That last one interests me very much because I'm struggling to thing of what could make the jump other than characters. The setting of the comics is already steeped in the games, with the incorporation of stuff like Wispons, Power Cores and so on. Tangle and Whisper have of course already shown up in Sonic Speed Battle, but it would suck if they were consigned for their only game appearance to be in a crappy, money grubbing mobile spin off. Overall though, I can understand there not being too huge an appetite for intricately interweaving the two media settings. Not that I think this means they aren't the same canon, but if they're going to make references or use characters, they'll probably end up being quite hands-off. Tangle may show up in a game but she's just somebody Sonic happens to already know without getting too bogged down in the details of the Restoration or the Metal Virus. Honestly, that's not too much different than how the supporting cast is already treated. As Ian recently said, even something like Forces or Frontiers could be someone's first Sonic game yet, since Rivals 2, there's be no real instances of reintroducing a character and contextualising them in each game they show up in. From Generations to Forces, they all just exist as established friends, and I don't think there's any need to treat the IDW characters any differently.
Also known before that, after the events of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles as confirmed by the boy. Okay, good for clarification on that front.
One does have to wonder exactly what's going on behind the scenes given that Ian is being cautious about how much he's saying...
He could just be hyper-aware of the general upward trend in positive perception that has steadily increased since the first film and how much it would suck if said something that misled the public or ran counter to whatever Sonic Team has in store for the near or far future. He probably is only aware of so much, and after getting berated once would rather not again.
Or people from Sega have kindly asked him to be a little less loose-lipped about this stuff. Keep in mind almost all of this information about canon is stuff that hasn’t been (and may never be) officially announced.
12:34 - How canon is the roboticizer to the current lore of Sonic? It's appeared a few times outside the comics: the Veg-O Machine and Bunnie's cameo in Spinball, Robodillos in Chronicles, the machine in Lost World that Tails narrowly escapes (which also bears a striking resemblance to Uncle Chuck's roboticizer from "The Belle in the Machine"), and Robotomy Treatment in Forces' promotional material. Will we get to see the roboticizer return to the comics? Or is this one of those things that you can't answer right now? - I... don't know. The degree of Spinball's canonicity is still questionable. I mean, it's in the timeline, but how much is being taken from it, I can't say for sure. Chronicles is right out. I would like to see a side-by-side of Lost World and SatAM elements. (...). It's effectively that, but it's not that by name. I think that's the crux of all this: I don't know if the roboticizer itself, as we recognize it, will ever see a legitimate appearance in the game canon. There's always stuff dancing around it, but I don't know if it iself by name amd by deed will ever see the light of day again. 35:04 - Ok you have been kinda vague about it there is no split into two separate timelines/dimensions after generations right. No alternate timeline where sonic mania happens, Mania is just part of modern Sonic's past, and it’s just one timeline in one dimension where all the events from the games including mania happen right or am I wrong? Please clarify. - I... can't! I've said as much as I can say. But you seem to have understood it all, so we're just gonna kind of smile and nod.
really feel like he just shouldn't be talking about this considering how confusing and misleading it's been
I’m of the opinion that if you’re not asking the person who’s actually setting the canon, you probably should just leave it alone. Ian’s trying his best but it’s ultimately being filtered through layers of meetings, translators, messengers, etc. It’s almost more trouble than it’s worth. Unless we’re hearing from Iizuka or another higher up in Sonic Team, it’s probably best to let the games speak for themselves (as annoying and unsatisfactory as that may be). This isn’t a knock at anyone here btw. It’s good to document everything. It’s just annoying that we’re forced to direct questions at someone who’s not in charge and at liberty to discuss everything. Most things end up being, “I’m not really sure,” and, “I can’t say,” lol.
Also it's not like this is BumbleKast's raison d'etre. Ian gleefully provides his own headcanons when appropriate and shares some genuinely interesting insight on what goes on behind the scenes with the comics (and perhaps, if SEGA allows it, the games eventually). I can't really he blame him for being the only person in the unique position (a freelancer who happens to have a lot of involvement and influence within Sonic) and willingness to try and clear up what people want to know. I'd say that BumbleKast has been downright instrumental not only in communicating these things to the fans so that we can even provide more articulated feedback in the first place, but also putting Ian into the position where he's able to now write for the games and provide his knowledge and passion as a long time fan to projects like TailsTube.
Not much today. 1:52 - The fans have been getting mixed messages on Classic Sonic's placement in this canon for years, but will that placement even mean anything once it's decided? - Depends on if it sticks. If a decision is made and it's adhered to going forward then sure. If it's not, then it's no different than anything else up to this point. 4:06 - Is there a modern-day character bible for Sonic? - I can't talk about that right now. [which probably means there is]
I feel like the whole multiverse talk is kind of pertinent to this idea of unified canon we've been discussing recently. It's been a few hours since I listened to the episode but Ian basically says that we're very unlikely to see any kind of continuation or rerun of the Archie book (or any previous Sonic setting) because SEGA probably doesn't want to confuse the brand with additional and contradictory continuities, citing that we currently have Classic and Modern (two sub-brands sharing a continuity) and the movie universe (a separate sub-brand and continuity), and that's already asking for casuals to keep up with quite a bit. If we start adding in stuff like an Archie revival, then that barrier to entry only increases further. To loop this back to unified canon, I think this very much falls in line with the rationale behind the idea of bringing the separate media projects closer together. If a casual starts on Sonic Prime and then goes into the games and/or IDW (or any variation on that order), then the aim seems to be to provide a seamless experience in terms of not asking the user to familiarise themselves with a status quo different to what's presented in any of the other projects. And this is pretty much what I've been arguing for with supplementary canon all this time. Granted, at its most involved that does facilitate references to events between media, which I'd be down for, but I realise not everyone else is about that and there's an argument to be that such an approach raises the barrier to casual entry in its own way. However, I don't think keeping IDW and Prime under closer SEGA supervision to minimise contradictions between them is anywhere near that level of intricacy. What this does do, however, is allow elements and characters to be used between each piece of media without too much heavy lifting. As I've said prior, Tangle could be put in a game as an NPC without treating her as if she's never met Sonic before. If you want the backstory on that, you go and read IDW; if not, then cool, you can just accept she's someone Sonic has met on his travels previously. That kind of non-committal approach seems to be the aim with all this.
Seriously, it shouldn't be just for casuals, it was already very off-putting to me the SoA approach we had in the 90s because the alternate media shared next to nothing with the (main) games. There were Sonic and Tails, there was Robotnik, there were animals and robots, and that was all most of the time. I hate the concept of Mobius itself.
That's...odd. I mean I've advocated such a change for years now but I'm surprised that it actually seems to be happening and that it's so nonchalant as well. Granted, I suppose there was never going to be a big deal of "hey Sonic characters don't have official ages now", but I digress. If this is indeed happening, then hopefully we'll also be seeing the back of the idea that everything takes place within a single year (which was impossible in the first place), and the classic versions of the characters may officially be considered as "child" or "young" versions of the characters.
Not just him, apparently. Should be interesting to see, but considering track records I'm not optimistic. Perhaps they'll just keep the ages unclear so people can think of the cast as any age they want them to be within their age range, so Cream is a kid, one would think of her as 5-9 years old, Sonic is a teen, so 15-18, etc.
I'll keep separating Classic from Modern characters. 1. Some characters don't exist in the Classic timeline. 2. Eggman's old already, he can't change that much all of a sudden. 3. To me, makes more sense their change being aesthetical rather than time-passing.
I would prefer if they had retconned their ages instead of removing them. But I don't think it matters.
The ages have never mattered at all and were mostly just flavor text, and the characters don't even behave like teenagers anyway. So this change is pretty meaningless in the grand scheme, but now the fans who go on and on about ages and how "inappropriate" they are can stfu. Everyone is however old you want them to be.
I might be misremembering but didn’t they sort of go this direction around Colors/Generations? I could have sworn that they started leaving out the ages in profiles in manuals and stuff back then. This was along with the deeper voice direction they aimed for with Roger Craig Smith.
