Where is Blaze the Cat?

[MetalSkulkBane]

Shadowlax, you put Blaze in two tiers. Also, I think Silver is slightly higher, in the same place as Blaze, Rouge and Chaotix. He has a larger role then in Forces for a reason (heck, he's got his own t-shirt).

The thing is that 'importance' is not a perfect straight line.
Silver and Blaze are more popular then Omega and Big, yet Chronicles favored the latter. Why? Because team mechanics. Same reason why Omega and Charmy  were in Forces. Because Sega preferred full teams.
Eggman is obviously super important and popular, but very fact of not being a furry sometimes diminishes his role. Besides, villains are tricky. Yes, Metal Sonic is classic character. No, he was not in Colors DS. or Sonic Dash. Or Riders 1&2, Or really in Forces. And what about Orbot and Cubot? They so small we're not even talking about them, yet they appear much more frequently than even Shadow in recent tittles.
Rouge never had her own game (like Silver or Blaze) or her own Sonic Universe (Archie comics, again unlike Silver ad Blaze), but she spends so much time with Shadow, she probably has more appearances then those two.
Or look at Big, he's so unpopular that he became popular. Mostly in fan project (Big Fishing Adventure, Facebook), but also Lego Dimension.

Or to putted it differently, who's more important: Rosalina or Gomba? One is actual character with fanbase, the other is classic part of the series, appearing in every game.

Seriously, since 2010 Blaze was in Generations, Colors DS, every Olympics, Dash, Runners, Jump and Free Riders. She's not being 'neglected'. This game is her first hiccup in loooong time. Heck, Olympics games favored her over Rouge, Silver, Metal, Cream or Espio.

EDIT: Absolute list of importance. Warning, I'm repeating myself a lot.

Spoiler

1 The core cast: in order
Sonic - obviously
Eggman - no villain, no game. Still, being a villain and human does mean he's sometimes ends with less love (never playable in IOS game)
Tails - again obvious
Knuckles
Amy - she's almost equal to Knux, but 1 He's part of main trio (Sonic 3, Mania, etc) 2 She's a girl, loses points with certain demographic 3 unlike Knuckles or Tails, there she has small anti-fan groups ("crazy stalker" "sonally forever")

2 Core cast expansion: Shadow and Metal
Shadow isn't 'classic' like others, but due his popularity means he gets a better deal sometimes (Smash bros, own game, Forces), even if few people hate him for that.
Metal is classic, but a villain and some people don't consider him real character. That means he sometimes gets shorter end of a stick than many (Colors DS, Dash, Riders 1&2) and rarely longer than Shadow or Amy (Mania, Sonic 4 ep 2)

3 Characters I'm sure are fairly popular: Silver, Blaze and Rouge.
Silver and Blaze are from different time/world, but have superform. They've been 'rivals' for quite a while. He got 06 and Rivals, she got Black Knight and Rush (and not being a terrible character in 06). He's part of 'hedgehog trio" and a male (look Amy), she's older and was first in Olympics. But I think his boss battle in Generations and role in Forces (he even gets t-shirt) means he finally got a small edge over her.
Rouge never got the same 'heights' as those two, but she's from this world (Chronicles, Free Riders) ,is much older, was in Sonic X and due to role as "Shadow's sidekick" gets a bit of extra love. Of all Sonic characters I hear her fans complain least about her being 'underused'.

4 Characters that I'm uncertain whenever are popular or not: Cream, Vector, Espio (my arguments aren't super strong here)
Rouge no playable in Olympics? Hiccup. Blaze not being in Forces? Hiccup. Both for Cream? I'm raising my brow (especially since last Olympics). She was a thing in 2003-05 (Sonic X, Advance, Battle, Rush 1) but games like Shadow, 06, Rivals, Rush Adventure ignored here in favor of others. Since 2006 he only gets a role when Team Rose is needed (Free RIders, Chronicles) or everyone from rows 1-3 are accounted for.
Meanwhile Chaotix were made to be filling and lived as a filling. Not place for them in Riders, Secret Ring Multiplayer, 06, Chronicles. They did beat Cream in Forces, Olympics and Rivals 2, but lost in all Riders 1&2, Chronicles, Dash (Espio was added last, only on certain phones). So It's kinda wobbly, but I think Cream is bigger then Chaotix, obviously Vector higher than Espio.

5 Characters I'm certain aren't popular: Omega, Charmy, Big
I don't think I need to explain this. Even their body type makes them harder to utilize (two are big, Charmy always flies). They only appear when Sega scrubs the bottom of the barrel (and even then...)
Omega appears when Shadow needs both sidekick (Heroes, Shadow, 06, Forces, but not Free RIders), never being his own bot (I guess expect his role on Olympics. But who doesn't get role in Olympics?)
Charmy in Forces is his biggest role since... Shadow I guess. Of all Chaotix members he gets the least love.
And Big is a weird, he wasn't in Olympics, Generation, Forces or Free Riders. But he's so unpopular it bends reality, so he somehow appeared in Lego Dimensions, All Star Racing and Arabian Nights.

6 Bonus: Recurring characters that aren't part of 'main cast', but sometimes get better treatment than low level main cast
Sticks (Olympics, whole Boom)
Babylon Rouges (Jet in Wave in Olympics, Jet in Black Knight)
Orbot and Cubot (they are special case)
Chaos (Generations, Forces and thus Speed Battle)
Zeti (Olympics, Dash, Olympics and thus Speed Battle)
Eggman Nega (Olympics)

 

[Blueknight V2.0]

This just in, Blaze the Cat is now playable in Sonic Forces Speed Battle. Now this was a little unexpected since Blaze didn't appear in the main Sonic Forces game. Well I'm glad Sega/ Sonic Team is still interested in Blaze, maybe she'll be in the next Modern 3D Sonic game.

[Swing]

If I would compare Blaze to any other character than she comes very close to Tikal and Chip in terms of role. Blaze's backstory keeps her actually back to become an often seen regular character. She is from another dimension, and unlike with Star vs. the Forces of Evil, the story of Sonic has almost nothing to do with traveling between different dimensions. Their for I can not see Blaze popping up every time, unless it has to do something with her world. 

Just like Tikal and Chip, or others like Merlina or Shahra and even Elise, Blaze can only come back, if the story has something to do with her.

If I would do a ranking of the characters, this would be my list:

S: Sonic, Tails and Eggman

A: Amy, Knuckles, Orbot and Cubot

B: Shadow, Metal-Sonic, the Wisps (but only if they will be an establish gameplay element from now on) 

C: Rouge, Omega, Silver, Vector, Espio, Charmy Bee, Big, the Chao, The Deadly Six Chaos (maybe, because he actually showed up quit often lately) 

D: Cream, Blaze, Jet, Wave, Storm, Sticks

E: Tikal, Marine, Elise, Chip, Shahra, Merlina, Maria, the ghosts from Night of the Werehog and everybody else that only played in on

[DabigRG]

16 minutes ago, Blue Knight/Bluestreak said:

This just in, Blaze the Cat is now playable in Sonic Forces Speed Battle. Now this was a little unexpected since Blaze didn't appear in the main Sonic Forces game. Well I'm glad Sega/ Sonic Team is still interested in Blaze, maybe she'll be in the next Modern 3D Sonic game.

Eh, don't really like that she just has a mundane Spin Jump now.

[MetalSkulkBane]

1 hour ago, Swing said:

Just like Tikal and Chip, or others like Merlina or Shahra and even Elise, Blaze can only come back, if the story has something to do with he.

1

Buy she can appear in games like Riders series, Colors DS, Black Knight (sorta), Generations, Olympics, IOS games or even a trophy/sticker in Smash.

With that, it's obvious that she as important as Vector or Rouge, if not more.

[EzSonic01]

I think it's OK if Blaze doesn't show up in the games as often as the others. She doesn't really have a reason to do so. For me, the ranking of characters in the modern timeline would be like this: 

S: Sonic, Dr. Eggman (As an extension of Eggman, Orbot and Cubot,) 

A: The rest of Team Heroes (Tails and Knuckles), Amy.

B: Shadow, Metal Sonic.

C: The rest of Team Dark (Rouge, Omega), the Chaotix (Vector, Espio, Charmy), Silver, Zavok, Blaze, Wisps, Sticks (as a 

D: Cream, Big, Babylon Rouges (Jet, Wave, Storm), Chaos.

E: Tikal, and every character that was meant to appear only once.

[Swing]

34 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Buy she can appear in games like Riders series, Colors DS, Black Knight (sorta), Generations, Olympics, IOS games or even a trophy/sticker in Smash.

With that, it's obvious that she as important as Vector or Rouge, if not more.

In most of them actually yes, she can appear in them, because most of those games are party games. I mean, if Blaze would have been a playable character in Allstars Racing, do you really want to have a backstory how she is suddenly here now? 

[RedFox99]

 

47 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Buy she can appear in games like Riders series, Colors DS, Black Knight (sorta), Generations, Olympics, IOS games or even a trophy/sticker in Smash.

With that, it's obvious that she as important as Vector or Rouge, if not more.

The only games in that list that have her canonically appear (excluding BK) are Colors DS and Generations. However, she's mostly insignificant in the main plots of those games. 

[MetalSkulkBane]

On 18.01.2018 at 10:44 PM, Swing said:

In most of them actually yes, she can appear in them, because most of those games are party games. I mean, if Blaze would have been a playable character in All-Stars Racing, do you really want to have a backstory how she is suddenly here now? 

True, but Silver has the same problem. Besides, Sega can always slap her with no explanation, I wouldn't be surprised if they did that.

During 2005-2009 she was doing pretty well (Rush, 06, Rush Adv, Black Knight), and after that (2010-2016) all Sonic secondary characters were a wallpaper. Sonic Forces is the first hiccup in her 'resume'. If that pattern repeats, I'll admit you have some point.

(But even then, you can't just ignore her popularity. You put Omega higher then Blaze, but Forces asides, when was the last time Omega appeared without her? Sonic Chronicles, that's 2 games since 2005. Another way around? The list is fairly long. And let's not even check who has more fans, fan art, fics, etc.)

[DaddlerTheDalek]

On 18.1.2018 at 8:56 PM, Swing said:

Blaze can only come back, if the story has something to do with her.

I think it would be really cool if we get a new game  that has something to do with Blaze and her world.

[RedFox99]

1 minute ago, DaddlerTheDalek said:

I think it would be really cool if we get a new game  that has something to do with Blaze and her world.

I was thinking of maybe a Sonic 2-esque game starring Blaze and Marine within the Sol dimension. 

[DabigRG]

32 minutes ago, DaddlerTheDalek said:

I think it would be really cool if we get a new game  that has something to do with Blaze and her world.

30 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

I was thinking of maybe a Sonic 2-esque game starring Blaze and Marine within the Sol dimension. 

I second/third that notion. Unlike with Silver, Blaze has her own established world to explore, her world's version of Eggman is still technically unknown, and Marine was setup to become an occasional sidekick for her alongside Gardon.

 

What better way to dive back into any of that than with her own spinoff game.

[Blueknight V2.0]

Seems Sega is really interested in bringing Blaze back. First Blaze appears in Sonic Forces Speed Battle and now she's reappearing in the new IDW Sonic comics in April according to the latest preview. So 2 announcements that are Blaze related inside of 2 weeks.

 

So it appears that we might be seeing a lot more of Blaze in the Sonic series from here on out.

[DabigRG]

Just now, Blue Knight/Bluestreak said:

Seems Sega is really interested in bringing Blaze back. First Blaze appears in Sonic Forces Speed Battle and now she's reappearing in the new IDW Sonic comics in April according to the latest preview. So 2 announcements that are Blaze related inside of 2 weeks.

 

So it appears that we might be seeing a lot more of Blaze in the Sonic series from here on out.

Too bad she's already been somewhat overshadowed by Tangle.

[RedFox99]

21 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Too bad she's already been somewhat overshadowed by Tangle.

I see what you mean in that Blaze is more in the background while Tangle is in the foreground with Sonic. 

[Dr. Detective]

If that was Charmy or Vector or Omega I wouldn't care if they were in the background or not. It'd be a miracle to even see them there as far as I would be concerned.

[DabigRG]

.

32 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

I see what you mean in that Blaze is more in the background while Tangle is in the foreground with Sonic. 

Well, that and the inherent fact that they overly hyped up this new character showing up in the same issue that turned out to be Blaze's return to a story.

It probably doesn't help that the other cover I've seen with her has Tails on it instead of Blaze.

24 minutes ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

If that was Charmy or Vector or Omega I wouldn't care if they were in the background or not. It'd be a miracle to even see them there as far as I would be concerned.

To be fair, Omega and the Chaotix are on a different level than Blaze which allows them to show up more often.

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

.To be fair, Omega and the Chaotix are on a different level than Blaze which allows them to show up more often.

While that's true, I can't help thinking and feeling this way just because they're nowhere near as popular. None of those characters would have a thread dedicated to asking where they were if they didn't appear in Forces. No one would have bothered asking and hounding the Twitter account for news about the whereabouts of these guys as much as they did for Blaze either. It just wouldn't happen.

So I take what I can get. I don't care if they're in the background of a cover or not. She's pretty prominently featured on it so I don't see an issue.

[DabigRG]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

While that's true, I can't help thinking and feeling this way just because they're nowhere near as popular. None of those characters would have a thread dedicated to asking where they were if they didn't appear in Forces. No one would have bothered asking and hounding the Twitter account for news about the whereabouts of these guys as much as they did for Blaze either. It just wouldn't happen.

 

Honestly, I do know why they bothered with Blaze to begin with.

[Lord-Dreamerz]

Yeah as a big Blaze fan myself i'm just happy she is getting any focus at all... and so early on in the comic to boot! I'm not to bothered about her sharing it with the new girl a bit... as long they don't have the new character take to MUCH spotlight away from the other characters.

[Blueknight V2.0]

I usually don't care much for Sonic comic characters, but Tangle actually looks pretty good. I wouldn't mind seeing her and Blaze even Silver in Sonic Boom Season 3 if it happens.

[Razule]

2 hours ago, Blue Knight/Bluestreak said:

Seems Sega is really interested in bringing Blaze back.

She never left..

[Blueknight V2.0]

4 minutes ago, Razule said:

She never left..

I'm talking about the time between Generations and now.

[DabigRG]

9 minutes ago, Blue Knight/Bluestreak said:

Come to think of it, does anyone else think Tangle would fit into Sonic Boom?

I suppose she could potentially work as a replacement flat character next to Sticks, given how they've described her in that press release. 

But there is also the issue of her potentially being too powerful to be a consistent recurring character.

[Dash Speed]

4 hours ago, Blue Knight/Bluestreak said:

Seems Sega is really interested in bringing Blaze back. First Blaze appears in Sonic Forces Speed Battle and now she's reappearing in the new IDW Sonic comics in April according to the latest preview. So 2 announcements that are Blaze related inside of 2 weeks.

 

So it appears that we might be seeing a lot more of Blaze in the Sonic series from here on out.

Seriously?

So where not gonna ignore this slaps Shadow fans in the face since Shadow is about as famous as Tails is in popularity and has more recent game showings than Blaze? I'm surprised Blaze was shown before Silver too. Look Ian, stop trying to undersell the classic fan favorites(Yes Shadow's a classic) so new cult status characters can shine. Don't they care about making money at all?

I hope when he shows up, Shadow doesn't have to share spotlight with Silver to prop Silver on his shoulders for a popularity boost.