#knuckles the echdina

[pianokantzart]

"I am.... ...ready."

[cyberstorm189]

I feel kinda dumb because I'm supposed to be working on a report about why John Proctor is a tragic hero for English class, but my brain is like, in a completely different place and is just stuck thinking about that frontiers trailer. Like, my brain is on loop trying to figure out what Tails meant by him being corrupted?!? Like, they just dropped that in the trailer and I'm just supposed to not think about it while I work on english??? I just have so many questions?? Does this mean that Amy and Knuckles could potentially get cyber corrupted too?

[robotnik-mun]

An Alternative Take on Enerjak

Well its been a while since I jawed about anything Sonic related, so, I thought I might share this. As many of you are aware, I’ve pretty harshly criticized the Knuckles Lore as devised by Ken Penders. And with good reason- a LOT of it doesn’t really hold up under scrutiny. That said? I actually like a lot of the ideas presented, at least on paper, and that includes ol Enerjak.

So I got to thinking of an alternative take on Enerjak’s story- something that follows similar beats while maybe explaining his actions and defeat a bit better. So, hope you enjoy this... whatever it is. Because while I do like later additions to the Enerjak idea, a part of me is still attached to the notion of there being only one Enerjak. Even if Penders own writing contradicts the notion... but, anyway, I had a Thought, and I figured I might as well share.

Okay basically it goes like this-

Several generations ago, Angel Island was created when the echidna scientists Jordann and Kayla-La used the power of the Master Emerald to save their home city of Echidnapolis (and the smaller Echidna cities and towns that surrounded it) by lifting it into the sky, and in doing so lifted an enormous, island-sized chunk of the surrounding land.

Unfortunately in doing this, the Echidna accidentally stranded several neighboring populations of non-Echdina on the island with them- most infamously the Dingo, whose civilization was utterly destroyed by the creation of the Island. Once a major power in their own right, the Dingo are little better than refugees on Angel Island. Receiving no help from the Echidna, the Dingo gather what they can and resettle elsewhere on the island. To survive and conserve resources they gradually organize themselves into a nation that functions like a massive army, where military officers hold all positions of leadership.

After generations of advancement and planning, the Dingo surge forth against their ancient enemy and thus set off the first Dingo War. This is the time in which Jordann and Kayla-La’s descendants, Dimitri and Edmund grow up. A pair of brilliant scientists specializing in Chaos Energy, the two are grimly aware of the fact that the war is going against the Echidna and there is a good chance their people could lose. Despite the technological advantage, the Dingo are ruthless, relentless and unyielding.

The brothers then devise a desperate plan based upon the old legends of the Master Emerald- building a device, the Chaos Siphon, in order to transfer the power of the Master Emerald into an Echidna and use its power to defeat the Dingo armies in a fell swoop. When the Siphon is completed, the pair present their plan to the Echidnapolis Council of Elders.

While the military applications are acknowledged, the brothers’ proposition is denied. The reasons range from practical- worrying that interfering with the Master Emerald’s energies could damage or even destroy the island, to religious- the Master Emerald is a sacred gift from Aurora and it is sacrilege to treat it in such a manner. 

You can pretty much guess how it goes from here- Dimitri, his pride wounded and his desperation mounting as the Dingo advance closer and closer to Echidnapolis, decides to take matters into his own hands. He breaches the Hidden Palace of the Master Emerald and uses the Chaos Siphon himself, and in doing so grants himself tremendous power. Using his newfound power, Dimitri becomes the champion of the Echidna people- by his hand the armies of the Dingo are destroyed, and almost overnight Echidnapolis is saved and Dimitri is proclaimed a hero.

At first things are good. Dimitri uses his new powers to help repair the damage done to the Echidna settlements, gaining much favor and admiration in the eyes of the public. A few even declare him to be the second coming of Aurora... those closest to Dimitri, namely his brother, begin to notice unsettling changes in his personality. While Dimitri was always a little full of himself, he begins to demonstrate a hubristic and vindictive streak that wasn’t previously there. He becomes increasingly distant and increasingly ruthless in fighting the Dingo, until things escalate to the point where he personally levels the Dingo capital of Dingopolis despite the Dingo no longer being a threat.

Edmund can only watch in dismay and increasing terror as Dimitri’s actions win him further support among the Echidna. Echidnapolis slowly begins to split down the middle, between those who support Dimitri and those who are wary of any Echidna holding his power. Things grow worse as Dimitri increasingly begins to act independently of the Council of Elders and becomes increasingly high-handed and controlling. With the Dingo no longer a threat he begins to focus on the ‘enemy within’ Echidnapolis itself, targeting criminals and ‘criminals’.

The inevitable then happens. Using his powers, Dimitri overthrows the Council of Elders and declares himself the new ruler of Angel Island. In his speech to the population Dimitri raves about how Echidna technology is a divine gift that has allowed him to become a God, and how he has been chosen to reclaim the world for the Echdina and resurrect the Echidna Empire of old and take their rightful place as the Fifth Great Civilization. He then renounces his old name and declares he is “Enerjak”, a name derived from the ancient title of Ehn-Ra-Ja’k, a title of Echidna emperors meaning “The God Made Flesh”.

Echidnapolis security forces scramble to contain Enerjak, but it is no use. Nothing can stand against his power, and Echidnapolis becomes his own private domain. He uses his powers to raise a great tower that will serve as his own personal fortress. He sets the population to begin work to expand the city, with plans to convert the entire island into a massive warship that will be used to conquer and control all of Mobius. Edmund, confronted with his brother’s descent into full blown megalomaniacal insanity, makes an impossible choice. Using the research of the Chaos Siphon, Edmund builds an Anti-Chaos weapon- a spear that will absorb the energy and kill his brother.

When the weapon is completed, Edmund then sneaks out of Echidnapolis and approaches the reclusive and mysterious Fire Ants. Hearing rumors of their telepathic abilities, Edmund beseeches them to help him in stopping Enerjak. Realizing that Enerjak will eventually become a threat to them as well, the Fire Ants agree to aid in defeating Enerjak. Within Enerjak’s dark tower Edmund approaches his brother and gives him one last chance to change course, to return to the Siphon and remove his powers as originally planned. Enerjak rebukes his brother and attacks him.

At that moment the Fire Ants make their move. Using their collective telepathic might, they focus the power of the Hive Mind against Enerjak... against the Echidna godling, it is just enough to inflict pain on him and distract him long enough for Edmund to draw the spear, and impale Enerjak against a rock. Seemingly killed, the tower sustained by Enerjak’s dark will crumbles. Edmund barely escapes with his life, and Enerjak is buried beneath the rubble.

In the aftermath of Enerjak’s madness, the Echidna begin to rebuild... and begin to ask serious questions about themselves and whether or not their science and technology has led them down a dark path. While the Echidna debate, Dimitri’s young son Menniker mourns the loss of the father he idolized... and in his grief, he swears his father whispering. A terrible schism will break apart not only Edmund’s family but the Echidna people on the whole, with centuries of conflict and bloodshed resulting.

And all the while, beneath the ruin of his tower, Enerjak lays dormant. Not truly killed by Edmund’s weapon, his body remains as if in stasis even if his last shred of power lets him reach out in small ways.

Centuries after his defeat, another will use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to defeat another tyrant... and the energies released by the use of the Seven Emeralds will give Enerjak the nudge he needs to overcome his predicament.

Enerjak Lives...

Aaand that’s a revised take on Enerjak’s backstory! KEep in mind I haven’t thought out the whole story of the Brotherhood and Legion after that, and honestly if you want a great generational story of the Guardians you should scope out @sally-mun​‘s The Brotherhood series. Seriously, it’s good!

Otherwise? Yeah, just something I was mulling over. Hope you can get something out of all of it.

[windstarosprey]

Tales of Sonic the Hedgehog: Team Sonic Designs

L to R: Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echdina, and Amy Rose (with Piko Piko Hammer).

As mentioned in my description, I'm a co-writer for an unofficial Sonic the Hedgehog story (read: fanfic) called Tales of Sonic the Hedgehog. The story is basically the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the series. It takes all the characters, settings, concepts, lore, and what-not from every different form of Sonic media, puts it all in one universe, and adjusts things as needed so it all makes sense.

One of the story's most standout elements is that it averts the "Sonic Dress Code", where male Sonic characters don't wear clothes, while women have to. I always looked forward to seeing what my fellow writers would come up with for outfits, so I decided to have them drawn for fun. And what better way to start it off than with the Blue Blur and his main entourage?

PS: Knuckles gets "modern clothes" like the others later on, but I wanted to have him drawn in his initial "tribal Echidna" outfit to make him pop out more.

Tales of Sonic the Hedgehog can be read here at...

Archive Of Our Own (main website)

or

Fanfiction.net

Original artwork by WaitoChan.

[aroaceamyrosearchive]

do you think evil knuckles being irish is a reference to how the echdina homeland is an island off the coast of mobian great britain

what the absolute fuck are you talking about

[jennrypan]

dark skin with purple eye

KNUCKLES THE ECHDINA !!

(Also black but that's a given-)

[morbidly-massive-mobians]

A brief Echdina history for this AU.

4,000 years ago the 4th great civilization was a group of Echidna located on a water bound Angel island.

Via the power of chaos they created advanced technology and bred powerful warriors.

Two of such warriors were the young chief Enerjak and the brilliant scientist Ix. Childhood friends and once seen as brothers. They eventually had a falling out that lead to civil war between the clans.

But due to some sort of incident Ix and his clan was sealed away by an ancient deity known as Argus. With Enerjak outlawing advanced tech and using the power chaos to raise the island into the sky.

This seemingly begun the chain of calamities that plague the Echidna race. With the most famous being the creation of Chaos. Who is refered to as a “god of destruction” in ancient texts.

Before Knuckles was born the remaining Echidnas were hit with a plague. Leaving Knuckles as the last surviving member of his race that wasn’t in a different universe.

With the Nocturnus clan returning in the modern day but being dissolved after the death of the now Imperator Ix.

[moomingitz]

Sonic X Panning Shots: Episode 53

[zixovi]

redrew a screenshot from sonic x in late celebration of knuckl birthday (not really but shh)

na but knuckles is like my favorite character at this point and i hope he had a great birthday.. and this has nothing to do with the drawing

[spongicx]

Screenshots from Sonic Boom ‘Where Have All The Sonics Gone?”

[blazetbw-art]

Commission for @arkus0​ for their of their Boom! style Lunas and Knuckles havin’ themselves a fist bump moment~

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

Filmverse!Knuckles is gonna be Tikal’s Little Brother and if he’s not I’m suing Sega

[ID: Two images; one of clipart of Knuckles the Echidna beside a poster for Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), and another from Sonic X of Knuckles and Tikal together while Tikal is injured. End ID.] 

Thankfully, this might be shorter than my last couple theory posts but unfortunately I am possibly more passionate about it because this could conceivably happen and if it doesn’t I don’t know what I’m gonna do. 

So in this theory, I will endeavor to prove these points:

Knuckles will very soon be present in the filmverse. 

In the Filmverse, Pachacamac (and by extention, Tikal) are no longer four-thousand years gone, but exist at the same time as Sonic.

Knuckles is going to be in this clan not just as any member, but as Tikal’s brother. 

We’re going off the rails and I’m going to tie this all in to the Chaos Emerald Filmverse theory. 

Who’s ready to go? Everything under the cut. 

1. Knuckles is Coming #2k22

[ID: Another edited photo, placing clipart of Knuckles beside a promotional photo for Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). End ID.] 

This will probably be a short section but... there’s no way Knuckles won’t be in the filmverse very soon. Likely, in the second fucking movie. 

Let’s start with the basics: Knuckles was originally going to be in the first movie, but was cut in order to better establish the Sonic vs Robotnik rivalry. Director Jeff Fowler made the following statement: 

“For this first film, we really were just looking at the 1991 game and just see where it all started and keep it simple…Just really try to nail Sonic and Robotnik and just set up their rivalry because you don’t…I mean, I love…There’s a lot of great characters in Sonic universe, but it’s the most important thing is just to get Sonic set up and just tell a little bit of an origin story with him, and just do it in a way that really makes everyone fall in love with him as a character and just be rooting for more.

And then, if all that goes well, then we can kind of open it up and bring in some of these other characters that fans know and love. And yeah, I mean, no one’s more excited than me to have that opportunity.”

[x]

As well as this, co-writer for the film, Josh Miller, has stated he really wants to bring in Knux. 

“I will only hint that we wanna bring in some of the other characters from the games. But, really, it’s all about Knuckles’ love.” [x]

Second, voice actors have, reportedly, already been considered for Knuckles’s voice, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. [x, x]

And third, Mushroom Hill. 

[ID: Two photos; one of the Mushroom Planet from Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). The second is a screenshot from Sonic & Knuckles, where Knuckles is running through Mushroom Hill. Both photos feature gigantic mushrooms resembling trees and an orange tint. End iD.]

The “Mushroom Planet” is a direct reference to the first level of Sonic & Knuckles. The first level of.... the game with Knuckles’s name in it. 

So, you wanna hear something funny? What’s the first thing Knuckles does in the game timeline? 

[ID: Screenshot from Sonic & Knuckles. Sonic is standing on the left side of the screen, beneath a mural of something holding an emerald towards something that looks like SuperSonic. On the right side of the screen is Knuckles, ready to fight Sonic. End ID.]

Well... Robotnik shows up, convinces him that Sonic and Tails are gonna try to steal his emerald, and sends him off to fight them. 

And where’s Robotnik at the end of the 2020 film?

[ID: Robotnik on the Mushroom Planet in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). End ID.]

While the Mushroom Planet may not be where Angel Island is in filmverse, the direct reference would definitely generate fan attention. And it implies that Robotnik, wherever he is or is going, is headed towards Knuckles. And with the game inciting incident of Robotnik having Knuckles fight Sonic for him... well, wouldn’t that be a wild introduction? Especially for casual fans who don’t have Sonic Lore memorized and may not know that Knuckles was originally an antagonist/rival to Sonic. 

Oh, and there’s one more piece of evidence that Knuckles is gonna show up... the fact that his tribe already has. 

And among them, by the way, are Pachacamac and Tikal. 

2. Pachacamac and Tikal are no longer 4000 years old

So. Let’s talk about the opening scene of Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). As many of you have probably noticed, Sonic and Longclaw are attacked not just by any masked intruders, but by... the Knuckles Clan of Echidnas. 

And we’re sure they’re not any other clan, because they have the trademark Knuckled Gloves. 

[ID: Multiple gifs of the echidnas attempt to attack Longclaw and Baby Sonic. They are dressed in vaguely tribal wear, and have gloves featuring pointed knuckles, signifying them as the Knuckles Clan. End ID.] 

Now, that’s not evidence of Pachacamac/Tikal itself; we know the Knuckles Clan lasted at least long enough to spawn our Knuckles. What is evidence, however, is in the specific Echidna who shot Longclaw. 

[ID: Gif of the Echidna who shot Longclaw, isolated in the frame. End ID.] 

Look familiar?

[ID: The echdina who shot Longclaw in the 2020 film next to a render of Pachacamac. The mystery echidna’s helmet has the same forehead markings as Pachacamac, along with a design that looks like his mustache. End ID.]

And fun fact: this isn’t me reaching for once. This was confirmed by Tyson Hesse, film character designer and savior of Sonic, on his twitter. 

[ID: Tweet from Tyson Hesse, showing the pictures of the Echidna and Pachacamac. He says, “Late to the #sonicwatchparty but this is an easter egg I haven’t seen many people catch.” End iD.]

Pachacamac is canonically in Sonic 2020. As director Jeff Fowler has said he believes Sonic as ~13 during the events of the film, we could say he’s about three years old in that intro. And we know this because it is specified specifically that the main timeline takes place ten years after the prologue. 

[ID: Screenshot from Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), the first shot following the logo. It is a landscape shot of a street in the middle of a green field, and the caption reads, Green Hills Montana: Ten Years Later. End ID.]

Meaning... Pachacamac was alive ten years before the film takes place. Quite the departure from the four-thousand year time jump in the gameverse. Seeing as Pachacamac is alive so close to this timeline, we can reasonably assume that Tikal is, too- she’s his teenaged daughter, canonically ~14 when she is turned into a spirit, which would put her as solidly alive during this timeline. 

...wanna know who else would be alive in this timeline? 

Knuckles, who is only a year older than Sonic. 

And, um, obviously a member of the Knuckles Clan. 

3. Where is Knuckles in this Filmverse Canon?

Okay “Knuckles” is going to stop sounding like a word so can we just call the Knuckles Clan the KC rn? okay? Okay. 

Knuckles is canonically a year older than Sonic- listed as 16 while Sonic is 15. So if Sonic’s alive, Knuckles is alive. Basic logic there. 

In the gameverse, Knuckles’s backstory is as thus, paraphrased from Sonic Wiki:

Knuckles was born and raised alone on Angel Island as the last surviving member of the Knuckles Clan, a long-lost race of echidnas devoted to protecting the Master Emerald from being abused. However, Knuckles’s own past was a mystery to him; he knew nothing how he came to be and believed himself to be the last of his kind entirely. The one thing he did know was that he had always been living on his island, protecting the Master Emerald. Knuckles knew from an innate knowledge that his duty was his fate, and he was content with that.

While we can’t expect his backstory to stay exactly the same, seeing as Sonic now has a dead owl mom and knows how to Fortnite dance, but Knuckles’s backstory does fuel a lot of his character and decisions in the games. Here are what I believe to be the two main points of this backstory:

Knuckles is, or at least believes himself to be, the last member of his race 

Knuckles considers it his sacred duty to guard the Master Emerald 

[ID: Screencap from Sonic X of Knuckles the Echidna holding the Master Emerald above his head. End ID.]

Now... if Sonic was three during that backstory, the KC was around at least when Knuckles was about four. Most children don’t develop long-term memories til then, but if 3yo Sonic could remember his backstory in Green Hills near-perfectly, then clearly mobians are a bit different. We can reasonably assume that Knuckles would then remember at least part of his tribe or family, so that’s a definite change. 

Thing is, what would be the reason for this change? Even ignoring Pachacamac, it was definitely intentional for the clan attacking Longclaw and Sonic to be the KC, which does change quite a bit of Knuckles’s backstory. Which isn’t a problem, you see- it’s a drastic change, but character changes aren’t bad if there’s a reason behind them. 

So what would be the reason for Knuckles having memories of his tribe? 

Well... how easy would it be, then, to get that Sonic Adventure flashback via Knuckles instead of a glowing ball of Tikal/Navi? 

[ID: Screencap from Sonic Adventure, showing Knuckles the Echidna staring down Chaos and the glowing ball of light that symbolizes Tikal. They are standing in front of the emerald shards. End ID.]

Would be an easy way to get any chaos emerald/Master Emerald exposition out of the way, as well as establish some basic and early Sonic Lore- Chaos, echidnas, chao. And if Knuckles, um, remembers his entire race being massacred by an elder god?? That would definitely affect him in a way that he’d consider protecting the Master Emerald, the controller of the power Chaos used to do such a thing, a duty for himself. 

And... what would be the best way to get that backstory out? 

4. Knuckles is Tikal’s Baby Brother

Here’s the thing- the KC citizens don’t seem to know much about what’s going on outside of Pachacamac’s orders. From talking to them in Sonic Adventure flashbacks, we can see they’re quite a bit... confused, I think is the best way to put it. 

[ID: Dialogue screenshots from Sonic Adventure that I had to nab from a Game Grumps video because nobody else had these online. The echidnas say, “The daughter? I saw her in front of the shrine.”, “Well... I.... I just can’t sit still!” and “I think, therefore I am.” End ID.]

So if Knuckles was just an ordinary tribe member, it’d be unlikely for him to know enough to provide the necessary flashback details. And if Knuckles’s past was changed in order to provide an easier connection to the SA lore, he’d need to be very near to the action. Of course, he could just be a curious child, but even then, he’d likely be left out of several conversations surrounding Tikal. 

Most of Tikal’s flashbacks are spent alone- she only has a few arguing with her father, but most of her scenes are spent with the Chao and Chaos themself in the Chao Garden. Considering Tikal seems to be the only echidna frequenting the Chao Garden- the chao are afraid of her when she first approaches, Pachacamac arriving is basically seen as a declaration of war- there’d be no reason for an echidna to be there unless she brought them herself. 

Who would she bring with her? Perhaps... her little brother. 

[ID: Screencap from Sonic X of Tikal, surrounded by flying Chao while at the Master Emerald Shrine. End ID.]

First off, let’s get over the age thing-- I know you’re gonna say “Knuckles is 16 when Tikal is 14,” HOWEVER, TIkal did not age while inside the Master Emerald. She could go in at any point in Knuckles’s life, which means she could be anywhere from ten years older than him to a twin sister to two years younger. 

There’s no real concrete evidence of how old Knuckles would be in filmverse when the SA events happen, seeing as we have only seen Pachacamac existing and have no idea where this is in his timeline. However, from a writing standpoint, if you want to keep a bit of Knuckles’s backstory of living alone for a good chunk of his life, I’d say the massacre happening when he was ~8 seems likely. Old enough to have clear memories of the SA events but young enough to have his life completely sidetracked and feel like he raised himself. 

It’d be very easy for the flashbacks to feature Tikal taking a baby Knuckles to the Chao Garden, just telling him “don’t tell Dad, he won’t understand,” to talk to him about the grandmother he doesn’t remember who used to teach peace, to explain Chaos and the Master Emerald to him. 

And it’d be very easy angst for Knuckles being dragged along with the rest of the clan to take the emerald(s), watch his father basically doom his sister and his tribe murder innocent chao, and then see everyone he’s ever known murdered by Chaos, with his older sister stopping the rampage only by sealing herself and the destructive god in that emerald, leaving Knuckles completely alone. That’s all severe angst that pretty much no writer would pass up. 

Especially because it means Knuckles guarding the Master Emerald has now turned into Knuckles guarding his sister. 

[ID: Sonic X screenshot of Knuckles and Tikal looking up, surrounded by fire. End ID.]

So that’s the general theory. But let’s talk about something more fun: how it all ties into the Chaos Emerald Filmverse Theory. 

5. It all ties into our Chaos Emerald theory shh 

If you haven’t read Cori’s manifesto on the Chaos Emerald Filmverse Theory, allow me to summarize: 

Sonic is definitely a living Chaos Emerald, meaning that there are six other living Chaos Emeralds running around that we’re gonna need to track down. At least one of them’s Tails. 

First thing’s first... Robotnik going after Knuckles then makes perfect sense. If Robotnik somehow figured out exactly what Sonic was, he’d want a way to dilute his power. And the Master Emerald literally nullifies the power of the chaos emeralds. So whoever has the Master Emerald can severely nerf Sonic. Imagine Sonic getting within the boundaries of the ME and then immediately losing speed and falling flat on his face. Big oof. 

Second, it’s possible that Knuckles will also know what Sonic is. Because, well... what was Pachacamac after in Sonic Adventure?

[ID: Pachacamac attempting to talk down Tikal, who is t-posing in front of the Chao Garden in attempt to keep them out. Behind him is an echidna army, ready to attack. Pachacamac is saying, “We need those seven emeralds to give us total power!” End ID.]

The Chaos Emeralds. In order to use their power as weapons. 

And what was he after in Sonic 2020? 

Sonic. 

Interesting, huh.

Conclusion

Knuckles is gonna be the last member of the Knuckles Clan, guarding his older sister’s spirit inside an insanely powerful emerald, and will definitely be manipulated by Robotnik into using his Master Emerald to fuck up Sonic. 

And it’ll be really awesome. 

[ID: Sonic X screencap of Knuckles giving a thumbs up. End ID.]

[boom4sonicdash]

Thank You! will now 3 million followers on Twitter. http://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog for latest updates.

[robotnik-mun]

Reffering to that Julie-su post from earlier-

I always thought they should have leaned a bit more into her missing memories. I think her realizing something is amiss and that she's not gonna find answers with the Legion is a solid way of getting her to leave. +Knuckles also is dealing with unraveling the deal with his past/ancestors, so thats something the two of them would share in common; which in turn would be a way to develop their relationship. The whole "soultouch" thing was really cheap, and honestly, didn't need to be in the comic regardless of anything that could have been developed from it.

Yeah, that's definitely one of those things with untapped potential in the books, much like a great many other things when it came to the various Echidna characters. I think a lot of it is a consequence of the fact that Penders doesn't really plan ahead for a lot of this- I'm pretty convinced the reveal of her being Lien and Kragok's sister was due purely to him wanting to have a "Romeo and Juliet" twist without fully considering the repercussions of the development in question. As such, a development that SHOULD have allowed Julie and Knux to bond in an organic, believable fashion wound up being an afterthought.

And yeah, the Soultouch thing really is just... stupid. It blatantly exists to justify Knux and Julie hooking up without much build-up, and its stated reason for existing- that Echdina are not very sociable and basically need an extra push to keep the species going- doesn't gel with anything we see of the Echidna or how they function as a people. It's a plot device in the most intrusive of ways.

[thankskenpenders]

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but Im willing to bet Penders tried to name sonic such a lame, nonsensical name like Olgilvie Maurice to make him seem less cool and trying to compensate. All the stuff he did with Knuckles later and in M25YL show that he really thought of knuckles as his precious brainchild. After all, why would sonic be sonics real name, but knuckles is knuckles real name despite every other echdina having some funky real-life name? And I mean... Jules, Bernie, Charles, OLGILVIE?

You’re a conspiracy theorist

In all seriousness: I have zero reason to believe this. Penders ended up writing for Knuckles more because he had much more creative freedom with Knuckles (Sonic already had his own supporting cast, villains, setting, etc.), but he still tried to make Sonic look cool. He’s literally said that half the reason he tried to kill Sally was because she “cramped his style” in his opinion. This is not something a writer trying to sabotage Sonic as a character would worry about

Really, I think Penders just thought it would be funny (and maybe a little humanizing) if Sonic had an embarrassing birth name so his parents and friends could tease him about it. He probably just went “You know, what kind of a name is Sonic? Is that his birth name? Oh, what if his birth name doesn’t sound cool, so he changed it?” The man is also a huge fan of superhero comics, so he probably thought it would be cool if Sonic was treated as like his “superhero name” and he also had a “real name.” Hell, maybe he just wanted to use “what’s Sonic’s ~real name~” as a little tease to keep readers interested, considering he was still sitting on the first name and planning on revealing it later in his final days at Archie. Also Sonic’s family is a bunch of nerds

Don’t get me wrong, it was a stupid decision, one I especially frown on as a trans person. But like many stupid decisions, it’s easy to rationalize if you try. The man has done enough bad that we don’t have to start making shit up with no real evidence, folks

[sainteldaily]

Idris Elba Ain't Half-Assing Knuckles the Echdina for Sonic 2

Idris Elba Ain't Half-Assing Knuckles the Echdina for Sonic 2

When Idris Elba was announced as Knuckles the Echidna for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the internet lost its mind at the idea of the Brit’s voice inhabiting the role of a mammal with big ass fists. Given how sometimes voiceover roles can see A or B-list actors not really give it their all, there was also some… Read more…