Ka D'Argo (portrayed by Anthony Simcoe) was one of the main characters in the American-Australian science-fiction television series Farscape. He was a noble Luxan warrior who was imprisoned by the Peacekeepers for a crime he didn't commit and spent eight cycles chained up aboard the Leviathan prison ship Moya. When Moya escaped from Peacekeeper control, D'Argo remained aboard with the other prisoners as they attempted to flee their former captors. Around this time, John Crichton had emerged from a wormhole in his Farscape-1 module and was brought aboard Moya after the module had been damaged. D'Argo was the first alien that Crichton set eyes on and while their first meeting was less than cordial, D'Argo would eventually become Crichton's closest friend during his trek through the Uncharted Territories.
Biography[]
Pre-show[]
As a young Luxan, D'Argo dreamed of two things: becoming a mighty warrior and having a small farm to share with a family of his own. He followed the better-known traditions of his people and became an honorable warrior with two battle engagements to his credit. Then he met Lo'Laan Tal, a Sebacean woman, and the two fell madly in love with each other. But because of Peacekeeper prejudices, her family would never allow her to marry a non-Sebacean. The couple fled to a distant farming colony, where D'Argo established a home for them. The couple soon produced a son, Ka Jothee, and for a time, D'Argo thought he could be happy.
But when Jothee was about five or six cycles old, Peacekeeper Officer Macton Tal, D'Argo's brother-in-law, tracked the family to their refuge, and murdered Lo'Laan. Tal then accused D'Argo of the crime, arresting the Luxan while his own hands were still wet with his sister's blood. Tal blamed D'Argo's hyper-rage and at times D'Argo thought it was possible he had killed his wife in a hyper-rage blackout. Before he was taken away, D'Argo sent Jothee into hiding, fearing for his son's life. D'Argo was convicted, chained, and eventually imprisoned aboard Moya until the Leviathan and her captives escaped Peacekeeper custody.
D'Argo sports the tattooed chin markings of a general—a rank he has never held. During his time in combat, he took the marks to protect a valued commander, hoping that the enemy would mistake him for his superior. His ruse worked, yet he's a little embarrassed by the lingering deception, but other species don't seem to notice.
D'Argo is extremely strong, well-trained in combat tactics and weapons, and shares the well-deserved Luxan reputation for violence and impulsiveness. He is often loud and blustery, and loses his temper with unnerving ease. When irritated, he is capable of lashing out with his Luxan tongue sting, temporarily stunning his foes. When truly angry, he falls victim to hyper-rage, attacking any other nearby males in order to establish dominance. These terrifying bouts often take days to subside. He has, through much effort, developed control over the hyper-rage and gained some serenity in his life. His anger towards the Peacekeepers is unquenchable and he has spent cycles hoping for the day when he will bring justice against Macton.
Season 1 & 2[]
Freed from imprisonment, D'Argo reclaimed his qualta blade (the Luxan ceremonial long-range and close-combat weapon, and a symbol of his honour) and joined Moya's crew in their flight into the Uncharted Territories. He did not reveal the truth about his confinement when first asked, instead claiming to have murdered a superior officer. He found his past history too painful to discuss, and would rather lie than endure any uncomfortable questions. It took some time before his crewmates uncovered the facts of his undeserved sentencing.
D'Argo had more difficulty connecting with others than the rest of Moya's crew. Despite his uncompromising attitude and impatient personality, D'Argo is capable of sympathy and kindness towards his crewmates; especially when they are in distress, and his determination and aggressiveness have their place on board. His bravery is unquestioned and his strength has become a rock on which his crewmates stand. He began to listen and learn the basics of strategy and science from around him, and regularly assists in repairs to Moya. D'Argo takes his ethics seriously, and he will not ignore his responsibilities to his friends in favour of his own personal interests.
While D'Argo hates all Peacekeepers (whom he blames for much of his misery), he has formed a deep friendship with Aeryn Sun, since they share the same straight code of ethics. Though initially wary of Crichton, due to his physical similarity to the Peacekeepers, he has come to realize that John has little in common with them, and the two have slowly gone from uneasy allies to close friends, sharing a brotherly bond between them. Rygel's mercenary ways and ability to get into trouble exasperate him, and he has little patience with the former Dominar. Yet D'Argo has a respect for Rygel's political knowledge which he has learned much from.
Season 3[]
After Aeryn is killed on an icy planet, everyone is on a short temper and impatient to find out what's happening on the planet. They find that Crichton has been left in a near-catatonic state and unable to speak after encountering Scorpius. Eventually they force the Diagnosan surgeon Tocot to restore Crichton's speech and manage to escape capture by Scorpius, but not before Zhaan gives away most of her spiritual energy to restore Aeryn to life, a sacrifice that starts to slowly and painfully kill Zhaan.
Meanwhile, D'Argo is trying to reconnect with his son Jothee whom had recently been rescued from the Peacekeepers, but Jothee behaves coldly towards his father. Chiana knows D'Argo wants to marry her but she isn't able to go through with it, and knowing D'Argo won't take no for an answer, selfishly starts an affair with Jothee as a means of getting D'Argo off her back. D'Argo finds out about the affair very quickly, initially being more angry at Jothee then Chiana. He brands Jothee with a Luxan union tattoo in his blaze of pain. Also he finds an old Luxan ship that he claims for his own.
Soon after that, when Moya is about to visit a planet where Zhaan can heal, Crichton starts to investigate a wormhole that suddenly appears. The instant he does, a Pathfinder ship crashes into Moya by accident, and the collision puts them into the wall of the wormhole. In order to save everyone, Zhaan pilots the Pathfinder ship into oblivion, saving her friends but sacrificing herself. D'Argo holds John partially responsible of Zhaan's death because he should not have been investigating a wormhole while they were trying to save her.
Later, D'Argo is split in two equal and original D'Argos, but one of these D'Argos dies, same for Chiana. John is split in two as well, but both of his "twins" live and go on separate adventures when Moya, reunited briefly with Talyn, must flee, with half the crew on each ship, to escape the Peacekeeper retrieval squad nearby. Moya's crew at this point contains one John, D'Argo, Chiana, Jool, and Pilot, while Talyn's crew contains the other John, Aeryn, Rygel, Stark, and Crais. Jool, the woman the crew saved from the ice planet, slowly starts to fall in love with D'Argo, and D'Argo learns how to control his ship, although almost killing John once while he's at it. D'Argo likes Jool but he is still hurting severely from Chiana's betrayal, and in fact is sensitive about the affair and Jothee for the rest of the season.
Eventually Talyn returns. One of the John's sacrificed himself to stop the Scarrans from gaining wormhole weapons, as did Jack the Ancient, whom D'Argo encountered two cycles previously. Stark had also left to search for Zhaan's spirit though D'Argo wasn't sad about that. Soon after they return, Moya's crew and Talyn decide that they want to obey the wishes of the dead John twin and go after Scorpius to permanently sabotage his wormhole weapons development. They succeed, but only because Crais and Talyn starburst within the command carrier Scorpius commands. Soon after that, Moya's crew, except for Pilot, Jool, and Noranti, all go separate ways to their own ends, and D'Argo, now that his collar bone rings are removed and he now has info on Machton's current location, goes after Machton, presumably to kill him, but somehow ends up on Arnesk with Jool instead.
Season 4[]
D'Argo still dreamed of a day when he and his son can be reunited as a family, but would gladly give his life to save Moya or her crew. But fate would have it otherwise...
During this season, Scorpius had faked his own death in order to seek asylum from the Peacekeepers and arranged for Moya to become his sanctuary. Naturally, nobody on Moya wanted him there as he had been hunting and tormenting them for years,but Aeryn promised him asylum since she had contracted heat delirium and only Scorpius could treat her. While the being responsible for infecting Aeryn to begin with later provided an antidote, Scorpius' position on Moya was secured, much to everyone's outrage.
Scorpius, who was D'Argo's clear rival in terms of strength and fighting skills, enlisted D'Argo, Rygel, and most importantly Crichton, to take part in a mental arts training camp owned by his former mentor and master, Kutoya. It was at this camp that D'Argo, at long last, ran into Machton Tal once again, for the first time in at least 12 years. Machton relentlessly tries to convince D'Argo that he killed Lo'Laan in a bout of hyper-rage, and eventually starts to convince D'Argo of the possibility that this is true. When Kutoya was trying to help D'Argo learn more about himself in a VR training machine, Machton knocked out (or possibly killed) Kutoya, taking his place on the controls of the machine, further trying to convince D'Argo that he is right, and almost succeeding. However, at the last possible minute, when D'Argo is about to be stuck in the machine in a coma forever, he overcomes Machton and forces the truth out: Machton killed Lo'Laan by accident during an argument/threat about why he felt the marriage should end, during a time that Lo'Laan was trying to stab Machton to protect D'Argo and Jothee. D'Argo then leaves Machton in a VR-induced coma for the rest of his days, forcing him to relive his sister's murder until he dies, yet at the end, he is still worried about what his hyper-rage did to his long-ended marriage. At long last, justice is served, and D'Argo manages to get his long deserved revenge without resorting to murder after all.
During the last two episodes of the season, D'Argo finally got back together with Chiana and at least mostly forgave her affair with Jothee. While Chiana would lose her sight after over-using her ability to slow down time, it seemed that she and D'Argo would get a happy ending. After Crichton, Aeryn and Pilot managed to collapse the wormhole to Earth in order to protect Earth from the Scarrans, Moya took rest on the oceanic world of Qujaga. The crew were in high spirits: D'Argo and Chiana had repaired their relationship, Scorpius and Sikozu had left, no one was pursuing them any more and Crichton and Aeryn were soon to have a baby. D'Argo, Chiana and Rygel watched from a porthole as Crichton asked Aeryn to marry him while the two were in a rowboat. Unfortunately, this moment of joy turned to one of horror as an alien craft suddenly appeared in the sky and fired on Crichton and Aeryn. The alien weapon reduced Crichton and Aeryn to a pile of crystalline fragments and, as far as the others could tell, Crichton and Aeryn were dead. D'Argo screamed in anguish and sorrow, breaking down and weeping for his friends and their sudden, cruelly-timed fate.
The Peacekeeper Wars[]
After this unfortunate event, D'Argo and the rest of Moya's crew made contact with the people of Qujaga. Informed that the crystallization of Crichton and Aeryn was an accident, he and the rest of Moya's crew agreed to help the Qujagans recover all of their friends' crystallized remains. They spent the next 60 solar days doing this during which they stayed with the Qujagans in their hidden city.
After Rygel had recovered all of the pieces from the ocean floor and hired a Diagnosan who could oversee the delicate operation, D'Argo was present to witness the reanimation of Aeryn and Crichton. Having heard about the recently declared war between the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans, D'Argo agreed with the rest of his crewmates to stay in the hidden city for the time being and to finally marry off Crichton and Aeryn. Both plans, however, were cast aside with the arrival of Scorpius' command carrier. It was at this point that Noranti discovered the true identity of the Qujagans: they were the Eidelons, a species known for its abilities to influence peace. D'Argo learned from High Priestess Muoma that the Eidelons were the descendants of the Priests of Arnessk.
Having restored the priests and their temple a cycle before, D'Argo accompanied his friends on Moya back to Arnessk to reunite the priests with their descendants. It was hoped that the ancient Eidelons would be willing and able to instruct their brethren in their peace-inspiring abilities. The arrival of the Scarrans, however, ended this plan before it could begin. As the rest of Moya's crew and passengers were taken prisoner, D'Argo and Chiana slipped out in a cloaked Lo'La. The Decimator, however, was able to detect the ship through the cloak and destroyed it. D'Argo and Chiana were able to escape Lo'La's destruction, but were stranded in open space with only minutes until death.
Fortunately, both were rescued by, of all people, Jothee and a group of Luxan commandos aboard a modern Penetrator. Though the father/son reunion was a little uneasy, the Luxans worked together in an attack on the Decimator and the rescue of their friends.
After their escape from the Scarrans, D'Argo and his friends, now including Jothee, returned to Qujaga. They found the planet under attack by Scarrans and soon the site of a battle. Moya crashed into the ocean and D'Argo and the others made their way into the besieged city and to the Eidelon temple. From there, D'Argo helped defend the surviving Eidelons from wave after wave of Scarran attackers. After the birth of Aeryn's and Crichton's son, D'Argo helped lead the charge back to Moya's pick up point, battling the whole way.
Before they could reach their destination, D'Argo was fatally stabbed in the chest by a Scarran. Knowing that he didn't have much time left, D'Argo decided to stay behind and cover his retreating friends. After saying his goodbyes to Crichton and a tearful Chiana, D'Argo blasted the pursuing Scarrans and Charrids, howling for all to hear in his final moments.
Later, after the end of the war and the destruction of the wormhole weapon, Aeryn and Crichton named their newborn son D'Argo in honour of their fallen comrade and friend, describing it as honouring his strength and courage.