[upg]

This is a bit of a random topic, so I'll explain the reasoning behind it

I started working on this comic book that is going to tie-in all of the stories behind the classic games (pre-dreamcast)
the first problem was that I started by just drawing stuff with a vague idea of story-line (bad idea), then I realized that maybe I should write the entire story first (good idea), which resulted in scrapped pages and added pages and many creative blocks lol - the reason why it's been taking me so long to put this damn thing out

I've figured out a lot of things about how I am going to set up the world of Sonic & Co. everything from the rings to the emeralds, star posts, zones, etc.
But the one thing that I am stuck on is the Monitors, I know exactly how I am going to make them function in Sonic's world BUT
Who do you think made the bloody things? and why do you think they're even there? - I'm leaning more towards the other animals being responsible for this, but throw any ideas you may have in here if you want.

This is the part where I enlist the help of anyone of you who are willing, throw whatever random madness and reasoning comes to mind when you think of the monitors in the games
I'm not going to spill the beans about how the rest of the stuff works, I kinda want to see what each of you thought about the item monitors from your own experience in the games

[SpeedStarTMQ]

I always thought that they were just thrown out TV boxes, y'know, seeing as the original Sonic games focused on a beautiful serene landscape littered by humans technological remains, and since Sonic is a cool dude who likes fast food and sports and TV's, theyw ere included for him to smash and get power ups as a bonus.

In Sonic Adventure 2 the item boxes are publically advertised as being upgraded, so it seems humans are aware of these as power ups and well, I dunno, who knows!?

[DinodudeEpic]

Simple, they're just there.

Don't need a complicated storyline on their original. Just have them be there. I mean, that's like questioning the origin of Mario's mushrooms.

Making a serious storyline for Sonic the Hedgehog is like trying to make a Mario storyline deep and compelling. You're going to fail horribly.

Of course, maybe the animals have a civilization with Casinos, TVs, and Chili Dogs?

Again, you can always just focus on a comedy-based storyline that doesn't fail, instead of trying to make something serious out of Sonic.

Sorry if this was slightly out of topic.

This post has been edited by DinodudeEpic: 19 May 2012 - 05:35 PM

[BlackHole]

Well, working on my own complex universe where everything has a purpose and reasoning behind it, I have it that the classic monitors were G.U.N. devices attempting to utilize the background Chaos Energy to boost the Rings into Chao Emeralds. Since they've no clue what they're actually doing, they get varied results. Robotnik takes these on in Sonic 3K, in order to try and develop an alternate source of energy for the Death Egg after it crashes since the explosions knocked out the fuel containment and Angel Island has a noticeably larger amount of Chaos Energy radiating from it then anywhere else on Mobius.

After that, Tails opts to develop them, leaving them scattered since for Mobians (Humans here are colonists from Earth), since only they can use the effects (until Robotnik develops his Egg Walker MK-II to use them much like Tails' Tornado), since Mobians have long been exposed to the CE where as Humans settled around 2000 years ago (after the events of SAPast).

That's what I've got, I hope it assists in developing ideas for your comic :3

[dsrb]

DinodudeEpic, on 19 May 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

Simple, they're just there.

Don't need a complicated storyline on their original. […] you can always just focus on a comedy-based storyline that doesn't fail, instead of trying to make something serious out of Sonic.

Sorry if this was slightly out of topic.

Yes, since you're completely going against what it sounds like upg wants to do with his(?) comic.

Hand-waving away efforts to explain in-universe features is all well and good if that's your opinion in general, like if someone asks whether other people think they matter—but it doesn't belong in a thread where someone is asking for opinions on how to explain in-universe features. People's opinion on whether this phenomenon should be explained is irrelevant; what is presupposed is that upg is going to act as though they should be, and what is requested are others’ opinions on how to do so.

This post has been edited by dsrb: 19 May 2012 - 05:47 PM

[DinodudeEpic]

dsrb, on 19 May 2012 - 05:47 PM, said:

DinodudeEpic, on 19 May 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

Simple, they're just there.

Don't need a complicated storyline on their original. […] you can always just focus on a comedy-based storyline that doesn't fail, instead of trying to make something serious out of Sonic.

Sorry if this was slightly out of topic.

Yes, since you're completely going against what it sounds like upg wants to do with his(?) comic.

Hand-waving away efforts to explain in-universe features is all well and good if that's your opinion in general, like if someone asks whether other people think they matter—but it doesn't belong in a thread where someone is asking for opinions on how to explain in-universe features. People's opinion on whether this phenomenon should be explained is irrelevant; what is presupposed is that upg is going to act as though they should be, and what is requested are others’ opinions on how to do so.

I'm very sorry for having an off-topic post.

Now, I would say that the best way to explain it would be the idea that upg posted at the opening post, with the other animals putting them there. Possibly to help Sonic in his quests?

Once again, I am sorry for my previous post.

[upg]

DinodudeEpic, on 19 May 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

Simple, they're just there.

Don't need a complicated storyline on their original. Just have them be there. I mean, that's like questioning the origin of Mario's mushrooms.

Making a serious storyline for Sonic the Hedgehog is like trying to make a Mario storyline deep and compelling. You're going to fail horribly.

Of course, maybe the animals have a civilization with Casinos, TVs, and Chili Dogs?

Again, you can always just focus on a comedy-based storyline that doesn't fail, instead of trying to make something serious out of Sonic.

Sorry if this was slightly out of topic.

Thanks for the post, definitely not off-topic
I'm not trying to over complicate it by any means but I think when the story is completed it will be enjoyable once you see how I've worked everything together

DinodudeEpic, on 19 May 2012 - 05:51 PM, said:

I'm very sorry for having an off-topic post.

Now, I would say that the best way to explain it would be the idea that upg posted at the opening post, with the other animals putting them there. Possibly to help Sonic in his quests?

Once again, I am sorry for my previous post.

No worries, thanks for the post actually
Definitely a valid point to bring up and thanks for the suggestion here as well

Edit: removed my signature, too bulky to see over and over

This post has been edited by upg: 19 May 2012 - 06:02 PM

[dsrb]

DinodudeEpic, on 19 May 2012 - 05:51 PM, said:

I'm very sorry for having an off-topic post.

You don't need to apologise to me! That's just my opinion, and I might be wrong anyway. Besides, I'm just a patsy

Quote

Now, I would say that the best way to explain it would be the idea that upg posted at the opening post, with the other animals putting them there. Possibly to help Sonic in his quests?

This is something I never really considered, but it probably makes more sense than Robotnik leaving useful things lying about. Now I'm trying to imagine little animals working on a production line making really fast shoes … I really hope they're unionised

I'd be interested to see what upg has come up with so far for other items. Ideas like those and BlackHole's suggestion about the monitors demonstrate a lot more thought than I could put into something like this, and sometimes everything clicks together very well! So I'm looking forward to any further brainstorming.

[Namo]

Maybe Robotnik did leave them around, but not for Sonic. Maybe his badniks were supposed to utilize them but are too stupid to. (Programming being too simple or too buggy for them to understand?)

[upg]

dsrb, on 19 May 2012 - 06:02 PM, said:

DinodudeEpic, on 19 May 2012 - 05:51 PM, said:

Now, I would say that the best way to explain it would be the idea that upg posted at the opening post, with the other animals putting them there. Possibly to help Sonic in his quests?

This is something I never really considered, but it probably makes more sense than Robotnik leaving useful things lying about.

True, it wouldn't help the story to have him helping Sonic lol - as for Robotnik though I do have the Eggman-Monitors as something he has some involvement in

For the other types of items (for example: Star Posts) I have them as things that the ancients, in Sonic's universe, have created. They've stood the test of time (kind of like pyramids in Egypt)
I would have done the same with the monitors but they will be used by Sonic & Co. regularly throughout this story, something he is familiar with

The animals won't be a stranger to technology, but rely on it very little.
How I have the animals tech set up is that they work with the environment vs. Eggman who uses less green methods for his technological stuff

On another note: in the games only 2 zones (I believe) have them hidden in the trees (Green Hill Zone & Angel Island Zone)

dsrb, on 19 May 2012 - 06:02 PM, said:

Now I'm trying to imagine little animals working on a production line making really fast shoes … I really hope they're unionised

Lol Sonic's Little Helpers from Christmas Island

[upg]

BlackHole, on 19 May 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:

After that, Tails opts to develop them, leaving them scattered since for Mobians (Humans here are colonists from Earth), since only they can use the effects (until Robotnik develops his Egg Walker MK-II to use them much like Tails' Tornado), since Mobians have long been exposed to the CE where as Humans settled around 2000 years ago (after the events of SAPast).

That's what I've got, I hope it assists in developing ideas for your comic :3

Thanks for the post - definitely a great take on how they are developed
I have an idea of involving Tails too but probably just modifying the existing Monitors

Namo, on 19 May 2012 - 06:13 PM, said:

Maybe Robotnik did leave them around, but not for Sonic. Maybe his badniks were supposed to utilize them but are too stupid to. (Programming being too simple or too buggy for them to understand?)

This is another cool perspective on it too , thanks!

Edit: Signature removed

This post has been edited by upg: 19 May 2012 - 06:56 PM

[RuRi]

It's possible, espcially for the ring moniters, as a way of Eggman trying to trap and store the energy from the rings and such, but gave up after seeing so many. Heck, his robots have been shown to be powered by rings in some games, so maybe he's putting them in containers for easy use, not realising Sonic is gonna smash them.

Or maybe a truck full of TVs had it's back left open and the moniters fell out, I dunno.

[Hukos]

I suppose it's for the same reason why Dracula always leaves meat in the walls in his Castle and the candles always leave hearts or why Wily's minions give Megaman powerups or why every planet Samus visits has nifty powerups for her suit

Maybe its a technology invented before Robotnik's time but he either didn't understand how to utilize it or just didn't care given how arrogant Robotnik can be?

[The Fralin Boy]

RuRi, on 19 May 2012 - 07:23 PM, said:

It's possible, espcially for the ring moniters, as a way of Eggman trying to trap and store the energy from the rings and such, but gave up after seeing so many. Heck, his robots have been shown to be powered by rings in some games, so maybe he's putting them in containers for easy use, not realising Sonic is gonna smash them.

I actually really like this idea. Him giving up would also make sense because look at how many rings there are. Way too much for a fat man to go around and turn into monitors. Hell, it makes even more sense because as the Sonic series went on to the Adventure and Modern series, monitors became scarce to non-exist.

[K2J]

I would go for Occam's Razor on this. They're boxes that contain items. That's about as much as the audience needs to know, unless you're writing a technical specification instead of a comic (and even tech specs have to abstract things at some point). Maybe they are being used by Eggman, maybe they're just powerups. If it's relevant to the story, great. Otherwise, leaving them be would work just as well as it has for the canon series. This is something I need to work on, too, so don't feel like I'm chastising.

Since this is this month's fanfic thread, I guess I'll post my example: there's nothing really "special" about item boxes. They hold items or forces, and are sometimes seen as TV Monitors due to heavy recycling. But they represent mankind's pollution: a bunch of technological has-beens washed up on various islands and natural habitats.