Re: tl;dr Thoughts On Zero and the Virus It makes more sense to me that the effect in X6 was because the Virus wasn't changing REALITY, it was changing Reploid PERCEPTIONS of reality in a particular area.
WOW! I never thought of that! Because I was wondering how the hell the virus could make actual holes in the ground and spikes like in X5, but that makes total sense. *yoinks idea*
(And I do like how you brought up SFM. Because I see SFM as something that just warps a reploid and pushes their personalities to extremes, instead of turning just any reploid into a psycho. I kinda like seeing the virus that way.)
As Duo was virulently battling this entity in space before it came down with the meteor that Wily captured, I'm assuming that it had at one point a sentient will.
I think the robot that Duo was fighting was only infected by this energy; Duo is merely referring to the first being who recieved the energy.
But the quote is interesting - it seems to imply that this person recieved some sort of energy, and its own immense evil corrupted it until it became aggressive and viral in nature. I even had this idea that the civilization that Duo was from was using this energy as a power source, but it was corrupted by the robots that were powered by it.
Anyway, I mostly agree with everything you said about the EE, except for this:
The EE, using Wily, caused Zero to be designed as a sort of avatar of itself- one that could then go on to conquer this world. You could argue it also caused Wily to viralize itself, so that it would have a way to attack this world under Duo's radar.
This I kinda disagree with. The EE could affect any sentient being, robot or human. The Virus can only affect reploids and machines. That seems to be a step down, y'know?
Another thing that I wonder about is the fact that the virus changed when it came into contact with Sigma. The EE seems to be able to corrupt anything, but it changed when it infected Sigma. The question is, why? What did Sigma have?
The other means I use to support the concept of an 'aware' Virus is the later idea of the Mother Elf, which seems to have a vague sort of consciousness, and calls Zero by name.
I like this idea too. Thing is, WHAT does the Virus want? Is it just a mindless virus, endlessly trying to infect and reproduce? Or is it smart enough to have some sort of agenda?
(I was thinking that the Virus reminds me of the Flood from Halo, and that idea is growing on me.)
Additionally, since I believe that Zero's body can hold the Virus indefinitely, it's also possible to surmise that the Virus has -changed- from being within Zero this long; like a filter, his body has transformed the nature of the Maverick Virus from its EE-state to something different.
Hmm. You mean that Zero's conscious decision not to go Maverick and his willingness to fight for good has changed the Virus to something less dangerous? Maybe Zero can make the virus change by will alone?