#they want him to stay sonic's rival when there's no real compelling reason for him to.

[gayemeralds]

I read “Shadow fans I am not the blog for you” and have become the sad ant with a bindle looking back at you. Banger takes though ngl you have a lot of profound and really well thought out opinions when it comes to sonic and I don’t even find myself disagreeing with your take on Shadow staying dead despite loving him bc you’re honestly not even wrong there is so much thought behind what you say

THE THING IS i joke about not being good for shadow fans but i do LIKE shadow. in my heart i know if he was given the proper care and character arc that he deserved he would easily be one of my favourite characters. he's the type of character i would have absolutely latched on to.

the problem is i just think sega brought him back with no real direction. shadow was a fascinating and complex character in sa2, and i think his story honestly deserved to be self contained within that game. he was a fascinating foil to sonic- someone who lost everything facing someone who hasn't faced true loss at the time; and, deliciously, becoming the first loss sonic faces, when shadow dies at the end of sa2. he was a phenomenal character of grief and anger and revenge, and how people who love you can still turn on you; how revenge and despair can rot a person, but how you can always have hope. but i think his story really ended there on the ark when he died.

sonic heroes was fun, but ultimately, it did nothing for shadow. the amnesia route they took was arguably one of the worst options i could think of. the whole point of sa2 was UNCOVERING his past. the whole game told a story in reverse- we learn all we need to know about project shadow in that game. the fact that the whole "android" shadow arc doesn't even get resolved in that game is a little frustrating.

an exploration into shadow's identity if he survived the fall and retained his memories would have been FASCINATING. shadow assumed he would die at the end of sa2, absolve him of wanting to destroy the world, absolve him of his guilt over maria, and finally find peace. but he DOESN'T die. and now he's forced to live with the trauma he was given, and the anger he holds, and forge a new identity and place for himself. and, how is shadow going to keep maria's promise, to save humanity, when someone else is already doing his job? when shadow himself had already called sonic the ultimate lifefrom, when sonic has been and is doing what shadow would do to keep maria's promise? where does shadow fit in amongst these "heroes?" THAT'S an identity i would have loved to explore.

sonic battle and sonic 06 were honestly pretty good portrayals of him. i think you could arguably have a similar story in sonic battle without him, however, while still keeping the intrigue of gerald robotnik and What Exactly Was Going On With Project Shadow at the time, but i digress.

I think Shadow the Hedgehog 2005, for all of it's flaws, did try. It wanted to be compelling and morally challenging and it wanted Shadow to explore his identity and figure out what side he wanted to belong to. arguably, however, it solidified shadow's "brand" as being an edgy anti-hero who uses guns and curses and is "violent" when i don't really think that was the intention behind sa2. i also think it was sort of an unnecessary addition to the project shadow lore- the ark and all of its secrets are rather haunting enough. there's still so many implications over gerald robotnik perhaps knowing echidna lore, there's still so much mystique behind the original introduction of shadow's lore, that i don't think adding evil alien blood into the mix was necessary. this game could have honestly been an entire backstory for a whole new character.

and after those games, it becomes pretty clear that sega just doesn't know what to do with him. post-shadow the hedgehog has shadow let go of his past and become who he wants to be. but sega seems completely insistent on keeping shadow in his sa2 phase, keeps wanting shadow as a anti-hero rival when his arc contradicts it. they want him stagnant despite trying to have him move on from his travesty- and obviously, grief and trauma are not things that are linearly healed from, but the continuous storyline of shadow "letting go of his past" shows that they just don't have a direction for him. they don't know what to do with him.

and now, shadow, the same shadow who promised maria to save the world, to give humanity a chance, who watched his sister die in front of him, was written to have violently and thoughtlessly attack infinite and his squad (and is implied to have killed the rest of inifinite's squad)... and for what? his whole arc is moving away from his past and trying to do right by maria. WHY would he ever cause someone the same pain he felt when he's already learned from that mistake (sa2)? they just don't know what to do with him and keep putting him in increasingly antagonistic roles despite shadow being sonic's friend and ally.

i just think shadow should have stayed dead in sa2. it keeps the allure and mystery of the ark alive, no more bad characterizations, and it gives more weight to shadow fulfilling maria's promise. i also think that him being alive causes a problem because his arc sort of guides him into the position that sonic is in- as a hero and a saviour, but sonic's already filling that role. shadow sort of becomes... obsolete, because anything he can do, sonic can do, too. which is probably why they keep making him an antagonist/rival.

ideally, if they had to keep him alive, my hope would be to have shadow realise he has an entire life to live now. he can fufill maria's wishes of helping people perhaps on a smaller scale (a la the chaotix), and then also go on to travel the world and see the beauty maria was never able to see. it keeps him sort of in a back pocket if they ever want him to return and help sonic and his friends, and can guide him into hating humanity less by seeing how beautiful and kind the world really is.

whatever they're doing now just isn't working. the shadow we see now is nothing like the shadow from sa2, which is a damn shame. shadow became a fan favourite from that game alone for a REASON.

so like. i like shadow, i just wish he stayed dead to avoid all of this.