Characters / Mega Man X: X

Mega Man X | Main Character Index
Heroes (X | Zero) | Villains (Sigma | True mastermind) | Maverick Bosses | Supporting Cast

Mega Man X (Rockman X)

Voiced by: Megumi Ogata (X1, "Hadoken" clip), Michael Donovan (EN, animated series) Kentarō Itō (JP, X4), Ruth Shiraishi (EN, X4), Showtaro Morikubo (JP, X5-X7), Peter von Gomm (EN, X7), Takahiro Sakurai (JP, X8, Command Mission, Maverick Hunter X, Project × Zone, Teppen, DiVE), Mark Gatha (EN, X8, Command Mission, Maverick Hunter X), Ted Sroka (EN, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Teppen)

Click ^here to see Command Mission X.

The first of a new breed of robot with the ability to think and feel, X was the last creation of Dr. Thomas Light. Of course, Light had experience with about ten or so doomsday scenarios courtesy of one Albert Wily, and decided to give X a Hyperspace Arsenal and an endless array of power ups in the expectation that, come the next one, X would become the world's new champion. In spite of his own pacifistic leanings, X did just that.

Throughout his many battles against Sigma and several other opposing Reploid organizations and individuals, X is always plagued by the many lives he has taken to bring peace to the world and is no stranger to doubting if his actions are righteous. Though he may retire from the frontlines if he feels he is not achieving peace, he can always be counted on to return to the fray if there's no other option.

#-L

• 10-Minute Retirement: In X7. Of course, diplomacy never works in an action series, so he came back.
• 11th-Hour Superpower:
  • In the second Vile battle in the first game, after Zero's Heroic Sacrifice to destroy Vile's Ride Armor, all of X's energy is restored for some reason, ready to fight Vile on equal footing now. This was even lampshaded:
  Vile: "What the—? Where did that energy come from?!"
  • In the Day of Sigma OVA, something similar happens, only X's attack looks suspiciously like the Shining Finger.
• 24-Hour Armor: More specifically his helmet. X is the only Mega Man not shown to have some kind of synthetic/artificial hair in the main titles, and one of the few who does not take off his helmet when the smoke goes down at the end of the adventure; this has led many to believe that X does not have hair, just a metal plate like Robocop without his helmet.
  • In the manga Rockman X4 in the few last pages near the end of the manga, it hints that X may actually have hair.
  • If you count them, X is shown to have hair in Novas Aventuras De Megaman and Rockman X Math Tornado.
• Aborted Arc: In X4, X worries about becoming a Maverick after fighting Colonel, and asks Zero to Mercy Kill him if it had come to that. This angle was never explored any further, and by the time of the Zero series, the one who was Jumping Off the Slippery Slope was his copy. It was the intention, but Executive Meddling changed this, resulting in the creation of Copy X.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: In the original X1 story, he joins forces with the Maverick Hunters for the first time once Sigma's rebellion begins. The Maverick Hunter X reboot has him as a B-Class Hunter already by the beginning of the story, giving him more time to form relationships with Zero, Sigma, and Vile.
• Adaptive Ability: This is the true reason behind his "limitless potential." He has the ability to learn and grow stronger according to his experience.
• The Aesthetics of Technology: Played with. He has a simpler-looking design than most bosses, but he is literally described as having unlimited potential, and throughout his series, developed abilities that were previously seen after he picked up armor parts or health upgrades; it's like the concept of Weapon Copy was taken to its logical conclusion and turned into an Ability Copy. Justified, he's a Super Prototype.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Defied. Being a robot with 100% free will, Dr. Light makes sure that this trope doesn't happen by sealing him in a 30-year morality testing to ensure that he would do the right thing. Too bad the process to replicate X en masse skipped out on that part.
• All There in the Manual: According to the Rockman Zero Collection website, Dr. Light developed a perfect virus-countermeasure within him, in response to a virus of extraterrestrial origin (implied to be the Evil Energy from Mega Man 8) that caused all robots to go berserk.
• Almighty Janitor: He's a B-Rank Maverick Hunter for most of the series because of his adherence to non-violence, despite stopping Sigma and saving the world multiple times. He eventually gets promoted to S-Rank, some time before Command Mission.
• Ancestral Weapon: His X-Buster has gone through 16 previous iterations during its life as the Mega Buster, and its latest version is at least a hundred years old.
• Ass-Kicking Pose: He always does this after he teleports into a stage.
• Arm Cannon: The X-Buster, aka the Mega Buster Mark 17.
• Badass Boast:
  • To Sigma, at the end of X6.
  X: I have to work for the reconstruction of the world... I have no time to waste on you. If you show up, I'll defeat you.
  • Has a nice one in X8 to Vile.
  X: As long as I'm standing, there's hope. I'll defeat both you and Sigma.
  • And an incredible one in Maverick Hunter X, also to Sigma.
  X: I'll finish this. Right here, right now! I WILL DEFEAT YOU, SIGMA!
• Bag of Spilling: Unsurprising for the series, but it doesn't seem to be for lack of trying: he keeps his dash ability permanently after the first game, and both X5 and X6 feature watered-down versions of the previous entry's powerups, with the implication that battle damage has detracted from their effectiveness. X7 and X8 also see X respectively regaining the air-dash and super charge shots, which were once armor exclusive powers, for his base form.
• Battle Aura: His S-Class Hunter variant in DiVE has a constant golden aura.
• Being Good Sucks: It's kind of his shtick. "How long must this war go on?" is a constant question he asks throughout the series. Him taking a break in X7 only makes sense, considering the fact that he'd just lost (X5) and gotten back (X6) his best friend for the second time over the course of the last two games and seen nothing change for the better in comparison to the start of the series. However, that aside, he does continue to fight even after being disembodied in the Zero series, and Inafune's original plan for that was X hitting the Despair Event Horizon and reacting not by quitting on the fight altogether, but via Face–Heel Turn.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The final boss of Maverick Hunter X shows that X can be downright terrifying when he gets mad. X's enemies tend to forget that he's a Maverick Hunter that's defeated countless opponents, and saved the world multiple times.
• Big Little Brother: Can be considered this to his direct predecessor and Dr. Light's other "son", the original Mega Man, given that the latter was built to resemble a child while X is taller and has the general appearance of a young adult.
• Big "NO!": Near the end of The Day of Sigma OVA in Maverick Hunter X as he could only watch Sigma launch missiles upon Abel City.
• Black Box: His design and mechanisms are so hard to understand and looks complex even by the future's standards (i.e when they found him a century after his sealing). Dr. Cain notes that he couldn't replicate X completely due to this (that, and he was actually an archeobotanist). Only in the Zero series does someone manage to create the closest thing to a "perfect" copy of X, and even then it still has its flaws — Dr. Light put X in a 30-year ethical testing for a reason.
• Blue Is Heroic: The Blue Bomber's next incarnation, pretty much.
• Boring, but Practical: X as a whole can be taken as an example of this compared to the Reploids based on his design. He isn't as flashy or as Min-Max'd for combat as some of the later Reploids would become, but there's a reason why he is the the star hunter of his organization. His X-Buster is great for all combat situations, and his variable weapon system allows him to adapt to whatever the situation calls for. His ability to be upgraded with armor also allows him to keep up with later generation Reploids with upgraded designs. Even when presented with what could, for all intents and purposes, be considered a direct upgrade of his original design, X is still able to take them down due to his years of experience as a Maverick Hunter.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S":
  • Only in X8, but there's an X on the sides of his helmet.
  • The new basic armor he sports in Command Mission has a white X on the chest.
  • His DiVE Armor variant in Mega Man X DiVE projects holographic wings from his back forming an X. Taken even further with the Next DiVE armor, which projects two X-shaped wings.
• Call-Forward: Zero's X7 ending. "Eliminate the Mavericks. The Mavericks... eliminate..." Depressingly, this game marks the one time we see X actually try to escape his fate, so it packs a punch even though the writers botched it.
• Calling Your Attacks: In later games, and the remake of the first.
• The Cameo:
  • Appears briefly in Zero's Tatsunoko vs. Capcom ending.
  • He and the other Mega Men (Volnutt, EXE, and Geo) come to aid the classic Mega Man in Super Smash Bros. during his Final Smash. X also appears as a collectable trophy, and his armor is DLC that can be worn by Mii Gunners.
• Car Fu:
  • In the opening of X2, he jumps out from his speeding Ride Chaser, which then hits the Mechaniloid guarding the facility he's trying to infiltrate.
  • Can be done in-game as well, in Overdrive Ostrich's stage, as well as in X4 and X5.
• Character Development: Subverted; his fall from the spotlight coincided exactly with the series' increased focus on characterization. It is only heavily displayed in the end of X5, X6, and through X8 do we see true examples of growth upon X's part beyond that point.^note In taking up Zero's saber and leading the Hunters, telling off the revived Sigma as a minor nuisance in the face of more important tasks, and being an overall capable and determined leader of the S-Class Hunters throughout X8 However, The Day of Sigma and Maverick Hunter X do cover his journey from Wide-Eyed Idealist to Martial Pacifist, and it's generally assumed that the scrapped remakes of X2 and X3 would have followed up on this.
• Character Tics: His "armor up" gesture (crossing his arms over his face and throwing them back), which he performs when warping in with armor equipped, when receiving capsule upgrades in Maverick Hunter X, and any time he appears as a boss. Copy X, his evil duplicate in the Zero series, seems to have inherited this gesture, performing it when equipping his Ultimate Armor.
• Character Title: While he's no longer referred to in-universe as "Mega Man," the series is still named after X.
• Charged Attack: One of his main features. Unlike his predecessor, X can also charge up his special weapons and fire an additional charged shot.
• Classical Anti-Hero: In the first game, where he has to shoulder the burden of being humanity's next champion, despite not being as powerful as Zero or their enemies.
• Clear My Name: The plot in X6 starts with a Palette Swap of Zero, called the Zero Nightmare, wreaking havoc. X decides to investigate the Zero Nightmare to clear Zero's name. For some reason, this is not part of the plot entirely, since defeating the Zero Nightmare is optional. And guess what? A Secret Character (not that Capcom was fooling anyone) will be unlocked upon defeating it.
• Climax Boss: In X5 during the Zero Virus stage, he'll do anything to prevent his friend from going Maverick. Including fighting him.
• Color-Coded Characters: Blue, of course.
• Crossdressing Voices:
  • Hardly noticeable in X1, since all he actually says is "Hadoken!" but only if he obtains it.
  • In X4, actually having the same voice actress as the original Mega Man in Mega Man 8.
  • This trend continued on the YouTube channel of Lucas Gilbertson (Zero). Here, X is voiced by Carol-Anne Day.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: The X3 opening is entirely made of this trope. Blowing away two Bee Bladers in one shot? Dropping Launch Octopus's irritating mini-boss on him, destroying both? Switching between the armor sets of the first two games at will while fighting Sigma? Awesome.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: He's the Idealist to Zero's cynic. The world isn't as rosy as X would like it to be, prompting Zero to warn him about being too trusting and naive.
• Deconstruction: In a sense, of the original incarnation. That Mega Man was Three Laws-Compliant, unable to actually harm Wily canonically despite actually being able to feel genuine rage and frustration at him, yet was always The Paragon that had a heart of gold and a spirit of justice that would always charge into the fray to stop Wily while being willing to always lend a hand to those that would befriend him. X is fully sentient and able to make his own decisions, intentionally holding himself back out of fear of collateral or getting others hurt as a Reluctant Warrior, but unlike his predecessor, the Maverick Wars and the constant cycle of war and death are far, far worse and genuinely wear away at X's psyche and morality. By the time this war and the one that followed some time after are over, it's implied that X was so exhausted and tired of endless conflict that he'd lost that "spirit" and simply stopped caring about the Mavericks he retired.
• Depending on the Writer: The horribly self-pitying loser of X7 and the half-crazed macho warrior of Command Mission are the farthest extremes, but how willing he is to fight varies wildly from game to game. It generally remains constant within any given game; Maverick Hunter X is the exception that proves the rule, as his Character Development actually matters for once. Zero being dead probably helped.
• Demoted to Extra: In X7 where he isn't playable from the start as people would instead play as Axl. He's playable later in the game if you've rescued 65 reploids or defeated all 8 maverick bosses.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: In the end of X6, after taking down the resurrected Sigma, who can at best be described as a nightmarish, half-lobotomized, giant parasitic bimechanical robo-zombie, X has some very choice words for him.
  X: The most important thing now is restoring the Earth. I don’t have time to deal with the likes of you. If you ever show up, I’ll defeat you again, simple as that.
• Doomed by Canon: Attempts to stop the fighting in X7... which came out while the Zero series was in full swing. Failure Is the Only Option.
• Dual Boss: With Zero in the last level of Maverick Hunter X's Vile Mode. Aside from attacking in tandem in general, they have one attack where Zero fires a slow energy projectile, then X fires onto that projectile and it results in a burst of energy that spreads out like X3's combined buster upgrade. And If you take Zero down, X will get angry and unleash stronger attacks. The same goes if X is defeated, but with Zero.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite being the reason Reploids exist, and the one with the most potential power, X is a B-class Hunter for most of the series, though those who know him realize this is entirely because he holds back and is reluctant to fight. By X8 and Command Mission, he's a Special A class hunter, having apparently gotten over those hang-ups.
• Dull Surprise: He does this in the opening cut-scene to X8, whether from shell-shock or bad animation. Facing down an army of shapeshifting Reploids (let alone them taking form of Sigmas) should yield a stronger reaction than, "did I leave the oven on?"
• The Ego: In relation to his teammates Zero and Axl. Is usually the one who has deep thoughts about most things happening around. But on the other side, he's a pacifist who's quite emotional, especially about fighting, and frequently thinks about all the enemies he fights.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: As deeply empathic as X is, he holds no love for Sigma and will never try to talk him down from his actions.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: His Blade Armor from X6 resembles a samurai armor.
• Evolving Weapon: Once you get a buster upgrade, almost every Maverick weapon. (Well, sort of. The second version counts as a Charged Attack.)
• Facepalm of Doom: Gives Sigma one in The Day of Sigma, mimicking the Shining Finger, no less.
• The Fettered: He's averse to violence, to the point that he refuses to bend his morals if someone he cares for is in danger.
• Fighting the Lancer: If you don't get to fight the X-Hunters (and thus, gaining Zero's parts) before the Sigma fortress stages are unlocked in X2, you'll have X fighting Zero in one of the stages, although he was Brainwashed and Crazy at the time. Played straighter in X5; no matter which scenario you took, one will end up fighting the other in the third fortress stage.
• Flanderization: X goes from being a reluctant, yet willing fighter to becoming more whiny as the series goes on. This becomes prominent in X7, where he pulls a 10-Minute Retirement, so you started playing a Mega Man X game without playing as him. In X8, though, he gets back to shape.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In his X4 ending, X asks Zero that if he (X) ever goes Maverick, Zero should be the one "to take care of him". Because of the Continuity Snarl between the two series, it falls into Fauxshadow.
  • When combined with the ending of X3 stating that X will have to destroy Zero to protect mankind (Lost in Translation notwithstanding), this at least foreshadows that the two of them will fight in X5.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Played for Drama in X5's bad ending, where X loses his memories of Zero after being repaired by Dr. Light.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Despite starting each new game without his previous powers, a memorable boss fight in X5 suggests at the very least that X can recover old Maverick weapons somehow. There is, however, a leading theory that X doesn't want to have all that power, so he voluntarily gets rid of his weapons at the end of each game.
  • In Vile Mode and Day of Sigma, his Charge Shot was shown to be extremely powerful, the former instance resulting in Vile getting critically wounded and also receiving a gaping hole in his chest, and the latter being powerful enough to knock down and temporarily knock out a renegade Maverick. In gameplay, although the Charge Shot is definitely more powerful than regular buster shots, it definitely isn't as strong as those cutscenes imply.
• Golden Super Mode: His hidden Golden Armor power-up in X3.
• Gone Horribly Right: X was put through extensive morality testing (he was intended to be put through 30 years of morality training, but ended up with 100 years), and thus he's the only reploid who is fully immune to the Sigma Virus in addition to being one of the nicest people around. However, also because of his morality testing, he constantly doubts himself when it comes to having to fight (as compared to his closest peer, Zero, who just gets the job done with few complaints).
• Good Is Not Dumb: X, a Reluctant Warrior who lives in an increasingly Crapsack World infested with The Virus, capable of turning even his best friend against him. Often referred to as 'too trusting' in-universe and 'emo' outside of it because he doesn't like killing people. He's also an century-old creation with an arsenal of limitless potential with lots of combat experience and what he can't handle, his aforementioned best friend will. He also ends up ruling the world, basically because he's the only person that could manage it.
• Gratuitous English: Applied to Calling Your Attacks above, with... interesting results. Generally better in X8, Maverick Hunter X, and Command Mission.
• Guns Akimbo:
  • X2 and X3 upgrades. By charging up enough, he fires a blast from one arm, then the other.
  • The Command Mission version of the Ultimate Armor has BFG akimbo!
• Healing Factor: X gets one in the third game, with either the enhanced helmet parts or the Golden Armor.
• Heroic BSoD: He suffers a major one during Lumine's Breaking Speech. It got so bad that Axl had to shoot Lumine with his gun and remind X that Lumine is their enemy to get him to at least put it aside long enough to manage to defeat Lumine.
• Heroic Fatigue: A major part of his character. Even by the end of X1 he's wondering when the fighting will stop, culminating in his 10-Minute Retirement in X7. Even when he comes back to the front lines, his dialogue with his fellow Hunters and Maverick enemies shows that he's sick and tired of the conflict and wishes he could have some peaceful rest (something he only finds later in the Zero series).
• Heroic Resolve:
  • In the fight against Vile in the first stage of Sigma's hideout in X1, X loses the fight much like he did in the beginning of the game, left paralyzed and with little health. Zero makes a Heroic Sacrifice and destroys Vile's mobile suit with his remaining energy. Vile still thinks he has won, to which X breaks his bonds and restores his meter to full.
  • In the "Day of Sigma" animated prequel in the PSP remake Maverick Hunter X, Sigma stabs X through the gut with his beamsaber. After a brief Flashback of X swearing to Dr. Light that he will always fight for hope and justice, he comes back online and charges Sigma, digging his glowing hand into Sigma's face and giving Sigma his trademark eye scars before finally shutting down.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Zero. At one point in X5, X claims Zero is not only his best friend, but his Only Friend.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: A Reploid fighting against other evil Reploids.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: He taps into his unlimited potential out of sheer desperation in "The Day of Sigma".
• Iconic Item: His X-Buster and his helmet.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: In the infamous X vs. Zero battle in X5, X tries to bring back the Maverick Zero to his, technically, "new self" (the "old self" is the Maverick Zero itself).
• The Immune: Played with. Most Reploids will become the chaotic, rampaging Mavericks upon The Virus's infection. But X, with his Suffering Circuit inside him, will instead get hurt upon infection, as the circuit's trying to prevent him from being rampaging and genocidal.
• In-Series Nickname: In the earlier games, other characters would call him anything from his full name (Rockman X, or Mega Man X) or even Mega Man, to just X. While he continues to be called Mega Man X or sometimes Mega Man in promotional materials, he is consistently called X in the games from X4 onwards, creating a lot of confusion with people who thought Mega Man was just an Artifact Title.
• Infinite: X's most valuable trait, the one Sigma starts a war over in Maverick Hunter X, is his limitless capacity for growth. He has no limits, no set parameters, and no way of knowing just what he can become. His worrying more intensely and thinking more deeply than other Reploids from as early as the first game is a sign that his mind operates under this principle as well, but it manifests most clearly in gameplay. X seems to adapt the abilities of armors into his base form, such as the dash and stored charge shots, and across X1 to X4 he goes from dramatically inferior to Zero as a fighter to his equal, possibly even stronger than him.
• It Never Gets Any Easier: X always feels grief and doubt about those who die in the Maverick Wars, even his own enemies, because he's at heart a Martial Pacifist. It's even been argued that he deliberately does this so he always has sympathy for the enemy, because becoming callous is not the way to finding real peace. When he finally loses all sympathy centuries into the future, he retires.
• It's Personal: Sigma and Vile both hold this for X after he defeats them, creating series-long grudges, Vile at the end of X3 vowing to haunt X till the day he dies. X on the other hand has a case for Sigma, in that he never debates or negotiates with Sigma; he'd sooner down the mad Reploid-turned-Virus yet again with his own two hands and move on than waste any more time or risk more innocent lives. Maverick Hunter X transforms this into a genuine burning fury after witnessing Zero's Heroic Sacrifice, on top of Sigma having personally betrayed him previously to be able to nuke Abel City.
• Jack of All Stats: In X8, relative to the other playable characters. He can be nudged towards different skill sets depending on which armor parts you go with.
• Knight, Knave, and Squire: Of the team of three that is him, Zero and Axl, he is the Knight. X is not only the main protagonist but also a warrior known for fighting for the sake of achieving peace in the world. Though not as optimistic as most examples: while he can be trusted to fight with no mercy when there are no other options left, he ends up feeling much grief for the many deaths in the Maverick Wars.
• Knight Templar: Almost. X constantly straddles the line, being much more obsessed with achieving peace than his comrades Zero and Axl. He is willing to take down any Maverick in his path in order to achieve this dream, but his reinforced decision-making and true distaste for conflict limit him from ever going off the deep-end (though it is possible for him to take on Zero in X5 because of these tendencies). His duplicate from the Zero series, on the other hand...
• Laser Blade: He can acquire Zero's saber in X3 if Zero destroys a certain mini-boss in one of the fortress stages. Unlike his Street Fighter-inspired secret moves, he can use the saber by charging his X-Buster all the way and he releases a beam when swung. He gets Zero's saber again in X6; however, unlike Zero, he can only do a single slash, but with armor upgrades, its ability gets tweaked up.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: In the bad ending in X5, Dr. Light erases all of X's memories of Zero, and installs a program that will "reject" any information regarding Zero.
• Late Character Syndrome: Ironically despite his name as in the title, X isn't playable until about halfway in X7 due to Axl being the one who you play as first. As a result it would be difficult to justify putting X in your party despite him being a Game Breaker because by then Axl and or Zero would receive half or more of the chip upgrades making X weaker in comparison even after getting the glide armor. But at the very least if you give him the remaining chip upgrades he can at least be able to fair much better towards the end.
• Legacy Character: Succeeds the original Mega Man as the hero of this time period.
• Let's You and Him Fight: An impending fight between him and Zero has been hinted upon ever since X2. (Though in a non-canon process just before the final battle in that case.) It was again touched upon in X4 before finally taking place in X5, and by extension, X6.
• Let X Be the Unknown: Aside from being a Black Box, his name represents limitless potential. It also carries connotations of danger, leading Light to apparently seal him because The World Is Not Ready. Then again, he might have been lying about the last part to spare X's feelings.
• Level-Map Display: In X3, the head upgrade gives X access to a (very rudimentary) map of the level, dividing it into small sectors, and showcasing the special items of the level.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: X always starts out weaker than the other characters, but after collecting the game's armor upgrades he easily overpowers Zero and Axl.
• Long-Range Fighter: Specializes in buster combat compared to Zero's sword-based gameplay.

M-Y

• Magikarp Power: Really, X himself. No match for pretty much anything at the start of the first game, he is more or less a One-Man Army by the end. A more traditional example is Zero's saber in X6. Oh, X can't wield it for crap (unlike in the third game, where it was ridiculously powerful and even useful at range in his hands), but the subsequently collected armors allow it to be used as a Charged Attack, and a certain set of parts restore it to ridiculous levels of power.
• Magnum Opus: Of Dr. Light, who took great pride in creating a robot capable of making moral decisions for himself as well as complete independent human-like thinking to act for himself what he would choose to do within his implemented moral limits. Sadly, Dr. Light would not live long enough to see X completed as he wants, so he contained him in a capsule where X would undergo three decades of internal systems testing to make damn sure X wasn't going to be morally corrupt.
• Martial Pacifist: X is a gentle-hearted soul by nature, the only character in the X setting who's naturally predisposed to deeper levels of introspection and compassion thanks to his century of stasis testing, and longs for the day that the Maverick Hunters are no longer needed. However, he knows full well, until that day comes, the Maverick Hunters are needed, and the Maverick Hunters need him. Make no mistake, if you bring X down on you, he will order once and only once that you stand down that your life may be spared. Refuse, and you've wrought the full fury of perhaps the most powerful being on Earth.
• Meaningful Name: X stands for an unknown variable (like in algebra) containing unlimited potential. This was elaborated upon in Maverick Hunter X, where it is also mentioned that the letter "X" denotes danger, such as the tragic results that could occur if X was to violate the First Law of Robotics (cannot harm humans), hence his being kept in stasis before he could be safely released.
• Mechanical Evolution: He's apparently the key to this, as multiple in-game statements and the Day of Sigma origin short express. As he's forced to fight and evolve, all aspects of himself grow in turn. As such, in theory, the reploid race as a whole may be influenced or directed by his growth — and Sigma is savvy enough to realize this, at least in the remake.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: From X4 onward, X remains the only playable character who can get armor sets (and the resulting buffs and extra abilities) from Dr. Light's capsules, while Zero and Axl's alternate "armors" are typically reserved as secret New Game Plus content or only accessible via a cheat code (and even then X gets a secret Ultimate Armor alongside them.)
• Multiform Balance: The armors in X5-X6, as well as Neutral Armor's upgrades in X8.
  • X5: All armors reduce damage taken by 50%. The Force/Fourth Armor has normal mobility, its charged shot being the multi-hitting Plasma Shot (but only on the first thing it hits), energy consumption for special weapons is reduced by 50% and is able to charge special weapons. The Falcon Armor has high mobility with its flight capability, it's invulnerable to collision damage and can hurt enemies by clashing at them while flying, its charge shot can pierce through walls but deals comparatively weak damage and has small hitbox, it cannot charge special weapons, and its Giga Attack is a full-screen blast that is good for clearing the screen. The Gaea Armor moves slowly, has a slow dash and cannot airdash, and it can't use special weapons, but it is invulnerable to spikes, will not slide down walls when wall-jumping, can push special blocks with his dash, and its Giga Attack is a short-ranged blast in front of X that causes massive damage to things in front of it, even bosses. His buster shot lacks range, but is very powerful, charges quickly, and can be used to dissipate other projectiles in its way and destroy special blocks. The Ultimate Armor is a more powerful version of the Force Armor in that its Plasma Shot will have effect on everything it blasts through and its Giga Attack, the Nova Strike, is not only useful for damaging but also moving around and avoiding damage, and its uses is unlimited (while the others' Giga Attack needs you to fill its gauge first).
  • X6: All armors reduce damage taken by 50%. The Falcon Armor returns, but its capabilities are changed: It reduces weapon energy usage by 33%, it's no longer able to fly but instead has enhanced airdash with invulnerability, its charge shot is less powerful, but it now can charge special weapons. The Blade Armor can also reduce weapon energy usage by 33% and can charge special weapons, special weapons gauge is increased by 50%, it has longer 4-directional airdash with invulnerability on startup, and its Giga Attack is a Sword Beam that flies forward, dealing high damage to everything on its way. It has 2 charged shots: one that is the weaker version of the Plasma Shot above, and another that is an enhanced version of the Z-Saber swing that does more damage and has larger hitbox. The Shadow Armor cannot airdash or use special weapons, but it is invulnerable to spikes, lets him do a Ceiling Cling, an enhanced normal Z-Saber attack, and its Giga Attack is him doing a circular slash that causes 2 Sword Beams to encircle him for a short time, highly damaging everything in vicinity. Its normal shot is changed into him firing shurikens with randomized trajectory (like C-shot weapon in X5) and its charged shot is a more powerful Z-Saber attack. The Ultimate Armor returns, and has the same capability.
  • X8: The Neutral Armor is the same as X himself, with no special capabilities. It then would become the basis for all his other armors. Icarus Armor (completed I-parts) is an armor system that focuses on attack power and aerial advantage capabilities. Hermes Armor (completed H-parts) is an Armor system that focuses on movement speed and mobility. The Ultimate Armor is similar to before, but it has some capabilities of both Hermes and Icarus armors, it can use both uncharged and charged special weapons infinitely, it's able to do a Shoryuken attack, and its Nova Strike is much more damaging (although isn't as spammy as before).
• Mysterious Past: In-Universe. Perhaps a major contributor to the ongoing case of Underestimating Badassery X is subjected to no matter how much time passes, is that nobody actually knows he's the first robot to truly replicate human-level free will, but rather the template the entire reploid race was built off of. The only two who are known to have this knowledge are Dr. Cain for obvious reasons, and Sigma himself — and the former presumably took the secret to his grave while the latter was consumed by the Maverick Virus. Even after Zero's true nature is outed to the Maverick Hunters in the climax of X5, X's origin is still one never disclosed to them.
• Never Bareheaded: In contrast to his predecessor, who frequently removes his helmet to reveal a head of synthetic hair, Mega Man X is never shown removing his own helmet, if indeed he even can.
• Nice Guy: As the Day of Sigma OVA and the series implies, X is a fairly caring, compassionate and kind-hearted individual, who takes the deaths of everyone, Human or Reploid and even some of his Maverick foes, very personally. This wears on him over the course of the franchise, but he never quite gets broken of it. However, the moment you're a Maverick threat that needs to be taken down, he'll rarely hesitate - and god help you if you target his friends or intentionally incite mass genocide just to get at him and the Maverick Hunters. He drops negotiations for immediately taking you down as soon as possible.
• Ninja: His Shadow Armor of X6 is clearly modeled after one, with his buster shooting shurikens, being able to Ceiling Cling and provides immunity to spikes like the Gaea Armor before it.
• Odd Friendship: A pacifist becoming best friends with no-nonsense warrior? Not to mention that they're destined to fight each other...
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Aside from Wily and Zero turned Maverick, X is much older than any of the characters he fights against.
• One-Hit Kill: The Nova Strike from the Ultimate Armor (especially in X8) and X's Z-Saber in X3 qualify. The hidden Hadoken move is a true one-hit-kill on anything it touches.
• One-Man Army: Especially in the first two games.
• Only Friend: As of X5, Zero is this for him. There might be good reasons, especially after X5.
• Out-of-Character Moment: X in X7 where he turns into a cowardly Jerkass with a crybaby attitude who overreacts about violence.
• Out of Focus: After X3, and especially in X7. Axl even lampshades it in the intro stage of X8, threatening to steal the spotlight from him. Too late, buddy.
• Palette Swap:
  • The golden variant of the Third Armor, obtained by collecting all of the pieces without any of the chips. This is more useful than the usual version, since it reduces energy usage for the Hyper Charge and makes Special Weapons recharge faster, but it isn't saved with passwords.
  • X's Ultimate Armor in X8 is simply a palette swap of his normal armor set for the game.
• Perpetual Frowner: Not as much as Zero, but still qualifies.
• Personality Chip: What makes X unique from his big brother is the fact that X can actually feel and make decisions independent of any kind of hard programming. Dr. Light recognized there was an inherent danger to giving X free will, however, and put him into stasis for thirty years of ethics testing so he could better differentiate right from wrong. His personality chip is the basis for the ones in all other Reploids in the series; sans the thirty years of ethics testing, which had predictable results.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Relatively, anyway. X's base frame measures at 5'5"^note Initially 5'3", perhaps explainable in part by his Adaptive Ability which is perfectly average for the young adult he's meant to physically be on a human scale, but by reploid standards, X is tiny. Official art shows comparatively, he only comes up to the chest of the likes of Alia, and she's not even made for combat purposes.
• Power Copying: His Variable Weapons System, directly lifted from his predecessor's.
• Power Crystal: It blinks when his health is critical, projects the map in X3, and when we see it glow full-stop in the OVA, he apparently develops New Powers as the Plot Demands.
• Powered Armor: He has at least one per game. Later he gets two in X4^*the Fourth and Ultimate Armor, and four in X5^*the Fourth Armor (albeit damaged), Falcon, Gaea and Ultimate Armor and X6^*the Falcon Armor (albeit damaged), Blade, Shadow and Ultimate Armor. All of them gives X different changes.
• Powered Armor Expansion Pack:
  • In X3, you can ask Dr. Light to insert a special chip to one of the armor upgrade when you get the access to the capsule. You can only do this to one part of the armor, though. But there's a secret way to get all of them, and it comes with a nice touch of gold color, too!
  • The Neutral Armor's gimmick in X8. With the exception of the Ultimate parts, the armor pieces can be switched for different combinations. Equipping a complete set would grant a fifth ability exclusive to that armor.
    • Icarus Armor: access to the Giga Crush, a full screen-explosion attack. Its power and duration depends on the amount of energy in the Giga Crush meter.
    Head: An upward helmet attack
    Body: Halves damage, negates knockback, and prevents the Recovery Gauge from decreasing
    Arms: Wave-Motion Gun as a fully charged attack. Lesser charge attacks are one less level than normal.^ExampleX's normal shots become Level-1 charged shots, and Level-2 charged shots become Level-3 charged shots. The maximum charged shot becomes a powerful laser
    Legs: Increased jump height
    • Hermes Armor: Access to the Hyper Drive, which will increase your movement and charging speed, as well as upgrading the Spread Shot into 5 shots. Its duration depends on the amount of energy in the Hyper Drive meter.
    Head: Boosts weapon charge speed
    Body: Invincibility to weaker attacks
    Arms: 3-way Spread Shot
    Legs: Invisibility while dashing, as well as increased movement speed
    • Ultimate Armor: The Nova Strike returns, which gives high damage to the opponent it crosses over, but unlike in the previous games, this attack can't be quickly spammed (one use will deplete its meter, and then the meter regenerates in a few seconds). Also, it's now a Two-Hit Kill to most Bosses.
    Head: Enabling the Shoryuken move
    Body: Same as Icarus Armor's
    Arms: The multi-hitting Plasma Shot; weapon energy consumption for special weapons (including charged attacks) will be reduced to zero
    Legs: A combination of Hermes and Icarus Armor's leg parts
• Power-Strain Blackout: Immediately after scarring Sigma in the OVA. As the latter is far from defeated, this is really, really bad timing.
• Primary-Color Champion: Most of his armors often give out this vibe.
• Promotional Powerless Piece of Garbage: Despite the rarity of the card, he's effectively useless in the trading card game, having the same stats as Bass.
• A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Between this and Zero series, X eventually becomes the leader of Neo Arcadia.
• Purple Is Powerful: His Ultimate Armor in X8 being something of a cross between the Icarus Armor (red) and Hermes Armor (blue) while having its own unique abilities. And of course, the same armor in the previous games.
• Rage Breaking Point: X reaches this in Maverick Hunter X after Zero's death, storming into Sigma's tower and giving him a piece of his mind (and his X-Buster). Of course, this was all part of Sigma's plan.
• Rage Helm: Downplayed. The design on X's default helmet slightly resembles angry eyebrows, reflecting the more aggressive playstyle and darker tone of the games themselves compared to Mega Man (Classic).
• Rank Up: Despite his power and many victories over Sigma and his Mavericks, X stays as a B-Class Hunter for most of the series. It isn't until some time before Command Mission that he finally gets promoted to S-Class.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: His potential is unlimited. This is read by Cyber Peacock, and even his analysis shows that his potential cannot be measured.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Zero's red. Much later on, though, the relation is inverted: X becomes the Red Oni as X become more emotional.
• Reduced Mana Cost: Many of his armor upgrades give him the ability to reduce the amount of energy needed for firing special weapons.
• Regenerating Health: His X3 armor has an upgrade to his helmet that allows him to refill his health (and Sub-Tanks) by standing still and waiting.
• Reluctant Warrior: X tends to ponder whether he has to resort to decisive measures when the situation calls for it. Promptly shown in The Day of Sigma when he hesitates upon firing at a Mechaniloid when it has taken a hunter captive, which is later exploited by Sigma when he uses Zero against him. Dr. Cain believed that X's worrying are the source of his potential and greatest feature.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: The predecessor to all the sentient Reploids seen in the X series and beyond.
• Robo Family: With Rock, Blues, Roll, and Auto, but it's kind of moot because they never interact. Being the template from which all Reploids are designed, however, he's kind of everyone's father. This never actually comes up, even with the Guardians, who are built directly from his DNA, but it's a little weird.
• The Ruins I Caused: In the first three games, he always gets to watch Sigma's fortresses going down from far away after he beats Sigma.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Gets one in Command Mission. It's not an actual scarf, but a device built into his back that projects a flowing, tattered scarf when he runs. It also comes in a variety of colors (depending on your game progress) and lengthens to a noticeable degree when he dashes. May or may not be a Shout-Out to "older brother" Proto Man and/or Shinobi for the PlayStation 2.
• Schematized Prop: You can see X's full blueprint in the opening cut-scene in the first game.
• Screaming Warrior:
  • Spends much pre-fight dialogue yelling at bosses, especially after X7. Reaches Ham-to-Ham Combat territory against Sigma.
  • In Maverick Hunter X, he starts off more or less calm and collected. When Zero dies, he goes into full-on Unstoppable Rage, and he can't communicate in anything less than a shout. Considering he's voiced by Mark Gatha, this is a very good thing.
  Sigma: "Hmm... I see a new clarity in your eyes. You are no longer troubled."
  X: "What you've done is UNFORGIVABLE, Sigma!"
• Screams Like a Little Girl: His death scream in X4, thanks to the voice acting, and being voiced by the same woman who was Mega Man in Mega Man 8.
• Sealed Good in a Can: By the start of the game. He ends up being the template for all kinds of evil, but then his best buddy has it even worse there.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Zero's Manly Man. While both are powerful warriors capable of destroying armies of enemies by themselves, X is the only who displays grief for the casualties in the Maverick Wars as well as doubt on the validity of his actions. He is also the one who is more dedicated to peace, such as when he retires from the frontlines in X7.
• Set Bonus: In the second and third games, getting all the armor parts will give you the ability to reduce the energy usage of special weapons. In X5-X6, you can't even use the armor parts individually — you have to assemble them first. In X8, you have the option of mixing and matching between the Hermes and Icarus parts, but if you complete a set of either Icarus or Hermes parts, then you can access their respective Giga Abilities.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: When he becomes this is up to Alternative Character Interpretation, but he is definitely this by the Zero series.
• Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: His emphasis on gunplay and keeping his distance from the enemy contrasts Zero's melee fighting style.
• Shout-Out: His in-game attacks have included the Hadoken and Shoryuken (the latter twice), and in the OVA he seems to pull off the Shining Finger... complete with the shared voice actor!
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: For some reason, in Maverick Hunter X, "Damn it!" is one of his lines upon taking damage. Naturally, this will add up if you play badly. No one else swears in that game.
• Skilled, but Naive: He's this, at first (especially apparent in The Day of Sigma OVA). He slowly loses his naivete over time, but is still apparently idealistic and pacifistic.
• Story-Breaker Power: He literally has unlimited potential, being designed with an ability that's frankly miraculous in an artificial lifeform: growing in all aspects from his experiences, mind and body alike, with no external modification or tampering required. In fact, the retelling of the first game, Maverick Hunter X, has Dr. Light state that X can evolve as he fights, explaining how he retains certain powers and upgrades between games. The only reason he has problems in battle is his kindness causes him to hold back, but even then, by X5 he's become equals to Zero's fully-regained strength, and he only grows further from there.
• Super Prototype: Though only because Cain did a really half-assed job duplicating his technology. Not that it's entirely his fault, mind you, Dr. Light was just that damn good, but basically the plot of almost every game is the result of his inferior skills.
• Superior Successor: To the original Mega Man. Notably, this has far less to do with power, not that X isn't immensely higher in that regard, but that X is the realization of Dr. Light's dream, a robot with perfectly human level thought, feelings and capabilities, whereas Rock for all his freedoms was still a robot bound by his programming.
• Supporting Protagonist: While X is typically the primary point of view for the games, his companions typically have roles that are much more intertwined with the events of the story. X will fight to keep the peace regardless, but Zero is more closely related to The Virus plots in X5 and X6, while Axl's story of dealing with Red Alert and the New Generation Reploids is more personal.
• Swiss-Army Hero: In any game with multiple armor sets, but especially X5. Drawing from the third game's opening, fandom sometimes takes this Serial Escalation and depicts him swapping through every armor set ever.
• Sword and Gun: Some games have him using a saber alongside his buster, but he tends to fare more in the "Gun" department.
• Technical Pacifist: Although in X3, X4, and X7 he leaned more towards Reluctant Warrior.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After the optimistic note of rebuilding the world and the return of Zero helped bring X out of his funk at the end of X6, he suddenly takes a 180 in personality by X7 and retires to a leadership role out of pacifism. This would be fine and all, but he's extremely abrasive towards Axl over the course of the story and constantly undermining the kid's earnest efforts to be a Maverick Hunter, even continuing to refuse it by the end of the game after being saved by him. The other Hunters think he's being too harsh and call him out on it, but he rebukes them and doubles down. Subsequently Took a Level in Kindness mid-game when they finally convinced him to get back in the field, and by the time of X8 he's fully back to his proper self and seems to have personally inducted Axl into his Fire-Forged Friends.
• Transformation Sequence: Going into a level, you'll usually see X summon his Powered Armor before becoming playable (provided you've gotten it, of course). In X8, even though he's already in the armor as he warps in, he performs the gesture anyway.
• Tragic Keepsake: He keeps Zero's Z-Saber after Zero's death in X5, up until X7.
• Tron Lines: The DiVE Armor (and its upgraded form Next DiVE Armor) gives him luminous blue lines over the torso, arms and legs.
• Unconscious Objector: In the OVA, he gets impaled with a light saber and given a Breaking Speech, he has a flashback, finds some courage to keep fighting, and reacts for a brief moment, enough to pass through Sigma's Saber and cause him his signature scar. When Sigma reacts and was going to attack, he notices X is now immobile (he kind of stabbed him right into his energy generator or something like that), so he stops, satisfied as he witnessed the "Hidden Potential" Dr. Cain talked about.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Arguably the point of The Day Of Sigma, and probably the entire retool. While he's already a badass at that point, he's still naive and hesitant.
  • To some degree in the actual games too. Being a centuries-old "robotic relic" who is also a Technical Pacifist, many Reploids think he'd be a cinch to defeat despite the fact he's a famous Maverick Hunter. They're more than a little surprised when he destroys them.
• Video Game Flight: His Falcon Armor from X5 makes him able to do this.
• Violence Really Is the Answer: He had always tried to be a pacifist, but he quickly concluded (or at least, decided before the first game) that fighting was necessary to bring about peace, to the point that he states that he is not afraid to fight his best friend Zero to stop him from getting corrupted in X5, and his enemy Sigma if he keeps showing up to stop the reconstruction of the world in X6. Then he suddenly made a decision to become an Actual Pacifist in X7, which everyone else hated him for, simply because he was tired of killing after having fought six wars and not seen any direct correlation to helping people in at least four of them. Once Zero and Axl rescued enough Reploids and/or beat all eight Mavericks, X realized there were a lot of people in the line of fire in what was essentially a custody dispute gone nuclear, and decided to fight to save them, bringing him back to his original conclusion that yes, violence is necessary whether he likes it or not.
• Vocal Dissonance: In the dub for X4, he had the same voice actor as the original Mega Man in 8. It's more acceptable on Mega Man, who looks more like a teenager, but the adult appearance of X makes the voice feel unfitting. This happened because the voice actress wasn't informed that she was recording lines for both Mega Man and X for 8 and X4 respectively in the same session.
• Walking Armory: Command Mission's rendition of the Ultimate Armor, which gives X much bulkier armor and a larger arsenal of weaponry.
• Wave-Motion Gun: On occasion. X8 features one as a Buster Part and Finishing Move.
• Weak, but Skilled: He's almost always smaller and less technically able than the opponents he faces, but he's goddamn unstoppable once he starts. Add the fact that every game still manages to have That One Boss even after he gets his 'Ultimate' armor.
• Worthy Opponent: Sigma views him as this as evidenced in X5 and X6, where in the former, during his boss fight, he'll readily acknowledge X as the strongest reploid and the best of the hunters and even admit that having Zero fight X was a waste. In contrast, if Zero confronts Sigma, Sigma will instead wonder if X or Zero is the strongest. In the latter, Sigma despite driven mad and barely coherent after his botched resurrection, will state fighting X gives him motivation to return again and again. Even during the time of X3, Sigma is astounded that X was able to destroy his battle body and attempts to possess him with the belief if he has X's body, then he'll be able to rule the world.
• "X" Makes Anything Cool: His name.
• Young and in Charge: Zigzagged. Even taking the century of stasis out of the equation, in the greater-expanded X series on one end of the Zero Continuity Snarl, X has been around long enough for the world to experience both near-apocalypse when Eurasia fell and for society to be completely restored by X7, then the shortly-following-X8 sidestory, Command Mission, outright puts the date as another full century passed since the first game. Despite this, X still looks and sounds about as young as he did in the very beginning, Art Evolution aside^*the original game's art and sprites depicts X as being of similar height to the original Rock but seems to get progressively taller with later installments, and the human age his AI personality mimics seems to have matured from the initial 14-to-15-year-old base, but only up to something more around 20-21; that said, he is still very near the top of the Maverick Hunter chain of command under Signas alone amongst much older-looking reploids.
• You're Insane!: Maverick Hunter X has the titular Azure Hunter pointing out that Sigma has completely lost it to his subordinates. None of them deny it, but rather believe that Sigma, despite his insanity, has a good point, and people would rather ignore it than deal with the implications.
  Sigma: "Our potential is limitless!"
  X: "You think you have potential?! You're insane, Sigma!"

22XX

Mega Man Zero | Main Character Index
Zero | Allies (X) | Antagonists (Weil)

I'll leave this world to you...

Voiced by Takahiro Mizushima

After fighting Sigma and his many Maverick minions, X finally dispels the Sigma Virus with the Mother Elf, created from his best friend Zero's body and achieves peace between humans and Reploids. However, that peace would be short lived, since a survivor of the Maverick Wars, Dr. Weil, wanted all Reploids to pay for the crimes they've committed as Mavericks, including those who became Maverick of their own free will. Despite X's opposition to his ideas, Weil secretly reprograms the Mother Elf into the Dark Elf and has her make new Mavericks to "prove" that the Maverick issue was still present without the Sigma Virus, causing the Elf Wars, which X reluctantly fights in alongside Zero. Eventually, he uses his body to lock up the Dark Elf, though it causes Neo Arcadia, the utopia he founded, to have a leadership crisis. When a Copy of him created by Ciel starts to execute Reploids to solve the energy crisis, he aids her in the form of a Cyber-Elf and returns the Z-Saber to Zero at the beginning of the first game, then shows up to be the mentor at random times.

---

• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Twice over. Some time between X and this series, he surrenders his body to act as the seal to the Dark Elf, and he's reduced to an incorporeal cyber-elf form. Then finally, having used up all his energy over the course of Zero 3, he decides to retire to cyberspace.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Not in-series, but his power is fairly well-known and he more or less fought the Elf Wars alone.
• Ball of Light Transformation: By virtue of being a Cyber-Elf, he takes on this form. He can also instead project himself as a holographic image.
• Barrier Maiden:
  • He is the living seal of the Dark Elf.
  • In a literal example that would still qualify, X erects a barrier around the Resistance Base in 3 to protect everyone within from Weil and Omega's Mind Control. He implies that if he had more available power he could push it even farther but his condition leaves that a losing battle.
• Big Damn Heroes: In Zero 3, when Zero and Ciel are trapped between the Mind Controlled Resistance soldiers, all hope seems lost... until X comes from above and promptly disables the mind control of all the people in the whole building.
• Big Good: He was the main force of good as the leader of Neo Arcadia. Afterwards, he's still this, but only to a smaller extent.
• But Now I Must Go: At the end of Zero 3, his Cyber Elf fades out of reality, leaving the rest of the war in Zero's hands.
• Cannot Spit It Out: See Zero's Locked Out of the Loop entry. X almost tells Zero this vital piece of information, but holds himself back instead, only confirming the truth once it has already surfaced.
• Clone Angst: X is by no means fond in the slightest of Copy-X. Justified in that it has nothing to do with him being X's replacement, as that was the intention. Rather, said Copy deciding he would joss everything X had fought and suffered for, for over two centuries, just because he wanted to be the hero.
• Converse with the Unconscious: He does this to Zero in the ending of the first game, after Zero exhausted himself fighting Copy-X, briefly explaining what he was doing during Zero's absence before he decides to "rest" and tells Zero to take care of the world for him. When Zero wakes up after, he does hear X. This also happens in the end of the third game where X, now about to rest permanently in Cyberspace, again tells Zero (who fainted after the final boss fight with Omega) to keep watch on the world for him.
• Despair Event Horizon: It's implied that he got hit with this between his series and this series, specifically in the Elf Wars in which he fought most of it alone. The original concept was that he would lose all hope for human and Reploid coexistence and begin the oppression and genocide of his descendant species, since they were incapable of living peacefully with humanity (this concept became Copy-X later). Fortunately, he's still savvy enough to Take a Third Option, and he chose to seal what caused the war, the Dark Elf. While most of his dialogue as a Cyber-Elf is fairly normal, there are a couple times when he implies his more ruthless side that he's holding back, which is extremely jarring coming from a former Reluctant Warrior and poster android for Incorruptible Pure Pureness. The fact it could break an All-Loving Hero shows how bad things really are.
• Deus Exit Machina: Okay, so his physical body is busy, so no playable X, no Dr. Light capsules, whatever. He should still be able to manifest before his underlings as the acknowledged lord of Neo Arcadia and tell them to cut the crap. Copy-X's presence might have been the problem.
• Energy Being: As a Cyber-Elf, he has no physical form.
• Expy: Has taken over Proto Man's role this time around. By the time the third game rolls around, he, like big brother Blues, is living on borrowed time...and probably gets the most focus he's ever gotten in a storyline. This isn't saying much.
• The Faceless: Zero 2 onwards; prior to that, he's literally, and figuratively, a ball of light. His sprite still has a definite face: It's just his dialogue picture that is only a glowing silhouette.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Him sacrificing his body to seal the Dark Elf, and later sacrificing most of his energy to break the Resistance out of Mass Hypnosis.
• He Who Fights Monsters: His speech at the end of the first game mentions that he no longer cares about the opponents he fought. Ironic and tragic, seeing as he was born and raised with that very quality...Thanks to Executive Meddling^note X originally would become insane due to the stress and become the Knight Templar Big Bad that Zero has to stop; it later is changed to a copy, X actually realized that this was happening to him and took himself out of the fight by using his body to seal the Dark Elf before he could go over the edge.
• Hourglass Plot: During the X series, X was the naive, always unsure Maverick Hunter, with Zero being his mentor in how to fight for both humanity and the Reploids. Come the Zero series, it's X who's now the mentor for Zero to help heal the division between Reploids and humans.
• Immune to Mind Control: He's among the only few that can ignore the Dark Elf's mind control abilities, and can even cure controlled Reploids from it. It's attributed to how the Dark Elf is practically the Maverick/Sigma Virus and X still has his Suffering Circuit.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His leftover body, anyway, by Elpizo. He does that to open the seal to the Dark Elf.
• It Gets Easier: He implies that he has come through this stage after he lived his life with more and more battles, claiming that he stopped caring about the enemies he fought. But before he went over the edge, he decided to stop and take a rest, prompting him to seal the Dark Elf. Copy X was meant to be the real X who did go over the edge.
• Killed Off for Real: At the end of the third game, his Cyber Elf form has run out of energy and he goes into Cyberspace.
• Last Request: He has one in the end of the third game for Zero.
  X: Can you hear me, Zero? My energy is almost all spent. I can't... stay in this world... much longer. Zero... I want to leave this world in your care. The threat Weil represents has not left this world. I want you... to protect humans and Reploids. Ze...ro... you can do it... you...can...
• Legendary in the Sequel: Most people knew X as their "legendary savior".
• Leitmotif: "Cyberelf".
• Literal Genie: Thirty years of testing assured that he would never attack a human being. Confronted with the monster that is Weil, he takes this to the extreme, ensuring that no death will ever come to put an end to his suffering.
• Living on Borrowed Time: After Elpizo destroys his physical body at the end of 2, X's Cyber Elf form only has what energy it has left to stay manifested in the physical world. By the time of 3 two months later, X is already struggling to hold on, and then he ends up using even more energy to free everyone in the Resistance base from Omega's control and keeping them safe.
• Mr. Exposition: Provides important information that bridges the X and Zero series.
• Our Angels Are Different: A technological, fairy-like ball of light that projects himself with an angelic robe and halo from time to time. He's meant to contrast against Copy X's Ultimate Armor and Seraph form, who takes on a far more grandiose interpretation of an angel with the white and gold color scheme and multiple wings on his body; original X's garb is far more humble by comparison.
• Physical God: Well, virtual, but by the time Zero reawakens, even at 1/5 his former self, it's quite clear that X has effectively become the most powerful character in the series so far. Then again, he did fight a century-spanning war without Zero, with a body made to infinitely evolve.
• Passing the Torch: Since Zero, as of the end of Z3, is the only hero left alive and Weil is still lurking around somewhere, X decided to make it official before "finally retiring to Cyberspace."
• Plotline Death: Seeing as fixing dead robots/Reploids/whatever is entirely workable in-canon, it probably has to do with his desire to finally rest in peace. His body was also blown up in the second game.
• A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: He became the ruler of Neo Arcadia some time between the X and Zero series. But he left his place to make himself the seal for the Dark Elf, and a copy is then made in his stead.
• The Mole: He's technically a member of La Résistance, and, as the original leader of Neo Arcadia, the information he gives is invaluable to the former's cause. That's how much he really hates his clone.
  X: I've cracked the Security system of the Trans Server... now go... terminate that copy of me... terminate with extreme prejudice...
• Rogue Protagonist: Thankfully subverted, because of the Executive Meddling in the X series; he was originally supposed to be the Big Bad, but then a copy took up the role.
• Rule of Symbolism: He "died" to absolve the war between man and Reploid once and for all, continued watching over them as a spirit, reappeared before those who'd followed him in an angelic form complete with halo and cross on his garb, and only acted in protection rather than violence. Let's see you deny that with a straight face.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: He used his body to seal the Dark Elf.
• Spirit Advisor: As he's reduced to a "spirit", there isn't much he could do but advising Zero on doing the right thing. Fridge Brilliance in that he is basically emulating his creator/father figure Dr. Light, who was this to him in the previous series.
• Take Up My Sword: X asks Zero to continue the battle for peace. Taken literally in the first game, where X gives Zero a sword in the first Boss fight, only it was actually Zero's own Z-Saber.
• Virtual Ghost: By virtue of being reduced to a Cyber Elf.

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