#shadonic

Lavandula - A Sonadow Hanahaki Story

Pages 19-21

Canoncity

Characters: Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog

Canon Status: Semi-Canon

Canonical Type: Yaoi

Relationship: Rivalry Friends with an Intimate Relationship (as Mutual Feelings)

Other Ship Names: ShadSoni, ShaSoni, Shadnic, SoniSha, Shadow x Sonic, Sonic x Shadow

Official “Canon” Interactions between Sonic the Hedgehog and Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic Prime:

In official “canon” interactions between Sonikku and Shadow is that rival and friends (since they call each other like dude, bro and buddy on some episodes) with an intimate relationship as mutual feelings.

Although they had rivalry conflict moments twice (like in S1 Ep2 and S2 Ep1), there are cute and sweet moments between them and it can be said there are (semi-)canonical elements as subtle hints between Sonic and Shadow because they have physical and emotional intimacy moments, which can be interpret that they see each other more than rivals and friends, since they keep saving each other many times whenever one of them was in danger or hurt, they have mutual care with deep love between them.

On Sonic’s side in Sonic Prime:

It can be said that Sonic likes Shadow more than a rivalry friend, because in S2 Ep1, Sonic was very happy when he found out that Shadow is the real Shadow, then hugs him cheerfully. He also hugged his friends (even though he thought they are his real friends at first) in S1 Ep3, but Sonic hugs someone who had a complex relationship and conflict moment with him few times, so this means, he has a warm comfort around Shadow, since Sonic had a physical intimacy with him like hugging him very squeezy.

He even side hugs Shadow in S3 Ep5, which means, Sonic feels comfort around him and he is smiling with him, while he is still side hugging Shadow after he introduced him to his friends and allies. This leads that Sonikku has a trust bond with Shadow and expressing his deep feelings towards him by side hugging Shadow.

After Sonic and Shadow’s conflict moment because of disagreement between them in S2 Ep1, Sonic was very concerned when Shadow got hurt and fainted away, so Sonic saves his life to not let him fall through the black hole and bridal carries Shadow. Sonic had been worrying whenever Shadow was in danger and he even worried when Sonic could not help him in S2 Ep8 until being very happy to found Shadow that he is still alive and stable. He also gets upset when he thought Shadow is gone and could not save him back in Nine’s place in S3 Ep3, this leads to that Sonic feels something much more for Shadow, which means that Shadow has been touching Sonic’s heart, since he keeps concerning when Shadow’s safety was in danger.

After Sonic saved Shadow in S2 Ep1, he teases Shadow when he became conscious. This can be said that Sonic was being flirty with Shadow at this moment, because Sonikku came very closer on his personal space and looks at Shadow with his attractive eyes, which is another subtle hint that Sonic likes him, since this episode states that he likes to be around with Shadow.

Another subtle hint that is stated Sonic likes Shadow is in S2 Ep8 which he says Shadow “I ❤️ you too” after Shadow saves him. Although “I 🫶 you too” is a cute informal response to say “I love you”, it also indicates that Sonic is reciprocating the affectionate feelings towards Shadow that he expressed, so he shared the affection to response Shadow “I love you” in a light-hearted and playfully way. Though, this phrase is sometimes used to ease into deeper love declarations, which is how Sonic meant to Shadow that he loves him as sharing the same feeling towards him in both playfully and a bit seriously.

Those are the subtle deep intimacy moments on Sonic’s side in Sonic Prime, which confirms that he has feelings for Shadow very deeply since he keeps concerning whenever Shadow is in danger, tries to save his life, teases him to get his personal space, hugs him as both sided or mutually to show that he feels warm and comfort around him and makes a love confession to Shadow very deeply as saying “I ❤️ you too”.

On Shadow’s Side in Sonic Prime:

It can be said Shadow sees Sonic more than a rival and a friend deeply, because when Sonikku says to Shadow “I 🫶 you too”, Shadow did not say anything but only rolling his eyes after he saves Sonic from blasted missiles and only made an off comment because of his Tsundere personality (1, 2, 3), which Sonic is aware that Shadow was being Tsundere towards him, so he says “I love you” to response Shadow that he likes him, and so does Shadow, but only avoided what he said, which could be the reason he was being shy deeply or trying to focus on himself the duty.

In S3 Ep1 Shadow understood very deeply that Sonic was so upset when he got betrayed by Nine whom had a deep trust bond, so Shadow holds Sonic’s hand to escape from Green Hill and not let Sonic to get more hurt while Green Hill was getting destroyed. This demonstrates that Shadow shows very deep care towards Sonic when Shadow holds his hand and it also shows he felt about something on Sonic’s emotions like how his heart was very broken by getting betrayed to his close friend Nine, which demonstrates he has a deep love affection towards Sonikku like being touchy with him, which he had never been deep touchy towards anyone in Sonic Prime.

There are other moments that Sonic has touched Shadow’s heart. To illustrate, Shadow did not show any annoyance when Sonic side hugged him in S3 Ep5, instead, he let Sonic to keep hugging him despite being Tsundere and pouting. It shows that Shadow feels warm and comfort with Sonic very deeply just like how Tsunderes are being cold and pouting on the outside but feel comfort and warm on the inside when their love interests are closer and being touchy to them.

Another example is that, Shadow was very concerned when Sonic was about to get hurt from the shattered crystals while they were about to head Nine’s new place, so Shadow saves Sonic’s life to not let him get injured and Shadow makes an off comment after Sonic thanked him in S3 Ep1, despite Shadow’s Tsundere personality, this leads to that Shadow saved him because he was showing his deep feelings towards Sonic when he was getting worried about Sonic when he was getting hurt.

Shadow was also very concerned when he saw Sonic got hurt and bridal carries to save Sonikku’s life afterwards in S3 Ep7. He even so worried when Sonic was getting hurt while Shadow was helping him to bring back to Green Hill. Getting concern and bridal carrying are the subtle hint that Shadow did these for very deep feelings towards Sonic, since he keeps saving and worrying him whenever Sonic is in danger, and gets injured.

These are the subtle physical and emotional intimacy hints of how Shadow loves Sonic more than just a rival and a friend, since he bridal carries Sonic twice to save his life, does not deny after Sonic says “I ❤️ you too”, letting Sonic to side hug him and gets concern whenever Sonikku got hurt.

Trivia:

• Lastly, another subtle hint that most of the people could not aware is that in S1 Ep2, when Sonic was circling around Shadow while they were in a conflict moment and Shadow was also circling around Sonic in S3 Ep1 to help him after he found out that Nine’s aim is to take Sonic’s power. There is a highly possibility that these parts, where Sonikku and Shadow were circling around each other is related to a method of the hedgehog mating ritual. The hedgehog mating ritual is, when a hedgehog keeps circling around another hedgehog, it means that the hedgehog wants to be mate with this hedgehog, so this means, these are another intimacy moments when Sonic and Shadow were circling around each other in Sonic Prime.

•Some fans speculate that while Sonic was being flirty with Shadow and came very close to his personal space, Shadow looked like he is giving Sonic an “eskimo kiss” to Sonic at the moment in S2 Ep1 after Sonic saved his life and teases him, which could be another subtle hint that Shadow was being pushed to be pair with Sonic by Sonic Prime animators.

•On July 6 2024, Deven Mack, who was the voice actor of Sonic the Hedgehog in Sonic Prime, made a post acting as Sonic to have him say to Shadow that he can't Chaos Control until he eats all his broccoli and in response, Ian Hanlin, who was the voice actor of Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic Prime, acted as Shadow saying: "... *sigh* fine..." with a black and red heart (🖤❤️). This is in relation to a Q&A panel that was done at the 2024 Anime Expo.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundere

https://lingopie.com/blog/anime-types-of-dere/

https://www.tumblr.com/the--god--of--fuck/635905419065327616/all-dere-types-list?source=share

Helping each other through a meltdown

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I have a lot of headcannons for how they would both handle meltdowns that I wanted to ramble about the other day, but I'm better with art than I am with words :')

Some rambling under the cut, but I'm tired, so it may not be fully coherent