Sonic X Reconstructed

[Mike Arcade]

For this Reconstructed Topic...yeah it's gotta be done, we're going to try to make sense on several moments, scenes, and what not on one of the most polarizing received Sonic Shows ever to come out, I'm talking of course of Sega and TMS' attempt at their own show, Sonic X. In this case since while it was and is mainly an Anime, I feel that talking about the Archie Sonic X Comic can also apply to this topic as well as it saves up some room and takes place roughly in the same continuity, arguably.
 

This half original, half Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 adaption needs to be talked about, otherwise how can we ever learn from what worked and what didn't. That being said I'll start off with a question and we can go on this ride together. We gotta go fast, let's begin! (I'm so sorry)

WHY is Sonic so dang lazy and passive, it's like he barely cares about his friends and is reluctantly involved in them, what's his deal?

[TheRedStranger]

"The servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is power... Power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos." - Tikal.

 

I personally think the aloof personality is utterly antithetical to Sonic and makes little sense. But if I were to reason my way out of some prior scenes and seasons of such a writer, I were forced to be the writer of a fourth season or a reboot I would simply rationalize his starting aloofness as a way to cover up some deep seeded emotional issues. Sonic has to deal with a lot of loss due to his displacement and a lot of negative emotions about his displacement. Since Sonic is a Chaos-user and Chaos is powered by "the heart" (a reference to our emotional aspects of being) then it doesn't take a neurosurgeon to guess what could happen if he did not maintain a sense of inner peace. We do not have to look beyond the Metarex Saga to figure that out. In what could have been an amazing Character arc we get one aborted glimpse of piece of Sonic lore rarely ever explored in the SoJ cannon, a Sonic gone sour...

[A fan-dub example; because I am all about the fans. ;)]

 

 

[Wulfsbane]

4 hours ago, Mike Arcade said:

WHY is Sonic so dang lazy and passive, it's like he barely cares about his friends and is reluctantly involved in them, what's his deal?

Each Version of Sonic in a TV/Anime has been different, so I think this was an attempt to make a new version of Sonic with very little success. Sometimes I wonder if SEGA was planning on making Sonic become this way in the games but seeing the reception of this Sonic and got cold feet instead. Part of me thinks this is to make this Sonic different from the rest, which is a bigger issue on itself.

[ToaArcan]

It's interesting to note that Sonic continued to be lazy in the next TV adaptation. Weird, huh?

 

 

[Ishapar]

To be honest, wasn't Sonic always kind of laid back?  When he has to stop Robotnik in any of the franchises, Sonic often fools around and just gives enough to stop Robotnik's plan.  The only times Sonic does take things seriously is when the stakes are pretty high; then Sonic is pretty serious about accomplishing the task placed in front of him.

Compared to the Western Sonic franchise of the 90's, the Sonic in Sonic X comes off with more power to easily take down Robotnik in any of their encounters.  He doesn't even really struggle with an opponent till the appearance of the Metarix in Season 3.  With that in mind, Sonic has far more free time on his hands as defeating Robotnik is pretty easy and no biggie.  And in this universe, Sonic does not have to help another group of Mobians to stand up against Robotnik or survive in exile.  All that Sonic has to do is wait to go back to his home world.  What does he do?  Run, explore, help with people with perilious situations, and nap.  What else do you expect him to do?

Sonic's ties to his friends seems to be based on the other character's personalities.  Take Tails.  Unlike Satam or Archie, Tails is not a young kid that looks up to Sonic as a role model: instead, he is older and serves more as his right hand man in operating his plane and rings.  Amy is certainly not Sally: Sonic is more willing to run away from her than hang around her unless her life is in danger.  In this media, Sonic seems to have acquantences rather than close friends.  He's a loner, but not the same type as Shadow or Knuckles.

[Mike Arcade]

I see what you mean, but here's the thing, this is a Sonic that DOESN'T take action when the going gets tough until it's almost or just about too late. I mean yeah, Sega Sonic is similar to his Sonic X counterpart, thing is though he jumps straight into the action and acts upon whatever is going on without stopping until it's done basically, which has been mostly consistent throughout the games. In Sonic X he's way too passive for his own good, and if it were true about him having more power to take Eggman down then he wouldn't have needed the emeralds during the first season finale, if it weren't for the Chaos Emeralds dropping in the ocean with him he'd be dead.

The main differences is when he takes action, or lack of taking action that's his problem, he waited all the way until the end of Season 2 to knock some sense into Chris rather then doing that say halfway or at the end of Season 1, in fact him being there at the end of Season 2 almost destroyed both worlds and he could have left at anytime, if he really gave a care he'd talk to Chris and tell him to get a grip rather then letting that scenario play out and risk both worlds. When he DOES take things seriously it's scraping by the skin of his teeth bad, rather then acting much sooner or attempting to act earlier, it's like this guy is addicted to making bad choices.

Let alone the prime example is the beginning of Season 3, scattering all the emeralds across the universe rather then retreating with the emeralds, granted there would be damage to the planet due to Dark Oak being around but at least if they were scattered you wouldn't have to look all across the universe, actually that might have caused more damage from the Metarex to other planets they already didn't drain. Not to mention it is with these lack of actions that ended up with Cosmo's Death and an emotionally scarred Tails who had to literally put her down.

There's a huge difference between being laid back and barely caring, other Sonic's have been laid back but they acted at the first drop of the hat usually rather then barely acting at all, not to mention that distance from his acquaintances both physically and emotionally is very unsettling, hence why I asked this question.

I didn't mean for this to be a rant, but my problem with his laziness and laid back attitude in this series ends up being very unhealthy to not only him but the worlds and universe around him, and ended up causing much more problems in the end.

[ToaArcan]

If they hadn't gone on their trip across the stars, Tails would likely not have fallen for Cosmo in the first place- Rather than actually writing a romance, the writers just dunked the two of them in a magic lake that Amy intended to brainwash Sonic into loving her (Yeah, X!Amy was kinda terrible), and skipped all that character-growth stuff. 

But yes, X!Sonic wasn't exactly a hero. He probably wouldn't have done much at all if the writers hadn't rendered almost every character useless except him, Knuckles, Shadow, and Rouge. It seemed like every episode involved Tails, Amy, Cream, and Chris going off to do soemthing, getting into trouble, and Sonic rushing to their rescue.

[Mike Arcade]

Exactly, now you're getting it.

Although to be fair, Vector ended up shipping them first before the whole love lake thing, that's when they first started to get close, or at least have Tails develop a thing for her anyway.

[Ishapar]

That episode was just too sad, except when Knuckles gets payback on them!!!

I think I understand what you mean MIke about Sonic being more lazy in the X franchise, but I still wouldn't say he wasn't caring.  One episode I would bring up would be the one dealing with him and Helen (the girl in the wheelchair).  Sonic was supposed to meet the president after defeating Eggman, but Sonic wouldn't turn down his word to Helen about bringing her to that island with the flowers.  The only reason he went to see the president was because Helen asked him to do it. 

You do have a good point about his role with Chris in Season 2 finale.  He did put a lot at stake just to stay with Christ, but the last episode did hightlight Sonic already acquiring the chaos emeralds to return to his world: technically Sonic was capable of returning to his world anytime, but he stayed with Chris to help him learn the importance of letting go of relationships for the greater good.  I don't agree with Chris' actions, but I doubt Sonic was being uncaring about the rest of the world when he stayed with Chris (after all, he was able to retrieve the emeralds in record time), but I think he wanted to make sure his friend would be fine before they finally depart for who knows how long.

[TheRedStranger]

What was the machine Eggman created at the very beginning of the first episode? What was its possible intended function and purpose? 

[Ishapar]

I don't think a name was given to the machine, but Eggman was intending to use all 7 chaos emeralds to run it.  I doubt he was trying to destroy the world, but I wouldn't flinch to say he was trying something similar to the storyline from Sonic Advance 3 where he divides the world apart into 7 regions.  That would be a big enough deal for Sonic and Knuckles to be involved as he is using the chaos emeralds to reshape the planet, and who knows what all that affect in the long run.

[TheRedStranger]

On 8/2/2016 at 3:36 PM, Ishapar said:

I don't think a name was given to the machine, but Eggman was intending to use all 7 chaos emeralds to run it.  I doubt he was trying to destroy the world, but I wouldn't flinch to say he was trying something similar to the storyline from Sonic Advance 3 where he divides the world apart into 7 regions.  That would be a big enough deal for Sonic and Knuckles to be involved as he is using the chaos emeralds to reshape the planet, and who knows what all that affect in the long run.

The question is, why would he want to do something like that? What would be his motivation?

 

[Ishapar]

Did the Eggman of Sonic X have any other motive other than creating the Eggman Empire?  Throughout the series, all that Eggman cared about was trying to conquer the planet to create his Eggman Empire, so I am pretty sure that was the idea in the beginning episode.  As for how he would accomplish it with that machine, who knows?  If the machine had properties similar to the one in Sonic Advance 3, than splitting the world up into seven regions may make it easier for him to conquer the planet as everything is chaotic and he may have been the only one prepared for the situation.

[Mike Arcade]

I was just going to say that Ishapar. XP

Could have been used in the opposite way though, use Chaos Control to lump all of society in *insert planet name here*  and take over everyone in one fell swoop, though that would have been pretty stupid, then again this is Sonic X we are talking about. Though if we did have an Advance 3 plot going on here, which is likely, chances are Eggman would have lost anyway, though might have had a bit more of a chance as Sonic in X seemed a lot weaker at the start of the series. He did get his butt kicked every time he didn't have a Power Ring after all.

 

[Ishapar]

On 8/8/2016 at 2:51 AM, Mike Arcade said:

I was just going to say that Ishapar. XP

Could have been used in the opposite way though, use Chaos Control to lump all of society in *insert planet name here*  and take over everyone in one fell swoop, though that would have been pretty stupid, then again this is Sonic X we are talking about. Though if we did have an Advance 3 plot going on here, which is likely, chances are Eggman would have lost anyway, though might have had a bit more of a chance as Sonic in X seemed a lot weaker at the start of the series. He did get his butt kicked every time he didn't have a Power Ring after all.

 

True to that, though we could probably say the same thing about Sonic in Satam  =P

Never thought of the opposite effect.  Good one.  All that we know is that whatever Eggman was doing at the beginning he:

A.  Had all 7 chaos emeralds (uh-oh).

B. Captured Cream and Cheese (hostage?).

C. Had Sonic and friends concerned enough that even Knuckles decided to lend a hand in the mission (which he later regrets).

What does really bug me in the episode is that Rouge the Bat is just hanging around the place.  What was she doing there?  Was she actually working with Eggman?  Was she trying to get the emeralds herself (but needed Sonic as a distraction)?  Was she there just for the kicks?