#{ Bring hope to humanity: Emerl }

[sentient-rift]

A sound of distortion echoes as a figure collapses onto the floor unconscious, a blue rabbit from Sonic's world

(snatchfreedom)

"Whoa... Hey, guys! I think he needs help!"

"Oh no! Come on! Let's get him to the recovery area!"

Gamma picks up the blue rabbit.

"NOW ESCORTING BLUE RABBIT TO RECOVERY AREA."

"Thanks, Gamma."

"I hope he'll be okay..."

"Me, too, Cosmo."

After taking the blue rabbit to the recovery area, the medics did what they could to heal him.

"We will do everything we can to help him. For now, all we can do is wait until he wakes up."

@snatchfreedom

[dr-spectre]

I just watched the Shadow Dark Beginnings animation preview and bro.... where do I even begin?

Now listen, I talk about Splatoon 99% of the time here, but you gotta understand something, Sonic was my first love in gaming. Ever since I played the classic games, Unleashed, Heroes, Rush and Rush Adventure. And watching clips from Adventure 1 and 2. I've always been a humongous fan of this franchise. I grew up in the crowd that watched those "I FEEL LIKE A MONSTER" amvs of Sonic the Werehog for f sake. I had a printed out poster of a render from Sonic and the Black Knight on my wall as a kid because I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

So, seeing this series FINALLY go back to actually telling more serious stories while being sincere about it too... man... it makes me so. Damn. HAPPY!!!! Frontiers wasn't a one time thing, the darker and more serious stories are actually gonna stick around now. I think we're finally free from the 2010s where we were stuck with "BALDY NOSEHAIR! THAT'S THE BEST THING IVE HEARD ALL DAY!" For a literal decade.

Us Sonic fans had to go through the 2010s where the series made fun of itself and was all "comedy" and stopped doing the cool serious shit they used to do... it makes me so happy that they are FINALLY diving into things they haven't talked about in over a decade. They aren't scared anymore to show a fucking human in this god damn franchise because a bunch of gaming journalists who dont give a fuck about the series said "humans in sonic are BAD!" They aren't scared to show Maria and something like Emerl. EMERL?!?! FROM SONIC BATTLE?!?!?! THAT'S SO COOL!!! I BARELY PLAYED BATTLE BUT STILL! THATS AWESOME!

Now.... was some of the stuff in the 2000s going way too far? Like Shadow saying "you're going straight to hell" and murdering Dr Eggman in non canon endings. And a human kissing a dead Hedgehog to bring him back? Yeah that's way too far. DOESNT MEAN YOU SHOULD THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATHWATER!!!! Lost World and Forces man. My God. Ugh.

Anyways, yeah I'm so excited and so hopeful for this franchise again. Before Frontiers came out I was so nervous if the game was gonna be good or not and what you may say about the game itself, it did appeal to tons of people and became the highest selling 3D Sonic game of all time, beating out Heroes. I am now actually fully confident and excited for Frontiers 2 or whatever the next game shall be.

People cheering and crying over the stuff that happens in that game AS WELL AS A PREVIEW FOR A SHADOW ANIMATION makes me so.... HGIWIDIDIS WAHHH IM SO HAPPY!!! IM HAPPY!!! SONIC IS BACK!!! SONIC IS FINALLY BACK!!! SHADOW IS BACK!!! BOW YOUR HEADS LOW ALL HAIL SHADOW!!!!

[randomfox12245]

Not that avenging Maria wasn't his biggest motivating factor, but we need to remember that Gerald lost everything in the ARK raid. His SA2 diary implies he spent some time detained in GUN custody, uncertain of the fate of his colleagues and Maria.

The government shut down the colony under the premise that there had been an accident. It's not too much of a stretch to assume that they made Gerald a scapegoat in the public eye in order to conceal their own crimes. So if we are to assume Gerald had something of an ego, he lost his reputation and credibility as a scientist, and there was nothing he could do about it.

GUN detained him in a prison cell. So he lost his freedom. One day he's top dog of a space colony he built with his own two hands; the next, he doesn't even have access to a toilet.

His colleagues' names appeared on a casualty list alongside Maria. So he lost his people, folks he probably considered family, and the government made him out to be the cause of their deaths. It is also possible Gerald blamed himself for the raid since he seemed to be aware in his video to Shadow and in his Battle journal entries that the government planned to shut down the colony for some time. Maybe the GUN soldiers even pinned the blame for Maria's death on him, since he claims he "couldn't bear the thought" that Maria had died from his research.

Really, when you look at the situation holistically, it makes sense that Gerald would try to reprogram Shadow, as vile and unthinkable as such a deed is, because Shadow is the one thing left he can control. Everything else - reputation, freedom, credibility, kith and kin - has been taken away from him. His situation is tragic, and it becomes even more tragic when you take into account that his thoughts frightened him as he eventually lost his mind: the very thing that defined his existence. He is just a husk of a man by the time of his execution.

Even then, the fact that he made Maria's last words of "Bring hope to humanity" the key that grants Emerl free will implies that Gerald's lucid, more altruistic self fought to remain. Tried to cling to hope. Tragedy, loss, anger and guilt eroded him, and it lost. To say Gerald was somehow born evil when judging him by his worst acts after being deprived of his human rights is, frankly, reprehensible.

This isn't to say what he did wasn't evil; it was. But we must also reckon with his multitudes and the circumstances in which he was placed, instead of ignoring them and pretending the same potential for harm doesn't live inside of us as well.

Also, there are worlds of difference between Gerald being pushed to the brink via circumstance and Eggman gleefully engaging in evil out of opportunism and self-interest.

He was incarcerated for long enough to write all that shit on the walls of his cell

Solitary confinement is actually considered to be torture in a lot of countries because human beings are social animals, and depriving humans of contact with other people trapping them in an enclosed box like that will have severe psychological deteriorating impact. Not the healthiest place for someone who just found out his granddaughter was killed in an obvious government cover up to spend their time. It also seems clear that Gerald was malnourished during his imprisonment, considering how thin and gaunt his model is in SA2 compared to his fat figure in Shadow the Hedgehog.

There is no excuse for what Gerald did, but there are explanations for it. And writing off Gerald's final actions as just the evil deeds of an evil man who was rotten from the day he was born absolves responsibility of all the people who drove Gerald to that. It absolves the GUN command who instigated the cover up in the first place. It absolves the storm troopers who executed a 12 year old girl. It absolves the warden who held Gerald imprisoned under inhumane conditions. And it absolves the government who allowed all of this to happen without intervention, and possibly with approval.

The corruption of the government and the military politice is a present and striking theme of Sonic Adventure 2 (a relevant one considering when the game came out as well) and to just say Gerald was a bad egg is to disregard that message as well.

I think it really speaks to how insecure internet neo purity culture has made people that they completely disregard environmental circumstances that can result in people resorting to terrible acts of harm against one another out of desperation. Which is kinda funny because this idea?

This is the same argument that racists use to say that black people are just automatically more violent and less civilized. Look at statistics showing black on black violence! They're just bad, and that's why they do bad things! Anybody who is willing to rob someone or sell drugs was just a bad apple from the day they were born! Ignoring the issues of systemic oppression and american apartheid that results in a disproportionately high amount of black Americans to living in states of inescapable poverty from which crime becomes a rampant means of exploitation.

But lord knows we can't admit that people can be DRIVEN to committing evil against one another. As if EXPLAINING why someone would do something bad is the same thing as condoning it 🙄

[beevean]

It intrigues me that some of the most interestingly baffling takes I see about characterisations are on Gerald of all people. There seem quite a few takes here that he was irrevocably evil, rotten to the core, cackling manically as he hurt and damaged the being he'd brought into the world with no regard for Shadow's wellbeing, and so on and so forth. And that is barely putting it as graphically as the statements about all the "torture" "Shadow" "faced" on the ARK I have read before.

But to me, Gerald seems so incredibly heavily driven by love instead? He originally did not even want to create the Ultimate Lifeform, as he deemed it something humanity should not muddle with, but his love for Maria and desperation to save her life made him accept this burden. He very explicitly calls Shadow his son, tells him he's made a mistake with accepting Black Doom's help, and worked to ensure humanity had a defence against the Black Arms. He gave Emerl and Shadow a soul like Maria's, so that these weapons of mass destruction would never fight and only use their powers selflessly. In Battle, Rouge could not spell out more to the nose that he was researching ways to bring hope and happiness to people (similarly discussed by Shadow and Maria in SA2), but forced by those in power to use his creations for war instead. When Gerald goes insane, he himself talks about the fright it gave him, that he can only think about revenge. With the added complete lack of indication Shadow was ever mistreated in any way on the ARK, the idea of Gerald as some conniving bastard gleefully causing Shadow suffering (or even just somberly causing him suffering In The Name Of Science) holds no more water at all to me. He is not at all a flawless person, but until the point he learned he lost Maria, all his concerns were centered around the happiness of the world instead. And personally, I find the idea of a person driven by love to go insane because that love caused him to lose his most important person, which only then makes him hurt his other creation he earlier regarded as a son, a lot more interesting than someone who simply always was evil and disdainful of said creation and just regarded him as a tool to help someone else. Shadow was more to Gerald that just that, of that I am certain.

I'm very glad I did not encounter a single instance of what you saw :) but I don't doubt that some fans really headcanon Gerald as being cruel. After all, apparently some are going around painting Sonic & co. as monsters for not playing therapist for Neo Metal Sonic...

It makes sense. If a fan really wants to imagine that Shadow suffered like hell on the ARK, it goes without saying that in this interpretation Gerald was a bastard who didn't care about his creation.

Anyway, it is inconceivable to me to play SA2 or ShTH (not even including Battle as at this point I think only 5% of the current fandom even remembers it) and come away with the conclusion that Gerald didn't adore Maria and Shadow. But, well. I may have answered my own question :P

@skaruresonic did you see anything resembling this?

[digitalgate02]

to explain why i'm going insane, i'll phrase it as...

i was ready to go to sleep last night and as the usual, my mind did the funny thing called "okay what if Gerald is not Gerald at all" because i'm still finding it too fishy him being very okay with Eggman wanting to dominate the world.

and Gerald was never a mad scientist type of character -- even if you dislike the new content from Shadow Generations, this was very much hinted in SA2... That he lost his sanity when Maria was murdered by G.U.N. alongside all of the people abroad ARK. Also, Sonic Battle had some sort of Gerald notes about Emerl and i recall none of them were on the same tone of a mad scientist or someone delusional like, you know, Eggman can be.

(I mean, when Eggman wants to be a decent human being he can be. He would team up with Sonic in SA2 to save the world... Even if it is for him to dominate it later. But the thing is, Eggman always was portrayed as some very mad genius with the desire of taking over the world and sometimes being quite delusional as well. Even before the lore team was formed.)

So... Knowing that Gerald was not even supposed to be seen as a cold hearted villain and yes someone who had a big meltdown after Maria was killed and then started wanting to make every single person in Earth pay for this (yeah...) -- I don't really really feel sure about this guy being Gerald at all.

But, you know who also is insane as Eggman or even 10x WORSE, someone who clearly makes Eggman himself be extremely scared sometimes due to just being even more insane than him??

Eggman Nega.

And, according to Fowler, movie 3 will lead to movie 4 with a new character being announced just like movie 2 announced Shadow. And considering that... Maybe we could get Silver in it. Ok, i'd hope they could add Amy as well, but i really feel like MAYBE this Gerald is Eggman Nega in disguise trying to do something and then leading to whatever would bring Silver to the past and then clash with Sonic & co.

I know, I'm gone insane, but makes sense imo.

So yeah guys.

[skaruresonic]

Shadow very clearly follows that quote from Se7en "Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part."

(Rouge immediately responds to this by saying she doesn't want Shadow's emo whining to be the last thing she hears before she dies lol)

He's cynical but he still strives to do the right thing, even if he goes about it in not quite the right way sometimes.

Though I would say that the "I can't stand it" line could be interpreted as referring to the sacrifice and pain that comes from the promise of bringing hope to humanity, and not to his desire itself.

After all immediately BEFORE saying that, he said this. With ellipses inbetween, implying that this sentiment is still what is on his mind when he says the above.

The line directly before this is "So this is the final voice of the last war machine... " which I find to be one of Shadow's rawest lines ever. Fucking metal. Makes you feel like War Pigs by Sabbath ought to be playing in the background.

Though I would say that the "I can't stand it" line could be interpreted as referring to the sacrifice and pain that comes from the promise of bringing hope to humanity, and not to his desire itself.

Honestly, the "it" is ambiguous enough that I think it could be open to multiple interpretations. I personally lean towards the interpretation that he "can't stand" having to protect a greedy warmongering species. That it would be easier to wipe them out or otherwise be eradicated - he tells Sonic that if mankind wants peace, it must destroy him and Emerl - but in his heart he knows neither one is a real solution.

It's worth bearing in mind that Shadow ends his own story by peacing out because he can't deal with Emerl's sappiness, seeing as how he insists it's "ridiculous" for a weapon to have feelings, let alone display them. This implies a degree of cognitive dissonance between what he should be doing---being a weapon, the strongest, the ultimate life form, what have you---and what he is currently doing (engaging in the superpowah of friendship). It's also why Sonic laughs that Shadow could stand to learn something from Emerl.

That's why I said maybe some part of him, in this iteration at least, feels deep down it would be easier to be a weapon of war. He wouldn't have to think about these things if he simply followed his programming. Yet he knows he is not one, and can never be due to having a soul.

On the other hand, feelings complicate matters---his feelings, that "heart" Sonic argues he has and of which he vehemently denies, render him vulnerable. And Battle!Shadow can't deal with vulnerability just yet.

The last scene you posted has him reflect on the dangers of following programming to its self-destructive end. It's an especially poignant moment foreshadowed by an earlier scene where Emerl laments a broken Chaos Gamma. Shadow says, "You see, Emerl? This is the fate of weapons of war." Emerl admits he is saddened by this, and Shadow replies: "I know."

Shadow wanted Emerl to achieve his true potential and is now left to ponder the consequences.

[sonadowwiki]

Common Lies, Tactics, and Phrases used by those who Discredit Sonadow

"Shadow is a villain or evil"

Shadow is not a villain or evil. Even if he is an Anti-hero, he is still a hero and works to protect the world like Sonic. He always works together with Sonic to save the world as well, even if they at first rival each other like in 'Sonic Battle', 'Sonic Heroes', 'Sonic Generations' and 'Team Sonic Racing', Shadow always ends up helping or supporting Sonic or saves the world himself at the end of every official game him and Sonic is in. Only in 'Sonic Adventure 2' is Shadow at first an enemy and seen as evil due to his manipulated memories, but in the end, he teams up with Sonic and saves the world together with him as Super Shadow. Even in the side media from Sonic Team, Sonic x Shadow July 2021 Calendar Story, Shadow was on a mission to protect the people who didn't want to believe him and he did his best to make sure that there were no casualties from the bomb's explosion despite that.

SEGA Japan has even called Shadow a hero themselves with the description used for the S-Fire 'Sonic Adventure 2' figure with Sonic and Shadow. Eitaro Toyoda has also stated that Shadow is not a bad guy by all means when replying about whether Shadow would harm Sonic. Sonic Team has also stated themselves that Shadow is a sweet person. The only time Shadow was shown more evil than usual was in the 'Sonic Boom' universe (a Western media) where he tried to end the world and in the non-canon Dark paths in 'Shadow the Hedgehog 2005'. But these interpretations of Shadow are inaccurate to how Shadow truly is from the games and other more accurate medias that are official.

An example to this can be 'Sonic Battle' where Shadow was going to destroy Emerl so that he wouldn't harm the world, but Sonic said that he wouldn't be able to do it because he had a heart. Shadow ended up proving Sonic right and did not destroy Emerl. He instead set Emerl free from being able to be used for evil and let him go. He also lets Sonic be the one to end him in the end.

Shadow also mentions in 'Sonic Battle' that it is his desire to bring hope to humanity, and doing that also leads to him protecting the world as a Hero. Shadow has a heart of justice, therefore he is not a villain or evil.

Also, based off of the 'Shadow the Hedgehog 2005' game mechanics, Shadow is always for justice because he is always using "Chaos Control" and he never used "Chaos Blast" ever since that game. "Chaos Blast" can only be used if Shadow is filled with Evil, but if Shadow is filled with Justice, he will use "Chaos Control." This is why materials where they have Shadow use "Chaos Blast" are inaccurate because he has never used it again in a game or other accurate medias and he won't use it because he's not evil. This interpretation of him using "Chaos Blast" tends to be in Western medias that incorrectly portray him.

It is also stated in a trailer for Sonic x Shadow Generations that Shadow is an Anti-hero, which is still him being a hero, especially since in the game he is working towards saving the world like Sonic who is called a hero in the same trailer.

Other third parties also call Shadow an Anti-Hero, such as LEGO's website. Before clicking to see more on Shadow's profile, LEGO calls Shadow "The Anti-Hero One." It also mentions that Shadow protects the world, which is what a Hero does, even an Anti-Hero.

(To learn more about this and parallel versions of Shadow and other characters, read the Observations page.)

[Sonic x Shadow Generations Trailer - Shadow is called an Anti-hero in the trailer and he is working to save the world just like Sonic who is called a hero]

[SEGA S-Fire's description for their Sonic & Shadow Sonic Adventure 2 figure on their website. It also says this on the Japanese version of the website where it called Shadow, along with Sonic, a hero, protagonist and main character - 主人公. In this description, it calls both Sonic and Shadow Heroes, Main Characters (JP) and Protagonists (JP).]

So even in the video game where Shadow was at first a villain or antagonist, SEGA Japan themselves still call Shadow a Hero because he ends up saving the world at the end of the game along with Sonic to be that Hero. By them calling Shadow a Hero in this statue, it also says that Shadow continued being a Hero after the events of Sonic Adventure 2 due to being called one now.

[Sonic Battle - Sonic tells Shadow that because he has a heart, he doesn't see him as someone who can kill]

[Sonic Battle - Shadow stating it is his desire to bring hope to humanity. It is his own choice (not because Maria told him to) to protect the world and give hope to humanity]

[LEGO Website - Where they call Shadow an Anti-Hero, which is still a Hero]

[LEGO Website - Shadow's Profile where it states that Shadow is someone who's goal is to protect the world (as a Hero)]

[borrelia]

Guy who is so normal about what is happening in battle, he's handling it really well he's coping he's healthy he's not projecting his problems even a little bit

Tails: Shadow? Shadow: There's no need to repeat past tragedies. Nobody else ever needs to go through the things that I have! Out of the way! I'll finish it now! Tails: Shadow! I respect you, but...Emerl's our friend! If you attack one of us, then I'll do whatever it takes to protect him! Shadow: Hmph. Looks like you'll never understand. The builders will never know how their creations truly feel.

Shadow: Sonic the hedgehog... Where is Emerl?! Sonic: He's at Tails' place... Tell me something, why are you after him, anyway? Shadow: I'm not here to steal him. I'm here to welcome him, as a fellow weapon of war.

(^ after pointing out emerl won't kill them all because a certain other "ultimate weapon" chose peace as well...) Shadow: Hmph! No, you are wrong. We were created as weapons. If the people of this world ever want peace, they must destroy us. Sonic: Shadow?! And one more thing! Rouge said that there's a keyword that can free Emerl! If we could find out what it is, Emerl could become just a normal robot! Shadow: Ha! Such hopeless dreams... weapons have no need for a conscience. Freedom? What use is a weapon that does not follow orders?! I have a different kind of link with Gizoid. Like me, he's a weapon! No doubt about it! He's a weapon to be used by his Master! Sonic: Shadow...

Shadow: This was Gerald's final program... Should a weapon go out of control, the weapon will terminate itself... ... ... ... It is my desire to bring hope to humanity. I can't stand it...

very amusing shadow is so clearly Going Through It during battle. he's sick(?) and because of that he's injured and sleeping for most of the game. every time he shows up he's talking about how emerl needs to die in what is very obviously projecting. he's noooot doing well

[sentient-rift]

(Continued from here.) @millassundries

"Will do, Milla!" the Gizoid said while giving her a thumbs up, "Cosmo will be so happy to know how much you loved the flowers. She put a lot of care in growing them to make sure you got the best ones."

The adapting robot then tilted his head as present memories from the past filled his mind.

"Hope you don't mind me just throwing this out there, but you remind me of my friend, Cream. Right down to being an adorable sweetheart. I really hope you two meet one day. You'd be fast friends for sure.

"Although... I haven't seen her in awhile, so I don't know how long it will be before you two meet..."

[glapplebloom]

THIS IS WHO HE IS!!!

I’m pretty sure you know who Shadow is. But the reason I am bringing it up is because I saw a Twitter post asking if a specific comic page was out of character for Shadow. Now I think it's out of character for Shadow, but that’s because I’m thinking of specifically my version of Shadow. The one that experienced the Shadow Trilogy before turning good. So this isn’t taking the elements of Shadow after that. So I am going to look over Shadow and see how much in character IDW is from the Shadow in the game.

The Shadow Trilogy

The Shadow Trilogy is a series of games I feel focus on Shadow’s story. From his first appearance in Sonic Adventure 2, to his return and amnesia in Sonic Heroes, and the focus and moving away from the past in Shadow the Hedgehog. A beginning, middle and end for our favorite edgy hedgehog. So what’s next for Shadow? First…

Sonic Battle

Sonic Battle arrived in stores days before Sonic Heroes. But when you read the story, it feels like it takes place before the events of Shadow the Hedgehog. Yet the wiki treats it as after. You make the call yourself, I’m just going to recap it. So in Sonic Battle, Shadow is having visions of the Gizoid. These visions are bad because they talk about a tragedy. Seeing Emerl as a weapon, he tries to destroy him but Sonic and Tails prevents that. We find out that he fears not just Emerl’s power, but his own destructive capabilities. He feels that if the world wants peace, he must be destroyed. 

After some time, thanks to Rouge, he finds out Gerald was not interested in making weapons. He wanted to bring peace to the world so Shadow and Emerl have copies of Maria’s “soul” to hopefully lead them to that direction. And with the keyword “Bring Hope to Humanity”, Emerl deactivates his Ultimate Weapon mode. So Shadow realizes he’s not a weapon and coolly leaves when Emerl gets all touchy feely. But Robotnik being a jerk overpowers that and forces Emerl to sacrifice himself to save everyone. 

Sonic 06

Now in Shadow’s story, after the Shadow Trilogy, he works for GUN alongside Rouge. Mephiles is freed and he tries to convince that when the world was destroyed the humans blamed Shadow, but he’s been in Sonic Adventure 2 so he knows it was likely Mephiles doing and he manipulates people into thinking it was him. So while he gets Rouge to follow Mephiles, he goes to Eggman for answers. Which leads to him finding out about the Solaris Project and his own time traveling incident with Silver.

When he tries to recreate the Scepter of Darkness to trap Mephiles, it fails. This leads to Rouge, Omega and Shadow fighting an army of Mephiles. But he kills Sonic and they all work together to bring him back to life and work together with Shadow and Silver to defeat Solaris. Honestly, not a lot to work with. He has his incidents of needing help, but just as many as wanting to do things alone and not talking to others about it. But overall the story seems more about Mephiles than Shadow.

Sonic Rivals 1 and 2

In Sonic Rivals 1, he investigates a transmission from Eggman, but Eggman tells him he didn’t send any message. Rouge then does, but disappears. Turns out Eggman Nega was behind this. So he teams up with the others (in a “whatever you want” kind of way) and stops him. So on one hand, you have him act like a jerk when teaming up with others, even dismissing Rouge. But he does show concern for her as well as Eggman for some reason.

Which leads to the sequel, where he works with Eggman alongside Metal Sonic to “save the world”. Turns out maybe so since Eggman Nega is the boss who fights in Shadow’s story. He’s still anti-social to everyone but Rouge, who in turn is antisocial when he told her that someone is gathering the chaos emeralds to unleash a demon and she goes for the client. And it was Eggman Nega. They defeat Ifrit and Metal Sonic sacrifices himself to save Shadow. 

Other Major Appearances Pre-Forces..

For Sonic Free Riders, Shadow wants to race and win, not caring for formalities. Both him and Rouge don’t care about their random robot ally. While he never shows up in the Sonic Colors Console games, he does make an appearance in the DS Version, where he does not help Sonic at all. But he does give Sonic and Tails a push towards helping others. And in Sonic Generations, he gets sucked up, acts like a boss in the Dreamcast line, and encourages the Sonics in fighting.

Sonic Forces and Team Sonic Racing

A month before Eggman’s big push, Shadow went to recon on Eggman. When told Omega would meet him there, Shadow said he can handle things on his own. When he sees Omega damaged, he confronts Infinite who tells him he became this way because Shadow humiliated him. So Infinite attacks Shadow and leaves him in an exploding warehouse where he is out for a month. When he returned, Sonic was attacked by Infinite and captured. 

We don’t hear from Shadow again until months later, after Sonic escapes from Eggman. He tells them about Infinite's power, and says it's hopeless. And after fighting alongside the resistance forces, doesn’t really attribute much into the rest of the story. Team Sonic Racing has him being a rival to Sonic, being cocky and all that. Team Sonic Racing: Overdrive has him abandoning Rouge and Omega for the race. 

Leading up to Issue #19

Shadow makes his first appearance in IDW’s Sonic #5, with the mission to kill Robotnik. While Robonik lost his memory, Shadow thinks that doesn’t make him any less dangerous. This lines up with Sonic Battle and his initial thoughts on destroying Emerl. We also learn Rouge manipulated events so Sonic would be here to prevent Shadow from killing Robotnik. While people bring up Sonic bringing up Shadow’s past, it is true. Shadow has done some terrible things in the past, even to the point of wanting to kill himself too in Sonic Battle. Yet Sonic and others proved he is good. So why not give the same chance to an amnesiac Robotnik?

In Issue 9, he helps against Metal Sonic despite saying he has his own reasons. Yet he’s not part of the Amy attack force. Issue 10, he waits for Sonic and Knuckles to be beaten down and when the opening is right stabs Metal Sonic. But because he was supposed to be with the others, this gives Metal the ability to go to his Overlord mode. But a key note is when Sonic calls for a tactical retreat, Shadow listens. Issue 11, he does reluctantly agree to work with Sonic while Knuckles runs interference with the Master Emerald. He leaves when Metal Sonic was defeated.

So while he is willing to kill Eggman, he doesn’t stick around to try to kill Metal Sonic for the same reason. Issue 12, Rouge confirms that Shadow does not listen to her. Which leads to his appearance in Issue 19. Shadow is helping since one person saved means one less Zombot to deal with. Shadow comes in with a truck for the transport. He calls Sonic’s situation deserved, which will bite him in the butt later when he takes Sonic’s word about “running it off” to be “running away”. And because of Shadow’s hubris, he gets infected. This leads to the panels in question…

So was Shadow out of character?

Looking at Shadow since the Shadow Trilogy, I don’t think so. Mostly because I think Shadow’s character has been lessened since the Shadow Trilogy. After Battle and 06, his role has been diminished greatly. He did nothing for months when Sonic was captured. He mostly sticks to the rival role while sometimes working alongside Eggman. And within the comics beforehand, yeah. He wants to destroy Eggman, doesn’t listen to Rouge when she makes plans, does reckless things against orders, everything leads to him being infected and ignoring Rouge’s plea of escaping. 

It’s not the Shadow we want, but it's the Shadow Sega wants. And honestly, I would blame them more than Ian.

[shadamyheadcanons]

So... not a submission, but in Sonic Battle, it is heavily suggested that Amy isn't eating properly and is exercising to the point of exhaustion. We never really hear about this again though.

What are your thoughts on this? How do you feel this connects to the rest of what everyone in the fandom knows plus what you personally perceive when it comes to Amy?

Oh, jeez...I haven’t played Sonic Battle, but I just looked up a playthrough of her story, and damn, Sega, what the hell? Poor girl.

Anyone who’s read headcanons 213 and 214 knows that I see Amy as the type to overwork herself in pursuit of self-improvement, particularly to impress or protect others. It’s clear she does both of these in Sonic Battle for Sonic and Emerl respectively. As much as I try to be accurate with my headcanons, I wasn’t hoping to be this correct about it. I even joked in the notes of this headcanon that I want her to pull a Rock Lee someday--a reference to a Naruto episode where a character drops shockingly huge weights he’d been wearing on his limbs during a fight to get stronger, a form of training that’d actually be pretty bad for you--but apparently, she literally already did this in Sonic Battle.

I don’t think most people latch onto this aspect of her character because it’s not as central as her optimism, compassion, etc., but passion taken to extremes can be dangerous for yourself and others, and I’m not really surprised that’s the case with Amy. She never does anything halfway. It makes me worry about her sometimes. The implication that she might have an eating disorder and casually exercises to dangerous levels is farther than I thought Sega would go, but I’m unfortunately not surprised to see it. I’m glad they haven’t touched on it since.

When someone goes to these lengths for the sake of others’ opinions and safety, I think they’re unlikely to stop without an outside perspective. Sonic seems too intimidated by her to do anything, at least right now. Cream and Tails are more realistic, but they’re not the types to really put their feet down about such things. Blaze is rational, too, but I don’t see her stepping in, as she’s more distant. Knuckles might say something, but even he’s somewhat afraid of her, and I don’t think he’s necessarily confrontational enough to bring it to a stop.

Maybe I’m biased, but I think Shadow would be the best option here. I don’t even mean it from a shipping perspective. He’s blunt and cares about her wellbeing, and it would go against his protective instincts to ignore the problem. Again, headcanons 213 and 214 would explain how he does it. This works both ways, too! Shadow’s no stranger to self-sacrifice. He risks his life saving Rouge and Earth in SA2, and he’s willing to protect humanity even knowing they’d program his best robot friend to hunt him down in Sonic 06. It takes real passion to go that far. For a less serious example, I made a headcanon about his destructive habit of depriving himself of sleep, and Amy steps in to help. I didn’t mention it in the headcanon itself, but she purposely does it that way because she’s worried about him and knows he won’t fix the problem on his own. They both need someone in their lives who’s willing and able to do that.

[skaruresonic]

At this point it just feels like contrarianism for contrarianism's sake. Eggman can't be bad because he chooses to do evil things; something must compel him to fuck up the planet. If something in him is "broken," so to speak, it mitigates the impact of his misdeeds because he didn't really commit them out of malice.

Likewise, Gerald can't be a broken man who was pushed to despair due to human cruelty. He had to have been secretly Bad All Along(tm) somehow.

Since I usually spend time banging the former drum, let me switch to the latter. Gerald is a genuinely fascinating character, and his multitudes are myriad.

Shadow tells Maria that the Professor told him the reason for his (Gerald's) existence was "making people happy through the power of science." And Maria calls the Heal Unit his "greatest invention." Even Eggman is given to reflect on his greatness, and feels a certain dissonance between that and Gerald's destructive intent. That moral ambiguity is part of what makes him a compelling character.

It can be simultaneously true that Gerald was altruistic and pragmatic. He can have sanctioned the development of WMDs aboard his space colony while also taking measures to prevent Emerl from becoming one. He can be selfish in that he works to cure Maria at the expense of other concerns, and selfless in that he nevertheless accomplishes great things that benefit humanity.

The Eclipse Cannon represents this duality in his thinking. Whether it devastates or saves depends on how it's used. And, much like the Chaos Emeralds that power it, the Cannon channels one's intent to great effect. That which is powerful enough to destroy is powerful enough to protect; therefore, such power ought to be wielded responsibly, tempered with one's heart, one's soul, never to be abused for selfish gain.

Similarly, Shadow represents both the best and worst of Gerald's deeds: Shadow can either act as a weapon, consumed by hatred to the point of self-destruction, or he can protect the planet, in honor of his granddaughter's wish to "bring hope to humanity."

I would argue that it is because he once harbored great love for humanity that he condemns it so bitterly. Otherwise, he would have died in apathy.

it's so common to see takes like "Eggman isn't actually truly evil and thinks he's doing the right thing/maybe trauma turned him bad" and "maybe Gerald was actually fully a bad person and piece of shit before everything went wrong" and I feel insane I'm like bro wtf is going on why do y'all have it in reverse

both are just as offensively slanderous to me and I gotta jump in to protect my boys from it lol

[diffractor]

I was thinking back to childhood memories, and just realized that the gba game “Sonic Battle” I played a very long time ago was plausibly a subconscious motivating factor for finding AI safety to be an important thing to work on. Said game is a Sonic fighting game, with a hell of a story, though it only really clicks once you do a second playthrough with enough context to see what’s actually going on there. So, this is the plot with full context (and filling in tidbits of info that you only get on the second playthrough), and I’m doing it from memory so there may be some inaccuracies. Once upon a time there was the 4th great Civilization. Key word, “was”. The thing that wiped them out was that they made a very specific robot, as a weapon of war, named Emerl (though that isn’t the original name), and... it didn’t go so well. Emerl’s ability was to be able to copy any attack or weapon used against it, or that it observes. This manifests in the game as Emerl not having a fixed moveset, you can splice together whichever moveset you want from the moves of all the other characters you’ve fought against. Just stitch the best healing and the best movement speed and the best attacks and best projectiles and a “self-destruct after you die” special ability together from all the different characters, and plow through the rest of the cast. Anyways, it was built as a weapon of war, and the creators didn’t last too long after that, though it isn’t specified precisely what happened. Eggman’s father (or grandpa, maybe?) is tasked by the military with creating weapons of war. He doesn’t really want to do this, and so tends to make freely willed things that can reject being a weapon. One of which was Shadow the hedgehog, and also, as his logs show, he found Emerl on an archeology trip too, and kinda freaked out when he realized exactly what that particular robot was. He wasn’t able to completely override the original programming, just put in some modifications. Later, Eggman gets a hold of Emerl somehow, and after a bit of testing and using it to make crappy knockoff robots, deems it a useless pile of trash and certainly not the civilization-ending weapon it’s supposed to be and throws it away on the beach. Sonic finds the abandoned robot, and shows off his moves. Emerl bonds with him (read: follows Sonic around and obeys commands and if Sonic tells Emerl to obey someone else then Emerl has a new master), because one of the things it’s programmed to do is to obey someone who displays sufficient power. It can barely talk, isn’t that good at fighting, and Tails is trying to figure out what the deal with it is. It seems to be attracted to Chaos Emeralds, and after getting the first one, there’s a notable boost in its ability to copy things, fight, and talk, going from “barely able to talk” to “low-quality chatbot trained on a corpus of sonic and tails talking” to “gpt-2 trained on sonic, tails, knuckles, and amy” to “gpt-3 trained on the whole sonic cast” as the game progresses and you acquire more. There’s a bunch of adventures which are mostly pointless, by my estimation, with a bunch of characters trying to use Emerl for their own ends, and getting into shenanigans, and fighting off Eggman, while nobody seems to realize they’ve got a civilization-destroying weapon on their hands. The only sane character worthy of any respect in this entire shitshow is Shadow the Hedgehog, who knows what Emerl actually is and is trying his best to kill the damn thing, while everyone else unreasonably insists on getting in his way and feeding Emerl more Chaos Emeralds because he’s their friend. Idiots. We get to the Shadow arc. Apparently Shadow and Rouge have found Eggman’s (dad’s? grandpa’s?) logs, and apparently when it gets all 7 Chaos Emeralds, it will awaken to its original form. And he managed to set things up so if you say the password “bring hope to humanity” upon Emerl fully waking up... it gets sealed again, and acts as just a friendly Sonic character with free will again, having fun with the rest of the cast. Shadow gives Emerl the last Chaos Emerald and does that, after some meaningful chats. And then the Emerl arc, the final one. Eggman has apparently made some villainous spaceship floating in the sky and being ominous, and the sonic crew sends Emerl up to give Eggman an ass-whooping, which he does. And then Eggman reveals that it was a trap, fires the big spaceship gun (which apparently wipes out some stars, but I reject this because physics and my headcanon is that it just made a big new crater on the moon), and reveals that there’s one last bit of knowledge that nobody knew about. Emerl will always make a bond with anyone that displays overwhelming power, far in excess of what has previously been shown. And all the happy-go-lucky friendly robot nonsense is wiped away, and the ancient weapon of war (which Emerl always was, Shadow should have turned it into scrap) awakens at full power, and starts gathering energy. Eggman tries to direct it (and fails). It aims the big spaceship gun at earth, and Eggman is quite put out by this, because he just wants to rule the world, not destroy it. But, y’know, if you play around with civilization-destroying robots, your civilization might end up destroyed, who would have thought. Emerl beats Eggman up. Sonic takes the Master Emerald (capable of controlling the Chaos Emeralds) and teleports onto the ship to try to use it to reign Emerl in, as their last hope. The heroic victory at the last moment. Emerl unceremoniously smashes it before it can be used. 30 seconds until end of earth. Shadow chooses to go out with a few edgy lines about “the final voice of the last war machine” and “natural result of ignorant human desires” Cream chooses to go out with “are we all... going to die? :(” Tails chooses to go out frantically advising Sonic on how, if he can inflict massive damage on Emerl, since Emerl has too much power stored up and is highly unstable, it should be able to take him out. Sonic chooses to go out fighting Full Power Emerl entirely equipped with blink-fast 2-hit-ko attacks. And then you defeat Emerl and he suffers but shuts down back to normal and looks like he’s gonna live... And then beeping. Apparently Eggman’s grandpa put in a self-destruct safeguard. Emerl dies via self-destruct, and everyone is sad, and I cried a bit as a kid, and they talk about making a better world... And (it may just be me), there’s one last note of discontent in your mind after beating the game. You didn’t beat Emerl in 30 seconds. In fact, I don’t think it’s even possible to beat that final battle in 30 seconds. If the situation had actually happened, there wouldn’t have been a heroic final victory after Emerl shattered the Master Emerald. Sonic would have had his ass handed to him, or not won in 30 seconds, and the Earth would be destroyed thanks to Dr. Eggman and everyone involved in waking Emerl up and thinking they were helping, and Shadow failing at killing the robot early on, and that would be that. You now probably see why this old gba game could be a subconscious motivator.

[movie-robotnik-positivity]

...This is heavy...

So....Shadow hates himself.

He might have saved humanity, but he never stopped seeing himself as a weapon of war that deserves to be destroyed. Shadow hates himself so much, and he’s proyecting this hatred into Emerl.

Sonic believes there’s hope for Emerl and Shadow and that they can be more, but Shadow can’t bring himself to believe that. As far as he’s concerned, the world is better off without him.

Man, this game is good!

[greenyvertekins]

Is there a significant difference between JP Sonic Battle and it's English version?

Not really. The most visible difference IMO is Emerl’s dialogue evolution. He takes-on the pronouns of the characters who raise him but as these pronouns have no English equivalent, it’s impossible for this quirk to carry over.

An interesting thing about Shadow’s/Rouge’s story (I forget which one precisely) is that when Shadow passes-out due to not having recovered from his injuries and Rouge drags him back to her club so he can recuperate, the English script makes it out that Shadow is pretty much totally out of it. But in the Japanese script, he gasps and says that he’s OK.

In Shadow’s story, Sonic tells Shadow that he and Emerl should go play games together or something. The JP script instead is quite funny as Sonic says they should instead go on as many dates as they want together XD (”好きなだけデートしてこいよ!“)

In addition, Maria’s final words were very slightly different. In English, it’s “Bring hope to humanity” but in Japanese, it’s “すべての人類に希望を” (”Hope for all mankind”)

[neometalsilver]

first of all never apologise for being autistic about sonic battle on my posts i am actually unwell about that games lore. and yeah @escapismblue and i talk a LOT about shadow and emerl. because not only do they share a soul, they share the same 'final program':

SHADOW: This was Gerald's final program. Should a weapon go out of control, the weapon will terminate itself. It is my desire to bring hope to humanity. I can't stand it.

so shadow watched maria die again, AND he also watched himself die and knew that this could happen to him at any moment.

kind of fucked up that shadow has the same soul as maria. do you think it made the grief worse. imagine having the other half of your soul ripped from you like that. fucked up man.