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Guru the Emu is the most laid back and calm member of the Downunda Freedom Fighters. Due to his philosophies, he is against fighting, but understands that it is often necessary. Guru Emu is flightless, but possesses a vast quantity of wisdom. Guru has assisted the Downduna Freedom Fighters battles against Crocbot and later the Eggman Empire.
History[]
Battles Against Crocbot[]
Prior to joining the Downunda Freedom Fighters, Guru Emu was a peaceful hippie who spent much of his time meditating. One day, as he was asking the universe for an answer to his lack of purpose in life, Walt Wallabee almost landed on top of him. Believing his new friend to be the answer he had been waiting for, the Guru followed him. They soon became friends and were joined by Duck "Bill" Platypus, Wombat Stu, and Barby Koala in their investigations and eventual antagonism of the robotic villain Crocbot. Late in their private war, Guru Emu and the other Downunda Freedom Fighters came to the aid of Miles "Tails" Prower as he was being attacked by Crocbot's Wing Dingoes, only to have Wombat Stu kidnapped in the process. The Guru joined his friends in an assault on Crocbot's fortress, only to be rebuffed by his CD-ROM Ram as it prevented them from interfering with the landing of a Robotnik blimp carrying supplies for Crocbot's regime. Luckily, with Tails' help and their own ingenuity they were able to defeat the beast and save Stu. Guru surprisingly was the one who ended Crocbot's reign by using one of Walt's Bomberangs to knock him into the Great Crater. He then joined the other DFFs in bidding Tails goodbye as he left to return to Knothole. (TMS: #1, #2, #3, StH: #103)
Guru Emu and the other Downunda Freedom Fighters were later captured by Crocbot, who survived his fall into the Great Crater and returned more dangerous than ever, and due to the villain's separating them was thought dead along with Wombat Stu and Bill by Walt Wallabee. Crocbot revealed their continued existence while gloating over his capture of Bunnie Rabbot and Antoine D'Coolette, and the two Knothole Freedom Fighters soon joined their new allies in freeing Stu and the others. While their two newest friends escaped, Guru and the other DFFs revolted against Crocbot, overpowering his forces and seemingly winning the day. However, only after a subsequent campaign in which the badly damaged Crocbot acted through a brainwashed Bill Platypus were Stu and the others able to finish their war with Crocbot with help from Tails and Sonic the Hedgehog. Embarrassingly for Guru Emu, his greatest distinguishing moment in this conflict was being captured along with Wombat Stu while heading to "negotiate" with Bill, thus necessitating a rescue by the other Freedom Fighters. However, he was present when the damaged Crocbot was exposed as the villain behind the plot, and when the villain made a threatening reference to the legendary Bunyip, whom he claimed would destroy them. (StH: #61)
Fighting the Bunyip[]
After a failed attempt to recruit a new member of the team to replace Wombat Stu after he joined the Royal Secret Service, Guru Emu and his remaining teammates found themselves facing the threat Crocbot had warned of: Bunyip. The Guru expounded on the nature of this ancient creature to his colleagues, caught up in a trance so that he was unable to react when the creature emerged from its stagnant lake and attacked them. While the other Downduna Freedom Fighters fought bravely against Bunyip, Guru Emu could only watch helplessly as it dragged them under. Following the creature's trail, the Guru discovered an old dam that had once been a headquarters for Crocbot, now abandoned and responsible for the stagnation of the Bunyip's home waters and thus its rampages. Discovering his friends alive and well and the Bunyip placated, Guru Emu directed the use of explosives left behind in the old base to destroy it, thus erasing Crocbot's evil from the land and allowing the Bunyip to return to its peaceful existence.(StH: #103, #104, #105)
Post Crocbot[]
Guru Emu in 3237
All the members of the Downunda Freedom Fighters, Guru Emu included, were recipients of the telepathic message sent by the Xorda that proclaimed Mobius' imminent destruction by the aliens' Quantum Dial device. The Guru and his friends then journeyed to the Southern Tundra, where they joined a massive army of Mobians in a grand scale attack on the weapon. Fortunately, it was destroyed-though Sonic was thought dead for a year as a result-and Guru Emu returned home with his friends, including the newly returned Wombat Stu. (StH: #124, #125)
Guru Emu, and the rest of the Downunda Freedom Fighters, helped the Chaotix and Dr. Finitevus when they came to Downunda. After talking about Bill's betrayal and status as leader of the Downunda Dark Egg Legion, the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix were later betrayed by Dr. Finitevus and captured. After Finitevus departed, leaving the prisoners to his allies, Bill released his old teammates and the Chaotix and explained to them that his people had pressured him into siding with Eggman, and he had done so to appease them and in hopes of thwarting Eggman's advance. In order to keep up the charade, Bill remained behind as a prisoner of the "ruthless" Guru, who later joined his triumphant teammates in bidding farewell to the Chaotix. (SU: #11, #12)
Personality[]
Guru Emu is a laid back pacifist; he abhors fighting to the point of surrendering to the enemy rather than engaging them in battle. Despite his peace-loving ways he is a dedicated Freedom Fighter, and has proven himself an able field operative in more serious situations such as preventing Crocbot from escaping in his nuclear-powered tank and defending his teammates from attacking platypuses when Bill had been brainwashed. Due to his spiritual philosophy and connections to the "dreamtime," Guru is deeply concerned for the harmony of the world around him, both in terms of the natural world and the social/political climate. He is also caring and a bit of a jokester, and while he dislikes fighting he has no qualms about allowing his teammates to do so in defense of their home. Of all the Downunda Freedom Fighters, he is probably the most upbeat, and doesn't always agree with his comrades' harsher methods.(CSE)
Background Information[]
- In one Q&A, Ian Flynn described Guru Emu as his favorite Downunda Freedom Fighter to write, given that his peace-loving, mystic ways are such a departure from the other members of the group.