#but sa2 is partially canon anyways.

[spiderman616]

idk where people got the idea shadow is better/faster/more powerful than sonic anyways. like no he isnt??? obviously hes pretty close but its very obviously not a surpassing level.

[beevean]

#yeah i have never been a sweet grandpa gerald person #i personally do not see gerald having any personal attachments to shadow #he finds him fascinating and useful but it is far from familial #people forget gerald was doing fucked up shit even before GUN was causing problems (see: artificial chaos) #he was a brilliant scientist but he was selfish cold and calculative #shadow was useful to him when maria was alive #he gave him life but make him controllable and subservient regardless of if it was for GUN black doom or himself #he altered his memories and tossed him aside the second he felt like it #if you stick to the initial canon he didn’t even want shadow to protect the earth from the black arms that was written in later #he wanted to destroy the planet and take shadow out with it because he didn’t care #ik shad05 is canon but it’s also a partial retcon #it’s interesting to look at who gerald was intended to be before sega make shadow marketable. bc in sa2 he was not a good man #anyways. enough neutral gerald propaganda sorry op LOL #gerald robotnik #shadow the hedgehog

To quote @woodchipp, "there is a lot to unpack here but i'd just prefer to set the suitcase on fire"

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?