Shadow's main problem in modern media is a very common problem with characters like him; his character peaked in Sonic Adventure 2 (or Sonic 06 depending on who you ask). His arc had completed and he died a heroic death. That should have been the end of him, but of course he lived because he was just that damn popular. There was literally no character like Shadow at the time of his debut and there arguably hasn't been since seeing how no other character has really reached his level of popularity. I don't think bringing him back was a bad idea, but Sega definitely had no long-term plans for him after doing it seeing how they just mind-wiped him in Heroes and then did a worse version of his SA2 arc in his game. So Shadow's kind of stuck in an awkward position as a character; his arc is over and done with as are his days of being a major deuteragonist, but he's far too popular for his own good for Sega to ever completely ignore him either. Not to mention that being an established equal to Sonic means that the two of them teaming up will basically break the plot in two, so of course Shadow is almost always playing antagonistic role towards Sonic to prevent that and they only team up in the eleventh hour. Its weird because none of Sonic's other rivals have ever had this issue and they're arguably much easier to work with as a result, but are nowhere near as popular as Shadow; like you can toss Knuckles and Metal Sonic anywhere without too much issue. Truthfully, he should have gotten his own sub-series a long time ago so we wouldn't even have to worry about that issue, but alas.
Sonic Team could solve the Shadow problem by letting him go through the Vegeta character arc properly and become an awkward but earnest dad The problem is that they just did this with Robotnik
First of all, said scientist didn't crash into his island on purpose (technically). Second, and I can't believe this needs repeating: Knuckles is gullible because he's a sheltered tree-hugging tribesman. He is ignorant and naive, not stupid. Yet fan interpretation (at least in older years, not so much since the second movie) along with Boom had him as dumb as Patrick Star. Flanderizing one of your only black-coded characters to be dumb as a rock is not ok. The fanbase is wavering. One side wants these characters to be actual characters, to have development and growth, and for the stories to take themselves seriously. Another side wants these characters to be like Looney Tunes and be built for comedy: simplistic, meme-able, and defined by their quirks. And they haven't yet realized that those two sides are incompatible...and neither side is dominant yet. Spoiler yes, I have been watching Hunter X Hunter
Okay, I know his shoes are the Rastafarian flag's colors, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have that in mind when making him act silly in Boom. And since you took the time to mention codes, I appreciated Knuckles' indigenous roots as a kid when the only thing else that even came close in media at the time was APTN. And throughout it all I had NO issue whenever he was protrayed as silly. It was not alienating.
Well one of these isn't really compatible with a long-running series soooo. Stories and character arcs are meant to end, but the very nature of Sonic as a series means it has no endpoint.
Personally, I enjoyed seeing Shadow beat up Infinite. Though maybe that belongs in a "Plebian Sonic Opinions" thread.
His last major appearances (Forces, TSR), even if good willed, were so boring. In Heroes he's pretty much exactly how you remember him from SA2 and, dare I say, fun. Then the plot smacks you in the face with the Androids/clones and ShtH's multiple endings paint this weird picture of him. We already knew that he's not a bad guy, and yet, they made him karate chop Eggman and Sonic to death. I don't remember how significant he was in Sonic Battle. Probably alright there?
He gets knocked out for basically the entire game until the final act at which point he starts angsting about him and Emerl being living weapons who only live for destruction and tries to destroy Emerl to prevent him doing that, but is talked down by Sonic in the end. You do get a somewhat wholesome moment where he claims he'll be strong as long as he has Maria in his heart however.
So? Ignorant and stupid are synonymous words. This just feels like splitting hairs. You just called him a naive tribesman. Don't worry I'm not gonna hold you to your own standard though. How bout we just not try to induce real world guilt to win Sonic arguments? I agree that they went too far with Knuckles' stupidity in the boost/boom/meta era. But as far as the problems of the time go, it'd just be low on my priorities list to fix. Also I feel like I'm being strawmanned and that's not nice!
I do appreciate the attempt at giving each character their own sound, but it's a very mixed bag overall yea.
While we're here, I didn't understand how anyone could prefer Endless Possibilities to His World and I certainly don't understand it now. It looks like a popular opinion though.
I had a mandela effect moment when I learned it was "Endless Possibility" and not "Endless Possibilities"
it just makes the OST super samey. Ironically the Dark characters' tunes are less of a grey mush because they have fewer levels, so their sounds have less time and don't wear out their welcome as hard.
His World is very "try hard" cool lyrically and tries to be incredibly epic with all the strings, whilst Endless Possibility is just kind of chilled cool (apart from the really forced rap section). It's significantly drawn back, but at the same time gives a much more grandiose feeling overall. Even though I do like His World, it's a very one-note song about how cool Sonic is. The introspective feeling of Endless Possibility is infinitely more appealing to me and gives a better overall impression of Sonic himself. Also the production of His World is just awful. In the second chorus, the singer is completely out of breath. In the lines "where life is strong" and "where one is all" he can't hold the note and cuts off about half a second too early. He also goes of way off-key in the line "life's an open book". Compare the first chorus from 0:49 to the second chorus from 2:19 if you don't know what I mean. I've been hearing all of the mistakes since 2006 and they're bloody awful. It's like they didn't finish production of the song. Rather than doing more takes out even re-using the first chorus for the second, they just rushed out an incomplete version. I guess thats actually suitable for an 06 theme tune though... EDIT: Damnit! Beaten to it on correcting the song title.
Yeah that's pretty much my take. I like what they were going for, but outside of a few great tracks (Live and Learn, Escape from the City, and Prison Lane are probably my favorites) I think it's mostly just kind of middle of the road. It's not bad music by any means but as far as Sonic music goes I think it's kind of mediocre. I think both Adventure and Heroes have significantly better soundtracks.
It's interesting that you should call its mood "introspective". Feels anything but that to me, being basically an upbeat pop punk song (which is something I admittedly don't care for in general) that projects nothing inward. I get absolutely none of that grandiose, but what do I know? Didn't even know the song name.
This probably isn't unpopular but yeah This World (er the Zerbahead version of His World) is exponentially better both instrumentally and lyrically. It's like it's actually trying to get you excited for a fast-paced platforming adventure whereas the one with the spotlight sounds like an awkward demo. Glad someone else agrees the singer sounds way off too.
The trailer where the song debuts literally has the proper title, how everyone thought it was "Possibilities" as opposed to "Possibility" just shows that Sonic Fans don't actually know how to read
