History YMMV / SonicAndTheBlackKnight

* {{Narm}}: Sir Gawain [[spoiler:threatening to commit ritual suicide out of dishonor]] is unintentionally hilarious, due both to the fact that it's ''Knuckles'' of all people, and no chivalry-motivated knight would ever do what Gawain does, as [[spoiler:suicide is unlawful in medieval Christianity, which was a core influence on the development of chivalry]]. Granted, this didn't stop [[https://mednar.org/2012/06/17/lancelot-queen-guinevere-repents-of-her-cruelty-lancelot-attempts-suicide/ Lancelot in the real-life story]] but it's still odd. Sonic even {{lampshade|hanging}}s its ridiculousness.

* {{Narm}}: Sir Gawain [[spoiler:threatening to commit ritual suicide out of dishonor]] is unintentionally hilarious due both to the fact that it's ''Knuckles'' of all people and no chivalry-motivated knight would ever do what Gawain does, as [[spoiler:suicide is unlawful in medieval Christianity, which was a core influence on the development of chivalry]]. Granted, this didn't stop [[https://mednar.org/2012/06/17/lancelot-queen-guinevere-repents-of-her-cruelty-lancelot-attempts-suicide/ Lancelot in the real-life story]] but it's still odd. Sonic even {{lampshade|hanging}}s its ridiculousness.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6PTS0HXFzI "Live Life"]]; a slow bittersweet ballad about holding onto hope and enjoying life while you still can as the IAmSong for Sonic the hyperactive, cocky, gotta-go-fast Hedgehog? How the hell is ''that'' supposed to work? Like a match made in ''[[AwesomeMusic/SonicTheHedgehog heaven]]'', apparently. Until 2019's ''VideoGame/TeamSonicRacing'', this was the last original song Music/Crush40 would perform for the series, making it that much more [[TearJerker poignant.]]
* CommonKnowledge: A lot of the complaints that Sonic got for wielding a sword in ''Black Knight'' stemmed from a line in ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' where he says he 'wouldn't be caught dead with [one]', with many claiming it contradicted his character of being anti-weapons. The thing is, Sonic wasn't referring to weapons in ''general'' with that line; he was specifically referring to not being caught dead with a ''gun''.
* CriticalBacklash: When it was originally released, this game received middling reviews across the board, was mocked by critics and fans alike for giving Sonic a sword (when he's never needed to use weapons in past games), and was delisted and taken out of production only a year after release, as Sega sought to improve the series' reputation. While some aspects are still divisive to this day (mainly Sonic wielding a sword and whether the game is awful or merely average), some now look back at the game more positively. Some standout aspects include its story, villain, voice acting performances, and Sonic's characterization.
* DesignatedHero: What Sonic is doing -- defeating the [[AntiVillain Knights of the Round]] and [[spoiler:dooming their world to end]] -- can make it hard to sympathize with him at first, as the others rightfully point out his actions can seem downright villainous at times. Sonic acknowledges this himself, saying that he "doesn't mind playing the bad guy every once in a while". As the story progresses, the flaws of the Knights and the positives to Sonic's perspective become more apparent.
* EpilepticTrees: The game's UniversalAdaptorCast portrays Shadow as Lancelot and Silver as Galahad... Lancelot's ''son'' in the original myth. This sparked a ton of speculation on whether the two are related in the main universe.

* GeniusBonus: Those who are quite knowledgeable in the Arthurian mythos may easily guess that [[spoiler:Caliburn is the true Excalibur]], considering that [[spoiler:"Caliburn" is what Excalibur was originally called in real-life before the name was later altered by European authors]].
* HarsherInHindsight: The game's message that everything must end takes on a whole new meaning in light of the departure and replacement of writer Creator/ShiroMaekawa and the 4Kids voice cast after this game’s release.

** One of the winning fan art from North America and shown in the game ([[https://youtu.be/4MHs46ZwSZk?t=2m8s shown here]]) is one of Knuckles' POV of Sonic looking at the mural in [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Hidden Palace Zone]], [[https://www.deviantart.com/evanstanley/art/S-and-the-BK-Fan-Art-entry-117329900 created by Evan Stanley.]] Yes, that's the same Evan Stanley, a ''Sonic'' FandomVIP who created notable fancomic ''Webcomic/GhostsOfTheFuture'' and became a PromotedFangirl who got to write and illustrate for the official comic series such as ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' and ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW''. Likewise, one of the game's European pieces, depicting Sonic in [[VideoGame/SonicUnleashed Jungle Joyride]] ([[https://youtu.be/4MHs46ZwSZk?t=1m8s shown here]]), was submitted by Kieran Gates; he would later go on to create art for ''VideoGame/SonicMania'', the official ''Sonic'' social media accounts, as well as the IDW comic.

** One line from the main theme of ''VideoGame/SonicCD'', "Sonic - You Can Do Anything", is "Excalibar - It's not that far". Here, Sonic gets Excalibur.

*** Even better considering the [[Literature/FateZero prequel series]] features its own Black Knight as the ''berserker'' summon (this time it's [[spoiler:Lancelot]]).
** The title becomes this twelve years later when Sonic is in [[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiLiberationDx2 the same game]] as The Black Swordsman from ''Manga/{{Berserk}}''.

* MagnificentBitch: [[spoiler:[[AntiVillain Merlina the Wizard]] flawlessly masterminded the entire plot of the game completely beneath notice. Summoning Sonic from his world to slay a corrupted King Arthur, she takes the arcane Scabbard of Excalibur to utilize its power of immortality, casting a powerful spell on the Kingdom of Camelot. Having foreseen the ruinous future of her world, a despairing Merlina places Camelot under a kind of magical stasis, fueled by the dark forces from the Underworld, in hopes of keeping it eternal. Showing absolute conviction to her cause, Merlina even fights back against Sonic and Caliburn as the Dark Queen. Although ultimately defeated, Sonic spares and convinces Merlina to abandon her nihilistic outlook, proving her to be a lost, if understandable soul who needed her [[HeelRealization hope restored]] after [[WellIntentionedExtremist resorting to extreme measures to keep her world intact]].]]
* MisaimedFandom: A number of people view [[spoiler:Sonic's [[NoSympathy lack of sympathy]] towards Merlina's plight as being uncharacteristically callous of him, given how her plans technically involve preventing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt for Camelot. These players tend to forget that Merlina's plans would also involve subjecting Camelot to an eternity of being trapped in [[TheDarkArts the darkness of the Underworld]], and how there's zero indication within the game itself that Merlina's motivations are unselfish: during the FinalBoss, Sonic ''explicitly'' describes her sorrow towards the end of Camelot as being "one-sided", and Caliburn [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse calls her out]] on how she's risking everyone else's lives [[ItsAllAboutMe just to escape said sorrow]].]]
* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The sound of going into Soul Surge, followed by the sounds of getting perfectly-timed hits. The high-pitched note is incredibly satisfying.
* {{Narm}}: Sir Gawain [[spoiler:threatening to commit ritual suicide out of dishonor]] is unintentionally hilarious due both to the fact that it's ''Knuckles'' of all people and no chivalry-motivated knight would ever do what Gawain does, [[spoiler:because suicide is unlawful in medieval Christianity, which was a core influence on the development of chivalry]], granted it didn't stop [[https://mednar.org/2012/06/17/lancelot-queen-guinevere-repents-of-her-cruelty-lancelot-attempts-suicide/ Lancelot in the real-life story]] but it still odd. Sonic even {{lampshade|hanging}}s its ridiculousness.

** This isn't the first time Sonic has wielded a sword, as he's briefly wielded a sword known as [[https://archiesonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sword_of_Acorns the Sword of Acorns]] in the [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics Archie Comics]] a couple of times way before ''Black Knight''.
** Sonic's AntiNihilist life philosophy as summed up in this game came as a welcome surprise to many fans, but that aspect of his personality has always existed since the very first game, where he said something similar on the Japanese box art.

** Sonic the Hedgehog gets summoned to the past by a MysticalWaif with a MagicStaff where he meets an AlternateSelf of Knuckles the Echidna? ''Comicbook/SonicTheComic'' did it first, [[spoiler:but Tikal is the one who summoned him and the version of Knuckles he meets is the same person as the one he knows in the present day]].

* SignatureScene: Sonic's last words to Merlina about living life to the fullest even though [[WeAllDieSomeday everything eventually comes to an end]], for being the clearest display of his HiddenDepths in the whole series.
* SoOkayItsAverage: The general consensus in regards to the gameplay. It is undeniably an improvement over ''Secret Rings'' by virtue of not having to control Sonic with motion controls and it has its moments of fun, but the game is still very on-rails like ''Secret Rings'' and the swordplay can be quite finicky and overly basic thanks to the motion controls not allowing much versatility.

** [[https://youtu.be/OSU92unsQIM?si=-4_t_pywsV-xPoSf Molten Mine]] sounds a lot like ''VideoGame/BlackDawn''[='s=] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc_wtYyHdvs "Action Theme"]], sharing a ton of melodies between the two. Since both were composed by Tallarico Studios, whose founder Music/TommyTallarico is [[https://youtu.be/0twDETh6QaI?si=tW-p6_S21dRAGBe3&t=1847 infamous for being dishonest,]] it's very plausible that this is an example of self-plagiarism.

** The agonizing screams that [[spoiler:Dark Queen Merlina]] lets out after [[spoiler:getting run through by Excalibur Sonic.]]

** A variant. Lancelot gets a harder boss fight, but Gawain and Percival don't. While Percival's one fight does have a notable difficulty, Gawain's doesn't have such merits and could have benefited most from a "Gawain Returns".
** Silver and Jet are both in the game as Sir Galahad and Sir Lamorak respectively and yet, despite being part of the Knights of the Round Table themselves, never appear at all in the story mode and are only playable in multiplayer mode. It would have been interesting to see how their involvement in the story and what their boss fights could have been like.
** Lancelot, Gawain, and Percival are all playable characters in the game and have their own moves, swords and the works, however, they're only playable in four stages late in the game. which is extremely disappointing as it would have added a good bit of replay value to the game if you could play as them in every stage in the post-game.
* UnderusedGameMechanic: Late in the game, you can unlock the ability to play as Lancelot, Gawain and Percival in addition to Sonic himself, and all of them have their own unique movesets and swords. Unfortunately, by the time you unlock them, there are only around four worlds left and you can't use them in any others, denying them any potential usage and replay value they may have had.
* UnexpectedCharacter: Jet the Hawk as Sir Lamorak was definitely a surprise at the time, mostly because fans did not expect the character to appear anywhere outside the ''Riders'' subseries, which tends to follow its own canon.

** Weirdly enough, Sonic's speech to [[spoiler: Merlina]] can come off this, considering [[spoiler:while she may have gone crazy in her attempt, [[WellIntentionedExtremist she was doing it for the sake of]] preventing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. So Sonic's speech about how every thing ends and we should just live life to the fullest can come off as SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids. Especially considering the story does end shortly afterwards. Because of that context, some people end up taking it as surprisingly nihilistic for Sonic, who normally makes world saving his day job.]]

* {{Narm}}: Sir Gawain [[spoiler:threatening to commit ritual suicide out of dishonor]] is unintentionally hilarious due both to the fact that it's ''Knuckles'' of all people and no chivalry-motivated knight would ever do what Gawain does, [[spoiler:because suicide is unlawful in medieval Christianity, which was a core influence on the development of chivalry]]. Sonic even {{lampshade|hanging}}s its ridiculousness.

* MisaimedFandom: A number of people view [[spoiler:Sonic's lack of sympathy towards Merlina's plight as being uncharacteristically callous of him, given how her plans involve preventing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt for Camelot. These players tend to forget that Merlina's plans would also involve subjecting Camelot to an eternity of being trapped in [[TheDarkArts the darkness of the Underworld]], and how there's zero indication within the game itself that Merlina's motivations are unselfish: during the FinalBoss, Sonic ''explicitly'' describes her sorrow towards the end of Camelot as being "one-sided", and Caliburn [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse calls her out]] on how she's risking everyone else's lives [[ItsAllAboutMe just to escape said sorrow]].]]