Sonic X, Episode 3.16. A Revolutionary Tale

Sonic X, Episode 3.16. A Revolutionary Tale

Japanese Title: On a Destroyed Planet

U.S. Air Date: February 18th, 2006

Japanese Air Date: April 16th, 2020

I talked before about how many of the season one episodes of "Sonic X" actually didn't feature Sonic that much. This has been less common as the series turned more towards adapting the games and season three's space opera plot... But here's an exception. "A Revolutionary Tale" has Eggman, while searching for more Chaos Emeralds, come upon a cosmic battle between the Metarex and a human-like race. After the Crimson Egg is attacked during the fray, Shadow is ordered to leap into action. He saves the humans, drawing the attention of rebel leader Molly. She explains that her planet, already missing its life-giving planet egg, is fighting a losing battle against the Metarex. Eggman is only really interested in the Chaos Emerald the locals possess but Shadow and Rouge are soon entangled in the conflict. 

It's always an interesting idea to flip a show's traditional conflict a little bit. Usually, in series like this, we get to see the bad guys be good only during brief truces against greater foes or mirror universe shenanigans. Here, Team Eggman almost literally wander into some other conflict. Molly and her friends have no idea that Eggman is a villain, that Shadow and Rouge are more like antiheroes. By inserting the show's typical group of antagonists into a very different type of setting, it allows the show's antagonist to become the hero of another story. That's an interesting idea – that circumstances more than anything else dictate who the heroes and villains really are – and continues season three's more sympathetic rendition of Eggman. 

 

And when I say this is a very different type of setting, I mean it. At times, "A Revolutionary Tale" really feels like a crossover with some unrelated anime. Molly and her team are introduced in Hoth snowspeeder like ships, fighting an intergalactic war against the Metarex. It's a conflict that's been going on for some time, a grim story full of loss, defeat, and violence. Not really what you expect from a show about a blue hedgehog that runs fast. The episode seems to acknowledge that it's dropped some "Sonic" supporting characters into a totally different genre, when it has Bocoe and Decoe show up in a mech that heavily resembles a Zaku mobile suit from the original "Gundam." I don't think this episode was a back door pilot for another series but that's kind of what it feels like at times. 

Molly and the rest of her race, by the way, just look like regular cutesy anime people. In fact, I mistook Molly for Chris' friend Frances at first. The name of her planet isn't even mentioned in the episode itself – the eyecatch card reveals that it's named "Cascade" – and their names are all very anglo. It all feels like it could be a future Earth or something... At least until Molly reveals that Cascade once led a fearsome galactic empire that waged multiple wars and conquered many other planets. She doesn't seem to have any guilt about this and, in fact, seems to want to reinstate the Cascadian empire to its former glory. So maybe it is America after all. 

I don't know if the implication that Cascade wasn't such a nice planet is an intentional bit of ambiguity or just weird writing. Either way, this episode does paint the grim darkness of war as a complicated, morally compromising affair. Molly's best friend seems to be this guy in a futuristic latex onesie named Leon. As she heads off with Shadow and Rouge to retrieve a Chaos Emerald, he asks her to open a specific cabinet at the office. When she does so, a bomb goes off. Leon, it turns out, has sold his species out to the Metarex. Surprisingly, the show does not depict Leon as just a heartless traitor. Instead, he's tired of the war, thinks Cascade is a lost cause, and just wants to survive with what he has left. (Unsurprisingly, the Metarex immediately double-cross him.) Once again, I'd expect this kind of thing in "Gundam" or "Robotech" but not "Sonic X."

I've spent most of this review talking about the space war shit. But that's really not the most interesting thing about the episode. Instead, Shadow's relationship with Molly is where the depth comes from. The minute he flies through space, destroys the Metarex ships, and saves her life, Molly mistakes Shadow for the Black Wind. That's a legendary hero from Cascadian lore. Shadow, of course, is gruff and stand-of-ish... But Molly quickly makes an impact on him, when she talks about how she wants to keep fighting. How she wants her dream – of galactic imperiousness, I guess – to live on. Shadow clearly has a soft spot for doe-eyed, moé humans. More than once, Molly's similarities to Maria or Chris are subtly brought up. It's a dynamic, the moody bad-ass forging a connection with some tragic cutey-pie, that works nicely. 

In fact, Molly has something else in common with Maria. Spoiler alert for a fifteen-year-old cartoon that, if you're reading this, you've probably already seen: Molly fucking dies. After becoming aware of Leon's treachery, she makes a suicide run at the invading Metarex. Molly makes meaningful eye contact with Shadow as he flies by before her ship is blown up. Her death prompts Shadow into a roaring rampage of revenge that destroys the entire fleet. I thought, at first, surely, this children's cartoon will puss out. But the final scene has Shadow and Rouge sadly standing around Molly's grave. This makes the connection Shadow forges with the girl, however brief it was, rather meaningful. 

It also has to make "A Revolutionary Tale" the grimmest episode of "Sonic X." The Metarex has been driven off but Cascade is still screwed. Their world is dying and what resources they have left are dwindling from losing a war. Pale Bayleaf, the taciturn Metarex boss who led this invasion, isn't even dead at the end. So there's nothing much stopping the empire from turning around and completely fucking nuking Cascade from orbit now. It seems Shadow promising to carry Molly's memory with him, in his own quiet way, is the sole light at the end of this tunnel.

Unsurprisingly, 4Kids wimped the fuck out and changed the ending. Instead of being exploded by Pale Bayleaf, the American cut depicts Molly simply flying away at the end of the battle. The gravestone was digitally removed from the final scene, with the dubbed over dialogue being totally changed. The entire emotional heart of the story is wrenched out in the name of protecting kids from dramatic storylines or whatever. I am not surprised but somehow still disappointed 4Kids would take such a intense moment and crowbar it apart in the most awkward fashion possible. Man, fuck those rice ball hating asshats.

Gotta say, I admire "Sonic X" for going this hard. "A Revolutionary Tale" is still kind of a weird episode, because it's so very different from the rest of the series. Imagine if this was the first episode of "Sonic X" you ever saw and then you went back and watched season one! Aside from an opening scene of a bathing (but still seemingly clothed) Rouge taunting Bokkun, as well Docoe and Becoe wishing their boss was as cute as Molly, there's not much levity either. As unlike the rest of the show as this is, in form and content, I still have to give it some major props. I'm really feeling like I've got to give this one a [8/10]. I know, I'm surprised too!