All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- The original "Blaster Master" title was MetaFight, but was entirely overshadowed by the more creative changes the American localization made, and the latter thereof caused the entire series to be rebranded. In the final battle, when choosing between Jason and the SOPHIA or Kane and the Metal Attacker, their respective titles' logos appear with them. The final battle is quite literally Blaster Master vs MetaFight!
- Not just that, the final battle is a direct reference to the Continuity Snarl mentioned on the series' main page. How so? It's implied at the start of the game (and confirmed at the end) that Jason's official in-universe Boss Subtitle is Blaster Master, which was clearly meant to let them use Jason as a metaphor for the English continuity as a whole. So in the ending, when Kane essentially passes the torch to Jason, he's directly referencing how Sunsoft officially decided to make the English continuity the "main" one while developing Blasting Again. Up until then, the Japanese games had followed the Metafight continuity, and the English ones had followed the Blaster Master continuity, with Blasting Again marking the point where Blaster Master became the official continuity worldwide. And here, the final battle and post-boss cutscene are a metaphor for this: We have Blaster Master and Metafight battling against each other, each tank a continuity in and of itself, fighting to determine the series' future as a whole. But no matter who wins, the Metafight side comes to truly believe that Blaster Master is the best hope for the future. And so... "Godspeed! Blaster Master!" Metafight places the future in Blaster Master's hands, right in time for Roddy & Elfie to arrive. They managed to take the conflict between the series' two sides, Metafight and Blaster Master , and capture it as the final battle itself. Truly, there could be no more fitting an end for a trilogy meant to truly join the two sides of the franchise together as one.
- Tying into the above, the entire trilogy's name of Blaster Master Zero becomes one with this game. While it was initially named such for Rule of Cool, and then later given greater meaning in tying into the original MetaFight, the ending of this game gives one more meaning for the JP audience. With the birth of Roddy and Elfie, the creation of the SOPHIA J-1 and the emergence of the Lightning Beings, it all sets the stage for at least a new take on the events of Blaster Master: Blasting Again... Except, in Japan, where that was the first Blaster Master title used as opposed to MetaFight, it wasn't called "Blasting Again", just "Blaster Master". The Blaster Master Zero trilogy is not only a Stealth Sequel to MetaFight, but also a Stealth Prequel to Japan's first Blaster Master.
- Regarding Leibniz, there is a point in the final area of the game where she takes off her helmet, revealing that she was a woman all along. However, in the Blaster Master Trilogy version of the game, which includes voice acting, she's voiced by Shouta Aoi, a male voice actor. You might think that makes no sense at all, until you realize that Shouta Aoi is known for voicing both male and female characters. Casting Leibniz as a male famous for doing cross voicing talent lets IntiCreates keep the surprise of Leibniz's real gender up until the reveal, because nobody can make assumptions just from looking at the voice cast, whereas, if she had been voiced by a female, some players could have easily assumed Leibniz was actually a girl, lessening the impact of the reveal.
- Another point about the Trilogy version involves the audio in Jason's helmet gradually getting worse over the course of the game. This seems like a weird plot point that is never followed up upon without the voice acting, but its main purpose is to hide the fact that you're playing as Kane in the final area, since it would be a dead giveaway in the Trilogy version without the broken audio making it impossible to distinguish between the two.
- When Leibniz brings up fighting Kanna in the EIR back in Blaster Master Zero II and losing, Jason muses that with Leibniz piloting a lightspeed bomber opposed to a mostly melee attacker, Kanna should have been the one at a disadvantage. And the player might think that as well, if you don't consider the circumstances behind the fight. Whenever you fight GARUDA in II, it's in a wide open area where Leibniz can take full advantage of GARUDA's strengths. When you fight EIR, however, it's in an enclosed area, where GARUDA would be at a severe disadvantage due to being unable to make use of its full capabilities. Considering that Leibniz fought Kanna on her own home planet, where she would have the advantage of terrain, it isn't too farfetched to think that Kanna could have forced the GARUDA to confront the EIR in such an enclosed space.
- Everything with the lead up and fight against Rising GARUDA. Previously Leibniz was mainly lashing out in despair against everything that offended them, wore an evil looking helmet and had a theme to match. Here, Leibniz has stepped up to defend Eve and her children, revealing her face, and an heroic theme plays. And the difficulty of the fight itself shows that she is giving it her absolute all. In short you're not fighting the same old Leibniz.
- The beastly performance of Rising GARUDA makes sense as according to a chat with Leibniz, it was being rebuilt so the Sophia Force couldn't down it so easily and it was being built with a flight stick. Thus it's no small surprise it'd be so difficult to take on. Had it been any other Sophia Force grunt and not Kane, it'd be a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Kane having Jason's on-foot armaments outside of the Metal Attacker when being played as. Initially, this would make little to no sense. The Blaster Rifle modifications, those were done by Eve to surprise Jason with, even leaving a number of prerecorded logs for him to feel them out with. The Blast Counter mantle, that's an original creation of Jason's made from a mutant membrane. Ordinarily, Kane shouldn't be able to have those... However, as was shown in the beginning of the game, the G-SOPHIA SV was gutted after being impounded so that the SF could mine it for its Sub Weapon mods, the results of which are seen in later-game enemies — and Jason accidentally left his helmet behind. From whatever information was left in it on Jason's pilot gear, it's fair to assess the scientists on NORA were able to reverse-engineer their specifics for Kane in much the same way.
- The story touts Kane Garner as the best MA pilot and the game proceeds to justify it in the Golden Ending by pitting you against the Zero II MA Pilots who have upped their game while you're stuck with a number of limitations compared to Jason. Then if you want, you can play as him in the True Final Boss fight against Jason in the Sophia-J1 with the deck stacked in Jason's favor. In winning against such odds, you are the one to justify the reputation.
- Regarding the hints that indicate Kane being the player character in the route to the Golden Ending (e.g. Fred being absent from the passengers, fighting the MA pilots), there's one more hint that might be overlooked. Despite Eve being in command of the mutants as the Invem Queen, she just confessed her feelings for Jason before leaving for super-dimensional space, so it wouldn't make sense for her to start attacking him all of a sudden. As stated on one of her recordings about his Blaster Rifle, Eve doesn't want Jason getting hurt. Even less now that they're married, as shown with her healing him in the final battle when low on health.
- Kane is the one that advises Jason try to avoid using the VRV system as much as possible, but doing so locks one out of the Golden Ending by way of Jason not becoming attuned enough to the super-dimension to follow after Eve. Of course, Kane is part of the Absolute Xenophobe planet of Sophia and doesn't trust anything relating to the Mutants — he'd naturally be the one to try to prevent anyone from going too far towards that side of things, given his first inclination in the finale is to gun it for Eve thinking she's become a Mutant Queen so he'd Mercy Kill her.
- Usually when you kill the Mutants, they explode violently. But in Area ???, they instead dissolve peacefully. This could be interpreted as these being Mutants that are protecting Jason and Eve on their orders and she doesn't want them to die a terrible death, so has them just disperse into the atmosphere painlessly. In fact, that 'dissolve' animation is the exact same one from Zero II, where Eve was 'purifying' (read: banishing) the mutants she defeated.
- When the truth of Eve's condition comes out, the only logical conclusion is that she was acclimating to super-dimensional space to become the Mutant Queen rather than just becoming another Invem thrall. If only there was something made from super-dimensional materials to induce it. The first and most obvious guess would be her trip through Area Omega, but that doesn't explain her ability to banish mutants instead of destroying them during that trip. The answer is actually much simpler: she didn't just "get better" when she took Kanna's medicine on Planet Stranga. A key ingredient for the medicine in question is the Nu-Nasae Herb, a rather mobile plant that grows best in Stranga's super-dimensional space. It didn't flee to Planet Flosante just because; it wanted to go home, just like Kanna herself, and only when the dimensional ruptures opened on Stranga were they actually able to.
- There is a reason that the normal shot that Gaia-SOPHIA SV fires when it is in main weapon shutdown status is the weakness of Bloodstained Planade-G: that is the only weapon that the Gaia-SOPHIA SV has that is not enhanced by the Gaia System. By the time that you reach Bloodstained Planade-G, the Gaia system has drained several barriers that Planade-G has created into nonexistence, so Gaia-SOPHIA SV is full of Planade-G's energy. The normal shot is the only weapon that the Gaia-SOPHIA SV has that does not send any of Planade-G's own energy back at it.
Fridge Horror
- The trilogy caps off with Jason and Eve taking the fight to a divergent faction of Mutants known as the Lightning Beings. These Lightning Beings are actually a Mythology Gag as the members of that Eve's species and foes that were fought in the original Blaster Master and particularly Blasting Again — the same ones that killed Jason in that continuity and threatened the Earth repeatedly to the point of Kaiser trying to end all life. Theoretically the Zero continuity should have a happier conclusion, but it doesn't leave good vibes in the air. Then again, news of Jason's death could be a fabrication on Leibniz's part...
