THANK YOU SOMEONE FINALLY SAYS IT
i do like a lot of what shadow 05 goes for story wise but my biggest issue by far is them trying to make GUN the good guys in that and every game after, which is fucking laughable and entirely antithetical to the point of their presence in sa2 (they’re a neutral party that antagonizes all the playable characters to some degree, and their atrocities are the reason the plot even fucking happens)
i have heard it argued that it makes sense that shadow joins GUN in 06 because by that point he has completely discarded his past and become functionally a new character, due to being disgusted by it and wanting nothing to do with it in shadow 05, so now he no longer gives a shit, and also rouge works for them and he wants to be around rouge because she’s one of his closest friends. i can KINDA buy it, but also on the other hand it feels very strange that he would have absolutely no weird feelings or character conflict about being an agent for the org that killed basically his sister and wanted to use him as a weapon in the first place, no matter how much he’s moved on from the past, and also they’re not doing anything evil anymore isn’t that interesting. at the very least it’s a huge missed opportunity for a lot of interesting character stuff with shadow, testing where his allegiance and morals really lie and how much he really has moved on from the past
anyway ideally i think GUN as an org is basically just a PMC that the government pumps money into and has a lot of political power as a result, but at their core they’re just shady mercs with a presentable coat of paint, to an even greater extent than the actual army, if it even exists at this point (and unfortunately, besides eggman, they’re one of the only militarized forces capable of fending off the black arms to some degree).