Season 2, Episode 4 of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM). The war with Robotnik goes badly. The only hope may lie in a pair of magical Time Stones: using them Sonic and Sally could travel to Mobotropolis's past, prior to Robotnik's takeover and stop the fight before it begins.
This episode provides examples of:
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The Time Stones only work when the wielders synchronize their thoughts by concentrating hard on the same time and location they want to go. Sonic bungles up the mission when he lets his thoughts wander and starts thinking about chili dogs, resulting in them arriving in Mobotropolis on the very day of Robotnik's coup rather than a week before.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends as Robotnik begins his coup, showing Sonic and Sally arrived too late to stop it.
- Law of Time Travel Coincidences: Sonic and Sally use the Time Stones to go back in time to stop Robotnik's coup from happening. Unfortunately, due to Sonic's intrusive thoughts about chili dogs, they are taken to the day Robotnik launched his coup.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sonic nearly ruins the mission several times in succession by impulsively guessing the first answer to the Time Stones' guardian's riddle before the latter could even finish reciting said riddle, and then does ruin the mission when he lets his mind wander during a crucial moment of concentration meant for time traveling.
- The Reveal: To Sonic's shock, it was his Uncle Chuck who originally created the Roboticizer, not Robotnik. It was originally designed for medical purposes during the Great War, but was shelved after discovering it robs people of their free will. They all discover that Robotnik took the plans shortly after.
- The Unreveal: Whatever mission Sonic and Sally were carrying out that involved knocking out the power to Robotnik's headquarters falls to the wayside when they lose two of their Freedom Fighters.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Fed up with fighting a Hopeless War, Sonic and Sally retrieve the Time Stones from the Floating Island, hoping to stop Robotnik's takeover before it begins.
- You Are Too Late:
- During a mission at the beginning of the episode, two members of the Freedom Fighters are captured, and Sonic tries to save them, only for them to get taken into Robotnik's headquarters before he can reach them. Then, before he and Sally can plan a rescue, they are horrified to find out they have already been roboticized.
- Thanks to Sonic messing up the time and place he and Sally time travel to, they end up being too late to stop Robotnik's coup, and end up being right in the middle of it.
