Reasons people like Shadow:

- He's different from all the other characters: whereas Sonic and co. are all happy, go lucky characters; Shadow (with Rouge and maybe Omega) have shady backgrounds, a mysterious past, and an undefined future: the anti-hero of the Sonic world.

- He has a set of powers that rival those of True Blue: Chaos Control

- Isn't hesistant of using other things to defend himself (aka using weapons)

Reasons people dislike Shadow:

- Two words: Sonic clone

- Other than the things mentioned under "reasons people like Shadow", his personality is limited to being an angsty anti-hero.

- Isn't hesistant of using other things to defend himself (aka using weapons).

Hope this helps you out.

EDIT:

How Sega can improve Shadow:

- Develop Shadow's personality further so he's not always the anti-hero of the story (maybe we will see this on Sonic Riders).

- Give Shadow a definite story on what has happened (Shadow the Hedgehog (the game not the character) helped a bit on this one.

- Kill Shadow in a dramatic manner and keep him dead (like it kind of happened at the end of Sonic Adventure 2).

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Give Shadow a definite story on what has happened (Shadow the Hedgehog (the game not the character) helped a bit on this one.

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Actually, ShadTH explained what happened to Shad in the Devil Doom fight. Wait abotu 8 minutes and Robotnik will say something like...*spoilers below*

"Shadow...can you here me? This might be the last chance I get to speak to you... about thwtat I said earlier about creating you.. it was all a lie! Everyone thought you died, but I saved you with one of my robots.. you just lost your memory, that's all. You really ARE the Ultimate Lifeform my grandfather created!"

So, yeah.. Shadow never died. Whee. Anyway, I liek Shadow. People really inder rate him when he has otental. He acts so angsty due to the terrible events in his life. Losing his one and only friend drove him into a state of sadness blanketed by hate for the human race. It was only until the end of SA2 that he saw the light and realized that Maria wouldn't want to be avanged.

So he comes back etc, and the rest is history. Now people accuse him as beign a recolor, but he isnt really. I mean Sonic characters are simple in design, and that's a fact. Shadow has different quills, narrower eyes, a different torso and furry arms, totally different fur markings(stripes and red corners of his eyes), and cool shoes and gloves. At first he may have had quills like Super Sonic, but now SS has a different quill style(at least on the home platformers)

I agree with everything dreamer suggested to improve him ecxept for the killing him part. It's not worth killing him off now, so they shouldn't bother. He has a pretty big fanbase, so he'll make them money. Still, exploring his character would be nice. With his past behind him, maybe he'll be less worried about things. Shad is a good addition to the cast, IMO, due to his depth and less happy nature, and that's why he is one of my favorites.

-Mega

Shadow could have been a cool one-shot villian in SA2. He could have been a fanatical villian who believed everything Gerald was doing was right and to fulfill his wishes without having any flashbacks of Maria for him to angst about. Super Shadow should have been the final boss of SA2 and he would have died as a kick-arse baddie.

Instead, he is mysteriously resurrected as a lame-arse, angsty "Edge"-hog anti-hero full of generic rage who stuggles to find his past and or follow the right or wrong path using guns and motocycles. 'TEH MATURE!!!1!'

His dark anti-heroism of a character just seems out of place in a ideal Sonic world where bright, loud colors, fantasy-like settings, comedic, and a general light-heartedness of the series overall rule supreme.

As a result of all of this, he became one of my most hated characters in the franchise. The more psychotic fans of him--especially the female fans who thinks he is "TEH SEX" and "UNDERSTAND HIZ PAYNE!! ;_;" I've encountered makes things worse.:><

So yeah, ST blew it on making him a bad guy and it would be too late and too cheap to kill him off now. The best course of action would just bring him in those action spin-off games like Sonic Riders and keep him out of the main Sonic games' storyline and such.

It shames and dooms me to say this, but Sonic X season 2 proved to me that Shadow is actually a decent character if used rightly and can have some interesting stuff. He's unhindered by the morality the other characters are tethered by, he's an unstoppable force of nature akin to the T-1000, he has all the power one can imagine and yet all he manages to do with it is follow orders.

They actually made Shadow a decent and watchable character, they didn't delve into his past AT ALL, which made me smile, they just had Sonic tell him what a pathetic waste he is for all his power if he only uses it to be a puppet, then he develops his own path which leads him to try and do the right thing the wrong way.

Seriously. It just works. I'd elaborate more, but the US is still waiting on the last 13 eps.

In the games, he's a waste of space, though.

i]more psychotic fans of him--especially the female fans who thinks he is .....
EH?!!! he's a cute kiddie cartoon character , don't scare people like that.

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They actually made Shadow a decent and watchable character, they didn't delve into his past AT ALL

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well there you have it. he's only gloomy and boring when he talks about his past if they stop explaining that boring story over and over again. he might come out as a cool character (still less than sonic, but likeable at least).
i mostly hate shadow for his story, image and cold attitude. 2 out of 3 is good.
but i don't know if they can find him another story other than "find your past". besides they messed him up too badly to fix, i think it's best and less hassle to just give him another heroic death and move on.

P.S: part alien huh? figures, all the animes and japanese games i played had to have aliens in them.

His past is okay if he doesn't TALK about it. (One or Two Flashbacks are fine IMO.) "AHHH, I GOTTAA FINND THE SECRETS TO MY PPASSTT AGGG DAMN YOU!!" He has an interesting relationship with Sonic and Rouge. He's not out-right evil, and actually has things he cares about. (I mean, look at Sonic Adventure 2, he was trying to destroy the humans, but he wasn't running around, gunning down everything in sight. And he actually had a reason to at the time. (Wanting Vengance on the humans and all that.))

Basically: He was a neat character in SA2, but by bringing him back they screwed things up. (Though bringing him back as a clone or robot is fine IMO. If they touch upon the fact that he's trying to live up to the original, and he just can't... also no guns or motorcycles...)

I agree he could be a okay-ish character if you dont look at his past.
Ignoring his past, his story is more or less, I'm a Hero but i'm going to do it my way. I'm not going to save the world because I need to, I'm going to save the world becuase I want to, to prove myself to the world.

Sonic is like that. In SA2 he says that he only saves the world because it passes the time.

So if you look at it Shadow is Sonic's ying and Sonic is Shadow's yang. Or vice versa.

He had a point, a purpose, defined the meaning of the game and his backstory was, fresh, interesting and engaging...

..

Sadly, in most of his return appearances, I can see what their trying to do but somehow they always seem to fall just short. It's a shame...

During SA2, Shadow was a fresh and unique character who served a good purpose in the ongoing plot. He was effectively the plot device the rest of the game hinged on, but it didn't seem all too cheap or tacky by comparison. In fact, he worked, even if at that early stage his back story was a bit borked.

It was only when Heroes came about that things started to go downhill; he lost everything that made him a valuable character and instead was just dropped in to please fans and to fill in a gap. Instead of working on his character, they just made things confusing.

During Battle, Shadow's return was justified - while there was, in fact, little on his own story, his involvement with Emerl/ze gizoidz was essential in showing its past and purpose. Plus, a little bit more of his past was revealed through Gerald's diary.

Shadow the Hedgehog pretty much ruined everything for Shadow - it should have sorted everything out, but instead it provided a dodgy explaination for some parts of his past while the rest of it stayed in teh dark. I would elaborate, but most people already have and also I can't be bothered. <3

Basically, Shadow is/was a good character, so long as he's used right, as Craig has already said. Whee.

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Shadow could have been a cool one-shot villian in SA2. He could have been a fanatical villian who believed everything Gerald was doing was right and to fulfill his wishes without having any flashbacks of Maria for him to angst about. Super Shadow should have been the final boss of SA2 and he would have died as a kick-arse baddie.

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I agree. Shadow should have stayed dead. That way he would've been a more effective character. When I saw him in heroes I was just like "..." because his return just opened up a whole can of worms >>
Apart from that, Shadows my 2nd fav character(after Knux of course), mainly because he's the only Sonic character who has such a cool past, and you can take him much more seriously than the other characters >>
We'll just have to see what they do to his character in SR and all the other games to come.

In my opinion, Shadow's existence as a character once had some kind of artistic merit. Shadow was a perversion of what Sonic was all about. On the surface, he resembled Sonic, both in appearance and abilities. However, he had a complicated backstory and a badass attitude, things that Sonic never had.

In the end, of course, Sonic was better than Shadow. Shadow simply couldn't survive, but Sonic endured. On a symbolic level, it reaffirmed what Sonic's character was all about, and on the literal level it was a touching sacrifice.

But there is a flaw in the minds of ongoing-series media creators. They thought that if a character as well-liked as Shadow made a return, fans would enjoy it. Why on earth couldn't they see that bringing Shadow back would negate the very reason he was awesome in the first place? The Archie Sonic comic made a similar mistake with Tommy Turtle, a one-shot character who nobly sacrificed his life, and then returned a year later. He's been a subject of fan mockery ever since.

One of the most common complaints about the Shadow game is that it offers too few answers, but this is silly, because Shadow's backstory isn't meant to be made clear. It is to be a constant source of speculation on the parts of the fans. In order for this to work, any answer ought to bring up more questions.

One of the oddest *but best) portrayals of Shadow is in Sonic Battle. In Battle, Shadow seems not so much obsessively angsty about his past, but he seems to take a more cynical attitude toward himself. I like to imagine that the game takes place aftr Shadow renounces his quest for answers at the conclusion of his solo game, because it makes more sense than anything else surrounding Shadow.

As for Sonic X, anything I could say would merely echo Craig.

And just for completeness's sake, I think I'll point something out to those of you who don't follow the Archie rag as pitifully as I do. Shadow is even more ridiculous in that book than anything in the games. Shadow's survival post-SA2 is the result of alien abduction. The "Bem," a race of aliens, abducted and healed him so that he could fight the ""Xorda," another race of aliens. He failed and fell back to Earth anyway, but survived and revealed himself to the heroes, then going on to do NOTHING. A year leter (in comic time) he showed up out of nowhere to threaten Eggman, then disappeared for a long time. He showed up once more to ally himself with Metal Sonic and fight Sonic, but very little happened. Next, he showed up to ally himself with Eggman against Metal Sonic. And he talks really funny with big words.

So, the Shadow in the games isn't really all that terrible.

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On the surface, he resembled Sonic, both in appearance and abilities.

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so did metal. really if it was a knuckles look alike or a tail's even amy it would be something new and fun.
i think they should have left tikal and taking shadow out instead. she's much cooler i won't mind her having a game.
i'm not much for good and bad twins anyway, it's too classic and over used. sonic should have new ideas.

You know what might have been neat? (It's too late now.) But if they had brought back Shadow the same way they brought back Dinobot in Beasties. With a clone loyal to Eggman or even Metal Sonic. Then they can still do their sporadic flashbacks to the original Shadow, without him actually being the real Shadow.

I think that'd be very dramatic.

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With a clone loyal to Eggman or even Metal Sonic.

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if eggman can make shadow, then he'd have made a super weapon better than metal that could destroy sonic
(or help eggy test his robots and traps).

your idea is very dangerous, trying to help eggy defeat sonic bad, bad!

Er... what? They're fictional characters. Eggman's not going to be able to beat Sonic even with a Shadow clone... it's just the law of the game.

If he's cloning Shadow, he's not making him. He's re-creating what his grandfather had done.

He has an entire army of Shadow clones, none of which could stop the faker. Even with their spontaneous missiles which are bigger than they are.

i'm just kidding(making re-creating it's all the same).
but really though a clone army of shadows with missiles? was that in shadow's game?
..........ouch shadow killed his brothers? how mean
even if they aren't real people they're still living breathing creaters(in the concept of the game).

Yeah, they're just minor foes, not really too much of a challange. They hardly factor into the story at all.

why can't sonic have an army? eggman can make a shadow army and didn't ever think of making a sonic one?!!
is he dumb or something? sonic's been bugging him a long time and when he can make super multiple clones he makes shadow ones? shadow doesn't even bother him at all.

But they were still bastards to fight against.

Hmm. The Shadow copies could be brought back, though without the ridiculous missiles. I found them irritating enough that I relied only on one sort of weapon to defeat them, some sort of assault rifle if I remember correctly. But yeah, they could've made a much more bigger impact on the story.

Shadow, as an overall character, shouldn't be brought into every single game SEGA decides to make focusing on our favourite little, blue hedgehog. They should stop focusing the plot on him. SA1 got along fine without him, didn't it? If anything, Shadow should just be used for multiplayer modes if anything from here on end. Unless the story really called for it.

Don't get me wrong, I love Shadow and all, even the game.

What I find funny, though, is that a lot of people are saying that Shadow died at the end of SA2. Which I find laughable, because no where that I've seen says that Shadow oficially died. Only the hopes and dreams of countless fans have said this. Though, I guess they just left it open for speculation, eh?

Also, Shadow as a character was meant to be shrouded in mystery, after all. Can't part of his past (and plot holes) remain that way? It's probably for the best of us, otherwise Sonic Team would pull something else outta their arses which is full of crap.

Closing statement: As mentioned, Shadow should stay out of the storylines entirely unless it was absolutely, positively necessary for him to be brought in. Instead, keep him as a multiplayer alternative for Sonic. A carbon copy with modifications. Hmm, speaking of which, a Sonic Team Smash Battle: Melee would be perfect. If it wasn't for a lot of technical difficulties surrounding that idea.

Shadow is an artificial lifeform made from his grandfathers research which is all chronicled in his diary, plus he had the real Shadow in stasis to study.

It's within his ability to create a Shadow. Sonic is BORN AND NOBLE! and thusly creating a "clone" of him would be hard. Nearest he's got is Metal Sonic, which is rebellious and powerful enough to be a clear "DO NOT GO" area for mass production.

sonic speed, chaos control and super sonic form.
those are enough to make a sonic clone. metal only has the speed. just color the clones blue and that's it. how hard would that be? shadow is closer to sonic than metal, anyway.
oh great now i'm giving ideas on how to beat sonic.
i hope your right.

Knuckles. Absorbs Chaos Emeralds. Recieves Super form.

Tails. Absorbs Chaos Emeralds. Recieves Super form.

Both have incredible, wouldn't exactly say Super Sonic speed, but pretty damn fast, and because of such, I wouldn't put it past either of them if they were able to use Chaos Control if they tried to.

Metal Sonic (or maybe it's Mecha Sonic, but who cares, technically Metal should be able to do it if Mecha can). Can, too, effectively absorb Chaos energy. Also has super sonic speed, has a Super form, ala S3&K, but due to Eggman's limitations, wouldn't be able to Chaos Control. I'm pretty sure the Shadow copies can't do it, either.

In the end, it doesn't matter which freakin' one of his enemies Eggman creates an army from, as long as in the end he has an army.

Though, I can't help but keep thinking of the Brotherhood of Metallix when an army of Metal Sonics are mentioned.

I haven't got much to say here since it's already been said, but I do have one thought to slip in...

I am of the popular opinion that Shadow should have died in SA2 and not been brought back. He had served his prupose and went out nicely...but.

He was awesome in Battle.

I'm just saying that while he probably should not have returned from SA2, he still has the potential to do alright in the games.

And I like big words. <3 Non-words, too.

In battle he was a powerplayer, but a powerplayer with a decent character, a decent motivation and things which made me hopeful.

Alas, it came out on the same day as the game which disproves anything that happened in it.

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He has an entire army of Shadow clones, none of which could stop the faker. Even with their spontaneous missiles which are bigger than they are.

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Well, I meant one with power compareable to the original Shadow, of course.

I thought all the Shadows Eggman made were robots or, if Eggy used some real crafty genetic research and technology, cyborgs of Shadow. The giant missle part baffles me, however.I unfortunately/fortunately haven't played the Shadow the Hedgehog game yet and have only read the scripts I found at GameFAQs.

I agree that he was a great character in Battle, though I hated to play as him because of his god awful healing ability. He played a unique role in the story that no other character could, having a cynical attitude over being made as a weapon just like Emerl was. I'll give him that. But, the storyline of Shadow ruins any chance of Battle being a cannon game, as Shadow knew who he was in Battle but hardly had a clue in his own game. Now, if Sonic Team mannage to make Battle take place after the events of Shadow, then it would work. But would Sonic Team go through the pains of doing that?

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maybe it's Mecha Sonic, but who cares, technically Metal should be able to do it if Mecha can

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Mecha sonic is a freak accident, i hope he never returns. besides the emeralds were supposed to fuse with living things like sonic.
i guess those shadow copies were robots since they couldn't use it.
and since the professor only made one shadow, it's probably next to impossible to make another "probably no more chemical X left in the world to make more ".

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Shadow is an artificial lifeform made from his grandfathers research which is all chronicled in his diary, plus he had the real Shadow in stasis to study.

It's within his ability to create a Shadow.

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Huh...maybe that's why they stuck the Black Arms into the mix...so Eggman WOULDN'T be able to simply go and recreate Shadow (or at least not a Shadow equal to the real one.)

...who knows...just a thought. Sorry if I'm way off, since I'm really tired right now^^;

(Edit: Just a few minor changes...)

you might be on to something "although i think your idea is too smart for sonic team".

i have a side question: i saw a picture of a giant one eyed robe wearing ghost <alein whatever>. he's black arms right? well is black arms wiseman from nights?
he looks a lot like him, and wiseman did have lots of hands....get it arms/hands?

Black Doom is his name and he's just Black Doom.

He has Claw's voice and wants to save/destroy Earth to harvest humans... or something?

It wasn't clear.

wow, your fast.
that's good if it had something to do with nights i'd hate myself for not playing it.
black doom? like Black hedgehog....now i get it, shadow and this black doom are aleins from another planet.
thanks for clearing it up, your very helpful.

Actually...

Spoilers (Select To Read): Black Doom gave his blood and DNA to Gerald to help him create the Ultimate Life, apparently offering him the key to immortality in exchange for him creating the weapon that would bring the Chaos Emeralds and allow Earth to be... whatever he was trying to do with it

So TECHNICALLY.

.....it sounds more like a scifi political thriller. too complicated, i can't really understand it.

Here's the easy version.

Spoilers (Select To Read): Black Doom's blood + Science = Shadow

Easy.

not that!
i meant now he's even more messed up.
oh, i hope the new sonic game doesn't have shadow in it.

The Next Gen one? 'because Sonic Riders does.

Eh, I hope that just Sonic's in it. If not: Sonic and Tails.

If not that: Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.

With Eggman, of course.

Maybe some other characters as NPCs. But that's IT in terms of playable.

(Okay, that got a little out of hand... >_>

Spoilers (Select To Read): Harvesting humans for energy... It doesnt get MUCH more simpler than that...

SH: spoiler tags darnit

Spoilers (Select To Read): Black Doom was going to turn us into this *Holds up Battery.*

Is that air you think you are breathing?

Black Doom kinda reminds me of Darkseid in that regard.

I get that...

Spoilers (Select To Read): but how does dropping a huge meteor onto Earth allow him to harvest humans for energy? Is he maintaining the planet or destroying it? It's silly!

Looks like John was thinking pretty much the same thing I was.

Wouldn't that make Sonic, like, Morpheus, then? Assuming success on Black Arms' part, of course.

I suppose it would be, because "the one" failed. I feel dirty now.

Spoilers (Select To Read): Re: the Black Meteor warped onto the planet. It actually spreads the gas that paralised Sonic and Co. I was trying to listen to the bit where Eggman says that Shados isnt an android (which is a sore point at the moment. I got to that bit and then Black Doom cut him off. Which made me cry. Its hard to make 50 rings last 9 minutes). and they all end up paralised again. Black Doom says that the gas will spread from the comet. Plus it made a really cool CGI scence.

I wonder who Agent Smith would be, then.

Sorry SH., spoiler tags just seem to NEVER work for me..
I'm trying to copy them right from the edit from your last post:

John taylor explained WHY they needed the emeralds...

EDT: DAMNIT, I COPIED IT Directly and it's still not working... Okay... SPOILERS evryone

Spoilers (Select To Read): They want to use the gas from the comet so that they can pretty much pick everyone off withotu a fight, but the comet isnt powerfull enough/fast enough/whatever to land on its own steam... So he wants the emeralds so that, whilst passing he can do Chaos Control to warp them down through the atmosphere...

The science IS a bit iffy, BUT it does have a root in fact. it IS very difficult to time entry right, you need the right speed, approach angle, radial angle and have pretty muh everything right.

I personally thought it was a neat twist, if the ONLY one, in the game... Suddenly there was a reason for having all 7 emeralds, and a better one than there was in Heroes, even if it is, partly, a retread of SA2...

I also liked the way they integrated the ARK into being the weapon Gerald built to destroy the comet, gave THAT a purpose as well.

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I get that...

Spoilers (Select To Read): but how does dropping a huge meteor onto Earth allow him to harvest humans for energy? Is he maintaining the planet or destroying it? It's silly!

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Didn't Sephiroth planned to do the same thing in FF7 or was that with Mako?

You never switched from ezCodes to HTML (see above "Comment:"); that's your problem. You're putting it in fine otherwise.

why are you all using spoilers?
it's a shadow topic for one thing and shadow's game has been out for sometime now, people either played it already or don't want to, and can't care less if you tell it or not.

back to shadow: i don't really want shadow but if they do put him in the PS3 game maybe they'll give him a similar storyline as in sonicX. SA1 and SA2 were in it, they probably continued the series to help with the future games.

There's an un-written law that states we need to give it 6 months before we can assume anyone who wants to play it has played it. Many only got the game for Christmas and may not have been motivated to get through all 10 endings and the final story.

Come April, we can technically ditch it. Though it's most polite to wait the full year.