Media Essays: Shadow the Hedgehog: Going Forward

Written by The Wandering Fox

Freddy was hiding the Cynical Crown with a weary look on his face.

Freddy: Oh bugger I hope he doesn’t need this for his essay, he was doing so good but then he had to do the MCU essay.

Teddy then came up to him.

Teddy: Oh don’t worry, I don’t think he’s going to need it for today’s essay.

Freddy: No?

Teddy: No, I think this essay is more about positive potential for this guy he’s chatting about.

Freddy: Yeah? Who’s that then?

Shadow the Hedgehog.

Don’t worry I don’t need the Cynical Crown for this one guys.

Hello everybody, the Wandering Fox is back and I’m here to talk about the hedgehog who’s arguably just as popular as Sonic himself, that being Shadow the Hedgehog. Created back in 2001 for Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow took the Sonic fandom by storm from his incredible design to tragic backstory that’s tied in with the family of Dr Eggman. From his character interactions with Maria, Rouge, Eggman and Amy, he earned himself a beloved spot with many wanting more of him with these characters. Though he was supposed to stay dead he was that beloved that SEGA brought him back for Sonic Heroes which set up a mystery story of how he survived, was he the real Shadow or an android copy? Shadow’s memory was damaged thanks to falling from space and he questioned his past, which was answered in his own spin-off game, that he was artificially created by Black Doom and Gerald Robotnik to serve as a weapon of conquest for Black Doom but Gerald wanted him to help Maria and find a cure for her illness. With Shadow killing Black Doom and the Black Arms he would finally be able to move on……….kinda. Sonic 06 did at least continue Shadow’s inner struggle of whether he is a tool for evil and is feared by the human race and had a interesting scene with Rouge and Eggman, but also was moving forward in his life as a GUN agent. After that he kind of faded from the games, he was gone from Sonic Unleashed and Sonic and the Secret Rings, did return in Black Knight as Sir Lancelot, was gone from Sonic Colours Wii version, had a rival fight in Sonic Generations, came and went in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, then in Sonic Forces where his character was just as received mixed as Tails by the fans, Murder of Sonic, then finally Shadow Generations which revisited his origins.

Shadow hasn’t exactly been as well received by others in the Sonic community or fandom, whether it’s Ian Flynn getting his knickers in a twist over how he can’t write Shadow as a conversationalist and hence tends to write him spitefully, to Sonic gaslighting him over his troubled past, to fans making him a typical emo goth boy who can’t get over Maria, has a fight with Sonic over Amy’s affections, to fans thinking Shadow hates Tails, taking canon facts about Shadow and making them a meme, it’s been a hard challenge for the hedgehog. With him at his most popular now thanks to Shadow Generations and the third film, it’s time to ask: when is Shadow going to move forward?

I look at this from a fan’s standpoint and SEGA’s. As a fan I expect Shadow to start moving forward with his story and character and as SEGA I’d be wanting to try something different with Shadow. Yes the Year of Shadow and Murder of Sonic did delve into what he does outside of his life as a GUN agent, like him buying concert tickets for Amy’s birthday, he works at kitten orphanages (hey, that’s got my support), he helps at homeless shelters, he likes to play on the PlayStation, but I mean it’d be nice if we had a game in which we finally do something different with Shadow that’s not about his past with Maria and Black Doom. Not saying he should be paired up romantically with Rouge or Amy, I mean is there anything that we can do for him that’s gonna help him go forward? I know the films will come to Black Doom which, okay, but let’s see what else they can do.

First of all, here’s the interesting trivia about Shadow that could be worked on in future games.

The Twitter Takeovers also confirmed Shadow loves cats.

Potential spinoff.

First of all, Ian Flynn, I know you’re reading this, you’re a little worm who gets annoyed SEGA won’t take fan ideas and turn them into stories but let’s be real, you stolen a fan idea and bastardised it. You KNOW what I’m talking about, so with you reading this, DON’T copy me. I’ll know it’s you.

Let’s argue that Shadow’s popularity will let him gain the chance to have another spinoff. Try and do something different with him story wise and game wise. Arguably I’d make this game either not have Sonic and his close friends in the game, or at least have Sonic involved to a limit. Have it be Shadow, Rouge and Omega as the playable characters, Shadow for the running segments, Rouge is stealth and has a few gadgets to use, and Omega as the big muscle. Eggman could be involved though maybe not as the main villain, I have him as that for Sonic, though at least have a scene in there in which you have him and Shadow in a intense scene with Sage maybe present with Eggman taunting Shadow of maybe having a family again, which he scolds at Eggman and says he doesn’t need him as family though he tells Sage trying to have Eggman turn good is pointless. But for terms of story that stays true to Shadow’s character, origins and his way of life right now.

With him as a GUN Agent, the story can be a very action oriented story based on chemical biological creations disguised as doing good when it’s doing more harm. Ties well in Shadow’s past as a creation for medicine and a tool to conquer Earth. You can invent a new villain who’s developing a virus of sorts to incapacitate others, albeit in a Sonic manner. Say for example there’s a Mobian/humanoid animal scientist is inventing a virus that turns all those it comes into contact with as savage creatures who become easily tameable with a device the scientist has. It’s about trying to stop this scientist from finding the template and origin of the virus. Though they are one step behind the baddie they at least are figuring out what he’s up to and are figuring what his plan is. The climax sees Shadow battling the scientist who’s mutated himself after he’s lost the facilities and his experiments hence we have this final boss battle. Throughout the game you have Shadow go to GUN base to try out some upgrades to his powers as well as Rouge and Omega to help up their skills. In the game Shadow also collects some trinkets that are in fact food treats for cats and you have a little side game in which you go and sell these trinkets to upgrade the cat orphanages. Shadow’s character story here is being dedicated to doing good no matter the size, whether it’s tending to cat orphanages and him stopping evil scientists. His relationship with Rouge and Omega is delved into going back to the more intimate trust Rouge has for him which means a lot to him. With the beloved Omega you have Shadow be a mentor of sorts as he tries to remind Omega not to be too excited with fighting.

With how Eggman and Sage get involved in the story you can have the Mobian scientist try to overwhelm Eggman’s factory in the game to try and showcase how he’s gonna be Eggman’s master, which doesn’t work out for him as Eggman’s robots can handle crazed beasts and a few inferior robots, though Shadow goes to stop the fight and round up those affected by the virus to stop Eggman from capturing them. It has Shadow meet Sage for the first time and they delve a little in his history with her family but Shadow sternly tells her not to think she can change Eggman for the better and tells her there may be a time when he or Sonic will kill him. Sage says she wants to try to which Shadow says he doesn’t see much point, but she has a sense of optimism and he’d rather not hurt her if she was to try hard with Eggman. The doctor himself is quite glad Shadow came to his side saying it’s only right the Ultimate Lifeform protects him, at which Shadow reminds him he’s here to stop the infection, not to help him.

Sonic and Tails could make an appearance as part of a team up segment as say in the final bit of the game Tails comes with Sonic and explains he was finding out what was going on thanks to the earlier Eggman moment and he and Sonic offer their support. We get a interesting character dynamic as we see Sonic with Rouge and Tails with Shadow, Rouge cheekily teasing Sonic as a “boy” who she can’t really blind while Sonic is guarded with Rouge though friendly, while Shadow comes to rely on Tails for his expertise in tech with Tails being quite amazed Shadow isn’t skilled with computers while Shadow notes Tails is a kid who’s brain skills are incredible though hopes he doesn’t become a cocky guy like Sonic.

That’s the game side of things. In other stuff like IDW and the movies they have their work cut out for them, including the animated stories. Shadow was a jerk in Sonic Boom, but I found him terrible in Sonic Prime with him beating Sonic up instead of talking to him about what he saw, then he beats him up for ruining the universe even though Shadow was the biggest idiot in contributing to that, then instead of getting on the Chaos Council’s ship and wrecking it, he just kicks some rocks at it. The crossover with DC was terrible in lots of ways but Shadow had it bad with how he refused to help his friends and the Justice League in battling Darkseid despite his whole character being devoted to protecting his planet. Then there’s how MemeBatman understood Shadow’s trauma by just looking at him.

The whole thing with IDW saw Ian Flynn whinge his butt off about how SEGA instructs him to write Shadow and he in turn spitefully writes him with Sonic’s now well known gaslighting of him about his past. Ian Flynn has said he’s got lots of freedom in writing Sonic himself, so he happily writes Sonic as an asshole who gaslights a trauma victim of his past of being manipulated. Then Flynn has the nerve to say SEGA is too controlling of him. But Daniel Barnes wrote Shadow with ease and said SEGA didn’t give him any trouble. Ian, you’re old. You’ve been on Sonic for too long, go to Marvel I’m sure they’ll take you on. The Sonic Prime writers said they had “similar troubles” with SEGA on writing Shadow, when these are the same people who wrote that horrible Mega Man cartoon show, so I think it’s a case of “Wah, I’m not a bad writer, but I can’t understand these rules SEGA’s telling me how to write their property!”.

I think Shadow could have his own spin off comic or manga just don’t have Flynn writing it. It could be a mix of slice of life and mission stories with Shadow, as in you delve in what he does with the cat orphanages, his work with the homeless, his PlayStation games which could be funny if he was secretly in a online gaming tournament with other characters. Have a few issues that focus on his relationships with the likes of Amy, Tails, Knuckles, other characters he doesn’t do much with.

With Paramount wanting to do a Shadow the Hedgehog spin off, either a movie or tv series, please PLEASE make it about Shadow, stop the humour getting out of control, and make it about Shadow, not about Wade the director’s bff, or the life of a random GUN agent. It’s SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG! Have him meet Omega and Rouge, have him help them find some stuff that is not connected with his origin, it’s about him doing good in his life.

Teddy: This Shadow guy likes cats? That’s good.

Freddy: I’m happy if they were to make a story that finally puts to sleep that bull crap about him hating Tails.

That I would as well. You know I think I should let the readers know that the Media Man Blog is going to be Sonic themed soon as he himself is going to take a dive back into the past with Sonic. Particularly the Archie Comics of Ian Flynn’s era. Oooooooooooooooooooh boy! You guys are in for a treat on that one!

But still. These are my own beliefs on what I think they could do with Shadow. The basics are is that you move on from Maria and Black Doom, you lean towards his goal of keeping the planet safe and his life as a GUN agent and you can at least toy with him on other characters, just don’t go too far out with the character and remain true to his primary character.

That’s all I have to say guys, hope you like it.