Rewrite that Story: Heroes-Shadow

[Kuzu]

Ok contestants, today on Rewrite that story you are charged with completely rewriting the plot of Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, and by extension Shadow's backstory and return. The Winner gets a brand new car.

*Switches to srs mode*

Ok, if you could rewrite Shadow's backstory, how would you do it? What would you change or add?

Edit: Permanently killing him is not an option, kay? He came back and hes here, deal with it. Can we please stay on topic and not derail the topic with petty arguments of whether or not he should be kept alive, its obvious that Sega intended for him to come back so you have to work around that.

Edit2: You can pretty much do anything with both games except erase the games, or kill Shadow. I'm sorry if I made it seem like I was using the mods as a weapon against everybody, they're people too and shouldn't be used against anybody, but I really don't want to have to report anybody because nobody can keep accept canon.

[Nepenthe]

A topic about Shadow in which people are explicitly told not to call for his death? Lol, watch them ignore that anyways.

Anyway, I wouldn't dump the amnesia angle in Heroes. It allows us to put his past to rest much sooner, eliminating the need to develop an entire game around the idea of adding extraneous information to what was already a solid backstory, and it's a good enough excuse to push his personality in a direction that allows him to maintain his cockiness and ability to smile and partake in the fun of an adventure (Seriously, he smiled a lot in Heroes, and played Bingo. But at this rate, we may never get that again). Besides, Shadow clearly states that he doesn't care if he's an android or not when his team gets on the fleet, that he is who he is no matter his physical make-up.

ShtH should've just been a general "Eggman invades" plot by way of him using that awesome fleet of androids as way more than guard dogs. No aliens and no 50 years ago sans recurrent flashbacks to the SA2 days and before wherein we can once again suggest Shadow is the real deal but without endeavoring to bloat his background. And if we must have some themes to go along with the main conflict, steal the Sonic vs. Metal Sonic shtick: nature vs. technology, inorganic vs. organic life, and all that moral hoo-hah.

[Soniman]

Hmm a few brief cliff notes

-Erase the Black Arms from existence

-Make Metal Sonic's influence in Heroes more prominent (and get rid of the "Metal Overlord")

-Make the Shadow Androids a more prominent plot point, its kind like the idea of Eggman trying to imitate his Grandfather's ambition of creating the ultimate life form, but because of the two very distinct styles in which the scientists "create life", we get Shadow Androids.

-Rework the Chaotix story a bit so that it actually amounts to something in the end.

-Make Omega relationship with Shadow much more prominent, being both creations, I imagine they'd be able to learn from one another.

-Make the reasons for the team battles actually make sense (seriously, Rouge had NO reason to to pick a fight with the Chaotix)

Thats all for now.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Edit: Permanently killing him is not an option, kay? He came back and hes here, deal with it. If I see one post about getting rid of him I'm having this locked.

Why lock the topic for one post when you can report that post and have it deleted for not following the rule in the OP? It's quite overkill to do that for just one person and leave everyone else out from sharing their thoughts.

And heck, if gets out of hand and you still want to keep the topic, the mods can just delete every post that ignores that disclaimer and leave the ones that adhere to the OP intact.

[Kuzu]

Why lock the topic for one post when you can report that post and have it deleted for not following the rule in the OP? It's quite overkill to do that for just one person and leave everyone else out from sharing their thoughts.

And heck, if gets out of hand and you still want to keep the topic, the mods can just delete every post that ignores that disclaimer and leave the ones that adhere to the OP intact.

Yeah, that does sounds bit dis appropriate, I shall change the OP.

[Diogenes]

I'm going to assume I can change anything I want about the games, short of erasing them or killing off Shadow.

So, Heroes:

Ditch the separate pre-made teams. Make it customizable 2-man teams, using any characters you've unlocked in the story. Team Sonic and Team Chaotix's plotlines are largely intact. Sonic and Tails get wind of Eggman being up to something, they rush out to stop him (gathering friends along the way). Except, it's not really Eggman; Metal has gone rogue, locked him up (possibly because shoddy programming leads him to believe he can serve Eggman better when Eggman isn't there to get in the way), and constructed a robo-Eggman to keep the Heroes from figuring things out. Unlike Heroes, Metal isn't keeping himself a secret; he's out there fighting the heroes, and collecting their data to create a Metal *character* army. The whole teamwork moral comes in when Metal Sonic treats the other Metals as disposable, they end up destroyed, and ends up going alone against Sonic and partner, cue cheesy line about trusting your friends (and maybe a crack about Metal "making" friends). Now, Shadow isn't actually in this game at all; what we get instead, is a (or possibly several) Metal Shadow(s). These are the precursors to the Shadow androids, and the epilogue has Rouge wondering if that Metal Shadow means that Shadow survived somehow.

ShtH:

First off, no aliens. No Black Doom, no Black Arms, no "my alien other-daddy". No guns, either, but that's not really a plot thing. The opening of the game is basically Team Dark's opening from Heroes; Rouge finds Shadow in a pod in Eggman's base, Omega attacks, they fight for a bit before Rouge stops them and gets them to team up. The game is based around giving proper attention to Shadow's amnesia (or "amnesia", depending on your choices) and the Shadow androids. The game is still based on choices, but ones that are actually meaningful; depending on what you choose to do and who you choose to follow, you can end up with various combinations of morality, knowledge of what's happened to Shadow between SA2 and now, and whether or not Shadow is real or fake. Personally, I'd make it so there's some amount of ambiguity, rather than wiping out your choices by having the game tell you which ending is right. Simply not having a single "last story" or pointing out which ending is canon is a start, but for the long-term, I'd make it so two endings are basically the same, except in one Shadow is real, and in the other he's fake, but decides to live as the real Shadow. Future games would be based off these endings, but without saying whether he's real or fake, letting the players choose for themselves (and/or argue over it ad infinitum).

[Badnik Zero]

Sonic Heroes goes like this.

Team Sonic gets the basic save the world plot. Eggman has a scheme. Eggman is not Eggman. Eggman is Metal Sonic.

Team Chaotix investigates meanwhile. They have been asked to investigate both Eggman and the Shadow Androids by unknown persons.

Team Dark is about Rouge finding Shadow and Omega. Instead of stealing the Master Emerald they join the search for Eggman.

Final Story has all teams confront Metal. After Metal's defeat Omega becomes aware of his programming and shoots Shadow. Shadow dies.

The Chaotix reveals they had discovered the new Shadow was an android. Rouge reveals she hired them. Eggman reveals he hired them too.

Omega shot a fake Shadow but decides his main directive is complete. Eggman muses about free will. Omega swears to be the end of his creations.

The Chaotix get paid. Team Sonic wonders about Shadow. Rouge and Omega leave searching for the real Shadow. End.

[Sean]

Shadow dies

It's my fanon and I do what I want

Oh and in the future... I recommend not lining your topic post with threats of having the topic locked or reporting members, especially when ruling out certain options for no good reason, because that's just rude.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Shadow dies

It's my fanon and I do what I want

But this isn't meant to be fanon...

Oh and in the future... I recommend not lining your topic post with threats of having the topic locked or reporting members, especially when ruling out certain options for no good reason, because that's just rude.

Not really Sean, because the reason has been obvious for 6 years.

You of all people know how polarizing Shadow has become to the point that he can derail topics simply because a hater does exactly what you did (albeit, more seriously) or some fanboy comes in an puts the character on some godly pedestal that it becomes annoying to both fans and non-fans alike who want to actually discuss this stuff without any of that junk.

That disclaimer was made for that very reason, and as far as I see it, it should be respected because we're not here to go down that potential path. He could make it more neutral, because we do have someone here who is incredibly fanboyish of Shadow who would more than likely take advantage of this, but other than that, even if you find it rude, that's not much of an incentive for him not to make that disclaimer.

[Sean]

What I'm against is basically having us mods being told how to do our job. I really don't like it when members think that they have the power to threaten members with mod actions when it's our job to do as we see fit. Discourage certain factions of discussion if it's your intent to keep away from it, but the attitude of using mods as some kind of weapon is really hard for us to swallow, and I'm not just talking about Shadic here because I see this all the time around the boards. If things get out of hand, we can deal with it without having people try leading us by the leash about it.

But hey I'm not trying to derail the discussion here, just had to say what's been on my plate for a pretty long time. So carry on.

[Badnik Zero]

ShtH begins with Shadow suffering from amnesia. And surrounded by aliens.

Black Doom (whose design doesn't suck anymore) is all like, "You are my child Shadow, destroy Earth". Shadow believes him.

After busting up several cities and the GUN base, he recalls Gerald and Maria. He disobeys Doom to find Eggman.

Shadow ends up assaulting Eggman's airship with Omega and fighting his Android army. Eggman admits Shadow is the original.

Sonic stops Shadow from killing Eggman. They beat back some aliens now. The Chaotix help assault the Black Comet from the ARK.

It's revealed Shadow is not a goddamn alien, Gerald found the perfect recipe before he had the alien blood. He conned the Black Arms.

Shadow blows the Black Comet and this protracted storyline to pieces and decides to live on the ARK in memory of Maria's wish.

[Tornado]

Edit: Permanently killing him is not an option, kay? He came back and hes here, deal with it. If I see one post about getting rid of him they will be reported, no exceptions.

"You're tasked with rewriting the storyline Sonic Heroes, but you aren't allowed to do anything in regards to the single most divisive issue regarding the game's storyline."

To which I respond: What's the point?

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

What I'm against is basically having us mods being told how to do our job. I really don't like it when members think that they have the power to threaten members with mod actions when it's our job to do as we see fit. Discourage certain factions of discussion if it's your intent to keep away from it, but the attitude of using mods as some kind of weapon is really hard for us to swallow, and I'm not just talking about Shadic here because I see this all the time around the boards. If things get out of hand, we can deal with it without having people try leading us by the leash about it.

But hey I'm not trying to derail the discussion here, just had to say what's been on my plate for a pretty long time. So carry on.

Now that I understand, and I'll admit, I'm guilty of doing that in my "Silver's Potential" topic and I'll go ahead and alter that disclaimer. You guys deserve much more respect than that, but it's not us trying to hold you mods on the leash or anything like that than it is to keep that very risk we know about from happening. It's one thing to have an opinion over something, but it becomes downright sickening when people ignore our discouragement of keeping away from certain discussions we flat out know it will end up going and end up causing a ruckus whether intentional or not. I'm not sure how to go about working about that, but I guess that obviously more of a problem with us members.

"You're tasked with rewriting the storyline Sonic Heroes, but you aren't allowed to do anything in regards to the single most divisive issue regarding the game's storyline."

To which I respond: What's the point?

The only thing you can't do is permanently kill the character or (I assume) erase the games from the canon. Aside from that, you can do basically whatever you want.

[Tornado]

The only thing you can't do is permanently kill the character or (I assume) erase the games from the canon. Aside from that, you can do basically whatever you want.

That's not what the OP says. It says that you can't do anything that would permanently get rid of him, and I can think of three things for Heroes alone that would carry better than the shit that we got but would ultimately make it so his presence in any future games would be impossible/improbable (which means the carcinogen known as ShtH's story wouldn't be possible).

That basically means that "You can do anything you want, so long as it doesn't have any meaning beyond those two games." Which is a bit like "you can have it in any color you like, so long as it is black."

[Noir]

I can understand not wanting people to just say "Shadow dies" because it's not really constructive, but not wanting it because "he's here, deal with it" is honestly retarded. The fact that he died is a valid argument whether Sonic Team thought so or not.

ANYWAY.

I would just say we all pretend Shadow didn't ever happen. I can't possibly see anything redeemable about the game besides the androids and those were already in Heroes anyway.

As for Heroes, there are plenty of things to change. For one, it would be fantastic if characters were a hell of a lot more shocked that a dead character was alive. Shadow returning was dumb enough but honestly? Rouge shows a little shock then goes about as normal, Sonic doesn't say a word, it's just so stupid. So there's a start: don't pretend Shadow didn't die or at least wasn't very, very heavily implied to die.

Another thing that bothered me was the level progression. Having it be the same for each team made them feel even more like shitty cut and paste jobs. Team Sonic's first cutscene was in a desert, why not have them start off in a desert level? Team Chaotix are jungle-y animals, they could have started in the jungle level. Just to add some variety and have things make a little more sense.

More screen time for Metal Sonic would be lovely as well because we saw him exactly a single time before the last story and it felt so detached it was crazy.

On the subject of Shadow's "backstory" itself, it needs more. There nearly was none. Omega possibly confirming that he's a robot or maybe just being mistaken, a Shadow android, some clones, and Rouge saying that Shadow is a robot, none of that actually built on his story. Not only did we have to wonder why the fuck he was alive, now we didn't know if he was a alive or if he was a robot, or a clone, or what. I don't know or care exactly how that should have gone well instead but it definitely needed fixing.

I still can't help but be amused by how much easier to fix these games it would be if Shadow just hadn't come back.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

That's not what the OP says. It says that you can't do anything that would permanently get rid of him, and I can think of three things for ShtH alone that would carry better than the shit that we got but would ultimately make it so his presence in any future games would be impossible/improbable.

And I can think of just one thing for Heroes that would carry better than what we got while making his presence possible. But part of that goes against what the OP is saying.

He wants ShTH and Shadow's backstory rewritten; I want ShTH to be wiped out and Shadow's backstory left alone, but I still want the character around. But I can't even suggestion that beyond letting you know about it despite having such an easy work around for it.

That basically means that "You can do anything you want, so long as it doesn't have any meaning beyond those two games." Which is a bit like "you can have it in any color you like, so long as it is black."

I'm reading it a bit more like "You can have it in any color you like, so long as you have black in it." I'd say you're restricting yourself far more than the OP intended, but that's up to him to clear up himself.

I still can't help but be amused by how much easier to fix these games it would be if Shadow just hadn't come back.

I'm much more amused at how easy it is to fix these games even if Shadow did came back. If anything Sonic Team made his return more complex than it should've been.

[Milo]

Hmmmm...regarding Heroes, I'm going to keep the part of Shadow being rescued by Eggman and kept in a status tube, but has no amnesia whatsoever. His main purpose for being in Team Dark is for him to find Eggman and question him on why he rescued him (however, he does not know about the Black Arms). The discovery of the Shadow Androids, strenghtens his will to find Eggman and get out of him why he has all of those clones of him made. Of course, regarding the events of the Metal Overlord and Black Arms crisis,

Regarding the Shadow the Hedgehog story.....for the most part, I wouldn't change it. I'm actually OK with the entire Black Arms arc (inb4booing). One thing I would change though is that Black Doom really isn't Shadow's "father"- although Black Doom did donate his blood to Gerald's research; Gerald (now beginning to have some doubts with his alliance to the alien race, which ultimately leads him to create a plan to use Shadow's Chaos Control and the Eclipse Cannon to destroy the Black Comet), uses his blood, the Chaos Drives, and (interestingly enough) a sample of human cells affected with N.I.D.S. (Neuro Immunodeficiency Syndrome-the very disease that Maria was suffering from) to instead create a entirely different substance that possesed the same traits within Doom's blood (including immortality), but was otherwise unrelated. This "SCB-Synthetic Chaos Blood" as Gerald would dub it would exclusively be used for Shadow, and would be revealed along with Gerald's plan for Shadow to destroy the Black Comet. Thus, this would cause Shadow to not be paralyzed by the ink gas (first attempt) or be under mind control by Doom (second attempt) As Black Doom tries to figure out why Shadow wasn't under his influence of his mind or gas, then the video the Chaotix discovered would play.

Another thing I would change is that instead of Shadow becoming a GUN agent (I still consider that choice stupid), I would rather have him go back to the Space Colony ARK, to look for any other projects/experiments that were conducted or planned but ultimately interrupted or cancelled, as well as continue Gerald's research.

In terms of 06, Shadow is contacted by Rouge, who asks for his help in her mission to find the Scepter of Darkness. Shadow then comes to assist her in her mission. And also, Tails and Knuckles turn Super instead of Shadow and Silver. The rest of Sonic 06's events remain unchanged otherwise.

Edited October 23, 2011 by Zinos

[ThatGuyJay]

The only way I see fit to justify Shadow's return is to rewrite the ending of SA2 ( And holy shit, I don't want to do that) so instead I say make Sonic Heroes be centered around Sonic, Tails, and Knuckels investigating Eggman. (Team Chaotix will still return be there, just not a playable team for the story)

(EDIT:To make this more clear, Shadow won't be featured in Heroes)

Then Shadow The Hedgehog is where Shadow will make his return and instead of Black Doom (or any other generic villain if you hate the Black Ailens) is Shadow's father, he finds Shadow and attempts give him false memories so Shadow could aid him in the invasion. Sonic and Friends will try to help him remember things of SA2. Ultimately, it's up to Shadow to choose who he believes (Which he believes the good guys in the end).

I want to fit Omega and Shadow Androids in Heroes as bosses. Omega later is shut down for failing in Heroes and Shadow unleashes him in his self-titled game. Omega is now bent on the destruction of Eggman.

[Sparky]

I wouldnt really "Re-write" it, Ithe only thing I'd change is that Tails and Knuckles actually went super with out Sonic making them, and that only certian teams would get certain emeraldsto fit in with the Last Story. And Team Dark is unable to use CHAOS INFERNO until they get the Green Emerald.

I would make Shadow the Hedgehog have a single story line with one ending. But I'd still keep the Black Arm-thing. I'd also put in stuff relating to why Shadow looks like Sonic but with Black and Red and why their abilities are the same.

[Kuzu]

I can understand not wanting people to just say "Shadow dies" because it's not really constructive, but not wanting it because "he's here, deal with it" is honestly retarded. The fact that he died is a valid argument whether Sonic Team thought so or not.

[Scar]

The question is how would you re-write his return and his own game, not how would you ensure he stayed dead.

My take on this is to take Heroes and put a higher emphasis on the Shadow Androids (without the real Shadow actually appearing throughout Heroes). Rather than seeing fully-fledged Shadow-Androids (ShA's for short), you see parts/protoypes of them contained in those storage pods in stages such as Final Fortress, Bullet Station and Power Plant. Also on various flat surfaces within Final Fortress you see design schematics of the ShA's for their assembly, alongside diagrams of Shadow's biology to heavily hint that he in fact survived his fall. Also drop a few hints in cutscenes where you catch a glimpse of a ShA when you beat down one of the fake Eggmans.

Metal Sonic would be reworked so that you fight Neo-Metal rather than Metal Madness/Overlord. I loved those subtle hints of Metal Sonic in Hang Castle when you see a Statue of Eggman and when the stage inverts you see Metal Sonic's head. He himself stays hidden till the very end. At this point you see several fully constructed ShA's (much to the surprise/shock of the heroes). Metal Sonic then explains how he had these ShA's spying on various characters during the course of the game and collecting data (which would explain the mysterious glimpses of what the heroes believed to be Shadow (But were passed off as hallucinations/memories seeing as Shadow had only 'died' very recently with the weight of his death still lingering in their memories (Explained by Knuckles to a confused Tails, with Sonic lingering behind for a second contemplating whether or not it was in fact a hallicination)). At thise point Neo-Metal destroyes them by breaking them down using his weird liquid-metal-thing and assimilating their abilities and the data they collected on the heroes.

Then the Super Sonic, Super Tails and Super Knuckles fight. With real super-forms rather then those energy balls (Tails' flickes shouldn't be real flickes, rather small balls of energy that taket the shape of flickes, and Knux should be a glowing crimson-like colour rather than pink)

I'll talk about Shadow once I've collected my thoughts on the matter of reworking that godawful plot.

[Johnny Boy]

Hmm for heroes:

- Give Knuckles a valid reason to be with sonic and tails. Maybe all of the energy of the master emerald got sucked out of it and he teams up with sonic and tails to get it back.

- For team dark, the whole Amnesia Crap is out of the picture. Also when other teams (except chaotix) meet team dark they actually become shocked that shadow is still alive. Seriously this is a guy you saw fall from space into earths atomosphere, wouldn't you be flabbergasted if you saw that they were still in one piece?

- Also have Team Sonic and Chaotix meet each other. Same goes for dark and rose.

-And as someone else has said, make metal more prominent.

For Shadow:

-Guns. vechicles, Aliens, and swearing are all gone (The damn fourth chaos emerald stays though. Trollolololololol)

The story will start out the same as the original with shadow sitting with his arms crossed looking at westopolis. Shadow says that he has been traveling across the world ever since the events of heroes. He said that rogue has offered him a job at gun, after the battle with metal sonic, but he declines saying that he would never side with them after what happened 50 years ago. Then cue the flashback of Maria getting shot.

Then suddenly shadow sees a bunch of fighter jets and tanks entering the city. He asks himself what the big deal is about. His Question is soon answered when he sees a fleet of egg carriers loom above the city and some of Eggmans deadliest robots start to attack the city and the GUN forces. Shadow them turns away and says that he doesn't have time for this. But as he is about to take off, Metal Sonic shows up and projects a holographic message of Eggman telling him that he has declared an all out world war against GUN, and that it would be very beneficial if shadow sided with him once again. Metal Sonic then flies off and shadow runs off towards the city, now torn on whether he should still keep his promise to Maria and side with GUN to stop Eggman, or join the doctor and remain loyal to the robotnik family.

[Tornado]

But the fact of the matter is, Sonic Team obviously intended for him to come back, shitty or not, it happened.

No, I don't think that is something that is clear enough for you to make that determination.

[Kuzu]

No, I don't think that is something that is clear enough for you to make that determination.

How about the fact that they intended to give Shadow his game long before he debuted?, kind a means they had more intentions with him.

[Marcello]

If you want people to rewrite, it doesn't matter what SEGA had planned.

---

I like Diogenes idea.