I give Prime massive props for actually giving Shadow a reason to be pissed with Sonic outside of just “because???”
Ya we can make jokes that Shadow is just fighting with Sonic bc that’s part of their dynamic and Shadow likes to beef, but the reality is that Shadow has legitimate reasons to be upset with Sonic’s recklessness.
It’s not just “let’s have sonic and shadow fight and make Shadow an asshole because why else would they fight??”
Instead it’s “Sonic’s messing up, Shadow recognizes that and wants to put a stop to it before things go too far.”
And with how Prime has characterized Sonic thus far, even though Sonic claimed they could talk things out instead of fighting, Sonic wasn’t even listening to his friends, so I doubt he would actually listen to Shadow.
That’s why Shadow picks a fight, because he knew that would keep Sonic’s attention, not a conversation. Even during the fight Sonic ignores every time Shadow tries to tell him to listen and to focus and opts to just dip out to help his friends instead of trying to understand why Shadow even got in his way.
And things, unfortunately, go too far. It’s not just that Sonic shattered all his friends into different versions of themselves and their world into separate parts, he completely broke their world. It’s all gone. It’s just shatters of its formal self.
All because Sonic wasn’t listening, and he comes to that conclusion on his own, which was incredible to watch. For Sonic to have a moment of reflection and to realize what he’s been doing, it’s a great moment and it sets up how Sonic goes about the remaining episodes.
And while Sonic has come to that conclusion, it doesn’t change what he’s done. It’s why at the end of episode eight, when Shadow is finally able to catch Sonic, he’s still mad. Sonic still did what he did. And Shadow will probably be there to chew him out for it but he will probably also help Sonic pick up the pieces. After the initial fight and explanations are done, they’re gonna team up I’m sure (the articles hinted at that lol) and actually communicate to fix things.
After all, that’s all Shadow wanted from the start. For Sonic to listen and to focus.
It was really nice, after so long, to watch and see a Shadow who was levelheaded, who was high tempered for good reason, who could put the pieces together from just observing, and who was ultimately just trying to protect his world.