Would you change/fix Shadow origin?

[MetalSkulkBane]

11 hours ago, Ashwalking Bat said:

The whole 'world betrays Shadow in the future' thing was expositioned by Mephilis. And if memory serves, Mephilis is based off Mephistopheles. A variation of the devil, which feeds lies and desires for sin in the hearts of men. He was the mouth piece of evil and spoke only the things he knew one would want to hear. So Mephilis's exposition on Shadow being betrayed by the humans may of been a illusion/lie designed by him to fool Shadow into hating humanity. If this is the case, then the point you were making with this is moot.

Infact, Mephilis actively fools Silver in trying to kill Sonic. Claiming that Sonic is the Iblis trigger. In some demented way, if Silver's attempts at Sonic's life were successful at any stage, Silver would be technically be the one who is the 'Iblis Trigger' by killing Sonic. Ultimately, it ended up being Mephilis that took thing into his own hands and killed Sonic after all of Silver's failures. So that's proof on it's own that the whole 'world turns on Shadow' thing maybe total BS to mess with Shadow.

But nothing suggests that Shadow would not be pro-earth, that matters canonically and isn't some timeline happened but not really BS, like what 06 did.

Actually, I have a theory on that.

Mephiles predicted that Sonic is an Iblis Tigger and send Silver to kill him. If Silver killed Sonic, Elise would cry, thus making the prophecy come true.

Then he says that humanity will turn against Shadow and offers him to join him. See the parable? If Shadow agreed to his terms, GUN would have no choice but to stop him (possibly reprograming Omega first), thus fulfilling his prophecy.

So Mephiles is really sneaky kind of prophet, it just Shadow had enough people messing in his head before.

[Almar]

For the Black Arms to suit Sonic, you'd have to more or less replace them with different characters. What with their designs, edgy dialogue, edgy goal, and overall edge. Going so far to remake a character just brings doubt on what's the point of using them if so little of them actually works.

Yeah, GUN and Gerald/Maria don't fit in the current direction for Sonic. Yeah, Eggman's family ties might not have been followed up on much. But that's not a point for the Black Arms. If anything, Shadow will get the Sonic Boom treatment where he just shows up to fight Sonic now and then.

[Ashwalking Bat]

4 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Actually, I have a theory on that.

Mephiles predicted that Sonic is an Iblis Tigger and send Silver to kill him. If Silver killed Sonic, Elise would cry, thus making the prophecy come true.

Then he says that humanity will turn against Shadow and offers him to join him. See the parable? If Shadow agreed to his terms, GUN would have no choice but to stop him (possibly reprograming Omega first), thus fulfilling his prophecy.

So Mephiles is really sneaky kind of prophet, it just Shadow had enough people messing in his head before.

Ah, yeah. That would make sense. They would be playing into his hand if any of what he told others was heeded. Though Silver did listen to what Mephilis said, but was crap at his job with trying to kill Sonic. Not to mention that Shadow pretty much gave Silver a shoe to the back of the head via Chaos Control.

[Skull Leader]

While I think that a bunch of the stuff that comes into giving shape to Shadow's backstory feels outlandish for a franchise like Sonic, I wouldn't change the premise of his (SA2) origin since without that, Shadow would just be and edgelord bully that gets triggered by petty insults... like in Sonic Boom.

However, one thing that needs to be tackled is what exactly drives his into wanting to destroy humanity. The argument of his memories being altered by Gerald Robotnik is not enough IMO because it does not cover anything regarding Shadow's own judgement.

Why it does not make sense? Because of Maria. This girl was pretty much the only person in his life at that point who saw him not as an experiment or a weapon, but as another person whom she befriended. I think that Maria played a huge role in Shadow understanding things like the difference between right and wrong, the value of life among other things, such as those same words that decades later Amy would say, reflecting the same understanding as Maria. 

Assuming that the only thing Gerald tampered with were Shadows' memory of Maria wishing for him to punish humanity, would it not had made Shadow feel that something was wrong? Sure, he would be rightfully p*ssed at the people that took her life, and think that should had been enough justification to do what he did out of giving into his more negative emotions and resentment. Having the memories of Maria corrupted for Gerald's ulterior purposes was a bit too much, if not unecessary as there would had been other ways to feed Shadow with the belief that it was him and Gerald who were victims of a betrayal rather than the mental image of Maria telling him to go Tomino on humanity. At least that way Shadow would feel like a character who thinks rather than a tool that says what others tell him to without questioning if there is a hidden purpose, which funny enough, is the same exact problem that Silver suffered from in 06, although with a far less subtle execution.

[Tara]

2 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

Why it does not make sense? Because of Maria. This girl was pretty much the only person in his life at that point who saw him not as an experiment or a weapon, but as another person whom she befriended. I think that Maria played a huge role in Shadow understanding things like the difference between right and wrong, the value of life among other things, such as those same words that decades later Amy would say, reflecting the same understanding as Maria. 

While this would be an interesting take on Shadow, do we really have any proof for these claims?  All mentions of Gerald by Shadow are generally in high regard, and the rest of the crew is seen only during that one flashback mission in ShTH, where we get no insight as to how Shadow felt about them.  Certainly, Maria was probably the only person Shadow felt comfortable confiding in, but we don't really know WHY that is.  My assumption would be that it's because they spent a lot of time together as part of attempts to treat Maria's illness, not because no one else treated him right.

Either way, I can understand the merits of a plot about anger and vengeance blackening the soul and obscuring the truth, though I don't think SA2 pulled it off exceptionally well.  So not questioning why Maria would want humanity destroyed makes sense to me, with or without memory tampering.

[Atharun]

Shadow's back story and portrayal is a big part of why I don't like him. If anything I'd have made him a character in Sonics world that had abilities but that were enhanced via an experiment and it has left him with a chip on his shoulder and with a worse attitude than before. The it into Robotnik to keep that element as a nod to the old prigin . Just keep it simple. No guns, aliems, G.U.N., Assassinated little girl.

[Dash Speed]

11 hours ago, Atharun said:

Shadow's back story and portrayal is a big part of why I don't like him. If anything I'd have made him a character in Sonics world that had abilities but that were enhanced via an experiment and it has left him with a chip on his shoulder and with a worse attitude than before. The it into Robotnik to keep that element as a nod to the old prigin . Just keep it simple. No guns, aliems, G.U.N., Assassinated little girl.

It humanizes him more than a character thats tied to eggman.