Since the year 200X (4), The Megas have strived to bring a message from Dr. Light to the people. They have chosen to transmit that message, the tale of a small blue robot named Mega Man, directly into the eardrums of the general populace through the power of rock.
The Megas are a Los Angeles-based band well-known for making vocal rock remixes of music from the Mega Man video game series. Unlike The Protomen, a similarly dedicated band, they directly remix songs from the games. The resulting songs generally have a closer feeling to the original work, giving each of the Robot Masters their own personalities as they sing about their lives as Mega Man breaches their defenses, and eventually defeats them. Their 3 albums based on games so far (Megatainment, Get Equipped and History Repeating: Blue) form a rock opera which is currently 1:12:32 long.Its members currently consist of "Reverend" Josh Breeding, Eric "E" Von Doymi, Greg "Gregatron" Schneider (formerly of punk-rock act Agent 51), Mike "Mikey Hell" Levinson (also of Agent 51), Brian "The Double D" DiDomenico, and Church. Their debut album, "Get Equipped", which covers nearly every song in the Mega Man 2 soundtrack, was released January 2008. It's available for purchase on their website.On August 24, 2009, the band, in conjunction with Entertainment System, released a 4-track EP called Megatainment, based on Mega Man 1.On February 5th, 2010, they released "Get Acoustic", a largely acoustic version of Get Equipped, with the "Monsteropolis Orchestra" they created. Most of the songs are slightly slower and more somber, although this is not true universally.On July 19th, 2010, they released the Sparked A War single, which contained the studio release of You've Sparked A War/Spark Man, a instrumental variation, an acoustic remix, and covers of both Sunglasses at Night by Corey Hart and the Mega Man cartoon theme song, dubbed Super Fighting Robot.And on June 18th, 2012, the Megas released the "History Repeating: Blue" album, which covers several songs from Mega Man 3, and is the first of two albums. Noticeably, it lacks several songs they have played live, such as "I Am Not The Break Man", and "Fly on A Dog", meaning that those have been saved for "History Repeating: Red".
Avenging The Villains: In Carved From Mighty Oak, Wood Man states he will avenge the other Robot Masters. Heat Man's voices seem to push him to this too.
There are a few; The Quick and the Blue for example.
I'm swimming in this bright blue ocean / (I'm drowning in the darkest emotion) / They call me useless, they call me weak / (They call me a flipper and snorkel geek)
Combat Pragmatist: It is speculated by the fans that Mega Man used the Flash Stopper against Quick Man (My circuits slow...), presumably to overcome the latter's superior speed. This is the only time it's even hinted that Mega Man used a robot master's weakness.
Continuity Nod: Spark Man's song, You've Sparked a War, presents him as a revolutionary against human tyranny, just like his counterpart Elec Man's earlier song.
Dance Battler: Metal Man's song, appropriately titled Metal Dance.
Top Man's song, as he considers the fight between Mega Man and himself a "legendary dance fight."
Darker and Edgier: Nothing close to the level of horror seen in The Protomen's songs, but a good number of the songs paint a decidedly darker picture of the Mega Man games. Roughly half of the Robot Masters are given sympathetic views, or at least a Freudian Excuse or two, and there are three seperate songs discussing the questionable moral ground that Mega Man stands on; Light, Wily, and Mega Man himself are all too aware that Mega Man is himself a robot built to kill, just like the robot masters that he defeats.
The Megatainment album in general has a darker, more cynical feel than Get Equipped, if only because of Beneath the Steel and Look What You've Done. It may take several listenings a back-to-back comparison to even recognize Bomb Man's theme (originally a rather cheerful song) in the former.
And History Repeating takes it up yet another notch. See Despair Event Horizon below.
The title of one of the last songs in History Repeating: Blue, (I Want to Be the One) To Watch You Die is a Darker and Edgier version of a previous song title, I Want to Be the One.
Quick on the draw! / In this town, I am the law! / Is what they say true? / Does Death wear blue? / Can he fall?
And at the end, the final lines of the song are:
You're too quick on the draw. / Burn this town, there is no law. / What they say's true. / Death does wear blue. / He can't... fall...
What's the name of the MM3 Wily Stages 1 and 2 song sung by Dr Light? (I Want To Be The One)... To Watch You Die.
In "History Repeating"
Now I can say when you want to be the One / What you start to realize is / You’re the only one
Used again in Gamma Unchained. The normal chorus ends with the line "I'll give you power, you'll take control". The final repetition of the chorus changes it to "What good is power if you're out of control?"
Death from Above: The Annihilation of Monsteropolis. "I will fly high above Monsteropolis / And I will rain terror down on the general populace..."
"Lives on this earth I grow tired of/ Death from above/ The annihilation of everyone you know and love..."
Crash Man does not agree with Wily's ideals and wants to give his power to Mega Man, but he is "Programmed to fight to the very end" and must do battle with him. However, at the end of the song: "Victory was at hand, but in the end, his will overcame the program." Presumably, he blew himself up so that Mega Man could use his power.
Alternatively, he stopped himself from killing Mega Man long enough for him to make the last shot. One of the interesting parts of the Megas' music is that most of the songs can have Alternate Character Interpretation within the music itself, not just between the game and the songs.
Demoted To Nothing / Wasted Song: Cut Man and Guts Man, despite being two of the more well known Robot Masters, don't show up at all in the Megatainment album. There's been talk of making a Megatainment Pt. 2, but The Megas have expressed a desire to finish the Mega Man 3 album before they get to work on that, and there's the issue of how they're going to fill it with more than just the songs for those two.*
Time Man and Oil Man were considered, but Entertainment System wasn't all that fond of their songs.
"A man stands above the city he will destroy. Built from airplane parts, his propeller spins as he thinks to himself 'I will destroy these people.'"
Despair Event Horizon: Dr. Light is singing (I Want To Be The One) To Watch You Die after seeing Proto Man fighting for Dr. Wily, which indicates he crossed this in a rather dark way.
"I've finally learned what torture means/ You sent my first born back to me/ And put a gun in his dead hand/ Time to take an eye for mine old friend."
"The things I hope, the fading dream,/ Has finally got the best of me/ I wish that I could be there/ I want to be the one to watch you die"
Mega Man crosses it in History Repeating, complete with a somber, weary take on the cheerful 3 title tune.
"Wait, now, there's too much at stake now,/ a cold wind blows/He looked to the crowd and he cried/'The moment of truth has arrived!'"
Driven to Suicide: The ending of Programmed to Fight seems to imply that Crash Man killed himself (via self-detonation?) so Mega Man could finish his quest for justice.
The last part of the song ("Down falls Crash Man... Down falls Crash Man... Doooooooown"), along with the sudden bass boom which ends the song and the fact that Crash Man's stage requires Mega Man to travel mostly vertically by climbing ladders, implies Crash Man jumped or fell off the edge after refusing or failing to kill Mega Man.
The brass boom could also be a crash bomb (self?) explosion, or thunder (the end of the stage is in a storm). But again, "No-one will know the truth to this story."
Fun with Acronyms: According to their mission statement, The Megas are Mike Eric Greg And Josh.
Which works even less well since they've added keyboardist Brian DD to their roster.
Gray and Gray Morality: Mega Man sees himself as a hero. Wily's robots see him as a menace who is slaughtering their brothers. "Lamentations of a War Machine/End Song" has Mega Man tormented by doubts over whether or not what he has done was right.
Gone Horribly Right: Gamma is a machine created to keep the peace. When Wily activates him in Gamma Unchained, it comes to a horrible conclusion.
System Activation. Peacekeeping Calculation. Solution: Extermination.
Hailfire Peaks: Considering that Fire Man and Ice Man were working together, and that their song is called Hell Has Frozen Over, it's not unreasonable to think their level was like this.
Hearing Voices: Possibly Heat Man, given the line "In my mind, I hear the voices cry/I've made them a promise that Mega Man dies!"
Hypocrite: Dr Wily lambastes Light for having his robot destroy his own kind, even though he's the one sending robots out to create murder and mayhem amongst humans despite being one himself.
Also, his song Look What You've Done implies that he's fighting to free robots from human tyranny (as do Evolution of Circuitry and You've Sparked A War.) Now compare this to Programmed to Fight, which reveals that Crash Man is still a slave to his programming...
I Cannot Self-Terminate: In Programmed To Fight, Crash Man wants to let Mega Man win and kill him so Doctor Wily will fall, but, as the title suggests, his programming will not allow it.
I Let You Win: Listening closely to the Crash Man song lyrics, the end suggests Crash Man was actually winning before he finally was able to throw the fight.
Implacable Man: Quick Man's song has him wondering if Mega Man's one of these.
Is what they say true?/Does Death wear blue?/Can he fall?
Loners Are Freaks: In Annihilation of Monsteropolis, Air Man is portrayed as a loner tortured by the fact his only power is "to push others away", and goes as far as outright stating: "For if I can't walk among them/Then I will walk the world alone".
Although in this case, perhaps it should be "Freaks Are Loners", as it's implied that the fact that humans rejected his abnormal appearance might be a major factor for his hatred of humanity.
No one in this world can understand/Who I am./That is why I'm my own biggest fan!
Lyrical Dissonance: The cheerful ending theme from Mega Man 1 is set to Dr. Wily vowing to return and destroy the people's future. And he won't stop.
Programmed to Fight may also have this. For one of the most cheery themes in Mega Man 2, the relatively dark explanation of how Crash Man knows his fate creates a contrast between the lyrics and the melody.
Mood Whiplash: Evolution of Circuitry, Elec Man's song, is quite possibly one of the most cheerful and optimistic songs by The Megas, despite the reasons for the optimism. Beneath the Steel, Bomb Man's theme, is one of the darkest, rivaled only by Look What You've Done. They're right next to each other on the album.
The Mega Man 1 album is full of mood whiplash in general. The first song is Evolution of Circuitry, followed by Beneath The Steel as mentioned. That is followed by Hell Has Frozen Over, a much lighter song focusing on the teamwork of Ice Man and Fire Man, and then you get hit by Look What You've Done.
Speaking of Bomb Man, anyone who remembers how cheerful his theme was in the game will probably get hit by this.
By that token, compare Crash Man's theme to Programmed to Fight, and then, of course, there is the fact that the cheerful ending theme to Mega Man 1 is overlaid with Dr. Wily promising a never-ending war for Mega Man and Dr. Light.
Fly on a Dog is one of their darkest songs, involving Mega Man grimly contemplating his purpose. It also features a chorus about how awesome a flying dog is.
History Repeating: Blue, has most of the tracks as awesome rock tracks, each about the Robot Masters declaring their purpose and desire, or Mega Man and Dr Light regretting their actions. It ends on Continue, a rather soft, almost ballad-like song, about how Mega Man would choose to continue, no matter what, but still sounds incredibly regretful and pained. Not surprising, since it is the game's Game Over screen.
Mook Horror Show - Quick Man's song increasingly becomes this as it progresses.
Wily's song has shades of this, specifically when he starts begging Dr. Light to call Mega Man off.
Moral Myopia - So, it's okay for Wily to program destructive machines and set them loose to kill and maim, but if Light sends his robot out to stop him, Light is a coward and Mega Man is a murderer?
My God, What Have I Done?: By Lamentations of a War Machine, Mega Man's enthusiasm for the fight has given way to the realization that he, too, was built to kill. He's reduced to begging Doctor Light to tell him why he fought, why all this had to happen.
The intro to the Mega Man 3 album implies that he's still not over it.
If it was up to me I'd rewrite history And change my destiny One last time.
The first verse of The Message from Dr. Light. "My mistakes/And my sins; what have I done?"
Mythology Gag: Many of the songs have some sort of reference to the original game somewhere in them, sometimes alluding to a quirk in the character's behavior in game.
"Crash Man paces back and forth..." *
In the original Mega Man 2, there is a flaw in the AI where if the player does not shoot first, Crash Man will not throw a Crash Bomb.
"To break Wily's walls you will need my power." The Buebeam Trap. That is all.
"Take the first shot, Mega Man, let's put it to the test." *
Metal Man won't attack you unless you attack him first.
Quick Man's weakness is the Flash Stopper, which stops time.
"The strongest of all of the other robots is me!" *
The Bubble Lead, Bubble Man's weapon, is the only weapon the final boss is weak to.
"When the leaves fall, so will you" *
Describes one of Wood Man's attacks which causes leaves to fall from the top of the screen.
Dr. Wily's speech near the end of Look What You've Done when the music transitions to the ending theme is taken word for word from the end of the first game.
"He removed his helmet, dropped it into the soft grass..." Figures the song based off the ending would include a reference to the last shot of the game.
"I dodge bullets when I'm spinning" *
When Top Man winds up for his charge attack, Mega Man's shots will bounce off of him.
"You can fight these cats 'til you get your fill." *
Referring to the giant feline minibosses from Top Man's stage.
"My heart is gone, there's only fire" *
In canon, Proto Man went to Wily to have his imperfect solar energy core repaired after running away from Light Labs. Wily opted to replace it with an unstable but more reliable nuclear core
instead.
The title of the song History Repeating may be taken from a line in the intro of Mega Man 4; "history repeats itself"
"I am magnetically drawing my death to me" *
One of Magnet Man's abilities is to use magnetism to pull Mega Man to him.
"She tells me 'I'm sorry, I've gotta roll'" *
The woman Magnet Man is serenading is all but said to be Roll, Mega Man's sister.
"Hi Rock, my weapon is hot" *
"Rock" was Mega Man's name before Light upgraded him, and in Japan he's known as "Rock Man".
Proto Man went by the codename Break Man in MM3. Since Mega Man doesn't know who he is yet, neither name is used in History Repeating: Blue, but part 2 of the title track sneaks in "He's the prototype man of Mega Man", and the live track "I'm Not The Break Man" (presumably to be included in Red) suggests a meaning for his codename. *
The intended meaning is still unknown, so The Megas' interpretation — he was literally broken — may actually be right. Other theories include that his goal is to "break" Mega Man (either literally or in the sense of testing him) and that it's just another music reference, this time to breakdancing.
"I can feel my hands turning into fists." *
Actually, Spark Man has huge electrical prongs instead of hands. Fans often poke fun at this particularly blatant Robot Master deformity.
The inclusion of Sunglasses at Night is most likely an allusion to Proto Man.
Likewise, the Fly on a Dog single includes the titular track, followed by a Badass remix (Just Another Machine). This is then followed up by a cover of Real Life's Send Me An Angel, a likewise Badass cover of the German intro to the cartoon show (Super Fighting Robot (MeGerman)) and keyboardist Brian "Double D" Domenico's instrumental take on the password screen from Mega Man 2 (I Want to B42A5D54E2 the C531).
Spell My Name with an S: One of the lines from History Repeating, I rock. Fire up. I'm fired up. which has sparked many a Flame War.
It has since been confirmed to be Proto Man greeting his brother, the line being "Hi, Rock".
History Repeating: Blue consists mostly of awesome rock songs. The last song on the album is a soft ballad based on the Game Over song.
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Elec Man is portrayed as a radical revolutionary fighting against "human cruelty" in Evolution of Circuitry.
The Western: "The Quick and the Blue" has a feeling similar to this.
The Greatest Story Never Told: By Programmed to Fight, it seems that Crash Man may be the only one who knows his story.
It's explicitly evoked with the line "My end has come and I welcome glory/no one will know the truth to this story."
Turned Against Their Masters: Crash Man may have been more motivated by a hatred of his creator than by sort of sense of justice.
Then there's, you know, Elec Man'sentire song, calling out for robots to throw off human oppression and revolt.
Villain Song: Most of the songs are sung from the viewpoints of the Robot Masters the songs are associated with. Look What You've Done deserves special mention as it is sung from the perspective of Dr. Wily himself.
What Could Have Been: The band originally went by the moniker The Message From Dr. Light, which was scrapped due to sounding "too religious". They also apparently went by The Rockmen "for all of one hour".
What the Hell, Hero?: Wily calls out Dr. Light many times in Look What You've Done.
And who is this that you send? One of them? While you cower, far from harm. He'll just disappoint you.
..."And how quick you had him dispatch his brothers. You call this murderer a savior."
"I see his hands, covered in my children's blood..."
There's one thing for which I long And that is to prove them all wrong! I promise you I won't rest until I have defeated you They will all see The strongest of all of the other robots is me.
Do you know what it's like to be built this way? With only the power to push others away? ... I will destroy these people... For if I cannot walk among them... Then I will walk the world alone.
Written by the Winners: Top Man's song opens with a reference to this idea. "I'm the one on top, I'm the one who writes history."
Yandere: Flash Man could be one. It's definitely Foe Yay, but depending on how far one interprets the lyrics...
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