Making Sense of SHADOW'S White Space

Shadow's #WhiteSpace in #SonicXShadowGenerations is a very different experience than Sonic's, but is it possible that the reason why is precisely because they were meant for Sonic as well?

In this video, we'll discuss the possibility of Shadow's Open Zone being an area that #SonicTheHedgehog was never meant to explore, while still having locations and bosses that are meant to be visited by him.

⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹

🌙 SUBSCRIBE to @Charriii5! ⭐
👕 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY GETTING SOME MERCH! 👕
🔴 TWITCH CHANNEL! 🔴
☄️ FOLLOW ME! ☄️
🔶 BECOME MY PATRON! 🔶
🌕 Check out Part 1 of this theory!🌕

⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹═⊹

STAY AWESOME NYA'LL!

~PATREON~
Belsheber Rusape
HeetHootSkyatAJ
HK47
Chull33
tomprzlan
Geronimo Enriquez
Dreamslayer
Johnny Mind
Kira the Cat
Stars' The Limit
TheRedFighter
Sarajoee
Weakfoggy
Garrett Keaveny
Sen8ter
Vanessa
Esemby
BeyondSeaSalt
Shy96
SonicMaster 2022
TheOmegaDemon
Evan Jones
TheGermanWizard
Just Kam
Dimitri Rutledge
Nacho Guy
LehiTheGamer
GAME KILLER
Sonicblue065
Gaming Shrimp
ReelTV
Ozzie
JennyDPeriod
Benji the Hedgeling
Marcel
Mike
Jake B
Nikko

~CHANNEL MEMBERS~
MimiPeach
Jason "Jay" Smith
TetraBitGaming
tom perzelan
ShadowWolf150
Mathtron 5000
Ken Agaro
Digital Lurantis
Asialsky
Dark Link323
Kiako
CursedGioGio
Aur0raAura
StacheHand
BeyondSeaSalt
UltraLeevi23
PulseCatz TV
DShark
BenCD the Skypatroller
DomWantsAssists
Blake Striker
David Cabanas
Vaelin the Jackal
Emi San
Nakatar
md switchy
Nedrex
SilverKreates
Jaden Buck
Drafi
Moony
deep.
Just Kam
Earp62
Gorade
Narwhal
ErenxJ
Beebsicle
Skriket
Glitchy588Live
Kaveon Matthews
Goran
Shinix
Shy
Golden
Rhinastoc Roc-Boulet
Firstname Lastname
Soul Dragon Amari
game and watch
Blues
Renbo
Chris The N0Ob GOD
kingpen

[supermaro]

I love the recurring joke of "Here's the thing" followed by an sneaky image of the thing materializing into frame

[jadenbuck]

One thing I've come to realize about both Sonic and Shadow's respective White Spaces is their overall layout, and how it could represent their own personal histories. Sonic's White Space is straightforward from left to right, based on Sonic's strive to keep moving forward and never look back. While Shadow's is all spread out surrounding him in one open field, based on how Shadow has relived past events and how they're sometimes scattered out and experienced at unusual times.

[Terios]

Somebody also pointed out that Black Doom doesn’t appear around Kingdom Valley or Chaos Island because he doesn’t want to risk accidentally encountering Solaris or The END, two entities that he wouldn’t be able to handle.

Also, Mephiles boss area is locked up by more keys than others, and it’s hidden away as if somebody doesn’t want it to be accessed or remembered.

[whisper_ishere]

I love how this video implies that Tokyo Act 1 canonically happens in the movie universe off screen

[MSCDonkeyKong]

I do think Radical Highway being different holds a bit of symbolism. In the original game, they had that sign that says "Freedom: ???", and that kinda shows what Radical Highway symbolises. Sonic has a straightforward chase for freedom through a sunny city with a layout that's realistic and makes sense. Shadow is in this winding highway under construction with streets impractically built for cars and with parts where there's only steel beams.
In generations, the idea that Radical Highway is a winding, confusing, and dark time in Shadow's life is played up to 11 with its trippy visuals and reality distortions. It's what the level symbolizes and has always symbolized, and Black Doom bringing it back is basically him saying "Hey, Shadow, remember that time in your life when you were lost, confused, and angry over trauma you hadn't fully processed your feelings over yet? I think that was awesome, let's relive that again".

And yes, they said this much during the twitter takeover, that Black Doom is trying to play mind-games with Shadow with this. So this IS the lore reason why he keeps bringing him back.

[GameGuyBenn]

14:33 These random monologues from Sonic will play randomly every 10 minutes when Sonic is on the terrain, however if he is ever air borne or in combat when they're supposed to trigger, they just won't play, so they're easy to miss, but these lines do repeat on their respective islands, so the Shadow line IS exclusive to Chaos Island.

Edit: It's also worth mentioning, certain monologues like the, 'Mystic Ruins' mention by the waterfall, are triggered at certain landmarks on the islands, but they only place once per save file

[fusionwarrior]

I can't escape "Here's the Thing" even in sonic content XD

[SecretShadowRings]

I honestly never stopped to think about the Chaos Emerald Mephilis had in Sonic 06 towards the end of Shadow’s campaign. Seeing you show that it’s still the yellow Emerald which is same Shadow has now and the one used by Tails to make the replica gave me the biggest sense of whiplash that I’ve ever felt

[Eric_Black]

Shadow Generations is where Ian Flynn taking over the writing is starting to pay off. Old crazy story bits are starting to come together, and the characters are all more lively than ever

[hanahyperfixates]

Bro, the way I GASPED when you pointed out that the Mephiles ooze is referred to as "Corruption" - it really all fits pretty well. What a wonderful and meticulously crafted theory. Great video!

[AurraAura]

Dude this two parter is SO fascinating! It really makes me love this game more than I already have. The realization that Shadow may have influenced Sonic in some way in the events of Sonic Frontiers because of the second instance he travelled into the future literally blew my mind- I swear White Space is such a fun concept and if refined a bit more, I'm sure there can be a plethora of story ideas to be done with it.

[SonicAndre]

52:00 Correction: Sonic and Shadow’s fight actually ended at the Tokyo Skytree, not Tokyo Tower. But it’s easy to mix up the two structures, due to them being the tallest buildings in the city.

[supersilvernova-utdb]

I had headcanoned Chaos Island as being in White Space due to some things hinted at in the most recent TailsTube. In it, Tails is trying to tell Professor Victoria about his and Sonic's adventures in locations that have to do with the Four Great Civilizations, with the Ancients being one of them. Gerald says at point something about how it doesn't really matter if the locations that Shadow sees are from his past or his future; just that they're important to him. I think that at some point in the future, Shadow is going to visit Chaos Island while Profesor Victoria is there studying the ruins, and he's going to find out that she is Maria's sister, which is why the location is important to him.

[FoxClanVSTheWorld]

someone said that chaos island could likely be a glitch in the system, as conveyed through the music. The music is more like cyberspace, even though shadow isnt inside it, and also is much more violent than cyberspace and movement themes, which conveys the theory that its a glitch. It also sounds like the piano and electronics are in a battle with each other to see who gets to be part of the song. idk if that last bit adds anything to this but yea

[Pikatwig]

One thing I noticed that I found interesting is that the exit point for where Mephelis is sealed up is actually in Shadow's White Space from when you first get there. Makes me wonder if the boss portal is there if you could glitch your way there.

On Tokyo, Shadow's dialogue is subtitled differently in the Japanese version. The bit where he says "I feel as if I've left my own dimension" was subtitled as "これもヤツの力によるものだとしたら... (If this is also caused by his power...)". Just thought that was interesting.

[SimonF-tgoc]

This man could probably make a video about Gens 3DS and it's crazy level and boss selections and it he'd still probably find a way for things to make maybe. This was genuinely a really fun watch and I hope to see more content like this in the future. Just some fun theories about a blue hedgehog going fast and making logic that was probably didn't have as much thought as you put in. So, once again, great video and have a great day!

[bryandraws]

My theory about Shadow’s White Space is that while most of White Space is influenced by the Time Eater and Eggman, Black Doom, while not intending to be sent there, has some influence over Shadow’s White Space, and is able to choose which bosses and stages Shadow must face.

Black Doom’s entire goal with Shadow is that not only is he growing and testing Shadow to be the perfect Black Arms soldier, he’s also reminding Shadow of his pain in order to make it easier to influence him. It’s also why he sends Maria and Gerald to White Space, as them being there reminds Shadow of his loss of both of them. The bosses being chosen by Black Doom also makes sense. Not only are the Biolizard, Metal Overlord, and Mephelis all related to Shadow and his pain in some way, they all also acts as tests for Shadow because they all require Doom Powers in order to win. Shadow uses Doom Morph and Doom Blast against Mephalis, Shadow literally needs Doom Surf to even fight against Metal Overlord, and Doom Spears allows Shadow to reflect back projectiles the Biolizard fires at around the end of the fight. And speaking of the Biolizard, after you fight it, Shadow’s White Space expands, but in the cutscene, when exactly does it expend? When the Black Moon evolved further after Shadow’s with the Biolizard. Additionally, what do you need to use in order to even get to these stages? Shadow’s DOOM POWERS, acting as another test for Shadow to pass.

Additionally, Black Doom having influence over White Space also explains why there are 0 actual Shadow the Hedgehog stages. Think about this; why would Black Doom send Shadow to a point in time where Shadow ultimately defeats him, if the entire goal of Black Doom is to revive his forces? If that’s his goal, allowing Shadow to restore that specific point in the timeline would be super counterintuitive.

Finally, it also seems that Black Doom has some odd influence over the stages that Shadow traverses. Not only is he able to completely change them into Doom Zone in order to test Shadow’s new abilities, you can also find Black Arms soldiers scattered throughout the levels, even in places where there’s no way for them to even be there outside of his influence, like Kingdom Valley, Sunset Heights, and Chaos Island, which leads me to believe that not only does Black Doom have influence over what gets sent to White Space, he is also able to edit these points in time to test Shadow and bring in his soldiers.

[ShinixSZ]

The way you made me completely fall in love with this theory the more I watched through the video is incredible. It's really refreshing to see you take a simple concept in the surface and make it something much more complex and interesting. Whether it was intended or not, I am really excited to see what comes next for Sonic stories, hopefully they'll have this much depth.
This was a super enjoyable

[comicfan]

Using this theory in mind, I think what egg man may have changed in Sunset Heights to give him a better chance of success… Is removing the resistance.

Think about it. In Park Avenue and Sunset Heights you either visually see or hear other resistance fighters holding off Eggman’s invasion, with our player character, simply being another member of the resistance doing their part. However, in shadows level, we see absolutely no hints of any fight back from the civilians. The city is completely at Eggman’s mercy

[UltraSTH]

I don’t think this was mentioned during this video, but one interesting detail about Kingdom Valley Act 2 is that one room you go through is actually the same arena where Mephiles is released in Sonic 06, it’s about 10-20 seconds into the indoor section, the part with three rising pillars if you need a description of the level design there