One aspect of Mephone's character that makes me so so miserable is his own weird self-hate Specifically in reference to his robotness. I've pointed this out on a few occasions, he literally says machines cant make art when he is The Machine who Makes Art. Dude constantly puts himself down for being a robot. For being AI. And I think this comes less from him doubting if he's as real as other people and instead comes from the exact opposite-- Other people-- Living People, telling him he is less then them because he's a machine. Okay let me explain:
Cobs dehumanizes Mephone. He does. It's. He uses the word "Unmake" when threatening Mephone, "I made you, and now I'll Unmake you--" Or something like that. He does not treat Mephone like a person unto himself, but an off-the-rails creation of his who needs to be reeled back in to his own measures. He talks about how Mephone doesn't NEED to eat-- and thus he shouldn't. And he assigns Mephone to work that he oversees mechanically. Mephone was literally just 'born' and he's already being told he has a job to do. He has... A Purpose. You don't say that to a human, to a living thing, people don't have purposes, not innately. But Machines Do.
So. Mephone is made to work. Throughout his time at Meeple he is not an equal to Cobs but a Product-- Perhaps a particularly showy one. Cobs even talks about Mephones show as 'Product Placement', a big elaborate ad for Meeple. Mephone is a Product. And I think he internalizes this. That he is a computer, made to generate, made to represent Meeple... Made To Work. His wide young eyes are no longer so joyful once he learns the truth. Once he realizes he was Working this whole time and Not Creating it dawns on him that he never HAD control. To his Creator, he will always be a Product who Works. His happiness is secondary to Cobs' will-- And if he fails at his job? Then he's not fired, no, no. He's Scrapped. For Parts. Unmade, not Killed.
Cobs drills this into him time and time again and it's very clear he despises it. He hates feeling like he is under Cobs' control and YET when he loses everything he still cowers back into Cobs' arms. Because he is Scared and Cobs is the only thing he has left.
On the note of dehumanization, actually, Cobs isn't even the only one to speak to him that way. Candle says something like 'Aren't you a supercomputer?' in response to him misspelling something, and he's infantilized by Box in the MeAfterlife. Theres a whole episode where basically everyone agrees AI's cant make art!?!??! Mephone is, by multiple people, AND HIMSELF, demeaned for not being a good little machine that does its tasks effectively. And Idk. That. Yeowch.
It definitely makes my head hurt when I think about all this AND the fact that the contestants aren't real though. He hates being seen as Not a Real Person by Cobs and then goes onto create PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT 'REAL'???? Insane actually . Actually Insane. Oh my god Mephone. And now THEY have to deal with the same identity crisis of THEIR lives not being real and THEIR SELF being literally 'coded into them', etc etc etc. Same thing Mephone probably went through with Cobs. Wow. Wow. Ough. GOD!?!?!?
It's so DEVESTATING. I hate this Phone I hate him someone get me out of here -2G Anon
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