Rouge the Bat

Rouge the Bat (ルージュ・ザ・バット) 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. A world-famous freelance treasure hunter, 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 is a strong-minded young woman. A fearless, ambitious, independent, flirty, greedy, calculating narcissist who most people see as only caring for herself and her gems. It is shown in Sonic Generations that Rouge can be referred to a temptress, due to her flirtatious and selfish ways. Her carefree and playful attitude can be fun to other characters, like Sonic, or even annoying for others like 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) or Tails (when it comes to flight; intoxicating him with a kiss). 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 disguising it with disgust and outrage. 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 red 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 works for her own good. Rouge has a great obsession for jewels or even anything else that shines or glitters. She has been known to seduce people with her attractiveness to get what she wants (such as kissing Tails in Sonic Battle and Sonic X). 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. In Sonic Heroes, she jumped between Shadow and Omega's 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.

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.

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 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. 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 make ultrasonic shrieks, just like real bats, to both attack her opponents or leave them disorientated.

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'. Rouge has also proven herself asvery 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.

Color Powers
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
While not having any physical weaknesses, Rouge has a stubborn attitude that 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. 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).

Shadow the Hedgehog
The two are teammates and current best friends in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes and often work together during mission stages, but are not seen together outside of duty alliance and do not spend time in one another's presence unless it is business. Nonetheless, Shadow is one of the few people Rouge cares about, other than herself.

In Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow saw a comparison to Maria in Rouge and saved her life when she was trapped in Security Hall. Despite how he later dismissed his actions saying he only returned for the Chaos Emeralds that she had acquired, she suspected that there was more to his reason for saving Rouge than he let on.

In Sonic Heroes, Rouge forms Team Dark with Shadow and Omega. During this time, Rouge and Shadow are much closer than they were in Sonic Adventure 2; interacting more within Team Dark as partners alongside Omega. Rouge is willing to help Shadow get answers about his past and is shown to have some sympathy for him when they discover the existence of Shadow Androids.

In Sonic Battle, Rouge calls Shadow "not bad-looking" and "a prince". She also lets him stay with her at Club Rouge when he is injured during a fight after carrying him inside when he passes out in front of the club. Also, while Shadow is dreaming, an image of Rouge appears and he whispers, "Ally." Rouge seems offended when Shadow doesn't thank her for saving him, but later he thanked her when she told him that she actually rescued him.

In Sonic Rivals, after Shadow saves Rouge from Eggman Nega, Rouge tries to persuade him into going treasure hunting with her and suggests the two "take a peek" into their own future using Eggman Nega's device. Shadow declines and the story ends with Rouge still trying to convince Shadow to join her in hunting for the remaining cards.

In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Rouge makes an attempt to draw Shadow into a conversation that doesn't involve Mephiles' plan to destroy the world, and at one point she says, "It's always business with you." when Shadow ignores her and rejects the off-topic sessions. Although, Shadow also shows he is protective of Rouge's wellbeing. Once, when catching her from a fall after she was momentarily knocked out by one of Dr. Eggman's robots. And again, when he jumps in front of her defensively, after a fake Chaos Emerald explodes. After E-123 Omega reveals to Shadow that he is the one who traps him in the future, Rouge tells Shadow, that she will always be on his side no matter which side he takes, Shadow pauses, then replies strongly replies that he will. Though, in the original Japanese version of the video game, Rouge simply says, "You always have friends to whom you can rely on."

In Sonic Free Riders, both Shadow and Rouge appear as Team Dark along with E-10000B. Their main focus during the game is winning the treasure and prize money. Unlike in previous games, Shadow seems perfectly content with helping Rouge obtain the treasure she covets. (Note: This is the only time Shadow has appeared in a game with the intent on making money, rather than his usual ulterior motives, although the manual implies that Shadow also joined for the sake of competing against Sonic of who had the better skills.)

Knuckles the Echidna
Knuckles the Echidna is Rouge's primary rival and the two have been fighting over the Master Emerald ever since they met. Unbeknownst to Knuckles, Rouge has a crush on him, but she would never admit it. She has thus been known to deny having such feelings for him, like in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood where she said he was cute, but not her type. Regardless, she is secretly inspired by Knuckles' determination to protect the Master Emerald.

In Sonic Adventure 2, when Knuckles purposely shatters the Master Emerald to save it from Doctor Eggman, Knuckles and Rouge both go looking for its pieces. But during their fight, he saves her life. After the rescue, Rouge and Knuckles share a short moment gazing at each other, before Rouge snatches her hand away and retorts with ungratefulness by teasing that he just wanted to hold her hand. In the end, Rouge gives him the remaining pieces of the Master Emerald and complains that, "They stink like echidnas do", to imply her stubbornness. Needlessly, Knuckles apologies in case if he hurt her, and runs off. Before the scene fades out, Rouge gives a thoughtful smile over her shoulder before also heading out.

In Sonic Heroes, they don't have much interaction with each other. At the end of Team Dark's story, Rouge commented that she would go looking for the Master Emerald, "since that irritating Echidna is here." However, in the last scene, she went to Knuckles and coquettishly hinted about going to look for someone else's treasure, then he ran after her.

In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, the codex states that "there's a sort of unstated connection between Rouge and Knuckles that neither are overly willing to explore." During the game, when Shade the Echidna mentions that she is 4,000 years old, Rouge responds to this by teasing that Knuckles was "always into older women".

In Sonic Rivals 2, the two are teamed up. Rouge's reason for this is because she had a mysterious client who told her that if she found all the Emeralds, she would be rewarded, so she believed with Knuckles she might find her client to know exactly who he was. When Sonic first saw Knuckles and Rouge together, he teased them, asking them if they are on a date. Rouge is hostile towards Knuckles and doesn't trust him. She however, supported Knuckles throughout the game but later on deceived him by stealing the Master Emerald by calling him "dashing and daring" in order to distract him. Most recently, in both the first and final cutscenes of Sonic Generations, Knuckles and Rouge are seen having a conversation at Sonic's birthday party. They appear to be communicating in a friendly, lighthearted way.

In Sonic Forces, Rouge and Knuckles don't show any sort of rivalry going on, as they are both determined to save the world. Rouge also seems happy to be a spy for the Resistance with Knuckles, who amiably trusts her, as its commander; she even calls him "boss", showing clear respect towards him.

E-123 Omega
Rouge's other best friend is Omega, who is very loyal to her. She prevented Shadow and Omega from destroying each other in Sonic Heroes, and soon after they formed Team Dark to help her find Eggman's "secret treasure room". Instead of finding treasure, of course, they end up saving the world, and Team Dark has been a tightly-knit trio ever since. The two are close allies, and she shows signs of caring for him, such as in Sonic Chronicles, where she says she is saddened by the thought of Omega rusting away in Metropolis, and not with her and Shadow "blowing things up".

She has sometimes shown annoyance at Omega, saying that he is too serious and that she is tired of hearing him ramble on about revenge and hatred.

Amy Rose
Rouge and Amy are generally portrayed as bitter rivals towards each other. Their relationship is similar to Rouge's relationship with Knuckles. In Sonic Battle, the two fight several times over Emerl. When Amy called Rouge's house a "dump", Rouge was furious about Amy's comment and the two started to fight over the Emerald Shard.

Their dislike for one another is also apparent in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. They aren't always bickering, however, as shown in Shadow the Hedgehog. When Shadow had saved the world in the last story, Rouge wonders, "I hope he's okay." Amy comforts her by saying, "I'm sure he's fine, Rouge. After all, he is Shadow." Rouge then looks back at her and nods in agreement. Also, at the end of Sonic Forces, they seem to be having a friendly conversation.

Sonic the Hedgehog
As seen so far, Rouge and Sonic don't really show a dislike for each other, despite him being Shadow's arch-rival and she being Tails, Knuckles, and Amy's rival. Also, despite having some conflicting encounters and standpoints, they appear to be on good terms. In Sonic Battle, Rouge challenges him to a battle, if she wins, Sonic will have to get her gems and work for her. Sonic manages to win however, but he did not hold any grudge against her as seen later on. Later, Sonic let Emerl say hello to Rouge, which suggest Sonic somehow trusts her. In Sonic Chronicles, Rouge flirts with Sonic and gave him the nickname, "Big Blue". She uses the nickname again in Sonic Generations when rescued.



It is worth noting that in Sonic Generations, Rouge is one of the voluntary attendees at Sonic's birthday party and that Sonic treated her as all of his other friends, which shows a friendly relation between them. If Classic Sonic rescues her, she tells him to watch out for the Time Eater, then adds that he's not the Sonic she knows.

Although they do get along they still sometimes get into fights, like in Sonic Heroes when Team Sonic and Team Dark fought in a jungle and in Sonic Battle when she kidnapped Emerl to train him to be a thief. He also told her if she did something to Emerl, he wouldn't let her off easily. When Rouge was introduced to Emerl, she gave them an idea to help Emerl, Sonic refused, calling her 'a thief'. Whether this means their friendship has grown since then or that Sonic just does not trust her completely is yet to be seen.

Miles "Tails" Prower
Tails and Rouge have a friendly relationship but Rouge sometimes adds complications to it. They will usually get along but Rouge will sometimes playfully tease Tails to just get a reaction from him.

In Sonic Adventure 2, Tails was basically unaware of Rouge's presence, but this was because Rouge was sent by Eggman to spy on Tails when he was trying to find the President. After that their interaction stopped until the Ark was set to on its course for collision with earth. In Sonic Battle, Rouge would use her charm to tease Tails because she thought it was cute and funny how he reacted. She was however very helpful in Tails' story as she gave him the access card for the Central Computer Room, distracted Shadow, and told Tails how to escape the Guard Robos. Later on in Rouge's story Tails had to stop Rouge from stealing a Chaos Emerald. In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, while in Metropolis, Rouge would sometimes be snarky with the plans Tails and Eggman would come up with but still show a playful affection for Tails.

Vector the Crocodile
Rouge and Vector have interacted a couple of times in games, usually in an uncomfortable manner. She seems to dislike him and marks him foolish. In Sonic Heroes in Team Dark's Story, when Rouge was representative for Team Dark, the Chaotix budged in her way, both started trash talking to each other until Rouge found him foolish and asked for a fight. In Team Chaotix's side, Vector claims Rouge's team as the enemies and their client adversary which lead to a fight.

In Sonic Free Riders, in the finals, both seem to have a common interest in winning the prize money when Rouge gets angry that their robot partner breaks down just one race before the cash prize. Cream complains about her behavior, but Vector says that he can relate with her in wanting the money of the Grand Prix, though it is not worth sacrificing a teammate.

In Sonic Generations, they don't really interact with each other but they attend the same party and face the same conditions as everyone else. However, when the player gets all Red Star Rings in the Classic version of Spagonia, Vector says, "Aw man, you got all five Red Star Rings. Rouge is gonna have my hide for this one."

Friends/allies

 * Shadow the Hedgehog (best friend)
 * E-123 Omega (close friend)
 * E-10000B (formerly)
 * Knuckles the Echidna (friendly rival)
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Amy Rose (rival)
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Cheese
 * Big the Cat
 * Vector the Crocodile (rival)
 * Espio the Chameleon
 * Charmy Bee
 * Silver the Hedgehog
 * Emerl
 * Shade the Echidna
 * The President
 * The Secretary
 * G.U.N.
 * The Commander
 * Classic Sonic
 * Avatar

Rivals

 * Knuckles the Echidna (friendly rival)
 * Wave the Swallow
 * Amy Rose (bitter rival)
 * Vector the Crocodile

Enemies

 * Dr. Eggman
 * Metal Sonic
 * Biolizard
 * Black Arms
 * Black Doom
 * Doom's Eye
 * Mephiles the Dark
 * Iblis
 * Solaris
 * Ifrit
 * Dr. Eggman Nega
 * Nocturnus Clan
 * Imperator Ix
 * The Time Eater
 * Infinite