Does Shadow needed Emeralds for his powers?

[MetalSkulkBane]

Shadow's mission in Lego Dimension reminded of Sonic Battle and weird moment that no one seems to talk about.

After Shadow learns about Maria's last word he gives his Emerald to Emerl and everyone is like "Shadow but that's your emerald.", but he says "I don't need this anymore. I have Maria in my heart". And then I looked on timeline and I noticed: every game before Battle (SA2, Heroes, ShTH, Generations in a way) always has Shadow carry Emerald with him while he uses any of his chaos powers, while later games (06, Rivals series, Chronicles) allows him to shoot explosions and teleport without them.

Is it possible that Shadow somehow grew stronger in Battle?

(Also, I realize that during last Shadow Vs Sonic fight in SA2 Shadow didn't had emerald, yet he keeps teleporting. But there can be several explanations. For example he might get power directly from ARK around him, since six emeralds are already connected to it.)

[Shadowlax]

Shadow grew stronger over time, he went from needing an emerald to teleport down a street to being able to do it at will in his game, blocking bullets, and gaining more chaos powers. 

The only chaos power ( for now) that I think needs an emerald, is Chaos Control, which for me personally I feel is more of a balancing reason than anything else. Being able to stop time is a broken power, being able to stop it at will is a broken power, giving him a sort of tax, makes things a bit more even. I think it speaks to this being true, because while its not canon or the same shadow, Sonic boom shadow has every shadow power, except ( as far as we know ) direct time controlling chaos control, even the super strength. These abilities are apart of his character, and at least in the main universe represents a growth. 

So to answer your question, shadow grew stronger over several games, not just battle. I think he grew stronger in sonic adventure 2, It also offers an explination for the end of sa2. In Shadow's game, he does... . far more with his chaos powers than he does in sa2, and doesn't pass out. The explanation for him falling to the planet could just be, he literally just got let out and he wasn't used to the strain yet. He got stronger and now he doesn't even need emeralds anymore. 

I've heard an argument for sa2 being, shadow was holding back the entire time, because he knew he was wrong and he had been remembering maria over the course of that game. I'm not fond of this argument, because I like seeing growth, but even more so, it makes less sense because shadow holds back already. The inhibitor rings. 

[TB100]

He should need a emerald in order to use his powers, But just like how Sega has forgotten the fact that Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald who should be on Angel Island guarding it, They forgot that shadow needs to have a chaos emerald to use his powers. but for reasons unknown, he just uses them all whoopty doo without any real reason to do so.

[Shadowlax]

39 minutes ago, BlueBlur91 said:

He should need a emerald in order to use his powers, But just like how Sega has forgotten the fact that Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald who should be on Angel Island guarding it, They forgot that shadow needs to have a chaos emerald to use his powers. but for reasons unknown, he just uses them all whoopty doo without any real reason to do so.

I don't think they forgot. They have specifically that way for a reason. Shadow got stronger, thats it. It even carried over into different versions of shadow. 

And to be honest he shouldn't. It makes him unique. 

[FriendBot]

Why is this topic in the SAGE subforum again?

[Sonictrainer]

Like Sonic and the other characters, Shadow has grown stronger and gained different abilities such as teleporting short distances and his Chaos Spear attack.

However, for his more powerful techniques such as Chaos Control and Chaos Blast, they require a Chaos Emerald or collecting enough energy similar to Chaos Emerald Energy.

[Neo_Fire_Sonic]

51 minutes ago, Sonictrainer said:

Like Sonic and the other characters, Shadow has grown stronger and gained different abilities such as teleporting short distances and his Chaos Spear attack.

However, for his more powerful techniques such as Chaos Control and Chaos Blast, they require a Chaos Emerald or collecting enough energy similar to Chaos Emerald Energy.

chaos control requires emerald, chaos blast doesn't, that's exclusive to shadows arsenal of random op powers.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

4 hours ago, Soni said:

Why is this topic in the SAGE subforum again?

Fixed. Next time, you might want to use the Report function so that we can see and fix the issue more quickly, as I didn't notice this until now and neither did the other moderators.

[StaticMania]

Shadow never needed a Chaos Emerald to use his chaos powers, he was made with them. All that having a Chaos Emerald does is amplify the abilities he has...

 

For example: Shadow doesn't need an emerald to use Chaos Control, "but" without one all he can do is short range teleportation as shown in Shadow the Hedgehog's title screen cut-scene and his intro cut-scene in Sonic Nex Gen.

 

...and he can fly!

[blade57331]

I don't buy that all "he got stronger over time" thing. Specially after games gave him this whole inhibitor rings bull**** from Sonic X.

I find it rather as just one of many inconsistence from SEGA part then anything else. It doesn't help that Iizuka came in and said things that contradict what games seem to imply.

[Salamander]

13 hours ago, BlueBlur91 said:

He should need a emerald in order to use his powers, But just like how Sega has forgotten the fact that Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald who should be on Angel Island guarding it, They forgot that shadow needs to have a chaos emerald to use his powers. but for reasons unknown, he just uses them all whoopty doo without any real reason to do so.

Whether or not he should as an issue of canon, I also think there's a question of whether or not he should as a balance issue.

Perhaps a reasonable compromise would be that he can charge up on Chaos energy using a Chaos Emerald, but that over time it runs out, so he needs regular but not constant access to Chaos Emeralds in order to maintain his typical power level.  That could be interesting from a gameplay perspective, too.

[Shadowlax]

I think it works as is. Heck I think it should be more lax. Shadows in a particular position of still having an orgin that doesnt really give him defined limits and him being immortal. I can totally see in the future he strait up doesnt need chas emeralds or inhibitors anymore.

[Darth InVaders]

On 12/1/2016 at 9:34 AM, MetalSkulkBane said:

Shadow's mission in Lego Dimension reminded of Sonic Battle and weird moment that no one seems to talk about.

After Shadow learns about Maria's last word he gives his Emerald to Emerl and everyone is like "Shadow but that's your emerald.", but he says "I don't need this anymore. I have Maria in my heart". And then I looked on timeline and I noticed: every game before Battle (SA2, Heroes, ShTH, Generations in a way) always has Shadow carry Emerald with him while he uses any of his chaos powers, while later games (06, Rivals series, Chronicles) allows him to shoot explosions and teleport without them.

Is it possible that Shadow somehow grew stronger in Battle?

(Also, I realize that during last Shadow Vs Sonic fight in SA2 Shadow didn't had emerald, yet he keeps teleporting. But there can be several explanations. For example he might get power directly from ARK around him, since six emeralds are already connected to it.)

By canon, the original game series Shadow requires an Emerald for Chaos Control. This is proven beyond a doubt by Iizuka (Shadow's real life creator and head of Sonic Team) himself saying at the 2013 Sonic Boom convention "If he doesn't have a Chaos Emerald he cannot use Chaos Control", in addition to numerous official profiles and cutscenes (this includes Shadow's profile in Rivals). Sonic Team has made some inconsistencies and plot holes in gameplay but gameplay is a weak source because it is filled with non-canon mechanics (life system, Amy turning invisible in 06) so they clearly continue this rule.

Further it has been shown that characters may draw power from the Emeralds without physically touching them - for example Black Doom used all 7 Emeralds to use Chaos Control to warp the Black Comet to the surface of Sonic's world but the Emeralds were floating around Shadow's head so he never touched them, in addition to numberous Super transformations that never had physical contact with the Emeralds (this explains your SA2 Sonic vs Shadow concern since Sonic had the fake Emerald). As long as the character is within some unknown radius to an Emerald they can draw power from it, while this radius is quite large (see Sonic's Super transformation in Unleashed while Emeralds scattered across the massive Gaia Collussus) it has not been officially defined by canon.

Shadow's saying he no longer needs an Emerald in Battle was not specifically tied to a what for. He was always close to Emerl and all 7 Emeralds in the story after giving it up to draw power from. Furthermore Shadow's injury earlier in the story provides an easy explanation for what Shadow needed the Emerald for - his injury weakened him and keeping the Emerald on him made him stronger until he found strength from Maria.

Chaos Spear and Blast are not well defined by canon. Their names and type of general energy projection indicate a link to Chaos Control in which case they would require an Emerald. But they have never appeared in a story cutscene and have been mentioned in only one official profile so the gameplay which like I said is filled with non-canon mechanics (like the life system, Amy turning invisible) is what is left. At the same time canon says Shadow is supposed to be Sonic's equal which implies that without an Emerald Shadow is just like Sonic (actually Shadow's Sonic Channel even calls them the Japanese equivalent of 2 peas in a pod). So without more info, Chaos Spear and Blast needing or not needing an Emerald's power is speculation

Obviously Boom and Archie versions of Shadow need no Emerald for anything