I like Shade. She's my second favorite female Sonic character right behind Rouge.
But I am tired of when I read about people's ideas of Shade's place in the Sonic franchise, they almost always make her assist Knuckles in guarding the M.E.
It's one thing to play into her soldier-ish need for a purpose and dutiful nature. She's more strict, aloof, and stoic compared to Knuckles.
But it's always about shipping. It's one thing to ship Knuckles and Shade because you genuinely believe they would be good together and stuff. But it's the implications that it's because they are both echidnas that irritate me. It's like some people who ship Sonamy because they are both hedgehogs and forgetting they are complex characters.
The only thing I see that can even imply chemistry between Shade and Knuckles is that she admires his fighting abilities (she says the same of Sonic as well) and Rouge making a comment on Knuckles liking older women(which can be seen as her being teasing, jealous, trying to stir a fight, or merely making a joke on Shade's technical age). Shade herself has shown no real interest in anything other than exposition to move the plot along, being vaguely xenophobic, and being an aloof piece of cardboard. (how is she my second female character again?)
