Importance of Childhood

A more subtle theme to the Mega Man series, one theme that can be interpreted throughout is the need for youth and childhood, and the need for it to foster growth and development. This ultimately ties into Mega Man's themes of the creation of fully automated and alive entities through robotics, but at the cost of allowing them self awareness and the room to make errors and mistakes to learn from them in the face of life's unpredicabilities and imperfections.

Mega Man
Perhaps the series that carries this theme the strongest, the Classic series bears this with the contrast of Mega Man against the Robot Masters. Originally made as a robot boy named Rock, Rock was apparently given a semblance of normal life with his robot sister Roll, and his creator, Doctor Thomas Light. Though created in mind as an assistant, Light appears to not have created Rock with the full intention of being a full time servant, with some hints that Rock and Roll were made also for accompaniment as a family with Auto, Rush, Beat, Tango, and Eddie. Able to face more complexities and scenarios in the wake of everyday life, Rock was able to learn much more about the world and its intricacies, and this would likely contribute into how he would want to make the conscious decision to become Mega Man.

The Robot Masters hold not just elements of specialized elite androids built for specific purposes, but to the ideas of superheroes and supervillains who have been bestowed naturally tremendous powers at birth, and career lines set upon adulthood. Due to their specialized natures, they have tremendous and unique powers and abilities, but being made simply for specific duties, and despite their own personalities, have not experienced life akin to humans, and in turn are not able to make complex moral decisions like Rock, which showcases the line that separates Mega Man's advanced nature and complexities that allow him to act more like a human. This lack of complex human emotion is also what allows villains like Dr. Wily to be able to manipulate them through their sense of duty, and deems them disposable without consequence upon retirement to humans.

What could be taken out of this, is the aesop and the lesson that a man is not born; he is made, and that it is okay for humans to keep child like sense of wonder and curiosity in the face of a world where stringent need to become adult units and obedient workers, along with the extreme demand to bear youth yet act like adults is the standard. Mega Man does not entirely rely on his Mega Buster to simply solve his problems; he learns to maneuver, call up help, and uses the Special Weapons he gains from other Robot Masters to fight his way through. One lesson out of this is that it is good to learn about the world and to be skillful in as many things as much as one can, essentially.

Mega Man X
Going into the topic where robots gain full cognizance and sentience as their own being, X contrasts heavily against his descendants, specifically those who have become Maverick, and shows a more extreme scenario where development does not factor into a Reploid's growth cycle. X was essentially given a "life" through his 30 year trial in stasis, allowing him to freely make errors and mistakes, but without consequence to the world at large, and allowed him to learn from these mistakes. From this, X developed a deep sense of right and wrong, and with a moral core to keep true to in extreme situations.

Reploids and Mechanilroids on the other hand, are instantaneously put out into the world upon completion and activation- They are expected to act as they are told, and to simply use their self awareness and sentience to perform the tasks given to them flawlessly without question. This essentially leads to their faculties as living beings to pent up feelings and frustrations, and for some, to lash out without understanding of these emotions nor constructive means to vent, and without moral consideration and guidance, turns into reckless behaviors, be it to engage in illegal activities or to express themselves in unknowingly destructive manners without consideration to the consequences. Due to the expectations demanded of them by humans, they are deemed Maverick and defective, than a living being, and are to be put down without objection if they showcase anything lesser than dutiful behavior.

The Mega Man X series could then perhaps be a metaphor for adolescence; if the Classic series can be considered childhood, then the X series could definitely be considered as the "teenage years" of the series, where the scenarios and consequences are more extreme and bear more weight of their effects on to the world as the next generation of Doctor Light's innovations take hold upon the world without his guidance. While X is indicative of a stable teenager with guiding outlets to ensure strong mental and emotional faculties to endure life's challenges, Mavericks in this case can likely represent teenagers who are struggling to come to terms with their development, lack guidance in their coming of age, and bear great frustration in the challenge of establishing self identity in the face of a commandeering and unruly world; the Maverick Virus and Sigma in this case can also be surmised as darker corrupting influences of the world that leads teenagers to follow unruly and unwholesome lifestyles and ways, including gang violence, drug abuse, criminal activity, and overall, unconstructive and dangerous rebellious and expressive behavior. Furthermore, X's role as a Maverick Hunter may also be reflective of the inherent competitive nature of adolescence, in where the emotional part of the brain that reigns dominant in this development cycle has teenagers yearn for acceptance and understanding as stand out individuals, and where this competition of being is an extreme world where few win and many lose.

Mega Man Zero
Much like how Mega Man Zero does not focus on a creation of Doctor Light, Zero can likely represent the anti-theme of the Importance of Childhood; in this case, the importance of adulthood. Created by Doctor Albert Wily, Zero is likely indicative of how not all children are born equal; while all children are born innocent, and some are born gentle and good natured, some infants can be born somewhat terrifying in their later behavior, with a need for good parenting to raise them right. While X was given diagnostic tests, Zero was left alone, akin to an orphan delinquent, and upon awakening, engaged in destroying Sigma's unit, until being defeated and his memory scrambled. After this, his experience as a Maverick Hunter would have him redeemed as a heroic individual, than the intention of being Doctor Wily's ultimate tool of destruction. Hence, into his "teen years", these times would provide the emotional foundation for him to know that what he was born to be is not important; it is how one lives life that determines one's worth in the world.

If Zero's life in the Mega Man X series was his "teen years", then Mega Man Zero just may indeed show the world of adulthood in the era of 23XX; a cold and disparate world where conspiracy, intrigue, and conflict of many sorts are common, moral boundaries are at best vaguely murky with face appeal on the surface, many problems to the world exist all at once and without known, realized, or recognized immediate solution, extremes of contrast and polarities and their spectrums inbetween manifest, apathy being a trait mutually shared with survival, unpredictability being a certain given, all crises and serious scenarios must be met head on with confrontation as soon as they come up, and all of which being a stark contrast to the idealism and wonder of past series, which can only be best summarized in the words of Keiji Inafune: "Nothing is certain."

While life has its periods and moments of auspiciousness and halcyon which everyone yearns and cherishes, so must there be periods of trying times, twists of fate, and hardship that one should be best prepared for, and even in both, one must be prepared to search and face the truth. True to how life can be unfair and the world can seem to be a miserable place, the world of Mega Man Zero showcases skewed priorities, hypocrisy, double standards, and ironic conditions that border on absurdity. Zero and the Resistance are constantly slandered as Maverick rebels lead by a fallen hero, while Neo Arcadia and its agenda of essentially genocide is given good stature by its ruling powers. As the world hangs on by a thread in the face of global pollution and inhabitable conditions and energy shortages, the human populace lives in blissful ignorance of what it takes to provide their sustenance and living arrangements. While the threats of Mavericks loom about in the fears of the populace, they are ironically lead by those who would be considered Mavericks in Mega Man X, and eventually, the world would soon come to be threatened by malevolent entity who is ultimately untouchable: A human being. Such a world, again, could be only such a place where an adult would have the fortitude and patience to maneuver through such perverse conditions.

While Zero initially in X was hot blooded, passionate, and valiantly persistent, all things indicative of youth, his character development after Mega Man X4 was noted to be more aloof, calculated, and tranquil in comparison, showing his coming of age and emotional growth. By the time of his lead series, Zero is always controlled, stern, and alert, with a stiff upper lip and for the most part extremely discreet and to the point, akin to a veteran warrior, and showing how he has grown into an adult figure in comparison to his younger self. Not only limited to his personality, Zero's role as a legendary figure for the Resistance also has his and the Resistance's relations establishing them akin to a family, a family that he must uphold responsibility to take care of and provide for in his duties as the Crimson Maverick Hunter of legend. This may also be exemplified in the high difficulty of the Zero series and its demanding gameplay requirements, not unlike adults needing to be proficient and optimal in their jobs and professions by their expected age range, and in the face of a world that demands no less than perfection.

Perhaps another theme to the facts of life and the importance of adulthood in Zero is the all encompassing idea of inevitability, and in this case, the central theme that one must meet their destiny as they grow up into maturity. Zero realizes the worst case scenario for Earth and Reploid technology based civilization- As mankind has not learned its lesson of giving living sentience and to acknowledge the responsibilities that must come with it, this breeds resentment and excess in the form of Dr. Weil, who brings about the near end of civilization with the Elf Wars, and was a circumstance that Zero was crucial to. While civilization was saved by X, the mistakes of the past continue regardless, and the world itself is on the verge of its self destruction, until the reawakening of Zero. As time goes on, those central to the cataclysm of the world of the past eventually come together again, and Zero upon the destined hour must do what it takes to protect not only the last vestiges of civilization, but to fight for those who bear hope for the future. In the outside observation of the perspective of one who lives such lives, it is accurate to say it is dangerous, unpredictable, intense, and harrowing, but Zero has grown to more than well to handle the extremes of combat and face deathdefying tension as something he's long lived for. As all people grow into adults, many ways of life are varied and may not be as equal as others, and that life may not be everything it was hoped to be, but so it can be said of all lives in their own way to "wear the shoes of another and live in them for a day" to realize that one has their purpose in the world and face through the fears, doubts, and unpredictability of life as an adult to see through to the truth.

If the importance of childhood states that having an inner child is good, then the importance of adulthood would have to argue that experiences are also important to shape oneself to grow as a person into the inevitability of becoming an adult; this would be best exemplified by the parallels of Zero and Copy X. Whereas Copy X was created as a perfect copy without the diagnostic tests and experiences of the original X, Zero does not have his original body, but still has his heart and memories as he was in 21XX. Copy X ultimately embodies all of the negative and anti traits of the childhood themes found in both Classic and X, with the overt specialization of the Robot Masters and the problems with identity and emotional imbalance found with Mavericks, while Zero and the Resistance is a reinforcement and evident establishment of the positive values and themes of cherishing childhood and growth into old age.

With such an association of being an adult, Mega Man Zero may also deal with the inevitability of one's declining stature into old age, and the coming of death. X's life post Zero's sealing saw him become the leader for man and reploid-kind as the savior of the world and a legendary hero, but at the cost of his mental health to not become the definition of Maverick the human populace long feared, and deliberately sealed himself and retreated into obscurity to bring peace the only way he knew how in the wake of the threat of the Dark Elf. When his body is destroyed by Elpizo, X's mortality becomes evident as his form manifests only as a Cyber Elf, and can only exist for a predetermined period of time. Zero's body is not his original, as it was years before, but his new body is "healed" from the perpetual source of the Maverick Virus, and his experience allows him more than enough of an edge as a weapon of its own to handle the challenges of the new world and adapt. At the series' climax, engaging Dr. Weil in his final battle, Zero has no other way out in his confrontation, and ultimately uses his last moments to end the world's greatest threat for good.