An Old Draft: "Badniks" or "robots" in the Sonic universe are sentient. I want a Metal Sonic focus again please!!
There are so many examples of robots in this franchise that feel so intensely. The earliest obvious example being E-123 Omega, whose combat focused programming ended up being flipped to target Eggman. He became sentient and decided to attack Eggman due to his resentment. (Obviously from Sonic Heroes we also have Neo Metal's existence and how that relates to robot sentience in this world) In Sonic 06, he is also shown to really care for Rouge and Shadow as friends, which goes against even his combat programming.
Another, more recent example is Sage from Frontiers. She has such intense and complicated feelings about family, that the game focuses on the connections between friends and family. Her and Metal are literally considered to be Eggman's kids now, which humanizes them to a shocking extent.
A casual example is from The Murder of Sonic the Hegdehog, where the badnik train is upset that the conductor is leaving. The ending is him coming to terms with loss, and knowing that the conductor moving on is a natural part of his life.
And my favorite example from the IDW comics, Belle the Tinkerer. Belle has a familial connection to the Eggman family, and expresses that a lot in her arc. Belle literally has a crisis because of her connection to Eggman. She also sees Metal Sonic as a brother, just as much as she sees Mr Tinker (Eggman) as her father. The fact that she has opinions in the first place makes her sentient. She is undeniably a robot character in the series, who is also treated the same as everyone else in the story.
All of this to say that I think it's clear that Metal Sonic is also sentient, just like seemingly all badniks are (in one way or another). In Sonic Heroes, he literally imprisons Eggman so that he can pursue glory for himself. Metal Sonic is actually pretty rebellious sometimes. (more discussion at final evidence) In the early IDW comics, he tries to finish what Eggman started. In Murder of Sonic, he also expresses that he sees Eggman as his dad.
None of these things have technically been programmed into him, it's just his personality, and his own opinions in these seperate moments. I think the most important moments in proving his sentience are in two important places: the 2020 IDW annual, and issue 50-54ish.
In the IDW 2020 annual, Metal Sonic gets really upset that him and Sonic are not the same, and basically just the fact that he's not Sonic. It gives us a kind of new perspective of Metal, that he has insecurities like that. (also a very humanizing trait)
When Metal meets Belle initially in IDW issue 50, he isnt violent to her, and even saves her from another badnik. This is before Eggman says anything to Metal about Belle.
However, AFTER Eggman tells Metal not to harm Belle, Metal does the exact opposite. Before now, he wasn't bothered by her, but when she stands in the way of Sonic, and Eggman makes a big deal out of her, he gets upset, and he attacks her.
Metal Sonic feels like he's perpetually inadequate, and there are so many things that you can do with this. Since the moment the IDW comics started, Metal Sonic was being built up to have an arc about his insecurities. The fact that he's had that moment in the 2020 annual, and it was never brought back up DOES mean something. In the Spring Broken 2024 annual, Silver has an arc about gardening, and it's actually been at least slightly mentioned afterwards. So why is Metal's struggle with identity never specifically brought back up?
After all this subtle build up, I'm personally really hoping that Metal Sonic will have importance in the upcoming IDW issues. He has so much potential, and it feels wasted to give us little snippets of him, and never more than that. It's been a long time since Metal Sonic was a truly threatening villain, and I think they are actually building up to a cool Metal Sonic event, I just can't say what. (yes, it could be the 4th sonic movie, but i hope its something else as well) I would love for sonic content to explore new ideas for Metal Sonic's story.
Thanks for reading this weird yapping/kind of theory thing! I love Metal Sonic!!
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