I mentioned this before, but I think the issue with Gerald and his legacy is that it makes some of the earlier elements feel less special. For example, the Chaos Emeralds being on South Island were once portrayed as mystical ancient gems that "no one knows how to get." But actually, Gerald was already aware of them and even built a space laser that used them, along with drives that harnessed their energy. Eggman, Sonic, and Tails were initially depicted as the first outsiders to visit Angel Island, or to later discover the Mystic Ruins—places that not even explorers could find. But actually, Gerald had already been to these locations and had even built bioweapons based on Chaos, which no one knew about until Sonic Adventure. Gerald is just that guy. Another consequence of this is GUN having an advanced fleet 50 years ago. If Gerald had the technology to build a space colony and advanced weapons, then it's not far-fetched that GUN might have asked for a fleet or used the technology to build their own. And again, while this might not seem like a big deal, it does take away from what we saw in earlier games. One of my favorite moments from Sonic Adventure is how the NPCs reacted to the Egg Carrier when it appeared—they were all terrified by its size and had never seen anything like it before. But now you have to headcanon that either they'd never seen the military fleet or, for some reason, the fleet was a secret. Of course, they could still be scared of the Egg Carrier even if the fleet existed. It’s like seeing foreign air carriers suddenly appear in your city, even if you're used to your own country's military. Still, the fact that the people of Station Square were so shocked by the size of the Egg Carrier was cool, but now it just makes you think they should tune into SSTV more often. I did like the Sonic X explanation that GUN took some of Eggman’s technology to build their ships and mechs. Makes him look like a bigger threat that made the world to step up on their technology/weaponry. I think the current storytelling team is doing a good job, but at the same time, they seem to be falling into the trap that other franchises do—making too many callbacks to previous story beats/imagery or making everything and everyone to be connected. It makes the universe feel smaller instead of expanding it. The fleet shot looks cool, but I do think it would've been better to have them being on something that looked like the Apollo rockets instead of what we saw in Shadow The Hedgehog.
Yeah, the Chaos Emeralds I could accept as his only finding one, and that's the missing seventh Chaos Emerald in Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive), but I really don't like that he located and stood on Angel Island. Like, man was involved in a secret project of immortality, the President of the time would've had eyes on him constantly. And a President seeking immortality would probably not let the gemstone of unlimited power out of their grasp. Indeed, maybe make them look like Lockheed SR-71 Blackbirds to show this isn't a standard visit. Though I feel Shadow looking at the Earth, then the ARK's lighting turning bloodred as the emergency lights go off and the G.U.N. begin the massacre would have also sufficed as a visual indicator.
Agreed, not paying 50 for a game I already have Maybe when it goes on sale or I get my Christmas bonus
I mean... Shadow Generations is a full game entirely on its own. As far as I'm aware, it's got about as much content as the original Generations. How would you feel if it was being sold as a standalone game?
I don't want things that were never written or meant to be revealed to me to be canonically solidified. I don't want to know where the chaos emeralds came from or why Shadow looks like Sonic (he doesn't anyway???). Mysteries are interesting because they're mysteries. Tying a bunch of loose threads together is a fun exercise in fandom, but officially explaining things makes the world feel smaller and less magical. But pick a lane on the moon, ffs.
The mystery is the point. Outside of establishing that the emeralds aren't native to Earth, they have the same amount of freedom to do whatever they want with how they're used.
Even establishing the emeralds aren't from Earth makes them less interesting me. imo An intergalactic force that just happened to be brought here isn't as interesting as the how and why it could have to come to be on this planet. If the mystery is the point, then what Frontiers did didn't beg any new interesting ones it simply removed others.
Catering to people too invested in "lore" and "continuity" has been disastrous for pop culture. Why can't some things just be? Why does everything need an explanation and a backstory? And while we're on this topic: The most interesting depictions of Sonic's world are SatAM's Mobius and the OVA's Planet Freedom, precisely because they let so many strange and mysterious things exist without ever needing to explain them. I'd also include Bygone Island from Sonic Boom in this, but it became way less interesting once the cartoon essentially turned it into a tropical version of Springfield/Quahog/South Park.
No, the cataloguing of such things is what makes it awful. Because it's no longer fun facts, it's just stuff most people online know. Which means adding to it ends up just making a long list of nerd trivia. --- Lore is interesting, but to answer such questions should never really be the primary goal of anything. Continuity is just a timeline, there's no problem with having a series of events happen in order.
As one who enjoys stories better with a proper pacing and start-to-end progression, I usually prefer mysteries to get explored and unraveled as the overall plot advances. To me, the fandom having liberty to exercise theories is like a double-edged blade, a way for fans to interact and have fun, but also for factions to form and cause havok. On that sense, I'd rather see things get explained gradually so as to properly entertain the fandom while also preventing chaos and confusion to be born and spread far...
I enjoy those things as well, which is why I don't enjoy, shall we call it, the "midichlorian effect". Explaining things gradually is great when that was always the intent of the storyteller. Explaining things gradually because it's been 30 years and you're too afraid to move on and do anything new... not so much.
What's the difference if their origin is still unclear though? We don't know where they came from before the Ancients got their hands on them, and the Master Emerald was already on Earth. They could still be from Earth, they could be from another planet, or no planets at all, and the nature of how they came to be is still unexplained. If anything it felt more like a decision that allows these same mythos and Sonic iconography surrounding the emeralds to naturally expand all the way into space without infringing on the origins imo - like how Black Doom or Babylon Garden might have known about the chaos emeralds at all, if they've been passed around the galaxy like hot potatos. (Sonic Team loves sci fi too much they have to let us go to space for real at some point)
I think caring about canon and continuity isn't a bad thing. However, it can sometimes be taken too far and end up ruining certain stories. To be fair, this issue isn't exclusive to Sonic; it's affecting media in general at the moment. Take, for example, the moon in Sonic Adventure 2. It's such a significant story moment that it feels strange for the moon to appear fine in later games without explanation. It's almost like if SA2 took place a day after SA1 and the city we see is Station Square, even though it was destroyed. Sometimes, certain things do need to be addressed. It's different from fans wanting every bird character, ruins or group in the series to be officially confirmed as related to the Babylonians. As I mentioned in the other writer thread, Sonic Adventure managed to balance revealing what happened to the echidnas without diving too deeply into it. You're thrown into this crucial moment for them, and you're given enough details to become attached to Chaos, Tikal, and the Chao. It shows you the moment everything ends and stops. Where did the emeralds, the altar, Chaos, and the Chao come from? How did Tikal's grandmother know the emerald’s mantra? When Tikal sealed Chaos, did that create Angel Island, or did that happen later? How did the survivors decide to guard the emeralds, and how did Knuckles end up being the last of them? The game gives you a taste but knows when to stop and leave those mysteries. Even Knuckles, by the end, understands that 'it is what it is,' and it's better to move on. (This is why I'm not a fan of Chaos and Tikal still being around) I think that's why so many people like the story of that game, aside from the characters' arcs. I do wish the Sonic Frontiers story had followed this more closely. While it did leave some mysteries, I think it went too far by showing the Chaos Emeralds coming from space. They could have left that aspect more ambiguous.
I mean, I think the entire point of showing that story was to transparently say, like the ancients, they are not of this world and this is how they got here. I guess you could headcannon that were created here, flew out to space, and then came back eventually, but.. that's kinda crap imo lol. I always liked thinking they were a product of Earth, meant to balance the chaotic forces of nature here specifically. That they come from somewhere else or travel to other planets to do the same thing just make them feel a lot more generic to me.
With the way that Sonic Team repurposes the chaos emeralds for every single deity and lore they introduce, I just always felt like their hot-potato nature was kind of inherent to them because of their use. I do think that making things more grounded is inherently more interesting, since you can revolve around a specific aspect of Earth when incorporating them, but if the chaotic forces that they're balancing are intended to be universal in the same way the Infinity Stones are handled, I wouldn't be surprised by this point. ------ Throwing this one into the unpopular opinions batch: I know a lot of people thought that the Babylon Rouges' ancestors being aliens rather than genies felt like a retcon, but between Babylon Garden's high-tech drones storming the level, an internal system for the Garden stating, "Alert - Alert - Expel All Intruders" and Digital Dimension being the area that you fight the Babylon Guardian (the genie that is only a hologram) as the digital room creates illusions of hell and heaven... idk, I always thought it was better suited for this than a lot of the other "it was aliens all along" aspects of the series
Also, I don't know why I'm circling around Chaos Emeralds when Chaos being from outer space and not some kind of Earth deity was way more upsetting for me