Did Shadow hijack Knuckles' role in the series?

[Austroid]

Watching the Sonic movie 2 trailer for the 50th time and seeing Knuckles finally return to being a pint-sized powerhouse, who's strength could be equal to Sonic's speed got me thinking: did Shadow kind of hijack Knux's role/primary character traits?

Before Shadow, Knuckles was considered the strongest character and Sonic's arch-rival. In addition, he was the lone wolf with tragic past (being the last of his kind), and had special abilities with the Chaos/Master Emeralds. Once the "edgy hedgie" became a series staple, he more or less took all those traits. This has mostly negated poor Knuckles to being "that gullible dude who guards that giant green rock." 

(Granted this is more of a problem with the cast as a whole; with many being labeled "Sonic's rival" who are also great fighters, have special abilities, super forms etc. etc.)

[Kuzu]

After Sonic 3, Sega didn't really have anything else planned for Knuckles and you can tell because he didn't really do much in that period up until Sonic Adventure; he was just thrown into mediocre spin offs. Knuckles Chaotix isn't about him in any special way.

Even in Sonic Adventure they didn't really flesh out his character despite the fact that his ancestors are a focal point of the plot, and they rehash the whole "Gets tricked into fighting Sonic" angle from Sonic 3. Sonic Adventure 2 gave him Rouge as a rival but he's just doing his own thing for the most part, and Sonic Heroes was the beginning of Sega slowly phasing out the Master Emerald's role.

 

So its less that Shadow hijacked Knuckles' spot, and more Sega simply lost interest and decided to move on to someone else to play Sonic's foil.

 

Its hard to say what the movies will do with him and if they have any long term plans with him, he mostly seems to just be reprising his initial antagonistic role from Sonic 3. Remains to be seen what happens after that.

[Josh]

Yep, and that was always one of the reasons I didn't like Shadow. Or to be more specific, why I didn't like him after he came back. That said, he was to the 2000s exactly what Knuckles was to the 1990s: The character a lot of kids thought was even cooler than Sonic.

Shadow was broadly repeating Knuckles' arc (mysterious loner who works with Robotnik, can match and rival Sonic's abilities, contrasts and reflects his personality, realizes the errors of his ways, and ultimately fights for good), but Shadow's backstory and dynamic within Sonic Adventure 2 was unique *enough* from Knuckles that it was okay.

The problem was that when he was brought back, that redundancy meant he usurped Knuckles' position within the cast: The more serious-minded "friendly nemesis," who begrudgingly works with Sonic sometimes, but butts heads with him just as much. And for years afterwards, Shadow's surging popularity with the target demo turned him into a spotlight hog, with the thrust of the plot from 2001-2006 all revolving in large part around HIM. He was, in many ways, more important to defining the Adventure Era than Sonic himself.

At the same time, Knuckles (who remember was beloved in the eyes of many older fans in the exact same way and FOR a lot of the same reasons) lost his edge, lost his relevance, and even seemed to lose sight of the *purpose* that was so core to his character: Protecting Angel Island and the Master Emerald. Heroes was mocked and criticized for YEARS because with no explanation Knuckles is just THERE, acting chummy with Sonic instead of getting in fights with him, haha.

So yeah, that built a lot of resentment over the years, which is how we got to the early 2010s, where the most vocal contingent of fans said things like, "Rarararar, if they put Shadow in the next game, I'm not buying it."

And speaking of which, the closest analog to Shadow in the 2010s is probably Classic Sonic. Some fans see him as a redundant, unwanted spotlight-stealing character who takes too much focus away from the characters they like better, but they kept bringing him back anyway because he is, for reasons they don't entirely understand, massively popular with a demographic of a different age. xD

[Kuzu]

Except Classic Sonic was technically only "brought back" once in Forces. Nobody really had issues with him in Mania. 

[FlameStream]

In-lore, Knuckles was always the gullible guy that has strong duty with guarding the emerald and was never really meant to be buddy-buddy with Sonic but more a distant friend. His current state and personality in IDW reflects well the intent from that scope.

If anything, Knuckles as a rival of Sonic was more a marketing concept back then.

[Wraith]

No. Shadow was always meant to be a true equal to Sonic and an assault on his identity. 

Knuckles is more of a comedic foil. He takes himself way too seriously despite being an idiot, which contrasts well with the way Sonic is hypercompetent but doesn't take anything all that seriously. He sets all of these 'road runner and coyote' esque traps that end up being a mild inconvenience to Sonic more than anything else. They even blow up in his face a few times. He gets tricked by someone who's obviously evil twice because his misplaced hatred of Sonic clouds his judgement. 

Even after all of this is over, Sonic is hesitant about letting Knuckles get involved in SA2 and Sonic Advance 3 because of his tendency to screw things up and get in the way. Completely different than his dynamic with Shadow, who he always seems fired up to see, good guy or not. This is because Shadow is an actual challenge to Sonic and Knuckles isn't much more than a thorn in his side. 

He's not a serious rival, hes just fucking annoying 

The character that suffers the most from Shadow's introduction is actually Metal Sonic, who literally fufilled the exact same role as shadow without any of the baggage. Once Shadow was introduced, Metal Sonic was almost immediately contoured into something terrible in Heroes and was relegated to Eggman Empire janitor duty either. He went from an enemy Sonic could not physically beat or outrun into a stepping stone. Knuckles was always a bit of a joke, but there was a serious sense of danger around Metal Sonic's introduction that they've never recreated.

[Kuzu]

I dunno, maybe it just comes down to character design and perception I guess. Everyone that grew up in the 90's and early Adventure era legitimately saw Knuckles as a tough, no-nonsense badass, even if that didn't really reflect reality.

 

That perception is to entrenched in the fandom that its partially why his movie version is being so well received "Knuckles is badass again" is basically the sentiment.

Remains to be seen, but everything points to them leaning into that fandom perception of Knuckles being a serious rival to Sonic. 

 

I think @FlameStreamhad a point when he said it was just a marketing stunt.  But people actually bought into it. 

Knuckles' design is very clearly meant to be an opposite of Sonic's and when you have descriptions of him being as strong as Sonic is fast, it creates a set of expectations.

Even Sonic the Fighters gave them a special battle theme.

 

Ita hard not see to see why so many fans bought into their rivalry and how Knuckles was his serious foil.

[SuperEssay2]

This question makes a lot of sense to me. I've noticed this little detail as well. One thing that a lot of us know is that Knuckles doesn't even have spindash capabilities in most major games starting with Sonic Adventure, (More of just the design of Adventure.) But that being said, it even seems like Shadow perhaps got a little more popular then Knuckles for a while, it makes me feel kind of bad for Knuckles, that's for sure. 

[Kuzu]

The funny thing is that it's not like Shadow was the last rival they introduced for Sonic either; you had Blaze, Jet, and Silver. Hell, Infinite sort of technically counts as well. And yet, none of them really ever took off the way Shadow did. When Infinite was revealed, he was directly compared to Shadow.

For better or worse, Sonic Team may have peaked  in terms of rivals for Sonic when they made Shadow as he's somehow managed to outshine the ones that came before and after him and he's been in that role for so long now, that it's hard to imagine it belonging to anyone else. He's about as much of a face of the series as Sonic is as much people don't want to admit it. 

 

As much as I like Shadow though, I do feel like his presence has made the other rivals feel extremely redundant, especially the aforementioned Metal Sonic as yea, he essentially has no purpose now other than being a gloried Badnik for Eggman, as opposed to being one of the few opponents who can match Sonic. 

That being said, I don't really think its anyone's fault. I highly doubt Sonic Team predicted Shadow would become as popular as he did; the stars just aligned and he came up in the perfect environment. He debuted in the last game of the Dreamcast, and the first game on an Nintendo console and stayed a major character during the era when the series went multiplatform. He was introduced to many people in such a short time. In hindsight, it's pretty easy to understand how and why he became so popular in such a short amount of time. And Sega did what any corporation would have done and capitalized on it because now they know he's a money maker despite(or perhaps because of) his controversial status in the fandom. 

 

At this point, I think they should try and repurpose the other characters instead of trying make them competitive to Sonic; it's not like being Sonic's rival is the only role Knuckles can play. If the series actually gave a damn about him, you could tie him into a lot of the ancient mythology of the series. Blaze has an entire world that's unexplored. These characters have much more to offer than simply being another forgettable rival for Sonic to walk over and forget about. Hell, Shadow has more room for growth himself, but I am well aware that he's never going to be able to as Sega seem insistent on keeping him as Sonic's primary dark foil in the same vein as Tails is his constant sidekick. I don't necessarily agree with that decision, but I get it from a marketing standpoint at least, so it doesn't bother me too much. 

[batson]

Like others have said, Shadow definitely took over Knuckles' role as far as perception among the audience goes. In the 90's Knuckles was "Sonic, but cooler". There was also Metal Sonic to be sure, but honestly he never took of in terms of popularity and recognizability. He was non-existant in terms of merchandising for instance.  Knuckles meanwhile took of immediately as the more badass version of Sonic. This, of course, is the exact same role that Shadow would come to play once he got introduced and soared in popularity.

It's interesting to me how SEGA has kept introducing new foils to Sonic (antagonists or rivals with similarities to Sonic) again and again instead of setteling for the ones they already have. Sonic 2 gave us our first Sonic robot, then Sonic CD game us another Sonic robot, then Sonic 3 gave us Knuckles AND yet ANOTHER Sonic robot, then we got Shadow, then we got Jet (Some people would count Blaze to the same group, but I think that's stretching the "similarity to Sonic" aspect a bit too far).

[VO.SUPER]

I think that the latest trailer and reactions among the casual audiences has been reflective of Knuckles' regression in the face of other rivals in general. Most people didn't seem to even understand why Knuckles was fighting Sonic, and one of the popular google trends during that week was, "Is Knuckles a Bad Guy?"

He just kind of fell. Which I think is a shame, because I always found Knuckles to be one of Sonic's more interesting rivals from a pure "opposites attract angle" with Knuckles deliberate slower pace and Sonic's quick thinking attitudes to be at odds in a way that feels more fitting for brotherly squabbles than the latest interpretation of Shadow.

[Kuzu]

Let's be fair, Knuckles switched sides in literally his debut game. His stint at a villain was short lived and immediately became an ally. That was almost thirty years ago, Knuckles being a villain is honestly a footnote in his history.

I guess that's why I don't really care about the movie hype. Like its cool to see Knuckles on opposite sides to Sonic again, but unless they plan on going in a different direction with him, he's gonna become a good guy by the end just like the games and become an ally of Sonic.

I don't really mind Sonic and Shadows rivalry being kind of petty, since it allows Shadow some character traits beyond being brooding...but yea, it does marginalize Knuckles even further I admit.

[VO.SUPER]

6 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Let's be fair, Knuckles switched sides in literally his debut game. His stint at a villain was short lived and immediately became an ally. That was almost thirty years ago, Knuckles being a villain is honestly a footnote in his history.

I guess that's why I don't really care about the movie hype. Like its cool to see Knuckles on opposite sides to Sonic again, but unless they plan on going in a different direction with him, he's gonna become a good guy by the end just like the games and become an ally of Sonic.

I don't really mind Sonic and Shadows rivalry being kind of petty, since it allows Shadow some character traits beyond being brooding...but yea, it does marginalize Knuckles even further I admit.

I dont really mind him being an ally, I just wish the two were more on petty angle because they just have so much potential as brothers squabbling. They already have a great chemistry when just talking to each other with Sonic running circles and Knuckles being steady. 

I just wish we had more of that in the rival angle. 

One of my favorite instances of this was that Super Sonic vs Hyper Knuckles Archie Issue despite how questionable the conflict started (Sonic punching Knuckles.) I loved that it was framed as just them throwing a hissy fit with each other with no lives at stake.

I just feel that works more with him and Sonic than Shadow vs Sonic. 

[Kuzu]

1 hour ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

I dont really mind him being an ally, I just wish the two were more on petty angle because they just have so much potential as brothers squabbling. They already have a great chemistry when just talking to each other with Sonic running circles and Knuckles being steady. 

I just wish we had more of that in the rival angle. 

One of my favorite instances of this was that Super Sonic vs Hyper Knuckles Archie Issue despite how questionable the conflict started (Sonic punching Knuckles.) I loved that it was framed as just them throwing a hissy fit with each other with no lives at stake.

I just feel that works more with him and Sonic than Shadow vs Sonic. 

I don't think it has to be a binary thing; in general, both Knuckles and Shadow are serious minded foils to Sonic. Knuckles is just an idiot, and has a temper while Shadow is vigilant and stoic. Sonic tends to get on both of their nerves so its like he doesn't conflict with over the other.

 

Sega just don't care about Knuckles is all, at least as far as being a rival to Sonic.