Elpizo

"I couldn't have done it without you Ciel..."

- Elpizo to Ciel.

Elpizo is the main antagonist of Megaman Zero 2.

Appearance
Elpizo is royal themed, appearing as a tall young man with a long high-collared fuchsia coat and cyan shirt, with black tight pants completed by white gloves. He wears a helmet that covers half of his face and head featuring a fuchsia head light. Combined with his long and blond curly hair, Elpizo appears as a refined gentleman. It is unknown what he looked like before gaining his unique name.

Personality
Elpizo seemed to exhibit some traits of megalomania. At first, he felt awkward for being made the Resistance Leader by Ciel, but as time progressed, he ended up feeling grandiose and self-important. He ended up firmly convinced that he was special and that he could only be understood by others who were special i.e. Ciel and Zero.

He developed an arrogant nature and acted haughtily, feeling superior, omnipotent and invincible. Elpizo seemed to also suffer from persecutory, paranoid delusions, constantly wishing to destroy the object of his frustration (Neo Arcadia), and believed that Neo Arcadia felt the same way about him.

After his invading forces were killed in Neo Arcadia, his ideal image of himself and his plans were destroyed. He developed a sense of self-inadequacy, which he sought to rectify by finding the Dark Elf and gaining its power. It can also be argued that he developed a narcissistic view of himself, wanting to become more powerful in order to maintain the illusion of his grandiose nature in the eyes of other people.

In the end, Elpizo took a similar but opposite stance to Copy X; instead of wishing to exterminate Reploids for the good of mankind, Elpizo wanted to exterminate humans for the good of Reploids. This is somewhat of a Sigma cameo, since he also wanted to destroy only humanity. Ironically, thanks to Copy X antagonizing Ciel and orchestrating an attack which killed many humans as well, this made Elpizo and Copy X the only Mega Man Zero series Reploids who fit the original definition of a Maverick (Craft arguably being another one).

In the Telos drama tracks, it is noted that he loved the system of Neo Arcadia because he found it supremely well managed. Perhaps, this love of the organized helped to develop the militaristic attitude he took to rebelling against Neo Arcadia and inevitably made him go insane when his organized plans fell apart.

History
Elpizo was a reploid that worked for Harpuia in Neo Arcadia. During one of his missions, he went to a sunken library, where he found files talking about the Elf Wars and the Dark Elf. Harpuia suggested to him that he forget everything he had discovered in that place. During the time when Copy X, ruler of Neo Arcadia, starts to retire the reploids wrongly accusing them of being mavericks, Elpizo defects and joins the Resistance led by the scientist Ciel. After Copy X is defeated and Zero went missing, Elpizo is appointed by Ciel as the new leader of the Resistance, while Ciel is researching a new form of energy. Elpizo believes that only by destroying Neo Arcadia will peace come again to the reploids. Elpizo starts his operations to attack Neo Arcadia, when Zero is found unconscious outside the Resistance Base. Zero disagrees with Elpizo in hi way of thing, but help him with some operations to weaken the Neo Arcadia forces. Zero finds the two Baby Elves, which Ciel believes are the key to a new form of energy. Elpizo starts a full scale attack against them. Zero tracks him just to discover that his entire unit had been annihilated and that he was defeated by none other than Harpuia.

Betraying the Resistances
Elpizo is sent back to the base, but when Zero returns as well, he discovers that Elpizo fled with the Baby Elves. Seemingly being guided by the elves, Elpizo becomes obsessed with gaining ultimate power, seeking the Dark Elf. Zero tracks him down, stumbling across the X Guardians along the way, who were also after Elpizo. Elpizo invades Neo Arcadia, and manages to sneak on the guardians. When Zero finds him, he sees Harpuia kneeling to him, showing that the Baby Elves granted him more power. Elpizo enters the Shrine of Yggdrasil, where the body of X is secured.

Confronting Zero
When Zero arrives at the place, Elpizo destroys X's body, which releases the Dark Elf, which grants Elpizo a power beyond comprehension. Zero tries to stop him and fights him. Zero defeats Elpizo, but he is too obsessed to admit defeat, forcing the Dark Elf to it's limit to grant him even more power. They fight again, but Zero defeats him.

Elpizo's Defeat
Badly damaged by the battle and with little energy left, Elpizo realizes that he was too insane to listen to reason and that he was wrong the entire time. The Dark Elf, seemingly changing from his corrupted state, bestows his power upon Elpizo, turning him into a Cyber Elf. Elpizo thanks Zero for saving him and goes away so that he can rest in peace.

Elpizo
Despite his status as a non-combat model Reploid, Elpizo seemed to have abilities beyond those of the other Resistance soldiers, though not at the same level as those of Zero or the Guardians. His status as the Resistance's new commander, plus the fact that with his help, they were able to organize from a rag-tag guerrilla group to a more equipped, well organized millitary force, indicated that he possessed a high degree of intelligence and some millitary skills and planning. He also carried an energy rapier, able to block frontal attacks, indicating he had some skill in swordsmanship, though in the end these skills were not enough to prevent the Resistance's defeat at the hand of Neo Arcadian forces.

After the fiasco of Operation Righteous Strike, Elpizo stole the Baby Elves, using their powers to combat enemies. He was able to subdue X in his Cyber Elf form, force Harpuia into his Armed Phenomenon state to fight Zero and restrain Zero in an energy net long enough to break the Dark Elf seal.
 * Dark Drain: Elpizo will summon a ring of purple orbs that quickly chase you and drain your health.
 * Saber Dash: Elpizo will point his beam rapier upwards, then dash forward at you with repeated stabbing.
 * Splash Laser: Elpizo will create shockwaves on the ground erupting into dark flames.
 * Distortion Aura: Elpizo opens a portal that summons either a Pantheon Guardian or Spiking.
 * (EX Skill) Grand Burst: Elpizo enters Dark Overdrive, mimicking the Overdrive ability of the Four Guardians. He becomes wrapped in a shadowy aura that blocks any attack until it wears off. While invincible, he sends his rapier spinning into the air, blasting a huge, blue column into the ground and spitting rocks in all directions. After the attack ends, his sword returns, whirling back like a boomerang.

Dark Elpizo
After absorbing the Dark Elf, Elpizo gained a combat body and had his overall abilities explosively increased, such as his strength, speed and swordsmanship, among others, enabling him to fight at almost the same level as Zero. After his first defeat he drawed out more of the Dark Elf's power, changing him into a winged, demonic form, with even greater power. It's implied however that Elpizo wasn't able to draw out or control the Elf's full power, and became even more insane as a result of his atempt. He will randomly summons a gold, spiked platform for standing in (this is for balance purposes).
 * Teleportation: Elpizo can teleports randomly at the second half end of the battle.
 * Chain Walls: Elpizo will summon two spiked walls (will not instantly kill).
 * Shadow Vortex Elpizo will summon a green orb, which slowly, speeding up, unwinds around him.
 * Dual Macabre: Elpizo will summon the two baby elves to send out floods of clones and attack you from both sides.
 * (EX Skill) Chaos Blazer: Elpizo's winged segments light up randomly, and the tips send out golden proton blasts that home in on you, the strongest attack he has.

Trivia

 * In the English version, Elpizo (ἐλπίζω, elpizō / pronounced: el-pid'-zo) is a verb from the Greek language which means "I hope" or "to hope (for)". This reflects the true intention of Ciel left for him, a generous and skillfully commander of the Resistance.
 * In the Japanese version, Elpizo's other name, Elpis, is the personification and spirit of hope, perhaps a child of Nyx and mother of Pheme, the goddess of fame, renown and rumor. Hope was usually seen as an extension to suffering by the Greek, not as a good. It fits more to Elpizo's characteristics however.
 * Elpizo is the first main villain (real, final boss) of a Mega Man game to have regrets for his actions (as noted in the ending). Lord Wily / Dr.Wily / Mr. Wily of the Mega Man Battle Network series was second, and Dr. Vega of the Star Force series was the third. There's also the possibility that Sunstar from Mega Man V felt regret shortly before his self destruction.


 * Other final bosses in the Zero series (Copy X, Omega, Dr. Weil) change the battlefield (and, in Copy X's case, made it more hazardous), when transitioning between their forms. Elpizo stands out as the only final boss in which the battlefield remains the same throughout the two battles he's fought in.


 * Elpizo is the second "leader/commander" character who becomes a main antagonist. The first one being Sigma, who he ironically shares the same views with in the end. (Characters such as Lumine from Mega Man X8 or Colonel Redips from Mega Man X: Command Mission are not counted here, as they were unveiled as having been main antagonists from the very beginning of their story rather than truly starting out good and being turned over time.)


 * During the cutscene in the Temple of Wind, when Elpizo dashes away after triggering Harpuia's Armed Phenomenon form, a one appears behind his foot and a two appears under his head.


 * Though it were the Eight Judges and Copy-X who convicted TK-31 for seeing the data from the information facility. The Eight Judges had severe doubts about the trial as it wasn't even clear what TK-31 had seen, and they should have had more time to discuss the matter. The Judges also began to doubt Copy-X's behavior; believing he had changed. Harpuia, though quick to silence any negative thoughts about Copy-X, also recognized there was something wrong with the verdict and blamed himself for it. With the founding principle of Neo Arcadia in mind, the cooperation between humans and Reploids, they hoped for a better verdict