Now, how can we say that Sigma meddled with the copy chips,and not that the scientists who developed them were just incredibly stupid?
Sigma to X, on his "children":
ヤコブ計画は新世代型レプリロイドの設計段階から我が手の内にあったと言うことだ。
You could well say that the Jakob Project, from the very planning stages of the new generation repliroids, was all by my plan!
Sigma to Axl, same:
ヤコブ計画で産み出された新世代型レプリロイドの設計に干渉し、コピーチップに我がデータを刻んだのだ！
Because I intervened in the design of the new generation repliroids created for the Jakob Project, and engraved my data on the copy chips!
You can doubt Sigma's word if you like, I'm inclined to believe him. I think it certainly explains a lot.
"Insanity" and "Evil" are two mutually exclusive terms, Marshmallow.
I think there's actually quite a bit of overlap. Insanity is not really a medical term, in the vernacular it is often applied to people whose actions are clearly very dangerous to themselves and others and whose motives are indistinct. Sigma thinks on a totally different level than normal folks. Most law-abiding reploids would think, for instance, that to risk destroying all life on earth with a giant space colony is not a sane move. It's evil to cause such destruction, and he must be crazy to want to do it. If you understand, truly comprehend why good is good and why evil is evil, then any sane person would not want to do evil. Or at least, some people think so. Labeling someone as sane or insane is making a judgment on someone's thoughts and actions. If it makes sense to you, then it's sane, if not, then it's insane. Sigma doesn't think what he's doing is evil, and that's why to the likes of X, Zero and Axl he's insane. Sigma's got his reasons, but they're still insane reasons to some.
At best, Sigma wouldn't really meet the current legal definiton of the insanity plea in most countries, even some very severe behavioral disorders don't really meet the criteria. A case could be argued, that based on Sigma's lack of empathy and emotionally unbalanced behavior either by design or by viral infection, that he did not have the proper tools to interact in society and thus can not be held solely accountable for what occurred. His vision of himself as the evolutionary peak could be sited as delusional behavior from which his actions have stemmed. But I doubt someone who caused as much damage to the global populace would ever be forgiven no matter what circumstances, and that any judge or jury would accept that sort of plea, in our paradigm or in theirs. But that sense is more about letting him off the hook for his actions. "He's crazy," they'd say, but society demands that he should be held responsible nonetheless, and punished. For justice. Though really they might be better off trying to treat him, since putting him to death just tends to allow him to come back in some way or another. Holding him alive and trying to cure him might have been more fruitful, though still fraught with its own dangers at trying to do so. It's also dependent upon whether using the Mother Elf on Sigma would restore him to his former hunter self, or destroy him entirely.
Well, the body is most certainly his original one in a new design, saber and everything.
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. The shoulder guards are the ones from his X1 cape rather than his normal body. The high rigid-framed collar is resembles the X5 body except in color. The arms are matched to Sigma's X3 form in color and style. The knee guards more closely resemble the X7 (or to some extent X4) Sigma ones than any other of his bodies, though it also resembles the knee guard styles of the guardroids and Vile V. And last but not least, it has the telltale eye scars.
From a moves perspective, the body doesn't have much in common with the X1 body outside the use of a beam sabre. The Copy Sigma and guardroid sigmas use many moves his X1 form never demonstrated. The Copy Sigma has more in common, fighting style wise, with X8's final Sigma body than any other single Sigma form. For those reasons, I think the X8 "plain" body is an amalgamation of aspects of previous forms incorporated with the latest technology with the intent of bringing about something even better. A Sigma body overclocked remix, for rockin' in the new world.
But when it comes down to it, the most vital point is that though they have Sigma's DNA, a connecting with the Virus is not required to achieve the same state of mind as Sigma.
But if they have Sigma's post-virus program, and the virus is what we can thank for his full-on evil attitude, then the virus was required, it's just that it was not a direct application. My reasoning is basically:
Sigma's heart is evil because of the virus; the New Gens are evil because Sigma's heart is evil; they are evil because Sigma's heart is evil because of the virus.
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.
Of course, we must also question who is behind the New Generation in general, however did the government come to acquire something that was once exclusive to Axl?
Without knowing who built Axl we can never answer with much certainty. Some shadowy secret government group could have built him, or perhaps the government was doing copy chip research already independently of whoever built Axl. Maybe when Axl joined the Hunters was when the government learned of its potential and used his data as a basis. Or maybe Sigma, having had at least past dealings with Axl's powers in Red Alert, brought some of that technology over somehow. Great big question mark.
It's also incorrect to assume that the X8 Mavericks have no reservations about what they're doing. Confront Dark Mantis as Axl sometime, he admits to being jealous of Axl's innocence.
I think he was actually poking fun of Axl's simplemindedness rather than showing any true regret. But, I don't disagree with the point that some new gens, particularly the boss ones with the stronger personalities, have slightly varying degrees of "Sigmasim." How much of Sigma's program has seemingly overshadowed their own. They aren't all 100% Sigma copies. Maybe even the Copy Sigma had some lingering hint of previous self.
Speaking of Axl, one has to ask how he fits into this. Where is the line drawn between Axl and the finalized New Gens?
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.
Most all of the New Gens and Sigma are well aware of the fact that Axl has no potential to join them, so why?
Maybe because Sigma said so. Sigma doesn't seem to like Axl as much in this game as he did in X7. Might have something to do with the knocking him backwards off the highest tower of Crimson Palace. Or maybe just because he's not as much like the proud father as Sigma's other kids. The black sheep of the litter. But I'm inclined to think that Axl lacks the right Sigma data entirely, that Sigma was only involved in the Jakob Project New Gens, and Axl was the first Sigma had heard of copy chip abilities. But then, maybe it wasn't. If Axl is some kind of sleeper cell, you'd think he'd be activated by now... yet perhaps that's what Lumine tried to do.
The primary difference between Axl and the finished New Generation Reploids is that the copy ability was perfected. It's not so far a stretch to think that Axl's limitations (prior to Command Mission, anyway) are what denies him the ability to achieve the likeness with Sigma that the other New Gens do.
That makes sense too, and is possible.
There is such a thing as one who goes Maverick of their own accord, as Sigma outright states in MHX when he releases Vile. So the possibility cannot be denied, and the idea that Vile would share that theme with Sigma, Lumine, and the New Generation Reploids goes a long way to explaining his presence in X8.
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.
Omega's personality is not Zero's original programming.
Not completely, true. Hey, I said "might." But Inti and Sigma both seem to see a potential link, even if you do not.
When a voice in Zero's head is encouraging him as he's about to hunt down Sigma in X6? Sounds like somebody was being played.
Maybe. But then, but then, maybe Isoc wasn't happy about the damage Sigma did to Zero during the end of X5. 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.
Are we honestly to believe that Zero, and by extension Wily in X-series timeframe, wishes to remold the world when Wily sealed Zero until such time when he could challenge X? When after an allegiance with Sigma to unlock Zero's true potential, leaving the world in shambles as a side-effect, Wily simply drops off the face of the Earth? I don't buy that.
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. That he dropped off the face of the Earth afterwards is strange by all accounts, but maybe he'll be back again someday to make us wet our fanboy pants once more.
True enough, I recall the Ostro/Birdo mixup.
I was thinking more like the R4 credits getting the robot serial numbers messed up, or the X1 credits missing an enemy or two. I think the Rockman World 1-3 cast rolls missed a few enemies in theirs as well. It might be that they change some of that stuff after the credits are already finalized.
As for the X4 book quotes, given that X8 is supposed to be a revelation on a possibility that the Hunters, and the vast majority of the fanbase, left totally ignored, why is it anyone's surprise that older sources don't sync with it?
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.
The virus, regardless of its effects on Sigma's judgment, was key to his role as leader of the rebellion. That he sics Vile on X in MHX on the sole grounds that he can go Maverick of his own accord says that such a phenomenon, while possible, is exceedingly rare.
Or just that it's hard to find one with that level of battle machismo on incredibly short notice that hasn't already been hunted. Well, maybe not that hard, since he was found. Hard to find two though, that seems about right.
Sigma needed the virus solely for gathering support if nothing else, to say nothing of giving himself near immortality.
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.
If he decides that Reploids would develop ideally without humans, how far is he willing to go to see it happen?
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.
Reploids are able to determine right and wrong for themselves without the need for outside programmin, correct? If so, what's stopping them from non-violently establishing their own country? Like what Repliforce wanted, but done right?
Probably a lot of things. For one, very bad historical precedence. For another, the space and the means to do so. How do they go about claiming an area? Tell all the humans they have to leave? And put up some "no fleshbags allowed" signs to ward off wandering humans? Some kind of force would probably have to be involved. And certainly funds, resources, required technology, how would such be gained? Furthermore implied in the concept's own nature, it is invariably racist to say that reploids need their own nation at all. Are humans really that insufferable to reploids? What exactly is the need for reploids not to be around humans? And if they feel that strongly about it, what lengths will they go to keep away the humans they can't stand? How could they hope to maintain good diplomatic relations with the powers that be? To be your own country, you'd also need to be recognized by the current governing bodies. I doubt such bodies, already in supposed control of much of the world, are eager to make room for a new nation whose primary political platform is total race segregation and human devaluation. The only way that trust and respect can be maintained is ideally for both to find a way to coexist together, as they were created to.
Take a look at the Government in the X series. They contradict themselves at every point when it comes to Reploids. X and Zero hold special interests, so they are never questioned, but Gate makes a Reploid just as analyzable as either of them, and it is feared and disposed of. Gate himself is shunned because they cannot understand his research.
Refuting opinions ahead: It isn't really clear whether it was the government's decision to destroy all Gate's creations, or simply the bosses of the research team, and it's certainly impossible to say whether those figures were humans, reploids, or both. Jealousy of fellow researchers may have certainly played a part, but Gate and his creations' actions make them easy to resent at best, and extremely dangerous at worst. Most of Gate's creations brought about tragedies through their recklessness. Gate was creating reploids who were not law abiding, and essentially refused to take any measures to try to reign in thier behavior. No one else had the understanding required to do so. To their credit, the research recognized that Gate's works were moving too much too soon and presented too many dangers. If Gate and his creations had simply compromised slightly and gone along with the rules, they could have been touted on the highest levels. Gate probably would have gotten his hands on that X and Zero data that he dreamed of. But someone who won't play by the rules and with no regard for safety or proper channels never had much of a future. They gave Gate ample opportunity to change, Gate himself was never targeted to be terminated. He simply would not budge, and so some decision had to be made about his renegade works. A scientific genius, but foolish both ethically and politically. Both a brilliant idealist devoted to his craft, and a naive self-centered child, Gate is a prime example of power in the wrong hands. One might think they were too lenient in allowing him to leave, but even with his strong parting words Gate seemed genuinely sad by the extent that maverick warfare had damaged the planet. He may have meant no harm to the world, on the contrary he wanted to make it a better place, he just seems not to know how to go about it. Finding that Zero DNA steeped in virus being what really pushed him over to the dark side.
Literally everything could have happened to Axl in the past...
R20's designer comments from Tatsuya Yoshikawa mention that in Axl's background profile, he was not always a "good person" (hence looking dark and edgy). So I guess something like this: Axl is created for something bad. Maybe to retrieve X and Zero's DNA. Red first encountered Axl when he was a bad guy, and discovers Axl's copy power. Maybe Axl copies Red. Axl and Red fight. Axl damages Red's eye. Red gives Axl his scars. Axl is knocked out. Red tries to have Axl studied to understand the copy power. Axl awakes a friendly innocent child without any memory of his former self. Red decides to never bring up the past with him. Red builds up Red Alert based on Axl's abilities. Axl feels a strange connection to X and Zero he can't explain, without realizing he may have been meant to do them harm. Later, Lumine deposits something in Axl. This something makes Axl resemble Lumine and increases his power. It also heals Axl's scar. Axl starts to remember things... becomes a bad guy like he was before...? X9 happens? Classic case of blunt head trauma turning a bad guy good, not too unlike Zero, but without spreading some kooky virus. That could all be way off the mark though.
EDIT: Where did you get that Mirage Claw attack name?
X8 Japanese guidebooks.