Blaze the Cat

For other characters of the same name, see Blaze.

Blaze the Cat is a female cat of indeterminate origin. Not much has been revealed about her yet, but she is seen to recognise both Ebony and Sonic the Hedgehog. She possesses a certain degree of pyrokinetic and magical powers and an acute sense of smell, having been able to track Ebony by the scent of a bottle she was carrying which contained Super Sonic's essence. She had attempted to take the essence for an as yet unknown purpose, confronting both Ebony and the Order of Magick to get it. She is either unaware of, or just doesn't care about Sonic's fall from grace, going to great lengths to protect him and to stop Ebony from releasing Super Sonic. The sorcerers of the Order confronted Blaze and banished her with a magical spell. She ended up on the Planet Drak.

It was later revealed that Chaos energy runs through her veins, granting her spectacular powers, such as being able to destroy magical barriers.

History

Blaze's history has been displayed erratically throughout the pages of Sonic the Comic Online. Within the space of seven issues, stories of her were told in past, present and future scenarios.

The story Enter: Blaze is narrated by Blaze herself, explaining part of her origins. With her parentage unknown, the same going for her pyrokinetic abilities, she grew up in an orphanage, finding her own ways to deal with the other children's sneers and taunts, and eventually began travelling the world when she was old enough. When her world began to burn at the hands of an unknown malevolent entity, Blaze searched for the cause of the burning, but the entity found her first. In the encounter, she saw a figure in the flames before passing out. She later woke up in a green zone of Mobius, some years in the past, with no knowledge of how she got there. Where she is actually from remains unclear, but she has thus sworn to track down the entity which destroyed her world and "make it pay".

Blaze began her quest for revenge by tracking down an energy source remarkably like the one that sent her into the past. Inadvertantly, this saw her get mixed up in an altercation between Ebony, the Order of Magick and Sonic. Blaze phased through the magical barrier set up around them and immediately attempted to steal Ebony's essence. The newcomer failed and was quickly interrupted by the arriving Order, for some reason alarmed at Blaze's presence. Blaze knew of Sonic's heroic status and protected him from Ebony, who was attempting to use the essence to turn him back into Super Sonic. Grabbing the vial of Chaos energy away from Ebony, she was then shunted into a portal by the Order.

At the other end of the portal, Blaze emerged on Drak, the home planet of the Drakon Empire. Tasked with finding herself a way home with "minimum fuss", Blaze was interrupted by the renegade trio of Dax, Etsu and Phi, a group of "machi" that were disillusioned with the House of Magic's ruling and planned to steal their magic. Blaze initially refused to help, but was convinced when they offered her a way home. At the House of Magic, Blaze used her powers to disable a protective barrier, allowing Dax's company entry inside, but she was set upon by four sisters of the house. Overcome, Blaze only survived when her new friends transported her back outside with a stolen Mobius Ring and then used it to send her home. Having learned that she was powered by Chaos energy, the same energy that runs through Drak, Blaze considered returning in the future.

Future

It was later revealed that Blaze was involved in a brawl with Reverse Robotnik at some point in the future. The alternate version of Doctor Robotnik attempted to use his magic to harm his opponent. However, Blaze was easily able to deflect it back at him with her own magic; this had the unexpected effect of turning him into a cat - namely Robotnikat.

Relationships

Sonic the Hedgehog

"You're Sonic the Hedgehog, hero of Mobius!"

Blaze only briefly met Sonic some time after she was transported into her past during "The Burning". It is unknown how much she knew of him in her time, but she had a good idea that he was the "hero of Mobius" and wished to protect him when his life was endangered.

In return, Sonic was initially sceptical of Blaze, especially when the mysterious cat began to sniff around him. Even so, Sonic was appreciative of Blaze's heroic actions and showed concern for her whereabouts after she was banished by the Order.

Ebony

"Sonic the Hedgehog is the hero of Mobius! What does that make you?

Despite both being cats, Blaze and Ebony appear to very different people (despite Sonic's quip about them being related). Blaze was drawn to Ebony by her holding the Essence, and her discovery of it prompted Ebony to blast Blaze away, supposedly stunning her for a short time. This, and Ebony's treatment of Sonic, forced Blaze into a frenzy, breaking through Ebony's shield and kicking her in the head, all the while questioning her character and motives.

Order of Magick

Blaze has met the Order of Magick on at least one occasion, although the magical group knew of her before. Named "the anomaly", Blaze appeared to scare the Order slightly with her power, although their only shown meeting saw Blaze and Super Sonic to be the more pressing worry. Instead of thanking Blaze for her part in saving the day, the Order banished her to Planet Drak without a means of returning home. On Drak, Blaze vowed to track the Order down, although what she planned to do with them afterwards was unclear.

Concept

A Sonic Rush adaption starring Blaze was being discussed in the Message Zone as far back as 2005, with editor Charles Ellis discussing the possibilities of Blaze playing Sonic's role in another dimension.

Even so, writer Ed Reynolds often resisted using the character in one of his strips, at one point lumping them with forgotten video game characters such as Bean the Dynamite and Ray the Flying Squirrel.

Over the next few years, a number of different concepts arose discussing her origins, with one or two suggesting that the Drakon Empire had accidentally given Blaze her powers whilst attempting to store their Chaos energy in "Sol Emeralds". Others suggested that she should be related to Ebony (or her alter-ego).

In December 2007, Tom Huxley revealed that he had pitched an idea for Blaze and Silver the Hedgehog, although Reynolds had called the pitch "retarded" and "90%" of the people he showed supposedly hated it. Jamie J and Stephen Davis confessed that they had liked it and prepared to write/draw something for it, until the aforementioned Humes expressed their distaste for the saga. In 2008, Jamie J suggested that Blaze was a favourite of the staff, so it was "inevitable" that Blaze would appear.

Nevertheless, speculation continued until her debut appearance. Much of it occurred at a time when the video games were unpopular and were being slated for having too many characters. Many suggested that she would bring nothing to the comics, although many were also fixated on the idea that she would need to be the guardian of a set of Emeralds.

Reception

Blaze has proven to be a popular character during her time in Sonic the Comic Online, with her debut highly received by almost everyone in the Message Zone. However, the second part of "Ebony & Ivory" saw her favour slip, as many thought her appearance to be "pointless" and quick. Blaze's stock increased with her origin story, especially the portrayal of her as a baby.

Other media

Blaze originally appeared in the Sega-made Sonic video games, beginning with Sonic Rush. In this adventure, Blaze highlighted her control of fire, being able to create a tornado of fire when she jumped and could even stand immersed in flames with no consequences. She is shown to be almost as fast as Sonic and can jump much higher with help from a springboard.

Her canon in the games is confused by two differing stories, with elements of both seen in her STC-O guise. In one, she is a princess or queen from another dimension, whereas she was once seen as a deity in the comic. It was later suggested that she was from a ruined future with limited knowledge of Sonic, which was more closely followed in Sonic the Comic Online.

In the games, Blaze initially struggled to make friends until a chance meeting with Cream the Rabbit. This has not been focused on in any strips to date, as her meetings and partnerships have been made in order for her to achieve her goal of finding out what happened to her.

In some way, Blaze demonstrated her power to destroy barriers in Sonic Generations as part of a single side mission, although this was after her debut appearance in STC-O and the barriers were made of fire.

Appearances in video games

Below is a list of video games that Blaze has appeared in (that have pages on this wiki):

Appearances

Gallery

External links

Blaze the Cat at Sonic News Network, the Sonic Wiki