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 there are some differences. The most noticeable of these are his red eyes, which help to establish his role as the 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, allows him to change elemental affinities (with matching color motifs), and which allows him to use a guided Nova Strike. The armor 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 savior 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 armor with a blue and light grey halo that rains all colors of the palette appearing above his head, with no visible wings. Cyber-elf X also has a different helmet design to Copy X, with Copy X's helmet staying much closer to its original design in all forms.

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 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; however, 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 feels that he is incapable of making mistakes. The standard by which he views himself creates a warped sense of justice in which any decision he makes is right by virtue of being a perfect copy. Zero makes note of this difference after defeating Copy X the first time by calling him naive, suggesting that he lacked the experiences and memories of the original X to properly understand justice and rule Neo Arcadia as X did. This is further expanded in the Drama Tracks, where Zero specifically cited how unlike Copy X, his template was a coward who was a constant worrier, and that his overcoming such doubts is what made him become a great hero, unlike Copy X who Zero deemed to be "simple" by comparison. However, Copy X disregards this, and doesn't hesitate to stand up for himself and his perfection, as shown when he was attempting to switch into Seraph Form by exclaiming,"Everyone treats me like a fool. Let me show you my true power." Unlike X, he is also violent, like Fefnir, when enraged.

This greatly contrasts with the original X, who had a strong aversion to violence and fought only as a last resort. It should be taken into consideration that Copy X had never met the original X before midway through the events of Mega Man Zero 3, and Copy X gets surprised by his presence when he was defeated by Zero a second time, exclaiming, "You are my original form?!" Because of these traits it can be concluded that Copy X is an imperfect Reploid copy of X, 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 only a copy of X is made more explicit, where he is depicted as having a flanging computer voice when speaking instead of speaking like X, and also ends up having extremely slowed speech while uttering his final words to Zero as if the computer's audio was dying.

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 and his Cyber-elf form was nowhere to be found. Because of this, the Neo Arcadian Central Council was thrown into chaos ever since. 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, not having any of the battle experience or memories of the original (or the 30-year testing that Dr. Light put him through to ensure a correct perception of justice), 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 are branded as Mavericks and mercilessly executed without cause or provocation in the events leading 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 suggests that the judges 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 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 maintained that he was the perfect copy, telling Zero that he was superior to both he (Zero) and the original X, 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 than him. Furious at Zero's mocking tone, he assumed a gigantic Seraph battle form, but he was brought down, once again. Copy X then set his base to self-destruct in one final attempt to kill Zero, but Zero escapes the blast and falls into the desert.

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 2. 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 resumed control of Neo Arcadia, with Dr. Weil as his chief adviser, though it seemed he was obeying Weil's every suggestion or command. In this incarnation, he also had a profound stutter, expressed in such a way as to imply his speech was glitched, exposing his further 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 the missile raid and his crimes from the first game as reasons to not give the Ciel System to him and Weil. Copy X expresses disappointment in her, and calls her and the Resistance extremists for defying the only way to 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 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, 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, while promising to defeat them and restore peace to Neo Arcadia.

Other game appearances
Copy X appeared as 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 appearance 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 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.

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. He is never actually seen fighting in this form, although the radio drama Ciel's Memory ~ Truth of Hero shows he at least has access to his 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 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 just was enveloped in a golden light before emerging in this form. Copy X 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. Presumably, the latter had 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, 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. 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 walljump on to reach Copy X. Surprisingly, touching the spikes on the pillars will not instantly kill Zero, only harm him. But even so, 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. Presumably, Copy X in this form could also remotely set the Neo Arcadia tower to self-destruct, based on what occurred upon his first death.


 * Tentei Laser: Copy X shouts "Light!" (光よ!) and fires multiple small beams in random direction. 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, which the Vulcan 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. 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 the 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 the Reflect Laser. When he attempts to access his Second Form, 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 while at the same time blame Zero for Copy X's death.


 * 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.

During the battle with his second form, the theme "Fake" plays, which shares the almost otherworldly theme of "X, the Legend", only it then 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 but 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 he has 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 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 noted by Zero during their ending battle within Mega Man Zero might be a result of Copy X's relatively young operational age and battle inexperience as 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-years 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, and 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.
 * Unlike the original X, Copy X's designation as a Reploid is correct; being a copy of X's systems and general design. The original X is often called a Reploid but is only one by association; being 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 alludes to how when one copies something from a copy, the newer copies begin to degrade in quality.