Black Knight

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This article is about the character. For the game, see Sonic and the Black Knight

The Black Knight or King Arthur is a new character from the Sonic and the Black Knight video game. He is voiced by Gavin Hammon in the English version and by Hidekatsu Shibata in the Japanese version. He was first believed to be the main antagonist of the game, but that role was given to Merlina upon his defeat.

One day, King Arthur became corrupt when the power of immortality that came with his scabbard bewitched him, becoming the Black Knight. He has strong relations with the Knights of the Round Table, as they still serve him despite his change. His powers include using his blade, Deathcalibur, to summon Underworld minions to do his bidding and firing magical bolts on top of his impressive sword skills. His scabbard grants him immortality, making him impossible to defeat without obtaining the three blades held by the Knights of the Round Table. He is first seen chasing Merlina right before she summons Sonic. Sonic prepares to fight the Black Knight (not knowing he couldn't kill him) before being dragged away by Merlina.

Sonic faces the Black Knight twice during the game. The first time is shortly after obtaining Caliburn the Sword, but lacking both the swords and the skill, he is unable to defeat him and the Black Knight leaves after deeming Sonic not worth his time. The second time is a more heated duel at Castle Avalon (the Black Knight apparently taking Sonic seriously this time) where Sonic is able to use the Knight's swords to nullify the scabbard's power and defeat him.

After being bested by Sonic, the Black Knight fades away, leaving nothing but his scabbard. When Sonic brings the scabbard to Merlina, she reveals that King Arthur was never there, just an illusion created by Merlin, and it was merely part of her plan to acquire it for her own ends.

Despite the fact that he is also first seen as King Arthur by everyone's eyes, Sonic's blade Caliburn reveals that since he is a legendary sacred sword, his duty is to decide who is fit for the crown. So that would technically mean that Sonic was the REAL King Arthur the entire time.

His theme song is Fight the Knight, a song by Crush 40 for the two boss fights Sonic has with him.

He is also unlockable in battle mode by collecting the five books detailing the story of King Arthur during regular gameplay.

Contents 1 Attacks 1.1 First Battle 1.2 Second Battle 2 Trivia 3 Quotes

[edit] Attacks

[edit] First Battle

The first battle against the Black Knight is apart from other boss battles as it takes place on a short stretch of terrain (unlike the "circular" battlefields of the Knights of the Round Table or the seemingly endless Faraway Avalon in the second Black Knight battle). It can be considered a "tutorial" for boss battles, though it isn't labelled as one.

[edit] Second Battle

In the second battle, when Arthur faces Sonic, he has a wide variety of attacks. These include:

• A magical attack originating from Deathcalibur, which shoots electricity and only paralyzes Sonic.
• Arthur shoots balls of dark energy at you. these can only be evaded by shooting them back with your sword. upon doing so, you will raise your Soul Gauge.
• His most powerful attack, but the easiest one to avoid, is when the player lags behind him. He turns around and charges his horse at you; this can be accompanied by the previous attack.
• Occasionally the Black Knight's arm and Deathcalibur will appear in front of Sonic from a portal. The attack is different depending on whether the player has already dealt damage to the Black Knight or not.

[edit] Trivia

• An early rumor stated that King Arthur might have looked like Dr. Eggman, possibly brought about due to Eggman taking the role of King Shahryār in the previous storybook game, Sonic and the Secret Rings.

• The Black Knight and Erazor Djinn both have attributes of their personality that are quite similar. Both were characters from another story turned evil, they are power craving brutes with incredible power and they each have to deal with Sonic and his female partner (Shahra for Erazor Djinn and Merlina for the Black Knight). However, unlike Erazor Djinn, the Black Knight is only an illusion and not actually King Arthur turned evil.

• While he is the titular Black Knight, Arthur's armor is actually gold, though a VERY dark gold at that.

• It's wondered what happened to the world after the Black Knight was defeated. If he was really meant to be King Arthur, and yet Caliburn reveals that at the end that he decides who is worthy of the crown which points out that Sonic was really King Arthur, it is wondered who is ruling the land with Sonic's return home and the Black Knight slain. Some fans speculate that Merlina will take over as a makeshift ruler.

• The Black Knight shares many similarities to Nightmare, a character from the SoulCalibur series of games:
  1. They both have a dark knight sort of theme.
  2. They both have Zweihänder type weapons.
  3. They both oppose the "Calibur" type of weapons(Sonic's Caliburn, and Siegfried's Soul Calibur).
  4. They both use dark polar opposites of their rival swords (Black Knight-Deathcalibur, Nightmare-Soul Edge as opposed to Sonic-Excalibur, Siegfried-Soul Calibur ).

• The Black Knight also is the only Multiplayer character that's not a recurring Sonic character or at least a character who is portrayed as one. He is also the only one who is incapable of jumping.

• A Black Knight is a nobleman who has no liegelord and is not liked by most of the public; a fitting title for such a person as the evil King Arthur.

• It is possible that the Black Knight may look like Sonic underneath his armor, seeing as Sonic was the real King Arthur and the Black Knight was created to impersonate him. Following this logic, it's possible the Black Knight is the Arthurian equivalent(or as close as one can get in a low technology enviroment), to another metal plated pretender to Sonic's name.

• In Arthurian Legend, the Black Knight is actually an enemy that King Arthur faces. (Which is fitting, considering how Sonic is actually Arthur.)

• This is the fifth playable human character in the Sonic games, after Eggman, Maria, Ulala, and Billy Hatcher.
• Sonic's battle with the Black Knight at Avalon may have referenced Arthur's end in the Arthurean legends where Arthur is mortally wounded by his son Mordred and departs for Avalon, where he tries to recover from the wounds, but dies.

• The Black Knight in this game looks strangly similer to the Black Knight from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance, made by Intelligent Systems, a branch of Nintendo.

• The Black Knight's Soul Surge in multiplayer mode is similar to one of his attacks in his second encounter.

• Strangely, the Black Knight never faces Sonic in battle face-to-face, always dashing away, even though in the second battle, he states "It appears you are only good at one thing: running away."

[edit] Quotes

• "I shall give chase."
• "Spread out and go after them. Slay them on sight."
• "Now, let us see the power of your so-called sacred sword!"
• "Pursue me at your own peril weakling!"
• "A fool of a knight not even worth slaying!"
• "It seems your impersonation of a knight has improved, somewhat."
• "Then let us have a another look at that unsightly swordsmanship."
• "You shall regret the day you ever raised your sword against me!"
• "There is no escape!"
• "I shall smash you in the dust!"
• "You blue pest! Roar Deathcalibur!"
• "I am immortal! You can not defeat me!"
• "How can this be?!"
• "Nooo!"

Storybook Characters

Secret Rings	Sonic | Ali Baba / Tails | Sinbad / Knuckles | Shahryār / Eggman | Shahra | Erazor | Uhu | Solomon | Captian Bemoth | Ifrit Golem | Amy | Shadow | Silver | Blaze | Omochao | Big | Darkspine
Black Knight	Sonic | Merlina / Merlin | Black Knight / Arthur | Excalibur / Caliburn | Nimue / Amy | Blacksmith / Tails | Gawain / Knuckles | Lancelot / Shadow | Percival / Blaze | Galahad / Silver | Lamorak / Jet | Excalibur-Sonic