Escargoon  

Escargon, ドクター・エスカルゴン

A character in Kirbys anime series, Kirby of the Stars (Kirby Right Back at Ya!). He is King Dededes sidekick/assistant and one of the new characters added to the series. Hes given several episodes devoted to him and a good deal of character development. Appearance Escargon is a snail who comes up to Dededes shoulder. His skin is lavender, and his shell is dark green. His eyes are green as well, and rise over the rest of his head on a stalk. He has a short, light green mustache and goatee, and only four teeth. Background Escargon grew up in a small house on a farm with his mother somewhere on Pop Star. When he grew up he left home, promising his mother that hed make her proud. Unfortunately, the real world was harsh, and he ended up working for King Dedede in Dream Land. Escargon is called Dr. Escargon in the original, but only in the first few episodes. Personality Escargon has two distinct sides to his personality. Theres the part of him that helps Dedede with his schemes and tricks, but he also seems to have a genuinely nice side to him that appears in extreme situations. Escargon is an older guy, middle aged or later, and tends to get quite grumpy with the children of the village. He usually acts quite mean and haughty towards people in general, using his status as the kings assistant to give him the right to boss people around or threaten them with the death penalty. One confusing aspect however is whether hes really a mean guy who only acts nice when he wants something, or if hes actually nice but only does bad things to get Dededes approval. (Since his mother says Escargon is cowardly and would never hurt anyone, it seems that the latter option is more likely- though Dededes influence is certainly corrupting.) Escargon can be quite cheerful and animated at times, and often does oddly effeminate things such as wear frilly aprons with hearts. (Other than that he rarely wears any articles of clothing, except an occasional bow tie, sun hat, or scarf in cold weather.) Hes also the usual host of Channel DDD for newscasts and special programs. Hes also quite intelligent with a wide range of knowledge in botany (he wrote an encyclopedia on the subject called The Encyclopedia of Botanica), chemistry and electronics/robotics. When Dedede doesnt order something from Holy Nightmare Inc., he tends to use one of Escargons inventions instead, such as a formula that turns things into demon beasts. He builds various machines such as submarines and missiles. Relationships The person Escargon spends the bulk of his time with is, of course, King Dedede. His duties as Dededes assistant are numerous, from cooking to cleaning to giving back rubs. He basically tries to ensure the kings well-being and happiness in any way he can, sometimes to the detriment of his own. And unfortunately, one of his jobs is to be Dededes personal punching bag. He often falls victim to Dededes mallet or just gets punched if he happens to be nearby and the king is angry. Dedede also likes to pull pranks on him and scare him just because he can. Despite all this, he actually cares about Dedede quite a lot. (Though he still hates how Dedede treats him and tries to gets even when he can, and often subtly insults him right to his face in ways that Dedede isnt bright enough to catch on to.) Escargons true feelings became clear in episode 055, where he sings a song saying how Dedede is always mean to him, but ending with, "Hes truly very selfish, but I love His Majesty." This perhaps explains why hes content to continue working for Dedede, when he could conceivably get a job elsewhere with his skills. (In the dub version, he doesnt actually care about him, but instead only sticks around in hopes of gaining money or becoming king himself.) Hes even shown sleeping with a plush toy of Dedede in a later episode, and puts up with some of his more bizarre plans- one of which involved him dressing in drag so Dedede could practice his marriage proposal techniques. Escargons mother is the most important person to him, maybe even more so than Dedede. Hes quite attached to her, and will do anything to make her proud- even once pretending to be the king. His mother loves her only son dearly, but she can be rather harsh with him and will tease him- though affectionately. (His father is never mentioned, so he either died when he was young or was never involved in his sons life.) Unlike Dedede, Escargon doesnt harbor any bad feelings towards Kirby himself. Hell help Dedede just for the sake of helping him, but on his own he doesnt really have a problem with the pink puffball. Kirby likes Escargon quite a bit- but then Kirby likes nearly everyone.