Grubba

"Bein' rich an' famous is diggety-dang DYNAMITE!"

- Grubba

Grubba is a Clubba wrestling manager and fight promoter at the Glitz Pit, and a major character in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. A champion wrestler and martial artist in his younger days, Grubba retired as a fighter to become Glitzville's famous fight promoter, over the age of 60 when he meets Mario; he claims to be past his prime, yet Bandy Andy observes him to be in good shape in spite of his years. Initially presented as an uninvolved third party in Mario's battle with the X-Nauts for the Crystal Stars, Mario eventually discovers that Grubba possesses the Gold Star, and had been using it to drain other fighters of their strength. The seemingly affable and avuncular Grubba is revealed as a callous egotist underneath, and Mario fights his enhanced alter-ego Macho Grubba as the ultimate antagonist of the game's third chapter.

Background
By his own account, Grubba was poor in his youth, and did not care for "fancy, big-city ways." He fought his way to becoming a prized martial artist, and in encountering fame and fortune his views began to change. Surviving controversies such as some of his wrestling moves being made illegal, Grubba became a recognized a champion fighter and earned enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life.



At an unknown point in the past, Grubba attained the Gold Star, one of the legendary seven Crystal Stars and one with the ability to increase the user's physical power via Power Lift. Aging and forced to retire, Grubba was content to become a fight promoter at Glitzville, but secretly he harboured a desire to remain fit and powerful, retaining the strength of a champion if only he himself knows it. Grubba began researching into the star to find more potent ways to enhance his strength. He learned how to make a convincing replica of the Gold Star, which he had affixed on the Champ's Belt of the Glitz Pit.

Eventually Grubba's research bore fruit, and he developed a power-draining machine that harnesses the Gold Star to suck the might out of fighters, in order to bestow it onto another. Grubba proceeded to abuse his trusted authority as the arena's promoter to lure promising fighters to the machine, where he drained their essence and used it to grant himself unnatural youth and longevity. He even learnt to power himself more dramatically than with the standard Power Lift, resulting in his transforming into Macho Grubba.

The earliest known victim of Grubba's machine is Prince Mush, a Toad fighter who entered the Glitz Pit as a poor fighter looking to support his family and rose to become its first champion. A huge fan favorite, Mush was distrusted by Grubba - in his words, "Good fighters ain't nothin' to mess with." Mush discovered Grubba's secret, and Grubbba successfully drained the power out of him, absorbing his body into the machine itself. Mush's disappearance went unexplained to the public and entered the circle of mysteries surrounding the Glitz Pit. Sometime afterward, Grubba hired a manager and assistant, Jolene - in truth, Jolene is Prince Mush's older sister and took the job to look into her brother's disappearance. Grubba continued to use the machine regardless, and on one occasion Jolene secretly witnessed his transformation into Macho Grubba. Knowing the monstrous enemy she faces, Jolene lost nearly all hope for her brother's vengeance. Grubba proceeds to drain a large, unknown number of Glitz Pit fighters over the years with his machine, becoming a matter of frequent routine in his doings as the ring's promoter.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Mario and his partners travel to Glitzville as the third location on their quest for the seven Crystal Stars, in order to save Princess Peach from the X-Nauts. The Magical Map detects the Gold Star in Grubba's possession and points them to Glitzville. Mario witnesses the Glitz Pit's champion Rawk Hawk shortly after arriving, and sees the fake Gold Star on his Champ's Belt. The group decide to enter the fighting arena with the intention of winning the belt and extracting the star. Jolene introduces them to Grubba, who signs them as a Glitz Pit fighting team under the ring name, "The Great Gonzales." Mario advances swiftly through the minor leagues, befriending KP Pete and Bandy Andy among other fighters and learning some of the Seven Secrets of the Pit. Towards the end of Mario's minor league run, KP Pete stumbles across Grubba using his machine while looking to announce his retirement. Grubba absorbs most of his energy, and hides his crumpled body on the isolated second floor storage room shortly thereafter. KP Pete is the fifth fighter Grubba had drained that year.

Seeing Mario's progress and determined investigation, Jolene begins to regain hope in her abandoned mission, believing that he might be able to defeat Grubba. She begins sending Mario pseudonymous messages under the pen name "X", leading him to find useful items and uncover secrets of the pits. She has Mario break a wall in the minor league locker room and uncover the Dubious Paper, containing Grubba's early research into the Gold Star - Jolene arrives in person and quickly confiscates the paper. Meanwhile, pleased with Mario's ring performance, Grubba invites him into his office to receive a thirty coin bonus and welcome him to the major-league. While arriving with Jolene, Mario and his party witness Grubba reading something before quickly hiding it in his drawer, leading him to berate Jolene for not knocking. Jolene then takes Mario and his party to the major-league locker room, where they meet Rawk Hawk again. Taking a closer inspection during this confrontation, the group determines that belt star is a fake. The group is at a loss, but Jolene overhears their discussion, and sends them another "X" email promising them the location of the real Crystal Star.

Grubba meanwhile has begun to grow suspicious of Mario and Jolene. Realising that the Dubious Paper has been found, he sends Mario a threatening anonymous e-mail. The party disregards the warning and Mario continues to search. It's around this time that Bandy Andy sneaks into the arena when he believes its empty, and also witnesses Grubba's transformation. Grubba consumes his energy too and hides him along with KP Pete.

Mario and the party continue to follow Jolene's X-instructions, which leads them to overhear her and Grubba discussing reports of noises in the storage room (in reality the groans of the drained fighters). Jolene reports that nothing was found, and Grubba feigns ignorance and suspicion. He uses this as a pretext to bring up her own lengthy disappearances, asking her where she goes and why, and even presses her for knowledge on the Crystal Star, but she gives him satisfactory explanations. Shortly after, Grubba quickly sends another e-mail to Mario, warning him not to pry into matters concerning the Crystal Star lest he meet the same fate as the other missing fighters. Mario investigates the storage room himself not long after, discovering the hidden staircase to the sealed-off second floor and finding the drained KP Pete and Bandy Andy.

Mario eventually clears the major league and defeats Rawk Hawk for the title of champion. The party gains access to the champion's room, where they are clued via an X email to an airduct leading direction to Grubba's office. They spy on Grubba while he muses over his secret machine outloud, examining the blueprints and asking himself whether or not he should make Mario "disappear" next. Grubba stashes his design in the draw and leaves his office, and the group leave the airvent to examine the draw - but Grubba unexpectedly returns to find Mario with the blueprints in hand.

Shocked, Grubba flees immediately to his machine in the empty arena, closely followed by Mario and his party. Furious with Mario for his meddling, Grubba quickly activates his machine and transforms into Macho Grubba, confident that he will be able to defeat the champion. Macho Grubba is ultimately defeated by Mario and transforms back into his normal form. Dazed on the floor, Grubba compliments Mario on his technique as Jolene rushes into the ring. She thanks Mario for his efforts and explains her involvement in the affair. Jolene turns to Grubba and demands information on Prince Mush's fate. Grubba confesses to his crime, and Mario and the party move to extract the Gold Star from the machine. But before it is removed, the star restores Prince Mush to life. Grubba's final fate is unknown, as neither Jolene nor the party discuss what to do with him and he isn't seen again after his defeat. Jolene takes over Grubba's position as the fight promoter of the Glitz Pit. Both Bandy Andy and KP Pete recover and return to fighting.

Duties as owner of the Glitz Pit
Grubba is the owner and fight promoter of the Glitz Pit, and is responsible for its successful operation as a business. Grubba hires Jolene as a manager to help take care of his duties. Grubba runs a staff of ten guards to monitor backstage areas of the arena, each assigned to watch over a crucial room. Grubba spends much of his time in his office, where he meets with new and promising fighters in person, coordinates with Jolene and speaks to fighters preparing for a match in their locker rooms via intercome — when alone, Grubba consults his secret designs kept in his desk draw. Grubba's affable and charismatic persona proves vital in convincing fighters to sign on, as well as imparting the gimmick or limitation they must respect in each fight in order to climb a rank, such as asking Sir Swoop to "do a triple flip and meow" in his initial match. Grubba also double-duties as the referee and announcer of the Pit, appearing in the ring at every fight to hype up the match to the audience and to declare the winner at its conclusion.

Jolene takes over all of these managerial duties after Macho Grubba's defeat.

Fighting orders
Below is a list of the various orders Grubba gives Mario during his time at the Glitz Pit. Mario and the party are only able to increase their rank in the pit if they win a fight while following an order; if they win but fail to maintain the gimmick, or lose but keep it up, they remain in place and fight the same opponent again. If the party loses AND fails to keep the order, they are forced to fight a lower-ranked fighter, and can be forced down a rank if they lose that match. Most of the time the order will be chosen via random number generation, a process open to save & load manipulation. For Mario's first battle, the order is preset to appeal to the crowd at least once. For Mario's final battle (with Rawk Hawk), Grubba's order is to use special move, but this is actually unnecessary and Mario will rise to the champion spot regardless if he wins.


 * Use a special move at least once.
 * Don't use any special moves.
 * Don't jump.
 * Don't use the hammer.
 * Don't use items.
 * Appeal to the crowd at least once.
 * Appeal to the crowd at least three times.
 * Only Mario can attack.
 * Only Mario's partner(s) can attack.
 * Take damage at least three times.
 * Take damage at least five times.
 * Wait three turns before attacking.
 * Don't swap partners.
 * Defeat your foe in 5 turns or less.
 * Win before taking 20 HP of damage.
 * Don't use FP.

Abilities
As a young fighter, Grubba claims to have had many powerful moves, some of which were made illegal after he used them. As Macho Grubba, Grubba wields a range of standard wrestling moves, including clotheslines and slams.

Physical appearance
Clubba has the standard physical features of his Clubba species, but with an unusual blue colour scheme that overtly resembles Tubba Blubba, the giant Clubba boss of the third chapter of Paper Mario. Like Tubba, Grubba has pale blue skin, a purple shell with yellow trim and fiery orange hair, and also like Tubba he carries no mace. Grubba's lips are large and orange like the rest of his species. He is the only known Clubba to ever wear clothing; a green waistcoat and jacket, small round sunglasses and a trilby. Grubba loses the trilby and waistcoat on becoming Macho Grubba, and the jacket only barely fits his increased size.

Personality
On the surface, Grubba is a charming promoter, balancing a good-natured humour and affable Texan mannerisms with professionalism towards his job. Beneath that, he is ruthless and self-absorbed, willing to destroy other's lives purely to sustain his vain self-image as a strongman. Goombella is able to see through Grubba on their first meeting, describing him as a "super-greasy smooth talker" and not necessarily trustworthy. The young Grubba was seduced by the glamour of fame and championship, and on discovering the Gold Star's powers he began his mad actions to keep himself important. A shrewd businessman, Grubba was naturally paranoid about his secrets being uncovered, and took lengthy measures to cover his tracks. Several fighters, including the three known examples of Prince Mush, KP Pete and Bandy Andy, were all drained by Grubba chiefly to silence them after stumbling on his secret.

In spite of this aspect of his character, Grubba's first love was ultimately the sportsmanship of prizefighting and wreslting. Grubba's encouragement of his fighters as the Glitz Pit's promoter stemmed from genuine enthusiasm, and his excitement for rising stars such as Mario was authentic. Defeated by Mario while in his strongest state, Grubba only commends his defeater on his martial prowess.

Quotes

 * For a full list of quotes, see here


 * “Who 'n tarnation 're you, son? Who let you in?!? This is Grubba's office!”
 * “Yup! That's me, Grubba!”
 * “What's that, now? An athlete, huh? Ya wanna become a fighter?”
 * “Hooo–weee! I guess that do change a thang or two, son!”
 * “When I was just a poor pup, I didn't give a Pokey's patoot for fancy, big–city ways!”
 * “Bein' rich an' famous is diggety–dang DYNAMITE!”
 * “One day, you'll look back on all them small–dreamers 'n LAUGH!”
 * “Wait a diddly–darn minute there!”
 * “Boy howdy, Gonzales! Fixin' for a fight, huh? Well, alrighty then!”
 * “Well, dog my cats! It's the Great Gonzales!”
 * “First to enter the ring... The Feral Nuclear Reactor! RAAAAAWWWK HAAAAAWWWK!”
 * And now for our challenger... The Merciless Executioner... The GRRREAT GOOONZALES!!!”
 * “I'll tell you what I saw, folks… A whuppin'!”
 * “Maybe I'm ol'-fashioned, but I care about my fighters, darn it!”
 * “I gotta say... Y'all are a coupla slack-jawed idiots, sniffin' 'round my business...”
 * “Now that you know my big secret, I'm afraid yer gonna have to take a li'l ol' dirt nap!”

Tattle data

 * "That's Grubba, the Glitz Pit promoter. He talks a good game... a little TOO good. Then again, I guess promoters kinda HAVE to be super-greasy smooth talkers. Besides, it doesn't matter if he's trustworthy. We have to deal with him to be champs."

Trivia

 * Grubba and Tubba Blubba from Paper Mario share many similarities. Beyond the aforementioned shared species and appearances, both characters serve as the third chapter boss fight of their respective game. In his Macho Grubba form, Grubba shares the huge size, large powerful arms and spiked shell of Tubba Blubba. Both characters consume or absorb part or all of innocent bystanders - Tubba eats the ghosts of Gusty Gulch, and Grubba absorbs his fighter's strength and even makes Prince Mush disappear into his machine altogether. Lastly, both antagonistic Clubbas guard a dangerous secret that proves key to their unnatural fighting advantage.
 * Grubba is the first in a string of three chapter villains in The Thousand Year door to work independently of the X-Nauts, Shadow Sirens or Shadow Queen, followed by Doopliss and ending with Cortez. Of the three, Grubba is the only one to have no contact with any of them - Doopliss being later recruited into the Sirens and Cortez personally fighting Lord Crump's armada.
 * Grubba is the only chapter villain who directly uses his Crystal Star in the same manner as Mario and the Party, boosting his own stats in the same vein as the Power Lift special. All other chapter villains either possess a Crystal Star but never use it (Hooktail and Magnus Von Grapple) or only indirectly use it (Doopliss enhances his shape-altering magic with the art aspect of the Ruby Star to transform others into pigs and steal Mario's identity, and Cortez remains a powerful ghost long after his death due to the Sapphire Star's health properties), or simply obstruct the path to it (Smorg).