Gorgon (Star Fox)

"Enemy ahead! This one's different!"

- Slippery warns the team that the Gorgon is coming.

The Gorgon is a villain in the Star Fox series, making her debut appearance in Star Fox 64 and returning in Star Fox 64 3D (apparently having been revived). She is a bioweapon that was sent to defend Venom's airspace after Fox and his team (the Star Fox team) tore their path through the Area 6 Defense Station of Venom. Before deploying her, the Area 6 Commander yells out, "Dang! DEPLOY IT NOW!" to his minions.

Personality
The Gorgon is stated to be highly uncontrollable in her bios. This is way she was released to defend Venom as a last resort. This does not prevent her from being loyal to her master, however.

Physical Appearance
The Gorgon is a specialized "war machine". Her body appears disk-shaped to the eye. She has a hard shell on the surface and a single eye (the core) in the centre. That eye is the Gorgon's weak point. It is first colored blue, but turns yellow and then red as it weakens. The eye flashes yellow and red to indicate its vulnerability once it becomes vulnerable.

The Gorgon is equipped with large missiles that she can fire from behind herself, three arms that allow her to punch, claw, grapple, and throw foes, and the power to fire a powerful laser from her eyes.

Combat
During her introduction, the Gorgon will teleport into the battlefield with her dimension transporter device as she is told by the Area 6 Commander to head onto the battlefield and Slippery Toad will reveal her (or at least the boss's presence) to the team.

Phases 1 and 2
The Gorgon starts by opening her mouth as a taunt. If the three shield generators that have been installed inside are not KO'ed, it will close. Their destruction damages the shield, which takes out 15% of the Gorgon's health bar.

The Gorgon's first and second attacks can happen if at least one shield generator is spared. She will fire missiles and try to punch the player with the three arms. The arms retract when their health drops to 0, but this only leads to the Gorgon's third attack: a missile flurry. Fox can endure that by steering his ship wildly, and if that happens, the Missiles will lose track of their target. Fox must wait until the attack finishes, which leaves the Gorgon stunned for a few seconds, causing her to open her mouth. Fox must destroy the shield generators (The dead ones are revived) to progress to the next phase. The arms will extend again when the orifice closes up, regaining their stamina.

The second phase is the same, but lacking the opening taunt, and the central eye is yellow to signal anger.

Final Phase
Now insanely angry (Her eye turns red at this point.), the Gorgon replaces the flurry of missiles with a powerful laser once her arms are damaged. Fox must dodge this by steering his ship wildly as she sweeps across the arena (often in his direction). Once this ends, she will become vulnerable again. Fox will again have to destroy the generators, but this stuns the Gorgon for longer, rendering the central eye (which flashes yellow at times) vulnerable. The eye bursts once it is damaged enough, blinding the Gorgon and causing her to stumble into the atmosphere. This burns off her arms for good and soon her body explodes, a process which kills her, thus completing the mission Through The Middle.

Trivia

 * The Gorgon takes many of her traits, design elements, and attacks from the Death Star of Star Wars. She is even called the Planet Killer in the guides.
 * The Gorgon's ability to teleport makes her similar to the Phantron from the original game, Star Fox SNES. However, the Phantron is able to produce copies during his battle and is fought twice (retreating to Venom after the first defeat in Venom Orbit and then dying for real after the second battle concludes). The Phantron's location is accessed in the EASY route as well, whereas the Gorgon is stationed in the hard route.
 * The laser that is fired when the Gorgon uses her laser attack bears all the colours of the rainbow in Star Fox 64 and pure red in Star Fox 64 3D. The variation that uses the latter could be a later model.
 * The Gorgon is the second bioweapon to be fought in outer space, coming after the Plasma Hydra from the original game. However, the Plasma Hydra makes his lair in Sector Y, whereas the Gorgon is fought near Venom itself.
 * The Gorgon earned her name from the Gorgons of Greek Mythology, as she bears some resemblance to them, with the arms representing the snake hair. However, the Greek Mythology Gorgons have more snakes for their hair and have two eyes, whereas the Star Fox Gorgon has a single eye and a three-lipped mouth.
 * Venom slightly resembles the Gorgon when teleporting in Star Fox Zero. However, it produces more of a warp.
 * The Gorgon is the first boss to burn up in a planet's atmosphere visibly. This happens when Fox defeats her by gouging out her central eye, and she stumbles backward in pain.
 * It is possible that the Gorgon's body was actually destroyed when she crashed into Venom's surface, which would have vaporized her.
 * Pigma Dengar bears a slight resemblance to the Gorgon when he enters his Pigmaparoid form in Star Fox: Assault.