Description from original post (created 2013-07-27 13:34):
Vile is a recurring major villain in the Mega Man X series, and frequently reappears as a mid-game boss. He has a distinctive helmet with a T-shaped visor, similar to that of Boba Fett. Vile is introduced in Mega Man X, where he is a former Maverick Hunter now serving Sigma as his right-hand man. When he first fights X (while in his ride armor) in Mega Man X, Vile reveals the fact that he is stronger and more powerful than X and his "antiquated weapons". He and X fought, and X was almost defeated, but Zero came to his rescue by blasting the arm from Vile's ride armor. Vile escapes and vows to confront X and Zero later. When Zero later tells X that he has found Sigma's fortress, they split up. Zero and Vile meet at the fortress entrance just as X arrives. They battle (with Vile in his repaired ride armor), and by the time X confronts Vile, he has badly injured Zero. X is then again nearly defeated by Vile. Zero once again comes to the rescue, as he regains strength, jumps on Vile's back, and destroys Vile's ride armor. The resulting explosion also cut Zero in half, fatally damaging him. With Vile's ride armor destroyed, X defeats Vile, enraged, and continues on into Sigma's fortress. Zero gives X his arm cannon before he dies (only if the player did not obtain arm cannon upgrade hidden in the game).
In Mega Man X3 Vile is sent along with Bit and Byte to destroy X. There is little dialogue from Bit and Byte, showing that they don't have much of a personality, unlike Vile, who even states to Dr. Doppler that he has a score to settle with X, apparently angry about being destroyed in the first installment of the Mega Man X games. In the first Mega Man X game Vile controls a large mobile carrier, and in the third Mega Man X, he uses a similar carrier, although according to Vile the carrier is the new "Goliath" model. Vile also uses a carrier in X8, but unlike in the first and third games, he switches in and out of his carrier, giving the battle a bit more variety. The first encounter with Vile in X3 takes place in what appears to be a recently abandoned factory. Vile's plan is to blow up the factory with Mega Man X still inside. This event does not have to take place, since the factory is a hidden stage. If you win the battle with Vile you will still have to escape the factory before it explodes. Even if you succeed in this battle with Vile, he will still return in the second part of Dr. Doppler's stage, unless you deal the final blow with the Spinning Blade or Ray Splasher weapon. The battle in Dr. Doppler's stage is different only because the room that you battle in is larger, and Vile has a few new moves, including shooting paralyzing sparks at you. In Viles' last words he tells X that he will haunt him till the day that he dies, then he explodes in the same way as the other bosses from X3.
Vile returns yet again In Mega Man X8, and tries to convince Mega Man X, along with Zero and Axl to "give up", whether or not he was being serious in this attempt, or just taunting X is unknown. After the last battle with X, Vile is destroyed before he can escape, leaving the last impression of Vile as dead, or so they think; for even though he doesn't show up in any other games since X8, he may still be alive, hiding somewhere. It is implied that he is hiding on the Moon, because while X was there (the moon is one of the stages) there was a brief shadow/silhouette of someone, or something, in the distance. Although it may have just been an asteroid, it was shaped a bit like Vile, indicating that he was there. X never spoke of this.
Vile is a playable character in Mega Man Maverick Hunter X, and in his version of the single-player story he is recast as a loose cannon who is freed from imprisonment by Sigma to wreak havoc (his change of allegiance is reflected in his appearance; unlike in the original Mega Man X, the symbol on his forehead is a V instead of Sigma's stylized Σ). He turns against Sigma's Mavericks, but in his final battle, instead of fighting Sigma, he confronts both X and Zero, though he ends up being destroyed in the end. In Vile mode on Maverick Hunter X, Vile gets a very large amount of weapons for his carrier, his legs and his arms. It was discovered in X mode on Maverick Hunter X that Vile uses his ride armor all the time and almost never gets off of it, which protected Vile when Zero wrestled him, so instead of destroying Vile, like Zero hoped, he only destroyed Vile's ride armor, leaving Vile himself unaffected.
He made a one-episode appearance in the 1994 Mega Man cartoon by Ruby-Spears alongside X and Spark Mandrill. In this appearance, he was surprisingly similar to his game's counterpart in terms of appearance, when compared to many of the other characters. The addition of a neck and a taller, slightly more detailed head are the main differences, although it should also be noted that whenever he is about to attack, he grabs his shoulder cannon and aims manually, unlike the games (with the exception of his Maverick Hunter X ending, which came out years after the cartoon was made). Mega Man didn't stand a chance against Vile because the shots from his arm cannon were just deflected off of Vile's armor. His personality is vastly different; in the games he is relatively crazy, possibly psychotic, but in the cartoon he is a collected character and has a deep, calm voice. He's very arrogant, often calling Mega Man "puny", and when he hears Dr. Wily come up with what he views a good plan, Vile says "not bad, for a puny human". His actual objective was to steal Lightanium rods developed by Dr. Light, which according to X were worth billions in the future, and which Sigma planned to use them to fund his war against the humans. Vile is also heavily implied to have a grudge against X, though the reasons behind their rivalry have never been explored. During the episode, Vile entered an alliance with Wily into obtaining the Lightanium rods in exchange for the Plasma energy that Wily needs to power up a new blaster weapon to conquer the world. Eventually, Mega Man and his X counterpart stop them in their paths by destroying the blaster weapon, and X pushes both Vile and Spark Mandrill back to their time while Wily and his cohorts escape the scene.
Although Vile is a recurring villain in the Mega Man X series, he is a different color in each game; purple in the first, blue in the third, and green in the eighth.