Theory: Shadow isn't super fast

[MetalSkulkBane]

Here's something that hit me yesterday: when Sonic meets Shadow for a fist time, the latter uses Chaos Control and appears to be fast. It wasn't instant teleportation, Sonic saw Shadow pass him. Shadow slowed time to appear super fast.

Thad made me think: how do we know Shadow isn't doing it 24/7? A much-much weaker version of Chaos Control. With emerald he can do basically instant teleportation, without it he can pretend he has Sonic-speed.

And if I'm right... does it changes anything? Is there any difference between being super fast or making rest of the world super slow?

[Salamander]

You might say these are different methods of achieving the same thing... but in any case, Shadow has those jet boots, right?  His speed has always been artificially augmented in a way which doesn't appear to be true of Sonic or, say, Blaze.

I would always expect them to run at the same speed in gameplay, but narratively, at least in my head, Shadow's top speed is lower than Sonic's but he can make up for it with Chaos Control teleportation and the odd time slow.

[castell-neath]

Hmm....an intetesting thought. The rocket shoes do seem to indicate he has some pace to him though

[Zadent]

I agree with the statement that whether he is slowing everything down or is fast himself, the result is the same, out side of the possibility that slowing time down for everything else means the user might still experience time on their body (so aging) the same way.

His first encounter with Sonic, imo, is especially meant to show the new ability of the Emeralds that he can access, but it is left ambiguous as to the nature of his speed, leaving room for interpretations either way.

That said, I lean toward him just being fast. But I also run with, tying into that, the theory that his air shoes are just a way to channel his energy, since to me they don’t seem like they have any space for a mechanism for thrust. This ties into the rings around his ankles for me since he has what look like 4 Inhibitor rings. (bonus, to me that helps add to the detail that he can use them to hover a smidge in some games, and iirc, his Boost in Forces looks more like a flying pose with his shoes behind him, not skating). So it’s all his own speed under his own power, he just doesn’t achieve it by doing a running motion.