Dr. Doppler
Image from Mega Man X3 (video game, 1995)
Regretful Reploid Scientist
Copy/Electric Type
Original Media: Mega Man X3 (video game, 1995)
Story
A robot scientist (more specifically a Reploid) from another world. Once benevolent, he was corrupted by the evil Sigma Virus, planning malicious schemes under its control, such as the creation of Limited and the false utopia of Dopple Town; while he was freed from the virus’ control as the latter was being put to an end, he gave his life to temporarily stop the Sigma Virus, using those final moments to atone for his misdeeds.
However, such moments weren’t as final as they seemed: Through means unknown, Dr. Doppler was brought to life in an elusive realm known only as “Dimension L”, and eventually found himself in the Chaos Zone. Since then, Dr. Doppler has made a sort of fresh start in this new world, helping others with his true goodwill of past.
Dr. Doppler is a friendly but quiet man, most often preferring to help others within his new home of Doppler Labs. But he won’t deny that dire situations call for extreme measures, and if he must, he will step into battle to help those he values.
No matter how much others view him responsible for his actions under the Sigma Virus, Dr. Doppler’s feels a deep feeling of regret over them, which largely fuels his present actions. This regret is so strong that he was chosen to wield an artifact known as the Ring of Regret, one of many artifacts with empowering effects tied to a particular emotion.
Voice
General Description
Senior Adult; deep, often calm, rarely raises his voice
Behind the Scenes
Dr. Doppler’s introduction to the story was largely inspired by the constant presence of Limited: A few other users were using characters associated with Limited heavily and discussing Limited’s effects on other sources of power, and this made me want to research the Rockman X Mega Mission collectible card stories they came from: When I learned that the first Mega Mission story from 1995 included Dr. Doppler (a character who has been largely irrelevant outside of Mega Man X3) as a major antagonist and the creator of Limited (which outlasted him as the main antagonist of the Mega Mission stories), it piqued my curiosity; I’m usually not a big fan of the Mega Man X series (much preferring the “Classic” Mega Man series), but with all the talk of Limited in Chaos Zone, Dr. Doppler felt like a missing piece of the puzzle asking to be put in.
There were a few hurdles I felt the need to overcome first in explaining Dr. Doppler’s presence: For one, the Mega Man X series takes place long after the “Classic” series that I felt Chaos Zone had an underlying connection to; I decided to resolve this by having Dr. Doppler come from an alternate world where the events of the Mega Man X series were already happening. As for the issue of Doppler having been dead by the end of X3, I decided to give the circumstances of his return an air of mystery…in the sense that not even I really had a solid idea of what brought him back. Even when I did try to explain it further down the line, the answer of why Doppler came back boiled down to luck.
Then came actually introducing him in the story itself: Mega Man X3 has two endings, depending on how you go about playing the game: In one ending, the main character’s closest ally is the one to stop the villain (the Sigma Virus mentioned early in the “Story” section), but in another ending where that character is unable to help, Dr. Doppler is the one to step in and stop the threat as an act of final redemption. I was way more invested in basing my take on Dr. Doppler on the more proactive act of redemption he takes in the latter ending, and decided that after being resurrected (for reasons I never worried too much about, and are admittedly kind of arbitrary even looking at how I did eventually explain it), Dr. Doppler wanted to continue to atone for his misdeeds under the Sigma Virus’ control, even in the main world of Chaos Zone where Limited had existed, but not Doppler.
I wouldn’t say Dr. Doppler’s a character who’s gone through much change since his debut (besides being more accepting of his creations when they aren’t harming others), but I feel like the complex road it took for Doppler to even join the world of Chaos Zone, combined with how comfortably he fit as an older figure who could be trusted to know more than others if needed, led to him quickly becoming an enjoyable character to write.
Brash Buster 