Sonic Prime, Episode 3.07: From the Top
Original Release Date: January 11th, 2024
For those reading this in the future, it's been almost three months since my review of the previous episode of "Sonic Prime" and this one right here. I would like to say that I'm a professional and reviewed the whole season in one go, staggering out the publication of the individual reviews to insure regular content for this blog. But... Nah. I was watching an episode a day and writing up my thoughts afterwards. Work and life got crazy, forcing a hiatus in my "Sonic Prime" coverage. But the sadder truth is that this last batch of episodes have been so underwhelming to me that I didn't have a lot of motivation to finish the season. However, the gnawing feeling that I left a project incomplete was unavoidable. So here I am, motherfucker, wrapping up "Sonic Prime" several months after everyone else did. Better late than never, right? Sure.
Last we left off "Prime," Sonic and Nine were plummeting towards a kaleidoscope of colors and light. I assumed this to mean they'd wake up in some wacky, in-between dimension but... Nope, they just landed in the center of Nine's lair, the Paradox Prism glistening above them. After spying some palm trees, Sonic tries talking things out with the fox mad scientist. This – along with the Grim cracking up around them and Sonic's allies closing in – causes Nine to have a change of heart. The focus shifts towards restoring the multiverse. Sonic realizes that giving up the last bit of Prism energy within him might be the solution. Yet this could end up costing the hedgehog his life. Even after making this sacrifice and seemingly putting the different dimensions back in place, Sonic's struggles aren't over.
Is there any moral in children's television more prevalent than "the power of friendship?" It's the easiest kind of platitude to deliver. On one level, this is because it's true. We all get by with a little help from friends. On another, altogether more cynical level, this is also a message that's easy to deliver because it requires little change or growth on the characters' behalf. The hero doesn't have to fix himself, he can lean on his pals, and the writers don't have to actually add any depth to their script. "Prime" has hinted throughout that this is a story, largely, about the unbreakable bonds between Sonic and his bros. This finale focuses on that more, with Sonic and Nine talking out their differences and realizing more connects them than separates them. Everyone rallies together to help one another and for the greater good. In the final moments, Sonic reaffirms that it's his love of his buddies that drove him all along.
In the right hands, this would be a perfectly satisfying ending. However, "Prime's" fundamental lack of depth makes this is an unavoidably disappointing note to conclude on. First and foremost, Nine's redemption feels deeply unearned and like a sloppy, last minute change. For most of this season, the cyborg fox has been an unhinged villain totally unwavering in his fanatical pursuit of his reality rewriting goal. All it takes to undo that is Sonic talking to him a little bit, even though Nine seemed to have gone totally mad with power by this point? I don't buy it. Nine's personality has changed so much over the course of this season as to render him essentially shapeless as a character. He seems like a totally different person at the start this episode than he does at the end. The script simply doesn't have the depth to make this kind of sweeping change compelling.
Moreover, the way this change happens is far from convincing. Sonic sees that the fox has maintained the palm trees and the hammock hanging between them from Green Hill Zone in his inner sanctum. This, I guess, reminds Sonic that Nine is still his little buddy Tails deep down and that they both just want to return to a safe home. The hedgehog then deploys some not-that-compelling, Therapy 101 psychobabble to connect with Nine's better side. After building him up all season as the ultimate threat of the entire series, "Sonic Prime" has Nine defeated with a friendly conversation. Tactics like this can be meaningful to a conversation. The climax of season 6 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" – otherwise maybe the lamest season of the entire series – has one cast member talking a former friend out of ending the world just by being relatable, kind, and loving. We don't have that kind of connection to Nine. If you interpret him as just another version of the Tails we all know and love, from every other corner of the "Sonic" franchise, then maybe that would be the case... But Nine has operated as his own character, far angstier and more dangerous than any previous version of Tails, throughout all of "Prime."
When I started reviewing this show, I complained that it used a built-in familiarity with the "Sonic" cast as a shortcut to get us to care about these multiversal variations on them. It turns out the show's creative team used this technique throughout the entire run. Even though Dread and Rusty and all the others have not really resembled the Knuckleses and Amies we already know, the show has always treated them as if that was the case. Every iteration of "Sonic" has existed as its own thing, for the most part. There may be characteristics familiar to all of them but Archie Sonic is different from IDW Sonic in the same way "Boom" Sonic is different from the Sonic in the Paramount movies. You can't just say "Oh, "Prime" Sonic is the same character as the Sonic from all the current video games, so you should care about him the same amount!" Because that's simply not true. This has been a problem throughout all of "Prime." Yet it's especially true about this final episode, which based its entire emotional climax on our pre-existing attachment to Sonic and Tails' relationship. But Nine isn't Tails. His actions have proved that over and over again. Which makes the scene this entire episode – and maybe the whole series – hinges on feel totally false.
With this roadblock in mind, "From the Top" was probably never going to be a satisfying conclusion. However, as with all of "Prime," there's ideas here that could've made this work. As it seems the ShatterVerse is collapsing, Mangey Tails nuzzles Gnarly Knuckles. Thorn Rose and Black Rose embrace Rusty, resigned to their fate and simply happy that they found each other before this end. Potentially powerful stuff that loses all its emotional punch because everything works out in the end. You could say the same of Sonic willingly giving up the last bit of Prism energy and risking his own life. If "Prime's" arc for Sonic has been based on his guilt for causing this multiversal fuck-up in the first place, then the hedgehog sacrificing himself is him fully accepting responsibility for his mistakes. He's putting his own life on the line to make it all right. However, it doesn't actually feel this way, because Sonic has been treated as a wholly virtuous woobie who didn't really do anything wrong throughout the whole show. We also know that Sonic isn't really going to die because... Come on, of course he isn't. Thus, the emotional climax of the finale doesn't have nearly the kind of bite it was obviously meant to.
This scene also occurs about half-way through the episode. Sonic giving up his last bit of energy allows Nine to restore the Paradox Prism. In turn, this puts the multiverse – including Green Hill – back together. (I got the impression that the other worlds existed as a result of the Prism being shattered but I guess they've just always been there.) The goal Sonic has been seeking to achieve the entire series has been reached. The central conflict of the show is over. There's still about fifteen minutes left to go, so the writers have to think up a whole new batch of obstacles to keep the story going a little longer. If Sonic doesn't return to Green Hill, he'll fade out of existence. Oh no, Birdie's wing is clipped by some space debris on the way to the portal! Oh no, Black Rose's ship doesn't have quite enough fuel to make it to the entrance! All of this feels so contrived, the episode just piling on one hazard after another in a desperate attempt to pad this episode out a few minutes more.
This belabored extra last act is all the more frustrating because a more elegant solution is already in the script. After the Prism is restored and Sonic is left weakened, the Chaos Council abruptly call off the truce they've formed with the good guys. They are going to use this vulnerable moment, when the heroes are down and the multiverse is ready to be reformed, to seize the ultimate power they've been after all along. This should've been the proper climax of the series. It re-establishes the Council, not Nine, as "Prime's" ultimate antagonists. It brings their thirst for power and control full circle. Seeing all the heroes forced to rally together, in their darkest and most hopeless moment, to defeat the villains that have been looking them in the face all along would've been a pretty cool ending, don't you think?
Alas, the Chaos Council remain numb-nuts until the very end. The varied Eggmen immediately begin to bicker amongst themselves, pettily turning on one another when they should be completing their conquest. Once they are distracted fighting each other, Shadow easily kicks them into the ShatterSpace. There's no suspense in whether the heroes can defeat these guys. They are undone by their own incompetence and a single, swift kick from one guy. How did these guys ever take over New Yoke City? They fucking suck! The Chaos Council never becoming genuinely intimidating adversaries has been a problem all throughout "Prime." It's never been more obvious here. Why even include these characters if you weren't going to do anything interesting with them?
Ultimately, it's all for naught. When Sonic returns to Green Hill, he's back to the moment right before he shattered the Paradox Prism in the first episode. The mechanics of this aren't explained. The dimension hopping in this show has never worked like time travel before. What this inexplicable twist sets up is one of the lamest endings a story can pull: "Sonic Prime" retcons its own events out of existence. None of the last twenty-three episodes have mattered. I guess Sonic has been changed by his experience but he acts mostly the same. His friends are not aware of the adventure he's gone on. We don't know if Nine or Dread or everyone else out there in the ShatterVerse remember anything either. Effectively, it's like nothing has happened. This kind of universal reset ending is usually reserved for comic book storylines that exist solely to remove a loathed change or reveal from continuity. When a creative team does this to their own show, it doesn't really reflect well on their opinion of their own output. In short: This is the kind of bullshit ending that makes the entire series seem like a massive waste of time.
Maybe the most frustrating thing about all of this is... It didn't have to be this way. The final scenes of "From the Top," when Sonic is welcoming back his old friends and hanging out with them on the beach are... Actually pretty fun! It gives us a peak of what might have been. If "Sonic Prime" was about Sonic and his friends fighting Eggman, if it had focused on simply being a "Sonic the Hedgehog" story, it might've been consistently entertaining! There would have been a chance to develop a core cast of characters, instead of cycling through a new group of variations every other episode. We could've gotten to know this version of Tails, of Rouge. What makes them different or similar to what we've seen before. "Prime" might've had a simple, focused narrative that didn't jump around and change its mind so many times. It could've been, ya know, a good show.
I suppose criticizing a program for what it isn't does not make for insightful criticism and analysis. Of course, "Prime" is not compelling as a multiverse story either. It didn't have that much fun with the potential limitlessness of this set-up. It didn't really contrast the different versions of the "Sonic" characters with their established personas. It limited itself to three archetypal settings, that more often flattened out the individual quirks of the characters instead of expanding on or exploiting them. The overwhelming focus on action left little room for character development and often made the show feel padded out with endless fight scenes. That was really evident in this last set of episodes, whose events felt like they could've taken up one or two half-hours, instead of seven.
Why was it like this? I can only guess. Maybe the show runners felt doing a classic "Sonic" set-up wouldn't have been exciting or new. (Never mind that we've never had a full length "Sonic" cartoon actually devoted to replicating the feel of the games.) One can't help but assume that producers were eager to capitalize on the popularity of multiverse stories like "Into the Spider-Verse." Which now feel kind of played out and overdone here in 2024. Thinking yet more cynically: This set-up allowed for multiple versions of established, beloved characters to make merchandise of. That feels like an unavoidable factor to consider. Maybe that's not the case. Yet "Prime" being the way it is because of trend chasing and an eagerness to sell toys seems to neatly explain so many of its flaws.
Ya know, I try and take a macro view, to find the good in every "Sonic" cartoon. "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" isn't a particularly good series but at least it had a few demented highlights. It did its own twisted thing with Sonic and the gang. "Sonic Underground" was just about unsalvageable but it did bring American fans an animated Knuckles for the first time. The best "Sonic" shows – "SatAM," "Sonic X," "Boom" – ran long enough to thoroughly develop unique takes on these characters, to tell interesting stories of their own. "Sonic Prime" will probably introduce new fans to the franchise, potentially prompting them to explore the better corners of this series. Maybe some day, people will look back on Nine and Thorn with the same fondness that old guys like me regard Sally or Sticks with. Perhaps.
Ultimately, at this moment, I can't help but regard "Sonic Prime" as a disappointment. I did not find it satisfying as a continuation of "Sonic the Hedgehog" as we know it or as its own take. It wasn't without some moments. I liked Rusty. A handful of interesting scenes come to mind. Yet it did not prove to be a compelling whole. I'll rate "From the Top" a [5/10], for continually fumbling potentially exciting scenarios and ending on a deeply annoying note. "Sonic Prime," in general, I'd probably only give a [6/10] for many of the same flaws. "From the Top" ends with a vague cliffhanger that a fourth/second season could potentially pick up on. This seems unlikely, considering the way Netflix usually throws away its animated programs after their first runs. Given another round of episodes, "Prime" might become better. Which is what I've been saying all along. But I think the chance for that has truly passed however.
