Red Gazelle (EAC)
Roy Hughes, before he became the Mighty Gazelle
Mighty Gazelle is a cyborg F-Zero pilot, who makes his debut in F-Zero X.
Mighty Gazelle was one of the many injured pilots in an accident three years before the events of F-Zero X. Though no one had died, Gazelle suffered the worst and had to be revived as a cyborg.
However, despite his near death experience, he joined the brand new F-Zero X Grand Prix, against the wishes of those who protested against his entry.
His participation has caused many protests, possibly due to the unfair advantage his mechanical parts give him. Despite his increased skills as a cyborg and his upgraded machine known as the Red Gazelle, he still lost to Captain Falcon in F-Zero X, as the GX manual states that Falcon was the winner of that Grand Prix.
Living only for F-Zero, he ignores the complaints of those who oppose his race participation -- no protest would make him skip a race. Because he is a cyborg, he has been able to polish his racing skills without fear of death. Through analysis of his past races, he has fine-tuned all of his reflex-related components.
Gazelle is also revealed to have a non-cyborg girlfriend in his GX interviews, but it is not known what she looks like or if she is even human. Additionally, Gazelle also reveals that he does disaster rescue when he isn't racing.
F-Zero: GP Legend Anime[]
In the anime, Gazelle has an entirely different backstory where he is known as Roy Hughes, the father of Clank Hughes and the best friend of Andy Summer, AKA the anime counterpart of Captain Falcon. He was a spy for the Galaxy Police and became severely injured after an undercover mission on the planet Heiru (Forno in the English Dub) went wrong.
Years afterwards, Roy Hughes was revived as Mighty Gazelle, by the anime variant of Dr. Stewart. Gazelle then became part of the Mobile Task Force, albeit also unwillingly working for Black Shadow's Dark Million organization by no fault of his own.
At some point, Gazelle was tasked to work alongside his son, Clank Hughes. However, the cyborg nor the child knew of each other's familial connection until much later. Roy sacrificed himself to save Clank, after a bombing set up by Zoda. The Task Force were locked inside for safety as Roy managed to cover Clank, eventually succumbing to the damage. Clank became devastated, though Dr. Stewart promised him that Roy would be brought to life again.
At the end of the anime, he is seen in his human form cheering on his son in the F-Zero Grand Prix six years later in 2207.
Ikran's F-Zero timeline[]
Mighty Gazelle was first known as a human named Roy Hughes, a husband as well as a father, and his only kid was Clank. He does give him a lot of games and toys based around F-Zero, and he worked for the Galaxy Platoon, until the Horrific Accident. Since then, he has been in a lot of surgeries reconstructing his body; so much so that his wife grew terrified and decided to call in a divorce! He wasn't able to see his son again. He then was losing his will to live, until the X Grand Prix rolled around. He seemed to disguise himself as his alias, the Mighty Gazelle, hiding his partial implants from the public, and became a sensation. Though he wasn't able to best Falcon, not even in GX. Several years later, a few years before the latter race, he functioned as a spy, with his outfit covering his implants, then he was cornered by Zoda at a space transport, and Falcon met up with him! Sadly, he sacrificed himself, blowing up the cargo ship and Falcon and Zoda escaped!
Since then, even in the GX race, still named as Mighty Gazelle, he was a complete cyborg since only his brain survived. He wasn't quite ready to show himself to Clank, who has been labeled as an orphan when his mom was killed during a Forno war. It wasn't until the Cosmo Terminal quarterfinals, when he finally got involved in the fight with Dark Million. He advanced to the Death Wind semifinals, and even discreetly boarded the Falcon Flyer en route to Earth. By the time Mr. BAD cornered Rick, Falcon, Beastman and Kate, he lifted the corrupt android and threw him onto a wall, disabling its circuits. He then stopped by the hospital EAD was being cleansed by Rodney, then he spotted his son after several years! Clank was suspicious of its hesitation, till it snatched the necklace. Recognizing the joyful run with Clank, he finally introduced himself as his father! Clank never believed it, till Rick explained the same things Falcon told him. Just as he was leaving in the Red Gazelle, he confirmed he was Clank's missing dad, and he had a tearful reunion!
Big Reveal
Later on, he was the janitor of the Falcon House and identified Burt as...Andy Summer!! Burt unveiled he was honorably discharged when his death was announced, then started fresh with the Falcon House! He and Roy went way back at the Galaxy Platoon. Gazelle then enrolled in the semifinals but lost royally. He still functioned as the Task Force's mechanic, even enhancing machines with Big Fang parts, and advancing the Dragon Bird to the EX! He even boarded the Galaxy Runner with Clank and Burt, and by Deathborn's demise, he controlled the Flyer back to Port Town!
He reunited with his son more, and he was soon invited for Rick and Tinsel's wedding.
Trivia[]
- His human face resembles one of the racers that appears among the crowd in the manual of the first game.
- In a fandub of the manual's comic, the racer's appearance is altered to actually resemble Gazelle, but this is only an edit and is not to be taken as official nor canon.
- In F-Zero GX, Mighty Gazelle's yellow color swap resembles Cyrax from the Mortal Kombat games.
- Mighty Gazelle bears somewhat of a resemblance to Turbo Man from Mega Man 7. Considering this game was made for the SNES system (which also housed the original F-Zero game), it is possible the latter was at least a partial inspiration for the former.
- Mighty Gazelle's F-Zero GX color 3 may also possibly reference this further.