Taurus Bulba

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Taurus Bulba is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic bull created for the animated television series Darkwing Duck. He is a villain who was featured predominantly in the two-part pilot episode Darkly Dawns the Duck. He later reappeared in Steerminator. He was voiced by Tim Curry. Image:BULBA1.jpg

The character's name comes from that of Taras Bulba, the eponymous character from Nikolai Gogol's famous novella.

Darkly Dawns the Duck

Taurus was Darkwing's first major enemy as far as the series goes. As a criminal mastermind, he drew the attention of Darkwing, who thought that defeating Taurus would bring prestige and fame. Taurus, however, proved a formidable enemy, exploiting Darkwing's ego and getting Darkwing imprisoned. Despite serving a 99-year prison sentence in an unnamed maximum-security prison, Bulba was able to carry out business as usual right underneath the nose of Warden Waddlesworth (he eventually escaped at the end of Part 1) and hatched a scheme revolving around the Waddlemeyer Ramrod (a device that could lift and destroy buildings), which his three henchmen Hammerhead Hannigan, Hoof and Mouth stole from the army. However because he did not know the army code for the weapon, Bulba sought to abduct Gosalyn Waddlemeyer to learn how to activate the device, as Gosalyn's grandfather, Professor Waddlemeyer, was the inventor of the Ramrod.

Numerous points in the pilot establish Taurus as probably the most malicious villain ever to appear in the series. It is strongly implied his henchmen murdered Gosalyn's grandfather, and his men and pet condor Tantalus also nearly kill Gosalyn as well. However, Taurus remains a somewhat comedic villain nonetheless, such as a scene in which he mocks Darkwing by imitating his heroic mannerisms and poses. At the end of Part 2, Bulba erects the Ramrod on top of Canard Tower, the tallest building in St. Canard, and forces Darkwing to give him the arming code by threatening to drop Gosalyn to her death. Darkwing manages to destroy the Ramrod, but a large part of Canard Tower destroyed as well. Though heavily injured, Darkwing survived, perhaps due to dumb luck. Taurus was presumed to have died in the explosion. However season three would dispell this belief.

Minions

Taurus Bulba is depicted as having numerous subordinates in his employ.

• Hammerhead Hannigan, Hoof and Mouth - see main artle, Hammerhead, Hoof and Mouth
• Clovis - a surprisingly attractive blonde cow, Clovis is possibly Taurus' most intelligent and reliable subordinate. For the most part she is depicted as being his secretary and assistant, but she also pilots his airship. Clovis is distinguished by her monotone personality and emotionlessness. Despite her attractiveness there is never any indication that she and Taurus have anything other than a purely professional relationship. She was voiced by Marcia Wallace.
• Tantalus - Taurus' pet non-anthropomorphic condor, trained to follow his commands. His name is taken from that of Tantalus from Greek mythology. Tantalus often serves as Taurus' contact with his henchmen by wearing a two-way miniature television screen on a collar around his neck, which allows Taurus to literally have a bird's eye view of things.

Steerminator

Image:Steerminator5.jpg Taurus Bulba was resurrected by F.O.W.L. and rebuilt into a cyborg called the Steerminator (a spoof of The Terminator). They did this in the hopes that Bulba would replace Steelbeak as their chief agent, but the Steerminator refused their offer. Equipped with an impressive arsenal of weapons, including lasers mounted on his horns, the Steerminator casually destroyed F.O.W.L.'s headquarters.

He has since tried at least once to get revenge on Darkwing, but after being defeated (thanks largely to faulty wiring given to his mechanical body by F.O.W.L.), Bulba transformed into a jet and flew away, vowing to return. His abrupt exit was, indeed, meant to ultimately lead into his return (and inevitable defeat) in the fourth season; the cancellation of the finale season, of course, meant that this plot line would never be resolved.pt:Tauro Buba