This has always been my stance too, that the 8 bit games are in an alternative timeline- my reasoning being that there’s only ever 6 emeralds in the 8 bit games, plus I’ve always interpreted Triple Trouble as being that timeline’s version of how Sonic meets and later befriends Knuckles. As you say, it’s just too much of a headache to try and place them in the main canon.
I would politely disagree with this. It's not that difficult to find places for most of the games. Yes, Sonic Triple Trouble is a bit of a headache, but that's the only real issue people have.
I'd suggest 8-bit Sonic 2 should happen between the intro written in the manual of 16-bit Sonic 2 the actual MD game; the move wouldn't make much sense beyond Robotnik trying to distract Sonic to buy some time for the Death Egg to be built, but it's the only moment when Sonic has already met Tails and has a moment of peace yet the set of seven chaos emeralds hasn't been revealed and the South Island six are the only ones everyone knows for sure.
Can't be. The manual makes it clear Tails was too shy to approach Sonic, let alone write him a letter, and Sonic, while watching him out the corner of his eye, was rather indifferent to the fox. Not to mention, the former game takes place on South Island, while the latter game takes place on Westside Island. Tails would have to follow Sonic to another island and back outright.
And six Chaos Emeralds, but Sonic Blast does offer an answer to that in the form of Sonic carrying a Chaos Emerald on his person from the start.
I think 6 Chaos Emeralds can largely be ignored as just some weirdness. Their presence in the Game Gear games is simply to be a MacGuffin and I don't think anything is really affected differently by there being 7 instead of 6.
Blaze has a completely different backstory in the mainline games. Advance might be canon, sure, but the rush games directly contradict established lore.
Blaze is established to be the Guardian of the Sol Emeralds in the mainline games. I assume you're talking about the Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) game, which actually also uses that backstory?
Iizuka has gone on record explicitly saying that the Rush games are canon and anything contradicting them regarding Blaze's backstory (i.e. 06) should be ignored. You can't get anymore legitimate than that.
Huh, guess I was wrong. I could've sworn there were games after 06 that stated blaze was still from the future but nope. My bad, sorry.
The most is Sonic Generations where Blaze says she never thought she'd find herself in Crisis City again. We did conclude the backstory discrepancy with a bit of speculation, where Blaze was sent to the future of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) before Sonic Rush and knows of Sonic, Robotnik and the Chaos Emeralds through research while Silver was defeating Iblis.
Forgot adding the part of kidnapping Tails and taking him back to Angel Island so Sonic has to go back there too. Which letter? Eggman takes Tails in fron of Sonic when the intro plays.
The intro is a summary of events (aka, Tails has been captured). Quote the manual: I assume you mean South Island, that's a fair idea for how the plot returns to the island, but the letter indicates they're just there via "All of our friends on South Island", since that's the source of Robotnik's attack.
Indeed, but it's more a basic summary. Sonic's chasing Robotnik to get back a captured Tails. That's pretty much what you're doing the whole game, chasing Robotnik to get back a captured Tails.
28:22 - Are you allowed to or would you want to explore unfinished plot points of Iblis being sealed in Blaze, her spotty memories of 06, or a detailed explanation on how she became a princess of another dimension if she is originally from the future? - Yes and No. Last part first: by the evidence we're given, she can't have been from the future because her bloodline has protected the Jeweled Scepter for generations, according to Sonic Rush Adventure. Ergo she's from the Sol Dimension (unless that plot point gets forgotten or retconned but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it). I would like to, but the thing is, to dredge up those points we would have to go back over a decade to reintroduce the starting plot points for this to make sense to the casual audience, to then explain it to everybody and I don't know if it's worth the effort (...). 46:38 - I think it’s safe to say that, while Classic Sonic is it’s own beast with the timeline split/alternate dimension stuff, that the events of Sonic Origins happened in both timelines. (Sonic 1, CD, 2 and 3&K) but there is something I’ve been wondering. In the modern timeline… how do you suppose the transition from Classic to Modern happened.. IN universe? What made Classic Eggman change his style to become modern Eggman, and so on? - I'm gonna have to abstain from this one. I know things and I am not clever enough to talk around them. (...) - I can answer it. I can say 'play Sonic Pocket Adventure'! It's totally canon! - Except it's not! 48:09 - What was the extent of your contribution to Sonic Origins? Did you come up with the general ideas of what the story presented in them would cover, or did Sega dictate that? Did you factor in the manuals? Tails' introduction in particular seems to contradict the Sonic 2 JP manual. - (...) I was involved with the group that addressed the project and was one of the voices weighing in, and then what that group decided is where I went from to do the script. (...) This is the canon way things happen now. This is the retcon to end all retcons, this is the official across the board English and Japanese, this is for everybody. This is how Sonic's original adventures happened. - Until they decide to change it again. - Well, that's entirely possible, but I'm pretty sure this is gonna stick for a while at the very least. (...) For what it's worth, I did pitch the idea that CD came at the end, because to me it made sense that it go 1-2-3K and then Eggman tries to get the Time Stones to undo the original trilogy and all of his failures. But that got vetoed, so we have 1-CD-2-3K. 55:02 - Last I heard, the 30th anniversary Classic Sonic comic (or at least the first story) wasn't canon to the main book, but rather, the Classic universe, specifically post-Mania. But now the continuity gurus need to know- is the comic canon to Sonic Mania: the game? Or a new IDW exclusive Classic Sonic timeline separate from the one seen in the games? - Just consider Classic one thing right now. So, Classic stories happen in the Classic universe, and don't worry too much about the Classic timeline.
No. Also no. If they want to do this stupid idea with the timeline split, then they have to deal with everything regarding it. Explanations are required. "They got older and Robotnik changed his clothes". Oh god, are they going to be weird and overly complicated about this as well? Also, Sonic Pocket Adventure, neat. Though we also get confirmation it's not canon, but at this point I think we all know my stance on 'official words', especially with all the changes going on...
With Sonic Frontiers being about recovering memories, I expect they'll take the same approach Sonic Adventure did with Amy's flashback: the cast have "always" had their modern designs in the Modern Sonic universe. If we get a flashback of Amy getting kidnapped by Metal Sonic, she'll be wearing her red dress. If we get a flashback to Tails meeting Sonic, he'll have blue eyes. If we get a flashback to Eggman's early schemes, he'll have his Sonic Adventure outfit.
