Media Essays: Sonic Prime Rewrite

Written by The Wandering Fox

Well everybody, it’s that day again in which all we can is look back on the Sonic franchise of recent history and discuss how it could have worked out a lot better, and believe me last year we had a right stinker with the final part of Sonic Prime released. Sonic Prime started with a somewhat decent idea of Sonic being thrown into alternate universes and meeting different counterparts of his friends along the way, but come season two the issues we had with the beginning season just worsened, with tonal whiplash everywhere, Shadow being an idiot, the Chaos Council being much too overpowered, Sonic himself was just a big punchbag and while I guessed Nine being the big baddie was gonna be done I think it was handled VERY badly, which led to the final season being repetitive in how the heroes and baddies teamed up, battled a army Nine threw at them, overcame it then had to do it again, then come the end Nine was RIGHT! His entire universe with the others were either erased or reset so he’s now either dead or back to living a lonely life in New Yoke City, while Sonic just gets on with his life with no remorse.

If you know me then you know the Wandering Fox is up for rewriting this, so slip on your red shoes and jump through the Warp Ring as we dive into the rewrite universe.

Cutting Out

Im cutting out a lot of things. The first thing I will do is cut out the Jungle and Pirate universes. Those universes contribute nothing other than “Oh hey, it’s the Sonic characters in the jungle with Amy’s love for nature prominent, oh they’re on a boat and Knuckles is a full on treasure Hunter”. We had at least hoped these alternate universes would have explored interesting realities which may have differed from the games but they don’t. The only one of these that did do at least something is New Yoke City, which even had its potential squandered by the Chaos Council, tonal whiplash and a lack of lore of this universe. Those universes are gone, we just focus on New Yoke City with Sonic trying to overthrow the villain of that universe and having his universe’s friends come to help.

The Chaos Council are gone. I thought they were annoying, you don’t even know if they’re Dr Robotnik spread out through his life or if they’re just colleagues. It doesn’t help they’re just stereotypes, like Dr Done It is your typical grumpy old guy who doesn’t like the young, or the baby or the teenage gamer or the yoga lot. They are tonally inconsistent with the show itself, their darker sides are quickly swept aside for comedy. Instead, it’s Gerald Robotnik who is the baddie in this universe with his Shadow. Rusty Rose will still be there.

The heroes will be reduced as well. Knuckles and Shadow from the main universe are gone, because I am confused as why Knuckles has left the Master Emerald. Sonic, Tails and Amy have proven before they can handle Robotnik alone. Oh and I’ve gotten rid of Shadow because he was an idiot in the show. He sees a vision of Sonic shattering the universe so instead of just talking to Sonic of what he saw, he beats him up which only further forces Sonic to get away from Shadow and then shatters the universe, then Shadow had the bloody nerve to say “YOU DESTROYED OUR UNIVERSE!” You are the Ultimate Idiot, Shadow. Oh and what did he do to try and stop the Chaos Council in the Shatter Space? Just tossed rocks at them. Instead of getting on the ship, tearing it chunks and saving Nine on board, he threw rocks at it. Ultimate Lazy Ass. But he and Knuckles will have alternate counterparts in New Yoke City.

The Chaos Crystal is gone, I found it to be boring so instead it’s a Warp Ring. GUN was trying to take the Warp Ring back to their HQ but Robotnik gone after them and Rouge takes it, requesting Sonic’s help in protecting it. They end up fighting over the Warp Ring, Robotnik wants it so he can gather more resources to build more robots, he and Sonic go through it and end up in New Yoke City. Sonic gives the Warp Ring to Nine so he can find Tails, Amy and Rouge for help.

Rebel Rouge is gone.

Chaos Sonic is gone.

End of.

What Is In It Instead?

Gerald Robotnik and his version of Shadow are the villains of New Yoke City. In this universe, Gerald didn’t just lose Maria, he lost his sons, he lost Ivo, and his other granddaughter. Gerald though doesn’t want to destroy the planet, he wants to conquer it and make everybody suffer like he did. With him freeing Shadow, they slaughtered GUN, engineered their robots to serve them and began conquering the islands to find the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald to fully gain the Ultimate Power and change the planet to his liking. In this universe Shadow killed Sonic and this left Tails depressed enough that he gave up even more after Amy was partially roboticised and was planning on just fleeing. Then Sonic and Robotnik come to this universe and after both are captured, Gerald thinks that the main universe should suffer as well for Maria’s death as well and Robotnik is all happy to help his grandfather in finding the Master Emerald here. Gerald is defeated and loses his temper at how nobody will ever learn from him, for all the suffering he endured which has Rouge get angry enough at how in the end he still thinks it’s all about him and warped his son into a callous monster. Shadow has a brutal fight with Sonic which sees both hedgehogs go at at until finally Sonic beats Shadow and Tails and Nine restrain him with Titanium handcuffs. Shadow can only think of how he failed Maria which annoys Amy enough that she scolds him for thinking Maria only wanted revenge and she’d be ashamed of him. Rouge then chats with him and tells him that he and her Shadow started out the same but hers turned himself in being a hero. Though she reckons it’s too late for him to earn the trust of those he’s hurt, she thinks he can still do some good. Black Doom’s involvement in his making leaves Shadow disheartened as he feels Gerald was lying to him from the beginning which has Gerald confess he was desperate to save Maria but he wasn’t going to have Black Doom take Shadow, the Eclipse Cannon had been built to kill him. Coming to the heroes, Shadow helps fight the Black Arms and battles Black Doom’s mind control. He comes to respect Sonic and Amy and thanks Rouge for giving him the spark he needed. In the finale Shadow meets his end after he and Sonic battle Robotnik’s Shadonic robot with Shadow dying after finally killing the robot. Dying, Shadow thanks them all for letting him have another chance with life. Shadow here looks different from his main self with his red visor, his upper body covered by a jacket resembling Gerald’s own suit.

The Black Arms and Black Doom will be the villains in the second half, as Tails realises in this universe the Black Comet hasn’t returned yet, hence after defeating Gerald and Shadow, Tails explains to Nine and Knux that they aren’t finished yet and they may be forced to team up with Gerald and Shadow to stop them. The revelation that Gerald teamed with Black Doom and already thought of betraying everybody and Shadow was made for him does leave Shadow incredibly torn up of his existence, but thanks to Rouge giving him a talking to, and the fact the Eclipse Cannon still exists, they have a chance at stopping Black Doom. The Black Arms do come and battle the heroes for the Chaos Emeralds and thus Sonic, Tails, Nine, Knux and Shadow turn super to destroy the Black Comet after the Ark is destroyed, with Gerald killed on the Black Comet, with Super Shadow and Devil Doom fighting each other.

With Robotnik, he goes after GUN upon finding out there’s a Warp Ring they’ve taken and he wants it so he can take resources from other universes to help build his robots. With Rouge there though she takes it and goes to Sonic for help in getting it to GUN HQ. Robotnik ambushes them and they battle for the Warp Ring which opens during the scuffle and Sonic and Robotnik fall through. Robotnik is captured by Rusty and brought to Gerald. He’s surprised to see him and realises this is an alternate universe, but he’s annoyed he was killed as a kid here.

“I HADN’T REACHED MY FULL POTENTIAL THEN! HOW PREMATURE!”

Gerald is glad that Ivo is alive but with him seeing Gerald is a bit behind in the history of this universe, Robotnik helps him to avoid the mistakes he made in his universe in going after Knux and the Chaos Emeralds, hoping to then take these Emeralds back and rely on them to fight Sonic. Robotnik’s lack of compassion about Maria does have him at odds with Gerald but Gerald is more than happy to go with his grandson to conquer his universe. Yet Robotnik sneaks away back to his universe and begins creating a robot, which is revealed to be a combo of Sonic and Shadow, a Shadonic Robot which can run like both hedgehogs, can warp like Shadow and can emit a “shadow ball” that stuns its enemies, with Robotnik as the last villain in the final half as he tries to take over New Yoke City. Defeated again, Robotnik escapes.

Rusty Rose is turned back to being good after Nine helps tap in her program and takes away her inhibitor which lets her remember who she was. Though she’s upset at the partial roboticization, she chooses to hold onto it until they’ve defeated Gerald, Black Doom and Robotnik. Though she misses her Sonic she still wants to live and save the universes.

Knux here talks like a New Yorker but he also wears a hat, has green gloves and metal rings around his knuckles. He’s a lot less trusting than his main counterpart and Robotnik correctly guesses this thanks to Gerald’s affects on the planet Knux will be more protective, hence they leave illusion smoke on the island for Knux to fight. He’s angry at being tricked and at first assumes Sonic stolen it, but after he’s confronted by Tails and show him the evidence he agrees to help them. He’s a bit grumpy at first but comes to enjoy helping them out and feels glad to be helping the people of New Yoke. With all the villains defeated, Knux offers to let the Master Emerald be a temporary power source for the islanders until they have their own and helps out in the clean up of New Yoke.

With that done then, here’s the plot.

Season 1

Sonic Prime season 1 begins with Sonic, Tails and Amy stopping another Robotnik plan, defeating his robot army and mech suit. Robotnik is bitter at his defeat and sees he’s running out of robots for his next scheme, but Orbot and Cubot reveal to him their Egg Bugs have found out GUN has grabbed a Warp Ring and are taking it back to GUN. Eager and thinking he can have the Warp Ring take him to the universes with the best resources, Robotnik goes after the GUN squad that have the Warp Ring. Rouge is with them and takes the Warp Ring, calling Tails. Meeting him at his workshop, Rouge then explains to him, Sonic and Amy of what is going on and they need to get it back to GUN. They leave and are ambushed by Robotnik. They battle him and his robots then the Warp Ring opens during the fight with Sonic and Robotnik going through and the Warp Ring disappears. With the robots defeated, Amy grabs Orbot and Cubot and wants to know where they’ve gone. Tails thinks if he can get the right equipment, he can draw up the same frequency of the Warp Ring to open a doorway to wherever Sonic and Robotnik are gone. With them, they arrive in New Yoke where the people are amazed to see Sonic. They are then chased by robots with Robotnik captured by Rusty Rose while Sonic fights them as best he can but as it looks like he’s outnumbered he’s saved by Nine, who brings him back to his base. Sonic is confused at first but then figures out he must be in an alternate universe thanks to how different this Tails is. Though he’s grumpy, Nine is just confused and also relieved to see Sonic, asking how he’s back. Sonic though tells him he “never came back” as he doesn’t belong here. Looking at him, Nine realises this is a different Sonic and is bitter at having been hopeful his best friend returned. Nine reveals to him his Sonic died after Robotnik began taking over the islands. While he’s stunned, Sonic promises him he will help stop Robotnik but he needs to find the Warp Ring.

While this goes about, Robotnik is brought before Gerald, who is stunned it’s his grandson. Robotnik realises he’s in an alternate universe in which Gerald never died in prison, explaining to him where he comes from Gerald was killed by a firing squad after they killed Maria and took Shadow. Gerald is angered by this that in another universe they killed his granddaughter, though he guesses they didn’t kill his whole family if Ivo is still alive. Upon realising how far back this universe is, Robotnik offers Gerald the chance to conquer the other universe with him if he lets him help him find the Master Emerald which can give Gerald the Ultimate Power. Gerald agrees but first they must find the Warp Ring. Nine finds it and tells Sonic they have to wait until dark to get it, it’s in the subway and it’s quiet at night. They go and Sonic tells him how in his universe it’s a lot greener and they still have chances to play games while fighting Robotnik, which Nine admits he misses. He built his nine mechanical tails before Sonic died to help him lift things. They find the Warp Ring but are then ambushed by Shadow, who Nine calls a murderer. They battle him but Shadow is the better combatant and beats Sonic unconscious though Nine escapes with the Warp Ring. Sonic is brought back to Gerald’s base where he’s interrogated by the Robotnik’s and Rusty, who Sonic tries convincing he’s real and she has to remember her old life. Sonic is tortured though he refuses to tell them where Nine can be. Gerald is bored of torturing Sonic and instead flies out with Shadow to Angel Island to take the Master Emerald, while Robotnik smugly tells Sonic he and his grandfather will be the masters of the universes. Nine is struggling to open the Warp Ring until it suddenly does and he comes out through it to find Tails, Amy and Rouge waiting for him, with Tails having opened it through his equipment. With him explaining of Sonic’s predicament, they team with Nine in rescuing Sonic, battling Rusty Rose and the robots. Robotnik takes the equipment he needs to make the best robot of the universes and disappears as the heroes finally make it to Sonic, setting him free. With help, Nine restores Rusty’s memories and she is emotional as she remembers how she gave in for despair after Sonic died and didn’t help Nine, but her alternate self and Nine comfort her.

Explaining to them of what Gerald is doing, the team split up with Sonic and Tails flying out to Angel Island to help Knux while Amy, Rouge, Rusty and Nine stay behind to deprogram the robots though Robotnik ambushes them and opens the Warp Ring, escaping through it. Nine will open it as soon as he’s done. They then chat as Nine explains to them he was going to run away, to wherever he could to escape Gerald but he is regretful as now he has the spirit he always had and wishes he battled harder to save Rusty and defeat Gerald, but Rusty comforts him while Amy and Rouge say he could have died as well. Knux meanwhile is taken by the smoke and is defeated by Shadow while Gerald flies away with the Master Emerald. Knux at first things Sonic and Tails are helping Gerald until they show him what Gerald has done and they’re trying to stop him, hence Knux gets on and flies with them. Gerald wants the Master Emerald for the Ultimate Power, to be the most powerful man and force everybody to obey him, if they want his help then he will give it to them as long as they swear loyalty. Upon returning to New Yoke he and Shadow are chased by Sonic, Tails and Knux and we then get a big fight which sees the robots Nine deprogram to fight those still loyal to Gerald, Sonic and Shadow fight each other while Gerald dons a mech suit to fight the others. The heroes win but Sonic is exhausted by the fight while Shadow is locked up as well as Gerald. While they celebrate however Tails realises the date of this universe and the season ends on a bitter note as all realise the Black Arms are coming.

The Second Season

Continuing on, the heroes take in how this planet isn’t strong enough to resist the Black Arms and so Tails does some research with Rouge and finds the Ark is still about so they plan to turn it on and turn it to the Black Comet. Sonic heals by the Master Emerald while Gerald is angry at his defeat, feeling he should be the winner as he was the guy who had been wronged. Rouge though angrily scolds him for how he let Maria’s death not only ruin him but he twisted his son in something he isn’t, telling him Shadow is a stronger person on her planet and all Gerald did was make him a bloodthirsty killer. Amy confronts Shadow and asks him if Maria really wanted this, with her questions making him remember his life with Maria. Robotnik is watching all this through his little camera he left behind and laughs at how everybody is so touchy feely these days and with the Warp Ring in his hand he can at least have Black Doom arrive a lot quicker. Orbot and Cubot are confused as Robotnik hates Black Doom, but he says he knows the heroes can beat him and that after they’re done, they will be too tired to fight him. He then opens a portal within the alternate universe and the Black Comet flies through it, coming in the planet’s atmosphere. Shadow gasps as he can feel Black Doom calling to him.

With the Black Arms here a lot sooner, Tails, Knux and Amy go on the Ark with the Master Emerald to fit it in the Eclipse Canon, while Rusty, Nine, Sonic, Rouge and the robots battle the Black Arms. Rouge tells Shadow the truth of how he was created, leaving him and Gerald to argue before the Black Arms force their way in the tower. They are captured and brought before Black Doom, who reveals Rouge was telling the truth. Shadow’s mind is shattered and feels he was lied to by everybody. With Shadow and Gerald on the Black Comet, they can’t destroy it. The Black Arms then take over the Ark and they are forced to retreat. Tails calls everybody back to the tower and he, Sonic, Nine and Knux turn super and begin tearing the Black Comet apart. Coming to Shadow and Gerald, Super Sonic helps Shadow remember his life with Maria and how much she loved the planet. Turning super, Shadow battles Devil Doom and kills him but Gerald dies. They celebrate and Shadow wants to make things right. The season ends with Robotnik coming through in his Death Egg robot suit and has created the Shadonic robot.

The Final Season

With them overwhelmed and worn out, the heroes retreat in Nine’s tunnels but Knux is captured with the Master Emerald. Robotnik is bitter Gerald died but, he can just jog on as he then has the Master Emerald clone his Death Egg robots. With Rusty’s knowledge of Gerald’s other creations, they sneak in the tower and send out his robots against Robotnik’s Death Egg mechs as a distraction while they try getting on his own to take the Master Emerald away. It’s a struggle with Sonic and Shadow battling the Shadonic robot, though after finding Knux they then find the Master Emerald and again Tails, Nine and Knux turn super and destroy more of the Death Egg Robots, giving Sonic the chance to turn super and destroy the one Robotnik is in. The Shadonic robot is killed, but not before it fatally wounds Shadow. Dying, Shadow smooths Rouge’s cheek, is sorry to Nine and Rusty for killing Sonic, then he dies. The heroes bury him and we see them helping clear up the wreck and turn New Yoke City back into Green Hill. Though Robotnik escaped, Tails has the Warp Ring. Rusty is turned back to normal and Knux says he’s gonna let the Master Emerald be Green Hill’s power source until they can make their own. With them hugging Sonic goodbye, Nine and Rusty see everybody go. Back home, Sonic asks Rouge if she’s okay and she says yes but does want to talk with Shadow. Sonic smiles as he walks beside Tails and Amy, glad to have them still as they go to Angel Island to explain it all to Knuckles.

I hope that this was good enough. I’m the Wandering Fox and I’ll let you enjoy yourself.