Shade Silverwing

Shade Silverwing, also known as Shade is the main protagonist in Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing series. He is the son of Ariel Silverwing and Cassiel Silverwing and later the father of Griffin Silverwing and becoming mate to Marina Brightwing. He is the protagonist of the novel Silverwing as well as its sequel, Sunwing. In the third installment, Firewing, he is one of the main characters.
==In the Books==
===Silverwing===
Shade Silverwing is a runty newborn Silverwing bat at the nursery colony of Tree Haven. His incredible wit makes up for his size, but it seems that only the Cheif Elder of the colony, Frieda Silverwing, and Shade's mother, Ariel Silverwing, notice. Tired of being constantly dissmissed as nothing more than a puny newborn, Shade makes a dare with Chinook, the largest and strongest of the newborns. Shade dares Chinook to stay in a tree with him and watch the sun rise, which is forbidden to the bats. Chinook puts up a brave face in front of his friends, but as dawn approaches, he begs Shade to quit the dare and tell everyone that they did see the sun.
The two stay in a tree, until Chinook finally snaps and out of fear, takes off for Tree Haven. Shade knows that he can go back too, but is enthralled by the excitement, and watches the sun peek over the horizon. However, he turns about and comes face-to-face with an owl. Before the owl has a chance to do anything, however, Ariel swoops to his rescue and the two flee back to Tree Haven. Shade enjoys his newfound popularity with the other young bats, but doesn't realize how much trouble he's in.
After a meeting with the elders of the colony, Frieda decides to show Shade why bats are banished creatures, and why it is illegal to see the sun. She takes Shade to the Echo Chamber, a smooth and polished stone chamber at the roots of Tree Haven. He then hears a story echoing off the walls of the Great Battle of the Birds and the Beasts, and how bats chose neither to fight for one side, nor another, and so were banished into the night. As the two leave the Echo Chamber, Mercury (a male messenger bat) urgently relays to Frieda that owls are coming, and they have fire. The owls burn Tree Haven, leaving the Silverwings with no choice but to go to their winter roost, Hibernaculum, where they will meet the male bats.
During the journey, Ariel gives Shade a map of their journey, just in case he gets lost or falls behind. She does this just in time, for Shade gets separated from his colony during a storm. He then lands on an island, upon which he meets a banded Brightwing bat named Marina. Marina tells him that she was exiled from her colony because of being banded. She agrees then to help him find his colony, and together they set off after the Silverwings. Marina and Shade head toward a city, where the Silverwings were supposedly heading also. They are then captured by some Pigeons, who take them to see the owls. They succeed in escaping, after finding out the disturbing rumor of two giant bats attacking the owls. Shade and Marina escape to the spire of a cathedral, where they roost with a blind albino bat named Zephyr. Zephyr tells them of the bands, like the one on Marina's wing, and the mysterious link to the humans. He also tells Shade that his father Cassiel, is alive, but very far away. Shade and Marina are still determined to catch up with the Silverwings, so they say good-bye to Zephyr and continue on their journey. Shade also feels love for the first time through his crush on Marina.
They are yet again attacked by an owl, only this time to be saved by two enormous bats, named Goth and Throbb. The two huge creatures tell Shade and Marina that they are from the jungle down south, and were captured by Humans, who took them to a false jungle. Goth and Throbb agree to accompany the two small bats to find the Silverwing colony, while Goth forms a deadly plot in his mind. He wants use Shade to find the Silverwings and eat them all, because he and Throbb are cannibal bats from South America, called the Vampyrum Spectrum. Shade trusts them, but Marina senses a sinister air about the two large bats, and doesn't trust them like Shade does.
Nights later, the four bats have roosted, and Shade sees Throbb eating a Brightwing bat. Thinking at first that it is Marina,he is horrified, and hurries away, but Throbb spots him. Shade escapes, and hurries to find Marina, only to find her with Goth. Shade makes up a story to try and get them away from the two cannibals, but Goth tdecides to join them. Suddenly, all three of them hear a sound. All of a sudden, they all see Throbb hurrying towards them, followed by a helicopter. The humans in the helicopter shoot Goth with a tranquilizer dart, letting Shade and Marina escape from the company of the two cannibals, while Goth narrowly escapes from the humans. He gets away and finds Throbb, who tells him that Shade saw him eating the Brightwing. Goth is furious, and vows to his god Cama Zotz that he will find Shade and Marina.
Shade and Marina push onward, following Shade's sound map through the mountains. They come across an abandoned human cabin now inhabited by banded bats. They believe that the bands are a mark for those bats who are to turn into humans. Shade is not convinced, and leaving Marina behind, who decides to stay because she feels accepted with the other banded bats, heads back out into the cold of the mountains. Meanwhile, Goth and Throbb are hard on the two bat's trail, but Throbb has developed blisters on his wing tips due to the onset of winter. Just as Marina decides to leave the cabin and follow Shade, Goth and Throbb find he cabin, slaughtering and eating the bats inside. The next day, Goth and Throbb begint catch up to Shade and Marina, who finally make it safley over the mountains. Goth and Throbb chase them into a city, where Shade and Marina escape into the sewers.
While attempting to find another way out, Shade and Marina are captured by rats. With the help of the rat prince Remus's brother, Romulus , Shade and Marina are freed from the rats' clutches, only to be taken prisoner by Goth and Throbb again. Shade convinces the traitorous bats to trust him, telling them that he wants to become one of them. Shade later finds a special kind of leaf, one that Zephyr gave him to help him sleep. He takes one back in his mouth, chewing it to a pulp. When Goth later offers Shade some bat meat, Shade accepts so he can spread the leaf juice on the meat. Unfortunately, Goth notices that Shade isn't eating, so he forces him to take a mouthful. When Shade throws up after eating it, Goth pushes him aside, disgusted that he can't even keep it down, and he and Throbb eat the rest.
Later, when the two are asleep, Shade manages to convince Marina that he did it to save them, and helps her to break free; the two friends race toward Hibernaculum, knowing that the Vampyrum will soon be hot on their trail. In fact, Goth and Throbb catch up to Shade and Marina again, and rip off Marina's band, only to be struck by lightning due to all the metal on his arms. Shade quickly locates Hibernaculum, after escaping once again from the clutches of the cannibal bats, and there is a joyful reunion with his mother and the rest of his colony. They welcome Marina as well, and after telling the elders their story, Frieda introduces Shade to a male bat named named Icarus, a friend of his father's who thinks he knows where to find him. Shade, Marina, Ariel, Frieda, and many other bats including Chinook decide to search for him.
===Sunwing===
In Sunwing, Shade, Marina, and a large group of Bats including Ariel, Chinook, and Frieda, look for Shade's father. Shade and his group discovers a mysterious Human-made building containing a vast forest. Not long after he and his group arrived there they find something suspicious about the forest. The next day, hundreds of bats are missing. Shade and Marina discover a way to find them. While escaping, the pair also discover that bats are not the only ones kept in the human-made building. Shade and Marina find a section of the building with owls. One of the owls, Orestes attacks Shade and Marina, but the two convince him that they are not the enemy. While convincing Orestes, Shade notices Goth on the jungle nearby, and Goth promptly attacks. Orestes, Shade and Marina try to escape, but Orestes turns and confronts Goth. They fight, but before either can kill the other, humans stun the fighting animals and put them in cages. Shade and Marina latch onto a human and discover a laboratory behind a rock wall. Marina tells Shade that they should warn the others, but Shade is captured, and Marina is forced to flee.
Shade found Chinook and the other bats that had been taken. While Shade and the bats fought Goth, they were brought to a Human carrier which transported them to the southern jungle where Goth rules as king of the cannibal bats. Shade and Chinook met Caliban, a mastiff bat who led them to statue haven. Statue haven is a place for bat survivors in the jungle. Shade discovers that once, Cassiel was the leader of Statue Haven but, he had been captured by the cannibal bats three nights before Shade and Chinook got to Statue Haven. He and Chinook met the owl he's found in the Human-made forest. He discovered the owl was Orestes, the prince of the owls. Orestes was put in a metal disc like them but, it didn't explode like the others.
Chinook is captured by the Vampyrum, who need his heart to destroy the Sun and let Zotz rule over the Earth forever. To rescue Chinook and the others, Shade enters the ancient pyramid and battles Goth until the Vampyrum priest drops an exploding disc on the pyramid. Owls had come to help led by their prince Orestes. Shade's friends and family escape, but the Vampyrum, bats, owls, and rats and the pyramid is destroyed, including Goth. Shade fulfilled Nocturna's promise by asking peace with he owls and giving the bats the right to fly out in the sun. Shades colony made a new Tree Haven. Marina told Shade that Chinook had asked her to be his mate but she turned him down politely. Then asked Shade to be her mate to which he gladly agreed.
===Firewing===
Shade waited at Stonehold with his father, Chinook and the other males to see their children. Chinook had told Shade that Shades son Griffin was born healthy after coming back from when he was chosen as a messenger. Shade became disappointed by the minor details and wanted to see for himself. Shade almost got sucked into a fissure caused by a recent earthquake while chasing a tiger moth who got sucked into the fissure. Shade was saved at the last second by Cassiel. They informed the other males to get it covered as soon as possible. Shade promised himself that even if he wasn't chosen as a messenger to report how the females and the newborns were doing he would still go. To his surprise he was chosen as a messenger. The other four messengers who were faster let Shade set the pace. An aftershock occurs that knocks a branch off Tree Haven. Shade desperately checks to see Marina and Griffin. Marina got her wing injured from the fallen branch and Griffin was missing. Marina sang Griffins image to Shade. Shade followed the image of Griffins past to where he went. It lead to a fissure beneath Tree-Haven similar to the one he almost got sucked in before. He told the elders about the fissure and was told that it lead to the Underworld where Zotz and every Vampyrum Spectrum ever born had resided after their death, and that nobody ever returned from the Underworld. Shade denied the part where nobody returned since the stories had to come from someone who returned. Marina wanted to go with Shade, but Shade insisted she stayed at Tree Haven because of her wings injury.
Shade went after Griffin on his own. But he is not the only one: Goth is out to get Griffin, too. Shade gets help from pilgrims to reach Griffin and the tree that would lead to where they need to go. Shade meets his son for the first time ever in a cavern that Freida told Griffin not to go to. Their first meeting is cut short when Luna falls into the pool she was gazing into to see her lost memories and Goth thwarts the rescue attempt. Shade, Griffin, Luna, and Goth all end up falling into the pool where all light and sound was blocked out. They washed down a river. Shade managed to get out right before going down a waterfall. Shade later came across a cathedral where he saw Griffin enter. This turned out to be a trap set by Zotz where Goth was also waiting. Shade had to fight Goth directly. Zotz stopped the fighting and told Goth that Shade was not his since he had been bested too many times already. Zotz intended for Phoenix to take Shades life force and mate with Goth when they got back to the above world. Zotz disguised Goth as Shade to make Griffin easy prey. Goth went after Griffin gladly. Zotz had told Shade that he created the Underworld itself using sound. Shade used his ability to his advantage and broke his way out using sound to escape. The pilgrims he met from before were encased in stone as gargoyles. Shade freed them and they continued to the tree. Shade arrived a moment too late to save Griffin. Goth managed to kill Griffin and take his life force. Shade struggled to reach Goth so he could take Griffins life force out of Goth and give it back to his son. Goth escaped through the tree. Shade ends up killing himself to revive Griffin by crashing into the ground near The Tree. Griffin and Luna both absorb Shade's life force and come back to life. They go through the tree with the pilgrims. Shade finds himself in the upper world but as an immaterial spirit. He could feel the life of everything he flew through. He finds Griffin and Marina reunited at Tree Haven. The homecoming became his as well.
==In the TV Series==
Shade is mostly unchanged in the TV show, still as brave and sarcastic as ever. He is blue, with spiky hair that is yellow. He was voiced by Bill Switzer.
== Trivia ==
* While his rare ability to move objects, cloak himself, hear into the past, and create sonic illusions using sound had no special name in the novels, this ability in the show was called 'echo projection' which only involved creating sonic illusions.
* Shade Silverwing is a Silver Haired Bat
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