#sojourner the echidna

[tired-old-men]

🏳️‍🌈Happy Pride!♥🏳️‍⚧️

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

[mightyray]

Here's all the gifts and requests I did for the awesome @charleecat-bat go follow her, she's very cool! Disclaimer Clear Quartz (the character between the two sonic fan characters) is owned by Muetron, Tenchu the purple fured robed guy is owned by queenmoreta and Isador the small tanned frecked echidna also in a robe is owned by cryptidneet from dA. I was doing gift art for people who wanted to give something to their friends a long time ago.

[btm-txt]

The Four Baby Gurls of the Apocalypse~💖✨

Just some sketch studies of the boys but with their spines up that I later decided to baby girlify because its just too cute not to~ UwU

[julie-su]

Sojourner: ... REALLY, truly? Locke: Yes. Really, truly. Shut up.

[echidna-enquiries]

@tired-old-men Seth: ALRIGHT FUCKERS. PREPARE YOUR ASSES TO GET RATED OR MORE LIKE ROASTED. I must break you all down if you are to be built up again. I will start bottom to top.

"Okay. First of all, I must ask...is it normal for the people in your universe to be just NAKED?! Don't you ever get cold? or uncomfortable? or even get scuffed up at all?! And those gloves... Knuckles, honey, how can you pick up anything with those? Those don't seem at all practical. The shoes are...fine. I don't understand them but MY Knuckles wears the same so I suppose I can't complain too much... 4 out of 10... I can't bring myself to go any lower for some version of my grandson, even if he's not mine "

"Well, you're still without pants, but at least you have something covering your top half. Albeit something UTTERLY plain. Everything about your ensemble is PLAIN! I can feel myself YAWNING the more I look at you! Without the boots and those dysfunctional gloves, I would've thought you stepped out of a shower! Spruce it up a little! 5 out 10"

"...(sigh) Okay, I see that pantlessness is going to be a norm. Lets see what else here. Yet again, a plain and and questionable fit. A tunic? just cause your an older man doesn't mean you need to look ancient! And those IMPRACTICAL GLOVES! Are those ALSO A NORM IN THIS FAMILY!?! Not sure how you can type on that keypad there without your FINGERS! (huffs)... I'm not sure if the monocle is simply for aesthetic or has a function specifically but it at least draws people to your face. That's something... 5 and a half out of 10"

"...Hon... it's giving roadkill. HOW can that be comfortable? That looks so bug infested and scratchy that it makes ME feel like ltching! And those beads... Those shoes, I'd recommend sandals over those if you REALLY want your toes out. Those are gonna slip off SO easily! Eugh, those beads, it looks like you got a bunch of candy on your spines! A kids gonna come and chew on 'em at any second. AND WHAT'S WITH THE MARACAS AROUND YOUR NECK?! 2 outta 10 this fit is a mess. I get wanting to be eccentric but this AIN'T IT"

"Girlie... why the bathrobe and slippers? It's giving GRANDMA not GUARDIAN. Surely as a Guardian, that CANNOT be practical on the job. I can't imagine even ME being able to do my work in a bathrobe. And I can do it in heels! Unless you're working from home, you need a change, sweetie... but other then that. It's fine. 6 out of 10".

"Boy, you better be grateful I don't have any scissors right now BECAUSE I'D BE ON YOUR ASS TRIMMING THAT BIRDS NEST. WHAT IS THAT? IT LITERALLY LOOKS A BUNCH OF WEEDS IN A GARDEN. THIS ENTIRE LOOK JUST... GAG. These colours do NOT go together at ALL! And it hurts my eyes more cause your purple fur could be SO GOOD! And don't even get me started on those SHOULDER PADS- 2 AND HALF OUT OF 10!!"

"Oh CHAOS-talk about leaving NOTHING to the imagination! Somehow this upsets me more than Knuckles! Adding a boring vest doesn't make this an entire outfit, but I think what makes me more mad is. THAT. WHAT IS THAT ON YOUR HEAD. IS THAT YOUR HARDDRIVE? A SCANNER FOR YOUR HEAD? WILL IT BEEP IF I TRY AND SCAN SOMETHING ON IT- (lowkey wanna try that now-) AND HOW IS THAT EVEN STAYING UP THERE?! This whole outfit boggles me and leaves me upset. 2 out of 10"

"Hm... While I'm not sure WHAT you're going for, at least you're sticking to your aesthetic. I dig it. AND your fully clothed. Good. I'm unsure about that helmet but if your not uncomfortable then go for it. Not the most practical but you seem to make it work. 8 outta 10"

"Oh the hat's a nice touch! I always like a nice hat. The green isn't a bad choice colour wise. But the rest of the outfit I feel could be improved... especially the giant T on the top. I can't quite take that seriously, just makes me think of kids in an old sitcom or cartoon. BUT it's not bad. 6 out of 10".

"Ah. I see where the hat came from now... but hat can't save you from that bizarre piece, what even is that? a vest strap on? A harness?? and AGAIN WITH THE INITIAL ON THE CLOTHES?? If you at least wore assless-chaps it wouldn't be such a shocker with your cowboy looking ass. Dear lord. 3 out of 10"

"(Deeeeeeeeep siiiiigh)...I really wanna like this. I really do. I can see you have a specific vibe. I can SEE WHAT YOU WERE GOING FOR but... IT FUMBLED!! HARD!! No wonder you need that stick you fell off hard. You could get such better robes, hon. 5 out of 10"

"Is... is this a joke? You look like you got a piece of cheese SLAPPED onto your forehead. SMACK- looking like a farmer with those denim looking overalls... well almost cause what a surprise. NOTHING ON THOSE LEGS. Bland. Boring. Just a bad fit buddy. 1 out of 10. "

"Annnnd barely any improvement on the next one. Minus the random slice of cheese on the head, just traded that and the denim looking top for a useless belt, boring vest and random little accessory on the spine. I don't even have anything to say about this. There's just NOTHING. 1 out of 10"

(the sound of a facepalm) "Oh Chaos-...I KNOW I SAID BORING WAS BAD BUT THIS ISN'T ANY BETTER!! WHAT-WHAT ARE YOU WEARING? ARE THOSE THE RIGHT PRESCRIPTION!? CAN YOU EVEN SEE HOW YOU LOOK RIGHT NOW?! Theres high fashion and then theres fashion you pull off when your HIGH- YOU SIR ARE THE LATTER! 0 OUT OF 10. I would say i'm sorry... but I'M NOT AT ALL SORRY! GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!"

"And back to boring... you are literally just wearing a long V neck and some boots... so many basic bitches in this household my GOD- 1 out of 10".

"...Now. While I'm not entirely sure about the idea of dressing like a tv show character in my day to day... you're at least sticking to it. You're committed to the fit and have the passion behind it, that I can get behind. While I'd rather an INSPIRED fit than just the exact replica as an outfit, this is at least a more interesting yet still not an eyesore to look at compared to the other outfits I've seen so far. 7 out of 10".

"...my sanity at this point is hanging by the thread...THE SAME THREAD I'M ABOUT TO USE ON THOSE DAMN BROWS OF YOURS. You are LITERALLY WEARING NOTHING BUT A BELT, BOOTS AND THOSE GODDAMN GLOVES. AT LEAST KNUCKLES DOESN'T WASTE TIM WITH A USELESS BELT. IT'S NOT EVEN A FASHION STATEMENT. THAT WOULD REQUIRE IT BEING FASHIONABLE. 1 out of 10. The only reason your not a zero is because of the rings... I like some good spine rings but that IS ONLY SAVING YOU BY A ZERO BY AN INCH. PUT SOME DAMN CLOTHES ON".

"Now I was about to say this is basically a repeat of another outfit, version 0.1... but I then noticed YOUR NOT WEARING THOSE GODDAMN GLOVES. Immediately an improvement. Far from perfect but this is still much better than many others... but WHAT is that on your head... that looks like something people use to look at gemstones. Thought you were supposed to be a scientist...".

Seth: Phew... Right? That everyone in that picture? Well. Those are my starter notes. Now, how about I give some suggestions on what you could all wear to-

Fae: SETH! GIVE ME MY PHONE BACK!! IT'S BEEN HOURS!!

Seth: Hold on Fae, I'm not finished!-HEY! DON'T YANK ON THIS JACKET THIS WAS NOT CHEAP! THIS COST MORE THAN YOUR PHONE- STOP IT!!

Fae: GIVE ME MY PHONE! YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH!

Seth: Oh please I've barely scratched the-HEY HEY DON'T SCRATCH THE JACKET- OKAY- OKAY! HERE! I'M SORRY!

Fae: thank you...

Seth: (clears throat)...Well. I best be off now. Tata... Get yourselves some pants though, seriously. Fae: Seth, please... Seth: I'm going- byeeeeeeee~

Fae: (sighs in embarrassment) Sorry, guys...

[julie-su]

Right, right... Knuckles T. Echidna's grandpas.

So; issue 103 contains this DPS; a family tree to fill out; with a complete version being included in 109. For completionist's sake, we'll also include the version from The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopaedia; though it's not of much importance for this.

Now... I don't know if you've noticed anything, but there's a misprint here... And, no, echidna-savvy enthousiasts, it's not the whole mess with positionings of guardians (Sojourner, child of Spectre, indeed.)

Look a little closer...

(Names added for coherency) - Hawking and Sonja-Ra have had their gender markers swapped. The guardian child of Mathias is initially marked as female. Alright, so, a misprint! One which got fixed by 109, at that. I wasn't -going- to run with it...

...

(KTE #6) ... He looks like every single elderly transgender man I have ever met. I don't know. I'm running with it! Hawking and Sonja-Ra are transgender!

(Fun OC fact; this is where the 'Ra' in Zara-Ra's name comes from. He changes his name; born Jamie-Su to Lara-Su and Argyle, he later decides to deed-poll that shyte... To match an ancestor who was also transgender. He decided to keep the feminine article, because he just likes it that way. Hey, he's half crocodile; do -you- want to tell him he can't?!)

And there you have it! A taste of 'Whatever I have going on with Knuckles' grandpas'.

'Transpa' as a term, courtesy of one Kyle JCRB Crouse... Spectre's appearance courtesy of a certain Professor Ry. XD

There are three kinds of LGBT headcanons:

Actual queer coding / metaphors ("Nimona is trans because her creator made her as a way to express his feelings as a trans person")

Vibes ("Link is genderless because I said so")

It's funny ("Phoenix Wright is asexual because he's the Ace Attorney")

[gamerzylo]

Finally drew something after a long break and it’s some of the Brotherhood. Why?

[sally-mun]

Since that last question is off the table, how's about this: How would the Brotherhood handle the events of Sonic Unleashed? Do they have any knowledge of the Gaia Prophecy? Would Chaos be the one to keep the oceans from draining like he is in the reboot? And would this finally be the catastrophe that gets Knuckles to finally meet his family, or would this happen way later down the line? Would the brotherhood be prepared in the SLIGHTEST for the planet shattering like that?

I've got to admit first that I never finished Sonic Unleashed because, outrageously bad game design choices aside, I initially played the Wii version and oh my god the Werehog's controls on narrow suspended ledges made the game unbeatable for me. It made me so angry that I've never tried the Xbox 360 version despite owning it and having heard it's better. OKAY, confessions are out of the way, onward and sideways.

So I think it's safe to say that this would have to be late enough in the timeline that Knuckles would definitely know the rest of his family by this point. Maybe I'm biased on that, because I'm looking at it through the lens of my own RP. I know the events of Unleashed aren't in the RP's backstory, which can thus only mean that if they occur at all it's only in the future.

As far as the Brotherhood's handling of it, I think it'd be a really strong shock to their system -- partly because they're more or less 'retired' at this point in the game, and partly because they can't just ignore this shit, it will definitely affect them and their people. Historically the BH tends to keep to their own business and leave the surface world to its problems, but they can't fall back on that philosophy now. For one thing, Angel Island ain't even a thing anymore, so now "the surface world" is necessarily their problem because they live there. Another is the fact that a global catastrophe means they can't just bury their heads and look out strictly for the echidnas, either. What happens to the rest of the world will undoubtedly have consequences for Albion, because C'MON GUYS THE PLANET'S KINDA IN PIECES RIGHT NOW. IF THERE'S SOMETHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT THAT, YA MIGHT WANNA GET ON IT.

So I suppose that means the biggest takeaway is that it would force the Brotherhood to get involved with other hero groups and be cooperative, especially with there being so few individuals that can use chaos on the scale that they can. I want to say they'd probably be oblivious to the idea of Gaia or its related texts, if just because they spent so long isolated on Angel Island before it went down and they haven't really spent their time on the surface learning about their neighbors. Safe to say they'd be pretty blindsided by the entire situation but probably also trying to give the impression that they should hold some form of authority. Because, well, they're the BH, why wouldn't they think that?

What makes it a little... I don't know, I don't want to say "sad" or "disappointing," but something in that vein, is that by "The Brotherhood" I really only mean Sojourner, Thundy, and Sabre at this point. Spectre has been bedridden for a while, Athair ascended into some Walker-like astral plane or something afaik, and Moritori.... well I mean we DID do one RP years ago where Knuckles found him out in the world trying to live a normal life, but my god he was already so old at that point, and now that it's been even more years since then, he's probably dead by now. Honestly that one session where Knux tracked him down was SO early in the RP too that a lot of backstory wasn't concretely established yet, so I don't even know if that's canon anymore. I DON'T KNOW RP CAN BE WILD SOMETIMES. Anyway my point is that Sojo, Thundy, and Sabre are the BH equivalent of the Three Stooges these days so that'd be an extra layer of "lol wtf are they doing--"

[mobius-prime]

137. Knuckles the Echidna #29

My Special Friend

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Frank Gagliardo

We have another standalone issue this time! Sally is pissed, as apparently she's just found out that Antoine was a part of the mission to retrieve her mother and brother from the Floating Island a while back, and is yelling at him for never having told her. He guiltily responds that it wasn't his place to tell her, and so she stalks off to see her father. He tries to speak first, but she, to her credit, cuts him off and insists that he listen to her first before he says anything.

I don't know how much the "I was only trying to protect you" excuse flies when she's literally talking about his previous orders to murder all Robians and force her into an arranged marriage. However, for whatever reason she listens to him, and he orders her to the Floating Island to hopefully negotiate some help in the renewed war against Robotnik. Meanwhile on said island, Knuckles is chatting with Catweazle, a face we haven't seen in a very long time, but in case you don't know him he's a cockatoo with a stupid name and a stupid appearance who first appeared very briefly in the Triple Trouble special. He's mostly come here to cheekily complain at Knuckles, first about him spending so much time in the city as of late, then about his own family, the possibility of Lara-Le and Wynmacher producing a new child of their own (which is a subject Knuckles carefully avoids), and finally, about recent sightings of Overlander craft flying around the island.

Gee, I wonder who those could belong to? They spot one flying towards the island at this very moment, and inside is Sally, presumably having "borrowed" it from Robotnik to take it out here. She's apparently feeling very guilty now about questioning her father, which is really something she has absolutely no reason to feel considering the BS he's pulled ever since coming out of the Zone of Silence. Nicole points out that his sickness and trauma from said zone has probably contributed to his irrational behavior, but then Sally says something I find to be extremely out of character, namely that her father's suggestion to dismantle the Robians was an "arguably pragmatic solution," that he must have done it in case of a situation like this where Robotnik was able to turn around and use them against the citizens of the kingdom once more, and that if she'd been through what he had, she might have done the same. Just, what? This is not like Sally at all - sure, she's an intelligent leader who knows how to make the hard decisions when she must, but that has never included literally murdering over four million unfortunate people just because they had the bad luck to be captured in the war. All I can chalk this up to is either her father's frankly quite emotionally abusive demeanor getting to her head, or - more likely - Penders doing a terrible job at writing Sally. This is just not the Sally we've known for over a hundred issues, this is not how she thinks or acts, and it's honestly a really messed up thing to try to write her as endorsing.

But anyway, Nicole advises her to activate a beacon in the ship, which the Brotherhood, still watching from inside Haven, recognizes as broadcasting the king's digital signature. They allow the ship to land, and she plops it down on the grass at the edge of the island right next to Knuckles, who she immediately marches up on and begins yelling at as well. Man, Sally just loves yelling at people this issue, huh?

Okay, that is a genuinely hilarious excuse to give for her coloring changes in the beginning of the comic. I'll accept it because that is amazing. Anyway, she confronts Knuckles about the existence of her mother and brother on the island, prompting him to retort that even he didn't have any idea they were here, and that if he'd known he would have gone straight to her about it. She just responds that she's here to see the Brotherhood, heading off any ideas he then has about her keeping that secret from him by saying she only learned of their existence today through her father. As if on cue, Spectre poofs in with the help of Deo Volente, and in comparison to his edgelord attitude in past issues he's very warm and welcoming to Sally, escorting her to Haven along with Knuckles to introduce her to the family.

I have to point out that the family line given here is in dispute - for whatever reason, several different issues disagree with each other on the placement of Sojourner and Thunderhawk, with some saying Thunderhawk is the father of Sojourner and others having it the other way around. I think the final order decided upon was the one depicted here, with Sojourner being the son of Spectre and the father of Thunderhawk, but even that isn't fully clear. Boy, it sure is fun keeping all these names straight, isn't it?

As Spectre ushers everyone into a meeting room, Knuckles quietly confronts his father off to the side about how his secret-keeping has now led to his friends, as well, being affected. Locke simply retorts that Sally and he shouldn't have been friends to begin with, and when Knuckles irritably challenges the idea that Locke should be able to decide who he can and can't be friends with Locke dismissively states that Sally's "people" try too hard to coexist peacefully with the Overlanders, which has only led to them being constantly embroiled in war. Geez, Locke, any sympathy? Any at all? Neither the Great War nor the previous Robotnik War were the fault of Sally's people - in fact, they were both almost entirely the fault of Robotnik, with the Great War having Kodos share some of that blame - and this current war is hardly their fault either. His assessment of the situation is downright cold. But it turns out, in a sense, he's just following tradition, as evidenced by the response of the other members of the Brotherhood to Sally's petition for aid.

Because she refuses to agree to the use of literally all kinds of technology, which knowing these guys probably includes nuclear weapons, they decide to give her precisely no help at all, and she leaves Haven in an understandable state of anger and disappointment. It's like these assholes don't even consider the fact that Robotnik will hardly be content to stop at the surface world - we already have evidence from more than one incident where the original Robotnik was planning to extend his rule out into space once he was finished with the planet, and considering the new Robotnik literally dimension-hopped to find even more places to conquer once he bombed his home zone into oblivion, I highly doubt he's just going to leave the island alone if you guys try to remain neutral.

Ugh, this whole issue is just a mess. Knuckles visits the Colonel's compound, asking about Sally, and soon finds her sitting at the edge of the island alone. He tries to talk to her, but when she brushes him off again he points out that just as her own father hid a lot of secrets from her in the past, so has his own. He reminds her of their friendship, how they spent many days together as kids and were able to relate to each other over their duties under their respective fathers. Sally is still upset, and asks him why he didn't support her when the rest of the Brotherhood was shooting her down back there, and he points out that he can't buck tradition any more than she can, given their positions.

The Colonel and his wife (still creepily referring to each other as "mother" and "father") watch the two of them argue through the window of the compound, lamenting that they're so young and should be able to play and enjoy life, not have to fight wars and carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. I've already gone over this, but that's kind of the point - that these wars have left the world so messed up that child soldiers are the norm now, not even because a regime forced them to fight against their will, but because they had no other choice - that if they didn't fight, the world would have fallen.

As Sally leaves, Knuckles watches her go, sadly thinking to himself about how the commonalities that once brought them together and made them able to relate to one another were now tearing their friendship apart. He ends up feeling torn between his childhood friend and his duty to his family and people. Honestly, it's a hard choice to make - after all, as much as Sally would like it, he can't just leave the island and come help her out in the war. Even if he did want to ditch tradition and reject his place as part of the Brotherhood, at this point, given everything that's happened in his comic so far, there's so much keeping him tethered to this place, so many ties he'd have to cut if he wanted to go help in the war. It's a rough position to be in, for sure.

Coming up after a few more issues, we actually have the final arc of this series - the Knuckles the Echidna comic was cancelled not long after this, meaning there's only room for one more three-issue arc. To be honest, I'm a little sad to see it go - I know I've been over this many times, but despite the many problems with how he writes, I am genuinely fond of a lot of the characters, plots, and worldbuilding that are in Kenders' works, and it was interesting to see those things shone in their own dedicated comic. We've still got several more issues before it ends, though, so time to move forward!

[thankskenpenders]

Archie presents Ken Penders’ Knuckles the Echidna: A Postmortem

At long last, we’ve come to the end of the Knuckles solo series. Again, this is far from the end of the Penders Knuckles stories, but he no longer gets a whole series to himself. And thank God for that

While a 32 issue run (or really, 35, counting the first miniseries) might pale in comparison to Sonic’s nearly 300 issues, it’s a pretty impressive feat. That’s a lot of comics! A lot of series these days don’t get to enjoy runs that long. Hell, a lot are lucky to even last a year. And assuming that’s 22 pages of story in each issue, that means Penders got a whopping 770 pages of Knuckles comics where he got to do whatever he wanted

What did Penders spend those 770 pages doing? Well, he sure introduced a lot of new echidnas, that’s for damn sure. Let’s break down the Knuckles series arc by arc and briefly summarize what each one actually contributed to the world of Archie Sonic

Sonic’s Friendly Nemesis Knuckles miniseries #1-3

Characters Introduced: Enerjak. Knuckles also first meets Archimedes, who had been previously set up

Summary: Knuckles meets and begins to work together with Archimedes, who he inexplicably trusts right away. Enerjak comes back and announces he still wants to take over the world. Knuckles beats him up

Lasting Impact: Archimedes and Enerjak/Dimitri stick around as important-ish characters

Knuckles #1-3: The Dark Legion miniseries

Characters Introduced: The Dark Legion, Kragok, Steppenwolf, Christopholes, Menniker

Summary: The Dark Legion returns. The founding of the Brotherhood of Guardians is touched upon, as is their dumb pro-/anti-technology feud with the Dark Legion. Locke uses some sort of Chaos Emerald magic from afar to stop the Legion’s guns from firing so Knuckles can beat them up

Lasting Impact: The Dark Legion and the Brotherhood would be major players for the rest of the story

Knuckles #4-6: Lost Paradise

Characters Introduced: Julie-Su, Lara-Le, Remington, Helmut von Stryker, Gerbil, Hawking, Sabre, Wynmacher, some other fire ant whose name I forget

Summary: Ex-Dark Legionnaire Julie-Su suddenly defects from her faction to seek out Knuckles, because they “soul-touched” and now they’re destined to be lovers or something. Echidnaopolis suddenly comes back because reasons, and boy do they sure still have a lot of technology for people who said they renounced it. The dingoes are apparently evil fascists, and Hawking explains how racist he is to Knuckles.

Lasting Impact: Julie-Su and many of the characters here become mainstays in Knuckles’ supporting cast, and obviously Echidnaopolis becomes the main setting of the comic

#7-9: Dark Vengeance

Characters Introduced: The Echidna High Council, High Councilor Pravda

Summary: Enerjak comes back (again) and immediately becomes the new leader of the Dark Legion. Hawking is on life support. Enerjak kills Knuckles, but then the Ancient Walkers bring him back so he can be a Christ metaphor. Enerjak is defeated and turns back into Dimitri, who ages rapidly. Mammoth Mogul shows up so he can be trapped in the Master Emerald in the following Sonic issue

Lasting Impact: Dimitri’s old now

#10-12: The Other Road Taken

Characters Introduced: The Lost Tribe, Yanar, Athair’s mom (I forget her name), Rob O’ the Hedge and friends, Mari-An, Zax, Raynor, Gala-Na. Athair makes his first appearance in a Knuckles comic

Summary: The Lost Tribe is introduced. They’ve apparently been searching for the ancient echidna homeland of Albion in a big caravan for centuries. The Day of Fury happens, which doesn’t amount to much here compared to the literal apocalypses that share the title in the lore. They make a pit stop over in Snottingham in the Sonic series for some Robin Hood shenanigans, then Knuckles walks on water to lead them to Albion and continue being a Christ metaphor

Lasting Impact: These characters and locations are EVENTUALLY revisited, but not in the remainder of the Knuckles solo series

#13-15: The Chaotix Caper

Characters Introduced: Harry the cab driver, Mello (while dying), Unnamed(?) Echidna Doctor and Nurse, Downtown Ebony Hare, his fox girlfriend, his bulldog goon, the scientist guy who was making the drugs, Charmy’s family, Saffron, Jeepers the Bee Butler, a bear biker gang, Bimmy

Summary: Charmy’s apparent best friend Mello dies of a drug overdose. To investigate, the Chaotix all go to an amusement park, eat the drug-laced food, trip balls, and almost die. Charmy’s past is expanded upon so that he can then go home and get written out of the series. Knuckles starts to show off his Chaos powers

Lasting Impact: Harry sorta stuck around. We know more about Charmy, who is now gone

#16-18: Reunions, Deep Cover

Characters Introduced: Tobor, Moritori Rex, Spectre, Sojourner, Thunderhawk, Tobor’s family

Summary: Knuckles finds out his mom is getting married to Wynmacher. We find out that Lara-Le had major problems with the way Locke raised Knuckles, which goes nowhere. The Brotherhood convenes. We find out that one of them has been replaced with someone evil for years through one of the dumbest twists in the history of these comics. Knuckles beats up Kragok in jail, then Kragok and Tobor fuck off into a “quantum beam,” apparently killing them both. I didn’t even realize they died when I first read this. That may be a retcon

Lasting Impact: Tobor and Kragok died I guess. Lara-Le and Wynmacher’s marriage is teased

#19-21: The Forbidden Zone

Characters Introduced: Prince Elias Acorn, Queen Alicia Acorn, the bulldog colonel and his wife, a baby

Summary: Geoffrey and pals show up from the main series to rescue the Queen, only to walk right up to the Acorn family compound on Angel Island with no trouble and meet Sally’s long lost brother Elias, who nobody knew about. The Queen, meanwhile, is in a pod. Locke and Lara-Le meet up and he tries to kiss her for some mindboggling reason. Knuckles gets mad about all the secrets and finally meets the Brotherhood, but his dad isn’t there at the time. He also fights Moritori Rex (fake Tobor), who gets away 

Lasting Impact: Elias would become quite important... over in the Bollers stories in the main series. He had nothing to do with Knuckles.

#22-24: Dark Alliance

Characters Introduced: Lien-Da, Benedict, Xenin

Summary: Echidna/dingo tensions rise in the runup to the election. Dimitri is a cyborg now. Lien-Da is apparently the new leader of the Dark Legion, and she kidnaps and brainwashes the High Councilor so they can rig the election. Tons and tons and tons of tasteless allusions to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust are made. Knuckles shows off his Chaos powers a little more. The fact that Remington is Kragok’s son is alluded to, but Penders never actually remembered to reveal this in a comic

Lasting Impact: None

#25: Childhood’s End

Characters Introduced: Harlan, Rembrandt, Aaron, one of Robotnik’s ancestors

Summary: Knuckles finally finds his dad... because he didn’t run away fast enough when Knuckles spotted him. Locke tells him the baby microwave story. He also tells him about a vision of the future he had, which scared him into doing all the horrible things he did, but this future never actually comes to pass in the comics. Knuckles immediately forgives his dad for experimenting on him

Lasting Impact: Locke’s not hiding from Knuckles anymore

#26-28: The First Date (feat. Friend in Need)

Characters Introduced: Raynor (not to be confused with the other echidna named Raynor), a bunch of nameless furry girls for Vector to ogle; Nic the Weasel, the real Fiona Fox, Ray the Flying Squirrel

Summary: Julie-Su is mad at Knuckles, so she goes out with some other guy for half a day. Vector tries to get laid and acts like an incel. Locke gives Knuckles the talk. Knuckles finally actually asks Julie-Su out, then has his 16th birthday party. In the backup story, Mighty, Nic, and Fiona rescue Ray from a time anomaly, and Fiona’s past is explained

Lasting Impact: Knuckles and Julie-Su are dating now. Nic, Fiona, and Ray stuck around as important characters in the main series

#29: My Special Friend

Characters Introduced: None (but this is only one issue)

Summary: Sally tries to get help from the Brotherhood now that Robotnik is back in the main series, but they refuse because Sally won’t use guns. Knuckles is a centrist who won’t firmly side with Sally, so she leaves angrily. Along the way, Sally rationalizes her dad’s attempt at Robian genocide

Lasting Impact: None

#30-32: King of the Hill (feat. Espio the Chameleon)

Characters Introduced: Monk, Hunter, Snowpidgeon, Aryu One-Two; Barney, Liza, and several other unimportant chameleons

Summary: Knuckles’ childhood bully, a large purple gorilla, returns to Angel Island after being yeeted into the ocean by the Brotherhood years ago. A human hunter named Hunter shows up to reenact The Most Dangerous Game. Monk falls during the fight and dies. Hunter is captured. In the backup story, Espio has a run-in with the roboticized Valdez, his apparent best friend, who he then murders

Lasting Impact: Hunter eventually made a minor appearance in a Bollers story years later. Valdez dies

Are you noticing a trend? Things keep happening in these stories, but it rarely has much of an impact. One of the Guardians was a traitor all along? Eh, doesn’t affect much. The Dark Legion candidate in the election ends up being a robot and dies? Eh, they had a replacement ready--but also, the election didn’t matter anyway.

Rarely do we learn anything of value about the characters. Knuckles doesn’t grow much as a person, and he never gets much of a personality. Julie-Su’s whole life revolves around being soul bound to Knuckles with only the faintest hint of her own personality. The Chaotix never contribute anything of value. When something comes up to make us question Locke and the Brotherhood, Penders then goes “No, no, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Supporting characters and subplots that go nowhere keep getting introduced just so it can feel like a lot is going on, but it’s all shallow. Knuckles has like 12 grandpas, most of whom are still alive, and only maybe three of them are distinct in any way. They all just talk like Penders, just like every character in these comics (except for Vector, who gets to be Urban). Things just keep happening around Knuckles, often without his actual involvement, while Penders says that every other arc is the biggest most important thing that’s ever happened.

It’s the oldest trick in comics. End on a cliffhanger. Say that NEXT ISSUE something interesting will DEFINITELY happen. Promise that the story is going somewhere. Just keep buying more issues! But the payoff never comes

While Sonic’s better stories have him sprinting around the world, the Knuckles series just plops him down on a treadmill for 35 issues. In the background, he’s listening to a boring documentary about echidna lore and genealogies

His life is in shambles

[tired-old-men]

(Morgan once again was chatting with some of the Guardians, no shenanigans planned, just the tall Guardian girlie looking for some chatter... but another echidna appeared. A short white furred female) "Helloooooooo~ Theres my beloved~" Morgan sighed and rolled her eyes, "Hello, Arcana. Just having a chat..." "In an alternate dimension? Without me? I'm hurt..." The woman's eyes wondered to the few echidna's she saw standing around... a smirk then appeared on her face, a glimmer of mischief in her eyes. Morgan glared, "Arcana. Don't. Leave them alone". "TO BEAST!!", she suddenly raised her voice and casted a spell, it randomly hitting at least one of the random Guardians stood around. "ARCANA!!" "Oh relax it'll wear off... in a few days", she giggled.

Spectre was idly hanging about in the background, the presence of these new faces were becoming more of a norm these past few weeks with their continuous surprise visits. Initially he didn’t think anything about Morgan’s partner coming to visit, until he felt something off about her, like she was planning to do something nefarious.

His suspicions would shortly be proven right by her actions. By the time her voice was raised he had already moved swiftly from his spot, phasing in thin air appearing in front of her suddenly, taking the brunt of whatever spell she’d casted. 

He reeled back, oddly enough he didn’t feel any pain or anything abnormal, but regardless of what it was it was instinct to keep his family safe. After the initial shock, Morgan and Arcana received a proper old man scolding. Spectre addressed them sternly about Arcana’s sudden actions, advising her to not repeat that behavior, and finally stating he wouldn’t take threats to his family lightheartedly. 

He left it at that before excusing himself to his quarters, behind him he could hear his son giving the pair a piece of his mind. With a pointed tone, his message of their recklessness lacked a lot of the grace his father’s had, but it was certainly heard.

Spectre had retreated back into his room, preforming some cautionary tests to audit his health after whatever magic had invaded his body. Besides an elevated heart rate there was nothing abnormal for him to worry about, so he decided to wind down for the night, finally making himself comfortable in the privacy of his own quarters. 

... ... ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎。⋆。 ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ... ...

What started as a mild annoying headache had now escalated to a full on migraine, medication didn’t help, relaxing didn’t help, not even the comfort of the dark helped. The elder had begun to pace around the room, flipping through books he’d made levitate all around him with chaos abilities, looking for answers and finding nothing that could compare to what he was feeling.

At this point he was on edge, his skull crushing headache was making it hard to think or even focus, and now his body began to ache badly. Something was happening to him, but he was too blindsided by pain to notice, until it was too late. 

What proceeded felt like a blur of sensations for Spectre, he could feel sharp claws as he grabbed at himself, easily ripping whatever fabric was on him. His growling had become more visceral in nature, sounding less like a man and more like a beast. At some point he’d end up stumbling on all fours on the floor, yet the room around him looked a lot smaller than it usually did. He had the strong urge to scream into the air, but all he could hear were howls.

... ... ◯ ☽ ◑ ● ◐ ❨ ◯ ... ...

Sojourner had made his way to his father’s quarters. While he’d given his father some space to take care of himself and unwind after the day’s event, 3 hours of silence from the elder was concerning. Sojourner knew his father well enough that he knew he’d at least acknowledge one of the messages he’d sent asking if he was alright. He feared that his father was going through one of his ‘bad days’, perhaps the incident had triggered something in him, regardless he needed to know that his father was alright especially after that strange howling he thought he heard earlier. 

His fears would be nearly confirmed when he walked into Spectre’s room and saw that is was thrashed. His books were tossed all around the floor, furniture was knocked over, what remained of his clothes were tattered shreds, and the room was covered in large deep scratches. While he’s seen his father through the worst of his mental health struggles, this was rather extreme, now fearing that the Legion could be behind this. The more he thought about what scenarios could have caused this, the more he began internally panicking, Sojourner would take a breath and tried to remain calm as his father had taught him to do in crisis situations. 

“Pops?” He began calling out, hoping he would still be here and just hiding at best. 

“Sir?! Are you here? Where are you?…It’s just me… just wanted to check up on you… after today and all… Pops?!!” He continued to call out as he looked around the room for any sign of him, only finding more disarray in the process.

“Da-!“ Sojourner stopped dead in his tracks as he noticed a pair of glowing red eyes staring straight at him from a dark corner of the room.

While red eyes were typically a sign of his father’s presence, there was something very different about these eyes, just by noting their positioning in the room, whatever this was would tower over his father’s height. A deep growl could be heard coming from its direction. Before Sojourner could even act the creature had lunged at him, pinning him to the ground with a hardy thud, knocking the wind out of him. Sojourner attempted to push the creature off of him or even manage to slip away but it was of no use, the creature was huge and heavy, its large claws had a good grip on his chest. 

Surprisingly enough while the snarling creature got in Sojourner’s face he wasn’t mauling him. While a good sign a very odd one at that, instead the creature was sniffing? Him? 

“Urg… get.. off.. me!” Sojourner managed to shout between hard breaths, his hands beginning to glow green with chaos energy in retaliation. To Sojourner’s utter shock, the creature complied backing off from the echidna. He immediately got up, preparing to defend himself, but the creature would just circle him, observing him with a low displeased growl but no intention of attacking. 

“What the hell…” Now that the echidna was in no immediate threat, he was able to get a good look at this ‘creature’. It was unlike any life form he’d encountered before on island, it was massive and beast like. It walked on all fours like a canine but it’s claws were huge and looked like they were meant more for digging. It had wolf-like ears but also long spines like an echidna would, and a massive tail. He could even see something shimmering on his body through its thick unkempt fur. 

Cybernetics? On this beast? Could this be a plot from the Legion… what the hell is this thing? The more he studied this creature the more familiar it’s appearance felt to him. His black red fur with hits of white showing his age, his piercing red eyes, even the arrangement of his cybernetics… It didn’t dawn on Sojourner until the creature faced him again, noticing the white crescent moon marking on his chest that starkly stood out against his dark fur. 

“D-Dad?” Sojourner muttered in disbelief…

‣[Continue?]

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

[robotnik-mun]

Pretty sure Penders has stated that it's for John Locke, and that Steppenwolf is for the 70s band. The Knuckles series also has a ton of references to The Beatles. Because references are only "bad" when they're actually relevant to the series and something the core audience would recognize I guess.

Yeah, I had figured. He also had Hawking, after Stephen Hawking, Harlan after Harlan Ellison, Rembrandt after Rembrandt van Rign, and I’m pretty certain Sojourner was named for Sojourner Truth... it goes on and on. 

What I find hilarious is how his need to constantly reference shit wound up actively negating his attempts at ‘deep worldbuilding’ with the Echidna given the the fact that their names are a weird smorgasboard of sources coming from multiple languages rather than a single cohesive culture one might expect from Echidnapolis. And that doesn’t even begin to cover how much ‘Knuckles’ stood out like a sore thumb compared to what his father and grandfathers were called. 

[btm-txt]

"Hey Pops! got you somethin’"

Sojourner: Don't you just absolutely love it? Now you have something nice to get you in the vacationing mood *grins*

Spectre: ....Thank you Son....

🛳️ Cruisin’ for a good time!

A piece I made based of a cruise shipping RP with the chums on Discord, couldn’t help but bring Spectre and Iris along for the shenanigans.

At the sight of water the islander in Iris jumps for joy, Spectre on the other hand is a different type of islander… aaaaannd a grumpy old man.. wearing a silly shirt lol

[julie-su]

Minor edit of the Brotherhood of Guardians where Janelle-Li's muzzle has been changed to match the rest of the Guardians

Original under the cut (Archie STH #112)