Archie and SEGA Mandates

[laviarray]

OK so on here and several other I have heard about mandates being placed on this series, but have gotten very little confirmation about them.

Does anyone know exactly what the mandates are from both companies?

[Mavrickindigo]

we have threads agbout his pop up from time to time.

the idea of the mandates come from things Ian has said over the years. Basically someone woudl ask "hey, how come this is like this in issue this" and Ian is like "Sega wants it that way."

I don't think there are explcit ones, just guidelines that exist on a whim.

Some interesting ones are

SEGA characters can't have relatives: so during the last few years of Prime, characters couldn't call their parents "mom" or "dad" and now Uncle Chuck is called "Uncle Chuck" by everyone, so he's not technically Sonic's Uncle.

for awhile, Omega and Cream and Emerl couldn't be used.

Sonic's grief over his children was lightened from wailing to disbelief.

SEGA said there's only one Metal Sonic after they allowed Ian to blow up about 50 metal sonics, leading to Sonic referring to Shard as "Mecha Sonic"

[Kellox]

In one of the Sonic Super Specials a page had to be re-drawn where Sonic and Sally were practicing/training.
The original had Sally tripping Sonic or something. Idk maybe Sonic isn't allowed to be shown to lose?

[Matt7325]

Last thread. Had a pretty good run.

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

First rule of SEGA Mandates: You do not talk about SEGA Mandates.

Second rule of SEGA Mandates: Something about going limp. I dunno, I wasn't paying attention.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[DoNotDelete]

for awhile, Omega and Cream and Emerl couldn't be used.

I actually don't recall seeing Emerl in any stories anyway.

SEGA said there's only one Metal Sonic after they allowed Ian to blow up about 50 metal sonics, leading to Sonic referring to Shard as "Mecha Sonic"

That was about the time that Metal Sonic wasn't allowed to speak, right? Was Metal Sonic's silence also a SEGA-imposed thing?

[Daisetsu]

If I remember right, it wasn't that Metal couldn't speak but that he couldn't have a personality (which is strange, considering Heroes, but whatever).

[Mavrickindigo]

If I remember right, it wasn't that Metal couldn't speak but that he couldn't have a personality (which is strange, considering Heroes, but whatever).

That was the past, not part of their big Metal Push for Sonic 4

[squeakyboots13]

for awhile, Omega and Cream and Emerl couldn't be used.

I think this was because, for whatever reason, Sega had considered Cream and Emerl to be Sonic X exclusive characters. It wasn't until after the Sonic X book had run it's course when they were allowed in the main comic.

No idea what the deal with Omega was. He was originally going to show up in Sonic #175 but Sega said no.

I actually don't recall seeing Emerl in any stories anyway.

He was referenced in Worlds Collide and I think a couple other places. Fixit was also based off his design.

[Meliden]

And he appeared in flashback in Champions.

[Penguin God]

for awhile, Omega and Cream and Emerl couldn't be used.

I actually don't recall seeing Emerl in any stories anyway.

Well, of course not. They couldn't use him. Cream wasn't even mentioned either, for the same reason.

[laviarray]

Here is the reason I asked. I have seen both fans and haters defend everything about the series because of the mandates. While I do think they contribute to the problems, many of the issues I have with the comic don't seem to have any benefit to them.

For example, why are Big and Cream in the comic as apart of the main cast? The series having 8 leads to begin is already enough, why add in 2 characters that very few people care about?

SEGA? But not only have they barely been in the games since Heroes, there are tons of characters I see SEGA caring more about that these 2 (Blaze, Shadow, Silver, Rouge, Chaotix, etc). So why would they mandate 2 characters that are barely in the story to begin with?


Why are the Satam characters so underdeveloped and underused in this comic?
What? Sega told Flynn to keep the characters in the story but never allow them to have any personality, personal conflict or any involvement in the story? Even though characters from adventures (Brezzie) can, characters from discontinued games can (Honey, Mighty), and characters made solely for this series can (Dr. Ellidy, Relic), but these five can't?

Why is the first storyline after the reboot based off of Unleashed? Where the planet that we have no personal involvement in gets blown up. Or why did they have a Sonic the Fighters arc without using more than half of its cast?

Sega told Flynn to write a story about games even though they dont make it anymore and keep the same characters from the Fighters game? Even though Pit from unleashed has been around Knuckles more than Sonic up to this point in the story?


It just seems like too many excuses for the writing problem that make it sound like SEGA is micromanaging in a very contradictory way.

However if what Mavrickindigo said is true...

I don't think there are explcit ones, just guidelines that exist on a whim.

I have a hard time believing all of the problems come from SEGA or Archie.

[lalalei2001]

It was Sonic the Fighters, not Sonic Battle.

Sonic the Fighters had Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Espio, Nack, Bean, Bark, Honey, Metal Sonic, and Eggman.

[Penguin God]

Or why did they have a Sonic the Fighters arc without using more than half of its cast?

I'm not sure I get this one. It uses the entire cast from the game, and the majority of stories in the comic don't use the full team. You could probably count the full-Freedom-Fighters stories on your fingers for the modern run, and that's nearly 200 issues.

Sega naturally didn't mandate any of those things, they're just choices made.

[laviarray]

Or why did they have a Sonic the Fighters arc without using more than half of its cast?

I'm not sure I get this one. It uses the entire cast from the game, and the majority of stories in the comic don't use the full team. You could probably count the full-Freedom-Fighters stories on your fingers for the modern run, and that's nearly 200 issues.

Sega naturally didn't mandate any of those things, they're just choices made.

Ok that was poor phrasing on my part. When I meant cast I was referring to the Freedom fighters. Since the reboot, the Satam five have been incredibly underutilized in the story and honestly don't seem to contribute anything to the story outside of keeping Satam fans happy. None of them have any personality, character arcs or presence that make them stand out. As the comic has had 6 story arcs up to this point, these Nicole, Rotor, Bunnie and Antoine have done very little that establish themselves as most of their scenes could be switched around and nothing would be lost in the switch. Sally on the other hand seems to constantly be used as the correct perspective and never has any storylines that challenge her personally that don't end with just making her look put upon.

When I said half the cast, I mean why were Sonic, Tails and Amy the only three main characters in this arc? Yeah they were in Sonic the Fighters, but considering that all of the other characters, minus these three, have lacked any character moments, it would have been nice to have the others do something outside of just existing.