For other uses of the term, see Blaze the Cat (disambiguation).

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!

— Blaze the Cat, Sonic Rush

Blaze the Cat (ブレイズ・ザ・キャット, Bureizu za Kyatto?) is a character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. She is an 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.[3] As her name suggests, 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 and Cream, 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]

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Concept and creation

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 mid-riff top.[5]

According to the early character spread sheet 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.[7][8]

Appearance

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

For attire, she wears a purple tailcoat with the bottom rim dark pink, a gold collar and white leggings. She also wears white gloves with fuzzy cuffs and high heeled, dark pink shoes with white stripes and fuzzy cuffs, like her gloves.

For the purpose of Extreme Gear racing, Blaze wears a purple catsuit with pink, white strapped boots. The suit also have yellow stripes over the chest, elbows and knee areas.

Personality

A noble soul,[9] Blaze is normally calm, solemn and level-headed, but tends to conceal her true feelings.[10] 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. While honored of her heritage as royalty, Blaze is down-to-earth and dislikes being called by her title.[11] Blaze is 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]

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 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.

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 socially developed much more, 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 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 to judge others poorly in Sonic Rush, making her seem somewhat overconfident and arrogant.

Blaze suffers from acrophobia[15] 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.

Powers and abilities

Pyrokinesis

Blaze is born with the power of pyrokinesis, the ability to create and control fire in any way she desires. This ability is so deeply rooted in her that her soul itself is alit with flames.[16] Though Blaze initially had trouble controlling her flames,[14] she has since become very adept at using them, handling her flames delicately enough to creates small embers in the palm of her hands or defrost frozen creatures without harming them. Her control over fire is not limited to her own flames, but also those in the environment, allowing her to bend foreign flames to her will.

With her pyrokinesis, Blaze can conjure up flames at any place on or all over her body for various offensive effects, such as turning herself into a burning projectile, forming a cloak of flames or increase the damage of her blows. She can even ignite and raise large columns of fire from the ground from afar. Offense aside, she can also use her pyrokinesis defensively by conjuring up fields of fire around her as protection. She can also use her flames to propel herself forward, increasing her speed and/or granting her limited flight. Blaze's pyrokinesis also gives her limited heat resistance, making her invulnerable to certain types of flames, such as those in the environment.

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.[16] Even so, she was not able to completely contain Iblis, as his power would still emanate from her.

Physical abilities

Like many other characters in the series, Blaze is able to run at super speed, though she is not as fast as Sonic or Shadow. Regardless, she is still remarkably fast and possesses high speed movements and fast reflexes, something which even Sonic has acknowledged.

In line with her graceful nature, Blaze is also a quick thinker with lucid movements. She is incredibly acrobatic and nimble, and possesses impressive dexterity. She is shown being able to jump very long distances while landing perfectly safely, and can, while airborne, perform several tricks with precise movements. On the ground she is also able to perform tricks such as top spins, axels and axel jumps.

As the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, Blaze has a deep connection to the emeralds. Like Knuckles, she can sense the Sol Emeralds' energies, and can as well sense disruptions in the world she resides in. Before she understood the meaning of friendship from Sonic and his friends, Blaze was unable to harness the power of the Sol Emeralds, but after embracing the friendships she had forged, she gained the ability to tap into the Sol Emeralds' energies and use them to empower her.

Combat skills

Being the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, Blaze is a very skilled fighter. She is arguably one of the strongest female characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, being the only female so far who has been able to tie with Sonic in combat. Fiercely dedicated to her duty, Blaze is as intense in battle as she is graceful and an equally skilled combatant.

Fighting style

Most of Blaze's combat moves focuses on using graceful and delicate movements similar to ballet moves, to strike precise and hard blows at her opponents. When attacking, she tends to use her feet when launching physical blows. Most of Blaze's fighting moves comes from her pyrokinesis and relies heavily on their execution. By using her pyrokinesis in conjunction with her moves, Blaze can create unique and dynamic attacks that deals destructive damage on her targets, making her a fierce force to be reckoned with in combat.

Techniques and moves

Blaze’s primary offensive maneuver involves turning herself into a tornado of fire by spinning around. Her techniques Burst Dash and Spinning Claw lets her charge fire and then launch her at full speed along the ground as a fiery tornado that destroy anything it collides with, similar to Sonic’s Spin Dash, but it does not keep its speed or goes faster. She can likewise perform an attack similar to the Homing Attack, called Fire Claw, where she quickly launches herself at the enemy and attacks them.

By using her pyrokinesis, Blaze can make her able to briefly hover in the air with her Burst Hover by igniting fire under her feet. By also enveloping herself in fire, she can increase her speed further by launching herself as a large fire projectile, called the Fire Boost, which destroys any opponent caught in her path, similar to the Boost.

Also, her Axel Jump and Axel Tornado allows her to jump into the air and twirling, making herself a fiery tornado that damages anything she makes contact with.

Miscellaneous skills

In Sonic Rush, she appears in front of Sonic in a burst of flame to take the blue Sol Emerald. This could mean that she can teleport through her flames, or by a way that may or may not be related to Chaos Control (or a form similar to Chaos Control possessed by the Sol Emeralds).

In some instances Blaze is shown being able to levitate in the air. Such cases are seen in her battle against Sonic in Sonic Rush and in her mission with Classic Sonic on Planet Wisp in Sonic Generations.[17]

Blaze is also shown to have much knowledge on the various aspects of her world, such as its history, ancient languages and legends, and knows much about the various aspects of the Jeweled Scepter.

As seen during Dodon Pa's Grand Prix, Blaze also has excellent skills when it comes to driving and racing in racecars like the Royal Chariot.

Transformations

Burning Blaze

Main article: Burning Blaze

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 surpasses her normal ones, and she is as well able to fly and is nearly invulnerable. Her pyrokinesis is also amplified, allowing her to shoot large fireballs. This form's main weakness is that it consumes a lot of Ring energy and needs Rings to be maintained.

Color Powers

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

Heights are not my strong suit.

— Blaze, Team Sonic Racing

Blaze admitted in Sonic Rush about her acrophobia, which is perhaps her greatest weakness. Her fear is even more pronounced in Sonic Rush Adventure, as she was afraid to go into Sky Babylon; though she did not say so herself, Gardon confirmed that she is terrified of heights. In Team Sonic Racing, she tends to complain about heights when jumping gaps.

Blaze's temper makes her prone to harsh and bad decisions. Her rough decisions were also noticed by Sonic in Sonic Rush Adventure where she completely lost her temper whilst threatening the 'Eggmen'. Sonic warns her to not make harsh decisions and as a princess she should be keeping a "level-head"; reminding her that she needs to look after her people, which Blaze slowly and regretfully realized.

Blaze also had a rather bad habit of getting over-confident in threatening people to whom she thinks 'deserves' it, and Sonic is shown to disagree with it. This was shown several times in Sonic Rush Adventure, a few times in Sonic Rush and finally once in Sonic Colors (DS version only).

Blaze has been shown to have a tendency to judge others poorly and seeing less value in others. Examples are in Sonic Rush when she expected no one to know that their worlds were in great danger 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's blunt honesty causes her to comment harshly. In Sonic Rush Adventure she tried to leave Marine behind in 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 on a dangerous mission to Pirate Island.

Relationships

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.

In their next meeting, Sonic ends up in her dimension, along with Tails. This time, they work together as allies to stop the doctors' plans. After defeating the doctors in Deep Core, Blaze then tells Sonic that maybe the Emeralds brought Sonic here as if it were destiny. Sonic was a little stunned then he smiled and said, "Who knows?" Blaze then smiles and pulls out her hand to shake hands with him and they did so, like they did before and the two left each other again, though Blaze remained positive that they would meet again.

In Sonic Generations, Blaze is one of the attendants at Sonic's birthday party and helps preparing it for his arrival. She also attends Sonic's birthday party in Sonic Runners. In her own words, despite being uncomfortable with crowded events, she wants to be there for him.[18] She also has a certain respect for Sonic, and said that she "bows to his skills" after getting all Red Star Rings and states she's impressed when he first completes Crisis City with an S-rank in Sonic Generations.

Knuckles the Echidna

Blaze and Knuckles met when Cream saw Knuckles the Echidna and greeted him, and though Cream wanted Blaze to be friends with Knuckles, it didn't work out right. Knuckles was friendly until he saw Blaze holding a few Sol Emeralds, he mistook them for Chaos Emeralds and therefore gave Blaze advice to give them to Sonic. Blaze gets angry at Knuckles and tells him that she has no Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles accusing her of lying and makes an attempt to harm her, but Blaze dodges and clobbers Knuckles, knocking him out and leaving him lying in a crevice. Knuckles later wanted revenge against Blaze, but was distracted by Amy. Cream convinces Blaze that Knuckles is actually a 'nice guy', which made Blaze feel relieved. Near the end of the game, Knuckles no longer shows any dislike for her as he was there with Sonic's other friends while helping Blaze with the Sol Emeralds.

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 they were on good terms until Amy assumes that Blaze might like Sonic the way she does. Blaze 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 seem to be close friends in the trailer where 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 and 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 together.

Silver the Hedgehog

Silver the Hedgehog is Blaze's good friend and companion from the future. During the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) the two have searched for and battled the Iblis together for what seems to be many times. Silver and Blaze are shown to look out for one another, during gameplay Silver will yell to Blaze to watch out for objects because he "doesn't want to see her hurt" while Blaze worries about Silver's insecurity issues when they are separated. In an attempt to save the destroyed future, they travel back to the present with the aid of Mephiles, who has instructed them to destroy the "Iblis Trigger" in order to prevent Iblis from ever being released. They work alongside one another, though Silver is implied to be the more dependent of the two and Blaze the mature one - Blaze comments that Silver is "insecure when he's alone" along with scolding him numerous times for being very "naive". After his encounter with Amy, he begins to contemplate the morality of their mission and when reunited with Blaze, relies on her guidance on whether or not it is right for them to kill someone even though it means saving the world. Ultimately she chastises him for being naive once more and explains that she cannot say either way, all she knows is if they do not take their chance then the future will remain exactly the same. They continue on their journey to repair the future timeline.

At the end of their journey, Blaze chooses to sacrifice herself as the vessel of Iblis as it turns out that Silver is not a compatible vessel. With Iblis trapped inside her, she asks Silver to seal her in to another dimension so Iblis can be stopped once and for all. Silver tries to seal her but cannot bring himself to do so. In explaining why he says that he would not know what to do without her and asks her "we're friends, right?". Blaze turns and scolds him one final time for being so naive, then tells him "but, I've always liked that about you" before sealing herself in a new dimension and vanishing.

After the defeat of Solaris, the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) had been erased. However, Blaze and Silver have met and teamed up multiple times since and are still depicted as friends. Their old lives have been referenced a few times throughout the series.

In Sonic Colors (DS version only), Sonic comments that Silver and Blaze were in perfect sync to which Silver replies that he feels like they have paired up before. Tails mentions that perhaps they were partners somewhere, some time. After rescuing Blaze from the Time Eater in Sonic Generations, Blaze will comment "Crisis City... I never thought I'd be back here again. This world is full of surprises." Silver and Blaze are also seen chatting to each other at the party in the final scene.

The two of them are also together in the Nintendo DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, in which they challenge the player to Dream and normal Ice Hockey in the Adventure Tours, Blaze and Silver have a unique gold medal pose if they work together in a team event in both Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games and Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Silver and Blaze meet up once again during the events of Team Sonic Racing, this time joining up with Vector to form Team Vector. The two greet each other with a "long time no see" and appear to be close and friendly towards each other. Throughout the story Silver is suspicious of something being wrong with the tourney. Blaze notices his odd behavior and confronts him about it. He explains to her that he has a feeling that something is not right. Blaze says she trusts him and agrees to help him investigate. They work together with the others to uncover and foil Eggman's plan and rescue Dodon Pa.

Miles "Tails" Prower

Blaze first met Miles "Tails" Prower with Sonic when they were searching for her. They have interacted indirectly, but after her fight against Sonic was finished, Tails tried to convince Blaze to stop fighting and to believe in Sonic so she can rest. She was going to take that into consideration and thanked him for it, but she insisted in fighting Dr. Eggman herself. In Sonic Rush Adventure, Blaze finds Tails to be a valuable ally, when it comes to machines and sea crafts.

Marine the Raccoon

The two were allies in Sonic Rush Adventure, though Blaze initially showed her dislike of Marine the Raccoon by leaving her behind in missions. However, Blaze has no choice but to let Marine come if she promises to stay with the group. Before Sonic, Tails, and Blaze depart to Pirates Island to unlock the door and finish off the pirates, they decided to leave Marine behind this time, she however doesn't accept it. Blaze confesses to Marine that she is a nuisance which hurts her feelings. Sonic and Tails disagree with what Blaze said and told her she was too harsh on Marine. After Sonic and Blaze save Marine from the Ghost Titan and defeat it, Blaze is disappointed at Marine for sneaking on the Deep Typhoon to come to Pirates' Island which would've put her in grave danger. Marine however surprises Blaze by finding her stolen Jeweled Scepter. Blaze thanks Marine for the great contribution thus realizing how wrong she thought of Marine and even asks Marine to come along with them for the first time. At the end of Sonic Rush Adventure Blaze comforts Marine who is sad about Sonic and Tails' departure and then look at the sky hoping to see them again. Blaze's relationship with Marine becomes very similar to Sonic's relationship with Tails.

Doctor Eggman Nega

Blaze's most nefarious adversary is undoubtedly Eggman Nega. Blaze hated Eggman Nega for ruining her life by threatening her kingdom and people, taking her Jeweled Scepter and Sol Emeralds, and her friends. Their relationship could be said to be similar to Sonic and Eggman, though the rivalry between them is more bitter in nature. Blaze is quick to anger whenever Eggman Nega says or does anything evil, such as what he said in Sonic Rush Adventure "It will only take the fraction of this power to wipe your kingdom off the charts!" Since Eggman Nega has appeared in the Sonic Rivals series and Blaze hasn't, it is unknown if she knows any of Eggman Nega's doings during these games and is unaware of the fact that he is actually Eggman's descendant and not a doppelganger from her dimension.

Captain Whisker

Blaze appears to be easily annoyed and angered by Captain Whisker due to the fact that he took her Jeweled Scepter. She finds him to be a waste of time and does not treat him as seriously as she does other villains.

Dr. Eggman

Like with Eggman Nega, Blaze has a grudge against Dr. Eggman. She hates the idea of Eggman building "Eggmanland" in either her or Sonic's dimension.

In Sonic Rush it was because of Eggman that Blaze was lost in Sonic's dimension. Dr. Eggman steals Blaze's Sol Emeralds in her world, which causes her to chase after him. While in pursuit, she sees a bright light and then passes out. When she wakes up, she questions whether or not she's in a different dimension; she finds out that she is in another one entirely and Eggman still has all of the emeralds. Throughout the game, she is tracking down Eggman to collect all of the Sol Emeralds back.

Also, in Sonic Rush Eggman sends a letter to Blaze that he has kidnapped Cream, which makes Blaze furious, and tracks him down to save her friend. Blaze destroys Eggman's robot and rescues Cream.

Friends/allies

Enemies