Why did Knuckles fall for Robotnik's lies so many times, even knowing he's the enemy?

[AzureLakeSanic]

I didn't care as a kid. Back then, him laughing in the intro to Sonic 3 and Triple Trouble was the most hilarious thing. I also had a crush on him. Make of that what you will.

[A person, that exists]

Because Knuckles is stupid and has no traits besides "Dumb", that's all. Like, sure, I might think he's actually a really good character, but that's more fanboyism than anything else. He's just the dumb "Brute Force" and there's nothing more to him than that. 

[StaticMania]

Him being a good character has nothing to do with his intelligence...

[A person, that exists]

1 hour ago, StaticMania said:

Him being a good character has nothing to do with his intelligence...

When his low intelligence is his only character trait (Which is the case in most Sonic games), then, yeah, it does. 

[MainJP]

22 hours ago, A person, that exists said:

Because Knuckles is stupid, that's all. Like, sure, I might think he's actually a really good character, but that's more fanboyism than anything else. He's just the dumb "Brute Force" and there's nothing more to him than that. 

 

Depends, the Riders games shows he's a cryptologist, which makes sense if he's a treasure hunter.

There are also those traps he set up in 3. He's pretty smart when he's not being flanderized.

[A person, that exists]

2 minutes ago, MainJP said:

He's pretty smart when he's not being flanderized.

The problem is that Knuckles is flanderised in every game outside of SA/2, RIders: ZG and maybe Sonic 3, and most of the fans L I K E I T. That's just no good. 

[Diogenes]

Man if you can only give a "maybe" to the character's first appearance, maybe they didn't "flanderize" him and that's just what his personality is?

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

Saying his low intelligence is his only character trait seems to be going too far to me, I'd say there's more to him than that. Granted, Sonic characters aren't exactly deep or well-developed, or even consistently portrayed. But Knuckles is generally portrayed as dutiful, good-hearted, stubborn, aggressive, hot-headed, etc. There's also more subtle characterization you can see, stuff like him seeming to enjoy peaceful things such as nature and animals despite the fact that he's so eager to fight, having a lot of loyalty to his duty to guard the Master Emerald and yet still wanting more freedom deep down, stuff like that. Yeah, the Sonic series is badly written, so just like every character, his personality is not necessarily the most deep and consistent, and some of the things I've mentioned I'm sure people can argue against for various reasons. But there's still more to him that just "dumb". In fact, there are many games and stories where he appears but his lack of discernment doesn't even make appear or make a difference.

I feel like the extremes of Knuckles' gullibility might have something to do with lazy or poorly thought-out writing, but to be honest, I don't completely mind. It's actually rather amusing to have one of the main hero characters being tricked by the main villain on a not-infrequent basis to the point that it's just normal. Like Diogenes said on the first page, I don't think a character having a huge glaring flaw is automatically a bad thing. I wouldn't like Knuckles as much if he wasn't gullible, and Knuckles is my favorite character. You can say they're taking it too far by having him being tricked again and again and again, but I can't say it really bothers me because, like I said, I find it amusing. I do get more annoyed when they make Knuckles' stupidity extend to areas beyond being too trusting, though. Being an idiot in one area doesn't make you an idiot in all of them.

[StaticMania]

Knuckles' stupidity has only really ever extended to lack of knowledge about technology and that was just one joke in the 1st Riders game. I mean there was also that one joke in Nex Gen about him getting turned around, but that didn't really make sense.

Honestly whenever people comment on him being stupid they're either talking about his gullibility which hasn't been seen in a while or his hot-headed nature.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Remember Sonic Battle? When he followed Eggman into a trap and got caught? With that kind of 'gullible' Knuckles, I can live with. Same with Colors DS. I'm not a fan of this "Knuckles" but I can live with him.

The real question is when Knuckles down right believes when Eggman lies to him. Not counting Sonic X and other adaptations, it happened in Sonic 3, Triple Trouble, Adventure 1.

Quick thoughts on other games, but if you have little time, I want to focus on SA1.

Spoiler

Maybe Advance 2 counts too. But honestly, in there we have little details what is happening. Maybe Knuckles is held by some cables that force him to pilot that machine (weird, but not beyond Eggman). Maybe from his point of view, he was fighting Metal Sonic. Or even Eggman himself and 'gullible' Knuckles never questioned how doctor runs so fast. I mean, if he really thought Sonic was evil, then he quickly changes mind in a cutscene, you gotta admit.

Sonic 3 is an innocent example. His first contact with intelligent being,  Eggman is crafty, that weird tapestry on the wall, etc. "Fool me once, shame on you" and stuff.

I from all Sonic games, I always found pre-Adventure spin-offs hardest to treat as canon (maybe except crossovers with Sega or Mario, but I digress). Did Triple Trouble even happen if it came out between Sonic 3 & Knuckles? Maybe I should treat it as Colors DS, a different version of Sonic 3 events that may-or-may-not be canon? Or maybe I should just choose what I believe? Why not, I doubt Sega will ever acknowledge those game in Lore sense and Ian Flynn was already messing with games like Sky Patrol. Maybe I can assume that Eggman captured Knuckles in that game and put robot-duplicate, like in Advance 1? That would explain why we're going through exactly same motions (Eggman is trying to trick us), why Knuckles fight us in robot rather than fists or why Knuckles (this model isn't combat-ready) or why Knuckles is in a cage at the end with no transition.

 

That leaves SA1, a game that deliberately tried to repeat this moment (Adventure repeat many things: captured Amy, Tornado shoot down, etc). In this game Knuckles doesn't believe that Eggman is a good guy, just that Sonic might be evil-ish as well, based on some flimsy evidence (and lack of other leads, possibly being desperate to find Master Emerald ASAP). Remember when I said I kinda want to treat early spin-off as not canon?  Part of the reason is that if we ignore Triple Trouble, Drift 2, Knuckles Chaotix, Blast, 3D Blast (that's weird cameo anyway), FIghers and R (most of them are questionable canon anyway) then Knuckles behavior can be seen as pretty reasonable.
If we assume that both Adventure games are the first time Knuckles officially befriends Sonic, then it really fits with other changes that happened to him. Less fighting with Sonic, going on adventures, learning there is more to this life than protecting ME, so maybe he should leave Angel Island from time to time. But that requires assuming that spin-offs above either didn't happen or in very specific form (happened later down the timeline, Knuckles wasn't there, etc).

So that's my stand on Knuckles being gullible. Excuses based on flimsy evidence and far-going headcanons.

 

[Austroid]

Its sad how a lot of people now think Knuckles was always supposed to be dumb.

Thanks for that Boom.

[StaticMania]

Boom has nothing to do with that...if people think Knuckles dumb now, they thought so for years before Boom was a thing.

 

Rapprochement.

[DabigRG]

5 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Boom has nothing to do with that...if people think Knuckles dumb now, they thought so for years before Boom was a thing.

 

Rapprochement.

This.

Knuckles being...well, a knucklehead was something that came up numerous times before, sometimes even when he's otherwise treated seriously. 

All Boom really did was extra flanderize it so that they had a goofier, more reliably comedic character on the Heroes side. Especially given two of his characteristics were given to/shared with Amy/Sticks and the Master Emerald guardianship was being completely ignored so he could be around.

Also mostly like the games, now that I think about it.

[Swing]

Maybe because he is an idiot? I'm not sure, when it comes to Knuckles. He has to be the most inconsistent character of the whole franchise.