Depression as a Sonic fan

[OtakuHedgehog]

Note: A lot of this is copy&pasted from a post I made on my personal Facebook page awhile back, I added some more to it since and wanted to share it with some Sonic fans though.

 

            I am currently going through a number of terrible emotions right now. I’m just feeling very lost right now and that everything about life is pointless. I need to admit something right now and that is the fact that I am sick. I am mentally sick and I have been sick for many years now. I can’t communicate with people, I’ve struggled my whole life with communication but I’ve just never been able to really connect with people. Whenever I want to talk it’s like some invisible force is gripping my throat and preventing me from communicating. Kids at school always used to think I was weird, and as an adult, women think the same. Because I’ve always struggled to make friends in real life, I’ve tried to turn to the internet to meet people, but I’ve become really hurt by cowards online who try to hide behind the power of anonymity which has caused me to lose even more faith in humanity. I know that my family says that it’s not my fault and that it’s because of my social disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a form of autism, but that doesn’t make things any better. I’m ashamed that I’ve turned 30 this year and that I’ve never had a girlfriend, I’m ashamed that I’m still living with my mother, I’m ashamed that I’m letting teenagers online get under my skin, I’m ashamed that I gave into anger and argued back, and I’m ashamed that I do not have any friends in my area to hangout with. And it’s not like I don’t try to put myself out there. I have tried dating apps only to have no success, I have tried making friends at work only to not be able to connect with them on a personal level (especially when it comes to women), I have tried getting out of the house and meeting new people only to have people ignore me. I know that at the end of the day, all of this is my fault and that I can blame nobody but myself, but I felt that I really needed to vent and posting my feelings would be really therapeutic for me.

 

 

Without getting into life details, Sonic has helped me get through very difficult times in my life. Now to the main reason why I’m making this post. I know that it may sound silly to a lot of people but I feel that my heart has been torn and that I am losing my mind because of a few horrible things that have been said to me online. This happened about four years ago but has severely started to impact my mental health last year. I suffer from intrusive thoughts and OCD, because of this I constantly replay bad memories again and again in my mind. Even though this incident happened four years ago, it still feels fresh in my mind. My mental health started to severely decline last year in September. I got into a few nasty arguments back in 2018 after the release of the Mario vs Sonic Death Battle video. I gave my opinions on the fight on my YouTube channel back in 2018 and was swarmed with hate messages. I had no idea that my video would become so popular, I was very unprepared and shocked to see all the negative comments from Mario fans all because I said that I believe that Sonic should have won the fight. I know that people will give me the whole “sticks and stones” but it’s a pile of BS. Words do hurt, and they especially hurt when there’s nothing you can do about it because the bully is hiding behind a computer screen. It was especially frustrating to see that the live-reaction quickly became my most viewed video despite my hundreds of other videos about me playing video games barely got any views. This taught me that unfortunately in order to get views on YouTube (unless you’ve been on the platform for years or have a big following on another platform already) you either have to create controversy or have sexual content in your videos, otherwise you have no hope in standing out. And unfortunately my live-reaction to the Mario vs Sonic video sparked controversy on my channel and I’ve had horrible things said about me ranging from calling me a toxic Sonic fanboy to racial slurs, all over a simple opinion. I didn’t get these many viewers when I made live-reactions to the Nintendo Directs or Kingdom Hearts 3 trailers, but because I had a controversial opinion about Mario, the internet wants to crucify me.

 

Disgusted by these comments, I felt that I didn’t do a good job explaining my reasons for why Sonic would win because my original video was intended to be a live-reaction, not a debunk, but again I didn’t expect to get so many views. So I eventually decided to make a 90-minute long debunking video going into depth why I felt that Sonic should have won the fight and I did get some nice comments. Unfortunately, they were overshadowed by the ignorance of the most arrogant, cocky, and hateful excuse of a human being I’ve ever seen on the internet. He went by the name of Dr. Cortex (which is a bummer because it’s the name of a character from another video game franchise I love so I always think about this jerk whenever it’s mentioned now) and he was all over the Mario vs Sonic video comments section just harassing every Sonic fan that he could find and high-balling Mario to no end. And he constantly made replies to my comments advertising my video calling it garbage while boasting his ego. He also twisted my words when I said I didn't want to deal with trolls, I was trolled with my live-reaction video and made a debunk video for Sonic fans to watch, in his mind though he took it as me saying that "anyone who thinks Mario would win is a troll" which is not what I meant and he never let me live it down. I know people are going to say “just block him” but what do you do if he responds with “I wonder how many Sonic fans blocked me, lol”. And what hurts even more is that other Mario fans joined him and saw nothing wrong about his bullying. I unfortunately took the bait and argued back with him as I felt really proud of myself at the time for making such an in depth video defending my hero, only for it to be trashed on without being given a chance. I ended up looking like an idiot and the end and made the Sonic community look bad. And what makes this hurt even more is the fact that my ex-best friend told me that my channel is doomed to fail just because I didn’t like the Game Grumps who are major Sonic detractors, so these mean comments made me take what he said to heart. What hurt even more though was his comment about me having a mental problem as I took that to heart because of my social disorder. This online bullying has had a major impact on my self-esteem and love for nerdy things. 

 

For my whole life, I’ve used Sonic as a shield to hide behind the world, Sonic was my light in the darkness and now whenever I see Sonic, I can’t help but think about this Mario vs Sonic drama. And it’s not like I would have been mad if Sonic lost to anyone else, Sonic lost a Death Battle to Wally West, I can accept that. It’s just that out of all the characters that Sonic could have lost to, they had to make him lose to Mario after he already beat him back in 2011. Not only that, but they made him lose in a milestone fight with fancy hand-drawn animation, and for a few years, it was the ONLY Death Battle rematch where the other person won. So for a few years, Mario was the ONLY character to ever win a rematch on Death Battle. It’s such utter garbage, I swear the nerd community has Nintendo’s butt pressed to their lips and I’m so sick of it. I did not grow up with Nintendo, my first console was the Playstation 1, so I grew up with the likes of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon on my PS1, and Sonic games on my PC. I didn’t have access to Mario as a kid so I have no nostalgic bias towards him like the entire nerd community does. And what hurts even more is the fact that the whole nerd community seems to hate on the Sonic franchise and the fandom. They probably do this because it makes them feel powerful to bully a group of people that they see to be beneath them when in reality, they’re probably bullied in real life and are just trying to blow off steam on the internet.

 

 I just don’t get it, I turned to the internet because I’ve been bullied in real life for my social disorder and my interests so I hoped to meet like-minded people online who are also nerdy like me. But I seem to get bullied even more online for what I like. As an adult, when I was in community college and wore a Sonic shirt I would get comments such as “Oh you like Sonic? I remember that game on the Sega Genesis, it was so much fun” but if I’m talking online with a Sonic avatar I’ll get comments like “What you like Sonic? Sonic sucks! He hasn’t had a good game since 1994, and if you like Sonic then you’re toxic!” I’ve been bullied my whole life by Nintendo fans for being a Sonic fan due to the whole Nintendo vs Sega rivalry of the 90s, I remember way back when I was in middle school I saw Nintendo fans trolling on old Sonic Discussion Boards (Any OGs here remember the Sonic Zone Forums?) always bringing up how Mario has higher-quality games or how Sega is sexist for making Amy get kidnapped but they’ll turn a blind eye to Princess Peach getting kidnapped in every Mario game. I remember this one specific individual who went by the name Waddle Dee who was a big Nintendo fanboy and admitted that he was only on the forum to argue. And yet Sonic fans are considered toxic by the nerd community, it’s such BS. I was already in a bad emotional state in 2018 for being rejected from the JET Program and this Death Battle drama put me into an even worse state. But the last straw was when I attended a panel at Fanime 2019 titled ‘Sonic: An Unfortunate History’ (you can see the panel by clicking on this link: Sonic: An Unfortunate History [Fanime 2019] - YouTube ) The whole panel was about crapping on the Sonic fandom and franchise while consecutively sucking Nintendo off. Why did I attend it? I don’t know, I guess I just wanted to defend my hero. The panelist even called me out for wearing a Sonic hat, but it’s an anime convention, you’re supposed to show off your love for nerdy stuff. And of course they put Chris-Chan in their YouTube thumbnail implying that all Sonic fans have autism and that all people with autism are weird which is not true. Elon Musk has autism and he’s one of if not the most richest people on the planet! And I know he’s much more successful than these Nintendo fanboys who have harassed me will ever be. See that’s when I lose it, not only does the nerd community harass Sonic fans, they call them autistic and use the condition as an insult which really gets under my skin because I’m on the spectrum!

 

Anyway, for the past year I’ve been trying to do multiple different things to overcome this negativity. I’ve been speaking to an OCD therapist for over a year about my obsession over these mean comments, I’ve been attending church regularly (I’ve invited my family to come with me, but they always say no) and trying to forgive the people who have hurt me, I’ve been exercising on a daily basis to blow off steam, I’ve been staying away from Death Battle/Nerd Discussions/Nintendo/Sonic material completely but nothing works, every day I’m still thinking of Cortex and these mean comments 24/7 for an entire year! I’m constantly thinking about how “I should have said this” or “I should have said that” or how I’m too nice and just let people walk all over me. There is something seriously wrong with me, I remember even asking Temple Grandin, a PHD holder on the spectrum who visited my old university a decade back, what she thinks about my obsession with Sonic and how it relates to autism. She told me it’s just a hobby and I felt embarrassed afterwards. What’s even worse about this drama though is that I’m beginning to obsess over it so much that I’m losing all the good memories in my life. And I’ve also tried taking a page out of my lessons from church about forgiveness and have reached out to my ex-best friend. I invited him to the 2022 Sonic Revolution Convention (which he flaked out on me in 2014), he not surprisingly didn’t come which makes me feel like forgiveness is nonsense. Why do I keep coming back to him? It’s because I’m so lonely and desperate to have a friend to talk to. But I needed to attend this event and see for myself what is it that truly makes me happy in life. I’ve always turned to Sonic and nerd stuff for comfort but now I can’t due to all the blind hate that I get from the nerd community for being a Sonic fan. And even among Sonic fans, I’m a social wreck! I can barely talk or communicate with people even if they’re dressed in Sonic attire. The only good part of the convention for me was when my two other friends from college that I invited to showed up. I was more happy to talk with them than to see all the Sonic goodness. So what does that tell you? What I want in life isn’t Sonic, I just want true loyal friends which I’ve struggled to make my whole life because of my condition. I would talk to my two college friends more but they’re married now and I have to give them their space otherwise they may become suffocated by me and push me away like my ex-best friend did.

 

So with all that said, here we are at the present day. I’ve turned 30 this year and I feel like an absolute mess. I did what I was told to do my whole life, I got good grades in high school, I went to a good college, I got my bachelor’s degree, and after all of that, I’m a 30 year old virgin living with his mother, I just recently became unemployed (my college degree hasn’t done squat for me and I recently fell for a job scam after I put in my two-weeks notice at my old job, I’ve been job-hunting like crazy ever since), and feel like crap. Looking back now, I can see that I wasted my 20s. Aside from studying abroad in Japan and obtaining my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (I wanted Computer Science but had to drop it because it was too hard), my 20s have been an absolute wreck. I spent my 20s soul searching and trying to figure out who I am and it all just ended in failure. I try making and selling art, that didn’t work. I tried making a YouTube and Twitch channel to stream video games, that didn’t work. I tried learning Japanese to teach English in Japan through the Jet program, that didn’t work. I tried going back to college to get a Computer Science degree, that didn’t work. I tried dropshipping, that didn’t work. I tried learning how to 3D-model, that didn’t work. Nothing I did worked, and I also succumbed to darkness. I became an internet troll and harassed Nintendo fans because I got sick and tired of all the blind hate towards Sonic and the fandom. I know it’s unfortunately the whole nerd community as a whole that like to use Sonic as a punching bag but I know from experience that a lot of this hate stems from Nintendo fans. Not only because of the historical rivalry between Nintendo and Sega but also because most Nintendo fans are stupid teenagers who are too young to know that there was a time when Sonic was number 1. All they know about Sonic is the BS that popular YouTubers like Game Grumps and AngryJoe spit out to get views. I hate Nintendo fans and after all the BS I’ve been put through, I have every right to hate Nintendo fans. I don’t hate Nintendo games (although Nintendo as a business pisses me off a lot) but I can’t stand their fans. And if people want to hate Sonic fans for no reason (whiny, cringe fan-art, furries) I can hate Nintendo fans for no reason too (whiny, cringe fan-art, furries). All the reasons I mentioned are nonsense. All the complaints I find I find about the Sonic fandom I can easily find in the Nintendo fandom and other fandoms as well. I did a quick Google search and found this old discussion board asking “why do people hate the Sonic fandom” and I literally found comments saying “because it’s one of the worst fanbases out there” with absolutely no reason or logic to back their statements. 

 

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/631516-wii-u/73407587

 

 

So nobody remembers when Zelda fans smashed PS4s in protest of Genshin Impact or gave Jim Sterling death threats for giving BOTW a 7/10 (which isn’t even a bad score). You don’t think I can’t find Mario pr0n with a simple Google search? You don’t think furries have ever dressed up as Yoshi or Donkey Kong? And not only does the Nintendo community get a pass for crap that Sonic fans would get attacked for, but Nintendo games get a pass too. Just look at Pokémon Scarlet and Violet it’s an unstable mess, despite that, it still got a solid 76 average on Metacritic iirc. If a Sonic game was as glitchy, unstable, broken and had textures that looked like something out of an N64 game, Sonic would get no higher than a 30 on Metacritic and that’s being generous. And to all the people hating on the Sonic fandom, what are you doing with your life that makes you above Sonic fans? You’re not a millionaire, you’re not driving a Lamborghini, you’re not living in a multimillion dollar mansion, you’re not some NFL superstar, you don’t have a bunch of girls chasing after you. You’re just another nerd behind a computer screen attacking innocent people minding their own business to make yourself feel better due to all the sh@t going on in your life! I even remember a time I got into an argument with some guy on YouTube with a ‘Sunny with a Chance of Meatballs’ avatar calling the Sonic franchise dead and saying Sonic fans are man-children. Why are we considered man-children and adults who still play Mario, watch Pokémon, watch Power Rangers, watch MLP, etc are ”normal”? Everyone has the right to like whatever they like, why do people get so triggered if they see someone liking Sonic?

 

I love the Sonic community, it was the first fandom that I ever got involved with way back in 2004 before all this blind hate for Sonic became the norm. I love how creative and passionate this community is. I think OC characters are awesome, I don’t know why people tend to hate the fandom for it. I’ve even heard stories about Sonic fans finding real life relationships from OC chat rooms. And fyi, I think that Bowsette crap is far more cringe than any Sonic OC, of course the Mario community doesn’t get hate for that. I also admire how Sega appreciates their fans unlike Nintendo, that’s why we got Sonic Mania, meanwhile Nintendo is busy shutting down every fan-game they can find and even sent a cease and desist order to the Etikons which were made to pay tribute to a big Nintendo YouTuber who passed away a few years back. I love all the Sonic animations for talented animators that have come out over the decades including ‘The Wrath of Nazo’ which I discovered way back in the day on Newgrounds. I think a lot of Sonic fan-art made by fans is amazing, I know some talented artist even got hired to work on the official Archie and IDW comics. Some of the discussions here on the Sonic Stadium are full of more passion and creative analysis than I’ve seen from any other fandom. The Sonic community is full of talented and passionate individuals, I love this community, I may be a quiet and introverted fan but I still love the fandom and don’t care what anyone  has to say about Sonic fans, I still love this community and the words from haters aren’t going to stop me from chasing my dreams of working for Sega. Speaking of Sega, I interviewed for my dream company, Sega this year for a game tester position, but they rejected me, I guess that's life. I just don’t know what to do with my life. Why did I make this post? I don’t know, I guess I just want some feedback, emotional support, closure from this online bullying, and to get my hope in life back. And I’ve linked my video in regards to Sonic and mental health in this post so people can get an idea of what I had to deal with. And to the nerd community, all I can say is congratulations, I’m not a Sonic fan anymore, I’m a nothing fan now. I’m sick of the nerd community and all these people acting like they’re hot stuff online when they’re really just cowards behind a computer screen. Well done nerds, you’ve killed my light, I’ve struggled my whole life to make friends but Sonic was always there to fill in the void in my heart and now I have nothing, are you people happy now? 

 

Nah, I’m always going to love the character to death, even if I don’t stay up to date with the games. It’s just that, depression really sucks. I don’t have the drive or will to play games or watch anime anymore because of how hated I am when I step out of my comfort zone and try to discuss in the nerd community as I’m blindly hated for being a Sonic fan. I even bought Sonic Frontiers on Steam due to a recent sale but I haven’t played it yet. I’ve heard good things about it but I haven’t had the will to play it yet (I still haven’t even touched Team Sonic Racing which I bought a few years back) and I haven’t dared to look at the Metacritic score as its just going to create anxiety for me.

 

Edit: I wanted to thank all those who gave me nice comments last night, I really appreciate it. I was in a bit of a rush to finish my post last night and realized there were some things that I forgot to mention. First off, I added some more pictures of archived comments from the past that really annoyed me. Second, I forgot to mention in my post that I just don't understand why Cortex specifically gets under my skin so much. I know that everyone gets mean comments and that I get mean comments all the time that I'm able to laugh at. But Cortex for some reason just really ticks me off. I think it's because of the fact that I at the time was a small channel and struggling for views while Cortex took note of my channel insecurities and attacked me where it hurt. He was also really prideful and arrogant and thought that anyone who disagreed with him was "100% wrong" and the Nintendo fanboys like Grant Strader backed him up. I also wanted to mention that I don't hate Nintendo games (I enjoy Smash Bros, love old-school Pokemon, and thought Zelda BotW was amazing), I just can't stand the elitist fans as well as some of Nintendo's anti-consumer business decisions.

 

I also forgot to mention that during the whole 'crapping on Sonic' panel at Fanime, I felt really depressed afterwards and called an on-call nurse over the phone to talk about the negative emotions that I was going through. I ended up telling her some dark things that were going through my mind at the time that I really shouldn't have said so she ended up calling the police on me. When the police came to my house I had to explain to them that I wasn't a danger and was just going through a depressing phase due to people talking crap on the character that I love. That was a bit of a scary, awkward, and embarrassing experience, thanks a lot Nintendo fans...

 

Here’s the link to my video in regards to Sonic and depression, any thoughts and feedback would be greatly appreciated 

https://youtu.be/afkhCq_P2o4

 

Edit: Playlist on my alt channel vlogging my journey to over come this online crap:

Spiritual Journey Playlist

Edited November 10, 2023 by OtakuHedgehog

[Dummy Bear]

I'm sorry you feel that way.

Meanwhile, I'm taking solace in the highs from the fact that Sonic Prime seems to be solid, the Sonic 2 movie did well in the box office and with fans, and that Sonic Frontiers was popular enough to break an internet poll.

The haters can hate all they want but even after 5 years of absolutely nothing, this franchise still sells.

[OtakuHedgehog]

2 hours ago, Slash said:

I'm sorry you feel that way.

Meanwhile, I'm taking solace in the highs from the fact that Sonic Prime seems to be solid, the Sonic 2 movie did well in the box office and with fans, and that Sonic Frontiers was popular enough to break an internet poll.

The haters can hate all they want but even after 5 years of absolutely nothing, this franchise still sells.

Thank you for the kind words. Yes I do agree, 2022 has been a fantastic year for Sonic. I loved the Sonic 2 movie and can’t wait for Sonic 3. I’m also really happy to see that Sonic Frontiers has been getting some positive feedback. Though I was annoyed at first with the early gameplay footage being shown where people were chanting “Oh look another garbage Sonic game”. It’s as if people WANT Sonic to fail. I kept my mouth shut as I got into some stupid fights online mid-2017 defending Sonic Forces which made me look like a “toxic Sonic fanboy” but I’m glad to see the haters eating their words this time. I still stand by my opinion that Sonic Forces is not a bad game though, it’s a mediocre game but it’s not bad especially considering the fact it launched at $40. Unfortunately due to the elitism of the gaming community, a game needs to either be amazing or it’s garbage there’s no in-between. And apparently a 7/10 is a bad score (which is not true).

 

I know that I can’t change the world or how people feel. And I can’t stop people from hating. But it just really sucks hard that it feels like as a Sonic fan, you’re an outcast among outcasts. The nerd community believe that Sonic fans are beneath them and it really kills my enjoyment of nerdy things as a result. I mean, sure I’m a huge Sonic fan, the franchise has had a major impact on my life, but I like other things too. But nerds don’t care, if you like Sonic then you’re instantly considered a weirdo, furry, toxic, etc. And I say “nerds” say this crap not “people” because again, I don’t get this crap for liking Sonic irl from normies, it’s the nerds that want to bully me because they think Sonic sucks. And it’s especially frustrating when I see the younger generation ranting that “Sonic was never good” because they’re too young and ignorant to know of the time when Sonic was on top of the world! Yeah if Sonic was never good then I want these kids to explain to me, why was there a point in time when Sonic outsold Mario? I don’t think there’s ever been any other cartoony platform game that has accomplished that feat. Anyway it’s because of this BS that I’ve taken a break from nerd stuff and have just tried to focus on getting my life together. But the thing is, as a Sonic fan, I don’t go looking for Sonic hate, Sonic hate finds me. I remember one day I was watching a video on either stocks or crypto, the YouTuber mentioned how you have to be fast in this market and then he cuts to clip with a Sonic cosplayer crashing through a window. If I can find the video again I’ll post it here but that’s what I mean, I don’t go looking for Sonic hate, Sonic hate finds me, even when I’m avoiding nerd stuff.

[TheBreaker3321]

I remember being like you. It hurt really bad for me, too.

You cannot ever allow anyone else to be your voice. The truth is that these bullies are a lot more fearful than you are. These bullies who like to pride themselves as being tough and macho are actually a thousand times more scared of anything than you are. These are the ones that are so low that they have to tear things down in an attempt to build up themselves. The bully is a bewildering creature like that, So adamant to criticize others for not meeting a perceived golden standard yet so ignorant of their own unfulfillments. So quick to put down someone else for a perceived weakness but so unaware of their own imperfections. The cause of the hater is an exercise in total banality. It's a wholly pointless venture that insists on playing victim, as well as asserting a right to victimhood, to certain ideologies that at worst are inconvenient towards the hater. In lieu of finding the courage to place aside their ego that is quick to bruise to perform a did themselves, the haters opt for "shoulds." The hater is a character who, in the grand scheme of things, has no stake to claim whatsoever within whatever situation that seems to concern them. Try as they might to present their attacks as difference of opinion, the concern is as fake as fake can be. To ask these faithless gadflies what they seek to achieve is just as banal. Could their attacks be based from jealousy or envy? Do they seek to correct a perceived mistake on your part? Are they in denial and are people who hope you have the best? Are they a deprived and downtrodden group? Does it matter? Whether it's dressed as some random nobody with an overinflated sense of entitlement, the hater is to be entirely disregarded. The hater is long lost to a vicious cycle of wanting, having, and then losing, and the only high left to gain is by lashing out. They cannot be asked to apply there own supposed skill sets into their own interests, for the name of the game is often intellectual conformity. Never worry about the opinions of someone whom you would never go to for advice.

As you get older, you begin to realize that words don't put bread on the table. They don't pay bills and they don't buy happiness either. The fear of both the unknown and conflict sounds more and more like a joke, a really lame one. You begin to wonder if the people who insist on being haters towards you and your interests are actually fans in denial. You begin to wonder if these sorts of people have been projecting inadequacies of their own onto you. In fact, as you get older, you learn quickly to adapt, and how to transform an ordeal into an adventure. As you get older, you learn quickly to shed the binary way of thinking. Almost nothing is in black, white, or even grey because lest we forget that there is a whole spectrum of colors and possibilities out there. You learn that if any problem can be solved with action, then it's not really a problem, and if you're not dyin' to live, you may as well be livin' to die.

[Jake Heaton]

Hey, there. I'm a new face on Sonic Stadium, but I couldn't help but notice your post. I'm so sorry to hear you're struggling. Trust me, at 25, I think I should be hanging with big groups of friends, have a beautiful girlfriend, having kids and moving into a house a bought. Until I realised, not everyone is the same and that everyone goes through life at different paces. I learned that it's okay to be single, it's okay to only have a few true friends, and it's okay to live with your family. It doesn't mean you're less of a person or you're falling behind compared to everyone else. We are all different and it's okay to not conform to the status quo of life expectations.

I'm sorry to hear you're dealing with the toxicity of haters towards you as well. No one should have to feel like that. As someone who's been bullied for a long time, even for my love of Sonic, their horrible words and actions don't determine who you are. You are your own person and you need to embrace it. People can hate on Sonic or think he's rubbish, but you, I and Sonic fans know that's not the case. Yes, Mario's more popular, and will probably always will be, but that doesn't give them the right to treat people with differing opinions. Plus, if you ask me about that Death Battle, I think Sonic definitely should've won. The fight was very circumstantial. But, if people disagree, that's fine, I'm not hating on Mario fans, but if people have nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all. Please stay strong, keep doing what you do and don't let others get you down. They're clearly not worth it, and push negativity through to the positive, and show them what you're made of.

I may be new to talking to fellow Sonic fans after the Sonic Symphony proved there's so many of us out there, I'd like to extend the hand of friendship to anyone who'd like or need one

Edited November 12, 2023 by Jake Heaton

[OtakuHedgehog]

Hey guys, thank you for your kind words. When I made this topic a year ago, I was in an extremely dark place, but fast-forward a year later and I'm doing much better. I'm not 100% healed, but I still feel 100x better than I was when I originally made this topic. After making this thread, I decided to go on a spiritual journey and document my thoughts and feelings on YouTube in the form of a video vlogging series. There I admitted everything and I felt so free afterwards. I admitted that I gave into anger and became a Nintendo hating troll in order defend Sonic's honor. I can't go a single day without seeing Sonic compared to Mario, or a YouTube thumbnail making Sonic look stupid, or an online comment from some coward behind a screen saying that all 'Sonic fans are toxic'. I even witnessed a Sonic detraction panel at an Anime Convention which broke my heart and made me feel like I don't belong in the nerd community and that no matter what community I interact with, I just don't fit in, whether it's because I'm black, because I'm on the spectrum, or because I'm a Sonic fan. People online assume that I'm stupid just for having a Sonic avatar, and yet, they're ignorant to the fact that I won scholarships to study abroad in Japan. I've come to realize and have accepted that I can't control what people say or think and that we live in an unfair and broken world, but that's ok. Haters can hate on Sonic and on me as much as they want, but what they don't realize is that their hate on the Sonic franchise is helping keep Sonic relevant. And unless they can turn water into wine or resurrect the dead, their opinion is irrelevant anyway. The only opinion that matters to me is God's and God's alone and I know that he will always love me no matter what, despite my mistakes, and is far more powerful than any cowardly Sonic hater on the internet. Anyway, I go into far more detail of my thoughts and feelings in the vlogging channel I linked in my original post as well as in the linked thread below under the name of Mephiles' Disciple. Thank you for the support everyone. :)
 

 

[kiro]

Dont give up on life if you do you will miss all the good things that sega and sonic have to offer think of the good old times when you were playing the sega genesis and beating your first level remember your not the only sonic fan. others are here for you just know that we got your back.And happy thanksgiving too :)

[Maple Syrup]

Dear @OtakuHedgehog Believe it or not, it's also been the same for me. When I was younger, I wasn't able to know the internet. I couldn't ever make friends. Every other girl thought that I was not fit for them and just left me to rot. I was always alone. Sonic was my only hope to meet people who share the same feelings and interests as me. I got involved by adding comments to share with the world. I heard all the hate about Sonic fans and the fight between Sonic and Mario. (I liked Mario but I liked Sonic better) I had lots of pressure just on my head. But I then remembered that there were people out there like me. That they would care about me like a normal person but in where I lived, that wasn't possible. It's hard being a Sonic fan/introvert/nerd in a world full of judgement but remember that we've got your back, no matter what! It's nice to see a person that you can relate to when you think that your'e the only one like you in the world.

[OtakuHedgehog]

Thank you guys for the support. It really means a lot to me. My mental health is still really bad but it’s gotten a lot better since last year. Every day when I wake up, I still think about the cortex jerk and all the Mario fanboys who harassed me when I made my live-reaction to the Mario vs Sonic death battle. It just disgusts me how nerds believe that Sonic fans are beneath them. This superiority complex that they have just infuriates me. But again, the last straw from me was when I saw that Sonic Detraction panel at the Fanime anime convention. It really broke my heart and damaged my love for anime as I foolishly attended the panel because I wanted to defend my hero, but I just felt like crap afterwards.
 

Again, hating on Sonic is one thing, but hating on people for liking Sonic is just mean. It made me feel like no matter where I go, I can’t escape from Sonic hate and Mario praise constantly being shoved down my throat. It also makes me feel like I just don’t fit in with the world. I mean I turned to the Internet/Nerd Community because it’s hard to meet and talk with people/normies in real life , but I end up getting harassed even more for my passion for Sonic by nerds and cowards on the internet than I would with normies irl. And it’s also frustrating considering the fact that I did not grow up with Nintendo, but the majority of sonic fans are Nintendo fans which makes me feel isolated even more.

 

Another thing that sucks is that I’m to young to have been able to experience Sonic/Sega in their glory days (I was born in 1992) and I see all these stupid teenagers jumping on the “Sonic was never good” bandwagon because their favorite influencers like the GameGrumps hate on Sonic for views, but their too young to realize that there was a time when Sonic was #1 and Nintendo didn’t have a monopoly over the cartoony platform market. Plenty of gaming icons from the 90s that I grew up with have faded out, and whenever discussion of these characters are brought up, these stupid teenagers talk trash about them and continue to praise Nintendo to no end because Nintendo is all that they know. It came to a point where I was at my breaking point and became a Nintendo hating troll on YouTube and I’m just so ashamed and disappointed in myself. I wasted so much time and energy. Just trying to defend Sonic’s honor and put Nintendo down as a means of revenge how stupid I was.

[Megadrivemaster]

Disclaimer: Not a regular on this forum. If anything I'm a lurker who just saw the Sega Retro Revival news recently, decided to browse these forums and I saw your post. I would feel awful if I didn't respond because I can deeply sympathize with how you feel, being pretty much the same.

I'm 30 as well (I guess you're a year older now though) and I have also never been in a romantic relationship. Life bit me pretty hard. It also doesn't help that the relatives I had to live with growing up never were supportive, so I never had the money to go to a college and finding work in my third world part of this planet has been difficult. The only person who I would've had to support me, my mother, is somebody I lost before I became a teenager so that's a figure I didn't have either.

Now for my 20s, I just kind of accepted it. I figured I'd take whatever I can get and hope the opportunity presents itself. Of course, nothing quite happened. I hit 30 a few months ago, and I basically just woke up one day as if I got hit by a stack of bricks. I'm single, I live in the middle of nowhere and if I die nobody will miss me. When I went down to a local store to pick up a snack, I saw a young couple holding hands and it made me so jealous because that's everything I ever wanted. I didn't want to be single anymore, so I started talking to some friends on Discord. Some which are single themselves, and it really helped put some things into perspective for me.

And I think we came to a similar realization here. I started working out as well, I accepted God (I know that sounds cheesy to some, but this is who I turned to when I was at my darkest), and I realized I was fortunate to at least have friends.

I honestly don't know what's gonna happen next year. I have some other problems unrelated to myself on the horizon, but my intention is to improve little by little, and hope that a Ms. Right comes along and we have mutual feelings.

Negative emotions really can cloud our judgement. I flipped this entire situation around and also came to the realization that all of my experiences will make a relationship much more meaningful to me because of everything. I'll cherish and appreciate my significant other. When my life improves, I'll look back at the hard times and remember to never take what I have for granted.

And that's my story. Just another guy who's in his 30s that felt like sharing his story with you, and I'm glad I could read yours. I sincerely hope that you can find happiness in your life, because through the Asperger's you're a good person for knowing you want better and our age doesn't mean we have an expiration date with finding love (if you still want to find it, that is). Reading this a year later you probably don't feel the same way as you did when you wrote it, but I hope you never have to feel like you're in a dark place ever again regardless.

Happy days to you, sir.

[Danj86]

Having been in a similar situation myself over the years, trying to find something meaningful worth saying, is proving difficult. Interestingly, one significant difference from my experience is that my bullying occurred exclusively in real life. I've been pretty lucky in online interactions for the most part.

But no doubt it helps that I don't have much of an online presence and my opinions of most things seem to sit in the middle. I grew up liking both Sonic and Mario after all. Who would win in a fight between Sonic and Mario? I don't know. I'm more busy trying to work out why they would fight. You can actually do it in Smash Bros, but the winner is determined by player skill more than anything. Add in contest rules like with the Olympics and things get more complicated.

I could easily get sidetracked by this since some people take this way too seriously, proven by how they reacted to your video. If they are going to nitpick everything, I would question why they wouldn't nitpick the most important aspect? The one I had previously mentioned. Why would they fight? It's made worse when you add Death Battle specifically. Why would they fight to the death??? They aren't really killers and even that aspect of them could be debated.

A troll has no power over you if you are able to troll them back.

Debating your favourite characters is supposed to be fun. If it's not fun, it's not worth doing.

But you should also consider the little victories you achieve and consider that you have achieved more than you think. Understand the bravery required to even start up a YouTube channel. Because nasty commenters are a well known issue for the website. A certain degree of courage will be needed, especially when sharing opinions, because they can somehow be controversial. They shouldn't be. An opinion has no effect on others and isn't even physical, yet some will overreact to them.

You also know what you want. Wanting to be independent, to be in a relationship, they're all perfectly respectable. What about this person hiding behind the name of Neo Cortez? They could be a literal child that will look back on those interactions with embarrassment and shame. An angsty teenager that doesn't know what they want and is wasting far too much time being mean about a topic that wont help them prepare for the future. Or are even older than you, making them come across as even more pathetic due to how mean they acted, because you can be sure a person like that wouldn't have a social life either.

The truth is you will never know anything about them. So it simply isn't worth wasting your time and energy even thinking about them.

Now this all depends on what country you live in, but it seems like awareness and knowledge of Autism and Aspergers is becoming the norm and here in the UK, we've been able to find an Autism group that meets to chat about things every two weeks. Aspergers is part of the spectrum so you should be eligible to take part. If you could find something like that which is local to you, it could open up the possibility of learning to interact with others who have similar struggles to you. Maybe ask around to see if anyone could help you find something like that.

[OtakuHedgehog]

12 hours ago, Megadrivemaster said:

Disclaimer: Not a regular on this forum. If anything I'm a lurker who just saw the Sega Retro Revival news recently, decided to browse these forums and I saw your post. I would feel awful if I didn't respond because I can deeply sympathize with how you feel, being pretty much the same.

I'm 30 as well (I guess you're a year older now though) and I have also never been in a romantic relationship. Life bit me pretty hard. It also doesn't help that the relatives I had to live with growing up never were supportive, so I never had the money to go to a college and finding work in my third world part of this planet has been difficult. The only person who I would've had to support me, my mother, is somebody I lost before I became a teenager so that's a figure I didn't have either.

Now for my 20s, I just kind of accepted it. I figured I'd take whatever I can get and hope the opportunity presents itself. Of course, nothing quite happened. I hit 30 a few months ago, and I basically just woke up one day as if I got hit by a stack of bricks. I'm single, I live in the middle of nowhere and if I die nobody will miss me. When I went down to a local store to pick up a snack, I saw a young couple holding hands and it made me so jealous because that's everything I ever wanted. I didn't want to be single anymore, so I started talking to some friends on Discord. Some which are single themselves, and it really helped put some things into perspective for me.

And I think we came to a similar realization here. I started working out as well, I accepted God (I know that sounds cheesy to some, but this is who I turned to when I was at my darkest), and I realized I was fortunate to at least have friends.

I honestly don't know what's gonna happen next year. I have some other problems unrelated to myself on the horizon, but my intention is to improve little by little, and hope that a Ms. Right comes along and we have mutual feelings.

Negative emotions really can cloud our judgement. I flipped this entire situation around and also came to the realization that all of my experiences will make a relationship much more meaningful to me because of everything. I'll cherish and appreciate my significant other. When my life improves, I'll look back at the hard times and remember to never take what I have for granted.

And that's my story. Just another guy who's in his 30s that felt like sharing his story with you, and I'm glad I could read yours. I sincerely hope that you can find happiness in your life, because through the Asperger's you're a good person for knowing you want better and our age doesn't mean we have an expiration date with finding love (if you still want to find it, that is). Reading this a year later you probably don't feel the same way as you did when you wrote it, but I hope you never have to feel like you're in a dark place ever again regardless.

Happy days to you, sir.

@megadrivemaster

Thank you for responding to my post and providing your feedback. I know exactly how you feel. I too discovered a lot of healing by turning to God and returning to church. After seeing the story of the pain and suffering that a lot of these biblical characters went through, it helped me to just accept that this world is corrupt, it's not fair, it's incredibly flawed, and that's ok, I just need to do my best to navigate through this life one day at a time and try my best not to worry about what other people think about me. My whole life, I've used Sonic as a shield to protect me from the emotional abuse that I had to face time and again. Socializing IRL was always a struggle for me so I turned to the internet in 2005 to meet and talk with like minded people who enjoy Sonic and other nerdy stuff like me. Unfortunately, when the 2010s rolled around, the nerd community grew this BS superiority complex when it came to Sonic fans and it just infuriates me. I've accomplished so much in my life including graduating from a university and studying abroad in Japan despite having a learning disability, I just get so frustrated when people online think that I'm stupid just because I like Sonic. I turned to the online nerd community because I would constantly get harassed in Middle/High School back in the 2000s, but starting with the 2010s, the roles have reversed, and I'm harassed even more online just for liking Sonic. I love Sonic as a character to death, but I hate the nerd community now. Then, when I lost my best friend after graduating college and returned to my parents' home, I just lost it and became an internet monster in order to protect Sonic who in my mind was really the only friend-figure I had left after graduation. What a fool that I was. I confessed my most shameful sins to a prayer partner at church this year and told her the awful things that I said during online debates trying to defend Sonic, defend the fandom, or blow-off steam. She told me that everyone has done things in their past that they are not proud of and that God will love me no matter what. Just knowing that this almighty omnipotent being will always love me really helped me on my path to just stop caring what other people say or think about me. mean comments can still get under my skin sometimes, but I'm doing much better now than I was a few years ago or even last year. I'm not a hot-headed 25 year-old anymore, I'm a 31 year-old just trying to navigate my way through life one day at a time.

 

@Danj86

Thank you as well for your response and feedback. Yeah, the thing about the Mario vs Sonic debate that just baffles me and ticks me off is the fact that I spent so much time and energy and 2017 & 2018 working on my YouTube channel grinding for views and subs only to get around 5-10 views on average when making Let's Plays of video games, but the moment that I do a live-reaction of the Mario vs Sonic Death Battle, all Hell breaks lose and all these Mario fanboys come out of nowhere to hate on me, my channel, and the Sonic fandom; But none of them will stick around to watch me make a let's play of a Mario game. And what hurts even more is the fact that a lot of my haters were stupid teenagers who are too young and ignorant to know of the time when Sonic was #1, all they know when it comes to Sonic is this "Sonic was never good" BS that "influencers" like the Game Grumps love to throw up. As for the Cortex guy, he got under my skin because he could me out of my insecurities implying that I'm stupid and pointing out that I hardly got any views on my YouTube channel. I'm on the spectrum and struggle with social situations as well as struggle in school. Despite that, I was able to defy the odds and graduate from a university and even study abroad in Japan, but the Mario fanboys don't care they just see that I have a Sonic avatar and label me as a "braindead Sonictard". And even worse, the Mario fanboys defend Cortex and supported him when he stated that I "have a severe mental problem" and when I tried to troll him with my troll account as a means of revenge, Mario fanboys call ME the jerk. I just can't stand this double-standard in the nerd community. Sonic fans get so much **** thrown at us for things that other fandoms get a pass for. Even big corporations like IGN ride this "Sonic was never good" bandwagon which does nothing but encourage bullying against the Sonic community. But the last straw for me was when I was at an Anime Convention and witnessed a Sonic Detraction panel. That just broke my heart, I used to love Anime so much that I visited Japan when I was in college, now I'm struggling to love anime because I'm reminded by the idea that even Anime fans think that Sonic fans are weird and toxic. I just cannot stand this superiority complex in the nerd community, things were not like this back in 2005. And these haters aren't millionaires or scholars, they're nobody just hiding behind a computer screen just putting Sonic fans down to make themselves feel better and I'm so tired of being a punching bag! Anyway, thank you for the suggestion of visiting Autism groups, there are a few online groups that I've joined on Discord as of late.

[Ravenfreak]

On 11/25/2023 at 9:49 AM, OtakuHedgehog said:

Thank you guys for the support. It really means a lot to me. My mental health is still really bad but it’s gotten a lot better since last year. Every day when I wake up, I still think about the cortex jerk and all the Mario fanboys who harassed me when I made my live-reaction to the Mario vs Sonic death battle. It just disgusts me how nerds believe that Sonic fans are beneath them. This superiority complex that they have just infuriates me. But again, the last straw from me was when I saw that Sonic Detraction panel at the Fanime anime convention. It really broke my heart and damaged my love for anime as I foolishly attended the panel because I wanted to defend my hero, but I just felt like crap afterwards.
 

Again, hating on Sonic is one thing, but hating on people for liking Sonic is just mean. It made me feel like no matter where I go, I can’t escape from Sonic hate and Mario praise constantly being shoved down my throat. It also makes me feel like I just don’t fit in with the world. I mean I turned to the Internet/Nerd Community because it’s hard to meet and talk with people/normies in real life , but I end up getting harassed even more for my passion for Sonic by nerds and cowards on the internet than I would with normies irl. And it’s also frustrating considering the fact that I did not grow up with Nintendo, but the majority of sonic fans are Nintendo fans which makes me feel isolated even more.

 

Another thing that sucks is that I’m to young to have been able to experience Sonic/Sega in their glory days (I was born in 1992) and I see all these stupid teenagers jumping on the “Sonic was never good” bandwagon because their favorite influencers like the GameGrumps hate on Sonic for views, but their too young to realize that there was a time when Sonic was #1 and Nintendo didn’t have a monopoly over the cartoony platform market. Plenty of gaming icons from the 90s that I grew up with have faded out, and whenever discussion of these characters are brought up, these stupid teenagers talk trash about them and continue to praise Nintendo to no end because Nintendo is all that they know. It came to a point where I was at my breaking point and became a Nintendo hating troll on YouTube and I’m just so ashamed and disappointed in myself. I wasted so much time and energy. Just trying to defend Sonic’s honor and put Nintendo down as a means of revenge how stupid I was.

Bro I totally get you. I was born in 1990 so I'm two years older than you. However, I hate when people say things like "Sonic was never good", and it makes me angry. I don't respond to those comments though, since I know I'll just continue to get upset when people reply to my comment. It's hard to ignore things when people are bad mouthing the community you're in, but it'll definitely help your mental health.

[OtakuHedgehog]

On 12/9/2023 at 9:10 PM, Ravenfreak said:

Bro I totally get you. I was born in 1990 so I'm two years older than you. However, I hate when people say things like "Sonic was never good", and it makes me angry. I don't respond to those comments though, since I know I'll just continue to get upset when people reply to my comment. It's hard to ignore things when people are bad mouthing the community you're in, but it'll definitely help your mental health.

Thank you for understanding. Yes, I know that I should just ignore the "Sonic was never good" nonsense, but it's just so frustrating to see nerds having this superiority complex acting like they're hot **** and running this mentality that Sonic fans are beneath them when in reality, they're not millionaires, they're not Nobel Peace Prize candidates, they're not some NBA superstar, they're not driving a lambo with a bunch of girls chasing after them. And it's especially frustrating to see stupid teenagers doing this who are too young and ignorant to realize that there was a time when Sonic was #1. They're just nobodies hiding behind a computer screen bullying Sonic fans to blow off steam due to crap going on in their miserable lives, because Sonic fans are an easy target unfortunately. Again, if you're going to attack Sonic the character, that's one thing, but when you go to attack people for liking Sonic, that's when I draw the line. I remember I was arguing with some guy on YouTube a few years ago who claimed that Sonic fans are toxic man-children, but yet, he's rocking a Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs avatar. If he enjoys kiddy movies made by Dreamworks, WTF can't I enjoy Sonic? Liking Sonic doesn't make you a furry/man-child/losr/weirdo, we're just normally people with normal lives who just so happen to like Sonic games. And what upsets me even more is that "Content Creators" get praise for attacking Sonic fans. Remember when Black Buster Critic was a thing? He made a series of videos attacking Sonic fans and people loved him for it, and then he cries like a baby when Satora Iwata passed away demanding respect from the Gaming Community. Oh, but if a big SEGA rep passed away a decade ago and Sonic fans were making videos crying, BBC would no doubt make fun of us and call us man-children for doing the same thing! <_< It's no exaggeration that Sonic saved my life from a childhood of abuse and neglect from my family and the education system; And we live in a world with grown men are collecting Power Rangers toys, grown men watching My Little Pony, grown men playing Mario games in their mother's house, why is it such a crime for me to like Sonic? 

Edited December 11, 2023 by OtakuHedgehog

[AlexHidanBR]

I will admit i didn't read all of that but i can tell that we're almost in the same page here

For many years I played Sonic games and stuff as escapism because my life sucks in certain points, especially relationships, so I feel empathy towards you.

My guess is that you need to talk with the right people, hit me up on Discord sometime lets talk about stupid things and stuff

[OtakuHedgehog]

On 12/21/2023 at 3:47 AM, AlexHidanBR said:

I will admit i didn't read all of that but i can tell that we're almost in the same page here

For many years I played Sonic games and stuff as escapism because my life sucks in certain points, especially relationships, so I feel empathy towards you.

My guess is that you need to talk with the right people, hit me up on Discord sometime lets talk about stupid things and stuff

Thank you for the kind words, I'd love to do that sometime. I'll DM you my Discord.

[Grimmnir]

Hey there, I'm really sorry to hear that you're going through such a tough time. It sounds like you've been dealing with a lot, and it's totally okay to feel overwhelmed sometimes. Venting can definitely be therapeutic, and it's brave of you to share your feelings.

[OtakuHedgehog]

On 4/4/2024 at 6:41 AM, Grimmnir said:

Hey there, I'm really sorry to hear that you're going through such a tough time. It sounds like you've been dealing with a lot, and it's totally okay to feel overwhelmed sometimes. Venting can definitely be therapeutic, and it's brave of you to share your feelings.

Thank you for your kind words. It's been almost 2 years since I've made this thread and I'm happy to say that I'm doing a lot better. I made another thread last year as a sort of sequel to this thread where I admitted that all of the Sonic hate turned me into a monster and how I became a Nintendo-Hating Internet Troll back in 2017 and it ended up wasting my 20s as I was so full of anger towards the nerd community (especially the Nintendo fandom) for all the blind hate that Sonic and Sonic fans get. I swear, I cannot go a single day browsing YouTube or other social-media without seeing Sonic compared to Mario, or people saying that all Sonic fans are "autistic man-children" like Chris-Chan, and it especially hurts because I'm an adult on the spectrum who has graduated from a university and even won scholarships to study abroad in Japan! But when it comes to the nerd community, they just assume that I'm 'retarded' just because I have a Sonic avatar; And yet, these haters just so happen to like Mario and other kiddy stuff too, it's so hypocritical, I cannot stand the superiority complex that nerds have when it comes to Sonic fans! We live in a world where grown men are collecting Power Ranger toys, grown men are watching My Little Pony, grown men are playing Mario games in their mother's house. Why is it such a crime for me to like Sonic? I turned to the online nerd community back during my middle school years as an escape from all the bullying and isolation I was dealing with IRL at the time, but now as an adult, things have reversed; As a Sonic fan in 2024, I feel like an outcast among outcasts, and again, it's only the nerds who have this hate-b0ner towards the Sonic community because they're upset with their own lives. Normies don't go out of their way to bully Sonic fans or trash the brand. And it would be fine If these people would just hate on the character, that's one thing, but to hate on the fans is just downright mean! I know back in 2017, IGN's infamous "Sonic fans want to have sex with Big The Cat" was the last straw for me and turned me into an online monster who lashed at every Sonic-hating Nintendo fanboy that I could find on YouTube, looking back now, I'm so ashamed of myself. The thing that annoys me the most though are these stupid kids/teenagers (who are mostly Nintendo fans) who call me a toxic man-child Sonic fanboy, but are too young and ignorant to know that there was a time when Sonic was #1. But when it comes to Sonic, all they know is this 'Sonic was never good' BS that "influencers" like the Game Grumps and IGN throw up. <_<

[Maple Syrup]

29 minutes ago, OtakuHedgehog said:

Thank you for your kind words. It's been almost 2 years since I've made this thread and I'm happy to say that I'm doing a lot better. I made another thread last year as a sort of sequel to this thread where I admitted that all of the Sonic hate turned me into a monster and how I became a Nintendo-Hating Internet Troll back in 2017 and it ended up wasting my 20s as I was so full of anger towards the nerd community (especially the Nintendo fandom) for all the blind hate that Sonic and Sonic fans get. I swear, I cannot go a single day browsing YouTube or other social-media without seeing Sonic compared to Mario, or people saying that all Sonic fans are "autistic man-children" like Chris-Chan, and it especially hurts because I'm an adult on the spectrum who has graduated from a university and even won scholarships to study abroad in Japan! But when it comes to the nerd community, they just assume that I'm 'retarded' just because I have a Sonic avatar; And yet, these haters just so happen to like Mario and other kiddy stuff too, it's so hypocritical, I cannot stand the superiority complex that nerds have when it comes to Sonic fans! We live in a world where grown men are collecting Power Ranger toys, grown men are watching My Little Pony, grown men are playing Mario games in their mother's house. Why is it such a crime for me to like Sonic? I turned to the online nerd community back during my middle school years as an escape from all the bullying and isolation I was dealing with IRL at the time, but now as an adult, things have reversed; As a Sonic fan in 2024, I feel like an outcast among outcasts, and again, it's only the nerds who have this hate-b0ner towards the Sonic community because they're upset with their own lives. Normies don't go out of their way to bully Sonic fans or trash the brand. And it would be fine If these people would just hate on the character, that's one thing, but to hate on the fans is just downright mean! I know back in 2017, IGN's infamous "Sonic fans want to have sex with Big The Cat" was the last straw for me and turned me into an online monster who lashed at every Sonic-hating Nintendo fanboy that I could find on YouTube, looking back now, I'm so ashamed of myself. The thing that annoys me the most though are these stupid kids/teenagers (who are mostly Nintendo fans) who call me a toxic man-child Sonic fanboy, but are too young and ignorant to know that there was a time when Sonic was #1. But when it comes to Sonic, all they know is this 'Sonic was never good' BS that "influencers" like the Game Grumps and IGN throw up. <_<

What is their deal? We just like Sonic! All most of us want is peace and recognition! No need to be a d!@k about it! It angers me when people say stuff like that!

[OtakuHedgehog]

6 minutes ago, Maple Syrup said:

What is their deal? We just like Sonic! All most of us want is peace and recognition! No need to be a d!@k about it! It angers me when people say stuff like that!

Unfortunately, it just makes them feel powerful because they see Sonic fans as an easy target to blow off steam from the crap going on in their miserable lives. Back in 2018 when the Mario vs Sonic 2 Death Battle aired, I got tons of harassment just for giving a live-reaction where I said why I believe that Sonic should have won. I was 26 at the time and there was an annoying 14 year-old named 'Mene The Mene' who was harassing not just me, but every Sonic fan that he could find and called us toxic and defended Mario like it's his father or something. I eventually had enough and then (shamefully) harassed him with my troll persona and eventually got him to confess why he's such a jerk to Sonic fans. He literally said "I get bullied online and at school a lot but the Death Battle made me happy, so I went into full on fanboy mode to blow off steam to defend my favorite character". It's so sad that kids/teenagers today will never understand that there was a time when Nintendo didn't have a monopoly on the cartoony platforming market. I personally did not grow up with Mario. My childhood gaming heroes were the likes of Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Rayman, Gex, Megaman X, and of course Sonic The Hedgehog. Out of all of those characters, Sonic is the only one that remains relevant today and it frustrates me when people say that 'Sonic needs to die' or 'Sonic fans are weird' just because Sonic isn't as successful as Mario. I just don't get it, why would people want Nintendo to have a monopoly over platform games? We as customers should want choices as that builds competition which pressures game companies to raise the quality of their games. That's why the quality of Pokemon games have been in the gutter as of recent years, but people still throw down $60+ for their unpolished games because they have no competition (hopefully PalWorld will change that). But when it comes to kids today, its Mario this, Mario that, anything not Nintendo related is garbage! I remember when the Crash Bandicoot Remakes were coming out, these kids would post crap on social media like 'Why would anyone play a game with these characters? You'd think they'd give you rabies or something. I'm just gonna stick to Mario Kart!' /:

[Cyb3rkn1ght]

53 minutes ago, Maple Syrup said:

All most of us want is peace and recognition! No need to be a d!@k about it! It angers me when people say stuff like that!

yeah, they call me a furry. it doesnt help that im also gay too...

BUT, im mostly upbeat anyway, so i should be fine!

[Maple Syrup]

4 minutes ago, Cyb3rkn1ght said:

yeah, they call me a furry. it doesnt help that im also gay too...

BUT, im mostly upbeat anyway, so i should be fine!

Oh no... There is a difference between Sonic fan and Furry!

[Cyb3rkn1ght]

2 minutes ago, Maple Syrup said:

There is a difference between Sonic fan and Furry!

DAMN STRAIGHT!  

[Maple Syrup]

38 minutes ago, OtakuHedgehog said:

Unfortunately, it just makes them feel powerful because they see Sonic fans as an easy target to blow off steam from the crap going on in their miserable lives. Back in 2018 when the Mario vs Sonic 2 Death Battle aired, I got tons of harassment just for giving a live-reaction where I said why I believe that Sonic should have won. I was 26 at the time and there was an annoying 14 year-old named 'Mene The Mene' who was harassing not just me, but every Sonic fan that he could find and called us toxic and defended Mario like it's his father or something. I eventually had enough and then (shamefully) harassed him with my troll persona and eventually got him to confess why he's such a jerk to Sonic fans. He literally said "I get bullied online and at school a lot but the Death Battle made me happy, so I went into full on fanboy mode to blow off steam to defend my favorite character". It's so sad that kids/teenagers today will never understand that there was a time when Nintendo didn't have a monopoly on the cartoony platforming market. I personally did not grow up with Mario. My childhood gaming heroes were the likes of Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Rayman, Gex, Megaman X, and of course Sonic The Hedgehog. Out of all of those characters, Sonic is the only one that remains relevant today and it frustrates me when people say that 'Sonic needs to die' or 'Sonic fans are weird' just because Sonic isn't as successful as Mario. I just don't get it, why would people want Nintendo to have a monopoly over platform games? We as customers should want choices as that builds competition which pressures game companies to raise the quality of their games. That's why the quality of Pokemon games have been in the gutter as of recent years, but people still throw down $60+ for their unpolished games because they have no competition (hopefully PalWorld will change that). But when it comes to kids today, its Mario this, Mario that, anything not Nintendo related is garbage! I remember when the Crash Bandicoot Remakes were coming out, these kids would post crap on social media like 'Why would anyone play a game with these characters? You'd think they'd give you rabies or something. I'm just gonna stick to Mario Kart!' /:

Mario is a good franchise but I honestly hate the Nintendrones. Every game has it's ups and downs and many games and franchises including Sonic are far from perfect but they have to accept the fact that Sonic, Spyro, Pac-man, Megaman, have special things. 

[OtakuHedgehog]

On 4/7/2024 at 12:08 PM, Maple Syrup said:

Mario is a good franchise but I honestly hate the Nintendrones. Every game has it's ups and downs and many games and franchises including Sonic are far from perfect but they have to accept the fact that Sonic, Spyro, Pac-man, Megaman, have special things. 

Oh yes I 100% agree. I enjoy some Mario games. Even though I never owned Mario games growing up, I still have memories playing the NES & SNES games over friends' houses and daycare centers. But I hate the elitism when it comes to Nintendo fans. I remember way back in 2006 when Sonic 06 was in development, some fans in the Sonic community said that SEGA should burn for "betraying Nintendo" for making Sonic 06 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, but not for the upcoming Wii. They hoped the game would fail, well they got their wish which resulted in the Sonic franchise entering a dark age, and then, they still weren't happy!

And the Smash Community (Oh God) I remember back in 2018 I made some comments on YouTube Smash Bros Trailers saying that I hope Shadow will be an Echo-Fighter for Sonic, then I get harassed from Smash Bros fanatics who believe that they have the right to declare who "deserves to be in Smash" and would mock me saying crap like "I hate Shadow! He's just a stupid edge lord! Sonic is overrated, he doesn't need anyone to represent his dying franchise but himself! You're just a toxic fanboy who's too stupid to realize that the series has been going downhill since 1994!" For pet's sake, I love Smash Bros as a video game series, but I CANNOT STAND the cancerous community. I love Shadow, he's my favorite Sonic character because we share a lot of the same mental illnesses (intrusive thoughts, depression, suicidal thoughts, haunted by the past), and I would love to see him playable in Smash Bros someday. And this anti-Sonic BS in the Smash community stems all the back to 2006 when Snake was announced for Brawl and people (myself included) were hoping that Sonic would get accepted as well. My teenage-self had to deal with so much online harassment from the Smash Community with people saying "Sonic sucks! There hasn't been a decent Sonic game since 1994! Sad but true! He has zero chance of getting into Smash Bros! I bet Megaman will be given a slot over that blue rat". Thankfully all of the haters were proven wrong.

The worst Sonic hater I've ever come across which I mentioned in my 'I used to be a Nintendo-Hating Troll' thread was this Cortex guy who took pride in "proving Sonic fans wrong" in the Mario vs Sonic Death Battle comments section. After getting so sick of Mario fans laughing at my live-reaction, I made a 90-minute debunk video on my YouTube Channel explaining why Sonic should have beaten Mario. It was my first video essay and I put my heart and soul into the video. Sure, it's not the best video on YouTube, but I was still proud of it at the time. The Cortex guy and his gang on teenage Mario fanboys just trashed on my video and channel claiming that they weren't going to "waste their time watching something that's 100% wrong", frustrated by his arrogance I (regretfully looking back) continued to argue with him. He and other Mario fans called me braindead and said that I must have a "severe mental problem" which especially hurt me still to this day as I am on the spectrum, despite my learning disability, I've beaten the odds and have graduated from a university! But Mario fans don't care, they just think I'm stupid just because I like Sonic. This is also why I CANNOT STAND when people bring up Chris-Chan or Sonichu, just because you have Autism, like Sonic, or have an OC, that doesn't make you weird, toxic, a predator, crappy artist, furry, etc. The likes of Shadic, Nazo, and Fire Sonic are OCs, and they've stared in some of the best fan animations I've ever seen in the early 2000s.

And WTH are these Sonic haters doing with their lives? They're not some NBA superstar living in a mansion, driving a lambo, or rocking a supermodel figure with a bunch of girls chasing after them. They're just an egotistical nerd online who just so happen to like something that has a better reputation than Sonic. Anyway, I eventually blocked the Cortex guy and he responds saying "I wonder how many Sonic fans blocked me lol." Acting as if he's better than us. The scenario really broke me and caused me to stop making videos for a good 4 years or so. I've finally returned last year though after deciding to vlog my spiritual journey to figure out who I am and what I want to do with the rest of my life. No matter how "bad" the games get I will always love this character to death. Sonic was there for me during the darkest time in my life where I was neglected by my parents and the education system, I don't know where I would be if I didn't have Sonic growing up for me to rely on for my much needed emotional support.

Edited April 12 by OtakuHedgehog