Grubba

“GREAT-GALLOPIN' GULPITS!”

—Grubba, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

File:Grubba.jpg

Grubba.

Grubba is a Clubba and the manager of the Glitz Pit in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door; he is the only member of his species to appear in the game. Mario learns from Jolene that Grubba is the one making fighters "disappear", so Mario fights him. Grubba loses, even when he transforms into Macho Grubba using the third Crystal Star, the Gold Star.

The proprietor of the Glitz Pit, and a former arena fighter (who was considered mediocre until he found the Gold Star), Grubba uses an evil power-sucking machine powered by the Gold Star to drain the life from fighters to keep himself ultra-buff. In this Macho Grubba form, he is a large orange creature that resembles a larger form of Tubba Blubba from Paper Mario. He primarily punches or jumps on his enemies, but can also increase his attack and defense, make himself Dodgy, or attack twice each round. The disappearances of Bandy Andy, King K, and Prince Mush were all his doing, as they were fighters who discovered what he was up to. He announced his intentions to drain Mario, unaware that the hero was getting close to realizing what was going on.

Grubba has a distinctive dialect, employing phrases and exclaimations such as "Great-galloping Gulpits!", "Whoa, nelly!" and "Wait a diddly-darn minute there!"

After his defeat by Mario and his partners, Grubba was last seen twitching in the center of the Glitz Pit. After Mario returned, he had vanished. No evidence indicates his current whereabouts; but according to Bandy Andy, he is hidden under the stage, plotting his revenge.

Personality

Upon first meeting him, Grubba seemed friendly. He seemed to love his job, was very enthusiastic about new fighters arriving, as well as the entire competition in general. He's given Mario and his partners advice on how to succeed, saying that if they "dream big, they get big", and has even claimed that he "cares about his fighters". However, Grubba was much more sinister than he appeared to be. Unlike most villains, Grubba had no interest in world domination, but was simply to make himself younger.

Grubba apparently hated the old age, and would do anything in his power to make himself appear younger than he actually was. This of course, led into him doing all of those corrupted things behind the scenes, which was of course, using his power-sucking machine to drain energy from the fighters, and nearly killing them. He was very desperate to keep that a secret, and wanted to make sure that no one knew anything about it. Despite being "friendly" on most occasions, if anyone knew even the slightest bit of information concerning his secret, then he would do anything in his power to make sure that they weren't around to tell about it.

Despite the fact that what he did was wrong, Grubba didn't seem to feel any regret or remorse for his actions. For example, Mario's parners told him how despicable he was for doing such a thing, and Grubba responded by saying that he could "do whatever he dang pleases" with "his" Crystal Star. Going by that, it's safe to assume that Grubba didn't care about anyone but himself.

Trivia

• Grubba's name is a combination of the words "Clubba" and "Grubber".
• Grubba's exact age is never revealed, but according to Bandy Andy, he is over sixty years old.
• According to himself, King K was the fifth fighter to disappear from the Glitz Pit that year, (with Prince Mush possibly being the fourth, since Bandy Andy disappeared sometime after King K). Whoever the other three missing fighters were, is unknown.