Hedgehog 101: Rouge the Bat

“I despise anyone who takes jewels from me. All the world’s gems are mine to keep.” Hello everyone and welcome to Hedgehog 101, the series that breaks down everyone and everything in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog. Today, we will be exploring the ever mysterious treasure hunter/secret agent/thief: Rouge the Bat.

Rouge is a fashionably dressed and strangely sexy white bat that made her first appearance in Sonic Adventure 2. When we first meet Rouge, she appeared to be nothing more than a thief/treasure hunter whose only goal in Sonic Adventure 2 was to steal the Master Emerald out from under the nose of the Rad Red. However, as the game went on, we learned that there was more to Rouge than meets the eye. It turns out that she is actually a special agent for G.U.N. who was tasked with investigating Eggman’s activities during the game. Specifically if Shadow was in fact the Ultimate Lifeform that Professor Gerald Robotnik had produced. She did this by convincing Eggman to hire her in his quest for the Chaos Emeralds, a ploy that turned out to be rather successful. This is due in large part to Rouge’s surprising level of intelligence. Though she is obviously not as smart as Eggman, Rouge is a master manipulator who is able to worm her way into favorable positions with relative ease. Not only was she able to fool Eggman but she was also able to dupe Shadow for a time as well. And when the latter managed to figure her out, she was able to intimidate him into not killing her using the information she had gathered on him. This makes her extremely effective as an agent as well as her day job as master thief.

Rouge isn’t just intelligent though. She’s also physically gifted too. As a bat, she is able to fly and given that she is an animal that was actually meant to fly, she can do so more effortlessly than characters like Tails or Cream. Her wings are actually pretty strong too as she has been able carry both Shadow and Omega in the air. Rouge can also scale walls with her claws, more effectively than Knuckles for that matter. On top of that, Rouge is a master of stealth and skilled in hand to hand combat. She uses a kick based fighting style that has allowed her to deal with some pretty powerful foes. For example, she was able to fight Knuckles to a draw despite the vast difference in strength between them. And Knuckles is no pushover in hand to hand combat either. Rouge is simply better but Knuckles strength sort of evens things out.

That being said though, while Rouge might work for Government and usually finds herself helping out Sonic & the Gang, Rouge’s morality tends to fall into the gray area. Though she will get the job done and help out when the world is in danger, when the world isn’t in danger, Rouge will think selfishly, especially if jewels are involved. At the very least, Rouge has formed some deep bonds with certain characters in the series. Specifically Shadow & Omega whom she frequently works with in the series. It’s also been hinted that Rouge may have romantic feelings for Knuckles as despite coming to the conclusion that the Master Emerald is worthless and not worth stealing, Rouge frequently returns to Angel Island to hang out with Knuckles.

Her morally grey character is complimented by a mixed track record. Though she has outwitted Eggman, Shadow & Tails, she has also been outwitted by supposedly weaker minded characters, such as Vector. She’s also never been able to outwit Knuckles who may or may not be too dense for her mind tricks to work. Her track record in combat is also pretty mixed. Though she can easily handle Eggman’s robots and fight Knuckles to a draw, she’s also been regularly defeated and has fallen into a variety of traps that require her to be rescued. Usually by Shadow. Regardless though, Rouge’s skill set has proven useful time and time again and due to her association with Shadow, I’m sure she isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Some more loose facts about Rouge the Bat:

Rouge may or may not have echolocation. This would explain how she was able home in on treasure in Sonic Adventure 2. However, that is complete speculation.

Rouge has had more costume changes than any other character in the series with a grand total of 4 different outfits.

Yes, Rouge’s boobs do in fact jiggle in Sonic Adventure 2.

And that pretty much does it for Rouge the Bat. I hope you guys enjoyed this little history lesson and that you will join me next week for another.

OK, this is a very interesting post, although I gotta wonder: what was her fourth outfit? I know she has her usual bodysuit ensemble, the outfit she wore in Sonic Heroes and her Sonic Riders outfit (meow!) I’m guessing her fourth one is either this secret outfit from Sonic Adventure 2 or her witch outfit from some of the mobile games.