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Character Discussion #1493946530 - Shade the Echidna


CrownSlayer’s Shadow

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Okay, I have all the info I need on Shade from Chronicles.

Here are the things about her. We know she's an echidna from that of the Nocturnus clan in the Twilight Cage, and that she is the top warrior of Ix prior to her turning against him (I would too if the bastard blasted me off an island for speaking what was discussed, asshole).

The one thing that definitely stands out is her design, as she's not a re-color of Knuckles and has a pretty distinct design for an echidna. Almost like how Shadow, Sonic, Amy, and Silver are all hedgehogs but are different in appearance. To be frank, this makes her somewhat like a fan character, but her design isn't too over the top to not be seen as if she attracts more attention from the other characters...at least not to me.

She also unique in her form of combat. She's the second character to be able to cloak herself (Espio being the first), and she's the only character capable of stealing energy from her foes. She's like a cross between Knuckles ( for being an echidna), Shadow (similar name and teleportation abilities), and Espio (invisibility). And with that said, with her being a Nocturnus, she may very well know a lot about technology far more advanced than any of the other characters.

But the real meat of this topic is her personality. I've defended the character before seeing her in action, and while I stand by that she has the potential to be much more useful than the more pessimistic folks seem to think of her, I have to side with whoever said she has a very bland personality. To be honest, I don't think that goes far enough because her personality comes off as flat out LAME! I'm being incredibly picky about this (far more than I usually am), but what I really found awkward was how she said "You and your echidna friend have impressed me. I'm not easily impressed." Now maybe I'm not playing that line in my head right, but that really struck and odd chord with me for some strange reason.

Honestly, there have been debates over whether a character is out of character in a certain game, but Shade is a special case as I believe she needs to create some character for herself to get a much more better portrayal. Although I will say that I liked how knowledgeable she was regarding the Twilight Cage. And she did have moments where I found her more interesting despite how she came off at earlier points. I particularly like how she talked fierce to a Zoah soldier who was trying to take her and the group in, however short-lived it was.

Now all in all, I really like Shade design-wise, but this character needs her personality rebuilt from the bottom-up. I was picturing her to act like a more Riza Hawkeye kind of serious person in regards to her being part of her species military, but she didn't exactly have much of a spice for her to draw you in. However, I do think she needs a second chance in order to make up for that. Chronicles isn't exactly a canon game, but I would like it to be made into one so we can use it's material for future games.

And one of those things happens to be to allow Knuckles to have more free time away from the Master Emerald if we can manage to have Shade onboard. wink.gif

That, and who knows what else we can build upon with the other material, such as Ix being another recurring villain to bring into the series. (and I plan to make a topic for Ix in the near future)

Edited by ChaosSupremeSonic
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So I guess we're abandoning the Knuckles topic? Oh well. Also not to nitpick but wouldn't have just been easier to make this topic about both Shade and IX? I mean neither have all that much to talk about on their own so we may as well lump them together, but that's just me.

Anywho, I have no problem with Shade, I don't hate her at all; Her design is pretty cool, she uses a fucking lazer blade, and is another kickass female. However as cool as all these additions are, its not enough to make up for lack of characterization, Shade's problem is she lacks any sort of character development, and if she does have it, it sure as hell unnoticeable to the point of being absent; Which is sad because I do see a good potential character in her too. I would've loved to see how Shade would've developed if she never joined the heroes(Or at least not so early) and continued to fight alongside Ix(I know he blew her off of an island, but I'll get to Ix later), she wouldn't be evil exactly, just wanting to help her people is all and willing to use dishonest methods to do so(Similar to Merlina) I mean to see her being conflicted about saving her people or continuing a life of dishonesty to be very interesting.

Now the other problem with Shade is that the game she debuted ended on a very ambiguous cliffhanger which probably won't be resolved anytime soon, and that's where the problem stems from: her story isn't finished yet, what happened to the rest of her people? Is Ix really gone for good? What would become of her if she became a regular cast member? all of these things need to be answered before using her in any other game, because then you get Blaze in 06, completely contradicting her backstory, and I've seen enough characters in this series fucked up as it is.

First off, they need to resolve her story in Chronicles, they can't do anything with her unless that story is resolved. Second, give her actual character development, make her unique from the other stoic characters, because right now she's as flat as cardboard.

If they can get past all of these obstacles, then yes I can see Shade being a worthwhile character among the cast, but as of now she's kind of in limbo.

Now this is more of a personal thing, but I hate how people use her as pairing fodder for Knuckles, I now I shouldn't let shipping get me riled up, but this always bugged me because the only reason people pair them is because they're both echidnas, because they've little to no on screen chemistry to base it on, its a borderline crack pairing because of it; Once again this is just a personal gripe of mine and has nothing to do with my view on her.

Edited by Shadic93
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I really like Shade's design, and I feel that the character has alot of potential. Plus she reminds me of a better designed Julie-Su from the Archie Sonic comics. But sadly I doubt that Sega will use her again. Plus now that Penders is sueing Sega and Bioware over Sonic Chronicles there is little chance of Sega using anything from Sonic Chronicles again.

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I really like Shade's design, and I feel that the character has alot of potential. Plus she reminds me of a better designed Julie-Su from the Archie Sonic comics. But sadly I doubt that Sega will use her again. Plus now that Penders is sueing Sega and Bioware over Sonic Chronicles there is little chance of Sega using anything from Sonic Chronicles again.

Wait I'm confused, Penders owns the rights of Shade and the Nocturnes? Does that mean he owns the rights to the Dark Legion and everyone in it too?

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Wait I'm confused, Penders owns the rights of Shade and the Nocturnes? Does that mean he owns the rights to the Dark Legion and everyone in it too?

Right now Penders is saying that Sonic Chronicles is infringing on his rights. He claims that Shade infringes on Julie-Su, the claim of The Dark Brotherhood infringing on both Brotherhood of the Guardians and The Dark Legion, and The Twilight Cage infringing on Penders The Twilight Zone inside the comics.

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Right now Penders is saying that Sonic Chronicles is infringing on his rights. He claims that Shade infringes on Julie-Su, the claim of The Dark Brotherhood infringing on both Brotherhood of the Guardians and The Dark Legion, and The Twilight Cage infringing on Penders The Twilight Zone inside the comics.

But don't Sega own the rights to what gets produced in the comics?

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I think Shade is an awesome character and she needs a role in new Sonic games. I believe she can bring a lot to the series, she definitely has potential.

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I never played Chronicles but As I always say Every character has potential its up to writers and gameplay designers to use it.

The question is how get Shade into main Series Canon. Second question is what role will she serve. In my opinion She would be great Partner for Knuckles. Other question is motive. Sonic fights EGGMAN, Shadow is GUN Agent, Silver protects future. IMO she should help Knuckles in guarding the M.E.

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But don't Sega own the rights to what gets produced in the comics?

Edited by Darkfox
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To be completely frank, I thought that Shade oozed vibes of "Self-Insert Fancharacter" and was treated with blatant favoritism by Bioware despite her Miss Exposition deadpan personality.

She has the most broken POW move in the game in terms of efficiency and sheer damage output, by far the most rounded stats that also happen to be quite high in comparison to the majority of the other characters, cannot be classed as a Glass Cannon due to Cloak, which renders her untouchable and practically near-broken and even has lines when she is not in the party, such as on Voxai Colony Alpha, something which no other character actually does when it comes to important plot details (Rouge doesn't even pipe-up when Omega is found in Metropolis if she isn't in the party). Whatsmore, did anyone else find it pretty nervy of Bioware to punt Rouge sideways in the interests of getting their character hooked-up with Knux?

Nearly everything about Shade screams to me that Bioware seemed to be overly eager in shoehorning her into everything and giving her excessive prominence over other characters. And yet her blandness-of-character skews sizable portions of dialogue. I don't have anything against her, I just find her neither loathesome nor fascinating, just boring and epitomizing a real sense of spotlight-stealing.

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Interesting design, disappointingly bland personality, and the fact that she's from Chronicles means she'll likely never appear again. Normally I'm up for giving characters a second chance, but I'm not willing to drag Chronicles into things for her.

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To be completely frank, I thought that Shade oozed vibes of "Self-Insert Fancharacter" and was treated with blatant favoritism by Bioware despite her Miss Exposition deadpan personality.

She has the most broken POW move in the game in terms of efficiency and sheer damage output, by far the most rounded stats that also happen to be quite high in comparison to the majority of the other characters, cannot be classed as a Glass Cannon due to Cloak, which renders her untouchable and practically near-broken and even has lines when she is not in the party, such as on Voxai Colony Alpha, something which no other character actually does when it comes to important plot details (Rouge doesn't even pipe-up when Omega is found in Metropolis if she isn't in the party). Whatsmore, did anyone else find it pretty nervy of Bioware to punt Rouge sideways in the interests of getting their character hooked-up with Knux?

Nearly everything about Shade screams to me that Bioware seemed to be overly eager in shoehorning her into everything and giving her excessive prominence over other characters. And yet her blandness-of-character skews sizable portions of dialogue. I don't have anything against her, I just find her neither loathesome nor fascinating, just boring and epitomizing a real sense of spotlight-stealing.

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To be completely frank, I thought that Shade oozed vibes of "Self-Insert Fancharacter" and was treated with blatant favoritism by Bioware despite her Miss Exposition deadpan personality.

She has the most broken POW move in the game in terms of efficiency and sheer damage output, by far the most rounded stats that also happen to be quite high in comparison to the majority of the other characters, cannot be classed as a Glass Cannon due to Cloak, which renders her untouchable and practically near-broken and even has lines when she is not in the party, such as on Voxai Colony Alpha, something which no other character actually does when it comes to important plot details (Rouge doesn't even pipe-up when Omega is found in Metropolis if she isn't in the party). Whatsmore, did anyone else find it pretty nervy of Bioware to punt Rouge sideways in the interests of getting their character hooked-up with Knux?

Nearly everything about Shade screams to me that Bioware seemed to be overly eager in shoehorning her into everything and giving her excessive prominence over other characters. And yet her blandness-of-character skews sizable portions of dialogue. I don't have anything against her, I just find her neither loathesome nor fascinating, just boring and epitomizing a real sense of spotlight-stealing.

Edited by Skull Leader
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Fully agree with this. Frankly I can understand the new character being important to the main plot, however when you see many of the aspects you mentioned, you can't help but to think that they had this need to make this character better than everyone in such a forced way (in contrast plot relevant characters like Chip feel more balanced, on top of having an actual personality that actually charmed me). In short she felt too artificial to me, the lack of a real personality (worse when she speaks extremely cliche lines like "You and your echidna friend have impressed me. I'm not easily impressed") and overlapping abilities, let alone the fact that she is an Echidna, completely taking away that single aspect that made Knuckles a very special character, leaves me a bland taste. I copuld argue that at least her facial design is unique, but for some reason it's visually too heavy (especially when compared to the likes of Tikal), contrasting with the more simplistic and practical design of the usual cast to the point she does in fact look a bit like a fan-character.

My veredict of her as a character: meh. If you want a strong woman with personality, charisma and charm, Rouge is the answer.

Well to be fair, I always wondered how the series would've taken it had more echidnas been introduce, but yeah I really can't disagree with this.

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Meh, Shade didn't do too much for me back when I played Chronicles. Bioware seemed to care more about being a powerful character gameplay-wise rather than give her substanstial character. Doesn't help matters since she's a blatant copy of Julie-Su in terms of once being a member of an evil technology-obsessed echidna clan who were banished to a parellel dimension, gained a 'special interest' for Knuckles and knows how to use tech weaponry and combat.

I'm probably one of a few who isn't wowed by her design either

Edited by DarkLightDragon
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Honestly, I had the opposite impression of Shade, from what seems to be the norm on here so far. At first, I didn't really care for her appearance, well just her face. Her beady little eyes and breath-strip muzzle seem weird to me for a Sonic character of her size. But I grew more tolerant to that overtime. If people can have very noticeable distinctive facial design, anthropomorphic Sonic characters can as well. (And man, was her face was a bitch to draw. X0) Didn't have much of a problem with her gear though. Thought that it was cool with all the tools she had to use, and with the Nocturnus being as advance as they are, I expected nothing less.

Like CSS stated, her skill were basically a mixed of Knuckles, Shadow and Espio. Which I think is a kick ass combination, as long as she can't do EVERYTHING they can do. That would just be OP. Now, I didn't use all of her moves in Sonic Chronicles. To be honest, my main focus was strengthening Cream and Omega to decimate everything. :P I'd occasionally switch a fourth character in, given the circumstances or if I just like so-and-so.

I honestly like Shade's personality and she has grown to be one of my favorite Sonic characters. She's like a mix between Blaze and Shadow, in my opinion. A serious character, who not as shy as Blaze or aggressive as Shadow. Just smack dab in the middle. (Although I can't help but to think that her personality would have been FUCKED if Blaze was in this game.) I like it that she has enough pride to not sulk about her actions, but was open enough to admit her mistake in trusting Pir'Oth Ix without having a single clue of his overall master plan. She did what she did, and now she wanted to make things right. (I remember almost every time I tried being snarky to her, she would shut me up almost every time because I didn't know her full story... Good times... Good times...)

I also like it that she didn't come off as arrogant once she join the party. Shade was more about achieving protocol in what she believe is right and is a former lieutenant of Ix's army. I wasn't expecting her to be much of an open book at the start, since her personality was suppose to be veiled at that time anyway. And I'm glad that Bioware didn't try to pull a massive personality 180 once she explained herself. (Man, I hate it when people do that.) I really enjoyed having conversations with her, because of how much she knew about Nocturnus Clan fall and rise, and how the species in the Twilight Cage behave with one another. It definitely shows that she does her homework, and with all this together, I wasn't surprised with how she was able to achieved her rank.

Whether, canon or not, I would really like to see her in more Sonic games other than a possible Sonic Chronicles sequel. Like many have said on here, she would make a great partner for Knuckles to help guard the Master Emerald. She's definitely not ignorant to what it can do and she does have respect for Knuckles. ( I mean, he did save her ass and she respects his bravery overall.) Hey, it's either that, G.U.N., something completely new that I too lazy to think of right now or She could be a random drifter as far as I can see.

I'm being incredibly picky about this (far more than I usually am), but what I really found awkward was how she said "You and your echidna friend have impressed me. I'm not easily impressed." Now maybe I'm not playing that line in my head right, but that really struck and odd chord with me for some strange reason.

As far as I can tell, It was probably the wording or something of that sort that bothers you. Because it does sound like you understood the respect she has for Sonic and Knuckles.

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Honestly, I had the opposite impression of Shade, from what seems to be the norm on here so far. At first, I didn't really care for her appearance, well just her face. Her beady little eyes and breath-strip muzzle seem weird to me for a Sonic character of her size. But I grew more tolerant to that overtime. If people can have very noticeable distinctive facial design, anthropomorphic Sonic characters can as well. (And man, was her face was a bitch to draw. X0) Didn't have much of a problem with her gear though. Thought that it was cool with all the tools she had to use, and with the Nocturnus being as advance as they are, I expected nothing less.

Like CSS stated, her skill were basically a mixed of Knuckles, Shadow and Espio. Which I think is a kick ass combination, as long as she can't do EVERYTHING they can do. That would just be OP. Now, I didn't use all of her moves in Sonic Chronicles. To be honest, my main focus was strengthening Cream and Omega to decimate everything. tongue.gif I'd occasionally switch a fourth character in, given the circumstances or if I just like so-and-so.

I honestly like Shade's personality and she has grown to be one of my favorite Sonic characters. She's like a mix between Blaze and Shadow, in my opinion. A serious character, who not as shy as Blaze or aggressive as Shadow. Just smack dab in the middle. (Although I can't help but to think that her personality would have been FUCKED if Blaze was in this game.) I like it that she has enough pride to not sulk about her actions, but was open enough to admit her mistake in trusting Pir'Oth Ix without having a single clue of his overall master plan. She did what she did, and now she wanted to make things right. (I remember almost every time I tried being snarky to her, she would shut me up almost every time because I didn't know her full story... Good times... Good times...)

I also like it that she didn't come off as arrogant once she join the party. Shade was more about achieving protocol in what she believe is right and is a former lieutenant of Ix's army. I wasn't expecting her to be much of an open book at the start, since her personality was suppose to be veiled at that time anyway. And I'm glad that Bioware didn't try to pull a massive personality 180 once she explained herself. (Man, I hate it when people do that.) I really enjoyed having conversations with her, because of how much she knew about Nocturnus Clan fall and rise, and how the species in the Twilight Cage behave with one another. It definitely shows that she does her homework, and with all this together, I wasn't surprised with how she was able to achieved her rank.

Whether, canon or not, I would really like to see her in more Sonic games other than a possible Sonic Chronicles sequel. Like many have said on here, she would make a great partner for Knuckles to help guard the Master Emerald. She's definitely not ignorant to what it can do and she does have respect for Knuckles. ( I mean, he did save her ass and she respects his bravery overall.) Hey, it's either that, G.U.N., something completely new that I too lazy to think of right now or She could be a random drifter as far as I can see.

As far as I can tell, It was probably the wording or something of that sort that bothers you. Because it does sound like you understood the respect she has for Sonic and Knuckles.

In terms of personality she's similar to Blaze and Shadow, which is all well and good, but she lacks any of the other characteristics that they have; I.E Blaze's social awkwardness and shyness, as well as her Aerophobia or Shadow's abrasive personality. She's just a stoic soldier, and that's it not really much there.

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In terms of personality she's similar to Blaze and Shadow, which is all well and good, but she lacks any of the other characteristics that they have; I.E Blaze's social awkwardness and shyness, as well as her Aerophobia or Shadow's abrasive personality. She's just a stoic soldier, and that's it not really much there.

Agree, she does not has any unique personality traits, for example even if Blaze is a patch work of Knuckles and Shadow, she still manages to have certain personality traits that makes her a character of her own. On the other hand Shade is just generic, worse when being a female really does not add anything since she could easely be a guy as well and it would not make a single difference (outside of the forced way in which she is paired with Knuckles, because that would lead to Yaoi. XP )

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Of course, Shade was only in one game. If I knew anything about her, I could probably decide what to say about her. (I never played Sonic Chronicles).

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Agree, she does not has any unique personality traits, for example even if Blaze is a patch work of Knuckles and Shadow, she still manages to have certain personality traits that makes her a character of her own. On the other hand Shade is just generic, worse when being a female really does not add anything since she could easely be a guy as well and it would not make a single difference (outside of the forced way in which she is paired with Knuckles, because that would lead to Yaoi. XP )

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In terms of personality she's similar to Blaze and Shadow, which is all well and good, but she lacks any of the other characteristics that they have; I.E Blaze's social awkwardness and shyness, as well as her Aerophobia or Shadow's abrasive personality. She's just a stoic soldier, and that's it not really much there.

True she does have the mentality of a soldier, but I wouldn't really call her stoic though. Now while I haven't played Chronicles for a while, I do there were moments when she did voice her opinion instead of just accepting commands and moving forward. Like when she first met everyone and had to answer their questions, or how she thought Knuckles was nuts for wanting to talk things over with Ix. Not to mention she very respectful to others, even to those she still considered as enemies, if they have proven themselves. Like how she still had respect for Ix, even though he only used her for his plans.

She struck me as someone whose professional about what she does, and I like it that she was able to back it up. Her personality may seem like bits and pieces from other characters, and even though I like the mix, it's what she does that and how she does it that is the reason I like her so much. I didn't feel the need to ask for more than that.

Edited by The Gentlemen YoshiUnity
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Not agreeing with decisions doesn't make you non-stoic, it just means you have a different opinion (and, just to say, it's most often stoics that WILL disagree).

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True she does have the mentality of a soldier, but I wouldn't really call her stoic though. Now while I haven't played Chronicles for a while, I do there were moments when she did voice her opinion instead of just accepting commands and moving forward. Like when she first met everyone and had to answer their questions, or how she thought Knuckles was nuts for wanting to talk things over with Ix. Not to mention she very respectful to others, even to those she still considered as enemies, if they have proven themselves. Like how she still had respect for Ix, even though he only used her for his plans.

She struck me as someone whose professional about what she does, and I like it that she was able to back it up. Her personality may seem like bits and pieces from other characters, and even though I like the mix, it's what she does that and how she does it that is the reason I like her so much. I didn't feel the need to ask for more than that.

She barely has any emotional outbursts at all, she's stoic just because you have a different opinion doesn't make emotional it just means you have a different view.

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I think Shade is an awesome character and she needs a role in new Sonic games. I believe she can bring a lot to the series, she definitely has potential.

Sonic isn't about serious dark stories. Even if SA2 and STH took things in that direction. Unless you want Shade to somehow get a reality check and a brighter personality, maybe she can. Other than that, she can't be used for various other reasons.

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