Pillar John

* Pillar John
* War Terminal

> "Why did i get stuck with this job..."
>
> Pillar John. (Via ToppinBot)

**Pillar John** is an enemy in Pizza Tower, and an element in gameplay. Attacking or running into him will trigger Pizza Time.

## Description

Pillar John is a large purple pillar bearing a tired expression. He has yellow ringed pupils in his black eyes, a distinguished wrinkly forehead, a large nose and eyebrows, and an underbite, which hides his teeth. He is also slightly bandaged and cracked.

He has a different appearance in The Crumbling Tower of Pizza. His body is far more damaged, having deep cracks and being covered in pizza toppings, as well as having missing teeth and eyes devoid of pupils. He also has his small orange hat on his head. This doesn't have a defeat sprite, instead using the same sprite when killed.

It is unknown what exactly Pillar John is or how he was created, but he is heavily tied with the entrance gate to each level. As said by Pizza Tower Guy in a Discord discussion, "The lore explanation is that the gates are like portals to pocket dimensions, and what keeps the portal connected is the pillar you destroy in each level". He seems mostly displeased with this role, as shown in his mostly grumpy expressions and his Toppinbot quote.

## Behaviour

Pillar John stays in place at the end of most levels, doing nothing. Killing him starts Pizza Time. Pillar John also increases combos.

## Appears in

*Pillar John appears in every level, excluding WAR and bosses.*

## Backstory

According to an official source, John and Gerome are brothers. The duo took care of the tower until one day, Pizzaface placed a curse upon John, turning him into a multitude of giant, hive-minded pillars. He was forced to hold the portal gates open forevermore, with Gerome stuck as the tower’s only janitor. The hat-wearing Pillar John from The Crumbling Tower of Pizza is the original John, worn and torn over years of neglect.

After Peppino and company escape and destroy the tower, he returns to the remains of the tower, where a dead John's crumbled remains are seen. Alongside the defeated Pizzahead, Gerome silently mourns the loss of his brother, cap in hand and hand to heart.

However, if the player has collected all of the Tower’s Secret Treasures, they will fly out of Peppino and into the dead John. The treasures bring John back to life and to his original form, in which he gains limbs and pants. Pizzahead gets back up completely unscathed, but John uppercuts him, sending him off into the horizon. The brothers, now reunited, happily celebrate as Peppino gives a confused and anxious smirk.

After collecting all the treasures and resurrecting John, the save file on the file select will show a stamp of John giving a thumbs up, labeled "John Approved".

## Trivia

* While not possible through normal unmodded runs, Peppibots have the capability to kill Pillar John and start Pizza Time.
* In older demos, namely his first appearance in Preearlytestbulid triggering Pizza Time was done by feeding Pillar John all five Toppins. If John was satisfied, he would allow access to the Tower Secret Treasure, collecting which triggered Pizza Time. Therefore, it was impossible to initiate this stage unless all Toppins were collected.
	+ The same concept was used in Demo 2, but instead of the Tower Secret Treasure, Pillar John would allow access to the Noise Satellite, which activated Pizza Time when destroyed.
* In the Beachandforest build, in any room that Pillar John is in, Meatophobia would start playing. This has since been changed in PT\_Eggplantv15, where it will only play if Pillar John is on screen.
	+ Meatophobia used to only play in the bottom level of Bloodsauce Dungeon, serving as that level's second track.
* Pillar John's name may be a play on Papa John's, a well known pizza restaurant chain.
* Pillar John's statue giving a thumbs up on its way down in the background of The Crumbling Tower of Pizza is likely a parody of T-800 giving the same dying gesture in *Terminator 2: Judgement Day*.
* In Pizza Tower's files, Pillar John is often referred to as "Hungry Pillar". This is a remnant of the earlier demos where instead of destroying Pillar John, you fed him the Toppins you collected.
* Like Fake Peppino, In the lab background of WAR, Pillar John can be seen in a lab tube. This would explain why there are multiple Pillar Johns across the 20 levels in the game.
* In an early version of the game's story, Pillar John was the main antagonist. He would trick the player into feeding him Toppins to make him stronger, and insult Peppino if the player got a low rank in a stage. At the end of the game, he would reveal his true form, that being the Pizza Tower itself, and his boss battle would be similar to the boss fight with Rudy the Clown in *Wario Land 3*.
	+ The giant Pillar John statue in the background of Staff Only's hub may be a reference to this early concept, though this is not confirmed.
* In an April 14th 2018 video, when a level is collapsing, it is given a time limit and Peppino must go to a place where Pillar John is found and feed him five Pizza Boxes instead of Toppins, After feeding him, The time will stop and the level will go back to it's normal state.

## Gallery

### Regular Animations

Johnnew1.gifPillar John's idle animation.New john scared.gifPillar John's scared animation.Johnnewdeath.pngPillar John's defeat sprite.Spr protojohn.pngThe original Pillar John as seen in The Crumbling Tower of Pizza.Brokenjohn.pngPillar John dead after the tower collapses in the normal ending.Spr johnresurrected pillar2.gifResurrected Pillar John, seen in the true ending.Spr johnresurrected pillar3 0.gifResurrected Pillar John noticing Pizzahead.Spr johnresurrected pillar4 0.gifResurrected Pillar John uppercutting Pizzahead into the horizon.Staff only John.pngAn enormous statue of Pillar John, seen in the Staff Only Hub.Staff only John Falling.pngPillar John's statue seemingly being grateful towards the player as it crumbles during The Crumbling Tower of Pizza.Pillaridle.gifPillar John's old idle animation. Seen in the Old Tower secret in the Tower Lobby Hub.
### Old & Scrapped animations

Pillar John Angry Better.gifPillar John with an angry expression when the player gets close to him. Was used in older demos when the player didn't have enough Toppins to feed him. Used as a placeholder defeat sprite in the Blue Block Land build.Pillar John Happy Better.gifPillar John smiling when the player goes away from his vicinity. Was used in older demos when his hunger was satisfied.Pillar John (Knocked Out).pngPillar John's old defeat sprite.Pillar John Mouth Better.gifPillar John opening his mouth to be fed Toppins in older demos.Hungrypillar1.gifPillar John talking.TV John Better.gifPillar John on the old TV HUD, showing up when Pillar John used to talk in the old demos.
### Miscellaneous

Toppin Bot John.pngToppinbot's description of Pillar John on the Pizza Tower Discord.Pillarjohn.pngToppinbot's portrait of Pillar John.PizzaTowerBook 0015 Calque-52.pngPillar John in concept art. Interestingly, Pizza Time seems to have started despite Pillar John being alive, though this may have been made in earlier phases of development.Spr menu approvedjohn.pngJohn approving a save file. Shown in the main menu if John was resurrected in the selected save file.Spr percentstatemenu 7.pngAn icon of John smiling. Replaces the Pizza Boy image in the menu if the selected save file's tower status is 100%.Spr percentstatemenu 8.pngA recolor of the previous image, shown if the tower status is 101%.John Pillar Ending card.pngJohn Pillar partying With Swedish Monkey. Appears in the game's ending for when John is saved.Spr ending cards 8.pngDitto, but with John covered in shade. Shown instead of the previous image if John wasn't saved.

## War Terminal

### First Demo Appearance

PT\_Eggplantv15

**War Terminal** is a level asset in Pizza Tower.

## Description

The War Terminal is a small computer with a keyboard, and a bomb with a face on the screen.

## Behaviour

Upon destroying a War Terminal, it will add 30 seconds of time to the War timer.

## Gallery

Spr wartimer 0.pngThe timer.Spr wartimer font1 0.gifThe numbers.Spr wartimer font2 0.gifThe numbers when destroying the War Terminal.Warterminaldebris1.pngDebris #1, a dead bomb symbol from the screen.Warterminaldebris2.pngDebris #2, a shattered screen frame.Warterminaldebris3.pngDebris #3, a broken chunk of the computer.Warterminaldebris4.pngDebris #4, shards of glass from the screen.Warterminaldebris5.pngDebris #5, broken of keys from the keyboard.
## Trivia

* If you use the debug console to break a War Terminal before starting the War timer by picking up the Shotgun, the War timer will start with 30 seconds.
* War Terminal is called obj\_nuketerminal in the game's files.