#I mean I'm a Sonadow shipper too. I just want everyone to relax. This stress is going lead everyone into an early grave.

[jouska-the-deer]

The Sonic Twitter Takeover and Sonadow

I was originally going to make an angry rant about this subject because I seriously have some anger issues I need to figure out, but I’ve since cooled down with a hot cup of tea and decided to try and come at this from a level-headed point of view. 

So on Friday, there was a Twitter Takeover where Mike Pollock, Roger Craig Smith, and Kirk Thornton responded to people’s questions on the Sonic Twitter as Eggman, Sonic, and Shadow respectively. Most of the responses were well received and generally found to be funny, but a couple responses have caused some people to become upset. I just thought I’d try and explain what went on for everyone who is either upset, upset that people are upset, or just completely and utterly confused as to what’s happening. I’d also like to say what I think about this situation.

First of all, here are the responses I was referring to:

https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/926534883421196288

https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/926552296158199808

I’ve decided to also type down exactly what the characters said in those Tweets so everything is clear and easy to understand for everybody. 

First Tweet

Shadow: Oh, this is a good one. At JoannaWhiteRose asks, “to Sonic, I have a challenge for you. Tell me how much you like Amy, and what you like in her.”

Eggman: Oh yeah, Sonic, tell us what you like about that other hedgehog, Amy.

Sonic: No, no, guys can we j- c-can we just not do this right now. I mean- I mean there’s lots of other questions like-

Shadow: (In an incriminating tone) What Sonic? Are you embarrassed? 

Eggman: (Laughs) He’s totally embarrassed. Oh! I just got a message here from Infinite. It’s a file called, “Son-a-dow”

Sonic: (Urgently) No don’t open that!

Second Tweet

Eggman: Cassidy12 0 5 ... that’s a lot of numbers now, asks, “Shadow, what do you think about, Sonadow.” 

Shadow: One word Cassidy, “No.”

In the first Tweet, Shadow and Eggman make fun of Sonic by accusing him of being embarrassed, then Eggman gets sent the file titled, “Sonadow”. Sonic immediately tells him to not open the file in an urgent tone. During the entirety of the response, it can be guessed that Sonic was extremely embarrassed, given the way he was talking, and likely became more embarrassed when Eggman received the Sonadow file since he already knew what Sonadow was, and Shadow was standing next to him. 

In the second Tweet, Shadow is simply asked what he thinks about Sonadow, and he replies simply, “No.” He doesn’t say much(duh) but it can be guessed that he doesn’t like Sonadow. And again, he was standing right next to Sonic.

It can be easily seen that these Tweets share a common theme of Sonadow being brought up, and a character displaying a negative reaction to it. From what I’ve seen, what has most people upset is the fact that Sonadow is a gay ship, and the fact that the characters respond negatively to the mention of it can insinuate a negative opinion on being gay in general. Another reason I’ve seen for people being upset about these Tweets is that the characters’ negative responses to Sonadow can insinuate a negative opinion on the ship itself. 

I’d like to mention that the voice actors likely did not have much to do with the creation of the responses they gave. As Aaron Webber said in this Tweet: “We have teams reading, writing, recording, editing, and finally responding for every tweet we post.” Mike Pollock, Roger Craig Smith, and Kirk Thornton were likely handed a script that a team of writers wrote and had little say in what their responses would be.

Now that I’ve said that, I’d like to get to what everyone’s been saying, that those Tweets were homophobic and/or against Sonadow shippers. Keep in mind that I’m only discussing those two Tweets and that I’m trying my best to see things from everyone’s point of view. 

Alright. Do I think those Tweets were homophobic? 

No. In order for something to be homophobic, it has to show a dislike or prejudice against gay people, and nowhere do I see anything along those lines. All the discomfort the characters show is for the ship Sonadow, which, while it is a gay ship, I don’t believe that fact is the reason the characters are showing discomfort. The most likely cause for Sonic and Shadow’s dislike of the ship is that they are a part of it. From their points of view, they are being shipped with their rival, who is standing with them in the current moment. From personal experience, it is extremely embarrassing and uncomfortable when people talk about you and your friend being romantically involved, especially if you’re uncomfortable with the idea of romance in general, which Sonic and Shadow likely are. 

Now, I understand why people would think these Tweets are homophobic. Sonadow is a gay ship after all, and out of all the questions they could have answered, they chose two Sonadow questions to answer and wrote the characters having a negative response to them. 

One, I believe that they shouldn’t have chosen any shipping related questions to answer, especially any related to LGBT ships since they are an especially touchy subject for people. The shipping community can get very heated, and I think it would be best if they didn’t mess with it, for both their sakes and the community’s. But, I doubt they had any ill intentions by picking those questions to answer. It’s most likely that they saw those questions as an opportunity to make a joke that Sonic fans could laugh at, and didn’t think about how it could be negatively received. 

Two, I don’t believe these Tweets show they have a negative opinion of gay people at all. The negative responses that Sonic and Shadow gave were likely written like that to keep them in character, and I’d bet that if one of them was a girl and Sonadow was a straight ship, they still would have responded the same way since their discomfort wasn’t about Sonadow being a gay ship. I do understand that many people are very connected to this ship, but I doubt that any of the writers meant to personally attack them, or anyone who is gay.

Next. Do I think those Tweets were against Sonadow shippers?

Again, no. Not really. I mean, the Tweets only consisted of the characters reacting to questions. Of course they’d react negatively. Imagine knowing that thousands of people on the internet draw pictures of you and your friend kissing(and doing other stuff). Wouldn’t that make you at least a little uncomfortable? Well, I guess for some people it wouldn’t, but for a lot of people, it would. I think Sonic and Shadow’s reactions made sense for their characters given the situations they were in. 

I guess you could say that responding to Sonadow questions negatively at all is where it could feel like they’re against shippers, but again, I’m betting that they just chose those questions because they saw an opportunity to make a joke for the fans to enjoy. Nothing malicious. It’s like one of those things where the characters portrayed don’t necessarily represent the views of the people running the whole thing. 

Also, making jokes about certain ships is not something new that they’ve done. They’ve made fun of Sonic’s relationship with Elise many times in the past, and Sonic has constantly been shown to dislike Amy’s advances towards him. Heck, there was an episode of Sonic Boom (Spoilers for “The Biggest Fan”)that parodied Stephen King’s Misery where Sonic was held hostage by a crazy fan named Mark the Tapir and forced to read his fanfiction with him. One of the fics that was brought up was a Sonamy fic, which Mark said he didn’t like but felt was “obligatory in the genre”. I doubt that in any of those cases they meant personal offense to any Sonic fans that enjoyed those ships and only wanted to make lighthearted jokes. 

In conclusion

I don’t believe those Tweets were homophobic, and they were likely not intended to be seen as personal attacks on Sonadow shippers or gay people. 

Yes, Sonic and Shadow probably don’t like the idea of Sonadow, but considering that it involves people drawing and writing them being in romantic situations together, it’s understandable why they feel that way. And that has nothing to do with the ship being gay since they would have likely reacted the same way for any ship they’re involved in gay or not. Also, I don’t believe that their opinions are definitely shared by the people who wrote them. 

Those questions were likely chosen to be answered because it was an opportunity to make jokes and have fun, but I feel like it wasn’t a good idea to pick them due to how intense the shipping community can be and the fact that it’s easy to offend someone when dealing with LGBT subjects. 

Overall, I think a lot of people could have handled this situation better. The Sonic Twitter shouldn’t have dipped its toes into Sonadow or shipping in general since shipping is a very personal subject for many people, and some Sonadow shippers could have taken the Tweets a little less personally since it isn’t likely that the Sonic Twitter would try and attack its fans. 

And whether you ship Sonic with Shadow, Amy, delicious chili dogs, or all of the above, as long as you’re being nice and not hurting anybody, don’t let anything stop you from having fun.