Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog is a fictional character in Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is the dark incarnation of Sonic the Hedgehog and first appears in the Dreamcast game Sonic Adventure 2. He is scheduled to get his own game by Winter, 2005.

Contents

1 History 1.1 Sonic Adventure 2 1.2 Sonic Heroes 2 Abilities 3 Mysteries 3.1 Clone or robot? 3.2 The Ultimate Life Form? 3.3 Hyper Shadow? 4 Japanese Backstory: The TRUTH About 50 Years Ago 5 Sonic X

History

Shadow is either the end result or a merely a prototype of the "Ultimate Life Form" project, a secret government genetics project shut down a half century ago which objective was to reach immortality. He was created aboard the space colony ARK by Professor Gerald Robotnik, the grandfather of Dr. Eggman,. Shadow seems to have developed friendship with the Professor's granddaughter, Maria Robotnik and often looked down to Earth, wondering what the purpose to his life was. When the military attacks ARK to shut down the Ultimate Life Form project, Maria supposedly sacrifices herself in order to let Shadow escape to Earth in a suspended animation capsule.

His capsule was captured by the military and stored in the Prison Island for 50 years, until Dr. Eggman attacked the complex looking for "his grandfather's legacy" and freed him.

Sonic Adventure 2

As a reward for his freedom, Shadow granted Dr. Eggman one wish, which was the domination of Earth.

In order to concede this and to fulfill Maria’s last wish of revenge on those who lived on earth - Shadow led Eggman to the ARK and showed him ultimate weapon: the Eclipse Cannon, a giant laser cannon with power to destroy an entire planet, which required seven Chaos Emeralds to function. Together with a treasure hunter named Rouge the Bat, the three banded together and acquired six of the emeralds, providing enough power to destroy half the moon. They retrieve the last Emerald from Sonic and his friends. In their final duel, Shadow is defeated by Sonic, and the Eclipse Cannon is destroyed. However, the ARK is set on a collision course with Earth.

Soon after, Amy Rose managed to remind Shadow what Maria's true last wish was - the people of Earth to be happy, not to be destroyed by revenge. Shadow rushes to redeem himself by helping Sonic and Knuckles seal the power of the Chaos Emeralds.

To buy them time, he fights the Bio Lizard, a Prototype of the Ultimate Life Form. Though he wins, he cannot stop it from merging with ARK and continuing ARK's path towards Earth as the Final Hazard. Using the power of the Seven Chaos Emeralds, Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and Shadow transforms into Super Shadow. Together they destroy Final Hazard and use Chaos Control to stop the free-falling ARK from destroying the Earth. However, Shadow uses the last of his energy to do so, falls to Earth and apparently dies.

Sonic Heroes

In the next game, Sonic Heroes, Rouge discovers that Shadow is alive, and in a stasis tube located in the deepest part of one of Dr. Eggman's bases. After saving Rouge from a rampaging robot called E-123 Omega, it is revealed that Shadow has amnesia and cannot remember anything before his release from the stasis tube. He joins forces with Rouge and Omega to form Team Dark (as their speed member and second-in-command) and hunt down Dr. Eggman.

After hearing Dr. Eggman proclaiming that he "has no past to remember", Shadow discovers a half destroyed Shadow robot and realises that he too might just be a robot. Despite this, he continues his mission, proclaiming that "even if I'm not real, I'm still the ultimate life form, Shadow the Hedgehog!" They defeat Dr. Eggman's "Egg Emperor" and discover that the person they have been chasing is a fake Dr. Eggman. Meanwhile, Rouge stumbles upon a whole room filled with hundreds of cloned Shadows. As Omega arrives to destroy the room and everything in it, Rouge affirms that the Shadow is just a robot. However, Omega reassures her that to clone something you need the original and that the original may still exist somewhere.

When Metal Sonic transforms into Metal Madness, Shadow works with Rouge and Omega to distract him long enough for Sonic to power up into his Super Form. At the end of the game, he is last seen with Omega and the defeated Metal Sonic.

In Sonic Battle, Shadow has regained all of his memories, though it is never explained how. It’s not known if this game enters in the official storyline.

Abilities

Shadow retains many of his rival Sonic's abilities, namely the same blistering speed and agility. Shadow's trademark move is Chaos Control. Using the power of a single Chaos Emerald, he can freeze time and warp through space. He is only seen freezing time in Sonic Adventure 2 in 2 player mode, but in Sonic Heroes the time freeze is an effect of Team Dark's "Team Blast" special move, “Chaos Inferno”. He uses the Chaos Control ability three times in Sonic Adventure 2: once to escape from Sonic using the green emerald, once to rescue Rouge from the military base before it blows up, and during the final duel against Sonic. Sonic can also use Chaos Control, even with a fake emerald, though he only realizes this later.

Mysteries

Fans of the Shadow the Hedgehog character have had many questions regarding Shadow's mysterious origin and have developed various theories explaining his existence.

Clone or robot?

Some fans believe that Shadow is an evil clone of Sonic, but this seems to be impossible since he was created well before Sonic was born. His resemblance to Sonic character-wise is most likely a pure coincidence.

The Shadow in Sonic Heroes is said to be a robot. There is the possibility that Shadow was always a robot or that only his copy was a robot mass produced by Dr. Eggman.

Others suggest the Shadow you play in the games is the real Shadow and that Metal Sonic used him to clone an army.

The Ultimate Life Form?

Shadow may be the second incarnation of the ultimate life form Gerald Robotnik was creating - with the Bio-Lizard being the first prototype. Emerl (who is 4,000 years older than Shadow) from Sonic Battle may be the third life form, as suggested in Sonic Battle's story mode. Some suggest that either Shadow or Final Hazard is the only ultimate life form.

Shadow was not originally programmed to destroy Earth and as such the Bio-Lizard may not have been originally a weapon of destruction. The whole Ultimate Life Form project was supposed to bring peace to the world. The only viable explanation is that the Bio-Lizard was re-programmed by Gerald, but the Bio-Lizard is still referred to as a prototype in Sonic Adventure 2.

A popular theory is that Shadow's memories of Maria are entirely false, and that Gerald falsified these memories in Shadow's memory to make him enact Professor Gerald's revenge.

Hyper Shadow?

The name of the Chaos Emerald-empowered Shadow seen at the end of Sonic Adventure 2 is most likely "Super Shadow", not "Hyper Shadow" as some suggest. The "Hyper" status was previously used to refer to "Hyper Sonic" and "Hyper Knuckles" in Sonic 3 & Knuckles after attaining the Super Chaos Emeralds.

Japanese Backstory: The TRUTH About 50 Years Ago

After Sonic Adventure 2 was released, a strategy guide was fashioned with the guidance of Sonic Team. This official strategy guide offered eager players the chance to also learn a bit more about Shadow's past, in the form of a report written by Rouge the Bat. The report, a partial transcript, explained her findings on "Project: Shadow" which explains quite a bit about some questions fans have and brings up a slew of new ones. This backstory is also what the Journal Entries in Sonic Battle work with. [1]

Sonic X

Shadow also appears on the anime Sonic X. Episodes 33 through 38 are based on Sonic Adventure 2, with a few differences from the game. For one, it was Chris Thorndyke who reminded Shadow of his true promise from Maria, and not Amy Rose, as originally. He made short appearances after Episode 38, in flashbacks or otherwise, but he makes his true return in episode 60, “The Return of Shadow”, only aired in France.