Line #10 Fridge/ShadowTheHedgehog


1	[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
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3	* One of the things people complain about most in the whole game is the way there's so many pits and you're so likely to die in them. But in Sonic games, water was a huge obstacle and became a canon fear for him. Shadow can swim though. And fear is no use when you're being made into a living weapon. On the other hand, he has fallen from space TWICE by now, and had horrible, horrible things happen to him high up in space. The easiest way to die in Shadow's game is in falling to your death. So what is Shadow's fear? ACROPHOBIA, the fear of heights. A total flip on Sonic's fear, which takes place in the depths. Just as there was no way out of running into water in many Sonic games, for Shadow the more lucrative path is always high up and he has to confront his fear to get there.
4	* In the intro sequence, Sonic passes out in front of Shadow. Some people suggest that Shadow has just ''shot'' Sonic, despite him not being in a position that really lends any weight to this. In fact Sonic is clearly bruised and battered, no cuts or bullet wounds, and Shadow's clearly not aiming at him. What is much more likely is that Sonic has been fighting the Black Arms, but he's just not strong enough. He collapses, and Shadow is the ''only one left''.
5	** Furthermore, directly after Sonic collapses, Shadow flies forward into the camera. He's using Chaos ''Control,'' the ''hero'' side LimitBreak.
6	* It took me a while, but I finally realized that the KarmaMeter in ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' is a perfect representation of how Chaos Energy works. "Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart." Since he's suffering from amnesia and mind-control, he can't focus his powers as well as he could in [=SA2=], so Shadow's state of mind influences the energy he draws from the Emeralds, and alters his powers, much like in Sonic Adventure, where Sonic and Chaos drew upon completely different "sides" of the Emeralds' powers. When he's full of rage and hatred, he draws on the negative power of the Emeralds and his powers become incredibly violent and destructive, like Chaos was; and when he focuses on rescuing people or destroying evil, he gets the positive energy of the Emeralds, and his powers resemble something closer to Super Sonic: high speed, nigh invincibility, and flight. It just fits so well! -- @/{{Enlong}}
7	** Also, why was G.U.N. trying to kill Shadow in ''[=SA2=]''? Even if he wasn't the dangerous Prototype that G.U.N. was at the ARK searching for, they tried killing him anyways. But, you think they would know the difference between a giant fucking lizard and a hedgehog, and you would be right! They did! They went after Shadow because of his appearance: A Hedgehog sporting the Black Arms skin color! -- [[Tropers/Shadowgirl13Chaos Shadowgirl13_chaos]]
8	*** On top of that, when Rouge recovers Professor Robotnik's notes in ''Sonic Adventure 2'', we find out that Biolizard's given name was also Shadow. Assuming G.U.N. knew about this project, and Shadow the Hedgehog was developed in secret, they would've come to one logical conclusion about someone created by the Professor and identifying himself as "Shadow."
9	* Watching some of the LetsPlay/HellfireCommentaries playthroughs of some of the ''Sonic'' games, they expressed the view that Shadow being created by the Black Arms (and thus making him a [[HalfHumanHybrid Half-Hedgehog Hybrid]]) was really stupid and not needed... but at the same time, they puzzled over how Professor Gerald, in his experiments to make the Ultimate Life-Form, went from The Biolizard to Shadow, with no other prototypes in the middle. That's when I realised that him being created by the Black Arms was ''actually necessary'' to explain why Gerald made the technological leap that he did: using his own intelligence and resources, the best he could come up with was the Biolizard, a creature which clearly wasn't up to scratch. At that point, he encountered the Black Arms, and they gave him the information and resources he needed to create Shadow -- they actually say in the game that "He needed a little help", so they helped him out. The game ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' basically explains every plot hole from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', both why the Eclipse cannon was made and how Shadow was made (sorry, LetsPlay/HellfireCommentaries -- no offence was intended).
10	** More detail: The Ultimate Lifeform Project is also fueled by Gerald's desire to treat Maria's NIDS and save her life. This is why the Ultimate Lifeform is intended to have immense regenerative powers. However, the limitations of Gerald's knowledge are made apparent in the weaknesses of the Biolizard prototype, which not only requires a life-support system to sustain it, but is also ''unstable'' and inefficent. Note how it stops to catch its breath after every attack cycle, which is why and how Shadow, the ''completed'' Ultimate Lifeform, was able to attack its life-support systems. Furthermore, it is ''unstable'', as evidenced by the tumor-like weak spots that begin to sprout over its body in the final battle of ''Adventure 2''. THIS is why Gerald was forced to get biotechnology from the Black Arms, as Maria's time was growing short and he desperately wanted to cure her. Thank goodness he left his original "Stop Black Doom" programming in Shadow when he was driven murderously insane by the GUN attack on the ARK colony that killed Maria.
11	* Why does [[TacticalSuicideBoss Egg Dealer]] have a Shadow Fever option, you may ask? Why, to power up his army of ''Shadow'' Androids, of course!
12	** That makes even more sense with those endings -- Eggman tells Shadow he's a robot in them.
13	** Even better, it may have been there for Eggman to try and break his mind by inducing PhlebotinumOverload, spiking his negative Chaos powers so that he becomes blinded with negativity and easier to deal with. Being as this is [[PersonOfMassDestruction Shadow that we're dealing with]], it was probably going to fail anyway, but still a clever tactic.
14	* The last story's DeusExMachina with the Chaotix seems kinda outta nowhere... until you realize that the three missions you do with them actually help them out because they're all connected. Getting 5 top secret discs from the ruins of... Prison Island, where Shadow and probably a lot of other things from the ARK were being held. Helping Espio getting things from the four different towers... when you realize that they're inside Eggman's systems. Helping Vector [[MemeticMutation find the computer room]] is also good because... where else are they in the last story? A place with a computer.
15	* How can the ARK's cannon fire [[spoiler:in the Last Story, when Shadow was using the Chaos Emeralds to maintain his Super form, when it was stated in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' that the Chaos Emeralds were the power source for the cannon? Because ''the cannon never fired in [=SA2=], so it's using the remaining power from when Eggman tried to use the Emeralds to fire the cannon at the end of that game.'']]
16	* Apparently, the ''Sonic'' universe has a ''really'' efficient system for city evacuation. Central City is evacuated in about a day, and Westopolis is evacuated in the time it takes Shadow to run down a hill to it. With all of the evil plots for world domination and other problems throughout the 3D games, of ''course'' they'd have efficient evacuation plans!
17	** Especially after what happened to [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Station Square]]...
18	* In the "Android Empire" ending, Omega is going along with Shadow and not showing any reaction to the revelation that he's not "the real Shadow". This is because Omega never met "[[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 original Shadow]]", "[[VideoGame/SonicHeroes android Shadow]]" is the only Shadow he's ever known.
19	** In ''Sonic Heroes'', Omega saw the room full of androids along with Rouge in the team dark ending. Both of them were already aware of the possibility that this Shadow might be a different one. Rouge chose to ignore it entirely, and Omega simply noted that the original had to exist in some form. Bottom line is, neither of them think it's important anymore.
20	* There's a plot hole in ''[=SA2=]'' where if Gerald went mad only after everyone else on the station was killed, how could he possibly reconfigure the ARK into a massive cannon on his own, especially with short time left and without a legion of robots? It's answered in this game, as the station was already a giant cannon long before G.U.N.'s interference. He made the Eclipse Cannon once he realized what Black Arms were up to (unless he never trusted them in the first place). This adds to FridgeHorror below since the cannon was originally made to save the world.
21	* A lot of people feel that helping the Chaotix is very important in the story thanks to their presence in the Last Story. But there's more than that -- the Chaotix is something of a Neutral Party, and that's what Shadow has always tried to be! There are three ways to take the Chaotix path, but the most obvious for me is "Wandering's End". Black Doom shows up and tells you to find the Chaos Emeralds. Do that in Westopolis and he complains. Next you end up in Glyphic Canyon (which I feel must be an important location since you can visit it twice). And you encounter Knuckles (Ex-Chaotix member from the old days). You think "Okay, there's an emerald here, I'll get it." He just gets mad AGAIN, so no wonder you turn to the Chaotix! This path neither requires assisting the Blue Blockhead, nor does it require any kind of mass murder on Shadow's part. Plus Shadow gets a flashback!
22	* Other likely paths involve visiting Black Doom's Sky Temple twice, then ending at the Black Comet and fighting Sonic -- you're planning on helping Black Doom run the world but he turns out to just want to eat everybody. Or if you fight Eggman, you decide to go your own way. It makes sense because The Last Way takes place on The Comet but Shadow isn't seen teleporting there. It also doesn't require mass genocide -- just the destruction of Eggman's robots. You meet Eggman multiple times, so it makes sense that Eggman would tell you that you're the real Shadow in the fight against Devil Doom. You can also help Amy save Cream without affecting the story too much, which explains why she might be so enthusiastic about Shadow! Helping Amy makes sense because when Black Doom teleports you to the temple, Shadow may have become afraid of him.
23	** Several of the endings are completely impossible. The Pure Evil ending requires that Shadow decides he, personally, wants to see the world destroyed, and not let Black Doom do the job by eating everybody. Another shows Shadow deciding that he doesn't want to rule the world after all. And a third means that Shadow seems to be only willing to serve Black Doom if he's not going to eat people, even though he must surely know by then that he's being used. But actually, Sonic Team is helping you narrow down Shadow's true path.
24	* In the final story, it always baffled me how Sonic & friends escaped the comet despite pretty much being paralyzed and unable to move, and seemingly no way of escape. Years later, after replaying ''Sonic Adventure 2'', it finally hit me. ''Sonic is able to use Chaos Control. He could've teleported out with everyone.''
25	** Not without the Chaos Emeralds. A more likely explanation is that the effect wore off in time for them to escape.
26	** An even better answer: Omega got them out since being a robot makes him immune to the nerve gas.
27	* A touch of Fridge Romance for Shadamy vs Shadouge fans...
28	** You can only meet Amy if you ''don't'' help Rouge in Digital Circuit. If you so much as meet Amy in the Cryptic Castle, it is impossible to take a path that assists Rouge. Also, helping Amy is the last point at which you can turn full hero, and to do so you must always be heroic. You can't meet Amy if you help Sonic because you're too good friends to split them up now. And in your only other opportunity to meet Sonic after helping Amy, you're in direct competition with him.
29	** Meanwhile, you can help Rouge twice, and whenever you meet her, all the dark path entails is getting to the Goal Ring -- ie, helping her get that lovely emerald anyway. Not to mention ''not'' helping her that second time 'punishes' you with the most hideous level in the game -- Space Gadget.
30	** Actually, she shows up in the GUN Fortress.
31	* A lot of people question why Shadow never [[FridgeLogic bothered to ask anyone]] about his past. But it makes perfect sense when you realize that Shadow's biggest flaw is his arrogance, which is on full display at times, with his attitude of not thinking things through, and carelessly killing things. While asking Eggman about his identity before a fight is no issue to him, and going on a badass quest to acquire all the Chaos Emeralds is great, asking Team Sonic about it is a ''huge'' problem for him, he'd be embarrassed as hell about it.
32	* Why is Black Doom continually demanding things of Shadow? Shadow is the AntiAntiChrist, and Doom is ridiculously Satan-esque. Why do the heroes keep doing it? [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments They have faith in Shadow for redemption, no matter what he does.]]
33	* Why does Shadow yell "Damn, not here"? He's not done yet, but he, similar to when he doesn't leave the ARK in ''Sonic Adventure 2'', doesn't care if he dies after he's done.
34	* Why does Shadow starts saying "Damn" whenever there's a problem? It's because of [[https://voicesofnathan.tumblr.com/post/159771009868/this-is-proof-that-shadow-is-just-a-child-that Sonic's influence]]. Sonic has some part in Shadow's [[CharacterDevelopment development]]. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation If you don't die]], Shadow actually doesn't swear until a few levels into the game after hearing Sonic's swear.
35	* A silly one: Why do melee weapons have ammo? Because Shadow [[SuperStrength swings them so hard]] that they either [[BreakableWeapons break or take significant damage after a single hit]]. Especially when we consider that some of the things he can use them against are giant robots with durable body armour, or creatures of roughly equal resilience. It's telling that the only melee weapon that can deal damage without using "ammo" is the katana, and only when it doesn't actually make contact with anything and uses the SwordBeam to attack.
36	* If you believe that the game is one GroundhogDayLoop orchestrated by Black Doom, a lot of things make much more sense. The entire game is Black Doom messing with Shadow's head and resetting the timeline once it reaches the end, hence why you replay the game multiple times to unlock Last Story and help Shadow break away from Black Doom's control. Most of the cutscenes are reused because Black Doom knows Shadow isn't going to notice and he won't remember anything anyway once Black Doom resets the timeline. Even in the paths where Shadow does side with him, Black Doom knows that Shadow will betray him most of the time (i.e any Neutral/Hero route where you side against Dr Eggman or Black Doom, or even the Pure Dark-Hero ending where Shadow [[TheStarscream betrays Black Doom]] to [[GalacticConquerer rule the universe himself]].) and that the GroundhogDayLoop is designed to see if Shadow will be a liability to his [[ToServeMan endgame.]]
37	* A bit of an amusing coincidence, but you always fight the Egg Dealer alongside characters who were Power-type in ''Sonic Heroes'' (Knuckles, Omega, & Vector), and you always fight Black Doom alongside characters who were the leaders of their teams in said game (Rouge being the head of Team Dark, Vector being the head of Team Chaotix, and Sonic being the head of Team Sonic).
38	* If Shadow takes an evil route, Cryptic Castle is his last chance to reach the Pure Hero route if he decides to do hero missions from that point on. This is because the hero mission, which involves helping Amy locate Cream and Cheese and getting them out of the castle, has no bearing on the plot, Shadow barely knows either of them, and he has otherwise no reason to do so with everything else going on. Thus, Shadow was helping simply because it's the right thing to do, and his kindness in this act is enough to fully redeem him in the game's eyes (provided he sticks with hero missions from that point on). On the other hand, going with the Neutral or Dark mission means he's locked out of the Pure Hero ending for good, even if he goes full hero from the next stage on. Hey, Shadow might have decided to have a change of heart, but he (and by extension, the player) still decided to willingly leave a little girl and her pet trapped in a dangerous haunted castle.
39	* The two most horrendous acts Shadow can commit in the game (nuking a city with the Eclipse Cannon and attempting to assassinate the president) immediately lock him into the Pure Dark route and guarantee the two worst endings in the game (Shadow decides to exterminate humanity completely by either fully committing allegiance to Black Doom, or overthrowing Black Doom to do the job himself). By willingly performing either of this acts, the game acknowledges that Shadow is BeyondRedemption and "rewards" the player with the two most depressing endings in the game.
40	* One of the most common complaints about the game is your allies will attack Shadow regardless of the mission he's currently doing, or how much he's helped them up to that point. But, there ''is'' justification for this in-universe. On the Neutral path, Shadow doesn't side with anyone, so he's free game to everyone. On the Hero path, the GUN Commander refuses to call off the kill-on-sight order for Shadow no matter how many hero missions he completes. Thus, the GUN soldiers would still be fully willing to attack Shadow since they're acting under orders from their boss (notably, they actually ''don't'' attack Shadow in Westopolis, which takes place before the order is given out). As for Dr. Eggman's robots, it could be that Eggman simply doesn't want to spend time reprogramming his robots to hold their fire for Shadow specifically. He's already dealing with an alien invasion, so it's reasonable that he just doesn't have the time to reprogram his robots.
41	** Of course, this still doesn't excuse the Black Arms from attacking Shadow even if he sides with Black Doom. But this is Black Doom we're talking about. It's entirely possible Doom refused to call off his troops on purpose since he was simply using Shadow as a means to an end. It's highly likely Doom wasn't going to keep his word to begin with (which is all but confirmed in the Last Story), so it's a win-win scenario for him either way: Either his troops take out Shadow, or Shadow gets rid of his main opposition for him, which means he no longer has any use for Shadow and can use him for a food source.
42	* Even though Amy is firmly on Team Sonic's side, she'll still yell at Shadow for destroying Eggman's robots. It's possible she may hold a small amount of affection for them since E-102 had a change of heart and helped her escape her imprisonment on the Egg Carrier.
43	* Black Doom mistakes lightning for one of Eggman's weapons. Given that he, for all we know, spent most of his life inside a comet, it's not entirely implausible that he's never seen or even heard of a lightning before.
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45	[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
46	* The Slightly Hero - Dark Ending is ''full'' of this. [[spoiler:Shadow stays aboard the Ark to protect it, with all of the Chaos Emeralds in his possession. So the only forces defending earth from Black Doom and his army are G.U.N, and Sonic and Pals. And considering what happens during the True final ending, and the fact that Sonic can't go super without the Emeralds... yeah.]]
47	** Well, [[spoiler:Black Doom needed the emeralds to start his endgame in the first place, so it could go either way, really, assuming both sides left Shadow alone]].
48	* In ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', human GUN soldiers are knocked down and paralyzed when hit, rather than outright killed, for a couple of obvious reasons; it'd be a little dark for the "E10" rating, not to mention harder to sympathize with Shadow if he was a murderer. [[spoiler:But at the game's climax, it's revealed that the Black Arms intended to use humans as an "energy source". Food. And if Shadow completes the Dark Mission for almost any stage, he usually ends up aiding the Black Arms in overrunning the given area; thus, all the soldiers he's rendered helpless and immobile are, in all probability, going to be ''[[FateWorseThanDeath eaten alive by the conquering aliens.]]'']]
49	** Black Doom [[spoiler:sees mankind as a great food source]]. Given [[LackOfEmpathy how utterly ruthless he is]] and seemed to be trying to xenoform the Earth, mankind wouldn't just be wiped out. [[spoiler:[[FateWorseThanDeath They'd be reduced to a cattle race, raised for the slaughter until the Black Arms find a new food source.]]]]
50	* Slightly Hero - Hero Ending made it sound like [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Shadow really WAS sorry for the carnage he committed]]. A little ''too'' sorry. Vector's "DON'T GO THERE!" comment made it sound like Shadow was going to '''''[[DrivenToSuicide commit SUICIDE!]]''''' And what's worse, it was IMPLIED that he '''''DID!''''' Along with the emeralds... yeah, next time Sonic is down, the world is screwed...
51	** One of the paths with this ending is even named "Shadow’s Second Death...?"
52	* The video you see in the last story reveals that [[spoiler:Professor Gerald]] was a good person who had genuinely understandable reasons for doing the things he did. However, the video becomes quite horrifying when you realise that [[spoiler:it was made before Maria died (as she appears at the end) and therefore, it was made long before the video shown in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''. It's just scary to see that he went from a good man to a psychopath who wanted to destroy the earth using the weapons he'd created to SAVE it.]]
53	* [[TheChessmaster Black Doom]] has been [[ParanoiaFuel visiting our planet for over 2000 years]], given how long Glyphic Canyon has been there. Black Doom's goal is [[spoiler:ToServeMan to the Black Arms]]. [[TheManBehindTheMan Black Doom]] has likely [[AncientConspiracy been playing a hand in history]] [[spoiler:so there'd plenty of humans to devour]].
54	** ...So, Black Doom is [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Lavos]]?
55	* Really, no one thought about Rouge in all this? Think about it. She is Shadow's best friend, probably only friend aside from Omega. Rouge works for G.U.N.. G.U.N. are trying to hunt Shadow down. This would most likely make the bat feel very uncomfortable. Sure, she teams up with Shadow in some hero levels, but if not, she may have to be dragged into the loop to finish him off... ouch...
56	* In the Pure Neutral - Hero ending, Shadow resolves to take over the Eggman Empire and lead an android uprising. Omega seems disturbingly compliant with the idea, implying that if Shadow were to go through with this in canon, he would have no problem joining an uprising against the humans. Omega's moral compass has never been the most noble, but seeing it like this is truly disturbing for a character many fans find likeable and endearing.

Context Fridge / ShadowTheHedgehog