Music / The Megas

The Megas posing with their mascot.

Since the year 200X (4), The Megas have strived to bring a message from Dr. Light to the people. They have chosen to transmit that message, the tale of a small blue robot named Mega Man, directly into the eardrums of the general populace through the power of rock.

— The Megas' mission statement.

The Megas are a Los Angeles-based band well-known for making vocal rock remixes of music from the Mega Man video game series. Unlike The Protomen, a similarly dedicated band, they directly remix songs from the games. The resulting songs generally have a closer feeling to the original work, giving each of the Robot Masters their own personalities as they sing about their lives as Mega Man breaches their defenses, and eventually defeats them.

Its members currently consist of "Reverend" Josh Breeding, Eric "E" Von Doymi, Greg "Gregatron" Schneider (formerly of punk-rock act Agent 51), Brian "The Double D" DiDomenico (joined 2011), and Church (joined 2012, replacing Mike "Mikey Hell" Levinson). Their debut album, "Get Equipped", which covers nearly every song in the Mega Man 2 soundtrack, was released January 2008.

On August 24, 2009, the band, in conjunction with Entertainment System, released a 4-track EP called Megatainment, based on Mega Man.

On February 5th, 2010, they released "Get Acoustic", a largely acoustic version of Get Equipped, with the "Monsteropolis Orchestra" they created. Most of the songs are slightly slower and more somber, although this is not true universally.

On July 19th, 2010, they released the "Sparked A War" single, which contained the studio release of "You've Sparked A War/Spark Man", a instrumental variation, an acoustic remix, and covers of both "Sunglasses at Night" by Corey Hart and the Mega Man (Ruby-Spears) cartoon theme song, dubbed "Super Fighting Robot".

On June 18th, 2012, the Megas released the "History Repeating: Blue" album, which covers several songs from Mega Man 3, and is the first of two albums. Noticeably, it lacked several songs they had already played live, such as "I'm Not The Breakman", and "Fly on A Dog", as those had been saved for "History Repeating: Red", which was released on May 14th, 2014.

On September 7th, 2016, they released an EP titled "The Belmonts", which they claim was sent to them on a cassette wrapped in parchment, sealed with wax, with the only words within it saying "Release me." It consists of three songs based on songs from the Castlevania series, and was also available in a limited run of 100 blood-red translucent cassettes alongside the digital edition.

On October 31st, 2018 (at the stroke of midnight no less) they released an EP titled "Skulls", which is branded as a collab project between The Megas and The Belmonts. It contains "Cracked Skulls", a cover of Skull Man's theme, a cover of "Burn" by The Cure, and two more Castlevania songs, Wicked Child and Vampire Killer.

On December 17, 2018, they released the single "Chill XMas", featuring a cover of Chill Penguin's theme and a cover of "Blue Christmas."

On March 2, 2020, they released another Megas/Belmonts collab EP, "Snakes", with "Stalker" (a Belmonts song focusing on Queen Medusa) and "Rogumer Storm" (Storm Eagle's theme), as well as a new cover of "Evolution of Circuitry" and a cover of "Yours Truly, 2095" by Electric Light Orchestra.

A short story by Matt Mowrer depicts the events of The Quick And The Blue. While not necessarily canonical, the story was featured on their website.

Not to be confused with the show Megas XLR.

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The work of The Megas contain examples of:

• Adaptation Distillation: In the original game, Fire Man and Ice Man had separate stages and boss fights, as with any other Robot Masters. "Hell Has Frozen Over", on the other hand, combines their stage themes and describes them as working together in an "epic fusion," challenging Mega Man to a two-on-one fight.
• Affably Evil: In Chill XMas, Chill Penguin might be devoted to the Maverick cause, but he's willing to call off the fight for Christmas and offers X eggnog, cookies, and compliments X's dashing boots.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Did Crash Man commit suicide to allow Mega Man to continue on, or did he get destroyed because he was trying to hold himself back during the fight? Only Crash Man himself knows and convincing arguments could be made for both.
  • Several of the songs in the History Repeating are ambiguous in that the band refuses to clarify who's singing — "Continue" is clearly about Mega Man, for instance, but the singer could be anyone. "Make Your Choice," they haven't said who's singing either point or even if it's two characters singing at each other or one character addressing Mega Man and Proto Man, leading to speculation that it's either Mega Man/Proto Man or Mega Man/Gamma, as well as that it's Gamma or even the Doc Robot addressing both Mega Man and Proto Man.
  • Was the single gunshot at the end of "GeminEye" Mega Man shooting and killing Gemini Man, or Gemini Man shooting his alter-ego and killing himself? Which one it is doesn’t alter Mega Man’s progress, and either is plausible.
  • Magnet Man definitely has feelings for Roll, but it's not clear if she shares them. For example, the line "Watch yourself, my brother wants you dead" isn't delivered by her, so it's hard to tell whether she means "take care, you're a target" or "go away or my brother will shoot you".
  • In "Gamma Unchained", Wily seethes that "I'm the one that they fear/And for him they cheer". It's not clear whether Light or Mega Man is the target of his ire in this particular case.
• Animal Stereotypes: Played straight with Snake Man, who, true to his symbolism, spends his entire song trying to talk Mega Man into a Face–Heel Turn; averted with Storm Eagle in "Rogumer Storm", who gets one line about being a "patriotic eagle" before everyone realises he's actually there to murder them.
• Arc Words:
  • "I/You want to be the one".
  • To a lesser extent, "if it was up to me/you".
  • The phrase "the end" also keeps popping up.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Metal Man spends his entire song ranting about how unstoppable he is, and Top Man isn't much humbler.
  Metal Man: You'd like to fight and try to be the one who brings me down, but I know that there's no chance.
  Top Man: I'm the one on top, I'm the one who makes history, yeah. You can't stop the rhythm of victory, and I can feel it all around me.
  • Queen Medusa in "Stalker" is described as being "so certain she will win", leaving her unprepared when the tables are turned on her.
• The Atoner: Dr. Light builds Mega Man to make up for his mistake of working with Dr. Wily to build the Robot Masters.
  My sins, you'll fight / The wrongs that I made you will make right.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The Megas are easily distracted — they justify a delayed album in a video diary as a result of several unrelated distractions, including buying a roomba.
• Avenging the Villain: In "Carved From Mighty Oak", Wood Man states he will avenge the other Robot Masters. Heat Man's voices seem to push him to this too. Then there's Skull Man, who seems to think the spirits of Mega Man's victims are literally driving him to war.
  Skull Man: Can you hear them / Calling out your name? / (Speaking for the dead) / I feel their vengeance / Guiding my hand / (Filling with dread)
• Battle in the Rain: Crash Man refers to "the rain and thunder" arriving along with Mega Man, so presumably their fight is one of these.
• Bittersweet Ending: Get Equipped ends with Mega Man defeating Dr. Wily, but the experience broke him.
  • History Repeating wraps up with Mega Man winning victories over both Wily and his own sense of despair, but the album's final song isn't triumphant - it's the sad, reflective "Melody from the Past", about how Proto Man, despite finding some measure of peace and redemption, is still haunted by his regrets and no longer feels a part of Light's Robo Family.
• Black Sheep: Bubble Man. He outright notes that his brethren called him useless, weak, and a geek.
  I'm swimming in this bright blue ocean / (I'm drowning in the darkest emotion) / They call me useless, they call me weak / (They call me a flipper and snorkel geek)
  Out of the eight robots, of all of us / (My power is so ridiculous) / I realize something, as I stand here waiting / (That I'm the one who I'm really hating)
• Blood Knight: "The Quick and The Blue" portrays Quick Man as having a bit of this in him.
  My circuits slow / I'm not scared anymore / This is the moment that we have been created for!
• Book Ends: History Repeating: Blue begins with Mega Man singing "if it was up to me." The final track goes "if it was up to you."
• Boss Banter: Some of the songs are, in part or full, framed as the Robot Master talking to Mega Man: "Metal Dance" is Metal Man's boasting to Mega Man, "Walk Away from Light" is entirely made up of Snake Man's We Can Rule Together pitch, and "Man on Fire" is Heat Man ranting to Mega Man about destroying him.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: "Look - it's a bird! It's a plane! No - it's a bird flying a plane!" from "Rogumer Storm"
• Break Them by Talking: Proto Man tries this on Mega Man twice. It doesn't work either time. The second fails so badly that it kicks off Mega Man's He's Back! moment.
  Why do we fight? How can you say you know what's right? What if we win? What if we fall? Will any choice that we make matter at all?''("History Repeating, Part 2 (One More Time)")
  You say that you stand for peace, but you're the one geared for war.'' ("Make Your Choice")
• Call-Back: Needle Man's song calls back to Air Man's.
  Air Man: Up in the sky, ten miles high, a man stands above the city he will destroy.
  Needle Man: Deep underground, ten miles down, a man stands below the city he will destroy…
  • Get Equipped has a very brief song called "The Beginning of the End". "History Repeating, Part 2" contains the line "Today the end begins."
  • A lot of the Robot Masters in History Repeating echo ones from Get Equipped and Megatainment: Spark Man is a Darker and Edgier Elec Man, Top Man is a Dance Battler like Metal Man, Hard Man is a local hero like Quick Man, and Magnet Man is romantically interested in a member of Dr Light's family like Flash Man. Then there are direct references like "Steel Forged in Fate" and "I Want To Be The One (To Watch You Die)".
• Call-Forward: Wily makes one during "Gamma Unchained" when he's commenting on Proto Man; saying thought he heard "The Red Song" (Proto Man's distinctive whistle). "History Repeating: Red" has "The Red Song" serve as the lead-in to "Not the Breakman".
• Came Back Wrong: "Gamma Unchained" plays with this. Wily seems to be lamenting his own arrogance in thinking he could revive Proto Man successfully as much as dismay at Proto Man being angry and vengeful when he came back online.
  Wily: I thought I could bring the dead back/Broken shell, rusted red with age/I gave him power, a new heart/It filled too quickly with his rage!
• Card-Carrying Villain: Heat Man is definitely not the hero of his own story, to the point where he seems to view himself as a demonic figure that collects souls.
  You are the hero! I am the fire! This is the meltdown! Of your desire! Your fight for justice turns to ashes, Mega Man!
• Central Theme: History Repeating, as the name suggests, is about history. Not just in the sense of having to fight the same war another time, although that does get quite a bit of focus, but also the interplay between the past and free will - whether you're just a product of your past, or if you can choose your future. It's particularly obvious in "History Repeating, Pt 2", where Mega Man wishes to "rewrite history/and change my destiny" in the face of Proto Man's fatalism, and "I Refuse (To Believe)", where Mega Man argues that you don't need to rewrite history to change your destiny, you just need to learn from your mistakes.
  Stop pretending you don't have a choice / Only that can set you free.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Cut Man and Guts Man, despite being two of the more well-known Robot Masters, don't show up at all in the Megatainment album. There's been talk of making a Megatainment Pt. 2, but there's the issue of how they're going to fill it with more than just the songs for those two.^note Time Man and Oil Man were considered, but Entertainment System wasn't all that fond of their songs.
• Combat Pragmatist: It is speculated by the fans that Mega Man used the Time Stopper against Quick Man (My circuits slow...), presumably to overcome the latter's superior speed.
• Continuity Nod: Spark Man's song, "You've Sparked a War", presents him as a revolutionary against human tyranny, just like his counterpart Elec Man's earlier song.
• The Cover Changes the Meaning: The acoustic versions of the songs often change the tone significantly from aggressive to somber.
  • "The Annihilation of Monsteropolis" goes from a wrathful creed in the midst of a fight to a contemplative, simmering "calm before the storm". Where the bridge featured spoken word that devolved into screaming in the background, the acoustic version keeps it calm, while chorals claim "They will fall, they will all fall!" like a voice urging Air Man's wrath on.
  • "The Quick And The Blue" doubles-down on the Western feeling from the original's intro and turns it into a tragic ballad.
  • "Carved From Mighty Oak" makes Wood Man's vow of revenge sound more like the wrath of nature itself rather than a violent personal vendetta.
• Dance Battler: Top Man considers the fight between Mega Man and himself a "legendary dance fight", while Metal Man talks about how Mega Man will fall victim to his "metal dance" and insists that he's armed with "funk".
• Darker and Edgier: Nothing close to the level of horror seen in The Protomen's songs, but a good number of the songs paint a decidedly darker picture of the Mega Man games. Roughly half of the Robot Masters are given sympathetic views, or at least a Freudian Excuse or two, and there are three seperate songs discussing the questionable moral ground that Mega Man stands on; Light, Wily, and Mega Man himself are all too aware that Mega Man is himself a robot built to kill, just like the robot masters that he defeats.
  • The Megatainment album in general has a darker, more cynical feel than Get Equipped, if only because of "Beneath the Steel" and "Look What You've Done". It may take several listenings and a back-to-back comparison to even recognize Bomb Man's theme (originally a rather cheerful song) in the former.
  • And History Repeating takes it up yet another notch. Compare "I Want to Be the One" and "Message from Dr. Light" to "History Repeating" and "One Last Time" just for the introductions. See Despair Event Horizon below.
  • The title of one of the last songs in History Repeating: Blue, "I Want to Be the One (To Watch You Die)" is a Darker and Edgier version of a previous song title, "I Want to Be the One".
• Dark Reprise:
  • What's the name of the MM3 Wily Stages 3 and 4 song sung by Dr Light? "I Want To Be The One... (To Watch You Die)".
    • In "History Repeating Pt.1"
    Now I can say when you want to be the One / What you start to realize is / You’re the only one
  • "Make Your Choice" echoes a recurring lyric from "History Repeating Part 2", 'one last time':
    History will repeat / This could be the last time / One last time
    • On that note, part of the bridge also echoes a part of Air Man's spoken monologue in "The Annihilation of Monsteropolis":
    Deep underground,
    Ten miles down.
    A man stands below
    The city he will destroy.
  • "I Refuse (To Believe)" carries fragments of the melody from "The Message from Dr. Light". It also reuses Proto Man's "We walk the program" line
• Death from Above: Air Man in "The Annihilation of Monsteropolis".
  "Lives on this earth I grow tired of / Death from above / The annihilation of everyone you know and love..."
  "I will fly high above Monsteropolis / And I will rain terror down on the general populace..."
• Death Seeker:
  • Crash Man does not agree with Wily's ideals and wants to give his power to Mega Man, but he is "Programmed to fight to the very end" and must do battle with him. However, at the end of the song: "Victory was at hand, but in the end, his will overcame the program." Presumably, he blew himself up so that Mega Man could use his power. Alternatively, he stopped himself from killing Mega Man long enough for him to make the last shot. One of the interesting parts of the Megas' music is that most of the songs can have Alternate Character Interpretation within the music itself, not just between the game and the songs.
  • Quick Man may have also been this, but it's ambiguous.
    "My circuits slow; I'm not scared anymore; this is the moment that we have been created for."
  • It's implied that Needle Man became this at the very end, realizing it was the only way to prevent himself from becoming an evil monster.
• Deconstruction: Of the Excuse Plot of the Mega Man games and of Mooks and boss battles. However by the end of History Repeating: Red it moves into putting those same ideas back together
• Decon-Recon Switch: The first few albums deconstruct the plot of Mega Man (as shown above), dealing with the unrelenting pressure and uncertainty involved in being the sole person responsible for saving the world, showing the Robot Masters as people, and even giving Dr. Wily a reason for his actions. The reconstruction comes in the form of the ultimate decision Mega Man makes in "I Refuse (To Believe)" where in pulling back Dr.Light and Proto Man from the Despair Event Horizon, realizes that condemning Wily to death would be to say that no man or machine would ever be more than their mistakes, making the effort of saving his father and brother worthless.
• Department of Redundancy Department:
  • "The NESsage From Dr. Light": an 8-bit track, remixed as a full fledged song, remixed as an 8-bit track.
  • Also, from "The Annihilation of Monsteropolis":
  "A man stands above the city he will destroy. Built from airplane parts, his propeller spins as he thinks to himself 'I will destroy these people.'"
  • Metal Man wants you to know that he throws metal blades, from his metal hands, inside his metal cave, which is controlled by his metal will, and you'll fall victim to his metal dance. One might notice something of a pattern, there.
• Despair Event Horizon: Dr. Light is singing "I Want To Be The One (To Watch You Die)" after seeing Proto Man fighting for Dr. Wily, which indicates he crossed this in a rather dark way.
  I've finally learned what torture means / You sent my first born back to me / And put a gun in his dead hand / It's time I take an eye for mine, old friend.
  I've sent a bullet with your name. / I want to finally end this game. / You are the one who wrote the end, / You wanted war, now I just want revenge^note This implies that while Wily wants war on humanity, Light just wants him dead.
  The things I hope, the fading dream, / Has finally got the best of me / I wish that I could be there / I want to be the one to watch you die
  • Ironically, the one thing that caused him to snap, that his resurrected "son" wants to kill him, was something that Dr Wily never intended to happen and that he seems to regret (not that Dr Light is in a position to know this).
  I thought I could bring the dead back / Broken shell rusted red with age / I gave him power, a new heart / It filled too quickly with his rage.
  • Mega Man crosses it in "History Repeating Part One", complete with a somber, weary take on the cheerful Mega Man 3 title tune.
• Doomed Moral Victor: In "Harder than Steel", Hard Man goes into battle and doesn't surrender, choosing to go down fighting instead, because the alternative is to live as a washed-up relic. He dies, but wins the eternal support of the crowd.
• Double-Meaning Title: "Vampire Killer" refers to the name of the Belmont family whip from Castlevania... but when the final chorus is handled as a duet between Leon Belmont and Sara Trantoul (the spirit empowering the whip), it becomes clear that the title of the song also refers to Leon himself.
  Leon/Sara: Tear through them, Vampire Killer...
• Dramatic Wind: In "The Quick And The Blue", just before the Showdown at High Noon, "a cold wind blows" dramatically.
  "Wait, now, there's too much at stake now, / A cold wind blows / He looked to the crowd and he cried / 'The moment of truth has arrived!'"
• Driven to Suicide: The ending of "Programmed to Fight" seems to imply that Crash Man killed himself (via self-detonation?) so Mega Man could finish his quest for justice.
  • The last part of the song ("Down falls Crash Man... Down falls Crash Man... Doooooooown"), along with the sudden bass boom which ends the song and the fact that Crash Man's stage requires Mega Man to travel mostly vertically by climbing ladders, implies Crash Man jumped or fell off the edge after refusing or failing to kill Mega Man.
    • The brass boom could also be a crash bomb (self?) explosion, or thunder (the end of the stage is in a storm). But again, "No-one will know the truth to this story."
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After spending most of History Repeating in a downward spiral since the end of Get Equipped, Mega Man breaks himself out of it, pulls Dr. Light back from the Despair Event Horizon, gets Proto Man to commit a Heel–Face Turn, destroys Gamma, and defeats Dr. Wily.
• Face Death with Dignity:
  • Quick Man admits that he's not scared anymore as he dies.
  My circuits slow / I'm not scared any more / I join the ranks of my brothers that have fallen before.
  • Hard Man as well. He chooses to go down fighting against Mega Man rather than surrender the match.
  • Crash Man also chooses to go down fighting against Mega Man because his weapon is needed to defeat Dr Wily, though in his case, it's not that he chose to fight, as he was programmed to fight until the very end, but that he chose to go down in spite of his programming.
• Film Noir: Gemini Man's song is framed in this style but with a unique twist; the fearful client and the private eye hired for protection and aid are his split personalities.
• Fire and Brimstone Hell: Heat Man's depraved ranting in "Man On Fire" has him potraying his stage as this. He's not far off, actually.
• For the Evulz: Heat Man, unlike Air Man, doesn't actually seem to have a reason for why he wants to cause death and destruction. At least, that is one way to look at it: It may have been a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Foregone Conclusion: Any of the songs that focus on a fight itself will obviously end with the Robot Master's defeat.
• Freudian Excuse: A few of the robots, Air Man, Bubble Man, Heat Man, and Flash Man in particular. See their respective entries on this page for more info.
• Fun with Acronyms: According to their mission statement, The Megas are Mike Eric Greg And Josh.
  • Which works even less well since they've added keyboardist Brian DD to their roster in 2011.
  • And fell apart entirely with Mike Levinson left to return to college in 2012.
• Gray-and-Gray Morality: Mega Man sees himself as a hero. Wily's robots see him as a menace who is slaughtering their brothers. "Lamentations of a War Machine/End Song" has Mega Man tormented by doubts over whether or not what he has done was right.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: From "Programmed to Fight", it seems that Crash Man may be the only one who knows his story. It's explicitly evoked with the line "My end has come and I welcome glory / No one will know the truth to this story."
• Gone Horribly Right: Gamma is a machine created to keep the peace. When Wily activates him in "Gamma Unchained", he comes to a horrible conclusion:
  System Activation. Peacekeeping Calculation. Solution: Extermination.
• Hailfire Peaks: Considering that Fire Man and Ice Man were working together, and that their song is called "Hell Has Frozen Over", it's not unreasonable to think their level was like this.
• Hearing Voices: Possibly Heat Man, given the line "In my mind, I hear the voices cry / I've made them a promise that Mega Man dies!"
• Heartbroken Badass: Magnet Man outright says that Roll, who he's fallen in love with, has "broken what she stole", i.e. his heart.
• Heel–Face Turn: Crash Man wanted to do one of these, but his programming wouldn't let him. Well, until the end at least.
• He's Back!: After two albums of questioning his purpose and humanity, Mega Man comes to the conclusion that though he is a machine, he still has a soul and can make choices of his own. He forgives Dr. Light, spares Dr. Wily, and gives Proto Man a Breaking Speech.
• History Repeats: History Repeating, particularly Blue, makes frequent reference to how the cycle of Wily and Mega Man's fight is happening again and may indeed be "never meant to end".
• Holding Out for a Hero: The chorus in "Rogumer Storm" is a plea that they "need a Mega Man". They get one.
• Holiday Ceasefire: "Chill Xmas" is about Chill Penguin calling a truce and inviting X to celebrate Christmas with him, while also warning him all bets are off tomorrow morning.
• Humans Are Flawed: Melody of the Past's basic message. "Do not blame Father / He is only a man."
• Hypocrite: Dr Wily lambastes Light for having his robot destroy his own kind, even though he's the one sending robots out to create murder and mayhem amongst humans despite being one himself.
  • Also, his song "Look What You've Done" implies that he's fighting to free robots from human tyranny (as do "Evolution of Circuitry" and "You've Sparked A War".) Now compare this to "Programmed to Fight" and "The Haystack Principle", which reveal that Crash Man and Needle Man are still a slaves to their programming...
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: In "Programmed To Fight", Crash Man wants to let Mega Man win and kill him so Doctor Wily will fall, but, as the title suggests, his programming will not allow it.
• I Let You Win: Listening closely to the Crash Man song lyrics, the end suggests Crash Man was actually winning before he finally was able to throw the fight.
• Implacable Man: Quick Man's song has him wondering if Mega Man's one of these.
  Is what they say true? / Does Death wear blue? / Can he fall?
  • In the end, he concludes that Mega Man fits the description.
  What they say is true / Death does wear blue / He can't... fall...
• Inadequate Inheritor: "Rogumer Storm" has the narrator wondering whether X can live up to Mega Man's legacy, insisting "We need a Mega Man!" and repeatedly pointing out how long ago X was built. Then X kicks Storm Eagle's ass in one round.
  We need a Mega Man...
  His name is... Mega Man! X!
• Insistent Terminology: Several Robot Masters refer to their levels as towns.
• Invincible Hero: Deconstructed. Mega Man blows his way through all of the Robot Masters (except possibly Crash Man) but becomes consumed with guilt and regret because of it. Several songs involve Mega Man having to be convinced that he should keep going after all he's done. Though it's implied that the battles (like the duels with Quick Man and Crash Man for example) are still tough, Megaman, the hero, naturally prevails.
• Ironic Echo: Used in "Stalker" as the hunter turns the tables on Queen Medusa.
  Verse one: You made the choice to fight; that door closed long ago. You can't run away, no, no, not yet, no way. You feel the stalker's eye...
  Verse two: So certain she will win, but she's never seen the way you move. She can't run away, no, no, not yet, no way. You have the stalker's eye...
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Air Man is driven mad by his loneliness due to being rejected by everyone. He works with Wily to take revenge.
• Last Note Nightmare: "Make Your Choice" ends with a distorted technological sound, giving the impression of a machine (almost certainly Gamma) breaking down.
• Loners Are Freaks: In "Annihilation of Monsteropolis", Air Man is portrayed as a loner tortured by the fact his only power is "to push others away", and goes as far as outright stating: "For if I can't walk among them / Then I will walk the world alone".
  • Although in this case, perhaps it should be "Freaks Are Loners", as it's implied that the fact that humans rejected his abnormal appearance might be a major factor for his hatred of humanity.
  No one in this world can understand / Who I am. / That is why I'm my own biggest fan!
  • Needle Man has the same problem, but unlike Air Man, his hatred is aimed inward.
• Lyrical Dissonance: Lots:
  • The cheerful ending theme from Mega Man 1 is set to Dr. Wily vowing to return and destroy the people's future. And he won't stop.
  • "Programmed to Fight" may also have this. For one of the most cheery themes in Mega Man 2, the relatively dark explanation of how Crash Man knows his fate creates a contrast between the lyrics and the melody.
  • "Evolution Of Circuitry" is a upbeat, snappy song about Elec Man wanting to incite a robot revolution. "You've Sparked A War" is similar only even more dissonant; Spark Man is singing about how humankind is a virus that must be wiped out.
  • "Metal Dance" is a hyper song about Metal Man being a Blood Knight ranting about how he'll kill Mega Man.
  • "Quick And The Blue" is a song about Quick Man trying to fight fate and becoming increasingly doubtful. The end has him calmly accepting his death as Mega Man kills him possibly with the Time Stopper.
  • "Don't Mess with Magnet Man" is pretty damn upbeat for a song about a guy who knows for sure he's going to be scrap metal by the end of the day.
  • "Walk Away From Light" is a rather smooth song considering that it's about Snake Man trying to corrupt Mega Man into a villain and accusing him of being no different.
  • "Afraid of the Dark" has Shadow Man's rather happy-sounding music set to lyrics of how terrified he is of succumbing to the evil which is slowly corrupting him.
  • "Cracked Skulls" is a fairly upbeat rock theme set to lyrics of Skull Man chewing out Mega Man for killing thousands of robots and how he is their vessel of revenge.
• Lyric Swap:
  • The chorus of "The Quick and The Blue" has Quick Man declare himself "the law" in his town and questions whether Mega Man can actually down. After the fight, we get this:
  You're too quick on the draw,
  Burn this town, there is no law,
  What they say is true,
  Death does wear blue,
  He can't... fall...
  • The normal chorus of "Gamma Unchained" ends with the line "I'll give you power, you'll take control". The final repetition of the chorus changes it to "What good is power if you're out of control?"
  • In "The Haystack Principle", one particular line in the chorus goes, "I can't see the way out this time." The last line of the song changes this to, "And now I see the way out this time."
• Magitek: Skull Man believes himself to be a container for the spirits of the dead Robot Masters in "Cracked Skulls".
• Mood Whiplash: "Evolution of Circuitry", Elec Man's song, is quite possibly one of the most cheerful and optimistic songs by The Megas, despite the reasons for the optimism. "Beneath the Steel", Bomb Man's theme, is one of the darkest, rivaled only by "Look What You've Done". They're right next to each other on the album.
  • The Mega Man 1 album is full of mood whiplash in general. The first song is "Evolution of Circuitry", followed by "Beneath The Steel" as mentioned. That is followed by "Hell Has Frozen Over", a much lighter song focusing on the teamwork of Ice Man and Fire Man, and then you get hit by "Look What You've Done".
  • Speaking of Bomb Man, anyone who remembers how cheerful his theme was in the game will probably get hit by this.
    • By that token, compare Crash Man's theme to "Programmed to Fight", and then, of course, there is the fact that the cheerful ending theme to Mega Man 1 is overlaid with Dr. Wily promising a never-ending war for Mega Man and Dr. Light.
  • "Fly on a Dog" is one of their darkest songs, involving Mega Man grimly contemplating his purpose. It also features a chorus about how awesome flying on a dog is. But at the end, Mega Man bemoans that despite all these amazing things Rush can do, the one thing Rush can't do is give Mega Man a shoulder to cry on.
  • History Repeating: Blue, has most of the tracks as awesome rock tracks, each about the Robot Masters declaring their purpose and desire, or Mega Man and Dr Light regretting their actions. It ends on "Continue", a rather soft, almost ballad-like song, about how Mega Man would choose to continue, no matter what, but still sounds incredibly regretful and pained. Not surprising, since it is the game's Game Over screen.
  • "Harder Than Steel" carries heavy elements of a song you'd hear in an 80's training montage. However, since the guy training is the Robot Master, it doesn't end well.
  • "Don't Mess with Magnet Man" has quite possibly the most upbeat melody of any song on either History Repeating album, but the lyrics are about a guy loving a girl on the opposite side of a war, getting rejected by her, and her brother coming to kill him.
• Mook Horror Show:
  • Wily's song "Look What You've Done" has shades of this, specifically when he starts begging Dr. Light to call Mega Man off, horrified of facing him.
  • Gemini Man's song, as he (they?) becomes increasingly frightened throughout the song, seeing Mega Man as a hitman out for blood whom he's trying to protect himself from.
  • Quick Man's song, as it becomes increasingly clear that the rumors about Mega Man were not exaggerating.
• Moral Myopia:
  • So, it's okay for Wily to program destructive machines and set them loose to kill and maim, but if Light sends his robot out to stop him, Light is a coward and Mega Man is a murderer?
  • Wily also has no compunctions sending robots to kill and maim humans in general, but when one of his creations specifically intends to hurt Dr Light in particular, it is somehow different.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • By "Lamentations of a War Machine", Mega Man's enthusiasm for the fight has given way to the realization that he, too, was built to kill. He's reduced to begging Doctor Light to tell him why he fought, why all this had to happen.
  If I've a heart made of steel / Then does that mean I cannot feel? / Remorse for everything I've done / My hand's a smoking gun!
  • The intro to the Mega Man 3 album implies that he's still not over it.
  If it was up to me
  I'd rewrite history
  And change my destiny
  One last time.
  • The first verse of "The Message from Dr. Light". My mistakes / And my sins; what have I done?
• Mythology Gag: Many of the songs have some sort of reference to the original game somewhere in them, sometimes alluding to a quirk in the character's behavior in game.
  • "Crash Man paces back and forth..."^note In the original Mega Man 2, there is a flaw in the AI where if the player does not shoot first, Crash Man will not throw a Crash Bomb.
    • "To break Wily's walls you will need my power." The Buebeam Trap. That is all.
  • "Take the first shot, Mega Man, let's put it to the test."^note Metal Man won't attack you unless you attack him first.
  • "My circuits slow..."^note Quick Man's weakness is the Time Stopper, which stops time. The short story uses this interpretation, and even describes the feeling in detail.
  • "The strongest of all of the other robots is me!"^note The Bubble Lead, Bubble Man's weapon, is the only weapon the final boss is weak to.
  • "When the leaves fall, so will you."^note Describes one of Wood Man's attacks which causes leaves to fall from the top of the screen.
  • "Do you know what it's like to be built this way? / With only the power to push others away?"^note Air Man literally blows Mega Man away from him when using the Air Shooter.
  • Dr. Wily's speech near the end of "Look What You've Done" when the music transitions to the ending theme is taken word for word from the end of the first game.
  • "He removed his helmet, dropped it into the soft grass..." Figures the song based off the ending would include a reference to the last shot of the game.
  • "I dodge bullets when I'm spinning."^note When Top Man winds up for his charge attack, Mega Man's shots will bounce off of him.
  • "You can fight these cats 'til you get your fill."^note Referring to the giant feline minibosses from Top Man's stage.
  • "My heart is gone, there's only fire."^note In canon, Proto Man went to Wily to have his imperfect solar energy core repaired after running away from Light Labs. Wily opted to replace it with an unstable but more reliable nuclear core instead.
  • The title of the song "History Repeating" may be taken from a line in the intro of Mega Man 4; "history repeats itself"
  • "I am magnetically drawing my death to me"^note One of Magnet Man's abilities is to use magnetism to pull Mega Man to him.
    • "She tells me, 'I'm sorry, I've gotta roll'"^note The woman Magnet Man is serenading is all but said to be Roll, Mega Man's sister.
  • "Hi Rock, my weapon is hot"^note "Rock" was Mega Man's name before Light upgraded him, and in Japan he's known as "Rock Man".
  • Proto Man went by the codename Break Man in Mega Man 3. Since Mega Man doesn't know who he is yet, neither name is used in History Repeating: Blue, but part 2 of the title track sneaks in "He's the prototype man of Mega Man", and the track "I'm Not The Break Man" in History Repeating: Red suggests a meaning for his codename.^note The intended meaning is still unknown, so The Megas' interpretation — he was literally broken — may actually be right. Other theories include that his goal is to "break" Mega Man (either literally or in the sense of testing him) and that it's just another music reference, this time to breakdancing.
  • "I can feel my hands turning into fists."^note Actually, Spark Man has huge electrical prongs instead of hands. Fans often poke fun at this particularly blatant Robot Master deformity.
  • "Turning off the sun, running through the night"^note Shadow Man's stage has devices that turn the rooms completely black until destroyed.
    • "I am the knife in a gunfight."^note The Shadow Blade is a short-ranged weapon due to it's boomerang-like properties,
  • "I think it's time I go my separate ways"^note Gemini Man literally splits into two versions of himself in the game.
  • "I can fly on a dog / jump high on a dog / drive in a dog (underwater!)"^note These are the different Rush modes in MM3.
  • "[The spirits] encircle me."^note Skull Man's weapon is a shield called the Skull Barrier. It creates skulls that literally circle the user.
  • "The daylight, it grows dim"^note Skull Man's stage has a segment where the sky slowly fades from noon to night.]]
  • "Hey killer boots / But could you leave them in the entryway?"[[note]]Chill Penguin's stage is where X gets the Boot Armor parts
  • "Stop the fighting, how dare we shotgun ice / When we can chill and be merry?" and "But when the holiday is done / I'm gonna get my ice shotgun"^note Chill Penguin's weapon is called Shotgun Ice.
  • "But tonight we wait for the hologram of Santa Claus!"^note Dr. Light's hologram appears in the capsule that you get the boots from, and many people have noted a great similarity between his appearance and Santa Claus's
• Noir Episode: Gemini Man's song GeminEye is one, with themes and vocabulary drawn from noir-style detective stories.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Both Wily and Light build innocent robots into killers, just for different reasons. Wily calls out Light on this in Look At What You've Done.
  • Walk Away From Light has Snake Man accuse Mega Man of this in order to tempt him to evil.
• Obliviously Evil: Spark Man is clearly convinced that he's the good guy.
  We are the chosen, we are the pure / They are the virus, we are the cure.
• Omnicidal Maniac:
  • Bomb Man's song paints him as one.
  Fire in once lifeless eyes / motivated by their cries / Obliteration/ The humans' chance has passed.
  • And then there's Air Man, here a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds who goes steadily crazier over the course of his song.
  There'll be a fire in the sky / And your doom will rain down! / THERE WILL BE A TOMBSTONE WITH THE PLANET EARTH ENGRAVED ON IT!
• Parents as People: In "Melody From the Past", the last song of History Repeating: Red, Proto Man finally comes to terms with the fact that everything Dr. Light did that hurt him was because Dr. Light is only human and didn't mean any of it. This finally brings him a measure of peace and allows him to finally let go of his anger.
  Do not blame Father, he is only a man
• Place Beyond Time: The title for "Out of Time" pulls a Double Meaning to this effect; Simon is not only running low on time before Dracula is at full power, but its singular usage throughout the song refers to the fact that Castlevania is so wrong that it exists "Out(side) of Time".
• Pride Before a Fall: Metal Man and Top Man are portrayed as arrogant and cocksure, certain of their victory, before the Foregone Conclusion smacks them in the face. It's most notable in "Stalker", the Belmonts song focusing on Queen Medusa, in which the first verse is about how the unnamed hunter fighting Queen Medusa is probably screwed... and the second verse is about the tables being turned against her because she didn't expect to encounter such a serious threat.
  So certain she will win, but she's never seen the way you move. She can't run away...
• Pun: Elec Man has the ability to rectify.
• Reconstruction: After song after song picking apart the Mega Man storyline, morality, and characters, History Repeating: Red ends with Mega Man realizing that he is a hero and regaining his will to fight while both Dr. Light and Proto Man realize their own mistakes and make amends.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Elec Man is portrayed as a radical revolutionary fighting against "human cruelty" in "Evolution of Circuitry".
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • If you don't attribute Heat Man's song to For the Evulz, and lean toward Hearing Voices. This goes hand in hand with the Ax-Crazy. Also can be a Freudian Excuse.
  • "Gamma Unchained" and "I'm Not the Breakman" also hint that Proto Man's on one of these, albeit downplayed. He's not out to kill his makers (though the line of "I hear the red song again, he wants revenge" in "Gamma Unchained" indicates some fear on Wily's part), but Proto is pissed that he was replaced and is gunning for Rock as a result.
    • Alternately, he specifically wants to destroy Dr. Light, his abusive "father".
• Screw Destiny: Crash Man succeeds in resisting his programming and losing to Mega Man.
  • Mega Man seems to find some motivation to do this in "History Repeating, Part 2 (One More Time)", deciding that this is going to be "the last time [he's] the Mega of men".
    Mega Man: Today, I change the end!
  • Mega Man's Kirk Summation to Proto Man involves telling him that he can make his own decisions and isn't just a puppet of his programming. It sticks, and Proto Man stops being The Fatalist by "Melody from the Past".
    Proto Man: My fate is broken, my path I cannot see/Though you are the chosen, I'll make my own history...
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Mega Man starts to develop into this. By "Lamentations of a War Machine", he's wondering why he ever bothered to fight in the first place.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Harder Than Steel" has the line "You got back the touch, you got back the power".
  • "The Haystack Principle" has Needle Man claim "I'm not a bad guy, I'm just designed that way".
  • For two tunes that were extremely similar to begin with, which in this case are Journey's "Faithfully" and Elec Man's theme from Mega Man 1, The Megas take it a step further in "Evolution of Circuitry" by having the last verse sound almost lyrically identical to the second verse of the Journey song.
    • From "Evolution of Circuitry":
    Journey starts, it all ends tonight
    I'll send the spark of war along the wire
    • And from "Faithfully":
    Restless hearts, sleep alone tonight
    Sending all my love along the wire
  • "You've Sparked A War" has Spark Man comment that "They are the virus; we are the cure."
  • The chorus of "Cracked Skulls" ends with Skull Man declaring that "What is dead can never die."
  • "Rogumer Storm" has the following wisecrack about Storm Eagle piloting the Death Rogumer airship:
    Look! It's a bird! It's a plane! No - it's a bird flying a plane!
• Showdown at High Noon: Quick Man's battle with Mega Man is framed as one of these, complete with Dramatic Wind and the contest being decided by Quick Draw. It's most obvious in the Get Acoustic version of "The Quick and the Blue", since that mostly uses period-appropriate instruments and mood.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Proto Man's The Fatalist rant in "History Repeating, Pt. 2: One Last Time" doesn't work. At all.
  Proto Man: Why do you fight? How can you say you know what's right? What if we win? What if we fall? Will any choice that we make matter at all?
  Mega Man: I know I can win, I've done it before! Get out of my way! I gotta settle the score! One last time...
• Siamese Twin Songs: "History Repeating, Part One" into "Part Two (One Last Time)" is the most overt case of two songs meant to be played in order, but "Programmed to Fight" leads directly into "Lamentations of a War Machine", and "The Red Song" is basically an intro to "I'm Not the Breakman".
• SkeleBot 9000:
  • Proto Man, according to the cover art of History Repeating: Red. Aside from his face (or what can be seen of it), his body is mostly exposed mechanical frame, due to years of disrepair and simply being gutted for parts over time.
  • Cracked Skulls adds Skull Man, who goes so far as to call himself "the Skull".
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Shadow Man's song is about Wily's violent programming overwriting his personality.
  Shadow Man: Say goodbye to the light, the darkness grows/I'm in league with the shadow/I can feel the good in me is dying slow...
  • "I Wanna Be The One (To Watch You Die)" is about Light succumbing to his hatred of Wily and drifting ever closer to becoming a Fallen Hero.
    Light: You are the one who wrote the end / You wanted war, now I just want revenge.
• Stealth Pun: A bit of this with "The Annihilation of Monsteropolis":
  No one in this world can understand / Who I am. / That is why I'm my own biggest - - cue chorus overlapping the word "fan".
  • From "The Haystack Principle":
  Wait. Get to the point.
  • A truly sad one in I’m Not The Breakman
  They lost me, forgot me, made you from parts of me. If you’re the one, my father’s son, then what am I supposed to be? (It then plays the riff when obtaining a new weapon...)
• Split Personality: Gemini Man has two personalities that personify as a weak, cowardly client and a brave, hardboiled detective. The former is scared of Mega Man and is begging for the latter to protect him (notably, the voices portraying the personalities switch throughout the song). It's indicated that they're even a little bit conscious of it happening.
  Gemineye / I forget my name (It's all the same) / So I'm taking yours (Of course, of course)
• Spontaneous Crowd Formation:
  • A crowd gathers to watch Mega Man and Quick Man fight in "The Quick and the Blue".
  • Another crowd gathers as word gets around of Hard Man's return in "Harder than Steel".
    You hear the crowd, you hear the cheers. They're still with you all through these years.
• Stalker with a Crush/Star-Crossed Lovers: Magnet Man and Roll in "Don't Mess With Magnetman". Which trope applies is unclear as Magnet Man is the one doing all the singing.
• A Storm Is Coming: There are multiple references to the ongoing conflict as a storm - Mega Man calls his path a "gathering storm" in "History Repeating, Pt 2 (One Last Time)", "Continue" calls him "the one to fare the storm"... and then there's "Rogumer Storm", based on the theme song for a boss literally called Storm Eagle, which is entirely built around this.
  Blue, a shadow taking form... / One has stood against the storm.
• Suicide by Cop: Crash Man's entire song is about how much he wants Mega Man to kill him, and the central conflict is about him fighting his programming so he can make sure it happens. Needle Man also only starts to see "a way out" of his current state at the end of his song, when Mega Man is there.
• Tempting Fate: During "Look What You've Done," Dr. Wily scoffs when Mega Man is sent out to fight, telling Dr. Light that "he'll just disappoint you." The very next lyrics go straight into Mook Horror Show territory.
• Turned Against Their Masters:
  • Crash Man may have been more motivated by a hatred of his creator than by sort of sense of justice.
  • Then there's, you know, Elec Man's entire song, calling out for robots to throw off human oppression and revolt.
• Unreliable Narrator: Most of the Robot Master songs are entirely from their perspectives, which leads into a lot of Ambiguous Situation and Alternate Character Interpretation. For example, whether "Cracked Skulls" implies a Science Fantasy universe or just that Skull Man is delusional is hard to tell, because the whole thing is being filtered through Skull Man's potential delusions. It's hard to tell how Roll genuinely feels about Magnet Man because "Don't Mess with Magnetman" is entirely from his perspective, and obviously he's going to view it as a tragic Star-Crossed Lovers situation even if it's actually not.
• Villain Song: Most of the songs are sung from the viewpoints of the Robot Masters the songs are associated with. "Look What You've Done" and "Gamma Unchained" deserve special mention as they are both sung from the perspective of Dr. Wily himself.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Hard Man in "Harder than Steel" is beloved by the crowd who watch his battle with Mega Man.
• Villainous Crush:
  • "Blue Like You" heavily implies Flash Man is interested in Mega Man, as he waxes on about how impressive the Blue Bomber is and spends much of the song convincing him to join Dr. Wily's side, if only so that they can be together.
  Hey, Mega Man / Join my side (and let me stop this moment in time) / You'll be mine forever / This moment will last forever / One last moment together!
  • Magnet Man also has a thing for Roll, trying to convince her that just because their fathers are at odds doesn't mean that it should get between them. It's kept vague if Roll reciprocates his feelings or not, but she warns him that they can't be close because Mega Man is coming to kill him.
  Sure, my dad wants to rule the world / Can you let that get between us, girl?
• We Can Rule Together:
  • Snake Man tells Mega Man to "walk away from Light" and "shed the lies and make a new world with the Snake".
  • Flash Man also wants Mega Man to join his side, partially to escape his own incoming demise, partially out of loneliness and partially because he's in love with him.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: "Look What You've Done" portrays Dr. Wily as one of these.
  Call me wrong? / The future needs us / Your answer's death? / You end us, bleed us
  Can you not feel / That we could have a life forged in steel? / I only ask that you see what I see / This is the answer / Why won't you believe?
  • Elec Man can qualify too, as he sees human control of robots as slavery.
    • Spark Man's attitude is basically the same as Elec Man's, save for possibly being angrier about it.
  • "Gamma Unchained" makes this even more clear, as Wily invokes Utopia Justifies the Means (almost word-for-word) and activates the giant peacekeeping robot Gamma to end the fighting. Gamma quickly calculates that the best way for there to be peace is if there's nobody left alive to make war. And from "Make Your Choice":
  How can there be peace / While two sides stand?
• The Western: "The Quick and the Blue" is laden with Western elements such as a Showdown at High Noon, Quick Man being played as a sheriff figure, and a Dramatic Wind blowing. The Get Acoustic version even sounds like it's taken from a Western.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Despite the fact that many of the robots claim to have free will and be people, several songs imply that the world treats robots as slaves or worse; Heat Man's song (probably) takes place in a scrapyard that he literally thinks is Robot Hell, where he claims that the robots are conscious and screaming as they are being melted down. No wonder many of the robots are furious about their mistreatment.
  The countless flames scream out in searing pain. / Their souls and their ashes are all that remain.
  • Nor is Mega Man immune to this; while he doesn't seem to like killing Robot Masters, it's only when he reaches Wily in History Repeating (Red) that he actually draws a line in the sand and refuses to go through with it.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Wily calls out Dr. Light many times in "Look What You've Done".
  And who is this that you send?
  One of them?
  While you cower, far from harm.
  He will just disappoint you.
  ..."And how quick you had him dispatch his brothers.
  You call this murderer a savior."
  "I see his hands, covered in my children's blood... and his eyes do not waver."
  • Snake Man, Proto Man and Skull Man all call out Mega Man for the destruction he leaves in his wake.
    Snake Man: ''You say 'don't take their lives / They don't deserve to die' / And who does? / You think it's us? / And what of the one / Who calls us sons / Gonna kill him too? / 'Cause who are you? / You're a man's metal son / the same as every one of us! ("Walk Away from Light")
    Proto Man: Hard to see the good through your trail of dead. ("I'm Not the Breakman")
    Also Proto Man: You say that you stand for peace / But you're the one geared for war. ("Make Your Choice")
    Skull Man: Look what you made - this morbid scene! ("Cracked Skulls")
• Who's Laughing Now?: Bubble Man wants to make this happen by killing Mega Man:
  There's one thing for which I long
  And that is to prove them all wrong!
  I promise you
  I won't rest until I have defeated you
  They will all see
  The strongest of all of the other robots is me.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: "The Annihilation of Monsteropolis" presents Air Man this way:
  Do you know what it's like to be built this way?
  With only the power to push others away?
  ...
  I will destroy these people... For if I cannot walk among them... Then I will walk the world alone.
• Written by the Winners: Top Man's song opens with a reference to this idea. "I'm the one on top, I'm the one who writes history." Wily also references this in "Look What You've Done", saying that he knows history won't be kind to all involved.
• You Keep Using That Word: Mega Man and Proto Man argue from different definitions of free will, and Proto Man at one point accuses Mega Man of being disingenuous or outright self-deluded:
  This thing you call your will / I call a ruse.

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