How would you reboot/reimagine Sonic?

[azoo]

Ideally, I wouldn’t. I’d just cherry-pick all the good content as I always have and just do a better job at the next few games for storytelling department.

if I had to though, I’d mostly just spend time filling in the blanks on things. The series as a whole would remain strictly SegaSonic, but taking elements from other canons (prototype content, OVA, SatAM, and AoSTH in particular) and just kind of filtering many of their ideas through a SegaSonic lens and fitting it where appropriate is my call.

Here’s a list of stuff I would play with:

- Sonic’s origins are on Christmas Island. He’s in a band with some street punks. Sonic doesn’t know what to do with his life as he’s stuck in the monotony until he meets some old man and becomes the Marty to his Doc Brown. Suddenly he realizes that Doc Brown is actually an Elon Musk, and starts to fight him in an effort to protect his friends. Eggman flees and the city is saved, but now Sonic has a sense of purpose: no longer settling for the street punk lifestyle, Sonic throws out the jacket and begins a new life never looking back as an adventuring hero! And so he follows Eggman off to South Island in a plane passed down in his family, The Tornado. In the distance, one of his old band’s fan girls continues to hunt him down, still smitten with the man on stage.. 

- Sonic’s home is on South Island, just off the coast of Green Hill, where he finds himself a landing strip to an abandoned airport, complete with crashed Boeing model lodged in the side like the OVA. Sonic decides to make this his burrow, and keeps stuff here much like the live action movie I guess. As a nomad he doesn't visit here very often, but it’s his hideaway when he wants to get away from the world.

- Chaos Energy is a thing. The gods made the planet, the planet was filled with it and they left the tools there on the planet (the emeralds). Energy in the ground causes places to warp into circular structures (loops and etc) and excess energy seeps out of the ground everywhere as Rings. You wouldn’t have to know any of this, but it explains a lot for fun. 

- Tails is the youngest of a group of “freedom fighters” on Westside Island who are fighting Eggman’s troops from turning their beloved Woodtropolis into Robotropolis, led by Sally Acorn, daughter of the city’s mayor. Although not alone in his team, Tails is very much the runt who is babied and not allowed room to say anything or grow.. until he meets the cool and determined Sonic, who believes in what he has to say. After Sonic teams up with the FFs to take down Eggman’s forces in a retelling of Sonic 2, Tails develops a brotherly love for his new buddy, and after saving Sonic’s life by piloting his plane in the nick of time, he and Sonic become inseparable as he joins him on his never ending world adventure.

- Knuckles was born from an egg chosen by the Master Emerald to be its guardian, via prophecy when the Chaos cataclysm happened. The egg was hatched one day from time and elemental forces. The nature of Knuckles was.. irrepressible!! He probably learned how to survive from the ME sending him brain signals, and learned to speak and wear shoes from random fumbling around on the coast of the Mystic Ruins. Poor sod never learned to read, though he can transcribe ancient tomes pretty well. Way to show off reading dead languages, Knux.

- On the subject of prophecies, the Hidden Palace prophecy becomes much more relevant and is utilized beyond fanon theory. Lupe (head of an Amazonianesque tribe living in Aquatic Ruin) speaks of it, which Sonic remembers as he sees it in the Hidden Palace on Angel Island. The knowledge of this becomes apparent as we learn it actually is what inspired Shadow’s creation.

- Oh yeah, Shadow? He dies. But not really, It’s a fake out. But he retains his memories, but fights with his inner demons over if he’s truly a good person like Maria told him to be or not (especially compounded by the public’s perception of him as a menace). He stays at Rouge’s club she runs in Central City and sleeps on her couch in the penthouse above. The Chaotix work there part time to make up for money lost on paying rent for the detective agency shack.

- Speaking of the Chaotix, the 1995 game happens. But Sonic’s there and Mighty isn’t (he’s off with Ray somewhere). Tails got kidnapped. Long story short, it was an adventure. Also Knuckles and Vector are friends (and Sonic loathes when they’re together because Vector used to be his bestie and now he hangs with an idiot). Espio is the true detective of the group, Vector is the charisma, and Charmy is in my spin the techie. We’re gonna take a bit of Tails’ Jimmy Neutron ness and give it to this kid, let Tails stay a bright minded mechanic.

- Rouge used to be in a Bonnie-and-Clyde like duo with legendary hunter Fang the Sniper. After realizing how petty he was about his stealing (being willing to risk peoples lives for it) she turned on him and fleed before he counted her head in his bounty. Much later down the line, she joins GUN in attempt to make it up to herself for her past, but she can’t stop craving some tasty colorful rocks and flirting with danger AND people while on the job so she’s caught between a moral rock and a hard place. Meanwhile Fang replaced her with Bean and Bark, total bozos.

- Blaze is the princess of Soleanna, an island far from any outside civilization. Long ago, an evil genie named Iblis Djinn, used the coveted Sol Gems to transform into the demon god Solaris, and a warrior cat lady (Blaze’s ancestor) used a magic staff called the Jeweled Scepter to seal him away. But as she did, his power struck her, cursing her with the mysterious Flames of Disaster. For her deeds she was crowned ruler of the country, but she and her descendants carry the burden of the Flames, afraid of losing their control, and so for that reason they have sheltered themselves away, in fear of what damage they would cause without thorough observation. But Blaze is an especially impatient and stir-crazy individual with a lot of pent up anxieties over her responsibilities to guard, so you probably know how this unfolds.

- Eggman is a 100% hated figure in the islands for all animalpeople, but is a slightly more controversial figure in the mainland where the humans reside. He’s as mentioned before much like Elon; ridiculously wealthy and piggybacking off of the successes of his grandfather as a scientific genius. His immense wealth is what brings him his infinite resources for building his machines, and is a plague to everyone that unfortunately cannot be ignored due to how much of a threat he is. He’s like Porky, kinda, if you think about it.

- Eggman has a henchman in Orbot, which serves as not only like he did in Unleashed but a little like Snively too, being second in command and lead intelligence database for the Eggman Empire, being in control as AI for all his autopilot machines. He USED to have three prior henchmen, but two of them (Scratch and Grounder) were exiled for being too dumb and now walk the earth like the world’s worst C3P0 and R2D2, and the third.. uh, well.. let’s say Metal is MIA.

- Eggman Nega is Eggman from the future, having gone off his rocker from fighting Sonic and failing over and over for an unknown amount of decades in the future. He poses as a different person everywhere he goes in space-time just to fuck with people, and his only goal is mass destruction, completely having given up on his world domination ambitions. 
 

——-

As for other stuff, I’d just say ape the games a bit and ignore some junk like the Black Arms or whatever. Idk. 

[Yoshman]

I agree reboots are a very hit or miss tactic that we have seen too much of lately in popular culture. That doesn't mean there can't be ever be alternative takes of characters and lore, but they would work best as spin-offs or just their own thing like Sonic Boom was, instead of replacing the main timeline - which is not happening anyway.

My own take would mostly pick ideas from the Movie and the Archie comics, with some popular characters noticeably missing, but I'll elaborate on that. I'd have it start small in terms of scope and progressively expand upon it in following titles, with more lore and more characters while keeping it concise.

The cast would start around the size of SA's characters roster with seven characters:

Sonic

Spoiler

A free-spirited and energetic teenager who's always on the look-out for some adventure. While he may call himself the fastest thing alive, his cockiness often gets the better of him and he's more emotionally vulnerable than he'd like to admit. His design would be a mix of modern Sonic and Tohei Sonic, with the former's svelte physique and the latter's black eyes and expressiveness.

Tails

Spoiler

When Sonic lacks in brains, his best pal is here to make up for it with his mind and mechanical skills. This Tails is less of an admirer and more of a little brother who stands as Sonic's equal, as both rely on each other to save the day. You could say Tails is book-smart while Sonic is street-smart, since he is still quite young and therefore easy to trick.

Amy

Spoiler

This bubbly teenage girl has become Sonic's Number Uno fan ever since he rescued her from Eggman's Badniks. Seeing her hero risking his life for hers inspired her to take up arms, as she now jumps around Eggman's goons with her acrobatic skills and smashes them to pieces with her hammer She stands up to Eggman to protect those around her, but also to impress Sonic into marrying him.

Eggman 

Spoiler

or Ivo Robotnik, as he was once called, appeared one day on Mobius and introduced himself as a space traveler seeking asylum. While he shared his knowledge with the Mobians, some were suspicious of him, as they were convinced that he had to have ulterior motives. Unfortunately, that mistrust was proven right when an army of robots, led by none other than their newcomer, started harvesting the planet's resources and turning its inhabitants into mindless robots. Now Eggman's empire is slowly but surely expanding on Mobius and only a few dare to oppose him.

Longclaw

Spoiler

An old and wise owl who made it her duty to raise and protect the children whose parents were taken away by Eggman's legions, Sonic and Tails being two of her protegés. She is the guardian of South Island, a place that has remained undetected by Eggman's scanners thanks to the power of a Chaos Emerald kept deep inside of it. She descends from the first species that has evolved on Mobius and therefore knows the deep ends of the planet's history.

Rouge

Spoiler

There are some Mobians who don't mind associating with Eggman, and, while her playful attitude does get on his nerve, Rouge is his most valued associate. He calls on her treasure hunting skills to find Mobius' greatest artifacts, among which the legendary Chaos Emeralds. That makes her enemy Number 2 for Sonic and Tails, but the bat has a few tricks up her sleeve and it's easy for her to exploit the hedgehunk's impulsiveness and foxboy's naivety. Eggman should also be cautious around her, for she serves herself first and foremost.

Metal Sonic

Spoiler

Eggman's latest creation in countering the blue blur. Metal Sonic was designed to mimic and surpass the original Sonic. With each encounter, he grows a deeper hatred for his fleshy double and he won't stop improving until only one Sonic is standing. He would likely be introduced following Eggman's first defeat against Sonic and develop from his encounters with Sonic and interactions with other characters, growing insecure and becoming more than a machine fueled by hatred.

Knuckles and Shadow are missing because I think they would have felt forced into it otherwise. I was never a fan of Knuckles, partly because I was never that exposed to his best characterizations, but, since the Echidna tribe are part of my lore, he could definitely appear. Shadow, on the other hand, feels like he would only be dragged into it due to popularity, like he was in Boom. Sega has been wanting to push him as Sonic's main rival when he has no reason to be after SA2, and Metal Sonic remains the best nemesis in my eyes.

As for gameplay, I think the fast-paced platforming from Adventure and Heroes is the 3D formula that has worked best. You would only have to round the edges and focus on ironing out three or four characters with levels tailored around their movesets.

For one piece of trivia, I thought it would be a nice, original touch if Amy and Rouge were noticeably taller than Sonic and Tails. If Sonic is 110 cm, according to SA1's concept arts, Amy would be 130 and Rouge 150.

[Kuzu]

Using Longclaw and ROuge over Knuckles and Shadow is pretty LOL, but I appreciate the audacity of it. 

[Indigo Rush]

As an addendum to my post, one specific thing I'd like to thread into the lore is the "four great civilizations" nugget dropped by Sonic Chronicles and have it tied into the reveal at the end of Sonic Riders ZG that the Babylonians were actually aliens. That'd be my scifi way to explain the coexistence of talking animals and humans. The ancient ruins in South Island that depict a race of bird people would be the backdrop for that, and that would be the "first" great civilization, of which Longclaw/Sophocles (since I like the idea of an owl being Sonic's surrogate parent for some dumb reason) is the last remaining descendant.

Echidnas would be the fourth and final before Chaos wrecks everything and the emeralds are banished to the Special Stage for Gerald Robotnik to use his special machinery to retrieve one for his experiments. 

......y'all got me headcanonizing my own Sonic universe how could you.

[FlameStream]

I would probably focus on making Sonic's world a little more complex and believable.

I would make (animal) civilization more visible and interactable. Right now this seems to have been handled okay in the comics, but at the moment it seems to mostly be there as background noise and not functional. It should at least show that there is an economy and social events. Taking a previous post as an example, if a character is part of a band, then live performance show should be a thing, etc. Currency would probably be rings, although probably not the size we've been seeing them in-game if it has to be shown.

Closely related to that, I would likely establish several factions, or at least show that there are factions. They would be varied in degree friendliness to Sonic (or whoever the MC is). More importantly, Sonic's friends would not always be in full agreement with him since they's identify more with one of those factions. This would open up the possibility of confronting him in a more believable way. A concrete example would be Espio with a ninja village, Blaze's monarchy government, GUN organization (probably would have to be animal converted now) with Rouge and Shadow working there, etc. I'd be careful for most of them always hold a diplomatic-style of relation rather than always bending over to Sonic (or the current hero). This is something Archie tapped on.

This would also mean that there would be a variety of villains/antagonists, more importantly not related to Eggman. More interestingly, I'd prefer antagonists to not be one-dimensional and have people understand the other side of the conflict if they choose to. This would likely mean that something has to be done to justify Eggman's actions. Plus, diplomatic-style of relationship would lead to being able to craft scenarios that would sour relationships and have that faction become the antagonist. The opposite would be true too. In a way, I'd love to genuinely have cooperation with Eggman again, similar to what has been done in SA2.

Lastly, I'd introduce a mythology where Gods and powerful beings exist. I've always wondered why the concept of elements were not introduced with the presence of Chaos Emeralds as a concept of gems of power. Each one of them would be attributed an element and would enable its wielder to use its power. Though to even the power share a bit I'd probably make it so all gems have a degree of potency instead of just the 7 ones we know. Some beings would need to rely of them while others less so (ie: all rubies would give some fire power depending on their quality). That would make the powerful being that is Sonic more believable and have opportunity of equal opposition/collaboration of similar forces. In this case, Sonic would be character with innate wind power. This is also something that early games have tried to touch on but never developed (SA2 with Sonic's wind moves, Sonic Heroes with Knuckles' fire punches, possibly Marine's). This would even/balance the scale of power, since Sonic, Blaze and especially Silver are very hard characters to write in a believable way since they are uniquely powerful (something Ian and Evan have stated before). I'd replace the wispon-powered weapons with gem-powered instead too as it sounds a little better.

A lot of these ideas may not be able to be demonstrated well in games (as we know), especially Sonic ones. It even reduces the focus/power/importance of Sonic himself, but more on Sonic's world which I think would be good for the franchise as a whole. If money/public interest was there (because that's really one of the main reasons for not expanding the series more), it would not be Sonic front-focus all the time, but a Marvel super hero-like handling of the franchise.

[Wraith]

3 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Using Longclaw and ROuge over Knuckles and Shadow is pretty LOL, but I appreciate the audacity of it. 

Everyone needs to be suggesting shit like this. Bring it

[Yoshman]

3 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Using Longclaw and ROuge over Knuckles and Shadow is pretty LOL, but I appreciate the audacity of it. 

It's more Metal Sonic replacing Shadow and Longclaw replacing Knuckles. And yeah, I'm one audacious bitch.

42 minutes ago, FlameStream said:

I would probably focus on making Sonic's world a little more complex and believable.

I would make (animal) civilization more visible and interactable. Right now this seems to have been handled okay in the comics, but at the moment it seems to mostly be there as background noise and not functional. It should at least show that there is an economy and social events. Taking a previous post as an example, if a character is part of a band, then live performance show should be a thing, etc. Currency would probably be rings, although probably not the size we've been seeing them in-game if it has to be shown.

Closely related to that, I would likely establish several factions, or at least show that there are factions. They would be varied in degree friendliness to Sonic (or whoever the MC is). More importantly, Sonic's friends would not always be in full agreement with him since they's identify more with one of those factions. This would open up the possibility of confronting him in a more believable way. A concrete example would be Espio with a ninja village, Blaze's monarchy government, GUN organization (probably would have to be animal converted now) with Rouge and Shadow working there, etc. I'd be careful for most of them always hold a diplomatic-style of relation rather than always bending over to Sonic (or the current hero). This is something Archie tapped on.

This would also mean that there would be a variety of villains/antagonists, more importantly not related to Eggman. More interestingly, I'd prefer antagonists to not be one-dimensional and have people understand the other side of the conflict if they choose to. This would likely mean that something has to be done to justify Eggman's actions. Plus, diplomatic-style of relationship would lead to being able to craft scenarios that would sour relationships and have that faction become the antagonist. The opposite would be true too. In a way, I'd love to genuinely have cooperation with Eggman again, similar to what has been done in SA2.

Lastly, I'd introduce a mythology where Gods and powerful beings exist. I've always wondered why the concept of elements were not introduced with the presence of Chaos Emeralds as a concept of gems of power. Each one of them would be attributed an element and would enable its wielder to use its power. Though to even the power share a bit I'd probably make it so all gems have a degree of potency instead of just the 7 ones we know. Some beings would need to rely of them while others less so (ie: all rubies would give some fire power depending on their quality). That would make the powerful being that is Sonic more believable and have opportunity of equal opposition/collaboration of similar forces. In this case, Sonic would be character with innate wind power. This is also something that early games have tried to touch on but never developed (SA2 with Sonic's wind moves, Sonic Heroes with Knuckles' fire punches, possibly Marine's). This would even/balance the scale of power, since Sonic, Blaze and especially Silver are very hard characters to write in a believable way since they are uniquely powerful (something Ian and Evan have stated before). I'd replace the wispon-powered weapons with gem-powered instead too as it sounds a little better.

A lot of these ideas may not be able to be demonstrated well in games (as we know), especially Sonic ones. It even reduces the focus/power/importance of Sonic himself, but more on Sonic's world which I think would be good for the franchise as a whole. If money/public interest was there (because that's really one of the main reasons for not expanding the series more), it would not be Sonic front-focus all the time, but a Marvel super hero-like handling of the franchise.

A few factions add a nice nuance to the world, but there shouldn't be too many or else they could start getting in the way of the simpler, good old adventuring. If Sonic had to take into account what a dozen groups might think before he does anything, he would lose his independence - but then again, him doing what he thinks he's right at the risk of getting everyone on his case might reinforce that. Also he doesn't strike me as the type of guy who wants to get involved in all this. After the fall of Robotnik in the Archie comics, he was bored and felt useless, since the Freedom Fighters were now working on building back the Kingdom of Acorn, so he decided to get away from it all and go look for adventure with Tails.

At first, I was mixed about the idea of elements, finding it a bit cliché, but after reading it through, it makes a lot of sense for moves such as Sonic's tornadoes and Knuckles' fire fists. I can see Sonic getting his supper speed from one of the Chaos Emeralds. It would be fun assigning an element to each according to their colors.

[Kuzu]

1 minute ago, Yoshman said:

It's more Metal Sonic replacing Shadow and Longclaw replacing Knuckles. And yeah, I'm one audacious bitch.

I don't think these characters really serve the same purpose tbh; people always say "Shadow replaced Metal Sonic", but aside from being evil doppelgangers they really have nothing in common. 

If you're gonna remove Shadow to focus on Metal, then you absolutely need to give him a personality worth caring about. That's always been my biggest problem with Metal Sonic, so none of that "silent beep boop" he has. 

[FlameStream]

1 hour ago, Yoshman said:

A few factions add a nice nuance to the world, but there shouldn't be too many or else they could start getting in the way of the simpler, good old adventuring. If Sonic had to take into account what a dozen groups might think before he does anything, he would lose his independence - but then again, him doing what he thinks he's right at the risk of getting everyone on his case might reinforce that. Also he doesn't strike me as the type of guy who wants to get involved in all this. After the fall of Robotnik in the Archie comics, he was bored and felt useless, since the Freedom Fighters were now working on building back the Kingdom of Acorn, so he decided to get away from it all and go look for adventure with Tails.

Yeah, you have the right idea. I believe Sonic would be a character that would always try to remain independent (free as the wind as they say heh), as I don't really see him belonging strongly to any faction. He's more the guy that would ultimately always try to do the right thing despite what people think, and will likely try to amend the relationship later if needed.

Taking a ninja village where Espio would have ties to as en example, you'd see that kind of conflict between the two characters if he needed to grab the relic/gems they guard/value forcefully from them for the greater good.

[Yoshman]

2 hours ago, Kuzu said:

I don't think these characters really serve the same purpose tbh; people always say "Shadow replaced Metal Sonic", but aside from being evil doppelgangers they really have nothing in common. 

If you're gonna remove Shadow to focus on Metal, then you absolutely need to give him a personality worth caring about. That's always been my biggest problem with Metal Sonic, so none of that "silent beep boop" he has. 

As if you can't be both deep and silent. I prefer Metal to be silent because it makes him more intimidating and provides a nice contrast with Sonic who is, for lack of a better term, a chatterbox - think of Metal as a ghostly double of his more than a robotic one. But, most importantly, he doesn't need to, he's the kind of bot who lets his actions speak for him.

A glance or a posture can express as much as words.

 

[Kuzu]

I think my general concern with handling this series is managing things in a way that supplement it's longevity more than it currently has, and trying to make something cohesive yet open-ended enough for more flexibility.

I'll divide this up into Setting/Lore and Characterization to make my life easy. 

Setting/Lore:

Spoiler

Overall, I think the general setting we had from 1991 to 2008 is ideal; we get vague idea of where everything is, but not enough detail that they can't add to it later. The layout of these locations can change, but their general aesthetic can remain so as to remain familiar. Kind of like how Peach and Bowser's castles change appearance every game, but on a more global scale.  Angel is constantly moving around the planet, as to make it more difficult to find from outsiders. Also, Blaze governs her own continent on the planet, so as to make her easy access rather than being restricted to another dimension.

Characterization:

Spoiler

My general purposes here would be to just make the characters more "functional" for long term storytelling, as opposed to giving them arcs and then just leaving them high and dry. 

Straight out of the gate though; Sonic is the only major character, and will travel with a different characters per story arc. Which means that yes, some characters will get less screentime than others. that includes Tails and Eggman. Sonic is a character that is constantly moving and looking for new Adventure, the best way to sell that is to have him meet a whole array of characters from across the globe and learns about them. This isn't to say that older characters can't return to the spotlight, but I don't want people to have the impression that some characters have priority over others. Even Luigi gets booted from the spotlight in a lot of main Mario games, I think people can live without Tails. 

And hey, if people are tired of the other characters feeling like they're just accessories to Sonic, giving them their own lives away from him alleviates that, and it makes their appearances actually feel special as opposed to being obligations.

 

For Tails, he's constantly trying to find new things to invent and make a much faster and better plane than ever before. He prefers to stay inside and tinker, but wouldn't pass up going out if it benefited him, especially if asked by Sonic. Because he's a bit of a recluse, he's not as confident as Sonic and may even come off as a bit cowardly at times, but can and will step when push comes to shove. He will never completely grow out of his insecurities, but he'll slowly gain more confidence with time.

Amy wants to better herself, both to win Sonic's affections, but also for herself. Occasionally gets damsel'd since she's not the most capable by herself, but will be extremely defiant about it . Wouldn't be afraid to speak her mind about certain things even if it causes problems, and always more focused on the micro problems to contrast Sonic's larger than life adventure seeking ways. 

Since Angel Island is constantly on the move, not many can easily find it, except Knuckles of course. Because of this, he can occasionally leave his post to clear his head, but is still extremely paranoid and anxious and generally prefers to stay on the Island. He won't hesitate to join the fray when there's an actual danger present however.  He takes his duties a bit too seriously, but is also kind of awkward when dealing with others. His simple-minded nature makes him genuinely kind however and has a strict sense of honor an fair play. 

 

Eggman has a bit more clout with the general public than being a maniacal supervillain, due to selling his technology to people and making a buck off of it. People know he's bad news, but see him as a necessary evil for their lives to function. He wants to takeover both to satiate his own ego, but also because he genuinely feels like HE's the best one to lead and that only he knows what's best for others.  Will avoid conflict with Sonic if he can help it, but can't help but appreciate the challenge in taking him down comes in.

 

That's just off the top of my head, I'll be here all day if I do the rest of the cast.  

38 minutes ago, Yoshman said:

As if you can't be both deep and silent. I don't like it when Metal talks because it makes him more intimidating and provides a nice contrast with Sonic who is, for lack of a better term, a chatterbox - think of Metal as a ghostly double of his more than a robotic one. But, most importantly, he doesn't need to, he's the kind of bot who lets his actions speak for him.

A glance or a posture can express as much as words.

 

When you have a main character who speaks as much as Sonic does, there is only but so much character that you can gleam from a character that can't speak at all. Actions speak louder than words sure, but words make things clearer and easy to understand. I'm not saying Metal needs to be a chatterbox, but giving him a few sentences and phrases here and there can go along way than just not talking at all.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Personally, I’d start with expanding the Great Civilization lores.

The First is a precursor. Don’t have full details on that.

The Second Great Civilization would be the Babylonians that arrived and got stuck on the planet, becoming naturalized over countless generations.

The Third Great civilization would be the Zeti, beings with powers that alter certain aspects around them, such as the technomancy of the Deadly Six. I’d also include characters like Naugus as part of this group, with his power being Crystalmancy instead.

The the Fourth and most recent Great Civilization would be the Echidnas, who underwent a sort of civil war between the Knuckles and Nocturnus tribes that resulted in the Knuckles Tribe being wiped out by Chaos in the midst of their quest for power, and the Nocturnus being snatched from existence by Argus and placed in the Twilight Cage for being too powerful.

I’d flesh out certain details, and have them established as precursor forces whose artifacts like the Master and Chaos Emeralds are being fought over to the modern day of Sonic and Eggman’s time.

[Wraith]

wrt the "fourth great civilization" talk I see on here.
 

The other takes are valid, but I've basically adopted this as my interpretation of it. Sonic's current world is the fourth version of the world the gods created, canonizing offshoots like the "Classic timeline" Archie and Boom that don't fit with the main continuity.  Maybe you can consider my take on Sonic as the fifth great civilization. 

Why did they feel the need to recreate the world? I'm still thinking about that, but one thing I've considered is that Sonic is completely mortal and already established as content with the idea of death. Wouldn't Eggman be the opposite? If he found some unnatural way to outlive Sonic, or anyone who could feasibly oppose him, he could win, in which case it's time to reset and try again. 

[Meta77]

5 hours ago, Kuzu said:

I think my general concern with handling this series is managing things in a way that supplement it's longevity more than it currently has, and trying to make something cohesive yet open-ended enough for more flexibility.

I'll divide this up into Setting/Lore and Characterization to make my life easy. 

Setting/Lore:

  Reveal hidden contents

Overall, I think the general setting we had from 1991 to 2008 is ideal; we get vague idea of where everything is, but not enough detail that they can't add to it later. The layout of these locations can change, but their general aesthetic can remain so as to remain familiar. Kind of like how Peach and Bowser's castles change appearance every game, but on a more global scale.  Angel is constantly moving around the planet, as to make it more difficult to find from outsiders. Also, Blaze governs her own continent on the planet, so as to make her easy access rather than being restricted to another dimension.

Characterization:

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My general purposes here would be to just make the characters more "functional" for long term storytelling, as opposed to giving them arcs and then just leaving them high and dry. 

Straight out of the gate though; Sonic is the only major character, and will travel with a different characters per story arc. Which means that yes, some characters will get less screentime than others. that includes Tails and Eggman. Sonic is a character that is constantly moving and looking for new Adventure, the best way to sell that is to have him meet a whole array of characters from across the globe and learns about them. This isn't to say that older characters can't return to the spotlight, but I don't want people to have the impression that some characters have priority over others. Even Luigi gets booted from the spotlight in a lot of main Mario games, I think people can live without Tails. 

And hey, if people are tired of the other characters feeling like they're just accessories to Sonic, giving them their own lives away from him alleviates that, and it makes their appearances actually feel special as opposed to being obligations.

 

For Tails, he's constantly trying to find new things to invent and make a much faster and better plane than ever before. He prefers to stay inside and tinker, but wouldn't pass up going out if it benefited him, especially if asked by Sonic. Because he's a bit of a recluse, he's not as confident as Sonic and may even come off as a bit cowardly at times, but can and will step when push comes to shove. He will never completely grow out of his insecurities, but he'll slowly gain more confidence with time.

Amy wants to better herself, both to win Sonic's affections, but also for herself. Occasionally gets damsel'd since she's not the most capable by herself, but will be extremely defiant about it . Wouldn't be afraid to speak her mind about certain things even if it causes problems, and always more focused on the micro problems to contrast Sonic's larger than life adventure seeking ways. 

Since Angel Island is constantly on the move, not many can easily find it, except Knuckles of course. Because of this, he can occasionally leave his post to clear his head, but is still extremely paranoid and anxious and generally prefers to stay on the Island. He won't hesitate to join the fray when there's an actual danger present however.  He takes his duties a bit too seriously, but is also kind of awkward when dealing with others. His simple-minded nature makes him genuinely kind however and has a strict sense of honor an fair play. 

 

Eggman has a bit more clout with the general public than being a maniacal supervillain, due to selling his technology to people and making a buck off of it. People know he's bad news, but see him as a necessary evil for their lives to function. He wants to takeover both to satiate his own ego, but also because he genuinely feels like HE's the best one to lead and that only he knows what's best for others.  Will avoid conflict with Sonic if he can help it, but can't help but appreciate the challenge in taking him down comes in.

 

That's just off the top of my head, I'll be here all day if I do the rest of the cast.  

When you have a main character who speaks as much as Sonic does, there is only but so much character that you can gleam from a character that can't speak at all. Actions speak louder than words sure, but words make things clearer and easy to understand. I'm not saying Metal needs to be a chatterbox, but giving him a few sentences and phrases here and there can go along way than just not talking at all.

exactly this. And this is why i loved neo so much. It gave metal a voice after years although he said a total of like 3 lines till the final fight. But unless you keep him in classic era going forward than metal needs a voice. a cast that talks as much as they do currently a silent villian that buzzes and beeps only goes so far for a action story. In classic where story honestly hardly exist at times it be fine.

 

As for rebooting the series it is not a easy one page answer. one of the MAIN reasons it is not or at least here is EVERY fan has their own view on what they think makes sonic well sonic. some fans just want sonic, some fans dislike shadow and want less of him, some fans think shadow being an actual antihero to sonic is out of character, some think the series needs to entire archie cast to still come over to expand the large cast more than it is already, some want more animal characters, some want more humans, some want comedy, some want darker stories. It is not a simple answer cause no matter what they do it is impossible to please everyone. That is a common issue many long time series run into. another example are current cartoon reboots a lot of the time.

[Sulver Studios]

Just one thing I would change for a potential sonic reboot,

remove clothing from the girl characters 

It just doesn’t make any sense, they are animals, animals don’t wear clothes, also, the males don’t wear clothes, so why does the girl characters wear clothes

[Piko]

12 hours ago, Sulver Studios said:

It just doesn’t make any sense, they are animals, animals don’t wear clothes

Animals also don’t run at the speed of sound breaking every robot they pass...as far as I’m aware.

[Guest]

On 3/24/2021 at 9:23 AM, Sulver Studios said:

Just one thing I would change for a potential sonic reboot,

remove clothing from the girl characters 

It just doesn’t make any sense, they are animals, animals don’t wear clothes, also, the males don’t wear clothes, so why does the girl characters wear clothes

That's why my female OCs don't wear clothes either tbh. But also I don't sexualize anthropomorphic underage cartoons so.

[OmegaSonicX]

first i'd remove pretty much everything that made it confusing. this means the following games will no longer be canon at all:

• Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
• Sonic Colors
• Sonic Generations
• Sonic 4 Episode 1 & 2
• Sonic Lost World
• Sonic Mania
• Sonic Forces

some concepts like Shadow working at G-U-N would be reapproached, like maybe Shadow being forced to work at GUN, other things are changed like Soleanna becoming part of the Sol Dimention, now being Blaze's Kingdom, and Classic Sonic as an entity separate from Modern Sonic being retconned, and many modern retcons like the moon turning arround or Sonic being from another world ala Sonic X would also be retconed, now there are humans and animal people in the same world, wich would be further emphazised by adding some animal NPC's among the humans in possible Adventure remakes. the world itself would use the american name, Mobius, to emphazise the fact Sonic doesn't really live on our earth. and thus the anthros are now reffered to as Mobians.

the new continuity would also pull from other media, the Parlouzer family from the manga, Uncle Chuck from SatAM, Cosmo & The Metarex from Sonic X, the President from the OVA etc. would be part of the canon now, of course adapted to fit the SEGASonic universe.

[MetalSkulkBane]

9 hours ago, OmegaSonicX said:

first i'd remove pretty much everything that made it confusing. this means the following games will no longer be canon at all:

• Sonic Colors

Colors confusing?

I'm confused. And I still think that removing selected parts of continuity can only lead to more confusion.

[Wraith]

Most of these games were huge sellers and everyone has a favorite so they've already registered as having happened to most people. Some games you're probably fine just delisting and ignoring (Sonic Chronicles, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rivals might as well not have happened at this point) but most of these are pretty embedded in the public consciousness I think.

I would probably need to come up with a much cleaner way of de-canonizing than just picking and choosing. I'm not even sure how you would get information like that across.

 

[OmegaSonicX]

7 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Colors confusing?

I'm confused. And I still think that removing selected parts of continuity can only lead to more confusion.

i included colors because it leads into Generations and i simply didn't like the plot and characterization in that, it also introduced the wisps, wich were fine but are now overexploited, i woudn't feel sad if colors is left out.

i also disagree, not only retconing plotholes out would make it less confusing because most of the games i mentioned either

• introduce plotholes that completely mess up continuity, such as Sonic 06 implying Blaze is from the future, when she was from another dimention in the previous game
• copmpletely screw over the characters such as Tails' characterization in Lost World and Forces.
• introduce concepts and characters that just don't fit Sonic as a series like the Wisps or the Deadly Six

retconing several if not all of the mandates would also make the world make more sense or give more room for storytelling such as

• The Two Worlds thing, if you retconned Earth and Sonic's World into just being mobius, then it gives more freedom and makes the overall worldbuilding feel less disjointed and more streamlined and simple, it would also make stuff like Shadow's backstory less confusing. so instead of Sonic & Friends constantly having to jump between dimentions/planets/whatever they'd just have to go somewhere.
• stuff that takes away all realism and inmersion such as Currency not existing
• stuff that limits storytelling and creativity such as Characters not being able to emote too much or not being able to change clothes.

and finally instead of feeling like "picking and choosing games people didn't like" it feels more like retconning an era for the sake of better storytelling" for example Shadow the Hedgehog is still canon since it both developed Shadow's character and fixed plotholes SA2 had, but Forces isn't because of the bad writting.