Could Elpizo be the last host of Sigma's personality? My proof: "I did it! I did it at last! I destroyed X at last!" How could it be an "at last" if he had only known X was the seal for a few hours? Considering that he's compared to Sigma in-game as well... could it be possible?
- "At last" more probably refers to his goal: Acquiring the Dark Elf. He know that if he wanted to do that, he has to destroy X.
- "Few hours"? You seriously don't think the amount of time that passes in real life is the same as time that passes in the story, do you? But yeah, what the above poster said. Dude went through a lot of crap to release the Dark Elf.
- I don't think that he's a host (remember, the Sigma Virus had been purged thanks to the Mother Elf), but I would say he's at least sympathetic to Sigma.
- X was a prominent public figure (even if just his copy). So much so that Elpizo and every Reploid you meet in the entire series could well be justified in saying that they had "known" X their entire lives. Mega Man X, the ruler of Neo Arcadia and most powerful known reploid, would give cause to anyone to shout "at last." After all, Elpizo had been part of the resistance fighting X.
- I could agree with you. Heck, this troper even made a WMG about it:You know, X has many Ho Yay moments with Zero in the X series. And then the Four Guardians are created, using X's DNA as a base. As a result, three of them love fighting Zero. Leviathan got the dominant homogeneous allele, since her expression towards Zero is the most prominent among her siblings, and not to mention her being blue, like her "father". Fefnir and Harpuia got the heterogeneous alelle, and Phantom got the recessive homogeneous one, since he isn't too interested in fighting Zero.
- Just to add more fuel to this, if the Mega Man Network Wiki is to be believed, the MMZ Collection site reveals that the Four Guardians aren't just based on X's DNA, they're based on part of his soul. Explanation
- The same thing occurred to me, but I prefer not to think about it for the same reasons as the original troper. If we want to go that route, though, X's moments with Zero were never that... violent. And Leviathan is female. What part of X's soul did she get?
- This different troper tries to explain it: Leviathan's "soul" is probably also male, but then she ended up in a female body. (Can qualify for The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body, but there's no clear evidence for that.) Nobody knows why they use a female body, though. The violence is because she (and her fellow Guardians) only knows Zero as their enemy at first. Alternatively, X's pacifism holds out those violent "passions"; since he was split into 5, the emotions are separated. His original gentle and pacifist self (as well as his own memories) becomes the Elf X, while his "hidden selves" become the Guardians.
- Memory can play a part in shaping souls. If the manga is to be believed, then Leviathan is the part of X's soul that consists of his memories about Marti. Think about it, both are aquatic reploids who wield a polearm and love to tease the main characters.
- Or X didn't want to seem gay, and thus Leviathan was made female. Or for a reason that made Sigmund Freud spin in his grave.
- Leviathan inherited X's childish aspects. According to the MMZ wikia, Leviathan doesn't particularly enjoy violence that much, but she thoroughly enjoys fighting Zero, being very playful about it, as if their battle is a game. Word of God states that one of the biggest regrets of the development team was that they didn't adequately flesh out Leviathan's (and to a lesser extent Fefnir's) personalities.
- There's a pretty easy explanation for that — they are reploids, robots without programmed gender, and thus whether they are "male" or "female" depends on their bodies (since others would expect those in male bodies to be men and those in female ones to be women). So it is a case of The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body, but a justified one, and to be honest, there are many humans who behave the way they do purely because others expect them to, so it's not like it was pulled out of the ass. And besides, it's not like their love has to be romantic. Good friends "love" each other too, though they won't admit it loud.
- X and Zero already behaved like a gay couple in the X series, so there's no big change...
- That's called an acronym.
1) He was the first victim of the Elf Wars. Weil decides not to attack X or Zero first, the former being the strongest hero at that point, and being likely heavily guarded by the 4 Guardians or other loyal subordinates, and the latter likely being heavily guarded himself since a released Maverick Virus, or even worse, maverick Zero, is a top-priority threat. So, he went after the strongest hero besides those two (Although I'd place Harpuia as stronger than Axl, personally) as a "test run" of his mobile WMDs. Axl gets wind and tries to warn X, but was killed by Dark Elf and/or Omega (Or even possibly by Weil himself) before he could do so, leaving Weil still with good publicity.
2) Axl was the quaternary antagonist of the Elf Wars (After Weil, Omega and Dark Elf), being controlled by Dark Elf. He's eventually put down by X before Zero joins in, having been too far gone to turn back to reason, and the catalyst for X's near Despair Event Horizon.
3) Ciel sought out Axl first since they knew where he was, and told him everything about the sick dealings of Neo Arcadia. He joins the resistance and is their best guy as they don't know where Zero is at that point or even if he could be activated. Eventually, Axl is killed either by Harpuia sparking his Character Development or Copy X. This drives them to find Zero as they have no other choice at that point.
This is why Zero no longer inhabits his original body. For whatever reason, the original Zero was killed. They were incapable of bringing back the original mind, so they instead opted to make a perfect replica of Zero's personality. It succeeded.- Or he crossed the Moral Event Horizon after the war. Most of the war's casualties are hinted to be because of the Dark Elf and Omega (who are pretty Ax-Crazy to begin with). Plus, given the outcome, it would be expected to exaggerate his actions. Plus the kind of punishment Weil got would drive anyone to losing all sense of humanity. This makes Weil somewhat of an even more chilling villain: someone who is utterly depraved, yet his backstory and original methods make him relatable. And thus, more disturbing.
- Left open to interpretation. In official commentary for the Zero series, Makoto Yabe (Scenario Writer) and Ryota Ito (Series Director) have a discussion about the nature of Omega's origins. Makoto Yabe explains that Omega's personality was certainly programmed by Weil to be his personal messiah that would help him rule the world, but expresses doubt that Weil created Omega's mind. Ryota Ito then chimes in by saying that the original storyboard idea for Omega was that Zero's original body still contained the Maverick programming created by "a certain doctor who has tried to take over the world innumerable times before" (obviously Wily), and that said side of Zero's personality took over control of the original body once Zero's mind was removed from it. However, he states that since they don't discuss the issue in the actual game itself, the fans are welcome to come to whatever conclusion they want to.
- It makes sense. Omega acts like how "Zero" did when Sigma first found/fought him in the ruins of Dr. Wily's lab. (And even more so like Awakened Zero). The "Zero" we most know from the X series games is a personality that somehow developed after Sigma knocked him out in that fight (after that W appeared on his head jewel and caused him disabiling amounts of pain). So, essentially, Omega IS the original personality. Zero, through the X games, was a personality that hijacked Omega's body. Dr. Weil gave Omega a factory reset and then changed his loyalty from Dr. Wily to himself (given his similarities to Dr. Wily, even in name, this probably was not hard for him to achieve). So, in this sense, Zero (upon awaking in MMZ 1) isn't a copy, but himself given his own body for the first time, even if the body itself is a imperfect copy of Omega's. The final battle not being "Zero" (in a copy of his own body) vs "Omega (who had stolen his original body), but just Zero (the new personality in a body that is truly his own) vs Omega (the original personality in the original body).
- An alternative intepretation of this WMG: Zero's third personality is the original identity under the Virus that was designed to control him, the one that angered Wily with his rebellious (and possibly heroic) ways and was sealed in a capsule for XX years while the Virus assumed total control of him. It ends up becoming his "true" dominant personality later after Sigma freed him from the influence of the Virus before the events of the first X game, and survived transference into his 'copy' body that he uses for the entire Zero series. It is entirely possible fragments of this true personality remain inside his original Omega body, thus allowing for his true resurrection in the distant future.
- When facing Copy X, Zero tells him that while the majority of his memories of the past are gone, he seems to remember that the original X was much stronger than his Copy is. He also praises the original X as someone who was his friend and whom he knows was much more noble than the current reploid in front of him who has taken on his name. I would say it is certainly plausible that Zero has a sense that the Guardians are similar to X and only fought them because they were in his way; for example, back in Mega Man X5, Zero fought X even though he considered him his best friend.
- I won't delve into some of the details proposed here (because I don't agree with them and it should be left at that). However, the basic premise is true: Zero is a Maverick, and always was a Maverick. He just doesn't like to be the reason for destruction and deaths, and due to being built like that from the very beginning (as opposed to becoming a Maverick as a result of the virus' effect) he has enough control to choose not to fight. And it does have to be noted that it is precisely because he is a Maverick that he was able to kill Weil: of the Reploids built before the elf wars, only Mavericks are capable of hurting humans deliberately, so after Weil revealed himself to be a human, a non-Maverick would be stopped from hurting him by their programming.
The reason why he hasn't/didn't starve/bleed/die from shock is due to the orange liquid. It cauterizes all wounds, and functions as an anesthetic (of course, he'd still suffer from the psychological pain). Cybernetics would get rid of the toxins, and generate energy to keep the body from starving/suffocating. The suit would be designed to prevent it from injuring itself, so the metallic limbs can't rip it apart. His tongue was also cut out and replaced by a mechanized one, to prevent him from biting it off to bleed. No wonder Weil was so pissed: He's a mutilated, living corpse unable to eat or breathe. Unable to feel anything. Forever.
- I dunno about that; in Zero 4, he got his glass helmet cracked out twice (after he got a direct hit from Ragnarok's laser and later after his first form boss fight), but he still managed to stay alive.
- Like I said, everything below the diaphragm, meaning that his lungs are still able to inhale and exhale. Plus they'd be smart enough to prevent liquid getting out of his chest region, so it would presumably shut off when the helmet is broken. That, or the cybernetics have a breathing supply for him. How else would you explain him not asphyxiating before going One-Winged Angel, considering the final stage had the vacuum of space and the Earth as a backdrop?
- Or better yet, Weil is just a head or a brain in a jar, and his cybernetic body has programming within it that keeps him from committing suicide. If this picture◊ is anything to go by, even most of his head is robotic.
- Then again he mentioned that they digitize his mind so that he'll forever reflect on his sins; At this point he's no longer human, he might as well became a Maverick that needed to be put down. And even then, it won't do him any good as his consciousness live on through Model W in the ZX series.
Because Zero never woke up that day. Only Ciel thought he did.
To be fair, having your closest friends die off one by one in your face can take a toll on a person, and by that point death was staring her down. So, instead of Passy waking Zero with a slim chance of working, she altered Ciel's mind and a nearby Power Suit to cope with the circumstances, creating a Split Personality. When she came back to resistance base, everybody else just played along, adding another PTSD victim to the madhouse.
But she started winning battles.
Since all records of the Elf Wars were classified, Neo Arcadia took Ciel by her word that she was Zero. Even X himself, broken beyond belief his friend went Maverick in the Elf Wars, played along because he was desperate.
Thus, in Z2, when Zero was stranded out there? Either Ciel thought he escaped somewhere else when she was teleported, or Ciel's Power Suit was strong enough for atmospheric reentry and Cerveau took over while she was gone. In Z3? Omega could've been a Shapeshifter all along like the newer generation reploids. In Z4? Ciel managed to escape via transport, but she fell into a trance imagining Zero was still fighting Weil.
- Then what about the beginning of Z4, where Neige speaks to both Ciel and Zero at the same time and welcomes Ciel while telling Zero to shove off? Schizophrenia for everybody?
- Well, Harpuia is supposed to be the smartest of the four guardians. Running your bike into oncoming fire, resulting in his untimely demise, didn't seem like a good idea.
- Then again, this is the same Harpuia that thought that staring down Omega when it melded with the Dark Elf, giving him enough time to throw several orbs at him, was a good idea.
- Be fair, that lightning attack Harpuia used can tear shit up if he manages to hit you with it.
- They're more like a Repliforce that wasn't guilty of all sorts of ancillary crimes. Let's face it, Repliforce wasn't an innocent puppy. When a military organization is implicated in a major atrocity, refusing to disarm and come in for questioning is the kind of thing that should send up warning signals.
- The only thing Repliforce was guilty of was not offering themselves on the chopping block for a crime they didn't commit. The above entries on this very page about the actions of humans in the Zero series makes it a very reasonable point of view on why Repliforce wouldn't trust humans to give them an impartial trial, what was most likely was going to happen if they had peacefully disarmed would be humanity retiring them all without bothering to get proof of them being part of the crime.
- Then maybe they should have made that argument, because when a group of heavily armed soldiers who stand accused of (and have witnesses testifying to) destroying an entire city respond to the very reasonable request of coming in for questioning by spouting questionable military philosophy and the flowery military prose equivalent of "you can take our guns when you pry them from our cold dead fingers", one doubts any army in that situation, reploid or human, would be allowed to continue to exist after that. Furthermore, considering that the Zero series happened after over a century of Reploids going on murderous rampages or doing boneheaded stupid things for entirely self-serving reasons, it's probably just as valid to assume that instead of the Zero series being proof that Reploids prior to that era wouldn't be given a chance, but rather not giving Reploids a chance was learned through hard, bloody experience. And considering that Storm Owl proceeded to terrorize the skies and Jet Stingray destroyed a different city, Repliforce doesn't exactly strike me as the kind to try and help their case. For cripes' sake, you're declared Maverick because people think you destroyed a city, and you respond by destroying another city?!?!?
- The only thing Repliforce was guilty of was not offering themselves on the chopping block for a crime they didn't commit. The above entries on this very page about the actions of humans in the Zero series makes it a very reasonable point of view on why Repliforce wouldn't trust humans to give them an impartial trial, what was most likely was going to happen if they had peacefully disarmed would be humanity retiring them all without bothering to get proof of them being part of the crime.
- Arguably the Resistance is even worse than Repliforce because they are a group of Reploids openly defying humanity from the beginning. They raid supplies, assault Neo-Arcadian bases, were behind the assassination of Megaman X, and a year later in the case of Elpizo's "Operation Righteous Strike" they attacked a residential area full of civilians as part of an attempted invasion force. The Resistance did the exact same actions that Repliforce did, they refused to surrender themselves, took over territory that didn't belong to them, attacked the Neo-Arcadian Maverick Hunters, and even threatened civilians. The fact that Ceil is their token human doesn't change the fact that they are a group of Reploids fighting against the government of Humanity. They are in every sense of the word Mavericks, only they don't have Sigma manipulating them.
- This would make them closer to the Rebellion, except unlike either, their actions weren’t as destructive. And Neo-Arcadia themselves become Maverick by Zero 4.
- As Mother Elf was derived from Zero's residual viral readings - a vaccine, so to speak - it's possible that regular elves are similar in nature.
When this series first started, a lot of people commented about Zero's new appearance. Capcom gave a rather flimsy explanation for this, stating that this was how Zero always looked, and it's just the art style that makes him appear "different".
However, I have a better theory about this, because I absolutely refuse to accept that as an answer.
If we observe the designs of the main characters in Mega Man X8, they've been slimmed down considerably, from bulkier, heavier frames to more agile, lightweight models. As we can observe from devices that we use in our lives (such as television sets, personal computers, and MP3 players), technology tends to lean towards being more convenient and 'compact' as it evolves. There's no reason not to believe that by the time of Mega Man Zero, the overall designs for reploids eventually did away with the bulky armor and lent themselves towards more human designs.
With that said, as technology progressed, there's no reason not to believe that as Zero's body was worked on, it would have gone through systematic updates and upgrades in the process, to keep up with modern technology. Weil most likely did the same with Omega (Zero's real body), following similar schematics for Zero's duplicate body, as he needed it for more active use during the Elf Wars.
That is why neither Zero nor Omega "look" they way they should — they've been altered to keep up with the times.
- The Archie Comics continuity, at the very least, seems to implicitly favor this interpretation, using any version of the characters depicted wherever they should be used; X1 Zero in any event set before X1, post-X2 Zero in any X Series event after he was rebuilt, Zero Series Zero (and Zero Series everyone else, for that matter) in a vision Dr. Light had that predicted the Zero Series events, among other things. With no sign of one appearance overriding the others, the comic's take on it makes it at least semi-canon.
First off, the Dark Elf has the ability to transform any robot into a stronger and then monstrous form of itself. Look no further than Elpizo or Omega, for instance. The Dark Elf used to be the Mother Elf, and the manual stated that X used Mother Elf to purge the rest of the Sigma Virus on earth.
Now, onto the theory: the Mother Elf modified X's Ultimate Armornote and gave it a white and gold color instead of the black and purple one. It also later gave him a seraphic form that was likely to be used only once. After that X became widely known for having that form.
When X went missing to seal the Dark Elf within his inactive body, the "Savior X" later became the template for making Copy X, complete with the extra forms above but without influence from the Mother Elf; this also hypothetically makes Copy X's forms weaker than X's.
Consider the following:- Copy X was originally going to be X himself.
- Mega Man X5 was supposed to be the last Megaman X game.
- X5 hints that Dr. Wily is still alive.
See where we're going with this? Wily was most likely supposed to be the real Big Bad of Zero, but for whatever reason, he was replaced by Suspiciously Similar Substitute Weil. Which is to bad, as it would have made Zero 3 and Zero 4 more epic. Omega would be played up as how Wily wanted Zero to be, and at the end Zero would sacrifice himself to defeat his creator.
And then Wily becomes Model W in Mega Man ZX.
- On top of that, maybe he goes on one final adventure to free Iris’s soul from the Megaman equivalent of Hell, possibly during Legends.
- Harpuia: X's sense of justice and desire of coexistence with humanity.
- Fefnir: X's power and determination. Note that without X's pacifism to temper it, Fefnir becomes a Blood Knight.
- Leviathan: X's more naive side, brought to a new level.
- Phantom: X's loyalty to duty.
However there were many things that made the suit a Fate Worse than Death; being unable to taste, touch or naturally sense the outside world, still aging in a way (Weil looks pretty ghoulish, and we don't know whether he was old when he got into the suit or if he was a lot younger than he now looks) and the orange fluid must feel really weird. Noticing this, they gave up on it. Only when Weil dwarfed Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan combined in mass death did they decide to use it, this time as a means of inflicting the ultimate punishment.
X (From Copy X's Dialogue): "How can this be... possible... I was supposed to be... a hero..."
Zero (approximation): "I've just remembered something... You fought for peace between humans and reploids. That's what made you a hero"
X: "Since you disappeared I've been fighting this war alone against an uncountable number of Mavericks for nearly a hundred years... Battle after battle... So painful and so sad... But the hardest part was when I discovered that I no longer cared about fighting enemies... I'll leave this world to you... Please allow me... to rest in peace... for a while............I'm sorry, Zero..."
Zero: "So be it... But that's why we are the best partners... I'll do what you want... Rest for a while. I will handle it, you can count on me. I won't stop! When an enemy appears... I'll terminate it..."