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aka: Blaster Master Zero III

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Characters that appear in the Blaster Master Zero trilogy, the Retraux reboot of the Blaster Master series.

For characters in the original Blaster Master continuity, see here. For Jason and Eve's appearance as a Crossover boss in Luminous Avenger iX 2, see the respective character page.

Unmarked spoilers for all three Blaster Master Zero games below!


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Introduced in Blaster Master Zero

    Jason Frudnick 

Jason Frudnick

Voiced by: Kensho Ono (Trilogy)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz_jason.png
Jason as he appears in Blaster Master Zero.

Click to see him as he appears in Blaster Master Zero II
Click to see him as he appears in Blaster Master Zero III

If these mutants are aiming to destroy the Earth, then I can't just walk away now.

A young and incredibly talented engineer who lives on the planet Earth. After encountering the mysterious creature he dubs "Fred", he becomes caught up in a war against deadly mutants living beneath the planet's surface.


  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Has a more anime-feel, resembling his original Japanese counterpart Kane Gardner from Metafight.
  • Adaptational Badass: In the NES game (in the English version at least), Jason was just some kid. In Zero, he's a Badass Bookworm who works as an engineer.
  • Adaptational Dye-Job: He went from being brown haired to being black haired with blue highlights.
  • Age Lift: In the original continuity, Jason was introduced described openly as a young boy, a kid looking for his pet; an early teen at the very best. Here, Jason is evidently a young adult, living on his own as an independent scientist. This was likely done to help bridge the gap between the original Jason and Kane Gardner in the new iteration.
  • Ambiguous Situation: After becoming a superdimensional entity, it is unclear whether he can actually control his appearance in this state. The true ending route starts by him going superdimensional without using the VRV System, and in the finale he is depicted as his normal human self, both indicating that despite transcending his humanity he can at least determine what form he takes. This is supported by Luminous Avenger iX 2, where he appears in his normal pilot gear but only shifts into his superdimensional appearance when activating the VRV System.
  • Babies Ever After: Thanks to Eve becoming both a super-dimensional lifeform and the Mutant Queen, and Jason becoming a super-dimensional lifeform himself, they're able to conceive two children using a Mutant Cocoon as an incubator of sorts.
  • Badass Bookworm: He's an engineer who fights mutants.
  • Badass Cape: In Zero II, he adds a cape to his suit which is outfitted with sensors to help him detect when to use his Counter moves.
  • Badass Normal: Compared to EX Characters at least; Jason isn't powered by magic or super tech beyond his trusty Blaster and Eve's support. He's just some guy with guns (albeit lots of them) who uses his smarts to triumph over much bigger enemies on foot.
  • Berserk Button: Don't insult Eve. Leibniz manages to push it even further due to Eve's condition in Zero II.
  • Big Damn Heroes: On the pathway to the Golden Ending of Zero, Jason, with the aid of Fred and SOPHIA Zero, saves Eve from the Mutant Core, which has taken over SOPHIA III and turned it into Invem SOPHIA.
  • Boy Meets Girl: His and Eve's relationship throughout the trilogy:
    • Zero: Boy meets girl, and they embark on a quest to find boy's pet frog. Girl leaves boy to fight mutants alone, boy rescues girl and they save Earth. Boy gives implied Love Confession to girl.
    • Zero II: Girl gets sick due to a mutant infection. Boy and girl travel to girl's home planet. Boy and girl are separated after defeating a mutant planet. Girl finds pet frog. With help from their pilot friends, girl rescues boy, and they go to girl's home planet. Girl gives implied Love Confession to boy.
    • Zero III: Boy and girl get separated when they arrive to girl's home planet. Boy embarks on a quest to find girl and stop the mutant invasion. Girl confesses feelings to boy and leaves for the mutant dimension. Boy follows girl, and they get Happily Married and have two children.
  • Captain Space, Defender of Earth!: Not quite as overt as some examples, but with the series' shift to space after Zero I and particularly in Zero II, Jason takes a heavy shade of this.
  • Car Fu: Spark Tackle and Burn Spark allows to ram and go through enemies and projectiles unharmed by speeding through them.
  • Combat and Support: The combat to Eve's support. Jason shoots mutants while piloting SOPHIA or walking inside dungeons.
  • Composite Character: Other than his name, he's Kane Gardner from Metafight. He's also somewhat of a Decomposite Character as well, since Kane (minus the original design) actually exists in-universe.
  • Cool Helmet: Jason always wears his helmet when going outside SOPHIA. Given that he visits foreign planets and planetoids in space in Zero II this is more than justified.
  • Cop Killer: Since the Sophia Force, Planet Sophia's government's armed forces, first committed Police Brutality against Jason, Fred, and Eve by capturing them when they were trying to get medical asylum for Eve; and since have gone all out to kill him, Jason is forced into this role. Though it's left vague as to how many of the SF's machines have pilots, and how many are unmanned robots. Also with the fact that sentient androids and gynoids were built by Sophia III to help the pilots of the Metal Attackers spread out around the galaxy, Jason might have plenty of sentient android and gynoid "blood" on his hands.
  • Designer Baby: In Zero III, a conversation with Leibniz reveals that though Jason is entirely human, he wasn't born so much as grown in a lab as part of a Genius Breeding Act. It's incidentally why he takes no personal pride in his genius, it's artificial and he has no family to support his endeavors anyways.
  • Distressed Dude: In The Very Definitely Final Dungeon of Zero II, he is found Taken for Granite at the hands of Drolrevo, and it's up to Eve to rescue him.
  • Expy Coexistence: The Zero version of Jason is more closely based on Kane Gardner from the original game, and in Zero III he actually meets (and fights) Kane on his home turf.
  • Gadgeteer Genius:
    • In the initial game, Jason started out as an engineer by trade and an independent researcher, just curiously observing an unknown creature he found and having just enough of a technological knack to learn the ropes of piloting SOPHIA III. Come the second game, he's reverse-engineered his own SOPHIA unit, superior to both the first and its Super Prototype, but he's created a new functionality to his personal gear, revamped the Blaster Rifle's functionality, developed for Eve a support device that enables her to slow time in a given area, and created an entirely-new form of power supply that runs perpetually on kinetic energy. Studying that Planet Sophia technology really did wonders for him.
    • He does have his limits, however. The blaster functionality in II that works as the ability Shantae had in the DLC of the last game was purely Eve's design, and while Gaia SOPHIA is superior, it's only from a technical level; SOPHIA Zero far outgunned Gaia SOPHIA, but the sheer might of the weapons, and Jason running the mech ragged trying to find a cure for Eve meant that it eventually broke down on his watch. Both the adjusted blaster and the Gaia SOPHIA were made specifically at a lower power level so that the sheer might of the blaster's wide beam and all the wonderful toys SOPHIA Zero had wouldn't break them down, because Jason couldn't figure out a way to simply diminish the power used in the old weapons.
    • The bits known suggest that Jason with some help from Eve, manage to upgrade both G-SOPHIA and his pilot gear to have new features that improve from the second game, such as hover functionality, a gun multiple functions at all time without overuse limitations, separate meters for both main gun and sub weapons of G-SOPHIA SV.
  • Good Counterpart: To Goez aka the Master Boss/Underworld Boss. This becomes very apparent in the third game where he wields a whip and the antennae on his helmet (which he had since the first game) look like Goez's horns. He even becomes the boss (well, via Eve) to the good mutants in the Golden Ending.
  • Happily Married: During the final battle of Zero III, when Jason's health gets low, a cut-in of Eve appears as she intervenes and warps super-dimensional space to protect him. On her outstretched left hand, an additional golden band can be seen now around her ring finger. The cover art for Blaster Master Zero Trilogy has both wearing their rings. Him getting together with Eve is also foreshadowed earlier in gameplay where the indicator for whether you've spent enough time in the super-dimensional space to unlock the ability to input a special command during the normal ending to unlock the Golden Ending is a pair of rings visible in the upper right corner of the Blaster Rifle diagram in the pause menu, with it only showing a single ring if you still haven't fulfilled the first requirement.
  • Humble Hero: He states that he never got into the mutant blasting business just to be acknowledged as a hero, but at the same time sees no issue with performing noble deeds himself.
  • I Just Want to Be Loved: In Zero III, one of the optional conversations with Leibniz in the Mass Loader Facility leads to Jason admitting this of himself. Because he was a Designer Baby, he never had a family of any description, and had to watch enviously of other children with parents and loved ones as he grew up. This also, by his own admission, recontextualizes his actions back in Zero I, why he took such an excessive risk like chasing Fred into mutant-infested depths and grew so attached to Eve so quickly: he'd finally gained the companionship he'd been so longing for, and was desperate not to lose it, even if it meant risking his life.
  • Jack of All Trades:
    • In general Jason has access to several weapons which covers nearly all angles and gives him an edge to fight off all types of enemies granted he can keep his weapon level high.
    • This also extends to SOPHIA III and G-SOPHIA. While Jason's MA doesn't have the speediness of EIR, the raw power and bulk of ATOM or the extreme mobility of GARUDA, it more than compensates by being extremely versatile and adaptable.
    • In Zero, when compared to the EX Characters, Jason lacks any special attributes or abilities that the other playable characters have, but he possesses a very diverse range of attack options, which allows him to adapt to any possible situation. This extends to Jason's stats as well, to an extent:
      • Jason has the most balance of range and power outside of SOPHIA III (Shantae and Shovel Knight are restricted to melee outside of subweapons, while Ekoro and Gunvolt have long-ranged-but-weak projectiles, though Gunvolt compensates for this with his Flashfield and Ekoro can charge up her shots for a little more power but only inside dungeons).
      • Jason also has the most gun options and subweapons inside dungeons (but he has to collect most of his subweapons over the course of the game, and has to unlock access to his various guns by picking up power-ups, which he loses if he gets hit).
      • However, Jason has the worst mobility of the playable characters, as he has slow movement (in the overworld and in dungeons), a short jump, lacks special mobility options in the overworldnote , lacks any form of invincibility frames that can be used to bypass hazards in dungeonsnote , and in the overworld, Jason is the only character who has to worry about Falling Damage (or, more likely, flat-out dying after falling down half-screen height).
  • Locked into Strangeness: In the final act of Zero III, as a side-effect of overextending the Accel Charger to be with Eve in super-dimensional space, he loses his humanity, gaining white hair with golden streaks and gold eyes. He does return to normal as of The Stinger, however.
  • Love Confession: Implied to have made one to Eve in the Golden Ending of Zero.
    Jason: Eve... I have something I need to tell you too...
  • Nice Guy: Jason is almost always positive, polite and tries to avoid unnecessary fights as much as he possibly can. This trait is a major plot point in Zero II where in the path to true ending Eve is inspired by Jason's heroism and refuses to give up even after the disastrous aftermath of the battle against Planade-G.
  • Not So Above It All: Jason is usually portrayed as rational and serious, but there's a few jokes about how he's actually not quite indifferent to the Rule of Cool. He's insisted on adding a melee function to the Gaia Blaster apparently purely for style points (which Eve had to work overtime to even get to work at all), is speechless when he realizes he just got a giant drill module for the SOPHIA, and eventually admits that naming a hasty repair job "Supreme Vehicle" was probably a tad over-the-top.
  • Obviously Not Fine: Throughout III, Kane becomes increasingly worried with Jason's reckless delving into super-dimensional space, Jason himself quickly abandoning the healthy reservation he had early on when such excursions become necessary to save Eve. Even Leibniz eventually can't help but to outwardly express concern with how much time Jason's spending in there, but he continues disregarding the warnings, insisting that it's fine. Of course, by the time Leibniz speaks up, it's already too late.
  • Official Couple: After three games worth of Ship Tease (including implied Love Confessions from one to the other), Zero III dispenses with the ambiguity and has him and Eve more or less get married. They even are revealed to have two children in the true ending.
  • Papa Wolf: Should Jason be chosen to be the final boss in III, he's fighting to save his wife and children who have yet to fully conceive, unbeknowst to Kane. As such, he pulls no punches in the fight.
  • Palette Swap: In Destroyer Mode of Zero, he and SOPHIA III get a gray makeover.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Not Jason himself, but the SOPHIA line of Metal Attackers; a Mini-Mecha tank roughly the size of a small van only wide enough to have a cannon besides a cockpit that fits two behind one another snugly. This does absolutely nothing to detract from it being powerful enough to gun down monstrosities capable of annihilating star systems.
    • Averted with The SOPHIA-J1, which is only slightly smaller than an actual real-world tank.
  • Play as a Boss: This is the situation you get in the True Final Boss battle if you choose to play as Jason since the SOPHIA-J1 outclasses the Metal Attacker that Kane pilots in every stat except initial hit points, where the SOPHIA-J1 only gets 1 life bar versus up to 3 life bars that Kane's Metal Attacker gets, maybe depending on how many Life Energy Guard βs that Kane collected before the battle.
  • Power Dyes Your Hair: In Zero III when using the Accel Charger system, his hair turns white with golden streaks. When he overextends it to be with Eve in super-dimensional space without the VRV, he gets stuck that way in being warped by the environment — until The Stinger, that is.
  • Red Baron: Blaster Master, as given in Zero III.note 
  • Red Is Heroic: Jason's main coloring outfit is red and so is SOPHIA's default paint jobs.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Somewhat rare for The Hero, Jason plays the part of the blue oni to Leibniz's violent, temperamental, quick-to-scrap red.
  • Rescue Romance: His relationship with Eve has some undertones of this as part of their Ship Tease:
    • Zero has him finding her in the Residential Area, and he sticks with her to fight the mutants after they find Fred. The Golden Ending has him rescuing her again with help from Fred and SOPHIA Zero before destroying Invem SOPHIA, and the last shot has an implied Love Confession by him.
    • Zero II's plot relies on Jason and Eve taking a trip to her home planet Sophia to find a cure for her mutant infection. The route to the Golden Ending has Jason, Eve, and Fred separated after defeating Planade-G, with Eve wandering on her own in Area Omega; after she finds ANDREIA (provided by Elfie's spirit) and Fred, and with help from the MA pilots they encountered in their journey, Eve rescues Jason and after dealing with Drolrevo Mastro, the last shot has an implied love confession by her.
    • Zero III's plot is kickstarted with Jason, Eve, and Fred being separated after arriving on planet Sophia. After Jason finds Fred, they (alongside Leibniz) go on a quest to find her. In the route to the Golden Ending, after defeating Planade-G, Eve outright tells Jason she loves him before leaving for super-dimensional space. He later follows her, and they end up Happily Married.
  • Robosexual: In Zero, Eve is a Ridiculously Human Robot (as opposed to the Human Alien she is in other entries). It doesn't stop the Ship Tease in the least. And when her nature changes in Zero III, it ends up effectively nullifying any biological incompatibilities they might have otherwise had.
  • Role-Reversal Boss: He seems to be this if you choose to play as him in the True Final Boss battle since the SOPHIA-J1 outclasses the Metal Attacker that Kane pilots. This is subverted since he remains the Hero Protagonist in this battle since Kane is making the faulty assumption that Jason and Eve are threats that leads to this battle, and it is easy to assume that Jason went Face–Heel Turn based on the incomplete facts presented before the battle.
  • Science Hero: To the point the Earth even knows to call him when they need help like an actual superhero! He shares this trope with Eve, as they are both geniuses who can adapt and improve the SOPHIA-series Metal Attackers, and Jason himself built his cape that allows him to perform blast counters.
  • Ship Tease: With Eve. Prior to his confrontation against Hard Shell, transmission between him and Eve, who was in SOPHIA III at the time, cut off, and he shows concern for her safety. And then it goes further in Area 9, and even further in Zero II. Zero III tosses all ambiguity out the window by ending the game with them Happily Married with two newborn kids to boot.
  • SNK Boss: Jason is borderline this trope in the duel between him and Kane. Jason has access to all weapons and abilities (without the usual limits that come with spamming special weapons), and when his health is low, Eve comes in to protect and heal him, at which point he starts spamming the strongest attacks he has access to. It's only then that he finally needs to cool down, but for a very short time. If you don't deal with Eve's shield quickly, Jason will heal a lot of health, invalidating your progress. Notably, when you fight as Jason in this duel, it's considerably easier as your Metal Attacker wildly outclasses Kane's and Eve will still back you up if your health gets too low. In trope terms, Kane is more of a Post-Final Boss and Jason has all the makings of a really tough superboss.
  • Superheroes Wear Capes: He wears one made of leather made from a mutant in Blaster Master Zero II and III. This cape gives him the senses needed to perform blast counters.
  • Super Mode: Zigzagged. The Accel Charger grants Jason additional power for a limited time complete with neon power swap in Zero II, releasing the limits of his pilot gear and Blaster Rifle. In Zero III, it is still supposed to be this and technically fulfills that role, but given the circumstances in that entry, it doesn't so much make Jason more powerful so much as enables him to continue fighting like normal in super-dimensional space.
    • In the True Final Boss fight of Zero III, should Jason on either side get low on life, Eve will empower him ala Anthem from Gunvolt, causing his life and energy to recover and Boss Jason stars spamming powerful attacks like Accel Blasts.
  • Swiss-Army Weapon:
    • Jason's Blaster Rifle is this having a gun function for basically every situation covering almost every possible angle.
    • SOPHIA III and G-SOPHIA's arsenal also has plenty of weapons ranging from lasers to missiles to cannon shells.
  • Taken for Granite: He was turned into stone at some point during his fight with the Mutant Cocoon. Eve frees him after she takes down the Mutant Cocoon and exposes its true form.
  • Tank Goodness: Jason pilots the NORA MA-01, SOPHIA III in Zero, EARTH MA-001, G-SOPHIA in Zero II, and its enhanced form, the G-SOPHIA SV in Zero III. And, finally, the line is capped off with the EARTH MA-J1, SOPHIA-J1, in the True Final Boss battle of Zero III after the SV collapses in the fight against Planade-G.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Said verbatim on reaching Area 5 (the Under the Sea stage). His sentiments is the same as players from the original game where Area 5 was not easy.
    Jason: Looks like from here on out is some man-made sea... this is gonna suck.
  • Too Cool to Live: Invoked with the SOPHIA-ZERO, which Jason gains only for Another Dimension in the first title. Its output is cranked past that of SOPHIA-III, making trivial what the prior model found challenging, and in fact is the strongest MA Planet Sophia ever produced outright. However, there's a caveat in why this model wasn't just dispatched from the get-go: its sheer power was well beyond what the frame could withstand and was written off a failure, with Kane and Jennifer only using Fred to warp it to Earth when Fred transmitted sufficient data for them to realize that a Mutant Core was lurking on Earth. After gunning down the Invem SOPHIA, it quickly succumbed to how rattled it'd been and broke down, Jason salvaging what he could from it to create the G-SOPHIA.
    • In another invoked instance from the same game, the Wave Beam from Jason's Blaster Rifle. Mechanically, it was a reward for keeping the Gun Level high, and fodderized nearly any enemy in the game. Come Zero II, Jason is sporting a much different-looking Blaster Rifle, and the Wave Beam has been replaced with the Wide Blaster — which, while still powerful, lessens in intensity the more it's fired in rapid succession. Eve specifically notes regarding this weapon that this Power Limiter not being present was a design flawnote  in the original rifle and is specifically why the original rifle is no longer present: it broke from Wave Beam overuse.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Shortly before Zero II, in preparation for the oncoming space voyage, Jason made some pretty hefty modifications— not just in his self-created Superior Successor, the G-SOPHIA, but also to his own MA Pilot gear. With the extremely-versatile Blast Counter mantle on top of a completely revamped succession line of the Blaster Rifle, actual Boss Mutants he'd fought on Earth he can now easily dispatch in a few shots, no SOPHIA required — and that ingenuity seems to let him stand head-and-shoulders above his colleagues, who all otherwise use the same Metal Attacker tank and Pilot gear that their vehicle was dispatched with.
    • In between Zero II and Zero III, he made some more improvements to both G-SOPHIA and his gear. And telling how much he improved his pilot gear was that one of the first bosses of Zero III are a trio of partial clone of Goez aka the Underworld Lord, the area 8 boss from Zero, and with proper use of the blast counter will inflict massive damage to them.
  • Touched by Vorlons: As a result of using the Accel Charger to delve into super-dimensional space so many times in his quest to save Eve, a location fundamentally uninhabitable to life native to normal space, Jason's body acclimated and, in pursuing Eve to the other side, caused him to become a super-dimensional being himself. The consequences are mostly negative, he can't survive in normal space anymore and thus he can't return home to Earth. However, it does make him the only one who can tangibly interact with Eve now that she's shed her physical form, allowing them to have a family together.
  • Transhuman Treachery: Subverted. He willingly discards his humanity to be with Eve and they are both designated as threats by the SF after spatial tears resurface once more. However, it turns out that they were the result of the pair wanting to leave behind living proof of their legacy in the form of human children, Roddy and Elfie, and not an attack on normal space.
  • True Final Boss: He is this if you choose to play as Kane in the True Final Boss battle. However, since Kane is making the faulty assumption, he becomes a Hero Antagonist in this scenario.
  • Volcanic Veins: The cover art for III shows neon blue veins creeping up the left side of Jason's body... They begin encroaching over his body once he's officially overused the Accel Charger to spend too much time in super-dimensional space, and is on the brink of being warped into something nonhuman.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: The Acceleration Blast, which can annihilate the Skeleton Boss in a single blast. He himself gains one in Zero III, the Elemental Blaster, which is ostensibly the same Acceleration Blast Eve used in the climax of Zero II complete with the same ability to purify depending on what his conscious intentions are, but as it draws directly from his life support systems, it's something that he effectively gets one shot with in any given circumstance. Most bosses that require this will leave copious life and gun power ups when killed.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: He and Eve are acclimatized to super-dimensional space, to the point that they're unable to safely reside in normal space anymore by the end of Zero III. That said, they swear to find a way to return to normal space, so that they can be with their children, Roddy and Elfie, as a family.

    Eve 

Eve

Voiced by: Tamako Miyazaki (Trilogy)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz_eve.png
Eve as she appears in Blaster Master Zero.

Click to see her as she appears in Blaster Master Zero II
Click to see her as she appears in Blaster Master Zero III

It's so strange though, I feel like I remember that sensation...

An amnesiac girl found in the cockpit of the SOPHIA-III. She serves as the tank's mechanic and Jason's co-pilot, assisting him on the mission to destroy the mutants. Despite having lost her memories, she can't help but feel as though her connection to the SOPHIA-III runs deeper than she thinks.


  • Action Girl: After she discovers her new purifying powers in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon of Zero II, she takes the battle into her own hands.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Like Jason, she has a more anime-esque feel in Zero, resembling Dr. Jennifer Cornet from the box art of Metafight. She was created by and is considered the daughter of Dr. Cornet and Kane Gardner, so the resemblance to her mother is only natural.
  • Adaptation Species Change: In the Worlds of Power novel, she is an alien with the appearance of a teenage girl. In Zero, while still hailing from an alien world, she is instead a Robot Girl.
  • And Then John Was a Zombie: In Zero III, it turns out that Eve is no longer a gynoid, but the propagation of mutant cells within her body had caused her not only to become biomechanical, but a full mutant herself, and she had become that way after the infection spread within her body, regardless of whether her infection's malignancy was purged. To make matters worse, her interaction with Drolrevonote , specifically her supplanting of him, ascended her position in the food chain — making her the Mutant Queen.
  • Animal Motifs: Cats.
  • Artificial Family Member: Both Kane and Jennifer call Eve their "daughter", and she calls them Mom and Dad.
  • Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: In Zero III, she becomes the Mutant Queen and opts to remain so, in order to corral the entire Invem forces back into super-dimensional space that they never do harm again, and even begins to assimilate with the entire dimension as a being of pure consciousness. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, she doesn't go alone, as Jason goes after her.
  • Babies Ever After: Thanks to Eve becoming both a super-dimensional lifeform and the Mutant Queen, and Jason becoming a super-dimensional lifeform himself, they're able to conceive two children using a Mutant Cocoon as an incubator of sorts.
  • Barrier Maiden: She ascends to the role of "Invem Queen" after the death of the true Mutant Overlord Drolrevo in Zero II. This gives her total control over the majority of mutantkind, and her realization that she can use this to stop the mutants from wreaking havoc on the universe leads her to choose to stay in super-dimensional space to bring peace. However, Jason reveals to Kane that there are a few mutants who are still causing trouble, which he dubs "Lightning Beings", and he and Eve plan to set out once again to stop them.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Mirroring I's Golden Ending, on the pathway to the Golden Ending of Zero II Eve, with the aid of Fred and ANDREIA, along with the MA pilots they helped throughout their journey, saves Jason by defeating the Mutant Cocoon.
  • Blemished Beauty: The mutant virus disfigured half her body, and while the worst of it is contained inside a new mechanical arm, its effect can be seen mainly in her right eye. Earlier concept designs kept that part of her face hidden behind her hair, but that was opted out of her final design to not make her look meek. Even following the purging of malignant mutant cells in her body, the infection and the manner used in removing it left some marks. Among them are a prominent pair of scars on her right cheek which she makes no effort to hide, which seem to be permanent, persisting into III and its distant ending.
  • Boy Meets Girl: Her and Jason's relationship throughout the trilogy:
    • Zero: Boy meets girl, and they embark on a quest to find boy's pet frog. Girl leaves boy to fight mutants alone, boy rescues girl and they save Earth. Boy gives implied Love Confession to girl.
    • Zero II: Girl gets sick due to a mutant infection. Boy and girl travel to girl's home planet. Boy and girl are separated after defeating a mutant planet. Girl finds pet frog. With help from their pilot friends, girl rescues boy, and they go to girl's home planet. Girl gives implied Love Confession to boy.
    • Zero III: Boy and girl get separated when they arrive to girl's home planet. Boy embarks on a quest to find girl and stop the mutant invasion. Girl confesses feelings to boy and leaves for the mutant dimension. Boy follows girl, and they get Happily Married and have two children.
  • Breast Expansion: A subtler example. After being infected by The Corruption, Eve's breasts grow by a lot. In fact, if you pay attention to Zero II's intro, you can spot the moment when her chest starts to grow. They don't go back down even when her infection is stabilized.
  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Eve is able to rip through Drolrevo's outer shell with the Acceleration Blast in the ANDREIA, dealing irreparable damage and paving the way for Jason to finish it off (while simulataneously saving Jason and G-SOPHIA in the first place from petrification), but at great cost; the ANDREIA is utterly ruined from all the energy it needed to use the Acceleration Blast in its already weakened state, and Elfie is effectively barred from speaking with Eve again from the afterlife after she became a Ghost in the Machine for the ANDREIA.
  • Bullet Time: The Unchained DDF Blast-Counter can disrupt mutant nervous systems and slow the environs around Eve during her sojourn through Area Omega. It's also the only Blast-Counter that works on the overworld.
    • She uses it again in the True Final Boss of Zero III should Jason be chosen to battle, attempting to slow Kane down after moving Jason to normal space to heal his battle damage.
  • But Now I Must Go:
    • After the defeat of the Multidimensional Overlord, Eve leaves Jason and Fred, believing it to be her sole responsibility to destroy the Mutant Core.
    Eve: I have to go... so that I can protect you, and this planet.
    • She does this again a final time in Zero III upon understanding her nature as the Mutant Queen and realizing that, if she remains in super-dimensional space whence they came, they'll never assail the universe again. Unlike last time, however, Jason doesn't let her go alone.
  • Combat and Support: The support to Jason's combat. Eve stays inside the SOPHIA tank and can provide info about Jason's weaponry and what he's up against.
  • Composite Character: Like Jason, she takes many traits from her counterpart from Metafight, Dr. Jennifer Cornet. She too is also a Decomposite Character, as Jennifer appears separately from her and is effectively her mother.
  • The Corruption: At some point after the conclusion of Zero, the leftover mutant cells that remained in Eve's body after she was infected by the Mutant Core started to transform her into a mutant, and Jason and Eve departed on a quest to find a cure. While the infection of her body was stabilized, the damage was already done, as Jennifer would establish in III that Eve herself had been transformed into a mutant.
  • Determinator: She separates from Jason, Fred, and G-SOPHIA after they take down Planade-G and ends up in inter-dimensional space by her lonesome. As she recalls her history with Jason, however, she steels her conviction and sets out to save Jason, no longer wanting to feel like a burden to him.
  • Energy Absorption: The I-HIX replicates the Absorber in function; it has a shorter lifespan, but compensates with a faster fire rate. Shots that hit the projection are converted into CP for the Unchained DDF.
  • The Engineer: Mechanic-type, responsible for maintenance work on SOPHIA III. Her expertise goes into the development of the G-Blaster that Jason uses in Zero 2.
  • Expy:
    • Resembles Joule from Azure Striker Gunvolt and Ciel from Mega Man Zero. In Zero II, her new taller and bustier design is almost one-to-one Lumen from Azure Striker Gunvolt.note 
    • Not to mention Dr. Jennifer Cornet from the original Metafight. Her mother/creator.
  • Fanservice Pack: Eve's bust has been increased substantially between Zero and Zero II. It's implied that this is the result of The Corruption altering her body, which, in addition to inducing Body Horror, conveniently gave her bigger breasts. This gets cleared up at the end of Zero II while maintaining the increase. Though given that Tesset is shown to be capable of aging from a child to a petite young woman in III, it's possible that Eve may have simply had a growth spurt. III goes a step beyond by giving her a Cleavage Window.
  • Foreshadowing: The fact Eve was physically altered by the Invem virus sets up almost every one of III's plot threads.
    • First, the Invem mutation itself was organic and could affect a machine, setting up the fact Eve herself has organic components within her that could, theoretically, allow her to bear children. Because several of these alterations - including scarring and heterochromia - persisted even after the malignant mutant cells were purged, there's every reason to suspect Eve was still every bit as biomechanical following her illness being cured as she was during the illness.
    • Secondly, though Eve's condition stabilized, the blue streaks in her hair and her heterochromia suggest aspects of her still bear Invem characteristics. It turns out that Eve was Invem enough to be considered a valid candidate for Mutant Queen, and since she was the only mutant at the time who fought Drolrevo, and did most of the work, the Invem Dark Star Cluster believes she has full right to succession as the Mutant Queen, something Eve herself can't protest. This explains why the Dark Star Army brings everything it has to Sophia to reclaim and protect their queen, setting up the main conflict. Even when she does demonstrate some control over the Dark Star Army, her very nature compels her not to give up the reigns so she can take the Army away from people and planets they can hurt, explaining Eve's initial desire to get away from Jason.
  • Genius Loci: [[spoiler: By the end of Zero III, her evolution has progressed beyond being a physical lifeform and has become one with super-dimensional space itself, making her the mind of an alternate reality as vast as the universe. Thankfully, Jason's also become a super-dimensional being himself, by his repeated excursions using the Accel Charger, meaning he's the only one who can tangibly interact with her avatar, which is very helpful for having a heartfelt embrace...or perhaps more importantly, doing what needs to be done to have children.
  • Genki Girl: The official website describes her as cheerful and lively.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Has a pair of goggles dangling around her neck, which she hasn't used as anything more than an accessory.
  • Happily Married: During the final battle of Zero III, when Jason's health gets low, a cut-in of Eve appears as she intervenes and warps super-dimensional space to protect him. On her outstretched left hand, an additional golden band can be seen now around her ring finger. The cover art for Blaster Master Zero Trilogy has both wearing their rings. Her getting together with Jason is also foreshadowed earlier in gameplay where the indicator for whether you've spent enough time in the super-dimensional space to unlock the ability to input a special command during the normal ending to unlock the Golden Ending is a pair of rings visible in the upper right corner of the Blaster Rifle diagram in the pause menu, with it only showing a single ring if you still haven't fulfilled the first requirement.
  • Hartman Hips: After her Fanservice Pack in Zero II, Eve develops a pretty impressive hip ratio of even greater breadth than her bust in Zero III. Likely a change made to reflect a more conventional sense of maturity, in that she becomes a wife and mother by the trilogy's finish.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Attempts this by destroying the Mutant Core with SOPHIA III's self-destruct function. It backfires, especially during the pathway to the Golden Ending, where the Mutant Core takes over SOPHIA III, turning it into Invem SOPHIA. The residue from said infestation triggers the events of Zero 2 as well.
  • Identity Amnesia: Downplayed; she only remembers her name, and still retains her engineering prowess. She recovers the rest around Area 6.
  • Idiot Hair: Sports a strand, although she is anything but idiotic.
  • Klingon Promotion: She becomes the new Mutant Queen or Invem Queen by being part of the forces that killed Drolrevo Mastro. She qualified since her infection converted her into a mutant.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Her Luminous Avenger iX 2 design is based on her appearance at the end of Zero III, after she has merged with super-dimensional space and become the new Mutant Queen.
  • Leitmotif: "Eve NORA-2057".
  • Lethal Chef: A 100,000 downloads special wallpaper shows Eve about to pour a box full of radioactive material into a cooking pot, while a horrified Jason attempts to stop her. Said radioactive box is very similar to the one that mutated Fred in the original game. An optional conversation in Zero II offhandedly mentions her cooking "skill" as well.
  • Locked into Strangeness: Though purged of her mutant infection's malignancy in Zero II's true ending, it left some marks: the blue streaks on her hair remain, her right eye is still green (just without the black sclera), and her right cheek has a couple of scars. In a less glum note, it also apparently enlarged her breasts, which she got to keep without ill effects. It happens again in Zero III, this time in losing physical form to become a being of thought alone.
  • Love Confession: Mirroring the Golden Ending of the first game, and befitting her role as the protagonist for the final section of the game, Eve ends II by saying she wants to tell Jason something. The implications are obvious. Come III, however, she outright states "I love you" to Jason before venturing into super-dimensional space by her lonesome.
  • Mark of the Supernatural: After her mutant infection is stabilized, Eve's right eye remains green as it was when her infection was malignant.
  • Missed the Call: It's implied by the note Jason finds that SOPHIA Zero was dispatched specifically to give her a fighting chance against the Mutant Core. In her haste to stun Jason so she could keep him safe, she took off in SOPHIA III before Fred could draw her attention to this, and ended up in over her head as a result.
  • Mission Control: Serves as Jason's spotter (until she leaves him to deal with the Mutant Core by herself) and later gets isolated from Jason and G-SOPHIA in Area Omega, forced to find him on her own.
  • Ms. Fanservice: In Zero III. She regains her skin-tight plugsuit that she wore in the first Zero and is no longer subject to Body Horror, but as a result of the Fanservice Pack from Zero II the chest part is now too small for her and reveals an underboob window.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: By the end of the trilogy, Eve is a higher being of mechanical origin raised like a human daughter by human parents to work as a mechanic for a tank, who then transformed as the result of a malignant mutant mutagen into a biomechanical Mutant Queen. How much of Eve is still a machine isn't addressed, but she's organic enough to where she can bear children with Jason, who is a modified test-tube human.
  • Official Couple: After three games worth of Ship Tease (including implied Love Confessions from one to the other), Zero III dispenses with the ambiguity and has her and Jason more or less get married. They even are revealed to have two children in the true ending.
  • Power Palms: After she is sucked into inter-dimensional space and separated from Jason and G-SOPHIA, Eve discovers that she has miraculously developed the power to purify mutants by using the mechanical attachment on her right arm dubbed "I-HIX". This takes the form of an extremely short-ranged paw-shaped "Absorber" round that disintegrates weak mutants on contact when they would normally be killed.
  • Pro-Human Transhuman: After realizing she's a mutant and the new leader of the mutants, she goes about enacting a plan aiming to minimize conflict and bloodshed.
  • Red Baron: The Invem Queen, by the final act of III.
  • Rescue Romance: Her relationship with Jason has some undertones of this as part of their Ship Tease:
    • Zero has him finding her in the Residential Area, and he sticks with her to fight the mutants after they find Fred. The Golden Ending has him rescuing her again with help from Fred and SOPHIA Zero before destroying Invem SOPHIA, and the last shot has an implied Love Confession by him.
    • Zero II's plot relies on Jason and Eve taking a trip to her home planet Sophia to find a cure for her mutant infection. The route to the Golden Ending has Jason, Eve, and Fred separated after defeating Planade-G, with Eve wandering on her own in Area Omega; after she finds ANDREIA (provided by Elfie's spirit) and Fred, and with help from the MA pilots they encountered in their journey, Eve rescues Jason and after dealing with Drolrevo Mastro, the last shot has an implied love confession by her.
    • Zero III's plot is kickstarted with Jason, Eve, and Fred being separated after arriving on planet Sophia. After Jason finds Fred, they (alongside Leibniz) go on a quest to find her. In the route to the Golden Ending, after defeating Planade-G, Eve outright tells Jason she loves him before leaving for super-dimensional space. He later follows her, and they end up Happily Married.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot: To put into perspective, not only does she have a humanoid appearance, she's also a Genki Girl. Plus, the 100,000 downloads wallpaper shows her eating human food. Another shows her swimming, and expelling bubbles while underwater (i.e. breathing). In Zero 2, Kanna gives her a medicine made from fruits and a flower from her hair, revealing she can at least drink like a human.
  • Robot Girl: She is revealed to be an android from an alien world constructed to perform maintenance and adjustments on SOPHIA III.
  • Robotic Reveal: When she and Jason recover Fred and discover his circuitry, she explains that she's also a robot. He just holds her hand.
  • Scars are Forever: She retains a pair of small scars on her right cheek after her mutant infection is stabilized.
  • Science Hero: Doesn't start as one, as she's a Support Droid built for the 'science' part but not the 'hero' part, but the climax of II has her take on the hero role for the rest of the game, and she performs admirably. Like Jason, she's also a genius, and multiple aspects of Jason's gun and the Gaia SOPHIA were designed by her; she's also the one who does repairs.
  • Ship Tease: With Jason. The official wallpapers ship them even further. Artwork for the Trilogy release verges on Official Couple by depicting them with wedding bands. It's fully reached Official Couple in the true ending for III, where they have two children together.
  • Sleepyhead: A side effect of her condition in Zero II. Eve is often in Sleep Mode in order to conserve energy either for when she is needed the most or to prevent her from consuming G-SOPHIA's energy. Eve herself doesn't like this very much since this makes her feel like The Load for Jason.
  • The Smart Guy: Lampshaded by Jason, who notes that her engineering prowess far exceeds that of his. Justified; she is a Robot Girl who was built specifically to perform maintenance and adjustments on SOPHIA III.
  • Took a Level in Badass: The final section of Zero II results in this for Eve. She reflects on feeling like The Load for Jason and how she's become accustomed to him doing everything for her as she feels hopeless in a black hole full of mutants… and then grits her teeth, gets up, fights and sneaks her way across miles of shattered debris looking for Jason and Fred, determined to save them. It only gets better from there; she stares down Leibniz and GARUDA and was ready to fight them if she had to. On foot. She then gets a new MA, pilots it through the black hole cutting a bloody swathe through the mutants, saves Fred, and confronts a Mutant Cocoon; something so damn powerful it makes Mutant Overlords and a mutant planet look weak in comparison. Oh, and that Mutant Cocoon? It beat Jason and Gaia SOPHIA in a fair fight, Eve knows this because she can see the aftermath, and the MA Eve is in is technologically inferior to the Gaia SOPHIA. And she still takes the creature on and is able to fight it to a standstill long enough for reinforcements to come, allowing her to cap off her Character Development into a competent Action Girl badass by using an Acceleration Blast laced with her own purification powers to rip through the Cocoon's shell like a hot knife through butter and free Jason. She definitely proved her mettle there.
  • Tragic Keepsake: The logs she made that Leibniz plays with in III explains that she kept Roddy's destroyed Blaster Rifle in memory of him and Elfie, and converted it into the Subweapon Launcher that Jason now has in order to ensure it would still go to good use.
  • Two-Faced: As a result of her mutation in Zero II, the mutant cells have noticeably infected the right side of her face, along with turning her right eye's sclera completely black and her iris either turning green as seen in-game, or with a more creepy, black spiral design as seen in official art. Along with tears from the infected eye apparently becoming blood.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: Mentions that the "Mutants" that Jason is fighting are called something else in the Sophia 3rd databanks, but waves that aside as inconsequential and refers to them as such after. Zero III reveals they're called the "Invem Dark Star Army".
  • Walking Spoiler: Her role at the end of Zero II makes her a pretty big one.
  • When She Smiles: While she's already a Genki Girl, Jason lampshades how beautiful her smile is in the Golden Ending of Zero, thankful for him being by her side and supporting her to the very end.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: She and Jason are acclimatized to super-dimensional space, to the point that they're unable to safely reside in normal space anymore by the end of Zero III. That said, they swear to find a way to return to normal space, so that they can be with their children, Roddy and Elfie, as a family.

    Fred 

Fred

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz_fred.png
Fred as he appears in Blaster Master Zero.

Click to see him as he appears in Blaster Master Zero II
Click to see him as he appears in Blaster Master Zero III

*ribbit ribbit*

A mysterious lifeform that Jason discovers on Earth. When it jumps down a strange black hole, it inadvertently kickstarts Jason's quest to exterminate the mutants hiding beneath the planet.


  • Acrophobic Bird: Or Aquaphobic Frog in this case. An official wallpaper depicts Fred using a diving suit underwater. Makes sense, since he's a robot and not an actual amphibian.
  • Adaptation Species Change: In the English version of the original, he's a frog. In Zero, he's a froglike alien. Or rather, a robot designed to look like a froglike alien.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: On the pathway to the Golden Ending of Zero, he proves vital in Jason's mission to save Eve, leading him to SOPHIA Zero.
  • Convenient Color Change: For unknown reasons, Fred changes from green to silver after Jason and Eve travel to the galaxy in search of a cure for Eve's corrupted condition.
  • Mythology Gag: A 100,000 downloads special wallpaper shows Fred fantasizing himself as an enormous creature, a reference to the introduction scene in the original Blaster Master where he makes contact with radioactive material and grows huge as a result. In addition, in his fantasy, he looks like the original Fred.
  • Non-Human Sidekick: In Zero II onward, Fred beginning to actively utilize his wormhole projection to assist makes him an invaluable utility that accompanies Jason at all times, including outside of the SOPHIA in the field.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: In the original game Fred got turned into a huge mutant which you eventually fought and killed, here Fred avoids becoming a mutant boss and survives as a result.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: If it weren't for Fred, Jason wouldn't have found SOPHIA III, nor met Eve, and wouldn't have started fighting the mutants. Earth would have been probably be screwed in the first game and the Mutant Cocoon wouldn't have been dealt with in the second game.
  • Teleport Spam: In the True Final Boss battle of Zero III, when fighting Jason as Kane, Fred begins making use of his power to warp Jason and the SOPHIA-J1 around the field midway into the fight, giving Jason a further tactical advantage.
  • Team Pet: Serves this role for Jason and Eve. Given what we learn about Support Droids in II - that they aren't just there as mechanics but are also there as moral support to keep the pilots from going mad with the isolation of fighting mutants - and Jason's own comments while aboard L-229 with a comatose Eve, being a team pet who uplifts the MA pilot's spirits may very well be Fred's second purpose as part of the team.
  • Thinking Up Portals: He is capable of creating wormholes. The one he creates in the opening leads Jason directly to Sophia III. This becomes a gameplay mechanic in Zero II, where Jason gets the ability to use Fred to teleport him directly to G-Sophia. Fred also creates a portal to exit each dungeon after you've cleared it. In the final act of Zero III, his wormholes can be seen warping the MA pilots and their vehicles in and out, which coupled with his lack of presence in the Metal Attacker foreshadows that it isn't Jason being played as and showing him playing an active double-duty in the plan to protect Jason and Eve.
  • Tropey, Come Home: Fred often goes missing and often needs to be rescued. He hops off into a portal, starting the plot of Blaster Master Zero. He goes missing when the Gaia-SOPHIA crash lands on Flosante in the start of Blaster Master Zero II. He is captured by the Sophia Force in the beginning of Blaster Master Zero III.

    Mutants / Invem Dark Star Cluster 

Invem Them All

The primary antagonists of Blaster Master Zero and its sequels, the Mutants are a race of varied monstrous organisms that travel the universe, leaving death and destruction in their wake. In response to their threat, war tanks like the SOPHIA III were made and distributed across the stars, with the hopes that the never-ending Mutant horde could be combated.


  • Arc Welding: Zero III confirms in the opening act that the Underworld Lord/Multidimensional Lord in the first game was, in fact, Goez — the mutant overlord from MetaFight.
  • Adaptive Ability:
    • The race has a variant of this as a whole. On the minion level, the further along Jason gets in Blaster Master Zero I, the more he begins encountering mutants that start to resemble him in his suit and have a gun like his, employing strategy and swarm tactics to overwhelm him. Additionally, they adapt to create a Boss Mutant that takes on the appearance of Fred.
    • Furthermore, Blaster Master Zero II shows Cocoon-class mutants can adapt to take on the abilities of the enemies that fight them, which is why it has watery attacks when Eve fights it — it's already fought the ANDREIA once before. By the time Jason fights Drolrevo Mastro, the mutant has further adapted to use various attacks inspired by the three other MA tanks that attacked it while Eve charged the Acceleration Blast, as well.
  • Another Dimension: They aren't native to this universe at all, but hail from super-dimensional space, another heavily-warped reality that layers over normal space.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Not a single mutant throughout the games is slightly hinted to be good, or even neutral, or at the very least not destructive. As Leibniz highlights in III, literally all they know as a base instinct is to attack things indiscriminately. Subverted in III, where Eve shows that she became the first good mutant during the events of II. She happens to be the newest Invem Queen or Mutant Queen. The only reason the mutants on Sophia are antagonistic this time is because the planet Sophia's harsh treatment of her royally ticks them off and they attack in order to rescue her.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: Cocoon-class mutants can study and replicate the powers of anything that fights them. This is best demonstrated via Drolrevo Mastro, who replicates the powers of every MA that fights it in its Cocoon state.
  • Badass Arm-Fold: Drolrevo Mastro does this as its default stance, the confident body language perhaps the greatest example of It Can Think among the entire Invem.
  • Back from the Dead: Planade-G is revived in Zero III as the technical Big Bad, but this time leading the mutant attack as a means to protect Eve as its new Queen from the Sophia Force.
  • Big Bad: They serve as this for the series as a whole.
  • Bishōnen Line: Some of the strongest and most dangerous Mutants encountered in both games have very human-like appearance in contrast to other monstrous bosses, Drolrevo Mastro playing this straight in going from a grotesque, battleship-sized cocoon to a condensed humanoid form slightly larger than the G-SOPHIA.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: They notably explode on death, and most Mutants are in some way unorthodox in appearance. The most 'normal' ones appear somewhat like variations of human fauna. The most bizarre ones include flying, strafing energy diamonds and giant lanterns that fire energy.
  • Boss Warning Siren: Major Mutants are announced this way followed by Boss Subtitles.
  • The Corruption: What they cannot destroy, they tend to instead corrupt. They seem to refer to this corruption as 'invem.' Metal Attackers and Support Droids are not exempt from this.
  • Flunky Boss: Most Mutant bosses have the bad tendency of summoning minions to aid them. Although this can backfire on them since said minions have a chance to drop health and energy pickups.
  • Genius Loci: It is unclear if Planade G was a sentient planet in Area G before it was completely overtaken by the mutants, but by the time Jason encounters it in Blaster Master Zero II, it is a living mutant planet with a connection to the Hive Mind as an Overlord-class mutant, and it shows intelligence in Jason's fight with it; namely, once Jason has it down to low health, it starts spinning faster and faking him out so Jason has a harder time getting the window of opportunity he needs to siphon energy from it.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Drolrevo Mastro, the supreme Mutant Overlord of the entire Invem Dark Star Army, who had dispatched the various Overlords across the universe to gather power for it to feed on. Its influence is still felt even in Zero III, the consequences of its defeat being the reason for the entire conflict.
  • Hive Mind: They seem to operate like a hive. Mutant Overlords and Mutant Cocoons are the Queens of the hive, and everything the Mutants do serves to give the Overlords power to then give to the Cocoons.
  • Humongous Mecha: Defend Them All and its Boss Rush variant, Invem Them All, are this.
  • Insectoid Aliens: Many of the Mutants solidly fall into this category (especially boss level ones) being close, visually, to Earth insects.
  • It Can Think: While they still do not speak a single line of dialogue, it's outright stated in both games that Mutants of "Lord" class and above have human level intellect.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: No one really knows where they come from or if there's any purpose in any of their attacks on all the planets they invade other than simply grow stronger and continue to consume more and more…
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The mutants of the Invem Dark Star Army are attackers and destroyers first and foremost, serving their Overlords and Cocoons without question and fighting to the end. It shows that something is "reversed" hardcore when Planade-G not only leaves Eve's cocoon unharmed in its fight with Jason in III, but whisks it away with it after sustaining critical damage in normal space.
  • Planetary Parasite: The Invem are known to parasitize and then consume planets from within. Area 8 in Blaster Master Zero and the Forbidden Sector of Blaster Master Zero III are areas that either contain, contained, or are areas where the Invem are parasitizing their host planets. This happens at an advanced stage of an Invem attack on a planet.
  • Planet Looters: Their entire existence is devoted to the extraction and consumption of resources for the sake of their masters. This is taken to an extreme level, as Jason's monologue in Zero II indicates that they can eventually consume and destroy stars. This is foreshadowing to the endgame boss Planade-G, which is an Overlord-class mutant the size of a planet.
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: The strongest variants of the Mutant race have imposing titles like "Lord", "Overlord", and "Mastro".
  • Sdrawkcab Name: "Drolrevo" is... quite the name for the successor to the Overlord.
  • Spam Attack: Another variant of Mutant bosses are ones that loves to fire a lot of projectiles at you.

Zero EX Characters

Playable Guest Fighter DLC characters in Zero that can be harnessed in EX Characters Mode. They have no story cutscenes, nor ending cutscenes.

    Common Tropes 
  • Cool Tank: Each of them ride what appears to be recolored SOPHIA IIIs. Granted, considering their natural skills when compared to Jason, they need to use it far less often than he does and can finish large portions of the game without it.
  • Falling Damage: Unlike Jason, averted; none of them take any damage whatsoever when landing from a high jump.
  • Mana Meter: Every EX Character has a replacement for the Subweapons Gauge that functions akin to a Mana Meter.
    • Gunvolt has EP, which is used to fuel his Flashfield and Prevasion abilities. He's also the only character who can use his meter outside of dungeons. Gunvolt also has an SP bar that can be used to power his Skills.
    • Ekoro has the Heart Gauge, which is very similar to Jason's Subweapons, but recharges on its own by shooting enemies.
    • Shantae has the Magic Meter, which is consumed to use her Magic abilities.
    • Shovel Knight gets a literal Mana Meter, which he uses as a power source for his Relics.
  • Not Quite Flight:
    • While playing as Gunvolt, you can hover if you use your Flashfield while airborne.
    • Ekoro can fly short distances, but can't ascend.
  • Palette Swap: Zig-zagged.
    • Averted big-time for the characters themselves. They offer completely different gameplay experiences, both in the overworld (when not riding their tanks) and dungeons.
    • Played straight with the tanks they ride; as opposed to the red SOPHIA III...
      • Gunvolt rides a predominantly blue and gold tank.
      • Ekoro rides a pink tank.
      • Shantae rides a purple-painted tank.
      • Shovel Knight rides a tank colored a lighter blue than Gunvolt's.

    Gunvolt 

Gunvolt

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz_gunvolt.png

The titular character from the Azure Striker Gunvolt Series. An Adept who possesses a Septima known as "Azure Striker", he commands electricity and lightning powers with absolution, which gives him the ability to do anything between frying enemies to a crisp with Flashfield to dodging enemy attacks with Prevasion.

In EX Characters Mode, Gunvolt's main mechanic revolves around EP, a meter that replaces the Subweapons gauge. With EP, Gunvolt can use Flashfield in tandem with his Dart Leader, Cerberus, to battle, as well as Prevasion, which, for a large EP cost, allows him to negate damage from any hit as long as his Flashfield isn't active. While in dungeons, Gunvolt also has the ability to use Skills; by consuming Skill Points, Gunvolt can invoke powerful abilities that range from decimating foes to healing himself.

For tropes which apply to him in his own series, see Azure Striker Gunvolt Heroes and Allies.


  • Achilles' Heel: As powerful as he is, Gunvolt is useless underwater, which comes from his lightning powers. While submerged in side-scrolling areas, Gunvolt can't use Flashfield, rendering him effectively helpless.
  • Art Evolution: His design is a stylized variant of his design in Azure Striker Gunvolt 2. Namely, his suit has been more defined so it looks more like combat armor, the suit's chest is more pronounced, and his midriff is even less pronounced.
  • Badass Longcoat: Dons the same dark blue longcoat from Azure Striker Gunvolt 2.
  • BFS: Starts the game with his signature Luxcalibur Skill while in dungeons; when using it, Gunvolt summons a blade made of lightning that destroys foes unlucky enough to be in his path.
  • Boring, but Practical: Outside of Skills, Gunvolt has exactly one method of attack. However, his sole method of attack happens to be pretty damn useful.
  • Chain Pain: Gunvolt can learn Voltaic Chains, which is acquired from Lumen, who is situated on a midair platform in Area 1 (which requires Wall Climb to reach). This is a 3 SP dungeon Skill that summons chains that criss-cross the screen, then electrify to destroy enemies in contact with the chains. Its power scales relative to the number of enemies on-screen, which is devastating against flunky bosses.
  • Defeat Equals Explosion: Like in his home series, he dissipates into sparks when his HP is depleted to zero.
  • Fragile Speedster: Compared to Jason, he can Wall Jump, he jumps higher, moves much faster, and can crawl as fast as he runs, but he takes twice as much damage as Jason does. Thankfully, he also has Prevasion, which can block up to 3 hits at full energy.
  • Heal Thyself: Galvanic Patch/Healing Volt, a dungeon Skill which costs 1 SP to use, restores three bars of HP.
  • No-Sell: Prevasion outright negates damage from almost any hit for a third of his EP gauge, as long as Flashfield isn't active. Notably, the way this mechanic interacts with Blaster Master means that Gunvolt can straight up walk through hazards as if they didn't exist.
  • Overheating: Unlike in his home series, averted. Even if his EP Bar depletes to zero, he does not need to wait for it to completely replenish before he can use his abilities again.
  • Scratch Damage:
    • Cerberus' bullets deal minimal damage when they hit enemies — Bibys, for example, can be killed one at a time — and are better suited for destroying rocks and other barriers that typically require Crusher shots than actually inflicting damage. However, it Tags enemies, which allows you to use Flashfield to dispatch them.
    • The area of effect where Flashfield projects itself also does minor damage on contact if an enemy is standing close enough. It's good for breaking lots of rocks, though.
  • Shock and Awe: As in his home series, he uses lightning-based attacks in combat and his main form of offense involves tagging his enemies with his bolt-shooting gun and then using his lightning powers to conduct electricity into them.
  • Spam Attack: Holding down the Shoot button enables you to auto-fire Cerberus darts, just like in his home game.
  • Speed Echoes: Leaves afterimages when he moves around, as long as he has enough energy for Prevasion and is not using Flashfield.
  • Super Move Portrait Attack: When activating major Offensive Skills, Gunvolt appears as a cut-in, just like in his home game. Unusually, the game only shows the top half of his face when activating the Skill, which is normally just the prelude to a full shot of his body in his home series.

    Ekoro 

Ekoro

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz_ekoro.png

An apprentice angel and one of the main characters of Gal*Gun: Double Peace.

As a Cupid-in-training, Ekoro wields The Power of Love, capable of shooting arrows of love from her dual pistols and hearts that inflict massive damage to those in its path. In addition, while in dungeons, Ekoro is capable of accessing the Heart Gauge, a unique Subweapon system in which Ekoro can expend energy from the Heart Gauge to execute powerful attacks, then recharge her power by damaging foes.

For tropes which apply to her in her own series, see this character page.


  • Abnormal Ammo: Fires arrows from her pistols.
  • Charged Attack: While in dungeons, holding the Shoot button will cause Ekoro to charge her Desert Angels, which will fire a large pink heart that goes through objects and the environment and deals significant damage.
  • Curtains Match the Window: As in her home series, light blue hair and eyes.
  • Diving Kick: Has a dropkick named Ekoro Kick, a Dungeon Skill which, in addition to damaging enemies, allows her to pass over hazards such as spikes without taking any damage.
  • Dual Wielding: Dual wields Desert Angel pistols as her method of combat.
  • Wings Do Nothing: Downplayed, but she can only glide for short distances in the overworld.

    Shantae 

Shantae

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz_shantae.png

The half-genie hero from the titular series.

As a half-genie, Shantae is capable of a number of magical feats, including whipping her hair at opponents in melee range, shooting fireballs from her hands, and animal transformations.

For tropes pertaining to her home series, see this character page.


  • Cool Sword: Her Scimitar spell can summon four of these to damage enemies and obstacles around her, but it drains her magic meter quickly.
  • Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Shantae's normal attack is her hair whip which has very poor range in a game where most of the enemies like to shoot you from a good distance. You have to approach enemies carefully or else she will take a lot of unnecessary damage.
  • Morphic Resonance: Both of her enemy transformations have an identifying trait; the generic mook enemy transformation is purple like her hair, while the Mother Brain transformation sports oversized earrings where its nonexistent ears would be.
  • Playing with Fire: The Fireball spell is one of her subweapons; it does damage on impact and also keeps doing Damage Over Time like Jason's Flamethrower.
  • Prehensile Hair: Her primary form of attack is whipping opponents with her hair.
  • Shock and Awe: She can summon a Storm Puff that can be used to light up darkened rooms and do constant damage to enemies; whipping it sends it away to attack foes she cannot otherwise reach.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Her signature magic dances make an appearance, and allow her to extend her abilities.
    • While in the overworld, she can transform into a monkey. While a monkey, Shantae has increased jumping height and speed, is small enough to run through small openings, and can climb up walls by simply coming into contact with them, but cannot attack.
    • Shantae can transform into an elephant while in dungeons. While an elephant, Shantae can use a ramming attack that deals heavy damage and breaks objects she comes into contact with. It also allows her to pass over hazards unharmed.
    • Unique to Blaster Master is the ability to transform into mutants, gaining their attacks and being able to use them to fight other mutants: by default, she can turn into one of the generic mook mutants and shoot slow-moving but piercing projectiles, and can later unlock the ability to turn into Mother Brain, the Area 1 boss, which can shoot a constant aimable stream of moderately-damaging projectiles but is immobile while doing so and can also float over pits and damaging floors.

    Shovel Knight 

Shovel Knight

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz_shovelknight.png

The protagonist of the titular series.

A melee-oriented character, Shovel Knight swings his shovel blade as his primary weapon, and can use many of the Relics he acquired in his journey to the Tower of Fate.

For tropes pertaining to his home series, see this character page.


  • Anchors Away: Brought his Anchor relic for use as a throwing weapon.
  • Bling of War: The Ornate Plate can be acquired in Area 3, and it automatically lights up dark areas when worn.
  • Brown Note: Can use the Horn to clear the screen of enemies.
  • Charged Attack: In an area high in the first room of Area 1 (same area as Gunvolt and Ekoro's 4th skills) lies a shovel power up that enables charging his strikes.
  • Fishing Minigame: Shovel Knight can cast a line into bodies of liquid with the Fishing Rod Relic. Pressing the Shoot button when the "!!" symbol appears over his head will cause Shovel Knight to reel it in, and he can fish up either a grenade that rolls along the ground and explodes, one of Jason's decoy turrets that activates automatically and functions the same way, a small or a large fish that refill his health by 1 or 3 bars, or a large magic potion that refills his MP completely.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: He is the only one to have these in the game compared to the others.
  • Invincibility Power-Up: His Phase Locket returns, and works like it always has.
  • Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Shovel Knight's basic attack, without any upgrades, is a melee move in a game designed around mostly ranged combat, so when playing as him one has to be even more careful than usual.
  • Mythology Gag: Gameplay aside, he's the only character who has a unique animation when he dismounts from the SOPHIA III, wherein he somersaults forwards, then poses with his shovel upwards when he lands. It's not just for show, either; Shovel Knight can dodge enemy attacks while in his dismount animation.
  • No Indoor Voice: Shovel Knight himself doesn't talk in this game, but the description for his Relics and equipment is written in CAPS LOCK, giving off this impression.
  • Shovel Strike: His primary attack is to thrust his shovel blade into opponents for rather hefty damage. He can bounce on them and projectiles as well, as well as reflect enemy projectiles. He can also break through cracked walls and special blocks with it as well.
  • Spread Shot: Defeating the Remote Blaster in Area 6 gives him the Blaster Master Mail, which allows him to shoot 4 green projectiles in a spread formation inside dungeons with every shovel swing at the cost of 10 MP per use. In addition to damaging enemies, they also function like Shantae's flame projectile and Jason's flamethrower, allowing him to melt the ice in Area 6. If you also have the shovel upgrade and are at full health, you can combine this with the Drop Spark, allowing him to shoot a 5-way spread shot with each swing of his shovel.
  • Sword Beam: Or rather, shovel beam: like in his native game, getting the shovel power-up from the midair platform mentioned above gives him access to Drop Spark, which allows him to shoot sparks that travel along the ground when he's at full health. Much more useful than in his native game, seeing that he's always standing on the ground in the dungeons and because it gives him a ranged attack when he's outside SOPHIA.

Introduced in Blaster Master Zero II

    Gonbei and Tae 

Gonbei and Tae

Gonbei voiced by: Taku Yashiro (Trilogy)

Tae voiced by: Yurika Takagi (Trilogy)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz2_gonbei.png
Gonbei
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz2_tae.png
Tae

A young and fit farmer, Gonbei is from a farming community on the planet Montoj. When the local feudal warlord began overtaxing the citizens, Gonbei and his fellow farmers decided to start a farmer's revolution, or "ikki". However, they discover that the warlord was transformed into the Mutant Overlord "Zavira", who subsequently killed most of the farmers present. Gonbei was lucky enough to escape, and soon met a Metal Attacker, NORA MA-05 "KUEBIKO" and its Support Droid, Tae. Together they represent the remnants of their "ikki", hoping to one day defeat Zavira and bring peace back to Montoj.


  • Adaptation Dye-Job: Tae is loosely based on the character of the same name from Ikki: Legend of Takeyari Master, who herself is very loosely based on the 2P character from the original game. Unlike Tae from the novel adaptation, who had black hair and navy blue eyes, Tae in Zero II sports unnatural white hair and red eyes.
  • Animal Motifs: Whereas Eve's design incorporates a cat motif, Tae's multiple tail accessories and robot ears are more evocative of foxes and kitsune. It is a bit more subtle, though, with Tae having a single, smaller fox-shaped charm on her obi instead of Eve's kneepads.
  • Assist Character: Gonbei and Tae show up to help out Jason and Eve when Gathervira emerges. If enough damage is dealt to Gathervira's core, KUEBIKO will hammer the core with shots from the foreground to expose Gathervira's interior dungeons. If the G-SOPHIA falls off the titan, KUEBIKO will also rain holographic bamboo shoots that the G-SOPHIA can jump off of with the Recoil Jump. He does not show up during the rematch on Planetoid G-2, but G-SOPHIA has had plenty of opportunity to widen its arsenal by then.
  • Badass Normal: Considering Gonbei lives in Montoj, a planet where technology seems to be far less advanced than Earth's, he's still able to fight Jason on equal footing using nothing but his agility and hit and run tactics alongside some flashbombs.
  • Battle Boomerang: Gonbei uses sickles like this during his boss fight.
  • Berserk Button: Trampling enough crops before starting the fight against Gonbei will make him very angry. Angry enough that his attacks will deal double damage.
  • Boss Subtitles: Gonbei. The Legendary Takeyari Master.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Gonbei uses the bushes in his arena to set up tricky attacks and ambushes. He also can throw flashbombs in order to blind you before lunging from the bushes.
  • Crossover: Gonbei and his story arc are based on the Sunsoft arcade game Ikki, in which he and his fellow farmers rebelled against a cruel governor in protest of his absurd taxes. Except in this case, said governor got turned into a mutant and destroyed much of the planet. Tae wasn't in the original game, but she is in the novelization of the game, "いっき ーLegend of Takeyari Master".
  • Dash Attack: Gonbei's favored fight tactic is to hide in the bushes, then dash forward in a sudden ambush. You get this as a Blast Counter when you beat him.
  • Fragile Speedster: The KUEBIKO often breaks down under combat pressure, but is especially mobile, able to scale the mountains of Planet Montoj with little difficulty.
  • Gatling Good: The KUEBIKO has this as its primary armament, and it can arrest Gathervira on its own.
  • "Get Back Here!" Boss: You spend most of the battle against Gonbei chasing him around than anything else.
  • Human Aliens: Gonbei isn't from Earth, but unlike Kanna and Stein, he doesn't look any different from a human.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Gonbei is very agile, can take a good beating and his takeyari lunge will introduce you to a whole world of pain if it lands.
  • Robotic Reveal:
    • A support conversation has Eve verify Tae's support droid number, YS-3. Tae does not want to be called that, however.
    • Gonbei originally thought that Tae was a spirit sent by Heaven to help him. He realizes the truth after talking with Jason and Eve, though he chooses not to tell Tae out of respect.
  • Ship Tease: The interactions between the two and how closely they regard one another strongly suggests their relationship is similar to Jason and Eve's — not unsupported by how in their downtime Gonbei and Tae confide in Jason and Eve respectively about how they feel about the other, and how both mutually won't break what they believe to be the others' illusion for their sakes, with Gonbei not wanting to tell that he knows Tae's a gynoid and Tae not wanting to diverge from the notion that she's some descended spirit.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Gonbei's name is romanized as Gonbe in the Japanese releases.
  • Team Pet: Tappy, a bamboo dragonfly often seen hovering over Tae's shoulder. His ability is unknown, however. In III when he supports Gonbei, it appears he can produce any number of flares.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In his battle against Kane in Zero III, Gonbei has Tae and Tappy providing active support, but perhaps the most impressive addition is that, should a melee counter be attempted on him late into the fight, he will dodge it and counter the counter.
  • Turns Red:
    • In II, when Gonbei's health is low enough he will drop more flashbombs before using his boomerang attack and one to blind you momentarily before readjusting his position for his dash attack.
    • More of the same happens in III, but Tae and Tappy will join the fight, the former with gatling fire and the latter with trails of flares.
  • Unexplained Accent: Tae has an odd southern drawl in her dialogue. Given the "rural Japan" aesthetic of Montoj and its inhabitants, it's likely a cultural translation for a Kansai accent.
  • The Unfought: While Gonbei is fought on foot you never fight him and Tae piloting KUEBIKO. Not even in III when the other MA pilots fight you for rematches in the Golden Ending.

    Kanna and Kenwood 

Kanna and Kenwood

Kanna voiced by: Shiori Izawa (Trilogy), Cristina Vee (Kanna Raising Simulator promotional trailer)

Kenwood voiced by: Hideki Makino (Trilogy)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz2_kanna.png
Kanna
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz2_kenwood.png
Kenwood

Kanna is a plant-based alien girl who lives on planet Stranga. With her droid Kenwood, she pilots the NORA MA-06 "EIR".


  • Action Girl: Don't let Kanna's demeanor fool you; she was able to get into a fight with GARUDA that ended in both of them walking away, meaning that she was at least able to fight Leibniz in GARUDA to a standstill, who himself gives Jason trouble and forces Jason to retreat in their first proper fight. Also shows up in gameplay; she's a dangerous pilot, and she isn't slacking off when all the MA pilots unleash hell on Drolrevo to buy Eve time to fire the Acceleration Blast. In Zero III, should Jason question Leibniz on why he hates Stranga so much, Leibniz confirms that, when he came for Kanna before, she brought him down. Jason even internally reflects on how remarkable it is that EIR prevailed over GARUDA when, as a close-range combat specializing MA against a lightspeed bombardment craft, Kanna would have been at disadvantage in that matchup.
  • Animal Motifs:
    • Much like how Eve and Tae have cat and fox motifs, Kenwood's appearance is based on a sheep, with horns and "hooved" shoes, fitting for a world focused on vegetation. For a Bilingual Bonus, this animal motif was also inspired by the Japanese words for 'sheep' and 'butler' being almost the same - 'hitsuji' and 'shitsuji'.
    • Kanna shares Kenwood's bovine aesthetic; horn-like "hair ornaments", cow's tail-like root, and giant boobs all combine to give her a literal cowgirl motif.
    • Kanna also has a subtle rabbit motif, in that both her remote droid Yacopu and her Metal Attacker EIR are designed to resemble rabbits.
  • Ascended Extra: Kanna stars in her own DLC minigame, "Kanna Raising Simulator", where the player helps raise different types of Kanna.
  • Badass in Distress: Kanna is trapped by toxic vines on Planet Stranga in III, requiring Jason to bail her out, but she lends her support all the same once business is done. The battle against her on Earth is particularly brutal.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Eccentric and weird as Kanna may be it's easy to forget she was able to fight off Leibniz and GARUDA. Given that Leibniz is bent on destroying all Support Droids and that Kenwood is alive and fine by the time you meet them she did a good job at this. The events of III's Golden Ending involves a fight with her where she, Kenwood and Yacopu pull out all the stops.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: Despite resembling a humanoid girl, Kanna is actually a plant, complete with a large root that looks like a tail. She wears the flowerpot that Kenwood grew her in as an Expressive Mask.
  • Breakout Character: She became immensely popular the moment she was revealed, with her popularity eclipsing even that of the main protagonists. She became so popular she got her own spinoff game as DLC. She's also the only one of the three allied MA pilots to make a return in Blaster Master Zero III outside the Golden Ending.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: Played for Laughs, as she's a Ms. Fanservice whose most notable physical feature is her sizable bust which is held by a bra with a watermelon print, making them literal melons. Infinity Kanna takes this trope to an extreme level, as her breasts are planet-sized. And art of her for Zero III shows she got even curvier. Concept art showed one of her previous iterations even had Multi Boobage.
  • Close-Range Combatant: The most devastating attacks available to the EIR are in melee range, whether by drill kicks or by charging into its aggressors. Its sole ranged option is slow and can be disrupted before it hits the ground.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Kanna behaves in a very strange manner. She's fond of shouting "Flower!" at the top of her lungs and behaves more like a spoiled child than an MA pilot.
  • Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Befitting the role of a butler, the level-headed Kenwood upholds the responsibility of keeping the eccentric Kanna in check.
  • Combat Stilettos: Though the official art of her appearance in II makes it difficult to tell, Kanna wears these in both of her outfits. In III they're even shaped like the handle of a watering can.
  • The Ditz: Kanna seems to be off in her own world constantly, which gives Jason and Eve several headaches as they try to get her help.
  • Diving Kick: EIR's Drill Smash essentially works like this. EIR jumps in the air and then descends like a meteor to the ground also causing debris to be flung around where it landed.
  • Expressive Mask: Kanna's "head" is actually the flowerpot that she was grown out, which she still wears despite having developed a humanoid "stem" below the pot. Despite all that, it still has its own eyes and mouth, which manage to be surprisingly expressive.
  • Fanservice Pack: As if Kanna wasn't already dripping hot with sexualization, her outfit is more daring in III. Additionally, her body and especially her legs and thighs are noticeably larger than they were in II.
  • Genius Ditz: As much of a Cloud Cuckoo Lander as she is, there are more than a few hints that Kanna's smarter than she appears to be. To start with, she fought Leibniz in the GARUDA and won, which is very impressive given how her MA should be at a disadvantage against a lightspeed bomber. She also quickly picks up on Eve's sickness and sends Jason to fetch materials for a medicine to help her, though she refuses to explain why she has Jason do so until after he brings them to her.
  • Golden Super Mode: In the rematch with Kanna in Zero III, the EIR gains this if it manages to collect a gold fruit. Along with growing to gargantuan size.
  • Gyaru Girl: Instead of brown, Kanna's green. However, her face being a brown pot still manages to complete the image.
  • Hidden Depths: Kanna refuses to give Jason information on the key he needs to access the dimensional tunnel that leads to Area F until he provides her with three different types of fruit. At first this seems to be just Kanna being off in her own world as usual. When you give her the fruits, rather than use them for herself, she combines them with a flower from her hair and mixes them up to create a medicine for Eve, who is suffering ill effects from Stranga's unusual atmosphere.
    • And in Zero III, when the defeat of Metal Cerbeboss reveals that there are other lifeforms like Kanna to be found on Stranga from its super-dimensional space, she breaks down crying in realizing she's no longer alone on the planet.
  • Hyper-Competent Sidekick: If Kanna's backstory is to be believed, Kenwood is very much this trope, considering he had to travel much of Stranga alone looking for something to pilot the EIR, and literally raised Kanna into the role. Of course, given he's a support droid, his competence only goes so far; given that Eve herself can pilot the SOPHIA models in I and II with great competency, and Tae can pilot the KUEBIKO in III, the fact that Kanna is still the pilot must mean Kenwood doesn't think himself up to the task.
  • The Jeeves: Kenwood visually gives off this vibe, and acts much like a butler dedicated to his mistress and eager to see her prosper.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Kanna's MA, the EIR, is a lot faster and more maneuverable than the G-SOPHIA. Notably, it more resembles a bike than the four wheeler that is G-SOPHIA, even though the EIR has four wheels as well. Eve and Jason lampshade this trope in regards to the EIR, since they find it confusing a tank is using itself as a weapon just as much as it uses its projectiles.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Between Kanna's breasts, her skintight bodysuit that is too small to even hold said breasts, and her ditzy demeanor, she delivers plenty. Yuji Natsume even admitted she was deliberately designed to, uh, awaken something in people.
    Yuji Natsume: I thought I would try to grow... A new instinct (fetish) for mankind.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Taking Leibniz on in single combat and winning, especially when she was explicitly at a type disadvantage where their MAs are concerned. It might also possibly be a nod to how the Drill Smasher is an effective speed kill weapon against Garuda if you allow Garuda to get close and hit it with the debris that gets kicked up from using Drill Smasher on the ground.
  • The One Guy: Kenwood is the only known male Support Droid in Zero II.
  • Plant Aliens: Kenwood grew Kanna from a mysterious super-dimensional Stranga-native seed when he was unable to find a native lifeform capable of piloting EIR. He feeds her by watering her head.
  • Proper Lady: Kenwood's personal goal is to teach Kanna how to be a proper lady. Needless to say it's an uphill climb.
  • Servile Snarker: It's clear that in comparison to the other MA pilots and their droids, Kanna and Kenwood take on a sort of 'master-servant' relationship. It doesn't stop Kenwood from snarking on occasion when he doesn't feel he needs to be serious, which can only be expected on a planet as wacky as Stranga.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Barring Eve taking control of SOPHIA III in I and her use of Andreia for the final section of II, Kanna is so far the only known female MA pilot. Even if Eve's stint as a pilot can be counted, Kanna is still the only non-droid female pilot. This is averted come Leibniz's helmet-breaking Wham Shot in her battle in Zero III, showing there has been another all along.
  • The Spock: The level-headed Kenwood adopts a formal, straightforward, and no-nonsense tone, as is to be expected from a butler.
  • Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Leibniz loathes her in a way entirely unalike his enjoyment at bothering Jason; he just wants nothing to do with Kanna. Kanna, for her part, even in meeting Leibniz, continues to be Kanna. Her having made him quickly regret having attacked her on Stranga likely has the most to do with this.
  • Shout-Out: With Kanna's origin being fully revealed in III, all hints contained in Planet STRANGA, Kanna's flower theme, how Kenwood found her, her bunny creature Yacopu and lastly what STRANGA's dimensional vortex world looks like, all settles with everything being a clear cut reference to another older Sunsoft title, an old platformer called Trip World, released for the Game Boy in 1993, where a bunny creature called Yakopoo (in japanese it's actually the same spelling) must find a flower of peace to restore peace to the world; the scenery of Kanna's birth place as seen in III looks exactly like the views in Trip World, and how Kenwood found Kanna draws parallels with the flower of peace as well. To hammer it down, the narration of Kanna's life during the reveal says it:
    Stranga is such a trippy world
  • Suddenly Voiced: Kanna is voice-acted in the trailer by Cristina Vee for "Kanna Raising Simulator".
  • Took a Level in Badass: Played with. Kanna's tactics in the rematch in III are actually identical to how she's fought in II. What makes her harder is both the fact that she has the alternate Kannas supporting her with heals, buffs, and watermelon bombs, and the fact that this time around you don't have the Burn Spark which otherwise makes the fight very easy.
  • Team Pet: Kanna's support animal Yacopu, a bunny-like droid who can synthesize medicine and other items after eating various fruits.
  • This Is a Drill: One of the EIR's most common attacks is to dive at you from the air with a drill. You get one for the SOPHIA after you defeat Kanna in II.
  • Visual Pun: Kanna's watermelon-printed bra holds up her... melons. She's also a literal pothead.

Alternate Kannas

In the DLC game "Kanna Raising Simulator", a number of different alternative Kannas are revealed to players, based on their progress through the minigame's tree levels and what fertilizer they use on her.

The default alternative is Li'l Kanna, representing Kanna's baby form. It appears as a white, daisy-like flower with thick green leaves/roots growing from a pot that's been decorated with a face.

The Tier 1 forms are Kannapokkur (monsters), Young Kanna (powerups) and Ominous Kanna (bugs). Kannapokkur is a tomboyish, largely humanoid plant-girl who shuns her old pot, wearing her leaves in a makeshift topknot and sporting a flowering tail. Young Kanna resembles a preteen version of the Kanna from canon. Ominous Kanna is a near-formless waddling bulb with a prehensile flowering vine it uses to help it hoist a massive bazooka.

The Tier 2 forms are Inkanna (Kannapokkur + monsters), Fairy Kanna (Kannapokur or Young Kanna + bugs), Kanna (Any Tier 1 + powerups), Golem Kanna (Young Kanna or Ominous Kanna + monsters) and Bunny Kanna (Ominous Kanna + bugs). Inkanna resembles a monstrous hybrid of flower and squid. Fairy Kanna resembles a fairy with orange segment-like wings and a lower half that resembles a cross between a ballgown and a partially peeled orange. Kanna is just the default Kanna from the canon game. Golem Kanna is a stone statue being puppetteered by internal vines, with a pottery-like mask and Sophinium crystals growing from her body. Bunny Kanna is an almost robot-looking white bunnygirl with a cat-like tail.

Finally, the Tier 3 forms are Jelly Kanna (Inkanna + monsters or bugs), Ris-Kanna (Inkanna + powerups or Fairy Kanna + bugs or powerups), Elegant Kanna (Kanna + any and don't find all hidden Li'l Kannas), Infinity Kanna (Kanna + any and find all hidden Li'l Kannas), Fruit Kanna a la mode (Bunny Kanna + monsters), and Fur Kanna (Bunny Kanna + powerups or bugs). Jelly Kanna is a mass of water being puppetteered from within by the true Kanna, a bulb with long vines/roots, and given some additional form by broken pottery. Ris-Kana is a skimpily clad red and green version of Kanna who seems to have ditched the flowerpot mask. Elegant Kanna is just Kanna in a red kimono. Infinity Kanna is a giant version of Kanna with horns and four arms. Fruit Kanna is a cute loli made out of fruit-and-vanilla pudding/icecream. Fur Kanna looks like a white-furred cross between a rabbit and a tanuki.


  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Infinity Kanna is so huge that she dwarfs Planet Stranga and can even hold a panicking Planade-G in her hand.
  • Ascended Extra: In Zero III, the Alternate Kannas are officially adopted into canon as Kanna's extended race, establishing that her true origin is the super-dimensional space of Planet Stranga, and that side being where the world is both entirely peaceful and actually generally habitable.
  • Bishōnen Line: Kanna starts as just a sapient flower in a pot, and then grows more or less humanoid depending on the fertilizer route the player chooses.
  • Combat Tentacles: Inkanna uses a sweet scent from her flowers to lure mutants close, then snatches them up with her powerful tentacles.
  • Cute Monster Girl: The humanoid Kannas are all very attractive looking... especially Ris-Kanna.
  • Giant Squid: Inkanna largely resembles a cartoon squid with a huge toothy maw at first glance; a closer look reveals the flowers in lieu of suckers and the flower shape to her "hood".
  • Golem: Invoked with Golem Kanna, who is largely a stone statue being animated by the sapient plant that has grown into the rock.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Infinity Kanna has four arms.
  • Planimal: Inkanna and Fur Kanna both look very much like animals, but are actually plants. Of the two, Inkanna wears her true nature as a sapient plant more visibly.
  • Slime Girl: Jelly Kanna is basically this, being half the real Kanna — a vegetable bulb that takes the place of the typical slime girl's core and extends its roots up to form solid arms — and half water shaped into a protective shell around the vulnerable plant.
  • You Are Who You Eat: Kanna's evolution in this minigame is shaped on what she is fed with. Giving her a largely powerups-based diet turns her into the Kanna we know from canon. Feed her a bug-based diet, she ends up as an animal. Feed her monsters, and she turns into a monster.

    Stein and Tesset 

Stein and Tesset

Stein voiced by: Taketora (Trilogy)

Tesset voiced by: Azusa Iwakura (Trilogy)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz2_stein.png
Stein
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz2_tesset.png
Tesset

Stein is an alien situated on the planet Div Ido, whose structure is split into two by dimensional rifts opened by a Mutant Overlord. While not the savviest on the Metal Attacker technology, his blood contains high amounts of the mineral "Sophinium", the same energy used to power the Metal Attackers; by producing Sophinium in crystallized form, he can use the mineral to power up or repair his Metal Attacker. Stein is accompanied by his Support Droid Tesset, a child-like girl who serves as the Droid for NORA MA-03 "ATOM". ATOM is a Metal Attacker that resembles a steam engine train; it is offensively-tuned Metal Attacker that is further enhanced by the Sophinium that Stein feeds it, but without a Booster is incapable of interstellar travel.


  • Animal Motifs: Much like prior Support Droids, Tesset appears to be subtly based on an animal. In her case, it's a skylark. One of her concept designs bears a strong resemblenace to Alouette of the Mega Man Zero series (of which was also developed by Inti Creates), who is named after the same bird in French.
  • Art Evolution: Tesset has an older appearance in III, going from looking like a young child to a girl in her early teens. It's especially notable as the ending, which shows images from all three games, shows both of Tesset's looks.
  • Bears Are Bad News: Mr. Mug will join the fight in III about the time Tesset takes her second shot (or first if you did a lot of damage to ATOM). Beware his punches...
  • BFG: ATOM's regular blast shots are freaking huge if you compare them to G-SOPHIA's.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Stein cares deeply for Tesset as if she was his own family. He recognizes and admires the similar bond shared between Jason and Eve. III has Tesset calling him dad.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: Stein's blood contains high amounts of Sophinium, which forms crystal-like growths on his body. Conveniently, Metal Attackers run on Sophinium, and so he can feed these crystals into ATOM for power boosts.
  • Carpet of Virility: Stein has a hairy chest.
  • Cool Shades: Stein sports an impressive pair.
  • Cool Train: The NORA MA-03 "ATOM" is built like one; it can even run backwards while firing its main cannon and Wave-Motion Gun.
  • "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The characters note that because Stein is unaware of the ATOM's software-based functions, he got into a fight that could easily have been dodged. To be fair, however, Tesset, who is better attuned to the software, is on the other side of the planet.
  • Drill Tank: ATOM is not one, but has one attack that creates a drill shaped cone in front of it.
  • Grease Monkey: Stein is able to maintain and fix mechanical hardware, but can't maintain computer-related hardware or software.
  • Hopeless with Tech: Zig-zagged. Stein has no idea how "oh ess" and "ramrom" stuff works, but is an adept mechanic who can repair and service the ATOM using his Sophinium secretions. He can effortlessly install the booster you find for him, and once he has that, he meets up with Tesset without any further complications.
  • Happily Adopted: Whereas the other Pilots have an either codependent or reliant relationship with their Support Droids, III reveals with Stein and Tesset this is reversed, with Tesset having been adopted by Stein as his daughter.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Stein is a mountain of a man that is almost as big as Jason's tank. Tesset is barely even twice the size of Jason's pet frog. This remains true if lessened in III with her growth spurt.
  • In-Series Nickname: Tesset often refers to ATOM as "Mr. Tank".
  • Like Parent, Like Child: In III, Stein and Tesset's conversations show that Stein adopted her as his daughter, and in that fight in particular she shows how much she takes after him despite her meek attitude, in unleashing positively gigantic Wave-Motion Gun blasts that could put the ATOM to shame.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: ATOM is capable of easily filling the screen with missiles.
  • Mighty Glacier: Stein's tank-like MA, the ATOM, is not a very nimble machine. However, between the Macross Missile Massacres and Wave Motion Guns, it has enough firepower that it doesn't need to be.
  • One-Hit Kill: Mr. Mug, the duo's Support Animal, joins the fight during their boss battle in III. It cannot be interacted with and only walks around to throw heavily telegraphed and short ranged punch attacks. However, if its punch successfully connects, the tank will be instantly vaporized, Life Energy Guards and all.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Mr. Mug. Go ahead and let him punch you if you don't believe.
  • Power-Strain Blackout: After using its Phlebotinum Overload attack ATOM will shutdown momentarily not unlike G-SOPHIA's zero SP shutdown which is catastrophic in the middle of a battle.
  • Ridiculously Human Robots: While Eve already had a few human-like traits, Tesset reveals that the Support Droids can apparently age, given that she goes from being a child in II to a teenage girl in III. No explanation is given for this.
  • Shout-Out: Tesset's design is an homage to Tesse from Waku Waku 7. In 'Zero III the HaraHara Warning sign from that game even appears during the ATOM boss fight and Tesset will actually use Tesse's HaraHara attack.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: While in overdrive mode ATOM can let out a trail of smoke that will explode at the end of its attack.
  • Tactical Suicide Boss: Stein will use his Sophinium overdrive even if means leaving himself extremely vulnerable in battle.
  • Team Pet: It goes unknown until their battle in III, but that teddy bear Tes is holding is their support animal, Mr. Mug. His ability seems to be an incredible physical strength, given he can deliver one hell of a whallop to the Metal Attacker if Kane isn't watching his back when Mr. Mug takes the field, being able to deliver an One-Hit Kill regardless of your remaining life and Life Guards if you get hit by his punch.
  • The Load: Tesset fears she's this. Her interactions with Eve leave Eve thinking she might be this as well, at least until the final section of the game. Thankfully for Tesset, Stein outright admits she's useful, since while he's more than capable of maintaining the mechanical hardware in the ATOM, he is unable to maintain the computer.
  • Token Mini-Moe: Tesset. Her hair and oversized hat obscures her eyes, and she has to pull herself up to the dialogue box to be seen because she's so small. When they return to fend of Kane in Zero III, this is very much no longer the case, Tesset now having the stature of a petite young woman.
  • Wave-Motion Gun:
    • When powered up, the ATOM will sometimes fire one of these. Unlike most examples of the trope, it can actually turn around while using it, resulting in a nasty surprise if you think you can simply jump over it and fire away.
    • In Zero III not only will the ATOM fire its own wave-motion gun, but periodically throughout the fight Tesset will fire her own from above.

    Leibniz 

Leibniz

Voiced by: Shouta Aoi (Trilogy)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz2_leibniz.png

A mysterious Metal Attacker pilot who is first seen ambushing Jason and Eve in Area D. He is a lone wolf who attacks any mutant or pilot he sets his sights on, and after their initial encounter, he quickly develops a seething hatred of Jason and makes it his personal mission to kill him and/or Eve. Unlike other Metal Attacker pilots, he is not accompanied by a Support Droid. His Metal Attacker, NORA MA-07 "GARUDA", is a flight-oriented Metal Attacker capable of exceeding the speed of light.

Warning: major spoilers ahead due to a big reveal at the end of Blaster Master Zero III.


  • Ambiguously Gay: Leibniz being revealed to be a woman raises a new question on the nature of her relationship with Lucia, as the games make it unclear whether it was platonic or something more.
  • Ambiguous Gender: Though referred to as male, Natsume deliberately designed him with a slender neck and waist to disguise his gender, according to this tweet. Turns out there was a good reason for it. Even after the reveal there was a lot of confusion regarding Leibniz's gender due to being voiced by a man (albeit one known for voicing female characters), Kane and Jason continuing to refer to her as male due to not actually seeing her face, her apparent flat chest, and the fact that she could be mistaken for a very androgynous man. Inti Creates initially dancing around the issue didn't help. Ultimately it was laid to rest by Matt Papa, who revealed that Leibniz is indeed female. The image of her on the cover of the soundtrack of III is much less ambiguous, as it shows her wearing feminine (if a bit tomboyish) clothing and that she has a petite and feminine body underneath her armor.
  • Attack Reflector: Of two kinds: the standard one, his Vector Reflector, which will return fire any projectiles shot at him and one he uses on his own projectile in order to change its trajectory and trick you.
  • Boss Subtitles: "The Nomad Berserker".
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Having accepted Lucia's passing in the true ending, he decides to go save Earth after it is attacked by mutants once again. Granted, he does so hoping that it pisses Jason off.
  • Combat Pragmatist: During his second fight on foot against Jason on Area G he knows better than trying to simply battle him directly and will call GARUDA for air support every now and then.
  • Cope by Pretending: A tragic example. He tries to hide the pain and grief over the loss of Lucia, his Support Droid, by pretending he "disposed" of her.
  • Crosscast Role: Leibniz is actually a woman but is voiced by Shouta Aoi even after her Dramatic Unmask.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Leibniz snarks a lot at Jason as Gaia-SOPHIA SV's passenger often when given the chance to do so, and occasionally kicks Jason's seat.
  • Death from Above
    • In II, he will fire seeker missiles during his high-altitude fly-bys, which curve down on you from above. In III, they explode at the point they converge.
    • In III, she will drop pylons that have to be thunderstruck by Kane, or she will electrify what amounts to the entire lower 80% of the screen.
  • Death Seeker: Leibniz has clear signs of someone who just doesn't give a damn about anything other than his twisted mission to "save" MA pilots from their misery. He barely reacts after being defeated on foot by Jason and is almost relieved at the prospect of being put out of his misery. Zero III has him hang around in G-SOPHIA SV in part to see Jason's demise, given how the Metal Attacker explodes upon running out of HP, this suggests that he doesn't mind dying if Jason dies with him.
  • Declaration of Protection: In Zero III, before the showdown with Kane in the Rising GARUDA, Leibniz swears that she'll protect Jason and Eve, or rather something precious of theirs, from him.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: That Jason simply has a Support Droid that he's in a happy and working relationship with pisses Leibniz off enough to attack in the first place. Every succeeding encounter that only shows more of Jason and Eve's bond just makes him more needlessly violent.
  • Dramatic Unmask: Granted, it's only a Dramatic Unmask for the player, but during the battle against Rising Garuda in the true ending route, Leibniz breaks down his helmet, revealing that she was a woman all along.
  • Establishing Character Moment: He shows up by ramming G-SOPHIA into a secluded planetoid and spitefully insults Eve by calling her a "doll", simply because she's a Support Droid, which pisses off Jason. Shows how messed up in the head and how dangerous he is in the first minute you meet him.
  • The Faceless: He is never seen without his helmet on. Not even being in G-SOPHIA SV has him remove it, even when he's sleeping seemingly. The boss fight in the Golden Ending of Zero III sees the break of her helmet and revealing her face.
  • "Get Back Here!" Boss: GARUDA flies at near blinding speeds and the few moments you have to deal damage to it is when it stops to rain down attacks on you, or when it tries to outright ram you.
  • Glass Cannon:
    • The Garuda has a lot of destructive power and options to retaliate against its enemies' aggression, but sustained damage will completely arrest its operation. Jason is not interested in terminating him, and Eve is programmed to stop him if he tried, or else Leibniz would not have survived their first encounter, let alone any of the others. The same can be said of its operating system, but Leibniz is smart enough to eject Eve when she cracks its OS for data. Quite telling that when he tries to go to Sophia 3rd, he ends up losing Garuda to the massive anti-air fire of the planet's defenses. It does get proper repairs, but the story is all but over by the time that happens.
    • Leibniz himself is a Glass Cannon. While he moves fast and has some REALLY powerful attacks his health, when compared to other bosses, is rather low. A skilled player can quickly down him with well timed Blast Counters.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: The first time he shows up he has his pilot suit's helmet giving his effect.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: When her helmet breaks off in Zero III, it's revealed that she has a particularly prominent scar running down her right eye. Eagle eyed players might notice that her helmet has a similar cut down that same eye. Incidentally, this reveal comes after she comes to Jason and Eve's defense.
  • Gratuitous German: He's named after the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
  • Graceful Loser: Leibniz accepts his defeat at Jason's hand both times with eerie calm. Contrast to his defeat while piloting Garuda in which he throws a tantrum.
  • Guide Dang It!: You have to counter the Garuda with the correct weapons in your fights with it to force it to power up its attacks to get the "G vs G" achievement and set up the "NORA MA-07" achievement which requires you to defeat the fully-powered-up Garuda in the second fight. However, some of the game's chosen counters are neither the most obvious counters or the most efficient and damaging ones. For example, when Garuda charges you, the most damaging and efficient punish is the Burn Spark. However, you need to punish Garuda with the Repulsion Upper when it charges you to flip this attack's Enhance Flag on. The homing lasers are most efficiently dodged, but you have to respond with the Impact Wave to set this attack's Enhance Flag on. The Impact Wave is expensive in how much SP that it consumes for these fights.
  • Heartbroken Badass: He's a skilled MA Pilot and a major threat even when fighting on his own... But the loss of Lucia, his Support Droid left him deluded and he tries to cope with the pain by taking out on other Support Droids and insisting to himself he "threw" her away because she was beyond use.
  • Heel–Face Turn: It is only when facing the truth courtesy of Elfie's remnants that Leibniz' aggression against the other MA pilots concludes. He would have not turned heel in the first place had Lucia survived Planade-G, and he did not take her demise well at all. He seems to have done a complete one at end of III where depending on the ending, either helps Jason assist the Sophia Force or organizing the defense of Jason and Eve's cocoon with their kids inside.
  • Identical Stranger: The art book contained in the Trilogy release, at the unmasked Leibniz section, the design notes avoid outright calling Leibniz a girl but it does specifically state that Leibniz' appearance is exactly the same as Lucia's; her own face makes Leibniz remember that loss. A promotional image for New Year's Day 2022 not only confirms this, right down to Lucia having the same beauty mark, but also reveals that Leibniz's hair was originally red like Lucia's.
  • Idiot Hair: She's got a particularly long strand underneath her helmet.
  • If I Can't Have You…: Played with, in regards to his own Support Droid Lucia, who perished when they tried to fight Planade-G. His attitude thereon is that if he lost his partner, no other MA pilot should be allowed theirs, and rationalizes to himself that he's doing them a favor by ridding them of their Support Droid or killing them outright if they resist.
  • Ironic Name: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz coined the phrase "best of all possible worlds" in reference to the real world and was one of the chief early proponents of rationalism. This Leibniz, however, has long crossed the Despair Event Horizon and has made quite a few leaps in logic to justify his attempts on Jason and Eve's lives.
  • It's Personal: Ever since crossing paths with Jason, Leibniz makes it his personal mission to end him and Eve. This changes during the events of Zero II and Zero III where the third game's Golden Ending has him helping the two.
  • I Work Alone: He works on his own accord and is the only Metal Attacker without a Support Droid; he claims he disposed of them because they were past their usefulness.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He does have one, though he has a special talent of showing it while still being a jerk. In Zero III, he's helpful because he doesn't want to see Eve die, just Jason. And in III's Golden Ending, she agrees to watch over Jason and Eve's twins, but telling them if they fail to return, she'll tell the kids they're dead. And before that she's the one that gathers up the other Metal Attackers to defend Jason and Eve's plan.
  • Jerkass: A violent narcistic ego case who chooses to handle his grief of loss by attempting to murder other people as little more than ostensibly a regular hobby. Even in III he still hasn't changed his stripes, showing up after his Garuda is taken to try and hijack the Gaia-Sophia SV while Jason is out and, failing that, asserts himself into the Eve-absent backseat — just to explicitly be as intrusive and unhelpful as humanly possible.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Leibniz hits the point twice over. While he hits Jason's Berserk Button by calling Eve a "doll", he points out that a gynoid shouldn't have DNA, which is a big hint that she wasn't actually purified of mutant cells after all; Jennifer and Kane point out that this development makes exonerating her difficult. Later, he comments that the reason the Elemental Blaster failed to cleanse Eve despite Jason pouring his heart into it was that Eve's heart didn't desire it; she points out that he's right despite Jason's protests.
  • Last Ditch Move: In III, showing how determined Leibniz is to protect Jason and Eve's children she will try one last maneuver with Garuda to stop Kane's advance even after her health has been completely depleted, with the only way to counter being through Metal Attacker's thunder.
  • Little Bit Beastly: Underneath that helmet, she's sporting a pair of vulpine ears. Bizarrely enough, the cover of III's soundtrack reveals she also has a set of human ears.
  • The Lost Lenore: Losing Lucia, his Support Droid, turned him into the violent, unstable mess of a man he is now.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Or at least emotionally unstable and ruthless.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: In on-foot combat, he wields a shield that projects a Vector Reflector. If Jason shoots at Leibniz while the Vector Reflector is out, he will deflect the shot back at Jason. When you beat him, you get this shield as a Blast Counter as well. The Whip ignores this, but does no damage until the Vector Reflector is disabled.
  • Mama Bear: In III, for the sake of protecting the children she's to be godmother to, Leibniz goes all-out like never before.
  • Noodle Incident: He returns in Zero III, though he states he regrets going to Earth and as such, eager to fight/troll Jason once more.
  • Nonindicative Name: Zig-zagged. Leibniz is a berserker in that he attacks any MA Pilot who has a Support Droid, but while fighting he's anything but your typical "berserker"; he fights pragmatically attacking with precise and powerful moves punishing anyone who would fight him like a berserker themselves. Contrast the battle with her in III, wherein she's much truer to the nomer. She quite literally never stops attacking, and only stops anywhere in terms of positioning for the sake of launching a spread of explosive homing lasers — and even that's for seconds at a time. A change of tactic that's understandable, given she's protecting her godchildren this time.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: Not Leibniz, but GARUDA is the only Metal Attacker that isn't a explicit ground based vehicle being instead something that looks and operates more like a spaceship.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Jason realizes that he might not end up so different from Leibniz if something ever happened to Eve.
  • Obviously Evil: Glowing purple eyes, horned helmet, violent and full of anger. Subverted by the end since he's not really evil, simply delusional and bitter.
  • Power of Trust: In the Golden Ending route of Zero III, being entrusted with the newborn Roddy and Elfie in spite of her history of not only failure but absolutely abhorrent behavior, to Jason and Eve above any other, moves Leibniz so deeply that she has a true Heel–Face Turn and regains her sense of heroism.
  • Prematurely Gray Haired: A promotional image for New Year's Day 2022 shows that Leibniz originally had red hair during the time when Lucia was alive.
  • Promoted to Parent: In the True Ending to Zero III, Jason and Eve entrust their newborn children's care to Leibniz while they stay behind in super-dimensional space to stop the remaining mutants still attacking normal space.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Subverted. By the time you meet him in Zero III, he wants to see Jason fail/die but doesn't care who does it, just that he gets to watch it. He invokes it by saying he won't say "I will be the only one to break you."
  • Redemption Promotion: Leibniz was never weak, but in Zero II and III, nobody takes his attitude and petty actions particularly seriously, only a threat in that he and the Garuda are powerful standouts among MAs and their pilots. Come her full redemption in Zero III, however, and she fights unbelievably hard for what she intends to protect.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Plays the violent and chaotic red oni to Jason's blue. Even when he has his Heel–Face Turn, he's still tempermental and prone to brooding, though he is noticeably a bit more rational.
  • Recurring Boss: Leibniz is fought a grand total of four times throughout Zero II. Two times while piloting GARUDA and two times on direct confrontation, on foot.
  • Samus Is a Girl: When Leibniz's helmet breaks before the penultimate battle in the Golden Ending route of Zero III, it reveals Leibniz was actually a woman with fennec-looking ears the entire time — and as Matt Papa with Inti Creates confirmed, yes, she is actually a woman and not merely effeminate-looking. Of course, having never seen Leibniz's face themselves, Jason and Kane still refer to Leibniz under the previous assumption.
  • Sarashi: The art book in Trilogy shows a full body shot of unmasked Leibniz, showing her jacket slightly open, she wears bandages over her chest, likely compressing her breasts if she isn't outright flat.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: Leibniz looks quite lovely in casual clothes, as shown here.
  • Shout-Out: Not Leibniz, but his support droid Lucia is a reference to the main character of another old Sunsoft game called The Wing of Madoola, who is also named Lucia. His support animal, which was never shown in game, would have been a winged snake that resembles the one that adorns Lucia's tiara in that game. Further supported in III, when we actually see Lucia. Her hair color and style resemble the Lucia of that game.
  • Single Tear: He can be seen crying one when he breaks his mask during his boss fight in the final game.
  • Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Becomes this in III surprisingly enough. While he still hates Jason and wants to see him die/fail/miserable, Leibniz never does anything worse than rile Jason up either by being extremely unhelpful, checking private files from Eve meant to him... or kicking his seat.
  • Snakes Are Sinister: His support animal, Jao, was never shown in game, but supplementary materials reveal it is a snake to contrast Fred the frog. Interestingly enough, promotional material depicting Leibniz years into the future shows Jao present, suggesting that he's been with Leibniz the whole time.
  • Sore Loser: Upon losing he gets very pissed at Jason and Eve vowing to destroy them. This is surprisingly toned down in III where while Leibniz wants to see Jason die he never actively tries to kill him. Leibniz is also quite miffed at the fact he lost a fight against Kanna and EIR.
  • Tomboyish Voice: In Trilogy where she's voiced, Shouta Aoi gives her the same rough register that he gives the other tomboyish female characters he voices.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In Zero III's true ending, like you wouldn't believe. She was already badass before, but with the newly upgraded Rising Garuda and Heroic Resolve on her side, she becomes a true menace to the player, constantly throwing out Garuda's entire arsenal with barely any room for returning fire. And that's not even getting into her Desperation Attack.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Leibniz wears Lucia's choker as a necklace.
  • Tragic Villain: The whole reason behind antagonizing Jason and Eve is that GARUDA's Support Droid, Lucia, was killed in action while fighting Planade-G. It's clear that Leibniz and Lucia held a very strong bond with each other, which caused Leibniz to cross the Despair Event Horizon upon her death.
  • Triumphant Reprise: Rising Garuda's boss theme in Zero III is a faster and more heroic remix of her dark and brooding Leitmotif.
  • Troll: For all his seriousness, the Golden Ending of Zero II has Leibniz hurrying to protect Earth mostly hoping he'd piss off Jason. Although it's pretty clear he has recovered some of his heroism by then. However with that going sour in some way, he returns in Zero III, attempting to hijack G-SOPHIA SV while Jason was out and then being content to be a passenger in it to troll him whenever possible and to have front row seats to Jason's demise. On a more comical note Leibniz also acts like the worst co-pilot in existence annoying Jason at every possible turn doing things like browsing files recorded by Eve meant only for him, giving (mostly) demotivational speeches, unhelpful hints, and even petty stuff like kicking his seat.
  • True Final Boss: In Zero III's postgame, since Jason/Kane is more of a superboss, Leibniz in the souped-up Rising Garuda serves as the last mandatory challenge of the game.
  • Tsundere: She seems to be one, given that she constantly makes snide remarks about wanting to see Jason perish and acts as obtrusive as possible to Jason's quest, but ultimately pulls through for him and Eve on multiple occasions, including calling the other MA pilots during the climax of Zero II and gathering them up once again to slow down Kane's attack at the end of Zero III, and is revealed to be the one who made the proposal that Jason and Eve should have human children. The lead couple clearly have enough faith in her to entrust care of their children to her.
  • Wham Shot: Honored by Jason and Eve's placement of faith despite past failures and determined to protect them at any cost, Leibniz casts aside the helmet for the first and only time, revealing her face and showing she isn't playing around.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: He refers to Eve as a "doll", and claims that he disposed of his after it outlived its usefulness. He doesn't really believe that, he's just extremely unwilling to admit he cared about his Support Droid in an attempt to ignore the pain. Jason and Eve figure out the truth fairly quick and don't buy Leibniz's opinion for a second.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: Planade-G consumed Leibniz's home planet to become a planet-sized mutant, making Leibniz have no home planet anymore.
  • You Shall Not Pass!: In the Golden Ending route of Zero III, upon learning that Jason and Eve intend to have children and break back into normal space to send them to Earth, she pulls out all the stops to protect them while Eve is still conceiving them in a Mutant Cocoon, enlisting all the MA Pilots one more time and breaking out the Rising Garuda to stop Kane Gardner from preventing it at all costs.

    Golden Ending Metal Attacker/Support Droid (UNMARKED SPOILERS) 

Roddy and Elfie

Elfie voiced by: Kaori Ishihara (Trilogy)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elfiebmz2.png
Elfie with NORA MA-02 ANDREIA.

Pilots of the NORA MA-02 ANDREIA. They perished while fighting the Mutant Cocoon. Despite being named after the protagonists of Blasting Again, they have no relation to their original counterparts.


  • Adaptation Species Change: Like with Eve, Elfie was made into a Support Droid.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Her very existence is one to Leibniz. His argument is that Support Droids have no soul, but if that's the case, how is Elfie standing in front of him right now- despite being dead? Leibniz seems shocked at this, and this serves as the wake-up call he needs to perform a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Art Shift: Elfie resembles an Animesque version of her original counterpart with an Adaptation Dye-Job.
  • Call-Back: ANDREIA functions almost exactly as SOPHIA III up to having the regular Warhead Missiles, Jump Booster, Spark Tackle and Full Acceleration Blast functions installed in her. Eve even calls ANDREIA as SOPHIA III's "sister".
  • Car Fu: Spark Tackle makes ANDREIA ram into whatever is in front of her. Using it in conjuction with Water Trap is the only way to damage the Mutant Cocoon.
  • Cute Ghost Girl: Elfie is quite dead, nothing more than a ghost tied to her Metal Attacker. You can see it in the cutscene art: her body is faded from the waist down, and she gives off no life sign readings. She invokes this to break through Leibniz's delusion that Support Droids are nothing more than "broken dolls."
  • Dead Guy Junior: When Eve is finally able to conceive her and Jason's children, she names them Roddy and Elfie, in memory of the two who had already been.
  • Death by Adaptation: In Zero II, Elfie's a Posthumous Character, compared to her original counterpart who was still alive. Subverted, the actual Zero's counterpart is alive and well.
  • The Ghost: Roddy doesn't appear directly in Zero II, as he was separated from his partner at some point during their fight with the Mutant Cocoon. It doesn't help Elfie's case that Roddy's whereabouts are unknown either; all that's left of him is his broken Blaster Rifle, found by Eve. Given she found that Blaster Rifle after killing a ravenous Dig-Rawler...
  • Making a Splash: ANDREIA focuses on using water in order to function at its best capacity by quickly regenerating SP when submerged, however only clean water will do the job and it's not immune to polluted water bodies. It also features Water Trap, a gun that encases enemies into a water cube and allows for it to use them as platforms or to be rammed and destroyed with a Spark Tackle. In Zero III you get a subweapon intended for it, the aqua tackle.
  • Never Found the Body: Roddy went missing at some point after separating from Elfie during their fight with the Mutant Cocoon. The only thing that remains of Roddy is his broken Blaster Rifle, which Elfie takes as evidence that he is dead.
  • Red Herring: At first they seem to be the counterparts to Blasting Again's Roddy and Elfie. However, like in Blasting Again, the actual counterparts are Jason and Eve's children who, in Zero's case, are the namesakes of the deceased pilots.
  • Take Up My Sword: Having failed to take down the Mutant Cocoon with her partner, Elfie passes on the ANDREIA to Eve to defeat it in her stead. This extends into Zero III as Jason takes parts from the ANDREIA to upgrade/fix G-SOPHIA into the G-SOPHIA SV.
  • Uncertain Doom: Elfie only mentions Roddy by name once, mentioning that he and Elfie separated at some point during their fight with the Mutant Cocoon. It's not known what happened to him after, but Elfie assumes the worst; the sight of his broken Blaster Rifle only confirms her fears.
  • Unrelated in the Adaptation: Unlike in Blasting Again, Roddy and Elfie here have no direct relations with Jason and Eve. Their namesakes in-universe, however, do.
  • Walking Spoiler: You don't learn of their existence until you fulfill the requirements to achieve the Golden Ending.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Elfie doesn't get much onscreen time since her introduction, quickly disappearing after she passes on the ANDREIA to Eve.

Zero II EX Characters

Playable characters that can be used in the Extra Characters Mode. Like in Blaster Master Zero they have no story cutscenes or interactions with other MA Pilots.

    Copen 

Copen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/copen_bmz2.png

The protagonist of Luminous Avenger iX, a spinoff title in the Azure Striker Gunvolt Series. Copen is a Muggle living in an Adept-controlled society armed with extraordinary scientific, engineering, and combat talent that allows him to fight on even ground with even the strongest Adepts. His unique suit grants him the ability to fly, and with the Divider photon pistol, he can Tag enemies before showering them in a storm of homing shots that tear apart his foes. Accompanying him is Lola, his personal assistant AI and Attack Drone, who grants him access to EX Weapons obtained from Sumeragi's Falcons and can empower him with the power of the Muse Septima.

For tropes which apply to him in his own series, see Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX.


  • Blow You Away: The Rising Cyclone EX Weapon summons a whirlwind that damages anything immediately above or below Copen/Tagged enemy and propels Copen upwards. Also useful as a Spring Jump.
  • Canon Character All Along: Initially presented as a non-canon DLC character like all the other EX Characters, but Luminous Avenger iX 2 heavily implies that Copen's adventures in this game are directly responsible for Roddy's Blaster Rifle finding its way into the hands of the Copen from the "main" Luminous Avenger iX timeline. The only hint given is that the Creator, an alternate universe Copen, passed the Blaster Rifle to the "main" Copen, but the question of if the Copen appearing in Zero II is the Creator remains unclear.
  • Charge Attack: Muse's Kiss EX Weapon can be charged to fire a powerful projectile with Lola's shape.
  • Cool Tank: Unlike the EX Characters from the first game, Copen has a uniquely-designed Metal Attacker instead of a Palette Swap of the SOPHIA. In his case, he has the G-LOLA Metal Attacker, which resembles Lola and comes with some cosmetic changes like Full-Accel Burst firing a gigantic Lola hologram.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Copen plays exactly the same in this game as in Gunvolt 2 and in Luminous Avenger iX. If you have not played either game, he can be very disorienting to use in Zero II as Jason and G-SOPHIA are much slower and clunkier than he is and are nowhere near as powerful.
  • Dash Attack: The Anchor Nexus EX Weapon allows him to auto-target an available enemy and ram it with the Bullit Dash by forming a drill out of thread.
  • Difficult, but Awesome: Copen has vastly superior mobility compared to Jason and his weapons change based on whether he has an enemy locked-on or not, which requires him dashing into an enemy. However making full use of Copen's potential is NOT an easy task and you find yourself fumbling with his speed and control quirks more than anything else until you get the hang of it. Once you do learn how to do it you'll be soaring through areas faster than the wind while annihilating any mutant in your way.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Copen is extremely nimble, especially compared to Jason, has some very powerful weapons at his disposal, and his Prevasion allows him to tank damage by avoiding it as long as he has Bullits and they can be easily reloaded.
  • Limit Break: His "Blast Counter" is actually the Twin Shredder SP Skill from his home game. By consuming a large chunk of your Blast Gauge, Copen and Lola will team up and ravage all enemies onscreen with a flurry of attacks.
  • Making a Splash: In lieu of obtaining the ANDREIA, Copen gets a brand-new EX Weapon exclusive to this game called "Ichor Anchor", which serves the same function as the Water Bind subweapon in that it fires a water shot that encases a target in a block of water that can be pushed around with dashes or Bullit Dashes. Tagging an enemy also causes the bullet to home in.
  • Not Quite Flight: Copen can glide to slow his descent.
  • Outside-Context Problem: Copen is one for the bosses. He's so damn agile and powerful that he can go toe-to-toe with bosses Jason must use his tank to survive. Copen can absolutely murder bosses on Top-down segments so fast they can barely do anything about it.
  • Shock and Awe: His Stellar Spark EX Weapon allows him to summon lightning bolts that damage enemies in front of him. If he's Tagged an enemy, it instead summons a Flashfield that directly damages the Tagged target.
  • Spam Attack: Copen's regular gun, the Divider, fires rapidly. Dashing into an enemy beforehand will lock-on them and allow for more powerful, homing, shots at no extra cost.
  • Speed Echoes: Copen leaves afterimages while he's moving, but not when he's dashing.
  • Super Mode: The Idol Trigger negates the need to use a Bullit when performing an air dash, among other effects, with gradual Energy consumption for the unit; he can use other subweapons while it is in effect. Because Copen starts missions on foot and there is no pad to summon G-LOLA, this is how you defeat Planade-G. Just make sure you keep its energy up and the field clean.
  • Tanks for Nothing: Actually pilotting the G-LOLA is more of a liability than an advantage to Copen, as he can easily deal with almost any situation and access almost any location all on his own right from the start of the game and travelling in it means he loses access to his EX Weapons, some of which are unique to sidescrolling levels, as well his ability to No-Sell damage by consuming Bullits, and to further hammer this home, he needs to specifically summon it from checkpoints to use it to begin with, starting the level on foot by default when entering a new location or continuing from a checkpoint and unlike Jason and The Empress, his version of the weapon needed to defeat the first form of Drolrevo is an EX weapon and he doesn't even have the option of using G-LOLA in the final level, instead finding a wrecked, unusable ANDREIA and the new EX weapon where the other characters get back their Metal Attacker. He requires it to melt snow, drill through blocks and travel between planets, however.
  • Wall Jump: Copen can ascend a single wall by kicking off it. Dashing on a wall has the same effect without the need of the Recoil Jump from G-LOLA.

    The Empress 

The Empress

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/empress_bmz2.png
The heiress of the Dragonblood Clan, who made a pact with the Astral Dragon Atruum in exchange for power. Armed with a sword and her Dragon Arm, a manifestation of Atruum's power, the Empress seeks revenge against the Divine Family of Medius for the genocide of her clan.

For tropes which apply to her in her own series, see Dragon: Marked for Death.


  • Arm Cannon: Her Dragon Arm is an arm-cannon in the shape of a dragon's head that breathes fire, though it can transform into a massive blade.
  • BFS: The Empress' Dragon Arm can transform into massive Blade Below the Shoulder, the Dragon Sword, for her combo finisher and counter-attack. It can be used as a normal attack as well, although it's slow (unless used at the end of a regular combo, or jumping) it's very powerful.
  • Charge Attack: The Empress' Dragon Arm can be charged up to spew a massive torrent of flames, which causes it to grow massively in size.
  • Close-Range Combatant: Compared to Jason and Copen, the Empress is much more focused on getting up close and slashing things apart. With that said her Dragon Arm is nothing to scoff at...
  • Crosshair Aware: Every enemy within a specific radius from her displays an arcing blue line from the enemy to her, which turns red when the enemy attacks her, making it easier to prevent her from being blindsided by offscreen enemies, which is important considering she specializes in melee damage.
  • Damage Over Time: The Dragon Arm's attack deals damage over time, useful due to the lack of normal ranged attacks of the Empress.
  • Dash Attack: In top-down mode, the Empress is capable of performing Rapid Thrust, a lunging stab evocative of a Single-Stroke Battle, although it's unfortunately not as useful as a movement tool as Jason's version since it and her default counter can't be used without counterable enemies present.
  • Death or Glory Attack: The Dragon Cannon. It spews a massive torrent of fire but takes a short while to charge and missing it means you'll leave yourself open to retaliation, but if it hits, especially someone stunned by a Blast Counter, you can bet that thing will either die or be very wounded.
  • Palette Swap: D-ATTACKER's weapons work functionally in the same way of G-SOPHIA's, however D-ATTACKER has new graphics to match the thematic of the Empress' home game.
  • Shock and Awe: The Empress can equip the Emperor Sword, which grants an electrical status effect to her attacks.
  • Shows Damage: All the damage she deals and takes is displayed in numerical form, which helps a lot in determining the most effective weapons against non-boss enemies.
  • Spin Attack: Her new counter-attack in the top-down mode causes her to use her Dragon Arm's blade form to deliver a horizontal spinning slash.
  • Super Mode: She can summon her dragon form for a super-attack.
  • Tank Goodness: The Empress' Metal Attacker tank, the D-ATTACKER, is a vehicle with an effigy of Atruum's head mounted on it, enabling it to spit fireballs. Design wise it slightly resembles ATOM.

Introduced in Zero III

    Kane Gardner 

Kane Gardner

Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (Trilogy)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blastermaster_kane.png

The protagonist of Metafight, the original Japanese version of the Blaster Master series. A skilled pilot at a young age, Kane was enlisted by Nora Satellite 10 years ago to drive their anti-mutant vehicle, the Metal Attacker, and defeat the Invem Dark Star Cluster, the army of mutants lead by the mutant overlord Goez that invaded Sophia. Now an adult, Kane leads Sophia's main army, the Sophia Force, leading to him crossing paths with Jason Frudnick when the latter arrives on Sophia.


  • Absolute Xenophobe: He reacts negatively to anything that could be a possible threat to planet Sophia, at least as part of his job duties according to his claims. This includes against Jason, Fred, and Eve. However, this is all an act, and given the opportunity, he actively aids Jason in secret in order to rescue Eve.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: In the Golden Ending route of Zero III, it's not Jason but Kane you're playing as, and come the final boss the game can be finished with him if so chosen.
  • Badass Longcoat: Kane wears a longcoat with the same bright red color as the original Metal Attacker armor that he wore in Metafight.
  • Badass Normal: When you play as as him at the end of Zero III, his tank is underpowered compared every other pilot. He then fights against every pilot boss from Zero II, except all the bosses are more powerful and resourceful than before. Kane defeats them all with little more than pure skill.
  • Befriending the Enemy: Officially, he and Jason are enemies. Unofficially, he knows Jason is trustworthy and is aiding him in secret from the inside.
  • Big Bad: He is the leader of the Sophia Force which fights anything that could be a threat to the planet Sophia, making it a group of Absolute Xenophobes that will fight Jason even if he is not trying to be a threat to the planet. This would make him a Big Bad... If it wasn't for the fact that he knows Jason and Eve are innocent (after all, he and his wife created Eve, and trust her enough to know that Jason is also trustworthy and the only person capable of rescuing her). In a sense, he's basically a decoy big bad. However, he does misinterpret what Jason and Eve are doing in the scene leading up to the True Final Boss battle, causing him to fall in line with the Sophia Force's false accusations that Jason and Eve are threats, making him a true Big Bad.
  • Big Good: Technically this for the series at large. The Metal Attackers, of which the SOPHIA line that Jason stumbled across belongs to, were sent out across various worlds as part of a plan by Kane to fight back the Mutant threat. As a result, Kane is directly responsible for our various heroes being able to stop the rising threats time and time again, and Jason realizes Kane even shipped him the SOPHIA-ZERO specifically at the end of the first game.
  • Call-Back: His Metal Attacker is designed after the original one seen in the original game, though upgraded since his original mutant busting days. This even extends to his playable section in the area leading up to the Golden Ending as his menu screen is fashioned after the original game's and has various traits from the original like his grenade, having ammo counts for his Metal Attacker's subweapons, and so forth.
  • Dramatic Ammo Depletion: Unlike Jason's Gaia-SOPHIA SV and SOPHIA-J1, Kane's Metal Attacker can run out of ammo for his subweapons, and his Mana Meter's automatic recharging does nothing to replenish his ammo. He must reload ammo by collecting SP capsules. He can get into big trouble if he runs out of subweapon ammo. In contrast, should Jason run out of subweapon energy, a heavy fall or a temporary time in shutdown mode will reload his subweapon energy, reloading his ammo in the process.
  • Dueling Player Characters: Preview screenshots show him fighting Jason and his G-SOPHIA SV by using the original Metal Attacker. This ends up being a borderline Unwinnable Boss Fight (you have to play perfectly to beat him since you have little in the way of armaments and at most one extra point of health and he gets multiple health bars), but this ends up being a ruse to allow Kane to aid in Jason's escape. A rematch occurs at the end of the game, with the player's choice if they want to be Kane this time around.
  • Happily Married: He and Jennifer are a couple, and have their own biological daughter Eva.
  • Hero Antagonist: Kane's utmost priority is to protect his home planet Sophia, to Jason and Eve's bad luck they were labeled as threats to the planet to the presumed connection Eve has with the invaders, and so Kane is their enemy, however, that is only on the official military records as Kane does want to believe in Jason and Eve, hoping Eve has not become the enemy; still, Kane remains pragmatic in that if there is an actual chance Eve and Jason end up being a threat to Sophia, he will have no choice but to act, which he sets out to do in True Ending path but only to finally let Jason and Eve go after coming to an understanding.
  • Interface Spoiler: Taking a look at the pause menu in the final act of III quickly reveals something unusual: Fred's not in the MA, something that should never happen...if this was Jason. Swapping over to the pilot loadout menu shows the character in higher detail, and it can quickly be realized this isn't the same apparel as Jason's, similar though it may be, but that of another — the shoulder guard in particular being a dead giveaway.
  • Mr. Exposition: Provides a lot of the early explanation dialogue of what's going on to Jason, via secret communication messages, and both before and after his boss fight.
  • The Nicknamer: Gives Jason the designation "Blaster Master" right before they part ways at the beginning of the game, though he got it from his Metal Attack's AI much like how you get boss subtitles. It later gives him a new one in a much more dire circumstance: dubbing Eve as the Invem Queen.
  • Nothing Personal: He doesn't hesitate to go all-out in his first battle against Jason, though he insists that he's only fulfilling his duty as leader of the Sophia Force. This is actually a cover to allow Jason to escape without suspicion (since physical evidence of an altercation would allow him to lie to his colleagues about Jason escaping on his own), stopping the fight at the right time in order to explain what's going on.
  • Not So Above It All: The fifth anniversary art for the Zero sub-series shows a picture of Kane looking very, very delighted as he holds his infant grandkids, Roddy and Elfie, in his arms in a way he's never seen otherwise.
  • Poor Communication Kills: In the Golden Ending route of Zero III, he fights his way through super-dimensional space and the other MA pilots because a new rupture has appeared, and he believes Eve has gone rampant as the Mutant Queen and intends to destroy her. In reality, Jason and Eve are preparing to safely spirit their children away to Earth, and knowing Kane would shoot first and ask questions later, Leibniz got the band back together to protect them while they do.
  • Post-Final Boss: He is this if you play as Jason in the True Final Boss battle. He is a Zero-Effort Boss since the SOPHIA-J1 outclasses the Metal Attacker in all stats except for initial life since he is given only one life bar while the Metal Attacker starts off with up to 3 life bars, maybe depending on how many Life Energy Guard βs that Kane picked up. Also, if the SOPHIA-J1's initial life bar is emptied, Eve will refill the SOPHIA-J1's entire life bar up to two life bars full if Jason has all the life up powerups and give the SOPHIA-J1 a shield.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Played with. He acts as an Absolute Xenophobe at least when he is acting in his official duties according to his claims, so he and his forces will fight Jason. However, when he has the opportunity, he helps Jason in secret, but cannot aid him openly.
  • Red Herring: His advice not to overuse the VRV system is unwittingly one as if you listen to it, not only will you put yourself through more trouble in SF bases, but deny yourself the CHANCE to unlock the Golden Ending, which requires the opposite, spending enough time for two rings to appear to the upper right of the blaster rifle display in the menu. This is justified in universe; Jason explains that the Accel Charger was the true reason he lost his humanity, not the VRV system.
  • Rogue Protagonist: He fights Jason, the player character, as the boss of Area 1. Since he was the protagonist of MetaFight, this makes him a Rogue Protagonist no matter his motive.
  • Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: Kane’s status as the most skilled Metal Attacker pilot on the planet of SOPHIA, and the whole series, is put on the player’s hands for the True Ending path, as you control Kane with his more basic gear as he faces the much more technologically advanced team of Gonbei, Kanna, Stein and Leibniz, triumphing over all of them with skills to match Kane’s rank.
  • So Proud of You: The Golden Ending of Zero III sees him compliment Eve for maintaining the willpower to fight to make her dreams a reality to the end.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Perhaps not directly his fault due to it being general planet protocol, but the entire reason that Zero III's plot ensues is the Absolute Xenophobe fear of the mutants causing Sophia to mistreat Eve because of the mutant presence in her body. This causes his home to be attacked in greater force than ever before because the mutants are trying to protect her.
  • World's Best Warrior: Kane has been piloting an MA longer than anyone else and his tactical ability is completely unmatched. Even Jason, who stands head and shoulders above the other MA pilots and has overcome multiple interdimensional disasters, can barely keep up when the two first fight. This is even more impressive given that he's piloting what is considered an old and obsolete model with none of the advancements that Jason's Gaia-SOPHIA SV has; he doesn't need them. Even when Leibniz enlists all the other MA pilots and takes to an upgraded GARUDA to stop Kane from interfering with Jason and Eve's attempts to save their children, she knows full well she's only slowing Kane down. Even as the final boss, Kane is entirely undeterred and insists he and the Metal Attacker can keep fighting, at best only fought to a standstill. It's semi-supported by gameplay as Kane has more limitations to deal with like only a 8 hp cap before any life guards in late game content. And even when you're playing as Jason, if you trigger his comms dialogue, he admits that he doesn't think he can defeat Kane. Nobody is fighting to beat him, they're just hoping to Hold the Line long enough to delay Kane until Eve is ready. That should speak volumes of how much skill and experience Kane has over every other MA pilot - having a storied military career over a decade fighting horrifying enemies counts for a lot.
  • Zero-Effort Boss: He is this if you play as Jason in the True Final Boss battle. The SOPHIA-J1 outclasses the Metal Attacker in all stats except for initial life since the SOPHIA-J1 is given only one life bar while the Metal Attacker starts off with up to 3 life bars, maybe depending on how many Life Energy Guard βs that Kane picked up. Also, if the SOPHIA-J1's initial life bar is emptied, Eve will refill the SOPHIA-J1's entire life bar up to two life bars full if Jason has all the life up powerups and give the SOPHIA-J1 a shield.

    Jennifer Gardner 

Jennifer Gardner

Voiced by: Nozomi Yamamoto (Trilogy)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bmz3_jennifer.png

A major character from the original Metafight who appears on the game's box art. Jennifer is a talented scientist and engineer from Nora Satellite who designed the Metal Attacker that Kane used to defeat the Invem Dark Star Cluster. She is referred to as Eve's mother, and appears to have her own biological daughter Eva.


  • Adaptational Attractiveness: She is given a more anime-esque appearance to complement the rest of the cast's character designs.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: The original mind behind the Metal Attacker and its descendants as well as Eve and other support droids. III sees her provide Jason with a number of upgrades, including one that enables a MA to swim in dimensional chasms (normally an One-Hit Kill hurtle). And the fact you find a life guard in her lab suggests they're one of her other creations.
  • Happily Married: She and Kane are a couple, and have their own biological daughter Eva.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Heavily implied, given that her last name was given as "Cornet" in the original game but in Zero she is introduced with the same last name as Kane; later confirmed with their appearance in Zero III.
  • Vapor Wear: Her skirt appears to be translucent for some reason, although the glare bouncing off the material in the official artwork conveniently hides anything beneath it besides her upper thigh.

    Eva Gardner 

Eva Gardner

The young biological daughter of Kane and Jennifer.


  • Bit Character: Her presence in III doesn't affect the overall premise of the game much and only exists to show that she's Kane and Jennifer's biological daughter. Following the conversations Jason has with her during his initial visit to Jennifer, Eva remains a non-interactable asset for the rest of the game.
  • Cheerful Child: She's a chipper young girl who enjoys playing MA Pilot on her toy tank.
  • Meaningful Echo: When Jason questions if she feels lonely to not be able to spend much time with her dad, she states that she'll always be together with family, even if physically apart. Jason would repeat those words himself when Kane questions how he would live with not being able to join Roddy and Elfie on Earth, as a consequence of remaining in super-dimensional space to repel the Lightning Beings.
  • Mythology Gag: Like Tesset in Zero II, Eva's so tiny she needs to pull herself up to the dialogue box whenever she's speaking.
  • Self-Deprecating Humor: Eva will playfully talk about how her dad Kane once told the homing capabilities of his MA missiles used to be quite clunky, that is a direct jab at how indeed the original NES title had plenty of vocal complaints about how bad the homing missiles could be.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: She sports the same blonde hair, blue eyes, and Idiot Hair as her "older sister" Eve.

Alternative Title(s): Blaster Master Zero II, Blaster Master Zero III

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