#tbhx zero

The whole thing with Yang Cheng was literally the most humiliating way to get rid of old E-Soul for the man. Rock really didn't need to deal with all this personally for three years, and I always thought he was just doing it out of love for the game, but with his attachment to Zero, it all takes on such a heavy additional layer. ‘All your sacrifices mean nothing.’ ‘You're nothing.’ ‘You can be replaced by any random student, and people will love it.’ ‘Not just any random, but your fan and cosplayer. Someone who loves you will take everything away from you, and the people you've spent your whole life protecting will support him.’ ‘You'll die a murderer.’

‘Neither your life nor your death mattered.’

Perhaps even the entire marketing strategy of recent years, with E-Soul abandoning active heroism and focusing more on advertising, served only to humiliate E-Soul and send him down this downward spiral. ‘All these sacrifices so that you can become a puppet in beautiful armour.’

I JUST THOUGHT OF A CRACK POT THEORY

AND I LOVE IT

Because it weirdly makes sense???

Basically - AND HEAR ME OUT -

Zero is alive - because he is the Hero Tower

HEAR ME OUT

So, several people have pointed it out, but one of the interesting details about the Tower is that, if you look at the way it forms frame by frame (which I've done because I'm deranged) in the X sequence during the opening, you can see that it very much has what seems to be a spine.

The Tower has bones lmao

Okay that IS an interesting detail, but not enough at ALL to say that Zero is the Tower wtf Glass what are you talking about.

Oh yeah?

Let's go back to the Opening.

The more I think about X and Zero, the more they feel like two sides of the same coin, similar in some ways, yet complete opposites. Even their color palettes reflect that.

Zero’s palette feels more unsettling, it’s almost like a negative, with vibrant reds and blues clashing against black. It gives off this intense, chaotic energy, like a void filled with madness.

X’s world, on the other hand, isn’t just colorful, it’s vibrant against white. That contrast makes everything feel lighter, more hopeful, almost playful by comparison.

They have a lot in common, both are insanely powerful, both shook the world just by existing. But while Zero came from within the system and grew too strong for it to handle, X shows up out of nowhere, completely separate from all of that, and already beyond anything the system can control.

Zero's power was built on belief, trust from the public, from himself, from the system that created him. That trust is exactly what led to the system putting limits on every hero that followed. But X? Probably doesn’t rely on trust at all and, if he does, it's not as we know it. He’s not sponsored, not managed, not even explained. He just exists, fully formed, and impossibly powerful.

That’s what makes him so compelling.

If Zero was a god created by the system, X is a god that exists outside of it.

Zero was the reason they built walls. X is the reason those walls might not hold.

Zero's story warned us of what happens when someone becomes too powerful to control. X isn't a warning. He’s a disruption. He doesn’t ask for power. He is the power everyone else has to learn how to respond to. This makes even more sense when we think about these words:

This is an addendum to my main top 10 info post to cover some other important characters and info revealed by the official timeline!

Zero

Born 18 years before Commission

He's 178cm tall [5' 10"]

Trust was discovered 5 years before commission, he was the first ever hero

Becomes a god 3 years before Commission (15yo)

2 years BC he kills a hero for going against his beliefs, then continues doing so

Downfall happens (1 BC), a league of heroes is assembled, led by E-soul, to stop him.

E-soul kills Zero. He dies at 17yo.

E-soul (Old/OG)

Kills Zero when he's 20 years old.

Becomes the first X at 22 (2 years after commission) as recognition for Downfall

Lowers to n.3 rank (4 AC)

Lowers to n.6 rank (6 AC)

Lowers to n.8 rank (8 AC)

Joins Mighty Glory at 30 years old (10 AC). MG exploits nostalgia over him for the 10-year anniversary of Downfall and launches him back to n.1 rank.

Is defeated in the next Tournament (12 AC) by DOS' new hero, lowering to rank 2 (this is when MG and DOS start their fierce competition)

Lowers to n.10 rank (14 AC)

Lowers to n.15 rank (16 AC)

Falls off the top 15 for the first time (20 AC) (he's 40yo here)

Due to disappointment over the newer hero generation and nostalgia, he gets up to rank 12 again (24 AC)

Is killed by Yang Cheng at 56 yo (36 AC)

Yan Mo (Rock)

Born 9 years before Commission (currently 50yo)

Uses his father's inheritance to invest in FOMO, hoping to use the platform to find potential candidates to recreate Zero with (19 AC)

Zac accepts his investment and invites him to FOMO's hero management as a partner.

Zac and him start to disagree on how to manage FOMO (26 AC)

Finally leaves FOMO and joins MG (34 AC) - he's 42 yo here

Important to note he worked with Zac for 15 years.

Yang Cheng kills old E-soul and Rock signs him into MG (36 AC)

Mickey

Born 15 years before Commission (currently 56yo)

Founds DOS in year 8 after Commission (23yo)

Manipulates the radical side of the Glimmer Lab researchers to band together under Liu Zhen. They form the Spotlight Organization (23 AC)

Saw the impact of Queen's speech and signed her to enter the female hero market (28 AC)

After the Ruins Incident, the Johnnies quit FOMO and are signed into DOS (39 AC)

Zac

We don't have his birth year but he must be somewhere between 37 and early 40s. I doubt he created FOMO when he was younger than 15 and that would make him 37. I don't think he can be younger than that unless they pull a "child genius creates viral app at 12" narrative, and under those circumstances he would be around 34, at the youngest. Most logical would be he created FOMO when he was 18-19, which would make him 40-41.

Invents FOMO (19 AC)

Brings Yan Mo in as a hero management partner after his helpful investments.

The Johnnies gain popularity after Ah Sheng is killed and Zac invites them to FOMO (22AC)

Rock and him start to disagree on how to manage FOMO (26AC)

Rock leaves the company (34 AC)

Shang De

Born 9 years before Commission (currently 50yo)

His father (Shang Shi) founds Mighty Glory (1 year BC)

Joins MG at 20yo (13 AC) through his father's connections and becomes a hero agent.

Signs in Ghostblade into MG (19 AC)

Phobiaclone and Vortex kill each other in a conflict between DOS and MG (related to Cyan's plane crash). Shang De steals Phobiaclone's body to study fear value (23 AC)

Leaves Mighty Glory to found Treeman (34 AC)

In that same year, he starts to train his first batch of heroes, signs Firm Man (21yo), and Nice (18yo) is chosen and trained to become a hero together with his nemesis Wreck. This starts their 6-year entanglement

Nice and Wreck become public a year later (35 AC)

Shang Chao dies, Shang De becomes obsessed with revenge (36 AC)

Signs Moon (19yo) in to act as Nice's (22yo) gf (38 AC)

Signs Lin Ling in as The Commoner (41 AC)

Liu Zhen

Born 12 years before Commission (currently 53yo)

Follows Mickey's plans to organize the radical side of the Glimmer Lab researchers under his name to form the Spotlight Organization (23AC)

The Spotlight Organization makes use of current panic over Fear to test their new Fear Amplifier devices (37 AC)

DJ Shindig joins Spotlight due to his rapidly decreasing ranking (38 AC)

Xiao Yueqing (Moon)

Born 19 years after Commission.

At 19yo she becomes a famous travel blogger and signs with Treeman to become Nice's girlfriend (38 AC)

Is killed in a deserted island at 22yo (41 AC)

Luo Tong

Joins Glimmer Lab as an authority on robotic research.

Is put in charge of investigating Fear and Fear Value after the alien ship crash (18 AC)

Fear value research divides Glimmer lab between conservatives and radicals (20AC)

The radical side leaves Glimmer Lab to join the Spotlight Organization (23 AC)

Due to Cyan's orphanage incident, the Commission is forced to make the existence of Fear public (37 AC)

The Commission puts pressure on the Glimmer Lab to speed up the development of ways to supress Fear to prevent nationwide panic.

Wang Nuonuo joins Glimmer Lab as an intern (38 AC)

DJ Shindig attacks Glimmer Lab. Loli saves the day with her new suit (39 AC)

Luo Tong discovers (thanks to Luo Li) that the alien spaceship is made of a material that nullifies both Trust and Fear.