Knuckles the Echidna (Sonic Cinematic Universe)

WARNING! Spoilers ahead! This article contains spoilers related to this character and their source material. Suppose you do not wish to know vital information on the character's elements throughout. In that case, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said character should you continue. That is all.

Knuckles the Echidna "Porcupine? I am an echidna. Trained since birth in all forms of lethal combat, destined to restore honor to my tribe, and willing to destroy anything that gets in my way." Gender: Male Type: Wrathful Warrior Age: 16 Species: Echidna Portrayed by: Idris Elba (Sonic movies) Fred Tatasciore (Sonic Drone Home) Status: Alive Media of origin: Sonic the Hedgehog 2

"Do I look like I need your power?"

— Knuckles, Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Knuckles the Echidna is one of the tritagonists of Paramount Pictures' Sonic the Hedgehog film series, and the titular main protagonist of his own TV series of his name.

He is a powerful red extraterrestrial echidna with the power of chaos energy that gives him incredible strength and the sole survivor of the echidna tribe after they were wiped out by the owl tribe. He had a late deceased father who was also a Echidna. He formerly worked with Dr. Robotnik to find the Master Emerald and defeat Sonic the Hedgehog, only to be betrayed by him and he allied with Sonic to stop Dr. Robotnik. Teaming up together, the three saved the day and defeated Dr. Robotnik.

In the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, he was adopted by Tom Wachowski and Maddie Wachowski, being the third anthropomorphic child to be adopted by Tom and Maddie, following Sonic and Tails. He also knows Pacmacanic. In Knuckles, he and Wade Whipple travel to Reno for a bowling tournament.

Why He Is The Warrior

1. He is a great incarnation of Knuckles the Echidna. He is extremely well-written and can be seen as the best incarnation of Knuckles in the world.
2. He spawned the meme "Do I look like I need your power", when he holds the spinballing Sonic in place before pushing him back while casually asking if he looks like he needs Sonic's power.
3. Similar to how Sonic is supercharged with electricity capable of limitless energy, Knuckles seems to get his strength from some sort of red lightning.
   • This is also shown in Knuckles, as The Buyer uses a quill of Knuckles to power his machine.
4. Knuckles' main power is his immense physical strength. He can easily break through large rock structures, perforate metal and blow up Robotnik's robots with one punch. Throughout the movie, Sonic was never able to best Knuckles in terms of strength.
5. He takes great pride in his species, and as a warrior, as he was somewhat offended by Agent Stone misidentifying him as a "porcupine".
6. He is described as being serious yet still gullible at times. Being better suited for combat than Sonic in many ways, his entire existence is about honor and about being a warrior, to the point where he appears to be a force of nature.
7. His running gag of hurting people with his handshakes without meaning to is funny to watch, Downplayed by the fact that Knuckles is very aware of his strength, but handshakes are one of many Earth customs he's unfamiliar with, and no one thinks to tell him to ease off.
8. Knuckles' backstory was very sad. His father and tribe died in the fight with Longclaw, causing him to vow to avenge them by defeating Sonic. Sonic immediately drops his snarky attitude and sadly tells him that he, too, lost everything that same day.
   • Knuckles almost drops his vendetta against Sonic, but Tails didn't realize they were reaching an understanding and is attacked when his guard was down, leading Knuckles to believe Sonic tricked him.
   • His cynical nature actually hides his deep sadness at the loss of his people whose honor Knuckles has long sought to restore.
9. He works with Robotnik because of their shared enmity with Sonic and the scientist offering to help Knuckles find the Master Emerald. Even then, Knuckles only hates Sonic because of the war between the echidnas and the owl tribes, the latter of whom Sonic's adoptive mother was from, and has no malicious intent otherwise. After Robotnik reveals his true colors and Sonic saves him from drowning, Knuckles joins forces with him and Tails to stop the madman.
10. Although it takes the two some time to get there, he develops a friendship with Sonic by the end of the movie that looks to be as strong as Sonic and Tails'. After a heart-to-heart talk with each other, Sonic encourages Knuckles by saying that can he have a better life than before and that he shouldn't let failure stop him from reaching that.
11. Unlike his game counterpart, Knuckles gets to fight Robotnik alongside Sonic and Tails after he betrays him, and even knocks the Master Emerald out of him.
12. Idris Elba is a really excellent choice for Knuckles in this movie and arguably gives a better performance than the alternative from the video games and even television series. He can be seen as the perfect casting choice for Knuckles.
    • Idris Elba's voice for Knuckles is really deep and sounds like an impression of Darth Vader's voice, especially his voice by James Earl Jones, and Mufasa from The Lion King franchise, coincidentally, both Darth Vader and Mufasa are both voiced by James Earl Jones.
    • His vocal performance for Knuckles comes across as highly entertaining, with tons of moments that are hilarious and can make you laugh.
13. He gets his own spin 2024 mini-series spin-off Knuckles, where he takes on Wade as his apprentice, training him in the ways of the Echidna warrior to help him prepare for a bowling tournament in Reno.
14. In the finale of his own series after he gains his Heroic Second Wind, Knuckles eventually resort to use the Flames of Disaster in order to finish off The Buyer once and for all.
15. Character development: He goes from an intimidating, no-nonsense, arrogant warrior to an excitable, goofy, bruiser with a soft center over the course the movie. And over the course of his mini-series, he is taught to develop this further, learning from Wade and his family to enjoy life on Earth as well acknowledged it as his home after having spent so long as a warrior devoted to his destiny.
16. He is admittedly a massive improvement over his Sonic Boom incarnation, as he is not a knucklehead (no pun intended) and isn't completely dumb.

Dishonor Qualities

1. Despite being smart, he is also capable of being quite naïve in certain situations, such as trusting the wrong person like Dr. Robotnik or letting his temper get the better of him.
2. While he is still likable in the 2024 mini-series spin-off Knuckles, however, the main problem with him is that his best human friend, Wade Whipple, takes up way too much screen time, to the point where it makes Wade a massive Spotlight Hog, especially with his father issues and you can clearly tell that Paramount Pictures wanted Wade to have more screen time than Knuckles.
   • In fact, this causes Knuckles to not have enough screen time, despite the title of the show being named after him.
   • The fourth episode, "Flames of Disaster", is a worst example since he only appears in the beginning and end of the episode.
3. He could be somewhat unlikable at times, especially in the beginning of "The Warrior", where he turns the living room of the Wachowski house into a fighting pit (which caused Maddie to ground him for it), and in "The Flames of Disaster", where he lets a crazy man named Jack Sinclair kidnaps Wade, and when he claims to Wanda that Wade must learn to rescue himself to become a true warrior (although to be fair, Wade did rescue himself in the end of the fourth episode).
4. Fred Tatasciore's performance as Knuckles will most likely come off across as mediocre at best job voicing him in a deleted scene in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and "Sonic Drone Home", due to trying too hard to a Idris Elba voice impression, and he succeeds and does a not-so-great impression of Idris Elba.

Trivia

• Before Idris Elba was confirmed to voice Knuckles, it was reported in February 2021 that the studio was originally considering Jason Momoa for the voice role.
• Knuckles is Idris Elba's fifth voice acting role following Truck from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Chief Bogo in Zootopia, Shere Khan in the 2016 remake of The Jungle Book, Fluke in Finding Dory, Heimdall in Marvel's What If...?.
• Similar to his video game counterpart, Knuckles' favorite food is grapes and unlike Sonic, Knuckles is able to swim.
• Knuckles mistaken for a porcupine by Agent Stone is similar to the Knuckles from Sonic X where the French Dub mislabeled him as a porcupine instead of an echidna.
• Knuckles speaks in a very slight British accent, this is because Idris Elba is British.
• There will be Halloween costumes for Knuckles, as a promotion for Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Comments

Loading comments...