Maybe canon-logically speaking he never did die in X3. After all, didn't you have to trigger his death by playing as him right at that moment?
Doppler's anti-virus is used regardless of what you do in the game. Zero applies the program to the Z-saber or Doppler uses it directly on Sigma.
Sigma's a virus. Do you really think he gathers his entire essence in just one place when there's still a chance of getting defeated by X?
Of course, Sigma Virus appeared in material form to attack X and subsequently proclaimed to possess him, he had to give it his all.
Not to mention, Sigma himself commented on how his program was fading.
I´m still wondering how he came back after that
Thanks to Tackione, Enemice HL revived Sigma using the Sigma Chip.
The plot and initial setting of Z1 was vastly different from the actual game, which had been heavily modified to work with the Zero Ending of X6 (Z1 was already in production when Capcom decided to make X6, but came out after X6. X6 was November 2001, Z1 April 2002). Originally, Ciel was supposed to be something like a Cyber Necromancer who would use Cyberelves to bring back Zero from the grave. But since X6 established Zero as still alive, only to seal himself again in the end, the way Zero was put into this story was altered to make sense with his X6 ending. Too bad X7 ruined it all.
The
original setting of the ZERO-series did not have Zero. By Inafune's demand they put Zero into that as the main character.
Ciel's was called a "Soul Summoner" and Cyber Elves were "Replisoul." But that says nothing about how Zero's resurrection was different. The only quote we have on that matter is Inafune saying his story for Zero no longer made sense thanks to X6.
As it is, we can only theorize how Zero was supposed to be revived originally. But we also know that Inti themselves did not establish the intricate backstory of the world right away, as such, no grand plan was ever behind it all.
X6's ending doesn't fit well with the beginning of Zero 1 either; Zero went to sleep after the Elf Wars, so how could he have been sleeping if he was helping X fight in that battle?
X6 to ZERO1 make perfect sense together. Both say Zero has been sleeping since the Irregular Wars in which he fought alongside X to save the world. Elf Wars and the like were additions of ZERO2 and ZERO3. What you're talking about is the complicated connection as it is today, not how it was when ZERO1 was first made. Back when ZERO1 was made the connection between X6 and ZERO1 was immediate. Nowadays X6 is simply the first step in a complicated chain of events that leads into ZERO1.
If anything, what they need to do in X9 is: kill of Axl; he had no part to play in the Elf Wars, so he has to be gone by then, be it by death or simple resignation. They also need to have the start of the Elf Wars thrown in there. I don't care if the battle just starts when the game ends, but it HAS to be thrown in there somewhere. That way, there's a perfect tie-in into the Zero series, and less questions can be raised.
The Elf Wars is more than half a century after Zero sealing himself. Where we are right now is X8. The century changes, XCM, a long time passes and only then does Zero seal himself. It is then that we still need to cover half a century and end the irregular wars and then start the Elf Wars. Why should X9 get anywhere near to all that? The Elf Wars is explicitly a story from the ZERO-series, not the X-series.
For a seamless connection, all we need nowadays is Zero's shocking revelation which leads to his admission into the research institute, his sealing. That's all that's needs to be done; cementing when the seal occurs and why.
Everything else, Axl, the New Gens, might be untold of in ZERO-series backstory, but that does not means they have no part to play in it. Infact, everything is strongly set up for all of that to play a crucial part. That crucial part will be what X9, even X10 and XCM2, are to cover.
As for whatever happened after Zero's seal. Those are stories not to be told by the X-series. Plenty of information has already been revealed by the ZERO-series. If you need more than that, than that falls outside of the scope of both series, they are a separate entity of itself.
They also need to come up with a game between Zero 4 and ZX; how did Ciel get ahold of Zero's data to make the Biometal?
There is no game conflict between ZERO4 and ZX, the backstory is to be revealed as the ZX-series continues.
Yea, I said that Zero's X6 Ending "might have" happened way farther into the future.
Not 'might', 'is' in the future. Perfect Memories itself says Zero's reason for sealing and being in the ZERO-series are revealed in X7. Ariquick's words, Zero's dreams, all of it leads into Zero's seal. By extension, the event of X8 and XCM are also stepping stones to the day that Zero seals himself. Only after Zero seals himself does the intricate backstory the official complete works spells out take place.
I can't be the only one wondering why he's back up and running in Command Mission.
X in X8: "Axl has taken damage, but he's fine."
He recovered, been fighting, got promoted, separated from X and ZERO, and XCM happened. Whatever ominous thing Lumine planned either happened and got dealt with, or is still supposed to happen.
(that is, i dont see why the moon would screw him over any more than previous 'certain death's, yet everyone is saying "oh no, sigma is really dead this time.", which just strikes me as horribly naive somehow)
There's plenty of reasons why Sigma is dead. First and foremost, CAPCOM SAID SO.
And remember Sigma not being the final boss of X8 and being completely absent from XCM?
You know, sometimes, I read threads like this and imagine what would happen if other franchises tried to input stories into their games. I'd love to see how many eloquent debates would be had with like let's say the Mario series in that case. Laughing
Plenty of Mario games have stories. Just nothing with a particular timeline. Zelda doesn't have one either, but it tries to make people believe it exists.
On the other hand, Sonic and Metroid have stories and proper timelines, but they all have their issues, just like Rockman. Between those, I'd say Rockman's been doing the best job.