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Not to be confused with The Warriors.

"The Warrior" is the first episode of the Knuckles miniseries. It premiered on April 26, 2024 on Paramount+.

Synopsis[]

Knuckles struggles to adapt to his new life in Green Hills.^[9]

Appearances[]

Characters:

• Badnik
• Bill Barnes (first appearance)
• Chief Pachacamac (ghost)
• Dr. Robotnik (flashback)
  • Emerald Eggman (flashback)
• Guardian Units of Nations
  • Agent Fairley (only appearance)
  • Agent Mason (first appearance)
  • Agent Willoughby (first appearance)
  • Commander Walters (mentioned)
• Liam (first appearance)
• Longclaw (flashback)
• Maddie Wachowski
• Ozzy
• Pete Whipple (mentioned)
• Renegades (first appearance)
  • Jack Sinclair (first appearance)
  • Susie Barnes (first appearance)
• Team Sonic
  • Knuckles the Echidna
  • Miles "Tails" Prower
  • Sonic the Hedgehog
• The Buyer (first appearance)
• Mrs. Barnes (first appearance)
• Mailman (only appearance)
• Super Sonic (flashback)
• Tom Wachowski (flashback)
• Wade Whipple
• Wanda Whipple (mentioned)

Races and species:

• Echidna
• Human

Locations:

• Earth
  • Montana
    • Green Hills
      • Pin Dimonium (first appearance)
  • Siberia (flashback)
  • Labyrinth (flashback)
  • London
    • Guardian Units of Nations Headquarters (first appearance)
  • Nevada (first appearance)
    • Neon Nightz (first appearance)
    • Reno (mentioned)
      • The Buyer's lair (first appearance)
  • Pachacamac Camp (mentioned)
• Mushroom Planet

Items:

• Giant Eggman Robot (flashback)
• Master Emerald (flashback)
• Ring
• WadeJammerz (first appearance)

Vehicles:

• Tornado (flashback)

Misc.:

• Tournament of Champions (mentioned)

Plot[]

This section requires an expansion.

Several months after Super Sonic destroyed Robotnik's giant robot in Green Hills, Knuckles is training himself in an obstacle course when he notices the Wachowski household seemingly under attack. He dispatches the "attackers", who are actually the fourth set of construction workers hired to fix the house from his fight with Sonic. As Knuckles celebrates his victory, an exasperated Maddie goes to Sonic and Tails for advice on how to deal with him. Sonic explains Knuckles is simply trying to adjust to life on Earth and decides to talk to him when the time is right. After Sonic and Tails stop Knuckles from giving warrior advice to Ozzy, Sonic learns that Knuckles is dissatisfied with life on Earth due to no more challenges to face (especially since Robotnik's defeat) and advises Knuckles to make himself at home. After a session of meditation, Knuckles decides to take Sonic's advice.

The next morning, Maddie is making breakfast when she discovers Knuckles has constructed a throne for himself to designate his role as the family champion, claiming anyone who wishes to have it must face him in a trial by combat. When a confused Tails asks what his "trial by combat" is, Knuckles reveals he has also transformed the living room into a warrior fighting pit and has forced Ozzy to fight the Wachowskis' mailman in it. Alarmed, Maddie grounds Knuckles, to which he states he is clueless about it. After Sonic, Tails, and Maddie explain he cannot engage in his echidna warrior practices, Knuckles attempts to scold, and swears revenge on Maddie, but a warning from Sonic makes Knuckles accept his grounding "with honor". Maddie finds she is late for work, and with Tom out of town and Knuckles having used parts of the Wachowski truck to construct his throne, tries to call Wade to pick her up. However, she only gets a voicemail explaining he is practicing for the biggest tournament in his life.

Meanwhile, at a bowling alley, Wade is trying to score a strike to win the game. He gets distracted when Susie Barnes insults him, causing him to accidentally throw the bowling ball behind him. Renegades member Jack Sinclair encourages Wade to try again and get a strike. Wade attempts to throw the bowling ball at the pins and knocks most of them over but misses one after the pin looks like it's going to knock over, leading to Susie's team winning the game. Feeling embarrassed, Wade apologizes to Jack and promises to help the team win the tournament in Reno. However, after Wade's failure, Jack kicks him off the team and gives Wade's jacket to Susie, adding to Wade's humiliation.

Back at the Wachowskis' attic, Sonic checks on Knuckles who plans to get even with him. Sonic says that being grounded is hardly that bad and that he lived in a cave for seven years before he officially met the Wachowskis. Knuckles can read comics, listen to music, play video games, and make a dance video for a few days. After telling Knuckles to do those things to relax, Sonic leaves. Still getting nothing, Knuckles tells his old tribe to send him a sign. Just then Pachacamac ascends down from heaven and Knuckles tells him about recovering the Master Emerald. Pachacamac replies to Knuckles that his work has begun and gives him Wade as a student for him to train. As Pachacamac leaves, Knuckles swears he won't let him down.

Wade attempts to try weightlifting, but backfires, until Knuckles, who snuck out of the Wachowskis' attic, arrives through an open window and lifts the weights off Wade before listening to how Susie humiliated him. Knuckles soon explains he came to teach Wade the ways of the Echidna and can get him to Reno, where the bowling tournament will take place, but Wade reminds Knuckles that the latter was grounded, but Knuckles, bending the bar, isn't intimidated before they leave.

Their departure was tracked by G.U.N. Agents Mason and Willoughby before their superior, Agent Fairley, arrived. Willoughby then deliberately disables the main tracking system before Mason creates a Ring portal to the Mushroom Planet, to Fairley's confusion before the former kicks him through the portal. Willoughby soon contacts a client to inform him of Knuckles' departure. Needing his power, the client provides Mason and Willoughby weapons, powered by Knuckles' quills.

Regional differences[]

• Wade explains to Knuckles that he was "brutally trash-talked by an 8-year-old girl named Susie". Susie's age brought up in this dialog is removed in the Bulgarian and Slovak dubs.
• In the Latin Spanish dub, one of Knuckles' nicknames, "Knuckington Bear", was adapted to "Johnny Knucksville", referencing the actor Johnny Knoxville.
• In the Bulgarian dub, one of Knuckles' nicknames of "Knuckington Bear" is shortened to simply "Knuckington".
• In the Brazilian Portuguese and Czech dubs, Wade's knock-knock joke to Knuckles does not adopt the pun of "Knuck knuck", instead using the respective translations of "Toc toc" or "ťuk ťuk".
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, the eventual answer of "Knuckolas Cage" is replaced with the term "Knucklesigo ver", which sounds like the phrase Não consigo ver ("I cannot see").
• Wade's story portion of "nailing a 7-10 split" is changed to "scoring maximum points" in the French dub.
• TJ Maxx is known as "Discount Maxx" in the French dub, while it is changed to Walmart in the Czech dub.
• Sonic's story of "reading cereal boxes" specifies cornflakes in the German dub and muesli in the Hungarian dub. In the Polish dub, this is changed to Chinese cookies.

Titles in other languages[]

Trivia[]

• At the beginning of the episode during Knuckles' training, Knuckles spins a "goal" sign that makes it show an image of himself, referencing the Goal Plate from the Classic Sonic games.
• This marks the very first Sonic live-action episode.
• It is unknown how Mason or Willoughby acquired the Rings to transport themselves.
• On April 27, the episode's Latin Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese dubs were fully released on YouTube.^[10][11]
  • Additionally, on April 29, the original language episode was released on YouTube.
• The title card is only shown at the end of the episode, instead of the beginning as with all other episodes. The captions of "DO NOT TOUCH" and "PROPERTY OF WADE WHIPPLE" is displayed in its place.
• This is the only episode where Knuckles does not wear a hat in the title card.
• Although it could be a coincidence, the episode shares the same name with its theme song, The Warrior.
• Agent Mason's "Cool Catchphrase Moment" references Knuckles' line from Sonic 2 during the first fight between Sonic and Knuckles.
• Wade's nickname for Knuckles, "Knuckington Bear", is a reference to Paddington Bear.
• When observing Knuckles's makeshift throne, Maddie references the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones. Coincidentally, Rory McCann, who portrayed the Hound in Game of Thrones, played the Buyer in Knuckles.
• Both Alexandre Gillet and Jorge Roig Jr. reprised their roles as Sonic in the French and Latin Spanish dubs respectively, replacing Malik Bentalha and Luisito Comunica.
• This episode reveals how long Sonic stayed in the Hedgehog Cave before the Montana incident.
• Knuckles calls Ozzy a wolf, of which he is technically correct; domestic dogs are a subspecies of wolf.
• This episode reveals a few things:
  • Maddie has Wade Whipple's phone number.
  • Maddie becomes really mad when someone disrespects her.
• Although it could be a coincidence, one of Wade's nicknames for Knuckles, "Knuck-Knuck", seems to be a reference to Idris Elba (the voice of Knuckles)'s X post of the announcement that he is the voice of Knuckles on 8 August 2021, "Knock, knock.... #SonicMovie2 #Knuckles", and the nickname is also similar to that of the title of the Sonic the Comic comic Knuckles Knock-Out Special, as well as being similar to the Paramount Facebook post^[12].
• One of Wade's nicknames for Knuckles, Knuckolas Cage is a reference to actor Nicolas Cage.
  • Coincidentally, "The Warrior" was released two months and twenty-seven days after Nicolas Cage's sixtieth birthday.
• "Sir Knuckles-a-lot", is a reference to the word "Sir laughs-a-lot", which means to a person who laughs a lot.

Videos[]

• Opening Title Sequence
• Sneak Peek
• First Look

References[]

Knuckles episode list

• 1 - 6

The Warrior

Don't Ever Say I Wasn't There for You

The Shabbat Dinner

The Flames of Disaster

Reno, Baby

What Happens in Reno, Stays in Reno