Rouge was my childhood crush (aka my furry awakening). Sonic has always been a BIG part of my life and one of my first gamecube games was the port of SA2 which was my first proper introduction to Rouge. And I grew very attached to her character. A lot of people for some reason don’t really like her personality? While I love her fearless, independent, flirty attitude. I can see why some people don’t enjoy it. Although I feel as if at the end of the day a lot of it may be a misunderstanding. Like some old friend of mine said that Rouge was a manipulative person, while she WAS manipulative in the past she’s learned to grow from her old ways and has changed. Now she’s simply just a playful person who likes to mess around. Now using her charm to get what she needs only when necessary.
A character who has never changed their manipulative ways would be someone obvious like Eggman he’s done some manipulative things in the past for sure. ANYWAY! Going back to my bat bab.

I love her development overtime going from having some toxic traits in to becoming aware of these traits and trying to overcome them. It’s funny how Rouge was everything I HATE in a person... selfish at times, coming off as a narcissist sometimes, even a bit of a hypocrite sometimes, etc. But for some reason I never hated her and instead became very attached to her. She grew a lot as a person and has become less selfish due to the time she’s spent with Sonic and co. The times in the past she’s shown to care for others worrying about them cancels out how people assume she really only cares for herself, she really does get super emotional as if she were a whole new person and will even go lengths to help them if needed. I like seeing a side of her that rarely was shown.
Rouge while she may not seem like it is a person who loves to have relationships with others, this is evident mostly with her close friendship with Shadow and Omega (I love team dark).

And also even more evident with the type of relationship her and Knuckles have. Deep down she really is a girl who wants to give love and vise versa platonic or not.
I love her so much, I’ve looked into who she is as a whole a lot so maybe I’m so emotionally attached to her because I see a bigger picture.
Her voice actress’ like Lani Minella from SA2-Heroes also was a reason I got so attached to the character. Her voice for Rouge was perfect and my absolute favorite! She gave her so much character and portrayed her so nicely. And the newer one Karen Strassman is just as amazing though she’s gives her Rouge a more alluring tone... but I ain’t complainin’. Her Sonic X actor is my least fave but I appreciate what she brought to the table, very unique.

Rouge is really just a very great character. She’s layered and in my opinion one of THE most underrated characters in the franchise (no being sexualized to death by people doesnt count).
I wish people would give her more credit for the person she has become and for who she used to be.
She’s grown so much and I am so proud of her.