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    Sonic the Hedgehog

    Character » appears in 177 games

    Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the world's most famous video game characters and the mascot of Sega Enterprises Ltd. Sonic was introduced on June 23 1991 with the launch of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis. His super speed makes him one of the fastest fictional characters.

    Sonic is actually a porcupine, right?

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    savutano

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    #51  Edited By savutano

    He's actually a combination of the two, visually that's clear, but also porcupines don't roll up in to balls, so...

    Edit: well, I guess porcupines do roll up in to balls, my bad.

    No Caption Provided

    I did the same search for hedgehogs.

    No Caption Provided

    I still feel, visually, he's a combination of both, long quills on the the back, but the colour change for his soft belly/inner regions, expressive eyebrows. Since it seems we eat porcupines, and I don't want to eat Sonic (not that I could catch him), he must then be ruled a hedgehog. So say we all.

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    notnert427

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    I adore the new life this thread has received.

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    BonelessSpirit

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    Are the Sonic comics considered to be canon though? Can we promote extended universe lore as our basis of evidence? IS THIS ALLOWED?!

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    Zripwud

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    But they are both so slow...

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    gkhan

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    @zripwud said:

    But they are both so slow...

    I mean, yes, but of the two, porcupines are way faster.

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    development

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    @sethmode: Yup, there is a reason why we keep seeing underwater levels in those games. Sonic just needs to get clean... hrmm... I think I have a new idea for some Slash Fiction.

    Sonic Unleashed, subtitle: Sonic Just Needs to Get Clean

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    notnert427

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    #57  Edited By notnert427
    @monetarydread said:

    @sethmode: Yup, there is a reason why we keep seeing underwater levels in those games. Sonic just needs to get clean... hrmm... I think I have a new idea for some Slash Fiction.

    Sonic Unleashed, subtitle: Sonic Just Needs to Get Clean

    GOTTA GET MY FIX
    GOTTA GET MY FIX

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    sawnek-sped

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    #58  Edited By sawnek-sped

    @savutano: HOLY ELIZABETH ALEXANDRA MARY WINDSOR! I didn't know us humans ate porcupines! Guess I shouldn't be surprised. Human beings can eat all sorts of weird stuff.

    It seems that many still don't understand, so I'll send another wave.

    The guy at the top of this second page mentioned how Sonic rolls, which hedgehogs do, but porcupines don't. As I've said before, Sonic's flagship skill is to roll up into a ball to attack. Hedgehogs do the same thing to defend themselves, but porcupines don't, all they do is to pull up their quills. The closest thing a porcupine can do to that, is becoming a bunch of meatballs.

    Another thing: even though the quills of a porcupine do have a similarity with Sonic's, everything else is not. Porcupines have a round and kind of flat face, along with a large tail. None of those align with Sonic's appereance: round body (classic/original design), thin limbs, short/medium sized quills*, and a pointy nose. Those are characteristics that a hedgehog has: thin limbs, pointy nose, round body and short quills.

    *:(original design/modern design)

    Another guy doubted about considering the comics canon. The thing with this case is that it doesn't need to be canon. The mere existance of a porcupine character, Spike the Porcupine, in the franchise, even if he's from the comics, confirms that there is a difference between a hedgehog and a porcupine in the Sonic franchise.

    Yet another guy said "But they are both so slow...", and I decided to investigate about the speed of a hedgehog and a porcupine, and the results were interesting. The guy that started this forum and states that Sonic is a porcupine said that hedgehogs are "famously slow", while porcupines were fast, agile, and able to take on many predators (this last one is irrelevant, honestly). He linked a video that supposedly shows a leopard trying to take on a porcupine at high speeds, which would prove his statement right, and mine wrong. The video proved nothing. It did show a leopard trying to take on a porcupine, but they didn't even run. This is all that happens: Both animals walk around. Leopard tries to "attack". Porcupine pulls quills up. Leopard backs up. Repeat. This proves nothing else other than the porucpine's ability to defend itself, which is totally irrelevant to the current topic.

    The results of my investigation were these:

    You said porcupines are fast and agile, but the info. says otherwise. According to my information, the speed of a porcupine is around 3-4 kph (2mph), whereas hedgehogs make bursts of speed at 9.5 kph. Even if that was wrong (because it could be, I don't think hedgehogs are THAT fast), it would just mean that porcupines and hedgehogs are equally as fast, both of them running at 2-4 mph. You want proof? Here's a video of a porcupine running:

    Loading Video...

    I've seen hedgehogs that run as fast as that. Porcupines are also sedentary. Sure, not as much as hedgehogs, but they still are slow-moving creatures. Another thing: porucpines are WAY fatter (yes, I mean, fatter, not faster) that hedgehogs. They would seem a lot more fitting to to name "fat pieces of garbage".

    Summarizing it, I'm saying hat porucpines don't look like Sonic aside their quills. They are not "way faster than hedgehogs", and nothing you said explains the fact that Spike the Porcupine, a porucpine character who looks different from Sonic, exists in the Sonic franchise. Also, the "hedgehogs roll like Sonic, while porcupines don't" thing should already give a good reason why Sonic is a hedgehog and not a porcupine

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