Dr. Weil

"The desire for power. The joy of making everything work for you. You have no way of experiencing this without a human brain. It's the ultimate joy! No mere Reploid could ever understand!"

- Dr. Weil

Dr. Weil, known as Dr. Vile (Dr.バイル) in Japan and addressed by his followers as Lord Weil, is the central antagonist of the Mega Man Zero series. While he doesn't appear in person until the third game, his schemes during the Elf Wars had nasty repercussions that lasted for the rest of the era.

Appearance
Dr. Weil's design takes notable traits from his villainous predecessor, Dr. Wily. He appears as an old man with rough skin, a pointed nose, long gray hair and beard and red eyes. It is unknown whether he had originally had red eyes while he was a human, or if they were the result of his transformation into a cyborg. On his chest plate is a symbol that vaguely resembles a W. Because of his cyborg body, he appears as a floating figure with seemingly no legs; his lower body replaced by an array of black and red arrow-like bands to form a coat of sorts. His head is engulfed in an orange glass shell filled with some sort of bio-fluid, often causing his hair to freely flow upwards. When the shell is broken his hair falls down all around his face.

Personality
Weil generally displays a calm, manipulative nature, but underneath that he's clearly psychotic. By re-building Copy X he gained power in Neo Arcadia, and later set the stage for a battle between Copy X and Zero, which he made sure Zero would win. This shows Weil's intelligent side. When he sent Omega in the missile to intercept the Dark Elf, he counted on the Baby Elves to fight Zero as a distraction for not fighting Omega, meaning he knew Zero would go on the missile. Likewise, he also placed a large amount of safeguards to prevent the Resistance from taking out Ragnarok, and also supplied misinformation about what Operation Ragnarok entailed specifically to buy enough time to complete Ragnarok. He showed his psychotic side when he commented of how much he enjoyed controlling all Reploids with the Dark Elf. Another symptom of his psychotic persona is in Weil's desire to destroy Area Zero, he wants to bear witness first-hand to the crashing of Ragnarok into Area Zero by staying on the station during its crash. He firmly thinks that, thanks to his regenerative armor, he can survive the crash, regardless of what happens to his "human side".

Weil is extremely sadistic, as evidenced by his expressing how he enjoyed causing the mayhem of the Elf Wars and his admitting that Neige and everyone else's humiliation, rage, and suffering delights him, and the fact that he desires to rule all of Neo Arcadia with his subjects, Human and Reploid alike, living a living death. The last bit, however, may also have been his declaration of his intended revenge against humanity and reploids for what they did to him. He seems to be fully aware of his villainous nature, as he informed Zero, upon fighting him for the final time, that he was the devil.

He is also extremely power-hungry, and feels that ruling over people is the ultimate joy, something that he believes no Reploid could ever experience. He also seems to think that this is exactly what humanity feels, as well, as seen from the quote on top. He also made a similar insinuation when visiting Neige, where he mentioned that only a ruler can truly appreciate the joy of seeing someone's humiliation, rage, and suffering.

Weil tends to view Reploids as inferior to Humans, that they should obey them as if they were slaves. The only notable exception to this rule was Omega, where he seemed to hold him in far higher regard than himself. This is evidenced by the fact that when Zero asked Dr. Weil why Omega, who was just revealed to be the original Zero, was serving him, Weil stated that Omega was the god of destruction, and all Weil himself did was enhance his power, hinting that he never really viewed Omega as a servant.

Despite his manipulative nature, Weil's most significant weakness is his knack to underestimate his enemies, especially Zero. He thinks that Zero has no chance of defeating Omega, especially when the latter surfaces in his most powerful form. Also, after Zero defeats Craft for the second time, Weil fired a "warning shot", indicating that Ragnarok was still operational. This alerted the Resistance to the imminent threat of Ragnarok's crashing into Area Zero, and the warning shot was likely a challenge to his enemies to try to stop the crash.

Weil shows a constant hatred of Reploids, as well as humans for exiling him. He also seems to harbour some hatred towards idealism in general, due to his saying "Ideals and such... ARE UTTER NONSENSE!!!", before his fight with Zero. Also in his final fight with Zero when performing his diamond projectile attack, what he says "How foolish of you". In addition, he also refers to ideals (specifically freedom and justice) as being "worthless", also hinting at him being nihilistic.

Despite all this Weil also has an extremely persistent and stubborn side to his personality as viewed during his survival of the Ragnarok attack, his fight with Zero, where despite suffering extreme damage and being on a near-certain death situation, he kept fighting the Reploid to the bitter end.

Background
Dr. Weil was a human scientist who participated in the project to design the original Cyber-elf, the Mother Elf. In this project, Dr. Weil was a coworker and rival of the ancestress of the future Resistance leader Ciel, and both of them had significantly different views on how the Maverick Wars should be resolved. Weil made weapons to use against the Mavericks and specialized in Reploid revival, and viewing Zero's body as the ideal weapon to end the wars, used it to develop Omega, while his partner worked on analyzing Zero's cognitive program in hopes of finding a cure for the Maverick Virus.

Although the Mother Elf was completed and was successfully used by X to end the Maverick Wars and eliminate the virus altogether, Dr. Weil was dissatisfied with these results. He believed that the Reploids should pay for the carnage their wars caused and submit to humanity. Dr. Weil proposes Project Elpizo, a plan to combine the Mother Elf with Omega to exert control over all Reploids, putting Weil at odds with X and his ideals of coexistence. As humans were fearful of another lengthy war, many favored the project.

The Elf Wars
To further push his agenda, Weil secretly took control of the Mother Elf and reprogrammed her, transforming her into the Dark Elf and created clones of her called Baby Elves. The Baby Elves were used to control Reploids, forcing them to fight each other in a massive battle.

The conflict spread fear and destruction worldwide, resulting in increased support for Project Elpizo, but X and Zero (whose program was put in a new body) managed to recapture the Dark Elf, and used her power to turn the war in their favor, forcing Dr. Weil to unleash Omega onto the battlefield. Omega, supported by an army of Golems, would slaughter countless numbers of humans and Reploids before finally being defeated by X and Zero, bringing the war to an end.

In the aftermath of the war, Omega was sentenced to exile in Earth's orbit sealed within the Forbidden Ark, while a group of human survivors modified Weil's body into a cyborg contained within a bio-mechanical suit that would prevent him from deterioration and death. His memories were also converted into data, so that he would never forget his crimes, and was then banished into the wastelands he had created, to suffer eternally therein. Having been exiled, Dr. Weil began to plot his revenge on human and Reploid alike.

Mega Man Zero 2
Dr. Weil is first mentioned in the ending sequence as the man who placed a curse on the Mother Elf, thus turning her into the Dark Elf. He can also be heard (but not seen) talking to Omega after the credits.

Mega Man Zero 3
Weil returns from his exile at the end of the game's opening stage. Before departing, he hints at Zero possessing a copy body since the Elf Wars by remarking his interest in how well Zero will do "in that body of his."

Resurrecting Copy X, who takes back his position as Neo Arcadia's ruler from Harpuia, Weil was appointed as the leader of the Neo Arcadian Army. He claims to have repented his ways, and is allowed back into Neo Arcadia. However, he secretly gives the Eight Gentle Judges various "upgrades", that also resulted in his brainwashing them to follow his will, to which Harpuia later discovered while he was asking about Fighting Fefnir and Fairy Leviathan's condition.

One of Weil's first acts as commander of the army is to dismiss the Guardians from their positions. He leads the search for the Dark Elf and the two Baby Elves, and eventually combines Omega with the Dark Elf after launching a missile containing Omega into the human settlement Area Z-3079. Weil eventually kills Copy X with a booby trap in his body that detonates when he attempts to access his Seraph form.

With Copy X dead, Dr. Weil invokes Ordinance #8 and becomes leader of Neo Arcadia by unanimous vote. He then uses Neo Arcadia's resources as he sees fit, to gain control of Reploids through the combined powers of the Dark Elf and Omega, in order to punish the citizens of Neo Arcadia for his banishment.

Though Zero destroys Omega in the end of the game, Weil remains ruler of Neo Arcadia.

Mega Man Zero 4
With Weil as absolute ruler of Neo Arcadia, humans and Reploids are equally oppressed, with all those that oppose him labeled as Mavericks. His reign of terror became so unbearable that a group of humans escaped to Area Zero, the crash site of the Eurasia space colony during Mega Man X5, where nature started to revive.

Seeing Area Zero as a threat, Weil devises Operation Ragnarok to obliterate it, forcing people to stay in Neo Arcadia. The plan involved using the Einherjar Eight Warriors to distract the Resistance with half-hearted attempts to destroy the ecology in Area Zero, whilst he completed the Ragnarok satellite and its huge energy cannon. After half of the Einherjar Eight Warriors were vanquished, Weil's forces, led by his new commander, Craft, directly attacked the settlement at Area Zero, succeeding in capturing their leader, Neige (which was later revealed by Craft to be an attempt to spare her from the destruction set against Area Zero). Upon her capture, Weil personally visited Neige's prison cell with Craft to taunt her, reminding her regarding her complaints about the imprisonment being unjust about his exile a century before while disposing of maverick reploids like garbage. He then commends Zero (who arrived to rescue her) for wiping out half of the Einherjar Eight, but nonetheless expresses confidence that Zero can't stop Ragnarok, before offering Neige the ultimatum of survival under Weil's rule, or death in Area Zero, taking sadistic amusement in her rage, suffering and humiliation in the process. He then tells Zero when the latter was about to attack Weil out of disgust for his actions that attacking Weil, a human, will mean Zero will become a maverick in front of Neige. However, Neige, defying Weil, managed to escape by using a flash bomb to blind Weil and Craft and having Zero bomb through the floor. Weil dismisses it and has Craft continue with Ragnarok, also giving him additional orders to "show [Zero and Neige] the error of their ways". Unbeknownst to Weil, Craft took Neige's final words of facing death with dignity to heart. After Ragnarok was completed, Weil then contacted Ciel's resistance and taunted them with the completion of Ragnarok, although his victory is short lived when he learns that Craft, having taken Neige's statements to heart, rebels against him, with Craft ending up firing it at Dr. Weil himself, destroying Neo Arcadia and killing many civilians.

Unfortunately, Dr. Weil survives and has teleported to Ragnarok, setting the weapon on a collision course towards Earth in a final attempt to destroy Area Zero, with Zero being shocked to discover the mad doctor's survival. He attributes his survival to his regenerative armor, and explains to Zero how the humans modified his body before his exile. Weil states that it can heal all wounds faster than normal, halted his aging, and prevented him from dying. Additionally, to ensure that he would never forget his partially metallic and partially carbonic body, his memories were converted into data, forcing him to constantly remember everything. In an attempt to ensure Zero cannot stop the crash, Weil merges with Ragnarok's core, increasing the risk of destroying the core and thus the station itself.

Using the station's core as a new armor for himself, Weil confronts Zero in combat and even though he had gained considerable power, he is defeated. However, Weil still returns, fully fusing himself with Ragnarok itself. Zero battles Weil again as the satellite re-enters Earth's atmosphere and Weil is destroyed when Zero detonates the core, presumably sacrificing himself in the process.

Mega Man ZX series
Though Dr. Weil doesn't appear directly in the Mega Man ZX series, it is implied that he returned as the major evil of the series in the form of the Biometal Model W (Model V in the Japanese version). Model W is the original Biometal, formed from the pieces of Ragnarok. Some time after the end of Zero 4, the original commander of the Guardians (Ciel) analyzed data collected from Model W and learned that Model W has the ability to drive both machines and humans to madness. In response, she built the six Biometals (those used in the game) to stop Model W.

A decade prior to ZX, the small fragment that Ciel studied was stolen by Serpent. The power of Model W led Serpent to stage various Maverick outbreaks, and, in turn, form Slither Inc. to stop the Mavericks, which caused many Cyber-elves to be released from the deaths of the victims. These Cyber-elves are then captured and used to "awaken" Model W at the end of the game.

In Aile's story, Prometheus and Pandora, two major antagonists, state that Serpent, the hero, themselves and even Model W are but pawns to "the man who created Model W", Master Albert, who made his appearance in Mega Man ZX Advent as one of the Sage Trinity. Though ZX Advent later implies that it was actually Model W that was controlling everything, and that Albert was no different than Serpent, the hero, Prometheus, and Pandora; that even he himself was a pawn. Albert later manages to have the various Model W's reform and form Ouroborous, the Mega Man King's biometal. Model W, and presumably any remaining trace of Dr. Weil, was presumably destroyed for good after Master Albert's death and Ouroborous' destruction.

Rockman Zero (manga)
Dr. Weil made his debut in volume 3 of the manga. He is an aged scientist that prolongs his life with chemicals in his body. Weil is looking for the Dark Elf, and orders Omega and Craft to help him, as well as creating a duplicate of Zero known as Roze. However, both Omega and Roze were defeated, and Craft joined Zero.

In the last chapter, Weil uses Mega Vile (メガバイル) to fight against Zero, a giant mecha that has resistant armor and can fire powerful lasers. During Christmas, Weil emerged from the ground and destroyed Lito's house, apparently killing Lito (it's later shown he wasn't inside). Zero is enraged with the death of his friend and fights against Weil with the help of Craft, Neige and the villagers. In the end, Zero manages to get above Mega Vile and uses his Zero Knuckle on the cockpit while falling, breaking the cockpit and the glass encasing Weil's head, making the chemicals spill out. After the attack, Weil's mecha falls into a pit he created, apparently killing him.

Forms and Abilities
Prior to becoming a cyborg, Weil was a simple human being with all the physical limitations and frailties of the human kind. Arguably his greatest attribute was his immense intellect. His specialty as a scientist revolved around weapons development and Reploid DNA-revival, meaning he could resuscitate dead Reploids, as shown with the revivals of Copy X, Necromancess, Blizzack Staggroffe, and Hanumachine. He was also capable of creating new consciences for Reploids and enhancing their battle capabilities, as evidenced by his creation of Omega inside Zero's original body. He also displayed high-level planning and manipulative skills, as shown by him triggering the Elf Wars, his removal of Copy X Mk. II while blaming it on Zero and the Resistance in order to become the leader of Neo Arcadia, and by stalling the Resistance until the completion of Ragnarok, among other things.

Cyborg Form
As part of his conversion into a cyborg, Weil's body gained powerful regenerative capabilities, to the point where he could survive a direct hit from the Ragnarok cannon, which destroyed a large portion of Neo Arcadia (which caused 20 million casualties), also halting age altogether. The armor also kept him alive during his 100 year exile. Weil was confident that he could survive the fall of Ragnarok, including atmosphere re-entry and the impact with Area Zero, to the point that he declared twice that he is incapable of dying. With this mechanical body, Weil had levitation abilities, which he used as his primary means of locomotion. Due to his mechanical body, he was also capable of fusing himself with machinery to gain combat capabilities, doing this on two occasions in his fight against Zero.



Core Fusion
First fusing with the Ragnarok Core, he gains a large battle armor and a vast arsenal of abilities. As a possible extension of his scientific capabilities of reviving Reploids, he can summon the Weil Numbers to aid him in fighting Zero. He was also able to summon Death Swords to act as lightning rods to trap his enemies, fire crystal-like projectiles and energy projectiles, and other abilities.

Weil can create long transit frames between his teleport frequency, make him even harder to hit. Sometimes he disappears and returns with other three illusions of him, only the real one will eventually become solid. Can't be stopped.


 * Death Pierce: Throws six swords that act as lightning rods on the field, then charges a purple energy ball, which continuously fires off lightnings at those swords that creates a static field on the floor.
 * Meteor Illusion: Summons two waves of meteors at the top, first with grey, second with three grey and three gold meteors in specific patterns.
 * Acid Rain: Releases eight blue energy balls that spreads into the whole floor, then teleports to the other side and repeat.
 * Energy Recovery: Summons four green destructible blobs onto the field. If they aren't destroyed, each will heal Weil about 10 health points.
 * Enemy Inferno: Summons a floating multi-colored ball and summon four of the eight Weil Numbers to attack. They appear in the following order: Blazin' Flizard (appears in the left corner and uses Chain Burner), Childre Inarabitta (uses Screw Ice), Hellbat Schilt (uses Thunder Reverb from the right corner), Deathtanz Mantisk (uses Razor Arm from the left corner), Cubit Foxtar (Uses Fire Rain), Glacier le Cactank (Attempts to crush Zero), Volteel Biblio (Electrifies the floor), and Tretista Kelverian (Attempts to crush Zero).
 * EX Skill: Enemy Inferno Neo: Same as Enemy Inferno, but Weil will summon all eight Weil Numbers.
 * EX Skill: Death Prism: Summon a hexagonal-shaped ice block with pointy edges and splits it into three smaller homing prisms.

Ragnarok Form
After his first defeat and the resulting partial destruction of the Ragnarok, Weil fused with what remained of the space station, becoming a colossal monstrosity, who was capable of using several energy based attacks, such as a particle beam and energy projectiles, ensnaring foes with energy webs, and firing spikes as well. The process of transforming into this form was also extremely painful for Dr. Weil. At this point, Weil's only weakness is his head, protected by a layer similar to the tube in his head, a very small target altogether. Another thing to point out is that during the battle, Zero must defeat Dr. Weil in 120 seconds (2 minutes) or less or else Zero automatically loses a life.

(Note: Attack names are not official)
 * Net Capture: Fires off multiple web-shaped hazards that immobilize the player upon contact and can be destroyed. Once captured, Weil uses either Abyss Nova or summon Bonsects.
 * Abyss Nova: Lowers the horn shield to charge up energy and fire a straight laser blast that rakes from the top to near floor. Once on ground level, Dr. Weil will fire another laser that moves up the screen. A well-timed dash will avoid the laser going down, but Zero will have to grab Weil's upper horn to avoid the next laser. Another variation only fires one shot if the player is captured in the Cyber Web.
 * Bonsect Summon: Two Bonsects appear from two different green portals. Can be destroyed or disarmed by the Zero Knuckle.
 * Acid Barrage: Sends a small orb towards the top horn that fires off like Acid Rain, but instead shoots five blobs and there is only one wave per turn.
 * Crimson Orbs: Lowers the horn shield, and fires off three red energy balls in a pattern that each splits into three smaller ones upon destruction.
 * Thorn Pressure: Lowers the horn shield and fires it off as a projectile that returns to Weil after a few seconds.
 * EX Skill: Charges up and fires a spherical object that continuously releases spike projectiles in a plus (+) or cross (x) manner.

Theme music
In Mega Man Zero 3, Dr. Weil's theme was "Curse of Vile". It was a foreboding theme that was somewhat mechanical in nature. An arrangement titled "Curse of Vile -Stage Version-" was the music of the game's final stage, Weil's laboratory.

Mega Man Zero 4 gave Weil a different theme, called "Fate - Theme of Vile -". This far more powerful piece featured pipe organs and cymbals, highlighting the extreme evil and madness of Dr. Weil. This theme was later remixed as "Fate - deep-seated grudge", the boss encounter theme of Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent. However, the main melody is prominent only in "Fate - deep-seated grudge - Rockman Model V -", a variation that plays when the Model W Core is awakened by Vent/Aile's hatred. Babel Tower, the theme that played when Serpent was defeated, also contained some bars from "Fate - Theme of Vile -".

Trivia

 * As much as Dr. Wily is to the original Mega Man, and Sigma to Mega Man X, Dr. Weil could also be perceived as Zero's own personal archenemy.
 * As seen in the gallery above, three different designs - young, middle-aged, and elder - were proposed for Weil's character. The final design of Weil was based on the latter character concept. Weil's middle-aged concept was later reused for a character in Mega Man ZX Advent who will allow the character to teleport to the Trinity Building.
 * Canonically, Weil is the only Mega Man villain who has successfully destroyed the world's main government, leaving it in a post-apocalyptic state. In fact, he has accomplished this twice, including the Elf Wars and the Ragnarok event.
 * Although he has no official connection to Dr. Wily, the two doctors have other similarities besides the structure of their names: they both continued to menace the world long after the demise of their mortal bodies (Dr. Wily during the Mega Man X series with the Maverick Virus, and Dr. Weil before and during the Mega Man Zero series as a cyborg, and during the Mega Man ZX series as the original Biometal, Model W), which makes Dr. Weil the most everlasting antagonist, being "alive" during at least two series, while both Dr. Wily and Sigma just lived on their respective series.
 * To add to their similarities, the earliest known ancestor of Albert Einstein (the man who Wily is based off) was called "Jakob Weil".
 * Dr. Weil mentions that humans enjoy ultimate power and having everything obey their every command. Sigma mentions a similar description of humanity to General when telling him to get Repliforce to fight against humanity/the Maverick Hunters.
 * Weil is the only human character in the Mega Man franchise (except for Super Adventure Rockman) to die on screen. (This is, however, disputable—Weil, while once completely human, is now completely robotic with a human's mind, or at least a cyborg.)
 * On the cover of the U.S. release of Mega Man Zero Collection, Dr. Weil boss symbol was still V like in the Japanese version instead of W like in the U.S. release.
 * Being over 100 years old, he is the second oldest human of the series, the oldest being The Master who was over 3000 years old.
 * He is not related to Vile from the Mega Man X series.
 * Contrary to fan speculation, there is no direct evidence that he is Dr. Wily from earlier games. Keiji Inafune has also denied any relation.
 * It should be noted that "Weil" is technically a correct translation of Bairu, if assumed it follows German phonetics; however, "Vile" is the name acknowledged by official Japanese media, proven by the fact that the boss logo in Mega Man Zero 4, which is no longer an Omega symbol, is the letter V in the Japanese game (it is changed into W in the English releases).
 * Chikao Ohtsuka, Dr. Weil's voice actor, had previously voiced various video game mad scientists, including Dr. Eggman and Gerald Robotnik from the Sonic the Hedgehog series (the latter of whom coincidentally enacted a similar plot to Dr. Weil in Sonic Adventure 2 with the Space Colony ARK).
 * Coincidentally, both Eggman and Weil had ultimate creations going by the name "Omega" (Omega for Dr. Weil, and E-123 Omega for Dr. Eggman), although the primary difference is that Omega is completely loyal to Weil, while E-123 Omega wants to exact revenge on Eggman and harbors hate for his creator.
 * An artwork of Dr. Weil by Mega Man Megamix creator Hitoshi Ariga was uploaded onto his Twitter account to pay Chikao Otsuka (Dr. Weil's voice actor) tribute shortly after he had passed away.