#shadow generations dark beginnings

[thefakehedgehogaroundhere]

I NEED EVERYBODY TO DO ME A FAVOR AND SHUT THE FUCK UP

[cranberryberry]

love that for her

[wazzuppy]

shadow and maria icons like or reblog if you save

[nightfurylover31]

THEY DID NOT HAVE TO GO THIS HARD! 😭😭😭

[coldgoldlazarus]

I also like how Dark Beginnings is structured, chronologically speaking. Episode 1 is set primarily in the past but with a small bit of the present at the end. (Well technically it's all present since the flashbacks were a nightmare but shh) Episode 2 is about half-and-half, with another flashback to the Ark balanced out by team Dark's reunion. And then Episode 3 is all in the present, but with flashes to a past that could/should have been.

[celestial-knick-knacks]

!SLIGHT SHADOW GENERATIONS SPOILERS!

Ive been playing sonic x shadow gens alot since it came out and Shadow and Maria are so dear to me i just had to draw them.

Close ups under the cut!

[thecalvinistkat]

So how about that conclusion to Sonic x Shadow Generations Dark Beginnings, huh?

[saphstories]

SONIC CENTRAL SONIC CENTRAL LISTEN LISTEN I HAVE TO GO TO WORK AND FUNCTUON LIKE A NORMAL PERSON HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT WHEN YOURE TRYING TO STUFF ME WITH ALL THIS FANTASTIC CONTENT TIL I EXPLODE????

SONIC DC CROSSOVER!!! SHADOW GENERATIONS MARIA DARK BEGINNINGS CHAO SHORT SERIES

AJDBSISJSOSJEJS

^^Me trying to work when all this hit

WHYYYYYYYYYY

[abbybubbls]

Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings edit - Tiny Alien

Disclaimers for Dark Beginnings spoilers, flashing lights, and that I own absolutely NOTHING!

The Sonic brainrot has officially taken over me with this one. I began making this edit while the Dark Beginnings shorts were coming out, and I shockingly was able to finish it when the final part released! I don't think I'll ever make an edit like this ever again but I had so much FUN! I firmly believe this song was made for Shadow so I just HAD to do something with it when these shorts were releasing. AMVs should make a comeback, who thought it was a bad idea to abandon them?

(I'll also admit I don't think I'll ever upload this on YouTube because the copyright system for songs being used is completely fucked and I am NOT risking myself to deal with that)

I hope you enjoyed watching the edit! I certainly had fun making it!

[okeana-aster]

A character analysis of Abraham Tower because everyone seems to think he's a bad character for some reason

He was lied to by G.U.N. after the ARK was raided by them. They told him that Shadow was the one who killed everyone aboard the ARK. And he lost his family that day.

It's not told to us that G.U.N. lied to him about what happened, but it's just a matter of putting the puzzle pieces back together. He was aboard the ARK, he thinks Shadow killed everyone there, and he works for G.U.N. now.

They took him in, they took care of him after he lost everything, and they shifted the blame of their crimes on Shadow. He wouldn't work with them if he knew that they're the ones who took everything from him. And clearly he doesn't know since he thinks Shadow did it.

Sure he had some prejudice about Shadow beforehand, as we see in Dark Beginnings, that have been amplified by G.U.N.'s lies, and while it's not right, he was just a kid. A scared kid who saw Black Doom and is afraid of him and of the being he created : Shadow.

His agressivity towards Shadow isn't warranted, but once again he's just a kid. Kids don't know better. It's the defense mechanism of a scared child. It's not his fault.

We even see this moment of nuance in his character in Dark Beginnings, when he listens to Maria and Shadow's conversation, and you can see in his expression that he feels doubt, but his feelings are messy, and he doesn't understand them fully either.

And so he ends up pushing these doubts away (or at least trying to), because he's still a child, and he doesn't know how to properly handle them. We see it through that upset expression that he switches to as Maria talks.

He's conflicted, but he doesn't know how to process this feeling, so he tries to repress it. It's somewhat the same expression Shadow does in episode 3 when he tries to repress his thoughts about Maria.

So back to him as an adult, with the information he had, it's fair that he wanted to stop Shadow. He was led to believe for most of his life that Shadow is the one who took everything from him by the ones who "saved him".

But Abraham is still a good person at heart. When he realizes that Shadow genuinly doesn't remember what happened and Shadow asks for time to uncover the truth, he lets him. He doesn't want to hurt someone for crimes he doesn't even remember having committed.

And when Shadow tells him that if what he says is true, he'll accept his fate, it seems to be when Abraham starts to think that maybe things aren't exactly the way he was told they are.

Because Shadow seems genuine. It's nothing like what he imagined him or their confrontation to be like, and it puts seeds of doubt in what he believed during his entire life. And it's tough when you start to realize you might have been following the wrong path for so long.

And you can see after the world was saved by Shadow, his body language shows that he's really upset and mad at himself for trying to hurt someone who is just as much of a victim of all this as he is.

He lowers his head and clenches his fists while staying silent. He's really frustrated at himself for what he tried to do to Shadow, for the resentment he felt towards him this whole time, now that he realizes it was unwarranted. And there's a lot of pain in his facial expression. It's a silent but powerful moment.

I mean, imagine learning that basically your entire life is a lie. That this feeling that has driven you for 50 years was based on a lie, and that by following that lie, during your whole life you wanted to bring harm to someone who was not only an innocent, but also a victim just like you. It must be a lot to come to terms with.

He knows now that Shadow did genuinly care, and that he lost everything on that day too. And maybe that's why he wanted to invite Shadow to eat with him someday. It's not just that he realized he wronged Shadow and wants to make up for it, but also that maybe the two of them are more alike than he originally thought.

And he probably decided to stay in G.U.N. after that despite learning the truth in order to make sure that G.U.N. would never do anything like this again, and it's probably why Shadow was okay with joining G.U.N. in '06. He knows that under Abraham's command, G.U.N. is a force of good, unlike the G.U.N. of 50 years ago.

[redinahedge]

YOU CANT FUCKING DO THIS TO MEEEEEEE QWQQQQ (spoilers)

[calam1typann3]

THIS SHIT IS HILARIOUS

[valenrepetto]

You took my broken melody

A continuation!

Because he needed a hug...

[eldritchgriffin]

I can't believe the canon reason Shadow showed up to Sonic's birthday is that he was bribed with a spaceship

[nightfurylover31]

Oh snap! The full version of Dark Beginnings has an extra scene at the end, and we see Black Doom!

[coldgoldlazarus]

Been really immersing myself in the Shadow lore (with a brief detour through finally watching the Snapcube Fandubs lol) and now watching the Sonic X Shadow Dark Beginnings miniseries. (can't wait for Part III!) And something really interesting that it sorta winds up emphasizing through all these flashbacks in the first episode, is this pervading sense of failure.

Even before all his subsequent trauma, Shadow felt like a failure for not being the miracle cure he was meant to be, that Maria was still sickly and dying.

And then there's the (utterly incredible) fight with that yellow combat robot thing. (This is a bit of Sonic lore I still don't know, unless this is a new inclusion, but in any case damn was that thing badass) Shadow was able to successfully save Gerald, at least, but it's not dwelled upon as the scene shifts away immediately after he won that fight. What does get a lot more attention was the level of destruction the robot wrought upon the Ark, with who knows how many other implied casualties as consequence of that, until he was finally able to catch up to it, and the fear that Maria could so easily wind up as one of them. That entire sequence was incredible, but also deeply stressful.

Then of course the arrival of the GUN fleet, and immediately the prior victory is undone with Gerald's imprisonment and execution. (And I really love how that sequence leaned into the nightmare fuel fever dream vibes) And after that... well, we all know what happened to Maria.

And it's just interesting how like, it was literally Shadow's purpose to save lives, and yet for all his incredible strength and power, he still feels like he failed to where it counted, in the past. Which of course Sonic x Shadow Generations is delving back into.

In the present/more recent past, his arc was about confronting the conflict of purposes laid out for him -to save lives, to take revenge, to be an instrument of destruction, to be a weapon against Black Doom- and ultimately attaining a sort of self-actualization by choosing to find his own purpose outside of others' directives for him, and kicking Black Doom to the curb while he's at it.

But since then, at least as I understand it, he's been left in a sort of limbo, and just more-or-less vibing in the background while Sonic as a franchise has been trying to figure itself out. Present, sometimes even having major roles, but not really a focus, until they're finally getting back to him now.

SxSG is obviously partially a recap/nostalgia trip from a meta standpoint, but also feels in a way like a reopening of Shadow's story. Saying that despite his 'vibing' status in the past several games, it's not that easy to reject and ignore his past, it is still a core part of him.

But what I'm left kinda thinking about is his future. Because while the movie and SxSG are part of a "Year of Shadow", implying this is probably going to be a one-off, I hope it won't be. I hope it's genuinely reopening his story going forward, because it isn't really over yet. In StH, he rejected being a tool for others' agendas alongside his past as a whole, but that doesn't really answer the question of what his own goals are now, or any of the stuff around that.

Which kinda brings me back around to Dark Beginnings and the feeling of failure. This is a nightmare that seems to be at least partially externally-imposed by the Time Eater or Black Doom or some combination thereof, but I think it's still telling of Shadow's own values and priorities through what it focuses on. Not just the obvious trauma, but that connecting theme of failure - failure to save lives. Not because of Gerald's original goals for him, but because of Shadow's own intentions.

The second episode spells it out more clearly through Maria, too. He's not great at expressing himself, he may not always even be aware of his own feelings, but he does care deep down. He cares so goddamn much.

He wants to help save people.

But first he needs to figure that out.

And then, he needs to figure out how to do that going forward.