Ernest Will
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- "As I said, cheating isn't the way to do things. [...] We'll all be keeping an eye out for tomfoolery. Together, we'll make sure this is an event that no one forgets!"
- ―Ernest Will, Make a Good Mega Man Level 3
Ernest Will is a persona used by Dr. Wily during the events of Make a Good Mega Man Level 3. In this guise, Ernest Will is a rich and eccentric billionaire who hosts the Sixth Worldwide Sponsored Robot Tournament. To the public, he puts on the facade of a warm and welcoming showman, with a flair for the flashy and a strong commitment to fair play and honour throughout the event. The disguise, by Wily's own admission, is cheap and obvious, consisting mainly of a wig and a pair of Groucho Marx glasses, while his "E" logo is his regular Dr. W logo rotated 90 degrees. Despite this, almost nobody recognises who he really is underneath.
MaGMML Series Appearances
Make a Good Mega Man Level 3
With his bunker ransacked and his machines hijacked by Dr. Regal, Dr. Wily was forced to adopt the Ernest Will persona as a means of moving around without the public seeing him. Some time later, he used the persona to organise and promote the Sixth Worldwide Sponsored Robot Tournament, hoping to use the event's publicity to bait Dr. Regal into showing himself. The event also caught the attention of Mega Man and Dr. Light, both of whom immediately knew Ernest's true identity.
After conducting the opening ceremony, Ernest Will stands in the lobby of the Victor Heights hotel as an NPC, with his dialogue continually updating as the game progresses. Not long after the tournament begins, Ernest catches Princess cheating and throws her out of the tournament, a moment witnessed by both Mega Man and Dr. Light. Ernest unmasks himself in front of the pair, admitting the truth behind the Reality Core incident and his intentions with the tournament. With an uneasy truce formed, the Ernest Will persona remains for much of the story, with Wily using it to publically interview Element Man and Cerberus Man, and confronting Dr. Regal in it multiple times after the would-be evil overlord reveals himself. Numerous NPCs also refer to activities undertaken by Ernest in and around the tournament, such as Mirage Man noting his refusal to allow the Tier Boss to participate in the tournament's costume contest, citing a conflict of interest.
Prior to the grand finale of the tournament, Ernest Will teams up with Mega Man to put an end to Dr. Regal's schemes once and for all, using his personal jet to rescue Regal's hostages, destroy his fortress, and eliminate his escape capsule upon the Regal Machine's destruction. At the Awards Ceremony for the tournament, Ernest publicly reveals himself to be Dr. Wily after disqualifying Bass and abandoning his secret plan to frame Mega Man for cheating, before commencing the Final Gauntlet at the Wily Stadium.
Despite the newfound appreciation the world now has for him, Dr. Wily resumes the Ernest Will persona following the tournament's climax, claiming that it still has "quite a bit of life left in it". He informs Mega Man of the NEO Pit of Pits' completion, and of the reappearance of the head of Dr. Regal's Wily decoy robot. If Mega Man hasn't already purchased the Altered Key at the Magic Card Casino, Ernest will give it to him for free (albeit incurring a debt to Magic Man of 100 Trickster Tokens).
At the end of the True Arena, Ernest Will appears one last time as the arena's final opponent. His final challenge is a one-on-one battle between Mega Man and himself, with the latter piloting an enhanced version of Wily Machine SPIRE bearing the same Groucho Marx disguise as himself. After its destruction, he pilots the Ernest Jet, an all-white version of the Wily Jet with a second phase utilising the Contest Weapon Data, with Ernest himself seemingly attacking Mega Man personally when using the Banshee Wail and Track Shoes. Defeating the Ernest Jet, however, reveals it was all an elaborate hologram akin to the Alien, with Ernest ending the battle with Wily's usual begging gesture.
Notes
- Ernest Will is a not so subtle lampooning of Mr. X, Dr. Wily's previous paper-thin disguise who – like Ernest – was a mysterious billionaire hosting a worldwide robot tournament for ulterior motives.
- The cigars Ernest is often seen with are really candy cigars, as stated by the Gamadayu bartender at the Victor Heights Bar & Buffet.
- Upon collecting all 30 Silver Stars in Shrine of Nebula, the usual "Fortnite Wily" is replaced with a "Fortnite Ernest" that performs the same default dance.
