Knuckles the Echidna

"*Oh, yeah! I don't forsee any problem trying to do with my hands what the world's fastest runner does with his feet.*"
— *Sonic Boom* Official Website

## Physical description

### Eye color

Purple

**Knuckles the Echidna** is one of the main characters that appears in the *Sonic Boom* series. He is an anthropomorphic echidna from Angel Island and the last of his kind. He is also the keeper of the Fregosi Sapphire. Knuckles serves as the muscle of Team Sonic, a group of heroes who defends the peace of Seaside Island and the world at large. Unlike his friends, Knuckles is a nomad without a permanent home and lives in nature.

## Concept and creation

When developing the character designs, Knuckles was made larger and more muscular to emphasize his strength, his role as the strong guy on the team and the bruiser he is. His gliding ability was excluded because it did not fit into any of the stories.

The sports tape Knuckles wears is inspired by fighters and American football players and is meant to give him a sense of practical heroism by showing that that he is not vain, which is a trait more fitting for villains, when saving the world, and to give him a more grounded approach. It is especially worn around his arms to emphasize that his specialty is power. Excluded from Knuckles' design were his boxing gloves because he was needed to show gestures with his hands and fingers in a TV show.

## Appearance

Knuckles is a large anthropomorphic echidna (over a head taller than Sonic), with red fur that covers most of his body, peach skin on his muzzle, a white crescent-shaped patch of fur on his chest, and purple eyes. He has a rather large torso, broad shoulders and thick muscular arms, making him very top-heavy, and possesses long, if somewhat thin legs in comparison. He also has seven long dreadlock-like spines around the sides and back of his head and a medium-sized, tri-crooked tail.

For attire, Knuckles wears a pair of red and yellow shoes, designed with wrap-like markings, that have green cuffs and grey metal plates on top. He also wears gloves with knuckle-spikes on them and has white sports tape wrapped around his hands, the lower half of his arms and legs, and his biceps, making him similar to a Muay Thai boxer. He also occasionally wears his Communicator.

In addition to his usual clothes, Knuckles has a number of additional attires:

* For high-altitude trips, Knuckles has an advanced white spacesuit with red boots, belt, and arms (the last having spikes to accommodate his knuckle spikes), and a white helmet with an antenna and transparent visor.

* For underwater missions, Knuckles has his own high-tech attire which includes a red wetsuit with a white stripe on each side and his face icon on the chest, red flippers resembling his shoes, and a transparent red face mask attached to an oxygen tank on his back.

* When he worked at Meh Burger, Knuckles wore the standard Meh uniform, which is a lavender shirt with yellow leaf-markings and a name tag on it.

* For cold weathers, Knuckles wears a thick grey and dark grey down jacket with a hoodie, red mittens with white spikes to accommodate his knuckle-spikes, and grey, white and red winter boots.

* When playing for the Pin Dashers, Knuckles wears a dark blue and white-striped bowling shirt with matching bowling shoes. His shirt is likewise emblazoned with the team's logo.

* When performing with Dude-itude, Knuckles wears a glittery jacket and microphone headset.

* For soccer matches, Knuckles has a soccer uniform that includes a white and blue t-shirt with a blue chest logo shaped like Sonic's head, long white socks, and white shoes with blue laces and red soles.

* On holidays, Knuckles has been known to wear a green and white Santa Hat, white and green-striped socks, and a green shirt with golden buttons, white fur cuffs and rib, and a white crescent mark on the chest.

## Personality

Knuckles is described as a "punch-first-and-keep-punching-until-you-need-a-punch-break" kind of echidna, and the best solution to a problem for him is to smash it to pieces. He is determined and strong of character, but tends to be rather cocky and get into trouble.

Knuckles has shown on several occasions to have a huge ego: he clearly thinks of himself as his team's leader and most capable member, and fancies himself very heroic. Also, as a result of his self-pride, Knuckles feels great about himself all the time. However, his self-admiration makes him exaggerate his own recollection of his accomplishments and endeavors to the point of absurdity, leaving him convinced in his mind that he, for example, has various ridiculous superpowers, such as flying. Proud of his manliness, Knuckles has a very macho-orientated attitude which at times makes him sound somewhat archaic. He is also very blunt when expressing his opinions, which makes him come off as insensitive.

Despite his tough-guy personality, Knuckles is a softy on the inside with some noticeable preferences in particular: he loves nature and is very loyal to his friends. He can also be protective and even gentle as displayed by his dedication to the Fregosi Sapphire and Ms. Tomatopotamus. He comes also off as being somewhat sociable and out-going. Also, after reevaluating his status as the last of his kind, Knuckles began feeling the kind of loneliness that comes from knowing that you have no relatives, making him both vulnerable and long for the love only a family can provide. However, he has since come to realize that his friends are his family and that their love is just as good.

Knuckles is the opposite of Sonic: he is stubborn, likes to take his time and is very naive. He is likewise far from intelligent, having admitted himself that he is "as dumb as a rock." Having trouble keeping even the simplest facts on his friends straight or anything else for that matter, he is a little slow on the uptake, particularly when it comes to elaborate plans and math problems, as even simplified explanations takes him a long time to process. He is also a bit goofy at times and easily distracted to the point where he is drawn to things as simple as shiny objects. Knuckles is not entirely dim-witted, however, having on a few occasions shown some surprising insight, cunning, witticism, sarcasm, and even resourcefulness in different situations. Sometimes he can even tell when he is in over his head. His simple-minded view on things likewise lets him find answers to questions that would otherwise confuse more intellectual individuals. Knuckles can also be quite the charismatic rallier, as he has the grounded and simple (if not selfish) ideals that the common man find very relatable; most noticeably, he was able to convince the villagers of Hedgehog Village to help Team Sonic fight an army of robots by inspiring them to protect their possessions.

Knuckles is a little sensitive when it comes to his intelligence. While he accepts he is not the smartest, he takes great offense when being called stupid and will go to extreme lengths to prove otherwise. Also, when Knuckles got his team into trouble with a half-baked plan, he sunk into a depression over his imposed stupidity until his friends restored his confidence.

Noticeably, Knuckles also has a habit of saying "not cool" to others when they do something he disagrees with.

## Powers and abilities

Described as the "muscle of the team," Knuckles possesses incredible superhuman strength acquired through sheer upper body workouts which lets him destroy virtually anything; according to Sticks the Badger, his strength exceeds that of his Prime Zone counterpart. With his strength, Knuckles can create destructive shockwaves that can send enemies flying without damaging the environment, punch through rock and metal alloys, fold sheets of metal like paper, and even swing the colossal arm of the Big Boy mech around without effort. His arguably greatest feat of strength though, was when he smashed a gigantic asteroid in space to pieces with a single punch. While Knuckles' strength mainly lies in his arms, however, his legs are powerful as well, having enough strength to easily overpower the Mega's caterpillar tracks by running on them. To maintain his strength, he regularly goes through intense weight training exercises.

Using the spikes on his hands, Knuckles can climb along walls, across ceilings and scale slippery surfaces. He is as well quite efficient at burrowing, capable of digging through rock and dirt and construct earth barriers at an exceptionally fast rate.

Knuckles has immense durability, even by normal standards, allowing him to withstand extreme and painful physical punishment. He only got a bump from hitting a falling boulder with his head, got right back up after jumping into a deep rock ravine and survived getting hit by a falling meteor, all while enduring strenuous injuries. He also has some skills as a tracker, having successfully located Sonic once using only smell and taste.

After eating an Evil Cookie infused with Eggman's DNA, Knuckles gained average-level intelligence. However, it dropped back to normal after he got cured.