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I like the M1911, I personally think it’s one of the greatest semiautomatic handguns of all time, it’s one of the best designs of John M Browning, it has served as a reliable sidearm for the US Military, continues to be a effective handgun to this day with the M1911’s design being over a hundred years despite more “modern” guns in the market, has gotten enough recognition to become the official State Gun of Utah, the state I live, and like it enough to incorporate it into my screen name on various websites, and finally I do own three three of them (a Remington, Springfield Armory, and a Ruger, no Colt yet).

Now a weird thing about liking the M1911 is that I question certain characters in various media that use my favorite handgun (I don’t know if anyone else shares that same idea regarding other guns, maybe swords), one of those characters in question is Shadow the Hedgehog, yes that Shadow from the Sonic franchise made by SEGA. The questionable dumbasses at Sonic Team tried their hands in giving Shadow his own game due his popularity from Sonic Adventure 2, and they decided to give him shooting mechanics in addition to the “fast-paced” platforming, a decision I question along with the apparent “fan-demand” for Sonic to have a gun (I strongly believe it goes against his character, so why people wanted that if true).

Now the thing that bothers me is that in two pieces of advertising for the game features Shadow posing with a stainless M1911, and in the opening cinematic he’s shown holding one, not shooting it (also in a flashback a G.U.N. Soldier used one to end Maria’s life that helped set off the events of SA2), but in actual gameplay it’s not useable, the handgun that you can use in the game is the Heckler and Koch USP Tactical, and that’s what makes me question it, you never actually see (or you controlling Shadow’s actions) him fire one, it’s not even an unlockable weapon, according to imfdb (internet firearm database) where I get my information, it was considered at one point in development judging by a screenshot of an earlier build, but replaced in the final game. So my question is why associate the gun with Shadow if he himself never uses one?

The only explanation I could think of, is whoever was making the pre-render cutscenes/advertisements, Blurr Studios I believe, wanted to give Shadow a gun that stands out against his dark coloration, but it kinda falls flat when the box-art showcases Shadow with a Frankenstein esq gun that is colored black (granted that doesn’t appear in the game either, but still), and going back to the opening cinematic he’s loading, wrongly cocking, and shooting an MP5, now with those guns they do stand out against Shadows dark coloration with his white and red gloves and gold inhibitor rings, and the guns being a “different” shade of black (or the guns being more metallic to Shadow’s fur), the lighting in the cutscenes, and gameplay also help in that regard to.

Lastly I’d like elaborate on something that should’ve been brought up. I think if you’re going to give a character a gun (or gun-like weapon), it should make sense to character in question, for Shadow I’m very split on whether, or not he should use guns; on the one hand because he was created to be a weapon, so one could assume that he might have been given firearm training in addition to other combat techniques, but I’m hard pressed to fully commit to that thought cause we never got an explanation on what he would do, like was he G.U.N.s answer to threats that not even their top agents can handle? I mean we know of the extent of him being created scientifically for Professor Gerald Robotnik want to use the data to cure his granddaughter Maria who was stricken with an incurable disease. The other hand Shadow already has abilities that would make guns useless to him, he has super speed, and the ability to teleport meaning he can easily reach his target within seconds, and the ability to throw bolts of energy called Chaos Spear that already works an an effective projectile attack.

This is a very odd opinion I have, and I can’t see anyone agreeing with it, so I guess it’s my problem cause I’ve never seen anyone else discussing guns being used by fictional characters, but I guess in Shadow’s game it’s basically nonexistent considering it’s other problems. For starters Sonic Team tried to combine fast paced platforming, and inaccurate gun play resulting in a messy hybrid. Instead of a straightforward plot, the writers opted for a storyline with branching paths where depending on how you play get different endings similar to OG Star Wars KotOR, that doesn’t lead anywhere cause after beating the game multiple times, you get a true “canon” ending, so giving multiple story beats seems pointless. Finally for whatever damn reason the dumbass wrote the game’s plot decided to make Shadow a violent, friendless edgelord that continues to be enforced in the games, and comics despite heavy criticism from fans.

Description
I like the M1911, I personally think it’s one of the greatest semiautomatic handguns of all time, it’s one of the best designs of John M Browning, it has served as a reliable sidearm for the US Military, continues to be a effective handgun to this day with the M1911’s design being over a hundred years despite more “modern” guns in the market, has gotten enough recognition to become the official State Gun of Utah, the state I live, and like it enough to incorporate it into my screen name on various websites, and finally I do own three three of them (a Remington, Springfield Armory, and a Ruger, no Colt yet).

Now a weird thing about liking the M1911 is that I question certain characters in various media that use my favorite handgun (I don’t know if anyone else shares that same idea regarding other guns, maybe swords), one of those characters in question is Shadow the Hedgehog, yes that Shadow from the Sonic franchise made by SEGA. The questionable dumbasses at Sonic Team tried their hands in giving Shadow his own game due his popularity from Sonic Adventure 2, and they decided to give him shooting mechanics in addition to the “fast-paced” platforming, a decision I question along with the apparent “fan-demand” for Sonic to have a gun (I strongly believe it goes against his character, so why people wanted that if true).

Now the thing that bothers me is that in two pieces of advertising for the game features Shadow posing with a stainless M1911, and in the opening cinematic he’s shown holding one, not shooting it (also in a flashback a G.U.N. Soldier used one to end Maria’s life that helped set off the events of SA2), but in actual gameplay it’s not useable, the handgun that you can use in the game is the Heckler and Koch USP Tactical, and that’s what makes me question it, you never actually see (or you controlling Shadow’s actions) him fire one, it’s not even an unlockable weapon, according to imfdb (internet firearm database) where I get my information, it was considered at one point in development judging by a screenshot of an earlier build, but replaced in the final game. So my question is why associate the gun with Shadow if he himself never uses one?

The only explanation I could think of, is whoever was making the pre-render cutscenes/advertisements, Blurr Studios I believe, wanted to give Shadow a gun that stands out against his dark coloration, but it kinda falls flat when the box-art showcases Shadow with a Frankenstein esq gun that is colored black (granted that doesn’t appear in the game either, but still), and going back to the opening cinematic he’s loading, wrongly cocking, and shooting an MP5, now with those guns they do stand out against Shadows dark coloration with his white and red gloves and gold inhibitor rings, and the guns being a “different” shade of black (or the guns being more metallic to Shadow’s fur), the lighting in the cutscenes, and gameplay also help in that regard to.

Lastly I’d like elaborate on something that should’ve been brought up. I think if you’re going to give a character a gun (or gun-like weapon), it should make sense to character in question, for Shadow I’m very split on whether, or not he should use guns; on the one hand because he was created to be a weapon, so one could assume that he might have been given firearm training in addition to other combat techniques, but I’m hard pressed to fully commit to that thought cause we never got an explanation on what he would do, like was he G.U.N.s answer to threats that not even their top agents can handle? I mean we know of the extent of him being created scientifically for Professor Gerald Robotnik want to use the data to cure his granddaughter Maria who was stricken with an incurable disease. The other hand Shadow already has abilities that would make guns useless to him, he has super speed, and the ability to teleport meaning he can easily reach his target within seconds, and the ability to throw bolts of energy called Chaos Spear that already works an an effective projectile attack.

This is a very odd opinion I have, and I can’t see anyone agreeing with it, so I guess it’s my problem cause I’ve never seen anyone else discussing guns being used by fictional characters, but I guess in Shadow’s game it’s basically nonexistent considering it’s other problems. For starters Sonic Team tried to combine fast paced platforming, and inaccurate gun play resulting in a messy hybrid. Instead of a straightforward plot, the writers opted for a storyline with branching paths where depending on how you play get different endings similar to OG Star Wars KotOR, that doesn’t lead anywhere cause after beating the game multiple times, you get a true “canon” ending, so giving multiple story beats seems pointless. Finally for whatever damn reason the dumbass wrote the game’s plot decided to make Shadow a violent, friendless edgelord that continues to be enforced in the games, and comics despite heavy criticism from fans.