Marine the Raccoon

"It's okay. I know what you're thinking. I don't have what it takes. I don't think I can do all this adventuring on my own. But I'm not going to give up. I need to keep trying harder and harder until I can do it!"

- Marine the Raccoon, Sonic Rush Adventure

Marine the Raccoon (マリン・ザ・ラクーン) is a fictional character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series who first appeared in Sonic Rush Adventure. She is an anthropomorphic seven-year-old raccoon and a sailor residing on Southern Island in Blaze's world. As Marine began setting out on her own travels, she encountered Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower and Blaze the Cat, and joined them in their seafaring search for the Jeweled Scepter, during which she formed everlasting friendships.

Always energetic, Marine is talkative and stubborn, but rarely listens. A spunky rascal through and through, she is a lover of excitement and constantly seeks adventures. She aspires to become the captain of her own ship so she can travel the world, and tends to exaggerate her own skills. During her adventures with Sonic though, Marine has matured and has sworn to grow as a person.

Appearance
Marine is a humanoid raccoon with orange fur, a white muzzle, a small back nose, and blue eyes. She has brown triangular ears, brown rings around her rounded tail, and has dark brown and cream-stripe markings around her eyes. On her neck she has two upturned pigtails with brown tips that are held together by yellow scrunchies. Her attire consists of a lime green top with a white trim, short black leggings, lime green and orange shoes, white socks, and tan gloves.

Early life
Marine was born on Southern Island in the middle of nowhere on the sea, where she was kept company by the Coconut Crew from a young age. Growing up, Marine dreamt of going out and see the world as the captain of her own ship and have adventures, eventually becoming discontent over staying on her island as if she was trapped there. As such, she would spent her days gazing across the ocean, particular at the Plant Kingdom, while wondering about what lied on the islands beyond her home.

By the time she was seven years old, Marine finally decided to set out, and took up sailing and shipbuilding, making numerous attempts to make her own ship with Materials.

Sonic Rush Adventure
In Sonic Rush Adventure, Marine found Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower when they washed up on Seagull Beach. Claiming to having "saved" them, introductions were made and Marine promptly invited them to stay with her until they found a way home. The next day, Marine took the SS Marine out on its maiden voyage while Sonic and Tails watched, but she failed to control it and crashed. Her loss left Marine devastated, but Tails offered to built her a new boat. While Marine was unsure about it due to several issues, Sonic and Tails made the Wave Cyclone with a book provided by Marine. Proclaiming herself the captain, Marine "lead" the group out on their journey to different islands, looking for Materials.

While Marine got to see new places, often wandering off despite Sonic and Tails' warnings, the group was attacked by several robotic enemies on their journey which Marine suspected was jealous of her adventures. They also met the rogue racer Johnny, who Marine goaded into challenging her, only to pass it over to Sonic. When reaching Coral Cave, Marine unveiled the isle by poking at an altar. There, they met Captain Whisker, whom Marine antagonized, and his crew, who were the ones behind the robot attacks. They also met Sonic's old ally, Blaze the Cat, who helped fight off Whisker, though the pirates got away with the Jeweled Scepter, an artifact in Coral Cave which Blaze tried to protect. Hearing that Sonic and Tails were actually from another world, Marine had them explain it all, and they decided to help Blaze recover the scepter which posed a threat to both their worlds.

As the crew searched for the pirates' hideout, Marine kept working everyone's nerves with her antics and insistence to follow them despite the dangers. After tracking and losing the pirates at Haunted Ship where Marine tried poorly to hide her fear of ghosts, reaching Blizzard Peaks where they freeing the captive Vikings from the pirates while Marine was introduced to snow, and uncovering the secrets of Sky Babylon which Marine unearthed by fumbling with priceless relics, the heroes located the pirates on Pirates' Island. However, Marine was shocked to hear that her crew wanted to her to stay behind while they faced the pirates to protect her, and insisted to come. However, as Blaze revealed bluntly they thought she was a nuisance, she ran off crying.

Not letting it set her back, Marine set off to prove herself by stopping the pirates alone, but got herself capturedught by Whisker and set to be tortured by the Ghost Titan. Luckily, Sonic and Blaze rescued and defeated Whisker for good, while Marine swiped the Jeweled Scepter when Whisker was not looking. Though she still got reprimand for her recklessness, Marine gave the scepter back to Blaze and made up with her friends. Marine thus accepted she was no captain and had to be more careful, but kept her ambition of becoming a real captain one day.

As Marine worked with her friends to bring Sonic and Tails back home with the Chaos Emeralds and Sol Emeralds, while working on her own ship, they got news that the Jeweled Scepter was stolen again. Shortly after, Marine and the crew met the true thieves, who turned out to be Dr. Eggman and Dr. Eggman Nega, who revealed from their Egg Wizard that they created the pirates to find the Jeweled Scepter, and then use its incredible power to build Eggmanland upon both worlds. Marine and the crew followed the villains to Deep Core, where Super Sonic and Burning Blaze tried to beat the Egg Wizard as it harnessed the Power of the Stars. On the verge of defeat, Eggman Nega tried to destroy the planet, but Marine distracted the Egg Wizard with her energy blast ability, giving Super Sonic and Burning Blaze the opening they needed to finish the doctors off.

With the Jeweled Scepter secured, Marine went to see Sonic and Tails off in her SS Super-Marine as the duo left in the SS Tornado EX. Though she was sad to see them go, Marine took solace in their promise that they would meet again, and vowed that she would have grown much more up the next time they met, before returning home to Blaze.

Sonic Colors
At the time of the Nintendo DS version of Sonic Colors, it was revealed by Blaze the Cat that Marine was doing the "same as ever" which meant getting into trouble like always.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
Although Marine does not appear in person in Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, a costume of her is available for purchase. It can be worn by a player's Mii and gives the Mii the stats of Marine.

Personality
Marine is cheerful, carefree and energetic, but also stubborn at times, brash and overconfident. She is extremely scatterbrained, always going by the first intuition she gets, and so often acts before she thinks. Marine loves to talk and does not know when to stop chattering, but she never listens to others and hardly does anything she is told if she is not in the mood. She is relatively bossy and attention-seeking, which sometimes leads to her being somewhat pushy. She also has a habit of exaggerating and embellishing, often to make herself seem more important or talented; due to this, she tends to strike others as annoying. Nevertheless, Marine generally means well and cares deeply for her friends, and can be counted upon when really needed. She is also surprisingly a neat freak.

Marine is an overly adventurous spirit, always longing to see new places to encounter and overcome new challenges, though this makes her impatient and prone to recklessly charge into dangers. Because of her isolated upbringing, Marine knows little about her world and cannot help go crazy with excitement when seeing anything new and can be so caught up in it that everything else around her becomes invisible.

While Marine wants to be acknowledged as a full-fledged sea captain, she is still a child and is a natural when it comes to creating a scene. She can be really bratty when not getting her way, starts crying when emotional, is afraid of ghosts, and has trouble saying certain words. Early on, Marine also insisted she had become a real captain once she had a ship, despite having no prior experience, and refused to recognize her own shortcomings in favor of taking charge of the situation so not show weakness or lose her dignity. While her cover-up attempts are poor, she thinks of herself as a great actor. However, she realized her own flaws and how far she had to go to become a captain during her adventures, which have made her much more mature, careful, humble and dedicated to growing up without forfeiting her dreams, though she still gets herself into trouble.

Marine speaks with an exaggerated Australian accent, using Australian slang words such as 'strewth', 'bonza' and 'cobber' and adding the word 'mate' to the end of her sentences.

Powers and abilities
Marine has at least passible skills in the Material-based technology for shipbuilding, though they pale in comparison to Tails'. She was able to construct a small boat on her own, although it had several bugs, but eventuall grew proficient enough to build a fully operational water bike, the SS Super-Marine, on her own. While also starting out as an amateur, Marine has gained general sailing skills, able to ride a waterbike alone.

Marine has some sort of power that lets her project white energy blasts from her fists. The fact that the Egg Wizard was knocked back by just one attack suggests that there is great power to this ability. She is also a very fast runner, able to keep up with even Sonic, though she lacks the stamina to keep it up. While not technically a special skill or ability, Marine is also able to talk her way into almost anything; she goaded Johnny into challenging her by preying on his ego and made her friends take her on their dangerous missions with bratty tantrums.

Friends/allies

 * Blaze the Cat
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * The Coconut Crew

Enemies

 * Captain Whisker
 * Johnny
 * Mini & Mum
 * Dr. Eggman Nega
 * Dr. Eggman

Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, Marine first appeared during the comics' adaptation of Sonic Rush Adventure where she helped Sonic, Tails and Blaze recover a Chaos Emerald from Captain Whisker, Johnny and Dr. Nega. Months later, she and Blaze rescued Shadow the Hedgehog from the ocean, who they teamed up with to battle an incarnation of Metal Sonic, and later help him return to his home dimension.

Following the events of Worlds Collide, Marine became virtually indistinguishable from her game counterpart. During the subsequent Pirate Plunder Panic arc, Marine and Blaze teamed up with Blaze's friends from Sonic's World, namely Amy Rose and Cream the Rabbit. Having formed into Team Rose the companions did battle with the evil Captain Metal and his crew of pirates to reclaim a Sol Emerald.

Theme Song
The theme song of Marine is "A New Venture" from Sonic Rush Adventure.

Trivia

 * Marine's pigtails are shaped like boomerangs, relating to her Australian accent.
 * Marine often uses the word "strewth" in her sentences. In the real world in British English, "strewth" means "God's truth". In Australia and New Zealand it can also be used as an expression of surprise, or to add emphasis.
 * On Sonic Channel, when asked about her weight, Marine responds "Hey! I don't hear such questions!" unlike most other female characters who simply says 'Secret'.
 * Based on the stats of the Marine costume in Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Marine may be classified a Speed Type character.
 * Marine's name is featured on the Chao in Space 2 Perfect: Chaos Strikes Back billboard in Sonic Generations.
 * Sticks the Badger bears a heavy resemblance to Marine. As a result, many fans initially thought Sticks was an incarnation of Marine for the Sonic Boom series, before it was confirmed that Sticks was a new character.