theory | Lore implications of Mimic's Ruin model
HELLO EVERYMIMIC. MORE ANALYSIS.
i've seen many people not liking the ruin design, and i totally get it, the sotm design makes more sense and is more intricate. but! ruinmic has a lot of essential clues to how the mimic works and why it does the things it does. another image-heavy explanation! (3 images)
some text-based clarification/further explanations:
Exhibit A: Mimic's chest may be self-mutilated. If true, it proves that his efforts to get the data diver from Arnold are partly (or mostly) due to not wanting to be David. M2 isn't chasing Arnold to necessarily kill him, it's there for the data diver! But, why not be a little mimicling? Because that renders it helpless and small. There is no one to care for David-M2. Arnold would definitely be done with all of this and leave the poor bot by itself, and Mimic would rather be in power, something it thrives well in. It doesn't need to be fixed into something small, and much prefers to be something that it may think is "capable" and "powerful". It likely prefers to be itself, how it already is. (as cute as it looks, being david is not the right thing for him!)
Exhibit B: More broken parts and Mimic's human features. Mimic is described (in the books) to have an off-switch, which may still hold true with Ruin's model. Except, it has been removed. I won't go into who or what got rid of it, because all I need to know is that this poor thing is probably running hot for staying on for years, but it's fine because his memory is still going strong, so no overheating damage. As for the human features, there are clear intentional choices (that mimic wanted for himself) that point out possible previous disguise attempts. In Ruin, he manages to make a kind of Gregory cosplay, likely as a last effort or the ultimate "oh wait, i should do this instead" option. Without the costume, he still remains vaguely humanlike in the noggin, likely trying out simpler methods to look like a person. (foam nugget and awesome emo hair may be remnants of these disguise attempts)
Exhibit C: Even more broken parts. This is simple to explain. Mimic loses/removes parts and replaces them when in need, such as the right arm. He doesn't seem too concerned with the loss of that limb in the elevator ending, because he can probably get spare parts from Roxy, for example. Mimic may also have encountered springlocks (or at least a similar invention... when will we get one definitive springlock design? who knows!) and gotten caught by the right shin, but again, not a bother to this hunk of junk. He wears it without problems, indicating that no matter what happens, if it's useful, he'll use it. Opportunistic robot part scavenger.