Headscratchers / Mega Man Zero

• How in the name of all that is holy can a totalitarian, oppressive, racist and despotic military state ruled by an iron fisted fascist dictator who has had countless innocent men, women and children brutally slaughtered for the most minor of offenses be constantly praised as a utopia? Is humanity just stupid and/or blind to Copy X's atrocities?
  • I think its mostly desperation. Remember that this was a Crapsack World at its absolute worst before Copy X started getting over the top. After a century of things going from "apocalyptic" to "are we dead yet? No? Darn" and further, a society not under constant assault by mavericks, with enough food and energy to meet basic human needs for health and a small measure of comfort, a stable location enabling fortification and emotional attachment to place rather than the nomadic lifestyle a broken world full of mavericks and scarce resources necessitates, and a sense of law and order rather than the worst kind of anarchy must seem so amazingly wonderful that they can't think of any other word for it.
  • It's a utopia for humans, and that's really all that matters to Copy X. Reploids are pretty much outta luck, but those living in Neo Arcadia don't care. They're Mavericks as far as they know.
  • Humans Are Bastards. Or, at least, perfectly covered by The Masquerade that they seemingly don't care. Until in Zero 4 where we see actual human refugees from Neo Arcadia; they said that they're tired of all those wars, and that they suffer while the Reploids just battles in their stupid war (at least after Weil's dictatorship starts).
  • Also remember that Copy X wasn't the ruler of Neo Arcadia since day one. In fact, he had only ruled for 8 years (he was built by Ciel at the age of 6, and she was 14 during Zero 1). The real X was the one in charge, he had ruled for almost a century, and we know he always wanted peace, so I doubt he was a oppressive ruler. Even when Copy X took his place, he continued pleasing the humans at the expense of the reploids so, at least for them, it was still a utopian society ruled by the wise and noble Master X.
• Why would all the bosses have the Omega letter as their symbol, considering the obvious implications?
  • The Omega symbol is supposedly Neo Arcadia's symbol. Now, why they adopted it is another question entirely.
  • Neo Arcadia is probably the last metropolis on the planet, since it is one of the only inhabitable areas left, and is described as a human utopia.
  • If the manual is anything to go by, Omega (the big white robot we know) was supposed to be the "savior/ruler" of the Reploids by virtue of Weil's Project Elpis, and the Omega symbol can be meant to reflect that. Then Elf Wars happened. Though I guess there's still the question of why they didn't change that icon now that what it represents has become the very opposite.
• Why is Zero's resting place still accessible in Zero 3, when it very clearly collapsed during a mission in Zero 1?
  • That's one is easy to explain. It's apparent that Weil cleaned it up, seeing as how his base is suspended above it. Presumably he just did it for dramatic effect. A better question is how light was streaming into it in Zero 1 when it's shown to be underground in the same game.
  • Alternatively, Giant Omega opened it back up. As for the light, maybe the light was artificial, or it wasn't deep underground.
  • Maybe Weil left the lights on in Zero 1.
• Roughly half of the ice-elementals in this series are fought in Underwater Boss Battles, yet it doesn't dispel their weakness to fire.
  • It still inflicts intense heat damage.
• Why didn't they just execute Weil?
  • Probably for the same reason they didn't execute Dr. Wily for all the crap he did before Mega Man 7. I can only imagine that humans in this world didn't want to consider the implications from properly punishing a human that was arrested by robots, preferring to just brush the problem aside and not dealing with it.
  • Given that Weil's Numbers are former judges, it's heavily implied that back when he was sentenced, he had enough control of the courts to prevent execution, or some other effective punishment.
    • That raises the question of why Reploid judges presided over his case. You'd think people would use the sort of judges that Weil couldn't manipulate with his skill set.
  • Actually, Zero 3 heavily implies that Weil's punishment was actually done outside the law (Copy X said that it wasn't done under normal regulations and unlawful), and Weil's reaction and rant indicated that his punishment also had him extremely POed at everything. Although control over the courts was correct, as a later pamphlet revealed that the Eight Gentle Judges were actually originally created by Weil.
  • But then again, Copy X is possibly reprogrammed by Weil, as he becomes even more ruthless than he already was in the first game. So the punishment being under normal regulations and unlawful is possibly a farce.
  • The fact that Dr. Weil himself says "And humans! Look what they did to me!" indicated that the punishment that Weil received was definitely not what he wanted, so most likely this was not the result of it being a court decision.
  • The humans of that time wanted Weil to suffer a Fate Worse than Death for his crimes, so they stuffed his conscience into an indestructable artificial body and banished him to the Earth's wastelands for all eternity. But as we know, he wasn't particularly happy with the outcome, spending his century of exile plotting against the Neo Arcadians.
• The second time Ragnarok was fired (a.k.a. Weil's "warning shot"). Just where did it hit?
  • Possibly nowhere, from the image shown when he fired it.
• So if Omega was so powerful 100 years ago that it took the combined efforts of X and Zero then how is it possible that Zero is able to so effortlessly take down Omega in all 3 of his forms, the armored shell, the Omega X and Zero exoskeleton, and Zero's original body which were all augmented by the Dark Elf? You mean to tell me that Zero is more powerful than X and Omega ever were after having been in hiatus for 100 years? X having been active for about 90 of the 100 years that Zero was asleep (X was sealed 8 years before the events of Zero if I recall correctly) should have become so much more powerful than either Zero or Omega ever were that handling the Dark Elf's release wouldn't have required the use of sealing it in his body but rather be able to stop it outright.
  • As you said yourself, X might be powerful, but he's just a Cyber-Elf now. Not to mention that his body is destroyed in the second game; it's said in the manual that said body is important in keeping his energy and powers as an elf. Hence him being exhausted and his death at the third game. As for your original question, it can be said that, right, Zero's new body is indeed stronger, but what really kills Omega is Zero's natural skills and determination. And Gameplay and Story Segregation.
  • Zero only wounded Omega to the point where his recovery systems would kick in and undo the damage. It was only because of the help of the guardians that he was able to finish the job. And it's possible that, not having any other help, X and Zero did resort to the Final Strike to take him down because there wasn't anything else capable of doing it at that time (not to mention that at that time, they were against numerous foes, and not just Omega, so it's possible that their choice of attack was meant to defeat everything at once). After 100 years, even in a Crapsack World, weapon technology might've progressed enough so that Zero would be able to deliver an attack that strong. Besides, Zero is a Determinator, and even with the Dark Elf's enchantment, his power is pretty similar in level to that of Omega (not to mention the fact that in every fight he is in, he defeats superior foes purely because of his skill).
  • Furthermore, there's a hint of Fridge Brilliance here: X installed an X-Buster in the Z-Saber, which is why Zero gained the ability to charge his attacks. X and Zero are combining their efforts when you fight Omega. (Or combining their weaponry, at the very least.)
• How do you pronounce Ciel? Seal, Shell, Kee-el? I know SNK vs. Capcom badly translated her name to "Shell", but still...
  • The name is in French, so you might want to take a look at French pronunciation. But the word with the closes pronunciation to it in English is "seal" (it's something like "see'el", to be exact).
  • From what I saw around the net, the pronunciation of the french word is "See-elle", so I think that is the correct pronunciation.
  • Two syllables: "see-elle" is correct. Think of the two letters C and L.
• Of all the pictures of Zero they can use (there are a lot of it in this very series, after all), why use the Bolivian Army Ending one (worse, this one even has Zero's back to the "camera") for Alouette/Prairie's Precious Photo gallery in her room?
• According to the backstory material, only Reploids can see Cyber-Elves under normal circumstances. However, we do see some humans interacting or reacting to them and know about other cases of humans interacting with them from the backstory. Now most of these cases are explainable (Ciel has an innate ability that allows her to interact with them, the creator of the Mother Elf is Ciel's great-grandmother, so she probably had that ability too, the humans of the ZX series have mechanical implants, and post-Elf Wars Weil has a mechanical body), but what about Weil before he got the mechanical body? He was able to corrupt the Mother Elf, so he could probably see her, and it seems unlikely that he had Ciel's ability, as while it would help explain his Reploid revival specialty, it's explained as some sort of an empathic connection, which doesn't seem like something somebody like Weil could have.
  • The manual states that Weil is one of the results of an experiment that gives birth to Ciel: humans with an ability to interact with elves. So yes, Weil can naturally do it before he got mechanized.
  • Also, even before the birth of special humans, regular scientist could have just used support equipment, like augmented reality visors or something to interact with the early cyber elves.
• Why do people WANT to insist Zero 3 to be the true intended finale (because of the insistence of What Could Have Been)? It's like they even wanted the fact that Weil is still alive at the end of the game.
  • From a thematic standpoint, it works well enough - the Book Ends with the abandoned lab, Zero confronting his original purpose, Zero and the Guardians working together to finish a job from a century ago, X committing the world to Zero once more before passing away, and the fact that Zero's last words in Zero 3 are "I am Zero", something that people have had to repeatedly tell him over the last two games. As for Weil, there was an implication (ultimately unfounded) that Weil couldn't rule Neo Arcadia without Omega. I like Zero 4 myself, but it can't be denied that there was no way for it to continue the Elf Wars arc and that it has a different conflict from the previous three games.
• If Omega is Zero's original body, why doesn't he use Zero's X design? Even if it can be Hand Waved as being because of the art style, that's a pretty big change.
  • Actually looking at Zero's character design Zero doesn't look that much different from his original appearance (the face and hair doesn't look vastly different to the point you can't tell that it is really Zero) aside from the armor, this can easily be justified in-story by saying that some time during the Elf Wars or maybe even before that point he decided to replace his bulkier armor with sleeker and more mobile armor.
  • Zero already had his new body during the Elf Wars. He sealed himself in the final cutscene of X6 (which according to Word of God is set some time after X8, to purge the Maverick Virus from himself. His body was used to create Mother Elf, a vaccine for the Sigma Virus (presumably killing the Big Bad off once and for all). Dr. Wiel stole his body and Mother Elf, and converted his original body into Omega. Zero was given a new, upgraded body and sent to fight Omega, and sealed himself after the war ended because he was tired of fighting and because, to quote the Mega Man wiki, "as long as he was still around, the bloody history would repeat itself over and over again." So in all likelihood Dr. Weil is responsible for the differences between Omega and Zero's original design, and Zero's new body was likely based on Omega's appearance.
• Why should Zero's mind not being in his original body even matter? Zero's body had been blown in half twice in the X series so there is no way that half of his body is still even "original" to begin with, and on top of that even sentient machines would need to have older parts replaced with new ones over time getting rid of any semblance of an "original body". Furthermore the idea that for androids all they have is their bodies is blatantly untrue (as one member of the Resistance stated his opinion to Zero), their minds are composed of data and this data can be transferred and moved out of the body, that applies to humans as our brains/minds cannot be moved out of our bodies (save religious perceptions of a soul existing). Zero himself didn't seem to be bothered by this but people around him seem to make an issue out of it when it really isn't one.
  • Note that the people making a big deal out of it are Weil, X and the Guardians, and Ciel. Weil is after power, which one would assume to be a physical attribute, and in any case he has a good motive for trying to Mind Screw Zero. The others seem to be more concerned about how Zero would take it, rather than believing it's actually important. (This is a valid concern - since Zero can't remember anything from before his unsealing, for him the logical leap from "My body is a fake construct" to "The data forming my mind is a fake construct" is not that great.) As for the importance of having the original body, the first time he was blown in half, he was repaired by Cain or Serges (who may or may not be Wily) and the second time, one of the doctors was probably involved. So the repairs would have been done to the same standard as the original. In contrast, it's never made clear what went into the production of Zero's clone body.
• OK, it's certainly a fair question to ask why Omega and Weil weren't executed after the Elf Wars, but a question that is never even brought up is why they didn't put Zero's mind back in his original body. After the Elf Wars Weil was banished into the wasteland his war had created left to rot for all eternity and Omega's remains were shot out into space; however did no one think that maybe they could purge Omega's mind from Zero's body and give it back to Zero? Weil is left without the use of Omega as his personal God of Destruction and Zero gets his body back.
  • For the same reason he gave up that body in the first place: it's a Typhoid Mary that spreads the Maverick Virus around wherever he goes. Not the Sigma Virus that the Mother Elf purged. The Maverick Virus, the progenitor to it that Sigma didn't overtake. If he went back to his old body, they'd be back to square 1, plus chances are that Zero himself would no doubt refuse to as well.
• Was Zero successful in purging the Maverick Virus from his original body? If not, it would offer an explanation that Omega is his original self reasserting control after the goody-two-shoes personalty was removed.
  • His original body is said to contain some residual viral data (from which the Mother Elf is reverse-engineered), so it could be a valid explanation. However, his original self (the one you see in the X4 flashback and in X5's bad scenario) is made of both Zero's AI and the conglomeration of viruses; since Zero's AI is extracted out, the things left are said residual data and the Dark Elf (when the Zero Virus going full circle) which are then used to construct Omega.
• Wait... so having Ragnarok crumble and explode is enough to wipe out Dr Weil's human side, but a full blast from said weapon, capable of destroying an entire nation, only scratches him?
  • Well, he could only "die" because he integrated the whole Ragnarok system into him; it became the extension of his body. By destroying Ragnarok, he got shut down. Temporarily, of course.
• Why didn't X just transfer himself to a duplicate body when he sealed the Dark Elf, and continue ruling Neo Arcadia as he had? He obviously didn't have to be IN his body for it to work. Or, if he didn't want to do that, then why not give Copy X some life coaching to keep him from turning into a rotten little tyrant? X knew he existed, but Zero 3 indicates they never met. Why does so much hinge on X being a complete dumbass?
  • He wanted to have a rest. Oh, and he probably wanted to keep it a secret. If you ask me why, I have no idea. But what do you mean by "Zero 3 indicates they never met"?
  • It probably took him a while to actually manifest in a form that can interact with the world, and it has been suggested that X tried to keep himself secret to stop people discovering the Dark Elf. As for why he didn't have another body built, my best guess is that there wasn't enough left of X's "spirit" to animate a new body. Or that's just part of his remaining secretive. I doubt Copy X would have listened to X, he seemed pretty damn sure of himself in the final confrontation in the first game. Hell, he'd probably try and kill X's elf form to validate his own existence.
  • As X explains at the end of Zero 1, years of fighting had him realize he eventually no longer cared about it. This leaves the very likely conclusion that he could have came back if he really wanted to, but was afraid that if he were stuck in his position as ruler of Neo Arcadia, he'd eventually lose the kindness and goodwill that were once so integral to his values throughout the years he was alive. If he stuck around, it's likely that he would have become similar to Copy X, and his decision to shed his physical form was out of a fear of who he might become.
  • Dr. Light built X far too well, as we know that previous attempts to completely reproduce Light’s designs failed in one form or another because not even other roboticists could fully make heads or tails of him, despite advances in both technology and the field. The fact that it took at least two centuries before someone (Ciel) succeeded might’ve been the reason X had no backup body. And considering what happened to Zero’s original body, X wasn’t going to tempt fate by taking such a huge risk.
• Alright, this question has been bugging me ever since the first game and has carried over to the ZX games and it was something no one has even thought about, asked or not give a hoot about it yet. Out of the elements of the games' weakness cycle, why is lightning strong against and resistant to fire?
  • A bolt of lightning is far hotter than fire.
  • The electricity generates a magnetic field that dissipates plasma/fire away, and hot metals are worse electric conductors than the same metals at low temperatures, so when an electric attack hits a hot robot instead of the electric current just flowing to some ground end, it encounters more resistance and its way and causes more more damage on its way (assuming it even has a way to try to get rid of it).
• We more or less know why Zero has the Buster Shot handgun thanks to Zero 1, but aside from convenience of the sprite Palette Swap, why does Omega, his original body that should presumably have his old Z-Buster, also have a Buster Shot handgun instead of said Z-Buster?
  • Maybe, as part of Gameplay and Story Segregation, it could be that Zero's original body (or his "Upgraded Frame", starting from X2) focuses more on close range combat and, as time passed, the Z-Buster functions got gradually removed to put more focus on it. Zero, in his original body, may have to make due with a hand gun during the Elf Wars in a few cases when he couldn't get close enough to use the Z-Saber to deal damage while also trying to not get his body too damaged and probably not having X or anyone else giving cover fire.
• How were there so many Mavericks after the Elf Wars? Most of the Reploid population had been destroyed and the ones that survived wouldn't have had viruses to infect them. And yet, X in the ending of Zero 1 talks about the countless battles he had to fight after Zero went away. If there was something wrong with the Reploid production facilities, why wouldn't they shut them down until they figured out what was going wrong?
  • Originally, the Zero series was supposed to be a century after Mega Man X5, which in turn was supposed to be the final X series game. Sigma and Zero were long dead, and X had gone insane from fighting the Maverick Wars on his own for so long, which was foreshadowed in X's ending in Mega Man X4. Zero was resurrected by Ciel to defeat his friend. Capcom didn't like that idea so they had the story changed to the copy. The sequels were supposed to delve into Zero's connection with Dr. Wily, who was implied to still be alive in Mega Man X5, but Capcom seems to be allergic to this plot-point, they've never come right out and admitted themselves, and changed it the Elf Wars.
  • the mavericks are most likely survivors of the Elf Wars pissed off at humanity and lashing out in anger and frustration at being denied justice because Weil was spared whereas Mavericks who committed far less evils simply got the book thrown at them without trail.
• Why did Zero seal himself up the second time? I understand the first time, as he was a robotic Typhoid Mary and his body needed to be scrubbed of the viral energies. But in the audio tracks, he says he's doing it the second time, would his new body have this issue? Unless the replication involved duplicating everything about the old body, including the viral energy, why would he think he could only bring about destruction when the reason he brought destruction was because of the Maverick Virus.
  • Zero felt that the fighting wouldn't stop while he was still active, which was a realization he had in his ending in X5.
  • Zero was tired of the constant fighting and was losing hope in humanity’s willingness to change things for the better and believed that everyone would be better off if he was removed from the equation entirely.
• During Craft's second fight, Zero has a talk with him about how "it's not our place to change the world", in reference to them both being "Reploids designed for war". He also says "As Reploids, we can only lend strength to those we trust." Isn't the point of Reploids that they have the same capacity as humans would? Wasn't X's entire fight to ensure peace between humans and Reploids and blur the lines to have them function together and learn off of each other in society? Zero turning around and saying Reploids should stay out of it feels like a really sudden betrayal of the themes of the X series.
  • Well, they are indeed Reploids designed for War, pretty straight in Zero's case, and he have fought for a couple of centuries since the first X game. For the second quote, he is (maybe) speaking for himself, cause he never was much of a politician, and having his memories erased, he maybe lost any traits as a leader (in a fashion similar to X) and he now is just a warrior, and being a reploid gives him much more strength, durability, and so on, that humans lack or are inferior when compared, so in his situation, that is really all he can do. As you mention, that is the point, and humans and reploids may have the same capacities, but that does not mean that everyone is the same, again, X have more traits that made him a better leader if you compare him to Zero, there are people that is good in some areas, and people that is better in others, and in the case of Zero, he is a warrior, somebody who does more fighting that any other thing (as Ciel is a scientist, the mind that creates, as he is the muscle). So there is no betrayal, he is referring to 2 reploids to happen to be warriors, in the X series there was people that make the plans, and Zero was the one who fought. Also, in a society there will always be bad and good people, as we see in the ZX games, where Humans and Reploids are almost indistinguishable from one another, there will be thinkers and there will be warriors, and he happens to be the latter.
  • Zero seems to have resolved himself to his role as a "Reploid designed for war", albeit in a way that brings him peace, rather than the distress he felt under his visions of Wily and his old self. Zero isn't saying all Reploids shouldn't do anything about the world - he's just saying that Reploids like him and Craft, who have only known fighting, are at their best when they can fight for others. In Zero's case, people like X and Ciel - and in Craft's case, Neige. I do think "as Reploids" is weird wording, but I assumed it was a translation quirk. The core takeaway is really that it's Zero espousing his personal philosophy on living and fighting. He's not the leader who makes all the big decisions and he's fine with that because he has faith in his allies. He tells Craft this because he knows Craft's issue is his inability to believe in Neige and his belief that he absolutely needs to do something, without even knowing what that something is.

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