Even then he mostly uses traps on Sonic instead of pummeling him into a lifeless jelly with his deadly fists.

Yeah, and if i remember correctly theres even an alternate/early version of the intro where Sonic isn't super when he arrives on angel island and Knuckles doesn't attack or ambush at all, he just stands there and indicates for Sonic to leave.

ough 😭. I think about how much this poor had been through so much.

Pretty much the entire galaxy has been against him for his whole life because of his reputation. He's the last of the echidna so people treat him like he's something fancy to put on display or they see his prowess in battle and what him to fight for peoples entertainment or they're scared of him because of his title of "most dangerous warrior in the galaxy" and people clearly know he's searching for the master emerald, that's gotta be causing him trouble.

(sorry for late reply im bad at answering asks lol😅)

YES! these lovely mamas deserve so much appreciation.

Vanilla being one of the few adults among this band of teenage heroes will never not be entertaining to me, she's probably so tired and worried about all these chaotic kids running around.

and gosh do I love some "The Master Emerald is Knuckles' parent." There are so many different ways to take it and on the wholesome end of the spectrum the vibes of Knuckles having what is essentially a deity looking after and loving him, doing whatever it can to make Angel Island the best place for its little baby.

Knuckles sometimes slipping up and calling her "Mother Emerald" instead of "Master Emerald and getting all blushy and stammering if he's confronted or called out on it. He's also so glad he's the only one who can understand the M.E, because she's such a proud gushy parent and wants to tell the entire world how amazing her son is.

And one of the many interpretations i like when it comes to Knuckles' origin is him literally being a fragment of the Master Emerald that is now a separate, but connected entity. It being like when someone cuts off a sprig of a tree to make a sapling and grow a new tree. Its a new plant, but yet shares many traits with the parent plant.

Gosh I could ramble endlessly about Knuckles being the M.E's child. I have thoughts about it all the time. This is nowhere near the end of what i could say on this.

And if anyone's interested in some Knuckles getting motherly love from these two I have some fics that are just that

Awww, Knuckles gets this mini assistant who follows him around and mimics him as he goes about his day.

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

I also felt Knuckles using his strength to help the Chao creates quite a nice contrast to Pachamac and his cronies using their strength to trample them and conquer and enslave random people. 🥺

Yeah! Knuckles uses his strength to help others! He's a good boy.

when they make the connection of *this guy* = eggman = robotnik. its basically an on sight attack.

They saw what their robotnik did and are not going to risk eggman doing the same.

Once the bots are down they are ready to go for the throat and the boom team are holding them back from tearing eggman to shreads

Eggman is terrified because team sonic are never this vicious towards him and these little lightning powered versions are down right murderous.

and the boom team are just there like: chill it's just eggman he's not that bad.

and this set off the boys because not that bad?? this guy wanted to use sonic as a living battery. fired missiles at tails multiple times, and convinced knuckles he was a friend (and this could have been Knuckles' very first friend) and then betrayed him. crush their parents, damage their town. just to name a few things.

And it takes the whole village to calm them down and prove that he's really a goof of a villain but they eventually do and start to find him funny.

and now when they visit they have fun with such low stakes battles and Eggman will stop the battle for moments like

"did you get enough sleep last night?"

"yes"

"good. robots, attack"