Forgive me. I am so hyped that the Ken Penders recently shouted me out for this article, and it really took me back to one of the happiest periods of my life, when I was online even more than I am now, and still learning what it meant to be in a fandom. Offline, I was struggling with my mental health and not getting along with a lot of people at my vicious and toxic girls school, but when I got home I would spend most of the night in another world, near-addicted to the internet, and making friends from all over the world. Sonic The Hedgehog introduced me to fan community. It was a very special and beautiful time.

When the cursed Sonic Movie trailer dropped in 2019, outsiders were perplexed and bemused that people in their late twenties and thirties were so outraged by Sonic’s design. Skits were made about adults cajoling a massive Hollywood studio to change their anthropomorphic hedgehog or else. Likewise, when all the dust settled two years later and the same fans made irreverent jokes about Idris Elba’s Knuckles being sexy, there was mild discomfort from observers.

Sonic is, in essence, a children’s franchise. I remember watching Adventures Of… and eating Sonic ice creams back in the nineties. When my older sisters used to play Sonic 2 in two-player mode on the Mega Drive, it certainly looked like a colourful, fun game for children, which is why I was always so pissed that they never let me play.

But even at Sonic’s launch, it was geared for the older cool kid; the teens, or people who wanted to be older and cool and discard the overly safe, family friendly games that already dominated the scene. And so from the outset, Sonic had universal appeal. Thus, Sonic fans got older, went online in the early 2000s, and created a community. Forums and fanfic and fanart and RPGs and fangames and fan comics grew in abundance, and before long, it no longer felt like a game about woodland creatures, but something with deep lore, high stakes, and multi-layered characters. Media spinoffs as found in Archie and Fleetway only contributed to this, and none of it seemed silly. It was powerful.

So as I was watching this video about the Sonic fandom from Super Eyepatch Wolf a few months ago, I was struck by how meaningful it was when fans created their own Sonic characters with heart-breaking backstories and illustrious designs, and why the fanfics just went so hard, reading like intricately-plotted novels, and why adult webcomics heavily utilised the Sonic designs and no one thought it was inappropriate. It’s because those same kids from the nineties didn’t discard Sonic, but brought him with them, modifying his image as was needed.

I’m totally giving myself away here, but there was one forum I frequented when I was 11-13 that was probably the biggest Sonic forum on the web at the time. It was a rival for The Sonic Stadium (which I am so happy still exists today). Grown adults visited this forum as mods, admins, and regular members. Two long-term users even got married—I literally remember seeing their engagement post and wishing them well. Jon Gray was a mod there and one day he posted a heartfelt farewell because he was leaving to become a full time artist—and draw for Archie Sonic. As I said, big grown people with full time jobs, paying rent, having kids and getting married, were engaging in debates with me, a swotty thirteen year old with a silly username who thought she knew everything about the world. But none of that mattered. Somehow, it worked because we shared a community.

And Jon Gray wasn’t the only person who used his fandom membership to engage with Sonic in a new way that was fitting with his growing age and skillset: Christian Whitehead went from making fangames and ports to actually working with Sega to give us Sonic Mania. Tyson Hesse, the man behind the memeable Sonic webcomics, became the chief consultant for the movie’s redesign, and he’s been one of the artists behind some of the most important games and media content in an official capacity for several years.

Sonic is uniquely ageless. He’s one of those characters that anyone can look upon fondly—either through the lens of oldhead nostalgia or with the eyes of a bright pre-teen using their pocket money to buy their first videogame. It’s telling that both children and adults were passionate about the movies, and no matter what happens, Sonic just won’t go away: the franchise had its own special slot at The Game Awards 2021, and people (me) stayed up way into the early hours to watch the Frontiers trailer live. We’re getting yet another TV show spin off: the hotly anticipated Sonic Prime, seemingly one of the few animated shows to survive the Netflix chopping block. Right now, it’s an amazing time to be a Sonic fan. It’s like a renaissance: new games, a successful film franchise, TV shows, and a generation of new fans to contribute to the community.

And there won’t be a need to grow out of it, because Sonic will grow with you.