Your Unanswered Sonic Questions

[Vertekins]

If Eggman was born on Earth in the Sonic X continuity, how did he end up on Sonic's world? Episode 33 had Eggman discover that he was born on Earth yet the series never goes into detail about how he found his way to the planet/dimension Sonic and co are from.

 

Also on the topic of Sonic X, why is it that time flows differently between seasons? Plothole? 1 day on Earth = 1 week on Sonic's homeplanet. Yet 6 years on Earth = 6 months on Sonic's homeplanet. Inconsistent much?

[Uraraka]

If Eggman was born on Earth in the Sonic X continuity, how did he end up on Sonic's world? Episode 33 had Eggman discover that he was born on Earth yet the series never goes into detail about how he found his way to the planet/dimension Sonic and co are from.

 

Also on the topic of Sonic X, why is it that time flows differently between seasons? Plothole? 1 day on Earth = 1 week on Sonic's homeplanet. Yet 6 years on Earth = 6 months on Sonic's homeplanet. Inconsistent much?

   I guess they just wanted to add time / space continuum theories to the story. Those theories can be confusing, and I honestly don't like them too much. I feel it was just a way to make Chris be an adult so he can be a little bit more confident, and to create a way for him to make it back to Sonic's world. (that should have never happened! I Think Sonic X would have been better if Chris couldn't make it back, but that's just me.)

[Mr Useful]

Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do9qvfcI4NQ

   Knuckles tells you why! He gained weight! haha, just kidding!

Now that makes so much sense. And the walls he can wall jump off of are probably covered in a sticky substance.

[Tani Coyote]

What exactly makes the Acorn Republic a republic? The government is a constitutional monarchy, so shouldn't it still be a kingdom?

 

It's an American comic. We butcher the meaning of political terminology HORRIBLY.

 

A Republic is any country where the head of state is not a monarch by the technical meaning. In the United States, however, "republic" has come to mean "an elected government that has protections for its citizens." This is why you often hear in American parlance, "We're a republic, not a democracy."

 

Technically they live under a constitutional monarchy within the framework of a parliamentary democracy, to get really technical. This is what the UK currently is, but it accurately does not class itself as a republic. It is still a kingdom, even if it is effectively a republic.

 

The joys of words changing with where and when you are!

Edited June 14, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[Chaos Incarnate]

How old did Sonic turn in Generations? Some people say that he is still 15 and didn't age, while I say bullshit. A birthday is a birthday, you age. So, did he simply turn 16? Or did more time pass than we thought? Perhaps he turned 20, reflecting Sonic's 20th anniversary, and more time passes between games than we think. Or is he possibly 18? If you think Chronicles happened sometime before Generations, you can look at it like this: the game takes place two years after the defeat of Eggman, so Sonic is naturally 17 at the point. Later, his birthday is in Generations, thus he turned 18. Unless, he wasn't quite 17 at the point of Chronicles, and turned that age in Generations.

[Your Vest Friend]

A birthday is a birthday, you age.

 

Tell that to the various characters in other media that haven't aged despite having birthdays. 

[Jolt_TH]

The thing with chronicles is that IF it was canon it could be placed anywhere in the timeline, like Zelda (who have released an official timeline now Thank god!) whereby the lasted game is the first chronologically. SEGA could keep releasing games between established games in the canon to prolong the life of the franchise

[Tani Coyote]

How old did Sonic turn in Generations? Some people say that he is still 15 and didn't age, while I say bullshit. A birthday is a birthday, you age. So, did he simply turn 16? Or did more time pass than we thought? Perhaps he turned 20, reflecting Sonic's 20th anniversary, and more time passes between games than we think. Or is he possibly 18? If you think Chronicles happened sometime before Generations, you can look at it like this: the game takes place two years after the defeat of Eggman, so Sonic is naturally 17 at the point. Later, his birthday is in Generations, thus he turned 18. Unless, he wasn't quite 17 at the point of Chronicles, and turned that age in Generations.

 

Generations is likely non-canon. We will probably never hear about the whole thing ever again. I'm predicting Lost World is right after Colors (explains the Wisps very well) and as such Sonic's birthday is once more miles (and a century in real life) down the road.

 

Bloody inability to hold a continuity!

[Spin Attaxx]

Sonic Generations is canon. It took place in a world that said "Fuck You" to time and space. Sonic's birthday is a cartoon birthday - he'll still remain at whatever age he was before.

[Mauro Fonseca]

"The biggest game that celebrates 20 years of the franchise and was widely praised isn't canon"

[Semi-colon e]

If we're lucky, we'll find out how Eggman escaped the White Space during Lost World much like how Eggman sorted the Time Eater stuff out in Generations from the end of Colours.

 

Generations kind of happened within itself. I suspect Sonic did age, like Classic Eggman is younger than Modern Eggman, but they're deliberately keeping the ages vague as to not put too much emphasis on who's turning what age now, even though before this the characters had/have ages. Either that, or they're doing the Simpsons/cartoon thing where they never age because fuck it that's why, who really cares if Sonic is 15 or 16 or 25 because it doesn't change anything relevant to the series.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Semi-colon e

[Splash the Otter]

"The biggest game that celebrates 20 years of the franchise and was widely praised isn't canon"

Said game relies entirely on being an anniversary title to exist. I think that's enough to make it noncanon.

[Mauro Fonseca]

What exactly is noncanon about "Sonic is having a birthday part for an undisclosed age, gets kidnapped into a timeless stream where there can't be continuity errors since there's no continuity at all, meets himself, kicks Eggman ass, returns everything to normal"?

[Splash the Otter]

Wouldn't he remember this, since he's technically already done it before? And like I said, the game wasn't marketed as anything but an anniversary title. At least SA2 and even NextGen could stand up as games in their own right.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Why would he remember it/who's to say he doesn't? And why does the marketability determine the canon of a game? And standing up in their own right? You're saying Generations doesn't stand up for itself over 06 by sheer playability?

 

Heaven's sake, no wonder no-one understands Sonic canon, people insist in over complicating it! The Classic Sonic who witnessed the events of Generations went to become a new timeline. There, one way to solve it. Here's another that works even best- he remembers vaguely it happened, and he doesn't care. As he said in the game, he meets genies and aliens and such in a regular basis. Why would going to the future and kicking the butt of two Eggmen be any more special?

[Tani Coyote]

Let's not forget the possibility that Lost World takes place before Generations did. Ergo, he will be the same age he was BEFORE Generations, making the birthday moot.

 

Since the continuity is mostly fluid barring Sonic 1-4, SA-Heroes and Colors-Generations, you can really place things anywhere. Timelines are really something we need to be more firmly established. Has SEGA ever done one?

 

Case in point: Unleashed could very easily have taken place after Sonic CD with all it gives us. With only Sonic, Tails, Amy and Eggman creating some link to prior games, the door is wide open on its place.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[Jolt_TH]

It's like with the Zelda games, they can choose where a game takes place, the most critically acclaimed OoT is in the middle of the timeline, the first is near the end of the timeline and the most recent SS is actually the first.

As long as it doesn't directly reference another game it could go anywhere.

LW is going to have to go after Generations for example as Generations explains his escape at the end of colours, linking it directly. (Heck you could even argue that Gens even happens at two points in the timeline, in the middle of Sonic 1 as you first play as classic Sonic in GHZ (yup its not a loading screen between GHZ act 1 and 2 guys ) AND after colours as Modern Sonic)

Edited June 14, 2013 by Jolt_TH

[Uraraka]

Now that makes so much sense. And the walls he can wall jump off of are probably covered in a sticky substance.

  Sorry, I read something on another forum about that, I  just thought it was funny

  Honestly, I never actually played the game, but it is true, that characters often change abilities from one game to the next. For example, in StH3, Knuckles gets electrocuted and can't go on, but in SA2, he has a thunder punch... So, electricity shouldn't have bothered him in the first place, or he shouldn't have thunder punches..... games need to get their facts straight!

[-blank-]

Knuckles had a thunderpunch?

[Vertekins]

I think that's the Thunder Arrow move. I don't think it's a punch, more like a conjured bolt of lightning.

 

Mecha Sonic's transformation in Sonic & Knuckles/3 & Knuckles....can this transformation be considered as not one and the same as a typical super transformation considering the robot used the Master Emerald to power-up?

[Uraraka]

Knuckles had a thunderpunch?

 It may not have been called that, but in 2 player mode in SA2, Knuckles has "thunder arrows" where he used an electric shock.

  thanks, Amy fan, it was Thunder Arrow ! I had no idea what the name was, and now I do

[Tani Coyote]

LW is going to have to go after Generations for example as Generations explains his escape at the end of colours, linking it directly.

 

To nitpick, it only has to go after Generations if it is after Colors, as that is a direct continuity. It could go before Colors, however.

 

The main conclusion is the same however: the timeline may as well not exist. Heck, as far as we know most games are their own alternate universes; just look at how different the world map is in Shadow the Hedgehog versus Sonic Unleashed. Was a world map shown in Sonic 06 as well? While the events of Sonic 06 are non-canon, the geography very probably still is canon, unless Solaris had a direct hand in shaping the Earth.

 

I can understand somewhat the fear of a binding continuity. If a continuity is too tightly wound, it starts to suffer from dead horse syndrome as one begins to wonder when it will end as everything is so interconnected it can become very hard to work with. A more fluid continuity can readily expand and not suffer this issue. Compare how convoluted Kingdom Hearts seems when one plot device after another is introduced, versus the much less rigid timeline of Sonic.

 

However, that alone does not excuse giving at least some chronological order. I like to think of games as a chain - each story should be self-contained (helps from a marketing perspective) but with some nods to the prior and next games. It all feels as if it's the same universe, without making one's head tilt from confusion.

[Vertekins]

Sonic acknowledges Colours and SatSR's events in Generations which means they had to have happened before Generations. SatBK possibly references Unleashed and definitely references SA2 and SatSR, cementing it as canon to the 'main series'

[Tani Coyote]

Sonic acknowledges Colours and SatSR's events in Generations which means they had to have happened before Generations. SatBK possibly references Unleashed and definitely references SA2 and SatSR, cementing it as canon to the 'main series'

 

That's my main beef with the continuity. There are all these bits and pieces, but it seems like a bunch of broken chains rather than one unified one. It's still just as possible these are all alternate realities that share a few base characteristics (alternate realities are fun because if you can think it, it exists; there is a universe where the geography is Shadow the Hedgehog's and Shadow was from the ARK, and a universe where the geography is Sonic Unleashed's, and Shadow has the same backstory, to give a point to how the possibilities are limitless).

 

If nothing else the fact he mentioned Colors in Generations places Lost World afterward... well. Provided the Wisp thing actually has substance and isn't just a cashin on a popular Wii game's mechanics. I'm really looking forward to how they explain that one.

 

...if they do at all, anyway.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[Spin Attaxx]

Heck, as far as we know most games are their own alternate universes; just look at how different the world map is in Shadow the Hedgehog versus Sonic Unleashed. Was a world map shown in Sonic 06 as well? While the events of Sonic 06 are non-canon, the geography very probably still is canon, unless Solaris had a direct hand in shaping the Earth.

By that logic, there is no Zelda timeline simply because Hyrule's layout changes between the original Zelda and Zelda II.

 

The world maps aren't much indication of a game's canonicity. In Sonic's case, it's the result of Sonic Team not being able to come up with a consistent art style between Adventure - Unleashed.