This spoiler-heavy essay refers to Sonic X Shadow Generations as Shadow Generations since it analyses the character writing for Shadow in his portion of the game's story. The essay also solely focuses on the storytelling and character writing of Shadow's portion of the game; considerations about the gameplay or the story, rewritten or otherwise, for the two Sonics' portion of the game are outside the concern of this essay's arguments. Ultimately, this essay is to do with analysing storytelling and character writing, which feature primarily in the console titles of the franchise. As a result, the following analysis of Shadow's character also only focuses on how he is characterised in the mainline video games. Mainline excludes spin-off material like Boom. Video games excludes other media forms that feature Shadow, including those that richly characterise him and are also written by Sonic Team, such as Sonic X or his Sonic Channel Wallpaper Cover Story. The essay consists of two parts. Part I covers the core themes of Shadow's character—his existence as an artificial creation and his relationship with Maria Robotnik—and the ways in which he has developed over console games whose narratives spotlight his backstory and growth. Part II conducts an analysis of Shadow Generations' story in light of knowledge of Shadow's character covered in Part I, as well as principles of what narrative arcs are supposed to accomplish. Consult the left side of the website to access headers to this essay. image

Responses I make in anticipation of some possible rebuttals for What Shadow Generations does for (or to) Shadow's character. "Shadow acts that way because he is traumatised and trauma is complex." I do not doubt at all that trauma can inform seemingly illogical or self-sabotaging actions. I acknowledge as much in the essay that grief happens in many, many possible ways, not all of which healthy or well-adjusted. I also acknowledge in that same passage that the events in Shadow Generations written as-is could have been written well or compellingly. But herein lies the rub: you need to show that the text in the story supports your claim he is reacting from trauma. I have argued at length that his shows of emotions are inconsistent and not well-explained. I have also already said in the essay's concluding remarks that people's brains are wired to fill in the gaps of an incomplete picture with story-shaped explanations. Put this another way: with the way the story is written, as-is, if a young child (well within the target demographic of the game) who is unfamiliar with Shadow the Hedgehog plays the game and asks 'why did he do that?', answers should be able to come from just what the story presents. Because, as I've also written about, this game is supposed to get complete newcomers on board with his character as well.

An appendix document accompanying What Shadow Generations does for (or to) Shadow's character. The following are a list of observations made of writing decisions in Shadow Generations that undercut or countervail previous material—be that in different games, Dark Beginnings, or even Shadow Generations itself. Not all observations listed are of equal weight; ones with caveats to them are accompanied with an additional note. Contradictions with established writing The undermining of Dark Beginnings (DB) Shadow in DB is motivated to check on the abandoned ARK due to visions and warped flashbacks he's having, to the point of commandeering a spaceship to make the trip personally In ShGens, he says he told Rouge following up on reports that G.U.N. made on detecting unusual biodata on the ARK, going against his interactions with Rouge in DB

Originally posted on 11 October, 2024 on my Tumblr in response to a post arguing that IDW Sonic is moreso put in difficult situations as opposed to being fundamentally more forgiving than his Game iteration. Lightly edited for adding navigation headers and changing text formatting. I caught wind of this post in a Sonic server I'm in! As someone who's quite passionate about Sonic's characterisation, this is something I'd like to add my thoughts to. Faulty premises of Sonic's character Respectfully, I disagree with the thesis statement that IDW Sonic is the same as he is in the games but simply put in messier moral situations. Part of my own countering thesis is that the following parts about the analysis I've bolded and numbered about Sonic's worldview— (1) [Sonic] also believes that the past is irrelevant to ones present and future, and that anyone (yes, anyone) can change -- for better or for worse (2) he doesnt want to play executioner, he doesnt want to force a persons life into one path, he wants everyone to be able to live life to its fullest, their way, their own way.

This essay is in part a response to arguments made on Tumblr regarding Sonic's characterisation in IDW compared to the games. It also follows a chain that I previously added to via an essay on Games VS IDW: Sonic's Morality #2. By virtue of initially being a response essay, smatterings of 'you' feature in the prose and the specific points I make are informed by what was previously argued. That being said, I also view this essay to be able to stand on its own right to some degree and, perhaps most of all, represent an earnest attempt to clarify some common misconceptions or rhetorically unsound moves that I often see used when discussing matters of canonicity and characterisation in Sonic media. Also, it really bears saying that writing this became a passion project of its own accord. My friend weighed in on my draft with insights on Sonic's game character and we had a ball discussing the ins-and-outs of his character and the ways in which IDW differ from it. Levels of threats in IDW VS the games: Neo Metal Sonic Discussing the differences in levels of threats that Sonic faces in IDW versus the games is interesting. I want to bring up a point on this before I address your comparisons between SATBK and Frontiers. I actually started doing a close reading of IDW from the beginning the other day, live tweeting my thoughts about it. What startled me among other things is that the entire first arc is a rehash of Sonic Heroes with the uprising and fight against Neo Metal. Though rehashing Sonic Heroes as a first arc for a continuation to Forces is a fascinating writing decision I could comment many a thing on, one of the main differences most relevant to the current topic was that in IDW, a lot of the characters were reacting as if this were a real, big-time threat that they needed to all band together to face. I noted with some amusement that Knuckles acts deeply haunted, as if he's never lost the ME, smashed the ME with his own hands, or faced an enemy taking ahold of his ME before in the games.

Originally posted on 4 July, 2023 on my Tumblr as 'My opinion on IDW being canon to Sonic'; lightly edited here for clarity, succinctness, or removing profanity. I watched a video by GamesCage on the topic, who I’ve been watching a long while on YT before subscribing to him recently on Twitch, and it reminded me of my own thoughts on the matter as well! First, some preemptive notes: I won’t ever go into using insulting or uncivil language. But because this is an opinion essay, I’m also not trying to word things in some neutral, disinterested way to appeal to all audiences That being said, game-story-wise, I don't engage with the Meta era games for this essay (Colours, Generations, Lost World, Free Riders, Forces) By way of signposting, here are the different headings to this article: