Friday, February 22, 2008

Ending the Cataclysm Theory Once and For All

You know what irks me the most? Fans who actually believe in the infamous “cataclysm theory.”

Yes, these gullible fans will believe anything that comes from “Bob & George."
(Good strips by the by)

For the uniformed, the cataclysm theory is a popular and bogus theory that Zero, upon being fully completed by Wily, is sent off to Dr. Light's lab to mercilessly kill off the classic series cast.

Bogus, right? Not to some fans. These fans must be reminded that such a horrid and inhuman event could never have taken place for one crucial reason:

It's a kids franchise.


As hard as it might be to believe, the classic series has always been aimed at a young audience, made up of elementary school children from ages six to twelve. It's out of the series' nature to depict such events, let alone imply it.

Many will argue that the Original Series does have it's “dark” moments, such as Rock's declaration of wanting to kill Wily at the final moments of MM7, but what many don't know is that that scene's dialog was altered for the sake of localization. In the Japanese version, Rockman is silent as he watches Wily beg for help.

To further prove the true nature of the Original Series, I direct you to Inafune's true vision of what the franchise was suppose to look like:

" Contrary to popular belief, Inafune had always envisioned Rock's world to be cute and chibi, but due to the Famicom's (NES) graphical limitations, he could not express this visual style until the PSP game, “Rockman Rockman” "


So, if Zero never did kill the Original Series' cast off, then what happened to them?

Simple: Nothing!

The episodic nature of the Original series leaves the story open ended. Like various episodic television shows and comics, a “true” ending is never planned; rather, the story is played out until they have used up all of the creative resources.

Also, if a massacre did happen to take place, then why hasn't Capcom said anything? Constantly, we are fed source book after source book, and yet we have never seen any official evidence to suggest that such an event took place.

It's not because Capcom is hiding some horrible truth from us, but because there is simply nothing to share.

Finally, here is the end all fact: Educated fans do know that Zero was not built with the prime directive to destroy Rockman or his family, but built for the sole purpose of defeating Light's final creation, X.

The "Rockman X Command Mission Perfect Guide" states this fact with flying colors.

But, now you say there is no in game proof to coincide this statement. Yes there is. I direct you towards  X5, specifically the fan favorite moment in which Zero returns to his "original state." (AKA, "Maverick Zero")

It is here that Zero returns to his original programming, his reason for existance: Kill X.

And that's the nail in the coffin.

So long cataclysm theory, may you rest in peace with the other nonsensical theories (Blues is Zero, Axl is Forte, and IceMan isn't actually a robot, but an Eskimo who thinks he is a robot)

11 comments:

  1. Thankyou. THANKYOU.

    Axl is Forte?? I've never heard that one before. But the Blues Zero theory always made me ROLL MY EYES.

    I think we are supposed to catch some information in the new sourcebook though, eh? Perhaps...

    Thanks for doing this blog. It's nice to have a consistent source of interesting Rockman news. :)

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  2. The theory about what happened to the original cast that I liked best (because it explains the lack of robots pre-X1) is that Megaman simply defeated Wily once and for all and was subsequently dismantled. After decades of constant warfare what government would allow such war-machines!? Megaman is put into mothballs, X is built in secret and a hundred years later all hell breaks loose.

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  3. Fair enough I suppose. Looking back, I feel a little embarssed by the comment I posted about an alternate Cataclysm theory. But something still has to happen to Mega Man, he cant just dissapear. The Game Boy MM games give us the answer in the form of Quint.

    And I agree with the what the other guy said about Zero/Blues theory. Who the was stupid enough to think of that?

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  4. I know this is an exremely old topic, but i think it's woth mentioning...

    in X4, Zero's opening cut scene clearly depicts him having a dream/memory of Wiley speaking of a rival, clearly Light, and telling Zero to destroy him. If Zero was designed as a war machine (as all of Wily's robots are) then he would have taken out anybody who tried to stop him in this mission; i.e. Light's Robots.

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  5. Indeed as andrew said, in the opening of X4 you see zeros nightmare sequence, which also shows the original megamans head, obviously crushed so saying the cataclysm theory is false is kinda stupid.

    While the original series was very chibi and kid friendly, the X series is a different monster all together, it WAS meant to be darker and more adult. the only reason there is no 100% concrete answer to what happened (or rather when) is because it would kill the original series. And since MM9 just came out several years after the last X series game they would have shot themselves in the foot if they had published an answer then.

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  6. @maraudex:

    Crushed Mega Man head? I think you need to re-watch that scene.

    Also, the theory has been deconfirmed by Inafune himself:

    http://protodudesrockmancorner.blogspot.com/2008/09/inafune-destroys-cataclysm-theory-its.html

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  7. Oh, and this too:

    http://protodudesrockmancorner.blogspot.com/2008/05/inafunes-policy-kills-cataclysm-theory.html

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  8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s968He8FsFg

    Check at 0:55, to me it looks like the original megaman. and since that scene is from zeros point of view it seems natural to assume that zero killed him.

    and I'm glad that Inafune made the comment ending the debate, the games themselves paint a much different picture

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  9. Sorry marau that doesn't look anything like classic megaman, also zero is remembering killing the gamma unit before his battle against good sigma.

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  10. You should have cut directly to the Rockman X Command Mission Perfect Guide reference and related material right off the bat. The first half of this post is the appeal to emotion fallacy: "Y can't be true because I don't like Y."

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