Black Rose, Amy's Pirate Counterpart in Sonic Prime

Black Rose is the pirate counterpart of Amy Rose in No Place, one of the shattered worlds of the Netflix series Sonic Prime: a character created for the show, absent from the main games.

Who is Black Rose? Amy's pirate counterpart

Black Rose is the pirate counterpart of Amy Rose in No Place, one of the shattered worlds of the Netflix series Sonic Prime, produced by WildBrain with SEGA. She is an original creation of the show: she appears in no main game in the franchise.

She makes her debut in “It Takes One to No Place”, the seventh episode of season 1, released in full on December 15, 2022. In all, the hedgehog features in twelve episodes, up to the finale “From the Top”.

Physically, she takes after Amy: a pink hedgehog with light green eyes, wearing a dark brown bandana that covers her left ear, a brown vest with gold trim, red-and-white striped shorts and pirate boots. The English-language wiki gives her the official nickname “Captain Rose”, and her Japanese name, Burakku Rōzu, is credited in the series.

👢 Black Rose takes after Amy: it's the bandana, the vest with gold trim and the boots that turn her into a pirate. In your own wardrobe, our Sonic clothing pulls the same trick on your silhouette.

Sonic Prime is a continuity in its own right, separate from the games, the films and Sonic Boom: Black Rose therefore does not belong to the canon of the SEGA games. The series nevertheless carries on a long tradition of parallel universes running through the franchise's comics, games and cartoons.

Aboard the Angel's Voyage with Knuckles the Dread

Black Rose serves aboard the Angel's Voyage, the ship of Knuckles the Dread. She joined the new crew put together by the captain after he lost the previous one, which abandoned him following his failure at the Devil's Lighthouse: she therefore did not live through that founding shipwreck. Serving alongside her are Rouge the Buccaneer, Sails, Catfish and Froggy.

A storyteller at heart, she recounts — with her captain's permission — the tale of the failed first expedition to the Devil's Lighthouse: the shipwreck, then the abandonment of Knuckles the Dread by his former crew, who named Jack captain in his place. She openly bristles, in fact, when Sails cuts her off mid-story.

In “It Takes One to No Place”, after Sonic has repelled the assault of the old crew led by Captain Jack, it is Black Rose herself who proclaims the hedgehog the new captain, immediately echoed by cheers from the whole ship. A peaceful handover: Knuckles the Dread accepts willingly and even hands his hat to Sonic.

The episode closes on the arrival of the Kraken, a submarine from New Yoke City, and the confrontation carries on into “There's No ARRGH in ‘Team’”. The pirate ship eventually goes down — Black Rose tries to keep up a front of optimism during the sinking — and the crew later adopts the Kraken as its new vessel.

📖 Black Rose bristles when Sails cuts her off mid-story about the failed expedition to the Devil's Lighthouse; at home, pirate tales are best told snuggled under our Sonic blankets, with nobody around to interrupt you.

Sword, cannons and pirate tales: her skills

Like most inhabitants of No Place, Black Rose fights with a sword: the English-language wiki explicitly credits her with “Swordsmanship”. Unlike the Amy of the games, she never wields the Piko Piko Hammer — a point that clearly sets the two hedgehogs apart.

Her repertoire does not stop there: she works the ship's cannons, holds her own bare-handed and takes the helm of the Kraken in season 3, when the crew sets out on a new mission.

Personality-wise, she is an enthusiastic storyteller and an eternal optimist, passionate about piracy and adventure tales. One notable detail: among Amy's dimensional counterparts in the series, she is the only one who never went through an antagonist phase before joining the heroes.

Three Roses for a single Amy

Sonic Prime splits Amy into three versions that should not be confused: Rusty Rose, a cyborg in the service of the Chaos Council in New Yoke City and Sonic's enemy at first; Thorn Rose, the initially hostile protector of Boscage Maze; and Black Rose, the pirate who never sided with the villains.

In season 2, on Knuckles the Dread's orders, Black Rose frees Rusty, betrayed by the Chaos Council. The two hedgehogs strike up a friendly rivalry — over who can take down the most Eggforcers — then help Sonic slip into the Chaos Council's mothership, whose members include Mr. Dr. Eggman.

That same arc takes her from New Yoke City to Boscage Maze, where she discovers, astonished, the existence of Thorn Rose, Amy's third counterpart. The pirate then finds herself at the centre of an unprecedented trio, destined to become far more than a mere dimensional coincidence.

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From rank-and-file pirate to “Captain Rose”

In season 3, Black Rose pilots the Kraken during the mission mounted to rescue Rouge the Buccaneer, Sails and Catfish, still stranded in No Place; Rusty and Thorn Rose go with her, and she makes no secret of her disappointment when Knuckles the Dread refuses to join the expedition.

The turning point comes in “The Devil Is in the Tails” (season 3, released on January 11, 2024): struggling against the robot Alpha Grim Amy, she is saved by Knuckles the Dread, who then places his hat on her head and names her captain. Black Rose becomes “Captain Rose”, at the head of the Kraken's crew.

In the final battle, the Kraken is lost: Black Rose and Rusty leap into the void before being caught at the last moment by Thorn Rose and Birdie. It is at that moment that Amy's three counterparts acknowledge one another as “sisters”.

🪂 Once the Kraken is lost, it takes Thorn Rose and Birdie to catch Black Rose and Rusty at the last moment; when you flop down on the sofa, our Sonic cushions break your fall without a hint of suspense.

In “From the Top”, after the fox Nine has restored the shattered worlds, the captain takes part in the convoy escorting Shadow and Sonic to the Green Hill portal. The three Roses say their goodbyes to the blue hedgehog there before going their own way.

Beyond the series: games, voice acting and figure

Black Rose appears in no main game: her only video game outing is Sonic Speed Simulator, the SEGA-licensed Roblox game, where she was offered as a Legendary-rarity playable character during the “Angel's Voyage” event, now expired. She is missing, on the other hand, from Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, unlike Rusty Rose and Thorn Rose.

On the voice side, the original version is handled by Shannon Chan-Kent, who also voices Amy, Rusty Rose and Thorn Rose; in Japan, Taeko Kawata — Amy's usual voice — adopts a deliberately deeper tone. In French, Naïké Fauveau, Amy Rose's long-standing voice, takes on all of her variants in the series.

On the official merchandise side, Jakks Pacific has given her an articulated figure around 13 cm tall (“Sonic Prime 5-inch — Black Rose (No Place)”), released in late 2023 in Wave 3 of the Sonic Prime line, with thirteen points of articulation.

Summary

Frequently asked questions

• Who is Black Rose in Sonic Prime?
  Amy Rose's pirate counterpart in the No Place shatterspace. Created for the Netflix series Sonic Prime, she is part of Knuckles the Dread's crew before becoming a captain herself.
• What is Black Rose's weapon?
  A sword, like most inhabitants of No Place. She also knows how to work the ship's cannons and fight bare-handed — but never a hammer, unlike the Amy of the games.
• Does Black Rose become a captain?
  Yes. In “The Devil Is in the Tails” (season 3), Knuckles the Dread saves her from Alpha Grim Amy, then places his hat on her head: she becomes “Captain Rose”, at the head of the Kraken's crew.
• What sets her apart from Rusty Rose and Thorn Rose?
  They are Amy's three counterparts: Rusty is a cyborg of the Chaos Council in New Yoke City, Thorn Rose protects Boscage Maze. Black Rose is the only one who was never an antagonist; the three end up calling one another “sisters”.
• Does Black Rose appear in the Sonic video games?
  Not in the main games. Her only appearance is in Sonic Speed Simulator on Roblox (a Legendary character from the “Angel's Voyage” event, now expired). She is absent from Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.