I'm assuming we'll be skipping the potential "flashback in a flashback" here since we already know everything?

*comic starts over from the beginning*

FFFFFFFFFFF-

And thus did Princess Irata press the ultimate Select Switch...

Maybe this is an opportunity to go over key points so people don't have to re-read 10 years of comics.

Hmm, so even Protoman was worried about the gamemaster working for the Sovereign. I wonder, who else knows about this prophecy or whatever?

Good thinking, V.I.! Looks like Wednesday is going to be Recap Day. ...well, a Recap from Alex's point of view, anyway. So no Drab Lord, Mario, or The Prettiest Girl in Mythrial Town.

Good lord, Protoman seems like the first well-adjusted grown-up we've run into in awhile. So I have no doubt whatsoever that he's secretly plotting to string up Alex and throw him over the wall to get Roll, or something.

And seriously, which princess will we be rescuing? Zelda was like, elected queen, right?

...Maybe it's time for an archive crawl. Again.

Yes I think this is confirmation that Zelda is the elected queen.

Interesting. Could she be trapped like VP Wiley?

Or joined the band Queen.

And now that I've had a look back at the archives at Alex's meeting with Zelda, turns out the princess that was being discussed (at that point) was Marle, as her pendant could apparently get Alex home.

Also: Alex still has the SNES Mouse, right? Any chance Protoman knows how to make it work? Or is that too much to hope for, maybe.

I say that the mouse will activate the next time he says "Sweet Christmas, it's stupid fresh!"

In any case, I think he's going to rescue Marle, considering she's currently... well, I suppose we could say she's bricked in.

Thank goodness we don't have to deal with an attempt at a Queen Amidala sprite.

Alex is sure that they're on the same team now, but something rubs me wrong about Protoman here... not to mention there's Hypocrisy still to be accounted for. But if the question's not rhetorical, does that mean Protoman was worried about a loose-cannon Gamemaster working on the Sovereign's behalf? Or is it something less obvious?

My guess is that the story (The one Alex is telling Protoman) will go off on a tangent once the Met gets brought up.

If I recall correctly (and it's been a while since I've gone through the archives), Doctor Wiley and Light were both concerned that Alex may be working for (or in the interests) of the Sovereign. That's why they had a giant laser pointed at him for a good portion of the Alex vs. Sinstrals fight.

I suspect that Protoman's suspicions come from whatever caused the Doctors to be so wary about Alex.

It has to do with a prophecy. If I remember right, "If the Gamemaster comes not to save Videoland, he will destroy it."

Theory: Alex's captor really is a proper gamemaster, except he's the one fated to destroy everything.

I don't think that's it; it seems much more likely it refers to the battle with the Sovereign, since the Sovereign's own prediction is that he will bring about her final reunification and the end of everything. We just don't have many good clues to go by about Ryan.

It sounds like Protoman reveals what happened with Mother Brain, and how Dr Wiley both discovered and didn't quite understand Omega Energy. It seems like Protoman represents the illumination that very few people in this comic have been able to give Alex - particularly Bob, Rock, the Sailor Scouts, the Voices in the Desert, Retro Megaman, etc - and Alex seems to be finally sick of it. It would not surprise me if through Alex's reminiscing, he comes to realize what the Mystic Mouse's magic words are.

Incidentally, everyone keeps saying that "Sweet Christmas, that's stupid fresh!" is the Mystic Mouse's code, but outside of multiple non-canon comics and logos, he never really says the phrase in the comic, except the following two times in the first act, and maybe one or so comics after that...

http://www.captainsnes.com/2001/10/06/039-...bit-resolution/

http://www.captainsnes.com/2002/05/14/113-...all-that-stuff/

Or gotten The Operation but kept to the same outfits as always.

I am amused by Protoman. He seems to be the most well adjusted and normal person we've met in videoland so far. Combine that with him keeping Alex from tempting fate previously, here's to hoping he sticks around for a good while. :P

Ah, but he has said it in the past, so he could very well say it again.

And I mean, why not?

It isn't that, enlong. He can say a phrase he hasn't said before for all it matters. But I would think that if Zelda would figure he would KNOW the secret words, that it would have been established he says the words often in canon, but he doesn't. I mean to a new reader to the comic a random series of words would be just as suspected as "Sweet Christmas, that's stupid fresh," because he says it some three times or so in the actual storyline. We have the privilege of the logos and gaiden arcs, but the new reader and Zelda do not.

Which makes me feel like the secret words have something to do with Mario Paint or something or some early 90s SNES tagline, "Now You're Playing With Power" or some such.

I'm with gopus on this one. I've been expecting it to be the standard "playing with power" line, or something similar.

Question, it seems in past comics that Megaman and the Queen do not get along. Since Protoman and the Queen do though, does this set up the possibility for brotherly conflict?

I'm still holding out for the secret words to be "Hope" or something.

Five minutes ago I was ready to half-jokingly claim that the activation word was "fuck", largely because it would be a funny callback to Ryan's comment in comic 471.

(Un)fortunately, I went back and checked first. As it turns out, that was pretty much the first word he tried.

Whole point of that bit being that the real "magic word" was the one that broke his train of thought in the previous panel.