What are some mandates by Sega you don't agree with?

[Rabbitearsblog]

What are some mandates that SEGA has for the characters or for the stories that you don't agree with or you wish that they changed?

While these mandates are mostly related to the IDW comics, here are a few mandates that SEGA did with the characters and stories that I don't agree with:

• Regarding Shadow's characterization, I don't like the fact that SEGA is basically saying that Shadow should always be edgy and moody and not be allowed to express that many emotions.  This also extends somewhat to the other characters, like Sonic where they can't be portrayed beyond their main characterizations in the games.
• The whole "Chao should be known as "it" instead of calling them "him" or "her."  This wouldn't be a problem if SEGA had actually done this in the first place and not just make that rule so recently.  It just ended up confusing the fanbase about how the chao should be addressed in the series.

[Johnster4]

The one mandate I don't agree with  is that they can't call Sonic's home planet Mobius, I think they should bring the planet name back for the sake of world building and making it feel like the world the live in has an identity.

[RadicalLaRuby]

I'm not a fan of most mandates as far as characterization goes for the cast. It seems that the cast are more of a brand than actual characters now. Some mandates aren't inherently terrible, as they can prevent all that crazy fanfic shit Ken Penders was trying to pull as far as extended Sonic media goes. But Sega has shown that they themselves do not know what to do with these characters.

I hate the stupid "only male hedgehogs go Super". We have odd rules like that, then other contradicting statements in interviews like Hyper forms being too similar to DBZ's extra transformations.

Two worlds is a horrible idea this late into the series. Especially just throwing it out there offhand so it can "fit the current series' narratives" with no indication if when it ever happens. It wouldn't be nearly as looked down on, if the reverse was true instead.

I think Chao were always genderless, but they've been inconsistent on that matter sometimes. In SA1 (at least in the english version) Knuckles referred to Chaos as "he" a few times in the last story. There may be more times but I can't remember. (I mean, doesn't bother me much as I've always personally seen Hero Swimming and Flying type Chao as "female", just makes it easier for me.)

[King Scoopa Koopa]

I heard that Nintendo was really limited in what kind of alternate colors Sonic could have in Smash. So loosening that up would be nice.

 

[Dr. Detective]

I think perhaps they could loosen up a bit on potential deep dives into the character's pasts a bit. Just a tiny bit. I don't need like an entire flashback or whatever but hints at how they used to be before they ended up where they were would be nice speculation fodder. Or, at least, expansions on what little we do know. Also, no more add-ons to Shadow's past please. Everyone except him please. We've squeezed all the water we can from that stone.

The two worlds thing is dumb, although, hearing Ian say that apparently the two worlds, one of humans and one of anthros, exist within the same galaxy is kind of... I dunno. I assumed they were from another dimension like Classic Sonic's world but... eh. Maybe Dodon Pa uses his galaxy wide connections to help people go to and from each planet or something...?

I don't really care that the planet has no name. I've never really needed to say it or anything but at the same time I would lose nothing from it being given a name either. So I'm cool with whatever on that front.

The Chao... I dunno. I never really thought about them being genderless. I don't feel right referring to Cheese as an "it" though.

Ultimately though, whichever "mandate" (if that's even the correct word) that's holding the characters back from properly developing or getting more things explored about their characters I would remove that. They don't necessarily need to change to develop. Us learning more about who they are right now counts as development too but we're not getting much of that either.

As a side note, I'd actually add on a mandate. It would state that whenever Vector appears in a game, both Espio and Charmy have to as well. I'd slam my gavel and declare it an iron clad law. They don't have to hang with Vector the whole time. They can interact with other characters. But they gotta be IN the game with him at least, goddammit. 

[Mangoaxe5]

I hate the whole "Game characters can't have non game relatives".

I also hate the whole "Sonic can't lose" thing though Ian was able to find a middle ground during the Mecha Sally story arc.

[LeviTheGreat]

45 minutes ago, Rogue said:

I hate the whole "Game characters can't have non game relatives".

I also hate the whole "Sonic can't lose" thing though Ian was able to find a middle ground during the Mecha Sally story arc.

Would you rather the Sonic die and someone else take over.

The "Sonic can't lose" thing is the charm of Sonic

You know he's going to turn out okay.

In other words Ian knows Sonic and his capabilities.

This hedgehog has turned into a werehog,forced to collected 7 world rings,turned into mecha sonic among many other things!

So it's not like it's easy for Sonic to do all these thing as you see Sonic does start to lose in some instances

Like the most recent "Metal Virus Saga" where the Deadly Six take over and Sonic's speed loses it power to fight the virus.

Ian just showed that Sonic isn't OP or a God-Like figure he is just like everyone else without his trademark speed.

I would never change the "Sonic can't lose" thing because i like him being fashionably late and blowing through badniks(robots) like shredded cheese.

However i do aplaud you for your first point.

That also begs the question without Sat-am or Archie(Sonic Underground) would we have even got Sonic's story?

I think we should be grateful we do have one.

This leads into character stories and giving characters more depth etc....

It's more than just non-game relatives.

I appeciate the effort though.

 

[Roger_van_der_weide]

I hate mandates that indicate Sonic Team doesn't understand what alternative universes are, like when Black Doom wasn't allowed to appear in Archie "because he died in the games". Ignoring the fact he never showed up in the comics yet.
As if indicating everyone who died in the games also automatically died in every possible Sonic spin off media and Black Doom's corpse is present somewhere in AOSTH, Sonic Boom and Sonic the movie as well somehow.

Or Sonic Boom Rise of Lyrics's initial concept of being an origin story for Sonic being shot down because "Sonic Team wanted to explore Sonic's origins themselves" (HAH. Like that would happen.)
Source: https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic_Boom:_Rise_of_Lyric

Yo, smarty pants, Sonic Boom is a side series, it's origins has no effect on the main series, right?
But somehow they don't get it, and as such Boom was denied to have any kind of proper introduction and all characters and settings are just plopped down with no fanfare whatsoever.
And I suppose with Sonic just being HERO MAN and Eggman being EVIL SCIENTIST MAN, that works well enough.
But it would have been nice if Sticks had a proper introduction rather then just going "Hi, find shinies!" in Rise of Lyric in a cameo and voila, there she is. Not to mention Shadow the hedgehog being a more morally complex character requiring at least SOME kind of a backstory or context, but nope. he just shows up and we're supposed to cheer and clap like he's anything more then an empty shell.

Especially confusing considering Sonic did get an origin in SATam, Underground, Sonic the Comic and in the movie. I guess the first 3 were created before the mandate and the movie got away with it because the executives at Paramount probably used all of Sonic Team's suggestions as toiletpaper.

While I don't have any evidence for this, I strongly believe this is also why Shadow never got any kind of explanation in Sonic Boom and just randomly shows up as if we're supposed to know who that guy is. "His origin was already told in Sonic Adventure 2" I guess, so now Sonic Boom has to roll with that.
Granted, I'd pay good money to see Sonic Adventure 2 and especially Shadow the Hedgehog's storylines retold within the Sonic Boom universe, that'd be a sight to see.


And looking at that  Rise of Lyric page again, what about this:
" Cliff for example was originally an inventor, but Iizuka said that only Tails and Eggman could be inventors.^"
It's stuff like this why Sonic's universe feels so small and empty. The main characters are everything and the world around them can't contain anything of value. It's just Sonic, Tails and Eggman in an empty cardboard world, Green hill Zone floating in an empty void.
Assuming characters like Wave the Swallow or Sonic X's uncle Chuck are left out to keep it simple, or retconned out of existance, does this mean litteraly every piece of technology in the series has been created by either Tails or Eggman? So both or either is the main manufactorer of all technology in Sonic's world? No wonder they renamed their planet "Sonic's world", the main characters really are the center of their entire universe.

And then Sonic Team breaks their own rule barely 4 years later with Dodongopa anyway. Oops. They can't even keep up with their own stupid mandates.

[batson]

"Male characters cant wear clothes, female characters have to wear clothes". That one's just unbelievably stupid.

[Multikaris]

38 minutes ago, Roger_van_der_weide said:

I hate mandates that indicate Sonic Team doesn't understand what alternative universes are, like when Black Doom wasn't allowed to appear in Archie "because he died in the games". Ignoring the fact he never showed up in the comics yet.
As if indicating everyone who died in the games also automatically died in every possible Sonic spin off media and Black Doom's corpse is present somewhere in AOSTH, Sonic Boom and Sonic the movie as well somehow.

Or Sonic Boom Rise of Lyrics's initial concept of being an origin story for Sonic being shot down because "Sonic Team wanted to explore Sonic's origins themselves" (HAH. Like that would happen.)
Source: https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic_Boom:_Rise_of_Lyric

Yo, smarty pants, Sonic Boom is a side series, it's origins has no effect on the main series, right?
But somehow they don't get it, and as such Boom was denied to have any kind of proper introduction and all characters and settings are just plopped down with no fanfare whatsoever.
And I suppose with Sonic just being HERO MAN and Eggman being EVIL SCIENTIST MAN, that works well enough.
But it would have been nice if Sticks had a proper introduction rather then just going "Hi, find shinies!" in Rise of Lyric in a cameo and voila, there she is. Not to mention Shadow the hedgehog being a more morally complex character requiring at least SOME kind of a backstory or context, but nope. he just shows up and we're supposed to cheer and clap like he's anything more then an empty shell.

Especially confusing considering Sonic did get an origin in SATam, Underground, Sonic the Comic and in the movie. I guess the first 3 were created before the mandate and the movie got away with it because the executives at Paramount probably used all of Sonic Team's suggestions as toiletpaper.

While I don't have any evidence for this, I strongly believe this is also why Shadow never got any kind of explanation in Sonic Boom and just randomly shows up as if we're supposed to know who that guy is. "His origin was already told in Sonic Adventure 2" I guess, so now Sonic Boom has to roll with that.
Granted, I'd pay good money to see Sonic Adventure 2 and especially Shadow the Hedgehog's storylines retold within the Sonic Boom universe, that'd be a sight to see.


And looking at that  Rise of Lyric page again, what about this:
" Cliff for example was originally an inventor, but Iizuka said that only Tails and Eggman could be inventors.^"
It's stuff like this why Sonic's universe feels so small and empty. The main characters are everything and the world around them can't contain anything of value. It's just Sonic, Tails and Eggman in an empty cardboard world, Green hill Zone floating in an empty void.
Assuming characters like Wave the Swallow or Sonic X's uncle Chuck are left out to keep it simple, or retconned out of existance, does this mean litteraly every piece of technology in the series has been created by either Tails or Eggman? So both or either is the main manufactorer of all technology in Sonic's world? No wonder they renamed their planet "Sonic's world", the main characters really are the center of their entire universe.

And then Sonic Team breaks their own rule barely 4 years later with Dodongopa anyway. Oops. They can't even keep up with their own stupid mandates.

Maybe they justify Dodonpa as an alien/too specialized, but still. 

[Kuzu]

The way Sega handles Sonic feels eerily similar to how Toriyama handles modern Dragon Ball media.

In that, they just retcon and change up information as they see fit, regardless if it makes. That's how you get things like "Beerus killed the dinosaurs" or "There are two universes now". 

Trying to make something cohesive that you never intended to be cohesive seems to be logic around some of these mandates.

[SaturnWolf]

Basically all of them? Especially ones that are objectively, observably false, like Team Dark not being a real thing and how they never really worked together. Especially in the context of the comics, I hate that "Sonic can't lose/Sonic can't cry" thing. Like yeah, it's easy to get it wrong, but in a  more story driven medium like comics, it's okay and even good to give things more depth. I think the real reason I can't really muster any care for the comics or the Zombot arc is because if our heroes are basically invincible and will always walk away unscathed, what's the point of anything?

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

5 hours ago, LeviTheGreat said:

Would you rather the Sonic die and someone else take over.

The "Sonic can't lose" thing is the charm of Sonic

You know he's going to turn out okay.

Sonic losing isn’t anywhere near the same thing as Sonic dying. I don’t know where in the world you got that idea out of what Rogue said over that mandate.

And “Sonic can’t lose” risks making Sonic boring. I don’t want to know if Sonic is going to turn out okay, I want to know how he will succeed in the end or how badly he fails and how that will impact him going forward to set things right. That’s no where close to saying “I want Sonic to die.”

[Kaotic Kanine]

The only mandates that come to mind, and are what I seriously hate, are the ones that needlessly restrict the characters 

Like, I don't mind the "Sonic can't show excessive emotion" as much as everyone else does, because Sonic had always been emotionally subdued. He's the kind of guy who almost always manages to keep his cool, or at least doesn't show extreme emotion. Even when he experienced enough rage, hatred, and sadness to invoke the Darkspine form (literally caused by absorbing the World Rings of rage, sadness, and hatred), Sonic wasn't gibbering with rage or uncontrollably sobbing; he was his usual cool self. Just a bit more violent and aggressive 

Although I do share in almost everyone's dislike for the "Team Dark aren't friends" mandate, as well as the apparent restrictions on Shadow's writing in IDW (and implicitly all recent media). It not only goes against what was established/shown before in canon but does nothing good for Shadow's character. And y'all know that I despise the mandates limiting Cream's usage to no end  And if I heard/read Ian's words correctly, apparently Amy's open affection for Sonic is being restricted. And that's like... I can agree with dialing the crush back from being an "obsession", but not allowing her to flirt with Sonic or openly be in love with him? May as well strip away Sonic's love of running

[Natie]

How many of these are actually brand mandates and not just dumb narrative choices Sonic Team made?

[Rabbitearsblog]

Do you think it's possible for SEGA to change these mandates?

[Johnny Boy]

Everything regarding Shadow. I just hate that Sega is all in on Shadow being representative of the “ow the edge” meme and just reduced him to being an angry furry Vegeta. And don’t even get me started on him, Rouge, and Omega not being friends even after everything they’ve been through.

[Wraith]

1 hour ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

Do you think it's possible for SEGA to change these mandates?

They already change some every once in a while. It's not really consistent. I remember there was a mandate about cream being involved in combat that was obviously gone by the time the Zombot arc started happening. 

[Kuzu]

Yea, they're not really consistent with themselves; they just seem like arbitrary rules they come up with when pressed about the subject rather than legitimate  guidelines to follow. 

You guys think I'm kidding when I said they just come up with shit on the fly? 

[Multikaris]

21 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Yea, they're not really consistent with themselves; they just seem like arbitrary rules they come up with when pressed about the subject rather than legitimate  guidelines to follow. 

You guys think I'm kidding when I said they just come up with shit on the fly? 

Apparently the further you are from them, the stricter they get. See how TSR introduced a new inventor, who may have been justified as either an alien or too specialized. 

[Mountaindewandsprite]

I hate the whole "classic dimension" mandate that restricts the use of characters like Bean, Bark, Fang, Mighty, and Ray. I don't mind them not appearing in the games, but because of that stupid ass mandate they can't even make an appearance in the IDW comics. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

[Rabbitearsblog]

I have a feeling that with all the complaints about Shadow being portrayed as only having an attitude and no depth to his character, SEGA might relent on that sooner or later, although I wouldn't be surprised if SEGA somehow managed to mess that up.

[Ricochet]

On 1/7/2021 at 12:45 PM, Roger_van_der_weide said:

Or Sonic Boom Rise of Lyrics's initial concept of being an origin story for Sonic being shot down because "Sonic Team wanted to explore Sonic's origins themselves" (HAH. BoLike that would happen.)
Source: homttps://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic_Boom:_Rise_of_Lyric

Funny how this shows how whimsical and aimless is Sonic Team creative direction.

"Herp derp, I'm gonna neuter creative output of side works for stuff that I'm unsure or even care about, but I feel somehow Imma only be entitled to do"

Fast forward nowadays, movie sonic has his origin. Nothing from sonic team in that regard yet.

Maybe they should refrain from taking royalties for a while and make something consistent with their canon for once. 

[Tracker_TD]

I mean, to be honest I can't say I'd want Sonic's origin story to be in the hands of a bunch of random Western devs who wound up having some fairly out-there ideas for Sonic anyway (and not in a good way, either: war flashbacks to the concept art). Not that I think Sonic Team would do a particularly good job by default, but it's probably for the better that Boom wound up its own thing. 

[Rabbitearsblog]

2 hours ago, Ricochet said:

Funny how this shows how whimsical and aimless is Sonic Team creative direction.

"Herp derp, I'm gonna neuter creative output of side works for stuff that I'm unsure or even care about, but I feel somehow Imma only be entitled to do"

Fast forward nowadays, movie sonic has his origin. Nothing from sonic team in that regard yet.

Maybe they should refrain from taking royalties for a while and make something consistent with their canon for once. 

I guess the movie was like "Okay, enough of this.  We can't wait long enough for you guys to come up with an origin story for Sonic, so we'll make our own origin story for Sonic for once."