Does Sonic have Super Strength to an extent?

[ShadowSJG]

I was watching the opening cutscene of Sonic Unleashed and during one part, he plows through a bunch of robots with his fist stuck out like they were nothing. So, I was wondering, does Sonic have limited super strength?

[Agie]

I would assume so. Especially since the robots in Unleashed weren't even the first ones; he already had plenty of experience with it by the time Unleashed came out.

[Lord-Dreamerz]

And sometimes Sonic can just break walls by walking into them. :v

 

[Tara]

The idea, I think, is that Sonic is so fast that it creates a huge impact.  When traveling at the right velocity, virtually anything can be destructive.  So basically, in a sense, yes, Sonic has some form of super strength, but not in the traditional, Superman-esque definition of the world.  It's not that he has highly-developed muscle mass or physical prowess, but that he uses his speed to his advantage.

This isn't always supported well by cutscenes and gameplay for a multitude of reasons.  Most importantly, though, is that we have to be able to see and control the character, so slowing him down to perceptual levels allows for just that.  But it also sometimes doesn't convey the whole speed thing to great success.

[Ayliffe]

yes

[Blacklightning]

Realistically speaking, getting to the speeds Sonic is capable of in the first place would require a hell of a lot of lower body strength - so if nothing else, he does have that going for him. The way Sonic attacks things, though, isn't really based on how strong he is so much as the concept of "speedy thing hitting a solid object really fucking fast", to the point that his mass and muscle are almost irrelevant - I mean, a bullet doesn't have a whole lot of weight behind it, but you still don't want to be in the way of one once it's fired from a gun.

One thing I find interesting about this conundrum, though, is a factor a lot of people seem to take for granted - the fact that Sonic doesn't just shatter into a contorted mess whenever he hits something at speed like anything else of his stature would. I mean, Sonic doesn't even punch or kick things in most games. Hell, in the Boost games most of the actual attacking is done with his face. Motherfucker has a skeleton so solid even Wolverine would be envious.

[blade57331]

He can do push ups on one hand. Most people can't do that.

[Shadowlax]

Its momentum. Sega has... made it clear that characters have abilities they can do certain things, even in that game... to many peoples reluctance, they introduce the werehog a being which in comparison to sonic normally actually has super strength. While it isn't communicated well its usually momentum, that isn't to say sonic isn't strong or something, Every sonic character is. Despite what death battle may tell you , sonic characters could strait out horrifically murder most video game characters, to do what they do on a speed level they need stronger bodies than the normal person. Its just that sonic isn't as physically strong as say knuckles or shadow or mighty for that matter. 

And sega thematically at least seems to stick with their archetypes, with exceptions like amy possibly having actual super strength, and shadow actually having actual super strength and him having... a lot of abilities in general actually, they generally... for better or for worse sticks to  " this guy runs, this guy flies, this guy hits"  and that's sort of it. 

To explain it even simpler if sonic characters had trading cards. Sonic would have 1 or a 2 stars ( maybe 1 star is like cream level ) besides strength, he's stronger than a normal person but knuckles has a 6 and shadow has a 5. And amy's card has a buff that activates that increases attack power....Is there a sonic trading card game? I'd play it

 

[Diogenes]

Sonic is more a living, self-propelled wrecking ball than a strongman. If he were to just throw a straight punch, it wouldn't be any more impressive than a punch from any decently athletic dude. Likewise he probably can't bench much. But because of cartoon physics he can ram into things (usually) without taking any damage himself, and the force of a 77 lb nigh-indestructible ball travelling at around the speed of sound would be immense.

[ShadowSJG]

the thing with the robots starts around one minute

[Sparky]

Sonic does have super strength. Presumably, the same exact level Shadow has been shown to have. 

[___-_]

Well, there was always this from Sonic CD (He's ripping off a metal snout from a badnik with his bare hands):

 

And I'm pretty sure you guys remember this scene from SA2 right?:

Just think about it. The fact that Sonic literally rips off a piece of a G.U.N helicopter wing to then use a snowboard on hard ass concrete (This is after landing from several stories in the air, mind you) goes to show that he's got way more going on then what his noodle arms and legs imply strength wise..

[Detective Kaito]

Sonic's just very durable, which can be translated to super strength. He can run extremely fast and destroy countless robots effortlessly, a normal human bumping into something while going at the speed of sound would die. And the speed of sound is Sonic's minimum speed.

[Tara]

3 hours ago, StriCNYN3 said:

Well, there was always this from Sonic CD (He's ripping off a metal snout from a badnik with his bare hands):

 

And I'm pretty sure you guys remember this scene from SA2 right?:

Just think about it. The fact that Sonic literally rips off a piece of a G.U.N helicopter wing to then use a snowboard on hard ass concrete (This is after landing from several stories in the air, mind you) goes to show that he's got way more going on then what his noodle arms and legs imply strength wise..

Those sawblades were made to rotate on an axis, which suggests they're not planted so firmly that they couldn't be ripped off with enough force from a reasonably able-bodied person.  Otherwise, they wouldn't spin as freely.  As for the scene from SA2, we don't know for sure what piece of the helicopter he ripped off, since the immediate shot shows the helicopter completely undamaged, but I admit to not having a solid explanation for that.

[Shadowlax]

6 hours ago, Sparky said:

Sonic does have super strength. Presumably, the same exact level Shadow has been shown to have. 

I know your thing is to say those two are the exact same, but that isn't exactly true. While again like in my previous explanation, sonic would be strong relative to a normal person. Question the canonicity of the comics if you want, but especially post reboot sega approves of those things. And in the book, he is punching knuckles fists someone who is canonically stronger than sonic to a stand still and chokes knuckles out, which considering how strong knuckles is or rather is supposed to be... would be damn near impossible for most characters. Along with that, the super strength trait seems to be so much apart of his tool set that it has crossed universes. Because it still exists in sonic boom of all places. 

He maybe stronger than a normal person, he isn't a strong as shadow. 

2 hours ago, Tara said:

Those sawblades were made to rotate on an axis, which suggests they're not planted so firmly that they couldn't be ripped off with enough force from a reasonably able-bodied person.  Otherwise, they wouldn't spin as freely.  As for the scene from SA2, we don't know for sure what piece of the helicopter he ripped off, since the immediate shot shows the helicopter completely undamaged, but I admit to not having a solid explanation for that.

Yeah its a bit harder to explain the helicopter thing, also to be fair to the super strength argument, in that game, he does grip on to a rocket flying to space... or at least the atmosphere, and that takes a lot of force, for someone to hand on to that. It would take a lot of strength.

But then again, you could also make the argument that all the feats that most of the characters do in that game... don't actually count. Because they never really pop again. Like Shadow being able to... fly. Because sonic never really does anything like that helicopter thing... again. It just seemed like a silly away to start the game, not meant really to be a barometer or something, like again shadow flying. So the argument would be, if its not consistent with what he normally does... do you count it?

 

9 hours ago, Blacklightning said:

 

One thing I find interesting about this conundrum, though, is a factor a lot of people seem to take for granted - the fact that Sonic doesn't just shatter into a contorted mess whenever he hits something at speed like anything else of his stature would. I mean, Sonic doesn't even punch or kick things in most games. Hell, in the Boost games most of the actual attacking is done with his face. Motherfucker has a skeleton so solid even Wolverine would be envious.

We can put this in the same conundrum of.. .why does everything shadow hit in the stopped time not just turn into a fine paste because technically speaking he's hitting you with a force faster than time itself. Lets just put that under cartoon logic and call it a day. 

[King Scoopa Koopa]

Just the fact that he can move at those speeds without turning himself into blue pudding -- no hitting anything required -- implies a certain level of hardiness.

[PC the Hedgehog]

Don't forget the scenes in Sonic X where he was able to push a giant robot off of him using his bare hands.

Then again, no, let's DO forget Sonic X. Those writers had no idea what they were doing.

[King Scoopa Koopa]

I really liked the first four episodes, give or take.

I mean, I enjoyed watching the series as a whole, but those were probably my favorite. Maybe the Sonic Adventure adaptation (but not 2).

[Shadowlax]

14 hours ago, PC the Hedgehog said:

Don't forget the scenes in Sonic X where he was able to push a giant robot off of him using his bare hands.

Then again, no, let's DO forget Sonic X. Those writers had no idea what they were doing.

Sonic X took a lot of stuff into in own hands, outside of things like the inhibitor rings, I wouldn't really count most of that as anything. 

14 hours ago, KingScoopaKoopa said:

Just the fact that he can move at those speeds without turning himself into blue pudding -- no hitting anything required -- implies a certain level of hardiness.

Does that translate to super strength though,  also everyone in that world seems to have some level of hardness higher than normal. To a degree? Its weird, for example, if you shot sonic knuckles with a gun, presumably they would bleed and die. Shadow on the other hand has been shown to shrug off bullets and other things. And there have been times that imply shadow is a bit denser than everyone else... quite literally. So what makes shadow so dense normally but why is every one else so dense only during the running that allows them to not fly apart. I guess you can theorize that mobian people have some type of gene, that during high stress situations causes their bodies to literally harden? And possibly during experimentation shadow had his activated at all times?

 

[Sparky]

I don't know why some are assuming by default that Sonic's strength would have to be the same level as an average person.

[Shadowlax]

2 hours ago, Sparky said:

I don't know why some are assuming by default that Sonic's strength would have to be the same level as an average person.

Average mobian person I mean. Or at least I mean. 

[Diogenes]

2 hours ago, Sparky said:

I don't know why some are assuming by default that Sonic's strength would have to be the same level as an average person.

Because he doesn't go around punching dudes or lifting shit as if he has super strength, and super strength doesn't fit his personality or archetype.

[Osmium]

2 hours ago, Sparky said:

I don't know why some are assuming by default that Sonic's strength would have to be the same level as an average person.

I mean, it doesn't have to be as low as a normal person, but I think it's pretty safe to assume the crux of Sonic's power comes from his momentum. Like I really doubt if Sonic just punched something at standstill it would create near the damage a well constructed rolling attack would. He probably has a good amount of strength but not nearly enough to be considered like a power type or to have the normal definition of super strength. 

[Tara]

You'd have to define what you mean by "regular person."  Even if Sonic had the muscle strength of a hardcore body builder type, he would still have the strength of a "regular person," because body builders are "regular" in that they don't contain any special powers innate to them.  But as stated by others, we have no reason to assume that he has any exceptional strength.

Also, in regards to Sonic's ability to withstand the speeds he's able to travel, I just chalk that up to cartoon logic, honestly.  I know that's the boring answer, but I don't feel it's indactive of any measure of strength.  At the very least, we can just establish the headcanon that whatever allows Sonic to run so fast also grants him immunity to the ill effects of said speed.

[ShadowSJG]

Let me be more specific, does Sonic have enhanced strength?