Merlina the Wizard

"Why do flowers bloom knowing they are destined to wither? Their time of beauty is so short-lived."

- Merlina the Wizard, Sonic and the Black Knight

Merlina the Wizard (魔導師マリーナ) is the principal antagonist of Sonic and the Black Knight. She is a unique member of the townspeople from the world of Camelot and the granddaughter of the legendary wizard Merlin. An exceptional and talented young wizard, Merlina serves the Royal Court as the Royal Wizard of Camelot.

When Merlina learned that only ruin and warfare awaited her kingdom in the future, she sought to prevent this by seizing the scabbard of Excalibur from the corrupted King Arthur to make her world eternal. For this, she called Sonic the Hedgehog to her world and sent him on a quest to retrieve the scabbard. When Sonic succeeded, Merlina attempted her plan, but was stopped and redeemed by Sonic before her actions could destroy the kingdom.

History
Following in her grandfather's footsteps, Merlina became the Royal Wizard of Camelot where she served the Royal Court. During the game's opening sequence, Merlina is being pursued by King Arthur and the Knights of the Underworld. The sorceress uses a summoning ritual to warp a "brave knight, swift as the wind" into the Arthurian world and Sonic promptly appeared. After the hedgehog dispatches the demon knights, Merlina stops him from attacking King Arthur immediately, and instead conjures a magical cyclone to teleport them away to the shores of Misty Lake.

After Sonic acquires Caliburn, Merlina explains that she cannot accompany them on their journey; as the Royal Wizard, she would attract unwanted attention from the residents of the Kingdom. Merlina instead remains in hiding for much of the first half of the game, while Sonic completes quests for Nimue, Lady of the Lake. When the hedgehog goes to battle King Arthur for the final time in Faraway Avalon, Merlina is finally tracked down by the Knights of the Round Table in Castle Camelot. The Blue Blur arrives back just in time to intervene and gave Merlina the Scabbard of Excalibur&mdash;which then enables the wizard to play her true hand.

Merlina reveals that she had, all this time, been planning a double-cross. Summoning Sonic to the Kingdom was not a scheme to defeat King Arthur and bring peace and liberty to the land, but rather to take the power of Excalibur's Scabbard for herself. Having foreseen the future of the storybook realm, Merlina realized that the Grand Kingdom was doomed to end in ruin and warfare&mdash;and is determined to stop these events from coming to pass, interpreting her grandfather's dream of a kingdom that lasts forever literally. The wizard intends to apply the scabbard's power of immortality to the realm itself by placing Grand Kingdom under a kind of magical stasis, fueled by the dark forces from the Underworld. As the castle falls apart around them, Sonic and the Knights flee through Knight's Passage. In order to save the Kingdom, the former lieutenants of King Arthur agree to work with Sonic and Nimue to halt the Dark Queen's magic by activating four sacred stones. Sir Lancelot rushes to Shrouded Forest, Sir Gawain to Great Megalith, Sir Percival to The Cauldron, and Sonic to Dragon's Lair.

Nimue's plan is, however, ineffective in halting the spread of Merlina's magic. Sonic and Caliburn head back to the castle to face the wizard in Dark Hollow, where Merlina explains her intentions. Enraged and disgusted, Sonic turns a deaf ear to Merlina's words and attacks her, but only suffers a severe beating. After being bisected by the crazed sorceress, Caliburn fuses with the other Sacred Swords of the Knights of the Round Table to become Excalibur–simultaneously encasing Sonic in a suit of gold armor: Excalibur Sonic. In response, Merlina uses the power of the Scabbard to transform into the giant Dark Queen, the game's final boss.

After her defeat, Merlina returns to normal, but continues to lament the fate of her world. Sonic hands her a flower and comforts her, proclaiming the anarchic wisdom that, while every world has to come to an end, they just have to live their lives to the fullest until that day comes. Reminiscing about her grandfather, Merlina takes the Blue Blur's words to heart. Though her reaction is not seen, she is also present when Caliburn reveals that Sonic is the one and true King Arthur.

Personality
Merlina is a person who loved the kingdom her grandfather had helped create with all her heart; from the winds that makes the meadows dance, to he flowers by the wayside, to the melodious songbirds. After learning of her world's grim fate, Merlina's love was shattered and turned into indescribable sadness and sorrow which ran deeper that "the depths of the underworld". This gave Merlina a somewhat nihilistic perspective, as she would ponder on why trying to accomplish something when they were all destined to die. Guided by her desire to protect the kingdom of her grandfather, Merlina became solely committed to making her kingdom eternal. However, Merlina let her intentions corrupt her and turn her into a well-intentioned extremist; every crime was a necessary evil, any manipulation was an end that justified the means and the sacrifice of countless lives was for the greater good to preserve their ideal world. When confronted Merlina would try making others sympathize with her, only to blame them for not understanding when rejecting her one-sided sadness.

To the people around her, Merlina would appear as a kind, yet strong and wise soul with every bit of good intention for her kingdom. When letting others know of her true motives, she revealed herself as a cold and taciturn individual, willing to kill without remorse.

Unlike most other villains, whose ambitions are driven through a lust for power and recognition, Merlina did not considered herself evil, as her schemes were motivated to preserve what she cherished the most and that she would berated Sonic's attempts to stop her as selfish struggles which would doom them all. However, as implied by Caliburn, Merlina's justifications of her actions where merely a selfish excuse to escape her own sorrow. Following her defeat, Merlina came to understand that Sonic was not wrong in stopping her. Moreover, she realized from Sonic's advise that everything must have an end so that they can live their lives to the fullest which is where life's brilliance come from, which cured her of her sorrow. These factors make Merlina one of the most three-dimensional villains in the series.

Powers and Abilities
Merlina is a talented wizard of incredible power. She wields a form of magic referred to as "High Ancient magic", which is extremely potent. With her magic, Merlina can accomplish feats such as teleporting herself and others, accelerate the aging process of at least plants, and even call beings from other dimensions to her location through rituals. As another testament to her magical skills, she was able to single-handedly force Castle Camelot into collapse and raise a new castle in its stead at the same time.

Besides magic skills, Merlina is capable of fast movements and high strength, being able to catch Sonic the Hedgehog just as he took off at high speed and even hold him in stationary position on the ground while he was running. She also have some knowledge about swordsmanship as she was able to teach Sonic at the basics of swordplay at Misty Lake.

As a member of the townspeople race, Merlina breathes in carbon dioxide and breathes out oxygen, similar to trees.

Dark Queen
By harnessing the powers of the scabbard of Excalibur, Merlina can transform into the Dark Queen. In this state, Merlina's skills at High Ancient magic is greatly increased and she can also control the forces of the Underworld. She is also capable of feats such as flight, forming barriers and use her shadow for combat. She can also assume a ghostly spectral form where he can project energy, create barriers and engage in swordplay. While in this form, she is strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Excalibur Sonic and Excalibur.

Archie Comics
Merlina made an appearance in the story "Knight Time" from the Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog #197, as part of the comic's adaptation of Sonic and the Black Knight.

In an alternate medieval world, Merlina was a sorceress that served as the royal wizard to the ruler of the land, King Arthur. For unspecified reasons, however, Merlina made King Arthur angry at her and he desired her death, forcing Merlina to run for her life. As Merlina ran through the open fields, however, King Arthur caught up to her, and she ended up being cornered the king and his minions. In an effort to save herself from the king and his minions, Merlina used her magic to summon Sonic the Hedgehog from his world. After Sonic had arrived, Merlina apologized for summoning him so abruptly, but Sonic quickly caught up to the situation and dispatched King Arthur's minions in no time flat. Before Sonic could take on King Arthur, however, Merlina pulled Sonic back and teleported the two of them away in a whirlwind of smoke and dust.

Family

 * Merlin (Grandfather)

Friends/Allies

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Caliburn
 * Nimue
 * Sir Lancelot
 * Sir Gawain
 * Sir Percival
 * Sir Galahad
 * Sir Lamorak

Enemies

 * King Arthur
 * Excalibur Sonic (as Dark Queen)

Theme Songs
Merlina has four songs, a slow piano theme for when Sonic speaks with her "Merlina's Theme", "With Me" when she is the Dark Queen (shared as the theme for Excalibur Sonic). "Merlina- Her Wicked Smile" for when she reveals her true intentions and "Merlina- The Queen Of The Underworld" for when she starts to fight Sonic.

Trivia

 * Merlina bears a strong resemblance to Shahra except she has a lighter skin color, purple hair, a tiara with a red jewel in the middle, and a longer braided ponytail. They both had also betrayed Sonic, who had forgiven them, but unlike Shahra, Merlina didn't turn evil.
 * Many have commented that Merlina bears a very close resemblance to Princess Zelda, of the Legend of Zelda games. It could be possible since both she and Zelda have similar hairstyles, ears, eye shapes, and even use magic powers to aid the hero. Both have also battled the hero at least once.
 * When Merlina first summons Sonic, she uses the same incantation Erazor Djinn used to summon the Ifrit Golem in Sonic and the Secret Rings: "Ifalas zaras I e zaraq".
 * It is mentioned by Lancelot after beating Shrouded Forest's Beat the Clock Mission that Merlina has done something bad before with the line "Dark Hollow? What is Merlina up to this time?" It could have been possible he was referring to her plot to take the scabbard in the beginning of the game.
 * As the Dark Queen, Merlina is the first villain that Sonic faced who wanted to do good instead of evil. Unlike Erazor Djinn who wanted to destroy the story world, Merlina wanted to protect it. However, like Erazor Djinn, her intentions corrupted her.
 * Merlina is one of those few villains who changed their outlook on life and became Sonic's friend. Another example is Chaos.
 * In the 3D cutscene, (The opening of the game) Merlina's hair and dress are purple, but in the 2D (The rest of the cutscenes), her hair and dress are magenta. Also, in the 2D cutscenes, the Dark Queen has purple hair (though this was to match her overall darker appearance).
 * Merlina's motives are similar to that of Maria and Tikal, which was to save their world from destruction, but Merlina's ambitions corrupted her, unlike Tikal and Maria's.
 * Merlina's favorite flowers seems to be Carnations, for every time she had a flower in her hand, it was always a Carnation. She only held yellow/orange carnations, meaning disappointment or dejection. This relates to how she's disappointed with her world coming to an end someday or that she dejects its fate and decides to make a world that lasts forever.
 * In the opening sequence of Sonic and Black Knight, when Merlina is running from King Arthur, a symbol on the bottom of her dress proves to have an extremely close resemblance to the guild seal within the popular Xbox/PC exclusive franchise Fable
 * Merlina mentions her grandfather, Merlin, more than twice in the game. This suggests that she has or had a strong connection with her grandfather, much like a daughter to her father.
 * Merlina is the only female human-like companion to not die in the story she's in. Maria was killed on Space Colony Ark, Elise was killed when Eggman's carrier crashed (though Sonic prevents this from happening by going back in time) and Shahra died when she took the fatal blow for Sonic. Ironically, she is the only one of them to use a tool for immortality.
 * Merlina is the first primary antagonist in the entire Sonic the Hedgehog series that Sonic has faced who is a female.
 * She is as well the first female final boss that Sonic has fought.