Knuxadow

Knuxadow is the slash ship between Knuckles the Echidna and Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom.

Canon
In Sonic Rivals 2, Knuckles seems to find Shadow and his smug demeanor annoying, and it is likely that Shadow's inflated ego tends to rub Knuckles the wrong way, and examples of this is seen in Sonic Free Riders when Knuckles pointed out that Shadow had a big ego in a rather annoyed tone after Team Dark beat Team Babylon and remarked to Tails he and Rouge weren't ones for team loyalty as they showed no compassion for E-10000B.

Even so, Knuckles possesses respect for Shadow, cheering him in his fight against Devil Doom in Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow is shown to have respect for Knuckles in return, as shown by his teaming up in Mario and Sonic Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

In Sonic Forces, Knuckles was shocked to hear about Shadow causing trouble in Sunset Heights, wondering why he would "work for the enemy". As it turned out that the real Shadow was not working with Eggman, Knuckles fought alongside him in the penultimate battle against the Eggman Empire as an ally.

Overall, Knuckles and Shadow's relationship seems to revolve around their goals, but they are shown to respect one another and see each other as allies.

Sonic Adventure 2
They started off as indirect enemies in Sonic Adventure 2 because Shadow impersonated Sonic and had him thrown in jail at Prison Island as well as being associated with his own arch-rival, Rouge. Toward the end of the game, they became allies when they had to save the planet from the Space Colony ARK.

Sonic Heroes
Team Dark provoked Team Sonic into battling them, although Shadow did not remember Knuckles and his teammates. After the fight, Knuckles jokingly mentioned that they might have fought Shadow's ghost and scared Tails.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
After becoming transported to another future by Eggman, Knuckles encounters Shadow and Rogue who are also stuck there. ￼They also work together to stop Solaris from destroying the world.

Sonic Rivals
In Sonic Rivals, they behave more like rivals than allies, with Shadow bluntly pointed out that Knuckles was useless for his shortcomings while retaining an indifferent attitude towards his challenges, whilst Knuckles, briefly trying to be cordial, was irritated by Shadow's haughty presence.

Sonic Rivals 2
Shadow is willing to hinder Knuckles' search for the Master Emerald to keep him from getting the Chaos Emerald while indecisively refusing to explain his motives, even starting a fight with him, ultimately leading Knuckles to mistakenly assume he was involved in the Master Emerald's disappearance.

Shadow the Hedgehog
In the neutral path in Shadow the Hedgehog, the second stage has Shadow in Glyphic Canon, where he encounters Knuckles. Knuckles asks him to help clear out the Black Arms aliens around the temple. The player can choose to carry out Knuckle's request or not. Throughout the level, Knuckles accompanies Shadow giving advice or commentary.

In Central City, Knuckles tells Shadow that the Black Arms have placed bombs in the city, minutes away from detonation, and asks for help diffusing them.

In Black Comet, GUN launches their attack against the Black Arms. Shadow encounters Knuckles there, who states that he will tear the aliens apart. The two travel to the core of the comet together. If Shadow does the Hero Mission, Knuckles and Shadow encounter Eggman with his Egg Dealer machine at the end of the level. They defeat Eggman and Shadow obtains the seventh Chaos Emerald.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Knuckles and Shadow teamed up to compete with Princess Peach and Yoshi at the Badminton court, which they lost.

IDW Publishing Comics
The Battle for Angel Island Shadow abandons the agreed-upon plan of fighting the Egg Fleet and joins Sonic and Knuckles in fighting Neo Metal Sonic. Knuckles is surprised to see him. Neo Metal Sonic reveals that all he needed for his final form was Shadow's biodata and starts to transform. Shadow and Knuckles continue to attempt attacking Metal Sonic in vain until Sonic has them retreat. Then Angel Island starts rumbling, and Shadow asks Knuckles what's going on. He explains that Angel Island is now falling due to the Master Emerald being severed from the island.

All or Nothing Zavok brings a horde of Zombots to Angel Island, including the infected Shadow. Knuckles decides to buy Sonic some time by attacking Shadow, though this gets himself infected as well. He states that he needs to keep the Zombots away from the Master Emerald and refugees. Knuckles continues to fight Shadow until he fully succumbs to the Metal Virus. Once Super Sonic and Silver get rid of the virus, Shadow and Knuckles return to normal. They briefly acknowledge each other before getting angry at Rouge, who was laying on the Master Emerald.

Sonic X Season 3
Trick Sand
 * Knuckles, alongside everyone else, is shocked to see Shadow.

Ship of Doom
 * Knuckles thinks back on when they saw Shadow and remembers that he was always a weird guy.
 * Knuckles comments that they should never underestimate Shadow.
 * Knuckles asks what Shadow did and Shadow says he paused time around the ship.

The Cosmo Conspiracy
 * Knuckles confronts Shadow while he is hunting down Tails and Cosmo, though Shadow manages to lose him by fogging the room.
 * Knuckles stops Shadow's spin dash from hitting Tails and Cosmo, allowing them to escape. Shadow defeats Knuckles, although he was forced to remove his inhibitor rings.

So Long Sonic
 * Knuckles says that Shadow used all the energy he had left to Chaos Control.

Fanon
While not super popular Knuxadow is a common pairing in the Sonic fandom. Those that ship them is due to their similar personalities and relationship to Sonic. Although those that ship their Boom versions ship them due to their opposing personalities. Shadow being an "edge lord" and Knuckles being more of an idiot in that version. Some people put the pair as a rivalry with Knuxouge for Knuckles and Shadamy for Shadow. It is typically shipped alongside Sonilver and Blazamy.

On AO3, Knuxadow is the fourth most written ship for Knuckles and the eighth most written for Shadow. There are currently over 135+ written works.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION


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Trivia

 * In Twitter Takeover #7, when everyone was asked for their opinion on Shadow, Knuckles answered, "He doesn't talk when he doesn't need to. I like him."
 * On another question, Knuckles mentions that he once caught Shadow staring at the trees in Luminous Forest for hours and admits that he started standing there with Shadow too. Eggman remarks that they are "cut from the same cloth."

Variations

 * Knuxadouge refers to the ship between Shadow, Knuckles and Rouge the Bat
 * KnuxShadAmy refers to the ship between Shadow, Knuckles and Amy Rose
 * Sonuxadow refers to the ship between Shadow, Knuckles and Sonic the Hedgehog