The Sonic the Hedgehog Continuity Thread of Love and Timelines

When Mania Plus was announced, how many people do you guys recall mistaking Mighty and Ray for Archie characters?

I remember wondering how many would make that mistake back then. From my experience, it turned out not many. Fans knew that they were game characters. Even most non-Sonic sites that reported the news did, treating them as long lost characters that hadn't been seen since their appearances in the 90s games.
https://www.cinemablend.com/games/2389121/sonic-mania-plus-is-adding-new-characters-and-more
https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/16/17131294/sonic-mania-plus-release-date-new-characters-encore-mode
http://operationrainfall.com/2018/03/16/sonic-mania-plus-ray-mighty/
https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/16/...hises-most-obscure-characters-playable-again/
https://hypebeast.com/2018/7/sonic-mania-plus-release-sega-ray-mighty
https://nintendowire.com/news/2018/...-plus-release-adds-mighty-ray-new-characters/

A few less informed sites treated them as brand new characters, but I couldn't find a single one referencing their comic appearances.

 

This is anecdotal of course but StF cabinets felt more like a unicorn myth than a real thing when I was a kid. We had heard about it in magazines and online, but I only knew one person that ever actually found a cabinet and it was when they were on a west coast vacation. When Fighters Megamix came out that was the first time any of my non-sonic-fan gamer friends had ever seen Bark or Bean. Again, all anecdotal so I'm not trying to prove a point with that story. But I think the comics have a tendency to put lesser-known characters out into the zeitgeist and help keep them in the public consciousness, regardless of anyone actually reading the comics or not.

 

And Nack was meant to be in Sonic Xtreme, which was meant to be the next main entry of the franchise when it was still in development.

 

5:49
- Ian said in a previous episode he knows things about the origin of the Chaos Emeralds. I know he can’t say anything, but What about the other gems, like the Master Emerald, the Time Stones and the Phantom Ruby? Would they have the same origin as Chaos Emeralds?

- No... maybe. I don't think so.

- Hashtag #UnknowingSmile?!

- Hashtag #DoubtfulFrown. Hashtag #BefuddledHeadCrinkle.


11:34
- read that in the jp version of Colors DS states that if Eggman drain the energy of the Wisps they die and the Nega status seems to derive from their this would make sense in why these variants continue to appear after the Colors events despite the West version has established that the Nega are born once the Wisps energy is drained could the Japanese scenario of this concept ever become canon even for the Western one?

- I don't think so, because one: at the end of Colors when they destroy the reactor and the Hyper Go On energy spreads out again you see the Nega Wisps restored to their normal forms so presumably there shoudn't be any Nega Wisps. Everyone should have gotten their juice back. And two: it seems like Sega has kind of already forgotten that because they treat stuff like bomb and jade as normal Wisps when they are quite clearly Nega Wisps. So... I think it's something that just needs to be looked at and reassessed from the top down. Personally, I think you could solve the issue by just saying that regular Wisps are like the positive spin on the energy and the Nega Wisps are the negative spin on the energy, and therefore a Wisp can cycle up to be its normal self or cycle down to be its Nega form (...).


20:36
- So Ian, no more Two Worlds? can we consider TailsTube's explanation canon for the games?

- Yep. All the good stuff coming out of Tails Tube is gonna be canon.

 

Wouldn't Nega Wisps be explained by Eggman still draining their energy? They are captured and stored in capsules after all.

 

Yeah, Ian really loves to play up his status and I find it kind of annoying. It's not like he has any major role in how the franchise is written (yet).

 

I don't think the feeling of ire towards #KnowingSmile is an invalid one, but your reasoning strikes me as being in poor faith. All the man's doing is teasing projects or aspects of the Sonic series in particular that he's working on but can't talk about yet, and largely only in response to fan questions. I don't think it's anything more than his own idiosyncratic shorthand for "Something cool's coming up which I can't talk about, but just all will become clear in the near future."

 

Fair point. I guess I let my personal feelings about Ian's writing color my opinion on it.

 

12:16
- Could Silver be from Little Planet? Does he unknowingly channel his power from the Time Stones?
- ...No. I can say that with reasonable certainty. That would be a nice way to tie things together, but no, that's not it.

20:00
- Do you think Gemerl can copy or learn new skills like Emerl used to, or maybe like Metal Sonic does?
- The nature of Gemerl's abilities are kind of vague, so I'm not sure. It's also a question of just how much his weaponization was left by Tails when Tails repaired him and restored him. Obviously he's got some kick to him because this is an action title and Gemerl has done some pretty cool stuff, but I don't know if he's got... because he didn't really have the copy ability in Sonic Advance 3. He could integrate into the boss robots, but even that apparently is a point of contention, so... I ultimately don't know.

31:01
- I heard the name of Sonic's planet is not defined yet, but how so? Some games like Riders called it "Earth", is it not Earth?
- Actually I was just in a meeting about that, so stay tuned.

59:17
- Do the adjustments in Sega Sonic canon come straight from Sonic Team or do you have considerable influence in canonicity decisions?
- I can't think of a clever way to answer around this one, so I'm just gonna have to abstain on that one. (...) 99% comes from the bosses in Japan.

1:11:05
- Amy said one issue to Rouge that Sonic practically raised Tails. In the IDW universe how long has it implied that the two have known each other and how old was Tails likely when they met?
- They've known each other since the events of Sonic 2.
- And did the events of Sonic 2 happen...?
- Apparently a year ago, or so.
- Huh?!?!?!
- I don't know, man. It's their continuity.
- I'm confused.
- Sonic Generations is Sonic's birthday. Apparently it's only been a year since all this crazy crap happened. And Sonic is still not a year older, so...

1:16:53
- I like to think Shadow's speed comes from his Chaos powers, and his air shoes are made to help control his speed. Plus I've seen in his other games he runs at high speeds with different shoes. Your thoughts?
- That would make enough sense, but I don't know what Sega's official word is on that.

1:29:05
- Are you gonna add more female hedgehog characters?
- I don't know if we can. Because Surge, in her original pitch was also a hedgehog (...) and ultimately I was asked not to do that. Kit was also supposed to be a fox as well, and we were asked not to do that. (...) Sega seems to be disinclined to have repeating species. In the original passage, Tangle was a rabbit, and they said "we already have one with Cream". (...)

1:36:21
- In Sonic Runners, Silver got a new form called ESP. Is it canon or not? Since I'm not sure if Sonic Runners is canon, does he still have the form in canon games?
- No.

1:45:13
- So was Sonic 14 until Generations or was he 15 turning 15?
- As far as I know he's 15 turning 15. (...)

2:25:06
- Do characters from Mania at least exist in the modern timeline? (...)
- (...) The official word up until right now has been that Classic and Modern are separate. So anything that is only shown up in Classic does not have a Modern counterpart. That could change. For now, no they're not available. For now.

 

It'd be neat to finally have a proper name for the planet, especially if it isn't Earth or Mobius.

 

This should be Earth. The games pre-Sonic Colours had it Earth.

This is annoyingly obtuse of them. They themselves are the ones who established Classic Sonic was the younger Sonic, not the same age but different looking. Just say he's 13 as Classic, 15 as Modern if you're that determined to be weird about the ages but adding lines like that to the games.

You also already had a hedgehog with Sonic, but there Amy, Shadow and Silver are.

To be clear, I don't mind Tangle and Surge being changed, I like that. It's just the fact that they're deliberately hampering designs for no real reason. If they'd said "Change the animals, be more creative!" then fine, awesome, they're just waiting more creativity, but no, it's because they now have a bizarre rule about no repeat animals.

Might explain where Vanilla went in the games. Also, Blaze and Big might cause some issues for them.

 

Have Blaze and Big ever appeared in the same game?

 

@DigitalDuck Team Sonic Racing

That's gonna pop up on Tails Tube.

That's a very interesting way of answering the question, contrary to what he says. He's abstaining, then saying the majority comes from Japan? What's with the ambiguity?

God I hate the mess that is cartoon time. These characters don't need specific ages that they don't act like anyway and Infinite already says Sonic's been thwarting Eggman's plans for decades, meta or no. We can charitably interpret that as at least one decade and a bit, so just make Classic Sonic and Tails 15 and 8 respectively and their modern versions 26 and 19. The idea that all the characters have known each other a year or less is inane and I think does a diminishes the idea that Sonic and Tails have a brotherly bond.

Don't do that, Ian. Don't give me hope.

 

Team Sonic Racing.

 

Just as long as they don't go back to Mobius I'm okay with any name they give to Sonic's world.

Ideally it should just be earth though.

 

Honestly they can just call it "the world" now for all I care because I don't think there'll be a case where the planet absolutely needs to be referred to by name, and the whole "Sonic's world" shtick was only a product of the two worlds debacle.

 

Do you still have your list of terms used in the Japanese releases?

11 months younger is still younger.

It's for the sake of variety. They don't want a bunch of samey characters. They're not going to ban Blaze and Big from appearing together.

Infinite's line there was just clumsy dialogue.

This isn't something that the audience is supposed to think about. They're just cartoons. They operate under the same logic as Mickey Mouse, Popeye or The Simpsons. We've seen the Simpsons family celebrate multiple Christmases and birthdays without getting a year older.

That would completely break the characters. Sonic is a cool teen and Tails is his boy genius sidekick.

 

As if them having only known each other for 11 month doesn’t break their characters in the respect that they’re meant to have a brotherly bond?

 

Not enough younger if he's having a birthday in Generations and is still the same age after that.