Miles "Tails" Prower

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A promotional image of Tails from Sonic Heroes.

Miles Prower, better known by his nickname Tails (Japanese: テイルス), is a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games, comics, and TV shows released by Sega. "Miles Prower" is a pun on "miles per hour", a reference to the famed speed of the Sonic games. He is a young fox with two tails, which enable him to fly. He is believed by some to be a kitsune.

Contents

1 Storyline from the video games

1.1 Tails' mechanical creations

2 Moves

3 Comics and TV shows

4 Character design

5 Rumors

6 Video game appearances

Storyline from the video games

In the games, Tails first appeared as a big fan of Sonic's, who began following him after being rescued by the hedgehog. After following his hero relentlessly for a long time, Tails eventually became fast enough to keep up with Sonic by spinning his two tails like a propeller. Now, he's the fourth fastest person on the planet, right behind Sonic, Shadow and Metal Sonic.

Tails' mechanical creations

Although Tails can fly like 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 mechanical genius with intelligence comparable to Dr. Eggman's, and soon many modifications to the Tornado, as well as new biplanes, were added to his arsenal. He also operates a small blue submarine called the "Sea Fox" and an F1 racer called the "Whirlwind S7".

In Sonic Adventure, Tails was experimenting with a Chaos Emerald-powered prototype plane based on Sonic's Tornado, the Tornado II. The Tornado II had two modes. One was quite similar to the old 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.

In Sonic Adventure 2, Tails uses the Tornado II's greatest upgrade: the Cyclone. The Cyclone has three modes: the plane mode, the car mode, and the mech mode. The mech mode gets the most use in the game, the car is used on only one level and in multiplayer, and the airplane is only seen in cutscenes. Tails drives the mech during all other gameplay, except when visiting the Chao Garden.

The Tornado that appears in the Sonic Adventure series and Sonic Heroes resembles the Polikarpov I-153 Chaika, a Soviet biplane from WWII; the I-153's engine is a Wright "Cyclone".

Moves

A picture of Miles "Tails" Prower from the manual of Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Just like many of the characters who hang around Sonic, Tails can do the Sonic Spin and the Spin Dash, as well as attack with his tails by twirling around. As the flyer of Team Sonic, he can also use Thunder Shoot, whereby he electrically charges Sonic and Knuckles and hurls them at his enemies (without Sonic or Knuckles being harmed, of course). He can also swim quite well, something Sonic has never learned to do, or wants to, since the hedgehog hates water and won't even touch it except to take a bath.

Tails cannot transform with the seven Chaos Emeralds like Sonic, Knuckles and Shadow can. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Tails transforms into Super Tails if he gains the power of the seven Super Emeralds, which are powerful incarnations of the Chaos Emeralds at their full power when exposed to the Master Emerald. As Super Tails, he has all the abilities as Super Sonic, but he also has 4 Golden Flickies that follow him and attack nearby enemies.

Tails plays major roles in almost every Sonic game released since his debut in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. However, there is reason to believe that in the unreleased Sonic X-treme, which was meant for the Sega Saturn, there were no signs of Tails in the game whatsoever.

Comics and TV shows

Tails has appeared in several cartoon shows, such as SatAM (voiced by Bradley Pierce), Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (voiced by Christopher Evan Welch), and Sonic X (voiced by Amy Palant). (He is absent from Sonic Underground, however.)

He also appears in the British Sonic the Comic, where he hails from the Nameless Zone, which can apparently only be accessed by a space warp. A misunderstanding led Tails to the Emerald Hill Zone, the streets of which he believed were paved with real emeralds, but once there, Tails immediately became fascinated with Sonic, and eventually became his sidekick. 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, which resulting in the elders of the Nameless Zone often calling him back, and gifting him with a suit of enchanted armour to defend their Zone from assorted evil - and poor old Tails never did quite manage to explain the truth.

Tails also appears in the American Archie Sonic Comics, where he is developed upon as the chosen one and the son of Rosemary and Amadeus Prower. In the Archie Sonic comic, he seemed to have lost his parents at an early age, and admired the Freedom Fighters, particularly Sonic. He has grown pretty close with the Princess Sally, as he calls her Aunt Sally. He is also Sonic's surrogate little brother. Jules and Bernie Hedgehog (Sonic's parents in the comic version) also view Tails as a son to them and lastly Mina Mongoose has been making an impact too. While he is by no means romantically interested in Mina, he certainly does enjoy her company and likes her singing.

When he absorbs fifty rings and seven Chaos Emeralds, he becomes Turbo Tails. His fur color changes from orange to dark orange, all natural abilities are upgraded and he is, like Super Sonic, immune to all attacks that come his way. He has only once made an appearance as Super Tails after he had absorbed the power of a thousand power rings in a battle along side Ultra Sonic against the evil wizard Ixis Nagus. He was aided by four flickies that have chaos energy and that will attack whatever he wishes them to.

Character design

Yasushi Yamaguchi designed Tails for an internal competition for the sidekick. His entry won, but his character's name was changed from "Miles" to "Tails". Yamaguchi ended up with a compromise. He sneaked the name "Miles" in as his legal name; "Tails" would be his nickname.

Rumors

Some people claim that Tails could be female. In the Spanish dub of some of the TV shows (including Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog), Colitas (lit.: Tails) was referred to as ella (she), and she called herself zorra (vixen). This comes from many things, such as that the Spanish language has masculine and feminine words, and cola, the word for tail, is feminine, that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 pre-development, and the fact Tails seems to have a big attraction to Sonic. If this were true, this would also wipe away allegations that Tails was bi/homosexual and help explain the reason why Tails does hang around with Sonic, which is really because Tails is Sonic's little brother figure. Also, his real name, Miles, is not a female name, and in the original Japanese, he uses a male mode of speech, so the theory only evolves in fan fiction.

It is also rumored by some fans that he was the original guardian of the Chaos Emeralds, and that when Hidden Palace Zone was scrapped from Sonic 2, the role was given to a new character, Knuckles. The zone artist for Sonic 2, Craig Stitt, said that the emerald was merely an object for the player's character to break through. [1] (http://www.sws2b.com/zones/hidden_palace.2)

Tails is also rumored, by some egalitarianists, to be Sonic's subordinate. This rumor came about when Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released in 1992 (Japan release date November 21; US release date November 24), when Tails started following Sonic around. This rumor is supplemented in the many animated series, when Tails is treated like a bullied little brother by Sonic on occasions.

Recently allegations of Tails-Amy or Tails-Cream relationships have come into prominence. They may be touched upon by the TV series, or may simply never be expanded upon. The same goes for the possible Tails-Fiona fox relationship that could be present in the comic.

Video game appearances

Miles "Tails" Prower from the character selection screen of the pre-release version of Sonic Advance 3

Miles was first seen on Sonic 2 for the Master System but made his first hit in Sonic 2 for the Megadrive (Genesis), where he played the part of Sonic's sidekick and also as a playable character. He could not be made to fly until Sonic Chaos (Sonic and Tails in Japan), and then in Sonic 3 when he made his second major appearance. This was a big step forward for Miles; he became much better known and respected at this point.

The following is a list of games in which Tails has appeared.