(As a preface: for the record, whenever I call Shadow 'emo', say
he would shop at Hot Topic, call him an MCR fan, etc etc etc, please
know that I'm saying it as an ex-emo teen, arguably-currently-emo adult.
Which is to say, it's not only affectionate, but also a compliment. I
love this edgy hedgehog.)
Shadow the Hedgehog is an artificially-created being, and the last
member of the Black Arms species (as a hybrid made with their DNA).
Technically, he was created 50 years ago, but he is mentally 15. His
birthday is March 14th.
His creator is Dr. Gerald Robotnik, who is also the grandfather of both
Maria Robotnik and Dr. Eggman. Gerald was requested to help with a
medical project ("Project Shadow") meant to unlock immortality by the
then-President of the United Federation. Gerald refused initially, but
upon realizing that this could help to cure the terminally ill Maria, he
agreed. He began to work on trying to create an immortal creature,
dubbed "the ultimate lifeform". He also created Black Doom, the leader
of the alien species, the Black Arms, and made a deal with him: in
exchange for Black Doom's help and DNA, Gerald would have his creation
deliver the Chaos Emeralds to Black Doom in 50 years. After an initial
failed attempt which proved to be beastly and unruly, Gerald began to
work on Shadow, this time giving him a heart and soul similar to
Maria's, in hopes that this would ensure that he would not become a
weapon of mass destruction.
Upon his creation, he was befriended by Maria, who he quickly grew very
close with. Maria was a young human girl who was born onto the Space
Colony ARK, and, due to her terminal illness being mitigated by the low
gravity, was unable to leave. Shadow canonically views Maria as his
sister, and the two of them both dreamed of visiting the Earth together
someday. However, their shared peaceful existence ended when G.U.N., a
military group, raided the ARK to eliminate everything and everyone
related to the project, due to believing it was too dangerous. Maria and
Shadow tried to escape the raid together, and were able to get as far
as the escape pods. With the G.U.N. soldiers right behind them, Maria
initiated the escape pod's launch with Shadow inside, and was mortally
wounded by gunshot afterwards. With her last bits of strength, Maria
asked Shadow to protect the world, for her sake, which acts as a huge
driving force for Shadow's character; though that memory being tampered
with made him instead seek out revenge in her name at first. In a 1UP
interview, Shadow said that if he could change one thing about his past,
it would be to give up his life for that of Maria's.
Though Shadow's likes are oftentimes listed as 'nothing' (okay, emo
kid), he actually is known to like a great multitude of things. Aside
from the obvious (that being Maria), he likes multiple foods, like
pizza, Doritos, snickers, Hot Pockets, chocolate and coffee beans (yes,
just the beans, he eats them straight like a little freak). He also
likes action movies (including Terminator as a named example), fighting
games, Burnout 3: Takedown and Kill la Kill. Aside from disliking things
that most people dislike (being insulted, being tricked, etc), he also
dislikes wasting time and losing. He's also notably VERY bad with
computers, which is really, really funny to me.
Personality-wise, Shadow is a broody loner. He's blunt and doesn't speak
much, but he's aggressive, stubborn, and can be quite smug and callous.
He also possesses a strong sense of identity. That said, Shadow also
canonically struggles mentally; particularly with post-traumatic stress
disorder, due to Maria's fate. He has been shown to have post-traumatic
flashbacks, which can be triggered by high-stress events, or by flashing
lights; seeing the police's sirens caused a notably intense flashback.
That said, he works hard to heal himself of his trauma.
I have met multiple people who have said that Shadow was their first
exposure to a character with post-traumatic stress disorder, and I can
also confirm the same for myself. Generally speaking, Shadow was also my
first introduction to the antihero archetype of character (see this
page's title), and was a character who I really loved in my childhood.
All of these things make him a very important character to me and my
upbringing! Although I know that I would still love his character if I
had been introduced to the series later. He's just such a delightful,
cool and interesting little guy!!
Per usual, with all characters near and dear to my heart, I have given
Shadow the Hedgehog the highest honor I can bestow: a headcanon that
he's queer and autistic. Shadow being autistic is a decently common
headcanon (see: blunt, emotional dysregulation, samefoods, generally
keeping to himself, a common animation of brushing his spines back which
can be seen as a stim... I could continue but I'll stop there), and
he's also one of those characters that I can see being trans in any
direction. I personally headcanon him as librafluid (which means mostly
agender, but has a small amount of attachment to (a) fluctuating
gender(s)), but there's no trans headcanon that I dislike for him. I
also see him as arospec and MLM. Ask for a specific label and he'd say
he's a faggot because he's 15 years old and looks Like That, and what do
you expect?
Also re: Shadow being queer, Ian Flynn (the head writer for the official
comic series and for the mainline game Sonic Frontiers) went on a
podcast to extensively talk about Sonic and Shadow as a romantic couple,
confirming that there is a foundation for it to work, so basically I
win forever and ever.
ANYWAY ☆ FAST FACTS: CANON SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG EDITION! ☆