Doctor Thomas Light

Doctor Thomas Light (トーマス・ライト) is a character from Mega Man and Mega Man X series.

His counterpart from the MegaMan Battle Network series is called Tadashi Hikari, and he is the inventor of the PET and the grandfather of Lan Hikari and Hub Hikari. Sadly, he died before his grandsons were born.

Story
In the year 19XX (sometime in the 20th century), Thomas Light attended the Robot Institute of Technology where he met Albert W. Wily. The two graduated together with their doctorate degrees (PhDs), although Dr. Light always outshone Dr. Wily. The two went on to found Light Labs together, a company interested in furthering the development of computing and robotic technology for the benefit of mankind in the coming era.

In the year 200X (sometime in the first decade of the 21st century), Light and Wily built a series of household and civil service robots, such as Mettool and Sniper Joe (the police assistant). Not long after that, the two used the design of Sniper Joe, with a much more advanced A.I., to create Proto Man, the first "advanced robot." However, Proto Man had a strong sense of independence and went AWOL before his system testing was complete. Yet, Light and Wily would build on the successes and failures of the Proto Man project to build Rock (a lab assistant), Roll (a house cleaner), and a series of industrial robots (the Robot Masters).

When Dr. Wily grew jealous of Light receiving all the credit for the team's work, he reprogrammed the industrial robots and rebelled, attempting to take over the world. Rock, having a strong sense of justice, volunteered to be converted into a "fighting robot" known as Mega Man.

Ever since that time, Dr. Light has been developing new inventions to help Mega Man counter the forces of his old ally (such as Rush the robo-dog, Tango the robo-cat, the Mega Buster, etc.).

In the year 20XX (later in the 21st century), Dr. Light began work on Mega Man X (the "X" standing for a factor of unknown potential). X would possess the ability to make his own decisions in life, unlike Rock who was bound by Asimov's "laws of robotics." However, Light knew that he would not live long enough to fully test X's potential, so he had X sealed in a capsule on September 18, 20XX, not to be awakened for thirty years. 

Updated version
Thomas Light was born circa 1958 (he is about the same age as Albert W. Wily who is said to be 57 in the manual of the Japanese Mega Man & Bass) and received his PhD in electrical engineering circa 1986 (at age 28), along with his classmate, Albert Wily. Although he outshone Wily while in school, the two decided to go into business together, and around 1995 they founded Light Labs, a company interested in furthering the development of computing and robotic technology for the benefit of mankind in the coming era.

In the early-2000s, Light Labs makes breakthroughs in robotic technology, developing the Mettool construction robot, the Sniper Joe police robot, and several other beneficial machines. By 2005, the team was ready to work on a more "advanced" robot based on the design of Sniper Joe- one they called Proto Man. However, Proto Man had a strong sense of independence and went AWOL not long after the initial testing began. As such, the next year (2006), the team went on to create Rock (a lab assistant), Roll (a housekeeper), and a series of industrial Robot Masters.

It was because of this outstanding work that Dr. Light was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2007 (in the area of Physics, but specifically for the "Creation of the Robot Masters"). It was this fact, along with Dr. Light's victory in the LIT Manual Design Contest, that pushed Dr. Wily over the edge. Thus, in December of 2008, Wily reprogrammed the industrial robots (failing to reprogram Rock and Roll, as he found no practical use for them.), and rebelled against his former ally in an attempt to take over the world. It was because of this that Rock volunteered to be converted into the "fighting robot" known as Mega Man.

The "Wily Wars" lasted from around 2008 until 2016 (Rockman and Forte: Challenger From the Future), and throughout these years Dr. Light developed several helpful friends and upgrades to assist Mega Man in the fight against Wily. Finally, Dr. Light began to work on a project known as Mega Man X, an advanced robot not bound by Asimov's "laws of robotics," but knowing that he would not live to finish the project, he sealed X in a capsule on September 18, 2016 (he would be unsealed circa April of 2116). 

But part of Dr. Light still lived on to assist X as he did Mega Man before him. Dr. Light created a number of capsules that contained upgrades for X, but these capsules contained more that just a recording of Dr. Light, the capsules contained a copy of his mind. allowing them to act as Dr. Light, they even had the ability to learn as well as created armours and enhancements for X. These capsules also seem to grow in number or even move (in case of the latter it is possibly just one capsule that moves from place to place.).

Light seems to be aware of Zero's creation, giving Zero certain upgrades in certain games. Plus, in the games X5 and X6, Zero can activate the capsules to receive the armor upgrade, although the upgrade still goes to X, and even have some conversations with the hologram. A few times, Zero even asked the hologram if "he" (Light) knew who created him. Dr, Light says he doesn't know; whether he's telling the truth or not, is not implied. However, this plot wasn't explored further in the series.

Even though Light didn't appear in the Zero series, his dream of a peaceful world, and legacy, is carried on by Mega Man X (who interestingly mimics Light's role in the X series) and Zero. Ultimately, it was Zero who brought said dream into fruition.

Other appearances
Dr. Light made short appearances in Marvel vs. Capcom in Mega Man's and Roll's victory poses, and in Roll's ending from Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

Mega Man and Bass CD data
The world's number one authority on robotics. "Hurry and rescue them, Megaman!" Good point: Good faith Bad point: Douchie Like: Internet Dislike: Violence

Japanese CD data:

Bad point: Naive Like: Internet Dislike: Violence



Other Media
Dr. Light appears in Mega Man cartoon series, Captain N: The Game Master, Mega Man: Upon a Star, Rockman Megamix, Rockman X manga and card 58 from Mega Mission 2.



Trivia

 * Dr. Light's first name, Thomas is taken from the name "Thomas Edison" in order to rival his counterpart, Wily, whose first name is Albert, from "Albert Einstein". However, Dr. Light doesn't hold much of a resemblance to Thomas Edison.
 * In Japanese there exist no character with L. However, R replaces L almost in all cases, which usually leads to different romanizations and errors. In case of Light's name, some comic makers and translations use R instead of L. "Dr. Wright," Light's name as it appears in the instruction manual for Mega Man, is merely a Westernized approximation of "Dr. Right."
 * In the cartoon series Captain N: The Game Master, Dr. Light is called Dr. Wright from the first Mega Man instruction manual. Wright is also the name from one of the rescuable Reploids from Mega Man X6.
 * In Mega Man ZX Advent, there is a character named Master Thomas, of the Sage Trinity in reference to him. Master Thomas, however, is revealed to be nowhere near as benevolent as his namesake and actually intends to continue the work of fellow Sage Master Albert, named after Dr. Albert Wily.
 * Dr. Light is a known smoker, occasionally seen with a smoking pipe, like in Marvel vs. Capcom.
 * In the US and European release of Mega Man 8, Dr. Light's voice sounds very similar to Elmer Fudd's.