There were only a few things you needed to know about the star of Sonic the Hedgehog when Sega‘s answer to Super Mario was first released in 1991: a) he was fast, b) he was blue, and c) he was awesome. Simple, yes, but effective. However, it turns out there was so much more to him than any of us realized, because originally he had an entire awesome backstory that involved a WWII fighter pilot and his wife’s children’s book.

We first heard about these new revelations at IGN, after Sonic game designer Hirokazu Yasuhara and character designer Naoto Oshima shared some of their original designs and plans that went into the creation of Sonic at GDC 2018 this week. They said they were focused on making a game with American influences, which led them to look at old WWII fighter pilots. That’s why the Sonic logo looks like one of the classic designs that used to be found on the front of fighter jets:

But they didn’t stop there. They also crafted a backstory around a fighter pilot who was obsessed with going faster, and whose hair was always on edge, earning him the nickname “Hedgehog.” Furthermore, he wore the Sonic logo on his plane, and had an author wife who wrote a kid’s story about an actual hedgehog leading to the Sonic we know. The original plan for the game was for it to be a story inside of a story.

True origin of Sonic The Hedgehog. Sonic was depicted as a fighter pilot! #GDC2018 #GDC pic.twitter.com/YhSysLUb9i

— Chris Melissinos (@CMelissinos) March 21, 2018

That might have been a little difficult to grasp when I was a kid playing the game, but man that’s awesome and I’m now treating it like canon. And I didn’t even know I wanted Sonic to have a backstory! But there’s still one question I do have—one that I’ve always wondered about:

Why Sonic is blue #gdc2018 pic.twitter.com/vAFFFIMIb6

— Jeremiah Freyholtz (@reedlake) March 21, 2018

You know what, I probably didn’t need an elaborate backstory to guess that one.

What do you make of Sonic’s WWII connection? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Featured Image: Sega

More on Sonic the Hedgehog

• Sonic returns to the comic pages next month
• Read the latest on the developing Sonic movie
• Sonic gets modded into Mario Kart 8