What if Shadow Gave His Life Again?

[Stritix]

Answer this: If Shadow isn't the second most popular character, then who is?

They are all getting the same treatment as Shadow, except Tails & Eggman show up in cutscenes which barely effects their popularity.

Infact, this is barely anything to do with my original point any more. My original point is that Shadow is far too much of an important & popular character to be killed off. Killing him off would be killing off a part of the fan-base. He's too well established.

[Diogenes]

Answer this: If Shadow isn't the second most popular character, then who is?

They are all getting the same treatment as Shadow, except Tails & Eggman show up in cutscenes which barely effects their popularity.

[w00tkins]

Only if it became a 'you killed Kenny' style running joke.

[Marcello]

It's sad and funny when there's nothing wrong with this oxymoron of a thread title.

[Indigo Rush]

Here's something they should do - make it look as if Tails supposedly died. It's always been either Sonic or Shadow - how about a little more innocent of a character? See how Sonic reacts and how he'd deal with the loss of his best friend.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Answer this: If Shadow isn't the second most popular character, then who is?

If I were to make a guess it would either be Tails or Eggman. Unlike Shadow, they haven't had their reputations ruined as individual characters.

But that being said that since there's no official statistic that takes every Sonic fan's input, there's no certainty as to who the second most popular character is. But considering how much hate Shadow has gotten, it's pretty damn clear he isn't 2nd best anymore.

They are all getting the same treatment as Shadow, except Tails & Eggman show up in cutscenes which barely effects their popularity.

If they're all getting the same treatment as Shadow, then I'm pretty damn sure that confirms Shadow isn't the 2nd most popular character.

Infact, this is barely anything to do with my original point any more. My original point is that Shadow is far too much of an important & popular character to be killed off. Killing him off would be killing off a part of the fan-base. He's too well established.

Part of your original point stated that Shadow was the 2nd most popular character, and that was the part I called out.

His importance varies between games he's in, and no one can deny that even after all the mess they've put the character in that he's still popular and well established. But from here on out, don't go stating he's 2nd most popular when the statistic that said that is 10 years old, because a lot of stuff has changed in over the span of that decade.

[Aquaslash]

With is WITH you people demanding that a character die to be redeemed? Are you THAT incapable of thinking of a decent way to fix the so called "problems" a character has? Really getting sick of this "kill em all but Sonic" mentality.

Furthermore, I think the Sonic series as a whole, and the games in particular, can do without the whole gravitas of a character being killed for what really amounts to nothing more than shock value. There are tons better stories to be written and tales to be told.

[Nepenthe]

Thinking about it, I don't think killing a character is ever called for as genuine path to redemption so much as it is "I hate this character so much that no one should be able to enjoy him/her."

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

To be fair, there are those who dislike the character but would rather he be redeemed. They've made themselves known, so i don't think I have to list names.

But for the most part, every time I hear someone say that his death would be a good thing for the character and series, it's likely to be what Nepenthe said. And sometimes it's not so much that they can't think of any other way for the character to redeem the character, it's probably because they don'​t want to find other ways to redeem the character and would be happy to kill him off at the expense of those who love the character.

[Kuzu]

"If they wanted him to stick around" "They should have brought him back in a less abrupt way" implies after he died/after Sonic Adventure 2. I suggest you learn to form your words better.

I know what I said, if Sega wanted Shadow to be a recurring character in the series after Sa2, they should have made his death more ambiguous and not bring him back in such a rushed way in Heroes.

Insults, really? How old are you? What are you even getting worked up over?

Why do you feel the need to comment on something so insignificant?

[TheOcelot]

You know what, I actually quite like Shadow. I don't think killing him off again would be a clever idea. Better that he's out there with the status of being the ultimate rival to Sonic. The funny thing is, Shadow has not been playable in a main Sonic game since 06 which is a long time, and Shadow's story feels almost closed/complete.

I mean he died (SA2), some how came back to life (Heroes). Then he decided to go on a murdering spree (ShTH) and then took on the mighty Mephilis (06) who killed Sonic, but who couldn't kill Shadow! Oh and Shadow kicked Silver's arse. Just feels that Shadows story is done, and that SEGA should only bring him back if they can think of a really good story.

I bet the demand for Shadow's return will increase (at least by a small amount) once we have played SA2 HD.

[Stritix]

I know what I said, if Sega wanted Shadow to be a recurring character in the series after Sa2, they should have made his death more ambiguous and not bring him back in such a rushed way in Heroes.

I'm talking about back in SA2 numbnuts.

After Sonic Adventure 2? You said you were talking about during Sonic Adventure 2. Make up your mind.

Why do you feel the need to comment on something so insignificant?

Sorry if I'm not letting you get away with throwing around childish insults. It is not insignificant.

[Diogenes]

After Sonic Adventure 2? You said you were talking about during Sonic Adventure 2. Make up your mind.

If they wanted Shadow to be around after SA2, they should have made his death (in SA2) more ambiguous. That's a perfectly coherent thought, I don't know what's tripping you up.

[UltDevilDoom]

Sega wouldn't get rid of him, so don't expect another death anytime soon, if ever. He's too popular.

[Blacklightning]

If they wanted Shadow to be around after SA2, they should have made his death (in SA2) more ambiguous. That's a perfectly coherent thought, I don't know what's tripping you up.

Speaking of that, he fell to Earth and disappeared in a giant pink twinkle. I'm not terribly sure how you can get more ambiguous than that, so I wouldn't say the death scene itself is the problem so much as the fact that attempts to bring him back afterwards were extremely ham-fisted to the point of silliness.

And really, it takes a special kind of clumsiness to fuck up an opportunity like that, but then again we are talking about the same kind of people who would later try shoehorning guns into the mix.

[Crash]

I think that he's too big of a character. Most people rate him second to Sonic. So killing him would make a lot of fans stop playing the games and Sega's money issues becoming even greater.

[Kuzu]

I think that he's too big of a character. Most people rate him second to Sonic. So killing him would make a lot of fans stop playing the games and Sega's money issues becoming even greater.

If people are going to quit the series because the absence of a character who's not the protagonist, then those are probably the people we shouldn't be associating with.

[Multikaris]

If people are going to quit the series because the absence of a character who's not the protagonist, then those are probably the people we shouldn't be associating with.

Agreed. I wouldn't leave if Blaze left.

[JaidynReiman]

Oh, hey, look at me, I'm not dead... just been lurking...

Unfortunately, it won't work for Shadow. He should have something bad happen if its to develop his character more, but not him dying. For one, I really like Shadow, and it'd be cheap to make him go the same way as Zero. For two, him coming back wasn't the problem, its the fact that he game back in literally the next game, with absolutely no explanation as to how.

Then Shadow the Hedgehog kinda screwed it up further...

It really wasn't that he came back, but how he came back that's the problem. To add some characterization, it'd be nice to put him in a situation that he cannot win, severely wounding him, but without killing him off completely, just to show that he's not invisible.