How Does Sonic's World Work? TailsTube's First Episode Finally Gives an Answer

Genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed the first episode. I love all the visuals used! I think this series of videos can be really good way to introduce new players to the lore of the franchise. So far, the team did really great job, it is really clear that they put a lot of effort.

Also, I find official acknowledgement of Tangle pretty cool. I feel like with her appearance, the chance of her and Whisper eventually appearing in official canon material has risen significantly.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY

THEY FINALLY ADDRESSED THE CONFUSION OVER THE HUMAN-ANIMAL LORE

This has the same energy as when Hannibal Lecter said, 'I'm having a friend for dinner'.

New human character hidden in plain sight here, the one with the people hair behind Tails. 

Oh wow, went in expecting the usual 4th wall jokes and memes, but they're doing legit Lore explaining.
Even going back to the Yuji Naka "Anthro's live on islands, humans on the continents" explanation.
I did not expect this.
I wonder if this video was made in response to everyone being dissapointed the Sonic Ency-speed-opedia not being a legit lore book.

Heh, Chao recipes. Use the dark Chao for an extra spicy bite to your food.  Use Omochao if you need extra copper in your diet.Use the Light Angel Chao if you have no soul.

I love how Tails just out of nowhere debunked two worlds on the fly. I was like: "Oh! I didn't expect that! I like it. This is going to get reactions". What a start.

I’m assuming they debunked the theory because they have a new human character right there ????

Come to think of it, this also debunks the "classic and modern are separate timelines" thing too.

Tails mentions meeting Sonic on Westside Island - i.e., the events of Sonic 2. He also shows South Island from Sonic 1 8-bit, a classic game. Ergo, the classic and modern games all take place in a single unified timeline on a single planet populated by both humans and animals.

It's as it should be.

It's nice that they have "changed their mind" on this matter. We'll have less debate on that topic xD And what's nice is that it already have been hinted in Japanese stories, so it's not just a SoA thing.

I wonder if they're doing that to separate themselves more from the movies, or just because we weren't happy about it. Or it's

18 minutes ago, Dr. Mechano said:

Come to think of it, this also debunks the "classic and modern are separate timelines" thing too.

Well, not totally, as it might simply mean that the "modern timeline" also have the elements of the classic timeline (and it wouldn't be surprising tbh), something like those events have been present on both, just that Sonic have its modern design instead of his classic one. Now, it doesn't mean that they haven't re-retconned that too (and I would like that), just that for now, there haven't been many things about a return of Classic in Modern.

I don't feel that "Westside Island"/"South Island" were targeted by the "Classic/Modern split", but that it was more the classic-only character and designs. ( and I'm not sure that Flynn will push much toward that, as he seemed way less negative about this split compared to the two-world )

Aww, yeah! Called it.

All right, there goes the "two worlds" thing. Like I said in the post linked, I wasn't really a fan, so I'm not broken up about it being debunked.

9 minutes ago, Kazhnuz said:

I don't feel that "Westside Island"/"South Island" were targetted by the "Classic/Modern split", but that it was more the classic-only character. ( and I'm not sure that Flynn will push much toward that, as he seemed way less negative about this split compared to the two-world )

Yeah but it specifically showed a screenshot from a classic game. So as far as I'm concerned, Sonic 1 8-bit (and by extension the rest of the classic games) all happened exactly as depicted, without any need to tweak anything.

I’ve just watched the vid. So I guess they have cleared up the two worlds theory. For now…….. 

30 minutes ago, Dr. Mechano said:

Yeah but it specifically showed a screenshot from a classic game. So as far as I'm concerned, Sonic 1 8-bit (and by extension the rest of the classic games) all happened exactly as depicted, without any need to tweak anything.

I can understand, just I said that because we should be more cautious before saying that something "debunked" as it's kinda give to the text an intention that it certainly doesn't have (especially as the split classic-modern have been seen in action during a time where the two world was already questionned by official sources, like Flynn and the 30 anniversary stories) xD For me we can't really put how it explicitely re-retcon the two-world theory at the same level.

Now, I feel that thinking that there is just "one timeline" is a perfectly sound vision (even if honestly Flynn's arguments about the matter are quite good). I wasn't talking about how anybody should see the Sonic Universe (we don't have to follow the "official vision"), I just reacted to the question of what the video says or not, and honestly it's not at all impossible than the next episode also retcon that XD

Ok, that was interesting. I hope they don't make the first episode superb and then loses all the hype on the next one because they couldn't think of good lore questions.

A bit shameful on the car question. I think a more appropriate response to it would be "Because it's cool and to make it fair to my other friends" as lots of theories were already brought.

Genuinely think the timeline thing would be the next interesting topic, either settle if Classic Sonic comes from another dimension, it's just a younger version than sonic etc.

Also loved how they actually acknowledge lots of games, from classic 8-bits, through Adventure, Heroes, Unleashed, Generations... it almost seems someone at SEGA finally did their homework.

How much of this lore are they actually gonna use in the games though? I mean, will any of it even matter in the grand scheme of things?

Certainly nearly none. There might be some reference that Flynn might be able to use in the writing, but honestly it's pretty sure that they'll keep being game that are mostly self-contained, with just some references to the past when they see it as useful. For instance, Frontiers certainly will have its own lore and concept, now maybe it'll map better to some older stuff (but they'll have certainly their own extinct old civilisation XD). We might have less blatent "contradiction", but as Flynn simply said that humans were "out of focus" in Forces, it won't mean that we'll never have strange things.

Even in recent bumblekast, Flynn said that the world of Sonic wasn't something fixed, so we won't have a "map of the Sonic world" or stuff like that. Sonic is still a fluid canon, just that they seems to talk more about the rest.

Each game will certainly keep being an "entry point" (especially if they're doing a game every 5 years).

1 hour ago, Soniman said:

I’m assuming they debunked the theory because they have a new human character right there ????

Well Ian Flynn also did the "knowing smile" thing for better or worse before this came out. 

He has mentioned his dislike for the two worlds theory stuff too, so I imagine he had a part in this.

1 hour ago, Dr. Mechano said:

Come to think of it, this also debunks the "classic and modern are separate timelines" thing too.

No. No it doesn't. Ian has mentioned it several times on the Bumblekast. Its not that the classic games are entirely a separate universe its that post Generations there's a split timeline. 

I've seen people say that TailsTube is dubbed over Japanese and it seems to be incorrect, because Katie and other members of English speaking social media team worked on it.

2 hours ago, Dr. Mechano said:

Yeah but it specifically showed a screenshot from a classic game. So as far as I'm concerned, Sonic 1 8-bit (and by extension the rest of the classic games) all happened exactly as depicted, without any need to tweak anything.

Technically, just showing the screenshot as a visual aid doesn't really mean anything... however, I kind of always just assumed that the stories of the classic games still happened in the modern timeline anyway. Just with their modern designs instead. There's quite a few things that the modern games crib from the classics both story and location wise. Forces has both Green Hill and Chemical Plant in it. I had no reason to doubt that Westside Island also exists in the modern canon.

It does look as though this is what Ian was getting at when he kept telling people to not worry about the two-worlds thing anymore.

Honestly if this is what they're going for now, I kind of like it. The idea that the humans live in the huge, big continents from Unleashed and Shadow the Hedgehog and the animals are mostly found on islands could not only be used as a way of explaining the absence of humans in some games but it does tickle the lore itch a bit. The idea that these two species live mostly segregated from each other is hard not to ponder over. It's a bit tantalizing from a storytelling perspective thinking about it. 

7 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

No. No it doesn't. Ian has mentioned it several times on the Bumblekast. Its not that the classic games are entirely a separate universe its that post Generations there's a split timeline. 

I'm a lil confused. I haven't seen Bumblekast so I'll check that out in a bit, but I thought the whole contention against the timeline split was in regard to characters like Mighty, Ray, Fang and etc never being allowed to show up in modern games because they're considered "classic only" aka it's own little pocket universe that can only be visited through time travel or dimensional warping shenanigans?

I could've sworn I've heard about that somewhere. I think they were even treating Classic Sonic in Forces as a separate character from another dimension because of the Phantom Ruby and all that nonsense.

4 minutes ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Technically, just showing the screenshot as a visual aid doesn't really mean anything... however, I kind of always just assumed that the stories of the classic games still happened in the modern timeline anyway. Just with their modern designs instead.

Doesn't quite work with SA1, which has Eggman reference his own classic design via Hedgehog Hammer, as well as Casinopolis having the classic designs of the characters on a slot machine.

I don't think it's unbelievable that the characters just changed clothes and got a little taller over time. To me, it makes sense that at one time, they looked a little different than they do now - as depicted in Generations.

Ian debunked it almost a year ago now on his podcast, but good to have it somewhere it'll reach more people.

1 hour ago, Dr. Mechano said:

Doesn't quite work with SA1, which has Eggman reference his own classic design via Hedgehog Hammer, as well as Casinopolis having the classic designs of the characters on a slot machine.

I don't think it's unbelievable that the characters just changed clothes and got a little taller over time. To me, it makes sense that at one time, they looked a little different than they do now - as depicted in Generations.

I mean, how we imagine it isn't going to be one to one. For me, when I say "modern designs" I'm personally just imagining them shorter and with their eye color matching how they are in the modern games. It kind of has to be mostly imagined since we still haven't seen it. 

Images on a slot machine feel like the kind of stuff that's easy to ignore through gameplay-story dissonance. Some can do it better than others and some choose not to do it at all, which is also fine. I just feel it's natural that some classic imagery would inevitably pop up in the modern games regardless, with or without the split. 

If you don't take into account that the Classic and Modern characters have the same ages and heights, sure, it makes plenty of sense they just grew up. I'm cool just seeing it as different art styles they had at different times that sometimes crossover. It doesn't make sense when they reference it in-universe, but what is sense in Sonic?