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October 21, 2019 |
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Commentary for October 21, 2019: Well, it looks like empathy paid off. This resolution is completely different to how this story ended in the original version told in Eon’s Comic. In that version, Shadow was completely insane and could not be reasoned with. I didn’t have Sonic kill him, however, because that’s not what Sonic does. Instead, I had Sonic keep him fighting until his unstable super form caused him to vanish out of existence. This was based on weird bit of throwaway dialogue from the final boss battle in Sonic Adventure 2, where Super Sonic warns Super Shadow that if he remains in his super form too long, he will disappear. Back when SA2 was still relatively new, this one line (which you only hear if you allow the final boss to drag on long enough) became a source of a lot of fan theories about Shadow’s fate. But like so much in the Sonic franchise it’s had seemingly no lasting implications towards the continuity, so I don’t think it’s really relevant now. But the original version of this story came less than two years after SA2 debuted, Shadow hadn’t yet appeared in another game, and fan speculation about his fate was rife, so I took the fan theories surrounding that mysterious line of dialogue and ran with them. I wanted the resolution here in Eon’s World, however, to starkly contrast with what I wrote in Eon’s Comic. I wanted to really showcase Sonic’s kindness and compassion. He took a chance by reaching out to Shadow like this and it may not have paid off. But fortunately it did, because a little kindness and understanding was what Shadow needed. Is there a message in there? Well, if anything, I’d like to think this resolution is a positive mental health story, so take that from it, if you like. Of course, Knuckles isn’t pleased, but then, he’s a lot more aggressive and suspicious than Sonic, so of course this isn’t what he would have done. Tails, on the other hand, idolises Sonic, so naturally he approves (even if he was sceptical about Sonic’s chances). But there is a valid question about whether or not Sonic’s done the right thing by just letting Shadow walk away. After all, he did attack the President of Meridia and threatened people, all to draw out Sonic and force a confrontation. That’s the kind of thing you’d typically be sent to prison for, after all. But the way Sonic sees it is this: if nobody was seriously hurt and it doesn’t look as if Shadow will cause any more harm, there’s no point in punishing him. Sonic lives very much in the moment, and he doesn’t tend to hold a grudge. More importantly, he’s not a cop or a judge. In terms of D&D character alignment, I’d put Sonic somewhere in the vicinity of Neutral Good. That is to say he doesn’t have outright contempt for the law, order, or authority, but he’ll defy all three in a heartbeat to do what’s right. |
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Eon's World is a fan comic created by Bethany Turner. All characters are copyright
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