Shadow Isn't Allowed To Make Jokes, According To Sonic Writers

thegamer.com:

In recent years, Sonic fans have noticed a curious lack of Shadow. In both the games and the recent Sonic Boom show, the fan favourite hedgehog has had very little screen time. And when he does appear, many are disappointed to see him reduced to an edgelord, despite having previously been shown to care for others. Well, now it looks like we know why.

According to Sonic writers, Sega is way too overprotective of Shadow. Creatives hoping to use Shadow in their games, shows and comics apparently have to adhere to strict rules on how he is allowed to act, leading some to feel that it's simply not worth the hassle. Frustratingly, one of these rules even dictates that Shadow isn't allowed to make jokes, explaining why he's so edgy in recent appearances.

Related: Sonic Frontiers Is Fantastic, But I Want It To Be Stupid

This confirmation comes from Ian Flynn, a writer on the comics who is also working on Sonic Frontiers. On Twitter, he shared an extract from an interview from Megavisions with Sonic Boom writers Alan Denton and Greg Hahn, going into the difficulties they faced with Shadow.

"Writing for Shadow was a challenge in itself", says Denton. "Sega did not consider him a comedy character. They told us we could use him, but he was not to be making any jokes [...] So to work around that, the joke became the very fact that Shadow is completely humorless. So edgy, all the time."

Even worse, Shadow wasn't the only character this applied to. The writers admit they much preferred using their own original characters, because even a cameo from Vector the Crocodile or Big the Cat would require "layers of clearance".

"It would have taken ages to get approved", says Hahn. "It wasn’t worth it. Hence why there’s only Shadow, Metal