One of the reasons I liked Kirk was because he kinda sounds like a tougher version of David Humphrey

Forces Shadow is the best shadow He sounds so calm and calculated

I’ll actually defend Kirk’s boom portrayal because the whole thing with Boom is that they are parodies of what people THINK the Sonic characters are. People THINK Knuckles is dumb so in boom he’s practically brain dead. People THINK Sonic is super egotistical so they make him this self centered egomaniac. People THINK Shadow is just the edgy rival there to fight Sonic so they make him this overly edgy jerk who wants to fight Sonic for literally no reason and I think Kirk nailed it perfectly.

Strongly agree, i was sad when i hear Griffith was being replaced but as soon as I saw it was Kirk(the guy who voiced Jin in Samurai Champloo), i knew hed be in good hands. Just needed time, he sounds close to David with the delivery of Jason

You should listen to the Twitter takeovers with shadow. You get a much bigger sample size of Kirk's Shadow. Honestly, ive started liking Kirk a lot

Unfortunately its a repeating cycle that new stuff such as voices will be hated during It's debut. People hated Jason, Roger and Kirk during their debut but they've come around on em over the years and enjoy their interpretations of the characters. I fw Kirk's Shadow heavy but in SXSG he's poppin off.

This is like the same thing with roger his sonic voice was never bad it was just he had bad direction until frontiers finally give him a script he could work with and we saw how amazing he voiced sonic in frontiers kirk voice acting suits shadow

Kirk is my favorite shadow

Kirk is a phenomenal voice actor. Always has been. I mean the fact that he has the range to voice Orbot within this own series tells you all you need to know. But I thought like many of the actors in the 2010s his direction was quite bad and I didn’t like him as Shadow because of that. Funnily enough it was Forces that first made me think he actually fit ok and strangely enough it was that recent LEGO commercial of all things that convinced me “oh yeah. He could’ve nailed Shadow this entire time. He just wasn’t given the direction for it.” And the voice lines from Shadow Generations are confirming that suspicion for me.

He ain't that bad in forces but he ain't no David Humphrey and defo no Jason Griffith

Honestly, Kirk isn’t bad as Shadow. He still has that grit and slight edge in his voice that the other Shadow voice actors have. It’s just that due to bad voice direction and Shadow’s characterisation being f#cked in the 2010s, people hate his performance as Shadow. If he used his Jin voice from Samurai Champloo for Shadow, he’d be liked as Shadow a lot more: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mdKTatR22cmmmaM.htmlsi=3fM7zwABlSOzSe_- kzfaq.info/get/bejne/f6yJdttk1Na5nmg.htmlsi=ia1pgkoQmM39QcCn

Meh I'll always prefer the way Shadow sounds in Sonic Prime. I prefer Shadow with a smooth voice

Tbh, Kirk was never bad. Just a mix of him needing a little better direction, the sudden surprise cast change (especially with Free Riders being the first game with this new casting), and fans as per usual stuck with thier (Amy) rose tinted glasses. Not to mention much like Roger he's gotten better with time, ala Boom (TV series) and Forces. He just needed more time to cook with the character, especially since we barley hear him in any mainline games. (Before Forces, bro only had ONE line in Generations💀)

Another reason why Kirk is my goat

That’s what I’m saying!!! I already liked Kirk’s Shadow for the most part. People hate on Boom Shadow but it didn’t really bother me cuz that version of Shadow is a different character altogether, like the rest of the cast. But in Forces? the first major appearance of mainline Shadow since gens? I think he’s good! And he only seems to be improving in SxS gens!

Season 2 Boom Shadow actually sounded pretty fine. I get what you mean about Kirk sounding ROUGH in the Twitter Takeovers, but he did pretty good in the 6th one.

Holly shit, never payed attention to how better he sounds from Forces onwards, guess the experience and better direction really taught the man how to cook lol, also thank you for mentioning that he kinda sounds like SA2 and heroes in X gens, thats defo the vibes im getting too. While i am mostly a Jason fan when it comes to shadow, i do like his first voice for sounding calmer and... kinda more sympathetic? matched way more with his story and character in SA2, before he became Vegeta lol.

As someone who watched Vinland Saga in English dub, I know that Kirk can do a good job with Shadow. He just needs proper direction.

Yes, Kirk was ever bad. I'll let him slide on Gens since he barely spoke there, Boom is a separate continuity, and he was actually pretty good in Forces. But he was goin' way too Vegeta in TSR. He sounds too edgy. More edgy than Shadow the Monologue Hog (SA2) and Jason. We all forgot about Free Riders. But it's aight. Not as overly edgy as TSR.

I feel like he wouldn't be nearly as bad if it wasn't so horribly directed. He sounds like... an edgy edgelord trying to sound like an edgelord. Not to mention the dialogue he's given.

The best Shadow voice, to me, is David Humphrey specifically in his debut Sonic Adventure 2. The second best, to me, is Jason Griffith in the first few cutscenes of Shadow The Hedgehog and in Sonic 06. The 3rd best to me is Ian Hanlin. It's a close third too. If he were able to do more, he might swap with Griffith here and there depending on what's going on. And to answer the question at the beginning, yes, Kirk Thorton did sound bad as Shadow. But he didn't even know the character so how is he supposed to know what we expect the character to sound like? It's the fault of whoever cast him based on that voice and/or directed him with my biggest disappointment which is that I actually loved his delivery as Shadow, but just not that growl in his voice that sounds like Kisame from Naruto. And since he voiced Orbot, I know he could do a smoother voice. In fact, I think sometimes he can even have a David Humphrey sound to him if he just gets rid of that growl. HOWEVER, while he doubled down in BOOM (Which I didn't like BUT accepted because it was actually fitting to that version of Shadow as a different character), at he Sonic 25th anniversary part when I heard him in person, he sounded PERFECT! And then in Sonic Forces... Best Kirk Thorton has sounded as Shadow in a game so far imo. In Twitter Takeovers and TailsTube since then and Team Sonic Racing, he's regressed a bit. But it's not as bad as before. That said, in Sonic X Shadow Generations, I don't hate it, but I don't love it. It's been 14 years so I think the fanbase is just getting used to it because fans were praising his voice in the gameplay and trailers, yet it sounds very un-Shadow in a lot of lines. I mean, some lines sound good still, but some lines I just had a hard time connecting the voice to the character without having to force myself to do so by listening over and over. Just doesn't sound like the Ultimate Life Form with that backstory I know. Sounds like the comedic parody of serious characters I know. But idk, maybe he'll surprise me with more lines I like than dislike. Like in Forces. I really like Kirk Thorton as an actor so...

Kirk as gotten better but jason is still the best voice shadow has had imo, it also comes down to the voice direction which sonic team has not really done very well starting from gens.

I'm sticking with Jason Griffith because he's OG Shadow the hedgehog voice actor ever since I watch Sonic x series

Also, everyone's entitled to their opinions. However, it will never cease to baffle me that people are saying Jason Griffith is the definitive voice of both Sonic AND Shadow. Not only because he was hated for so long as well as the entire 4kids cast due to 4kids voice acting being generally bad (and if you go back to those performances... yeah they haven't changed. lol) But also because both voices come AFTER the actual original voices that already existed that Jason's voices had to sound vaguely similar to. On top of which, I can tell Shadow is voiced by the same person as Sonic. I literally hear Sonic's voice trying to talk deep and edgy when Shadow speaks. This wouldn't be as big of an issue if someone else voiced Sonic like in Sonic & Tails R. Shadow just sounds like Shadow then because someone else voices Sonic. But if Jason also voices Sonic... then it messes up Shadow's voice and vice versa for me. I know some people just have different favorites. But in addition to that, with the sudden praise in the past decade, I have to believe that a good majority of that is because the prime age group of the fanbase is currently the ones who grew up with Sonic X and feel slighted by the new cast replacing them, just like the OG fans felt when the Adventure cast was replaced by the 4kids cast without warning. So next decade we should expect the current cast to be definitive? Or if they ever get mass-replaced again? lol

Kirk was never a bad VA, just the direction they’ve had for him has been….inconsistent I guess is the best way to put it. Like he only has one line in OG/Base Gens and it’s blah, he sounds good in Forces, in Boom he’s meh at best but it’s Boom so lol, in the Takeovers and Tailstube shit he sounds like Boom which isn’t good but here in Shadow X Gens from what we’ve seen he sounds really good probably because they’ve finally given him a good script and more cool and collected direction, which is how Shadow is SUPPOSED to be, not bootleg cell saga Vegeta like they’ve been trying to push for the last decade 😂. It’s really the script Kirk has been getting that’s been holding back. Literally the same problem Rodger had before Frontiers.

I've come around on most of the Studiopolis cast, but Kirk Thornton was one of those that just felt miscast from the beginning. Even his best performances still didn't quite hit like David or Jason's. The actor is just too rough and old sounding. At his best, he's decent. At his worst, he's unbearable. Good Orbot though.

My first thought when I heard him in Shadow Gens was that he sounded straight out of a fan game, I'm gonna have to go with the japanese version for this one. I don't think his voice fits the character at all and he sounds the same as in any other game to me. Jason and Ian Hanlin are the best voices imo and the current game voice is a complete miscast. Like on the vid brotha, keep grinding ;)

Just switch to Japanese voices, they're consistent and sound like the old English actors.

jason is best shadow. roger is best sonic

Idk man I'm still not sold on Kirk Shadow I think he is still a miscast and they should get someone new

The sonic cycle at its finest his voice does not fit shadow Jason did the best shadow voice , I’d give the original voice actor for shadow second place then I’d say prime shadows voice actor is third I actually really liked his voice as well as Sonic’s was honestly hoping we’d finally get a replacement on the voices going forward. In my opinion idk why sega keeps changing Sonic’s voice actors and the least liked actors to date are the ones who get to stick around. A lot of the hate Jason got when he took the role was crazy no one liked his voice but I liked it from the beginning sounds like a mix of Ryan and Jaleel White . And by black knight he’d found his stride as sonic. Now everyone loves and misses him where was this love before? Same here again everyone hated these new actors when they replaced Jason and the old cast now suddenly they are getting praise. I haven’t liked these guys interpretations from day one but they have gotten better, do they fit the voices of the cheaters tho ? No in my opinion they don’t.

Kirk just doesn't work as Shadow to me.