Re: "Harmonic Sonic"

From: Dan Drazen <drazen_at_andrews.edu>
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 08:42:53 -0500 (EST)

> >
> >If you've seen "Harmonic Sonic" (it was on USA yesterday), did you notice
> >the robots playing music? Isn't that clearly a violation of Robotnik's
> >laws as stated in the comics.
>
> Music is a violation of Robotnik's rules. But then again, the music
> was being played on the SkySpy space station, miles out of Robotnik's reach.
> For the sake of discussion, if Robotnik was on the SkySpy, the robots
> would probably not play their music.

My own take on this is that you can blame it on the writer "du jour"
David Villaire. During the show's first season, they literally had a
different writer for every ep. It was only with the second season that
they settled on a single writing team headed by Pat Allee and Ben Hurst.
That kept the vision of Mobius somewhat more coherent. The ban on music
I take to be a vestige of the "Adventures of..." syndicated series which
I hold to be of dubious canonicity (see below).

>
> >We've already had 2 or 3 discussions over what year it is on Mobius, and
> >other things that are different between the weekend cartoon and the
> >comics. If someone is willing to compile a list of what's different
> >between the Sonic worlds (books, Archie comics, Fleetway comics, weekend
> >cartoon), I'll put it on the ftp site. Or, this could go in one of the
> >Sonic FAQ's.
>
> I can give you two to start with. First - Tails' age. When he was
> introduced in Sonic 2, he was only 3. When the comic was started two
> years ago, he was 4 or 5. During the Adventures of Sonic cartoon, Tails
> was exactly 4 1/2. But, during one episode in the second season of the
> weekend Sonic (I don't recall the name, but it was the one that involved the
> Power Stones), Sally said he was 10. Later, the comics took notice and
> modified his age.

This situation was a mess! I'd appreciate knowing the story and issue
("chapter and verse") for Tails' age in the comics, but the Sonic Grams
of #29 try to explain away the discrepancy by invoking Sonic #14 ("Tails'
Taste of Power") to explain how Tails could suddenly age 5 years. BTW,
it was the "Drood Henge" ep that established Tails' age as 10, thus
demonstrating the acceptance of the SatAM series as canon.

> The second discrepency - the real name of the walrus handyman.
> When he was introduced in the comic, his name was Boomer. But, when the
> weekend Sonic showed him, his name was Rotor. In issue #12 (Sonic's
> Christmas Carol), the comic officially changed his name to Rotor. They
> first used his new name in the story, then they gave an explanation about
> the name change in the SonicGrams section. They said they didn't want to
> create any conflicts with the TV show. (TOO LATE!!)
>

Other discrepancies:

Perhaps one of the biggest was putting Knothole underground in the
beginning, whereas the TV show never had Knothole anywhere but out in
the open.

Uncle Chuck: the comics made him out to be a general tinkerer/chili dog
vendor, while "Blast to the Past" held that he was working for the
government when roboticized. The circumstances of his mind being
restored also differ -- compare Sonic #30 with the "Sonic Conversion"
episode.

Bunnie's origins: open because the TV series never got around to
offering an explanation, though the story "Rabbit Deployment" (Sonic #3)
was followed by Teitelbaum. Major difference: Blast to the Past
established Bunnie as a childhood friend of Sally and Sonic, whereas
there was no hint of that in Sonic #3.

Tails: we may be on the verge of an answer to the question of how Tails
got two tails: in "de-Tails" (the letters column in Tails #1), a
question about Tails' parents is answered by saying that it will
eventually be answered in an issue of Sonic. So a Tails origin story,
if not a Tails reunion with his parent(s) story, may be in the works.
Knowing what happened to the script of "Growing Pains", though, I don't
hope for the best.
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Received on Tue Nov 07 1995 - 09:05:49 PST