This is what I've spent the better part of my life griping about. All we know is that sometime in the 20XX century, X is created.Originally Posted by Press_Start
Forgive me if I'm getting into a personal rant here, but I've gathered a loose explanation from what little the games tell us:
In Mega Man 7, Bass breaks into Light's lab. This would give Wily access to whatever designs or projects Light had. Fast forward a game and a half, to Bass's ending in Power Fighters: Wily is working on Zero. Putting two and two together tells us that Zero could very well be based on Light's pre-X reploid designs.
I think that Light wanted X to be what Rock SHOULD have been, had he not volunteered to fight. Rock volunteered to fight in order to protect his creator and all of humanity, in a very Asimovian sense. Thus, in order to create a robot not bound to making that decision, free thought would be necessary. X would have been started sometime after 7, when Light realized that his research had been compromised, explaining why Zero seems more flawed than X.
What really kills the potential for a cohesive story from here is something that's been there since the beginning: the X-Buster. Light designed X with the ability to choose whether or not to fight, yet designed him with an exceptional capacity for the latter. So much for free choice.
If I could write the official bridge, X would have to be designed to be more human than machine, meaning no weapons or armor. Light was not in the business of weapons design, Wily was the one who did that every game. Here's where I take a little creative license. After Light puts X in the capsule and initiates the self-test, Wily's final attack commences. This time, he succeeds, becoming a world leader. Mega Man dies in battle, fighting, because it is what he must do. It might make sense for the armor and X-Buster to be designed AFTER Wily's attack. While X is sleeping, Wily sets up a military state.
Cain is with a resistance faction, which greatly benefits from finding Light's research. Before the Maverick Hunters are formed, a military unit of reploids is recruited (not manufactured as fighters...), led by Sigma. X makes the decision to fight. After the oppressive government is put down, some of the reploids begin to rebel against humanity, and the Maverick Hunters replace the fighting reploids. Zero may have been a high-ranking soldier in the government's military, having served since Wily was alive.
From this point, everything continues as the X series presented it. In the end, I can see a final battle against Sigma sometime after X6, with X mortally wounded in the fight. Making his way to a nearby cliff (as he does in X1), X collapses and dies, losing his life because he wanted to fight. It would be a meaningful death, reminiscent of the climax of Cowboy Bebop, where death is implied, but never absolutely confirmed. Cut to credits and beautiful music.
Mega Man and X should both die, to show the differences between robots and reploids. Mega Man dies fighting because it's what he must do. X dies fighting because it's what he chose to do. If Mega Man doesn't die, then he has to be somewhere during the X series. If X doesn't die, then he's either an eternal warrior or he settles down with Alia or something.
Again, forgive my rant, but this is the only logical explanation for the series that I can think of. Not much changes (unless you omit X7 and X8, like I'd like to), and the Zero series could still happen. It's also something that really hits me on a personal level, so I'm sorry if it's all a bit overwhelming.
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