Sonic Prime, Episode 1.8: There’s No ARRGH in “Team”

Sonic Prime, Episode 1.8: There’s No ARRGH in “Team”

Original Release Date: December 15th, 2022

As the first half of “Sonic Prime’s” first season ends, the show only just now feels like it’s actually starting. Having traveled to the water-logged, pirate infested No Place zone, Rusty Rose and a submarine full of Eggforcers attacks Knuckles the Dread’s ship. After a drone scans Sonic’s magic shoes, the bad guys head off towards the Devil’s Lighthouse. Otherwise known as the latest Paradox Prism shard. Sonic manages to rally the pirates, including the reluctant captain, into taking chase after the villains. Lots of fighting and robot smashing ensues, as the good guys and the interdimensional invaders have a scuffle among the jagged rocks and water around the central plot device. 

As I've noted multiple times, "Sonic Prime" most excels at action sequences. Maybe the showrunners were aware of that too. Or maybe they just wanted to make the first batch of episodes ended on a fittingly action-packed note. Either way, "There's No ARRGH in Team" is composed almost entirely of action scenes. The entire last half has the heroes fighting off Rusty Rose and her army of Eggforcer robots. There's a pretty clever moment where Sonic uses his super speed and whatever random shit the crew has laying around to patch the hole the bad guys busted in the ship. Definitely my favorite action beat in the episode occurs halfway through, when Sonic uses his hovercraft shoes to pull the ship around the perilous rocks of the Devil's Lighthouse. This proceeds a moment so deliriously absurd that it made me laugh from sheer audacity. 

The episode is not purely action though. In a nice change of pace, some room is made for character development too. After Rusty and her robots fuck up his ship, Dread is ready to hightail it out of there. Sonic talks the pirate captain into coming back by appealing to that most masculine to tendencies: The need to look cool. He convinces the captain to come back by pointing out this adventure will finally provide a chance to conquer the Devil's Lighthouse. In a nice full circle touch, Sonic also has to be manipulated into helping later. His phobia of water makes him reluctant to skim over the ocean and tug the boat along. When his ability to go fast and win a race is questioned though, Sonic has no choice but to go along with the plan. Remember that, ladies: The masculine desire to appear tough, resourceful, successful, or macho can easily overpower our logical reasoning. 

Obviously, the most frustrating thing about "Sonic Prime" for me is that this series is just never going to develop the variants of Sonic's friends into distinct characters. Batton Rouge, Black Rose, and Sails are not personable people in their own right. They are closer to sight gags, jokey combinations of beloved, established players with pirate stereotypes. This makes something Knuckles the Dread does in the last act harder to justify. Upon getting close to the red Prism Shard, the treasure he's sought for so long, greed seemingly overwhelms him. Sonic has to struggle with him over it. 

I guess the idea is that pirates are, like dragons, naturally inclined towards hoarding treasure. Yet the lack of detailing that's been done with Dread – who is still the most fleshed out of this gang! – makes his actions seem like they come out of the blue. "Prime" seems to want to derive some easy shock value from Sonic's friends acting in non-heroic manners. Without some time being taken to make Dread, Rose Thorn, and Rusty more than just palette swipes of the good guys, these moments really are nothing but shock value. At the very least, Dread seems a little more reasonable than the Amy variants I mentioned. 

Looking back on this episode, and the seven before it, "Prime" really has missed big opportunity. Sonic has treated each alternate version of his friends that he's met essentially as if they are his friends. Even after learning that Nine is a grouchy loner, Thorn is a violent eco-extremist, and Dread is a cowardly pirate, the hedgehog still acts like they are his old buddies. This show needed more of a big part of the multiverse premise's appeal: People reacting with confusion to alternate versions of their friends and themselves. I mean, say what you will about the Marvel Cinematic Universe but they knew that you gotta have Good Doctor Strange fight an Evil Doctor Strange or there's no point in doing this whole thing. 

Since there's no other Sonics in the Shatter Spaces, and the Chaos Council have just now gained the ability to travel to other realities, "Prime" can finally get around to this stuff. When Rusty Rose first gets a peek at the pirate of herself, it short-circuits her programming for a second. Later, Black Rose and the cyborg do another double-take at each other. That's all this idea amounts to here but, hopefully, future episodes will do a little more with that idea. Will being around other, heroic Amy Roses cause Rusty Rose to rebel against her programming? Or will the contrast between an evil version of Amy and her better-intentioned counterparts simply be used for dramatic, ironic tension? It remains to be seen. 

The former seems likelier but I'm kind of hoping the latter holds true. If only because Rusty is the best villain this cartoon has right now. There's not much to her, other than being a super-strong killborg determined to fulfill Priority #1: Hedgehog. But throwing a Terminator into the mix always makes for a decent bad guy. The Chaos Council, meanwhile, still seem too jokey for me to take seriously as antagonists. In fact, this episode features the very first time those guys have done anything intimidating at all, in my eyes. After capturing Nine, Dr. Don't threatens to dismember the fox if he refuses to help them conquer the multiverse. See, that's some good villain-ing right there. Leave the hipster and baby jokes to the sideline. Let these guys actually be evil. 

For what it's worth, there's actually a handful of jokes here that actually made me chuckle. A moment where Sonic is unable to decipher Batton's thick pirate speak is a solid, if inevitable, joke. Dread's ship – named the Angel's Voyage, apparently – being held together with Christmas lights and inflatable dinghies isn't bad. Probably the best gag here is one that's quickly thrown away. As they the gang sails into battle, Sails the Fox climbs into the crow's nest and plays a heavy metal riff on Catfish's little pirate banjo. I actually chuckle at that one. 

Despite being a relatively sturdy episode of a show that's still trying to find its footing, "There's No ARRGH in Team" still left me unsatisfied. The final moments return to the Shadow subplot. This has got to be the lamest of "Prime's" story threads. Shadow is floating out there in the ether, angry at Sonic for reasons he refuses to elaborate on because it's more dramatic that way, and has basically only popped up before this point to remind the viewer that he still exists. Honestly, if this episode was the first time Shadow appeared on this show, that would've been a good cliffhanger. That might've made me excited to head into the next batch of "Prime" episodes. Instead, Shadow has periodically appeared to bark vague statement and trade fisticuffs with Sonic. I don't care. 

Looking back at "Prime's" first half-season, I can't help but be frustrated. It doesn't have the character-based writing and lovable cast of "SatAM." It doesn't have "Sonic X's" quirky perspective or space opera grandeur. It doesn't reinvent "Sonic" lore in interesting ways, like the movies do. It's not even as funny as "Boom" or as nice looking as the OVA. (I must concede that I like it better than "AoStH" and "Underground.") There's so much potential here and the staff seem determined to explore it in as shallow and short-sighted a way as possible. Certainly, it is still technically plausible that "Prime" will finally pull itself together eventually. Maybe that'll be the case when the next batch of episodes drop on Netflix in six months or whatever. As of now, I have to say that "Sonic Prime" ranks as a disappointment for me. [6.5/10]