So this is the last chp.. Shadow is now goin to confront BD & beat him. He dodges a few attacks & sets maria down. There's a moment where shadow/maria R set above BD & look at him from said position which he comments on as tho the action were an insult. Shadow is goin to now go 1 on 1 but jus before he does so BD brings up a revelation. If shadow kills BD he sets everythin to normal & that means he gets his memories back, goes back to earth, & will never C maria again as she will have stayed dead from the raid 50yrs prior. It's a revelation that shadow didn't want to confront & he especially didn't want Maria to know. However she apparently alr did as things that BD said before clued her into the possibility & make the connections. So this is simply pure confirmations of wut she alr knew to be true. While this clearly saddens her she still faces this reality head on & tells shadow to still beat BD & live on for her. Protectin the planet in her stead. She loves earth & the possibilities it presents too much to allow BD to put it in danger & so wants shadow to fight for her wishes as he'll still be alive in the end. She also would rather not stay in in the timespace they've been in as it's proven to be lifeless & dull over their experience in it. Likening it to darkness itself. A challenge to darkness itself is exactly the reason she gave shadow his name. As she puts it "a shadow will show you where the light shines". She wants shadow to keep her in his heart which is represented by her hand touchin his chest fur which is pure white to contrast his darker overall design(jet black & streaks of red). As shadow chooses to follow her wishes he realizes wut he must do/be for her in the wake of her end wit BD. Exactly wut she wanted him to be, a shadow that shows her the light & brings her there too. Despite how protectin the planet protects those on it that caused him so much pain(humans) & despite maria goin away for good when BD is defeated, Shadow will still fight him. As that's Maria's wish, So long as he keeps her in his heart maria won't "truly die". As shadow beats BD in an arduous physical but more particularly mental battle over wut he will lose, Maria starts to fade away. She chooses not to say goodbye but rather asks shadow to give his best smile before she goes since he's only ever growled or scowled in mean looks or looked in a pleadin gaze of sadness & longing. He begrudgingly complies & wut she gets is a surprisin, awkward, forced, sorta fake, but also sorta genuine "smile" right before she goes now satisfied & wit that shadow immediately cries out wit a tear leavin his face. A minor timeskip happens & shadow basically states wut's happened since. Lived protectin earth from devious ppl & seein new sights unsure whether earth is still really wut Maria cracked it up to be but continuin as she wanted him to wit the name she gave him. "The Ultimate Lifeform" Shadow the Hedgehog.
I'm sorta mixed on this ngl but this comes from the opinion of a game fan & on it's own it does wut it's tryin to do jus fine. In fact in comparison to the game this's based on this might as well be a MASTERPEICE so I can't hate it. The art was as solid as it has been so not much to say there. It further did things that would've helped the og game story(tho not exactly in a way I would've liked) in havin shadow still have to fight BD now that he knows Maria will go away. The game didn't bring this up at all. This revelation pops up AFTER he beats BD & by that point it means jack diddly squat. It was so stupid but this mostly fixed that gripe. Maria's involvement was actually meaningful, we got to explore her character a bit more(There's another aspect to this where I would've handled it diff but that's the fault of the game the manga is jus basin itself off that setup) & there's much better interactions between her & shadow than in the game which were mostly non-existent other than a few hollow, horrendous, & at times worthless scenes. So unlike the game I can say I don't hate her here. They also removed a whole character & replaced him wit the lil guy which was a GREAT choice tbh since the game does next to nothin wit that characters' inclusion. It was pointless which sucks cus it should/could have been so much more & they jus didn't even bother to try in the game. There's actually a genuine narrative structure here compared to the game & the plot doesn't have weird problems or inconsistencies. There's generally more logic to the conclusions that R reached & especially make sense readin this manga on its own rather than lookin at the og game & seein the overarchin narrative that it has to follow up from prior titles which reach conclusions it goes out of its way to betray entirely. Most importantly it's an actual STORY rather than basically nothin. I won't get into it here but wut the game tries to showcase was a series of events that lead to a horrendous & ill-fit conclusion that was not told through a proper narrative. All these things & more made me hate the og game in direction & execution as it betrayed wut was at the time 1 of my fav characters ever. That guy has now died tho & has been replaced by the guy he was meant to replace in the 1st place & this manga seals it for me which is Y I'm so mixed now. I personally hate the final conclusion due to my bias in the disservice to this character's evolution in the games but at the end of the day that's not this manga's fault that's the games'. I feel like the conclusion itself is jus not 1 I'm into in general tho. Livin life in pursuit of someone else's never-endin goal at cost to ur own undeveloped wishes/goals & despite how this actively puts those u dislike under ur protection or at least benefit in some way from u which will prob still sting(if u don't care that's a diff story). I'm not into it in general. It's not really expressed as in any way it's wut shadow wants necessarily either(it wouldn't fix it entirely but it MIGHT mitigate the issue even if still roundabout), he's jus doin it cus that's wut maria wanted & he must do wut she wanted. The most he gets out of it is seein the sights but that's it. I should've seen this comin cus ofc but I allowed there to be a glimmer of "hope" they'd try somethin more diff given how it was built up to. There's so much to I haven't mentioned that adds onto all this so much. At this point it is wut it is. Not my thing but the ppl who liked the games' "story" will like this & it should be mostly fine for those who've never seen a shadow thing in their life prior to this as their introduction. I won't deny I mostly enjoyed my time & the mangaka did a solid job wit the task he was given, I'm jus personally disgruntled at the mass character assassination of which we'll prob never recover from. This is who shadow is now like it or not. I gotta deal. I will say tho. 1 thing this manga may have done worse is fail to express a few non-explicit ideas even the game keeps but tbh it doesn't even matter since both the game & manga ultimately go against the points made in those things in regards to shadow's character so idk.
So as I said this is it. Thx for readin if u've kept up for some reason & Sry for makin some of these so rambly & long. I hijacked this whole thing as my own lol. I'm not sure how to end this off but if u enjoyed it then cool. I don't think I'll likely ever do this again this was an INCREDIBLY rare instance I'm not likely to repeat but it was neat for me to have this opportunity. I feel like I have so much more to say but I lose the words as I become apprehensive over makin this too damn long, mentionin the unnecessary lol. So jus the same as the manga that's it from me. If it happens I'll C u when I C u. Laterz...
P.S. I wanna add that while I read this manga month to month I was listenin to the band Magni-Fi on spotify(they made a song for 1 of the games this manga is based on both of which I love) & it's honestly a perfect experience cus all those songs fit so many moments to me & ofc the songs R great too. Sorta heightened my enjoyment so I'd rec doin the same & jus listen to their music in general cus it's great lol. |
