Between Shadow costume being added to Sonic Superstars, and Shadow Generations being a thing,,,,,, My theory is that these games will introduce us to Classic Shadow as young Shadow in his Generations levels. What do you think?
Well, since making that post theorizing on levels, I've thought about it a bit. I rewatched the teaser, broken down parts of it in my head.
So what's going on in the trailer?
(A lot of images follow.)
It opens simply enough: we see Shadow on the Ark. Time frame is unknown. There are GUN robots everywhere, but that's not necessarily an indication of anything. These could be leftovers from the raid 50 years ago, so this could be modern day, this could be Sonic Adventure 2, this could even be a flashback to that raid.
We see Shadow, mid-Chaos-Control, kicking some kind of device or possibly even a warhead away from the Ark. It seems like some kind of nose cone of a rocket, but there's also a big window or door on the side.
The next thing we see: Shadow's still on the Ark, running down a very similar corridor he met Sonic in right before their final race. He runs into Doom's Eye, who seems to emerge out of a black and red portal.
Doom's Eye gestures like he's saying dialog, but we can't hear it. His eye bulges and rolls around before the creature flies away and the Ark disintegrates around Shadow. It disintegrates to reveal Westopolis, where Shadow first met Doom's Eye.
But it's a crazy, hallucinatory, Dr. Strange fractalized version of Westopolis, the whole city folded in on itself, buildings jutting up towards a skyline that goes in all directions. Doom's Eye returns to taunt Shadow some more and we see a bit of Shadow running around this Westopolis, the strange broken city still in the background.
What this says to me is that we're going to open on The Ark (Shadow's investigation), but the game is going to transition seamlessly into Shadow in Westopolis. This is probably all one level, and Doom's Eye pulls Shadow through time, possibly to a broken, impossible version of the past.
I think to some degree this is going to try explaining why parts of Shadow (the game) contradict each other. If some readers out there don't know, that game has ten different endings. Each ending is about Shadow understanding a different version of the truth about who he is and where he comes from. Some endings directly contradict each other, like there are two different endings where it's implied Shadow kills Dr. Eggman, and others where he does not do that.
Once you see all ten endings, the game's true final boss unlocks and you get one last 11th ending to tie everything together... except this last leg of the game confusingly picks and chooses different elements from the other ten endings to canonize, suggesting Shadow somehow simultaneously experienced multiple conflicting endings and remembers them all.
(By all accounts this does not seem to be intentional, that game was just held together by chewing gum and duct tape.)
Given that Chaos Control has actually straight up allowed time travel in these games, it wouldn't surprise me if this is going to comment on how confusing that was, and either attempt to untangle or at least explain why it was so confusing.
The very next shot we see is Shadow back on the Ark, fighting The Biolizard at the end of Sonic Adventure 2, but things are different now.
The Biolizard has all these tentacle-like shredded wires coming out of its back on either side, which weren't there before. The arena is much more enclosed, too, with a tiled roof evoking the echidna temples in Mystic Ruins.
It's worth mentioning that we see a shot of what looks to be the very start of the boss fight, where Biolizard seems to drop out of the sky, landing in front of Shadow. It's tough to see through all the water, but the wires aren't there yet.
The fight probably starts out evoking its original battle, and then shifts to introduce new elements, such as when the Biolizard climbs up on the roof around the arena:
Here we see The Biolizard covered in some kind of purple goo, shooting a litany of projectiles at Shadow, who returns with a Chaos Spear shot.
We see various rapid shots of Shadow in Chaos Control breaking some kind of glass orb. All of these appear to be at different points during the Biolizard fight, as you can sometimes make out parts of its body or the arena around Shadow. (Meaning this is the glowing red core on its back)
If this is a thing about either Black Doom or Shadow trying to rewrite history and change Shadow's past, I don't know if I see much room for switching to a Classic Shadow. And, historically, in the lore of what we know, was there even a Classic Shadow to be seen?
Like, Shadow was grown in a lab and we've only ever seen him the same age as Sonic. To that end, Shadow himself is effectively immortal. It has been said many times that Shadow has "eternal life." And that's partially because Shadow isn't even a "real hedgehog."
Or he's not a hedgehog like Sonic is. He is a "bio-mechanical android." This means he looks like flesh and blood but a non-trivial portion of his body is a robot, a fact these games almost never comment on or explore in any capacity. But it's the whole reason Eggman had all of those Shadow clones in Heroes and later the Shadow game -- they were technically robots, not actual animals.
I didn't consider it at the time, but whether he's Young or Old, he is going to look exactly like he does right now. You even see this in the games:
When Shadow knew Maria on the Ark 50 years ago, he looks exactly like he does now.
And then, in Sonic 2006, Mephiles shows that humanity grew to fear Shadow and locked him in a prison. This particular scene is 200 years in the future, but the imprisoned Shadow in the purple cage has not aged a day.
I don't think there will be "Classic Shadow" levels, and I don't think "Final Chase" and "Westopolis" will even be separate levels.
This could go in some really weird directions.
