Thursday, 07 January 2010

• Sonic The Blind Hedgehog

  
  

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  There are a lot of mysteries in video games, but there is one that always leaves me scratching my head: just how do Sonic the Hedgehog's eyes work. From the very first game cartridge to modern day promotional artwork, Sonic always had two distinct pupils, but the eyes in their entirety remain connected near the bridge of his nose.

  My initial thought was that his entire head was a single ocular orb that both pupils attached to. His eyes worked by the revolving of this single sphere. This posed several problems, however. First is that it leaves little room for his brain. Granted, Sonic isn't known for his thinking, so there isn't much brain to be concerned with. Most of his cranial musings revolve around chili dogs and getting his jollies from ladies of other species.
  

  I'm tempted to declare his neural storage similar to Twi'leks; they keep some of their brain in spiky tubes jutting from their heads. The other problem is that his pupils occasionally display independent movement and focus. There is always the possibility of complex choreography among ocular muscles that stretch and relax eye tissue, but I hesitate with such complexity due to Occam's razor.

  Lately, I have been of the mind that each pupil is actually its own independent "eye" held together and in place by the white substrate the makes up a large percentage of the hedgehog's face. I haven't quite determined what exactly that substrate is, or how it works, but given a couple more minutes I'm sure I could make something up. It would have to be flexible, to allow a wide range of emotions that Sonic is required to display. It would also need to have a high surface tension and viscosity to hold itself in place vertically on his face, but still be soft enough to allow his proper eyes' freedom of movement. It also needs to be reflective to get the shine that Japanese developers demand from all of their characters. I don't know of any material that matches all of these criteria (I'm an IT major, not a chemist!), but I'm sure such a substance would likewise turn lead to gold and grant immortality at the same time (especially true since Sonic games continue to make a mint even when the character refuses to die).

  While I'm at it, I should keep in mind his eyelids. I don't even want to think about that...

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