Blaze the Cat

Blaze the Cat (ブレイズ・ザ・キャット) is a fictional supporting character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. She is an purple anthropomorphic cat, and a princess hailing from an alternate dimension. Where she is both the regent of her world and the appointed guardian of the Sol Emeralds, a role similar to that of Sonic and Knuckles combined. She is gifted with the power of pyrokinesis, which lets her create and manipulate fire in any way she pleases. 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 to the concept of having friends. After spending time with 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 of the initial boundaries separating them, Blaze now travels freely between her dimension and Sonic's to visit her friends.

Background
Blaze was born into the royal family of a unnamed kingdom in her home dimension who has protected the Jeweled Scepter for many generations. From early birth, Blaze possessed the inherent power to control flames with her entire body, an ability she possessed for her future duty as the guardian of the Sol Emeralds. However, because of her initial inability to control her powers, other children basically teased her about it when she was really younger. As such, she would wear a cape to disguise her abilities which she would only discard when needed. In the end, Blaze's powers made her spent most of her life alone.

As Blaze rose up to princesshood, she became the guardian of the Sol Emeralds. Because of her rough past though, Blaze saw her abilities as a "curse" that forced her into a life of seclusion for her duty. As such, she shut herself off from other people to bear her responsibilities alone, making her very shy, withdrawn, and self reliant. Over the course of her duty, Blaze lived an isolated life without any real friends which meant she never learned how to use the Sol Emeralds. During her reign, Blaze met the villainous Dr. Eggman Nega who would become her nemesis.

Personality
A noble soul, Blaze is normally calm, solemn and level headed, but tends to conceal her true feelings. She is often described as elegant, which is demonstrated through her body movements and her ballerina-like fighting style. Being royalty, Blaze is quite mannerly and typically maintains a relatively quiet, stoic and formal air among others. She tends to have body language less casual than most others, such as in Sonic Generations where she stands straight and tight rather than relaxed like the rest of the cast. She also usually speaks in a polite and lady-like tone. Despite being honored of her heritage though, Blaze is down-to-earth and dislikes being called by her title.

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 frightening, aggressive, harsh, and prone to making bad decisions. She is similarly very serious about her position as princess and guardian of the Sol Emeralds, initially suspecting anyone even looking at them the wrong way. Also, when dealing with enemies, she never holds back her strength and is not above the idea of using lethal force. 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. Because of her own self-imposed strict discipline though, she is often tense and frequently suffers from great self-pressure.

Initially, Blaze 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, 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.

Because of her past and devotion to her duty, Blaze developed a habit of being self-reliant, which led her to building up walls between her and other people. This made her anti social, withdrawn and shy. As a result, she would bottle up her secret feelings, leaving herself in an 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 Sonic, Cream and their friends, Blaze developed much more socially, 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 genuine grateful for their aid. Recently, she is seemingly much more sociable, participating in Sonic's birthday party 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, even outright telling her that she is a nuisance. She also had a tendency of judging others poorly in Sonic Rush, making her seem somewhat overconfident and arrogant. Blaze suffers from acrophobia 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.

Appearance
She is a light purple cat. She wears a dark purple dress, and has a red ruby on her face. She has a black nose, and her eyes are brown. She ties her eight top bangs with a red bow.

Video Games
Blaze the Cat appears in the following video games:
 * Team Sonic Racing

Quotes

 * "Hmm, it seems you like to play with fire. Let me light up your fingers then!".
 * I am the guardian of the Sol Emeralds... It is a fate that forces me to live with my curse, my flames... Because of my powers, I have always been alone... It's also why I must do this alone! It is my responsibility!

Cream the Rabbit
As Blaze was traveling alone, after defeating Dr. Eggman for the first time, Cream the Rabbit had surprised her by hiding. Blaze was a little hostile, but Cream instead walked up towards her and invited her to her house, along with her mother, Vanilla the Rabbit. Blaze thought this to be calmingly eerie about the way they would treat a stranger. Cream then agreed to show Blaze around, starting their adventure, acting similar to Tails in the Sonic campaign.

Throughout, Blaze was only focused on collecting all of the Sol Emeralds but as they travel, Blaze soon feels a bond, finally seeing Cream as a friend and not a guide. She was very worried about Cream's safety after she destroyed the Eggman robot that captured Cream and briefly thought Cream had been consumed in the explosion, causing her to frantically search the robot's wreckage before she found Cream had used her flying powers to escape the explosion. Even when Blaze left to her own dimension, they had hinted on missing each other's company. In Sonic Generations, they are seen interacting with each other again at Sonic's birthday party.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Blaze was told by many people to team up with Sonic the Hedgehog for her quest. However, believing that she could handle everything by herself, Blaze became affronted by this. When Sonic appeared, he refused to let her battle Eggman alone (Eggman at the time possessed the final Sol Emerald), Blaze became angry and attacked Sonic instead.

After the battle (which was never properly concluded), Blaze came to realize that her selfishness lead to the battle. They became friends, as Blaze had learned that it was okay to accept help from others. Later, when Dr. Eggman and Eggman Nega team up, Sonic and Blaze team up in the process. When Eggman kidnaps Cream in an attempt to call Blaze to confront him alone, and even though it was not according to plan, Sonic trusts Blaze to bring Cream back safely. Although she loses faith in herself after rescuing Cream as the Eggmen had defeated her, Sonic cheers her up, and because Blaze regains faith and learns the power of true friendship, she can now transform into Burning Blaze with Sonic into Super Sonic. After the fight, they had a moment to give their good-byes, Blaze had thanked Sonic and the two made a promise that they'll meet again, the two shook their hands and are separated by the pull of their dimensions. The ending shows Burning Blaze flying back to her world speaking to herself realizing that her flames weren't a curse but a gift. When she was thinking about it, she remembered Sonic telling her that she has learnt the power of the Sol Emeralds and that she had inherited the power of flames; he then says, "And Blaze now you have the power! You know what I mean, right?" Blaze smiles and says once again to her vision of Sonic that she'll see him again.

Amy Rose
Blaze and Amy Rose first met in Sonic Rush when Amy asks Cream where Sonic is. Cream then introduced Amy to Blaze and came in good terms until Amy assumes that Blaze might like Sonic the way Amy does. Blaze however denies it, saying that she "couldn't care less about anyone named 'Sonic'". Amy helps Cream and Blaze later on by getting away from Knuckles who planned to attack Blaze.

In Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Blaze and Amy seems to be close friends in the trailer when the two were seen smiling and holding hands.

However in Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games Blaze stops Amy from sending a personal letter to Sonic by challenging her to a sport. Blaze also gives an annoyed expression by putting her hand on her face says, "Oh brother!" when Amy is flirting with Sonic by calling him "darling".

In the gameplay trailer for Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, she and Amy can be seen having a conversation.

In Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Blaze and Amy has a special winning animation, in which Amy jumps to Blaze's back right and left, and finally warms up Blaze's shoulders, much to the latter's shock.

Trivia

 * Despite having the title of princess, Blaze is sometimes referred to as a queen. *She is called "Queen Blaze the Cat" on the official Sega of America Sonic mini site, Sonic Central,[8] as well as the Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) game website. *However, in Japanese, her title is "皇女" (Kōjo?), which translates as "imperial princess", and is also called princess in Sonic Rush Adventure).
 * Blaze is implied to have two different backstories for her origin. In Sonic Rush, Blaze is depicted as a princess native to another dimension, while in Sonic the Hedgehog, she appears in a possible future of Sonic's world. At the end of the latter game, Blaze is sealed in another dimension, which led to the assumption that Sonic the Hedgehog took place prior to Sonic Rush. While the events of the latter game were ultimately erased, Sonic the Hedgehog's official website, guides and later games indicate that the Blaze in Sonic the Hedgehog is the same one seen in Sonic Rush. There is no attempt in-game to show why and how she is in Silver's time - the game instead writes Blaze as a good friend of Silver's, and whether or not she even truly recognizes Sonic from the previous title is seemingly rendered moot when Sonic himself does not pay any attention to her at all, making many fans question whether Blaze is a native of another dimension or the future. It was finally cleared up at Sonic Boom in 2012 by Takashi Iizuka, who stated that Blaze is in fact a native of the Sol Dimension and not the future. He also stated that the reason no one expressed familiarity with Blaze in Sonic the Hedgehog was because everyone had "amnesia". Former Archie Comics writer Ian Flynn's explanation is that Blaze and Silver never met however, completely ignoring the events of the game. During a 2018 Q&A livestream Shiro Maekawa said that even though it was never officially stated, he wanted to add a sense of connection between Sonic Rush and Sonic the Hedgehog.
 * Like Sonic's specialty in breakdancing, Blaze seems to be able to dance ballet as she is seen spinning on the tip of her toes before striking a victory pose.
 * As of Sonic Runners, Blaze is the first female Power Type character in the series.
 * Although it has never been officially confirmed, Blaze is able to perform Chaos Control with at least two Chaos Emeralds, as she used them to transport herself to another dimension along with Iblis at the end of Silver’s story in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
 * It should be noted that In Sonic Generations, Blaze will say "I thought I would never be in Crisis City again" after clearing "Blaze: Piercing the Flames", despite the fact that the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) were erased from timeline.
 * According to Sonic Channel, when asked about her weight, Blaze would respond "Don't speak of such a thing."[1] unlike the other female characters which simply says 'Secret'.
 * Blaze is the first female character in any portrayals of the Sonic the Hedgehog series to be given a transformation.
 * In the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 versions of Sonic Unleashed, if one were to look at the loading screen for Empire City's Skyscraper Scamper stage, one could see "Blaze Rd."
 * If Blaze is tapped in the bottom screen with the stylus during gameplay in Sonic Rush, she jumps like a frightened cat, then she turns at the player angrily and stomps on the ground, before turning her back and tapping her foot. When tapped on the touch screen in Sonic Rush Adventure, Blaze hovers in the air.
 * In Sonic Rush Adventure, Blaze might know more than one language other than English, as she was able to read a book filled with ancient text found in Sky Babylon.
 * Blaze is the second feline character introduced in the series in regards to the games. The first is Big the Cat.
 * However, if one were to include Honey the Cat, who was a scrapped character since Sonic the Fighters at the time, it would make Blaze the third feline in the games.
 * Blaze's fear of heights is rather ironical, as real-life cats generally prefer to stay on high-up places and almost always safely land on their feet.
 * Prior to the release of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), an internal document used by Sega was leaked which contained the entire game script as well as extended profiles for the major character. In the Character Introductions section, it is stated for Blaze that "she is bothered by underendowed chest (comments on which will rouse her anger)". It is unknown if this is true to her actual depiction.
 * Blaze was going to appear in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing as a playable racer alongside Rouge, Vector, Espio and Silver, but was scrapped from the final product.[16]

Voice Actresses

 * Japanese : Nao Takamori (2005 – Present)
 * English : Bella Hudson (2005 – 2010), Laura Bailey (2010 – Present)