This Shadow the Hedgehog character theory information was sent in with an anonymous source therefore Shadowflash cannot be
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A popular opinion is that Shadow is an evil clone of Sonic. This is never stated in any of the games. Shadow is the ultimate life form and that he
was created by Prof. Gerald Robotnik. His resemblance to Sonic character-wise is a pure coincidence. Sonic is fifteen years old, and Shadow was
created more than fifteen years ago, so Sonic could not have been cloned.
The Shadow in Sonic Heroes is revealed to be a robot. There is either the possibility that Shadow was always a robot, or that only his clone was a
robot. The Bio-Lizard is organic, and since that is the prototype of Shadow, it follows on to assume that the original Shadow is also organic.
Finally, it must be easier to mass-produce artificial Shadows as weapons instead of cloning them. With his skills at mass producing large numbers of
robots, it's logical that Dr. Eggman used this same technology to mass produce Shadow.
What exactly is the ultimate life form that Gerald Robotnik was working on? We know that the Bio-Lizard (originally codenamed "Shadow") is the
prototype and that Shadow himself is an incarnation, but there could exist a mysterious third ultimate lifeform. In the speech before his execution at
the end of Sonic Adventure 2, Gerald explains how the Ultimate Life Form project was supposed to be for the good of mankind. The military interpreted
it as a weapon which led to the attack that killed Maria and supposedly destroyed the Ultimate Life Form. Gerald goes on to claim that, filled with
hatred for the military for killing Maria, he completed the Ultimate Life Form based on what he remembered and programmed it to carry out his
revenge. He also implores the listener to free it.
This speech is quite confusing. We know that Shadow escaped ARK in an escape pod, and that same Shadow was the one freed by Dr. Eggman. But based on
his speech, Gerald does not know that Shadow has survived. He would have realised that Shadow had survived if the military had delivered Shadow to
him so he could continue his work. It is unknown why would the military continue to allow Gerald to work on Shadow if they already perceived him as a
threat.
There are three possible explanations. One is that Shadow is the only true Ultimate Life Form and that the doctor improved Shadow even further after
he was captured by the military. Secondly, there is a third, more powerful Ultimate Life Form in existence which has not been discovered. A third
possibility is that, the Final Hazard is the true Ultimate Life Form.
Before he was executed, Gerald modified the Bio-Lizard so it could fuse with ARK using Chaos Control and destroy Earth by ramming into it. Sonic and
Knuckles "free" the Bio-Lizard when they approach the core of ARK, and the voice of Gerald plays as it is released. The Bio-Lizard was also just a
"prototype" of the Ultimate Life Form- an incomplete version. This would leave it open to being improved by Gerard. Finally, by using Chaos Control
to fuse with ARK, it is carrying out the mission it was programmed for: to destroy Earth. Seeing that Shadow was not originally programmed to destroy
Earth, it is improbable to suggest that his predecessor, the Bio-Lizard, was originally a weapon of destruction, especially considering that the whole
Ultimate Life Form project was supposed to bring peace to the world. The only viable explanation is that it was re-programmed by Gerard. The only
disproof of this theory is the subtitle of "The Prototype of the Ultimate Life" in the description of the Final Hazard.
Another popular theory is that the Shadow in SA2, Sonic Heroes, and Sonic Battle is a real, organic Shadow and Metal Sonic used this original Shadow
to clone his army. Proof to this theory is that Metal Sonic says "Ultimate Life Form data has been copied" after the Egg Albatross is defeated. Thus,
Shadow in Sonic Heroes and SA2, and thus Sonic Battle(Battle Shadow has SA2's memories) is the real one as Metal Sonic implies there that he couldn't
copy the Ultimate Life Form data from one of the clones.
Yet another popular theory is that Shadow's memories of Maria are entirely false, and that, in fact, the hedgehog form of Project Shadow never even
set foot on Space Colony ARK prior to the events of Sonic Adventure 2. The likely scenario is that, somehow, Gerald was able to continue work on
Project Shadow while incarcerated by GUN (as indicated by Sonic X). How, we do not know -- Perhaps they were using the professor for other research
purposes and he secretly did the work on the side. Regardless, planning to utilize Shadow for vengeance on GUN and, for that matter, the entire world,
the very angry professor would have programmed fabricated memories of Maria and her death into Shadow's subconscious. This theory doesn't quite
explain why Shadow had the change of heart he did toward the end of the SA2 story arc, but if anything, it can probably be accredited to emotional
mental instability. Also, it should be noted that the story of Sonic Battle cannot be considered canon material without completely disregarding the
history laid out by Sonic Adventure 2. There are far too many discrepancies in the story relating to Professor Gerald's journal entries (unlockable
by playing through the story a second time) that completely nullify any direct sense of continuity with SA2, where Shadow was created for the purpose
of vengeance. Why would Gerald have intentionally programmed the final version of Shadow with a conscience if the very reason it was brought into
existence was to destroy the world? The plot holes created by Sonic Battle are simply too large to disregard. Lastly, to correct the first section of
this article, there is nothing that states that the Chaos Emerald-empowered Shadow seen at the end of Sonic Adventure 2 is "Hyper Shadow." The proper
terminology is Super Shadow, as, according to Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, a character absorbing all seven Chaos emeralds is always referred to as
"Super" instead of "Hyper", no matter who that character is. "Hyper" is a second stage achieved by absorption of the seven Super Emeralds
(powered up forms of the Chaos Emeralds), as seen from Hyper Sonic and Hyper Knuckles in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
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