#sega kin | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mooshs-crack-headcanons · 2 years

Text

Shadow's characterization

Now, this is a subject I've discussed a few times on here but I would like to make it another post going into more detail on the matter and going fully on exactly what made his original character work and why it resignated (at least with me personally) so much and exactly what the fuck Sega has been missing about the certain important aspects of his character since 2006. Yes, 2006.

2001-2006, 5 years, 4 games, and a whole character saga revolving around identity. This was Shadow's peak era and my personal favorite era of any sonic game, yes with a few downsides (06. We'll get there.) but even with a few glaring issues this is the point of time I was personally introduced to Sonic and I couldn't have fallen in love with it any more than that period of time and yes the game with the "edgy" hedgehog with a gun was the catalyst to that.

Anyway, let's break down this character saga game by game. Everything shown in game or just taken from easy subtext and in between lines speculation.

Sonic adventure 2

Shadow the hedgehog is a very angry vengeful person. Being trapped in stasis for 50 years after just watching your best friend, your sister figure, your one person connecting you to humanity - shot down before your very eyes and saving your life from the governmental slaughter by shooting you down to the tiny blue marble you two had always dreamed about going down there before succumbing to her injuries? Yeah that will tend to do it.

He remembers that moment, however, it's only partial of the memory. He remembers before being shot down to earth her making him promise something... but for the love of him he can't piece together entirely what it is - but given context and her being shot down as he dragged her through the halls of the ARK to escape and then ending up in that chamber... it has to be for revenge right? They destroyed everything, they shot her and ultimately made them forever separate without even a proper goodbye? Just felting words of a hazy promise before shooting him down to earth. They - GUN, government agents from that blue marble earth did all this. Humanity did this.

This is the "promise" Maria made him take - is what he convinces himself - this is his mindset for the beginning of the game. Not even a minute after he's awake and is met with Gerald's (and Maria's) kin he's already hatched a motive to go with the Doctor's plan as he sees fit with deeper intentions behind the scenes. Afterall he doesn't care about Ivo's plans to build his "Empire of Eggman" - he just wants to see everything burn.

Then he meets a blue hedgehog.

Sonic has been excused of Shadow's crimes and is on the run from GUN, during the end of his run he meets Shadow who has a Chaos Emerald. Shadow at that moment has the opportunity to potentially just use Chaos Control and teleport away at that very moment but he doesn't, he just stands on top of the mech amused at the inferior blue rodent's words and calls that he's been excused for Shadow's crimes. Then the blue rodent dares to calls Shadow a "fake hedgehog." This strikes a very heavy nerve, and thrashes against a sudden pelt of insecurity. Fake? Him? He could leave right then and there but something deep in him feels the nerve to show this pest off and uses Chaos Control a few times just to show off just how much power the Ultimate Lifeform has over Chaos energy just to make a point who is the ""fake"" one here. Then he leaves Sonic behind to deal with not only the GUN squad that were originally chasing after him during city escape but also the ones trailing Shadow during radical highway with puts him behind bars at Prison Island.

Their second encounter is a bit different than the first - one they actually get to fight instead of Shadow just showing off and Controlling away when the blue blur throws the "fake hedgehog" calling at him - this time it doesn't bother him as much in fact the blue inferior one makes a utter fool of himself with the name calling ("I'll make you eat those words!") however he does in fact very much surprise him with just how well he can keep up - call him surprised even. But the interaction is cut short when the Doctor's radio cuts end with the news the islands about to blow up.

Things in Shadow's mind remain mostly the same at this point on... that is until he gets a call in from the treasure hunter Rouge that she's locked in and stuck with the Chaos Emeralds in the GUN facility security hall that with the rest of the island is about to blow up.

This is the first moment out of three distinct moments his facade begins to break down.

Up to the point him and Rouge have only had very few interactions with one another. Yes, their both working with the Doctor for very both different reasons but... while she may be a thief and he has suspicions that she may be a government spy he's heard of passing she doesn't deserve to just die as gruesome like this. Maria didn't either. He isn't sure why exactly in those moments he makes that comparison but once he did his mind just clicks and his feet are already moving as he curses himself that this might bite him back in the ass if that bat woman is actually a spy.

After the fact he tells himself he did it for the emeralds - not out of compassion. Hell he even tells Rouge this when she comes to confront him about it. But deep down they both know the truth. It's both kept unsaid but Rouge is very much grateful for this save and this with fuel their loyality Team Dark dynamic in upcoming sections.

The second crack happens when he runs into that blue hedgehog again, Sonic, for the third time. It's much different from the last two times - less insecure than the first encounter, less prideful and arrogant than the second, no this time Shadow's more... curious of his rival. He didn't die in the capsule, he used a fake emerald to Chaos Control, there's more to him but exactly what? What the hell is he? "Just a guy that loves adventuring." What the hell does that even mean? He isn't sure. But it sticks with him.

The third crack in his facade comes when the Eclipse Canon is on track for earth. He did it. He fulfilled his promise to her. He watches out the same window where he and Maria used to stare out into space and daydream about what it would be like on the blue marble below. He did it, while he is more than sure he'll die as well in the extinction level impact but that's okay to him. He fulfilled his promise... that's all that should matter, right? But something still feels... off. He isn't sure what that is until a pink hedgehog comes into the room.

Amy of course mistook him for Sonic during their first meeting but not this time. Everyone is doing so much and she knows she has to do her part too however she can.. she pleas him for his help knowing how strong he is and talks to him about how she knows there is good in people, humanity, and that saving them is the good and right thing to do if he only can give them a chance to. Her words sound so familiar to Shadow the further he searches to remember from where.

Then he remembers - the fog from his last moments with Maria fade away and he remembers word for word the promise she made him take. Not revenge on those who took her away from him. A better feature. A better feature for all those on that blue marble they spent their days gazing down at, the purpose she told him he was made for. To make people happy.

It's an earth shattering revelation.

Everything he's done up to this point has been devastatingly wrong, he has to make up for it. And he promises both Maria and Amy that as he runs out the room. Make this right.

Live and learn.

This is exactly what Shadow does, his super transformation is visible personification of his swoop of redemption. At the start he was so angry and vengeful all for the loss of his sister and wanted the whole world to burn because of it, his justification placed on mis misremembered probably brought due to his 50 year stasis. Now he fights side by side with his rival to take on his prototype - the Biolizard, what was originally supposed to be him - taking his past in a way head on.

With the Biolizard defeated then all that's left is the ARK that is still falling on course to Earth.

Gerald Robotnik made this plan in his grief for Maria before he was executed, what was supposed to be against the Black Arms he turned to humanity. This plan that Shadow also in his grief was more than ready to let go through. Now he was stopping it, he knows now it's exactly what Maria wouldn't have wanted - the opposite in fact. As the ARK falls further and further he and Sonic struggled to prevent it from continuing it's course and then in one burst of Chaos energy Shadow teleports the whole thing far away from earth. With consequences.

Sonic reaches out to try to save him as he falls (we know from one of the past Twitter takeovers) but is to late as Shadow shutters out of super form as all the energy being too much to handle leaves his body and he plummets to earth. But he's okay with it, unlike that moment in the window room where he had thought revenge was Maria's promise when he felt off and unfilled, here he doesn't. Here he feels he made the right choice and his actual promise fulfilled.

That's what makes Shadow a redeemed character.

But as we know that doesn't end his story, and while the choice to bring him back and seemingly erase his mentioned redemption is controversial to some fans. I don't think entirely so, mostly because exactly the set up the next game brings.

Sonic Heroes

After SA2 and pre Heroes is a very foggy blurry period. However, given a certain subject in the next section I think to a certain degree it works. For now that's important is to first establish the Shadow in this game IS the Shadow from SA2, Eggman literally confirms it in the final fight of the Shadow 05 game but this is something we'll come back to but what's important to remember this IS the real same Shadow from SA2.

Shadow is freed by Rouge from one of Eggman's bases and was guarded by E-123 Omega, who has spite for Eggman for trapping him in here for all this time. This creates the (family) Team Dark.

Shadow has amnesia - this is very important to note - with absolutely no memory of what or who he is or anything that happened in the previous game. He is a blank slate and his motivation for this game is to find out exactly who he is.

But Rouge knows who he is! Kind of... going off the little time see got to know him and exactly what all the government files said about project Shadow, but most of that was about the Biolizard so it isn't exactly much help there anyway. However, Rouge is still very appreciative of Shadow saving her from the explosion on the island and given he's straight up supposed to be dead right now she's more than willing to help her friend out and get behind all this mess for some answers and now they have a trigger happy robot to accompany them and help them out as they all set out for Eggman.

Sonic Heroes given it's a game revolving around four teams which each of their own campaigns, each story campaign unsurprisingly isn't as fleshed out as it could be so of course Shadow doesn't really get to say all that much in the game, however but probably unintentional, that works. Like I said Shadow here while bits of personality does peak through at times he's just seems... lost. And given context, again, I think that works. He's a blank slate, confused, zero idea who or what the hell he is... and this becomes more ever impactful once his major conflict comes up.

The Shadow Androids.

Now a lot of people hate them, I get it. But they do have purpose and they leave the ending if this Shadow we play as in this game is real or not (REMEMBER THIS I'M COMING BACK TO IT LATER) Now, given Eggman's confirmation in the 05 game and the Twitter takeover question it confirms either way the Shadow we have right now in canon IS the one from SA2 so he DID survive and that's why the one in Heroes IS the one from SA2 and while we do know this still that just a period of time post SA2 pre heroes of after Shadow fell is still... hazy and could definitely be touched more upon. (Maybe a future movie might cover it 👀)

But the Shadow Androids kick off what I call the "Identity crisis arc" in Shadow's story. The question in heroes is never answered at least in that game and the rest of Heroes story doesn't matter with the other team's campaigns its the fact this identity crisis AND his memory loss pin points in this game is the most important part of this game when it comes to Shadow's development.

Shadow the hedgehog 2005

There is an important fact about this game I can't stress enough:

The last story and it's ending with The. Cg. Animated. Ending. Is. The. Canon. One.

The one Sega PURPOSEFULLY put more money on to animate? THAT ONE IS THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS TO CANON.

The other endings? And how you get to them I see them as hypotheticals.

People go on and on about Shadow's character in THIS game with the different endings being very inconsistent. THERE SUPPOSED TO BE. THEY'RE DIFFERENT ALLIGNMETS AND OUTCOMES.

This game builds off the fact Shadow is a fucking blank slate for his character given his amnesia in heroes that its your choices and how you play the game effect his character and how he molds to be who he is with each different ending you get. ITS ON PURPOSE FOR THE ALIGNMENT MECHANIC.

Everyone hates the Shadow Androids endings and this is why I call them "hypotheticals" right now in canon its confirmed Shadow is the same Shadow from SA2, but the Shadow Android endings are clearly IF the Shadow from heroes was an Android. Making it - say it with me - a hypothetical. It's not canon. None of the endings except the fancy one with the fancy animation of a HERO ENDING are canon therefore they should not matter in the scheme of Shadow's portrayal. Only the canon one should.

Sorry this argument gets me heated, anyway.

Shadow works perfectly as how he was at the ending of Heroes - confused who and what he is with only flashes of memories now here and there. Then suddenly the sky turns dark and a shadowy alien claiming to know who he is appears out of nowhere and offers to tell him if he gets the chaos emeralds for him. Is it a foolish decision? Probably. But he has no other choice but to follow this guy because he's that desperate to learn about his past and himself.

Then, following the canon ending, he does slowly and slowly relearn who he is and further learning details about his Black Arms heritage and further about his creation. He relearns about Maria and the true promise they made.

The CG ending is basically SA2's all over again - except this time he can overcome it on his own and this time he comes to let go of everything holding onto him of the past and live for the future, a better future he's determined to make himself and seeing Maria's promise through as he uses his full power of his super to stop the comit.

Is it somewhat a rehash of his redemption in SA2? Maybe. But I think it's proof that no matter what there is good in Shadow that wants to fight for the side of humanity - no matter how many times he looses his memory or whatever of the sort always he'll eventually find his way back to its defense even if he stumbles back into the "dark" a bit. And that's an extremely important part of Shadow's character.

Sonic 2006

Bet you weren't expecting to see this?

If there's one good this 06 did, one thing at all, it would be Team Dark's story. And unfortunately this is the last of Shadow's character development that isn't.... "modern" Shadow.

Shadow is working for GUN, which in of itself is a development but however given circumstances in 06 (this one I'm less memorized on and refuse to replay it so stay with me here)

Mephiles forms himself to look in Shadow's image and tries to convince Shadow to join his side, using the information Shadow becomes a large threat in the future and believes to have awaken Iblis (which is also fueled by the... shenanigans Shadow got up to in the 05 game if I remember correctly) as fuel for his convincing and to "take revenge" but Shadow sees through it immediately, stating even if the world fought against him he would still fight to protect it - while he let go the bitterness of his past he still is determined to keep his true promise to Maria in protecting humanity.

After all of this new information comes to light, Omega is tasked to "stabilize him". This is certainly... for Shadow and Team Dark but Shadow brushes it off saying he'll fight like he always has and Rouge pops in saying she'll stick by his side no matter what happens (true family goals) and while he doesn't say it out loud he acknowledges it and you can tell it means a lot to him.

And my God just the scene where he fucking absolutely wrecks the hoard of Mephiles' after taking of his Inhibitor rings is one of the most fucking hype cutscene fights I've ever seen in a video game and just... how he and Team Dark carrying themselves in it - hell in this entire game - is just one of the most satisfying things to see and you can practically FEEL their comradry.

It really sucks this is one of the last truly good moments we have of all of them together being truly well written, for the rest of the game and the rest of the series to this day.

And sadly given the context of the ending of 06 you can sadly forget about this last section with the whole erasing of time where the whole game didn't happen thing... it's very unfortunate given Shadow and Team Dark's story was like one of maybe a very very few things good about this game.

Conclusion

Shadow is a complex character that goes through three character arcs: his grief to his redemption in SA2, his identity crisis and learning exactly who/what he is (both literally and figuratively) and how he comes to accept and move past his trauma in Heroes and the 05 game, and finally from 06; his dedication thrive to his new purpose in maintaining his promise - he doesn't want to be a hero or a villain, he just wants to keep his promise to his sister with doing the right thing and protecting and defending the future of humanity no matter what it takes or what opinion humanity, what he's promised to protect, has on him.

And even with the events of 06 erased, he still has that motivation deep down, it's just Sega that's ignoring it with their bullshit outdated "sonic bible" or whatever. He's not some edgy bullshit rival character, he's had his character development and is no longer the angry vegenful person that looked down on humanity that he was at the beginning of SA2 - and he's not the lost in identity crisis he was in heroes/05 game either - Sonic 06 did a lot of hurt to this franchise both in and out but honestly? If there's ever a good way to look to where Shadow's character should at bare minimum be working off of its from who is was at the end (of his story anyway) of Sonic 06. He's not the type of person to claim himself to be a hero and most definitely not a villain, he just wants to do the right thing and protect the world that Maria loved so much and maybe have a bit of fun with back and forth rivalry with a certain blue hedgehog to keep him busy here and there from time to time.

He's been through a lot and has transformed as a person, I just wish Sega would see that. Not whatever the fuck they wrote him in Boom or in Forces.

Maybe movie 3 with help fix this.

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #sonic adventure 2 #sonic heroes #shadow the hedgehog 2005 #sonic 06 #moosh speaks #maria robotnik #non request related

58 notes · View notes