User:GiverOfThePeace/Mega Man Canon

Introduction

The following is a pretty in-depth explanation of the Mega Man timeline. I plan to expand this one day for other Mega Man games but in the blog's current state its pretty WIP.

How placements are decided

The Classic Mega Man series release order seems to be usually chronological, but then random games will come in and cause some confusion, so the placements will be based off which mainline title they take place around. This will also be decided with the Robot Masters/characters that show up.

Classic Timeline

Up to Mega Man 7

Mega Man/Mega Man Powered Up
We have the beginning of it all, Mega Man/Mega Man Powered Up, it marks the beginning of Wily's exploits and marks the beginning of Mega Man becoming a super fighting robot. Mega Man Powered Up is canon and expands on the pre-existing lore. This is directly shown as Mega Man 2's Robot Masters are directly stated to inspire Wily into making new robot masters superior to them. Time Man is a Robot Master Dr. Light made for research and experiments on time travel. However, he is only able to slow down time and has incomplete functions. Dr. Wily used this and perfected it with Flash Man which he considered a masterpiece due to his Flash Stopper attack which can completely stop time.

Mega Man 2
Mega Man 2 is a direct sequel to Mega Man, Dr. Wily makes 8 Robot Masters to battle Mega Man. A good number of the Robot Masters in this game are directly inspired and made to be improvements of several Robot Masters from Mega Man as shown here.

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge
This game doesn't have a direct placement but we can assume it's after Mega Man 2 as the game manual notes that Wily restored the robot masters from Mega Man 1 and 2, with the game's wording treating Mega Man fighting them as a recent event.

Mega Man 3
Mega Man 3 has Wily and Dr. Light work together on something but then robots run amok and are messing with planets where they're mining for material, with it being revealed that Wily just did this to steal Gamma, the robot he and Dr. Light were working on, this game also introduces Break Man, who is revealed to be Proto Man the brother of Mega Man.

Mega Man II
This also doesn't have a direct placement but we know it's at least after Mega Man 3 in this game Wily breaks into a museum and travels to the future, but that's not the reason it's post-Mega Man 3, the reasons are the robot masters from 2 and 3 appear, along with Mega Man having Rush, who debuted in Mega Man 3.

Mega Man 4
Directly gives context to how Mega Man came to be the fighting robot he is now, and then reveals a new evil scientist, Dr. Cossack is attacking. Which it's then revealed he was actually forced to do all of this by Dr. Wily and Dr. Wily is the actual villain. This is the game where Proto Man is also no longer morally ambiguous and betrays Wily completely.

Mega Man III
Same thing as the previous gameboy games, no direct time period, but at the very least after 4, as robot masters from 4 appear in the game, the story doesn't have much besides Wily trying to drill through the Earth's crust to get energy from the Earth's magma for his latest robot.

Mega Man 5
This game has Proto Man who previously betrayed Wily, mysteriously kidnap Dr. Light and help robots with attacking the city. But of course it was just Wily framing Proto Man. Most likely for him betraying him in 4, which gives a direct continuation.

Mega Man IV
Same thing as previous game boy games, we know this one takes place after 5 as Robot Masters from 5 appear along with beat appearing, whose debut was Mega Man 5. Story of this game is Wily mind controlled thousands of robots but Mega Man was unaffected.

X Era

Up to Mega Man X8

Mega Man X/Maverick Hunter X

Mega Man X2

Mega Man Xtreme

Mega Man X3

Mega Man Xtreme 2

Mega Man X4

Mega Man X5

Mega Man X6

Mega Man X7

Mega Man X8

(Timeskip)

Mega Man X6 (Zero's Ending)

The Split into Z-Era

The Main timeline follows a massive timeskip into the Z-Era. Mega Man X Command Mission is not canon to the main timeline and is another timeline where the events of the Zero series did not happen as stated multiple times.

The Elf Wars

Mega Man Zero

Mega Man Zero 2

Mega Man Zero 3

Mega Man Zero 4

The Timeskip to ZX

Mega Man ZX

Mega Man ZX Advent

The Final Timeskip

Mega Man Legends:

Mega Man Legends 2:

Not Canon to the main timeline:

• Mega Man X: Mega Mission
• Mega Man X: Giga Mission
• Mega Man X: Command Mission