Видео

I know this is a year old, but in the dub, shadow says he’ll side with Black Doom, but in Japan, he just says he’s going to find the emeralds because he doesn’t remember who he is and he wants to use them to create a miracle. He never says anything about aiding Black Doom in the opening.

Fun fact Cryptic Castle hero is confirmed to be canon in expert mode

5:32 I find what you said funnier than I should “THE CHAOS EMERALD OF COMFUSION”

Just because someone knows the truth of your past doesnt mean you will work with them to kill others. It just means you know they have information about your past.

I think Shadow does the normal route first. Why would he attack innocent soldiers without evidence just because someone said "Dude trust me bro"? He would get the emerald like Doom wants in order to find his past but he wouldnt hurt soldiers...at least ones that arnt attacking him first

Great news! Inside Out 2 has beaten both Frozen & Frozen 2 at the box-office! And the reason why is because Inside Out 2's a well-made, well-written, and well-executed movie unlike the two Frozen films! Unfortunately, that won't ever prevent Frozen 3 & 4 from becoming a reality 'cause there's billions still to be had since Disney's always so desperate to keep the Frozen franchise relevant and popular for as long as possible, trying to make the IP last forever. 🙄

I completely agree with your route being the cannon route.

Just imagine if this video came out today. The End from Sonic Fronteirs would definitely be here.

So no offense homie, but you might need to work on your sound mixing. The music is wayyyy louder than your voice in this video.

nice video just working on something's for my channel thats why had not uploaded in a few

👍👍

clearly black doom IS jesus and now theres gonna be 203948 video essays on that topic...hooray!

6:55 gotta stop you there, he says that what he said about CREATING shadow is a lie. This is more likely a reference to the Iron Jungle Egg Breaker cutscene.

This game was good I miss choice based games

I think truth is hidden inside the mix paths of the game and since all the possible scenarios are false or half thruths. Try to puzzle a story based on true ending and try to eliminate lies that contradicts the truth. Thus maybe truth can be found? Anyway take this as a possibility instead of truth. After all even Shadow can't make sence of himself thus this conspiracy is perfect way to contradictory way to tell story of your edgiest hedgehog.

My theorized canon route is actually very similar to yours. My criteria: 1. Multiple Acts. This is the only way Cryptic Castle (Hero) being canon (expert mode) makes sense. 2. Path with the most clues is canon. 3. The path that sets up Last Way best is canon. 4. Black Arms win Digital Circuit and Glyphic Canyon regardless of route (Sky Troops hints at this). GUN wins Westopolis regardless of route. The Route: a. Westopolis (Hero). Motivated purely by self defense. Lethal Highway (dark) is basically act 2. b. Prison Island (Hero). Shadow believes the disks could contain potential leads. The Doom is Act 2. c. Cryptic Castle via unknown entry point (Hero). Mad Matrix (Hero, potential leads) is act 2. Meanwhile GUN wins Central City with MASSIVE damage. Eggman wins Sky Troops then catches Shadow and Espio’s hack. d. Iron Jungle tells the lie. Lost Impact is Act 2. Space Gadget is Act 3. e. Final Haunt (hero). Conclusion: Hero-> Dark -> Hero -> Hero -> Hero -> Hero.

There is no canon route thats the wholle point shadow is ALL OF HIM meaning every path has a fragment of canon but no conclusion( except the last story) is canon the 10 regular endings show what shadow is not.

It still doesnt make sense how the hero ending is the canon route since why would shadow beat doom and say he will destroy the black arms, then suddenly shadow is alone on the comet and doom appears being all buddy buddy asking for the emeralds, and shadow is conflicted on handing them over. I feel like the ending where he fights eggman on the comet is the canon ending path since he beats eggman, has the emeralds and tells him basically to piss off and walks away with the emeralds sparing his life, then can continue off with shadow having the emeralds then doom confronts him for them and everyone arrives to sway him not too.

I can't believe this is sonic muisic

Your reasoning showed good effort. The problem with Shadow deciding to destroy GUN units in Westopolis is _Sonic Heroes_ , and the fact that he meets Sonic early in Westopolis. Despite being a blank slate at the start of _Heroes_ , that game ends with Shadow donating an emerald to Sonic's cause to finish Metal. At least on some level he would be on good terms with Sonic, making Shadow more likely to either not appose his efforts directly [normal] or even assist Sonic with killing aliens [hero]. My 'hand wave' I'm inclined to invoke for most of the events that other cutscenes reference which would not occur in a given route is that most of these events, including Westopolis getting sacked or the UF's Tron spaces being hacked, could arguably have occurred without Shadow's intervention. Also remember that the every 'ending' is wrapped up with a cutscene, some of which involving events that would simply be impossible given Last Story, and therefore cast doubt on the canonicity of all the cutscenes that aren't confirmed by the true ending. I also have a problem with Lost Impact in general, not because of the artificial Chaos hunting, but due to its intro cutscene. Breaking that emerald out of what is clearly a power conduit keeping that shuttle running seemed a bit retarded for Shadow's character. It could have been sold to me if he had just waited for the ship to land safely beforehand, but they were in mid flight so, no. He may not have been a huge fan of Sonic, but he didn't hate him enough to keep him from his destination. It doesn't seem like 'a little friendly competition!' With all that noted, I revisited the game again and came away with new thoughts on certain events that I think require Shadow's involvement in some way to fit the final narrative. In playthrough order: 1. Cryptic Castle [hero]: possibly saving Cream assuming expert mode's dialogue is canon. if NOT, then... 2. The Doom [hero]. Can't be gotten to from Cryptic Castle [hero], but appears to fill in the most important details about his time on the Ark better than any other stage. Lost Impact is a contender, but its intro cutscene is problematic as noted above; even if it is one of the funniest. 3. Mad Matrix [dark]. If BOTH Cryptic Castle and The Doom were out, then this would certainly deserve a spotlight. At its beginning, Shadow 'hacks' a terminal connected to Eggman's Tronville with a karate chop. I would guess this is where Charmy learns of the value of blunt force for making electronics work properly, which he in turn carries out on Gerald's message terminal in the Ark's computer room during Last Story... It's unfortunate that this can't happen in the same route as the first two points, but this also illustrates again that multiple events considered 'important' by the canonical narrative cannot coexist in one playthrough. 4. Iron Jungle [hero] for the 'Shadow android' idea inception. Mad Matrix's Egg Breaker doesn't quite hit that cord as Eggman only doubles down on the 'You have no past' line, similar to _Heroes_ . One could assume that the Mad Matrix interaction with Eggman combined with hints in _Heroes_ about being some kind of replicant were enough to give Shadow the idea. However, Iron Jungle's explicit allusion to Shadow being one of Eggman's androids is important for Eggman's dialogue during Devil Doom, regarding past remarks about having created Shadow himself, making the most sense. 5. Lost Impact [normal] or Space Gadget [normal]: in that order of preference. They are not compatible with The Doom, Iron Jungle, or even each other due to being Stage 5s. Nevertheless, they give varying degrees of detail about Shadow's past with the Ark, Maria and Gerald. Again, only less-optimal substitutes for The Doom. 6. Cosmic Fall [dark]: finally, just because this Egg Dealer is the only ending confrontation that doesn't end with someone losing an eye [so to speak], as many people here have recalled. Since some of these events cannot coexist in a single playthrough, it's then up to the player to identify the most important ones to the series canon when considering an almost-canon route.

There's one thing I would change. Instead of fighting Black Doom at the end, it makes more sense for Shadow to fight Sonic. Remember in the start of Last Story, all the characters run up and tell Shadow not to give the emeralds to Doom. This would not make sense if the last boss on the canon route was Doom as they would have just fought mere seconds beforehand. Alternatively Shadow could also just fight Eggman as there is an ending where he tells Eggman to stay away from the ark

Their total disregard for physics is quite ball-tacular, I must say.

Smallfoot > Frozen

For whatever reason, this video did not show up one my subscription feed and only on my notifications. Strange. I have really fond memories of the Spiderman 2 game. It is interesting how they use the movies as more of a jumping off point and it does allow Toby to say some more comedic lines. While listening to the clips, I did think that he sounded a bit understated, but your comment on the balancing act with comedy and tragedy put it in a different light. I'm not sure which version of Spiderman I like the best. I have a strong fondness for the Raimi movies as well as the 90s cartoon and Spectacular Spiderman, but it has been a long time since I watched them.

Over 12 years later in the year 2024 and we're still getting more GamingTopTen videos. Always glad to see more content.

Personally i think that Almost every Ending that leads to Hero Final Haunt is cannon in my book.

Zootopia is better

Here is where the edgelord seed was planted. From the cutscenes Shadow wasn't all bad yet (he is so sad, poor thing) but is from here that he slipped into total darkness in a matter of 5 years.

I just realized that the CIA is exists in the Sonic Universe.

I'd argue that all paths are canon, Shadow canonically does an impossible route, or at least events happened without his involvement, there's information from all over the place stated to have happened in the game itself from the cutscenes, and even expert mode's dialogue (Cream confirming Shadow saved her, and the GUN Commander apologizing to Shadow for how he acted), its a very safe bet it all happened, just not how the game presented. This would point more towards our run of the main game being Shadow just hyper focusing on a path instead of what he did in canon.

This is a great video! Definitely not a route I would've considered! The one I mainly considered was true neutral until sky troops due to eggman intriguing him, in which shadow would go hero for the rest of it.

I've made my own post about this over on a lore blog I have on Tumblr, and tl;dr my conclusion is: not a single individual route CAN be canon, as impossible events must be taking place. Shadow's memory collage in the Last Story, only in Japanese, contains a direct quote from Black Doom from the level "The Doom", Shadow's own quote of shock at his death in "Space Gadget", and a line spoken by the GUN Commander (someone he literally only meets in "Cosmic Fall"). Hell, the last one even has the GUN Commander apologising to Shadow for his behaviour in the Expert Mode epilogue. In addition, there's also mentions of Cream thanking Shadow for rescuing her back at "Cryptic Castle", Shadow expressing familiarity at "Glyphic Canyon" in "Sky Troops", Charmy imitates Shadow's top tier hacking skills he displayed back in "Mad Matrix" (honestly surprised that this never became a meme), Black Doom hints at the Ritual of Prosperity in "Death Jungle" and "The ARK", the only point where Eggman directly states that Shadow is an android being "Iron Jungle", and Shadow has to end up on the Black Comet in either "Black Comet" or "Final Haunt". There are multiple direct stage overlaps that make it impossible to round it down to a singular canonical route. My post in question (complete with sources): www.tumblr.com/centralcitylibrary/732129743460352000/what-is-the-canon-route-in-shadow-the-hedgehog?source=share

My route personally makes sense until the End. Westopolis Dark Digital Circuit Hero Prison Island Hero Mad Matrix Hero Lost Impact Normal Cosmic Fall Hero Remember that Vector needs to find the computer room in order to help in the last story. The only issue with this is that the chaotix is on the ark even though it collapsed. It is possible though that black doom left and went to the black comet, left vector to charmy and espio, last story ensues

Together with Maria

Gang shit

Thank you for highlighting the times where the game _does_ try to make sense no matter which route you take. I don't recall anyone mentioning it and thus I didn't know about them either. 8:16 How do you know he wasn't the devil that tempted Him in the desert? :)

Holy shit, I found this channel again! I logged into my old RUclips channel and found I was still subscribed to you, so I searched your @ on this channel and found you! I used to love this channel and this is a giant nostalgia trip!

Your evidence of Shadow following Black Doom at first is built on the Dub's shaky localization. In the Japanese version (thanks Pariah for pointing this out), Shadow actually says he needs to collect the Emeralds because they can grant wishes/enable miracles to happen. He never says the "I have to believe him" line in Japanese. This means it's way more likely for him to do the neutral mission in Westopolis, which is why I believe that he'd then do the Dark Mission in Glyphic Canyon as he'd have evidence of Black Doom knowing his past and the extent of his powers. It also makes sense that Glyphic Canyon Dark is the canon path because otherwise Sky Troops cannot happen. Plus since there's nothing that would say Black Doom couldn't attack the C.I.A mainframe after teleporting Shadow. Also, Expert Mode canonizes the confrontation between Shadow and Towers (the G.U.N Commander) at the start of Cosmic Fall. Here's all the events I believe are canon to the story (whether Shadow participates or not). I repeat, these are the EVENTS I believe to be canon, not Shadow's canon route. 1. The first cutscene and the Neutral Mission of Westopolis. Shadow starts his journey to find the Chaos Emeralds and learn about his past, ignoring the words of Sonic and Black Doom, leading to him getting sent to Glyphic Canyon. 2. The G.U.N Commander cutscene, Digital Circuit Hero and Glyphic Canyon Dark. Black Doom warps Shadow to Glyphic Canyon and demands he reawakens the temple. Shadow complies since he thinks Black Doom is credible now. While Shadow cooperates at Glyphic Canyon, Black Doom personally leads the Black Arms to attack the United Federation mainframe, where Rouge has to extract the Chaos Emerald from the database to prevent it from getting captured. 3. The President Cutscene, Cryptic Castle Hero, Prison Island Hero. Shadow, even on his "noone tells me what to do" schtick, would still help Amy find Cream and Cheese (which, quick tangent, how the hell are they so far apart?). Charmy finds the Secret Disks. 4. Sky Troops Hero, The Doom Hero/Neutral, Central City Dark. After getting out of Cryptic Castle Black Doom gets Shadow to remember the ARK Massacre, where Shadow definitely helps Maria. Eggman decides to go on the offensive against the Black Arms since Cryptic Castle's lanterns weren't lit, and though he also loses a significant amount of ships in his fleet he still succeeds in bringing down the floating Temple. This isn't actually all bad for the Black Arms though, as they also attacked Central City and blew it up, with the president narrowly escaping. 5. Mad Matrix Hero, Air Fleet Dark, Iron Jungle Hero. Shadow walks in on the Chaotix trying to break into the computers at the now abandoned Cryptic Castle and helps them activate the terminals. This computer being in Cryptic Castle makes sense because there's Black Arms in Eggman's system and the terminal they're hacking looks like the exact one Shadow first appears in Cryptic Castle from. I'm iffy on if Shadow actually helps the Chaotix with this because besides Shadow hacking into the computer he isn't actually necessary to complete the Hero objective at all given what Espio can do (even the panels in the distance in the Green Tower could be changed by Espio using his Ninja Stars), but whether it's the Hero or Neutral Mission it makes sense for Espio to be trailing Shadow at the time Eggman finds them. Meanwhile, circling back to Eggman, his victory in Sky Troops makes sense given how he the speech to the Shadow Androids goes, but Shadow himself just isn't there for it. Instead, Omega and a small G.U.N team manage to bring down the Egg Balloon and Egg Breaker, leading to Eggman retreating. The reason the G.U.N team is so small is because the rest of G.U.N is trying to evacuate Central City and save the President alongside Knuckles and Tails. The City is lost but the people are saved. While Omega is hunting down the Egg Balloon though, Eggman sees Shadow and Espio in MAD matrix and confronts them, which is why Eggman is so pissed at Shadow by this point in the game. After Eggman is pushed back though Shadow makes it into the Iron Jungle where Sonic meets him and takes him to The ARK, where most of the game's forces converge. 6: Space Gadget Neutral, Lost Impact Neutral. G.U.N has basically been pushed all the way back to G.U.N Fortress by the Black Arms with the President being secured by G.U.N Commander Towers, while the small group of soldiers that joined Omega have been ordered to go to The ARK and fight alongside Sonic to protect the President and the Chaos Emeralds. Black Doom has called off most of the ground invasion and concentrated on the same spots as G.U.N: the Fortress and The ARK, as these are humanity's last strongholds. Sonic is going to The ARK to stop the Black Arms and Shadow is brought along for the ride. I basically see the race in Space Gadget happening but this causes Shadow to have flashbacks which cost him the race, leading to him taking the Emerald when they're back on the ship and having even more flashbacks to The ARK. This time Shadow helps take out most of the Artificial Chaos but doesn't finish the job because he finds Professor Gerald and hides him and Maria away, then the memory jumps to the moment Maria sent Shadow to Earth. This PTSD stupor leads to him being stuck on the ship as Team Sonic return the Emerald to its station and fly to the Black Comet, but once he reawakens he takes the Emerald back and warps to the ARK. 7: Cosmic Fall Hero/Dark. Towers decides to head to The ARK himself and runs into Shadow, revealing Black Doom's involvement in Shadow's creation. Meanwhile, Team Chaotix Find The Computer Room. They try to get Shadow to help, but he's too in his own head and just decides to get the Emeralds so he can sort out the mess of his past. Eggman, having been forced to retreat from Iron Jungle and his flagship, also trails Sonic Team to The ARK which is where he once again crosses paths with Shadow. Shadow beats Eggman, declares himself guardian of The ARK, and undoes the damage done by the Black Arms, saving The ARK. He mostly does this because for all his past struggles he feels a connection to The ARK and still needs it around. Eggman, having taken Shadow's threat seriously, abandons The Ark to confront the Black Arms. Afterall, he's down, but never out. After Shadow saves The ARK he decides to go to the Black Comet as he wants to confront Black Doom about the truth. 8: The Last Story. Shadow arrives on the Black Comet with all 7 Chaos Emeralds, confronts his past, has a long drawn-out fight with Devil Doom where Eggman tells Shadow he lied, and Shadow buries the past with Devil Doom's corpse before using the fully repaired Eclipse Cannon to destroy the Black Comet. Now, for what I think the canon path for Shadow is, my criteria is that Shadow has to go on the route where the most canon stuff possible happens, so here's my canon path, number 135, A Vow for the Victims (NDHHND): Westopolis> Glyphic Canyon> Cryptic Castle> Sky Troops> Space Gadget> Cosmic Fall> Egg Dealer.

really nice video

My issue with Shadow The Hedgehog: While the Action Stages are very creative to explore, there's just too many story routes to piece in together for a coherent plot device. 😑

It's an interesting theory, however I'm leaning towards 'Route 153: Together with Maria' being the canon route. Since the true ending cutscenes are considered canon, the route that is chosen needs to meet the ending's conditions. A minor issue that I have with this theory is that the G.U.N Commander's character development has been ignored. In the beginning of the game, the Commander demonstrates a hostile attitude towards Shadow where he even declares him an enemy. By the end of the game, the Commander has a change of heart alongside the president. It does not make sense narrative-wise for the Commander to have this personality change without some sort of plot development. Therefore, the stage known as 'Cosmic Fall' needs to have happened since its precedent to when the Commander confronts Shadow about the Ark's events. It's important for this scene to have happened otherwise the Commander's sudden change of heart seems random.

My personal theory for this uses Expert Mode’s dialogue as reasoning, and I’ll share it below; We know that: The President had to repair damages to somewhere, as he mentions this to Shadow. Meaning Westopolis Dark or Central City Dark happened. Shadow saves Cream, as she thanks him for it. Meaning Cryptic Castle Hero happened. Shadow is angry at Eggman for something, meaning he found out about the Android business which means Iron Jungle happened. Both Eggman and the GUN Commander are alive in the Last Story and the GUN Commander isn’t on the Black Comet. Shadow also doesn’t meet Black Doom until the Last Story. Meaning GUN Fortress, Black Comet, Lava Shelter and Final Haunt can’t be Shadow’s last stage. So the story route I think is canon is: **Westopolis Dark**, after that stage, it’s reported Westopolis suffered heavy casualties due to Shadow eliminating the soldiers there. **Digital Circuit Dark**, it’s the only way Shadow can still get to Cryptic Castle. As if he does Hero here, he goes to Prison Island instead. No Neutral mission. **Cryptic Castle Hero**, Shadow saves Cream and Cheese, as mentioned by Cream in Expert Mode. **Sky Troops Normal**, next stage after Shadow saves Cream. **Iron Jungle Hero**, Shadow finds out about the Shadow Androids in this stage. Which is what he’d be mad at Eggman about. **Cosmic Fall Dark**, this is the only ending stage that makes any logical sense knowing what final bosses lead to. Every other stage either has Shadow kill the Commander or kill Eggman, none of which happen in the Final Story. He doesn’t defeat Black Doom until the Final Story. Cosmic Fall Dark is the only Egg Dealer fight which doesn’t end in Shadow killing Eggman.

Personally I disagree with this theory. If the ending has Shadow defeat Black Doom, then why does Shadow in the Last Story have the motive to hand him the Chaos Emeralds? Furthermore why would Black Doom be so care free? At this point Shadow has all 7 Emeralds and would likely pose as a threat. I like the idea of this theory but, just a few holes.

2:27 some minor detail, in the Jap version, Shadow just go for the emeralds to create a miracle (something like that) to see his past, Shadow never said "I have to belive him" And makes more sense do the neutral and hero mission without feel weird... I guess Sega in America wanted to make Shadow super edgy

I remember a theory that said all routes are canon, it's just that due to Black Doom's memory manipulation Shadow is an unreliable narrator/pov. Feels hand wavey to me.

"Some people think [For Love's Sake] refers to Rouge changing Shadow's mind..." Are... are there still Shadouge shippers? I thought we had finally gotten rid of all of them...

Eggman says it was a lie that he created him, he doesn't mention anything about him having no past