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Pigma Dengar

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“That rewards as good as mine!”
—97 Pigma

Pigma Dengar was once a member of the legendary Star Fox team, but he betrayed his teammates James McCloud and Peppy Hare by leading them intro a trap to have them taken prisoners by the evil mad scientist Andross. During the Lylat Wars, Pigma cut his teeth on making a living by dealing in space piracy and bounty hunting when he became part of the first incarnation of the Star Wolf team, though after the war, he wore out his welcome and was kicked out by Wolf O'Donnell due to his greedy and untrustworthy personality. He became a freelance criminal afterwards, not deterred by the fact that he had been fired from a group he served with. His big goal in life is to become as rich as possible.

Biography

Pigma was one of the legendary members of the first Star Fox team, headed by James McCloud. Pigma's role on the team was well remembered by Peppy as being very a cunning pilot and never missing a trick. After the former chief scientist Andross was sentenced to permanent exile on the distant planet Venom, the Star Fox team was hired by General Pepper to investigate reports of strange biotechnology activity coming from the planet. Upon their arrival, Pigma's greed was exposed when Andross bribed him with the promise of riches, which caused him to commit treason against Corneria by betraying the original Star Fox team to Andross, by having delivered them into a deadly trap from which there was seemingly no escape. Only his wingmate Peppy Hare managed to escape and James was never seen again.

Other appearances

Lylat Wars Comic

Pigma appears with the rest of Star Wolf in the Lylat Wars Comic, performing an even higher role than he does in the games. During the ambush on Star Fox at Meteo, Fox is enraged by Pigma's presence and treason towards his father, so he chases after the pig's badly damaged Wolfen, but Wolf delays Fox so that Pigma can escape back to Venom, threatening Fox to leave Pigma alone or he'll be sent to join his father, thus Fox believes in the rumors surrounding Wolf's involvement in the fate of James. Crash landing on Venom, Pigma and Andrew are terrified by Andross's appearance and fury at their failure, where they blame each other in fear. The emperor threatens them not to screw up again or he'll vaporize them, leaving Pigma swearing to take revenge on Star Fox. At Aquas, Pigma operates a multi-purpose craft, disguised as an Octopus and attacks Fox's Blue-Marine, latching onto it throughout the Bacoon battle and clings onto it until the sub docks at the Great Fox. Fooling everyone with the disguise, Falco is very interested in cooking it, but Fox elects to let it go free. With attentions off him, Pigma sabotages the Arwing's G-diffusers with time bombs, which each go off at the worst time possible during the Battle of Solar. As Fox, Falco and Slippy drop towards Solar's lava, Pigma arrives in his Octopus craft to watch the show until Katt Monroe appears to bring up the crippled Arwings with her tractor beam. Pigma and Andrew proceed to attack the Catspaw, but Wolf suddenly arrives and attacks them. Andrew asks why Wolf is attacking his own team as Wolf declares them traitors to his team for not acting with his approval and open fires on them, claiming their alliance is over. When Fox finally arrives at Venom, Andross is cruelly torturing and mocking Pigma for not keeping his word to finish Fox off, declaring him "once a traitor, always a traitor". Andross then electrocutes Pigma into a black/yellow silhouette. Fox ended up sympathizing with Pigma's suffering despite his grudge against him for murdering his father.

Trivia

  • As Shigeru Miyamoto states in issue 98 of Nintendo Power magazine, in the Japanese version of Star Fox 64, "Pigma speaks in the Kansai dialect of Japan. In Kansai, people end their sentences with the word 'dengar.' So, it's sort of a Japanese joke."
    • In Japan, people from this southern Kansai/Osaka region are characterized as rude, bad-mannered, and even criminal lowlifes, befitting of Pigma. However, this is an offensive stereotype, and people from the region do not like how they are often portrayed this way.
  • Pigma's first name is a spin on the word "Dogma", referring to Pigma's anti-dogmatic nature.
  • Pigma shares his surname with the Bounty Hunter Dengar, a character from the Star Wars series, which in turn shares many similarities and references with the Star Fox series. Pigma's role in James McCloud's presumed death also mirrors Obi-Wan's claim that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered Anakin Skywalker in A New Hope.
  • Pigma, along with Krystal, are the only characters to hold both Star Fox and Star Wolf memberships.
  • Although it was stated that Pigma betrayed his comrades for money, the Japanese manual for Star Fox 64 never stated a specific reason for wanting to serve Andross and betraying Star Fox. It is also to be noted that the Nintendo Power guide and the Keibunsha strategy guide implies that Pigma is the reason why Wolf and Fox have a rivalry in the first place, while his trophy from the fourth Smash Bros game supports the story.
  • Pigma can be compared to the similarly greedy Wario of the Mario universe.
  • Pigma is the only Star Wolf member with an in-game reason as to why he is no longer on the team; he was kicked out because of his incredible greed and distrustful nature, while the Lylat Wars Comic creates its own take on the story with both Pigma and Oikonny being kicked out by Wolf for disobedience.
  • Pigma betraying James and Peppy for Andross might be a reference to the latter's association with pigs in the Nintendo Power comics.
  • Daisuke Gouri, Pigma's voice actor in 64 and Assault, would later voice the character Cunningham from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, who had a very similar characterization towards Pigma, including being somewhat sadistic as well as selling out his compatriots to a third party for his own objectives (though the main difference was in motive, as Pigma betrayed James McCloud and the Star Fox team out of greed, while Cunningham manipulated and betrayed the then-renegade FOX unit and their handlers, the CIA, out of revenge due to being confined to a desk job after his leg ended up amputated). Coincidentally, shortly before Cunningham's death and lamenting the protagonist, Snake's decision to go against his mission by the DOD, he explained that the two of them would have received "the highest honors a soldier can achieve" had Snake just obeyed his mission and returned to America, which was similar to Pigma's whining about the loss of his "beautiful reward" when shot down on Fichina and Bolse.

Names in Other Languages

Language Name
Japanese ピグマ・デンガー (Piguma Dengā)

References

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