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Falco Lombardi

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“I'll take the sky any day.”
—97 Falco

Falco Lombardi is a blue-feathered avian and the ace pilot of the Star Fox team. Although the exact details on Falco's past are unknown, he himself was once the leader of a gang of space runaways known as Free-As-A-Bird. He is a longtime friend and friendly rival to Fox McCloud, and was specially hired by him to be an expert member of his mercenaries-for-hire team, and flown in almost every mission they have made, usually retaining his brash, cool, and collected attitude. Being the ace pilot and seeing air combat as his second nature, Falco's Arwing skills rivals if not surpasses even that of Fox's (although this is not normally shown in gameplay where Fox himself is the player character), and he specializes in flying rings around his foes. Despite his masterful talent, however, his rebellious, brash and stubborn personality, taken from his time being the former leader of a gang of space bikers, causes Falco to instinctively take more daring chances than most other pilots of the team and consequently pays dearly for his brashness and boldness, getting at times caught in deadly situations from which not even he can escape. Often to his chagrin, he has to be saved by Fox when this happens, as seen in Star Fox and Star Fox 64. While Falco is not keen on discipline and authority, his loyalty to the Star Fox creed of justice and freedom has himself never let his team down, always using his natural hunting instincts to keep looking for shortcuts and alternate routes to get to the action much quicker.

Falco debuted in Star Fox and appears in all Star Fox series games to date (though he was mostly absent in Star Fox Adventures), as well as the comics and the Star Fox Zero promotional anime, as a supporting protagonist. He also appears as a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. games starting with Melee.

His rival from the Star Wolf team is Leon Powalski.

Biography[]

Much of Falco's early life is unknown as he apparently avoided talk of what he did before joining the Star Fox team, but he was likely born on Corneria, though a comment he made on Zoness implies he had visited that planet before or spent part of his life here. He may have enlisted in the Cornerian Flight Academy, but dropped out and became a rogue pilot. Not much is known after that, but it could be that his life before was filled with recklessness and adventure. He then formed the mercenary gang that would later be known as Free-As-A-Bird with himself as leader. He led them for a couple years, until he was asked by his friend Fox to join team Star Fox, where he agreed, although joining the Star Fox team may have been the result of a falling out between him and his partner, Katt Monroe, in regards to irritation about always having to save her that also resulted in him quitting the gang. He have also made friends with the other members Peppy and Slippy and was involved in numerous missions.

Behind the scenes[]

Unused voice acting have revealed it was originally intended that Falco would have arrived earlier in Star Fox Adventures and would aid Fox in defeating General Scales, when it was planned that Scales could actually be fought as the final boss (as opposed to Andross in the final version).

Trivia[]

  • Falco is one of very few characters in the series who never wears gloves.
  • Falco is currently the only member of the Star Fox team without any known relatives, hence why he keeps his past life secret and is hinted to find the team itself as his family.
  • His first name "Falco" is the genus name for birds of prey that includes falcons, kestrels and caracaras. Falco himself looks more like a red-throated caracara.
    • "Falco" is also the Italian word for falcon.
    • Falco himself also often calls his targets "prey".
  • While Fox McCloud's personality is similar to Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars series, Falco's is more like Han Solo, whose ship is coincidentally called the Millennium Falcon.
  • Falco Lombardi, due to his lone-wolf personality, cool appearance, and superior skills to Fox's story-wise, as well his role as a playable fighter in the Super Smash Bros. series, is a popular character among the Star Fox community, and many fans have wanted Falco himself to be a main protagonist where he can face Andross himself.
    • In Star Fox 2, it is possible to choose Falco and eventually defeat the main antagonist as the player character.
  • Lombardi is an Italian surname, with origins in the Lombardy region of Italy.
  • Falco's Japanese surname, Rambaldi, was changed to Lombardi in the West. He was the only one of the original four teammates that lead programmer Dylan Cuthbert did not actually name. One of the creators named him after Carlo Rambaldi, the Academy Award-winning special effects animator for E.T. and the 1976 King Kong movie. Considering Shigeru Miyamoto’s love of puppets, and that he used King Kong as the inspiration of Donkey Kong, this isn't surprising (though Dylan Cuthbert thought Imamura named him).
  • He shares his first name with Falco from Fist of the North Star, a sympathetic character but one who challenges the protagonist. Interestingly, his lover is named Myū, which is Miyu's Japanese name (a character who may have been the basis for Katt). Both Miyamoto and Imamura were aspiring manga artists themselves.
  • In one of the possible endings of Star Fox Command, Falco himself becomes the leader of a new squadron known as Star Falco, with his wingmen consisting of Katt Monroe and Dash Bowman. Ironically enough, in spite of being only three members, this particular team rivals team Star Fox and possibly the Star Wolf team in terms of pilot skill.
  • It is believed that he may never have a romantic partner, since he has never shown signs of falling in love, or at least shown interest in relationships.
  • Interestingly, in Super Smash Bros. Melee, like Fox, both of Falco's Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Adventures' voice actors, Bill Johns and Ben Cullum, play a role for the character, for the Adventure mode cutscene and playable fighter, respectively.
  • Some fans believe Falco's Arwing skills are possibly the same as James McCloud's, Fox's father and original leader of the Star Fox team.

Names in Other Languages[]

Language Name
Japanese ファルコ・ランバルディ (Faruko Ranbarudi)
Chinese 法爾科・蘭巴帝 (Fǎěrkē Lánbādì)
Korean 팔코 람바디 (Palko Rambadi)
Russian Фалько Ломбарди (Falko Lombardi)
Serbian Фалко Ломбарди (Falko Lombardi)

References[]

  1. ↑ Iwata Asks | Fushimi Inari Taisha and Fox
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