#🎮 𝑻𝒂𝒈 ↝ out of character

[vowered]

𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙱𝙻𝙰𝙲𝙺 𝙰𝚁𝙼𝚂 / 𝚂𝙷𝙰𝙳𝙾𝚆'𝚂 𝙱𝙸𝙾𝙻𝙾𝙶𝚈 :

Alrighty, this repost has been a looooooooong time coming and I'm going to do my best not to ramble too much and keep it short / condensed so that I can cover a bunch of stuff in a single post lol. Okay, Edgelord time lets go:

Starting with the Black Arms as they're most important to everything in my Shadow's headcanons and lore. So what are the Black Arms exactly ? Where did they come from ? The TL;DR is that in my personal headcanon and lore, like Chaos, they're decedents of Chao. Doom, in particular, was the first Dark Chao, turned "Devil Chao" who mutated into a powerful, god-like being through his ability to harness chaos energy, specifically dark chaos energy. I've always been heavy into the idea of the chaos force being heavily related to life and emotion, and like all things, it can be dark and negative. Doom found humans, creatures with little to no natural ability to perceive or harness chaos energy, to be weakling pests to be conquered, consumed and toyed with at his leisure ━ which is, frankly, how Doom came to view most beings outside of himself.

A natural enemy of the human race, Doom was eventually opposed by the echidna's and the chao, who came to the aid of ancient humans against Doom and his demonic followers. After a long battle that raged throughout ancient history, Doom and his followers were forced within what would become known as the Black Comet and banished from the planet. Doom spent the next several millennia conquering and consuming alien planets, working up the strength of his followers and progeny, who came to be known as the Black Arms, who all, along with their leader, mutated into frightening monsters over their thousands of years of exile.

Ultimately, yeah, Doom is meant to be perceived as a satanic archetype and the personification of evil. Like Chaos, he's essentially chaos energy personified but to the darkest extreme. A god. But a very twisted and wicked one. This is how I explained how and why the Black Arms were suggested to have ancient history on planet Earth, with ruins and old temples belonging to them recovered on the planet in Shadow the Hedgehog 2005. Not only this, but the various forms and shapes of the BA reminded me of the Chao, except in a way that could be really fun and horror adjacent given their much more frightening appearances.

Anyway, as far as the Black Arms in particular go, this similarizes them to me to the Xenomorph of the Alien franchise. The following is copy pasted from a pervious headcanon post, with additional context added :

Shadow  was  never  actually  “born”  and  his  creation  is  only  similar (to being born) in  the  way  that  this is  when  he  came  to  exist  in  the  world  as  an  ‘independent’  being.  The truth  is Shadow  was  never  really  born.  He  was  never  an  infant,  he  was  never  a  child. State  of  “being”  for  Shadow  has  always  been  as  he  is  now,  all  of  his  stages  of  development  prior  to  that  took  place  within  a  test  tube.   He  was  “grown”  artificially,  engineered,  “developed”,  altered  and  “built”  essentially,  and  the  unique  genetic  make  up  of  the  Black  Arms  is  what  really  made  this  possible,  and  moreover  possible  to  achieve  at  such  an  accelerated  rate  due  to  the  Black  Arms  pre-existing  alien  biology  which  I  PERSONALLY  headcanon  as  very  much  the  same  as  the  Xenomorph  from  the  Alien  franchise,  as  I  believe  there  was  a  ton  of  similarities  between  the  two  and  a  big  key  part  of  this  was  the  Black  Arms  inherently  parasitic  nature in my personal headcanons about them. Basically, Black  Arms  rely  on  host  organisms  and  borrow  the  genetic  structure  they  lack  which  drastically  alters  their  appearance  and  abilities  as  they  take  on  a  likeness  of  the  "host."  Horizontal  gene  transfer  is  a  big  part  of  this  basically  and  accounts  for  why  it  made  it  very  easy  to  engineer  a  powerful  being  like  Shadow  and  why  Gerald  was  effortlessly  able  to  make  Shadow  appear  more  hedgehog  than  Alien.

We've also since had the introduction of the "Ancients" in Sonic Frontiers which I can also weave into this lore very well.

Young Black Arms are considered sanguivores exclusively. But more mature members of the race are more like standard Carnivores. This said, Black Arms, as decedents of Chao grow a special fruit that they have cultivated over thousands of years that they enjoy eating. These are decedents of Black Doom's favorite fruit, a now extinct form of cherry. He doesn't know it, but Shadow's thing with coffee beans is actually because coffee beans taste most similar to the taste and texture of Black Arms "Red Fruit". These fruit however are highly toxic and dangerous to non-Black Arms. To note, Shadow has never been a sanguivore as he was never a darkling / never had a "larval stage" unlike Other Black Arms.

Shadow himself is an exceptional case among the other BA as he was biologically engineered by Gerald directly from Doom's flesh and blood, rather than a result of Doom's parthenogenesis. Shadow also shares more of Doom's direct DNA than any of the other BA soldiers who, while also being born from Doom, relied on absorbing the genetic material of other creatures to complete their life-cycles. This means they are drastically less powerful than Shadow and their DNA match to Doom resembles more of a traditional parent and offspring while Shadow's DNA match to Doom more resembles that of monozygotic twins. Gerald's tampering, however, meant that Shadow is able to access certain 'benefits' that Doom, in his immense power, cannot. Shadow's regeneration specifically is done "automatically". There is a "blocker" in Shadow's consciousness that allows him to tune out the pain and thus allows his body to begin automatically healing itself without restriction. Doom's healing factor, however, makes this process more tedious as he has to manage the mental distraction of the pain and of course consciously focus energy toward the regeneration as a result. This is what gives Shadow and edge against Doom, and, frankly against most other god-like monsters. Just like Doom, Shadow CAN obviously be harmed, but his healing factor during and after injury is more efficient. Shadow also possesses Doom's longevity in the sense that once reaching physical maturity, Shadow seemingly ceases to age. I've left it vague whether or not Shadow's immortal in this sense or if he simply ages at pace so drastically decreased it doesn't appear to be that he is aging at all and thus will have hundreds of years of life on other characters.

Some of Shadow's other physical attributes and biological differences to mobian hedgehogs include: Denser fur. Shadow's consider "fluffier" than Sonic or Amy who have pretty standard fur length and texture. This makes Shadow like the Norwegian forest cat of hedgehogs. Furthermore, what exists of Shadow's hedgehog DNA is from your standard garden Hedgehog, not the popular African Pigmy hedgehog. Shadow's quills are much sharper and more weaponized than the quills on a normal hedgehog. Many of his quills are serrated and their natural position means his quills are almost always raised. When Shadow balls and spin dashes he practically becomes a living buzz saw.

His teeth are sharp and though not outwardly obvious, if you were to get a good look inside his mouth, they come in rows like similar to a shark and for the same reason as a shark: if Shadow loses a tooth, another tooth will rise and slip forward to replace the lost one.

Shadow's deeply and inherently in tune with the "chaos force" and as a result he seems to have a sixth or even seven sense, making Shadow able to perceive others and his surroundings in an extrasensory way. His senses such as sight, hearing and smell are also highly advanced and he does have biological guards to protect these senses from being harmed or damaged. This includes nictitating membranes (or "third eyelids) in his eyes. He's able to close his nostrils like a seal to prevent anything unwanted from getting in it and he can do a similar thing with the insides of his ears for similar reasons to reduce / prevent sound damage in the event of loud noises. Shadow can harness the chaos force without the use of a chaos emerald in the most proficient way we've ever seen. IE: Shadow can pluck chaos energy seemingly from the air and from it into projectiles (Chaos Spear) or build it up and disperse it outwards to cause a high powered explosion (Chaos Blast). There are many different forms of chaos energy that Shadow is in tune with, but some are more diffcult for him to use. Naturally, offensive / destructive energy is something Shadow can use easily, but he's still learning to use other types of energy. As a result. he does need a chaos emerald with him to amply his power and use certain other types of powers, such as "Chaos Control", to teleport through space. Shadow's reflexes are remarkably fast and so is his mental processing power. Shadow is able use chaos control to warp through time and space with no physical or mental recoil because he is processing his environment that quickly. It was noted in 2006 that Shadow possesses genius level intelligence with an IQ of easily 200 and above. He has a mind like a computer, however, Shadow is completely organic in nature. This is a combination of Shadow's extrasensory abilities and predatory instincts stemming from his Black Arms DNA that make it appear as if Shadow has some kind of computer brain.

On that note Shadow's instincts are VERY powerful and they are inherently predatory. Shadow's "prey drive" could be blamed for a lot of his "single minded" behavior when perusing his "goals" and "enemies." He has an overpowering need to locate, pursue, overpower and destroy anything that manages to become his "target", which again, has likened him occasionally to AI. He'll always be instinctually driven to take down the weakest member of an enemy group first. (SORRY TAILS.) And often, Shadow wont listen to anyone/thing he hasn't assigned his superior. If you're not assigned as one of Shadow's "superiors" the only hope you have of "changing his mind" on something its set on is overpowering him. And Uh... Good luck with that. As a note Shadow has assigned "superior" to characters such as Maria, Amy, Rouge, Commander Towers, Gerald and Omega, practically in that order. In Shadow's word, drawing from his Black Arms biology, these are people Shadow will not harm and will almost always listen to their instructions. They are not kin to him in the sense he thinks of them as "family" but more as his "superiors" who he will serve. He has organized them this way in his little alien brain by order of how likely they are to be "in the right" in any given situation. I wrote a huge detailed post about it in the past that was deleted with my old blog, so like, in a nutshell the Black Arms have a caste system. Shadow mentally allocates people he cares about as his "superiors" even if the are not technically superior to him in any way. ( whereas, with the Black Arms its always decided by power and viciousness. ) This is his attempt to protect them and others from himself. They're like... Fail safes if Shadow ever gets 'carried away' by his darker instincts, which can happen as again, Shadow is VERY heavily dominated by his instincts and as a living weapon, these can sometimes be negative things.

Also to note, I don't portray Shadow as faster than Sonic or physically stronger than Knuckles. Though he's "close" to them in terms of power and speed, what Shadow actually has over Sonic and Knuckles is stamina and precision. With Knuckles, he can outmaneuver him and outlast him, leading to an easy victory. With Sonic he can overpower and outlast him, leading to an easy victory. Its not a matter of him being Stronger than Knuckles or Faster than Sonic. Shadow is just more combat effective and has a nearly infinite supply of energy. Shadow is aware of this, but still considers himself stronger and faster of those technicalities. Finally, something Shadow doesn't have in common with his BA brethren : The Black Arms are poisonous. I portray this as both literal in the sense that they have venomous properties (ie: A sting or bite from a BA can cause sickness / death) but also in the "corrupting"/polluting way. They have a corrosive and occasionally mutative effect on other lifeforms. This most obviously shows itself in plants and vegetation but can easily effect animals and other creatures as well depending on their exposure to BA. While Shadow doesn't possess any of these properties outwardly, his blood can still be considered a mutagenic under certain circumstances. This was explored in a Halloween event on one of my old blogs where, basically, Nack the Weasel gave everyone a case of fleas and when Shadow got them ? We ended up with horrific mutated insect monsters. It was a whole thing. This lead to the old, old Sonic RPCs version of the Zombots. Very Resident Evil Core. We ate with that. I'd love to do more fucked up horror inspired plots like that tbh.

[vowered]

𝚂𝙾𝙽𝙸𝙲 & 𝚂𝙷𝙰𝙳𝙾𝚆 ::

FIRST  OF  ALL,  I’ve  mentioned  it  before,  I  don’t  know  how  “canon”  it  is  but  I  don’t  care  this  is  kind  of  important.  I  talked  before  about  why  Sonic  and  Shadow  look  so  much  alike ( Deleted post, kill me. )

Keep  in  mind,  despite  Shadow’s  physical  appearance  he  is  not  as  much  a  hedgehog  as he  is  an  alien  weapon.  He  is  a  bio-organic  chimera  that  has  been  engineered  with  the  outside  form  of  a  hedgehog.   Shadow  being  made  in  the  image  of  a  hedgehog  was  due  to  Professor  Gerald’s  interest  in  ancient  Echidna  mythology  and  their  prophecy  depicting  a  hedgehog  hero/savior. This  also  serves  to  explain  why  Shadow  and  Sonic  hold  such  a  resemblance  to  each  other  as  it can  be  argued  that Sonic  is  literally  the  prophesied  hero.

* This  hero  hedgehog  shone  gold  and  had  upturned  quills ( Sonic’s  super  transformation ) * Shadow  has  upturned  quills  naturally  as  a  result.  His  dark  coloration  is  thanks  to  the  Black  Arms.

Shadow  was  made  pretty  much  to  be  who  Sonic  actually  is.  He  was  made  to  be  a  hero,  he  was  made  from  light  and  hope  and  meant  to  aspire  such  things.  In  Sonic  Battle  it  was  even  explained  that  Shadow  has  the  pure  heart  and  soul  of  Maria.

However….. Despite  what  Shadow  was  made  to  be  he  doesn’t  fit  that  mold  as  much  as  he  would  like,  whereas  he  can  see  Sonic  does  to  a  T.   (  Though  Shadow  is  totally  unaware  of  the  inspiration  behind  his  design ) This  causes   a  lot  of  conflicted   and  confused  feelings  for  Shadow.  He  finds  Sonic  fascinating  because  he's  another  hedgehog,  bares  a ridiculous  resemblance  to  him,  is  a  big  hero  and  on  top  of  that  possesses  some  abnormal  abilities  that  rival  Shadow’s  own  which  has  even  lead  Shadow  to  wonder  on  occasion  if  Sonic  was  “like  him” ( Ie:  an  biologically  engineered  super-creature )

Sonic’s  existence  in  a  way  contradicts  his  own.  In  a  way, they're both  the  “same  hedgehog”.  Shadow  always  holds  conflict  about  this  steaming  heavily  from  both  pride  and  shame  which  is  the  great  contradiction  of  Shadow’s  nature.  He's  the  ultimate  creature,  he's  suppose  to  be  superior  in  all  ways  and  somehow  this  “normie”  rivals  him  and  not  only  that, he's  probably  “better”  at  being  the  “hero”  Shadow  is  suppose  to  be.

Which also causes  a   huge  amount  of  respect  and  admiration  from  Shadow.  He  admires  that  Sonic  is  that  good  guy,  that  pure  hearted  hero,  he  looks  up  to  that.  He  wants  to  be  that  too  but  simultaneously  he  feels  deeply  insecure  and  troubled  by  the  fact  that  there  is  a  completely  opposite  part  of  him  that  literally  contradicts  everything  he  aspires  to  be  and  everything  Sonic  is.   Shadow  was  made  to  be  a  weapon  as  much  a  saviour.

He's  perfectly  built  to  kill  and  destroy.  He  has  moments  of  ‘evil’,  cruel  behavior,  violent  streaks,  theres  something  inside  of  him  thats  constantly  blood  thirsty  and  nasty  and  its  ridiculously  easy  for  him  to  act  upon  it  at  any  given  time  like  a  second  nature.   And  he  tries  not  to  but  its  there,  he  knows  it,  hes  always  fighting  with  it  and  he  hates  it.  

So  this  really  just  leaves  Shadow  feeling quite envious  of  Sonic,  who  is  everything  he  was  meant  to  be  and  everything  he  wants  to  be.  That  also  causes  him  to  feel  embarrassed  in  himself  and  overall  discontent  because  he  doesn't  think  he's  suppose to  feel  that  way  and  yet  he  does  which  is  why  they  still  have  this  rivalry  going  on.  Shadow’s  fascination  with  Sonic  and  conflicted  feelings  cause  him  to  not  really  know  how  else  to  act  but  to  be  kinda  hostile  and  antagonistic  even  while  he  thinks  of  him  as  a  friend  and  admires  him. ( Something he also will not admit for similar complicated reasons. )

Pride  is  Shadows  biggest  issue.  It  drives  this  in  a  lot  of  ways  and  is  also  the  reason  Shadow  has  such  trouble  opening  up  about  things  but  at  the  same  time  he  hangs  on  to  it  fiercely  because  its  one  of  the  only  things  he  has  had  to  keep  him  going  until  recent  times.  He  now  has  friends  and  people  who  support  him  to  lean  on  but  he  still  hasn't  fully  mastered  opening  up  and  allowing  that.

[vowered]

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[vowered]

𝙴𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙷'𝚂 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝚃𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙾𝚁 ::

Shadow  holds  on  to  the  title  “ Earths  Protector ”  /  “ Protector  Of  Earth”  because  he  associates  it  to  the  time  when  the  people  on  the  ARK  called  him  the “ ARK’s  protector ”  and “ Protector  Of  The  ARK”   after  he  defeated  the  Artificial  Chaos  that  had  gone  on  a  rampage.  It  was  the  first  time  he  felt  good  and  as  though  he  was  truly  fulfilling “ a  purpose ”  and  thus  felt  like  he  understood  himself   for  the  first  time. 

Prior  to  that  Shadow  was  regularly  subjected  to  various  experiments  to  eventually  work  into  creating  a  cure  for  Maria  and  next  to  that  he  was also  ‘trained’  in  some  of  these  “ experiments ”  to  fight  to  test  his  combat  capabilities.  These  things  were  vastly  different  to  each  other  which  left  Shadow  feeling  unsure  of  himself.   After  beating  the  Chaos  he  came  to  decide  that “Protector ”  was  really  a  good  role  for  himself  because  it  made  sense  of  everything  and  voided  that  objectifying  status  of  ‘ weapon. ’

This  was  however  tragically  one  of  the  major  events  that  lead  up  to  the  termination  of  Project  Shadow  because  although  most  of  the  scientists  were  very  much  impressed  by  Shadow  and  thankful  for  “ saving ”  them,  it  was  also  the  point  in  which  many  realized  Shadow  truly  was  built  as  a  weapon,  that  he  was  being  trained  as  such  and  basically  god  help  them  if   Shadow  ever  suffered  any  kind  of  "malfunction"  like  the  artificial  chaos  had.  

This  caused  enough  alarm  for  some  of  these  scientists  to  secretly  begin  informing  on  the  Project  which  added  to  already  existing  unrest  that  eventually  came  to  a  head  and  the  government  to  decide  it  was  time  to  pull  the  plug,  particularly  with  the  testimonies  that  Gerald  had  even  contacted  Aliens  of  a  malevolent  sort  and  with  the  issues  with  Gizoid  and  Bio-lizard  stacked  on  top  of  things  it  was  the  perfect  storm  of  events  to  trigger  the  shut  down.  

Shadow  tends  to  feel  incredibly  personally  responsible  for  the  entire  thing.  Though  he  isn’t  aware  about  the  trigger  of  this  and  truly  the  people  had  felt  uncomfortable  about  Shadow’s  existence  since  his  creation.  This  was  particularly  heightened  as  Gerald  had  resolved  to  treat  Shadow  like  a  “ son ”  as  much  as  he  could  which  already  had  some  of  the  other  researchers  thinking  Gerald  might  have  gone  a  bit  mad,  since  there  he  was  letting  what  was  suppose  to  be  an  experimental  weapon  roam  around  the  ARK  sometimes  unsupervised  and  even  casually  interact  with  civilians  like  Maria. 

Though  Shadow’s  not  really  aware  of  any  of  this  he  considers  the  entire  thing  with  the  ARK  his  fault  because  of  the  simple  fact  that  he  didn’t  protect  them  as  he  feels  he  was  suppose  to.  He  let  everyone  and  himself  down. He  doesn’t  really  know  the  depth  of  it  because  he  saw  the  researchers  and  others  as  friends,  even  if  their  thoughts  on  him  were  to  see  him  as  more  of  an  object. 

Nevertheless  he  was  there  the  whole  time  and  in  the  end  couldn’t  save  any  of  them.  Not  Maria,  not  Gerald  and  not  the  researchers.  He  was  begged  to  turn  tail  and  run  when  they  were  being  massacred  by  the  GUN  soldiers.  He  has  great  difficulty  understanding  it  all  and  trying  to  settle  on  whether  or  not  he  did  the  right  or  ‘best’  thing.  Furthermore,  even  if  Shadow  had  wanted  to  act  to  save  them  he  was  terrified. 

Though  Shadow  could  fight  artificial  chaos  and  robots  in  stimulation  humans  were  different.  Humans  were  suppose  to  be  friends  and  allies  and  Shadow  couldn’t  have  imagined  what  he  witnessed.  He  had  never  seen  death  or  bloodshed  before,  he  never  seen  people  die  and  worse  be  killed  by  OTHER  people,  people  who  were  suppose  to  be  good  and  friends.  

Sometimes he thinks of himself as cowardly for this as he imagines if he had have turned and fought the soldiers maybe he could have saved everyone on the ARK. And  thats  also  largely  why  Shadow’s  forever  stuck  between  this  idea  that  he  has  to  help  the  humans  and  disliking/distrusting  them.  Shadow’s  seen  the  good  in  humanity,  sure,  but  hes  also  seen  the  evil  and  its  something  he  can’t  ever  forget. 

[vowered]

𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚄𝙻𝚃𝙸𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙻𝙸𝙵𝙴 𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼 ::

Went  into  this  a  lil  bit  in  one  of  my  last  replies  to (deleted blog rip)  but  I  wanna  talk  about  it  a  bit  more  in  depth.  I  feel  like  a  lot  people  don’t  really  understand  Shadows  time  on  the  ARK  and  his  “life” so here are my personal takes/headcanons on it from reading too much into the small tidbits of canon that does exist.

I  know  from  my  time  in  the  fandom  a  lot  people  sort  of  just  think  Shadow  was  born  and  raised  there  and  Gerald  treated  him  like  a  son  and  that  him  and  Gerald  and  Maria  were  like  a  happy  family  playing  house.

Thats  not  near  the  case for my Shadow.  For  a start  Shadow  was  never  actually  “born”  and  his  creation  is  only  similar  in  the  way  that  its  when  he  came  to  exist  in  the  world  as  an  ‘independent’  being.  But  truth  is Shadow  was  never  really  born.  He  was  never  an  infant,  he  was  never  a  child. State  of  “being”  for  Shadow  has  always  been  as  he  is  now,  all  of  his  stages  of  development  prior  to  that  took  place  within  a  test  tube.  

He  was  “grown”  artificially,  engineered,  “developed”,  altered  and  “built”  essentially,  and  the  unique  genetic  make  up  of  the  Black  Arms  is  what  really  made  this  possible  and  moreover  possible  to  achieve  at  such  an  accelerated  rate  due  to  the  Black  Arms  pre-existing  alien  biology  which  I  PERSONALLY  headcanon  as  very  much  the  same  as  the  Xenomorph  from  the  Alien  franchise,  as  I  believe  there  was  a  ton  of  similarities  between  the  two  and  a  big  key  part  of  this  was  the  Black  Arms  inherently  parasitic  nature in my personal headcanons about them.

Basically, Black  Arms  rely  on  host  organisms  and  borrow  the  genetic  structure  they  lack  which  drastically  alters  their  appearance  and  abilities  as  they  take  on  a  likeness  of  the  host.  Horizontal  gene  transfer  is  a  big  part  of  this  basically  and  accounts  for  why  it  made  it  very  easy  to  engineer  a  powerful  being  like  Shadow  and  why  Gerald  was  effortlessly  able  to  make  Shadow  appear  more  hedgehog  than  Alien.  ( I wrote a huge HC about the black arms and their biology / origin that is now sadly deleted, rip, maybe I'll rewrite it one day, just know I'm the crazy fucker who made a connection between the Chao, the Chaos force's different energy types and their physical manifestations and the Black Arms, and while I'm sure its not canon I can sure spin it that way and will be doing so. )

I  also  believe  Shadow  possesses  reptilian  DNA  as  Project  Shadow  started  with  Lizards  due  to  their  natural  healing  ability  and  in  some  cases  their  heightened  immune  systems. ( Ie  the  crocodiles  ability  to  ward  off  almost  all  infections,  and  geckos  and  iguanas  regenerative  qualities, etc. )  I  believe  Gerald  was  able  to  successfully  transfer  the  fruits  of  his  work  with  bio-lizard  over  to  Shadow  which  is  something  that  sets  Shadow  apart  from  normal  Black  Arms  and  Mobian  alike.

This  is  why  Shadow  coming  into  being  is  more  similar  to  a  robotic  creature  than  an  organic  one,  yet  Shadows  feelings,  thoughts  and  overall  functions  are  organic  as  he  is  with  a  couple  of  special  alterations  like  previously  mentioned  that  were  made  to  both  make  Shadow  suitable  to  be  a  bio-weapon  and  simultaneously  suitable  to  endure  genetic  experimentation  particularly  in  a  medical  field  as  his  true  purpose  and  creation  was  to  work  toward  a  cure  for  Maria.  

The  key  to  this  was  in  Shadow’s  body,  it  just  needed  to  be  understood,  isolated, extracted  and  adapted  to  humans.  Though  Shadow  is  a  being  with  thoughts,  feelings  and  intellect  equivalent  to  any  organic  being  his  priority  was  an  experiment  and  I  believe  he  was  treated  more  as  a  tool  than  some  people  like  to  comprehend.  We’re  also  aware  there  was  VERY  little  time  between  Shadow’s  official  creation  and  the  shut-down  of  the  ARK.  I  put  it  at  nearing  a  year   but  I’m  pretty  sure  canon  has  implicated  it  was  about  a  week, if  I  remember  right. 

Either  way  Shadow  was  handled  as  an  experiment.  He  was  not  handled  as  someone's  son.  Shadow  had  strict  curfew  and  I  believe  Gerald  beginning  to  waver  on  this  and  treating  Shadow  more  and  more  “human”,  as  it  was  implied,  was  a  major  factor  in  the  ultimate  outcome  of  Project  Shadow.  At some  point  Shadow  met  and  was  eventually  able  to  “play”  with   and  accompany  Maria  as  if  just  another  child  on  the  ARK.  These  moves  were  seen  as  threatening  by  other  scientists  keeping  in  mind  what  Shadow  was  suppose  to  be.  

Though  it  didn’t  appear  that  way  to  others  on  the  ARK  involved  with  the  Project,  Gerald’s  logic  with  how  he  had  began  treating  Shadow  was  sound  and  very  calculated.  He  was  aware  that  the  only  way  he  would  cancel  out  Shadow’s  destructive,  blood  thirsty  nature  and  ensure  he  never sided  with  his  true  kin  was  to  ensure  Shadow  knew  love,  affection  and  compassion.  He  did  this  to  ensure  Shadow  bonded  with  “mankind”  ( particularly  Maria )  rather  than  the  Black  Arms  so  Shadow  could  resist  and  ultimately  destroy  them. 

Further  it   was  something  that  overall  humanized  Shadow  and  allowed  him  to  develop  a  conscious.  That  way  even  if  he  was  built  to  be  a  weapon  basically  he  was  able  to  feel  compassion  and  understand  right  from  wrong.  He  would  be  able  to  make  "his  own”  decisions  about  what  to  do  instead  of  being  used  as  if  he  were  a  mindless  killing  machine. 

Overall  this  meant  that  while  Gerald  did  refer  to  Shadow  as  a  son  and  did  his  best  to  treat  him  that  way  as  much  as  Shadow’s  status  could  allow,  in  the  end,  Shadow  was  still  a  ‘creation’  and  still  frequently  utilized  and  thought  of  as  a  tool  which  made  Shadow’s  life  and  time  on  the  ARK  less  like  that  of  “Gerald's  son”  and  more  like  a  lab  rat  he  simultaneously  kept  as  a  beloved  pet  and  this  is  something  that  nowadays  Shadow  is  vaguely  aware  of. 

This  is  why  Shadow  prizes  “Maria”  and  her  “wish”  over  Gerald  and  his  personal  goals.  Not  only  because  Gerald’s  goals  eventually  became  twisted  but  because  Shadow  pays  homage  to  Maria  as  the  only  person  who  he  knows  in  his  heart  did  not  think  of  him  as  a  tool  to  be  used  for  their  own  means  somehow.  She  didn’t  love  him  for  any  reason  than  she  just  did,  she  didn’t  believe  in  him  for  any  reason  than  she  just  did,  she  didn’t  see  good  in  him  for  any  reason  than  she  just  did.  It  wasn’t  a  calculated  plan  on  her  behalf,  it  was  just  because  they  were  friends  and  she  loved  him.  This  sentiment  is  basically  what  gave  Shadow  Maria’s  “soul”. 

Is  Shadow  resentful  to  Professor  Gerald ?  No.  He  mainly  feels  love  and  loyalty  to  his  creator  and  is  awareness  of  this  is  vague  so  he  has  no  idea  of  its  full  weight.  His  understanding  is  a  little  bit  shallow  since  in  particular  he  knows  Gerald  had  tampered  with  his  mind  to  make  him  think  he  had  to  destroy  humanity.  That  was  against  Shadow  and  Maria’s  wishes  but  Gerald  wanted  that  done  and  he  simply  saw  Shadow  as  a  tool  to  achieve  it.  Its  not  something  Shadow  takes  as  a  great  slight,  its  something  that  saddens  him  a  little  but  not  something  Shadow  truly believes  is  a  crime  against  himself.  In  some  way  Shadow  sort  of  believes  Gerald  was  in  his  right  considering  he's  HIS  creation  to  be  used  however  he  felt  necessary,  but  more  so, its   because  Shadow  does  understand  Gerald  was  suffering  and  didn’t  do  that  in  his  "right  mind."

Which  brings  me  to  something  else.  I  don’t  think  Shadow  OR  Maria  knew  very  much  about  Shadows  true  purpose  as  a  ‘cure’.  Neither  of  them  would  have  been  at  liberty  to  know  anything  much.  I  believe  Shadow  was  routinely  experimented  on  to  that  ends  but  I  don’t  think  he  knew  exactly  why.  These  experiences  were  often  unpleasant  but  Shadow  endured  them  less  because  he  truly  understood  the  purpose  and  more  because  he  knew  no  other  way  of  being.  On  the  flip  side.  I’ve  also  mentioned  Shadow  was  usually  ‘trained’  to  test  and  hone  his  capabilities  as  a  weapon  but  back  then  Shadow  saw  this  as  something  fun  and  more  looked  forward  to  smashing  up  robots  in  his  day  than  the  former.

That  said  though,  Shadow  being  a  creature  of  intelligence  and  feeling  did  actually  begin  questioning  things  but  his  curiosities  and  doubts  were  often  settled  or  side  tracked. 

Again  Shadow  was  given  some  very  ‘special’  treatment   very  unique   to  all  other  experiments  on  the  ARK   and  was  pretty  soon  moved  almost  entirely   from  confined  in  a  lab  to  sort  of  having  free  run  of  the  human  quarters  where  Maria  and  Gerald  resided  (  when  Gerald  wasn’t  in  the  labs.  And  I  believed  their  “living  area”  was  specialised  for  Maria  because  essentially  the  ARK  doubled  as  both  a  home  and  hospital  for  her.  )   

For  Shadow  though,  weather  he  was  in  a  lab  with  Gerald  or  hanging  out  with  Maria  he  felt  like  he  was  where  he  was  meant  to  be.  ( Though  of  course  he  preferred  the  latter.  The  choice  just  wasn’t  his  to  make  and  he  didn’t  fight  it.  )  Overall  for  a  point  Shadow  was  mostly  content  with  vague  answers  on  his  reason  for  being  and  the  varied  experiments  and  tests  he  went  through  on  a  daily  such  as  “Its  for  the  good  of  humanity”  and  “This  is  to  help  people”.  By  the  time  his  questions  and  thoughts  had  started  getting  more  in  depth  Project  Shadow  was  terminated. 

To  this  day  Shadow  still  doesn’t  have  all  the  answers.  There  is  many  things  Shadow  doesn’t  know  about  himself  or  his  creation. Some things he has "forgotten" due to trauma, both of an emotional and physical nature.

He  literally  barely  even  comprehends  his  own  biology  and  he  often  feels  very  unsure  and  wrong  when  all  he  has  is  to  compare  himself  to  other  Mobians  and  frequently  comes  face  to  face  with   pretty  stark  differences  between  him  and  them.  From  finding  it  hard  to  relate  to  creatures  who  were  born  and  raised  naturally  to  finding�� himself   a  little  weirded  out  that  his  biological  superiority  becomes  obvious  in  the  fact  he  doesn’t   seem  to  be  able  to  experience  illness  the  way  everyone  else  does,  or  injury and in later verses it becomes clear Shadow either doesn't age or once he hits 25 his aging process greatly slows down to the point where he seems to not be aging at all. In one of my future verses Shadow still appears to be in his late 20s while he and his friends are all in the 40s and it shows and he struggles hard with this.  It  gives  him  a  feeling  of  constant  ‘otherness’  and  constant  thoughts  of  “Im  too  different. I  dont  belong”   which  is something  that  factors  into  Shadow  isolating  himself  from  others  a  lot.

* As  a  note  My  Shadows  blood  is  also  putrid  greenish  colour.  This  was  actually  bc  I always  thought  it  was  canon  bc  my  country  had  censored  the  games  and  made  the  Black  Arms  “blood”  green  instead  of  red.  Thats not  the  case  for  other  countries  but  I  stick  to  the  idea  of  them  having  green  blood  and  Shadow  too.  This  also  gives  Shadows  insides  and  “fleshy”  bits  a  slightly  greenish/grayish  tinge  to  them.  Basically,  it  empathizes  that  while  he  may  look  and  even  mostly  act  like  a  normal  Mobian  he's  very  much  not.