Rouge the Bat, Self-confidence, & Body Image

Comments · 586

• BR

  @breta35 · 7 months ago (edited) · pinned

  Here&apos;s part 2 to this discussion on Rouge over on Zealot’s channel! He specifically tries to analyse Rouge&apos;s character to figure out what archetype she falls under. Go check this out!<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1RTojeG7jw">https://youtu.be/C1RTojeG7jw?si=hw8CUZz2I5P4LuxQ</a>

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• HE

  @Hedgie3 · 8 months ago

  The most understandable reason of why Rouge didn&apos;t fly when she fell during that scene in SA2 can be because she was too tired from the battle with Knuckles which is easier to believe when you think about the fact that both characters were panting before she fell.

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• BE

  @beanmchocolate3900 · 8 months ago

  It&apos;s always refreshing to see when people understand why this censorship is so frustrating, and why it ruins characters.

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• HE

  @Hemuset · 8 months ago

  Rouge made me feel more okay with myself because I&apos;m a curvy woman, and she absolutely loved it and embraced it, I also happen to REALLY like jewels and it made me feel less weird about it (I also love bats, they&apos;re so cute!!!!). But with her censorship, I remembered that being curvy and confident is &quot;&quot;&quot;bad&quot;&quot;&quot;. It was such a painful blow. Femme Fatales have always been a favorite trope of mine, and they have absolutely stripped that away from her. It made me so sad that she&apos;s been &quot;sanitized&quot; to be more &quot;acceptable&quot;. <br>One of my favorite depictions of her is in Sonic Battle, where she is still &nbsp;showing that confidence, but when Shadow is struggling, she sets it aside to take care of him. I miss Rouge being in the spotlight with everyone else, I miss what they&apos;ve taken from her....😮‍💨

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• AR

  @armorbearer9702 · 8 months ago

  I get your point. Rouge is a diva. She believes she is all that and has the skills and body to back it up. Her showing off her figure is a part of that passionate confidence Rouge has.

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• TH

  @TheGrouchySquidward0521 · 8 months ago

  Isn&apos;t it ironic that Sega trying to cause less controversy by changing Rouge&apos;s body caused more controversy.

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• BL

  @BlueTakRush · 8 months ago (edited)

  Why can&apos;t they just change her outfit 😭??? <br>It would fix all the problems they want to avoid without changing her body. Or just not change it at all. One of the underlying themes of sonic is accepting yourself for who you are and what you look like too. <br>They inadvertently muddy that message by constantly changing her body to be more acceptable

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• JA

  @Jade-nc4iu · 8 months ago (edited)

  It really annoys me how society portrays female breasts as &quot;inappropriate&quot; just because weirdos fetishize it, when, newsflash, it&apos;s a natural part of anatomy and shaming women for something they cannot help isn&apos;t improving society.

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• GR

  @Greeen_ · 8 months ago

  i would like to add on to the fact that the place rouge’s wings come from being covered make no sense, which makes the design feel more forced than it already is

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• PL

  @Plebian_Lioness · 8 months ago

  The thing I hate most about all the changes to Rouge, and all the talk about “objectification”, is that Rouge has been transformed from one of the most three-dimensional Sonic characters into a token character who’s mostly used to prop up others. If we take “objectification” in its intended sense, being viewed or used as an object, then original, busty Rouge wasn’t objectified, while modern Rouge often is, because she’s stripped of agency and competence.<br><br>Let me list some of original Rouge’s accomplishments off the top of my head:<br><br>Sonic Adventure 2:<br><br>-Rouge infiltrates Eggman’s hidden base when G.U.N. fails.<br>-Rouge convinces Eggman to let her join him (while acting as a double agent).<br>-Rouge tricks Eggman into giving her the password that lets her uncover Project Shadow.<br>-Rouge fights Knuckles to a stalemate (she’s the only one of Knuckles&apos; final bosses he isn&apos;t able to defeat).<br>-Rouge is the one who comes up with the plan to use the Master Emerald to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds, saving the world.<br><br>Sonic Heroes:<br><br>-Rouge infiltrates another one of Eggman’s secret bases.<br>-Rouge frees Shadow and Omega.<br>-Rouge forms Team Dark becoming it&apos;s de facto leader.<br><br>Sonic Battle<br><br>-Rouge uncovers key information about Emerl’s origins.<br>-Rouge is arguably the character who trains Emerl the most (even if her motives are selfish).<br>-Rouge beats Sonic in a fight (not even Blaze has managed that).<br>-Rouge defeats Team Sonic in a 1v3 (no other character, male or female, has been able to achieve this in game canon).<br><br>Sonic ’06<br><br>-Rouge sends Omega to the future with a Chaos Emerald effectively saving Shadow.<br><br>Modern Rouge’s accomplishments: …???<br><br>In your video, you said Rouge takes great pride in victory, struggles to accept defeat, and has a hard time accepting other people’s empathy. That’s a huge part of her characterization that a lot of people seem to overlook. Rouge’s sexiness, charm, and social intelligence are like James Bond’s: they’re not the whole character, they’re a layer. Those traits often distract people (both in game and in real-life) from the fact that she’s hyper-competent, almost certainly trains nonstop to keep her physical strength on Knuckles level, and probably has some deep trauma under the surface.<br><br>I’ve seen people say Rouge is portrayed well in IDW because she’s still “sassy,” even when she’s shown as physically weak or incompetent. But that’s like saying James Bond is still in character if he’s still charming, even if he can’t fight anymore.<br><br>And this isn’t even delving into how Rouge and Shadow have a unique dynamic that stands out from the rest of the cast, since they’re both maladjusted anti-heroes.<br><br>Unfortunately, based on all her characterization I’ve seen from both SEGA and IDW, over the last 15 years, I don’t think Rouge the Bat will ever be written well ever again, because her character is too nuanced, and she&apos;ll remain a shell of her former self.,

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• DI

  @Di-Sapien · 8 months ago

  While I don&apos;t mind the bust coverage, it&apos;s very odd that they lifted the back of her bodysuit up, especially since Amy still has hers low.

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• SU

  @sugon_deez · 8 months ago

  I think this is a consequence of the large-scale reaction of media as whole towards decades of patriarchal media and objectified women, (and of course what you mentioned about big companies wanting to appeal to as much people as possible) I feel what Sonic Team have misunderstood in this pursuit is that Rouge was never a super seductive femme fatale or just an object to be looked at, she was always badass and had a great character from the beginning, and her build was part of her identity. It might have been beneficial for children to grow up with exposure to characters like Rouge so they could learn about different body types tbh

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