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hadesknockedupintheunderworld · 1 year ago

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Sonine Prime ... Part 2

Hi, everyone and welcome back to Sonine Prime! The part of the show when I come out and talk about Sonine (and a bit of Sontails) in Sonic Prime!

I unfortunately had to end part 1 a bit prematurely due to tumblr's video limit, so we didn't get very far into it. Right now we're about halfway into Sonic Prime Season 1 Episode 1, and (as promised) we're going to start part 2 tackling the scene that begins with Sonic and Nine's first meeting, and ends with them recounting Tails' and Nine's backstories.

So, without further ado, let's begin

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<< Part 1 | Part 3 >>

(Essay/thoughts/analysis under the cut)

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As I said in part 1, there is a lot going on here, and a lot to tackle.

We'll start with Sonic's side.

Now, it's important to mention that at this time, Sonic just believes Nine to be Tails who lost his memories/doesn't remember him. So most of this scene is Sonic calling Nine "Tails" and trying to appeal to him by talking about old times. While this will initially tell us more about how he feels about Tails than it does Nine (once again interesting that Tails specifically gets this focus as the best bud, a focus on "making things okay again" that is only later matched by Sonic's treatment of Thorn when he also believes that Amy is deep down inside her, because he initially believes them both to be a friend who has just forgot Sonic and themselves. Tails and Amy parallels in relation to Sonic: IIII), this is the basis upon which Sonic will build his relationship with Nine on, even though he will later consider Nine as a separate different person in relation to Tails.

Now, this scene is meant to call back to the flashback scene from earlier. Sonic punches in the code to Tails' lab and hopes it still works ("Tails you crafty fox"???🧐), and just as with Tails in the flashback, Sonic turns Nine's chair to make him face him.

"Tails, it's me!"

From Sonic's pov here, he can’t understand why Nine is fighting him or really what's happening. "Tails" was the nickname that Tails' bullies used when they were picking on him, but after meeting Sonic he was able to reclaim that nickname for himself. So to Sonic, he can’t understand why saying this name continues to make Nine angry and insist that his name is something else, just as he's put off that "Tails" would attack him and act like he doesn't know him.

He also spends a good chuck of the fight looking very hurt

"Tails, stop! We're buds, amigos...best friends!"

...

"Snap out of it, we go way back!"

...

"All my best memories of Green Hill have you in 'em. And you're not punching me!"

...

"Don't you wanna go home? Blue skies? Sunny beaches? Palm trees?"

And after spending most of the fight defending himself and dodging in favor of trying to appeal to who he thinks is Tails, trying to summon up memories of them being best friends, Sonic throws himself into the path of the other train to save Nine from getting hit.

"I've been trying to tell you that we are friends."

"Fabricated stories won't keep me from beating you back, intruder."

"Stop, just. Stop... We're friends—best friends. This has to ring a bell?"

Sonic just can't wrap his head around it—a world in which his best friend doesn't remember him, calls their times together "fabricated stories", fights him no matter how he tries to explain that they’re friends. None of this makes sense to him, and so he tries to explain how they met, because surely then "Tails" will remember him, right?

"From the moment we first met..." (interesting choice of words, considering what often follows this is the impression the character saying it got from the other or how they have always felt about the other)

But "Tails" only expresses surprise in how much Sonic knows, despite the fact that Nine has never met him before now, and explains a different, much darker version of Tails' backstory

One that doesn't include Sonic.

And again Sonic is having his hard time wrapping his head around this. That "Tails" is here, and yet doesn't "remember" him. That this "Tails" seems to have a similar backstory, but never met him. "Tails...but not. Here, but...gone?"

But he doesn't get too long to examine this before Nine asks "So, what else did we do?"

And this pretty much immediately perks Sonic up after he gets a look at Nine's face, like he really is curious what he could be missing.

And then of course that face comes back

And...it makes Sonic so visually happy and excited to talk about the Tornado, mention how they've gone on so many adventures and busted Eggman so many times...

"Look. We've had our share of ups and downs, but when we stick together? We never lose. And when all's said and done, there's no better reward than sharing a chili dog with your best pal. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! We've got a lifetime of adventures and memories together."

Even though Sonic doesn't yet consider Nine his own person, this entire scene is incredibly telling as to who Tails is to him (best friend, partner, amigo, forever companion), and sets up a basis for his relationship to Nine.

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Now for Nine's side. For him, the bulk of the fight is him being aggressive and reacting due to his trauma. "Tails" was the name he was called as he was bullied and assaulted for years, and a name he came to associate with said traumatic experiences. The name he claimed for himself, symbolic of how he saved himself with his own power, is "Nine". Thus, when this strange hedgehog intrudes in his lab, interrupts his work, and calls him "Tails", boy does that set him off.

"Who sent you?!"

He's afraid and angry. Who else could this stranger be but one of those bullies or someone else to just call him a freak, intruding in his space.

And then the strange hedgehog calls them best friends? Continues to call him "Tails" despite Nine's clear aversion, and yet is trying to appeal to him emotionally?

But then the hedgehog puts himself in danger to save him. And that's really strange.

Because no one has friends here, right? Why would anyone save him? No one cares about anyone else, no one would just save someone at the expense of their own life, this hedgehog acts like he knows him and yet doesn't seem to know anything about him.

"Fabricated stories won't keep me from beating you back, intruder."

That's what it has to be, right? Maybe it's connected to why the hedgehog broke into his base. He saved him only because he needed him, right?

But the hedgehog makes it clear he never wanted a fight, the two rest on safe ground in the scareport. And then he tells another story to appeal to him.

The story of a two tailed fox who was picked on for being different, who was saved by Sonic, the very hedgehog before him.

And although that story is not quite right, the resemblance surprises Nine, catching his interest. Even if his past didn't happen that way, how could Sonic get those details (him being himself, getting picked on by jerks for having an extra Tail) right without Nine having never met him before? The way Nine reacts even implies his story is highly personal, and one he'd never told anyone.

And perhaps he feels a bit jealous, then.

Because this "Tails" that Sonic keeps talking about? He had someone there for him, someone who protected him when he was being bullied and picked on. But Nine? He took a beating for years. No one showed up to protect him, much less save him. He learned that he was alone, learned that these selfless people who would protect the weak don't exist, and so he finally saved himself.

Is that the kind of person Sonic is—the kind of person who would save a victim who's hurting, someone he'd never met, even if it doesn't benefit him? Just like how Sonic had saved him from being hit by that train?

"You weren't there"

And so what if Nine lets himself pretend for a moment that what Sonic is saying is true? What does it feel like to be Sonic's best friend, that person he'd stuck his neck out for and saved back then, someone who goes on adventures and kicks butt with him, who shares a meal with him, someone with whom they're both happy?

The way he begins to smile as Sonic talks about his times with Tails.

"But when we stick together, we never lose"

The way he frowns (touch adverse as he is) when Sonic puts a hand on his shoulder, but relaxes into it and gives this stranger a smile, and the way he perks up with the cutest, even bigger smile when Sonic pokes his heart.

"And when all's said and done? There's no better reward than sharing a chili dog with your best pal"

And then...Nine frowns again when Sonic says "best pal".

Because no matter how great that idea of home sounds, to Nine, none of that happened. None of this is really about him, no matter what Sonic says.

But, this is the beginning of the end for Nine. In just five in show minutes, he goes from trying to get answers out of Sonic, killing him, beating him back, to becoming interested in his "fabricated stories" and willing to help him with his little problem. He invites him into his lab this time and helps distribute the energy coming from him evenly on his body, even though he complains: "The only thing I hate more than people in my space is whiners."

Or the entire next scene. Sonic calls him amazing for his creation of the extra metal tails (which doesn't end up hitting Nine as intented), corrects himself after calling Nine "Tails" on accident, and then Sonic just speeds off, only for Nine to say "No– Wait, you dope! It's not safe!" and run after him.

While this is during an early period of the show where you can easily argue that Nine only cares about what he could use Sonic for and his current interest in the energy he exhibits, it still says a lot that he actually begins to show care in another person's wellbeing. And it also tells us a lot about Sonic that he'd transitioned from calling him "Tails" to "Nine" so quickly, even if he has to correct himself.

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Now, as we move on to Nine and Sonic's capture by the Chaos Council, this brief scene of them outside before their capture also shows us once more just how quickly Sonic is jumping to "normalcy", starting with getting "Tails" back as his adventuring buddy. Although he wasn't incredibly concerned before, he brushes off Nine's concerns about the Chaos Council, instead acting like everything will be fine ("Wanna run up the walls?"). And we can see that Sonic still believes Nine is just Tails, absent his memories of Sonic and their friends.

"When you get your memory back, you'll remember that 'low profile' isn't my thing"

Nine: I told you to keep a low profile!

Sonic: No you didn't.

Nine: Yes I did.

Sonic: You didn't.

Nine: Yes I did.

Sonic: Nooo, you didn't.

Nine: Are you sure we were "best friends".

Ahjsjsj well. Nine says that, but he'll come to realize that he likes Sonic even when he finds him frustrating or annoying (just like Tails and, frankly, his other friends do😂). He already has been helping Sonic out and allowing him to be in his space, even if he doesn't understand Sonic.

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And as I have hit the tumblr post picture limit, that's it for part 2! For part 3, we'll be beginning with Sonic and Nine's confinement in The Chaos Council's base, and perhaps I'll finally get to move on to Episode 2😂

#i just be ramblin #essay time #sonic the hedgehog #sonic prime #nine sonic prime #miles nine prower #nine the fox #sonine #sontails #see you all in part 3!#Sonine prime #Again sorry it's taking so much time to move between episodes but I'll tell ya. All of their interactions are just baked with so many #subtleties and expressions and there's just so much to say! Even from their first meeting their interactions are an exellent meal #And not to mention just how fast Nine is going to keep taking to Sonic‚ even though he's the one who has no basis to work off of and has to #get to know sonic from scratch #It's like one of those 'character meets an alternate universe version and has to learn to get to know this person who isn't quite the same #as the one they know‚ while the other (armed with stories about how that other person knows them) has to get to know and love a stranger wh #seems to be attached to a version of them that's *not* them'#sorta love stories. I love when there are actual conflictions and work that has to be done‚ so Person A can't just take Person B as a #replacement for the beloved they lost

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sapphicautistic · 9 months ago

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I had such a specific and strange upbringing in many ways and there are so many ways in which joining my partner's family has really brought that home. Again and again.

My partner and I have so many things we have to explain to each other, like we're from different cultures almost even though we're essentially not. And it's normal for different families to have different traditions. But I'm always aware of the fact that her family's traditions and foodways and social expectations and history are essentially normal in a way my family's never was or will be.

They have their little family-specific things of course but overall, they have a shared history and culture with lots of interconnected families. They can so easily find people of a similar background that they expect many of their traditions and expectations and history to be not just instantly understood but frequently shared even among the people they meet as strangers—and they often are.

But there's so much that my siblings who came up with me are the only people in the world can really understand.

When I ask my partner about something her family does, it's often essentially a question about how things are normally done for people of their background. When she asks about mine, I'm often finding myself grasping for words to explain arcane knowledge so specific that half a dozen people at most can fully understand it.

I know it's not that deep and we have much more in common than not. But my isolated and weird upbringing haunts me. I'm not only an outsider for being autistic and disabled, two traits her family readily accepts and are supportive of. I'm also constantly playing catch-up with what's normal. I don't even know what I'm expected to already know by default. It makes me feel alien.

And then I call one of my siblings and they know without any explanation a hundred things I don't even know how to articulate to my partner. It makes me feel very far from home, even though our family was never really integrated into the place where we grew up either. We were strangers there too.

#it's not about feeling unaccepted to be clear #her family are so amazing and have welcomed me so enthusiastically and i love them and feel loved by them #there's just this chasm of experience I don't know how to bridge #from things my aunt has told me I think she and my mother and their siblings were the same way #raised apart from the local customs in part due to eccentricity and largely due to abuse and neglect #there are good things about my history but I don't always know how to explain it all #my partner often says my stories about growing up sound like a basis for a literary fiction story #there's just so much that's strange and hard to explain #updates on my boring life

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