Why did Rouge become so mean?

[Uraraka]

 So when Rouge debuted we all knew she was a little selfish. She was taking other people's property after all.  But as of late that is the only dynamic she has.  

    In SA2 Rouge was deceptive and flirty, but she wasn't completely calculating and cold hearted. But when Sonic Free riders came and all the voice actors changed , Rouge became a selfish wretch and Shadow even had more care and concern than her. ( Shadow was kinda doing a "whatever the girl says" kinda thing too, but that is off topic )  .

  History of Rouge's personality and back story.

  In SA2 she was released as a rival for Knuckles. She had been looking for treasures (otherwise known as "jewels") and found the Master Emerald took her fancy.  I don't know how she managed it, but apparently she was able to get it a little distance from where Knuckles had it , because he had to chase after her . ( Since Knuckles' song "kick the rock" talks about Rouge, I can only imagine she must have pulled some kind of trick on him and caused him to get lost in his thoughts and gave her time to get away. His songs are always a reflection of what happened before the level.) 

    She retorts saying she is "entitled" to all the gems in the world. 

   Her theme song, fly in the freedom, gives a look into her thoughts and reasoning .

  "Is it my treasure? Tell me what I've really looked for?" She is looking for something but really doesn't know what, and then she fills it with the first thing that comes to mind "fancy came to my mind, it leads me to somewhere far away, distant place, distant time."  These thoughts gave her some satisfaction so she acted on it. It is evident, however, that jewels were not what she was really looking for, 

   This Rouge had care and concern in her heart. She was looking for a relationship and she didn't know it. It seems the point here was Rouge was supposed to leave her theiving ways she fell into: "I am slipping to the mystery of the night"

    They left it that way in Sonic Heroes. In this game she was looking for something her client was after. But her main concern was her client. She wanted to know who he was.  at the end of the game though, Rouge wasn't evil and destructive when she saw the multitude of shadow clones. She protected him. She cared about him!

Rouge's Demise

  the point is, Rouge cared and deep down actually had love I her heart. But then we got this: 

 The Rouge who could kill things and not care. All about the money honey attitude that she never really had...

  What are your thoughts?

[Lucid Dream]

As sad as it is, it's not new for spin-off Sonic games to flanderize some characters to the point where they seem to be a different character. Amy in Sonic Battle was also presented awfully and was flanderized to oblivion. 

It's good to try to present different sides of each character. There is no doubt Rouge has a more selfish and uncaring side , and it would be nice to have a game where we had that side of Rouge explored. That would make her more fleshed out and human. But, in the end we just get a flanderized Rouge who is quite different to the main game Rouge. It's a silly mistake that Sonic games often do to several characters.

[Salamander]

It's quite likely related to the change in writers, too.  Wasn't Free Riders the first game written by Pontac and Graff?  I wonder what the Japanese script looks like.

[FriendBot]

16 minutes ago, FFWF said:

It's quite likely related to the change in writers, too.  Wasn't Free Riders the first game written by Pontac and Graff?  I wonder what the Japanese script looks like.

No, Colors was Pontac/Graff's first time as writers.

Free Riders was mainly written by Otake Yasushi with Eitaro Toyoda and Iizuka supervising the story.

[Diogenes]

Too many characters in this series are nice and friendly. I don't expect Rouge to be completely heartless, but I can appreciate her being selfish and kind of mean to help balance things out and add variety to the cast.

[JezMM]

Free Riders was awfully written for most of the characters, don't get too hung up on it.  Both she and Shadow were weirdly jerk-ish and I couldn't stand it after the rather cute, deep-down quite affectionate comradery they had shown in 2006.

[Your Vest Friend]

Sonic Rivals 2 did that first, really. They ended up saving the day in the end anyway, but Rouge wasn't really up to helping Shadow out, and in the end he brushed both her and Knuckles off. 

Sonic Rivals 2 is kinda like Sonic's Free Riders' twin in terms of jerky characterisation, from what I recall. 

[blade57331]

Well, events from Sonic 06 where erased from existance. So I wouldn't say they count for much.

But I wouldn't consider one spin off game defines Rouge's entire character or even doing it right. So I surely won't lose sleep because of that. I also wouldn't much consider lyrics from their songs that much serious.

And about Rivals, were she even that much close friend with Shadow at that point?

[Your Vest Friend]

Rivals came out around the same time as Sonic '06 (before and after depending on the version of '06, but also kind of irrelevant as Rouge wasn't in the first one), and Sonic Rivals 2 came out Christmas 2007, so it was after the whole comradery shebang. 

[Lucid Dream]

1 hour ago, VEDJ-F said:

Sonic Rivals 2 did that first, really. They ended up saving the day in the end anyway, but Rouge wasn't really up to helping Shadow out, and in the end he brushed both her and Knuckles off. 

Sonic Rivals 2 is kinda like Sonic's Free Riders' twin in terms of jerky characterisation, from what I recall. 

No, Rouge and Shadow were pretty close in Sonic Rivals 2. Rouge just told Shadow that she can't give up information from private clients (which is very fair and nothing rude) and than tripped him in a playful way when he got annoyed (since he told her info). It was a cute scene that showed how friendly they were. Claiming that Rouge was mean to Knuckles in Rivals 2 is pretty weird too, considering that Rouge actually actively worked with him, and snapped at Silver when Silver insulted Knuckles. I think Rivals 2 was the first game to present Rouge and Knuckles as friends. 

I'd say they characterised Shadow and Metal Sonic pretty well. Rouge was shown in a pretty friendly light. The master emerald antic at the end is just Rouge making fun of Knuckles in a friendly way. The real problem was the dialogue and the constant "why are you here?!" every time the characters met... 

[JezMM]

1 hour ago, blade57331 said:

Well, events from Sonic 06 where erased from existance. So I wouldn't say they count for much.

2006 can still be used to discuss characters in the sense that while the events didn't happen, we still get to see how the characters acted around one another in those situations.  So the aspects of their personality that get presented in 2006 can still be considered canon, just not the events that allowed us to witness those aspects of their personality.

[Your Vest Friend]

That still wan't helping him in any way (and he was getting frustrated by it throughout), and then by the last interaction Shadow was telling them to get out of his way, so any teasing isn't returned in kind. Doesn't seem so close when it's a one-way street. 

Although Espio telling Knuckles he doesn't give two shits about the Master Emerald is still the best single moment of the game for the sheer irony. 

[Sega DogTagz]

There a handful of games in the series where some of the characters go waaaaaay far off the deep end in terms of how their characterization is handled. Battle, Free Riders and Chronicles are front and center in this department. Its hard to take much away from the bad stuff in those titles, because they are clear and exaggerated reaches in terms of the personalities for a handful of the characters.

Rouge can be a bit cold at times in the games, but for the most part she has been dependable in doing the "right thing" in the end and even showing her fair share of concern for the people around her.

[blade57331]

2006 can still be used to discuss characters in the sense that while the events didn't happen, we still get to see how the characters acted around one another in those situations.  So the aspects of their personality that get presented in 2006 can still be considered canon, just not the events that allowed us to witness those aspects of their personality.

It depends on are Sonic 06 can be consider as moment where their friendship further developed, because if so then yeah, that develop was kind of erased. If not then, ok.

3 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

Although Espio telling Knuckles he doesn't give two shits about the Master Emerald is still the best single moment of the game for the sheer irony. 

For me it was Rivals 1. Where Knuckles didn't give a **** about everyone around him getting in prison by Eggman and taked M.E. protection on the first place. 

[Sparky]

6 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

Rivals came out around the same time as Sonic '06 (before and after depending on the version of '06, but also kind of irrelevant as Rouge wasn't in the first one), and Sonic Rivals 2 came out Christmas 2007, so it was after the whole comradery shebang. 

Rouge was in Rivals 1, in Shadow's story.

[DabigRG]

On 9/25/2016 at 9:40 AM, Knucklesgirl said:

 This Rouge had care and concern in her heart. She was looking for a relationship and she didn't know it. It seems the point here was Rouge was supposed to leave her theiving ways she fell into: "I am slipping to the mystery of the night"

    They left it that way in Sonic Heroes. In this game she was looking for something her client was after. But her main concern was her client. She wanted to know who he was.  at the end of the game though, Rouge wasn't evil and destructive when she saw the multitude of shadow clones. She protected him. She cared about him!

Did she have a client in Heroes? I'm pretty sure Rouge had heard a rumor about Eggman having a secret treasure which lead to her discovering Shadow and Omega and that you might be mixing her up with the Chaotix, who did have a mysterious client and had a mission involving destroying Shadow Clones.

[Uraraka]

3 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Did she have a client in Heroes? I'm pretty sure Rouge had heard a rumor about Eggman having a secret treasure which lead to her discovering Shadow and Omega and that you might be mixing her up with the Chaotix, who did have a mysterious client and had a mission involving destroying Shadow Clones.

I think you are right about that. Thank you for the correction

[SBR2]

If Characterization was consistent this wouldn't be Sonic.

[Blazey Firekitty]

I kind of like Rouge in Generations. She seems genuinely friendly, even if she has a tendency to demand you give her your stuff. In that game the selfishness/kleptomania feels more like an impulsive spur of the moment thing than a cold premeditated action.

The more sociopathic appearances of the character do seem out of place, but they thankfully seem more rare than her kinder portrayals.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I think it's safe to say that Free Riders has the worst Rouge characterization in any game. In fact, I would say it's only game that paints her wrong (unless I missed something from Olympic games).

Even if we ignore the treatment of the robot (which is almost RoL Shadow level bad) Rouge and Shadow just feel like 2 dimensional jerks, while we all know that they very complex 3-dimensional jerks.

[Muscles Maximum]

Free Riders ruins everybody though. It's not just Rouge.

[Meta77]

On 09/25/2016 at 11:06 AM, JezMM said:

Free Riders was awfully written for most of the characters, don't get too hung up on it.  Both she and Shadow were weirdly jerk-ish and I couldn't stand it after the rather cute, deep-down quite affectionate comradery they had shown in 2006.

Yes the guy that wanted to kill every human on earth was a jerky for just ONE game. Not all heroes need to have their personality known in one game. Rouge is good character and mysterious. Why have her true self on display all the time

[JezMM]

1 hour ago, Meta77 said:

Yes the guy that wanted to kill every human on earth was a jerky for just ONE game. Not all heroes need to have their personality known in one game. Rouge is good character and mysterious. Why have her true self on display all the time

I don't even understand what you're trying to say here.  He long got over that "kill all humans on earth" thing by the time Free Riders came out.

Rouge and Shadow are out of character in Free Riders in the sense that they very non-jokingly mock and smacktalk characters who they have very much become comrades with in previous adventures.  In the canon games that came before and after Free Riders, Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Generations, Rouge in particular is portrayed as nothing other than a friend to Sonic and the heroes.

[Meta77]

Comrades shadow treats others below him l. Sure he works with sonic and the rest but never does he need or usually ever associate with them unless a big threat comes about or gun orders it.

[Flyinpenguin117]

Around the time Shadow became discount Vegeta, Knuckles became dumb, Tails became Inventor Mary Sue, and Sonic became lolbaldymcnosehair.