Rockman Elysium

I was actually thinking about this this morning because of some concept-work for ZL9; I have been pondering how to incorporate the new explanation about Wily and Zero and the Virus into the story.

Something occured to me, about Wily and Sigma.

When did Wily and Sigma meet? My first remembrance was to say 'sometime between X4 and X5', since Sigma specifically mentions 'the old man in the desert' in that game, but then I second-thought myself. Sigma calls Zero 'the doctor's last' as early as X2, implying he had knowledge of Wily QUITE some time before he came out with it openly to Zero.

Then I started thinking about the whole batshittery with Zero, Sigma, the initial encounter, and the 'jump' of the virus from Zero to Sigma. Of course, we all have that scene memorized, right? We remember the big "W"- which everybody knows is the symbol of Wily- that made Zero break down on the spot.

Now, taking into account that Inafune has said that Wily was 'revived' by the Virus (I think we can also safely assume the virus either merged with him or has in some other way taken on aspects of him) - does this mean that Wily jumped into Sigma at the very beginning, in that first fight?

So the question for me is, why then would he have leapt away from Zero (his CREATION, who it's seeming more and more likely to me really was intended as a Gary Stu power-body for someone- be it the Virus or Wily himself...) to go to Sigma?

Was he in control until Zero forced him out, because (as Inafune says) "he's not that kind of person"?

To me anyway, this is a new question, not a rehash of earlier, because we have a different angle to look at the scene now.

Hmm, hmm... And if Wily moved into Sigma early, how much of what Sigma did after is actually Sigma's fault?

DISCUSS, y'all. :D

*is pelted with mettaurs for the pun*

My god, I'm so tired of the endless fanwanking about humanoid-type Reploids and hair and skin, and whatnot.

What we've established so far: They're robots. Zero, X, and lots of other Hunters were made to fight. The non-combat Reploids tend to have hair visible, like Alia, Layer, Nana, Spider, and Lumine. We've seen that Zero, Axl, Dynamo and Red have some hair showing despite being battle Reploids. So far, we've seen one Reploid who's bald and doesn't have a helmet: Sigma. We've never seen robots show skin other than that on their faces in canon, and no the mangas don't count. We're all agreeing that Zero and X do not have male equipment, and by extension, no one else should have them unless their creators were demented/eccentric/wanted to have fun with their creations. Should there be hair, they'd have raging cases of helmet hair. And going from extrapolation, X would most likely have hair. ...And most Reploids, with the only exceptions so far being Sigma and Lumine, have eyebrows.

What I'd like everyone to discuss: I have a few questions, for all of you. They're underlined, my answers are, well, normal.

1) Would old-type Reploids with hair bits showing, like Zero, Dynamo, and Red, have actual hair under their helmets?
While I find Zero to be a hot picture, with hair, and definitely like him better with it, I'd have to say he wasn't built with it. If only because I'm sure Forte would keep pulling on it, and Wily would have to make it something that snaps in place on the helmet. He probably does have a full head of hair by his revamp in X8, however, since that smaller ponytail wouldn't tug on his scalp like the weight of the full-blown poofytail does.

I'm pretty sure as well that, beyond vanitous and narcissistic beauty-obsessed types like Dynamo, other old-type battle Reploids wouldn't really care for having hair under the helmet, especially not Red.

2) Would newgen battle Reploids with hair bits showing, like Scarface, have actual hair under their helmets?
I'm fairly sure that, as a norm, newgen battle Reploids would have hair, and only those embarassed by it or otherwise not finding it practical would have it removed, or possibly replaced by "bits" of hair, like their old-model counterparts.

3) Could some Reploids, who seem unarmed and have civillian-type looks, have a hair-shaped helmet (think ala Elpizo in MMZ2), such as Spider or Lumine?
Definitely. I also think that metal hair and synthetic hair can work on a single Reploid, as Elpizo so clearly demonstrates with his helmethair and the girly, curly hair he has after that. And, given that neither Spider nor Lumine's hair shapes that defy gravity (although Lumine's whole BEING likes to defy gravity) move at all, I'm pretty sure that they both have helmethair.

4) Would shapeshifting Reploids like Axl, Lumine, and Redips, be able to reconfigure their own hair style and appearance to suit their circumstances?
While I've heard that argument a few times, and thought about it, I'm tempted to say yes only to Redips, whose shapeshifting ability is advanced enough to take the form of a Reploid who may or may not even EXIST, seeing as we're not able to see if Aile recognizes him, and Chielf R acknowledges only that Aile hasn't always been with him by accepting Spider's bounty-hunter-partner story, and who, with SFM help, turns into a frickin' human-headed white dragon with four arms and hands big enough to squash Massimo. Axl and Lumine in no way or shape exhibit being able to shapeshift parts of their body, and Axl only calls up his guns through his DNA database of defeated Mavericks, and through armories in CM.

5) You've shared your ideas about X's hairstyle. Are there other hairstyles you'd like to show us that you'd think would fit the helmetted guys?
I can't help but see Zero, at least in X8, as having a Dan Hibiki hairstyle, including the bushy eyebrows (which are canon, I'll mention!) and little short forehead lock of hair springing upward. You can see it too, right...?

I'm pretty sure that, under his metal helmet, Lumine would have a nearly identical hairstyle with synthhair instead, but with long and curly-ended hair at the back instead of the gravity-defying fan shape.

As for Axl... I'd like to simply say that he'd look a lot like a porcupine, with his helmet off, in my head. Including all his bangs being spiky and styled backward. And they'd probably be wildly inequal in length, with some itty bitty ones and some long enough to look like floor spikes.

Protodude from PRC wondered why it seemed like there was an apparent lack of enthusiasm in the fandom for the news of Megaman 9. After thinking about it, I sent this reply:

I think the lack of enthusiasm is because people have been burned by Capcom - and other FANS (yes, I'm looking at you, fake screenshot-makers and false 'insiders') - over and over and over again. Because of such 'fun', people no longer trust anything they hear about the series.

You can't even trust Capcom itself:
The X Collection was 'scaled back' because of IHX, which then itself became a cancelled series. The promises and then cancellation of the Megaman Game Boy collection, despite heavy promotion back at the time. Capcom's complete inability to keep track of its own internal storylines. I think these are valid reasons to be wary of a new release.

If MM9 really is as good as MM2, great! If it's a nostalgia release to placate fans who were wondering why the 20th was such a dull, wet thud, that's fine too. Sure. And then restrict it to only one platform - the most expensive and currently difficult to obtain platform, sure. And then make it an online only game, probably not on the radar of your average nostalgic casual adult gamer- the very people they're supposedly marketing to? Sure, okay.

And you know, you just KNOW, that they're going to claim low sales again and put the 'classic' line into deep freeze again. It's like stacking the deck ahead of time so all it CAN do is fail.

The franchise has been handled poorly like this all along, and Capcom continues to pander to the whims of the market; now, instead of pandering to little kids and 'card game' rages in Japan, they're pandering to the rose-tinted nostalgia of adults.

And, since it's not the effing "Cataclysm" that everybody seems to want to see happen for some moronic reason, people are 'disappointed' to wait 20 years and get a lightweight entry, too.

If this marks the beginning of a new direction for the franchise, great. But I can see why people are holding back their enthusiasm on multiple fronts.

Okay. Everyone's asked this question and tried to make sense of it: what, exactly, are the Maverick Hunters?

They're a organised military group, that much is obvious, but what kind of group they are and what responsibilities they have vary widely in the canon. Like mentioned in the below translation, the Hunters have appeared as a private security firm, but they've also appeared as a police force (MHX) or an actual part of the Federation government (MMX:CM). While you can argue that their role has grown over time, I think it'd be neat to discuss what exactly the Hunters are (obviously, fanon ideas are extremely encouraged).

( Shameless use of wiki links within! )

Does anyone have any further suggestions?

So here 's a discussion that I want to bring up about how Zero managed to get two sealings. There's spoilers, so watch out. XD 

I was watching the MMZ3 scene where Zero is told that he is in a copy body and that Omega has his original. This made me wonder how that transition happened and then it sort of hit me that there was a possibility that the Zero in X7, X8 and CM WASN'T the real Zero. Once I started thinking about, I started looking back at how Zero performed during X6 and X7 and CM (my X8 disc won't work ;-;). 

Personally, I thought Zero was a good bit weaker in X7 and CM than he was in X6. In X6 all you had to do was put maybe two power ups on the guy and he could take out anything in seconds... In X7... not so much (which, X7 wasn't X's best game either...). 

So rather than saying that Zero sealed himself twice... maybe a 'perfect copy' was built and his personality and 'DNA' replicated to be Zero, leaving the original body vulnerable for Omega to take. Then, just like Zero, the copy sealed himself away just like the original and it just so happened that the Resistance found the Copy Zero who still had Zero's attributes. Of course there's the 'hundred years' that would have them awaken at different times thing, but I don't believe that in the 'Elf Wars' track of Telos ever told how long Zero would have to be sealed away. 

Sooo I'm wondering what the comm. thinks! Agree? Disagree? I want to know! XD

mystery_muse demanded that I post this, so blame her.

Anyway, I was checking out videos on YouTube, and I came across the Megaman 8 ending. And if go to 1:30, you'll notice that Duo extracts the Evil Energy from Megaman by TURNING HIS HAND INTO BLUE ENERGY.

JUST LIKE X DID IN DoS.

Now, mystery_muse and I are already big fans of the Evil Energy = Maverick Virus theory, and I was already considering that X's design was inspired by Duo, and this just gives both theories + 100,000,000 points.

Because if Light knew that Zero had the virallized Evil Energy, doesn't it make perfect logical sense to give X the same blue energy that counter-acts it? And when X attacks Sigma, who is currently the main host of the virus? Many people think that Zero had the virus to infect X, but what if it was the other way around, that X was meant to cure Zero?

I hope the upcoming MMX Sourcebook will explain what X's SHINING FINGER was, but this is a pretty neat theory in the meantime.

So, the Maverick Virus. In canon, it's pretty straight-forward what the virus does; infect reploids and makes them crazy, can affect anything mechanical, can actually alter reality and ... uh ... okay, the Virus in canon makes no sense. Anyway.

But I've seen some really neat fandom ideas of what the virus is or what it can be, and after seeing a few ideas mentioned around I decided to make this post. Basically, round up every neat idea that you've had about the virus and what it's capable of, and maybe Zero's intended purpose if it fits, and post it here!

The only one that I've come up with so far was inspired by an idea of mystery_muse, in which Zero's DNA/the Virus actually overwrites the DNA of any reploid it infects, making them almost identical on the DNA level. My idea from this was that this method actually turns reploids into mini-Zeros, under his command and capable of infecting more reploids. Essentially, Zero could replicate his own ARMY from scratch, turning any potential enemies into his slaves. This ability was partially passed onto Sigma, where he has (somewhat less) sway over any infected reploid.

You got any similar ideas? Fire away!

Another thought I have for the group to kick around...

In X8, Lumine tells the Hunters:

"Enemy, ally... This issue isn't so black and white. Reploids, along with humanity, have irrevocably changed. The nature of their existence has also changed. You are not needed in our new world!"

What does Lumine mean by this? What has changed in the nature of human and Reploid existence at this point? Humans are trying to leave the planet and, as far as I can tell, the Reploids are still trapped in a cycle of internal warfare..

In your visions of the series, what causes Lumine to say this?

So, let's talk about Signas.

After the fall of Repliforce he appeared and was given full command of the Hunters. All that we know about him from the canon is that he has 'the most advanced processor of all existing Reploids' and that his capacity is so great that he can manage all the Maverick Hunters as a single cohesive unit.

I have a couple of theories about how this could possibly work (since all of us pretty much laughed off the idea of one Reploid leading the Hunters after the disaster of Sigma's revolution).

In Shirow' Appleseed, Briareos is said to have a 'monster brainstem', similar to that of an octopus. By implication this allows him to process a great deal of information at once and manage multiple add-on attachments effortlessly as if they were part of his own body. With this sophisticated processor, could it be possible that the same is true for Signas, and that the Units are no longer necessary because he can direct numberless Hunters with his own consciousness?

Another thought I have is that Epsilon, in CM, is a failed attempt to create a second Signas by the Federation. For whatever reason, it worked RIGHT the first time... My controversial idea? Signas has been designed to take full advantage of the 'vision' of the Virus.

The Maverick Virus seems to grant extraordinary perception to its victims- we all agree Zero has some degree of inner vision, and Sigma seems to show enhanced intelligence as well in MHX; other Mavericks, notably Snipe Anteator, have shown flashes of this too.

As a result of the fusion of a contained and tamed Maverick Virus and super-accelerated/advanced processors, then, Signas may have artificial precognition. He can quickly process any scenario and determine its ending within moments. This allows him not only to lead the Hunters, but to move them in advance of enemies- to sense the flow of a conflict as it is still forming and make decisions accordingly. It sort of makes him the anti-Sigma...

And it would make sense that the Fed tries to repeat this with Epsilon.

On a tangent, if Federation scientists and the Hunters have managed to create new-generation Reploids that are capable of containing the Virus without being affected (well, if you believe Lumine anyway) then at some point they must have figured out how to leash its powers; why not push that back to the creation of Signas? For that matter, how do we know that Colonel wasn't Signas' prototype?

DISCUSS.:D