| Fang The Sniper | |
|---|---|
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Some attributes
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| First | Racer |
| Second | Male |
| Third | good guy |
Other attributes
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Fang the Sniper (ファング・ザ・スナイパー Fangu za Sunaipā), also known as Nack the Weasel, is a fictional character in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. He is a purple anthropomorphic weasel that first appeared in the Game Gear video game Sonic Triple Trouble (alternatively known as Sonic & Tails 2 in Japan) as a treasure hunter who sought the Chaos Emeralds. During his free time, he is known to frequent visit other titles including Sugar Rush.
Physical Appearance[]
Fang is a purple and white weasel who acts as a determined treasure hunter. According to the Japanese manual of Sonic & Tails, it is said that Fang actually resides in the mysterious Special Stage, which is described as another dimension. He wears a big brown stetson hat, brown boots with white gaiters, and brown gloves with metal plates on them. The reason that he is known as "Fang" is because one of his canines is much larger than the other, another trademark of his. He has a long, thick, purple tail that he uses to lay back on, for bouncing on and attacking his foes.
Originally, his signature weapon was going to be a realistic gun, but after Sega axed the idea, he eventually used a cork-firing popgun in Sonic the Fighters. He also has his own personal airbike called the Marvelous Queen, that he uses to fly around in and use against Sonic.
Unlike most other characters, Fang has four fingers instead of five, even in Japanese promotional artwork. The reason for this is not known, although the most common theory is that this is a reference to Yubitsume, a Japanese ritual to amputate parts of one's own finger that is practiced by members of the Yakuza, a prominent Japanese criminal organization.
Alternatively, his varying number of fingers may simply be a result of his being from another dimension. He is the only inhabitant of the "Special Stage" that has been seen and his four fingers could be representative of all other beings from the Special Stage.
Personality[]
While in the games Fang is a mischievous treasure hunter who tries hard to be sneaky and cunning, although his overconfidence and overall naiveté proves to be his biggest flaw. In the English Sonic Triple Trouble manual, he is said to desire the Chaos Emeralds not because he knows of their true power, but because he believes they will fetch a hefty price on the market. Fang appears to be a coward, as he often runs away when his plans go wrong or when he's frightened.
While Fang had no dialogue, he showed himself to be a comedic and egotistical bad-guy who sews his own defeat in Sonic Triple Trouble. This is shown by his trap backfiring and lighting his tail on fire in his first encounter and getting shot by his own heat-seeking missile while gloating in his fourth battle against Sonic. Fang was fairly clumsy, often tripping when running away after a defeat. He may not be an entirely bad guy - in his final major appearance, Sonic the Fighters, he competed cooperatively to fight the larger threat, the Death Egg II. However, his poster in Sonic Generations suggests that he is a loose criminal wanted for theft and extortion, further establishing his greed. Like all the Video game villains, he is not truly evil outside his game, but still has his greed, clumsiness and his cowardice personality, which is part of his program and he has some of his comic book counterpart's personality when outside of his game, he's somewhat clever and wily but often seems plagued with bad luck. Despite his line of work, it especially hurts his pride when things don't go his way; this often leads to him losing his temper or becoming indignant. Along this line, he tends to hold grudges for those he feels have wronged him, though his greed can still overcome this in the right situation (and vice-versa). However he showed to forgive those who are close to him. Nack is deeply attached to the Marvelous Queen, as seem when he got offended when Citrusella called it "Sourless cart" and rubbed it and said "She didn't mean to insult you!" and seems more concerned for its safety than his own as seen when he was hit by a combo of Sweet Seekers and two A-la mode by Strawbetty, while he was falling, his first instinct was to hug the bike and shout "NO! Not like this! NOT LIKE THIS!".
Realationships[]
Betsy
Betsy and Fang are best friends, they seem to get along very well, she is often the one who always greets him, she often hugs the antropomorphic weasel, which make him blush, he is also a loyal friend to her, as he does his best to protect her from the bullies of her game. Betsy deeply cares about the weasel and is often the most who give him comfort or try to cheer him up, whenever he gets depressed
Claire Gummy-Goober
Fang is good friends with Claire, he sometimes asks her for advices in a time of crisis, he is also a loyal friend, he always try to do his best, like when he attempted to drive Strawbetty off, by telling her that he will give her ten seconds for her to run away before started shooting at her. Like Betsy, Claire also showed to care about the weasel and is often the one who give him comfort or try to cheer him up.
Swizzle "The Swizz" Malarkey
Fang and Swizz are best friends, he views the racer as a brother figure, he often calls the weasel of "Dude", and always share a fist-bump to greet each other.
Sticky Wipplesnit
Fang is also best friends with Sticky, who views her as a sister figure, he is always the one who most helps her in her chores, and like to do friendly "unnoficial" races with her.
Citrusella Flugpucker
Fang is best friends with Citrusella, who views her as a sister figure, he always ask her for some advices (Besides Claire) and he always hang out with her, he also helps her with the things that she likes to do at home, such as watering flowers since she helped him become a racer in Sugar Rush. Citrusella is also the only character who calls Fang by his alias "Nack". However, when Citrusella activated an amnesia bomb in order to erase all of the memories of the citizens, hers were erased as well and seeing Fang wearing a gas mask in order to not have his memories erased, she accuses him for activate the bomb and chases him off, she later caught him and drag him to her home and beated him up and tied him to a pie. Since that day, Fang wants to get revenge against Citrusella. However after some reasoning with Fang and the pie of forgiveness,they became friends again.
Strawbetty Muttonfudge Of all Sugar Rush characters with a bully personality, Strawbetty is the most who despised Fang, she oftens tease him, because of the fact that he is a scrapped character of the Sonic the Hedgehog (Series) and gameless. However, their hatred for each other grew even more during the Random Roster Race, where she decided to make a talk to her fans in the microphone, which was actually part of her plan, she creates a fake accusation by telling her fans that Fang is a bully who always mistreated her, which all the citizens believed and charged in anger at the purple weasel, enraged and wanting revenge against Strawbetty, he attempted to shot her, even though a Sugar Rush Citizen pushed him, he neverthenless shot the cork that was meant to Strawbetty, but Brittle intervened by getting in the way and took the cork instead, she pretends that she was hited by Fang's cork, Fang ran away crying. Ever since that day, Fang starts to have a grudge against Strawbetty, but during The Living Dead Raceaway characters invasion in Sugar Rush, he thought of an opportunity to get revenge on her for making the false accusation on all those weeks ago, he sneaks up behind her and points his popgun at the spoiled racer and in his thoughts he says "I owe you for that humiliation!", when Strawbetty starts to run in panic towards him, she notices Fang pointing his popgun at her, while running she tells the weasel that she has no time for him, He uses his special ability The Great Popgun, which shots a big cork at her face which eventually made her eyes to swell up and temporary blinding her, Fang then celebrates that he finally got his revenge on her. However, when her fans were crazy, Fang was at GCS sleeping, until a fan disguised as Claire asked him to help save her, at first he refuse due to his grudge against her, but he changed his mind, when he offered the weasel 20 dollars, he then drives off on Marvelous Queen, and rushes to Sugar Rush, after he saved Strawbetty from her fans and from LDR racers, she apologizes for the way she treated him, Fang thought for a minute and saw through her eyes, seeing that she was telling the truth, he decided to forgive her and offered her a shake on it while saying "Friends?", which she accepted, since that day, SB and Fang became good friends.
Abilities[]
Fang seems to be generally lacking in abilities, he often uses his wits and gadgets instead of brawn. He's fairly skilled at piloting his airbike, the Marvelous Queen or MQ for short, and the various gadgets attached to it, such as springs, an irate missile and a drill.
Fang's main weapon is his popgun, a popgun that fires corks, as opposed to conventional bullets. His title, Sniper, suggests that he's able to use his popgun with great accuracy.
Despite being overall lacking in any real abilities, Fang's tail is rather strong and dexterous. Fang is often seen laying back on it while relaxing, Fang can also use his tail as a spring to reach great heights, in Sonic the Fighters, Fang uses his tail as part of a powerful attack as well as a third leg of sorts when kicking opponents with both of his legs.
Quotes[]
- The name's Fang The Sniper, but some people call me Nack The Weasel.
- (To Sticky) Well at least you're a famous character and not a scrapped like me *Crying*
- Bull's eye!
- They don't call me "Sniper" for nothing.
Gallery[]
Artwork[]
Sprites[]
Screenshots[]
Trivia[]
- Fang the Sniper is one of the few characters to have a title that does not refer to his species. The Sniper references his penchant for using guns.
- In Shenmue Fang appears as a collectible toy.
One of magazine screenshots from earlier development of Sonic Triple Trouble.
- In Sonic Generations, a wanted poster of him can be seen in City Escape.
- Fang is the most popular of all scrapped characters, many fans wish for his return.
- During development of his debut title, Fang had what appeared to be a revolver or silver magnum as a weapon, but Sega eventually scrapped the idea due to maturity issues. The infamous screenshot featured Fang pulling out his gun to hold up or shoot Sonic, but this was entirely removed from the final game. In Sonic the Fighters, his signature weapon is instead a popgun.
- The character was originally conceived as "Fang the Sniper", the name by which he was known in the Japanese games, but this was briefly changed in the English releases to "Nack the Weasel". This name was used in his debut game, Sonic Triple Trouble, and the comic books he also appears in, but all games released after Sonic Triple Trouble have called him "Fang", regardless of region.
- In a possible Roleplay plot, Fang claims Chris Redfield knows nothing about guns.
- In the roleplay, Fang is the only character, who calls Vanellope only by her title "President".
- Although he doesn't appear in TDSR , he is sometimes mentioned by Annabetty..
- In character select of Sonic The Fighters, Fang's gloves are miscolored white instead of brown in his icon.
- Originally Fang was supposed to be in Sonic X-treme as a boss. In several magazine screenshots Fang is shown to be unusually giant, similarly to Metal Sonic in the game. According to the developers, the reason for this was the fact, that the players would have easier to get hit precision to the boss characters. Because the game was canceled, Fang never made an appearance in the game.
- Fang was left out of Sonic Tweet for unknown reasons.
- In Sonic Universe Issue 24, Nack is introduced at the beginning as "Nack the Weasel: fanged sniper" referencing his Japanese name. Also, in Issues 187-188, Nack is referred to as a "fanged sniper".
- In the RPs Fang tends to tell jokes that breaks the fourth wall.
- Aside from cameos Fang just disappeared after the classic era despite being a reoccurring character.
Theme Songs[]
