Think SEGA would ever Kill off a Main Character?

[Dr. Mechano]

After backpedaling on Shadow's death, nah.

And it makes sense. This is a mascot platformer series, where iconic characters help sell the games. The only dead characters in this series are going to be one-shot villains like Black Doom or characters who were dead already like Maria and Gerald. Every recurring main character is essentially immortal.

[SticksSuperFan14]

On 5/27/2023 at 8:04 PM, Iko said:

They will eventually do it on rare occasions, if there's a very special context that allows for it to make sense, but it will always be a temporary thing. Sonic has been already killed twice (06, visual novel), and returned, in a way or another.

Seriously and permanently killing any of the recurring characters? That will never happen, for a big amount of reasons.

The worst they can do is to silently stop using a character, and even that might not be a permanent thing (some "forgotten" or "retired" characters have returned at some point).

A character being forgotten or retired is honestly a fate worse than death. Dying would at least give the character closure and let them depart from the series with some form of dignity, but them being retired happens gradually, and is never formally announced. It leaves uncertainty of where they even are in canon.

[batson]

I can't for the life of me think of any reason as to why Sega or Sonic Team would want to kill off a character. Sonic isn't a narratively driven franchise, so it's not like when certain other franchises kill off characters for narrative reasons. Ya'll know that if Big the Cat dies in the next game, no character is even going to aknowledge his death in the game after that.

...but then again maybe now with Flynn writing the scripts, perhaps what I just said isn't accurate anymore. Perhaps from now on Sonic will be like Metal Gear Solid and become so marrinated in it's own continuity between games as to make the narratives at some points almost pointless for those who haven't played the previous games. Time will tell I guess.

[Sonicstitch]

 

I would not want SEGA to permanently kill off a character, especially Tails. But I suppose they could do a story in which at the beginning Tails is killed and Sonic is devastated. In the end of the game, he is revived.

Warning potential Back to the Future spoilers If you have never seen Back to the Future Stop reading and go watch it now.

Spoiler

They could do a story where Tails dies and Sonic gets sent back in time and has to warn Tails about how he dies to stop it.

 

 

[Red Hot Jack]

I was thinking on how major Sonic characters died though, while they were definitely one offs they were main antagonists like Infinite or important in the story they were in, I'd argue even co-protagonists like Chip, or heroes like Gamma. 

Gamma - was playable and one of the highlights in SA1's plot, never seen again outside of mobile games, merch, and E-1000 robots Eggman built later.

Tikal - died 4000 years ago but was meant as a spirit character anyway, for flashbacks and as a way to link to the past.

Chaos - I'm still confused about him because I think he was trapped in the Master Emerald and then got out because of Eggman, but he's still confirmed dead by Ian Flynn and SEGA, although he was back it was always time mess (Generations) or multiplayer (SA2), or illusion (Forces) and minor appearances, he's still relevant while staying dead, although I'm not sure if this means Sonic killed him in the Super Sonic vs Perfect Chaos battle and then became a spirit?

Maria Robotnik - I would argue she isn't important even though she is also in Shadow the game, but her death impacts a lot the story of those 2 games and Shadow's character.

Gerald Robotnik - Also impacts Shadow and Eggman's characters and is a major threat in the last story in SA2, and a message of hope for Shadow in his own game.

Black Doom - A main antagonist in a spinoff game but still, a major threat to Shadow who killed him in the final boss

Mephiles - One of the most beloved and also deadly antagonists, but still he stayed dead, Ian Flynn even wanted him and Doom back in an Archie reboot arc but SEGA even then rejected the idea because both were dead. I'm glad anyway Mephiles still appears like in Speed Battle.

Chip - Now this is one of the most important ones because of how big Chip's role is in the game, I would say his death is even well executed, plus he's gonna be back in a cycle of life and death along with Dark Gaia, when the world is destroyed again.

Infinite - This one confused a lot of fans, I was still dubious about it, but he vanishes after his fight in Forces, which means he either died there or as the encylospeedia I think says, he got trapped in the phantom ruby, which was destroyed anyway so he's dead in either case, but that doesn't stop him from appearing in a Sonic Channel calendar, mobile games and plushies. So technically he still "makes money" while being dead like Chaos and Mephiles too.

Captain Whisper and Johnny - I mean, I always thought they died before the last act of Rush Adventure, but the comic literally confirms Blaze has no antagonists left to fight and her world is in peace. As minor as they were, I consider them as deaths in the franchise.

Dr. Starline - Whether IDW is canon or only soft canon, it's still IMO the biggest balls they always had to kill off somebody in Sonic, he didn't appear in the beginning but was still a main villain for 2 big arcs in the comic, had his own character arc and development, almost won and then died in the milestone issue, I thought it was pretty fitting and doesn't have to come back, he can appear again in other ways, like flashbacks, hallucinations and recorded vlogs as he did after issue 50 already.

The ones I wouldn't count are:

Blaze in 06, I never considered the idea that this Blaze was a doppelganger to the SOL Dimension one, she might as well be but she's not the main Blaze anyway, and 06 got retconned which means there are 2 still alive? But I assume this Blaze was retconned anyway.

Emerl who got rebuilt as Gemerl, they have the same consciousness and I think memories too, while Gemerl is no gizoid and has a different personality, he's still built on Emerl by Eggman.

Eggman Nega... might be the most confusing one because he first appeared as Eggman's doppelganger, a villain to Blaze, but the comic or Blaze's appearances never mention him again, they outright say Blaze's world has no threats left, which would mean Nega is a descendant of Eggman from the future like in Rivals, but I'm guessing the Rivals are not canon too at this point, if they were he died in Rivals 2, if they are not canon I'm not sure where that leaves Nega... I don't think SEGA wants to use him outside of Olympics anyway.

[Ender64]

I honestly don’t think that characters, like Knuckles, will die anytime soon. If one of the characters were to die in a game then I think that they might return in a later game.

[EmTiven01]

Doubt it. And it's not like killing off main characters for drama always works out. Just look at how people reacted to Optimus Prime dying in the animated Transformers movie from the 80's.

[Multikaris]

It would be quite difficult to pull off, as while the series has killed off more characters than Mario certainly, the closest thing to main character deaths in the series have been Gamma (the only main character death that stuck, and only after a few half-hearted revival attempts), Shadow (who was always meant to come back), & a number of main villains. Even in other series, it’s fairly rare for this to happen, such as with Iris, who wasn’t considered a main character until well after she was already dead, or Clockwerk, who’s shadow still looms over later entries after his demise.

[juiceDpunk983]

On 6/14/2023 at 12:41 PM, Red Hot Jack said:

Rivals are not canon too at this point, if they were he died in Rivals 2

I think they are canon, it's how Silver is reintroduced in the timeline. Eggman Nega is trapped in the Ifrit Zone... Unless he used his smarts and got out somehow.