SEGA Mandates Explained With Their Exceptions

SEGA Mandates explained with their exceptions

Game characters cannot have family members unless they were established in the game canon (Because Archie went overboard).

Game characters cannot be killed off.

Sonic cannot cry or get too emotional.

Exception: Sonic Prime didn't follow this rule despite being canon.

The terms Mobius and Mobians are banned, during the early 2010s, Earth was called "Sonic's World" because they wanted to appeal to 90s Boomers who hate Sonic living on Earth without calling it Mobius, it died down later though.

Exception: Ian Flynn has stated SEGA recanonized Sonic Spinball, which takes place in Mobius, so it exists somewhere in game canon, Veg-O-Fortress even has a cameo in Sonic Origins, Ian also stated Spinball takes place in between Sonic 3 and Knuckles and Sonic 3D Blast.

The heroes must always win at the end.

Characters and elements from Non Canon media cannot be used, Cosmo and the Metarex were potentially allowed to appear but according Ian Flynn, they're off the table now, the Metal Virus serves as a replacement for Robotization, Eggperial City serves as a replacement for Robotropolis, Restoration serves as a replacment for the Freedom Fighters.

Exceptions:

Sonic liking Chili Dogs (90s Cartoons)

Eggman's "I hate that Hedgehog!" and "Snooping as usual" lines (Aosth)

Scratch and Grounder appear in Eggman's livestream in one of the covers for IDW 40

Sonic's "Let's do it, to it" line (Satam)

Sonic being referred to as the "Fastest thing alive" (Satam)

Sonic Spinball being canon again, somwhat canonizes Sally, Bunnie, Rotor, Muttski and Scratch, Ian Flynn has clarified they're just cameos for now but could be a backdoor to make them canon if SEGA chooses to (Aosth, Satam, Archie)

In one of the covers for IDW 31, Storm's mugshot mentions he was arrested by the Knothole Village Police (Satam, Archie)

Tails being afraid of lightning (OVA)

Knuckles's cowboy hat (OVA)

Vector's crush on Vanilla (Sonic X)

Cream's favorite show, the NEXT Show (Sonic X)

The Chaotix Office building appears in the Sonic Channel Comics (Sonic X)

Sticks the Badger appears in the Sonic Channel Comics and is mentioned in English Sonic Frontiers (Sonic Boom)

The Eggnet has been canonized in both IDW and the Games (Archie)

The GUN Commander's name, Abraham Tower (Archie)

Bark being mute (Archie)

Bean and Bark working with Fang as a trio, Sonic even calls them the Hooligans (Archie)

Sally and Bunnie cameo in one of the Sonic Forces prequel comics with their Archie designs (Archie)

Shadow's Chaos Spear being shaped like an actual spear that he can throw or use as a melee weapon (Archie)

Badniks from Sonic Mega Drive appear in Classic IDW (Archie)

The term, Super Badnik (Archie)

Male characters that aren't humans, can't wear pants.

Exception: Tails Nine is allowed to wear pants.

Classic Era characters aren't allowed to appear in Modern Era and vice versa, during the 2010s there was the Two Dimensions retcon because of it, however they later removed it, Team Chaotix are also not allowed to appear in Classic because they considered Sonic Heroes to be their first appearance, however Knuckles Chaotix was recanonized in Tailstube, in the same episode, they acknowledge Mighty, Ray and Fang's Gang and teased a Modern Trip, recently, SEGA is considering retiring Classic Sonic after the disappointment of Sonic Superstars.

Exception: a Classic Froggy appears in various Sonic PICT artwork

Only one Metal Sonic is allowed, not multiple (They must really dislike Shard and Metallix)

Exceptions:

Metal Sonic 3.0 from Sonic Rivals 2

Chaos Sonic and Grim Sonic from Sonic Prime were allowed

Shadow: He has the most guidelines out of any character, most of them come from SEGA wanting Shadow to remain an Anti-Hero and not be too heroic, however SEGA has easied up on these with Shadow Generations

Knuckles: Knuckles is the only Echidna and only resident of Angel Island besides Chao and Baby Animals, (Ken Penders lol), Knuckles is also not allowed leave Angel Island without a reason now, prolly due to critiques with games like Heroes

Silver: Silver's Future is off limits, only SEGA can explore that, if they ever choose to

Super Forms: Male hedgehogs are the only ones allowed to go Super, this has been changed with Sonic Superstars and Otherworld Comedy.

Humans: Due to complaints from 90s Boomers, Humans besides Eggman weren't allowed until Shadow Generations

Romance: Characters can have crushes but they can't date or get married.

Money: Only Team Chaotix can talk about money

Rings: Ian Flynn was told Rings were no longer canon, however Rings appear in Sonic Prime and cutscenes in The Final Horizon, which Ian didn't know about

Special Stages: No longer canon and Fang's bio of living in the Special Stages is retconned

Off Limits Characters: These characters can only be used by SEGA/Sonic Team only:

Eggman Nega

Black Doom

Solaris (Mephiles and Iblis)

Infinite