|
Information in this article may not be canonical to the storyline of the games or any other Sonic continuity. |
- For the version of this character before the Super Genesis Wave, see Knuckles the Echidna (Pre-Super Genesis Wave).
Knuckles the Echidna is one of the main characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog and its spin-off comic series' published by Archie Comics. He is the last anthropomorphic echidna known to inhabit Sonic's World and the Guardian of both Angel Island and the Master Emerald. While his primary concern is protecting his home from invaders, certain threats-particularly those posed by Dr. Eggman-have been enough to persuade him to leave the island.
Appearance
Knuckles is a red echidna with purple eyes. He bears a white crescent mark on his chest, a trait tied-in the original continuity-to his station as Guardian. Officially, he's slightly taller than Sonic. He wears white gloves similar to boxing gloves and has two spiked knuckle-claws on each hand. He wears green, yellow and red footwear with a metal "Lego" plate atop each shoe.
History
Early Adventures
Knuckles attempts to stop Dr. Eggman from stealing the Master Emerald.
Knuckles spent most of his life living alone on Angel Island, keeping watch over the Master Emerald. This isolation came to an end when Dr. Eggman arrived on the island following his latest defeat at the hands of Sonic the Hedgehog. Knuckles was soon persuaded that Sonic and his sidekick Tails were out to steal the Master Emerald, and opposed their journey across the island starting with ambushing Sonic and scattering his collected Chaos Emeralds.[1] Unbeknownst to him, however, Sonic and Tails were looking to stop Eggman, who had decided to steal the Master Emerald for himself. After a brief scuffle, Knuckles eventually befriended Sonic and Tails after Eggman stole the emerald himself. Knuckles, worn from the battle and from Eggman after trying to stop the thief, showed Sonic and Tails the path to reach Eggman. After Eggman was defeated and expelled from the island, the Master Emerald was safely returned. Dr. Eggman then dispatched his lackey, Julian Snively, to steal the emerald once again, with the diminutive villain employing an Eggrobo to do so. However, Knuckles successfully recovered the Master Emerald, putting a stop to the doctor's plan for good.[2][3]
Chaos is released from the shattered Master Emerald.
A number of adventures later, Knuckles was once again keeping watch over the Master Emerald when Dr. Eggman hatched another nefarious plan. This time, he shattered the magic gemstone in order to release Chaos, an ancient water elemental long imprisoned inside the stone. With the fragments scattered across Mobius, Knuckles was forced to leave the island in order to recover them. Along the way, he learned about his heritage and the ancient Knuckles Clan through visions imparted to him by Tikal, a member of that group who had imprisoned Chaos. Working together with Sonic, Tails, Amy, and others, Knuckles succeeded in restoring the Master Emerald, and Chaos was pacified and returned to its home inside the Master Emerald.[4]
Knuckles shatters the Master Emerald.
At some point after these events, Knuckles made the acquaintance of archaeologist Relic the Pika, who had came to the island after it fell near the Mystic Ruins and convinced Knuckles to let her stay on the island.[5] The next female visitor to the island was nowhere near as friendly: the thief Rouge the Bat attempted to steal the Master Emerald, only to be beaten to the punch by Dr. Eggman. In order to prevent the mad doctor from using the Emerald's power for his latest scheme, Knuckles shattered the Emerald himself. He then proceeded to search Mobius for the shards yet again, clashing with Rouge on a couple of occasions. Eventually he managed to recover all the Emerald shards, and participated in Eggman's defeat yet again before returning home.[6][3]
Knuckles is left to be eaten by the Black Arms
Knuckles was one of the many heroes to be caught up in the Black Amrs invasion of the planet, where he and his allies where paralyzed by a toxic gas released from the Black Comet.[7] Prior to this, he faced Metal Overlord alongside a number of other heroes, and worked together with the Chaotix-and their mutual friends Mighty and Ray-on multiple occasions.[5] He would later engage Sonic in another clash over Chaos Emeralds, this time while the Hedgehog was accompanied by the robot Emerl.[1][8] Another adventure found the Master Emerald threatened yet again by Eggman, this time piloting his diabolical Hyper Eggrobo.[3][9]
The Great Chaos Caper
- Note: From the readers point of view, this picks up from where Knuckles' original timeline ended.
The Shattered World Crisis affected Angel Island as it did the rest of the planet, and Knuckles was caught in the middle of it. As he watched, Chaos was thrown from the Master Emerald to Mobius' ravaged surface. Immediately thereafter, Tikal addressed him from within the Emerald and informed him of the situation, which she assured him was a phenomenon meant to occur. However, she also informed him that a powerful spirit was meant to participate in restoring the world, and that she sensed a weakness in that entity. As such, Knuckles determined to seek out the spirit so that Tikal could aid it. Fearing to leave the Master Emerald unguarded, he reluctantly approached Relic and her assistant Fixit to watch over the gemstone.[5] Making his way to the surface, he traveled through the Sky Rail Zone, where he spotted Eclipse the Darkling's escape craft plummeting as it fled the destruction of the New Black Comet.[10]
Continuing his journey, Knuckles ended up in Pumpkin Hill Zone, where he ran into some old allies: the Chaotix. Learning that they had been hired by Sally Acorn to help locate the Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles agreed to help them, as he sensed an Emerald nearby. The group were forced to deal with the minions of Dark Gaia, and then ran into another opposing force: the Hooligans.[5] The two groups initially battled, but halted their conflict when Bean pointed out that they were attacking each other over a Chaos Emerald that neither side had. Nack and his teammates then departed, while Knuckles was able to determine through his Emerald sense that the gem was underground in the Aquatic Mine Zone, which he had previously visited. However, the pressures of his quest to find the spirit, his concern over Angel Island, and Vector's impatience grew to be too much for him, and he announced his intentions to leave. However, he then sensed the Emerald nearby-and the heroes found it in the hands of the spirit he had been looking for.[11]
Taking both the spirit-whom Charmy dubbed "Chip"-and the Emerald into their custody, Knuckles and the Chaotix headed for the exit to the mine, only to run into the Hooligans again. To make matters worse, the biggest minion of Dark Gaia yet, the Dark Gaia Titan, appeared to attack them. The Hooligans took advantage of its appearance to seize Chip and the Emerald, blasting all the exits to the mine except the one that they took to escape before sealing it behind them.[12] Left with only a flooded tunnel-too long to swim through without an air supply-to escape through, Vector reasoned upon a scheme that carried them along with water current to escape the cavern. They then intercepted the Hooligans, only to be attacked by the Titan again, but managed to trick Bean into attacking it. Recovering Chip and the Emerald, they sent the Hooligans fleeing with a sabotaged Chaos Emerald sensor. Knuckles then finished off the Dark Gaia Titan, and suggested that he take the Chaos Emerald and Chip back to Angel Island for safe-keeping. He and Chip return to Shrine Island and were met by Tikal, only for Relic to arrive with dire news: the island had been invaded.[13]
Total Eclipse and Champions
After examining Relic and Fixit's findings regarding the invaders, Knuckles determined that the invaders were definitely not native to the island, meaning they had to be expelled. This led to a brief awkward moment with Relic, which was interrupted as Team Dark arrived-resulting in another awkward moment for Knuckles as Rouge believed Relic to be his girlfriend and Relic questioned what he had told people about her. After being informed by Team Dark of the presence of Eclipse and the Dark Arms, Knuckles reluctantly left Shadow with Relic and Fixit at the Master Emerald Shrine while he led Rouge and Omega to Red Mountain Zone to search for the aliens. Along the way, he had to restrain Omega from blasting various parts of the environment, and was confronted by Rouge about whether he wanted anything else from his life besides protecting the island. The trio then came upon Eclipse's wrecked shuttle, but before they could enter, Fixit contacted them to warn them that Eclipse was attacking the shrine. Arriving after Eclipse had been driven off, Knuckles was enraged when Shadow informed him of his decision to move the Master Emerald to a G.U.N. facility for safe-keeping. When his and Relic's protests fell on the deaf ears of Shadow and his teammates, Knuckles resorted to force. Throwing Shadow from Shrine Island to the main island, he charged him, declaring that the Emerald would stay and Shadow would leave.[14][15]
Knuckles once again shatters the Master Emerald.
After briefly fighting him near the Master Emerald Shrine, Knuckles used his considerable strength to throw Shadow to the Azure Lake Zone and pursued him there. While the fight proved difficult, Knuckles refused to give up, reflecting on the many misfortunes that had befallen the Master Emerald on his watch and vowing not to let it happen again.[3] Unfortunately, his fight with Shadow allowed Eclipse and the Dark Arms to seize the Master Emerald. Breaking off their fight, the two heroes moved to intercept Eclipse and engaged him and his Dark Arms in battle. Though they gained the upper hand in the fight, Eclipse managed to escape defeat with the help of the Dark Arm known as Rhygenta. Ultimately, with the only other option being allowing Eclipse to escape with the Emerald, Knuckles shattered it for the second time in his life. Fortunately, Angel Island was kept aloft by the same forces holding the shattered planet in place, and Knuckles set off to recover the Master Emerald fragments yet again.[16]
After recovering an Emerald shard from a mine, Knuckles-accompanied by Chip-ended up in Casino Park, where he sensed a powerful Chaos energy signature he believed to be a cache of shards. However, it turned out to be a Chaos Emerald that served as the prize for the Chaos Emerald Championship being held by Breezie the Hedgehog.[17] After locating another shard that had been made into a necklace-and stealthily recovering it from its would be owner-Knuckles and Chip discovered that several of Knuckles' friends were taking part in the tournament. They were then approached by Scratch, who informed Knuckles that he was going to be late for his first match-unbeknownst to him, he had been added to the tournament roster by Espio. Realizing that this would allow him to secure the Emerald, Knuckles accepted and entered into a tough battle with Bark. The two fought fiercely, well-matched in terms of strength, but Knuckles managed to knock out his larger opponent. This moved him on to the next round, where he would go up against Amy Rose.[18]
After Nack won against Bean, Amy and Knuckles began their fight. Amy got pumped to take down Knuckles and face Sonic in the finals, but started over-analyzing the situation and worrying about disappointing or hurting her Hedgehog hero. While she was distracted, Knuckles landed an explosive punch that sent her flying into the spectator seats, earning him glares from Sonic and Tails that left him shamefaced After he defeated Amy his next match was against Nack, who attempted to psych Knuckles out by bringing up his failure to protect the Master Emerald and his going overboard during the fight with Amy. Knuckles remained stoic the whole time, waiting for Nack to get in close enough for him to grab the Weasel and handily defeat him. With that, Knuckles moved on to the championship round against Sonic, with both of them arguing over who had won more of their previous battles. During the course of their bout, Knuckles got frustrated with Sonic showing more concern for how Breezie had obtained the Emerald than the battle, and again when he informed Sonic why he wasn't on Angel Island. The Hedgehog offered to let Knuckles throw the fight so that Knuckles could continue his quest, but Knuckles refused to let his rival off so easily.[19] Their bout was interrupted by the Hooligans' sabotage of Casino Park's defenses, and the two heroes put aside their conflict to stop Metal Sonic from stealing Breezie's Chaos Emerald. Afterwards, with the Chaos Emerald in hand, Knuckles and Chip joined the Freedom Fighters, and were given an unexpected introduction to Sonic's Werehog form on the way back to the Sky Patrol.[1]
Personality
Knuckles is a very driven individual with an almost single-minded focus on protecting Angel Island and the Master Emerald from anyone who would do them harm. However, he also recognizes the danger the Master Emerald poses in the hands of villainous powers, and has demonstrated on more than one occasion a willingness to shatter it into fragments in order to keep it safe. Knuckles has also demonstrated enough sense to realize that a threat to the planet is a threat to his island as well, and has left Angel Island on more than one occasion in order to combat a threat to the planet. In this he often finds himself working alongside Sonic and Tails, though he and Sonic enjoy a friendly rivalry in addition to friendship.
Knuckles has proven somewhat gullible over the years, with Dr. Eggman tricking him into fighting Sonic on several occasions. He is hot-tempered and quick to act without thinking, usually choosing violence over discussion. Patience is another area in which Knuckles is not at his strongest, but despite this he is a trustworthy friend and powerful ally.
Powers and abilities
Knuckles is an incredibly strong individual and served as the muscle of Team Sonic; his techniques include a punch around which a fiery aura appears that is devastating to anything. He can also glide through the air using his long spines, and his namesake spikes are both effective in combat and for climbing up walls or digging and burrowing underground. In addition to his combat prowess, Knuckles is skilled to a degree in footwork and utilize the Spin Dash attack as seen during his fight with Shadow. Due to his connection to the Master Emerald, Knuckles has limited mystical abilities, including being able to sense the presence of Master Emerald shards or Chaos Emeralds and hone in on their position. He can also utilize Tikal's Prayer to grant himself a brief boost in power.
Relationships
Rouge the Bat
Knuckles and Rouge have had a strange relationship since their first meeting, due in part to the fact that Rouge attempted to steal the Master Emerald and Knuckles is sworn to protect it. Knuckles has often been the recipient of Rouge's flirtatious nature, and she delights in teasing him.
Relic the Pika
So far, Knuckles' relationship with Relic the Pika seemed to be something that he just tolerates. Possibly because of her energy and desire to investigate every inch of Angel Island, he seems to view her as a bother, though he does trust her enough to let her watch the Master Emerald, though he has a major desire to get back before she did anything. However, when Vector teased Knuckles about Relic being his girlfriend, his reaction - to glare at him - shows that he does not view her in that way, most likely because his duty comes first. In interactions with Relic herself, however, he seems to appreciate her presence, and does his best to apologize when he inadvertently makes it seem like she is unwelcome. When Rouge made a similar guess about their relationship, Knuckles was embarrassed and had to explain to an astonished Relic that he had not made any claims about her being his girlfriend.
Friends/Allies
- Chaotix
- Mighty
- Ray
- Team Sonic
- Team Dark
- Team Rose
- Chip
- Relic and Fixit
- Blaze
- Silver
- Tikal
- Chaos
- Honey
- New Freedom Fighters
Enemies
- Eggman Empire
- Dr. Eggman
- Dr. Julian Snively (formerly)
- Metal Sonic
- Black Arms
- Dark Gaia Creatures
- Hooligans
Trivia
- As a result of the reboot done in Sonic the Hedgehog #252, Ian Flynn has confirmed that the established history of Knuckles is no longer canon. He has also expressed relief at not having his history being the "Hot Pocket of Destiny".
- Prior to the reboot, the various Sonic Adventure 2 adaptations featured in the comic did not feature Knuckles, despite his fairly prominent role in the story of the game. However, following the reboot, it is assumed that Knuckles' participation was the same as in the actual game.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Sonic the Hedgehog #271, "Champions Finale: The One Left Standing"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Sonic Universe #69, "Total Eclipse Part Three: Shadow Boxing"
- ↑ Sonic Adventure/Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Sonic Universe #63, "The Great Chaos Caper Part One: On the Hunt"
- ↑ Sonic Adventure 2/Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
- ↑ Sonic Universe #59, "Shadow Fall Part One: Into the Unknown"
- ↑ Sonic Battle
- ↑ Sonic Advance 3
- ↑ Sonic Universe #62, "After the Credits"
- ↑ Sonic Universe #64, "The Great Chaos Caper Part Two: The Usual Suspects"
- ↑ Sonic Universe #65, "The Great Chaos Caper Part Three: Chip of the Ol' Emerald!"
- ↑ Sonic Universe #66, "The Great Chaos Caper Part Four: Water Way To Go!"
- ↑ Sonic Universe #67, "Total Eclipse Part One: Uninvited Guests"
- ↑ Sonic Universe #68, "Total Eclipse Part Two: Tipping Point"
- ↑ Sonic Universe #70, "Total Eclipse Final: Last Resort"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #268, "Champions Part One: The Gang's All Here"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #269, "Champions Part Two: Climbing the Brackets"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #270, "Champions Part Three: Raising the Stakes"
External links
- Knuckles the Echidna at Mobius Encyclopaedia, the Archie Sonic wiki.