IDW Sonic is now canon

[DaBigJ]

From Ian Flynn himself

Guess there's now a high likely hood that Tangle, Whisper and other IDW characters could appear in more material. Who knows, maybe we could get a Movie version of the characters?

[Kuzu]

Haha fuck you Belle.

[DaBigJ]

What did Belle do wrong

[GX -The Spindash-]

We're missing the important question here:

How does this effect the Sonic Stadium Database?

[Waveshocker Sigma]

I want to see Belle seethe at Sage for winning Eggman's love and affection as his pride and joy. It'd be glorious.

[Diogenes]

It's a pretty cautious statement. I feel we're more in a situation of, "we're going to try to keep things aligned so that you can think of them as a shared canon", not "we are deliberately weaving them together into a single canon".

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

6 minutes ago, Waveshocker Sigma said:

I want to see Belle seethe at Sage for winning Eggman's love and affection as his pride and joy. It'd be glorious.

Honestly, would she really care so much? Given how Mr. Tinker is who she likely cares more for.

[Waveshocker Sigma]

1 minute ago, Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon said:

Honestly, would she really care so much? Given how Mr. Tinker is who she likely cares more for.

Considering she still calls Eggman "Father" (And you just know they're not done with her relationship with him given how he acted in their last interaction), I can see her still caring if she wishes she didn't.

That said, I'll mainly look forward to fanart of Belle as the "red-headed step-child". I'm just being silly, don't worry about it.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Just now, Waveshocker Sigma said:

Considering she still calls Eggman "Father" (And you just know they're not done with her relationship with him given how he acted in their last interaction), I can see her still caring if she wishes she didn't.

That said, I'll mainly look forward to fanart of Belle as the "red-headed step-child". I'm just being silly, don't worry about it.

So either way, family reunions are gonna be awakward.

Poor Belle's likely gonna have a meta reason to be jealous of Sage, since she's already way more popular with fans than Belle.

Being the canon coming of Eggette likely helped with that.

[The Tenth Doctor]

Oh boy, this will not please Shadow fans. They are still bitter over the whole "Cowards run. I win." thing. If he is 100% the same in game, well they'll be livid.

Having Tangle canon is a win though. The world needs more Tangle.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I definitely consider having Sticks canon a win as well.

Just now, The Tenth Doctor said:

Oh boy, this will not please Shadow fans. They are still bitter over the whole "Cowards run. I win." thing. If he is 100% the same in game, well they'll be livid.

Having Tangle canon is a win though. The world needs more Tangle.

I wonder if they're going to take a filtered approach to shoot-out some of those bad character moments. 

[Kuzu]

21 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

It's a pretty cautious statement. I feel we're more in a situation of, "we're going to try to keep things aligned so that you can think of them as a shared canon", not "we are deliberately weaving them together into a single canon".

This is basically my thoughts; people are setting themselves up inevitable disappointment. 

 

What's actually gonna happen probably is that the games are going to continue doing their own thing and Flynn has to somehow spin the comics to make sense of Sega's bullshit. 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Nothing to be upset about, but I kinda figured we were headed this direction. I doubt we'll be seeing huge story or character overlap from the comics to the games unless SEGA really wants Tangle and Whisper for something, but I'm glad to see it nonetheless. I hope this opens up some doors for either the comics or the games to tie in old and new plot elements, even just minor ones.

Also, complaining about Shadow because of this is silly. Not only has he sucked on the games for years anyway, but if you thought he was somehow better there than whatever SEGA wanted him to be in the comics, there's no reason to assume those comics being canon is going to impose that version onto the games. Either it'll get better or stay the same as before.

[Indigo Rush]

The writing was sort of on the wall with this when Tangle and Whisper made playable appearances in Sonic Dash; even as a spin-off mobile game, that's not a small deal. 

My thoughts? Alright. Now do something interesting with it. I don't have any salt-on-snail aversion to Sticks either, but what I want to see is some kind of light retcon or, heck, I'll take a comic, showing how the comics and games are the same continuity and timeline, now. Also... explain how Sticks is introduced in this universe, for that matter. Just needs one comic. A paragraph, even. Something.

Spoiler

For the Database 

That's not asking for much, I don't think. Word of God is one thing, but having a piece of media to cite for this sort of thing is going to be almost necessary for me to fully accept it. I'm okay with the concept, but they need to commit. 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Wow that's HUUUUUGE.

Well, big.

Slightly above average.

This is veeeery cautious proclamation based on very easily miss-able line of dialogue. When you think about it, nothing really didn't changed since last month, expect that we can be a little smugger I guess.

Words mean nothing. Not until we have some real crossover, like Tangle appearing in non-phone game. And I guess I'm minority but I don't want Tangle or Whisper if Shadow, Blaze or Chaotix will suffer. They need screen time too.

[Red Hot Jack]

This is absolutely a win because most of the game cast is really well written in the comics, they have time to breathe in this format, a lot more than in the games, it's only a good thing IMO, Shadow is the way he is in all media, it's just the games Shadow, yeah.

Now this is the time to bring Sticks in the comics, I suppose, she was already part of the Olympics, Runners, Channel wallpapers and bios, the 25th anniversary comics, obviously during the Boom period but it was clear they wanted her in the main universe, since she was designed by Sonic Team, she is a SEGA character and honestly deserves a lot better characterization than whatever was the way Boom cartoon used her, aka meta jokes and silent cameos.

Also, if you are a game fan who doesn't care about the comics, you DON'T have to read them now, they are minor stories part of the canon, Iizuka did say he wanted to unite the Sonic universe, which means Prime will also be canon, I think cohesion is a good direction, you don't have to play every game or read every comic, they didn't even say the comics are now required to understand the games, maybe only minor references. We aren't gonna see Belle or Surge in the games, or Tangle and Whisper overthrone the likes of Blaze and Silver for example, there is already a bloated cast to use in spin-offs, probably they will be cameos.

Anyway, that said, I didn't expect this to happen in the slighest, Iizuka probably saw the success and popularity of the comics, how good they were and decided to make them canon, good... unexpected but good.

[Kuzu]

If they really wanted to leverage this, they could use this as an opportunity to highlight characters who don't get much screentime in the games.

So you can keep the focus on Sonic and whoever while comics focus on everyone else.

[Raya]

Finally.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 hour ago, Indigo Rush said:

My thoughts? Alright. Now do something interesting with it. I don't have any salt-on-snail aversion to Sticks either, but what I want to see is some kind of light retcon or, heck, I'll take a comic, showing how the comics and games are the same continuity and timeline, now. Also... explain how Sticks is introduced in this universe, for that matter. Just needs one comic. A paragraph, even. Something.

  Hide contents

For the Database 

That's not asking for much, I don't think. Word of God is one thing, but having a piece of media to cite for this sort of thing is going to be almost necessary for me to fully accept it. I'm okay with the concept, but they need to commit. 

Given the implications of Frontiers' ending, I'm guessing Sticks is either gonna show up in the comics or games first (either way, she'll eventually show up in both), and we'll probably get some backstory on her.

Or, who knows? Maybe the powers that be will publish a new encyclopedia detailing how the characters fit in now.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I’m sorry, but I do not want IDW’s version of Shadow to be even close to the games if they’re going to keep doing bullshit like they did with him in the Metal Virus arc.

They’ve done him better than that, even in his worst game portrayal (and that is saying a lot).

[StaticMania]

2 minutes ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

They’ve done him better than that, even in his worst game portrayal...

I feel like the stakes could only make his portrayal in Free Riders seem better by comparison.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

9 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

I feel like the stakes could only make his portrayal in Free Riders seem better by comparison.

It's not really the stakes I have a problem with, it's the attitude...or rather, the emphasis over Shadow being stubborn and stupid rather than pragmatic. Much like how they once portrayed Knuckles.

None of Shadow's pride prevents him from being pragmatic--I figured the Ultimate Lifeform would be at least intelligent and resourceful as he boasts his pride to show off what a badass he is rather than be insulted because someone gave him useful advice. Sorry, but his actions in the Metal Virus arc really left an absolute sour taste in my mouth over how they're handling him.

[Razule]

I'm curious how long this will be sustainable. The games are going to keep doing whatever they want, and the comics have to follow suit. Eventually primary media overrides whatever expanded universe material there is. Unless Sonic Team is even more mindful of the comics than I thought and are going to be specifically watching out to not contradict them.

[Kuzu]

32 minutes ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

It's not really the stakes I have a problem with, it's the attitude...or rather, the emphasis over Shadow being stubborn and stupid rather than pragmatic. Much like how they once portrayed Knuckles.

None of Shadow's pride prevents him from being pragmatic--I figured the Ultimate Lifeform would be at least intelligent and resourceful as he boasts his pride to show off what a badass he is rather than be insulted because someone gave him useful advice. Sorry, but his actions in the Metal Virus arc really left an absolute sour taste in my mouth over how they're handling him.

I've recently come around on it...not in the sense of liking it mind you, but in the sense that its just one poorly written moment and nothing more.

I don't think its particularly fair to hold one bad moment over the entire character. Its like when Tails fans never shut up about the Forces scene until Flynn addressed it in Frontiers.

 

But I guess this really comes down to the fact that Shadow hasn't done anything of note since then...ironically because of how much backlash that moment got and none of authors even wanting to bother trying to navigate the minefields surrounding him.

 

 

 

Sucks.

[Darkvizardberrytan]

Finally. Glad that the IDW are finally confirmed canon to those that fought long and hard to say it wasnt. Given the name drops in game. Going forward I am excited to see what all happens. More of the comic cast showing up in future games one day. More characters in spin offs. Man what a time to be alive.