Ring Theory 101

[Locit]

It's all in good fun, really. I can't see anyone getting angry about the Sonic-Tails ring transfer connection theory or anything like that, so no harm done.

[Bo]

Actually, Tails getting hit in the Special Stages does NOT affect Sonic's ring count, only Tails'. It DOES affect the overall ring count, however.

You're right; I forgot about that... I still hate Tails for it.

In other news, we're taking things a little seriously here, aren't we? Reminds me of <a href="http://www.s2beta.com/forums/index.php? ... 8568">this S2Beta thread</a>, really.

I think/ hope everyone actually realizes rings are for the player and that Sonic game physics aren't real physics.

[Isambard]

Rings are figments of your over-active imaginations children. Now you must take Xanex and go to sleep and leave mommy and daddy to their time.

[Espio]

A thing you guys have forgot, is how a string of rings can carry Sonic over huge gaps etc. (ex. Heroes)... Is it the magic of the rings, or is it Sonic who uses the 'air power' of the rings? Why do the rings bother to help Sonic over? Did someone put them there? (other than Sonic Team... )

[Frieza2000]

I remember the newly retranslated Chaotix manual mentioned a dimensional connection between all rings, which Eggman exploited to create the magnetic rings. That might also explain the light dash.

As for what trails of rings are doing spanning large gaps, the first such trails were in SA1, which appeared when you pressed a button. Obviously somebody built the button with the intent of creating the trails, which suggests that Sonic isn't the only one capable of using rings as bridges. The trails in the newer games that don't appear from buttons were either somehow placed there by crazy people or just randomly appeared in a string, like how they randomly appeared in the shape of Sonic's face in Final Egg. That's another significant bit of evidence that there's intelligence behind ring generation.

[Owen Axel]

Super forms, as a rule, can fly if they need to, and super forms, as a rule, are powered by rings. So assume that the gravity-defying property or rings can be absorbed and harnessed for the brief span of that ring's life once converted from one form of energy to another. Each ring only allows flight of super form for one second, and each ring in a string only carries Sonic forward for one brief instant, but in the case of the ring trail, one instant is enough, as there's another ring immediatelly following the previous, to continue allowing the brief traversing of empty air.

Or it's magic. Just plain old mundane run-of-the-mill, no-need-for-explanation magic.