#shadow analysis

in my mind, they arent. but not in a dehumanizing way, in fact, calling them people is dehumanizing them in my mind

they arent people, theyre concepts, and in the way i see them, theyre gods.

sonic is freedom embodied. he doesnt let anything stop him, hes the wind in your hair and the creativity flowing through you, hes the fight that never gives up even when it gets tough snd hes who will be at your side, pulling you up when youve fallen down. hes the determination, hes what tells you to never give up.

shadow is the rest, a strong force, something that looks like they should be fighting, but theyre a healer. theyre the feeling of a distant but close relationship, one that words cant describe, they see when it gets tough and they tell you to take a break, when youve hit your limit theyll push you back down. when the fight is over theyre the one to make sure youre still there. hes the patience, hes what tells you you got out.

and thats how they see each other.

others see them as physical things, you can see sonics trail of blue behind him, the remains of the badniks, they can see the rage of shadow, the carnage he leaves behind him

but thats not who they are, they were never meant to be physical things

and i would even go as far as to say thats canon. we know sonic is the wind, hes been associated with it for how long? and shadow wasnt meant to be a person, he was made as a concept, to be a fighter, to be a healer

like.

im not screaming in the void

yall get me right

they arent physical beings, theyre concepts that are each one side of a coin, and that coin is a fight

sonic is telling you to never give up and shadow it telling you to not push your limit

and the only people that see each other as what they truly are, as the concepts the represent and the the gods theyre envisioned as, are each other

because they understand each other

Oh brother I just got shivers what a blasphemous take

But like… is it tho?? Bc he had to have been well-mannered, polite, KIND before Maria’s death. they were so close, he must’ve been a happy little guy at one point and to maybe see this potential side of him… (or see more of it tbh bc I believe this is canon with his actions in Heroes and SA2, especially with scenes involving Rouge or Amy)

Of course, we’d still have to acknowledge that the Shadow of today is vastly different from the one on the ark due to the trauma and tampered memories. Maybe his memories of the ark extend past the tragedy and he’s able to slowly connect the two versions of himself to become a new one

A version of shadow where he still doesn’t sugar coat, doesn’t comfort, is quick to anger, but also is able to (albeit reluctantly) be okay with growing new connections, being respectful and well-mannered around those he feels deserves it (Amy, Blaze, Knuckles, the entire team really)

like.

mostly because in my mind, the black arms are invasive, and maybe when he was younger and more ‘fresh out of the tube’, he didnt actually have that much black arms dna, just enough to make sure he was decently stable, but over time that dna started taking over more and more of his body, and so it got harder and harder to actually function, because the black arms dna wasnt just spreading, it was taking over the rest of his dna, breaking it down so it could fit there, but since thats. yaknow. his dna. it fucked him up, which could also be part of the reason he needs his mobility aids, the aid shoes and inhibitor rings

1. the experiments it left him with permanent damage all over and a good amount of scars, along with bones and organ issues (not the main cause of pain but i said this bc. headcanon. :3)

2. chaos energy this one has the most canon proof, his inhibitor rings were made so his chaos energy wouldn't kill him and his airshoes were made so he could actually function and walk around (literally a mobility aid. like. that's not even subtex its right there.)

3. black arms dna black arms dna and mobian (along with whatever else shadow has) arent compatible, that leads to pain, along with the black arms, including their dna, being invasive. its literally taking over the rest of his dna

the black arms also have a connection to chaos energy. and in my mind, there are three types of chaos energy (or at least three times that matter rn) 1. the chaos emeralds energy 2. mobians chaos energy 3. black arms chaos energy out of these three types, only two are (mostly) compatible, mobian and chaos emerald energy. mobians are born with an amount, a small amount, of chaos energy and it acts as their life force , but some mobians are born with a higher amount than whats normal. knuckles and sonic are the examples im gonna be using. knuckles has only a slightly larger amount of chaos energy than the average mobian, and that's both because of his familial origins and because of his constant close proximity with the master emerald sonics chaos energys origins is unknown, but its shown in his speed because both of them have a higher amount of chaos energy and/or close contact with the emeralds (chaos or master), they're both able to use chaos energy in more clear ways but even with their increased amount of chaos energy, its still mostly theirs. just altered by the emeralds

shadows chaos energy is different because he has all three types. when he was given mobian dna he got the mobian chaos energy because that was also transferred to him, and gerald wanted him to be as strong and powerful as possible (or more accurately GUN wanted that) and so he found a chaos emerald and transferred some of its energy to shadow, then he also has black arms chaos energy, which was given with the black arms- or black dooms dna those three types don't work together. the emerald and mobian chaos energy? sure that's fine they'll work fine its possible, its happened. but with black arms chaos energy? its such a specific kind of chaos energy that they can barely be counted as the same thing and as mentioned previously, the black arms are an invasive species, right down to their molecular structure, which leads to shadows non-black arms dna being taken over (which causes pain because his body is being ripped apart and remolded constantly), and it just. the chaos energies don't work together. and not only do they not work together, its also too much. if shadow was more black arms, more like black doom, hed probably be in less pain but he isnt

and with shadow, and his biology, thats no different

when gerald gave him the black arms dna, doom told him it would simply give him more abilities and a better chance at life he did not tell him it could and most likely would destroy shadow

and when he was on the ark, this wasn't obvious. because of course it wasn't. it needed time. any movement from the dna in stasis was halted because he was. well. in stasis so obvi lol but the first time doom shows up? it starts up again, and his chronic pan gets worse (the dna taking over is not the only reason he has chronic pain), and he changes physically too. it isn't obvious, and if you don't know what to look for you wouldn't be able to see anything, but simply just looking at him, its clear he is not (fully) mobian. the main thing that's clear during this time is his eyes start looking less like mobian eyes and more like black arms eyes. it gets even worse the second time doom shows up (sxs gens) and awakens his doom powers, the mutations start getting worse and more extreme and after the time eater incident shadows basically bedridden for weeks because of how bad the pain is

since shadows biology is made up of a few species dna and chaos energy (which the black arms also have their own kind of) the black arms part of his dna wants that either A. gone or B. turned into black arms

this, obviously, causes issues

shadow needs the other parts of him to live because that's how he was made, he needs to be a frankensteined being because that's how he was created, that cant be changed and it causes a lot of issues

the main and most obvious one being the chronic pain the black arms dna is ripping apart his body and remolding it into something he was never meant to be- something he was never designed to be

another issue it causes is how it effects him mentally before the black arms dna started fully taking over, he was (mostly) sane, still not as much as he could've been, but mostly sane. when the black arms dna starts taking over again, it also gets into his actual brain structure and fucks him up mentally im talking like hallucinations and his memory being fucked even more (this also causes horrid migranes)