If you're looking for a scene that best captures the complexity and nuance of Shadow the Hedgehog's character, look no further than this scene.
The reason why I love this scene is because he's not just saying these things to hurt Sonic, but more to express the hurt he feels in seeing Sonic take after him.
His facial expressions and the way he speaks (god bless you Keanu Reeves!)are not expressing pure hatred, saditisc revelry, or callous indifference. He's disgusted, dismayed, AND DARE I SAY HURT that Sonic would go down the path that he himself took, and that he would do so despite having so much to lose (i.e. the people he cares about)!
He's not saying "we're not so different you and I", he's saying "I'm disgusted that you would become just like me!"
It really drives home just how deeply the pain, loss, and trauma he experienced 50 years ago affects him, and not only that, he harbours a toxic hatred for himself because of the terrible mistakes that pain inspired him to make, and that he would do ANYTHING TO BE FREE OF IT. And now that hatred extends to Sonic for making the same terrible mistakes that he made!
I urgently needed to talk about the last scene between Sonic and Shadow in the third movie, because I think what they did is simply beautiful. 🥹💙❤️🖤
Before Sonic 3 came out, there was debate over who would be the one to change Shadow's mind since at that point, there was no solid indication that Amy or Rouge would appear. I was a fan of the idea that maybe they'd have Jojo be the one to remind Shadow of Maria's wish, since she was an established character from the start and fits the profile like a cheerful, caring, and optimistic girl.
However, seeing that in the end they made it so that Sonic was the one who talked to Shadow and convinced him to fight to save the world, surprised me and at the same time fascinated me infinitely more. Because they managed to make the change organic by connecting it with narrative elements that were also raised and developed from the beginning; Sonic's grief over losing Longclaw and his paternal relationship with Tom, making this moment something special and significant for both of them:
It is a moment of connection and understanding between two people who have lost the person who was once the most important in their lives, who loved them when no one else did and gave them a home,
That for a long time they had to deal alone with the pain and guilt of having been the trigger for their deaths but, as they emphasize in the film, While Sonic was able to find a family that would love him and help him get better and cope with that pain, Shadow was alone and the only person he interacted with after awakening, only manipulated him in order to fulfill his revenge.
Until this moment, where Shadow finally meets someone who not only knows his pain perfectly but has also learned to move forward and not let it corrupt him even in the most difficult moments, and who in turn motivates him to do the same.
All of this contributes fantastically to their connection, as it is no longer just that their personalities and ways of acting are opposite, but also the way in which their stories correlate and at the same time distinguish each other, creating a new and emotional parallelism between them: They are two sides of the same coin, two extremes that ultimately come together to bring out the best in each other.
Which is beautifully reflected throughout the final battle. Sonic and Shadow display effortless synergy, supporting each other, backing each other up, and even casually joking around.
A good reminder of the great chemistry and dynamism they used to have years ago. Unlike now that they make it seem like Shadow barely tolerates Sonic, before they both had a friendly rivalry where they respected each other, valued each other and helped each other without problem. And I'm really glad the movie brought back some of that dynamic and reflected it in such a natural and fun way, and I hope that continues for future SCU projects instead of sticking to the current direction.
And I'm not just saying this because I'm a fan of Sonadow, but because I genuinely believe that this is the most natural direction for their relationship after all this time.
Blaze starts off as someone who doesn’t have to do it alone but chooses to do so, pushing everyone away to take a lonesome path. She takes it clawing and biting and forcefully.
Sonic is someone who started things alone because he had to do it alone at first — he didn’t know anyone. Then as soon as people want to get to know him and join him, he lets them! He goes from a one man band to part of a group bc he lets people in with open arms.
Blaze was born with responsibility. Not the trait, but the task. She’s responsible for an entire kingdom’s wellbeing. She didn’t choose this path, but she wholeheartedly embraces it. (And when she learns of more dimensions, she takes up the responsibility to help them too.)
Sonic was born with no responsibility. He was an ordinary guy. But when he saw wrongdoing, he decided someone’s gotta step up and hey he’s here so it might as well be him! Whether it’s for a flicky, or an island, or the whole world — Sonic just continuously picks up the responsibility to protect and helps others. He wasn’t born with it. He chose it, and he’ll keep choosing it.
Blaze is royalty, the crown princess of a kingdom. She is one of their most important figures.
Sonic is quite literally just a dude. He’s an ordinary citizen, with no status or wealth.
Blaze is afraid of heights, and Sonic free falls off of planes with whoops and laughter.
It doesn’t matter if you view Blaze and Sonic platonically, romantically, antagonistically, or some other thing. They’re so interesting when you put them side by side.
Sonic characters color wheel because I love all their fun little designs and sorting things. I did just eyeball it and was a little loosey-goosey to make space for everyone, but I still think it looks neat :)
some patterns I'm noticing:
- vivid pastel colors are rare; characters are usually either a very saturated color or white/off-white, with Amy, Cream, Blaze and Zeena as the most notable exceptions.
- medium and dark blue are underrepresented, likely because supporting characters are designed to contrast with Sonic himself.
- no mint-colored characters at all, for some reason.
- every red character except Orbot are Power types.
- a significant amount of Fly types are in the white-yellow range (Rouge, Cream, Ray, Charmy, Tails).
- there are no Speed types in the red-yellow color range, as far as I can see. EDIT: not accurate, apparently Sticks is a Speed type in Runners!
- young child characters are more likely to have light colors. interestingly, Cream's markings are a few shades lighter than her mother's, and modern Sonic is usually portrayed with a darker blue color than classic Sonic, so it's possible the in-universe logic is that some characters get darker with age, like some people's hair colors do in real life.
- there's an overweight of female characters who are almost the exact same shade of orange: Tikal, Marine, Sticks, Belle and Trip. with Tikal dead + Marine and Sticks more or less dropped from the series, I'm guessing the color has been considered "unused" several times over the franchise's history ... and since male characters are more often recurring while the girls get dropped a lot, there are simply more orange girls
- on a similar note, while it's not super noticeable at a glance, the series does conform to the "female characters are overall lighter colored" trope that's common with cartoon animal characters (👎). magenta Wave and reddish-orange Shade are the darkest-colored female characters, while several male characters' colors dip into dark blue, dark purple and pure black. there's also a tendency for lighter-colored male characters to be depicted as "unmanly" (Tails and Ray are young and insecure, Silver gets called "naive" and a "prettyboy", Zor's an emo kid, Starline is gay and flamboyant, etc).
- I'm positively surprised to see that there's no clear correlation between light/dark and good/evil. only 1/4 of pure black characters is evil, pure white characters are split 2/4. however, villains are more likely to use black as an accent color. interestingly, all majority-grayscale characters are either antiheroes or villains, regardless of how light or dark, with Tangle as the only notable exception.
- we have got to stop them from making more yellow and orange characters, my color wheel is CRYING, we don't got room for any more !!!! lol
oh also on a final note, I left out the newcomer IDW characters from the last few months only because we still don't know how important they'll be to the series in the longterm. just went for the major longtimers to keep it simple :)
(and no humans because they tend to have multiple signature colors, e.g. Eggman's red+black, Maria's blue+yellow, etc.)
This is a very interesting detail I’ve noticed ever since I made my Sonic’s Flaws post. Here, I’d like to talk about Sonic’s most fatal flaw because this conversation gets interesting. The flaw is one every variation of Sonic can be guilty of and one that causes the most damage to his world and even the people he cares about. If you disagree, I understand. Just hear me out and even if I don’t convince you, I hope this turns out to be a fun read regardless. Feel free to give me some context, correct me, or add information if you‘d like.
The Flaw
Sonic is terribly pertinacious and stubborn. Most people would think of Sonic Prime where he doesn’t listen to his friends warning him to not destroy the paradox prism, but when I think of Prime!Sonic I don't think of that. Especially since this version comes off more as an inexperienced teenager trying to figure things out. While in the games, he’s portrayed as rarely being wrong. Not because he’s perfect, but because Sonic never feels the need to change because of past victories. After all, if everything is going his way, why should he change, right? Well, this can be a problem. The scene in S3 ep3 where a few of the pirates were lost at sea, shows how truly stubborn Prime!Sonic (and Sonic in general), can be. He verbally refuses to take accountability for lost resources and unknowingly helps Nine have better predominance over them.
In this scene, No Place was decaying and Sonic finds out that the other pirate crew was stuck there. Everyone else, even the villains, reasonably says it’s too risky and he ignores them. Of course, he is within reason but if things went sour, it would’ve been his fault. Especially since that almost became a reality before the Chaos Council swooped in to help.
Near the end of the episode, Sonic says it’s a win for everyone, but Mr. Doc says, “Was it? Your little friends are safe, but at what cost? The fox can conjure up more minions with the snap of his fingers. Whereas our fleet is damaged, our troops are spent, and we’re almost out of time.” Surprisingly reasonable call out of the consequences of saving the pirates, if they don’t have enough resources, they were even more screwed than before. Then Sonic says, “I’m sorry but losing anyone is not an option.” While it’s warranted and makes sense for his character, it almost comes across as “We had to save them because I said so.” This is an example of Sonic not having a good argument by addressing the results of their battle. He does it a lot more than you’d think. Despite Sonic not listening to people being a bigger staple of Prime, I personally think it’s never expanded upon or executed well. Not to me anyway, but I don’t mind anyone disagreeing.
In any case, Sonic, as a character in every continuity, tends to “follow by his own rules” but this can be perceived negatively as “doing whatever he wants no matter who argues with him.”
Examples
Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric tackles this too. This is probably the least serious example but still can be a problem sometimes. This is S2 Ep 19 when an Eggman robot Clone tries to break Team Sonic apart and almost succeeds too. It doesn’t have much to do with this topic but I do like how in this episode when the drama started happening, Sonic for once in his life tries to talk about his feelings with Tails who turned out to be Steve. I know this has nothing to do with this discussion, but I just thought it was a funny thing to point out. The one time Sonic tries to talk about his feelings, he gets the door slammed in his face. It’s so mean-spirited and stupid. I love Sonic Boom!
But yeah, Rise Of Lyric also shows how his stubbornness can end up with the world being at stake. Or in the case of this episode have your friends grow apart.
The Sonic Movies tackles his shortcomings perfectly. I think he's pretty impulsive in all 3 movies. Mixing his perniciousness doesn't create the greatest meal. He's younger, so that would be expected. This scene is the most recent example. Sonic as a character tends to live in the moment and here, Movie!Sonic is playing a huge role in this category. He’s not even trying to hear anyone out. He’s in a constant rage at this point and can’t think clearly. He wants revenge on Shadow so much he loses himself. His brothers are so loyal to still allow him to get the Master Emerald despite knowing he wants it for revenge. Sonic's so hurt, he even forgets what they originally were there for.
I'm sure if Sonic choose to let his feelings consume him, he probably wouldn’t have saved the world. Why? Let’s just say things would’ve went out of control without Shadow. Sonic dogged a big tangent bullet for having mercy on Shadow.
Yeah, Archie/Reboot Archie didn’t mess around either. I'd say it’s sometimes as tense and bit worse due to him having the biggest ego and ongoing trauma. I'm surprised he didn't go insane. Notice how harsh he is in these instances. He’s overly angry here. Luckily, he has a large group of friends to help him take things down a peg and reminds him how they have his back. Even when worst comes to worst (which is an understatement), his friends are able to get him out of that mindset and bring him back to reality. Humble him to put it bluntly.
In a way, Sonic's flaws in the Archie comics make me think he feels so guilty that he pushes himself beyond his limits as a way to make up for his loudmouth. Like in other versions, he feels the need to take on more than he can physically handle. He strains his body, mind, and entire being to accomplish tasks on his own because he believes he deserves the punishment. Alternatively, he might just be exhausting himself and attempting to take on more than he can manage. It’s not surprising, really.
These panels are insane for letting Eggy make a valid point. You can tell by his ears how Sonic’s getting visibly irritated. By the end of the argument, he gets super mad and can’t even find a good quip to back himself up. Because in a way, he knows Eggman has a point. That’s how I interpret it anyway.
Game or IDW Sonic is usually in denial when it comes to being wrong. He doesn’t address the issues directly but the person who calls him out for it instead. He’s the most experienced Sonic. I know some people use “mature” but I think experience is a better term due to how he doesn’t have arcs or character growth like other characters. More so he’s used to this song and dance, so his hatred towards being wrong comes from a place of thinking he’s got everything under control. Until it bites him in the butt.
You notice in most of these Sonic’s pretty angry and isn’t the biggest fan of being told off. Even in different continuities, the guy cannot argue without not being self-aware most of the time. The funny thing is he isn’t doing it selfishly. At least not in a typical way. To me, Sonic is the least selfish character in the franchise for a good chunk of the series. He sacrifices himself, gives people more chances than they deserve, and even takes the time to stop his main goals if it means helping someone else. But the guy cannot take the time to admit he’s wrong or his morals have consequences. Not because Sonic thinks he’s better than everyone. I don’t think Sonic sees himself in that way, but I do think he’s always in “I’ve done this thing plenty of times. As long as this thing works, I’ll keep doing it,” mode. Or in the case of Movie!Sonic, goes on instinct which is also a common part of his characterization.
Why Sonic Has This Flaw
Sonic never stops running; he charges head-first into any situation, always striving to do what's right. After all, he's the fastest thing alive. Sonic doesn't have the luxury of questioning himself or dwelling on doubts. While it's true that he has caused some issues, including in the games, he doesn't waste time feeling sorry for himself. The only times he's shown insecurity were during the Metal Virus arc, so interpret that as you wish.
This brings up another point. Crazy how much I didn’t notice, but most of the time, Sonic doesn’t like it when people disagree with him. Understandable, everyone doesn’t want to be wrong. But he takes it to the extreme at times. Like sometimes he's baffled when anyone challenges him. Sonic’s also never truly called out by the right people. I don’t mean Shadow, Espio, Knuckles, or the villains. I mean, Amy, Tails, Tangled, or other characters he’s inspired. People who look up to him. Sure, they try, but I can count on one hand how many times he actually listens. Sonic’s always so caught up in doing things his way that he disregards people who mean the most to him.
I mentioned this in my other post but he doesn't listen to Tails in Sonic 06 or Lost World, so the games count.
While Sonic often has valid points in his arguments with others, he frequently comes across as someone who needs to be right. He rarely allows others the opportunity to express their views or admits when he is wrong. This issue is often overlooked in stories where these conflicts arise, either because there isn't enough time to address them or they remain unanswered altogether. This makes sense, considering that Sonic typically doesn’t undergo character arcs canonically. However, I appreciate the presence of characters like Shadow, Knuckles, Surge, Kit, and certain Archie characters like Scurge. They serve to challenge Sonic’s morals and illustrate that he isn’t always correct. If Sonic isn’t going to evolve as a character, at least these figures can show that his sense of freedom and living by his own rules doesn’t work for everyone. They can be portrayed negatively and can challenge his viewpoints. They can be questioned. They can be challenged. Sonic isn’t always right.
His passion shows that he truly wants things to work for everyone. His stubbornness drives him to the point of frustration as he strives to help others to live according to his ideals. However, at times his approach isn’t the most effective. You can see that Sonic genuinely hates this, yet he continues to push forward to help those in need. There’s something both beautiful and heartbreaking about that.
Conclusion
What’s funny is that Sonic rarely gets angry, so you could say this could be one of his few triggers. Along with people being unjust and other such.
Overall, Sonic has good intentions but the results of those intentions are severe. None of this is to imply Sonic’s a terribly written character. It’s just a serious flaw he has. Though listening to his friends more would help.
I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t like a moment of his friends noticing a constant pattern of him being pertinacious and not paying attention to anyone’s protest. I wouldn’t want it to come out of nowhere, but it’d be an issue that’d progress over a large amount of time and add up. It could be dramatic or constructive depending on the situation and execution. Whatever character does it, they’d either talk to him about it or physically show the outcomes of his actions. They do it all the time in other media but not canonically. This is just random speculation though. I don’t know if I’m in over my head but I hope someone got something out of this.
All of this is not to say Sonic never takes accountability or listens to his friends. SA1 scene with Amy, when he apologizes to Bell in IDW for being too standoffish, and plenty of other examples. Like the end of Sonic movie 3. That Sonic Boom episode where he apologized for not working with his team. And endless moments in Archie and Reboot Archie. Sonic isn’t unreasonable. Just 9 times out of 10 he can get a big head. That’s all.
Starting off, they both rely their existence on one another from a simple act and interruption in time. After the events of 06 it was supposed to be no strings attached anymore, they don't know each other anymore other than a faint vision. Outside Mephiles's influence. Silver tied the knot and their strings are attached again, untying the knot will make them cease to exist, every single action done in the present affects Silver, relying on the other's each action because Silver, Silver is relying on every action the present makes, every action sonic makes because he decided to you with time. The present is no different for they are reliant on Silver himself to make a change, to show them the way to keep chasing their own future. He is a bad omen, but nothing more than a lucky charm to Sonic, for being the answer and the change to everybody, as Sonic is the reason for peace for Silver. They know every action matters and it encourages them to make a change and make a better long lasting peace.
Silver is one of the only few characters that Sonic can't just reach on a random Tuesday, he's VOCALIZED Infront of his face that he misses him, making sure he's okay and wanting to spend the most time with him in a little time he has with Silver still around. Reassuring him so that both of them could have fun without being worried, he didn't bait him with a bet to be distracted from the upcoming trouble, he provided comfort and safety for silver to live his life in the past while he still can in such short time. It's what Sonic wants, for others to live the moment and enjoy his stay, because he misses him and wants to have fun with him while he still can.
Lucky charms. They are each other's lucky charm. Silver VOCALIZES it openly that sonic is quite literally his “The moment I found you this morning I knew everything would be fine” he's not using the knowledge of the future but his own heart that Sonic being available means that everything will go out smoothly simply because he's there. And what if he's not there or diseased? Silver does not care, he won't lose hope like others and do something about it.
He will come up with all the solutions if it takes for Sonic's heart to beat again.
Silver's trust on him is DEEP to the point he won't mind going all out of Sonic because he knows only the real one would live and enjoy his challenge, if he dies? Not his Sonic. It's not that he's careless, but following his heart, and Sonic is well aware of that
Sonic doesn't label himself as a hero, Sonic hates being held still, but those dislikes cease to exist if it comes to Silver, because he knows he needs to hear it.
Silver's bluntness is.. "interesting" to others, but to Sonic it's nothing more than a surprise and a laugh. It is honesty, Sonic likes that and Silver happens to express it a little bit too much.
Silver is known for his straightforwardness, despite thinking is his ability, he acts first before thinking.
Unlike Sonic who's ability is to run straight ahead he is able to think first, both complementing each other's mindset and abilities.
In conclusion, Sonic maintains peace and if he doesn't, Silver's there to help him get that peace back, Sonic maintains hope, and if all hope is lost and Silver's there to bring it back, for the future and the present all because Silver interrupted time.
+ if I have a quarter for everytime silver saved Sonic's life through going super I'd have two but it's strange it's happened twice.
Eggman and Sage's relationship is so interesting to me because even though they love each other very much, Eggman still doesn't see Sage as a human
Eggman cares for Sage's feelings and safety, gives her presents like toys and shoes, calls her his "dear daughter" and "my girl", laughs at her jokes, always tells her how proud he is of her, is grateful for her protection, griefs her when she dies and doesn't give up until he can restore her.
even though their relationship's development is pretty much stuck on the Egg Memos and not shown in the actual cutscenes, it still manages to be beautifully written. how Eggman sees her as only a tool, starts liking her more than he wants to, thinks she's amazing and adorable, and starts to entertain the idea of seeing her as family - something he hesitates on, because it's not something that would ever cross his mind when he thinks about his machines and also something he never had. notice how the first time he calls her "daughter" is when she's far away, going to meet her death, and she doesn't even hear it. (he never really gets over this hesitation, too.)
however, despite all that, he still doesn't see Sage as a human with autonomy. as we see in IDW, she's offline most of the time when she's not executing a task. sure, he lets her out to play sometimes, he always hears what she has to say, and even... asks for her preferred pronouns? but she doesn't really have much freedom. no matter how much he treasures her, Eggman sees her as a "loyal and effective" program, and made her to be completely subservient to him. this isn't a much healthy relationship.
and you can't even say he sees this kind of relationship as good for his daughter. we can notice that in the Egg Memos where he talks about Tails and Amy.
he thinks that Tails is "wasting his potential lingering in Sonic's shadow", that his "worship" of him is holding him back. well, remind me, who else in this game lives "to serve" someone, giving herself entirely for someone else's goals and principles?
now for Amy:
he affirms that it must have been hard for Amy to find herself around someone with such a big ego as Sonic. Eggman is obviously projecting here.
first, his statement is completely incorrect. Sonic might be overly confident, but he doesn't use that to crush others; by any means he held Amy back from running after the best version of herself at any point of their relationship. (except if you consider him looking down on her when she wasn't able to prove she was capable of fighting, saying it's "too dangerous" for her to follow them on their adventures. but it's very reasonable to be worried about someone you always have to save from bad guys and has never really shown to be able to fight for herself. this isn't caused by him having a big ego, and he fully accepts and trusts her after seeing her growth.)
second, you know who has a big ego and does use it to put himself in a pedestral above everybody around him? Eggman, of course.
Eggman believes, even if only in a sub conscious level, that his relationship with Sage might be holding her back from finding her true self and unleashing all of her potential. but why does he seem not to care about that at all? because he sees Sage as someone who exists for him and for him only. the idea of her having as much independence and identity as someone like Tails or Amy sounds quite absurd to him, in a way he doesn't put into words but definitively believes. her being his daughter and perhaps the thing he loves most in the whole world doesn't make her cease to be his A.I., made to serve him and help him conquer the world. as i've heard the fandom say quite a few times, Eggman loves Sage so much because she's an extension of him; he loves her because she's his best creation, and when he praises her and tells her how he's proud of her, he's indirectly praising himself at the same time.
i love their relationship so much because it makes so much sense for Eggman's character. we can make a story where he's able to love someone that isn't him, but his narcissistic nature inhibits him from having a truly selfless, healthy relationship. everything must revolve around him. to change that about his character would kind of defeat its entire purpose, so i'm glad the writers didn't go that route. explore the villain's flaws instead of removing them, that's so much more interesting!
i also wanted to point out this one line:
there's so much pain in his voice when he says this, but notice how he barely hesitates. Sage must fullfil her function; this is why she was created and the reason for her existance. if Sage has to risk her safety and life because of it... well, let it be done.
for example, if we put Sonic and Tails in the same situation, Sonic's response would probably be "if you think that's the right thing to do". Sonic values Tails' freedom more than his safety, in the same way Eggman values Sage's function above her safety. both would be incredibly hurt if they lost them, but stopping them also goes against their principles.
that's it! if you disagree with some of the points i made here PLEASE comment. i created this account with the sole purpose of training my media literacy and interpretation, and being confronted with different opinions is a core part of it. thank you for reading the entire thing, too! ^^
We need to have a conversation about how Metal doesn't think he's LITERALLY Sonic.
Metal is not stupid. He knows that he's a robot created by Eggman. His rant as Metal Overload in Heroes was less of an identity crisis and more of a god complex.
He doesn’t call Sonic his "loathsome copy" because he thinks Sonic is literally his copy, it’s because he thinks of himself as superior, and as such he might as well be the copy. In that moment, he's taken that name as his, not because he truly thinks he's Sonic the hedgehog, but because he thinks that he deserves to be Sonic more than Sonic himself. He's better, so he HAS to be the one to keep the name.
That one Metal Virus IDW panel of him having a crisis over not being infected by the virus doesn't mean he literally didn't knew he's a robot. It means that he was incapable of doing something that Sonic could (aka be infected by the virus) and thus he's failing at his entire life purpose, because he can't be better than Sonic and it’s not any fault of his own. He’s failing because Sonic is organic and Metal is not. Which is something he couldn’t control or have a say on. He was just made like that.
The truth is that Metal doesn't see "Sonic" as a person. Being "the real Sonic" isn't about Sonic's identity as an individual. Metal sees "Sonic" as a title of worth, the same way Shadow sees "the ultimate lifeform" as a title of worth.
Just like Shadow gave Sonic that title in the SA2 final boss as a way of respect, not because Sonic was LITERALLY the ultimate lifeform, but because that title meant his entire worth to Shadow, and giving it away meant accepting that Sonic was better than him. Metal clings into calling himself "the real Sonic" because he won't allow himself to accept defeat. To accept that Sonic is better. Because then his existence would be for nothing. He'd be useless. He'd be pointless. He'd be worthless. He'd be nothing.
Because if he REALLY wanted to be literally Sonic you'd see him imitating Sonic more. Having more of his personality traits. Look like he's TRYING to behave like Sonic the person. And he only does that in, what? CD? And the OVA too but that's just a different characterization.
Metal doesn't want to be "Sonic" the person, he's thriving for the CONCEPT of Sonic the Hedgehog. The concept of a Sonic. He wants to be BETTER than Sonic. Better at everything he does, and only then he'll bw worth existing, and thus be worth of being "the real Sonic"
In short. Metal doesn't literally think he's the real Sonic. He sees "Sonic" less as a person and more of a tittle. A reward of sorts. A symbol of his worth. He's not stupid. He knows he's a robot and Sonic existed first. Being "the real Sonic" is about being the better Sonic, not the first to exist.
Metal's character is about self worth. And he'll never quite reach what he thinks he needs to be happy, because he's competing against someone who's worth comes from himself and not from a power struggle. And that's why Sonic is the real one. That's why Sonic will always come on top; Sonic can be contempt with himself, but Metal Sonic is unable to like himself without putting someone else down.
