Knuckles the Echidna
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This article is about the video game character as represented in video games and television series. For information regarding the character's representation in the Sonic the Hedgehog comics, see Knuckles the Echidna (comic character). For the comic series based on this character, see Knuckles the Echidna (comic series).
| Knuckles the Echidna | |
|---|---|
 Knuckles is the Guardian of the Master Emerald. |
|
| Game series | Sonic the Hedgehog |
| First game | Sonic the Hedgehog 3 |
| Created by | Takashi Thomas Yuda |
| Voiced by (English) | Video Games Michael McGaharn (1999) Ryan Drummond (2000) Scott Dreier (2001-2004) Dan Green (2005-present) Cartoons |
| Voiced by (Japanese) | Video Games Nobutoshi Canna (1998-present) Anime Yasunori Matsumoto (OVA) Nobutoshi Canna (Sonic X) |
| Information | |
| Species | Echidna |
| Skills | Punching,[1] Digging,[1] Wall climbing,[1] Gliding,[1] super transformation |
Knuckles the Echidna (ナックルズ・ザ・エキドゥナ Nakkurusu za Ekiduna?) is a character within the Sonic the Hedgehog fictional universe of video games, television shows, and comics. His creator is Takashi Thomas Yuda.
Knuckles is a red, teenage, anthropomorphic echidna, and while Sonic has large, spiky hair locks, Knuckles has red dreadlocks. He also has a white crescent birthmark on his chest. His first game appearance was in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, released on February 2, 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.[2] He was described as being 15 years old when he made his debut, but since Sonic Adventure, he is now given the age of 16.
Knuckles' name is derived from the four knuckles, two on each hand, which are actually sharp spikes. His task since birth has been to guard the Master Emerald, which is located on Angel Island. According to official Sonic Team polls, Knuckles is the fourth most popular character in the series.[3]
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[edit] History
[edit] Games
Knuckles lives on Angel Island, which hovers in the sky thanks to the power of the Master Emerald. His duty in life is to guard the Master Emerald, and he is the last surviving member of the Echidna people who once inhabited the island.
In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Knuckles thought that Sonic and Tails were attempting to steal the Master Emerald, and that the infamous mad scientist Dr. Robotnik, also known as Dr. Eggman, was trying to protect it. However, Robotnik had lied to Knuckles. He was planning to use the Emerald to repair his space station, the Death Egg. In Sonic & Knuckles, in the Hidden Palace Zone, Eggman's betrayal was revealed to Knuckles very bluntly, in the form of an electric shock. Since then, Knuckles has joined Sonic and Tails in their quest to stop the villain.
Aside from appearances in the main Sonic series, Knuckles featured prominently in Knuckles' Chaotix, a relatively unknown spin-off title developed for Sega 32X. The game also introduced Team Chaotix, a group of comical misfits.
In Sonic Adventure, the Master Emerald shatters when Eggman frees Chaos and Tikal's spirit from within it, causing Angel Island to fall out of the sky. Knuckles's goal is to reassemble the shards of the Master Emerald. These levels are large, explorable areas in which players must hunt about the various Action Stages for three shards per stage.
In Sonic Adventure 2, Knuckles the Echidna is guarding the Master Emerald when Rouge the Bat attempts to steal it. In the middle of their argument, Dr. Eggman snatches the emerald. Knuckles then shatters it in order to prevent Eggman from successfully obtaining it. Knuckles then sets off to find the pieces and restore the Master Emerald once more, before Rouge does. The gameplay is similar to the first Adventure title.
In other Sonic titles, he has been seen away from the Master Emerald at times, as in Sonic Heroes, where Knuckles joins forces with Sonic and Tails, becoming the power member of Team Sonic. Knuckles has appeared either as a playable character or in a supporting role in almost all later Sonic titles, althogh not always with particularly major role in the storyline. He appears however to have an important part to play in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood; it has ben confirmed that in the game he gets kidnapped by a group of aliens. Knuckles has also been confirmed to be a playable character in the game.
Knuckles makes a cameo appearance in Sega Superstars Tennis in the Green Hill court. Knuckles also makes a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl in the unlockable Green Hill Zone stage where he, Tails, and Silver run through the loop in the background. He also appears in this game as a trophy and a sticker.
[edit] Sonic the Comic
In Sonic the Comic, Knuckles is depicted as (at first) being the last of his kind, and bears the burden of guarding the Chaos Emeralds alone. When the Death Egg crashed on the island, Knuckles was briefly tricked by Doctor Robotnik into believing Sonic was a dangerous villain who plotted to steal the Island's Chaos Emeralds. The echidna thus allowed Robotnik to place his Badnik armies on the island and also construct a Launch Base Zone to rebuild his Death Egg, and assisted him in fighting Sonic and stealing Sonic's own six Chaos Emeralds so they could be combined with Knuckles's into one set of Emeralds. Knuckles, however, didn't trust Robotnik enough to tell him that he had the "missing" Grey Emerald which could control the others, and when Robotnik tried to absorb the Emeralds' power into himself, Knuckles used the Grey Emerald to defeat him.
Knuckles spent the next few months destroying every trace of Robotnik's influence on the Floating Island, including the entire Carnival Night Zone, and assisted Sonic both when his secret base came under attack by a Badnik army and when Robotnik established a base in the Ice Cap Zone. Finally, the two heroes teamed up to destroy the Death Egg before it could launch, which they failed to do. In addition, Knuckles had also failed to stop Robotnik's Metallix from stealing the Master Emerald to power the Death Egg. While Sonic fought to retrieve the Emerald, Knuckles used ancient echidna technology to pilot the Floating Island and open fire on the Death Egg with Chaos Energy blasts, finally downing the craft. With the Master Emerald returned, Knuckles owed a debt to Sonic and, despite preferring privacy, agreed to hide the entire population of Emerald Hill Zone in the Mushroom Hill Zone to keep them safe from Robotnik's wrath.
In the story The Homecoming, Knuckles discovered that an elderly, white-furred echidna named Dr. Zachary had appeared on the Island. Initially he claimed to be the first echidna to return to Mobius and that he was being pursued by a dangerous robot. It turned out Zachary was evil and using the robot (in reality an ancient echidna Guardian Robot) as his minion. He had the robot destroy the Master Emerald and absorb its power, intending to attack Mobius with it, but Knuckles stopped him, using the robot's head as a brief substitute Emerald. Knuckles then created a new Master Emerald from the echidna's Sacred Emerald Mines, which existed in a graveyard haunted by the ghosts of the Kohenyu (a race of Styracosaurus' who were unwittingly hunted to extinction by the echidnas) and he had to take responsibility for their death.
He was roped into helping Captain Plunder and his Sky Pirates launch a heist on an alien galleon, in return for a chest of ancient echidna documents that could help him with the Island's ancient computer systems. Knuckles trekked across Mobius with the chest, fighting the occasional villain as he went, before finally returning to the Island to battle Robotnik as well as a cyborg Zachary's attempt to turn the Emerald Hill refugees into an organic computer. Robotnik was then overthrown, and the refugees returned home.
Knuckles spent his days with Porker Lewis trying to uncover the mysteries of his lost people, occasionally being drawn into battle. He left the island to save lives from the environmental collapse of Mobius, when Robotnik tried to drain the planet's life force. Soon after that, the Floating Island came under attack by the terrifying Chaos creature and Knuckles was forced to scatter the Emeralds across Mobius, dooming the island in the process. He was left distraught and had to be forcibly evacuated from the island, and joined up with the Freedom Fighters to stop Chaos and retrieve the Emeralds.
Knuckles is also one of the few to know of Tails' legendary status in the Nameless Zone, a fact he became aware of when he followed Tails through a portal mistakenly believing the young fox was being kidnapped. The Nameless Zone residents came to the conclusion that Knuckles was actually Sonic, whom Tails had claimed was his sidekick. Far from blowing Tails' cover, Knuckles was delighted to meet people who didn't worship his rival and played along, assisting him in defeating the terrifying Trogg once and for all.
The last storyline revealed Knuckles had lived in the ancient past, acting as a warrior and leader for the echidnas against the Drakon Empire. It is presumed by Sonic that Knuckles was placed in suspended animation for unknown reasons and lost his memory.
His design in the comic is different to that of the game universe: the green and yellow of his shoes are inverted and his White crescent birthmark is a white/silver medallion in the comic series.
[edit] Sonic the Hedgehog (comic book)
[edit] Sonic Underground
Knuckles appeared in four episodes of the cartoon Sonic Underground. Friend or Foe echoes the usual storyline of his initial meetings with Sonic, as he is tricked by Dr. Robotnik's cohorts and goes after Sonic and his siblings. In keeping with the constantly reenacted scenario, Knuckles came to realize that he had been tricked, and teamed up with Sonic and his siblings (Sonia and Manic the Hedgehog) to save the Floating Island. Afterwards, Knuckles revealed that he had met the siblings' mother, Queen Aleena, who left a message stating that Knuckles would be the first of many allies to join with them against Robotnik.
Later, Sonic and the others returned to the Floating Island in the Chaos Emerald Crisis trilogy of episodes, seeking Knuckles' help against another Robotnik plot, a giant flying fortress powered by a Chaos Emerald. Knuckles agreed to help, but received a dire warning from his great-grandfather Athair that his leaving the Floating Island could lead to disaster. Regardless, Knuckles helped the Hedgehogs onto the fortress, only to learn that Robotnik's lackeys had turned on him and stolen the Emerald. Going to Athair, the four learned that they had to align with Robotnik to keep the Chaos Emerald-which had split in half-from releasing so much energy that Mobius itself would be destroyed. The siblings refused, so Knuckles took the matter into his own hands. Making a deal with Robotnik, he unwillingly agreed to lead Sonic and the others into a trap in exchange for Robotnik's help, so long as Robotnik promised not to put any of the three through Roboticization. True to form, Robotnik betrayed Knuckles, but Knuckles was able to turn the tables and free his friends. Forging a new alliance with Robotnik, they recovered the Emerald, which Knuckles was then given charge over. He was offered the position of a Freedom Fighter, but was forced to decline because of his duties to take care of the Chaos Emeralds on the Floating Island.
Sonic Underground ended before the plots could be resolved, and so Knuckles appeared in four episodes. Knuckles was voiced by Ian James Corlett.
[edit] Personality
As the last survivor of his clan,[4] Knuckles lived most of his life in seclusion on Angel Island,[5] an island floating in the air; and as such he is something of a loner.[4] His inexperience with off-islanders leaves him very honest, and also gullible.[1] Knuckles is shy around girls.[6] Although he is cool and determined in battle;[7] his short temper gives rise to situations in which Knuckles, often instigated by the trickery of Dr. Eggman, begins fighting Sonic the Hedgehog.[4]In the anime Sonic X, when Amy asks Sonic why Knuckles wouldn't come with them, Sonic replies "That's Knuckles. He does things his own way." Although he and Sonic fight from time to time, there is an undercurrent of mutual understanding between the two. Ever since the introduction of Shadow the Hedgehog as one of Sonic's darker, more anti-heroic rivals, Knuckles' relationship with Sonic has seen as much more friendly by comparison, and they both rarely fight anymore. Additionally, Knuckles has been tasked all his life as being the Guardian of the Master Emerald,[8] as only descendants of his tribe are capable of controlling it.[1] If Sonic exemplifies the wind, then Knuckles is the mountain: stern and anchored to his duty.[1][7] However, he finds Sonic's adventurous lifestyle enviable.[7] Various literature from the early games list his favorite food as being fruit,[6] or to be more specific, grapes. He also is described as hating strong light;[6] in Casino Park in Sonic Heroes, if you keep the characters still for long enough he'll say, "Everything is so twinkling and bright. I hate it!!"
[edit] Interactions with other characters
[edit] Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog is the main protagonist with whom Knuckles finds himself in a tense relationship. Faced with the solitary task of forever guarding the Master Emerald on Angel Island, Knuckles appears to be jealous of Sonic's independent nature and freedom while Sonic has been known to tease Knuckles from time to time. The two have also had many scuffles specifically when they find each other with opposite interests, mainly due to Eggman's deceitful nature in pitting the two against one another. Despite this, the two are on good terms with a friendly rivalry relationship and can work very well together when it comes to saving the world.
[edit] Rouge the Bat
Rouge the Bat was first introduced as a rival for Knuckles, both being expert treasure hunters. Rouge has always been interested in Knuckles' Master Emerald among other jewels and has been known to tease or attempt to steal the massive jewel on a couple of occasions. Knuckles remains highly competitive with Rouge and his emotions around her seem to range from mildly amused to outright flustered by her antics. They are teamed up in Sonic Rivals 2, with Knuckles agreeing to give Rouge the Chaos Emeralds in exchange for help in finding the Master Emerald. Some official sources also claim that Rouge has a secret crush on Knuckles that she would never admit to, one which it seems possible that he reciprocates.[9]In the anime Sonic X, Rouge and Knuckles are seen acting fairly friendly around each other and are closer than in the Sega games. It is also notable they often end up blushing around each other, and Knuckles always comes away looking embarrassed.
[edit] Miles "Tails" Prower
Tails and Knuckles are allies and appear to be on friendly terms, with Knuckles having acknowledged Tails' intelligence and technical genius on multiple occasions. Although Knuckles is often confused when Tails uses technical jargon, they work together often with Sonic. Knuckles often treats Tails like a younger brother.
[edit] The Chaotix
Knuckles has been allies with the Chaotix ever since they worked together to stop Eggman on Carnival Island in Knuckles' Chaotix. In the newer games and the anime series Sonic X, Knuckles has limited interaction with the group as opposed to the comic book where Knuckles is actually the leader of the extended Chaotix team.
[edit] Amy Rose
Knuckles and Amy work together but don't seem to have much of a relationship apart from this in the games. In Sonic X, Knuckles is mostly indifferent toward her but must sometimes protect her from danger.
[edit] Dr. Eggman (Ivo Robotnik)
Doctor Eggman is perhaps Knuckles' greatest source of irritation. Having been fooled time and time again by Eggman, he has constantly found himself locked in battle with Sonic and his friends only to realize that he has been deceived.
[edit] Storm the Albatross
In Sonic Riders, Knuckles developed a strong rivalry with the Babylon Rogue, Storm the Albatross. In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, he even refers to Storm as a being a "meathead".
[edit] Abilities
Knuckles is physically one of the strongest characters of the Sonic series, if not, as some official sources claim, the strongest.[4] His brute strength is often depicted as equivalent to that of Sonic's speed.[4] His extraordinary physical strength enables him to perform feats such as shattering boulders with his fists.[1] Additionally, he is a master of martial arts[1] with a specialty in punching.
Like most characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Knuckles is a very fast runner, though not as fast as Sonic or Shadow. He also uses Spin Attacks, which are variations on the tendency for echidnas to roll into tight spiny balls for protection. However, Knuckles is one of the few characters that is able to swim and float along the surface of a body of water. Although his jump height is relatively low, he can glide by, according to the Sonic Heroes manual, trapping air under his dreadlocks. However, the first Heroes cutscene of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity shows Knuckles floating in the air while Tails is flying. Knuckles is also a proficient burrower, able to dig into nearly any wall or floor, and can use the spikes on his eponymous knuckles to grip and climb walls. As the Guardian of the Master Emerald, he is able to access and utilize its powers, allowing him to use some Chaos powers in an incredible manner, and can sense it from a distance, even in pieces. This comes into play as Knuckles's role in the games sometimes involves tracking down the Master Emerald. Additionally, he seems to be able to sense other energies such as those used in Chaos Control. It was revealed in Sonic Riders:Zero Gravity that Knuckles can read ancient languages.
Like several other characters in the Sonic games, Knuckles can make use of the Chaos Emeralds to transform into a Super Form, named Super Knuckles. In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, he could also use the Super Emeralds to transform into Hyper Knuckles. The exact powers granted by these transformations vary from game to game, but generally he has the ability of flight and near invulnerability and his normal abilities of speed and power are greatly enhanced.
[edit] Voice actors
[edit] TV Shows
- In Sonic Underground (1999-2000), he was voiced by Ian James Corlett.
- In Sonic X (2003), he is voiced by Dan Green.
[edit] Movie
- In Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (1999, American Dub), his English Dub voice was Bill Wise.
[edit] Video Games (US)
- In Sonic Adventure (1999), he was voiced by Michael McGaharn
- In Sonic Shuffle (2000), he was voiced by Ryan Drummond
- From Sonic Adventure 2 (2001), through Sonic Advance 3 (2004), he was voiced by Scott Dreier.
- As of Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), he is currently voiced by his Sonic X (2003) actor Dan Green.
[edit] Associated songs
The games feature several theme songs related to Knuckles. For the most part, Knuckles is associated with the rap/hip hop genre.
- Sonic Adventure: "Unknown From M.E." - Marlon Saunders, Dredd Fox.
- Sonic Adventure 2: "Unknown From M.E." (remake) - Marlon Saunders, Hunnid P.
- Sonic Heroes: "We Can" - Tony Harnell, Ted Poley. This was a team theme shared with Sonic and Tails.
- Sonic Riders: "High Flying Groove" - Tomonori Sawada. This was also a team theme shared with Sonic and Tails.
In addition, each of Knuckles's levels in Sonic Adventure 2 has a vocal song associated with the character.
- Wild Canyon: "Kick the Rock" - Hunnid P
- Pumpkin Hill: "A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup" - Hunnid P
- Aquatic Mine: "Dive into the Mellow" - Hunnid P
- Death Chamber: "Deeper" - Hunnid P
- Meteor Herd: "Space Trip Steps" - Hunnid P
Note: The M.E. are the initials of Master Emerald, referring to his chosen fate as guardian of the Master Emerald.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Sonic Channel (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-01-08.
- ^ Concept-Mobius.com, [1]
- ^ ソニックチャンネル/イベント/ソニック キャラクター 人気投票 結果発表！
- ^ a b c d e Sonic City (HTML). Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
- ^ Knuckles bio in the Sonic Adventure 2 game manual.
- ^ a b c Knuckles bio in the Sonic Jam's Sonic World museum profiles.
- ^ a b c Sega of America. Sonic's official character profile from Sega of America. Sega of America. Retrieved on 2008-03-10.
- ^ Knuckles bio in the Sonic Adventure game manual.
- ^ Sonic Central/about/characters (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
[edit] External links
- Sonic Central official character profiles
- Knuckles at Sonic Channel
- Knuckles the Echidna Concept: "Mobius" (REAL Character Profile)
- Knuckles at Sonic-City Official European Sonic the Hedgehog website
- Emerald Guardian A Knuckles the Echidna Fansite
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