- “I despise anyone who takes jewels from me... All the world's gems are mine to keep!”
- ―Rouge the Bat, Sonic Adventure 2[1]
Rouge the Bat (ルージュ・ザ・バット Rūju za Batto) is a fictional character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. She is an anthropomorphic bat and jewel thief working as a part-time government spy for the President of the United Federation, and an agent on loan for the Guardian Units of Nations.[2] A world-famous freelance treasure hunter,[3][4] Rouge has a weakness for jewels, like the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds, which she always obsesses about. As a spy, Rouge is trained in combat, stealth and infiltration, and possesses both super-level kicking power and flight.
Rouge is in short, an enigma, as her motivations are always in question. In truth, she is usually just out for herself. She is smart, sassy and seductive, and knows how to get what she wants. Once she has a target in mind, she always goes for it, regardless of the costs. Beneath her ditsy exterior though, she is a calculating realist and her motives are always mercenary in nature. Regardless, she is loyal to her closest friends and has more than once helped Sonic the Hedgehog and his allies save the world.
Appearance[]
Rouge is an anthropomorphic bat with white fur, tan skin, teal eyes and endowed female features. She has large pointy ears, small fangs, a bare muzzle with a small black nose, a short tail, and a pair of black wings on her back. Only her head appears to have fur. Her short white hair flares out at the back and she typically wears blue eyeshadow, as well as lipstick. Her typical attire consists of a black skintight unitard with no sleeves, a pink, heart-shaped chestplate-like top with white trim, and tall white gloves and boots with pink cuffs. The boots are high heeled and feature hearts on the toes.
Personality[]
Rouge's profile in Sonic Generations.
Rouge is a strong-minded young woman. A fearless, ambitious, independent, flirtatious, greedy, calculating narcissist who most people see as only caring for herself and gems. It is shown in Sonic Generations that Rouge can be referred to a temptress, due to her seductive ways. Her carefree and playful attitude can be fun to some characters, like the easygoing Sonic, or annoying for others[5] like the gruff Knuckles. She has a lot of pride and will fight dirty when facing a formidable opponent, such as Knuckles (when it comes to strength; hindering his sight in a dark tent). She can also show a bashful side, such as the time Knuckles saved her life from falling to her doom and became very embarrassed before concealing it with disgust, outrage, and ingratitude. She can also be a bit of a hypocrite, especially in regards to thefts. This is especially evident when, after witnessing the Master Emerald being stolen, she refers to the one stealing it as a thief despite the fact that she herself had stolen it from Knuckles earlier, something the echidna even noted by saying "Look who's calling who a thief", and in Grand Metropolis stage when she calls robots energy thieves.
Rouge is also at times a government spy who often works for her own gain. Rouge has a great obsession for jewels or even anything else that shines or glitters. She also has little to no qualms about lying and manipulating others, often using her charms and attractiveness to seduce and take advantage of others, just to get what she wants (such as kissing Tails in Sonic Battle). However, she has, on many occasions, shown she can be heroic, possess loyalty, care about others, or, at least, have some degree of morality. In the final events of Sonic Adventure 2, she helped save the planet from destruction. In Sonic Heroes, she jumped between Shadow and Omega's hectic fight as the mediator. In Sonic Battle, when Shadow was injured and needed a place to stay, Rouge helped him. In Shadow the Hedgehog, she did other laudable things, such as rescuing a Chaos Emerald from the doomed mainframe, destroying the evil monster Black Bull, and assisting Shadow in defeating Black Doom as well as showing concern for his welfare at the end of the game. She also isn't fond of hearing Omega constantly talking about vengeance.
Recently, she has been seen less selfish, as can be seen by her actions towards Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic Rivals. However, as shown in her portrayal in Sonic Free Riders, which depicts her as very cold and callous from her desire for the cash prize, suggesting she still possesses her interest in jewels and riches. This is proved as she couldn't care less that her robot team member broke down and even went on to insult it as well.
Powers and abilities[]
Physical abilities[]
Rouge possesses enormous physical strength that rivals that of Knuckles the Echidna's. However, whereas Knuckles' strength lies in his upper body, Rouge's lies in her lower body, particularly in her legs and feet, giving her enormous kicking power. With her kicks, she can shatter boulders, slice through metal, or even leave dents in thick steel walls. She can even split her opponents in half with precise kicks and create small earthquakes to trip opponents by striking the ground.
With her wings, Rouge is able to achieve flight and can glide by using her wings to manipulate her descend. When flying, Rouge can move as fast as Knuckles' gliding, but not as fast as Sonic or Shadow can run. Nevertheless, Rouge possesses an innate quickness, making her fast on her feet and can reach super speeds when running, though she is still not as fast as Sonic, Tails or Shadow.[5]
Rouge has proven herself to be quite acrobatic, precise and agile, on both the ground and in midair due to her government training. She is able to perform all kinds of actions and movements while in midair effortlessly, grind on rails and as well perform several types of nimble movements in combat with incredible precision.
Much like Knuckles, Rouge is an expert climber and can climb on any kind of surface, no matter the material. She is also excellent at digging and tunneling through subterranean regions. She is also a very experienced swimmer, possibly due to her being a treasure hunter, enabling her to swim with both great speed and skill, and can reach amazing depths.
Stealth and infiltration expertise[]
As both a government spy and self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Thief", Rouge has been trained in infiltration and is skilled in the art of stealth.[5] As most times, she uses these skills to pull different kinds of successful heists, and has proven herself as a master thief.
As a result of her training, Rouge can surreptitiously enter enemy-held territory, either through stealth or by manipulation of others, such as when she tricked Shadow and Dr. Eggman into believing that she was willing to help them in Sonic Adventure 2 when she was send to investigate the doctor, and can hack computers and break codes in record time with successful results nearly every time. She is also stealthy enough to move nearly undetected through even the most fortified of locations, such as Prison Island, Dr. Eggman's various bases or Space Colony ARK and sneak up on people without bringing attention to herself.
Combat skills[]
A part-government spy and expert thief, Rouge is one of the strongest female characters in the series. Swift and powerful, she has been recognized as a force to be reckoned by both allies and foes alike. She is well-versed in a variety of martial arts and has gone through several forms of special training in self-defense. Her skills in combat are so great that she was able to fight the combat-versed Knuckles the Echidna to a stalemate when confronting him on Space Colony ARK.
Fighting style[]
Rouge's fighting style focuses on a form of kickboxing, a style she has derived from her special combat training. Thus, she rarely using her arms or fists in combat. In battle, Rouge primarily fights her opponents using a large number of skillful and specialized kicks to strike blows. Using her agility in line with her training, Rouge can perform moves such as high kicks, side kicks, spinning kicks etc., striking her opponents with deadly precision and efficiency, and can even send her whole body spinning through the air with her feet first, turning herself into an all-piercing spear.
Rouge can also complement her fighting style with her flight abilities, allowing her to take her fighting techniques to airborne opponents and allowing her to launch aerial kicks and strikes at her opponents.
Techniques and moves[]
Most of Rouge's standard moves and techniques revolves around her Kick Attack move where she attacks her opponents with combos composed of kicks. Her special attack Screw Kick enables her to form a "screw" shape into midair while kicking, while her Drill Drive lets her send herself downward, with her feet first, as a spinning drill that pierces through her opponents. Also, her Hip Drop lets her drop onto the ground to form wide tremors that effects everything within its range.
When not attacking her opponents directly, Rouge has also been known to use techniques that involves some form of weapon. In Sonic Heroes she is shown to use Dummy Rings in her "Dummy Ring Bomb" move to paralyze opponents, and in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic Generations, she used her "Bomb" and "Bomb Snipe" techniques with her Heart bombs to damage her opponents.
Miscellaneous skills[]
Like real-life bats, Rouge has an excellent and sensitive sense of hearing, even allowing her to hear Espio, who is known as an expert ninja and a master of stealth, when he is in her proximity. Also, as hinted by her move Shriek and some of her moves in Sonic Battle, Rouge can create ultrasonic shrieks for both attacking or disorientating her opponents.
Rouge is one of the world's most foremost treasure hunters, as seen during her hunts for the Emerald Shards and the Chaos Emeralds, and her skills on the subject rivals even that of Knuckles'.[6] Rouge has also proven herself as very talented Extreme Gear rider as seen in Sonic Free Riders, where she is able to go toe-to-toe with some of the best Extreme Gear riders in the world. While in midair, she is capable of doing several acrobatic tricks with her Extreme Gear and can as well dash through midair with her Extreme Gear with her wings to pass through shortcuts through the tracks. As seen during Dodon Pa's Grand Prix, Rouge also has excellent skills when it comes to driving and racing in racecars like the Lip Spyder.
Color Powers[]
- Main article: Color Power
By harnessing different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Rouge can use specific Color Powers to transform into a certain form, such as a drill, a laser or even a planet, each one possessing its own unique abilities. So far, Rouge has been able to transform into the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill and Indigo Asteroid. However, these transformations require a steady supply of Hyper-go-on to be maintained.
Weaknesses[]
Rouge's greed putting her life at risk.
While not having any physical weaknesses, Rouge has a stubborn attitude that, along with her greed for gems, has put her in mortal dangers, like in Sonic Adventure 2 where her arguing over the ownership of the Master Emerald nearly made her fall into a lava pool had Knuckles not come to her rescue. Also, her spy skills are not flawless either, as she was discovered by Flying Dog while robbing Prison Island and got imprisoned by Dr. Eggman when she stole the Scepter of Darkness (although she eventually broke herself out in the latter case).
Relationships[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ In Sonic Adventure 2, after witnessing how Eggman tried to steal the Master Emerald "from her," cutscene shortly before Dry Lagoon/Wild Canyon.
- ↑ GUN: Guardian Units of Nations, Codex, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
- ↑ Sega of America. Rouge the Bat. Sega of America. Archived from the original on 5 March 2005. Retrieved on 26 October 2017. “Rouge is a world-famous treasure hunter who loves jewels. This fearless female bat is full of sex appeal and knows how to get what she wants. She has a bit of a crush (though she would never admit it) on a certain red echidna that we all know and love. She is secretly inspired by Knuckles' determination to protect the Master Emerald. She has a weakness for jewels, especially large jewels. When she sees one that she wants, she always goes for it, no matter the personal cost. Although she looks and acts like she hasn't a care in the world, her mind is always active scheming. Once she has a goal, her motives are always mercenary in nature.”
- ↑ Rouge the Bat, Codex, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Rouge's entry in the Codex in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
- ↑ Prima Development (20 June 2001). "Rouge the Bat", Sonic Adventure 2: Prima's Official Strategy Guide. Prima Games, page 3. ISBN 978-0761536147. "Rouge is a world-famous treasure hunter who loves jewels. The president hired Rouge to uncover information about the mysterious project “Shadow.” This fearless female bat is full of sex appeal and knows how to get what she wants. Although she looks innocent and carefree, she’s always scheming. Once she makes a decision, her motives are always mercenary in nature."
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