- Mainly about Sonic, sometimes about my cats.
- No ships here (well... few). I like to see Sonic and Shadow togheter... as brothers.
- Also, I wish Shadow stayed left handed like in Shadow 2005 and Sonic 2006.
- Mostly Maekawa's writing fan.
- Definitely not a purist/elitist. I have been there twice and nothing good comes from that mindset.
Save Shadow (Still thinking about how his immortality works, thinking about a possible headcanon)
💬 1 🔁 33 ❤️ 192 · Already shared but I didn't liked it. Now I tried to use better colours and to add a background (The Grim, wow) and bloo
I did this after a while
Sonic character design analysis
Face
Body
Left Handed Shadow (mine and not mine).
This is not a headcanon but is part of his characterization - Shadow=reflection of (...) most people are right handed, it makes sense that somebody that carries a name that indicates mirrors favour his left. Unfortunately the WiiMote was the chain that tied his left hand behind his back to force him to use his right. But the nice touch will never been forgotten.
More to come, forever.
My post
Official content
Official content 2
Other bloggers posts.
itsknockles' left handed Lance
Youtube left handed movie Shadow
Ficoren's outlaw left handed Shadow
Me: "Damn people are REALLY BAD at knowing when to tag their eyestrain art/images...either that or they just don't care about photosenitive epileptic people like me. I feel really sad now."
Person: "But Allison, what if they just don't know or understand what qualifies as eyestrain and what doesn't?"
Me: "You know what? That could be a factor...While it is always better to be safe rather than sorry (so YES people should always tag eyestrain even if they're unsure if it "counts" or not) maybe you've got a point?"
Anyways! HERE'S YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO WHAT CAN COUNT AS EYESTRAIN! I'm pulling this straight from the Artfight rules page about what needs to be labeled and filtered as eyestrain because it's VERY helpful and VERY accurate! I also know not everybody has an AF account and might not always have access to this handy guide, and this is an important resource; That's why I'm sharing it here! (under the cut)
PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!!! THIS IS ABOUT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OTHERS!!!
Full eyestrain AF page link
"But Allison! How were you able to screenshot that example if you're so sensitive to eyestrain?"
I dimmed the HELL out of my computer screen and looked away while taking the screenshot and did the same when putting it into this post, that's how lol. BUT YEAH ANYWAYS!!! Once again:
PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!!! THIS IS ABOUT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OTHERS!!!
Eye strain uh? I do not have epilepsy but certain pictures hurt.some hurt more, some less. I like some (chromatic aberrations). But all of them makes me experience something in my eyeballs. I'll consider it next time when I feel something or when I'll say "oow, RGB colours".
My fanfiction about Shadow (Rebuilding Trust) may never be published.
My mum decided on her own to change internet contract, resulting in a third world like connection. Is as slow as a 90's internet line (2.3 mbps). I can't upload anything like this. She sais it works but on my PC it is inefficient and even on the phone is downgraded. I'm writing this from the phone because is not doable from PC. Tumblr won't open.
The old line had issues with cloudy skies but it had no issues with solar storms, it was not super fast but it was efficient, I could download steam games in few hours. This one will stop to work with both cloudy skies and solar storms. Is frustrating.
Internet is finally giving issues to my mum. And I managed to get all the proofs that, this particular company is a scam. It was even fined twice in a short time because of it's opaque methods. Gonna go back to the old company soon. One of the best in my country,according to Italians (it is especially good for those who live in valleys, like me). I don't know when this fan fiction will be ready, hopefully before August. I'm at the point Shadow just woke up from a dissociative episode. It is a slow paced story, I like it more this way.
My fanfiction about Shadow (Rebuilding Trust) may never be published.
My mum decided on her own to change internet contract, resulting in a third world like connection. Is as slow as a 90's internet line (2.3 mbps). I can't upload anything like this. She sais it works but on my PC it is inefficient and even on the phone is downgraded. I'm writing this from the phone because is not doable from PC. Tumblr won't open.
The old line had issues with cloudy skies but it had no issues with solar storms, it was not super fast but it was efficient, I could download steam games in few hours. This one will stop to work with both cloudy skies and solar storms. Is frustrating.
Those aare good gikinka. They keep the flare and the shape of the original, I would cuddle all of them. The hiper realistic gijinka I often dee around are so far from both the original design and the vibes I end up to think they are OCs.
Just gonna preface this before I begin, this is all for fun and is a headcanon of mine. Your headcanons may be different to mine and that's valid too! Any grammar mistakes uh- ignore because I'm too lazy to edit this like crazy.
I will also link the video I made of all the moments, too, since it is way too long to post it on here. Keep in mind that not every moment is in the video, but like 95 percent of it is.
Shadow for me has always shown plenty of signs of being autistic, I'll provide as much evidence as I possibly can while doing my best to try and keep this at a reasonable length.
Shadow has always been the silent type of character when he is written correctly or, in other words, whenever Shiro Maekawa was involved with his writing in SA2, heroes and 06. Currently Prime too has done his character justice. I have to state this because I feel this is the best possible way of actually understanding Shadow as a character, so I'll mainly be touching his good characterizations and then some from his own game (not a lot however). He was silent, lonely, calm and often was in his head more than outwardly speaking out. I believe many autistic people like myself, connected to this side of him. Facing with so many adversities because of our differences from others, we become shut in and lonely too, since most autistic people don't feel as if they fit in. You can easily argue this is because of his ptsd from losing Maria, but I'd like to challenge the idea that it can easily be both and his ptsd enhances his traits.
I'll first begin with SA2, Shadow's first scene with eggman to me is quite hilarious if you put a different lens on it, the way he stand there ignoring Eggmans questions and then quickly demands Eggman to abide his rules. It puts Eggman into shock, but I think you could tie these moments that Shadow has as an autistic trait of his. Social cues are quite difficult for a lot of autistic people, and having no filter adds into this difficulty. The way Shadow ignores Eggmans questions to quickly ask him to do what he wants instead really emphasizes this point I made.
I love how he remains calm too, he doesn't yell this at Eggman and instead walks away casually and confidently. It's always been one of my most favourite moments with him. It really does make him stand out as he was able to influence Eggman to follow his wishes. If we want to talk about when he gets introduced to Sonic, I find this moment also again pretty funny in an endearing way when you put in this perspective. Sonic running to him asking Shadow to say something to speak, as Shadow stares at Sonic with silence. He's once again in his head more so than externally present, he also may be struggling to craft up a response or is at a lost with why Sonic is desperate for an answer. Conversations or socially interacting with people is challenging for most autistic people for a plethora of reasons so anything can really explain why Shadow here wasn't responding.
I've also found some of his moments when thinking of Maria (two specific moments being when Amy encourages him to help fight and the other being before Rouge approaches him to ask why he saved her), these moments he's very in tuned with his thoughts. After realizing his true promise with Maria he is in his head not responding right away to Amy, he sheds a tear and runs quickly to help and exclaims how he has to go now to keep that promise. This confuses Amy, however she doesn't stop Shadow or anything. When Rouge approaches Shadow and saying it was unexpected and unlike him to save her, he answers by saying that he didn't go to save her and was doing it for the chaos emeralds. She clearly catches on that this isn't the entire truth, this moment to me is harder to explain. But I think it's because of how he struggles to express his true intentions and feelings in the matter, similar to the Amy one before because he doesnt understand his own empathy.
Now one of if not the most obvious moments in SA2 is when Amy mistakes Shadow for Sonic, he slowly turns to look at her. Doesn't say a word or anything the entire time, and just continues to stare at her. I always loved this moment. I feel this one just speaks for itself lmao.
Now moving onto Sonic 06 moments (sorry there's not a lot in heroes tbh. There is a lot in Sonic X/Prime, Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, and the Twitter takeovers though!) Sonic 06 main one points out how he is going to discover himself and make his own path. I've always loved this about him as a character, he's not there for anybody but himself, he knows he is different. He will embrace this about himself and not let others try to make up what he has to be. Other subtle traits in 06 are also ways in which he responds to those around him, head nods or simple "yes" responses. Again, it's his way of expressing himself in conversation that really hints at his struggles for social cues. I also adore when Rouge asks him a question and he once again demands for something, and she is like "ok cool, but you didn't answer my question?" Moments like that not only add a lot of charm to him, but something I really connected too because I do this all the time without realizing it. I think partially it's because I get stuck with my own thoughts and those questions I feel I've already got it answered for myself so it's prolly similar where that realization that you may know the answer already, but the other doesn't just doesn't click together sometimes. It could also be because he needs to get out what he needs right away to feel a sense of stability.
Sonic x just has a lot of funny moments that really make his character shine, when he crashes the plane with Espio, Vector and Charmy. He doesn't use his words and instead guides it down forcefully, I similarly do stuff like this where I struggle to express what I need or have to do so I usually just do it without saying it. This happens often when people are in the way of something I have to get to. Like if I have to throw out something for example. I also love that when Espio asks why Shadow didn't just ask, Shadow responds by saying he needs to go find Dark Oak and then just crashes straight into the wall. He really just has such a difficult time expressing exactly why he needs to do things lmao. I also love how he has a challenging time understanding instructions. Eggman asks him to do something and because to Shadow they didn't feel clear, he asks more than once for confirmation. Or when he gives the silent treatment to Rouge and she teases him about it, he just walks away without a word. Now this isn't only applied to Sonic X but Shadow has a really REALLY REAAAALLLY difficult time finding the true intentions of people, Sonic X he gets upset at Rouge and Chris for calling him out on trusting Eggman. He gets defensive and argues back at them saying that Eggman is worthy of trusting because he knows the most about him. It's all he has even though Eggman has been evidenced of tricking others around him. There's countless of other times where Shadow struggles with this, like basically every moment in his own game where he blindly trusts Black Doom. One other moment too I can't exactly remember which game it was, but Rouge was clearly lying and goes "you can trust me! really!!" And he does and then tells her absolutely everything that she wanted to hear.
Sonic prime moments are a lot less, but I do feel his way of just remaining very inwardly or to himself about things can once again be his difficulty in trusting. The way he also overanalyzes a lot of things around him as well. I also just love certain scenes like, "they're air shoes" or "hardly, I'm the ultimate lifeform" because he is blunt and took it quite literally. As he usually does in Prime, where he takes things quite seriously in general. I also feel because sonic is very VERY adhd coded in prime, it really does emphasize the contrast between the two of how someone with autism may interact with someone with adhd. In the most recent episode, he once again finds it difficult to express his protectiveness and plays it off. Or when he does compliment Sonic, he just glares at him when Sonic somewhat jokes around because it felt out of character for Shadow to do that. Even though Shadow was just being blunt about his thoughts and had a moment where he does express properly, but then his glare somewhat shows once again how he has a difficult time crafting up responses lmao.
Some more stuff but more miscellaneous, the Twitter takeovers is funny but it depends on if we want to take it as canon. He loves dry foods, adores kittens to the point he wants an orphanage (connection to animals on a deeper level), he has an organized bedtime routine, and yeah that's basically all the ones I can think of atm. These are quite explanatory I feel. Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog shows he has empathy but struggles to show it similar to basically every other moment I've described, but also just love that he can't handle computers I think that's so funny idk why. I can't even describe how it's an autistic moment for him it just feels like it. He stims with his quills a lot as well, which ugh I adore so so so much.
A lot of these things I've expressed about Shadow come from just from me loving him but also being able to see myself in him as well. I'm happy that Prime is bringing back his character to what it was, I think so many people love Shadow in the fandom simply because of how much they relate to him. He's such great representation despite it not being canon, because of how easily those can see themselves in him. I really do love Shadow and I know this is super long so if you read this, thank you and I hope you enjoyed it.
I'm glad I'm not the only one into Maekawa's Shadow. And you are sharing the exact same clues i noticed, however in SA2 I noticed this clue somewhere else. When he and Maria are watching the Earth on the ARK. Maria questions him about Earth and Shadow answers soemthing entirely different, plus he never look at her once. Knowing how much he loves Maria, this is very telling.
I may add other two clues from SA2, that shows in all games thata re written buy Maekawa. A lack of eye contact and a lack of communication toward the outside word. I've noticed that Shadow relies a lot on non verbal communication. Rouge can understand him by looking at his non verbal cues, body language, how much his shoulders drop when he is upset or overwhelmed etc… Seeing how other character react around him also can tell a lot of things.
However I don't rely much on Sonic X or on games where he is not written by Maekawa because there are differences in the way he acts, both in Sonic X (I can't see Maekawa's Shadow talking with the bartender while looking at him directly in his eyes, or spontaneously say 'thank you' to Rouge.) And in Shadow 2005 (In that game, it seems to me he is quite able to express himself/his feelings verbally).
Maybe I feel more connected to Maekawa's shadow specifically due to his sincerity, while all other version are somehow forced, some actions seem there because of the plot (and the badass effect, tike the bartender scene) rather than because Shadow would do them.
Is now one year and finally we are on the final draft. After this it will be translated in English then I hope it will be ready for August, otherwise it will be a little later. Anyway it will be out by the end of the summer or early autumn. I will post one chapter at week and it is 4 chapter long. I'm seeing the end, I'm finally there.
Is a bit slow paced compared to the modern standard. I hate In Medias Res, I like to build the context before going in action.
