Sonic Prime, Episode 2.06: Double Trouble

Sonic Prime, Episode 2.06: Double Trouble

Original Release Date: July 13th, 2023

I'm fourteen episodes into “Sonic Prime” and I just now realized something: A lot of these episodes, maybe all of them, end on a cliffhanger. It only takes a minute of thought to reason how why this is the case. “Prime” is a Netflix show. Most of the streaming service's success is based around how long people's eyeballs are glued to their app. Having every episode end in a perilous place insures that viewers don't press a damn thing when the “Play Next Episode” button comes up. It's writing designed, first and foremost, in order to service Netflix's binge format of episode releasing. Creativity servicing technology and not the other way around. Welcome to life in the 21st century, fuckers.

Anyway, the point of this rambling introduction is the previous episode ended on probably “Prime's” biggest cliffhanger yet: Seemingly the introduction of this show's version of Metal Sonic. Quickly revealing himself to be named Chaos Sonic, the hedgehog and his robotic double battle all throughout New Yolk City. While the heroes are distracted, the Chaos Council uses their newly minted shard technology to begin conquering other universes. The mutiversal implications of the situation really dawn on the characters when Dread finally makes himself known, Renegade Knocks meeting another version of himself. It all comes to a head, kind of, when Sonic rushes into the center of the fray to rescue Nine.

In his previous appearances in “Sonic the Hedgehog” cartoons, Metal Sonic has not exactly been a very talkative character. He has exactly one line of dialogue in the OVA and I'm not sure he said anything during his brief appearances in “Boom.” Even in the video games and comics, where Metal Sonic is a featured character far more often, he's still a robot of few words. It seems almost everyone agrees that Sonic's robotic doppelganger is more effective when he keeps his mouth shut. After all, he's Metal Sonic, a material not exactly known for being expressive and yielding. The machine's personality doesn't often extend much further beyond “Priority One: Hedgehog” anyway, so there's no need for him to be all that talkative. 

“Sonic Prime” goes in a radically different direction with their version. We know Chaos Sonic is called Chaos Sonic because he calls himself that. In fact, the evil robot rarely stops talking whenever he's on-screen. He chatters at his fleshy counterpart non-stop, constantly belittling him and espousing his own superiority. A talkative Metal Sonic is not a totally unprecedented choice. Archie Comics managed to do something similar with Shard and turned him into a fan favorite. However, in the case of Chaos Sonic, it is fucking annoying. Probably because the quips are so completely non-stop. Even Sonic himself comments on how irritating the non-stop yaking and joking is. I guess the idea of Sonic's evil double exaggerating his traits to more irritating levels has some validity... But did “Prime's” writers have to go quite this far in making him annoying?

Chaos Sonic's characterization speaks to a problem I've referenced before with this show. Are the villains suppose to be intimidating or goofy? The constantly gabbing robot hedgehog – his eyes are emojis too, in case you thought he wasn't irritating enough – isn't the only example of this here. At one point, the Chaos Council get to bickering about how to divide up their empire. Their argument gets petty extremely quickly. On one hand, I don't entirely hate this. It gives the bad guys some personality and, after all, it would make sense that a whole league of Eggmen would let their egos get in the way. Yet it doesn't go far to make them creditable threats. Especially when the baby has the idea to just split their spoils up. 

Previously, I had complained that, when granted a MacGuffin of immeasurable power with the potential to conquer a multi-verse, the Chaos Council instead used the Paradox Prism shards to make slightly tougher robots than usual. At least this episode sees the villains use the power source they've been chasing all series to actually do some malicious shit. They open portals to the other worlds and begin to establish cities there. If New Yolk City is a dystopian city, the Council trying to spreads that same crushing conformity to every other dimension out there is a pretty evil scheme. (And it's pointed out that more worlds are out there in the ShatterVerse, so every member of the Chaos Council get a world to themselves. And “Prime” gets further places to explore next season.) 

If that moment represents “Prime” finally utilizing its multi-verse set-up for more than just a gimmick, the episode goes a little further too. Knuckles the Dread, having been in New Yolk for a few episodes, finally runs into his counterpart. While the series certainly made it seem like, up to this point, that Dread would be an antagonist, he instead immediately begins helping the New Yolk rebels in fighting their enemies. That seems like a bit of a waste, considering what has been set up. Yet the scenes of the two Knuckles being confused and surprised by each other, and finding they have some things in common, are amusing. I don't know if Dread will come into conflict with the rebels eventually but that moment manages to justify its own existence. 

If “Prime” has been a show frustratingly short on character development up to this point, I will give “Double Trouble” credit for trying a little harder in that regard. Nine Tails escapes his bounds – way too easily, I might add – and goes about assisting Sonic and the gang. After the hedgehog hero catches up with the alternate version of his sidekick, Nine expresses some guilt over his role in the Council's plot. Sonic immediately resolves him of this shame, telling him that he's still his buddy and it's okay. It's a moment that has a nice parallel with Sonic's own arc. During one of his many, many mocking asides, Chaos Sonic reminds his heroic double that all of this shit is technically his fault. It's interesting that Sonic can forgive his friends for their mistakes but has so much trouble forgiving his own. 

Of course, that moment of Chaos Sonic pointing out Regular Sonic's role in this catastrophe is abruptly cut short by Dread sailing in and picking a fight. Similarly, Sonic and Nine's dialogue immediately rams into the needs of the plot. The duo get right to grabbing the Shards before the bad guys rush in to provide this episode's obligatory “Keep watching, you fuckers!” non-ending. Yet I'm willing to give “Double Trouble” a little more points than usual, if only because “Prime” has been so anemic on the character development side. A little goes a long way in a drought, ya know? 

Action, as always, is the focus here. As obnoxious as Chaos Sonic is, his robotic body does lend itself to some cool fight scenes. He can twirl around and bend his limbs in all sorts of non-biological ways. The way Sonic momentarily defeats his robotic copy is mildly clever, as is the one-liner Sonic delivers afterwards. There's also a cool shot from Chaos Sonic's P.O.V. as he's wailing on Sonic. “Prime” is a good looking show, there's no denying that. Yet I have found myself continuously wishing the writers worked as hard as the animators. “Double Trouble” represents some possible positive moments forward, even if it introduces an antagonist that is surely irksome. Will the show start to improve from here? It's hard to get my hopes up too much but I guess we'll see. [6/10]