Shadow the hedgehog

is an anti hero and the arch rival of Sonic the Hedgehog. Created as "The Ultimate Life Form" by Professor Gerald Robotnik. Shadow is indestructible and immortal, however that doesn't mean that he does not feel pain. Shadow is arguably ageless as well. Since his debut, Shadow has appeared in a multitude of games, television shows, and comic books. His past was almost a complete mystery until the game Shadow the Hedgehog revealed the events surrounding his creation. In contrast to Sonic, Shadow is typically portrayed as a tortured anti-hero, or a renegade who can just as easily serve the forces of evil as those of good. However, he does what he needs to do to accomplish what he knows to be right. So overall, Shadow could be considered a die-hard hero. According to an official poll, Shadow is the second most popular character in the series, second only to Sonic himself.

Shadow's outer appearance is quite unique compared to the other characters. He prefers to work alone and distances himself from essentially everyone, with few exceptions. Though soft-spoken and reserved, he never bluffs; if he makes a threat, he has every intention of carrying it out. This is seen in Shadow the Hedgehog, when Shadow warns Sonic in one of the storylines that if he were to try to stop him, the hedgehog would inevitably destroy his blue counterpart. Shadow views Sonic as his rival and equal in all aspects of his life, but still sees him as annoying and foolish as he can be. Like Knuckles used to be with Sonic, Shadow has a rivalry with Sonic due to their animosity with each other in terms of how they view their own methods of justice and morality, but will work together despite certain problems they have with one another, and readily come to the others aid. Shadow is known to treat others in a very callous manner, and in combat, he displays a natural "killer instinct" that Sonic lacks. As shown in Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow sometimes displays an unusually rough manner of speech as opposed to the rest of the characters (though Sonic, Knuckles, and Espio are also heard swearing at times during the game). He will often use words such as "damn" and "hell" throughout the game in reference to his failure or anger. Alongside his dark demeanor, he can be smug, stubborn, and somewhat sarcastic. In the 2006 video game, he (at least as Super Shadow) is shown to be quite cocky, as he states that their battle against Solaris may actually be "a fair fight". Though Shadow is not heartless, he does care about Omega and Rouge deeply. He also seems deeply disturbed at the possibility of being created as a weapon of mass destruction, as in one of the possible endings of Shadow the Hedgehog, he shows some form of sadness when he remembers that he was created to be a WMD. On a related note, Shadow initially proposes that they destroy Emerl due to it being a WMD, which implies that he may not like the idea of being a WMD himself.

On occasion, Shadow appears to have some degree of mental instability. This can be seen when he would often hallucinate Maria's face or through his numerous threatening speeches. He appears to improve with amnesia, but this tendency returns in the Shadow the Hedgehog game, where in the various possibilities he often pursues his foes with disturbing determination, chuckles to himself madly, believes himself to be an android, and destroys city blocks and even an entire city itself in his rage. Although he usually either destroys or saves something at the end of these storylines, there is one where he completely admits he is good for nothing but destruction, and regrets his entire existence. Vector tries to "cheer him up" in his own special way, but inevitably fails. Shadow could be suffering from a mild form of schizophrenia and a moderate depression.He also might be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

Basic traits between Shadow and Sonic are virtually identical. Like Sonic, Shadow is highly acrobatic, capable of gracefully leaping over many obstacles in his way. Also, like Sonic, he can perform the basic "homing attack", allowing him to jump and home in on an enemy to get over large gaps he can't normally reach. He can also perform Sonic's trademark 'Spin Attack', which is a variation on the tendency for hedgehogs to roll into tight balls for protection. Also, with his Hover Shoes, Shadow can hoverskate at speeds fast enough to rival the speeds Sonic can run, although games have differed on who is faster (most games put them as equals while Sonic Battle's battle cards claimed Shadow is faster and the character profiles of Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 and Sonic Rivals claimed Sonic is faster).

Additionally, Shadow is ageless. Also, although he is not nearly as strong as power characters like Knuckles, with effort he can overturn objects too large for him to lift, such as trucks or peeled away asphalt. Shadow's upgrades from Sonic Adventure 2 are: He can also, like Sonic(who prefers to use his speed rather than these abilities), use different "Chaos powers," that have varying effects and names. Shadow's trademark move is Chaos Control, which allows him to warp time and space. Shadow uses it mainly to transport matter and/or to slow or stop time. The move actually allows the user to manipulate time and space to warp across "space" or manipulate time or move through or across with two users. Sonic, Black Doom, Metal Sonic (as seen as Metal Overlord during Sonic Heroes), Biolizard, and Silver can also use Chaos Control, though the move originally appeared with Shadow and he makes the most extensive use of it. Although nearly all cutscenes and bios in manuals and websites often claim Shadow needs a Chaos Emerald to perform the technique, he has used it a few times during gameplay as well as a cutscene without a known Emerald in his possession. Shadow is also able to shape Chaos Control into a variety of offensive and defensive attacks, such as "Chaos Rift". As described in Shadow's game, all of his Chaos powers increase in greatly in power with the addition of a greater number of Chaos Emeralds, until reaching full power with all 7 Emeralds. It is currently unknown as to what extent Chaos Control can be used, as Shadow has never been seen using it on another object without warping himself along with it, but it has been shown that he can take objects and people into the warp with him, and all examples of this suggest he must be touching an object to bring it with him (such as transporting the Black Comet off Earth). When saving Rouge from Prison Island, he was seen touching her. Aside from its final usage in Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow has used Chaos Control with 3 Emeralds at most, using Chaos Control to save Rouge from Prison Island, and they ended up on the ARK afterwards. It is assumed that 3 Emeralds is enough to warp Shadow (and anything on his person) into space. It is seen that in the series of Sonic X he is holding four Chaos Emeralds and is not touching or holding Chris or Rouge to teleport them to the Space colony ARK. At the end of Sonic Adventure 2 and in Sonic X, Super Shadow (with the help of Super Sonic) is able to warp the entire ARK to somewhere in deep space.
 * Air Shoes: Allowing Shadow to travel along a path of rings at light speed.
 * Mystic Melody: Play at the ancient shrines to open up new paths or shortcuts.
 * Ancient Light: Allows Shadow to attack enemies in a row quickly.
 * Flame Ring: Allows Shadow to somersault in a fiery fashion, allowing him to destroy metal containers.

Another form of attack that first appeared in the Shadow the Hedgehog game is an attack called "Chaos Blast" that is induced when Shadow commits excessive acts of evil. While the Chaos Spear can attack single or multiple targets, the Chaos Blast is literally a shockwave of energy that eliminates anything and everything in a circular radius range. When this attack can be formed, his eyes and his entire body begins to glow red.

As shown in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and Sonic X, Shadow is able to unleash more of his power if he takes off the rings on his wrists. Sonic X was the first to present this idea, which at first made it seem to be exclusive to the anime, as during the Sonic Adventure 2 adaption, Shadow loses his rings when trying to stop the ARK from crashing to earth. In the game, Sonic enters the ARK with one of Shadow's rings, but he is never shown actually losing them. In the anime, this increase in power comes at the expense of reducing his stamina, causing Shadow to become exhausted after a relatively short time engaged in combat as seen in episodes 60, 61, and 63 of the series. (Also in episode 73 in the Japanese version) However in the video game series, he shows no sign of fatigue, probably because of the mere dashing around he did in Sonic the Hedgehog '06. The increase in his power from taking off his rings shows a drastic change in the final cutscene of his story in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, after he plows through what appears to be hundreds of copies of Mephiles. This ability was also demonstrated in recent issues of the Archie comic as mentioned below, wherein Shadow removed the rings in order to call up his full power when he engaged the newly-reborn Enerjak in combat. These are called "inhibitor rings" in the Archie Comics.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow has shown that he can also use a wide range of firearms, semi-automatics, heavy assault, and close-combat weapons. He can also improvise with debris, and drive a wide range of vehicles, as shown in Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Riders, and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). This proves a great distinction between him and Sonic because, in the same game, Sonic says that he would never be caught dead using a gun and that he prefers running over using a vehicle.

By harnessing the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds, Shadow is able to use super transformation to transform into Super Shadow. He is bestowed with the new abilities of flight and near invulnerability, like Super Sonic, and his normal abilities of speed, strength, and power are greatly enhanced.

The following is a list of POW moves Shadow has in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood:
 * Chaos Spear (カオススピア): Shadow hurls two bolts of raw Chaos energy at an enemy. These lightning bolts, while armor piercing, may either hit a single enemy, or tail off and hit an adjacent enemy.
 * Chaos Rift (カオスリフト): Shadow opens a rift in time and space, then launches it at a foe in an attempt to banish it. If the foe remains, the foe may become distracted
 * Chaos Blast (カオスブラスト): Shadow concentrates his usual Chaos Blast into a sphere of energy within his hand, and delivers it in concentrated beam of chaos energy that may weaken affected targets.
 * Atomic Strike (Atom Strike アトムストライク): Shadow and Sonic rapidly spinball around the opposing team, creating an electrical field around them and damaging everyone inside.
 * Focus Field (Focus Shot フォーカスショット): Shadow hits a foe with a Chaos Blast as Omega simultaneously fires with his machine guns, in a dual attack which can leave the foe vulnerable.
 * Metal Storm (メタルストーム): Shadow lifts Omega using Chaos Control, and Rouge tornado-kicks the robot into a foe, with a chance to stun them. Chaos Control is Shadow's most powerful move