
Lover of multiple fandoms, fluff, animals, and more! | they/she pronouns | Ask box open | I love writing stories, rambling, analyzing stuff, and drawing!
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What The Sonic Franchise Does That's Great And Why You Don't Notice It First As A Kid.
What The Sonic Franchise Does That's Great and Why You Don't Notice It First As A Kid.
You know when I go back and watch some old playthroughs of Sonic games, I noticed that Sonic the Hedgehog is surprisingly mature for its time. Not so much that kids can't enjoy, but it's something you don't notice until you get older, you know?
In the early days, The Sonic Franchise actually dealt with some important topics and conveyed a lot of really good messages. Of course, there's the obvious Nature vs Industrialism, which is a really good topic to get awareness to. But it also dealt with very deep themes and topics that you don't realize they did until you got older.
For example, Sonic games and shows conveyed and actually showed trauma, death, and grief. In Sonic 2, if you fail to get all the Chaos emeralds, it turns out, Eggman KILLS Tails. It's not shown until the end, but the somber way Sonic turns to the stars and the Tails constellation is shown, tells us ALL we need to know.
Then there's Sonic Adventure 2, a game that features Shadow the Hedgehog, a creation made for a child he grew close to and loved like a sister until she died RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM, SAVING HIS LIFE AS SHE DID. She tells Shadow to protect and fight for the world she never got to go to. This game isn't just a simple action game or a simple introduction to a soon-to-be ruined character (I'm so sorry Shadow...), it actually explores grief and the ways we can overcome it.
Not only that, but Tail's arc in Sonic Adventure is also to be mentioned. This kid was bullied for his extra Tail (to which some people can relate, not just for bullying, but being outcasted due to a deformity you never asked for), but ultimately grew proud of it, which again can inspire so many who relate to his issues. Not only that, but Sega manages to kill two birds with one stone, while Tails made a friend Sonic, he became dependent on him. When realizing this, Tails actively becomes independent, mainly from the fact that he owes Sonic SO MUCH and can't afford to rely on him for EVERYTHING. He fights against Eggman and saves Station Square ALL ON HIS OWN. This ties into the reality of every kid becoming an independent adult ready to face the world.
Unlike other games made in that time, where it's all simple action and colorful fun, Sonic had this...this...
How do I explain it?
Okay, look at it this way, in every early Sonic game and show there was this hidden walnut of maturity, that when found and cracked at the right time would show you all of the themes and messages of things you might've gone through during or when you got older and envelops you, showing you that you are strong, telling you that you're not alone; and that realization made me LOVE this franchise even MORE.
I think part of the downfall of this Franchise was how Sega brushed their trauma and development aside, and when they did include it, it was half-assed instead of a meaningful exploration. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE comedic shows like Sonic Boom, but I just miss that DAMN walnut (XD), you know?
Then Sonic Frontiers came out. And it was as if I was taking a breath of air after being smothered, that subtle but deep display of maturity was BACK. The exploration of these characters, and the delicate but STRONG handling of death and grief, I missed so much.
Then there was Sonic Prime, and my heart was EXPLODING with happiness. The way they handle Nine's trauma at being abused so elegantly, the subtle Amy under Rusty Rose (a ROBOTICED AMY), hell even the old Nature vs Industrialism is back!
This right here is what makes Sonic great, and I'm so happy they brought it back!
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More Posts from Bluebunnyears-08
One Angry Boi

I like his face. So angry
Amazing! The lighting the poses of the characters, and the shards in the background with the characters coming out from them; are beautiful. I also like the different expressions. Thorn lets out a battle cry, Dread is as smug as ever, Sonic with his usual determined grin, Rebel with a ready expression, and Nine with a silent determination, but a sense of sadness showing an internal conflict.
This is beautiful in so many ways. I don't know how you did it, but you captured the entire show and the character's personalities in one drawing.
It's incredible!




In case you didn't catch it on Twitter this morning, Netflix approached me to do an illustration to celebrate the launch of Sonic Prime. Lot's of fun to put it together, and try out the new designs!
Got some WIPs I saved along the way as well~
Beautiful <3
Absolutely beautiful.


Thinking about how nine may be set up to be an antagonist in the next sonic prime episodes
(Happy new year y’all, here’s to another great year for sonic)
Silly Thought About How Travelling to Other Dimensions Would Affect This Angry Fox Boi
Guys, you know I just had a thought come to me. So if Nine is able to teleport to other worlds with his little ship. He said to the council that it wasn't perfected. This won't be what he meant, obviously but if it did it'd be so fucking funny man-
Like what if going to other worlds affected his size because it wasn't ready yet. Going to a particular world made him tiny or really huge, like 3 inches tall or 15 feet tall.
Like in one world, he's actually nine-inch tails, and in another world, he's fucking ninezilla like omfg-
So like in the shattership traveling to the other shatterspaces, he's fine, but straight up different dimensions, shorter or taller than usual. It's a roll of the dice. Not to mention the Sonic and gang in those universes would be so confused, freaked out, but could also be annoyed, like going to their tails and being like "tails what did you do this time-"
His reactions would also be fucking gold. Panicking when he's tiny and being confused as hell when he's a literal giant like-
Aw, thank you! I found the idea of Nine having a random shrink ray in his lab interesting and hilarious, and I wanted to write out what would've happened if Nine was the one who got shrunk instead of Sonic.
You're an amazing writer too and I love reading your stories! <3
Nine is Tiny and It's All Sonic's Fault
Just a random prompt I thought up on the spot. Inspired by @heckinconfusedparade prompt response to someone's ask. This is an alternate universe where Sonic doesn't meet shadow, and Nine didn't have a plan that involved being captured.
-------------------------------------------------------------
This was all Sonic's fault.
Nine remembers telling him not to touch anything. But he couldn't listen - he never listens! - and now Nine was only a few inches tall. To be fair though, Nine did forget to shut the machine down, but it's still Sonic's fault because the idiot messed with it.
If he hadn't poked and prodded around it earlier, it wouldn't have had the ability to work in the first place. The council limits the city's power to suit their own needs, and Nine simply converted it, and the power used for the trains into his lab and home. That's how everything worked.
It was supposed to be a simple stop point. Sonic recently saved Nine from his captivity by the council, and they escaped to his lab. Nine knew they wouldn't find them there, they hadn't for years.
They rested here for a day and a half before Nine got to work on building another invention, something to take down the council. Sonic zoomed around his lab, his hyperactivity too energetic to contain in the small place of his home.
It wasn't long before the blur explored his lab and discarded inventions. Nine didn't mind, as long as he didn't touch or break anything. Not to mention, he liked the company.
Then Sonic got to the shrink ray, a big hulking invention with a pointed tip. He had to touch it, he had to pull the trigger while it was pointed at Nine, who didn't realize what happened until it was too late. He felt energy pulsing around him for seconds before everything went dark and silent for a moment.
When he came to, he was only a few inches tall. Looking around, his workbench now a mountain, and everything much farther and bigger as well, he realized what happened. He forgot about that invention, he made it because some things took too much room, so making them smaller was easier. It was also because he wanted to defy physics, that was a reason too.
Now he had to get Sonic's attention as the blue blur called his name, looking for him. The urchin's footsteps caused slight tremors, his voice was louder and now hurt the fox's ears, and due to Nine's small size, his ears couldn't catch the fox's yells.
Sonic didn't know what he did yet. All he knew was that he pushed a flip of a cool invention, while it happened to be pointed at the young genius, and Nine just vanished. Confused at what just happened, and concerned for the young fox and his whereabouts, Sonic began to search. He called out his brother's counterpart's name and walked around the area Nine was, finding nothing worry began to tighten around his heart even more.
Nine meanwhile, climbed onto his table, using his metal tails, which thank chaos he had on him during this size, he'd be helpless again, making it easier. Now on the table, he looked around for ways to get the blue hedgehog's attention. He resorted to knocking things off, which proved more effective as those emerald eyes looked in his direction as the hero tilted his head in confusion. He stopped and waited for the speedster to close the distance, ignoring how his breath slightly quickened and shoulders quivered when Sonic's eyes landed on him, his tremoring footsteps walking towards his now small insignificant form.
He won't deny that he took several steps back until his back hit the wall as his friend leaned down to get a better look at this odd bug. As soon as he realized what happened, Sonic suddenly lurched back, making the kit flinch. He then rubbed his eyes and looked again, much closer, looming over the fox, much to Nine's discomfort and fear.
"N-Nine?"
The nerve for the guy to look surprised when it was his fault Nine was tiny. He made it clear to let him know that as he glared harshly up at the blue buffoon, the recipient averted his emerald eyes guiltily, his gloved hands rubbing his quills nervously.
"Whoops...heh....my bad...i-in my defense, you didn't tell me what that did."
"Doesn't matter whether I told you or not, you should've known not to touch anything in my lab."
It was his fault, so the hedgehog had to fix it the fox deemed. But how? Sonic didn't know anything about mechanics and the conversion of matter. Not to mention the urchin can mess it up, and he didn't want to think about any possibilities if that happened.
"Look, due to my unfortunate circumstances caused by you and your refusal to listen, I'm going to have to guide you on fixing this situation that you caused. But in order to do that, you're going to have to listen carefully."
Sonic smiled and gave a thumbs up, his usual meaningless words of optimism pouring out of his mouth, 'something blah blah we'll fix this', Nine didn't really listen, he was too busy fuming. After a half hour of trying, and failing, to get the blue blur to build a reversal switch on the shrink ray, he figured it'd be easier than having him build an entire one from scratch.
Nope, Sonic didn't know the first thing to listen, and because of that, it was late by the time they got anywhere. Unfortunately, that was when Sonic stupidly decided to take a break and try it again tomorrow, to Nine's annoyance and frustration.
He tried to argue back, but Sonic was just as stubborn. He was firm in going to sleep and trying again later since 'they could try again when they had more energy'. Nine tried to make a compromise, Sonic can go to bed and he can fix it himself, but the hedgehog wasn't having it.
"You need to rest too, and you're not going to get anywhere if you're tired."
"I'm not tired!"
"Sure...if you aren't, then why did I see you yawn several times. I saw them, you didn't do a very good job at hiding them you know"
At Sonic's knowing grin, Nine merely glanced away and tried to cover up another yawn with his hand. He heard the hedgehog chuckle in amusement and felt his face flush in embarrassment.
Nine only huffed in response and ignored the concern, walking towards a wrench on the workbench (which he stayed on the entire time, he didn't want the hedgehog's hands on him).
"Well, that's not important right now, you can go to bed, but I'm going to fix the mistake you made since you can't figure out basic instructions."
At that, he heard and felt Sonic huff in frustration, before suddenly feeling something soft and firm wrap around him. He tipped in surprise and panic, before looking down and realizing it was the hedgehog's fingers. Sonic didn't pick him up, he just held him gently but firmly in place, but that didn't make it any less panic-inducing. He began to squirm and struggle, deeply uncomfortable and embarrassed about how easy it is.
"S-Sonic! Let me go!"
"Sorry, little buddy. But you need rest, we can work on it tomorrow, okay?"
"Oh sure, then we can get nowhere again because you don't know how to do simple mechanics!", Nine's voice was dripping with sarcasm and anger, but there was a slight tremor in his voice that went unnoticed.
"Hey, maybe if you didn't confuse me with your rants about the third space squared stuff then we might've gotten further, but we can try again tomorrow-"
"Forget it! I'll fix it since you don't help with anything!", anger took place now, not just the anger of recent events, but the anger he held onto and kept in a bottle, " You're the reason I'm small in the first place, did you forget that? We can't get anywhere because you have so much trouble listening, you can't follow basic instructions!"
"You're not making it any easier you know, with all your fancy words and your technobabble!"
"I'm not making it easier? Maybe I'm not, even though you are the one who doesn't understand basic science and how mechanics work, but you aren't helping at all! You never have, all you do is show up only to disappear without even saying goodbye, then you just come back like nothing happened! I went back for you, I went back to help you, but what happened? I got captured while you vanished to who knows where! You only cause trouble, you don't help, you never have!"
Sonic went silent, guilt taking over his features the more Nine spoke, and as the kit did, tears began to flow down the child's face. Tears of anger and abandonment, that he caused. After Nine was done the only thing hear was the pants and sniffles from the now broken-down fox.
For a while, nothing happened, until Nine jolted in surprise as the fingers holding him in place lifted him up, and pressed him against a wall of soft fur, a faint and fast throbbing buried within it. Sonic's fingers moved to gently pet the sobbing fox lovingly.
Nine froze, having not expected to be hugged with such care, to be comforted in such a genuine way. He listened to the calming heartbeat of his only friend. But the dam soon broke down completely, he grasped the peach fur and sobbed into it, relishing the gentle touch of the fingers rubbing his head.
As he did, Sonic finally spoke.
"I'm sorry Nine. I didn't know you'd-I didn't think that - I'm so sorry I made you feel that way, I should've never - if I knew I would never have left. But I won't do it again, I promise. I-", the hedgehog choked, "I'm so sorry. I want to help you Nine, from now on. I'll get you back to normal, I promise. I don't want you to feel abandoned or hurt. I will help you, I won't leave you alone again, I-I promise."
Sonic paused as he heard no response, and looking down he saw the tiny kitsune had fallen asleep, his tiny chest rising and lowering rhythmically. The urchin chuckled softly, giving the tiny child a light squeeze, holding his carefully and gently in his cupped hands, then moved to get to bed. After wandering about he found the kit's bed on the second floor accessible via a ladder. Getting there, he put the kit on the pillow, carefully putting the blankets over him, succeeding in not waking the child. He gently rubbed the kit's head with his finger once more, chuckling softly when the fox murmured softly and leaned into his caring touch.
He eventually found a couch and drifted off himself. The next morning, they eventually found a way to reverse the effects, and things went to normal after that, but the child was slightly more open and affectionate, just a bit. And Sonic made sure to care for the kit and keep him company.
They were both happy. Even if both of them knew it wouldn't last forever. Even if neither of them knew the true effects of the world around them, they were trapped in a painful cycle, one that might affect the universe itself.
But they were happy. And at that time, that was all that mattered.