Then on the Twitter Takeover, Shadow says Black Doom's eye is alive and they drink ginger ale together. Heh. Also it was nice to see the Black Arms mentioned in Frontiers.
And now with Sonic x Shadow Generations we see that apparently, Doom's Eye is in fact still alive, and probably Black Doom too (yeah, I know Doom's Eye is Black Doom, but I'm talking about his physical form as Black Doom)
I remember a theory that said all routes are canon, it's just that due to Black Doom's memory manipulation Shadow is an unreliable narrator/pov. Feels hand wavey to me.
@@slateoffate9812 so basically, in the fan dub, they keep going back to the beginning cutscene after every route or so, which they explain as Black Doom resetting time for whatever reason. But later on, Sonic makes a comment stating that the timeline was never reset and that Shadow just has “really shitty memory”
I know this is a year old, but in the dub, shadow says he’ll side with Black Doom, but in Japan, he just says he’s going to find the emeralds because he doesn’t remember who he is and he wants to use them to create a miracle. He never says anything about aiding Black Doom in the opening.
It's an interesting theory, however I'm leaning towards 'Route 153: Together with Maria' being the canon route. Since the true ending cutscenes are considered canon, the route that is chosen needs to meet the ending's conditions. A minor issue that I have with this theory is that the G.U.N Commander's character development has been ignored. In the beginning of the game, the Commander demonstrates a hostile attitude towards Shadow where he even declares him an enemy. By the end of the game, the Commander has a change of heart alongside the president. It does not make sense narrative-wise for the Commander to have this personality change without some sort of plot development. Therefore, the stage known as 'Cosmic Fall' needs to have happened since its precedent to when the Commander confronts Shadow about the Ark's events. It's important for this scene to have happened otherwise the Commander's sudden change of heart seems random.
Cosmic Fall also feels mandatory because it’s the last of the Chaotix missions revolving around Gerald’s message. Vector’s gotta find the computer room.
Funny enough I came to the conclusion that Together with Maria is the best without even playing the game. As someone who’s never played any Sonic game, I looked up shadow the hedgehog’s plot map and library sequences simply because I had done research on the game for the Sonic movies that lead me to discover that it’s a choose your own adventure game, and I absolutely love choose your own adventure stories. After looking at the plot map I, without having even seen any gameplay videos on RUclips, tired to imagine the route that I believed would create the best possible character arc for Shadow based solely on the plot map. I decided to give him two neutral choices, two good choices, and two evil choices. I also knew from the beginning that I wanted his last choice to be an evil choice so he can have a dark night of the soul and people rooting for him in a hypothetical movie would feel the third act low point that shadow has supposedly turned evil before the True Ending. I decided to have Shadow’s first two choices be neutral, because it makes since that an amnesiac hedgehog in the middle of an alien invasion wouldn’t immediately side with anyone at first. After his two neutral choices, I decided on an evil choice because it makes Shadow seem like he’s beginning to fall at the beginning of the hypothetical “second act.” I then found out that that choice leads to a level that flashbacks to the day of Maria’s death, and that’s definitely a plus because character development and heartbreak. I then had Shadow make two good choices in a row, because I wanted the middle of the story to consist of shadow gravitating toward the light side. Then there’s his final evil choice that I mentioned earlier. That adds up to Westopolis-Glyphic Canyon-Prison Island-The Doom-Iron Jungle-Cosmic Fall-Egg Dealer. I then referenced the list of library sequences, and this route is called…Together with Maria. So, TLDR, I, as someone who never played the games, tried to come up with the best possible story for Shadow’s character development based solely on the plot map, and happened to stumble across the same one that everyone in these replies is saying is the best.
7:17 Shadow also recites Eggman's line "You know what they say, the more the merrier" in one of the Twitter takeovers, which is only said in the Eggman fight in Mad Matrix
I've made my own post about this over on a lore blog I have on Tumblr, and tl;dr my conclusion is: not a single individual route CAN be canon, as impossible events must be taking place. Shadow's memory collage in the Last Story, only in Japanese, contains a direct quote from Black Doom from the level "The Doom", Shadow's own quote of shock at his death in "Space Gadget", and a line spoken by the GUN Commander (someone he literally only meets in "Cosmic Fall"). Hell, the last one even has the GUN Commander apologising to Shadow for his behaviour in the Expert Mode epilogue. In addition, there's also mentions of Cream thanking Shadow for rescuing her back at "Cryptic Castle", Shadow expressing familiarity at "Glyphic Canyon" in "Sky Troops", Charmy imitates Shadow's top tier hacking skills he displayed back in "Mad Matrix" (honestly surprised that this never became a meme), Black Doom hints at the Ritual of Prosperity in "Death Jungle" and "The ARK", the only point where Eggman directly states that Shadow is an android being "Iron Jungle", and Shadow has to end up on the Black Comet in either "Black Comet" or "Final Haunt". There are multiple direct stage overlaps that make it impossible to round it down to a singular canonical route. My post in question (complete with sources): www.tumblr.com/centralcitylibrary/732129743460352000/what-is-the-canon-route-in-shadow-the-hedgehog?source=share
I don't think Expert mode counts as canon, as Maria cheers Shadow on at one point and she's...well...dead. Black Doom does, too, but whether or not he's dead is up in the air at this point. I'd also say there's no route that is *exactly* canon and fits like a glove. After all, in my route Shadow doesn't help Vector find the computer room, which maybe be tantamount to getting the final message from Gerald, but if you DO help with that, Shadow becomes depressed, which he clearly isn't in the Last Story. If Shadow didn't need to help Vector, who's to say he needed to help Espio and Charmy? With that said, I think Dark then Hero the rest of the way fills as many gaps as can be done in a single run. Who knows, maybe the new Shadow Generations stuff will confirm what actually happened?
@@GamingTopTen Besides the final mission, where Maria's voice has the very faint echo effect that it does when Shadow's having a memory blast of various quotes, Maria only speaks in "The Doom", where her dialogue can easily be explained as ARK training (just like how Gerald's explicitly refers to the Artificial Chaos going haywire) - as for Black Doom, if you accept the Twitter Takeover then Shadow says that Doom's Eye is still alive, and the two talk occasionally.
@@numbug1234 One more thing I thought of: if we assume Expert is canon AND takes place after the Last Story, how do you explain the Black Comet, Final Haunt, and Last Way levels when the Black Comet is now a pile of space dust due to the Eclipse Canon?
@@GamingTopTen Given the levels are blatantly reused, while the dialogue is new, I believe it's reasonable to abstract the gameplay portion to "Shadow trained", while still keeping the dialogue given it's unique to Expert Mode. If you MUST have an explanation, the Black Comet was blasted into some big fragments, so some of those fragments could still have level in them.
I almost never hear anyone bring up the suddenly Eggman routes. I’ve been trying to think which seems more silly between Eggman appearing in the Black Comet without ever meeting him or Shadow just randomly going “Yes, I’m an Eggman Robot.” and starting Lava Shelter.
I had an idea in the back of my head for "interesting routes in Shadow the Hedgehog." Maybe April Fools 2025? Although you can't access lava shelter without either having met Eggman or having a flashback, both of which tie in to the robot endings.
Am I forgetting a scene? The route that comes to mind involves either way to get to Prison Island, Dark to go to the Doomed, Neutral to get to Airfleet, then either Neutral for Comet or Hero for Shelter.
Unironically yes, lol, in the Japanese version he doesn't say "damn" at all. It was added in the dub. See Windii Gaylord's translation The "candy from a baby" line was also dub-exclusive. The line was originally much different: "How incredibly stupid of them. To think they would expose a Chaos Emerald before me.." I don't think he ever even says damn in the Japanese version. It is surprisingly much more family friendly compared to what the West got, lol I still love the dub but good lord it's crazy with how different the Japanese dialogue can be. Really bad mistranslations at times. And it is much more serious in tone That line Sonic says of something like "we're on our way to the Ark, so that means we're going too" is also much different in Japanese. He's actually addressing the aliens. He says they're coming from outer space so that's why Sonic is heading to the Ark to begin with The GUN Commander also doesn't mention to Shadow that he lost his family on the Ark just after he says that Maria was like a sister to him. Maria was basically his only family in JP, he didn't have any family on board the Ark I could go on about changes like this all day. Ironically enough Heroes is translated too accurately at times and that's why the dialogue can be awkward. When Sonic says "talk about being stubborn and full of surprises" that's something Shadow says to Sonic about him surviving the capsule explosion in SA2 JP before racing Sonic to the Eclipse Cannon. He really should have said something like "talk about dying hard!" to be more accurate to our version. Shadow has the exact opposite problem though. I think from 06 onwards it was much more faithful again but they dropped the ball hard with Shadow
I'd argue that all paths are canon, Shadow canonically does an impossible route, or at least events happened without his involvement, there's information from all over the place stated to have happened in the game itself from the cutscenes, and even expert mode's dialogue (Cream confirming Shadow saved her, and the GUN Commander apologizing to Shadow for how he acted), its a very safe bet it all happened, just not how the game presented. This would point more towards our run of the main game being Shadow just hyper focusing on a path instead of what he did in canon.
@@bathilra5364 Same here. I think Shadow visits all locations at some point but in an order that's impossible to take in the game. For instance, most if not all boss fights really ruin the flow of the story. FIghting black doom in final haunt is really the only one that makes sense because the last way starts somewhere near there Maybe Sonic x Shadow will shed some light on this
My route personally makes sense until the End. Westopolis Dark Digital Circuit Hero Prison Island Hero Mad Matrix Hero Lost Impact Normal Cosmic Fall Hero Remember that Vector needs to find the computer room in order to help in the last story. The only issue with this is that the chaotix is on the ark even though it collapsed. It is possible though that black doom left and went to the black comet, left vector to charmy and espio, last story ensues
4:40 I never noticed how weird Sonic said that line for years until Charriii5 pointed it out in his original Shadow The Hedgehog EWW 2:00a.m. 10/11/2023
Which makes the shadow we know is the true hero and also all of the shadow androids are just metal versions of shadow with a life like look with no doom dna making them lifeless which makes shadow the true shadow with dooms dna
Your evidence of Shadow following Black Doom at first is built on the Dub's shaky localization. In the Japanese version (thanks Pariah for pointing this out), Shadow actually says he needs to collect the Emeralds because they can grant wishes/enable miracles to happen. He never says the "I have to believe him" line in Japanese. This means it's way more likely for him to do the neutral mission in Westopolis, which is why I believe that he'd then do the Dark Mission in Glyphic Canyon as he'd have evidence of Black Doom knowing his past and the extent of his powers. It also makes sense that Glyphic Canyon Dark is the canon path because otherwise Sky Troops cannot happen. Plus since there's nothing that would say Black Doom couldn't attack the C.I.A mainframe after teleporting Shadow. Also, Expert Mode canonizes the confrontation between Shadow and Towers (the G.U.N Commander) at the start of Cosmic Fall. Here's all the events I believe are canon to the story (whether Shadow participates or not). I repeat, these are the EVENTS I believe to be canon, not Shadow's canon route. 1. The first cutscene and the Neutral Mission of Westopolis. Shadow starts his journey to find the Chaos Emeralds and learn about his past, ignoring the words of Sonic and Black Doom, leading to him getting sent to Glyphic Canyon. 2. The G.U.N Commander cutscene, Digital Circuit Hero and Glyphic Canyon Dark. Black Doom warps Shadow to Glyphic Canyon and demands he reawakens the temple. Shadow complies since he thinks Black Doom is credible now. While Shadow cooperates at Glyphic Canyon, Black Doom personally leads the Black Arms to attack the United Federation mainframe, where Rouge has to extract the Chaos Emerald from the database to prevent it from getting captured. 3. The President Cutscene, Cryptic Castle Hero, Prison Island Hero. Shadow, even on his "noone tells me what to do" schtick, would still help Amy find Cream and Cheese (which, quick tangent, how the hell are they so far apart?). Charmy finds the Secret Disks. 4. Sky Troops Hero, The Doom Hero/Neutral, Central City Dark. After getting out of Cryptic Castle Black Doom gets Shadow to remember the ARK Massacre, where Shadow definitely helps Maria. Eggman decides to go on the offensive against the Black Arms since Cryptic Castle's lanterns weren't lit, and though he also loses a significant amount of ships in his fleet he still succeeds in bringing down the floating Temple. This isn't actually all bad for the Black Arms though, as they also attacked Central City and blew it up, with the president narrowly escaping. 5. Mad Matrix Hero, Air Fleet Dark, Iron Jungle Hero. Shadow walks in on the Chaotix trying to break into the computers at the now abandoned Cryptic Castle and helps them activate the terminals. This computer being in Cryptic Castle makes sense because there's Black Arms in Eggman's system and the terminal they're hacking looks like the exact one Shadow first appears in Cryptic Castle from. I'm iffy on if Shadow actually helps the Chaotix with this because besides Shadow hacking into the computer he isn't actually necessary to complete the Hero objective at all given what Espio can do (even the panels in the distance in the Green Tower could be changed by Espio using his Ninja Stars), but whether it's the Hero or Neutral Mission it makes sense for Espio to be trailing Shadow at the time Eggman finds them. Meanwhile, circling back to Eggman, his victory in Sky Troops makes sense given how he the speech to the Shadow Androids goes, but Shadow himself just isn't there for it. Instead, Omega and a small G.U.N team manage to bring down the Egg Balloon and Egg Breaker, leading to Eggman retreating. The reason the G.U.N team is so small is because the rest of G.U.N is trying to evacuate Central City and save the President alongside Knuckles and Tails. The City is lost but the people are saved. While Omega is hunting down the Egg Balloon though, Eggman sees Shadow and Espio in MAD matrix and confronts them, which is why Eggman is so pissed at Shadow by this point in the game. After Eggman is pushed back though Shadow makes it into the Iron Jungle where Sonic meets him and takes him to The ARK, where most of the game's forces converge. 6: Space Gadget Neutral, Lost Impact Neutral. G.U.N has basically been pushed all the way back to G.U.N Fortress by the Black Arms with the President being secured by G.U.N Commander Towers, while the small group of soldiers that joined Omega have been ordered to go to The ARK and fight alongside Sonic to protect the President and the Chaos Emeralds. Black Doom has called off most of the ground invasion and concentrated on the same spots as G.U.N: the Fortress and The ARK, as these are humanity's last strongholds. Sonic is going to The ARK to stop the Black Arms and Shadow is brought along for the ride. I basically see the race in Space Gadget happening but this causes Shadow to have flashbacks which cost him the race, leading to him taking the Emerald when they're back on the ship and having even more flashbacks to The ARK. This time Shadow helps take out most of the Artificial Chaos but doesn't finish the job because he finds Professor Gerald and hides him and Maria away, then the memory jumps to the moment Maria sent Shadow to Earth. This PTSD stupor leads to him being stuck on the ship as Team Sonic return the Emerald to its station and fly to the Black Comet, but once he reawakens he takes the Emerald back and warps to the ARK. 7: Cosmic Fall Hero/Dark. Towers decides to head to The ARK himself and runs into Shadow, revealing Black Doom's involvement in Shadow's creation. Meanwhile, Team Chaotix Find The Computer Room. They try to get Shadow to help, but he's too in his own head and just decides to get the Emeralds so he can sort out the mess of his past. Eggman, having been forced to retreat from Iron Jungle and his flagship, also trails Sonic Team to The ARK which is where he once again crosses paths with Shadow. Shadow beats Eggman, declares himself guardian of The ARK, and undoes the damage done by the Black Arms, saving The ARK. He mostly does this because for all his past struggles he feels a connection to The ARK and still needs it around. Eggman, having taken Shadow's threat seriously, abandons The Ark to confront the Black Arms. Afterall, he's down, but never out. After Shadow saves The ARK he decides to go to the Black Comet as he wants to confront Black Doom about the truth. 8: The Last Story. Shadow arrives on the Black Comet with all 7 Chaos Emeralds, confronts his past, has a long drawn-out fight with Devil Doom where Eggman tells Shadow he lied, and Shadow buries the past with Devil Doom's corpse before using the fully repaired Eclipse Cannon to destroy the Black Comet. Now, for what I think the canon path for Shadow is, my criteria is that Shadow has to go on the route where the most canon stuff possible happens, so here's my canon path, number 135, A Vow for the Victims (NDHHND): Westopolis> Glyphic Canyon> Cryptic Castle> Sky Troops> Space Gadget> Cosmic Fall> Egg Dealer.
*_"Meanwhile, circling back to Eggman, his victory in Sky Troops makes sense given how he the speech to the Shadow Androids goes"_* I'm not sure if I can agree with you on this. In English, maybe ( _"The Eggman Fleet is strong but those black creatures are a formidable adversary"_ is neutral enough that you could interpret it as "we won but suffered high casualties"), but the Japanese one clearly states that he lost ( _"Despite the efforts of my Eggman Armada, we were no match for those black aliens..."_ ). However, I still like him winning that battle more, so I'll let this one slide.
I don't believe that there's a route, because i believe that Amy's mission route along with Prison Island is canon, the same thing with Iron Jungle and Space Gadget.
I forgot to say but i believe that Shadow actually made Westopolis Dark and Digital Circuit hero for the same reason as the video even tho the "i have to believe him" was debunked. But i do believe that Glyphic Cannon Dark and Sky Troops (with Eggman failing to defeat the Black Arms) happened without Shadow because of the Iron Jungle cutscene that Eggman needs the forces of the Shadow Androids to defeat Black Doom's army
With Shadow Generations out, Route 153: Together with Maria makes even more sense, as in that route, Shadow swears to protect the ARK. In Dark Beginnings, Shadow goes to the ARK because he thinks there is a danger there.
The problem with all the ending cutscenes is that Sonic & Diablon are defeated in some ending cutscenes but in the last story, the general of GUN is nowhere to be seen and Sonic is completely fine. Eggman is killed in some cutscenes, but he's alive and well in the last story. Eggman is defeated, but again, is alive and well in the last story. And Black Doom is defeated, but Shadow isn't an enemy to him in the beginning of the last story, as Shadow still doesn't know who he is and which side to take. Considering all that, there's no real coherent way you can seemleslly transition from any route to the last story, effectively leaving a massive plot hole since all the characters Shadow defeats or kills are major players that aren't trying to be his opponent in the last story, as Shadow's not 100% on anyone's side.
Here is where the edgelord seed was planted. From the cutscenes Shadow wasn't all bad yet (he is so sad, poor thing) but is from here that he slipped into total darkness in a matter of 5 years.
Eh he did get his best interpretation with the game right after this 06 [yes most of that game is a croc of shit but it’s the best shadow since adventure 2 DON’T KNOW WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED AFTER THOUGH
There’s some changes between the English and Japanese script. I recommend you watch a proper dub of Shadow 05 to maybe see what the potential cannon pathway is. The intro alone is slightly different to where Shadow is more interested in finding the emeralds than helping Doom.
There are several games that came out before i was old enough to play video games and that i still haven't played. The Sonic Advance trilogy, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes just to name a few (a friend of mine had SA1 and he let me play it.) But for some reason, this is the game that I'm most desperately wanting to play.
Your reasoning showed good effort. The problem with Shadow deciding to destroy GUN units in Westopolis is _Sonic Heroes_ , and the fact that he meets Sonic early in Westopolis. Despite being a blank slate at the start of _Heroes_ , that game ends with Shadow donating an emerald to Sonic's cause to finish Metal. At least on some level he would be on good terms with Sonic, making Shadow more likely to either not appose his efforts directly [normal] or even assist Sonic with killing aliens [hero]. My 'hand wave' I'm inclined to invoke for most of the events that other cutscenes reference which would not occur in a given route is that most of these events, including Westopolis getting sacked or the UF's Tron spaces being hacked, could arguably have occurred without Shadow's intervention. Also remember that the every 'ending' is wrapped up with a cutscene, some of which involving events that would simply be impossible given Last Story, and therefore cast doubt on the canonicity of all the cutscenes that aren't confirmed by the true ending. I also have a problem with Lost Impact in general, not because of the artificial Chaos hunting, but due to its intro cutscene. Breaking that emerald out of what is clearly a power conduit keeping that shuttle running seemed a bit retarded for Shadow's character. It could have been sold to me if he had just waited for the ship to land safely beforehand, but they were in mid flight so, no. He may not have been a huge fan of Sonic, but he didn't hate him enough to keep him from his destination. It doesn't seem like 'a little friendly competition!' With all that noted, I revisited the game again and came away with new thoughts on certain events that I think require Shadow's involvement in some way to fit the final narrative. In playthrough order: 1. Cryptic Castle [hero]: possibly saving Cream assuming expert mode's dialogue is canon. if NOT, then... 2. The Doom [hero]. Can't be gotten to from Cryptic Castle [hero], but appears to fill in the most important details about his time on the Ark better than any other stage. Lost Impact is a contender, but its intro cutscene is problematic as noted above; even if it is one of the funniest. 3. Mad Matrix [dark]. If BOTH Cryptic Castle and The Doom were out, then this would certainly deserve a spotlight. At its beginning, Shadow 'hacks' a terminal connected to Eggman's Tronville with a karate chop. I would guess this is where Charmy learns of the value of blunt force for making electronics work properly, which he in turn carries out on Gerald's message terminal in the Ark's computer room during Last Story... It's unfortunate that this can't happen in the same route as the first two points, but this also illustrates again that multiple events considered 'important' by the canonical narrative cannot coexist in one playthrough. 4. Iron Jungle [hero] for the 'Shadow android' idea inception. Mad Matrix's Egg Breaker doesn't quite hit that cord as Eggman only doubles down on the 'You have no past' line, similar to _Heroes_ . One could assume that the Mad Matrix interaction with Eggman combined with hints in _Heroes_ about being some kind of replicant were enough to give Shadow the idea. However, Iron Jungle's explicit allusion to Shadow being one of Eggman's androids is important for Eggman's dialogue during Devil Doom, regarding past remarks about having created Shadow himself, making the most sense. 5. Lost Impact [normal] or Space Gadget [normal]: in that order of preference. They are not compatible with The Doom, Iron Jungle, or even each other due to being Stage 5s. Nevertheless, they give varying degrees of detail about Shadow's past with the Ark, Maria and Gerald. Again, only less-optimal substitutes for The Doom. 6. Cosmic Fall [dark]: finally, just because this Egg Dealer is the only ending confrontation that doesn't end with someone losing an eye [so to speak], as many people here have recalled. Since some of these events cannot coexist in a single playthrough, it's then up to the player to identify the most important ones to the series canon when considering an almost-canon route.
My personal theory for this uses Expert Mode’s dialogue as reasoning, and I’ll share it below; We know that: The President had to repair damages to somewhere, as he mentions this to Shadow. Meaning Westopolis Dark or Central City Dark happened. Shadow saves Cream, as she thanks him for it. Meaning Cryptic Castle Hero happened. Shadow is angry at Eggman for something, meaning he found out about the Android business which means Iron Jungle happened. Both Eggman and the GUN Commander are alive in the Last Story and the GUN Commander isn’t on the Black Comet. Shadow also doesn’t meet Black Doom until the Last Story. Meaning GUN Fortress, Black Comet, Lava Shelter and Final Haunt can’t be Shadow’s last stage. So the story route I think is canon is: **Westopolis Dark**, after that stage, it’s reported Westopolis suffered heavy casualties due to Shadow eliminating the soldiers there. **Digital Circuit Dark**, it’s the only way Shadow can still get to Cryptic Castle. As if he does Hero here, he goes to Prison Island instead. No Neutral mission. **Cryptic Castle Hero**, Shadow saves Cream and Cheese, as mentioned by Cream in Expert Mode. **Sky Troops Normal**, next stage after Shadow saves Cream. **Iron Jungle Hero**, Shadow finds out about the Shadow Androids in this stage. Which is what he’d be mad at Eggman about. **Cosmic Fall Dark**, this is the only ending stage that makes any logical sense knowing what final bosses lead to. Every other stage either has Shadow kill the Commander or kill Eggman, none of which happen in the Final Story. He doesn’t defeat Black Doom until the Final Story. Cosmic Fall Dark is the only Egg Dealer fight which doesn’t end in Shadow killing Eggman.
@@mysticalsunrise2203 i believe there's not only a canon route, but things from the game that actually happened. Sky Troops only happens with the Glyphic Cannon Dark. Prison Island and Mad Matrix is very important to Shadow imo, especially Mad Matrix. I also have Space Gadget intro, from what i remember, there's a line here with Shadow wondering if he died or not in The Last Way.
@@mysticalsunrise2203 like i said, i don't care about a route. I care about the canon events of this game and what happened there, where Shadow may have gone through these events or not (like Central City hero). One more thing is obvious: Digital Circuit and Glyphic Cannon Dark/Sky Troops is one of the events that needs to happen whether Shadow is there or not.
@@GamingTopTen could path 83 work, you have the same thing with starting evil but getting Prison Island hero but he has a moral slip up of activating the bombs planted in Eggman's database, which is a weaker slip up then the ones in most other dark missions because this one is a direct negative impact on a different villain so it's not too much to where he wouldn't be trusted by other heroes, this also allows more Eggman interactions such as Shadow being directly told he is an android, and there is actually reason for Shadow to be on the comet, missions like The Ark from the Pure dark lane show that Black Doom is interested in using the Eclipse Cannon on Earth which, given Shadow becoming the guardian of The Ark with this ending and that Black Doom was already attacking The Ark in Cosmic Fall, it is not unlikely that Shadow would want to stop Black Doom from doing that despite Cosmic Fall dark being showcased as siding with Black Doom (after all Lava Shelter Dark is considered as siding with Eggman and Shadow straight up kills him there) this would lead to Black Doom taking the emeralds and the rest of the true story playing out, please correct me if I messed up any parts of this, haven't gone through all the cutscenes in a while.
8:15 I mean… someone probably crucified the guy in the sonic universe… might as well be Space Devil as anyone else around at that time. Speaking of, I’m not exactly caught up on sonic lore… which characters do we know that are canonically that old, cause I know some of them are like literally ancient beings 😅
5:00 I was going to mention it earlier in the video which was the first cutscene about Shadow hating on humans but I guess here's a good time as any but do you think that looking at the original Japanese script would change some of this? Because ever since Sonic Adventure the dialog for the story is different a decent amount at least from SA1 to Sonic and the Black Knight (1998-2009) it really hasn't been the case since Sonic Colors though because the original scripts have been written in the US and still are. So what I'm saying is at least the way I see it the real story and dialog are in whatever language it was originally written in. So in the case as I said before SA1 to Black Knight the Japanese script is the canon story and dialog and Colors onward the original script was written here in the US so that's the real story and dialog. Again that's just how I see it though 2:04a.m. 10/11/2023
Regarding the first cutscene, Shadow says "Hmph, what happens to those humans is none of my concern..." in the Japanese version. More apathetic than English script's contemptuous, but still close enough. As for Sonic's weird line... "Anyway, those black aliens... It looks like they're coming from outer space! _[no sh%t sherlock :v]_ We'll be going to the Space Colony ARK from here."
Seems other commenters are sharing the same sentiment, but I'm just glad to see you're still uploading lol. I remember watching the "Worst Gamiing Cliches" video when it came out 11 years ago when I was in 8th grade
@@GamingTopTen here's my theory of the true story: 1. Westopolis 2. Lethal Highway 3. Digital Circuit 4. Glyphic Canyon 5. Circus Park 6. Sky Troops 7. Mad Matrix 8. Cryptic Castle 9. Iron Jungle 10. Lava Shelter 11. Prison Island 12. Death Ruins 13. The Doom 14. Central City 15. Air Fleet 16. GUN Fortress 17. The ARK 18. Space Gadget 19. Lost Impact 20. Cosmic Fall 21. Black Comet 22. Final Haunt 23. The Last Way (Final Stage) Bosses: 1. Egg Breaker (Iron Jungle) 2. Egg Dealer (Lava Shelter) 3. Black Bull (Death Ruins) 4. Heavy Dog (The Doom) 5. Blue Falcon (Pre- Cosmic Fall) 6. Sonic & Diablon (Final Haunt) 7. Black Doom (The Last Way/Final Boss: Phase 1) 8. Devil Doom (The Last Way/Final Boss: Phase 2) Plot: After The Events of Sonic Heroes, Shadow Still Has Amnesia. Only Being Able To Remember His Name & Maria's Death. Then The Black Arms Begin To Attack Westopolis & Black Doom Tells Shadow To Find The Chaos Emeralds. Knowing That The Chaos Emeralds Can Grant Miracles, Shadow Goes To Westopolis To Find Them. He Then Reluctantly Helps Sonic & GUN Push Back The Black Arms Out Of Westopolis. After Hearing That Shadow Was Spotted In Westopolis, The GUN Commander Sends Out Troops To Hunt Shadow Down. Shadow Then Proceeds To Help Black Doom Hack The United Federation's Mainframe & Reawaken The Flying Temples The Black Arms Sent To Earth 2000 Years Prior While Finding The 3rd Chaos Emerald. When He Arrives At Circus Park To Find The (Damn) 4th Chaos Emerald, He Runs Into Eggman & Goes After Him To Find Further Answers. At The Sky Troops, He Gets Onboard Eggman's Main Airship. He Then Reluctantly Helps Team Chaotix Extract Data From Eggman's Cyberspace. Shadow Then Chases Eggman Through His Haunted Castle While Helping Amy Find Cream & Cheese On The Way. When He Arrives At Eggman's Base, He Discovers An Army Of Shadow Androids Like The One He Saw At Rail Canyon. Shortly After He & Omega Defeat Eggman At His Volcanic Base, He Returns To Prison Island (Now Covered In Electric Water After It Was Destroyed In Sonic Adventure 2.) Where He Helps Charmy Find 5 Top Secret Discs From The Remains Of The Base. Soon Shadow Escapes From The Death Ruins With Rouge's Help. Still Confused About His Memory, Black Doom Sends Shadow Into An Illusion That Recreates The Day GUN Attacked The ARK. Eventually, The Black Arms Attack Central City With Shadow's Assistance, Forcing The President To Evacuate On One Of GUN's Air Fleet Ships Where Shadow Gives Chase To Him. Once The President Arrives At GUN's Main Stronghold, Shadow Goes Out His Way To Escape The Base. Soon Black Doom Sends Shadow To The ARK So That They Can Gain Control Of The Repaired Eclipse Cannon. After Destroying 4 of The ARK's 10 Defense Mechanisms, He Runs Into Sonic & They Race For The 5th Chaos Emerald While Destroying The Remaining 6 Defense Mechanisms. With The ARK's Defense Mechanisms Down, The Black Arms Attack The ARK, Triggering The Alarms To Go Off, Causing Shadow To Have A Flashback Of The Time He Saved The ARK From A Lot Of Out Of Control Artificial Chaos. After Taking Down The ARK's Last Line Of Defense: Blue Falcon, The GUN Commander Confronts Shadow. He Explains How He Blames Shadow For The Death Of His Family & How He Saw Gerald Create Him With Black Doom As A Kid. Afterwards, Shadow Helps Vector Find The Computer Room As Parts of The ARK Start To Snap Off. Soon, He Goes To The Black Comet (The Black Arms Main Base) To Find The Last 2 Chaos Emeralds. After Obtaining The 6th Emerald, He Confronts Sonic & The GUN Commander (Piloting GUN's New Battle Mech: Diablon) & A Fight Ensues, Ending With Shadow Obtaining The Final Emerald. He Takes Them To Black Doom To Start "The Ritual Of Prosperity". Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Omega & Eggman Try To Tell Him Not To Give The Emeralds To Black Doom As He Intends To Destroy Earth. Black Doom Then Explains How He Actually Intends To Enslave Humanity As An Energy Source & Uses The Emeralds To Warp The Comet Down To The Surface Of Earth Using Chaos Control, Causing A Gas Paralyzes Everyone In It's Path Except Shadow & Omega. When All Seemed Lost, Shadow Then Remembers His Promise To Maria & Him Helping Sonic Save The Earth From The Biolizard At The End Of Sonic Adventure 2 & Immediately Gets Up & Vows To Defeat Black Doom Once & For All. He Then Orders Omega To Get Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge & Eggman To Safety As He Chases Down Black Doom & Fights Him. Black Doom Then Explains To Shadow How He Collaborated With Gerald To Create Him, Leaving Shadow Shocked As Black Doom Tries To Control Him Since His Blood Runs In Shadow's Veins. But Then Team Chaotix Manage To Send A Message To Shadow From Gerald About How Gerald Built The Eclipse Cannon To Destroy The Black Comet. Remotivated, Shadow Breaks From Black Doom's Control & In A Burst Of Anger, Black Doom Transforms into his Ultimate Form: Devil Doom. Shadow Uses The Chaos Emeralds To Turn Into His Super Form, & Fights Devil Doom. During The Battle, Eggman Tells Shadow That After The Events of Sonic Adventure 2, He had Omega Rescue him & Tells Him That He Really Is The Ultimate Life Form Gerald Created. After Defeating Devil Doom, Shadow Uses Chaos Control To Warp The Black Comet Back Into Space, Where He Uses The Eclipse Cannon To Destroy The Black Comet Once & For All. Back On Earth Everyone Celebrates In Victory Over Shadow's Heroic Deed. The GUN Commander & President Decide To Ensure Peace For A Brighter Tomorrow. On The ARK Shadow Holds A Photo Of Maria & Gerald Robotnik In His Hand & Repeats Maria's Last Words: " Sayonara, Shadow The Hedgehog." As He Tosses The Photo Away, Finally Accepting His Past & Moving On With His Life. The End.
I vaguely remember izuka saying in a statement somewhere that the hero path was the canon path when asked either at a convention or an interview but i can't really source that claim. It is the most boring answer but i find it to be the most reasonable - you can just assume the chaos emeralds restored his memories somehow as to why he remembers EVERYTHING from his past after this game
So I know this video’s a year+ old at this point, but I’d like to bring up something that I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else bring up. There’s a detail that would basically make For Love’s Sake not the canon route, which is the fact the President of the United Federation is at the G.U.N. base during the events of the last story, which only happen towards the end of the True/Semi- Dark stories. Unfortunately, with that in mind, it’s hard to say that any of the routes are actually officially canon on their own.
Ultimate Shadow is the more likely one as by this point most of Shadow's doubts have been cleared except for who's the ultimate life form, something he can only find out by challenging Sonic to another pre-final boss duel (the dialogue implies the diabilon is imaginary), after winning he declares himself the ultimate hedgehog and goes to face Black Doom alone as shown in the last story cutscene, also fits more with his "edgy the hedgy" demeanor he has in later games.
I assume by "the dialogue implies the Diabilon is imaginary" you mean they completely ignore Diablon's presence, outside of Black Doom giving you gameplay hints. I guess that makes sense. Honestly, I wish they had a different, unique fight with just Sonic for this ending. And maybe a different fight for Neutral-Dark (with, say, Omega) so that there's actually a difference between the two neutral endings.
There's three issues here Vector needs to get to the Computer Room with Shadow's help. Whether this is the room Team Chaotix occupies in the Last Story or the location of another data fragment is unclear, but it's one of the two. In the Last Story, the President is shown in GUN HQ, which only happens when he's injured, either from the Eclipse Cannon, or Shadow shooting down his escape plane The Gun Commander apologizes in Expert Mode for trying to kill him, referencing the cutscene on the ARK where we see him turn around on his attitude towards Shadow.
To me it’s Westopolis->Glyphic Canyon->Prison Island->Sky Troops. From there it’s either Air Fleet->Black Comet or Space Gadget->Final Haunt, with both paths culminating with Shadow fighting Sonic.
I would argue that the black arms would have compromised the mainframe without shadow involved. That line being in that cutscene on every route only proves that the events of digital circuit happen in parallel with all the other second stages. Also I highly doubt that sonic would sit back and let shadow straight up murder people without fighting back. I personally would think that Shadow would go neutral in westopolis. The only things he commits to in the opening cutscene are finding the emeralds and trusting that black doom has clues about his past. He never committed to doing black doom’s every whim. I like your thoughts on the other stages though.
The only thing thats a bit confusing is that after beating Black Doom, in the last story he's acting like we didn't just beat him and asks for the emeralds. What happened after Shadow and Sonic beat Doom?
This is a great video! Definitely not a route I would've considered! The one I mainly considered was true neutral until sky troops due to eggman intriguing him, in which shadow would go hero for the rest of it.
Besides from Sonic battle and I guess that weird Apple game preen never really appears after that and you could say those either happen at a weird time or I'm like Canon or something but like in my my head Cannon cream just died in the wall because in this "Cannon" playthrough cream just dies
I personally lean towards the true hero route being the most canon because I believe it fits the most with how I see Shadow's character and because All Hail Shadow is Shadow's theme from that game onwards. I say most canon because I don't think there can be one true canon route due to the nature of the game.
Just because someone knows the truth of your past doesnt mean you will work with them to kill others. It just means you know they have information about your past.
I feel like the games nature stands in the way of there being a "true" story path. You simply can't fit everything that needs to happen into a 5 level sequence. (Which, for a regular Sonic game, would be way too short as well). For example you empathize the importance of the Chaotix getting their message out, yet you have to omit the part of them actually getting to the Ark because Shadow has to end up on the Black Comet in his last mission. So for this to work as one coherent path, you'd have to add more stages to one singular path imo. For example, having 2 of the "final" missions would fix the main problem I have with your solution. At the penultimate mission, they go to the Ark only for Shadow to have a flashback, instantly followed by going to the Black Comet afterwards. Which seems a bit strange. So this is where I'd add Cosmic Fall in between Lost Impact and Final Haunt (Or just remove Lost Impact in favor of Cosmic Fall while keeping the Maria flashbacks, which would make more sense in a "Shadow the Hedgehog remake" type of scenario since you wouldn't put 2 levels that look and feel that similar one after the other. Plus no one would shed a tear for Lost Impact). Not only does Shadow actually get to do something on the present day Ark, which doesn't make the Ark seems like such a weird stop on their way to the comet, you also get to experience the end of the "Chaotix Arc" where you actually help them get to where they need to be in the Final Story, the elusive computer room. In the whole "possible remake" vein I think it would also be important to include Sky Troops since that was kind of the poster child level for Shadow the Hedgehog. That could break up both of the very same-y Cyberspace levels coming almost right after another. Plus helping Eggman in Sky Troops would lead nicely into getting to his base, meeting the Chaotix there to help them hack into his system. But that's neither here nor there I guess.
There's one thing I would change. Instead of fighting Black Doom at the end, it makes more sense for Shadow to fight Sonic. Remember in the start of Last Story, all the characters run up and tell Shadow not to give the emeralds to Doom. This would not make sense if the last boss on the canon route was Doom as they would have just fought mere seconds beforehand. Alternatively Shadow could also just fight Eggman as there is an ending where he tells Eggman to stay away from the ark
Doom is deviling so much he's dooming everywhere, so much doom all over the place, I wish I can doom that hard, dooming so much a big oll doom thing coming down and dooming the world because doom doomed so damn hard
6:55 gotta stop you there, he says that what he said about CREATING shadow is a lie. This is more likely a reference to the Iron Jungle Egg Breaker cutscene.
Thank you for highlighting the times where the game _does_ try to make sense no matter which route you take. I don't recall anyone mentioning it and thus I didn't know about them either. 8:16 How do you know he wasn't the devil that tempted Him in the desert? :)
I'm pretty sure Shadow wouldn't have battled against Black Doom in the canon route. At the start of the last story, Black Doom says that Shadow has done well, and tells Shadow to hand over the emeralds to him. Why would Black Doom even try giving Shadow orders, when Shadow literally just kicked his ass to get the last emerald? It doesn't really make sense. He'd have no reason to believe that Shadow would listen to him. The dark full hero ending, where Shadow decides to settle his score with Sonic before dealing with Black Doom, helps the start of Last Story make more sense, but then you also have to explain how the Gun Commander got to the Black Comet, when we see in Last Story that he's still at the millitary Base with the President. Maybe he's just controlling that robot remotely from the base? Honestly, I don't really think any possible path we can play actually works completely. It's likely just a mixture of multiple routes.
Originally I agreed, but that'd leave Shadow with no reason to go to the Black Comet, instead devoting his time to the Ark. Currently I'm going with 084, To Be Ignorant of the Past. Yes, it's the ending where in at least one route Shadow's implied to have killed himself, but that's only one route. I imagine Shadow, listening to Vector's words, teleports to the Black Comet to think alone, having already beaten Black Doom, or so he thought.
None of the routes are canon, the game is about Shadow's amnesia, and the game explores that and who Shadow could become. The point is that he doesn't become any of these, he doesn't become the villain who destroys the world, or the hero who carries on Maria's wish. Or a guardian lioe diety who protects the arc like knuckles on angel island. The "canon" route is the final story. We don't know what set of events led us there. But what we do know is he is Shadow the Hedgehog, the one who threw away his past. However, what the routes do give us is hints about certain aspects of the story. Like the chaotix finding that recording of Gerald. Sure shadow helps them, but in the final story. We know that everyone has their own agency, so the chaotix simply found it themselves.
It still doesnt make sense how the hero ending is the canon route since why would shadow beat doom and say he will destroy the black arms, then suddenly shadow is alone on the comet and doom appears being all buddy buddy asking for the emeralds, and shadow is conflicted on handing them over. I feel like the ending where he fights eggman on the comet is the canon ending path since he beats eggman, has the emeralds and tells him basically to piss off and walks away with the emeralds sparing his life, then can continue off with shadow having the emeralds then doom confronts him for them and everyone arrives to sway him not too.
The Anti hero dark ending is the only ending where Shadow doesn’t kill Eggman. And since Shadow is fighting Eggman, Sonic isn’t defeated and Black Doom is still at large. All of which falls in line with true ending. Eggman needs to stay alive because he is the only one who knows the truth about Shadow.
Personally I disagree with this theory. If the ending has Shadow defeat Black Doom, then why does Shadow in the Last Story have the motive to hand him the Chaos Emeralds? Furthermore why would Black Doom be so care free? At this point Shadow has all 7 Emeralds and would likely pose as a threat. I like the idea of this theory but, just a few holes.
Black Doom used telekinetic powers to take the emeralds from Shadow in the last story, Shadow didn't hand them to him. As for being carefree, it could be because he knew about the paralysis gas, but just didn't know Shadow would be immune to it. Good questions though. The nature of the story's branching paths makes it so that no route really fits like a glove, especially with the president's cutscene talking about Westopolis and the CIA mainframe.
*The Last Story* is the only thing in the entire game that's *Canon* Everything else is up *to your own interpretation* which makes the game so damn good
My issue here is that you assume that the black arms destroyed the CIA mainframe without Shadow's help, but then that could also mean that they could have taken over Westopolis without Shadow's help, meaning he did not necessarily do the dark mission in the 1st stage. For your logic to be consistent, I feel like shadow would have to have destroyed the mainframe in digital circuit. Other routes I've thought to be cannon: Dark Dark Neutral Neutral Hero Hero Dark Dark Hero Neutral Dark Hero Neutral Neutral Neutral Dark Hero Hero Neutral Neutral Hero Hero Hero Hero Hero Hero Neutral Hero Hero Hero
The reason the developers of the game failed to make a coherent story irrelevant of what path you take IS because they made a cutscene for each stage instead of making a cutscene for each mission. The game has 22 stages and the cutscenes happens before each stage. So the writers had to make a cutscene that's coherent to 3 different ways of getting there. Alternativally, they could make a cutscene for each mission instead. Almost every stage has 3 missions, witch results in a total of 55 missions. The game should make a cutscene for each of the missions aftermaths instead of each of the stages introductions. For example, in Digital Circuit after completing the Dark mission, Doom's Eye could Tell to Shadow that The energy released By the destruction of the CIA's mainframe could transportate him to a random software and that not even he knows where Shadow Will Go to, and after Shadow do this, he goes to the computer next to the Crypt Castle. Alternativally, on Hero's mission, after Shadow and Rouge pick the chaos Esmerald, Shadow says that he will take it if him, and Rouge disagree, so they fight. After knocking out Rouge, Shadow would have flashbacks of Prison Island and would try to go there.
I like your theory a lot, but would argue one small change. Black doom seems just fine despite having just had his butt kicked in the hero boss fight of final haunt. I think that instead, shadow does the dark mission in order to fight sonic for dominance and the right to be the one to fight black doom. This would also explain why sonic doesn't try to rugh in to be the hero himself even before the gas starts paralyzing him. He lost to shadow, so shadow gets to fight doom and save the world.
The only problem with Final Haunt Dark being canon is that the General (now known as Abraham) is on Earth during the Last Story, not aboard the Diablon.
My issue with Shadow The Hedgehog: While the Action Stages are very creative to explore, there's just too many story routes to piece in together for a coherent plot device. 😑
I think Shadow does the normal route first. Why would he attack innocent soldiers without evidence just because someone said "Dude trust me bro"? He would get the emerald like Doom wants in order to find his past but he wouldnt hurt soldiers...at least ones that arnt attacking him first
My theorized canon route is actually very similar to yours. My criteria: 1. Multiple Acts. This is the only way Cryptic Castle (Hero) being canon (expert mode) makes sense. 2. Path with the most clues is canon. 3. The path that sets up Last Way best is canon. 4. Black Arms win Digital Circuit and Glyphic Canyon regardless of route (Sky Troops hints at this). GUN wins Westopolis regardless of route. The Route: a. Westopolis (Hero). Motivated purely by self defense. Lethal Highway (dark) is basically act 2. b. Prison Island (Hero). Shadow believes the disks could contain potential leads. The Doom is Act 2. c. Cryptic Castle via unknown entry point (Hero). Mad Matrix (Hero, potential leads) is act 2. Meanwhile GUN wins Central City with MASSIVE damage. Eggman wins Sky Troops then catches Shadow and Espio’s hack. d. Iron Jungle tells the lie. Lost Impact is Act 2. Space Gadget is Act 3. e. Final Haunt (hero). Conclusion: Hero-> Dark -> Hero -> Hero -> Hero -> Hero.
I honestly think none of the routes are canon. The individual character missions are canon. The Chaotix for example, their missions lead to The Final Story. And Sonic’s missions are about him stopping the aliens. But for the most part, the routes are a waste of time. The only thing that’s canon is the final story, Expert Mode, & in one way or another, Westopolis.
There is no canon route thats the wholle point shadow is ALL OF HIM meaning every path has a fragment of canon but no conclusion( except the last story) is canon the 10 regular endings show what shadow is not.
I think truth is hidden inside the mix paths of the game and since all the possible scenarios are false or half thruths. Try to puzzle a story based on true ending and try to eliminate lies that contradicts the truth. Thus maybe truth can be found? Anyway take this as a possibility instead of truth. After all even Shadow can't make sence of himself thus this conspiracy is perfect way to contradictory way to tell story of your edgiest hedgehog.
Then on the Twitter Takeover, Shadow says Black Doom's eye is alive and they drink ginger ale together. Heh. Also it was nice to see the Black Arms mentioned in Frontiers.
And now with Sonic x Shadow Generations we see that apparently, Doom's Eye is in fact still alive, and probably Black Doom too (yeah, I know Doom's Eye is Black Doom, but I'm talking about his physical form as Black Doom)
Well you predicted the future
And then we got the black doom voice actor making a in character account and said it was all a lie.
And it’s nice he just kinda actually SHOWED UP IN 2024?!
Talk about cracking open a cold one with your old man.
I remember a theory that said all routes are canon, it's just that due to Black Doom's memory manipulation Shadow is an unreliable narrator/pov.
Feels hand wavey to me.
That just sounds like someone got inspired by the Snapcube fan dub
@@seansilv25 ?
@@slateoffate9812 so basically, in the fan dub, they keep going back to the beginning cutscene after every route or so, which they explain as Black Doom resetting time for whatever reason. But later on, Sonic makes a comment stating that the timeline was never reset and that Shadow just has “really shitty memory”
@@seansilv25 that sounds familiar
@@seansilv25 A really shitty memory AND being really bad at killing people!
I know this is a year old, but in the dub, shadow says he’ll side with Black Doom, but in Japan, he just says he’s going to find the emeralds because he doesn’t remember who he is and he wants to use them to create a miracle. He never says anything about aiding Black Doom in the opening.
It's an interesting theory, however I'm leaning towards 'Route 153: Together with Maria' being the canon route. Since the true ending cutscenes are considered canon, the route that is chosen needs to meet the ending's conditions. A minor issue that I have with this theory is that the G.U.N Commander's character development has been ignored. In the beginning of the game, the Commander demonstrates a hostile attitude towards Shadow where he even declares him an enemy. By the end of the game, the Commander has a change of heart alongside the president. It does not make sense narrative-wise for the Commander to have this personality change without some sort of plot development. Therefore, the stage known as 'Cosmic Fall' needs to have happened since its precedent to when the Commander confronts Shadow about the Ark's events. It's important for this scene to have happened otherwise the Commander's sudden change of heart seems random.
And then I guess Shadow went to Black Comet because he thought it was a danger to the ARK.
Together with Maria
Yo I thought It was just me
Cosmic Fall also feels mandatory because it’s the last of the Chaotix missions revolving around Gerald’s message. Vector’s gotta find the computer room.
Funny enough I came to the conclusion that Together with Maria is the best without even playing the game. As someone who’s never played any Sonic game, I looked up shadow the hedgehog’s plot map and library sequences simply because I had done research on the game for the Sonic movies that lead me to discover that it’s a choose your own adventure game, and I absolutely love choose your own adventure stories. After looking at the plot map I, without having even seen any gameplay videos on RUclips, tired to imagine the route that I believed would create the best possible character arc for Shadow based solely on the plot map. I decided to give him two neutral choices, two good choices, and two evil choices. I also knew from the beginning that I wanted his last choice to be an evil choice so he can have a dark night of the soul and people rooting for him in a hypothetical movie would feel the third act low point that shadow has supposedly turned evil before the True Ending. I decided to have Shadow’s first two choices be neutral, because it makes since that an amnesiac hedgehog in the middle of an alien invasion wouldn’t immediately side with anyone at first. After his two neutral choices, I decided on an evil choice because it makes Shadow seem like he’s beginning to fall at the beginning of the hypothetical “second act.” I then found out that that choice leads to a level that flashbacks to the day of Maria’s death, and that’s definitely a plus because character development and heartbreak. I then had Shadow make two good choices in a row, because I wanted the middle of the story to consist of shadow gravitating toward the light side. Then there’s his final evil choice that I mentioned earlier. That adds up to Westopolis-Glyphic Canyon-Prison Island-The Doom-Iron Jungle-Cosmic Fall-Egg Dealer. I then referenced the list of library sequences, and this route is called…Together with Maria.
So, TLDR, I, as someone who never played the games, tried to come up with the best possible story for Shadow’s character development based solely on the plot map, and happened to stumble across the same one that everyone in these replies is saying is the best.
7:17 Shadow also recites Eggman's line "You know what they say, the more the merrier" in one of the Twitter takeovers, which is only said in the Eggman fight in Mad Matrix
I've made my own post about this over on a lore blog I have on Tumblr, and tl;dr my conclusion is: not a single individual route CAN be canon, as impossible events must be taking place.
Shadow's memory collage in the Last Story, only in Japanese, contains a direct quote from Black Doom from the level "The Doom", Shadow's own quote of shock at his death in "Space Gadget", and a line spoken by the GUN Commander (someone he literally only meets in "Cosmic Fall"). Hell, the last one even has the GUN Commander apologising to Shadow for his behaviour in the Expert Mode epilogue.
In addition, there's also mentions of Cream thanking Shadow for rescuing her back at "Cryptic Castle", Shadow expressing familiarity at "Glyphic Canyon" in "Sky Troops", Charmy imitates Shadow's top tier hacking skills he displayed back in "Mad Matrix" (honestly surprised that this never became a meme), Black Doom hints at the Ritual of Prosperity in "Death Jungle" and "The ARK", the only point where Eggman directly states that Shadow is an android being "Iron Jungle", and Shadow has to end up on the Black Comet in either "Black Comet" or "Final Haunt".
There are multiple direct stage overlaps that make it impossible to round it down to a singular canonical route.
My post in question (complete with sources):
www.tumblr.com/centralcitylibrary/732129743460352000/what-is-the-canon-route-in-shadow-the-hedgehog?source=share
I don't think Expert mode counts as canon, as Maria cheers Shadow on at one point and she's...well...dead. Black Doom does, too, but whether or not he's dead is up in the air at this point.
I'd also say there's no route that is *exactly* canon and fits like a glove. After all, in my route Shadow doesn't help Vector find the computer room, which maybe be tantamount to getting the final message from Gerald, but if you DO help with that, Shadow becomes depressed, which he clearly isn't in the Last Story. If Shadow didn't need to help Vector, who's to say he needed to help Espio and Charmy? With that said, I think Dark then Hero the rest of the way fills as many gaps as can be done in a single run.
Who knows, maybe the new Shadow Generations stuff will confirm what actually happened?
@@GamingTopTen Besides the final mission, where Maria's voice has the very faint echo effect that it does when Shadow's having a memory blast of various quotes, Maria only speaks in "The Doom", where her dialogue can easily be explained as ARK training (just like how Gerald's explicitly refers to the Artificial Chaos going haywire) - as for Black Doom, if you accept the Twitter Takeover then Shadow says that Doom's Eye is still alive, and the two talk occasionally.
@@numbug1234 One more thing I thought of: if we assume Expert is canon AND takes place after the Last Story, how do you explain the Black Comet, Final Haunt, and Last Way levels when the Black Comet is now a pile of space dust due to the Eclipse Canon?
@@GamingTopTen Given the levels are blatantly reused, while the dialogue is new, I believe it's reasonable to abstract the gameplay portion to "Shadow trained", while still keeping the dialogue given it's unique to Expert Mode.
If you MUST have an explanation, the Black Comet was blasted into some big fragments, so some of those fragments could still have level in them.
I almost never hear anyone bring up the suddenly Eggman routes. I’ve been trying to think which seems more silly between Eggman appearing in the Black Comet without ever meeting him or Shadow just randomly going “Yes, I’m an Eggman Robot.” and starting Lava Shelter.
I had an idea in the back of my head for "interesting routes in Shadow the Hedgehog."
Maybe April Fools 2025?
Although you can't access lava shelter without either having met Eggman or having a flashback, both of which tie in to the robot endings.
Am I forgetting a scene? The route that comes to mind involves either way to get to Prison Island, Dark to go to the Doomed, Neutral to get to Airfleet, then either Neutral for Comet or Hero for Shelter.
@@heroshadow42On Prison Island he has a flashback, that slightly ties in to the lava shelter route.
So.... "WHERE'S THAT DAMN 4TH CHAOS EMERAL!" is uncannon?
It's canon in my heart!
Izuka says the pure hero path is canon so that damn scene is also canon
Unironically yes, lol, in the Japanese version he doesn't say "damn" at all. It was added in the dub. See Windii Gaylord's translation
The "candy from a baby" line was also dub-exclusive. The line was originally much different:
"How incredibly stupid of them. To think they would expose a Chaos Emerald before me.."
I don't think he ever even says damn in the Japanese version. It is surprisingly much more family friendly compared to what the West got, lol
I still love the dub but good lord it's crazy with how different the Japanese dialogue can be. Really bad mistranslations at times. And it is much more serious in tone
That line Sonic says of something like "we're on our way to the Ark, so that means we're going too" is also much different in Japanese. He's actually addressing the aliens. He says they're coming from outer space so that's why Sonic is heading to the Ark to begin with
The GUN Commander also doesn't mention to Shadow that he lost his family on the Ark just after he says that Maria was like a sister to him. Maria was basically his only family in JP, he didn't have any family on board the Ark
I could go on about changes like this all day. Ironically enough Heroes is translated too accurately at times and that's why the dialogue can be awkward. When Sonic says "talk about being stubborn and full of surprises" that's something Shadow says to Sonic about him surviving the capsule explosion in SA2 JP before racing Sonic to the Eclipse Cannon. He really should have said something like "talk about dying hard!" to be more accurate to our version. Shadow has the exact opposite problem though. I think from 06 onwards it was much more faithful again but they dropped the ball hard with Shadow
I'd argue that all paths are canon, Shadow canonically does an impossible route, or at least events happened without his involvement, there's information from all over the place stated to have happened in the game itself from the cutscenes, and even expert mode's dialogue (Cream confirming Shadow saved her, and the GUN Commander apologizing to Shadow for how he acted), its a very safe bet it all happened, just not how the game presented.
This would point more towards our run of the main game being Shadow just hyper focusing on a path instead of what he did in canon.
this is somthing i VERY MUCH agree with cause their is no reason shadow couldn't have gone to locations exclusive to certin alignment paths
@@bathilra5364 Same here. I think Shadow visits all locations at some point but in an order that's impossible to take in the game. For instance, most if not all boss fights really ruin the flow of the story. FIghting black doom in final haunt is really the only one that makes sense because the last way starts somewhere near there
Maybe Sonic x Shadow will shed some light on this
My route personally makes sense until the End.
Westopolis Dark
Digital Circuit Hero
Prison Island Hero
Mad Matrix Hero
Lost Impact Normal
Cosmic Fall Hero
Remember that Vector needs to find the computer room in order to help in the last story.
The only issue with this is that the chaotix is on the ark even though it collapsed. It is possible though that black doom left and went to the black comet, left vector to charmy and espio, last story ensues
5:05 To be fair Shadow did steal popcorn from a chao
4:40 I never noticed how weird Sonic said that line for years until Charriii5 pointed it out in his original Shadow The Hedgehog EWW 2:00a.m. 10/11/2023
What if all stilted dialogue writing is canon and Sonic actually has autism?
@@redactedoktor
It'd certainly explain a few things both in-universe and about the fans.
I just realized that the CIA is exists in the Sonic Universe.
Was shadow present at the bay of pigs
It has a slightly different meaning though
Central Information Agency
this game is frickin wild lmao
Eggman says it was a lie that he created him, he doesn't mention anything about him having no past
Which makes the shadow we know is the true hero and also all of the shadow androids are just metal versions of shadow with a life like look with no doom dna making them lifeless which makes shadow the true shadow with dooms dna
Your evidence of Shadow following Black Doom at first is built on the Dub's shaky localization. In the Japanese version (thanks Pariah for pointing this out), Shadow actually says he needs to collect the Emeralds because they can grant wishes/enable miracles to happen. He never says the "I have to believe him" line in Japanese. This means it's way more likely for him to do the neutral mission in Westopolis, which is why I believe that he'd then do the Dark Mission in Glyphic Canyon as he'd have evidence of Black Doom knowing his past and the extent of his powers. It also makes sense that Glyphic Canyon Dark is the canon path because otherwise Sky Troops cannot happen. Plus since there's nothing that would say Black Doom couldn't attack the C.I.A mainframe after teleporting Shadow. Also, Expert Mode canonizes the confrontation between Shadow and Towers (the G.U.N Commander) at the start of Cosmic Fall.
Here's all the events I believe are canon to the story (whether Shadow participates or not). I repeat, these are the EVENTS I believe to be canon, not Shadow's canon route.
1. The first cutscene and the Neutral Mission of Westopolis. Shadow starts his journey to find the Chaos Emeralds and learn about his past, ignoring the words of Sonic and Black Doom, leading to him getting sent to Glyphic Canyon.
2. The G.U.N Commander cutscene, Digital Circuit Hero and Glyphic Canyon Dark. Black Doom warps Shadow to Glyphic Canyon and demands he reawakens the temple. Shadow complies since he thinks Black Doom is credible now. While Shadow cooperates at Glyphic Canyon, Black Doom personally leads the Black Arms to attack the United Federation mainframe, where Rouge has to extract the Chaos Emerald from the database to prevent it from getting captured.
3. The President Cutscene, Cryptic Castle Hero, Prison Island Hero. Shadow, even on his "noone tells me what to do" schtick, would still help Amy find Cream and Cheese (which, quick tangent, how the hell are they so far apart?). Charmy finds the Secret Disks.
4. Sky Troops Hero, The Doom Hero/Neutral, Central City Dark. After getting out of Cryptic Castle Black Doom gets Shadow to remember the ARK Massacre, where Shadow definitely helps Maria. Eggman decides to go on the offensive against the Black Arms since Cryptic Castle's lanterns weren't lit, and though he also loses a significant amount of ships in his fleet he still succeeds in bringing down the floating Temple. This isn't actually all bad for the Black Arms though, as they also attacked Central City and blew it up, with the president narrowly escaping.
5. Mad Matrix Hero, Air Fleet Dark, Iron Jungle Hero. Shadow walks in on the Chaotix trying to break into the computers at the now abandoned Cryptic Castle and helps them activate the terminals. This computer being in Cryptic Castle makes sense because there's Black Arms in Eggman's system and the terminal they're hacking looks like the exact one Shadow first appears in Cryptic Castle from. I'm iffy on if Shadow actually helps the Chaotix with this because besides Shadow hacking into the computer he isn't actually necessary to complete the Hero objective at all given what Espio can do (even the panels in the distance in the Green Tower could be changed by Espio using his Ninja Stars), but whether it's the Hero or Neutral Mission it makes sense for Espio to be trailing Shadow at the time Eggman finds them. Meanwhile, circling back to Eggman, his victory in Sky Troops makes sense given how he the speech to the Shadow Androids goes, but Shadow himself just isn't there for it. Instead, Omega and a small G.U.N team manage to bring down the Egg Balloon and Egg Breaker, leading to Eggman retreating. The reason the G.U.N team is so small is because the rest of G.U.N is trying to evacuate Central City and save the President alongside Knuckles and Tails. The City is lost but the people are saved. While Omega is hunting down the Egg Balloon though, Eggman sees Shadow and Espio in MAD matrix and confronts them, which is why Eggman is so pissed at Shadow by this point in the game. After Eggman is pushed back though Shadow makes it into the Iron Jungle where Sonic meets him and takes him to The ARK, where most of the game's forces converge.
6: Space Gadget Neutral, Lost Impact Neutral. G.U.N has basically been pushed all the way back to G.U.N Fortress by the Black Arms with the President being secured by G.U.N Commander Towers, while the small group of soldiers that joined Omega have been ordered to go to The ARK and fight alongside Sonic to protect the President and the Chaos Emeralds. Black Doom has called off most of the ground invasion and concentrated on the same spots as G.U.N: the Fortress and The ARK, as these are humanity's last strongholds. Sonic is going to The ARK to stop the Black Arms and Shadow is brought along for the ride. I basically see the race in Space Gadget happening but this causes Shadow to have flashbacks which cost him the race, leading to him taking the Emerald when they're back on the ship and having even more flashbacks to The ARK. This time Shadow helps take out most of the Artificial Chaos but doesn't finish the job because he finds Professor Gerald and hides him and Maria away, then the memory jumps to the moment Maria sent Shadow to Earth. This PTSD stupor leads to him being stuck on the ship as Team Sonic return the Emerald to its station and fly to the Black Comet, but once he reawakens he takes the Emerald back and warps to the ARK.
7: Cosmic Fall Hero/Dark. Towers decides to head to The ARK himself and runs into Shadow, revealing Black Doom's involvement in Shadow's creation. Meanwhile, Team Chaotix Find The Computer Room. They try to get Shadow to help, but he's too in his own head and just decides to get the Emeralds so he can sort out the mess of his past. Eggman, having been forced to retreat from Iron Jungle and his flagship, also trails Sonic Team to The ARK which is where he once again crosses paths with Shadow. Shadow beats Eggman, declares himself guardian of The ARK, and undoes the damage done by the Black Arms, saving The ARK. He mostly does this because for all his past struggles he feels a connection to The ARK and still needs it around. Eggman, having taken Shadow's threat seriously, abandons The Ark to confront the Black Arms. Afterall, he's down, but never out. After Shadow saves The ARK he decides to go to the Black Comet as he wants to confront Black Doom about the truth.
8: The Last Story. Shadow arrives on the Black Comet with all 7 Chaos Emeralds, confronts his past, has a long drawn-out fight with Devil Doom where Eggman tells Shadow he lied, and Shadow buries the past with Devil Doom's corpse before using the fully repaired Eclipse Cannon to destroy the Black Comet.
Now, for what I think the canon path for Shadow is, my criteria is that Shadow has to go on the route where the most canon stuff possible happens, so here's my canon path, number 135, A Vow for the Victims (NDHHND):
Westopolis> Glyphic Canyon> Cryptic Castle> Sky Troops> Space Gadget> Cosmic Fall> Egg Dealer.
*_"Meanwhile, circling back to Eggman, his victory in Sky Troops makes sense given how he the speech to the Shadow Androids goes"_*
I'm not sure if I can agree with you on this. In English, maybe ( _"The Eggman Fleet is strong but those black creatures are a formidable adversary"_ is neutral enough that you could interpret it as "we won but suffered high casualties"), but the Japanese one clearly states that he lost ( _"Despite the efforts of my Eggman Armada, we were no match for those black aliens..."_ ). However, I still like him winning that battle more, so I'll let this one slide.
I don't believe that there's a route, because i believe that Amy's mission route along with Prison Island is canon, the same thing with Iron Jungle and Space Gadget.
No ending except The Last Way is canon btw
I forgot to say but i believe that Shadow actually made Westopolis Dark and Digital Circuit hero for the same reason as the video even tho the "i have to believe him" was debunked.
But i do believe that Glyphic Cannon Dark and Sky Troops (with Eggman failing to defeat the Black Arms) happened without Shadow because of the Iron Jungle cutscene that Eggman needs the forces of the Shadow Androids to defeat Black Doom's army
@@Xiter2024 The Last Way is meant to be the epilogue.
8:20 wait isn’t Chip the Jesus of Sonic’s world?
7:26 it may not be in there but he eats coffee beans straight up
If I wouldn’t need to sleep I would’ve eaten some too
5:32 I find what you said funnier than I should
“THE CHAOS EMERALD OF COMFUSION”
With Shadow Generations out, Route 153: Together with Maria makes even more sense, as in that route, Shadow swears to protect the ARK. In Dark Beginnings, Shadow goes to the ARK because he thinks there is a danger there.
The problem with all the ending cutscenes is that
Sonic & Diablon are defeated in some ending cutscenes but in the last story, the general of GUN is nowhere to be seen and Sonic is completely fine.
Eggman is killed in some cutscenes, but he's alive and well in the last story.
Eggman is defeated, but again, is alive and well in the last story.
And Black Doom is defeated, but Shadow isn't an enemy to him in the beginning of the last story, as Shadow still doesn't know who he is and which side to take.
Considering all that, there's no real coherent way you can seemleslly transition from any route to the last story, effectively leaving a massive plot hole since all the characters Shadow defeats or kills are major players that aren't trying to be his opponent in the last story, as Shadow's not 100% on anyone's side.
Here is where the edgelord seed was planted. From the cutscenes Shadow wasn't all bad yet (he is so sad, poor thing) but is from here that he slipped into total darkness in a matter of 5 years.
Eh he did get his best interpretation with the game right after this 06 [yes most of that game is a croc of shit but it’s the best shadow since adventure 2 DON’T KNOW WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED AFTER THOUGH
There’s some changes between the English and Japanese script. I recommend you watch a proper dub of Shadow 05 to maybe see what the potential cannon pathway is. The intro alone is slightly different to where Shadow is more interested in finding the emeralds than helping Doom.
At least Shadow only injures the soldiers. If this game was rated T for teen Shadow might have a bit more blood on his hands.
There are several games that came out before i was old enough to play video games and that i still haven't played. The Sonic Advance trilogy, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes just to name a few (a friend of mine had SA1 and he let me play it.)
But for some reason, this is the game that I'm most desperately wanting to play.
Your reasoning showed good effort. The problem with Shadow deciding to destroy GUN units in Westopolis is _Sonic Heroes_ , and the fact that he meets Sonic early in Westopolis. Despite being a blank slate at the start of _Heroes_ , that game ends with Shadow donating an emerald to Sonic's cause to finish Metal. At least on some level he would be on good terms with Sonic, making Shadow more likely to either not appose his efforts directly [normal] or even assist Sonic with killing aliens [hero]. My 'hand wave' I'm inclined to invoke for most of the events that other cutscenes reference which would not occur in a given route is that most of these events, including Westopolis getting sacked or the UF's Tron spaces being hacked, could arguably have occurred without Shadow's intervention. Also remember that the every 'ending' is wrapped up with a cutscene, some of which involving events that would simply be impossible given Last Story, and therefore cast doubt on the canonicity of all the cutscenes that aren't confirmed by the true ending.
I also have a problem with Lost Impact in general, not because of the artificial Chaos hunting, but due to its intro cutscene. Breaking that emerald out of what is clearly a power conduit keeping that shuttle running seemed a bit retarded for Shadow's character. It could have been sold to me if he had just waited for the ship to land safely beforehand, but they were in mid flight so, no. He may not have been a huge fan of Sonic, but he didn't hate him enough to keep him from his destination. It doesn't seem like 'a little friendly competition!'
With all that noted, I revisited the game again and came away with new thoughts on certain events that I think require Shadow's involvement in some way to fit the final narrative. In playthrough order:
1. Cryptic Castle [hero]: possibly saving Cream assuming expert mode's dialogue is canon. if NOT, then...
2. The Doom [hero]. Can't be gotten to from Cryptic Castle [hero], but appears to fill in the most important details about his time on the Ark better than any other stage. Lost Impact is a contender, but its intro cutscene is problematic as noted above; even if it is one of the funniest.
3. Mad Matrix [dark]. If BOTH Cryptic Castle and The Doom were out, then this would certainly deserve a spotlight. At its beginning, Shadow 'hacks' a terminal connected to Eggman's Tronville with a karate chop. I would guess this is where Charmy learns of the value of blunt force for making electronics work properly, which he in turn carries out on Gerald's message terminal in the Ark's computer room during Last Story... It's unfortunate that this can't happen in the same route as the first two points, but this also illustrates again that multiple events considered 'important' by the canonical narrative cannot coexist in one playthrough.
4. Iron Jungle [hero] for the 'Shadow android' idea inception. Mad Matrix's Egg Breaker doesn't quite hit that cord as Eggman only doubles down on the 'You have no past' line, similar to _Heroes_ . One could assume that the Mad Matrix interaction with Eggman combined with hints in _Heroes_ about being some kind of replicant were enough to give Shadow the idea. However, Iron Jungle's explicit allusion to Shadow being one of Eggman's androids is important for Eggman's dialogue during Devil Doom, regarding past remarks about having created Shadow himself, making the most sense.
5. Lost Impact [normal] or Space Gadget [normal]: in that order of preference. They are not compatible with The Doom, Iron Jungle, or even each other due to being Stage 5s. Nevertheless, they give varying degrees of detail about Shadow's past with the Ark, Maria and Gerald. Again, only less-optimal substitutes for The Doom.
6. Cosmic Fall [dark]: finally, just because this Egg Dealer is the only ending confrontation that doesn't end with someone losing an eye [so to speak], as many people here have recalled.
Since some of these events cannot coexist in a single playthrough, it's then up to the player to identify the most important ones to the series canon when considering an almost-canon route.
My personal theory for this uses Expert Mode’s dialogue as reasoning, and I’ll share it below;
We know that:
The President had to repair damages to somewhere, as he mentions this to Shadow. Meaning Westopolis Dark or Central City Dark happened.
Shadow saves Cream, as she thanks him for it. Meaning Cryptic Castle Hero happened.
Shadow is angry at Eggman for something, meaning he found out about the Android business which means Iron Jungle happened.
Both Eggman and the GUN Commander are alive in the Last Story and the GUN Commander isn’t on the Black Comet. Shadow also doesn’t meet Black Doom until the Last Story. Meaning GUN Fortress, Black Comet, Lava Shelter and Final Haunt can’t be Shadow’s last stage.
So the story route I think is canon is:
**Westopolis Dark**, after that stage, it’s reported Westopolis suffered heavy casualties due to Shadow eliminating the soldiers there.
**Digital Circuit Dark**, it’s the only way Shadow can still get to Cryptic Castle. As if he does Hero here, he goes to Prison Island instead. No Neutral mission.
**Cryptic Castle Hero**, Shadow saves Cream and Cheese, as mentioned by Cream in Expert Mode.
**Sky Troops Normal**, next stage after Shadow saves Cream.
**Iron Jungle Hero**, Shadow finds out about the Shadow Androids in this stage. Which is what he’d be mad at Eggman about.
**Cosmic Fall Dark**, this is the only ending stage that makes any logical sense knowing what final bosses lead to. Every other stage either has Shadow kill the Commander or kill Eggman, none of which happen in the Final Story. He doesn’t defeat Black Doom until the Final Story. Cosmic Fall Dark is the only Egg Dealer fight which doesn’t end in Shadow killing Eggman.
"meaning Westopolis Dark or Central City Dark happened" imo Digital Circuit happened.
@@Xiter2024 Yes, I agree. My theorised route has Digital Circuit in it.
@@mysticalsunrise2203 i believe there's not only a canon route, but things from the game that actually happened. Sky Troops only happens with the Glyphic Cannon Dark. Prison Island and Mad Matrix is very important to Shadow imo, especially Mad Matrix. I also have Space Gadget intro, from what i remember, there's a line here with Shadow wondering if he died or not in The Last Way.
@@Xiter2024 You can’t have Glyphic Canyon Dark and Digital Circuit Dark in the same run
@@mysticalsunrise2203 like i said, i don't care about a route. I care about the canon events of this game and what happened there, where Shadow may have gone through these events or not (like Central City hero). One more thing is obvious: Digital Circuit and Glyphic Cannon Dark/Sky Troops is one of the events that needs to happen whether Shadow is there or not.
I think you could also argue path 93 to be the canon one
It meets all criteria and sets up his future characterization in the later games
The only problem with that is that the Gun Commander is on Earth during the Last Story, not on the Black Comet controlling Diablon.
@@GamingTopTen Fair
@@GamingTopTen could path 83 work, you have the same thing with starting evil but getting Prison Island hero but he has a moral slip up of activating the bombs planted in Eggman's database, which is a weaker slip up then the ones in most other dark missions because this one is a direct negative impact on a different villain so it's not too much to where he wouldn't be trusted by other heroes, this also allows more Eggman interactions such as Shadow being directly told he is an android, and there is actually reason for Shadow to be on the comet, missions like The Ark from the Pure dark lane show that Black Doom is interested in using the Eclipse Cannon on Earth which, given Shadow becoming the guardian of The Ark with this ending and that Black Doom was already attacking The Ark in Cosmic Fall, it is not unlikely that Shadow would want to stop Black Doom from doing that despite Cosmic Fall dark being showcased as siding with Black Doom (after all Lava Shelter Dark is considered as siding with Eggman and Shadow straight up kills him there) this would lead to Black Doom taking the emeralds and the rest of the true story playing out, please correct me if I messed up any parts of this, haven't gone through all the cutscenes in a while.
@@LiMe251I did not see this comment until now, but the only real flaw with it is Shadow ending up on the Black Comet never being explained.
@@GamingTopTen Fair.
8:15 I mean… someone probably crucified the guy in the sonic universe… might as well be Space Devil as anyone else around at that time.
Speaking of, I’m not exactly caught up on sonic lore… which characters do we know that are canonically that old, cause I know some of them are like literally ancient beings 😅
5:00 I was going to mention it earlier in the video which was the first cutscene about Shadow hating on humans but I guess here's a good time as any but do you think that looking at the original Japanese script would change some of this? Because ever since Sonic Adventure the dialog for the story is different a decent amount at least from SA1 to Sonic and the Black Knight (1998-2009) it really hasn't been the case since Sonic Colors though because the original scripts have been written in the US and still are. So what I'm saying is at least the way I see it the real story and dialog are in whatever language it was originally written in. So in the case as I said before SA1 to Black Knight the Japanese script is the canon story and dialog and Colors onward the original script was written here in the US so that's the real story and dialog. Again that's just how I see it though 2:04a.m. 10/11/2023
Regarding the first cutscene, Shadow says "Hmph, what happens to those humans is none of my concern..." in the Japanese version. More apathetic than English script's contemptuous, but still close enough.
As for Sonic's weird line... "Anyway, those black aliens... It looks like they're coming from outer space! _[no sh%t sherlock :v]_ We'll be going to the Space Colony ARK from here."
Seems other commenters are sharing the same sentiment, but I'm just glad to see you're still uploading lol. I remember watching the "Worst Gamiing Cliches" video when it came out 11 years ago when I was in 8th grade
Well I'm glad you're still here!
@@GamingTopTen here's my theory of the true story:
1. Westopolis
2. Lethal Highway
3. Digital Circuit
4. Glyphic Canyon
5. Circus Park
6. Sky Troops
7. Mad Matrix
8. Cryptic Castle
9. Iron Jungle
10. Lava Shelter
11. Prison Island
12. Death Ruins
13. The Doom
14. Central City
15. Air Fleet
16. GUN Fortress
17. The ARK
18. Space Gadget
19. Lost Impact
20. Cosmic Fall
21. Black Comet
22. Final Haunt
23. The Last Way (Final Stage)
Bosses:
1. Egg Breaker (Iron Jungle)
2. Egg Dealer (Lava Shelter)
3. Black Bull (Death Ruins)
4. Heavy Dog (The Doom)
5. Blue Falcon (Pre- Cosmic Fall)
6. Sonic & Diablon (Final Haunt)
7. Black Doom (The Last Way/Final Boss: Phase 1)
8. Devil Doom (The Last Way/Final Boss: Phase 2)
Plot: After The Events of Sonic Heroes, Shadow Still Has Amnesia. Only Being Able To Remember His Name & Maria's Death. Then The Black Arms Begin To Attack Westopolis & Black Doom Tells Shadow To Find The Chaos Emeralds. Knowing That The Chaos Emeralds Can Grant Miracles, Shadow Goes To Westopolis To Find Them. He Then Reluctantly Helps Sonic & GUN Push Back The Black Arms Out Of Westopolis. After Hearing That Shadow Was Spotted In Westopolis, The GUN Commander Sends Out Troops To Hunt Shadow Down. Shadow Then Proceeds To Help Black Doom Hack The United Federation's Mainframe & Reawaken The Flying Temples The Black Arms Sent To Earth 2000 Years Prior While Finding The 3rd Chaos Emerald. When He Arrives At Circus Park To Find The (Damn) 4th Chaos Emerald, He Runs Into Eggman & Goes After Him To Find Further Answers. At The Sky Troops, He Gets Onboard Eggman's Main Airship. He Then Reluctantly Helps Team Chaotix Extract Data From Eggman's Cyberspace. Shadow Then Chases Eggman Through His Haunted Castle While Helping Amy Find Cream & Cheese On The Way. When He Arrives At Eggman's Base, He Discovers An Army Of Shadow Androids Like The One He Saw At Rail Canyon. Shortly After He & Omega Defeat Eggman At His Volcanic Base, He Returns To Prison Island (Now Covered In Electric Water After It Was Destroyed In Sonic Adventure 2.) Where He Helps Charmy Find 5 Top Secret Discs From The Remains Of The Base. Soon Shadow Escapes From The Death Ruins With Rouge's Help. Still Confused About His Memory, Black Doom Sends Shadow Into An Illusion That Recreates The Day GUN Attacked The ARK. Eventually, The Black Arms Attack Central City With Shadow's Assistance, Forcing The President To Evacuate On One Of GUN's Air Fleet Ships Where Shadow Gives Chase To Him. Once The President Arrives At GUN's Main Stronghold, Shadow Goes Out His Way To Escape The Base. Soon Black Doom Sends Shadow To The ARK So That They Can Gain Control Of The Repaired Eclipse Cannon. After Destroying 4 of The ARK's 10 Defense Mechanisms, He Runs Into Sonic & They Race For The 5th Chaos Emerald While Destroying The Remaining 6 Defense Mechanisms. With The ARK's Defense Mechanisms Down, The Black Arms Attack The ARK, Triggering The Alarms To Go Off, Causing Shadow To Have A Flashback Of The Time He Saved The ARK From A Lot Of Out Of Control Artificial Chaos. After Taking Down The ARK's Last Line Of Defense: Blue Falcon, The GUN Commander Confronts Shadow. He Explains How He Blames Shadow For The Death Of His Family & How He Saw Gerald Create Him With Black Doom As A Kid. Afterwards, Shadow Helps Vector Find The Computer Room As Parts of The ARK Start To Snap Off. Soon, He Goes To The Black Comet (The Black Arms Main Base) To Find The Last 2 Chaos Emeralds. After Obtaining The 6th Emerald, He Confronts Sonic & The GUN Commander (Piloting GUN's New Battle Mech: Diablon) & A Fight Ensues, Ending With Shadow Obtaining The Final Emerald. He Takes Them To Black Doom To Start "The Ritual Of Prosperity". Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Omega & Eggman Try To Tell Him Not To Give The Emeralds To Black Doom As He Intends To Destroy Earth.
Black Doom Then Explains How He Actually Intends To Enslave Humanity As An Energy Source & Uses The Emeralds To Warp The Comet Down To The Surface Of Earth Using Chaos Control, Causing A Gas Paralyzes Everyone In It's Path Except Shadow & Omega. When All Seemed Lost, Shadow Then Remembers His Promise To Maria & Him Helping Sonic Save The Earth From The Biolizard At The End Of Sonic Adventure 2 & Immediately Gets Up & Vows To Defeat Black Doom Once & For All. He Then Orders Omega To Get Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge & Eggman To Safety As He Chases Down Black Doom & Fights Him. Black Doom Then Explains To Shadow How He Collaborated With Gerald To Create Him, Leaving Shadow Shocked As Black Doom Tries To Control Him Since His Blood Runs In Shadow's Veins. But Then Team Chaotix Manage To Send A Message To Shadow From Gerald About How Gerald Built The Eclipse Cannon To Destroy The Black Comet. Remotivated, Shadow Breaks From Black Doom's Control & In A Burst Of Anger, Black Doom Transforms into his Ultimate Form: Devil Doom. Shadow Uses The Chaos Emeralds To Turn Into His Super Form, & Fights Devil Doom. During The Battle, Eggman Tells Shadow That After The Events of Sonic Adventure 2, He had Omega Rescue him & Tells Him That He Really Is The Ultimate Life Form Gerald Created. After Defeating Devil Doom, Shadow Uses Chaos Control To Warp The Black Comet Back Into Space, Where He Uses The Eclipse Cannon To Destroy The Black Comet Once & For All.
Back On Earth Everyone Celebrates In Victory Over Shadow's Heroic Deed. The GUN Commander & President Decide To Ensure Peace For A Brighter Tomorrow. On The ARK Shadow Holds A Photo Of Maria & Gerald Robotnik In His Hand & Repeats Maria's Last Words: " Sayonara, Shadow The Hedgehog." As He Tosses The Photo Away, Finally Accepting His Past & Moving On With His Life.
The End.
I vaguely remember izuka saying in a statement somewhere that the hero path was the canon path when asked either at a convention or an interview but i can't really source that claim.
It is the most boring answer but i find it to be the most reasonable - you can just assume the chaos emeralds restored his memories somehow as to why he remembers EVERYTHING from his past after this game
So I know this video’s a year+ old at this point, but I’d like to bring up something that I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else bring up. There’s a detail that would basically make For Love’s Sake not the canon route, which is the fact the President of the United Federation is at the G.U.N. base during the events of the last story, which only happen towards the end of the True/Semi- Dark stories. Unfortunately, with that in mind, it’s hard to say that any of the routes are actually officially canon on their own.
Ultimate Shadow is the more likely one as by this point most of Shadow's doubts have been cleared except for who's the ultimate life form, something he can only find out by challenging Sonic to another pre-final boss duel (the dialogue implies the diabilon is imaginary), after winning he declares himself the ultimate hedgehog and goes to face Black Doom alone as shown in the last story cutscene, also fits more with his "edgy the hedgy" demeanor he has in later games.
I assume by "the dialogue implies the Diabilon is imaginary" you mean they completely ignore Diablon's presence, outside of Black Doom giving you gameplay hints. I guess that makes sense.
Honestly, I wish they had a different, unique fight with just Sonic for this ending. And maybe a different fight for Neutral-Dark (with, say, Omega) so that there's actually a difference between the two neutral endings.
8:15 Black Doom is Da Devil from Da Bible confirmed?
There's three issues here
Vector needs to get to the Computer Room with Shadow's help. Whether this is the room Team Chaotix occupies in the Last Story or the location of another data fragment is unclear, but it's one of the two.
In the Last Story, the President is shown in GUN HQ, which only happens when he's injured, either from the Eclipse Cannon, or Shadow shooting down his escape plane
The Gun Commander apologizes in Expert Mode for trying to kill him, referencing the cutscene on the ARK where we see him turn around on his attitude towards Shadow.
To me it’s Westopolis->Glyphic Canyon->Prison Island->Sky Troops. From there it’s either Air Fleet->Black Comet or Space Gadget->Final Haunt, with both paths culminating with Shadow fighting Sonic.
really fun video, thanks!! :D
I would argue that the black arms would have compromised the mainframe without shadow involved. That line being in that cutscene on every route only proves that the events of digital circuit happen in parallel with all the other second stages.
Also I highly doubt that sonic would sit back and let shadow straight up murder people without fighting back.
I personally would think that Shadow would go neutral in westopolis. The only things he commits to in the opening cutscene are finding the emeralds and trusting that black doom has clues about his past. He never committed to doing black doom’s every whim.
I like your thoughts on the other stages though.
The only thing thats a bit confusing is that after beating Black Doom, in the last story he's acting like we didn't just beat him and asks for the emeralds. What happened after Shadow and Sonic beat Doom?
This is a great video! Definitely not a route I would've considered! The one I mainly considered was true neutral until sky troops due to eggman intriguing him, in which shadow would go hero for the rest of it.
aaaah, I don't know, how did Vector get all the data if Shadow didn't even help him FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM?
Besides from Sonic battle and I guess that weird Apple game preen never really appears after that and you could say those either happen at a weird time or I'm like Canon or something but like in my my head Cannon cream just died in the wall because in this "Cannon" playthrough cream just dies
I personally lean towards the true hero route being the most canon because I believe it fits the most with how I see Shadow's character and because All Hail Shadow is Shadow's theme from that game onwards. I say most canon because I don't think there can be one true canon route due to the nature of the game.
First NeverChris and now GamingTopTen? The resurrection spell is working
Just because someone knows the truth of your past doesnt mean you will work with them to kill others. It just means you know they have information about your past.
If there's a chance black doom met jesus, then maybe snapcube wasn't far off calling him the devil...
I've always been curious on how sonic and his crew reacted to shadow literally stelaing the chaos emerald
Ok, so I do remember in the Shadow Fall arc of the comics, there is one direct reference to the armada cutscene... But I do like your route.
With the new game involving time shenanigans, I'm choosing to believe that all of them happened in some weird way. Fandub timeloop real.
Yo, one of my oldest subscriptions finally uploaded again. How's it been?
Life is very hectic; thanks for stopping by!
So Sky Troops isn’t a canon stage. So much for the best stage from Shadow The Hedgehog.
I completely agree with your route being the cannon route.
So Sky Troops isn’t a canon stage. So much for the best stage from Shadow The Hedgehog
I feel like the games nature stands in the way of there being a "true" story path. You simply can't fit everything that needs to happen into a 5 level sequence. (Which, for a regular Sonic game, would be way too short as well). For example you empathize the importance of the Chaotix getting their message out, yet you have to omit the part of them actually getting to the Ark because Shadow has to end up on the Black Comet in his last mission. So for this to work as one coherent path, you'd have to add more stages to one singular path imo.
For example, having 2 of the "final" missions would fix the main problem I have with your solution. At the penultimate mission, they go to the Ark only for Shadow to have a flashback, instantly followed by going to the Black Comet afterwards. Which seems a bit strange. So this is where I'd add Cosmic Fall in between Lost Impact and Final Haunt (Or just remove Lost Impact in favor of Cosmic Fall while keeping the Maria flashbacks, which would make more sense in a "Shadow the Hedgehog remake" type of scenario since you wouldn't put 2 levels that look and feel that similar one after the other. Plus no one would shed a tear for Lost Impact). Not only does Shadow actually get to do something on the present day Ark, which doesn't make the Ark seems like such a weird stop on their way to the comet, you also get to experience the end of the "Chaotix Arc" where you actually help them get to where they need to be in the Final Story, the elusive computer room.
In the whole "possible remake" vein I think it would also be important to include Sky Troops since that was kind of the poster child level for Shadow the Hedgehog. That could break up both of the very same-y Cyberspace levels coming almost right after another. Plus helping Eggman in Sky Troops would lead nicely into getting to his base, meeting the Chaotix there to help them hack into his system. But that's neither here nor there I guess.
I’ve found the canon ending it’s 1 million % The Voyage of Reminiscence. Also Doom is basically the dvl so he probably did meet jessus
There's one thing I would change. Instead of fighting Black Doom at the end, it makes more sense for Shadow to fight Sonic. Remember in the start of Last Story, all the characters run up and tell Shadow not to give the emeralds to Doom. This would not make sense if the last boss on the canon route was Doom as they would have just fought mere seconds beforehand. Alternatively Shadow could also just fight Eggman as there is an ending where he tells Eggman to stay away from the ark
"Canonocity" is not a word, however, canonicity *is*
Doom is deviling so much he's dooming everywhere, so much doom all over the place, I wish I can doom that hard, dooming so much a big oll doom thing coming down and dooming the world because doom doomed so damn hard
6:55 gotta stop you there, he says that what he said about CREATING shadow is a lie. This is more likely a reference to the Iron Jungle Egg Breaker cutscene.
Honestly any route that ends with Shadow appearing at the Black Comet are the only ones that make any sense
Thank you for highlighting the times where the game _does_ try to make sense no matter which route you take. I don't recall anyone mentioning it and thus I didn't know about them either.
8:16 How do you know he wasn't the devil that tempted Him in the desert? :)
I'm pretty sure Shadow wouldn't have battled against Black Doom in the canon route. At the start of the last story, Black Doom says that Shadow has done well, and tells Shadow to hand over the emeralds to him. Why would Black Doom even try giving Shadow orders, when Shadow literally just kicked his ass to get the last emerald? It doesn't really make sense. He'd have no reason to believe that Shadow would listen to him. The dark full hero ending, where Shadow decides to settle his score with Sonic before dealing with Black Doom, helps the start of Last Story make more sense, but then you also have to explain how the Gun Commander got to the Black Comet, when we see in Last Story that he's still at the millitary Base with the President. Maybe he's just controlling that robot remotely from the base? Honestly, I don't really think any possible path we can play actually works completely. It's likely just a mixture of multiple routes.
I beliver the canon route in Shadow the Hedgehog is "Together with Maria" (153).
Originally I agreed, but that'd leave Shadow with no reason to go to the Black Comet, instead devoting his time to the Ark. Currently I'm going with 084, To Be Ignorant of the Past. Yes, it's the ending where in at least one route Shadow's implied to have killed himself, but that's only one route. I imagine Shadow, listening to Vector's words, teleports to the Black Comet to think alone, having already beaten Black Doom, or so he thought.
What if Black Doom impersonated Jesus?
In conclusion: Black Doom finds Jesus
None of the routes are canon, the game is about Shadow's amnesia, and the game explores that and who Shadow could become. The point is that he doesn't become any of these, he doesn't become the villain who destroys the world, or the hero who carries on Maria's wish. Or a guardian lioe diety who protects the arc like knuckles on angel island. The "canon" route is the final story. We don't know what set of events led us there. But what we do know is he is Shadow the Hedgehog, the one who threw away his past.
However, what the routes do give us is hints about certain aspects of the story. Like the chaotix finding that recording of Gerald. Sure shadow helps them, but in the final story. We know that everyone has their own agency, so the chaotix simply found it themselves.
I think is time to remake this video with the new info shadow generations give us
It still doesnt make sense how the hero ending is the canon route since why would shadow beat doom and say he will destroy the black arms, then suddenly shadow is alone on the comet and doom appears being all buddy buddy asking for the emeralds, and shadow is conflicted on handing them over.
I feel like the ending where he fights eggman on the comet is the canon ending path since he beats eggman, has the emeralds and tells him basically to piss off and walks away with the emeralds sparing his life, then can continue off with shadow having the emeralds then doom confronts him for them and everyone arrives to sway him not too.
The Anti hero dark ending is the only ending where Shadow doesn’t kill Eggman. And since Shadow is fighting Eggman, Sonic isn’t defeated and Black Doom is still at large. All of which falls in line with true ending.
Eggman needs to stay alive because he is the only one who knows the truth about Shadow.
Personally I disagree with this theory. If the ending has Shadow defeat Black Doom, then why does Shadow in the Last Story have the motive to hand him the Chaos Emeralds? Furthermore why would Black Doom be so care free? At this point Shadow has all 7 Emeralds and would likely pose as a threat.
I like the idea of this theory but, just a few holes.
Black Doom used telekinetic powers to take the emeralds from Shadow in the last story, Shadow didn't hand them to him.
As for being carefree, it could be because he knew about the paralysis gas, but just didn't know Shadow would be immune to it.
Good questions though. The nature of the story's branching paths makes it so that no route really fits like a glove, especially with the president's cutscene talking about Westopolis and the CIA mainframe.
*The Last Story* is the only thing in the entire game that's *Canon*
Everything else is up *to your own interpretation* which makes the game so damn good
My issue here is that you assume that the black arms destroyed the CIA mainframe without Shadow's help, but then that could also mean that they could have taken over Westopolis without Shadow's help, meaning he did not necessarily do the dark mission in the 1st stage. For your logic to be consistent, I feel like shadow would have to have destroyed the mainframe in digital circuit.
Other routes I've thought to be cannon:
Dark Dark Neutral Neutral Hero Hero
Dark Dark Hero Neutral Dark Hero
Neutral Neutral Neutral Dark Hero Hero
Neutral Neutral Hero Hero Hero Hero
Hero Hero Neutral Hero Hero Hero
The reason the developers of the game failed to make a coherent story irrelevant of what path you take IS because they made a cutscene for each stage instead of making a cutscene for each mission. The game has 22 stages and the cutscenes happens before each stage. So the writers had to make a cutscene that's coherent to 3 different ways of getting there. Alternativally, they could make a cutscene for each mission instead. Almost every stage has 3 missions, witch results in a total of 55 missions. The game should make a cutscene for each of the missions aftermaths instead of each of the stages introductions. For example, in Digital Circuit after completing the Dark mission, Doom's Eye could Tell to Shadow that The energy released By the destruction of the CIA's mainframe could transportate him to a random software and that not even he knows where Shadow Will Go to, and after Shadow do this, he goes to the computer next to the Crypt Castle. Alternativally, on Hero's mission, after Shadow and Rouge pick the chaos Esmerald, Shadow says that he will take it if him, and Rouge disagree, so they fight. After knocking out Rouge, Shadow would have flashbacks of Prison Island and would try to go there.
I like your theory a lot, but would argue one small change. Black doom seems just fine despite having just had his butt kicked in the hero boss fight of final haunt. I think that instead, shadow does the dark mission in order to fight sonic for dominance and the right to be the one to fight black doom. This would also explain why sonic doesn't try to rugh in to be the hero himself even before the gas starts paralyzing him. He lost to shadow, so shadow gets to fight doom and save the world.
The only problem with Final Haunt Dark being canon is that the General (now known as Abraham) is on Earth during the Last Story, not aboard the Diablon.
@@GamingTopTenhold still you devil
I enjoyed this video a lot and you make a sound argument
My issue with Shadow The Hedgehog:
While the Action Stages are very creative to explore, there's just too many story routes to piece in together for a coherent plot device. 😑
From my knowledge, there isn’t one. The cannon route is entirely off screen aside from the opening and last story.
I think Shadow does the normal route first. Why would he attack innocent soldiers without evidence just because someone said "Dude trust me bro"? He would get the emerald like Doom wants in order to find his past but he wouldnt hurt soldiers...at least ones that arnt attacking him first
clearly black doom IS jesus and now theres gonna be 203948 video essays on that topic...hooray!
My theorized canon route is actually very similar to yours. My criteria:
1. Multiple Acts. This is the only way Cryptic Castle (Hero) being canon (expert mode) makes sense.
2. Path with the most clues is canon.
3. The path that sets up Last Way best is canon.
4. Black Arms win Digital Circuit and Glyphic Canyon regardless of route (Sky Troops hints at this). GUN wins Westopolis regardless of route.
The Route:
a. Westopolis (Hero). Motivated purely by self defense. Lethal Highway (dark) is basically act 2.
b. Prison Island (Hero). Shadow believes the disks could contain potential leads. The Doom is Act 2.
c. Cryptic Castle via unknown entry point (Hero). Mad Matrix (Hero, potential leads) is act 2. Meanwhile GUN wins Central City with MASSIVE damage. Eggman wins Sky Troops then catches Shadow and Espio’s hack.
d. Iron Jungle tells the lie. Lost Impact is Act 2. Space Gadget is Act 3.
e. Final Haunt (hero).
Conclusion: Hero-> Dark -> Hero -> Hero -> Hero -> Hero.
i alway bnelievedf in the end her faught sonic as rival to deal with black dfoom with all 7 emeralds
Shadow the guy that probably did something wrong some were in the story.
the booty bat route
Cannonocity is a word but it's pronounced "Cannonocity."
Fun fact Cryptic Castle hero is confirmed to be canon in expert mode
I hear this a lot, but it assumes expert itself is canon.
@@GamingTopTen Expert mode IS canon tho
Yeah i like this route.
I honestly think none of the routes are canon. The individual character missions are canon. The Chaotix for example, their missions lead to The Final Story. And Sonic’s missions are about him stopping the aliens. But for the most part, the routes are a waste of time. The only thing that’s canon is the final story, Expert Mode, & in one way or another, Westopolis.
it is a word! but you mispronounced it. Its Canon-ih-city, spelled Canonicity
I was trying to do some of the love paths, but im doing it because of ships xd
There is no canon route thats the wholle point shadow is ALL OF HIM meaning every path has a fragment of canon but no conclusion( except the last story) is canon the 10 regular endings show what shadow is not.
nice video just working on something's for my channel thats why had not uploaded in a few
really nice video
Cryptic castle hero mission is canon????
Well, technically, I clicked on this to see you. How've you been?
Still alive and kicking.
Together with Maria
Personally i think that Almost every Ending that leads to Hero Final Haunt is cannon in my book.
8:02-8:20 😂😂😂😂 8:02p.m. 10/11/2023
1:52a.m. 10/11/2023
So no offense homie, but you might need to work on your sound mixing. The music is wayyyy louder than your voice in this video.
I think truth is hidden inside the mix paths of the game and since all the possible scenarios are false or half thruths. Try to puzzle a story based on true ending and try to eliminate lies that contradicts the truth. Thus maybe truth can be found? Anyway take this as a possibility instead of truth. After all even Shadow can't make sence of himself thus this conspiracy is perfect way to contradictory way to tell story of your edgiest hedgehog.