Knuckles the Echidna (Sonic X)


 * For other characters with the same name, see Knuckles the Echidna (disambiguation).

"Knuckles never runs from a fight!"

- Knuckles the Echidna, "Missile Wrist Rampage"

Knuckles the Echidna is an anthropomorphic, wild and tough echidna who appears in the anime series Sonic X and its comic series published by Archie Comics. Personality-wise, he is stubborn and doesn't adapt easily. Once he and Sonic the Hedgehog were rivals, but their differences have been resolved. Despite this, he is often jealous of Sonic's free spirit. He is famous as a treasure hunter and a master of martial arts. Knuckles' primary ability is strength, his arms are so powerful that he can shatter rocks. Ever since the first Chaos Control incident, Knuckles has become dedicated to finding the Chaos Emeralds so he can go back to his job of guarding the Master Emerald as soon as possible which he takes very seriously.

History
Knuckles hails from an unnamed world in a parallel dimension to Earth. Until the Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 adaptions in Earth, Knuckles is desperate to find a solution to return back to their dimension on his own. However, he has helped Sonic and his friends whenever Doctor Eggman stirred up trouble. His role is minor until the video game adaptions and then minor again.

In Season 3 after returning home, he joins the heroes gathering the Chaos Emeralds in space in order to defeat a new villainous group, the Metarex and their leader, Dark Oak. During this adventure, Knuckles had to use the Master Emerald to power up the Blue Typhoon. At first he was too stubborn to use it, but after a serious beat-down by Amy, Cream the Rabbit and Cosmo, the Master Emerald had to be used. During their final showdown, however, the Master Emerald is destroyed and drained of its power. After this adventure, Knuckles head back to Sonic's world and oversee the restoration of the Master Emerald, which he fails to see Chris leaving and declares war on Doctor Eggman with the others.

Personality
Personality-wise, Knuckles is serious, stubborn and does not adapt easily. Headstrong and inflexible, Knuckles prefers to do things his own way which causes him to clash with others. Regardless, he is very strong-willed, seldom wavering in his determination.

Knuckles grew up believing in honesty, and holds a strong and steadfast belief that there is good in everyone, which always lets him give people (especially Eggman) second chances. However, this makes him very naive, quite gullible and easily misled, which has given him a history of being tricked by Eggman.

Though he is cool and determined in battle, Knuckles has an extremely short temper and aggressive behavior, and is difficult to talk to or reason with when he is angry. Though his wild-temper has often been known to get him into trouble.

Knuckles holds a special loneliness as he is the last of his tribe of Echidnas that lived on Angel Island for generations and believes that he will never see any one like him in his lifetime. Despite of this though, he believes that he is the only person who can carry out the task of protecting the Master Emerald to ensure no one abuses its power.

Powers and Abilities
By stretching his arms and legs outwards while airborne, Knuckles can catch the current under his dreadlock-like spines, allowing him to glide over long distances through mid-air. Also, by using the spikes on his fists, Knuckles can attach himself to walls and climb up any kind of surface with ease, no matter the material.

Knuckles is also a proficient burrower, able to dig into any wall or floor and excels at tunneling through subterranean regions with great speed.

When in battle, Knuckles' fighting skills is a force to be reckoned with, as they can be as fearsome to his enemies as his temper. Knuckles mainly relies on his spiked fists to their fullest, using strong and powerful punches, such as powerpacked jabs or piercing uppercuts, to deal damaging blows to his opponents.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic and Knuckles' relationship is mostly seen as a friendly rivalry as Sonic's speed parallel's the same extent of Knuckles' strength. This is not so surprising that Sonic and Knuckles fight each other at times but they can also be powerful teammates and aid each other, being able to take on powerful foes such as Chaos, the Egg Golem and Yellow Zelkova.

It is noted that Knuckles may be jealous of Sonic as Rouge once stated that Knuckles has an inferiority complex.

Rouge the Bat
Rouge is Knuckles' rival, especially in treasure hunting. The way Knuckles can punch is just like the way Rouge can kick. The two can get into heated or playful arguments. Rouge constantly teases Knuckles because of his grumpy attitude. In the Sonic X bio, it is revealed that she has a crush on Knuckles, however it is unknown whether Knuckles returns the same feeling for her, but in a few episodes it is hinted that he may like her.

In the episode The Volcanic Venture, Knuckles and Rouge had to team up with Sonic to go into a volcano; however the two couldn't get along and were constantly arguing, but Sonic didn't mind it. But somewhere in the end of the episode Rouge flies off, Knuckles asks her where is she going; she said that she'll find Chris, Knuckles tells her to stop, he shyly smiles and says, "Hehe! Good Luck!", Rouge replies that she'll be back and comments that he is "handsome".

In episode 52, Knuckles and Rouge were simply talking to each other, until they came to a heated fight, because Knuckles was making fun of Sonic and Rouge didn't like that and said that she knows that Knuckles actually misses Sonic and he should be lucky that she came and gave him company, Knuckles couldn't admit that fact and said that she is actually the one who is missing Sonic. After brutally hitting each other, they see Super Sonic flying in the sky, they stopped fighting and Rouge asked that it is useless to fight like this, Knuckles comments that Rouge looks "awful" with dirt covered on her face, Rouge then jumps on Knuckles with the camera facing the moon, and it is believed that she's tickling him (kissing him in the Japanese version), since Knuckles was heard laughing hysterically and shouting. "Rouge, stop!! That tickles!" Even if they really are fighting, it is done in a playful manner.

Doctor Eggman
Knuckles' relationship with the doctor is complex as Knuckles always seems to fall for Eggman's trickery, believing that what Eggman is saying is the best for him and it would seem that Knuckles is basically another of Eggman's mindless slave doing his dirty work without giving a second thought. Most of the time though, Knuckles is seen as a powerful threat to Eggman and his plans for world domination.

Friends and Allies

 * Sonic the Hedgehog (Friendly Rival and good friend)
 * Miles "Tails" Prower (Best Friend)
 * Shadow The Hedgehog
 * Amy Rose
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Christopher Thorndyke
 * Cheese
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Vector the Crocodile
 * Espio the Chameleon
 * Charmy Bee
 * Vanilla the Rabbit
 * Big the Cat
 * Emerl
 * Tikal
 * Cosmo
 * Rouge the Bat
 * Hawk (Great Friend)

Rivals

 * Sonic the Hedgehog (Friendly Rival)
 * Rouge the Bat
 * Emerl (After obtaining a Chaos Emerald)

Foes

 * Dr. Eggman
 * Bocoe
 * Decoe
 * Bokkun
 * Chaos
 * Dark Oak
 * Yellow Zelkova

Trivia

 * Knuckles uses the third most amount of Engrish in the Japanese version coming right behind Eggman, who uses the second most amount of Engrish, and Sonic himself, who uses Engrish at least once in practically every episode.
 * Knuckles' mittens are drawn as gloves in episode 24 and his eyes are colored green twice in episode 3 and once in episode 56.
 * In episode 65, Vector the Crocodile says "When I'm through with him (Knuckles), even his own mama won't notice him." Vector is probably mentioning Knuckles having a mother, thus making him possibly the second character (after Cream) to have any parents mentioned in the show although this is mainly an exaggeration.
 * Knuckles is the last friend of Chris to speak with him personally as seen in the last episode. They had their final conversation next to the Master Emerald.