Lien-Da

Lien-Da (a.k.a. Kommissar) is a fictional character in the comic book universe of Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna (now out of print). Lien-Da is either 33 or 34 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-furred, female, anthropomorphic, humanoid 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, and wearing a black suit. Like all Echidnas she has dreadlocks, and one of them is metallic-possibly cybernetic-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 sleeves of the shirt have a silver snake design on them, and she has a belt and 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 (it is suggested 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. When Luger mysteriously disappeared, Lien-Da and Kragok leapt at their chance to take control of the Dark Legion and set Kragok up as the new leader, for both had been impatient with their father's peaceful rule.

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"-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. Eggman 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 remains in control of the Flame Legion, while her nephew Remington (sporting a look based on that of his late father Kragok) has 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.

Possible Future
In the Sonic the Hedgehog story of Mobius: 25 Years Later, a future version of Lien-Da was shown with a son named Rutan, whom she caught sneaking out at night to see his girlfriend Salma, Espio's daughter, in the park. She was angry, but her grandfather convinced her not to punish him. To top that off, Rutan also revealed that he had seen Knuckles speaking to Rotor. This led Lien-Da to discerning the nature of Rotor's work with Cobar in repairing damage to the time space continuum. In this alternate/possible future, Lien-Da isn't seeking revenge against Julie-Su, but still harbors negative feelings. Despite this, she takes her grandfather's advice and tries being friendly, and seems rather fond of her niece Lara-Su. Unfortunately, this later proves to be an illusion, as Lara-Su's arrest in the alternate Mobius: 25 Years Later finds Lien-Da celebrating the apparent end of the line of Edmund.

In the alternate future Lien-Da retains her memories of the original future via a device that she had Cobar design and is working for King Shadow the Hedgehog along with members of the Dark Legion. Dimitri, reduced in this time to a cybernetic head in a glass orb, strongly disapproves of this alliance, seeing them on a level with his own association with Dr. Finitevus. Because of her elevated status in this altered timeline, she has no interest in the future being restored to its proper order. Like Shadow, she was apparently fooled into thinking that Knuckles was completely on the same side as her, which likely led to her being arrested when Shadow was defeated by Lara-Su and Sonic regained his position as king with Sally Acorn as his queen.

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.

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, but they seem to be on speaking terms in the 25 Years Later issues.

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.

Notes and references


