Blaze

Blaze the Cat (ブレイズ・ザ・キャット Bureizu za Kyatto) is a fictional character in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series published by Sega. She is a 14-year-old purple anthropmorphic cat and has a withdrawn, reticent, and cold personality. She is notable for her pyrokinetic abilities, for which she is named. Blaze comes from an alternate dimension and is the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, her dimension's version of the series' integral Chaos Emeralds.
Blaze's first appearance arrived in the 2005 Nintendo DS game Sonic Rush, where—as a playable protagonist alongside Sonic—she collects the Sol Emeralds after losing them upon entering his dimension. Shortly afterward, she appeared as Silver the Hedgehog's friend from the future in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), and she has since been a playable and non-playable character in numerous Sonic games. She has also made appearances in Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series. Game critics' opinions on Blaze have been mixed to positive, focusing mainly on her similarities to Sonic and her powerful abilities.
==Design and characteristics==
Blaze is a 14-year-old, purple anthropomorphic cat, standing 95 cm (3'1") tall. While creating the 2005 Nintendo DS game Sonic Rush, which would host Blaze's first appearance, developer Sonic Team designed her to play like Sonic the Hedgehog—who stars in the game alongside her—but with a dance-like style of movement. Mirroring her name, Blaze has powerful pyrokinetic abilities.
Blaze comes from a world outside the main Sonic the Hedgehog series, where she is a princess and the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, a group of powerful elemental gemstones analogous to the series' integral Chaos Emeralds. Her personality is calm, introverted, and stoic, although this sometimes conceals a greater level of emotion. She is highly disciplined and focused on her job as the Sol Emeralds' guardian, and frequently suffers from this high degree of self-pressure.Sonic Rush instruction manual, p. 5. She also has difficulty making friends and, when she does, frequently rejects their offers to help her.
==Appearances==
===In video games===
In Sonic Rush, antagonist Doctor Eggman enters her world through an inter-dimensional rift and steals the Sol Emeralds; the Emeralds then carry her back to Eggman's world, where Sonic and other characters live. Blaze lands on an island and meets Cream the Rabbit, who serves as her guide around the island. Blaze sets out to recollect the Sol Emeralds. Periodically, Cream and her friends Knuckles the Echidna and Amy Rose suggest that Blaze ask Sonic for help, but she continually refuses. She finds Eggman, who has her final Emerald, but to her chagrin, Sonic insists on helping her fight Eggman. She temporarily turns on Sonic, while Eggman discreetly kidnaps Cream. Blaze locates Eggman, rescues Cream from a gigantic robot of his, and leaves. However, Eggman and his doppelganger Eggman Nega catch up, injure her in a battle, and drain the Emeralds' power. She feels defeated, until Sonic and her other friends show up and explain that the Emeralds are powered by friendship and she needs to learn to accept others' help. Blaze does so and recharges the Emeralds to turn into her super form, Burning Blaze. Similarly, Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic; the two defeat Eggman and Eggman Nega and fix the rift, thus separating their worlds. This action carries Blaze back to her own world, but she first says goodbye to Sonic, thanks him for his help, and vows to see him again.
In the 2006 game Sonic the Hedgehog, Blaze and her friend Silver the Hedgehog arrive in the present day from the future, in order to circumvent a disaster that occurred between the present and their time and was caused by a fiery demon named Iblis.Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (PlayStation 3) instruction manual, p. 17. Blaze follows Silver around during his storyline, as he is uncomfortable without her. After finally finding Iblis and rendering it helpless, Silver tries to use Chaos Control to seal it inside his soul and cast himself into another dimension, in order to spare the future from it. However, he is unable to absorb it, and cannot bring himself to use the technique on Blaze, so she does it herself and says goodbye to Silver as he forlornly watches her fade away. However, the events of the game are later erased when Sonic and Princess Elise travel into the past and put out the "Flames of Disaster", which serve as Iblis' power source; this erases all possible future timelines containing Iblis. Blaze thus returns to her dimension in Sonic's time.
Blaze returns with playability for Rush's sequel, Sonic Rush Adventure. When Sonic and Tails are searching for mystical gemstones in Tails' biplane, the Tornado, a hurricane crashes the Tornado on an island and the impact knocks them unconscious. Marine the Raccoon wakes them up while they lie vulnerable at the water's edge, and with her they continue looking for the gemstones until they meet Blaze in an underwater cave. Both parties are surprised to see each other, and Tails realizes they are in Blaze's world. While Tails stays behind to work on various machines for them to use, Blaze and Sonic explore various levels to gather gemstones, repeatedly fight a pirate named Captain Whisker and his robots, and reclaim an artifact called the Jeweled Scepter that Whisker stole. They eventually find the pirates' hideout and prepare to fight them for the last time, but Marine insists on going ahead and is captured by Whisker, so Blaze and Sonic rescue her. Marine reveals, however, that she has taken the Scepter back, and Tails starts building a machine to return home, but Eggman and Eggman Nega steal the Scepter once again, reveal that they created Whisker, and gloat over their plans for world domination. Blaze and Sonic turn super and defeat Eggman. The two parties say goodbye, and Tails successfully guides himself and Sonic back to their own world.
In the Nintendo DS version of Sonic Colors, Blaze is again accidentally transported to Sonic's world, and gives him two missions to complete. In Sonic Generations, a game that reprises past Sonic titles, Blaze, along with numerous other characters, is turned into a statue by the antagonistic Time Eater; when Sonic saves her, she expresses regret at needing his help but thanks him anyway. She takes on the guise of Sir Percival in Sonic and the Black Knight, which is set in the universe of King Arthur. Arthur sends her to kill Sonic, so she confronts him and loses, but he saves her from falling off a cliff and they become friends. With Sir Lancelot (Shadow the Hedgehog) and Sir Gawain (Knuckles), Percival helps Sonic later on by staging a siege around a castle.
With little impact on Sonic canon, Blaze has appeared in numerous spinoff games. She is unlockable after the player completes the story modes of the racing titles Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and Sonic Free Riders. She is a playable character in sports games like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games,Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) instruction manual, p. 9.Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii) instruction manual, p. 5. as well as in the mobile platformers Sonic Jump and Sonic Dash. Her image appears as an in-game collectible trophy and sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and as a collectible card in Sonic Rivals 2.
===In comics===
Blaze is a recurring character in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series published by Archie Comics. She suffers frequent dreams about a blue hedgehog and arrives in Sonic's world, known in the comics as Mobius, to seek him out. However, she is captured, knocked unconscious, and imprisoned by Eggman's robots; she wakes up and destroys them and part of the facility while Sonic simultaneously arrives to rescue her. Blaze attacks him, but he whips up air currents around her and she almost suffocates until he saves her from them. Unfazed and ungrateful, she vanishes. She next appears in a Rush Adventure adaptation, where she attains great respect for Sonic. Her story on the island with Marine continues with the two rescuing Shadow from drowning in the ocean. The robot Metal Sonic, who has followed Shadow there, accosts him, so Blaze, Marine, and Shadow work together to destroy him.
Blaze re-enters the comics' main arc when she returns to Mobius to look for more Sol Emeralds. She finds Amy and Cream and fights them, thinking they have found one and are keeping it from her, but apologizes when it turns out to be a broken glass bottle. Amy and Cream sense her need for help and go with her as she searches for Emeralds. Rouge the Bat arrives and assists them by flying Blaze down into a ravine and defending the three from a giant falling tree branch, but when they all reach the Emerald, Rouge steals it for herself. E-123 Omega and Shadow show up to defend Rouge; in a resultant scuffle, the Emerald changes hands a few times before being stolen by Nack the Weasel. Still desiring some level of friendship, Shadow attempts to explain his actions, but Blaze brushes him off. She steals Shadow's motorcycle and with it she, Cream, and Amy chase Nack; Shadow shows up again to apologize, with the same result. They eventually find Nack, but he is tussling with the Babylon Rogues for the Emerald. In what has become a cohesive four-way battle, Blaze defends Amy and Cream with her flames while they recapture it. As Shadow and Rouge again come to their aid, Blaze successfully obtains the Emerald, says goodbye to Amy and Cream, and returns to her world. Later, in a lengthy Mega Man crossover arc, Blaze appears to assist Sonic and other Sonic and Mega Man characters in combating antagonist Dr. Wily and his robot army.
==Reception==
Blaze's reception from the video game press has been mixed to positive. As a second playable character in Sonic Rush, Brett Elston and Jim Sterling of GamesRadar both separately described her as "unnecessary"; Sterling ranked her fifth on a list of the worst Sonic characters. Similarly, Greg Sewart from GameSpy and Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer criticized her similarities to Sonic, while 1UP.com's Jeremy Parish cited these similarities as a major factor in the welcome familiarity of Rush and Rush Adventure. She was described as "fun" and "cool" by staff of 1UP.com and Cheat Code Central, respectively. Author Nix of IGN stated that Blaze "easily earned her place" among the Sonic cast of characters and called her "a good counterpart for the hedgehog." Learning of her appearance in Sonic and the Black Knight, Joystiq writer JC Fletcher went further, calling her "one of the more complex, multifaceted characters in the Sonic canon."
==Gallery==
==See also==
* Images of Blaze ()
==References==
Category:Sonic the Hedgehog
Category:Cats
Category:Females
Category:Video games
Category:Comics
Category:Anthropomorphic characters
Category:Animals
Category:White fur
Category:Attractive females
Category:Gold eyes
Category:Characters
Category:Heroes
Category:2005 debuts
Category:Purple fur
Category:Sega