Why Shadow Is The BEST Sonic Character And How He Has Been Misrepresented & Ruined

if you've seen either one of my last two videos you'll know how important i think characterization character development and character consistency is i won't explain that in this video but definitely check out those two if you're curious so to continue my saga in the analysis of characters from the sonic franchise i wanted to talk about shadow the hedgehog shadow the hedgehog is a character beloved by many sonic fans myself included he is my favorite character from the series his character was always just appealing to me his design the darker tones the more complex themes explored with his character his rivalry with sonic his interaction with his teammates rouge and omega everything just worked but then something happened something about his character changed that forever affected his status within the sonic community and surprisingly enough it wasn't entirely the fault of pontac and graff's writing it was a problem that introduced itself in 2005 with the shadow of the hedgehog game this issue was remedied with the sonic the hedgehog 2006 game but then shadow kinda had a disappearing act when it came to the main games of the series but i'm getting a bit ahead of myself let's take this from the top i'm gonna split this video into two parts the first part will cover his character in adventure 2 heroes and o6 i'll be talking about why his character is just incredible and had brilliant consistency with a great arc then in the second part i will talk about the downfall of his character and why his character changed so much from what it once was i should also point out that i'm mainly focusing on shadow in the games and not his appearances in external media and so without further ado let's get started let's take a trip to the beginning shadow was first introduced in sonic adventure 2 assuming you played the hero story you first meet shadow after the first boss battle in a cut scene that is just so well done you have shadow prominently standing atop the destroyed machine holding the chaos emerald as sonic approaches him he uses chaos control to teleport onto the rooftop behind him displaying his power as sonic begins to figure out his powers shadow calmly introduces himself and proclaims that he is the ultimate life form but look at the way this scene is shot the camera angles are put in such a way to make shadows seem superior and above sonic which is also helped by him literally being above sonic when on the robot and the rooftop this along with the dialogue introduced shadow as this calm and collected character who believes that he is superior to everybody else this is also seen with his character when he first meets with eggman earlier in the dark story but shadow undergoes a character arc throughout the entirety of adventure 2. you see his true character appearing in both cutscenes and dialogue throughout the game even going back to that cutscene where he first meets sonic the trend of him being shown to be above sonic and acting superior is kept consistent through every cutscene where they meet aside from the final time where they meet in their respective stories they are now standing on equal ground sonic has subverted shadow's expectations throughout the entire game getting to this point where he actually earns shadow's respect even during the final boss shadow states that he thinks sonic might actually be the true ultimate life form but this is all one tiny aspect of showing the growth of his character to truly understand his character we need to go back even further about 50 years at this time there was a military invasion aboard the space colony arc in which maria robotnik who was shadow's best friend was killed past this shadow has been in stasis up until being released by eggman at the beginning of adventure 2. in one of the cutscenes we see shadow having flashbacks of maria back to when he was aboard the ark shadow mistakes the words of maria altering them to seek revenge on humanity to avenge her death we learn later that shadow's memory was altered by his creator gerald robotnik who also wanted revenge on humanity for the death of maria who was his granddaughter i plan to give you a taste of my revenge once all the seven chaos emeralds are collected once i initiate this program it cannot be disabled all of you ungrateful humans who took everything away from me will feel my loss and despair [Music] is there anything else you want to say now even though taking revenge on the entirety of humanity is a bit much it goes to show just how deep shadow's relationship with maria was they weren't just friends but best friends he would do all this no matter how corrupt it may be because he cared for her that much he believes that this is what maria wanted shadow to promise to her and wants nothing more than to fulfill that promise to maria in fact in one cut scene rouge asks him whether or not he is the real shadow and he simply states that even if he isn't the real shadow his promise to maria is the realest part about him [Music] and throughout the story shadow doesn't just harbor hatred for humanity but for himself for being unable to protect maria on the day of the military invasion take for example the cutscene that plays just before prison island blows up rouge managed to get the chaos emerald but is now locked in and can't escape shadow starts to have flashbacks of maria and compares this situation to that rouge is about to die like maria was and shadow didn't want to make the same mistake again he immediately rushes to her rescue because of this this gives insight to shadow's character he does care about people he isn't emotionless he just has a hard time displaying his emotion flash forward to the last story shadow has nearly completed his mission of taking revenge on humanity as planned by gerald robotnik but thanks to amy appearing and pleading with shadow to give humanity a second chance shadow begins to have more flashbacks about maria he finally remembers what maria truly said it wasn't for him to seek revenge it was for shadow to save humanity with this revelation at hand shadow finally remembers the truth sees through gerald's tampering and goes to continue exactly what he's been doing the whole game fulfilling his promise to maria he even sheds a tear after remembering the truth and immediately jumps in to help sonic and the others prevent the ark from crashing and wiping out the earth shadow i beg you please do it for them give them a chance for all please [Music] [Music] i must keep that promise he would do anything and stop at nothing to keep his promise which ended up with him sacrificing his life to protect the earth shadow's character arc and sonic adventure 2 goes to show that he isn't a one note boring edge lord with no redeemable aspects but a three-dimensional character with genuine heart and flaws who does truly care for people he's not edgy just more introverted this can even be seen with the way he reacts to other characters throughout the game like at the beginning when amy first mistakes him for sonic ready shadow rouge on with the show oh sonic [Music] if he truly was this super dark edgelord he probably would have batted amy away and insulted her but he does no such thing now moving on to sonic heroes shadow's character is kept consistent with the previous game sonic heroes doesn't have a huge focus on story but it got shadow's character right the way he acts and how he interacts with both his teammates and sonic is done well even the very first cutscene of the team dark story gets his character the second he was freed e123 omega activates and begins to attack both him and rouge the first thing shadow does is get rouge to safety before attempting to take on omega if he truly was edgy the hedgy he would have just ignored rouge possibly letting her get hurt just to duke it out with omega but he doesn't because that isn't shadow after this fight is resolved rouge instigates the formation of team darth with both her and omega becoming shadow's closest friends this is another interesting point shadow shows no resistance to the formation of this team why because he genuinely enjoys being with these two and hanging out with them even if he doesn't always show it the story here is that shadow managed to survive after beating the biolizard in adventure 2 but now has amnesia which leads him to question who he is and whether or not he is the real shadow in the small cutting that plays just before you start the egg fleet shadow declares that he doesn't care if he is real and that he'll just be himself shadow the hedgehog this is a small but great character arc for shadow it's confirmed in the shadow of the hedgehog game during the final boss that this shadow is in fact the real one but the great thing about sonic heroes is that we don't actually know that the ambiguity of this fact actually adds to his character here and reinforces his character arc i'm just gonna go ahead and skip over the 2005 shadow of the hedgehog game for now and jump straight into sonic 06. say what you will about this game but they got shadows character down brilliantly here mainly due to his dynamic with nephilis the dark shadow and methodist encounter each other multiple times throughout the story but i'm just going to pick out a couple of these encounters the first is their encounter in flame core in this cutscene method shows shadow a projection of his fate in the future stating that humanity feared shadow's power and eventually hunted him down you can see from shadow's body language and physical reactions to this information that he is hurt by this news then mephilis asked shadow to join him to which shadow stands firmly against him stating that he determines his own destiny come with me shadow let us punish this foolish world of humanity it's only fair to give back what was intended for you you have every right to want justice that's absurd whatever it is you want to do you can do it alone you forgive humanity this folly then [Music] i determine my own destiny [Music] now on to the second example which is during the final cut scene of shadow's story in this cutscene mephiless questions why shadow continues to fight for humanity even though humanity will eventually betray him the response that shadow gives is hands down my favorite line that he has ever set you must realize now that you cannot hope to stop me with your limited power so you say it's futile the world will betray you why fight it all why risk your life for those who will persecute you later if the world chooses to become my enemy i will fight like i always have [Music] so both of these cutscenes reinforce how much shadow's character has grown since his first appearance excluding shadow the hedgehog he doesn't hold a petty grudge against humanity like he once did back in adventure 2 but instead proclaims that he will continue to fight no matter what this also ties back to his promise to maria about protecting humanity and explains why shadow continues to fight for humanity because he still wants to continue to fulfill his promise to maria the fact that he's willing to fight for humanity even though they will turn on him just because of his promise to maria reinforces his friendship with her and how strong it was but another amazing dynamic they nailed is the one between him and team dark the way he interacts with rouge and omega is in a way that is consistent with their established friendship he talks with them a lot saves rouge at one point which admittedly does lead to the release of nephilis and even steps in front of roof to take on iblis in his second phase when he attacks but the bigger interaction he has here is with omega we learn later in shadow's campaign that the person who defeats and seals shadow in the future is omega confesses his information to shadow and he like earlier shows through his body language that he is hurt by this information it wasn't just humanity who turned on shadow it was also one of his closest friends the one that defeats and seals you in the future is me rouge even jumps in to defend shadow and states that if the whole world turns on him she will always remain by his side it's it's so unfair shadow's always here to defend the world despite that eventually when something or someone is seen as too powerful [Music] it is seen as a threat and then the world becomes its enemy shadow even if you believe everyone in the world will be against you know that i'll always remain by your side remember that i will but even when learning of this betrayal shadow still stays with his friends and defeats methodists true to his character through all these examples i've given you can see how shadow is actually a very deep and complex character he isn't just a hate-filled edgy character with no redeemable aspects these three games go to great length to explore shadow's character properly and not just give in to all the stereotypes of his character that were made unfortunately the shadow of the hedgehog game exists after sonic adventure 2 on sonic heroes shadow was extremely popular so much so that sonic team decided to give him his own game but the character of shadow feels as though he has been regressed the character asked that he underwent the character development that he received in adventure 2 in heroes means nothing in this game he becomes the over-the-top dark edge lord that he has been commonly misjudged as you know that trait that he put behind him after his character arc and adventure 2 he keeps dwelling on the past and wondering if he's the real shadow you know that issue that he moved on from after his character arcane heroes this game just strips shadow of all his character development leaving us with this little bundle of hatred that i really don't care about look at the first opening cutscene you have shadows standing on a hill wandering about his past already there's an issue here but then when the alien invasion begins and innocent citizens are being injured and killed shadow just calls the humans pathetic and says he doesn't have time to help them look how pathetic they are i don't have time for these humans really remember how shadows sacrificed himself to keep maria's promise about saving humanity well this game sure as hell doesn't shadow is right now going against his promise to maria he's not protecting humanity at all then black doom appears offering shadow information about his past in exchange for the emeralds and then shadow finally gets off his arse and goes to do something i just want to point out that all these issues are just in the very first cutscene and it doesn't get much better from here okay just to be clear here this game outside of the last story actually has multiple endings with different paths the way shadow acts in the hero path is kind of consistent with his character he does eventually come to terms with who he is and even turns on black doom because he wants to fulfill his promise to maria it's his character in the other four fifths of the game that is just wrong and yes even though he does go through a character arc and technically by the end has the same character as the shadow at the end of heroes the issue here is that they're just having him repeat his character development that he's already received they removed his character development for the most part just to have him pretty much go through the same character arc like for example in the last story segment shadow states that he is putting the past behind him great but didn't he already do that in heroes i just find it a bit redundant that they would have him repeat his already established character development just to have this game and this game's storyline exist there are many ways you could have used shadows amnesia to benefit his character and perhaps further character development but here they just regressed his character to go along with this plot there are many people who complain about the additions to shadows backstory in this game in terms of black doom and his involvement for those who don't know i'll just give a brief description of this gerald robotnik wanted to create the ultimate life form to help cure maria of her incurable neurodegenerative disease this failed and led to the creation of the biolizard which shadow defeats an adventure 2. this caused gerald to strike a deal with black doom which was that gerald would have to obtain the chaos emerald for him and in exchange he would give him some of his dna that was used to create shadow i don't really mind these additions too much i'll admit that they weren't exactly needed editions but they have no real bearing on shadow's character overall remember how by the end of adventure 2 shadow saw sonic as his equal and grew to respect him well this game forgets that too shadow is back to thinking sonic is weak and insignificant even at one point he beat sonic in a fight as though he is an enemy that is a very villainous portrayal of shadow's character at worst shadow is an anti-hero but not a villain the character here isn't 100 ruined though his interactions with maria in the flashback scenes are still good but in no way does that redeem this character that we play as in the game the big problem with shadow's writing in this game is that it reinforces shadow as the stereotypical edgelord that people often mistook him to be and because this game is called shadow the hedgehog writers and developers will always look to this game to reference shadow's character now shadow's writing post 06 is also horrible why because the writers yeah you may know them only looked at this game for inspiration people look at this game and go oh this must be what shadow is always like because this game is called shadow the hedgehog everyone likes to draw comparisons between the sonic series and the dragon ball series and one common comparison made is that people simply said that shadow is just a vegeta clone this was not the case at least for his character in adventure 2 heroes and 06. even in the shadow of the hedgehog game there were some aspects which separated the two minor aspects albeit but aspects nonetheless but from 2010 onwards yeah you can pretty much call shadow of vegeta clone he is not much different to vegeta at all other than looking different remember the article that i showed in my previous video that showed that pontac had no clue about anything in the sonic series and wrote by referencing wikipedia and some cutscenes well i can almost guarantee that these writers probably just looked at the cutscenes from the shot of the hedgehog game and took that at face value as being shadow's character shadow has been misrepresented as his dark edge lord so much that he has now become one shadow's character is the literal definition of the quote you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain now one cause which contributes to the poor writing of the characters like shadow are the sega mandates these are a list of rules about specific franchises such as the sonic franchise that developers and writers must adhere to these rules have restricted creative freedom with writing and as such has affected many of the characters in the series it even affected shadow's character in the idw comics where he just acts like he does in the games post 2010. another point that's often brought up when talking about shadow's character is how horribly written he is in sonic boom here his darkness and edginess are cranked up to the absolute max such that he is now actually a villain and whilst i can agree that the character here sucks i really don't dwell on it too much that's just because the boom universe is a completely separate universe to the main canon so character changes here can be forgiven is he well written in boom hell no but my main focus is on the representation of shadow in the main canon because the shadow we see in forces and the shadow we see in adventure 2 are canonically the same shadow the hedgehog i think the saddest thing about shadow now aside from his character being completely bastardized is how under-utilized he is in games when it comes to the games especially ones like sonic forces he's just a marketing tool he's barely relevant to the story and doesn't appear outside of a few cut scenes but always manages to be on every advertisement and every poster as if he's just being used to taunt adventure fans and fans of the real shadow of the hedgehog i hope that for the 30th anniversary we do get an adventure to remake alongside the potential adventure 1 remake because at least then people will actually get to see shadow for what he truly is like his real character not this one dimensional shell of anger and edge that he has become is there hope for shadow's character moving forward maybe but it will take a hell of a lot of damage control to fix his character after it's been misrepresented for this long as i spoke about my new era of sonic video it looks like we're getting new writers for the games so there is hope that his character can be altered and fixed to go back to the ways that it once was shadow the hedgehog is my favorite character from the series and through how much his character has been wrecked he will continue to be my favorite character from the sonic series because i can always look back at these three games and remember the real shadow of the hedgehog a character with a genuinely gripping character arc a character who is complex a character who does care about others despite his introverted nature a character who is just badass and strong a character who is a hero do you really think that the professor created him shadow to carry out the revenge on all those who live here on earth he was what he was a brave and heroic hedgehog who gave his life to save this planet shadow the hedgehog

Channel: ThePJShow

Views: 1,197

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: shadow the hedgehog, Shadow the hedgehog, character analysis, why shadow, sega, sonic the hedgehog, thepjshow, ThePJShow, PJShow, Pj Show, Why Shadow Is The BEST Sonic Character And How He Has Been Misrepresented & Ruined, sonic adventure 2, sonic heroes, crush 40, sonic the hedgehog 2006, sonic 06, Mephiles the dark, mephiles, sonic free riders, sonic forces, team sonic racing, sonic character, characters in depth, speedsupersonic, super shadow, sonic 06 is good, pontac, graff

Id: ZPSGXhL9oYk

Length: 25min 3sec (1503 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/thebonieboy]

Hm that’s a funny way of spelling Eggman.

[u/Not_So_Utopian]

Oh great, another Character In Depth.

And look at that, it's the clown from the Sonic post.

No.

[u/FirePal32120]

Can’t help but picture Shadow posing like that while waiting for his order at McDonald’s.