rollerblades are airshoes... Jokes aside, he's got something of a backstory. I feel like he can't have an appearance without his entire backstory being told. Long story short, he's an artificial being made with the purpose of curing Dr. Gerald's (Eggman's grandfather's) child, Maria. Shadow and Maria are super happy, super cool, basically siblings until these losers called G.U.N. say he's a threat and raid the space colony ARK. Maria sends Shadow down to Earth to save him and gets shot in the process. I left out a couple details, so if you want more information, look it up. For Sonic and friends, Shadow is an occasional ally, but mostly Sonic's rival. He's also been Sonic's enemy multiple times. He's sided with Eggman, he's sided with Sonic, he's sided with himself, and he's sided with Rouge and Omega... He's kind of everywhere, but mainly does things for himself.

Why do you like Shadow the Hedgehog so much....?

BECAUSE HE'S SO COOL???? I understand that some people think he's genuinely edgy and some sort of failed attempt at maturity for the STH series(??? what??), but I wholeheartly disagree. Maybe this is because I'm a freak who's obsessed with characters that are emotionally honest, if not vulnerable, but Shadow's entire character is based off of his trauma with Maria. I know that my appreciation for him would be a lot less if I hadn't seen how he was when Maria was still around. He used to be happy, a little hesitant but willing to try new things, you could even call him a bit shy. And now he's this constantly angry, revenge-seeking, edgelord with a gun and a motorcycle. To make that even shorter, he's traumatized!!! And I know for a fact that he's not the only one with trauma, nearly everybody in the Sonic franchise is traumatized, but I think he's one of the few that show it the most. Red and black also happen to be my favorite colors, but the yellow definitely adds to his color palette.

Another thing I like about Shadow the Hedgehog is his voice. He's had plenty of different English voice actors, but I think they've done a good job. I honestly couldn't tell you my favorite, I'd have to listen to them over again. I've seen some people say that his rasp makes him sound dumb, but of course, I think otherwise. Yes, he's your average traumatized edgelord, he's going to have a raspy voice. I personally don't have a problem with it, I actually like it. Plus the way he says "chaos control" is so iconic.

I saw this IFHY animatic or something of Shadow and Maria. Here's the link, PLEASE watch it:

I swear to God this animation changed my perception of Shadow. Or at least, how much I cared. When I was first presented with Shadow's backstory, I just said "ok cool" and moved on. Maria didn't have a lot of significance to me because I didn't really SEE how her death affected Shadow. I summed it up to happy, maria gone, angry edgelord. I've consumed so much content that this was basically just another story to me. And then I saw it again, and again, and again, his backstory just kept popping up. It become more important. Then I saw this animatic and, boom. I'm not even joking when I say that I can't describe the emotions I feel when I watch this thing. I don't know, I guess this just put it into perspective for me. I really like Tyler, the Creator already, but what really sold it was the artstyle changing. ghhhhh this is a piece of ART.