To my followers that donβt know what the fuck Iβve been posting about since October, the Protomen are a rock opera band thatβs loosely based on Megaman. βFor the uninitiated, The Protomen sound like if Queen and Rush got drunk listening to Devo records, fell into an 80s cyberpunk dystopia, and decided to write a rock opera about the classic video game series, Mega Man.β (via metalsucks)
The story is told primarily through the liner notes that come with the CDs of each act, and weβve been waiting for Act III for literally over sixteen years, since 2009. They released each song digitally on Bandcamp every week for a few months during the last quarter of 2025, and we hadnβt gotten any of the liner notes until MAGfest, where they were selling the CD physically with the libretto.
I wonβt get into the actual ending details because thereβs still a bit of an embargo, but some people thought it was really abrupt and sudden. It was abrupt. It was fucking scary! You should listen to the whole album on Bandcamp! I kind of loved it, but there were some plot threads that went unresolved. On top of that, years ago, there was a song called The Fight (which is a much more uplifting song than the ending we got) that they outright said was part of Act IIIβ but it never showed up on the album. They said during a Twitch stream a few weeks ago that there was almost nothing left on the cutting room floor, so why was The Fight excluded?
So people started to do the classic thing that usually never ever worksβ theorize that there was another secret part they werenβt showing us.
Then, MAGfest people were buying the MAGfest Power magazine (which is a really cool magazine about all the stuff to see at the con) and noticed in an interview with Panther and Commander that they were dropping literal actual ARG hints. Along with that, they were selling bracelets with a cipher on them. Most of being in the Protomen Discord during MAGfest was watching people run around the Gaylord hotel trying to figure out what the fuck was going on before the Act III performanceβ there was a scavenger hunt that ended with one guy finding a jar of Ovaltine?β and you can read the whole thing about the ARG here. Spoilers for the libretto part of the ARG. Itβs so fucked up.
I literally met the band at the meet & greet with my friend Veg, we asked Reanimator, βhey, whatβs going on with Act III? Is that it?β
He tells us to βlook at the discβ. Veg pulls it out, looks at the back without the design. Reanimator goes βno, no, the other sideβ.
Yeah alright man. Just cut off half of your logo like itβs only part one of two. Just cut your logo in half for your βfinalβ album. Sure
This is so funny. So many other fandoms have risen and fallen with the βsecret ending being hiddenβ theory. Why are we the exception to this. Why is the rock opera dystopian cyberpunk Megaman the exception to this. This has never once worked for anyone ever except for us. Why are we the only ones who have ever gotten this right