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Wondering about Shadow


Lucky_Ladybug

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Hello! I hope I'm doing this right. I'm not sure how to Tag because it says "Select" and I'm not finding anywhere to click to see the list from which I can select. And I don't want to make my own tags when it says "Select", as that sounds like there are already existing tags. I'll be happy to edit with tags when I figure it out!

 

I hope this question hasn't already been asked recently on the board. I searched, but didn't see the topic. I was talking to another Sonic fan recently and it started me wondering if anyone on the games' staff has ever confirmed in an interview whether or not the Shadow from Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog is indeed the real one or if he's one of the robots/clones/whatever that Rouge found. I know Rouge thought he was a robot, but I didn't think there was any proof that he was. And Omega's comment on the original one still being out there seemed kind of like Sega was teasing us and hinting that for all Rouge and Omega knew, he could even be the one Rouge found. Seems kind of strange if Sega would so heavily feature a Shadow who isn't the real one!

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Shadow in ShTH is the same one as the one in Heroes and SA2. He survived atmospheric re-entry with only amnesia to show for it. And this Shadow is the same one from the ARK 50 years before the games. This is revealed in the final boss of ShTH when Eggman himself admits it though you have to hang around to hear it.

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So, in SA2, Shadow "died", in Heroes, we had the ambiguity if he was a robot or not, Shadow the Hedgehog (game) revealed that he is in fact the real Shadow, from the ARK raid, 50 years ago, from SA2 and from Heroes. Then the games completely ignore that plotpoint thereafter.

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In the Devil Doom fight in Shadow the Hedgehog, around 10 minutes in, Eggman says that the Shadow you control is indeed the original. So therefore, yes, the Shadow that has been featured all along is the original.

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Thank you so much! Actually, I'd originally thought that game made it clear, but then my friend got me confused upon saying there was no confirmation. I guess neither of us remembered Eggman's comment!

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In the Devil Doom fight in Shadow the Hedgehog, around 10 minutes in, Eggman says that the Shadow you control is indeed the original. So therefore, yes, the Shadow that has been featured all along is the original.

 

Here is the exact dialogue which Eggman says to Shadow in the Devil Doom Boss fight:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVHpWbYcJHE

 

"Shadow can you hear me? This might be the last chance I have to speak to you, so what I said about having created you, it was all a lie. Everyone thought you'd died during that horrible incident, but I rescued you with one of my robots. You'd lost your memory, that's all. You really are the ultimate life form my Grandfather created."

 

Eggman saved Shadow's life. Eggman is a true hero!

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They should make all the games, cartoons, comics, etc. of Shadow into one final Story about his past. Maybe that would make a better sense of what really happened.

As an example: Sonic Heroes and Sonic X:                     WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED HERE???

                         Shadow lives,       Shadow dies           = Makes no sense. blink.png

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"Shadow can you hear me? This might be the last chance I have to speak to you, so what I said about having created you, it was all a lie. Everyone thought you'd died during that horrible incident, but I rescued you with one of my robots. You'd lost your memory, that's all. You really are the ultimate life form my Grandfather created."

 

Eggman saved Shadow's life. Eggman is a true hero!

I have a feeling that it was because of this, Shadow was willing to help Dr. Eggman in the Rivals games.  Y'know along side honoring Maria's wish that Shadow would become mankind's (and by extension, the world's) protector.

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Eh, I don't think your friend "missed" anything.  The voice clip embedded above doesn't appear until eight minutes in to the final battle, and believe me, Devil Doom barely even takes a little over half that time to defeat.  Even if you were so unfortunate as to have the final battle drag on for eight minutes, chances are you'd be focusing too much on trying to drown out the music and the voice so you can just play the game.  So you'd still not retain the information.

 

I've said this before, but I still don't understand how Sega could just shove such an important piece of information at the very end, and through gameplay-based dialogue no less.  But whatever. =/

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It was definitely a ridiculously weird move on Sega's part. Perhaps they liked teasing the fans into continuing to wonder about Shadow's true identity. Either that or they felt that his true identity shouldn't even be a question anymore/there were more important things to think about, since Shadow was putting his past behind him.

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It was definitely a ridiculously weird move on Sega's part. Perhaps they liked teasing the fans into continuing to wonder about Shadow's true identity. Either that or they felt that his true identity shouldn't even be a question anymore/there were more important things to think about, since Shadow was putting his past behind him.

Or just bad writing. XP

 

But yeah, I do like the idea of the circumstances of Shadow's birth being irrelevant and the whole putting your past behind you thing.  That was a very good theme I would have loved if executed properly, but that's still an important piece of information to know.  I mean, open-endedness or not, there's a limit to how far you can ask the audience to just not care.  When that involves refusing to give significance to the very reason the game was created to begin with, then you've already crossed that line. XP

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LOL. Yes, you make a very good point! No matter their intentions, that was just totally the wrong way to reveal such a critical piece of information.

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Man, I'm getting this really amusing visual of the SA2 ending, with Eggman standing around idly chatting with everyone... and then, the moment everyone files out of the room and no one's looking, he just bolts to one of his robots and rescues Shadow right at the last minute.

 

With Shadow, along with Sonic and Tails from Lost World, this brings the number of heroes that Eggman directly saved from certain death up to three. Good going, Doc.

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I'm not buying it. Ha!

 

I know it's a critical piece of information, but I'm going to ignore it and continue to believe that the Shadow that I loved from SA2 died and was replaced by a boring, amnesia-ridden clone with guns

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There's something weird about head-canon made in direct response to the Word of God, especially when said Word of God isn't all that relevant.

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I still think it's pretty funny that the whole plot point the game was hyped up for was only revealed if you hang around the last battle too long.

 

Or just bad writing. XP

 

But yeah, I do like the idea of the circumstances of Shadow's birth being irrelevant and the whole putting your past behind you thing.  That was a very good theme I would have loved if executed properly, but that's still an important piece of information to know.  I mean, open-endedness or not, there's a limit to how far you can ask the audience to just not care.  When that involves refusing to give significance to the very reason the game was created to begin with, then you've already crossed that line. XP

 

Wasn't that basically what SA2 was doing with Shadow? Rouge confronted him about possibly not being the actual ultimate life form and he just brushed it off with, "It doesn't matter, I'm Shadow the Hedgehog" or something of the sort.

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As an extra note of trivia that also didn't help with the confusion:

 

In the neutral ending, Shadow is "revealed" to be an android, but bear in mind this ending should only be taken as a "what if?" scenario.  Nothing happens during the story path that changes what happened prior to the game, so even in the android ending, Eggman is simply tricking Shadow into thinking he's an android (even though we have to happily ignore the fact that Shadow should be pretty damn aware that he is a living breathing creature.  I mean he has more polygons than the androids for a start dohoho).

 

 

This is why my personal canon is that the many story branches of Shadow the Hedgehog are ALL What If scenarios, and that the true story is a combination of various elements from all the different paths.  We never get to see what this true canon is, but we can get the jist of it by what ends up relevant in the last, true ending.

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Wasn't that basically what SA2 was doing with Shadow? Rouge confronted him about possibly not being the actual ultimate life form and he just brushed it off with, "It doesn't matter, I'm Shadow the Hedgehog" or something of the sort.

Kind of, but not exactly.  I think in that instance, he was saying that even if his memories aren't real, his feelings and ambitions are, and as such he intends to fulfill his promise to Maria.  The main point of ShTH, to paraphrase the first Pokémon movie (nerd), is that the circumstances of his birth are irrelevant.  It is what he does with the gift of life that is important.

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As an extra note of trivia that also didn't help with the confusion:

In the neutral ending, Shadow is "revealed" to be an android, but bear in mind this ending should only be taken as a "what if?" scenario. Nothing happens during the story path that changes what happened prior to the game, so even in the android ending, Eggman is simply tricking Shadow into thinking he's an android (even though we have to happily ignore the fact that Shadow should be pretty damn aware that he is a living breathing creature. I mean he has more polygons than the androids for a start dohoho).

This is why my personal canon is that the many story branches of Shadow the Hedgehog are ALL What If scenarios, and that the true story is a combination of various elements from all the different paths. We never get to see what this true canon is, but we can get the jist of it by what ends up relevant in the last, true ending.

Well it had to be something that ends with a stage on the Black Comet, and that was either the Pure Dark or Semi-Hero, and knowing that Shadow is at worst, an anti-hero, I always though that and what he does throughout that pathway is canon and best reflects the SA2/Heroes Shadow's personality.
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Well it had to be something that ends with a stage on the Black Comet, and that was either the Pure Dark or Semi-Hero, and knowing that Shadow is at worst, an anti-hero, I always though that and what he does throughout that pathway is canon and best reflects the SA2/Heroes Shadow's personality.

 

Well... sorry but no that doesn't really work because the last ending reflects stuff that happens on all 5 main routes.  For example, the semi-hero ending can't be 100% canon because the GUN Commander is on the ARK in that ending, while he's looking after the President from Pure Dark in the Last Ending.  And even if we take that to be canon, in Pure Dark he was about to take over the world (either for himself or Black Doom), so that doesn't quite work with the Last Ending either.

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Well... sorry but no that doesn't really work because the last ending reflects stuff that happens on all 5 main routes.  For example, the semi-hero ending can't be 100% canon because the GUN Commander is on the ARK in that ending, while he's looking after the President from Pure Dark in the Last Ending.  And even if we take that to be canon, in Pure Dark he was about to take over the world (either for himself or Black Doom), so that doesn't quite work with the Last Ending either.

I think all stories are canon except without Shadow collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds in the exact stages he got them during each storyline and without his "conclusions". And also without Scrambled Eggman for breakfast.

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