Sonic Prime Review

So, as it stands the final season of Sonic Prime has released. 

Now, I'm going to put this out there because I need it to be said. 

Sonic Prime was great. 

Let me expand upon that. You see, the whole goal of the show was that Sonic learn not to take his friends for granted. To not be so rash with his decisions and to learn how important they are in his life. I believe the show accomplished that. 

You see how careless he is in the beginning. You see how much he doesn't really listen to them and does his own thing all the time. Now, yes, the whole "My own way" business, but Sonic does listen to advice and input and works well with others. Here, Sonic hasn't learned that lesson yet. 

After he breaks the prism and lands in New Yoke we see how he has nothing and no one really familiar. Running into Nine is the most familiar person he's seen so far and Tails and Nine share a similar backstory and traits. Nine and Tails are both intelligent, both understand things that Sonic doesn't. The biggest difference between the two is how Sonic intercepted his bullies and therefore Tails became loyal to Sonic. Nine never had that. Nine was on his own; he had to make his own way. He never had anyone to trust. Nine being skeptical of Sonic is a given. 

The rebels slowly learning to trust Sonic is also a normal thing. Sonic doesn't exist in this world, a result of Sonic fracturing the prism. Sonic took in the energy and Eggman fractured into 5 different personas. 

I actually enjoy the chaos council (besides babbles). They're pretty much the split personality of Eggman from his gaming to his tantrums. They have turned Green Hill into their neon paradise. It's what they wanted. Oppression. 

Moving on to Boscage Maze and No Place. Both of these are just different versions of Green Hill. Boscage being an overgrown jungle and No Place being flooded. Those of the Boscage learn to be a good team together and No Place, Dread needs to learn a valuable lesson. 

In truth, those two worlds are pretty much filler. I do like them for what they are but their characterization gets better in the later half of S2 and 3. 

The second goal of the series was rebuilding the prism. Which was also accomplished. 

I also believe this was the best characterization of Shadow we've had in a very long time. Yes, Shadow was quick to anger at first but given how Sonic acted in the very beginning I can understand why. Shadow is level-headed and when talking sense into Sonic doesn't work he has to resort to drastic measures. 

At the end of the first season he is reasonably angry. He's been trapped in the void. Given Sonic's track record it would stand to reason that Shadow would want to take over. It also is notable that Shadow finds it hard to trust anyone, let alone Sonic. 

Moving on, Sonic skips over Nine's feelings and of course he takes issue with that. Yes, Sonic misses his friends and his home but Nine and the others are real. Getting the shards from the chaos council is imperative to rebuilding the prism. 

Sonic hasn't completely come full circle yet. He cares, yes, but he doesn't completely understand how his actions with how he treats Nine is going to effect the future. Nine isn't Tails and that's what Sonic hasn't fully realized yet. So when they get the shards and go to ghost hill, Sonic is focused on rebuilding what he lost that he doesn't realize that he's making a huge mistake. 

Shadow even called it from the earlier episode. Nine didn't want the same things that Sonic did. 

The final arc makes sense. Even though the final battle was long it made the stakes higher. By constantly fighting, by showing the near limitless potential of the prism, it made the stakes very dire. Having the army being rebuilt over and over shows that Nine can only keep his focus to one thing at a time. It shows his exhaustion and it also shows how every time he diverts power from the shield their world shrinks. It's these actions that help Sonic come to his final epiphany on how to finally defeat Nine and finally get through to him and beyond his anger. 

During this battle the characters come full circle. Gnarly gets his fighting spirit, Dread learns to value someone more than himself, Rusty becomes fully free of her oppressors. The Rose's are sisters. Mangy and Sails show their mechanical prowess. Shadow learns to trust people. 

Sonic uses what he's learned about himself and others to finally get through to Nine. Nine wasn't really a villain here, he was misunderstood. Sonic mistook his familiarity and didn't take into consideration what made him unique. Nine doesn't see over his anger until the very end. It takes him seeing what he's caused, how close the universe is to destruction before he's able to see past Sonic's 'betrayal'. 

The Chaos Council not getting a redemption here makes sense too because they're ALL facets of Eggman himself (Yes, even Babbles even though I thought he was the most annoying of the bunch). Of course they'd turncoat at the final moment and want the prism for themselves to completely rebuild New Yoke. Them fighting against each other only to get their comeuppance was fitting. 

Then there was the mad-dash for Green Hill and how nice it was to see all the Rose's working together. I think their arc was the sweetest of them all. 

The final rush towards the end where Shadow has to run him towards the portal made me tear up a bit, NGL. 

Wrapping it up, having Sonic and Shadow remember everything means that the shatter spaces still exist within the prism. Shadow teleporting the crystal away was hilarious and everyone being confused about Sonic's sudden change of mood was cute and funny. 

Of course they wouldn't remember because to them it was only a few moments. 

And it also brings me to some of my final thoughts of the Ghost Hill and Nine's comments on it being a shatter space stuck in the blueprint phase. In a way, he was right. The ghost characters were the blueprints of their counterparts in the other shatter spaces. Tails' ingenuity and loyalty got passed on to Nine, Mangey, and Sails. Knuckle's strength, Rouge's tactical mind, Amy's kindness and tenacity. Plus each of the worlds were based on a version of Green Hill. They all had the palm tree and the sights from the loop to hedgehogs pass. They were either buried under vines, sunk underwater, or buried under technology. 

Then there was the ending. I don't think the ending was that terrible. A tad rushed perhaps but leaving it as open as they did can make space for other episodes, especially because that blue wave makes me think that the chaos council could be back. That wave happened after the prism was revealed. And the size of that shadow on the ground could've been another one of those huge war ships the CC had. 

All in all I loved this series and I do hope they expand upon it. I really, really do. It was some of the best writing we've had in a Sonic show. Great animation, great fight choreography, great voice acting.