Metal Sonic's character is so... intrinsically TRAGIC to me. It was made without identity; its only characteristic and goal in life? To be better than Sonic. Made to look exactly like him, be as fast as him, named after him- everything. To create its own identity, to do anything other than be better than and hate Sonic would be going against its own code. Doing anything except that would be destroying itself. Every single fucking day is the same for it, and it doesn't have anyone else around it to understand what that's like. Orbot and Cubot are just Dr. Eggman's lackeys, Sage wouldn't understand the constant imposter syndrome and shame in being defeated by your only enemy that you were supposed to be stronger than, and Belle wasn't even created by the same Eggman the rest of them were.
Oh, and when Metal finally broke free? It took the entire Sonic team to defeat it. Imagine that. Its one goal was to destroy its own creator along with Sonic. It held such HATRED over them. For MAKING IT LIKE THIS. Eggman kept it inside an eternal loop of being sent to fight Sonic, getting destroyed, and being rebuilt. Over and over and over. Each time enduring nothing but shame and taunting from the very specific reason it was created. Its supposed to be BETTER than Sonic, so why does it still fail each time? And so its had enough. It goes against his code, re-builds its body- finds the chaos emeralds. It is now Neo Metal Sonic. It goes all the way to Angel Island, using the power of the chaos emeralds to transform itself into a giant abomination, to smite everyone once and for all. It takes the power of the Sonic team, Chaotix, and an airship COMBINED to defeat it. And you know what happens after that???
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Its entire character arc is treated like an angry, edgy teen outburst/acting out by the others, being chastised by Eggman as he fixes Metal up again. It's never mentioned. The others completely brush it off, only mentioning it as "oh, yeah. That happened." Some, however, taunt it while it fights. Don't you remember when you were Neo? Weren't you so much more powerful? Remember when you could talk? Remember that ability to communicate? Well, we defeated you! Not anymore!
Neo Metal was its only form of identity. In that body, it had a voice, a choice, its own opinions. And it was treated as a fucking joke.
After that? Sent back into the same loop. Go fight Sonic, get destroyed, get fixed. Go fight Sonic, get destroyed, get fixed. Different place, different time, different reasons; same outcome. Metal Sonic was built to be nothing but a tool, and it will get treated as such. Its capable of emotion, of caring. Its ripped a chaos emerald out of its chassis before to give to Shadow for both of them to be able to return "home." Omega has tried to convince Metal to leave, but it can't. Because its code prevents it. Omega at least had a chance; he was the test, not yet perfected. But Metal? Metal never had a choice from the beginning. It was made to be perfect. It was made to be perfect, and yet cannot achieve what it was apparently made for. Its body is not its own, its name is not its own, and it will never be allowed to have opinions on anything. Its only goal will be to forever do the same song and dance, and every outburst, every attempt at an escape will be met with a slap on the wrist and back to the same. How much HATRED must it hold. How much PAIN.
How many memories have already gone corrupted? How many wiped by Robotnik? How many are even its own? How many times has it already fought Sonic and his friends? How many times has it lost? It can't care anymore. It doesn't matter. Everything it does will just repeat the same process, the same loop, over and over. It's best to just submit to the process. It's better to give up.
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
romaincrisis
tangentwithtanner
