One year ago today on April 30th, 2019, the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog dropped. Happy Birthday, OG Movie Sonic! We’ll never forget you, buddy.
Perhaps on paper it was cheap to retcon Shadow's death, but something about surviving your own self-sacrifice, entering a literally apocalyptic identity crisis, and coming out of it deciding to be your own fucking person who carries on despite it all is pretty metal imo.
Like if you're gonna resurrect a fan-favorite, I think they excelled in terms of actually doing something with his character rather than simply bringing him back because he sells well (although that was surely the real-world reason it happened). I also just hate the Redemption Equals Death trope because of the way it cuts off story potential.
I think that Shadow seemingly dying because they thought that was gonna be the last game in the franchise so they wouldn't be able to do much more with him, only for him and the franchise as a whole to be like "I lived, bitch" is quite poignant.