The Great Fox (グレートフォックス) is a fictional space aircraft carrier / battleship used in the Star Fox series of video games as the mothership of the Star Fox team. It was officially introduced in Star Fox 64 as the base of operations of the team when in space.
According to the Star Fox 64 Player's guide, James McCloud placed the order to Space Dynamics to build the original Great Fox, which is described as a Dreadnought-Class space battleship. The ship was not cheap, as James had to take out an eighty-year loan. Unfortunately, James disappeared at Venom before completion.
History
Mothership in Star Fox 2
The idea of Star Fox having a mothership was started in the unreleased Star Fox 2. The mothership, though nameless, slightly resembled the Great Fox, though there are glaringly obvious differences such as the side-mounted docking bays.
Great Fox in Star Fox 64
The Great Fox is relatively new at the time of its official debut in Star Fox 64. The primary purpose of the ship is that of a carrier and repair facility for the team’s Arwings. In addition, it also acts in a logistical capacity when needed to transfer supplies to the combat zone. The ship also possesses weapon systems in the form of two powerful laser cannons that can fire in a limited arc ahead of it, and are powerful enough to blow apart asteroids and seriously damage the massive battleships that guard the Area 6 access corridor to Venom.
In addition, the vessel can survive in a variety of environments. The Great Fox is able to enter a planetary atmosphere and even land at a planet-side spaceport. Furthermore, it has a limited aquatic capability as shown during the mission to Aquas where it is seen drifting half-submerged in the ocean to deploy the Blue Marine.
Despite its tendency to stay on the sidelines and support the team when it can, the Great Fox has come under direct attack. During the battle in Sector Z, the ship comes under threat from a volley of missiles. Failure to intercept and destroy these missiles results in the Great Fox having one of its four wings destroyed, crippling it and rendering it unable to provide cover-fire in the following difficult stage.
Note that during that same battle, the Great Fox acts as a quick-repair station in the heat of battle. If a player aligns his Arwing with the rear docking bay of the ship, the Arwing will fly in and subsequently fly out the frontal, lower docking bay, with both wings and shields fully repaired. The Great Fox is 890 sm in length.
Perhaps the only weakness of the vessel is the firing arc of its laser cannons. The Great Fox cannot fire from its side or from behind, making the ship vulnerable to attack in these areas. This is manifested in the Sector Z level, in which the ship's cannons cannot hit the oncoming missiles as they are coming from the side, and in the beginning cut scene of the Meteo level, when one of the asteroids hits one of the Great Fox's wings (this hardly does any damage to the ship however).
Great Fox in Star Fox Adventures
In Star Fox Adventures, the Great Fox is mostly seen from the inside, serving as somewhat of a home base for the team members. It has fallen into a state of disrepair in recent years due to insufficient funds by the team, and its exterior armor has begun to deteriorate. The power of the engines have also decreased considerably, and the ship is only able to drift, producing a ring of flames from its boosters as it does so. The weapons are never seen firing in the game, although it's possible that they don't work as they were not being used against Andross in the final battle above the planet Sauria where the Great Fox is orbiting.
Great Fox in Star Fox: Assault
In Star Fox: Assault, the team used the money received from the Sauria mission to overhaul the Great Fox into a much sleeker looking ship, inside and out. It is now equipped with a long-range transfer system that can send down Arwings and Landmasters when needed. However, during the final battle over the Aparoid Homeworld, the Great Fox becomes infected by the Aparoids(Peppy notifies you during Misson 9), showing the weakness of the ship, by not having weapons on the sides or the back of the ship, making these areas easy targets for the Aparoids, as they cling to these areas so that the ship's front cannons cannot attack them. It is soon destroyed when Peppy Hare heroically sacrifices the ship (and nearly himself in the process) to destroy the anti-laser shield blocking the main entrance to the Homeworld Core. It is then shown that the bridge is intact, as it seemingly has an escape pod function. The Great Fox is also one of the multiplayer stages, only allowing players to fly outside it for air battles.
Great Fox in Star Fox Command
In Star Fox Command, the Star Fox team has to get a new mothership after the Great Fox was destroyed in Assault. However, the new ship looks totally different from the Great Fox's past models, resembling more of a space-faring aircraft carrier than a battle-cruiser. It is also significantly weaker in terms of defense than the original Great Fox. The original Great Fox could survive a missile and come out with only one wing destroyed, while the new one can't even withstand an assault by even the weakest of enemies, this could possibly be because of this ship being much less expensive than its predecessors. But its redeeming quality is the ability to carry up to three missiles which can be used to attack clusters of enemies from afar rather than attack them directly with a pilot.
Appearance in other games
The ship was also featured in the as an arena. In Super Smash Bros., the Star Fox 64 stage Sector Z is featured as a stage where the Great Fox acts as the platform on which the players fight each other. The players can only traverse the ship length-wise. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Great Fox is greatly reduced to a smaller, unrealistic size (however if the game mode is "Tiny Melee", where all characters are smaller the characters are roughly to scale to the ship). It is featured on two stages; In the Corneria level, the Great Fox acts as a platform as in Super Smash Bros. (while it flies over the planet Corneria from Star Fox 64), while in the Venom level, the player traverses the ship width-wise as it flies over the planet Venom from Star Fox 64. It also briefly appears in boths place's introductions, in Melee shown along with the Blue Falcon and Samus Aran's Starship while in SSB, it is shown very briefly before the camera zooms into the bridge to show Fox. The ship is also a trophy in the game. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the trailer revealed at the Nintendo World Tour on November 3rd, 2006 revealed a new Star Fox stage, with the fighting taking place atop a new space craft called the Pleiades which flies through the atmosphere of Corneria, through an asteroid belt and a space battle, along with the original Great Fox flying in the background in the middle of a dogfight between Star Fox's Arwings and Star Wolf's Wolfens (also of their Star Fox 64 incarnations). In Super Smash Bros. Melee, its trophy claimed it first appeared in the original Star Fox for the SNES, but it was incorrect, because it officially first appeared in Star Fox 64 for the Nintendo 64.
According to the Star Fox 64 Player's guide, James McCloud placed the order to Space Dynamics to build the original Great Fox, which is described as a Dreadnought-Class space battleship. The ship was not cheap, as James had to take out an eighty-year loan. Unfortunately, James disappeared at Venom before completion.
History
Mothership in Star Fox 2
The idea of Star Fox having a mothership was started in the unreleased Star Fox 2. The mothership, though nameless, slightly resembled the Great Fox, though there are glaringly obvious differences such as the side-mounted docking bays.
Great Fox in Star Fox 64
The Great Fox is relatively new at the time of its official debut in Star Fox 64. The primary purpose of the ship is that of a carrier and repair facility for the team’s Arwings. In addition, it also acts in a logistical capacity when needed to transfer supplies to the combat zone. The ship also possesses weapon systems in the form of two powerful laser cannons that can fire in a limited arc ahead of it, and are powerful enough to blow apart asteroids and seriously damage the massive battleships that guard the Area 6 access corridor to Venom.
In addition, the vessel can survive in a variety of environments. The Great Fox is able to enter a planetary atmosphere and even land at a planet-side spaceport. Furthermore, it has a limited aquatic capability as shown during the mission to Aquas where it is seen drifting half-submerged in the ocean to deploy the Blue Marine.
Despite its tendency to stay on the sidelines and support the team when it can, the Great Fox has come under direct attack. During the battle in Sector Z, the ship comes under threat from a volley of missiles. Failure to intercept and destroy these missiles results in the Great Fox having one of its four wings destroyed, crippling it and rendering it unable to provide cover-fire in the following difficult stage.
Note that during that same battle, the Great Fox acts as a quick-repair station in the heat of battle. If a player aligns his Arwing with the rear docking bay of the ship, the Arwing will fly in and subsequently fly out the frontal, lower docking bay, with both wings and shields fully repaired. The Great Fox is 890 sm in length.
Perhaps the only weakness of the vessel is the firing arc of its laser cannons. The Great Fox cannot fire from its side or from behind, making the ship vulnerable to attack in these areas. This is manifested in the Sector Z level, in which the ship's cannons cannot hit the oncoming missiles as they are coming from the side, and in the beginning cut scene of the Meteo level, when one of the asteroids hits one of the Great Fox's wings (this hardly does any damage to the ship however).
Great Fox in Star Fox Adventures
In Star Fox Adventures, the Great Fox is mostly seen from the inside, serving as somewhat of a home base for the team members. It has fallen into a state of disrepair in recent years due to insufficient funds by the team, and its exterior armor has begun to deteriorate. The power of the engines have also decreased considerably, and the ship is only able to drift, producing a ring of flames from its boosters as it does so. The weapons are never seen firing in the game, although it's possible that they don't work as they were not being used against Andross in the final battle above the planet Sauria where the Great Fox is orbiting.
Great Fox in Star Fox: Assault
In Star Fox: Assault, the team used the money received from the Sauria mission to overhaul the Great Fox into a much sleeker looking ship, inside and out. It is now equipped with a long-range transfer system that can send down Arwings and Landmasters when needed. However, during the final battle over the Aparoid Homeworld, the Great Fox becomes infected by the Aparoids(Peppy notifies you during Misson 9), showing the weakness of the ship, by not having weapons on the sides or the back of the ship, making these areas easy targets for the Aparoids, as they cling to these areas so that the ship's front cannons cannot attack them. It is soon destroyed when Peppy Hare heroically sacrifices the ship (and nearly himself in the process) to destroy the anti-laser shield blocking the main entrance to the Homeworld Core. It is then shown that the bridge is intact, as it seemingly has an escape pod function. The Great Fox is also one of the multiplayer stages, only allowing players to fly outside it for air battles.
Great Fox in Star Fox Command
In Star Fox Command, the Star Fox team has to get a new mothership after the Great Fox was destroyed in Assault. However, the new ship looks totally different from the Great Fox's past models, resembling more of a space-faring aircraft carrier than a battle-cruiser. It is also significantly weaker in terms of defense than the original Great Fox. The original Great Fox could survive a missile and come out with only one wing destroyed, while the new one can't even withstand an assault by even the weakest of enemies, this could possibly be because of this ship being much less expensive than its predecessors. But its redeeming quality is the ability to carry up to three missiles which can be used to attack clusters of enemies from afar rather than attack them directly with a pilot.
Appearance in other games
The ship was also featured in the as an arena. In Super Smash Bros., the Star Fox 64 stage Sector Z is featured as a stage where the Great Fox acts as the platform on which the players fight each other. The players can only traverse the ship length-wise. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Great Fox is greatly reduced to a smaller, unrealistic size (however if the game mode is "Tiny Melee", where all characters are smaller the characters are roughly to scale to the ship). It is featured on two stages; In the Corneria level, the Great Fox acts as a platform as in Super Smash Bros. (while it flies over the planet Corneria from Star Fox 64), while in the Venom level, the player traverses the ship width-wise as it flies over the planet Venom from Star Fox 64. It also briefly appears in boths place's introductions, in Melee shown along with the Blue Falcon and Samus Aran's Starship while in SSB, it is shown very briefly before the camera zooms into the bridge to show Fox. The ship is also a trophy in the game. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the trailer revealed at the Nintendo World Tour on November 3rd, 2006 revealed a new Star Fox stage, with the fighting taking place atop a new space craft called the Pleiades which flies through the atmosphere of Corneria, through an asteroid belt and a space battle, along with the original Great Fox flying in the background in the middle of a dogfight between Star Fox's Arwings and Star Wolf's Wolfens (also of their Star Fox 64 incarnations). In Super Smash Bros. Melee, its trophy claimed it first appeared in the original Star Fox for the SNES, but it was incorrect, because it officially first appeared in Star Fox 64 for the Nintendo 64.
Kyuzo (Japanese 久蔵, long-concealed) is a character of the highly acclaimed movie Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa.
A character of the same name appears in the homage anime movie entitled Samurai 7; that Kyuzo is a bodyguard of a local businessman/merchant and is the rival of Kambei.
Character history
Film version
Kyuzo is unmatched in swordfighting and wants nothing more than to perfect his craft. He is quiet and not very social.
He is killed in the movie when an unseen gunman shoots him. He throws his sword away in an attempt to indicate the location of his assassin as he falls dead into the mud. The young samurai Katsushiro is particularly affected by his death.
Anime version
He is the mysterious and quiet bodyguard of a wealthy merchant family where he appeared only as a background character in the early episodes. He is a blonde man with red eyes and wears a red coat and sometimes has the bottom half of his face covered. He is a rare master of the twin sword style of fighting. Highly skilled and strong, the only true challenge for him is to kill his rival/comrade Kambei. It was proven that he is determined to fight and kill Kambei many times and slowly builds up a protectiveness to Kambei like a wolf who guards his prey. Even though Kambei is not as strong than Kyuzo's former comrade Hyogo, he is determined to the death to kill Kambei himself and kills Tessai in an instant. Though the anime has a longer and more complex storyline, it hasn't altered much of the original story. Kyuzo is still one of the 4 samurai to die. He is killed in episode 25 by accident when Katsushiro gunned down an enemy imperial guard who was about to kill Kambei, and the bullets went through, unknown to Katsushiro that Kyuzo was standing at the back of the enemy. He will wait for Kambei in the afterlife to "settle a score" with him.
Trivia
James Coburn, a self-confessed fan of the original Seven Samurai when it was first released in the U.S., has said that he made a conscious effort to emulate actor Seiji Miyaguchi as Kyuzo in his portrayal of the knife-throwing Britt in The Magnificent Seven.
An early idea for the anime version of Kyuzo was to have the character be a woman, but the idea was scrapped fairly early (as stated in an interview with the creators in Anime Insider). Kyuzo's slightly androgynous appearance was likely influenced by this early idea.
A character of the same name appears in the homage anime movie entitled Samurai 7; that Kyuzo is a bodyguard of a local businessman/merchant and is the rival of Kambei.
Character history
Film version
Kyuzo is unmatched in swordfighting and wants nothing more than to perfect his craft. He is quiet and not very social.
He is killed in the movie when an unseen gunman shoots him. He throws his sword away in an attempt to indicate the location of his assassin as he falls dead into the mud. The young samurai Katsushiro is particularly affected by his death.
Anime version
He is the mysterious and quiet bodyguard of a wealthy merchant family where he appeared only as a background character in the early episodes. He is a blonde man with red eyes and wears a red coat and sometimes has the bottom half of his face covered. He is a rare master of the twin sword style of fighting. Highly skilled and strong, the only true challenge for him is to kill his rival/comrade Kambei. It was proven that he is determined to fight and kill Kambei many times and slowly builds up a protectiveness to Kambei like a wolf who guards his prey. Even though Kambei is not as strong than Kyuzo's former comrade Hyogo, he is determined to the death to kill Kambei himself and kills Tessai in an instant. Though the anime has a longer and more complex storyline, it hasn't altered much of the original story. Kyuzo is still one of the 4 samurai to die. He is killed in episode 25 by accident when Katsushiro gunned down an enemy imperial guard who was about to kill Kambei, and the bullets went through, unknown to Katsushiro that Kyuzo was standing at the back of the enemy. He will wait for Kambei in the afterlife to "settle a score" with him.
Trivia
James Coburn, a self-confessed fan of the original Seven Samurai when it was first released in the U.S., has said that he made a conscious effort to emulate actor Seiji Miyaguchi as Kyuzo in his portrayal of the knife-throwing Britt in The Magnificent Seven.
An early idea for the anime version of Kyuzo was to have the character be a woman, but the idea was scrapped fairly early (as stated in an interview with the creators in Anime Insider). Kyuzo's slightly androgynous appearance was likely influenced by this early idea.
A character in the Akira Kurosawa film, The Seven Samurai and the anime adaptation of the film, Samurai 7.
Overview
Kikuchiyo, played by Toshiro Mifune: A farmer's son who attempts to jump his place in society by calling himself a Samurai.
In the first half of the film he is used largely as comedy relief, featuring such events such as his illiteracy and his inability to ride a horse. His over-the-top mannerisms eventually garner him a fan club, consisting of the small children of the village. One of his main identifying features is the oversize sword he carries (a nodachi). Rather than sheathing his sword, he saunters around while resting it over his shoulder. His heritage as a farmer's son is revealed after he lambastes the other Samurai for their perceptions of the farmers, as well as a speech concerning the social hierarchy and the treatment of peasants by Samurai. His death in the end of the film provokes mixed responses. He is the only character in the film to be given the "hero's death" in the Hollywood style, as he dies from a bullet wound after killing the leader of the bandits.
Symbols
*The excessively large sword Kikuchiyo carries; a representation of his overcompensation and inexperience. Casting away the sword in the final battle for another sword was his becoming a “Samurai”, the fruition of his attempts to change his lot in life.
*The banner under which the samurai fight, consisting of six circles, aligned much as they would be on a dice, to represent the samurai, with a triangle on the bottom for Kikuchiyo. Simultaneously a joke about his not being a Samurai, and a representation of his being an individual apart.
Context
While Kurosawa's characters' eccentricities as well as the emphasis his stories put on changing of roles and standing out may seem commonplace, this was far from the case in 1950's Japan. The character of Kikuchiyo was one of the first obvious examples of Akira Kurosawa's emphasis on individualism which marked much of his later career. It was Kurosawa's emphasis on characters like Kikuchiyo that helped lead to criticism of Kurosawa's being too “western” alongside his different directorial style.
Anime
In the Anime adaptation Samurai 7, Kikuchiyo is a former farmer who had most of his body replaced with a mechanized one in an effort to become a Samurai. The distinguishing oversized sword (here with a mechanized chainsaw enhancement) is carried over to the Anime. He dies a hero's death during the final battle: Instead of seizing an opportunity to escape, he trades his sword for an enormous Nobuseri one and digs in his feet, standing the sword up and uses it to stop the crushing capital city-ship from hitting the village. The capital ship stops just short of the village, but Kikuchiyo is destroyed from overheating, leaving nothing but his smoking boots.
Overview
Kikuchiyo, played by Toshiro Mifune: A farmer's son who attempts to jump his place in society by calling himself a Samurai.
In the first half of the film he is used largely as comedy relief, featuring such events such as his illiteracy and his inability to ride a horse. His over-the-top mannerisms eventually garner him a fan club, consisting of the small children of the village. One of his main identifying features is the oversize sword he carries (a nodachi). Rather than sheathing his sword, he saunters around while resting it over his shoulder. His heritage as a farmer's son is revealed after he lambastes the other Samurai for their perceptions of the farmers, as well as a speech concerning the social hierarchy and the treatment of peasants by Samurai. His death in the end of the film provokes mixed responses. He is the only character in the film to be given the "hero's death" in the Hollywood style, as he dies from a bullet wound after killing the leader of the bandits.
Symbols
*The excessively large sword Kikuchiyo carries; a representation of his overcompensation and inexperience. Casting away the sword in the final battle for another sword was his becoming a “Samurai”, the fruition of his attempts to change his lot in life.
*The banner under which the samurai fight, consisting of six circles, aligned much as they would be on a dice, to represent the samurai, with a triangle on the bottom for Kikuchiyo. Simultaneously a joke about his not being a Samurai, and a representation of his being an individual apart.
Context
While Kurosawa's characters' eccentricities as well as the emphasis his stories put on changing of roles and standing out may seem commonplace, this was far from the case in 1950's Japan. The character of Kikuchiyo was one of the first obvious examples of Akira Kurosawa's emphasis on individualism which marked much of his later career. It was Kurosawa's emphasis on characters like Kikuchiyo that helped lead to criticism of Kurosawa's being too “western” alongside his different directorial style.
Anime
In the Anime adaptation Samurai 7, Kikuchiyo is a former farmer who had most of his body replaced with a mechanized one in an effort to become a Samurai. The distinguishing oversized sword (here with a mechanized chainsaw enhancement) is carried over to the Anime. He dies a hero's death during the final battle: Instead of seizing an opportunity to escape, he trades his sword for an enormous Nobuseri one and digs in his feet, standing the sword up and uses it to stop the crushing capital city-ship from hitting the village. The capital ship stops just short of the village, but Kikuchiyo is destroyed from overheating, leaving nothing but his smoking boots.
Miles Powell (born July 2nd, 1994 in Washington D.C.) is an American Backyard wrestler for the XWG. Along with his cousin, LB Briscoe, he is the CEO of XWG. XWG is a spin-off of the XWF (which is on Youtube) As of currently, Powell and Briscoe are still constructing the format for XWG, hiring superstars, purchasing trampolines, setting up stage, etc. It is likely that they will start up XWG in summer 2008.
Finishers
-Direct Effect Sideslam
-Moment of Silence Spinebuster
Signature moves
-Swanton Bomb High-Angle Senton Bomb
-Spear
-Jump-Off Springboard Crossbody
-Stay Down Frontfilp Legdrop
Accomplishments
Soon-to-be XWG World Champion
Finishers
-Direct Effect Sideslam
-Moment of Silence Spinebuster
Signature moves
-Swanton Bomb High-Angle Senton Bomb
-Spear
-Jump-Off Springboard Crossbody
-Stay Down Frontfilp Legdrop
Accomplishments
Soon-to-be XWG World Champion