Bleak (ブリーク Burīku) is the main antagonist of the Sonic the Hedgehog Bleak Circumstances fan comic and twitter artist HT Doodles' main OC. He is an anthropomorphic figure with insanely developed speed and strength, easily rivalling the likes of Super Sonic. He can also utilize a unique set of abilities including a variety energy blasts, portal manipulation and high-speed regeneration.

Ever since he first appeared to confront Sonic, he has posed a major threat to him and the restoration, seeing as he was able to almost one-shot Sonic, Silver, Tangle and Whisper on their first encounter. He was discovered by Dr. Eggman who recruited him into the Eggman army and offered to give him an important purpose to serve, that being to destroy his arch-nemesis. Even though he works Dr. Eggamn, Bleak is not evil in nature and doesn't seek to harm or destroy anyone unless he is given orders to do so, he is a calm, stoic and cold character with a constant expression of emptiness on his face, making him even more intimidating to face in battle or to even work alongside.

Conception & Creation

Bleak's design and personality are heavily inspired by one of the main antagonists from the anime series Bleach, the forth Espada Ulquiorra Schiffer.

On august 4th 2020, a teaser image of Bleak was posted to twitter, a dark silhouette glowing with a magenta aura, and ten days later, Bleak's first character sheet was revealed followed by a few older design sketches.

Nothing much changed about Bleak's design until his first appearance in the "Sonic the Hedgehog: Bleak Circumstances" comic, where he had a more defined look to him, which remain till the present day. Although concept art of the character wasn't far off from the final design, there were still some noticeable changes made to keep him from resembling Ulquiorra to a T. He retained a white, pale skin and fur colour throughout all of his designs, but changes were made to his eye colour (which was previously Jade), the marks on his face went from being a large black triangular mark between his eyes, to being a singular line running down the middle of his head, his jacket which used to feature two straps in the centre had now been replaced with a simple white strip, And his shoes which used to be plain black and had a single strap around his ankle, was changed to feature two buttons on the cuffs and a silver ring just above the shoe collar.

Appearance

Bleak is a slim anthropomorphic creature with white fur that covers most of his body, a singular line of black fur down the middle of his head and white skin that covers his muzzle and insides of his ears. He has large, triangular ears on top of his head with black fur on the tips of each ear, quill-like fur on the lower back of his head, white fur on his chest surrounding his neck and a short tail. He has magenta eyes with a cat-like pupils.

Bleak wears a black jacket with white stripes going down the centre and around the edges on splits ends, white gloves, black shoes with a white toe vamp and cap, rings around his ankles and black cuffs with two buttons on the front of each cuff.

Bleak is a very cold, dispassionate and aloof figure, he doesn't show any interest in those beneath him and treats them as expendable. He is not particularly violent, and will only fight when provoked or ordered to by Dr. Eggman. He does not hesitate to follow Eggman's orders and will willingly turn on his comrades if is instructed to.

His calm demeanour makes it hard for him to be caught off guard and keeps him in control of most situations. However, he does not seem to comprehend the idea of fighting against all odds; During his final fight with Sonic, Bleak completely overwhelms him after transforming and knocks out of his super form multiple times, yet Sonic continues to stand back up despite everything he had been through, prompting Bleak to get visibly frustrated and yell at him quit being delusional and that no matter how much he tries, he will never win against an opponent as strong as himself.

As well as being heartless figuratively, he is also heartless in the literal sense, which keeps him from feeling or even understanding emotions. This leads to him building a curious attitude towards Amy Rose because of the strong will and self-sacrificing actions she demonstrates during the second invasion of Eggman's army. Following his curiosity, Bleak kidnaps Amy from her home at night and brings her back to Eggman's base for interrogation, in order to understand these "emotions" and what they really mean.