Tawna Bandicoot

"This time, no one will catch me."

- Tawna Bandicoot

Tawna Bandicoot (known in Japan as タウナ・バンディクー Tauna Bandikū; commonly shortened to just Tawna) is a character from the Crash Bandicoot series. She is Crash Bandicoot's girlfriend who has appeared prominently in four Crash games: Crash Bandicoot, Crash Boom Bang!, the N. Sane Trilogy remake 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. Determined to save his girlfriend, he decides to thwart Cortex's plans and rescue her. Tawna is used as bait throughout the game, with Tawna Tokens appearing throughout the various levels. Upon collecting three tokens, Crash is teleported to a bonus level with Tawna waiting at the end, before she is swept away from him again.

Once Crash has collected enough gems, he can make his way through The Great Hall and be reunited with her on the balcony that awaits. The two then fly away on a large bird. After Crash defeats Cortex, he is also reunited with Tawna upon the blimp. The couple take the airship and fly into the sunset.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex no Gyakushuu!
In the Japanese manual for Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, it is stated that Crash and Tawna broke up leading to her dating Pinstripe, explaining her absence in the game. This is meant to line up with the manga (which was released at the same time). This tidbit is completely absent in any other version of the game, and is mostly exclusive to the Japanese lore of the game outside of a mention in the Official Strategy Guide for Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Boom Bang. Tawna was effectively replaced as the female lead by Coco Bandicoot.

Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken
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 an anime-style woman than her bandicoot design.

Crash Bandicoot: Warped and Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
A picture of Tawna can be spotted in the Bandicoot House on the fireplace, meaning that she and Crash are still staying on good terms with each other.

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 the game, making her first proper appearance in a Crash game since Crash Bandicoot and her first appearance as a playable character.

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

Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
Tawna reappears in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. She is shown as more competent, beating down a lab assistant before being captured in Cortex's castle. She also manages to briefly escape Cortex before being captured again at the end of the Tawna bonus levels.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Tawna makes an appearance in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled as a Bronze Tier reward in the game's first Grand Prix, Nitro Tour which launched on July 3rd, 2019. She appears alongside Isabella, Megumi, Ami and Liz to form the Nitro Squad. CTR Nitro Fueled is the first game to feature Tawna with a voice, revealing her to be a tough, no-nonsense woman determined to win no matter the cost, or the enemy. Completing the Grand Prix also grants her an alternate motorsport-themed costume, which seems to grant her energized power.

If she was not obtained during the Nitro Tour Grand Prix, she can be purchased at the Pit Stop alongside her Motorsport outfit as of the Spooky Grand Prix update.

Personality
Given her limited appearances, her personality is yet to be deeply explored, but small bits of her personality are known.

In her original appearance in Crash Bandicoot, she seems little more than a damsel in distress, being easily held captive by Cortex and waiting for Crash to save her. Even then, she is shown to be a little more than that, as Cortex considered her to be a replacement as his general after Crash's escape.

In the Crash Bandicoot production bible, her intended personality is described in more detail than what was able to be shown in game. She's described as "the perfect balance between beauty and brains", and is said to have attempted to reason with N. Brio, which could possibly be a reason for his heel-face turn in Cortex Strikes Back. She's also described as inspiring revolution amongst Cortex's minions, which could be a reason for Cortex's lack of henchmen in Cortex Strikes Back (except for N. Gin, who wasn't present in Crash Bandicoot).

In Nitro-Fueled, Tawna is a headstrong, confident bandicoot, willing to do whatever it takes to claim her trophy. She's very self-assured, throwing aside her past as a damsel in distress to do what she really wants. This was also shown to a small extent in the N. Sane Trilogy remake of Crash Bandicoot, where she attempts to fight off Lab Assistants attempting to detain her before being outnumbered, and constantly escapes to meet Crash for the Tawna Bonus Stages before being re-captured by Cortex.

Appearance
Tawna is significantly taller than Crash, her blonde hair and breast size being based off of celebrity Pamela Anderson. She has orange fur, a peach muzzle, green eyes and a small, blonde tail. Her clothing consists of a rose red sleeveless shirt, blue shorts, red socks and brown sneakers. She also has dull rose eyeshadow, long eyelashes and red lipstick.

In Crash Boom Bang, her shirt was changed to a pink crop top. Her shorts were also made shorter, and her shoes were changed from brown to bright red with white socks. Her eyeshadow was changed to a pale lavender, her ears were made longer, and her muzzle was changed to cream.

In the N. Sane Trilogy and Nitro-Fueled, Tawna's design was reverted to her original design, but with a few changes. Her shirt is now magenta and features white trim and a white outline of Crash's mug, her shorts have become denim with a dark brown belt, and her shoes are now red with white socks. Her body shape is also altered a bit, having a smaller chest and hip size, and being more proportionate. Her eyeshadow was made a similar shade of magenta to her shirt, and her lipstick was changed to pink.

Crash Bandicoot
Tawna and Crash grew very close while imprisoned in Cortex Castle, and entered a romantic relationship together prior to the events of the first game. They clearly cared deeply for one another, with Tawna repeatedly escaping the castle to meet Crash for the Tawna Bonus Rounds before being re-captured by Cortex. She was noticeably absent after the first game, which went unexplained in-universe, though Crash and Tawna still seem to be on good terms as Crash keeps a picture of her above the fireplace, as seen in Warped.

Pinstripe Potoroo
In the Japanese canon, Tawna leaves Crash for Pinstripe after the first game, as shown in the Japanese Cortex Strikes Back manual and ''Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken''. This was never addressed or even implied by Naughty Dog in the western canon. They have never been shown interacting in any games. The only instance of Tawna showing interest in Pinstripe in-game is in the Japanese-developed game Crash Boom Bang!, in which her bio at the character select screen states that she is "crazy about Pinstripe".

Doctor Nitrus Brio
Though they have never been shown interacting in-game, the Crash Bandicoot Production Bible mentions that Tawna attempted to reason with N. Brio whilst imprisoned in Cortex Castle. Despite this being a small, mostly ignored detail, it's possible that this interaction may have led to N. Brio betraying Cortex in Cortex Strikes Back, meaning that the two of them may be on decent terms.

Nitro Squad (Ami, Megumi, Liz and Isabella)
In Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, Tawna forms a racing team known as the "Nitro Squad" with former trophy girls Ami, Megumi, Liz and Isabella. They were all introduced as playable together in the Nitro Tour Grand Prix, and are often seen racing together in promotional images, implying friendship and camaraderie amongst the group.

Appearances

 * Crash Bandicoot
 * Dansu! De Jump! Na Daibouken (Cameo)
 * Crash Bandicoot: Warped (Cameo)
 * Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (Cameo)
 * Crash Twinsanity (Cameo)
 * Crash Boom Bang!
 * Crash: Mind Over Mutant (Cameo)
 * Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
 * Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
 * Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

Gallery
See: Tawna/Gallery

Trivia

 * She is often referred to by players as "Tawna Bandicoot", but this full name has never been officially used prior to the character selection menu in Nitro-Fueled, where she is labeled as "Tawna Bandicoot" while in her default attire.
 * If the deleted scene in Crash Twinsanity was taken into consideration, Tawna would have had a relationship with at least 3 other characters in any iteration of the Crash Bandicoot series: Crash Bandicoot, Pinstripe Potoroo and Dingodile.
 * According to Naughty Dog, Tawna's design was based off celebrity Pamela Anderson, for her blonde hair and breast size. She was also based on Jessica Rabbit.
 * Tawna is shorter in Crash Boom Bang!.
 * After Crash Bandicoot, Naughty Dog removed her from the series as Universal Interactive wanted her to be redesigned as they felt she wasn't appropriate for a child friendly game. Sony also wished for her removal, according to character designer Charles Zembillas, which led to the introduction of Coco Bandicoot for future titles. She was eventually given a slightly less sexualised redesign for the N. Sane Trilogy, which was developed by Vicarious Visions. This same design reappears in Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled.
 * Like the other major characters from Crash 1, Tawna has her own description from the Crash Bible. According to that text, she was something much more than just a "simple damsel in distress": She tried to help Brio leave Cortex and she would foment a revolution among Cortex's henchmen. She appeared to be a strong, intelligent and independent woman who would do whatever she could to help Crash foil Cortex's plans.
 * This tells us that Tawna could be the reason that Brio finally stood up for himself and left Cortex (who had abused him during the first game) and worked against him in Crash 2. She's also probably the reason that Cortex was without his minions in the second game.
 * This actually makes Tawna (despite her few (so far) physical appearences in the series) one of the most important sidekicks in the original games.
 * The Japanese ending of Crash Bash has Crash mistake a hologram created by Coco to be Tawna. The hologram itself resembles Isabella and was intended to look like Coco reimagined as an adult.
 * She was the first female character to appear in the series.
 * Tawna was originally named Karmen.
 * Tawna's shorts were originally green before they changed it to a dark blue. Her muzzle also had no skin tan, her entire face being orange furred. In-game artwork of her can be seen in levels such as The Great Hall in her original color scheme. She was also originally wearing high heels in her concept art.
 * Tawna is mentioned in unused dialogue for Cortex in Crash Tag Team Racing.
 * She never had any dialogue at all since her first appearance (though she has gameplay grunts in Crash Boom Bang and can be heard gasping in the opening cutscene of N. Sane Trilogy). She officially makes her speaking debut in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.
 * Like the rest of the Nitro Squad in Nitro-Fueled, Tawna has an associated Paint Job seen in marketing screenshots. This Paint Job was not on the selection screen prior to the Back N. Time Grand Prix and not for sale until the Spooky Grand Prix, even though the AI drivers would use it randomly prior.
 * In Skylanders Academy, she was mentioned in the episode called The Skylands Are Falling! when Crash says that he's going to find her and save the world from Dr. Cortex, although Crash refers to her as his friend as opposed to girlfriend.
 * Tawna, alongside the Nitro Squad, are the only bandicoots to have visible tails, as Crash, Coco and Crunch all lack them. It's worth noting that this is a common inconsistency among the anthropomorphic characters in the series.