History Characters / SonicTheHedgehogShadowTheHedgehog

* CoolShades; Wears some in the ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'' series, which are above his head.

* IdenticalStranger: Related to CriminalDoppelganger above. Even Shadow himself remarks in ''Sonic Heroes'' that Sonic could be his twin. To the audience it would be hard to mistake them having different fur color, quill shape, and even different outfits as far as boot and glove designs go. Apparently on whatever InUniverse metric to tell the anthropomorphic characters apart the two are almost identical.

* IconicItem: Since his introduction, Shadow has been associated with the green Chaos Emerald, as it is the first emerald he collects in his debut. It's the first or even only Chaos Emerald he'll collect to use the bulk of his chaos powers. Even the Chaos Emerald he collects in ''WesternAnimation/SonicPrime'' is the green one.

* AbusiveParents: Shadow’s "father," Black Doom, is a manipulative, tyrannic sociopath who plans to use him as a tool for his plans.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Shadow had a cordial rivalry with Sonic in his debut game and ''Sonic Heroes'', but following his titular game his rivalry with Sonic has been consistently been portrayed with Shadow finding Sonic annoying but a worthy challenge, '' '06'' being an exception.

* CoolBike: In ''[[VideoGame/SegaSuperstars Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing]]'', his vehicle, the Dark Rider, is a motorcycle. Despite the reception of his game, Shadow riding a motorcycle has stuck in many games, incluiding ''06''.
* CoolShades; Wears some in the ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'' series.

* DaddyIssues: With Black Doom. In the majority of his self-titled game, Doom attempts to take advantage of Shadow's memory loss and use him to destroy the planet. After he learns the truth about his past, though, Shadow rebels against Black Doom and destroys him for good.

** He also had his own campaign in ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' titled ''Episode Shadow'', set before the events of the main game.
** In the UpdatedRerelease of ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' he once again gets a campaign centered on him in the aptly titled ''Shadow Generations'' [[spoiler: where he has to fight a freshly resurrected Black Doom.]]

* DependingOnTheWriter: How much of an utter asshole Shadow is will depend on the game he's in: Sometimes he's simply an AloofAlly who's TheStoic but shows kindness his own way. Other times he's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who's brusque and doesn't care much for cooperation though still stands by doing something good and protecting what he cares about. And there are times where he is nothing but a jerkish ArrogantKungFuGuy that mocks allies and enemies alike, derides ThePowerOfFriendship and does nothing but be entitled to get what he wants for as long as possible.

** Personality wise, he diverts from Knuckles as the serious, no-nonsense foil to Sonic. Namely, Shadow never formally joins Sonic's circle of friends and chooses to straddle the line between being an AloofAlly or a StockShonenRival towards his blue-counterpart.
* TheDragon: To Black Doom in ''Shadow the Hedgehog'' Dark and Semi-Dark Story. Also served as this to [[spoiler: Prof. Gerald Robotnik]] in ''Sonic Adventure 2''. While he appeared to be one to Eggman in ''Sonic Adventure 2'' and ''Sonic Forces'', see DragonWithAnAgenda below for the former and [[spoiler: the latter was a fake version conjured up by the Phantom Ruby. The real Shadow never once switched sides.]]

* EvilBrit: When voiced by David Humphrey in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' (when he was at his most villainous), Shadow spoke with a ''very'' slight British accent.

* FatalFlaw: Wrath. While Shadow is mostly TheStoic, he is also ''extremely'' vindictive and prone to more violence than what is necessary. His debut had him planning to cause planetary genocide all because his surrogate family and home were taken from him, [[FreudianExcuse albeit rather unjustifiably.]] [[ReformedButNotTamed And no, this trait does not go away even after he stops being a villain]], and it's one of the main sources of friction between him and Sonic, as the latter is content to simply disable his opponents and let them walk away.

* IconicItem: Since his introduction, Shadow has been associated with the green Chaos Emerald. It's the first or even only Chaos Emerald he'll collect to use the bulk of his chaos powers. Even the Chaos Emerald he collects in ''WesternAnimation/SonicPrime'' is the green one.

** This is on display quite frequently in VideoGame/SonicHeroes, where he has amnesia for most of the game. Despite that, the very first thing he does upon waking up is save Rouge from getting shot by a rampaging Omega simply because he could. Despite fighting against Team Chaotix and Team Sonic and making threatening remarks, he makes no attempt to inflict fatal damage on either team. Finally, in the Final Episode, he is immediately willing to partner with the other teams to stop Metal Sonic despite having no personal investment in the conflict at this point.

* {{Leitmotif}}: His original one is ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKS4duPqNyo Throw It All Away]]'' from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''. Lately, however, it's been ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mYugbpYaco All Hail Shadow]]'', the hero ending theme of ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', as his main theme in ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 '06]]'', and as his ThemeMusicPowerUp in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations''.

-->'''Maria:''' Darkness can be anywhere you go, but a shadow represents the direction in which the light is shining!

* NiceMeanAndInBetween: In-Between. Usually pretty cynical, aggressive, and dark overall. Underneath it all, however, he does have a caring side to him and remains on the side of justice.

** He considers Rouge and Omega to be friends of his, as much as he doesn’t want to admit and has consistently shown to have their backs.

** While he doesn't always express it, Shadow has quite a bit of respect for his blue rival. He has [[BigDamnHeroes stepped in to save Sonic]] quite a few times, stopping Silver from killing him in ''Sonic 06'', and stopping his phantom Ruby clone from attacking him in ''Sonic Forces''. He was also in attendance for Sonic's birthday party in the end of ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' and instead of doing whatever he was doing, he decides to stick around. The most notable example is probably [[spoiler: admitting that Sonic himself might be the true Ultimate Lifeform]] in the climax of ''Sonic Adventure 2''.

* ReverseGrip: As Lancelot in ''Sonic And the Black Knight.''

* MessianicArchetype: Professor Gerald originally worked on Project Shadow to find a cure for his granddaughter's disease. Maria, whom Shadow befriended, who encouraged him to help humans. When GUN learned of Gerald's deal with Black Doom, they stormed the ARK in an attempt to shut down the project, where they ended up killing Maria and kept Shadow in stasis. Once Shadow is awakened, he enacts Gerald's revenge for Maria's death although he later goes against it when he remembers Maria's DyingWish to protect Earth. He then seemingly [[HeroicSacrifice dies saving the Earth]], but is later revealed to have survived. In his self-titled game, Shadow goes against Black Doom who intended for him to help the Black Arms use humanity as their food source and saves Earth from them. In ''Sonic '06'', Mephiles reveals to Shadow that humanity will turn against him, and shows trapped in stasis in the future, with the future Shadow being in a CrucifiedHeroShot. In spite of that, Shadow refuses to give up on doing what's right and fights Mephiles.

* ADayInTheLimelight:

** Even though they aren’t shown to interact that much, it’s been shown a few times that he has a soft spot for [[MoralityPet Amy]], most likely because she reminds him of Maria. In VideoGame/SonicAdventure2, he [[HeelFaceTurn changes his mind about destroying Earth after Amy convinces him not to, explicitly telling her he’s going to keep his promise to both Maria and her]]. In VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog, he takes the time to help Amy look for Cream and Cheese even if it doesn’t help him find a Chaos Emerald. Finally, in ''VisualNovel/TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog'', he attends Amy’s birthday party and [[spoiler:attempts to gift her tickets to one of her favorite bands]].

'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KojiYusa (Japanese); David Humphrey (English, 2001-2004), Creator/RyanDrummond ([[TheOtherMarty select few lines]] in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''), Creator/JasonGriffith (English, 2005-2010), Creator/KirkThornton (English, 2010-present)[[labelnote:Additional [=VAs=]]]Benoît Du Pac (French, 2011-present), Creator/RiccardoLombardo (Italian, 2011), Creator/MaurizioMerluzzo (Italian, 2011), Creator/ClaudioMoneta (Italian, 2013-present)[[/labelnote]]

** This is what separated him from Sonic's other rivals at the time of his debut. Shadow was always one step ahead of Sonic throughout VideoGame/SonicAdventure2, until their final confrontation aboard the ark put them on equal footing where Sonic is finally able to defeat him. Afterwards, they're generally portrayed as being on the same level across all media, albeit with Sonic being slightly ahead.

** In both ''Adventure 2'' and ''Heroes'', he's little more than a MovesetClone of Sonic. By ''Shadow the Hedgehog'', he finally gets to use his own Chaos abilities in-game, and eventually gets a completely different playstyle than anything Sonic has ever done in '' '06''. He returns to being a MovesetClone of Sonic for ''Forces'', however.

** Black Doom even lampshades this in ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog''. He tells him that the humans feared him enough that they wanted him destroyed. (And succeeded)

* EpicFail: In ''VideoGame/TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog'', Shadow learns that he was supposed to get Amy a birthday gift and tries to buy concert tickets for her at the party, locking all the doors on the train to do it in secret. He then accidentally prints out the ticket webpage before realizing they're not even on sale yet and forgets Amy's Birthday Key can unlock the doors, resulting in the surprise being spoiled. [[spoiler:Espio]] also uses Shadow's sketchy behavior to try to pin the murder on him.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: While he's not exactly ''disliked'' by the cast,[[note]]In fact, during the final level of expert mode of 'VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', which in of itself is framed as being after the events of the the game, [[https://youtu.be/s_1i8jXfeCk?t=347 the whole cast of characters at the time were all very supportive of Shadow]][[/note]] his independent and arrogant attitude makes it extremely hard for him to get along with the others. It's rather noticeable that he only has two characters that he can call close friends and one other person he doesn’t act like a dick towards.

** ''Sonic X'' gives him this attribute in the Japanese original: it's shown he has to take off his inhibitor rings to take out Knuckles, but he collapses to the floor for a moment after doing so.

* IconicItem: Since his introduction, Shadow has been associated with the green Chaos Emerald. It's the first or even only Chaos Emerald he'll collect to use the bulk of his chaos powers.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite his aloof, arrogant, and violent tendencies, he's always at the front lines whenever a new threat arises and is capable of working with the heroes too when they're on the same page. He has also shown genuine care for several characters, such as his late surrogate sister, Maria, Professor Gerald, his friends/partners, Rouge and Omega, Amy (who he opened up to after making him remember his true promise to Maria, helped her find Cream in ''Shadow the Hedgehog'', and attended her birthday party and got her a gift in The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog), and even his arch-rival Sonic.

** Even though they aren’t shown to interact that much, it’s been shown a few times that he has a soft spot for [[MoralityPet Amy]], most likely because she reminds him of Maria. In VideoGame/SonicAdventure2, he [[HeelFaceTurn changes his mind about destroying Earth after Amy convinces him not to, explicitly telling her he’s going to keep his promise to both Maria and her]]. In VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog, he takes the time to help Amy look for Cream and Cheese even if it doesn’t help him find a Chaos Emerald. Finally, in VisualNovel/TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog, he attends Amy’s birthday party and attempts to gift her tickets to one of her favorite bands.

* StockShonenRival: Contrasting Sonic's upbeat and carefree attitude, Shadow is dour and soft-spoken and tends to prefer solitude than socializing with people. Notably, it wasn't being defeated by Sonic that triggered his [[HeelFaceTurn Heel–Face Turn]], but coming to terms with his past transgressions and learning to move forward with his life. What notably separates him from most other examples of this trope is that his original intentions were to serve the desires of someone else (Maria), as opposed to merely having a purely selfish motive.

* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse: Being immortal, Shadow will outlive most of the supporting cast. Curiously, it is unknown whatever happened to Shadow in the future timeline after the CosmicRetcon. Silver does not mention him, and the two meet for the first time in ''VideoGame/SonicRivals''.

'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KojiYusa (Japanese); David Humphrey (English, 2001-2004), Creator/RyanDrummond ([[TheOtherMarty select few lines]] in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''), Creator/JasonGriffith (English, 2005-2010), Creator/KirkThornton (English, 2010-present)[[labelnote:Additional [=VAs=]]]Benoît [=DuPac=] (French, 2011-present), Creator/RiccardoLombardo (Italian, 2011), Creator/MaurizioMerluzzo (Italian, 2011), Creator/ClaudioMoneta (Italian, 2013-present)[[/labelnote]]

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: According to his backstory, he was a face, then after a tragic incident, he became a heel. He later became a face for the ending of ''Sonic Adventure 2''. After his revival, he was neutral before settling on being a face.

** Even though they aren’t shown to interact that much, it’s been shown a few times that he has a soft spot for [[MoralityPet Amy]], most likely because she reminds him of Maria. In VideoGame/SonicAdventure2, he changes his mind about destroying Earth after Amy convinces him not to. In VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog, he takes the time to help Amy look for Cream and Cheese even if it doesn’t help him find a Chaos Emerald. Finally, in VisualNovel/TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog, he attends Amy’s birthday party and attempts to gift her tickets to one of her favorite bands.

** He was in attendance for Sonic's birthday party in the end of ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' and instead of doing whatever he was doing, he decides to stick around.

** Even though they aren’t shown to interact that much, it’s been shown a few times that he has a soft spot for Amy, most likely because she reminds him of Maria. In VideoGame/SonicAdventure2, he changes his mind about destroying Earth after Amy convinces him not to. In VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog, he takes the time to help Amy look for Cream and Cheese even if it doesn’t help him find a Chaos Emerald. Finally, in VisualNovel/TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog, he attends Amy’s birthday party and attempts to gift her tickets to one of her favorite bands.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: While he's not exactly ''disliked'' by the cast,[[note]]In fact, during the final level of expert mode of 'VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', which in of itself is framed as being after the events of the the game, [[https://youtu.be/s_1i8jXfeCk?t=347 the whole cast of characters at the time were all very supportive of Shadow]][[/note]] his independent and arrogant attitude makes it extremely hard for him to get along with the others. It's rather noticeable that he only has two characters that he can call close friends.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite his aloof, arrogant, and violent tendencies, he's always at the front lines whenever a new threat arises and is capable of working with the heroes too when they're on the same page. He has also shown genuine care for several characters, such as his late surrogate sister, Maria, Professor Gerald, his friends/partners, Rouge and Omega, Amy (who he opened up to after making him remember his true promise to Maria, and helped her find Cream in ''Shadow the Hedgehog''), and even his arch-rival Sonic.

**

** He considers Rouge and Omega to be friends of his, as much as he doesn’t want to admit and has consistently shown to have their back.

* PetTheDog: He was in attendance for Sonic's birthday party in the end of ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' and instead of doing whatever he was doing, he decides to stick around.

* OffscreenVillany: He's attributed to the destruction of Infinite's Jackal Squad in ''Sonic Forces'', but that action is never seen in the game.

Shadow is a very straightforward individual; he's aloof, taciturn, and ambitious. Because of his attitude, he is extremely hard to get along with and has a very independent nature, preferring to [[IWorkAlone work on his own]] more often than not. While he's often ruthless and extremely pragmatic, he can show both empathy and compassion when the situation calls for it. He prefers a straightforwards, rather blunt approach to problems, and tends to handle situations in a fist-to-face, foot-to-groin, head-to-knee kind of way, regardless if he feels like it or not, and most of of the time he does feel like it.

'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KojiYusa (Japanese); David Humphrey (English, 2001-2004), Creator/RyanDrummond (select few lines in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''), Creator/JasonGriffith (English, 2005-2010), Creator/KirkThornton (English, 2010-present)[[labelnote:Additional [=VAs=]]]Benoît [=DuPac=] (French, 2011-present), Creator/RiccardoLombardo (Italian, 2011), Creator/MaurizioMerluzzo (Italian, 2011), Creator/ClaudioMoneta (Italian, 2013-present)[[/labelnote]]

* BreakoutCharacter: Due to his very fleshed out character arc, and complicated relationship with [[TheHero Sonic]], Shadow has become the most popular character in the entire franchise, surpassed only by Sonic himself and above the likes of Tails, Knuckles and Dr. Eggman, all of whom have been a fixture in the franchise long before he showed up. Even after being DemotedToExtra since ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', he still has rather notable appearances as a boss fight in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'', the first additional character to be included in ''VideoGame/SonicBoom'' after the main quartet, and got his own storyline in ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', thereby making him the first character to be playable in a 3D game since ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''. His enduring popularity [[spoiler: earned him his debut as TheStinger in Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022, and he seems to be set to reprise his initial antagonistic role in the sequel, beating out other classic characters like Amy and Metal Sonic.]]

* CharacterCatchphrase: He does have a few catchphrases unique to him.
** "I'm the ultimate life form!"
** "I don't have time for games."
** "No one tells me what to do."
** "This is who I am!", which he says after every ending of ''Shadow the Hedgehog''.

** In VideoGame/SonicAdventure2, Shadow's personality was very much like that of an EvilCounterpart to Sonic's, namely he was rather cocky and even prone to smirks like his blue rival. This was retained until roughly ''VideoGame/SonicBattle'' and [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog his game]] where his more stoic and straightforward attitude took hold. Then starting in ''VideoGame/SonicFreeRiders'', he's more of a typical StockShonenRival and jerk, though this can be justified as his competitive spirit taking hold during the championship.

* EvilBrit: When voiced by Creator/DavidHumphrey in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' (when he was at his most villainous), Shadow spoke with a ''very'' slight British accent.

* GutturalGrowler: Creator/JasonGriffith's take on Shadow gave him a rough, gravelly voice. Creator/KirkThornton's take plays with this; his earlier roles sounded even gruffer than Jason's, but later games had Shadow go through VocalEvolution and sound much smoother overall.

* HeroicSacrifice: At the end of ''Sonic Adventure 2'', he helps save the world from the Final Hazard, but uses up all of his power before he falls from space towards the Earth. He was initially believed to have died, but ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' reveals that he survived, but amnesiac.
* HiddenDepths: He [[RetCanon eats coffee beans]] according to ''VisualNovel/TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog'', which is a reference to the November 2017 episode of the non-canon series [[Blog/SonicTheHedgehogTwitter Twitter Takeover]].

* IconicItem: Since his introduction, Shadow has been assosiated with the green Chaos Emerald. It's the first or even only Chaos Emerald he'll collect to use the bulk of his chaos powers.

** He is introduced as Sonic's impostor. Since then, he's had to deal with impostors on [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog three]] [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 separate]] [[VideoGame/SonicForces occasions]].

* {{Leitmotif}}: His original one is ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKS4duPqNyo Throw It All Away]]'' from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''. Lately, however, it's been ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mYugbpYaco All Hail Shadow]]'' used as the hero ending theme in ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', as his main theme in ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 '06]]'', and as his ThemeMusicPowerUp in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations''.

* MiniMe: Raising a Dark Run/Run Chao in ''Sonic Adventure 2'' will make it look like a miniature Chao version of Shadow. Said Chao has been featured in many official art as well [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW the tie-in comics]]

* OutOfFocus: In his heyday, he had more plot and character focus than Sonic himself. In later games, he made mainly cameo and boss appearances, up until ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' where he's one of the main enforcers in Eggman's army, and even has his own campaign taking place before the game starts.

* SignatureMove: Chaos Control. It's not exclusive to him, but he's the most proficient user, and even has several other Chaos attacks exclusive to him. Its uses include TeleportersAndTransporters, TimeMaster (although actual time travel requires two users), and FlashStep.

* SpotlightStealingSquad: A rather infamous example of this within the Sonic franchise. Due to his popularity, Shadow tends to get a lot of preferential treatment by the developers at the expense of other, more neglected members of the cast. Even within his own group, Team Dark, he tends to be the centerpiece of it, [[{{Pun}} overshadowing]] fellow members Rouge and Omega. A lot of fans tend to forget that Rouge, ''not'' Shadow, is the founder and leader of Team Dark.

** The FinalBoss fight with the Finalhazard does have him bring up the question of whether ''Sonic'' is actually the real Ultimate Life Form which is a valid proposal considering [[TheAce everything]] [[FastestThingAlive he]] [[OneManArmy can]] do compared to Shadow who's [[{{Artificial H|uman}}edgehog manufactured]] and requires rocket skates to keep up with Sonic. This topic is never brought up again in later games though.

* UniversalDriversLicence: He can pilot hang gliders, humvees, motorcycles, and alien hovercraft. He doesn't even own any of this himself, he just finds them lying around!

* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse: Being immortal, Shadow will outlive most of the supporting cast. Curiously, it is unknown whatever happened to Shadow in the future timeline after the CosmicRetcon. Silver does not mention him, and the two meet for the first time in ''Videogame/SonicRivals''.

* HiddenDepths: He [[RetCanon eats coffee beans]] according to ''VisualNovel/TheMurderOfSonicTheHedgehog'', which is a reference to the November 2017 episode of the non canon series [[Blog/SonicTheHedgehogTwitter Twitter Takeover]].

* PerpetualFrowner: You'll only see him either frowning, indifferent, or smirking. Only in non canon spin off games like ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games]]'', can you catch him smiling if he does well at an event or ''[[VideoGame/SegaSuperstars Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed]]'', where he'll occasionally fist pump in excitement with a decidedly OutOfCharacter look on his face before starting a race.

* AmbiguouslyBi: During the 2022 ''Twitter Takeover'', one user asks Shadow if he will marry them. While everyone but Amy pokes fun at this, Shadow agrees, much to everyone's shock. While he gives a strict guideline for what a potential partner must follow, he notably never questions the user's gender, nor does he use gender pronouns when describing a partner. He makes it clear he will accept anyone who fits his criteria.

* HeroicRROD: It's implied at the end of ''Sonic Adventure 2'' that he was overwhelmed or by the power of his Chaos Emerald-induced SuperMode, which may be part of why he lost his power and fell into Earth's orbit during the HeroicSacrifice mentioned below. It's also implied that his inexperience with a super state, in conjunction with the emotional stress he was likely dealing with, factored into it.

* HiddenDepths:
** According to the November 2017 Twitter Takeover, he's a fan of classic rock, eats coffee beans, and watches ''anime'' (with ''Anime/KillLaKill'' being his favorite).
** The May 2019 Twitter Takeover also reveals he donates to charity, supports indie companies, and that he desires to open a cat orphanage one day.
** The November 2022 Twitter Takeover additionally reveals he is a '''''[[Music/TaylorSwift SWIFTIE]],''''' much to Amy's delight and his own chagrin. Eggman is also floored when he realizes this is not a recent development.

** Despite being just as [[TheComicallySerious Comically Serious]] as ever when he appears in the 2017 Twitter Takeover, he definitely has his moments:
*** When they get a question about Amy that makes Sonic uncomfortable, he joins Eggman in teasing Sonic over it... at least until [[FoeYayShipping the subject of "Sonadow"]] comes up.
*** He starts to think that they're stalking a fan when they start reading his profile, meaning he's clearly not that familiar with how social media works.
*** At one point it is revealed that he watches anime (with ''Anime/KillLaKill'' being his favorite).
*** When someone asks what Eggman would do if he wasn't an evil genius, he starts eagerly describing a scenario where Eggman starts knitting and becomes a CrazyCatLady.
*** When one question states that he and Eggman are technically cousins due to Gerald Robotnik contributing to Shadow's creation, he and Eggman are quick to point out that genetics don't work that way.
*** He's clearly amused at the thought of a [[EvilKnockoff Metal Shadow]].
*** He starts taking notes when Sonic describes how to grow a personal brand... and is clearly taken aback when he mentions [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 making a game that gets slammed by reviewers]].
*** Finally, when all is said and done, he decides that the fans want a new game starring him... and Big the Cat.
*** He accidentally sings "[[Music/TaylorSwift Anti-Hero]]" with Amy in the 6th Takeover, which he immediately regrets.
*** When Eggman starts dancing around the question over whether he's bald by choice, Shadow is dead set on getting a proper answer out of him.

* PerpetualFrowner: You'll only see him either frowning, indifferent, or smirking. That is, until ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games]]'', where you can catch him smiling if he does well at an event. Also averted in ''[[VideoGame/SegaSuperstars Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed]]'', where he'll occasionally fist pump in excitement with a decidedly OutOfCharacter look on his face before starting a race.

* ShipperOnDeck: Both times he appeared in the Twitter Takeover, whenever Sonic is asked about his feelings towards Amy, Shadow will be there to tease him over his inability to answer.

** Cloud Strife from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. They're both the results of experiments involving the DNA of world-consuming eldritch entities that resulted in them becoming the resident SuperSoldier compared to everyone else, but the circumstances behind said experiments (that involved both of them being put in a capsule for an extended period of time, and coming out of the experience with a scrambled memory that the GreaterScopeVillain would take advantage of), as well as seeing someone they cared deeply about get gunned down in front of them by a soldier kill squad traumatized them deeply and resulted in the brooding AntiHero everyone knows them as. Also, while it's confirmed with Cloud, it's implied that the tragedy that occured in his life prior to being sent to Earth on top of being created with his current physical age of 15 years resulted in Shadow's current personality, as he might not know how else to act around others besides being a [[invoked]] JerkassWoobie with a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Heart of Gold]].

* CharacterCatchphrase: He does have a few of these.

** "This is who I am!" - After every ending of '''Shadow the Hedgehog'''.
** A short, haughty "Hmph!"

* HaughtyHmph: He's a frequent user of this trope. It's his way of expressing how arrogant and disapproving he is towards others.

* {{Catchphrase}}: He does have a few of these.
** "I'm the ultimate life form!"
** "I don't have time for games."
** "No one tells me what to do."
** "This is who I am!" - After every ending of '''Shadow the Hedgehog'''.
** A short, haughty "Hmph!"