Sonic Channel might've just subtly confirmed Infinite's death.

[Xandur]

Now, I want you all to humor me for a minute. I'm gonna be talking about Infinite - big eye-roller, I know, but bear with me.

Yesterday, the final part of this year's calendar stories was released on Sonic Channel. The part in question revolves around Sonic finishing off Super Eggman and reversing the effects of his "otherworldification" that he performed via a Phantom Ruby prototype (allegedly). To give a basic synopsis of the whole plot, otherworldification is a process that Eggman performed with the Ruby in which he grabbed various characters from their native worlds, and trapped them in wacky scenarios with other characters. The calendar illustrations that have been getting released over the course of this year are illustrations of these different scenarios.

So, in the aforementioned finale, Sonic beats up Super Eggman, crushes his Phantom Ruby thingy, and reverses all the effects. Everyone slowly starts to disappear and return to their native worlds. However, Chaos and Tikal (yes, they're part of this whole thing as well), meet a slightly different fate. Since Chaos and Tikal are both already dead (at least in a manner of speaking, Tikal is definitely dead but Chaos is a more unique case), they kind of just... disappear. They don't return anywhere, they just scatter like dust in the wind. See the image below:

After this, the story wraps up, Sonic and Tails frolic into the sunset and live happily ever after. But then, at the very end, we get an unexpected extra scene...



Given what we just read previously, this whole thing is pretty significant if you pay attention to the wording. That final line - "The wind was merely blowing in the sky" - compared to the final line regarding Chaos and Tikal - "all they saw was the windswept, uninhabited ruins of the emerald temple." The parallel between these two makes me think that something is being implied here. Infinite disappeared in a similar manner to Tikal and Chaos, but Tikal and Chaos are dead... so what does that say about Infinite?

Keep in mind, when all of the other characters were disappearing prior to Tikal and Chaos, their disappearances weren't described as being anything like this. They just turned transparent, and that was all. No remains of them blowing in the wind - they weren't "lost to the world forever," like how the story describes Infinite's disappearance. Infinite's disappearance in particular is delivered in a way that's super detailed and dramatic. 

Now, all of this is pure speculation. There is still no definitive answer on what truly became of Infinite. For all we know, the writers just made the wording here super specific because they felt like it. Maybe Infinite just got teleported back to the main canon, and he's now back to being stuck in the Ruby. But this may or may not be their way of providing some closure on Infinite's character. The change of heart that he has during those final moments and the peculiar wording certainly give off that impression. Ideally, I'd like for Infinite to still be alive - his character has a lot of untapped potential that could be utilized in future games. But, assuming this truly is the end of him, I'm fine with that. At the very least, he had a little mini-redemption arc at the end, and we finally got an answer for what really became of him after years of ambiguity. 

What do you guys think? Am I reading between the lines too much, or could this be some cleverly delivered closure for the Ultimate Mercenary?

[Sega DogTagz]

1 hour ago, Xandur said:

What do you guys think? Am I reading between the lines too much, or could this be some cleverly delivered closure for the Ultimate Mercenary?

 

Its not a good indication that he is still alive, seeing as how he got dusted just like Tikal, but the writers for this left just enough wiggle room to have either outcome be verified.

Since we don't get confirmation on what happened to Chaos, whether he fades away like everyone else, or gets dusted like Tikal - you could make the argument that characters whom are trapped in emeralds could exit the otherworlds scenario in the same method as dead ones. Tikal seems to think so, noting that herself and Chaos were in the same boat.

 

So long story short, it looks like he's dead, but there is a convenient opening in the plot that allows for him to be alive if they choose to use him again.

[MetalSkulkBane]

You're talking about Infinite dying, but does the story imply that Tikal is dead(er) as well? That sounds equally if not more important.

Honestly, the vibe I'm getting is deaths in Doctor Who: timey whimey happened, character X is dead, so dead, maybe even erased from reality... until the next timey whimey brings them back.

Granted, if Sega bothered to kill a character in a side story like this, it might imply they want him dead, like with Captain Whiskers a few years back. Death in fiction is rarely permanent, but death "because IP owner doesn't want X alive" is a bit more lethal.

Edited December 9, 2023 by MetalSkulkBane

[castell-neath]

I honestly thought the Phantom Ruby could have led to a Generations 2 type game, but if its gone ce la vie.

As fir Infinate, just seems like they are trying to undo a mis-step (Forces in general) as opposed to trying to fix and develop him. Imagine him being infused with the prototype and he can "warp" reality for short bursts of time...would make a great villain / boss to battle going forward but again if he is dead, ce la vie

[Soniman]

Narratively he literally sold his soul to Eggman for power and he got it, not knowing Eggman is Eggman and is more than willing to throw away anything that isn’t useful to him so he formatted him essentially to use for his final death egg robot instead, very karmic I’d say 

[Xandur]

10 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

You're talking about Infinite dying, but does the story imply that Tikal is dead(er) as well? That sounds equally if not more important.

True. I'm operating under the assumption that Tikal is dead dead, despite it never being directly confirmed. We haven't seen her since SA, excluding cameos.

But yes, if we ever learn in the future that Tikal is truly still alive, then that could falsify this whole theory. For now, I guess it really comes down to how you interpret the events of SA. Seems like Infinite's ambiguity is reinforced by Tikal's ambiguity as well. :(

[Sega DogTagz]

Speaking of Tikal, remember that she was depicted as a Force Ghost for a gag not too long ago. So you could say that she's dead.... but not dead dead....

 

lol

 

[Red Hot Jack]

I already thought Infinite was dead, both with Forces having him fade out randomly, and the encyclospeedia saying he was trapped into the ruby, as vague as these explanations are, it's just a shitty way to say he's dead, because Sonic is for kids first and they would not show him as a corpse, maybe have him explode but still he did fade out.

Also I remember SEGA didn't want him to show up in IDW either, I don't think they want to use him for future stories but only mobile games and merch (he's not the only dead character to be in those, but also Chaos, Mephiles, Tikal ecc.)

Edited December 10, 2023 by Red Hot Jack

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

13 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Speaking of Tikal, remember that she was depicted as a Force Ghost for a gag not too long ago. So you could say that she's dead.... but not dead dead....

 

lol

 

"No one's ever really gone".

[LegoNess]

On 12/8/2023 at 10:13 PM, Xandur said:

 

Honestly, I'm more concerned at the fact that Tikal seems even MORE dead than she was before.

[Xandur]

6 hours ago, Red Hot Jack said:

I already thought Infinite was dead, both with Forces having him fade out randomly, and the encyclospeedia saying he was trapped into the ruby, as vague as these explanations are, it's just a shitty way to say he's dead, because Sonic is for kids first and they would not show him as a corpse, maybe have him explode but still he did fade out.

Infinite's abrupt disappearance at the end of Forces and the hazy explanation for what happened to him in the Encyclo-speed-ia just seemed to me like Sonic Team's way of saying "we have no idea what we want to do with this character". It was vague enough to give the impression that he could be dead, but not specific enough for anything to be set in stone. Basically an easy way for them to shelve him, but also give themselves enough elbow room to bring him back should the need ever arise.
However, the events of this story seem a bit more like a definitive ending in my eyes. Much more satisfying than his fate at the end of Forces, that's for sure.

[AlexHidanBR]

I'm pretty sure nothing that happens in that Sonic Channel fiction is canon... but if he's really deceased then they should make it more apparent and dramatic like E-102 Gamma...

[Razule]

I agree on being more concerned that Tikal and Chaos seem to be dead-dead now.. Is this like Whiskers and Johnny being killed off in the Sonic Channel comics?