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Baby's First OTP
🕑 Added 2020-04-16 11:22:54 +0000 UTCi caught this (really thoughtful) youtube analysis on the bizarre development of sonic the hedgehog as a cultural icon, and it reminded me that i had a HUGE sonic phase as a kid
like i'm talking fanart, horrible OCs, the works. I played the games and even read those shitty Ken Penders comics. I printed out cool fanart at the school library and slipped it into my binder covers. Oh lord, I was that kid.
This recent rush of nostalgia (and cringe) inspired me to doodle something to satisfy my frothing inner eleven year old. Here it is! Baby's first OTP.
As a kid raised Baptist and growing up in the American South, my only exposure to queerness was my mom furiously complaining about it being unnatural and a one-way ticket to the lake of fire. So I was a good little kid and politely absorbed my television provided heternormative media. Boy meet girl, boy save girl, boy win girl. Okay, fine.
I remember one day though, browsing unmonitored on the internet- I stumbled across a bit of fanart showing Sonic not making goo-goo eyes at Amy Rose, his designated female love interest- but Knuckles. A boy.
A boy. Liking a boy. Kissing a boy? Loving a boy?? This was a thing? This was allowed?
Was there other art like this? Boys with boys and girls with girls? Being with each other, liking each other, being natural and good and tender and wholesome, more fulfilling than the bland hetero stuff I'd been fed all my life, exciting even, something I wanted for myself? Was that possible? Could that be? Maybe? Could playing with these characters, these romances, these stories- give me room to explore aspects of myself I'd never been safe to examine?
Oh, the gates had been thrown open, dear readers. And I was never looking back.
tl;dr: furry technicolor rodents made me gay, just like the bible warned against
tl;dr: my sonic is gay and trans and loves Knuckles, who is a hothead but also hella gay and very tender and sweet to his bf so long as the master emerald isn't in danger
Comments
PrincessMuffinArt
I am just seeing this now, and I wonder, who do you see Amy with?
forthehonor-ofgayskull
I loved the Sonic cartoons as a kid. I also was the kid who printed out artwork of my special interest and put it on my binder.
Haley Kuntz
Aaaahh this makes me feel so much better about myself. I learned to draw by tracing the Sonic Adventure 2 game guide and I was also that kid. Sonic forum roleplays, crappy OCs, fanfics and crazy fanart galore. I think more people went through this phase than will actually admit it.
D
Hilariously enough, this reminded me that my possible first ship was Sonic and Tails!! (I didn’t understand the age difference back then). I didn’t even understand I was shipping, I just wanted Sonic to rescue his fox love from peril and hold him close and go on romantic flights with his tots platonic bff. I too grew up insanely religious and had so little exposure to gay that I didn’t understand why the thought of the two made me happy 🥺 Thanks for the memory! This made my morning
Heather
Ooooooooh maigod your description of finding your first gay otp was so very much like finding mine (Iruka and Kakashi from Naruto). It just...completely opened me eyes to a different world and set me on my long ass exploration of fandom, pairings, and sexuality. To this day I look back on that discovery very fondly cause it helped shape who I am today. And, I too, went through a Sonic phase though I am loath to admit that I was the kid that got swept up in Shadow madness. Good Lord did young me love that edge lord goth hedgehod. Though Knuckles was a close second :)
