Theories of Sonic

[Unknownlight]

Oh no, not this topic again...

Never fear! This time, we're going to try to get this right. We'll try our best to not let it fall into a chaotic mess of absurd fanon (although, I am soon going to make an argument as to why Silver may be Shadow's son. I hate myself as much as you do. Bear with me here). I've decided that probably the best way to make a topic like this work is, rather than just have it be a free-for-all, I'm going to make it so the first post has enough substance to, hopefully, keep the discussion going, even if it takes a while for people to come up with their own theories to talk about.

Okay, let's start with my own theories. These are all "original", though I almost certainly adapted them subconsciously from the many theories I've heard from fans over the years. These are ordered from most-to-least-likely that Sega would accept it as an "explanation".

I don't pretend that any of this is or should be canon. This is all just for fun.

Q: Why can the Sonic characters breathe in space?

A: This is actually a fairly easy one. In the Sonic universe, there's air in space. Specifically, air in space is about as thin as very high mountain ranges (climbing Mount Everest in real life requires an oxygen mask to make it to the top, due to the thin air. I estimate the air in outer space in Sonic's world is slightly more dense than that). Due to there being much more available atmosphere for Earth's gravity to contain, down on Sonic's Earth the air is very, very dense. This can explain how Sonic keeps on surviving high falls in the games, and how both Sonic and Knuckles have been shown to be able to glide solely by spreading out their quills.

The difference between the high-pressured indoor area of Eggman's space fleet in the beginning of Sonic Unleashed and the low-pressured space outside was the reason why WereSonic was sucked out of the station when Eggman opened the hatch.

Q: What's the deal with rings? And Chaos Emeralds? And Super forms? And that kind of stuff?

A: I kinda gave a summary of my theories in one of the strips in my webcomic. I don't want to rewrite it. Just read here: BS Comics: Babble Battle.

I could elaborate on anything there if someone asks me to.

Q: Why did everyone mistake Shadow for Sonic in SA2? And why does Amy mistake everyone for him?

A: Okay, for this one we need to think about the Sonic characters' appearances in a different way than we usually do: What we see when we see the characters are all stylized versions of what the "real" characters look like (yes, we need to pretend that the Sonic characters actually exist for this). We see Sonic, he's a male hedgehog, he's blue and peach coloured, he has green eyes, he's three-foot-three and thin. If Sega made another character that had all these characteristics, we'd complain because the character would look like a Sonic clone. But think about real life for a moment: If you saw two people, both male, white and with short brown hair, blue eyes, six foot and average build, would you think they look like clones of each other? No! You probably wouldn't even notice the similarities, because individual people look very different, even if they have similar characteristics.

So now consider this: You know a friend that has spiky hair that's dyed blue. Later, you meet him at a store. You notice his hair has been dyed black, and the spikes have been stylized a different way. But otherwise, he looks the same as he always has. You say hi. He says "Who are you?" Turns out that who you're talking to is actually a completely different person, and only on closer inspection do you start to notice the more subtle differences between this person and your friend, besides the different hairstyle.

You see where I'm going with this?

Well, this begs the obvious question: Why does Shadow look so much like Sonic anyway? For this, I'm going to lapse into the "Shadow's design was based on the Super Sonic mural in Hidden Palace" theory. If you're unfamiliar with this theory, here's a quick rundown: Professor Gerald had studied the ancient Echidna tribe, as evidenced by the Master Emerald shrine in Space Colony ARK and the Artificial Chaos creatures. During his studies/possible travels there, he came across the mural of Super Sonic fighting the final boss of Sonic 3&K. As the echidnas believed this creature held great power, Gerald based his design of the Ultimate Life on the being shown in the mural.

I believe that, if there echidnas were able to able to predict Sonic's coming at all, I'm sure they would have a lot more murals of him than just that one. He has saved the world quite a lot of times. Possibly the other murals were detailed enough that it showed exactly what Sonic would look like, and Gerald, seeing these paintings, would try his best to recreate the figure "worshiped" by the echidnas as close as he possibly could. Shadow turned out black, not golden (like Super Sonic), due to Black Dooms blood being used.

So, now we get to Silver. Ye gods. For Silver to be mistaken for Sonic by Amy in Sonic 06, that must mean he looks very similar to both Sonic and Shadow, which means he must be a close relative to one of them. (NOOOO! NOT THIS!) Sonic is pretty much out of the question, Silver would have to be his great-great-great-great grandson or something for it to work, and by then family resemblance is...weak at best, and more likely non-existent. But Shadow doesn't age, he could theoretically live forever. Mephiles even shows Shadow himself in the future, imprisoned in that energy-cage-thing.

Silver would have to be very closely related to Shadow for the resemblance to be strong enough, which means that the most likely thing is Silver is Shadow's son. This both fits in the game, with Shadow and Silver teaming up (and Silver learning Chaos Control way too fast for it to not be in the family), and symbolically: Shadow and Silver are coloured black and white. One's a brooding, somewhat angsty pessimist who puts out an air of selfishness, while the other is a naive optimist that has a strong sense of justice. It fits with other father/son duos, like Darth Vader and Luke.

Q: Who is Sonic the Hedgehog? Why is he a hero?

A: ...You don't want to ask that.

Oh, you do?

Darn.

My theory is that Sonic is the true guardian of the Chaos Emeralds, though he doesn't know it. Hear me out.

In Sonic's universe, there is a Master Emerald. The Master Emerald can control the Chaos Emeralds, which means protecting each individual emerald is unnecessary. But in Blaze's universe there's no equivalent to the Master Emerald, there's no "Master Sol", there's nothing. Blaze has to protect each and every one of the Sol Emeralds. It doesn't make sense, the two universes are shown to be parallel in all other ways. If there's a Master Emerald in one, shouldn't there be a Master Emerald in the other?

This is reason to believe that the Master Emerald is an artificial creation. Most likely it was created by one of the previous protectors of the Chaos Emeralds, so that s/he could use it to control the emeralds even if they were stolen. Chaos 0 was one of the previous protectors of the Chaos Emeralds, maybe it made the Master Emerald, maybe not.

The point is, though, the echidnas knew that the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald were powerful, and Chaos 0 was their guardian. Once Chaos 0 was sealed in the Master Emerald, the echidnas who hadn't been killed in Chaos's attack realized that the emeralds needed a protector, and it was their fault Chaos 0 wasn't around to do it. So they decided that they would protect the Master Emerald themselves (who cared about the other, tiny emeralds? Obviously the big one is the most powerful, it's the only one that needs protecting). That there was actually a "real" protector that the job should have been passed onto was forgotten.

(As a side note, the chao were always living around the Chaos Emeralds back in the echidna days. Could it be that the echidnas originally called the emeralds "Chao's Emeralds", and the apostrophe was forgotten over time?)

So, why would Sonic be the "true" protector of the emeralds? Well, for one he's the protagonist of the series. But besides that, there's a few other pieces of evidence. In general, Sonic Rush implied that Blaze was Sonic's counterpart and vice-versa. Blaze is the protector of the Sol Emeralds, so it could be argued Sonic is implied to be the protector of the Chaos Emeralds. As another point, Sonic seems to have the best natural control over chaos energy than anyone else in the series, even though he rarely displays that talent (with the exception of constantly going Super). How quickly did he learn Chaos Control again? And with a fake emerald (something that even Shadow, a being built to use chaos energy, was surprised by).

If Sonic is naturally drawn to protecting the emeralds, that could also help explain why Sonic's always so drawn to stopping evil plots, especially the ones that involve the Chaos Emeralds. Not to say that Sonic wouldn't do it anyway—Sonic's the type that helps out anyone no matter what—but for a person like him, travelling the world, he's just happens to be there whenever trouble arises awfully frequently.

This is best shown in Sonic Rush Adventure. Help is needed in another universe. What happens to Sonic? He's dragged over to said universe. What's the explanation? The Chaos Emeralds did it. The emeralds wanted him there. Sonic's drawn to stopping emerald exploitation whether he wants to or not, because he's their protector. And what happens later, when Tails makes the machine that will send them back home using the power of the Chaos and Sol Emeralds? He says that the emeralds, which usually should be reacting with each other right now and making things difficult, are instead very stable and working perfectly. Why? It's not really explained in the game, but I theorize that the Chaos and Sol emeralds were behaving because Sonic and Blaze were there. Their protectors.

It all works in my mind, at least.

So there! I'm done. Argue with me about my theories, or post your own!

A link before I go. This a very interesting thread on Sonic Kingdom that goes into a lot of detail on a lot of things in the Sonic universe. Please check it out, especially if you found any of what I wrote interesting: Sonic Plot Analysis 2

[Blue Blood]

Q: Why can the Sonic characters breathe in space?

A: Rule of cool.

Q: What's the deal with rings? And Chaos Emeralds? And Super forms? And that kind of stuff?

A: How many other fantasty/sci-fi universes have random objects of power? They're just cool

Q: Why did everyone mistake Shadow for Sonic in SA2? And why does Amy mistake everyone for him?

A: Because Shadow is supposed to be a dark Sonic.

Q: Who is Sonic the Hedgehog? Why is he a hero?

A: Because he's cool.

...

I hate explanations for that which doesn't need to be explained. I just don't see the fun in it. Take things at face value.

What you say about there being no Master Sol Emerald is just speculation. The subject has never been brought up, and moreover the ME has never even been mentioned in any game with the Sol Emeralds. Silver learning Chaos Control too quickly for it not to be in his blood? How come Sonic can use it then? And Biolizard? Now let's talk about the air, water and space issue. Actually, let's not and just accept that it's done to be cool.

[Mr. Awesomest]

My master theory:

Everyone has an EXACT counterpart, just off in times. You know how Eggman Nega and Blaze exist in the future, when they also exist in the Sol dimension? Simply put, Future (Sonic's Dimension, housing the Chaos Emeralds, as compared to Blaze's dimension, housing Sol Emeralds.) Nega and Blaze's dimensional counterparts are Sol Nega and Blaze. Same thing with everyone else. Where along the timeline does this leave the majority of the Sonic cast in the Sol Dimension? Since the time Nega and Blaze live with Silver is 200 years into the future, it's easy to say that, in Blaze's dimension, Sonic and Eggman would have lived in the 1800's. Yes. MK called it. Steampunk Sonic and co.

Not only is it an easy fix, the Machine Island level in Sonic Rush Adventure gives some backing that stuff was like that once upon a time, and it's a fun answer, too.

[Unknownlight]

I hate explanations for that which doesn't need to be explained. I just don't see the fun in it.

Edited July 13, 2011 by Unknownlight

[Blue Blood]

And I do. So, I'd prefer it if you didn't deliberately try to ruin others' fun, since I know that a lot of people do like theorizing.

[Mauro Fonseca]

The only theories I have are connecting Rivels, Rush and 2006.

Blaze is from the future in 2006. She gets sent to another dimension, with Iblis in her. When Solaris removes time, she's affected because she has Iblis in her, but she's already on another dimension so she doesn't get dragged back. Once time is rewritten and Solaris never exists, she ends up becoming a natural part of said dimension, without Iblis for there is no more Iblis.

Eggman Nega is from the future. In Rivals 2, he gets trapped in another dimension with Ifrit, and when he manages to escape he accidentally ends up not in Sonic's world but in Blaze's, having also time traveled because demi-gods and dimensional travel. So he assumes the role of Eggman's counterpoint.

Basically, Eggman Nega meets Sonic in Rivals, but Sonic meets Nega in Rush, in which point Nega already knew him despite it being before Rivals.

Fanon errywhere, but I think it works and is the simplest way to connect it all.

EDIT: Actually, two theories that are easier to connect:

1- Mr. Awesomest's. I like it.

2- Blaze's world is actually the good, correct future that Silver causes, but neither Sonic, Eggman or Blaze realize it. The Sol Emeralds are the Chaos Emeralds with another name, and likely another cut.

Edited July 13, 2011 by The KKM

[Unknownlight]

Sonci doesn't guard the Master Emerald. In fact, he's only given two shits about it on one occasion.

[Blue Blood]

...Sorry, but I legitimately don't know what point you're trying to make here. I'm probably just not thinking straight, back can you clarify?

[Spooky Mulder]

My master theory:

Everyone has an EXACT counterpart, just off in times. You know how Eggman Nega and Blaze exist in the future, when they also exist in the Sol dimension? Simply put, Future (Sonic's Dimension, housing the Chaos Emeralds, as compared to Blaze's dimension, housing Sol Emeralds.) Nega and Blaze's dimensional counterparts are Sol Nega and Blaze. Same thing with everyone else. Where along the timeline does this leave the majority of the Sonic cast in the Sol Dimension? Since the time Nega and Blaze live with Silver is 200 years into the future, it's easy to say that, in Blaze's dimension, Sonic and Eggman would have lived in the 1800's. Yes. MK called it. Steampunk Sonic and co.

Not only is it an easy fix, the Machine Island level in Sonic Rush Adventure gives some backing that stuff was like that once upon a time, and it's a fun answer, too.

I've been saying this all along and was about to post it here when you beat me to it! Finally, someone who agrees with me!!!

Only point I disagree on are Sonic&Co living in the 1800s in Blaze's world. I think Sonic lives in the same spot in time in both universes and Blae&Co live 200 years after that in both universes.

Since this whole time-travel, universe jumping thing is kind of confusing, I made a visual timeline for those interested:

The black timeline represents the now defunct Sonic Next Gen timeline.

The green timeline represents the main timeline with the Chaos Emeralds which replaced the black timeline

The red timeline represents the timeline in Blaze's universe with the Sol Emeralds.

Blue arrow shows Sonic&Co traveling.

Purple arrow shows Blaze&Co traveling.

[Unknownlight]

My point being, if Sonic is the true protector of the emeralds but doesn't bother with the ME, why would it be any different for Blaze? She's the protector of the Sol Emeralds.

Because part of my idea was that Sonic should be the one whose supposed to be protecting the Master Emerald, he just doesn't know because the echidnas took over.

And has since been copied by every man and his dog. Sonic uses it with a fake Emerald, and Eggman is even able to use it with a machine to shatter the world in Advance 3.

So far, though, the only characters that have been shown using it also have Super forms or something similar. So it could be connected.

I never played Advance 3. He used Chaos Control to shatter the world? That...doesn't sound like Chaos Control.

EDIT: Heh, I like that graphic, SaneScully.

Edited July 13, 2011 by Unknownlight

[Diogenes]

I guess I'll ramble on a bit about how I think the emeralds work.

The Genesis games never really bothered giving any explanations for anything regarding the emeralds, so there's no reason to linger there, and we can skip ahead to SA, where they do give us stuff to work with. And I won't bother talking about the Super Emeralds, since they don't seem to exist in canon.

There are two main points of interest in SA. First is Tikal's incantation: "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart. The controller serves to unify the chaos." Second comes from Tails in Super Sonic's story: "Chaos only used the negative power of the Emeralds. Sonic, you should be able to harness their real power!" The two main things to take from this are that the emeralds' power is connected to the user's heart, and that there are two kinds of energy granted by the emeralds, negative and positive (aka the "real" energy Tails talks about). The user's heart determines what energy they get; Chaos, in his rage and sorrow, got negative energy, while Sonic, with his optimism and desire to protect, got positive.

The next game of note is ShtH. This one's kind of interesting in that it's the game mechanics rather than the story that reinforce the above. You've got two meters to fill with energy, Dark and Hero, aka negative and positive. By causing destruction and giving in to his thoughts of revenge, the darkness in Shadow grows, and thus the emerald(s) grant him negative energy, which allows him to use the destructive Chaos Blast. By protecting the Earth and doing what little he can to restore it, he is granted positive energy, allowing him to use the...rather neutral Chaos Control (to be honest I can't really think of anything overtly positive they could have given him either). The final boss is kind of interesting, in that he's free to fill both bars while in his Super form; makes me wonder if perhaps the "real power" Tails was talking about was actually using both...

Last is Unleashed, which basically revolves around the concept even if it isn't stated overtly. The game ties together light, Light Gaia, positive energy, and positive emotions, and similarly for their counterparts, darkness, Dark Gaia, negative energy, and negative emotions. The Gaias are likely anthropomorphic manifestations of positive and negative chaos energy (Light Gaia even appears as a glowing energy ball, when Chip meets the rest of himself), given that Dark Gaia was woken early by a hefty dose of negative chaos energy, courtesy of Eggman. Sonic was also "infected" by this energy, turning him into the werehog when it was at its strongest; like Dark Gaia itself, its power ebbed and flowed in time with day and night. And throughout the game you meet people whose personalities change from day to night, becoming depressed or rowdy at night as they're preyed on by Dark Gaia's spawn and returning to normal when the light chases them away. Sonic himself likely would have been prey to this same cycle, if not for his incredibly strong will.

And assorted other things:

Chaos Energy: What "chaos energy" actually does/can do is deliberately vague. This way it can be used for whatever the writers want to happen. Taking this at face value, while the emeralds can be used as a simple power source, their true power is in altering reality based on the user's will. For example; Chaos wanted to smash and destroy, to make others suffer as he and his chao friends did, so he became a(n even bigger) monster. Super forms are likely some form of "I need more power to protect the world", which manifests as being nigh-invulnerable, with their usual abilities turned up to 11. Sonic's apparent ability to grant his friends shields/Super forms after going Super himself is due to his belief in the REAL SUPER POWER OF TEAMWORK!

Shadow: There's an interesting bit in ShtH that I'm not sure is intentional, but in either case is very fitting; although the game gives you an emerald very early on in the first stage, apparently to justify your chaos powers, it's not actually necessary; you can start building up energy before you get it (I've heard you can actually fill your Dark bar, if you try hard enough), and as the Last story shows, Shadow's able to use his chaos powers just fine without an emerald on hand. Given this, I'd say it's a fair guess that Shadow is essentially a living chaos emerald, able to convert his own emotions into power directly (if possibly not as effectively as an actual emerald).

Chaos Control: Specifically the time-space warping stuff; this doesn't seem to fit either the generic power source aspect or the "do what I wish" aspect (while this certainly would be able to cause the space-time warping, and I'm inclined to use that for the time travel in '06, I'm not sure why Shadow would have warping space-time as a general desire). This could simply be another aspect of the emeralds' power, perhaps related to their tendency to end up in special stages.

The Master Emerald: The Master Emerald's in an odd spot; it's barely been used since the Adventures, and if I had to guess I'd say the writers would like to get rid of it. But I'm not convinced it's been written out like the Super Emeralds were (if only because it was still around when the Age of Plot started), so I'll keep it in. SA established it as "the controller" of the seven, and it was able to stop Chaos' rampage and seal him away in SA, and stop the emeralds from powering the ARK in SA2, but aside from that and being really powerful, it's not really clear what its deal is. It's been compared to an on-off switch for the emeralds, but I'm not convinced that's accurate; it wouldn't explain how Chaos was sealed away, for one. To throw an idea out; "the controller" in Tikal's incantation isn't actually referring to the Master Emerald specifically, but to anyone or anything that can use the emeralds properly. The Master Emerald could be a way to use the emeralds for people who can't do so directly. It has the same power to control them as Sonic, Shadow, etc, except it takes commands from others rather than having its own will (Tikal asking it to stop Chaos being the big one, but also Knuckles asking it where the rest of its shards were and it showing him the Egg Carrier). If this is true, it's likely artificial, created by some civilization which predates even the echidnas...although that's getting into fanfic territory. Also it's possible that the Master Emerald doesn't contain/create any chaos energy itself, but merely draws it from the other emeralds.

Tails' fake emerald: Definitely an odd one; science is sticking its nose into vague mysticism. I don't really have much to say about this besides that the emeralds' mystic powers obviously aren't mystic enough to prevent science from getting in on the act.

Sol Emeralds: Counterparts to the Chaos Emeralds, similar but not identical, in the same way the Eggmen and Sonic and Blaze work. It's not entirely clear what about them is different, tho', besides the shape. The name seems to imply some connection to the sun, and Burning Blaze seems to back this up, but I'm not convinced. I say Blaze is "Burning" because she's already a pyrokinetic and the emeralds simply enhance this (same as they do for Sonic's speed). The name could come from anywhere; the Chaos Emeralds were apparently named after Chaos' rampage (where specifically they got the name from I don't know, but it's not because they are inherently chaotic), so perhaps there was some similar event in the past in Blaze's world, except with a fiery creature.

Rings: Rings seem to be just a gameplay element. Their connection to the emeralds is inconsistent; there's usually the 50-and-7 thing going on, with the rings acting as your time limit, but sometimes you're required to get the 50 before you can transform (in mid-gameplay), sometimes you're granted 50 when you transform (in-story, before a boss fight), and in some rare cases you don't even have that (Unleashed HD is the only one that comes to mind; rings just fill your health bar. Maybe you've got the equivalent of 50 rings of health when you start, I dunno). And given that rings don't come up in the story except in a tutorial sense, I think they can safely be treated as gameplay elements.

I never played Advance 3. He used Chaos Control to shatter the world? That...doesn't sound like Chaos Control.

Sure it does. Warp this piece over here, warp that piece over there...

[#EndyGate]

My theory about Eggman Nega and Blaze is that when Blaze took herself off of the timeline from 06 it was permanent and did in fact happen, and was teleported to the Sol Dimension where some random prophecy put her in place as princess/queen, but also lost her memory of the events in 06. Later after the events of Rush Adventure, Nega ends up going to the future when he tries to find where Blaze actually came from and believes that if he destroyed that location then he would effectively destroy Blaze as well, but then shit goes down and it all falls apart.

[Sonictrainer]

Eggman is even able to use it with a machine to shatter the world in Advance 3.

and Sonic Unleashed.

......wait a minute...

Edited July 13, 2011 by STrainer

[Octarine]

Woah, words and words.

...couldn't the Jewelled Scepter from Rush Adventure theoretically be the Master Emerald's Sol counterpart? I don't remember the exact dialogue surrounding it, but wasn't it something that Blaze was supposed to have been protecting? It definitely had enough power to fit, and it's all gem-y and stuff.

[Double Agent Motobug]

Also it's possible that the Master Emerald doesn't contain/create any chaos energy itself, but merely draws it from the other emeralds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZTilOWAo_Y

I'm pretty sure the Master Emerald has some sort of power in it.

[Unknownlight]

Shadow: There's an interesting bit in ShtH that I'm not sure is intentional, but in either case is very fitting; although the game gives you an emerald very early on in the first stage, apparently to justify your chaos powers, it's not actually necessary; you can start building up energy before you get it (I've heard you can actually fill your Dark bar, if you try hard enough), and as the Last story shows, Shadow's able to use his chaos powers just fine without an emerald on hand. Given this, I'd say it's a fair guess that Shadow is essentially a living chaos emerald, able to convert his own emotions into power directly (if possibly not as effectively as an actual emerald).

I liked your post. Anyway, if my memory serves me, I think Shadow explicably stated in Sonic Battle that you don't need Chaos Emeralds to use chaos energy, they merely enhance its power.

Sure it does. Warp this piece over here, warp that piece over there...

Oh, did that really happen in the game?

..couldn't the Jewelled Scepter from Rush Adventure theoretically be the Master Emerald's Sol counterpart? I don't remember the exact dialogue surrounding it, but wasn't it something that Blaze was supposed to have been protecting? It definitely had enough power to fit, and it's all gem-y and stuff.

Hmm. The Jewelled Scepter was never exactly explained. (To be honest, the entire Last Story of SRA seemed to be made up on the spot.) Apparently, the "Power of the Stars" was some sort of energy that binds the Chaos and Sol dimensions together, and the Jewelled Scepter was a "key" to that power—basically saying the power's usually locked away, and the Scepter is the only way to get at it.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the "Power of the Stars" is the Star Pieces from the Mario RPGs, and the Jewelled Scepter is the Star Rod.

[Your Vest Friend]

Man, I must have had loads of theories in the past, but I've pretty much forgotten them all.

...Except the one where Anton Brooke was pseudo resurrected via Vector in Heroes, but that's one's just so obscure.

I guess it's because Sonic fans as a whole have so many theories that I end up choked out in the mass. I have a couple of corker theories when it comes to Crash, for example (Koala Kong originally being a boss in CTR, and Komodo Moe being the failed deforemd offshoot of Joe), but nothing like the technicalities of breathing in space where it just comes under game-convenient physics.

[Gamenerd]

In my head, Rings have simply been physical manifestations of "Chaos Energy"; Chaos Energy originates from a dimension between Sonic's and Blaze's worlds, a dimension that the Special Stages take place in (the "Special Zone" if you want to call it that). That said, "Chaos Energy" is something of a misleading title for the energy Rings are made of, because in my head, the Sol Emeralds possess this same kind of energy. Incidentally, so do the Chaos Rings from Chaotix, having been infused with excess energy or something of the sort.

It's the best theory I can think of for Rings and the Special Stages (they've never really elaborated on what they are, have they?) without spiralling off into sheer fanfiction territory.

Edited July 13, 2011 by Gamenerd

[Mr. Awesomest]

Fuckin' Rings. How do they work?: Rings, upon collection, are absorbed into your body. While they're there, they have a force field like effect that gives Sonic and others the ability to get shot and run off, recollecting the rings, but they also have a significant amount of suppressed energy. They act like a shield of armor that doesn't get in your way, and as long as you have rings, you can recreate the rings. Because you can carry a thousand rings and not feel a thing, they've become quite popular forms of currency, although fights tend to become "Run around in circles" contests than actual fights. The reason you need fifty to go Super Sonic is that the Chaos Emeralds use the repressed energy from within the rings as something to kickstart the Emeralds into full power.

[Koopalmier]

Why can Sonic and co. breath in space ?

I don't think they can. They may just, you know, hold their breath. A bigger question would be "Why do they not explode in space ?". But I think it's because their body is much stronger than for normal humans - after all, not a single Sonic character has been shown to not have more skills than any human.

Why are there Rings everywhere ?

I think that Rings are generated randomly at random locations in the world by the Chaos Emeralds. Probably bursts of Chaos energy in materialized form that the emeralds evacuate. It's used as money, but people who are strong enough to control any bit of control of Chaos energy can go as far as absorb them and become stronger. In Sonic's world, anthropomorphic animals are apparently stronger than humans, anyway.

Why does Sonic always get the role of hero ?

Same theory as the TC's, actually.

Why can Sonic run so fast without being burnt and without touching bugs ?

Going with the idea that Sonic is the protector of the Chaos Emeralds, I think that he can manipulate Chaos energy to create a bubble around him that makes him untouchable. That's why he can Boost by getting Rings.

What about Blaze and Eggman Nega ? What's their story ?

I think that it goes like this for Blaze:

- Blaze is born in the "bad" future.

- Blaze is sealed in the nearest dimension alongside Iblis.

- The events of Sonic '06 are canceled, the "bad" future is canceled too.

- Blaze is re-born with Iblis as a princess in another world that follows another timeline (so that years in that world are, like, weeks in Sonic's). As such, she has fire powers. However, that Blaze can't completely contain Iblis, so the fire monster's remaining part goes in that world's Chaos Emeralds equivalents, that become the Sol Emeralds. Because Blaze is born on the same day that world's Emeralds became the Sol Emeralds, she receives the role to become their guardian.

- In the "good" future of Sonic's world, Eggman Nega is born as Eggman's descendant. He has a bad reputation because of his ancestor's failures, so he goes back in the past and tries to take over the world while being disguised as Eggman. At the same time, that "good" furue's Silver goes back in the past too because he thinks Nega is up to something bad (I assume Nega has a time travel machine and Silver used it while Nega was gone in the past). In the end, Nega is sealed in a card by Silver, and Silver returns to the future with him.

- Nega escapes from his card and goes back in the past AGAIN, this time to awaken the Ifrit from another dimension, and use it to destroy Sonic's world. Silver goes back in the past as he's aware of this. In the end, Nega is sealed with the Ifrit in this other world (which is actually Blaze's) and Silver returns to his time.

- Then the Sonic Rush series happens.

So, in the end, Silver isn't the Silver from Sonic '06 (as the future was changed) and Blaze isn't the Blaze from Sonic '06 (as she was reborn in another world). And Eggman Nega was originally from the future, but was sealed in Blaze's world. Also, Burning Blaze is the complete form of Blaze+Iblis.

And about the Chaos Emeralds' inconsistencies ?

- Sonic The Hedgehog (and its Game Gear counterpart)'s 6 Chaos Emeralds: the 6 emeralds were on South Island for centuries (well, they were in the Special Stages, but those locations of the "Special World" could only be accessed on South Island), but the seventh one wasn't there. As such, the island became filled with Chaos energy and constantly moves (that was explained in the Japanese manual for that game, I think). That explains why Green Hill Zone is at the east of Central City in SA2, and at the north of it in Sonic Chronicles (as for the other parts of the island... I guess they weren't shown because they weren't relevant to the story). Um, anyway... I think that the lack of the seventh emerald is why the six other emeralds suddenly separated at the end of the game. The seventh one wasn't there, so they couldn't adapt to each other (see Sonic X).

- Sonic The Fighters' 8 Chaos Emeralds: Maybe Nack simply had a false Emerald but nobody noticed ? Or, when Eggman cloned the character you play as (let's say it's Sonic), he also cloned a Chaos Emerald. But it'd have created problems, so I think there was just a fake Emerald.

- The Blue Emerald problem in Sonic '06: I'm just going to go with the idea that with the emerald being taken back in time, it meant there was just a 8th Chaos Emerald (that didn't create problems because it never crossed the path of the other emeralds). However, as the events of Sonic '06 came near, both blue Chaos Emeralds (or is it the Light Blue one ? My memory sucks) became a single one because - well, they were the same one to start with, but there were two of them, that's all. They don't exactly follow the same rules of time and space as other objets, so the two Emeralds would've just became a single one because the event of the Emerald being taken back in time was coming near. Was that clear ?

How does Super Sonic work ?

Before answering, I'll say this: Sonic could make use of Chaos Emeralds better than before in Sonic Adventure (Sonic Pocket Collecton if you think it's canon): his eyes became green. Classic Super Sonic's eyes were green too. Could that mean Modern Sonic's eyes will become red later ? I think so.

Now, for the actual answer.

When Sonic collects 50 Rings (which are Chaos power), his body becomes a good host for the Chaos Emeralds. So, they de-materialize and enter his body as raw power. In SA2, his body already contained enough Chaos energy so he didn't need 50 Rings (he used Chaos Control not long before), while in other games I guess he already had 50 Rings on him. In Sonic Adventure he didn't need 50 Rings, the positive power of people was enough power to make him a host for Chaos Emeralds.

And, well, when Sonic has no more Rings left, his body becomes too weak for the Chaos Emeralds, so the emeralds just get out of him and materialize again.

Edited July 13, 2011 by Koopalmier

[Diogenes]

I'm pretty sure the Master Emerald has some sort of power in it.

[Unknownlight]

As a note, to the two who theorize that Eggman Nega was originally born in the future, and then later went to Blaze's universe, I disagree. Nega was a very stable, cunning evil character in the Sonic Rushes, and completely batshit insane in the Rivals. At the end of Rush Adventure, Nega seemed to snap after losing so many times and tried to blow up the planet. I think that was a good way to connect the Rush version of Nega to the Rivals version, though it means that the Rivals would've had to happen afterward.

[Chaos Warp]

Q: How does sonic do the homing attack?

(This one has baffled me and i only have thought of this recently)

A: When he spins, he spins so fast that if he makes a extremely small and not visible(at least white spinning at super speed) movement with his spikes, he can push the spinning air back and dash forward, sort of like a sideways propeller.

Q:Where do the characters keep the chaos emeralds when they are carrying them?

A: They absorb them inside of them, the same why they do with rings.

[Koopalmier]

As a note, to the two who theorize that Eggman Nega was originally born in the future, and then later went to Blaze's universe, I disagree. Nega was a very stable, cunning evil character in the Sonic Rushes, and completely batshit insane in the Rivals. At the end of Rush Adventure, Nega seemed to snap after losing so many times and tried to blow up the planet. I think that was a good way to connect the Rush version of Nega to the Rivals version, though it means that the Rivals would've had to happen afterward.

Maybe he's mentally weak and snapped after havings his plans being canceled although they almost succeeded. Twice.

He doesn't seem to be okay with the idea he doesn't win. He went as far as trying to change the past, then trying to... wait, why did he try to unleash the Ifrit ? If it was to destroy the world, that pretty much means he's insane. Anyway, so he can't accept it when something counters his ideas, and while Eggman just goes "Bah ! I WILL win next time ! I never lose, anyway !" Eggman Nega rather goes like "I didn't win ? Good, then I'll just destroy the world. It'll prove my point."

And he didn't appear to be "batshit insane" in the first Rush IMO. More polite and cunning than Eggman, yes.

Edited July 13, 2011 by Koopalmier

[Sonictrainer]

Q:Where do the characters keep the chaos emeralds when they are carrying them?

A: They absorb them inside of them, the same why they do with rings.

That's what I believe as well.