Stay on target
Of all the video game mascot characters, none inspires the fanatical devotion that Sega’s quick-footed blue hedgehog does. Nobody ever maced a Gamestop employee because they changed the color of Mario’s arms, nobody ever started a Change.org petition because they changed Crash Bandicoot’s voice actor, nobody ever bombed a Wal-Mart because there was never a fourth Gex game. But Sonic fans are deeply into their character.
And when you have love, you have fan art. The Internet is home to literally millions of drawings of video game characters in all kinds of situations, and probably half of them involve Sonic in some way. If you tried to download every hedgehog on DeviantArt, you’d need a hard drive the size of a Sega Saturn to hold them all. Sonic fan art is a very big deal, and a lot of it is pretty freaking weird.
We went on a deep dive through the worlds of Twitter, Tumblr, and DeviantArt to dredge up some Sonic art that gave us all kinds of dark feelings. Page through the slideshow below if you dare and feel free to paste your own favorite examples into the comments, which we will never read because we value our sanity. Gotta go fast!
1. Sonic The Feedee
One of the things you'll notice right away is that Sonic fans love to blend the blue hedgehog with all kinds of other fetishes. In this example, Tails is the "feeder" working diligently to help Sonic get big with the aid of chili dogs.
2. Shadow Stripping
Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic's genetically engineered dark mirror, is the subject of a fair amount of fan art. He's often positioned as a more sexually adventurous figure, the top to Sonic's bottom. I wonder if using a stripper pole charges up your Spin Dash?
3. Cyborg Sonic
A big genre of Sonic fan art is "OC"s, or "original characters" - new anthropomorphic animals that fit into the video game universe. Most of these OCs are just clumsily re-colored versions of Sonic, Tails and the like, but some go flat-out nutty with the cyborg parts and such,
4. Sonic Lion King
Recoloring existing art is a big deal in the fan art community, as is blending two media properties together. Case in point: this deeply weird and clumsy Sonic / Lion King mash-up, which hurts the eyes to look at.
5. Shadow Praying
Religious Sonic fan art is another rich vein of weirdness. This one depicts Shadow and a Chao, both ludicrously muscled and packing some serious heat in their Speedos, taking a prayer break.
6. Chili Dogs
It's probably fair to say that at least some bad Sonic fan art is made ironically, as a joke. But think about this: we started this gallery with Tails feeding an obese Sonic chili dogs, and now we have another chili dog related image. There's obviously something deeper going on here that we don't have enough Chaos Emeralds to understand.
7. Sonic Shoes Meal
As you'd expect from a character who runs a lot, there is a disturbingly huge amount of Sonic foot fetish material out there. This odd piece of art mixes in a little humiliation and food into the mix, with the poor tan OC forced to eat dinner out of Sonic's toe cracks.
8. Sonic Gap Style
Drawing Sonic characters as more traditional anime protagonists is a pretty popular thing, especially if you're a horny teenager. One of the best things about this drawing is the Transformers-style power bars for their stats, revealing that neither hedgehog could make a saving throw vs. Sadness.
9. Take My Blood
What do you do after you've created your Sonic OCs? Why, tell melodramatic adventures with them in MS Paint, of course. This panel from what I'm sure is a thousand-page epic is notable for lots of things: hedgehog boobs, pants but no shirt, exposed belly button. But my favorite is the smear of turquoise used to represent tears.
10. Realistic Sonic
Some of the most upsetting Sonic fan art is where people take the low-detail cartoony style of the franchise and try to render things in a more realistic way. This here is a nightmare straight from the Upsidedown, with Sonic's rippling muscles only outdone by Tails' slavering face.
11. Tails Digesting
If you haven't been keeping up on your fetishes, you might not have heard of "vore." In brief, it's when you get off from the idea of being swallowed up and digested by another living thing. Needless to say, Sonic fandom is chock full of vore art, like this pic of Sonic and (presumably) the artist.
12. Weird 3D Vore
Sticking with the vore tip, we have an ineptly rendered 3D tableau featuring Amy Rose choking down some sort of cat with big titties as Sonic holds her belly admiringly. The blue guy looks a little off-model to me.
13. Sonic Crucified
Here's another religious tableau featuring Sonic nailed to a cross like Jesus in front of an approving audience of Link and Pikachu. The delicate black and white shading really lends an air of seriousness to it.
14. Bloody Pageviews
The sexual relationship between Sonic and Shadow is one that is explored across myriad pieces of art. I'm not 100% sure what's happening here: Sonic appears to be pregnant, and also feeding Shadow from her wrists with blood because Shadow is a vampire as well as a hedgehog. Cool stuff.
15. Real Sonic
What If Sonic And Eggman Were In Real World? We think it'd look a little something like this, and also the police would probably be called.
16. Sonic Nipples
For a lot of these fan artists, playing Sonic video games isn't enough. They want to hang out with the speedy hedgehog and his pals in the real world. That's how you get masterpieces like this, where a poor dude with three nipples has a very awkward pool party with Sonic and a buxom (and possibly bloody?) Amy Rose.
17. Sonic Simpsons
Why exactly somebody felt the need to recast the Simpsons as Sonic characters (or is it the other way around) is completely beyond me. I think Maggie probably comes out of this one the worst.
18. Mike The Hedgehog 9-11
There is a lot of Sonic 9-11 art. Like an insane amount. We could have done an entire gallery of Sonic 9-11 tributes but I didn't want to get too morbid. Special appearance here by OC "Mike The Hedgehog," who is basically Sonic but green.
19. Buff Sonic
Buff SonicWe typically think of Sonic as a lean, mean running machine, but some people like to draw him rippling with muscle. We can't see this dude being able to pull loop-de-loops with this build.
20. Sonic Urinals
Okay, we're stepping into the dark world now. Abandon all hope, ye who would enter here. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles have been transformed into urinals and they can't wait for you to fill their gaping mouths with hot piss.
21. Sonic Condoms
Sure, let's draw Knuckles, Sonic and Tails as condoms. Why not. What possible downside would there be to doing this?
22. Sonic Suicide
The idea of a suicide pact between Amy Rose and Sonic is something that we'd never even thought to consider. What really makes this difficult to deal with is the contrast between their expressions - Amy's cheerful acceptance of death juxtaposed with Sonic's creeping fear.
23. Sonic Toilet
That's it. I'm done. Peace out. I'll see you in the bleach tank.
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