Shadow the Hedgehog

**Shadow the Hedgehog** (シャドウ・ザ・ヘッジホッグ, *Shadō za Hejjihoggu*), is both a fictional character and deuteragonist from the *Sonic Pokémon* series created by Yuji Naka and Satoshi Tajiri. He is an immortal, black, anthropomorphic hedgehog/Black Arm hybrid.

He is also a dark doppelgänger and arch-rival of Sonic the Hedgehog. He was created as the "**Ultimate Life Form**" (究極生命体, *Kyūkyoku Seimeitai*) by Gerald Robotnik, using the DNA of Black Doom, and is the end result of Project Shadow.

Shadow is sharp-witted, always on edge, and has a strong sense of purpose, willing to accomplish his goals by any means. While preferring to work alone, he has helped Sonic and his allies when needed.

"*Whether enemy or ally, I will fight like I always have. I am Shadow! Shadow the Hedgehog!*"

—Shadow the Hedgehog, to Mephiles.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor (4kids)*: Jason Griffith (English), Kōji Yusa (Japanese), Not Known (Albanian), Fadwa Souleimane (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Reginaldo Primo (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Victor Swaay (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Benoît DuPac (French), Not Known (Galician), Jan Panczak (German), Not Known (Greek), Yaron Menashe (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Fabrizio Vidale (Italian), Jeong Jae-heon (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Grzegorz Przybył (Polish), Peter Michael (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Dmitriy Filimonov (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Ricardo Escobar (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Pablo Ausensi (Latin Spanish)
*Voice actor (TPCi/Studiopolis):* Kirk Thornton (English), Not Known (Japanese), Not Known (Albanian), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Carlos Seidl (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Maciej Kosmala (Dutch), Antti Jaakola (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (Galician), Klaus Lochthove (German), Not Known (Greek), Eran Mor (Hebrew), Not Known (Hong Kong), Czető Roland (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Not Known (Isralian), Daniele Raffaeli (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), João Brás (Portuguese), Florian Silaghi (Romanian), Anton Savenkov (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Turkish), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

### Appearance

Shadow is an anthropomorphic black hedgehog with red stripes on his quills, around the edges of his eyes and on his arms and legs. He has red eyes, a patch of white fur on his chest, and his muzzle is tan. He has five quills on his head, four of which curve upwards, and one that curves downwards, has two spines on his back and a small tail. For attire, Shadow wears white gloves with black cuffs, and Hover Shoes which, like his gloves, have black cuffs. On each of his wrists and ankles he wears a single gold ring and red tongues.

* Hair Color: Black and Red
* Skin Color: Tan
* Fur Color: White
* Eye Color: Red
* Age: 50+
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: 100 cm (3' 3")
* Weight: 35 kg (77 lbs.)

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Maria Robotnik (best friend, deceased)
* Team Sonic (occasionally)
	+ Sonic the Hedgehog (comrade and arch-rival)
	+ Tails the Fox
	+ Knuckles the Echidna
* Team Rose
	+ Amy Rose the Hedgehog
	+ Sticks the Badger

### Family

* Black Doom (genetic template/first father, arch-enemy)
* Gerald Robotnik (creator and surrogate/second father, deceased)
* Sir Lancelot (Camelot counterpart)

### Rivals

* Sonic the Hedgehog (Ally and arch-rival)
* Knuckles the Echidna
* Silver the Hedgehog
* Jet the Hawk

### Neutral

* Babylon Rogues/Team Babylon
	+ Jet the Hawk
	+ Wave the Swallow
	+ Storm the Albatross

### Enemies

* Bio Lizard
* Metarex
	+ Dark Oak
	+ Pale Bayleaf
	+ Black Narcissus
	+ Red Pine
* Lyric the Last Ancient

## Abilities and Powers

### Chaos Powers

Shadow is naturally able to tap into the arcane powers of any nearby Chaos Emeralds to utilize their chaos energy to empower himself and can use a wide variety of Chaos Powers as well. Shadow can harness both positive and negative chaos energy, depending on his state of mind. His Chaos Powers are so potent that should he remove his restraints, he becomes a walking dynamo of raw power, releasing such tremendous amounts of innate energy that it forms an impenetrable barrier around him. While in this state, Shadow gains increased strength and speed, enough to overpower hundreds of Mephiles the Dark clones at once. However, using his full power tires him out more quickly.

Shadow's trademark Chaos Power is Chaos Control, and is possibly the most adept user of it in the series, having mastered it to perfection. With Chaos Control, he can manipulate space and time to slow down time and warp across space, and can use it delicately enough to distort space in small centralized areas, such as around his fists or in midair. Additionally, he can mold Chaos Control into a variety of offensive and defensive moves and can even use it to heal himself. It is unknown what Shadow's full limit for warping time and space with Chaos Control is, but it has been shown that he can warp objects and people with him all the way into space.

As described in the *Black Arms/Metarex Wars Saga*, all of Shadow's Chaos Powers increase in power with the number of Chaos Emeralds he possesses. Furthermore, he can draw power from the Emeralds without making physical contact.

### Move Skills

In combat, Shadow is a lethal and extremely powerful force that very few can defeat. He never holds back his immense strength, making him a brutal fighter with a distinct killer instinct. Shadow's skills are more than a match for even the strongest in the series and has been able to take down some of the most fearsome foes of the series on his own, such as Black Doom. To best put his skills in perspective, as seen in some of the scenarios in *Black Arms/Metarex Wars Saga*, Shadow is one of the very few individuals who has been able to defeat Sonic in combat, even when Sonic had the Diablon for support.

#### Fighting Style

Shadow's fighting style focuses on direct, brutal, unrestrained and powerful hand-to-hand combat. In line with his nature and potent abilities, Shadow has adopted a fighting style where he fights his opponents using powerful blows, such as karate chops, swift punches and roundhouse kicks, to which of his attacks have a significant amount of force behind them. With the speeds Shadow can move at, he can disable the opponent through the force of his blows alone, while leaving them at the mercy at his incoming attacks.

Shadow's fighting style revolves around making heavy use of his Chaos Powers, especially Chaos Control and Chaos Spear. Using Chaos Control, Shadow can teleport up in front or behind his opponents in battle to launch surprise attacks. Also, Shadow can use Chaos Control to increase the damage he deals to his opponent when striking them, often resulting in significant forces being released and blowing the opponent a certain distance away. To give himself the advantage over his opponents, Shadow will use powerful Chaos attacks involving Chaos Energy, such as energy bolts or even intense explosions.

#### Techniques and Moves

Like Sonic, Shadow's basic combat moves revolves around the various forms of the Spin Attack, which is a variation on the tendency for hedgehogs to roll into tight balls for protection, and he shares many of them with Sonic. The Homing Attack allows Shadow to jump and home in on an enemy to get over large gaps he cannot normally reach, the Spin Jump lets him curl into a ball attack opponent by landing on them, and the Spin Dash lets him shoot himself forward as an acceleration roll at high speeds to break barriers or mow down enemies, the Light Speed Dash and Light Speed Attack allows Shadow to achieve light speed movements by dashing through Rings and/or enemies. He is also able perform Sonic's Sonic Boost, a move where he turn himself into a highly destructive projectile by moving and running at high speed.

Another technique, Shadow has is the Black Tornado witch is exactly the same as Sonic's Blue Tornado in witch Shadow jumps into the air, and creates a black whirlwind by circling a particular spot at high speeds which can throw his opponents into the air or blow away armor and weapons. For more direct combat, Shadow can use his Chaos Attack to deal a barrage of Chaos Energy-fueled strikes to his opponents, and his Spin Kick lets him create a small tornado that can suck enemies in and damage them.

Many of Shadow's signature techniques are Chaos Powers. Shadow's trademark move is Chaos Control, which allows him to manipulate time and space to either warp across space or slow down time, and distort space to form other types of Chaos Powers. His second most used Chaos Power is his Chaos Spear technique, where he throws bolts of Chaos Energy at his opponent. His most powerful and potent technique, however, is the Chaos Blast, which is literally a shockwave of Chaos Energy that eliminates anything and everything in a circular radius range. Shadow can, however, only use this attack when he is immersed in Chaos Energy.

Another special Chaos Power Shadow uses is his Chaos Boost technique. When using the Chaos Boost, Shadow covers himself in Chaos Energy. While in his Chaos Boost form, Shadow gains more destructive power and is immune to some enemy attacks. It also enables Shadow to utilize more Chaos Powers, such as Chaos Blast, Chaos Snap, and Chaos Lance.

### Attacks

* Chaos Control
* Chaos Spear
* Chaos Blast
* Chaos Boost
* Air Dash
* Chaos Nightmare
* Shadow Heal
* Chaos Snap
* Chaos Lance
* Chaos Attack
* Chaos Burst
* Chaos Inferno (Team Blast attack the requires Rouge and Omega)
* Chaos Magic
* Chaos Upper
* Chaos Punishment
* Chaos Rift
* Black Tornado
* Back Kick
* Energy Ball
* Fire Somersault
* Focus Field (requires Omega)
* Gravity Control
* Gravity Dive
* Guard
* Homing Attack
* Jump Dash
* Kick
* Light Speed Attack
* Light Speed Dash
* Punch
* Roaming Chaos
* Rocket Accel
* Shadow Back Kick
* Shadow Chop
* Shadow Dash
* Shadow Eagle
* Shadow Guard
* Shadow Jump
* Shadow Kick
* Shadow Rocket
* Shadow Run
* Shadow Slider
* Shadow Style
* Shadow Teleport
* Slide
* Somersault
* Sonic Boost
* Speed up
* Spin Attack
* Spin Dash
* Spin Jump
* Spin Kick
	+ Tornado
* Triangle Jump

### Skills

* Immortality
* Supersonic speed
* Extreme acrobatics and reflexes
* Spin Dash
* Super strength
* High durability
* Enhanced jump
* Hand-to-hand combat skills
* Weapon and firearms combat skills
* Excellent driving skills
* G.U.N. military training and experience
* Capable Extreme Gear rider
* Grinding
* Proficient Enerbeam wielder
* Chaos Powers
* Harnessing Chaos Energy
	+ Super transformation
		- Super Shadow transformation
	+ Chaos Blast and Chaos Control transformation

### Feats

#### Strength level

* Overpowered Sonic the Hedgehog in combat.
* Defeated the Bio Lizard, a prototype Ultimate Life Form.
* With the help of Sonic, defeated the Finalhazard, a version of the Biolizard fused with the Eclipse Cannon and ARK.
* Defeated Mephiles the Dark and sealed him away.
* Defeated Black Doom's final form.
* Capable of destroying tanks and ships with the Shadow Rifle.
* Can easily flip vehicles.
* Inhibitor-released Shadow can destroy perfect copies of Mephiles the Dark.
* Obliterated a city with his Chaos Blast.
* Knocked out Silver the Hedgehog with a single roundhouse kick.
* Destroyed the Death Egg with one Chaos Blast.

#### Speed

* Rivalry equal in speed to Sonic.
* In base form, easily reaches massively hypersonic speeds.
* In Super Form, easily reaches the Speed of Light.
* Destroyed dozens of robots without being visually noticeable.

#### Durability

* Survived crash-landing into the planet from space.
* Capable of tanking gunfire.
* withstand an attack from Mephiles.

#### Skill

* Capable of defeating most characters in the Sonic series.
* Is somewhat able to understand systems as complex as Omega's.
* Defeated both Ifrit and Metal Sonic 3.0 a the same time.
* Aside from the Black Arms, Shadow has a good deal of mind resistance.
* Teleported the Black Comet.
* Has bested Sonic in combat.
* Froze time around an entire planet.
* Can skydive without a parachute.
* Defeated Black Doom, Black Death, Metal Sonic, Solaris, & FinalHazard.
* Took out an entire Metarex fleet.

### Transformations

#### Super Shadow

Main article: Super Shadow
 File:Supershadow 2.jpg
Like Sonic and Silver, by harnessing the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds, Shadow is able to use super transformation to transform into Super Shadow. In this form, he is bestowed with the new abilities of flight and near invulnerability. Also, like other super transformations, his normal abilities regarding speed, strength and power are greatly enhanced as well, and his skills with Chaos Powers are increased to their full limit.

#### Hero Shadow

*Main article:* *Hero Shadow*
In *Black Arms/Metarex Wars Saga*, Shadow is able to transform into **Hero Shadow** with the use of positive chaos energy, whenever his mind is fueled by thoughts of justice. In this state, Shadow is temporarily invincible and can perform a large scale use of Chaos Control. However, it only lasts for a short time.

#### Dark Shadow

*Main article:* *Dark Shadow*
In *Black Arms/Metarex Wars Saga*, Shadow is able to transform into **Dark Shadow** with the use of negative chaos energy, whenever his mind is fueled by thoughts of evil. In this state, Shadow is temporarily invincible and can perform a large scale use of Chaos Blast. Like Hero Shadow, this form lasts for a short time.

#### Chaos Boost

*Main article:* *Chaos Boost*
In *Solaris Saga*, Shadow can gain access an enhanced-up state dubbed the **Chaos Boost**. In this state, his powers are boosted significantly, granting him warp-like speeds, near invulnerability, and bolstered Chaos Powers.

#### Color Powers

*Main article:* *Color Powers*
By harnessing different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Shadow can use specific Color Powers to transform into a certain form, such as a drill, a laser or even a planet, each one possessing its own unique abilities. So far, Shadow has been able to transform into the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill and Indigo Asteroid. However, these transformations require a steady supply of Hyper-go-on to be maintained.

### Weaknesses

* Really arrogant.
* Overconfident, tends to underestimate his enemies and not use his full potential.
* After releasing his Inhibitor Rings, he loses a lot of energy very quickly.
* Prone to amnesia.

### Equipment

* **Hover Shoes**: Rocket-powered shoes that were designed to make Shadow even faster than he already is. With them, Shadow can reach hypersonic speeds, with his top speed being Mach 25.
* **Inhibitor Rings**: They were created to restrain Shadow's true potential, but Shadow can release them at any time. The downside is that Shadow's energy drains even faster when he's not wearing them.
* **Flame Ring**: A red ring that grants a flame aura to Shadow’s somersault attack.
* **Shadow Rifle**: A long-range firearm with really high firepower. Most enemies die from one shot of this weapon.

## History

### Early life

Fifty years before the start of the series, a top-secret project known as "Project Shadow" had begun on the Space Colony ARK. Led by Professor Gerald Robotnik, it was a government-sanctioned initiative to create "The Ultimate Lifeform," an immortal being that could be used for the benefit of the nation, likely in a militaristic fashion. While Gerald had initial misgivings to the purpose of the research he was assigned to, he realized that his results might be able to save his granddaughter, Maria. Suffering from the incurable disease Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome, Maria only had a short time left to live, and Gerald was willing to do whatever it took to save her life. Going against his worries of stepping into territory man had no business playing with, the professor immediately began work, hoping that he could apply any newly-gained knowledge to find a cure to N.I.D.S.

Even with all the resources at his disposal, the professor was unable to make any significant progress. Without alerting anyone, Gerald decided to plead to the stars for help, contacting the Black Arms race, an alien civilization that lived upon the Black Comet, a celestial object that passed near the planet every fifty years. Its leader, Black Doom, offered to assist Gerald in his quest. He offered his blood - which ended up being the key to perfect the ultimate lifeform - in exchange for the seven Chaos Emeralds, which he would collect the next time he passed through. Knowing that the Black Arms' intentions were less than desirable, Gerald made the deal regardless, albeit with preparations to defeat the Black Arms with the cannon built into the ARK, and was able to successfully create Shadow the Hedgehog.

Once brought to life, Shadow have immediately befriended Maria, and they became really close during their short time together. Gerald, meanwhile, made emergency precautions for the return of the Black Arms, ensuring that the Eclipse Cannon - an extremely powerful laser built into the ARK - was compatible with the seven Chaos Emeralds, so that when they *did* return with the Black Comet, humanity would be able to defend itself instead of bowing to their whims.

However, Gerald's progress was ruined when it was leaked to G.U.N. how he was able to create the successful prototype. During the meeting between Gerald and the Black Arms, one of the other children aboard the ARK had accidentally seen what transpired and reported back to those in charge. As ties between the ARK and the United Federation had already been strained, hearing the news of the dealings with an alien race scared those in charge. Afraid of the implications, it was decided to launch an invasion and put a stop to the work being done there.

What happened next was nothing short of madness, as G.U.N. troops descended onto the ARK, causing chaos and confusion wherever they went. Immediately they went after the Biolizard, which they thought was the successful "Project Shadow" prototype, and in the process of putting the creature into stasis, lost quite a few soldiers. From there they went about doing damage control, shutting down everything, getting everyone off the ARK, and killing those who resisted if need be. Knowing that the G.U.N. forces would be there at any moment, Maria convinced Shadow to enter an escape pod, her final wish to him that he give the people on the planet a chance to be happy. Wishing him goodbye, Shadow could do nothing as he watched the G.U.N. soldiers storm into the lab, firing a shot which would forever change the hedgehog's life as it ended the life of Maria Robotnik.

Learning of his granddaughter's death, Professor Gerald soon went mad with grief, swearing vengeance on humanity for taking away the only thing that ever meant anything to him. Though just what exactly transpired is cloudy, what is known is that both Gerald and the escape pod that held Shadow were gathered by G.U.N., Shadow having to be put to sleep in a stasis capsule within Prison Island, and Gerald being incarcerated and charged with the crimes that happened aboard the ARK.

## External links

* Shadow the Hedgehog *Wikipedia*
* Shadow the Hedgehog *Sonic News Network*
* Shadow the Hedgehog *Villains Wikia*
* Shadow the Hedgehog *Heroes Wiki*