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Player: Kei
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begleiter
Age: 36
Other Characters: N/A
Name: Shadow the Hedgehog
Canon: Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount)
Canon Point: End of Movie 3
Age: Unknown, and complicated by missing memories and 50 years spent in stasis; physically, at least, he's supposed to be around the same maturity as Sonic, so 15 or 16 is a good guess
Backstory: Wiki link
Personality: The most important first step to understanding Shadow is understanding his friendship with Maria. Shadow is an alien with no knowledge of what he is or where he came from. He's immediately captured and taken to a government facility, where his only company is a team of aloof, fearful scientists—and a young human girl named Maria. Maria shows no fear upon meeting Shadow, just friendly curiosity, and in doing so makes a fast friend out of Shadow. She's the only person who doesn't treat Shadow with anxiety or fear, the only one that bothers to spend time with him outside of the experiments, and the only one who encourages him to not let himself be defined by how other people see him. Maria is extremely dear to Shadow; he says outright that he doesn't know who he'd be without her and confides in her about his fears and anxieties.
But the tenor of their relationship isn't always so serious. While Shadow is initially deeply skeptical of Maria's offer of friendship, he's easily won over by her sincerity and proves himself willing to match her enthusiasm. At her prompting he ducks out of testing sessions, drags her around the laboratory hallways on her roller skates with his enhanced speed, and even sneaks out of the lab entirely to go stargazing with her. They watch movies, listen to music, dance, play games—put it simply, in Maria's presence Shadow is willing to act like the child that he seemingly is.
But that's not the first impression most people get. Shadow makes his entry in the story by kicking lots of ass and wreaking lots of havoc, and multiple warnings are given about how powerful and dangerous he is. Indeed, the first time we see him he's single-handedly taking out an entire troop of heavily armed guards, and shortly after that he's throwing around armored trucks and defeating Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles on his own. It's easy to assume (and plenty of people do) that he's a rough and angry creature by default. That certainly seems to be true while he's grieving. He's openly hostile towards G.U.N. and its allies, willing to commit murder to achieve his goals, and at one point is outright cruel to Sonic simply for the sake of being cruel.
But while Shadow is perfectly willing to meet violence with violence, the reality that his default state is best described as grumpy but calm. Almost every violent action we see him take is in response to a direct threat against him first—guards trying to keep him from escaping confinement, soldiers tying to recapture him, Team Sonic trying to stop he and Gerald's plans, and so on. Even when he is threatened, violence isn't his only impulse. On multiple occasions he opts to retreat, or outright run away, rather than stand his ground and fight. The biggest exception to this, an abrupt and near fatal attack against an unarmed man, is because the person Shadow attacks is someone he holds personally responsible for Maria's death.
More importantly, Shadow is disinclined to use fear and violence as tools in the first place. While in G.U.N.'s custody he's well aware that the scientists fear him and consider him dangerous and, knowing that he himself is an alien, is distraught when he sees a movie that warns its viewers to 'beware the alien freak'. And yet he's extremely complacent with those same scientists who fear him, allowing himself to run in circles and be hooked up to monitors so they can conduct their research, even when he's obviously unhappy with it.
It's not hard to tip his complacency into outright cooperation, either. A sincere offer of friendship, or even simple understanding, is enough to draw him out if his grumpy shell. Maria was able to coax Shadow into the first (and, for many years, only) friendship of his life; Gerald uses he and Shadow's shared grief over Maria's death to convince Shadow that the best course of action is to literally destroy Earth to get revenge; and then Sonic talks Shadow back out of his omnicidal ambitious by empathizing with his pain and showing him a different way forward.
But even in the depths of his grief and pain there was evidence of a softer side. Shadow treats every situation with deadly seriousness, but there's signs that he's willing to engage in a bit of levity. He refers to guacamole as 'revenge guac', sneaks up on Knuckles and announces himself with a flat 'boo' when discovered, and gets deeply invested in a telenovela. And his empathy shows through as well. When Shadow critically injures Tom, Sonic's fear and anguish shakes Shadow enough for him to recall his own despair over Maria's death, and even start to question if destroying earth is right course of action.
Powers/Abilities:
Speed: Shadow is fast, in terms of both running (or rather, skating) and reflexes. An exact limit to his speed is never given, but he's seen running in excess of the speed of sound and keeping pace with another character that can do the same. While his reflexes are nearly unmatched in canon, there are some implied limitations to his speed. Shadow uses hover shoes to skate, rather than outright run, and seem to favor using said shoes to rocket himself up to top speed, rather than simply running. Once he's at said max speed he's never seen staying there for long, he's shown to make use of vehicles rather than opting to run everywhere all the time, and he's never seen zipping about just for fun the way Sonic does.
Limiter Rings: As the name implies, a set of rings that fit around Shadow's wrists and limit the output of his Chaos energy. It's not clear how much of a cap they put on his power, just that the difference between when they're on and when they're off is considerable. It's unknown what, if any, risks there are in taking them off. That said, it's stated in the games that removing the rings puts Shadow at risk of destroying himself with his own power, so presumably the consequences are the same. Regardless, while they're functional they won't actually be limiting anything until Shadow regains his Chaos energy ability.
Air Shoes: In short, these are shoes with rockets in the soles. Shadow mostly uses them much like he would a pair of roller skates, but they have a few other utilities. He can hover with him (though he can't outright fly), and they can burn hot enough to melt through steel. He seems to have some control over their output, though how is never stated. It's also not clear how they're powered, just that they never seem to run out of juice and were perfectly functional even after they and Shadow were kept in stasis for 50 years.
Inventory: Shoes, gloves, limiter rings
Game Plans: I'm looking forward to having Shadow deal with the fact that he's alive, since he was fully prepared to not be. I think it'll be interesting to play out the process of discovering what he wants to do going forward. I'm also excited to have him in an environment where he's in close proximity to other people that he'll need to cooperate with to survive.
Monster Choice:
- Drakonis: In the games, Shadow was created as the collaboration between a human scientist and an alien hive mind. While this doesn't appear to be the case in the films, I nevertheless like being able to echo that in the hybrid aspects of the Drakonis.
- Zoanthrope: I cannot pretend that I have any reason for wanting Zoanthrope aside from the fact that were-creatures are cool. Also, Sonic gets to be a werewolf in one of his games so Zoanthrope appeals to me for that reason alone.
- Random: (alternately, Yokai) All of the monster choices so good that I genuinely struggle to think of a 3rd option that I prefer over any of the others. So if neither Drakonis nor Zoanthrope are available, please randomize me!
Vehicle Choice: Motorcycle, fast.
Sample: here
Contact:
Age: 36
Other Characters: N/A
Name: Shadow the Hedgehog
Canon: Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount)
Canon Point: End of Movie 3
Age: Unknown, and complicated by missing memories and 50 years spent in stasis; physically, at least, he's supposed to be around the same maturity as Sonic, so 15 or 16 is a good guess
Backstory: Wiki link
Personality: The most important first step to understanding Shadow is understanding his friendship with Maria. Shadow is an alien with no knowledge of what he is or where he came from. He's immediately captured and taken to a government facility, where his only company is a team of aloof, fearful scientists—and a young human girl named Maria. Maria shows no fear upon meeting Shadow, just friendly curiosity, and in doing so makes a fast friend out of Shadow. She's the only person who doesn't treat Shadow with anxiety or fear, the only one that bothers to spend time with him outside of the experiments, and the only one who encourages him to not let himself be defined by how other people see him. Maria is extremely dear to Shadow; he says outright that he doesn't know who he'd be without her and confides in her about his fears and anxieties.
But the tenor of their relationship isn't always so serious. While Shadow is initially deeply skeptical of Maria's offer of friendship, he's easily won over by her sincerity and proves himself willing to match her enthusiasm. At her prompting he ducks out of testing sessions, drags her around the laboratory hallways on her roller skates with his enhanced speed, and even sneaks out of the lab entirely to go stargazing with her. They watch movies, listen to music, dance, play games—put it simply, in Maria's presence Shadow is willing to act like the child that he seemingly is.
But that's not the first impression most people get. Shadow makes his entry in the story by kicking lots of ass and wreaking lots of havoc, and multiple warnings are given about how powerful and dangerous he is. Indeed, the first time we see him he's single-handedly taking out an entire troop of heavily armed guards, and shortly after that he's throwing around armored trucks and defeating Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles on his own. It's easy to assume (and plenty of people do) that he's a rough and angry creature by default. That certainly seems to be true while he's grieving. He's openly hostile towards G.U.N. and its allies, willing to commit murder to achieve his goals, and at one point is outright cruel to Sonic simply for the sake of being cruel.
But while Shadow is perfectly willing to meet violence with violence, the reality that his default state is best described as grumpy but calm. Almost every violent action we see him take is in response to a direct threat against him first—guards trying to keep him from escaping confinement, soldiers tying to recapture him, Team Sonic trying to stop he and Gerald's plans, and so on. Even when he is threatened, violence isn't his only impulse. On multiple occasions he opts to retreat, or outright run away, rather than stand his ground and fight. The biggest exception to this, an abrupt and near fatal attack against an unarmed man, is because the person Shadow attacks is someone he holds personally responsible for Maria's death.
More importantly, Shadow is disinclined to use fear and violence as tools in the first place. While in G.U.N.'s custody he's well aware that the scientists fear him and consider him dangerous and, knowing that he himself is an alien, is distraught when he sees a movie that warns its viewers to 'beware the alien freak'. And yet he's extremely complacent with those same scientists who fear him, allowing himself to run in circles and be hooked up to monitors so they can conduct their research, even when he's obviously unhappy with it.
It's not hard to tip his complacency into outright cooperation, either. A sincere offer of friendship, or even simple understanding, is enough to draw him out if his grumpy shell. Maria was able to coax Shadow into the first (and, for many years, only) friendship of his life; Gerald uses he and Shadow's shared grief over Maria's death to convince Shadow that the best course of action is to literally destroy Earth to get revenge; and then Sonic talks Shadow back out of his omnicidal ambitious by empathizing with his pain and showing him a different way forward.
But even in the depths of his grief and pain there was evidence of a softer side. Shadow treats every situation with deadly seriousness, but there's signs that he's willing to engage in a bit of levity. He refers to guacamole as 'revenge guac', sneaks up on Knuckles and announces himself with a flat 'boo' when discovered, and gets deeply invested in a telenovela. And his empathy shows through as well. When Shadow critically injures Tom, Sonic's fear and anguish shakes Shadow enough for him to recall his own despair over Maria's death, and even start to question if destroying earth is right course of action.
Powers/Abilities:
Speed: Shadow is fast, in terms of both running (or rather, skating) and reflexes. An exact limit to his speed is never given, but he's seen running in excess of the speed of sound and keeping pace with another character that can do the same. While his reflexes are nearly unmatched in canon, there are some implied limitations to his speed. Shadow uses hover shoes to skate, rather than outright run, and seem to favor using said shoes to rocket himself up to top speed, rather than simply running. Once he's at said max speed he's never seen staying there for long, he's shown to make use of vehicles rather than opting to run everywhere all the time, and he's never seen zipping about just for fun the way Sonic does.
Limiter Rings: As the name implies, a set of rings that fit around Shadow's wrists and limit the output of his Chaos energy. It's not clear how much of a cap they put on his power, just that the difference between when they're on and when they're off is considerable. It's unknown what, if any, risks there are in taking them off. That said, it's stated in the games that removing the rings puts Shadow at risk of destroying himself with his own power, so presumably the consequences are the same. Regardless, while they're functional they won't actually be limiting anything until Shadow regains his Chaos energy ability.
Air Shoes: In short, these are shoes with rockets in the soles. Shadow mostly uses them much like he would a pair of roller skates, but they have a few other utilities. He can hover with him (though he can't outright fly), and they can burn hot enough to melt through steel. He seems to have some control over their output, though how is never stated. It's also not clear how they're powered, just that they never seem to run out of juice and were perfectly functional even after they and Shadow were kept in stasis for 50 years.
Inventory: Shoes, gloves, limiter rings
Game Plans: I'm looking forward to having Shadow deal with the fact that he's alive, since he was fully prepared to not be. I think it'll be interesting to play out the process of discovering what he wants to do going forward. I'm also excited to have him in an environment where he's in close proximity to other people that he'll need to cooperate with to survive.
Monster Choice:
- Drakonis: In the games, Shadow was created as the collaboration between a human scientist and an alien hive mind. While this doesn't appear to be the case in the films, I nevertheless like being able to echo that in the hybrid aspects of the Drakonis.
- Zoanthrope: I cannot pretend that I have any reason for wanting Zoanthrope aside from the fact that were-creatures are cool. Also, Sonic gets to be a werewolf in one of his games so Zoanthrope appeals to me for that reason alone.
- Random: (alternately, Yokai) All of the monster choices so good that I genuinely struggle to think of a 3rd option that I prefer over any of the others. So if neither Drakonis nor Zoanthrope are available, please randomize me!
Vehicle Choice: Motorcycle, fast.
Sample: here