Shadow the Hedgehog
- For the video game of the same name see Shadow the Hedgehog (video game)
Shadow the Hedgehog is a character in Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is the dark rival of Sonic the Hedgehog and first appeared in the Dreamcast game Sonic Adventure 2.
Personality
Shadow is a lone wolf and an anti-hero; his motives are unknown and his true alignment (good or evil) is a mystery. He is generally quiet, and a loner - distancing himself from most of the Sonic cast. Because he is the ultimate lifeform, he considers himself superior to others. He is constantly haunted by his memories of his beloved Maria. He is arrogant, and vengeful. He generally isn't a very pleasant person to be around, but always loyal to his closest allies. He is fueled by revenge on the humans for the death of Maria, and later his quest to discover the mysteries of his past.
History
Template:Spoiler All of the details about Shadow's past are extremely clouded. Shadow is the end result of the "Ultimate Life Form" project (called "Project: Shadow"), a secret government genetics project shut down a half century ago whose objective was to reach immortality. He was created by Professor Gerald Robotnik, the grandfather of Doctor Eggman with the help of Black Doom (who had his own shifty motives to have Shadow collect the Chaos Emeralds so he can teleport the Black Comet to Earth and take over Earth) aboard the Space Colony ARK. Though Shadow repeatedly claims he is the ultimate lifeform, the only proof to back it up is his word. Shadow seemed to have developed a friendship with the Professor's granddaughter, Maria Robotnik and often looked down to Earth, wondering what the purpose to his life was. When the military attacked ARK to shut down the Ultimate Life Form project, Maria supposedly sacrificed herself in order to let Shadow escape to Earth in a suspended animation capsule. Shadow still mourns over Maria's death.
His capsule was captured by the military and stored in the Prison Island for 50 years, until Dr. Eggman attacked the complex looking for "his grandfather's legacy" and freed him.
Sonic Adventure 2
As a reward for setting him free, Shadow promised to grant Dr. Eggman one wish, which was the domination of Earth.
In order to concede this and to fulfill Maria's last wish for (what he believed to be) revenge on those who lived on Earth, Shadow led Eggman to the ARK and showed him the ultimate weapon: the Eclipse Cannon, a giant laser cannon with the power to destroy an entire planet. The Eclipse Cannon required seven Chaos Emeralds to function. Together with a treasure hunter named Rouge the Bat, the three banded together and acquired six of the emeralds, providing enough power to destroy half the moon. During their final duel, it is not known if Sonic defeated Shadow or if Shadow defeats Sonic, but either way, the ending turns out the same because while Tails was distracted by this, Eggman stole the last Chaos Emerald and placed it in the Eclipse Cannon.
However, as Eggman had taken the bait, Shadow had completed his task. With the power of seven emeralds, the Eclipse Cannon would not unleash its full strength, but instead activate a program Professor Gerald Robotnik somehow managed to leave there. The ARK automatically moved the Chaos Emeralds from the central control room to the core of the ARK, and set itself on a collision course with Earth. With the seven emeralds powering it, the ARK contained enough energy to shatter Earth to pieces upon impact.
As everyone rushed to stop this from happening, Amy Rose stumbled across Shadow in the same room that he and Maria often spent time in. She begged Shadow to come to their aid, but he refused, insisting that the people of Earth didn't deserve his pity after killing an innocent and harmless Maria and that even if he wanted to help, the program could not be deactivated. Amy continued to plead however, and her words set off a suppressed memory of Maria, a memory of what Maria had really asked of him when she sacrificed herself — to give everyone on Earth a chance at the normal life her premature death at the hands of G.U.N. had denied her (to "give them a chance to be happy.") With a tear sliding down his cheek, Shadow realized that in trying to fulfill Maria's dying wish, he ended up dooming it, and rushed to redeem himself by helping Sonic and Knuckles seal the power of the Chaos Emeralds.
He reached the core to see Sonic and Knuckles unable to get past a large lizard-like creature, the Biolizard, a prototype ultimate life form created by Project: Shadow. Shadow urged Sonic and Knuckles to leave the Biolizard for him to deal with and to worry about stopping the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow fought with all his might, but Sonic and Knuckles stopped the emeralds before Shadow could finish off the Biolizard. The massive beast noticed, in its determinination to bring forth Earth's destruction, used a strange form of Chaos Control to merge itself with the ARK to continue the crash course. Using the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds, Sonic transformed into Super Sonic and Shadow transformed into Super Shadow.
Together they destroyed Final Hazard and used Chaos Control to stop the free-falling ARK from destroying the Earth. However, the already exhausted Shadow used the last of his energy to do so, and fell to Earth, supposedly dying. (It is later revealed in the game Shadow the Hedgehog that Shadow didn't die, but was saved by one Dr. Robotnik's robots that he sent.)
Physically, Shadow appears to be 15 (around Sonic's age), though he is really over 50 years old but was kept by the military in hibernation for most of that time, and does not age.
Sonic Heroes
In the game Sonic Heroes, Rouge discovered that Shadow was alive and in a stasis tube located in the deepest part of one of Dr. Eggman's bases. After saving Rouge from a rampaging robot called E-123 Omega, it was revealed that Shadow has amnesia and could not remember anything before his release from the stasis tube. He joined forces with Rouge and Omega to form Team Dark (as their speed member and second-in-command) and hunt down Dr. Eggman.
Soon after hearing Dr. Eggman proclaiming that he "has no past to remember," Shadow discovered a half-destroyed Shadow robot and realised that he too might just be a robot. As the team ran to continue the mission, Metal Sonic, who was disguised as the Eggman robot and was then out of earshot from the team, claimed that he had successfully copied the Ultimate Life Form data (Shadow's DNA). What this implies about Shadow is not known for certain at this time. Regardless, Shadow continued his mission, proclaiming that "even if I'm not real, I'm still the ultimate life form, Shadow the Hedgehog!" They defeated Dr. Eggman's Empire and discovered that the person they had been chasing was a fake Dr. Eggman. Afterward, Rouge stumbled upon a whole room filled with hundreds of cloned Shadows. As Omega arrived to destroy the room and everything in it, Rouge affirmed her belief that their Shadow was a robot, even though this is not known for certain. However, Omega reassured her that the original Shadow had to exist somewhere in order for Eggman to make copies. When Metal Sonic transformed into Metal Madness, Shadow worked with Rouge, Omega, and Teams Rose and Chaotix to distract him long enough for Sonic to power up into his Super Form. At the end of the game, he was last seen with Omega and the defeated Metal Sonic. It isn't explained what happened to Metal Sonic or Omega, and they are missing from Sonic Battle. However, Omega does reappear in Shadow the Hedgehog, still trying to overthrow Eggman.
Sonic Battle
In Sonic Battle, Shadow has apparently regained his memories, though it is never explained how. It has been speculated that Sonic Battle takes place after Shadow the Hedgehog or that Shadow simply has some fragmented memories and only gives the appearance of a full recovery. It has also been suggested that the game is not canon, but there is little evidence either way.
Shadow the Hedgehog
In Shadow the Hedgehog, which takes place after the events of Sonic Heroes. Shadow is standing outside the city, reminiscing the only memory he has, of Maria's death. He sees a cloud appear and the Black Arms fall from it into the city. A mysterious figure, Black Doom, appears before him and requests that he brings him the seven chaos emeralds "as promised", and then vanishes. He sets out to find them, however it gets him caught up in a conflict between the G.U.N. army from Sonic Adventure 2 and the alien race Black Doom rules known as the Black Arms, which Dr. Eggman soon gets involved in, resulting in the rest of the Sonic cast getting entangled in the conflict as well. The game centers wholly around Shadow and his mysterious past, and the player can choose between three moral positions: the hero side, represented by the G.U.N. army and Sonic and friends, the villain side, represented by the Black Arms and Dr. Eggman and a neutral side. The player can change sides throughout the story, resulting in many forks in the plot, and the ending is influenced by the player's actions through the entire game. There are 10 endings, plus a "Final" ending, which ties together all the endings to reveal the truth about Shadow's mysterious past.
As mentioned before, Professor Gerald Robotnik was charged with the project of researching immortality. However, he had some troubles in his experiments, and in order to achieve his goals, he contacted the Black Comet, home to Black Doom and the Black Arms. He made a deal with Black Doom: if Black Doom helped him with his research, he promised to deliver to the alien the seven Chaos Emeralds. Using Black Doom's DNA, they created Shadow the Hedgehog, who would both aid Professor Gerald's research and help Black Doom get the Emeralds. Soon after it is revealed that Gerald Robotnik somewhat discovered why Black Doom desired these emeralds, which involved the annihilation of all living beings (and androids) on Earth. Thus, Professor Gerald created the eclipse cannon, capable of destroying the Black Comet, and had depended on Shadow to execute this plan.
However, others theorize that this is not the case. They believe most of what Black Doom told Shadow were more lies. They believe he may have helped, but no part of Black Doom was actually used. The main arguement for this is the fact that Gerald said that he needed to create an entity that could use the Black Arms own powers against them. That is why Shadow was created along with the Eclipse Cannon in order to prevent this plot planned 50 years in advance.
Abilities
Shadow posesses many of his rival Sonic's abilities, namely the same blistering speed and agility. Shadow's trademark move is Chaos Control. Using the power of a single Chaos Emerald, he can warp time and space though when he's Hero Shadow he flies through part of the level but does damage to enemies he passes. The Chaos Control is usually used to freeze time or to teleport (or possibly both if those viewing someone move from somewhere to somewhere else in 'no time', then it would look like they warped). He is only seen freezing time in Sonic Adventure 2 in 2 player mode, but in Sonic Heroes the time freeze is an effect of Team Dark's "Team Blast" special move, “Chaos Inferno”. He uses the Chaos Control ability five times in Sonic Adventure 2: once to escape from Sonic using the green emerald, once to rescue Rouge from the military base before it blows up, once to teleport from the area where he battles the Biolizard, and during the final duel against Sonic. He uses it one last time to send away the defeated Finalhazard, although this results in his apparent death. Shadow, like Sonic, can use the light dash. Sonic can also use Chaos Control, even with a fake emerald, though he only realizes this later. Shadow has only been seen using Chaos Control without a real chaos emerald in the final ending of his own game. Shadow also has a chaos move called Chaos Spear, a move that lets Shadow send a bolt of yellow energy at his enemies, and is similar to Sonic's Sonic Wind. In Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow can use one of two Chaos-based moves, depending on what actions the player takes. Attacking Black Arms aliens, healing G.U.N. troops and clearing away environmental debris will fill Shadow's Hero Gauge, enabling him to become to use Chaos Control, which (in this game) lets him fly at blistering speeds through a portion of the level while doing a fraction of damage to enemies he passes and/or freeze time during a boss fight. Attacking G.U.N. soldiers, healing aliens or Eggman's robots, and destroying regular parts of the environment (i.e. trees, rocks) will fill up Shadow's Dark Gauge, allowes him to use a new power called "Chaos Blast," a red wave of energy that destroys almost everything in its path at close range, 20 metres to be exact. Both Chaos Control and Chaos Blast allow Shadow to also gain temporary invincibility and unlimited ammunition.He and Sonic have been observed using their chaos powers while Super Sonic and Super Shadow.
Shadow shares every ability of Sonic, meaning that they are truly rivals. Sonic can also perform the powerful Chaos abilites Shadow uses, like in Sonic Adventure 2 during their final duel, Sonic uses very similar chaos moves that are only different from Shadow's in name and appearance. Sonic, however, seems to prefer relying on his speed and other natural abilities to get the job done.
The only form Sonic has attained that Shadow has not is the Hyper form, which is due to a lack of Super Emeralds in the 3D Sonic series. And Sonic has also never been seen using the Chaos Blast move, but this is most likely because Sonic has never done enough evil at one time to allow this. Sonic does, however know about Chaos Blast, he even tells Shadow at the beginning of "Shadow the Hedgehog" how to get it, and what it does, before Shadow even uses it for the first time. It is also unknown is Shadow is capable of the "Dark" Super form used by Sonic in Sonic X.
Another difference is that, while Shadow is willing to use guns, Sonic has said towards the beginning of "Shadow the Hedgehog" that he "personally wouldn't be caught dead using those things!"
Super Shadow
The name of the Chaos Emerald-empowered Shadow seen at the end of Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog is often called "Hyper Shadow", The name of the Chaos Emerald-empowered Shadow seen at the end of Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog is often called "Hyper Shadow", but this is incorrect. Shadow is actually called "Super Shadow" in this form. The "Hyper" title is only used when the user powers up with the Super Emeralds, as learned in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. There, Sonic and Knuckles obtain the "Hyper" title when they power up after empowering all 7 Super Emeralds. In addition, if the final battle goes on for too long, Shadow comments that "[he doesn't] know how much longer [he] can stay in [his] Super form", supporting the "Super Shadow" title. So, since Shadow only uses the Chaos Emeralds and not the Super Emeralds, the "Super" title is correct while the "Hyper" title is not. Also in his own game Shadow the Hedgehog, during the last story while fighting Black Doom, Sonic and friends should have mentioned he needed rings to stay in this "Super" form, also pointing at the Super Shadow title.
It also should be noted that on the Sonic Adventure 2 disc, his model and skin files are named "Super" Shadow.
Also in episode 65 of Sonic X, Doctor Eggman said "He used up all his energy before he could become Super Shadow."
Super Shadow has all the abilities of Super Sonic.
Hedgehog or Machine?
Template:Spoilers In the new Sega game Shadow the Hedgehog two of the possible endings claims that the true Shadow died at the end of "Sonic Adventure 2" and that, in fact, the Shadow you play in the game is an android. If this were true, it would explain why Shadow is in that pod when Rouge finds him in "Sonic Heroes".
However, while fighting the final boss, "Devil Doom", after around 7-10 minutes (results may vary) of battle, you will hear Dr. Robotnik speak these words:
"Shadow, this may be the last chance I have to speak with you so... What I said... about creating you... it was all a lie. Everyone thought you'd died during that horrible incident... but I sent one of my robots to rescue you. You'd just lost your memory, that's all. You really ARE the ultimate life form my grandfather created."
Note: These words may not be exact, but they are very close to what Eggman said.
So basically, Eggman rescued Shadow when he fell from space after the FinalHazard in Sonic Adventure 2, and the Shadow in both Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog is the real Shadow the Hedgehog that Professor Gerald Robotnik created 50 years ago aboard Space Colony ARK.
Japanese backstory: The truth about 50 years ago
After Sonic Adventure 2 was released, a strategy guide was fashioned with the guidance of Sonic Team. This official strategy guide offered eager players the chance to also learn a bit more about Shadow's past, in the form of a report written by Rouge the Bat. The report, a partial transcript, explained her findings on "Project: Shadow" which explains quite a bit about some questions fans have and brings up a slew of new ones. This backstory is also what the Journal Entries in Sonic Battle work with. [1]
NOTE: It is unclear whether or not this report will ever be updated with the information recently revealed in the Shadow game.
Other appearances
Sonic X
Shadow also appears on the cartoon Sonic X. Episodes 33 through 38 are based on Sonic Adventure 2, with a few differences from the game. For one, it was Chris Thorndyke who reminded Shadow of his true promise from Maria, and not Amy Rose. He made short appearances after Episode 38, in flashbacks or otherwise, but he makes his true return in episode 60, “The Return of Shadow”; so far it has only aired in France, but will soon air in America after a new season of Sonic X begins. In Japan he is voiced by his game voice actor; in the dub, due to 4Kids' usage of only a specific set of actors, he is voiced by Jason Griffith, who also plays Sonic in the dub.
With the airing of Sonic X season 3 in multiple places, some hard proof that Shadow survived his fall to Earth is in place. It should be noted that in the first episode of Sonic X season 3, Sonic survives a fall from orbit to the ground after his battle with Dark Oak, his super powers fading as he fell; yet he survived. Shadow who is similar to Sonic, would probably be able to survive a fall such as the one he took (and it would be even for likely for Sonic, according to those who believe that he is actually "Shadow 2.") And it seems either Eggman or Metal Sonic took Shadow in and healed him; just as Sonic is healed by Eggman.
Archie comic
Shadow has appeared in Archie's Sonic comics, but has only made a handful of appearances. He first appears in Sonic #98, which is an introduction to the game Sonic Adventure 2, with a few changes to accommodate the Archie version of Mobius/Earth. The comic then skips over the events of the game, and Shadow reappears in Sonic #124 where he is rescued by an alien race, the Bem; only for them to use him as a distraction against another alien race, the Xorda, while they make a run for it. Shadow proves useless against the Xorda and crashes into Mobius, surviving the fall, and is found by Sonic.
Shadow is an individual, and usually works alone to achieve his own goals, which is currently to discover the truth of his mysterious history; as such, it is hard to peg him as good or evil. He has sided with the Mobians to fight greater evils, like the Xorda and Dr. Eggman, but will turn on them if they hinder his search for the truth. In his journey, he has run into various characters, including the E-102 Gamma-lookalike Isaac, the Guardian Locke, and several others. Most particularly, he seems to have some sort of feelings towards the Overlander girl Hope, who reminds Shadow of Maria.
Quotes
- I will find the answer to who I really am. (Sonic Heroes)
- Hmph! Hope you can keep up with me! (Sonic Heroes)
- Let's go. (Sonic Heroes)
- Space? Did you say space?! (Sonic Heroes)
- Hmph! Some things never change, do they? (Sonic Heroes}
- Finding the secrets of my past will be nearly impossible. I'll take those odds. (Shadow the Hedgehog trailer)
Fan reaction
When first introduced, many fans were put off by Shadow, seeing him as nothing more than an "evil twin" cliché; but much of that subsided when the game was released and Shadow developed into a full-blown character of his own. When Shadow re-emerged in Sonic Heroes, his fans were split into two groups; many fans wanted to see Shadow return, while others felt bringing him back cheapened his death in the previous game.
At the moment, Shadow's fan base is split over what the new Shadow is, as the new Shadow suffers from amnesia. It is not known whether he is the same Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2, a clone of the original, a robotic copy, or part of a production line of Shadows created by Professor Gerald Robotnik, which includes the other Shadow. Sonic Battle suggested that the two are one in the same, but some question if that game is canon. In Shadow the Hedgehog, it explains what Shadow really is.
Theme Songs
- Shadow's theme song in Sonic Adventure 2 is "Throw it All Away".
- In Sonic Heroes, Team Dark's theme is "This Machine".
- In the game, Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow's theme songs are: "I Am All of Me", "All Hail Shadow", "Never Turn Back", "Almost Dead", "Waking Up", and "Chosen One".