Sonic Theory: How does Knuckles Glide? Not How You Think!

Sonic Mania has me excited for sonic for the first time since Shadow the hedgehog which
ISNT ACTUALLY THAT BAD OF A GAME WHY DOES IT GET ABOUT THE SAME RATING AS SONIC 06 A
LEGETIMATELY BROKEN AND UNFINISHED GAME!?
Anyway, yeah, when it comes to the classic games, I tend to prefer classic sonic over
classic mario, but today, heavens no.
But maybe now it will be different!
It’d gotten me thinking about sonic characters again though and I realized that… it sure
is weird that knuckles and tails can fly.
Er, well in knuckles case.
*toy story clip*
But heres the problem see… this is an echidna...does anything about this scream “hey!
I can glide like a flying squirrel, ora sugar glider yeah!”
Well thankfully, Sonic Boom makes this video short because we already know the anser, Knuckles
just pauses the game and jumps again and pauses the game and jumps again and pauses the game
and jumps again… and….
No that’s silly.
So what is the real mystery here?
There must be some explanation for this.
And that is what we are talking about today.
So first, the common answer.
One quick google search and we find that on the sonic wiki, it claims that he traps air
under his dreads (which echidnas dont have) and uses that air to glide….
Which I mean… would that actually be possible?
How could something glide with no actual wings?
Gliding is achieved when you have elongated unpowered flight, meaning no engine or propulsion
to give you more lift.
I know there are quite a few things that somewhat glide without wings in the animal kingdom.
There's even gliding snakes and spiders, both small and light, but they can glide a bit
nonetheless.
But none compare to the ability of knuckles, the gliding king.
So lets figure this out, starting by figuring out what knuckles is.
Knuckles the echidna is an echidna if you couldn't tell, this adorable little snoot
is this red punchy flying thing, see the similarities?
This egg laying mammal or monotremata is a native species to Australia.
Echidnas are known for their ability to dig, which knuckles is also excellent at, they
are also apparently quite good swimmers, being able to swim well even during flood conditions!
Some even regularly bathe!
But surprisingly they are unable to fly.
What does get really interesting though, is that The echidna has recently been linked
via its ancestors to the crocodile! due to a very similar pelvic bone(fig one).
That means knuckles and vector could be distant cousins.
So like then…
What even is knuckles he's got dreads, the Jamaican flag colors on his shoes, and talks
like an american, but comes from Australia?
And has Mayan ancestors?
whaat?
Well enough of that confusing nature stuff, lets analyse knuckles abilities.
Knuckles is stated to be one of the strongest characters in sonic, and has many feats to
back up that claim, I mean he punches Eggmans machines to smithereens and destroys rock
walls.
He even punched the emeralds right out of super sonic at one point!
The supposedly INVINCIBLE HEDGEHOG!
So maybe its not exactly glider, but using his strength to jump really good?
Instead of gliding maybe he is just jumping off of the wall.
But that doesn't really explain how he can start gliding forward after jumping in place.
And look at those legs... skip leg day much you ol’ knuckle head?
I dont think he would be able to jump high without breaking his legs.
Maybe he is like a sugar glider, one of the cutest lil guys ever.
These small mammals use excess skin along their flanks, while air is rushing by the
skin goes taught and fills with air creating an almost scoop that widens the animal's surface
area.
This greatly increase drag and decreases its decent speed letting it reach the branches
on adjacent trees before it lands onto the dangerous floor.
Is it possible that echidnas are related to flying squirrels.
Look at fig one and fig two.
Well we can see that the flying squirrel xray has quite a lot of excess skin around the
body where as the echidna only has a little bit, even if we include the quills or dreads
in knuckles case.
Neither of which are solid so they wouldnt form a scoop… hmmm.
So lets say he does somehow trap air under his dreads perhaps magically. would that even
make it possible to glide?
If we remove his body and just look at his head with the dreads we see that he has a
pointed nose to a tapered end much like an airfoil(side profile shot).
He has 7 large dreads that slowly get shorter the closer to the center we get.
Its Like this, he looks similar to a B2 stealth bomber.
Which just to happened to have been revealed to the public around the same time the first
and second sonic games were being developed.
They were seen as super cool, and we all know that sonic’s main point and marketing revolves
around him and his friends being cool and edgy, especially to Americans.
So perhaps some inspiration from taken from this.
In Knuckles and team chaotix his sprites were much smoother and rounded creating a streamlined
airfoil.
(Fig three) At first i didn't believe that this idea of knuckles gliding with his hair
could be even feasible.
but if we look, we can see that the dreads are rather close and seem to be almost touching
creating an almost solid wing surface.
I'm not saying that a creature could fly with just this but it may have some merit.
To glide the lift generated by his “wings” must be almost or above the gravitational
pull on his body.
Due to what we know of Mobius it may very well be possible that he can glide due to
a lower gravity.
We see in sonic cd that eggman had to chain the huge planet like structure to the planet,
now shouldn't that death egg fall?
not float away?
What if their is an intense force that pushes upwards, like a strong magnetic field or possibly
magic-energy field?
There are also a large amount of characters and things that seem to be able to fly that
should not.
Like any of eggman's ships, or cream or tails or anyone really the only few people that
probably should fly is rouge the bat, and those birds, but even then, their wings are
all way too small to give them any lift at all.
But knuckles is the most confusing one of all, just….
Jumps with a bit of air under his hair… even with less gravity the science just isnt
there! so maybe it's not wholly scientific, maybe there is a more magical explanation
to go along with it.
Knuckles is the sole guardian of the master emerald.
A jewel that is said to contain chaos itself and is immensely powerful.
The master emerald’s main ability is to cancel or nullify the power of the 7 chaos
emeralds.
Knuckles is the last remaining guardian of the grand jewel.
Its power is what allows angel island to float up in the clouds.
We have seen multiple times when Eggman steals or breaks the master emerald the island falls
into the ocean below.
Only when it is returned does the island start to float again.
We do know that knuckles has some powers already granted to him by the emerald as stated in
the lyrics of knuckles pumpkin hill level in sonic adventure 2.
He states that “the great emerald's power allows me to feel.”
We also know that the only other echidna that could glide, at least that we’ve seen, was
Tikal.
This echidna is daughter of the chief of the knuckles clan, and is one of knuckles ancestors.
4000 years prior to the events in sonic adventure, she was trapped inside the master emerald
only to be released when it shattered.
At the time long ago, she was the master emeralds guardian and can glide (we only see her glide
in the sonic adventure battle 2 multiplayer) she is also seen using the emeralds power
to teleport and levitate.
It seems possible that she gets this power from the emerald.
So, who's to say that knuckles doesn't also gain power from the relic.
Making him extra powerful, and able to glide smoothly through the air.
Well, to me this sounds like it’s the most likely case.
it is possible that he uses the air caught under his dreads as anti shock bodies while
gliding, or maybe he uses them as a rudder to steer himself.
Using small bits of power from the master emerald to break an already weak gravitational
pull.
A combination of physics and magic, now that’s using your gnoggin.
Thanks so much for watching here are some other awesome videos to check out, and if
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Sonic Theory: How does Knuckles Glide? Not How You Think! | Gnoggin

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