Game Theory - The COMPLETE Sonic Timeline…Explained

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

The Sonic Timeline is WRONG! Earlier this year, Sega released their official timeline of Sonic the Hedgehog and it’s… all over the place. Many important games are missing and some of the games are in COMPLETELY the wrong order! But don’t worry Sega, because today Game Theory Host Tom is here to fix it…

The Sonic timeline is wrong. Earlier this year, Sega released the official timeline of Sonic the Hedgehog. And it is all over the place. Many important games are missing, and some of the games that are in the timeline are in the complete wrong order. But don't worry, Sega, because I'm here to fix it. Hello, internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that's always going for that S-rank. I mean, I'm an overachiever that loves Sonic games.

Are we surprised? But as a kid, I wasn't only chasing the dopamine hit from seeing Sonic do his little breakdance. I was also seriously invested in the story of each game. From the great to the really not great. And with more recent additions like Sonic Generations and Sonic Frontiers, actively calling back to past adventures, I really began to wonder how all of these games would fit together. So, you could imagine my excitement when Sega released an official Sonic the Hedgehog timeline.

A definitive list showing us which games happen in one. What order in the Sonic story? Including events that occurred in the past before Sonic is even around. Like the ancient arrival on Earth in Sonic Frontiers. Black Doom's assistance in creating Shadow the definitely a genie hedgehog. And the eradication of the Echidna tribe by Chaos. It even includes spin-off games like Sonic Riders and Sonic Battle. These guys really did their homework putting this together.

At least, that's what I was going to say. Because if you take a little more time looking at this timeline, It actually raises more questions than it answers. Why are some of the big titles missing? If some spinoff games are added, why have others not been included? And the placement of some of these games make absolutely no sense. This timeline is a certified C-rank. Just made it.

Exactly, Sega, you just made it. You got some stuff right, sure, but you also miss a lot of details along the way. But don't worry, friends, we here at Game Theory love ourselves a timeline. And more importantly, we love fixing timelines. By the end of this video, not only will I fix all the issues currently in this timeline, I will also have every Sonic game ever completely accounted for. A definitive Sonic the Hedgehog timeline truly worthy of that S-rank. That was incredible!

So, put on those power sneakers theorists. We are going to speed through this timeline faster than the Blue Blur himself. Just so we're on the same page, let's quickly go through what exactly Sega is suggesting. suggesting the timeline to be, so that I can show you where the missing pieces are and what needs rearranging. We start in the prehistoric times, millions of years ago that are mentioned in Sonic Unleashed. And this is where the chaos beings known as the ancients from Sonic Frontiers first arrive on Earth.

We then have tens of thousands of years ago where Dark Gaia from Sonic Unleashed is destroyed. And we get the arrival of the Babylonian aliens from Sonic Rider Zero Gravity. Thousands of years ago, the ancients have died out, but Chaos is still. around. And as we see in Sonic Adventure, wipes out the ancient echidna race. 2,000 years ago, Shadow the Hedgehog's Black Arm aliens prepared to invade Earth, and the ancient combat bots called Gizzoids from Sonic Battle are created. After a century and a half, we get Black Doom giving his DNA to help give Shadow life aboard the Space Colony Ark.

The Gizzoids, on that same facility, go haywire and begin destroying everything, leading gun, the government military, to intervene and kill Shadow's dear friend Maria. See, dead kids, Sonic fits right in on this channel. And just before we get to modern day, 10 years ago, we have the weirdness that is Sonic the Hedgehog 2006's time travel. Sonic goes back in time to stop the villain Solaris from existing, along with the original version of history when the Solaris experiment fails and caused ungee destruction. You know, because, as we all know, time travel never makes a timeline complicated or confusing ever. When will these franchises learn? And that's just the pre-history.

Finally, we're actually into the games that involve Sonic, which are a little more straightforward, so we're gonna blast through these. Editor, let's get that speed up ready. Sonic 1, Sonic CD, Sonic 2, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Mania, and Sonic Superstars. That leads into our modern Sonic era with Sonic 4, the present day of Sonic Adventure, Sonic Shuffle, the most random spin-off tie-in, but okay, the present day of Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Advanced 2, Sonic Hero's, the present day of Shadow the Hedgehog, the present day of Sonic 3, Sonic 3, Sonic Rush, the Present day of Sonic Rish, Sonic 3rd, Sonic 3rd, Sonic 3rd, Sonic, Sonic, Sonic, Lost World, Team Sonic Racing, Sonic Forces, the present day of Sonic Frontiers, ending 200

years in the future with Silver the Hedgehogs 2 timelines from Sonic 06. And scene. Hoo, gosh, that was a lot of games. As you'd expect from a franchise that's been around for nearly 35 years. However, I don't know if you notice, but despite it feeling like a pretty exhaustive list, I immediately saw some big games missing from that lineup. The first, and in my opinion, most obvious, is Sonic Advance. One, both its sequels, Advance 2 and 3, are present.

in the timeline, and yet the original that kicked off the spin-off series isn't included? It might be because it's just a pretty standard Sonic game for the Game Boy. Eggman is plotting evil, so Sonic and Friends stop him. Compare that to the sequels where we get the introduction of Cream, who appears in later entries like Sonic Heroes, and the introduction of Gemeral, a remade version of the Gizzoids, which we learn about in Sonic Battle. But come on, Sega! Just because it's simple, doesn't mean it can't fit somewhere, especially when you consider

the mini-games Sonic Advance. It sounds strange, but trust me, Sonic Advance contained some mini-games within the Tiny Chow Garden. By connecting this game to other games, you got more mini-games to play. If you downloaded the Tiny Chow Garden from Sonic Adventure, you got a new mini-game called Chow Search, where Takal helps you find Chow's, meaning that advance has to be after Sonic Adventure, but before Sonic Advance 2, somewhere around Sonic Shuffle and Sonic Adventure 2. So, where does Sonic Advance go in reference to these games? To answer that, we need to look at some of the enemies encountered across the games.

Some of the enemies in advance are the classic ones that you know and love, like Buzzer and Kiki. However, there are some enemies that only make an appearance in Sonic Advance and Sonic Adventure such as Leon and Rhino Tank. By the time we get to Adventure 2, these enemies are nowhere to be seen, meaning Eggman probably retired them because they were no good at taking down Sonic, placing Advance before Sonic Adventure 2. Now it's just a question of which side of shuffle it lands. And for this one, I'm going to take a page out of host of style theory Amy's book and check out the fit. Or at least the little fit Sonic does have his shoes.

Specifically, when he turns into Super Sonic. In Shuffle, you can unlock Super Sonic as a character. And the shoes he wears are the light speed dash shoes from Adventure. By Adventure 2, Sonic gets new light dash shoes with a drastically different look. So, the fact that Sonic is using the exact same shoes in Shuffle tells us that Shuffle tells us that Shuff. is most likely a direct sequel to Adventure, after which Sonic ditches the shoes, not using them at all in Advance or Adventure 2. So, Sonic Advance goes after Sonic Shuffle, but before Sonic Adventure 2. Right here.

See, that wasn't so hard. Now was it, Sega. But no time to stand around. Another set of games that are noticeably absent are the storybook series of games, Sonic in the Secret Rings and Sonic and the Black Knight. Though I would question if two games makes it a series. Now, you might think that these shouldn't be included because they're very obviously spin-off titles. However, Sonic Advanced 2 and 3 are spinoffs and they're included. Sonic Riders is a spinoff and that's there.

Heck, Sonic Shuffle is there and that's literally just a Mario Party clone. So, I don't think it's a big enough reason to not include it here. Plus, in Sonic Generations, Sonic actually references the events of Secret Rings. No stranger than rescuing genies in magic books or saving aliens in an interstellar amusement park. It just seems crazy to me not to add these games. in when they are referenced in other games. Although, it is kind of a tricky one. Sonic and the Secret Rings takes place in the Arabian Knights book.

At the start of the game, Sonic jumps on a flying carpet and goes into the book. But notice how Sonic doesn't bat an eyelid at the concept of a flying carpet. It's not because he's so chill about everything. If anything, he has a habit of being very overt when something surprises him. The whole city's on fire. It's because he already knows flying carpets exist. At the end of Sonic riders, Sonic and the team discovered that one of the first, The last extreme gears made by the Babylonians is a flying carpet.

Sonic is, as expected, shocked by the sight of it. A magic carpet? I thought that those only existed in fiction. That is the reaction of seeing a real magic carpet for the first time, but in Secret Rings, he's just like, no problem. So, Secret Rings has to take place after riders. Taking a deeper look at Secret Rings, we also find what I'd expect from most Wii games in general, some kind of party mode.

In it, you get to play as your usual suspects. Tails, Knuckles, and Aiming. But there are some unlockable characters like Shadow, Cream, and most importantly, Blaze the Cats. Now, Blaze debuted in Sonic Rush, a game that is before Sonic Ryders, which you might not think helps us all that much, but actually, it helps us out quite a lot. You see, though Blaze was introduced before Sonic Ryder's in the timeline, Blaze isn't a playable character in Riders. She is, however, a playable character after Sonic Ryder's Zero Gravity, a game which takes place after the event of Sonic One Rush Adventure, the sequel to Sonic Rush.

What this tells us is that, canonically, Blaze only sticks around to be a playable character after the events of Sonic Rush Adventure, placing Secret Rings sometime after that game too. It also has to be before generations due to Sonic recalling the event. But outside of that, I was kind of struggling to find other details that could help me place it in a satisfying way that also wouldn't drive me insane. However, in saying that, Secret Rings is also so isolated. that no matter where it goes, it's unlikely to cause any real contradictions to the rest of Sonic's law. So, I decided to employ the tactics Sega themselves also seemed to use for these isolated

games. Use the release dates. You can see this in the current timeline, where games like Sonic Rush Adventure, Sonic Rider Zero Gravity and Sonic Unleash have no direct impact on one another. Really, these three games could go in any order, but Sega chose to put them in order based on their release dates. Secret Rings also came out in 2007. And, because because we know it has to be after Sonic Rush, we will put it after that. But before, Zero Gravity, which came out a year later. And if you thought that one was tough, Sonic and the Black Knight, the other storybook game is even trickier to place.

While it's a sequel to Sonic and the Secret Rings, there are no references to it in later games. And again, the story stands on its own with no interactions with any other Sonic characters except the ones in the storybook. That is, until the ending. At the very end of the game, Sonic is retelling the story, and Amy replies, That initially comes off as a strange response from Amy. In a lot of the games and TV shows, Amy is infatuated with Sonic, that he isn't interested.

So, the fact that Sonic has planned to go on a date seems wild. Until you get to Sonic Unleashed and hear about this exact thing. During some dialogue with Amy, she asks to go on a date. And suddenly, we are given the option to respond that could. be fun. This optional choice is the date that Sonic misses due to the events of the Black Knight. Who knew that adding a choice in games would be so important to its law? Amy also goes on to appear in Sonic Colors. Well, the DS version anyway, and she once again helps us with Black Knight's placement. Not because of what she says, it's actually what she

doesn't say. When you interact with her, she just talks about wanting to see Sonic in action. She doesn't give any mention of her date with Sonic. As discussed, Amy is a lot. obsessed with Sonic. And if Sonic said yes to going on a date with Amy, she'd be talking about it and reminding him at every chance she got. That is, unless that date, or missing, date has already happened. Sonic misses the date in Black Knight and Amy doesn't love the excuse, but by the time we get to Sonic Colors, she's clearly moved on, putting Sonic and the Black Knight after Unleashed,

but before Colors, right about here. And with that, really, do I have to talk about you? Fine. It's time to talk about Sonic Boom. Now, I actually had no problem with these games not being included in the timeline. The games were so broken and so naturally flopped. The TV show has done very well, and it's actually pretty funny at times. Not another speeding ticket.

I'll fight it in court, but I don't think they're going to accept got to go fast as a medical condition. But if I'm calling out Sega for not including every game, then I sadly have to at least mention it, especially as Amy, once again comes to save the day. and mention Sticks, the Badger from Sonic Boom, in Sonic Frontiers. Thankfully, the solution is pretty simple. The real reason that Rise of Lyrics, Shattered Crystal and Fire and Ice aren't on Sega's timeline, but it's because these games are canonically in their own universe. Paul Kaminsky, the editor for the Sonic Boom Archie Comics, said in an interview that

the Sonic Boom comic takes place within a new branch of the Sonic Universe, that, in addition to the game, Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric for the Wii U and Sonic Boom Shattered Crystal for the Nintendo 3DS, will include a first-ever CG animated TV series. This explains why we see a lot of the same characters, and yet they are so different from what we're used to, like Knuckles being a total airhead and not the guardian of the Master Emerald. People have been complaining that I don't guard enough rare stones. So, while Sticks exists in both universes and is still friends with the gang in both,

it's not the same sticks from Sonic Boom. What this means for us in trying to place the game in this master timeline is that the Sonic, Boom series lives completely separate from the rest of the timeline running parallel to the rest of these events. Okay, we've established some of the big outliers. But there's still a lot more to cover. Across the timeline, we have a handful of smaller spin-off titles like Sonic Battle, Team Sonic Racing and Sonic Shuffle.

This initially surprised me because I would never expect a party or racing game to be added to the canon timeline, especially when the plot is pretty much the same as it always is, but with racing or cards. It doesn't exactly enrich the law of software. But it also doesn't contradict anything we already know. So it's also not a big deal either. Other more plot heavy spin-offs like Sonic Battle and Sonic Ryder's make more sense being added to the timeline. In Sonic Riders, they introduce a bit of history to the universe on how the Babylonians came from space,

and in Sonic Battle we meet Emerald, one of the ancient robot gizzoids discovered by Gerald Robotnik. Both these games enrich the lore of Sonic's universe. They gave us a glimpse into the past. But once again, the key point is they didn't contradict anything we already knew. And so if that's the main criteria for a game to be in this timeline, then there are loads more spin-offs that could be added to this thing. Now, for time's sake, I can't go into detail on every single spin-off. Because much like Nintendo with Mario, Sega loves making Sonic spin-offs.

And most of these spin-offs, like Sonic Chaos, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Tails Sky Patrol, and Waku-Waku Sonic Patrol car offer the very basic plot we're all used to. Eggman is evil and does an evil thing, Sonic, or sometimes another character, says no. saves the day. These events aren't mentioned or record again, so really they can kind of go anywhere, and therefore we'll be placing them based on their release dates like we talked about earlier. But there are some games that require a little more thought in terms of their placement, and almost all of them come from the classic Sonic era. For example, Sega Sonic the Hedgehog is an arcade game from 1993. The plot is once again the usual. The thing that's different

here is the debut of characters, Mighty the Armadillo, and Ray the Flying Squirrel. So far in the timeline, a character's debut game has also been their introduction as a character, like Amy in Sonic CD, Cream in Sonic Advance 2, and Blaze the Cat in Sonic Rush. So, this game has to be the first time we meet Mighty and Ray, therefore placing it before Sonic Mania Plus. And when it comes to being more specific, this is where Ian Flynn, a former writer of the Sonic Archie Comics, current writer of the Sonic IDW Comics, and the overall guardian of Sonic's Claw comes in clutch.

Do you know or have a theory as to when Sega Sonic takes place? After Sonic R. And where does Sonic R take place? Sometime after 3D blast. When does 3D blast take place? Sometime after spinball. When does spinball take place? Sometime after Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

That place is Sega Sonic right here and happens to also play Sonic R, Sonic Spinball, and 3D Blast 2. Ian, you're a hero. Placing Sega Sonic also helps us with another game that is surprisingly missing from the timeline, Knuckles Chaotics. This game introduced a bunch of new characters that now feel like staples in the franchise. Back to the Crocodile, Charmy the B, SBO, the Chameo, the Chameleon. Oh, and also Heavy and Bomb. But the key is the returning characters such as Knuckles and Mighty.

This would mean that the game has to take place after Sonic and Knuckles 3, where we first meet Knuckles, and Sega Sonic where we first meet Mighty. Same thing for Sonic the Fighters. before Sonic Mania due to the cameo appearance of Bark the Polar Bear, but Fighters is his debut appearance. However, there is one spin-off that I have yet to mention. One that is plot-heavy, enriches the law of Sonic's world, but is never mentioned. Some of you may have never even heard of it, but it was a game that came out on the Nintendo DS in 2008,

and I loved it. It's called Sonic Chronicles the Dark Brotherhood. The reason people forget about this game is because Sonic Chronicles was an RPG, which is not what we've come to expect from our Spiny Blue Boy. You can have all of your favorite characters join the team like Knuckles, Shadow. You can even have Big The Cat on your team. But it was made pretty clear in the Sonic the Hedgehog in Cyclospedia that this is a non-canon adventure. And this book is written by Ian Flint, so you know that that's where Sega stands on this game. But what I've never understood was why they decided this game wasn't canon.

The game's plot gives us way more backstory on the Echidna's, and overall, it's a pretty well-told story. So on this occasion, I'm going to break the rules a little bit, and I'm going to ignore Sega and prove that this game can fit into the Canon timeline. In Chronicles, we learn of two Echidna tribes, the Knuckles clan and the Nocturnus clan. These clans go to war, and then the Nocturnus clan create the Gizzoids that are already mentioned in the timeline 2000 years ago, which helps explain where they came from. Then, in order to combat the Gizzoids, the Knuckles Clan wanted to use the Master Emerald, which is where the story from Sonic Adventure comes in, where chaos appears and wipes out the Knuckles clan. This obviously is mentioned in the timeline, but it is said to happen much earlier than the

creation of the Gizzoids. So, if we are going to add Chronicles to this timeline, both these events would need to come together and take place in the thousands of years ago section, as Chronicles Law states, these events occurred 4,000 years ago. But that's just the part of the part of the time. last events that we've been able to place. We also need to know where the present-day events of the game take place in this timeline. To solve for that, we need to look at some of the characters in the game.

For example, Cream the Rabbit is a playable character. So, that puts Chronicles after Sonic Advance 2. Another character, or enemy, in Chronicles, is the Gizzoids. You encounter them many times during the game, but after the team's first encounter, the gang talks about the Gizzoid as though they already know what they are, and asking how the Nocturnous clan got one. This means they've already met Emerald from Sonic Battle.

So, it has to be after that. And those same Gizzoys help us know which games it's before in the timeline as well. See, when we meet Emerald and Sonic Battle, Eggman takes control of him to become a destroying machine. And Emerald knows the only way to stop it is to self-destruct, rather than letting Tails try to fix him. Tails then goes on to state that one day, when the world is a better place, they may be able to rebuild Emerald.

And that right there is proof that the Gizzoid technology is beyond Tales's ability. They couldn't fix him when he was malfunctioning and had to accept that Emerald had to self-destruct. But that is not the case in another game that features Gizzoids. In Sonic Advance 3, Eggman creates Gemeral, an upgraded version of Emerald. Gemeral is the big villain of the game and in the end, Super Sonic defeats it. And at the end of the credits, we see Gemeral washed ashore. Tails then starts tinkering with this robot designed for destruction. And in the next few pictures, we see that Gemeral is now good.

What that means is that between Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3, Tails has somehow managed to figure out Gizoid tech. But how could he have done that if Emerald is gone and there's no other Gizzoids around? Because Tales fought extensively against the Gizzoid during the adventures of Sonic Chronicles. And so now has a better understanding about what makes them tick. This puts the events of Sonic Chronicles nicely in between Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3. For a game that's considered non-canon, it's actually a great addition to the timeline. Learning more about Knuckles origins, as well as all the Gizzoids.

Now, with all of these spinoffs and mainline games added to the timeline, it is looking beautiful. Every game Sonic has touched is now canon and is included here. So, that's the end of the video, right? I make a funny joke, say the thing, except there is one big giant problem that exists with this timeline. Something that's been staring at us since the beginning. I'm of course talking about the infamous, the broken, the human hedgehog romance game that is, Sonic 06. Sonic 06 makes a few appearances across the timeline and that's due to the story of this game involving time travel, which as we all know makes things really simple. But the big issue is how the end of the game is resolved.

In order to defeat Solaris, Sonic goes back in time 10 years to blow out the flames of Solaris. This means Elise is never infused with Iblis during the Solaris project and therefore, the entire events of the game are completely undone, and no one is able to recall any of it. We're familiar with this kind of stuff thanks to the Zelda timeline, where, due to certain events being changed in the past, the timeline splits. But Sega didn't do that with Sonic 06, instead keeping the timeline as linear. If we're going to the effort of making this timeline correct, we need to add a split in the timeline. The events of Sonic 06, including the 200-year time jump to Silver's world, should appear in one timeline, and Sonic blowing out Solaris in another.

The question is, which one is part of the main timeline with all the games we've talked about so far and which one becomes the branching alternative path where those games don't exist? Well, the answer comes down to two of the other problematic parts of 06, Blaise the Cat and Silver the Hedgehog. As I've mentioned, Blaze was introduced in Sonic Rush,

where she is transported to Sonic's world from the Soul dimension. Because this game came out before Sonic 06, it was placed as such in the timeline. But Blaise is also in Sonic 06, not as a character from Sonic's time, but as Silver's companion 200 years into the future. The first question fans have been asking is, how does Blaze exist 200 years in the future, but also exist in Sonic's time, albeit in a different dimension. I believe this is due to the event at the end of Silver's story in 06. When Silver goes back in time to defeat Iblis, he tries to seal it inside himself. But it won't work.

Blaze then offers herself as a sacrifice, and it works and she fades away. A lot of people have taken this moment to be Blaze's death. But there are two separate things that tell us something different. The first one is what Blaze tells Silver to do during the cutscene. Come on, make it quick. Use your chaos control to stop time. And the second comes from the Sonic Encyclopedia, where Ian Flynn states, Blaze seals Iblis inside herself and is lost to another dimension.

In both cases, it is clear that Blaze fades away. as she is sent to another dimension, the soul dimension, where she then ends up back in the main series timeline during the events of Sonic Rush. But now there's a different issue. In Sonic Rush, she assumes Sonic is bad news and Sonic has to convince her otherwise. She has no clue who he is. So if Blaze met Sonic in 06 and then was sent back in time to the soul dimension, why did she not remember him? Well, Takashi Izuka, Sonic 06's creator, actually made a statement on this and why no one remembers any of the events of 06. He said, quote, basically what happened is everyone had like amnesia.

This amnesia includes Blaze and Silver and is why Blaze has no recollection of Sonic in Sonic Rush. But if that's the case, why would Sonic not recognize Blaze after Sonic Rush in 06? Well, because of the timeline split. If Sonic doesn't recognize Blaze in 06, maybe that means that 06's Sonic never met Blaze prior to this moment, as in 06's main. game isn't part of the main timeline we've been discussing, but is the branching alternative path, a timeline where Sonic Rush hasn't happened, and so Sonic wouldn't recognize her in

06. That would mean that Blaz's dimension swap from the end of 06 to Sonic Rush isn't just a dimension swap. It's also transporting her from this timeline to the primary timeline where Sonic reset everything by blowing out Solaris. I understand it feels complicated, but it does work, especially when you consider what we see from Silver in the rest of the series. Silver appears in multiple future games like Sonic Colors, Sonic Forces and Team Sonic Racing. He doesn't remember any of them, and they don't remember him. You might think this is because of the whole amnesia thing again, but there's actually a different explanation.

Thanks to another game that Sega neglected to put in their timeline, Sonic Rivals, specifically Sonic Rivals 2. In it, Silver reveals that a creature called the Ifrit is the reason that his future is a fiery ruin. Not because of Iblis like we see in 06. Therefore, this future is the future where Solaris never existed. And so this silver never met Sonic and the gang because without Iblis, he had no reason to go back to the past to try to kill Sonic. Him then showing up in all of these mainline titles with no memory of 06's events is once again showing us that 06's main story is the alternate branch, and Sonic's reset is what ends up being the main timeline leading to the rest of the series, including Rivals and Silver's New Future.

But if that's the case, why does Silver appear in these future titles? Because of the first Sonic rivals. He travels from the future to stop Eggman Neger, an ancestor of the Eggman we know and hate. When Silver encounters Sonic, he introduces himself and by the end of the game, they are allies, which is why. Silver then continues to travel back in time and help Sonic in later games. See, the rival series pretty much explains all of the continuity issues around Silver. At least, if it wasn't for something that then happens in Team Sonic Racing. In the original Japanese, before Sonic races against Silver, Sonic recounts when they first met.

What happened to your energy from when we first met? Weren't you all like, I will destroy you? And Silver says, I don't recall saying that. This recollection from Sonic is without a doubt when they met in Sonic 06. For the future of the world, I will destroy you. If someone had shown me this before the timeline was released by Sega, I would have said, this is a racing game, so it's not canon and just moved on. But Sega have put it in their timeline, forcing it to be canon and forcing me to make sense of it.

How could Sonic know that's what Silver said to him if they have no memory of that event? And in this current timeline, it's an event that didn't even happen. Sonic could only really know about it if someone happened to tell him. And that's exactly what happened. In Sonic Generations. Time Eater transport Sonic to White Space, where he relives some of his past adventures. One of those adventures is Crisis City. There's even a rival battle with Silver.

This is where Sonic is told about the events of 06, and now knows what his and Silver's first encounter was like in the time split. But then why does Silver not remember? He was also in White Space, right? Well, not exactly. You see, the characters you freed in generations were all present when the Time Eater came and grabbed them. These are the actual characters.

Silver, however, is not present at the party when they are all taken away. Meaning the silver you fight in generations isn't actually silver, but a memory of him. Much like Metal Sonic, Perfect Chaos and a bunch of other bosses that you fight. It's not really him, and so he isn't learning about the memory like Sonic is. Wait, did I... did I do it? Did I finally manage to make sense of the giant plot hole that is Sonic 06? Oh, get in! We now just need to figure out a more solid place for Sonic Rivals in this new arrangement and we'll be home free.

So, with Sonic Rivals being Silver's introduction to the cast, it needs to take place before he becomes a regular character in the background or party games. His earliest inclusion at the moment is in Sonic and the Secret Rings, which means Rivals has to be before that and likely after Riders where he isn't playable, similar to Blaze. However, Blaze isn't mentioned or featured in Rivals. She only appears as a collectible card, which I would say is more of an Easter egg than something canonically lore relevant. So, because Blaze isn't in the game and we've established that Canonically Blaze became part of the team after Sonic Rush Adventure, that puts rivals before Sonic Rush Adventure and after riders.

And the sequel also lacks Blaze, which tells me that once again, it takes place before Sonic Rush Adventure, making rivals too a direct sequel. This also puts Eggman Neger's interdimensional attempts to rule the world nicely together, which isn't super important, but it's a nice little bow on it all. And so, with that, loyal theorists, I present to you the true Sonic timeline. It includes every game they have ever made. Games that needed to be added to help make sense of the continuity issues like Sonic rivals. Games that were referenced but were missing from the timeline like Secret Rings. And even games that were considered not canon, we have found a home for in a way that makes sense and enriches the

law of Sonic's universe like Sonic Chronicles. guess the only thing left to do now would be to explore some of the other continuities. With 06 showing us branching timelines are a thing, there is a chance that things like Sonic Boom, the Archie Comics, the TV shows, even the movies could be added to this thing as extra branches that appear maybe earlier in the story. Although, maybe I'll let Lee handle some of that. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory!

Thanks for watching.