Shadow with half-lidded eyes is not OOC. He is a serious, pragmatic character who is always on alert mode. Or at least that's just the surface level of it. It should not be his default expression, but to say he should never make that face reduces him to a robotic war of weapon. This defeats the entire point of SA2/Battle/Shth05/Gens, which is that he is a living being with a heart that cares (both Sonic and Maria have directly told him this). Shadow is an unreliable narrator with genuine emotional slip-ups that reveal he's far more complex than he appears at face value.

What makes this Sonic Heroes scene so great and iconic is that this is Shadow slowly remembering who he is.This is his first time facing Sonic since the events of SA2. Shadow being smug and overly-competitive with him has nothing to do with his mission. He's doing this out of his own volition. The half-lidded expression isn't off-model or a mistake. It is a deliberate hint that he's not an android, but the real Shadow after all.

>>530791245
>I accept your confession