![Sonic Origins](https://images.nintendolife.com/c3b77520d457b/sonic-origins.900x.jpg)
Sonic the Hedgehog lore, hey? More confusing that a Zelda timeline? Probably not. But there's been a lot of games, comics, TV shows, and movies, and not all of them are tied together. So Sega has said "enough is enough" and the company is now hiring for a Sonic the Hedgehog loremaster. Yes, really.
Sega of America has posted a job listing for 'Associate Manager, Lore' for the Sonic Team over on LinkedIn (thanks Kotaku!). The job is located at the company's Burbank office in California, and you'll need to be able to commute to and work from the office two days a week, with the remaining workdays being remote. The lucky candidate will be reporting to, and this is a real job, the Director of Lore and Creative Strategy.
Here's a snippet from the job description as it appears on LinkedIn:
"With both project management and creative duties, you will be immersed in the organizing and shaping of Sonic lore, canon, characters, and universes, helping to bring consistency, connectivity, and creativity to all things Sonic across various forms of media including games, animation, comics, and more."
We know that video game lore is really important, especially for long-established series — but we admit that it's a little funny and fascinating to see this as a job listing. it actually sounds pretty cool to us — imagine being in charge, or playing a part, in keeping a huge video game series' story all nicely knitted together?
Now, if you're an outsider, you might be confused. Sonic the Hedgehog has lore? And no, we're not talking Dark Souls levels of lore, but a lot is going on in the world of the blue blur. From the 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog on the Mega Drive, to this year's Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie, most people would have a hard time keeping up. There's Sally the Acorn, Manic and Sonia — Sonic's siblings — and Sonic's stint in a band. Don't even get us started on that time Sonic and Mega Man crossed over in Worlds Collide and Worlds Unite alongside tons of other Sega and Capcom properties. We're not even scratching the surface, here.
![Sonic Frontiers](https://images.nintendolife.com/0abcfbe53e41b/sonic-frontiers.900x.jpg)
Interestingly, last week, Ian Flynn — Sonic comic writer and the person behind Sonic Frontiers' story — confirmed on his BumbleKast podcast (via ResetEra) and confirmed that there aren't "two universes", which is a retcon of the events of Sonic Frontiers. We promise it makes sense. Check out the podcast over on YouTube (timestamped at 3:00, where the discussion around the Sonic timeline starts).
So, Sonic's lore needs taming! And you might be the person for the job. Head on over to the LinkedIn listing to find out more about the job.
Do you think you've got what it takes to become the Sonic Loremaster? Get your sneakers on and head down to the comments to let us know.
[source linkedin.com, via kotaku.com]
Comments 40
Good luck with that. This series went from one new concept to the other that I'm not even sure that this franchise has a lore any more.
It’s Sally Acorn, not Sally THE Acorn.
SEGA consider this my job application.
TIL Sonic has Lore…. But seriously, I never paid attention to anything other than “Dr Robotnik captured animals, let’s rescue them, SUPER FAST!” And all I cared about was the levels being fun, smooth and fast.
I think his is a good sign this they are trying to take the story in a new direction, I do feel like they should retcon a few things here and there, leave unleashed, boom probably won’t count because it’s an alternate dimension, maybe act like forces never happened, please.
[does anime person adjusting glasses thing]
Bring it on.
Don't you mean retcon of the story from Sonic Forces? (which said that classic Sonic isn't from the past, but a separate universe in which only the 2D games happened)
Beware, worrying too much about lore and continuity can be bad for the franchise.
Mario went the SpongeBob way and has little to no canon and continuity, while games constantly reference the previous games, they aren't putting the story of the previous games on the way of new ones.
Sonic is a sad case where they flip-flopped on caring about lore or not, and putting many, many different ideas on the franchise to the point I don't think a Sonic timeline can be properly made without contradictions.
Good for them! Sonic rules!!
I love stupid Sonic lore. As a fan, I say give me more.
currently there are bizarre mandates in Sonic such as "Classic Sonic is mute", which means that Sega decided to remove the iconic "I'm outta here" voice line in Sonic Origins. Much to the dismay of the actual fans.
So yeah if we could get Sonic's lore sorted out by someone who actually knows what's best, that'd be great.
Surely there's a wiki they can get in touch with for the necessary nerds.
Sonic is fast and the hero. Tails is good with machines. Knuckles defends the chaos emeralds. Dr. Robotnik tries to take over the world. Amy has the hots for Sonic. Shadow is the ultimate edge lord. Big the Cat likes to fish.
Did I get the job?
Kinda bit too late for that they keep contradicting themselves like Sonic 06 is separate story with Sliver but in Forces he appears with everyone else which doesn't make any sense. That can't make up their minds about Classic Sonic timeline and he can't even talk either whether is it the past or different universe.
@LillianC14 That was so stupid, you make a whole game based around time and just go ahead and say it’s another dimension, and even if you say They were alternate dimensions, sonic at the end says “Enjoy your future, it’s gonna be great” like bro, why?
Sonic lore (game wise) has gone lossey-goosey to the point to where whatever let's roll with it and we kinda went along with it. (Except in few cases like in the part in Sonic Forces where Tails meets Chaos 0 and proceeds to assume the fetal position calling for Sonic's help, completly disregarding the Adventure games. Heh, creative freedom for fanfic writers and such. If they're going to make the lore care again, they gotta make the characters besides Sonic cool (and also playable) again for one thing. I miss Amy's lovey dovey antics and whacking robots with her hammer.
See, I'm used to the original games on the Sega Genesis. One of my friends (who is also my ex, but we remained friends), is more familiar with the Sonic X continuity, which takes elements from the Sonic Adventures continuity. She actually made quite a few Sonic X AMVs back in the day, when AMVs were a thing.
But personally, my favorite continuity is the Archie Comics continuity, specifically before they rebooted the comic. I just felt like it was never given a proper ending (where Dr. Robotnik/Eggman was defeated once and for all, Sally is turned back from a robot into her true form, and she and Sonic get married and live happily ever after).
But instead of that, they rebooted the series. And then they didn't give the reboot a proper ending, before canceling the series altogether, with IDW taking over the rights to Sonic, and then making their own series separate from both continuities.
As a writer, I hate it when stories are abandoned, especially when they've been running for over 20 years, like the Archie Sonic series did. If I ever had the chance, I'd ask the head writer for the Archie Sonic series how they had planned on ending it had the license not gone to IDW, whether they would undo the rebooted timeline and go back to the original one using the Chaos Emeralds (which is how the series got rebooted in-story), and defeat Eggman for good.
Anyone else having trouble accessing the eshop today? I’ve been trying all day to no success
Expecting a Hedgehog Historia soon.
If Ian didn't have his hands full with writing (which can be just as important a role), he would have this in the bag.
Sega, hire this man
Yeah, good luck. And even within the boundaries of the games, are we talking about the early western lore or the Japanese lore?
Whenever I think of a person that actually cares about Sonic Lore, I just imagine Chris Chan.
So where does Sonic’s Underground band fall in all the timeline?
So many folks are gathering up their Sanic fanfiction right now…
Oh of course they did that if they kept up the two universes idea people would keep asking why they haven’t made another game in the Mania one, oh silly me for thinking for a few nanoseconds in 2018 that a profit driven company would make a follow up to a highly successful game that reviewed and sold extremely well.
@victordamazio Also arguably the most well received Sonic story of recent times is the movie. Which establishes its own canon.
It uses the same characters and objects, but like Mario recontextualises a similar set of circumstances into its own standalone story.
I'd wonder how much value there is in the Sonic games attempting to follow, and being bound by the previous established lore, or if its actually just a detriment.
I will make sure to avoid all of that. This series went way rotten when it started taking the story about a blue hedgehog rescuing forest friends from robots and Eggman seriously.
....or maybe it was just when I started hearing "Eggman" instead of Robotnik?
@Xiovanni unfortunately
@MythTgr Woo. Awesome if so. Sticks is a fun character, hope she's brought back into other games one day.
BDG's the only person I've ever seen bring up the original Sonic lore.
They should have done this a long time ago.
@Dr_Lugae The Sonic franchise is such a mess that they can't even decide if Sonic's planet is another planet, or it's the earth in the future, something many different Sonic adaptations keep flip-flopping, and I think the actual games never properly stated.
Also, another big reason why the Sonic franchise is a mess when making a timeline, is that first, Classic Sonic was supposed to be Sonic from the past, then it's Sonic from another universe, despite Modern Sonic remembering the adventures that Classic Sonic had in the Mega Drive era.
Thinking about it, can the Sonic lore get as confusing as the one in Kingdom Hearts?
@NinjaWaddleDee And why do you feel that Sonic (despite the two Adventure games and passion that went into those) is deserving of nonsensical half-baked ideas that only exist for bad comedy and appealing to grade-schoolers?
I honestly don't understand why Iizuka (the only guy managing creative control in the Sonic franchise) thinks that every Sonic medium should/can work under one continuity?
The only one that needs the MOST help is the video game series. All the other series work better as their own continuities. It's just that SEGA never actively tells people any of this and just chooses to bury them under time, like the Fleetway comics or the Shogakukan manga, or the French comic with the female echidna, Alucion.
They work better as their own continuities due to:
-Characterization
-Premise
-The roles of each original character and impact these roles have on the fans who love them.
Ex. Sally wouldn't make much sense if Sonic is constantly traveling from island to island or being transported to Blaze's world and storybook worlds.
At this point, I really hate that Iizuka/SEGA have any power over this franchise at all, and I would rather buy all of Sonic from them and do some serious damage control.
Sonic will never have some consistently diverse utopia filled with princesses/resistance leaders, royal siblings, echidnas who can't decide between questioning their guardian role or jokes about skipping leg day while cartoonishly buff, gun-toting edgelords, time-traveling psychics, obscure classic characters, cancelled classic characters, wacky paranoid crackpot jungle girls, cartoonish salesmen, military commanders, robot squirrels giving lengthly tragic xposition of their backstories, moe human-cat girls, clingy 12-year-old boys, small-town cops and their wives, other SEGA characters, Mario characters, other Nintendo characters, other Capcom characters, literal interpretations of their 16-bit sprites in 3D, other people's OCs, regular hedgehog parents, royal hedgehog mothers, roboticized dads, and realistic dogs as pets.
This isn't Sonic Paradox or Roger van der Wilde flash animations!
@yuwarite And I think of actual credible people like Game Apologist and Geek Critique, just to name a few.
@Korgon Knuckles defends the MASTER Emerald.
@Johnny2071
Damn I almost nailed it!
It would be fascinating to see a Sonic timeline of it all. Let the retconing begin!
@victordamazio: I think last year it was explained by Ian Flynn and, later this year, by that new Sonic web series TailsTube that they finally settled on just one world instead of that dumb "two worlds" thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmzc8L8zTBk
As for Classic Sonic, last week Flynn appearently said on Bumblekast that Mania now does take place in the past/main timeline, so Classic Sonic is no longer an alternate dimension or whatever counterpart as suggested by Forces.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-%E2%80%9Ctwo-universes%E2%80%9D-retcon-is-dead-sonic-mania-is-now-in-the-same-timeline-as-modern-sonic-there%E2%80%99s-only-one-timeline-confirmed-by-ian-flynn.651591/
Darn it Sega and Sonic Team, make up your minds.😑
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