♥️bribe me♥️

Short answer: these are just trolls. It’s obvious to anyone who actually knows that arc that the haters have never read it. They saw one page and assumed that suited their agenda.

Now, the long answer:

I’d suggest that anyone who’s interested should read the arc for themselves. It spans from issue 21 through 24 in the Sonic Universe spinoff series. It’s great if you love badass Blaze, Shadow/Amy interactions, Team Rose, Cream being adorable, and chaotic!Omega. It’s not perfect—Rouge’s portrayal just makes me sad, and this is somewhat off-topic, but it was also the origin of Storm’s creepy crush on Amy. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I felt nauseous seeing a 19-year-old look at a 12-year old like this from the start...

[Archie SU issue #23]

...and unfortunately, someone dragged it into Sonic Crossworlds:

Ian Flynn wrote both of these, btw. You know, I felt a little bad making Storm a creep back in headcanon #154 because it felt like cherry picking, but now it’s cemented in the main continuity, too. I didn’t want to be right! Why in the (cross)worlds is this the one thing that made the jump from Treasure Team Tango to the games?! I wanted more members for the Amy Rose Crush Club, but not like this!

Anyway, I still think it’s a fun storyline worth reading in spite of its flaws. You don’t need to read Archie to follow the plot, and it’s yet another instance of Shadow only listening to Amy. She’s his moral compass. Ian and I have our differences, but he does understand that dynamic. Anyone who thinks Ian Flynn, of all people, would write an anti-shadamy story, doesn’t know him. If you like their interactions in SA2 or the Miracle of Love route in ShTH, you’ll get a lot out of this. It’s also a great example of how Amy gets to act when Sonic isn’t there to divert her focus, as the purpose of the Sonic Universe comics is to show what’s happening while Sonic’s busy elsewhere.

I’ll summarize the plot here anyway. Back in SU #1, Shadow was stranded in the Sol dimension. Blaze saved him from drowning, he helped her fight off Metal Sonic, and she straight-up gave him a Chaos Emerald so he could warp back home with Chaos Control. Suffice it to say, they worked well together, and he owes her big time.

It’s amazing what kinds of nice interactions the characters have when they actually get to talk with each other, not just with Sonic. More of this, please!

Fast forward to issue #21, and Blaze is on Mobius. The Sol Emeralds have disappeared, so she’s trying to find and retrieve them. She meets Amy, Cream, and Rouge, and they locate one of the Sol Emeralds shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, Rouge betrays them and steals it at the end of the issue, flanked by Shadow and Omega. Issue #22 starts with Blaze confronting Shadow on his ingratitude:

But he doesn’t give her the time of day. This is a pattern:

[SU #23]

She’s right. She’s fierce. He clearly feels bad, as he should, but he still doesn’t listen, not really. That’s important, as it turns out.

And now, after that first time Shadow refuses to help her, we finally come to the part all the trolls obsess over...almost. I say almost because they usually leave out one key moment: issue #22, page 9, the part where Amy justifiably hits Shadow first.

Shadow’s infamous attack starts on page 18, a mere nine pages later:

Shadow does not hate Amy. He is going after her because she is the biggest threat to him on the field. This is just who he is:

[This is from IDW #10, but if these trolls are selectively switching canons, then I can, too.]

Cream and Cheese are not a threat to Shadow. Blaze is strong, but she’s a straightforward fighter, and he’s faster than she is. I’ve said this before, but if Amy ever thought it through and trained the right way, she could counter Shadow perfectly. He relies on battlefield control, using Chaos Control to outmaneuver and overwhelm his enemies before they can respond. Anytime that doesn’t work, he’s vulnerable. That’s his weakness, even in Archie. In SU issue #4, a godlike being known as Feist gets the upper hand on him by taking away his Chaos Control. He loses this fight, even with Rouge’s help. Just look at how much he panics:

Look at how helpless he is against Espio’s invisibility in Sonic Heroes:

And Infinite only overwhelmed him in Forces with the help of his illusions, taking advantage of Shadow’s over-reliance on seeing his opponents. It’s trickery that gets him.

Amy is far stealthier than people give her credit for. She snuck through a maximum-security prison and stole a card key in SA2. She can turn invisible. She’s been sneaking up on people with no seeming effort for decades, and male hedgehogs are her bread and butter:

The first thing she ever did to Shadow was catch him off guard!

[Sonic 06, Riders Zero Gravity, and SA2]

She’s loud. She’s silly. She is bright pink. This should be impossible, but the characters never point it out. It’s as if they just don’t notice...but Shadow does. In his own unconventional way, this is actually a form of respect. He knows he has to take her out before he can lose track of her because battlefield control doesn’t work if he can’t find his opponent. She’s his Achilles heel both on and off the battlefield.

The trolls never mention the aftermath, either, and why would they? They haven’t read it. In the very next issue, Amy has already forgiven him. She doesn’t even mention it. She immediately switches back to the unwavering faith she’s always had in him:

[SU issue #23]

She echoes that sentiment to Rouge in the next issue, too:

Shadow’s a selfless hero deep down, and she knows that better than anyone. This is the same girl who talked him down from committing mass murder. Does anyone really think she’d lose faith in him over one little tussle? After she struck first, no less?

She alone is able to get through to him at the end. It’s not Shadow’s guilt. It’s not Blaze’s ferocity. Those things don’t get through to him, not alone. He changes when he’s reminded of the hero he is. His kind nature. Hearing that good people worth protecting believe in him. Amy is the one who turns him around, just like she has in the past:

This is not a story about Shadow secretly loathing Amy. This is not a story of her getting hurt. It’s a story about how much he needs her and how she’ll always believe in him, even when everyone else has given up. She inspires him to be the hero she sees in him.

The last part of anon’s original message was asking if the hate posts had any valid point to make. Even if someone disagrees with everything I’ve said here, the answer is a resounding no. Violence between characters has never stopped the Sonic fandom before because in regards to other ships, it’s generally understood that it’s either played for laughs or the characters are willing to consider it water under the bridge. Sonic and Shadow. Sonic and Amy. Knuckles and Rouge. Knuckles and Sonic. Sonic and Blaze. Surge and Sonic. All of these are far more violent than shadamy ever will be. Even ships without any physical violence have had heated arguments, like Shadow and Rouge. The only popular non-violent game ship I can think of off the top of my head is Silvaze. Shadow himself has fought viciously with almost every character he’s even slightly close to, even platonically. He fights Knuckles in Archie and Sonic X. He’s beaten up Tails in several continuities. He’s battled with Omega in Archie and called him “just a dumb robot” in TSR, a game where he’s extremely rude to nearly everyone.

Except Amy, for the record. The only characters he’s close to with whom he’s always been gentle are Amy and Maria.

And are we really going to pretend Amy Rose never bonks guys she likes? Really?

Fans will conveniently overlook all of those fights for the sake of their ships, which doesn’t actually bother me on its own; people can ship what they want, and I enjoy several of those pairings myself. I just bring this up to emphasize that these shippers will brush aside violence between their favorites all the time while claiming Shadow dislikes Amy in the same breath, but the only “evidence” they can find in the 25 years Shadow and Amy have known each other consists of two pages from an obscure Archie-exclusive spinoff comic from a decade and a half ago. This really is the best they can do..and they still have to lie.