The Sonic the Hedgehog fanbase is a strange and difficult demographic, often unfairly reduced to their least charitable or most embarrassing representatives. The general ecosystem of fandom seems to make fools of many, but there’s something unique about the cultural negativity surrounding fans of the Blue Blur’s adventures.
There is a substantial contingent of theSonic fanbase that loved the characteras a kid and fell far away from its offerings over the past decade or two. Sonic is fundamentally a kids' property, aimed towards audiences in the general area of preschool to middle school. However, there’s a huge market for media that grew up with their audiences, and Sonic has not shaken off that demographic.
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Knuckles the Echidna isoften characterized as a physical powerhouse that lags behind the rest of the group in terms of wits. It’s a pretty common kids' show archetype. Sonic is the cool main character, Tails is his intelligent but cowardly sidekick, Amy is the heart, and Knuckles is the big guy. His earliest appearances were heavily built around him being gullible or easily misled. Later iterations of the character played up his lack of intelligence for comic relief. It wasn’t always particularly well-handled, but many of Knuckles' best moments come out of his lack of intelligence. TheSonic Boomanimated series arguably perfected this version of the character by both playing into his dumbest momentsand occasionally subverting themfor comedic gold. The new film plays into much of the same tone, but with a slightly different angle.
The Knuckles ofSonic the Hedgehog 2is, like Sonic, a visitor to Earth from a distant alternate world. He routinely misunderstands or misinterprets the new and strange customs of his new home, and most of this is played for comedic effect. He’s still confused most of the time, and he still has plenty of comedic lines, but he comes with a reasonable excuse this time.
He’s remarkably similar to characters like Drax the Destroyer from the MCU orStarfire fromTeen Titans. He’s from another culture that’s incompatible with the one he finds himself in, and he makes no significant effort to fit in, leaving him a fish out of water. Combine that with his stubborn and hard-headed nature, and he’s still delivering consistent comic relief. Many hardcore Sonic fans seem to see this version of the character as a significant improvement on the source material, but for a very strange reason.
Sweeping social media for takes on the new Knuckles will unveil that the animating philosophy behind many opinions isn’tjust love for Idris Elba, it’s hate for some other iterations. Fans decry the fact that older takes on Knuckles were only seen as “the dumb guy”, while this version seems to command much greater respect. Knuckles still plays the comic relief role for much of his screen time in the film, most of his place in the narrative is still driven by his gullible nature. The primary difference is that this version of the character has an understandable justification for his dumb moments, while the original is slow-witted as a primary character trait. Both characters are stubborn, hard-headed, and willfully ignorant at times. While the fanbase seems happy with the new Knuckles, their satisfaction unveils an interesting aspect of their enjoyment of the franchise.
Consider the somewhat overdone vectors for criticism when it comes to the Sonic franchise. Everyone has heard all the jokes aboutthe often terrible 3D games, some fans are even happy to laugh along. Fans love the characters that make up the franchise regardless of the quality of the content they’re in. The fandom will defend terrible games, shows, comics, and other pieces of media to the hilt if they portray their favorite characters in the right light.
Conversely, if a piece of media portrays one of the characters as less than flawless, that’s a mark against it in the eyes of many fans. This is aninteresting permutation of fandom. Tons of fanbases love their characters more than they love the works that originate them. Fandoms crop up around works that people seem to hate as if they intend to save their beloved icons. Something about the way Sonic fans enjoy their favorite property is incompatible with the existence of flawed characters.
A glance at any depiction of a Sonic character, evenone portrayed as the villain, doing something perceived as “out of character” is the cardinal sin a work can commit. In aSonic Team Racinganimation, Shadow loses a race and, dejectedly, steals popcorn from a small Chao. This hilarious show of poor sportsmanship is met with outrage by many fans. The Sonic fanbase can often be predictable, but their predilections and proclivities make them an interesting case of how fandom can develop. Perhaps years of being mocked fortheir favorite series hashardened them against any sort of pushback, leaving them needlessly defensive. Perhaps the appeal of the characters comes in the way Sonic is often depicted as infallible, and that desire has spilled out onto the rest of the cast.
Well-written characters must have flaws. Whether that flaw is selfishness, pettiness, or even a painfully slow wit, a character isn’t complete if they can do everything well. Sonic fans aren’t a monolith, but this strange case demonstrates one of the many aspects of the fandom that makes them unique. Thankfully, the creators holding the reins see the need to depict these characters as imperfect three-dimensional figures, regardless of how the fans react.
