Sonic Prime, Episode 3.04: Nine's Lives

Sonic Prime, Episode 3.04: Nine's Lives

Original Release Date: January 11th, 2024

"Sonic Prime" is a show seemingly built around ending each episode on a cliffhanger, in order to keep people from moving their finger off Netflix's "Watch Next Episode" button. This has led to an occasionally odd structure though. Such as in "Nine's Lives." The previous episode suggested Sonic's friends might be turning on him, due to his attempt to reach out to Nine. Instead, this episode reveals they are here to rescue Sonic, refusing to accept his plan to sacrifice himself. Their presence enrages Nine. Soon, a massive battle begins between Sonic and the heroes of the ShatterVerse and Nine and his endless army of Grim robots. As the good guys fight to break into Nine's fortress, the battle grows more desperate than ever before. 

I have gave the last episode of "Prime" some faint praise, as it was the most character-focused installment of the show yet. Instead of building on the conversation that Sonic and Nine had last time, where Sonic told Nine that he's still his friend and that they can work it out, we immediately back track. Minutes after the cavalry arrives, Nine is determined to destroy the good guys if they stand in his way of making the Grim into his ideal world. This is so frustrating. "Prime" walked right up to giving its antagonist some complexity, of delving into the idea that there's hope for him and that Sonic could reach it, and walks it right back the next episode. Nine is a bad guy now, a fairly simple one with laser focused on his dastardly goal, and there doesn't seem to be any plan to subvert that. So much for depth...

"No Escape" made the point of emphasizing that Sonic's bonds with his friends is his primary, motivating characteristic. "Nine's Lives" shows that his devotion to the ShatterVerse gang convinced them to stand up for him too. Yet I guess that moral can only go so far. There's some brief – very brief – conflict on the battlefield here, where the various factions and the Chaos Council can't work together. I guess this is introduced to up the stakes a little, since the heroes don't seem to have much trouble defeating Nine's Grim robots. (A very typical action cartoon rule is in effect here: The villain's minions are more effective the fewer of them there are and tend to become disposable the minute they multiply.) In practice, it makes the script feel like it's stopping for a lesson about how team work makes the dream work. 

Truthfully, "Nine's Lives" feels like a largely shapeless episode, focused on extended battle scenes, until about half way through. That's when Sonic realizes that maybe some strategy is needed. Rebel Rouge is recruited to cook up a game plan. And moments like this is when I realize that, being a writer who understands some of the mechanical aspects of building a narrative, has actually made some movies and TV shows less entertaining for me. Rebel lays out how they are going to distract Nine's forces so a portion of their squad can make it into his citadel. The episode even shows us how this would play out. And if a script takes the time to explain exactly how a plan is going to go down, you can be certain that it won't work out that way. Why would a writer tell us what they were going to do and then just do that? Our expectations are being subverted. If you're a kid or someone who has never seen a heist movie before, this would probably be an exciting development. If you're a jaded old nerd like me, it's setting up a swerve that can be seen coming a mile away. 

Yet even this is not the main complaint I have about "Nine's Lives." Instead, I think the episode features some really weird tonal shifts. There's comic relief here, about Nine defying Sonic by saying he hates chili dogs. (A good joke, honestly.) Or the very final moment of the episode featuring, of all characters, Froggy. These moments coexist alongside probably the darkest moment in "Prime" so far. While fighting off more of Nine's Grim robots, Mangey Tails and Sails Tails fashion a bomb out of the machine's parts. They then activate the bomb... Without making any attempt to escape its blast radius. Yes, Mangey and Sails seemingly blew themselves up. That's, uh, pretty severe! I wouldn't be shocked if this kid show subsequently reveals that it didn't just kill off two of its cutest characters... Yet Sonic and the others react to this event with utmost sincerity. Sonic falls to his knees in shock and blames himself for the apparent death of his friends. 

I have some thoughts about this. First off, if this show was going to kill some one off for dramatic effect, Mangey and Sails were probably the easiest choices to make. We don't really know much about these characters, other than them being a primitive version and a pirate version of Tails. Mangey had one or two funny moments but Sails hasn't done much of anything in his prior appearances. Any chance we would have to get attached to them is entirely based on whatever fondness we already have for Tails, based on his appearances in every other corner of the "Sonic" franchise. Are we losing anything by killing these two? Are we expected to feel anything about them dying, when they aren't much more than vague concepts to us? 

Even if Mangey and Sails actually had some depth, the impact of their death is undermined by what the episode does next. Namely, it just keeps going, like two children didn't just blow themselves up in some sort of suicide attack. Sonic then turns towards making that plan with Rebel to get into Nine's base. It says a lot about how disposable this show considers its cast that it moves on so quickly from two of them being annihilated. I get this is a kids show. We can't really expect Sonic to break down on tears and cradle Mangey's charred remains. And I understand that our heroes are on a battlefield right now, when there's no time to mourn the dead. But, if you're going to throw around big, dramatic moments like this, you actually have to commit to them. You can't have silly jokes a few minutes later. You can't just move on like it's a meaningless event. Because then, uh, it does become meaningless. Get what I'm saying here? "Prime" is not doing a lot to make me care about whether Mangey or Sails are really dead or making me feel the loss, if they are. It's kind of like the writers themselves aren't that concerned about! 

Moving on from that, "Nine's Lives" makes another gross miscalculation. It greatly overestimates the importance of Big the Cat. Okay, I know me being a hater about Big makes me unusual for the "Sonic" fandom at this point. I think most fans have come around to genuinely liking Big by now. However, even if you are a Big fan, you probably don't think of the guy as a big action hero. He's a dimwitted fisherman, who only really wants to hang out with his amphibious buddy and catch fish. Even though the Boscage Maze, New Yoke City, and No Place versions of Big aren't technically the same characters as the Big we know, seeing the tubby cat body slam some evil robots is still weird. Moreover, the episode tries to mine some tension out of Catfish taking a Grim Sonic spin dash to the gut. (And immediately undermines it with another goofy joke.) The most dramatic moments of the episode – which, somehow, is not the two kid sidekicks exploding themselves – is based around the Grim robotic version of Big appearing. Ya know, even when Big showed up in the old Archie comics as a Freedom Fighter, there was this understanding that he was mostly comic relief. His appearance on the battle field is incongruous, to say the least. It seems the "Prime" writers thought Big the Cat was just another member of Sonic's evil-fighting gang. Which I guess he is but it's still an off-putting choice. 

It's clear that "Prime" is heading into its final stretch here. This episode takes great pains to draw attention to how this is a pivotal moment in the battle for the ShatterVerse. The heroes are outnumbered by Nine's seemingly endless supply of robotic minions. There's lots of those elaborate action scenes that "Prime" specializes in, swooping across the area as Sonic and the gang battle more and more of Nine's forces. Clearly, this is supposed to feel epic, the "Lord of the Rings" Helm's Deep sequence of this corner of the "Sonic" franchise. However, I've become increasingly numb to "Prime's" action theatrics. You can only watch the good guys wreck the same set of robotic mooks before you crave something else. 

My frustration with "Prime's" loose approach to its characters and need to always keep its story as action-packed and forward-moving as possible is reaching its peak. After "No Escape" suggested maybe this cartoon could be more, "Nine's Lives" rolls back into the familiar pattern in the bluntest way possible. I hate to say it but "Sonic Prime" is increasingly feeling like the first time with a "Sonic" cartoon where, if I just dropped the show and never went back to it, I don't think I'd feel like I was missing anything. [5/10]