Molly

Captain Molly (モリー) is a character that appears in the anime series Sonic X. She hails from the planet Cascade where she is rescued from the Metarex by Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow notes how much she reminds him of Maria Robotnik and witnessed her sacrifice herself during a Metarex attack. Shadow would afterwards built a memorial in her honor.

Appearance
Molly was a young and tall girl with ginger hair and blue eyes. She wore a suit that all the captains of the Planet Cascade wore, a long-sleeved blue shirt underneath a light blue vest and dark blue trousers. She also wore a greenish yellow bracelet on her left hand with some white details.

Past
It is believed that Molly's world, a planet with an empire throughout space made by ruthlessly attacking and conquering other worlds, were at war with the Metarex and various other species throughout the galaxy long before the Metarex's transformation into cyborgs, judging by how the enemies of Cosmo's people used the same type of aircraft in battle Molly's people used. As a result of this, the Metarex took the Planet Egg from Cascade after their transformation, reducing the planet to a lifeless and literally broken world because of Cascade having attacked Green Gate.

For generations afterward, Molly's people continued to fight the Metarex as a resistance, their numbers becoming fewer and fewer all the time.

Metarex Saga
One battle involving roughly a dozen resistance troops (with Molly apparently serving as the squad leader) fought against the Metarex in space, almost getting wiped out in the process. Nearby, Doctor Eggman was searching for a Chaos Emerald in the sector they were fighting in and his ship was receiving damage due to the battle. He sent out Shadow to defeat the Metarex and he ended up saving Molly while she provided a distraction for the remainder of her team to attack the Metarex mother ship. With Eggman and Shadow now involved in the fight, the Metarex's commander, Pale Bayleaf, ordered a retreat and decided to initiate Plan B. Molly contacted Eggman's ship and gave him her thanks for the rescue, and after learning the Chaos Emerald was on her planet, Eggman accepted her invitation to a meal of thanks since it seemed to them Eggman was going to join their fight.

Meanwhile, Shadow and Rouge the Bat had been sent to find the Chaos Emerald and Molly interrupted Shadow's thoughts with her thanks and telling him he was like Black Wind, a legendary hero on her planet that once protected their people from their enemies as he moved like the wind. Shadow became annoyed at being made out to be something he wasn't (a hero), leaving Molly discouraged. Later the trio interrupted an argument between the rest of the resistance and Eggman since they wouldn't be staying to help fight the Metarex like the people of Cascade thought. Molly then pulled Leon aside and asked him about the Chaos Emerald, which he claimed never to have heard of, but at Rouge's inquiry, remembered a meteor that looked like a white gemstone crashing on the planet that was now stored with the other minerals in a mining building far away. Before Molly could leave, Leon grabbed her and gave her a key to a cupboard which housed a disk with administration records to the mine, saying the old program could improve the system of their ship. Molly took the key with her, but was unaware it was actually a trap set up by Leon as part of his deal with the Metarex for an alliance.

Molly flew Shadow and Rouge in her fighter, explaining to Rouge the history of her planet along the way and how her people were becoming exhausted of losing the war and seeing their planet in ruins. She wished to have the power of the Metarex to protect her planet. They then walked near a river, but in the water were giant carnivorous fish that leaped up and tried to attack the trio. Molly shot the first one, and the rest were taken care of by Shadow and Rouge.

The two told her that risking her life for others was a bad habit, but she insisted if she was killed, someone would always be there to replace her. Molly then ran off into the mine. Once inside, Molly found the box the Chaos Emerald was kept in. Shadow took it so Rouge could not snatch it. Then Molly opened the cupboard the disk was supposedly kept in.

What she found was a bomb that exploded seconds after the door's opening, but Shadow got the three of them to safety with his speed. As Molly realized that Leon had tried to kill her and wondered why, a Metarex fleet flew over the horizon. Rouge realized what was going on---Leon wanted to get Shadow and herself away from Eggman in order to capture and deliver him to the Metarex and do away with Molly in the process. Despite Shadow and Rouge's warnings, Molly then got into her fighter and flew off, determined to change the minds of her friends.

Molly found them trapped in the dirt in their fighters as a result of going up against Eggman's E-3000 and tried to reason with them, but they were so tired of living on a ruined planet and fighting a losing battle they did not listen, and only wished to live their lives instead of die in battle.

Molly was reduced to tears by their words and Shadow landed on the wing of her fighter, telling her to leave them and finish her life's mission before striking a Metarex ship. Molly thought of his words and, driven with grief, rushed at the Metarex mother ship with her guns blazing. The Metarex fleet then fired their weapons on Molly and Shadow rushed by her cockpit and she locked crying eyes with him before her fighter was destroyed and she was killed.

Following the explosion that killed Molly, Shadow was thrown to the ground by force of the explosion and then removed his Limiters before striking the mother ship himself, causing the destruction of the entire fleet. Later he made a grave marker out of debris for Molly and gave Rouge the Chaos Emerald to deliver to Eggman and left to fight the Metarex on his own.

During the final battle with Dark Oak, Shadow thought of Molly before inducing a super transformation with Sonic and later apparently sacrificed himself again for everyone else. After the battle, the Planet Egg was returned to Cascade and Shadow returned to Molly's grave-marker with a pink rose placed next to it.

Personality
Molly was a very kind, determined and stout-hearted young girl with leadership skills and strong beliefs that her planet could be glorious again and was always willing to risk her life for others, believing there would always be someone to replace her if she was killed. She was very trusting of her teammates and believed their devotion to be as strong as hers, and was reduced to tears when she learned the truth and made a reckless attempt to stop the Metarex, which resulted in her death. She appeared to have low self-esteem, and was quick to blame herself when someone got annoyed of her.

Trivia

 * The scene of Molly being killed was altered in the English dub. Instead, Molly's death is not shown and it is implied that she escaped as Shadow asked her to, rather than defying him and continuing to fight and die in despair. Shadow says he hopes she will be okay, since she is all alone out there.
 * In the English dub, her memorial was edited out (although the shadow of the grave is still present by mistake). Also, in the last episode of the series, the scene of Shadow placing a pink rose next to Molly's grave was cut from the English dub as well.
 * Molly flies an aircraft that resembles a futuristic version of the F7U Cutlass, a 1950s US Navy jet fighter. She was flying this fighter when she was killed by the Metarex in the original Japanese version.
 * In the original Japanese version, it is revealed Molly holds the rank of captain by Decoe and Bocoe. But in the English version, her rank is never mentioned.
 * Her name is misspelled as "Morry" in her eyecatch card, mostly due to confusion between the "L" and "R" in the Japanese language.