“ I know what you mean, Strawberry, but this book of scary stories is more chilling than the chilliest of storms! „
Sour Grapes is a new incarnation of the Strawberry Shortcake antagonist of previous generations. These versions of Sour Grapes are the same age as Strawberry and friends and are generally shown to be not an evil villain, but still not entirely nice. However, she always changes and grows into a better person over time, as she desires to be friends with Strawberry. For information on her older counterpart, see "Sour Grapes".
General Information[]
Berry Bitty Adventures[]
Sour Grapes was first introduced in Season Four of Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures. Her twin sister is Sweet Grapes, and they run a food truck together. She is tough, competitive, and incredibly sarcastic, and doesn't start off on the best of terms with Strawberry and friends. Over time, however, she grew to like them, and slowly dropped her cold and harsh exterior.
The 2016 IDW Comics would introduce her scheming cousin Raisin Cane, who she doesn't really hang out with much.
In 2018, Sour Grapes received the spotlight as a main character in the short-lived Berry Bitty Adventures webseries, though all of the episodes were just adaptations of stories from the IDW comics.
Berry in the Big City[]
Sour would once again appear for the succeeding series, Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City. This Sour is the polar opposite of her previous incarnation, with a monotone voice, plain appearance, and a very indifferent outlook on the world. Her style is more goth instead of punk. She debuted alongside her best friend Raspberry Tart in Season 1 episode Mean Berries" establishing the two as the major antagonists of the season. She, Raspberry Tart, and Bread Pudding were known as "The Mean Berries", and would regularly attempt to drive Strawberry out of the Berryworks. By the end of Season 1, the rivalry between the Mean Berries and the Berry Besties faded away with Raspberry and Strawberry's befriending of one another, and the two groups became friends.
In Season 2, however, Sour Grapes fell back into the role of an antagonist with the introduction of her uncle, The Peculiar Purple Pieman, who recruited Sour as his Purple Protégé and partner-in-crime. At first, Sour was relatively willing to help Pieman, but as time went on, Sour began to resent her uncle. The Pieman constantly berated and manipulated her, dragging her into his schemes whether or not she really wanted to and forced her to do all the work at the Purple Pieshop. Throughout the season, Sour Grapes would slowly show signs of rebellion against the Pieman, such as Mission Unfrostable when she helped Strawberry's friends foil his Winter Swirl scam, or generally making sarcastic remarks against him, but she never truly broke away from her uncle out of a sense of familial duty. Sweet and Sour became the first episode focusing on her, fully revealing she hated working for The Pieman, and felt isolated and alone. When Strawberry discovered this, she immediately tried to help her reconnect with the Berry Besties, though it took a heart-to-heart with Lemon Meringue for Sour to fully open up and rejoin her friends. This also made Sour realize she shouldn't have to put up with her uncle's abuse, as she quit working for him to his face, fully cementing her status as a Berry Bestie.
For the rest of the series, Sour Grapes would spend more time with her friends as a part of the main cast, and generally seems to be a lot happier with them than with Pieman.
Appearance[]
Berry Bitty Adventures[]
Sour Grapes is a fair-skinned girl with ombre lavender and lime eyes. She has natural purple hair in a choppy bob, with lime green highlights. She has a black headband with a grape on it, her dress is green and purple striped with black sleeves. She has white and black striped tights, black combat boots, and layered necklaces. Sometimes, she wears black athletic shorts like when camping. She has a very punk and edgy style. She wears green eyeshadow. She is the second character in the franchise to have highlights.
Berry in the Big City[]
Sour has a more plain and casual look, she has a full purple medium-length hairstyle with purple eyes and no head accessories on. Her skin is a bit purplish. She wears a white short-sleeved t-shirt, a purple plaid skirt, pastel purple tights, violet flats, and what seems to be a lace choker. She has a minimalist and emo fashion style instead of her former punk and neon style.
In summer episodes, Sour wears a white sleeveless summer dress over a purple shirt/shorts, with a dark purple sash belt tied in a bow, and purple flats with light purple bows on the toes.
In winter episodes, Sour retains her usual clothes but wears a white beret, a white winter coat with purple outlines, and a light purple scarf over it.
Personality[]
Berry Bitty Adventures[]
Sour Grapes is much like her namesake. She appears to be generally in a foul mood and unpleasant to be around. She is often grumpy and has a feisty temper that can flare up any time, but she isn't that mean when you get to know her. She's a realist, not a pessimist. She has spunk and edge and does things with gusto and likes to seem tough and brave. She is competitive and energetic. She's mischievous and likes to play pranks and trick people, similar to many antagonistic characters of the franchise.
She is more intelligent and clever than her ditsy, head-in-the-clouds sister, Sweet Grapes, though is protective of her and always tries to help her. They act like polar opposites, but they are best friends and love each other. Despite her love for her sister, she admits to feeling insecure about always being grouped together with her, which is why she tries to be different from Sweet Grapes. Sour Grapes starts to seem a bit more 'sweet' in comparison to her cousin, the greedy and social media addicted Raisin Cane. Sour Grapes’ relationship with her isn’t clear, as she admits they don’t hang out much, but she does find Raisin’s reviews funny.
In the 2018 2D animated YouTube Series, which is based on her personality in the IDW comics, Sour Grapes seems to have matured. Sour is still sarcastic and has an annoyed realist view, but she is much nicer. She is 'berry' nice to Strawberry Shortcake and Orange Blossom and has found a close friendship with them. She is frequently found at Strawberry's side in the cafe. She loves her sister and helps her and is concerned for her. She's very clever and intelligent, as well as quick thinking, often coming up with ideas to help her ditsy sister. She's tough and wants to be seen as brave and cool by those around her, however we see in one of the shorts she can be insecure about not being different from her sister.
Berry in the Big City[]
Sour Grapes is very unemotive and quiet, rarely showing any emotion outside of deadpan apathy. Like her best friend Raspberry Tart, she seemed to have a bit of a mean streak, though not to the same extent as Raspberry, at worst being judgemental over Strawberry's outfit being "matchy-matchy" in Mean Berries. Sour Grapes' closed-off nature also means she doesn't like being the center of attention and is easily overwhelmed, such as in Sweet and Sour when Strawberry tried to befriend her in her usual outgoing extroverted way, which just served to turn Sour away. It's also why she's much more willing to listen to Lemon Meringue, who relates to Sour's introverted personality and was able to connect with her on a deeper level.
A recurring theme with her is just going along with what others tell her to do, like being Raspberry's minion or working with the Pieman. While she helps Raspberry and Bread Pudding in their schemes, she doesn't really show all that much investment in it, and only goes along with their plans because of their friendship. In general, she didn't really seem to have the same level of animosity that her friends had with the Berry Besties. In stark contrast to when she worked for Raspberry, Sour Grapes was much more hesitant to do what Pieman said, but she still followed his orders despite his mistreatment because he was family. Sweet and Sour eventually showed that despite her unemotive personality, she hated working for Pieman and felt sad over how lonely she is, not being able to open up to berries who cared about her. Fortunately, Strawberry overheard her and made an effort to help reconnect her friendship with the Berry Besties, helping Sour realize that she shouldn't have to put up with Pieman just because he's her uncle. Afterward, she stood up for herself and refused to be pushed around by Pieman anymore, quitting working for him to be with the Berry Besties, who she now sees as her true family.
While she is generally apathetic, she does have a lot of things she likes to do. In Strawberry Surprise and Crushing The Cosplay, she's shown to enjoy drawing, and the massive change from the former episode's simple sketch to the latter's incredibly detailed drawing indicates she draws incredibly frequently. In the latter episode, it's also revealed that she's a massive fan of Tangerine Smash and Guava Girl, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire franchise only rivaled by Orange Blossom. She also likes gothic and creepy things. In "Lemon's Name in Lights" one of the few things she seems happy about is when she got to decorate the Christmas tree in a purple, gothic style with a giant skull on top. Ironically, the Berry Bestie that Sour gets along with the most is Blueberry Muffin, who's bubbly and excitable, but admittedly to a lesser extent than Strawberry. It's suggested she enjoys Blueberry's quirky nature, as she was intrigued by her love of raw marshmallow on s'mores, and went along with Blueberry on her quest to finally meet Cinnamon Swirl despite having no real reason to.
Pet[]
Sour Grapes’ first two incarnations had a pet snake named Dregs, see her older self’s page for more information.
Sour Grapes did not have a pet in Berry Bitty Adventures.
Berry in the Big City[]
Sour Grapes’ pet is a Crow. They are a purple crow with dark purple wings, and a light purple beak and talons. The Crow is based on the Berry Birds, the pet crows of The Peculiar Purple Pieman who did his bidding. In Berry in the Big City episode The Case of the Missing Spoon, Crow was trained by Purple Pieman to steal Strawberry Shortcake's Lucky Spoon in an attempt to frame her friends. However, they were rejected by Pieman after the plan failed, and Sour Grapes decided to adopt them afterward. The Crow only appeared in their debut episode and Let the Good Times Roll.
Trivia[]
Berry Bitty Adventures[]
- Sour is one of the only characters in the series to prefer cooking real, nutritious food and not dessert.
- Her favorite sandwich is bok choy and mustard.
- She hates the idea of matching twin clothes.
- She doesn't like overly bright or feminine colors.
- She's a great storyteller and likes scary stories.
- She's the only Berry Bitty girl to have short hair and be a tomboy.
- If you look closely, Sour Grapes is the taller twin.
- Doll prototypes of her and Sweet Grapes were shown at the 2016 New York Toy Fair, but ended up going unreleased. The twins would have been sold together in a 2-pack called "Berry Sweet Sisters".
- Sour Grapes has ombre eyes.
- She is an Aries. Her birthday is April 1st.
- This incarnation is the only version of Sour Grapes to not be an accomplice of the Purple Pieman at any point.
- She is the only incarnation of the character to not have a pet.
Berry in the Big CIty[]
- She enjoys drawing, as shown in episodes Strawberry Surprise and Crushing The Cosplay, and there is a noticeable growth in her artstyle between the episodes.
- In the episode "Crushing the Cosplay", it is revealed that Sour Grapes is a closet Tangerine Smash and Guava Girl fan, and has extensive knowledge of the comic characters' 35-year history.
- She decorated the Winterswirl Tree every year according to Orange Blossom in Lemon's Name in Lights, though no one really liked her trees due to them being either low-effort or creepily unfitting for the holiday.
- In Strawberry Shortcake’s Perfect Holiday, it is revealed that Sour Grapes doesn't believe in Cinnamon Swirl, and thinks she doesn't exist. Ironically, she's the first one to figure out the Cookie Vendor is Cinnamon Swirl herself.
- She is the only main cast member to not have a cutaway segment in the main series. All of her cutaway segments occur exclusively in the 3D Netflix specials.
- This incarnation is the only version of Sour to co-exist with Raisin Cane in the same series, but not be related to them at all.
- It’s unclear what her specific job is at the Berryworks, as she is clearly not a vendor like the other Berry Besties, and is unlikely to be part of management like Bread Pudding. It is possible that she’s a baking assistant to Raspberry Tart (and The Purple Pieman in Season 2) as she was usually seen helping Raspberry throughout Season 1.
- While Sour’s parents have never been mentioned, showrunner Michael Vogel stated that he imagines Pieman and Johnnycake have a sister who is Sour Grapes’ mom, adding that she's far smarter than either of her brothers.[1]
- She is the only version of the character to not incorporate green in her design.
Gallery[]
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