Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog (シャドウ・ザ・ヘッジホッグ, Shadō Za Hejjihoggu^?) is a character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, an artificially created life form^[4] in the design of a male, anthropomorphic hedgehog. His trademark hover skates propel him at extreme speeds to rival those of Sonic.^[4] He resembles Sonic in many ways, but is black and red in color. As he was designed to clone Sonic's gameplay in Sonic Adventure 2, he possesses almost all of the abilities Sonic has. He is Sonic's Rival and is the anti thesis of Sonic himself in all aspects of Shadow's life.^[5] He is currently considered the second most popular character in the series.^[6] He has been featured in a variety of media, including his own self-titled game. Shadow is an anti-hero of sorts.

Conception and History

After being conceived by Takashi Iizuka,^[1] the character of Shadow was first shown to the public in a game trailer; however, his name was not revealed.^[7] GameSpot described what little was shown as an "evil version of Sonic himself - similar in appearance, but with darker skin, more angled eyes, and a fearsome snarl instead of Sonic's trademark grin."^[7] Yuji Naka felt that they could use his different identity from Sonic to build upon the Sonic brand and thus focused on him for a new game.^[8]

History

Shadow's debut was in the game Sonic Adventure 2, where it is explained that he was created fifty years prior to the game's events, by Professor Gerald Robotnik, who had been charged with the task of researching a path to immortality. He created Shadow as "The Ultimate Life Form", a first step towards achieving that goal, but the project was shut down and his granddaughter, Maria, was killed in the aftermath. Before she died, she ejected Shadow towards Earth in an escape pod. Gerald, driven insane by her death, designed a program that would cause the research station, Space Colony ARK, to crash into Earth once all seven Chaos Emeralds were placed inside it. Back on Earth, he modified Shadow's mind so that he would carry out Gerald's plan if he was ever released.

Fifty years later, Shadow was released from suspended animation by Dr. Eggman, grandson of Gerald Robotnik, who sought after Shadow after learning from Gerald's diary that he was the ultimate life form his grandfather had created, hoping to use him to conquer the world. Shadow tricked Eggman, under Gerald's programming, into helping him collect all seven Chaos Emeralds with the help of Rouge the Bat, and in placing them in the ARK, almost allowed it to crash into Earth. Amy Rose managed to trigger his memory of Maria, and the ARK was placed back into orbit using his skill, Chaos Control, using up the last of his energy and sending him falling to Earth, seemingly dead.

In Sonic Heroes, Rouge discovered Shadow in a stasis tube in Eggman's secret base. Suffering from amnesia, Shadow joined forces with Rouge and Omega in order to track down Eggman; after defeating the final Eggman robot, Rouge stumbled into a room full of what appeared to be Shadow clones, and deduced that Shadow was also a clone. Omega walked in, and after a brief explanation from Rouge, stated that the original Shadow must exist, and began to search for him. They then went on to fight Metal Sonic with the others.

Shadow seen in Sonic Battle

In Sonic Battle, Rouge saves Shadow while they are investigating Dr. Eggman's secret base. Believing that he is a weapon, he insists the people of Earth must destroy him, but it is revealed that he ultimately has the heart and soul of Maria Robotnik and so is not the enemy of humanity. In one of Gerald Robotnik's journal entries, he mentions that "Project Shadow" was put on hold because of Project Shadow.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow, still with no memory of his past, meets the Black Arms and Black Doom, who seems to know Shadow. Throughout the game, Shadow has constant flashbacks of his past. Black Doom also baits Shadow with the knowledge of his past, while Eggman tells him that he is simply an android created by Eggman to mimic the real Shadow. In the final story, Black Doom reveals to him that while working on his immortality project, Gerald Robotnik contacted Black Doom and made a deal with him; if Black Doom helped him with his research, Gerald would deliver the seven chaos emeralds to him in fifty years' time. Using his own blood, Black Doom helped Gerald create Shadow, an immortal life form that would both help with Gerald's research, and who would collect the Chaos Emeralds for Black Doom in the future. However, once Gerald learned of Black Doom's plot to take over the world, he created the Eclipse Cannon as a means to destroy the Black Comet, and left it up to Shadow to stop the Black Arms. While fighting Black Doom, Shadow also learned from Eggman that he in fact was not an android, but the original Shadow, whom Eggman had rescued with one of his robots after Shadow fell from space (Sonic Adventure 2). He destroys both Black Doom and the Black Arms, and accepts a job offer at GUN from the General, who previously blamed Shadow for the death of Maria.

Shadow's design for Sonic Riders

In the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog video game, Shadow works with Rouge and Omega after confronting Mephiles the Dark. One of Mephiles' goals is to interfere with Shadow's future, but along with Silver and Sonic, he super transforms and manages to defeat Solaris for good, and Mephiles, as part of Solaris, with it.

Shadow appears in Sonic Rivals as a playable character alongside Sonic, Knuckles, Silver, and Metal Sonic, where he locates and uncovers the truth about Dr. Eggman. He also appears in the sequel,Sonic Rivals 2. He is an unlockable character in the game Sonic Riders, and is a Speed type character, whilst he also appears in the sequel, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. Shadow also appeared in the game Sonic and the Secret Rings, being the first unlockable character for the Party Mode and also appears in Super Smash Bros Brawl as an assist trophy and a sticker.

Shadow appears in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, the Sonic RPG game by Bioware. In-game, his screen abilities allow him to Dash and Teleport, and during battles, he can use his Chaos Powers, including Chaos Spear and Chaos Blast, while a new one, Chaos Rift appears. His three team abilities are with Sonic, Omega, and both Rouge and Omega. In the plot, Shadow appears as he is searching for his friend, E-123 Omega, who has gone missing after Omega began to try and find the notorious Dr. Eggman.

Shadow was confirmed to appear in Sonic Unleashed in all versions but never made it (although there are rumours that he is at least mentioned/referred to in the 360/PS3 versions). ^[9]

Shadow has been confirmed to be playable in Sonic and the Black Knight. He is an alternative to Sonic's single sword gameplay.^[10]

Characteristics

According to official profiles, Shadow was created long ago by Prof. Gerald Robotnik as the Ultimate Life Form.^[11] Sharp witted and seemingly always on the edge,^[12] Shadow is described as the dark incarnation and Rival^[13] of Sonic the Hedgehog.^[3] Once he has set himself to a goal, he will do whatever it takes to accomplish it,^[12] regardless of any danger.^[2] After the trauma of the death of his first closest friend, Maria Robotnik, Shadow strives to fulfill his purpose and keep the promise he made to her,^[12] despite his general loathing of mankind.^[2] Although his relationship with Sonic seems to have developed from antagonistic to friendly rivalry, animosity from not understanding their different mindsets continues.^[8]

Shadow is ageless and immortal.^[14] However, Shadow shares a lot in common with Sonic.^[2] Although Sonic's speed is described as "second to none," Shadow can skate at speeds fast enough to rival the speeds of Sonic's running.^[15] He can also perform spin attacks common to Sonic,^[11] which are a variations on the tendency for hedgehogs to roll into tight balls for protection. Additionally, with the power of a Chaos Emerald, Shadow can warp time and space with Chaos Control.^[2][11][3] In contrast, the Archie Comics version of Shadow can directly access the "Chaos Force" and does not require a Chaos Emerald. Shadow is also able to use a variety of other Chaos powers, such as "Chaos Spear" and "Chaos Blast".^[2]

By harnessing the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds, Shadow is able to use super transformation to transform into Super Shadow.^[16] He is bestowed with the new abilities of flight and near invulnerability, like Super Sonic, and his normal abilities of speed and his Chaos powers are greatly enhanced.

Also according to Sonic Channel's November wallpaper of a sketch of Shadow The Hedgehog, Shadow was described to be merciless and violent at some points of the series.

Other appearances

Sonic X

Shadow also appears on the anime Sonic X. Shadow is featured briefly in the opening seqence, even in Season 1, despite not appearing in that season. Episodes 33 through 38 are based on Sonic Adventure 2, with quite a few differences from the game. For one, it was Chris Thorndyke who reminded Shadow of his true promise from Maria, not Amy Rose. Afterwards, he makes short appearances in flashbacks, but he makes his true return in episode 60, “The Return of Shadow”. In Japan he is voiced by his game voice actor, but in the dub he is voiced by Jason Griffith, who also does the voice of Sonic.

In Season 3, Shadow had no clear memory of his mysterious past, although in one episode, he seems to have an image of Maria in his mind. However, he cannot seem to work out who she really was. In that same episode, Dr. Eggman visits people of a planet the Metarex are warring with, including one orange-haired female teenager by the name of Molly. Shadow and Rouge meet her, and at the end of the French/Japanese version of the episode, Molly was killed by the Metarex. Shadow erects a makeshift grave for her, and Rouge notes that she was similar to Maria. In the English dub, Molly is seen flying off into the sky; instead of a grave, Shadow says that he will miss her and he is worried about her being all alone out in space.

Sonic the Hedgehog (comic)

Shadow also appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, and his origin is identical to that in the games in that he was created by Gerald Robotnik to stand against the threat of Black Doom and the Black Arms. He debuted in an adaptation of the game Sonic Adventure 2, with a few changes to accommodate the Archie version of Mobius/Earth. The comic skips over the events of Sonic Heroes, and Shadow reappears with an explanation of how he survived his apparent death: an alien race, the Bem, rescued him so he could combat their enemy, the alien Xorda, buying the Bem time to escape. However, Shadow could not defeat the Xorda (even in his super form) and plummeted toward Mobius. He survived the fall and was found by Sonic, who brought him before Maximillian Acorn so that he could warn him of the impending threat of the Xorda, allowing the House of Acorn to amass an army of allies to stand against the Quantum Dial weapon.

Shadow often works alone to achieve his goal, which is to discover the truth about his mysterious history. He has at times allied with Sonic and the Freedom Fighters to fight greater evils, like the Xorda, and he has been known to work either for or against Dr. Robotnik depending on the circumstances (once even threatening to kill him). Often, he will side with whomever he believes will bring him closer to the truth. This search has led him to interact with various other characters, including the robot Isaac, Brotherhood of Guardians member Locke, and various versions of Metal Sonic. In addition to Sonic, Shadow has also established a rivalry with Scourge the Hedgehog, formerly Anti-Sonic. Hope is one of the few living beings to show compassion towards him besides Maria, and also bears a striking resemblance to her (enough so that he nearly mistook Hope for Maria at one point).

Like Tails, Shadow was kidnapped by the nanite villain A.D.A.M. and used to gather all the Chaos Emeralds in the universe, but later used his Super form and Chaos powers to send them to the Zone of Silence. He eventually gained possession of a copy of Professor Gerald's diary, and learned from it that he had been created to protect Mobius from the return of the Black Arms. Resolving to fulfill his creator's wish, Shadow joined the Guardian Units of Nations, or G.U.N. He later arrived in New Mobotropolis in response to a distress call from Sally Acorn, and engaged Enerjak, a brainwashed and superpowered version of Knuckles the Echidna. By removing his power inhibitors, Shadow was able to match him for a time, but failed to maintain his power long enough to defeat him before Enerjak was captured by the Egg Fleet.

All of Shadow's Chaos powers in the comic book series come from the greatest power in the universe, the Chaos Force (also referred to as "The Power of Chaos"), a mystical energy field that serves as a wellspring for all Chaos powers. Knuckles states at one point that Shadow must have direct access to this energy, even without an Emerald, as displayed when Shadow subconsciously halted a squadron of 'Metal Sonic Troopers' and teleported himself, Sonic, and a wounded Hope to Castle Acorn using Chaos Control in the absence of an Emerald.

Shadow Androids

Shadow Androids are robots based on Shadow that first appeared in Sonic Heroes, though it was never actually stated to be such. Instead, one Team Dark cutscene showed a broken Shadow robot, and another one showed an entire room of Androids in stasis, which affected the story in a way, making several characters believe Shadow was a robot. The Shadow Androids reappeared in Shadow the Hedgehog as somewhat strong enemy robots on the single-player mode's "Iron Jungle" and "Lava Shelter" stages, along with the "Iron Jungle" boss. These androids can counter Shadow's Homing Attacks, or lock-on to Shadow and toss rockets at him, which they seem to use more often than the Homing Attack. At the last Team Dark cutscene of Sonic Heroes, when Rouge finds the multiple Shadow androids, she suspects that Shadow is an android, but Omega says that the real Shadow exists, as there is no way anyone could make Shadow androids without the real Shadow. While Shadow is facing Black Doom in his Devil Doom form, Eggman says that he used a robot to rescue Shadow as or after he fell from the Space Colony ARK in Sonic Adventure 2, meaning that while Shadow was in a stasis tube, Eggman was making Shadow androids.

In the multi-player mode of Shadow the Hedgehog, there are six special Shadow Androids.^[17] Four of these robots are silver with green, pink, orange, or blue stripes, each wielding either an alien-like machine gun or a bazooka. All of these androids claim to be the "real Shadow", and claim that the others are fakes, and so do the other two Shadow Androids.^[18]

Reception

Shadow was ranked as the 2nd favorite Sonic character only beaten by Sonic the Hedgehog himself in the official Sonic character poll.^[19] Game Revolution described his character as a "quintessential anti-Sonic."^[20] while Games Radar said in a review of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) that they liked his vehicle sections but said they had not forgiven him.

References

External links

• Sonic Central official character profiles
• Shadow at Sonic Channel
• Shadow's official Sonic-City profile