Honestly, this is also a nuance to Knuckles and Rouge’s rivalry that I feel like often gets overlooked because Rouge is selfish. Is, in fact, highlyandunapologetically selfish. And this isn’t just an incidental character flaw that drives bad behavior, but, actually, the keystone to some of her better qualities as well.
In adventure 2, a lot of Rouge’s plot boils down to that she’s disloyal to just about everybody. She’s backstabbing Eggman and Shadow on GUN’s orders, and later she also chides GUN that they better remember to pay her. The second Shadow saves her life on Prison Island, her very next scene is starting to grill him. She’s begun caring about him because he proved the ability to care about her, and even then, it’s a very slow process that this caring pupates into what we see at the end of Heroes, that Rouge decides whether or not this is the real Shadow or a duplicate android who just hasn’t realized it yet, she’s going to stick with this guy and try to protect him.
Rouge is selfish, and this is essential in a context where GUN does not have clean hands, where Eggman is dangerous but you may need to harvest information from him, where she doesn’t really interface closely with straitlaced heroes like Sonic. She’s going to be selfish as a form of defense. She’s going to grab her things, and all the people she cares about, and make sure they’re okay, and to hell with anyone or anything else. Rouge is “what’s in it for me” and that’s not just a rough spot to be smoothed out, it’s a survival tactic to the world she lives in. In 06 we outright have her chiding Shadow that they shouldn’t trust GUN and hand over the scepter of darkness without knowing what it is or why BOTH GUN and Eggman want it.
This is, I don’t want to say, a good thing for Knuckles to experience in its entirety, because Knuckles’ loyalty is also not a character flaw- if you’ve built a rapport of trust with Knuckles he does not sell that out easily. He’s the last survivor of a lost culture- loyalty to their memory is really all he has. But also, the fact that Eggman can keep milking their ultimately ended-in-betrayal allegiance from Sonic 3&K drives home how dangerously easy it is for Knuckles to get stuck in things.
Sonic and Rouge are different kinds of foils to Knuckles and they both challenge him in different ways. Sonic, leaning more to the freedom than responsibility side of the axis, tugs him in the direction of, “but are you happy? are you enjoying yourself? did you get to experience everything you wanted to?” from a relatively safe perspective of at the end of the day, both Sonic and Knuckles are pretty straightforward heroes. Knuckles can, on a level, trust Sonic’s priorities will align with his own, that he can explain about his culture and Sonic will get it. Hell, that Sonic might even give up some of his own freedom and agree to watch the Master Emerald for a day so Knuckles can take a break.
Rouge, meanwhile, is a bit of a steeper challenge, in like, “that’s great, but what have your ancestors done for you lately? You have all this power and resources and what are you doing with it? Are you willing to be actually selfish and let something you want challenge the big grand plan?”
Rouge looked over the list of items that she needed to buy as she was waiting for Shadow to meet up with her at the store; they had a long list to get through and it wasn’t helping that he was taking longer than usual to arrive. Once she was certain that everything on the list was accounted for, she lifted her head to find that Shadow was still nowhere in sight and she let out a groan of annoyance. “What could be taking him so long? I told them that we needed to be ready early in the morning if we wanted to get through this and be out of here fast. Honestly, you’d think he’d be here by now!” She then crossed her arms with an annoyed expression as waiting for him was beginning to test her patience. However, after a few seconds, a familiar voice could be heard from behind her.
“Here I am, Rouge.” The female bat turned around in surprise and was greeted with Shadow walking over to her, evidently looking not too thrilled about having been forced to get up this early in the day. However, the same thought didn’t appear to cross Rouge’s mind as she showed a smile of delight at the fact that he was finally here.
“Shadow, there you are! I’ve got the list, but I forgot to get the bags before I left. Do you have any on you?” She was then caught by surprise as Shadow made his way up to her before stopping just in front of her and pointing under his eyes.
“The only bags I have are the ones under my eyes, and they’re specifically designed to carry the burden of my existence.”
Rouge stared in blank silence for a few moments, blinking a few times as she did so, before showing an expression of annoyance at his dramatics. “A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed, you know.”
“In that case, no, I don’t have any bags.” Shadow bluntly replied.
Rouge let out a sigh of dismay at this response. “I didn’t think so…”
Honestly posting this late is so funny why am I like this ♀️ anyway, hope y'all enjoy! I’m finally back, being active and stuff, and I finally ended up having a designe for Rouge that I’m comfortable showing and drawing, you don’t know the fun I was having drawing her, cause damn she look absolutely gorgeous what can I said
[if there isn’t a specific one listed i either dont have one in mind]
[Some of these are a mix of very complicated reasons, pretty simple reasons, or no reasons at all. either related to in-game coding or where the original animal came from, anyway i had fun]
1 Sonic: Black(Egyptian)/Asian(Japanese) Knuckles: Black(Jamaican)/Hispanic(Mayan)/Australian(Aboriginal) Tails: Asian(Japanese)[it doesn’t show in the image but at the moment i’ve imagined him with prosthetic legs.] Amy: Black/Asian(Central)
2 Rouge: Latina Shadow:[Just a mix of so much. man was a genetic experiment there’s so much in there. Mostly]African/Asian[though]
3 Silver: Black/Asian(Chinese)/European(Italian)[Albino] Blaze: Asian(Mix of South-East Asian)
4.1 Cream: European(Irish) Cheese: Chao(chao) Jewel: Arabic 4.2 Tangle: Malagasy [Malagasy people have mixed African and Asian ancestry] Whisper: Asian(Japanese)/Native American 4.3 Vector: Black/European (African American) Espio: Asian(Japanese) Charmy: Middle Eastern 4.4 Marine: Australian(aboriginal)/Asian(Japanese) [vitiligo] Sticks:[Will not let the government or anyone else know her ethnicity. truly an enigma never to be solved. SAD.] Native American/Aboriginal Canadian/European[there was the one guy]
![saturn-rabbits: I feel like they would get allong :]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/ea42bb8bf16807f6f4730e7183309ea9/08dd4e144d67b598-93/s1280x1920/286bbf9c9e5f402bc26902bb28e7df8100c036b6.png "saturn-rabbits: I feel like they would get allong :]")
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