Beyond Continuity Intro

Beyond Continuity is a series where I take a story or character and give my take on how I would present them. The goal is to take what exists in official continuities and improve on it or to show alternate paths the story or characters could have taken. Any and all suggestions on improvements to these entries are welcome.

The Classic Era

The timeline of Sonic the Hedgehog’s mainline games is an absolute mess. It’s been that way for quite a while but especially after the introduction of Sonic Forces, more and more issues surfaced. Too many contradictory locations were being introduced, population rates of different species were inconsistent, characters and power sources were being introduced left and right only to get forgotten shortly after, and characters were being kept stagnant or even experienced regression.

I am of the firm belief that the Sonic game continuity is in need of a reboot where the best aspects of the franchise are taken and improved upon. I think it would be best to go create remakes of the Classic games all the way to Sonic Heroes and then make original content in the future while still using many of the old canon concepts in a much more air-tight chronology.

This blog post isn’t going to be about why the Sonic timeline is in such a mess. Instead, I will be using it to give a narrative summary of the classic era of games. My goal is to give more in-story worldbuilding while maintaining the overall plot of each game. The main changes I will be making are how the Chaos Emeralds are used and when Sonic CD occurs in the timeline. The former is because I want to create more of a slow-burn in how the Chaos Emeralds are learned about for if I choose to write more summarizations, continuing this headcanon. The later is because Sonic 3 & Knuckles is very much a direct sequel to Sonic 2 and thus having CD occur between both games feels out of place.

While these are all changes I stand by, I do not claim to have the ideal portrayal of the characters here.

Sonic the Hedgehog 1

The villagers call Sonic “Speedy” but he’s not too fond of the name. All the same, he uses his new power to help the villagers for a while. Then, while delivering something elsewhere on the island, Sonic encounters robots modeled after different animals. He finds these large containment capsules being loaded with Monessans and wildlife alike and uses his powers to put a stop to this. He finds animals trapped in the robots, being used to pilot them, but what for, Sonic doesn’t know.

Sonic returns to the village with his findings but very few are willing to face the hostile robots. Then, this airship flies overhead and drops more capsules and robots to take over the village. Sonic helps to take them out before chasing after the airship. He stops when he reaches the giant lake. He considers running around it to catch up with the airship but is afraid of losing it. But something about the water scares him.

Sonic forces himself to stow his fears and runs across the water after the airship. This leads into the various levels of the game as he encounters a fascinated Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Robotnik confirms that he’s responsible for what’s happening and warns Sonic not to interfere. He dismisses Sonic as a child not worth explaining his plans to but Sonic proves to be more trouble than expected as he eventually reaches a base on the island that Robotnik’s been secretly building to manufacture his robots and convert the people and wildlife into robots on: Scrap Brain Zone.

Sonic finds Robotnik in a hostage negotiation call with some political figure. Robotnik’s captured a member of the Monessan royal family and wants the official government to submit to his demands. Robotnik wants to outfit the Monessans with mech shell bodies to become soldiers against some other country and the Monessans are not willing to submit themselves to him.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Some time after Sonic the Hedgehog 1, Sonic has acquired a biplane to more easily travel across large

bodies of water without tiring. He’s recently visited South Island to see the village he first woke up in. The inhabitants have recovered well after Robotnik was driven away. However, he comes across a trader from a separate island who has suspicions about strange happenings on his island: Westside Island. No one wants to inform the Monessan government or the United Federation for fear of their independent islands being overrun by larger powers. But Sonic’s willing to check Westside Island out as a part of his “vacation”.

Sonic flies to Westside Island and doesn’t immediately find anything suspicious.

However, when he comes back to his plane, he finds a young, two-tailed fox messing with its parts. Sonic learns that the fox–Miles Prower–is an amateur mechanic who came across the plane by chance and wanted to improve on it. Sonic is a bit annoyed that a little kid might have broken his plane but he keeps cool and asks if they can take the plane to town.

The fox warns that he doesn’t want to go to the nearby town because he’s been ostracized for having two tails. As it happens, the fox has been bullied by older kids of the area and the adults aren’t around to do anything about it.

Sonic quickly suspects that what happened on South Island really could be happening on Westside Island and so decides to investigate more thoroughly. The fox follows him and proves capable of keeping up and using his tails to fly. Sonic nicknames the fox Tails to boost his confidence about the kid’s mutation.

It’s not long before the two find Robotnik’s robots around the area and discover that he’s been converting parts of the island into energy and production plants. People have been abducted to pilot his robots and contact with the outside world has been disrupted.

Sonic and Tails travel the larger island, taking down Robotnik’s forces and encountering the mad doctor as they go. During this, Robotnik informs the two of his motives more properly. While he was once a citizen of the United Federation, he disapproved of the nation’s increasing control over the continents it inhabits, including Monessa, which is barely independent after decades of political struggles. Robotnik alludes to greater crimes committed by the United Federation that have been kept hidden. He plans to use whatever means necessary to overthrow the United Federation with his knowledge of robotics.

Sonic is not even remotely interested in the politics of the situation. Whether Robotnik is right or wrong motive-wise doesn’t change that he’s enslaving people and taking over islands for his own goals. Robotnik is disappointed but reveals that the two are too late. The resources he’s taken from the island allowed him to create a massive flying battle station he calls The Death Egg: so named because of its shape as a massive, metal egg. Sonic jokes about how it matches Robotnik’s body type: nicknaming him the Eggman.

Robotnik doesn’t care for this title but leaves Sonic and Tails as he escapes to the Death Egg. Unable to get into the sky, Sonic is at a loss. Tails offers to finish his work on Sonic’s plane but Sonic isn’t sure if he can trust Tails’ skills when he’s so young. But without other options, he lets Tails do his work and the plane is functional. The two mutually name the plane The Tornado as they chase after the Death Egg.

Tails is forced to drop Sonic off onto the Death Egg where he fights his way inside. But Eggman has

something in store for Sonic. Sonic’s led into a specific hallway where a robotic copy of himself is deployed. Eggman refers to the robot as Mecha Sonic: taunting Sonic that once he’s defeated, he’ll be stored inside Mecha Sonic and become Eggman’s ultimate soldier.

Mecha Sonic is tricky, having deadly quills and being nearly as fast as Sonic. But Sonic wins the fight and confronts Eggman. Eggman enters a giant mech modeled after himself to fight Sonic, making for a far more difficult battle. Sonic wins and chases Eggman to his control room where the ultimate power source of the Death Egg is discovered. In the middle of a large energy capsule is this glowing, green gemstone.

Eggman explains how he found a similar rock back on South Island but he didn’t know how to harness its power then. He tries to use the magic emerald to overpower Sonic but Sonic is too fast for him and the emerald gets ejected from the Death Egg after the control room is heavily damaged.

Both Sonic and Eggman escape separately as the Death Egg crashes into the ocean. Tails flies in with the Tornado and saves Sonic.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (And Knuckles)

After surviving the crash of the Death Egg, Sonic and Tails return to Westside Island to help with the restoration. However, a few days later, Tails’ equipment detects some kind of energy disrupting different signals. He and Sonic conclude the Death Egg must still be operational and use the Tornado circle the area they saw it vanish into. They find that when the Death Egg crashed, it landed on a massive, previously invisible, floating island, which has been forced nearly into the ocean by the Death Egg. The two fly to the island, heading directly for the Death Egg when the Tornado is suddenly smashed in half. Sonic and Tails manage to land safely but the tornado is broken for now.

Sonic and Tails are confronted by a red echidna called “Knuckles” who orders them to leave the island. The two explain why they’re on the island in the first place but Knuckles doesn’t want to hear it. He says that he’s had enough visitors already and he doesn’t need more eyes on the island.

Sonic and Tails aren’t willing to leave without knowing that Eggman is dealt with so a fight ensues. At first, Sonic and Tails have the upper hand but Knuckles is far more familiar with the area and has built in traps for uninvited guests. And when those don’t stop the two, he shows off that while not as fast as Sonic, he’s still able to anticipate some of the attacks and is significantly stronger than the two of them.

Knuckles wins the fight: knocking both Sonic and Tails out. He takes them to the edge of the island and considers dropping them into the ocean. But he can’t go through with it. When Sonic and Tails wake up, they find the two halves of the Tornado next to them and a message in the ground, telling them to leave.

Tails wants to avenge the Tornado but Sonic thinks Tails should leave for his own safety. Having not lost a fight like that before, he worries that Tails could be killed the next time they face Knuckles. But Tails refuses to leave so they make a compromise that Sonic will go find out what Knuckles’ deal is while Tails fixes the Tornado. Then they’ll regroup and figure out what to do next.

Sonic explores the island to find Eggman’s robots (Badniks) gradually trickling into the area. Not having the Tornado, he’s forced to trek across the island and take out bases being built by the robots. He encounters Knuckles pretty quickly. The echidna warns Sonic once more that if he takes one more step, he’ll be forced to kill him. Sonic points out that Knuckles didn’t kill him and Tails the first time. Knuckles says not to push him.

Sonic asks who else has been visiting the island: describing Eggman in the process. Knuckles is reluctant to answer but this just confirms it for Sonic. He tells Knuckles that Eggman’s not to be trusted and that the Death Egg was his doing.

Knuckles considers this but then asks where Tails is. Sonic says how Tails is fixing their plane but Knuckles thinks Tails is sneaking around while Sonic distracts him. Hesitantly, Knuckles springs a trap on Sonic, causing him to plummet to his supposed death but Sonic manages to drill through the ground to save himself.

Knuckles returns to his home near the center of the island. We see what remains of some ancient temple. Most of it is decayed and overgrown but at the center is this shrine with seven smaller pillars surrounding a larger one. And on that larger pillar is a gigantic, glowing green gemstone.

Knuckles is met by Eggman who hands him the smaller gemstone that once powered the Death Egg. Eggman promised to bring it to Knuckles as proof of his trustworthiness and asks if Knuckles will let him repair the Death Egg’s flight systems now. Knuckles permits this but insists on supervising Eggman. Eggman accepts this before bringing up the glowing gemstones. He says how he read the legends of miracle gems but until recently, he hadn’t believed they were real.

Knuckles says that the gems are called “Chaos Emeralds” but that Eggman doesn’t need to know more than that. He considers all the emeralds his responsibility to guard and cannot trust Eggman or anyone else with their use. Eggman accepts this but asks why Knuckles doesn’t just use the giant, Master Emerald to vanish the Death Egg away. Knuckles is hesitant to answer, saying that it could cause damage to wherever it’s sent but Eggman can tell that Knuckles is lying. Knuckles doesn’t know how to fully harness the emerald’s power for a feat like that.

Eggman takes Knuckles to the Death Egg where they discuss Sonic and how this all happened. Eggman claims to work for the Monessan government. He says that they were being oppressed by the United Federation: humans versus anthropomorphic animals. Eggman left the United Federation at great risk to fight for the Monessans and with their funding, he built the Death Egg. Unfortunately, he was opposed by Sonic. Eggman claims that Sonic’s great speed was granted to him by one of the Chaos Emeralds and he wanted more power. He also lies that Sonic was sent by the United Federation: tricked into opposing Eggman.

Eggman insists that Sonic isn’t evil, just young and misguided. But if he’s allowed to leave the island, he will most definitely tell the United Federation about Knuckles’ island and bring war to it. And even if he doesn’t, Tails will.

Knuckles is very uncomfortable with killing anyone, especially a child, but Eggman insists that they can worry about that after the Death Egg is out of the way and Sonic is no longer a threat. He also adds that since the Death Egg is so damaged, he won’t need most of its weapons and robots. By offloading them, it’ll take less time to repair the flight systems. Seeing that Knuckles isn’t fully convinced, Eggman pretends to give Knuckles full control over his robots and machines with a mobile controller. He says that Knuckles could even use them to reinforce his island: commenting on how low-tech Knuckles’ traps have been.

Knuckles warns Eggman that he’ll be checking on him regularly and Eggman promises to make this worth Knuckles’ while. Knuckles leaves with his new resources to reinforce his island and capture Tails. Meanwhile, Eggman has many of his other robots traveling around the island. He says how Knuckles can’t keep track of everything at once as we see the robots starting construction on bases on the island. We also see data from steady analysis of the Chaos Emeralds as Eggman begins to reconstruct the Mecha Sonic robot.

Sonic travels the island, confronting Eggman a few times and destroying his bases. Tails eventually arrives, having been attacked by Knuckles. Knuckles was using Eggman’s technology as well. This understandably concerns Sonic since Knuckles was already a threat from their first encounter. They decide that they need to get to the Death Egg and avoid Knuckles if they can.

Sonic and Tails eventually reach the Death Egg as Eggman’s finished repairing its flight systems. Knuckles gets in their way as the Death Egg starts rising from the island. A fight ensues, with Sonic and Tails managing to get past Knuckles and into the Death Egg.

Inside the Death Egg, Eggman faces off against the two in his Big Arm mech but this was only designed to distract the two long enough for something else to activate. Fully upgraded, Mecha Sonic Mk II attacks the two. The robot is significantly faster than last time and more intelligent: able to keep up with Sonic and strategize. Eggman boasts about how he was able to transfer the Chaos Emerald Power conductivity into the robot to supercharge it.

Unfortunately, Mecha Sonic 2 is a bit too powerful and starts to damage parts of the Death Egg. Eggman tries to get Mecha Sonic to take the heroes outside but Sonic manages to goad the robot into smashing through an important part of the machinery while Tails hacks the systems. This causes the Death Egg to plummet once more, breaking significantly upon landing again on Angel Island.

From the Death Egg emerges a smaller, but still massive, airship called The Flying Battery. Sonic, Tails, Mecha Sonic, and Eggman all escape. Sonic and Tails pursue Eggman as Knuckles watches the destruction from far off. Knuckles is furious, blaming Sonic and Tails and vowing to get rid of them properly the next time he sees them.

Knuckles doesn’t have to wait long. Mecha Sonic 2 shows up to attack Knuckles. Not being familiar with the robot, Knuckles doesn’t know what to make of it but Mecha Sonic destroys many of the robots working for Knuckles, giving him the impression that Sonic is using the robot or inside of it.

Knuckles chases Mecha Sonic across the island just as Sonic and Tails chase Eggman and destroy his other island bases. Sonic and Tails end up in an underground lava reef which leads into a Hidden Palace Zone. Knuckles detects Sonic’s presence in that area and abandons his hunt for Mecha Sonic. Tails continues after Eggman while Knuckles and Sonic have their final confrontation.

The fight leads into a specific room where a giant mural shows some obscured figures in battle: one being a glowing hedgehog and another being a mustached human holding the Master Emerald. With Sonic arguing against what Knuckles has been told throughout the fight and the mural, Knuckles grows conflicted. He’s put off balance enough that Sonic overpowers him, leaving Knuckles exhausted on the floor.

It’s then that Tails informs Sonic via a communicator that Eggman’s stealing the giant emerald. Sonic and Knuckles get to the shrine just in time for Eggman to steal the Master Emerald. They chase him to the Flying Battery but are attacked by Mecha Sonic. Realizing that Eggman was behind all of this, Knuckles agrees to fight alongside Sonic and Tails.

The three manage to free the Master Emerald from the Flying Battery and heavily damage it. Eggman is once again forced to flee but Mecha Sonic refuses to obey and follow him. When the Master Emerald falls into Sky Sanctuary, Mecha Sonic chases after. The robot has gained some small level of sentience, enough to be attracted to the emerald’s power… and have a strong desire to crush the heroes.

Mecha Sonic Mk II stands on the Master Emerald and powers up to a super state. With a Chaos Emerald in its chest and additional power from the Master Emerald, it makes for an intense battle. However, the robot’s body can’t handle that level of power and eventually starts to break down. The heroes break the robot apart and tear the Chaos Emerald from it. Knuckles smashes the robot before throwing its parts away. Unknown to them, the robot’s parts are recovered by Badniks shortly after and brough to Eggman.

Speaking of Eggman, having lost once again, he decides to activate the Death Egg’s self destruction. To stop this from destroying the island, Knuckles is forced to try and teleport the Death Egg using the Master Emerald. It ends up taking all three heroes’ concentration to do it properly, and Knuckles passes out shortly after, but the Death Egg can be seen exploding in the far-off atmosphere shortly after.

The whole situation leaves Knuckles feeling ashamed and foolish. He apologizes to Sonic and Tails but the two dismiss it. They understand why Knuckles was so protective given how much power the Master Emerald has. The three agree to work together to get rid of the rest of Eggman’s robots and equipment. Tails reprograms some of the robots to help repair the damage caused by the Death Egg.

With everything handled, Sonic and Tails have the Tornado repaired and prepare to leave the island. They wonder if they’ll ever see Knuckles again. Knuckles says it’s unlikely but he has ways of reaching out if he so chooses. Sonic tells Knuckles not to be a stranger as he and Tails fly off.

Sonic CD

Some time has passed and Sonic is relaxing at a colossal-sized body of water called Never Lake. People from all over the world come every [X] years to witness the arrival of Little Planet. This planetoid only appears over the lake for a day. Those who have managed to land on it are said never to return and electronics are often disrupted by some kind of energy coming from it. As such, the area has been quarantined for miles for peoples’ safety but people still celebrate at the border of the reserve to catch sight of the planetoid.

As the Little Planet Festival goes on, Sonic enjoys some food and even some party games. He notices that a young hedgehog girl keeps looking at him but seems too shy to speak. So Sonic decides to go say hi and lift her spirits. The girl says her name is Amy Rose. She used to live in Westside Island. Her parents were rescued thanks to Sonic stopping Eggman and Amy wanted to personally thank him.

Sonic’s a little awkward when it comes to this level of attention but brushes it off by saying it was nothing and that he’s happy for Amy and her family. It’s shortly after that Little Planet makes its appearance. While it’s a cool sight, Amy laments not being able to see it much closer like people used to.

Sonic decides it wouldn’t hurt to get a closer look, especially since he doesn’t plan to try and land on the planet. So he carries Amy to the beach of Never Lake. Amy finds the gesture quite flattering but Sonic’s pretty oblivious to the crush he’s causing her to develop.

Before the two can appreciate things much, they see Little Planet suddenly transform. A metallic shell has formed around it and a giant chain has it tethered to the lake now. The two hedgehogs agree that this isn’t right. Sonic tries to contact Tails to see if he knows anything but being so close to Little Planet disrupts the signal.

Sonic tells Amy to go back to the festival while he checks this out. However, halfway up the chain, he sees Amy trying to climb the chain after him. Sonic goes back and saves Amy from falling into the lake but shortly after, he’s knocked away by a dark blue blur and Amy is taken. Now with even more motivation to investigate, Sonic blasts across the chains and up to Little Planet.

Sonic finds that much of Little Planet has been converted into a robotic fortress. It’s not hard to conclude that Eggman is responsible but Sonic doesn’t know where to start searching. He starts smashing any robot he comes across but finds that the damage is reversed shortly after as if something is undoing time itself.

Sonic eventually finds some kind of headquarters where Eggman shows up to fight him, armed with one of his many mechs. Eggman warns Sonic that he’s contaminating a volatile ecosystem by being here but Sonic isn’t having any of it. He just wants to know what happened to Amy. Eggman says that the hedgehog girl wasn’t part of the plan but she’ll do well as a hostage.

Sonic smashes through Eggman’s headquarters but Eggman goads him into a specific hallway. Once inside, Sonic is temporarily captured in a translucent cube. It lights up for a while, causing Sonic to become dizzy. Eventually, however, Sonic breaks free. Eggman tells Sonic he was too late but a very confused Sonic just keeps heading through the remains of the base. He comes across a hidden chamber. This sets Eggman off. Eggman calls for “the prototype” to intervene but Sonic jumps into the chamber before Eggman can finish.

Sonic finds himself in a completely different environment. It’s a lush paradise of a hilly jungle: vibrant, and so many dense colors that it hurts his eyes. Nearby, he catches sight of Eggman’s robots. Sonic takes them out and travels around to find out if he’s even on Little Planet.

Sonic finds the robots building what would become the headquarters he was just in and realizes that this must be the past somehow, or at least, the past in Little Planet. And before he can do much about that, a chamber similar to the one he came out of activates. And out of it flies a new robotic version of himself: darker yet more colorful than Mecha Sonic. Worse, the robot is far faster, even faster than Sonic himself. Sonic’s forced to flee: going through the chamber the robot came through and reappearing back in the mechanical city.

Sonic is forced to sneak around Little Planet as he progresses and whenever he encounters this new robot, he can only temporarily incapacitate him before having to flee again (either to different points in the timeline or losing him in the area outright).

Sonic goes back to the past and destroys the in-progress location, hoping it will destroy the base in the future. But the future headquarters remains intact. Sonic traces the source of this to a chamber in the future version of the headquarters where he finds a glowing yellow gemstone: similar to the Chaos Emeralds but different in shape and energy.

Sonic takes the gemstone and goes back to the past: discovering that the gemstone exists in both points in time. Once he takes out the past and future headquarters, the gemstones fuse together. Sonic tries to use the gem’s time power but has no idea how to harness it and instead just causes himself to get flown to random points in time.

Sonic assumes that there are more of these Time Stones out there and spends his time going to the past and future versions of the planet to get the others. Eggman occasionally interrupts Sonic and sends this new robot after him. But Sonic always manages to escape. So Eggman decides to lure Sonic by bringing out Amy as bait.

Sonic comes to save Amy only to get locked into this dangerous, spiked race track. Eggman formally introduces Metal Sonic as the dark robot steps out next to the hedgehog. Eggman explains that he has Sonic to thank for this whole adventure. He’s been spying on Sonic ever since Angel Island, analyzing him. And when he saw Little Planet, he took it as an opportunity.

Eggman explains how Little Planet’s Time Stones cause it to undergo an infinite time loop. All life on the planet goes through hundreds–possibly thousands–of years of time in one [X]-year cycle. So it was a simple enough trick to land during the early stages when it was the least protected. And once he had the Time Stones, he was able to take control in a fraction of the time he otherwise would have needed. Once Sonic’s out of the way, Eggman will take the Time Stones to Earth itself.

Sonic asks what will happen to Amy. Eggman says that depends on Sonic. He says that Metal Sonic is programmed with all of Sonic’s life data. He even thinks like Sonic, just with Eggman’s personal influence. So if Sonic wants to save the hedgehog girl, he has to prove that he’s still the fastest thing alive in a little race. If Sonic beats Metal, Eggman promises to release Amy, not that it will matter once he has all the Time Stones.

Metal Sonic is immobilized and deactivated. Amy is freed from a nearby cage, true to Eggman’s word. But Sonic is exhausted. Eggman goes to grab Sonic in his vulnerable state but Amy grabs Sonic and helps to get him out of the way long enough to use the Time Stones. It sends the two to a random point in the timeline where some primitive versions of civilizations are developing on Little Planet.

Sonic recovers in one of the huts and once back to full strength, he prepares to use the Time Stones to get to Eggman for the last stones and headquarters. Amy wants to help further but Sonic tells her it’s his fault she’s in this mess so he can’t have her in danger. Amy claims she can fight but Sonic can’t condone it. As Sonic leaves, Amy decides that she’s going to get stronger.

Sonic manages to find the last chambers and confronts Eggman in the future. Eggman has fortified his last bastion significantly since he doesn’t have Metal Sonic as a trump card anymore. Sonic points out how Eggman once talked about doing all this to save the Monessans but he’s wiping out people on Little Planet by hijacking their world. Eggman dismisses this, claiming that no one lives on Little Planet.

Sonic tries to explain what he saw but Eggman takes this chance to try and capture him again. Sonic eventually defeats Eggman once again and takes all the Time Stones. Eggman flees Little Planet while he still can as the whole planetoid transforms back to how it was before they arrived. Sonic returns to the primitive community where they urge him to leave before he and Amy are taken with them when the planetoid vanishes.

Little Planet vanishes from sight. Sonic drops Amy back off at the festival and leaves before she can say anything, still feeling a bit guilty for putting her in danger to begin with.

Conclusion

I considered exploring the story of Sonic 3D Blast or even the Tails Adventure spin-off but I wanted to keep to the core classic games for now. I want this summary to be the bedrock for any future continuity writing I use since the most important aspects of the lore are introduced in these games. Admittedly, it will likely be quite a while before I write something like this again but until then, I hope this was an interesting read for anyone who came across this.