Honestly, I don't think "Sonic doesn't really dwell on his adventures, for him it was just Tuesday" is a terrible answer. Guy experiences crazy shit on the regular, from dimension hopping to battling with gods; is some time travel really gonna stand out that much in his memory, especially when paired with the many other instances of it? "Probably not" seems a pretty reasonable answer to that question.
That wouldn't account for Tails and Eggman Honestly, if they don't want to do a split timeline, I think the best way of handling it would be saying that the way time travel works in Sonic, the characters forget their time traveling adventures after returning to their own timezone. Then if they later re-encounter their time-displaced selves (or in Blaze's case in Generations, revisit forgotten places), they temporarily regain their lost memories of them. A lame explanation, sure, but it goes with the fact Modern Sonic and Tails remembered Classic Sonic in Forces, and Blaze remembered Crisis City in Generations.
I'm of the belief that we can't say for sure. In between their adventures there are big time gaps and god knows what they experience in that time. We don't know "Old Sonic". And probably never will. Thankfully
That still doesn't solve it. I mean, memory loss could explain Generations. Modern Sonic and Modern Tails clearly didn't know what the hell was going on during Generations, and they should, because Classic Sonic and Classic Tails were their past selves. So, if they forget things after a time travel, that's fine. In the same way, Sonic in Forces does not remember the Phantom Ruby from Mania. He even says something like "I need to figure out the secret of his [Infinite's] power". The memory loss explanation might be kind of wonky here because he did not time traveled during Mania (only right after the events of the game), but still. Problem is, Tails and Knuckles in Forces didn't remember the Phantom Ruby either - and they did not time traveled. How don't they? And the memory loss thing might not work for Silver for some reason. I don't think he forgets their time travels, except 06.
Modern Sonic and Tails also don't recognise Green Hill Zone nor Chemical Plant Zone. Simple answer is: why would they connect the 'two'? The Phantom Ruby Infinite has is very different in appearance to the one they saw in the past, and as I've argued Infinite is using it very differently to Robotnik: Robotnik was kicking people around zones, whereas Infinite is keeping it generally focused on himself and making himself more powerful, or otherwise using it to create weapons like cannons. I think the only shared power display is when Infinite uses it to turn Perfect Chaos Infinite, since Metal Sonic also used it to turn Chaotix final boss in the same manner. Different look, different 'powers', easy to mistake as different gem. Though it occurs to me their different usages kinda reflect on their personalities: Robotnik uses it to warp between areas he's clearly got some level of control going on. Infinite keeps that power on himself. EDIT: Should specify: I mean the two appearances when I say two, not two different Rubies. We all know that I think they should be two Phantom Rubies, one a clone of the other, but SEGA are going to go ahead and say they're the same, so...
I mean the Phantom Ruby is a reality warping entity to begin with, also able to manipulate the time stream. It gave Eggman amnesia and basically caused a new persona when he was found in Windmill Village and became Mr Tinker, so there’s a precedent for it messing with memories in addition to the Day of the Doctor style memory loss as a result of time displacement. I’m kind of past needing it be explained though. Time travel stories almost always show their seams under a little scrutiny and I’m just happy that SEGA decided to renege on what Forces presented and have everything under one roof. I feel that separate timelines and such dilute the setting.
Was that the Phantom Ruby? I figured that was just Robotnik getting smacked by two Sonics and <insert OC here> so hard it gave him memory loss. The Terminator was a pretty good and stable time travel story where there were no seems. It's only when Terminator 2: Judgment Day entered the fray that things broke. But that's a fantastic movie, so we just kind of forgave it instead of using it as a harbinger of things to come for the series.
I was thinking more that any character that interacted with a time-displaced character would forget their interaction, whether they time traveled themselves or not. Like, once the time traveler goes back to their era, both them and any people they interacted with forget the event, possibly as a result of the time stream's failsafe to avoid paradoxes. Otherwise what's the point? If only the time traveler forgets it, then that doesn't account for traveling to the past. Say I time travel to 10 years ago, meet my past self and tell him about all the mistakes I'll make in the future. After that I return to my era. I would forget the whole thing, but my past self wouldn't since he didn't time travel, so he would go on to avoid making the mistakes I told him about, creating a paradox.
But then Sonic and Tails recognised Classic Sonic. It's probably Doctor Who rules for memories: Past Doctor: "I won't remember this, will I?" Current Doctor: "...the time streams are out of sync. You can't retain it, no."
He’s got the Phantom Ruby effects around his head during the flashback panels in #5. And I’m not saying there are no internally consistent time travel stories. Hell, I wouldn’t even argue that patchy time travel logic necessarily ruins a story for me - I’m a lifelong Doctor Who fan. I’m just personally of the mindset where I can look at something like Mania being in one timeline with Forces and think “yeah I can rationalise that myself”.
Ah, yes. I passed them off as being 'residue' since Classic Robotnik didn't turn up an amnesiac after the events of Sonic Mania, but you're right. That's fair. I think if time travel lasts longer than a single adventure/event, there's going to be a mess since people approach time travel with different ideas, even though Time is a plane so time travel will just be "it's already happened" logic.
I believe the intention is that it’s the same kind of effect as when Infinite used the ruby, or that was on the phantom copies. Mania’s a bit difficult to work with here because, most likely due to the authentic pixel art format (or perhaps other reasons), I don’t think that kind of effect is used in the game. I don’t recall Giga Metal Sonic having those effects, and even the Phantom Egg’s hands have a crystalline appearance to them. Maybe it’s due to that possibly or possibly not being a different ruby or perhaps abusing the ruby’s power is a game of roulette and you’re taking a chance every time you play. Given the thing having an apparent mind of its own in Mania, it’s clearly chaotic in nature like the Warp Topaz, which also only caused amnesia the one time. Ironically, it seems the Chaos Emeralds are in a minority of artefacts that can be relied upon to work consistently.
So does Sonic actually know how to fly a plane? I mean, he owns the Tornado and he apparently did fly it himself to new islands prior to meeting Tails. He flies it in Tails's playthrough of 3&K. He obviously does know how to fly one, and he's even skilled enough to catch Tails after a fall. But planes are complicated; you need skill, practice, and training if you want to be able to fly one. You gotta know what each little switch and knob does on that thing. So the idea of Sonic, of all characters, being a skilled pilot, is surreal to me. He just doesn't strike me as the kind of character to have the patience to learn that. Unless the Tornado is so simple that the only thing on it is a joystick and an on/off switch. That'd make sense I guess.
Can't a hog have an aircraft hobby without someone questioning him? People get on his ass for sitting in a car.
He could pilot the Eggmobile (Launch Base Zone), so... As for why he would learn to pilot the Tornado, I imagine it was either that or being stuck in South Island (or Christmas Island? When was it that he got the Tornado?). The prospect of being able to travel to other locations and have more places to explore and run around was probably enough to entice him to learn. When he got his biplane, he didn't have a handy sidekick fox to pilot it yet
Also, maybe he just had the passion and interest necessary to slow down and commit to learning the skill? It’s not like he’s incapable of sitting still, he just hates wasting his time, and it’s easy to see how taking to the skies would apply to a freedom loving guy like him.
That's probably it. The S2 manual refers to the Tornado as "Sonic's beloved plane", so I guess he just loved flying.
