Sonic The Hedgehog

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
Isn't the Grim's shard purple?

I'd have to rewatch but I didn't think a shard was shown for The Grim. Sonic's shoes did take on a grey-purple tint but I thought the only shard shown there was the red one Nine stole.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
I'd have to rewatch but I didn't think a shard was shown for The Grim. Sonic's shoes did take on a grey-purple tint but I thought the only shard shown there was the red one Nine stole.
I thought they passed through a portal that resembled each shard whenever they traveled to a different world.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
Finally got through all of Sonic Prime...

As far as the discussion of whether or not to binge the series goes...it all just depends on what you like. But, I might suggest watching two episodes together at a time. This show DOES seem to be mostly structured around two-parters for some reason.
The biggest question for me is...has this dethroned my beloved SATAM as my pick for the best Sonic cartoon? And the answer is....maybe. I'm going to hold off full judgement until later, but...this was REALLY GOOD. The action is well done, and they're getting fancy with all the camera angles and tracking shots they have in the show. The characters and voice acting work. Knuckles' voice is probably the weakest, to me, but even then he's still fine. The plot's really interesting and it has me speculating, even though I'm not sure it's going to stick the landing or not. It even has a touch of SATAM's dystopia, even though I don't think the Chaos Council is as threatening as SATAM Robotnik...yet, anyway.

Onward to speculation!

Nine: He's going to be the big bad by season's end. That smile at the end of Episode 6 lets us know he PLANNED on being captured. And all that talk about creating a utopia on Grim...He's playing everyone. Sonic's best friend is going to be his biggest threat by season's end.

The Palm Trees: Yes, it's a symbol of their friendship and their memories, but I wonder if they're setting it up to be more than that down the line. I could see them merging all these Palm Trees with the completed Paradox Prism down the line to create some sort of Yggdrasil/World Tree thing to allow everyone to visit everyone else's world. Because while all these different variants are clearly facets (like a crystal's facet's, I see what they did there) of their personalities, I'm not sure if the writers want to get rid of all these worlds once the season ends. They'll probably want to keep the Shatteredverse around, somehow, for a potential Season 2. And having a Rainbow-Colored Crystal Palm Tree that allows access to other worlds seems like a decent way to do that.

Knuckles' little fangs: For some reason, I just find them distracting. Maybe I'm just not used to Knuckles with fangs, but they seem REALLY prominent. I don't know, just a random observation.

Amy's variants: I kind of thought it was odd that Amy seemed the most changed on most of these worlds. She's Rusty Rose on Metalworld. She's Thorn Rose on Forestworld. For the first half of this binge, I thought maybe the writers were using Amy's connection to magic and fortune telling to maybe make her more attuned to these worlds. But...Black Rose on Waterworld seems to be just a regular pirate, so that theory's probably wrong. Mind, Waterworld is the only universe where she doesn't seem to have her Pink Flicky...and I'm not sure if that means anything or not.

A fake-out that got written out?: I kind of have to wonder if, at some point in the scripting process, they planned to have Sonic THINK he was in the future, but then have a twist reveal that he was in a different dimension. Because, there's just certain plot points in the first 3 episodes that would probably make a little more sense if Sonic thought he was in the future and Eggman had taken over. It just...feels that way to me. Probably completely baseless, but I'm bringing it up. But, if that was the case, it would mean Sonic ISN'T dumb for not picking up on what's going on...he's just "Wrong Genre Savvy". Even though...this show makes it clear Sonic isn't the sharpest tool in the shed early on (Sonic: "Okay, but....how DID you get in here?" Rouge: "....You left the door open.")

The theme of isolation: So far, all the different worlds have revolved around all Sonic's friends wanting to be left alone, but Sonic bringing them all together anyway. Metalworld has Nine hiding away in the subway system. Forestworld has Briar Rose trying to block out the very sun to keep her old friends out. And Waterworld has Knuckles the Dread trying to abandon his pirate crew after his failure. It's just...interesting. I wonder where they're going with this.

Shadow: So far, my read on this version of the character is...he just REALLY dislikes Sonic. Something about Sonic just rubs him the wrong way and gets under his skin. Also, it's...weird how he found a Chaos Emerald by breaking random rocks.

How many other Shatterverse worlds are there?: Maybe this has been brought up in a interview, somewhere, but I'm wondering how many of these worlds we're going to get. So far, each world is focused on one of Sonic's friends. So, Metalworld is for Tails, Forestworld is for Amy, Waterworld is for Knuckles....that leaves Rouge, Big, and probably Eggman. Unless Orbot and Cubot get their own world, too. So...somewhere between 5 and 8 worlds total? Probably 7, for the seven colors of the rainbow/Chaos Emeralds?

Big's World: Just a prediction. It would be REALLY easy to make Big a horror-movie villain, like some sort of tip of the hat to Sonic creepypastas and broken weird fan games. "Froggy went away...". Maybe a Alice in Wonderland thing? If we hadn't done water already with Knuckles, I would have predicted a Moby Dick world with Froggy as the whale. Hmm...we haven't gotten a "fire" or "volcano" world, yet...

Froggy's World: Does Froggy count as one of Sonic's friends? I don't think Sonic has ANY feelings about Froggy one way or another, despite him being around just as much as Big. It could be a ice world, or a Dungeons and Dragons styled High Fantasy world, or...oooh, how about a Ninja World? Froggy could be one of the Ninja-summoned frogs.

Rouge's World: Just a prediction, but I'm expecting a black and white hard-boiled crime noir world. Femme fatales, detectives, the whole nine yards. Maybe set in a "windy city" that has constant tornados? It feels like that might be her style. Of course, when I think of Knuckles, I really don't think "pirates", so who knows where we'll end up. Or if they want to keep the post-apocalypse vibe going....they could always go with a world that's being peppered by gem-meteors from outer space constantly. Random note: "Batten Rouge" is just a great name for pirate-Rouge.

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What is the Chaos Council?: These are the only Eggman variants we see in the series. And...I'm not sure what they are exactly. A "family" that Eggman made? Are they clones of himself? Robots? Why is Eggman only involved in this world? Why only 5 of them? Does that mean there's only going to be 5 worlds? With "Chaos" in the title, I thought there'd be 7 of them for the 7 Chaos Emeralds. There's just a lot we don't know about these guys. I like Doctor Deep's Samurai-Mech Armor.

Where's Eggman?: I find it strange that, so far, Eggman or variants thereof have only appeared on ONE of these Shatterverse worlds. And....Metalworld doesn't seem to be focused around Eggman, Metalworld seems to be "Tails' World". And the Chaos Council doesn't seem to be themed around the other worlds we've seen so far, so they don't "belong" to those other worlds. Did...Eggman not get split in the same way as Sonic's friends? But, if he did ..if Eggman DOES have another world all to himself, what does that look like? Is that going to be a world with a REALLY scary Eggman Nega or Robo-Robotnik type? (That'd be a really good hook for Season 2, just sayin') Or will it be a world where Eggman's a superhero...or the world of El Gran Gordo, his luchador self from the Archie Sonic X comics?
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Fero McPigletron

Feel the fear!
Citizen
Omg, that Waterworld Rouge name! I didn't get that at all! Hahahaha!

And, yeah, the fight animation with the angles has really been great!

How many eps is this series again? 26 to complete the story? 52?
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
24 episodes, going off Wikipedia. So, I guess we have at least 2 more batches of 8 episodes to look forward to, eventually. If they don't split it up more, anyway.
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
And on the other side of the pond:



Has anyone talked about sonic prime or frontiers here yet? I don't feel like looking through 33 pages.
Been talking about both but they've been in spoiler tags tags for courtesy since this thread has all Sonic topics combined. Not a moderator but using spoiler tags for these two topics might start wearing down post Christmas. Especially Frontiers.



I thought they passed through a portal that resembled each shard whenever they traveled to a different world.
Rewatched and intriguingly, a dedicated color coded portal entrance/exit was only shown after Nine started using his ship to pass through the worlds. Well, and Sonic seemed to go into the red shard itself in episode 1.

It even has a touch of SATAM's dystopia, even though I don't think the Chaos Council is as threatening as SATAM Robotnik...yet, anyway.
Part of the reason I think the Chaos Council isn't as dark as SatAM is because New Yolk City's dystopia is more in line with Sonic Underground. The city has normal citizens who are oppressed as opposed everyone getting turned into a robot.

Nine: He's going to be the big bad by season's end. That smile at the end of Episode 6 lets us know he PLANNED on being captured. And all that talk about creating a utopia on Grim...He's playing everyone. Sonic's best friend is going to be his biggest threat by season's end.
Hmm. While I don't think Nine will be the final villain, you make a good point. I remembered the timing wrong on his smile. While it's obvious he has some form of plan, question remains on how altruistic is it. He could be trying to do what he sees as good while causing even more damage.

It kinda connects to the question of what happens to the Shatterspaces when all this is over. Marketing brain says they stay but each one has a form of environmental destruction and while the main world doesn't exist. The Chaos Council is the only form of Eggman but the world they're from is exactly what Eggman would want. If anything, that was the fakeout of Bosscage Maze in that the destruction of the forest was by Thorn's friends instead of that world's Eggman.
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
One last Frontiers discussion to end the year (or start it in some time zones):

Through various Twitter posts it's been confirmed that The End is an incarnation of death and, while the developers opted for a moon due to symbology used in some cultures, Sonic and Sage did not see the same thing.

This answers some things while leaving others open to speculation. For one, it feels like ZakuConvoy's assessment of "The Nothingness that resents the existence of Existence itself" is one of the most accurate guesses within this discussion. But also shines a light on something else. The End probably doesn't have a gender and the voice it used during its deception was feminine yet Sonic distinctly used "he" during the cutscene before the boss fight. Makes you wonder what Sonic saw, especially since '06 erased itself so he wouldn't remember Mephiles/Solaris. Then again, it's known that things in the last part of the game got cut/rushed so it might be remnants of that.
 

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
2022 is over, and with that we have the full picture of its box office numbers.

Domestically, Sonic 2 managed to stay in the top 10 for the year. If you only count movies actually released in 2022 (so no December 2021 releases) it's #9. Worldwide it's #12, behind Fantastic Beasts grumble grumble. The rankings are behind Sonic 1, but it made more money, and obviously there was a lot more competition.

When people talk about 2022, people are going to talk about Top Gun. That was the surprise #1 movie. Congratulations. I don't know where Sonic 2 fits in this conversation. This was kind of a disappointing year overall. People will talk about Top Gun, but I think most of the conversation about 2022 is probably going to be about the flops. Some of those flops occurred during Sonic 2's run, so there's that.

In fact, there was a time when Morbius was #1 in the dailies. That ended the day Sonic 2 hit theaters.
 

LBD "Nytetrayn"

Broke the Matrix
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
One last Frontiers discussion to end the year (or start it in some time zones):

Through various Twitter posts it's been confirmed that The End is an incarnation of death and, while the developers opted for a moon due to symbology used in some cultures, Sonic and Sage did not see the same thing.

This answers some things while leaving others open to speculation. For one, it feels like ZakuConvoy's assessment of "The Nothingness that resents the existence of Existence itself" is one of the most accurate guesses within this discussion. But also shines a light on something else. The End probably doesn't have a gender and the voice it used during its deception was feminine yet Sonic distinctly used "he" during the cutscene before the boss fight. Makes you wonder what Sonic saw, especially since '06 erased itself so he wouldn't remember Mephiles/Solaris. Then again, it's known that things in the last part of the game got cut/rushed so it might be remnants of that.

Would you call this the "Final Frontiers" conversation (for the year)?
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
Take your Like and get out.



Sonic had a fantastic year. Let's recap:
-A record breaking movie. Sonic 2 was the top grossing videogame movie in America and one of the highest in the world. More notable since it isn't popular in China.
-A rerelease of the games that started the franchise. Sonic Origins is probably the weakest in the list due to minor controversies and Day 1 bugs but still noteworthy.
-A comic series that reached Issue 50. Both a milestone on it's own and worth noting since this is bouncing back from having a previous comic last for decades and unceremoniously end.
-A fast selling game that will redirect the future of the franchise. Sonic Frontiers may not have passed the competition but internally it's done great. How well it did has led to DLC. The soundtrack managed to make it into Spotify's top 10 for it's debut week.
-An animated series that managed to be third most watched that week. Sonic Prime was watched by a shocking number of people.

And to think, everything but Origins is explicitly getting some sort of continuation in 2023.
 

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
This is why we're patient. We just want this franchise to be as good as we know it can be. Sega might not always know what to do with Sonic, but if it were so easy we would see some competitor trying to lure us away with promises of something like the gameplay we crave. Sega doesn't own a patent on having a high player speed. But despite the obvious opportunity and extended stretches of time to pounce, nobody has done it.

Nothing is prepared to do everything this franchise can do when it's working.
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
I was sitting and thinking about it and Sonic as a character combines three things:

-Classic western cartoon character
-Shonen inspiration
-90s attitude

Sonic works because that combination allows different dials to be tweaked so he works in a variety of mediums. While Mario is more successful in games, Sonic nearly always has shows and comics to keep his name out there. It's why you could argue that various Sonic media isn't necessarily wrong, just a different take. Despite what fans say (myself included). And there's a sort of secret fourth ingredient:

-Music

Even if you dislike a particular song, it's exceedingly rare for Sonic to have outright bad music so it's yet another thing that sticks in people's mind.
 
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Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
Looking at the Sonic Frontiers 2023 roadmap again, I have a prediction:

Rhea island is going to get Koco. Subsequently, Rhea and Ouranos are getting a number of small updates. "New Koco" always seemed like a weird and needless thing to add but if it's part an overall minor revamp of the final two islands then it makes a lot more sense.
 

Zamuel

Pittied fools.
Citizen
It's stated that more Sonic gaming is coming this year outside of Frontiers DLC. The question is what and my guesses are:
-Sonic Origins getting a "Plus" like Mania did. There are various requests that would make more sense here.
-Sonic Adventure 1&2 getting a rerelease. The third movie is coming up and 2023 is the 25th anniversary of SA1's japanese release.
-Sega Hardlight, the team that made Sonic Forces: Speed Battle for mobile phones, is known to be working on a new game. Maybe it releases this year.
What does everyone else think it might be?
 

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Please let Sonic Adventure 1 be the original, not the DX port. I want to experience the original.
 


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