#plus like i want them to be so explicitly canon it cant be denied

[yourplaceinaugust]

making non tumblr user friends was a mistake bc i was ranting about symbrock to my friend and ended it by saying "the third movie needs to be rated r so they can fuck" and my friends only response was "what the fuck"

[bitter-sweet-coffee]

more late night thoughts because i cant sleep and i wanna talk abt shadow!

now... look. i'm not gonna meme this and slap a #daddyissues on the guy, but let's unpack his strong preference for female companions (and that wasn't an intentional doctor who joke, @authorleaandres has to stop enabling the crossovers)

maria: self explanatory, but basically the blueprint!

rouge: the person closest to him, whom he trusts the most (debatable but i believe it to be true and y'all know i'm the only correct sonic opinion ever)

amy: the person who literally made him remember his purpose, which enabled him to sacrifice himself for the earth. also, when she hugged him by mistake in SA2 he didn't react negatively, despite showing a distaste for physical contact in canon (especially unannounced or nonconsentually!)

let's compare this to:

sonic: his literal rival. say what you want about sonadow and i'm not denying their mutual unspoken respect and bond, but their arrogance clashes for a reason: they're meant to not get along!

knuckles: they're literally so fuckin tense and bitter with each other, it's amusing but unsurprising given their respective isolations, arrogance, and tendency to rival others and question everyone's actions with distaste

silver: kicKS HIM IN THE FUCKING HEAD! yeah he's somewhat impressed with the guy and mentors him, but onwards they seldom get along unless it's for the greater good (silver doesn't trust him).

okay, these are the biggest ones but i'll do some other brief ones:

infinite: generated his villain arc and kicked him in the head too

vector: mehhh... walks away from him and only half helps him (plus it's up to you!) in his game. if you count sonic x he's kind of a dick to vector too lmao

eggman: respects him more than most of the cast, but also fucks his shit up a lot

black doom: ... skip so i dont make the lamest joke

gerald: ... skip again for the same reasons

mephiles: arguably shadow's best foe because their relationship fucking rules i love it UGH someone remind me to make a post on them

okay okay you get the point, shadow and guys don't seem to work out off the bat... but it feels like i'm skipping some important male characters, right? AM I...? NO.

omega: his other best friend alongside rouge who he cares for so damn much i don't even need to elaborate. aha, omega is a ROBOT.

metal sonic: he has such a sad yet beautiful sense of compassion for the lil fella; him and omega recover his body in heroes, shadow is always looking out for him, and also THE ENTIRETY OF RIVALS 2 OH MY GOD. oh yeah, metal sonic is also a robot!

charmy bee: now it might seem weird to bring him up because shadow doesn't have to be nice to him (just like with vector) but unlike the chill croc, charmy IDOLIZES shadow and is generally considered the most annoying character besides like, omochao. (sorry charmy you irritating thing, i love you but i get why others don't!). just like with amy, shadow could very explicitly tell charmy to fuck off, but he doesn't. why? HE IS A CHILD. the fact he lets charmy stick around and has been present enough in the kid's life to be a role model... i need to draw them 🥺

tails: even though they've worked against each other, shadow seems to admire tails' intelligence and innovation, and has worked with him on occasion. besides boom and x where he beats the shit out of tails, shadow does like the guy. why? he is ALSO A CHILD! however he is a wee bit older which is why shadow sometimes wants to kick him around a bit :") (side note: these are the only two *main canons that give tails a confirmed love interest: cosmo and zooey. old enough to date? old enough to get kicked by shadow!)

notice a trend? yeah. by just taking a handful of characters (arguably the ones closest to shadow in game lore) it's clear that shadow is drawn to the female cast and generally more comfortable with them. robots can be gendered i GUESS, but they're literally non binary y'all idk what to tell you 😭 also children don't count. unless you're holding hands which means you'll catch those hands!

i'm not saying shadow hates men or anything (i mean it would be funny though for the memes) but it's clear that he has issues with authority... male authority. male... fathers who have manipulated and weaponized him... and his only positive formative experience pre big T trauma was a girl... maria... y'all see it right? i dont have to spell it out or make a joke 😎

if you're wondering why i left espio out specifically because they get along really well off the bat, it's because clearly they have mutual unspoken crushes bc they're fruity. i'm literally not biased lmao WHAT no i'm not debunking sonadow and infinadow and whatever other ships y'all have because i'm getting shadpio brainrot... lol no thats not me!

SO TLDR: shadow feels safer with female identifying characters, technically genderless characters, and non binary entities even if they're masc coded bc robot brr. GOT THAT? NO FUCKING TERFS HERE BC EVERYONE IN SONIC IS GAY AND TRANS SO DONT EVEN TRY RUINING THIS

if you made it this far into one of my late night shenanigan posts, then you know me well enough that the bar is on the floor so uh:

(it's muffled bc he's blasting it on the ARK and this is what the planet hears)