Blaze the Cat

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Template:Blaze the Cat infobox

That is my duty as princess. My duty... and my honor! I will not allow my people to come to such suffering!

— Blaze the Cat, Sonic Rush Adventure

Blaze the Cat (ブレイズ・ザ・キャット, Bureizu za Kyatto^?) is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. She is an anthropomorphic cat from earth in the Sol Dimension, where she is both the imperial princess^[1]^[2] of the Sol Empire who has the right to inherit the throne,^[1] and the appointed guardian of the Sol Emeralds, a role similar to that of Sonic and Knuckles combined^[3] and that of a shrine maiden, although she appears too busy for such an admirable position as the latter.^[1] Despite being in a position of considerable power, Blaze tends to escape her castle and act rather freely and independently.^[1] As her name suggests, she is gifted with the power of pyrokinesis, which lets her create and manipulate fire in any way she pleases. Possibly due to her sheer strength, Blaze often acts without her royal guards to protect her.^[1]

Blaze is normally calm and elegant but tends to conceal her true feelings. Devoted to her position, she sometimes gets herself bogged down by her own strict discipline, which made her anti-social, shy, and unfamiliar with the concept of having friends. After spending time with Amy and Cream and meeting Sonic however, Blaze has discovered the true meaning of friendship, allowing her to accomplish tasks for the good of her people and the innocent which she could never do alone. Despite the initial boundaries separating them, Blaze now travels freely between her dimension and Sonic's to visit her friends.^[4]

Concept and creation[edit]

File:Blaze-the-Cat-Character-Sketches.png

Concept art of Blaze the Cat.

Blaze was designed as a character who was equivalent yet an alternate version of Sonic's character. An undated concept of Blaze which was very similar to her final design except her eyes were rounder and her ponytail was turned front instead of back, she was supposed to wear clothing similar to the Arabs since she was wearing a shalwar and a midriff top.^[5]

According to the early character spreadsheet files of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) it is mentioned that Blaze wears a cape to hide her flames because she was teased. However, the games have never shown her wearing a cape besides her purple outfit. This was later clarified by the concept artwork gallery in the Nintendo 3DS version of Sonic Generations where one of the pictures showed Blaze wearing a white and pink laced cape.

An ex-member of Sega on Sonic Wrecks released concept art of Blaze which was said to be done in early 2005 in PowerPoint documents.^[6] Her design was very similar to Shadow's, however, it is possible the character was in a mere silhouette form. She also had round blue eyes, red eyeshadow, long eyelashes, long wavy hair, and her red gemstone was on her chest instead of her forehead.^[7]^[8]

Appearance[edit]

Blaze, from Sonic Art Assets DVD.

Blaze is a slim, lavender-furred anthropomorphic cat with golden eyes with two long eyelashes each, a small black nose, and a white-furred muzzle. She has triangular ears with peach-colored canals on top of her head, and a long tail with the end frayed and violet. Her fur is longer on each side of her head and sweeps slightly upwards, and she has four plumes of hair with violet tips tied-up into a high ponytail by a red hair tie. She also has a red oval gem on her forehead.

For attire, Blaze wears a gold collar hanging from her neck, a purple tailcoat with rose trim at the bottom, white leggings, white gloves and high-heeled rose ankle boots, as both of them have white fluffy cuffs on them. Her boots also featured a thick white stripe on each of the front, and gray soles and heels.

For a list of Blaze's alternate outfits, see Blaze the Cat/Miscellaneous#Outfits.

Personality[edit]

Monetary rewards are beneath a princess. I live to meet justice!

— Blaze the Cat, Team Sonic Racing One-shot

File:Blaze profile SG.png

Blaze's profile, from the Xbox 360 version of Sonic Generations.

A noble soul and strong young lady,^[1]^[9] Blaze is highly devoted to the well-fare of her people, her motto being "My power is to protect the smiles of my people."^[1] She is normally rather calm and solemn but tends to conceal her true feelings.^[10] She is also often described as elegant, which is demonstrated through her body movements and her ballerina-like fighting style. Being royalty, Blaze is quite stoic personality-wise, which is a perfect example of the spirit of the noblesse oblige, as she is very frequently doing her official duties, but still tries to do her best for everyone's peace. Because of her lineage and her stoicism, she is sometimes too distant from those around her, but that is also the flip side of her good nature.^[1] She likewise always sticks to her personal principles, which means doing the best she can with pride in the position she is in. This may be the source of Blaze's strength, and it may also be what makes her so appealing.^[1]

Blaze is mannerly and typically maintains a relatively quiet and formal air among others. She also usually speaks in a polite and ladylike tone. While honored of her heritage as royalty, though, Blaze is down-to-earth and dislikes being called by her title.^[11] Blaze is also likewise highly perceptive; due to having people that lie to her daily because of her status as a princess, she has developed a keen intuition, allowing her to sense and see through the lies of others.^[12] Also, due to the fact that she is so strong that she does not need her guards' support, one cannot help but wonder if she has that much discretion. Her own uncompromisingly calm judgment and unyielding spirit are also qualities that can be counted on. However, one's impression of her may be that she is a person with differences that can be respected.^[1]

While Blaze gives the impression that she keeps her emotions in check, she is inwardly highly emotional. She possesses a fiery temper, and when she loses her composure she is quite aggressive, harsh, and prone to making bad decisions. She is similarly very serious about her position as guardian of the Sol Emeralds, initially suspecting anyone even looking at the Emeralds the wrong way. Also, when dealing with enemies, she never holds back her strength and is not above the idea of using lethal force.^[13] She is usually highly disciplined and focused, never allowing herself to lose control, and can be quite stubborn and impatient once she has put her mind to something. Her intensive demeanor, however, is motivated by her own genuine concern for others' safety. In truth, Blaze has a kind heart and always stands up for those who cannot stand up for themselves,^[9] Because of her own self-imposed strict discipline though, she is often tense and frequently suffers from great self-pressure.

Initially, she held a personal dislike of her pyrokinesis because it left her to bear her responsibilities alone and it made other children tease her for her inability to control it,^[14] which made her view her flames as a curse. She later learns to accept them from Sonic's advice and came to see them as a blessing. Also, when it comes to her duty as guardian of the Sol Emeralds and their relation to the Chaos Emeralds, she is shown to have great faith in the actions both sets of Emeralds take on their own, no matter how vague their reasons may be.^[15]

Because of her past and strong sense of responsibility, Blaze has developed a habit of being self-reliant.^[1] This has led her to build up walls between her and other people, making her anti-social, withdrawn, and shy. As a result, she would bottle up her secret feelings, leaving herself in inner turmoil. She also lacks in social skills and has a hard time opening up and talking to people. She was also initially wary and curt towards strangers and frequently rejected offers to help, even becoming defensive and angry. This attitude also made her somewhat selfish as she berated Sonic's offers to help and eventually ended up fighting him.

After interacting with Cream, Amy and Sonic, Blaze has mellowed out considerably socially wise,^[1] making her more amiable, friendly, and gentle towards others. She also came to understand the true meaning of friendship, making her willing to trust and accept help from others. While she still prefers handling things on her own and remains somewhat reclusive, she will accept her friends' help and is genuinely grateful for their aid. Recently, she is seemingly much more sociable, participating in Sonic's and later Amy's birthday parties simply for the sake of friendship, and is much quicker to open up and relax in front of her friends.

Blaze is very honest and almost blunt when dealing with annoyances such as Marine. During the Jeweled Scepter incident, she tried to leave Marine behind on missions due to Marine's risky behavior and even went far enough to hurt her feelings by calling her a 'nuisance' to keep her from coming along with her on a dangerous mission to Pirates' Island. This caused Marine to go after the pirates without Sonic, Tails, or Blaze. Sooner rather than later, Marine was captured by them. Blaze also had a rather bad habit of getting over-confident in threatening people to whom she thinks "deserves" it. This was most notably shown during the Jeweled Scepter incident.

Blaze sometimes has a tendency to judge others poorly and see less value in others. Notably, she expected no one to know that their worlds were in great danger during the Sol Emerald incident but was proven wrong when Sonic and Tails were also aware. Her poor judgment of others led her to have a fight with Sonic and misjudge Cream until she realized how helpful she was.

Blaze suffers from acrophobia^[16] and just the sight of heights makes her terrified, nervous, and uncomfortable as seen in Sky Babylon. However, she is not much for admitting her fear and will try to hide it.

In the IDW Comics, Solemn, calm, and collected in battle, Blaze is a noble soul. Initially, she was a bit of a loner and somewhat defensive. However, she eventually warmed up to the concept of friendship and became more sociable and positive as a result of her new relationships. She has since come to cherish the friendships she has made and will do anything to keep her friends safe despite having only known them for a short time.^[17]

Powers and abilities[edit]

Being the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, Blaze is a force to be reckoned with. Both strong and powerful, she is able to go about without the need for her guards protecting her due to her sheer strength.^[1] She is arguably the strongest female character in the series, being the only female so far who has been able to tie with Sonic in battle,^[18] and is as intense in battle as she is graceful.

Blaze's trademark power is her pyrokinetic ability to brandish,^[19] create,^[18] and control^[9] the elemental force of fire with her body^[3] at will^[20] in any way she pleases. This ability is so deeply rooted in her that even her soul is alit with flames.^[21] Though Blaze initially had trouble controlling her flames,^[14] she has since become very adept at using them, turning them into an incredible force.^[1] Notably, she is able to handle them delicately enough to create small embers in the palm of her hand or defrost frozen creatures without harming them.^[22] Her power over fire is so advanced that she is even completely invulnerable to certain kinds of fire^[23] and can manipulate foreign flames at will too.^[24]

File:BlazePyrokinesis.png

Blaze enveloping herself in flames to increase her kicking power, from Sonic Rush.

With her pyrokinesis, Blaze can conjure up flames for various offensive effects, the most basic maneuvers of which involve turning herself into a tornado of fire by spinning around. Notably, she can cloak herself in flames with a midair twirl for strikes, trigger high-speed twirls empowered by flames in order to form fiery tornadoes around her that destroy anything they collide with, envelop herself in flames to become an explosive meteor with enough impact power to create a crater in bedrock,^[25]^[26] or increase the power behind her strikes to such levels that she can send the Egg Mobile and its passenger flying into the horizon with a single, fire-charged kick.^[27] She can even create pressurized blasts of fire and have them burst out of the ground from afar.^[26] Purely offense usages aside, Blaze can also use her pyrokinesis to propel herself forward or upward with short bursts of fire or obtain limited flight by creating propulsive flames underneath her feet to slow her descent. However, her signature move with her flames^[28] lets her turn herself into a burning projectile that not only enhances her running speed but also lets her plow through opponents while running. Also, because Blaze's soul is alight with flame, she can serve as a vessel for Iblis, who would otherwise reject anyone not a member of the royal family of Soleanna, although his power would still leak out of her body.^[21]

File:Fireboost.png

Blaze performing a fire boost, engulfing herself in flames and speeding forward, from Sonic Rush.

Like many others, Blaze possesses no small amount of speed,^[29] allowing her to run at super speeds almost reaching those of Sonic's. In line with her graceful nature, Blaze is as well incredibly athletic considering her impressive dexterity and nimbleness when executing her various ballerina-like moves. Notably, she has enough skills in the area of athletics, reflexes, and agility to let her execute unique tricks and movements at high speed while in mid-air, pull off various Axel Jump maneuvers at immense speed, and grind on Grind Rails with ease. On the ground she is also able to perform top spins and axel jumps. In addition, she has amazing jumping skills, enough to jump very long distances from rooftop to rooftop on top of tall towers with ease while landing safely.^[30]

As the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, Blaze has a deep connection to them. Before she understood the meaning of friendship though, Blaze was unable to harness the Sol Emeralds' power.^[31] After embracing the friendships she had forged, however, she gained the ability to tap into the Sol Emeralds' energies and use them to empower herself.^[32]

File:Spinningburstdash.png

Blaze performing the Burst Dash, from Sonic Rush.

In combat, Blaze makes use of her own type of hand-to-hand combat skills. In fact, many of Blaze's moves focus on graceful and delicate movements similar to ballerina moves to strike precise and hard blows. When attacking, she tends to use her feet when launching physical blows. Also, most of her fighting moves rely heavily on her pyrokinesis. By using her pyrokinesis in conjunction with her attacks, Blaze can create unique and dynamic moves that deal destructive damage to her targets. She can likewise perform an attack similar to the Homing Attack, where she quickly launches herself at an enemy and attacks them.

In some instances, Blaze is shown being able to levitate in midair.^[26]^[33] Being royalty, Blaze also has much knowledge about the various aspects of her planet, such as its history, ancient languages, and legends; and knows much about the various powers of the Jeweled Scepter. Additionally, she has excellent skills when it comes to driving vehicles like the Royal Chariot.^[34]

In the IDW Comics, Blaze has the power of pyrokinesis. This allows her to control fire in different shapes and forms. She can extinguish flames as well as create them from her own body, allowing her to create tornadoes and beams of fire that vary in size. She can as well envelope herself in fire to perform moves like the Fire Boost, in which she charges herself as a burning projectile at her opponents with increased speed provided by the propulsion. She can also use the Axel Jump, in which she jumps as a miniature tornado of fire that damages her foes upon impact. Offense aside, Blaze can perform the Burst Hover, which lets her create and wield fire at her palms and feet to maneuver through the air. She can even amplify the attacks of her allies, such as Sonic, by enveloping them in flames that do not burn them and then throwing them at her opponent.^[35]

Transformations[edit]

Burning Blaze[edit]

Main article: Burning Blaze

File:Bblazeadventure.png

Burning Blaze, from Sonic Rush Adventure.

After realizing the importance of friendship and allowing herself to open up to people, Blaze learned how to harness the power of the seven Sol Emeralds to transform into Burning Blaze. In this state, all of Blaze's abilities far surpass her normal ones, including her pyrokinesis, which allows her to fire and charge up destructive fireballs in this state. She is also able to fly and is nearly invulnerable. However, this transformation consumes a lot of energy, meaning it cannot be maintained for long.

Color Powers[edit]

Main article: Color Power

By harnessing different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Blaze 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, Blaze 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[edit]

Heights are not my strong suit.

— Blaze the Cat, Team Sonic Racing

Suffering from slight acrophobia,^[16]^[28] Blaze gets uncomfortable when faced with great heights,^[36] which is perhaps her greatest weakness. Blaze's temper also makes her prone to harsh and rough decisions. Notably, Blaze completely lost her temper while threatening Dr. Eggman and Eggman Nega in Deep Core, causing her to lose sight of how she had to not recklessly endanger herself for the sake of her world and people until Sonic calmed her down.^[37]

In the IDW Comics, As seen in the games Blaze suffers from acrophobia, which makes her uneasy at high altitudes. However, when needed, she is able to suppress her fear.^[38]

Relationships[edit]

Main article: Blaze the Cat/Relationships

Reception[edit]

Overall, Blaze the Cat has been well received. IGN remarked upon seeing her at TGS 2005 that she "easily earned her place in the team" amidst unremarkable secondary characters. Her gameplay has been praised as "fast-moving and fun" as opposed to slower characters introduced earlier in the series,^[39] but criticized for its resemblance to that of Sonic.^[40] Blaze has been called "a nice addition to Sonic's cast" and "one of the more complex, multifaceted characters in the Sonic canon."^[40]^[41] She has been noted by GameSpot for her "fiery disposition".^[42] IGN's Nintendo Team stated in its July 2009 list of the top 25 Nintendo DS games that there is "nothing notable about a Sonic game bringing a new character into the fold, except that Blaze doesn't suck", ranking Sonic Rush 17th.^[43] She has become a favorite among fans of the series.^[41]

Concept and creation[edit]

Appearance[edit]

Personality[edit]

Powers and abilities[edit]

Transformations[edit]

Burning Blaze[edit]

Color Powers[edit]

Weaknesses[edit]

Relationships[edit]

Reception[edit]

Quotes[edit]

Trivia[edit]

Gallery[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]