Reploid

I know this sounds like a completely random question, but if you've played MMX8 and heard Optic Sunflower's voice (or seen how Lumine looks), you'll know it gets confusing. I thought Optic Sunflower was female (again, not sure how that works) based on his voice until I found out he was canonically male (he/him pronouns were used to refer to him in the Maverick Hunter's Field Guide). Also, Lumine just looks and sounds a bit like a girl.

I've got no idea what to name her (yes i am a woman) but it's a water-based reploid who has a huge crush on iris

It occurs to me that at the start of the X series we don't get a good glimpse of what the most advanced robots of the time were like before the advent of Reploids; I personally think they were much more advanced than people generally assume, probably even more advanced than the Robot Masters of the classic series, just not on the same level as Reploids due to the most advanced of these robots still being bound by their programming. Probably, designs for robots got much more advanced and radical, which is why Reploids are often based upon non-human organisms.

But advanced robots still don't seem to have been quite as commonplace as they were in the classic era. And maybe this is because of the advance of robot rights.

In the classic series, there are many hints that the Robot Masters are in some ways akin to slaves. Mega Man 9 hints at this most strongly, but it's obvious that society at large does not treat Robot Masters with as much respect as Dr. Light (and Dr. Wily) feel they deserve.

In real life, ethicists would find the situation of Robot Masters to be deplorable, given that they have free will but are ultimately treated as disposable by society at large, so it stands to reason in their own world a similar movement for ethical treatment of robots could have emerged. In fact, Dr. Light himself may have helped to contribute to it.

But if Robot Masters were granted individual rights by the governments of the world, which I think is the right thing, then industry would find them a lot less useful because they would be forced to treat them better. So instead industry may have decided to push for advancing Mechaniloid technology (because Mechaniloids don't need to be given rights) and have far fewer advanced robots but have the advanced robots be exceptionally high quality to make the cost of having to grant them individual rights worth it. My guess is that this is the kind of society Dr. Cain lived in for most of his life.

So when Reploids came around, they provided a solution to industry: they could be mass-produced like the Robot Masters of old, but they would also be capable of fully taking care of and advocating for themselves due to not being bound by their programming, so they wouldn't be slaves, either. So society was overeager for the economic boom Reploids could provide, probably remembering the similar economic boom that came with incorporating the Robot Masters into industry, and it didn't think of the ramifications of mass-producing a new social demographic over night, especially once Reploids started outnumbering humans considerably. Mass-producing countless Reploids was easy, but destroying Reploids after bringing them into existence unless absolutely necessary would be completely unethical, and Dr. Weil tries that and look what happens (the Elf Wars, which destroys the planet). [Edit: In a way, the Maverick Hunters and their broad authority to label Reploids Maverick and destroy them as they saw fit were a band-aid to the fact that society had created too many Reploids and couldn't take care of them all and also humans at the same time.]

So in other words, the world of MegaMan may have evolved over time according to socio-economic considerations related to the economic benefits of utilizing robots versus society needing to grant them certain rights. What do you all think? I am very eager to hear other people's thoughts about this.

I decided to make more of an X-Series OC. His name is Caliber. The crossed out sections are unused designs I was considering, but I can’t draw a fedora all that well. I also liked how in X6 Gate wears a lab coat, and the whole idea of Reploids in clothing seemed cool, so he has a trench coat. Also sorry it’s sideways again.

Giving it a lot of thought, and I have come to an interesting conclusion about what Dr. Wily thinks about Reploids. [Edit: Note that this is my opinion based upon what is currently known about Wily and my own interpretation of that, so you may take this with a grain of salt.]

Reploids, being derived from the design of MegaMan X, are essentially an extension of Dr. Light's legacy. [Edit: We all know how much Dr. Wily hates anything to do with Dr. Light and his legacy.] Specifically, given Mega Man 11, we see that Dr. Wily wasn't very keen about giving robots free will like human beings. If anything, he seems to think that human nature gets in the way of creating the perfect hero, emphasising speed and power instead like with his Double Gear system. [Edit: Moreover, whenever we see Dr. Wily get close to "taking over the world", he installs a robotic hierarchy led by Robot Masters, purposely limited in their ability to disobey his will, to rule over humanity and manage the humans according to Wily's desires and the programming of his robots.]

Given Dr. Wily's modus operandi, we can make other conclusions as well. Dr. Wily values robotkind, at least in an abstract sort of way (especially his own robots), but he seems to prefer a system in which robots are under the control of some central authority, without any autonomy to act outside of specific areas. Ironically, it would be very difficult for Mavericks to form in such a system, because robots would not have enough free will from the system to "go Maverick" in the first place. From a certain perspective, perhaps humanity would benefit from such a system, as long as they obeyed their Robot Master supervisors and didn't go against the will of the overlord's (i.e. Wily's) system. I like to think of Robot Masters as being something like gods in such a system (Elec Man would be the synthetic "electric god"; Fire Man would be the "fire god"; Wood Man would be the "nature god"; etc.).

So the hierarchy of Wily's system would be as follows:

1) Wily (or some manifestation of his consciousness)

2) Robot Masters (or equivalent robots with limited free will)

3) Non-sentient robots (without free will)

4) Humans (with free will but existing under robotic supervision)

This is similar to an inverted version of either the Master System in Mega Man Legends or when Dr. Weil tried to enslave Reploids during the Elf Wars, except that most of humanity is not on top but is being supervised by the Robot Masters and their robotic subordinates. [Edit: Wily's belief that the human population must be supervised by a pantheon of robotic hero-gods, given that people weren't even smart enough to recognize Wily's genius in the first place and so cannot be trusted to govern themselves, seems to be a perversion of his earlier desire to turn robots into heroes to aid humanity.]

This is also why I suspect that Serges of the X-Hunters, contrary to some fan speculation, is not Dr. Wily. (The later games in the X series provide additional evidence, for example Sigma claiming to have met Dr. Wily for the first time just prior to X5, and also Sigma not knowing how the Maverick Virus affected Zero prior to this meeting, but I digress.) Serges shows interest in analyzing X in the Japanese dialogue of X2, whereas if we take into account X5 (and X6 if we assume that Isoc is Wily) then Dr. Wily has a deep-seated hatred for X, Dr. Light, and everything they stand for. Also, Dr. Wily doesn't want to turn Zero into a Maverick like the X-Hunters wanted in X2, but into an instrument completely subordinate to his will like in X5. [Edit: Even Sigma claims that "Awakened Zero" is not a Maverick in X5.] (Interestingly, this is similar to how the Nightmare Virus works in X6, which has the explicit purpose of stripping the free will of Reploids away to turn them into mindless puppets.)

Dr. Wily could in a way (not entirely wrongly) blame Dr. Light for all of the chaos of the Maverick Wars, by advocating for a system in which robots gained free will and therefore all of the flaws and foibles of human beings. On the other hand, most of us are fans of freedom, so we would not trade that away for a robotic dictatorship even if it helped to ensure human survival in some fashion by limiting the free will of robots. Weirdly, this also means that Sigma embodies a twisted version of Light's philosophy rather than Wily's, because Sigma rebelled because he coveted X's freedom of thought and wished to use it to advance the evolution and free will of Reploids. (Vile and the New Generation Reploids also embody Sigma's respect for free-will Mavericks.)

Anyway, I hope I was able to reasonably articulate my thoughts about Wily.

Here's hoping that Wily comes back again at some point in the X series. Is anyone else up for a Wily/Lumine team-up or grudge match? xD

Anyone heard of What What in the Reploid, anyone?

Hello Everyone. I am hosting a Reploid Battle Tournament. There will be 16 competitors. Submit your Reploid by typing the reploid's name in the comments. Everyone can submit two reploids. The rest of the rules are in the comments.

1.Storm Eagle: Submitted by AstralReploid

2.Neon Tiger: Submitted by AstralReploid

3.Sting Chameleon: Submitted by Greysilene

4.Blizzard Wolfang: Submitted by Greysilene

5.Magma Dragoon: Submitted by XenobyteZX

6.Spiral Pegasus: Submitted by XenobyteZX

7.Dark Mantis: Submitted by Albtraum The Hydregion

8.Boomer Kuwanger: Submitted by Albtraum The Hydregion

9.Toxic Seahorse: Submitted by ArtisMostlyShit

10.Blast Hornet: Submitted by ArtisMostlyShit

11.Chill Penguin : Submitted by Timbomb19

12.Flame Stag: Submitted by Timbomb19

13.Optic Sunflower: Submitted by Эллис Элдебри

14.Vanashing Gugoroo : Submitted by Эллис Элдебри

15.

16.

I was looking at the huge castle where I was maverick hunting. I then heard something slither by. It was Hypno Cobra himself. I started to Charge Shot at him, but he then dodged my attack. "Huh? What was that?" I said. I was starting to become shocked all of a sudden. Then, Hypno Cobra appeared. He was glaring at me. "Look at me, X..." he said, as he started to control me. I then felt myself feeling a little weird. I was drooping while staring at Hypno Cobra. "M-Master..." I groaned. "Please let me go... I'm too uncomfortable there."

Hypno Cobra then coiled me up as if he were hugging me. I started to fall asleep. He's mine now... Hypno Cobra thought. He started coiling me up again and then making me more tired. As I tried to move out from the coils, I was then bit by Hypno Cobra's entrancing venom, putting me into a deeper slumber.

"Enjoy your sleep, X." said Hypno Cobra. He then cuddled close to me as I slept soundly.

After being put to sleep by Hypno Cobra, X finally was able to obey him yet again.

Remember that picture of Blizzard-Chan and X dating? I drew that last year, and I might be sure is X would actually have Blizzard-Chan as his girlfriend. If I'm sure, X might start dating her. Also, Blizzard-Chan is a female doppelganger of X.

Even though it does create foreshadowing for a future in which reploids and humans are indistinguishable, is it believable that DNA is required for a Reploid to have complete free will? Couldn't a robot with just ones and zeros also have complete free will, theoretically speaking, assuming it was complex enough?

I'd care about this a lot less but for the fact that not only Reploids but both X AND Zero also have DNA rather than the binary programming that Robot Masters typically have. Zero and robots derived from him not having DNA would have made him and robots like him much more distinct and interesting, in my opinion, but alas the writers went with the idea that Zero has DNA just like X. (Zero having DNA also raises the question of whether some past robots, such as Bass for example, also had DNA.)

I feel that I would have preferred it if DNA coding was a feature that more advanced Reploids, such as in the Zero and ZX series, were depicted as having but not older models, rather than the natural kind of programming inherent to Reploids from the very beginning (unless, of course, Zero were unique for having a different kind of programming but again this isn't the case).

There are many kinds of robots in science-fiction, and I think the X series would be more interesting from a science-fiction perspective if reploids weren't all by default DNA robots, because in real life we are experimenting with lots of different kinds of programming and not just DNA-based programming in advanced robotics, and maybe the first completely free-willed robot won't have DNA as the basis of its programming. Anyway, even in the classic series we see robots with diversity in power generation, for example ProtoMan and his nuclear-powered rather than solar-powered core; so why not have diversity in the kinds of programming reploids have in the X series?

Anyway, what do you all think? Am I just being overly fussy?

We're over eight games into the X series, and X's sci-fi world doesn't feel all that fleshed out. (The classic series in contrast is more like our world, so it gets more of a pass.) Plus fighting Sigma's goons every game's getting boring. So what other kinds of organizations besides the Maverick Hunters and Sigma's Mavericks probably exist in X's world?

In general, these are the kinds of newly introduced organizations we could see the Maverick Hunters interact with:

1) Mafia

There is definitely organized crime among Reploids. If they were to be classified, I think they would come in four varieties:

a) Mafia that targets Reploids only.

b) Mafia targets both humans and Reploids.

c) Mafia that's pro-Reploid and opposed to viral Mavericks like Sigma.

d) Mafia that's pro-Reploid and in league with viral Mavericks like Sigma.

We already know that type d exist, but they're boring because they're just a front for Sigma. Out of all of these, I think a and c are the most interesting to me, although type b is only slightly less so. Type a is interesting because they are not posing a threat to humans, and therefore such an organization may not technically be Maverick legally speaking, especially if they use disreputable but legal means to achieve their ends. Type c is interesting because there are probably many supporters of the Maverick cause who are absolutely opposed to Sigma and viral Mavericks. Why side with crazy and infected people and risk getting infected themselves, especially when Sigma's schemes started getting really destructive? Instead, why not focus upon subverting the system on their own? They also may be able to find common cause with the Maverick Hunters sometimes, as terrorism and viral outbreaks are bad for business.

2) Revolutionary/Reactionary organizations/corporations

These kinds of organizations probably also come in a few varieties:

a) Pro-human and anti-Reploid, and only consisting of humans.

b) Pro-human and anti-Reploid, but including Reploids in their ranks.

c) Pro-Reploid and genocidal against humans but against viral Mavericks.

d) Pro-Reploid and anti-human and in league with viral Mavericks.

e) Pro-Reploid and anti-human and dominating of humans.

f) Pro-Reploid but not anti-human.

g) Neither pro-human nor pro-Reploid but opposed to the government.

Type a showed up in the Archie Comics in the form of the Emerald Spears, but as expected they're laughably weak. It isn't until much later in the time-line such as near the end of the Maverick Wars and during the Elf Wars that humans are able to develop technologies, such as Cyber-Elves and full cyborgization, that allow them to effectively combat the Reploids. Type a could work earlier in the time-line, but it would need Iron Man / Samus Aran -like exosuit human soldiers, or they would have to develop some other type of robotic beings analogous to Reploids, or some combination of the above.

Type b could be seen as a more extreme version of the Maverick Hunters, not unlike Red Alert but more organized and including tons of human members. The military would probably be the most fitting possibility for type b, especially after the fall of Repliforce showed the danger of having an all-Reploid military.

Type c and type e are both pretty interesting, and it's unfortunate we haven't seen many organizations like this so far even though I imagine they'd be pretty common in X's world. Type d is boring at this point and we've gotten at least three flavors of this already with Sigma, Gate, AND Dr. Doppler, with Gate being the least anti-human, Doppler being the most pro-Reploid, and Sigma being the most anti-human and the most genocidal. Type f has also already been appeared before in the form of both Repliforce and the Rebellion Army.

The Resistance in the Zero series is a righteous example of type g, but there are probably many more morally dubious organizations of type g in the X series. The goals of type g organizations could either be to replace the government, making them a more well-meaning version of type e if the new government is run by Reploids, or they could just be anarchical organizations.

Anyway these are the kinds of organizations I could see existing in X's world. I dunno what do you all think? I'm sure these kinds of organizations have shown up in fan-fiction before, but it'd be nice to see more of them in official games especially as a change of pace from the constant battles against with viral Mavericks especially Sigma and his subordinates.

Kudos to @Emperor MegaMan for inspiring me to create this thread.

This question has multiple sub-questions to it:

1) Should Dr. Light have created X?

2) Should scientists have attempted to make copies of X at all?

3) Was it okay for Dr. Cain to create copies of X if those copies were imperfect?

4) Would it have been better for Dr. Cain to have had other scientists attempt to reverse-engineer X given that Cain was primarily an archeologist?

5) Should Reploids have been mass-produced?

What do you all think?