Christopher Thorndyke

Christopher "Chris" Thorndyke (クリストファー "クリス" ソーンダイク Kurisutofā "Kurisu" Sōndaiku) is a main character and Sonic the Hedgehog's closest human friend in the television anime Sonic X. He is 12 years old and lives in Station Square on the planet Earth, which is regarded as an alternate version of Sonic's home planet in another dimension. He finds Sonic at the bottom of his swimming pool and saves him from drowning at the start of the series, and hosts him, Tails, Amy, Cream, and Cheese for most of the anime.

Chris is a young boy who lives with his grandfather Chuck Thorndyke, his bodyguard Mr. Tanaka and a maid called Ella. He lives in a large mansion due to his parents being successful in their individual fields of work. Mr. Thorndyke runs an electrical company and Mrs. Thorndyke is an actress. As a child, Chris rarely saw his parents. His uncle, known as Sam Speed, is the head of a police car-chase team and drives a Formula One race car. His elementary school teacher is Mr. Stewart, who turns out to be a spy working for the government later in the anime.

At the end of the second season and during the third season, he is eighteen years old. Early in the third season he uses a portal to travel to Sonic's home in the series. After this point in this series he is still in his preteen design and still speaks and thinks in his younger voice. However, he has gained new skills during the six years in between the series. The new Chris no longer takes the back seat in the X-Tornado; instead he is shown as flying it capably, which his younger self would have never picked up. He also comments in one episode that he is a black belt in karate. aside from this, he has also shown to have become a quite capable engineer, inventing different gadgets for Sonic including a pair of Hoverboots and a Hoverboard.

Although he only exists in the anime, Chris was created by Sonic Team.

Criticism
Chris is sometimes criticized for his roles in the Sonic Adventure adaptions as he takes place of the other characters that had an important role in the games. For example, during the adaptation of Sonic Adventure, he journeys with Big and Cream as they go looking for Froggy; in the anime's version of Sonic Adventure 2, he replaces Amy as the one who convinces Shadow to save Earth. He also receives Shadow's ring as Rouge did in that game. He has also been often criticized for taking many roles from Tails due to their similar personalities and being Sonic's new best friend throughout the series. He has also been criticized for other reasons, such as having arguably more screen time than Sonic and shutting down the portal so Sonic can't return back home for his own selfishness.

Trivia

 * His design bears resemblance to Sora, the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series. As Sonic X was made after this game, it is possible the artists took some reference from this character.
 * Chris was one of four Sonic X characters exclusively promoted by Sonic Team (the others being Danny, Nazo, and Cosmo), and one of only two characters promoted by 4Kids Entertainment (along with Chris' grandfather Chuck Thorndyke).
 * While never physically appearing in the video games, Chris does appear on a poster for Sonic X next to Sonic in the Mission Mode of Sonic Adventure DX.
 * He invented 5 shoes for Sonic on Season 3, one of which appeared to be Sonic's Soap shoes from Sonic Adventure 2.
 * He also appears in the Sonic X comic.

Screenshots
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