Sonic Canon Part 1 - Rebuttal - July 27, 2003
Submitted by: big smile
Subject: The Super Emeralds and Knuckles' S&K Story

Ever since I played the first Sonic game way back in 1991, I have always been interested in the storyline of this brilliant series, which is why I absolutely loved reading Very Crazy Penguin’s (VCP) excellent editorial, “Sonic Cannon part 1”. However, I didn’t agree with a few things. VCP suggested on an AIM chat that I should write a rebuttal. So, here it is!

To avoid confusing facts with opinions, facts are in blue text, while black text denotes discussion/debate. To make the editorial easier to understand, I have done it in a FAQ style. Pink text represents the questions you (the audience) ask.

Disagreement #1 - The Super Emeralds
As VCP pointed out, this is one of the most controversial parts of the Sonic canon. However, I think they are part of the canon for several reasons.

The biggest reason has to be that No Super Emeralds = No Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
If the Super Emeralds are dropped from the storyline, then Sonic 3 & Knuckles cannot occur. Take a look at the Sonic 3 story line, “Guardian of the Floating Island”. You can find this ‘Guardian story’ in VCP’s editorial.

As we can see from the story, Knuckles does have his own set of Emeralds. These Emeralds are destroyed when Eggman arrives. Eggman tricks Knuckles into believing that Sonic has stolen Knuckles’ Emeralds, when in reality Sonic’s Emeralds are a different set of Emeralds (the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic 2). Although the Emeralds are not named in the story it’s safe to assume that they are the Super Emeralds we see in Hidden Palace. After all, Hidden Palace has shrine and a pillar, which are both mentioned in the story.

If the Super Emeralds are cut out, then Eggman cannot trick Knuckles into believing that Sonic is the enemy. As a result, the Sonic 3 story line starts to fall apart; Knuckles doesn’t believe that Sonic has stolen his Emeralds and so has no motive to attack Sonic. No Super Emeralds = no Sonic 3 & Knuckles story line.

The ‘Guardian story’ says the Super Emeralds were destroyed. But this can’t be true - we see the Super Emeralds in Hidden Palace!
Lets take a look at a few scenes from Sonic 3 & Knuckles (These scenes are only meant as a guide. The colours are a bit off in the captures so check the original game to see them properly):

Based on these scenes and the ‘Guardian story’, it is safe to assume that when Knuckles’ Emeralds shattered, only their ‘Emerald parts’ were destroyed - the energies kept inside of the Emeralds remained in Hidden Palace. When Sonic enters Hidden Palace, the Chaos Emeralds he collected are enlarged allowing the Chaos Emeralds to store their own energies and the energies of the Super Emeralds. This in itself is another pivotal plot point.

Really? - Explain
When Sonic first enters Hidden Palace the Master Emerald is not shining. When all the Super Emeralds are collected, the Master Emerald starts shining. Based on this, its safe to assume that when the Super Emeralds are fully restored (i.e. Sonic has collected their energies from the special stages), the Super Emeralds are able to ‘heal’ the Master Emerald.

In the good ending, the Master Emerald is shining. When it is placed on Angel Island, the island begins to float in the sky. This of course raises an important question, if the Master Emerald was on Angel Island for most of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles story, why wasn’t Angel Island floating in the sky? The reason was probably because the Master Emerald was no longer shining and so no longer had the power to keep Angel Island floating. Therefore, if the Super Emeralds are removed from the story, they cannot restore the Master Emeralds power preventing Angel Island from floating again.

Isn’t it the weight of the Death Egg that prevents Angel Island from floating?
Yes it is; the main Sonic 3 story strongly implies this. However, I don’t think it is the only reason. If it were, then when the Death Egg moves from Launch Base to Lava Reef, the Island would have started floating again, even if it were only for a few seconds.

But Angel Island is huge. It would take more than a few seconds before it could start floating again.
Angel Islands starts floating immediately when the Master Emerald is placed on it in both Sonic’s ending and Knuckles’ ending of Sonic & Knuckles:

In Sonic Adventure, the Island also starts to float the moment Knuckles restores the Master Emerald in his ending. Based on this, the Master Emerald only needs a few seconds to make Angel Island float.

Okay, but how do we know that Angel Island doesn’t start floating after Death Egg is blown out of Launch base.
On the Sonic & Knuckles title screen, the Death Egg is shown falling into Lava Reef Zone:

This signifies that Sonic & Knuckles continues the story from where Sonic 3 ended it. However, when Death Egg lands back on the island, the island is not floating, but still in the sea. If Sonic Team intended that the weight of Death Egg was the only reason as to why the Island cannot float, it is logical to assume that they would have shown the Island floating on the title screen but then sinking back down as Death Egg landed on it.

The main Sonic 3 story seems to imply Death Egg brought the island to the sea. The ‘Guardian Story’ is written from Knuckles viewpoint. It’s interesting to note that immediately after Knuckles’ Emeralds are destroyed Knuckles sees the Death Egg on the island. Based on this I think it is Death Egg that brings the Island to the sea in the first place, but as the Master Emerald is damaged, the island stays down even though Death Egg rises at the end of Launch Base.

If the Super Emeralds are so important why haven’t they been shown outside of Sonic 3 & Knuckles?
Little Planet is central to Sonic CD’s story line but hasn’t appeared outside of Sonic CD.
West Side Island is central to Sonic 2’s story line but hasn’t been seen since (even though there were plenty of opportunities for it to appear, for example in the flash back Tails has in Sonic Adventure 1). Should Sonic CD and Sonic 2 be dropped because their central elements haven’t appeared again? I think not.

Chaotix is a perfect example of this. Very few people count it as a definite canon game and after the character’s absence during the Adventure era, very few people were even sure if it was eligible to be in the canon. Yet nearly 9 years after the Chaotix first appeared (in a game that was not even supervised by Sonic Team) we see them return in Sonic Heroes.

But what about the ‘Past flashbacks’ of Sonic Adventure [SA1], which tells the history of the Emeralds? Why didn’t the Super Emeralds appear there?
The story doesn’t tell the full history of the Emeralds. For example, we don’t see how they ended up on South Island. The story isn’t a full history, but merely a chapter in the Emerald’s history. SA1 doesn’t prove that the Super Emeralds don’t exist. It just proves that the Super Emeralds come into the storyline after Chaos attacked the Echidnas.

Another reason why the Super Emeralds don’t appear in SA1 could relate to audience factors. The majority of SA1 players are likely to be a general audience who are not necessary Sonic fans. It’s unlikely that they would still remember the Super Emeralds from Sonic & Knuckles. The part of SA1’s story that is set in the present only focuses on 7 Emeralds. If Sonic Team showed all 14 Emeralds in the past, people who haven’t played S&K would wonder why only 7 Emeralds appear in the present. This would make the story confusing.

And there are some possible references to the Super Emeralds in SA1.

Really? - Let’s see them
Firstly, in the Lost World, there is a mural. Surrounding the mural are 14 emeralds - a reference to the Super Emeralds? It could be (see the next question for more on this mural).

Secondly, if you look at the Master Emerald in the ‘present scenes’ of SA1, you’ll notice it is always shining, just like it does in Sonic 3 & Knuckles after all the Super Emeralds have been collected. But in the ‘past scenes’ it never shines once.

Interesting, but the Master Emerald doesn’t shine in the past because the Chaos Emeralds are surrounding it. When the Chaos Emeralds are next to the Master Emerald, its powers are neutralised.
In the past scenes after Chaos has attacked, the Chaos Emeralds leave, yet the Master Emerald does not shine. In the present scenes, when Knuckles places the Chaos Emeralds around the Master Emerald, the Master Emerald is still shining even though the Chaos Emeralds are supposed to being having an effect on it. These two facts prove that the Master Emerald’s shining has nothing to do with neutralisation from the Chaos Emeralds. As the only other time we see the Master Emerald shine is when it is with the Super Emeralds in Hidden Palace (in S3&K), it is safe to assume the shining is some how connected with the Super Emeralds. Presumably, it doesn’t shine in the past, as the Master Emerald hasn’t come into contact with the Super Emeralds yet.

But the Emeralds turn bigger when next to the Master Emerald - therefore the Super Emeralds cannot be a separate set of Emeralds.
In both SA games the size of the Emeralds change through out the game. This makes it harder to accurately compare the size of the Emeralds, making theories about the Emeralds changing in size when next to the Master Emerald difficult to prove. The Emeralds do appear to be a bit bigger in SA1’s ‘Past story’, but this could just indicate that the Super Emeralds and the Chaos Emeralds were originally a single set in ancient times, but became separate after Chaos attacked the Echidnas. The above mural may even support this ‘separation theory’

If you look at the mural there are 7 Emeralds above Chaos and the island and 7 Emeralds below Chaos and the island. This could suggest that after Chaos attacked, the Emeralds separated with the 7 Super Emeralds remaining on Angel Island, while the 7 Chaos Emeralds fell below the island.

SA2 definitely proves that placing the Emeralds next to the Master Emerald doesn’t change them into Super Emeralds. Even though the Emeralds have been placed next to the Master Emerald, Knuckles still calls them ‘Chaos Emeralds’. These Emeralds also transform Sonic and Shadow into their Super forms. If placing the Chaos Emeralds next to the Master Emerald really did transform them into Super Emeralds, they would turn Sonic and Shadow into Hyper characters.

But Hyper characters don’t exist, they were just a gameplay element for Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
If you access Debug mode in Sonic 3 & Knuckles you can play stages such as Knuckles in Death Egg, Knuckles in Sonic’s Sky Sanctuary, Sonic in Knuckles’ Sky Sanctuary and Knuckles in Sonic’s Lava Reef. Based on this, it stands to reasons that Sonic Team made non-story elements accessible through debug only. Tails proves this point perfectly. It is not possible to play as a ‘Super Sonic version of Tails’ without debug (Super Tails is a ‘Hyper Sonic version of Tails’, as he uses the Super Emeralds). If Sonic Team wanted non-story elements to be accessible without debug, then they would have made it possible to play as a ‘Super Sonic version of Tails’ in the main game. They would have even made stages such as Tails’ in Doomsday playable without debug.

But the Super Emeralds and Hyper characters were never meant to happen. They were just an ‘accident’ that were a result of Sega rushing the release of Sonic 3 and splitting it into two separate games.
No one can really say for sure how Sonic 3 would have turned out if it hadn’t been separated into two games. Although splitting the game into two may have caused Sonic Team to deviate from their original plans, they had full control over these changes. If they didn’t want to add Super Emeralds or Hyper characters then they wouldn’t have. They added these elements because they wanted too. If they just wanted to give the player an excuse to re-collect the Emeralds in Sonic & Knuckles, they could have made it that Sonic loses the Emeralds in Sonic & Knuckles and has to re-collect them. There were hundreds of changes that they could have made to their original plans, but the changes they chose were the Super Emeralds.

Both the stories that come with Sonic 3 make references to another set of Emeralds. So it is likely that the Super Emeralds were always supposed to be a part of the game.

In my opinion, going by ‘what could have been’ makes little sense. For example, Sonic was originally supposed to be a rabbit. Should we consider Sonic to be a rabbit? In an Earthquake, you cannot go to the fallen rubble and tell the rubble that it is actually still a building, because the builders never intended for it collapse. ^_^

Disagreement #2 - the Emeralds are not a part of Knuckles’ S&K story
The Emeralds do not appear to be a part of Knuckles’ S&K story. If they were then when Knuckles takes them to Hidden Palace, they would neutralise the Master Emerald causing Angel Island to fall.

I disagree with this theory. Firstly, if you look at the ending of Knuckles’ game you will see that Angel Island has a long way to ‘climb’ in the sky after the Master Emerald is placed on it.

Therefore, Angel Island did fall quite a bit from its normal position in the sky. It is possible that when Knuckles collects the Chaos Emeralds, they have an effect on the Master Emerald making it harder for the Master Emerald to keep the Island in its normal ‘high-up position’ in the sky.

Secondly, the theory is based on the assumption that the Chaos Emeralds neutralise the Master Emerald. However, there is nothing to suggest that Super Emeralds have the same effect (and it is unlikely they do as the 'Guardian story' implies the 7 Super Emeralds and the Master Emerald were kept together on the shrine before Angel Island stopped floating). Therefore, the Master Emerald’s energies would only be neutralised for the few seconds when Knuckles brings the Chaos Emeralds to Hidden Palace. When the Chaos Emeralds are transformed into Super Emeralds the neutralising effect would stop. This again might explain why Angel Island is lower down in the sky than usual as opposed to being completely in the sea: The Chaos Emeralds’ neutralising effect was cancelled before Angel Island fell all the way down to the ocean.

Then again, maybe Angel Island did fall to the ocean during Knuckles’ adventure (perhaps the bomb Eggrobo used weakened the Master Emerald, explaining why the Master Emerald is not shining when Knuckles enters Hidden Palace). If Angel Island did fall into the sea, it would explain why so many of the stages in Knuckles’ game have underwater sections. When Knuckles collects all the Super Emeralds and restores the Master Emeralds energies, the island starts to float. However, before it can reach its normal position in the sky, the Master Emerald is stolen. This again would explain why Angel Island is lower than usual when we see it in Sky Sanctuary, but isn’t completely in the ocean.

However, I question if the Chaos Emeralds even have the ability to neutralise the Master Emerald.

In SA2, Knuckles tells Rouge that the Master Emerald contains special energies to neutralise the Chaos Emeralds. However, this does not necessarily mean that the Chaos Emeralds can neutralise the Master Emerald. Sonic might be the colour blue, but that does not make the colour blue the same as Sonic.

But we know the Chaos Emeralds do neutralise the Master Emerald. It happens in Super Sonic’s story in SA1!
In Super Sonic’s story, we see Angel Island falling. Knuckles thinks it must have something to do with the Chaos Emeralds he brought back. But if the Chaos Emeralds were causing the fall, then Angel Island should go back in the sky when the Emeralds are removed. This doesn’t happen. As we see in Knuckles’ SA story and in the Sonic 3 & Knuckles endings, the moment the Master Emerald is placed on Angel Island it starts floating instantly. Yet in the Super Sonic story a great deal of time passes after Chaos removes the Emeralds from Angel Island:

As we can see, there is plenty of time for Angel Island to go back in the sky, yet it stays down throughout. Whatever caused Angel Island to fall had nothing to do with the Chaos Emeralds.

But we know the Chaos Emeralds do neutralise the Master Emerald. When the Emeralds were separated from the Master Emerald 3000 years ago, Angel Island broke away from the Mystic Ruins. This suggests that as the Chaos Emeralds were next to the Master Emerald, the Master Emerald could not make the shrine float.
This is only a theory. I think it is a very good theory but there is evidence that contradicts it. If you watch the Super Sonic SA story, which shows Chaos attacking the Knuckles’ tribe, we see the Chaos Emeralds are separated from the Master Emerald. Yet the island still remains on the ground.

Secondly, according to the A Heavenly Island - Chaos Emerald Tradition [Part 1]
story, the Echidnas made murals to record the events of 3000 years ago. We see one of these murals in the Lost World, which is not a part of Angel Island. If the Chaos Emeralds being separated from the Master Emerald really did cause Angel Island to break away from the Mystic Ruins, there would have been very little time for the Echidnas to build a mural in the Lost World.

The mural is also further proof that the flash backs in SA1 are not the full story of what happened 3000 years ago. If you look at the mural you can see Chaos is in his ‘Prefect form’ when he attacks the city depicted in the mural. But we don’t see this in the flashbacks. When Chaos turns ‘Perfect’ in the present, Tikal mentions Chaos had also destroyed the world in the past. Yet the flash backs stop before we see these events happening in the past. Therefore, the flash backs are only a single chapter, and not the full story, of what happened 3000 years ago and of the Emerald’s history.

Information overload!
To summarise:
-The Super Emeralds do exist and are central to the act of Eggman tricking Knuckles. Knuckles being tricked is in turn central to the Sonic 3 & Knuckles story.
-The lack of a shining Master Emerald in the past scenes of Sonic Adventure 1 and the mural in the Lost World could be references to the Super Emeralds.
-The Hyper characters do exist otherwise it is likely that Sonic Team would have made them accessible through Debug mode only (like they did for Tails in Doomsday)
-Both the Master Emeralds’ power loss and the weight of the Death Egg are responsible for Angel Island falling into the sea.
-It’s unlikely that the Chaos Emeralds can neutralise the Master Emerald otherwise the Master Emerald would have made Angel Island float in the scenes of SA1, which show the Master Emerald separated from the Chaos Emeralds.

I’m still not convinced of anything you say!
Life would be really dull if everybody held the same views about everything. The point of this rebuttal was not wipe-out other views, but just to show that there is another side to the coin. Besides, as Sonic Team have said very little about the issues raised, I don’t think one view can ever be 100% correct. So if your not convinced, that’s perfect and it just goes to show how enigmatic the Sonic story line is (which is why I really love it). ^_~