Nightmare Fuel / Sonic Prime

Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned!

Season 1

Shattered

• Nine revealed that without Sonic around, he suffered further bullying due to his extra tail by the other foxes. With no one to help him, Tails had to rely on his brains to build seven extra mechanical tails to fight back. And based on the shadow images behind it, what he did to his bullies wasn’t pretty.
  • His intro alone is rather jarring, particularly when he lunges at the camera with what borders on a Nightmare Face.
    Sonic: Tails, it's me! Your best—
    Nine: What did you just call me?! (activates his robotic tails)
    Sonic: Uh...Tails?
    Nine: The name's...NINE!!!
• Rusty Rose in this world wasn’t pretty, either. Needing to survive, Rusty let herself be turned into a cyborg by the Chaos Council, becoming more machine than hedgehog. And what’s powering her is a little bird that’s being held against its will. Even Sonic finds this completely messed up.

Unwelcome to the Jungle

• The simple fact that the Scavengers are all starving and are forced to try dangerous expeditions for a pittance of real food. Anyone who's ever had to go without food for an extended period of time can attest to how hellish this would be.

Situation: Grim

• Nine being captured by the Chaos Council. Also a Tear Jerker.
  Mr. Dr. Eggman: Between our shard and your tech, you've just handed us the universe on a silver platter! (Evil Laugh)

There's No Arrgh In Team

• As Sonic's travelling between Shatterspaces, he's suddenly attacked by Shadow, the original one who managed to remain unaffected by the split due to using Chaos Control at the moment the shift occurred, who proceeds to drop a bombshell to sum up just how badly Sonic's actions affected things: As a result of the Paradox Prism's destruction, their world doesn't exist anymore. While it's rather vague on what exactly happened, the sheer idea that Sonic effectively caused The End of the World as We Know It, albeit unintentionally, is an incredibly harrowing thought.

Season 2

Avoid the Void

• The Ghost Space that Shadow takes Sonic to, where it's basically Green Hill Zone except the colors are almost all washed out, and Sonic's friends are transparent afterimages saying the same thing over and over.
• The titular void at the bottom of the Shatterverse, which Shadow describes as an eternity of darkness that decays all life. Shadow is almost lost to the void himself until Sonic saves him at the end of the episode.
• Despite Sonic's insistence that the Shatterspace versions of his friends are all real, Shadow believes them all to be Expendable Alternate Universes.
• At some point after their last appearance, the Chaos Council have now mastered interdimensional travel and are plotting to become Multiversal Conquerors, starting with the Boscage Maze.

No Way Out

• Dread's obsession with No Place's Prism shard driving him crazier by the minute. Sonic outright lampshades that Dread is losing it and even the rest of the crew are increasingly unnerved by his behavior.
• To make Sonic give up the shard, the Chaos Council have Dread shot in the back (albeit non-lethally) and take the other pirates hostage along with Nine. They're clearly not bluffing when they threaten to kill Sonic's allies en masse in front of him; knowing this, he reluctantly throws the shard off the Devil's Lighthouse, eventually resulting in the Eggmen claiming it.

A Madness To Their Methods

• This is one of the show's bleaker episodes as the Chaos Council returns to New Yoke more powerful than ever, leaving the Resistance facing even worse odds.
• Mr. Dr. Eggman interrogating Nine on how to counter Sonic, manipulating his Defiant Captive into offering an idea. Nine's frantic attempt to warn Sonic outs him as The Mole as Dr. Don't walks in, and with his cover blown, the Eggmen proceed to use him as bait. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this scene is how quickly Mr. Dr. Eggman shifts between angry and smug while casually playing Nine like a piano; it's eerily reminiscent of how Prime!Eggman would deal with his own prisoners.
• Chaos Sonic's intro at the end.
  Sonic: Nine? Is that you?
  Knucks: No, it's...you.

Ghost of a Chance

• The Prismatic Titan, a giant-sized phantom of Eggman which outmatches Sonic and Shadow both. Sonic has to have Nine charge him up on Prism energy to beat it.
• Nine's Death Glare during his Face–Heel Turn adds an intimidating touch to what's otherwise a Tear Jerker. His rant before absconding with the shards also brings up a bit of Fridge Horror: what would restoring the Paradox Prism do to him and all the others? Could the Shatterverse and all within it be erased, perhaps? Sonic doesn't know for sure, but his prior concern in Avoid the Void suggests it is, in fact, possible.

Season 3

Grim Tidings

• Nine seems willing to do anything to create his perfect world. Even if that includes destroying other worlds in the process...or taking someone's life. Nine discovers that the Paradox Prism is missing energy and that energy is inside Sonic. Even Shadow worries about that idea, with Nine around, Sonic's life is in danger.

Dome Sweet Dome

• Via a colossal hologram of his head which he projects into the other Shatterspaces, Nine warns Sonic that nowhere is safe and proves it by turning New Yoke City sideways and sinking the Angel's Voyage in No Place.

Nine's Lives

• Nine's honest-to-god insane expression as he summons Grim Big. The fact that he's looking dead straight at the camera when he makes that face doesn't help at all.

From The Top

• The climax of Nine's Villainous Breakdown. The way he launches into a savage frenzy and resorts to haphazardly shooting/lunging all over the place trying to hit Sonic, especially with those eyes, bring to mind when Azula lost it during her face-off with Zuko and Katara. All Sonic can do is dodge for his life, because Nine is too blind with rage to hear his apologies.
• While he brought it on himself, Nine's position just prior to his Heel–Face Turn is pretty scary if you think about it. He now stands all alone against 25 other characters (including the Ultimate Life Form himself), none of whom are as forgiving or merciful as Sonic, and the Paradox Prism sits at the opposite end of the room, giving him no chance of tapping into it without being intercepted. Even as he defiantly threatens to destroy them, you can clearly see Nine outright shuddering in terror, knowing full well it's he who's about to kick the bucket—and he would have, if Sonic hadn't gotten through to and reconciled with him.
• As the energy in his body is removed to fix the Paradox Prism, Sonic writhes while screaming in agony and his gloves and shoes rapidly switch between textures before his regulators explode. It's effectively a disturbing Call-Forward to the opening of Sonic Unleashed—only this time, Sonic emerges from the smoke with a ghostly aura, a Radio Voice, and an uncontrollable pained flinch as he gradually fades into oblivion, unable to exist beyond his home realm anymore. Even with help from the Roses, Shadow barely gets Sonic home in time before the Blue Blur vanishes altogether.
• The mysterious blast Sonic and his friends are struck by at the end. We never learn what that was all about.

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