11 replies to this topic

[Vampfox]

I just rewatched the pilot episode of "Satam". And I was left wondering if it should be considered part of the "Satam" canon. As everyone knows the pilot episode has a lot of differences from the rest of the series. Can these differences be explained away or are they proof that the pilot episode is non-canon?

[LaserX5]

I do.

Even though it does have alot of differences, it does have things in it that I like.

For example, I love the interaction between Sonic and Sally. In that episode, she doesn't seem to have any feelings for him. She just finds him lazy and a show off. Don't get me wrong, I love SonSal, but I do like the fact the writers had Sally not warm up to Sonic right away. It made their relationship more realistic, instead of her being in love with him from the get go, which would've been like Sonamy. Ugh!

Also, this is the only episode where Rotor is shown with purple skin. After that, he's in blue, which I find distasteful, especially after the changes he was given in Season 2.

Another thing I liked was the fact it showed Sonic making that rock song for Sal, trying to impress her. Silly Sonic, thinking she would like that.

Lastly, I did kinda like the scene when Sonic tried to be friendly with his pet Mutsky. Although, I do find it weird he's the only dog in the show that's not a Mobian. It raises the question as to how did that happen?

So yea, this is definitely canon IMO. It's got alot of flaws, but then again, alot of shows when introduced have wrinkles to be ironed out

[Massagraf]

It never was a very canon-driven cartoon anyway. Most episodes stand on their own and only the second season had some continuity with the Doomsday Project. But except for Sally and Rotor's design, there isn't much to be concidered non-canon. It has the Freedom Fighters vs Robotnik, and that's good enough to be concidered canon.

[LibbyLishly]

For example, I love the interaction between Sonic and Sally. In that episode, she doesn't seem to have any feelings for him. She just finds him lazy and a show off. Don't get me wrong, I love SonSal, but I do like the fact the writers had Sally not warm up to Sonic right away. It made their relationship more realistic, instead of her being in love with him from the get go, which would've been like Sonamy. Ugh!

Also, this is the only episode where Rotor is shown with purple skin. After that, he's in blue, which I find distasteful, especially after the changes he was given in Season 2.

Another thing I liked was the fact it showed Sonic making that rock song for Sal, trying to impress her. Silly Sonic, thinking she would like that.

Lastly, I did kinda like the scene when Sonic tried to be friendly with his pet Mutsky. Although, I do find it weird he's the only dog in the show that's not a Mobian. It raises the question as to how did that happen?

I agree with this. I've come to the conclusion that when introducing SatAM to a non-convert, it's important to NOT start with the pilot, or even most of the first season; however, upon going back and re-watching, i've come to the conclusion that Laser is right and that there's a lot of purely canonical elements in there that are actually important to later characterization... especially the Son/Sal stuff, which honestly hadn't occurred to me before. While i still stand by the saying "Never judge a show by its pilot", i don't write it off as non-canon.

The existence of pets works in my mind thanks to the Chronicles of Narnia. While the sentient animals did not keep others as pets, there was a very clear distinction between talking animals and non-talking beasts. It's not a far jump in my mind for anthropomorphic animals to keep non-talking animals as pets.

Incidentally, does anyone know the rational for the total design change in Rotor in the second season?

[Bakuda]

I'm not sure I'd consider it canon myself. The pilot episode, I would say, has more AOSTH elements in it than it does SatAM elements. There was much more effort to be silly rather than serious...like Sonic and the guitar (er...flexable guitar), crazy fish-loving Rotor, pink Sally, humongous Nicole, silly buzzbombers, hedgehog seeking missile, and so on. It's also interesting to see the freedom fighters go from water balloons in the pilot to explosives in the rest of the series. Yeah...to me there's too much difference to be considered "canon". But that's what pilot's are for...test it out, see what works, change what doesn't, and start the show!

[Inhibitor]

It certainly is canon imo, but its very much different than many of the other episodes in the show, thats for sure. It almost reminds me of AoStH in many ways...

[Vlad Yvhv]

Lastly, I did kinda like the scene when Sonic tried to be friendly with his pet Mutsky. Although, I do find it weird he's the only dog in the show that's not a Mobian. It raises the question as to how did that happen?

Note that in the picture, Mutsky looks more like some kind of green mutant or alien dog-ish creature. Presumably, this would be true of his entire species. So, perhaps they aren't actually canines, but something that evolved to resemble dogs. Convergent evolution can be weird like that. Note that the "pigeon" is actually more akin to a cross between a parrot and a dragonfly. So "dog" could also refer to whatever species Mutsky really is. There are also examples of unevolved rats. Plus, the buffalo the headless horseman rides. And the terapods. Essentially proof that evolution on Mobius isn't uniform. Note that the dragons are shown to act both sentient and feral, so they could be in a transitional phase.

[furrykef]

My own opinion is it's a waste of time figuring out what's canon in either the Archie or SatAM universe. The show has never done a good job of being consistent with itself. Season 1 had some obvious arc elements: destroying Robotnik's power source came up in more than one episode, there was the search for Sally's father (which was followed up on in season 2 but not using the plot elements from season 1), there were the Secret Scrolls that were never used again, etc. I think one would be happier just not paying too much attention to such things and just consider SatAM to have a multiple-choice continuity.

[Vlad Yvhv]

The scrolls can be explained away by the fact that they're just basically a record of natural wonders around Mobius. They probly weren't much more impressive than the vertical wind tunnel, and probly would've been useless to either side.

Some elements from the pilot do crop up again. Most noticeably, Sonic's attempts to jar Uncle Chuck's memory the same way he did with Muttsky. If nothing else, it certainly explains why he tries this approach, when he should otherwise know better.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

You guys need to remember that, when these episodes originally aired in 1993, Head or Tails didn't air until AFTER Sonic Past Cool, the last episode of the first season. In fact, if you play them in that order (Sonic Boom to Sonic Past Cool in order on the DVD, then Head or Tails) you can see the show's creators slowly shift from the darker materials dealt with in Sonic Boom and Sonic and Sally to the more light-heated aspects in Heads or Tails. This can almost place season one of SatAM into a continual time loop, with the tone of the season leading up to the point where Head or Tails' tone is perfectly acceptable and would re-introduce everything for Sonic Boom to air all over again, but that's a stupid idea.

Heads or Tails is a pilot episode, so of course changes are going to happen after the show is made. One can consider it canon if they want, but there's nothing lost if one decides to forgo the episode entirely. It's not like everything isn't re-introduced in Sonic Boom in a more epic way that's more congruent with the story-telling styles of the rest of the show. I personally don't take the pilot episode seriously at all, and would much rather skip it favor of Sonic Boom's slow-reveal style introduction of the series. And if I ever do watch the pilot, it's within context of how it original aired on TV back in 1993 so that way it isn't such a stylistic whip-lash. Within that context, it actually makes for an interesting re-cap of the basic ideas of the show before heading off into Ben Hurst's territory with Season Two.

[LaserX5]

My own opinion is it's a waste of time figuring out what's canon in either the Archie or SatAM universe.

Perhaps... Although, I would like to know the fan's opinion of what they think should and shouldn't be canon of either series.

I for one would love to make that part of the comic where Sally goes berserk non canon. That was so not like her.

[chief]

Heads or Tails was more like AoStH in my opinion. It had some SatAM stuff to it but when you start looking at the over all appearance of the show its..eh.. Not too SatAMy