>>532629471
NTA, but Tails' driving motivation is to be like Sonic, and that's directly reflected by his ability to fly fast enough to keep up with Sonic. From Tails' perspective, it is a RACE against Sonic. A race against the fastest thing alive, to prove yourself. That's why Tails' stages in Sonic Adventure are all RACES. Tails is always racing against Sonic in order to prove himself to not only Sonic, but himself as well.

From Tails' perspective, Sonic is his rival that he's constantly got to measure himself up against. But I wouldn't call Tails a "friendly rival" character, this is all part of what makes him a "Sidekick". But it's the same kind of thing like if Robin is frustrated with being stuck in Batman's shadow or something. Or like... any scenario where the "Underdog" is the younger brother kind of character who is constantly competing with the cool older brother everyone fawns over. Sonic & Tails are an example of that where they're genuine bros who support each other, though, so it's mostly all in Tails' head while Sonic just encourages him to keep going, making it more like Kamina and Simon from Gurren Lagann.