SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

Sonic and Shadow the Hedgehogs my Favorite Guys but I am SO BAD AT VIDEO GAMES!!!! I've tried to play a couple myself and I usually get irreparably stuck at like, level 2, I truly have abysmal hand-eye coordination and can never remember what the right buttons are :( So thank g-d for people who upload no commentary gameplay videos onto YouTube! My favorite games are probably Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), and Sonic Frontiers. I also really enjoyed Sonic and the Black Knight and Sonic Adventure. The most recent Sonic X Shadow Generations is still on my watchlist, though -- I was torn for a while on whether I wanted to get it myself, but frankly I know I'll never beat it in one million years lmao, so I decided to just save my money.

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is my favorite out of the cartoon series, with Sonic X as the runner-up. I've watched some of the 90s Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, some of Sonic Boom, and the first season of Sonic Prime (the third season kind of lost me a little for some reason). I've also really enjoyed the IDW comics, and have been looking for a place to read the Archie comics as well.

Sonic and Shadow are probably my favorites out of the bunch, Knuckles is a very close second, and then third is tied for Amy and Tails. I love all of them so much, it's really hard to pick a favorite -- depending on the day, they all shift in and out of the number one spot honestly lol.

I have a lot of disability headcanons for these guys as well, because of course I do :3 Knuckles, Shadow, and Sonic are all very autistic to me (Amy and Tails as well, frankly. Sonic franchise was tailor-made for autistics everywhere, to me). Frontiers also gave me a very intense affection for Sonic with Chronic Fatigue, not least because that game came out in the midst of a pretty bad flare-up for me, and so his increasing exhaustion and brain fog throughout the game struck deeply close to home lol. I have also written some Chronically Ill Shadow as well, and love love love the Shadow the Hedgehog game for the Android-ending that is SO beautifully Brainweird to me <3

Huge amount of fondness for the Nonverbal!Sonic headcanon as well, I love the idea of him using primarily sign language to communicate for a huge portion of his life, and the notion that he still loses speech here and there when he gets especially worn out. I also like the idea that Sonic has a tendency to curl himself up into a ball when he gets frustrated / overwhelmed. I think that he's got a special interest in nature, is really good at identifying plants and usually has a bunch of grasses and flowers stuck in his quills -- partially becuase he just runs/rolls through them a lot, but also because he goes ahead and dries them for a collection when he finally gets around to digging them out of there. One thing I did really like about Prime is that the way they wrote the social-conflict aspect of the plot really felt like Low Empathy moments to me, which I really appreciated! I like the idea that Sonic is someone who likes to get along with people and does a lot to make sure that other people are protected, but also doesn't really Get their emotions or thought processes and finds the notion of being forced to care kind of aggravating. So many people miss the mark on understanding low empathy and just write characters being unrepentent jackasses, so I'm particularly fond of Sonic as a low empathy character :3c

This one's just purely self-indulgent but I also really like the idea of Sonic having ARFID issues. Knows he probably needs to branch out into eating 'healthier' foods, but really resents it when people hound him about it, and always defaults back to chili-dogs because they're Number One safe-food and actually filling. I actually think it's kind of fun to think about Tails not actually being a very picky-eater, but Sonic isn't any better at coming up with alternative foods for other people than he is at coming up with them for himself (another low empathy moment) and so still defaults to the exact same meals every day, but because he Does know that eating healthy is important for growing kids, he also like, kind of resentfully crushes up vitamins to add to the electrolyte mixes he adds to their water.

Also, Sonic isn't someone who can do anything to modulate his stimming behaviors, and doesn't really care to put the effort into trying (although, I think that even if he did Try, it wouldn't really make a difference). Constant swaying, rocking, shifting no matter what, and really prone to big unexpected hopping and flapping when he's feeling big emotions (both positive and negative). I also kind of like the idea that there's a lot of Practice behind his more coordinated movements (jumps, spins, leaps, etc.) and it's not really something that is a Natural skill, which is why there can be a big disparity between his agility in certain moves and his tendency to fall flat on his face a bunch. He's naturally kind of clumsy, but put a lot of work into developing better body control and coordination :3!

I also really, really love transfem!Sonic headcanons; they are so delightful to me.

sonadokismesis

shadow the hedgehog looks like that bc he was made to cater to the interests of a 12yo girl. hes a weapon of mass destruction but hes also her guardian and a little guy thats why hes so silly looking like an emo carebear. "shadow is a cartoon hedgehog bc hes based on ancient murals" my ass. if u were a preteen wouldnt u want to customize your personal care aide to be a cool looking anthro cartoony animal with stripes and eyeliner and spiky hair? yeah thats what i thought

autisticshadowthehedgehog

the good episodes of aosth make such a good comfort show. sonic will be like "im the funniest man alive. if anything happens to tails im killing everyone on this planet. don't get in a washing machine"

pand1on

what makes Shadow so good is that he's made of love. obviously his initial creation was due to Gerald's love for Maria, but more importantly his continued existence and his purpose come from Maria's love for the world. yes he's edgy and weird and cringe but his love for a little girl who wanted to see the world is what recreated him after his proverbial and literal falls, and I will NEVER be normal about that

sonknuxadow

so sad that knuckles usually gets left out of who is the most autistic sonic character type conversations . have none of you seen him

libelelle

number one thing to remember when characterizing sonic is that hes cool. hes a cool guy. second is he has a kind heart