King Arthur: Sonic's Black Knight Explained

King Arthur, the Black Knight, is the apparent antagonist and title character of Sonic and the Black Knight, released on Nintendo Wii in March 2009. A once just king corrupted by Excalibur's scabbard, he above all conceals the most devious twist in the Storybook sub-series: this king never existed.

The Black Knight, tyrant king of the world of Camelot

King Arthur (アーサー王, Āsā-ō), also called the Black Knight (黒の騎士, Kuro no Kishi), is the apparent antagonist and title character of Sonic and the Black Knight. The game is a Nintendo Wii exclusive, released on 3 March 2009 in North America, 12 March in Japan and Australia and 13 March in Europe, under the French title “Sonic et le Chevalier noir”.

It is the second and final instalment of the Storybook series, after Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007), which had already dropped the hedgehog into a book-world alongside the ring genie Shahra. This medieval interlude remains Arthur's only narrative appearance in the games.

The official profile published by SEGA in 2009 sums the situation up bluntly: the king, corrupted by mysterious forces, now rules as a tyrant. Once just and benevolent, he enslaves his own people and throws the innocent into the dungeon, which prompts the sorceress Merlina to summon Sonic into the world of Camelot to stop him.

Excalibur's scabbard, the immortality that corrupts

It all starts with a gift. Young and having just broken his sword, Arthur receives from Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, on the shore of a lake in the Deep Woods, the sword Excalibur and its scabbard. That second object is the game's real stake: Excalibur's scabbard (エクスカリバーの鞘) makes its bearer immortal and invulnerable.

The price of that power is the whole reason for the story: the scabbard bewitches and corrupts whoever keeps it, turning a model sovereign into a despot. Excalibur itself is tainted by that evil and becomes Deathcalibur (デスカリバー), rendered as “Diabolibur” in the French version. The name is spoken only once in the entire game, during the Faraway Avalon fight: “Roar, Deathcalibur!”.

The Black Knight's arsenal matches. He hurls red and black energy balls bare-handed, rides a summoned magical horse that vanishes when he is defeated, and uses Deathcalibur to throw lightning, teleport, strike from a distance or open portals to the Underworld from which the Knights of the Underworld pour out. On swordsmanship alone, Caliburn even rates him a better fighter than any Knight of the Round Table.

The twist: an illusion created by the wizard Merlin

The game's central reversal fits into one sentence: King Arthur never existed as a real king. He is a magical illusion created out of nothing by Merlin, royal wizard of Camelot and grandfather of Merlina. Merlin had designed him as an illusory “Knight of the Underworld” charged with ruling England justly, a role Arthur filled until he became a legend.

The most common confusion concerns who created that illusion: it is Merlin's work, not Merlina's. The granddaughter merely makes use of the monster left behind by her ancestor. She only lets the truth out when Sonic brings her the scabbard — “Your king was nothing more than an illusion my grandfather conjured up”, she tells the Knights of the Round Table — and that admission is no act of honesty: manipulating Sonic had been part of the plan from the start, before she became the Dark Queen, the true final antagonist. The first entry in the sub-series, by contrast, displayed its declared villain, Erazor Djinn, quite plainly.

One contradictory piece of material remains, and the game owns it: the Gallery Vaults (Vault 5) grant Arthur a complete legendary biography — born to Uther Pendragon and Lady Igraine thanks to a trick of Merlin's, carried off by the wizard, raised by Sir Ector, then drawing Caliburn from the stone, which makes him king of England — with Gawain as his nephew and Mordred as his son. That genealogy is better read as the legend Merlin built around his creature than as a denial of the twist.

Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, and the scabbard's flaw

Nimue is Amy Rose's doppelgänger in the World of Camelot: the same face, an entirely different temperament, calm and composed, without the slightest romantic dimension — and Amy also exists in the game, playable in multiplayer mode. Voiced by Lisa Ortiz in English and Taeko Kawata in Japanese, she holds herself partly responsible for the kingdom's fall, since she is the one who handed Arthur the sword and its scabbard.

Before helping Sonic, she puts him to the test. Nimue sets him three trials in three days: free the innocents locked in Arthur's dungeon, show compassion to those who need it, then defeat the Knights of the Underworld. To these is added a trap quest, in which the Lady of the Lake disguises herself as an ordinary villager to observe the hedgehog.

The key she finally hands over is the only known counter to the scabbard's immortality: the three sacred swords of the Knights of the Round Table — Arondight of Sir Lancelot (Shadow), Galatine of Sir Gawain (Knuckles), Laevatein of Sir Percival (Blaze) — combined with Caliburn scatter its power. Nimue explains the method but does not supply the blades: Sonic has to wrest them from the knights, fought one by one.

Misty Lake then Faraway Avalon: the two confrontations

Arthur is fought twice. The first encounter takes place at Misty Lake, with the king fighting on horseback to the instrumental track “Fight the Knight - Strings Mix -” by Jun Senoue and Richard Jacques. In the story, the scabbard makes him untouchable: he judges Sonic “a fool of a knight”, loses interest in him and leaves without killing him. Controller in hand, the boss fight nonetheless ends with him brought down.

The second confrontation is played out at Faraway Avalon, to the vocal version of “Fight the Knight” by Crush 40 — not to be confused with the game's main theme, which is “Knight of the Wind”. Arthur calls on the power of the scabbard there, but Sonic, now armed with the four swords, neutralises his immortality and strikes him down: the Black Knight fades away, leaving nothing behind but the scabbard.

On the voice side, the character is played by Gavin Hammon in English and Hidekatsu Shibata in Japanese, the game reusing the English cast of Sonic X with Jason Griffith as Sonic. The title's legacy is harsher: a lukewarm reception (54/100 on Metacritic), pointed criticism of the sword handling, and withdrawal from sale as early as 2010, during SEGA's clear-out of poorly rated Sonic games.

The blue knight

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The true King Arthur is Sonic

The game's ending no longer belongs to the Black Knight but to his rival sword. Facing the Dark Queen, Caliburn is cut in two, then restored as Excalibur by the three sacred swords: Sonic then becomes Excalibur Sonic, one of the series' most singular transformations. The Dark Queen, for her part, takes on a giant spectral form inspired by the late King Arthur.

Once the sorceress is defeated, Caliburn recalls what his duty as a legendary sacred sword consists of: deciding who is worthy of the crown. And he names Sonic the true King Arthur. The nuance is worth keeping in mind: no coronation is shown on screen, the recognition remains verbal.

Beyond this game, the Black Knight has virtually no career. Apart from the manga based on the title, his only other notable appearance is the adaptation of the opening cutscene in the Archie Comics (Sonic the Hedgehog #197, “Knight Time”), where Camelot is presented as a separate Zone of the multiverse. Arthur therefore remains a character from a single story, whose entire interest lies in the way that story takes him apart.

Summary

Frequently asked questions

• Is King Arthur a real king in Sonic and the Black Knight?
  No. He is a magical illusion, created out of nothing by the wizard Merlin to rule the kingdom justly. Merlina reveals it to the knights even before she gets hold of the scabbard.
• Who created the Black Knight, Merlin or Merlina?
  Merlin, royal wizard of Camelot and Merlina's grandfather. She uses the illusion to manipulate Sonic and recover Excalibur's scabbard: she is the real final antagonist, in the form of the Dark Queen.
• Why did King Arthur turn evil?
  Because of Excalibur's scabbard, which Nimue had handed him along with the sword. It grants immortality but bewitches its bearer and turns him into a tyrant. Excalibur, corrupted in turn, becomes Deathcalibur, “Diabolibur” in the French version.
• How can Sonic beat an immortal opponent?
  Nimue teaches him that the three sacred swords of the Knights of the Round Table, combined with Caliburn, scatter the power of the scabbard. Sonic uses them in the second fight, at Faraway Avalon: Arthur fades away, leaving only the scabbard.
• Who is the true King Arthur at the end of the game?
  Sonic. After the Dark Queen's defeat, Caliburn recalls that it falls to the sacred sword to name who is worthy of the crown, and he names Sonic. No coronation, however, is shown on screen.

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