#chillinpanda1787

My logical side says it must be a perspective thing, especially in Forces, but the Shadamy inside of me just likes this idea way too much so I can't unsee it. The one that gets me the most is Generations. He's clearly not looking at what the rest of them are like he's just gazing in Amy's direction for no reason.

As you know he has a tender moment with her in dream team where he checks on her from behind.

(Who knows how long he was on that knee 🤭)

He even does it again in the recent SonicXDC crossover.

He looks like he's looking down at Amy instead of up at the DCs. He probably isn't actually but it just looks like he is and it's hilarious to me that this seems to keep happening.

In an illustration from an Archie novel mini series Sonic, Silver and Amy are watching a cute realistic hedgehog, while Shadow has his back turned on it and looking down at Amy instead like he's thinking: "I need to keep an eye on her. That thing could bite." Not sure how THIS ONE could possibly be a perspective thing. Considering how shippy Archie was for these two I wouldn't be surprised if it was intended.

In canon, it's like the closest he can get to really interacting with her is when her back is to him. Sounds kinda sad when I put it that way, but I still like the idea. I can see a scenario where he's keeping an eye on her and saves her from an attack she doesn't see coming. She eventually realizes what he does for her. I think it fits his introverted and protective nature.

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((Oh, I love this idea. Shadow is a prime candidate for the Autistic Staring habit. It’s most obvious in Sonic X. Just look at this guy:

This man is uncomfortably intense, at least if you don’t know him too well. It’s completely believable that he wouldn’t notice he’s doing it, too. Between his aversion to socialization and his complete lack of life experience, I’d say it’s not just possible, but probable that he wouldn’t get it. On top of that, he doesn’t talk much, so Amy might misinterpret the staring:

Amy: Why is he staring? Did I do something wrong? Is there something on my face?!

Rouge: “Uh...buddy? Pal? You’re staring again.”

Shadow: “Pretty hedgehog”

This also pairs wonderfully with headcanon #301. It’s not at all difficult to assume that was on his mind.

I’ve seen a lot of these in a post by shadamypositivity from a little while ago. Love their blog, and the post is pretty funny:

I do think most of these come down to perspective. In the Forces scene, Shadow, Silver, and Amy are all watching Sonic as he gives a speech. The Generations one is a little more ambiguous, but it only happens for a split second. The entire group looks over at the two Sonics very briefly. Shadow doesn’t turn his head much. The most generous interpretation is that Shadow looked up at the same time, but he got stuck on Amy instead because she’s more eye-catching to him. It’s less admiration and more “pink hedgehog stands out in a crowd.” I don’t think most people would be surprised to hear he’d rather look at Amy than the two Sonics.

There’s no mistaking the Dream Team one, though. He avoided his best friend, the protagonist, and the kids—and wasted the opportunity to get the jump on an unconscious Eggman—all so he could check on his favorite hedgehog. Bless the animators for making her his first priority! This is HARDlight, too, the mobile game devs who are infamous for conveniently pairing these two up for designs. I’ve shown this before, but my favorites are the summer looks:

Any onlooker would assume this is a shadamy/sonouge double date given who’s matching who, but there’s sonamy here, too; it’s hard to see in this shot, but Sonic’s wearing a shell bracelet just like the one Amy made for him in Sonic X. It’s three ships in one. I love that they threw everyone a bone here :)

The DC crossover strikes me as another coincidence, but it is a little funny that the artist remembered to make everyone else’s eyes track up to the humans, only to forget with Shadow. It’s like he’s more interested in keeping an eye on Amy than paying attention to the plan. Delusional? Yes, but it’s fun.

Although, I do think it’s a little bit interesting that the artist for that issue was none other than Adam Bryce Thomas, who drew this shadamy commission:

Sure, it’s not canon and he was getting paid for it, but he didn’t say no 😉

For that Archie panel, I like to think Silver told Shadow there was a cute hedgehog he should see, and Shadow’s just like, “??? Uh...yeah? We see Amy all the time. What’s your point?” Just like in the DC crossover, it gives the vibe that he isn’t interested (or pretends he isn’t interested), and his gaze just defaults to Amy.

I do love the idea of Shadow keeping track of her in fights because she’s been so vulnerable in the past. I wish we got to see them together more often so we could see that in action. We’ve seen him save Rouge by catching her...

...and we know Amy loves being carried...

[Sonic Mega Drive]

...so why not combine the two? Bonus points if he’s in no rush to put her down, unlike what he did with Rouge, and Amy’s flustered by it.

Returning to the topic at hand, though...

What I find particularly interesting is that even in the Shadow Staring at Amy compilation, it still leaves some things out, and they’re the most compelling ones, too:

How could we forget the original? And from the other side with some free camera shenanigans, too:

Sure, it’s because the poor guy needed a hug, but whenever I see a boy gaze at a girl who’s affectionate with him—and actively step after her because he wanted more—I know what I assume.

And even more damning:

[IDW issue #36]

Show this panel to anyone who’s not familiar with the Sonic franchise, and I guarantee you they’d interpret this as jealousy. Why else would Mister “I don’t care about anything” glare like that? I honestly can’t think of any other possible reason. He never glares at Amy, but he does glare at Sonic. In fact, he never really stares at anyone else the way he sometimes does with Amy, does he? It’s not perspectives. It’s not shadamy brain rot. It’s just the only thing that makes sense.

And speaking of IDW, it’s not at all unexpected that they’d be at the forefront of Shadow/Amy interactions. Not only are they headed by Ian Flynn, who’s not at all opposed to the pairing, but in a recent interview with AIPT comics, someone credited only as “Sonic Editorial” was asked which odd character pairings they’d like to see in action, to which they replied:

“Don’t get me started on this! From day one at IDW, I have wanted a comic where Shadow and Amy are forced to pair up and save the world. I am a sucker for sunshine x grumpy, and I know it would be a hilarious (and heart wrenching) comic! We’re just waiting for the perfect story pitch!”

I have no idea who this person is, but I doubt it’s Ian Flynn. This isn’t his style. In the infamous tongue-in-cheek shadamy-descendant-Silver interview, he’s very calm and subdued, and he’s the same way on Bumblecast. This “Sonic Editorial” person seems a lot more excitable. There are exclamation points everywhere, lol. They seem fun!

Between Ian, Adam, and our Editorial buddy, I’m taking this to mean that Shadow/Amy isn’t an unpopular combination among the IDW staff, platonic or not. Conspiracy theory? Yeah, but that’s not uncommon for us. We know what we’re about here.

Thanks!

Joking around in Sonic Heroes even when they barely knew each other:

Rare sincerity from both of them in Sonic Battle after she took him back to Club Rouge to keep him safe:

From Sonic 06:

This one’s particularly meaningful because he’s not surprised in the slightest:

He takes it seriously and it clearly means a lot to him, but he just nods, as if he knew it deep down already. I sometimes see people say Team Dark’s friendship in 06 doesn’t count for current canon because it’s a closed time loop and they don’t remember it, but no. These two were already very close friends.

As for why Sega does this, I can’t say for sure because this...

[Shadow avoiding everyone at Sonic’s birthday party in Sonic Generations]

...is a lot less compelling to me than this:

Archie Sonic Universe #61, after his BEST FRIENDS broke him out of mind control—and yeah, Omega means the world to him, too. The writers for Sonic Chronicles knew that:

My best guess: Sega decided partway through that Shadow should be a “cool” lone-wolf character. They distanced him from Rouge and Omega for the same reason they distanced him from Amy: they bring out his softer side. It’s hard to make a guy an angsty, tortured loner if he has friends in the present who have his back and make him smile.

One problem with this is that the friendship keeps shining through every so often anyway. Some of the writers clearly remember it and put in bits here and there into the modern era:

[Sonic Forces, Episode Shadow]

[Helping Shadow make the right decision in IDW issue 36, then casually chatting with him later]

And Shadow Dark Beginnings has some really good Team Dark moments, too. I like to point out this one:

The key here is that she isn’t just getting a spaceship for him, she’s also making sure he socializes with other people. He really does need that, and that’s great...

...except, as mentioned, it ends with him sulking and isolating himself anyway:

C’mon, man, Rouge is right there. Only excuse I’ll buy is that he doesn’t want to be a third wheel.

And not to go off on a tangent, but I never hear people talk about how much this kneecaps Rouge’s personality. Morally gray characters are tricky to balance. When Rouge is written as nothing more than a materialistic, flirtatious thief who only prioritizes her own well-being, I honestly don’t have much use for her. Showing how far she’ll go for her loved ones proves there’s something more to her. In my opinion, the only continuity that gets her right without leaning heavily on the Team Dark dynamic is IDW. And even though she’s fantastic there, it still feels lonely without the team. And while Omega’s funny, chaotic nature helps him stand out, he loses a lot of depth without his two favorite meatbags to play off of. The element of “we know this guy’s bloodthirsty, and we wouldn’t have him any other way” is gone.

All of this adds up to a frustrating bout of tell-don’t-show from Sega spanning years now. The higher-ups can say Team Dark aren’t friends all they want, but they’re simply wrong.

In my opinion, the only reasonable way to approach the topic is Death of the Author.

(I know you’d never blame her yourself, but it’s an approach I’d rather avoid in a general sense.)

I hadn’t thought about the gap between the eastern and western portrayals of sonouge, but I think you’re right. Rouge has an extensive history of flirting with Sonic...

[Sonic Battle, 2003. Yes, she really said that. It makes enough sense in context, but. Like. Rouge. Think of the children! 😵‍💫]

[Sonic Chronicles, 2008]

[Sonic Colors, 2010]

...but he usually doesn’t flirt back outside of western media:

[Archie Sonic Universe issue #2, 2009]

[IDW #6, 2018 & #80, 2025]

[Crossworlds, 2025]

[IDW #59, 2023. That last one is Evan Stanley, but literally everything else is Ian Flynn. That’s kind of hilarious. This man has been single-handedly steering the sonouge ship since at least 2009. What a champ]

The Japanese dub of Crossworlds completely erased their flirtation:

Sonknux has been following the same pattern as sonouge in American media these days:

[Sonic Frontiers, 2023, Ian again. I can’t be the only one who thought this was going somewhere other than a fist bump]

[IDW 2024 Annual. Written by Iasmin Omar Ata rather than Ian, but it’s still IDW]

But although Sega is letting Ian have a field day with Sonic in English, they’re not really translating it into Japanese to my knowledge. That Frontiers scene that arguably screams sonknux in English is much less emotional in Japanese. I think that’s a shame because these interactions feel the most like Sonic to me. Fun, free, casual, playful, charming. I love it.

(He's so handsome!)

Anyway guess who's crazy about apples? Silver!

He decides to plant an apple orchard in IDW issue 76. And guess who loves the idea? Amy!

What if they plant an apple orchard and keep it in the family for generations or something?! That could be something that can be a part of them that can bring them together! Just an idea!

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((Shadow’s diet in canon is comically abysmal. Headcanon #239 is about that, and it links to a compilation of everything Shadow had ever eaten by that point. It doesn’t include the apple or his preference for chocolate cake in TMOSTH because those hadn’t happened yet, but it’s impressively thorough. A+

I adore your idea! As if these panels weren’t adorable enough already:

[IDW issue 36]

The apple orchard idea works on so many different levels because all three of them would have their own reasons for loving it. Silver is fascinated with plant life from the current time and especially loves growing fruits and vegetables. This isn’t even the first time he’s been shown to love apples specifically:

[Sonic Channel sidestory art from August 26th, 2022. I can’t read it, but I believe it’s implying that the common Japanese apple rabbit slicing style resembles his quills.]

Shadow grew up on a space station, so I think he’d be fascinated by nature. Amy loves to bake, so she’d be able to make sweets for them to share the fruits (heh) of their labor: apple pies, apple fritters, etc. And the orchard could draw in more Chao, especially the one mentioned above; I’m still choosing to believe that Shadow adopted that Chao and has been raising it in secret.

I wonder how long it would take Silver to put the pieces together. I imagine he’d be thrilled to see the apple orchard still going strong when he returned to the future, and he’d pop back to the past every now and then to take care of it alongside Shadow, who’s immortal and could explain that he and Amy made it a family tradition to take care of it. After enough generations, Silver might see the family look more and more like his parents until it would hit him and he’d realize he’d been inadvertently keeping the family tree (heh heh) going all this time, even well into the future. Even better, Shadow could finally talk to him about their lineage without having to worry about breaking the timeline.

The evidence for Silver and Amy in particular being related has been piling up more and more lately. I’m sure it’s not on purpose, but...c’mon. Tell me this isn’t the same power:

[Silver’s levitation in Sonic Forces, Amy’s card float in Sonic Frontiers. I don’t like how much they replaced her hammer with the cards in that game, but it does have its...silver linings (heh heh heh).]

That’s just psychokinesis. Change my mind. Cards or not, it’s her psychic power that’s doing it. I’ve always felt Amy’s powers were hers and hers alone and the cards are just placebos. She thinks she needs them because she doesn’t know her own strength. Heck, maybe Silver could be the one to prove it to her. He’s blunt enough to insist it’s the truth, and who would know better than him?

IDW’s been adding to the descendant theory, too. Remember when Silver flipped out from one (1) hug back in 06? He’s starting his own group hugs now:

[IDW issue 76]

Amy’s the only one who could be rubbing off on him like this, right?

[IDW 2022 annual, IDW issue 76]

She’s the first and only one who’s ever hugged him in the games as far as I know, and I’ve always theorized that she’d be the best candidate for getting him used to affection. Seems like she’s already started.

Shadamy-Descendant-Silver used to rely on 90% Shadow hints and 10% “Amy’s the only logical partner,” given that he’s not close to the other female characters and Rouge doesn’t want kids:

[Sonic Battle. Lol, Sonic gets it.]

If it weren’t for the Shadow half and my preference for shadamy, I probably wouldn’t have connected her with Silver back in the day, but now? If Sega weren’t so obviously gung-ho about s0namy, I’d swear they were doing it on purpose. She’s such a mom for him specifically, and it’s adorable. I love seeing this side of both of them.

To start, I will say that it doesn’t feel “wrong” to me like most Shadow ships do. I get where shadouge fans are coming from, and I’ve never met a shadouge shipper who was pushy or unpleasant about it. That’s rare in fandoms. I like how low-key they are. :)

As for the ship itself, I don’t buy it because they’re just so solidly best friends. I’ve never seen anything that I’d call romantic between them.

For Shadow, I see two important (living) women in his life right now:

One is a consistent, reliable rock who’s always going to support him and back him up because of who he is.

The other is a light, a beacon who guides him and inspires him to be the best version of himself he can be.

To me, one of those looks like a best friend, and the other looks like a love interest. He needs both, but in my opinion, it’s clear which one’s which. He’s level-headed around Rouge, and while he probably trusts her more than anyone, he looks at her the same way he looks at everyone else. Heck, he looks at her the same way he looks at Omega. I can’t imagine Rouge successfully convincing him to dress up for a murder mystery birthday party or getting him to go to a silly pop concert the way a certain pink hedgehog can, nor can I see her trying to in the first place; Amy’s the only one who can pull him out of his comfort zone like that. The most Rouge does is convince him to go to Sonic’s birthday party, and even then, she has to bribe him. Rouge’s flirtation just bounces off of Shadow, too. He doesn’t have a weak point for her. Looking at Shadow’s behavior, I think he has a soft spot for cute girls, and Rouge isn’t cute.

As for Rouge herself, she’ll support Shadow to hell and back, but we know what love looks like in her eyes. I’m not getting out of bed until she looks at someone else like this:

Rouge and Shadow are too similar in a particular way. They’re both Machiavellian, willing to go to questionable lengths to get the job done. The same goes for Omega. It’s what makes them such a good team, but a good teammate isn’t the same as a love interest. Knuckles won her over by doing the right thing and saving her life even though he had every reason not to.

I actually have some headcanons about Rouge’s past that feed into this concept. I believe Rouge grew up poor and didn’t have too many people she could trust. She had to steal for her own survival, and she learned to cling to whatever wealth she could find. She keeps a lot of secrets to this day because it’s safer. She learned the hard way that no one can hurt her if she won’t let them in.

In time, Rouge met one guy who was on her wavelength who she knew she could trust, and she met another who swept her off her feet, whose altruism upended her pessimistic outlook of how people are.

One of those looks like a best friend, and the other looks like a love interest. She needs both, but it’s clear to me which one’s which.

And of course there’s the matter of commitment. Rouge can’t stay grounded, so to speak, in the kind of stable relationship that would do Shadow a world of good. She’d rather flit around and tease everyone in sight, delighting in all the blushes she can bring out; in her own way, she likes cuteness, too. Amy, meanwhile, prefers to cling to one person, sharing the same steady devotion Shadow could provide in turn. She’s sunshine incarnate. He needs that.

She says: "If you trust your colors." If she was speaking to Sonic why would she say this? Since when has he not trusted his colors? It makes more sense if this line is about her not him. Trusting her colors is a part of her current character arc. In Sonic Frontiers she talks about going on a journey to give love to the world. Like she said, when she spoke of this to Sonic "it will take me away from you!" She's apprehensive, because she would be moving on from Sonic, her main source of inspiration. To move forward she would NEED to trust her colors!

"There could be another future waiting for you." Again, many take this as to mean she's telling Sonic that she will wait for him until he's going to be ready for a relationship so she can be his "future". I don't buy it. If she was speaking to Sonic, another future compared to what? He doesn't care about the future, he lives in the present! The one that cares about the future is Amy, not him. And I don't think this line is about her waiting for anybody. As has been pointed out by SEGA many times, she is a go getter. She couldn't be happy waiting forever for someone no matter who they are or how much she may love them. It just doesn't make sense.

So if she's not waiting for Sonic what does this line mean? In Sonic Frontiers it seems Amy is going through some changes. As I mentioned before, she's going on a journey to share love with the world. This is a change for her because in the past when it comes to love, the biggest focus of her character was her love for Sonic. A lot of people were bugged by this thinking that was her whole personality. That was never true but... it's understandable to me that so many were unable to see past it since it was the biggest focus for her.

SEGA seems to want us to see her differently now, and I thank them for it. She's the personification of love. People tend to only give her character meaning when it comes to her feelings for Sonic but there has always been much more to her than just that! A focus of a character should not be their feelings for another, so I very much think this is the step forward for her. Her character is about love in general not just love for a specific person.

So instead of her waiting for Sonic so she can be his future, I'm convinced that she's going to seek out her own future that's waiting for her, whatever it may be, instead of chasing someone that's always on the move and waiting for someone that will never come around. I don't think this means she's over him, she still loves him romantically, she's just putting her feelings for him to the side and doing something for herself for a change. She's not letting her world revolve around him any more.

It seems that from what I've seen from Twitter Takeovers and other supplementary materials from the last few years, especially last year, the person she has been giving love to lately is Shadow which makes sense to me! No one needs love more than he does. He's the perfect person to start with for her. Now to see it more in the mainline games is the next step, I think. I hope. 🙏

So to give further evidence for her not waiting for him in the Final Horizons dlc where this theme comes from, I'll show that she flat out says it herself in the Japanese. (Hopefully you can see it in the picture, but I'll put the exact words here: ) "I'm not just going to wait around or chase you anymore!" Curiously, they seemed to have changed this line in the English. I wonder why?

(I always found this English line odd. "I'm not a damsel in distress any more!" She hasn't been a damsel in distress in years. Why would she be saying this in 2023? It's like they were trying to cover something up lol. Or it was just mistranslated. Not sure how it works)

Feel free to share your thoughts!

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((Thanks for writing in! I’m actually not a fan of her theme in the DLC; it feels too passive and mild for my taste. I wrote a headcanon shortly before that came out that gave her a different theme, and I stand by it. It has more energy. The lack of energy is a complaint I have for Frontiers!Amy in general. She was a little better in the DLC, and I like that they let her be a leader. More of that, please!

I should note before anything that the dialogue for Frontiers was written first in English by Ian Flynn and then translated into Japanese. You can tell by the lip-syncing, and Ian Flynn confirmed this in a Wordpress interview:

Any differences you see for Amy are a result of the Japanese translators, frankly, fixing things. That “I’m not a damsel in distress any more!” line is about fifteen years too late, and it’s the worst of “tell, don’t show.” See me after class, Mr. Flynn.

As for the song, I had interpreted it differently. I was thinking of it as Amy speaking to the audience, like she’s giving her personal philosophy. She finds that trusting her cards has served her well and things have a way of working themselves out:

That’s what she’s doing in the DLC, and Knuckles and Tails’ themes follow that trend, too. I never would have thought to apply the lyrics to Sonic.

It definitely seems like Sega has plans to do something different with Amy, but I’d caution anyone against getting their hopes up for her moving on romantically, as much as I would love that. As I understand it, her overall mandate is “must always be in love with Sonic, but can never be in a relationship with him.”

[Side note: is it just me, or is that kind of soul-crushing and cruel? It’s the same perpetual cycle of fruitlessness as Eggman’s “must never give up trying to rule the world, but must always fail.” Why are her goals as doomed to fail as the main villain’s? Maybe some people feel she’ll be content just chasing him forever, but sheesh...]

The lead writers were told to give Sonic a girlfriend in Sonic CD, but they felt he wouldn’t want a relationship. Instead, they introduced Amy Rose, a determined young girl who’d never give up, functioning as a “pseudo love interest” who’d drive a perpetual, one-way romance herself so Sonic wouldn’t be in a committed situation that didn’t suit him. Personally, I don’t think Sonic needs a love interest, but Sega somehow hasn’t gotten my letters of “just let him be ace,” “put him with Knuckles,” and my latest attempt at compromise, “have every single Sonic rival fall in love with Amy for wacky hijinks.” I’m starting to think someone’s sabotaging my carrier pigeons.

I hope they give Amy another focus, maybe a hobby or leading volunteer work or something, that’ll allow her to “share her love” in a way that’ll produce real results and give her the satisfaction she deserves. She really does need some distance from Sonic and a wider outlook so she can learn more about who she is, but I don’t see that replacing her feelings for him. She’s doomed by the narrative steadfast.

I know it’s easy to feel excited about shadamy right now. Shadow and Amy are being inundated with support in supplementary materials these days. You’ve got the marketing department releasing merchandise specific to the two of them, most notably their very extensive line of matching cherry blossom merchandise...

...while SEGA HARDlight keeps dressing them up in matching skins...

...and gives Shadow a tender moment toward Amy in Sonic Dream Team to boot:

Multiple VAs have shown open approval for the ship, most notably Colleen O’Shaugnessy (Tails), Cindy Robinson (current Amy), and Lisa Ortiz (formerly Amy):

...plus the social media team wedges in as much shadamy as sonamy in Twitter Takeovers these days, not to mention the absolute banquet that was The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. We got flirtatious dialog for the two in Team Sonic Racing and Amy’s arguably smitten look toward Shadow in IDW issue 59:

But there’s one unfortunate common factor: none of it is in the main games.

The lead writers have had every opportunity to drop hints or even make them friends if that’s what they wanted, but they’re still barely putting these two on screen together; it’s like they’re the only corner of the franchise that has zero interest in putting them together, and they just so happen to be the ones in charge. When’s the last time the two of them had a conversation in a mainline game? When’s the last time they even said each other’s names in a mainline game?

There’s a reason we can easily headcanon him calling her “Rose.” He doesn’t get to call her anything.

They haven’t even talked properly in TailsTube, the series that was created specifically to solidify the lore and the characters’ relationships with one another. Sega’s primary focus hasn’t been on these two since they first met in 2001, and I fear that’ll never change.

When was the last time anyone, in any canon, acknowledged what she did for him on the ARK? How many times have they erased it now?

I don’t want to be a downer, but I’ve been here from the start, and I know how this goes from experience. I don’t want anyone to get their hopes up and feel even more let down when it goes nowhere in the main canon, the same way it has for almost 25 years. Just enjoy what the outskirts of the franchise are doing for us, because it’s way, way more than they ever have before. It’s nice to know there are people on the inside who get it, who do care, and shadamy’s more popular in the fandom than ever. We’ve been blessed with deluges of quality fanart and fanfiction in the past few years, mostly driven even by TMOSTH alone. They barely need to interact to win us over. That says a lot about how great a ship this is, doesn’t it?

A lot of fans would love to see crumbs or a solid friendship, but Sega’s not exactly known for giving the fans what they want. This is the same company that could make a fortune off of Sonic Adventure 3 and a Chao Garden, but they won’t.

In light of this, I must confess I’ve been rather frustrated with Ian Flynn as of late. This is par for the course for Sega and I know they have their mandates, but Ian talks the talk, then refuses to deliver. He had the Amy Acting as Shadow’s Moral Compass dynamic mastered back in 2009 when he wrote Archie’s Treasure Team Tango, but in 2024, he wrote an entire game about Shadow’s past that didn’t even mention her. He talks about how Shadow trusts her more than the others and he recalls their ARK talk fondly on BumbleKast, even adopting an impressive Shadow voice to say, “I’ve only known her for five minutes, but if anything happens to her, I’ll destroy the world and everyone in it.” But then he’s put in charge of the dialogue for Shadow: Dark Beginnings, and he writes this:

Rouge: “There’s only one person who could ever [talk him down].” Commander Tower: “True. And she was lost to us a long time ago.”

And I’m sorry...but that’s bullshit. I know those two wouldn’t know about the ARK talk, but this is framed as a dramatic, impactful talking-to-the-audience moment, and it’s a lie. Ian knows it’s a lie.

He’ll show his support for their friendship--and perhaps more--on his podcast (with his delightful co-host, who I frankly like more), talking about well she knows him and how she’d throw a party just for the two of them for his birthday, and he’s a big part of the reason half of us like the Silver Descendant Theory so much, as he’s supported it a couple times; tongue-in-cheek or not, he wouldn’t suggest it if he didn’t like it.

But when it comes time to writing for the actual main games...nothing. C’mon, man. Do better.

Or just try out to replace Kirk Thornton instead. I’m serious about that.