Insanity

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Vile, an insane Reploid with a love of destruction.

Insanity is a recurring theme in the Mega Man franchise. Many characters within the franchise exhibit or develop symptoms of mania or outright insanity and seek to cause great harm and destruction to others and the world for their cause. Though these individuals often start off good-willed and mean to help and benefit humanity or robot-kind, the amount of damage that will be inflicted by their plans heavily outweighs the positive changes, and so they must be stopped by others. Some individuals are driven to insanity instead for something that has happened to them or someone they care about while others are driven to prove their own self-worth but go to extreme measures to do so. The line between evil and insanity is often blurred and the audience is left to wonder how much of a character's actions are due to evil intentions, and thus blameworthy, and how much are the result of a dysfunctional psychology or external influences overriding the character's will.

Video Games

Original Mega Man series

• Dr. Wily was once a man with good intentions; as shown in Mega Man 11, his original vision was to create something that could turn ordinary robots into superheroes by enhancing their powers. Wily attempted to achieve this with the Double Gear System, but Dr. Light, believing that the Double Gear System was too dangerous, got Wily's research on the Double Gear project cancelled while both doctors were still in university. This angered Wily so severely that he ended his friendship with Light and stormed off to prove to the world that he was "right all along." Since then, his worldview grew more and more extreme over time. In addition, he gained a superiority complex and intense feelings of persecution by others, especially Dr. Light. As a result of all this, combined with the envy Wily developed from constantly being overshadowed by Light's achievements, he became determined to take over the world countless times, even after being defeated by Mega Man time and time again. His desire to defeat Light and Mega Man became so consuming that by the time he created Zero for the purpose of defeating them, he even admitted such was what gave his life any meaning at all.

• Grenade Man is a sadomasochist; he takes pleasure in both receiving pain and inflicting it on others. This is shown prominently during his battle in Mega Man 8; aside from constantly expressing his desire to crush or destroy Mega Man, he also giggles when hit with his weakness, Clown Man's Thunder Claw, and enthusiastically shouts "Oh yeah!" when hit by one of his own Flash Bombs. He even exclaims "That felt good!" when he's finally defeated.

• Burner Man was tricked by King into believing that there was a bomb inside of him that would explode and destroy him unless he burned down a forest every day. This has led to Burner Man becoming a pyromaniac who takes joy in causing environmental destruction for the sake of warding off the make-believe threat of self-destruction.

Mega Man X series

• Sigma originally had a stable grip on his sanity, but he lost it after he went Maverick and his worldview was warped drastically by the Maverick Virus. After fully succumbing to the virus, Sigma adopted the belief that humans are holding Reploids back and must be destroyed in order for Reploids to continue evolving. Acting on this belief, Sigma has made many attempts to destroy humanity, as well as the Maverick Hunters that oppose him. Prior to his defeat in Mega Man X8, Sigma was able to resurrect himself after each defeat, progressively growing more and more deranged the more times he returned from the dead.
  • His incarnation in X6 was significantly more insane than usual, speaking in broken sentences, largely because of his premature revival by Gate.

• Zero, upon first waking up, was completely insane due to a glitch in his programming, seemingly not even having the ability to talk beyond manic laughter and rage-filled yells. Zero in this form was able to wipe out Garma's Unit and beat Sigma into submission before a W formed on his head and caused him to cringe in pain. After being exposed to the Maverick Virus, Zero's personality flipped completely, and he became a Maverick Hunter.
  • Awakened Zero is Zero from the bad ending of Mega Man X5. If the player were to fail in not being able to stop the Space Colony Eurasia from crashing upon the Earth, Zero would go Maverick, with the player no longer being able to select him.
• Mega Man X: Although X never became insane at any point in the games, he did express some fear in X4 that he would ultimately become insane in the future, to the extent that he attempted to make Zero promise him that, should X ever end up going Maverick in the future, Zero act as the one to terminate him in the ending. Similarly, Zero's nightmare in his ending of X7 featured X going mad and trying to exterminate all Reploids while deeming them "maverick", eventually targeting Zero.

• Vile suffers from a short circuit in his electronic brain, causing him to be reckless and needlessly violent. His want for senseless destruction was such that he was even shown to laugh insanely after defeating Sigma's lieutenants in his exclusive mode from Maverick Hunter X. These traits, as well as his lust for revenge against his enemies, are shown prominently in all of his appearances in the series. Even though he was a Maverick Hunter, Vile's aggressive nature got him branded as a Maverick due to how much of a danger he was to himself and everyone around him. When Sigma became a Maverick and initiated a revolution against humanity, Vile joined the movement to prove his strength. He was destroyed by X in Mega Man X, but later rebuilt and upgraded by Dr. Doppler in Mega Man X3. Upon being resurrected by the doctor, Vile found that the only thing he could think of was exacting his revenge on X (additionally, the English SNES manual states that Vile was also infected with the Maverick Virus, which further augmented his insanity), and he broke free from Doppler's control to pursue X on his own, only to be destroyed again. Vile returned once more in Mega Man X8 with the same goal in mind, although this time around he also made comments about creating a new world only for new Reploids, as if he were one of the New Generation Reploids.

• Dr. Doppler was originally a benevolent individual and didn't exhibit any kind of abnormal behavior, until he tried to develop a cure for the Maverick Virus and ended up being infected by it himself. Much like Sigma, after becoming a Maverick Doppler became obsessed with destroying mankind, believing them to be inferior and declaring war on humanity. He partnered with Sigma shortly after, resurrecting him along with Vile. In the English version of the game, Doppler seems to have developed a great devotion for Sigma, praising him as his master, though this does not seem to be the case for the Japanese version as Doppler instead claims to want to rule the world by Sigma's side. After being defeated by X, Doppler was somehow able to come back to his senses and create a real vaccine for the virus.

• Double was shown to have a split personality befitting his two forms. While his rotund first form is shown to be well-mannered and meek, his second form was shown to be very psychotic and sadistic, taking noticeable pleasure in slaughtering his fellow Maverick Hunters upon being ordered to do so by Sigma, and even when defeated by X showed absolutely no remorse for his actions, even claiming that X's gentle and merciful nature would ultimately be the latter's downfall.

• Iris originally had a firm grip on her sanity, although she lost it during the Great Repliforce War out of grief due to Zero being forced to eliminate her brother, Colonel, eventually fusing with her brother's control chip to fight Zero in revenge for her brother's death. This ultimately resulted in her own death, coming to her senses long enough to tell Zero about her desire for a Reploid-only world for herself and Zero.

• Gate, similar to Dr. Wily, initially had good intentions behind his actions. However, he ended up betrayed by his colleagues, including future Maverick Hunter Alia (although unwillingly on her part) due to jealousy, which left him embittered. Eventually, due to stumbling upon one of Zero's parts and becoming infected by residual Zero Virus DNA, he became megalomaniacal and vengeance-driven, willing to render the nearly destroyed world asunder and even willingly attempted to revive Sigma as a last-ditch effort at revenge.

• The Zero Nightmare is an insane version of Zero that can be found in secret areas in Mega Man X6.

• Lumine seemed stable when first encountered, although his public personality was eventually revealed to be an act. Upon dropping his façade, his true nature was shown to be psychopathic, being casually violent and declaring new generation Reploid supremacy over both old models and humans. He claims that as a new gen his decision to become a Maverick was made consciously, but he laughs maniacally while doing so (though he implies that this conscious aspect may have made himself and the other New Generation Reploids more insane than Sigma). His statement about Sigma merely "helping" his plan along before crushing Sigma's remains further indicates his lack of empathy.

• Colonel Redips, like Lumine above, seemed stable and like a model officer, although in reality, he was a megalomaniac who wished to evolve himself to ensure he could rule at least Earth if not the entire Universe, and even manipulated and ultimately backstabbed the Maverick Hunters just to get the Supra-Force Metal to fulfill his designs. A large part of his insanity stemmed from disliking having to continuously appease humanity and his fellow reploids being complacent in doing so and being unwilling to evolve.

• Certain Mavericks have suffered from varying degrees of insanity:
  • Crush Crawfish had a glitch in his AI programming that made him unable to tell his friends from his enemies, causing him to become very violent in nature.
  • In Mega Man X5, if the player chose Zero and Eurasia either crashed or was destroyed, Spiral Pegasus is shown to have been driven completely insane by the Maverick Virus; upon encountering Zero, Pegasus doesn't recognize him and calls out to Iris (who had already been killed in Mega Man X4), and then tries to kill Zero.
  • Flame Hyenard was so severely infected by the Maverick Virus that it caused him constant pain and impeded his ability to think rationally; when confronted by the Maverick Hunters, Hyenard immediately assumes that they are the source of his suffering and decides to destroy them in the hopes that his pain will disappear once they are dead. 
  • Optic Sunflower appears to suffer from some confusion about himself and others when confronted by the Maverick Hunters. If he's one of the first four Mavericks the player chooses to face; when approached, Sunflower briefly freaks out and starts asking who he is before regaining his senses.

Mega Man Zero series

• X: Although X had not truly gone insane at any point in the games, he did admit in the ending of Mega Man Zero that he came close to doing so during the period between Zero's encapsulation after the Elf Wars and X absorbing the Dark Elf and sealing himself in Yggdrasil, when he admitted that after fighting countless Mavericks after Zero's disappearance, the hardest part he had to learn was that he no longer cared about fighting enemies.
• Copy X, although tame compared to most, became obsessed with exterminating Reploids for the betterment of humans, and was also shown to be even more obsessed with his status as the perfect copy of X, to the extent that when Zero implies that he was much weaker than the original X, he was driven to a murderous rage at possibly not matching his template at all, especially in terms of strength. His rebuilt self also was, albeit with prodding from Dr. Weil, willing to bomb a human settlement just to get the Dark Elf, and was also shown to have speech impediments, presumably as a side effect from within his resurrection. He also was shown to not take being treated like a fool well, even trying to transform into his ultimate form not just to take out Zero, but possibly also to try and deal with Weil for the latter's treachery after X had informed him of both Weil and Omega abandoning and using him.

• Elpizo, similar to Sigma, was initially a good individual who led the Resistance against Neo Arcadia after being forced to flee from the location due to inspecting an abandoned library and stumbling upon information relating to the Elf Wars, although after his planned Operation Righteous Strike ended up becoming a total mission failure and narrowly surviving to fight another day, the losses drove him completely insane and proceeded to seek out the Dark Elf, using his prior knowledge of the creature, to exterminate all humans and make a Reploid-only paradise. His insanity worsened significantly when he attempted to draw out even more of the Dark Elf's power, resulting in him giving an inhuman scream as well as making mantras for "more power" while confronting Zero in various tones. After being beaten by Zero, he regained his senses and expressed regret for his actions.

• Dr. Weil, while initially keeping it contained during the Mega Man Zero 3 story proper, was shown to be vengeance-filled, psychotic, and very sadistic. Even prior to being made into a cyborg, he always enjoyed the carnage inflicted onto others during the Elf Wars, as he himself admitted to Zero. He also was shown to be deeply megalomaniacal, as he freely admitted that the only true source of happiness for humans like himself is in dominating over everything and forcing everything to work for them, and also strongly implies all humans are like this. He also claims to Neige later on that rulers are able to appreciate seeing their subjects humiliated, enraged, and suffering. The radio drama adaptation of his and Zero's final confrontation aboard Ragnarok also had him admitting that, besides obviously desiring revenge against humanity for their role in exiling him after the Elf Wars, he also intended to do his actions to Ragnarok to remake to world to reflect the nature of humanity (heavily implying that he fully intended to wreck the Earth because he felt a world full of suffering and death fully reflected humanity to the fullest, demonstrating just how delusional and warped he truly was).

• Omega, befitting his title of the God of Destruction, is shown to be intensely sadistic and bloodthirsty, constantly causing carnage wherever he went. X DiVE also implies that, similar to Copy X above, he delusionally believes himself to be the actual Zero (which is technically true in the sense that his body originally belonged to Zero) and even surpassing him.

• Craft, after taking Neige's defiance to Weil to heart, ended up hijacking control of Ragnarok just after Weil unveiled it and proceeded to aim the weapon directly at Neo Arcadia, explicitly not caring if innocents were killed in the process due to refusing to just stand back and watch as Weil and people like him abuse Reploids. After succeeding in launching the weapon, he also implies that he's charging up another attack before attacking Zero, and even demands to know why Zero is fighting against him, although after learning Zero's reasons, he eventually came to regret his actions, especially not even trusting Neige to do what's right.

Mega Man ZX

• Serpent was driven insane after retrieving a Model W fragment, with it being heavily implied that a major contributing factor to his insanity is both his being a survivor of a prior Maverick raid as well as the influence of Prometheus and Pandora. Upon being driven mad, he slaughtered the Guardians unit he previously served and presumably either killed their former leader Ciel or at the very least forced her to go into hiding, and eventually founded Slither Inc., also subtly causing more Maverick raids while having his company step in to "save" everyone as a means to revive Model W. One of these raids also resulted in, ironically enough, the creation of two people who would ultimately put an end to him, Aile and Vent. When merging with Model W, he even utters an insane laugh before declaring himself the new ruler. In his final moments, at least in Vent's storyline, he also implies that he views anyone having hearts and emotions as essentially being maverick, showcasing just how far gone by that time he truly was.

• Prometheus and Pandora, thanks to not only being bonded with Model W (which was already notorious for driving people mad due to being derived from Dr. Weil's remains), but also their horrific treatment by their creator Master Albert since their creation, were respectively deeply sadistic/bloodthirsty and cold/emotionless in their duties, as well as exceptionally manipulative. They also held intense hatred for Master Albert, enough to want to kill him at the first opportunity, and have held omnicidal desires as part of their revenge against him, with it also being heavily implied that they were suicidal due their suffering and not being able to return their bodies to normal humanoid form.

• Master Albert initially appears to be compassionate and stable, although it is eventually revealed to be an act. He has particular disdain for his "son", Grey, which is heavily implied to be because Grey was released memory-less after several of his Mavericks got into a firefight with some Hunters and thus proved to be a liability to his overall plans, or as he put it, "defective", though he had genuine respect for his genetic descendant, Ashe, frequently complimenting her on her progress even after showing his true colors. He was also shown to hold intensely megalomaniacal views, including delusions of godhood. He also named Model A after himself and created Grey as essentially a Reploid "clone" of him as a backup in case Albert failed to take control of Model W/Ouroboros before he could gain control of it. He was willing to kill Grey and (albeit slightly reluctantly) Ashe because they were in the way of his plans; he also considered them obstacles to claiming the title of Ultimate Mega Man, hinting at narcissistic tendencies as well. He was shown to be exceptionally cruel, as evidenced by his treatment of Prometheus and Pandora since creating them. He may have been driven mad by Model W's influence, as can be inferred by Ashe's claim just before the second phase of the final battle.

• Atlas was shown to be an exceptionally brutal woman lacking in compassion and who believes a world that's permanently torn apart by war is the only way humans can become stronger. Her views are strongly implied to be rooted in her being a survivor of a maverick raid on her home country that she acted as a soldier for, which may indicate that she feels she cannot adapt to a life without war as a result of it having consumed her life.

• Siarnaq was driven insane due to being backstabbed by allies and left for dead, such as coming across as entirely devoid of emotions and even speaking in a manner similar to a Mechaniloid; in the Japanese version, he even emits a deranged laugh if he beats the player. These may indicate that he has become insane and is no longer at peace with his emotions.

• Master Thomas tried to stop Master Albert and willingly aided the Hunters and Guardians to stop Ouroboros. However, it is later revealed in the secret Hard Mode ending that Thomas actually agreed with Albert regarding "resetting" the world, and only went against him due to not agreeing with the actual methods Albert used; it is unknown if Thomas is insane, evil, or a self-righteous extremist. It is also unclear whether this was his default nature, or if similar to what was implied to have happened to Albert, he himself was driven mad by Model W's influence.

Mega Man Battle Network series

• Lord Wily.

• Sean Obihiro.

• Speedy Dave.

• Anetta.

• Dr. Regal.

Mega Man Star Force series

• Patrick Sprigs. Rey.

• Dr. Vega.

Television

Mega Man cartoon series

• Dr. Wily (Ruby-Spears).

MegaMan NT Warrior series

• Mr. Wily.

• Dr. Regal.

• Darkloids.

• Gai Domon.

• Professor.

• NetNavis are driven mad when they are infected with the Beast Factor and become Zoanoroids, becoming insane zealots to either the Cyber Beast Falzer or Glaga. Zoanoroids become particularly cruel and callous when enforcing the will of their masters having lost their compassion for others, and use inhuman means to extract info from their enemies, torture and relentlessly pursue their targets for fun, and force their will onto others.

Literature

Mega Man Megamix and Gigamix

• Bass (Mega Man Megamix).

Archie Comics

• M'egga Man

• Sonic Man (Roboticized Master)

• Sigma in Worlds Unite, aside from his usual characterization from the games, also developed explicit delusions of godhood upon accessing the Infinity Engines and the Genesis Portals created by them, even expressing disbelief when destroyed by Super Sonic and Super Mega Man.

• Vile, even prior to becoming a Maverick, was shown to have a ruthless streak towards him, as he deliberately fired upon a crowded bridge, fully aware that there were innocent humans located there, to prevent the Wily Walker from escaping into Arcadia. It is unknown if Vile is insane, though, as he argues that his actions saved more lives than he harmed.

Rockman X Mega Mission

• Σ Limited

Crossover Characters

• M. Bison

• Doctor Eggman

• Deadly Six

External links

• Insanity in Wikipedia