Who has been Sonic's best rival so far?

[super saiyan weegee]

(I hope this hasn't already been done) Who in your opinion is the best rival that Sonic has ever had so far in terms of abilities, personality, dangerousness, appearence, and overall like-ability(or in this case, dislike-ability)? Well, have at it.

[Debug Ring]

Metal Sonic or Knuckles. The others are either over powered and just not very good characters at all.

[Autosaver]

Metal Sonic

Blaze the Cat (Sort of - At least in Sonic Rush)

[AsYouTrulyImaginedIt]

Knuckles. He was genuinely cool and threatening in Sonic 3. I hope Sega remembers the poor echidna, good to see him back in Sonic Jump, if only a mobile game.

[Mr. Taxi]

Metal Sonic.

[Diogenes]

Eh. None of them have been all that good at being rivals. Maybe Jet? He's a pretty lame character, but Riders did put a fair amount of effort into portraying them as rivals.

[Chooch]

...Eggman? No one else has come close, really.

It's not like they aren't rivals either. To me, at least.

Edited October 21, 2012 by Chooch

[Debug Ring]

...Eggman? No one else has come close, really.

It's not like they aren't rivals either. To me, at least.

Well, the definition of rival according to the dictionary is

'A person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field of activity.'

And I don't think Sonic or Eggman are competing for the same objective or superiority in a field of activity.

Unless Eggman just tries to save the world in an unusual fashion.

Edited October 21, 2012 by Debug Ring

[Sly4Good]

I feel that Knuckles has been the best Rival for Sonic. Knuckles acts like a smug little bastard stopping you from your goal of stopping Robotnik and getting the chaos emeralds at a moments notice for the majority of S3&K, but when revealed to have been tricked, his true colors are shown, himself being just protective over his goals duty, and in turn forming a strong Friendship with Sonic do to having a similar goal in mind (stopping Robotnik). Knuckles, although appearing to be a clone of Sonic, has the 'unique' ability to glide, which in Sonic 3, was used to reach areas neither Sonic nor Tails themselves could get to.

(I would count Fang, but....meh, I don't count him as a rival do to appearing only in non-cannon games, sans a cameo in Generations)

[Kuzu]

None of them really, Knuckles settled on being Sonic's friend, Shadow doesn't really have any drive to beat Sonic unless he gets in his way, Metal Sonic is irrelevant, and Jet doesn't really matter outside of his respective series. I guess I'd say Shadow & Jet, mostly because they're still actively competing against Sonic nowadays.

[LordMetallix]

I'd have to say either Metal Sonic, Shadow, or Blaze

To be honest I'd say Shadow since most of the fights that he has been in with Sonic have always ended in a tie of sorts. Aside from Generations that is.

[Scar]

None really.

• Metal Sonic isn't really a rival at all, and (in terms of chronology) hasn't really done anything of note since Heroes.
  
• Knuckles ain't really a rival any more. He's basically a full on friend at this point.
  
• Shadow was a rival, then was diluted into a mere "slightly angsty, but ultimately helpful aquaintance".
  
• Eggman is the enemy, so I can't really call him a "rival".
  

Jet is probably the closest thing to a "rival" Sonic has right now, which is really sad, given how much of a badly written and annoying bag of twat he is (maybe that defines the character, but he's still badly written).

Edited October 21, 2012 by Scar

[Wentos]

If Shadow actually died in SA2, I would've said him. Instead, Metal Sonic.

[StaticMania]

Metal Sonic. I don't know I think of him as a rival more than Shadow.

[WarioBone]

Metal Sonic.

He's trying to be superior in the field of being Sonic the Hedgehog. :V Can't get more rivally than that.

[KHCast]

HEY GUYS WERE FORGETTING THE MOST IMPORTANT RIVAL! SHILVUR!

[WarioBone]

HEY GUYS WERE FORGETTING THE MOST IMPORTANT RIVAL! SHILVUR!

-garlic powered uppercut-

NOBODY LIKES SILVER

[Multikaris]

Rouge and Omega. They will never see the light. They are far too greedy and violent to ever reconcile with Sonic. That's what I want in a rival.

[Komodin]

Rouge and Omega. They will never see the light. They are far too greedy and violent to ever reconcile with Sonic. That's what I want in a rival.

One problem: they're not his rivals. Hell, they barely interact with him at all.

[Multikaris]

One problem: they're not his rivals. Hell, they barely interact with him at all.

If that's the case, then Jet.

[Wraith]

If that's the case, then Jet.

Jet just wanted to prove he was better at Sonic in a sport Sonic didn't actually have any experience in.

And he still lost.

such ambition.

[Nepenthe]

Sonic's absolute plot armor has almost everything to do with how he shows his opposition up, and if nothing it also reflects just as badly on him as it does his enemies. There's plenty of fights Sonic should've logically lost, yet he won anyway simply because he has to, so really, ambition and effort ultimately don't matter at the end of the day.

Anyway, to answer the question, I feel it would be Jet, because I feel that's the only guy who has not only traditionally rivaled him but did the best job of it, as in Sonic clearly took him as a threat to the actual competition.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Jet just wanted to prove he was better at Sonic in a sport Sonic didn't actually have any experience in.

And he still lost.

such ambition.

Well the definition of rival has been stated earlier, so I would think that Jet fits the description of rival, even if it is for a niche sport. Besides, he's still far more of a rival than anyone else as of late.

[WarioBone]

And he still lost.

This sentence defines all of Sonic's rivals.

Every single one of Sonic's rivals have been better than him in every way (with the exception of Silver, but he can gtfo), due to literally being him +superpowers. Knuckles "was" just as fast as Sonic, but forty times as strong and could pretty much fly. Metal Sonic is FASTER than Sonic, can fly, has claws, etc. Shadow was Sonic but with plot-convenient magic. Blaze was Sonic, but can hover/fly and use fire. Then there's Jet, who was pretty much the best at the sport they were competing in.

Sonic still whooped ass all over every single one of them. Every time. All the time. All night long.

Rivals should have more conflict than just showing up, using a fancy power to get the upper hand (Knuckles punches Super Sonic, Metal steals Amy, Shadow Chaos Controls him, Jet...uh...knocks him down), then getting beaten down later on and becoming best buds with Sonic.

[Soniman]

Metal Sonic.

Despite getting his ass kicked, at least he tries.