Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog (シャドウ・ザ・ヘッジホッグ, Shadō za Hejjihoggu) is an anthropomorphic black hedgehog/Black Arm hybrid, a dark doppelgänger and the arch-rival of Sonic the Hedgehog. Shadow was created as the "Ultimate Lifeform" (究極生命体, Kyūkyoku Seimeitai) by Gerald Robotnik, using the DNA of Black Doom, and is the final result of Project Shadow. His purpose was to provide ways of developing cures for deadly illnesses that had no cures, namely for Gerald's granddaughter Maria Robotnik, but he was sealed away into stasis by Maria, to prevent the raiders from taking and using him for their own selfish and greedy means.

Fifty years later, Shadow was released and awakened through the means unknown. However, he realizes that his memories was incomplete. In the process, Shadow formed and leads Team Dark and he sought to uncover his past, which was almost a complete mystery until it brought him into contact with the Black Arms and their attack on the planet, his experience had revealed the events surrounding his creation. Ultimately, Shadow thwarted Black Doom and saved the world. From there since then, Shadow continued his mission to protect the world while changing to a new and better life.

Shadow is immortal, and does not nor ever age. He is sharp-witted, always on edge and has a strong sense of purpose, insisting that justice must be had by any means necessary. Essentially a dark version of Sonic, Shadow can match him in both speed and skill, and possesses the ability to use Chaos Control with a Chaos Emerald. While preferring to work alone (or with just Team Dark), he will help Sonic and friends when necessary.

"I am Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform!"
 * —Shadow the Hedgehog.

Appearance

 * Voice actor: Kirk Thornton (English), Kōji Yusa (Japanese), Benoît DuPac (French), Riccardo Lombardo (Italian), Klaus Lochtove (German), Manuel Gimeno (Spanish)

Shadow is a Tan skinned hedgehog with black hair and crimson red streak marks on his head, arms and legs. He has red eyes and white fur on his chest. He has six quills on his head which points slightly upwards, two spines on his back and a small prickly tail.

Shadow wears white gloves, and Hover Shoes, built with light weight, hyper friction resistant white, black, red and yellow jets. Both his shoes and gloves alike, with black cuffs, red tongues, and have Inhibitor Rings on both his wrists and ankles.

The Inhibitor Rings are connected to the red tongues on the black cuffs of Shadow's gloves; the red tongues disappear when the Inhibitor Rings are removed, but regenerates when he puts them back on.

In Present Time
In most cases of his appearance as a hedgehog, he even looks like Sonic. His height is 100cm. (3ft 3in), weight is 35 kg (77lb.) and was created abord Space Colony ARK.

Possible Future
Shadow, like Metal Sonic, keeps much of the same appearance as his present self, with the most notable difference being the red cuffs on his wrist and ankles now extend onto his gloves and shoes and are larger as well covering more of his arms and legs. He is also taller, has cow-lick like spikes similar to Sonic.

Personality
Shadow is extremely aggressive, brooding and has a rouge view in life, believing loyalty to friends "far too scandalous", arrogance makes someone weak, and is fiercely independent, refusing to serve anyone but himself and his teammates. He also has a strong sense of purpose, insisting that justice must be had by any means necessary. Because of his past though, Shadow has a hard time trusting others other than his teammates, and is not one to let go of grudges easily.

Shadow is a loner, to put it bluntly. He is rarely seen with others for an extended period of time, and distances himself from essentially everyone. He is usually soft-spoken, and only says what he needs to before a fight. If Shadow makes a threat, he has every intention of carrying it out. Shadow also has a ruthless edge in combat that all other characters in the series lack, and displays a natural "killer instinct". At times, Shadow is the most violent and merciless character in the series.

Shadow is easily the most self-sufficient of all the characters. However, his lonesome attitude also puts him apart from the other characters. Nevertheless, Shadow can at times be uncaring. For example, Shadow hunted down Black Shadow and attempted to assassinate him, after he learned of his true mission. Shadow, however, did this to try to protect the universe, implying that while he has a good motive, the means used to achieve it are only acceptable to him.

Shadow's infamous ruthlessness and aggression leads to fear and a nervousness that inhibits characters from his unshakable intent or sheer power in combat. Numerous characters from the Sonic series have shown absolute dread from encountering Shadow. Shadow's enemies never treat him lightly; he is one of the very few people Sonic takes seriously and acts hostile towards.

Alongside his dark and violent demeanor, Shadow can be smug and stubborn. He treats others in a very callous manner, throwing in his opinion no matter how cold-hearted it is and not caring for whatever the response is. He is also consistently serious, even when not on a mission and he has no regard for silliness.

Shadow also possesses a strong sense of identity, as Shadow firmly believes that he is the "Ultimate Lifeform" and almost all other life forms are lesser beings and thinks that no one can stand a chance against him. This was evidenced when he mentions that even without his memories which would even wound up fake, he is still the Ultimate Lifeform, Shadow the Hedgehog. These qualities make him rarely susceptible to being manipulated by other forces.

Shadow only talks when it is absolutely necessary and dislikes being in groups, preferring solitude. Shadow often thinks teamwork is unnecessary because he can handle everything on his own. Shadow brushes off any kindness or sympathy that is sent his way. This is shown after Sonic suggested some "friendly competition," Shadow turned his back to Sonic and said, "Don't waste my time".

He is anti-social and does not speak or smile much. He will smirk when Sonic or someone messes up something. He does not hold back criticizing those he deems weak, but is willing to at least complement them if deserved. But deep down, he does have a heart. He cares for those who cared for him such as Maria, Molly and Chris Thorndyke and often follows their goals in his own fashion no matter what the cost is. He can be caring to Sonic by showing up and saving Sonic when he needs it the most.

Shadow is not without sentimental emotions and has shown a small sense of compassion from time to time. When Omega begins his attack, Shadow saves Rouge from Omega, despite having absolutely no memory of her. Shadow has also showed some challenging attitude inside his darker personality like where he wanted a competition between him and Sonic to prove who is strong in some similar attitude to Sonic.

Shadow is often depressed about the loss of Maria which is why he keeps to himself, but his relationship with Maria is obvious as he goes to great lengths to protect the planet and keep her dream of peace and prosperity alive. He has also been seen protecting other characters, for example Chris, Molly and Rouge, proving that while his attitude makes him seem like a careless person, he does have some compassion.

Friends/Allies

 * Team Dark
 * Rouge the Bat
 * E-123 Omega
 * Thrash the Tasmanian Devil

Family

 * Black Doom (Biological father, arch-enemy)
 * Gerald Robotnik (creator)
 * Maria Robotnik (surrogate sister)
 * Eggman (nephew)
 * Biolizard (older sibling)
 * Sir Lancelot (Camelot counterpart)
 * Nexus Shadow
 * Shadow (Human counterpart)

Neutral

 * Thomas Jones
 * Team Sonic
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Sticks the Badger
 * T-Pup
 * Buddy Bot
 * Team Rose
 * Amy Rose
 * Big the Cat
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Cheese the Chao
 * Team Chaotix
 * Vector the Crocodile
 * Espio the Chameleon
 * Charmy Bee
 * G.U.N.
 * G.U.N Commander
 * Hope Robotnik
 * Topaz
 * Foxwell Fowler
 * Mighty the Armadillo
 * Ray the Flying Squirrel
 * Moss the Sloth
 * Silver the Hedgehog
 * Blaze the Cat
 * Marine the Raccoon
 * Christopher Thorndyke
 * Thomas Jones
 * Tikal the Echidna
 * Charles the Hedgehog
 * Vanilla the Rabbit
 * Rotor the Walrus
 * Bunnie the Rabbot
 * Emeral
 * Princess Elise the Third
 * Shahra the Genie
 * Chip (Great Friend)
 * Relic the Pika
 * Fixit
 * Dillon Pickle
 * Wisps
 * Yacker
 * NiGHTS
 * Shade the Echidna
 * Shard the Metal Sonic
 * Honey the Cat
 * Thorn the Lop
 * King Puff
 * Queen Angelica
 * Striker the Mantis Shrimp
 * Echo
 * Coral the Beta
 * Pearly the Manta Ray
 * Razor the Shark
 * Crusher the Chao
 * Ponies
 * Princess Celestia
 * Princess Luna
 * Princess Cadance
 * Twilight Sparkle
 * Applejack
 * Rarity
 * Fluttershy
 * Rainbow Dash
 * Pinkie Pie
 * Dragons
 * Spyro
 * Spike
 * King Warfang
 * Dragon Sages
 * Ignitus
 * Aquarius
 * Volteer
 * Aeros
 * Cyril
 * Terrador
 * Cliff
 * Q-N-C
 * MAIA
 * Chef Woody
 * Perci
 * Foreman Fred
 * Doc Ginger
 * Hayward
 * Pokey
 * Hokey
 * Tucker
 * Salty
 * Pepper
 * The Ancients
 * Chronicler
 * Freedom Fighters
 * Sally Acorn
 * Antoine D'Coolette
 * Julie-Su
 * Mayor Fink
 * Fastidious Beaver
 * Ghost Girl
 * Chaos/Perfect Chaos
 * E-102 Gamma
 * Team Hooligans
 * Nack the Weasel
 * Bark the Polarbear
 * Bean the Dynamite
 * Gogobas
 * Babylon Rogues
 * Jet the Hawk
 * Wave the Swallow
 * Storm the Albatross
 * Breezie the Hedgehog

Rivals

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Silver the Hedgehog

Enemies

 * Black Arms
 * Black Doom (Arch-enemy)
 * Doom's Eye
 * Black Death
 * Death's Eye
 * Eclipse the Darkling
 * Dark Arms
 * Blurk
 * Cyzer
 * Cregal
 * Rhygenta
 * Eggman Empire
 * Dr. Eggman
 * Decoe
 * Bocoe
 * Bokkun
 * Jack Robotnik
 * Orbot
 * Cubot
 * Shadow Androids
 * Metal Series
 * Metal Sonic
 * Metal Tails
 * Metal Knuckles
 * Metal Amy
 * Metal Blaze
 * Metal Scourge
 * E-Series
 * E-100 Alpha
 * E-113 Xi
 * Egg Army
 * Thunderbolt
 * Ghosts
 * King Boom Boo
 * Boo/Boom Boo
 * Bandanna Ghost
 * Bow Tie Ghost
 * Julian Snively
 * Weasel Bandits
 * T.W. Barker
 * Willy Walrus
 * Scourge the Hedgehog
 * Fiona Fox
 * Biolizard
 * Nocturnus Clan
 * Imperator Ix
 * Solaris
 * Mephiles the Dark
 * Iblis
 * Ifrit
 * Dark Gaia
 * Nega-Mother Wisp
 * The Time Eater
 * Dr. Eggman Nega
 * Silver Sonic
 * Nightmarens
 * The Deadly Six
 * Zavok
 * Zomom
 * Zeena
 * Master Zik
 * Zazz
 * Zor
 * Lyric the Last Ancient
 * Driller Worm

Abilities and Powers
Shadow is a very powerful individual. He can move and run at high speeds that rivals Sonic's speed can perform many of his moves and tricks like the Spin Attack and has extreme combat skills that enables him to fight against multiple opponents at the same time.

Shadow has several attacks to defeat enemies like an attack he envelops himself in a light black aura and accelerates to high speeds to attack his enemies and to move in space at incredible speed which is similar to Light Speed Attack and Sonic Boost.

Shadow has displayed fearsome combat skills, as he was able to fight his way through Sonic, Knuckles (though Shadow is shown to struggle when he fought against Knuckles) and Tails (destroyed the X-Cyclone and escaped traps with Chaos Control). He was also shown fighting his way through a large fleet of soldiers, destroying them all.

Shadow shows over-average intelligence, such as he realized when fighting in a head-on attack wouldn't work. He then switched for some advanced tactics and instead decided to shake the ship apart from the inside by striking its body at incredible speed.

Physical Abilities
Shadow is a very powerful individual. Basic physical traits and abilities between Shadow and Sonic are virtually identical. As such, Shadow possesses many of the same skills and abilities as Sonic has, along with greater raw power than Sonic, making Shadow one of the most powerful characters.

Although he is not nearly as strong as Power characters like Knuckles the Echidna, Shadow possesses superhuman strength and is quite physically strong. With effort, he is capable of overturning large objects, such as trucks, buses and large slabs of concrete.

Like most other characters in the series, Shadow is able to move and run at super, supersonic, even nearing that of hypersonic speeds, and is fast enough that rivals the speeds that Sonic can run at, making him one of the fastest characters in the series. When shadow is non-solid ground or platforms, like water, Shadow uses his Hover Shoes to hover-skate on/over them at the same speeds he always runs on foot. He can also use his hover shoes while airborne, giving him some kind of ability to fly.

Shadow is highly acrobatic, agile and an experienced athlete, capable of gracefully leaping over many obstacles that comes in his way and performing various forms of nimble movements. He has as well radical reaction time to match his movements, being able to react to danger within a split second.

Shadow possesses incredibly high physical durability and is capable of surviving things that would normally be fatal to others, even by the standards of other superhuman creatures, making him nearly indestructible. His body is also able to resist incredible punishment, such as being slammed into solid surfaces and even being struck by powerful laser cannons and still survive. As seen, Shadow is completely bulletproof, as he brushed off all the gun shots from G.U.N. Soldiers as if they were not even there. His body is also able to resist and take a lot of major and incredible punishment, mostly in battle before he starts to wear down, such as being slammed into solid surfaces and even being struck by powerful laser cannons and still survive. The most prominent testament to Shadow's durability was, during where Shadow fell down to the planet and through re-entry in the atmosphere and still survived long enough for Jack or Dr. Eggman to rescue him. However, he did still receive some injury, as evidenced by the amnesia he got from his fall towards the world. Even after receiving major damage, Shadow displays a remarkably fast recovery rate, allowing him to quickly re-enter a battle after just a few moments.

Shadow is able to release tremendous amounts of energy and dramatically increases his destructive power when he takes off the limiter rings that are on both his wrists and ankles. This gives Shadow a drastic increase in overall power, reaching the point where he uses Chaos Control with Sonic to save the ARK from crashing to Mobius, subsequently single-handedly destroying an entire enemy fleet and can plow through what appears to be hundreds of perfect copies of Mephiles the Dark, who can be regarded as one of the more powerful foes in the series.

Being the end-product of Project Shadow, which was meant to create an immortal life-form, Shadow is immortal and does not physically age. Also, given that Project Shadow was partially to develop cures for various kinds of illnesses, Shadow may be completely immune to disease. Because he also possesses Black Doom's blood, Shadow is able to sense the presence of Black Arms and is immune to the paralysis nerve/Black Arms' poison gases that was being leaked upon the Black Comet's descent.

Combat Skills
In combat, Shadow is a fierce, dangerous, and extremely powerful force that few can defeat directly. Shadow also has extreme combat skills that enables him to fight against multiple opponents at the same time. He also never holds back on his immense strength, making him a powerful, brutal and deadly fighter with a distinct killer instinct. Shadow's skills are more than a match for even the strongest characters in the series, and has been able to take down some of the most fearsome foes seen in the Sonic Pokémon series on his own, such as Black Doom and Diablon, one of GUN's strongest robots. To best put his skills in perspective, as seen in most of the series, Shadow is the only person so far who has been able to utterly defeat Sonic in combat, while Metal Sonic was the robot defeated him 15 years ago in the past upon their first meeting.

Fighting Style
Shadow's fighting style focuses on direct, brutal, unrestrained and powerful hand-to-hand combat. In line with his nature and potent abilities, Shadow has adopted a fighting style where he fights his opponents using powerful blows, such as karate chops, swift punches and roundhouse kicks, to which of his attacks have a significant amount of force behind them. With the speeds Shadow can move at, he can disable the opponent through the force of his blows alone, while leaving them at the mercy at his incoming attacks.

Shadow's fighting style revolves around making heavy use of his Chaos Powers, especially Chaos Control and Chaos Spear. Using Chaos Control, Shadow can teleport up in front or behind his opponents in battle to launch surprise attacks. Also, Shadow can use Chaos Control to increase the damage he deals to his opponent when striking them, often resulting in significant forces being released and blowing the opponent a certain distance away. To give himself the advantage over his opponents, Shadow will use powerful Chaos attacks involving Chaos Energy, such as energy bolts or even intense explosions.

Techniques and Moves
Like Sonic, Shadow's basic combat moves revolves around the various forms of the Spin Attack, which is a variation on the tendency for hedgehogs to roll into tight balls for protection, and he shares many of them with Sonic. The Homing Attack allows Shadow to jump and home in on an enemy to get over large gaps he cannot normally reach, the Spin Jump lets him curl into a ball attack opponent by landing on them, and the Spin Dash lets him shoot himself forward as an acceleration roll at high speeds to break barriers or mow down enemies, the Light Speed Dash and Light Speed Attack allows Shadow to achieve light speed movements by dashing through Rings and/or enemies. He is also able perform Sonic's Sonic Boost, a move where he turn himself into a highly destructive projectile by moving and running at high speed.

Another technique, Shadow has is the Black Tornado witch is exactly the same as Sonic's Blue Tornado in witch Shadow jumps into the air, and creates a black whirlwind by circling a particular spot at high speeds which can throw his opponents into the air or blow away armor and weapons. For more direct combat, Shadow can use his Chaos Attack to deal a barrage of Chaos Energy-fueled strikes to his opponents, and his Spin Kick lets him create a small tornado that can suck enemies in and damage them.

Many of Shadow's signature techniques are Chaos Powers. Shadow's trademark move is Chaos Control, which allows him to manipulate time and space to either warp across space or slow down time, and distort space to form other types of Chaos Powers. His second most used Chaos Power is his Chaos Spear technique, where he throws bolts of Chaos Energy at his opponent. His most powerful and potent technique, however, is the Chaos Blast, which is literally a shockwave of Chaos Energy that eliminates anything and everything in a circular radius range. Shadow can, however, only use this attack when he is immersed in Chaos Energy.

Another special Chaos Power Shadow uses is his Chaos Boost technique. When using the Chaos Boost, Shadow covers himself in Chaos Energy. While in his Chaos Boost form, Shadow gains more destructive power and is immune to some enemy attacks. It also enables Shadow to utilize more Chaos Powers, such as Chaos Blast, Chaos Snap, and Chaos Lance.

Attacks

 * Atomic Strike (requires Sonic)
 * Air Chaos Burst
 * Air Chaos Magic
 * Air Dash
 * Air Roaming Chaos
 * Black Tornado
 * Back Kick
 * Chaos Attack
 * Chaos Blast
 * Chaos Boost
 * Chaos Burst
 * Chaos Control
 * Chaos Inferno (Team Blast attack that requires Rouge and Omega)
 * Chaos Lance
 * Chaos Magic
 * Chaos Nightmare
 * Chaos Upper
 * Chaos Punishment
 * Chaos Rift
 * Chaos Snap
 * Chaos Spear
 * Energy Ball
 * Fire Somersault
 * Focus Field (requires Omega)
 * Gravity Control
 * Gravity Dive
 * Grind Step
 * Guard
 * Homing Attack
 * Jump Dash
 * Kick
 * Light Speed Attack
 * Light Speed Dash
 * Mid-Air Attack
 * Overturn
 * Punch
 * Roaming Chaos
 * Rocket Accel
 * Shadow Back Kick
 * Shadow Chop
 * Shadow Dash
 * Shadow Eagle
 * Shadow Guard
 * Shadow Heal
 * Shadow Jump
 * Shadow Kick
 * Shadow Rocket
 * Shadow Run
 * Shadow Slider
 * Shadow Style
 * Shadow Teleport
 * Slide
 * Somersault
 * Sonic Boost
 * Speed Up
 * Spin Attack
 * Spin Dash
 * Spin Jump
 * Spin Kick
 * Tornado
 * Triangle Jump
 * Wall Jump

Skills

 * Immortality
 * Supersonic running speed
 * Enhanced durability
 * Extreme acrobatic skills and reflexes
 * Minor super strength
 * Incredible jumping ability
 * Hand-to-hand combat skills
 * Weapon and firearms combat skills
 * Excellent driving skills
 * G.U.N. military training and experience
 * Capable Extreme Gear rider
 * Grinding
 * Proficient Enerbeam wielder
 * Chaos Powers
 * Harnessing chaos energy
 * Super transformation
 * Dark Chaos Shadow and Hero Chaos Shadow transformation

Miscellaneous Skills
Shadow has proven himself to be an expert Extreme Gear rider, as seen in the tournament where he was able to put up quite a fight and even defeat some of the world's best Extreme Gear riders. When riding on an Extreme Gear, Shadow is skillful enough to ride on rails, execute complex tricks while in midair, and even perform his Chaos Powers and combat moves with ease.

Super Shadow

 * Main article: Super Shadow

Like Sonic and Silver, by harnessing the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds, Shadow is able to use super transformation to transform into Super Shadow. In this form, he is bestowed with the new abilities of flight and near invulnerability. Also, like other super transformations, his normal abilities regarding speed, strength and power are greatly enhanced as well on an incalculable scale, and his skills with Chaos Powers are increased to their full limit.

Dark Chaos Shadow

 * Main article: Dark Chaos Shadow

Shadow is able to transform into Dark Shadow with the use of negative chaos energy, whenever his mind is fueled by thoughts of anger, rage, and hatred. In this state, Shadow is can perform Chaos Blast. This form, however, only lasts for a limited time.

Hero Chaos Shadow

 * Main article: Hero Chaos Shadow

Shadow is able to transform into Hero Shadow with the use of positive chaos energy, whenever his mind is fueled by positive thoughts. In this state, Shadow can perform a large scale use of Chaos Control. Like Dark Chaos Shadow, however, this form also only lasts for a limited time.

Weaknesses
When Shadow releases energy after he takes of his rings, Shadow's increase in power through the overuse of it comes at the expense of reducing his stamina, causing him to become exhausted after its use, Shadow has shown no sign of fatigue when restoring to this method.

Notes & Trivia
He has been given other nicknames like: Project Shadow, Black Hedgehog, Black Blur, and the second World's Fastest Hedgehog