Socks Heeler is a secondary character that has appeared in multiple episodes of Bluey. She is Muffin's younger sister, one of Bluey and Bingo's cousins, and the youngest daughter of Stripe and Trixie.
Bluey.tv Description
Socks is Bluey and Bingo's littlest cousin and Muffin’s younger sister.
Socks is a puppy and still has a few bad habits, like licking, panting, chewing and even taking the occasional nip at her friends and family!
Bluey and Bingo have watched Socks transition from crawling on all fours to taking her first upright steps on two legs!
She has even learned to talk! Socks can be more than a little rambunctious but has also shown herself to be soft and sensitive with her family.
Muffin's baby sister is just starting to talk.
Biography
Socks is the daughter of Stripe and Trixie, the cousin of Bluey and Bingo, and the younger sister of Muffin. She is the niece of Bandit, Chilli, and Rad and the granddaughter of Bob and Chris.
Appearance
Socks is a Blue Heeler with three different shades of purple all over her fur and a bit of dark brown at the start of her tail, and light brown after it just like Stripe. She has a black nose and bright beige for the insides of her ears. She has dark blue on both of her ears and a splash on the left side of her head and a subtle spot connected to the start of her tail. She has bright blue for her feet (resembling socks, thus her name), stomach, and tail and a stripe in the middle of her forehead. She also has freckles on her muzzle.
Initially she had some ends of hair flipped up with curled upwards on her darker left side of head. After turning two or learning to walk on her hind legs, this visual quirk moved onto her lighter right side of head making her to resemble more of her mother.
Personality
Throughout season one and to the middle of season Two, Socks acts like a regular puppy. She barks, walks on all fours, and bites toys and people. She sometimes growls and bites people including her father and Bandit. Due to her young age, she has trouble understanding what she does wrong like biting Bluey but can also be quite sensitive too.
By the end of season two, Socks can walk and talk like the rest of her family, but still has a few dog-like traits. She is much quieter and kinder, taking turns and not getting involved with her sister Muffin's antics (she is arguably the antithesis of Muffin, who is loud, energetic and self-assertive), though both are good-hearted and friendly. While limited in appearances in season three, Socks has evolved more into more of a recognisable child who (from Faceytalk and Pizza Girls) seems to have an interest in flowers and nature. Her growth continues especially in "The Sign" however; by this point Socks has become vocal and mostly independent. Compared to Muffin she is sweet and calm, and also has good manners - saying "please" and "thank you" and eating her piece of wedding cake with a spoon (instead of wolfing it down straight from the plate like Muffin). She's very helpful and stays dedicated to her task of finding Frisky's blue car, to which she succeeds. She is affectionate and likes to hug and hold hands with her family.
Appearances
- S01E07 - BBQ (debut)
- S01E09 - Horsey Ride
- S01E28 - Grannies (pictured)
- S01E32 - Bumpy and the Wise Old Wolfhound
- S01E36 - Backpackers
- S01E43 - Camping (cameo)
- S01E52 - Verandah Santa
- S02E11 - Charades
- S02E21 - Escape (pictured)
- S02E45 - Handstand (deleted scene)
- S02E52 - Christmas Swim (first appearance with her new design)
- SN/AEN/A - Humpty Dumpty (last appearance with old design)
- SN/AEN/A - Honk
- S03E01 - Perfect (pictured)
- S03E14 - Pass the Parcel (cameo)
- S03E19 - Pizza Girls
- S03E24 - Faceytalk
- S03E49 - The Sign
Trivia
- Socks is male in the Hebrew and Russian dubs.
- Socks speaks in her first appearance in BBQ and several other episodes:
- She says, "Green capsicum" and "Green pepper," however she pronounces it as "Gleen capshimun"/"gleen peppah" (depending on the dubbing of the audience-Australia or international English respectively).
- In Charades, she is able to say, "Ballerina" correctly.
- In Christmas Swim, she can say, "Pizza" and "Merry Christmas".
- Socks is shown speaking in simple sentences for the first time in the short Honk.
- In The Sign, Socks says "Aunt Chilli, I need the toilet", and "Aunt Chilli, can I please have a watermelon juice?" indicating she is now capable of speaking full sentences with proper grammar.
- Unlike Muffin, she has learned to say her r's and l's.
- Her name most likely refers to the light blue patterns on her paws, which resemble socks.
- In Honk and Horsey Ride, Stripe calls her Rock-Socks.
- Throughout season one and for most of season two, Socks walks on all fours with a dog-like posture and has notably dog-like behavior. She first stands upright in Christmas Swim (canonically in the short Honk).
- Her new, upright model lacks the stripes which were part of her original ankle and wrist markings.
- This may be intended to make her easier to animate, as her stripes are very close to her joints, which causes clipping issues when she bends her limbs. See an example here.
- Before she walks upright, she appeared twice with a variant model with an upright posture in Backpackers and briefly in Charades. This model is distinct from her model from Christmas Swim onwards, as it still has her original markings.
- Her doglike posture and behavior is unique. There are many possible reasons why:
- It may have been intended as a normal phase of dog development that was either later retconned for the sake of Baby Race or is a phase dogs go through specifically at age one (since the babies in Baby Race were younger than one).
- It may be an unusual gait she developed instead of crawling. The reason:
- May have simply been her preference, similar to Bluey rolling, then bum-shuffling, instead of crawling, then later crawling backwards, in Baby Race.
- Could be a result of neurological difference.
- Might have been more comfortable than crawling due to physiological differences — perhaps an atavistic throwback to the quadrupedal ancestors mentioned in Archaeology.
- Her new, upright model lacks the stripes which were part of her original ankle and wrist markings.
- Her favourite colour of capsicum is green.
- Judging by her drawings in Faceytalk, Socks seems to like flowers and nature.
- She is the youngest member of the Heeler family, and one of the youngest characters in Bluey (counting Chloe's baby brother).
- Socks is now toilet trained as of The Sign.
