The Sonic the Hedgehog Continuity Thread of Love and Timelines

Just reading the first page of the thread. We've come a long long way in 2 years.

 

Since I hold the honour of being the first reply to this topic, I'd like to say I still don't like the Colours era's writing, but maaaaybe I could've worded it a bit better

I'm also eternally grateful to Sega for Frontiers' plot . Sure, Flynn did a terrific job, but it couldn't have happened without Sonic Team's determination to put the series' lore back on track after a good decade of uh, lollygagging? To put it nicely :p
I genuinely don't know what brought over this change. Did someone at Sonic Team just woke up one day like "shit we need Adventure era writing again", or did they actually made this decision over fan feedback?

D-did I contribute to this by whining about Pontac and Graff for years? I'm not sure this kind of behaviour should be encouraged, but I'll take what I can get I suppose lmao

 

I personally appreciate Pontac and Graff's contributions to the series over the years. I wish a little bit of their humor was in Frontiers. But anyways. I have a timeline question.

What should the order of events be?
Frontiers - Scrapnik Island - Prime
Prime - Scrapnik Island - Frontiers
Scrapnik Island - Prime - Frontiers
Scrapnik Island - Frontiers- Prime

 

I think we need more information before we can solve that. With that said, I think Scrapnik Island at least comes before Frontiers. In #2, Tails notes that Sonic’s leg has taken a lot of punishment lately, calling back to the escape from Eggperial City, which itself most certainly takes place before Frontiers. I imagine that next year will probably start in the aftermath of Frontiers, though referenced to the bigger plot beats will surely be light for a while.

 

I’m assuming Frontiers is after everything else so far (and Prime) due to how it advances the characters and arguably makes them seem a bit older. Prime seems like a story that could fit in between just about any game or story arc, kind of anime-movie style. I don’t think it’ll have any crossover between it and the games.

 

Pretty sure Aaron Webber starting working for SoJ during Forces development.

 

[I miss the poll because it made the gem blue in the main page and thus it was easier to find this thread]


42:25 - Are Amy’s abnormal abilities attributed to anatomy or does the heroic hedgehog’s huge hammer hold her secret source of super strength?

- That is actually under discussion, so we'll see what the final answer is one day. Maybe.

 

I've always kinda liked the idea that she has some sort of warp ring that summons the hammer, potentially even what the rings on her gloves are. Idk what other abilities she has that could be attributed to something like that, but that one is at least my favorite.

 

I quite like the ambiguity of it all to be honest. I also quite like the joke heard on the BumbleKast that those are inhibitor rings that she’s wearing.

 

So... Is Sonic Unleashed Gaia and Emerald stuff getting the retcon treatment?

The revelation about the Chaos Emeralds from Frontiers kinda contradicts the Gaia temples? Or is it?

 

I don't think Frontiers directly retcons anything in Unleashed. Chip and Dark Gaia have battled more than once and the Gaia Manuscripts were probably just written after the first time Chip used the emeralds. Frontiers leaves questions behind but those can be addressed in future material like the IDW comics or on the Bumblekast.

 

But isn't the Chip and Gaia cycle like, eternal? Since the beginning of the planet's existence? If

Spoiler: Frontiers hard spoilers

ancients landed on Earth thousands of years ago, how did Chip use the Emeralds before?

 

Spoiler

He didn't, but remember there was another Emerald on the planet before the Ancients arrived...

 

Right. What I am saying is that Unleashed didn't say that Chip used the emeralds every time. Chip and Dark Gaia have been fighting since the beginning of time but the Gaia Temples weren't always around. Chip didn't have the emeralds or the temples during his first conflict with Dark Gaia. They came afterward.

 

It's also possible that + - this isn't the first time the Chaos Emeralds have come to Earth.  

 

Furthermore, the Gaiae were woken prematurely in Unleashed by Eggman’s shenanigans. The iteration of the cycle we see in Unleashed isn’t the standard one.

 

The question would then become how the battle between light and dark gaia is supposed to play out with no emeralds involved. I guess light gaia just always loses normally, and that's why the world is reborn?

 

That seems believable. I forgot that the world is meant to begin anew usually, so it may be the case that, more often than not, the Emeralds just couldn’t be found in time to power up Chip and protect the planet. A bit of a dour thought, really.

 

My personal headcanon is that Scrapnik Island happened before Frontiers and it's the reason why Sonic's boost is weaker in Frontiers. His leg didn't heal by the time Frontiers happened. I can't say anything about Prime until it's out.

Gaia Temples are definitely manmade and anything manmade is newer than Ancients. Gaia Colossus is also explicitly not a Titan because only 4 were made. That leaves Babylonians and Black Arms as the most probable creators, both are space civilizations and could be used to Dark Gaia-like creatures across space destroying planets in cyclical manner and both civilizations knew about Chaos Emeralds. Maybe they made devices to repair the planet faster, but otherwise the planet would heal naturally or with just Master Emerald and Chip at full strength.