The Sonic the Hedgehog universe has no shortage of supporting characters.
When you think of Sonic’s crew of pals, a few main figures come to mind aside from
the blue blur himself – his best friend Tails, token female love interest with a hammer
Amy Rose, Knuckles the echidna aka the one who was warped into the VR chat digital equivalent
of herpes, and Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic’s foil.
Aside from antagonist Doctor Robotnik and perhaps his robotic creation Metal Sonic,
most of the other canon characters have been criticized by critics for being useless and
inconsequential to the world of Sonic.
So, when there’s news of new Sonic characters crawling out of the woodwork, you bet fans
and reviewers alike are curious as to how Sega, or in this case IDW, plan on tossing
them into the mix.
And today, we’re taking a closer look at two new anthropomorphic skunk additions to
the Sonic family, with our list of the top 10 rough and Tumble Shocking Facts.
10 Archie comics Before we dive into who Rough and Tumble are,
let’s take a look at some context behind how the characters came to be.
Recently, Sega ended its partnership with Archie Comics, who, since 1993 had the licensing
to publish Sonic the Hedgehog comics.
Some of which, at times, got really weird.
Upon parting ways, the company sought out a new direction, which landed the comic rights
in the hands of publisher IDW.
IDW is completely revamping Sonic as a comic character, which includes introducing a new
roster of faces.
9 Etymology Often when looking at new characters added
to a franchise, or new-anything added to a story world, we tend to overlook the deeper
meaning of said subject’s name.
In this case, rough and Tumble is named after a common phrase in the English language – rough
and tumble, which pertains to rough, disorderly unrestrained fighting or struggling.
It’s also defined as a phrase that describes something that was put together haphazardly,
suggesting rush and lack of care.
It often refers to disorderly and loud behavior as well.
And guess what?
These two definitely fit that bill.
8 Bullies According to Associate Editor David Mariotte,
Rough and Tumble are, I quote, “independent agents, and more bullies than masterminds,
but they’re tough enough to maybe become someone’s henchmen down the line.”
The two first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog issue 2 as evil mercenaries.
Tumble, the larger of the two, is considered to be the mastermind behind the duo and is
described as ferocious, cruel and brutish.
He often takes pleasure in mocking others and has a pretty short temper.
Rough, on the other hand, is impish, arrogant and vengeful, and doesn’t take kindly to
any sort of opposition, whether it be from those who he’s imprisoned or those who threaten
him on the battlefield.
7 Lifelong Enemies Rough and Tumble, being villains, crossed
paths with Sonic and Knuckles, and things didn’t go down as planned for the duo.
After being defeated in battle by the blue blur and his pal, they declared Sonic and
Knuckles to be “lifelong enemies” after they were shipped off to jail and stripped
of their weapons.
They warned our heroes that they would break out of jail soon enough, with the intention
of seeking revenge on them.
And while Sonic and Knuckles managed to outclass them in the end, the duo did give our heroes
a bit of a run for their money, so there’s a good chance that they may pose a much bigger
threat to the blue blur and co later on down the line.
6 Their Past Before crossing paths with Sonic and Knuckles,
these two had a bit of an interesting back story.
During the war between the Resistance and the Eggman Empire, the duo saved a town by
driving back Eggman’s forces.
As noble as that seems, they took advantage of the situation, promising the town that
they would help improve their defenses.
Instead, they took their Wispons and wisps and made the residents their prisoners.
Since Badniks were surrounding the town, they had no choice but to go along with Rough and
Tumble’s demands, practically being their slaves, until Sonic and Knuckles showed up.
5 Brothers In perhaps the most straightforward fact on
this list – and actually, most obvious one, too – Rough and Tumble are brothers.
Aside from their past with the town that Sonic and Knuckles would later liberate, not much
is known about their past as of the recording of this video.
And I don’t know about you guys, but I’m really curious as to what happened to Tumble
for part of his tail to be missing.
Just saying.
Fan theories, anyone?
4 Ian Flynn Ian Flynn has a long history with writing
Sonic and is now the head writer for the IDW comic.
Initially starting his Sonic comic career with issue 160 of Sonic the Hedgehog back
when it was an Archie Comic in 2006, he wrote continuously for the series until Sega parted
ways with the company.
He even wrote episodes for the second season of Sonic Boom.
Associate editor David Mariotte, I quote, “Ian’s pretty much able to come up with
folks on the fly and any major character we run by Sega for approval.
There are a few stages, from Ian’s initial paragraph or two descriptions of the character
to getting someone like the talented Tyson Hesse to draw up designs and turnarounds for
Sega to see the character, to having a final design and solidifying their personality in
the script.”
3 Wispons Both Rough and Tumble have their own unique
abilities that make them a good team together.
Tumble, aside from having enhanced strength, durability and knowing his way around hand-to-hand
combat, Tumble also is rather skilled with a Wispon.
The term Wispon may be something familiar to you if you’ve played Sonic Forces.
Wispons are objects – a series of various gadgets that have weaponized the Wisp’s
powers.
Without a wisp inside of it, a wispon is useless.
It can also only harness the breed of Wisp that it’s been designed to use.
Tumble is an expert when it comes to using Wispons, and often busts one out when engaging
in a serious fight.
Rough also uses Wispons too and has a tendency to use the Burst Weapon the most often.
Speaking of Rough-
2 Stink Bomber Rough has exhibited a unique ability called
the Stink Bomber.
When dashing forwards, he curls his body up into a tight ball, often with his tail curled
up behind him.
While spinning forward, he releases a potent awful smelling stench – you know, like real
skunks do – which is strong enough to not only make his foes teary-eyed but also dizzy.
Those will a strong enough will are able to ignore the stench, although that’s definitely
no easy feat.
Knuckles proved this when they faced off and was able to muster enough power to counter-attack
before he got sprayed by Rough a second time.
1 Showmanship Rough and Tumble pride themselves on showmanship
– whenever they introduce themselves, they go through a whole ‘song and dance’ in
which they use rhymes to tell their story, all while striking flashy poses.
As the rhyme goes, “You looking to scrap?
Then get ready to crumble!
Brace yourselves for rough and tumble!”
Both are quite proud of it, particularly Rough though, who got quite upset when Sonic mocked
their routine in Sonic the Hedgehog issue 3 in the story Fallout Part 3 – the moment
was actually pretty entertaining – Knuckles notes “careful Sonic, they’re highly coordinated”
which cracks Sonic right up, even though the humour seems to go over Knuckles head.
There we have it, friends!
So, what're your thoughts on Rough and Tumble?
The characters do look pretty cool based off their designs and appearances in the comics
so far, and they’ve yet to reach super convoluted land like many Sonic characters have fallen
victim to in the past.
So perhaps there is hope for the skunk brother duo?
Let us know your thoughts about them, and about your feels concerning the new Sonic
comics below!
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