Has there been anything from Sonic that has genuinely scared you?

[IHaveACaseOfSonicMania]

For me, it's these things. The one that is the least scary is Mimic, the one that is most scary to me is The End.

Edited January 7 by Ryannumber1gamer
Edited to adjust the image sizes so they aren't so big.

[Lorekitten]

Okay, that last one gives me the unsettling impression of something out of Poppy Playtime.

[ShadowForever]

Well, I don't think Sonic stuff can be scary to me, but yes, The End gives me a bit stressful vibes. He's cute tho

[Maple Syrup]

What the SNICKERDOODLES is that last one!? Its giving me nightmares!

[IHaveACaseOfSonicMania]

18 minutes ago, Lorekitten said:

Okay, that last one gives me the unsettling impression of something out of Poppy Playtime.

 

2 minutes ago, Maple Syrup said:

What the SNICKERDOODLES is that last one!? Its giving me nightmares!

Do you mean Dark Gaia or Mimic?

[Maple Syrup]

Just now, IHaveACaseOfSonicMania said:

Do you mean Dark Gaia or Mimic?

WHAT. THAT IS DARK GAIA. GOD.

[Lorekitten]

2 minutes ago, IHaveACaseOfSonicMania said:

 

Do you mean Dark Gaia or Mimic?

Dark Gaia, definitely. I knew it existed, but I had no idea it was literal nightmare fuel.

[IHaveACaseOfSonicMania]

Just now, Maple Syrup said:

WHAT. THAT IS DARK GAIA. GOD.

Honestly, when he transformed in Perfect Dark Gaia, that really scared me when I saw that clip on YouTube.

1 minute ago, Lorekitten said:

Dark Gaia, definitely. I knew it existed, but I had no idea it was literal nightmare fuel.

Then that means after looking at your first reply...

HUGGY WUGGY CAUGHT IN SONIC UNLEASHED OMG!!! NOT CLICKBAIT! 

Honestly, looking at the head shape I see it, and it disturbs me.

[Lorekitten]

Probably the one thing about the Sonic franchise that genuinely scares me as an adult is that when I'm reading 'Bad Guys' and/or 'Impostor Syndrome,' I can entirely understand why the other characters buy Starline's manipulations. The guy is a complete and utter monster, but he's handsome, charismatic, and well-spoken enough to almost fool anyone who isn't Rough and Tumble into believing he's on the level. Honestly, the main reason Mimic and Zavok didn't fall for it was because they themselves were intelligent and treacherous enough to recognize one of their own speaking their native tongue.

It's worse for Surge and Kit though. They were literally brainwashed children being psychologically manipulated by their own father figure as tools to be used and abused at his whim. It's honestly kind of disappointing that Starline met his end through a collapsing interstate and Surge never got the chance to do it to him first. (Not that I'm condoning that sort of behavior, but from a narrative standpoint, it would've been more fitting.)

Starline is freaking terrifying.

[Ghelatlishol]

When I was younger, the secret menus on Sonic CD used to scare the life out of me. There's something about classic Sonic that makes him easy to turn dark...I'm not sure what it is. But the wealth of effective creepypastas (if those are still a thing) says a lot about that. And the Game Over themes are effectively scary to a little kid (now they're just annoying.)

I was disturbed by the level of destruction in Sonic Adventure that Chaos made in Station Square. I don't know what SEGA has to say about it, but that's pretty much everyone dead based on the level of destruction he caused (never mind the crowd shouting Sonic's name like it's an arena fight...)

And of course, the prospect of blowing up a planet (SA2 or Star Wars) doesn't scare me as much as the thought: you can't escape that fate. To know you've got a matter of seconds to live before an overwhelming power takes you and everyone else out...like ants swept away by a flood of water. That scene from The Force Awakens just gives me horrible feelings (very effective to show the people actually panicking instead of just the planet exploding.) 

[Kaotic Kanine]

Of all the things in this franchise, the only one that has ever truly scared me is Erazor Djinn's transformation into Alf Layla wa-Layla. I mean, just look at this!

Spoiler

 

That is some of the most gruesome body horror I've ever seen in a kid-friendly video game. And it's not helped at all by the sound of his flesh contorting in the actual cutscene, with Erazor screaming in agony! Very well deserved, given how much of an evil monster he was, but still...

[IHaveACaseOfSonicMania]

5 minutes ago, Kaotic Kanine said:

Of all the things in this franchise, the only one that has ever truly scared me is Erazor Djinn's transformation into Alf Layla wa-Layla. I mean, just look at this!

  Reveal hidden contents

 

That is some of the most gruesome body horror I've ever seen in a kid-friendly video game. And it's not helped at all by the sound of his flesh contorting in the actual cutscene, with Erazor screaming in agony! Very well deserved, given how much of an evil monster he was, but still...

I was actually considering putting this bit on the list, but I don't remember my reaction to first seeing this cutscene. But I think it did make my gut feel uneasy.

[castell-neath]

A human princess kissing an anomorphic hedgehog. This was pretty scary as I wondered where the hell are we at in society.

...And then off the back of this there was the news about Sonic being one of the top things on Pornhub that was mentioned on here before Christmas.

Lol

 

[Lorekitten]

If we want to talk about terrifying human/anthro shippings...

Spoiler

I cannot unsee Starline having an obsessive crush on Eggman, and that disturbs me not because of the human/anthro aspect, but because Starline is a creepy stalker with no morals whatsoever and Eggman is an abusive brute who cares absolutely nothing for him. I'm not even sure if I can honestly say that either of them ever deserved better.

 

[cosmichaos]

Ken Penders is pretty scary

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

These bottomless pit underwater sections in chemical plant zone act 2 always terrified me. My mind would speculate on just what could be down there and how dark it is after sonic falls in it and dies. To this day, I've always became afraid of dark underwater places:

Edit: I now realize this is a screenshot from sonic mania. The one I'm talking about is from the original chemical plant zone act 2.

Edited January 6 by A super No.1 washedupgamer

[IHaveACaseOfSonicMania]

1 hour ago, A super No.1 washedupgamer said:

These bottomless pit underwater sections in chemical plant zone act 2 always terrified me. My mind would speculate on just what could be down there and how dark it is after sonic falls in it and dies. To this day, I've always became afraid of dark underwater places:

Edit: I now realize this is a screenshot from sonic mania. The one I'm talking about is from the original chemical plant zone act 2.

That sounds... dark. I never had the time to think about that. I don't think it's more areas to travel through, most of the time, so I just imagine... the core of the Earth.

Edited January 7 by IHaveACaseOfSonicMania

[Danj86]

Being older, the things that elicited fear for me are probably going to be very different to what you young fellows fear. So lets talk about them.

Drowning Theme:

As a child, it was always this music. Not even when the music plays does it elicit fear. The very prospect that it will play at any moment is enough to bring the fear. Well, more accurately, dread. Going into water? No worries. Being in there too long? Okay, now I'm a little worried. Drowning theme begins: Panic!! Lots of panic!!!

Even when you think you're safe, you aren't truly safe. Breathable air from the bubbles come out incrementally. You can still drown if the RNG doesn't threat you kindly. This might've been what my first experience of video game fear was. I once changed my ringtone to the drowning theme thinking it would provoke me to hurry when answering a call. That was a big mistake...

Next.

Hyudoro

Now we are in Sonic & Knuckles, playing as Sonic, I always hoped their was a way to playthrough Sandopolis without accidentally releasing these....."Hyudoro?" (I don't think I ever knew they had a name until now.) The fear that these create is basically the same as the drowning theme. It's a sense of dread as the lights go darker that turns into panic when the lights are fully off and the Hyudoro start to attack.

Compared to drowning, they are less dangerous but their creepy looks certainly added to that fear. But I have another from the very same zone and act.

Sand

With the threat of being crushed to death, the parts of Sandopolis Zone Act 2 in which you can only advance be releasing sand into the chamber to climb higher was another part that I was fearful of as a kid. Making mistakes on these parts can cost lives but on the bright side, the act only does this twice. If you have access to Super Sonic, you can skip one I believe but you still have the release the sand for the other. However, as Super, the sand crushing you wont be a factor. You might not even see the sand pile up.

When combined with Sonic 3, you also have the option of Tails so he can help skip this annoying trap, both of them easily.

These three are the only fears that come to mind in regards to Sonic. Sure, Perfect Chaos was ugly, King Boom Boo was bombastic and even chasing the missile before it takes off in Metal Harbour might've brought on something but they actually don't.

There is a large gap of years between Sonic & Knuckles release to Sonic Adventure and I'd grow to become less cowardly, but still retaining some significant cowardice. It is certainly possible other Sonic games have had moments of fear, I just can't recall them at the moment. It is common for large sea monsters to significantly creep me out, but those are not really a thing in the Sonic franchise. The closest thing might be the recurring Orca that try to kill Sonic.

Edited January 7 by Danj86

[Ryannumber1gamer]

5 hours ago, IHaveACaseOfSonicMania said:

For me, it's these things. The one that is the least scary is Mimic, the one that is most scary to me is The End.

@IHaveACaseOfSonicMania - Hey, just wanted to give a heads up as a bit of advice - while the site is fairly lenient with shorter replies to posts, we generally would like to have opening posts to topics have a bit more detail in order to prevent them from become spammy. Basically, what Guideline 4 has to say:

Quote

4. No Spamming. Make meaningful content; don’t disrupt things for others

Constantly posting short, low-quality content severely undermines the community environment, makes discussion look cheap and generally isn’t allowed here. Make sure you put effort into your posts, and that your point is understandable (in clear, well-written English language).

Making the odd typo is fine (it’s a fact of life), but we recommend you check grammar and punctuation from time to time so that you can be sure your content will be easily understood.

This rule applies to all kinds of user-generated content, not just forum posts. Constantly 'Reacting' to other user's content in an attempt to increase your Sonic Stadium User Rank will also be seen as Spamming, as it will constantly send unwanted notifications to other users.

We want to encourage discussion and meaningful conversation amongst the community, and it's especially important for the opening posts of topics to do so, as it will be those that encourage members to take part in the conversation and engage with the topic. If the opening post is very barebones, it sets a precedent for the rest of the topic and can result in people not wanting to really interact if they have to do the bulk of the conversation. Basically, you just wanna set the stage for the rest of the conversation and make a good example for everyone.

In this instance, you've noted three characters/entities in the series that has scared you, and that's a good base for a opening post, but rather than just stating their names, images, and then which ones scared you from most to least, you could explain why you find them so scary. What about Mimic makes you scared about him? What exactly about the End scares you and does so more than compared to Mimic, etc. Doing that would be a good way to buff out the OP.

Just keep in mind for future topics to try and make the OP more substantial, thanks in advance.

One more thing I should note is the images - I would advise shrinking them down a bit too in future - having multiple big images can cause loading problems on mobiles and tablets, slowing them if not causing the page to load up at all, and in general just looks bad on mobile as it can take a bit to scroll through them. 

Luckily, the site offers a resizing method built right in. If you click or tap a image two times in a row, it'll bring up a small drop down box where you can adjust the size from there, be sure to make use of it in order to resize your images accordingly (Generally recommended is about 200x200px). 

For now, I've gone ahead and made size adjustments to the images in the opening post to make it easier on mobile devices.

Again - want to reiterate that you aren't in trouble or anything like that, I just wanted to make you aware of all of this for the future, so thanks for reading.

[Maple Syrup]

3 hours ago, cosmichaos said:

Ken Penders is pretty scary

Man. Why does he exist.

1 hour ago, A super No.1 washedupgamer said:

These bottomless pit underwater sections in chemical plant zone act 2 always terrified me. My mind would speculate on just what could be down there and how dark it is after sonic falls in it and dies. To this day, I've always became afraid of dark underwater places:

Edit: I now realize this is a screenshot from sonic mania. The one I'm talking about is from the original chemical plant zone act 2.

I hate this! I could NEVER get past it! I hate when the stages are harder than the boss!(looking at ya press factory act 2!)

4 hours ago, castell-neath said:

A human princess kissing an anomorphic hedgehog. This was pretty scary as I wondered where the hell are we at in society.

...And then off the back of this there was the news about Sonic being one of the top things on Pornhub that was mentioned on here before Christmas.

Lol

 

No Please, I'm fine with Dark Gaia.

[IHaveACaseOfSonicMania]

The End

I found The End scary because when I played update 3, the way it looms over you during the final battle really gave off the power that it held. Not only that, but it's a moon, which doesn't sound like a lot but after hearing some terrifying audio of the atmosphere of planets, I felt a bit of fear for space, though not a lot. And even the final boss in the original ending made it scarier, the empty space in the background, just a few specks of light, it looked so lonely. And I love that its appearance can't be seen, it only appears as what you see death as. This kind of concept goes back to Ancient Mythology, like Zeus when he showed his true form to one of his lovers, turning her to ashes. This is also seen in works by H.P Lovecraft, the monsters' forms are so hideous that the will drive anyone insane, it gets you thinking what is so incomprehensible to the eye.

Mimic the Octopus

To me, Mimic is horrifying because of one simple reason, he's cold blooded and seems like a killer. Just that simple bit gets under my skin. But he didn't do what he did because of some loose cogs, he just did it out of greed, and that is simple enough. However, I didn't find him all too scary, I would say the fanart made him creepier.

[Lorekitten]

4 hours ago, castell-neath said:

...And then off the back of this there was the news about Sonic being one of the top things on Pornhub that was mentioned on here before Christmas.

I didn't think to mention this sooner, but Sonic... is a minor.

And also an anthropomorphic hedgehog, but I think the minor part is probably the more concerning.

[ChaosCTRL]

2 hours ago, Lorekitten said:

I didn't think to mention this sooner, but Sonic... is a minor.

And also an anthropomorphic hedgehog, but I think the minor part is probably the more concerning.

Sega did remove canon ages from the characters, so their current ages in the series are up for audience interpretation.
He is still a hedgehog though. Gross.

[Lorekitten]

14 hours ago, IHaveACaseOfSonicMania said:

To me, Mimic is horrifying because of one simple reason, he's cold blooded and seems like a killer. Just that simple bit gets under my skin. But he didn't do what he did because of some loose cogs, he just did it out of greed, and that is simple enough. However, I didn't find him all too scary, I would say the fanart made him creepier.

Ooh yeah. Possibly the most tense sequence in Bad Guys is where Dr. Starline is trying to remotely take over one of Eggman's bases from a computer in a room that he is certain that Mimic is hiding somewhere in and he's constantly in fear that he's going to get knifed in the back. The reader knows that Mimic's already flown the coop, but Starline doesn't. And a killer that you can't see coming is terrifying.

Honestly, the whole sequence where Starline's lackeys turn on him and have a knife against his throat was terrifying. Not like Starline didn't deserve it or anything, but the tension was as thick as peanut brittle. I actually felt sorry for the guy, despite the fact that he'd brought it on himself and if he had died there it would have been a net positive to the universe.

Edited January 7 by Lorekitten

[sonic_the_cuber]

18 hours ago, Kaotic Kanine said:

Of all the things in this franchise, the only one that has ever truly scared me is Erazor Djinn's transformation into Alf Layla wa-Layla. I mean, just look at this!

  Hide contents

 

That is some of the most gruesome body horror I've ever seen in a kid-friendly video game. And it's not helped at all by the sound of his flesh contorting in the actual cutscene, with Erazor screaming in agony! Very well deserved, given how much of an evil monster he was, but still...

GOD THAT IS CURSED