All the other Knuckles who have been isolated for a majority of their lives and are still getting used to the slang, figures of speech and so on that is required for interacting with regular society

I mean he’s got his connection with it and he’s described as being the only one able to control it. Plus with him having no idea how he became guardian but still knowing he’s supposed to do it makes it fitting as a universal truth. So if he’s not guardian the universe will course correct to make sure he becomes it.

Like how movie knuckles wasn’t the guardian at first but he spent his whole life tracking down the Emerald.

(It’s also pretty interesting how movie Knuckles fixed the Master Emerald even though that looked to be the first time he touched it. Sonic even reacts surprised. Did Knuckles know he could fix it beforehand or was it an instinctual thing? Plus he managed to put it back together without the chaos emeralds which was how the movie master emerald was made. I suppose that could also play into the idea of the universe making sure he’s the guardian, but the implications in cannon are interesting to think about.)

And then there could be interesting concepts to play with for the Knuckles in universes that don’t have a Master Emerald.

Boom feels incomplete. There are things he’s supposed to know, but he doesn’t know them. He feels fragmented, like there are holes in his memory and knowledge.

Ova’s always treasure hunting and the whole time he’s searching for something he can never find.

Renegade feeling this nagging irritation that he’s failed to do something.

Gnarly has this constant feeling he needs to be watching over something and thus he’s constantly paranoid that that ‘something’ is in danger but he has no clue what it is so that paranoia is turned on literally everything else.

But it could also lead to a super wholesome interaction during a crossover between multiple sonic continuities

So the Knuckles squad is together and they suddenly realize that since all of them are a version of each other they should know echidnan.

and they're right.

Like gliding is a standard Knuckles ability so most of them are used to that (except boom Tails who hears the other Tails mention their knuckles gliding and is just like huh???) (and maybe movie Tails? Movie knuckles has done a few jumps that look too long and floaty to be a normal jump. But I’m not sure if he can glide or just has an enhanced jump)

And then ova Tails introduces his Knuckles.

and this guy ain’t gliding. He’s levitating. He can stay in the air for as long as he wants, move in any direction without any fuss, it doesn’t matter what pose he’s in and can even do it while holding another person in his arms.

All the Tails are so confused because with most Knuckles you can pull a “a wizard did it” and blame the Master Emerald when something is strange. But ova Knuckles isn’t guarding a Master Emerald and is just like that for some reason. He just says ‘no’ to gravity.

And so when he goes to one of the other worlds for the first time he freaks out because he can sense all this weird energy that no one but his counterparts have any understanding of what he’s talking about.

Oooh yeah this is a really interesting way of putting it. I like this.