Copy X

"You are an interesting individual, as I thought you might be."

- Copy X

Copy X (コピーエックス) is the main antagonist of Mega Man Zero and the tertiary antagonist of Mega Man Zero 3. A Reploid created by Ciel based on the original Mega Man X's DNA, Copy X governed Neo Arcadia after the original X sacrificed his body to seal the Dark Elf.

Appearance
Copy X, as his name would suggest, is (in his own words) a perfect copy of Mega Man X, although with some differences. The most noticeable of these are his red eyes, which help establish his role as primary antagonist and his distinct differences in ideology from the original X. In battle, he dons his Ultimate Armor, which changes his base color scheme from predominately blue to white and gold, with the exception of his helmet. The armor allows him to change elemental affinities (the matching color motifs are noticeable with his helmet changing color), and it also gives him the ability to use a guided Nova Strike. The armor also becomes adorned with an angel-like 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 armor's 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 savior and a hero, in an arrogant, self-praising light. This is a sharp contrast with X himself (now a Cyber-elf), who also appears angelic, but in a much more modest manner; he simply wears a cassock over his armor with a blue and light grey halo that rains all colors of the palette appearing above his head, and has no visible wings. Cyber-elf X also has a different helmet design when compared to Copy X, with the latter's helmet staying much closer to its original design in all of his forms.

After transforming into his presumed Armed Phenomenon form, Copy X completely reforms himself into a much larger being. While his upper body mostly stays the same, his lower body completely disappears and his arms detach from his body, becoming large and clawed, and six large wings appear on his back, creating a striking resemblance 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 tries to purge them with searing flame set off by lasers from his eyes, further emphasizing the resemblance.

Personality
As he claims to be a perfect copy, one would expect that his personality would be identical to X's own; in truth, there are many major differences. One major difference to note is the degree to which he idealizes perfection: instead of identifying himself as a copy of X, he is persistent in making the distinction that he is a perfect copy, and to that effect, he feels that he is incapable of making any form of mistake. This belief of he views himself creates a warped sense of justice, in which any decision he makes is right by his virtue of being a perfect copy. Zero makes note of this difference after defeating Copy X for the first time by calling him naive, since he lacks both experiences and memories of the original X to properly understand what justice really means and rule Neo Arcadia as X did. This is further expanded in the Drama Tracks; Zero specifically cited that unlike Copy X, his template was nothing but a coward who constantly worried over anything, and that overcoming such doubts is what made him become such a great hero, unlike Copy X, who Zero deemed "simple" when comparing him to the original. However, Copy X utterly disregards this, and doesn't hesitate to stand up for himself and his perfection; this was shown when he attempted to switch into Seraph Form by exclaiming, "Everyone treats me like a fool... I won't stand for this! Let me show you my true power!" Unlike X, he is also violent, like Fighting Fefnir, when enraged.

This is a great contrast to the original X, who strongly detested violence and only fought as a last resort. It should be noted that Copy X had never met his template before midway through the events of Mega Man Zero 3, and the former even gets surprised by his presence when he was defeated by Zero a second time, exclaiming, "X?! You are my original form?!" Because of these traits, it can be concluded that in terms of personality, Copy X is an imperfect Reploid copy of X, being absolutely nothing like the original in every aspect except for basic physical design.

In the radio drama track "Ciel's Memory ~ Truth of Hero" and "Ciel's Memory ~ Epilogue", his status as a copy of X is made more explicit, where he is depicted as speaking with a computer voice instead of having X's voice. He also ends up starting to have extremely slowed speech while uttering his final words to Zero, as if the computer's audio was about to die during his last moments.

Background
When the Maverick Wars (during the events of the Mega Man X series), and later the Elf Wars (two worldwide conflicts) came to an end, the ruler of Neo Arcadia, Mega Man X had to physically use his body to seal the Dark Elf away, but his Cyber-elf form was nowhere to be found. Because of this, the Neo Arcadian Central Council was thrown into disarray as a result. As an emergency remedy, 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; he did not have any battle experience, memories, and the 30-year testing that Dr. Light put X through to ensure a correct perception of justice as the original, which thus made him fairly naive in his thought processes. When Neo Arcadia started to face an energy crisis while Reploids increased in number, Copy X wrongfully concluded that Reploids were the heart of the problem. This began Neo Arcadia's "iron-fisted" policy of justice, in which Reploids are branded as Mavericks and mercilessly executed without cause or provocation, during the events that lead to the first Mega Man Zero game.

During his rule, he regularly held trials with the 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 implies that the judges noticed the drastic change in X's personality, which meant that Copy X (as well as his original) presided over many trials. It is possible that Elpizo was also tried by Copy X before he left Neo Arcadia. The disposal of innocent Reploids led to the creation of a Resistance.

Mega Man Zero
Copy X's Four Guardians led attacks on the bands of Reploid rebels that fled Neo Arcadia, often wiping out mass amounts in single strikes. When the Resistance discovered the legendary hero, Zero, it became a problem for Copy X and his armies as Zero began decimating his forces 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 proudly stated that he was a perfect copy of X, telling Zero that he was superior to both he (Zero) and the original X, having achieved true peace. After bantering for some time, Copy X challenged Zero to a battle, a battle in which the former ultimately lost. Zero tells him that despite his memory loss, his body was sure that the original X was much stronger than the "weak" copy. Furious at Zero's words, Copy X vowed to make Zero regret what he said and assumed a gigantic Seraph-like battle form, but he was brought down once again. He then expressed disbelief that he could even lose at all, let alone to Zero, due to believing himself to be a hero, with Zero, regaining a bit of his past memories regarding X, told him that his template was not naive (and in the Ciel's Memory drama, specifically tells him that X had been a coward and a constant fretter), and that's what made him a hero unlike Copy X. After declaring that he would never forgive Zero, Copy X then sets his base to self-destruct in one final attempt to kill the legendary hero, but the latter escapes the blast and falls into the desert.

Mega Man Zero 3
Despite his defeat, Copy X 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 2. Once the Dark Elf had been unleashed, Dr. Weil, using his advanced powers of "DNA Resurrection", brought Copy X back alongside three of his army commanders. Copy X Mk. II (to whom the characters referred only as Copy X) this time resumed control of Neo Arcadia, with Dr. Weil as his chief adviser; however, it seemed he was obeying Weil's every suggestion or command. In this incarnation, he had a profound stutter, expressed in such a way as to imply his speech was somewhat glitched, further exposing his imperfection following his revival.

Also, Copy X shows signs of having gone Maverick by ordering a missile raid on Area Z-3079, as that location was a human residential area where the Dark Elf was located. He later contacts Ciel and asks for approval to use the Ciel System, confident she would forgive and forget the missile raid for the sake of peace. However, Ciel refuses his offer for peace, citing that the casualties of the missile strike and all of his his crimes from the first game as reasons to not give the Ciel System to him and Weil. Copy X expresses disappointment and rage in her, and calls her and the Resistance "nothing more than filthy extremists" for defying the only way to true peace, sending in the revived Anubis Necromancess, Blizzack Staggroff, Hanumachine, and their troops to deliver "justice" to the evil extremists.

Once Neo Arcadia began launching attacks on the Resistance Base, Zero destroyed the previously-mentioned three commanders before assaulting Copy X's base of operations, Area X-2. When Zero arrived, Copy X attempted to convince the former that what he was doing was wrong, and both the latter and Neo Arcadia were right. This clash of ideals resulted in another battle between the two, in which Copy X again lost. When Copy X attempted to call in Dr. Weil and Omega, the original X appeared and spoke to both Zero and Copy X. However, the latter wouldn't listen to his template, instead growing angrier with each passing moment. The real X revealed that Dr. Weil stole many resources from Neo Arcadia and had moved to another base with Omega, which meant that Copy X was nothing but a tool. Despite this, Copy X attempted to use his presumed Armed Phenomenon once again, but a sabotage bomb planted on him by Dr. Weil to prevent any rebellion caused Copy X to self-destruct instead. Copy X's use of phraseology could mean that he was either attempting revenge on Dr. Weil or showing X and Zero what he really was made of; he did, however, make a clear fact by showing his frustration at being taken for a fool by everyone. With the destruction of Copy X on April 23, Dr. Weil was able to assume role as the leader of Neo Arcadia, blaming the death of Copy X on Zero and the Resistance, all while promising to defeat them and restore peace to Neo Arcadia.

Other game appearances
Copy X appeared as a Battle Memory in Rockman Xover.

Rockman X DiVE
Copy X appeared in Rockman X DiVE as the boss of the 2020 event "The Savior has Come" that lasted from July 10 to July 22. The battle against him is similar to his appearances in the Mega Man Zero series.

Rockman Zero manga
Copy X appears shortly with his Ultimate Armor in the manga, where he is an unnamed fusion of the Four Guardians created by Cial, who refers to him as the "Perfect Reploid". He overwhelms the battle-weary Zero using his Nova Strike and deals a serious blow, reverting the Reploid into his meek self. Believing he had already won, he prepares to kill Zero, but Lito tries to protect him. Irritated, he throws Lito away and attempts to eliminate him, but Zero gathers up the courage and strength to fight back without his helmet, impaling the Perfect Reploid from behind using his Z-Saber. Without the Four Guardians, the Resistance was able to defeat the Neo Arcadian armies. Copy X was noticeably much more psychotic than his original depiction, as seen through his facial tick, and was much less vocal as well.

Mega Man (Archie Comics)
In Issue 55 of the comic series, Copy X appears with the Guardians against Zero as part of an extensive vision of the near and distant future of Earth witnessed by Dr. Light.

Forms and abilities
Copy X, as a copy of the original X, seemingly possesses all of the original's abilities. He also has at least two enhanced upgrades/forms. However, despite being a perfect copy of X, it is implied that his abilities are far weaker than X's. This is implied by Zero in-game shortly after beating Copy X, where he mentioned that he recalls the real X being much stronger than his copy, and this is made a bit more explicit in the "Ciel's Memory ~ Truth of Hero" Radio Drama; Zero actually ends up shot by Copy X after accusing him and the world as being "fakes". Zero, outside of briefly being stunned by being hit, completely shrugged it off and mentioned that the shot was weak.

Standard form
As noted above, Copy X's main form is a near-duplicate of X, with the only discernible difference being he had red eyes instead of blue/green eyes. While he is never actually seen fighting in this form, the radio drama Ciel's Memory ~ Truth of Hero implies that he has access to the X-Buster in this form.

First form
Copy X uses an armor that is capable of bestowing different elemental affinities, a different attack for each element, and the infamous Nova Strike that X used with the Ultimate Armor. Copy X equips himself with this armor before first clashing with Zero in the first Mega Man Zero title. Whether Ciel equipped him with this armor, or he had it installed 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.

Copy X's transformation into this state varied. In the original form, he was just enveloped in a golden light before emerging in this form. Mk. II's transformation into this form had him being enveloped in a purple and light blue orb before eventually being bathed in golden light and emerging in this form. The latter, however, may have been the result of Dr. Weil's modifications.
 * Mode Change: Similar to X's Variable Weapon System, Copy X's color and attacks vary depending on this mode. He can charge his shots to make them more powerful and render himself briefly invulnerable. He is immune to damage while changing his mode.
 * Normal Shot: Either jump up and shoot 3 shots downwards, or just shoot them while standing on the ground.
 * Charged: Fires a large plasma shot that causes more damage on contact, no plasma balls will be created however.
 * Ice Shot: Fires an icy shot that shatters upon contact and reflects five shards back, similar to the Shotgun Ice.
 * Charged: Releases a swirling stream of icy energy forward.
 * Elec Shot: Releases an electric orb similar to the Electric Spark, with the addition of minimal tracking ability.
 * Charged: Sends twin waves of electricity that slowly travel along the floor of the room.
 * Fire Shot: Launches a stream of flame similar to the Fire Wave, that arc slightly as it is fired across the room.
 * Charged: Points his buster upwards and a big flame shot erupts that spreads fire down in a volcanic manner.
 * Sliding: X attacks with a sliding kick.
 * Nova Strike: The infamous signature attack of this armor, however it can be executed on both the ground and in mid-air, with reduced damage for both. It has a homing-like feature in Mega Man Zero 3.
 * Raging EX Charge: Copy X is enveloped in a large aura that recovers one full health gauge (possibly representing the use of a Sub Tank) and temporary immunity to all attacks, but only if the player's rank is A or S. The player can stop this from happening if Zero can score a hit just before the aura takes effect, and Copy X is not flashing from taking damage.
 * EX Skill - Reflected Laser: Only used in Mega Man Zero 3 if the player is in A or S rank. Copy X will shoot a laser which acts like the Gemini Laser from Mega Man 3.

Second form
A seraph-like transformation of Copy X, implied to be the usage of the Armed Phenomenon. Bearing no legs, but with an ability to levitate, this destructive form allows Copy X to easily destroy his enemies. 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 has two floating platforms at his sides, which Zero can use to wall-jump on to reach Copy X. Surprisingly, touching the spikes on the pillars will not instantly kill Zero, only harm him. Despite this, Zero will most likely fall into the pit when touching the spikes. 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, bringing 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. Copy X could presumably also remotely set the Neo Arcadia tower to self-destruct in this form, based on what occurred during his first death.


 * Tentei Laser: Copy X shouts "Light!" (光よ!) and fires multiple small beams in random directions. These can be avoided by going from one end of the platform to the other while dashing, which will make the beams miss completely, while shouting, "No use!" It has an odd lock-on, in which the lasers will shoot at Zero's current location on the platforms.
 * Bind Ring: Copy X shouts "Repent!" (悔い改めよ!) and fires off several ring-shaped halos down that trap the enemy inside, but it doesn't cause damage though. Like the Tentei Laser, the rings have an odd lock-on to Zero's current location on the platforms. Can be avoided by simple movement.
 * Mekido Flame: Races a tracking beam all over the surface and torches the floor from it for a while. Copy X shouts, "I'm Judgement!" (裁きだ)
 * EX Skill: Giga Punisher: Constantly slams both spiked platforms down simultaneously in a pattern. He emits an eerie cackle, indicating that Copy X will use the EX Skill.

Copy X Mk. II
Resurrected by Dr. Weil, 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 emphasizes strange syllables), but is equipped with the same combat capacities of his first form. Other than the stutter, the only difference is that he has blue eyes in his standard form, rather than red eyes; however, they change back to red when donning his armor for battle. His transformation protocol was also different, being encased in a violet orb that barely obscures him before transforming into his battle form. Although not actually seen in-game, his Mega Buster's beam also is depicted in the artwork as being slightly different, showing fire, ice, and lightning cyber-particles when it originally just utilized rainbow data particles. He also has a new move known as the Reflect Laser. When he attempts to access his presumed Armed Phenomenon, a bomb planted within him triggers, blowing him to pieces. It is later discovered that Weil planted it on him, and intended for Copy X to die while battling Zero so he could rule Neo Arcadia, all while blaming Zero for Copy X's death at the same time.


 * Reflect Laser: The screen darkens a little bit, and he fires a powerful shot that bounces off walls. Only used when confronted with an A or S ranker.

Musical themes
The theme associated with him is "X, the Legend", a powerful, repetitive, mechanical theme indicating X's power. This theme was also shared with the real X and the Four Guardians.

During the battle with his second form, the theme "Fake" plays; which shares the almost otherworldly theme of "X, the Legend", only that it enters intense beats.

Trivia

 * Copy X, in his reappearance in Mega Man Zero 3, follows the long tradition in the Mega Man franchise of a "fake villain", as he was manipulated by Dr. Weil, similar to how Dr. Wily and Sigma manipulated other villains in their respective eras.
 * This is also similar to how the Yellow Devil from the classic series and Vile from the X series first appeared in the first game then reappeared in the 3rd game of their respective series.
 * The original X was originally slated to appear as the antagonist of the Zero series. Due to concerns related to the reaction of younger audiences attached to that character having to view him in an antagonistic light (and considering the X series was still ongoing), the team at Inti Creates decided to alter the game's plot one month prior to the game's release to make it so the villain of the game was a copy and expanding Ciel's role by making her the copy's creator.
 * Even though Copy X is the fifth Mega Man incarnation, he is only quasi-playable in his Mega Man Zero 3 mini-game.
 * Copy X is one of two (three if counting MegaMan Juno) Mega Man incarnations to not appear in all installments of "his" series. The other one is Mega Man Volnutt, who isn't involved in one installment of his series.
 * In this regard, Copy X is also the only one in which the series doesn't revolve around him (besides being one of the main antagonists), instead revolving around Zero.
 * Oddly enough, Copy X features a slide attack, a technique that was shared with the original Mega Man, although it was only used as a dash technique.
 * In actual gameplay, both of Copy X's forms has the least health of the final bosses in the Mega Man Zero series, with both of his forms having only two life-bars, in a contrast to the later final bosses, and some bosses earlier in the first game (which includes the Four Guardians), which had three life bars. Because of his two forms however, he still has the most health of the bosses in the first Mega Man Zero game.
 * If the player loses to Copy X not in Seraph form, he will continuously jump around the room executing his attacks in a taunting manner while yelling his you-are-defeated sentence.
 * Copy X's personality might be a result of not having to go through Dr. Light's extensive 30-year-long testing. In other words, he might be a perfect copy of X physically, but was never mentally conditioned to be at all like him, lending the possibility that even the original X could have been evil if it wasn't for Light's precautions.
 * Copy X's physical weakness as noted by Zero during their battle near the end of Mega Man Zero may be a result of Copy X's relatively young operational age and battle inexperience when compared to the original X. In the original Mega Man X, Zero describes to X, "Remember, you have not reached full power yet. If you use all the abilities you were designed with, you should become stronger...you may even become as powerful as I am." Zero defeating Copy X could be reminiscent of history when Zero was initially more powerful than the original X. When the original X was found and activated from Dr. Light's hidden capsule, he initially only had the strength to be ranked a Class B Maverick Hunter. By design, Dr. Light gave the original X the ability to infinitely grow his power over time, hence his reasoning for naming him "X".
 * In addition to the possibilities previously mentioned, Copy X may simply be an imperfect and defective copy like Zero Nightmare, even if the character believes otherwise. This would also explain why he is weaker than the original X and his sense of justice would probably be distorted regardless of the 30-year tests. Since Mega Man X6 has established that even scientists in the future can't fully understand the architecture of X and Zero, Ciel most likely wasn't able to completely understand X's architecture, resulting in an imperfect copy. The radio drama track "Ciel's Memory ~ Truth of Hero" supports this possibility.
 * X's ending in Mega Man X4 may be the first foreshadowing to Copy X, or likely the original intention for X to become the villain in the Zero series. While escaping from Final Weapon, Zero contacts X, and X begs his fellow Maverick Hunter to destroy him in case he ever goes Maverick.
 * In Zero's Mega Man X7 's ending, Zero has a nightmare where X apparently goes berserk and tries to eliminate all the Mavericks, even Zero. This was most likely foreshadowing Copy X's rise to power.
 * In both of his appearances, his attacks reference special weapons from Mega Man X.
 * In a sense, Copy X's destruction can be seen as an indirect success on Zero's original objective that was given to him by Dr. Wily when he was created, which was to destroy Dr. Light's creation.
 * Copy X's Ultimate Armor set of moves is parallel to the system of Omega (Zero Form) himself, only with the lack of an EX Skill.
 * Copy X is possibly a homage to the Copy Robot of the Classic series.
 * Copy X is the third antagonistic clone of Mega Man X, the first being X-Kai chronologicaly, being designed by Keisuke Mizuno for a line of action figures, and iX from the Mega Mission card series being the second, although Copy X is the first clone to appear in a video game.
 * If one closely listens to Seraph Mode Copy X's theme "Fake", it sounds like a re-imaging of Vile's theme from the first Mega Man X game.
 * Amusingly, both the Original and Copy X have only one unique theme dedicated to them. It's "Cyberelf" for Cyber-elf X, and "Fake" for (needless to say) Copy X.
 * The Modified Pantheon Aqua from Mega Man Zero 3 emits phrases and an eerie cackle very remarkably like Copy X's Seraph transformation. It also drops objects in a similar fashion to Copy X's helmet halo ray attack, and fires a wide area laser across the floor.
 * Copy-X is the second iteration of an "Evil Mega Man" type character, which originated with MegaMan Juno from Mega Man Legends. This was later carried on to Model W, which is titled "The Evil Mega Man".
 * Copy X shares the same voice actress as Fairy Leviathan, Yuka Imai.
 * Copy X's designation as a Reploid is actually correct, as he is a copy of X's systems and general design. While the original X is often called a Reploid, he is only one by association, since he was the original template and not an actual replication.
 * Copy X MK-II having a broken speech pattern and being even more unstable than the first Copy X is due to how Copy X MK-II is actually a copy of Copy X, rather than the original Copy X. This is a reference to how when one copies something from a copy, the newer ones begin to degrade in quality.