Wow, I sure missed a lot. Looks like I'm gonna make another TLDR post.
Sounds like we're still figuring out "Canon" vs "Continuity." The current vernacular of Rockman canon includes the question of story continuity with the question of canonicity. Like Wikipedia's definition, "
Canon (fiction), material that is considered to be "genuine", "something that actually happened", or can be directly referenced as material produced by the original author or creator." Rockman game continuity is the original version, the genuine story by the original authors and creators, the basis on which the franchise was built and from which all other regionalizations and spin-off material is derived. Here canon and continuity are combined.
If we regard canon as "everything with a Capcom logo" then there is a great deal of un-connected continuitites included under the general phrase of being canon, making what is canon a separate definition and continuity a subset of that. Here what is official or officially licensed is canon, but that has no bearing about what continuity or universe a set of data exists in relation to. They could be all together lumped like the Mandi-verse, or divvied out individually.
Apparently we want to reconcile these. Are we going to try and establish some kind of canon ranking system like Star Wars does? I'll abide by whatever you guys want to, if we can get a consensus going.
There was certainly a time Capcom USA tried to keep Mega Man its own thing. I don't know enough about all European regions to state the same, but in the US it's pretty clear. Starting with the MM1 intro, they reworked the story. They've just never done so very consistently, making the notion of establishing a "continuity" exceedingly difficult.
If we're trying to identify a US continuity then we should include games, manuals, and boxes, and deal with each contradiction in turn on an individual case basis, rather than throw out all manuals or all boxes because of a few discrepancies. Capcom USA's web site should also be included. Perhaps to some extent, the ads Capcom puts out as well.
We also need to address the nature of Capcom/developer comments, as in "do they only apply to Japanese game continuity since the designers are Japanese, or if the medium of the interview is in English and they talk of Mega Man, doesn't that make it US canon?" Most of the time the developers aren't making it clear that they're talking about only a certain regional continuity, or even that they consider the two to be wholly separate. It might be easier to categorize when it's a US publication's interview, but then some interviews are simply translated, like in Mega Man Zero Official Complete Works which were not initially about "Mega Man" but the names were region swapped to fit, at times misleadingly. And where the book retcons what's shown in the games, like the Big 4's death, which takes priority?
There's also the US "Official Guides" to consider, they deal directly with the game continuity but also make their own additions. A step below that would be gaming magazines and articles, things they say about it that may or may not have been information from Capcom.
On that subject, the most asupicious guidebook in my opinion is "The Official Guide to Mega Man" from 1991, produced in direct coordination with Capcom USA at the time. This book "goes much further than simply offering the tips and tricks necessary to complete each game. It purposefully attempts to fill in the missing details about Mega Man, Dr. Wright and Dr. Wily, and the wars in the mining colonies." When USA had a deliberately original canon story, this was it. It wasn't 100% faithful to the MM1 manual, but kept Mega Man being "defender of the universe" and fighting in "Monsteropolis" and the association of "Dr. Wright, and his assistant Dr. Wily." Poor Roll is again omitted.
Yet this undertaking to establish Cap USA's own Mega Man story was undermined shortly after it began when Mega Man 4's intro denied many of the origin circumstances the book asserted. It was an Official book telling the Official story of the games... It just didn't stick. Many of its notions are recognized as quite contrary now (most games take place outside of Earth, Mega Man can't speak, Mega Man has "the emotional presence and maturity of an adult male" etc). We could say they have since been retconned out of continuity, or we could try to be fairer and salvage it on a line by line basis, "What exactly has been contradicted? What exactly has not?"
We can try to evaluate all the variables... Yet it might be easier to just go post a thread on Capcom Unity and ask what they want us to consider Mega Man US canon, since that is essentially going to the source of said canon. Depending on what kind of reply we get, go from there.
The US stories, such as they are, don't offer up many bothersome contradictions.
They offer enough that we wound up here in the first place. You wouldn't be so eager to toss out the packaging info if they didn't.
In the past, US Mega Man games and materials have often been devalued from canon as the result of fans wanting to understand the story at a greater level. Somewhere between awkward translations and inconsistent regionalizations, from the beginning to the present day, fan sites have picked up on that US continuity was a mismatched mess and tried to figure out what was "real story" was by looking at the original version. In other words, it became like this for a reason. For the sake of in-depth discussion on plot and continuity, it's something only possible with the Rockman version, or by combining Rockman with Mega Man.
With US canon as strictly its own animal, some simple questions which would otherwise have answers thanks to Japanese sources become unanswerable again. Who is that character shown in the MM7 password screen when you entered the data wrong? In strict US continuity, it is a character with no official name and no clear understanding. In Japanese continuity, we can say it's Wily's pet bird Reggae who first appeared in the game Rockboard. What is Iris using when she transforms and fights Zero in X4? Japanese canon says she's combining with her brother's CPU to fulfill the Ultimate Soldier project of Repliforce. US canon knows nothing about that project, and can't answer what it was. We're left to speculate something about evil energy powered ride armors. This kind of thing should change as more materials are brought over by Udon like the MM and MMX OCWs. Provided we count them as US canon when they're released.
Even within themselves, the US games sometimes fall short on clarity. Like Protoman's beginning in Powered Up that was previously discussed. Comparing to the Japanese version allows us to understand what was meant. Instead of "Who are you?" Wily's Japanese line is "Ki- kisama wa?" basically means "Y-You?" (a very derogatory version of "you" at that.) It can hold connotations of anything from "Who are you?" "What's your name?" "What are you doing here?" "What do you want?" "What are you trying to say?" "What about you?" and so on and so on. You can say it to someone you've just met (who has greatly irritated you somehow) or to someone you've known for years and want to verbally disrespect. The stuttering is a sign of surprise and recognition, as is the immediate jump to anger and insults, and the continued exposition that Wily knows Blues is a robot who doesn't follow orders. Thus "Who are you?" is an inappropriate translation, unless taken facetiously.
Mega Man X4's flashback scene might be one of the worst, starting off with Sigma telling a story and ending with Sigma being surprised and Zero acting as though he knew all along, or rather as if he was the one doing the telling, despite that it follows Sigma's perspective. It's an error that could totally change one's understanding of the scene. Translation can make a huge difference.
But it isn't always clear what's a translation error and what's an intentional swap. Typos are usually easy to identify, and name irregularities. But did they mean to alter continuity by saying Sigma's partner was X's former comrade in X5? Were we supposed to think that X must be Mega Man (because Light and Wily were former partners, building US canon on US canon) or that Dr. Cain was actually evil (X4 US manual says Cain made Double, after all!) ...Who knows.
I can think of a few major changes to Mega Man continuity from the Japanese version that have stuck around in some persistent form in US canon, licensed spin-offs and fanon. Things that generally go beyond a single mistranslated line or altered source. Wily and Light as partners before MM1 is one of them. Everybody here's familiar with that.
That Mega Man knows Protoman is his brother is another. MM7 is the strongest support of the case. Even when regionalizing the Upon A Star OVA, they changed the script so that Protoman calls Mega Man "brother." It is seemingly the impression they were trying to give is that they are familiar with each other and their relationship. It hasn't been entirely consistent though, and can cause some theoretical problems. Like where Protoman lies to Duo about his relationship with Mega Man in their combined Power Fighters ending. It lends the question of, why? Maybe he misunderstood the question as Duo saying that their personalities are completely alike when they are not, or maybe he just doesn't trust giant Mary Sue aliens (but then why ask him to come back sometime?)
Then there's the infamous ending to Mega Man 7. Clearly not a mistranslation of Japanese, since the lines in question were pretty much all added and didn't exist in the original. Some hate it, some love it, but for fans of the change it winds up being a source of frustration when later games don't feature Mega Man acting like such a badass, wondering what happened to his resolve.
And then, there's the Mega Buster. In Japan, the Rockbuster uses solar energy condensed into a solar bullet. In the US, the arm cannon has been said to be running off plasma energy since at least 1990's Mega Man Dr. Wily's Revenge. Some people think the Mega Buster didn't exist until Mega Man 4 because of the intro, mistaking "the New Mega Buster!" for "the new Mega Buster!" Contradicting that, recent games like Mega Man Collection and Powered Up have showed that the Mega Buster has been Mega Man's weapon since his battle conversion. Likewise, plasma power comes into slight question when we get to the X series and X gets the Plasma Shot, leaving some wondering how if X's weapon has always been plasma based, what makes the Plasma Shot is so different?
Those are some things I would conclude as being inherently "US canon" if we're not going to call it "those weird little things that got changed from the actual canon" anymore.
Anyway, there are certainly a few stories that are of peculiar "semi-canon" status in regard to the games. MegaMission1 for instance is accepted by R20 and had Inafune's design involvement.
I guess the new phrase would be "canon, but outside of continuity." R20 still calls it a Carddas Original Story, just as the sequels are called in other books.
Like Heatman's being hotter than two suns.
At 12000 degrees celsius, Heatman can burn at temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun. The surface is also the coolest part of any star. The layers of the core, and even the corona, burn at temperatures hundreds of times greater than Heatman. Heatman can supposedly get ridiculously hot. But he is not "hotter than two suns" unless you want to be way more specific about what part of the sun you're talking about.
They took a page from the manga, and had them repaired and their programming restored.
As it turns out, the idea that the robots would be restored to goodness was part of the first Rockman story, long before Ariga's or Ikehara's mangas came about. Having to collect those chips from the 6 RM1 bosses dropped wasn't just to gain weapons but to recover the hearts and minds of the robots themselves. We never did see that plot element come to full fruition in-game until later on though.