Sigma (Mega Man X)

Sigma appears as a tall, bald humanoid in most of his forms. As the former leader of the Maverick Hunters, Sigma is a capable military leader, rendering him a devious and strategic opponent to his primary enemies, X and Zero. Sigma is a skilled and charismatic manipulator, managing to turn various Reploids, Maverick Hunters, and Mavericks to his side. Although he has been destroyed countless times, Sigma's programming always survives, either building himself a new form,[1] or is revived by Reploid and Maverick admirers alike; it is implied that he grows more insane with each revival. He is fond of incorporating himself into battlesuits which are vastly larger than his "regular" form. He serves as the final boss in all games except Mega Man X: Command Mission and Mega Man X8 (he does not appear in the former and in the latter, Sigma is the penultimate boss).

Mega Man X was originally meant to have a team of three villains, one tall, one short, and one chubby. However, the designs by Keiji Inafune were merged to create a single villain, Sigma. These designs were later reused as the basis for Mega Man X2's X-Hunters. Ever since his creation, Inafune aimed parts to his appearance to hint a connection with Mega Man villain Dr. Willy.[6] He was created with the idea of being an "absolute evil" type character to fit the dark narrative of the games as Sigma is a villain despite being manufactured to be pure good.[7]

Kaiser Sigma was designed with a idea of being more "messy" than the original design of the character.[8] With the creation of Mega Man X4, Inafune originally avoided to feature Sigma since the story of such game involved a lack of black and white view of the scenario.[9] Since Sigma received major damage in X5, he was redesigned in X6 to lack his early menace and instead "messy".[10] In Mega Man X8 a new villain named Lumine appeas; To contrast his angel-like appearance, Sigma was instead made to look like a demon.[11]

A figure of Sigma was released by Tamashii Nations in 2013.[12]

Sigma was praised for his backstory, resulting in the story of Mega Man X having unclear morality. Peter Tieryas of Kotaku stated that he felt guilty after defeating Sigma, due to the Mavericks' origins as normal Reploids whose design was patterned after the series protagonist, and that they just wanted independence.[13] Heather Alexandra of the same publication noted the character's heavy similarities with Overwatch's Sigma, to the point that they could be the same character. She called the Mega Man Sigma "a bit of a pest, to say the least," due to his ability to "leap into new robot bodies and other computer systems".[14]

Patrick Lee of The A.V. Club, however, stated that Sigma is "exactly the sort of boogeyman anti-progress allegories are built around". Saying that he is the "first piece of technology the Mega Man series suggests was a mistake to create", he says that Sigma runs contrary to the previous, optimistic themes of the series, which suggest that technology is ultimately beneficial to mankind, and that robots are "morally neutral tools".[15] He described this "more cynical worldview" as "anti-technology scaremongering."[15] With regards to Sigma's appearance in Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, Mike Fahey from Kotaku thought the merging of Ultron and Sigma into an amalgamated being is "a great idea, and makes for a very cool visual", although he felt the game's idea of characters from Capcom's Mega Man, Resident Evil and Street Fighter franchises sharing the same world and knowing each other to be silly.[16]