Shadow the Hedgehog/Amy Rose -- Sonic the Hedgehog
Title: Chasing Amy
Author: chaoscheebs
E-Mail: chaoscheebs@sbcglobal.net
Website: Chapapanga.org/Sonic Wind
Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog
Pairing: Shadow/Amy
Spoilers: Game series through Sonic Battle, although most heavily Sonic Adventure 2. Some scattered Sonic X spoilers.
Notes: Thanks to smallwickedlady for looking it over for me and putting up with my rambling, and Sonic Team for making the scene I had to quote easy to play over and over so I could get the words right. Images from The Sonic Stadium.
Chasing Amy
The Shadow/Amy (Shadamy) Ship Manifesto
*
She’s cute. He’s angsty. She’s cheerful and outspoken. He’s quiet and reflective. She chases a dream that’ll never happen. He chases a dream that died fifty years ago. Both are contenders for most stubborn person on the face of the planet. And together, they fight crime! are strangely one of the most adorable pairings in the fandom.
Amy Rose
Age: 12
Weapon of choice: Piko Piko Hammer
“In the best and worst times, you can be my sweetest honey for eternity!” -My Sweet Passion, theme of Amy
Amy Rose is many things. Pink. Cute. Terrifying when she wields her mighty Piko Piko Hammer. She is single-minded in her pursuit of the hedgehog of her dreams (which, unfortunately, for the Shadamy shipper, has been Sonic). You cannot talk about Amy without eventually getting into Sonic, so I will touch upon him later.
Amy Rose is nothing if not stubborn. She’s been chasing Sonic since she was 8 (Sonic CD, her first appearance), and has yet to let go. She has been becoming slowly less reliant on her hedgehog hero in recent years: in Sonic Adventure, for example, although she does get captured protecting a little bird (creatively called “Birdie”), she starts her great escape without him and eventually not only beats the ever-loving snot out of the robot who was sent after the bird while in search of the rest of the bird’s family, but proclaims, “I’ll earn Sonic’s respect, and by then it’ll be too late!”
In Sonic Adventure 2, one could argue she takes a step backwards character-wise, behaving a bit more like that same 8-year-old who chased Sonic in Sonic CD, but from here on, she also shows surprising cleverness. (1) Unlike the rest of the world (excluding Dr. Eggman and Tails), she figured out Shadow wasn’t Sonic in five seconds, and (2) she somehow got the keycard that set Sonic free. And in Sonic Heroes? She doesn’t need a hero to save her. She and her team not only beat every boss, but found the quickest, easiest route there (Team Rose is "easy mode").
I could ramble on about Amy for ages, but there’s still more to the equation. It is now time to enter…
Shadow the Hedgehog
Age: Ageless (looks 16-17)
Originally from: Space Colony ARK
“A shadow of myself, just who am I?” -This Machine, Team Dark’s theme
Shadow, simply put, is short, quilled angst with an adorable little tuft of white fur on its chest. This poor guy has been, pardon my language, thoroughly mind-fucked since a week after he was “born”. This guy has backstory out the ears, so you might want to use the bathroom and get a snack before you start this section.
He was a result of Project Shadow, a government project focused on achieving immortality, aboard Space Colony ARK. The head of the project aboard ARK, Dr. Gerald Robotnik, had a very powerful motive for wanting to succeed: his ill granddaughter, Maria Robotnik.
After a less-than-satisfactory prototype was created, Shadow was finally “born” and became fast friends with Maria. Alas, the hailstorm of crap that happens to Shadow begins but a week after his “birthday”.
GUN, a military faction, is ordered shut down. By “shut down”, I mean “shoot the inhabitants first, ask questions later.” Scientists were killed. Dr. Gerald Robotnik is captured. Maria tries to save her friend Shadow, but is gunned down front of him. She makes him promise something, and with her last bit of strength, jettisons his escape pod.
Gerald finds out she died up there, and, much like a ninja, he decided to flip out and kill people. And guess who’s our cute, furry pawn in his plans to destroy the world? Oh yes. Poor Shadow essentially has his mind utterly scrambled and memories altered. The cruelest part of this is that all his memories of Maria may not be true, as no one has any idea to what extent his memories were tampered with. Not even the canons agree on this (Sonic Battle implies they’re real, the Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation in Sonic X implies they’re not).
After all this, he’s put in suspended animation for fifty years, until Gerald’s grandson, Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik awakens him in his latest scheme for global conquest. Shadow, brain having been scrambled by Gerald, uses this opportunity to enact the plan to destroy the world in Maria’s name. He only remembers promising her something, so, understandably kind of peeved, he takes it as a promise for revenge.
As I will cover what makes him change his mind later, I’ll spare you the details for now. Suffice it to say, reality smacks him in the face and makes him remembers the real promise at the last minute. He apparently goes out in a blaze of glory saving the world with Sonic. Until he wakes up in a pod thanks to Rouge’s intervention in one of Robotnik’s bases with no memory and has another identity crisis (Sonic Heroes). It really, really sucks to be Shadow. Really.
Supporting Characters
Sonic the Hedgehog
Age: 15
Birthplace: Christmas Island
World hero and Amy Rose’s crush. In his own words, he’s “just a guy who likes adventure”. He doesn’t return her feelings, even going so far to run as fast as his skinny blue legs’ll carry him when she starts making her move on him. In fact, throughout Sonic Adventure 2, he flat out ignores her most of the time. Of course, this is not to say he doesn’t care anything for the girl or wants to see her hurt. Three times in the series (Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure, and a scene late in Sonic Adventure 2), he is right there on the trail of the man who captured her. As far as that goes, however, he’d save anyone in danger (see: Every Sonic game in existence that has animals trapped in machines), regardless of who it is. Woe for Amy. Yay for Shadow.
Maria Robotnik
Age: 12 (at time of death)
Relatives: Dr. Gerald Robotnik (grandfather), Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik (cousin)
She was nice. She died. That caused everything to hit the fan with a spectacular mess. And she alone is the biggest force that drives Shadow. That’s probably because her personality was a basis for Shadow’s (Sonic Battle). Shadow/Amy: It’s like femslash, in a way.
The Supporting Evidence
This isn’t the easiest pairing to support, woe. They barely interact outside Sonic Adventure 2, and even then… But there is one shining moment, the one moment that makes me want to strangle Christopher Thorndyke of Sonic X for stealing it away in their Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation, despite being one of the few fans that bears him no real animosity.
But first, let me say right off that Shadow and Amy’s first interaction was Amy running up from behind Shadow and hugging him. Yes, I know, she says she thought he was Sonic, and for a second, sure, you’re allowed to mistake Shadow for Sonic or vice versa. The light was in her eyes. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
… OK, that “Shadow and Sonic look alike” thing was the stupidest part of the whole game. Blame Sonic Team. But unlike the rest of the world, she noticed that in, oh, five seconds. But once she hugged him, he made no move to shake her off, and He looks back at her twice after she noticed Eggman (THE Sonicverse villain) not three feet from her and ran away. Small, but just enough to make my inner tinhatted fangirl go “squee!” just a little bit.
Then, there’s the big one. THE scene. The scene that literally made me go “Must not think Shadow/Amy, must not think Shadow/Amy-Aw, OTP, darn it.”
Picture this, if you will. All of Gerald’s (and ergo, Shadow’s) plans have finally come to fruition. Shortly, the world will be destroyed and no one can do a thing to stop it. Shadow stares out the same window of the ARK he once looked out of with Maria, grimly satisfied.
Then, along comes Amy, saddened that once again she was left out of everyone’s plans and hasn’t been able to help. She sees Shadow, and pleads with him to help:
Amy: Shadow, we need you! Please help us!
Shadow: It’s all going according to plan. There is no reason for me to help them. Besides, there’s no way to save anyone.
Amy: There has to be! I know that people fight over the most trivial things. Some people may be selfish, like the professor said, but they’re basically good. If they try their best and don’t give up on their wishes, they always have a reason to be happy! That’s why you should help them out. Saving them is a good thing! Shadow, I beg you, please do it for them! Give them a chance!
Shadow then suddenly slips into a memory. Maria is there; she has been shot and is leaning heavily on a set of controls.
Maria: (flashback) Shadow, I beg of you! Please, do it for me… for a better future! For all people on that planet… give them a chance to be happy… Let them live for their dreams. Shadow, I know you do it. That’s the reason why you were brought into this world. Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog…
The memory fades. He remembers now. This little girl brought back a precious memory.
Shadow: That’s what I promised her, and I must keep that promise. That’s what Maria wished for. *silent tear*
Amy: Shadow?
Shadow: I have to go now. I must keep my promise to Maria… and you! *runs off*
And in her name and Maria’s, he fights alongside Sonic and together, they save the world from destruction, at the apparent cost of Shadow’s life.
The crazy bastard apparently died partly for Amy’s sake. He never ran from her like her hero, Sonic. This man, who stubbornly pursued his goal of vengeance, met his match in stubbornness. She had faith in his goodness, and didn’t back down when he coolly said there was nothing to be done to save the world, why should he bother? And in her words, he found his true promise and redeemed himself.
It is the corniest thing since the invention of corn, but darn it, I like corn. Why else would I be in the Sonic fandom?
Commentary
All right, so there’s really nothing outside one scene where they really interact. But that scene and that scene alone hit me and hit me hard. And there’s nothing saying they couldn’t ever be a couple. I think at the very least they could be great friends if they got together; Amy’s cheerful, loving nature is something Shadow desperately needs, and Shadow’s soft-spoken but frank nature could provide a much-needed reality check for the head-in-the-clouds girl. That is the heart of Shadow/Amy: playing off of complimentary opposites.
And it’s versatile for that reason. You can have bouncy little Amy trying to get Shadow to be more social for comedy, or Shadow bring the massive amounts of ANGST (e.g. “I love her, but everyone I love dies, so I must stay away. WOE.”). Or, in the hands of a good writer, that can be reversed. After all, Amy’s been rejected by the man she loves for years, and Shadow is an untapped source of snarky humor.
Plus, it could be doubly funnier if Amy’s still chasing after Sonic as well. But then, I usually think of things in terms of, "How funny can this be made?"
Fandom
The fandom skews young for obvious reasons, so while it’s fairly easy to find fanfiction, it’s terribly hard to find good writing. Plus the art is even harder to find (although the quality seems to go up somewhat there). It makes me a little sad. That there are eight different canon flavors also slows down the search.
But, there are a few nice examples, if you’re willing to sit and sift through the crud. And I’ve found some.
Fanlisting
Forbidden
Fan Art
Sonic Couples Supporters club covers all pairings, including Shadow/Amy.
The Shadamy club on Deviantart
Tigerfog draws mainly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan art, but has drawn some darned cute Shadow/Amy art.
Sonic Wind, my own site, has fan art too.
Fanfiction
Fanfiction.net C2 community, for the brave.
And a second one for the really brave.
Reincarnate by Lady of Crows - PG-13 - Goofy starting premise, but fairly solid.
If Time by Jennifer Darknight - G - Short and sappy, if you're into sap.
Be My Eyes by Panku Tasuku - PG-13 - Shadow actually feels like Shadow, and that makes me happy.
By Aurora der Valini (Warning: her fics skew dark, especially after "Love and Vengeance..."):
Love and Vengeance on the Floating Island - PG-13
Eggman’s Quest -- R
Author: chaoscheebs
E-Mail: chaoscheebs@sbcglobal.net
Website: Chapapanga.org/Sonic Wind
Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog
Pairing: Shadow/Amy
Spoilers: Game series through Sonic Battle, although most heavily Sonic Adventure 2. Some scattered Sonic X spoilers.
Notes: Thanks to smallwickedlady for looking it over for me and putting up with my rambling, and Sonic Team for making the scene I had to quote easy to play over and over so I could get the words right. Images from The Sonic Stadium.
Chasing Amy
The Shadow/Amy (Shadamy) Ship Manifesto
*
She’s cute. He’s angsty. She’s cheerful and outspoken. He’s quiet and reflective. She chases a dream that’ll never happen. He chases a dream that died fifty years ago. Both are contenders for most stubborn person on the face of the planet. And together, they fight crime! are strangely one of the most adorable pairings in the fandom.
Amy Rose
Age: 12
Weapon of choice: Piko Piko Hammer
“In the best and worst times, you can be my sweetest honey for eternity!” -My Sweet Passion, theme of Amy
Amy Rose is many things. Pink. Cute. Terrifying when she wields her mighty Piko Piko Hammer. She is single-minded in her pursuit of the hedgehog of her dreams (which, unfortunately, for the Shadamy shipper, has been Sonic). You cannot talk about Amy without eventually getting into Sonic, so I will touch upon him later.
Amy Rose is nothing if not stubborn. She’s been chasing Sonic since she was 8 (Sonic CD, her first appearance), and has yet to let go. She has been becoming slowly less reliant on her hedgehog hero in recent years: in Sonic Adventure, for example, although she does get captured protecting a little bird (creatively called “Birdie”), she starts her great escape without him and eventually not only beats the ever-loving snot out of the robot who was sent after the bird while in search of the rest of the bird’s family, but proclaims, “I’ll earn Sonic’s respect, and by then it’ll be too late!”
In Sonic Adventure 2, one could argue she takes a step backwards character-wise, behaving a bit more like that same 8-year-old who chased Sonic in Sonic CD, but from here on, she also shows surprising cleverness. (1) Unlike the rest of the world (excluding Dr. Eggman and Tails), she figured out Shadow wasn’t Sonic in five seconds, and (2) she somehow got the keycard that set Sonic free. And in Sonic Heroes? She doesn’t need a hero to save her. She and her team not only beat every boss, but found the quickest, easiest route there (Team Rose is "easy mode").
I could ramble on about Amy for ages, but there’s still more to the equation. It is now time to enter…
Shadow the Hedgehog
Age: Ageless (looks 16-17)
Originally from: Space Colony ARK
“A shadow of myself, just who am I?” -This Machine, Team Dark’s theme
Shadow, simply put, is short, quilled angst with an adorable little tuft of white fur on its chest. This poor guy has been, pardon my language, thoroughly mind-fucked since a week after he was “born”. This guy has backstory out the ears, so you might want to use the bathroom and get a snack before you start this section.
He was a result of Project Shadow, a government project focused on achieving immortality, aboard Space Colony ARK. The head of the project aboard ARK, Dr. Gerald Robotnik, had a very powerful motive for wanting to succeed: his ill granddaughter, Maria Robotnik.
After a less-than-satisfactory prototype was created, Shadow was finally “born” and became fast friends with Maria. Alas, the hailstorm of crap that happens to Shadow begins but a week after his “birthday”.
GUN, a military faction, is ordered shut down. By “shut down”, I mean “shoot the inhabitants first, ask questions later.” Scientists were killed. Dr. Gerald Robotnik is captured. Maria tries to save her friend Shadow, but is gunned down front of him. She makes him promise something, and with her last bit of strength, jettisons his escape pod.
Gerald finds out she died up there, and, much like a ninja, he decided to flip out and kill people. And guess who’s our cute, furry pawn in his plans to destroy the world? Oh yes. Poor Shadow essentially has his mind utterly scrambled and memories altered. The cruelest part of this is that all his memories of Maria may not be true, as no one has any idea to what extent his memories were tampered with. Not even the canons agree on this (Sonic Battle implies they’re real, the Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation in Sonic X implies they’re not).
After all this, he’s put in suspended animation for fifty years, until Gerald’s grandson, Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik awakens him in his latest scheme for global conquest. Shadow, brain having been scrambled by Gerald, uses this opportunity to enact the plan to destroy the world in Maria’s name. He only remembers promising her something, so, understandably kind of peeved, he takes it as a promise for revenge.
As I will cover what makes him change his mind later, I’ll spare you the details for now. Suffice it to say, reality smacks him in the face and makes him remembers the real promise at the last minute. He apparently goes out in a blaze of glory saving the world with Sonic. Until he wakes up in a pod thanks to Rouge’s intervention in one of Robotnik’s bases with no memory and has another identity crisis (Sonic Heroes). It really, really sucks to be Shadow. Really.
Supporting Characters
Sonic the Hedgehog
Age: 15
Birthplace: Christmas Island
World hero and Amy Rose’s crush. In his own words, he’s “just a guy who likes adventure”. He doesn’t return her feelings, even going so far to run as fast as his skinny blue legs’ll carry him when she starts making her move on him. In fact, throughout Sonic Adventure 2, he flat out ignores her most of the time. Of course, this is not to say he doesn’t care anything for the girl or wants to see her hurt. Three times in the series (Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure, and a scene late in Sonic Adventure 2), he is right there on the trail of the man who captured her. As far as that goes, however, he’d save anyone in danger (see: Every Sonic game in existence that has animals trapped in machines), regardless of who it is. Woe for Amy. Yay for Shadow.
Maria Robotnik
Age: 12 (at time of death)
Relatives: Dr. Gerald Robotnik (grandfather), Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik (cousin)
She was nice. She died. That caused everything to hit the fan with a spectacular mess. And she alone is the biggest force that drives Shadow. That’s probably because her personality was a basis for Shadow’s (Sonic Battle). Shadow/Amy: It’s like femslash, in a way.
The Supporting Evidence
This isn’t the easiest pairing to support, woe. They barely interact outside Sonic Adventure 2, and even then… But there is one shining moment, the one moment that makes me want to strangle Christopher Thorndyke of Sonic X for stealing it away in their Sonic Adventure 2 adaptation, despite being one of the few fans that bears him no real animosity.
But first, let me say right off that Shadow and Amy’s first interaction was Amy running up from behind Shadow and hugging him. Yes, I know, she says she thought he was Sonic, and for a second, sure, you’re allowed to mistake Shadow for Sonic or vice versa. The light was in her eyes. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
… OK, that “Shadow and Sonic look alike” thing was the stupidest part of the whole game. Blame Sonic Team. But unlike the rest of the world, she noticed that in, oh, five seconds. But once she hugged him, he made no move to shake her off, and He looks back at her twice after she noticed Eggman (THE Sonicverse villain) not three feet from her and ran away. Small, but just enough to make my inner tinhatted fangirl go “squee!” just a little bit.
Then, there’s the big one. THE scene. The scene that literally made me go “Must not think Shadow/Amy, must not think Shadow/Amy-Aw, OTP, darn it.”
Picture this, if you will. All of Gerald’s (and ergo, Shadow’s) plans have finally come to fruition. Shortly, the world will be destroyed and no one can do a thing to stop it. Shadow stares out the same window of the ARK he once looked out of with Maria, grimly satisfied.
Then, along comes Amy, saddened that once again she was left out of everyone’s plans and hasn’t been able to help. She sees Shadow, and pleads with him to help:
Amy: Shadow, we need you! Please help us!
Shadow: It’s all going according to plan. There is no reason for me to help them. Besides, there’s no way to save anyone.
Amy: There has to be! I know that people fight over the most trivial things. Some people may be selfish, like the professor said, but they’re basically good. If they try their best and don’t give up on their wishes, they always have a reason to be happy! That’s why you should help them out. Saving them is a good thing! Shadow, I beg you, please do it for them! Give them a chance!
Shadow then suddenly slips into a memory. Maria is there; she has been shot and is leaning heavily on a set of controls.
Maria: (flashback) Shadow, I beg of you! Please, do it for me… for a better future! For all people on that planet… give them a chance to be happy… Let them live for their dreams. Shadow, I know you do it. That’s the reason why you were brought into this world. Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog…
The memory fades. He remembers now. This little girl brought back a precious memory.
Shadow: That’s what I promised her, and I must keep that promise. That’s what Maria wished for. *silent tear*
Amy: Shadow?
Shadow: I have to go now. I must keep my promise to Maria… and you! *runs off*
And in her name and Maria’s, he fights alongside Sonic and together, they save the world from destruction, at the apparent cost of Shadow’s life.
The crazy bastard apparently died partly for Amy’s sake. He never ran from her like her hero, Sonic. This man, who stubbornly pursued his goal of vengeance, met his match in stubbornness. She had faith in his goodness, and didn’t back down when he coolly said there was nothing to be done to save the world, why should he bother? And in her words, he found his true promise and redeemed himself.
It is the corniest thing since the invention of corn, but darn it, I like corn. Why else would I be in the Sonic fandom?
Commentary
All right, so there’s really nothing outside one scene where they really interact. But that scene and that scene alone hit me and hit me hard. And there’s nothing saying they couldn’t ever be a couple. I think at the very least they could be great friends if they got together; Amy’s cheerful, loving nature is something Shadow desperately needs, and Shadow’s soft-spoken but frank nature could provide a much-needed reality check for the head-in-the-clouds girl. That is the heart of Shadow/Amy: playing off of complimentary opposites.
And it’s versatile for that reason. You can have bouncy little Amy trying to get Shadow to be more social for comedy, or Shadow bring the massive amounts of ANGST (e.g. “I love her, but everyone I love dies, so I must stay away. WOE.”). Or, in the hands of a good writer, that can be reversed. After all, Amy’s been rejected by the man she loves for years, and Shadow is an untapped source of snarky humor.
Plus, it could be doubly funnier if Amy’s still chasing after Sonic as well. But then, I usually think of things in terms of, "How funny can this be made?"
Fandom
The fandom skews young for obvious reasons, so while it’s fairly easy to find fanfiction, it’s terribly hard to find good writing. Plus the art is even harder to find (although the quality seems to go up somewhat there). It makes me a little sad. That there are eight different canon flavors also slows down the search.
But, there are a few nice examples, if you’re willing to sit and sift through the crud. And I’ve found some.
Fanlisting
Forbidden
Fan Art
Sonic Couples Supporters club covers all pairings, including Shadow/Amy.
The Shadamy club on Deviantart
Tigerfog draws mainly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan art, but has drawn some darned cute Shadow/Amy art.
Sonic Wind, my own site, has fan art too.
Fanfiction
Fanfiction.net C2 community, for the brave.
And a second one for the really brave.
Reincarnate by Lady of Crows - PG-13 - Goofy starting premise, but fairly solid.
If Time by Jennifer Darknight - G - Short and sappy, if you're into sap.
Be My Eyes by Panku Tasuku - PG-13 - Shadow actually feels like Shadow, and that makes me happy.
By Aurora der Valini (Warning: her fics skew dark, especially after "Love and Vengeance..."):
Love and Vengeance on the Floating Island - PG-13
Eggman’s Quest -- R