09/15/2013, 04:33 PM #13715 It's okay Wonder. Shadow isn't a freak solely focused on obtaining the emeralds.
Shadow is a loner, to put it bluntly. He is rarely seen with others for an extended period of time, and distances himself from essentially everyone. He is usually soft-spoken, and only says what he needs to before a fight. If Shadow makes a threat, he has every intention of carrying it out. Shadow constantly refers to himself as the Ultimate Lifeform and thus belittles others as well as insulting their lack of strength. He has a ruthless edge in combat that all other characters in the series lack, and displays a natural "killer instinct". At times, Shadow is the most violent and merciless character in the series. Shadow's most infamous traits and quirks is his ruthlessness and aggression which leads to fear and a nervousness that inhibits characters from his pure "pragmatic" intent or sheer deadliness in combat and in a rampage. Numerous characters from various media of the Sonic series has shown absolute dread from encountering the Hedgehog in an all out assault in his darkest and most angriest. Such as various humans like GUN soldiers and Eggman from characters and heroes like Marine, Amy, and Cosmo. And his allies never treat him lightly, one of the few people specifically from Sonic that takes him seriously and with full intent of pure hostility instead of his usual jovial and cocky self.
Alongside Shadow's dark and violent demeanor, he can be smug and stubborn. He treats others in a very callous manner, throwing in his opinion no matter how cold-hearted it is and not caring for whatever the response is. He is shown to be highly arrogant and self absorbed; one of many examples is in the 2006 video game, he (as Super Shadow) states that their battle against Solaris may actually be "a fair fight." He is also consistently serious, even when not on a mission, and he has no regard for silliness.
On occasion, Shadow appears to have some degree of mental instability. This can be seen when he would often have hallucinations about Maria's face, or through his numerous threatening speeches. In most games Shadow is featured in, he pursues his foes with disturbing determination. The canon ending of Shadow the Hedgehog showed Shadow willing to destroy anything in his way to get to Black Doom.
Shadow also possesses a strong sense of identity, as evidenced when after falsely being told that he isn't the Ultimate Lifeform due to a lab report. He states to Rouge that even if his memories were fake, he is still Shadow the Hedgehog. Similarly in Sonic Heroes, during the Egg Fleet level, he mentions that even without his memories, he is still the Ultimate Lifeform, Shadow the Hedgehog. These qualities make him rarely susceptible to being manipulated by other forces.
Shadow is not without sentimental emotions and has shown a small sense of compassion from time to time. When Omega begins his attack in Sonic Heroes, Shadow could have easily forgotten about Rouge and engaged Omega without defending her. Instead, Shadow saves her from Omega, despite having absolutely no memory of her. He was also shown to be legitimately shocked when he learned that his goal of gaining the Chaos Emeralds to restore his memories was actually manipulated by Black Doom in order to wipe out humanity. Likewise, when the GUN Commander finally confronts him with his own memories of Shadow's nightmarish creation, Shadow agrees to face judgement if he was indeed responsible for the ARK massacre 50 years ago.
Shadow brushes off any kindness or sympathy that is sent his way. This is shown in Sonic Heroes, when Rouge showed concern for Shadow when he saw a broken android, Shadow curtly brushed her concern away. Also in Shadow the Hedgehog after Sonic suggested some "friendly competition," Shadow turned his back to Sonic and said, "Don't waste my time".
Despite Shadow being considered neutral in terms of alignment, he is considered an anti-hero by the most part with his overall motivation, which is dedicating his life to protecting mankind. He has also been selfless, such as nearly giving his life at the end of Sonic Adventure 2 to save Earth. Regardless, Shadow is still neutral, because he does whatever is necessary to get what he wants.
Where is Ocelot anyway?