Diego (Ice Age)

**Diego** is the tritagonist of the *Ice Age* franchise, serving as the central antagonist-turned-tritagonist of Ice Age, a major character in Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Ice Age: Collision Course and the Christmas Special, the tritagonist of the Easter Special and a supporting character in The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild

He is a saber tooth tiger and one of Manny's best friends and one of Peaches' adoptive uncles. He becomes Shira's lover or husband in *Ice Age: Continental Drift,*

He is voiced by Denis Leary.

## Personality

Before meeting the herd, Diego was a wild, vengeful and ruthless sabre-toothed cat. He was blindly loyal to his pack and their leader Soto who both shared a mutual respect for one another and was tasked with retrieving the baby from a human tribe as revenge for them killing nearly half of their pack. However, when he failed, Diego would either find the human baby or die.

After meeting Manny and Sid who were protecting the child he was supposed to deliver to Soto, Diego tricked them into going to Half Peak where he says the baby's parents are waiting but actually his pack are and will kill the three of them, showing that he was quite uncaring. At first Diego and Manny's relationship had an incredibly rocky start, the two obviously didn't trust one another nor value either as friends. However, as they continue their journey, Diego discovers Manny's tragic backstory and when the mammoth risks his own life to save Diego's, the two became extremely close friends. His relationship with Sid on the other hand was an instant dislike and constant annoyance, on more than one occasion he came close to actually killing him with his teeth. However, the two have a very strong bond and are close friends possibly more than Manny even if the two might not totally trust each other.

Throughout the entire film Diego was seen having conflicted loyalty between his Pack and his herd. Eventually, his loyalty between Manny and Sid was strong enough to defy Soto and defend his friends from the pack even on his apparent deathbed. He proved to be loyal enough to give Manny and Sid the true directions to the human tribe so they could return the baby. However, it turns out that Diego survived his wounds and has decided to join the herd with his friends.

In *The Meltdown*, Diego has adjusted to Herd-life. He has a sarcastic and even at times vicious sense of humour most commonly at the expense of Sid such was shown when the sloth was about to perform a near-suicidal stunt and like the rest of the crowd he chanted "jump." This was also shown during the fourth film when his prisoner, Shira refused to take water for him to reply in a dry tone "fine, die of thirst that'll really show me."

It is revealed that Diego suffered from severe hydrophobia, as said by Sid he was "letting water make it his prey" and could neither swim or even touch it without going in a fit of terror. He also proved to be very prideful specifically about his reputation, when he and Sid had been pinned down by Eddie and Crash, two possums Diego replied that if anyone asks there were fifty rattlesnakes.

Diego at times can be quite selfless, when he saw that Sid and the possums were trapped in an upstream lake he dived in headstrong to save both of them and ignored the fact that he couldn't swim or that he was completely terrified of water. Another time was when an entire herd of mammoths arrived unexpectedly, he and Sid implored Manny to go with Ellie only for all of them to stick together and become their own herd.

Given *Dawn of the Dinosaurs*, Herd-life has shown to have an effect on Diego, he appears to have lost his edge left exhausted while trying to chase a gazelle and then mocked by the latter, his solution was to leave the Herd behind and become sort of a lone wolf. He still showed immense bravery and loyalty towards his friends, after Sid was abbducted by a Mother Dinosaur, he entered the dinosaur world without knowing what was lying within there to save his friend. In the end Diego decided to stay with the Herd.

By *Continental Drift*, Diego is once again a true member of the Herd. It is unknown whether he would have actually murdered Sid's Uncle Fungus as a sort of revenge for being nearly run over by him because it was interrupted by the sloth. He was also reluctant to tell Sid that his family had abandoned him once again showing that he doesn't enjoy hurting his friends feelings however he covered this up with a totally abominable lie. Diego at times can be the more practical of the three, an example would be when Manny was about to jump past a gorge only to be stopped by Diego as he would never make it. When they were trapped on an iceberg ship with no way back, Sid repeated a saying that his mother told him only to bitingly reply that this was before she abandoned him.

During the film Diego had a romantic relationship with another sabre-toothed tiger named Shira, the first mate of a band of pirates. However at first the two barely even liked one another, the only reason they actually stuck together was because they were shipwrecked. After an attempt to escape Shira became the prisoner of the Herd and discovered that the two have much in comman, Diego was able to let Shira see through her Captain Gutt's cruelty, Shira actually saved the Herd from the wrath of the captain after this Diego developed romantic feelings for her. Near the end of the film Shira became a member of the Herd and fought against Gutt and the rest of the pirate.

## Trivia

* Originally, Diego was stated to die in the first movie, but he survived in the final cut because it was too depressing for the kids in the test audiences. Denis Leary actually warned the producers that this would happen. When it proved true, he got his wish and Diego remained alive.
* Diego and Shira are equivalents of a male African lion and a female White Tiger.
* Diego plays the bravery in the Herd. (While Manny is the brains and Sid is the comedy).
* In each *Ice Age* movie, Diego has his own side story:
	+ In *Ice Age*, Diego's story was about his double agency.
	+ In *Ice Age 2*, Diego's story was about him overcoming his Aquaphobia.
	+ In *Ice Age 3*, Diego's story was about leaving the herd before trying to rescue Sid on his own. (Later, he rejoins the Herd)
	+ In *Ice Age 4*, Diego's story was about him meeting and falling in love with Shira, a female Smilodon.
	+ In *Ice Age 5*, Diego's story was about him and Shira deciding whether to have any children or not.
* Diego is similar to Mr. Potato Head from the *Toy Story* films.
	+ Both were introduced in the first films of their franchises.
	+ Both were minor antagonists in the first films.
	+ Both later reformed and became good for the rest of their franchises.
	+ Both were thought to be the main antagonists of the first films of their franchise, however that was to hide the real main villains.
* Diego is very similar to Margalo from Stuart Little 2, which was released the same year as the first Ice Age movie.
	+ Both are used by their boss (Soto;Falcon)
	+ Both are ordered by their boss to give the things for they (Roshan for Soto;Ring for Falcon).
	+ Both are Pawn of the Villain.
	+ Both rejected his boss to Protect the Protagonist (Manny/Stuart).
	+ Both are False Antagonists.
	+ Unlike Margalo, he started to be bad at first and he is never threatened by his boss.
* Diego is similar to many heroes who were used for the villains before siding with the heroes to bring down the villains with a change of heart about their ethics, including John Smith, Pheobus, Knuckles, Kovu, James P. Sullivan, Neera, Bruton, Alex and his love interest, Shira.