i think the clearest demonstration of what i mean by modern sonic writing having reverted the best and most interesting part of shadow’s characterization is that it has him explaining in explicit terms that the reason he purrotects the people of earth is that maria asked him to. the entire POINT of his story in sonic 06 is that he is his OWN purrson, who makes his OWN decisions, out of his newfound inner strength and self-knowledge

one of the less good aspects of sonic adventure 2 was always that shadow just ends up being mostly a proxy between dr. ivo robotnik (not eggman)’s and maria’s diffuring purrspectives on how to respond to tragedy; his character ended up getting sidelined and it took a while befur they really bothered to develop it (if to mixed effect)

@aescling They've also ruined Tails' character tbh

@coriander have you seen what sonic frontiers does with him

@aescling Maybe a little, I honestly don't really follow Sonic anymore

@coriander he complains to sonic about his behavior having been, in his own literal words, “inconsistent”. his story ends with him resolving to take some time after the game is done to do his own thing, independently

it’s a transparent apawlogy and rerailment but i wish any of the results of that showed up, like, in the game itself, instead of being purromised to happen later lol