MovieChat Forums > Farscape (1999) Discussion > D'argo character

D'argo character

posted 11 years ago by givememyemailaddress
14 replies | jump to latest

Started watching Farscape about two weeks ago and now am about 1/4 way through S2.

One thing that bothers me - what qualifies D'argo to be called a "Warrior"?
He certainly has the potential:

1) Fearless.
2) Imposing (on paper) - strength, stamina, ability to survive in space, etc...
3) Some experience serving with various Luxan vessels.
4) Weird tongue thing that works better than his weapons.
5) Apparent immunity to torture.
6) Willingness to sacrifice for his commander (as with Orican).

On the other hand:
1) The weird kink with blood makes him basically useless in a battle of longer than a few minutes - blood self poisoning.
2) Fearlessness leaves him unable to recognize the need for help.
3) Apparent inability to formulate strategy beyond pulling a knife.
4) Inability to lie/mislead/deceive.
5) ...and the fact that so far he easily lost to pretty much every set of opponents: pirates (S1, episod 3?), pre-contact aliens, bloodhound bounty hunters, even the dudes with spears in Jeremiah Crighton...

So to sum up - he is a physically large, prone to reflection creature that from time to time inexplicably yells "I'm in charge", with no follow through.

Feels to me like this character came from another show (like Star Treck Vulcan?) with no particularly defined role.

What do you, peoples, think?

[–] I_hatenazis 11 years ago

Actually, I think he is more like someone you are supposed to dismiss as a brute, like a Klingon but are later able to realize that he is far more intellectual and capable of reasoning.

Please keep in mind that this is not a star ship, these are escaped prisoners who would have normally been killed within 5 minutes (or 500 microns). If D'Argo was an inflexible brute the would have been killed. D'Argo is a highly intelligent officer who uses force as a last resort and only shows force when necessary. He only asserts himself when the people around him flounder.

In the Pilot he was the one who figured out how to release Moya from the restraining Peacekeeper collar.

[–] givememyemailaddress 11 years ago

Thank you!

I was referring to Klingons, but not being a fan of ST got confused :(
And now I'll have to rewatch the Pilot episode to see breaking the collar part.

I do respectfully have to disagree with you about D'argo's military abilities. He just doesn't appear to be particularly good as either a grunt or an officer. On the other hand - all the main Moya characters are to one degree or another misfits in their Home Worlds, resulting in them being Peacekeeper prisoners.

It is interesting, especially in regards to D'Argo - how his character develops from a brute ("watch who you can trust here...") to a guy happy to sacrifice for his friends. Since his make up covers pretty much the entire face, he can only show emotions with his eyes - and he does it better and better as the show develops.

[–] DrWhen 11 years ago

Also remember that he is supposed to be relatively young and inexperienced as Zhaan points out in the first episode. I forget the exact line but something about him being almost a boy. On a side note, I always wondered if they picked the name based on Daggoo in Moby Dick. The show is full of Moby Dick references.

[–] skay_baltimore 10 years ago

IIRC he's about 30 cycles (years) old.

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[–] RockinRickyRialto 10 years ago

As for his name, there's a theory that some of the names in Farscape are done in reference to characters from Game of Thrones--and since this was years before the show, it would be a nod to the early books.

Ka D'argo - Khal Drogo
Jothee - Joffree
Stark - Stark family

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[–] DeniseNY 10 years ago

I wouldn't say 30. I would say he is equivalent to about a 40-year-old (give or take). This may have been a plot adjustment as the series evolved. For example, we eventually meet Jothee, D'Argo's son and we find out that he is not a child but rather a young adult male of around 18-20. We also learn in the final season that D'Argo is a very high ranking officer in the Luxon military. I won't say how high, but it's a rank that would take many years to accomplish - at least by our standards.

I have 2 episodes to go before moving on to the peacekeeper wars. Enjoy Farscape as I have been enjoying revisiting this series and catching up on all the episodes I missed!

[–] ow916 10 years ago

I just thought D'Argo is from a culture a bit like 19th century nobility. He is going to be a warrior, that was decided from before he was born. No one ever questioned that, it was a law of nature.

As the show moves forward, we realize that he is actually a rather poor warrior, and as he gains experience, he gets worse and worse at it. It's really not in him, to be a cold blooded killer. He has a too big heart. He cares too much. Maybe he should have been an artist, or something. Of course, Luxan society being what it is, that is literally unthinkable.

Or maybe he always wanted to be a lumberjack, of course :)

I never checked this theory for consistency, though.

[–] scott-269-715736 10 years ago

ow916 - "I just thought D'Argo is from a culture a bit like 19th century nobility. He is going to be a warrior, that was decided from before he was born."

That seems to be the only explanation that would satisfy the continuity of the show. In season 1, various episodes, we have clues. Zhaan says D'Argo is young and inexperienced - there is no reason to doubt the statement. D'Argo admits his tattoos are those of a general, but in his case they are a deception because he never held that rank - not actually stated, but implied, is that a relatively young general would be believable to the enemy (so the noble destiny?) D'Argo states he has spent over half his life as a prisoner for a crime he didn't commit. We see the image of his wife and son - although not stated, it seems as though the wife was killed soon after (he only has the 1 image.)

So we know he was a young and inexperienced warrior when he was imprisoned for murdering his wife. Whatever his age as the show begins, he was half that age or younger when arrested, which also explains his son's age when they meet. It also helps to explain his desire to act the warrior, and his sometimes weak attempts at achieving that goal.

I don't recall the later season when he apparently is entitled to some high rank, but if it is in the show, then his rank must be part of a birthright since he wasn't in a position to earn it? (I'm watching the series again, so I guess I'll run across the later claim.)

[–] ripvanwallace 10 years ago

D'Argo is kind of a dick too I'm noticing. In the middle of season 2 where they have the 3 parter of John getting married at one point he gives up Chiana for no reason to get out of a problem. She ends up being tortured for information that D'Argo knew she didn't have in the first place. Then at the end of the episode she tells him she is proud of him for some reason.

A few episodes later where they meet up with Crais who is trying to get new weapons for Moya's gunship baby, Stark gives D'Argo news of his kid. D;Argo immediately tries to choke him for some reason. Then when they meet with Crais the ship attacks those who they are supposed to be trading with and they take them all in for questioning. D'Argo tells them that Stark shot them down, which meant he would get killed. For some reason he never has to answer for any of these things from anyone either and they act as if he was doing what he had to do.

He always has fits and acts like an overgrown child. It's no wonder he and Chiana get along so well...lol

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[–] execproducer22 10 years ago

Couldnt Disagree with you more on that. Dargo is probably one of the most interesting and complex characters on the show.

He starts out as this warrior brute who tries to solves everything by the blade of his sword and by the end of the show once his back story gets fully fleshed out you find out hes this real emotionally strong deep character with a very tragic back story who eventually overcomes past and even overcomes his rage to be a better person.

I would say out EVERY single character in the show he is the one character with the biggest character arc by the end of the show.

"What color is the boathouse at Hereford!?" 

-Sam

[–] ripvanwallace 10 years ago

I don't think they hid his back story long enough to go on much of a journey with him personally. We know rather early that he is searching for his son, and I am quite sure we learn about him being married to a Sebacean very early on as well. I think knowing this information, as well as seeing how he acts many times you already know that he's an emotional character. Not just his childish Luxan rage side either. That he is pretty sensitive.

I never really felt that he showed a very strong "warrior" personality, even early on. Like the OP said he made a lot of mistakes with it, and it pretty much showed he was kind of clueless in that regard every time we saw it. His dialogue of "I'm in charge!" all happened in very early episodes and we saw them disregard him in this way pretty quickly I thought.

I didn't feel like his back story was all that deep to begin with once it was out there. He wasn't a species bigot and he loved a woman he wasn't supposed to. Pretty much the theme of the entire crew becoming friends and their relationship on the show was like this. I think it would have been more surprising if he wasn't such a sensitive and emotional being, and we saw him grow and become one over the course of the show with the crew, but his caring for other members of the crew early on tipped it off right away imo. He was very close and respectful of Zhaan early on. He and john became "bros" pretty quickly as well I thought and got along. He was good to Aeryn early on as well, and even though we know he fell in love with another Sebacean, it wasn't in some sort of lusty way, or anything that he had a fetish for them...lol

By the time he starts hooking up with Chiana we know he's much more sensitive than how Luxans are supposedly looked at by other species. We saw him more angsty and childish with Chiana more than anything I thought. He really wasn't that old, or mature anyways as s soldier and we learned this very early as well. He lost his love and his son, and it was expected that he had a sort of relationship maturity on that level and would probably want to be more serious with Chiana than her character portrayed. Her childishness I think brought out an immaturity in him as well that seemed to say more about his character to me than most other things. That while he did adult things early on, he really wasn't that mature, or worldly because he had spent so much time in captivity in his early adult life.

ALL of that aside...I may not have been clear in the term I used to describe him following my first line. I did call him a "dick", but that isn't so much of his personality, or anything to do with any growth I don't think. It was just an observation in how it was rather childish and it was kind of unexpected to see him do a couple of what I would describe as cowardly things by tossing a couple friends to the wolves for his own survival. Especially at that point when we know all these things about him already. They were out of character and it felt like they were changing him for some reason, or expanding on his immaturity he was showing in his relationship with Chiana to make him something else, but in reality they never even acknowledged those situations as being what they were.

I can't think of any honorable intent in what he did in those situations, and it baffled me even further that nobody ever held him accountable for it, nor did the writers. We know him as honorable much more than immature I think in strength of character traits. These were Rygel traits more than D'Argo traits. In fact, the episode where he gave up Chiana as bait to get out of a jam himself, completely knowing what was likely to happen to her because of it, not only did nobody think it was odd, but they ended the episode with he and Chiana telling one another that they were proud of the other. It made absolutely no sense to me. D'Argo gave her up to torture and she said she was "proud" of him after all this?

[–] execproducer22 10 years ago

I don't think they hid his back story long enough to go on much of a journey with him personally. We know rather early that he is searching for his son, and I am quite sure we learn about him being married to a Sebacean very early on as well.

Yes, but your forgetting that we dont find out what exactly happened to his wife till the last season. I wouldnt call that very early on......

I never really felt that he showed a very strong "warrior" personality, even early on. Like the OP said he made a lot of mistakes with it, and it pretty much showed he was kind of clueless in that regard every time we saw it. His dialogue of "I'm in charge!" all happened in very early episodes and we saw them disregard him in this way pretty quickly I thought.

Again I disagree,

How many times have we seen Dargo knockout an enemy or tongue lash them... For every example you provide of dargo making mistakes I can point out at least two more where he kicked ass....

In fact, the episode where he gave up Chiana as bait to get out of a jam himself, completely knowing what was likely to happen to her because of it, not only did nobody think it was odd, but they ended the episode with he and Chiana telling one another that they were proud of the other. It made absolutely no sense to me. D'Argo gave her up to torture and she said she was "proud" of him after all this?

your taking that incident out of context for some reason....

1. the Scarren was using a heat probe that most species CANT fight against. Dargo didnt give her up... he was forced to do it and couldnt resist if he wanted to.

Chrichton himself had to be trained by a jedi master just be able to block it.

The reason that Chiana said she was proud of him besides the obvious that he save her life, was becuase he chose to face the Scarren to save chaina even though he knew the Scarren would probably kill him.

"What color is the boathouse at Hereford!?" 

-Sam

[–] RockinRickyRialto 10 years ago

One of my favorite things about D'Argo is the development of his relationship with Crichton. He goes from being John's sneering rival who barely puts up with him at the beginning to a true blue friend, and it becomes one of the best bromances I've ever seen in anything.

Their friendship in episodes like Scratch 'n Sniff and Thanks for Sharing is just so much fun to watch--like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rGjB_1lzbOw

What I think of your post: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VC4YjOp4Cto#t=10s

[–] TheFatDruidofNacyl 10 years ago

I felt his character was similar to Worf from Star Trek: TNG. You find out he is different then most Klingons because of his human upbringing but through is transformation in the later seasons to when he was on Deep Space Nine he becomes a stronger character and Klingon.

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