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This Article Contains Spoilers -
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| “ | I'm Shadow the Hedgehog. The one and only ultimate life form. | „ |
| ~ Shadow introducing himself. |
| “ | It's alright, Maria. I'm letting go of that destructive anger. But I will continue to fight. Fight... with your wish in my heart. Your wish for everyone to have a chance to be happy. | „ |
| ~ Shadow to Maria. |
Shadow the Hedgehog is a major character in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
He was created aboard a spaceship called the Space Colony ARK by Gerald Robotnik and Black Doom over fifty years ago as a result of Project Shadow, a government experiment with the aim of achieving immortality.
After his birth, he befriended Gerald's granddaughter Maria. When the ARK was attacked, Maria sacrificed herself to send Shadow to Earth, asking him to protect humanity and give them a chance to be happy. Kept in suspended animation, Shadow was awakened by Gerald's grandson, Dr. Eggman. Due to Gerald altering his memories, he had a hatred for humanity and initially strove to destroy the Earth. However, after recovering his true memories and recalling Maria’s final wish, he abandoned his goal and became a sworn protector of Earth.
He's Sonic the Hedgehog's arch-rival, Maria Robotnik's best friend and close friends with Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega.
From Sonic Adventure 2 to Sonic Heroes, he was voiced by David Humphrey while Ryan Drummond did a few recordings on the former. From Sonic X to Sonic and the Black Knight, he was voiced by Jason Griffith. He's currently voiced by Kirk Thornton. In Japanese, he's voiced by Kōji Yusa.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- He is an extremely arrogant and prideful egomaniac due to declaring himself as the “Ultimate Lifeform”.
- Although the Sonic the Hedgehog series has very high heinous standards, he stands out for a few reasons:
- He is one of the few villains to have explicitly killed others, having killed thousands of people.
- In Shadow the Hedgehog Dark Endings, he does many crimes, including working with Black Doom, who has a brutal way of wiping out humanity.
- Although he has a few comedic moments here and there, he is taken completely seriously in-universe by the characters.
Sonic Adventure 2[]
- He manipulated Eggman to get the Chaos Emeralds to power up the Space Colony ARK.
- While not intentionally, he framed Sonic the Hedgehog for his crimes and got him falsely arrested.
- He attempted to wipe out all life on Earth with the Eclipse Cannon powered by the Chaos Emeralds while trying to kill Sonic the Hedgehog when he tried to stop him.
Sonic Heroes[]
- He fought Team Chaotix and Team Sonic.
Shadow the Hedgehog[]
- In various endings of the game, he did the following crimes:
- In the Pure Dark ending, he planned to destroy Earth with the power of Chaos Emeralds.
- In the Pure Dark: Hero ending, he betrayed and defeated Black Doom but didn't redeem himself, instead intending to conquer the universe.
- In the Semi-Dark ending, he joined Black Doom in ruling the planet.
- In the Semi-Dark Hero and both Neutral endings, after beating Eggman, he brutally killed him (although he deserves it due to how vile he has become).
- In the Pure Hero: Dark ending, he turned on Sonic and beat him simply to prove his status as the ultimate hedgehog.
Post-Redemption[]
- After his fight with Mephiles in Shadow Generations, he straight up tells him that there will never ever be a future for him. While it was out of heroism, not to mention that Mephiles undoubtably can't be allowed to exist anymore, Shadow on his part doesn't remember him (because Solaris was erased and the history of events of 06 being forgotten), so this cannot be justified.
- In Sonic Forces, he killed all of the Jackal Squad members, besides the leader, and while it is done as an act of heroism, he still overdid it. After defeating the squad’s leader, he even taunted him, an act that ultimately caused him to end up becoming Infinite.
- Despite being allies, he and Rouge still treated E-1000B badly in Sonic Free Riders.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is FAR too tragic for Near Pure Evil, as he was created to try and cure his best friend Maria Robotnik's disease and save her life, but ended up being unable to save her from being shot since G.U.N. discovered he was illegally created to assist Black Doom in conquering the world, and was sealed away and lived in isolation for 50 years, which affected him his whole life (until Shadow Generations) and was what motivated him to become a nihilist and destroy the world.
- He has many honorable moments:
- He is shown to be honorable to Sonic in Sonic Adventure 2, being genuinely impressed by him managing to use Chaos Control with a fake Chaos Emerald. Even after his redemption, he respects Sonic as a rival and states that he will either fight him on equal terms or not at all.
- He also doesn't kill anyone as long as they don't do anything too unforgivable. He also vowed to keep his promise to Maria after witnessing her death in front of his own eyes.
- He has standards as he opposed Dr. Eggman's many schemes throughout the series after his redemption.
- While he is a massive jerk most of the time, he is legitimately affable since he is capable of speaking to others in a genuinely polite way.
- He was On & Off in his earlier appearances before completely redeeming himself in later games and media, also passing the admirable standards in the process.
- He has people he cares about, loves or respects, like Maria, Rouge, Omega and even Sonic, despite seeing him as a rival.
Trivia[]
- He and Tails Nine are the only Sonic the Hedgehog main series characters who are Inconsistently Heinous and also Inconsistently Admirable.
- He used to be Villainous Benchmark. However, as of November 21, 2025, he was later approved as Inconsistently Heinous. This is because he attempted to destroy the world and his history of assisting villains like Black Doom, despite having significantly fewer resources than antagonists such as Dr. Eggman or The End.
External Links[]
- Shadow the Hedgehog on the Sonic Wiki
- Shadow the Hedgehog on the Villains Wiki
- Shadow the Hedgehog on the Heroes Wiki
- Shadow the Hedgehog on the Guile Heroes Wiki
- Shadow the Hedgehog on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
- Shadow the Hedgehog on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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