Is Shadow The Ultimate Lifeform?

[Wraith]

I never got the "cures disease" part of Project Shadow's intent. He didn't seem to be capable of curing Maria and hasn't exactly been using that gift in the modern world as far as we know. 

[Diogenes]

8 minutes ago, Wraith said:

I never got the "cures disease" part of Project Shadow's intent. He didn't seem to be capable of curing Maria and hasn't exactly been using that gift in the modern world as far as we know. 

I figure the idea wasn't that he could cure outside diseases, but that he himself would be immune to them, and by figuring out how to do that they could apply it to other people. Like, either create an immortality serum, test it on the hedgehog, then move on to humans once it was proven to work, or create an immortal hedgehog through other means, then study him and isolate whatever makes it work to create an immortality serum.

[Kuzu]

Wasn't Gerald going to use Shadow's DNA to cure Maria? His immune system should be immune to disease and fight off what sickness ailed Maria.

[Wraith]

8 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

I figure the idea wasn't that he could cure outside diseases, but that he himself would be immune to them, and by figuring out how to do that they could apply it to other people. Like, either create an immortality serum, test it on the hedgehog, then move on to humans once it was proven to work, or create an immortal hedgehog through other means, then study him and isolate whatever makes it work to create an immortality serum.

I guess that makes sense. It feels kinda like working backwards compared to just making a cure and testing it though. 

[Shadow Chaos Control]

5 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Yeah, you forgot to make the selection transparent.

No, Eggman had one of his robots catch him. 

Even though he's already a robot...?

Capturing Shadow is no guarantee,  Eggman is playing with fire. 

[DabigRG]

25 minutes ago, Titan Mecha Sonic said:

Capturing Shadow is no guarantee,  Eggman is playing with fire. 

It was when Shadow keeled over, dippy fresh.

[Shadowlax]

4 hours ago, Wraith said:

I guess that makes sense. It feels kinda like working backwards compared to just making a cure and testing it though. 

I mean he did it though

Things just went really bad before he was able to like actually implement it.

 

 

[Shadow Chaos Control]

9 hours ago, DabigRG said:

It was when Shadow keeled over, dippy fresh.

Did Eggman slay Shadow?! This cannot be.. 

[PaperSonic]

The Ultimate Lifeform is Kirby. No other answer is correct.

 

In all seriousness, SA2 seems to imply that Sonic is the "real Ultimate Lifeform" in that he's better at using Chaos powers than Shadow (hence the Chaos Control asspull and not dying in the final battle), but it's kind of half-assed and later games don't make much mention of this, as Chaos Powers became Shadow's schtick and he can go Super with no issue. 

[Shadow Chaos Control]

7 hours ago, PaperSonic said:

The Ultimate Lifeform is Kirby. No other answer is correct.

 

In all seriousness, SA2 seems to imply that Sonic is the "real Ultimate Lifeform" in that he's better at using Chaos powers than Shadow (hence the Chaos Control asspull and not dying in the final battle), but it's kind of half-assed and later games don't make much mention of this, as Chaos Powers became Shadow's schtick and he can go Super with no issue. 

Interesting point. Shadow falls planet side, but Sonic does not. If we count how many times Sonic goes Super, i.e. Sonic 2 (1992) to SA2, and that Shadow only does it for the first time in SA2, then it cpuld be that Sonic has simply mastered the super form from going super many times before. 

[MetalSkulkBane]

There are many possibilities why Shadow 'died' in SA2, not Sonic. Ignoring possibility that Sonic had more experience, maybe Shadow used more of his energy or got more wounded in the fight.

Heck, all things considering Shadow might allowed himself to die. He stopped the ARK, mission finished. Maybe he felt he doesn't belong in this world and it's time to join Maria and Gerald in afterlife... but no one said that out loud because even SA2 doesn't want to be this grim.

[Shadow Chaos Control]

On 9/6/2020 at 7:22 AM, MetalSkulkBane said:

There are many possibilities why Shadow 'died' in SA2, not Sonic. Ignoring possibility that Sonic had more experience, maybe Shadow used more of his energy or got more wounded in the fight.

Heck, all things considering Shadow might allowed himself to die. He stopped the ARK, mission finished. Maybe he felt he doesn't belong in this world and it's time to join Maria and Gerald in afterlife... but no one said that out loud because even SA2 doesn't want to be this grim.

The way Shadow harnesses the power of chaos, I can see him using too much the emerald’s power while being in Super form.

I think it is most likely that Shadow died because it was a thematic device, his story was over but like The Green Ranger, fans wanted more.   

[DabigRG]

I think Sonic X had a decide idea for indicating what happened--as you said, Shadow uses Chaos energy frequently and so it's possible that he wouldn't know how to regulate his Super form on the first try compared to Sonic, who almost never uses it normally but had time to get used to the transformation from prior adventures--casting off his Ring Inhibitors to go all out was a neat visual indicator of that.

[Shadowlax]

I think the simple answer was, he used up a bunch of energy throughout sa2 and didn't have anymore and fell. In sonic X he even takes his inhibitor rings off to indicate this. Over the course of the games, his manipulation of chaos energy becomes far better and he doesn't really need to do that sort of sacrifice thing too much anymore.

Should have took 5 and drank his gatorade, he wouldn't have fell

[Sega DogTagz]

8 hours ago, DabigRG said:

-casting off his Ring Inhibitors to go all out was a neat visual indicator of that.

 

The funny thing is, 99% chance the inhibitor rings had nothing to do with that (at the time anyway).

Shadow lost his rings in SA2 so Sonic would have something to bring back with him to help cement his loss. There was never any indication that ditching his rings aside was for a power boost. It wasn't until Sonic X, and later Sonic 06 and the archie comics, started using it as a marker of Shadow going "all out"  that we start to see that scene in a different retrospective light. 

The Inhibitor ring concept came Waaaaay after SA2. It just kinda backflowed into the canon lol. 

[Shadow Chaos Control]

7 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

 

The funny thing is, 99% chance the inhibitor rings had nothing to do with that (at the time anyway).

Shadow lost his rings in SA2 so Sonic would have something to bring back with him to help cement his loss. There was never any indication that ditching his rings aside was for a power boost. It wasn't until Sonic X, and later Sonic 06 and the archie comics, started using it as a marker of Shadow going "all out"  that we start to see that scene in a different retrospective light. 

The Inhibitor ring concept came Waaaaay after SA2. It just kinda backflowed into the canon lol. 

Retconned!  

For some reason I didn’t recollect him taking off the inhibtor rings. I’ll need to rewatch that in SA2. 

Does this mean when Shadow takes off the inhibit rimgs he says, “Play time is over!”?  

[DabigRG]

On 9/9/2020 at 8:27 AM, Titan Mecha Sonic said:

Retconned!  

For some reason I didn’t recollect him taking off the inhibtor rings. I’ll need to rewatch that in SA2. 

Does this mean when Shadow takes off the inhibit rimgs he says, “Play time is over!”?  

They probably wouldn't have had the means to do so at the time--tgr cutscenes just has him hear Maria and then Sonic tells him they've got to give it all they've got or something.

[Shadow Chaos Control]

On 9/10/2020 at 11:48 AM, DabigRG said:

They probably wouldn't have had the means to do so at the time--tgr cutscenes just has him hear Maria and then Sonic tells him they've got to give it all they've got or something.

Do you know if there are more cutscenes in the Japanese version of SA2? That may even lend knowledge on Shadow being the Ultimate Lifeform?  

Often the US dubs get cut down and have sparser dialogue.