Anyone else want an origin story of some sort?

[Rally the Cheetah]

I have to agree with the No side on this one. As other have pointed out making origin stories is not Sonic Teams forte and even if they made up a good one it'd change how everyone views Sonic. As it is Sonic Team seems to avoid answering things like this in the games and suggest Sonic himself

(go to 3:56). Sonic is one who lives in the present, and even if he were given a chance to find out more about himself he wouldn't take it (unless maybe he was really bored and had some free time). Why should he? He is who he is and that's all he really cares about. Edited April 7, 2010 by Rally the Cheetah

[Dr. Mechano]

As far as origin stories, I'd love to know what drove little Ivo Robotnik into becoming the supervillain madman Dr. Eggman. While it's likely the murder of his grandfather played into that, something tells me there's more to Eggman's descent into madness than that alone.

Unless you want to assume he's always been plotting to conquer the world since childhood in typical cliched evil villain fashion, but that's kinda lame. I'd like to think Eggman went from a fairly normal person to the crazed villain he is today due to some epiphany that utterly shook his worldview and led to his desire for conquest of the globe.

[Blue Blood]

As far as origin stories, I'd love to know what drove little Ivo Robotnik into becoming the supervillain madman Dr. Eggman. While it's likely the murder of his grandfather played into that, something tells me there's more to Eggman's descent into madness than that alone.

Unless you want to assume he's always been plotting to conquer the world since childhood in typical cliched evil villain fashion, but that's kinda lame. I'd like to think Eggman went from a fairly normal person to the crazed villain he is today due to some epiphany that utterly shook his worldview and led to his desire for conquest of the globe.

Clichéd and boring? Check! Seriously, that's a pretty run of the mill story you have there.

I don't want to know why Eggman's a villain any more than I want to know what Jo Brand looks like in a thong. He's the baddie because SEGA said so. That's the way it is, and I don't ever want it to change.

Edited April 8, 2010 by Blue Blood

[LunarEdge]

Didn't the Archie story explain it somewhat? Like animals evolved faster due to this black cloud/shroud of smoke that covered the Earth for years, evolving the animals faster to resemble the likes of humans? The animals or w/e called the planet Mobius, while the humans called it Earth and in the end they were both the same planet? Seeing how animals tend to be faster then us humans, them evolving to be the same size of humans (or bigger) it's only natural that Sonic is faster as he is isn't it? (are hedgehogs even fast animals?).

My origin would be that Eggman/Robotnik was a human who was always criticized or looked down upon because of his Grandfather, but he saw his grandfather as a great man (SA2B) and wanted to be smart like him and etc. The chaos Emeralds are well-known where Eggman is from and he steals them from an government holding area after being denied usage of them by the Government and GUN to harness the energy of the emeralds to build a base to better help him build his true goal, the Death Egg, a work similar to that of the Ark (his grandfathers legacy). The emeralds are stolen and Eggman escapes to South Island, an island never visited by man before, in order to work on this project without the interference of the Government and GUN. Fearing that he may have been followed or will be found in the future, he starts making the badniks as a way to prevent anyone from interfering. Having to use a majority of his resources to build Scrap Brain Zone, a factory to better help him develop the Death Egg, he uses the animals of South Island as energy sources to power his robots. Little did Eggman/Robotnik know, this island inhabits animals of all kinds, those that are normal, human-like (Sonic) and etc. A brown Hedgehog catches whim of whats going on and realizes the robots. He barely manages to destroy one to see that an animal friend of his comes out of it. While out trying to catch more animals, Sonic comes across Eggman and tries to stop him, but his lack of speed and experience, is almost bested but manages to snatch an emerald from Eggman when he drops it in the fray. Sonic picks up the blue emerald which starts to glow and the emerald surrounds him in an aura and slowly engulfs his body, Sonic closes his eyes and puts his hands in front of his face to block the blinding light and Eggman watches. When the flash dims down, Sonic is blue. An enraged Eggman/Robotnik, now an Emerald short, attacks Sonic with a wrecking ball attached to his Egg mobile he was using previously to knock down tress and etc. to gather materials for his badniks and base. Sonic, with fear in his eyes, runs out of the way in a flash. Sonic sits there for a second shocked that he can move so fast... an angry Eggman/Robotnik sicks his badniks on Sonic and starts to fly away with only 6 of the 7 emeralds... seeing how he can't retrieve the 7th he moves on to finish work on Scrap Brain and then the Death Egg. Knowing that the Emeralds work in mysterious ways, Eggman/Robotnik knows that he may be able to retrieve the 7th emerald since it's bound to separate from Sonic in due time. Sonic, wanting to free his friends chases after Eggman (Enter GHZ ACT 1)...

After the game...

After retrieving the other 6 emeralds, Sonic runs alongside his friends he just freed and stops for a second. The emeralds start to glow and the blue 7th emerald separates from Sonic, but being part of him for such a time, Sonic stays blue and retains his speed and the Chaos Emeralds split apart. Sonic realizing that the Emeralds have scattered, is happy knowing that for the time being his friends will be safe. Having a chaos emerald bound to your being for so long has a positive effect on Sonic, which allows him to control the chaos emeralds in many ways (Super Sonic, Chaos Control, etc.) and sense/use their power from a distance.

hows that for an origin XD

Edited April 8, 2010 by Lunar

[Blue Blood]

Why is Amy pink, Lunar?

Edited April 8, 2010 by Blue Blood

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

the Archie story

Archie Sonic is at best a parallel universe and has no bearing on game canon. The same is true of Fleetway Sonic and the well-known origin story in the 90s novels.

This topic is discussing a strictly game canon origin story - otherwise it couldn't be used in the games at all without opening a sea of canned worms - which if anything would make references to the original Japanese manuals for the original Genesis trilogy games and existing game content from across the nearly 20 years of the franchise.

Personally, I feel that Sonic deserves a canon origin story - and in fact the oddities of the franchise as a whole need explanations in such a manner that the game universe is enriched by it rather than belittled - but I don't pursue that belief because at the same time I don't believe SEGA has the talent to do it justice anyway.

[LunarEdge]

Why is Amy pink, Lunar?

The Chaos Emeralds separated and showered the Island with it's glory, affecting all the animals in some sort of way (positive of course).

Don't call me on things I came up with that story out of the blue XD

Archie Sonic is at best a parallel universe and has no bearing on game canon. The same is true of Fleetway Sonic and the well-known origin story in the 90s novels.

I wasn't trying to say that the archie story is connected with the game, I was simply saying how it happened in the comic, or at least that's what I heard. I wasn't trying to connect it to the games. Sorry

Edited April 8, 2010 by Lunar

[Blazey Firekitty]

As far as origin stories, I'd love to know what drove little Ivo Robotnik into becoming the supervillain madman Dr. Eggman. While it's likely the murder of his grandfather played into that, something tells me there's more to Eggman's descent into madness than that alone.

Unless you want to assume he's always been plotting to conquer the world since childhood in typical cliched evil villain fashion, but that's kinda lame. I'd like to think Eggman went from a fairly normal person to the crazed villain he is today due to some epiphany that utterly shook his worldview and led to his desire for conquest of the globe.

Come to think of it, Ivo is rather unique, since, as of Sonic Adventure 2, he's one of the few recurring Sonic characters to have an origin, even if it's not complete. We know that Maria was his cousin, and that Gerald was his grandfather, and that young Ivo idolized Gerald.

I tend to think that Gerald's death was what drove Ivo from a normal, cheerful, idealistic child to a supervillain bent on dominating the world...Sort of a "If the world is not just, then I will take it over and make it just" kind of thing.

Of course, that's not canon, so, like you, Mechano, I'd definitely like to see Eggman's origin fleshed out.

It's interesting how all of Gerald's progeny that we've seen(Maria, Shadow, Ivo), have all ended up meeting some tragic fate, yet have all ended up bringing hope of them, somehow. Shadow has developed into a hero over time, Maria's dying wish was not spoken in vain, and Ivo has shown that he has a heart underneath the madness, even if he continues his villainous ways.

[Blue Blood]

The Chaos Emeralds separated and showered the Island with it's glory, affecting all the animals in some sort of way (positive of course).

Don't call me on things I came up with that story out of the blue XD

And the Echidnas? They've existed for millennia.

lol, I'm using you're example to point out why explaining such wouldn't work.

[LunarEdge]

And the Echidnas? They've existed for millennia.

lol, I'm using you're example to point out why explaining such wouldn't work.

why am I the test subject for your experiments aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! lol

They lived with the Master Emerald didn't they? The powers enriched in that thing can control the chaos emeralds so one would imagine what it has done to the echidnas.

[Blue Blood]

why am I the test subject for your experiments aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! lol

They lived with the Master Emerald didn't they? The powers enriched in that thing can control the chaos emeralds so one would imagine what it has done to the echidnas.

Where'd the Master Emerald come from? How come the descendants of the Babylonians 'evolved' in the same way? Frickin' alien genies, man! Is Jet the lovechild of Shara and Shadow?

Edited April 8, 2010 by Blue Blood

[Meow]

About all this talk on an Eggman origin story, or a story like this in general is "WHY?" Why do we need to know the backstory when personally I believe it is going to drag the experience down. Sonic is a fast paced game, with a blue hedgehog that can run at whatever the hell speeds he likes, a best friend who can fly with his tails, and an echidna with spikes on his hand who glides and doesn't afraid of anything. I think having minimal backstories works, because it is a cartoony game and it just works better like this without having a bunch of heavy story in it. Unleashed had a story, but its something I'd call far from heavy, something light and comical and didn't try to overexplain backstories (well, until the end...its like the end of the game tried to shift the tone and that was a beef I had with the story). Eggman is the badguy, we don't need more explanation than what we already have.

If they choose to disperse little bits of info here and there in various games, fine, but I'd rather them not go all out with origin stories. We already have had two origin stories sort of. Shadow's is tied to elements he shares with what would probably be Eggmans story anyway in some aspects, meaning Eggman is just gonna take on Shadow's mess of a backstory as well. I actually like the fact that Eggman is somewhat mysterious, if they try and add too much baggage to him I think it is going to lessen the comical values of him. Same goes for Sonic, I like the fact that we don't know entirely about his history. He just fights Eggman and thats that. Knuckles is another character with so much backstory to him too, even though his backstory is less about him and more about his tribe...same thing. It got real messy too until Chronicles kind of pieced it together.

Whatever happened to just simplicity in a game? Why does every game need to have some epic storyline that has to try and explain everything? Sure I'd expect that out of a final fantasy game, or any other RPG really because thats what genre I'm going in for.

[Flyboy Fox]

I agree. Eggman doesn't need explaining any more than Sonic does, and particularly not with a boring and clichéd villain origin story like the ones suggested so far ^^; It's interesting to learn about the characters as we go along, but there's no need for anything deeper than that. The games are fast paced, as are the characters, and it suits them to not be too deeply dissected. If you want in-depth character histories, RPG genre is probably better for you than platformer. Not that platformer genre can't have depth and character development! But it slows it down when you spend too much time building up the past instead of going forward - and Sonic is all about going forward (:

[Badnik Zero]

My main problem with this is - Sonic is a platforming mascot. Ever since the invention of the superhero in comic books, the first thing you cover is the origin story. Why is this guy superpowered? For Sonic it shouldn't matter, because he's not a flippin' superhero. Every time he transforms and does a dance like a super sentai ranger, he loses his cartoon appeal and crosses into shonen-superhero territory. The series shouldn't take itself so seriously to have to explain something like why hedgehogs talk and run. A platformer mascot doesn't need a backstory. While I've come to love other story incarnations of Sonic, like Archie - I would never want it to cross over into game canon. Well except for maybe the OVA, but that had a silly yet epic adventure feeling to it that fits Sonic perfectly. More owls please.

Edited April 8, 2010 by Pinche Pitochu

[TimberWolf]

no

/thread

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I think a strong reason why Sonic wouldn't easily do well will having an origin story is that there has been absolutely nothing to hint of his past.

For some series, they start off from the past and then to the present while occassionally delving into the future. Like Spider-man for example. I'm not too informed on how the comics started off, but the movie started off with how he got his powers to transforming into the hero he is by fighting his very first super villian.

For those that start off in the middle and then want to explore the past, they give of a subtle hint of something that makes others wonder what they're talking about at first. Like Devil May Cry, the first game mentions Dante and Vergil on the amulet the character wheres and you eventually figure out that one of the bosses you fight is Vergil himself and he has an amulet just like the player's character, so you begin to wonder how in the world did he get one. Then DMC3 explains that by showing Dante and Vergil in their "Sibling rivalry".

Sonic, on the other hand, doesn't have any of those two. He just started off as how he was. So I wouldn't particularly want an origin story myself, and if they do decide make one I would question if they could pull it off.

But making such a story either way you go would put the hedgehog in a whole different light from what he already is. And I'm not sure it'll do him any good.

Edited April 8, 2010 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[SykoTech]

I don't know. There weren't any hints of Ratchet's past in the PS2 games. Or Clank's, aside the fact that he was a factory malfunction. Yet I felt Insomniac Games made pulled off their origin stories in the PS3 games very well.

I wouldn't mind an origin story for Sonic, as long as it wasn't crap. Given Sonic Team's storytelling skills for the last few games and the way they handled Shadow's backstory, I'd rather not chance it. A crap backstory would leave permenant mark on Sonic, unless they rebooted the franchise.

Or I guess they could just ignore it. Like wha there doing with Blaze...

[Blazey Firekitty]

The games are fast paced, as are the characters, and it suits them to not be too deeply dissected. If you want in-depth character histories, RPG genre is probably better for you than platformer.

I guess my personal stance is that, while I wouldn't mind an expanded back-story, I'm currently down with the whole "episodic independence" thing that the series currently has going. In my mind, the characters don't need their personalities to change, or need to have their pasts explained, but they do need to at least have flexible enough personalities that we see a slightly different side of them in each game.

That's part of why I like the concept of the Storybook Series so much...We get to see what the cast might be like if they had the same basic personalities, but ended up being born in very different settings.

[LunarEdge]

Where'd the Master Emerald come from? How come the descendants of the Babylonians 'evolved' in the same way? Frickin' alien genies, man! Is Jet the lovechild of Shara and Shadow?

where'd the chaos emeralds come from? Did the world start with a big-bang or GOD!? and Yes Jet is the love child of Shara and Shadow XD

If you ask every little question about every little detail about everything we'll get nowhere. In my origin story I said animals came in many forms (human-like or actual animals). Also, I could care less about characters like Jet since they were introduced in Riders and I saw them as other characters to play as... never really cared about their origins plus it's kinda explained in the game anyway.

[Glenn]

Hmm. Casino Royale, Batman Begins, Star Trek... and another reboot?!

The origin story I adhere to when it comes to Sonic (and indeed, once wrote a version of, in my currently-suspended fan fiction) is that he was the unfortunate result of a failed experiment at the hands of, yep, Dr. Robotnik. That's what was published in Sonic the Comic, wasn't it, over here in Sunny England? I like that idea. It isn't quite an "I am your father!!" copy but also introduces a lovely element to the relationship between hero and foe. Especially if you consider Robotnik was unaware of what he'd created, until that first day in Green Hill Zone and that first Badnik went "pop"...!

In a game, would it work? Hmm. Opening cutscene only, alas. Which would then mean a remake of Sonic the Hedgehog.

And that's another minefield entirely.

[Flyboy Fox]

The origin story I adhere to when it comes to Sonic (and indeed, once wrote a version of, in my currently-suspended fan fiction) is that he was the unfortunate result of a failed experiment at the hands of, yep, Dr. Robotnik. That's what was published in Sonic the Comic, wasn't it, over here in Sunny England? I like that idea. It isn't quite an "I am your father!!" copy but also introduces a lovely element to the relationship between hero and foe. Especially if you consider Robotnik was unaware of what he'd created, until that first day in Green Hill Zone and that first Badnik went "pop"...!

And you don't find that horribly generic and cliché... at all? Also, how does it explain the OTHER characters (many of them!) with powers? Sonic's never once given any indication that Eggman did anything like that to him, which would make it INCREDIBLY unbelievable if it were suddenly claimed.

As you even say, it's fanfic material... but personally, I hope to the heavens that it NEVER sees the light of day in the games ^^;

[DaBatGuy]

Honestly the only character I think NEEDS a origin story is Knuckles simply because his very existence is a plothole in itself. This is one thing I was really excited to see in Sonic Chronicles as it seemed to hint at explaining the demise of the Nocturne and Knuckles clans and eventually the origins of Knuckles himself in the now canned sequel. Unfortunatly it's probably best that Sega/Sonic team don't try to pick up wear Bioware left off lest we want another Shadow saga.

[Blazey Firekitty]

Technically, at least from what I can gather, whether or not Sonic's speed in Fleetway was a result of Robotnik/Kintobor's experiments is kinda ambiguous. I mean, granted, after Sonic was running on that treadmill and accidentally blew it up, he turned blue. And there was that one weird "Sonic No More" strip where Robotnik stole both Sonic's speed and his "blueness", implying that he only became super fast when he turned blue. But as far as I know, there's never been anything that outright stated that the whole "explosion gave Sonic his speed" thing may just be in Robotnik's head. Sonic had to have been running really, really fast in order to blow up the treadmill in the first place, so what's to say, besides the somewhat questionable "stealing Sonic's powers" story, that Sonic didn't have supersonic running powers back when he was brown?

And it's not like there hasn't been a precedent set for Robotnik being wrong...In Amy's origin story, he thought that Amy's fighting skills were a result of absorbing Chaos Energy, but in truth, all it did was make her look different...she'd been able to leap, dodge, and aim a crossbow long before she got blown up.

[Badnik Zero]

Beyond explanations for powers, it just gets into complicated territory. Does Sonic have parents? Does Tails - he's supposed to be eight years old. So why does Cream have a mother instead of the others? Who the hell raised Knuckles - was he just living in the bush scrounging for berries the first ten years of his life?

[Blazey Firekitty]

Beyond explanations for powers, it just gets into complicated territory. Does Sonic have parents? Does Tails - he's supposed to be eight years old. So why does Cream have a mother instead of the others? Who the hell raised Knuckles - was he just living in the bush scrounging for berries the first ten years of his life?

In Tails' case, I personally think that's it's possible that he has parents, but that they do not play as large a role in his life as one might think since he matured at an alarming rate.

In the case of Knuckles, I generally tend to assume that he had a mother and father, but that they died when he was young, only telling him enough about his culture that was necessary for him to play his role as Guardian.

Come to think of it, since Blaze is a princess, her parents should technically be alive, but we never see them. Maybe it's one of those Princess Peach style situations.