Megathread MT | Sonic Prime (Netflix, TV Series) - General Discussion

[Ryannumber1gamer]

4 hours ago, Zadent said:

That was a fun series so far. Hopefully it gets a season 2
 

I’m content with Shadow so far.

edit: 

  Hide contents

I just realized, with that ending, it means Sonic and Shadow are the only two original versions left. Unless they just write Shadow out, the two of them are likely gonna have to work together, and I’d be so there for that.

It likely isn't.

Spoiler

Knuckles can be heard calling out to Sonic when he's being transported into either back into New Yolk City at the end of Episode 5, or the pirate world at the end of Episode 6 IIRC, in a similar manner to what Shadow was doing before Sonic started fully visualising him. 

 

[Zadent]

13 minutes ago, Ryannumber1Santa said:

It likely isn't.

  Reveal hidden contents

Knuckles can be heard calling out to Sonic when he's being transported into either back into New Yolk City at the end of Episode 5, or the pirate world at the end of Episode 6 IIRC, in a similar manner to what Shadow was doing before Sonic started fully visualising him. 

I didn’t catch that but

Spoiler

It’s notable that they highlight that Knuckles, Tails, Amy, and Rouge got hit by the explosion and those were apparently split/transformed, but Shadow they emphasize he wasn’t hit by using Chaos Control, which threw him into the void.

 

[Sonicka]

Just finished the initial 8 episodes, and thankfully if it’s anything like other Netflix Animation series we won’t really have that long to wait for the rest of the Season and the 2nd and 3rd batches of 8 episodes. 

Overall though, this was good. Actually, I thought it was really good. I enjoyed Sonic Boom for what was… but it’s been a long time since we got a story driven episodic series over short comedy procedurals.

Also, The opening episode being 45 minutes really helped set the pace and was a pleasant surprise, as was the arcs and stories for each “world” not simply being dropped every episode for something new. In fact, that we kept returning to the New Yolk city dystopia shatterverse made this more compelling since this is where the real danger lies, and originally I was worried this was going to be the main focus - but I’m glad it took most of the storyline presence as it helped tie many narrative threads together. 

The OG characters alternates were varied and interesting, and despite missing the originals - that is part of the premise and goal for sonic and what he needs to get back too. But the friends and rouges he meets along the way were all really fun. And whilst Nine is probably going to be his closest ally (or greatest enemy pending where they take it) moving forwards, the biggest shout out for me goes to Rouge. She’s oft been forgotten about in recent times (and clearly the creators felt so too), so by making her a more integral part of the Sonic crew made her much more endearing to me. And she deservedly stole a lot of the stage with her presence. I felt that her VA and the alternate characters portrayed were brilliant so far.

But, because of the alternate friends take, in an reverse throw to Sonic Frontiers (where everyone else but him got character development) - here, Sonic is the arsehole, likeable, sure… but still a bit of a dick to his mates until he realises what he’s lost along his adventures. There’s lots of room for growth for him here and it’s nice to see him push through his insecurities as well as encouraging others which is his usual MO. 

The animation was also pretty slick and nothing felt “cheap” with the high action set pieces feeling energetic and exciting. Often it felt like l could have been watching sonic speed along a level from one of the games whilst he battled baddies which was impressive. So theres a real labour of love here - especially with the multiple retro flash back animatics and references throughout to game history. These are always nice callbacks. 

If there was one thing that stung, it’s that this batch of episodes ended on an exciting and kinetic moment and I want MORE. But obviously this is coming soon (and not too long away) so we can see the concluding part to that cliffhanger.

[Eternal EX]

8 minutes ago, Sonicka said:

Just finished the initial 8 episodes, and thankfully if it’s anything like other Netflix Animation series we won’t really have that long to wait for the rest of the Season and the 2nd and 3rd batches of 8 episodes. 

Overall though, this was good. Actually, I thought it was really good. I enjoyed Sonic Boom for what was… but it’s been a long time since we got a story driven episodic series over short comedy procedurals.

Also, The opening episode being 45 minutes really helped set the pace and was a pleasant surprise, as was the arcs and stories for each “world” not simply being dropped every episode for something new.

In fact, that we kept returning to the New Yolk city shatterverse made this more compelling since this is where the real danger lies, and originally I was worried this was going to be the main focus - but I’m glad it took most of the storyline presence as it helped tie many narrative threads together. 

The OG characters alternates were varied and interesting, and despite missing the originals - that is part of the premise and goal for sonic and what he needs to get back too. But the friends and rouges he meets along the way were all really fun. And whilst Nine is probably going to be his closest ally (or greatest enemy pending where they take it) moving forwards, the biggest shout out for me goes to Rouge. She’s oft been forgotten about in recent times (and clearly the creators felt so too), so by making her a more integral part of the Sonic crew made her much more endearing to me. And she deservedly stole a lot of the stage with her presence. I felt that her VA and the alternate characters portrayed were brilliant so far.

But, because of the alternate friends take, in an reverse throw to Sonic Frontiers (where everyone else but him got character development) - here, Sonic is the arsehole, likeable, sure… but still a bit of a dick to his mates until he realises what he’s lost along his adventures. There’s lots of room for growth for him here and it’s nice to see him push through his insecurities as well as encouraging others which is his usual MO. 

The animation was also pretty slick and nothing felt “cheap” with the high action set pieces feeling energetic and exciting. Often it felt like l could have been watching sonic speed along a level from one of the games whilst he battled baddies which was impressive. So theres a real labour of love here - especially with the multiple retro flash back animatics and references throughout to game history. These are always nice callbacks. 

If there was one thing that stung, it’s that this batch of episodes ended on an exciting and kinetic moment and I want MORE. But obviously there’ is more coming soon (hopefully not too long away) so we can see the concluding part to that cliffhanger.

Your spoiler so far sums up my thoughts. I've only made it to episode 4 and my daughter fell in love with everything about the show. As a veteran, this gives me high hopes for this series. Even if they only greenlight the average 24 episodes in total (I don't know what Netflix's plans are with the series) as long as they can safely wrap everything up, I'd be more than content with what we got. The fact that they use the big 5 plus rouge and big, I was sold. And seeing Tails (nine) less as a bitch... All of my yes. I can't wait for more to come.

The only thing that throws me off is eggman's voice. But that is only because I've grown accustomed to Pollock being his definitive voice. Besides that, easy 9 from me. 

[LegoFedora]

Show seems promising so far off these 8 episodes. Most negative thing I can say is that the music was about as generic as it gets. Story seems interesting, I hope we see more timelines with the last 16 episodes instead of constantly hoping between these 3 (though I can't see them returning to the primitive one, that one seemed to have a definitive end point).

Sonic seems really nerfed here to me. There's some points where he'll get hit, or he'll be chasing something that if it was any other incarnation of him he'd be able to avoid with 0 issue. Maybe it's just the animation but he just seems a lot slower in general here. 

I did really like how under the thick forest, sonic couldn't really go fast because if the clutter. Has any other media actually taken advantage of sonic needing room to build speed? Thought that was a neat way to handicap him.

For once, I'm actually interested in seeing how this gets solved. Having the crutch of sonic not being able to touch the main mcguffin is really interesting.

Also, prim knuckles was just Sticks 2 I loved it.

Spoiler

How come 2 of the 3 scenarios involve Amy as the villain. What are you trying to say, Man Of Action?

 

[Sonictrainer]

On a cool Easter egg, there's a character named Jack voiced by Jacksepticeye

[Eternal EX]

2 hours ago, LegoFedora said:

Show seems promising so far off these 8 episodes. Most negative thing I can say is that the music was about as generic as it gets. Story seems interesting, I hope we see more timelines with the last 16 episodes instead of constantly hoping between these 3 (though I can't see them returning to the primitive one, that one seemed to have a definitive end point).

Sonic seems really nerfed here to me. There's some points where he'll get hit, or he'll be chasing something that if it was any other incarnation of him he'd be able to avoid with 0 issue. Maybe it's just the animation but he just seems a lot slower in general here. 

I did really like how under the thick forest, sonic couldn't really go fast because if the clutter. Has any other media actually taken advantage of sonic needing room to build speed? Thought that was a neat way to handicap him.

For once, I'm actually interested in seeing how this gets solved. Having the crutch of sonic not being able to touch the main mcguffin is really interesting.

Also, prim knuckles was just Sticks 2 I loved it.

  Hide contents

How come 2 of the 3 scenarios involve Amy as the villain. What are you trying to say, Man Of Action?

I noticed that too. But...I have a feeling I know who the big bad final villain is going to be.

[Austroid]

Pretty interesting show so far! I really like Tails Nine's character compared to the more traditional Tails; being more anti-social and standoffish. Also its a nice change of pace seeing "regular" Knux, Amy and Tails calling Sonic out on mistakes and such. Compare that to Sonic X where he's mostly considered a savior figure who could do no wrong.

Regarding the Chaos Council; so far its what I feared would happen if you essentially split ol' Eggy into 5 separate characters. They're pretty bland overall, and feel like a cheap gimmick. Sure they all look like Eggman, but I'm not getting much "Eggman energy."

[Red Hot Jack]

Various sparse thoughts about the show:

I finished it in 1 day, pretty solid.

No comment on the original voices because, besides Saturday's episode preview I watched it in my mother language, but this was cool because it's the same voices for Prime, games and movies, pretty cool considering the english VAs are different throughout the media. I remember disliking the english Prime Knuckles voice though.

The worlds were not the most innovative ideas but played pretty well, there is just a lot of entertainment through the whole thing, also I found a lot of the alter egos to be not really interesting, but that's because there was literally a team in every world, if they used less characters in each world maybe we would have had cooler variants, case in point Jungle Tails...

That said, I really loved Nine, Rusty Rose, Thorn and Dread. Rouge is also a great addition in every universe, I like how she is a leader most of the time.

Rusty Rose is the Metal Sonic we needed in a world without Sonic, in fact I would describe her as a mix between Mecha Sally, Bunnie Rabbot and Gamma. I think she might die based on the set up and my own theories, which would be cool, remember we have plenty of worlds here, somebody could easily get killed off and then pop up in another universe.

I like how Big is just there all the time, lol, same for Orbot and Cubot's cameo, but it was nice to keep it consistent to the games.

Also, interesting how we got pet companions such as Froggy and the flickies, but no Chao...

The Chaos Council would be interesting if they did more with them, to be honest yeah, they suffer from the Deadly Six syndrome, there are a lot of them but they barely show up, if there were less characters they would be used properly.

I'm glad the worlds aren't dropped outside of their 2 episode arc, they can do all sorts of things by developing them, even though some universes feel like resolved, and wrapped up such as the jungle one. Obviously they will introduce new worlds in later parts, but also I doubt we are getting game stuff like Black Knight or Rush Adventure because this is a new Shatterverse Sonic created, there is even a canon explanation besides the devs coming up with new ideas.

Sonic's characterization feels less mature than Frontiers for the sake of him having a character arc, but I don't really mind to be honest. The tone is also different from Frontiers so it makes sense. The Prime world is obviously simplified to the max because we only spend the first minutes and flashbacks in it, why would they establish the games setting when the show wants to focus on other worlds, there is no time, yeah the pacing is weird maybe but it works.

And finally... Shadow

Spoiler

He doesn't appear much but maybe it's for the best, Shadow is good in small doses, but he was handled very well here, he is mad at Sonic as usual, but it's justified here, Sonic literally shuts him "I'm on a mission, none of your business", Shadow was probably warning him but he didn't even had the time to do that, Sonic simply goes fast.

The whole "home is gone" might be false maybe, but I hope it's true and verified by the next part, I want them to raise the stakes so Sonic understands his mistakes, his friends as he knew them are gone.

Plus I want to see that promised Sonic & Shadow team up.

 

 

 

[Rabbitearsblog]

Just saw all 8 episodes and I'm really loving the show!  I just loved the fact that we finally got a Sonic series that's actually story focused for once and it was interesting seeing all the different versions of Sonic's friends.  I especially loved the Dystopian characters like Nine Tails and Rusty Rose.  They were probably the most interesting multiverse characters in this show so far and I can't wait to see more of them!

Spoiler

I was actually shocked by the ending of the first season as Shadow stated that Sonic practically destroyed their world and now I'm more curious than ever to see what will become of all this in future episodes.

Man, this show is really exciting and I can't wait for the rest of the episodes to come out soon! 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Prime officially binged! It's good. Far from great, but solid.

Good
-Ani-fricckin-mation. This is the best movement we have seen from 3D Sonic. The angles, the speed, the bounce. While action too often was a fight against boring canon fodder, it was often creative enough to be miles above what Boom did.
-  All characters (with one exception) are at worst respectable versions of the character, and at best really cool alternative takes. I was worried about Rouge or Shadow, but they were all handled very well so far. I think most people will agree that Tails Nine is the most layered character.

Bad
- Comedy is... not great. Some jokes are needlessly explained, badly delivered, or just not that funny.  Dr. Babble for example seems like a baby who is the cruelest person in his group. That sounds hilarious. But they don't do anything with him, he just keeps falling down and screaming. At least the show is an action first and comedy second, but generally, the dialogue is much less smart than Boom or IDW. The scene when "Tails gets upset" is played with ridiculous drama when he just worries Eggman is scheming something.
- Most versions of Sonic are some variation of coolness (games, X, Boom). Sure some of them were jerks (satam, fleetway, OVA) but it was with this 90s vibe, with this vibe he cares but doesn't want to show it. Movie Sonic was the exception, but he was still endearing and cute in his attempts.
So let me stress, the bar is pretty high. With that said I think this is might be the worst Sonic we had. (aside from some of Early Archie stuff)
He comes off as kinda dumb, three steps behind the audience in most cases, often talking about great friendships to people who don't know him. He's not a great fighter, scared of spears made of wood (until plot demands it's time to win). I suppose he's written as lovable dork ala Silver, but he lacks the charisma, even most characters in the show seem to be annoyed with him. (Now that I think about this, this show could've been about Silver visiting alternative timelines).

Mixed
- I like Sonic references but some are too aggressive. Why even have Orbot and Cubot for maybe 4 lines of dialogue? Why Chaos Emerald, with no explanation and barely any plot significance? Sonic collects rings at the start then drops the idea later? Why establish robots have animals in Prime Zone, to drop it in Yolk Zone, only to bring it back with Rusty? It's a mess, for fans and especially for newcomers.
- Locations get a bit bland, but that's 3D animation for you. This is why most good 3D shows stick to a single city or location. But at least New Yolk has character, everything Forces lacked in their Eggman Empire.
- I'm a bit sad there are no actual new characters, but I suppose the flip coin is a bigger focus on the core cast with their variants.
- The Chaos Council is seriously underdeveloped. I like teen Eggman, lazy and barely caring, and yet most tech-savvy and competent, but the rest don't have strong personalities. It has the potential to be great (I already pointed out the baby), but with a limited time, having 5 villains instead of 1 might leave all of them shallow. And why "chaos council" instead of "Egg Council"? This is a rare situation when a lazy name would work better.
- This may sound weird, but do we agree that New Yolk was more exciting and visually pleasing than Boscage Maze or No Place? Kinda makes me wonder if the show would be better if Sonic was stuck in only one dimension.

For character talk, I'm going into spoiler town
 

Spoiler

- I already said what I think about Sonic. He's a kinda annoying dummy and everyone except pirates agrees. His gimmick shoes are okay.

- Same with Eggman. I like that he keeps being different, but different isn't automatically good. Council needs stronger personalities, a bit wittier dialogue and it can be really funny.

- Tails Nine is probably the best character in the show. This is exactly what dark Tails would be: loner, resentful, but not evil-cruel, just wanting to be left alone. His robotic appendages are cool and his development is gradual, very well handled.
Not much about Pirate Tails, but it's fun little idea to make Jungle Tails a complete savage

- Knuckles get mostly the short end of the stick. He's not dumb muscle, just dry muscle. The Pirate version is decent, perhaps a reflection what Knuckles would be free of his duties, but switches too quickly between "partying pacifist" to "treasure-lusting". Unlike Nine his arc is too rushed.

- Amy as Rusty Rose is a great idea, basically putting her as Metal Sonic of the series (kinda ironic). In fact, I kinda wish she really was an amalgam of the two, but works as well.
Thorn Rose... the idea is there, but as I said, her inability to just talk things out makes her look irrationally aggressive (rest aren't better, but this was her story). I disliked most of Boscage Maze. It's a shallow environment story, with the plot based on poor communication, making everyone look stupid.

- Rouge never gets the leading role (you would think she would be pirate queen, but whatever), but she's given much respect. I like she's not part of the Sonic group. I like Jungle Rouge as a manipulative liar. I like Rebel Rouge gets to team-up with Knuckles, it's been a while. They even banter a little. She's just shady enough without coming off as evil.

- Shadow is... good? He's a bit aggressive, but Sonic is kinda asking for it. His fight is one of the best ones as well. But the obvious problem, limited screen time, makes it hard to form a strong opinion one way or the other. At least he should be better than the Boom version.

- Big is ... here. Kinda wonder why when he adds nothing, just another character to be constantly re-established. His writing isn't great, lacks the subtlety that makes Big. I wonder if the show would be ever so slightly better removing him.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Only just finished Jungle Part 2, but so far, I think the show is overall fine, I just think it's literally that, it's just a fine show. 

However... it does have one big problem... And it's Sonic.

Jesus Christ is Sonic annoying in this. He goes from being overly panicking all the time to full on obnoxious and it's not fun to watch or even listen to. Were they going for him to be 'cocky' due to how often he's defeated Eggman? If so they've utterly failed with this, he's just juvenile, and not just the 'I'm young I make mistakes' kind, but the forced I'm an absolute idiot kind.

The only other character who is worse, is the baby from the first episode, jesus... How many times are we going to cut to it screaming? 

[Shiny Gems]

Check this out, guys!

 

[Slashy]

I wish people did not skewer the show because it is apparently canon (which after Iizuka's interview and the Tangle reference in Frontiers you should have expected this). I feel like it will be canon in broad strokes or specific ways rather than the games suddenly having Rouge being part of the core cast and spending all of their time in Green Hill Zone.

[DaBigJ]

I don't trust SEGA enough to believe they won't just try to make it all canon

[Sonic Warrior]

I really liked what I saw. Quite enjoyable.

My theory in a nutshell :

 

Spoiler

1) Nine is a real bastard and is gonna be evil. His body language and actions are screaming "betrayal" way too loud for my tastes! XD

When he took Sonic to the "empty" word // dimension and said he wanted to start a new life with him...Yeah, odd and ambitious.

2) Why aren't there Sonic or Shadow alts in the other "universes"? Because the one who shatters the universe can't appear in the "what if scenarios". Shadow used the chaos emerald as a cover, so he's now stuck in the void between universes.

3) Nine is gonna be the real villain of the show and will probably trick and get rid of the Robotniks and try to start his own universe where he never suffered or got alone.

4) Sonic's universe doesn't exist anymore because it was shattered into different realities. Remember the "empty world" where Nine goes with Sonic? This is Sonic's homeland after the effects of the shatterverse. Sonic and Shadow will need to work together and travel through 5 different worlds ( 5 because we see 5 Robotnik alts in New Yoke city. It could be a hint to how many universes we're getting ) and get all the alts from the 5 main characters from the 5 shatterverses ( Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big and Rouge ). They'll need to bring all of them and all of the crystals to the empty world and unite all of them. By doing this, the new realities will stop existing because they'll all merge into what they originally were ( a complete one before the events of Sonic shattering the crystal ). Considering that Sonic can't touch the shattered crystals without being taken to another place, he'll need Shadow to do this for him, while he gets his friends alts to the empty world that Nine wants to change. Thing is: Nine is aware of this and will try to kill the other alts, so he can live the life he thought it was robbed from him. 

 

[Kenn K]

after all these years

dreadknux is canon

[Strickerx5]

Just watched all 8 episodes. So far... pretty good honestly though I do have some gripes with it.

First, the pacing of it all was just sorta whack to me honestly. I wouldn't really call it terrible but there were many points where I found myself saying "wow... are we still on this scene?" or "wtf, why did that end so abruptly?". I mean, credit to the animation team that they're able to do these long action sequences at all, let alone the amount of them. That's incredibly impressive. Though, I do often find myself just perplexed a lot of the time in trying to understand wtf is going on.

You'll have basically the entire setting and plot of the show change at a moments notice with little explanation. Some of this happens during what should have been climatic points of that story beat. The show does try to explain these shifts and while they do have consequences in the actual overall plot, I'm left feeling a bit numb at it because the shit is so sporadic that it's hard to keep up. The show never really seems to know when to move the plot versus when to slow down with these characters so it all just sort of gets tossed out there randomly and it... kind of doesn't work for me. The scenes themselves are good, but how they're placed together is what I'm really not the biggest fan of.

My second problem is with the character pool at use here. I can't really put my finger on it, but I don't think they're properly playing to the strengths of Sonic's wide cast. Which, I know, sounds insane. There are 5 great main characters that each have like 3 separate versions of them all in only a span of 8 episodes (so really like 15 characters on top of Sonic, Shadow, and the eggmen) but I think the different dimensional versions of them is part of the issue for me. The show going to a different dimension and then having them not act like themselves just leaves me wishing they sorta just weren't there or that this character position was used by someone else. Like, if you're going to a jungle... why not bring Sticks in? Why is Big there? If you're going to a pirate setting, why not get Blaze or even Marine in there? What did Amy need to be in the pirate world? She didn't do anything. Just getting these vastly different versions of each of the main five leave me unable to get properly invested in any of them with the pace the show has.

Hell, even the show tends to lose track of them too as I've noticed several group scenes where some of the cast simply don't do anything. They're there to be there and nothing more, adding nothing to what's going on (hell, the show even straight up forgets Pirate Amy is a thing for several scenes as she's rarely ever in shots lol). I will say, some of the different versions work... but usually only when they're in direct service to the plot (like Nine, Rusty, or Thorne). Though, most of the time you just have things like Knux or... whatever they called New Yolk Rouge who not only don't act that differently from their main versions but really don't do much for multiple episodes.

Idk, this is an admittedly hard problem to pin down as the show is constantly moving and introducing new ones (not to mention that it's the entire point of the show too) so it's hard for me to really put my feelings into words here. Could just be me. I know this is all odd coming from me who usually loves to just have these characters there just to be there (more due to how sparse this shit was for over a decade) but yeah, wish a wider net was cast when implementing the cast into this series so far and that they didn't need to have every single member in tv series show up in each dimension (save for Shadow for some reason).

I mean, I think it really says something when I always sat up whenever Shadow was on screen. I think it's really because he was barely in these first 8 episodes and was written like himself as well. He always had a purpose when being on screen.

My last main issue is Sonic himself. Like, I heard this is a hot button issue for a lot of fans atm but I'm sorta currently on the side that Sonic acts a bit too stupid here for my tastes. I mean, it certainly isn't ever scene. He's far from incompetent or anything overall but there were multiple scenes where he was acting uncharacteristically airheaded. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want a "perfect" Sonic. Sonic was never meant to be the perfect hero character (something that a lot of the later 00s games sorta leaned too heavily on admittedly). He's suppose to be cocky and more brash than anything. That being said, he's also suppose to be steadfast, cunning, and able to read a room. There were multiple scenes here where he wasn't any of those things. Again, it's sort of an on and off thing for him but I'd be lying if I said I didn't constantly feel like the Sonic in this show couldn't be the same Sonic we saw in Frontiers or something.

Actually... he sorta had a blend of Movie Sonic to him... eh.

Anyways, with all that said, I still very much enjoyed these episodes honestly. Production value is great for the most part (there were a few scenes in the jungle sections that clearly didn't have time to be properly rendered yet). I am interested in where the plot leads and, honestly, I like just about every voice in here. Hats off to Mack for his stellar performance as Sonic as, even when I thought the character itself had issues, the voice never faltered. Also think the show just generally has a good balance of both fun and serious moments which, again, is so refreshing to see after the last decade.

Overall, I'm very excited to see more.

[Blaze]

7 hours ago, Strickerx5 said:

Just getting these vastly different versions of each of the main five leave me unable to get properly invested in any of them with the pace the show has.

Your entire summary really resonates with how I felt, especially this ^^

So glad I found this site btw, I was trying to find places to discuss the show but Reddit is such a terrible experience for me lol. I prefer forums.

I didn’t realise til after I read others' comments on some reddit thread, but the different versions of the characters were not just random. Apparently they’re meant to all be split versions of the whole character — each of Rouge, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Eggman got split when the Paradox Prism broke up, as well as Green Hill itself. Shadow used Chaos Control to teleport so he avoided being split, and Sonic was the one who crashed into the Paradox Prism. (I was really appalled by the level of snide commentary on Reddit that was directed when someone else didn’t get this — I didn’t get it either)

If this is the case, I do think it could have been communicated a little more clearly on the writer/creator side. Because they do just seem like random versions of different characters that are hard to get attached to, and we don’t know enough about the original characters in this Sonic Prime universe to understand what they’re originally like, and how the different characters represent the most extreme aspects of their shattered personality. (E.g. people commented on Thorn being an extreme version of Amy's care for nature, but we don’t know that beforehand from just watching Sonic Prime alone or unless you knew that relatively obscure fact about Amy. It has to be established within this show itself. And since there’s little footage of before the shatter incident, and very little in flashbacks, it’s a bit hard for the audience to make this connection)

another way it could have been reinforced a bit better - if when the prism shattered, the characters visually split out a little more with a double vision kind of effect, and not just the RGB split

[Austroid]

The "jungle world" eps. are definitely the most filler-y so far. 

Would've been better if Sonic went straight to "pirate world" instead, since the plot picks up from there with the Council sending Rusty Rose and such. 

[Strickerx5]

3 hours ago, Blaze said:

I didn’t realise til after I read others' comments on some reddit thread, but the different versions of the characters were not just random. Apparently they’re meant to all be split versions of the whole character — each of Rouge, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Eggman got split when the Paradox Prism broke up, as well as Green Hill itself. Shadow used Chaos Control to teleport so he avoided being split, and Sonic was the one who crashed into the Paradox Prism. (I was really appalled by the level of snide commentary on Reddit that was directed when someone else didn’t get this — I didn’t get it either)

If this is the case, I do think it could have been communicated a little more clearly on the writer/creator side. Because they do just seem like random versions of different characters that are hard to get attached to, and we don’t know enough about the original characters in this Sonic Prime universe to understand what they’re originally like, and how the different characters represent the most extreme aspects of their shattered personality. (E.g. people commented on Thorn being an extreme version of Amy's care for nature, but we don’t know that beforehand from just watching Sonic Prime alone or unless you knew that relatively obscure fact about Amy. It has to be established within this show itself. And since there’s little footage of before the shatter incident, and very little in flashbacks, it’s a bit hard for the audience to make this connection)

 

Yeah I absolutely did not pick up on that. I mean, it makes sense now that you said it but I also agree that the show really doesn't do a good enough job in explaining it. I guess if others picked up on it then maybe I just didn't pay enough attention but like... yeah I don't think so.

[Zadent]

1 hour ago, Strickerx5 said:

Yeah I absolutely did not pick up on that. I mean, it makes sense now that you said it but I also agree that the show really doesn't do a good enough job in explaining it. I guess if others picked up on it then maybe I just didn't pay enough attention but like... yeah I don't think so.

I at least speculated it, but it wasn’t the most clear, yeah. I think I started to suspect it most with Knuckles the Dread, a very focused version of his treasure hunter side, and then Shadow at the end confirmed it for me. In hindsight, I wonder if that was intended with the scene when they're hit by the paradox shockwave, but it just didn’t come across clearly enough.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 hour ago, Strickerx5 said:

Yeah I absolutely did not pick up on that. I mean, it makes sense now that you said it but I also agree that the show really doesn't do a good enough job in explaining it. I guess if others picked up on it then maybe I just didn't pay enough attention but like... yeah I don't think so.

I'm wondering if an episode in a later quarter of this season would've made things clearer. Y'know, before Netflix decided to arbitrarily hack up the first season into miniature seasons.

[King Conne]

I really wonder why she's called "Bunny Bones" since it seems she's a cat, not a rabbit!!...

https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Bunny_Bones

Captain Jack is cool because it seems he is made after Marine but as a male!!...

https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Jack

[MetalSkulkBane]

17 hours ago, Strickerx5 said:

My second problem is with the character pool at use here. I can't really put my finger on it, but I don't think they're properly playing to the strengths of Sonic's wide cast. Which, I know, sounds insane. There are 5 great main characters that each have like 3 separate versions of them all in only a span of 8 episodes (so really like 15 characters on top of Sonic, Shadow, and the eggmen) but I think the different dimensional versions of them is part of the issue for me. The show going to a different dimension and then having them not act like themselves just leaves me wishing they sorta just weren't there or that this character position was used by someone else. Like, if you're going to a jungle... why not bring Sticks in? Why is Big there? If you're going to a pirate setting, why not get Blaze or even Marine in there? What did Amy need to be in the pirate world? She didn't do anything. Just getting these vastly different versions of each of the main five leave me unable to get properly invested in any of them with the pace the show has.

First, budget. CG shows the need to recycle, it's easier to reuse old models (and voices) than bring new characters.

Second, the whole premise is "Sonic goes to a different dimension and meets an alternative version of his friends. So he can't meet Sticks or Blaze, since the audience wasn't introduced to them in Prime Zone. That's missing the point. Not everyone watching already knows the whole lore.
(And BTW, ironically you picked two characters who are already from a different dimension, so that would be extra confusion.)

With that said, it could be done much better. The basic idea is similar to Marvel's "What if?", only character-focused, instead of event-focused. The audience should first get to know Sonic's group. So the first double-length episode should be spent in Prime-Zone, getting us invested in Sonic's friends, so the change has a stronger impact.
Now, each Shatterspace focuses on one character and that's fine, time is limited. The alternative would require sticking in one Shatterspace for the whole season. It might work, but that's not the premise of the show.
- Nine worked best because we spend the most time with him in New Yolk and Green Hill, plus his What-If is very intuitive for Sonic fan. I don't know if a casual viewer were satisfied with a pixelated flashback.
- Thorny in comparison feels rushed, with one flashback hastily establishing Amy as nature-loving goody-goody. I can follow the logic that Thorn is Amy pushed too far, but it's not as elegant as Nine.
- And Dread is basically a completely separate character from Knuckles. You could make an argument Knuckles without a duty to ME could become a jolly pirate (which is kinda like Treasure Hunter) but the show itself doesn't make that connection. Pixel flashback reminds us that 1) Knuckles protects Master Emerald 2) can be tricked 3) used to fight Sonic 4) is a strong punchy guy. NOTHING of that is reflected in Dread.
And because awkward 8-episode length Rouge is left without her Space. So what I hope next seasons do is add 2-3 more Shatterspaces but also keep coming back to old ones as things get more complex, giving Nine, Dread and Thorn more chances to impress us.