The Current Sonic timeline

Well that's no fun.

There only being seven Chaos Emeralds makes sense in the overall Sonic universe narrative. The term "Super Emerald," in retrospect, comes across as a game term and not something that is meant to be a unique item. But to discount the Japanese manual for Sonic 3 feels like a disservice. It seems odd to think Sonic Team would be actively retconing the first half of a game as they were finishing up the second half. While we don't know the exact timeline of when the backstory was developed, or when the opening of the game was switched over to feature Super Sonic, the team purposefully wrote a story in which Knuckles the Echidna is guarding a set of seven Chaos Emeralds. That must mean something, not just some random leftover from an early concept of the game.

The Chaos Emeralds as presented in Sonic 3 do not remain a static object as they do in Sonic 1 and 2, they go through a significant transformation. They do not simply grow in size near the Master Emerald, but by the time the game is done, they have fundamentally changed shape. I know a common theory thrown out over the years is that we the player must have seen the Emeralds from a top down view in Sonic 1 and 2, but the special stages in vanilla Sonic 3 disprove that notion. They have a very specific shape, one that is not revisited in any future game. Starting with the Saturn version of 3D Blast and continuing onwards, they are rendered the way the "Super Emeralds" are shaped. When Sonic jumps into the glowing Special Stage ring in Mushroom Hill and is transported to the Hidden Palace Zone, he witnesses the emeralds he has collected rise up off screen, then return as large, grey, diamond cut gems. Gems that in the special stages of S&K match the shape. Gems that he "restores," their color returning.

The sequence in the Hidden Palace Zone, the grey Super Emeralds that must be restored, is all visual storytelling. The grey is a cue that something is missing, and Sonic has to fix it. But what is missing? What is Sonic actually trying to do? There's far too much thought in the Hidden Palace shrine to be brushed aside as just an excuse for gameplay. Even if Sonic Team wasn't entirely sure what they wanted to convey, they wanted the "Super Emeralds" to mean something. Which then continued through the Sonic series we know today.

There are two other instances we see the Emeralds turn grey. Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Adventure. In Adventure, when they are grey, Tikal states that Chaos has absorbed the negative half of the emeralds, just as he did three thousand years prior. In the past sections of the Mystic Ruins, you can see the shrine as it once was, with a set of seven emeralds sitting upon pillars just as large as they were in the Hidden Palace Zone, and in the same shape. But we don't see all the details regarding Chaos being stopped the first time...

Is it possible that the "negative half" of the emeralds somehow manifested into the Chaos Emeralds we saw during 1, 2, and the first half of 3? That the echidna's closely guarded a set of seven that remained hidden on Angel Island, but the other half effected history as evidenced by the legends of South and West Side Island? That somehow, Sonic merged the two halves together to form the Chaos Emeralds that we have seen since? There's nothing in the games that explicitly states there were two sets of emeralds that merged into one, but it makes the most sense to me. The Sonic 3 manual makes it clear Knuckles had his own set of Chaos Emeralds, but by Sonic Adventure, there is only one set. And doesn't it make more sense for Knuckles to punch Sonic in the beginning of Sonic 3, see the Chaos Emeralds, and chuckle to himself thinking "oh yeah these are mine Eggman must have been right!" The alternative is he punches Sonic, see those emeralds fly out of him, he shrugs, and then...throws them into the special stage for some reason?

When we fast forward to Adventure, Super Sonic defeating Perfect Chaos would in essence be Sonic restoring the emeralds again, stopping whatever caused the two halves to be separate physical entities. Sonic found a way to fix things that Tikal wasn't able to do.

(oh man maybe Super Sonic in Sonic 2 is buff because they are negative emeralds and evil equals buff right this is definitely canon and not just a dumb joke)

Spinball almost feels like a part of the Archie series, what with it playing with both the early concepts of SatAM and AoStH. Not saying that was the intention, but it doesn't really fit into the game universe. STI wasn't against the idea of using the tv shows as inspiration for their games, as evidenced by the early forms of Sonic X-treme for the 32X. But even if the team behind Spinball was trying to make a game that fit the world of Sonic 1 and 2, the powers that be wanted to make it clear that it wasn't one and the same. The Japanese manual clearly states the planet the game takes place on is Mobius, a name that is never used in any other Japanese manual. Even if you read it as Robotnik appearing on a random planet named Mobius, the text makes it sound like Sonic is from there, and that he certainly didn't follow Eggman on some weird space trip. They wanted a differentiation from the get-go, that Spinball was a weird American spinoff and not the next entry in the series. Kinda like how Sonic Boom became Sonic Toon over there.

also eggman can change size what does that mean

Sonic Adventure is both the culmination of the lore established with in the original games, and the start of a new era. Sonic Adventure 2 began a new story, defining what would come over the next few years. But unlike the Game Gear games of the classic era, the handheld titles for this time period really felt like side stories that helped flesh out the overall narrative they were building. Advance 2 introduced Cream, Battle dived into the world of the ARK with Gerald's journal. There is something oddly satisfying when you look at the sequence of Adventure 2 --> Advance 2 --> Heroes --> Shadow --> Battle --> Advance 3 as one long story told in the world of Sonic. And if you place Advance 1 and Pinball Party after Adventure 2? In that context, you have a narrative that gives you some brief adventures that make the player go "oh, guess Shadow is really dead oh wait here he is back in Heroes what the heck." His return becomes the shocking moment that it is meant to be.

You can argue how effective the stories were executed in those games. I certainly can't point to Shadow the Hedgehog as a flawless piece of storytelling. But there was a certain consistency that ran through all those titles, just as there was a consistency through the classic era from 1991 to 1997. Sonic 06 felt like it wanted to be a launching off point as Sonic Adventure was, with the handheld titles of Rush and Rivals feeding into the overarching story in perhaps even greater detail than the Game Boy Advance games ever did. But it never quite got off the ground, so the entire thing feels muddled in retrospect. The fact people still argue about Silver, Blaze, and Eggman Nega's backstories is proof of that.

Of all the games in the Sonic the Hedgehog tapestry, Forces seems the trickiest when it comes to just having things slide in and make sense. It doesn't feel like previous games in the series went out of their way to contradict what happened before, but Forces loves to do that. The way Tails and Knuckles act, the simple fact Silver is there with no explanation, and the function of the Phantom Ruby. It's a head scratcher, but not an impossible task. You can try to resolve them, but it can enter full on fanfic/headcannon mode, instead of utilizing primary sources to fill in the gaps.

Even still, one thing that still bothers me is Tails stating Classic Sonic is "from another dimension." Why would Tails come to this conclusion? He has engaged with this version of Sonic in Generations, where he knew time travel was at play. Why make the leap and go "oh yeah you're not from the past anymore." Sonic is by himself, it's not like there's a Tails with him that can go "oh yeah we're not you from the past, we came from somewhere else." It's possible Classic Sonic just doesn't know or care, but Tails' relationship with this Sonic has always struck me as some weird...kid/pet thing? Like, Tails isn't looking at Sonic as a friend, but more a pet that he needs to take care of.

(you could try to argue that maybe he meant dimension as in time is the fourth dimension and there was a sonic book called sonic in the fourth dimension that dealt with time travel but that's not canon to the games where am i going with this)

I think the main reason I'm not a fan of Classic Sonic being its own thing is because that would make Sonic Mania a game that is unto itself. For Sonic Adventure to work, the classic games must have happened. Modern Sonic, even in Forces, is presented as a character that went through Sonic Adventure. Sonic Generations is a time travel story, but I'd argue that Classic Sonic doesn't see enough for him to properly predict anything in his future, and that Sonic is such a laid back character in general, he might not go out of his way to prevent things since he knows things must have gone well if he's alive and celebrating his birthday in the future. Sonic isn't warning his past self of anything. Classic Eggman is also just as much left in the dark. In the post credits scene, he asks his future self if they ever win. Modern Eggman doesn't go into any detail. Heck, it's possible that Classic Eggman's need to avoid the failure of his future self is what sets him off to do some of the plans he ends up pulling off in the future! If they were so easily able to take over the Time Eater, why wouldn't it be just as easy to take control of, say, a god of destruction?

If there was truly a split, that means Mania happens, and...that's it. Sure, Classic runs about in Forces, then comes back in Encore mode only for things to end in a bit of a cliffhanger. But if that cliffhanger just lingers forever and we never get a followup? Why have Mania be it's own thing? If we do get a few more games that follow on Mania, games that make that world feel unique and separate from what eventually happens in Adventure-onward, then I'd be ok with the idea of a timeline split. But until then, I'd rather it just be part of the larger tapestry of the Sonic universe. Heck, even if we do get a followup or three, I'd much rather have it be part of a single timeline. But it all depends on the story they want to tell.

It's funny how Mania's Encore mode does pick up from the main campaign and can ignore Forces entirely (even if the digital manual does say it happened). It's also funny how Mania Adventures picks up from Forces' ending in a way that makes more sense visually. oh god does mania actually create seven timelines like seven emeralds or