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waythroughtheice · 2 days ago

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I'm flabbergasted people forgave Elpizio at all, especially after he destroyed X's body. That was the one chance X had to come back, and then--

Nothing. X dies in MMZ3 saving Zero, and Zero dies in MMZ4, ridding the world of Weil. There's a good case that can be made that if Elpizio hadn't done nearly any of the stuff he did--killing humans, attacking Neo Arcadia, and most importantly destroying X's body--that X and Zero wouldn't have died, that things would've gotten better far sooner.

Although, there is the philosophical question to be asked--who said Zero and Ciel forgave him at all? I don't believe we receive any forgiveness from either of them towards Elpizio, and secondly.....there's no telling what awaited Elpizio as a cyber elf, or even in death. There's a few routes we could take with this. One (the nihilist approach), as a cyber elf and as a being without a God-given soul there's no afterlife, and after expending his energy Elpizio simply ceases to exist. No one remembers him (why would they?), and no one mourns (again, why would they?). It's something people could argue is a just punishment--even if he "apologized", he still didn't get away from his punishment for all the things he did.

Second (the approach I personally like far better), is that reploids were given mercy, and though they weren't created necessarily by Our Lord, they were accepted, and properly given souls instead of being filled up with other things (I might expand upon this in a fic or another post, who knows. If there's interest I might). This means that they too have access to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, but because their lives are so much longer than humans it just....takes far longer to get there. The general lifecycle of a reploid seems to go as such: reploid->cyber elf->sometimes biometal->death. Each of these phases can take centuries to pass through, with the cyber elf stage--especially if they hole up in the Internet, where there's abundant energy--being potentially the longest.

However, even at the end of their lives, they would still be judged, and placed accordingly. No matter what he does, Elpizio will be judged, and will receive a punishment. X is remembered. Elpizio is not. X is a just man and would be judged accordingly--Elpizio is not a just man and will be judged accordingly.

If I was going to be even more meta about this, one could make the argument that yes, the Narrative wants you to forgive him. In the end, he's going to be punished for his sins, and can we really protest that? You could also argue it's less a "forgive him" and a "let him go" approach, since again--no matter what he does, he's going to get it for his crimes.

OKAY

Robotics revolution and its consequences + Elpizio is terrible rant!

Let's go!

Now, to preface all of this, this is mainly focusing on MMX and MMZ. Classic Era is... I mean... Wily is basically a SatAM villain. He doesn't REALLY try super hard to hurt anyone. He just wants people to respect him and to beat Dr. Light once and for all. (Until he goes senile and decides to make the Maverick Virus...)

And then ZX is... well, it's a kind of a final nail in the coffin because technically speaking, humans ARE extinct by then. Replaced with humanoids who have been ship of Theseus'd to contend better with reploids.

So this is mainly focusing on MMX/Z and the constant genocide of human beings.

Because yeah.

Each Maverick War is an attempt at genocide (except MAYBE MMX7 because that one seems centralized to one place.) But I think the fandom as a whole forgets that we literally only see one small snippet of the Maverick Wars. There is an entire warfront going on, and we only follow X, Zero, (and later Axl) through their efforts on the front lines. There are countless other places being attacked. Countless other infected Mavericks trying to get at humans (because yes. The primary target of the Maverick/Sigma virus is humans. Other reploids are either collateral or seen as traitors.)

And let's not forget that Mavericks existed before Zero was found. That's why Sigma and his team found him in the first place. It wasn't anywhere near the scale we see AFTER the virus is released, sure, but like...

Guys.

Even they aren't really victims.

Yes, humans are reluctant to give reploids rights. But can you really blame them? You're talking about sentient beings made of metal. Between them and bones, the bones are ALWAYS going to break first. And humans LITERALLY can't do anything to defend themselves against a reploid.

It bullets worked, I don't think Rock would have needed a buster.

So that's a subtle world building nod that says "humans literally have 0 defenses against reploids." Because all busters in the first handful of games are quite literally attached to reploids. We don't get detached weaponry (outside of swords and whatnot. But why would you want to get close to a being who is capable and willing to break your bones like toothpicks?) until X7 with Axl's pistols. But even then, there's probably a good chance that wasn't allowed for commercial use. I mean... peace between wars is already fuzzy.

You don't want to be adding in angry humans finally able to do something to the bunch.

So there really is a forced reliance ON reploids just to protect humanity from the virus and deter uninfected Mavs from doing whatever they want.

If I see kid walking past me, 9/10 times, it would be a lot easier for me to grab them than it would be for them to fight me off.

The onus is on me not to take advantage of that fact.

That's WHY Mavericks are so terrifying to humans.

And when half an entire race collectively decides, "Alright, we're gonna try to kill all the humans again for the fifth time," yeah. I can see why they're reluctant to really entertain the notion of rights.

Is that the right way of going about it?

No.

But I can see where that can be terrifying.

(And yes, the virus in of itself is a massive tragedy.

Not all the reploids involved completely were like that before infection.

But that doesn't change the outcome, does it?)

And speaking of fifth time-

I think the fandom ALSO glosses over Eurasia's fall.

Mostly because canon does too.

But let me make this clear: we're told in X6 that ALL of humanity is FORCED to hide underground because of how bad Eurasia's crash impacted the Earth. That is quite literally an extinction level event. Already, probably 90% of ALL animal life is extinct by that point.

And already a vast majority of humans are dead; either from the impact itself, or the ramifications afterwards.

Because I really don't think there were a bunch of underground bunkers to start off with.

Why would you? You'd be a sitting duck there during a Mav attack. There are plenty of digging reploids and mechanaloids who are probably better at it than any digging equipment humans can operate. And the resources necessary to build something that COULD withstand a Mav attack were probably too lucrative to justify.

So you're looking at caves as your best bet.

Now, that isn't a pretty number either.

Mammoth Cave is the BIGGEST cave system in the world. Their website claims they have an average of 600,000 people visiting per day, with 400,000 in the caves at any one time. (There are a bunch of things to do aboveground there after all.)

So you're looking at MAYBE 2,000,000 people being able to shelter there safely if you pack them together like sardines until better shelter can be made.

And then the biggest single cave in the world?

Hang Son Doong.

People claim 40 747 Boeing airplanes can fit in there. Which is roughly around 231 feet long and 195 feel wide.

Which equals ~7,540 people.

So that's only another ~300,000 people able to take shelter there.

So you're probably only looking at 500,000,000 people saved from the getgo of Eurasia's falling.

That is the population of the Earth during the 1600s.

Eurasia is literally an extinction level event guys.

And I'm sorry. But reploids really aren't as devastated by mass losses of life as humans are. For a reploid, you're probably looking at MOST 1 year to build them (probably less though let's be honest) and then maybe another 2 years for their ai to be fully competent.

Humans take a minimum of 18 years to grow.

And then maybe 25 to safely reproduce.

One of these things is not like the other.

So yeah, the 90% of reploids lost in the Elf Wars is bad.

But the 60% lost is yet another extinction event for the human race. (And granted, that one is caused primarily by another human. Heck you Weil.)

But people act like reploids were most affected because their number is bigger.

And it is!

But they were probably already outnumbering humans 3 to 1! And again, they "reproduce" much quicker!

Humans probably went from ~1,000,000,000 (if we're being exceptionally generous) back down to 400,000,000! Less than what we're guessing survived the Eurasia crash!

It's no wonder X is done with his people.

And it's not like humans did nothing, too!

They tried saying "okay fine have the Earth we'll live on the moon. "

Only for Lumine to decide "haha nah :) Genocide :)"

Mavericks are not poor uwu babies.

They're literally harming a species that is facing extinction.

We call those poachers.

And nobody like poachers.

(And granted yes. This is only really applicable after Eurasia's fall, but still. If it's before X5, then it's harmful antisocial behavior. Because again, if you have the ability to kill something that literally cannot defend itself against you, then you're disordered at best. Malicious at worst.

Torturing kittens because they can't fight back is messed up.

Reploids attacking humans because they can't fight back should be equally messed up.)

Which leads to Elpizio (and arguably Craft) and why he's yet another genocidal Maverick.

No, he isn't infected with the virus.

I do firmly believe that the Mother Elf did her job before she was corrupted by Weil.

The virus IS gone.

But again, Mavericks existed before Zero was found. I like to call these Mavericks "Old-School Mavericks."

They're the types like Vile (Vava) and Elpizio. Reploids who CHOOSE to hate humanity to the point of harming them.

Because Elpizio literally states he wants to kill all humans (who yes, are still probably technically an endangered species. Only 100 years have passed between the Elf Wars and MMZ. That's only ~4 generations. And not everyone is having kids. No wonder Ciel is a GMO. There's probably a bunch of cancers and other shiz going on in the environment that may very well be killing off kids preventing them from reaching 18-25 years.)

Now let's take a step back, yeah?

Why do I think people need to stop saying Elpizio was right about Neo Arcadia? And what exactly am I referring too?

Well, Ciel wants to solve the energy crisis because she believes that will help stop the persecution of reploids.

And honestly?

I think SHE'S right.

And Elpizio is just projecting.

But people claim he's right because Ciel DOES solve the energy crisis, yet we've got two more games. So what gives?

Well let's look at the actual situation at hand, yeah?

Neo Arcadia wouldn't listen after Elpizio's stunt because OPE

Look at that

He has just attacked the one place humans can thrive.

Ciel living out in the wastes is an OUTLIER. NOT THE NORM.

Like I said, she is a genetically modified organism (terrible way of putting it, but you know) She is literally engineered to be more resilient to cancer, hunger, lack of sleep, etc.

Not all humans can survive in her place.

Area Zero IS quite literally the only other place outside of Neo Arcadia they have a chance.

So yeah.

It's no wonder the Guardians are panicking and refusing to listen to reason.

Elpizio has literally proven himself a threat, and they know he's a part of the Resistance.

Who Zero is also a part of.

For all they know, Zero agrees with Elpizio!

And is just lying to them about it to get further in!

They don't fully trust him!

But that said, I don't actually think they're entirely unreasonable.

If they WERE, as Elpizio claims they are, I don't think Harpuia would have returned Zero the Resistance at the start of Z2.

I think Harpuia was already contemplating the idea that everything he knew was wrong.

But that's a bitter pill to swallow, hence why he keeps fighting them.

But, had Elpizio NOT been a part of the equation, I do think Neo Arcadia would have eventually listened.

Because Harpuia has already proven they're not ENTIRELY all "death evil kill".

Now back to Elpizio and HIS psychology.

We know he read Weil's project. How he wanted to control ALL reploids as mindless slaves.

And because the Elf Wars happened, he knows Weil was successful. And probably knows that the governments at the time AGREED to give Weil Zero's body. It is understandable why he's mad at humans.

But that was also 100 years ago.

And governments aren't necessarily always their people, are they?

Tyrants do exist. ((And yes if you try making this a political thing, you're also getting blocked.))

Copy X is the tyrant in Elpizio's time. He's the one encouraging humans to treat reploids poorly.

Yet who does Elpizio blame?

Humans.

And quite frankly, I hate it when people act like Elpizio cared about Ciel.

He talks down to her CONSTANTLY.

Not even just because she's young.

Like...

The language he uses to talk to her is INSULTING.

I don't think he even remotely likes her.

He only tolerates her because one, the energy crisis DOES effect him. He would like another source of energy, please.

Two, she literally handed him something he craves, power. He at least understands not to trade scorpions for generosity.

Three, he knows the bulk of the Resistance is attached to her. She named many of them, after all! In a world where they're not even bothered with THAT. If he left her to die in the ditch somewhere, nobody would follow him.

He only lets her stay because to cast her out would make him look bad.

He IS a manipulator.

Genuinely.

That's literally all he's done with the Resistance since day one.

He's a lousy leader.

Ciel wasn't losing that many troops when she was in charge in Z1.

Yet we KNOW the Resistance was suffering heavily under Elpizio's leadership.

He doesn't care about anyone other than himself. He have illusions of grandeur and just...

Can't see anything else.

And also let's talk about why Ciel couldn't get Neo Arcadia to back off AFTER Elpizio's death.

Elpizio literally released the Dark Elf.

You know.

The thing that literally started the Elf Wars.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to work with the group who employed him either. For all the Guardians knew, the CIEL system would have made things worse.

Ciel was smart enough to recognize that and was giving them space.

UNTIL OOPS CRAZY OLD MAN WITH A CHIP ON HIS SHOULDER AGAINST BOTH HUMANS AND REPLOIDS COMES BACK AND TAKES CONTROL.

AND HE WILL ACCEPT NOTHING EXCEPT COMPLETE SURENDER OR DESTRUCTION.

HM.

SURE WONDER WHY THE CIEL SYSTEM DIDNT STOP THAT FROM HAPPENING.

And Weil only came back because OOP.

ELPIZIO RELEASED THE DARK ELF.

HOW CRAZY IS THAT.

Had Weil never showed up, I'm sure things WOULD have eventually calmed down.

Because again, Harpuia is not completely unreasonable.

Narcissistic?

Self righteous?

Absolutely.

But that doesn't make someone unreasonable.

Elpizio holding onto his anger, however, was.

#mega man #mega man zero #ranting hours #Way's soapbox

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