Mega Man vs. Quint: The Fight That Altered Time

Everyone knows Mega Man, Capcom's flagship character of yesteryear. For years this franchise marked it's place in history with a unique style of gameplay and a quirky cast of characters. Typically, Mega Man consists of jumping around 8 levels, fighting bosses and getting new special abilities. But do you remember Quint, (A play on Quintet), the Mega Man character that time forgot? What if I told you that he and he alone held the key to Mega Man's future and continued existence??

First introduced in the obscure gameboy game Mega Man II, he was presented as a sort of sub-boss, showing up just before fighting Dr. Wily. He wielded a goofy-looking jackhammer called the Sakugarne, and typically attacked with such, and fled before the fight could be finished. So who is this guy? What's his story? To start, here's an excerpt from the Mega Man II instructional booklet to help set the stage:

As you can tell, 37.426 years into the future is not only extremely specific but where our story starts: Dr. Wily kidnaps Mega Man from the future, repackages him as Quint, and came back to the present with him. Dr. Wily's line of thinking is that if anyone can beat Mega Man, it's Mega Man, right?? What the Doctor (and this game) failed to realize is tampering with the timeline comes with confusing and potentially catastrophic consequences.

The long and short of it is...no matter the outcome, it's 100% impossible for Quint to win this fight. Physically, yes, but even accounting for all the variables (within reason and excluding X factors like "they both die" or "someone interferes"), Quint is unable to win in the long run, technically making him the least AND most dangerous character in the whole franchise.

The biggest problem with this fight is that we find ourselves stuck in a time loop. Because Quint is Mega Man from the future, he can't kill Mega Man on account of the fact that eliminating his past self will cause Quint to inadvertently commit suicide. Killing Mega Man will kill him, and thus erase both of their existences and will further alter the time stream.

So either both die, or Mega Man gets caught in an infinite time loop where he is always destined to become Quint in almost 40 years. The reason this loop is destined to be infinite is because Quint chooses to flee. Mega Man is given no indication that Quint is his future counterpart, and therefore doesn't have any incentive to actively try to alter the future. And thus, history really is doomed to repeat itself.

To take a more philosophical approach, can we really say that Mega Man and Quint are the same person? This is a riff on a philosophy question often referred to as the "The Malfunctioning Transporter". Sure, Mega Man and Quint are the exact same molecule by molecule, but can they be considered identical? They are, after all, two beings from different times that occupy the same space, physical entities that are in theory the same but individual nonetheless.

They are, however, both capable of independent thought. One might argue that since they are robots, they are both only able to come to the most logical conclusion, and due to this they will always agree. But remember, in the Mega Man universe, they are programmed with free will. Imagine their programming like a large box, and they are able to do anything within that box, and inside that box is the closest possible approximation of free will that science can manage.

On the other hand, both have the same right to truthfully call themselves the same person: in theory, they are. But who, at that point, is the real Mega Man? Both, or neither? That's a question you'll have to decipher for yourself. Welp, I think I made a mistake. Time has been fractured to the point where the world just turned into melting Salvador Dali clocks. Whoops.

Hope you enjoy your altered reality which has very likely been transformed into an irreparable hellscape!!