I Think The Most Accurate Insight We Can Get To What Shadow Was Like Back When He Lived On The Ark Can

I think the most accurate insight we can get to what Shadow was like back when he lived on the Ark can be seen in Sonic Heroes. In that game, he is quite literally a blank slate, knows nothing, remembers nothing, has no memories or biases yet. His personality in this game is very “fuck it, we ball” only showing any sort of autonomy when he’s protecting Rouge from the angry robot in the room. He kind of just lightly imitates the personalities of everyone around him like Rouge’s observing demeanor, Omega’s “ride-or-die let’s go break shit”, Sonic’s cockiness, etc. He’s not ever really angry in that game although he does get anxious and sad sometimes, especially when trying to learn more about himself. Shadow at his base is quiet, observant, and masks the traits of his friends. The angry “ultimate life form” vengeful characterization of him was a learned trait.

His ability to interpret the personalities and demeanors of others is heavily included in Shadow the Hedgehog (game) where his hatred toward others is learned by Black Doom, and his competitive edge is learned by Sonic.

TLDR Shadow was originally designed to not have much of a personality other than to care about others and want to be like them. All of his traits are learned either from others, or from his experiences. I just think that’s neat even if it is a very surface-level analysis