#mega man

paratactician:

sonnetstuck:

A few weeks ago, I examined the implications of Rose’s mysterious “W,”. In the latest update, we’re presented with a similarly cryptic monosyllable from a Lalonde. But since this utterance has three times as many letters, it must be three times as complex. So I set to work.

[snipped for length]

Stunning (and entirely serious) revelations after the cut.

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This covers most of the important stuff, yeah. I’d have liked to see at least something on the very obvious allusion to the Domain Name Service, which when coupled with Roxy yields a void DNS lookup (perhaps related to John’s recent problems with a series of tubes filled with enormous amounts of material). Given the massive importance of sugar to this update, it’s surely also crucial that ‘sup’ repeats seven times - practically slapping us in the face with the coded sense of ‘s(even)up’, i.e. 7Up, the popular soft drink whose erstwhile mascot Cool Spot was a cool red dude with shades trapped in a computer game alongside near-identical copies of himself. But overall, a solid work of criticism offering some substantive advances in the field.

Some great points! You did forget to mention that Cool Spot had a sequel, Spot Goes To Hollywood, which is a reference to Dirk’s Bro’s career in the post-scratch universe). Other than that oversight, though, it’s a spot-on (heh) analysis.

I actually totally missed the Domain Name Service connection, but in retrospect, it’s incredibly obvious. Especially in light of today’s update, which confirms all of these theories with one extremely significant phrase: Mega Man.

John does indeed clear the series of tubes, because his planet isn’t something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. But you know what is a big truck? Truck Joe, a Mega Man enemy. And just as the series of tubes was weak to the sound of John playing the organ, Truck Joes are weak to Noise Crush, an attack that Mega Man gets by beating Shade Man. As I’ll explain in more detail later, John is designed to be analogous to the Mega Man character Wind Man. So once you put these facts together, we can clearly see that the Land of Wind and Shade is cleaned by the noises of Wind [Man] and Shade [Man]. Hussieeee!!

Domain Name Service theory: validated. And although today’s update doesn’t totally confirm my Dinas Powys/Didcot, Newbury and Southampton prediction regarding Caledfwlch and Lord English, it does offer significant support of it. If you spell “Mega Man” without the empty space (in other words, if you remove the Void), you get “Megaman,” which is a German company that makes LED lighting products. “LED” is the station code for Ledbury railway station, which is a stop on the Worcester to Hereford line of the First Great Western railway. Yes, another reference to British rail travel. As the name suggests, this line runs east to west, unlike the two DNS lines. In other words, it, liked Caledfwleflwfch, follows the X axis instead of the Y. X as in Mega Man X (which, not coincidentally, takes place in 21XX). The first Mega Man X game was released in 1997, the same year as… Cool Spot. It’s all connected.

The completely serious revelations that should be taken completely seriously by everyone and are what I literally believe and are by no means a joke continue after the cut.

But wait: we can use this update to take the theory even further. If Roxy is the space in the phrase “Mega Man,” what are the other letters? Well, they’re obviously the other seven human players. The first four are from the beta session, and the second three (plus the void) are from the alpha session. How did I figure this out? It’s as simple as looking at the classes and aspects of the players.

“Mega” corresponds to the third letters of the beta kids’ aspects: ti[m]e, br[e]ath, li[g]ht, sp[a]ce. “Man” is a bit trickier; you get it sequentially through the alpha kids’ classes: [m]aid, p[a]ge, (ro[g]ue, but this one’s left out because Roxy is the space), pri[n]ce.

So, “Mega Man” is saved from being “MegaMagn” by virtue of Roxy’s void powers. But let’s think more about what could have been. Ro[g]ue. The used letter would have been g, the third letter in the word. G3. Like dns, it’s completely obvious what this refers to.

The WLWR Class G3 steam locomotive, which ran on the Waterford, Limerick, and Western Railway line. A railway line not in Britain, but in Ireland, which ran, you guessed it, east to west. Lest we forget, Ireland is home to leprechauns. Even more proof that Lord English, leader of the leprechauns, will be stabbed by Caledfwlchfwcwlwwwwwwwwwwwwflw.

Now to expand on something I mentioned earlier, which will reveal a new aspect of what Homestuck holds. All of the beta kids have a corresponding Mega Man robot master based on their aspect: John is Wind Man, Dave is Time Man, Jade is Galaxy Man, and Rose is Bright Man. I could spend hours explaining every single parallel and similarity, but that’s a post for another day. The most important point is that there are no robot masters that could conceivably match up with the aspects of heart, life, and hope. Void, though…

Roxy is Shadow Man. And the connections go beyond just shadow=void. Think about it: Shadow Man dresses in dark blue; as a ninja, he’s quite roguish; and he’s weak to the attack Centaur Arrow, a clear reference to the other Void players, the Zahaaks and their love of horses and archery.

But the most significant parallel of all is that Shadow Man is not actually from Earth as the rest of the robot masters are. “Little is known about this mysterious robot, who is rumored of being a deactivated robot created by an extraterrestrial civilization and discovered by Dr. Wily, who remodeled and reprogrammed him. The metal body of Shadow Man does not match any material found on Earth.” (source) This is just what Roxy’s situation will be when she enters the new timeline with John. She’ll be partially of the Mega Man reality (via her connection with John), and yet simultaneously foreign to it.

Let’s go back to the other alpha kids. They don’t belong in the same universe as the beta kids (and of Roxy as well). But we know that if they are to succeed, they will have to join forces with the other five humans, and enter into their reality. They’ll have to perform a crossover, if you will. And yes, there are no robot masters that match up with the aspects of heart, life, and hope. But the Mega Man universe had a very significant crossover that might explain some things…

Yes, it’s true. Dirk, Jane, and Jake are, and have always been, allusions to the Worlds Collide storyline from the Sonic the Hedgehog comic. The similarities are astounding, if you think about it. In fact, I sincerely believe that all of Homestuck is a reference to Worlds Collide. And this is where it gets really interesting.

Roxy mentioned Mega Man when she and John were in a realm outside of canon. Practically outside of the comic itself. On a planet not in the Medium. And this is how Homestuck will end.

Outside of the comic. In a different medium.

The finale of Homestuck will not take place on mspaintadventures.com. Instead, it will be included in the Worlds Unite comic series, the sequel to Worlds Collide, which is due to be published by Archie Comics in spring of 2015. Homestuck has always been about pushing the limits of the webcomic medium, both in its plot and its presentation. What could be a more fitting culmination of this grand experiment than breaking out of the medium altogether? Making the virtual world and the real world unite, if you will.

“[A]n even bigger event is on the horizon” indeed.

Junk Shield (Mega Man 7)

One of the most fun things about the technomancer spell list is the array of “junk” spells, those that take nearby scraps of technology and transmute them into useful things, ranging from single-purpose junkbots to weapons and armor to barricades and more. Of course, when the system initially launched, those spells were considered by many to be somewhat impractical since not every game takes place in the slums or junk piles of a far future’s technological excess, but then they added spells and items that either create said junk as their primary effect or as a side effect, allowing the caster to utilize those spells anywhere as long as they can be given a round of prep time.

In any case, today’s subject joins those spells with one that similarly uses such scraps. The Robot Master Junk Man is exactly what he sounds like, a robot composed of scrap robot parts that Dr. Wily threw together into a robot designed to find more useful scraps for him to recycle. Junk Man is held together by powerful electromagnets, which is why he is vulnerable to an electric weapon, but also why his signature attack involves gathering nearby scrap metal into a protective barrier around himself, which simultaneously damages Mega Man if he touches it and paralyzes him briefly, in addition to making Junk Man briefly invulnerable.

The version that Mega Man gets causes three balls of junk to appear, orbiting him and absorbing attacks, but unlike other shield weapons throughout the franchise, these clumps of magnetized scrap are ablative, and can individually be destroyed, creating gaps in the protection. What’s more, many such shield weapons can be thrown, but the junk shield instead launches each remaining scrap ball outward from Mega Man rather than forward as a group, making it less useful for direct confrontation and more for striking foes coming from multiple directions.

Junk Shield

Class Technomancer 5

School Transmutation

Casting Time 1 standard action

Range Touch

Target 1 bulk of inert electronic equipment

Duration 1 minute/level (D)

Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Description

You animate the scrap into three floating masses that orbit your body, protecting you from attacks. Each mass of scrap grants you 20 temporary hp and has hardness equal to your level, and automatically swivels to block damage from melee and ranged attacks, absorbing the damage themselves, though only one junk mass can be destroyed at a time, preventing any damage to you. The exception to this is area effects, which the masses still protect you from, but excess damage needed to destroy one mass bleeds over to the next, including to your own stamina and hp when the last one is destroyed. Additionally, effects that require a Fortitude or Will save that require a line of effect automatically fail, but those that do not, such as mind thrust, bypass the masses entirely.

Creatures adjacent to you at the beginning of your turn must also make a Reflex save or take bludgeoning and piercing damage equal to 2d6 per remaining mass. Success negates this damage

You may choose to violently dismiss this spell as a standard action, causing the remaining scrap masses to explode violently from your body in a 30 ft. radius. Creatures and objects other than you within this radius take 4d6 bludgeoning and piercing damage per remaining mass, with a Reflex save for half damage.

I’m still not fully sure of how damage scales for spells in Starfinder, but I thought this would be a fun way to play up an ablative barrier.

Pharaoh Shot (Mega Man 4)

The Mega Man franchise has been a staple of the video game world for a very long time, coming from humble origins of cutesy characters and a somewhat generic sounding name to a class gameplay loop of platforming, shooting, and puzzling out the uses for the unique weapons in the stages and against the bosses, so I thought I’d try my hand at making some fun weapons from the franchise into Starfinder spells, because let’s face it, a lot of Megaman’s arsenal are not suitable for standard weaponry, and those that are probably can already be emulated by weapons.

Anywho, let’s start off with one from Mega Man 4, the titular weapon of Pharaoh Man!

The Pharaoh Shot is a weapon that gathers solar energy into a compressed ball of plasma and fires it at foes. Pharaoh Man using both the uncharged version, hurling these balls at our hero, or charging it up to unleash a directed wave of solar plasma at him.

The version that Mega Man himself uses can either fire a small ball, or be charged up, appearing as a sun-like globe over his head, and then fired. The globe over his head can also damage foes, disappearing once it does so. That being said, either by design or due to programming limitation, the charged projectile can still be fired even if the globe disappears.

Solar Globe Blast

Class Mystic 3, Technomancer 3, Witchwarper 3

Schoolevocation (electricity, fire)

Casting Time Varies, see text

Range Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./ levels), see text

Target 1 creature

Durationinstantaneous

Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance Yes

Description

You gather power into a globe of plasma resembling a miniature star, preparing to hurl it at a foe. Depending on how long you charge it, the globe grows larger and deals more damage. When you unleash the spell, make a ranged attack roll that target EAC. The globe deals damage based on the actions used to cast it.

If you cast the spell as a swift action, it deals 4d8 electricity and fire damage.

If cast as a standard action, it deals 7d8 electricity and fire damage.

If cast as a full-round action, it deals 10d8 electricity and fire damage.

Additionally, the caster may choose to strike an adjacent target with the globe as a melee attack that targets EAC. If they do so, they do not provoke an attack of opportunity from casting the spell.

This is my first attempt at creating a Starfinder spell, a tall order given that there are no published guidelines, but I think I did a decent job with it. Throughout the week I’ll definitely be getting more practice in.

I think back on my childhood playing Mega Man 2 with a mix of nostalgia and trauma.