*Warning*: This post contains minor spoilers for Sonic The Hedgehog 2! If you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t want anything spoiled, then I would advise to watch the movie first before reading through what I’m about to say. Nothing major but you have been warned!
There’s a moment in Sonic 2 where Sonic is snowboarding down a mountain and he happens to find Knuckles right on his tail. Sonic’s response to him is, “Oh, great! The Winter Soldier!” While that is clearly meant to be a funny gag and a pop culture reference, I look at it in a different way.
Here’s an actual clip of it on Youtube!
In case anyone is unaware, the Winter Soldier is a character from the Captain America side of Marvel movies. The character came into full force into Cap’s second solo entry in the MCU titled Captain America: The Winter Soldier. There are many that consider that movie to be one of the best, if not the very best, of all the Marvel movies. It’s one that made the character of Captain America more popular than ever before. What was seen by some as being too much of a goody two-shoe kind of hero or too much of a patriotic nerd, The Winter Soldier made him into a legit interesting protagonist showcasing that there was much more to the character in modern society than what the past might have claimed for him. It also made Captain America into a total badass and best of all, actually made him cool. That is the exact kind of energy that I felt was brought to all the Sonic characters throughout Sonic 2, most notably Knuckles.
Granted, Tails himself shined quite well in this movie too. While most recent Sonic media (mostly just Sonic Forces) kinda framed him as being a scared little child who can’t seem to do anything without Sonic around, this was able to show how he is capable of standing his own ground if he needs too. Sure, he’s still a young kid who looks up to Sonic and can’t be afraid time, but they were able to explore his vulnerability without taking away any of his credibility. While the movie didn’t quite dive into being the Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius that he is, it was a pretty faithful adaption of the character that I don’t think could have been adapted more faithfully. His model is perfect, Colleen O’Shaughnessey is probably the best Tails voice to date, and my god, is he not so darn cute!
However, there was not one character in this movie that shined as well as Knuckles did in this movie, portrayed perfectly by Idris Elba.
If you were to ask any Sonic fan the last time Knuckles has had any sort of role for the Sonic series that wasn’t as a background character or comic relief, they would probably take a long, deep thought and realized that it has been quite a while since that happened. The closest one could argue that the character played a legit major role was either in Sonic Adventure 2 or maybe Sonic Heroes. Just about every other big game in the series either sidelined him (Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 2006, and the storybook games) or just made him a complete joke (Generations, Lost World, Rise of Lyric, Forces). Sure, he might have had a bit more to do in the spin-off games (Battle, Riders(?)) and shows (X, Boom) but even then those still couldn’t help but make Knuckles lose his own sense of credibility. Yes, Knuckles has always tented to be gullible and manipulative but he usually always have a good reason to do so and make sense why he would believe the things he does. And yes, Knuckles has always been quite y’know a knucklehead but that’s mostly has been part of the charm of the character and at least knew that he had an actual functional brain in his head. Despite being a fan-favorite character since it’s debut in 3 & Knuckles, he has really lost it’s sense of purpose and relevancy in the series. That was until Sonic 2 the movie came around.
I might need a little more time to think on it but I’m fairly confident in making the statement that I believe Sonic 2 has the best iteration of Knuckles in any Sonic-related media. Everything about him in this movie feels so right. From his actions to his backstory to his goals/motivations to his smexy voice and to his actual menacing screen presence, the red echidna has simply never been better. Here’s five main things that Sonic 2 nailed perfectly about Knuckles!
1.) His Goal
If there is one trait that the Sonic series have ignored about Knuckles for so long, it’s his overall goal. His main goal has always been to protect the Master Emerald at all cost. It’s something that he has sworn his life to look after. Not just because the master emerald contains the power of being able to transform thoughts into reality, but because it’s something that he promised his ancestors that he would watch over it. The Master Emerald represents the last remains of Knuckles and his tribe. It’s what defines him as an important character and as just a warrior in general. I don’t know why the series for so long has forgotten about that one important trait of the character, the one trait that basically made the character the way he is. I’m so glad that Sonic 2 was able to bring that back and arguably explores it even more than it has before.
And speaking of ancestors and tribes!
2.) His Backstory
This is actually one aspect that this series has barely touched upon, where Knuckles came from. There has always been hints of Knuckles coming from an ancient tribe and that he is actually the last of his kind. Sonic 2 is the first time I can recall that actually put that major aspect of the character in the spotlight. While the backstory scenes themselves mostly consists of about 30 second long clips of younger Knuckles, it gave just enough insight as to where he came from and why it has made the character the way he is today. It does make for quite a tragic backstory where nearly his entire kin was wiped out by the owl tribe. What makes it even more tragic is that it’s believed to be the same kind of owls that Longclaw, the one that raised and mentored Sonic, were the ones that caused it. Then again, most heroes and villains don’t tend to have the kindest pasts. I’d be very curious to see if that new spin-off series will explore more of that to further develop this character even more.
3.) His Actions
Just about nearly every single choice the character makes is completely believable for him. Sure, you could argue that he was gullible for trusting Eggman but he had perfectly valid reasons for doing so. He was looking for the Master Emerald and believed that helping Eggman track down Sonic would be the only way he would be able to get it. This also came from the same Sonic that was raised by those same owls that Knuckles believes to have killed all of those that raised him. Why wouldn’t you want to do everything in your power to take that blue demon down, one that is possibly link to both the Master Emerald and the death of his own kind? Not just that, but the action that Knuckles make throughout the course of the movie is not just in character but also makes him feel like an actual character instead of just a punchline. While he definitely has some laughs in the movie, there’s nothing he does that takes away from Knuckles himself as being as awesome as he is. It’s throughout the course of the movie that he learns to have put more trust in others and that people outside of his culture are not as black and white as he was lead to believe. People tend to act differently than others and just because they can change doesn’t mean you can’t either. That sure rises above whatever actions the character has made throughout the last decade and a half plus. Just saying!
4.) His Voice
There has never been a better voice for Knuckles than Idris Elba. His voice delivery was near flawless for the character. He’s able to nail the character through nearly every beat possible. He nailed the brooding side of him where he was angry at Sonic and trying to pick a fight with him. He nailed the dramatic scene where he shares a sad story about his part to one of the characters in the movie. He even nailed the comedic scenes that were actually funny and didn’t devalued Knuckles in any way possible. I’ve been looking for that one Knuckles actor that would be able to nail every single trait of the character without neglecting one or the other but now I finally got it. Thank you, Idris Elba!
5.) His Screen Presence
Even if you throw away everything I just said, he is just so darn cool and fun to watch in this movie. Right from the first scene where he attacks Sonic, you really got the sense that Sonic had met his match. He was able to answer Sonic’s power with a power of his own. Not only does Knuckles’s design look great and is able to blend well in the real world despite it clearly being a CGI creation, he is able to steal every scene that he is in. There’s plenty of scenes that give you a great indication as to how powerful Knuckles truly is. For how powerful his punching is to being able to stop the fastest thing alive in the palm of his hands, this is definitely a Knuckles you don’t want to mess with. This is how Knuckles should always have been seen like. The Knuckles that feels like a threatening presence to all of his enemies. The Knuckles that feels like he can take on anybody that opposes him or at least put a good fight. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment that SEGA or Sonic Team thought it would be best to take away that great aspect, but I’m happy those at Paramount was able to make Knuckles as great of a screen presence as he is in this movie.
I could nitpick an aspect or two about Knuckles in the movie (like how he never once glides at all, which is also a key power of his), but the positive aspects absolutely out ways any sort of negative aspect that I can think of. As someone who’s favorite Sonic character outside of Sonic himself is Knuckles, this is the kind of Knuckles I’ve missed so much and even the kind of Knuckles I’ve waited my whole life to see. This is probably the first time I’ve ever seen a Sonic media that is able to handle every single known trait about the character without feeling the need to disregard one or the other and show that he can be all of these things all at once. He can be funny, he can be interesting, he can be engaging, he can be a threat to his enemy, he can be a badass, he can be a warrior, and most importantly, he can be just so damn cool. I never would that thought that the main approach to have this character done justice is to simply go back to his roots and explore the loose ends of it without neglecting any sort of aspect of it.
Just like how the world was relieved after The Winter Soldier to say that Captain America is actually cool now, I’m relieved to say that after Sonic 2, Knuckles is cool now.
Now, time to see if the third Sonic movie can make Shadow interesting again without having to rehash the plot of Adventure 2 again (*cough* Sonic X).
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