#for me it really shows how Eggman Nega truly is not so different from Eggman

[true-blue-sonic]

I'm fascinated to know more about Silver's relationship with Eggman Nega. Not only is Eggman Nega one of the most evil people in the series with a twisted sociopathic personality that directly contrasts Silver's but his existence means that even in the peaceful future Silver has been fighting a great enemy by himself for a long time.

Eggman Nega is a contested villain for many, but he indeed intrigues me as well. What I find interesting about Eggman Nega is that he clearly is pissed about Eggman's conga line of failures and busted world domination attempts ever since meeting Sonic, the ramifications of which apparently are still noticeable for the Robotniks 200 years later. And instead of trying to move away from his ancestor's legacy and showing the world that he has worth and intelligence galore as his own person, Eggman Nega bitterly links himself to Eggman all the same by seeing his destiny as being denied and doing anything he can to bring a change to it. He and Eggman are so the same it is almost painfully ironically hilarious: they're both impatient and hotblooded manchildren who thinks everything should revolve around them and the world should be grovelling in awe of just how amazing they are, Eggman is simply much more bombastic and allegedly somewhat more rational on top. Meanwhile, the moment the change he desires goes wrong for him, Eggman Nega decides that if he can't have nice things, no-one can...

It's an interesting contrast with Silver and Silver's selflessness. Silver would do anything to help another person, and often puts himself in a position wherein he places world-saving on solely his own shoulders if he can. If you need anything, no matter what it is, Silver will drop all he is doing to aid you. Eggman Nega meanwhile is wicked to his core, and everything he does is for personal benefits only. I find it interesting as well that Silver in Rivals never even hints at there being another force to keep Eggman Nega in line, like GUN or a government or something. It's just this fourteen-year-old fighting against a depraved and unhinged madman whose desire for vengeance can get overshadowed in the blink of an eye with a desire to just destroy everything, solely because he can and wants to. Perhaps that is also a contrast between Eggman Nega and Silver: Silver can be short-sighted and rash, but I was watching the Rivals 1 cutscenes from him yesterday, and he is shrewd. He directly concludes on situations based on the information he has, and he is both correct and his line of reasoning based on what he knows checks out. Silver appears dumb and fool-hearty, but he can be quite the opposite, with a perceptiveness you would not give him if you just came across him. Eggman Nega meanwhile appears very well-put-together and intelligent, giving off the 'always a step ahead' vibes easily. But he tends to oversee small details, talks FAR too much (one time in Rivals he literally says he'll use Metal Sonic (iirc) to buy him time to sneak away), and makes grave mistakes that come back to bite him down the line due to simply being careless. To generalise, Silver appears dumb but is not, Eggman Nega appears intelligent but is not.

As for the future, Eggman Nega seems to be someone who always comes back from the brink, just like Eggman: I get the feeling he might not be stuck in the Ifrit's dimension anymore, and if he goes back to Silver's era it will be with a vengeance. But I also think Silver is willing to carry that burden if it means the world will be safe. In Rivals he seems to have been archnemeses with Eggman Nega a long time (or at least he's been chasing after Nega a long time, iirc), and I doubt either will ever consider giving up before they got what they wanted!