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Everything in Japan has some great deal of symbolism. It is only logical, therefore, that there is some great deal of symbolism behind the naming of X and Zero. This thread is for exploration into that symbolism. First off: My thoughts on the subject, beginning with Zero's name.

The original purpose of Zero in RockMan X for the SNES was simply to die to save X, "destroying" Vile in the process. The Japanese fighters in World War II were called Zeros, and the reason they were so effective was not because they were excellent aircraft, but because when they were defeated, they would crash into enemy targets, destroying themselves to take them out. Zero's name may be symbolic of that.

Zero and X's names also have some symbolism in relation to each other. Zero is a set ammount - a number, rather then a variable like X. This is most likely a symbol of Zero having a set ammount of power while X's strength constantly fluxes with every enemy he defeats, every upgrade he finds and every suit of armor he obtains.

It is, therefore, noteworthy that X started off as being so much weaker then Zero in the early RockMan X games, but has caught up to him in the present timeline. It is therefore a logical thing to assume that he will become more powerful then Zero in the future, which will make Zero 'Nothing' as compared to X - just another 'Zero' living in the hero's shadow.

True that, but that's likely another one of the reasons they gave them vague names.

Omg, when they got emulators and ROMS for it, yes i would fuggin play that game o.o i'm inspired to make a flash game. Now if i could only figure out how flash works XD

I'd like to know that too. XD

Mega Man Fred... he's an ordinary sewage cleaning reploid who happens upon one of Dr. Light's upgrade capsules. Being a hologram, and nearsighted, Light mistakes Fred for X and gives him some super-powerful armor installed with a weapon system so advanced it could destroy the world if triggered. It was intended to be a new design of blender, but Dr. Light got slightly carried away... Now Fred's on the run from Sigma, who's after the weapon, and must keep himself alive while battling evil. He can also gain power from finding new types of sewage to clean.

...and yes, I made that up on the spot. o.O

More like, "certain". Consiering how many plotholes there are. ^^

Isn't 'sigma' a letter of the greek alphabet?

And, of course, there's the long Rockman tradition of "pun" Engish names. "X" and "O" being tic-tac-toe symbols and all. xp

There is a concrete reason behind X's name. Here it goes:
'X' is the letter most commonly used to represent a variable, something that could literally be anything. Dr. Light believed this name suited him best because, quite literally, X possesses the ability to contain unlimited power (in which case, the variable 'X' would be have an infinite limit).

Theories behind Zero's name (in order of likeliness):
1) For those who know math, you will know that the reciprocal (opposite) of infinity is 0. Therefore, it makes sense that X's opposite be named as his reciprocal, Zero.
2) Zero was named after the predicted number of survivors that would be around after his primary function was completed (suggesting he was made to destroy specifics, not just everyone in general).
3) The Tic-Tac-Toe theory. As stated previously, "X" and "O" are used in Tic-Tac-Toe, and Capcom may have simply used this concept/joke as names for their characters X and Zero.

I could wander off and try to gather several of the other theories that are floating around, but as 1 and 2 are the most commonly accepted theories for Zero's naming, I'll just leave it at this (unless some requests otherwise).