Heartwarming moments in Mega Man X.
- X's friendship with Zero throughout the series. Whether you view the duo as Bash Brothers, Heterosexual Life-Partners, or something more, you cannot deny that their bond is one of the bright points in a Darker and Edgier universe.
- In X's ending for X4, X asks Zero to terminate him if he ever goes Maverick. Zero's response? "Don't be absurd." The unspoken message there is that Zero doesn't think that X could ever be corrupted by the Maverick Virus.
- General sacrificing himself to destroy the Final Weapon and save humanity at the end of X4.
- A couple of possible subtle X/Alia moments in X5:
- If the Enigma or Shuttle succeed in destroying the Eurasia colony, Alia says to X and Zero (in regards to the Zero Virus) "I know we can't escape... so we'll just have to fight it! Go for it! We must bring this to an end once and for all!". But if both plans fail and Zero awakens? Alia says to X "It's too dangerous! NO! Don't go!". The way "NO" is capitalized almost makes it seem like she's begging X not to go, as if she's scared of losing him. It's not hard to read some anguish into that line and imagine Alia grabbing X's hand while she says it, as if she's got feelings for him and her falling out with a previous loved one still haunts her...
- Whether or not Zero has awakened, when the last stage becomes available, Alia says "I won't stop you from going to fight anymore...I leave everything in your hands..." While she could be saying this to Zero or X in the "Eurasia destroyed" path, it feels more personal on the "Zero awakened" path, when she's saying it just to X. Indeed, this line seems more fitting as a follow up to her anguished plea for X not to go fight the awakened Zero, as opposed to one where she encourages X and Zero to fight the Zero Virus and thus wasn't trying to stop them to begin with. Alia accepts that it is X's destiny to fight for the fate of the world, and all she can do is hope that he's strong enough to make it back alive.
- Zero's return in X6. The music, and the joy in X's voice when Zero reveals himself really sell the moment.
- In X6's Good Ending for X, he brings back a mortally-wounded Gate for Alia to try and repair, as she used to be his best friend. Really, that whole ending is pretty heartwarming—the rest of the Maverick Hunter team shows up to offer their support in restoring all the damage caused by Sigma's Colony Drop in X5, leading to the most optimistic ending in the series.
- In Zero's X6 ending, when he's sealing himself away to purge the Maverick Virus from his system completely, the scientist in charge of the operation is concerned about what might happen in his absence. Zero calmly replies not to worry about it, as X will always be there to protect the world and calling him the superior hunter. He's got that much faith in his partner.
- X finally warming up to Axl by the time of X8.
- A subtle one from the mini-comic in Mega Man (Archie Comics) #35. In X's apartment, you can see a picture of him and Dr. Cain looking happy together.
- In the Worlds Unite story "The Choice", Mega Man and X talk about the times they first chose to become fighters. X expresses his respect for Mega due to the latter never losing his conviction, but the real moment comes when X admits that he's been tempted to ask Light not to build him, in order to prevent Reploids and thus Sigma from coming into existence. Mega Man calls him out on that, saying that there's no telling what Dr. Wily's hidden away that could attack the people of his time, and that if he isn't around in the future to protect everyone, he'll feel a lot better knowing X is. He tells X not to talk like that anymore - his "big brother" says so. When Proto Man and Zero show up at the end to fetch Mega Man and X for a meeting that's about to start, they ask each other if they ever had to fight "that red guy" and answer in tandem "Yeah, but it's complicated!" followed by the two of them laughing. After everything X has been through, and despite the crisis at hand, he has a reason to laugh and smile thanks to his predecessor and "big brother", who also reassures him of the validity of his existence. A pity the entire conversation ends up undone thanks to Xander Payne shooting Sigma in the past through a time portal, causing a temporal collapse that prevents the crossover from happening in the first place.
- Towards the end of the flashback of "The Day of Sigma" in Maverick Hunter X, Dr. Light is clearly at the end of his lifespan and preparing to seal X away for the day he is ready in the future. Before he is sealed, X promises his father that he will use his powers to fight for good if needed, leaving Dr. Light to cry with pride for his son.
- In the manga adaptation of X1, X encounters a group of infected former Maverick Hunters who want him to "prove his loyalty" by killing a defenseless human girl. Not only does he stop them and put them down before they can hurt the girl, he carries her to safety, and she clings to him with very visible gratefulness and comfort.
- In the manga adaptation of the Overdrive Ostrich fight, Ostrich was not an infected Maverick, but rather Storm Eagle's kouhai out to avenge his death at X's buster. However, in the progress of the fight, X reminds him so much of Storm Eagle that his will to fight is sapped away; when X tries to stop a (possibly nuclear) missile from launching, just barely failing to reach the missile by dash-walljumping, Overdrive performs a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the missile, having forgiven X as the actual ghost of Storm Eagle shows up. Even X can see the apparition of Storm Eagle as Ostrich makes his last booster-assisted leap to destroy the missile, and he witnesses Eagle and Ostrich enjoy one last happy chat and even a final, audible high five, before he stops the missile by fatally crashing into it.
- In the manga adaptation of the Crush Crawfish fight, X is forced to retreat to a safe distance when Crawfish takes a human hostage and cuts her hair with his claws as a threat, and then stresses hard over his aim as he tightly focuses a charged buster shot into an extremely tight, narrow beam to put the maverick down with a precision headshot. He finds his arms stuck in that position due to stress immediately after making the shot, but then he looks around and notices the extremely pleasant weather, and his arms free themselves as he finally relaxes.
- As of June 11th, 2020, Iris is Back from the Dead and is now playable in Mega Man X DiVE.
- Speaking of X DiVE, the game's story ends on an ultimately happy note: as the credits of the offline version reveals, iCO and ViA do eventually end up reappearing after their Heroic Sacrifice, leading to a Big Damn Reunion between them and RiCO as the latter cries Tears of Joy.
