King

"You should feel honored to be destroyed by the King!"

- King

King (キング) is a Robot Master created by Dr. Wily that wanted to rule a human-free nation. Despite his illusions of grandeur, King shows to be capable of deeper thought, and eventually redeems himself.

Mega Man & Bass
King took over Wily's new castle to use as base and managed to recruit eight robots to help him, either voluntarily or by force, two being Dr. Wily's robots Astro Man and Tengu Man. He attacked a robot museum and stole the data of the battle robots to create a robot army. Proto Man tried to stop him, but he was defeated in one hit. King left the Green Devil to cover his escape.

King is later on fought at the second King Stage as the penultimate boss. At first, he seemed unbeatable since he had a reflective shield that would send Mega Man's and/or Bass' shots right back to them. However, the newly repaired Proto Man warps in and destroys his shield with his "Big Bang Strike" attack, leaving King vulnerable. After that, Mega Man and/or Bass were able to engage King in combat once more and defeat him. Defeated and weakened, King asks the heroes why they go so far as to fight for "lowly beings" like the humans, and then tells them that robots are "more advanced" than humans. Mega Man responds by telling him that neither of them are better or more advanced than the other (though this is only one interpretation of what he actually says, which is something along the lines of "Superiority isn't relevant to this issue!"), while Bass, on the other hand, tells him not to forget that humans are the ones who created robots in the first place. After that, King tells the heroes to finish him off, but not before warping the exhausted Proto Man out of the area. Mega Man then tells King to escape from the castle with him, and that Dr. Light will be glad to repair him. King then responds by telling Mega Man that it won't work, because his body is set so that it'll explode if anyone other than Dr. Wily tries to tamper with it. In Bass's story, he'll just tell King that he's leaving, and will ask King who his creator is. He, of course, responds by telling him that it was Dr. Wily.

In both stories, Dr. Wily appears on the monitor, scolding King for siding with the enemy, as well as telling him to finish the two heroes off. King ignores him and instead asks again why robots fight for humans. Then, Dr. Wily uses a device to boost King's "brainwashing" level. After that, King flees into the next room, and then Mega Man and/or Bass will chase him. After that, King merges with King Tank and King Plane into a big tank-like robot, Jet King Robo, and engaged the heroes in combat once more. After King's defeated again, he changes back to normal, telling the heroes to get out of his castle quickly before it explodes. First, they ask about him, but he responds by saying that he'll make it out of there after they do. Once the hero teleports out, King laments that he doesn't have a transporter unit himself. In Bass' story, he says that he and Bass could have been good friends. In Mega Man's story, he'll say not to let any more robots to suffer his sad fate. After King's "last" words, the castle exploded.

After Mega Man returned home from his battle against Dr. Wily, he was saddened by the fact that King supposedly died, but Roll gives him a letter with King's insignia on it, and it turns out to be a letter thanking Mega Man for helping him realize the error of his ways, apologizing for what he's done. He says that if they are to meet again, he hopes that it'll be as friends and not as enemies. In Bass' story, Dr. Wily revealed plans for a "King II", offering Bass a chance to team up with him when he's complete, the two of them becoming an unstoppable duo. Before Bass could answer, however, Proto Man warps in and destroys the blueprints, foiling Dr. Wily's plans once more.

Strategy
During his first phase, King cannot be harmed; the player must survive his attacks until Proto Man shows up. King will attack by occasionally lowering his shield to launch X-shaped lasers from his chest. He always shoots five of these lasers at a time, and they follow the same pattern every time: the first two go downward, the third goes up, the fourth goes down, and the fifth goes up. If a shot is fired at King while his shield is up, the shield will absorb the shot and fire it back as a much stronger laser beam.

During his second phase, King wields an ax to substitute the shield that Proto Man destroyed. His weakness for this phase is the Lightning Bolt, although Tengu Blade is also effective for both dodging and attacking King. As he jumps around the room, King will swing his ax whenever the player gets close. He can also perform a dash attack by dashing to the player while his ax spins. Occasionally, King can also shoot lasers that bounce around the room, much like the Gemini Laser.

Mega Man (Archie Comics)
King appears briefly in issue 20 during Mega Man's time travel, and he was mentioned in Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 250 as one of the various threats Dr. Wily has attempted to control, only for Mega Man to have to save him from himself. He also appeared briefly in Issue 55 during Dr. Light's vision of the future.

Other appearances
King appeared in the Rockman &amp; Forte manga.

Damage Data Chart
Displays the amount of damage in units that King will receive from each Special Weapon in Mega Man & Bass. {| style="width: 100%; font-size:12px; border-collapse:collapse; line-height: normal; font-size:95%; border: 2px solid #1466B8;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" border="1px" align="center"
 * colspan="12" style="text-align: center; background-color: #1466B8;" |

Mega Man &amp; Bass

 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Mega Buster
 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Bass Buster
 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Ice Wall
 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Wave Burner
 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Remote Mine
 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Spread Drill
 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Tengu Blade
 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Magic Card
 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Copy Vision
 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Lightning Bolt
 * style="text-align: center; width: 120px; background-color: #C6E2FF;" |Treble Boost
 * style="text-align: center;" |1:2
 * style="text-align: center;" |1:2
 * style="text-align: center;" |1
 * style="text-align: center;" |1
 * style="text-align: center;" |1
 * style="text-align: center;" |1:1:1
 * style="text-align: center;" |2:1:0
 * style="text-align: center;" |1
 * style="text-align: center;" |0
 * style="text-align: center;" |3
 * style="text-align: center;" |2
 * }
 * style="text-align: center;" |2
 * }

Trivia

 * Although ultimately controlled by Dr. Wily, King was chronologically the first robot character to orchestrate a mass-robot revolt against humanity. This would later be repeated with Sigma from the Mega Man X series, the X-Hunters in Mega Man X2, Dr. Doppler in Mega Man X3, General in Mega Man X4, Gate in Mega Man X6, Lumine in Mega Man X8, and Epsilon in Mega Man X: Command Mission.
 * However, much like King, the others were controlled or manipulated by another villain, or influenced by a virus in the case of Sigma and Gate, or both in the case of Dr. Doppler, the exception being Lumine who was both a mastermind himself and acting entirely of his own accord.
 * Colonel Redips also acted as a mastermind entirely of his own accord in Mega Man X: Command Mission, but took advantage of Epsilon's revolt indirectly to further his own goals. Like Lumine, he was also a New Generation Reploid.
 * King is one of the few human-like bosses whose name does not include "Man". Interestingly, there is a NetNavi named KingMan, but he does not appear to be based on King, but rather the Chess piece.