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* series created by Yuji Naka. 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 before it was shut down.

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*: Jason Griffith (English), Kōji Yusa (Japanese), Not Known (Albanian), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Croatian), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Filipino), Not Known (French), Not Known (Galician), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hong Kong), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Ukrainian), 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)
* G.U.N.
	+ The G.U.N. Commander
	+ Team Dark
		- Rouge the Bat (ally)
		- E-123 Omega (close friend)
	+ Spider Troupe
* Molly
* Amy Rose the Hedgehog
* Cream the Rabbit
* Cheese the Chao
* Big the Cat
* Cosmo
* Christopher Thorndyke (to a degree)
* Team Chaotix
	+ Vector the Crocodile
	+ Espio the Chameleon
	+ Charme the Bee (looks up to Shadow)
* Relic the Pika
* Fixit the Robot
* Emerl
* Shade the Echidna
* Blaze the Cat
* Tangle the Lemur
* Whisper the Wolf

### Family

* Gerald Robotnik (creator)
* Black Arms
	+ Black Doom
	+ Black Death
	+ Eclipse the Darkling
	+ Dark Arms

### Neutral

* Tails the Fox (depending on Shadow's goal)
* Doctor Eggman (depending on Shadow's goal)

### Rivals

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

### Enemies

* Eggman Empire
	+ Bocoe
	+ Decoe
	+ Bokkun
	+ Orbot
	+ Cubot
	+ Badnik Horde
		- Metal Series
			* Metal Sonic
* Biolizard
* Metarex
	+ Dark Oak
	+ Pale Bayleaf
	+ Black Narcissus
	+ Red Pine
* Solaris
	+ Mephiles the Dark
	+ Iblis
* Ifrit
* Metal Sonic 3.0
* Babylon Rogues
	+ Wave the Swallow
	+ Storm the Albatross
* Dr. Eggman Nega
* Nocturnus Clan
	+ Imperator Ix
* Jackal Squad
	+ Infinite

## Abilities and Powers

Shadow is easily one of the most powerful characters in the series. He is extremely fast, capable of matching Sonic's and move at such velocity that he releases yellow energy discharges in his wake that he can use against enemies. As examples of his speed, Shadow could move both Molly and Rouge away from a large explosion in less than a second and can even dodge laser barrages. He is also very agile and has incredible jumping skills that allows him to jump hundreds of meters into the air. Furthermore, Shadow can use his vast super speed even in space, attacking and moving freely, something even Sonic cannot do.

Shadow has a significant degree of physical strength as he could push back against one of Final Mova's heads single handed. His body is also able to resist incredible punishment, such as being slammed into solid surfaces and even survive from being struck by powerful laser cannons or by Sonic's charged Spin Attack. By removing his Limiters from his wrists, Shadow can access his full power, which enhances his overall power so drastically that he can single-handedly destroy an entire Metarex fleet. However, using his full power for too long drains his stamina to the point where he will be rendered unconscious.

Shadow is naturally able to tap into the arcane powers of any nearby Chaos Emerald (fake or not) and utilize their chaos energy to empower himself and use a variety of Chaos Powers, and has a special connection to both them and the Master Emerald. In "*Shadow Knows*", he is seen unleashing a blast of energy to destroy some security robots.

Shadow has fearsome combat skills, as seen in his first encounter with Sonic and during his raid on the Blue Typhoon when he was able to fight his way through a weaken Sonic, Knuckles (though Shadow is shown to struggle when he fought against Knuckles), and Tails. He was also shown fighting his way through a large fleet of Metarex soldiers, destroying them all. In addition, Shadow shows over-average intelligence, such as when fighting Scarship he realized a head-on attack wouldn't work. He then switched for some advanced tactics and instead decided to shake the ship apart from the inside by striking its body at incredible speed.

With just one Chaos Emerald, he can induce Chaos Control to stop time, warp himself through space. He can also create multiple Chaos Spears or merging them to create one slide of chaos energy to increase its attack power. He is also able to use Spin Attack for both offensive and defensive maneuvers, but does not use it to the same extent as Sonic.

### Physical Abilities

Shadow is easily capable of matching Sonic's abilities in both speed and power. Although he is not as strong as characters like Knuckles the Echidna, Shadow has superhuman strength; with effort, he can overturn large objects many times his weight and size such as trucks, buses and large slabs of concrete with one hand. Like other characters in the series, Shadow can also move at super speeds, an innate talent that members of the hedgehog species possess, and can evenly match even Sonic's speed as well, who can run at hypersonic speeds. While Shadow's Hover Shoes are credited as the source of his speed, his powerful body allows him to easily rival Sonic's world class speed as well. While there is some inconsistency about how fast the two are compared to each other, Shadow has admitted that Sonic is the faster of the two of them.

Shadow is extremely acrobatic, agile, and an experienced athlete capable of gracefully leaping over any obstacles that head his way and performing various forms of nimble movements. He has radical reaction time to match his movements, being able to react to danger within a split second.

Shadow has incredible resilience to damage, being able to survive otherwise fatal situations even by the standards of superhuman creatures, making him nearly indestructible. He is impervious to bullets and can take a lot of major punishment in battle before he starts to wear down. The most prominent testament to his own durability, however, was in *Sonic Adventure 2* when Shadow survived his fall down to Earth from space and re-entry in the atmosphere before Eggman's robots rescued him. Despite surviving this, the experience left him with enough physical trauma to give him amnesia. Even after receiving major damage, Shadow displays a remarkably fast recovery rate, allowing him to quickly get back up in a matter of moments.

Due to being the successful culmination of Project Shadow, Shadow is immortal, does not physically age, and is presumably immune to disease. Furthermore, due to being partly Black Arms, Shadow has a connection to the Black Arms' hive-mind, allowing him to sense his kinds' presence and is immune to the Black Arms' nerve gas.

Shadow possesses tremendous willpower and unbreakable determination and, as a result, has absolute refusal to give up in any of his missions and never surrenders; he will see his goals to the end. His willpower allows him to keep on fighting when utterly exhausted, after taking an excessive amount of damage, or when he is severely outnumbered and outgunned. His will even lets him psychologically resist mind control powers. For example, Shadow was able to regain control from Black Doom despite him being part Black Arms and therefore susceptible to Black Doom's influence.

### 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 *Shadow the Hedgehog*, 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.

### Combat 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 *Shadow the Hedgehog*, 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 Biolizard, 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*
Shadow is able to use and harnessing the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds' power to transform into his super form, **Super Shadow**. In this super form state, all of Shadow's abilities far surpass his normal ones and his Chaos Powers are increased to their full limit. Additionally, Shadow possesses theoretically infinite speed and strength, along with flight and virtual invulnerability. All of his chaos abilities are also increased to an incalculable level; he once uses Chaos Control to stop the Planet Egg's explosion, which according to Eggman, would have destroyed the entire universe. Initially, Shadow found it difficult to stay in this state due to inexperience, but he has since mastered it.

#### Hero Shadow

*Main article:* *Hero Shadow*
In *Shadow the Hedgehog*, 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 *Shadow the Hedgehog*, 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 *Sonic the Hedgehog* (2006), 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 events of *Sonic Adventure 2*, 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*