Knuckles the Echidna

"As far back as I can remember, I've been living here on this dark island, always guarding the Master Emerald from anything that could harm it. I don't know why I was given this job, why it was my fate... destined to be here.. forever."

- Knuckles, Sonic Adventure

Knuckles the Echidna (ナックルズ・ザ・エキドゥナ Nakkuruzu za Ekiduna?) is a fictional character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is an anthropomorphic echidna and the current guardian of the Master Emerald, a powerful ancient relic which is his solemn duty to protect from anyone seeking to abuse it. He is also the sole remaining descendant of the Knuckles Clan and last of the echidnas on Earth. His dominant traits are his superhuman strength, and the two spike-like knuckles on each of his hands, from which his name is derived from, which he can use to dig with and climb walls.

Why He's Tougher Than Leather

 * 1) A loner by nature, Knuckles is independent, headstrong, and serious, yet gullible and short-tempered to a fault.
 * 2) He is entirely devoted to his duty, spending most of his time on Angel Island protecting the Master Emerald, and rarely cares for anything that is of no importance.
 * 3) When his friends and others are in need of his help, however, Knuckles can always be relied on being willing to leave his post and prove himself a faithful and good-hearted hero.
 * 4) He is also one of Sonic's oldest friends and rivals.
 * 5) Knuckles plenty of amazing, hip-hop/jazz stylized music In Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, like Unknown from M.E (his main theme), Pumpkin Hill and Space Trip Steps.
 * 6) He spawned some internet memes, like the Ugandan Knuckles meme, and his famous line from Sonic Adventure: "Oh no."

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Knuckles is extremely gullible, often tricked by Dr. Eggman into believing that Sonic is the enemy, which is a great cause for many of their confrontations. Yet he still fixes his mistakes by doing what's right.
 * 2) It appears that he's been sleeping on the job, since he's hardly seen guarding the Master Emerald in the recent installments.
 * 3) He along with many characters in recent appearances, has suffered from Character derailment. He has been often treated as a joke and was also portrayed as the dumb hothead who doesn't trust anyone and anything, or is a useless background character that is used for badly executed comic-relief moments in later titles like Sonic 06, Sonic Lost World, and Sonic Generations.
 * 4) * Where the first two games had him portrayed as a clumsy side character who was the source of awkward physical comedy, Sonic Lost World had him being both; being pathetic and acting like a hotheaded doofus, all to make Sonic look better than this version of Knuckles thinks he really is. The latter who, while no longer acting like a gullible fool, has him being there as a side-character that is nothing more than a cheerleader who helps Sonic and one moment in the cutscenes of him being whacked by Amy to show that Knuckles had become a laughing-stock type of character.
 * 5) * An prime example of this was how he was infamously flanderized in Sonic Boom (in both the games and the cartoon). Where he went from a gullible, yet lovable, powerful, and smart hero in Sonic X, and was turned into a lazy dumb idiot, to the point of even getting a page on the Loathsome Characters Wiki. Although, it works in the Boom universe since it is a separately different take on Knuckles, even while the similar aspects, unfortunately, clash into the in-universe Knuckles.

Videos
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Trivia

 * According to the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 manual, Knuckles' favorite food is grapes. This is referenced many times through the series.
 * Despite this, Echidnas don’t eat grapes in real life, they actually eat ants and termites.
 * He was originally going to have a Jamaican accent, despite being based on an Australian creature, for example watch this video.