The bulk update request #9206 is pending approval.

remove alias sonic_the_hedgehog_the_movie (0) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(film) (554)
remove alias sonic_movie (0) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(film) (554)
remove alias sonic_the_hedgehog:_the_movie (0) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(film) (554)
remove alias sonic_the_movie (0) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(film) (554)
remove alias sonic_the_hedgehog_(movie) (0) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(film) (554)
remove implication tom_wachowski (29) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(film) (554)
remove implication longclaw_(sonic) (66) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(film) (554)
remove implication sonic_the_hedgehog_(film) (554) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(series) (114422)

Reason: The 2020 Paramount Pictures film has long since been expanded to its own series of films, television, and other media, having established its own continuity separate from other Sonic the Hedgehog media.

BUR will need to be done in two parts.

alias sonic_the_hedgehog_(film) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_the_hedgehog_the_movie -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_movie -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_the_hedgehog:_the_movie -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_the_movie -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_the_hedgehog_(movie) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_the_hedgehog_(film_series) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_the_hedgehog_films -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_the_hedgehog_film_series -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_the_hedgehog_movies -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_the_hedgehog_2_(film) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias sonic_the_hedgehog_3_(film) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias knuckles_(series) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
alias knuckles_(tv_series) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
imply tom_wachowski -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
imply longclaw_(sonic) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
imply maddie_wachowski -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
imply wade_whipple -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount)
imply sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount) -> sonic_the_hedgehog_(series)
imply sonic_the_hedgehog_(paramount) -> paramount_pictures

I don't like specifying _(paramount) in specific. I don't think there's anything that ties Paramount Pictures to the given continuity, that it can't be continued in some form without Paramount's involvement.

Also tags like donut_lord and pretzel_lady sound too generic to alias to specific characters (and they aren't currently used, so the aliases seem kinda pointless).

watsit said:
I don't like specifying _(paramount) in specific. I don't think there's anything that ties Paramount Pictures to the given continuity, that it can't be continued in some form without Paramount's involvement.

Also tags like donut_lord and pretzel_lady sound too generic to alias to specific characters.

The Wachowskis, Longclaw, and Wade Whipple are primarily exclusive to Paramount's series (some minor crossover appearances in mobile games notwithstanding), and I'm not going to change it to "film series" since the Knuckles TV series exists nor am I using the actual production company (Original Film) since... well, that's a rather generic name for a company. And we have sonic_the_hedgehog_(archie) and sonic_the_hedgehog_(idw) for their continuities, so why should Paramount be an exception?

Also, Paramount Pictures Corporation is a registered co-claimant of the film and other entries' copyrights in the United States alongside Sega of America.
https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/31386379 (first film)
https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/33787757 (second film)
https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/36447120 (first episode of Knuckles)
https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/36566089 (third film pre-registration)

(There are more Sonic-related copyright registrations with Paramount than those including the other five Knuckles episodes and more minor elements such as posters, but I'm just using the most relevant ones here.)

As for the donut_lord and pretzel_lady aliases, they were supposed to be in references to the Wachowskis' nicknames but whatever. I've removed them.

alien_fluff said:
The Wachowskis, Longclaw, and Wade Whipple are primarily exclusive to Paramount's series (some minor crossover appearances in mobile games notwithstanding), and I'm not going to change it to "film series" since the Knuckles TV series exists nor am I using the actual production company (Original Film) since... well, that's a rather generic name for a company. And we have sonic_the_hedgehog_(archie) and sonic_the_hedgehog_(idw) for their continuities, so why should Paramount be an exception?

I'm not really thrilled by those having separate tags for separate continuities either. We don't normally have separate tags for separate continuities of a franchise, especially when the continuities can intersect in a kind of multiverse scenario, blurring the line of which continuity is which. We don't have separate tags for the Pokemon movies that can't be canon to the main TV series. The Marvel-related tags would be a mess if we tagged different continuities. Or Godzilla, where some films follow a continuity, other films follow a different continuity, some are completely separate with no ties to previous films, some only consider the first film as part of their canon...

alien_fluff said:
Also, Paramount Pictures Corporation is a registered co-claimant of the film and other entries' copyrights in the United States alongside Sega of America.
https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/31386379 (first film)
https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/33787757 (second film)
https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/36447120 (first episode of Knuckles)
https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/36566089 (third film pre-registration)

Of course the individual works are copyrighted to the creators. It's more a question of whether Paramount owns the background lore and scenario of the stories, such that Paramount has to sign-off on any work continuing any of these existing stories in new works (e.g. even if Sega wanted to switch studios and work with Warner Brothers on a new film or series following these adventures, they couldn't without Paramount giving the okay).

watsit said:
I'm not really thrilled by those having separate tags for separate continuities either. We don't normally have separate tags for separate continuities of a franchise, especially when the continuities can intersect in a kind of multiverse scenario, blurring the line of which continuity is which. We don't have separate tags for the Pokemon movies that can't be canon to the main TV series. The Marvel-related tags would be a mess if we tagged different continuities. Or Godzilla, where some films follow a continuity, other films follow a different continuity, some are completely separate with no ties to previous films, some only consider the first film as part of their canon...

Being too broad with copyrights and saying only the base franchises matter for copyright tags and character implications will cause massive headaches for people searching and blacklisting what they want or don't want to see. There are limits as to which works should be considered specific enough to be having their own tags and which ones are not because they're considered so foundational to their franchise, but people here usually understand which ones matter; nobody but maybe a very small handful of users here would argue that the Pokémon anime (or Pokémon: The Series if you want to be specific with official English titles about this) needs its own tag. But if, say, the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon spin-off series were deemed unnecessary to have its own tag and was aliased to the franchise's tag, there would be an uproar from the users here. Likewise, nobody is going to start tagging Earth-616 to be specific that such Marvel art is specifically based on the main Marvel Universe or Earth-1610 for the Ultimate Marvel Universe, but some users here might complain if suddenly they can't hide MCU-related posts when they're searching for posts of Rocket Raccoon in his non-MCU depictions. And Godzilla itself has its own specifics still. Most people who want to see Godzilla are going to be searching for him in general, yes, but what about the ten fans of Zilla from the 1998 film? Should they put up with having to scroll through hundreds of posts depicting the King of the Monsters as he normally appears before they finally find one of the giant ugly American lizard version of him?

And I guess I should've pointed this out in the beginning, but the characters who originate in the video games that appear in the Paramount series also have a distinct design difference, too. For one thing, Sonic doesn't have this traditional "conjoined eyes" in the Paramount continuity. So if people want Paramount's Sonic with the separate eyes, they can search for him and the Paramount tag for that version.

In all, I'd say that they keyword relating to this is balance. Go too specific, as you are seemingly concerned about, and we get a menagerie of pointless tags. But go too broad, and people are going to be wasting their time trying to find or hide posts of a specific version of a character.

And the multiverse thing? I'd say it's irrelevant to this discussion. We have square crossover for that.

watsit said:
Of course the individual works are copyrighted to the creators. It's more a question of whether Paramount owns the background lore and scenario of the stories, such that Paramount has to sign-off on any work continuing any of these existing stories in new works (e.g. even if Sega wanted to switch studios and work with Warner Brothers on a new film or series following these adventures, they couldn't without Paramount giving the okay).

Copyright law is very complicated so I'm just going to assume that the answer to such a question is going to be yes. I'm assuming if Sega wants to use, for example, Longclaw in a different work outside of Paramount's films and shows, they either need Paramount's approval, or she has to be redesigned entirely. Who knows if that's true when she was added to a Sega-published mobile game (which I don't currently play), but it's all legalities there that I'm not going to be so overly concerned with right now.

Also, getting much too concerned about what could possibly happen in the future than what's more relevant now. If Sega wants to ditch Paramount for another studio someday (which all things considered is unlikely in the near future), that's their prerogative, but for eSix's interests, that's not a current concern.

And nothing is set in stone. If such a scenario arises that Sega leaves Paramount behind and joins up with another studio without bailing on the existing continuity, making another tag change necessary, then that's when we should open up a new discussion.