Commentary for October 9, 2019:

Feelings. Trauma. Emotional Baggage.

These are things Sega doesn’t allow Sonic to have in his official depictions anymore. But I’m not beholden to Sega, so I can explore how experiences have affected him emotionally. And, really, Shadow’s apparent death was probably the first time he ever experienced that kind of loss (at least, in the game canon, such as it is). Sure, he and Shadow weren’t friends -- in fact, they had been enemies -- but Shadow teamed up with Sonic to do the right thing when it mattered most (and not just out of rational self-interest like Eggman), so Sonic really isn’t going to hold a grudge at that point. I imagine Sonic would have some feelings about his apparent inability to save Shadow’s life after he made that heroic stand. Guilt, maybe? Perhaps regret is a more appropriate word? After all, guilt would imply he blames himself for it, which I don’t think he does. He did everything he could, after all. Then again, sometimes we do feel guilt even when we do our best if our best is not enough. Feelings are complicated like that.