Shadow The Hedgehog

 Shadow The Hedgehog  (シャドウ・ザ・ヘッジホッグ Shadō za Hejjihoggu) is a main character of the fan-made series Pika Love Live.

He is a dark doppelgänger and the arch-rival of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Personality
Shadow is extremely arrogant, aggressive, brooding and very loyal to whomever he is serving and determined to whatever cause he is fighting for. He is anti-social and does not speak or smile much. However, he often smirks when being sure of himself, or if he thinks lowly of someone. But deep down, he does have a heart. He cares for those who cared for him such as Maria, Molly, Rouge 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 and genuinely respects him as a rival. Because of his past though, Shadow rarely trusts anyone besides himself. Even when he does, he prefers not to have them get too close to him, lest tragedy should impact him again.

Shadow is easily the most self-sufficient of all the characters. However, his lonesome and arrogant attitude also puts him apart from the other characters. Nevertheless, Shadow can at times be uncaring. For example, when he learned of Cosmo's true mission, he set off to kill her. 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 firmly believes that he is the "Ultimate Life Form" and almost all other life forms are lesser beings and thinks that no one can stand a chance against him. Despite this, he respects a worthy opponent and likes to see someone give him a challenge, apart of why he respects his arch-rival, Sonic.

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. However, he will help his allies when needed.

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 Sonic, Chris, Molly, and Rouge, proving that while his attitude makes him seem like a careless person, he does have some compassion.

Character Design
Shadow is a black hedgehog with crimson stripes on his quills arms, legs and above his eyes, he also has chest hair and tan on his muzzle and inside his ears and red eyes. Shadow wears white gloves with black and red-tongued cuffs, hover Shoes and limiters.

Story
 Anime 

Shadow Saga

He appeared in the Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation through episodes 33 to 38, although there were a few differences, such as in episode 38, Shadow teleported Christopher Thorndyke and Rouge The Bat to Space Colony Ark. Christopher Thorndyke reminded Shadow of his true promise to Maria, instead of Amy Rose. The epiphany in episode 38 led him to join with Sonic to defeat the Final Lizard. He then helped Sonic prevent the Space Colony ARK from crashing into Earch by taking off (and losing) his Limiters for a massive Chaos Control with his power at its maximum. After that, Shadow lost consciousness in space, and is presumed dead by everyone. From then on, he makes short appearances in flashbacks.

Powers And Abilities
Shadow is easily one of the most powerful characters in the series. He is extremely fast, capable of matching Sonic's and move at such velocity that he releases yellow energy discharges in his wake that he can use against enemies. As examples of his speed, Shadow could move both Molly and Rouge away from a large explosion in less than a second and can even dodge laser barrages. He is also very agile and has incredible jumping skills that allows him to jump hundred of meters into the air. Furthermore, Shadow can use his vast super speed even in space, attacking and moving freely, something even Sonic cannot do.

Shadow has a significant degree of physical strength as he could push back against one of Final Mova's heads single handed. His body is also able to resist incredible punishment, such as being slammed into solid surfaces and even survive from being struck by powerful laser cannons or by Sonic's charged Spin Attack. By removing his Limiters from his wrists, Shadow can access his full power, which enhances his overall power so drastically that he can single-handedly destroy an entire Metarex fleet. However, using his full power for too long drains his stamina to the point where he will be rendered unconscious.

Shadow is naturally able to tap into the arcane powers of any nearby Chaos Emerald (fake or not) and utilize their chaos energy to empower himself and use a variety of Chaos Powers, and has a special connection to both them and the Master Emerald.

Shadow has fearsome combat skills, as seen in his first encounter with Sonic and during his raid on the Blue Typhoon when he was able to fight his way through a weaken Sonic, Knuckles (though Shadow is shown to struggle when he fought against Knuckles), and Tails. He was also shown fighting his way through a large fleet of Metarex soldiers, destroying them all. In addition, Shadow shows over-average intelligence, such as when fighting Scarship he realized 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.

Techniques and moves

With just one Chaos Emerald, he can induce Chaos Control to stop time, warp himself through space. He can also create multiple Chaos Spears or merging them to create one slide of chaos energy to increase its attack power. He is also able to use Spin Attack for both offensive and defensive maneuvers, but does not use it to the same extent as Sonic.

Transformation

Shadow is able to use the seven Chaos Emeralds' power to transform into his super form, Super Shadow. In his super form, Shadow possesses theoretically infinite speed and strength, along with flight and virtual invulnerability. All of his chaos abilities are also increased to an incalculable level; he once uses Chaos Control to stop the Planet Egg's explosion, which according to Eggman, would have destroyed the entire universe.

Relationships
Rouge the Bat

Rouge first established the business transactions for helping Eggman and Shadow find the Chaos Emeralds. The two did not work well at first. After losing his memory, Shadow did not trust Rouge the first time they teamed up with Chris in order to search for the Chaos Emeralds, Rouge wanted to take the Chaos Emeralds all to herself by coming with the idea to split up, Shadow loathed the idea knowing he couldn't trust her. Rouge realized he was smarter than she thought and ran off. However, during their partnership, Shadow and Rouge started to cooperate with each other better. Thus, Rouge is the closest person Shadow has, since Maria passed away.

Shadow is shown to care about Rouge. When he noticed her running to the Chaos Emeralds and found out that she was going to be hurt, Shadow went and saved her and told her not to do that again. In one episode, in the Japanese version, he also gratefully thanks Rouge for helping him. He also saved her along with Chris, when the bomb on Prison Island was about to explode. Likewise, when Shadow was fighting the Metarex out in space, Rouge was worried about the possibility of him dying. Proving that despite their occasional conflict, Shadow and Rouge geniunely respect and care for the well-being of one another.

Rouge sometimes likes to tease Shadow for his moody attitude. Although he is more tolerable about it then Knuckles, Shadow also seems to be easily annoyed by Rouge. When Shadow was in Space Colony ARK, Rouge greeted Shadow, then teased him when he simply ignored her, and he got annoyed and left the room with anger without saying a word followed by Rouge remarking him. He's also disgusted by her fascination to the Chaos Emeralds, as she views them as just pretty gems. Therefore, he usually keeps an eye on her in case she'd try to steal one.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic is Shadow's arch rival. When they first met, Shadow showed interest in meeting Sonic, noting their similarities and mocked him as a weak opponent as he was able to defeat Sonic in combat. However, he later changed this view about Sonic after seeing Sonic using Chaos Control. Shadow got impressed by Sonic and had come to respect him as a rival, ever since. After remembering Maria's true wish, Shadow helped Sonic and his friends and fought with Super Sonic to stop the Space Colony Ark from destroying the earth.

When he appeared in the Metarex Saga, Shadow did not know Sonic and his friends because of his amnesia. Because of this, he fought against Sonic and his friends with Eggman. After Molly's death, Shadow realized that Sonic were right about Eggman's evil plans and therefore left Eggman to defeat the Metarexhimself. After knowing about Cosmo's secret about being a spy for the Metarex, Shadow defeated him only to to kill Cosmo to prevent her from sending information to the Metarex. In the battle with Final Mova. Shadow showed some respect to Sonic and they worked together to defeat Final Mova and he charged himself with Sonic in Sonic Power Cannon despite the damage that the power could do to him only to help Sonic to defeat the Metarex once and for all. He also knocked out Sonic to prevent him from risking his life to save the galaxy. Overall, there is always tension between Shadow and Sonic, but they have as well some respect for each other and Shadow will puts his differences with Sonic aside to help Sonic against any powerful enemy that come in their way.

Dr. Eggman

When Eggman released Shadow from his capsule, Shadow respectfully bowed to Eggman and thanked him, and also told him that he will do whatever he will tell him to. Eggman orders Shadow to help him get all of the Chaos Emeralds. However, after he found out his true promise to Maria, he stopped obeying him and sacrificed himself to save the world. However, Shadow helps Eggman again in Season 3 against the Metarex or Sonic due to losing his memory, believing that Eggman knows about his past. However he left him after Molly's death and decided to fight the Metarex alone.

Maria Robotnik

She is shown to be like Shadow's big sister. They were both born and raised on Space Colony ARK, and shared the dream of going to visit the planet Earth, shown best in a flashback Shadow has where he's talking to Maria. He states "What's it like to see the sky above your head? I want...to find out." However, when Project Shadow was shut down, Maria decided that she had to set Shadow free, and released him to Earth. Apparently, the last thing Shadow saw in that space station was Maria being shot and killed by a soldier. Shadow then spent his time after being awakened planning to avenge her by destroying the humans, which is why he showed Eggman the Eclipse Cannon. He often has hallucinations of Maria, such as seeing her reflection standing next to his on any glass surface, or hearing her plead to him when Chris was asking for help. Chris reminds Shadow of Maria with his kindhearted ways.

Christopher Thorndyke

Chris seems to remind Shadow of his late friend, Maria. He saved Chris, along with Rouge, just before Prison Island explodes. After he takes them to the ARK, Shadow keeps a close eye on Chris. When Chris begged Shadow to help Sonic save the world, Shadow repeatively beat him up to make him stop talking and after some time, explained his hatred for the humans after they killed Maria. However, Chris was determined to remind Shadow of what Maria truly wanted: For him to protect the people of Earth and always watch over them. In the end, he succeeded which lead to Shadow showing remorse for his actions and later sacrificing himself. Shadow later saved Chris, along with Cosmo, in season 3 as repayment for Chris returning Shadow's limiters to him.

Metarex

Shadow's first infiltration with the Metarex was after sensing that a Chaos Emerald exists in the nanite Metarex, e quickly awoke and teleported to the said enemy's location to destroy him. Until finally witnessing that Eggman is using him for his deeds, he kept destroying the Metarexes under Eggman's instructions to give the Chaos Emeralds to him, so that would make the doctor reveals the hedgehog's forgotten past to him.

Upon Molly's death at the hands of the Metarex (Japanese version), Shadow took it his mission to fulfill Molly's dream and reveal the truth about the Metarex.[7] Since then, Shadow developed a sturdy hatred against them, even going to kill Cosmo after knowing that she was a spy for them all that time. Later on, Shadow went to attack the Metarex's main battleship, destroying every Metarex soldier to find Dark Oak.

Molly

Molly had a great impact on Shadow. However, he acted annoyed and dissaproving to her at first, but she still tried to get along with him. Molly told him that he reminded her of a hero named The black wind. However, Shadow was bothered as he didn't consider himself a hero.

Despite this, Shadow acknowledged and respected her motivation. When she fought against the Metarex herself to achieve her goal, Shadow helped her so her sacrifice would not go to waste. When her own people betrayed her for the Metarex, he tried to encourage her to keep fighting, although it failed as she let the Metarex kill her. Shadow also felt depressed after she died, and made a small grave for Molly after defeating the Metarex, staying there with Rouge for awhile, before leaving in grief. However, in the credits of the japanese version of episode 78, Shadow was seen visiting Molly's grave again, placing a rose on it.

Cosmo

Shadow and Cosmo has had very few interactions. At first, Cosmo only heard of Shadow shortly after his return. When Cosmo was kidnapped by Black Narcissus along with Chris, Shadow came to rescue them while in the mean time, Sonic had turned dark. Then he pointed out Cosmo's recklessness for facing Black Narcissus alone.

However, after Shadow finds out that Cosmo was a Metarex spy, he went after her in attempt to kill her before the Metarex finds out information about Sonic and his friends. Although he threatened Cosmo at first, he still showed some sign of remorse in the japanese version. When she asked why he tried to kill her, he replied that it's better for her if she does not find out, and told her to close her eyes right before he was about to finish her. But after Sonic and his friends found out what was going on with Cosmo, Shadow still did not trust Cosmo, and deemed Sonic and his friends as fools for trusting a spy.

Despite this, Shadow still helped Cosmo and Sonic Team to defeat the Metarex later, and no longer had any intention of killing her. He even seemed surprised (along with Sonic), that she was willing to die for the safety of the universe.

Trivia

 * Shadow is usually seen to have a missing quill in his "hairstyle" as compared to the games.
 * When Shadow is first shown running, he runs like Sonic rather than himself. This was probably to confuse the audience into thinking it was Sonic instead of Shadow because, at the time, he wasn't officially introduced.
 * The jets of Shadow's Hover Shoes were not present in his shoes, but later in the series Shadow have jets in his Hover Shoes.