Comment Rant #2: Sonic's Sexuality

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I at this point in time commented 4,981 times as of 2/17/2017 8:45 PM EST. And as such I have written a lot of either heavily opinionated or somewhat debatable comments where I take an unusual amount of time and energy to articulate on an opinion of mine that several unlucky deviants have had to read in their notifications and then attempt to either respond to my wall of text or ignore the wall to preserve their sanity. Well enter the "Comment Rant Journal Series", where I will highlight these overly loquacious and contrived comments so that you can proceed to tell me how I was right or how wrong I am. Today's unfortunate victim of unexpected mentioning is TheEnigmaMachine.

Unfortunate Deviant: :icontheenigmamachine:
The Topic: What Sexual Orientation do you See Sonic as Personally, either in Preference or Depiction?


Original Poll



What do you Headcanon Sonic As? [Link]


Bi
Gay
Straight
Robosexual
Ace




:icon1byterak: February 16, 2017 | Love for this hedgehog is such a hard topic. So many suitors. So for my opinion(s) I've drawn from two potential sources to make two verdicts. A canonical one and a personal opinion.

Canon: Sonic himself doesn't care at the moment. Asexual. Though he is seen with Amy at most points it's probably like a non-serious friend zone deal. For both characters are not at this point in their lives ready (Amy: emotional/age) or wanting (Sonic: apathy) of an eternal love scenario. And what I mean by this is actual long term love for decades versus the couple month span of "limerence" (a very good word which should become more well known). Sonic is playing being the hero. He has the superpower to back it up and and as such acts in a way that's childish yet valiant. Not really room for discourse on sexual identity since that's not the point of Sonic as a character in fictional media (and by that I mean it's NOT the point, it's just not a point to be brought up, I mean come on it's a video game franchise aimed at children. It's escapism, not a magnifying glass at the realities of struggling with sexual identity)

Personal: Sonic struggles with his inner feelings and will hide them from everyone by creating a facade of absolute badassery while concealing strange feelings he is ashamed of. He is the role model to so many, all of Earth/Mobius knows of who he is. There's a certain way the hero to everyone should act. He hates himself for spontaneous gay emotions and as such has done such a good job shrouding his truer nature that no one even suspects it. Regardless of whether his own self loathing is actually warranted (would others disapprove of him for being gay or "robo"), Sonic's own fears of being shunned have him guard his inner urges. But as he grows older and the longer he has to suppress his feelings takes his toll on him and he slips up sometimes to the raised eyebrows of his friends. Amy's constant advances further confuse and torment Sonic because half of himself wants to commit and yet his inner demons conflict with this desire by wanting to explore feelings with so many more, taboo or not.

That's what I got. But Personal opinions are not reflective of reality, so I voted for straight. I mean Sonic probably could pull of being a gay character if Sega ever made that move. It definitely would get some fan backlash from people crying SSJ sympathy at the detriment to their icon as well as major support because that's how diverse the Sonic fanbase is cause it's that large. I'm not going to weigh in on whether making Sonic gay for whatever motivation in official canon is a good or bad thing since that is a trap I don't want to set on myself. But I will say it could work and would be good emotional drama if done correctly, aka not overtly and in your face. I don't know, cause drama always trumps happiness IN FICTIONAL MEDIA mind you, not real life. 



:icontheenigmamachine: February 17, 2017 | I largely agree with you. I do think the distinction between canon and head-canon is important. SEGA is, after all, a business, and so the canon is always going to go in the direction SEGA thinks will make the series most profitable. Given Sonic is a children's series, this really does mean we're not gonna see the characters exploring relationships.

This is why I'd say Sonic is ace in the canon, especially after the Penders fiasco. His brand is just not a brand about relationships, and it's actually one thing I like about the series. It gives the fandom more room to explore.

However, your head-canon can be whatever you want, since head-canon isn't limited by SEGA's business practices. In that sense, imagining Sonic as bi/gay/robo can be much more interesting because that would give a lot of conflict to his character. He is the adventure-loving, non-committed hero, so experiencing those kind of feelings would force a lot of character development on him.

It is one of the reasons I love metonic so much, because not only does Sonic have to come to terms with a non-standard sexuality, he also has to deal with the fact Metal is a robot. It's why I included the scene with the flicky in Iron Oxide--Sonic is forced to change, either one way or the other.
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yumethenekomata's avatar

straight in american canon,asexual in japanese canon(more like japanese just don't care but the closest label to that is asexual) i consider japanese canon