Blood, Jewels & Duty: The Knuckles The Echidna Story

Born on an island in the heavens, the blood of Knuckles ancestors flows through his veins.  Or at least that is what it says on his label.  Apparently his colours won't run either when you stick him in the washing machine; of course you want to see his true colours shining through.

Many sons want to follow in their fathers footsteps, Knuckles was sadly one of those who had no choice in it whatsoever.  From the moment of his conception his destiny has been to be a Guardian, a chosen one whose life is spent in the service of protecting the Master Emerald. This is a job with few perks boys and girls; Angel Island's finest found that out early when the time came that he was abandoned.

What exactly happened to the remaining members of the Knuckles clan is unknown, but I'd say naming your descendant after your clan name is both rather silly and somewhat ominously finite.  Besides, surely that would make him "Knuckles of Knuckles" or something.  (His cousin was Locutus of Knuckles. True story.)  Despite being abandoned in the remains of the Echidnopolis, Knuckles stepped up and accepted the job he was born into - mainly due to him having a very strong sense of both honour and duty thus he became the guardian of the Master Emerald. His duty and destiny to guard the Master Emerald... FORRREVVVEEERRRR! (*Echo*). 

Things were going along quite well until Knuckles discovered that the long lost Chaos Emeralds, all seven of the shiny little blighters, were hanging around with a certain blue hedgehog called Sonic.  He found this out; you'll not be surprised, from the villainous Dr.Robotnik.

So Knuckles was a little gullible. So what?

After much messing about which included fist fights, hyper emeralds, electrocutions and all manner of traps; Knuckles came to the conclusion that Sonic was the good guy after all and after so many face/heel turns it made SEGA's plot writing look like something Vince Russo cooked up in his darkest dreams, Sonic and Knuckles (and Tails) cemented their friendship with a handshake at the end of Sonic Triple Trouble, aka Sonic & Tails 2.

Knuckles though had found this adventuring lark a great deal of fun and it was that along with the desire to actually kick (or should that be punch) Eggman's ass himself that lead him on to the "miracle" of Carnival Island as Vector later described it and his encounter with the Chaotix.

Knux along with Espio, Charmy, Vector and the erstwhile trio of Mighty, Heavy and Bomb set about ruining Robotnik's plans once again with the use of some canny tag team gimmickry involving a pair of rings and with a giant bit of elastic energy in between them... which was surprisingly good.

And so afterwards Knuckles returned to his duties as Guardian, safe in the knowledge that only a handful of people knew of the location or even the existence of the Master Emerald - and that naturally was when it all started to go wrong.

Eggman knew and that was enough for him to start researching the history of the Echidna race, something that ironically Knuckles had been trying to do himself but had been stifled by the lack of surviving documentation and the time constraints imposed upon him by his duties of Guardian.  Eggman discovered the secret of Chaos' existence and with Knuckles distracted with a sob story about Sonic trying to claim the emerald for himself, made the necessary moves to summon Chaos from the Master Emerald.  Which had the rather unfortunate side effect of making it go KABLOOIE!

Devastated that he had been tricked again (Knuckles is too trusting for his own good) and that he had let the Emerald be so badly damaged, Knux channeled his anger into something productive and set off on a quest to gather the shards of the Master Emerald.  This quest would ironically lead to him discovering answers to many questions regarding his ancestry thanks to the visions granted to him by the spirit of Tikal - arguably one of the first guardians of the Master Emerald, though not of Knuckles bloodline.

Knuckles learned the true nature of the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald during those visions and perhaps inspired to not waste his life, due to Tikal's tragically short mortal existence, set out on adventures much more often.  This decision helped Knuckles become a recognised, if reclusive hero in his own right within the minds of the general populous.  His skills as a treasure hunter were such that they soon found acclaim and Knux was given a very silly hat that he wore for a time before selling for £50 to a hat shop in York where it was bought by a mystery customer.

Retiring to Angel Island after growing somewhat disillusioned to life as a 'star' and in turn disapproving somewhat of Sonic's attitude to fame, Knuckles was content to live the life he had before although be it a bit less uptight than he was previously.  Something that Knuckles' fame had also done (along with the events of Sonic Adventure) was to bring the existence of the Master Emerald to general notice - giant energy/water monsters destroying cities will do that you see - and it also brought it to the attention of notorious jewel thief Rouge the Bat.

Confronted by Rouge: this being at the beginning of Sonic Adventure 2, the two engaged in a fierce rivalry - made all the more difficult by Knux's reluctance to engage a lady in a fist fight... until it was made all too clear Rouge did not feel the same way about him. This was until Eggman came along and tried to grab the Master Emerald with the pair distracted.  Unwilling to let the Emerald go with the devious doctor, Knuckles leapt and with a giant punch shattered it again; confident he could find the shards and fix it once more.

Unfortunately Rouge also took off after the shards and it took him saving Rouge's life after she was going to fall to her death (her wings mysteriously failing to work) in order for him to recover all the shards and restore the Master Emerald.  It was kind of lucky he had it with him really, as he then had to use it to stop the Eclipse Cannon from firing and destroying the planet. Rouge and Knuckles share a love/hate relationship, she loves to tease him and get him flustered whenever she can whilst his commitment and strength really gets her sonar buzzing... or something.

After defeating Neo Metal Sonic with his fellow teammates Sonic and Tails; Knuckles took Tails up on his offer of a technological solution to Knuckles' increasingly difficult and frustrating guardianship before embarking on the ardent tasks of knocking the stuttering Storm the Albatross into the middle of next week with a vicious uppercut and banging his head after falling from a great height.

Yeah Sonic Team, the ones that can actually stay airborne fall and hurt themselves whilst Sonic lands perfectly fine.  Sure.

When it comes down to it Knuckles is a stubborn but dedicated guy who wears his heart on his sleeve.  He is very passionate about doing the right thing and has an inferiority complex when it comes to comparing himself with his best-friend and rival Sonic. His skills also comprise the abilities of gliding, digging and climbing using his signature spikes plus he's a disciple of mixed martial arts. It would be fair to say Knux's main problems are the ever troublesome Rouge, trying to stop everyone from calling him 'Knux' and lightening up for Christ's sake!

Not only that, but the recent vocal shakeup wasn't kind to him. Dan Green? Hang your head in shame.

In the Sonic Wrecks universe Knuckles is most often found hanging around with Shadow and you may be wondering why.  Well, let’s face it; you'd get sick of hanging around Mister 'Let's race! Let's race!' for ages as well so can you blame him? Sadly Shadow is just as bad as Sonic if not worse with his emo tantrums. So discounting Tails - can you see those two having a chat alone about anything remotely meaningful? I suppose the only remaining males he can have a proper conversation with are Team Chaotix.

Damn, I'm feeling worse for the guy every minute.

By far the coolest character on SW (discounting the author), Knuckles is the equivilant of the 'everyman' figure.  He doesn't believe in things going right all the time and he's loathed to let himself be dictated to by Eggman's delusions, Metal Sonic's rhetoric or Sonic's egomania.  His main aim at the moment though are too help keep the young band of misfit renegades together but he's also interested in why Angelus is an Echidna and how his Sonicverse form could benefit their cause, so maybe it's time for Knuckles to get down with some hard schooling! There is of course the continued safety of the Master Emerald to worry about too and maybe, just maybe the prospect of a little romancing in his future... Wooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhh!

Knuckles isn't afraid to hunt for the answers to the hard questions and naturally isn't afraid to get those spiked hands dirty, so with that and his cool brooding nature he's kinda like Shaft; except he's not a black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks.

And he's an Echidna.