Wait wait no I'm not over this I need to talk about it.
So I've been reading Archie Sonic. And besides the fact that the lore and plot of most of the comics is just a blindfolded guy throwing darts at a dartboard, random things will just like come back after 50 issues of no longer being relevant or not being talked about.
Two of these things? Shard/Original Mecha Sonic, and Sonic's experience during the Metal Madness special, during which he was the True Mecha Sonic.
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So for context, let's back up to the Mecha Madness special.
So, I will be so clear right now. As Sonic was roboticized, during his stint as Mecha Sonic he is completely fine doing what Robotnik instructs. I am completely aware that he lost his free will, and I do not blame him for this. He is under Robotnik's control (or his robotic "programming" if you will) when he starts attacking Sally, the freedom fighters, Metal Knuckles, and Knothole.
But part way through that special issue, something happens that allows him to regain some of that free will. It allows him to feel a moral dilemma, and it gives him the chance to fight against Robotnik's programming.
Again, I will be clear. Up to this point, unless one of the roboticized characters has had their free will restored, the only thing allowing them to "fight their programming" or become aware in any way was as long as they were holding a working power ring (and later, the sword of acorns). This tells us just how powerful a force the programming to be a mindless Robotnik slave built into roboticization is.
And yet Sonic M. Hedgehog, the true mecha Sonic, manages to gain awareness without the usage of a power ring.
How?
Is it because he just couldn't hurt Sally, his love interest? Is it because he couldn't hurt his friends? Is it because he couldn't stand destroying his home?
NOPE (don't believe me? Read Archie Sonic issue 39 and then the mecha madness special)
He starts to regain a semblance of his free will because he almost killed Tails.
It's such a small thing, and it doesn't end up amounting to much in the moment just because he and Metal Knuckles end up duking it out until Sonic falls, damaged, but it’s highly important.
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Now let's fast forward to the return of the original Mecha Sonic. This event spans issues 86 and 87.
Now, the big conflict of this arc is that Mecha/Metal Sonic has kidnapped Tails and restrained him at the top of a volcano that is going to erupt very soon. Tails spends most of the arc in the damsel in distress role and acts as motivation for Sonic to fight Metal.
And really, Sonic isn’t having any of this Metal kidnapping Tails business
He spends much of the issues fantasizing about/trying to destroy Metal while trying desperately to get to Tails, but there are two moments that stand out from this in issue 87. Namely, the moment when Sonic realizes how similar Metal is to him when he was Mecha Sonic, and during the Tails + Sonic vs Metal fight, where he tries to relate to Metal. During the former:
At this point, Sonic first realizes how similar he and Metal are, but he doesn't think too hard on this. Instead, he ops to think about what makes them different (Metal's lack of humanity, or at least the lack of attempt in keeping a semblance of humanity).
During the latter:
Here, although Sonic spent much of the arc trying to save Tails and dealing with his anger towards Metal, he tries to reason with Metal. Whether he really believes he can get through to him or not, the point is that he tries. Even if he can't convince Metal, at least he can distract him enough for Tails to fly to safety.
Now, here's what's also interesting about these scenes. Sonic doesn’t actually mention how he began to fight his programming, only that he had to to preserve his last bits of humanity. We will come back to this.
Now, during this scene, Sonic bids Tails to escape, but Tails will not.
This scene is important. Sonic is having difficulty getting through to Metal, he bids Tails to leave, and while Metal goes on about how feelings make them weak, and then about how Tails *is* actually going to leave Sonic, Tails flies back to his side.
"No! I'm coming to be at his side so we can stop you together!"
And then...
Metal saves them. He not only saves them, he stands in the way of the magma, melts down to his core, to save the Mobians he's been fighting and toying with all day.
And despite the conversation he JUST had with Sonic, not even a page or two ago, he's going off about how he understands compassion, what it means to have the ability to go past your programming.
What happened between point A and point B? How did Metal flip flop so quickly even though Sonic's words didn't do anything.
Well, here's how Sonic puts it:
"But I think you turned the tide, Tails."
"Me? How?"
"Whatever words I said to the metal guy were just words. But when you wouldn't abandon me... That's when what I said became real to him...as if he gained some kind of robotic soul."
Now that's interesting.
If I remember correctly, later character bio type stuff on Mecha Sonic/Metal Sonic/Shard just mentions that he changed his mind after seeing Sonic and Tails' display.
But what Sonic says is pointed. It's not just after seeing Sonic and Tails' bond that Metal opened his mind. To him it's specifically what Tails did.
And I think there's some truth we can see to that! Metal would not listen when Sonic tried to relate to him using his time as Mecha Sonic, but when Tails expressed that he wouldn't leave Sonic, that he'd stay and fight to the end...
Suddenly Metal understood what Sonic is saying. Suddenly...he understood what it meant to feel, to have something to fight for.
While issues after Mecha Madness are vague about what exactly caused the true Mecha Sonic to try to fight his programming, the evidence speaks for itself.
It is so highly interesting to me that it was seeing Tails that allowed the Mecha Sonic to fight his programming, and then it was seeing Tails and his demonstration of fighting with Sonic til the end that inspired Metal Sonic to fight his own programming and give his life for Sonic and Tails.
It drives me crazy that if you boil it down, one thing that makes Original Metal/Shard so similar to Sonic/The True Mecha Sonic is that it was due to Tails that they fought their programming.
And given the evidence (using Uncle Chuck, Muttski, and both iterations of Mecha Sally as examples) of just how hard it is to maintain any sense of free will, the fact that Tails existence helped Mecha Sonic and his actions helped Metal/Shard means a lot.