Merlina the Wizard

Merlina is a sorceress from Sonic and the Black Knight, formerly the Royal Wizard, and the granddaughter of the famous Merlin. She is voiced by Melissa Hutchison in the English version and Mamiko Noto in the Japanese version. In addition to her magical abilities, Merlina appears to be quite strong physically, able to grab Sonic by the hand in mid-run and effortlessly hold him back.

When she is cornered by the Black Knight, she performs a summoning ritual and warps Sonic to her location. Instantly realizing what is going on, Sonic effortlessly defeats the Black Knight's minions (much to Merlina's surprise), but Merlina stops him from attacking the Black Knight himself and teleports them both away. After the two introduce themselves, Merlina explains the situation to Sonic and what had happened to King Arthur (now the Black Knight). Merlina then helps Sonic recover the sword Caliburn from the cliffside at the Misty Lake. She then tells Sonic that due to everyone knowing her appearance, she must hide in order to keep the enemies off her. She then disappears before reappearing right before Sonic and the Black Knight face off for their final battle. When Sonic defeats him in a one on one sword fight, Sonic watches as he mysteriously fades away like he was one of his own minions.

It's at this point that Merlina is revealed to be the true villain of the story. She reveals her dark intentions after Sonic returns with the Black Knight's scabbard and she uses a dark magic to begin consuming the lands. Sonic and the Royal Knights are forced to flee before the Lady of the Lake tells about how to stop her. They bring their swords to each of the four shrines across the lands to form a barrier, but it is too weak. Still, Sonic and Caliburn rush back and enter the Dark Hollow, where they find Merlina transformed. Merlina reveals that her plan was to undo her grandfather's "mistake" and keep the world of King Arthur alive (the opposite of Erazor Djinn's intentions in Sonic and the Secret Rings as he wanted to erase the Arabian Nights world). She told Sonic that she already knew how their kingdom would fall and said that she did not want that to happen. Furious at Merlina's words, and unwilling to comprehend her sorrow and intentions, Sonic attacks her, but she generates a barrier that he cannot break through.

Merlina then summons a monstrous creature that appears as the Black Knight with more arms wielding massive swords. Sonic presses his attack, but is brutally beaten by Merlina, and Caliburn is broken in half. Despite Merlina's advantages and the Knights' orders to run, Sonic refuses to quit, determined to stop Merlina no matter what. His "never give up" attitude shines brighter than ever. Using the true power of Caliburn and the rekindled Light of the Sacred Sword to transform it to Excalibur and himself into Excalibur-Sonic. He then faces Merlina, transformed into The Dark Queen as the final boss. During the fight, she questions if Sonic's intentions behind trying to stop her is to see the end of the world and talks about how Sonic cannot comprehend why such beauty as her world should last for eternity, only for Sonic to reply that a world without an end just sounds "boring" to him and that as long as he continues running, his stories will never end. Breaking through her defenses and delivering the final blow with Excalibur, the Dark Queen evaporates into flames, the kingdom begins to settle, and Merlina is rendered powerless.

Merlina continues to lament the fate of her world, but Sonic gives her a flower and comforts her, telling her that, while every world has to come to an end, they just have to live life to the fullest until then. Merlina thinks of her grandfather and apparently takes Sonic's words to heart. Despite not seeing her reaction, she is also present when Caliburn revealed that since it was his power to choose who would bear the crown, ultimately revealing Sonic is the one and true King Arthur.

Merlina has two songs, a slow piano theme for when Sonic speaks with her, and With Me when she is the Dark Queen (this song is probably shared as the theme for Excalibur Sonic also).

Trivia

 * Merlina bears a strong resemblance to the ring genie Shahra but with different skin colour, purple hair, a tiara with a red jewel at the middle, and a longer ponytail. However, when seeing her full image on the game's main page, the hairstyle around her forehead is the same style as Shahra.


 * Many have commented that Merlina bears a close resemblence to Zelda, of the Legend of Zelda games. It could be possible since she and Zelda have similar hairstyles, ear and eye shapes. Also, both use magical powers to aid the hero.


 * Merlina is the very first major villainess Sonic takes on and defeats in any game. This makes Merlina the first female boss Sonic has fought (not counting Team Rose from Sonic Heroes which was just Amy trying to get Sonic to admit he loved her). Sonic also fought Blaze the Cat, but she was a little confused.


 * Merlina is one of the few final bosses (along with Chaos, Metal Sonic, Dark Gaia, and Dr. Eggman) to survive their final battle with Sonic. She is also the second villain to change her outlook on everything and revert back to good (the first being Chaos), which still technically makes her Sonic's friend and not his enemy.


 * Merlina is the first villain to have good intentions as a motive as all she wanted was to preserve the beauty of King Arthur's land forever. However, as Sonic says, "all worlds must come to an end at some point, but that is why we must live life to the fullest."


 * Interestingly, when Merlina summons Sonic, she uses the same spell Erazor Djinn used to summon the Ifrit in Sonic and the Secret Rings. This must mean the spell is a commonly known summoning spell.


 * Another interesting fact about Merlina is that her ultimate goal is almost similar to Tikal as she wanted to protect her people as well as protect her Chao friends and Chaos. But both plans fail and while Tikal's tribe was nearly wiped out by the monster Chaos, Merlina survived and so did her world.


 * In Merlina's corrupted form, she bears a similar resemblance to Puppet Zelda, who is one of the final bosses in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The only difference is the hair style and clothes.


 * It seems that Merlina somehow knew how the world of King Arthur would end, similar to how Shahra knew about the stories of the Arabian Nights despite being a book character. How she knew this is unknown. It's probably questioned if Merlina's world is truly a storybook and Sonic didn't just travel back in time.