Shade the Hedgehog

Shade has been noted to physically resemble Sonic, sharing her facial features and most of her overall body shape. She is a black-furred anthropomorphic hedgehog with red eyes, fangs, a patch of white fur on her chest, a black nose, a tan muzzle and small and triangular ears with tan canals. She also has a sextet of quills on her head, four of which curve upwards while the other two curve downwards, a pair of spines on her back and a short and pointy tail. She has red stripes on each of her head quills, around the edges of her eyes and on her arms and legs. For attire, Shade wears white gloves with black cuffs and red tongues, and Air Shoes which, like her gloves, have black cuffs and red tongues. Shade also wears Limiter Rings, one on each of her wrists and ankles.

Being, in many ways, Sonic's polar opposite, Shade has a much more reserved and colder disposition. She usually acts with a cool indifference, rarely showing her vulnerable side. She is seldom seen with others for an extended period of time and usually distances herself from everyone whom she does not trust. She is usually blunt and rarely bluffs; if she makes a threat, she has every intention of carrying it out. As one of the more violent characters in the series at times, Shade's ruthlessness and aggression lead to her enemies never treating her lightly. Alongside her often dark demeanor, Shade can be arrogant and stubborn. She usually treats others in a very callous manner, throwing in her opinion no matter how cold-hearted it is and caring little for the response. Shade is also shown to have a sharp wit; during the Space Colony ARK incident, after being called a faker by Sonic, she replied that the latter was not worth being considered his fake.

Shade is a rather conflicted character, often experiencing painful flashbacks and still deeply affected by her troubled past. On one occasion, during the Space Colony ARK incident, seeing police sirens triggered an intense flashback to Maria's death. Even prior to the events of the ARK raid, Shade demonstrated some degree of self-doubt, most notably expressing frustration over how, despite being created as the Ultimate Lifeform as a means to cure various maladies, she is still unable to help her friend Maria, questioning whether she has a place on the planet. Similarly, largely because of her creation involving Black Doom, Shade during this time showed signs of self-loathing, seeing herself as no better than any other Black Arm. Shade was soon able to overcome this in the Black Arm and Emerl Incidents, during which she chose to move on from the past while continuing to keep Maria in her heart. Despite still being weighed by her past, Shade has chosen to confront it, not forgetting what she has experienced, but refusing to let it hold her back or stop her from fulfilling Maria's final wish to help humanity. Shade originally had disdain for humanity, being a misanthrope, but rarely attacked them outright, merely looking at them as a distant observer. During the events of the Space Colony ARK incident, Shade was planning to destroy the planet both ordered by Gerald Robotnik through brainwashing, and as revenge for the death of her only friend, Maria Robotnik. Shade eventually moves past her hatred for humanity by remembering her promise to Maria. Later on, Shade decided to protect humanity and those on earth to honor Maria's dying wish despite their original misgivings. Now, Shade has moved on from the past and decided to protect humanity on her own accord. She does, however, have some lingering guilt over Maria's death, to the extent that she at least once came close to having intrusive visions of a scenario where Maria didn't die before reminding herself that chance ended a long time ago.