Dr. Wily

Doctor Wily
'Mega Man' character
First game	Mega Man (1987)
Created by	Keiji Inafune

Doctor Albert W. Wily is a fictional character and the prime antagonist of the original Mega Man series of video games. His goal is usually world domination and he constructs robots to carry out his plans.

Doctor Wily is the typical mad scientist; he is 57 years old (according to the Rockman & Forte Japanese game manual), wears a white lab coat (sometimes he also dons a red cape), is unkempt, has a large mustache and is prone to emotional fits.

Concept and Creation

His looks and name seem to be based on German-born physicist Albert Einstein. There are other, mostly coincidental, similarities to other people.

History

Original Mega Man series

At the beginning of the Mega Man timeline, in the original Japanese version, Doctor Wily was Dr. Light's rival, while in the changed US and European versions, he was Light's assistant. In both versions, Wily helps Light create eight powerful robots known as "Robot Masters": Rock (Mega), Roll, Cut Man, Guts Man, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man, and Elec Man. It should be noted in the remake of the original Mega Man game known as Mega Man Powered Up, Capcom has retconned the original story and added Time Man and Oil Man, thus changing the total number of robots that Dr. Light creates from eight robots to ten, while also apparently reverting to the original version of the story where Dr. Wily and Dr. Light never worked together prior to the events of the first game.

Dr. Wily becomes jealous of his rival, Dr. Light, for creating the eight/ten robots mentioned above, and winning the Nobel Prize. However, the committee gives no credit to Wily for his contributions to the robots. Some time later, he discovers Dr. Light's prototype robot, Proto Man. As Proto Man's systems are failing, Dr. Wily takes him in and restores him as best as he can. Utilizing the knowledge gained from studying Proto Man, Wily mass produces Sniper Joe robots based on Proto Man's design and reprograms six/eight of Dr. Light's robots to do his bidding. Though they were originally robots made to help humanity - land reclamation, efficient demolition and construction, time travel research, and the like - they are soon modified for battle and destruction. However, Wily passes up the opportunity to reprogram Rock, seeing no potential special abilities in him. Doctor Wily uses the power of Dr. Light's robots to attempt global conquest, and Dr. Light is left at a loss for a solution. According to Mega Man 4 and Mega Man Powered Up, Rock volunteers to be converted into a battle robot in order to stop Dr. Wily. Dr. Light agrees, and from that day forward, Rock also takes on a new name ("Rockman" in Japan and "Mega Man" in other countries). The events of the first Mega Man game and Powered Up are concerned with Doctor Wily's first attempt at conquest.

Beginning with Mega Man 2 on, Doctor Wily's main goal is revenge for his humiliation, first on Dr. Light and Mega Man, and then the world. Despite surrendering at the end of each game (typically by bowing for mercy in front of Mega Man), he always escapes and returns for the next, to try and conquer the world by creating or stealing eight new Robot Masters. In various games, Wily disguises his intentions by blackmailing Russian scientist Dr. Cossack, framing Proto Man, impersonating a tournament sponsor, having an alien attempt to conquer the world, making cover with a fake invasion leader robot, or framing Dr. Light for World Domination.

After failing this plan several times, Wily builds a new robot based on Mega Man: Bass, in Mega Man 7. As powerful as Mega Man, Bass confronts the former several times, only to lose each time. Bass is rebellious and brutal, and even fights against Wily sometimes, mostly to prove himself as the strongest of all the robots Wily sends against Mega Man.

Mega Man X series

Though Wily makes no concrete appearance in the Megaman X series, he is still linked with many of the events occurring, most notably the creation of Zero and the Maverick Virus, which Zero was the original host of. Some ambiguous dialogues in Megaman X5 lead to speculation that Wily might have survived in one form or another, as Sigma mentions that he found a new partner that knows a lot about Zero, hates Megaman X and has built a lot of robots in the past. However these issues are not addressed in following Megaman X games.

Wily has not been mentioned after the Megaman X series.

Wily and Zero

Wily is also responsible for creating Zero, one of the main protagonists of the Mega Man X series, and the main character of the Mega Man Zero series.

Wily recognized that Bass was too unstable and difficult to control, and he felt he could not trust him enough to fight for his legacy. Wily therefore built in secret a very special robot: Zero. This robot is stated in later X games as one of the most powerful robots in the world.