He is Shadow the hedgehog! The ultimate father! THIS IS WHO HE IS.

Wanted to draw Shadow looking all cool and badass… and holding his hand is some adorable little girl, not doing any favors for his image. Originally thought of using Cream, but a friend of mine suggested using Hedgehog!Maria, who I wanted to draw for a while. Handholding is badass, right?

I figure Shadow’s got himself a kid, and being the responsible parent he is, he’s taking her out and about, out doing dad things. How’d he get a daughter? Not really sure. Couple friends and I were throwing ideas around. Maybe she’s just a normal kid and he adopted her for some reason. Maybe she’s a sentient android a-la Robotnik Jr. Or my personal favorite idea, Eggman was trying to make his own Project Shadow using some of Shadow’s cells. Team Dark was sent in to investigate some secret weapon the good doctor was working on, and instead found this little girl, floating in a growth tank. They read some of the notes, figured out what was going on, and broke the tank, taking its small occupant with them. As she was, essentially, Shadow’s daughter, he took her in, feeling responsible for her. She’s much happier with this life, as is he. Good luck getting him to admit it though.

She’s around… four, five-ish here? Very smol, regardless. She did not inherit daddy’s height.

Is she actually Maria? Some reincarnation or something? A copy? Or just a coincidence? You decide!

Whatever the case, it’s more “big scary thing with small cute thing”, which the world always needs more of.

Was originally going to add a proper background, like some grungy street corner. Then I realized I couldn’t draw that, so instead I got another void background.

Also gave Shad some actual clothes, as drawing him nekkid just felt… off. Also cool robot gloves. Because cool.