#i may be queer and nd but i also like sonic for 'haha good music' and stuff

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

sonic (the franchise) is about so many things and one of them is giant found family. their family tree of blood relatives is a single name, while the family tree of who they consider family is everywhere. diagonal lines, little notes of 'she's my sister and he's my brother but they aren't siblings to each other', little scribbles of '(actually blood related)', colour coded stems to demonstrate different relationships (some of these stems are multicoloured), all in a big jumbled up mess that's impossible to decipher but makes sense to them.

thats why sonic is insperable from queerness and other communities of those shunned and forced to live underground*. thats why sonic is inseparable from acceptance and diversity.

*i mean theres a whole show about that

and at the end of the day, that's what draws a lot of people to sonic. us queers like it for the afformentioned found family aspect, with found families across the world having been vital to our survival in the past. in particular, us trans people like it for the complete nonconformist attitudes to basically everything. us disabled people like it because half the characters can very easily be read as disabled (particularly neurodivergent). racial minorities, poorer people, almost any group faced by oppression can be drawn to it for its general anti-capitalist, pro-acceptance views. for anyone wondering what capitalism has anything to do with it, that's a whole other rant, but to keep it concise: oppression divides the poor, therefore capitalism thrives on it.

was this always the intention? probably not. hell, is that even always the intention now? again, maybe not. but finding meaning in something that didn't have it in the first place is such a great thing, and i do believe that in a large portion of what has been made, this has been the overarching meaning, to some extent. and yes it's just a game about a really fast hedgehog; yes, it's just a property meant to get kids to beg their parents to spend money; but anything ever can be about so much more, depending on who you ask, and that includes sonic.