Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Boom)

"No. Justice must be had by any means necessary."

- Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal

Shadow the Hedgehog is a character that appears in the Sonic Boom series. He is an anthropomorphic black hedgehog and the arch-rival of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Appearance
Shadow, like Metal Sonic, keeps much of the same appearance as his main series counterpart, with the most notable difference being the red cuffs on his wrist and ankles now extend onto his gloves and shoes and are larger as well covering more of his arms and legs. He is also taller and has cow-lick like spikes similar to Sonic.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Shadow is first seen silently watching Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic from a distance at Lyric's Tomb before leaving. He then directly confronts Sonic and Tails at the Abandoned Research Facility when both of them open a portal to travel to the past, not letting them enter the portal. He taunts at Sonic that he is weak because of his loyalty to his friends and engage them in a fight. Sonic and Tails are quickly able to defeat Shadow when Sonic kicks him into a portal that sends him to the future after Sonic and friends have defeated Lyric. He was prepared to fight them again but then sees the beaten Lyric and gives his approval before walking away.

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
Finding Lyric excavating an area, Shadow confronted the snake-like villain, but did not object Lyric's sense of justice. He then grimly declined as Lyric took an interest in making him his slave, only for Lyric to plant a mind-control device on him.

As Lyric's mindless slave, Shadow confronted Sonic and friends, but was beaten by Sonic in a race and knocked unconscious. When he awoke, Shadow was freed from Lyric's device. As Shadow had Tails analyze his former mind-control device, a hologram of Lyric appeared and Shadow wanted to face him. However, as Lyric declined his threat, Shadow threatened to hunt him down and kill him before running off.

Shadow finally found Lyric when he was about to destroy Team Sonic with a cannon, and saved the heroes from Lyric's weapon. He then kicked Lyric away and Sonic opened a trapdoor, sending Lyric falling to his death. While everyone agreed their teamwork made the difference, Shadow called it pathetic and left, calling himself Sonic's superior.

Personality
Shadow has a dark personality, believing loyalty to friends makes someone weak, and is fiercely independent, refusing to serve anyone but himself. He also has a strong sense of purpose, insisting that justice must be had by any means necessary. He does not hold back criticizing those he deems weak, but is willing to at least compliment them if deserved. Shadow is not one to let go of grudges easily. Once free from Lyric's control in Shattered Crystal, he spends the rest of the game hunting Lyric down in revenge. He is also very vengeful seeming to want to find Lyric and make him pay for making him his slave.

Powers and abilities
Shadow is a very powerful individual, being able to match Sonic's speed and abilities. He can move at high speeds that rivals Sonic's speed and has extreme combat skills that enables him to fight against both Sonic and Tails at the same time. He is also able to manipulate red energies for a variety of purposes; he can envelope himself in a red aura to empower his attacks and to teleport, throw bolts of Chaos Spears to attack his enemies and unleash the Chaos Blast which is an explosion of energy.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog is Shadow's tense arch rival,  and the two are polar opposites in nearly every way. While Shadow would rather complete a mission on his own, Sonic would happily bring his friends with him, something Shadow heavily criticizes, believing Sonic's loyalty to his friends is that makes him weak.

Despite disagreeing with nearly everything Sonic stands for, and gladly going out of his way just to prove he is the better of the two, Shadow seems to have a degree of respect for his enemy, complimenting his skills when the former defeated Lyric.

Allies

 * Team Sonic
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (Arch-rival)
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Sticks the Badger

Rivals

 * Sonic the Hedgehog (Arch-rival)

Enemies

 * Lyric the Last Ancient

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Shadow serves as the first boss of the game and is encountered at the end of the Abandoned Research Facility where the player must fight him as Sonic and Tails. The battle is separated into three phases, each in a different point in time; the present, the ice age and the prehistoric.

The battle begins in the present where Shadow will launches several balls of energy that will home in on the player (unless they have gotten Shadow to fire at the very boundaries of the stage). After Shadow finishes his attacks, the player must attack him. After some time, Shadow will envelop himself in a red aura and start attacking the player at high speed. While he is in this state, the player cannot touch Shadow without taking damage, so dodge him instead. Once this is over, Shadow will launch some bolts of energy, though afterwards he will be open to the player's attacks.

When Shadow has taken enough damage, the battle will shift to the ice age where the field is enveloped in ice. Shadow's attack patterns in this phase is the same as the first, except Shadow will launch Chaos Spears that will fall to the ground and explode after shortly after. To dodge them, the player must avoid being at close range when they fall and explode.

When Shadow has taken enough damage again, the battle will shift to the prehistoric area in a desolate desert. In this phase, Shadow will use more new attacks, like teleporting around the field and attack the player at high speed, and trigger a Chaos Blast attack that covers a wide area. The teleportation can be avoided by always changing direction as Shadow teleports and the Chaos Blast can be dodged by standing at the opposite side of Shadow, near the edge of the arena (as he also does it in the center). After several attacks at Shadow, the battle will end and the player wins.

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
The battle against Shadow is simple: the player must reach the goal before Shadow to end the battle.

Trivia

 * In the Japanese version of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, it is revealed that Shadow is controlled by Lyric through a mind control chip on his head. His Japanese voice is given a mechanical filter to sound more robotic, giving the impression that Shadow was an android. This aspect was not included in the game in other versions, for unknown reasons.
 * Shadow's appearance in the Sonic Boom franchise was first officially hinted to the public as one of two "fan-favorite" characters, along with Metal Sonic, to appear in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.
 * In an interview with Bill Freiberger, he could not comment on whether Shadow would appear in the Sonic Boom television series or not. However, he did reveal that if Shadow was to appear in an episode, Sega would consider it a very important moment and would reveal it in their own way.