing that Robotnik was telling him the truth, assuming
Robotnik was actually the true protector of the Master Emerald.
7 Human Ladies The most cringe-worthy theory on our list
pertains to that kiss between Sonic and Princess Elise in Sonic 06.
Yes, that moment that has been called one of the most awkward cutscenes in all video
game history.
Sonic 06 was a rough time for our hedgehog hero, alright?
While there’s plenty of shipping that goes on in the Sonic fandom, Sonic has never actually
gotten romantic in the video games with any other characters, minus this one cutscene
that caused everyone’s eyes to bleed out.
A bit of an exaggeration, but c’mon!
Anywho, Sonic’s kiss with Elise has spawned a theory that Sonic only has a thing for human
women, since he shows little to no interest in his ‘intended’ love interest, token
female character Amy Rose.
He also doesn’t have the hots for Blaze, even though the character at times got a little
flirty with him.
6 Tails works for Robotnik This theory from Reddit user Totally_Sober
suggests that Tails is infiltrating Sonic’s inner circle for Robotnik.
So, when Tails was first introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, he just appears – at the
time, the games didn’t really have stories, so there was no need for a big introduction
plot point.
He’s got all this mechanical knowledge, and can pilot an airplane.
They go on to speculate that the reason why Eggman has created such a strong replica of
Sonic with Metal Sonic despite not having Sonic in captivity long enough to study him
is due to Tails giving Robotnik information on the hero.
Jump forward to Sonic R, which introduced Tails Doll, a half-assed robotic version of
Tails.
Totally Sober suggests that this is to throw Sonic off Tail’s trail.
In Sonic Adventure, Tails uses a chaos emerald to fix his plane – Eggman is the only other
character known to use the emeralds to power his machines.
In so0nic Adventure 2, Tails has a letter from Eggman.
How did he get it?
If a robot delivered it, why wasn’t there some sort of battle or conflict?
In the comics, Tails gets an origin story, but in the video games, the character’s
origins are never revealed, and his knowledge and occasional interactions with Eggman are
a little suspicious.
Another version of the theory is that Tails is a robot that Eggman created, and that the
Tails Doll was a prototype.
5 The Environment This theory suggests that all Sonic games
are about saving the environment.
How so?
Typically, Sonic games begin in the Emerald Hill Zone, or a lush setting similar to it.
As you progress, the levels get more ‘man-made’, filled with industrial and robotic imagery.
Then, in Sonic CD, when Sonic is in the future, everything has become industrial, and all
of nature has depleted or is dead.
The idea behind this is that even though you may win the battle against Robotnik, Sonic
loses the battle to save the environment.
4 Homeless This theory hails from YouTube channel The
Sonic Show, and explores the idea that Sonic is actually homeless.
Take a moment to consider it – when have we ever seen Sonic ‘at home’ in the games?
We’ve never actually seen a physical location that Sonic calls home – he’s constantly
on the move, saving the world.
That being said, you could argue that perhaps Sonic is more animal-like than we give him
credit, and perhaps he curls up in a ball underneath whatever tree he pleases when he’s
sleepy.
But we’ve still yet to see evidence of that.
3 Sonic’s True Potential Another theory from Ultraguy from screwattack.com,
this one explores the idea that Sonic is holding back his true potential.
For context, in many Sonic games, often Sonic will often push himself to new lengths or
transform into Super Sonic at the end, typically during a major boss battle against a seemingly
infallible foe.
That raises the question of why does Sonic not bust out this kind of power all the time
and immediately eliminate threats?
Now, yes Super Sonic can only be achieved by having all of the chaos emeralds together.
But what about all of those other times in the games and the comics where he gets an
extra burst of energy to take out Robotnik or whatever other threat stands in his way?
Like in Sonic X when he moves faster than the speed of sound, or in Sonic Battle when
the fight was ‘slowed down’?
Ultraguy thinks it’s because Sonic is holding back his own power and speed.
While the theory’s speculation ends there, it is curious to wonder WHY exactly Sonic
would be holding himself back, and HOW he manages to get these bursts of power.
Any takers?
2 Robotnik’s Greater Plan A theory on Reddit by user Koala_Guru speculates
that during Sonic 3 and Knuckles after Robotnik was defeated by Sonic IN SPACE, the mad scientist
was sucked into a wormhole – this would explain how he would be able to survive the
wreckage and return to face Sonic again.
This wormhole showed him the future - Silver the Hedgehog’s future, to be precise, which
he saw was in utter chaos.
The wormhole then brought him back, and because of relativity, a significant amount of time
had passed.
Because of what he saw in Silver’s future, he decides to do everything in his power to
avoid that fate.
Ever since Sonic 3, everything Robotnik has done has been an attempt to manipulate Sonic
into preventing the world from becoming Silver’s future.
And, if you look at Sonic 06 when Robotnik encounters Silver, the hedgehog is never introduced
to him, but Robotnik still calls him by name.
1 Sonic’s Speed If that last one had you rolling your eyes
a bit, this one will REALLY get your blood boiling.
This theory suggests that Sonic has the same speed as a regular hedgehog.
Published on the website Tinfoil Fan Theories, the idea behind this one is that Sonic is
just a regular hedgehog who happens to be blue, and that his speed is relative to everything
else we see on the screen when we play Sonic games.
For example – Tails is a fox with TWO TAILS – arguably a genetic mutation that would
slow him down considering that they’re almost the same size as his body.
Robotnik is a very large, overweight man who, at times during the games, will move just
as fast as Sonic.
Robots that Sonic faces often have smaller animals trapped inside that get released when
you defeat them.
All of this suggests that Sonic is not actually fast, but that he lives in a world where everything
is incredibly slow, making his normal hedgehog speed give off the illusion that he’s the
fastest speedster out there.
There we have it friends!
Which theory was your favourite?
Do you have your own about our favourite blue hedgehog that you want to share?
Give us a shout in those comments below!
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