One True Blue Canon (the "Everything Happened" theory)

[Big Panda]

Again, Underground was established as being a literal alternate reality from Archie Sonic. Within the literal universe (Sonic Super Special #10). Sonic X and Sonic Boom too.

[UnknownByME]

10 hours ago, Moose the Cat said:

As a kid, I was always annoyed by how much the Archie/SatAM/AoSTH/etc never lined up with the games. What Ian Flynn eventually did post-SGW was what I (and most kids I think) wanted from the comics... for it to be an expanded universe of the Sonic we already knew and recognized.

That's kinda how I felt when I was younger, and I preferred watching Sonic X, the OVA, Nazo Unleashed, and some of the comics, as It felt more in line with the game Sonic I knew

[___-_]

On 4/5/2020 at 6:40 AM, Plasme said:

People talk about the canon being unclear as if it's a modern thing, but I don't think Sonic Team ever cared about canon, with a few exceptions.

I'm pretty late to the party, but I actually feel that Sonic Team had in fact always cared about their canon and continuity (at least initially until Sonic Heroes came along), and I feel that the driving force for that was to help them differentiate from other platformers of that era when story telling was a mere after thought.... buuuut leh me ehsplayn myself real quick, shall we?

Now first and foremost, I believe we U.S. residing individuals simply fell into a case of poor localization early on, with cases such as seemingly minute but actually important details just getting lost in translation with an extreme case of over simplification on top of Sega of Japan / America wanting to do their own thing in portraying the characters. If you go by the Japanese manuals for Sonic 1 - 3, they are CLEARLY way more in depth in just character bios alone, and especially on the story front. I recall in Sonic 2's Japanese manual, there's actually spoken dialogue between Sonic and Tails before they set off for a mysterious island they flew off to where the whole game takes place (known as West Side Island aka "The Illusionary island", the homeland for the 7 chaos emeralds.... you know, the type of shit the American manuals don't tell you about haha.) Going by this, that cut Hidden Palace Zone in Sonic  2 suddenly makes more sense.

...But that's just on the manual front. On the actual in-game front, I just wanted to address some things, like Sonic 1 and 2's continuity. You note that it doesn't make sense how Sonic lost the Chaos Emeralds starting off in Sonic 2, but it's clearly shown in Sonic 1 that if you get all the them by the end of the game, they're shown to power up South Island with life and greenery before they scatter off Dragon Ball style with Sonic not knowing wtf just happened (and they scatter off to West side island, which is mentioned in Sonic 2). For your case on how Sonic 3 was handled, that's just a case of Sonic Team actually having the necessary power to having their ideas more realized. If Sonic 1 came out in 1994, similar story telling tricks would've been done.

As far as the Adventure games goes, particularly for your point about Sonic Adventure 2, I strongly disagree. I think it actually strongly connects with Adventure 1 and even the older games just fine, but it's just not so overtly in your face about it (which I personally feel is a really smart call). You've mentioned the Tails / Station Square point so you saved that one for me, but that's just one of the more direct call backs. Also consider the fact that Tails is much more independent in Adv 2, which ties to his character development from Adv 1 where he's always around Sonic to fight his battles in that game, but not only that, Tails still has the blue Tornado 2 that was adjusted even further which was introduced in the later half of Adv 1.

A stronger point I'd add for Adv 2 would be the Biolizard itself along with the Space Colony Ark. That lizard is strongly hinted at being the recreation of Perfect Chaos. You even see and fight beta Chaos subjects throughout the Space Colony ark levels. The fact that the Biolizard is a lizard, immortal and even screams exactly like Chaos, the fact it surrounds itself in water like Chaos does with the realization that the later ark levels become more under water based shows this is a call back to Adv 1's Perfect Chaos. Then there's the Emerald shrine that's in the core that the Biolizard protects at all costs (just like how Chaos did when Tikal was alive in Adv 1) that only Gerald Robotnik could've seen if he went to Angel Island himself, which leads to the fact that because the Biolizard is the way it is, Gerald must've seen the giant Perfect Chaos mural from Sonic Adventure 1's Lost World level where he based his inspirations from. These are some of the more "not so in your face" call backs I'm talking about presented in Adv 2. That's also a case of telling a story through gameplay, and we know they're not reaches because you can tell these were clues the developers wanted the players to figure out in solving what is really going on behind the Space Colony Ark scenes.  

I don't want to beat you over the head with this since this is already too long haha, but yea, that's just how I feel on the matter. What the team does these days... yea they truly just come up with whatever that gets the ball rolling for the project at hand... with it all being forgotten by the next game. But I strongly believe that before all this came to be for the franchise, Sonic team always had a clearer vision on what Sonic was, with the classic games pretty much being led up to what Sonic Adventure 1 eventually told (which was an origin story for the emeralds and a refocusing on what Sonic and the rests' true character portrayals are), because there was always an underlying story about an island, a group of ancients and them mysteriously vanishing by a god prior to Sonic Adventure 1 if you read the japanese manuals.

[Plasme]

23 hours ago, StriCNYN3 said:

I'm pretty late to the party, but I actually feel that Sonic Team had in fact always cared about their canon and continuity (at least initially until Sonic Heroes came along), and I feel that the driving force for that was to help them differentiate from other platformers of that era when story telling was a mere after thought.... buuuut leh me ehsplayn myself real quick, shall we?

Now first and foremost, I believe we U.S. residing individuals simply fell into a case of poor localization early on, with cases such as seemingly minute but actually important details just getting lost in translation with an extreme case of over simplification on top of Sega of Japan / America wanting to do their own thing in portraying the characters. If you go by the Japanese manuals for Sonic 1 - 3, they are CLEARLY way more in depth in just character bios alone, and especially on the story front. I recall in Sonic 2's Japanese manual, there's actually spoken dialogue between Sonic and Tails before they set off for a mysterious island they flew off to where the whole game takes place (known as West Side Island aka "The Illusionary island", the homeland for the 7 chaos emeralds.... you know, the type of shit the American manuals don't tell you about haha.) Going by this, that cut Hidden Palace Zone in Sonic  2 suddenly makes more sense.

...But that's just on the manual front. On the actual in-game front, I just wanted to address some things, like Sonic 1 and 2's continuity. You note that it doesn't make sense how Sonic lost the Chaos Emeralds starting off in Sonic 2, but it's clearly shown in Sonic 1 that if you get all the them by the end of the game, they're shown to power up South Island with life and greenery before they scatter off Dragon Ball style with Sonic not knowing wtf just happened (and they scatter off to West side island, which is mentioned in Sonic 2). For your case on how Sonic 3 was handled, that's just a case of Sonic Team actually having the necessary power to having their ideas more realized. If Sonic 1 came out in 1994, similar story telling tricks would've been done.

As far as the Adventure games goes, particularly for your point about Sonic Adventure 2, I strongly disagree. I think it actually strongly connects with Adventure 1 and even the older games just fine, but it's just not so overtly in your face about it (which I personally feel is a really smart call). You've mentioned the Tails / Station Square point so you saved that one for me, but that's just one of the more direct call backs. Also consider the fact that Tails is much more independent in Adv 2, which ties to his character development from Adv 1 where he's always around Sonic to fight his battles in that game, but not only that, Tails still has the blue Tornado 2 that was adjusted even further which was introduced in the later half of Adv 1.

A stronger point I'd add for Adv 2 would be the Biolizard itself along with the Space Colony Ark. That lizard is strongly hinted at being the recreation of Perfect Chaos. You even see and fight beta Chaos subjects throughout the Space Colony ark levels. The fact that the Biolizard is a lizard, immortal and even screams exactly like Chaos, the fact it surrounds itself in water like Chaos does with the realization that the later ark levels become more under water based shows this is a call back to Adv 1's Perfect Chaos. Then there's the Emerald shrine that's in the core that the Biolizard protects at all costs (just like how Chaos did when Tikal was alive in Adv 1) that only Gerald Robotnik could've seen if he went to Angel Island himself, which leads to the fact that because the Biolizard is the way it is, Gerald must've seen the giant Perfect Chaos mural from Sonic Adventure 1's Lost World level where he based his inspirations from. These are some of the more "not so in your face" call backs I'm talking about presented in Adv 2. That's also a case of telling a story through gameplay, and we know they're not reaches because you can tell these were clues the developers wanted the players to figure out in solving what is really going on behind the Space Colony Ark scenes.  

I don't want to beat you over the head with this since this is already too long haha, but yea, that's just how I feel on the matter. What the team does these days... yea they truly just come up with whatever that gets the ball rolling for the project at hand... with it all being forgotten by the next game. But I strongly believe that before all this came to be for the franchise, Sonic team always had a clearer vision on what Sonic was, with the classic games pretty much being led up to what Sonic Adventure 1 eventually told (which was an origin story for the emeralds and a refocusing on what Sonic and the rests' true character portrayals are), because there was always an underlying story about an island, a group of ancients and them mysteriously vanishing by a god prior to Sonic Adventure 1 if you read the japanese manuals.

Sorry, I didn't get round to reading this and might respond one day, but I want to say that this was a really good post. Made me thing about SA2 in a different way.

[Moose the Cat]

On 4/6/2020 at 7:15 AM, Mobius_Historian said:

Um, yes Underground and SATAM could (loosely) fit together. Sonic's parents weren't in SATAM at all. Uncle Chuck was in both, he was roboticized in both, Sonic makes references to other 'freedom fighters' in underground spread all over the planet. And a statue of King Acorn even showed up in underground. You could easily fit underground before the events of SATAM, then at Some point Sonic left his siblings to join up with princess sally and the Knothole freedom fighter group.  King Acorn and Queen Aleena rule two separate kingdoms on Mobius, and during the events of the episode 'blast to the past' Sonic and uncle chuck were visiting King Acorn's capital (North Mobitropolis), when Warlord Julian took over. Heck, the great war in SATAM might have been between North Mobius (King Acorn) and South Mobius (Queen Aleena's kingdom) Aleena's kingdom fell first, she put her children in hiding, then Acorn kingdom fell later, when Sonic was a toddler and living with uncle chuck.

I've figured out several ways to fit those two together. Heck, I once came up with a theory to fit ALL of the cartoons thus far together loosely. Fitting every form of media together however... that's a bit harder, lol.

Nice work!

I also thought of another way to tie them together -- Sonic's Archie dad (Jules?) had a marriage before he met his Archie mom (Bernie?). Knuckles mom remarried in the Archie-verse, so it's not like "divorce" is unheard of in this universe. Underground only focuses on Queen Aleena, and I don't think there's a mention of the father (I think?).

So it's possible you could say Manic and Sonia are Sonic's step-siblings... and once Sonic helped them restore that kingdom (assuming that was the end of the show?), he learns that Queen Aleena is his step-mom, then goes on to pursue Robotnik's next schemes and meets Tails and the Knothole gang. 

Although Manic & Sonia never seen again, we can assume that their kingdom is where other Hedgehogs live, ones who aren't bio-engineered (Shadow) or from the future (Silver) or from a little orbiting planet (Amy).  Sonic is a drifter, so it makes sense he wouldn't spend a lot of time with his distant relatives after this.  And we can say that the Underground adventures did have an impact on Sonic's heart -- since he names his kids after them in the 25YL Archie stories! 

 

[Moose the Cat]

On 4/6/2020 at 9:09 AM, Big Panda said:

Again, Underground was established as being a literal alternate reality from Archie Sonic. Within the literal universe (Sonic Super Special #10). Sonic X and Sonic Boom too.

Again, this thread is about trying to find ways to connect these different universes into one larger tapestry with a bit of squinting/squeezing/fudging/headcanoning. There are obviously a bunch of contradictions, as stated in the OP and it's easy to find ways in which they don't line up. 

You're more than welcome to join the fun, Big Panda, but please try to keep things additive and build off of what's possible, rather than focusing on how it's not. Your posts are coming off a little bit like heckling, and I'm sure that is not your intent! This goes for everyone, not just you specifically, but this is your third post in the thread disagreeing with the overall premise — which is fine to disagree, it's noted, but it's also kind of a dead end, conversationally.

...

As for how to resolve SSS #10 and other instances of different versions of Sonic meeting each other...

It's basically the Sonic Generations fix. The multiverse is infinitely branching and expanding. It's like the butterfly effect theory. Each individual Sonic adventure is accessible as it's own pocket dimension through time/space travel. But, also, there is One True Sonic who actually did live through all of these experiences. Any breaks in the time/space continuum could be attributed to... the Time Eater, or Eggman's messing with the Phantom Ruby / Time Stones, or the Super Genesis Wave, or any number of other magical explanations.

I hope this helps! 

On 4/6/2020 at 11:12 AM, StriCNYN3 said:

I'm pretty late to the party, but I actually feel that Sonic Team had in fact always cared about their canon and continuity (at least initially until Sonic Heroes came along), and I feel that the driving force for that was to help them differentiate from other platformers of that era when story telling was a mere after thought.... buuuut leh me ehsplayn myself real quick, shall we?

I'd also like to add that, even beyond Sonic Team, this franchise has had a lot of creative writers who very much did care about the lore.... and a lot of really cool stuff has come out of these efforts!

It's just up to us to appreciate them!  And really, once you start looking at everything, there are actually far fewer contradictions than there are commonalities.

...

Does anyone know how Ian Flynn reconciled the Echidna lore -- the Penders stuff with the Adventure stuff? I would have to assume he found a creative way to make both work together, but unfortunately, it's not possible to access the Archie books anymore unless you already own them.

 

[Big Panda]

My apologies. But the concept you’re going for here just feels so needlessly convoluted. It really is just a whole lot easier and much less complicated to view the Sonic canons as a multiverse with alternate dimensions that aren’t always connected.

The thing is, you’re going to have to go into a lot more detail to make your case clearer. Though I appreciate that’s an impossible feet since you’ve shown yourself to not be familiar with the ins and outs of every Sonic canon.

..........

Well, for the sake of actually contributing to the discussion:

1 hour ago, Moose the Cat said:

Does anyone know how Ian Flynn reconciled the Echidna lore -- the Penders stuff with the Adventure stuff? I would have to assume he found a creative way to make both work together, but unfortunately, it's not possible to access the Archie books anymore unless you already own them.

(Ian didn’t have a hand in bringing in the Adventure stuff, but I digress) I’ll just let their entry in the encyclopedia do the talking:

 

On another note, there is a whole ton of continuities you haven’t covered, most notably Sonic the Comic.

[Moose the Cat]

29 minutes ago, Big Panda said:

Well, for the sake of actually contributing to the discussion:

(Ian didn’t have a hand in bringing in the Adventure stuff, but I digress) I’ll just let their entry in the encyclopedia do the talking:

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

Awesome, thanks for sharing. I was trying to find a copy of this recently and was sad to discover it's out of print and unavailable on digital. That's a nice bridge between the Penders Echidnas and the Sonic Team Echidnas and makes sense! I love when they find ways to connect these together so that both can co-exist, like when Adventure retconned Eggman to being Robotnik's nickname. 

You're right that One Canon is more difficult than just accepting there's multiple different canons, but... well, I've already made my case in this thread for why I think it's worthwhile, so I won't repeat myself again here.  But I will say again that the different canons are much more alike than they are different. The basic personalties and motivations are very consistent. 

Also, your advanced knowledge of the different stories can be very helpful here! If you want to team up, I'd be happy to help find headcanon explanations for various discrepancies. 

The guideline I tend to follow is pretty simple, though they are of course subjective.

—Comparing it to Star Wars, the Sonic games are the Episodes, the proper films. Those are our big building blocks. The comics, cartoons, and movies are the extended universe, and must contort around the games. 

—If there are no direct contradictions in lore/setting, then we can assume they happened at different times. (For example, the OVA's version of Land of the Sky and Land of Darkness doesn't exactly line-up with Archie/SatAM, but it also doesn't directly contradict it. We can assume that Knothole exists somewhere else, and the Robotropolis of the OVA is the same Robotropolis of SatAM/Archie. Either way, we know there is a "free" land and then there is the empire Robotnik has built in the "dark" lands.)

—If there is a light contradiction, the stronger story wins out. (For example, Mobius is simply a better name than Sonic's World, and the lore from Karl Bollers in the Archieverse that it's a future post-apocalyptic Earth is more interesting than the world having almost no backstory at all). 

—When there is a direct contradiction, we look for way to bridge the gap. For example, where is Station Square? Is it an underground ancient city of the humans (Archie) or a normal human city on Earth (Sonic X) or is it a normal human city on Mobius (as the game itself seemed to imply at the time, making no mention of traveling to another dimension)? Since Sonic X provides the clearest explanation, we can use that as our guide post, and assume that the Archie-version of "traveling underground" was actually "traveling to another dimension." 

 

EDIT — Just saw your edit about Sonic the Comic.... yeah I think I mentioned this in the OP, unless I edited it out, but I have almost no knowledge of Sonic the Comic, so someone else will need to help on this one (or my above offer stands if you want to help work through it). I've previously seen elsewhere on the internet attempts to reconcile Archie/STC and I'm sure there are some common threads that could be tied together. 

This is pretty much the only knotty area -- that dry period between Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic Adventure, when there wasn't much official SEGA lore to build around. Everything from SA onward is pretty easy to track.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Moose the Cat

[Moose the Cat]

I'm going to begin fleshing out each section one at a time with more detail. Feel free to point out anything missing and/or pitch other ideas on how to connect. 

PROLOGUE

• Headcanon: Sonic the Hedgehog is born to Jules and Bernadette on a small island somewhere on Mobius.
• Headcanon: Sonic is left in the care of Longclaw the Owl on South Island, while Jules & Bernadette take a short trip to Mobotropolis to visit Jules' brother Charles. Sonic's parents don't return, and Longclaw raises the child under her protection. 

THE BEGINNING

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2020 movie — Baby Sonic is forced to flee to Earth via warp ring when his speed attracts the attention of a power-hungry tribe of echidnas.  Sonic grows up in Green Hills, Montana, in hiding and without any friends. His personality is formed through pop culture, which is how he develops "an attitude." He befriends Tom Wachowski and his family. He attracts the attention of Dr. Ivo Robotnik, who Sonic nicknames "Eggman." After battling Robotnik, Sonic and Tom use a warp ring to banish him to a distant planet. Though Sonic's goal was to warp himself back to his homeworld, he prefers to have friends instead, and stays with Tom and his wife Maddie on Earth. 
• Headcanon: Sonic learns that his homeworld is now under attack by Robotnik. Sonic uses a warp ring to return to Mobius and Longclaw's home on South Island. 
• Sonic 1 (8/16-bit) — Dr. Robotnik has, in seemingly no time at all, established a factory base and a fleet of badniks to on South Island, using baby mobians to power the machines. Perhaps due to his interdimensional space travels, Eggman has either lost his mind, or gained an extra 100 points in IQ, depending on your perspective. He uses his machines to search for the legendary Chaos Emerald that supposedly reside within South Island. Sonic foils his plans by defeating Robotnik's machines and gathering the gemstones before he can. Shortly after being collected, the Emeralds scatter away like repelling magnets.

THE FIRST FRIENDS

• SegaSonic — Robotnik successfully captures and imprisons Sonic on his new island base, along with Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Making fast friends, the three escape the prison and confront Eggman in his tower. Robotnik tries to blow up the island to rid himself of Sonic, but Sonic and his new pals escape and Robotnik is left stranded in the ocean. 
• Headcanon: Mighty and Ray warn Sonic to stay away from the capital city, where Robotnik seems to have gathered power in a coup. Unclear of how Eggman could've accomplished this (and so fast), Sonic heads into the heart of danger toward Robotropolis. Along the way, he meets a pair of hedgehogs named Manic and Sonia who claim to be Sonic's siblings. Based on all their similarities, including names, Sonic has no reason not to believe this.
• Sonic Underground — Sonic learns that their mother is Queen Aleena, who ruled Mobotropolis before Robotnik took over. She abandoned her children because of a prophecy she received from the Oracle of Delphius, and now the three Hedgehogs must find her to restore the kingdom to defeat Robotnik. Sonic also meets his Uncle Chuck, who is roboticized but retains his real personality.
• Headcanon: After rescuing Aleena, it's revealed that the prophecy was a lie. The Oracle of Delphius is, in fact, Ixis Naugus, and was manipulating these events for reasons unclear to Sonic. Furthermore, Aleena was never queen — she was just led to believe so by Ixis's spell, which also impacted others' perception of her. Once Aleena is safe, Uncle Chuck reveals that she is his wife, and Manic and Sonia are his children, and actually Sonic's cousins. Chuck first began developing the roboticizer to help Aleena when she first became ill, but eventually turned toward The Oracle for help. Both decisions obviously backfired. Sonic asks Uncle Chuck if his parents are still alive, and Chuck tells him they didn't survive Robotnik's takeover. Sonic wants to give Robotnik payback, and Chuck tells him where to find Knothole.
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog — Sonic meets Miles Prower on Westside Island and gives him the nickname "Tails." They quickly become a dynamic duo. Sonic & Tails regularly embarrass Robotnik's badniks, especially Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts. 
• Headcanon: Sonic brings Tails to Knothole as a way to find a permanent home for the orphan, which is why Tails takes to calling Sally his "aunt." Before long, Sonic will realize Tails is his closest friend and feels like a true brother, moreso than even his time with Manic. 
• Sonic SatAM / Archie Sonic (pre-Endgame) —  Sonic, Tails, and Uncle Chuck settle in Knothole. Uncle Chuck opens a chili dog stand as a way to try to show some normalcy to the kids and residents away from Robotropolis. Sonic & Tails join the Freedom Fighters: Princess Sally Acorn, Antoine D'Coolette, and Rotor the Walrus. Chuck uses his roboticizer to help save Bunnie Rabbit's life from an injury, showing how the device was originally intended to be used; her new cybernetic limbs are a big advantage in the fight against Robotnik. We learn that the real ruler of Robotroplis was King Acorn, Sally's father, who has been banished to an alternate dimension. Sonic's had some practice and he's ready for the challenge.
• Headcanon: Knothole and other "free lands" like South Island and elsewhere are part of the "Land of the Sky" and Robotropolis/the ruins of old earth are in the "Land of Darkness" like the OVA. (This explains why SatAM looks much darker than AoSTH). 
• Headcanon: Robotnik was able to overthrow Mobotropolis and establish himself as a despot via time travel with the Phantom Ruby. More on the logistics of that in a bit. 
• Headcanon: Oh, and Sonic sounds like Urkel because he's... basically going through puberty in this time period. It's an awkward time and he's kind of chubby and not as cool as he thinks he is. Sonic is 12 years old during the events of the 2020 Movie. By the end of SatAM, Sonic is 15. 

Next up: S23K. 

[Big Panda]

One correction: the animals Robotnik uses for his badniks are not “baby mobians”. Archie Sonic established them as being “mobini”, which are basically unevolved mobians that are closer to real world animals.

You may, really, also want to get caught up with the basics of StC before going any further...

[Sonic Fan J]

Kintobor really does throw a complete wrench into this doesn't he. And that isn't even beginning to touch on how the Metallix will mess things up, no less Super Sonic. And I know next to nothing else about Fleetway Sonic and already know it isn't really compatible with anything from the rest of the franchise. But yeah, if the idea is to blend everything together you're going to have to find a way to harmonize the StC origin for Sonic and Eggman with everything. And at this point that might require a complete rewrite because of how different it is.

[Big Panda]

Also the 1992 manga where Sonic is the alter ego of a hedgehog kid who has his own set of parents.

[Moose the Cat]

2 hours ago, Sonic Fan J said:

Kintobor really does throw a complete wrench into this doesn't he. And that isn't even beginning to touch on how the Metallix will mess things up, no less Super Sonic. And I know next to nothing else about Fleetway Sonic and already know it isn't really compatible with anything from the rest of the franchise. But yeah, if the idea is to blend everything together you're going to have to find a way to harmonize the StC origin for Sonic and Eggman with everything. And at this point that might require a complete rewrite because of how different it is.

 

54 minutes ago, Big Panda said:

Also the 1992 manga where Sonic is the alter ego of a hedgehog kid who has his own set of parents.

Those early bible origin stories — including Kintobor; Sonic born behind a burger joint in Nebraska; everything being the story of the widow of a jet pilot — are best fit in as being legends. 

There's a fair amount of "what if/bad dream" Sonic stories, and that's where these would fit best.

To the degree that "Kintobor" has any relevance in the "present day" Fleetway stories, the explanation there could be the same I'm suggesting for the Archie back story — Eggman time traveled. 

I like the idea that "Kintobor" might be an alias Robotnik would use as a kind of thinly veiled disguise (his version of "El Barto"), rather than literally being his original name. 

[Big Panda]

1 hour ago, Moose the Cat said:

To the degree that "Kintobor" has any relevance in the "present day" Fleetway stories, the explanation there could be the same I'm suggesting for the Archie back story — Eggman time traveled. 

The problem is Kintobor is still very much relevant throughout StC’s run, and the origin comes up enough times and in a way where it couldn’t possibly be thought of as a “legend”.

Robotnik actually turns back into Kintobor on at least one occasion, there’s the Freedom Fighters Kintobor computer, which is a kind of “digital copy” of Kintobor’s consciousness, and the Brotherhood of Metallix saga involves the titular villains altering history so Kintobor never became Robotnik and, in the end, Sonic has to directly cause the accident that made Kintobor change in order to revert the timeline.

[Moose the Cat]

37 minutes ago, Big Panda said:

The problem is Kintobor is still very much relevant throughout StC’s run, and the origin comes up enough times and in a way where it couldn’t possibly be thought of as a “legend”.

Robotnik actually turns back into Kintobor on at least one occasion, there’s the Freedom Fighters Kintobor computer, which is a kind of “digital copy” of Kintobor’s consciousness, and the Brotherhood of Metallix saga involves the titular villains altering history so Kintobor never became Robotnik and, in the end, Sonic has to directly cause the accident that made Kintobor change in order to revert the timeline.

I see. Well, since time travel is already incorporated into the story, then the other headcanon suggestion I mentioned above can work here too, no? Eggman traveled into the past to set up his Robotropolis / Eggman Empire, and for some manipulative reason, he disguised himself as Kintobor, then became lost in the role until he snapped out of it and continued on with his evil mission (a la "Mr. Tinker" in IDW).

[Big Panda]

Robotnik doesn’t just change personality though, he undergoes a full physical change because of negative chaos energy.

[Lord-Dreamerz]

It is absurd to me when certain fans try to force the idea that Classic Sonic is "child Sonic" and that Boom Sonic is "Adult Sonic" ... do some people not understand what a art style is? All 3 versions of Sonic are roughly the exact same age in canon, AKA classic Sonic is also 15... they are simply different art styles/designs for the same character. I do not like the idea of trying to force them into a single timeline canon! it just doesn't work and never was appealing. I also think many fans misunderstood Sonic Generations when they try to use it as a argument for why they think Classic Sonic is a kid Sonic... however the game never actually called him younger or a kid, it simply said it was Sonic from the past, which probably meant it was literally Sonic from the 90s. I still think it was merely meta humor that many fans refused to view it that way. I mean come on, just look at the other characters across the 2 styles... how do you explain classic Eggman being shorter then modern Eggman? it is a art style difference and nothing more I say.

PS: I am aware the OP is more worried about connecting the series together and not the ages of the characters. But I still don't see the appeal or agree with trying to force all versions of the Sonic series into a single canon, especially not Sonic Boom which is a alternate universe by SEGA's own statements.

[Moose the Cat]

23 minutes ago, Lord-Dreamerz said:

It is absurd to me when certain fans try to force the idea that Classic Sonic is "child Sonic" and that Boom Sonic is "Adult Sonic" ... do some people not understand what a art style is? All 3 versions of Sonic are roughly the exact same age in canon, AKA classic Sonic is also 15... they are simply different art styles/designs for the same character. I do not like the idea of trying to force them into a single timeline canon! it just doesn't work and never was appealing. I also think many fans misunderstood Sonic Generations when they try to use it as a argument for why they think Classic Sonic is a kid Sonic... however the game never actually called him younger or a kid, it simply said it was Sonic from the past, which probably meant it was literally Sonic from the 90s. I still think it was merely meta humor that many fans refused to view it that way. I mean come on, just look at the other characters across the 2 styles... how do you explain classic Eggman being shorter then modern Eggman? it is a art style difference and nothing more I say.

PS: I am aware the OP is more worried about connecting the series together and not the ages of the characters. But I still don't see the appeal or agree with trying to force all versions of the Sonic series into a single canon, especially not Sonic Boom which is a alternate universe by SEGA's own statements.

The bolded answers your post-script! They're all the same character. The differences between the alternate universes are minimal in comparison to the similarities. Why not just accept that they are all Sonic? That's my thought on it.

As for age, it's like Batman as I mentioned in the OP... every Batman story has the character in his early 30s, unless stated otherwise; it's only once you assign a continuity to all of the stories that earlier stories must be in the past and therefore younger.

In general, I see the point of "one canon" as being more accepting that all of Sonic's adventures are valid; they all "happened" and they all "count." To what end, you might ask? There is no end!! It's all journey!!

[Lord-Dreamerz]

11 minutes ago, Moose the Cat said:

In general, I see the point of "one canon" as being more accepting that all of Sonic's adventures are valid; they all "happened" and they all "count." To what end, you might ask? There is no end!! It's all journey!!

They are all canon... within themselves, not together as one story. Forcing them into one story-line is fanfic level nonsense and doesn't change the real franchise itself. I understand many fans love the idea of a single canon, I too like that idea. but it is impossible with what currently exists. And really it isn't needed.

[Moose the Cat]

4 minutes ago, Lord-Dreamerz said:

They are all canon... within themselves, not together as one story. Forcing them into one story-line is fanfic level nonsense and doesn't change the real franchise itself. I understand many fans love the idea of a single canon, I too like that idea. but it is impossible with what currently exists. And really it isn't needed.

It's not impossible or unneeded, but thanks for sharing your opinion. Noted! 

[Moose the Cat]

Continuing on! Updated a few things from the last post (like Mobini) and added in a results summary below each section. For now I've taken to reformatting the subheads as different "Quest"s, though I still don't think that's quite the right wording or framing. Maybe "Game" or "Series" but that's confusing because there would be multiple games and series within that. Like if this were a series of novels or films instead of a bunch of different media, each Quest would be one novel or film, like the Harry Potter series for example, with the games/cartoons forming the contents within. 

Is this all a huge waste of time?

My friends, if we start asking those kinds of questions on a message board based around a mascot character explicitly intended for children, we may never recover. This is very obviously a gigantic waste of time. But we can all waste our time however we want.

So enjoy the Phantom Ruby ride through the x-treme Adventures of Sonic Mania Forces Generations Heroes Underground Unleashed Adventure 2: Battle X 3D Blast & Knuckles the Fighters CD, written by creators from Sega, Sonic Team, Dimps, DiC, Archie Comics, IDW, the OVA, Paramount, and more. 

PROLOGUE — THE BEGINNING

• Headcanon: A blue Hedgehog is born to Jules & Bernadette on a small island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean many thousands of years in the future from the 21st century. The planet formerly known as Earth is now known as Mobius, and human beings are no longer the only intelligent species. The talking life forms that look like cartoon animals are collectively known as Mobians, though within that classification there are many different races, including Hedgehogs and also many others. 
• Headcanon: The upcoming travels between Earth and Mobius are actually a journey through time, not space, unbeknownst to the characters.
• Headcanon: Jules & Bernie leave their only son in the care of their neighbor, Longclaw the Owl, while the Hedgehogs travel to the mainland city of Mobotropolis where Jules' brother Charles lives. When the Hedgehogs never return, and Longclaw raises the child under her protection on South Island. 
• Headcanon: Longclaw lives in the same community as Old Man Owl. Birds and owls are the most populous species on South Island, although other species of Mobians and Mobini (unevolved animals) live there, too. 
• Headcanon: Sonic is not the name he was assigned at birth. When Jules & Bernie drop him off with Longclaw, they only refer to him as "our son" before they must depart. The name was born on the day that this Hedgehog took his first steps, which turned into a jog, then a sprint, and a run so energetic that he broke the sound barrier. This is also what made Old Man Owl lose his hearing! It's unknown who first called him "Sonic" — but once Sonic heard this name, he instinctively knew it was his. When he told Longclaw that was his name with some of his first words, the request stuck and Sonic the Hedgehog came into existence.
• Headcanon: As a toddler with Longclaw, Baby Sonic loves to run and chase Flickies and other birds. Without any other Hedgehogs around, Baby Sonic comes to think of himself almost as a bird, envying their freedom and speed, and develops a deep affection for both birds and flying.

Major Ongoing Addition:

1. The fastest thing alive, the blue blur, the legendary hero Sonic the Hedgehog is born.

QUEST I — THE TWO WORLDS

• Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 movie) — Baby Sonic is forced to flee to Earth via warp ring when his unusually high speed attracts the attention of a power-hungry tribe of echidnas.  Sonic grows up in Green Hills, Montana, in hiding and without any friends. His personality is formed through pop culture, which is how he develops "an attitude." He befriends Tom Wachowski and his family. He attracts the attention of Dr. Ivo Robotnik, who Sonic nicknames "Eggman." After battling Robotnik, Sonic and Tom use a warp ring to banish him to a distant planet. Though Sonic's goal was to warp himself back to his homeworld, he prefers to have friends instead, and stays with Tom and his wife Maddie on Earth. 
• Headcanon: Sonic learns that his homeworld is now under attack by Robotnik. Sonic uses a Warp Ring to return to Mobius and Longclaw's home on South Island. 
• Headcanon: Power Rings are by-products of the Warp Rings. If you see Power Rings in the world, it usually means you're not far from a Warp Ring. Power Rings provide the user with additional power in terms of vitality. Both Sonic and Eggman quickly learns to follow the rings when they're searching for Emeralds. Eggman uses Power Rings to cheat the science in many of his creations, which is partly why they often fall apart so easily.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 game) — Dr. Robotnik has, in seemingly no time at all, established a factory base and a fleet of badniks to on South Island, using baby animals (Mobini) to power the machines. Perhaps due to his interdimensional space travels, Eggman has either lost his mind, or gained an extra 100 points in IQ, depending on your perspective. He uses his machines to search for the legendary Chaos Emerald that supposedly reside within South Island. Sonic foils his plans by defeating Robotnik's machines and gathering the gemstones before he can. Shortly after being collected, the Emeralds scatter away like repelling magnets.

Major Ongoing Additions:

1. Sonic gains an arch-nemesis in Dr. "Eggman" Robotnik who first demonstrates his ambition for ultimate power and a willingness to enslave animals to power his Badniks. 

2. Sonic gains the ability to travel through dimensions with Warp Rings, usually to a pocket dimension where the powerful, mysterious Chaos Emeralds tend to hide. Sonic learns to power up with Power Rings.

3. Sonic learns to value friendship more than anything after a literally alienated childhood.

QUEST II — FRIENDS FROM HOME

• SegaSonic the Hedgehog — Robotnik successfully captures and imprisons Sonic on his new island base, along with Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Making fast friends, the three escape the prison and confront Eggman in his tower. Robotnik tries to blow up the island to rid himself of Sonic, but Sonic and his new pals escape and Robotnik is left stranded in the ocean. 
• Headcanon: Mighty and Ray warn Sonic to stay away from the capital city, where Robotnik seems to have gathered power in a coup. Unclear of how Eggman could've accomplished this (and so fast), Sonic heads into the heart of danger toward Robotropolis. Along the way, he meets a pair of hedgehogs named Manic and Sonia who claim to be Sonic's siblings. Based on all their similarities, including names, Sonic has no reason not to believe this.
• Sonic Underground — Sonic learns that their mother is Queen Aleena, who ruled Mobotropolis before Robotnik took over. She abandoned her children because of a prophecy she received from the Oracle of Delphius, and now the three Hedgehogs must find her to restore the kingdom to defeat Robotnik. Sonic also meets his Uncle Chuck, who is roboticized but retains his real personality.
• Headcanon: After rescuing Aleena, it's revealed that the prophecy was a lie. The Oracle of Delphius is, in fact, Ixis Naugus, and was manipulating these events for reasons unclear to Sonic. Furthermore, Aleena was never queen — she was just led to believe so by Ixis's spell, which also impacted others' perception of her. Once Aleena is safe, Uncle Chuck reveals that she is his wife, and Manic and Sonia are his children, and actually Sonic's cousins. Chuck first began developing the roboticizer to help Aleena when she first became ill, but eventually turned toward The Oracle for help. Both decisions obviously backfired. Sonic asks Uncle Chuck if his parents are still alive, and Chuck tells him they didn't survive Robotnik's takeover. Sonic wants to give Robotnik payback, and Chuck tells him where to find Knothole.
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog — Sonic meets Miles Prower on Westside Island and gives him the nickname "Tails." They quickly become a dynamic duo. Sonic & Tails regularly embarrass Robotnik's badniks, especially Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts. 
• Headcanon: Sonic brings Tails to Knothole as a way to find a permanent home for the orphan, which is why Tails takes to calling Sally his "aunt." Before long, Sonic will realize Tails is his closest friend and feels like a true brother, moreso than even his time with Manic. 
• Sonic the Hedgehog (1993 series; SatAM) / Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics, pre-Endgame) —  Sonic, Tails, and Uncle Chuck settle in Knothole. Uncle Chuck opens a chili dog stand as a way to try to show some normalcy to the kids and residents away from Robotropolis. Sonic & Tails join the Freedom Fighters: Princess Sally Acorn, Antoine D'Coolette, and Rotor the Walrus. Chuck uses his roboticizer to help save Bunnie Rabbit's life from an injury, showing how the device was originally intended to be used; her new cybernetic limbs are a big advantage in the fight against Robotnik. We learn that the real ruler of Robotroplis was King Acorn, Sally's father, who has been banished to an alternate dimension. Sonic's had some practice and he's ready for the challenge. Sonic becomes temporarily fixated with phrases like "Juicin'!" and "Way past cool!".
• Headcanon: Knothole and other "free lands" like South Island and elsewhere are part of the "Land of the Sky" and Robotropolis/the ruins of old earth are in the "Land of Darkness" like the OVA. (This explains why SatAM looks much darker than AoSTH). 
• Headcanon: Robotnik was able to overthrow Mobotropolis from Metropolis and establish himself as a despot via time travel with the Phantom Ruby. More on the logistics of that in a bit when we catch up to it.
• Headcanon: Eggman's ability to industrialize quickly is partly because this world is alien to him; there aren't as many organized human societies prepared to oppose him on Mobius as there are on Modern Earth. Robotnik views Sonic and the Mobians racistly, as an inferior species living on an abominable freak show world, and approaches like a colonizer. He sees the opportunity to capitalize with these unusual power source gems. So he has no hesitation to capitalize on being the first human to build on Mobian land, cynically terraforming the land with self-duplicating Egg Robos, Egg Drones and SWATBots powered by the unusual natural resources, like polluting the ocean to slightly increase the speed of his factories.
• Headcanon: Many of Eggman's factories are dedicated to building robots who can build factories that build robots that build factories that build robot factories.
• Headcanon: Sonic is 12 years old during the events of the 2020 Movie. He's 13 during Sonic Underground and AoSTH. He's 14 at the beginning of SatAM and 15 by the end and into Archie.
• Headcanon: Oh, and Sonic sounds like Urkel because he's... basically going through puberty in this time period. It's an awkward time and he's kind of chubby and not as cool as he likes to think when he says "juicin" for the twentieth time that day. Obviously Sonic is undiagnosed but be honest, he's probably on the spectrum. He's definitely obsessive compulsive, almost certainly ADHD, and a bit of a narcissist. His relationship to Eggman defines his life's purpose, so he's also co-dependent. Sonic isn't asexual, as he has shown romantic interest in Sally Acorn, but ultimately, he loves freedom and friendship more. It's hard to see Sonic ever settling down in any kind of long-term monogamy, but on the other hand, we only really know Sonic during his teenage years. It's possible that by middle age, as in Mobius 25 Years Later, Sonic will return to Knothole to live as King with Queen Sally and everyone has families and it's kind of deliriously dull but somewhat charming in a weird trashy way, a bit like the timeskip epilogue in Harry Potter. M25YL works well enough with "Everything Happened, Everything Counted" because other stories haven't bothered to show Sonic going on 40... he names his children after his step-siblings, Sonia and Manik. The older "Sonic Underground" version of Sonia, Manik, Aleena, Chuck, Jules, Bernie, maybe Really Old Man Owl would've all returned for the big dinner parties with Knuckles and his Archie family and so on. Yeah why not. It doesn't matter either way. The overall story of Sonic is like a G.O.A.T. athlete in his teen and prime years, who's life is completely devoted to the game (beating Robotnik) and otherwise chilling and relaxing. Every 
• Headcanon: Welcome to the next level. Sonic's agility increases, resulting in longer and more athletic spin attacks. Robotnik becomes more cruel, ambitious, and obsessed with defeating Sonic.

Major Ongoing Additions:

1. Sonic makes his first furry friends, including his best friend, Miles "Tails" Prower, and a number of new acquaintances like Mighty and Ray.

2. Robotnik demonstrates his ability to quickly industrialize (especially on planets alien to him; he has the fewest bases on Modern Earth, as we see later in Adventure 1/2/X), establishing Robotropolis as the capitol Metropolis of his burgeoning Eggman Empire.

3. The Knothole Freedom Fighters led by Princess Sally Acorn welcome Sonic and Tails to join them in the organized war against Dr. Robotnik. 

QUEST III — THE DEATH EGG SAGA

• Headcanon:  Tails is the inventor of the Spin Dash. He learns to spin fast from running with Sonic in SatAM and AoSTH, then comes up with a way to charge the spin in place before shooting forward. Tails actually teaches the Spin Dash to Sonic, although because of Tails low confidence and Sonic's narcissism, they both later tend to inaccurately remember it the other way around. Tails will struggle with confidence issues from now until later in the story. 
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 — Sonic and Tails spin dash through the hills and caves of Westside Island in pursuit of the 7 Chaos Emeralds before Eggman can get his hands on them; the intel is he wants them to power a new weapon. The island's ruins suggest an ancient civilization that once  Of course. So they pursue him through his expanding factories, like Chemical Plant, and the horror of Oil Ocean as they fight into the Metropolis known as Robotropolis. Eggman flees to his airship, so Tails flies Sonic in a sky chase where Sonic boards Eggman's flying fortress, but Tails' plane, the Tornado, is shot down. Sonic sneaks aboard Eggman's ride to the Death Egg, where he meets the first robot Sonic — Silver Sonic. He's slow and stupid. Eggman's Death Egg Robot mech inside the Death Egg airship is overkill, but Sonic patiently waits for Robotnik to finish his impotent fit before destroying everything with a few spin attacks. The Death Egg's space dock explodes, sending the gigantic airship plummeting down onto a Floating Island. Tails and Mobinis like the Flickies watch the fireworks, then Tails takes to the skies in the repaired, now jet powered, Tornado bi-plane where he expertly catches Sonic like they'd done it a million times. Sonic, having collected the 7 Emeralds, achieves an advanced form: Super Sonic. Dreams come true!
• Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Sonic/Tails Campaign): Sonic & Tails pursue the Death Egg's crash site to capture Robotnik. They discover an island they don't remember being there before, Angel Island, and the moment Super Sonic runs up from the beach, he's ambushed by Knuckles the Echidna with a punch that scatters his Emeralds. Knuckles collects them and runs off, using Warp Rings to toss them into the island's Special Zones for temporary safekeeping while he works to thwart Sonic's progress to what he assumes is a run toward the Master Emerald. Sonic & Tails don't know what that is, they're trying to reach Eggman. Tossing Knuckles aside at Eggman's Launch Base, Sonic blows up the Death Egg's launch take off, sending the ship crashing face-first into Red Volcano, down into the Lava Reef. Sonic & Tails witness Knuckles exiting a hidden Warp Ring, which takes them to the Hidden Palace's shrine for the Master Emerald. Reacting to the 7 Chaos Emeralds, the Emeralds are upgraded into a Super form with each activation by acquiring them through special zones as before. After more run around with Robotnik's machines and airships, Sonic & Knuckles finally go head to head later in the chambers of the Hidden Palace. Eggman takes advantage of the chaos to steal the Master Emerald, which he uses to finally repower the Death Egg. Knuckles realizes he was tricked, and with his last breaths, he helps Sonic and Tails to the Sky Sanctuary where they manage to board the Death Egg as it takes off. Sonic and Tails work through the airship to confront Eggman's Death Egg Robot mech. The Death Egg airship is destroyed again, plummeting finally into the ocean, as Super Sonic goes Hyper to pursue the mech in the Doomsday Zone through the flying debris. Robotnik's last machine is destroyed, and Hyper Sonic grabs the Master Emerald. Rescued again by Tails in the bi-plane, they return the Master Emerald to Knuckles, who waves a grateful, exhausted goodbye. 
• Sonic Spinball — Sonic and Tails fly the Tornardo to Eggman's pinball volcano base to rescue Sally and the Freedom Fighters. 
• Sonic & Tails (Sonic Chaos & Sonic Triple Trouble) — Sonic and Tails continue to follow and counter each of Robotnik's ongoing efforts to acquire the Chaos Emeralds and power his Death Egg. Along the way, Sonic bumps into Knuckles again, who only gives him grief, and Fang, aka Nack the Weasel, a sniper, bounty hunter, thief, and overall scoundrel. Sonic and Tails save the day and defeat Eggman and Fang and Knuckles is again embarrassed.
• Knuckles in Sonic 2  / Headcanon— Knuckles travels back in time with the power of the Master Emerald, and retraces Sonic's steps that led him to Angel Island. This allows him to empathize with Sonic, and regrets punching the Chaos Emeralds out of his hands, especially after Sonic flies him and rescues him in the Tornado bi-plane. As with Sonic Mania's & Knuckles option, after the events of Knuckles in Sonic 2, he would actually begin his S3K campaign by getting punched by himself, off-screen before Angel Island Act 1. There is seemingly an "& Knuckles" paradox to the universe, a weird wrinkle in the timestream, caused by his relationship to the Master Emerald. It allows Knuckles to exist outside of himself to be like a physical version of a spirit form. Although Knuckles insists this happens to him, most people laugh at him and think he's just dreaming. 
• Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Knuckles Campaign)  / Headcanon— Knuckles traces Sonic's path through Angel Island to take on an advanced Egg Robo using Eggman's old machines and the leftover badniks still roaming around. When Knuckles arrives to close the timeloop by finding the Master Emerald in the Hidden Palace, he finds it isn't there. Instead, it's in the Sky Sanctuary, where it's been taken by Mecha Sonic, an advanced version of the Silver Sonic design who charges on the Master Emerald. The Floating Island teeters uncertainly, but Knuckles skillfully defeats Super Mecha Sonic and returns Angel Island to the correct altitude. He catches a lift from Sonic in the Tornado bi-plane, again, but Knuckles ends up still confused about how to feel about Sonic. He literally walked/spindashed miles in Sonic's shoes... Tikal's way of teaching empathy through the Master Emerald ... but because of Mecha Sonic, part of Knuckles still views Sonic with suspicion, and wonders if he would ever be a real threat to the security of Angel Island or the Master Emerald. Sonic might not be bad, but he sure brings trouble with him.
• Headcanon: After use, the Chaos Emeralds scatter and warp to Special Zones, which is like a bed or a cave for the Chaos Emerald to reset after draining its power. This transfer is conducted by the controller, the Master Emerald, which is in fact being guided by Tikal's spirit, who cares for the Chaos Emeralds as though they had feelings. Later, after Tikal escapes the Master Emerald in Sonic Adventure, the Emeralds no longer hide in Special Zones, because they don't have Tikal in the Master Emerald protecting them from harmful collectors. That responsibility is passed to Knuckles, who is oblivious of this for awhile. Knuckles is very good at finding hidden gems, but he's not good at hiding them. It's why Sonic more easily acquires the Emeralds without Warp Rings from Sonic Adventure forward; because Knuckles isn't hiding them with the power of the Master Emerald, because it's a process that used to be automated. 
• Headcanon: Chaos Emeralds contain the souls of dead Chao. Each Chaos Emerald contains a universe of ghost Chao who correspond to the color. 

Major Ongoing Additions:

1. Sonic's friendly rival Knuckles the Echidna lives on the Floating Island, Angel Island, held aloft by the power of the Master Emerald; Knuckles is the Guardian of both the Island and the Emeralds. He's got the strongest punch in the world, but he's easily manipulated by Dr. Eggman into unwittingly helping his schemes. 

2. Dr. Robotnik builds the Death Egg, a space station doomsday device but needs more power from the Emeralds to make it functional. 

3. With the power of all 7 Chaos Emeralds and 50 Power Rings, Sonic can become a super-powered being of pure energy called Super Sonic before the Emeralds run out of power and need to reset again with 50 Rings.

 

That's it for this time.

[Moose the Cat]

Update —

After finding digital copies of the complete Archie and Fleetway runs, I've been spending some time with both and shoring up some of the gaps in my knowledge / memory.  

I intend to do a detailed timeline, similar to my previous post, for the whole thing, but wanted to address how Sonic The Comic fits in (as that was one thing I hadn't experienced first-hand and didn't know enough about; also a blind spot for 99% of American Sonic fans who weren't searching STC out in zip files online, as it was not widely known or available in the US)

Anyway it all fits together pretty easily. Ian Flynn has done most of the work for us. The Archie series Mega Drive even unfinished ends in a soft reboot; IDW begins post-Forces with a soft-focus version of "everything happened." Sonic and Eggman have been doing this for many years. The IDW opening allows easy headcanoning that reunions & curtain calls for the Archie, OVA, Fleetway, Underground characters occurred during Forces. It's not explicit in the writing or art, but there's an implication that that's a fair assumption. IDW begins a few months after the end of the "Third Robotnik War" in which Eggman successfully conquered the planet.

The few areas IDW hasn't tied together already into One Canon is only because of licensing / corporate restrictions. It's not canon that it definitely didn't happen; we just aren't seeing or hearing about certain characters anymore.

STC and Archie make it pretty easy, with only a few significant divergences. Sally Acorn appears in STC even; sure she looks different but so does everyone a bit. Growing pains.

Here's how STC works with everything, @Big Panda, with just an easy bit of headcanon.

• The Omniverse Monitor in "Origin of Sonic" is lying about the ROCC origin. The Omniverse Monitor is the same thing as the Source of All from Archie. 
• The spirit of Ivo Kintobor is like an early version of the advanced AI, like ADAM from Archie, with a sort of "downloadable personality" reset that Eggman's been known to have, like Mr. Tinker in IDW, or Roborobotnik in Archie, except Ivo Kintobor helps Sonic independent of Robotnik/Eggman himself. 
• Super Sonic being a kind of split version of Sonic, like Jekyll/Hyde, is also supported by Sonic Unleashed from Sonic Team, Evil Sonic/Scourge from Archie. Sonic's inherent chaos energy when combined with the Emeralds and another modifier can make Sonic transform in different ways. When combined with Eggman's dark gaia-infused beam in Unleashed, Sonic splits into a werehog. In a separate frequency/timeline, Evil Sonic/Scourge comes into existence as a butterfly effect ripple of Fleetway Super Sonic, in the same way that rings are by-products of the emeralds. 
• Brotherhood of Metallix works with Archie and Sonic Team and OVA all show Metal being a multiple, in make and personality and capable of different forms and modes of operation.
• Fleetway STC also has Sonic experiencing a time jump for Robotnik to be able to take over the world. Ha! I had that in my original post and hadn't even read this yet. But it's also supported by Sonic CD, Generations, Adventure, and the reboots within Archie.

Ultimately, I'm more convinced than ever that one could even assemble a comprehensive "All Sonic Everything" reading/playing/watching order. Like I said before, it's mostly just chronological, with only a couple of things that don't occur after the previously released media.

Sonic 2020 goes at the beginning; Sonic 4 and Sonic Mania Adventures are toward the end of the "early years." Sonic Boom goes at the end of the main story status quo (10-15 Years Later). Mobius 25-30 Years Later is the unnecessary epilogue. Sonic X bridges the gaps between the Adventure games and Archie Sonic & STC, the "middle years". The Archie reboot flashbacks, like Mega Drive/Genesis of a Hero, retells the early days like an HD version of an old game (ie, you can now enjoy the Freedom Fighter story without needing to read a bunch of corny Mike Gallagher stories). The few gaps and retcons needed are actually sufficiently explained and provided for within the text itself (time travel, time travel, time travel). What isn't sufficiently explained  by that could probably be filled in by a web comic (like Evan Stanley's Ghosts of the Future ... oooh yeah, that totally works as canon too) 

• Archie Sonic's multiverse holds true, but it's misunderstood by the characters. They're different frequencies. They are created infinitely in branching pathways. Time and space work in a moebius strip, a figure 8, and everything is looping within itself. Rings and loops within the games aren't coincidental, they are versions of "mini black holes" - but the positive inversion of a black hole - and ways in which you can "see the echoes" of the frequencies. The world is created for Sonic, by Sonic, without his knowledge. Eggman might know this; it's probably why he's so obsessed with Sonic over anybody else. When Eggman first traveled via Warp Ring (end of Sonic2020 film) he went to a mushroom world without loops or rings, but even just this teleportation creates a ring-like echo through time/space that shapes another version of the mushroom world (Mushroom Hill Zone) with loops and rings. From the character POV, the terrain of Mushroom Hill Zone was always this way. From the reader POV, we see that Eggman and Sonic, by fucking so recklessly with the Chaos Force, actually create the world around them in a literal sense. 
• They are zoning the material of space/time itself... as in, fracking or terraforming existence itself. They characters don't see it, but from the reader POV, Sonic & Eggman's endless battles are essentially a multiversal version of a municipality battle -- "should a Walmart go here, or a park?" as cartoon fantasy insanity.
• All of this is related to the reality that Sonic is (wait for it) .... literally the center of the universe
• (Hold for gasps, murmurs, yells)
• In a metaphysical sense, his speed and chaos power have created a vacuum vortex through space/time.... a "Sonic Boom Tube".  In other words, the frequencies are created by his actions. Sonic is an avatar of chaos.
• Sonic's chaos powers, combined with the elemental manifestations of the chaos force (emeralds/rings) are so powerful that other worlds, forms, and timelines are created. E=mc2. Chaos theory -- butterfly flaps its wings, but it's not a butterfly, it's a supersonic magic nuclear weapon. The good-magic version of radiation poisoning is the creation of additional frequencies in space/time, emanating backwards from Super Sonic's actions. 
• Frequencies/dimensions can obviously be created by other manifestations of Chaos Force besides just Sonic -- Eggman uses various time machines to harness this power to middling success.
• Frequencies can blend, and can split apart, and back again. Archie Sonic looking at Sonic Underground is the same as Classic and Modern meeting in Sonic Generations is the same as Super Sonic in Fleetway ... each one is actually Sonic, and also each Sonic is only one part of the whole Sonic. There is a theoretical God-bandwidth that allows the Complete Sonic (the Sum of all Sonics, lol) to come into focus. We haven't seen it as "one big cut" but each individual Sonic story is a reflection of that whole, and some stories include a wider lens (like Ian Flynn and Evan Stanley's work) that deliberately include as many aspects of the character's history as they can.
• The Complete Sonic, unleashed from corporate restriction, is glimpsed best from afar like a solar eclipse — that form being his comprehensive, complete chronological timeline, with every single story media laid out in narrative order. 
• Again, the "missing material" could be covered by a fan comic, a bit like Evan Stanley's work integrating Fleetway concepts to Silver and Blaze. There's only a handful of "lost stories" needed to connect the various "universes" to each other. Traveler's tales. 
  • Bridging Sonic 2020 to Sonic 1 / Sonic CD / Underground
  • Bridging Underground to Sonic 2 / AoSTH / Sat AM / Archie 
  • Bridging Fleetway and OVA to Archie
  • Bridging FleetwayOVArchie to Sonic X 
  • Bridging FleetwayOVArchie to Sonic Forces into IDW -- this especially would be a fun one; Forces is a natural exit for a lot of the extra characters (not necessarily deaths, but just establishing each rebuilding the world in different city-states)
  • There's tons of small stories to be found in connecting / justifying things; headcanon events that could've happened off-screen. Again, Ian Flynn has done most of the work in providing a convenient structure to work within. Forces into IDW easily allows for a lot of off-screen reunions and curtain calls with the extra characters from Underground/OVA/Archie/Fleetway

[Moose the Cat]

Eventually I will be compiling the full "story chronological" guide into one post on here, then maybe additionally on Medium or something, so it can be easily referenced with links and specific, comprehensive order of all Sonic media.

In the meantime, I'll be writing up some of the foundational elements like key character bios; maybe down the line every single character can have an Everything Happened bio.

 

[open file]

Dr. Ivo Robotnik / Dr. Eggman

Ivo Robotnik is an evil genius roboticist & narcissistic aspiring emperor who uses magic technology to warp reality to his benefit. Though his ultimate ambitions have been routinely disrupted by Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Eggman's efforts have damaged space/time to an irreparable degree — if it ever was, it is now no longer possible to accurately pinpoint exactly when Robotnik came into existence. 

Ivo is a middle-aged human male in poor physical health due to a largely sedentary lifestyle and poor diet. Some of the earliest accounts to Robotnik's time and place of birth indicate a highly privileged upbringing as Julian Kintobor of the House of Ivo, one of the elite families in a city-state exclusive to humans and unwelcome to Mobians, who first rebelled against his family for the furry kind, then betrayed his new benefactors for his own coup in Mobotropolis, overthrowing the crown, enslaving the populace, and successfully establishing the nightmarish city-state of Robotropolis.

But this story is not entirely reliable — as one looks through the lineage of the House of Ivo, one realizes that it traces back to an Ivo Kintobor, who looks identical to our present day understanding of Dr. Eggman. This leads researchers to believe that both are results of the same hoax — Eggman rewriting history with the Chaos Force and other magic technology to give himself every advantage in achieving his goals.

Eggman's earliest encounters with Sonic were more curious in nature. Somehow, perhaps through his travels through time, by the time he "first" met Sonic, he could dimly recall ancient prophecies in his learnings of extinct cultures, or feel echoes of their future battles (some occurring in the past or adjacent to time)... there was something magnetic about the speedy blue hedgehog that attracted Robotnik's attention, which soon curdled into maniacal obsession.

Eggman wants to "solve" Sonic — in terms of defeating and capturing him, and in terms of understanding Sonic better than he understands himself. His various Metal Sonic creations are attempts to recreate Sonic's power with technology. He decided to try a completely opposite approach -- so he created a gentle A.I. personality with all of his genius but limitless computer patience. He called it Kintobor (which appears to be one of Eggman's "clever" pranks to us through time, a way of besmirching our history books with "Eggman was here" graffiti) and sent it through time to meet Sonic as a baby and conduct experiments with the R.O.C.C machine (retro orbital chaos compressor). Though the device failed, severely underestimating even baby Sonic, this did succeed in planting false memories in Sonic, convincing him that he and Robotnik used to be friends (before "Robuttnik" became pure habit, it began as an attempt by Sonic to point out how absurd Robotnik sounds compared to Kintobor). This trick led to Sonic not using the full force of his powers against Eggman, instead treating him like a joke, allowing Eggman the privacy needed to construct his first Death Egg super weapon. Eventually, Sonic realized the deception as being part of the Kintobor A.I. scheme -- Eggman was always Robotnik. In spite of this, Sonic seems to still believe there is inherent good hiding deep within Robotnik's heart (the recent amnesia-driven "Mr. Tinker" episode giving the hedgehog renewed hope) but his faith has yet to be rewarded.

Though the Death Egg was never fully fired, the first model was successfully powered and operational on three (3) occasions, each event having a significant effect on the time/space. For many years, it was not known precisely what Robotnik's weapon had the potential to do. It known as a "world roboticizer," instantly enslaving the entire population as robots and badniks. This was true, and in a sense, it did work — it allowed Eggman the ability to manipulate the past to enslave populations like South Island, Mobotropolis and all of West Side Island, resulting in the present advantages Eggman seemingly conjures from nowhere at will. A lot of work goes into Empire building, but a lot of it happens off-screen. Two of the Death Egg's launches occurred on Angel Island, resulting in a particularly fractured history for the Echidnas of the Floating Island.

There is little doubt that Eggman's meddling with the Time Stones on Little Planet inspired the Death Egg's super weapon, and likely accounts for his first discovery and then exploitation of this ability. That is to say, though the time stream may never be fully unsnarled, it is unlikely that "Julian of Ivo" discovered time travel, and became Eggman, and far more likely that Eggman traveled back in time and created alternate personas like "Julian of Ivo" or "Ovi Kintobor" as both a disguise and a signature to his future admirers.

Later models like the Death Egg II would again have devastating ripple effects, still being felt and discovered to this day.

There can be no doubt that the efforts of Sonic and his Freedom Fighter friends have prevented Eggman from achieving the worst outcomes. But there can be no doubt that Eggman has indeed succeeded in shaping existence to his narcissism. He has ruled multiple city-states bearing his name and likeness, in our world, and in several others that we know of, and who knows how many remain unknown? Robotnik's creation and establishment of these dark metropolises is often not even as clear as the origin of Robotropolis. Recently, however, the Eggman Empire completed a takeover of 99.9% of all territory on the planet after successfully defeating and capturing Sonic with the magical technology of the Phantom Ruby, which again warped reality in ways not yet entirely known.  

Currently, Eggman is regaining territory of the planet with a new bio-weapon, the Metal Virus, effectively roboticizing every organic lifeform it touches. In order to save the world, Sonic the Hedgehog will likely need the full extent of his Chaos powers. Will our already battered and bruised reality be able to withstand the result? How would we ever know?

Ironically, Eggman's quest to control reality has only made it endlessly more chaotic and unstable. Nevertheless, the Mad Doctor persists in his vain attempt to permanently shape the natural world in his image... and his efforts are routinely diminished by an opponent as natural and free as the wind, crushing Robotnik's pointless ambitions, as reliably as the ocean resets every castle made of sand.

[/End file]

 

[Moose the Cat]

Dr. Julian Snivley Robotnik

The wretched existence of Snivley is the pathetic end result of Eggman's genetic manipulation of the time stream. In order to ensure his world domination, Dr. Robotnik traveled to the distant past and established a base of advanced scientific engineering power in a feudal medieval human civilization. Once power was established for the "House of Ivo", Eggman left behind a copy of himself — a clone replica of his DNA ("Ivo Kintobor") — to generate dynastic generational legacy power overnight. "Get a load of THIS!"

Eggman skips ahead a few generations and downloads his soul/code into "Julian Kintobor" to take advantage of this scheme and enjoy his rise to power. In the process of revealing his true identity as Dr. Robotnik of the Eggman Empire (ie, the Coup of Mobotropolis), it was assumed by Eggman's Kintobor counterparts that "Julian" had perished. 

Colin, Julian's brother, sired a son and named him after himself, Colin Jr., but became quickly disappointed in his son entirely due to his small physique. CJ admired the technocratic genius of his Uncle Julian, and permanently changed his name to Julian Snivley Robotnik as a way to entirely erase his father from his name; "Snivley" being his mother's maiden name.

Robotnik calls his nephew Snivley as a way of emasculating him; implying he's not worthy of either the Robotnik or Julian names. (This is also why Eggman thinks of himself mockingly as a "feminist" — he calls Snivley by his "maiden name"!) Though he could never know, Snivley feeling more paternal feelings toward Uncle than father than Colin is in part because Eggman is the original progenitor of their bloodline, which Snivley can intuitively understand. His genes are sniffing out their source and finding it in "Uncle Julian" aka Ivo Robotnik.

Over many years, despite multiple opportunities to leave Ivo behind, and multiple attempts at his own coup of the empire, Snivley has remained ultimately loyal to Robotnik, an uncle who refuses to dignify their relation with any acknowledgment. Following Eggman's machinery with the Phantom Ruby's reality warping powers, Snivley's current whereabouts are unknown.

[Multikaris]

This is... actually quite interesting. Very much so. I like how EVERYTHING gets to be woven together with just a little pixie dust. Ever take an interest in the various book adaptations of the franchise, like the ones by Martin Adams? I feel like Shattered Crystal, Fire and Ice, and Rise of Lyric in that order are the final adventures Sonic has prior to the more laid-back Boom TV series. What happens with Shadow in SC helps explain how he's become embittered and cruel in the later works. His attempted world destruction plot in the final episode of the series may be the prophesized incident where he "betrays humanity" and Omega is forced to seal him away for the world's safety. Do other games by Sonic Team, like NiGHTS, fit in as well? For some reason, I want to see Freedom Planet as the distant future of the series.