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Tails (Sonic the Hedgehog)

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This version of the character is the one found in the TV series and video games. For the version found in the Sonic the Hedgehog comics, see Tails (comic character).
Miles "Tails" Prower
'Sonic the Hedgehog' character
File:Tails 2006.png
Tails is the sidekick and best friend of Sonic the Hedgehog.
First gameSonic the Hedgehog 2
Created byYasushi Yamaguchi
In-universe information
Speciesfox

Miles Prower (マイルス・パウアー, Mairusu Pauā), better known by his nickname Tails (テイルス, Teirusu), is a video game character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games, comics, and animated cartoons released by Sega.

The name "Miles Prower" is a malapropism on "miles per hour", a reference to the famed speed of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is a young, male, golden-yellow, anthropomorphic fox with two tails (similar to the mythological kitsune, or "yoko", which was often depicted with up to nine), hence the nickname. His debut was November 24, 1992. He is 8 years old, stands at 80 centimeters (2 ft 7 in), and weighs 20 kilograms (44 lbs).[1]

During his first appearance, his fur was an orange color, but the color was changed to yellow-orange for Sonic Adventure, and light-yellow for Sonic Heroes. In 1993 and 1995 he starred in his own games, Tails and the Music Maker for the Pico and Tails Adventure and Tails' Skypatrol for the Game Gear. Tails is the third most popular character of the series, behind Sonic and Shadow, according to official polls.[2]

Character design

File:Tails classic.jpg
'Classic' Tails

Yasushi Yamaguchi, originally the main artist and zone designer for Sega's Sonic Team, designed Tails for an internal competition for a sidekick to the speedy hedgehog. His entry won, but Sonic Team decided to change his character's name from "Miles" to "Tails". Yamaguchi ended up with a compromise. He snuck the name "Miles" in as his legal name; "Tails" would be his nickname, ending up with the full name of Miles "Tails" Prower.

Tails was redesigned (along with all of the other Sonic characters) by Yuji Uekawa for Sonic Adventure. His fur changed color to a slightly orange shade of yellow, he became more round around the middle (seems to be chubbier or fatter than he used to be), and he gained visible blue irises.

In the American Sonic comic book, along with the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons, he was originally a brownish color, but the comic artists eventually decided to change this to match his in-game appearance.

Video game appearances

Tails was first seen in Sonic 2 for the Game Gear, where he was kidnapped by Robotnik for ransom. He was first made playable in the Genesis version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, where he played the part of Sonic's sidekick. He was a playable character from the second controller and could be chosen as player one for the main game. Sonic Chaos (1993), on the Game Gear/Master System was the second game where the player could control Tails, and the first time the player could control his flight.

Tails made his third major appearance during the year 1994 when Sonic 3 was released, this time, acquiring the ability to pick up Sonic and use his tails to transport him to other areas. This was a big step forward for Tails; he became much better known and respected at this point for his usefulness.

Solo Appearances

Tails starred in his first solo game in Tails' Skypatrol, which was a puzzle-like game for the Game Gear released exclusively in Japan. This was followed by Tails Adventures later the same year, which was a Metroid-esque platformer with RPG elements. Tails was also the star of Tails and the Music Maker for the Sega Pico.

Secular Appearances

He found himself in the ring for the arcade game Sonic the Fighters, which was later ported to Sonic Gems Collection. In this fighting game, he can fly into enemies, spin dash and punch rapidly. He is the fifth character the player fights in the story mode, and his stage is "Canyon Cruise", which takes place on a boat.

The fox was also a playable character in Sonic R (1997) for the Sega Saturn. He had good turning and could take shortcuts with his flying ability, but wasn't very fast.

In Sonic Adventure and its remake, Sonic Adventure DX, Tails was one of the six playable characters. His gameplay was standard platforming stages; the goal of each stage was to destroy the capsule or get to the Chaos Emerald before Sonic or Dr. Eggman. However, in the sequel, Sonic Adventure 2 and its remake, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, he was featured in third-person shooting segments, seated in his "Cyclone" mech.

Tails was also a playable character in the Game Boy Advance series Sonic Advance. He could fight offensively with his tails, along with jumping, flying and using the Spin Dash.

In Sonic Heroes, Tails appears on Team Sonic as their flight character. Tails helps Sonic and Knuckles reach high places and jump far distances, etc. He also helped Super Sonic defeat the Metal Overlord.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, he helps Shadow out in the Circus Park and Air Fleet levels, and can be played using the second controller in the GameCube version. He shows the ability to use Sonic's Homing Attack in this game, but cannot fly, though he uses his tails to attack enemies.

File:SR Tails.jpg
Miles "Tails" Prower as seen in Sonic Riders

Tails was also in Sonic Battle for the Game Boy Advance. His story was second in the main mode. His specials included firing electrical energy with an arm cannon, setting "Chu2" bombs that seek out their target and causing a giant hand to appear and attack. His flying ability is present but very dumbed down, but it is made up with the fact that Tails has one of the best healing abilities in the game.

Sonic Rush on the Nintendo DS featured Tails as a non-playable supporting character.

In Sonic Riders, Tails is a playable character, and one of the main characters of the game. During the course of the game, he modifies Sonic's Extreme Gear "Blue Star" to become "Blue Star II", and rides a board called the "Yellow Tail". Wave the Swallow makes fun of his board design, sparking a rivalry between them throughout the game. When racing, he has the best cornering of all characters, and fights with a giant electrical plug.

In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Tails is a playable character. He plays the role of an "amigo" character for Sonic along with Knuckles in Sonic's storyline. He aids Sonic in his pursuits of rescuing the Princess from Dr. Eggman.

In Sonic Rivals, Tails appears in Sonic's storyline as a cameo appearance. When both him and Sonic head over to the mysterious Onyx Island, they discover that Amy has been turned into a card by Dr. Eggman. When Sonic doubts Dr. Eggman, he turns Tails into a card as well. Sonic then sets out to rescue him. Tails also appears as three collectable cards in the game.

In the game Sonic and the Secret Rings, Ali-Baba bears a striking similarity to Tails in the game's retelling of one of the Arabian Nights tales, "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves". The real Tails is a player character in Party Mode.

He is set to appear in the crossover game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Other Appearances

It has been confirmed that in the unreleased Sonic X-treme, which was in development for the Sega Saturn platform, Tails would have appeared, playing in a first person flight mode. Sonic CD only contains Tails in the form of a piece of artwork (accessible via cheat only) that features him standing next to a race car with the caption "SEE YOU NEXT GAME" - a reference to Sonic Drift for the Game Gear. Tails is also confirmed to be a playable character in the upcoming crossover game Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Moves and abilities

Like many of the other characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, Tails can race around at high speeds, which he achieves by propeling himself forward by spinning his tails in a fan-like motion, but not nearly as fast as Sonic or Shadow. He can also perform the Spin Attack, Spin Dash, and other spinning moves. Additionally, Tails also has several unique attacks, such as attacking with his tails by twirling around, and, most notably, his trademark manuver in which he can achieve flight by spinning his two tails around like a helicopter rotor, and it is this skill that has allowed him to keep up with Sonic. He can also swim quite well, which is an ability Sonic never had. This, when combined with his flying ability, actually makes him quite an unfairly skilled character in some games. Although with swimming, Tails can only dog paddle for a short time, it still really helps out. Swimming was first gven to Tails in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and has yet to make an appearence since (Sonic Advance and Sonic Advance 3 notwithstanding.) In AoStH it was revealed that Tails wasn't a very good swimmer, and in Sonic the Movie (Anime) Tails couldn't swim at all.

Tails' intelligence may match Eggman's; in Sonic Battle he has an attack called the 'IQ 400 attack', suggesting that his IQ is actually considerably higher than Eggman's IQ of 300. However, many game manuals state that his mechanical skills are only "almost equal" to Eggman's, or are "rivalling" the Doctor's, but also conclude saying that he has yet to reach his full potential. Even if Tails doesn't have a higher IQ than Eggman, it's very apparent that he is considerably more mature than Eggman, which is ironic since Eggman is an adult while Tails is still a child.

In Sonic Adventure, he obtained the "Rhythm Badge", which enabled him to attack with his tails by continuously spinning around. In Sonic Heroes, he is the Flight member of Team Sonic, which means that he can also use the Thunder Shoot attack, where he electrically charges Sonic and Knuckles and kicks them at his enemies. When alone, Tails can also throw Dummy Rings, which electrocute enemies who blunder into them. In Sonic Battle, he fights offensively with his tails and technology, such as a hand-mounted energy cannon.

In Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails can once again fly through Dash Rings and use Dummy Ring attacks. The first attack is "Dummy Ring Bomb", which throws multiple Dummy Rings that explode on impact, "Dummy Ring Snipe", which allows him to aim and throw a Dummy Ring, and "Dummy Ring Blitz", which throws a huge amount of Dummy Rings to explode on impact.

Like many Sonic characters, Tails can transform into a super form, but needs the Super Emeralds instead of the Chaos Emeralds. He also has other transformations in media beside the games (such as Turbo Tails.)

In Sonic the Comic, it is established that he can converse with the Flickies, or as Sonic jokingly remarks (before he is surprised to be proven correct), "you know how to speak 'tweet', don't you?".

Gameplay quirks

In Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic Adventure, when the player has opted to play in 'Sonic and Tails' mode (controlling Sonic while the AI makes Tails follow him), it's not readily stated in the manual, but a second player can use the 2P controller to use Tails. The action will continue to follow Sonic on the screen, making him the focal point, but Tails is fully controllable in every way that he is when playing as Tails alone. This can potentially be exploited by players who are having trouble with some problem areas or bosses, as Tails has the benefit of being completely invulnerable, with any "death" he suffers being quickly resolved as the character flies harmlessly back onto the screen after a few seconds. Moreover, in Sonic 3, Tails is granted the ability to fly as he pleases, which can allow the Tails-using player to airlift Sonic wherever he might need to go, though Tails does have an endurance limit to his flight. Sonic Advance allowed this mode as well (via a code entered at character select), however, Tails couldn't be controlled by a second player this time. In the GameCube and Playstation 2 versions of Shadow the Hedgehog, all non-hovering characters, including Tails, could be controlled with the second controller.

Personality

Tails is a very friendly and humble person. He looks up to Sonic as a hero who he wants to emulate. Though he lacks confidence, he is always quite capable around Sonic and often helps him out. For a long time Tails seemed to be perfectly satisfied with just being a "sidekick", but in Sonic Adventure he expressed a longing to become more independent.

Tails also has a tendency to talk too much — to the point where Sonic may start ignoring him, much to the young protege's annoyance. However he can also annoy others with his overuse of technical jargon, or technobabble, which often frustrates those around him, particularly Knuckles, as evidenced in Sonic Riders.

Tails has a few weaknesses; he lacks self-confidence, is very afraid of lightning and ghosts, and also his tendency to talk too much frequently causes him to accidentally blab out secrets or plans (for example, in Sonic Adventure 2, without thinking first, he told Eggman that the Chaos Emerald Sonic had was a fake, thus ruining the heroes' plans).

Interaction with other characters

File:Sonic2.png
Tails and Sonic formed a close team in Sonic 2.

Tails has many friends besides Sonic, and his skills are respected by everyone who knows him. In Sonic Heroes he is part of Team Sonic, along with Sonic and Knuckles. Tails mostly treats all of his friends the same with a caring yet somewhat passive attitude.

Tails and Knuckles are good friends. They sometimes converse more than Knuckles does with Sonic, although they do tend to irritate each other occasionally - Knuckles scares Tails in Sonic Heroes during the Hang Castle stage by claiming that they saw Shadow's ghost (Since he was still thought to be dead), while Knuckles gets confused when Tails talks about technicalities, as shown in Sonic Riders. As well, when playing as Tails in Sonic Adventure Knuckles is fought right before Chaos 4.

For the most part, he has a friendly relationship with Amy Rose, though he can be as annoyed as the Blue Blur himself with her Sonic chasing. Amy herself can be quite insulting, intimidating, and outspoken to Tails, like she is to everyone else, but they work together productively and sometimes Amy is defensive of him, as shown in Sonic Riders when she takes on Wave for teasing him.

Tails is also on friendly terms with Cream the Rabbit and her Chao, Cheese.

In Sonic Adventure 2, he had a rivalry with Eggman, fighting him directly in the Cyclone twice - once on Prison Island, the second time on the Space Colony ARK after Eggman blasted Sonic into space. After this, the rivalry seemed to cease, and Eggman and Tails are seen talking to each other in a quite civil way at the end of the game.

Tails also found a rival in Wave the Swallow in Sonic Riders. In the game, she insulted his Extreme Gear skills to lower his morale, but her action caused a determined Tails to beat her in a race.


Tails' mechanical creations

File:CycloneSA2.png
The Cyclone from Sonic Adventure 2

Although Tails can fly by twirling his two tails like the blades of a helicopter, he also enjoys flying Sonic's red biplane, the Tornado. As the series progressed, it was obvious his interest in the old biplane went further than just piloting it - Tails is a prodigy with mechanics, and he has a mechanical ability stated to rival that of Dr. Eggman's (though Tails has never built sentient robots).

As a result, many modifications were made to the Tornado, and Tails even built planes of his own. Tails has also constructed a small blue submarine called the Sea Fox (Sonic Triple Trouble, Tails Adventure), a spaceship called the Lunar Fox (Sonic the Fighters), and a race car called the Whirlwind S7 (Sonic Drift), which is clearly based upon the Lotus/Catherham Super Seven (hence the name). In Tails Adventure he also built a Remote Robot (named Mecha Tails in Japan), a small remote-controlled robot shaped like himself to help him on his quest.

In Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (also known as "Sonic Anime") Tails develops a hover board, similar to, and perhaps the basis of, Extreme Gear. He attempts to use it as a surfboard, but messes up. Tails also tampers with a tracking device given to him by Eggman to find the location of Robotropolis and the whereabouts of "Metal Robotnik". After the escapade turns out to be a trick, Tails uses his quick thinking to modify the device back at his home and uses the chipset to make an interference device which somehow causes Metal Sonic to malfunction. The device is later shot off of Tails' arm by Eggman, narrowly missing his arm.

In Sonic Adventure, Tails was experimenting with a Chaos Emerald-powered prototype plane based on Sonic's Tornado, the Tornado II. The Tornado II has two modes. One is quite similar to the original Tornado, but with a button press, Tails could make it transform into a rather futuristic-looking little plane which outperformed the Tornado in all but one important function - landing gear. Big the Cat ended up flying the wrecked Tornado II to his home after Sonic and Tails crash-landed on Eggman's flying fortress, the Egg Carrier. The Tornado II is then apparently changed so that it no longer uses a Chaos Emerald, and reappears in cutscenes in both Sonic Heroes and Sonic Riders, along with the Special Stage in Sonic Advance 3.

In Sonic Adventure 2, Tails had a new plane, the P-3a Tornado III. The Tornado III has three modes: a plane mode, a car mode, and a walker mode. The airplane is only seen in cutscenes and the car is used on only one level (In the Kart minigame, Tails uses a go-kart), so the walker mode, called the Cyclone, is mostly used throughout the game. Tails uses the Cyclone during all other gameplay, except when visiting the Chao Garden. In Shadow the Hedgehog, the Tornado III reappeared, and was also part of a spaceship used to travel to Space Colony ARK.

The Chao Walker also appeared in Sonic Adventure 2. It is not used by Tails, but, according to the description in the manual, was built by him to allow Chao to defend themselves. Eggman countered this by building a Dark Chao Walker, which was only seen in the remake, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

In Sonic X, Tails uses a variety of aircraft. He starts out with the Tornado II, which is the same as in Sonic Adventure although it appears to be slightly bulkier, and gets damaged almost every time it flies. Later, Tails and Chuck Thorndyke upgraded it to the larger, apparently jet-powered X-Tornado. It has the ability to transform into the X-Cyclone (a walker, like the original Cyclone) and into Battle Armor Mode, which resembles a mecha wielding a sword and a shield. Also in the second episode, Tails built tiny remote-controlled paper airplane-shaped weapons to help Sonic. These weapons resembled computer chips and short circuited any electronics they struck.

At the end of Season 2, Tails heads back to his world in the Tornado II. Seemingly, the X-Tornado was too big to fit through the portal. Whether it was scaled down or is simply a replication is unknown. Upon arriving home, Tails soon finds himself caught up in a battle with Eggman. He transforms the craft into the Hyper Tornado, a sleek jet fighter. This feature was a final present from Chuck.

At the start of Season 3, Tails' primary aircraft is again the X-Tornado, although it is now painted gold. The Hyper Tornado is still used in this season, with Chris Thorndyke being its pilot instead.

Amy Rose is also usually the co-pilot of Tails' machines in Sonic X. This lead to the friendly relationship they currently share. When Tails is occupied for some reason and someone is needed to pilot the X-Tornado, it's usually Amy who takes the job, although Sonic also has done this. Chris will sometimes co-pilot when Amy is occupied as well.

Blue Typhoon

File:Blue Typhoon.jpg
Blue Typhoon

In Sonic X, Tails' ultimate creation is the Blue Typhoon, a starship that is used in the war against the Metarex.[3] Originally built to battle vessels created by Dr. Eggman, the Blue Typhoon was adapted for space travel after Cosmo arrived. Tails intended to power it with the Chaos Emeralds, but when they were scattered across the galaxy, he was forced to use the Master Emerald instead.

The Blue Typhoon features a large hangar where several aircraft are kept. Directly in front of this is a runway with palm trees lining it, modeled after the Thorndyke residence driveway. The vessel is heavily armed, its main weapon being the Sonic Driver (called the "Sonic Power Cannon" in the English dub), which fires Sonic as an accelerated projectile towards targets. In Episode 77, it is shown that the weapon can also work in a manner similar to a wave motion gun, firing a beam of Chaos energy from the Master Emerald. The Typhoon is also equipped with an energy projector which can produce a deflector shield or serve as a cloaking device. Its engine, which takes up much of the vessel, allows it to cover great distances in short periods of time, although it requires a "warp ring" (generated by the yellow nose section) to travel at faster-than-light speeds.

Comics and TV shows

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File:Tails.jpg
Miles "Tails" Prower piloting the X-Tornado in Sonic X.

Tails has appeared in three cartoon shows: Sonic the Hedgehog, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and the anime Sonic X. However, he is absent from Sonic Underground.

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

In Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, he is supposedly significantly younger than in the games; he is "only 4 and a half," as he says in the episode Slowwww Going. As with the game canon, his real given name is revealed to be "Miles" in the episode Tails' New Home. In this same episode, it is said that he hates the name and wants to keep it a secret, which means Sonic can use it to blackmail him out of danger ("You get out of here now, or I'll tell everyone your real name's Miles!"). However, in later episodes, he is not shy at all in using his real name. It is also revealed that the "Tails" name come from Sonic's naming of Miles. In the episode Tails' Tale, it is revealed his full name is Miles Prower, keeping with the game canon. However, is fur is brown in the cartoon as opposed to orange in the games.

Like in the games, Tails and Sonic are best friends, but AoStH takes it a step further by putting them in a brother-like relationship. Tails seems to have a vast intelligence in mechanics and can operate independently in drastic situations, such as in one instance lacing an entire building with booby-traps (in a manner similar to those seen in Home Alone) in order to revive Sonic from a nasty ailment. He also bulit Sonic a flying bike for his birthday out of parts he found from a junkyard and invented a machine the would have stopped Dr. Robotnik forever if it wasn't tampered with. He is not that intimidated by Robotnik or any of his creations, and Scratch and Grounder often fall for his elaborate ruses.

While Tails is indeed useful to Sonic in many situations, he can be a hindrance. Because he is very young and cannot defend himself, he is incredibly susceptible to kidnappings. Sonic appears to know of this flaw and does his best to protect him, but his protection methods are often the reason why he gets kidnapped in the first place. There are times where it seems like Tails isn't that smart at all in AoStH. According to the episode "Slowwww Going", he cannot write, only "scribble." In the episode "Over the Hill Hero", Sonic gives him a lesson about air pressure. He also seems to have a large appetite (exemplified in the episode "Too Tall Tails," in which he eats so much that he grows to a gigantic size), and like Sonic, his favorite food is chili dogs (it is revealed that he likes his with extra cheese).

Tails is also known to get jealous whenever Sonic stops paying attention to him, whether it's a girl or something else. When Breezie appeared, Tails became jealous of her because Sonic would listen to every word she said and ignore Tails; he also yells "yuck!" when Breezie kisses Sonic. However, Tails discovers the truth about Breezie after a short swim (Breezie throws him into a lake, instructing him to float down the river and get "lost at sea"). Tails is usually the one that discovers a way out of situations that look bad, and due to his young age he occasionally gets into bad situations. He is a fan of a famous pilot called William La Duck, and gets help from him in the episode "Tails' Tale."

SatAM

The Saturday morning Sonic cartoon (dubbed SatAM by fans for short) did not portray Tails as Sonic's sidekick, but rather as an apprentice Freedom Fighter who only becomes a full member in the episode "Drood Henge", near the end of Season 2. In the cancelled Season 3, his relationship with Sonic would draw closer to that of the video games. Also, his age is given as 10 (also in "Drood Henge") rather than 8.

Sonic the Hedgehog (comic)

Sonic the Comic

Tails also appears in the British Sonic the Comic, published by Fleetway, where he hails from the Nameless Zone, a region which can apparently only be accessed by a space warp. A misunderstanding led Tails to the Emerald Hill Zone, believing the streets were paved with real emeralds. Once on Mobius, Tails immediately became fascinated with Sonic after he saved his life, and eventually became Sonic's sidekick and eventually best friend. Unfortunately for him, though, he exaggerated the relationship in letters home, professing that HE was the great hero of Mobius and that Sonic was HIS sidekick. As a result, the elders of the Nameless Zone often call him back, gifting him with a suit of enchanted armor to defend their Zone from assorted supernatural evil - and poor old Tails never did quite manage to explain the truth. One time, Knuckles almost blew Tails cover by following him to the Nameless Zone (believing he was being kidnapped); everyone mistook Knuckles for Sonic, and Knuckles played along. Tails is also believed to be an unstoppable Zonerunner (a Freedom Fighter who travels between Zones) by the Chemical Plant Zone rebels known as the Flock, twice saving the entire Zone by pure luck.

While the Zonerunner & Nameless Zone adventures were 'secret' adventures where Tails was accidentally seen as a major hero and won major victories through blind luck, later stories would have him actively doing heroic deeds, though these were mainly short arcs or more comedic stories. On occasions, he would save someone and they would grumble he wasn't a more famous hero! Despite this, Tails gained his own rogue's gallery including the brutal goblin lord Trogg, the psychotic robot Nutzan Bolt, Fleabyte the bounty hunter and the gangster Max Gamble, as well as allies such as Errol & Morain Blackthorn (brother and sister warriors of the Nameless Zone). His rise to the status of hero in his own right started with the Fox On The Run story, where he was forced to take a sidekick of his own and play the hero role when trying to get a bratty young mouse named Tristam home; later on, he'd find himself personally defending the Casino Night Zone from the Badnik hordes of Commander Brutus.

After Robotnik's defeat, he also fought many criminals and supervillains, saved Sonic from being killed in the Drakon Empire's trial-by-combat against the MK3 Metallix, and was chosen by Sonic to protect the planet while he went after Robotnik during the Planet In Peril/Game Over story. While he is self-conscious, Tails has proven time & again (and openly stated) that he is much tougher than some people may think.

Sonic X

Throughout most of the anime series Sonic X, Tails mirrors his game role in various stories and game adaptions, though he sometimes plays a smaller role due to Chris Thorndyke. He quickly befriends fellow inventor Chuck Thorndyke, who built the X-Tornado jet for him.

In the 3rd Season of the show, Tails quickly forms a bond with Cosmo, a plant-like alien girl first introduced during this season, and accidentally falls in love with her after setting off a trap designed to make Sonic love Amy. The strength of Tails' love is shown in Episode 73, where Shadow, in an attempt to kill Cosmo, clobbers Sonic, Chris, and Knuckles, but, despite his best efforts, could not manage to get past Tails, who was determined to protect Cosmo no matter the cost. In Episode 77, Cosmo sacrifices herself, fusing herself with the Metarex planet so that Tails could destroy it with the Sonic Driver, a Sonic-powered cannon. Tails was extremely hesitant to fire, and only did so at the urging of Dr. Eggman and later Cosmo herself, assuring him that her seeds will spread throughout the galaxy and that he wouldn't lose her. Motivated by Cosmo's act of kindness and the trust the two developed, he mustererd up the courage to destroy the planet, thereby sacrificing Cosmo in the process. In Episode 78, the last episode of the season, Super Sonic and Super Shadow use "Chaos Regeneration" to try to bring Cosmo back to life, but only manage to produce a small seed. When Sonic shows the seed to Tails, he collapses with grief, coming to the realization that he may never see Cosmo again. However, it is possible that Sonic and Shadow succeeded at bringing her back to life for at the end of the episode, a pot is shown with the seed inside it beginning to sprout.

How Sonic and Tails met

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Sonic and Tails, mere seconds before their first meeting in AoStH.
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Sonic and Tails' first meeting in Sonic X

In every version of the Sonic series, there is a different version of how Sonic and Tails met (excluding Sonic Underground, since Tails was absent from it). As stated earlier, in the video game version (as taken from the official Sonic the Hedgehog 2 manual) Sonic instantly became Tails' idol when Tails first witnessed Sonic's incredible speed. After Sonic sees that the young fox is actually able to catch up with him, he recruits him as his sidekick.

In a flash back in Sonic X, Tails and Sonic became friends after Tails rebuilt and repainted Sonic's antique airplane. Before he met Sonic, Tails was bullied by other animals because of his skills.

In a flashback shown in the Adventures Of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Tails' New Home," Tails literally landed on top of Sonic. The fox kit explains to Sonic he had just been kicked out the nest of some birds, young Tails had decided he was a bird due to his ability to fly. Sonic tells him he is in fact a fox and is shocked to see that he can actually fly. Baby Tails follows Sonic and after getting him into some mishaps, Sonic agrees that Tails can stay with him.

In Sonic The Comic, Sonic saved Tails from drowning in a swamp when they first met when he saw two tails peering from the swamp, the rest of Tails' body completely submerged. Mistakenly believing there were two foxes in the swamp, Sonic only had time to grab one tail and believed one fox had drowned; he soon realized that both tails belonged to the same fox.

The Saturday morning cartoon did not give an explanation as to how they met, but the comics based off it did. In the flashback story "Eve of Destruction" (Super Sonic Special #9, "Sonic Kids 2), the five-year-old Sonic witnesses Tails' birth and immediately befriends the newborn fox a few minutes (or two pages) later.

Voice acting

Associated songs

The games feature several theme songs related to Tails. For the most part, Tails is associated with the Pop rock genre.

  • Sonic Adventure: "Believe In Myself" - Karen Brake.
  • Sonic Adventure 2: "Believe In Myself" (remake) - Kaz Silver.
  • Sonic Heroes: "We Can" - Tony Harnell, Ted Poley. This was a team theme shared with Sonic and Knuckles.
  • Sonic Riders: "High Flying Groove" - Tomonori Sawada. This was also a team theme shared with Sonic and Knuckles.

References

  1. ^ http://sonic.sega.jp/chara/chara_tails.html
  2. ^ http://sonic.sega.jp/event/016/index.html
  3. ^ "Anime profile: Sonic X". Absolute Anime. Retrieved 2006-12-25.