Does Shadow hold back when he fights Sonic?

[ShadowSJG]

I wonder this, as in the games and comics, of course, we see Shadow and Sonic go head to head a lot. But I'm starting to think if Shadow maybe holds back. I mean Shadow has amazing feats such as stopping time for a while with Chaos Control or the destructive Chaos Blast.  I'm not saying that they have to kill each other, but do you think maybe if Shadow let loose a bit with those powers on a small scale, he could take out Sonic quite easily and quickly?

[Tails spin]

Sonic has something Shadow doesnt have unless it's his own game. Which is being a protagonist.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Short answer: No.

A bit longer: Shadow is brutal and military man, probably is stronger then Sonic. However Sonic has way more experience, after dozens of adventures. It's like Protoman Vs Megaman: you would think that Blues is would beat him, but every time they fought Rock was victorious.

Of course Shadow has his powers to give him upper hand. They are a bit vague, but over all he's Sonic + shooting balls/spears/explosions of Chaos Energy. Certainly and advantage, but not automatic win against fastest thing alive (plus I suspect those moves drain him). Maaybe if he took his rings of, then the question is if super powered Shadow is fast enough to catch Sonic, before he burns out.

Shadow also has teleportation and chaos control, but without Chaos Emerald those are extremely limited. Plus Sonic might have them too.

The closest thing to the answer was in Sonic Colors DS version. Omega states that according to his data Shadow is stronger than Sonic, but Shadow himself says it's not necessary true.

[Green Eyes]

I think technically Shadow is more powerful than Sonic, but his powers don't actually "work" all that well ...With the rings he wears, he can't use his full powers, but without his rings, he uses either all or nothing and it seems to be potentially damaging to himself.

[Diogenes]

In terms of story, no, because that's boring. In terms of objective abilities, yes, because they made Shadow way overpowered.

[Sparky]

4 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Short answer: No.

A bit longer: Shadow is brutal and military man, probably is stronger then Sonic. However Sonic has way more experience, after dozens of adventures. It's like Protoman Vs Megaman: you would think that Blues is would beat him, but every time they fought Rock was victorious.

Of course Shadow has his powers to give him upper hand. They are a bit vague, but over all he's Sonic + shooting balls/spears/explosions of Chaos Energy. Certainly and advantage, but not automatic win against fastest thing alive (plus I suspect those moves drain him). Maaybe if he took his rings of, then the question is if super powered Shadow is fast enough to catch Sonic, before he burns out.

Shadow also has teleportation and chaos control, but without Chaos Emerald those are extremely limited. Plus Sonic might have them too.

The closest thing to the answer was in Sonic Colors DS version. Omega states that according to his data Shadow is stronger than Sonic, but Shadow himself says it's not necessary true.

Omega said they were equal.

[Tailikku]

actually yes.

Allow me to show you what I mean:

I know that this is a panel from the Archie Comic, but this isn't the only place where this occurs.  Like take for instance, Sonic X or Sonic '06.  Shadow is seen taking those rings off of his gloves.  Those are his inhibitors.  So everytime he fights against Sonic, he is automatically holding back because of those rings.  When he was fighting Mephiles however, he was at full power because the rings were off.

[Toa Axis]

He pretty much has to hold back for story/dramatic purposes. He's already roughly on-par with Sonic in terms of speed/skill, so if we take into account his Chaos abilities, then he should wipe the floor with Sonic most of the time.

However, they can't do that because, well, we need games to play.

[Indigo Rush]

Technique over power. Shadow's got more flashy powers, but Sonic's been doing this for years. By comparison, Shadows been asleep in a stasis tube for 50 years. He never got the experience that Sonic and friends have.

[Sparky]

Sonic and Shadow are canonically equals. Shadow isn't any more powerful than Sonic at all. Shadow doesn't have any ability that Sonic doesn't also possess. Chaos powers? Sonic has been using their power since Sonic 2, Shadow just knows how to use it in different ways.

[Kuzu]

Statistically speaking, yes; Shadow has way more in his arsenal than Sonic does, but for the sake of drama/narrative tension, they can't just have Shadow instantly curb stomp Sonic into the dirt.

So he just doesn't use his stronger abilities for some reason. Maybe it's pride; how would you feel if you couldn't prevail over your greatest rival without a blatant advantage.

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[Shadowlax]

35 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

Statistically speaking, yes; Shadow has way more in his arsenal than Sonic does, but for the sake of drama/narrative tension, they can't just have Shadow instantly curb stomp Sonic into the dirt.

So he just doesn't use his stronger abilities for some reason. Maybe it's pride; how would you feel if you couldn't prevail over your greatest rival without a blatant advantage.

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I think its simpler than that

Sonic is his friend, why would you try and kill your friend

You probably wont ever hear him say that.

He does the same woth knuckles in the comic, he will kill when he needs to.you gotta earn your spot on the kill list, as snarky as sonic might be, he hasnt earned that.

Also while funny, it wouldnt make for a fun boss fight.

1 hour ago, Indigo Rush said:

Technique over power. Shadow's got more flashy powers, but Sonic's been doing this for years. By comparison, Shadows been asleep in a stasis tube for 50 years. He never got the experience that Sonic and friends have.

Eh nah.

That isnt a thing.

 

No technique stops " ill teleport you to the bottom of the ocean and watch you drown" or "ill stop time and snap your neck" or " ill burn you to death with my blast radious murder powers"

There is a diliberate choice, not that it matters much anymore

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

2 hours ago, Indigo Rush said:

Technique over power. Shadow's got more flashy powers, but Sonic's been doing this for years. By comparison, Shadows been asleep in a stasis tube for 50 years. He never got the experience that Sonic and friends have.

This sums up how just because you have a lot of powers doesn't mean anything if you don't know how to use them.

Before Shadow came around, Sonic's been going up against foes that can break boulders by punching them (Knuckles), bitchslap him from 30 feet away (Chaos), and let's not forget the fact that Eggman's been lobbing missiles, lasers, bombs, suicide badniks, lightning, robots completely invincible to Sonic, and a smorgage-board of weapons for years and Sonic could still fight them and win.

For all the relations it has to DBZ, fights between the characters aren't something you can sum up to "who's the strongest" especially when the main protagonist uses speed instead of strength to win.

[Kuzu]

Basically yea; I wouldn't go as far to call them friends (Frenemies?) but Shadow respects Sonic enough to prefer not winning unfairly.

And yea, his fight with Knuckles is a good example too; he had no ill will toward Knuckles and probably understood he was just following his code of conduct.

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[Indigo Rush]

30 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

No technique stops " ill teleport you to the bottom of the ocean and watch you drown" or "ill stop time and snap your neck" or " ill burn you to death with my blast radious murder powers"

There is a diliberate choice, not that it matters much anymore

Not speaking of the ways Sonic can still outrun Shadow in most of those situations, what it actually amounts to is that basically you're going to ignore anything any of us say because you have it in your mind that Shadow is the best character. Alright.

[Kuzu]

Technique over power. Shadow's got more flashy powers, but Sonic's been doing this for years. By comparison, Shadows been asleep in a stasis tube for 50 years. He never got the experience that Sonic and friends have.

This sums up how just because you have a lot of powers doesn't mean anything if you don't know how to use them.

Before Shadow came around, Sonic's been going up against foes that can break boulders by punching them (Knuckles), bitchslap him from 30 feet away (Chaos), and let's not forget the fact that Eggman's been lobbing missiles, lasers, bombs, suicide badniks, lightning, robots completely invincible to Sonic, and a smorgage-board of weapons for years and Sonic could still fight them and win.

For all the relations it has to DBZ, fights between the characters aren't something you can sum up to "who's the strongest" especially when the main protagonist uses speed instead of strength to win.

It would be interesting if that was explored; Sonic being a much more skilled speedster and Shadow having much more raw power.

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No technique stops " ill teleport you to the bottom of the ocean and watch you drown" or "ill stop time and snap your neck" or " ill burn you to death with my blast radious murder powers"

There is a diliberate choice, not that it matters much anymore

Not speaking of the ways Sonic can still outrun Shadow in most of those situations, what it actually amounts to is that basically you're going to ignore anything any of us say because you have it in your mind that Shadow is the best character. Alright.

That's a pretty big generalization don't ya think?

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[Indigo Rush]

2 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

That's a pretty big generalization don't ya think?

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Yes

[Nepenthe]

This is an impossible question to answer intelligently. For one, inhibitor rings weren't a thing before Sonic X, so for all we knew Shadow was giving it his all against Sonic and they were at best tying. But regardless of whether we're in a pre or post-inhibitor world, we simply don't know what effort Sonic is exerting when he's fighting Shadow. It's wrong to assume that Sonic is always giving his all in any given fight against Shadow, particularly since we know he'll toy with people relentlessly.

Even if you're going a power for power route, it's still impossible to say because these powers have never been really displayed in directly comparative feats like in Marvel films in order to glean how they'll stack up against other characters. Shadow being able to use Chaos Spear or Chaos Blast means nothing if he can't hit Sonic with it, and if we're bringing other media into this Sonic was never actually hit with Spear in X anyway, so what does it matter?

In short, no one honestly knows.

[Wraith]

 Sonic is sharper than most people give him credit for. He's beaten foes stronger than him un raw power just by using his relatively small arsenal of abilities in clever ways and looking for weak points. He's simply really good at what he does, so there's no reason to count him out just because of Shaow's seeminly overwhelming powers and abilities. 

That, along with the fact that Sonic and Shadow both gain and lose abilities to go along with whatever gameplay elements the game needs and there's no real consistency in what they can do, makes me think that this isn't an easy call to make. Even if you were to give Shadow all the powers he'd have in the games, you'd have to be fair and give Sonic all his shit too. Light speed Attack. Boost. Sonic Wind.  Blue Tornado. Saying Shadow is guaranteed a win really sells Sonic short.

[Kuzu]

Could do like Death Battle and take both Sonic and Shadow at their maximum potential and give them every ability they've amassed across the media,

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[Sparky]

Sonic and Shadow have all the same abilities. A fight between them is like a fight between two Flashes. The only difference being, for example, one Flash generates the Speed Force and the other knows how to make full use of it for all sorts of crazy things. 

[AngelSlayerN64]

Why would someone like Shadow, of all people, hold back against anyone for that matter? TBH, it goes against his character do to something like that. After all, he's the "Ultimate Lifeform".

[ShadowSJG]

37 minutes ago, Wraith said:

 Sonic is sharper than most people give him credit for. He's beaten foes stronger than him un raw power just by using his relatively small arsenal of abilities in clever ways and looking for weak points. He's simply really good at what he does, so there's no reason to count him out just because of Shaow's seeminly overwhelming powers and abilities. 

That, along with the fact that Sonic and Shadow both gain and lose abilities to go along with whatever gameplay elements the game needs and there's no real consistency in what they can do, makes me think that this isn't an easy call to make. Even if you were to give Shadow all the powers he'd have in the games, you'd have to be fair and give Sonic all his shit too. Light speed Attack. Boost. Sonic Wind.  Blue Tornado. Saying Shadow is guaranteed a win really sells Sonic short.

 

True but Shadow can do most of those too. What could Sonic have to counter Chaos Blast?

[Nepenthe]

2 minutes ago, SilverStarN64 said:

Why would someone like Shadow, of all people, hold back against anyone for that matter? TBH, it goes against his character do to something like that. After all, he's the "Ultimate Lifeform".

If I were a being of ultimate power and someone challenged me to a fight, I'd use just enough energy to get the job done and make an example out of them in the process. Why destroy a planet to beat one person?

Just now, ShadowSJG said:

True but Shadow can do most of those too. What could Sonic have to counter Chaos Blast?

I don't know, moving out of the way? He's really good at doing that.

[Wraith]

1 minute ago, ShadowSJG said:

True but Shadow can do most of those too. What could Sonic have to counter Chaos Blast?

running away