External Attack vs External occurrence. Attack as in purpose. Occurrence as in accident/etc.
For some reason I can't shake the image of Axl tripping and landing face-first on a cookie cutter.
The body shares some distinctions with the X1 design overall, but are not congruent and have many minor differentiations, and some things seem more borrowed from other Sigma forms.
I notice the X3 arms and that is hard to ignore. Nevertheless, the art style change with X8 makes nit-picking details of the body very, very shaky. There is no image as to how previous Sigma bodies, X1's in particular, fit within that style. There's also the question of why a conglamorate-body didn't draw further suspicion, what the hell is the DNA of Sigma's later bodies doing on file? The body, in physical appearance at least, seems to lean more strongly toward X1 than any other. Nevertheless, you do bring up a valid viewpoint.
One more question mark to throw onto the pile.
Instead of being directly infected by the virus themselves and being changed in their own individual way by it, they are infected with Sigma's virus-ridden logic, thus they are affected the exact same way that Sigma was affected by the virus. Instead of having a virus that brings out their own evil, they are sharing Sigma's evil. Effected by the effects of the effected. The virus is responsible at the base of it all, but it is applied in a completely vicarious manner, so they're possibly getting more along with it than any other virus infected individual before. They are infected with Sigma, the underlying virus code is an integral part of Sigma, and now an integral part of them too... It's hidden but never out of the equation. I think I'm talking in circles, but I'm at a loss to explain it any better.
Well, that is a hell of a better explanation for viral involvement than I've ever heard previously. It's plausible, though I don't buy it as certainty.
One aspect of X8's presentation that continues to linger in my head is the early reveal of Sigma's copy body. X specifically asks Alia about it, and she doesn't seem to consider it unusual, or threatening. You'd think that the possibility of second-hand corruption such as that would have been taken into consideration there, what with how infamous the maverick virus is, and the fact that they have partial-hindsight in that something has obviously gone wrong with the allegedly infallible. But that's an oddity, not an outright contradiction.
Alia did do that analysis, but I don't really get whether the Sigma data she found when comparing Axl's copy chip and the irregulars' was a common feature in just the bad guys' copy chips, or in theirs and Axl's both. Lumine said that about prototypes not having the specs to do so, and presumably that is why Axl is not on the guest list for their new world party. If Axl is lacking the Sigma data that makes things easy. If he has it though, and for whatever reason just has yet to be effected, then more explanation is in serious order. Maybe he is somehow defective. Maybe his scars are a mark of his being a failed work.
The "defective" bit reminds me of ZXA. But yeah, we could definitely stand more details there. For as much a potential impact on the storyline as X8 has, explanation was definitely not its strong point.
I think the only thing that explains Vile's presence in X8 is his popularity. Dynamo seems just as willing to be Sigma's [sonic slicer] and likes following orders a lot more, but he wasn't chosen. Vile appears inexplicably as form "V" and the show goes on. The choice to revive him seems fairly arbitrary. Maybe Sigma just missed the little dickens.
That would have pretty much been my mindset before MHX, but I think there is a reason they touched on that. Vile was depicted as a loose cannon in X3, so his wailing on X1 mavs wasn't something I found all that unusual. However explanations for his behavior, his motivations in particular (or even the fact that he has any), were never really explored before, so to me, that was of particular interest.
But Inti and Sigma both seem to see a potential link, even if you do not.
However you could say the same thing about X, who has no direct connection. Sigma's interested in X's potential to advance Reploids, and has taken stabs at working X and/or X's data in his favor a few times since (X3 and X7). Inti, meanwhile, was ready to have the original X as the genocidal lunatic you had to kill in Z1.
Sigma sees in Zero power, and power is potential to evolve. And Inti really gave a generic BS/no comment answer when asked. In all honesty I don't think they follow detail that well.
On the other hand, Sigma after being defeated was able to revive much more completely the next time, maybe defeating him in X6 did Sigma a huge favor.
Although speculation, I'd wager that Sigma could complete his revival in due time regardless. Three weeks is a pretty short timeframe for Sigma to be back and kicking already.
Isoc certainly gave Gate's new world order the old college try, so much that he put High Max's repairs ahead of capturing Zero.
He's played his lot with Gate in the interest of recovering Zero, and Gate had already noticed Isoc's obsession, so Isoc knows he has to be more cautious. At that point he probably just had to play the role through, rather than risk severing connections with Gate too early.
You mean, if it's a retcon? Then of course. Throw another contradiction into the pile. It well may be. I'm going to go on the good faith that it isn't, until proven that it is.
Well, perhaps. I'm reluctant to use the word "retcon" as MegaMan fans tend to equate that to simply throwing away the past, which isn't what happened here (not like X5/X6's three years/three weeks). Rather they are simply exploring a possibility that has not been previously addressed; previous sources were simply written in that context. So that is one thing we could be looking at. Another is the line between evil and Reploid superiority, as I mentioned later in that post, and how the virus may fit with one but not the other. In that case we'd be looking at not a retcon but rather some necessary splitting hairs.
Though as far as his first rebellion goes, the extent to which he actually put the virus to use in gathering supporters is little indicated and entirely unknown. How Sigma came about his virus-enabled death cheat is even less clear. Maybe Serges had something to do with explaining that, since he built Sigma's X2 body for him. But it seems you don't even have to have mysterious virus powers to be revived, it never kept ol' Vile down. So even that need is somewhat loose.
As usual, lack of detail is true. However the lack of information on the virus is to be expected as its existence wasn't public knowledge back then. Sigma, in the original X1, does deliver an end-of-game message that he will return.
Vile, however, hasn't been reviving on his own, or at least he didn't in X3. X8 doesn't seem to find the notable handicap of his being dead to be worth mentioning.
A possible untold sidestory in the interim (before X7, due to Axl not knowing him) would be my best guess. If we're to take "V" as being a roman numeral (Zan tells me some japanese source states so, but I myself am not sure), we're likely be missing two Vile forms somewhere along the line.
On the other hand, Vile self-revives/death-fakes his way through the final X8 encounter, so who knows what was going on there.
But, why would he decide that? The greatest advancements in robotics up to that point were made by humans, like Light, Cain and Wily. And while unbeknown to him, over a century later, would still be with researchers like Weil and Ciel's lineage. Human ingenuity advances the state of the world just as much as reploid. Human reliance on reploids pretty much guarantees both the need to continue production and to improve upon it. Sigma is revered even as a guardian of humanity. So trying to kill them off... seems not so much logical, as simply hate inspired. And if there's one thing that an evil virus should do, it's inspire hate.
As Zan said it's more a lack of feeling than hated. Whatever value human ingenuity has over a Reploid's is something very intangible that Sigma may well not acknowledge. There is, after all, such a thing as Reploid researchers (see Gate). He may consider the greater influence of emotions among humans to be a hindrance as he at first believed with X. They're certainly physically inferior, and if Reploids can be just as cunning and intelligent, what need is there for humans any longer? Why must Reploids waste time, energy, and numbers protecting them?
Sigma is in essence exercising survival of the fittest. Reploids came into existence thanks to humans, they were necessary to establish Reploids as a respectable power. But once Reploids have grown to the point of being able to dispose of that crutch, why shouldn't they?
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I guess the longer combos with Zero just aren't my favorite moves, or something.
