Sonic Mania Adventures, Episode 3: & Knuckles

Sonic Mania Adventures, Episode 3: & Knuckles

Original Release Date: May 30th

As predicted, the third episode of "Sonic Mania Adventures" focuses on Knuckles... And almost entirely on Knuckles, as Sonic and Tails do not technically appear in these three minutes. (Aside from a brief shot in one of the Guardian's daydreams.) Instead, the episode concerns Knux dragging the Master Emerald around his current island location. He, in his very paranoid fashion, guards the Emerald while imagining a whole slew of thieves coming for it. Who shows up instead is Ray the Squirrel, in search of his buddy Mighty. That attempted friendship doesn't go well. Afterwards, some RhinoBots appear, distracting the echidna long enough for Eggman – flying around in a stolen Tornado now – to snatch the big green rock. Knuckles jumps suddenly to conclusions and, seeing the Emerald being dragged off by the biplane, naturally assumes Sonic is the responsible culprit. 

In the canon of classic "Sonic" characters, I've always considered Knuckles the Echidna to be among the most complex. He began as an enemy of Sonic's before the two quickly became friends. His standard character arc, as laid out in "Sonic 3 & Knuckles," is of a sheltered kid raised in an extremely isolating environment discovering that there is more to the world than what he's been taught. Not to mention all that time spent, standing alone and staring at an enormous gemstone, probably allows for a lot of insight and reflection. My conception of Knuckles has always been of a warrior monk type, whose brawny and quick-to-anger exterior appearance hides a far deeper thinker, an innocent kid shackled to a destiny beyond his control. I have no doubt that this interpretation of the echidna is based on my childhood reading the Archie Comics, which depict the red guy as far more introspective than is typical. Say what you will about Ken Penders – I've been more than critical of him myself – but I do think this is the ideal take on Knuckles. He doesn't have Sonic's carefree attitude. Knuckles is burdened with glorious purpose and he doesn't have a say in the matter. If Sonic is fast and DGAF, then Knuckles is brawnier and angstier. He's got a lot on his mind. 

It's entirely possible that my fondness for this version of Knuckles is based entirely on being a lonely kid with too much time to think about Stuff too. I suppose I saw a lot of myself in him. Obviously, this is not the take on the character that the majority of people – Sega and Sonic Team most of all – have on the guy. With the emergence of Shadow as the franchise's token antisocial badass, Knuckles has more commonly been reduced to the wacky comic relief. Writers have latched onto the echidna being massively gullible, as depicted in a couple of the games. This has led to him, more often, being written as a fucking idiot. "Sonic X" depicted him as a meathead and played the disparity between his confidence and his intelligence for laughs. The live action media has shown him as obsessed with his Honorable Warrior beliefs to the point of comedic obliviousness. "Sonic Boom" played the guy as a totally vacant man-child, whose staggering dumbness could always be counted on for an easy joke. (Except for when subverting that image would be funny.) Since "Sonic" is a franchise that always skews young, many fans these days aren't aware of Knuckles' roots as a noble if naïve outsider, whose gullibility was more sad than funny. The Flanderized version of the character that exists in fan art and fan fics usually reduces his personality down to three aspects: Tough, dumb, totally devoted to protecting that plot device. 

Some of the blame for this wide-spread conception of Knuckles can probably be blamed on Tyson Hesse's wildly popular "Sonic" shitpost comics. "MAH EMMERROWDS!" has defined the character more than anyone has intended in the last decade. You certainly see some of that classically Hesse-ian take on the echidna in this cartoon. As he did in the Archie "Mega Drive" one-shots, Hesse depicts Knuckles as having childish thoughts about the world via thought bubbles filled with crayon-style drawings. When he hears a rustling in the leaves, he hugs onto the Emerald like a baby monkey clinging to its mom, staring wide-eyed in all directions. His reaction to Ray literally just looking at the Emerald is to throw him hella far into the middle distance. All of this stuff plays exactly like one of Hesse's little comic strips. The entire first half of this cartoon plays out like a "Boxer Hockey" gag, minus all the edgy early 2000s humor. 

Having said all of that, I do think Hesse's characterization of Knux is a little more complex than that. Not the least because the "Sonic Frontiers" short he directed gave me the version of Knuckles that I always wanted to see. Even in the obviously light-hearted and jokey setting of "Sonic Mania Adventures," Knuckles isn't only a paranoid moron that's overzealous about his job. He's also exceptionally bad-ass moron. When the three RhinoBots gather around the Emerald, what follows is a fast-paced and beautifully orchestrated action scene. The echidna uppercutting a robot's head off is, simply put, cool as hell. This scene shows that, while Knuckles is primarily a figure of frivolity in this cartoon, there's still a great deal of respect reserved for him. Maybe thinking things through is not always his strong point but he's, ultimately, someone to admire. This is a good compromise between the "Knuckles is sooo dumb laugh at him laugh at his dumbness!" and "Knuckles is actually really deep, you guys" poles that may exist only in my demented subconscious. 

I've spent this entire review talking about Knuckles, which overlooks that Ray the Squirrel is in this cartoon as well. Once the stuttering hero-in-training of the Archie continuity is set aside, I'm not sure Sega Ray is a character that actually has any personality. Like, what do we know about this guy? What's his deal? What motivates him? Nevertheless, the little yellow dude being playable for the first time in twenty-odd years was a major selling point for "Sonic Mania Plus." Considering the only consistent trait Ray has is being a bit of an enthusiastic sidekick – basically absorbing the parts of Tails' personality that fell off once he became a tech genius – he makes for a good foil against Knuckles. Ray is being a curious kid and, humorless Knuckles hyper fixated on doing his job, catapult him over the horizon. It is, admittedly, a good joke. And a good use of what little identity Classic Ray can be said to have.  

Ultimately, episode 3 of "Sonic Mania Adventures" is not the utterly joyous blast of nostalgia that the first two installments were. This is clearly by design. Sonic is put aside and so is the fast paced action we associate with him. Instead, this is a goofy little comedy short mostly about playing off Knuckles' potential for being a deadpan comedic straight man. Which isn't to say "& Knuckles" slacks off on capturing the spirit of the Genesis games. I mean, a remix of Knuckles' main theme plays at a key moment! Brilliant stuff. I continue to love how this series uses the classic sound effects to emphasize the mood or expressions of the characters. Once again, the ability to convey a lot with a mere look or subtle change of the mouth – apparent when Ray presents Knuckles with Mighty's missing poster – is such an incredible thing. It's what animation is all about, exaggerating and stretching the face and body to express larger-than-life emotions, but you don't see it nearly as much as you should. 

Anyway, it's a hoot. I chuckled and larfed. This series continues to be a complete and total delight, even if this episode is operating in a different mode from the previous two. The plot continues to tease Metal Sonic and move towards a confrontation between heroes and villains, while packing in lots of fun at the same time. That still gets a big and hearty recommendation from me! Thank you for reading 1444 words about my opinion on how Knuckles the Echidna should and should not be written. [8/10]