Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic X)

Shadow the Hedgehog is a dark doppelgänger of Sonic the Hedgehog from the anime Sonic X.

History
He appeared in the Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation between Episodes 33 and 38, although there were a few differences. Also, it was Chris Thorndyke who reminded Shadow of his true promise from Maria, not Amy Rose. Afterwards, he makes short appearances in flashbacks, but he makes his true return in Episode 60, "Trick Sand"("The Return of Shadow" in French).



In Season 3, he had no clear memory of his mysterious past, although in one episode, he seems to have an image of Maria in his mind. However, he cannot seem to work out who she really was. In that same episode, Dr. Eggman visits people of a planet the Metarex are warring with, including one orange-haired female teenager by the name of Molly. Shadow and Rouge meet her, and at the end of the French/Japanese version of the episode, Molly was killed by the Metarex. Shadow erects a makeshift grave for her, and Rouge notes that she was similar to Maria. In the English dub, Molly is seen flying off into the sky and instead of a grave, Shadow says that he will miss her and he is worried about her being all alone out in space.

In the last episode of Sonic X, it is unclear if Shadow dies from stopping time. However, at the end of the Japanese version, he is seen putting a flower on Molly's grave, which confirms that he's still alive. Also, Shadow is immortal, which means that he cannot die. Also, Rouge suspects that Eggman knows what actually happened to Shadow.

Personality
Shadow is dark, brooding and completely loyal and determined to whatever cause he has. He is anti-social and does not speak much. But deep down, he does have a heart. He cares for those who cared for him such as Maria and Molly and often follows in their goals in his own fashion no matter what the effort. He also shows over-average intelligence, as when fighting Scarship when he realised a head-on attack wouldn't work, he switched for some advanced tactics and instead decided to shake the ship apart from the inside by striking its body at incredible speed.

Abilities
Shadow can move at speeds rivalling Sonic's own and can perform many of his moves and tricks. His own unique abilities include mastery over Chaos Control and being able to summon Chaos Spears. In an attempt to kill Cosmo, he injured Sonic, Knuckles, Chris and Tails. His destructive power is also severely increased when he takes off his Inhibitor Rings as seen in one episode where he takes them off, subsequently single-handedly destroying an entire Metarex fleet. Though this leaves him drained of power if he takes them off for too long. His body was also able to take incredible punishment such as being slammed into solid surfaces and even being struck by powerful laser cannons.

Rouge
Rouge first established the business transactions for helping Eggman and Shadow find the Chaos Emeralds. The two do not have the teamwork relationship if any kind at all like they do in the video game series, whereas Shadow is even more distant from the other characters than originally portrayed in the games and solely focused on vengenance. Shadow doesn't seem to trust Rouge, like when they teamed up with Chris, to search for the Chaos Emeralds, Rouge wanted to take the Chaos Emeralds all to herself by saying, "Hey guys! Why don't we split up?", Shadow as he was not trusting her said, "No, Eggman said we mustn't split up!", Rouge realized that Shadow couldn't trust her and ran off, Shadow noticed her running and found out that she was going to be hurt, Shadow went and saved her and told her not to do that again. In one episode, in the Japanese version he gratefully thanks Rouge for helping him.

Shadow also seems to be easily annoyed by Rouge, like when Shadow was in the ARK, Rouge said, "Hi, miss me?", Shadow was annoyed and left the room with anger, Rouge then said, "Hey, what's wrong with Mr. Sunshine?".

Dr. Eggman
When Eggman released Shadow from his capsule, Shadow, with respectfully bowed to Eggman and thanked him, and also told him that he will do whatever he will tell him to. Eggman orders Shadow to help him get all of the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow is always there to protect Eggman.

Trivia

 * Shadow usually is seen to have a missing quill in his 'hairstyle' as compared to the games.
 * Shadow seems to be the only character in the English version to have a bleeding cut/scratch.

Archie Comics
In the last issue of the Sonic X comic series (which takes place before Sonic and friends return to their homeworld at the end of season 2), after Eggman sees Shadow Prime, he gets confused and quickly returns to his base, checking to see that Shadow is in fact, still in a stasis tube.