Infirmofpurpus

* Book
* Book (disguised)
* Animated film
* Animated film (disguised)

Infirmofpurpus (French: Plutoqueprévus) is a Roman legionary who appears in the comic book Asterix and the Big Fight (1964) and the animated film of the same name (1989). He is known for being disguised as a tree for his spying mission in the Gaulish village, being followed around by an owl, and being used for potion experiments by the Gauls while Getafix has amnesia.

## Appearance

Infirmofpurpus is rotund with a pear-shaped body. Unlike most overweight characters, his lower face and neck don't blend into each other. His eyebrows are thick. He has a large, elongated nose with prominent nasal wings and nostrils visible from the sides. He carries a gladius but never uses it. His disguise is a tree trunk with two twigs on the sides and a hollow between, and no leaves.

In the comic book his hair goes from brown in older prints to light in newer prints (he's also blond in the web illustrations), but his eyebrows are always black. His helmet has little ropes which hold it on his head. The experimental potions paint his skin into unnatural colors and patterns.

In the animated film his hair and eyebrows are brown, and his nose is more rounded. The potions make him grow a green dragon tail, transform him into a savage lion, inflate him and change his size.

## Comic Book

Infirmofpurpus first appears in the book on Page 19, he is leading a patrol in the forest when the cauldron from the Gaulish village falls on him, knocking him unconscious. He serves in the Roman camp of Totorum under centurion Nebulus Nimbus. Infirmofpurpus’ comrades bring him back to the camp, and when he wakes up he is forced to go spying on the Gauls, but he refuses until the cauldron he hides in gets heated up.

He goes to the forest with a tree disguise where he accidentally attracts an owl, not only due to the disguise but also the smell of fish left on him from the cauldron. The owl perches on his tree and gets the attention of Asterix and Obelix passing by, but as they’re about to leave, the Roman sighs audibly and blows his cover in panic. He attempts to escape, but gets captured and brought to the village, where he gets pulled out of his tree. The revelation of his real appearance doesn’t surprise the owl, and it keeps following him for the rest of the book.

Asterix and Obelix promise not to hurt him and only offer him some “soup”, which is actually a concoction made by the amnesiac Getafix using random ingredients.  As Infirmofpurpus tries different potions, his skin coloring changes. He eventually gets fed up with it, and Asterix promises to leave him alone after one more dose. The last dose changes his skin back to normal, but also makes him weightless, and he flies back to the camp where he delivers the news that Getafix forgot how to brew the magic potion. The potion’s effect expires the following night and he drops to the ground.

Infirmofpurpus briefly appears on Pages 37 and 44 as a background character. On Page 44 he is beaten up with the rest of the legion.

## Animated Film

*The character is unnamed in the French and German versions, being referred to by rank instead: “Decurion” and “Dekurio” respectively, despite never being shown with a horse. In British English he is named Ardeco (after the design movement Art Deco from the first half of the XXth century). In American English he is known as Sergeant Noodles, this could be a joke referring to him being boiled alive. The character will be referred to as Ardeco in this section.*

At the start of the film, a 4-people patrol with Ardeco gets beaten up by Asterix and Obelix offscreen. They return to the camp where they tell their centurion about the encounter with the two Gauls and their dog Dogmatix. The centurion orders them to capture the Gaulish druid Getafix and they go back to the forest.

While Getafix is gathering herbs for the magic potion, he looks under a bush where he sees Ardeco’s legs, gets frightened, and the Romans jump out and try to grab him. They begin carrying the druid when they see Asterix and Obelix coming to the rescue. Obelix throws a menhir in their direction, but they run away, leaving Getafix behind, and the menhir lands on the druid instead.

The four Romans return to the camp once again, and Ardeco alone explains they couldn’t get the druid because the Gauls attacked them with a menhir.

After the storm the amnesiac Getafix is encouraged to experiment with potion, in hopes that he’ll remember the right recipe. At some point the potion explodes, sending the cauldron flying high. Meanwhile, the four Romans are sneaking through the forest. They hear strange noises, and all except Ardeco hide in the bushes. The cauldron falls on him. The other Romans grab the cauldron with Ardeco and run back to the camp.

The legionaries tell the centurion about frightening noises coming from the Gaulish village and cauldrons flying out of there. Ardeco is then forced to go on a spying mission the same way as in the book.

As Ardeco walks through the forest, he unintentionally attracts an owl and struggles to shake it off. He sees Impedimenta approaching and trembles in fear as he tries to hold still, but she is too busy thinking happily about her visit to the soothsayer to notice him. After she walks past him, he runs towards the village.

When Vitalstatistix also leaves the village, Ardeco runs inside. His observations are interrupted by Dogmatix, who first cheerfully barks at the owl, then sniffs the bottom of the Roman’s tree trunk and realizes he’s inside. Ardeco tries to shoo the dog away, but in doing so he exposes one of his feet and gets bitten. Jumping and screaming in pain, he falls down the crater where Getafix is doing his experiments under the watch of Asterix and Obelix, and alerts them by loudly crashing into the cauldron. Obelix pulls Ardeco out of the tree trunk and drops him. The Roman tries to run away, but gets stopped by Dogmatix at the edge of the crater, and gets dragged all the way back by Obelix.

Ardeco gets placed in front of Asterix, who offers him a spot of “soup”, which he drinks. In a couple of seconds, he backflips and spits fire. He coughs and tears up in pain, then grows a dragon tail. He shakes his tail at Obelix, who grabs it, and bounces uncontrollably. The next dose of potion removes his tail, and makes him bounce long distances around the crater, banging his head against the ground. Ardeco suddenly stops, begins to spaz out like a malfunctioning robot, then he starts acting like a drill. Asterix grabs onto him and tries to keep him on the surface, but he disappears underground, then reappears right under Getafix, who holds onto him and feeds him more potion. Ardeco bursts out of the druid’s grasp into a superspeed sprint around the crater. When Dogmatix appears in his way, he slows down and changes direction. Ardeco and Getafix run towards each other, much to the dismay of Asterix, but the druid manages to give the Roman another dose without getting hurt. Ardeco slows down and explodes into a bunch of tiny pieces. Getafix pours a drop on the pile and transforms it into an aggressive lion. The large animal steals the ladle and drinks the contents while performing a clawing gesture. It abruptly transforms back into Ardeco, who regains sentience and gets embarrassed. Another explosion, the Roman’s body inflates and grows to a gigantic size. A hole pops in one of his toes and he starts to deflate a little. Asterix grabs his leg, trying to keep him on the ground, but the hole gets bigger, and the Roman starts flying around and deflating like a balloon. Obelix holds Asterix, but Getafix tickles him and causes him to let go of his friend. Asterix, after being carried high above the ground, also loses grip of the Roman and Obelix has to catch him. Meanwhile, the Roman is falling face down, and his speed increases so much he produces fire. Getafix prepares to catch Ardeco, but Asterix pushes the druid away just in time, and the Roman crashes into the ground, exploding into a bunch of tiny clones which pop like bubbles. However he’s still alive, but really tiny. He walks around aimlessly until a worm bursts out of the ground nearby and gives him chase. He hides among potion supplies where he catches a breath and sees the “giant” cauldron. He keeps walking, barely avoids getting stepped on by Asterix, then he sees Getafix and tries to escape, but it’s too late. The druid catches Ardeco, discreetly brings him to the cauldron and drops him inside. The contents of the cauldron burst in a geyser, and the Roman emerges from there, now back to his normal size. When Asterix asks him how he’s feeling, he replies he’s fine, albeit light-headed. He then realizes he’s floating high above the ground and calls for help.

Ardeco flies back to the camp where he tells the centurion that Getafix is making a new potion and laughs like crazy. Unlike the book, he keeps floating on the next day. He can be seen carried by another legionary using a rope when the Romans arrive to the emptied village and return to the camp.

During the final fight the Gauls don’t notice Ardeco who doesn’t partake. A few Romans fly very close by, causing him to spin.

Once there’s silence in the ruined camp, Ardeco frees himself from the rope, discards his helmet and flies away towards the sunset with “his” owl. His silhouette can be seen once again in front of the moon on the night of the Gauls celebrating with a banquet.

## Videogames

Infirmofpurpus doesn’t seem to have a true appearance in any game, however he’s inspired Roman mobs in some games released after the animated film, mainly with the disguise. This is not a definitive list.

* Asterix (1991) – The first 2 levels of the game feature Romans with similar faces. Some of them walk around in tree trunks. One such enemy stands on a moving platform and throws acorns.
* Asterix: Mega Madness (2001) – In the minigames Recipe Run and Boar Bash some Romans hide in tree trunks, which take 1 hit to break.
* Asterix & Obelix: Slap them All (2021) – Some Romans hide in tree trunks, however the design of the Romans themselves is based on a different character. These enemies are unique in a way that they wave a white flag instead of dropping on the ground after being defeated. Pre-release screenshots and unused assets in the game’s files also feature an owl that was apparently going to accompany the enemy, the owl’s appearance is based on the animated film.

Mob in Asterix (1991)Beaten mob in Asterix (1991)Mob in Asterix: Mega MadnessMob with owl in a pre-release screenshot of Asterix & Obelix: Slap them All
## References

Infirmofpurpus' page on the official Asterix website (French only): https://www.asterix.com/portfolio/plutoqueprevus/?portfolioCats=33

## Trivia

* Infirmofpurpus plays a role similar to that of Caligula Minus. Both are legionaries chosen by their centurions to be sent spying at the Gauls, forced into doing so by being threatened to be cooked alive, and having other Romans laugh at their disguises.
* In 1967, bottles of Huilor oil were sold with figurines of 12 Asterix characters, including the undisguised Roman.
* The Collector's Edition of Asterix & Obelix: Slap them All contains sticker sheets. One of the stickers is Infirmofpurpus in his disguise running away.
* In the Parc Asterix 4D attraction Astérix: Attention Menhir! (2019), which is loosely based on the Big Fight book, legionary Petitbonus plays a role similar to that of Infirmofpurpus.
* There’s a possibility he’ll reappear in the upcoming CG animated mini-series based on the Big Fight story which is planned to be streamed on Netflix in 2024.

### Comic Book

* When the owl first finds him, it uses the "it" pronoun to refer to the Roman. After his tree disguise is removed, it starts using "he" instead, despite still considering him to be a tree.
* When he’s being tortured by boiling, rings are drawn around his pupils. In the newer prints these rings are filled in to look like blue irises.
* In the German translation, when the Roman gets annoyed with the experiments, his dialogue suggests interaction with women he met on the Appian Way.

#### Name

* His original French name Plutoqueprévus means "sooner than expected".
* The German name Handzumgrus means "hand in greeting".
* The Spanish name Avestrus means "ostrich".
* The Italian name Previdentissimus means "provident".
* The Russian name Непротивлений means "not against laziness".

### Animated Film

* What happened to the Roman after he flew away from the camp was never explained.
	+ It's possible that the floating potion will affect him for the rest of his life, since he fell into a cauldron of potion similarly to Obelix when he was a child.
* Since his helmet doesn't have ropes in the film, it tends to bounce and fall off. He even loses two helmets in encounters with the Gauls: one lost offscreen in the beginning of the film, the other - when he and a few other legionaries attempt to kidnap Getafix and have to run away from a menhir thrown by Obelix.
* The part showing his first reaction to Getafix's potion is similar to a moment in the book Asterix and the Laurel Wreath (1971). In that book, Asterix and Obelix brew a concoction using random ingredients. The Roman named Goldendelicious has a taste of it, backflips and spits fire.
* During the potion-testing sequence there are three brief instances where his eyes have colored irises. After he spits fire, his irises are yellow (and so are the scleras). When he explodes into pieces, his eyes are hazel. Shortly after he turns from a lion back into a human, his eyes are light-green.
* Right after he transforms from a lion back into a human, the potion briefly bursts out of his nose.
* His slow-motion run animation is reused in Asterix Conquers America (1994). It appears for a split second during the early fight between Gauls and Romans.
* One of the box covers for the film features the Roman with his tree disguise and the owl, and Prolix standing right behind him. These characters don’t have any interaction in the film.
	+ The same cover is used for the videogame Asterix: Operation Getafix (1989) which is based on the film.

#### Voice Acting

* In the German dub, while the Roman walks through the forest, he quietly sings about being far away from his homeland. He repeats it after shrinking due to the potion.
	+ This is also true for the Colognian dialect dub.
* In the Colognian German dub, while Obelix holds his dragon tail, he repeatedly shouts "ich bin Dekurio".

##### American English dub

* When he has to explain why he and the other legionaries failed to capture the druid, he says the Gauls have a "big rocket launcher".
* While he walks through the forest disguised, he makes a joke about going back to his roots and says "I hate this job".
* While he is spying in the village, he monologues about possibly finding out why the villagers take food to the forest, and becoming a hero of Rome. When Dogmatix approaches, he asks him to go away.

Huilor figurineA frame from the slow-motion run animationReused animation in Asterix Conquers AmericaBrown hair and eyes with rings, old printLight hair and blue eyes, new printYellow eyesHazel eyesLight-green eyesGerman dialogue mentioning ladiesOne of the box covers for the animated film