Shadow the Hedgehog

## History

In Shadow's own words, he is not interested in peace, nor does he care about what happens to others. In truth, he simply does not like it when foolish people do whatever they please. While this may make it seem like Shadow stands firmly in opposition to villainy, he is actually very indiscriminate about who he faces, as he chooses to stand against anyone who he condemns for being "foolish", be they villains like Dr. Eggman or heroes like Sonic. He similarly does not want thanks for the help he provides when he does something heroic, believing that showing gratitude is a waste of time. However, the grim and uncaring disposition he puts on is not entirely accurate considering the lengths he goes to save others including even sacrificing his own life. In contrast to his words, Shadow acts in a way that ultimately protects others. Deep down he cares about those around him, only hiding his more caring side to keep himself shielded and distant. Despite his apathetic nature, he does feel sympathy for others, and since reforming himself at the end of the Space Colony ARK incident, he has fought for the greater good, most noticeably to prevent letting other people experience past tragedies, specially the ones that he has been through. Due to being given a "soul" identical to Maria's, he is afraid of his power and has never used it recklessly or to cause suffering. Once, he also saw himself as a weapon since he was created as one, thus causing him to believe that he and other weapons would eventually have to be destroyed to achieve world peace.

Shadow is often depressed about the loss of Maria, which is why he keeps to himself, but his relationship with her is obvious as he goes to great lengths to protect the planet and keep her dream of peace and prosperity alive. He also maintains a strong bond with his teammates, Rouge and Omega, proving that while his attitude makes him seem like a careless person, he does have compassion, more than he otherwise lets on. Still, Shadow brushes off most kindness or sympathy that is sent his way; during the Neo Metal Sonic incident, when Rouge showed concern for Shadow when he saw a broken android of himself, suspecting Team Dark's Shadow might be an android too, Shadow curtly brushed her concern away. During the Black Arms incident, after Sonic suggested some "friendly competition", Shadow bluntly rejected his offer. At times, however, Shadow is shown to appreciate genuine care; at the climax of the Space Colony ARK incident, after Amy made him remember his promise to Maria, Shadow openly decided to keep his promise to protect the planet both to Maria and her. Another instance is during the aborted Solaris incident, when Rouge told him that she would always be by his side, he acknowledged her.

Despite the fact that Shadow often fights for the greater good, he is considered an anti-hero for the most part due to his morality and means to his desired end goals. He does whatever is necessary to get what he wants or feels is right, though this enthusiasm causes him to take risks and jump into situations without fully thinking them through. While not necessarily evil, Shadow's cold-hearted, determined personality has sometimes entailed the dangerous purity of turning himself into an enemy of Sonic. Alongside Rouge, he has also taken prize money and jewels upon winning in the second EX World Grand Prix, and the two disregarded the opening and closing ceremonies for the event, showing up late without a third teammate and, at the end of the Grand Prix, walking off right away with what turned out to be dummy versions of the prize money and gems. Regardless, Shadow does have his moments of selflessness and heroism; he nearly sacrificed his life at the end of the Space Colony ARK to save the earth, and helped Silver uncover the truth of the Solaris Project after saving Sonic from him in an aborted timeline.

In spite of Shadow's serious and no-nonsense attitude he is occasionally willing to spend time doing leisurely activities or social events like celebrating Amy's birthday at a murder mystery party on the Mirage Express. He even got Amy a present along with participating in the murder mystery event. Shadow has also competed in a variety of racing and sports competitions, having a strong competitive spirit.

### Personality

Being Sonic's polar opposite personality-wise, Shadow is, bluntly put, a brooding loner. He usually acts with a cool and businesslike indifference, only occasionally showing his vulnerable side. He is rarely seen with others for an extended period of time and usually distances himself from essentially everyone. He is usually blunt and does not speak much, but he always knows exactly what to say in combat. However, Shadow never bluffs; if he makes a threat, he has every intention of carrying it out.

As the most violent and merciless character in the series at times, Shadow's ruthlessness and aggression leads to enemies never treating him lightly. Alongside his dark and violent demeanor, Shadow can be smug and stubborn. He usually treats others in a very callous manner, throwing in his opinion no matter how cold-hearted it is and not caring for whatever the response is. Shadow is also shown to have a sharp wit; during the Space Colony ARK incident, after being called a faker by Sonic, he replied that the latter was not worth being considered his fake.

Just like how Shadow's motivations are never simple to understand, he spends as much time grappling with his own inner demons as he does with his rival, Sonic. In the past, Shadow has had a degree of mental instability, in particular post-traumatic stress disorder. This was demonstrated by his instances of post-traumatic flashbacks to Maria's face prior to and during the events of the Black Arms incident, though it could be argued that the instances of the latter game were simply an effect of his amnesia. On one occasion, at the time of the Space Colony ARK incident, seeing police sirens flashing caused him to intensely flash back to the massacre aboard ARK and in particular Maria's death. Shadow was soon able to overcome this in the Black Arms and the Emerl incidents, during which he chose to move on from the past yet keep Maria in his heart. In fact, his personal journey since being awoken by Eggman has had him confront the shackles of his past, such as ties, fate, and memories. Since then, it appears as though he is reaching a point where he can "do as his heart desires" in his own way.

Shadow originally had disdain for humanity, being a misanthrope, but rarely attacked them outright, merely looking at them as a distant observer. During the events of the Ark incident, Shadow was planning to destroy the planet both ordered by Gerald Robotnik through brainwashing, and as revenge for the death of his only friend, Maria Robotnik. Shadow eventually moves past his hatred for humanity by remembering his promise to Maria. Now Shadow seeks to protect humanity and those on Earth to honor Maria's dying wish despite their original misgivings.

During the many incidents that Shadow takes part in, he pursues his foes with a relentless, unwavering determination. He will usually go to any length to accomplish something he desires or feels should be a certain way, no matter what the cost. Before the War to Take Back the Planet, it is heavily implied that Shadow ruthlessly massacred an entire mercenary band known as the Jackal Squad not only in an extremely dismissive, nonchalant manner (as he did not even remember the incident a few months later), but also seemed slightly proud, mocking the mercenary defense squad by saying they themselves needed a defense squad. He also demonstrated rather coarse language during the Black Arms incident.

Shadow possesses a strong sense of identity; after falsely being told by Rouge that he was not the Ultimate Lifeform due to a lab report, he stated to her that, even if his memories were fake, he was still Shadow the Hedgehog. These qualities make him rarely susceptible to being manipulated by others.

## Powers & Abilities

Said to be Sonic the Hedgehog's equal in almost every ability, Shadow can easily rival the blue hedgehog's various physical skills. His abilities and skills in combat are an extremely powerful force to be reckoned with, and he is a match for even the most powerful foes in the series. He similarly never willingly holds back his immense strength, making him a brutal fighter. On his own, Shadow has been able to take down GUN's various combat mechs, Dr. Eggman's battle robots, Black Doom and his empowered state, and even deities. To best put his skills into perspective, Shadow was capable of defeating even Sonic while he had Diablon for support, as seen in some of the scenarios during the Black Arms incident. He even managed to best Emerl in combat after the latter had acquired all seven Chaos Emeralds as a power source (although Emerl quickly surpassed him afterward).

Like many of his associates, Shadow is able to move at super speed. Said to possess "ultimate speed," Shadow is able to match the speeds reached by Sonic, who is able to reach supersonic speeds. Although Shadow's Air Shoes have been credited as the source of his speed, his powerful body allows him to easily rival Sonic's world class speed as well. Due to such speed, he can scale vertical surfaces and ceilings, out-speed bullets, and attack faster than the eye can see. Even then, Shadow can take his speed further; by enveloping himself in an orange energy field, he can accelerate beyond the sound barrier on both the ground and in midair for a short time, allowing him to not only smash straight through enemies and obstacles like a living projectile, but also fly immense distances through midair. Using certain techniques, he can even achieve light-speed momentarily. While there are some inconsistencies about how fast Shadow is compared to Sonic, it is usually stated that they are complete equals. Shadow has demonstrated complete mastery of his speed in any environment. Not only can he run at maximum tilt in straight lines, but also in full tight circles and through sharp turns with full control over his momentum. As far as stamina goes, Shadow's is seemingly limitless as he is never winded from running. His speed also allows him to perform several impressive feats, like spinning in circles or rotating his extremities at super speed to create winds strong enough to attack or blow away/suck in opponents, similar to aerokinesis.

An experienced athlete that shares Sonic's agility, Shadow has outstanding acrobatic skills and nimbleness, along with incredible reflexes that let him avoid any incoming obstacles with precise and delicate movements within split-seconds, grindexpertly on Grind Rails, dodge bullets, and perform various strafe movements. When launched into the air, he can also pull off several tricks before landing. Using the Light Speed Dash, he is able to dash across a trail of rings at super speed, further strengthening his manueverability. Shadow also has superhuman strength, enough to match Sonic in power; with effort, he can overturn objects many times his weight and size such as trucks, buses and large slabs of concrete with one hand. In addition, Shadow possesses astounding kineticism, precision and has reaction time to match his speed. Shadow also has an incredible resilience to damage as he can take lots of major punishment before he goes down for the count. Notably, he is completely bulletproof and even withstood atmospheric entry at the end of the Space Colony ARK incident (the latter which only left him with amnesia). Even when he takes damage though, he is able to recover rather fast.

Owning to his "ultimate life form" physiology, Shadow possesses an immortal body, meaning he does not age and cannot be killed. Being created as a cure, Shadow has a natural resistance to disease and was able to maintain contact with the Zombot virus for an extended period of time before getting infected. Furthermore, as seen during the Black Arms incident, due to being partly Black Arms, Shadow has a connection to the Black Arms' hive-mind, allowing him to sense his kind's presence and be immune to the Black Arms' body-paralyzing nerve gas.

Shadow also possesses an indomitable will and determination. His absolute refusal to give up in any situation and resolve to see his goals through to the end allows him to keep on persevering even in seemingly impossible situations. His enormous will even let him psychologically resist mind control powers; notably, Shadow was able to regain control of his body from Black Doom despite him being part Black Arms and therefore susceptible to Black Doom's mind control.

Shadow is naturally able to tap into the arcane powers of nearby Chaos Emeralds, either through physical contact or from a distance, to empower himself and access different chaos powers. According to Shadow himself, he is the only one who knows how to use the Chaos Emeralds' true power. His trademark ability in the field of chaos powers is Chaos Control, a technique achieved with the Chaos Emeralds that lets him warp time and space for various effects. With this technique giving him control over time and space, Shadow is able to warp himself and those close by across space instantaneously over a range further than an island-annihilating explosion or between dimensions, slow down or freeze time entirely, and create areas of distorted space. Shadow is noticeably adept in using Chaos Control for anything between large-scale usages to small-scaled and delicate chaos powers inside and outside of combat. He can for example use it to either freeze or slow down opponents in time to give himself the speed advantage, launch surprise attacks by suddenly warping up in front or behind opponents, distort space around his fistsfor strikes that can blow opponents away, hide himself away in distorted space, attack foes with spots of distorted space, and even power his own healing abilities and guarding skills. Typically however, Shadow cannot perform Chaos Control if he does not have any Chaos Emeralds to draw power from.

Beside Chaos Control, Shadow is able to use a number of additional chaos powers. One of these chaos powers include his Chaos Spear technique, in which he throws up to several bolts of Chaos Emerald energy at his opponent that can either paralyze or injure an opponent, depending on its power level. Shadow's most powerful technique, however, is the Chaos Blast, a chaos power where he releases a discharge of Chaos Emerald energy in a massive explosion that eliminates everything within a range of 10-20 yards.

Beside Chaos Control, Shadow is able to use a number of additional chaos powers. One of these chaos powers include his Chaos Spear technique, in which he throws up to several bolts of Chaos Emerald energy at his opponent that can either paralyze or injure an opponent, depending on its power level. Shadow's most powerful technique, however, is the Chaos Blast, a chaos power where he releases a discharge of Chaos Emerald energy in a massive explosion that eliminates everything within a range of 10-20 yards.

One of Shadow's main offensive maneuvers is the Spin Attack, a technique where he curls into a concussive ball or cutting disk and directs himself at his targets. With it, Shadow can shred or burrow through just about any substance given enough speed. Highly adept in its usage, Shadow can utilize several variants of the Spin Attack for both grounded and aerial maneuvers, including the Spin Dash, Spin Jump, Homing Attack, and the Light Speed Attack, which attacks at the speed of light.

Even without his Spin Attack, Shadow is a powerful hand-to-hand combatant. In line with his nature and potent abilities, Shadow uses a fighting style where he utilizes strong blows, such as powerful chops, high spin kicks, reverse spin kicks, downward kicks, or just barrages of punches and kicks. In addition, many of Shadow's stronger hand-to-hand combat moves revolves heavily around his usage of Chaos Control for distortion effects to knock opponents away and his Air Shoes' exhaust for burning opponents.

Shadow is an effective combat strategist, able to make split second calculations or adjustments to succeed in battle. His strategies can range from creative uses of his environment, manipulating his opponent's shortcomings, and outmaneuvering enemies.

As shown during the second EX Grand Prix, Shadow is talented with an Extreme Gear. During the tournament, he was able to put up quite a fight and even defeat some of the world's best Extreme Gear riders. When riding on an Extreme Gear, Shadow is skillful enough to ride on Grind Rails, execute complex tricks while in midair, and perform chaos powers and combat moves with ease.

Shadow also has extraordinary skill when it comes to driving or piloting all forms of vehicles. Not only is he one of the best racecar drivers in the universe with the Dark Reaper, but he is also able to perfectly operate weaponized buggies, armed motorcycles, modified gliders, hover crafts with machine guns, bipedal mechs and alien devices. Shadow is as well an expert gunner, capable of using weaponry like the Gun Lifts and GUN turrets with perfect accuracy. Also, whereas Sonic dismisses firearms, Shadow is not above using such weaponry, and has demonstrates proficient skills in a very wide range of weaponsduring the Black Arms incident, such as close combat weapons, guns, cannons, lock-on weapons and lasers. Shadow may also have some knowledge about machinery, having once been able to fiddle with a deactivated Omega and deduce he was in standby mode. A miscellaneous ability Shadow has demonstrated as well is telekinesis, which is potent enough to let him move an Extreme Gear around with his mind with ease.

As powerful as he is, Shadow is able to make himself stronger up tapping into an even greater power within himself. This power is so potent that should he remove his Inhibitor Rings, he becomes a walking dynamo of raw power. When unleashing this power, he releases such tremendous amounts of energy that it forms an impenetrable barrier around himself. While in this state, Shadow gains increased strength and speed,enough to overpower hundreds of clones of Mephiles the Dark at once. However, using his full power tires him out more quickly.

### Equipment

Shadow wears a pair of specialized shoes called Air Shoes. These footwear are the primary source of Shadow's speed, producing small jet streams that let him hover-skate at speeds supposedly even surpassing Sonic's speed. Alternatively, Shadow can use his Air Shoes' exhausts to attack opponents with fire, empower his jumps, or achieve midair hovering.

Shadow wears four Inhibitor Rings, one on each of his wrists and ankles, that limit the amount of power he uses during combat and other situations. By removing them, Shadow is able to utilize his full power.

During the Black Arms incident, Shadow made use of a vast selection of weaponry. This included anything from close combat weapons like Survival Knives and Black Swords; guns like Pistols and Sub-Machine Guns; cannons like Bazookas and Grenade Launchers; lock-ons like 8-Shot RPGs and Worm Shooters; to lasers like Laser Rifles and Refractors.

## Transformations

### Super Shadow

By harnessing the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds, Shadow can enter a Super State, transforming him into **Super Shadow**. In this state, all of Shadow's abilities far surpass his normal ones and his chaos powers are increased to their full limit. He is also able to fly and is nearly invulnerable. Initially, Shadow found it difficult to stay in this state due to inexperience, but he has since mastered it. In addition, this transformation consumes a lot of energy, meaning it cannot be maintained for long.

## Weaknesses

Shadow was initially a somewhat easy target for manipulation during the time he had amnesia due to his confusion about who he was and his eagerness to learn anything more about his past. Dr. Eggman could deceive him with lies about his past and Black Doom could subtly manipulate him using visions. However, after learning of his true purpose, Shadow is no longer as easily deceived.

Being part of the Black Arms, Shadow is partially an extension of Black Doom, making him vulnerable to mind control exerted by Black Doom himself. However, Shadow can fight this influence through sheer resolve and willpower.

Despite his immortality, Shadow can be knocked down if taken off-guard. Most noticeably, this will leave him unable to walk and speak immediately after the attack. Though he can still fight later on, this will risk his life if he pushes himself too far, and it takes him several days to fully recover.

## Relationships

### Gerald Robotnik

Shadow was created by the renowned scientist Gerald Robotnik, using Black Doom's DNA. Gerald had made many attempts to create the Ultimate Lifeform before Black Doom and his children, the Black Arms, came to earth. Unfortunately, the closest he came was the Biolizard. Black Doom, however, approached Gerald and offered his help, but only on one condition; if Black Doom helped Gerald, the professor must promise to deliver the seven Chaos Emeralds to him. Gerald agreed to these terms and Black Doom gave some of his DNA, which was added to the samples that Gerald had already obtained. The outcome of this experiment was Shadow the Hedgehog. Gerald seems to be one of few people whom Shadow felt happy around, and the professor might have acted as a surrogate father to him. This is further proven when Gerald refers to the hedgehog as his "son," having given Shadow genuine emotions to prevent him from becoming a weapon as the government intended. However, despite these predisposed emotions, after defeating the Finalhazard, Shadow stated that he promised to "destroy all evil that the professor had created," implying that, while he might still respect Gerald Robotnik, he nonetheless feels that any bad things that Gerald Robotnik had done after going insane must be stopped.

In the climax of the Black Arms incident, Shadow finally uncovered the true purpose of his creation from Gerald's recorded video. In order to put the past behind him, he decided to fulfill Gerald's true wish of protecting the planet by destroying the Black Arms and any future threats that may come Earth's way.

### Maria Robotnik

Professor Gerald's granddaughter, Maria Robotnik, is by far the one person that made Shadow the happiest. Shadow and Maria bonded closely during their time together; Shadow's feelings for Maria were the closest he ever came to love and viewed her as a sister. Maria seemed to be a guiding force in Shadow's life, doing her best to erase any doubts he had about the purpose of his existence. They shared the same dream: to visit earth together someday.

Unfortunately, G.U.N. deemed Project Shadow to be too big of a threat to the world. As a result, they attempted to eliminate everyone and everything they could in relation to the project. Maria was shot and killed by a G.U.N. soldier during the raid on the ARK. Her parting words were "*Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog*."

In a 1UP interview, Shadow has stated that if he could change one thing about his past, it would be to give up his life for that of Maria's. He is forever haunted of losing someone that really cared for him. Despite his grief, Shadow stays strong and continues to keep his promise to her, to make the people of earth happy.

After getting amnesia, Maria was the only thing that Shadow could really remember. At the end of *Shadow the Hedgehog*, he is putting his tragic past behind him, though he continues to save the world in her name.

### Dr. Eggman

Gerald Robotnik's grandson, Dr. Eggman is one of Shadow's worst enemies, and the two have opposed each other at several points. Their relationship mainly comes from the fact that the black hedgehog was created by the doctor's grandfather. Their first meeting was during the Space Colony ARK incident, where the scientist liberated Shadow from his stasis capsule on Prison Island, thus making the latter grant him one wish in gratitude. In reality, Shadow used his creator's grandson's ambitions to carry his revenge against the world for Maria's death. The hedgehog would stick with Eggman for the remainder of that incident, until his supposed death after defeating the Finalhazard with Super Sonic. In the aftermath, the one who rescued Shadow turned out to be none other than Eggman himself, who later put him in a stasis capsule in one of his bases. Following Shadow's unexpected release, Eggman would take advantage of his amnesia to gaslight him into believing that he was just a copy of himself and that the real Shadow was dead to turn him back to his side.

After the Black Arms incident, Shadow became another thorn in Eggman's side, despite not being an intermediate member of Sonic's group of friends. It is proven that the black hedgehog cares very little about the doctor's safety if it has nothing to do with him or his teammates but will nevertheless team up with him if a greater threat arises. In truth though, he just does not like it when anyone, the scientist included, does something he sees as foolish or harmful, causing him to go against him if needed.

### Richard Echidna Simmons

During Season 18, when Shadow met Richard, he looked at him as a rookie but during the war Shadow kept an open mind and encouraged him to not let Zooey distract him from showing his true potential in battle. nowadays the two don't interact as much but when Richard got married Shadow smiled, it was said by Richard that Shadow and he would take short lessons on South Island. But now that he's married Richard has to train himself.

### Sonic the Hedgehog

hadow and Sonic the Hedgehog are both rivals and uneasy allies, as well as the virtual equal of one another. At first Shadow tried to disregard Sonic, but Sonic's quips quickly sparked a mutual rivalry in *Sonic Adventure 2*. Throughout the game, the feats Sonic accomplishes, such as surviving Eggman's death trap and learning Chaos Control, impressed Shadow, and he began to respect Sonic, giving him his props and asking for his identity before the final battle between them. Since meeting each other, their rivalry has developed, and while it is now usually friendly thanks to Shadow's reformation, the two can still occasionally be at odds.

When they first met, Shadow believed Sonic to have been copying him, and vice-versa from Sonic. He temporarily had this belief in *Sonic Heroes* as well, though this was largely because of his amnesia.

Shadow and Sonic's conflicts tend to occur due to the fact that though their goals tend to align, their views on justice, morality, and how to act on them can sometimes differ. Their disagreements sometimes turn to bitter fights. Shadow admits no hesitation in opposing Sonic like he would with Eggman if he deems him a foolish individual who thinks he can do whatever he pleases. In a sense, the two hedgehogs are polar opposites in every way except their appearance and goals.

Despite their differences, Shadow and Sonic have helped each other on several occasions. Shadow helped Sonic defeat Metal Sonic in *Sonic Heroes*, allied himself and Rouge with Team Sonic to return both teams to their proper time period, and saved the blue hedgehog from Silver's second attempt on his life in *Sonic the Hedgehog* (2006). He showed grief in the face of Sonic's death and stated to Silver that they cannot defeat Solaris without his help. In the Nintendo DS version of *Sonic Colors* he clearly shows some concern for Sonic's safety. Additionally, he helped motivate Sonic to defeat the Time Eater in *Sonic Generations* and attended his birthday party. He seemed concerned for Sonic when Infinite mentioned he would use his newfound power against him and raced to save him in *Sonic Forces* at the beginning of the game, but was unfortunately too late. Shadow later succeeded in saving Sonic from a Phantom Copy of himself in Sunset Heights despite the blue hedgehog's initial suspicions about the situation. Nonetheless, Shadow did participate in fighting alongside the hedgehog for the rest of the war.

Overall, while the two still are at odds because of their conflicting views, there is also a mutual respect between them. They are both willing to put their differences aside for the greater good and help each other when needed. In recent games, Shadow is more confident about Sonic doing what is right and Sonic has more faith in Shadow's choices as well.

On a similar note, he also has some distaste for being confused with Sonic, as evidenced by his fierce reaction to Toad mistaking him for the latter in the Adventure Mode of the Nintendo DS version of *Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games* and the Nintendo 3DS version of *Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games*, where interacting with Shadow as a Mii character in the latter game will have Shadow react irritably towards the Mii noting his physical resemblance with Sonic, and demand that the Mii not ever put him on the same boat as Sonic, whom he referred to as an "inferior half-wit."

If there is one thing that can be said about Shadow and Sonic, it is that they are some of the only people who can get up close and personal with each other. Because of the high performance of both Shadow and Sonic in terms of their physical abilities and their thoughts, there are not many who can keep up with them. Also, there are fewer still of the ones who, despite their rejection, are able to persist, to offer opinions, to meddle, or to stand in their way and try to stop each other like those two can. In fact, Sonic is perhaps the only person who can get so up close and personal with Shadow as he can say something to him that reaches his heart (though it often does not). In a sense, Sonic's kind of presence is troublesome to Shadow, but it is also one of the most important ones. They help each other grow and push them to be better. However, while Sonic is receptive to hearing things that strike a little close to home, from Shadow's point of view, Sonic is a real pain. Regardless of much of an impact they each have on each other, the two of them both share the philosophy of following their hearts' desires, which makes them collide with each other, crossing paths with each other, and sometimes dividing into an ally and enemy.

### Rouge

Rouge the Bat is one of Shadow's closest companions. The two are teammates in *Sonic Adventure 2* and *Sonic Heroes*, and they often work together during mission stages. Despite the fact that the pair have not casually spent much time together, they still greatly appreciate and respect one another. Rouge and Omega are shown to be the two who Shadow cares about and appreciates the most. Rouge is certainly one of, if not the closest person for Shadow to interact with. Shadow was implied to have at least heard of her before their formal meeting onboard the Space Colony ARK, as Shadow responds: "*Now I know who you are! You're that government spy, Rouge the Bat, aren't you!*" when stumbling upon her true intentions at the controls of the Eclipse Cannon.

In *Sonic Adventure 2*, Shadow saved her life when Rouge was trapped in Security Hall, though when she questioned him about his actions later aboard the ARK, he told her he only returned for the Chaos Emeralds that she had acquired. However, it is still unknown if he didn't lie; Rouge teased that this wasn't "the whole story." Their conversation was then interrupted by Dr. Eggman.

In *Sonic Heroes*, Shadow saves Rouge from Omega's fire when not even remembering her. Later, when they find a broken Shadow Android, Rouge looks over to Shadow with pity and asks, "Shadow...?" in a sympathetic mannerism, while he simply dismisses the situation. Later, when Rouge mentioned intending to steal Knuckles' Master Emerald, Shadow replied that "things never change, do they?", implying that he regained enough of his memory to remember her rivalry with Knuckles' Master Emerald.

In *Sonic Battle*, Rouge lets Shadow stay with her at Club Rouge when he is injured during a fight at the Gimme Shelter. When Shadow is dreaming and an image of Rouge appears and he whispers, "Ally." After he regains consciousness Rouge seems somewhat offended when he does not thank her for helping him. Upon finding out she saved him, Shadow thanks her.

In *Sonic the Hedgehog*, Shadow shows he is protective of Rouge's well-being. He showed this once when catching her from a fall after she was momentarily knocked out by one of Dr. Eggman's robots, and again when he jumps in front of her after Iblis takes them all by surprise. When Omega reveals to Shadow that he is the one who traps him in the future; Rouge tells Shadow, "Even if you believe the entire world will be against you, know that I will always remain by your side... Remember that..." Shadow pauses, then strongly replies, "I will." However, this event was erased along with the rest of the events within the game after the "future was reversed." Nonetheless, it is implied in *Sonic Forces* that she ultimately stayed true to that claim and maintained contact with Shadow while he was still assumed to have gone rogue due to his Phantom Copy. This is evidenced by how, when, reconvening with Rouge, he asks her about whether she found what he had requested earlier.

In *Sonic Rivals*, after Shadow saves Rouge from Eggman Nega, Rouge tries to convince him to going treasure hunting with her and suggests the two "take a peek" into their own future using Eggman Nega's device. Shadow declines and the story ends with Rouge still trying to convince Shadow to join her in hunting for the remaining cards.

In *Sonic Rivals 2*, their encounter was less than friendly from their previous ones to separate the fact their overall relationship seems to be more partner-focused when they ally for the occasion. Shadow is consistently trying to stop Rouge and Knuckles from reaching the Chaos Emeralds at all costs, seeking to manipulate the Chaos-tracking device from Rouge. Rouge tells Shadow that he can trust her and Shadow tells her about the Ifrit. When Rouge mentions her client, Shadow demands to know who her client is, but Rouge refuses against him, leading him to yell after for her to, "get back here." When Shadow catches up to her, Rouge still refuses to tell him about her client as Shadow mildly threatens her, and then she trips him over and replies that he was being "clumsy," and he growls, "Why you...!" The conversation then devolves into a fight between the two, proving that although they may be on good terms sometimes, that does not mean that they let each other get in the way of their goals.

In *Sonic Free Riders*, both Shadow and Rouge appear as Team Dark along with E-10000B. Their main focus during the game is winning the treasure and prize money. Unlike in previous games, Shadow seems perfectly content with helping Rouge obtain the treasure she covets.

### E-123 Omega

Shadow has been known to trust Omega as a partner in his missions, though with a mutual understanding of both of them being seen as weapons used for destruction. However, their relationship goes beyond their seemingly gruff, aloof, and mighty exteriors, revealing a trusting, mutual friendship between the two. As stated by Rouge, the two "go together like chili and hot dogs". This relationship is first shown when Shadow looks out for Omega in *Sonic Heroes* halfway into the game. This was also shown in *Shadow the Hedgehog* when Shadow willingly helped Omega in Iron Jungle and Lava Shelter. In *Sonic the Hedgehog* (2006), Shadow is the one who first spots the deactivated Omega, 200 years into the future. Shadow shows real sadness as the sight of this, as Rouge has to force him to continue moving. Both Shadow and Rouge were somewhat saddened by Omega being reprogrammed to hunt down Shadow in the future, due to Shadow being seen as too strong of a lifeform, causing humanity to fear him.

### Mephiles the Dark

Mephiles the Dark is one of Shadow's deadliest enemies. When they first met, Shadow, due to not having sealed Mephiles away yet at that time, expressed a sense of familiarity despite not knowing who he was, before Mephiles sent him to the future. In Shadow's second meeting with Mephiles, he tried to convince Shadow to turn against humanity, but Shadow refused. After the battle, Shadow tried to collect some information about Mephiles to stop him, which led him to investigate Mephiles' origin at the Solaris Project ten years ago. There, Shadow sealed Mephiles in the Scepter of Darkness shortly after his birth, where Mephiles swore that he would remember Shadow and that he would kill him. This made Shadow realize how Mephiles knew him and why he was obsessed with him.

Shadow later faced Mephiles in Dusty Desert where Mephiles tried to convince him to join his cause, but Shadow saw through his deceit and proclaimed he knew that Mephiles only craved destruction. After Shadow failed to seal Mephiles, Mephiles tried to confuse him by asking why he wanted to save humanity when they would persecute him, but Shadow proclaimed he would always keep fighting. Solaris and Mephiles were both later erased from existence, resulting in the erasure of Shadow's relationship with Mephiles.

### Miles "Tails" Prower

Miles "Tails" Prower and Shadow were at first enemies in *Sonic Adventure 2* because Shadow was impersonating Sonic and got him thrown in jail on Prison Island. Towards the end of the game, they became allies when they had to save the planet from the Space Colony ARK. For the most part Shadow and Tails' relationship seems to depend on their goals, especially due to the latter being the closest ally of Sonic, Shadow's antithesis.

The two are on opposing sides in *Sonic Heroes*, *Sonic Battle*, and *Sonic Rivals 2*. In *Sonic Heroes* they fought very briefly because Shadow and Rouge had provoked Team Sonic into fighting them; Tails, in possible concern for his amnesia, asked Shadow if he remembered them. In *Sonic Battle*, Shadow and Tails fought at the end of Tails' Story because Tails resisted giving up Emerl to Shadow. Shadow threatened Tails that he would have to give Emerl up or else they would fight for him, Tails admitted that he admires Shadow's spirit but would not give up in a fight. When Tails won the fight Shadow warned him that he would be back again to get Emerl, but Rouge showed up and told Shadow to go back to Night Babylon. In *Sonic Rivals 2*. Shadow and Metal Sonic confronted Tails and Sonic because they were all going after Eggman.

However, despite this, Shadow and Tails seem to be on very good terms with each other and seem to get along quite well. Also, when Eggman suggests they build a weapon to hurt the enemy, and Tails says he has a better idea, Shadow with a smile asks why he is not surprised. Shadow is actually the second most helpful member of Tails' Team in Metropolis, helping Tails with numerous mechanical ideas with Eggman. He is also very helpful if the player is looking for Omega, often giving tips to tell of where Omega would have gone if he had gotten the chance. If the player succeeds in finding Omega, Shadow thanks Tails for helping him. Overall, Shadow and Tails hold a great deal of mutual respect for each other, and despite being occasional enemies, they seem to support each other, and they have helped each other on several occasions.

### Knuckles the Echidna

Shadow and Knuckles have not interacted much, but at times they are either loose allies or bitter rivals. In *Sonic Adventure 2*, they didn't have much interaction, but they were indirectly enemies at first and then worked together to save the world from Space Colony ARK. The first real fight between them happened in *Sonic Heroes*, although Shadow didn't remember Knuckles at the time. After the fight, Knuckles jokingly mentioned that they might have fought Shadow's ghost. In *Shadow the Hedgehog*, Knuckles appears in Glyphic Canyon, Central City, and Black Comet stages asking for Shadow's help in Hero missions. In *Sonic the Hedgehog* (2006), he and Shadow loosely worked together again for a time in order to return to the present.

Shadow and Knuckles appear to have some bitter resentment towards each other as seen in *Sonic Rivals*, when Shadow bluntly pointed out that Knuckles was useless for his shortcomings while retaining an indifferent attitude towards his challenges, and Knuckles seemed to be irritated by Shadow's presence. Knuckles seems to have a bit of a disliking towards Shadow, mostly because he finds him complacent and smug. Additionally, Knuckles is not fond of Shadow's egotistical tendencies, which is seen in *Sonic Free Riders* when he says, "*I see your ego's as big as ever, Shadow*," in a rather annoyed tone.

### Amy Rose

Shadow and Amy Rose have not interacted much with each other throughout the series. In *Sonic Adventure 2*, Amy first meets Shadow when she mistakes him for Sonic and hugs him from behind, while Shadow remains still after having been briefly caught off-guard by her touch. He also does not shake her off or resort to violence. When Amy senses the lack of a reaction, she releases him, causing him to glance back at her. Amy demands his name when she realizes that he is not Sonic, but Shadow continues to glare at her quietly. After Amy notices Dr. Eggman, she also realizes the mistake she has made, and runs off screaming. During this, Shadow simply tilts his head when she is out of range as Dr. Eggman tells the team that he'll take care of Amy.

Later in the game aboard the ARK, Amy meets Shadow again and this time begs Shadow to save the world. At first, Shadow simply replies that it is pointless, but then Amy points out that despite people sometimes being selfish, they were still inwardly good and that saving them was right. Because of this, Shadow suddenly has a flashback of Maria begging Shadow to make people happy. When Shadow comes to his senses he goes off to fight the Biolizard, determinedly and softly telling Amy that he has to keep his promise to "Maria... and [her]."

Amy was also the only one to see Shadow's tear after he remembered that Maria wanted him to save the people that live on Earth.

During *Sonic Battle*, Amy shows excitement and concern upon hearing Shadow's survival through Rouge, but quickly becomes angry when Rouge will not tell her why he's there.

During *Shadow the Hedgehog*, Shadow can choose to assist Amy in helping find Cream the Rabbit and have her fight alongside the player during the stage and in the boss battle, but this time, there is no reward in return. Also, at the end of *Shadow the Hedgehog*, Amy shows an odd amount of faith and admiration for Shadow, regardless of him being Sonic's rival. When Rouge expresses concern for Shadow following the destruction of the Black Comet, Amy reassures her with her hands clasped and a cheerful smile on her face, "*I'm sure he's fine, Rouge! After all, he is Shadow!*" which further displays her positive outlook on the black hedgehog and her general optimism.

### allies

* Sonic the Hedgehog
* Miles "Tails" Prower
* Knuckles the Echidna
* Amy Rose
* Big the Cat
* Richard Echidna Simmons (good allie)
* Pete
* Sticks the Badger
* Chase the Yorkie
* Nails the Bat
* Shadow the Hedgehog
* Rouge the Bat (good friend & Teammate)
* E123-Omega (good friend & Teammate)
* Cream the Rabbit
* Cheese
* Chocola
* Vanilla Rabbit
* Gemerl
* Kula the Fox
* Teken Koga the Slug
* Dadon Pa
* Tangle the Lemur
* Whisper the Wolf
* Jewel the Bettle

Dimensional Twins

* Clay the Panther
* Trois the Panther

* Asuka the Contemporary
* Lisa the Kusanami
* Candy the Cat
* Tania the Hedgehog

Crystal Twins

* Alumi
* Numami

* Silver the Hedgehog
* Blaze the Cat
* Chao
* Omochao
* Forge the Android (good friend & old Teammate)
* Jamison
* Jammy
* Avatar
* Princess Elise the Third
* G.U.N
* Juliea the Cat
* E-10000b

Team Chaotix

* Espio the Chameleon
* Charmy Bee
* Vector the Crocodile

* Resistance
* President
* Commander
* Khole the Fox
* Jack the Fox
* Berry the Quokka
* Conductor
* Conductor's Wife
* Slash the Shrew
* Humans
* Spinel the Hedgehog
* Neon Sonic
* Neon Tails
* Neon knuckles
* Feels the Rabbit
* Amanda the Hedgehog
* Akinator
* Professor Gerald Robotnik
* Maria Robotnbik (best friend)

### Netural

Babylon Rouges

* Jet the Hawk
* Wave the Swallow
* Storm the Albatross

* E-102 Gamma
* Wolferine
* Max the Cat
* Sammy the Wolverine
* Turles the Hedgehog

### Enemies

* Dr. Eggman
* Metal Sonic
* Orbot
* Cubot
* Dr. Starline
* Tails Doll
* Metal Knuckles
* Mephiles the Dark

Team Hooligan

* Fang the sniper
* Bean the Dynamite
* Bark the Polar bear

* Eggman Empire
* Robots
* badnicks
* Black Doom
* Black Arms
* Chrome Metal Sonic
* Solaris
* Ibilis
* Aeron
* Rough the Skunk
* Tumble the Skunk
* Eggman Nega
* Mad Mask
* Terios the Hedgehog
* Shadow Androids
* SCR-HD

Deadly Six

* Zavok
* Zazz
* Zeena
* Zomom
* Zor
* Master Zik

* Jaine the rabbit
* Sei
* Cinq
* Seethe
* Glicth Virus
* Glicthbots
* Egg Pawn
* Infinite