Grubba

Grubba is a major character in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. He is a blue Clubba with a purple shell, sunglasses, and a black tuxedo and fedora, with blonde hair. A champion wrestler in his younger days, Grubba became the owner and promoter of the Glitz Pit, and immediately enlists Mario in the fighting roster when he arrives to Glitzville in search of the Crystal Star. Initially presented as an uninvolved third party in Mario's battle with the X-Nauts for the Crystal Stars, it is revealed that he holds a Crystal Star himself, and has been using it to drain power from fighters to keep his body strong.
==History==
===Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door===
Before the events of the game, Grubba was poor in his youth and didn't care for the "fancy, big-city ways". His worldview changed when he became a martial arts fighter. Though some of his moves were made illegal, he was recognized a champion the world over, and earned himself enough money to set him for life. During this time, he would come in possession of a Crystal Star. The details of how he got it are unknown.
Over time, Grubba begins to age, and he is forced to retire from the ring. He soon opens his own fighting ring in Glitzville, called the Glitz Pit, and becomes its promoter. Desiring to regain his youthful body, he develops a machine that uses the Crystal Star as a power source, which has the ability to drain power from one person to another. A Toad named Prince Mush enters the Glitz Pit and becomes champion, though after stumbling upon Grubba's machine, he drains his power. After this, he hires a secretary named Jolene, who secretly takes the job to find the whereabouts of Prince Mush, her younger brother. After witnessing Grubba's use of the machine, she loses hope of avenging her brother.
During the events of the game, Mario and his party arrive at Glitzville in search of the Crystal Star hidden there. They see a replica of it on the Champ's Belt after witnessing Rawk Hawk win it, and mistake it for the real Crystal Star. They enter Grubba's office and sign up to become fighters, and he agrees to the proposition, giving Mario the ring name "The Great Gonzales". As Mario ascends through the ranks, KP Pete accidentally stumbles upon Grubba's invention, so he sucks up his power and hides his body on the second floor of the storage room.
When Mario and co. enter the major league, they determine that the Crystal Star on the Champ's Belt is fake. Allegedly hearing the conversation, Jolene sends Mario an anonymous e-mail as "X", promising to lead him to the Crystal Star. Grubba grows suspicious of Mario as well, and starts sending him threatening e-mails of his own. Around this time, Bandy Andy discovered Grubba's invention as well, and thus his power was drained and hidden in the storage room with KP Pete.
When Mario defeats Rawk Hawk and becomes the Glitz Pit champion, he is given access to the champion's room, and is told by Jolene (as X) to spy on Grubba through the air vents. At this point, Grubba is talking to himself regarding the invention, the missing fighters, his suspicion about Mario and Jolene being onto him, and weather or not he should make Mario disappear as well. He hides the blueprints for his machine in his desk, and leaves his office for a minute. Mario and friends find the blueprints, and confront Grubba. He flees to the ring, and Mario and friends follow him. He then reveals his machine, transforms into Macho Grubba, and aims to take out Mario and suck his power too.
Eventually, Grubba is bested, and congratulates Mario for his victory. Jolene reveals that she was X and how she took the job as secretary to figure out the secrets of the Glitz Pit. She confronts Grubba, asking him the whereabouts of Prince Mush, with his answer being that "he ain't round these parts no more". As Jolene mourns, the Crystal Star manages to revive Mush, and the two siblings reunite. Mario takes the Crystal Star for himself, as Jolene takes the position of the Glitz Pit's promoter. The fate of Grubba after these events are never explained.
==Macho Grubba==
Macho Grubba is the powered-up form of Grubba, which he assumes whenever he drains the power of other fighters with the Crystal Star. He is much larger and more muscular in this form, has orange skin as opposed to blue, and his blonde hair becomes spiky. He also loses his fedora and gains spikes on his shell. Mario battles Grubba in this form after finding the whereabouts of the Crystal Star, and he serves as the boss of Chapter 3.
In battle, Macho Grubba has 60 HP, and his battle is different from any other battle prior. When the battle starts, he gives himself the Fast status ailment, allowing him to attack twice per turn. After this, he will always start his turn by giving himself a status ailment, either increasing Defense, increasing Power, making himself Dodgy, or Charge his next attack by four. He will then use one of three attacks; he walks off-screen before running toward Mario and his partner and jumping on either of them, he performs a backflip and lands on either of them, or runs forward while punching and hitting both of them. Once his Fast effect wears off, the process repeats itself. Interestingly, he is one of the few bosses that Yoshi Kid can swallow with Gulp.
After being defeated, Grubba is reverted back to his normal form, and the drained power is restored to KP Pete, Bandy Andy, and Prince Mush.
==Appearances==
===T.W.O.K.O.===
Macho Grubba appears in T.W.O.K.O. as a fighter, being one of the first characters added after launch. He is a TAGOS character, being more of an assist than anything that can be summoned with enough TAGOS Tokens. He uses attacks directly from his boss battle in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, including the ability to power himself up and give him stat boosts, which can very much turn the match in his favor. His Final Aid involves him pulling out the Crystal Star and giving some of his power to the main fighter, making them larger and allowing them to deal more damage.
==Gallery==
Transparent Grubba.png|Grubba in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
MachoGrubbaTTYD.png|Macho Grubba in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Category:Mario (series)
Category:Mario Characters
Category:Bosses
Category:Villains
Category:Spikes
Category:Professional Wrestlers