The Sonic the Hedgehog Continuity Thread of Love and Timelines

"After Frontiers" and maybe after those adventures ? Or even before, these adventures will not take place the second Frontiers' credits are finished.

 

Stuff can just get in the way of plans sometimes...

 

Sometimes you wanna do your own thing but you're forced to go into a dream dimension to save the world, that's adult life for ya

 

I wasn't a fan of Tails' story in Frontiers. It was a practical certainty that the next game would have with Sonic, so having him decide to go on his own adventures seemed short-sighted. It felt like they were trying too hard to address how he reacted to Sonic's disappearances in Forces (even though it was totally understandable that someone would spin out over their best friend disappearing). They were also trying too hard to give him character development. But it didn’t work at all. I don’t think ever cringed so hard then when I was watching Tails cut scenes.

I hope they don’t try to do these character development stories for the main cast again. If they want to do a character growth story, it's better to use the approach of Black Knight where Sonic helps the other one-shot characters to grow.

 

Depends on what you're referring to: in the Japanese original, Tails hasn't 'lost it', they lost him. He was 'still missing', hence his appearance showing someone calmly try and work on an ally, so he didn't spin out at Sonic's disappearance.

4:30
EDIT: Wrong video, sorry.

Unless you mean his cowering from Chaos 0, which is a recurring issue since Sonic Unleashed when he cowered from the Dark Gaia creatures and does kind of need to be addressed since it does rather go against his story from Sonic Adventure?

 

Yeah. I find it silly when people try to justify Tails' yellow streak in Forces by arguing "he's just lost his nerve because of what happened to Sonic", completely ignoring the fact he has been acting like that since Unleashed.

Not to mention it's highly arguable whether it's in character for Tails to lose his nerve just because he failed Sonic and this one got captured, considering that a similar situation happened in SA2, and that didn't stop him from keeping fighting until the end.

 

I agree, Tails is not inconsistent in Forces compared to the last several games before that. Not that I really want him to be a wimp, but I think Frontiers having him beat himself up over it and Sonic reassure him is fine. It's another case of Ian being a bit on-the-nose with responding to fan complaints, but I think it's also a smart fix to recontextualize Tails's worse moments as growing pains of a sort. It doesn't retroactively justify that, but it works well enough.

 

Could also recontextualise it as him being out of his depths at both points:

For Sonic Unleashed, he was surrounded by multiple unknown assailants (this would be the first night after Dark Gaia's release), rather than going one on one with Robotnik as he's been doing, one of which is a towering figure with a really big club, in a foreign city which, as far as I can tell, doesn't have his lab nearby like Station Square for some technological backup.

So he locates the nearest vantage point and peaks over: the cutscene shows him watching over the wall, and it's the cutscene after the fight the creature that tends to roar where he's shown covering his ears. He withdrew and observed to assess.

For Sonic Forces, it's unclear how long he's been missing, but it seems to be the full six months Sonic was imprisoned. In a world ruled by Robotnik with a gemstone that does something (still unclear on what the Phantom Ruby actually does, but I digress), and Chaos 0 is noticeably aiming to grab him, it wouldn't surprise me if he's been on the lamb for that whole six months, plus he has no idea what backup might be coming alongside Chaos 0. And the one person he doesn't want to see him, Infinite, is mostly seen flying around at high speeds, so Tails can't exactly make a get away into the sky or pick a prolonged fight with something that, as far as he knows, will alert Infinite who will beeline to him.

What could he do other than call out for help?

But that's my thoughts on how they could've recontextualised the situations.

 

I mean, I guess both can be true, that he's not unjustified in being scared but would still feel guilty for it. Ultimately the problem is less that these things happen and more that neither of these games have particularly well-told stories.

 

Obviously it can still happen in one form, but when they mentioned that the IDW comics were canon to the games all the way when they came out I always envision that they were perfect for situations like this after a game came out.

Would've been cool announcing that Amy, Knuckles and Tails were each getting an arc or a mini series exploring their adventures and release it like a month or two after the release of Frontiers. Give them their own supporting cast and enemies independent from Sonic during these stories.

That way the transition between the Frontiers and Dream Team wouldn't feel too jarring, while having the comics being more connected to the games instead of being in this weird canon bubble where it's the same world, but they seem to be limited in what they can touch and what they can't.

 

11:41 - I'm sorry in advance, but I'd like to ask: What's the history of the other Echidna tribes Knux mentions in "Divergence"? Who were they? Did they make some of the 3&K ruins? How did they interact with each other & the Knuckles Clan? And why did they disappear?

I'm sorry in advance, but #KnowingSmile.

 

They got pulled into the Twilight Cage, of course!

 

I'm gonna need the full copium treatment for this one.

 

That's cool that they might more stuff that explores the past of the Echidnas. I know a lot of people want Angel Island and the Master Emerald to be gone, but there's so much untapped potential with Knuckles, the echidnas and Angel Island's backstory that is long overdue in it being explored. There's just so much you can do with just those elements.

 

Spoilers for the ending of Sonic Prime, Timeline placement

Spoiler

Takes place after advance 3, but wipes itself as effectively not happening, even if sonic and shadow do remember the events of it

 

Spoiler

That was a non-answer and he knows it. Also, it's after Sonic Colours/Sonic Generations if you must include it since Cubot and Orbot.

 

The thing is, he's the one who set himself up to have to give an answer. It barely matters where you place it, but the "stay tuned" framing made it seem like it was a bigger deal than it was. You might as well have said nothing, and since it basically pulls the 06 thing, there's no real fuss about its placement beyond "it is the modern era of Sonic".

 

Spoiler

Yeah i dont really like this answer and think it'd have been best if he just said... nothing at all. I GUESS its hard to say where advance 3 specifically falls on the timeline anyways but yeah cubot and orbot being there makes me feel this was just an absolute non answer myself

 

I gotta say, this entire new focus on making sure the lore and canon makes 100% sense in every situation possible has only caused more problems than its fixed. Sonic has never had this problem in the past - not until they started making a big deal out of "fixing the lore". They're making the same mistakes they always have, but now with a giant spotlight on it.

Plus Ian for some reason feels the need to have an answer for absolutely every question he gets asked. Not everything needs a clear answer. We don't need every detail of Sonic's life and how it fits into the overarching plot.

It's impossible to fix. It has been for a while now. Just leave it be and let us have our headcanons.

 

I'm inclined to agree. The potential of a character seems to be locked behind his characterization/lore/and whatnot, if that makes any sense. And we're probably missing a good show because of it. It's getting too perfect. Sonic & co. can have a clumsy and even amateurish side that is still sincere and rocking!