Rhombus Rota

Happy Valentine’s Day!

To celebrate I wanted to post something romantic but keeping it nerdy I settled on a post about shipping. Specifically shipping in Mega Man. The cast is primarily a sausage fest so there’s a good number of times when my gaydar has gone off with such a massive series and cast. At first it seems like there wouldn’t be much to go off. Most characters get little screen time and even less dialogue but Mega Man has a ton of personality injected into its games and characters. One method used to achieve this is the database introduced in Mega Man and Bass. Every character in the (classic) series up to that point got their own bio, with a strength, weakness, like and dislike, in addition to a general description. This was invaluable for discovering surprising romances like our first couple

Snake Man and Toad Man

If you scroll down to the comments of any video showing off the database the top comment is probably gonna be someone making a joke about how Snake Man’s like is Toad Man but Toad Man’s dislike is Snake Man. This is savage but it’s also great setup for an enemies to lovers arc! Now is this just a reference to snakes eating toads? Almost definitely but “eating” is a super common allegory for sex, especially with anthropomorphic characters. The sexual tension between the two is clear physically but personality wise I think they would be a great opposites attract couple. Snake Man is described as “Prudent” or thoughtful, whereas Toad Man’s weakness is that he is “tone deaf”. Snake Man can help Toad Man be more considerate of other people (or robots). Toad Man seems like he would have trouble reading people or even communicating his own thoughts clearly but Snake Man’s thoughtfulness suggests that he would be emotionally intelligent. On the other hand Snake Man’s weakness is that he’s “vindictive” or vengeful. Toad Man is “Good at science” so he’s smart, rational and considerate of consequences so he can cool off Snake Man and get him to look at the bigger picture when he’s in a state of wrath

Guts Man and Stone Man

Moving onto a couple of bears, Guts Man and Stone Man might be another example of opposites attract, depending on how you interpret their bios. Guts Man is described as having a “One track mind”, which makes sense, he’s all brawn and little brain. Stone Man has “Rocky persistence”. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to take this as persistence that’s hard as stone or wavering persistence. I’m gonna go with the latter and say that Guts Man can help Stone Man keep on track whereas Stone Man will sometimes have to convince Guts Man to just let it go. Their hobbies synergise quite well together as well. Stone Man is good with tech, which I imagine would be something Guts Man might struggle with, for a robot at least. Guts Man likes karaoke and Stone Man likes movies so I like to think they would go see musicals together and sing the songs together at karaoke. To top it all off Stone Man’s bio says that he’s already friends with Guts Man so we can get a great friends to lovers arc!

Elec Man and Aqua Man

Aqua Man is the most obvious answer to which Mega Man characters are queer. I mean just look at him. Elec Man seems comparatively out of the blue but in Mega Man Powered Up he is flamboyant as they come. I love this. They take the coolest, strongest robot master in the game, who gives you the best weapon and make him undeniably gay. The two have an obvious opposites attract dynamic with lightning and water. This applies to their personalities as well. Elec Man being cool and responsible, according to the database and Aqua Man being silly. Elec Man can get Aqua Man to take things a little more seriously, Aqua Man can get Elec Man to lighten up and get over himself and the pair of them can wreak havoc with their powerful weapons

Clown Man and Mega Man

This one is a little different because I don’t necessarily think Mega Man would reciprocate these feelings but Clown Man definitely has a crush on Rock. He says “See you in my dreams” when Mega Man beats him! I really don’t know how else I could interpret that. Their meet cute being Mega Man beating him up doesn’t sound great but Clown Man’s bio says that he’s a good sport so he probably wouldn’t hold a grudge over it. It also says that Clown Man is “Extremely emotional” so it makes sense that he would become smitten so quickly. Furthermore he “Hates everything” so him taking to Mega Man like this is very special for him. As for Mega Man his database bio doesn’t give us much but in the Archie comics he doesn’t have any interest in dating Tempo when Roll tries to hook them up so his interests may lie in men… or clowns

Launch Octopus and Squid Adler

Moving onto the X series we have some queer couples here too, even without a database of character bios. Launch Octopus and Squid Adler were actually the first characters I thought of when I decided to write this. My first X game was Maverick Hunter X where Launch Octopus is flamboyant and camp so I’ve always thought that he was gay but my gaydar really started going off when I played X5 and Squid Adler was lamenting Launch Octopus’ death. There was definitely something going on between these two and they were definitely kissing underwater

X and Zero

Finally there’s the obvious ship but they’re so cute and they’re so in love. As I said my first X game was Maverick Hunter X so within 10 minutes of meeting these characters I was already getting X talking about “hooking up” with Zero. Then at the end of the game we get Zero’s sacrifice for X, oh my goodness! This continues throughout the rest of the franchise, even in Mega Man Zero X is returning as a cyber elf to literally be Zero’s guardian angel and the game ends with Zero monologuing about how they are “The best partners”. X and Zero are always there to support each other. Every shonen best friend/rivalry dynamic is somewhat homoerotic and this is no exception

– Mark

References:

Mega Man and Bass (SNES, 1998)

Mega Man Powered Up (PSP, 2006)

Mega Man Issue 22 (2013)

Mega Man Maverick Hunter X (PSP, 2005)

Mega Man X5 (PS1, 2000)

Mega Man Zero (GBA, 2002)