Sonic Forces Theory (Spoilers for Sonic Mania)

[LongcrierCat]

So I've lost my mind to theorizing because I need an outlet because I can't stand to let myself wallow around in that scary real world. In this time, I've been noticing some very peculiar things about Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces. Spoilers for Sonic Mania are contained in this theory of mine. 
Sonic Mania isn't just a prologue to Sonic Forces. It's foreshadowing what's going on in this game. 

Spoiler

 

 

I've gone on long threads on both Twitter and Tumblr and have been slowly losing my mind like a Radiohead fan who figured out that In Rainbows and OK Computer are two halves of the same story. Aaron told me to follow clues and I think it's nearly sent me into a... Sonic Mania if you will. 

Sonic Mania loves referencing everything it gets its hands on but a very particular thing here has struck me as super interesting in the thread of me slowly losing my mind. There's constellations in Stardust Speedway and one of those is of an acorn, which comics fans will recognize as the crest of the Royal Acorn Family. This takes place in the same level as this guy shows up in. 

 

But wait. That can't be Krudzu. It can't be. He's not a games enemy. 

And then there's the Egg Tarantula.

There's talk about it not being the same thing however... it even has nearly the same attacks and way of defending itself as it does in the comics. 

Then there's the fact that Metal Sonic's "birthplace" makes a not so sneaky cameo appearance for interesting reasons. 

 

 

Hey, that's cute. Didn't Metal Sonic spring an attack on Sonic regarding a giant machine in that Girl Trouble story in Sonic the Comic? Funny that when he charges red that he looks like this guy.

.... Hmmmmm. And Sonic CD is the de facto Metal Sonic that was refined and perfected and had his own AI that gained sentience. Hmmmmm.

Okay but that's just cute references so far. Nothing too notable that would clash with the games. 

Except. Wait. Are there SatAM sound effects in Titanic Monarch? The moment you land in a transporter with an Egg Robo, I swear I hear a SatAM sound effect. This is peculiar. 

Let's move onto the final final boss then. Egg Reverie. A lot of you picked up on this. The word reverie means "a state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream". A daydream of a trance? A... Sonic Mania? 

Wow, I'm on a roll with using that joke. No wonder Aaron and the Sonic guys love Undertale. They related so hard to Sans, hehehehehehehehehe~

So that's interesting. But then it gets... weird. 

 So the Phantom Ruby extracts the Emeralds from Sonic and we get into a mess. It opens up another of these pinkish purple portals that I thought were tied to Naugus in his SatAM roots but it turns out that I've been mistaken. 

No, gang. We have something more interesting going on. And this is where the spoilers end and we can safely present evidence. 

 

 

 

We have ourselves a Super Genesis Wave Event. The time this happened in the comics, the DNA of the Sonic Universe had been rewritten. 

Now what's the one thing we've been wanting? A soft reboot of the games that makes more sense and might even be more accessible to the core fanbase as well as the casual fanbase? 

We may be getting that. 

You can read more about my theory here on Tumblr.

I remember that one of my core complaints of Sonic Generations was that it didn't celebrate Sonic as a pop culture icon but as a games only celebration which is fine if you're a Games Purist. But the greater public knowledge of Sonic still knows about Mobius and its characters. Well.... Sega might just be listening and recognize that these ideas are here to stay. 

So now we have Sonic Forces being a huge Secret Wars level crossover event in two Sonic games. Hey, at least they didn't make this span across ten to twenty different books like Marvel and DC Comics did. You should consider yourselves lucky that these two games and the comics is all the material you needed a basic reading on a Fan Wiki to know. 

And why wouldn't Sega pull a Comic Book level move? They realize now who they are. They're the Marvel Comics to Nintendo's DC Comics. They experiment more while Nintendo works in familiarity by using roughly the same plot over and over again with some changes here and there. And what's more popular than the Comic Book Movie and overall pop culture scene these days? 

And on that note, let me just say that I'm glad people like Hidden Base but remember it's found in a deserted Green Hill Zone. In fact... it looks more familiar to me as a fan of SatAM than it does as a Sonic Adventure 2 reference though don't get me wrong I love Pyramid Cave. 

 

But it looks more like Mobotropolis than it does Pyramid Cave. 

But then there's the Logo and Infinite. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This gets more interesting when you read the manual of Sonic Mania. 

 

 

The Phantom Ruby warps space time. Funny. That's just what... the Super Genesis Wave does and in the result we have a new Universe where the story has been flipped and Eggman actually won. 

Add to this that Amy is even now a bold and crazy awesome leader in the Resistance (man, thanks, Sonic Team/Sega, I love the new Amy. She's so Fleetway Amy in determination and it's awesome) and I know for a fact I've seen it before Sonic Boom and this game. And... huh. It comes from the same comic that just so happened to be canceled right before Sega announced the IDW deal. 

 

 

 

So all in all. I'd like to maybe end with this if I happen to know what I'm talking about. 

 

 

And hey look at that. We might even be getting some of the crazier Sonic the Comic and more of the Sonic Manga and Anime stuff leaking into the games too.

That's cool shit. 

But I mean. I have plenty of time to be proven wrong by Sega and Sonic Team and Whitehead and Co. But they're all been involved with writing the story for Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces. I can't think of this being a coincidence. Not just yet. This has to be indicative of what they plan for the series. 

And this is why Sonic Forces is the Super Combination Work of the Sonic franchise. Thanks for reading all the way if you did. 

Tldr; A Super Genesis Wave is happening and that's why Classic Sonic is in Mania and why things are looking more and more like the comics and alternate media from both the Western and Japanese branches.

[Blue Wisp]

I'd be really fucking surprised if Forces and Mania are another attempt at a reboot a-la what Sonic 06 tried to do.

 

Double fucking surprised if we ever EVER get the Freedom Fighters showing up in a mainline Sonic game.

 

Never was a fan of the Freedom Fighters, they felt extremely redundant with all the other Sonic friends going around. And what's the point of introducing them in the videogame series when they'll end up unused like anyone who isn't Sonic or Sonic?

[LongcrierCat]

Well, I mean. You could argue the same about bringing back Bark, Bean, and Fang the Sniper. Those three have their vocal fans though. 

Spoiler

But that didn't stop them from coming back ala the Heavy Magician~ 

 

[Polkadi~☆]

1 minute ago, LongcrierCat said:

Well, I mean. You could argue the same about bringing back Bark, Bean, and Fang the Sniper. Those three have their vocal fans though. 

  Reveal hidden contents

But that didn't stop them from coming back ala the Heavy Magician~ 

 

Spoiler

The difference was they came back through fans, not Sonic Team themselves.

It's all wishful thinking and coincidences, no offense. Sonic Team had never taken a liking to other continuities unless they either had a hand in it (Sonic Boom) or like the concept (the Hooligans).

[LongcrierCat]

This is plenty fair. 

It's a petty reason for them not to use the Freedom Fighters, but it's what I've expected and known for years why they never once showed up in the games. But hey, it's fair. 

... However. 

One of their hang ups about them was that Sonic and Sally was a thing before the comics got rid of that. Now not only are the Freedom Fighters not dependant on Sally's relationship with Sonic, she's also kind of more interested in Nicole. 

Sega would get some massive brownie points with the LGBTQ+ Sonic fans if those two came into the games they way they were last seen in the comics. 

 

[Polkadi~☆]

Yes, Sega would get support for that, but Sonic Team simply wouldn't care. They tend to shun what isn't their creation. It's annoying, frustrating, and incredibly petty, but it's them. That's why Sticks has gotten more attention than someone like Sally or Nack, because Sticks was actually created (half-ish) in-house at Sonic Team.

[LongcrierCat]

Right right. Again though. I've known that Sega of Japan's branch of things don't care for the Western Sonic materials all that much unless they had a hand in it. 

Honestly, I wouldn't mind all that much if it wasn't for all of the years that I dealt with pessimism coming from Game Purists (don't act like some of you aren't by the way, you kind of are) and sides of a fanbase and even a company that wouldn't come to a compromise but stay divided. This isn't to say that Comics fans and Cartoons fans didn't also lash out. I know I sure did in 2011, hahahaahaa. 

I just think that compromise would be better given how Sonic was bigger here in the West and how we kind of made Sonic part of collectivist group of rebels. That... kind of appeals to Japan, guys. I think that's why they're doing Forces in the first place is that they realize everyone liked that about Sonic. That even though he's an individual he's a free flow kind of guy that is incredibly social and "hip" with everyone and fights control hungry baddies. 

I don't know. I know that there are Comics and SatAM fans in Japan though and frankly, I don't blame them. Japan is a Democratic Socialist kind of nation, not to shoehorn politics, but it's an observation about the culture and what appeals to them. Japan's kids (I'm using the term to describe Millennials and the like) like to be social and they like to be cool too. It takes getting to actually try to understand sociology and the culture around Japan to understand this and I feel like I have a kind of understanding but not a full one. If anyone Japanese is here on site I'd love to get some insight if I'm off on anything about the culture. But I know that Japan loves pop culture as much as we Westerners do. I'm so intrigued and relate to the culture art of Japan and the messages they get into in their art even on the Dadaist level they're on (seriously, they perfected Dadaism I feel). 

God, I sound like a corporate tool. I thought I would just have a quaint little perspective of pop culture in Japan, not focus test the shit out of Sonic, ahahaha. 

I mean. I never really liked the way Sega is divided in house. Sega of Japan and Europe and America always were at war with each other just trying to make sales and they got super competitive and it was honestly nasty. I really think that if Forces could be a game to represent the change of their relationship in house by having a game full of compromises and the lot, it'd warm my many time a defeated fangirl heart. 

Like, that's my hope. Compromise. Something new out of something old that hasn't been used yet in the games. 

It's both a risk and a good business move as well as just being a good move period. 

But hey, that's optimism speaking. I'm not looking for Forces to be the best Sonic ever. I just want a good Sonic game and now that I realize that the Boost formula game is set up with an Arcade Game twitch reflex kind of set up I think I get and appreciate why they've used the formula and don't mind if it's a lot less deep than the open world Sonic Utopia level Sonic game that I personally want. 

Eh~

[Tailikku]

12 hours ago, Hard-Boiled Wisp said:

Double fucking surprised if we ever EVER get the Freedom Fighters showing up in a mainline Sonic game.

Sonic  Spinball would like a word with you.

[speedfreak]

Spinball was a spinoff.

[Pawn]

You're reading way too far into this when involving media outside of the games. For one; this:

is based on:

to begin with. More importantly though, Metal already glowed red when powering up in CD:

 

[Blue Wisp]

3 hours ago, Tailikku said:

Sonic  Spinball would like a word with you.

A spinoff game from 1993 set in the universe of the (at the time) currently-running saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon featuring, surprise, characters from the (at the time) currently-running saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon?

Also

Quote

mainline Sonic game

Quote

mainline Sonic game

 

[Betz]

Ill admit, the theory is cool. But as others have said, Sega and Sonic Team just dont care about the other incarnations of sonic that much to do this. 

While I do believe that infinite has been around for some time and we just havent known it, unless Sega has had this story in mind for 20 year, its just coincidences.