Character Spotlight: Blaze the Cat, Part One

 

Do not scream at the cat. Have a SoBe green tea. 

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1.HISTORY

I’ve dived in and out of the Sonic fanbase for years, so I don’t have an interesting account to give regarding how I came across this character. The most I can offer is that when Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was released, I remember seeing Blaze in the game and being curious about her. I didn’t know that she originally appeared in Sonic Rush first, which came out the year before, but the 2006 game was my introduction to this gal. I thought she had a really cool design, though; I never saw a Sonic cat character before, and her backstory sounded intriguing. 

It’s odd but prior to my firmly planting seeds for my own Sonic fanfics, Blaze was a character whom I would look at and say, “Oh yeah, I remember her, she’s a good character,” and then I never gave her much thought beyond that. Now I find that she stands apart from her peers. Besides seeing a cat in the Sonic video game universe for the first time, and not knowing that Big the Cat was the first Sonic feline character in the video game line, I was impressed by her ability to handle fire - I never saw any Sonic character with an elemental power at their disposal which is a reason why she stands out.  

Although I confess that sometimes I think she’s not used as much in games which is unfortunate because she’s different from other characters with potential for storytelling. This is in part to her dutiful and closed off nature...

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2. THE CAT OF THE HOUR

Blaze always came off as an older character to me. According to her bio, she’s stated to be fourteen years old but she always seemed like an old soul and I think it’s how she carries herself that makes her seem that way. She’s a princess from another dimension, heir to a whole empire and guardian of mystical gems. That’s a lot for a teenager to deal with yet she handles it all with diligence and discipline. I do have to question where her parents are in all of this or why she doesn’t go by Queen Blaze, although I have read somewhere that on some websites, she is actually addressed as a queen.  I have my own theories on her parents, but I will address this later in the next post.

When she’s partnered off with innocents like Cream, eager beavers like Marine or melodramatics like Silver, she continually handles their mannerisms with care and calm. With Cream, even if she wants to leave and go look for the Sol Emeralds in Sonic Rush, she can’t bring it upon herself to rudely dismiss the kid when she was nothing but nice to her. Okay, so she actually does bluntly decide to push on when Cream suggests that they go some activities together, but in spite of that when they first meet, Blaze still exudes calm and restraint, and even politeness in her interactions with Cream and her mom Vanilla. I think a part of it is due to the shock she felt at their kindness - she hasn’t felt anything like that before as far as we know. With Marine and Silver, she keeps them focused on the important priorities. She has a drive for herself and others to reach the end goal in mind, which is a quality a true leader will have. There is a downside to that part of herself, however. 

Because she’s so loyal to her duties, it can make her come off as entirely devoted to her job. She’s so self-reliant and thinks she has to be the one to take on all these responsibilities that meeting new people is considered a waste of time in her eyes. But it’s not because she has anything to prove or she thinks she’s better than anyone else. No, this is because she had to endure teasing from her peers when she was young and mocked for her inability to control her pyrokinesis. Once more, that’s a lot for a teenager her age to handle: I mentioned her royal titles and assignments before, but to also learn to control her fire powers and having a hard time doing so while also facing terrible things people around her say? It’s amazing she didn’t go to the dark side because of it all. 

But it does suggest that due to the pressure, the teasing, and the need to control her abilities, she’s closed herself off from losing control over her emotions and pathways to making connections. Even in Sonic Rush, she confirms that she’s always been alone because of her powers and she saw them as a curse than a blessing, which I take to be a hint that maybe the opinions of those who made those nasty remarks got to Blaze on psychological and emotional levels. No one was there to defend her or help her with her problems. As a result, she may have wanted to prove to herself, which she eventually did, that she could master her pyrokinesis and emotions, and learn not to let anyone get to her no matter what they say and not to lean on anyone for help because they may let or slow her down or tease her again. Poor cat girl. 

In her thought process, at least initially before Sonic and gang change her mind, friendship is not worth it. So if she strikes anyone as an antisocial or cold character when they first meet her in the game, that’s why. Also in her defense, I think a very minor part of her did want to reach out to others and to not want to deal with her gifts, but that part of herself was locked away for some time. It’s possible that as a result, she grew sad about the duties and titles thrust upon her. It’s not that she didn’t want to toss them aside or jump for joy at taking them on, but those are all she had in her possession and going on for her until the events of Sonic Rush. Well, that and the isolation bit I brought up. I theorize that overtime as she learned to build her stoic wall, she saw guarding the Sol Emeralds and protecting her empire as the top essentials for her to direct her eyes upon no matter what she feels. Emotions could be seen as a detriment to her quest.

But even that can backfire too. It’s commendable she’s learned to keep a cool head in situations, but for all her calmness, she has also shown that even she has her limits in the patience department. In Sonic Rush Adventure, she snaps at Marine for… well, she calls the kid a nuisance. Granted she, Sonic and the rest were dealing with a crisis or trying to plan how to stop Captain Whiskers from bringing his evil plans to fruition, but this shows that Blaze still has a bit of a ways to go before she can completely control her emotions. This does bring up a thought though: what if some of that irritation may have been bottled up from her past trauma? The anger she felt at everything in her life may have stewed deep inside for a long time while she ignored any attempts at allowing herself to feel it or accept that it’s there. It’s a bit of a stretch, admittedly, but it does provide another reason as to why she was so adamant about doing things alone in Sonic Rush. She didn’t want to place her trust in others who weren’t there for her. 

But as she has welcomed friendship into her heart, she also realizes the importance of feeling her emotions however she sees fit for her own health. That’s a good fit for her personality. It would be so out of character if all of a sudden she bursts with emotion like she’s in a soap opera. But she doesn’t do that; she’s a member of royalty so she’s naturally going to express herself in a regal manner. 

 One other important aspect to her character is her elegance and grace within her speed, movement and powers. The other characters all have their own ways of how they move: Sonic - fast and confident, Tails - full of spirit and loving of flight, and Knuckles - sturdy and anchored to the job. Blaze is stated to move like a ballerina when she spins and jumps into the air, and I think that’s innovative. Fire can move about rapidly or slowly, but elegantly like a dancer? That’s ties to her calm disposition. As a dancer in the world of ballet, a dancer must be on his or her toes ready to perform slowly or quickly to tell the story through moves and postures, as well as convey to the audience what the character is thinking or saying on the stage. In Blaze’s case, a number of her scenes paint a picture of her quick thinking and intelligence, the slow buildup in her powers to when she must prepare for the hard days ahead and the urgency she feels when she has to use them to defeat a foe or accomplish a mission, including leaping over buildings in single bounds like a ballerina. 

She’s also shown to be intelligent and certainly more on the ball than other characters. So much so that she also built up a sense of high awareness as to what goes on all around her to protect herself, her subjects and the Sol Emeralds. This can be backed up in the gameTeam Sonic Racing. At one point, Vector tries to lie to her about something. In response, she states that as a princess, she’s had to deal with liars her whole life and it’s her job to decipher truth -tellers from lie-tellers so she can know whom to trust. She can tell something’s up and she wants to know what it is.  

Her desire to know what Vector was hiding indicates she has a penchant for honesty. She doesn’t like to mince words and although her words don’t always come out lovingly, she will stick by the truth and tell others what she thinks when she feels they need to hear something they’re not going to like but may need to hear. I think to some angle, this trait of hers was fully displayed in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 AKA Sonic ’06. As much as that game is not the top game on every Sonic fan’s list, I do think there are some nuggets of good stuff to be found. One of which is Blaze’s characterization. 

In the scenes we see her in, which are small but important, the writers did nicely in continuing on her development from her first game - she now works with others and even takes on the role of a big sister figure for Silver when he gets into a funk. In Sonic ’06, she calls Silver naive at one point - twice too. A little harsh, but because Silver is older than Marine, he’s not going to shed tears over these criticisms. The change in her character here may lie that in some convoluted way, maybe she learned to temper her bluntness to a slightly softer tone. The first time she calls Silver naive, it was when he was questioning if - spoilers ahead - killing Sonic to save the future is the right course of action to take. 

She didn’t know what happened to Silver to make him ask that question, so she may have called him naive because he was in a downer and contemplative mood, but she does respond in a mite gentler way that she doesn’t know if what they’re doing is right or wrong and that they have to do something - anything even if it means taking a life - to save the future world. I don’t agree with what she says, but I do think she does show that she won’t hide what she’s feeling to help Silver with his own emotional dilemmas. This is another sign that she’s grown as a person: she’s willing to share more on how she feels about situations rather than keep her feelings stowed away. 

Plus, she does keep her mind open for any proof that contradicts what she and Silver were told about Sonic being the catalyst for the destruction of the world which further serves to show her intellect and honesty. Once Silver found out Sonic wasn’t the cause, Blaze didn’t seem at all upset that they were wrong. All she said about it was, “I see…” We don’t actually see her facial reaction to this discovery, as she spoke off-screen, but she was still calm; she didn’t protest, she didn’t try to change Silver’s mind, she did nothing of the sort. She could tell he was telling her the truth and that seemed enough for her to change her mind about the situation with Sonic. 

I would like to also write about one funny detail about her profile: she’s afraid of heights. Very relatable as I’m scared of them too. For Blaze, it’s ironic because she’s a cat and cats climb onto tall structures or items all the time. I think she deals with it by focusing on what’s ahead and not looking down when she’s in the air. Wise move. 

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3. DEPICTIONS/QUESTIONS

Even though Blaze is popular among Sonic fans, she does have less-than-positive comments made about her. But this time, she’ll get support from me and questions towards the remarks.

*"She’s shy” : Shy? I... don’t really see her as that. Reserved, yes, and I think I can understand why others see her as shy, but I don’t think shy is the right word for her. If she was shy, I think she would display more timidity. Maybe she did display shyness when she was younger, but there’s nothing to indicate that’s her personality before she’s introduced to the world. I’m surprised no one’s written an origin for her to write using this trait.  

*"She’s heartless”: See in the above section for my rebuttal to this argument. 

*"Sol Dimension or Crisis City??”: I’m confused about this as well - where does she come from? I think ultimately, the creators will react with, “It’s a fun video game world, please go with it.” I bet it’s a floating timeline situation: some events from games past will be carried on into present ones even if logically it doesn’t make sense for them to be there. It happens a lot in comic books, it’s not illogical to assume it happens in games too. Personally I vouch for the Sol Dimension theory, but that’s me. 

*”She’s boring”: I’m not opposed to people’s opinions if they don’t like a character because he or she is not like the other ones in the cast. But I have heard a person call her boring which I don’t understand. I mean, just because she’s not as excitable as Amy or moody like Shadow doesn’t mean she’s not unique. She’s the only one with elemental powers and she’s the only one in the video game crew who is an actual princess. Now before I’m reminded of this fact, I am aware that Sally Acorn is also a princess. But I must also point out that she originated in animation, not video games. And as Sega has officially separated from Archie Comics and doesn’t want to have anything to do with them or SatAM, they’re not going to bring Sally back anytime soon so to them, Blaze is the top princess character.   

*”So…. what now?”:  Poor Blaze, I feel, seems forgotten in the games. She does make appearances in some of them because of how much people like her, but there’s no story to really focus on her. I understand why though; she’s not the face of the Sonic franchise like, well, Sonic is, alongside Tails, Knuckles and Amy. She’s from another dimension and there’s no motive for Sonic and company to swing over there, unless some bad guy decides to steal Blaze’s throne or something. In hindsight, perhaps it was a good thing that she hasn’t been featured in a lot of appearances in the Sonic franchise because then it means her character remains consistent and does not go through weird changes in other media. But it would be nice for her to actively take part in a story again.

She has a consistent character growth and character, but she could always use room to grow. How? I’m not sure, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. I think that’s why maybe that’s why folks forgot about her; it almost feels like they wrote themselves into a corner where her major character arc is completed but then they don’t know what else to do with her. I did hear that in the IDW comics, Blaze and Knuckles did share a moment on how they do have quite a bit in common with their backgrounds and responsibilities. I’m not really up to date with those comics, but I do like this bit. Even then I’m wondering… well, what comes next? Will Blaze and Knuckles decide to trade jobs when one is needed to leave their homes or what? 

Well, I know what’ll come next: the next part to this post! Inspirations, goals, headcanons and more! 

Enjoy this post!

Wanderer out!