Zor: The Melancholy Zeti of the Deadly Six

He carries a rose and sees death everywhere. Zor is the tortured soul of the Deadly Six: the youngest of the clan, a nihilistic poet convinced that all is vain, who welcomes every defeat with an almost morbid pleasure. The emo of the demon gang.

Who is Zor?

Zor is a Zeti of the Deadly Six, who appeared in Sonic Lost World (2013). He is the youngest member of the group—112 years old, which is still young on the nearly immortal scale of the Zeti—and he plays the role of spy.

Two design corrections are necessary, as both errors are common. First, the purple is his hair, not his skin: an abundant purple mane covers the right half of his face, while his body is white on top and black on the bottom. Second, he is not accompanied by a raven: his animal motif is shadow bats, and his signature accessory is a rose (blue in the game).

The Nihilist with a Bouquet

Where Zazz embodies madness and Zeena vanity, Zor embodies melancholy and despair. Convinced that everything is futile "on a cosmic scale," he has given up hope, happiness, and life: constantly depressed, jaded, he only loves bad news and relishes suffering—that of others as well as his own.

This masochism gives the character a unique color in the saga. In the Japanese version, he is even more literary: he speaks in poetic metaphors and never names his enemies—Sonic becomes "the blue one," Eggman "the egg baron." A villain who recites his own depression like verses.

The Coldness of Metal

POP Figure Metal Sonic

Zor's melancholy finds a chilling echo in Metal Sonic. The POP figure, €39.90.

€39.90

View product →

Shadow and the Mech-Owl

Like all Zeti, Zor controls machines through magnetism. But his personal specialty is much darker: umbrakinesis, the mastery of shadows—"forbidden powers that no other Deadly Six dares to use." He summons swarms of red-eyed shadow bats, which he can merge into clones of himself endowed with his abilities: his way of compensating for his small stature.

In combat, he rides a mech-owl (an Owl Mech)—and not a living bird. Despite his nihilism, he can levitate; but the ultimate irony of the character is that when he is defeated, he never saves himself from falling: he calmly welcomes "the cold embrace of death."

Silent Forest and the Rematch

We confront Zor in Silent Forest, and the battle is one of the most atmospheric in the game. In Zone 2, he is perched atop his mech-owl: an infiltration phase opens the duel, where the mech's spotlights, if they spot Sonic, trigger shadow bats that carry him away in one blow. In Zone 4, the game switches to 2D black silhouettes, all colored in shadows for a somber atmosphere perfectly in keeping with the character.

Like several of his comrades, Zor is then rematched at Lava Mountain, alongside Zeena and Zavok, before the clan's final downfall. He is the fifth individual boss, just before Zavok.

His Reappearances

Zor makes his most notable reappearance in the IDW comics, during the Metal Virus saga. Equipped with a mech-owl and carrying the blue Chaos Emerald lodged in his chest, he spreads Zombots around Orchardville. The iconic scene: Silver confronts him while Whisper snatches his Chaos Emerald with a precise shot; deprived of his gem, he is abandoned to the Zombots—and, true to himself, takes a masochistic pleasure in it.

An amusing detail of evolution: his rose, blue in Lost World, becomes black in the Archie comic "Worlds Unite." As for his voice, he is voiced in English by Sam Riegel and in Japanese by Yūki Tai.

Recap

Frequently Asked Questions

• Does Zor have a raven?
  No, that's a common misconception. His animal motif is shadow bats, and he rides a mech-owl in combat. His signature accessory is a rose, which is blue in the game.
• Is Zor's skin purple?
  No: the purple is his hair, which covers half of his face. His body is white on top and black on the bottom.
• What does Zor represent in the Deadly Six?
  Melancholy and nihilism. He is a depressed individual convinced that everything is futile, masochistic, who even welcomes his own defeat with morbid pleasure.
• What is Zor's power?
  Umbrakinesis: he commands shadow bats and merges them into clones of himself. He is the only Deadly Six member to wield these dark powers.
• Where does Zor reappear?
  Mainly in the IDW comics, during the Metal Virus saga, where Silver and Whisper retrieve his blue Chaos Emerald from him in Orchardville.

🔎 To go further: Zavok, the leader, the analysis of the Deadly Six, Dr. Eggman, Zazz, Zeena and Master Zik.

🥀 The whole gang of Sonic villains awaits you in our Sonic figurines.