#maria and gerald. thats fucked up. maria too

[neurotypical-sonic]

I think sometimes some people dismiss the amount of damage and trauma isolation can cause. a lot of people latch on to the torture line in sonic forces and focus on that as the sole or main source of trauma sonic went through, but solitary confinement in itself is legit torture. and I'm also thinking about knuckles and his life before eggman n sonic came along

[inconsistentcharacterizationcomp]

Shadow the Hedgehog: Inconsistently Characterized?

Submissions propaganda will be here. Feel free to reblog or reply to this post with additional inconsistency in characterization, or to refute it!

See #Shadow the Hedgehog Propaganda as a tag.

Why the FUCK does Shadow work for GUN when his whole origin story is that he hated everything because GUN invaded his home and killed everyone including his 12yo sister. And also made his dad? go insane. What. Why do we have both a game where Shadow learns the power of friendship and relying on his friends is strenght and a game in later timeline where he says “fuck friends they don’t do nothing be strong = lone wolf.” He Would Not Fucking Say That

THE FUCKING CHARACTER EVER!!! listen. shadow is such an impactful and tragic character who suffers so much and nobody fucking understands him especially the writers who massacred who he was as a person. not to mention sega themselves sabotaging him by enforcing mandates that restricted who he could interact with and locked him into the "early vegeta clone" archetype. im sorry this is going to be so fucking long b im going to go into detail about shadow's creation and his purpose, who he is as shown up until sonic 06, and how they both fumbled his character FUCKING IMMENSELY.

[SEE READMORE FOR ESSAY. It concludes: "Okay I restrained myself. According to the word counter website this is sitting at 1,712 words. Holy shit."]

Shadow was initially created 50 years ago for the purpose of achieving immortality by the United Federation (the in-game equivalent of the US), though he was also created for the research of weapons of mass destruction. The scientist the president had insisted take on the project, Gerald Robotnik, had initially refused because he thought it was crossing an ethical line and that it would be used for war (he was right lmao), but then he realized he could co-opt the project in order to cure his granddaughter Maria of her deadly illness called NIDS (basically HIV/AIDS). So he agrees and they start experimenting with chaos energy and living things and when that works, they go to making prototypes of this so called "Ultimate Lifeform". Gerald needed help though and thats when the Black Arms appeared, an alien race that came every 50 years with the Black Comet. In exchange for the delivery of the chaos emeralds in 50 years time, Black Doom the leader will help Gerald make this Ultimate Lifeform, even giving some of his DNA in order for it to work. The first prototype, the Biolizard, showed promise but in the end was too violent and couldnt survive without its support system. This caused distress among the scientist. The next creature was a little hedgehog, made using Black Doom's DNA. While tensions brewed, Shadow was created. Gerald knew that they would take this creation and try to turn him into a weapon, so he gave him a heart and personality similar to his granddaughter Maria. Maria and Shadow were inseparable, practically siblings. Shadow is 15 years old and Maria couldn't have been older than 16. (Sonic X places her at 12 but since that isn't official I don't really count it). Shadow often wondered about his purpose was, always wondering who he was. As tensions among the staff rose, the international military group Guardian Units of Nations (GUN) stepped in. They saw the danger such an experiment could bring and decided to take Shadow for themselves. They raided the ARK and killed all the researches and evacuated some of the civilians, aiming to get Shadow and Gerald. Gerald sends Maria and Shadow to the escape pods. However, a GUN soldier shows up. Maria puts Shadow in an escape pod to keep him safe but she is shot by the GUN soldier as Shadow can only watch in horror. Literally kills a sick teenage girl in cold blood. Maria tells Shadow that he was born to make people happy and keep them safe. He was not made to be a weapon, but to be a protector. That her wish is that he will help fulfill everyone else's wishes. Maria's last words to her little brother being goodbye and that promise as she makes sure he survives. GUN went with their plan of the cover up, telling the public there was a freak accident and all the scientist except Gerald were victims of it. Gerald is detained and sees Maria's name in the list of dead. He went mad with grief and instead of continuing to work on the cryogenically frozen Shadow to service the military, he used him as a weapon for revenge. He creates a program to cause the ARK to crash into the earth and even brainwashes Shadow, altering his memories of Maria in order for him to carry out the destruction of the planet. GUN, fearing that Gerald might retaliate a little too late, stopped his work and execute Gerald by firing squad. They keep Shadow dormant for 50 years.

He's awaken by Eggman, who wishes to rule the world using the Ultimate Lifeform from his grandfather's journal. Shadow speaks subserviently, referring to Eggman as "my master" and using the Japanese pronoun of 僕 (boku) which is more humble and is informally giving deference. This is only for this interaction, since Shadow has plans and he takes charge, with sometimes Eggman looking at Shadow for confirmation, such as when Rouge asks to join them. Sonic Adventure 2 is the game we first are introduced to Shadow and its when he is at his most raw and mentally unwell. He is traumatized and the pain is fresh. It may have been 50 years for everybody else, but it had just happened for him. He grapples with flashbacks due to his PTSD, he hears Maria in his head telling him to keep his promise and to not "make her upset" and he is overall not in a good place mentally. He is willing to kill himself if it means keeping the false promise that Gerald had placed in his head. He does this plan, not because he himself wants to, but because its what Maria wants and for the longest time, that is how Shadow goes about it. Shadow cares so much, and its seen by how he sees Maria in Rouge and he risks his life to save her. It shows in how much he loved Maria and how he will keep this promise regardless of what happens to him. When Amy speaks to him, he is instantly reminded of Maria and he remembers the true promise. He cries at the memory, and then immediately goes to set things right. He lets himself fall to his death because "this is what you wanted, right Maria?" This kid is 15 and traumatized and he is hurting so much and it GETS WORSE.

Eggman finds him, and makes android copies of him, then seals him away with a killer robot in an abandoned hold. He spends the entirety of that game becoming close to Omega and Rouge who find them both and he doesn't even know if he is the true Shadow because of all these androids running around and he has no memories. He remembers nobody. Not Rouge, not Amy, not Sonic. The only thing he remembered was Maria's name and her death. Not even the good memories. From Heroes (this game I just explained) and on, Shadow's main antagonists deal with wanting to control him. What we know of Shadow currently is that he is selfless, he loves with all his heart, he is self-sacrificing, and though he is withdrawn and cocky, he still is willing to say that he thinks Sonic might actually be the Ultimate Lifeform. Surely, they've given us this great thing! How can they possibly fuck it up?

Shadow he Hedgehog (2005) absolutely destroys his character and gives him an absolutely bad rep BUT there is some good stuff in there. Remember the Black Arms? Remember that deal Gerald made? Yeah it's been 50 years. Knock knock, Shadow's other shitty dad is here!! You thought this kid's mind was gonna stop being manipulated? lmao. anyways shadow the hedgehog makes shadow absolutely edgy. he's kinda a dick he just... can kill people. it's a Weird game. sad to say he never recovered from this with the exception of Sonic 06!!

Now Sonic 06 is literally a broken game that can barely run (still funny tho so I play it) BUT THE WRITING FOR SHADOW'S STORY IS ABSOLUTELY SO GOOD?? they made him a GUN agent though which was. Something I was NOT expecting. BUT its a return from the edgy hedgehog we saw the year before so I'll look past him working for the same organization that killed his sister. A common thread about Shadow-specific villains/antagonists are that they all want to control him in some way shape or form before killing him. Gerald, Metal Sonic (kinda. he just set off the identity crisis by showing all the Shadow androids), Black Doom, Mephiles, Infinite. They all follow this thread which happens to accidentally create a story arc (bc it was definitely by accident) but thats not what we're talking about. ANyways, Mephiles wants to get to Shadow for Shadow sealing him away in a scepter in the past (theres time travel it gets confusing) and Shadow manages to win not only because of his own strength, but because he was not alone. He is made up of the people he loves, just like Sonic is, and everytime Shadow beats Mephiles is because he had Omega, Rouge, or both with him.

Sounds good right? Just one stinker game so surely its all fine? No. Because then Sega set mandates. Shadow wasn't allowed to have friends, he was not allowed to crack jokes or be anything but an angry rival to Sonic. They dissolved Team Dark (the team between Rouge, Shadow, and Omega) and now Shadow is alone. His biggest strength used to be his love for his friends and their presence in his lives and now they boiled him down to an "early Vegeta" clone. Sonic Boom released, and he is literally just a violent asshole who antagonizes Sonic for no reason. He barely shows up anymore and when he does its so painfully off that its best he doesn't. The writers of the meta era didnt really use him (which is a relief because they admitted that they only ever read wikipedia articles about sonic games and never actually played them). He was decent in Forces but he barely showed up and honestly that's for the best. I have major issues with how they write him in the comics as well but I think that has to do with mandates and it seems that theyre letting off since Frontiers since all the characters were revamped and are giving us good characterization. He's going to be in the next Sonic movie and I am hoping they do him justice.

[cringefaillosersummit]

shadow the hedgehog

One aspect I love: how much he cares for those he loves and how he is made up of each of them. everyone he has ever loved is part of the picture that is shadow, makes up every atom of his being.

One aspect I wish more people understood about them: his whole character arc is about self-autonomy and doing what he wants to do, not because others have told him to do. sth is a series about finding personal freedom and sonic helps those around him find their way to achieve that specific freedom. for shadow, it's moving on and not letting the promises made to those who have long since passed dictate who he is or what he does. not letting anyone dictate his path. it's about passing on from grief and starting fresh, while still honoring those you have loved. there's a reason why majority of his villains have all wanted to control shadow in some shape or form. gerald, eggman using him as the basis for the androids, black doom, mephiles, even infinite. and each time he comes back, reasserting himself and piecing himself together. im gonna cut this off here bc i am way too wordy when it comes to shadow the hedgehog.

One (or more) headcanon(s) I have about them: he's actually shorter but his air shoes give him extra height the airshoes are actually mobility devices!! This Hedgehog is Trans Masc. he/they pronouns frfr chileno. trust me. he has sharp claws! he's a living chaos energy battery basically. the way the inhibitor rings work is that they regulate his innate chaos energy by helping it circulate more easily. once he takes them off, his power is no longer restrained but its because the chaos energy is coming out of him at a greater quantity so he is effectively a glass canon. he ended up leaving his super form because while sonic has harnessed his chaos energy to go super, shadow honed it into his chaos control/snap/spears/etc. his favorite color is actually yellow because it reminds him of maria's hair and he loved playing it when he was a kid maria called him "mi sombrita" (my little shadow) and thats where he got his name he knows how to dance! is very good at it!! he started staying with rouge and omega only after shit went down in shth 2005 before that he was wandering and thats why he looks unkept in the renders

One character I love seeing them interact with: TEAM DARK RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH TEAM DARK LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

One character I wish they would interact with/interact with more: need more interactions with surge and metal sonic dear god there's something i can say about being created/changed for a purpose and trying to figure out if there is more to you than just that. i am going to scream.

One (or more) headcanon(s) I have that involve them and one other character: he loves cream and charmy and is so willing to babysit whenever vanilla or vector asks he and omega have been banned from 8 different rage rooms because they rage a little too hard and destroy fucking everything he enjoys spending time with amy and tails because they remind him of maria knuckles will sometimes let him chill on top of the emerald like he lets rouge do just because the natural powers of the chaos emerald help his chaos energy feel more calm. perfect nap spot. he and omega gave the shovel talk to knuckles but then they ended up just fighting bc they were bored. they knocked over some trees. sonic drags shadow to different places to get him fully familiarized with the 21st century. shadow makes a show about protesting but he genuinely considers sonic a good friend. sonic and shadow had a big conversation about what happened in sa2 and shadow doesn't remember everything but sonic just had to let some things off his chest (their therapist recommended talking it out. 5 months ago.) shadow helped sonic out after the aftermath of frontiers shadow and metal are friends. fuck you sega. vector was the one who actually mentioned the idea of therapy to shadow and rouge after shth 2005

OKAY THATS ENOUGH I HVE TO STOP IT HERE THIS IS ALREADY SO FUCKING LONG

Send me more characters!