The Ending Of Netflix's Sonic Prime Explained
Contains spoilers for "Sonic Prime."
Netflix has been pumping out animated series based on popular video games for quite a while with their new "Sonic the Hedgehog" series, titled "Sonic Prime," as their latest addition. "Sonic Prime" sees Sonic the Hedgehog (voiced by Devin Christian Mack) go on his wildest adventure yet, as he finds himself traversing the multiverse after shattering the mysterious Paradox Prism while fighting the nefarious Dr. Eggman (voiced by Brian Drummond).
Sonic has certainly traveled to plenty of unique worlds throughout his time fighting Eggman, but "Sonic Prime" sees him not just dash across new versions of his beloved Green Hill Zone: He also meets alternate versions of his friends and foes. With this new power to traverse the multiverse coursing through his iconic red shoes, Sonic finds himself in a race against time full of wild encounters and incredible fights that push him to his limits. "Sonic Prime" offers plenty of big changes, but not all of them are perfectly clear. With there being so many variants, including a council of Eggmans, and new lore established thanks to the Paradox Prism, there are plenty of questions fans could have by the end of "Sonic Prime." That's where we come in: To help connect the dots and delve into everything that happened in the final moments of "Sonic Prime."
A chaotic council
Normally for Sonic and his friends, fighting one Eggman is tough enough. But "Sonic Prime" introduces an entire group of Eggmans known as the Chaos Council, who seek to maintain their power over New Yoke City. The council is made up of a bunch of different variants of Dr. Eggman, including a baby version called Dr. Babble and an angsty teen version who won't stop playing his video games.
Honestly though, while it would seem like this council of Eggmans is simply made up of multiverse versions of the iconic villain, it's tough to say if that's really the case. Their lack of knowledge about the Shatterverse and their having no presence in other universes suggests that they all aren't really from different worlds. Perhaps the "one makes five, five makes one" line hints at the council being made up of failed Eggman clones, since most of them don't share the same name and are clearly different ages. The exact origins and backstory behind the Chaos Council still remain a little murky, but they certainly live up to their name with the destruction and devastation they cause with their machinery.
Studying the Shatterverse
As Sonic jumps between different universes, he finds himself flying through a realm filled with floating crystals that looks seemingly endless. When Sonic eventually reunites with Nine, a variant of Tails (voiced by Ashleigh Ball), and redesigns his plane so that it can fly between dimensions, Nine explains that this strange realm is called the Shatterverse.
Here, travelers can drift between dimensions, eventually landing in a new world where they encounter different versions of those around them. The Shatterverse acts as the centerpiece of the multiverse premise and was likely created when Sonic collided with the Paradox Prism, shattering it completely. There's likely much more to be discovered about the Shatterverse in a future season of "Sonic Prime," especially since Shadow (voiced by Ian Hanlin) can also travel through the Shatterverse. But for now, it's a mysterious realm full of endless possibilities.
A bigger plan unfolding
With the Chaos Council already in charge in New Yoke City thanks to their control of the city's power grid, which stems from a shard of the Paradox Prism, they're originally only intrigued by Sonic's capabilities. They put him through the wringer to test his potential and ultimately find that he possesses significant strength. As they eventually find out about the power of the Prism shard and that there are more of them out there in other worlds, their plans change.
Instead of just controlling New Yoke City, the Chaos Council now looks to expand its dominion to other universes. With them being able to send Rusty Rose, an animatronic version of Amy (voiced by Shannon Chan-Kent), to another world already, the potential for them to conquer new worlds is greater than ever. Eggman isn't the type to think small, so it's no surprise to see a whole council of him have big aspirations when they see the opportunity for more power.
Sonic's hidden power
With his incredible speed and spin-dash maneuver, Sonic is already a pretty fleet-footed fighter, but he gets a big power-up in "Sonic Prime." After colliding with the Paradox Prism in the opening fight against Eggman, Sonic finds that his feet are emitting a strange new power that Nine is able to help control with some tech. This is what allows him to traverse the Shatterverse all on his own, just by touching one of the shards.
When others touch the shards, nothing happens, but Sonic is immediately thrown into the Shatterverse and then a new world. With Sonic being the only one capable of venturing into the Shatterverse, he plays an important role in stopping the Chaos Council, but his new abilities are also a key piece to their plan for multiverse domination. Sonic will have to find a way to use his skill set to defeat the Chaos Council, since he can travel to different universes to find the shards and stop their plans. So, while it might make him a bigger target, Sonic's new power also makes him stronger.
Dread's final stretch
Dread, a pirate captain variant of Knuckles (voiced by Adam Nurada), is one of the most memorable personalities that Sonic comes across during his travels through the Shatterverse. His love for partying and the character arc surrounding his failed adventure for the prism shard give him a lasting impact, with a harrowing final journey. It's a perfect finale sequence that sees him traverse the dangerous high seas as well as face off against some of the Council's fearsome robots to nab that shard.
Well, after using some of the robots to reach the top of the mountain and even learning Knuckle's iconic glide ability, Dread is able to reach the shard, but not without some consequences. Not only does Sonic get warped back into the Shatterverse after touching it, but Dread looks a little out of sorts once he makes contact with it. It's tough to blame him, considering everything he went through to get it, but his sense of greed makes you wonder if it'll change him for the worse, especially if Sonic needs the shard to restore the universes.
What's up with Shadow the Hedgehog?
Since the start of "Sonic Prime," Shadow has a mysterious role in the events that happen — more than usual. Shadow tends to be a more mysterious and shady character in "Sonic" lore, but here he's a little tough to read, giving the writers plenty of space to develop him in later seasons. For the most part, he's seen sparring with Sonic before he goes to fight Eggman and causes the Shatterverse to be created, but it seems like he knows more than he's letting on.
With how Shadow uses the Chaos Emerald to negate the effects of the Paradox Prism being shattered and tries to warn Sonic about what happened, Shadow might actually know more about the Shatterverse than anyone could've expected. Perhaps the final bout between him and Sonic in the Shatterverse could ultimately lead to him playing a bigger role in a potential future adventure. Shadow could be the guiding force that Sonic needs in this moment to stop the Chaos Council. So if these two can stop fighting for a minute, maybe they can save the day together.
Is Nine betraying Sonic?
Nine has one of the more tragic arcs in "Sonic Prime," with a much different backstory than Tails. Unlike how Tails met Sonic in the original universe, Nine had no one growing up, as the Council took over New Yoke City, making him a distant and dark loner who trusts no one. Thus, when Sonic first meets Nine, he gets quite a cold shoulder until he is eventually able to get Nine on his side. However, after Sonic rejects Nine's request to go to a new world and start over, Nine clearly isn't happy and feels some of his old feelings resurfacing.
He is especially vexed when Sonic suddenly vanishes multiple times after touching the prism shard, leaving him feeling abandoned. So when he's talking with the Chaos Council about potentially working with them on improving their tech to traverse the Shatterverse, you can't help but wonder if Nine is actually planning on betraying Sonic. Perhaps this is just a momentary lapse: Nine's feelings of abandonment are undoubtedly real, but he's never seemed capable of outright villainy. Plus, any time that he's felt this way in the past, he's quickly made a turnaround to help Sonic, so it wouldn't be too surprising to see this happen again.
Unexplored worlds
"Sonic Prime" showcases some interesting alternate depictions of Green Hill Zone, from seeing it buried by an endless ocean of water and transformed into a dystopian cityscape. With the Shatterverse already featuring some intriguing new worlds for Sonic to explore, there's still the question of how many alternate universes there are left out there. So far Sonic has come across three shards of the Paradox Prism, and there's no specific number mentioned in terms of how many potentially exist.
When looking through the moments of the Paradox Prism shattering, it looks like there might be about four or five pieces in total, meaning that there are only a couple of shards left out there. However, that doesn't mean that the worlds that Sonic could explore are limited. After all, Nine showed Sonic a world where there was nothing in it, so there could theoretically be an endless amount of universes in the Shatterverse with more variants.
When worlds collide
One of the more interesting moments of the final episode sees Rusty Rose and Black Rose interacting with each other, the first time that variants are seen together. So, naturally, it has to be pondered if we'll see the other universes start to collide sometime in the future. Unless others are able to traverse the Shatterverse the way that Sonic can, it's safe to say that it probably won't happen any time soon.
However, with the Chaos Council dipping their toes into multiverse travel, we could easily see them starting to have a bigger presence in other worlds. Thus, like a domino effect, residents of other worlds could start crossing over, and before you know it, Sonic could have a whole army on his hands to defeat the Chaos Council. Given the show's multiverse premise and them already introducing plenty of variants, the idea of them all coming together in an epic final battle is likely in the cards.
Sonic's home destoryed?
With there being all these new universes created from the Paradox Prism being shattered, you can't help but wonder what happened to the old world that Sonic is from. Well, during his last encounter with Shadow in the Shatterverse, Sonic learns from him that his original home is gone. This revelation actually makes sense since these new worlds were created from that world splintering away, which is why they're basically different versions of Green Hill Zone.
The only remnant that Sonic has of his former home is the palm tree seen throughout the different worlds that represents the last good memory Sonic had with his friends. It acts as not only a warm reminder for Sonic, but also a strong motivation to return things to normal. So the original Green Hill Zone might've become lost to the Shatterverse, but that's not going to stop Sonic, Shadow, and their widening group of friends from restoring things to their proper form.
Could we see other Sonic characters appear?
"Sonic Prime" sees some of Sonic's most notable allies join him, and we are treated to interesting new interpretations of familiar characters as Sonic comes across some of their variants while traversing the Shatterverse. It's pretty fun to see characters like Amy and Tails don pirate uniforms and accents for some high-seas adventures and also go a little primal for a jungle-themed world. But could the series do more in expanding the roster, introducing even more well-known "Sonic" characters?
With this being a multiverse world filled with endless possibilities, there's no reason that it couldn't happen. Who's to say that one world couldn't feature a team where characters like Knuckles and Tails are swapped out for equivalents like Vector and Espio? Plus, it would be interesting to watch Sonic and Shadow reunite with their equally-powered ally Silver. There's no established rule that says these other "Sonic" characters don't exist in this world, so the series could easily make some ambitious choices with its multiverse premise by adding in other beloved characters to please fans.
Is Sonic Prime unfinished?
Although "Sonic Prime" had audiences preparing for the final episode to see Sonic and company having a big bout with the Chaos Council, that's not what ends up happening. Instead, Sonic and his pirate crew simply face off against Rusty Rose and her band of robots just to grab another shard. The finale leaves a ton of story threads loose, including Sonic and Shadow colliding once more and the Chaos Council barely starting their universe-dominating plans. So, does "Sonic Prime" feel unfinished?
Yes, in a big way. "Sonic Prime's" finale feels somewhat anti-climactic, as though the series gets paused right as things are really starting to get interesting. It'll certainly leave viewers hungry for answers, and there are plenty more worlds and stories for this series to explore. "Sonic Prime" offers an expansive and ambitious multiverse story, but it doesn't quite feel complete — perhaps because there's more to come in the future.
Will there be a second season of Sonic Prime?
Based on a recent interview with What's On Netflix, executive producer Logan McPherson confirmed that fans can expect to see more episodes of "Sonic Prime" in the near future. Not only are the next two seasons in development, but he confirmed that some episodes have already been made, meaning that their release date might not be too far off. Although Netflix is known for canning series that don't make much of an impact from the start, the confirmation that more episodes are already in development is a promising sign, especially since this story would feel incomplete without them.
"Sonic Prime" leaves a lot of its story hanging and has plenty of threads to tie up. From whatever the Chaos Council plans to do to dominate the rest of the Shatterverse to Shadow and Sonic having to work together and recruit more multiverse companions to take them down, there are lots of ideas for this series to work with. All in all, "Sonic Prime" seems far from being over, and fans should expect to see more of Sonic's trek through the Shatterverse sometime soon ... hopefully.