10 Most Selfish Sonic Characters, Ranked

Highlights

• Jet The Hawk boasts about his speed, making him arrogant and selfish in his rivalry with Sonic.
• Princess Elise’s selfish act nearly caused disaster in Sonic 06 by choosing her desires over the world’s safety.
• Mayor Fink’s selfishness involves rigging elections and shirking responsibilities as a leader.

As Sega’s most well-known franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog is a long-running series and, as such, has a large cast of characters. Many of these beloved characters have been very well-developed over the years and explored in many different ways, from iconic game series to television shows and spin-offs.

Many characters have become so well-loved that they are capable of leaving an impact on fans. However, with many different personalities, it’s fair to say that several appear very selfish. While that doesn’t always make them into villains or anti-heroes, a few characters constantly seek their own gain above all else and live for what they want without always considering those around them. These are among the most selfish characters in Sonic, from both the games and TV shows, who stand out for their ambition and arrogance.

10 Jet The Hawk

Arrogant And Boastful

• First Appearance: Sonic Riders
• Platform: GameCube, PS2, Xbox (Original), Windows
• Released: February 21, 2006
• Developer(s): Sonic Team, Now Production

Appearing in the Sonic Riders trilogy, Jet is a highly arrogant character and leader of the Babylon Rogues. In the original Sonic Riders, Jet along with Wave and Storm, are out to find the secret treasure of the ancient Babylonians. While this was their ambition to enter Eggman’s race, Jet quickly becomes put out by Sonic’s speed. This leads him to fiercely boast about himself.

He resolves that Sonic may be the fastest on land, but he is ultimately the fastest on Extreme Gear. Throughout the game, Jet doesn’t hesitate to take any opportunity to boast about his incredible skills on EX-gear. Though he’s out for treasure, the desire to prove himself the fastest quickly takes over. This makes for a selfishly driven rivalry against Sonic and his team.

9 Princess Elise The Third

Nearly Risked The World For Her Own Sake

• First Appearance: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

The young monarch of Soleanna, Elise was orphaned at a young age. Due to a tragic accident depicted in Sonic 06, she was forced to never cry, or it would unleash the Flames of Disaster. Despite these things, Elise tried to do what was right for her people and be a capable ruler. However, after Solaris is fought and seemingly defeated by Sonic Shadow and Silver at the game’s climax, time resets to before the accident occurred. Elise has a chance to prevent the tragedy that killed her father and split Solaris in two.

Blowing out the flame of Solaris will prevent this disaster from happening again, involving Solaris’ entire takeover of the world. Yet Elise, in a moment of selfishness, states that she doesn’t “care what happens to the world,” despite Sonic’s best efforts to stop Solaris. Before the villain’s defeat, Sonic had even been killed, after suffering being ambushed by Mephiles. In this moment, Elise could’ve undone all Sonic’s efforts and not changed the world, for the sake of her feelings.

8 Mayor Fink

Just Wants To Hold Onto Power

• First Appearance: Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric

Appearing in the Sonic Boom continuity, Fink is the mayor of Hedgehog Village, where Sonic and his pals reside. His selfishness is very apparent, seen many times throughout the TV series. From rigging the elections to making promises he couldn’t keep to the citizens, Fink always sought to do what he wanted above his duties as mayor. One such time, he even left Knuckles in charge of the village to go fishing with his aristocratic friends.

Fink is also very lazy, constantly neglecting his work and not seeing things through. In the experimental title Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, he gets Sonic and his friends to tidy up the island, so it would look good on him running for re-election. However, Fink would aid Sonic in defending the village if the need was dire. This makes him better than his predecessor, Jebediah Badger, who was so selfish and greedy that he oppressed his citizens for the sake of power.

7 Sonic The Hedgehog

Lives By His Own Rules

• First Appearance: Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)

As in his theme song, “It Doesn’t Matter,” Sonic strives to be “living by his own feelings,” in everything he does. Though this leads him to perform heroic acts, ultimately this is due to his love of adventure and strong desire for freedom. He does want to help those in need, but Sonic is also known for his wit and overconfidence, which sometimes lands him and his friends in trouble.

Different versions of Sonic have been more selfish than others. His Sonic Boom variant is particularly cocky and consistently puts himself above his friends. In Sonic Prime, Sonic is so arrogant that he doesn’t heed his friends’ warnings, and thus causes the loss of Green Hill. However, Sonic may be self-centered, though this doesn’t make him antagonistic. Ultimately, he has a “steadfast heart of gold” beneath.

6 Chris Thorndyke

Was Aware Of His Selfishness

• First Appearance: Sonic X

After rescuing Sonic from drowning in Sonic X, Chris became the hedgehog’s close friend. He even opened his home to Sonic and his pals, giving them refuge from people who, at first, would’ve wanted them in prison. Chris was a very lonely kid and was overjoyed by finally having new friends. This gave him a selfish streak, to the point he was desperate not to lose his new friends when they had to travel back to their homeworld.

Chris goes as far as to shut down the teleporter right as Sonic is about to enter it, thereby risking his and Sonic’s world’s safety. Having both their worlds connected threatened to stop time itself, something Chris ignored for his own sake. But over a few days, Chris begins to realize his mistakes, admitting he “was just selfish.” After Sonic travels back home, Chris spends the next six years working on a machine to teleport himself to Sonic’s world.

5 Amy-Rose The Hedgehog

Insists On Getting What She Wants

• First Appearance: Sonic CD

Amy tends to put herself first in many situations, especially in the earlier 2D and 3D games. For the most part since her debut, Amy has had an absolute obsession with Sonic, to the point it would be her motivation for everything she did. This would mean she got angry and short-tempered with anyone who tried to stand in her way. In Sonic Heroes, for example, she selfishly threatens Sonic that there’s “no way out of marrying me.”

Another prominent example is in Sonic 06 when she convinces Silver to let her help him in his mission to hunt down the “Iblis Trigger.” However, she turns this on its head, saying she’ll help him only after she’s found Sonic. In the anime Sonic X, Amy frequently loses her temper when she doesn’t get her way. However, in later appearances like Sonic Boom, she doesn’t act so thoughtlessly and impulsively. In this TV series, she wins the “Most Selfless Award,” though her manner of receiving it would still imply otherwise.

4 Knuckles The Dread

A Terrible Pirate Captain

• First Appearance: Sonic Prime

Appearing in Sonic Prime, Dread is a pirate from the realm No Place, and an alternate version of Knuckles. However, Dread is very unlike his real version, being more of a coward and very lazy. When Sonic first meets Dread and his crew, he is only obsessed with throwing parties instead of traveling across the seas like a true pirate.

As seen in Season 2, Dread becomes completely besotted by the blue Prism Shard, that all he can think about is getting it back from Sonic. Dread even convinces his crew to turn against Sonic, to the point that he would’ve killed him to get it back. When the Chaos Council gets involved, Dread abandons his crew for his selfish ambition. His love of the Shard makes him more alike to Rouge the Bat and her love of gems than the Knuckles every fan knows, who would guard the Master Emerald faithfully.

3 Pachacamac

Had Absolutely No Thought For Others

• First Appearance: Sonic Adventure

The leader of the ancient echidnas, Pachacamac was a ruthless and greedy individual, giving no thought to the other countries and people around him. When he became his clan’s leader, he made his ambitions his people’s ambitions, turning the clan into warmongers. He refused to listen to his daughter, Tikal, who warned him of the dangers of greed and pleaded with him to stop his selfish conquest.

Though he used the excuse that they had to conquer other lands to survive themselves, Pachacamac was extremely ruthless and selfish, even going as far as to steal the Chaos Emeralds from the innocent Chao. He even let Tikal get trampled by his soldiers in the process. However, his sheer greed caused his and his clan’s ultimate downfall. His actions caused the monster Chaos to retaliate, eliminating the entire clan and much of their civilization.

2 Rouge The Bat

Driven By Her Selfishness

• First Appearance: Sonic Adventure 2

Famous for her treasure-hunting abilities, Rouge often uses her wit and initiative to get what she most desires: jewels. Rouge is so obsessed with gems, from the Chaos Emeralds to the Master Emerald itself, that she will stop at nothing until she gets them for herself. Many times, this has been her overriding ambition in everything she does.

Rouge founded Team Dark, uniting Shadow and E-123 Omega into a team to hunt for Eggman. However, she was putting her own needs first, wanting to find Eggman’s hidden treasure above what Shadow and Omega wanted. However, in titles like Sonic 06, Rouge shows more care for Shadow and seems much less selfish. Overall, fans have always known her as a master jewel thief, driven by her fierce selfishness.

1 Dr. Eggman

The Most Recurring Villain In The Series

• First Appearance: Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)

All major villains in the Sonic series are driven by selfishness. However, none is more notable than one of the most iconic video game antagonists, Dr. Eggman. Since the original game, everything Eggman has done has been centered on his highly selfish and big-ego attitude. The doctor never gives a thought to anyone but himself, as proved by his actions across the series, which range from relatively petty to the pinnacle of ruthlessness.

Eggman may have started out capturing helpless animals to power his machines, but he’s committed some acts that threatened the whole world, or even time itself. From enslaving ancient monsters like Chaos and Dark Gaia to do his bidding, to blowing up the moon in Sonic Adventure 2, he’s physically caused the world’s destruction many times. Sometimes he’s gone out of his way to hurt others for the sake of total power, like when he planted a missile in Station Square or imprisoned Princess Elise on a train set to explode. Eggman has remained an ever-present threat to Sonic and his world for many terrible reasons.