IDW Writer Evan Stanley Reveals New, 'More Workable Guidelines' for Shadow

This is great news indeed!  Honestly, I hated how Shadow had been characterized in the IDW comics so far and I'm glad that SEGA is at least trying to fix the mistakes they made with the mandates regarding his character.  What I'm hoping for Shadow's character moving forward is that they allow Shadow to show some moments of compassion towards the other characters.  Like maybe, show some moments between him and Whisper or maybe show some moments between him and Surge and Kit, if they do come back to the comics.  It would be pretty interesting to see how Shadow interacts with other characters besides Sonic all the time.

Finally, I don't have to feel embarrassed to be a Shadow fan now

A better written Shadow is always welcome. As he was so far, he was one of my least favorite characters in the series.

Anyway time ago I predicted that Shadow would have been fixed soon due to the third movie. Even though the movies are not canon to the main series, they still have a huge impact on the image of the franchise to the audience, and since Shadow is going to be rewritten to better reflect his SA2 self, it was unavoidable that a change in how Shadow would be depicted after the movie was coming.

Was always curious as to why they felt they even needed to mandate Shadow in the comics in the first place?

You think they'd be more aware of the writing team they transfered from Archie and understand that this was the one group that actually had a good enough grasp of the character that they could've kept their hands off with him.

7 hours ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

Was always curious as to why they felt they even needed to mandate Shadow in the comics in the first place?

You think they'd be more aware of the writing team they transfered from Archie and understand that this was the one group that actually had a good enough grasp of the character that they could've kept their hands off with him.

Not to mention, it's clear that the writers on IDW are nothing like Penders. They don't seem to be the type of people who would take any of SEGA's characters and do whatever they want with them, even if it goes against everything that the Sonic franchise is all about.

I never understood why it was Shadow specifically that appeared to have the weird guidelines that Sonic Team themselves appeared to contradict anyway. There aren't any other characters we've really seen the comic writers complain about having trouble using under IDW, so why him? Even the Prime writers and Boom writers have had difficulty dealing with Sega for this character, and Sega was perfectly fine with Boom mangling the shit out of Knuckles.

 

Still, nice of them finally loosen the leash even though I'm pretty much over this book now. Glad the creatives have a bit more freedom if nothing else.

53 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

I never understood why it was Shadow specifically that appeared to have the weird guidelines that Sonic Team themselves appeared to contradict anyway. There aren't any other characters we've really seen the comic writers complain about having trouble using under IDW, so why him? Even the Prime writers and Boom writers have had difficulty dealing with Sega for this character, and Sega was perfectly fine with Boom mangling the shit out of Knuckles.

My thinking is it's because Shadow in particular has such a convoluted backstory that's grounded in the literal murder of a child and with their bent towards a more kid-friendly vibe, they probably feel it's better and easier to keep that untouched; I think a lot of Sonic fans fail to appreciate how unliked Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) was regarding it's tone.

Unfortunately it also means writers aren't allowed to explore why Shadow might be angsty or give him any further meaningful direction. I agree that it isn't fair to the character and his fans and think it's good that we're going to at least get reasons for Shadow's tonal shift in recent stories. I like jerkface Shadow, but I admit he could use some direction. 

5 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

I think it's because Shadow in particular has such a convoluted backstory that's grounded in the literal murder of a child and with their bent towards a more kid-friendly tone, they probably feel it's better and easier to keep that untouched; I think a lot of Sonic fans fail to appreciate how unliked Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) was regarding it's tone. Unfortunately it also means writers aren't allowed to explore why Shadow might be angsty or give him any further meaningful direction.

I can see that. I just find it odd because even in the games Shadow's backstory doesn't really appear to have much bearing on his character past his own game anymore. Seems more like it's there if they really want to pick up a story there like they did with the Sonic Channel stuff but otherwise it's not really that important for where he is nowadays (though for all I know that could be changing with Ian writing for the games now). Just seems like a silly overcorrection to me when the character has already been moved over to a slightly more "timeless" portrayal most characters have after they get their development in this series.

I think the basic problem of Shadow and any tortured anti-hero is that they are built-in with layers. That's what makes them appealing, but not on the surface.

Take the ever-beloved Zuko from Avatar. Imagine never learning his backstory. And that he never goes through season 2-3 evolution. And just to be mean, remove scenes with him and Zhao, so he never plays the underdog. Imagine he's just an angry whiny guy teen chasing the Avatar.

That IS Zuko's personality. But only the surface crust. Aang, Sokka or Toph are great on the surface. Zuko is much less appealing.

Other examples: Dinobot (Beast Wars), Razer (Green Lantern TAS).

Sometimes I get the Impression that Sega tried to embrace the "Shadow is just a mid-2000s egdelord" stereotype that some Internet folks think he is or thought he was. 

9 hours ago, DaddlerTheDalek said:

Sometimes I get the Impression that Sega tried to embrace the "Shadow is just a mid-2000s egdelord" stereotype that some Internet folks think he is or thought he was. 

I'm starting to think that too. It seemed like SEGA has the wrong idea about what made Shadow into such an appealing character in the first place and thought that Shadow being edgy all the time was what people liked the most about his character and that's not true at all.

Related to what @Indigo Rushsaid, but I also feel like since Shadow is one the most marketable character in the series, Sega largely don't want other writers mishandling him. Yes, Ian has worked on Shadow in the past, but Sega have basically turned a blind eye to his work until only recently. They're not going to go back to comic books that are almost a decade out of print in a defunct continuity no matter how good his portrayals were there. 

16 hours ago, Indigo Rush said:

think a lot of Sonic fans fail to appreciate how unliked Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) was regarding it's tone.

Which makes it extra funny when Forces uses a lot of tracks from said game, and the live concert even had its main theme. 

I see it as less about going to back to an old continuity and more a question of where the hell did this fear of mishandling Shadow come from more than a decade after they (Sega/Sonic Team) mishandled the character themselves?

Sonic Boom?

And what data are they even using to make these decisions?

Most of the stuff regarding his backstory wasn’t touched upon in IDW, and tying into that, most of the criticism towards Shadow in the comic has little to do with said backstory or his game either. I find it hard to believe his game still casts this big a shadow over him when much of the current problem with him has to do with something entirely different. They’ve had well over a decade of hindsight to know what the problems were with ShTH, enough not to bother referencing it much anyway. So I don’t think his game is the problem here.

17 hours ago, Zaysho said:

I never understood why it was Shadow specifically that appeared to have the weird guidelines that Sonic Team themselves appeared to contradict anyway. There aren't any other characters we've really seen the comic writers complain about having trouble using under IDW, so why him? Even the Prime writers and Boom writers have had difficulty dealing with Sega for this character, and Sega was perfectly fine with Boom mangling the shit out of Knuckles.

Still, nice of them finally loosen the leash even though I'm pretty much over this book now. Glad the creatives have a bit more freedom if nothing else.

I'm starting to believe that Shadow actually doesn't have that much more restrictions than the other characters, and that there are a lot of misconceptions out there about Shadow, who he is and how he's supposed to act. Ian developed his own arc for the character that never happened in the games and for a long time people wanted Shadow to be written that way despite it not matching the material Sonic Team had for him up to that point.

Outside of him people up to and including the Twitter Takeover writers like to attach lame 2edgy hot topic type humor to him and that was never him in the games either. I could see Sonic Boom going for similarly lame stuff and Sega just not being down for it. Kind of a hard thing to believe with some of the shit they let Knuckles and Amy say, but it's where my head's at.

41 minutes ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

I see it as less about going to back to an old continuity and more a question of where the hell did this fear of mishandling Shadow come from more than a decade after they (Sega/Sonic Team) mishandled the character themselves?

Sonic Boom?

 

I mean, after 06, what are we basing this on? Shadow essentially dropped out of the series after that point and Boom isn't even made by them and they all but washed their hands of it after it was out. 

 

Free Riders, TSR and Forces were Shadow's only real appearances in the games from the last ten years and none of them are the versions that got people up in arms about him. 

My theory behind these new guidelines is that early panels for the upcoming issue portrayed Shadow as a completely unlikable character, and Sega was appalled by how loathesome he was. As a result, they decided to rework the rules on how Shadow can be written. It's like the infamous Black Friday reel for the first Toy Story. When Disney wanted more "edge" and their idea was "make Woody into a total asshole" and the result was a horribly mean-spirited script that would've killed the movie.

Without knowing specifically what's going on behind the scenes, all of this is conjecture. Its easy to just follow the words of the writers, especially since nobody from within Sega has spoken up. I honestly don't think this as complicated as some of us are making it. 

1 hour ago, Kuzu said:

18 hours ago, Indigo Rush said:

think a lot of Sonic fans fail to appreciate how unliked Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) was regarding it's tone.

Which makes it extra funny when Forces uses a lot of tracks from said game, and the live concert even had its main theme. 

I mean, given how the music overall wasn't really one of the problems of Shadow, I'm not too surprises by the remixes that we got.

Yea, but that's doing the exact opposite of moving away from it due to its tone. 

Just now, Kuzu said:

Yea, but that's doing the exact opposite of moving away from it due to its tone. 

Eh, I wouldn't say that. Sonic games stuck with Eggman's them from 06 for ages, even with Sonic Colors that moved far away from 06's tone.

30 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Yea, but that's doing the exact opposite of moving away from it due to its tone. 

I think this is SEGA's way of respecting the history of Sonic the Hedgehog, both good and bad of this franchise.

 

1 hour ago, Kuzu said:

I mean, after 06, what are we basing this on? Shadow essentially dropped out of the series after that point and Boom isn't even made by them and they all but washed their hands of it after it was out. 

Free Riders, TSR and Forces were Shadow's only real appearances in the games from the last ten years and none of them are the versions that got people up in arms about him. 

That’s the thing tho, 06 being well over a decade ago before he makes any reappearance makes it doubtful the guidelines prior to now had to do his own game.

That Boom wasn’t made by them only highlights the inconsistency over how to handle this character when another separate party decides to go a completely different direction with them, yet they have to have this particular team on a tighter leash. 

And that Free Riders, TSR and Forces are the successive entries of his appearance after 06 and no one got up in arms with him there only further begs the question of where the hell did this fear of mishandling Shadow come from more than a decade after they (Sega/Sonic Team) mishandled the character themselves?

3 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Without knowing specifically what's going on behind the scenes, all of this is conjecture. Its easy to just follow the words of the writers, especially since nobody from within Sega has spoken up. I honestly don't think this as complicated as some of us are making it. 

I know, it's just a personal theory I have.

7 minutes ago, EmTiven01 said:

I know, it's just a personal theory I have.

It doesn't at all track with the writers who have blatantly said they were writing exactly what Sega told them to write and how to write it (to the point that the character was mostly put aside for well over a year because he wasn't worth the hassle) only to be surprised they got notes back to expand on it.

5 hours ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

That’s the thing tho, 06 being well over a decade ago before he makes any reappearance makes it doubtful the guidelines prior to now had to do his own game.

That Boom wasn’t made by them only highlights the inconsistency over how to handle this character when another separate party decides to go a completely different direction with them, yet they have to have this particular team on a tighter leash. 

And that Free Riders, TSR and Forces are the successive entries of his appearance after 06 and no one got up in arms with him there only further begs the question of where the hell did this fear of mishandling Shadow come from more than a decade after they (Sega/Sonic Team) mishandled the character themselves?

This is exactly why I said that this is probably not as complicated as some of the writers have been making it out to be.

As mentioned, Ian Flynn took Shadow in a direction that doesn't at all match what the games were doing; the fact that people liked or didn't mind it is secondary to that.

And Boom just did just whatever the hell it felt like it with every character to begin with.

Even when Evan Stanley confirmed the subject of this particular topic, she had to clarify that while she has her own interpretation of Shadow that she would prefer to write, she acknowledges that just isn't who he is in the games.

That's why I said Shadow has been subjected to so much misinterpretation and misinformation on who exactly he is in the games that fans just kind of lost who the character is supposed to be and simply found refuge in other takes on him in the comics regardless if those takes actually matched his game interpretation or not.

 

But at the end of the day, it's Sega's fault for not really setting the record straight and just leaving Shadow on the shelf and not clarifying the current direction of his character in the games. It left the door open for other writers and fans to just fill in the blanks themselves with their own ideas, whether they matched Sega's vision for the character or not.