Been playing Battle Network and StarForce (Mega Man)

 So, I've been kind of wanting to get it so I'm not terrible at the Battle Network games. As I think the whole concept is kind of neato. Kind of want to ironically build the Battle Network Torment Nexus ironically. Though--I'm not certain how many others would view such a Torment Nexus as purely existing for ironic purposes

To get around how terrible I am at games in these two series, I've moved to playing the StarForce games. As the battle system in those is a slight bit easier. Play the crap out of the StarForce games so that I'm approaching something I could call competent. The move back to playing the crap out of the Battle Network games

The existence of the DX patch for the first Starforce installment, and the semi-DX patch for both of the second installment. Which the second installment does look like there are three slightly different plots. The third installment doesn't really have any DX patches for either of the games in that portion of the series. Currently doing a playthrough of the Saurian path of Starforce 2... and... uh

Battle Network and StarForce actually branch off before the Zero Games

 "Bold strategy, Cotton, let's see if it plays off"

So, it is hard to play through various games in this side series and not think about the various ways that these games deviate from the Classic/X/Zero/ZX/Legends timeline (well, Timelines Dr. Wily does use a time machine a couple of times)

The typically statement is that the Battle Network branch off from just before the Classic Games with Dr. Hikari being what Dr. Light's name is choosing to look into the Internet, AI and the Digital Afterlife 

However, there are plenty of things that exist in the Battle Network/StarForce timeline that do not really exist in the Robot Timeline

The most obvious is that Duo is not a robot in the Battle Network games. He is still a cop, but he exists in a digital form ready to destroy any planet that has Dark Chips being used on them. Dark Chips do not originate from the Battle Network timeline. A different time line bleeds into the Battle Network universe to give Dark Chips, and DuoExe does not have a body. Just a meteor he throws at planets

Though, the next most obvious is all the ancient civilisations in the Battle Network and StarForce games. Ancient Civilisations that would have caused a _LOT_ of issues during the events of the X games. As while most Mavericks are caused by either Sigma or their programming being taken to logical ends... if any of the ancient civilisations from Battle Network or StarForce were present--we'd have seen a large amount of Mavericks caused by the remnants of Mu, Saurian, Zerker and Ninja WaveForm civilisations (not including the ancient civilisations that had internet of a not WaveForm style)

The "lack" of these ancient ruins  does have an easy explanation: The Elf Wars were far more messed up than anybody anywhere near them have any comprehension about them

The timeline that has Battle Network and StarForce was caused as a side effect of The Elf Wars

There are two possible options: Atypical Temporal Motion, or Simulation Ran By Elfs

The first option that one would consider is that via Atypical Temporal Motion, a good chunk of Elfs left the Elf Wars from the Time Stream, and worked to establish cities and lives on Earth, AM, FM and several other locations

The Elfs that establish themselves on Earth end up having their civilisation fall apart several times. With Mu, Saurian, Ninja and Zerker being four seperate events that had Elfs doing their own civisilations on Earth and it not working out

Technically it also did not work out on Planet AM... but that was more due to Planet FM

The various ancient civilisations that had versions of the Internet that were not WaveForm based were effectively humanity trying to recreate the WaveForm civilisations that they had once known--but not having access to some of the basic technology to do WaveForm based infrastructures. So the ancient Greek and ancient African computer systems can be explained by them trying to recreate stuff that existed due to the proliferation of Mu, Zerker and Ninja civilisations (Saurian appears to predate Zerker and Ninja far too much to be taken into account)

This whole thing where Elfs from The Elf Wars (events between the X and Zero series) duck out of that spot of the time stream to escape The Elf Wars--or perhaps set up armed bases to reinforce their stuff--explains all the weird historical elements in the BattleNetwork and StarForce's world building

Eventually Dr. Hikari gets to the point where he is able to somewhat recreate WaveForm technology as that stuff would be a bit more present in these sets of events than in the Robot timeline. Except, it is extremely radioactive, and seems to destroy human biology, and requires an unreasonable amount of power to maintain

If you compare what Dr. Hikari built (and later a child in the second Battle Network game) to the abilities the FMians show in the first StarForce game: Dr. Hikari was working with prototypes of the same WaveForm tech that is present on Planet AM, Planet FM and in ancient Earth History. Recreating stuff that in this timeline was lost technology

This is where things get weird though. As well, Dr. Hikari somewhat replaces Dr. Light (being effectively the same person)--and you also have Lord Wily in this Timeline--who has children in this set of events

There is a non-zero chance that Lord Wily is not a genetic match with Dr. Wily. As there are details about the Lord Wily family that do not seem to match up with Dr. Wily's heraldry. They might match up--but well... Dr. Hikari has a different name from Dr. Light

 Though, that does bring up another question: why do Dr. Hikari/Light and Dr/Lord Wily even exist in this other timeline, when events clearly diverged from quite some time before what typically gets said for the actually divergence?

That brings another possible answer: the Battle Network and StarForce games exist as simulations occurring during the course of The Elf Wars. For whatever reason, several Elfs are stuck/trapped in a simulation that pretends to be the real world--that is completely doing a rerun on something similar to history (except different on several areas, including some that do not make sense)

The "it is all just a simulation" does have a few problems there. It also kind of requires denying a fair amount of the narrative

Atypical Temporal Motion Happens a LOT in the Internet Timeline

Mostly in the StarForce games. Though, it also happens somewhat in the Battle Network games... except it also ends up involving the StarForce games on at least two occasions there 

About the only element that works in the "it is a simulation" explanation is the origin of the Dark Chips being able to be explained from there. As ShadeManExe does not come from the Battle Network timeline, and could be explained as an Elf that decided to show up to cause problems

The simulation could be an attempt to replicate the ethical training/simulations X went through for three times as long as he was suppose to

Oh yeah, people keep forgetting that X was only suppose to have the ethical training for about thirty years. He instead got it for nearly a full century

Imagine if instead of having an old scientist repeating into your ear "kill Son Goku" over and over again... you had training on ethics, morals and how to determine what the correct actions to do are... over and over and over and over and over again

That is prolly going to cause a lot more damage. X could prolly quote Hegel from memory--as well as free style various different assessments, criticisms and augmentations onto it. Next time you look at X--think about how he has read Hegel, and was unable to not read Hegel

The simulation explanation does run into further issues with "what if it is the ethics training X went through?" as a placement...and just gets too complicated

Especially since Dr. Wily has built a time machine and already completely changed the time stream "in his favour" at least once (though it seems multiple times)

The Elf Wars, largely made what it was due to Dr. Weilz (a different person entirely), could very much have also had a Time Machine showing up somewhere in its course of events 

The ancient tech of the Battle Network and StarForce games just seem too similar to the Elfs of The Elf Wars, that this possible origin seems to be something to consider