Copy X

Copy X (コピーエックス) is a character from the Mega Man Zero series. He is a copy of X created by the scientist Ciel, and is the main antagonist in the first Mega Man Zero game. He has the distinction of being the only incarnation of Mega Man who is outright evil.

Design
Copy X, as his name would suggest, is supposedly a perfect copy of Mega Man X, although there are some differences. The most noticeable of these is his red eyes, which represent his role as primary antagonist and distinct differences in ideology from the original X. In battle, he dons his Ultimate Armour, which causes his armour to change colour from blue to white and gold, except for his helmet. The armour also becomes adorned with an angel wing motif, with two wing-like extensions protruding from the upper back, an additional five from the helmet, and a final two from the sides of the X-Buster. The imagery here likens him to the Seraphim of Judaism, who were said to be the highest ranking angels, and this was signified by their six wings. This casts Copy X, who believes himself to be a saviour and a hero, in an arrogant, self-praising light. This contrasts sharply with X himself (now a Cyber Elf), who also appears angelic, but in a much more modest manner, simply wearing a cassock over his armour with a halo appearing above his head, with no visible wings.

In his Seraph form, Copy X completely reforms himself into a much larger being. His lower body disappears and his arms detach from his body, becoming large and clawed, and six large wings appear on his back, creating a striking resemblence to a Seraph. This divine, angelic appearance is sharply contrasted by the demonic red glare in his eyes. He traps his enemy with halo-like rays and purges them with searing flame, further emphasising the resemblence.

Before the events of Mega Man Zero
In the events of the Mega Man X series, Mega Man X put an end to the Maverick and Elf Wars (two worldwide conflicts). However, the Neo Arcadian Central Council was thrown into chaos since X eventually had to physically used his body to seal the Dark Elf away and his Cyber-elf form was nowhere to be found. As an emergency remedy before the events of Mega Man Zero, a brilliant scientist named Ciel designed and built Copy X, a supposedly perfect copy of the original.

The only problem facing them was this new copy, not having any of the battle experience or memories of the original, was thus fairly naive in his thought processes. With Neo Arcadia facing an energy crisis while the Reploids increased in number, Copy X decided that Reploids were at the heart of the problem. So began Neo Arcadia's "iron-fisted" policy of justice in which Reploids were mercilessly executed and branded as Mavericks without cause or provocation in the events of the first Mega Man Zero game.

During his rule, he regularly held trials with the Hachishinkan (Eight Gentle Judges), prior to their upgrade by Dr. Weil. This occurs within the track "Decision_Eight Gentle Judges" on the "Remastered Tracks Rockman Zero Telos" CD (available for purchase in Japan only). The track suggests that the Hachishinkan noticed the change in X's personality and that Copy X (as well as his original) presided over many trials. It is possible that Elpizo was also tried by Copy X before his leave of Neo Arcadia. The disposal of innocent Reploids led to the creation of a Resistance.

It should be noted that, when Mega Man Zero was originally planned to be released after Mega Man X5, Copy X wasn't even going to be the villain (as a matter of fact, Copy X originally wasn't supposed to exist), it was originally going to be the real X that was going to be the main villain. Obviously Mega Man X6 (as well as its three remaining X games) changed things.

Mega Man Zero
Copy X's Four Guardians led attacks on the bands that fled Neo Arcadia, often wiping out mass amounts in single attacks. When the Resistance discovered the legendary hero, Zero, it became a problem for Copy X and his armies as Zero began mopping his forces up without much effort.

Highly impressed with Zero's skill, Copy X confronted Zero when he battled his way into the armored core of the city, Area X. Copy X maintained that he was the perfect copy, and that he achieved true peace. After bantering for some time, Copy X challenged Zero to battle, a battle which Copy X ultimately lost. Zero tells him that despite his memory loss, he was sure the original X was much stronger. Furious at Zero's mocking tone, he assumed a gigantic Seraph battle form, but he was ultimately brought down again. Copy X then self-destructed in one final attempt to kill Zero.

Mega Man Zero 3
Copy X, though defeated, was still an ominous presence in the mind of the Resistance, for Elpizo wished to lead his strikes on the army before X was revived in Mega Man Zero 3. Once the Dark Elf had been unleashed, Dr. Weil, using his advanced powers of DNA Resurrection, brought back Copy X along with three of his army commanders. Copy X mk-II (to whom the characters referred only as Copy X) this time assumed control of Neo Arcadia once more, with Weil as his chief advisor, though it seemed he was obeying Weil's every suggestion or command.

Once Neo Arcadia began launching constant attacks on the Resistance Base, Zero destroyed the previously-mentioned three commanders before assaulting X's base of operations, Area X2. Here Copy X attempted to convince Zero that what he was doing was wrong, and that Neo Arcadia was right. Once more, it resulted in a battle between the two, which Copy X again lost. This time, the original X appeared and spoke to both Zero and Copy X - but Copy X wouldn't listen, instead growing angrier with each passing moment. The real X stated that Dr. Weil was using Copy X as a tool. In light of this, Copy X attempted to morph into his powerful battle form once again, but a sabotage device planted on him by Dr. Weil to prevent any rebellion caused Copy X to self-destruct instead. Copy X used phraseology that could both mean that he was attempting revenge on Dr. Weil or that he was showing X and Zero what he really was made of; he did, however, made a clear fact by showing his frustration of being taken for a fool by everyone.

Rockman Zero manga
Copy X appears shortly with his Ultimate Armor in the Rockman Zero manga, where he is an unnamed fusion of the Four Guardians created by Cial, which refers to him as the "Perfect Reploid". He moves fast and knocks Rockman Zero down, making him turn back into Zero due to the fact he was Rockman Zero for a long time. Believing he had already won, he goes to kill Zero, but Lito protects Zero. Angry, he throws Lito away and would kill him, but Zero somehow managed to use Rockman Zero's saber to destroy him, saving Lito. Without the Four Guardians, the Resistance was able to defeat the Neo Arcadian armies.

Ultimate Armor
An armor that is capable of bestowing different elemental affinities and implents an air dash feature bearing a resemblance to the Nova Strike X used. It also has regenerative powers.

Copy X equips himself with this armor before first clashing with Zero in the first Mega Man Zero title. Whether Ciel equipped him of this armor, or he had it installed upon himself, is not exactly made sure of; if she wished to make a perfect copy of X, it would mean the original X also had the armor equipped on him, which means that Ciel wanted to create a new X that still could fight. If the player's rank is A or S, Copy X may be able to recover a single health bar once. (Although in Mega Man Zero 3 he heals himself when the player is at lower ranks.)

Seraph Form
A winged, angelic morphormation of Copy X, Technically considered an Armed Phenomenon. Bearing no legs, but an obvious ability to be still in mid-air, this destructive form allows Copy X to easily destroy his enemies, using his halo to paralyze them, summon laser beams to torch the floor, and fire multiple beams. Strategically thinking, Copy X limits Zero's movements by destroying enough floor to trap him in the encounter and limiting his ability to dodge. Unfortunately, Copy X uses two floating platforms at his sides, which Zero can use to jump on/against. If the player had achieved Rank A or S when fighting this form of Copy X, Copy X would sometimes attack using his floating pillars, briging them crashing down onto the floor area in set patterns. Only the original Copy X was capable of reaching this stage in the first game. Copy X Mk.II was set with a bomb that would explode if this form were to be activated or if any sign of rebellion were to occur. Since Copy X is an (attempted) "perfect copy" of X, MegaMan X must have had a seraph form too, unless the Seraph data was taken from Lumine. Though it would be unknown if X would have used such a form against Omega (or during the Elf Wars in general, since it appears very power consuming to any Reploid who could attain such an "angelic" and powerful form) if he had such a form during the Elf Wars.

Copy X Mk. II
Rebuilt, and thus resurrected, by Dr. Weil (Dr. Vile in Japan), this recreation of Copy X takes back the position of leader of Neo Arcadia. Due to a vocal bug, Mark II has a stutter (In the Japanese version, he emphasises strange syllables), but is equipped with the same combat capacities of his first form. Other than the stutter, the only differences he has over his first version are the addition of the ReflectLaser, a powerful shot that bounces off walls that he only uses when confronted with an A or S rank (though his original A or S technique becomes a standard move) and that whenever he attempts to access his Seraph Form, a bomb planted within him triggers, blowing him up in pieces. It is later discovered that Weil planted it on him, and since he was of a high position of trust next to Copy X, he gained leadership. The other difference is that he has blue eyes in his standard form, rather than red eyes.

Trivia

 * The original X was originally slated to appear as the antagonist of the Zero series, instead of Copy X (in fact, Copy X wasn't even going to exist), but due to the unauthorized release of Mega Man X6, this idea was omitted in the list of original concepts meant to connect X5 with the first Zero game.


 * Even though Copy X is the fifth Mega Man incarnation, he is only quasi-playable in his MMZ3 minigame.


 * He has the distinction of being the only Mega Man incarnation who is outright evil, unlike Mega Man (who was reprogrammed in the future into Quint) and MegaMan.EXE (who was evil due to the influence of a Dark Chip).