Shunned Guy

"Paint and suffering..."

- Shunned Guy

The Shunned Guy is a Slurp Guy first found in the Indigo Underground in Paper Mario: Color Splash. It can be located in a small cave branching off from a platforming room next to an upward-moving block. It is seen sucking the color out of a Toad. When Mario approaches it, it suddenly bends backward unnaturally and spots Mario before moving towards him similar to a 2-Fold Goomba or a bug, initiating the battle. Mario tries to escape, but trips. Attacking the Shunned Guy with Jumps or Hammers does not damage it, but it can be defeated with fire-based attacks, outright stated in one of its in-battle quotes. The theme that plays during this battle, "Straw of Doom," is a horror movie-style theme that plays earlier in the game when Mario first witnesses a Slurp Guy draining color from Toad.

The first Shunned Guy encounter, in its entirety, is a tribute to the horror genre, particularly horror movies: the entire room leading to it is quiet except for an ambient track, and the scene which introduces it shares lots of qualities with the typical reveal of a horror monster, such as the slow camera pan and the single piano chord that plays afterwards to underscore shock. The Shunned Guy bending over may be a reference to the horror film The Exorcist, which is supported by its internal name, "heiho_exorcist."

The Shunned Guy is also the final opponent in the third Roshambo Temple tournament before the Rock Paper Wizard's appearance.

Another Shunned Guy appears in the kitchen of Tangerino Grill during the commotion caused by Shy Guys, in the shelves next to the sink. Yet another appears in the Sunset Express scaring one of the Red Rescue Squad members. In both appearances, a Shunned Guy can be defeated outside of battle with First Strike attacks, but still retain their invulnerability to Jump and Hammer attacks in battle.