YMMV / Sonic and the Black Knight

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Merlina's persistent idea that Sonic would somehow be seen as a villain, despite King Arthur being a blatant Evil Overlord and Sonic spending the whole game rescuing his subjects from tyranny and oppression, makes very little sense... unless Merlina (and probably the knights) are Sheltered Aristocrats blind to the subjects and their situation. Assuming that, the Aesop suddenly becomes a warning against losing noblesse oblige and that the nobility of a land, even with the best of intentions, are capable of ruining everything and oppressing their people even while trying to save them.
  • Detractors of the game's plot often take Sonic's cooldown speech to Merlina to mean that since everything is destined to end, we shouldn't bother trying to stave off entropy and decay and just accept our fates instead of trying to strive for a better future and longer lives. The real problem comes from the fact that while she may have jumped off the slippery slope, what she was doing was all in an attempt to prevent The End of the World as We Know It, due to her world being a story book that will inevitably end. As such, while Sonic's speech to her is about the value of living life to its fullest while you still have it, it can also come off as rather callous considering her world was just about to end shortly after due to the story ending.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Merlina and the knights of the round table, despite their various noble motives, are all capable of being interpreted as out-of-touch courtiers whose concerns with ethics are more about propriety than any actual virtue. Note that only the Lady of the Lake, who is not part of King Arthur's court, is the only one who even thinks of how knights should treat commoners and innocents.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Knight of the Wind", another amazing main theme from Crush 40 that combines rock with orchestra and explains Sonic's philosophy during the game's events.
  • "With Me", a rock ballad which serves as a Badass Boast from both Merlina — daring Sonic to even try and challenge her wish for eternal prosperity — and Sonic, who counters with his anti-nihilistic ideal that all worlds have to end eventually. The usual awesome Crush 40 instrumentals combined with female vocals (Emma Gelotte and Tinna Karsldotter from All Ends) makes for one of the most unique final boss themes in the series.
    • And then Crush 40 went ahead and did their own version (dubbed the Massive Power Mix)
  • "Live Life"; a slow bittersweet ballad about holding onto hope and enjoying life while you still can as the "I Am" Song for Sonic the hyperactive, cocky, gotta-go-fast Hedgehog? How the hell is that supposed to work? Like a match made in heaven, apparently. Until 2019's Team Sonic Racing, this was the last original song Crush 40 would perform for the series, making it that much more poignant.
• Common Knowledge: A lot of the complaints that Sonic got for wielding a sword in Black Knight stemmed from a line in Shadow the Hedgehog 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.
• Critical Backlash: 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.
• Designated Hero: What Sonic is doing — defeating the Knights of the Round and 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.
• Epileptic Trees: The game's Universal-Adaptor Cast 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.
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: The gameplay is seen as So Okay, It's Average, though whenever people discuss this game, it's usually to point out how its themes, voice acting, and Sonic's characterization are perhaps some of the best in the series.
• Fanon: Some fans have gone with the idea that Merlin is Camelot's equivalent to Dr. Eggman (who otherwise doesn't appear in the game).
• Fanfic Fuel: There is a lot of fan artwork for possible medieval versions of characters not featured in the game, like Rouge, Eggman or the Chaotix.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Sir Lancelot with Ddraig Goch. First of all, Lancelot is locked into the "Knight" style, offering a balance of speed and power. With his ultimate weapon, the playable Lancelot suddenly gains the skillset of his rematch version. His regular (ground) swings unleash Chaos Spears that can destroy oncoming enemies and safely ruin their approaches. He's at his absolute fastest and still gains access to standard "Knight" skills. The true gamebreaking is his Soul Surge, an improved Chaos Punishment. You know how Lancelot teleports in front of targets and swings. With Ddraig Goch quipped, Lancelot will do Chaos Blast instead! His range suddenly increases tenfold, making it stupidly easy to rack up your hit count and clear out lanes. Combined with aforementioned "Knight" skills such as the one where he gains Soul Surge meter from simply running, it's possible to surge through stages with absolute ease. Lancelot's only weakness is his standard aerial attack, whose startup frames leave him very vulnerable.
  • If Lancelot with his ultimate weapon can surge through stages, then Percival does it even better. She has the best Soul Surge in the game — almost every hit is registered as a Perfect Hit and thus refills a depleting Soul Surge meter — allowing her make mincemeat out of the more linear stages (like Great Megalith). To a lesser extent, her ground strikes as staggeringly fast and home in on targets. However, she's hampered by weak aerial attacks and awkward aerial mobility, despite being the only one to have a motion-cancelling double jump.
• Genius Bonus: Those who are quite knowledgeable in the Arthurian mythos may easily guess that Caliburn is the true Excalibur, considering that "Caliburn" is what Excalibur was originally called in real-life before the name was later altered by European authors.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The game's message that everything must end takes on a whole new meaning in light of the departure and replacement of writer Shiro Maekawa and the 4Kids voice cast after this game’s release.
• He Really Can Act: This game is considered to be Jason Griffith's best performance, for Sonic but especially for Lancelot. Just listen to him bellowing "Chaos Punishment!" when he activates his Soul Surge!
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • One of the winning fan art from North America and shown in the game (shown here) is one of Knuckles' POV of Sonic looking at the mural in Hidden Palace Zone, created by Evan Stanley. Yes, that's the same Evan Stanley, a Sonic Fandom VIP who created notable fan comic Ghosts of the Future and became a Promoted Fangirl who got to write and illustrate for the official comic series such as Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) and Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW). Likewise, one of the game's European pieces, depicting Sonic in Jungle Joyride (shown here), was submitted by Kieran Gates; he would later go on to create art for Sonic Mania, the official Sonic social media accounts, as well as the IDW comic.
  • Sonic's Image Song "It Doesn't Matter", first introduced in Sonic Adventure, gave fans insight into his moral code, that he lives by his own rules, doesn't stop his insecurities from living life to the fullest, and even though he doesn't have all the answers, he will never give up and stay true to himself. This game, more than any other, shows just what he means by those lyrics, particularly with his iconic Warrior Therapist speech at the end. The instrumentals of the song even gets a small reprise during the climax.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • One line from the main theme of Sonic CD, "Sonic - You Can Do Anything", is "Excalibar - It's not that far". Here, Sonic gets Excalibur.
  • There was one episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog called Hedgehog of the Hound Table in which Sonic went back to medieval times, becoming a knight while doing so.
  • A magic sword from Arthurian times that talks and likes to annoy the wielder with snark or interruptions? Are we talking Caliburn, or Excalibur? Even better, they're really the same person!
  • This isn't the first time a woman from Arthurian times would attempt to save Camelot from its destruction through magical means. The difference is that it's King Arthur herself trying it rather than fighting against it.
    • Even better considering the prequel series features its own Black Knight as the Berserker summon (this time it's Lancelot).
  • The title became this twelve years later, with Sonic finding himself in Shin Megami Tensei Liberation: Dx2 alongside a certain Black Swordsman from Berserk.
  • Sonic using a magic sword, being knighted, and becoming a king? All these things happened to him in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) too at various points though that last point only ever came true in a Flash Forward and his technical title was "prince-consort" since he was married to Sally.
  • King Arthur/The Black Knight's voice actor went on to voice Mauvier in Fire Emblem Engage, a character in a similar position to the Knights of the Round Table in this game. (A genuine Knight in Shining Armor loyal to an evil master, who eventually performs a Heel–Face Turn)
• LGBT Fanbase: Sir Percival is a very popular version of Blaze among transgender fans, what with being based on a traditionally male character of the Arthurian legends.
• Magnificent Bitch: 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 hope restored after resorting to extreme measures to keep her world intact.
• Misaimed Fandom: A number of people view Sonic's lack of sympathy towards Merlina's plight as being uncharacteristically callous of him, given how her plans technically involve preventing The End of the World as We Know It for Camelot. These players tend to forget that Merlina's plans would also involve subjecting Camelot to an eternity of being trapped in the darkness of the Underworld, and how there's zero indication within the game itself that Merlina's motivations are unselfish: during the Final Boss, Sonic explicitly describes her sorrow towards the end of Camelot as being "one-sided", and Caliburn calls her out on how she's risking everyone else's lives just to escape said sorrow.
• Most Wonderful Sound: 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 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 suicide is unlawful in medieval Christianity, which was a core influence on the development of chivalry. Granted, this didn't stop Lancelot in the real-life story but it's still odd. Sonic even lampshades its ridiculousness.
  Sonic: (snatches sword) Gimme a break! What's up with all this drama?!
• Nightmare Fuel: In a surprisingly brutal scene for a Sonic game, when Sonic tries to fight Merlina, she ends up beating him within an inch of his life. At first, anyway.
• Older Than They Think:
  • This isn't the first time Sonic has wielded a sword, as he's briefly wielded a sword known as the Sword of Acorns in the Archie Comics adaptation a couple of times way before Black Knight.
  • Sonic's Anti-Nihilist 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.
    Don't just sit there and waste your precious time. When you want to do something, do it right away. Do it when you can. It's the only way to live a life without regrets.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog gets summoned to the past by a Mystical Waif with a Magic Staff where he meets an Alternate Self of Knuckles the Echidna? Sonic the Comic did it first, 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.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Despite being the main selling point of the game, the swordplay is often criticized by fans for being clunky, filled with waggle and poorly implemented to the point where Sonic is brought to a screeching halt whenever he has to use it. In particular, it slows the game down so much that speedrunners often go out of their way to avoid attacking with a sword unless absolutely necessary.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Present, due to not having to unlock basic maneuvers.
• Signature Scene: Sonic's last words to Merlina about living life to the fullest even though everything eventually comes to an end, for being the clearest display of his Hidden Depths in the whole series.
• So Okay, It's Average: The general consensus in regards to the gameplay. It is undeniably an improvement over Sonic and the 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.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The game is generally considered to have improved on Secret Rings by a large margin. While the game is still on-rails, Sonic is now moved using the control stick, and motion controls are now limited to more intuitive sword strikes. Plus, the story is far more memorable, and you have the option to play as other characters with their own abilities.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • Merlina's theme resembles "To Zanarkand" of Final Fantasy X fame, especially the rendition that plays before the final boss battle: Merlina, Queen of the Underworld.
  • Molten Mine sounds a lot like Black Dawn's "Action Theme", sharing a ton of melodies between the two. Since both games were composed by Tallarico Studios, whose founder Tommy Tallarico is infamous for being dishonest, it's very plausible that this is an example of self-plagiarism.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Merlina's sorrowful moment watching a flower wither. Seeing something that blooms despite being destined to last only a short while is the entire reason for her master plan.
  • Her entire speech to Sonic as the Dark Queen, explaining that the ideal world that her grandfather Merlin tried to build will not last and will end in ruin. She even mentions Lancelot and Gawain's rift dooming the Round Table, as well as Arthur getting mortally injured by his own son Mordred.
  • The agonizing screams that Dark Queen Merlina lets out after getting run through by Excalibur Sonic.
  • The ending credits theme, "Live Life", has lyrics from Sonic's perspective expanding on his message to Merlina about living life to the fullest in the time you have.
  • The "Knight of the Wind (Accoustic Mix)" is a sorrowful take on the otherwise upbeat and action-packed main theme.
• That One Boss: Lancelot Returns. The original showdown with Lancelot is challenging, but fair due to the fact that there are multiple methods to have the Soul Gauge filled and break past his defenses. In Lancelot Returns, the only way to fill the Soul Gauge is to block Lancelot's Chaos Spear, which not only takes a long time to fill up via this method, but also leaves Sonic a sitting duck to be swung at by Lancelot following a Chaos Control. Dodging Lancelot's attacks requires nearly frame-perfect inputs, which is easier said than done when dealing with waggle. What's worse is, while the mission is framed as optional, Lancelot Returns needs to be cleared in order to unlock Galahad for multiplayer mode.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • A variant. Lancelot gets a harder boss fight, but Gawain and Percival don't. While Percival's one fight does have a notable degree of difficulty, Gawain's doesn't have such merits and could have benefited most from a "Gawain Returns".
  • 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 — a rather disappointing prospect, as the ability to play as them in every stage in the post-game would have added a good bit of replay value to Black Knight.
  • 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 their involvement in the story and what their boss fights could have been like. This goes double for Galahad, given that he's Lancelot's son in Arthurian myth and the Sonic fandom had been speculating about an actual familial relationship between Shadow and Silver as far back as the latter's debut.
• Underused Game Mechanic: 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.
• Unexpected Character: 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.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Sonic during his encounter with Sir Gawain, who is admittedly one of the Evil Overlord's Co-Dragons out to kill Sonic on orders. The scene wants the player to take Sonic's side and accept that Sir Gawain takes himself too seriously, but the fact is that Sonic's response to seeing his way blocked is to insult a complete stranger... and then try to avoid dealing with his foe's wounded pride by hiding behind his heroic mission, all without even a token apology. Worse, the insult is that Gawain is identical to a certain "knucklehead" Sonic knows, which simultaneously insults Knuckles, a supposed friend of Sonic's, behind his back.
  • Weirdly enough, Sonic's speech to Merlina can come off this, considering while she may have gone crazy in her attempt, she was doing it for the sake of preventing The End of the World as We Know It. So Sonic's speech about how every thing ends and we should just live life to the fullest can come off as Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!, especially considering the story does end shortly afterwards. Because of that context, some people end up taking the whole moment as surprisingly nihilistic for Sonic, who normally makes world saving his day job.

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