Miles "Tails" Prower

**Miles Prower** (マイルス・パウアー *Mairusu Pauā*?, lit. "Miles Pouer"), better known by his nickname, **Tails** (テイルス *Teirusu*?), is a fictional character from the *Sonic the Hedgehog* series. He is an anthropomorphic fox cub born with two distinct twin-tails, hence his nickname. Because of his abnormality, Tails was a victim of bullying during his youth. One day, however, he met Sonic the Hedgehog and was inspired to become as cool as him after seeing him run like the wind. Tails soon after began following Sonic on his adventures and has since become his best friend and sidekick. He is able to use his twin-tails to fly by rotating them like helicopter rotors and is a mechanic genius and aerial pilot.

A gentle and sweet-natured soul, Tails was initially timid and lacked courage. After meeting Sonic, however, Tails has become more confident, eventually growing into a more outgoing, brave, independent individual and a hero in his own right. Since encountering Sonic, Tails has looked up to him and stood by his side, helping him whenever he can during their adventures.

## Concept and creation

The concept of Tails was founded during the development of *Sonic the Hedgehog 2*. After some discussion about making a sequel to the original *Sonic the Hedgehog* (1991), a fraction of the Sonic Team went to work with Sega of America's Sega Technical Institute. A new element they wanted to introduce was a character that would both serve as a companion to Sonic the Hedgehog and hopefully draw the attention of new players to the franchise.

A contest was held at STI in which Yasushi Yamaguchi, originally the main artist and zone designer for Sega's Sonic Team, won. The character was meant to hold a "deep admiration for Sonic."

The name 'Miles Prower' is a play by play word on a measurement of speed (miles per hour). The character was originally intended to be a tanuki (a raccoon-like canine native to East Asia and extremely popular in Japanese folklore), who had been modeled after a UFO catcher plushie. The designers decided to change him to a fox however to avoid possible comparisons to Mario who at the time had a power up called the Tanooki Suit. This suit allowed him to fly and made him look like a tanuki, hence the name of the power-up. Lastly, Tails received his twin-tails to grow more of a personality. Yamaguchi's entry won but Sonic Team decided to change his character's name from "Miles" to "Tails" in which Yamaguchi was not too pleased with at all about. The team and Yamaguchi ended up with a compromise: he settled the name "Miles" in as his legal name; "Tails" would be his nickname, ending up with the full name of Miles "Tails" Prower.

During the design process, Tails was originally going to have completely black pupils and only a single tail. Yasushi Yamaguchi also created Tails with the image of him being five years old, despite his official age ending up being eight. Despite Tails' three bangs are usually depicted erupting from the middle of his head, his creator intended them to be coming from the right side.

The character debuted as Sonic's tag-along partner in the franchise's second game, and has remained an important character. However Tails' uniqueness was not established until *Sonic the Hedgehog 3* when players were allowed to control his flying.

Tails was redesigned (along with the rest of the Sonic cast of characters) by Yuji Uekawa for *Sonic Adventure*. Tails' redesign saw him having his fur color changed to an amber like color, gained visible blue irises, became slightly slimmer and received a small boost in height. He shifted to a more streamlined appearance with rounded ears at the tips as well as longer tails which are used as his main form of attack, most notably the Tail Swipe. Later on, between *Shadow the Hedgehog* and *Sonic Unleashed*, he was made even taller and receiving a few scratches on the front of his shoes.

## Appearance

Tails is a young, anthropomorphic fox cub with a unique genetic mutation giving him two tails instead of one. He has mostly yellow-orange fur with white fur around his muzzle, front torso, and the tips of his tails. He also has blue eyes, triangular ears with white canals and three locks of hair on his forehead. Typically, his attire consists simply of white gloves, and shoes that are red from the heel to the middle, and white from the middle to the toe with gray soles.

## Personality

Tails is a gentle-hearted, sweet-natured and loyal fox with a positive attitude. In the beginning, he was timid and quiet, but he has opened up and become more outgoing over the years. Tails is not one to grab the spotlight for himself and, instead, is always ready and willing help others without asking for anything in return.

Tails has a distinct love for mechanics and he finds himself most at home in his workshop working on his next creation. Despite his great skills, Tails is very humble about his abilities, never giving them many thoughts, though he has yet to discover his true potential of what he can accomplish. At the time of *Sonic Lost World*, Tails has become more confident and outspoken about his intelligence, though he still does not openly brag. Regardless, he has been known to mock Eggman's own creations, and sometimes Eggman himself.

When young, Tails often lacked self-confidence and courage. After meeting Sonic and gaining his support, Tails gained more confidence and belief in himself. However, this status quo, created from Sonic's authority over him, intially placed a mental stranglehold on Tails that made him dependent on Sonic. As such, he often lacked initiative and confidence when alone.

A turning point for Tails came in *Sonic Adventure*; when Station Square was in danger of being destroyed, Tails was the only one who could stop this. With Sonic nowhere to be found, Tails realized that he could not depend on Sonic forever and had to try on his own. After saving Station Square, Tails realized he could be independent and support himself without Sonic, and all he needed was determination and faith. Since then, Tails has become more independent, self-confident, motivated and brave, as well as rising up to be a real hero when needed.

During their earlier adventures together, Tails strove to become just like Sonic by replicating the mannerisms he found admirable. In this period, Tails was content with being Sonic's sidekick as he was just happy to hang out with Sonic. As Tails grew as a person, he would still remain as close to Sonic as ever and look up to him as he has always done, but his esteem about Sonic's heroics have dwindled, as he these days cares more about inventing than Sonic's heroic deeds.

Despite his development, Tails still tends to depend on Sonic when he is in a moment of weakness. However, he hopes to one day be self-sufficient and independent like Sonic to prove he can be relied upon.

Also, even though Tails still enjoys being Sonic's sidekick, he believes that he can do almost anything if he puts his mind to it.

Despite his intelligence and general fearlessness, Tails is afraid of lightning and can be naive and big mouthed, such as in *Sonic Adventure 2* when he accidentally told Eggman that the Chaos Emerald that Sonic had was a fake, thus ruining the heroes' plans. Tails also hates feeling useless or being ignored, as seen in the cases when he is talking to Sonic. He also gets very angry when someone insults his mechanical skills and takes it very personally, as seen when Wave the Swallow mocked his self-customized Blue Star.

Tails has a tendency to talk techno-babble, much to the irritation of his friends, such as when he tried to explain how an Extreme Gear worked, meaning that Tails does not always use tact in a situational matter. Nevertheless, Tails is supportive of his friends, willing to be by their side no matter how dangerous the situation might be, and will do whatever it takes to help them, even if it means sacrificing himself for them.

## Powers and abilities

Though not as much on the forefront in battles as other characters, Tails is still an accomplished fighter. On his own, he has defeated several of Dr. Eggman robots and combat mechs, and even single-handedly defeated the entire Battle Bird Armada and Witchcart's gang. Once, he was also able to go head-to-head with Knuckles the Echidna.

Due to a genetic abnormality, Tails is bequeathed with two large, fluffy tails that can twirl together. Over time, Tails has learned to use them to his advantage in many situations. Most noticeably, Tails can spin his twin-tails like rotary blades to fly or hover like a helicopter. While in flight, Tails can move around with outstanding agility and enough speed to keep up with even Sonic, who can run 768 mph on average. However, he gets fatigued if he uses them to stay in flight for too long.

By manipulating the curvature of his twin-tails, Tails can glide through midair. He can also use his twin-tails as a rear turbine to sail across the ground at speeds great enough to let him stand a chance against Sonic in a race. By using them in said manner underwater, Tails' twin-tails become rear propellers that let him move around underwater with ease. Tails' twin-tails are also quite powerful limbs, being both strong and fast enough to slice through metal, and highly prehensile, having once grabbed a toothpick from a sandwich by their tip and then used it to type on a keyboard.

Even without his twin-tails, Tails can move at exceptionally high speeds. He is able to keep up with Sonic's speed on foot and even once cut Sonic off repeatedly using extremely swift movements. With or without his twin-tails though, Tails' speed still is considered average by comparison and he has admitted in spite of his feats that he is still slower than Sonic. Tails is also quite physically strong, having enough strength to hold up both Sonic and Knuckles at once and move blocks that supposedly weights several tons. He is also tough enough to go through atmospheric reentry and then land on the ground unharmed. In addition, Tails has demonstrated great feats of acrobatic skills and agility, he can effortlessly grind on rails and pull off different acrobatic tricks while airborne. He is also good at swimming.

Tails has also demonstrated the ability to harness chaos energy for his own use, although this is an ability he uses sparingly. By harnessing the Chaos Emeralds, Tails can give himself a boost in power.