Lien-Da

Lien-Da (a.k.a. Kommissar (now Grandmaster)) is a character in the universes of Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna. Lien-Da is 33 years old and is the current leader of the Dark Legion, having inherited the title after Dimitri's incapacitation. Lien-Da is sometimes called Kommissar (which is German for "commissioner", which probably refers to her rank in the Legion).

A red, female, anthropomorphic Echidna and an enemy of Knuckles the Echidna, Lien-Da's weapon of choice is a bullwhip. Her design has changed several times over the years, however she is almost always depicted as having red hair, blue eyes, peach muzzle, black nose, and wearing a black leather suit. Like all Echidnas, she has dreadlocks, and one of them is metallic&mdash;possibly cybernetic&mdash;to mark her as a member of the Legion. Lien-Da has always decorated these dreadlocks, originally with bands of white or grey metal but more recently with black straps.

Lien-Da's wardrobe originally consisted of a black leather jacket and matching pants, but it later changed to become tighter pants with frayed cuffs and a black belly shirt. The long sleeves of the shirt have a gleaming silver snake design on them, and she has a tight black pants that have been frayed at the ends, held up by a black leather belt and silver-tipped metallic boots marked with a red heart. Lien-Da also wears a collar around her neck in this design. Her recent design is supposed to make her look like an "evil, sexy diva." The outfit, however, is rather reminiscent of that stereotypically worn by a dominatrix.

Past Events
Lien-Da is the daughter of Luger (the leader of the Dark Legion) and his wife, Merin-Da, and was born with her twin brother, Kragok. When Merin-Da died from an illness, Luger remarried to Mari-Su and had another daughter, Julie-Su. Feeling that Julie-Su was trespassing on her life, Lien-Da scorned Julie-Su and treated her poorly. Sometime later, Mari-Su died in an accident (that Lien-Da and Kragok may have had a role to play, but this is not known for certain) and from then on, Lien-Da began ignoring Julie-Su entirely. Following a number of years, Lien-Da and Kragok began to dislike their father, and with the urgings of Moritori Rex, they decided to have Lien-Da use an Experimental Dark Legion weapon to their father while he was taking inventory and the two siblings would both be Grandmasters following his death. When Lien-Da fired the weapon, it atomized Luger and his death was blamed on the Zoah. But not long after the weapon fired, it exploded in Lien-Da's face, leaving her severely injured. While she was recovering, Kragok took the chance to take the title of Grandmaster all to himself, leaving Lien-Da with title of Kommisar.

Modern Day
After the presumed death of Kragok, Dimitri (the ancient father of the Dark Legion's founder, Menniker) assumed control, with Lien-Da taking more and more control as Dimitri's ancient body began to fail, despite the cybernetics he had grafted to himself. Although Dimitri was her Great-great grandfather, she would at times refer to him as "Great-grandfather"&mdash;a sign that, like Kragok, she refuses to acknowledge the generation of her father Luger, thus adopting Moritori Rex as her father.

Shortly after Dimitri gained control of the Legion, he attempted to put an end to the long-standing war between the Legion and the rest of Echidna society. Lien-Da secretly attempted to use the meeting between Dimitri and the Mitre (the political leader of Echidnaopolis) to her own advantage, and arranged an assassination. The intended target of this assassination, however, was never stated (although some evidence suggests it was Dimitri). Regardless, the assassination was foiled by Lara-Su, Knuckles' daughter from an alternative future.

Following this event, Lien-Da continued in her role as Dimitri's assistant, and although she at times disagreed with his orders (particularly his orders to try and make peace with Knuckles and his allies), she apparently tried to serve him well. When Dimitri's health took a turn for the worse, Lien-Da assisted him in a plan to convince Knuckles (who at the time was essentially a living Chaos Emerald) to use his powers to give Dimitri new life. He furthermore made Lien-Da promise to continue his policies, in case of his death. The plan to use Knuckles' power to save Dimitri failed due to interference from Mammoth Mogul, who tried to steal Knuckles' powers for himself. When next seen, Lien-Da implied that Dimitri was deceased, which indicates that she was either unaware that he was still alive, or that she dethroned him for her own gain. Either way, Dimitri was left with only one-seemingly-loyal minion: Lien-Da's renegade advisor Dr. Finitevus.

During the year that Sonic the Hedgehog was lost in space, Lien-Da inherited control over the Dark Legion. However, during that time, Dr. Robotnik sent the Dingoes to capture Angel Island as well as Knuckles' father, Locke, who had entrusted the care of the Master Emerald in Lien-Da's hands. She then enlisted the help of Knuckles and Sonic to free Angel Island and rescue Locke, which they successfully did. Shortly afterward, the Dark Legion split into two rival groups, plunging the organization into a civil war. Lien-Da remained in control of the Flame Legion, while her nephew Remington (sporting a look based on that of his late father Kragok) assumed command of the Frost Legion. Dr. Finitevus also became a threat to her claims to power, his plan being to restore the Legion under Enerjak. Determined to prevent this, Lien-Da agreed to a truce with Remington until Finitevus was stopped. In reality, the two had been invited by Finitevus to absorb power from the Master Emerald to use against Robotnik, but the power was then stolen by Knuckles-just as Finitevus intended. The Legion Grandmistress and her nephew tried to defeat Enerjak, but he overcame their forces and transformed Remington-and all the Legionnaires-back into their wholly organic selves. Lien-Da and a few others were horrified, and these were left on Angel Island while the others were sent to Albion.

Lien-Da and those that still remained loyal to her then offered their services to the Eggman Empire, who re-installed cybernetics in all of them and re-christened them the Dark Egg Legion. Lien-Da thought this was finally her chance to be in full control of the Legion, but it turned out that Dimitri had went to Eggman first, and he was made Grandmaster of the Dark Egg Legion.

Lien-Da was once against Kommisar of the Legion and was the field leader in the defense of Megapolis against the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix. Things would get worse for her as it was revealed that the cybernetics Eggman installed in them were laced with bombs that he could detonate at any time he wished, essentially making the Legion Eggman's slaves. Under Dimitri's orders, however, Lien-Da continued to obey Eggman's orders, since the war would end very soon.

Eggman was defeated, and the Dark Egg Legion quickly threw in their lot with Snively and the Iron Queen, whose Iron Dominion had taken over Megapolis. Lien-Da, however, had finally had enough of "being second best," and sabotaged Dimitri's efforts to modify the Iron Queen's control chips. Since Dimitri had succeeded in modifying one chip so far, Lien-Da stole it and installed it in herself. This chip not only made her immune to the Iron Queen's Technomagic, but also would allow her to control the Dark Egg Legion at will. With Dimitri incapacitated and hidden away, she reported his "escape" to the Iron Queen and was named Grandmaster of the Legion in his stead.

Lien-Da continued to bide her time, waiting for an opportunity to strike. It finally came when the Iron Dominion took control of New Mobotropolis, and the Freedom Fighters fought to get it back. In the confusion, Lien-Da tried to activate her chip and get control over the Legionnaires. However, the Iron Queen would not take her treachery lightly, and managed to bypass her bypass and command the bombs in her cybernetics to detonate.

What was left of Lien-Da was gathered up by the Dark Egg Legion, who withdrew to the Eggdome. When Eggman returned, he proceeded to rebuild Lien-Da, internalizing many of her cybernetics and building some new limbs as well. When she wondered why Eggman didn't leave her for dead or rebuild her like Dimitri, Eggman explained that it was all part of the game he plays with all his subordinates. Lien-Da accepted this, and re-took her place as Grandmaster of the Dark Egg Legion.

Personality
Lien-Da is a ruthless, femme fatale-style character, and seems to care only for herself. She knows how to seize power and can be quite sneaky. Despite this, she actually cares deeply for the echidna people, and in recent stories has organized the Dark Legion to rescue echidnas from the group of dingoes who sold Angel Island to Dr. Robotnik.

Although she is clever, she knows when she is in need of assistance. One example is when Knuckles' father, Locke, entrusted the Master Emerald into her care before being captured by dingos, she enlisted Knuckles' help to rescue him. Nevertheless, she has little regard for life, and is willing to kill to further her goals.

Lien-Da seems to enjoy power - it was implied that she arranged an assassination attempt to eliminate Dimitri, in order to usurp his leadership. This, however, would seem to be in conflict with her relationship with him as it was depicted later, with her assisting in plans to extend his life (and thus his time as leader) further. Additionally, in the 25 Years Later storyline, she apparently respected Dimitri's counsel. Just recently, she disabled Dimitri's glass bubble and dreadlocks and put him in a box. She then assumed position as Grandmaster after claiming Dimitri had fled.

Her hatred of her half-sister Julie-Su seems to stem from the fact that their father loved Julie-Su more. This jealousy shows in her behavior towards Julie-Su for the entire main story arc, (and even part of the reason she and Kragok murdered Luger) but they seem to be on speaking terms in the 25 Years Later issues.

Powers and abilities
Although the comics do not show much of Lien-Da's strength, she does have a very excellent martial arts skill as seen from several issues. However, none are quite as shocking as when she has a electric whip. First shown during the Albion Attack, she used it against Sonic the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog #243. This is, so far, the only time it has appeared in the comic series to date.

Romance
In the present of the comics, Lien-Da has no apparent romantic interests. She is known to flirt with Knuckles, but has had no more success with him than has Rouge the Bat.


 * Many fans also believe Lien-Da to be involved at some point with Dr. Finitevus, and think that he may be Rutan's father due to the white tips of Rutan's dreadlocks. If this proves incorrect, it is unknown who her partner is in Mobius: 25 Years Later, as he never made an appearance or was mentioned.