Doctor Thomas Light

"Sometimes, peace cannot be achieved unless those who spread war are destroyed."

- Dr. 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.

Before the first Mega Man game
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 Light always received more credit than Wily. The two were nominated for the Nobel Prize for physics, but only Dr. Light won. Some time after this, Dr. Wily was banished from the 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) founded Light Labs, a company interested in furthering the development of computing and robotics 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 created 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 A.W.O.L. 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, also known as Mega), 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 Light's 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.

Mega Man games
After converting Rock into Mega Man, Mega Man fights against Dr. Wily's forces and manages to defeat him. After Wily's first defeat, he tries to conquer the world again several times, and Dr. Light has been developing new inventions to help Mega Man counter Wily. Some of his main creations include Items 1-3, Rush, Eddie, Tango, Auto and upgrades to the Mega Buster.

In most games, Dr. Light only appears in scenes, some of them being brief. Below are some of his appearances with more depth in the story:
 * Mega Man 3: Dr. Wily pretends to be sorry for his acts and works together with Dr. Light to build the giant peace keeping robot Gamma. They also created the eight Robot Masters of this game, so they could obtain the materials needed to complete Gamma. When Gamma was near completion, Wily stole it to be used in his plans to conquer the world, but Mega Man destroyed Gamma.
 * Mega Man 5: Light was captured by Proto Man (Dark Man) in the beginning of the game, and was rescued in the ending.
 * Mega Man 7: Light appears in the opening stage, in his lab, and in the ending. When Bass was damaged by Shade Man, Mega Man said Dr. Light could repair him. Bass attacked the lab and stole plans that Light created to improve the Rush Adapter. Wily used the plans to create the Treble Boost.
 * Mega Man 8: Dr. Light asks Mega Man to verify a outer space object that had fallen in a island, which coincidently was being used by Wily as hideout. Wily takes Evil Energy with him, and Mega Man retrieves a robot called Duo. Light repairs Duo and studies a small portion of Evil Energy that was found. After the defeat of four Robot Masters, Duo awakens and destroys the Evil Energy in Light's laboratory, and goes after the Evil Energy with Dr. Wily.
 * Mega Man 9: Light is accused of the crimes caused by his robots and is sent to jail, but when it was discovered that Wily reprogrammed his robots, he is freed.
 * Mega Man IV and Mega Man V: Dr. Light exchange P-Chips by items in his lab.
 * Wily and Right's RockBoard: That's Paradise: Dr. Light is a playable character.
 * Super Adventure Rockman: Dr. Light immunizes Mega Man, Rush, Beat and the six industrial Robot Masters from the first game from the electromagnetic waves caused by Ra Moon, and watches over Roll while they try to stop Wily.

Late years
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. He is presumed to have passed away some time after.

Mega Man X series
In 21XX, over 30 years after X's seal, Dr. Cain found the capsule with X in the ruins of Dr. Light's laboratory. An holographic image of Dr. Light continued to provide support for X through the use of capsules during the Maverick Wars. This image of Dr. Light is shown to be able to keep up with current events and talk with others. In Mega Man X5, Light is shown to be able to appear outside the capsule, although it only happened once to repair a fatally injured X.

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 Marvel vs. Capcom and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. He also has brief appearances in Capcom World 2.

Mega Man & 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 appeared in most media related to the classic and X series, being present in the the animated series Mega Man, Captain N: The Game Master, Mega Man: Upon a Star, the comics Mega Man and Novas Aventuras de Megaman, and several manga like Mega Man Megamix, Rockman, Rockman & Forte, Rockman 4Koma Great March, Rockman Battle & Chase and Rockman X. He also appears in the story of Rockman X Mega Mission 2, being in card 58.

Trivia

 * Dr. Light's first name, Thomas, is a reference to the inventor Thomas Edison.
 * "Dr. Wright," which is Dr. Light's name in the instruction manual for Mega Man, is a Western approximation of "Dr. Right."
 * In the Japanese versions, Dr. Light is also known as Dr. Right. His symbol is an "R" icon in Japan. He has been known as Dr. Light, however. This is due to the lack of differentiation in the Japanese pronunciation of the L & R sounds.
 * In the cartoon series Captain N: The Game Master, Dr. Light is called Dr. Wright, which is his name from the first Mega Man instruction manual.
 * In Mega Man ZX Advent, there is a character named Master Thomas of the Sage Trinity, which is a reference to Dr. Light. Master Thomas, however, is nowhere near as benevolent as his namesake and intends to continue the work of fellow Sage Master Albert, who is named after Dr. Albert Wily.
 * Dr. Light is a known smoker and is seen with a smoking pipe on some occasions.
 * Dr. Light is often joked about as being Santa Claus due to how his beard looks.
 * In the US and European release of Mega Man 8, Dr. Light's voice sounds similar to Elmer Fudd's.
 * He is one of the few human characters from the classic series to have a MegaMan Battle Network counterpart, Tadashi Hikari (Tadashi meaning right, and Hikari meaning light, both of the spellings of Dr. Light's surname). The others being Dr. Cossack and Dr. Wily.