Amy Rose (Sonic X/Free Riders)

Amy Rose (Sonic X/Free Riders) Sonic, you need a better girlfriend. Gender: Female Type: Abusive Rascal The Annoying Side of Amy Rose Age: 12 Species: Hedgehog Portrayed by: Taeko Kawata (Japanese) Cindy Robinson (English, Free Riders) Lisa Ortiz (English, Sonic X) Status: Alive Media of origin: Free Riders Sonic X

Amy Rose (formerly known as Rosy the Rascal) is a fictional character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, as well as mostly one of the most well-liked characters in the series (despite the mixed reception). While friendly and caring sometimes, if she feels threatened, she can instantly turn into a heavyweight hothead. She is shown to be really stubborn and bossy throughout the series much to the annoyance of a few characters. She is Sonic's self-proclaimed girlfriend, and her long-term goal is to get Sonic to ask her out on a date. She unfortunately got flanderized during the Sonic X anime and Sonic Free Riders.

Rascal Qualities

NOTE: This will only focus on how she was badly butchered in Sonic X (especially in the English dub) and Sonic Free Riders, not her video game counterpart, since she is likable in general for the most part.

Overall

1. In those two entries, Amy was flanderized from a kindhearted, independent, proactive and badass little girl with a crush on Sonic and always supportive to her friends like in Sonic CD - Sonic Heroes into an immature, sulky, condescending, bossy, arrogant, hotheaded, sadistic, stubborn, impatient, and abusive brat who would treat her friends, along with Sonic, like garbage.
2. In addition to her obsession with Sonic, she also forces him to marry her which makes her clingy and obsessive towards him.
3. Not only that, but she's also a bad friend to Knuckles (in Sonic X) and Vector (in Sonic Free Riders) too.
4. She doesn't care for anyone except Sonic and herself, making her quite narcissistic and attention-seeking.
5. She can be pretty stupid and airheaded at times too.

Sonic Free Riders

1. Instead of being the kindhearted and kickass little girl with a crush on Sonic she's (almost) always been, she's been made into an abusive little brat who became bossy and infuriated towards Sonic about going on a date with her. In fact, you can say that her behavior here is a lot like her Sonic X counterpart without the bits of likability she had every now and then.
   • Plus, her behavior in that game has been widely hated by fans and critics alike, becoming part of Free Riders' long list of flaws.
   • While Amy growing a backbone (albeit bluntly) isn't a bad idea, there were some previous Sonic games where Amy did so while still remaining likable as usual, but the way she does it here is in the most aggressive and arrogant way and totally comes out of nowhere.
2. She's just another mean popular girl stereotype that is really annoying and troublesome to the point of making the likes of Wave and Rouge look harmless.
3. When her team loses to Sonic's team, she gets mad at Sonic and she expects him to make it up to her by taking her out that night, thus making her a sore loser.
4. She's extremely rude and disrespectful towards Vector to the point where she yells at him, berates him, and blames him for not completing Team Rose's team registration. She would also order him around too.
5. She's so eager to enter the competition that she even leaves her little sister figure Cream behind. Not only that, but she ignores her quite a lot.
6. Even though Amy's "useless kid" insult was directed towards Vector, it looked like she was using that towards Cream, which made a lot of fans and critics wonder why did she call her a "useless kid" as well as how she could be so insensitive to her own best friend.
7. Regardless of all the comeuppance she gets, she remains the same angry brat throughout the game and doesn't even apologize to the rest of the cast in the end.
8. Cindy Robinson's portrayal is downright irritating to listen to, making her sound like a discount Minnie Mouse.
9. Considering that many Amy haters point to this specific iteration, it's safe to say she actually gives the original Amy a bad name.

Sonic X

1. She was massively flanderized as she received a huge bratty, sulky, impatient, and immature personality that has often upstaged her kind side. It will most likely makes Sakura Haruno from the Naurto franchise look like a saint in comparison.
   • While Sonic and Amy Rose do have sweet moments, much like Chris Thorndyke, she is very clingy and possessive toward him to the point where she was willing to crush a rock in order for the two of them to be together forever.
2. Her love for Sonic is heavily exaggerated up to psychotic levels that she'll lose her sanity if Sonic doesn't want to be with her, and she's always clingy to him. In other words, her love for Sonic and clinginess are cranked and amped up to eleven.
3. Just like her Sonic Free Riders counterpart, despite supposedly being a "nice girl", she acts like a b***hy mean girl.
4. Not only is she bratty, but she even has been abusive a few times, most notably when she's with Knuckles. She has also even threatened her own friends a few times, like in one episode where she threatened to hurt Chris if Sonic wouldn't go out with her on a date, making her seem like a borderline psycho.
   • To make matters even worse, when Amy threatened to beat up Chris, she even choked him as well which also upped her psychosis to eleven, even though Chris, despite being a polarizing character among the fanbase himself, did nothing to deserve it.
5. She's had many moments of whining and complaining about things that just come off as grating.
6. She's also a hypocrite. She has called out Knuckles a few times for being so short-tempered, yet she's more short-tempered than he is.
   • Speaking of her relationship with Knuckles, did we mention that she's a bad friend to him since she's rude and disrespectful towards him as well as treating him like garbage?
7. She kicked a little girl who thought she was a teddy bear on the subway train. Granted, she only did that because the girl wouldn't stop talking while pulling her ear, but she even cried. Overreacting much, Amy?
8. In the third season, her bratty moments became more frequent as it was used as some of the season's comedy.
   • In Cosmo's debut episode, she assumed Cosmo liked Sonic in a romantic way, even though there was no evidence of it.

Rosie Qualities

Overall

1. Like all Sonic characters, she has a nice design.
2. She's still a likable character outside these two entries.
3. Lisa Ortiz and Taeko Kawata did a good job voicing her, and while Cindy Robinson didn't do a good job at first, she would also improve voicing her in later games.
4. Out of her two flanderizations here, her portrayal is somehow the least bad (or at least the most tolerable) in Sonic X (at least in the Japanese version, of course). That doesn't excuse her character in that anime though.
5. Despite her flanderization her flanderization can still be likable and funny to many fans

Free Riders

1. Amy was much more likable in the games prior to Sonic Free Riders (including the first Riders games) and depending on your view, she did redeem herself in games such as Sonic Generations, Lost World, Forces and etc, despite having little to no importance and screentime.
   • On top of that, she fully redeems herself in Sonic Frontiers where her mean girl traits are gone and she's not as obsessive with Sonic as she used to. Instead, she's often willing to give Sonic advice when she needs to.
2. At least her appearance stays faithful to her modern design.
3. Despite being over-the-top splenetic to Vector initially, she has shown to be in better terms with Vector in recent appearances to the point where they're friends. And she still is quite a good friend to Cream (when she remembers about her existence).
4. As mentioned in WSED#7, she does get a decent amount of karma, such as being called "exceptionally dense" by Knuckles and Vector begrudgingly telling her not to get distracted, as well as standing up to her by explaining why he shouldn't be blamed for the team being unable to complete the registration.
5. Despite Cindy Robinson not doing a very good job, Taeko Kawata's performance hasn't downgraded one bit.
   • On top of that, Cindy would eventually improve in later games, reaching its peak in Sonic Boom and onwards doing a better job voicing her.

Sonic X

1. She was a much better character in the games and to be fair, she is more tolerable in the Japanese version. You will probably notice a massive difference between 4Kids and the original dialogue with the way her personality is conveyed.
   • For example, in one episode of season 3 (4kids dub), Amy makes a declaration that she and Sonic will get married. However, she was only swooning over a date in the original version rather than marriage. While her character was already somewhat flanderized in the Japanese dub, 4Kids insisted on making her more condescending and arrogant than she originally was in the Japanese version.
   • This means that if 4Kids had stayed completely faithful to the original script and did not cut out scenes with her, then Amy would have at least been a decent character and not as obnoxious or disliked so much by the fanbase.
   • She was a better character in season 2, particularly during the Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 arcs.
2. Despite being aggressive and violent (in a bad way), she still serves great use in combat and has managed to get out of being a damsel.
3. Amy cares very deeply for her friends. She still gets some episodes where she is kind and compassionate.
   • On top of that, she shares great chemistry with Cream, Helen and Frances, and her chemistry with Ella is the one that truly stands out the most. On top of that, it also makes her true companions with Cream, Helen, Frances and Ella.
   • Despite being mean to Knuckles, she does care for him very much and she's shown to be on good terms with Knuckles in the games to the point where they're close to each other.
4. Her Sonic obsession and short-tempered moments can come off as funny or comic-relief most of the time
5. Her US voice actress, Lisa Ortiz, put in an excellent performance, and was a great casting choice.
6. Her design is admittedly cute and, as one would expect, it's a 1 to 1 translation of her design from the games.
7. In spite of her obsession with Sonic, she managed to have moments with him that are sincerely sweet and touching, with the best example being almost the entirety of "The Last Resort", the 9th episode of Sonic X.
8. Sonic X wouldn't be the same without her, as she is not only a fan-favorite character but also a staple in the franchise.
9. "DON'T YOU KNOW IT'S RUDE TO SHOW UP SOMEPLACE UNINVITED?!"
10. Many fans appreciated Amy in Sonic Prime since her traces of being a stalker towards Sonic aren't seen and she also acts more laid-back, levelheaded and mature towards Sonic's antics which makes her a relatable character.
    • Her counterparts Rusty Rose, Thorn Rose and Black Rose are also enjoyable too.

Trivia

• Both Amy and Tails appeared in the second-largest number of episodes of Sonic X (72 episodes), but in a different order.
• In "Sonic's Big Break" Amy's legs are miscolored peach when she turns her head to look at a G.U.N. robot.

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