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Sure, and maybe Mega Man X really is just Mega Man upgraded, or Zero is Bass/Protoman/Rush (I've never heard this one, but others have) upgraded. Maybe Roll is really Alia. Maybe X really died in Z3. Maybe Zero's really a girl!

Sorry, but there's no way that he survived, unnoticed, until the Zero series, and was upgraded to Reploid status along the way.

Well, seeing as how I never played X8 (No PS2) I wouldn't know the circumstances at which he appeared. However, if you're going to use that, then let me prove it by a more practical means.

The Shittenou were created in the image of their leader, X. Each of the four were modeled after one of his armors, of which Leviathan is the only one that is considered questionable. Phantom was modeled after the Shadow Armor, as seen in X6.

Better?

you do have to adnit, the way they look, even their tactics in a fight are painfully similar, i dont think they are one and the same, but perhaps phantoms body was influenced by shadow mans

While creative, Phantom is derived from the Shadow Armor, designed by Dr. Light, not by any weapons that X retrieved. And the only time X had a weapon was the Z-Buster (Which is optional) and the Z-Sabre (Which wasn't given to him, nor was it created by Wily)

stare You mean the holographic Cutman that appeared in the training stage, which created a variety of artificial/holographic "tests" to go through? The one that was announced as "It looks like some data has been downloaded from an outside source!"?

1) Why would Shadowman's data, of all the robot masters, be included in Zero's buster? Shadowman wasn't even Wily's favorite! (Guts Man is, in case you didn't know)

2) You don't necesarily have to get the Z-Buster. You could always get the modified X-Buster that Light created instead, which is equal in power and ability.

3) Cut Man's data being downloaded into the training session only proves that 1 of Wily's robot master's A.I. data survived, Cut Man. Nothing else is proven.

Yes, Capcom turned Zero from mere reploid into Advanced Robot Master, but this crazy storyline wasn't part of the original plan. Zero was meant to die. But because fans loved this new character so much, they decided to ressurect him and make him a more intrical part of the story, which is still, while a bit crazy, plauseable, and has significance. There would be no significance in making Phantom an upgraded Shadowman, especially since he's the most dedicated of X's Big Four.

And since Shadowman was destroyed early on, how would he get into Wily's last (or one of the last) machines? And for what purpose? Survival? He'd been destroyed for a good amount of time. There were plenty of Robot Masters. Why wait for this one?

And on a final note, you still fail to acknowledge the fact that there is a posibility that X never got the Z-Buster, thereby never getting this Shadowman data, thereby never letting it be transfered into the Shadow Armor of which Phantom was based, not built.