Re: A few things: (Actually, a lot!)

From: Dan Drazen <drazen_at_andrews.edu>
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 14:24:08 -0400 (EDT)

Ken:

Sorry that you only have to emerge from Lurkerland when there are these
kinds of discrepancies.

My own interest in this matter, as you may have guessed, goes beyond
fandom. I continue to maintain the FAQ File in part because of my
interest in theology. Seriously, it's one thing to speculate on the
process of how the Old Testament, for instance, came to be canonized;
it's quite another thing to watch the process of canonization unfold in
the present. THAT's how I consider the state of things in this corner
of Sonic fandom.

And now, for a few particulars:

>
> Just to settle the argument, Sally and Sonic were 13 at the commencement, and
> they're currently 15 right now. The story with Julayla was written just
> before "Blast to the Past" aired, as we were working from a script because we
> needed to establish the character of Rosie. As I recall, the time-line wasn't
> too established in the script we were working from, as the war was only going
> on for a couple of years.
>

Has any other comic you've worked on become this complex? Back home I
have (courtesy of a friend in New York State) a copy of the character
"bible" for the old Care Bears cartoon series. it isn't just a single
sheet. And over on a Disney animation group the similar bible for the
series "Gargoyles" has been described as huge! Perhaps if Sega had
commissioned a similar bible these conflicts need never have happened.
But that's just 20/20 hindsight talking....


> We worked out our own timeline as a result, based on SEGA treating the
> characters as if they aged at the same rate we do. If we treated them in
> terms of how animals really age (so many of their years = one of ours), Sonic
> and Sally would've been portrayed as battle-hardened adults by this time. As
> further proof of this, when we portrayed Sonic and Sally married in the
> future, there were a few comments about how old they should be to get
> married.
>

The fans generally seem to agree with the idea of aging at a human rate,
as it were. And "battle-hardened" is the last term I'd use to describe
the Knothole gang. Tactically, they prefer harassment and hit-and-run
to all-out assaults.

> To go by the timeline that the war started when Sonic and Sally were five
> didn't make sense, especially when you factor in their current age. As far as
> we were concerned, this was one time when the show got it wrong. However,
> because it's TV, most people accept that version as gospel.

In Judaism, when there's a gap in the Biblical narrative that begs to be
explained, the process called "midrash" takes over. Over in this group,
it's called "fanfic." I wrote "Capture The Flag" to answer a number of
questions that never got satisfactorily answered either in the comics or
on TV:

   Where did Knothole come from?
   How did the kids live there?
   Who else was there with them?
   When did they start their campaign against Robotnik?
   How did the power ring generator get there?

Those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. The
point is, I didn't have the luxury of thinking "the show got it wrong."
My task as a writer was: "OK, using the information I have, including
the fact that Robotnik took over when the kids were 5 years old, how do
I answer these questions?" Where the fans have been having trouble has
not been in thinking "the show got it wrong" or Archie got it wrong; the
biggest debates, as you've no doubt seen, have come from open conflicts
of fact (15 v. 16 years old; ground squirrel v. fox, etc.).

> My attitude is
> that it's the games that establish the world of Sonic, with the series,
> paperbacks and comics filling in the details, with neither one more valid
> than the other. Mike and I tried to be consistent with all versions, but for
> various reasons, couldn't always be.
>
> Mike and I constantly disagree over what happens in the world of Sonic, as we
> try our best to do the best stories we can. And our approach definitely
> differs from the other writers involved in the series. That doesn't mean
> they're wrong or bad. They just have a different slant on the characters and
> series.
>

Again, I don't think anyone is being overly critical of the comics,
though the degree of fan acceptance of the TV series is so strong that
when rumors of a Sonic movie were flying around here a couple weeks ago
I sensed a strong concensus that the character of Sonic wouldn't be
acceptable unless he were once more voiced by Jaleel White. And IMHO
you and Mike Kanterovich are the strongest writers that Archie has
working on the series. The burden of consistency, however, appears to
be resting on nobody's shoulders in particular. Sega has given some
details about characters (Sonic's character guide is available on a
couple of fan home pages) but it's apparently broad enough to permit some
differences within and between media. And (to bring it full circle)
that's why I continue to maintain the FAQ File -- to bring a certain
amount of order out of creative chaos.

Hey, I'm a librarian. It's what I do.

> So go ahead, enjoy your take on the world of SONIC. Think of Sonic like some
> of the other classic characters, and how many different versions of Batman
> and Superman there are. I guess you could chalk it all up to artistic
> interpretation.
>
> However, if you ask a question to settle a debate, you're going to get my
> interpretation that I work out with the editors at Archie and the licensing
> department at SEGA, okay?
>

Maybe what we need to do is convene the cyberspace equivalent of the
Council of Jamnia (which fixed the Old Testament canon around AD 90).
There'd be representatives of Sega, Archie (I nominate you and Mike),
and Pat Allee and Ben Hurst would represent the TV series. The fans
would draw up a list of questions and you and the others would huddle
until they were answered. Right now, the only alternative is that we
the fans take matters into our own hands and write fanfic.

Bet they never have these kind of problems in Riverdale High!

And now for the mushy sig:

================================================================
|| ___------__ || Daniel J. Drazen
|| |\__-- /\ _- || drazen_at_andrews.edu
|| | / __ _ ||Sonic: "Whoa, you're not going to
|| //\ / \ /__ || use the L-word, are you?"
|| | o| 0|__ --_ ||Tails: "Well...."
|| \\____-- __ \ ___ - ||Sonic: "Then I will...I love you,
|| (_at_@ __/ / /_ || little bro."
|| -_____--- --_ ||AoStH: "Tails' New Home"
================================================================

Received on Tue Apr 30 1996 - 14:52:50 PDT