Why Do People Think That Shadow's Going To Beat Up Sonic After The Most Recent Episode. Just Because

Why do people think that Shadow's going to beat up Sonic after the most recent episode. just because he was proven right?? Do we think he wanted to be proven right???

Shadow had ample reasoning to stay back at the cave and keep an eye on Nine. He doesn't trust him, doesn't think he should even be left alone with the shards, and he's certainly stubborn enough in this opinion to stand guard. But he decided to leave him alone anyway.

In a practical sense, it's probably because he knows that the Chaos Council is the more immediate threat, and that they'll buy more time if he works with Sonic instead of against him. But think about it; he never even goes to check on Nine until the SECOND explosion. Why?

I do think it's possible that I'm wrong about this, but my first thought was that this was actually a show of trust from Shadow. He lets himself trust Sonic's judgement just this once, because there's a viable reason for him to go along with it - Nine is the most qualified to handle the shards, and Sonic does need his help on the battlefield.

Shadow expects the worst, sure. But his behavior suggests to me that he's hoping for the best, deep down, and that's important because it means that it wasn't just Sonic's trust that Nine betrayed.

And I mean. just look at how the scene plays out when he gets there:

Shadow sees Sonic trying to plead with Nine, who scoffs at the idea of trusting him before leaving with the Shards. It's only once he's gone that we get this shot of Shadow looking ticked off, and while it's hard to tell, I don't think he's supposed to be looking at Sonic here.

If he was, I think his head and/or eyes would be tilted down more, given where Sonic is in relation to him. But as it is, I'm inclined to think that he's more angry about the shards being taken away than he is at Sonic specifically.

And even if he does have a moment where he gets mad at him, how long can we really expect that to last when it's implied that Sonic was on the verge of tears after this? It's a little hard to tell, but he brings his hands up to his eyes right before the screen fades to black, so even if he's not crying, he's clearly not okay.

I don't think Shadow is mean enough to fight Sonic right now, because as previously established, he loses a lot of steam whenever Sonic starts looking sad, and doesn't gain anything from fighting him like that. If anything, I imagine he'd try to practically drag Sonic out of his slump to deal with practical issues instead of letting him wallow in his feelings for much longer.

There's no telling how effective that would be, but I think it's a more likely first attempt for him than just smacking Sonic around and adding injury to insult. I know we love to see Shadow pick fights and all but give him a little credit

After my 10th rewatch of Prime S2 EP1, I noticed some more details, which also led me to some theories. I have no idea if people have already caught these but they just seemed very interesting to me. I’m happy to hear what you guys think of them and if you want, reblog with your own little details and theories you’ve found!

1. Shadow’s Shatterspace

Since we’ve already seen the main Shatterspaces fit for Sonic’s friends (except Rouge, if she even gets one), Ghost Green Hill might correlate to Shadow. It’s prism and portal gate is yellow, matching Shadow’s trail color. He even describes the world as “not fully formed” and “decaying.” But what stood out to me the most was, “not whole” and “like a ghost.” We all know Shadow hasn’t had a clear origin story. Not even a coherent character arc, fitting the “not whole” type. As for “ghost,” Shadow has “died” twice but still continues to live. In Sonic Heroes, Knuckles calls Shadow a ghost, who is mistaken for a Shadow Android. Shadow in Prime is still technically a ghost since he wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. He didn’t shatter the Paradox Prism and create the Shatterverse like Sonic, he wasn’t touched by the Prism’s shattering and split into multiple variants like Sonic’s friends, he can’t enter portals, but only the one to Ghost Green Hill. He has no purpose. However, that changed when Sonic “saw” him. The real him.

“If you’ll stop staring straight through me…” - Mother Mother, “Ghosting”

2. Sonic’s kicks and punching sticks

Sonic’s gloves and shoes in Ghost Green Hill are his original ones, however they are embedded with a grid-like pattern, like an un-textured 3D model.

3. “Real”

Sonic defends Nine and his Shatterverse friends as real, but compares them to his original friends. Shadow says otherwise, calling the variants not real, or in other words, fake (hey look reference). Sonic contradicts what he has said about the “fakes” when he calls Shadow, “the real you.”

This can also be compared to the real and fake chaos emeralds. The real ones emitting pure, genuine chaos power. While the fakes sometimes provide positive energy, things can go south pretty easily.

4. Slick Sonic

Some of you were probably wondering how Sonic got his tech back from Shadow after he saved him. Well after Sonic hit his head on a floating crystal, we see his hands closed before he asks Shadow to give them back. So he probably took them off of Shadow when he fell out of his arms.

5. Shred of Sympathy?

When Shadow sees Sonic at his lowest, he sighs, stares, and then asks him to follow him. Resulting them to walk and talk and for Sonic to not give in to his negative thoughts.

6. Portal Hopping

Shadow states that he can’t portal hop like Sonic and other variants, but Ghost Green Hill is an exception. He was able to create a portal out of GGH using his speed, just like Sonic. But what about the tech? Yes, they were attached to him when he left GGH after the big fight, but that wasn’t his first time being there. After Sonic’s shockwave, Shadow was lead to its portal. We can tell he entered it due to him saying, “this Gateway let me in.” This (maybe) concludes that Shadow shares some similar prism powers like Sonic. Yes, other variants can portal hop, but they can’t CREATE portals on their own.

7. Shadow’s jingle

When Shadow first chases Sonic in the beginning of the episode, he gets surprised with a huge Tails crystal hologram. When he flips over, a faint little jingle plays. This also happens when Shadow is pushed by Sonic’s shockwave at the timestamp 6:20. I thought it was very cute.

8. I’ll Follow You

When crystal hologram Amy says “but there’s only one hedgehog they’ll follow into battle,” Shadow is seen following Sonic from gateway to gateway, trying to communicate with him in every Shatterspace.

Soo, how about that first episode of Sonic Prime S2, eh, guys? How we feeling?

Quick analysis. Sonic has trauma from this whole ordeal, guys. He was showing clear signs of PTSD this ep. Maybe it was obvious, but I'm gonna rant a lil about it, anyway.

It started when Shadow clarified to him, sharply, that their old reality no longer existed. You could hear in his voice that he was on the verge of tears. And just LOOK at him. 😭

And when Shadow took him to the ghost version of Green Hill? When he was talking to who he thought were his friends, only to slowly realize they were nothing more than ghosts of his real friends as they repeated their phrases over and over again? His expression, the way he shook his head ever so slightly, the way he backed up, had to sit down, was actually SHAKING?

Shadow brought him to the cave in the mountain, where the INCIDENT happened. One symptom of PTSD is avoidance of places or people that remind one of a traumatic event. Sonic's face when he realizes where he is?

His ears go up in alarm and his eyes go wide. And then he just stands there, frozen. Shadow has to say his name to get him to start moving. And even when he does?

The way he has one arm up, that's a very defensive stance, often a signal of fear. And he walks, so slowly, like in a trance, into the cave. He stares at the ghostly remains of the Paradox Prism, starts getting flashbacks all over again, all with this look of dazed terror in his eyes.

It hurt my heart to see. 🥺😭

Are they not the same????

(Tap for better picture quality)

OKAY SO THE FIRST EPISODE OF SONIC PRIME SEASON TWO IS OUT AND I'M DYING ALSO I MADE AN EDIT BECAUSE THIS SCENE WAS EPIC AND THE CALLBACK IS AMAZING

YouTube

SONIC PRIME SEASON 2 EDIT (SPOILERS)

AAAAAACCCKKK SEASON 2 EPISODE ONE IS OUT AND IT HAS THIS GREAT CALLBACK TO SONIC ADVENTURE 2 AND IT'S AMAZING!!!!

Heart Stations (KH spec)

after realising how much Foreshadowing and Sneaky Plot Points were lurking about in KH3's "demo" section, i finally remembered that a LOT of KH3 is done in parallel with KH1: which means that ITS "demo" is ALSO subtly plotty!

The first thing I remembered about Sora's heart station in KH1 is it being able to connect DIRECTLY to the heart stations of Princesses.

despite Sora never having met these princesses before.

except... VENTUS has!

the heart stations that Sora visits in the first Heart Dive belong to Snow White, Cinderella & Aurora: the order of their stations is in the same order as Ven's meeting them in BBS. Ventus befriended Cinderella personally, becoming friendly enough with Snow White & Aurora to have [link] attacks based on them (mostly through his friendship to the dwarves & Aurora's non-evil fairy godmothers).

There is also, in KH1's tutorial, a heart station depicting the three "free" princesses: Alice, Jasmine & Kairi. I had forgotten about this one. It's... interesting that, despite SORA being best friends with Kairi, Sora's heart instead connects to the "idea" of these three princesses altogether rather than individually (if only in the background, given the lack of need for a player to have 7 stages in a tutorial rather than 5). Sora knows Kairi personally but only Ventus could have known Alice or Jasmine, even THEN, his meeting them would have been during KHUX (a time he does not remember in BBS but treasures enough to enable his reunion with Chirithy in KH3).

The last heart station Sora visits in KH1's tutorial heart dive is Belle's: Belle is the princess who Sora ultimately ends up reasonating with most, in his heart at least, and she notably takes on the role of "Riku" to Beast's "Sora" in CoM.

it is EXTREMELY odd that Sora, well before Riku's heart gave him Kingdom Key, was able to directly walk from his heart station to those of the Princesses of Heart: Ventus did not have this ability nor any personal connection with Kairi. There are two plausible explanations as to why Sora's heart was ALREADY connected to that of the Princesses, prior to personally meeting them: Ventus might have joined their hearts by his being an 'artificial' Princess of Light courtesy of Xehanort & Vanitas; RIKU was connected to the princesses and, when Riku gave his crown necklace to Sora, Sora inherited that connection.

Ventus: Artificial Princess of Heart?

this theory is technically canon, working with the definition of princesses as "beings whose hearts are made entirely of light". it seems unlikely that this technicality would result in a metaphysical stairway between Sora's heart station and those of the Prinxesses': if it was THAT easy, Xehanort would have noticed the connection while he had Ven all comatose. Ven's heart being sheltered in Sora's MIGHT, however, explain why the heart stations of Snow White & Cinderella & Aurora were so much closer than the other stations (though the Sleeper/Dreaming connection is a stronger factor shared by Sora & these three).

Riku as Kingmaker?

Sora's first keyblade, Kingdom Key, gets him specifically scouted as Special by Donald & Goofy: Kingdom Key has narrative significance to it, tying it to Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Key was also, originally, an existence dormant in RIKU'S heart: when Riku['s heart] was consumed by darkness in KH1, Sora was able to reach the light within Riku and receive its protection.

the ease with which Sora inherited Riku's keyblade betrays A Lot about Riku's Heart but it ALSO hints that this is not the ONLY example of Riku's Heart being considered interchangeable with Sora's. in later games, Riku and Sora are able to wield each other's keyblades without hesitation and are even capable of merging: other than SoRiku & Sora's Heart Roommates, Aqua is the only instance of someone summoning & wielding another's keyblade.

The keyblade of a deceased Eraqus came to Aqua in her time of need: this makes sense, the keyblade of a teacher coming to protect its student. Eraqus taught Aqua how to call and use a keyblade; Eraqus [knighted] Aqua with this keyblade; Eraqus died with this keyblade, died realising that he had failed his students and that original duty of protecting them.

Sora, meanwhile, began wielding a keyblade because Riku's Heart knew Sora could use it when Riku could not.

So what makes Riku so special, to keyblades and Princesses of Heart specifically?

It seems increasingly likely that Riku is the "Child of Destiny" that Xehanort believed himself to be: Riku's resemblance to Ephemer makes it likely that, just like Xehanort, Riku is his descendant; additionally, the light of Riku's heart was strong enough to catch the attention of both Terra AND Aqua in BBS. Both Terra & Aqua had, by then, met three Princesses of Heart AND lived alongside the artificially-light Ventus: nevertheless, Terra and Aqua only note that Riku's light is "strong" but not in the same way as any heart they'd encountered before.

Riku also, just "incidentally", happens to have had a Crown since infancy (if we quote Sora in CoM but correctly attribute to Riku what he says of Naminé's charm)... that Riku GAVE to SORA, who now wears it as a necklace. A crown necklace that Sora subconsciously gestures to when speaking from "the heart". *insert Necklace Theory here*

so, even before receiving Kingdom Key, Sora had been given a kind of "kingdom's key" through Riku, in symbol & oath.

this leads me to conclude that the CROWN must have connected Sora's heart (which, in DDD, appears a hop skip & a jump away from Riku's) to the Seven Princesses of Heart, the Seven Lights.

which, in turn, leads me to believe that Riku's gift & oath to Sora was significant enough to be recognised as a form of "Coronation": Riku CROWNED Sora, even without knowing it, and did so while meaning it with "all his heart". Riku's Heart recognising & accepting Sora as its "[king?]" (partner? equivalent?) seems to have continued from that Fateful Meteor Shower, throughout Riku's Entire Villain Arc & Redemption, continuing past Sora's failing to exist: Riku has pulled at LEAST two True Love's Sacrifices for Sora, not counting repeats across timelines, just within DDD & KH3. Riku's sacrificing himself has never lasted long enough to learn any repurcussions beyond Sora.exe going offline. SORA'S nonexistence has not significantly affected the integrity of his universe at large, beyond Riku.exe presumably shortcircuiting, which leads me to believe that so long as ONE of the two has a heart where it should be, the potentially disaatrous ramifications of "oh, btw, this one kid's heart has direct access to our universe's suns? should we be worried about that" has been prevented.

(Riku launching himself OUT of said universe to follow Sora? UH. let's just hope Kairi's still in touch with the other Original 7 and can lead the New Lights when it potentially/inevitably becomes necessary?)

Speaking of Kairi...

interestingly, Kairi never really indicates feeling "connected" to Riku.

Kairi feels connected to SORA and HIS heart, something many characters share in common (often very literally). Another product of Riku (& thus Destiny) sharing his role with Sora, when not designating him [his] King absolutely?

Speaking of Kings...

Riku ends up manifesting ANOTHER keyblade, just casually, despite Sora's having Kingdom Key being a Big Deal.

we could dismiss Riku's having Soul Eater in KH1 as "that's Xehanort/Terra/Ansem SoD's heart at work"... but we can't dismiss Riku's STILL having a keyblade post-KH2, Sora wielding the original Kingdom Key while Riku so happens to summon a second keyblade from his heart without any fuss at all??

it is... interesting, that Donald & Goofy never ended up explaining [to the audience] why Kingdom Key SPECIFICALLY was something King Mickey was looking for in the first place.

if it was due to Mickey's searching for the Wayfinder Trio, Donald & Goofy would have been searching for multiple "keyblade WIELDERS" instead of one "KEYBLADE": we can only assume that Xehanort's repeated efforts at starting another ragnarok have sufficiently distracted everyone from Kingdom Key's origins.

I personally find it very heartwarming/plot-foreshadow-y that Kingdom Key has STAYED with Sora, even upon reuniting with a Riku whose heart is at peace again: consciously or otherwise, Riku's heart continues to choose "Sora".

(which, given how likely it is that Riku is the foretold Child of Destiny... means that RIKU'S choosing Sora makes DESTINY choose Sora... for better of for worse, right? plz just let them be married already, Disney: Nomura & Utada have Riku's vows all written and everything)