The Politics of Mega Man X: Are You a Maverick?
The central conceit of Mega Man X is that robots have evolved to a point where they can think and feel for themselves, thanks to Dr. Cain’s discovery of Mega Man X. But as the age of the Reploid began, along with it came Reploid crime.
In every Mega Man X game, you are a Maverick Hunter. This mans you’re tasked with dealing with Mavericks, who serve a similar function to Robot Masters in Classic games.
The origins of the Maverick virus began as Evil Energy. This was a plot point in Mega Man 8, though subsequent games introduced Roboenza, also rumored to be a Maverick virus progenitor.
The OVA “Day of Sigma” which serves as a curtain riser to Mega Man Maverick Hunter X has a short bit of dialogue where X asks Zero the cause of going Maverick. Zero chalks it up to programming errors and short circuits in the electronic brain. Because this takes place in a rebooted version of Mega Man X with some pretty major changes, it’s difficult to answer just how canonical that information is.
That being said, in X4 it’s revealed that Zero was far more pivotal to the Maverick Virus. He began his life as a Maverick, created by Dr. Wily as a final weapon to defeat Dr. Light once and for all. After wiping out Gamma’s unit, he picks a fight with Sigma. In the ensuing battle, Sigma shatters Zero’s head crystal, transferring the virus to him.
Sigma eventually begins the Maverick rebellion, which leads to the events of the series.
No Other Option
During the series, the only way to meaningfully interact with Mavericks is to fight them. The game’s mechanics, being a run-and-gun platformer, lead to the Mavericks being the game’s boss battles.
Within the lore, and particularly within Mega Man X’s characterization, there are some wrinkles about being Maverick. Vile is known as a Maverick Hunter who’s a loose cannon, and Zero’s role as a Maverick Hunter after his time as a Maverick indicates that it’s possible to lose Maverick status.
But, perhaps oddly enough, there’s little in terms of discussion about finding some sort of cure. In Mega Man X5, Lifesaver discusses Zero’s unique reaction to the Sigma Virus with Signas. Within the narrative and gameplay, Zero’s power grows as the virus merges with him. But Lifesaver never asks if this can be harnessed to make some sort of cure. That option isn’t even considered.
Later games have dialogues with the Mavericks that will usually include a mention of “I’m not Maverick” or “Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?” But these sorts of questions are quickly discarded, even the reluctant X usually ends up solving these problems with his buster.
Initially, Mega Man X5 was supposed to be the end of the X franchise before the Zero series began. After executives at Capcom wanted further games developed, this meant several narrative threads had to be revised and reshuffled.
X was originally meant to be the villain of the Zero series, having gone to further and further lengths to eliminate the Mavericks. There are hints of this in Mega Man X4 when X says “When I become a Maverick, you need to take care of me.” In Mega Man X7, Zero dreams of X’s dark ambitions, but this is all aimed specifically at X.
There is little discussion of whether or not the Maverick Hunters are a useful force in society, whether or not there should be methods other than gunning them down. There are dissidents, which will be given a separate article, but the player isn’t meant to question the role of the Maverick Hunters or the morality of what the characters are doing.
The only exception is in X7, when X decides to retire from hunting. This ended up being one of the game’s lore reasons for X being unavailable at the start of the game. That conviction doesn’t last long, and he returns within the game. He is also immediately playable in X8 and the morality of the Maverick Hunters isn’t really questioned.
Base Assumptions and Ideology
At the heart of this, the player is asked to buy into the worldview that the Maverick Hunters are a force for good. It asks the players to consider what they are doing as morally right. Of course, Mega Man X is a game about robots fighting other robots, removed from real-world conflicts and the moral questions that surround them.
But not every game is like Mega Man X. Some games put you in the shoes of military personnel or law enforcement. You’re not asked to deal with a fictionalized group of robots that are afflicted by a computer virus, but with people who are stripped of all context to make into video game baddies that the player takes down.
This isn’t to say that every narrative needs to grapple with the moral quandaries of war or conflict, but it helps to be cognizant of who we see as the good guys and why. Perhaps the Maverick Hunters are the good guys, but would we really know if they weren’t? After all, the player has no choice.