Tawna is a character from the Crash Bandicoot series. She appeared prominently in only two Crash games: Crash Bandicoot and Crash Boom Bang!. She has cameo appearances in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Crash Twinsanity, and Crash: Mind Over Mutant.
History
Crash Bandicoot
In the first Crash Bandicoot game, she was another creation of Dr. Cortex and Dr. Brio. Crash escapes, falling out a window and waking up on N. Sanity Island. However, he is driven by the motivation to win the heart of the female bandicoot, so he decides to thwart Cortex's plans and rescue her. Throughout the game, Tawna is used as a hostage in order to get Crash to come back - Tawna Tokens can be acquired from opening crates, and once three are collected, they teleport Crash to the treetops. There, Tawna is waiting until Crash gets close, where he is teleported away from her reach. A picture of Tawna is seen in The Great Hall and can be seen only if the player has acquired at least six gems. In the end, she is either reunited with Crash on Cortex's blimp or on a balcony (canonically the former).
Crash Twinsanity
Tawna only makes a cameo appearance as a picture that appears on the sign of Moulin Cortex. In a deleted scene, Dingodile was going to have dinner with Tawna in his cabin as opposed to reading a book.
Crash Boom Bang!
She is an unlockable playable character in this game.
Warped, The Wrath of Cortex, and Mind Over Mutant
There is a picture of Tawna in Crash's house, meaning he may still have feelings for her.
Manga
Tawna is mentioned several times and makes cameos in Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken. When Crash wakes up to see where Tawna is, he finds a note saying that she's gone off with Pinstripe. She is seen when Crash is daydreaming about being irresistible and saving the world. When Crash is crying about Tawna, he mistakes Coco (who visits) for Tawna. Her design is different in the manga, looking more like anime female then her bandicoot design.
Trivia
- Tawna is also referred as "Tawna Bandicoot" on fan-sites, but this full name has never been officially used.
- According to Naughty Dog, Tawna's design was based off celebrity Pamela Anderson, for her blonde hair and breast size.
- Tawna is shorter in Crash Boom Bang!.
- After Crash Bandicoot, Naughty Dog removed her from the series because they were not happy with her forced redesign, as she did not closely resemble their original intentions. Her removal was also due to complaints from Universal Interactive about her being too inappropriate for a family game.
- Ironically, her later redesign in Crash Boom Bang! is reminiscent of the original idea.
- As a result of Tawna's being cut out, Coco was added to the series to replace her.
- It was explained on Naughty Dog's old website that her general disappearance in the series was due to her leaving Crash for Pinstripe Potoroo not long after the events of the first game, although it isn't known if this was written as a joke. The manga adaptation of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back also suggests this to be the case. Interestingly, the Japanese ending of Crash Bash elaborates further and strongly implies that Tawna ended up coming back to him.
- She is the first female character to appear in the series.
- Tawna was originally named Karmen.
- Tawna's skirt was originally green before they changed it to a dark blue.
- Tawna wears sneakers identical to that of Crash's. For some reason, she was wearing high heels in her concept art, yet the change was never explained.
- She has the same body structure as Isabella.
- She never had any dialog at all since her first appearance, making her one of the first silent allies in the series and the only female overall.
- Tawna is one of the five playable female characters. The other four are Coco, Yaya, Nina, and Pasadena.
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