I don't actually understand what "and then Aliens" is supposed to mean in this context. I'm having difficulty parsing this sentence. But it did make me realize that "SA 2 & Aliens" is a fantastic descriptor for Shadow's game. I know that's not what was meant, but it made me laugh.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 19th 2023 at 7:21:15 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Basically, Shadow's story ended in SA 2 rather neatly. But then they brought him back and they decided to add aliens to his backstory.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.Honestly, the aliens never bothered me so much, not just existing at least. So aliens helped perfect Shadow. So what? There's definitely things you can point to about that game's plot and say "that doesn't make sense" or "that makes a plothole." (My favorite is that the president somehow has a commemorative photo of Sonic and Shadow after they saved the world. Maybe its photoshopped and the president just really, REALLY loves Sonic and Shadow?
) I don't personally think Black Doom's presence is one of them.
The Black Comet are fine antagonists as far as Sonic games go, and their use to explain how Shadow was made and why Gerald Robotnik originally made the Eclipse Canon also work for me. It adds an extra layer of tragedy to Gerald's fall to villainy after Maria was murdered.
But the choose your own adventure and choose shadow's morality gimmicks really hurt the game more than the so-so platforming ever could.
I always found just adding aliens to be extremely weak when a franchise does it. Its a usually a sign to me they're running out of ideas.
But mainly, they severely undercut the tragic nature of Gerald's character imo by playing him as an unambiguous good guy.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.Yeah, Gerald creating the Eclipse Canon to destroy the Black Comet originally doesn't take away from him choosing to use Shadow and the Biolizard to destroy planet Earth. It just shows his grief over Maria's murder and desire for revenge drove him to villainy. He's a Fallen Hero now, is all.
Edited by VeryMelon on Mar 19th 2023 at 11:45:43 AM
"Suddenly, Aliens" did actually add to Gerald's villainous backstory, by showing that even before going mad from grief that he'd be willing to do absolutely anything to save Maria, including making a deal with this alien devil priest who definitely wants to do bad things.
His solution wasn't to not make the deal, it was to double cross the alien devil priest after the fact, because Maria's life was the single most important thing to him.
There is such a thing as being too popular for your own good.
No no, my bad, I meant something a bit different.
Basically, Shadow's always been at odds with the fact that he was created to be Vegeta, vs his story which has always lent him towards more tragic and noble traits. It was already sort of a issue with SA 2, but it didn't hit him that hard because he had a Heel–Face Turn and Redemption Equals Death in that game.
But after he came back, pretty much ever since it's been a conflict of his story making him more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold with a lot of Hidden Depths and with his own deal and motivations outside of Sonic, vs other parts of Sonic Team going "No! He's supposed to be Vegeta! He has to be contemptuous towards everyone, be staunchly anti-friendship and only care about fighting Sonic!"
In short, Shadow's story and the idea of what Shadow is supposed to be don't line up, and people love Shadow for his story while Sonic Team was very attached to the idea. Most of the problem we've had with Shadow in the last couple ideas have been Sonic Team going out of their way to force the character to match that idea.
It's nice that they're slowly walking back on that now, but I don't think even back in the day Blaze would necessarily have had that problem at all. What you see has always been kind of what you get with Blaze, so unless someone at Sonic Team is a Slaze shipper or something we wouldn't get that kind of internal war.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Mar 19th 2023 at 9:00:15 AM

It was a joke, jeez. A sarcastic one, but not everything I say is serious...
I'll be sure to make better use of the Joking Mode pot hole to avoid this issue in the future. But yes, I have a very twisted sense of humor but its not meant to be mean-spirited.
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Mar 18th 2023 at 2:38:28 PM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.