Knuckles - gloves = ???

[Chooch]

Okay, so. From what I can gather, Knuckles (in the video games at the least) has never taken his gloves off. Same as other staples of the series.. But no other characters outside of the echidnas from the flashbacks prominent in Sonic Adventure. So.. what's under the gloves?

Someone I was talking to in a chatroom insisted that because Knuckles fingers are never shown that he doesn't have any, which I think is ridiculous. So.. if I were to walk around wearing mittens/boxing gloves all the time and you never saw my fingers, that means I don't have them? :\ Anyway, I just thought I'd ask this question here.

Are Knuckles' hands seriously just hideous red blobs with spikes and thumbs? Or are the spikes just part of the gloves? Does he have fingers like everyone else? What do you think?

[SuperStingray]

There's no real way to say for sure, but I guess it would make sense since most of the others do. The only exception I see in Knuckles' tribe is Tikal, but it may be a Y chromosome trait.

Edited July 30, 2009 by SuperStingray

[Detective Shadzter]

I have always wondered if he has some weird spikes on his hands under the gloves since that's what his old artwork used to make out but the modern artwork makes it look like he has spikes fixed to the gloves like their some form of combat gloves. Now we've seen other Echidnas too who don't have spikes on their hands that also casts doubt on Knuckles hands having spikes on them. So I guess his gloves are made to have spikes on them for combat and thats also probably the reason his gloves don't have fingers. Boxing gloves are made for combat and they don't have fingers so there you go.

[Blacklightning]

Funny you should mention that Shadz - both of the only Echidnas I can remember off the top of my head who don't have the "spikes" are females (Tikal and Shade). If not anything else, it's possible that it's a male-only trait.

EDIT: Though I'd have to double check with the rest of the Nocturnus to be sure about that. Maybe it's exclusive to Pachamac's bloodline in addition?

Edited July 29, 2009 by Blacklightning

[azoo]

Knuckles' spikes on his hand were nothing more but to make him different in gameplay style from the other characters (and to make him cooler), and Sega / Bioware's overdoing it by giving Knuckles an extremely complicated backstory (such as "but he's not the last echidna bla bla bla" in Chronicles) which just made everything screwed up.

Really, I remember back in the day when Knuckles had spikes on his fists because he was born that way, just like how Tails had two tails and Sonic had extreme speed. =\

EDIT: Sorry about going overboard there, I just couldn't stand the fact that the Archie comics ruined it by overdoing the Echidna stuff (especially the "what if Knuckles isn't the last Echidna" deal) and I was utterly angry when I found out that they chunked it into the game storyline via Chronicles..

Knuckles was just born with it, because other echidnas back in the day had them too. And there are no more Echidna tribes. Knuckles is the last, and that's final. =P

Edited July 29, 2009 by Azukara

[PSI Wind]

"Dear Strong Bad, how do you type with boxing gloves on?"

[Rusty Spy]

Looked up a Wikipedia article on echidnas, and apparently, and I quote:

They have very short, strong limbs with large claws and are powerful diggers.

Different from spikes, I know, but it could suggest that they might be part of his body and not a feature on his gloves. But it's obviously a direct inspiration for the Shovel Claws which are essentially what the quote described.

But to be honest, he shares very little traits with real echidnas. They generally have long noses, while his is short, they have the aforementioned sharp claws and diggers, while Knuckles has his in the form of Shovel Gloves, and are not a general feature of his self, and echidnas do not appear to have a significant tail, while Knux's is.

[Badnik Zero]

They generally have long noses, while his is short.

Actually, if you look at Knuckles' snout compared to Sonic's especially in '90s artwork, his snout is very pronounced. Sonic's was rounder and Knuckles' stuck out in a cone shape. It may still be like that. I always thought that was meant to be an Echidna trait.

He does have a pretty long tail though, doesn't he.

But for the question. I think Knuckles has fingers.

The females of his clan have fingers, and he's a furry like the rest of the cast. I don't see why fingers would be something females have, while males have no fingers. Prominent claws or "knuckles" are something I could see happening though. Species often have one poisonous or more aggressive sex, or something like that. Maybe for the Knuckles clan, the males have special claws that allow them to excel at hunting or war. But yeah, it'd be silly for Knuckles to have a block for a hand.

Edited July 29, 2009 by Badnikz

[Ultimate Chimera]

Alright, if you want my answer, lets compare SA1 Tikal to SA2 MP Tikal.

SA1: Normal gloves, no spikes.

SA2: Boxing gloves, still no spikes.

Seems like if the spikes were simply built in to the gloves, Tikal would have 'em too. So based on that, I am highly of the opinion that Knuckles has normal fingers, and spiked knuckles protruding from the bottom of his index and ring fingers.

That's The Macks two cents.

[Rusty Spy]

True, but when compared to even the Short nosed echidna, his nose is pretty minuscule.

Thinking back on Knuckles' hands, it could be a number of things. It could either be normal hands, fingers and all, but with two large spikes as a distinction from female echidnas, and they possibly wear the boxing-like gloves as a fighting tool to enhance their combat ability, or they could have normal hands like everyone else, but only males wear the special gloves, them being the main warriors of their tribe, and even might be used as a symbol of importance, seeing as how the echidna leader, he-who's-name-I'm-to-lazy-to-figure-out-how-to-spell also wears the same gloves, yet most likely does not fight.

In short, the knuckles could be:

1) a physical trait shared by males of the echidna tribe, exclusive to their tribe or not, or

2) a fighting tool specifically used by warriors and people of high rank.

If Sonic X is anything to go by, they could be a combo of both. In one episode, he breaks is knuckles. You can clearly see that the interior is white, suggesting they are a part of the glove itself, but Knuckles groans when they shatter, as if in pain. The actual knuckles could be prominent, but are protected by the gloves which could have some armor surrounding the exterior of the glove to protect the real knuckles, and the spikes could be to enhance their strength and effectiveness. So when Knux breaks them, it could be the shell of the exterior being shattered, and as a result, also breaking, or most likely bruising (seeing as he still punches with them later on), his real knuckles.

Edited July 29, 2009 by VirgoTheCougar

[Diogenes]

The spikes, I believe, are part of his hands. "Knuckles" also refers to his tribe, and I think it's more likely that they'd be named after a distinguishing physical characteristic than the kind of clothes they wear. It's possible that the Knuckles tribe are sort of "freaks", having a genetic mutation that causes the knuckle spikes (and possibly mitten-hands), while "normal" echidnas (like the Nocturnus) have normal hands.

As for fingers...well, the sprite of him being electrocuted in S3&K seems to show separate finger bones, though it's kind of hard to tell, and considering a lot of sprites don't even have his knuckles drawn in it's hard to say if that's what they actually intended, and even harder to be sure if that's what they're still going with. Looking at more recent stuff, I'd say he's got two finger bones, with the index/middle and ring/little finger bones fused. Obviously it matches up with the knuckle spikes, but also when there's any identifiable finger-like detail it's always just two bumps, never any more than that, plus I believe there are times when he's pointed or gestured in a way he couldn't if it was just one wide megafinger (though I could be misremembering, as I can't think of any specific instances). As for the fleshy parts, I can't really say; it could be two ordinary fingers, or it could be the same as the glove.

Tikal is kind of an oddity in all this; she's from the Knuckles tribe, but she's got normal hands. Two possible explanations that come to mind is that only male Knuckles tribe echidnas have the deformity and the females have normal hands, or that Tikal isn't a full blooded Knuckles tribe echidna and she simply didn't inherit the mutation. But, with so few echidnas to compare, there's really no way to know for sure.

[Toby]

I believe the spikes are just part of the gloves. Though, looking at the CGI models of Knuxter, it doesn't look like the spikes are even connected naturally to the glove.

[Gamerguy21]

they have the aforementioned sharp claws and diggers, while Knuckles has his in the form of Shovel Gloves, and are not a general feature of his self,

Well, the Sonic 3 manual lists "Using his Knuckles to dig" as his special ablity. So according to Sonic 3, he apparently doesn't need the shovel claws to dig.

[Badnik Zero]

True, but when compared to even the Short nosed echidna, his nose is pretty minuscule.

What's funny is I've been to Wikipedia too, looking at Echidnas to see if they match Knuckles. Have all fans done this?

But I dunno, man. Put some dreadlocks on that guy and he's totally Knuckles. I see Knuckles in there.

As for fingers... well, the sprite of him being electrocuted in S3&K seems to show separate finger bones.

That's an awesome place to look at. You're a genius for figuring that out.

BAM! I just took that screenshot. It looks like three fingers plus a thumb, but bones don't always mean separate fingers.

Here's another argument though. All furries in the series have fingers, even Charmy the Bee. Who's not even supposed to have fingers, because he's a freaking bug. The only reason we suspect Knuckles is because we haven't seen them. I say it's unfair.

Edited July 29, 2009 by Badnikz

[Rusty Spy]

Well, the Sonic 3 manual lists "Using his Knuckles to dig" as his special ablity. So according to Sonic 3, he apparently doesn't need the shovel claws to dig.

Though that would be highly impractical, seeing as they are only large spikes with no curve shape to them, which aren't able to dig away significant amounts of material. Plus, Knuckles never actually "digs" in that game so much as he punches through everything.

[Diogenes]

Here's another argument though. All furries in the series have fingers, even Charmy the Bee. Who's not even supposed to have fingers, because he's a freaking bug. The only reason we suspect Knuckles is because we haven't seen them. I say it's unfair.

I think it's reasonable. Every other character has gloves that match their hands (as far as we can tell), so why does Knuckles wear mittens? Obviously he's got freaky flipper hands.

[Sega DogTagz]

Though that would be highly impractical, seeing as they are only large spikes with no curve shape to them, which aren't able to dig away significant amounts of material. Plus, Knuckles never actually "digs" in that game so much as he punches through everything.

When your as strong as Knuckles I don

[Blacklightning]

I think it's reasonable. Every other character has gloves that match their hands (as far as we can tell), so why does Knuckles wear mittens?

Simple answer? He's an obvious boxer. I always thought of them more as boxing gloves than "mittens", even if spikes protruding from them is a bit extreme (if we are to assume they aren't natural body parts, anyway). Hell, just take a look at his idle animations.

[-Mark-]

I wasn't sure myself, but watching a later episode of Sonic X a few years ago lead me to believe that the spikes on his hands are actually bone.

I mean, it was in the fight against Yellow Zelkova, Knuckles punched them so hard that part of the spikes on one hand cracked off and broke, and he was screaming in agony. I can't imagine he'd do that if they weren't at least part of his own body. And given their white hard-ness, I'd say it would make sense to assume that they're just spikes of bone protruding from his knuckles.

I'd still say he has proper fingers though, it would be stupid otherwise. The way I see it, his gloves are more of a boxing-glove style than others, with holes for said bone-protrusion knuckle spikes.

EDIT: Virgo beat me to it, ish. Oh well. D=

Edited July 29, 2009 by Mahzes

[Sean]

Knuckles's spikes actually broke off? Holy crap.

[-Mark-]

Well, one sort of broke in half. And yeah, he was screaming in pain (and the inside of the broken part still looked white), leading me to assume it's actually a piece of bone sticking out.

[BlueFox]

I was just browsing the "Sonic the Comics" to see if I could find anything and from that it looks like it is a male trait. All the males have Boxing gloves with spikes and all the females have Fingered Gloves. So I would assume that he does have spikes producing from his hands.

[Flyboy Fox]

Well, the comics aren't canonical necessarily to the games, so that doesn't give us any solid proof.

But given that his clan was called the Knuckles clan, I always assumed that they all had them (or at least, all the males) as part of their hand structure... possibly similar to animals that have horns.

As for whether or not he has fingers, I would say the likelihood is yes. Boxing gloves are great for punching things, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have a somewhat 'normal' hand with digits under there.

[Vertekins]

I was always under the impression that they were a part of the hand and that the line that seperates the claws from the hand was either a glove seam or exactly where the claws connect to the hand. I guess my impression was made more so due to real life echidna's having huge claws. Females not having them seems to be a form of sexual dimorphism if you ask me. Kind of like how Amy doesn't appear to have back spines like the males of her species.

[Barry the Nomad]

It's crazy that one of the three pieces of original comic art that I own had an answer to this question (albeit an Archie comic universe answer). While Archie isn't canon in the game storyline, I always assumed this is what was under Knuckles glove (ignore the silly "dad doesn't have knuckles" part):