Lien-Da


 * If you are looking for the Mobius: X Years Later version of Lien-Da, see Lien-Da (MxYL).

Lien-Da is an Echidna soldier and the current Grandmaster of the Dark Legion. Powerful and ambitious, Lien-Da spent years scheming her way through the ranks of the Legion from the time she was a teenager, beginning with the assassination of her step-mother Mari-Su. After her great ancestor Dimitri's health took a turn for the worse, and her brother Kragok was killed, Lien-Da was in a position to become Grandmaster. Her rule of the Legion lasted less than a year however, as her nephew Remington eventually became a Legionnaire and separated the group into two factions, one under his rule, leaving Lien-Da as Grandmaster of only half the Dark Legion. Recently, Lien-Da and the Dark Legion had their cybernetic enhancements removed by the new Enerjak, forcing Lien-Da to take drastic measures to re-secure her position of power, forming an alliance with the Eggman Empire. Lien-Da was shocked to see that Dimitri had once again been given the rank of Grandmaster over the rechristened Dark Egg Legion, which she had hoped to rule. After Dimitri allied himself and the Dark Egg Legion with Snively Robotnik to gain their freedom by making Dr. Eggman fall into insanity, Lien-Da and the Dark Egg Legion remained with the Iron Dominion since the problem of the bombs in their cybernetics hadn't been put to rest as the Iron Queen had told them. When she realized she could exploit the microchips provided by the Iron Queen to control the Dark Egg Legion, she betrayed Dimitri and hid him away, installing the only modified chip and thus granting her power over the legion. After announcing that Dimitri had "fled", Lien-Da was finally promoted to Grandmaster over the Dark Egg Legion.

Early Life & Conspiring with Kragok
Lien-Da was born with her twin brother Kragok during their father Luger's tenure as Grandmaster of the Dark Legion. When Lien-Da and her brother were roughly eight years of age, the portal between Mobius Prime and the Twilight Zone opened, allowing the Dark Legion to escape confinement once again. However, when they emerged from the Twilight Zone, their mother became terribly ill. Despite returning to the Twilight Zone, their mother Merin-Da died from her ailments, scarring Lien-Da and her brother emotionally. (SSS: #11)

When Lien-Da was about sixteen years of age, her father met and fell in love with Mari-Su. Shortly afterwards the two got married, which deeply upset Lien-Da and her brother, who not only saw her as a threat to their own ambitions, but believed that they should have had a say in the matter; Lien-Da was especially indignant at the apparent nerve of her father. One year later, Mari-Su gave birth to Lien-Da's half-sister Julie-Su, though Lien-Da and Kragok never accepted her as family and completely ignored and shunned her. Sometime later, Lien-Da personally assassinated Mari-Su, though effectively staged it to make it appear as if her death was a tragic accident. (StH: #205, SSS: #11)



Not long afterwards, Kragok and Lien-Da met in secret to discuss the idea of killing their own father to secure their "birth right" and become the first joint-Grandmasters of the Dark Legion. While Lien-Da proved more than willing to carry out the task, Kragok showed some hesitance at the idea of killing their birth father. In the end, the two agreed to eliminate Luger, feeling that Moritori Rex had been more of a father figure to them. Using a powerful and experimental weapon provided by Kragok, Lien-Da targeted Luger while he was alone cataloguing a series of crates. Firing the weapon, it soon overloaded and blew up, badly injuring Lien-Da. She awoke some time later in a body cast, at which point Kragok informed her that her mission was a "success", but that while she was unconscious he stood up and took the position of Grandmaster for himself. However, Kragok promised to keep Lien-Da as the Kommissar of the Dark Legion, a position Lien-Da was forced to remain in for years. This betrayal by Kragok caused Lien-Da to never fully trust her twin brother again. (StH: #205)

After Lien-Da healed, she and Kragok had Julie-Su's Memory Neutralizing Chip activated, deleting her memories so she would never know of her relation to them and thus ensure they would not have to share their power with her. They forced Simon and Floren-Ca to take her in as her adoptive parents, as Floren-Ca had already been placed in charge of Julie-Su's well being by Luger. However, Lien-Da and Kragok continued to be paranoid that Julie-Su would one day learn the truth from her adoptive parents, and so eventually they forced Simon and Floren-Ca to give up Julie-Su, and once again had the latter's memory erased. (SSS: #11)

Kommissar of the Dark Legion
When Enerjak returned to Mobius and revealed himself as Dimitri, Kragok turned over the leadership of the Dark Legion to him. Even after Dimitri had his power stolen by Mammoth Mogul and his age caught up with him, he maintained command of the Legion, as Kragok was captured by the Echidna Security Team during the Dark Legion's attack on Echidnaopolis and imprisoned. During the Dark Legion's attempt to seize control of the High Council via their cyborg agent Benedict, Lien-Da was responsible for apprehending High Councilor Pravda and having a computer chip installed in his brain so the Legion could control him. Lien-Da also had numerous Dingoes and Echidnas that opposed the Dark Legion rounded up and beaten, often with little provocation. (KtE: #7, #9, #22, #23)



Following their failed political agenda, the Dark Legion turned to banishing all life on Angel Island to the Twilight Zone and taking control. Lien-Da had Julie-Su captured and imprisoned with her foster parents Simon and Floren-Ca under the orders of Dimitri, though she and Moritori Rex expressed their desires to have the three killed. Lien-Da was on board the Battle Cruiser when it fired the Quantum Beam and sent all of Angel Island's inhabitants to the Twilight Zone except for Knuckles. (SSS: #14)

Following Knuckles' evolution to Chaos Knuckles, Dimitri managed to persuade him to join the Dark Legion. Lien-Da, on numerous occasions, was opposed to the idea, believing Knuckles to still be a threat. When Knuckles undid the effects of the Quantum Beam, Lien-Da was outraged that he had returned all life to Angel Island, ruining their plans. Dimitri however reminded her of Knuckles' untold power and warned her to watch what she said. Lien-Da's feelings of resentment towards Dimitri's leadership continued to grow, telling him Knuckles needed to be killed if he actually harboured such power. (StH: #100, #107)

When Dimitri attempted to make peace with the High Council of Echidnaopolis and allow the two Echidna societies to merge peacefully, Lien-Da decided to take matters into her own hands. Believing Dimitri's plan to be a mistake, she hired the Dark Legion Councilor (who replaced Benedict) to assassinate Dimitri during the peace talks. The plan failed when Knuckles took the hit, and her would-be assassin was apprehended. Hoping to salvage the situation and prevent her hired gun from talking, she had Syntar prepare to snipe both him and Julie-Su, who arrived on the scene shortly to see if Knuckles was still alive. Syntar was knocked unconscious by Lara-Su (Knuckles's daughter from an alternate reality's future) and the assassinations were prevented. (StH: #108, #109)



Not long afterwards, Dimitri's health took a turn for the worst, and Lien-Da took on the role of looking after him. Lien-Da was shocked to hear Dimitri tell her not to be her "usual treacherous self" and to let Knuckles make his own decisions whether or not to use his powers to save him. Lien-Da was concerned Knuckles would not save Dimitri, but the dying Echidna told her he should have died a long time ago, making Lien-Da promise to follow in his footsteps should he die, which Lien-Da did. Despite her promise however, Lien-Da was planning a back-up operation in case the High Council did not approve of the unification plan. (StH: #114, #115)

When Mammoth Mogul arrived and threatened to disconnect the dying Dimitri from life support (in an attempt to lure Knuckles, a source of Chaos Power, to him), Lien-Da debated with Gae-Na whether or not to act. Although Knuckles arrived on the scene to save Dimitri, Lien-Da knew her late brother would never forgive her should she allow the Dark Legion to be indebted to a Guardian. However, she had promised Dimitri she would not act against Knuckles. Thus, she waited to see what Knuckles would do first. (StH: #117)

When Knuckles confronted Mogul, a huge explosion resulted, and Lien-Da rushed to the scene. There she was confronted by her nephew, Constable Remington (who had no knowledge of their relationship), but the Constable eventually permitted Lien-Da to accompany him to the scene of the explosion. The two were shocked to discover Dimitri had survived while Knuckles had died in the blast. (StH: #118)

Rise to Power
Due to the ailing health of Dimitri, Lien-Da assumed control of the Dark Legion shortly after Knuckles' death. She lead the Dark Legion forces against the Quantum Dial launched by the Xorda during their attack on the planet. (StH: #125)



During the lengthy period that Sonic the Hedgehog was lost in space in the aftermath of the Xorda attack, Lien-Da officially became the Grandmaster of the Dark Legion. During her leadership, she allowed the mysterious Dr. Finitevus to join the legion and become a high-ranking techno-mage. Finitevus managed to save Dimitri's life, though at the cost of his entire body. As both Dimitri and Finitevus secretly planned to bring back Enerjak, Lien-Da remained unaware of their plans, continuing to rule the legion. (StH: #139, #183)
 * Writer Ian Flynn stated Lien-Da likely knew Finitevus had Dimitri and was aware of his experiments, but remained unaware of his plans to revive Enerjak, or her role as a potential candidate for the new Enerjak.

Not long after the Xorda attack ended, the Dingo Regime, under the new leadership of Kage Von Stryker, allied with the Eggman Empire and together launched a successful takeover of Angel Island. Due to the Dingo persecution of all echidnas, Lien-Da used the Dark Legion as the primary resistence force on the island, providing shelter, protection and food to the civillian echidnas who fled to them or those they managed to liberate from Dingo-run concentration camps. Lien-Da's responsibilities increased dramatically after she was entrusted with the role of protecting the Master Emerald by Locke, who fought off legions of Egg Pawns while the Master Emerald was relocated. Moving the emerald to the Hidden Palace, she managed to keep the Master Emerald hidden for the time being. (StH: #138, #139)

When Knuckles arrived at Angel Island following a distress call from what was believed to be Locke, he was surprised to find Lien-Da guarding the Emerald. Despite working together out of necessity, Lien-Da taunted Knuckles and Julie-Su, eventually getting into a bitter confrontation with the latter over the topic of their father. Lien-Da and a contingent of the Dark Legion assisted in Knuckles, Sonic and the Chaotix's efforts to liberate a concentration camp and free Locke from captivity. Although they succeeded in saving Locke, Eggman had dispatched Hunter to the island to locate the Master Emerald. Hunter was stopped when Knuckles transformed into Super Knuckles, but not before numerous echidnas, including Remington and (apparently) Finitevus, had been captured and sent to the Egg Grape Chambers; Lien-Da however said they had little time to mourn for lost friends, thinking of Remington when she added "or family." (StH: #139, #140, #141)

Power Struggle
Unbeknownst to Lien-Da, Dr. Finitevus had not been captured by Hunter. Instead, he had used the opportunity to escape, and later rescued Remington from the Egg Grape Chambers, restoring him back to health and providing him with new memories (as his old memories had been lost thanks to his time in the Chamber). Finitevus then had Remington return to the Dark Legion, claiming title as Grandmaster, which resulted in the Dark Legion's civil war, with the Flame Legion still loyal to Lien-Da and the Frost Legion joining Remington. (StH: #165, #183)



Some time later, Lien-Da and Remington called a cease fire, after learning from Dr. Finitevus that ninety percent of all echidnas worldwide had been killed off. The two leaders were told that Finitevus could grant them the power of the Master Emerald to defeat their enemies and save the remaining echidnas, but this was merely a ploy to keep them complacent; while he considered both to be suitable candidates for his plans, he eventually decided that Knuckles would be more effective than either of them. When Finitevus had Knuckles become the chaos-demigod Enerjak instead of Remington or herself, Lien-Da swore revenge against Finitevus. Both she and Remington had the Dark Legion attempt to oppose the new Enerjak, but instead had all of their cybernetic enhancements removed. (StH: #180, #181)

Lien-Da, appalled at Enerjak's "curse", refused to go to Albion with Remington and the few Dark Legion members who accepted being fully organic once again. Instead, Lien-Da sought out help from Eggman, hoping to receive new cybernetic body replacements in exchange for becoming his new ground forces, which Eggman needed following Enerjak's attack on New Megaopolis. While some Legionnaires were unsure about this plan, Lien-Da was both desperate and adamant. Lien-Da accepted the alliance with Eggman under the agreement she would be the sole Grandmaster of the rechristened Dark Egg Legion. However, Lien-Da was outraged when, after the alliance was made, Eggman informed her Dimitri had been given the role, as he had gotten there first. (StH: #181, #184)



During the Chaotix and Sonic's attack on New Megaopolis, Lien-Da commanded the Dark Egg Legion in their efforts to defend the city. When the Dark Egg Legion was failing drastically, she ordered their retreat, begging Snively for reinforcements. However, Snively snidely replied that there were none. Angry and indignant, Lien-Da was approached by Knuckles, who pleaded with her to abandon her alliance for the sake of their remaining people. Lien-Da told Knuckles that his ancestors always believed to know what was best for everyone, and blamed Knuckles for their current situation as he was responsible for robbing them of their cybernetic parts. She then ordered the Dark Egg Legion to fall back. However, Lien-Da was surprised to see Dimitri arrive on the scene with a new, massive robotic body. Dimitri informed her he was taking command of the operation, which she begrudgingly accepted. (StH: #189)

Lien-Da found opportunity to get back at Dimitri when he later revealed to her the presence of explosives in the Legion's new implants, attempting to place the blame of the situation solely on Dimitri. However, he immediately put her in her place by explaining that it was she who forced their people into servitude under Eggman in the first place. (StH: #192)

A short time later, while Snively was walking through the Eggdome, he noticed Lien-Da telling an anecdote to another Legionnaire. Instead of saluting him as a superior as he expected, the two merely laughed in his face, saying he was just as much a lackey to Eggman as they were. (StH: #194)

Lien-Da was later put in charge of defending the Eggdome against the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix, with poor results. She attempted to fight directly, and when once again accused of selling her people out to Eggman, she became indignant and angry. Sally attempted to call for their surrender but Lien-Da refused. The Legion was flanked and herded into an area where Tails remotely disabled their weaponry, leaving them helpless. Assistance later came in the form of Eggman in his new Egg Phoenix, who indiscriminatingly set the battlefield aflame, almost killing members of the Legion in the process. Watching from within the Eggdome, Dimitri confronted Snively about his secret romance with Regina F as blackmail to make sure Lien-Da and the other echidnas were kept safe, but Snively proposed that if Dimitri kept this a secret, it could potentially benefit both of them, along with the rest of the echidnas. (StH: #198)



The day after, Lien-Da was acting field leader against the assault from the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix, ordering the Dark Egg Legion to build a barricade with a hole big enough to let Sonic in (as per Eggman's plans), while secretly preparing to put Snively's plan into action. While reporting on the progress of the battle to Snively in his room, she was cut short when she caught wind of Snively's cologne, a gift from Regina, which she found nauseating. She was then ordered to tell the Dark Egg Legion to move on to phase two of the plan; retreat and let Sonic the Hedgehog have a clear path to Dr. Eggman. The rest of the plan went off without a hitch and the Iron Queen and King took over the Eggman Empire, meaning the Dark Egg Legion's part of the bargain had been fulfilled. (StH: #199, #200)

Subject of the Iron Dominion
To fulfill their side of things, Snively and the Iron Queen told Dimitri that they were unable to remove the explosives within the Legions's cybernetics, and offered instead a set of microchips which the Queen assured would prevent the activation of the detonation signal. Not entirely trusting this, Dimitri nonetheless accepted the chips with thanks. Now working for the Iron Dominion, Lien-Da later led the defense of New Megaopolis when Sonic and Monkey Khan arrived to investigate. While Lien-Da was thrown to the ground, she smugly ordered the Legion to pull back to support positions and ordered the Yagyu Clan to attack. The Yagyu proved more successful in close combat that the D.E.L. did, and Lien-Da ordered the latter to fire while taking care not to hit their new allies. Monkey Khan was grazed by a shot, and, regaining confidence, Lien-Da explained one of the benefits of joining with the Iron Dominion; a larger army. After Sonic and Khan found themselves unable to stand against the combined forces of the Yagyu Clan, the Dark Egg Legion and the Iron King, they attempted to escape via Monkey Khan's cloud. Lien-Da ordered her Dark Egg Legion to shoot them down, only for the Iron King to override that order, much to Lien-Da's annoyance; she disagreed that a blow to enemy morale was more effective than simply killing them. (StH: #201, #202)

Days later, Lien-Da was put in charge of the Eggdome's defense by Dimitri after he was given the duty by the Iron Queen, but she discarded her duty and instead went to her bunk and reminisced about the actions she had taken against her father to seize the rank of Grandmaster, and how despite her efforts she was denied achieving that rank as others would take it from her. Thus, she determined herself to become the Grandmaster, even if it meant taking it from Dimitri. After he called her to his lab, Dimitri explained to her that the microchips the Iron Queen gave to them would make them immune to the detonator's effects, but that they would also make the Legion susceptible to her magic which she could exploit to make them her mindless slaves. After Dimitri revealed he created one chip with some resistance, Lien-Da questioned if they could further modify it and distribute the others, so that the entire Legion could be controlled with a single thought. Dimitri admitted that that could work in theory, but that he wouldn't do that to his people. Realizing the potential of this plan, she then disabled Dimitri's glass hover pod and tendrils, rendering him immobile. While he was helpless, she installed the modified chip in herself, after which she placed Dimitri in a box and stowed him away, informing him that his batteries would run out in a few months time. She then went before the Iron Queen and King, lying to them that Dimitri had fled. When she revealed she had helped install the microchips in the Dark Egg Legion, she was finally promoted to Grandmaster. (StH: #205, #206)

Personality
Lien-Da has a ruthless, femme fatale-style personality, and seems to care only for herself. She is extremely power-hungry and has no qualms about using underhanded methods. Despite this, she actually cares deeply for the echidna people, and had once organized the Dark Legion to rescue and protect the Echidnas from the group of Dingoes who sold Angel Island to Dr. Eggman. She believes in Echidna supremacy, thinking that their use of technology to better themselves is only natural and finding the criticism of non-echidnas beneath her. She is judgmental, brutal, cruel and sadistic, needing little excuse to cause her enemies pain. She is also easily insulted, unwilling to admit fault and often attempting to deflect her problems onto others. However, she is clever, and is willing to take assistance when she needs it, even though it's ultimately to serve her own goals. For instance, she has gone to both Knuckles and Eggman for help when in difficult situations. Nevertheless, she has little regard for life, and is willing to kill to further her goals or simply eliminate those she dislikes. Her hatred of her half-sister Julie-Su seems to stem from her belief that her father showed more affection to Julie-Su than her. As a child, she showed annoyance that her father had not only remarried without her permission, but had had another daughter, with whom she refused to share power of the Legion or even acknowledge as a sibling. (StH: #109, #139, #140, #141, #142, SSS: #11)



Romance
Lien-Da has no apparent romantic interests. She is known to flirt with Knuckles, but has had no more success with him than Rouge the Bat. Then again, she could just have been flirting with Knuckles to make her half-sister mad or jealous. (StH: #139)


 * Many fans also believe Lien-Da to be involved at some point with Doctor Finitevus, and think that he may be Rutan's father due to the white tips of Rutan's dreadlocks. If this proves incorrect, it is unknown who her partner is in Mobius: 25 Years Later, as he never made an appearance or was mentioned.

Background Information

 * Lien-Da was initially only introduced and referred to as "Kommissar." Her name was inspired by fans Lien (aka Chainspike) and Linda Nguyen.
 * Lien-Da's age was calculated using the ages provided in Sonic Super Special #11 and Julie-Su's SEGA data file. In the former, it stated Lien-Da and Kragok were seventeen when Julie-Su was born. In the latter, Julie-Su's year of birth was stated as 3221, making Lien-Da's year of birth 3204.
 * A sketch of Lien-Da and Kragok as kids by Spaz (right) was provided in StH: #115.
 * Lien-Da's name has been mistakenly spelled as "Lein-Da" on many different occasions throughout the series.


 * In a Q&A, writer Ian Flynn said this about Kragok and Lien-Da when asked about the kind of relationship the two had: "I think their relationship was the closest to honest love they felt for anyone, and I mean that in the fraternal way. I think they came to rely and trust in one another when Luger re-married and sired Julie-Su. Once they began their swift rise to power I think they became the only people they truly trusted, and even then I think there was a seed of doubt - or at least a presumption that the other wouldn't hesitate to seize control if one of them faltered. In terms of your quote, I think Lien-Da feared that an indebtedness to the Guardians would show just such a weakness." (1)

Appearance
Lien-Da is a red echidna with red hair and blue eyes. She is often depicted along the lines of a femme fatale/dominatrix theme, and as such her designs tend to include a black leather-like appearance. Despite these general constants, the details of her design tend to vary widely from issue to issue and artist to artist. Generally, she wears a full black bodysuit with a belt and heavy black boots. She has on occasion been miscoloured pink rather than red and her tail is often forgotten. While usually given blue highlights to give the appearance of shiny leather, colourist Matt Herms often applies various purples and pinks to her outfit, giving them the appearance of a colourful sheen.

In her initial appearance, her hair was quite curly; later on it's more commonly wavy. Sometimes curls were stood up to give the impression of demonic horns. Artist Dawn Best tended to depict it sleek and straight-cut. While usually the same red of her body, her hair has sometimes been depicted as auburn or, more commonly, pink. Her dreadlocks were initially (and often) at least waist-length, though more recently they're considerably shorter. Like Julie-Su, she features a fully cybernetic dreadlock on her left; the others are usually adorned with crisscrossing white stripes similar to those on Lara-Le. However, they are also commonly depicted as decorated with horizontal rings instead; while both designs are usually white, they're sometimes black. Small metal plates and rings also appear on occasion.

Though usually sticking with the general design as described above, her attire also features several variations. She was once depicted in a billowing yellow and green dress (though in terms of colours, it's likely the colourist mistook her for Lara-Le or Gala-Na, both of whom tend to wear yellow dresses). At a time, her outfit gained the addition of a black cape. Artist Jon Gray came up with several alternate designs for Lien-Da; while many were largely unused, various elements were kept in his depictions, such as heart themes and spiked/studded belts, collars and wristbands. She wore a midriff-bearing shirt and pants at this time and gained a whip. Some of the unused designs included a black tube top and shorts with tall black gloves, boots and fishnet stockings; another featured a black headband and pants decorated with a skull. A heart-themed tattoo on the stomach was among these designs. Some proposed her eyes become jet black or gold, but this was never applied and they remained blue.

A sketch provided by artist Patrick Spaziante depicted Lien-Da as a child; here she had long dreads with a more simplistic assortment of technology and stripes and wore boots with some kind of kneepads. As a teenager, she wore a blue uniform with gold trim and white gloves; her belt featured a triangular buckle.