Rouge the Bat

Rouge the Bat (ルージュ・ザ・バット, Rūju za Batto) is a video game character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series released by Sega. She is a well-determined 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 as a playable character in the Dark story and has been featured in several games.

Rouge is an 18-year-old anthropomorphic bat with white hair and her main outfit consists of a black bodystocking with a pink heart-shaped breastplate that holds her breasts, along with arm-length gauntlets and metal-heeled thigh-high boots, both of which are white and have pink at the top. Her boots also have pink heart-shapes over her toes that are used for digging.

Game appearances

Rouge debuted in Sonic Adventure 2 as a treasure-hunter who primarily attacks with kicks (though bats usually bite or claw) in the Dark Story and her goal is to collect all pieces of the Master Emerald. She makes a deal and joins with Eggman to find the Chaos Emeralds and power the Eclipse Cannon if he gave her an Emerald tracker to find all Master Emerald pieces. She constantly meets Knuckles and engage in battle during which Rouge nearly falls into a lava-like substance, but Knuckles saves her. The two then have a tender moment, leading Rouge to return her emerald pieces and then run off. Rouge finds many emeralds after breaking into "Security Hall" and steals them, but she is revealed by Shadow the Hedgehog to be a Secret Agent and stops Rouge from taking them from the Eclipse Cannon. Rouge cheers Sonic and Shadow on during the final battle to save the earth from the Biolizard and is given Shadow's bracelet by Sonic after his supposed death.

In Sonic Heroes, Rouge is the flight member and presumptive captain of Team Dark, as the player can have the ability to fly when they choose her to be playable. 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 from in Sonic Adventure 2, wearing purple eye shadow and a pink-and-purple suit with the heart being on her belt.

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 in the story mode. Most of her fighting techniques appear to be derived from kickboxing. Her special attacks include sending a round bat that blows up towards her enemies, doing a powerful kick and sending what appears to be a ball of glittering energy into her opponents.

Rouge also appears in Shadow the Hedgehog, and helps on three hero missions. In Expert Mode, Caren Manuel lends her voice to Rouge at the beginning of two stages. (along with Omega's), and one (along with the voice of every other character that appears in Expert Mode). She is working for G.U.N. and in her levels she rescues the Chaos Emerald, and fights the Black Arms when they are pushed back into the forest and defends the GUN base when it comes under attack by them.

Rouge appears in Sonic Riders as an unlockable racer, she is a Flight type, and is the strongest character in the game without a role in the story of the game. She returns in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity as a secret character. The official website states that Rouge has some kind of rivalry with Wave the Swallow.

In Sonic the Hedgehog, as an "Amigo" playable character, Rouge escapes from Eggman's base with Shadow after stealing the Scepter of Darkness as part of a mission from G.U.N., they travel to Kingdom Valley, where they are ambushed by Eggman and the broken Scepter releases Mephiles the Dark who emerges to be reborn in Shadow's shadow and sends the two into the future. Rouge teams up with Sonic and his friends to find two Chaos Emeralds that enables them all to return to the present day, but leaves Shadow alone in the future. Rouge goes to find E-123 Omega and programs him to wake up in the future and help Shadow. She eventually finds Omega and Shadow returning to the present day, and she and Shadow goes to Wave Ocean, where Omega confesses that he betrays Shadow in the future and that one day the whole world would turn against him. Rouge assures Shadow that if the whole world does turn against him, she would always remain by his side. After Mephiles ignores the trio of agents, Rouge helps the rest of her allies to save Sonic. In the end, Sonic, Shadow and Silver defeat Solaris.

Rouge appears as a playable character in Sonic Rivals 2. During the storyline she teams up with Knuckles the Echidna to find the "Master Emerald" and the "Chaos Emeralds". She steals Eggman's emerald tracker to find them. She and Knuckles find themselves having to battle with other rivals and Eggman Nega in order to find the Chaos Emeralds while Knuckles is unable to find the Master Emerald. Rouge finds six emeralds, which are then taken by Eggman Nega who opens a portal to another dimension, Rouge is dragged into the portal by Knuckles, leading to her finding herself separated from Knuckles in another dimension. When she finds Knuckles, she sees that his mind is being control by the Ifrit, a big fire monster that could destroy the world. Rouge manages to defeat the Ifrit and saves Knuckles, she then finds the emerald detector destroyed and sees the Master Emerald inside it. The two return to their own dimension. Knuckles takes the Master Emerald but is then distracted when Rouge calls him dashing, giving her enough time to steal it and run from the scene.

Rouge is playable in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.^[1] She, as one of the playable characters plays only a minor role as one of the 'fighters'. She generally, comparing to the others has quite low level moves some including Tornado Kick and Distract. Tornado Kick, a wind offensive move and Distract is used to distract the enemies from the current battle. She is first met in Central city as a helper sent from the GUN.

Rouge also appears in Sonic Free Riders as a playable character and in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, as a non-playable rival in each olympic events.

She appears once again as a non-playable character in the DS version of Sonic Colors.

In Sonic Generations, Rouge celebrates with her friends at Sonic's birthday party, before the Time Eater appeared and warped all of them through various time holes. She is stranded at City Escape but was eventually freed by Sonic. Later in the "Center of Time", she and Shadow the Hedgehog motivates the 2 Sonics to defeat the Time Eater.

Characteristics

Rouge is depicted as a professional treasure hunter devoted to the pursuit of jewels.^[2][3] She also calls herself the "World's Greatest Thief," and she fearlessly does whatever needed, disregards personal cost, and ignores abstract morality or manners for potential profit.^[2][4][5] Additionally, she serves as a part-time spy for the government's G.U.N. Federation.^[2] Her "feminine charm" makes her appear careless, but she is actually scheming and manipulative.^[2] She teams up with Shadow the Hedgehog and E-123 Omega to form Team Dark.^[2] Rouge fights using kicks, especially her signature "Screw Kick," and she can fly using the wings on her back.^[2][3][6]

In other media

Sonic X

Rouge appeared in the show's first episode, hanging from the top of Dr. Eggman's base and presumably spying on him, without any dialogue in the series premiere. In her storylines, she generally shares the same personality traits as her video game counterpart, and also plays the same role. She first appears trying to capture "The World's Biggest Cubic Zirconia," and she eventually does. News about the crisis was spread around about the robbery. She later tries to rob another building with another jewel in it, although when she entered the building, she did not find the jewel she was looking for. Instead, she fell into a trap. GUN military men and women popped out of everywhere, although she was not freaked out. She was then taken to the president, and they had a talk. Here she became a GUN military spy, because she had said that she would help destroy Eggman's base. Rouge was voiced by Kathleen Delaney in the anime, who would later go on to voice the character in game series as well. Along with Cream the Rabbit, this is the only appearance of Rouge in a Sonic TV series so far. She also appeared in the comic series based on the anime, with a leading role in one of the issue's plot where she was framed for stealing several rare gems.

Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)

In the ongoing American Sonic the Hedgehog comics, she 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, who 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 Nack the Weasel, Bark the Polar Bear, and Bean the Dynamite. She later joined up with Shadow the Hedgehog and E-123 Omega to form "Team Dark"; a covert operations unit for GUN.

Cultural impact

Promotion and merchandising

Rouge has been featured in many advertising campaigns and advertising for the Sonic the Hedgehog Series in North America and Japan. At the launch of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Rouge and a few other characters were featured in a line of plushes advertising the game. Another Rouge plush was released as a prize for crane games in Japan at the launch of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.^[7][8] As a campaign for the Sonic X anime in North America and Japan, keychains were distributed for the main characters in the show, one of whom was Rouge.^[9] Sega partnered with the fast food chain McDonald's to release a series of Sonic-themed LCD games at McDonald's in 2004 as toys packaged with Happy Meals. Rouge was featured in the game Amy & Rouge Volleyball in which "players are challenged to move Amy from side to side to return Rouge's serves and volleys."^[10]

Critical reception

Upon Rouge's introduction in Sonic Adventure 2, many game reviewers commented on her similarity to Knuckles,^[11][12] including such critical remarks as "Knuckles with bat wings and breasts",^[13] whilst some further criticized her design.^[12][13] Her "daring attitude" and her "self-centered" nature received further comment.^[14] Rouge appeared on GamesRadar's list of "8 game characters we'd go furry for", in which she is described as "sultry, slinky, saucy little chiroptera", adding that despite the fact that officially Rouge is seventeen, "she sounds like a 40 year-old prostitute".^[15] Games.net ranked her #10 on their "Top Ten Disturbingly Sexual Game Characters" list.^[16] Likewise, ScrewAttack placed her as one of the worst women in video games.^[17]

Theme songs

The Sonic the Hedgehog video games have featured several of her theme songs, including "Fly in the Freedom" by Tabitha Fair and Todd Cooper in Sonic Adventure 2^[18] and "This Machine" by Julien-K in Sonic Heroes^[19] that is shared with Shadow and Omega. Additionally, the background music for the stage Security Hall, titled "I'm a Spy", by Tabitha Fair^[18] in Sonic Adventure 2 is generally attributed to Rouge. In the anime, Sonic X, music plays in the background of most of her events and appearances which is called "Mysterious & Sexy Thief Rouge"^[20] and was first heard in episode 11.

References

External links

• Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Rouge's Sonic Adventure 2: Battle profile
• Sonic Central official character profiles
• IGN.com Sonic Heroes Profiles: Team Dark