Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Boom)

## Shadow the Hedgehog

**Shadow the Hedgehog** is a character that appears in the *Sonic Boom* series. He is an anthropomorphic hedgehog referred to as the "Ultimate Life Form," and the arch-rival of Sonic the Hedgehog.

## Appearance

Shadow is a black-furred anthropomorphic hedgehog. Like Sonic, Shadow is rather slim with relatively long arms and legs and pronounced shoulders that give him a tall and slightly lanky appearance; unlike Sonic, however, Shadow appears to be more barrel-chested with broad shoulders. He has red eyes, a small patch of white fur on his chest, a tan-skinned muzzle, and tan-skinned ear canals. He also has six quills on his head, four of which curve upwards while the other two curve downwards, two spines on his back, and a small tail. He has red stripes on each of his head quills, around the edges of his eyes, and on his arms and legs. He also has a single cowlick-like spike that sticks out from underneath each of the top side quills on his head.

Shadow's attire includes white gloves with red backs which have long red and black cuffs with fasteners and golden ring bands around his wrists. His shoes are mainly white and smooth with black heel regions. Above the topline, each shoe has a long red tongue and black cuff encircled by a single golden ring band. Around the rim of the soles, Shadow's shoes have red strips of metal on the rear and front of the bottom, broken below the in-steps. On the bottom of each sole is also an orange-yellow line of four small "jets" (three up front and one on the heel).

## Personality

Shadow comes off as blunt, aggressive, arrogant, and uncaring and does not take kindly to outside interference, swiftly disposing of whoever gets in his way. Extremely aggressive and lacking in inhibitions, he is perfectly willing to eliminate a foe rather than merely subduing them, unlike Sonic, and believes that justice must be done by any means necessary. Despite his selfish and aggressive tendencies, his motivations to fight are purely related to his pride, and not villainy or heroism. Because of this, he is often very destructive and even brutal in battle. Still, he usually maintains a calm, if not aloof and indifferent, attitude, and shows a general interest in nothing. Shadow also has a strong sense of purpose and sticks to his goals with grim determination and intense focus, not resting until they are fulfilled. He is also not one to run away from a confrontation.

Shadow is fiercely independent. A lone wolf, he believes friendship to be a sign of weakness and refuses to serve anyone but himself. Even when joining forces with others, he has no interest in collaborating or the group's plans unless they align with his own goals; additionally, in the rare event that he does team up with someone, he outright refuses to cooperate with them (as seen when he and Sonic briefly fought against Metal Sonic, when Sonic suggested coordinating Spin Attacks from opposite sides, Shadow bluntly stated he "take[s] orders from no one" and shoved him out of his way). While not above the occasional witty remark, he is usually very serious and has little patience for silly behavior, having no issue criticizing and voicing his low opinions of others in the harshest and rudest way possible. He likewise despises weakness and people he deems weak, but is willing to at least give compliments when deserved. His seriousness also leads him to be difficult to impress. However, he is quite touchy and sensitive, namely when he believes that he has been insulted.

Shadow is very vengeful, to the point where he appears remorseless and without a shred of humanity; after getting fooled by Eggman multiple times, Shadow grew so vengeful that he lost his temper and chose to exact revenge on his "pathetic" universe by attempting to destroy it, showing no sympathy for the innumerable lives that would be lost as a result of his actions. He is likewise not one to let go of grudges easily; once free from Lyric's control, he spent most of his time hunting down Lyric to make him pay for enslaving him.

He is also highly intelligent as shown when he figured out that Eggman had deceived him from bantering with Sonic. Despite this intelligence, however, he is somewhat gullible, as he was easily fooled into thinking Sonic insulted him by Eggman's poorly-edited recording of an earlier conversation.