People do not understand Shadow the Hedgehog; and by people I don’t mean just the fans, I mean the game developers as well, Shadow in the games has been acting out of character for years. Shadow is the latest games has just been depicted as an edgylord, but that’s not what the character was supposed to be. Quite the opposite in face, in Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow’s entire motivation was to fulfill Maria’s last wish, Shadow was a servant at heart (heck, in the original Japanese audio he literally calls himself “man servant”), not driven by any personal idea or goal. Shadow has lately been depicted as being a selfish jerk, but in reality, Shadow is extremely selfless. The only reason Shadow wanted to destroy the world in Adventure 2 was because that’s what he thought Maria wanted, and once he found out that wasn’t what she wanted, he did not hesitate to throw it all away and run to save the planet. he game refers to this moment as Shadow’s true reawakening, because that’s what it is, the moment where Shadow finally awaken and becomes what he is truly supposed to be, not an edgylord trying to destroy the world, but a hero, fighting to save the world, because that was the last wish of his beloved friend. The later games seem to completely ignore Shadow’s character development. He started out by not respecting Sonic at all, because why eould he? Shadow is the ultimate life form, and Sonic is just an imposter, right? But this imposter kept on surprising Shadow; no matter what stood on his way, Sonic kept on going, he kept of escaping, he kept on winning. Sonic fought equally with Shadow twice, and used the Chaos Control, Shadow’s signature technique, with a fake Chaos Emerald. By the end of the game, Shadow has grown to respect Sonic as his rival, admitting that Sonic might just be the real ultimate life form, seeing the blue blur as an equal, instead of just an impostor. Sonic and Shadow might be rivals, but they hold great respect for each other, and the later games just seem to ignore that. In Sonic Heroes, the first thing shadow does is save Rouge, and is completely fine teaming up with them to form Team Dark. If Shadow truly was an edgylord, he would just tell Rouge and Omega to shove it ans run off on his own, but he didn’t. Shadow is a member of Team Dark, and they are not only a team, they are friends. Shadow chats with them through the game, and warms up to them, Shadow is not a lonely edgylord, he has friends and partners. One important detail to Shadow’s story in Sonic Heroes is that Shadow had supposedly died at the end of Sonic Adventure 2, so Heroes puts up the question that this Shadow might not even be the real one, he might just be an android. Sure, that turns out not to be the case, and he turns out to actually be the real Shadow, but before he got confirmation to that, at the end of the Team Dark story in Heroes, Shadow decided that it did not matter whether he was real of not, because what matters is not what he was made for, but what he chooses to be, and what he chooses to be is Shadow the Hedgehog, a hero who works to save the future, regardless of his past. This is an extremely powerful message, and it just gets ignored afterwards. Shadow is not an edgylord, he’s just an introvert. He does care for the people around him, but he just doesn’t always know how to show it. He is shy, and only has a small number of friends, but he still cares, and he’s still a hero. This idea that he’s an edgylord only really started in 2005, with the release of Shadow’s own game, “Shadow the Hedgehog”, a game that ironically misses the point of its title character. Shadow is out of character in this game; Sonic Team wantd to amplify the darkness to appeal to teenagers, and in doing so they added the option to have you play as the villain of the game, by giving you the option to either be a hero or a villain. Shadow would NEVER be a villain, not after all the development he had in the previous games. Contrary to what the title says, this game does not star Shadow the Hedgehog, it stars Ow the Edge. He’s back to questioning whether he should save the world or not, even though he decided that he should do so in Adventure 2, he’s back to questioning whether he is the real Shadow or not, even through he decided that it did not matter in Heroes. Did Spinel hit this guy with the Rejuvenator? What happened to his character development? Why is Sonic one of the final bosses? Shadow and Sonic are friends, god dammit! He barely spends any time with Rouge and Omega in this game! Heck, Sonic 06 did a better job with Shadow, by having him decide to fight for humanity and still be a hero, even through he know humanity will betray him in the future. Shadow knows the human will turn on him, heck, he knows Omega will be the one to do it, yet he still chooses to team up with Omega and Rouge, and save those same people who will try to destroy him, because it is the right thing to do. And then after that Shadow is pretty much just a background character that does nothing useful, and and whenever he rarely gets any screen time, he is just written as Ow the Edge like in the Shadow the Hedgehog game. How can they get his character so wrong? Shadow is not a villain, he’s not Ow the Edge, he’s not an anti-hero, he’s not selfish, and he’s not an edgylord, Shadow is a selfless hero who would give up his life to save the world. Sonic Team, if you’re going to use Shadow the Hedgehog, then write him as Shadow the Hedgehog, not Ow the Edge.