To the average audience, its conflicting endings raised far more questions than they answered. Branching paths and alternate endings were a reaction to the popular trend in gaming at the time, and capping them all with the Sonic series' now-trademark "Final Story" ended up confusing the whole package. I enjoyed Shadow the Hedgehog for it's outrageousness, but as a sincere exploration of the character I feel it did more harm than good. I have a lot of problems with Shadow's origin, but that's a rant for another time and another thread.
Canonically, Shadow made all these discoveries we see, but when you play story mode, you get to enjoy just one way the story COULD have gone for old Shadsie. I see the story as very vague - intentionally so. Shadow went through both The Doom and Lost Impact's flashback scenes.Įssentially.
Shadow and the GUN Commander met on the ARK. Shadow must have destroyed Central City with the eclipse canon.Įggman must have tricked Shadow into thinking he may be an android. The true story is that he somehow goes through all that, ends up at the Black Comet, and ends up being convinced to do good with the chaos emeralds by everyone else and Gerald and Maria's recording. What IS canon is every event leading up to every possible ending. Overall, I don't believe any ending is canon. One of them should have totally been Shadow serving Eggman like he does in one Mostly Dark ending. It annoys me that Eggman dies in both the Lava Shelter endings. That was the most memorable ending for me. I adore the way Shadow says "This is who I am.", not with the hammy arrogance of most of the other endings, but with utter dejectedness There may be more clues from what the characters say during the Last Story, but I have not played it in quite a while. Shadow being convinced he is an android), but everything else seems to happen whether Shadow is there or not. Considering all this, I do not think it can really be determined which storyline is most true. The Last Story cancels out any other ending, but it does obviously take place on the Black Comet, which narrows it down to the final mission with Sonic (it is likely not the final mission with Knuckles because Shadow there is much more evil-driven and would probably not be open to listening to anyone else like he does in the story). There seem to be set events in the game that take place no matter what path is taken: cyberspace is invaded, Central City is ravaged, Eggman sends his fleet after the floating ruins, the President is evacuated, Black Arms make an attempt to take over the ARK (causing moderate damage to the satellite in the process), and the Black Comet shows up at the end. Shadow's real world-altering choices tend to come at the point he has acquired five Chaos Emeralds.
Sonic Heroes needs to be factored in as well: defeat of the Egg Albatross shows Shadow noticing the wreck of a Shadow android, Rouge's nondisclosure at the end being rendered moot. What I find interesting is how the path one takes in the game almost changes the truth of Shadow's past. This is easily how Shadow could have really ended up: crushed by the weight of his past rather than freeing himself from it.ĭoomed by his own psychoses to spend the rest of his immortal life shuffling about in a metal tomb on the one hand tortured by the ghosts of those long dead, but on the other hand unwilling to leave the place where he was born the place where he grew up the one place where he ever had a friend.Īs for which ending is most true, you already answered that, but it was obvious what Sonic Team intended in the first place. The best thing about this ending, though, is that it's an entirely believable what-might-have-been. He shoulders the responsibility with a kind of weary resignation, letting go of all his anger and hatred and just walking away from Eggman, devoid of the kind of wrathful kill-him-for-the-sake-of-it attitude he takes in the Lava Shelter missions (and, I think, still nurses in his true moody incarnation). Possibly just because I loev Knuckles, but the idea of Shadow guarding the ARK, making it and himself a dignified, solitary testament to Gerald's works and the good man that his creator once was, is like OMG DEEP.
My own favourite is LESS MOSTLY HERO the one where Shadow lets Robotnik go and becomes the Knuckles-esque hermetic custodian of the ARK. So which one of the 10 do you prefer, or think is actually most in keeping with Shadow's character as it stands at the start and / or end of the game? And, as an aside, which one is most likely to be the true one, that matches up best with the Last Story ending? That doesn't quite match up with any of the preceding 10 'intermediate' endings.