It wasn't outright spelt, but the fact they're found in the very same act where Heavy Magician impersonates them implies they were his illusions. At least, that seems to be what the devs were going for. I mean, one of them randomly comes out of nowhere (having had no role in the story up to that point) at the start of the act to attack you while riding Eggman's robots for some reason. Then you seemingly face them at last during the boss battle, but they turn out to be Magician's illusions, explaining what was the deal with them. Fans have brought up that the encyclopedia's less intuitive interpretation seems to be another of Ian's attempts at validating his headcanons. Actually I've had that headcanon in my mind for a while, as a long time proponent of SCD->S2 =P
To me it looks more like an attempt to canonize the trio as classic characters, since apparently no game in which they participated before was canon. It's a matter of finding if this was Ian's doing or Sega's mandate.
most likely ian’s, he was largely responsible for bean and bark being seen as antagonists (and linked to fang) despite that never being a thing before
Same. I'm sure I've mentioned my thoughts the Mecha Sonic line somewhere, but I'm kind of smitten with the idea of Metal Sonic being future tech at this point.
The "Wanted" posters would still be real, so the three of them were active in the Mirage Saloon area. It's a valid interpretation that the ones who shot down the Tornado were the real deal. There's nothing to contradict it, since the game itself didn't make it clear one way or the other.
If they were real, does this confirm that Mania's events were not all illusions caused by the Phantom Ruby?
Unless we're supposed to assume that Heavy Magician impersonating them was what led to them becoming wanted in Mirage Saloon in the first place. Which I recall being a common interpretation. Like I said, the game doesn't outright say that they can't be real and unrelated to the boss battle. It's just a counterintuitive interpretation. Why do we need to fight illusions by Heavy Magician instead of the real deal if they're around the corner and are opposing the player for some reason? Why don't they ever get their just deserts? Them just showing up out of nowhere to shoot the Tornado down for no given reason and never be seen again is awkward and turns them into a blatant BLAM. The illusion angle felt like the devs' way of giving them a cameo in the game without awkwardly shoehorning them in the story, not to mention it pulls a gotcha on the player.
To be fair, we don't even know the status of Ray and Mighty being real, due to the Schrodinger's Funny Animal trope at play with Heavy Magician. Either one is real and the other's fake, or they're both fake. But they can't both be real. Though it should be pointed out that Heavy Magician has thus far only impersonated characters that have appeared on Wanted/Missing posters. Is this some level of strategy on Heavy Magician's part? If the real ones aren't around in Ray/Mighty's case there's no "exposure" moment by the real ones, and if three of them are wanted criminals already it would be sensible to pin your own crimes on them. The biggest question in my mind is "which law enforcement agency has bounties on the Hooligans"? Surely this, along with Heavy Cop's style, then means that in the "Classic universe" there are police or bounty hunters? Also, on a similar train of thought, could the Chaotix detective agency be the ones looking for the missing Ray and Mighty? Can we assume that there's also a timeline split depending on which characters were picked in SegaSonic? In the presumed bad future timeline of Knuckles Chaotix (following the post-CD theme it takes) can we assume that they only found Mighty? Am I overthinking a marketing juggernaut with time travel elements that barely ever cared about any kind of consistency? You betcha. And I'd do it again!
You guys are taking that scan extremely literally. Showing up as an illusion is still a cameo appearance. The characters appear in the level, even if the characters “in person” aren’t. Like… If the book said Sonic appeared in Christmas NiGHTS, it wouldn’t mean the character himself teleported there, you know? I guess you could always ask Ian himself though. Maybe I’m wrong. (Then again I’m still not entirely sure if this thread is about canon or fanon yet so I dunno, I guess maybe it doesn’t really matter)
- I recently had a discussion on Twitter about how nega wisps become nega wisps I think they become them when drained of there hyper-go-on while the other guy thought the transformation was caused by them being angry. What’s the official word? - Well, the word that is given in the game and the animation, which is they're drained of the hyper-go-ons. That's plot point. I don't know if someone here also had this interpretation that the Nega Wisps are stressed wisps, but there's a whole thread on Twitter about that (which makes me think the person referenced in the question is this account). Anyway, it looks like it's simply drained energy. There might be some plothole about the wisps almost dying, but that's it. 39:30
I've spoken with people that insisted on that point as well, despite the cutscenes showing us the opposite. Not sure where it came from.
That's because some lines suggest that the wisps may die if their energy is drained. And we have never seen any wisps dying; they only became nega wisps. Then there's this theory that the nega wisps are in fact a result of the wisps being in stress, because if all of their energy were drained, they should die.
Why i take issue with Nega Wisps showing up past the end of Colors. Do they still exist because they were born while the Mother Wisp was corrupted (and is that canon? Does she even actually birth them?)
- If Knuckles Chaotix is non-canon, what does that say about Espio's appearance in Sonic the Fighters? Is Sonic the Fighters also non-canon? Then what's the deal with Bean, Bark and Honey? Are Heavy and Bomb doomed to never appear again? - All excellent questions that I hope to get answered one day myself. I mean, Sonic the Fighters is a problem because it has eight freaking Chaos Emeralds in it, so... Some stuff might have to be okay and Chaotix might get brought back out of obscurity and put back into canon, I don't know. We are living in unknowable times. We'll just have to see how it pans out. In case anyone was wondering... (25:22)
Y'know what I kind of want to happen? A continuity crossover. Flynn said he wanted to use the Brotherhood of Metallix, and the Metallix were experimenting with a pirated Omni-Viewer. Have some of them escape the Sonic the Comic world over into the IDW World... Accursed rights issues, though... Anyway, Espio's presence in Sonic the Fighters does make it clear Chaotix is canon to it (he's a fan of the ancient civilization and is jealous Knuckles lives on the iconic Angel Island), though that also makes Sonic Triple Trouble canon, since that brings Fang the Sniper in, which furthers that the other Game Gear titles are canon since at least one is... I never got how people thought the portable games were non-canon while the portable games were canon.
The thing is Heroes decanonized Knuckles Chaotix, and Sonic the Fighters by extension. The whole "classic dimension" might bring Chaotix back to canon, but StF is too messy.
Never got how. We never see Knuckles and the Chaotix interact, absence of evidence is hardly evidence of absence. It's only Iizuka's word, and I don't trust that after that entire "Two Worlds have been a thing since Sonic Adventure, it was just never seen" thing. Had there been a Team Sonic vs Team Chaotix fight where Knuckles didn't respond to them, sure, but even when they're near one another, they've kind of got a bigger priority in the giant robot about to try ripping them to shreds to focus on...
