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With over 30 years of history behind him, including video games, cartoons, comics, and more, Sonic the Hedgehog has had more than his fair share of adventures over the years. No one is going to be able to save the world as many times as he has without making a few mistakes along the way.
There have been plenty of times in his many games and other media where Sonic the Hedgehog has let himself down in a major way, by doing something unbelievably dumb, that inevitably backfires. Sometimes Sonic himself is the only one who has to live with the consequences, but other times his friends get in trouble for it.
8 Getting Tricked & Turned Into The Werehog
At first, Sonic Unleashed's opening cutscene seems to be going pretty well for Sonic. He actually brings the Chaos Emeralds to a fight for once, and Super Sonic seems to have Eggman pretty easily defeated. Unfortunately, things change when Sonic shows a complete lack of awareness.
Despite being able to move faster than anything else alive, he stands there and watches as Eggman activates his trap, which slowly raises pillars around him, and eventually unleashes energy that restrains him. There was a huge window where Sonic could've simply moved a few feet to the side and avoided it, but instead, the Chaos Emeralds were drained, and he became a Werehog.
7 Allowing Elise To Continuously Get Captured
To say the writing in Sonic '06 is bad, lazy, or incomprehensible would be an understatement, and it did Sonic no favors. Sonic's story revolves around Princess Elise and trying to rescue her from Eggman, who is trying to unleash a great power to destroy the world.
Sonic successfully rescues her quite early in the game. Then she gets captured again, then is rescued, then captured, then rescued, and so on. By the end of the game, Elise has been captured by Eggman at least four times, and this wouldn't have been a problem if Sonic had any foresight and had taken her into hiding until Eggman was dealt with. Instead, he just sends her back to her massive palace where she's an obvious target.
6 Believing Eggman Is Gone For Good
After defeating Eggman over and over for 30 years, players would be forgiven for thinking that Sonic would realize the pattern by now, but apparently not. After every happy ending, Sonic seems to think they've finally dealt with Eggman for good, only for him to be caught by surprise in the next game as Eggman's plot screws everything up.
It's become such a joke, that it was even integral to the plot of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, where they defeat Eggman in the opening cutscene, and when something starts to go wrong, they immediately assume it's Eggman's doing.
5 Putting Tails Up For Adoption
Diving now into the wild world of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog 1993 cartoon. In the episode Tails' New Home, Sonic has to come and save Tails from an attack by recurring enemies. In the course of this attack, Tails gets injured, and Sonic feels guilty.
This leads Sonic to declare he's going to take Tails to "a real family", which is a mental concept. Not only because it implies that Sonic is Tails' legal guardian despite being just 15 years old, but also that Tails doesn't actually have biological parents. Regardless, giving up his most resourceful and loyal ally is a terrible move on Sonic's part, and he soon realizes his mistake.
4 Flying Into A Tornado
Sonic is no stranger to charging headlong into a dangerous situation. It's brave when it needs to be done to save the world, however, it's dumb when there's no real need for it. At the start of the DS game, Sonic Rush Adventure, Sonic and Tails are flying Tails' plucky little propeller plane over the ocean in a ridiculously powerful storm.
Already, doing that is a stupid idea, but it gets worse. They're chasing an energy reading, and as they are doing so, they see a giant tornado in front of them. Rather than avoiding this unbelievably dangerous situation, they keep approaching it, at which point their plane is struck by lightning, and they crash into the tornado, which, if they had given it any thought, was obviously going to happen.
3 Leaving Eggman Alone In Sonic's World
Staying on the DS for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, this Bioware developed RPG sees a lot of interesting plot elements, including seeing Sonic and Eggman team up to stop a greater threat, known as the Nocturnus Clan.
As part of this plan, Sonic and the team must enter an alternate dimension to save the world, and someone has to stay behind to ensure they get there. After seemingly reforming his ways, Eggman volunteers to stay behind in the ruined Metropolis to ensure their safety. Then, when the gang return at the end of the game, Eggman pulls the most obvious betrayal of the century, having rebuilt Metropolis in Sonic's absence and shooting down their ship, leading to the game's unresolved cliffhanger.
2 Allowing The Chaos Emeralds To Be Stolen Repeatedly
Sonic has already proven that he can't be trusted with keeping a single princess safe, so it comes as no surprise that he's just as irresponsible when it comes to looking after the most powerful objects in the universe. The Chaos Emeralds are stolen or go missing more than Princess Peach.
Despite having to gather them in every single game, usually using them to become Super Sonic at the conclusion, Sonic seems to abandon the Chaos Emeralds once the adventure is over. Whilst it may be understandable that he doesn't want to constantly use such great power, he should at least see to it that they are kept somewhere safe, or at least somewhere Eggman-proof after each game.
1 Leaving The Master Emerald In Knuckles' Care
Knuckles is a tough cookie and a great ally to Sonic in his adventures. However, it's not controversial to say that he is an absolutely terrible guardian of the Master Emerald. Much like the Chaos Emeralds, it gets stolen hilariously often, and given that it's all Knuckles seems to care about, he should do a better job of looking after it.
Whether he gets tricked by Eggman into allowing it to be stolen, or just screws up and lets it slip through his fingers, he alone is clearly not fit for the job. Sonic should either find someone more capable of protecting the Emerald or get someone to help Knuckles with his duties because he clearly needs it. The Sonic world has no shortage of characters who could help, after all.