Rouge the Bat
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| Rouge the Bat | |
|---|---|
 Rouge is always trying to obtain precious gems.
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| Game series | Sonic the Hedgehog |
| First game | Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) |
| Created by | Sonic Team USA |
| Voiced by (English) | Video Games Lani Minella (2001-2004) Caren Manuel (2005-present) Anime Caren Manuel (Sonic X) |
| Voiced by (Japanese) | Rumi Ochiai |
| Information | |
| Nickname | Bat Girl (used by Knuckles and Eggman) |
| Species | Bat |
| Skills | Screw Kick,[1] Flying[2] |
Rouge the Bat (ルージュ・ザ・バット Rūju za Batto?) is a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series, who is a determined 18 year old treasure hunter and part-time government agent who plans to make all the gems and treasures of the world hers. Her main jewel obsessions are the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds. She made her debut in Sonic Adventure 2, released June 18, 2001, and has been featured in several games following it.
In seven of the ten games she has appeared in to date, Rouge wears a skintight black body suit with a large pink heart-shaped breast plate, long white gloves, and thigh-high white boots with pink hearts on the toes. In Sonic Heroes and the two Sonic Riders games, she wears different outfits, but often with similar color schemes and heart-shaped details.[3]
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[edit] Game appearances
[edit] Sonic Adventure 2
Rouge first appears in Sonic Adventure 2 as the treasure-hunting character of the Dark Story, making her the equivalent of Knuckles, her goal being to seek out the pieces of the Master Emerald. She primarily attacks with kicks. She also drives a car in one level. She fights the boss Flying Dog (a G.U.N robot), and her rival, Knuckles who saves her from falling into the hopper of molten metal in her last boss battle. In the following cutscene, she gives up the shards of the Master Emerald she had collected saying "They stink like Echidnas do." In Cannon's Core, Rouge is the third of five characters to go through the level and is given Shadow's ring cufflink by Sonic after the defeat of the Final Hazard.
[edit] Sonic Heroes
In Sonic Heroes, Rouge is the flight member (and presumptive captain) of Team Dark. She releases Shadow from his stasis pod, and (accidentally) activates E-123 Omega, who attempts to destroy all of Eggman's robots, including Shadow, who Omega thinks is a robot clone. Rouge stops Shadow and E-123 Omega from fighting, suggesting that they work together as a team to find Eggman. She looks different than in Sonic Adventure 2, with the heart being on her belt.
[edit] Sonic Battle
In Sonic Battle, Rouge is one of the most prominently featured characters in the game, with her story being the third to be played through. She is the owner of Club Rouge in the Night Babylon area. Most of her fighting techniques appear to be derived from kickboxing. She plans to use her position as a government agent to gather information on valuable treasures and the security systems guarding them. She also knows a great deal about the Gizoid and tells most characters about the Gizoid, eventually telling Shadow the Hedgehog how to 'free' Emerl. She steals Emerl from Amy Rose, in order to train him as a master thief to steal more jewels for her. She fights with Amy and Sonic numerous times, increasing the tension between Rouge and the pair. Rouge teaches Emerl to fight, evade capture, and pick locks. Rouge then uses Emerl to steal a Chaos Emerald (which he absorbs, much to Rouge's displeasure). At the end of the game, when Emerl thanks Sonic and his friends/acquaintances for taking care of him, Rouge is only mentioned in the Japanese version.
[edit] Shadow the Hedgehog
Rouge also appears in Shadow the Hedgehog, and helps on hero missions in the Digital Circuit, Death Ruins, and GUN Fortress levels. In Expert Mode, her voice can be heard at the beginning of Cryptic Castle, Lava Shelter (along with Omega's), and The Last Way (along with the voice of every other character that appears in Expert Mode).
[edit] Sonic Riders
Rouge appears in Sonic Riders as an unlockable racer. She is a Flight type, and is the strongest Flight type character in the game. The Japanese website also mentions that she has some kind of rivalry with Wave the Swallow[citation needed]. Rouge is one of only four characters in Sonic Riders who do not wear any sporting gear on their heads, with the others being Amy, Knuckles, and AiAi. She is also one of the few characters who do not take any part of the story.
[edit] Sonic 2006
In Sonic the Hedgehog, Rouge appears as an "Amigo" character, playable in stages White Acropolis, Kingdom Valley, Flame Core, and Tropical Jungle. At the start of Shadow's story, she had gone on a mission to recover an item from Eggman's base, and Shadow is sent by GUN to help her escape. After being rescued, Rouge then works with him very closely for most of the game, in various endeavours, such as defeating Mephiles, tracking down the Chaos Emeralds, escaping from the future, and separately finding Omega, to aid Shadow, whilst he was stuck in a different time zone. Rouge also helps find the Chaos Emeralds to revive Sonic in the Last Story.
[edit] Sonic Rivals
Rouge appears in Sonic Rivals in Shadow's storyline. Rouge sends transmissions stating that she has stumbled across an interesting discovery about "Dr. Eggman's" true identity in the game, but the transmissions ended with her in danger. It is later revealed during Shadow's storyline that Rouge was turned into a card like Tails and Amy so Shadow sets out to save Rouge whilst also trying to discover what she was trying to warn him about. Rouge is playable in the sequel, Sonic Rivals 2.
[edit] Sonic Rivals 2
Rouge appears along with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Metal Sonic, Silver, and Espio as a playable character in Sonic Rivals 2. She teams up with Knuckles to help him find the Master Emerald (which Knuckles has lost once again). She suggests following Eggman to get an Emerald detector from him. Rouge actually worked with Knuckles so that she could find the seven Chaos Emeralds for her client. It is later discovered that her client is actually Eggman Nega and she decides to keep the Emeralds for herself. In the end, they get stolen from her and the portal to the Ifrit's dimension is opened. Knuckles forces her through, assuming that the Master Emerald is inside. In the end, Rouge breaks the Emerald Detector in a fight against Knuckles (one of them was being controlled by the Ifrit depending on which story you play) and they discover the Master Emerald had been inside the detector the whole time. Rouge then steals the Emerald Detector and the Master Emerald, only to be chased by Knuckles.
[edit] Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
Rouge returns in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity as a secret character along with Shadow, Blaze, Cream, Silver, and Dr. Eggman. Her game mechanics are unchanged from the previous Sonic Riders.
[edit] Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Rouge has been confirmed to appear as one of 11 playable characters in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood,[4] along with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Big, E-123 Omega and Shade. The others are unconfirmed for now.
[edit] Personality
Rouge is a professional treasure hunter[2] who devotes herself to the pursuit of jewels.[5] However, as the "World's Greatest Thief,"[6] her actions ignore abstract morality or manners in favor of potential gain;[2] she will fearlessly do whatever it takes to get what she wants regardless of the personal cost.[7] Because her character is overflowing with bewitching feminine charm, she appears careless,[2] but she is actually scheming[7] and manipulative.[2] Despite her anti-heroic traits and actions, she has shown a compassionate side and is secretly inspired by Knuckles the Echidna's determination to protect the Master Emerald.[7]
[edit] Abilities
Rouge, as a treasure hunter, has similar treasure hunting skills to those of her rival Knuckles (with the exception that she has a strapping lower body as opposed to his muscular upper body). Her signature attacks are strong martial arts kicks like her powerful Screw Kick. Rouge can fly and glide with her wings, and aviate herself to move at speeds close to that of other speedy characters like Knuckles and even Sonic and Shadow (though she is not as fast as the supersonic hedgehogs). She can also climb, dig, and swim quite well. In many games, Rouge makes use of different advanced technologies and weaponry. However, these are mostly game specific. Her most reccuring weapon is a bat-shaped bomb. Rouge is very strong, as she can support the weight of herself, Shadow and Omega.[8]
[edit] Interaction with Other Characters
[edit] Knuckles the Echidna
Rouge was first introduced as a rival for Knuckles the Echidna, both of them expert treasure hunters. Although they remain highly competitive, Rouge often goes to the extra length of playfully teasing and flustering Knuckles. Although Rouge often makes playful criticisms of Knuckles' treasure hunting skills, it can be said that the two have a shared respect for each other, in terms of abilities. Official sources confirm that Rouge has a secret crush on Knuckles that she would never admit to.[7] They are a team in Sonic Rivals 2.
[edit] Shadow the Hedgehog
Rouge is Shadow the Hedgehog's closest ally and friend. When they first met, Rouge was assigned by the President to spy on Doctor Eggman and learn more about Project Shadow. Their original professional attitudes later changed, with Rouge growing to care for Shadow's well-being. A few times she also becomes a "damsel in distress", usually causing Shadow to end up saving her. However, Rouge has also returned the favor a couple times as well. Additionally, Rouge has shown that she is quite sensitive toward Shadow's feelings and has declared her loyalty to stick by him regardless of the circumstances.[9] She has never shown any frustration over Shadow's mysterious and sometimes sarcastic personality, showing she accepts him as he is.
[edit] E-123 Omega
Rouge's closest ally besides Shadow is E-123 Omega; the three form Team Dark. In Sonic Heroes, Omega displayed somewhat matter-of-fact consideration for Rouge's feelings. Omega also performs any task Rouge assigns to him, from helping her find Eggman to assisting Shadow on multiple occasions.
[edit] Dr. Eggman
Unlike most of the other characters in the games, Rouge has no particular dislike for Doctor Eggman other than he is the antagonist and that he is the one getting the emeralds. Her reasons for opposing him are mostly business related: she cannot get her hands on the Chaos Emeralds if he already has them. However, just like Shadow does, she will ally herself with Eggman if it is most profitable for her. In Sonic Adventure 2, her true reasons for doing so are that she needed to be in on everything in order to get any research on Project Shadow on the Space Colony ARK. Since her cover as a government agent for G.U.N. has been exposed to Eggman, all information she gathers on his schemes are retrieved by infiltrating his bases or computers as opposed to trying to trick him into trusting her with access to his plans.
[edit] Agent Topaz
Rouge only met Agent Topaz in Sonic X where she is Rouge's partner. Though at first the regimental Topaz disapproves of the scheming Rouge, (who keeps calling her an old lady), the two become friends fast. Their main assignments involved striking at Eggman and locating the Chaos Emeralds as well as serving as envoys between Sonic and the government. When Topaz said farewell to Rouge when she had to return to her planet, Rouge gave her a ring as a goodbye gift. This is quite unusual, as Rouge usually keeps any piece of jewelry she comes across. After Topaz sees Rouge step through the portal back to her home planet, Topaz has an out of character moment where she bursts into tears crying, as opposed to her usual tough and serious nature; this suggests a strong friendship between the two.
[edit] In other media
[edit] Sonic X
In Sonic X, Rouge is a jewel thief who gets caught by the government while looking for a Chaos Emerald. Despite previous jewel thefts, it signs her on as an agent, even allowing her to keep her stolen gems. Teamed with a human agent named Topaz, Rouge sets out to acquire the Chaos Emeralds and challenge Dr. Eggman. She often spies on Eggman from the rafters of his bases.
True to form, Rouge is constantly flirting with other characters. However, she often gets into heated disputes with Knuckles.
Rouge teams up with both Eggman and Sonic several times, seeking the side that will let her grab the Chaos Emeralds.
Although Rouge's role in the series is somewhat "minor", despite her being featured since the first episode, she does help Sonic and his friends defeat Eggman on several occasions and normally allies herself with Shadow, though his attitude seems to frustrate her a bit more in the anime than in the games.
In the 2nd season of Sonic X, she teams up with Eggman to get the Chaos Emeralds. Later, she finds Shadow in Eggman's ship and thoughout the season, they work together to help Eggman. She also tries to tell Shadow that Eggman won't help him get his memory back but after a while, she doesn't try and they continue to help the Doctor and in some occations, Sonic and the others.
Rouge has also appeared in the comic series based on the anime, and had a leading role in one issue where she was framed for stealing several rare gems including the Master Emerald. With the assistance of Sonic, Knuckles, and Topaz, it was revealed that the crimes were committed by a robotic duplicate created by Dr. Eggman. Once her doppelgänger was destroyed and the stolen goods were recovered, she was cleared of all charges and reinstated as a GUN agent.
[edit] Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)
Rouge is featured in the American Sonic the Hedgehog comics, having appeared first in the comic adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2. For the most part, she seems to be exactly the same as her video game counterpart, even being shown working as a covert operative for the President of Station Square, even rescuing him from an assassination attempt by Eggman just prior to the arrival of the Xorda. Rouge also had an encounter with Bunnie Rabbot, whom had been sent to rescue her when she was captured by Robotnik. She managed to escape on her own and soon after encounters Bunnie, attacking her when she mistakes her for one of her captor's cronies, resulting in an 8-page brawl between the two girls; it only ended when Sonic steps in and breaks it up, the girls exchanging somewhat half-hearted apologies. She and Fiona Fox are rivals in both fighting and robbery, both having competed in an illegal tournament in which Rouge not only defeated Fiona, but also her teammates Nic the Weasel, Bark the Polar Bear, and Bean the Dynamite.
Knuckles already had a girlfriend named Julie-Su by the time Rouge debuted, but this hasn't stopped her from flirting with him in front of Julie-Su, sparking a rivalry between the two. Rouge has made it clear to Julie-Su that she believes Knuckles will soon belong to her, but she appears attracted to him only because of his good looks and the opportunity he would give her to steal the Master Emerald. Her unwanted advances towards Knuckles only began after he returned from the afterlife during the final battle with the Xorda-in which she participated-because she hadn't met him before that time.
Rouge made a pass at Knuckles' father Locke instead of Knuckles himself in an attempt to get near the Master Emerald, though there was no suggestion that she is romantically interested in the older Echidna as she is with Knuckles. Instead of Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge then teamed up with Evil Sonic, not knowing the difference between Sonic and his evil doppelgänger, in another attempt to steal the Master Emerald; after Evil Sonic made off with a smaller gem for her, the two flew away to "discuss things in private." They returned not too much later, once again trying to steal the Master Emerald; although the plan failed, Evil Sonic was able to touch the Master Emerald and absorb some of its power. With a new look and a new name, he attacked and easily defeated Locke, only for Rouge to prevent him from killing the Guardian. Rouge then accompanied Scourge as he used Chaos Control to travel to Knothole to challenge Sonic. Despite their defeat and Shadow's pursuit, they managed to escape through a Warp Ring to an unknown location where she unwillingly joined the villainous Echidna scientist Doctor Finitevus, a renegade member of the Dark Legion.
Rouge later reappeared after she stole a Warp Ring to escape Finitevus, who discovered that she had destroyed missiles in his base. She joined the Chaotix, who had placed her under surveillance, and assisted in halting an android-manufacturing scheme Eggman had underway in Casinopolis. Rouge also delivered valuable intelligence concerning Finitevus' activities, including his liberation of the Destructix and his stealing uncorrupted information from Isaac. Not long afterwards, she spread word that she had stolen the Master Emerald and was auctioning it off. This turned out to be a sting operation on her part, which lured in not only several villains but also the Freedom Fighters. Sonic, Sally Acorn, Bunnie, and Antoine D'Coolette fought in a series of battles against Nack the Weasel, Bark, Bean, Ixis Naugus, and Mammoth Mogul that resulted in the capture of all five villains. Confronted, Rouge revealed that the "Master Emerald" she had hidden under a cloth was just a table with a lamp, and that she had planned the whole thing to arrange the capture of the renegade criminals. When asked why she didn't inform the Freedom Fighters of her real plans, she claimed that she worked best alone and that it was an attempt to prove herself to Knuckles.
Rouge was captured by Robotnik during his assault on Knothole and transported to the Egg Grape Chamber with roughly all but a handful of the city's inhabitants. Rouge was promptly freed along with the other prisoners in the ensuing rescue mission orchestrated by Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, and Sally's computer NICOLE. As a result, she was transported to the city of New Mobotropolis by Robotnik's capture beam, which had been reprogrammed by NICOLE to teleport victims to the city. She then participated in a battle with the other Chaotix and Freedom Fighters against Robotnik's Egg Beater. Afterwards, she returned to working with G.U.N., and was reached by Sally through a badly garbled communication requesting aid against the new Enerjak, Knuckles' arch-foe reborn as Knuckles himself. Obliging, Rouge promised the aid of G.U.N.'s newest agent: none other than Shadow the Hedgehog. After the incident, she found Knuckles watching the Chaotix from the concealment of some nearby vegetation, too ashamed of what he'd done as Enerjak to reveal himself to his friends. She then talks him out of his decision to dedicate himself solely to the Master Emerald and cut off contact with the outside world. Rouge then watched as Knuckles rejoined his friends, making comments that suggest she may have had ulterior motives for her talk with the echidna. Whatever her motives, she left Knuckles behind to team up with Geoffrey St. John, the two of them going to Mammoth Mogul's new casino to investigate the recently re-immortalized villain, where it was revealed that she was working for Mogul.
[edit] Voice actresses
- Video games, Sonic X - Rumi Ochiai (Japan)
- Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Battle - Lani Minella (US)
- Sonic X, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Riders, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Rivals - Caren Manuel (credited as Kathleen Delaney) (US)
[edit] Theme songs
The Sonic the Hedgehog video games have featured several theme songs for the character.
- Sonic Adventure 2: "Fly in the Freedom" - Tabitha Fair, Todd Cooper.
- Sonic Heroes: "This Machine" - Julien-K. This was a team theme shared with Shadow and Omega.
The background music for the stage Security Hall (titled I'm a Spy) in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle is generally attributed to Rouge. Like most characters, Rouge is associated with a genre of music, specifically smooth jazz/bossa nova/fusion with some feminine sighs thrown in (similarly to how Knuckles is associated with the rap genre). It is interesting to note that the background music in her Club Rouge stage from Sonic Battle also has feminine sighing. No other BGM in the game has any form of vocal.
Also in the anime, Sonic X a BGM plays in the background of most of her events and appearances. The BGM is called "Mysterious & Sexy Thief Rouge" and was first heard in episode 11. In the American 4Kids dub, a saxophone jingle often plays in the same scenes.
[edit] References
- ^ Sonic Channel Official Profile for Rouge the Bat (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-01-25.
- ^ a b c d e Rouge's profile from Sonic Heroes manual
- ^ This (Sonic Heroes) and this (Sonic Riders).
- ^ [1]
- ^ Rouge's profile from the Sonic Adventure 2 manual
- ^ Rouge's profile from the Sonic Battle manual
- ^ a b c d Sonic Central/about/characters (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
- ^ [2]
- ^ Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) Rouge the Bat: Shadow... Even if you believe everyone in the world will be against you... know that I'll always remain by your side.
[edit] External links
- Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Rouge's Sonic Adventure 2: Battle profile
- Sonic Central official character profiles
- Rouge at Sonic Channel
- Sonic City Rouge the Bat
- Rouge the Bat Concept: "Mobius" (REAL Character Profile)
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