Is Sonic The Ultimate Life Form?

[@Synthpopper]

No, that would be your mother

[@azimochaa]

I've heard it once and it stuck with me since Sonic is the ultimate 'natural' lifeform While Shadow is the ultimate 'artificial' lifeform

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

I can agree with that premise

[@ultimat3748]

Shadow: SONIC YOUR THE ULTIMATE LIFE FORM!!! *doesn't die* Shadow: actually nvm I'm the ultimate life form

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

Shadow: "F*ck you, I'M HIM!"

[@Skye-Central]

@@AnotherSonicFanboy Sonic "I think I missed the part where I'm suppose to care."

[@Dog1167]

sonic at the end of sonic frontiers when he also survives a fall from space and unlike shadow keeps his memories intact: nah I’d win

[@ultimat3748]

@@Skye-Central Your a colorful bunch

[@Mrotaku578]

Silver: do you believe in your own hype that much? Shadow : I AM THE HYPE !!

[@ashemabahumat4173]

Shadow was literally designed to be, and he was made in Sonic's image from an ancient prophecy. Sonic is currently at the apex of life, or at least close to it. He can slay gods, break speed barriers and has broken the timeline itself. He has memories from an erased timeline and has multiple deity-level lifeforms as both enemies and friends- Divine Favor and Ire. He is the new physical embodiment of Chaos itself, by Eggman's own admission. I think its a pretty clear-cut answer, and something we all already either knew or saw coming

[@southerncoastproductions7587]

answer is shadow. He's done the same. has same forms.

[@shady5595]

You're talking about the wrong continuity

[@bbguy2245]

The amount of this that's either wrong or exaggerated is WILD

[@thesupersucc4966]

​@southerncoastproductions7587 shadow has only killed like a single God shadows Def weaker sonic

[@southerncoastproductions7587]

@@thesupersucc4966 That never happened, Are you dumb?

[@NineTwentyThreeTwentyThree]

I absolutely believe Sonic is the destined Ultimate Life-Form, a being destined to come from the past to bring joy and freedom to all. I have a strong suspicion the goal was originally to make it a similar story to Luffy with “Sun God Nika.” Oh and it seems like in Japan, Shadow doesn’t call himself the Ultimate Life Form after SA2, but instead calls himself “The Ultimate.”

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

Somehow, that's even more raw.

[@JM57-99]

I had an idea one day about a theme of nature vs humanity where both Sonic and Shadow were candidates for the ultimate life form, one proposed by nature and the other one proposed by humanity One was genetically engineered The other was just born One has tools and gadgets attached to his body The other uses his own body to its fullest extent One has ideals and objectives he follows The other does what he feels like doing One has a technical understanding of the Chaos Emeralds The other just wings it and it works

[@comicfan1324]

I don’t think the line was ever supposed to be taken literally. Shadow isn’t saying that Sonic is *literally* the Ultimate Lifeform, instead Shadow was saying this out of respect for Sonic.

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

Yes, as I said in the video. Sonic gained Shadow's respect.

[@DubAct3]

I like this interpretation too Ngl. I think it’s open to be interpreted both ways tho

[@1999bazz]

The Ultimate Lifeform is an immortal who is the miracle cure for disease. That's the goal of Project Shadow. Immortal & immune to disease are things Sonic clearly isn't. When Shadow said Sonic might be the true ultimate lifeform, he wasn't thinking straight since he was burning himself out which even Sonic realised if you look at the full interaction in space (in JP anyways, I don't remember the english version) while Sonic wasn't burning himself out which he said. When Shadow survived, he realised that he's just as strong as Sonic. Especially when he never struggled with his Super form ever after SA2. It was never about popular misconceptions like power levels. That was never the goal with the Biolizard or Shadow. And this was stated before Shadow Generations. They used a lizard because lizards have self-recovery abilities which they thought could help create the Ultimate Lifeform, but that failed. Its massive growth in size was an unexpected side effect. They didn't model Biolizard after Chaos like some think. Gerald only tried recreating Chaos through artificial chaos to get the military off his back & buy himself more time. That was all unrelated to Project Shadow.

[@AmostheArtman]

dude this is the first time I'm hearing the "Shadow was made in Sonic's image because the professor saw the Sonic 3 mural" and it makes so much sense. It also perfectly answers the "why is Shadow a hedgehog" question. 🤯🤯🤯 (I know you already know this, but I'm still hella geekin' out about it)

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

I love the theory because it makes a lot of sense, I'm assuming Gerald's journal will answer it next month.

[@ezronco.8671]

It also fits that shadow's design looks similar to super sonic from the adventure era. They even share the same head model in sa2 just retextured.

[@Marchers46]

I think the Ultimate Lifeform were all the friends we lost along the way.

[@johnjones5626]

Sonic is essentially like Goku but not literally in the sense. Where Sonic's experience from mastering over the chaos emeralds as well as going against ancient deities and gods allowed him to maintain a super form to the point that is near perfection essentially and we've seen this both in frontiers as well as '06 essentially. Within that game funny enough Sonic was able to do the most damage compared to the other two hedgehogs which were seen at the time. That's talking about silver and Shadow obviously. Sonic isn't the ultimate life form per se, but he's more like a natural byproduct of what the ultimate level could be if it was naturally formed through pure chaos energy and enhance over the years and manifesting into the powerful being that he is. While Shadow on your other hand is the ultimate life form in terms of power chaos manipulation as well as him having the black arms DNA being the perfected hedgehog from the miryror from Sonic 3 most likely. One was telling Sonic's destiny to be and other one is a byproduct of that set. Destiny. Without Sonic there's no Shadow and without Shadow there is no Sonic

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

The pedantic nerd in me wants to be like "technically the prophecy and mural could still be there even if Sonic didn't exist, so Shadow COULD exist 🤓" but in all seriousness, I agree.

[@MetalWeebChaos]

If there's anything I've learned throughout the years as a nerd, it's that some fans can know and remember things more than the actual writers and creators can. I say some fans because there's a reason why fanfiction isn't canon. Then again, a bunch of official stuff nowadays feel like fanfics so I don't know lol

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

You mean my evil Sonic clone isn't canon? Rats.

[@lyddian-zzz]

To me it's pretty clear that, at the time of SA2, Sonic was meant to be the True Ultimate Lifeform, with the stability of his Super Form, his innate habtitude for Chaos Control, all of that, and Shadow was meant to be his copy. But as real time went on, they just gave up on that idea and made Shadow the only Ultimate Lifeform, Sonic pretty much forgot Chaos Control, and the Super Forms are back to being something every character with Chaos Emerald can do with Frontiers. Is Sonic the Ultimate Lifeform? I think the answer needs context: - In the context of SA2's story than yes, Sonic is the Ultimate Lifeform and Shadow his "faker" - In the context of what Sega and/or Sonic Team is considering today, then no, Shadow is the real Ultimate Lifeform and there's nothing special about Sonic. Personally I prefer SA2's take, because I think it's more special and meaningful, I like to imagine an alternate universe where they followed the momentum of SA2 and we had a story with a Sonic that maybe got more serious about his role as the Ultimate Lifeform and a prophesied hero and carry Shadow's role and sacrifice, and in gameplay we could maybe also have had Sonic using Chaos Control more often and have it has a mechanic in gameplay similar to what we see in Shadow Generations, but I can keep dreaming I guess.

[@BlackFlash09]

There's also the fact that Vegeta has grown as a character. So, I don't understand why people keep comparing Shadow to him, like it's some sort of disgrace.

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

It seems like Sega treats him like Saiyan saga Vegeta, when both characters are much more than that.

[@BlackFlash09]

@@AnotherSonicFanboy Quite true.

[@wolfywonder8480]

I definitely think that Sonic is supposed to be some kind of outlier among his kind, Ultimate Lifeform or not. The thing is, we don't really know what the Ultimate Lifeform is supposed to be. According to what we know of Project Shadow, it seems like the Ultimate Lifeform just refers to an artificially created being who is both a super weapon and a cure-all for any and every illness in the known universe. Obviously, Sonic isn't that. We never see the term "Ultimate Lifeform" used outside of this context. But I definitely think that Shadow, intentionally or otherwise, was essentially a man-made recreation of what Sonic's eventual skills would be. He has his weak points; he's technically slower than Sonic without his fancy shoes, Sonic is arguably better at Chaos Control than him based on him being able to perform it successfully after only seeing Shadow do it a couple times with a fake emerald, and Sonic's aptitude for Chaos energy in general seems to surpass Shadow's. Though Shadow without his inhibitor rings is probably stronger than Sonic, those results were clearly gained artificially. In the same way that the Biolizard keeps on growing and needs life support, Shadow can't survive long-term without his inhibitor rings. That's not sustainable in nature - if Shadow were born regularly, he wouldn't have made it to adulthood (morbid as it is to think about). Not only does Sonic seemingly have access to more Chaos energy than Shadow with his inhibitor rings on, but he seems to be very in tune with it and have a strong grasp over how it works, unlike Shadow who pretty much only uses it for it's power in bursts (Chaos Control, Snap, Spear, etc) and otherwise doesn't really tap into it. So while I don't think Sonic is the Ultimate Lifeform, per se, I think he's essentially the all-around "better" version of Shadow - he was born naturally, his power is sustainable and doesn't negatively impact his health or livelihood, he's very in tune with his powers and uses them by instinct rather than through what seems like training (In SonicXShadow Gens we learn that Shadow went through a whole process of learning Chaos Control, implying that it took some time and lots of failed attempts, unlike Sonic who got it on his first try after seeing it a handful of times with a fake, less-powerful emerald). Make of that what you will

[@mikeshepard2024]

Shadow is the Ultimate Life Form, Sonic is moreso a "Chosen One" in Echidna prophecy although in terms of true potential power-wise Silver beats both if '06 is any indication. He learnt Chaos Control without seeing it and Shadow claiming that Sonic might be the "true Ultimate Life Form" is based on him using Chaos Control with a fake emerald.

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

Yeah, it was a sign of respect from Shadow.

[@ptihiii]

Silver beating shadow 😂 no way

[@monserviceincontournable2267]

Lol he see Shadow used it in front of him in sonic 06. What you on about ? 😅 Silver learn in a hardway like sonic

[@yvng_hero305]

Iizuka glazes shadow so much he wants him to be this selfish unkind loner who cant even respect sonic despite losing to him throughout the series. How are u gonna call sonic the ultimate lifeform, then take it back????

[@thesupersucc4966]

HOLY I've been saying this forever lizuka is just a bad writer saying he's not even friends with sonic nor respects him

[@yvng_hero305]

@@thesupersucc4966 forreal. I’ll admit i like sonic more than shadow since sonics my favorite, but shadow has always been a close second. But the reason i find him cool at all is because his kind heart within his dark exterior. Theres genuinely nothing cool about an ungreatful loner character who cant control his emotions enough to treat one of his friendliest adversaries like crap. If iizukas shadow was a real person in our world, nobody would actually like the guy 😭

[@thedoglovinggamer5825]

I hope Shadow gets control of his full power at some point in the future.

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

SonicXShadow Generations with the chaos powers looks like they're going to explore him more. Would be cool to see him gain more control of his powers!

[@thedoglovinggamer5825]

@@AnotherSonicFanboy That would be awesome!

[@GRS12345]

Now the real question is chaos being the ultimate life form

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

CHAOS

[@mrwizzardknight]

I agree with everything you said! ;) It all makes sense! 😊👍

[@AbcXyzXD]

Your channel is underrated, keep it up!🙌

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

Thank you!

[@OnePolishMoFo]

That line is massively misinterpreted. Probably because of how the actor read it out loud. I always thought he was supposed to say it sarcastically. As in Shadow knows he himself is the ultimate lifeform but Sonic is giving him a run for his money. It was a compliment. Respect. But the actor reads it like it's supposed to be a genuine question.

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

I don't think it's sarcastic, but I also don't think it's him definitively saying that Sonic is the ultimate life form. I think Shadow was impressed with Sonic and it was a compliment.

[@OnePolishMoFo]

@@AnotherSonicFanboy so what I said. Maybe sarcastic is the wrong word cus it normally carries negative undertones. Ironic?

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

@@OnePolishMoFo I just wanted to reiterate that I came to the same conclusion in the video. Sarcastic also means not genuine and Shadow was genuine in saying it as a compliment, at least to me.

[@TheThundertwig]

I'm not sure it's that disappointing, or in any way fails to understand the character. Not dying is a pretty big deal, and clearly affected shadow tremendously.

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

I don't think Shadow "changed his mind." When he said Sonic was the Ultimate Life Form, he was saying it out of respect. The first part of Iizuka's answer made sense, but the part about Shadow changing his mind I don't think understands the character.

[@ZioEndling]

I personally don't really like the Mural Theory mainly because it feels so Sonic-centric (ironically-enough) for a character that stands on his own, really. Sure it may make sense as a theory, but it feels like so many people take the theory as fact and run with it, even if it isn't official. Headcanons are fine, but people claiming it to be true are by all accounts false as nothing like that has been confirmed. But yes, I dislike the theory as I'd prefer Shadow to be less tied to Sonic at the hip THAT much. The real reason is probably just "Sega wanted a darker counterpart for Sonic", but that's often the less satisfying answer. Besides, the depiction in the mural hardly looks like a hedgehog, like, at all. It looks more like an angel/eldritch being. It's plausible, but feels like you have to clear a couple logical hoops such as "why would Gerald be allowed into an ancient site where the murals were?" and the aforementioned one I talked about before. I think Shadow's the true Ultimate Lifeform as he was created to be, but he calls Sonic that in a moment of weakness (mental or physical) and as a sign of respect as he was the only one capable of keeping up with Shadow even remotely. Also, if you look closely at when Shadow and Sonic use Chaos Control, you'll notice when of the sphere of energy created from Chaos Control are bigger than the other. Could be presumed to be Shadow's doing since we later see one of Shadow's Inhibitor Rings be given to Sonic. Since SA2, Shadow's been able to handle the Super Form without issue whatsoever in spite of any inexperience. It shows his raw talent and aptitude for the power. Personally, I headcanon that after the failure of the Biolizard, Gerald believed it best to see if he can compact all that power into a much smaller lifeform with great mobility. Especially after uncovering Emerl, humanoid robot with great potential for power. These anthropomorphic animals seem to be much stronger and much more capable than humans generally, so using one of the most mobile and swift of their species seemed more logical. Thus, creating a form of homunculi of a hedgehog (or perhaps taking DNA from a pre-existing hedgehog) and then editing it with DNA modification. Once Gerald got Black Doom's blood, it was basically a done deal. All he needed to do was give him rings to control his power and Shadow was set. tl;dr: Don't like the Mural theory cuz of a few inconsistencies and it being too Sonic-centric for such a unique character like Shadow, my theory is Gerald wanted to make something smaller than Biolizard, chose an anthro-hedgehog cuz they're fast and small, created an artificial one with biology, slapped Black Doom's blood on it, ringed him up, birth of Shadow.

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

Definitely makes sense that Gerald would want a smaller form factor for the ultimate lifeform. Especially since the biolizard required giant life supports.

[@ZioEndling]

@@AnotherSonicFanboy Yeah. I think the Inhibitor Rings were an evolution of the Life Support Systems that the Biolizard used that didn't require as much machinery. I can also imagine that the Biolizard is a result of using an animalistic heart with chaos energy as chaos energy is reactive to emotions, so giving it to a more feral, simple being that uses pure survival instinct and without real higher cognitive functions was a bad idea since it causes the chaos energy to go haywire. Takes a toll on not only the mind, but the body while also making the power go critical like a nuclear meltdown.

[@SonicStuffs]

I see sonic as the ultimate life form. He has the ability to control time and space since sonic cd. He has a mastery of the 7 cbaos emeralds since sonic adventure and even arguably sonic & knuckles. He cannot get erased as he has survived solaris and the time eater There is a lot more sonic offers but he can do anything shadow does despite him rarely using those abilities like sonic wind and chaos control even shadow cant do

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

I also like how Sonic has mastered the use of the emeralds through experience. He has been using them for 30 years lol

[@SonicStuffs]

@AnotherSonicFanboy he has told us recently that it used to be a lot to take in but now it's just completely natural

[@lemonscaled4274]

Iizuka didn't like how Shadow was handled in 06, despite the fact that was one of the few things people actually liked about the game. It's because it wasn't an Iizuka game. He flopped with Shadow 05 and Sonic 06 saved his own character. After 06 flopped, there's a good reason we saw Shadow lose all of his character depth and backstory DESPITE the fact nothing was wrong with Shadow in 06. Iizuka was clearly jealous about people liking 06 Shadow better, so he tanked the character going forward until now. Notice also how in all the new Shadow Generations content, it focuses only on lore from the poorly received Shadow 05, nothing from 06. During a recent interview, Iizuka even had the gumption to claim Shadow isn't a hero trying to protect the world like Vegeta becoming friends with Goku. Iizuka doesn't know what makes Shadow actually Shadow, and I don't trust his word on shit anymore

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

It's a really weird situation because Iizuka said his favorite Character is Shadow, but he hasn't had Shadow do anything since 2006 except for in Forces (and now with SonicXShadow Generations)

[@lemonscaled4274]

​@@AnotherSonicFanboy I'm really hoping Shadow Generations proves me wrong, but so far it feels like we're retreading old ground and regressing the character to tell the Shadow 05 story again but properly handled

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

@@lemonscaled4274 I know I'm pretty optimistic in general, but everything I've seen from the game looks great so far. My big question is how will they handle Shadow moving forward? If they build on this, we could get a new Shadow game.

[@cerezacykes3886]

Do you have the source for that? It sounds like some shit Iizuka would say but I wanted to find the source so I could share it around lol.

[@nightlydata2181]

There's nothin bout 06 that goes against 05. There's nothin in Iizuka's words that suggest he dislikes 06. There's nothin in the series that showcases or defines shadow as an outright "hero" jus like how there isn't for sonic. Shadow was never "tanked" he jus didn't appear in stuff cus the games were becomin less story oriented & shadow is a more story oriented character so it wouldn't make sense for him to be in colors or LW. Shadow borrowed elements but he's right shadow isn't vegeta & he doesn't have anyone he considers outright friends. Iizuka knows most of wut makes shadow shadow cus he made the character & wrote 3 of the games shadow is in. Shadow Gens is def retreadin old ground & while I don't prefer that it's very obv done cus of new fans in both the west & japan checkin the series out cus of the movies & the 3rd 1 is on shadow so they want to reestablish his character in the franchise to ppl. The only thing wrong is Iizuka bringin up maria as the main catalyst for protectin the planet but even then it's the planet he protects & not the humans or ppl in general like maria asked in SA2 & 05

[@frickerrific2813]

He was at the very least

[@Eva9000]

I have a lame theory I don't take seriously... What if Gerald had an extra hedgehog he was working on not just Shadow but Sonic too? There's not much backstory for Sonic (in the games. Comic/cartoon/movie sonic had family and origins laid out)

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

Not lame, just probably not the case. Though I do think they'll eventually explode Sonic's backstory, especially since they've finally explained the chaos emeralds.

[@johnnygyro2295]

This isn't the first time I've heard that theory, and I have to admit, I kind of like it. That said, only time will tell if that's the case in the "Game/Main" timeline.

[@crashban4t.f.s.b783]

It makes sense that Sonic is the ultimate Lifeform. Sonic is in a part of the prophesy.

[@AbcXyzXD]

Kool

[@lordx8844]

No.

[@XOFInfantryman]

Dude i always hated this "theory" that oh um Gerald randomly found that mural of some random blue hog and decided yeah this is an ultimate lifeform because...well it just is okay?! Ignore the fact that program to create ultimate lifeform came first, ignore that considering color pallet of creatures in the world of Sonic there could've been 1000s of blue mobians let alone hedgehogs over the decades, millenias This thing is full of plotholes and only works if you make up connections that arent there Tldr: its just people reading too deep into a red herring

[@AnotherSonicFanboy]

The government project to create the ultimate life form came before a mural depicting an ancient prophecy? I don't think I agree with that. We know Professor Gerald (at minimum) knew about Angel Island. The Biolizard needed life supports to sustain itself. It's entirely possible that the mural as well as a desire redesign the creature gave Gerald the inspiration to make Shadow a hedgehog. The mural isn't confirmed to depict Sonic, but it's implied. I am confused why you refer to Sonic's world as Mobius when that's an exclusively early Sega of America/Western media thing. It's just an alternate Earth.

[@DOYOUGOTGAMEONYOURPHONE]

the way I see it natural original ultimate life form while shadow is the artificial ultimate life form

[@DOYOUGOTGAMEONYOURPHONE]

awesome sonic is used to the chaos energy since it’s established that as soon as sonic had the emeralds he was just able to do it in fact, if you really think about it the good ending for sonic 1, sonic literally sonic chaos warps all the animals and flowers back on South Island but the other reason why shadows super form was significantly weaker than sonic was because a lot of people missed this but shadow and the bio lizard were created with a special organ that allows them to reproduce chaos energy that’s why shadows first chaos control takes so long it shadows first consumption of chaos energy, but after that chaos control, he absorbs the energy and full on mega man style copies the ability in a way