Shadow the Hedgehog
- For the video game of the same name see Shadow the Hedgehog (video game)
Shadow the Hedgehog is a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is an anti-hero and the dark rival of Sonic the Hedgehog and first appeared in the Dreamcast game Sonic Adventure 2. He has also appeared in some of the Sonic Archie Comics. Shadow is 3'3" tall, and weighs 77 lbs, exactly like Sonic.
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. He is constantly haunted by his memories of his beloved Maria. He is cold, and arrogant. He generally isn't a very pleasant person to be around, but always loyal to his closest allies, unless he sees them as an obstacle. He is fueled by revenge on the humans for the death of Maria, and later his quest to discover the truth of his past.
After fulfilling his promise to Maria by defeating the Black Arms, Shadow leaves his past behind and moves on. His personality after this currently is not known, but people are assuming that he'll have the same personality as his first appearence. It is likely that his new personality will be revealed in the next game he is in, Sonic Riders, where he appears as an unlockable character. Some fans believe he may still want revenge on the Guardian Unit of Nations, but there is so far no evidence supporting this statement.
History
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. 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.
Plot summaries
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 the Guardian Unit of Nations 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, and in its determination to bring forth Earth's destruction, used a strange form of Chaos Control to merge itself with the ARK to continue the crash course as a new beast now known as Finalhazard. Using the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds, Sonic transformed into Super Sonic and Shadow transformed into Super Shadow.
Together they destroyed Finalhazard 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.
Physically, Shadow appears to be 15 (around Sonic's age), though his chronological age is different. He has been in existence for well over 50 years but was kept by the military in chronic stasis for that time, and hasn't aged a day. On the other hand, Sonic Battle states that Project: Shadow was completed around a week before GUN attacked, meaning Shadow was anywhere between 3-7 days old when the ARK was shut down. There probably is no canonical age since Shadow is immortal.
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 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 realized 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. During the battle with Metal Madness, Metal Madness speaks that "even the Ultimate Life Form cannot stop me" which suggests that the Shadow that is in Sonic Heroes is indeed the real Shadow, created by Gerald Robotnik. 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. Sonic Battle occurs after Sonic Heroes. It has also been suggested that the game is not canon, but there is little evidence either way. Also if the player beats the game, the player can play each of the character's story again and when the player completes it, the player will discover that Project: Shadow was put on hold because of Emerl. Because shadow has his memories back in this game, many people now think that it takes place after Shadow the Hedgehog.
Shadow the Hedgehog
In Shadow the Hedgehog, which takes place after the events of Sonic Heroes and possibly before the events of Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3, Shadow is standing outside the city, reminiscing of 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 a neutral side, represented by Dr. Eggman. 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. This game also featured the long awaited return of Super Shadow.
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 the 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. After G.U.N. attacked the ARK, he went insane and planned to end all life on earth, but Shadow follows Gerald's original goal (while he was sane, it is considered his true goal).
Sonic Riders
Shadow is a character in Sonic Riders. His purpose in the story is unknown, but he is a speed character like Sonic the Hedgehog, Jet the Hawk, and Amy Rose and uses Chaos Control to attack his enemies. From information translated off of the Japanese gamesite, he seems to be trying to promote a "cool" outlook, which may explain the shades he's wearing, and the way he rides Extreme Gear.
Abilities
Shadow possesses 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. In Shadow the Hedgehog, when he becomes Hero Shadow, he uses Chaos Control to fly through part of the level; doing 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 four 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, and once 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 used Chaos Control at the end of his own game using all seven Chaos Emeralds. 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 (although in Shadow the Hedgehog, he could only use Chaos Spear while in Super form). In Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow can use one of two Chaos-based moves, depending on what actions the player takes. Attacking Black Arms aliens (or other dark based characters), healing G.U.N. troops (or other hero based characters) 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 slow down time during a boss fight. Attacking G.U.N. soldiers(or other hero based characters), healing aliens (or other dark based characters), and destroying regular parts of the environment (i.e. trees, rocks) will fill up Shadow's Dark Gauge, allows 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 meters 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 that Sonic has, meaning that they are truly rivals.
Another difference is that, while Shadow is willing to use guns, Sonic has said towards the beginning of Shadow the Hedgehog that he "wouldn't be caught dead using those things".
Hedgehog or Machine?
There has been some debate on whether the current Shadow is the real thing, or a robot or clone created by Eggman. The latter is bolstered by the fact that Rouge calls him one. However, that may actually be faulty translation that the game is littered with (i.e. When Tails says: "Look at all of those eggmans robots!"). In Japanese, the words "Robot" and "Artificial Lifeform" translate to roughly the same thing (Jinzou). Also Omega hints at the end of Sonic Heroes that Shadow may be a clone and the "original must exist somewhere." Then again, Omega also seemed pretty sure that the Eggman he fought before Last Story was the real one, but then again, Omega was imprisoned for some time, and most likely had no knowledge that Eggman had been contained elsewhere by Metal Sonic.
In 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 in the game is an android; Eggman tells Shadow this. In addition, Eggman has numerous Shadow robots called Shadow Androids. Also in the game, though unrelated, is the appearance of several "Metal Shadows" (and one normal-looking Shadow with yellow streaks instead of red) in the two-player mode. The Metal Shadows are built like Metal Sonic, though styled after Shadow, and in place of black skin they have silver, as well as four streak colors: orange, pink, green, and blue.
While fighting the final boss, Devil Doom, after around seven to ten minutes of battle, the player will hear Dr. Eggman tell Shadow that he was lying. He says he rescued Shadow with one of his robots when he fell from space at the end of Sonic Adventure 2 after Shadow defeated the FinalHazard, and that he simply lost his memory.
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]
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.” 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. (Much to the chagrin of David Humphrey fans)
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 even be likely for Sonic, according to those who believe that he is actually "Shadow 2".)
In Sonic X's season 3, Shadow had no clear memory of his past; although in one episode (named "Molly's Dream" in the English translation of the Japanese anime) he seems to have an image of Maria in his mind, some sort of two-second flashback. But he cannot seem to find out who she really was. In that same episode, Dr. Robotnik is visited by a small troop of the GUN army, how they got into Sonic's world is uncertain for now. Accompainied by them is a orange haired female teenager by the name of Molly. Shadow and Rouge meet her; Molly takes one look at Shadow and blushes. It seems that she is already liked by another man, whose name is unclear. During the remainder of this episode, a group of Metarex come towards Eggman's base and Rouge, Shadow and Molly try to protect the base and get the white Chaos Emerald. Molly, being a GUN agent, uses an aircraft similar to the X Tornado to destroy the Metarex alongside the others. They later state that a girl was blown up in an airplane it is likely that Molly is the one who receives that fate.
Again, Shadow the Hedgehog receives a faint memory of Maria as he is holding the white Chaos Emerald in his hands. In the last episode of the 3rd season Shadow is in his Super form and, in his mind, there is an image of Molly, which used to be Maria in the episode "Molly's Dream", and then he takes off into space, leaving a slightly confused Sonic and company behind.
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. There was an error in this issue, however, it is said by Shadow that Sonic showed him the light to help save Mobius/Earth yet it was really Amy Rose.
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.
Shadow returns in Sonic #157
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.
Until recently, Shadow's fan base was split over what the new Shadow was, as the new Shadow suffered from amnesia. It was not known whether he was the same Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2 or a robotic copy made by Eggman. But now, thanks to Sega's most recent Sonic game, Shadow the Hedgehog, it has now been confirmed that Shadow is indeed the same Shadow that was in Sonic Adventure 2 who was saved after Chaos Controlling the ARK and being used as a template for Doctor Eggman explained in Shadow the Hedgehog, as well as the ultimate life form that Professor Gerald Robotnik (Eggman's grandfather) created 50 years ago. Template:Endspoiler
Voice Actors
- In Sonic X and all future video games after Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow will be voiced by Jason Griffith, who also does the voice of Sonic in the same media. Previously, he was voiced by David Humphrey in the games; many fans want David Humphrey to return as his voice in that medium. In Japan, he is voiced by Kouji Yusa.
Theme Songs
While Shadow has his own game, Shadow also has his own theme songs even in Sonic Titles:
- Sonic Adventure 2: "Throw It All Away", a techno-industrial metal song, sounds like Slipknot.
- Sonic Heroes: Team Dark's "This Machine".
- Shadow the Hedgehog: "I Am (All of Me)", a hard rocker whihc rips off Pantera's "5 Minutes Alone"
