Tawna Bandicoot

Tawna is a woman bandicoot with blonde hair. She is the former love interest of Crash Bandicoot, and her first appearance is in the first Crash Bandicoot game.

Crash Bandicoot
In Crash Bandicoot, Tawna is the damsel-in-distress, and Crash has to rescue her from Neo Cortex. Tawna also appears in the end of certain bonus rounds which are only accessible after three Tawna icons are collected.

By the time of Crash's creation, Tawna is the only other creature who has not been subjected to the Cortex Vortex. After Crash is ejected from Cortex's Castle, Tawna spends her captivity matching wits with Cortex, attempting to reason with Brio, and fomenting rebellion amongst Cortex's henchmen.

Once Crash defeats Cortex and rescues Tawna, they live together peacefully. Prior to the events of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Tawna dumps Crash for Pinstripe Potoroo.

Crash Boom Bang!
In Crash Boom Bang!, Tawna is a playable character. According to the character selection screen, she is still in a relationship with Pinstripe.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
In Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, an alternate version of Tawna is a playable character. She is originally from a dimension known as the Tawnaverse, where she is the protagonist of her home universe instead of Crash.

Cameo appearances
Tawna makes a cameo appearance in a few games.

In both Crash Bandicoot: Warped and Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Tawna is seen in a picture in Crash's house.

In Crash Twinsanity, in the Slip Slide Icecapades segment where Crash and Cortex crash through the Moulin Cortex building, Tawna is seen dressed in a fancy costume next to the logo.

Concept and creation
During production of Crash Bandicoot, Tawna was originally named Karmen, and was described as " with a brain." Later, her design was scaled back to become less provocative.

Naughty Dog omitted Tawna from their later installments based both on objections from Universal Interactive's marketing director for her perceived sexist nature and to appease the desire of Sony's Japanese marketing team for a more girlish female supporting character.