Sonic X, Episode 3.24: The Light in the Darkness
Japanese Title: Decisive Battle! Dark Oak
U.S. Air Date: April 22nd, 2006
Japanese Air Date: April 28th, 2020
With Sonic swallowed up by Dark Oak, and the Blue Typhoon seriously damaged, things seem grim for our heroes. Luckily, Eggman and his Crimson Egg swoops in to help the good guys out. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Knuckles is talked into shooting all of the Master Emerald's power out of the Sonic Driver at the Final Mova. This move succeeds in merely stunning Dark Oak, though it does give Amy time to rescue Sonic. The universe is still in peril and the forestation continues.
In an earlier review, I wondered why the Metarex empire – and most of the other baddies – pay so little attention to the Master Emerald. It's obviously a source of massive power, if it can keep a huge ship or island flying indefinitely and Knuckles has devoted his entire life to protecting it. This episode just proves how serious the Master Emerald is. It produces a blast powerful enough to wound a planet-sized monster in the process of turning every living thing in the universe into a tree. Then again, maybe nobody went after the huge plot device the heroes have strapped to their ship because it's also really fragile. Firing that bolt of energy shatters the Master Emerald. And that also happened in both "Sonic Adventure" games, so I guess it doesn't take a lot to crack the damn thing. Either way, I'm surprised nobody commented on this earlier.
The destruction of the Master Emerald doesn't just mean Knuckles is out of a job. While setting up the MacGuffin busting blast, Eggman explains the nonsense science behind Chris teleporting to Sonic's world. Something about synching with the Master Emerald's energy signature. The loss of some data in the transportation process is why he's back in his grade school body. By shattering the Emerald, Chris is potentially destroying his way back home and trapping himself in his prepubescent body. The evergreen Sonic fanboy isn't too broken up about this. But it is nice that Thorndyke has some sort of emotional role to play as the series heads towards its last episode.
One of the most interesting moments in this episode occurs while Sonic is trapped inside the Final Mova. There, the hedgehog experienced what can only be called a vision. Apparently, all the memories of pain and hate across the universe are collecting inside Dark Oak. This allows the villain to monologue about his motivations some more. He blames "beasts" – presumably non-plant-y sentient life forms – for spreading violence and destruction throughout the galaxy. Replacing them all with trees will create a conflict free existence, he thinks. The episode makes sure to clarify that this belief is rooted in the mysterious war that made Lucas into Dark Oak. It took the show a while but it's finally provided some psychological depth to this season's big bad.
Sonic's consciousness goes on this vision quest too. Which allows the show to clarify its hero's stance some more too. He makes it clear that he has no intention of giving up fighting, that he's going to keep moving forward even when things look hopeless or bleak. This is visualized by Sonic running through a forest and avoiding weird sand monsters. Which is a nice to illustrate the hedgehog ever-optimistic world view. For a long time, I've felt Sonic being a runner tied-in with his philosophy and it's good to see an official "Sonic" cartoon agree with that.
Since "Sonic X" is quickly approaching its end, I guess the showrunners felt the need to throw the SonAmy shippers one last bone. After his trippy trip, Amy dives into the watery planet Aquarius where their home world's planet egg saves both of them. (Though if all Mobians can casually survive the vacuum of space, I don't know why Sonic hates water so much. Maybe he just never wants to wash off his manly runner's musk.) The hedgehogs exchange some meaningful glances and words, which was surely enough to inspire a hundred fanfiction writers.
I think I liked this episode a fair bit, even though it actually barely moves the plot forward. The Forestation is no closer to being stopped. The heroes' desperate attack only manages to temporarily stun their most dangerous foe. Shadow, Cosmo, and the Chaotix each get a few scenes but don't contribute much. This is essentially a place holder episode before the final final battle with Dark Oak, the series taking some time in getting Sonic back before he presumably goes Super Saiyan and saves the universe.
But that's okay. There's enough interesting or character based moments here for me to be entertained. It remains to be seen whether or not "Sonic X" will botch the landing. But we'll find out soon enough. Just for that bitchin' vision quest sequence, I'm giving this one a positive grade. (And apparently the dub cut that sequence in half, while adding some gobbledygook about Cosmo's mom, because 4Kids is bad and lame.) [7/10]
Yeah the vision sequence is pretty great. I also really like this episode just because it's neat to have the entire Sonic crew work together to fight Dark Oak, except Sonic. It's pretty cool novelty.
ReplyDeleteThis episode features even more game music during the vision sequence. It starts of playing "fakery way" from Sonic Adventure 1, which is originally from that mirror room in Twinkle Park. And then it plays more Sonic Adventure 2 cutscene music, specifically the piano part of "3 Black Noises", which also played at the end of "a revolutionary tale". Anyway I don't think many people care about that, but I think it's a neat bit of trivia.