Wave the Swallow

No one can tune a Gear the way I can!

— Wave the Swallow, Sonic Riders

Wave the Swallow (ウェーブ・ザ・スワロー, Wēbu za Suwarō^?) is a character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. She is an anthropomorphic swallow who is the technical and mechanical expert of the current generation of Babylon Rogues. She is the daughter of the tech expert of the previous generation of Babylon Rogues, which she takes after,^[1] and takes care of her groups' customized Extreme Gears.

Because of her knowledge on Extreme Gear, Wave is brimming with self-confidence and can be a bit of a trash-talker and highly critical of others' work with Extreme Gear. She hates thick-headed or stupid people and she tends to give advice only she can understand.^[2] Regardless, Wave is level-headed and serves as the voice of reason in the Babylon Rogues, though she is often mistreated by the other members.

Concept and creation[edit | edit source]

According to Sonic Riders game designer Takashi Yuda, Wave, Jet and Storm were conceptualized by Sonic Team to be "air pirates" that would become Sonic's rivals.^[3]

Appearance[edit | edit source]

Wave the Swallow, from Sonic Riders.

Wave the Swallow, from Sonic Riders.
Wave the Swallow, in her "Tidal" outfit from Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.

Wave the Swallow, in her "Tidal" outfit from Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.
Wave the Swallow, in her outfit from the Sonic Channel.

Wave the Swallow, in her outfit from the Sonic Channel.
Wave the Swallow with her glasses on, from Sonic Riders.

Wave the Swallow with her glasses on, from Sonic Riders.
Wave the Swallow in her summer beach outfit Sonic Speed Simulator

Wave the Swallow in her summer beach outfit Sonic Speed Simulator

Wave is an anthropomorphic swallow with purple feathers that cover her body and a white patch on her chest. Her hair is styled like a pair of long braids with dark purple tips. On her wrists there are light purple flame-like markings. She has a golden-curved beak, light purple eyelids, blue eyes with two eyelashes on each side of them, and a two-feathered tail.

For attire, she wears a white bandana, white gloves that possess visible lining with gold bracelets and red lining, a white tube top that reveals her midriff and covers her torso, and white-flared pants with dark purple flames at the bottom. She also wears red boots with white accents, silver zippers and gray soles, a white necklace with a red utility gem, and gray sunglasses with gold lenses.

Personality[edit | edit source]

Because of her knowledge, Wave is brimming with self-confidence.^[2] She is very arrogant about her expertise at Extreme Gear, certain that no one can match her in this field. She is a super-achiever and holds very high standards for how Extreme Gear should be and never hesitates to dismiss others' Extreme Gear as 'junk'. She takes great pride in her skills and is passionate about her profession, becoming indignant when someone insults or blames her work for their own failures. She has a keen eye for detail, takes notice of everything, and hates thick-headed and stupid people. Also, she tends to give advice using terminology understandable to only herself and not others. Naturally, this causes tension and frustration between her and others like Jet.^[2]

Wave often refuses to admit others' talents with Extreme Gear mechanics due to her dislike of anyone who could rival her. She often holds back on her compliments and will either continue to dismiss or deny that the person has any skill at all to cover up any sense of generous gesture she may hold. In the cases she does give compliments, she will disguise them as insults. It is only in the rarest of cases that Wave gives well-meant compliments.

While generally fun-loving like the rest of the Babylon Rogues, Wave is very level-headed and serves as the voice of reason amongst her group, often lecturing Jet and Storm of their responsibilities. Because of her teammates' unreliability, Wave believes that she has to take charge of the team if anything is to get done. She is very serious on a job, staying dedicated to the task at hand, and insists on no lack of dedication from her companions. When things do not go as planned, however, she tends to get impatient. Also, she can be quite stubborn and obstinate when making a decision.^[2]

Wave is usually rude, with a sly attitude and snide sense of humor. Being the most outgoing of the Babylon Rogues, Wave has no problem insulting others and mocking their Extreme Gear. She will also take compliments or conversations from others and twist them around so that she can throw them back at others as a snide comment. Wave also finds amusement in insulting and degrading her opponents' skills during races.

When it comes to accomplishing her teams' goal, Wave is perfectly willing to cheat in official competitions, such as sabotaging Sonic's Extreme Gear in Sonic Riders and second World Grand Prix, even without Jet knowing it. Likewise, she will gladly take whatever beneficial chance that might present itself, such as taking the Key to Babylon Garden on behalf of Jet when Sonic returned it despite Jet refusing to accept it.

Wave also has a great deal of greedy love for money and treasure, and her primary motive in life is to acquire as much wealth as possible. This was her sole reason for willingly competing in the first and second World Grand Prix.

Wave is a level-headed figure that is able to ride her Extreme Gear with style. Though she usually has a calm demeanor, she cannot help but get excited over treasure.^[4]

Wave is a greedy thief, having no qualms about plundering official institutions to in order to earn a profit. Even so, she is shown to have some moral standards, as she believes that there are certain lines that she and friends should not cross, like when she told Jet that they were only thieves and not kidnappers after Storm accidentally kidnapped Jewel and when she found herself obligated to save Jewel after Storm threw her out of their blimp. In addition to this, Wave also often acts as the voice of reason in her gang, usually finding herself at odds with Jet on their ideals.^[4]

Despite her sophisticated and mature demeanor, Wave is also very stern seeing as she's not afraid to be tell Jet off for exaggerating his ego and get annoyed with Storm's stupidity when she needs to.

Powers and abilities[edit | edit source]

Like many other characters in the series, Wave is able to move around at super speeds on foot, enough to reach velocities well above 100 "Speed".^[5] Wave possesses as well above average acrobatic skills and agility, enough to pull off advanced tricks and movements while in mid-air. Also, though Wave is not as strong or durable as people like Storm, she is shown to have some degree of physical endurance, as shown when she was attacked by SCR-HD, who knocked her over and slightly injured her, but otherwise emerged unharmed.^[6]

As the brains of the Babylon Rogues and their top mechanic,^[7] Wave is an engineering genius.^[8] Described as a really brilliant mecha mechanic,^[9] Wave is a superb mechanic^[10]^[11] who is capable of everything from modifying the group's Extreme Gears to repairing the rogues' airship.^[2]^[7] However, while she is capable of fixing many things, Extreme Gear is her specialty.^[10]^[11] Gifted in the craft of Extreme Gear mechanics, she has advanced mechanical knowledge and experience about tuning, building, and the workings of Extreme Gear that surpasses both Tails and Dr. Eggman in this area.^[10]^[11] According to herself, no one else can tune an Extreme Gear the way she can.^[12] Besides Extreme Gear and mechanics, Wave is also well-versed in other types of technologies and shows well-above general understanding of the functions and operations of different technologies, such as microchip-sized diaries,^[13] MeteorTech's signal network,^[14] explosives,^[5] and even the Babylonians' technology.^[15] Additionally, Wave is quite intelligent in the field of science and physics, being able to analyze and understand the scientific concepts of the Arks of the Cosmos.^[15] She is as well a great scholar.^[16] Not only can she analyze information or plot strategy better than anyone else on her team,^[16] but she has also shown knowledge about how to decipher the ancient texts written by the Babylonians and is even capable of analyzing unknown treasures in her spare time.^[17]^[7]

File:Sonic Riders - Wave - Level 2.jpg

Wave riding her Extreme Gear while wielding her giant spanner, from Sonic Riders.

As a member of the Babylon Rogues, Wave is a professional Extreme Gear rider, enough to be acknowledged as a wind master on a legendary level.^[18] In fact, Wave is one of the best Extreme Gear riders in the world—she can move expertly at high speeds, perform complex and impressive tricks while in midair, and engage in combat with other Extreme Gear riders while maintaining precision and control.^[16] She is also able to ride her Extreme Gear through mid-air with great accuracy and control.

In addition to the above, Wave is a talented and professional thief.^[19] Having pulled off successful heists and escaped capture from the authorities,^[20] Wave is a skilled thief and talented with slight of hand. Additionally, Wave is skilled at utilizing various types of gadgets and tools efficiently in combat,^[2] ranging from giant wrenches or spanners to small explosives that she plants on her opponents.

Wave has proven herself to be a capable and swift Extreme Gear rider. Also, in addition to being a professional thief, she possesses a genius-level intellect.^[21]

Equipment and weapons[edit | edit source]

File:Type W SFR.png

The Type-W, from Sonic Free Riders.

Wave's choice of equipment is her Type-W. The Type-W is a Board type Extreme Gear, constructed by Wave herself for flight at high altitudes. Thanks to Wave's Extreme Gear mechanics expertise, the Type-W is a highly advanced piece of technology with an ultra-compact body that contains high-standard mechanics.^[8]^[22]^[21]

In combat, Wave's preferred choice of weapon is a large wrench or spanner that she uses skillfully as a club in melee combat.^[5]^[23]^[24] However, she also uses small packs of dynamite and other explosives that she plants on her opponents and then detonates.^[5] Also, the red gem attached to Wave's necklace doubles as a utility device that is capable of loading data, projecting holographs, and functioning as an alarm clock.^[16]

Weaknesses[edit | edit source]

Wave can be a snob, and, with the exception of Jet, she looks down on nearly everybody else.^[16]

Relationships[edit | edit source]

Jet the Hawk[edit | edit source]

Wave views Jet the Hawk as an unreliable younger brother, but regardless, she does respect his role as a leader and follows his leadership.^[2]

Unlike Storm, Wave would not be bothered if she would call her leader, Jet, by his name. She is the creator of Type-J and always follows Jet's orders. She seemed annoyed when Jet told her that her speeches are boring. However, despite almost always listening to Jet, she says in Sonic Riders, "Unless I take charge, nothing ever gets done here!". During the second World Grand Prix, she acts much more loyal towards Jet when she shows concern for his disapproval of Team Dark, telling him that he should just ignore them. Also, in one cutscene, she slightly bows towards Jet, approving of his riding skills. Despite this attitude change, she lies to him in the game. In the Babylon Story, before Jet was about to race Sonic, he told Wave not to cheat by doing "something" to Sonic's Extreme Gear. Wave told him that she did not do anything to his Gear, and Jet proceeded to race with Sonic. Suspiciously, Jet won, much to his concern, and found out that Wave had, in fact, tampered with Sonic's Gear. Wave apologized and claimed herself guilty, while Sonic and Jet prepared for a rematch without Wave interfering.

Wave respects Jet enough as the leader of their group. Though Jet knows he can count on Wave to do a job well done, he does not appreciate her nagging over his wilder ideas. Wave only sees this as her being the voice of reason but Jet's impatience does not care much for this, even when he realizes that she is right, which prompts them to argue a lot. Despite this, Wave and Jet do care about each other enough to ride or fight together to the end.^[25]^[26] Notably, Wave would praises Jet for his prudent decisions to remain by their side against the Zombots on the battlefield, but the latter quickly ruined the moment by unnecessarily exaggerating his accomplishment.^[27]

Storm the Albatross[edit | edit source]

Storm the Albatross and Wave are friends, but the two seem to get into small arguments, much to Jet's annoyance. When Storm lost against Knuckles, he complained to Wave and Jet that he (Knuckles) must have cheated. Wave then thought he was criticizing how she built his Extreme Gear, which angered her and caused her to shout "What!? Are you implying that you lost because of MY Gear!!? No one can tune a Gear the way I can!!! Accept it, buddy! It's not the board. Your skills just suck!". Storm, feeling shocked and offended by this, repeated "Wh-wh-what?! Su...S...S...Suck!?" to which Wave witheringly replied; "Yes. S-U-C-K. Suck!" Other than this incident and others, they seem to get along just fine.

Wave has a decent enough relationship with Storm, but her high intelligence often contrasts his stupidity. She sometimes views him as incompetent due to his slower moments compared to her, such as during their raid of the Mineral Museum where he kidnapped Jewel the Beetle, having mistaken her for a precious gem. In turn, Storm respects Wave, but is not afraid to request for her to back up off of Jet when she tells him off. Regardless, she and Storm trust each other very much as teammates and know that they have each others backs and are willing to fight side by side to the end.^[28]^[29]

Miles "Tails" Prower[edit | edit source]

Wave and Miles "Tails" Prower are rivals at inventing, since they are both intelligent. In Sonic Riders, Wave was impressed by Tails' inventions but couldn't admit it; when she examined the custom Extreme Gear Tails had created for Sonic, she privately noted that it was "not half bad, for an amateur...", but out loud she insulted it instead, saying that he had made "a piece of junk". She also teased Tails by calling him "shorty". In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, the two did not seem to rival each other at anything. When Wave was injured by SCR-HD, Tails was seen trying to help her get up. During the second World Grand Prix, she called him "shrimp" instead and kept the same attitude towards him. Once again, they did not talk much or show much rivalry until one scene, when Tails examined the Extreme Gear she made, he commented, "Your Gear is still as amazing as ever, Wave...". However, Wave ungratefully replied, "Is that supposed to be sarcasm, shrimp?", much to Tails' dismay, and he told her that he actually meant it. This is if she loses the competition to Tails; if she wins the competition instead, her response to Tails' comment is "Try not to sound so surprised, shrimp". Wave and Tails have not spoken to each other since.

Rouge the Bat[edit | edit source]

Wave and Rouge the Bat have only interacted during the second World Grand Prix. They have shown to have some kind of competitive rivalry and put each other down if one of them wins. Wave has shown to be against Rouge's rudeness, like mocking Jet after he complimented Rouge's team in winning. The two of them also share the same interest for money and treasure.

Master Zik[edit | edit source]

Wave met Master Zik during a fight with him in Winterburg. After the Babylon Rogues managed to defeat him, Wave demanded that they finish him off, desiring nothing but brutal revenge on him.^[30]