The Sonic Reference Problem

Get ready to Open Your Heart, because "danger is lurking around every turn" in this episode, where we Live and Learn the problem with references in the Sonic series. Hopefully we aren't Reaching for the Stars too much here...

----Table of Contents------
0:00​​​​​​​ Intro
0:29 Continuity
3:17 Discontinuity
4:18 The Reference Problem
8:18 Show, Don't Tell
9:21 We Have Our Own Styles
12:00 Conclusion
14:08 End Screen

Intro song by Hyper Potions:

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#sonic #sonicthehedgehog #sonicfrontiers

[chaomix]

Have you guys Opened Your Heart to these amazing Sonic references? Or are you just about ready to Show Them What You're Made of? Personally, I'm about to Green Hill Zone Act 3 myself to oblivion.

[wakuwakusonicpartolcar]

sonic is just being inclusive to all the dementia-stricken sonic players by reminding them that it's HIS game and HIS world

[LuisIgna]

Sonic's dialogues in Frontiers:

- Oh God Amy, this is crazy, it's like that time I merged with Shadow to fight that gray hedgehog with Dragon Ball powers.

[DASH]

* *A plane goes flying in the sky* *
Sonic: "You know, this reminds of Metal Harbor..."

[Shin_Mothra]

Honestly, all the references got too exhausting in the comics. It makes the world feel so small. The only reason it was more tolerable in Frontiers was because Sonic's monologs were rare.

[afroarts]

Hearing Sonic saying Shamar will never stop being uncanny especially since it’s my name

[mcnuggwtscreations]

Green Hills looking alot like Sand Hill right now.

[aLillybyanyothername]

4:22 this one is particularly frustrating from a game design perspective. If I heard this out of context in a game that allows exploration, I would begin looking for a chao garden since the line is structured like a hint rather than a reference

[SlashCraftJack]

The "no money" thing probably means "no traditional currency" as in cash or coins.
Considering how in flux the rings to item ratio is from game to game it seems accurate from a certain POV

[orzi_gami]

10:28 Doesn’t he get asked these questions on his podcast though? By people who want this information?
It’s not like he’s just spreading this around for no reason, people quite literally ask him.

[benjitm]

Sonic making all the references in Frontiers during his monologues are leftover from the scrapped plot of him losing his memories after landing on Starfall. He was supposed to be getting his memories back at the time of the callbacks that he makes.

[LilacMonarch]

Sonic: "Oh man Tails, this is worse than that time I ended up in Subspace in Super Smash Bros. Brawl!"

[sonicfanboy]

That Dragball art be hittin' different rn

[UltraCenterHQ]

4:53 Ignoring the previous story is a bad thing, but focusing too much on the previous story is also a bad thing.
Like everything, there's got to be a balance

[Acesuper]

Ian did not say only male hedgehog can go super that was izuka. That was funny enough what the super knuckles line in frontiers is tried to say "maybe super knuckles is Canon" because knuckles say IF HE WAS SUPER KNUCKLES as if tried to go super for the first time or he meant like he did it before. And also fun fact kishimoto never heard of the male hedgehog go super ever he just don't know what gameplay that would offer

[lunabun]

Ian Flynn runs a Q&A podcast, all the lore reveals he said were directly asked to him.

[ThatOne-Guy]

This is worst then that time where shadow held a gun (cuts to shadow the hedgehog’s intro)

[diamondlockproductions]

8:38 Honestly it’s more likely that this a similar case to how Sticks is canon, but not the entirety of Sonic Boom. Just because Tangle is mentioned doesn’t mean that the IDW are confirmed to be completely canon, it just means that Tangle and possibly some other characters from the IDW comics are being brought into the mainline games.

[JerryMustache]

Kronos Island sure is looking a lot more like sand hill right about now.

[sirhoopsalot]

what gets me the most is how a lot of these references just don’t feel like natural dialogue, they make a reference for the sake of making a reference

when i think of a reference done right, i think of sonic heroes, when knuckles was in awe at the size of final fortress and commented how “the egg carrier is NOTHING compared to this!”

while this reference doesn’t serve much purpose in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t feel out of place because the egg carrier is knuckles’ strongest frame of reference regarding giant airships, giving it a good reason to be referenced. the way the line was written is also much more casual than “this reminds me of/this is like…”, which is more blatant sounding in comparison

EDIT: fixed knuckles’ quote