Options
Let's rewrite-Shadow the Hedgehog
- Let's rewrite-Shadow the Hedgehog
-
Let's rewrite-Shadow the Hedgehog
SakuraSweets > 11-13-2019, 12:49 PM
Ok, so to many Sonic Fans, Shadow the Hedgehog was a bad game indeed. Its story and narrative was a jumbled mess because of this poorly implemented morality pathway, Nerfed gameplay, a terrible adversary, and other problems. The story is pretty bad, so here is an experiment...what would you do if you were the writer for the story? How would you shape it to make STH a good game storywise? Let your idea run wild~
I will post my idea later -
RE: Let's rewrite-Shadow the Hedgehog
MadmanRB > 11-13-2019, 03:06 PM
Oy you asked the right person here!
So first.... lets take black arms and black doom out of the story.
Honestly who cares about Black Doom, he is a lame ass villain and no one really remembers him.
A generic boring mess of a character who really has no reason to exist other then bullshit.
Secondly lets fix shadow and his backstory!
Now "the ultimate lifeform" idea isn't in itself bad but perhaps it was Gerald Robotnik on his own without any DNA from Black Doom who does not exist here but instead have Shadow a cyborg.
Granted yes this is a bit of a cliche but what isnt in this franchise, but making Shadow a cyborg does make him more interesting as a character.
Imagine he was born part machine, like he is techno organic in nature the best of both worlds.
However he can have a internal conflict because of this, not knowing who he is because of his machine/organic nature.
Again this is not nothing new or inventive but certainly better then what we got.
This would also explain why Biolizard is the way he is because he could have been a first attempt that went horrifically wrong,
Thirdly this give us an opportunity to make Gerald Robotnik our main antagonist.
Say he did not die but survived to witness the death of Maria, this would drive him mad with grief and perhaps create other beings like Shadow.
Now why he would take so long to resurface perhaps he was biding his time to build an army, Gerald could have made himself part machine as well and is now practically immortal.
After seeing his grandson being such a failure he decides to take over his grandsons army, merge it with his cybernetic minions and make something that would be an issue for both Sonic and Shadow.
Next is his relationship with Shadow, he has a much more personal interest then Black Doom here manipulating Shadow based on his hatreds and motivations.
This still allows Shadow to take all the paths seen in the game, evil, good and gray.
Having a more personal villain to deal with gives the player an option to side with Gerald or not.
The thing is siding with Gerald isnt as evil as it seems as one can remember Shadow saw the death of Maria, the player can sympathize with this and deem that Geralds vision of a better world is right.
Or he can side with Sonic, who shows Shadow that maria would never want Shadow to become a villain
As for "Eggman" well he can be something in between, the less of two evils.
And Shadow can side with him to help bring down Gerald and Sonic (or he could betray him whatever)
Again this is not perfect but would solve my issues with the storytelling, the multi path idea can be kept intact but this time with a far better villain.
A wet paper bag can write a better villain then black doom, so can a sock, a rusty nail, paper mache and a ragdoll.
Hell give me Stephenie Meyer, EL James and the ghost of L. Ron Hubbard, put them in a locked room without food and water for three days and they could probably make a villain a thousand times more interesting then Black doom. -
RE: Let's rewrite-Shadow the Hedgehog
SakuraSweets > 11-13-2019, 04:10 PM
Ok I finally came up with a story of my own
We are going to kick Black Doom and his army to the curve...kind of. I will explain later, but who gives a flick about him anyway? However, the aliens will serve a purpose.
50 years ago, Gerald Robotnik found the ancient Echidna mural from Adventure 1, but that is not all that he found in the ruins. He also discovered a black and red alien substance and found that it has useful powers. Gaining inspiration from the mural and goo, this gave him the idea of continuing from his failure with the Biolizard and created Shadow.
It turns out sometime after Heroes, The GUN Commander found pieces of the Biolizard that landed on Earth after its defeat and conducted secret experiments to revive it. Like in the original story, the commander still wants revenge against Shadow's mere existence. To get rid of him, he forms a secret renegade faction of GUN, and used the newly formed Biolizard to kill him. The lizard gains sentience and wants the same thing, revenge on Shadow and Sonic for its defeat and proves that who is the real 'Ultimate Lifeform'. It turns against the faction, and also against GUN and humanity in general since in a way, it still carries the doctor's rage and despair for the world, and wants to finish what it started. First, it wants to eliminate Shadow for him being a traitor to the cause and obvious other reasons.
Shadow's memories are pretty much shattered, even after Sonic and friends told him what he needs to know, he find himself in doubt since he was a villain and was used as Gerald's weapon to destroy mankind. He remembers bits and pieces, but as the story moves along, they are restoring themselves through certain events and possibly the Chaos Emeralds. I will say, there is no branching pathways or morality system, because to me, it is a waste of time. Anyway, after remembering Maria's promise, he gains the confidence that he needs to save the world.
Its not fancy, but that's what I though of~ -
RE: Let's rewrite-Shadow the Hedgehog
MadmanRB > 11-13-2019, 04:57 PM
Well one could find something to do with Black Doom and the Black arms, I mean hell make them demons or something as opposed to aliens.
Again cliched? Yes but hey Sonics universe is full of Cliches.
The issue is making it work, even if one keeps them aliens one can have far better motivation then "Mwhahahaha give me emeralds, Im not evil!" -
RE: Let's rewrite-Shadow the Hedgehog
BabyGreed > 11-13-2019, 05:44 PM
Hello SakuraSweets
I want you keep Black Doom Intact.
Why because Zare The Evil Monsters In GX.
Zare And Black Doom.
They're going to rain havoc on the world
Evil Monsters And Aliens.
Chaos will rise on Sonic's World.
You'll probably like the end.
When Doom And Zare.
Turns a Black Hedgehog into a Giant Black Monster.
And they sick the Monster on Shadow for black meat.
I'm going to turn black doom into an awesome walking awesome game.
If SEGA / Sonic Team ever met me. Bye
!?
----------------------------------------------
Black Doom is still interesting to me.
I can even see it from black doom.
He's getting what he wants so much in the world.
His heart desires. With Zare on his side. It probably would get it.
Even his revenge on Shadow.
And trust me you don't want to be in her stomach.
I would turn black doom average ways into an awesome thing.
That will blow their eyes wide open.
And rock Sonic team. But you know, i don't know where they are. So it sad. BYE -
RE: Let's rewrite-Shadow the Hedgehog
SakuraSweets > 11-13-2019, 08:31 PM
(11-13-2019, 04:57 PM)MadmanRB Wrote: Well one could find something to do with Black Doom and the Black arms, I mean hell make them demons or something as opposed to aliens.
Again cliched? Yes but hey Sonics universe is full of Cliches.
The issue is making it work, even if one keeps them aliens one can have far better motivation then "Mwhahahaha give me emeralds, Im not evil!"
I agree that maybe the whole Black Arms thing could work...unfortunately, it didn't. In more capable hands, the story might have worked and Black Doom would have been interesting. -
RE: Let's rewrite-Shadow the Hedgehog
MadmanRB > 11-13-2019, 10:11 PM
(11-13-2019, 08:31 PM)SakuraSweets Wrote: I agree that maybe the whole Black Arms thing could work...unfortunately, it didn't. In more capable hands, the story might have worked and Black Doom would have been interesting.
Where is George R.R. Martin and J. Michael Straczynski when you need them?
I mean I could do it but it would take some time, I am neither of the two writers above of course but I am at least better (creatively) then say Stephenie Meyer. -
RE: Let's rewrite-Shadow the Hedgehog
ChaosKaiser > 11-19-2019, 09:39 AM
I honestly believe Black Doom could still be the main antagonist of the game in this rewrite, although instead of making him and the Black Arms a bunch of random aliens, I came up with a crazy way of relating him to the Adventure saga (considering Shadow debuted in Sonic Adventure 2) and one of the most relevant elements of this franchise:
The Black Arms created/found the Chaos Emeralds, and brought them to Earth millennia ago.
I know, I know... it sounds nuts, to say the least, but read me out: how can a demonic-looking alien like Black Doom use Chaos abilities, skills that are linked to those who have made contact with Chaos Emeralds, elements that (apparently) only exist in planet Earth (or Mobius, or however we call Sonic's world)?
It's stated that Black Doom himself came to Earth over 2000 years ago, so seems likely that these alien guys can survive a veeeeery long time.
Now, why would these extraterrestial beings come to our planet? Heck, how did they even know there were rational beings living on the surface of the planet? Could they have visited Earth before?
Let's say they DID. And in that moment, they gave the Emeralds to, I dunno, let's say THE ECHIDNAS, likely the race whose history seems to be more linked to the Chaos Emeralds than no one else in this franchise.
Of course the Black Arms would keep someone protecting the Emeralds, perhaps an offspring genetically modified so it could adapt to the most hostile Earth's conditions, a creature that could also use the power of the Emeralds itself...
(Now, another crazy over-the top retcon here. Brace yourselves...)
...a creature like THIS:
![[Image: 310?cb=20171108234616&path-prefix=es]](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/sonic/images/f/f7/Chaos_-_Sonic_Forces_Artwork.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/310?cb=20171108234616&path-prefix=es)
"C'MON, DUDE, YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!" you might be thinking.
And yep, we're making a Shadow the Hedgehog rewrite so of course I'm not fully serious, BUT seriously, look at our boi Chaos and its alternate forms and tell me they don't look like freakin' aliens. Chaos Zero looks like an alien! And it even has three fingers, those yellowish eyes and sort of feels like the fusion between a Chao and a Black Arm.
So, to sum everything up, if I had to remake Shadow The Hedgehog and reshape its story, I'd keep Black Doom but clearly stating that he has roots deep into the Sonic lore. He wouldn't be just a random extraterrestrial warlord. If he happens to be Shadows biological father, Shadow's Chaos powers should come from somewhere that made sense, and what better way to explain Black Doom's Chaos powers than this one?
And I'm not even getting started on how an alien invasion could have been way more interesing if, instead of just falling from the sky, the Black Arms were already on Earth, waiting for the Ark to be (apparently) dissabled like it did at the end of Sonic Adventure 2...
