#sega mandates

[radiantrookie]

SEGA Mandates explained with their exceptions (Old)

Edit: (Plan on remaking this with a better format and sources, along with ones I missed)

Edit 2: Here's the New One

Game characters cannot have family members unless they were established in the game canon (Because Archie went overboard).

Game characters cannot be killed off.

Sonic cannot cry or get too emotional.

Exception: Sonic Prime didn't follow this rule despite being canon.

The terms Mobius and Mobians are banned, during the early 2010s, Earth was called "Sonic's World" because they wanted to appeal to 90s Boomers who hate Sonic living on Earth without calling it Mobius, it died down later though.

Exception: Ian Flynn has stated SEGA recanonized Sonic Spinball, which takes place in Mobius, so it exists somewhere in game canon, Veg-O-Fortress even has a cameo in Sonic Origins, Ian also stated Spinball takes place in between Sonic 3 and Knuckles and Sonic 3D Blast.

The heroes must always win at the end.

Characters and elements from Non Canon media cannot be used, Cosmo and the Metarex were potentially allowed to appear but according Ian Flynn, they're off the table now, the Metal Virus serves as a replacement for Robotization, Eggperial City serves as a replacement for Robotropolis, Restoration serves as a replacment for the Freedom Fighters.

Exceptions:

Sonic liking Chili Dogs (90s Cartoons)

Eggman's "I hate that Hedgehog!" and "Snooping as usual" lines (Aosth)

Scratch and Grounder appear in Eggman's livestream in one of the covers for IDW 40

Sonic's "Let's do it, to it" line (Satam)

Sonic being referred to as the "Fastest thing alive" (Satam)

Sonic Spinball being canon again, somwhat canonizes Sally, Bunnie, Rotor, Muttski and Scratch, Ian Flynn has clarified they're just cameos for now but could be a backdoor to make them canon if SEGA chooses to (Aosth, Satam, Archie)

In one of the covers for IDW 31, Storm's mugshot mentions he was arrested by the Knothole Village Police (Satam, Archie)

Tails being afraid of lightning (OVA)

Knuckles's cowboy hat (OVA)

Vector's crush on Vanilla (Sonic X)

Cream's favorite show, the NEXT Show (Sonic X)

The Chaotix Office building appears in the Sonic Channel Comics (Sonic X)

Sticks the Badger appears in the Sonic Channel Comics and is mentioned in English Sonic Frontiers (Sonic Boom)

The Eggnet has been canonized in both IDW and the Games (Archie)

The GUN Commander's name, Abraham Tower (Archie)

Bark being mute (Archie)

Bean and Bark working with Fang as a trio, Sonic even calls them the Hooligans (Archie)

Sally and Bunnie cameo in one of the Sonic Forces prequel comics with their Archie designs (Archie)

Shadow's Chaos Spear being shaped like an actual spear that he can throw or use as a melee weapon (Archie)

Badniks from Sonic Mega Drive appear in Classic IDW (Archie)

The term, Super Badnik (Archie)

Male characters that aren't humans, can't wear pants.

Exception: Tails Nine is allowed to wear pants.

Classic Era characters aren't allowed to appear in Modern Era and vice versa, during the 2010s there was the Two Dimensions retcon because of it, however they later removed it, Team Chaotix are also not allowed to appear in Classic because they considered Sonic Heroes to be their first appearance, however Knuckles Chaotix was recanonized in Tailstube, in the same episode, they acknowledge Mighty, Ray and Fang's Gang and teased a Modern Trip, recently, SEGA is considering retiring Classic Sonic after the disappointment of Sonic Superstars.

Exception: a Classic Froggy appears in various Sonic PICT artwork

Only one Metal Sonic is allowed, not multiple (They must really dislike Shard and Metallix)

Exceptions:

Metal Sonic 3.0 from Sonic Rivals 2

Chaos Sonic and Grim Sonic from Sonic Prime were allowed

Shadow: He has the most guidelines out of any character, most of them come from SEGA wanting Shadow to remain an Anti-Hero and not be too heroic, however SEGA has easied up on these with Shadow Generations

Knuckles: Knuckles is the only Echidna and only resident of Angel Island besides Chao and Baby Animals, (Ken Penders lol), Knuckles is also not allowed leave Angel Island without a reason now, prolly due to critiques with games like Heroes

Silver: Silver's Future is off limits, only SEGA can explore that, if they ever choose to

Super Forms: Male hedgehogs are the only ones allowed to go Super, this has been changed with Sonic Superstars and Otherworld Comedy.

Humans: Due to complaints from 90s Boomers, Humans besides Eggman weren't allowed until Shadow Generations

Romance: Characters can have crushes but they can't date or get married.

Money: Only Team Chaotix can talk about money

Rings: Ian Flynn was told Rings were no longer canon, however Rings appear in Sonic Prime and cutscenes in The Final Horizon, which Ian didn't know about

Special Stages: No longer canon and Fang's bio of living in the Special Stages is retconned

Off Limits Characters: These characters can only be used by SEGA/Sonic Team only:

Eggman Nega

Black Doom

Solaris (Mephiles and Iblis)

Infinite

[flame-cat]

You are Sonic the Hedgehog, and you understand how the world works.

Your job is simple. Just beat up Eggman, or whatever other evil thing is trying to take over or destroy the world, save your friends, and go home to eat chili dogs and nap.

You have a best friend named Tails who is like a brother to you, a friend named Knuckles who guards the Master Emerald[KNUCKLES IS NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE ANGEL ISLAND WITHOUT A GOOD REASON], and a friend named Amy who[CHARACTERS MUST NEVER ENTER ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS. AMY SHOULD STILL BE IN LOVE WITH SONIC]... who uh...

Is your friend. Anyway.

You also have other friends, like the Chaotix- Charmy Bee, Vector the Alligator, Espio the Chameleon, and Mi[CHARACTERS FROM THE CLASSIC ERA CANNOT INTERACT WITH MODERN SONIC]

... and that's it!

There's also Team D[TEAM DARK DOES NOT EXIST. SHADOW DOES NOT EVEN CONSIDER THEM FRIENDS]

... There's also your! Other other friends! Like Rouge the Bat, Omega, and Sha[SHADOW MUST ALWAYS BE BROODING AND CRUEL, HE IS NOT ANYONE'S FRIEND AND DOES NOT CARE ABOUT OTHERS. HE AND SONIC ARE RIVALS]

... and... your rival, Shadow the Hedgehog.

There's also Blaze the Cat, who get this, is from another dimension! That's super cool! Well, when you met she tried to ki[SONIC CHARACTERS CANNOT DIE]- er, she beat you up, but that's okay because you're friends now! Same deal with Silver the Hedgehog, who came from the future. Man, you make friends like this pretty often!

Sometimes things are a little sca[SONIC CANNOT BE SEEN BEING TOO EMOTIONAL]

... Sometimes things are a bit ha[SONIC CANNOT BE SEEN BEING TOO EMOTIONAL]

... Sometimes. It. Is. Hectic! But that's okay because [THE HEROES WILL ALWAYS WIN IN THE END].

You know this. This is how the world works.

It's why you don't worry about the little things! Not how you got kidnapped and tortured by Eggman that one time, or how you always put yourself in harm's way to save everyone, or how your friends are all having their own adventures without you now! Yep! None of that bothers you!

... And even if it di[SONIC CANNOT BE SEEN BEING TOO EMOTIONAL]- which it doesn't! It doesn't! But in the hypothetical, not-at-all-true situation where someone might conceivably be stressed out by all that stuff, which you aren't, then your friends would stand by and support you through whatever hardshi[SONIC CANNOT BE SEEN BEING TOO EMOTIONAL]

... Your friends will always be by your side! Forever!

... Even if they aren't right now. Which is okay! It's all okay! They mean everything to you, but them going away doesn't hurt at all! It doesn't make you want t[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

... It do[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

... It[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

help

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

[SONIC CANNOT CRY]

"Heya Sonic! How you doing!"

"Oh, you know me! Always way past cool!"

[atwas-gaming]

Thoughts on Sega Mandates

Referencing this post, but I don't wanna hijack it, so I'm posting my thoughts separately.

"Dead characters cannot come back to life"

Shadow Generations gets by on a loophole due to time travel shenanigans.

2. Mentions that male characters can't wear pants. I think I read somewhere that female characters must always wear both a top and bottom, but it isn't mentioned here and I don't know where I got that from.

3. The whole topic of humans in the Sonic franchise is so finicky, especially since no humans other than Eggman appeared in Forces, which makes absolutely no sense. Those battles were not taking place on islands.

4. Special Stages- welp, there goes my theory that Special Stages are, in fact, Cyberspace. (Given how many times Sega's retconned their own mandates, I'm not giving up on this entirely- who knows, it may resurface someday.)

5. Super Forms- Trip the Lizard also has a super form (a freaking DRAGON, how cool is that?!).

6. TailsTube IS canon, Twitter Takeovers are NOT.

7. In Speed Battle, the characters are "Phantom Illusions." I think I'd heard this before but forgotten. It explains the existence of Chuck and Red, Extreme Gear Sonic, Valiant Tails (who never appeared in the game), and also gives me hope that maybe ONE day Sticks will put in an appearance.

8. "Knuckles Chaotix being recanonized"- now if only it would get re-released for a modern platform....

9. "Shadow's past isn't allowed to be mentioned"

*me trying to remember a game with Shadow in it where Shadow's past ISN'T mentioned*

(Actually, tbf, it hasn't been mentioned in the last few games Shadow's been in, except for Gens, which was... kind of the whole point.)

11. Shadow not being friends with Rouge or Omega

smh so hard. Idk, maybe the JP dialogue makes it seem like this. But in English, Rouge straight up tells Shadow she knows how much both he and Omega care about her. So I have no clue what Sega's on here.

12. Fang- I'ma just headcanon that he changes his name and pretends to be a different species to escape the bounty hunters on his tail.

13. Ah, so Infinite IS dead. Yet another thing they mangled in Forces, not letting us see it. (I've always said this, and I always will: Forces should have been the best in the franchise, but it's only half a game AT MOST.)

14. "Off limits characters" Um... I still haven't taken the time to watch the Knuckles series, but isn't Iblis supposed to be in it? So it's still not impossible for Doom or Eggman Nega to appear in some form.

[sonic-takes]

We really should stop talking of the mandates because we CAN'T be sure if they're passed to us without any misinterpretation or missing info

"But Ian Flynn said-" WELP, he also contradicted himself several times, we SHOULDN'T take his word as absolute, and I don't say that for hate or whatever, the dude is a human, works under several deadlines, and is really down in the franchise's hierarchy, he's very subjected to mistakes and forgetfulness AND is contractually prohibited of just telling some stuff

⠀

[atwas-gaming]

Prev tag needs to be added, as well:

#im guessing it just makes shit complicated like how eggman is literally filthy rich and how the fuck can these kids can afford houses

if sega ever removes this mandate its so over

[0vergrowngraveyard]

miserable and pathetic <3

[sleepyminty]

Game sonic deserve to crash out multiple time but sonic wachowski deserve to cry multiple time. However since SEGA want their poster boi to be uphold their ‘hero image’ they have to persist the horror

[sonknuxadow]

Maybe people give sonic free shelter(usually hotel stays) and money as thanks for being a hero

yeah i imagine sonic is just kinda allowed to do whatever he wants because like. hes saved the world so many times and he also doesnt have a house or parents what are we gonna do. tell him where he can and cant sleep?

i dont think he actively tries to get free stuff from people though he just finds a tree to sleep under and it happens to be in someones yard and theyre like holy shit its sonic so they come outside and bring him like a blanket and a plate of whatever they were eating for dinner and sonic is like Cool ok 👍

[kid-az]

I think the funniest thing about the “no pants for male characters” Mandate is the fact that Sega specifies that Only Eggman wears pants. Not “only humans”, Eggman specifically. This basically implies that any male Humans that Could (But realistically won’t) appear will be a moment of full-frontal assault.

Did y’all know that Sega banned pants from the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise?

[freys-dumpster-fire]

WAIT SHADOW ISN’T ALLOWED TO HAVE FRIENDS 😭😭😭

[beevean]

Another hot take: having an official Year of Shadow only shines a light on Shadow's preferential treatment and unintentionally implies the other characters aren't good enough just because they have less mainstream popularity. Not helping is that SEGA appear to always be dedicated to keeping an eye on Shadow's portrayals, yet seem less attentive to the rest, including Sonic himself in some cases. Shadow may be "fleshed out" (YMMV on in a good way or not), but the others deserve credit too.

Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly disagree

I didn't see a Year of Knuckles :^) even as the second movie was effectively his movie :^) this years is his 30th anniversary, and he only got a short spinoff miniseries... and here I should mention how it was mostly about Wade and other humans :^)

2023 wasn't the Year of Amy :^) she didn't get a whole celebratory year for reappearing in Origins Plus or Superstars :^)

Shadow is the fan favorite. There's no point in denying it. I don't think we ever moved past that point when Shadow was more beloved than Sonic himself. We are fully in the 2000s 2.0, man. Can you see all of me, walk into my mystery.

[radiantrookie]

SEGA Mandates explained (Remake)

World Specific

Storytelling: The heroes must always win at the end

Mobius: The term Mobius and it's other terms, Mobians and Mobini are banned because they originate from 90s US Canon and Sonic Team wants to make it clear that Sonic games take place on Earth

Exception: Sonic Spinball being canonized via Origins, Ian Flynn and the Sonic Channel canonizes Planet Mobius and Mount Mobius, (unless they decide to change these)

Character Living Statuses:

Game characters cannot be killed off

Dead characters cannot come back to life

Character Families: Game characters cannot have family members unless they were established in the game canon

Exception: The Shadow Manga gave Shadow a brother, Gyoro/Bug-Eye

Male Characters: Male characters that aren't humans, can't wear pants

Exception: Tails Nine wears pants

Romance: Characters can have crushes but they can't date or get married

Money: Only Team Chaotix can talk about money, Sonic Team also considers treasure different from money

Rings: Ian Flynn has stated he has no idea if the Rings are canon or not, the Rings are most likely canon due to their multiple story appearances but they can't be used for story purposes

Humans: Due to complaints from critics and 90s US fans, humans besides Eggman weren't allowed to appear until Shadow Generations, which is why the Two Worlds retcon existed, stating there's a human planet and an animal person planet, however Tailstube has killed that Retcon and the current canon is that humans live on continents and animal people live on islands

Special Stages: In early canon, the Special Stages were wither distortions or subspace, they are no longer canon, thus Fang is no longer from them

Super Forms: Ian Flynn claimed that only Male Hedgehogs could go Super, however Morio Kishimoto would state that mandate never existed and had this to say:

"Whether one can become super or not, I think it depends on the necessity of the gameplay"

Super Forms of Tails, Knuckles, Mighty and Ray exist in Sonic Mania

Super Amy exists in Sonic Origins, (though non canon)

Super Knuckles is mentioned in Sonic Frontiers

Vector and Eggman have false Super Forms in Otherworld Comedy, Vectorman and Super Eggman/Light-Man

Hyper Sonic and the Super Emeralds:

According to Christian Whitehead, Hyper Sonic and the Super Emeralds are canon, but Sonic Team doesn't want them to come back

"I think you can say it happened. Visually the appearance of the Chaos Emeralds changed to a diamond shape in S3K and have remained so in subsequent games. But lore wise ST don't want to deal with multi-tier power level stuff so everything is just 'Super' now."

Sonic Frontiers doesn't break this rule because Sonic's form, Super Sonic 2 was a file name, the official name is Starfall Super Sonic

The Super Emeralds are also stated to currently be in another dimension

Sonic Chronicles: Sonic Team is allowed to acknowledge the game, they just can't make it canon because they don't wanna deal with Ken Penders, which is why it's still mentioned in the Encyclospeedia

Multiverse:

Sonic is not allowed to have alternate counterparts of himself, interestingly, the mandate has nothing to do with Scourge or Ken Penders

The Sol Dimension is no longer parallel to Sonic's Dimension, Blaze and Marine are also not alternate versions of Sonic and Tails

According to Nibroc Rock, universes where dead characters are alive are not allowed to exist, which is why Infinite couldn't be playable in Sonic Speed Simulator

"I asked Takashi Iizuka and he told me that we can not use infinite in this game because he already died in Sonic forces"

"you would also think that means we can just say "oh here's a universe where this character is still alive" but that's not allowed either"

Sonic Canon itself:

Confirmed Canon Status:

Majority of games

IDW Comics

Sonic Prime

Sonic Dream Team

Sonic Channel

TailsTube

Tie-in Meida

Weird Canon Status:

TMOSTH: Evan Stanley on Tumblr has stated the game is in headcanon status, the game if officially non canon but there's nothing contradicting it from being canon

"Also, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is not considered canon so it doesn't have a concrete place on the timeline. My personal headcanon is that a very similar event has happened sometime during the comic's run, thus why Tails can make his reference and why we keep seeing Barry/the Conductor/his wife cameos."

Sonic Speed Simulator: According to Nibroc Rock, the game is in temporary non canon status, the game is non canon until Takashi Iizuka can find a way to make it canon

"the workaround is just that our game is a hub for cross-universe, everything has to use ring portals to transfer in and out from other universes" "a bit flimsy"

"I mean, the story is always approved by SEGA and they have us re-wrirte things if there's a conflict with canon... so"

Sonic Speed Battle: In the same boat as Speed Simulator

the Sonic Forces mobile game gets away with it because they are all "phantom illusions"

Non Canon Status:

Crossover Media

Sonic Pocket Adventure

Sonic Chronicles

Most Mobile games

Sonic Lost World's Zelda and Yoshi's Island levels

Sonic Rumble

Most Arcade Games

Sonic Twitter Takeovers

Sonic and Friends

90s Cartoons

Sonic OVA

Comics that aren't IDW

Sonic X

Sonic Boom

Manga

Movies

Notes:

Eggman Nega's portal technology is the same one he uses in Winter Games DS

The Sonic Channel still brings up Cream being an assistant for the Olympics

LEGO versions of Sonic, Tails, Amy and Eggman along with Red and Chuck from the Angry Birds Movies appear in Speed Battle

Character Specific:

Classic Sonic: Classic Era characters aren't allowed to appear in Modern Era and vice versa, during the 2010s we had the Two Dimensions retcon that separated them, however TailsTube has since removed them, however this mandate might be removed soon due to the failure of Sonic Superstars along with:

Classic Froggy appearing in Channel Artwork

Classic characters being mentioned in TailsTube along with a Modern Trip being teased

Knuckles Chaotix being recanonized

Modern versions of Mighty, Ray and Metal Knuckles appearing in the Minecraft DLC

Sonic:

Sonic cannot cry or get too emotional, however Sonic Prime breaks this rule

Sonic originally had a house in South Island, later another one in Emerald Town, however it's been retconned that he's homeless

Metal Sonic:

Only one Metal Sonic is allowed to exist, (3.0 is a separate character)

Metal can only speak in this Neo Metal forms (He stills speaks in his base form in Sonic x Shadow Gens however this is only because they didn't bother changing the NPC dialogue)

Knuckles:

Knuckles is the last Echidna

Originally Knuckles had friends on Angel Island, we even see houses in Sonic Adventure's Ice Cap, however this was retconned as Knuckles is the only resident of Angel Island now besides Chao and Critters

Knuckles is not allowed to leave Angel Island without a reason now

Shadow: He has the most guidelines out of any character, this is because Takashi Iizuka co-created him, he also wrote Shadow 05, however some of these have been eased up a bit

Shadow's past isn't allowed to be mentioned

Shadow is an Anti-Hero and cannot be a Hero

"Vegeta really starts out as an enemy and then later becomes a friend and an ally and kind of, like, fights for justice and trying to save the world and whatnot. Shadow is not like that. I never want him to be like that. Shadow is doing his own thing, he's not friends with Sonic, and he's gonna go off and, you know, do whatever he feels is correct or right, or what he needs to do. And it's not like, 'Well, okay, we used to be enemies, but we're friends now. Let's save the world.' He's not that kind of character, and [I don't] want him to be that kind of character."

Shadow's job isn't a GUN Agent anymore, his only job should be protecting the planet

Shadow is allowed to work with Sonic, Team Dark, GUN and even Eggman but he isn't allowed to fully join them

Team Dark can be close but they can't be friends

If the relationship between Shadow and Rouge could be summed up in a few words… it would be “good business partners.” They have a reasonably long relationship, as they sometimes undertake missions at the same scene. However, they do not interfere with each other much and do not go beyond a certain level. At first glance, the relationship seems businesslike, but there appears to be a strong mutual trust that goes beyond mere colleagues, as they casually help each other out when they are in a pinch!

Silver: Silver's future is off limits, only Sonic Team can explore that if they choose to, however we do see it in IDW 31

Fang:

Name: His US name was Nack the Weasel, his JP name was Fang the Sniper, his current name is Fang the Hunter

Species: He was a Weasel in US and a Wolf Jerboa hybrid in JP, his current species is just Jerboa

Non Sonic Team Characters: Honey the Cat and the ghosts from Night of the Werehog have a hard time appearing in the series due to them not being owned by Sonic Team, however it's not impossible for them to appear

Gizoids: Emerl and by extension, Gemerl, are the only Gizoids allowed to exist

Exception: While non canon, the Minecraft Sonic Texture Pack turns the Zombie, Drowned and Husk Mobs into custom made Gizoids (Green for Zombie, Gold for Husk and Brown and torn ones for Drowned)

Infinite: The Encyclospeedia stated he got consumed by the Phantom Ruby, Takashi Iizuka would later state Infinite is dead and cannot come back, he returns in Otherworld Comedy and dies again

The elimination of otherworldification occurs in Infinite, and his body disappears with the light. The core in his hand slips through and falls into the glimmering lava… with a sizzling sound, it is lost to the world forever. Infinite was wide-eyed and stunned, but… “H-Heheh, haha…” He smiled wryly, lightly shaking his head, as if to say that it was for the best, and then vanished with the light. The world has been saved once again by a strange fate that no one had any way of knowing. The wind was merely blowing in the sky.

Off Limit Characters: Only Sonic Team can use these characters

Tiara Boobowski and Gazebo Boobowski (Though Gazebo appears in the 30th Anniversary Comic)

Eggman Nega

Black Doom

Solaris (Iblis and Mephiles)

Chronicles Characters

Infinite and the Jackal Squad

Alternate Media:

SEGA and Sonic Team like to keep US Media and Adaptions separate from Main Canon, thus characters and content from these are usually forbidden apart from some exceptions, mostly JP Media:

Shogakukan:

Charmy Bee

Miss Wing, Monica the Mouse and Anton Veruca were canonized in the 30th Anniversary Comic

Aosth Content:

Sonic liking Chili Dogs

Various Quotes

Mean Bean Machine in Sonic Mania

The concept of Eggman having two robot henchmen

The concept of Eggman having a super form

Scratch and Grounder cameo in an IDW Cover

Sonic Says segments

Sonic Satam:

Sonic being referred to as the Fastest Thing Alive

The "Let's do it, to it" line

The canonization of Spinball, though Ian Flynn states they're just cameos

Sonic OVA:

Tails being afraid of lightning

Knuckles's hat

Knuckles being a treasure hunter

Metal Sonic's personality

Archie Sonic:

The Eggnet

The term, Super Badnik

The Gun Commander being named Abraham Tower

Fang, Bean and Bark being part of a trio

Bark being mute

Ray having blue shoes

Shadow using Chaos Spear like an actual spear

E-106 Eta and E-107 Theta

Mimic the Octopus (Was intended for Archie)

The Metal Virus (Was intended for Archie)

Various homages in IDW, Restoration, Eggperial City, etc

Sonic X:

Gotta Go Fast

Shadow's Inhibitor Rings

Vector's crush on Vanilla

Cosmo's plant form appearing in artwork and TailsTube

The Eggman Chao

Cream's favorite show being the NEXT show

The Chaotix Office Building and the Croc Canteen

Dark Sonic mention

Sonic Boom:

Sticks the Badger exists in canon due to being co created by Sonic Team (Aoi Yuki, Stick's JP actress even still works for Sonic Team), however she only appears in Sonic Channel Artwork and a mention in the English Script of Frontiers

Eggman's Evil Cookies appear in the Sonic Cookbook

Sonic Movies: The Movies get the most synergy due being the main media being used to get new people into Sonic

Sonic having electricity powers now

Movie Characters in Speed Battle

Tom and Longclaw as skins in the Minecraft DLC

Movie Stage in Shadow Generations

[rabbithaver]

yeah they really say that to all their writers it's weird

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

whenever I write something sonic related I have to put that poor hedgehog through something agonising and life changing. this is not because i dislike him he is my delightful son I just think it’s funny to break as many sega mandates as possible.

[fictionoverthinker]

You know the character mandate for Sonic - "he must not show excessive emotion"? A lot of us want the mandate gone, and I'm gonna try to explain why. Please note: I only started caring about Sonic again after watching Sonic Prime. I tried to catch up, but it's been many years since I've given it any thought - so fill me in if I've missed some things.

It Would Make Him More Believable

NOT to be confused with realistic. Surprisingly many people confuse these two concepts.

That's right - I don't find him too believable, sorry. No-one is entirely immune to having strong emotions; if a character is experiencing drama, they should react accordingly. This is part of what makes them feel existable, no matter how much of a caricature they are.

It Would Allow Us To Feel With Him, Not Just For Him

Do you know what professional weepers do at funerals? They coax out the feelings in others. It's hard to have a tearjerker if the characters involved don't get to fully show what they're going through. If he's not feeling, why should we?

Would It Really Be That Out Of Character?

As I said - if it really went against Sonic's "personality", the writers wouldn't need to be told; they'd just have to know his character.

I don't buy that crying would be a thing he never does, because we do when something affects us badly enough. Imagine if something horrifying happened to his friends and he was unable to stop it. The only way for this rule to make sense is if he legit doesn't care about anything; like any act of bravery he does is just out of sheer boredom, or something.

But if you still insist this is out of character:

Out-Of-Character Moments Are Necessary

I really shouldn't have to explain this one, but anyway: you know what makes the audience realise things've gotten serious (or seriously good)? A character not acting like themselves!

It Would Help Put Him On Equal Footing With His Friends

There seems to be this thing where he's the one who has it together, needing no guidance or support, is always right - with some inconsequential exceptions - as well as acting as a voice of reason to troubled people. I mean that sounds awesome, right?

Actually I hate it.

Keeping it one-sided like this creates a subtle hierarchy, with him on top, because he's the one who knows best. Not only are the others supposed to be his peers and not subordinates, I also don't think you can have this kind of wisdom without ever having needed it yourself. For example:

In the Secret Rings, he says to Shahra: "Let yourself cry". How does he know it would help? Has he tried it?

Needing that support once in a while would even things out.

To be fair, he can be physically vulnerable, needing rescue and assistance from time to time - probably because it doesn't compromise his coolness, letting him make some clever quips while being broken out of prison or catching a ride from a flying friend.

But making it one sided is bad for the giver, too:

Making It One Sided Is Bad For The Giver, Too

Sonamy shippers make this artwork/comic a lot: Sonic comforting a teary Amy. Nothing wrong with it in and of itself, except these same people almost never reverse it.

If someone else is always on the receiving end of emotional support, it will come at the cost of the provider. Because what are they gonna do for comfort? Binge eating chili dogs?

[beastialmoon]

So I finally played Sonic Frontiers to completion. I'd tried it a while ago but didn't really get into it at first and just put it off. But after opening it back up and beating the first Titan, I was hooked and didn't put it down until the credits.

Y'all.

I'm crying at a freaking Sonic game.

They COOKED with this one - the music, the story, the gameplay, the EVERYTHING. Just moving in the open world was a lot of fun.