The Support Character

[Kuiper]

<span style='font-size:30pt;line-height:100%'>$3,100,000: Support Character!</span>



Beck will get a faithful sidekick to swoop in with special powers at his time of greatest need! The exact form this character will take is not decided yet, so we?ll all be able to see it get conceived and designed together?but it will be some kind of assistant that will drop in for a limited time, help out in some way, and then zoom away!

This stretch goal was revealed on September 26, 2013, and was reached sometime between then and September 30th. (I am unable to find the exact date, but the update where Comcept revealed that they had, indeed, surpassed that goal, was dated the 30th.)



I, for one, am surprised that there is little to no discussion about this character, even though Call's role, final appearance, and characterization has been speculated on since her reveal early on, and some of her designs are even being campaigned to be brought back. (See: The D-Pository, the I Call Cult, etc.) To that end, as well as in preparation for such a time as we receive more information about the role of this character, I have started this thread! I hope this will encourage creative discussion and fun speculation during the interim of now and when the character is finalized- and maybe even beyond that.



Some personal theories/wishes for this character (In no real order, and not all of them are mutually exclusive):

1. An actual human assistant that is not the doctor. Maybe a relative of the doctor's, or even a relative of one of the

other doctors- or even just unrelated. Actual humans are kinda scarce for classic Megman, particularly in active roles. (It's really down to Dr. Light, who has more of a passive role, and Dr. Wily. Also Dr. Cossack and Kalinka for the few games they appeared in.) They don't really have to do much- which is, in fact, the point of the "support character" role- but it could provide further contrast from Call, who is a "pure robot," and Beck, who has "human characteristics." That is, if they get dialogue at all... Either way, it'd be potential for later down the line.



2. If it is an animal (Like Rush, the character that this role is apparently being conflated with), then I think maybe a cat might suit better than a dog. A dog-type robot would make sense to follow Beck, while if it's a cat, it makes sense for them to show up and leave at their leisure. That, and birds are harder to portray sympathetically (or well) and other cute animals are harder to portray seriously. (Because robotic hamsters, rabbits, etc. would be silly.) That said, I'd also be cool with a fox, since it'd be unexpected. ("What did the fox say" jokes notwithstanding.)



3. A green color scheme. I always found it odd that Roll, Megaman's female companion, and Rush, Megaman's pet, had almost the same color scheme. Since the designs seem to be playing up colors slightly more- Beck's use of blue is rather conservative all things considered, while the Roll options all had varying degrees of red- I'd like this support character to have an unused, neutral color.



4. A unique power/ability. I want it to be completely clear why Beck could not have this power by himself- maybe it's incompatible with his Xel-shifting powers, or maybe it's a different kind of technology than Dr. White is familiar with, or maybe it requires being in a different place than Beck (like a platform or object, etc.), or any other explanation. I just want it to make internal sense. Similarly, I'm not entirely sure if Rush's powers should be rehashed. I trust Comcept, so this is really just a voicing of concern.



5. The character to show up in Call's stage and the online Co-Op. Maybe not a hard-and-fast rule, but it'd be nice to see that this character is also useful to Call, since she's kind of become the deuteragonist. It'd be really cool if Call interacted with the new character differently than Beck- she's going to have a different skillset than Beck, after all, since he's a Xel shapeshifter, whereas Call doesn't have (or at least hasn't been shown to have) this functionality. (And the Co-Op description implies she won't have it, as well...) That, combined with being developed by a different scientist, would imply, to me, that it might be more appropriate if she interacted with this support character differently than Beck.



6. Actual story relevance. This might be a tall order, since clearly the story is a little malleable at the moment- after all, Call is getting her own solo stage, which was clearly not in the original plan. That said, Rush was largely irrelevant to the Megaman series, since he was only in Classic and BN and even then, the latter Rush had a really small role. It would be nice if this new character was good enough to become relevant to the overall plot, even if not as relevant as Beck and Call.



7. A punny name, maybe in relation to Beck and Call. Possibilities for a related pun include: At, @ (which could allow for other puns), Atyur, Atmy, Atumai, A.T.T., etc. Other puns could be based on just "Your" or "My" depending on how they want to use the phrase "Beck and Call." Also, Not/Knot might work. Otherwise, I just want the name to be cool and make sense.</li>[/list]



That's all I have for now in terms of speculation/wishes/etc. Hopefully there's more to add or comment on.