Knuckles the Echidna

Knuckles the Echidna (ナックルズ・ザ・エキドゥナ) is a fictional character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He is an anthropomorphic echidna and the current guardian of the Master Emerald, a powerful ancient relic which is his solemn duty to protect from anyone who wants to abuse it. He is also the sole remaining descendant of the Knuckles Clan and last of the echidnas on earth. His dominant traits are his superhuman strength, and the two spike-like knuckles on each of his hands, from which his name is derived from, which he can use to dig with and climb up walls. He can also trap the wind under his dreadlocks to glide through the air. A loner by nature, Knuckles is independent, headstrong and serious, yet gullible and short-tempered to a fault. He is fully devoted to his duty, spending most of his time on Angel Island protecting the Master Emerald, and rarely cares for anything that is not important.

Background

 * Sonic Underground

Knuckles was born alone and raised 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' 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 innate knowledge that his duty was his fate, and he was content with that. While he was a kid, he met Queen Aleena who told him that he would be the first ally of her children Sonic, Manic and Sonia to join them in the war against Dr. Robotnik.
 * Sonic X (Anime)
 * Sonic Boom (Series)

Personality

 * Sonic Underground

Knuckles has a tough personality, dedicated to keeping his island afloat. However, he tends to be gullible and easily misled, thus leading to his attacks on the Sonic Underground.
 * Sonic X (Anime)

Knuckles is serious, aloof, stubborn and does not adapt easily. Headstrong and inflexible, Knuckles prefers to do things his own way which causes him to clash with others. Regardless, he is very strong-willed, seldom wavering in his determination.

Unlike the rest of Sonic's group, Knuckles walks his very own path and is able to fight many people on his own, due to his brute strength and competence at martial arts. He also never gives up once he has a goal to accomplish, especially when its about finding the Master Emerald which is his job/duty to protect it. When on a serious mission, Knuckles is extremly self-sufficient and only says a few words.

Knuckles grew up believing in honesty, and holds a strong and steadfast belief that there is good in everyone, which always lets him give people (especially Eggman) second chances. However, this makes him very naive, quite gullible and easily misled, which has given him a history of being tricked by Eggman.

Though he is cool and determined in battle and most stressfull situations, Knuckles has an extremely short temper which leads to aggression, and is difficult to talk to or reason with when he is angry. Though his wild-temper has often been known to get him into trouble, Knuckles uses his anger to fight off his enemies.

Knuckles holds a special loneliness as he is the last of his tribe of Echidnas that lived on Angel Island for generations and believes that he will never see any one like him in his lifetime. Despite of this though, he believes that he is the only person who can carry out the task of protecting the Master Emerald to ensure no one abuses its power.

Despite his solitude, temper and blunt honesty, Knuckles is quite understanding and kind, and respects those who are nice in return, but keeps to himself. However, he shows alot of empathy, especially for people he believes need some comfort. Knuckles is also extremely selfless, risks putting himself in danger to save people's lives, even if its a villain or disliked person.
 * Sonic Boom (Series)

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 also has a huge ego: he clearly thinks of himself as his team's leader and most capable member, and fancies himself very heroic, although his self-admiration makes him exaggerate his own recollection of his accomplishments to the point of absurdity. Proud of his manliness, Knuckles has a very macho-orientated attitude which at times makes him sound somewhat archaic. Despite his tough personality, though, he is a softy on the inside with some noticeable preferences in particular: he loves nature and is very loyal to his friends. Noticeably, Knuckles has a habit of saying "not cool" to others when they do something he disagrees with.

Knuckles is the opposite of Sonic: he is stubborn, likes to take his time and very naive. He is far from intelligent, admitting himself that he is "as dumb as a rock," and 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, as he a few occasions shown some great insight, cunning, witticism, and even resourcefulness in battle.

Knuckles is a little sensitive about 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.

Appearance

 * Sonic Underground
 * Sonic X (Anime)
 * Sonic Boom (Series)

Knuckles closely resembles his main series counterpart in overall characteristics, but is quite drastically different in terms of physical proportions. He is much larger than all of his team-mates, standing over a head taller than Sonic, and is considerably more muscular. He has a rather large torso, broad shoulders and thick muscular arms, making him very top-heavy, and possesses longer legs and quills. Also, like his main counterpart, he has a white, crescent moon-shaped mark near the top of his chest.

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.

Sonic Underground
Years later, Knuckles met Sleet and Dingo who tricked him into believing that Sonic, Manic and Sonia where thieves after his island's Chaos Emerald. When Sonic, Manic and Sonia arrived on the Floating Island to find their mother, Knuckles attacked them until Sonic saved his life. After cleared up the misunderstanding, Knuckles and the hedgehog siblings teamed up to reclaim the Chaos Emerald Sleet and Dingo had stolen before the island fell from sky, and they became the allies Aleena wanted. When Dr. Robotnik found another Chaos Emerald, Knuckles aided Sonic, Manic and Sonia in reclaiming and containing the Chaos Emerald when it ran rampant.

Video Games
Knuckles the Echidna is a playable character in all the following video games:
 * Sonic the Hedgehog 3
 * Sonic & Knuckles
 * Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble
 * Knuckles Chaotix
 * Sonic the Fighters
 * Sonic 3D Blast
 * Sonic R
 * Sonic Blast
 * Sonic Adventure
 * Sonic Shuffle
 * Sonic Adventure 2
 * Sonic Advance
 * Sonic Advance 2
 * Sonic Advance 3
 * Sonic Heroes
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Sonic Battle
 * Sonic Rush
 * Sonic Riders
 * Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
 * Sonic Free Riders
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
 * Sonic Rivals
 * Sonic Rivals 2
 * Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
 * Sonic Colors
 * Sonic Generations
 * Sonic Lost World
 * Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric
 * Sonic Boom Shattered Crystal
 * Sonic Boom Fire & Ice

Voice Actors
all information on Knuckles the Echidna came from http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Knuckles_the_Echidna
 * Japanese :
 * English :