Tails

Miles 'Tails' Prower is a fictional character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is an anthropomorphic eight-year-old fox cub born exclusively with two twin-tails, hence his nickname. Because of his abnormality, Tails was the subject of bullying during his youth. One day however, he met Sonic the Hedgehog and was inspired to become as cool as him after seeing him run like the wind. Tails soon after began following Sonic on his adventures and has since become his best friend and sidekick. He is able to use his twin-tails to fly by rotating them like helicopter rotors and is a mechanic genius and aerial pilot.

A gentle and sweet-natured soul, Tails was initially timid and lacked courage. After meeting Sonic, however, Tails became more confident about himself, eventually growing up to be a more outgoing, brave and independent individual and a hero in his own right. Since encountering Sonic, Tails has looked up to him and stood by his side, helping him however he can during their adventures.

Personality
Tails is a gentle-hearted, sweet-natured and loyal fox with a positive attitude. In his beginnings, he was initially timid and quiet, but he has opened up and become more outgoing over the years. Tails is not one to grab the spotlight for himself and is instead always ready to willing help others without asking for anything in return.

Tails has a distinct love for mechanics and he finds himself most at home in his workshop working on his next creation. Despite his great skills, Tails is very humble about his abilities, never giving them many thoughts, though he has yet to discover his true potential of what he can accomplish. At the time of Sonic Lost World, Tails has become more confident and outspoken about his intelligence, though he still does not openly brag.

When young, Tails often lacked self-confidence and courage. After meeting Sonic and gaining his support, Tails gained more confidence and belief in himself. However, this status quo, created from Sonic's authority over him put a mental stranglehold on Tails that made him dependent on Sonic. As such, he often lacked directions and confidence whenever he was on his own.

A turning point for Tails came in Sonic Adventure; when Station Square was in danger of being destroyed, Tails was the only one who could stop this. With Sonic nowhere to be found, Tails realized that he could not depend on Sonic forever and had to try on his own. After saving Station Square, Tails realized he could be independent and support himself without Sonic, and all he needed was determination and faith. Since then, Tails has become more independent, self-confident, motivated and brave, and can as well rise up to be a real hero when needed.

During their earlier adventures together, Tails strove to become just like Sonic by replicating the mannerisms he found admirable. In this period, Tails was content with being Sonic's sidekick as he was just happy to hang out with Sonic. As Tails grew as a person, he still remained as close to Sonic as ever as his sidekick and still looks up to him, but his esteem about Sonic's heroics have dwindled, as he these days cares more about inventing then Sonic's heroic deeds. Despite his development, Tails still tends to depend on Sonic when he is in a moment of weakness. However, he hopes to one day be self-sufficient and independent like Sonic, while proving he can be relied upon. Also, even though Tails still enjoys being Sonic's sidekick, he believes that he can do almost anything if he puts his mind onto it.

Despite his intelligence and general fearlessness, Tails is afraid of lightning and can be naive and big mouthed, such as in Sonic Adventure 2 when he accidentally told Eggman that the Chaos Emerald that Sonic had was a fake, thus ruining the heroes' plans. Tails also hates feeling useless or being ignored, as seen in the cases when he is talking to Sonic. He also gets very angry when someone dismiss his mechanical skills and takes it very personally, as seen when Wave the Swallow mocked his self-customized Blue Star.

Tails has a tendency to talk techno-babble, much to the irritation of his friends, such as when he tried to explain how an Extreme Gear worked, meaning that Tails does not always use tact in a situational matter. Nevertheless, Tails is supportive of his friends, willing to be by their side no matter what or how dangerous the situation might be, and do whatever it takes to help them, even if it means sacrificing himself for them.

Twin tails
Tails' unique trait is his genetic abnormality that has granted him two large, fluffy tails that can twirl together. During his lifetime, Tails has learned to use his two tails to his advantage in many situations, which is usually for transportation or unique combat moves.

The most noticeable skill Tails has demonstrated with his twin tails is his ability to achieve flight with them. By twirling his twin tails around like rotary blades, Tails is able to lift himself off the ground and fly around in mid-air like a helicopter. When in flight, Tails can move at incredible speeds, reaching that of 768 mph (1,236 km/h) and go fast enough to keep up with Sonic, with great agility and mobility. He can also use his twin tails to manipulate his descend through mid-air, allowing him to glide. He can also use his tails as a turbine to push himself forward while hovering slightly above ground, allowing him to reaching speeds nearing those of Sonic himself. Tails' outstanding speed in this field is partially due his training with Sonic.

There does appears to be a limit to Tails' endurance, concerning how long he can stay airborne with his twin tails; as shown in nearly all his game appearances, Tails can only fly with his twins tails for a limited time before he becomes exhausted from the effort and starts falling down.

Tails' twin tails are shown to be very powerful limbs in their own right, being both strong and fast enough to slice through metal. In combat, Tails can also use his twin tails for different fighting moves and techniques. His tails are also shown to be prehensile, as in Sonic Lost World where he grabs a toothpick from Zomom's sandwich with one of his tails and uses it to reprogram a machine that was going to turn him into a brainwashed robot.

Physical abilities
Like many of the other characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Tails can run at super speeds. Although his running speed is considered average,[29] Tails has proven himself an exceptionally fast runner on several occasions. In the ending of Sonic Heroes, he could keep up with Sonic by running and in Sonic Colors he could move enough to block even Sonic's movements when he was controlled by Dr. Eggman. Tails is also quite physically strong as he is able to lift both Sonic and Knuckles into midair within hindering his own flying speed and move blocks that supposedly weights several tons.

Tails also possesses great acrobatic skills, agility and reflexes. He is capable of setting off and jumping accurately between stone pillars, grinding on rails, and performing different kinds of body movements and tricks while airborne.

Tails is quite good at swimming as well. By using his twin tails as rear propellers, Tails can move underwater at significant speeds and with great ease.

Tails is capable of harnessing chaos energy to empower himself, though he has only been seen during on rare occasions, such as in Sonic the Fighters, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Sonic & Knuckles.

Intelligence and mechanical skills
Despite his young age, Tails has a genius-level intellect and is a natural prodigy when it comes to mechanics, being an extremely capable inventor and mechanic. In fact, Tails' skills in mechanics even rivals those of Dr. Eggman, though he has yet to reach his full potential in this field. Over the years, Tails has been known to create more than a few mechanical items of his own which have proven useful over time. These creations includes his various technological advanced, and often transformable, Tornado series of airplanes, his various combat equipments, his Chaos Emerald locater, the Sea Fox, the Lunar Fox, and his multifunctional Miles Electric to name a few. When given a piece of technology, Tails only needs to take a few looks on it to determine its functions, elements and purposes, even for the highly advanced Gizoid androids. In Sonic Lost World, Tails claimed he is smart enough to build a TV out of paperclips and reprogram a supercomputer using a toothpick and dishwashing detergent.

When it comes to new forms of construction, Tails is quick to grasp new technologies, such as Material technology, and once he develops an understanding of it, excels on the subject in question. In the fields of Extreme Gear mechanics, Tails has great skills at tuning and constructing different kinds of Extreme Gear. Though he is not as skilled in Extreme Gear mechanics as Wave the Swallow, his skills on the subject is great enough to impress Wave, which is a considerable feat given her standpoint for good Extreme Gear mechanics.

Tails is also quite brilliant in science and physics. When dealing with matters involving the fabric of time and space or other theoretical situations, Tails can quickly come up with solid theories to how certain events will occur. In line with his mechanical skills, Tails can even construct vessels that can travel between dimensions or withstand trans-dimensional interference. As seen in Sonic Colors, Tails can also read and translate Binary and Hexadecimal language. He also have some knowledge about ancient legends, such as the one about the Babylonians.

Tails seems to know more about the Chaos Emeralds than most characters, being able to create a duplicate that can cause Chaos Control.

Combat skills
Though not as seasoned a brawler as most other characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Tails is a quite accomplished fighter. On his own, Tails has defeated several of Dr. Eggman robots and combat mech and even single-handedly fought and defeated the entire Battle Bird Armada and Witchcart and her minions.

Fighting style
In direct combat, Tails lacks in raw hand-to-hand combat skills and physical superiority. Instead, he focuses more on using his strong points, such as his twin tails, gadgets and intelligence about logic and tactics to aid him in combat and cover his weaknesses.

Normally, Tails focuses primarily on providing support to his allies. In close-quarter battles, Tails relies on his own unique fighting where he uses a blend of basic punches and kicks and foremost strikes with his trademark twin tails. When applying his twin tails in combat, Tails can use them to lash out at his foes by twirling them around or swinging them like a whip, allowing him to deal significantly stronger strikes with greater range than what he normally would be capable of with his legs and arms. When not fighting opponents head-on, Tails focuses on aerial combat, taking it to the air from where he has aerial and mobility advantages over his opponent and can launch aerial attacks at foes or fly at them with greater speed to build up charges.

As shown on several occasions, to complement his chances in more fierce battles, Tails often uses various mechanical devices of his own creation, such as his Magic Hand, Energy Cannon and Big Hand as seen in in Sonic Battle, to improve his battle prowess in close combat. Another example is his Cyclone mech, which he used to destroy G.U.N.'s numerous forces in Sonic Adventure 2.

Techniques and noves
Tails' trademark attack is his Tail Swipe technique, where he twirls his twin tails around to attack his opponents, and has developed several unique attacks from it, such as his Super Tail Swipe, a much faster version of the regular variant, his Rapid Tails Attack, which enabled him to attack with his twin tails by continuously spinning around, and his Tornado Attack, where he spins his tails around like a tornado.

Tails also can perform the Spin Attack, Spin Jump and the Spin Dash, having possibly learned them from Sonic.

From Sonic Heroes and onward, Tails has been shown using several Dummy Ring attacks. The first attack is "Dummy Ring Bomb", which throws multiple Dummy Rings that explode on impact, "Dummy Ring Snipe", which allows him to aim and throw a Dummy Ring, and "Dummy Ring Blitz", which throws a huge amount of Dummy Rings to explode on impact.

Miscellaneous skills
As shown with his various Tornado biplanes, Tails has excellent air piloting skills, and has aerial dogfighting skills to go along with them, as seen during his and Sonic's attack on the Egg Carrier in Sonic Adventure, and in Sonic Unleashed.

While not only being talented with Extreme Gear mechanics, Tails is also, in his own right, a talent Extreme Gear rider, and possibly one of the best in the world, as he has proven himself capable of going up against the Babylon Rogues, who are considered the best Extreme Gear riders in the world. He also has enough skills to ride his Extreme Gear through mid-air with great precisions and control over his movements.

Super Tails
By using the seven Super Emeralds, since his young age prevents him from using the Chaos Emeralds, Tails can enter a Super State, transforming him into Super Tails (later remakes allows him to use the Chaos Emeralds as well). In this state, all of Tails' abilities far surpasses his normal ones and he gains both virtual invulnerability and four Flicky birds that he can attack foes with.

Color Power transformations
By harness different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Tails can use certain Color Powers to transform into a specific form, such as a drill, a laser or even a planet, with the Color Power depending on the type of Wisp. The Color Power forms used by Tails so far include the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill and Indigo Asteroid. However, these transformations require a steady supply of Hyper-go-on to be maintained.

Weaknesses
Tails has a tendency to talk too much as shown in Sonic Adventure 2 when he reveals to Dr. Eggman that the Chaos Emerald Sonic was trying to give him was a fake. He is also said to be afraid of lightning and ghosts, as he can be sometimes heard screaming when ghosts appeared in Hang Castle and Mystic Mansion on Sonic Heroes.

Tails occasionally lacks self-confidence but has been shown to get over this weakness on some occasions.

Tails also says in Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) that he gets dizzy easily; although this apparently does not affect him when he uses a Spin Dash, Tails Attack, Rapid Tails Attack or Spinball Jump. In Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II, Tails can be seen with stars over his head indicating dizziness after performing a Tornado Combo, though this only happens if he crashes into something, signifying that he is dazed due to the impact.

Role in the series
Because Dr. Eggman is a member of The Guild of Thunder, Tails has pledged himself a valuable member in The Troupe of Lightning. Though some of their members are confused at how his tails can be used as helicopter blades when all they'd do is twist on each other, one time Tails tries to explain it, but his 'techno-babble' ends up making them not wanting to know anymore. Because Tails is a genius, he works with the other geniuses of the Troupe like Julius. And despite the fact that he is only a child, the Troupe considers Tails a good member.