Bro Bots

 

Mitchell Deacon is the best candidate in years for governor in Dr. Light's view, so he built him a robot parade. But oh snap! Two of the parade car things turn out to be skull tanks in disguise, driven by Cut Man and Guts Man, and they surround Mega Man. He's unsure of what to do, but Proto Man comes to the rescue, telling his brother to save Deacon while he will "take care of these yahoos", and he does so by jumping onto the cannon of Guts Man's tank, springing him into the air and landing him on Cut Man. They then use the ropes of two floats to tie them to their tanks, lifting them into the air.

 

After Cut Man shouts some obscenities, Proto Man celebrates with fireworks by exploding the tank. Deacon thanks them for saving his life, especially Proto Man, who's honoured. After Deacon leaves, he explains to the others that he just wanted to help his brother, and Light believes him, saying he designed him with the same parts he used for Mega Man, so the "ethical goodness" could've just kicked in only now.

Spoiling the whole twist of the episode, Wily says to his lackeys that the reason Proto Man had to kick their asses was to show the world that he's a goody two shoes now, and only then can the master plan go to action. Until then, he'll just make plans that involve Proto Man beating up his allies, like this one involving Heat Man, Needle Man and Elec Man attacking a museum.
 

The brothers arrive, and while Mega Man battles Heat Man and Elec Man, Proto Man simply defeats Needle Man by reminding him of his plan and then ripping his circuits out. The remaining two are finished by simply dunking them in a fountain, and after they congratulate each other, it's presumed they go their separate ways as Proto Man is seen back at Wily's ship, and is given a scrambler chip to put on Mega Man.

He immediately sets to doing that by spending some time with his brother, where Mega Man reveals that he's still uncertain if he can trust his brother, but says he always wanted a brother relationship with him. Proto Man secretly confirms his untrustworthiness by planting the chip on him.
 

Bright Man is attacking the city, so Mega Man goes to take care of that lugnut; however, the scrambler chip placed on him weakens him significantly, and once he tries to use his buster he starts overheating. Proto Man saves the day by happening to be in the sewers, shooting a pipe and spraying it out of a manhole that also happens to be there, cooling down his brother. He shoots at Bright Man's feet, which is enough to send him fleeing and raise Proto's reputation.

Deacon tells him he'd have to have him as the chief of his security team, and Proto happily obliges. Mega Man wishes to be there as well, but he's in no condition to do so. Meanwhile, Dr. Wily is very happy with Proto's new occupation, and Light can't find out what's wrong with Mega Man, but Roll claims that she, Rush and Proto Man will do as good a job protecting Deacon as he could. Everyone except Mega then heads off to Deacon's headquarters for the election countdown.
 

Mega Man keeps an eye on things with the TV, and notices Cut Man and Guts Man disguised as security guards, so he uses his new flying suit to head after them, nearly killing himself numerous times in the journey. Meanwhile, Proto Man beats up some security guards and Cut Man makes a politics joke, while Wily talks to Deacon and reveals his plan to him: A robot of him, which he'll use to put the city under his control, naturally. Mega Man barges in and tries to put a stop to it, but the scrambler chip crumples him to his knees upon entering.

 

He throws Proto Man aside and escapes out a window, though Wily merely states that the scrambler chip has put his crime fighting days to an end, as evidenced by the fact he falls off a building when he tries to fly after the van they're getting away in, so instead of trying to cope with it, he just hitches a ride on top of the van. He gets off at their destination to see what they're up to, and sees Dr. Light walking down a corridor, alone. He calls after him with no success and follows him, only to realise it's another robot clone, discovering that Wily's plan is to replace the city's leaders with robot fakes.
 

Wily and his minions enter the room, claiming he has no chance of stopping him, when the scrambler chip kicks in again. Proto Man gives him an offer: Go evil and get the chip off, or stay good and get beat up. He chooses the latter, and is given a swift kick across the room, and as he and Wily leave, Elec Man gives him a dose of electric-themed pain.

He slips on some goop, allowing Mega to escape and jump around on pipes before dumping them in the red slime, which becomes solid after covering them. He finds his compadres in a cage held above a vat of the red slime, which is apparently acid, but I don't know any acid that becomes a second skin. He ties a rope on his waist and to the pipe, but the scrambler kicks in again, although the rope saves him from an acid bath, and it gets him close enough to the cage for Dr. Light to take out the chip.

 

He then kicks the cage and blasts the chain, and they land safely. The next step is to reprogram the robot doubles to be idiots, rendering them useless, which is simply done by taking a black chip out of them. Wily is quite angry about this, and commands his robots to destroy the meddlers. Bright Man is the only one actually defeated, having his light bulb shattered, as Cut Man's blade destroys what's keeping the vat of acid stable, resulting in a speedy exit from everyone.
 

The vat spills the acid everywhere, leaving Mega Man and Proto Man standing on the rim of another vat. Proto Man suggests a fist fight, and Mega Man obliges, but before they can do anything, the vat tips over.

 

This leaves them with only some stepping stones to work with. Proto knocks his brother to the ground, where they exchange fists before trying to push the other into the acid, until Mega Man saves them both, thanking him for revealing the scrambler chip to him, so they're even. The Skullker is waiting, so Proto Man leaves with some sentimental music.
 

Mitchell Deacon thanks Mega Man, Roll is embarrassed over falling for Proto Man's fluke, but Mega Man confirms he's bad to the bone, but still his brother. Uh oh, here comes Rush! And he's eaten a scrambler chip! That crazy dog!


The Mega Man community, even though round about all of them utterly despise the cartoon, the ones that have watched it usually like this episode because Proto Man works together with Mega Man until after the first commercial break. It's pretty entertaining as it actually seems like they're working together, instead of merely having the same objective like in The Strange Island of Dr. Wily where they frequently try to kill each other in the process.
Since Proto Man gets a significantly larger part in this, both as an ally and an enemy, when he isn't there the episode just seems like we've seen it all before. Sure, it's got a politically themed story, something pretty new, unless you count Wily becoming governor by using microwaves to shoot lasers in Electric Nightmare; but it doesn't change the fact that Proto Man is the star of this episode and it becomes a lot more dull when he isn't there. And even when he is there, he needs Mega Man to be truly entertaining, situations that only occur at the beginning and the end. At least there's some great lines.
If I made the cartoon, this would just be 11 minutes of Mega Man and Proto Man working together, then 11 minutes of them fighting each other with back-up from Wood Man, Bomb Man and Hard Man. Because they rule.

4 out of 5 sympathetic Lights.


When Mega Man gets up after the giant Deacon robot is destroyed, Rush is missing his body.

Those crazy animators.

 

Deacon's weight seems to fluctuate throughout the episode. While he's usually just a bit wider than the mayor, there are some instances where he's downright porky.