Bunnie Rabbot

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Bunnie Rabbot is a cyborg (half robot), female, anthropomorphic rabbit with a thick Southern accent, who featured prominently in the Sonic animated series, Sonic the Hedgehog and the Archie comic book based on it. Bunnie is one of the "Freedom Fighters" combating Dr. Robotnik. Bunnie is often the fearless or reckless one, honest to herself and to others, and is very loyal, especially to her friend Sally Acorn.

In the cartoon show she was voiced by Christine Cavanaugh.

[edit] Appearance

Bunnie is a golden anthropomorphic rabbit with green eyes. She is partially roboticized: both legs, her left arm, and shoulder; she also wears a purple leotard, so it is hard to tell if any part of her torso has been roboticized as well. In the Archie comics, her pelvis was also roboticized. In the cartoon and early in the comic, her parts were primitive, as was Dr. Robotnik's technology; a later upgrade in the comics gave a more 'natural' shape.

Bunnie has green eyes, and for most of the show they were solid green without pupils; partway through the second season of the cartoon, the artists changed this and drew her (and several other characters including Sally Acorn) with pupils. Her normal outfit consists of the aforementioned leotard (which is pink in the Archie comics version), sometimes augmented by a jacket of some type after her upgrade. She can also sometimes be seen carrying a pair of revolvers and wearing a cowboy hat in some of the later comics (as shown above), but has never been seen using the pistols to date. She was also seen wearing an outfit reminiscent of Daisy Duke from the Dukes of Hazzard in issues #94 and #95 when attending classes at Knothole High School.

[edit] History

[edit] SatAM

Bunnie Rabbot, in her pre-upgrade or "SatAM" design

Bunnie Rabbot was a member of the Knothole Freedom Fighters. Little is revealed about her past except that she has been friends with the other Freedom Fighters since childhood. The series doesn't detail how or when Bunnie became partially Roboticized. However, a Sonic the Hedgehog book was written entirely about Bunnie's Roboticizing. Robotnik captures her and brings her into his fortress. By the time Sonic and co. get there she is already being roboticized, so when sonic stops the machine, she is partially a robot. She's only twice seen in her un-roboticized form during the series; in the episode 'Sonic Conversion' a de-roboticizer is tested on her and is successful, although the effects are only temporary and she returns to her previous form later in the same episode, and the two-part episode 'Blast to the Past' showed Bunnie in her childhood form prior to being roboticized. Her robotic parts usually work flawlessly for the most part, although in the episode 'Sonic Past Cool', the telescoping ability of her legs (referred to as 'leg ladders' and 'ladder legs' during the episode) cause her problems several times, and in the episode 'Sonic and Sally', her robotic arm malfunctions at one point in the episode; when Antoine D'Coolette tries to help her up, he accidentally pulls her robotic arm off at the shoulder in the process (some airings of this episode have this scene edited out). She was known for her tremendous strength as well as her Southern drawl, as well as being a friend and confidante to her fellow Freedom Fighters.

[edit] Archie

Bunnie first appeared in the story "Rabbot Deployment" in issue #3 of the original Archie comic series of Sonic the Hedgehog. Although she had been put into one of Dr. Robotnik's roboticization machines, Sonic the Hedgehog and company pulled her out half way through the process: one arm, everything from the hips down, and certain internal organs were replaced with cybernetics. It was after that she joined the "Freedom Fighters." Although not part of the original team, she has not left since the first year.

In "Fortified" (Sonic #26), Bunnie and the others were on the run from Robotnik when they came upon an ancient, abandoned log fortress. Deciding to make their last stand there and with Sonic out of action due to a leg injury, Bunnie takes it on herself to defend her friends, using scrap metal found around the fort to fashion an add-hoc suit of armor, dispatching several SWATbots and tricking Robotnik's Bot-Bus into careening out of control down a steep hill.

In "Saturday Night's Alright For A Fight!" (Sonic #28), Bunnie and the rest of the Freedom Fighters were forced to defend themselves when Sonic, having been brainwashed by Robotnik into thinking they were his enemies when Sonic suffered amnesia in the previous issue, launched a full-out assault on Knothole. Bunnie almost succeeded in subduing Sonic using her 'Tight Leg Crush', but Sonic ultimately managed to fight his way free and was able knock her and almost all the other Freedom Fighters unconscious until he too was finally knocked out by a sneak attack from one of Sally's trainees.

In "Bunnie's Nightmare" (Sonic #37), Robotnik capitalized on her fears of becoming fully roboticized; using a hologram device, she convinced herself and others that a microdot in her roboticized body had activated, and was slowly finishing the job. It turned out to be a bad dream (hence the story's title).

Bunnie engaging a roboticized Sonic in combat. This was the second time Bunnie has had to fight against Sonic, and the only time she's shown being able to fly prior to her upgrade.

In "Rage Against the Machine" (Sonic #39), Sonic proposed that he let himself get roboticized while wearing a neural overload device, so he would retain his free will but gain the powers of roboticization. Bunnie strongly disagreed with the plan, more so than the other Freedom Fighters. However, before he can enact it, Nack the Weasel knocks him out, and Robotnik roboticizes him without the neural overload device to aid him. Bunnie must take her fully roboticized, better-seasoned friend on one-on-one, with some enhancements to her cybernetics provided by Rotor including rocket-powered flight as well as a Mega Man-esque blaster and a miniature shield generator in her left arm; this story was resolved in the Sonic 'Mecha Madness' special. Bunnie also served as the bailiff during Sonic's ensuing court-martial in Sonic #40, wherein her robotic arm was fitted with a buzzsaw-like 'Hedgehog Hunter' missile designed to seek out the magic aura surrounding Sonic after he collected his one billionth power ring, though she thankfully didn't need to use it.

In "Enemy Mine" (Sonic #95), Bunnie co-starred with Sonic, but the story did not suit her strengths, being a story about deception and mystery. In it, Bunnie accompanies Sonic when he sneaks out at night to Robotropolis to try to save the Overlanders Robotnik had tricked into going there, only to find them living comfortably in the city, much to Sonic and Bunnie's confusion. She and Sonic then come upon a maddened Warlord Kodos fighting Uma Arachnis in the great forest, Sonic forcing Bunnie to return to Knothole fearing she might get hurt when the two get caught up in the feud.

In "Bat Fight!" (Sonic #116), she had her own story: an eight-page 'duel' versus Rouge the Bat. Although the fight started when Rouge mistook Bunnie for a swat-bot when Bunnie came to rescue her after Rouge had been captured, the duel stayed personal as the two duked it out in the ruins of Old Megopolis (an abandoned, post-apocalyptic version of New York City) until Sonic stepped in and broke it up.

In "Dust Bunnie" (Sonic #119), Bunnie had a solo adventure wherein she was lured to Sandblast City via a fake distress signal and imprisoned by its' inhabitants whom were seeking revenge on Sonic after his visit five years prior. They unleashed a group of murderous Robians (fully roboticized Mobians) on her thinking they'd kill her, but she was able to fight them off and break free of her cell and escape, leaving the city's inhabitants to face the Robians' wrath a second time.

In part 4 of the "Home" storyline (Sonic #133), Bunnie and the other Freedom Fighters returned to Old Megopolis to back up Sonic in preventing Robotnik from launching nuclear missiles targeted at Station Square and Knothole from his aircraft carrier anchored in the harbor. After saving a wounded Sonic from Mecha, she proceeded to singlehandedly destroy Robotnik's carrier, punching so many holes in the ship that it sunk and exploded, taking the nuclear threat along with it.

In "Sonic's Angels" (Sonic #152), Bunnie and several of the other female Freedom Fighters accompanied Sonic on a mission to investigate and neutralize a swarm of nanites unleashed by A.D.A.M. that were overrunning everything in their path. During the investigation, Bunnie was captured by the nanites, which intended to absorb her into the 'contiguity', the nanites' collective consciousness. She was saved when Sonic arrived and convinced the nanites that she couldn't be absorbed since she's a fusion of both organic and cybernetic material and therefore incompatible with the contiguity, thus prompting the nanites to release Bunnie unharmed. Bunnie would later have another encounter with these nanites when her robotic parts, as well as Sonic's father Jules, and NICOLE were unknowingly infiltrated by them in Sonic #159 as part of a future scheme, which manifested itself in issue #168 when A.D.A.M. used the nanites to take control of her limbs and smash a computer monitor NICOLE was occupying at the time and throw Tails outside, where Jules was waiting to take him to the 'city' the nanites had constructed during their initial rampage. She was finally stopped when Rotor took her cybernetic limbs offline, but not before the damage had been done.

In "Spin City", the free sample comic Archie gives away to promote the Sonic comic, Sonic and Bunnie infiltrate a 'seedy dive'. The comic is an obvious parody of Sin City, with Milleresque black-and-white artwork and a hard-boiled voiceover provided by Sonic. It can be found in Sonic Super Special #15.

Bunnie flying through the skies of Old Megapolis after her upgrade in Archie Comics

In the Sonic Special comic "Girls Rule," Bunnie was upgraded from her SatAM design with a more modern-looking, stronger set of cybernetics, including abilities such as flight (though she has been shown being capable of flight with her previous parts as early as the aforementioned issue #39, where she briefly engaged a roboticized Sonic in mid-air melee combat). This upgrade was necessary as her immune system finally caught up with Robotnik's technology, and attempted to reject her robotic parts; the 'upgrade' made her body symbiotic with the cybernetics, so now nothing short of an extreme plot device can remove it. This was also the point where she fully accepted her half-robotic nature; before then, she dreamed of becoming 'normal' again, and continuing with her original life's dream to be a hairdresser. This upgrade also resulted in Bunnie and Jules being the only members of the Mobian population unaffected by the worldwide de-roboticization by Ceneca 9009, since neither of them could survive in a 100% organic form.

In the Archie Comics, she was until issue #125 deeply in love with Antoine D'Coolette. Their breakup was later revealed to be due to Antoine D'Coolette being replaced with an impostor who did not love Bunnie, but Bunnie is unaware of this, and believes that her Antoine no longer loves her. This has resulted in her becoming more reckless and emotional, both in combat and in love (even going as far as kissing Sonic in an attempt to make Antoine jealous, and hopefully renew his interest in their relationship, as explained in issues #156 and #168), and has given her severe bouts of depression. In issue #156, Sonic figures out the swap and brings the real Antoine back, leading to a happy reunion, as Bunnie had never truly given up her feelings for him. She also accompanied Antoine in issue #168 when he bid farewell to his father, General Armand D'Coolette, whom was dying from Patch's poisoning. The General voiced his approval of Bunnie's relationship with his son, and beseeched them to cherish their relationship.

[edit] Alternate Versions

[edit] Rabbot-Zilla

In Sonic Super Special #12, Sonic is sent to an alternate dimension where all his friends are now gargantuan monsters running a rampage. In that dimension, Dr. Julius Kintobor was experimenting with the Master Emerald on a distant island, when it cracked in two, releasing radiation that mutated the forest creatures to Godzilla proportions. He then developed the robo-virus to paralyze them, but by the time he roboticized Bunnie, the monsters were developing an immunity, resulting in a cyborg-lizard-rabbit monster, dubbed "Rabbot-Zilla".

[edit] Bunni

In Sonic #103, there is a version of Bunnie with flaming hair and enormous feet who can attack with an energy blaster on her left glove, named Bunni. In her alternate universe, the freedom fighters lost the war against Robotnik, so the last four took separate ships to form colonies on other planets. Over the generations, the new environments caused their clans to evolve. Bunni is the original Bunnie Rabbot's descendant. She joins up with descendants of the other freedom fighters to challenge Robolactus, a giant planet-eating descendant of Robotnik, ala Galactus.

[edit] Anti-Bunnie

See main article: Anti-Freedom Fighters for details.

[edit] Possible Futures

Like many other characters, Bunnie is shown to have futuristic counterparts. The only known one of these comes from the same future as NICOLE, and is shown to have been De-Roboticized.

[edit] SatAM to Archie

Though subtle changes occurred throughout the cast between their comic and cartoon versions, Bunnie Rabbot was the most altered; she was no longer a child of the Palace Of Acorns, and was not an original freedom fighter, appearing in the comic starting with issue #3 of the main series—all the other characters debuted in the original mini-series' first issue—whereas the cartoon version had Bunnie present right from the start.

Furthermore, Archie's version of Bunnie has been completely roboticized from her waist down, whereas the SatAM version only showed her legs and left arm as being roboticized (SatAM's Bunnie wore a purple suit that covered her lower body, so it was possible that her pelvis was roboticized as well, but it didn't show). As a result of this, Bunnie is sterile, which causes further problems in their Guardians of the Galaxy spoof where "Bunni" was supposedly a descendant of her.

Her colour also changed from mustard to bright yellow. She also has actual hair, as opposed to just fur, on her head.

[edit] Games

Like the other SatAM and Archie characters, Bunnie does not appear in any of the games as a regular character, but she makes a cameo appearance in the Trapped Alive bonus stage of Sonic Spinball.

Bunnie was intended to be a playable character in the planned Sega Genesis game Sonic Mars, which would incorporate characters and elements from SatAM. However, when the project was changed to Sonic Xtreme (which was later cancelled), Bunnie, along with the other SatAM elements, was dropped from the game. [1]

[edit] Stats

• First Appearance: Sonic The Hedgehog #3
• Real Name: Bunnie Rabbit (changed to "Rabbot" in Robotnik's Revenge)
• Skills: Hairdressing; martial arts.
• Powers: Enhanced cybernetic strength; armor and toughness; stretching limbs; flight (briefly in Sonic #39, regularly after Sonic Special 'Girls Rule').

[edit] External links

• Sonic Spin City, a free comic given away by Archie Comics to promote the Sonic the Hedgehog comic, in which Bunnie plays a pivotal role.