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Sir Gawain

From Sonic Retro

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Sir Gawain, the Knight of the Sun, is an alternate reality version of Knuckles the Echidna encountered by Sonic during Sonic and the Black Knight. A Knight of the Round Table in the service of King Arthur, Gawain wields a pair of twin hand axes known collectively as Galatine, which are praised for their sharpness.

Storyline

In the opening cutscene of Sonic and the Black Knight, King Arthur dispatches Sir Percival, Sir Gawain, and Sir Lancelot to hunt down and kill Sonic and Merlina. Gawain is open about his reservations in being assigned to kill the Royal Wizard, but Lancelot reminds him that "the King's orders are absolute". Gawain eventually finds Sonic inside a druidic henge on Titanic Plain while the hedgehog is en route to rescue captured villagers from Crystal Cave. Although Sonic tries to avoid a confrontation, Gawain jumps to the conclusion that he is in fact heading towards Dragon's Lair to steal the beast's treasure; a misconception which Sonic cannot help but draw parallels to.

After Sonic manages to defeat the Knight of the Sun in battle, Gawain, incredulous at having lost "to a mere apprentice", attempts to take his own life to remove the stain on his honour. Sonic confiscates the echidna's twin blades before racing off.

Despite this defeat, Sir Gawain continues with his other mission for the King - to slay Merlina. While Sonic battles King Arthur on Faraway Avalon, he and the other the Knights of the Round Table corner the Royal Wizard within Camelot Castle, before she reveals herself as the Dark Queen. In order to save the Grand Kingdom from Merlina's vision of magical stasis, the Knights team up with Sonic and Nimue to activate four enchanted stones; Gawain speeds off towards the one in Great Megalith. Later, during Sonic's futile stand in Dark Hollow, Sir Gawain watches with the other Knights via Nimue's scrying pool, and urges the hedgehog to escape rather than stay and fight pointlessly.

Just before the last boss, Merlina reveals that the rivalry between Lancelot and Gawain is to be one of the ultimate causes of the Kingdom's ruin, and thus the whole reason for her intricate scheme to acquire the Scabbard of Excalibur in the first place.

Gameplay

Gawain's style of fighting is heavily ground-based. His duel-wielding allows him to strike with strong ground combo attacks, but his aerial attacks are mostly dives. He can also glide like Knuckles to cross long distances; a particularly useful tactic in "Don't Touch The Ground" missions, and in Shrouded Forest where it can be used to avoid the magical vines which sprout along the floor. One drawback with Gawain is his lack of a Homing Attack.

His Soul Gauge move, Gail Meteor, has him throwing him his swords like boomerangs at enemies. He can only use this move on the ground, but it can strike both flying and ground foes easily. While this technique doesn't allow him to gain distance while attacking like other Soul Gauge moves, he can still run incredibly fast if used when no targets are around.

Trivia

  • In the real-world King Arthur /Holy Grail legends, Sir Gawain was the nephew of King Arthur.
  • Defeating Gawain unlocks Knuckles in the multi-player mode.


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