- "Tonda Gossa... Thanks, guys..."
- — Duster
Duster (ダスター Dasutā) is a character in Mother 3. A slovenly, limping thief who studies under his father Wess, Duster first appears as a playable character in Chapter 1, assisting Flint. Duster later becomes a main character in Chapter 2, where he is tasked with finding the Egg of Light. Duster joins Lucas at the end of Chapter 4 after being in the DCMC for three years as their bassist (where he was called Lucky); it is also shown that he learned to play the double bass cello after being picked up by DCMC after the event in Chapter 3 when Duster "goes missing" from Kumatora and Wess for three years. He is separated at the end of Chapter 5 and returns permanently during Chapter 7. He usually uses shoes as his primary weapon, along with a number of Thief Tools that weaken or distract foes.
While having a leg that he is always seen to limp with, Duster continues to have amazing speed. Not only is he the second-fastest party member after Boney, but sometimes he "Attacks with blinding speed!" to attack the enemy before the start of the battle or jump behind an enemy, which flips the entire party behind the enemy and gives the party a turn to attack before the enemy can. He can also unleash a reverse kick on an enemy that has attacked the party from behind before the enemy takes their turn. Wess alludes to an incident in his past in which he blames himself for paralyzing Duster's left leg. The limp is recognizable regardless of what he is wearing, such as when he is in the guise of a Pigmask. However, he has no difficulty running, kicking, and moving on staircases, so his leg might not be completely immobile. Due to the way he holds his hip to give his leg extra support, he may just be paralyzed from the ankle down, which would make it awkward for Duster to walk but not reduce the effectiveness of kicking with the leg in mention with a good shoe on.
In Super Smash Bros.[]
Super Smash Bros. Brawl[]
Duster appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a sticker. Attaching this sticker to the bottom of Ness or Lucas's trophies in The Subspace Emissary increases the power of their leg-based attacks by four.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[]
Duster appears as a primary spirit in the new Spirits mode. He is an attack type, novice spirit with one support slot. He ironically has the ability to increase foot attacks. His Spirit Battle represents him as an orange Luigi that prefers kicks on a foggy Battlefield Pac-Land stage representing Osohe Castle.
Story[]
Chapter 1[]
While searching for Hinawa, Lucas and Claus, Flint finds a scrap of cloth hanging from a dead tree upon an insurmountable cliff. To reach it, Wess instructs Boney to retrieve a sleeping Duster from his home and use the Wall Staple technique to create a ladder upon the cliff. Soon, Duster, Flint and Boney encounter some Pigmask soldiers reconstructing a caribou into a chimera; the trio defeat it and pursue the Pigmasks, though they escape. Coming down from the cliff, Duster joins the Tazmily villagers at a riverside as Flint reunites with his sons. Duster and the villagers are taken aback when Bronson reveals that Hinawa is dead, Flint attacks the villagers in a rampage and is knocked unconscious before being taken to the Tazmily jail. The next morning, Duster meets with Flint after he leaves the jail, expressing his condolescenes over Hinawa's death and explains that a heartbroken Lucas is attending her funeral.
Chapter 2[]
Duster is the main character of this chapter. The following night, fearful of the Pigmasks' activities, Wess tasks Duster with retrieving a round object from the derelict Osohe Castle, equipping him with the Thief's Tools; Duster sneaks into the castle, chancing upon a young woman whose dropped pendant he picks up, and retrieves the Noble Spittoon, but when he returns to Wess, his father furiously reveals that the Noble Spittoon is not the object he is searching for and destroys it. Noticing the young woman's pendant, Wess decides to give Duster another chance and they return to the castle just as the Pigmasks arrive. Duster meets the young woman, an acquaintance of Wess named Kumatora, and the trio retrieve the real round object, the Egg of Light, but activate a trapdoor that separates casts Duster and the Egg away from Kumatora and Wess.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
Duster's earlier render for Earthbound 64.
- Duster's earlier render for Earthbound 64 had blonde hair and green clothing with a white bag and a green hat. In his later render, he had a blue hat and shirt, red shorts, a brown bag, and brown hair.
- Duster is the only character who can get his "Mystical" weapon before Chapter 7.
- In Osohe Castle, if the player force Duster to run into the statue holding the steel ball from the right side, it will cause the steel ball to fall over on Duster, game over instantly.
- If the player chooses to name Duster 'Lucky' at the start of the game, his name as part of the DCMC will be Gorgeous instead.
A screenshot of Duster and Wess inside the Noble Spittoon Room. Duster's later model for Earthbound 64.
- On the note of Duster's limping leg, director Shigesato Itoi explains, "I figure that because there are handicapped people in our world, they would also be part of the world of Mother 3. After all, there's no way that any two people have the same physique or even the same personality. Just like with the Magypsies, I included Duster so we could have someone with bad breath, a disabled leg, and living as a thief. The Mother 3 world is all about having friends like them. Perhaps you could call them symbols of not rejecting such people."[1]
- Due to a glitch, Duster's next 'tune' when performing a combo isn't randomized like the other characters. It's always 0, so it always plays the same tune. The bug was later fixed in version 1.2 of Mother 3's fan translation.
- Like most of the characters in the game, Duster's age was never stated. However, certain moments in the game hint, as his thief training began when he was "very young." Knowing how Kumatora was an infant when everyone arrived at the island, Duster wouldn't have needed his thief training until he was assigned a role in the story of Nowhere Islands, meaning he too likely arrived when he was a young child. When Duster looks in a mirror, he also notices that his "whiskers" have really grown out, suggesting he probably only became of age to grow facial hair recently. Going by these notions, it's likely Duster is a very young adult by Chapter 1.
- Duster appears to be something of a twist on the party member archetype established by Lloyd and continued with Jeff. Much like Lloyd and Jeff, Duster is unable to use PSI and compensates with a variety of item-based abilities instead.
- In Duster's room, in Club Titiboo, the music that plays is almost a direct remix of the "Battle Against an Unsettling Opponent" theme from the previous game.
- Duster's possible names when he was in DCMC, "Lucky" or "Gorgeous," are a reference to the Runaway Five, as two of the members are named Lucky and Gorgeous.
- Duster didn't have his Wall Staples in EarthBound 64, there is also evidence that he didn't have the Hypno Pendulum as the battle backgrounds moved with the music. This has led to theories that Duster, like Flint, had PSI abilities in EarthBound 64.
- Duster's stage name in the DCMC, "Lucky", was made up for the fan-translation. His stage name in the original Japanese version is "Tamekichi".
- Lucas has an alternate color in Super Smash Bros. based on Duster.
References[]
https://mother4ever.net/release-brownies-interview/ (Early GBA sprite)