Tawna Bandicoot

"Prepare the female bandicoot!"

- Doctor Neo Cortex

Tawna is a character from the Crash Bandicoot series. She appeared prominently in four Crash games: Crash Bandicoot, Crash Boom Bang!, the N. Sane Trilogy remaster of the first game, and Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled. She has cameo appearances in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Twinsanity.

Crash Bandicoot
In the first Crash Bandicoot game, after being captured, she became another creation of Dr. Neo Cortex and Dr. Nitrus 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 she is whisked away from his 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 Bandicoot 2: Cortex no Gyakushuu!


It is stated in the Japanese manual that Crash and Tawna broke up leading to her dating Pinstripe. This is meant to line up with the manga which was released at the same time.

The Wrath of Cortex
There is a picture of Tawna in Crash's house on the fireplace, meaning that he may still have feelings for her.

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 just reading a book.

Crash Boom Bang!
She is an unlockable playable character in this game.

Mind Over Mutant
There is a poster of Tawna inside Crash's house on Wumpa Island.

Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
Tawna reappeared in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. The most notable change in the game is that Tawna is more competent, capable of beating down at least one random lab assistant before being outnumbered by four of them, and, in the bonus levels, is shown to constantly be able to escape Cortex's clutches before being recaptured. Her character is more defined than it was in the original game.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled
Tawna will appear in Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled as an unlockable racer. She will be available to unlock in the Nitro Tour Grand Prix along with Isabella, Megumi, Ami and Liz.

Stats
Speed: 4/7

Acceleration: 7/7

Handling: 3/7

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, finding Crash to be too immature for her. 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 an anime female than her Bandicoot design.

Appearance
Tawna is significantly taller than Crash, her blonde hair and breast size being based off of celebrity Pamela Anderson. She has orange fur, cream skin and a small, blonde tail. Her clothing consists of a red, sleeveless shirt, blue shorts, red socks and sneakers identical to Crash's. In Crash Boom Bang, her shirt was changed to a pink top.

In the N. Sane Trilogy, Tawna's shirt now has a white outline of Crash's mug, her skirt has become denim shorts and her socks are white. Her design is also altered a bit, having a smaller chest and hip size, and a more proportionate body shape.

Gallery
See: Tawna/Gallery

Trivia

 * 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 and was thought to be a sexual themed character for mature audiences. According to character designer Charles Zembillas, Sony of Japan also pushed for a more family-friendly ally for Crash during the second game, leading to Coco being created.
 * However, partly due to modern times allowing slight mature content to be shown to children, Tawna finally reappears in the N. Sane Trilogy, though she was given a slightly more family-friendly redesign. This could mean she might appear more games in the future.
 * The Japanese ending of Crash Bash has Crash mistake a hologram created by Coco to be be Tawna.
 * 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. Her muzzle also had no skin tan, her entire face being orange furred. However, some points in the final game, such as The Great Hall, display her in her original color scheme.
 * Tawna wears sneakers identical to that of Crash's. She was originally wearing high heels in her concept art, but the change was never explained.
 * She has the same body structure, hair and in the US, eye color as Isabella.
 * She never had any dialog at all since her first appearance (though has game-play grunts in Crash Boom Bang and can be heard gasping in the opening cutscene of the N. Sane Trilogy), making her one of the first silent allies in the series and the only female overall. She will have dialogue for the first time in Nitro Fueled.
 * Tawna is 1 of 9 playable female characters within the Crash series: the other 8 being Yaya Panda, Coco Bandicoot, Pasadena O'Possum, Nina Cortex, Isabella, Megumi, Ami and Liz
 * In "Skylanders Academy", she was mentioned in the episode called The Skylands Are Falling! when Crash said that he was going to find her and save the world from Dr. Cortex.
 * It's possible this was meant to foreshadow her reappearance in the N. Sane Trilogy.
 * The beta version of Crash Bandicoot had a title screen depicting Tawna being raised into the Cortex Vortex by doctors Cortex and N. Brio, showing how urgently she needed to be saved.