Oddworld/Headscratchers

• I know the Glukkons are greedy, but honestly, there's one more can of Gabbiar eggs left, apparently fertile, and all they can think to do with it is gobble it straight off the bat. Don't they even think to make more Gabbits and thus more Gabbiar? And thus more Gabbits to make more Gabbiar? I mean, most egg-based species only take a month or two to hatch...
  • Look a few headscratchers down the page for a possible answer. If the Gabbiar can were unfertilized eggs and the Glukkons believed that there were no more male Gabbits alive, eating it would be the only possible thing left to do. But the existence of Munch changes everything, if the Gabbits have some form of external fertilization like fishes and frogs, he could transform them in little Gabbits so the species would't die out.
• Why does Sekto call that lizard guy after the Stranger talks to him about getting a Steef head? He offered Sekto one for 20 grand, but Sekto offered the same to the lizard guy, so it wouldn't save any money. So what was the point?
  • Perhaps Sekto trusted the lizard guy (De Caste Raider is his name, apparently), and was worried that the Stranger would try to raise his price down the line.
• Why didn't anyone recognize Stranger as a Steef? It's not like he bothered to disguise his face.
  • Steef were more well known for their horns and four legs. Many of the outlaw bosses comment on this, with Blisterz Booty (or his brother) saying "...whatever the hell you is." in the jail in Gizzard Gulch.
  • Oddworld has thousands of different and bizarre species. Maybe more then one kind of creature on Oddworld has a furry face.
• For the first half of the game, Stranger had his hind legs and rear bound up against his forelegs. This seems incredibly painful -- walking with the entirety of his lower body folded double against him. Mark it down to Bizarre Alien Biology. Or sheer badassery. Or mark it down to a metaphor about the extent that real life people are forced to painfully change themselves in order to conform to society's expectations.
• Why did Abe and Munch go through the trouble of possessing Lulu and increasing his fortune when they just as easily could have had Munch take over one of the higher ranking Glukkons and use him to accomplish their goals?
  • First point, Munch couldn't, because he doesn't have the power of psychic possesion. Clarification made, second point: it seems to be some sort of idelogical thing. Make one completely socially disfunctional Glukkon arise in society is some sort of Take That in the Glukkons faces. And, third and most important point: if you want to make things quick and swift, Munch could've controled a Buzzer, and break into wherever the can of Gabbiar was. Default answer: Plot Induced Stupidity.
  • Besides, in the process of making Lulu rich they bankrupted several glukkon bussines that were damaging the environment. Probably Big Raisin made up this plan to trick Munch into aiding Abe to close the glukkon facilities.
    • Also, they probably didn't know where the Gabbiar was stored.
      • The real reason is that Lulu is a particularly stupid Glukkon who didn't bring guards, letting Abe and Munch steal the Gabbiar from him after winning the auction.
• Why does the Outlaw that captures Stranger make a big deal of the fact that he was the one who captured Blisterz Booty? Wasn't Booty a small fry?
  • Blisterz had an ENORMOUS hideout. It's possible that his bounty didn't reflect how dangerous he was.
  • According to the second September 2011 edition of Dear Alf: "Blisterz Booty was once a member of D. Caste Raider’s clan [a.k.a. the unnamed-in-game Outlaw that captured Stranger], but became ambitious and badass enough to start his own gang. When he got taken out by Stranger, his remaining followers moved back in with Raider. Make sense now?"
• How is it that, although scrabs are depicted both in-game (although it's hard to tel) and in production art as having no eyes, that they can still see abe when he's invisible.
  • since the invisibility runs on magic, we don't know how it works: it's more likely just general concealement.
  • Or, scrabs could work the same way Xenomorphs do. Sense based on movement. Or they could have hyper-advanced sense of smell.
  • The Oddworld library says that "Scrabs are thought to see by echolocation".
• Why were the first several games about how evil Corrupt Corporations were? Which was followed by Oddworld agreeing to be X-box exclusive after a pay-off and then the entire staff being fired after a game was completed?
  • Because the Abe games didn't make enough money for Oddworld Inhabitants to survive without hitching onto one of said "corrupt corporations".
  • Also, the game's aesop is probably more environmentalist than anti-corporative. Rapture Farms extincted the Meeches, after all...
  • Incidentally, this was answered by one of the Alf's Rehab and Tea questions on the old Oddworld Site. It'd be kind of a bitch to find right now, since I'd have to look through severel months of questions to find the right one, but it basically boiled down to: "Let me just say this right now--Oddworld Inhabitants ain't anti-corporate. We need money to feed our families too, and making video games ain't cheap."
  • You may notice the Glukkons don't make video games... and their actions aren't even profitable in anything but the very short run, given that they don't seem to get the idea of farming and just hunt species to extinction (mind you, I'd like to see someone try to tame a Paramite or Scrab). Consider the kind of thoughtless plundering and cruelty in underdeveloped countries that you hear about; Oddworld is an exaggerated parody of such.
• How can Abe and the rest of the Mudokons talk with their mouths stitched?
  • Only Abe's lips are stitched, apparently because he wouldn't shut up back before the game started. Also, only the corners of Abe's mouth are stitched, not all the way across.
  • I thought it was because Abe's stitches became looser as he grew up, and they couldn't be asked to stitch him back up.
• Seeing Gabbiar is, basically, Gabbit's eggs(just as caviar is sturgeon's eggs) and that they're probably produced in captivity, how would those eggs inside the last can of Gabbiar hatch into new little Gabbits? I know it's sad, but let's face it... it doesn't make sense.
  • You're implying that a species of alien frog/fish hybrids most likely have eggs exactly like normal fish eggs?
  • Like Reality Unless Noted, yes. Not only fish, but any other species that have external fecundation(frogs, for instance). Now that i think of it, though, Munch is a male, so... yeah.
    • Like Reality Unless Noted, and it's just been noted. Fish reproduce by external fecundation. Gabbits are not fish. Gabbits are an alien lifeform, and it's unknown how they reproduce. Maybe two Gabbits did have to make love in order to produce the contents of that can.
      • Gabbits are amphybian, so it's not much of a stretch to assume they breed not unlike frogs and newts. It still could work, though, if the Gabbiar is fresh enough to be inoculated.
    • Thinking about it, maybe this could answer the very first question on this page. If the eggs were unfertilized and the Glukkons didn't know there was still a male Gabbit alive...
• How do Glukkons manipulate the environment when they have no arms? They don't appear to use mechs or anything.
  • They pay other people to do it. And they have huge arms; that's what they walk on, with their tiny legs dangling.
  • In Abe's Exoddus at least, all the machines designed to be used by a Glukkon are voice-activated.
• How do the pre-MO Glukkons fit into MO's Glukkon hierarchy? Molluck dresses like a Big Cheese, but his factory employs more than even the Flub Co CEO's, who was a Glockstar. The Junior Executives in the Soulstorm Boardroom look like Wanna-Be's, but so does Aslik, who as the Vice President of Fee Co Depot is clearly above them in rank, though below Phleg and Dripik, who run their own operations. Phleg also dresses like a Big Cheese, but the game strongly implies, judging by Dripik's reaction to the possibility of Molluck returning, that Molluck is all three of Exoddus Big Bad Triumvirate's superior, which makes no sense if Molluck is a Big Cheese. The Brewmaster is even more confusing, as it's never made clear what his position is in the company, only that he dresses like a Wanna-Be. The Glukkons in the AO boardroom dress like Big Cheeses, as well. Also, Word of God has compared Molluck to the manager of a third world meat operation, which would imply more of a Wanna-Be status, and certainly makes one wonder why he would be tried by the Glukkon Queen herself.
  • The classes reflect wealth, not position.
• Also, what is the exchange rate of Moolah to any real world currency? 3,000,000 is apparently enough to get you into the top financial echelons, which would require billions in Real Life. On the other hand, presumably Tex got his Moolah through business savvy or political connections, rather than Lulu's Unwitting Pawn status, and is willing to spend 2,500,000 on fish. Glukkons may be somewhat stupid, but even they would surely not waste their life savings on a can of Gabbiar.
  • It's the last can of Gabbier. Ever. Once it's gone, there would be no more, not without Munch's help. So that one can would be extremely valuable. Also, Lulu probably had just enough to get the can, whereas all the other bidders would be fine after they got the can.
    • Like the last can of anchovies.
  • Also: "3,000,000 is apparently enough to get you into the top financial echelons, which would require billions in Real Life." As far as my rough knowledge of economy goes, the amount of money that's considered "top financial echelons" depends on how much money is there around(in print or credit form). So, sorry for the cluelessness of this comment, but it's not impossible that Moolah does convert to dollar on a rate of a few thousand.
• The Steef Ancestral armor has horns on its helmet(s). For a species that already has horns. Although, now that I think about it, it used to bother me that Stranger had no horns, not even the EVIDENCE of horns, until I realized that the female Clackerz sounded just like the males, and the female natives sounded just like that males... But there isn't a WMG page yet, so I'll just stick this here.
  • The helmet would cover the horns, so some artificial ornamentation would be needed. Also, feel free to start that WMG page... no, wait. I'll take care of that.
    • Got it. Thank you!
• The bad endings in Abe's Oddysee. Why are the mudokons so upset about Abe not rescuing the majority of them? As far as I can tell, no-one else has gone on a rescue mission, so why must Abe rescue at least 50% of them?
  • Cause he killed them instead?
• The bad endings in any Oddworld game. It's not in Abe's character to kill anyone on purpose, so none of the bad endings make sense and make the mudokons look like real jerks, plus in all but Abe's Oddysee there's no reason for them to even occur -- they require a major ass-pull since characters who are in all likelihood ALREADY DEAD are the ones who supposedly apply the bad karma. The bad endings are retribution suitable only for Black.
• Why does Abe drink Soulstorm Brew when he knows that it contains Mudokon bones and tears, and that he isn't as addicted to is as some of the others? Isn't that kind of undermining what he went to do?
  • That is a really good question. The best I can think, although it doesn't work in-story, is that O.I. needed an Applied Phlebotinum and figured it easiest to use the one already there. In-story, maybe this is what Abe thought..
  • Well, it could be the fact that Abe has no ability to tell the difference between fantasy and reality and has far more powerful chants than the average mudokon. Chances are he's 'different' in more ways than one. The second game even makes it look like his ability to resurrect is canon: in the bad ending he bursts into birds upon his death, something that doesn't occur in the first game's bad ending.