Discussion Characters / TheMegas

I raise my hand as the guilty party for making those Make Your Choice additions for Gamma. Though like you, I guess it was simply my own interpretation of the song. The Megas themselves keep who is singing the song ambiguous for us to decide.

My reasoning was the whole We Can Rule Together vibe. Gamma in Gamma Unchained decided that humanity needs to be eliminated, and it would make sense to enlist another robot to help. Protoman's songs show nothing about a desire to rule, just to destroy in a fit of rage. And again, Protoman at this point only hates Mega Man for taking his place as Light's son. One Last Time has him greet Mega Man with the intent to fight.

And the "free of the failings of humanity" line was another callback to Gamma Unchained. "Gamma stand for you are now unchained. You'll bring peace to our world gone insane."

I'll grant you that logically Gamma wouldn't know about Mega Man's personal turmoil, but is it too much to think that he couldn't figure it out? And the "rage in your steel" line can still apply to Mega, not just Proto.

But that's my two cents anyway.

Apologies ahead of time for the wall of text.

I think the key here is who's singing the second verse. To my mind, the second verse can't be sung by the same person as the first, starting with how it opens. "And what of you," is a response to the previous verse, not a continuation. It is said by whoever's the target, rather than speaker, of the first verse. Whether you think the first verse is sung by Gamma or Proto, this has to mean the second is sung by Mega Man, and the lines in the second verse fit Proto as a target a lot better than Gamma.

First, "two prodigal sons." Gamma isn't a prodigal son — he doesn't go away for a long time then come back (he's also not extravagant and wasteful, but nobody else in the album is either so they're probably not using that definition). Proto, however, is well known for doing exactly that. Mega Man does it more metaphorically — going away to the depths of his own despair — but it still applies to him.

As for the We Can Rule Together thing, you're right, Protoman doesn't show a desire to rule. Mega Man, however, is the type to reach out to his brother and try to get him to switch sides.

"You say you don't care at all," doesn't fit for something to be said to Mega Man — if Mega Man has problem vis a vis caring, it's that he cares too much.

Proto, however, has always been portrayed as the cool and aloof one — the guy crossing his arms and lounging against the wall, pretending not to care.

I don't see how "rage in your steel" can apply to Mega Man — all his songs are about him being tired or depressed, with nary a mention of him ever being angry.

"You wait for the choice to be made/you're afraid that your purpose has been taken away," doesn't apply to Gamma or Mega Man — they know what their purposes are and Mega Man's in the fight because he chose to in the first place. Mega Man would kind of like if his purpose (to fight) was taken away.

The very next song has Mega Man talking to Proto Man about his rage, his choices and his purpose. The second verse of I Refuse repeats a lot of the themes from the second verse of Make Your Choice.

As for One Last Time, that's not the only thing Proto says — he also says, "Today we change the end..." we, not I, linking with "I've seen the end/and you are the key my friend" and has a monologue:

Why do you fight?
How can you say
You know what’s right?
...
What if we win?
What if we fall?
Will any choice that we make
Matter at all?

These lines tie directly into the Make Your Choice.

Gamma does talk in the song — but it's in the same computerized voice as he does in Gamma Unchained: The official lyrics show the same notation for both songs, γ (Gamma).

And it just fits better with the whole theme of the double album — Mega Man and Proto Man head up the cover art, and they're drawn to be facing each other. The second song sets up their conflict, so it only makes sense that the last songs resolve it. It doesn't make sense to set it up and then not have a song with a direct confrontation.

Pretty sure I'm going to be in the minority for thinking this: I can see where you guys are coming from, but I always assumed Make Your Choice was sung by Dr. Wily, perhaps addressing both Mega Man and Proto Man simoultaneously. I mean, would we really put it past Dr. Wily to claim that he was free from the failings of mankind? If Proto Man was singing, why would he be telling Mega Man how he's afraid of his purpose being taken away? Why would Gamma have lines at all if this were just between Mega Man and Proto Man? Furthermore, this song is based on the Wily Stage 5-6 theme, and Proto Man is in absentia for the better part of the last half of the game, save of course for the Break Man fight and the ending.

Maybe it's a Quarreling Song between Mega Man and Proto Man, but I just can't see it.

The Megas said they won't reveal who sings it, so there' no help there.

I mean, would we really put it past Dr. Wily to claim that he was free from the failings of mankind?

Considering in Gamma Unchained he states that he knows that he's no longer sane, yes, we probably can.

The singer has to be one of the two prodigal sons — the first line is, "So we finally meet, two prodigal sons." Wily's already met both Mega and Proto, so he can't be "finally" meeting them, and the "two prodigal sons" is part of the "we."

If Proto Man was singing, why would he be telling Mega Man how he's afraid of his purpose being taken away?

Proto Man isn't telling Mega Man that Mega Man's afraid of the purpose being taken away, Mega is singing that at Proto. It's a direct callback to what Proto is griping about in his own song.

Where the songs come from can be a decent guideline, but not something set in stone (Dr. Light doesn't appear in any of the Wily stages, for instance, but he sings one of the songs from there).

One way I've heard it framed is Proto Man and Mega Man confronting each other with Gamma in the background, because Gamma is definitely reacting to what's being said.

I see your points, but there's very little differentiation between the "voices" in this song to really be able to convince me that there's more than one. I mean, take History Repeating Pt. 2, for example. With the lyrics on the website, The Megas made the differentiation between voices pretty clear; they identified Proto Man's parts with red text. Same with the voices in The Haystack Principle and Gemin Eye; the different voices there were represented with italics. So not doing that for Make Your Choice still leads me to believe there's only one voice (aside from Gamma), but like lalalei2001 said, The Megas aren't saying, so I guess it's all up to interpretation.

Nevertheless, what I made of the "purpose has been taken away" line is that Wily was addressing Proto Man, and in the next line, Wily says that he can give Proto Man purpose if he sided with him. I mean, yeah, it's pretty strongly inferred that Wily re-awakened Proto Man, but nothing in Gamma Unchained or I'm Not The Breakman suggests Proto Man stayed with Wily. Hell, Mega Man 3 in itself didn't really give us a whole lot of backstory for Proto Man either.

You also have to understand that Wily was ultimately the villain of Mega Man 3. In Gamma Unchained, he's still playing the "I've changed my ways!" card. That said, I have no reason not to believe that Wily would have claimed that he was set apart from mankind after he's turned on Dr. Light.

And I think that the reference to the singer saying "so we *finally* meet" is to say, this is the lead-in to the final confrontation.

The reason I feel like there's two voices is because the two verses say different, directly opposed things and the second verse is written as a direct response. That and there's literally two people singing the song, you can hear them both during the chorus (I can't quite tell if a different person is singing each verse, however).

In the first, the speaker is accusing the target of being a weapon of war instead of peace (i.e., Mega Man's issues) and bragging about how the speaker is "unlike the others you've seen." What others could he be talking about? Other humans? Mega Man doesn't see a lot of humans (Dr. Light's song says as much), but he sees plenty of robots. And, again, there's the "two prodigal sons," which can only really be read as referring to the "we." The only two characters who remotely fit the description are Mega and Proto.

Second, the second verse starts with, "And what of you..." which is a pretty direct answer to the first speaker, so whoever's singing the second verse is the target of the first. And the second verse hits all of Proto Man's issues, the same way the first hits Mega's. And if anything, Wily would not want Proto to think he really has choices, because then he's a wildcard. And the thing about "If he died, tell me would you feel?" Why would Wily say anything like that to Proto Man? Wily has no vested interest in making Proto realize he's more human than he thinks, and in fact it's counterproductive.

And Wily certainly wouldn't be calling Mega Man "friend."

Wily was the villain, but the most important conflict of the album is between Mega Man and Proto Man. They're the ones facing off on the cover art, Proto Man's got two whole songs about Mega Man, he shows up in the intro to the album and Mega Man's own final song barely addresses Wily, instead focusing on Light, Proto, and himself.

And Gamma Unchained is not Wily playing the "I've changed my ways!" card. Yes, it starts with him asking forgiveness, but then continues that he knows he's insane and plans to continue what he's doing anyway.

You have to look at the song as a whole — individual lines, or parts of lines, might be interpreted to support your theory here, but the greater context of it doesn't bear out.

Not being stubborn, but I'd like to provide a little more for the "singer is Gamma" theory.

The first line, "So we finally meet," Like it was mentioned before, it wouldn't make sense seeing that Wily and Protoman met Mega Man already. It makes sense for Gamma since he and Mega Man only ever met for the boss battle.

You're probably right about the prodigal sons line not making sense for Gamma, but you also suggested that the Megas were using the phrase wrong. Suppose that they thought "prodigal" was similar to "prodigy". Since Wily built Gamma to be a Prodigy and "bring peace", then Gamma and Mega would be similar there. But that's all speculation so I won't put very much weight behind it.

I think one of the stronger hints goes back to my first mention, but looking at the whole verse this time. "I'm unlike the others you've seen I am free from the failings of humanity, I've seen the end and you are the key my friend" This ties into Gamma Unchained since he was built to calculate the best path to piece, and came to the conclusion of Extermination. The "end" Gamma sees is the genocide of humanity, and Mega Man is the key in that he is one of the strongest robots on the planet who could make it a reality.

When I said that "the Rage in your Steel" could fit Mega, I was thinking about Fly on a Dog, where Mega Man is angry and depressed about the whole situation. His depression might make him feel numb, which is where the next line comes up. "You say you don't care at all, but if he died tell me would you feel". Then we get to the lines about Purpose. Again, referring to Fly on a Dog. Mega Man feels that his purpose, to be a hero, son, a thinking person, are being taken away by Dr. Light's anger to force him to play as a simple killing machine. That's the purpose he feels has been taken away, and Gamma showing him the way again goes back to Kill All Humans.

And lastly the remainder of the song would play out as you figure, Gamma still drilling into Mega's head that Humanity needs to be wiped out, his ideology is futile, and the Ironic Echo to One Last Time.

That's the entirety of how I came to my conclusion, but I very much enjoyed reading your rebuttal.