Sonic the Hedgehog Cinematic Universe (now with open spoilers)

To be fair there's not much to go on to either REALLY LOVE or REALLY HATE Knuckles' voice at the moment. but going over it it makes me think of a deeper version of SA2 Guy's voice.

 

Yea there's not much difference between Mecha and Metal and the latter is more known.

 

Although the latter is true, I disagree on the former point; they are fundamentally different on a conceptual level and have totally different purposes both in terms of game design and in the internal canon of their respective games. Honestly, one of the only things they have in common is that they are both Sonic doppelgangers with red eyes. After that, they diverge pretty distinctly.

 

I think the reason Metal became the primary over Mecha (and Silver) is his sleeker design. Mecha and Silver are much bulkier than Sonic himself, which would work if they were "the power to counter Sonic's speed" ala Knuckles, but they're not, or at least didn't have enough characterization to show it. Imagine a version of Shadow that was as tall and wide as Big, but still inexplicably as fast. It doesn't work.

 

The thing I've always liked about Mecha Sonic from Sonic 2 is just how industrial the visual design is. It really looks like a machine, and feels more thematically strong.

 

The latter part is the only one that's really gonna matter to anyone outside of the fanbase. As far as anyone else cares, they're more or less interchangeable.

Let's say they did use Mecha/Silver Sonic for this film's climax, and then Metal Sonic for the third. You'd have people wondering why they're reusing another Sonic robot when that failed thr first time.

Its more about avoiding redundancy; even as popular as Shadow is, would need some legwork to make him distinct from Metal Sonic if they significantly altered his story.

 

My interpretation of both Mecha Sonics are that they are Eggman's idea of a joke.

Mark I, as someone on this forum pointed out, is a Mecha Godzilla reference. Mark II continues Eggman's weird obsession with sentient robot eyes during Sonic 3. One giant eye went into Mecha Sonic, the other was stuck in Red Eye.

Metal Sonic is Eggman's genuine attempt to best Sonic with a machine version in Sonic's image. The Mecha Sonics are hobby projects that he works on while he's taking a break from working on the Death Egg.

 

I remember it took me years to understand the differences between Silver, Metal and Mecha.

I thought they were all the same, but turns out they're all literally distinct entities.

 

I never understood “Mecha” Sonic, considering the build was after the sleeker and more powerful Metal Sonic. While much improved over “Silver” Sonic, it was still more clunky, even with using the Master Emerald’s power.

 

I feel like everyone retroactively attributes more power to Metal Sonic than he had in CD just because he's cool on the cover and in the credits animation. All he does in that game is swoop in to grab Amy, move fast, do two different energy/electricity attacks, and crash into a wall and die. There's no reason pre-Chaotix, pre-OVA, to believe that Metal Sonic was any more special than either of the Mecha Sonics in the actual story of the games.

 

Mecha Sonic, at least for a while, was arguably more popular. The creator of the Super Mario Bros. Z web series used it as an upgraded form for Metal Sonic due to its more intimidating appearance.

And Mecha Sonic has one distinction over Metal, the fact that its actually gone Super.


But the OVA and eventually Sonic Heroes established Metal Sonic as his own distinctive character and personality, and that's where we are today. Metal Sonic is pretty much the catch all term for any robot Sonic nowadays.


Interestingly, the comics took that concept and ran with it as Metal Sonic (or Metallix for you Fleetway nerds) was simply a series of robots as opposed to being just one singular entity. Archie even had a character named Shard based off of the first Metal Sonic in issue #25.

This was also around the time when Sega started taking more creative reigns in the book and demanded there only to be one Metal Sonic. So Eggman created one last Metal Sonic as the definitive version and Shard was renamed to be a "MECHA" Sonic. This is basically when Metal started resembling his video game counterpart as Eggman's top enforcer and has stuck since well into IDW.i


Which is funny because yea, fan demand is pretty much the main reason Metal Sonic is even still relevant today. Otherwise he would have just been disposed like any other Sonic robot. Especially since at the point he came back in Heroes, Shadow had already well established himself as the main Sonic doppelganger.

 

I always got the impression that Mecha Sonic in Sonic 2 was supposed to be Eggman's really crappy attempt at copying Sonic. He has no real AI and is just programmed to follow a set path.

Metal Sonic on the other hand is the real deal and has full sentience. This is Eggman's greatest creation.

I don't know if Metal Sonic will be in this movie though, they probably don't want to overcomplicate it since Knuckles is supposed to be the main rival.

 

Except this community lost their collective shit when Metal Sonic was announced for Heroes with the trailer that had the movie guy voice over in it (Which is in GEMS Collection).

The OVA was still basically an unknown (like Sonic CD used to be) at that point as well.

I don't think Shadow was ever billed as a doppelganger of Sonic except to get the story of SA2 started, nor have I have ever seen it heard anybody say they like Shadow because of that fact.

 

I only said that they established Metal Sonic had a personality....which they did. They gave him the whole obsession with beating Sonic thing there.

And that was 2003, only two years after SA2 and before the Shadow game. That was definitely the point when Shadow still considered mostly a Sonic doppelganger. It wasn't even just marketing because it was a plot point in Sonic Adventure 2 as well.

 

Except that Shadow was supposed to be dead at the end of SA2
so technically....Heroes brought back both Metal and Shadow....in the same game

 

Didn't they already have plans to bring back Shadow even before his supposed death?

 

It's possible that happened internally after they found out he was super popular, but front facing, no. I remember people being extremely mixed on Shadow coming back since he had just been in the LAST GAME. But everyone was enjoying Metal Sonic with his mysterious new look.

 

My feeling is that while the old-school Sonic nerd in me would love to see the (presumed) trilogy culminate in a final battle against Metal Sonic as the ultimate villain of the franchise, it's ultimately likely to come down to Metal Sonic or Shadow, and Shadow is worth a lot more hype with the general fandom as well as already having an established backstory and characterization that gives the writers more to go on versus Metal Sonic simply being another one of Eggman's creations who's like Sonic, but eeeeevil!

Granted, the writers might prefer the freedom a blank slate character like Metal Sonic would give them, but ultimately I think a third Sonic movie would roughly stick to the same beats as SA2. Especially if they take after the (seemingly fanon?) explanation that Gerald Robotnik built Shadow in Sonic's image after the Hidden Palace murals, allowing them to tie Sonic, Knuckles and Robotnik's stories all together (and could probably easily fit Tails in there somehow). The Knuckles and Robotnik connections being obvious enough, but it'd also explain why Sonic was being hunted by echidnas at the beginning of the first movie.

 

It would be cool to see this pretty pervasive head-canon become movie canon