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.

Story
In the year 19XX (sometime in the 20th century), Thomas Light attended the Robot Institute of Technology where he met Albert W. Wily and became partners. The two graduated together with their doctorate degrees (PhDs), although Dr. Light always received more credit than Wily. The two where nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physics, but only Dr. Light won. Some time after ths Dr. Wily was banished from professional circuit for breaking scientific ethics, and Dr. Light didn't see him again until the events of the first game. Later Dr. Light (with the assistance of Wily in the versions outside Japan) found 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 year 200X (sometime in the first decade of the 21st century), Light built a series of household and civil service robots. Not long after that, he create a robot with a much more advanced A.I., 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 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's works receiving credit and his works not (in USA versions he's jealous because Light received all the credit for the team's work), he stole and reprogrammed the industrial robots, 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.

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.