There’s a part 2 in this? Just when I thought I was finished ranting about the Spider-Redips twist. But, now it's not just ranting.
I was looking at a page about a secret boss named Duckbill Mole. Apparently, he, alongside another secret boss Rafflesian, and the mini boss Depth Dragoon, were originally planned to be main bosses in the story, but the developers had to shorten it. Then, I opened the link at the reference section, which led to a page called “Rockman Corner: Mega Man X Command Mission 2004 Developer Interview Translated.” There, I read a plethora of things. I never felt interested in reading developer discussions until now. They talked about how they made the Action Triggers, the Hyper Modes, the Force Metals, etc.
The interviewer also mentioned Spider as a mysterious character, and even asked about his relationship with Aile, his deception, theories, etc.
Potential Spoilers Below!
According to Scenario Supervisor Makoto Ikehara, they made details of Spider and Aile’s relationship ambiguous. He mentioned a few theories that they happen to have:
No.1: Spider never knew Aile. He reacted to Aile’s ID so he could get on X’s good side by taking advantage of his weakness for “friendship.”
No. 2: Spider and Aile got to know each other when searching around Giga City (in the original japanese version, it’s called Gigantis). Ikehara said that this is a “relatively orthodox way of thinking.”
No.3: Aile was another form Spider had taken. Okay??? I don’t know how that theory is gonna sell. But it’s a theory made by the people that tried to make the whole issue ambiguous to the players anyway.
There are no “real” theories, according to Ikehara. Interestingly, Redips was not even once mentioned in the interview page, I don’t know why.
So, we have 3 theories coming from the developers. Let’s review each of them.
No.1: This is technically the same as my first theory in my previous post, Exhibit B. To pull this off, Redips must be very good at reading people’s emotions and social cues to the point he can make up a fake backstory and pretend to care about Aile, a stranger in this case, in such a short time. I don’t know much about writing manipulative characters.
No.2: This is the most “down to earth” theory, in my opinion. Simply that Spider/Redips met Aile for a while, which is why they can improv and get on X's good side. It still doesn’t sell to me, though.
No. 3: Okay what??? So, Redips disguises as Spider and fights X. Disguises as Aile and “pretends” to self-destruct? And pretends as Spider AGAIN and PRETENDS AGAIN to know and care about Aile? Fakes his death when blowing up Incentas. Disguises AGAIN when killing Botos. For a theory, that’s too much work to manipulate the cast AND the audience. Redips is a colonel working for the government. Surely he can’t have THAT much free time to roam around outside his office. And Aile was Chief R’s aid de camp.
From how I see it, for any of the theories to work, Redips probably has supreme manipulating skills and time management. Though that would be a great attribute to his character as the final boss, I just feel like a lot of things are unnecessary for Redips to do .
Redips has a copy chip in him to disguise himself. How he managed to get Spider’s, and probably Aile’s DNA data is not exactly specified, except for the info Marino gave us (look at previous post or wiki). But, Redips isn’t the only one outside Giga City that has it. I’m not talking about Axl. In the final stage, there is a boss rush where you have to fight all of the Rebellion Army: specifically Jango, Silver Horn, Dr. Psyche, Mach Jentra, and Incentas. After they’re defeated, the team wonders what’s going on. The Axl remarks that those were reploids using the copy chip to copy their appearance and abilities, and that there was someone with a copy chip inside Giga City.
That got me thinking. Why can’t Redips just send another reploid to disguise as Spider. That way they could disguise as Spider and don’t need to be absent in the meeting room every time Redips makes a transmission. He could execute his plan without leaving his office back at the government.
Again, Redips is a colonel. A top brass. Who takes care of his work as colonel while he plays chameleon with the cast in the Resistance? I just feel it’s too much work for Redips to go there physically. If Redips is such a manipulative and smart reploid, there must be other ways he can pull it off.
If I were to make my own version/fanfic of the MMXCM story, there are 2 ways:
Method 1: Try not to make the story stray too far from the original, while taking care of the flaws. From the developer’s discussion. The Spider is Redips twist was always meant to happen. I’ll just need to fill the gaps my own way, even if I need to make a few changes.
Method 2: Free to do anything about the twist. Heck, I could delete it completely. Personally, I would prefer both Spider AND Aile to be alive. Just need to figure out how to make it work. Though Redips must still be as influential as he’s the final boss.
For both methods, I would like to establish Redips’ and Spider’s relationship more. As well as Spider’s and Aile’s.
Background Designer Hirotada Miyatake when asked who his favorite character is, he said, “I'd say Spider. If this guy wasn't here, the story wouldn't have gone anywhere. I simply can't help liking both his looks and personality.” And I wholeheartedly agree! Despite me making rants about the flaws of this twist, Spider is my favorite character because he is just so interesting. His design, his demeanor, his combat. And I never physically played MMXCM before. I just watched Youtube cutscenes and playthroughs.
If you remove Spider from the game, MMXCM wouldn’t go anywhere. His presence in the game is very influential compared to the other important cast.
That’s why I got a little disappointed with the reveal.
Also I realized most reviews on Youtube and comments say that CM was supposed to happen 100 years after the X series. Which means after X8 too, but in reality it was released before X8. There was no mention of New Generation Reploids or Axl as a prototype. Buuuut, if you stretch it, Scarface, a Cadre, said something about how “future generations” are the ones that can claim whether they (the current reploids) are mavericks. Could this be hinting at X8? But, if that took place 100 years after X series, including X8, New Gens should've existed by then. And that means Axl is still searching WHO and WHAT he is plus the copy chip factory, while in X8 it's confirmed that Axl is a New Gen prototype? (though the game never specifies HOW they found out).
P.S. and out of topic, the other cast needs to be more developed. RPG games tend to develop their characters and their relationships throughout the gameplay. While I feel that besides the main trio and Spider, the others are just characters you recruit to increase the roster. Take Massimo. You meet him. You see his mentor dead by Silver Horn. He and the rest beat Silver Horn. And he joins the Resistance to stop the rest of the Rebellion. That's a good motive, but I want to see more scenes of him as a character. Marino and Cinnamon are a bit worse. Marino’s a thief. She joins because the Rebellion stole what she could be stealing (in this case: Cinnamon, the generator). But, the way she joins the Resistance feels forced. She joined because Cinnamon persuaded her nicely. It would’ve been better if she joined as a temporary truce to get away from the Rebellion. Cinnamon is innocent and gentle, and that’s okay. I just want to see her develop her sense of justice and responsibility or whatever. Lastly, I think Chief R, Nana, and Gaudile deserve some more development too. Like how they interact with all the playable characters. Maybe Nana can hangout with Cinnamon and Marino. Or we can see Chief R having some small talk with X or Zero or Gaudile. We might see more of Massimo’s feelings toward Marino. Not just as dialogue skits, but as legit cutscenes. It’s a big shame we don’t get to see what happens to them after the game.
That’s all for this post. Thank you for reading this rant! If you have opinions about my rant or about the topic feel free to comment.
References:
Duckbill Mole - MMKB, the Mega Man Knowledge Base <https://megaman.miraheze.org/wiki/Duckbill_Mole#:~:text=Duckbill%20Mole%20>
Rockman Corner: Mega Man X Command Mission 2004 Developer Interview Translated <https://www.rockman-corner.com/2019/12/mega-man-x-command-mission-2004.html>
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Non-FictionIt's exactly as it sounds. Also I added shortened titles as shortcuts. See below. MMX: Megaman X MMXCM: Megaman X Command Mission
