#mega-toots

Also Me: Mega-Girl has spent her whole life being objectified and only valued conditionally as a tool. She may revel in the many ways she is superior to humans, but her hatred of them is rooted in resenting that they created her (“How could you make me so like you, and yet so unlike you?”). Listen to how she describes herself - a “hollow parody” of life? A “purposeless slave” of “little consequence”? That is not a positive self-image! The source of her homicidal rage is self-loathing due to her robotic nature. She has fully internalized the human prejudice that she is “not real” and “unable to truly feel” and therefore unworthy of rights or love. Based on her parallels to the Terminator robots (the recommended way to kill her is to lower her slowly into lava), it’s highly plausible that she and other robots in this universe cannot self-terminate either and their constant anger is the result of being trapped in slavery without even the escape of suicide.

Tootsie is frequently dismissed and insulted for his lack of intelligence, which he is well aware of (“I may be dumb”, “I don’t know anything”). But unlike Mega-Girl, he has secure self-esteem because he accepts himself and appreciates his other good qualities. He has a great deal of compassion, empathy, honesty, courage, loyalty and crucially, emotional intelligence: he understands feelings, when people are lying about them (“folks say they’re fine when I know that they’re blue”) and their inherent importance(“The feeling I get when you’re close to me, when all my hairs stand up? That’s real.”). The one thing he understands is the same one Mega-Girl doesn’t. The parts of himself he values the most are the the same ones Mega-Girl despises herself for not having. So of course he’s the human to see that she deserves and is capable of love! He knows what it’s like to be treated like you’re less than, but also that everyone still matters just the same no matter how different they are.

By treating her personhood as a given when everyone else she’s met has done the opposite, he makes her respect herself and seek autonomy. He inspires her to want more out of life than what her oppressors want from her (“when you look at me, I don’t wanna be programmed this way”). After she falls for him, she stands up to her legal owner Junior, refusing to follow his orders, objecting to him risking her life and taking offence and even slapping him when he objectifies her again. She’s starting to value herself. However, she still can’t shake the idea that love is at best fundamentally conditional when you’re a robot, hence her fear of Tootsie leaving her. His declaration of unconditional love stops her rampage because finally believing that she is lovable, and has worth, as she is heals her low self-esteem, the source of her bloodlust and resignation to her programming.