It's mostly because Sonic & Shadow are compared to each other so much, yet there's no apparent relationship between them despite that. They don't look exactly alike obviously, but they look similar enough that many fans have made the mistake and assumed they're related in some way; either as brothers, clones or what have you and tend to be somewhat surprised when that's not the case.
Hence the fanon that Shadow is based off of the Super Sonic mural that's basically treated as canon by fans.
But yea, it's a pure Contrived Coincidence and nothing more. Most of Shadow's detractors though cite that as another reason why he's an uninspired character compared to Metal, because compared to the latter, he literally has no in-universe reason for his resemblance to Sonic at all, hence the "recolor" accusations.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.You make it sound like Shadow and Metal Sonic have some sort of Fandom Rivalry. I'm not super into the Sonic fandom, so I wouldn't know. But is that a thing?
I've heard that Knuckles and Shadow have a Fandom Rivalry due to the whole "Which one is the real rival to Sonic?" thing. But Metal Sonic isn't a rival, even by the extremely liberal definition of rivalry that the Sonic franchise uses. He's a recurring subordinate to Eggman; A midboss nemesis for Sonic that occasionally gets bumped up to major villain.
It's just weird to think of Shadow and Metal Sonic as fandom rivals. It sounds like Knuckles having a Fandom Rivalry with the Death Egg space station.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Sonic fans literally argue over the color of Sonic's eyes or his quill length; yes they are extremely petty about stuff like this. Speaking as someone who has had to watch this shit for 20 years, and it's still going...
But yes, fans of Knuckles and Metal Sonic aren't very fond of Shadow. There's kind of a reason there's been a debate over who should be in the the third movie between the latter two.
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Feb 26th 2022 at 5:55:25 AM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.Honestly, I get a bit annoyed when fans are complaining about the length of Sonic's quills or his design overall. I understand that everyone has different opinions regarding this franchise, but debating about Sonic's quills and his design? Is this something that any fandom can complain about their favorite characters or is it just specific to the Sonic Fandom?
I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!The answer is "it depends." Not many fandoms are around as long as the Sonic franchise.
I've seen some really stupid points of contention in other places that make me go, "Don't y'all have something better to do with your lives?" This includes the extreme minority that screech about design choices.
Edited by erazor0707 on Feb 26th 2022 at 12:06:40 PM
Yea, it's kind of easy to forget that there have in fact been fans of Sonic since the first game in 1991. So we're talking literally three generations of people who have engaged with this series.
Only comparable franchises that have been around as long if not longer are things like Star Wars. They're as bad, if not worse than the Sonic fandom.
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Feb 26th 2022 at 1:08:19 PM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.I think it's weird the comic did some big crazy event to change Sonic into his Adventure design, when he honestly barely changes. He looks at himself and goes like "woah, this is different", when the only meaningful changes are that he gets a little taller, his shoes change style, and his eyes turn green. Aside from the eye color thing, that all could have been explained with a one or two-year timeskip, and you can just say that Sonic's eyes were always green, but it wasn't noticeable when he was a kid.
He doesn't actually look that different at all, he just looks a little older.
Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Feb 26th 2022 at 11:18:47 AM
There is a popular fanon why Shadow looks like Sonic though it doesn't really affect anything.
Gerald Robotnik is obviously a huge history buff (he build Artificial Chaoses and something that looks like Master Emerald Shrine) so it's assumed that he based Shadow on a mural that can be seen in Sonic 3
I mean, the mural shows Eggman (who looks a lot like his grandpa) facing Super Sonic (who has red eyes and pointy quills, like Shadow). You can see why Gerald would be inspired. The Black and red color scheme came from Black Arms.
I mean that is how they explained literally everybody else. Knuckles got purple eyes after all. The funny thing is that the British comic did the same thing with Sonic getting green eyes after contact with Chaos and the rest just changed because.
Edited by Sunchet on Feb 27th 2022 at 3:31:11 PM
Be advised that the Jakks-Pacific, the toy manufacturer, accidentally leaked out a piece of movie merch with a spoiler:
It's in super small yellow text
◊.
Corrected link.
Edited by XMenMutant22 on Mar 1st 2022 at 12:42:13 PM
When I clicked on the link, it said it didn't exist.
They might have caught it.
One Strip! One Strip!Oh hey, I found pics on Sonic 2 movie merch on Twitter! Looks way better than what Sonic 1 had, I'll bet. Mmm! Look at that movie Sonic render! Yeah, probably an edit of a Modern Sonic render, plus the picture's potato quality, but still!
...hey, there's something a secret figure?
(*looks closer*)
Wait. What's that on the bottom?
(*reads label*)
What, what?!

Not that much if we're being honest. They're Alleged Lookalikes after all.