Hmm.
Last night I was craving to see the early season 3 Shadow episodes, which I mostly don't have and any I do have are just recorded on video and hence, only playable in the living room. So I went to YouTube to look and found that they're still up there. I was able to watch all of the early season 3 Shadow episodes, I think.
The episode where he first wakes up is so powerfully done! It was beautiful that his first instinct was to save Chris and everyone else when they were in trouble. And the scene of him standing on the pinnacle with the red and purple Emeralds orbiting around him was so iconic. Everyone's reactions were perfect.
I also loved how the next episode started with a scene of everyone being shaken and trying to figure out what just happened and how that could really be Shadow when he was thought dead. It felt like something out of one of my fics. The rest of that episode was pretty good too, with Shadow fighting the Metarex ship and wearing out without his limiter rings and Sonic briefly discovering that Shadow doesn't remember.
The next time Shadow showed up, there were a few good scenes, but I'm still unhappy with how there was never a scene where Sonic told Chris that Shadow didn't remember anything. That seemed a strange omission, considering how much Shadow was on Chris's mind. Suddenly in episode 63, Chris just knows Shadow doesn't remember and he's giving him the limiter rings. There was an intense scene or two of Shadow starting to have flashes of memory, but then that mostly fell away to focus on the Metarex trap and Shadow trying to get all the Emeralds to Eggman and everyone trying to convince him that it's a bad idea. Then I don't think Shadow appears again until the episode with Molly. And after that, I don't think he appears until he and Rouge try to get Cosmo because she's an unwitting spy for the Metarex.
I feel like Shadow's story wasn't handled very well overall, barely focusing on his problems and on his relationship with Chris. I know it was just one storyline and there were others they were trying to do; there was a lot happening in season 3. But the other storylines seemed to be handled well, for the most part (although I really hate how the Chaotix were used in idiotic plots until my favorite episode, Hedgehog Hunt). For being one of the most popular characters, I really feel Shadow's story should have been handled better. Especially when his arc in season 2 was so good.
It also really bothered me that things degraded when they had such a strong start. And even though it was logical under the circumstances that Shadow would start fighting against Sonic and company for a while when he didn't remember anything, felt Eggman was good, and that he had to get the Emeralds for him so Eggman would tell him about his past, it was still disappointing to see. And I feel like Chris would have been thinking about the problem a lot more than the writers showed us and he would have badly wanted to help Shadow to remember. We saw him try a bit in episode 63.
Overall, their story really got lost in the shuffle. Chris and Shadow needed more interaction and there should have been more about Shadow trying to remember. I think there's a bit in the Molly episode; I'm going to re-watch that one soon.
And ugh, I really want to write that fic I was trying to do adapting Shadow's game, but I looked over the episode guide I wrote again and it still just looks too exhausting and draining to write something that dark. I would like to overhaul the existing chapters and see if I could change some things about what I was planning. I need to change the Chaotix's storyline in any case, because since Mighty has now reappeared in the games at last, I really don't want to do the storyline of him being dead. And I gave Vector and Espio such chronic problems getting along, but rewatching the episodes and some of the game cutscenes makes me feel like Espio respects Vector as the leader even though he gets exasperated and that their arguments are silly spats with no substance. But I'm concerned to overhaul anything because of all the readers I accumulated for that story who probably like it the way it is and wouldn't like me suddenly coming after nine years and changing it. Sigh....
The episode where he first wakes up is so powerfully done! It was beautiful that his first instinct was to save Chris and everyone else when they were in trouble. And the scene of him standing on the pinnacle with the red and purple Emeralds orbiting around him was so iconic. Everyone's reactions were perfect.
I also loved how the next episode started with a scene of everyone being shaken and trying to figure out what just happened and how that could really be Shadow when he was thought dead. It felt like something out of one of my fics. The rest of that episode was pretty good too, with Shadow fighting the Metarex ship and wearing out without his limiter rings and Sonic briefly discovering that Shadow doesn't remember.
The next time Shadow showed up, there were a few good scenes, but I'm still unhappy with how there was never a scene where Sonic told Chris that Shadow didn't remember anything. That seemed a strange omission, considering how much Shadow was on Chris's mind. Suddenly in episode 63, Chris just knows Shadow doesn't remember and he's giving him the limiter rings. There was an intense scene or two of Shadow starting to have flashes of memory, but then that mostly fell away to focus on the Metarex trap and Shadow trying to get all the Emeralds to Eggman and everyone trying to convince him that it's a bad idea. Then I don't think Shadow appears again until the episode with Molly. And after that, I don't think he appears until he and Rouge try to get Cosmo because she's an unwitting spy for the Metarex.
I feel like Shadow's story wasn't handled very well overall, barely focusing on his problems and on his relationship with Chris. I know it was just one storyline and there were others they were trying to do; there was a lot happening in season 3. But the other storylines seemed to be handled well, for the most part (although I really hate how the Chaotix were used in idiotic plots until my favorite episode, Hedgehog Hunt). For being one of the most popular characters, I really feel Shadow's story should have been handled better. Especially when his arc in season 2 was so good.
It also really bothered me that things degraded when they had such a strong start. And even though it was logical under the circumstances that Shadow would start fighting against Sonic and company for a while when he didn't remember anything, felt Eggman was good, and that he had to get the Emeralds for him so Eggman would tell him about his past, it was still disappointing to see. And I feel like Chris would have been thinking about the problem a lot more than the writers showed us and he would have badly wanted to help Shadow to remember. We saw him try a bit in episode 63.
Overall, their story really got lost in the shuffle. Chris and Shadow needed more interaction and there should have been more about Shadow trying to remember. I think there's a bit in the Molly episode; I'm going to re-watch that one soon.
And ugh, I really want to write that fic I was trying to do adapting Shadow's game, but I looked over the episode guide I wrote again and it still just looks too exhausting and draining to write something that dark. I would like to overhaul the existing chapters and see if I could change some things about what I was planning. I need to change the Chaotix's storyline in any case, because since Mighty has now reappeared in the games at last, I really don't want to do the storyline of him being dead. And I gave Vector and Espio such chronic problems getting along, but rewatching the episodes and some of the game cutscenes makes me feel like Espio respects Vector as the leader even though he gets exasperated and that their arguments are silly spats with no substance. But I'm concerned to overhaul anything because of all the readers I accumulated for that story who probably like it the way it is and wouldn't like me suddenly coming after nine years and changing it. Sigh....