Sonic Prime - Tumblr Posts

Soo, how about that first episode of Sonic Prime S2, eh, guys? How we feeling?

Quick analysis. Sonic has trauma from this whole ordeal, guys. He was showing clear signs of PTSD this ep. Maybe it was obvious, but I'm gonna rant a lil about it, anyway.

It started when Shadow clarified to him, sharply, that their old reality no longer existed. You could hear in his voice that he was on the verge of tears. And just LOOK at him. 😭

And when Shadow took him to the ghost version of Green Hill? When he was talking to who he thought were his friends, only to slowly realize they were nothing more than ghosts of his real friends as they repeated their phrases over and over again? His expression, the way he shook his head ever so slightly, the way he backed up, had to sit down, was actually SHAKING?

Shadow brought him to the cave in the mountain, where the INCIDENT happened. One symptom of PTSD is avoidance of places or people that remind one of a traumatic event. Sonic's face when he realizes where he is?

His ears go up in alarm and his eyes go wide. And then he just stands there, frozen. Shadow has to say his name to get him to start moving. And even when he does?

The way he has one arm up, that's a very defensive stance, often a signal of fear. And he walks, so slowly, like in a trance, into the cave. He stares at the ghostly remains of the Paradox Prism, starts getting flashbacks all over again, all with this look of dazed terror in his eyes.

It hurt my heart to see. 🥺😭

🤣🤣🤣

Someone must have made this joke already but idc

After my 10th rewatch of Prime S2 EP1, I noticed some more details, which also led me to some theories. I have no idea if people have already caught these but they just seemed very interesting to me. I’m happy to hear what you guys think of them and if you want, reblog with your own little details and theories you’ve found!

1. Shadow’s Shatterspace

Since we’ve already seen the main Shatterspaces fit for Sonic’s friends (except Rouge, if she even gets one), Ghost Green Hill might correlate to Shadow. It’s prism and portal gate is yellow, matching Shadow’s trail color. He even describes the world as “not fully formed” and “decaying.” But what stood out to me the most was, “not whole” and “like a ghost.” We all know Shadow hasn’t had a clear origin story. Not even a coherent character arc, fitting the “not whole” type. As for “ghost,” Shadow has “died” twice but still continues to live. In Sonic Heroes, Knuckles calls Shadow a ghost, who is mistaken for a Shadow Android. Shadow in Prime is still technically a ghost since he wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. He didn’t shatter the Paradox Prism and create the Shatterverse like Sonic, he wasn’t touched by the Prism’s shattering and split into multiple variants like Sonic’s friends, he can’t enter portals, but only the one to Ghost Green Hill. He has no purpose. However, that changed when Sonic “saw” him. The real him.

“If you’ll stop staring straight through me…” - Mother Mother, “Ghosting”

2. Sonic’s kicks and punching sticks

Sonic’s gloves and shoes in Ghost Green Hill are his original ones, however they are embedded with a grid-like pattern, like an un-textured 3D model.

3. “Real”

Sonic defends Nine and his Shatterverse friends as real, but compares them to his original friends. Shadow says otherwise, calling the variants not real, or in other words, fake (hey look reference). Sonic contradicts what he has said about the “fakes” when he calls Shadow, “the real you.”

This can also be compared to the real and fake chaos emeralds. The real ones emitting pure, genuine chaos power. While the fakes sometimes provide positive energy, things can go south pretty easily.

4. Slick Sonic

Some of you were probably wondering how Sonic got his tech back from Shadow after he saved him. Well after Sonic hit his head on a floating crystal, we see his hands closed before he asks Shadow to give them back. So he probably took them off of Shadow when he fell out of his arms.

5. Shred of Sympathy?

When Shadow sees Sonic at his lowest, he sighs, stares, and then asks him to follow him. Resulting them to walk and talk and for Sonic to not give in to his negative thoughts.

6. Portal Hopping

Shadow states that he can’t portal hop like Sonic and other variants, but Ghost Green Hill is an exception. He was able to create a portal out of GGH using his speed, just like Sonic. But what about the tech? Yes, they were attached to him when he left GGH after the big fight, but that wasn’t his first time being there. After Sonic’s shockwave, Shadow was lead to its portal. We can tell he entered it due to him saying, “this Gateway let me in.” This (maybe) concludes that Shadow shares some similar prism powers like Sonic. Yes, other variants can portal hop, but they can’t CREATE portals on their own.

7. Shadow’s jingle

When Shadow first chases Sonic in the beginning of the episode, he gets surprised with a huge Tails crystal hologram. When he flips over, a faint little jingle plays. This also happens when Shadow is pushed by Sonic’s shockwave at the timestamp 6:20. I thought it was very cute.

8. I’ll Follow You

When crystal hologram Amy says “but there’s only one hedgehog they’ll follow into battle,” Shadow is seen following Sonic from gateway to gateway, trying to communicate with him in every Shatterspace.

I don't have time to type out the whole theory on this, but still want to get it out :

Eggman was always planning to shatter the Paradox Prism.

This is the last we see of him btw before the Shattering. He's not worried about Sonic shattering the Prism unlike Sonic's friends, he just wants to get to it first. What was happening is that he was trying to get the Prism out of the ground and then Sonic crashed into it. The fact that he was in contact with the Prism (even though through his Mech) could be the reason why all of his Shatterverse counterparts ended up in the Red Shatterverse.

I think what he was planning on is that by shattering the Prism he would end up like Sonic did, full and able to travel the Shatterverse, which would be easier to conquer with Sonic and his friends all being split into parts and having no idea who he is. (I mean in the one Shatterspace where his counterparts do exist they did conquer it so who knows) Unfortunately, Sonic got to it first so he ended up getting shattered himself.

(How would he know how that works? Well he found the Prism itself somehow, and Rouge has been searching for it for years so he clearly has sources)

Are they not the same????

(Tap for better picture quality)

Why do people think that Shadow's going to beat up Sonic after the most recent episode. just because he was proven right?? Do we think he wanted to be proven right???

Shadow had ample reasoning to stay back at the cave and keep an eye on Nine. He doesn't trust him, doesn't think he should even be left alone with the shards, and he's certainly stubborn enough in this opinion to stand guard. But he decided to leave him alone anyway.

In a practical sense, it's probably because he knows that the Chaos Council is the more immediate threat, and that they'll buy more time if he works with Sonic instead of against him. But think about it; he never even goes to check on Nine until the SECOND explosion. Why?

I do think it's possible that I'm wrong about this, but my first thought was that this was actually a show of trust from Shadow. He lets himself trust Sonic's judgement just this once, because there's a viable reason for him to go along with it - Nine is the most qualified to handle the shards, and Sonic does need his help on the battlefield.

Shadow expects the worst, sure. But his behavior suggests to me that he's hoping for the best, deep down, and that's important because it means that it wasn't just Sonic's trust that Nine betrayed.

And I mean. just look at how the scene plays out when he gets there:

Shadow sees Sonic trying to plead with Nine, who scoffs at the idea of trusting him before leaving with the Shards. It's only once he's gone that we get this shot of Shadow looking ticked off, and while it's hard to tell, I don't think he's supposed to be looking at Sonic here.

If he was, I think his head and/or eyes would be tilted down more, given where Sonic is in relation to him. But as it is, I'm inclined to think that he's more angry about the shards being taken away than he is at Sonic specifically.

And even if he does have a moment where he gets mad at him, how long can we really expect that to last when it's implied that Sonic was on the verge of tears after this? It's a little hard to tell, but he brings his hands up to his eyes right before the screen fades to black, so even if he's not crying, he's clearly not okay.

I don't think Shadow is mean enough to fight Sonic right now, because as previously established, he loses a lot of steam whenever Sonic starts looking sad, and doesn't gain anything from fighting him like that. If anything, I imagine he'd try to practically drag Sonic out of his slump to deal with practical issues instead of letting him wallow in his feelings for much longer.

There's no telling how effective that would be, but I think it's a more likely first attempt for him than just smacking Sonic around and adding injury to insult. I know we love to see Shadow pick fights and all but give him a little credit

Ohhh this scene. This one's a doozy

Nine is right to call this out about Sonic, of course. While he's definitely grown since the start of the show, he's never really been able to move past his tunnel vision and tendency to project onto the others.

He never thought to ask Nine what he wanted not because he doesn't care, but because he didn't think he needed to. He inherently assumes that the people he's working with are on the same page as him until told otherwise - in fact, it wasn't too long ago that he was similarly thrown off by Shadow in that very room.

(Love Shadow being used as a sort of "test run" for these kinds of conflicts by the way)

But here's the thing. While it's true that Sonic didn't really think about what Nine wanted and just assumed they were going to stick together no matter what... the same is true of Nine.

Look at how confused Nine looks when Sonic talks about coming back to Green Hill and restoring it:

Nine didn't ask what Sonic was wanting to do by repairing the Prism because he thought it was obvious that they were going back to the Grim together. I don't think it occurred to him that fixing Green Hill was even an option, or at least not one that he considered in favor of his original plans.

And just like Sonic, it's not that he only cares about himself - he went out of his way to engineer coconuts and (presumably) palm trees because he knew how much Sonic missed them. It was really sweet!

But, in what's becoming a pattern in this show, he doesn't understand why those trees matter to Sonic. They're not just cool plants, they're a reminder of home. And as Sonic aptly puts it at the start of the show, home is where your friends are.

I love that the conflict here is that both of them were convinced they knew what the other person wanted/would be okay with, because they think it'll naturally be the same thing they want, and then were both completely unprepared to handle a conflict of interest. It feels so natural and makes perfect sense with how they've been written up to this point.

But see, while I think it's pretty clear that Sonic and Nine fell into the exact same communication trap, I think it's going to take longer for Nine to realize his own fault in any of this.

Sonic spent the entire second half of that conversation looking devastated, and he's made it clear throughout the show that he's quick to feel remorse when he realizes he's hurt someone. In all likelihood, he's going to put all of the blame for that argument on himself, decide that Nine was right about everything, and leave it at that.

Nine, likewise, doesn't strike me as a particularly self-reflective type. He'd probably try to justify not needing Sonic to himself before anything else, and with that in mind, who else is there to make him see the situation with more nuance?

If I had to pick, I'd guess Shadow - our resident "smacking people in the face with their own flaws" extraordinaire.

Why would he bother with any sort of mediating between the two? Well, the funniest reason would be that he finds Sonic's self-pitying and Nine's self-righteousness equally annoying, but I'm inclined to assume any sort of confrontation between him and Nine would be a little more dramatic than that. (He might still use that reasoning as justification though)

Anyway I gotta cut this post short before I go too far into speculation territory or else I'll be here for another hour and this took long enough to write as is, case in point I love me a well-written and believable conflict

This was presented with a very whimsical tone and I enjoyed it for that but also. it's such a specific side effect that I can't not analyze it

Like, on principle it makes perfect sense. Give an already fast and energetic character who talks to himself all the time a boost to his abilities, and he becomes twice as chatty to compensate.

But his external monologue has never taken the form of a conversation between two people before, and in a show that's all about having alternate versions of the same character, that's worth taking note of. Especially since this started after he was given energy from the Paradox Prism, the thing that presumably made all of those alternate versions to begin with.

(And even more especially since the show already played around with the idea of there being two Sonics only a few episodes ago with the existence of Chaos Sonic)

So, the other oddity regarding this whole thing is how one side is consistently just. uncharacteristically mean and deadpan towards the other?? I showed one example earlier, but there's two more, and that accounts for almost every instance of Sonic talking to himself in this form

Sonic's never really talked to anyone like this before, not even himself. It almost comes across like an emulation of Shadow more than anything else, which is just. so bizarre?? Especially when Shadow's literally right next to him in the last scene, and thus he has no need to substitute his presence.

In fact, he seems to catch himself and stops doing the self-banter thing entirely as soon as Shadow acknowledges him doing it

And he looks surprised when Shadow speaks, too, like he already forgot that other people can hear him. It really comes off like he's in his own little world, and again, this is a show about multiple worlds, so it's pretty fitting.

I'm not letting Shadow's phrasing off the hook, either - "a Sonic," hm? As if there's more than one?

Even Sonic gets confused about how many of him there are, which has quite the loaded implication for how short of a moment it is; something that could describe everything about this form, honestly.

It all gives me this impression that we're not quite done with this concept of there being multiple Sonics, or at least not done with this form being used in general. There's a lot of potential in what they've already set up for it, and I'd love to see it explored further.

Plus, this one frame of Sonic after he first gets it still gives me the impression that there's something... off about it

And I want to know what that something is

Yknow me and my crystal designs for the boi

I'm sorry, I'm buzzing about Sonic Prime.

I've seen complaints that Sonic's not Sonic. Whilst he's not core game Sonic, there's a lot of similar elements. He's very naive and inexperienced. He feels like a younger Sonic but his heart is in the right place. He is a bit careless and more like JP Classic Sonic towards his friends.

Him hugging Shadow is fine. Whilst not something he'd do under normal circumstances, he will under tense situations: case in point.

Sonic being attached too much with Nine. "Is he too stupid to tell that's not Tails?" I played Secret Rings and Black Knight, some didn't. Sonic is so convinced Tails is Ali Baba and Knuckles is Sinbad. He's in disbelief and tries to snap "Tails" back to reality. Shahra intervenes. In Black Knight he does correct himself over Tails. He's too invested in Shadow and Knuckles to understand their storybook counterpart. He treats them how he treats them normally. He almost runs away from the Lady of the Lake.

Sonic's too emotional. Introverts can show emotion and can get very emotional it's HOW they do it. Sonic consistently shows his rage but not his insecurities or negative emotions. In trusted company, he's overly animated. Sonic's going through a lot of stress and he shows this through body language and quietly talking to himself. He's done this in X.

Where he's OOC is the odd cringe dialogue clearly aimed at kids like fam. Sonic isn't OOC in my eyes. He's a different breed to current Modern Sonic. But even 06 and SA1 shows growth.

yall know how tails had a character arc in sonic frontiers that addressed his poor characterization in forces and such?

i think sonic prime is sonics redemption character arc, taking place inbetween forces and frontiers, addressing his poor characterization from most of the 2010s games. (while also still managing to make him actually fun to watch in prime)

i swear as prime goes on i feel like sonic is slowly starting to mature into his frontiers self. i mostly noticed this in bits of season 2.

New super form!!!

Sonic Prime Theory

(TLDR at the bottom)

Prime Sonic isn't usually a hugger or rude and never was before the events in the show, he's just so stressed and trying to cope with what he's done that he's mentally trying to replicate how his friends behave to somewhat pretend they're still around. He hugs Nine because Tails would hug him sometimes. When he split up somewhat with the prism, he wasn't becoming different Sonics, he was mimicking how he views his friends. He's not a hugger and usually would hate hugs, but he can't help but resort to this after seeing different versions of his friends but not the real deals anywhere. He hugs Shadow because that's the only piece of his friends he has left and he's just been tossed around from many of his friends who werent...them.

Without his real friends, he feels like he's missing something and it's unbearable to him and he hasn't addressed it yet. He's projecting, he's joking around, he's getting easily agitated (and thus quick to ruder remarks), he's shaking and struggling to breathe, and he's trying to ground himself by becoming what he feels his friends are like to try and make things feel more normal. But he's not them. He'll never be them, because he only knows his pov of them and doesn't think like them, so it's not working for him and just making him slip up more. Shadow is the only one who can ground him here as one of the pieces to sonic's sense of reality and he can't even be in constant contact with him, he can't always talk to him while in the other worlds like he could with Nine for a good portion of S2.

Sonic is trying his best to keep being the Sonic he usually was, the one many know him to be, but he can't even catch a second to process what he's going through and he's snapping a little because the shatterspace was made practically adapted to his mind, including what hurts him most deep down. Like cmon, it can't be a coincidence that he is afraid of/hates water and then we get an entire world where it's all water and everything he loved about his home is submerged where his distaste of water won't let him reach. The shatterspace trying to do exactly what Sonic did to the paradox prism, shattering/breaking him.

TLDR: Sonic isn't taking how different each variant of his friends are to his og friends very well, so to cope, he's subconsciously mimicking their og behaviors (like being more affectionate) to try and fill that void/sense that something is missing as he goes along in the show. Getting rude/more reckless bc he's freaking out.

Didn't the writers of Sonic Prime already say it was canon to the games?

WAIT, IF TAILSTUBE IS CANON,

THEN THAT MEANS SONIC PRIME IS CANON TOO?!?!?!?!

Amy Rose in new clothes

Made a dedicated sonic prime page in my sketchbook

I wish Sonic just adopted Nine at the end. You can never have too many twin-tailed foxes. And Nine needs all the hugs

Tails stay catching strays 😭

ion think we talk about prime!shadow enough bro that mf was ruthless this shit right here was just disrespectful 😭😭😭

turned broski into a skateboard 😭💀

Being able to draw is being able to put my two hyper obsessions together in funny ways

Sonic and the inescapable water level