#that is definitely in part just shitty script-writing ('taking candy from a baby‚ WHICH IS FINE BY ME' and smth like-

[true-blue-sonic]

You ever think Espio gets mad because Charmy thinks Shadow is the coolest person alive but when Espio does the /exact same thing/ Charmy thinks he's a loser

Definitely peeved, but he tries to talk himself out of it with "The ninja is not bothered by such attacks on his person, all the ninja cares about is training with no regards for what those leading a less disciplined life think about it" kind of statements. Sourly. Arms crossed. Back turned. The very picture of annoyance, lmao.

That being said, I think Shadow can definitely pull off the Cool Mysterious Competent Person appearance a bit better. Both he and Espio are the Straight Man of their respective party, but Espio is stuck with a highly chaotic manchild and an even more chaotic actual child, and thus he is not immune to participation in the shenanigans. Rouge and Omega meanwhile have far less of a comedic angle to them, and therefore Team Dark as a whole has much less of a goofy vibe to them. And Espio ties all his cool actions heavily to being a ninja: just listen to his quotes when ending a level in Heroes. As such, I do not fault Charmy for seeing Shadow as cooler than Espio, haha!