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Dingpot, Dingpot by the bench, who is the nicest looking wench?”
Gruntilda, Banjo-Kazooie


Gruntilda "Grunty" Winkybunion is the main antagonist of the Banjo-Kazooie series. She is a wicked witch with magical spells that are capable of doing anything, even going as far as death. She also enjoys rhyming, which really annoys Grunty's three sisters somehow. Gruntilda also keeps her spells in a book named Cheato, who doesn't enjoy Gruntilda's plan of becoming beautiful and decides to help Banjo and Kazooie.

In Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntilda kidnaps Banjo's sister Tooty and plans to steal her beauty so she can be the most beautiful woman in all of Spiral Mountain. Two months later in Grunty's Revenge, she inhabits a robotic form of herself called Mecha-Grunty, and plots to prevent Banjo and Kazooie from ever meeting. Two years later, in Banjo-Tooie, her sisters Mingella and Blobbelda join her in an attempt to restore Gruntilda to her former body.

Banjo-Kazooie[]

Gruntilda winkybunion 10

Gruntilda after being transformed if the player gets a Game Over.

Beauty grunty icon

Beautiful Gruntilda's icon

In the first game, Gruntilda played the role of the stereotypical "evil witch". She spoke only in rhymes and was known for being extremely vain, which is odd considering how ugly she appears. She has a bad habit of picking her nose, as seen in the Banjo-Kazooie intro. Like most witches, she uses a broomstick for transportation. She was also mentioned to have been trained under Mumbo Jumbo, only to turn to dark magic, with Mumbo's skull-like head being the direct result.

When Dingpot revealed that Tooty, Banjo's sister, was the "prettiest and fairest in the land", Gruntilda became infuriated and kidnapped Tooty (however, the manual implies that Gruntilda was already planning on snatching a denizen from Spiral Mountain to steal their beauty to one-up her sister, Brentilda. According to the manual, she was actually deep-down glad that Tooty was prettier than her as it gave her an excuse to subject her as her first test specimen). She selfishly plotted to use a "Beauty Transfer Machine" to drain Tooty's youth and beauty and transfer it to her own ugly self, which would result in Gruntilda becoming pretty and thin but Tooty becoming ugly, fat and green. Banjo and his good friend Kazooie chased the witch through her massive lair, where she had created several worlds filled with her minions and various challenges to stop the duo.

As the pair progressed, Gruntilda shouted rhyming taunts and various insults in an attempt to keep the pair away. But with the help from various sources, including her nicer sister Brentilda who told Banjo and Kazooie interesting secrets regarding Gruntilda, the bear and bird duo were able to complete the worlds and reach Gruntilda's last challenge before rescuing Tooty: a twisted game show called Grunty's Furnace Fun. After the duo won the game show, Gruntilda ran away and Banjo and Kazooie rescued Tooty. Later, the bear and bird journeyed to the roof of Gruntilda's Lair and faced off in a battle with Gruntilda.

Some of Brentilda's comments hint at Gruntilda's past. In particular, she only had a single boyfriend (whom Brentilda pitied for putting up with her), and barely possessed enough intellectual capability to go to a prestigious school (and only won a single competition at the locale outside of appearing on the cover of Fat Hag Monthly, and also had an extremely unflattering nickname during that time), she once led a grundge rock band, she owned a particularly vicious dog, and her best friend was about as revolting in character as her.

The Final Battle[]

Bk spell

Banjo and Kazooie being attacked by Gruntilda in a promotional image.

Despite her comical nature, Gruntilda proved herself to be Banjo and Kazooie's strongest enemy. She spends most of the fight riding her broomstick. During the first phase, she flies down fast and tries to impale Banjo and Kazooie with the teeth on her broom. However, her broom starts to slow down after a few passes (two the first and second time around, three the third time around, and four the fourth time around), leaving her vulnerable to the Rat-a-tat Rap; alternatively, Eggs can be shot at her; all four hits required to progress into the next phase can be achieved consecutively if the player is quick enough to continue hitting her with Eggs. After every successful attack from the player, Gruntilda will attack with an easily dodge-able fireball.

After taking enough damage, she uses a homing spell. Kazooie can protect Banjo from this by using the Golden Feathers, or invincibility from a carefully-timed Beak Buster. After, she starts to hover in place and throw fireballs. In a rare moment, she displays some intelligence when doing this because if the player tries to run away from the fireballs before she fires, Gruntilda will throw them into the player's path. After throwing four fireballs, she will take a short pause (the pause shortens every time she moves from one part of the tower to the next), leaving her vulnerable to three Eggs.

After repeating this process four times, she uses another homing spell which once again will be destroyed if Kazooie uses a Golden Feather. Then, Gruntilda flies high into the air to avoid being shot at, but fortunately Bottles comes to the duo's aid and creates a Flight Pad for them to use. Banjo and Kazooie can hit Gruntilda at any time with the Beak Bomb, or alternatively hover just above her and use the Beak Buster (afterwards you will fall; performing another when closer to the ground will let you avoid taking damage), but it's best to attack her when she's not moving (again, the time she's not moving will shorten every time she's hit). Try not to use the Beak Bomb from above, otherwise you risk falling off the tower to your doom, and try not to use the Beak Buster when she is not hovering in place, either, or you will surely take damage when you land. Every time she's hit, she'll throw fireballs at you (one after the first hit, two after the second, three after the third, and four after the fourth).

After taking another four hits, Gruntilda will create a force field around her that Banjo and Kazooie cannot break through. At this point the Jinjos realize the two of them are in need of their help and intervene by creating four statues around the area. After three eggs are shot into the statues, a Jinjo will fly into the air like a missile and break through Gruntilda's barrier. The witch, however, doesn't remain idle during this time and will continue to attack the pair with fireballs. Unfortunately, Banjo and Kazooie cannot take cover behind the Jinjo statues as Gruntilda's attacks fly through them.

After all four Jinjo missiles fire, Gruntilda's broomstick will break and she will fall to the edge of the tower. She is still standing, however, and her force field still renders her immune to any of Banjo and Kazooie's attacks. At this point a larger statue containing The Mighty Jinjonator appears. This statue has four holes that the player must shoot five eggs into each side. Like the smaller Jinjo statues, the statue provides no cover and Gruntilda's attacks will still pass through it. She is quite possibly at her most dangerous in this phase, partly because she will attack with several consecutive fireballs followed by a homing shot. After each homing shot she will take a short breather, allowing Banjo and Kazooie to shoot eggs into the holes. Once the Mighty Jinjonator is activated, he will attack Gruntilda and knock her off the tower. She then loses her balance, although not before firing one final spell at Banjo and Kazooie in a last ditch attempt at inflicting damage at them, which ended up missing them.

Gruntilda falls off the tower and crashes into the ground. Seconds later, a large falling rock traps her beneath, sealing her first defeat. Banjo, Kazooie and Tooty take a vacation to celebrate, during which Gruntilda's minion Klungo spends two years attempting to remove the enormous boulder and save Gruntilda. Unfortunately, she remained alive and vowed her revenge upon the pair one day.

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge[]

“Although you've smashed my mecha-suit, don't think you've given me the boot. Now I've trapped you on my tower, I'll crush you with my ghostly power!”
Mecha-Grunty, Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge

Ugly old witch ghost

Grunty's Ghost

Grunty's ghost

Two months have passed since Grunty was knocked off her tower in Banjo-Kazooie and she has been perfecting her plan for revenge ever since.

Klungo builds her a mechanical body, aptly called Mecha-Grunty, for her ghost to inhabit. Rather than fighting the duo as the main antagonist in a body of her own, she operates Mecha-Grunty and causes chaos by going twenty years back in time and kidnapping Kazooie. However, after Banjo's first battle with the robotic witch, Kazooie was freed and Mecha-Grunty fled.

Their next battle involved fighting her up above the lighthouse and taking out her mechanical parts one at a time. After her second defeat, Grunty had enough and wanted Klungo to upgrade her up to supreme strength and battle the duo in her lair when it was under construction.

Facing them at the top of her lair, Mecha-Grunty charged at them, fired electric balls, ground pounded, and dropped airborne mines. Even with her body destroyed, she was not ready to give as she used her ghostly power to defeat the duo, which failed. She is beaten once more and returns to her body in the present as well as telling Klungo not to try and remove the rock, and if he insists, he at least contact her sisters Mingella and Blobbelda before continuing, setting the events of Banjo-Tooie in motion.

Banjo-Tooie[]

SkeletonGrunty

Grunty in her skeletal form.

After two years had passed, Gruntilda was suddenly freed from her prison by the sudden appearance of her sisters looks more like a skeleton her two sisters or not Mingella and Blobbelda. Their evil spells levitate and destroy the rock that trapped Grunty. However, they discover that the spell had not only removed the boulder from Grunty's Grave, but (according to the manual) revived her from the dead, withering her into a skeleton. Furious at her new bony body, Gruntilda asked her sisters for help in restoring her. "Mingy" and "Blobby" had already planned for such an event, and the three prepared to leave Spiral Mountain.

Before they did, when Mumbo had wandered out of Banjo's house to find the source of the ruckus caused when Mingella and Bloddelda entered with the Hag 1 digging machine, Grunty chased him and tried to kill him with magic spells. Seeing him enter Banjo's house, she prepares a bigger spell to destroy it and while Banjo, Kazooie and Mumbo escaped, Bottles stayed behind assuming Mumbo was lying and trying to win at their poker game, resulting in him being killed by the blast, which also ruined Banjo's house.

After destroying Banjo's house, the trio of witches used the Hag 1 to reach Cauldron Keep on Isle o' Hags, where Mingella and Blobbelda revealed their B.O.B. machine. It was designed to suck the life out of anything captured in its beam; Gruntilda practiced this on King Jingaling for giving Banjo and Kazooie a Jiggy, reducing him to a zombie. It is also interesting to note that Gruntilda stopped speaking in rhyme at this point (her sisters found it "annoying"). Gruntilda then wanted to use B.O.B. on the whole island, but is informed that it will take time for it to charge up before that can happen.

For the rest of the game, she stays in Cauldron Keep but will usually talk to Banjo and Kazooie whenever they enter a mini-game. They eventually meet her again in Cauldron Keep where she makes an attempt to destroy Banjo and Kazooie with another game show called Tower of Tragedy, this time competing against her two sisters in which the loser would have a 1-ton weight dropped on them. Her plan failed and she ended up killing her two sisters, but because of her temper, declares Banjo and Kazooie's win "invalid due to the faulty scoring equipment".

Not sure of what to do next, Gruntilda takes Kazooie's advice to "escape in a cowardly fashion like in Banjo-Kazooie", and she tells the duo she'll be at the top of the tower, though she of course boasts she will win this time. Sure enough, Banjo and Kazooie found Gruntilda in the Hag 1 waiting for them at the top of Cauldron Keep. Although she had more success the last time she attacked Banjo and Kazooie (she killed two of her allies, but were brought back by reversing the B.O.B.), Gruntilda's revenge plans failed and was defeated yet again, reduced to nothing more than a talking skull. Later, Banjo, Kazooie, Mumbo Jumbo, Humba Wumba and Jamjars use her head as a ball in a game of "Kick Around" and she loses one of her eyes (again) in the process. She swore that she would get her revenge in Banjo-Threeie.

Gruntilda is also a playable character in the multiplayer games Targitzan's Temple Shootout, Ordnance Storage Shootout and Clinker's Cavern Shootout. In these games, Gruntilda is the tank character with her health at a whopping 16 honeycombs, enabling her to endure four Grenade Eggs; however, it comes at the cost of being the largest target and moving the slowest.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts[]

Grunty2

Grunty's new appearance in Nuts & Bolts.

Grunty continues her role as an antagonist in this game as well, and has taken up her annoying rhyming once more. She makes her way back to Spiral Mountain, even though she is still a skull (probably why it took her eight years to get there). A now fattened Banjo and Kazooie challenge her to another showdown, but the Lord of Games pauses the battle and states they shall fight in true Banjo-Kazooie style, by collecting random useless objects. A fat Banjo and bodiless Grunty start to collect the thousands of badges L.O.G. put in front of them, but soon grows impatient of a skull and a fat bear with a fat bird in his backpack running around. He restores Banjo and Kazooie to fighting fit shape and gives them a Magical Wrench, while giving Grunty a robotic form of her original body with a jar for her head and a cat named Piddles. The three characters go to Showdown Town, where Gruntilda tries to stop Banjo and Kazooie from earning Jiggies and returning to Spiral Mountain and fight her once more. She appears in all the levels of the game. In Showdown Town, she treats the time off she has from attempting to beat the heroes as a vacation.

Nutty Acres[]

She appears in Act 3 and she is trying to steal the island's Loco Coco. She carries it away and Banjo must knock it out of her vehicle. This is not a difficult challenge as the coconut is not secured. Beating the challenge earns the bear and bird high grip wheels for the trolley in Showdown Town. Use the fulgore fist!

LOGBOX 720[]

Grunty attempts to send Piddles to contaminate the glubber tank (forcing Bottles to shut down the LOGBOX 720) but first offers a race in Act 3. When Banjo wins, Grunty must stop her plan. Grunty races in the water and Banjo on land and the race is several laps long. The prize for this victory are the floaters and a small propeller. After she is defeated, go down the pink pool to find two passages, one containing notes and the other nothing.

Banjoland[]

The witch tries to cause a ruckus in the museum with her new bouncing vehicle in Act 4. Banjo must destroy it before she gets away. Freezing her is a good strategy because she is hard to hit. The part earned here is the spring so the trolley can jump.Most of the trapdoor towers can be reached!

Jiggoseum[]

Grunty appears in two acts in this world. In Act 4, she flooded the stadium and Banjo must beat her challenge of knocking beach balls into the goal. Then he gets the scuba seat in Showdown Town. In Act 5, she tries to destroy the billiard balls with a laser, so Banjo must keep them safe. He gets a laser for his trolley if he wins.

Terrarium of Terror[]

Grunty attempts to destroy the foliage in Act 5 with her invisible flying vehicle. Banjo destroys the UFO and earns a horn. If the invisibility device is destroyed first, the challenge is easier.The device is a chameleon. It is easy to defeat her if you purchase the Clockwork Kazooie part from Humba's Shop

Spiral Mountain[]

Grunty's plan for Spiral Mountain is revealed. She plans to industrialize Spiral Mountain, turning it into Grunty Acres. Grunty unleashes her five strongest vehicles in her final challenge. The first is a monster truck that is very fast. Then she drives a boat in the lake. After that, she pilots another invisible vehicle, fortunately however, it cannot fly. Then she uses an immobile impenetrable fortress to attack. Finally, she pilots a very fast airborne broomstick. After this is defeated, Grunty tries to assault the heroes, but L.O.G. intervenes again and tells her she lost the challenge, Spiral Mountain and her freedom. As such, the witch is sent to work in the videogame factory, she is shown busily working in the factory while Piddles bosses her around, however, right before the game cuts to credits, she cackles and states it was a mistake to bring her here, plotting to create her own video game (implying that she intended to lose in order to gain access to LOG's factory, or perhaps realised after her loss that she could use this to her advantage).

Physical appearance[]

Gruntilda's overall appearance resembled a stereotypical witch, with green-colored skin, gold-colored eyes, and dark-colored hair as well as dark witch robes with lighter interiors, and a purple scarf with differing-shaded zebra patterns and matching stockings, and mary janes, as well as a witch's hat. She also was shown to be significantly obese (although not nearly to the extent of her sister, Blobbelda), and had an immensely long chin and a similarly long nose (the latter also featuring prominent warts on them). Probably her most notable characteristic, however, is her asymmetric eyes, where her right eye is fairly normal, while her left eye is left in a perpetual squint (her trademark squint was implied in Banjo Tooie to be the result of a misshapen skull). The exact reasons for her seeming obesity have conflicting accounts: Although she implies in one of her taunts in her lair that she became obese from overeating, her appearance in Banjo Tooie, where she was depicted as a liche, depicted her with largely the same overall shape and even prominently featured her ribcage on the outside, implying that she was actually "big-boned."

Her appearance in Banjo Tooie was largely similar, although with some differences. Aside from the most obvious difference where she is reduced to a skeleton, her robes are now blue and purple, instead of black and red, and overall appearing tattered (with her witch hat even being slightly bent and having shorter sleeves).

In Nuts & Bolts, thanks largely to the stipulation behind the Lord of Games' having them compete with each other, her "body" is composed of a glass tank containing her skull as well as a hose that presumably fed nutrients to the skull, a mechanical witch's hat up top, and her body from the shoulders down largely resembled her original appearance, only with the addition of a slight silk frill near the lower part, as well as her mary janes being replaced with elf shoes. The clothes also have some stitches attached to them.

In the game over sequence for the original game, Gruntilda's appearance after swapping around her and Tootie's respective physical appearances has her being significantly slimmed down, being given a petite yet busty appearance, with her dress shrinking to a great extent, as well as her possessing dress shoes with no socks. Her hat and purple striped scarf vanish for some reason. Her face also has her nose shrink down significantly, and her eyes are changed from yellow to red, with her eyes also being rendered symmetrical. Her skin, while still green, was also of a slightly fainter complexion than in her ugly form. She implies in one of her taunts that this was actually her original form.

Personality[]

Like the rest of the characters in the series, Gruntilda has a very comical personality and often breaks the fourth wall. While possessing high intelligence and a sarcastic wit, Gruntilda is very arrogant and overconfident, never expecting Banjo and Kazooie to overcome all the trials and challenges placed before them. However, even though she's comical, she is nonetheless very evil and has never shown any form of kindness or concern for anybody or anything, even her own sisters. She is shown to be very power hungry and sadistic, hurting others for simply having a carefree and kind nature and longing to rule over the Isle' of Hags. Aside from the plan she had to take Tooty's beauty away in the first game, her evil nature is also shown in her abuse of her minions throughout the game as well as her abductions of the Jinjos.

In the first game, Gruntilda had a fairly typical witch personality with her goal of being the best looking and trying to stop Banjo and Kazooie from interfering with her evil plans. Her exact views on her physical appearance prior to learning of Tooty's existence are unclear. In the beginning of the game, she boasts that she "stands out in a crowd" regarding her looks when getting confirmation that she's "the nicest-looking wench", and was a reader for and even once made the cover for "Fat Hag Monthly", yet during preparations for activating the Beauty Transfer machine, she admits to Klungo that she's sick and tired of being "an ugly witch," and the manual implies that at the very least, she was aware of her lack of beauty compared to Brentilda. She is also shown to be responsible for the numerous misfortunes of the countless lands she has taken over, and has spread much chaos and suffering with her army of monsters. During her taunting of Banjo and Kazooie as they make their way through her lair, she says "When I'm nice and slim once more, burgers, fries, and chips galore!", implying that she is a glutton. Gruntilda's habit of rhyming was intentionally just to annoy the player, something the second game points out. When she becomes a pretty and thin witch after stealing Tooty's beauty and turning her into a monster in the Game Over segment, Gruntilda becomes more confident, happy and proud, eager to show off her newfound beauty to the world.

During the second game, Gruntilda is overall much more evil and sadistic, though she is still just as comical. She is forced to stop rhyming (because her sisters won't help her get her body back if she doesn't stop) and actually murders several characters, including an entire family of ten Jinjos, and her own two sisters in cold blood after they failed to stop Banjo and Kazooie. Klungo himself would be viciously beaten and tortured by Gruntilda throughout the entirety of the game despite being her most loyal follower and planned to have him fed to a monster, but due to Klungo switching sides and deserting his sadistic boss, he avoids this grim fate. As noted above, she is also not above murdering her sisters simply because they lost in a game show against Banjo and Kazooie, though despite this, she seemed to still have some degree of respect for them, as she made no attempt at resuming rhyming afterwards despite their deaths obviously no longer obligating her to adhere to that stipulation. Oddly enough, despite creating the beauty transfer machine and trying to steal Tooty's beauty specifically to one-up her sister Brentilda in the looks department, she never seemed to consider actually using the machine on Brentilda at all.

Her aim is also considerably more fiendish in that she wanted to use B.O.B. to suck the life from all of Isle O' Hags to restore her body, which would of left countless living creatures as undead entities devoid of any life or energy. Due to Banjo and Kazooie foiling her plans and burying her under a rock, she holds a strong grudge against them and has a hunger and appetite for vengeance against them, which she greatly relishes in the final battle against the pair. Despite this, she takes them just as lightly as she did in the first game, presumably due to her having so much more technology and numbers on her side, leading to yet another defeat. She does ultimately have some degree of honor, however, as during her final battle in Tooie, she states that when giving them quiz questions during the various phases of attack right before the Hag 1 was permanently shut down, she'll go easy on Banjo and Kazooie if they answer her questions correctly, and kept her word when they did, using slow-moving spells. However, her angered reaction when learning that they answered a question correctly implies that she felt bound to honor her word whether she liked it or not. On a related note, she also seems to have some distaste for cheat codes, as inputting them too many times will have Gruntilda proceed to erase the save pak for the game while expressing disgust for Banjo doing such. In addition, despite her less than stellar hygiene practices (notably picking her nose in the beginning of the original game), she ironically has some distaste for Banjo going through filth, as after Banjo went through Loggo the toilet in Mad Monster Mansion, she demanded that he wash his hands immediately, while expressing disbelief that Banjo actually went down there. Based on her attempt at denying that her last name was Winkybunion after she inadvertently admitted it was her last name and her demanding, despite planning to kill Banjo and Kazooie anyway, that they not tell anyone that was her last name or else she'll sue them, she did not like her last name at all.

In Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, her rise to power prior to Banjo-Kazooie is explained while the villain herself is shown to display a considerably more evil and intelligent demeanor. Her plans include abducting Kazooie and going back in time to alter history to erase her defeat and regain control of the island and resume her original plans. The game shows that prior to Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntilda abducted the Jinjos, seized control of their home to construct her lair, enslaved others, and stole the Jiggies from Master Jiggywiggy to exert her control over the lands she took over. Unusually, she does show a small degree of compassion in that game, as after being defeated by Banjo yet again and having her ghost forcibly reunited to her still trapped body, she tells Klungo not to bother moving the boulder even for her sake, since it won't bulge, at least not before contacting her sisters to help.

It is additionally shown that the witch built up her army into huge numbers by heavily recruiting other monsters and beasts from the island. Her main objective is to round up all bears and birds and eradicate them entirely to ensure Banjo and Kazooie never exist, thus changing history to where Gruntilda would've never been defeated and her rise to power remaining unopposed. Gruntilda's plans in this game took a much more strategic approach as her operations were laid out more carefully and she craved simple power and control. In addition, she also wanted to continue her original plans of obtaining beauty once Banjo and Kazooie were taken care of.

In Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, she displays a high level of intelligence, as she built the Gruntbots who assist her and the vehicles she uses. Unlike previous games, Gruntilda does not value upgrading her personal appearance, as she seems quite fond of her new mechanical body, but to solely have Spiral Mountain once again in her grasp and become its ruler. She was also shown to at least be smart enough to use potential setbacks and turn them into victories on her part, as implied by her claiming she now has access to the resources to make her own game despite being forced to work at LOG's factory upon losing to Banjo and Kazooie.

Powers and abilities[]

Gruntilda is a powerful witch, possessing a large amount of magical powers, like covering herself in an almost impenetrable forcefield, casting illusions, and many destructive spells, like fireballs, homing energy projectiles, or even spells capable of destroying buildings. She also attempted to curse Banjo and Kazooie in the ending, although this failed at the last moment. In Grunty's Revenge, aside from using Mecha Grunty, she also was able to split her soul into three to confuse her opponents. In Banjo Tooie, her spells were also lethal enough to kill people upon contact.

Besides her magical abilities, she is also extremely intelligent, capable of building and operating technology efficiently. It was implied that the Beauty Transfer machine was developed by her, and in addition, she was shown piloting the Hag 1 (although it was implied that she frequently consulted a manual in that case), and had modified her podium in the Tower of Tragedy in the event that Banjo somehow won the game show as a means to escape. In addition, during Nuts & Bolts, because of the stipulation regarding their participating in Lord of Games' contest forcing her to not use her magic, she compensated for this by building various mechanical robots made in her image as well as various vehicles to fight Banjo and Kazooie with. Although she does seem to need some help at times, whether it is Mingella and Bloddelda explaining their B.O.B. machine, Klungo building contraptions and creating monsters on her behalf, or preferring to use a manual when operating her Hag 1 digger.

Gruntilda proved to be immortal and impossible to kill. She has survived multiple sharp blows by her enemies, falling stories into the ground, left buried under a rock for two years, and having her skeletal body completely destroyed, reducing her to a head. On a similar note, she apparently was immune to the mustard gas and cyanide flavored toxic gas fumes due to her not taking any additional damage from the gas when she unleashed it, though due to her undead status, it is unclear whether this immunity was natural for her.

She also has some ability to tamper with the save file as displayed if the player uses the sand castle too much where she will delete the entire save file.

Quotes from Tower of Tragedy[]

Intro[]

  • "Thank you, thank you... I'm Grunty, your host, and may I welcome you to my Tower of Tragedy quiz! Let me run the rules for you all. There are three rounds of general knowledge questions, and the person with the lowest score at the end of each round will be eliminated! Correct answers score 2 points, with 1 point being awarded if it was a second guess following the incorrect answer from another contestant. Get one wrong and I'll take 2 points off you! Press B to buzz in and then A to answer if you can. Now let's meet tonight's victims, err...I mean contestants, shall we?"
  • "Introducing on the left...It's my gorgeous, slim sister, Mingella!"
  • "On the right we have...my lovely, err...shapely sister, Blobbelda!"
  • "And in the middle...just some loser bear called Banjo."

When playing Tower of Tragedy[]

  • "Welcome. It's my Tower of Tragedy "Just for Fun" quiz round 1. Do you need the rules?"
  • "Fair enough."
  • "Not bad."
  • "You know-it-all."
  • "A lucky guess."
  • "Hmm...okay."
  • "I'll accept that."
  • "Well, it was 50/50..."
  • "I'll give you 1 point."
  • "1 point, I suppose..."
  • "Only 1 point though."
  • "About time too."
  • "Scavenger!"
  • (If you fail to answer) "What about the rest of you?"
  • (If you fail to answer) "Any other takers?"
  • (If you fail to answer) "I'll have to offer it..."
  • "Missed your chance..."
  • "Buzzer broken, huh?"
  • "You fool! Anyone else?"
  • "Dunce! Anyone else?"
  • "You half-wit! Anyone else?"
  • "Thicko! Anyone else?"
  • "Numbskull! Anyone else?"
  • "You plank! Anyone else?"
  • "No, no, no, you idiot."
  • "That was easy..."
  • "Yippee! Wrong again!"
  • "No, no, no, you idiots!"
  • "I'm surrounded by morons..."

Endings of the rounds[]

  • "That's the end of round 1. Looks like my sister Blobbelda is as thick as her waist, and her score of (any low score number) is as low as her IQ. Here's your consolation prize, Blobby..."
  • "That's the end of round 1. It seems that my sister Mingella has set a new standard of dumbness, with a hopeless score of (any low score number). Time to say goodbye, Mingy..."
  • "That's the end of round 2. It seems that my sister Mingella has also been beaten by that useless bear. Time to say goodbye, Mingy..."
  • "That's the end of round 2. Looks like my sister Blobbelda has also failed to beat that dumb bear. Here's your consolation prize, Blobby..."
  • (In the event of a tie in Round 1) "Oh goody. Round 1's ended in a draw. So I'll just unfairly select a loser at random. I choose... [random name]!"
  • (In the event of a tie in Round 2) "Excellent. It's a draw after Round 2, so I'll just unfairly select a loser at random. I choose... [random name]!"
  • (If Banjo loses in Round 1) "That's the end of round 1. As expected, it's the dunce bear who's last, with a loser's score of (any low score number)."
  • (If Banjo loses in Round 2) "That's the end of round 2. Your luck's run out, furface. I'm pleased to say you lost."
  • (If Banjo fails Round 3) "That's the end of the final round. Look at the bear's score, everyone. Isn't it pathetic? I declare me the winner!"

Grunty's Nicknames[]

This article/section is incomplete and may require expansion or completion.
You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to expand it.

Kazooie (and to a lesser extent Banjo) has also called Gruntilda by several nicknames:

  • Wart Brain
  • Winky
  • Grunty

Additionally, Brentilda indicates her nickname in Witch School was one of the following:

  • Cauldron Butt
  • Jelly Belly
  • Hog Breath

Similarities to other witches[]

Gruntilda's personality and actions resemble those of evil witches and other characters in fictional works. Her reason for kidnapping Tooty for her beauty is similar to the Evil Queen's motives in the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (with the only significant difference being that Gruntilda merely sought to steal Tooty's beauty while the Evil Queen sought to murder Snow White to avoid having her as a rival.), and her first lines in the game were even a parody of the Queen's famous "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?". Ironically, in the Walt Disney adaptation, the Witch falls to her doom and gets crushed by a boulder as does Gruntilda at the climax of the final battle from the first game (though unlike Gruntilda, the Queen does die). They also both have a beautiful and ugly form (although the Queen's beautiful form and Gruntilda's ugly form are their true forms, though Grunty's taunts about eating burgers, fries and chips after stealing Tooty's beauty implies her beautiful form was her original form.). Her tendency to speak in rhyme was also taken in part from the Evil Queen, particularly in her hag form. She also bears resemblance to the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its adaptations. On a similar note, Gruntilda's trademark asymmetrical eyes may have been a subtle reference to how in the original book, the Wicked Witch of the West was missing an eye. Coincidentally, part of Gruntilda's surname contains "Winky", which was also the name of the Wicked Witch of the West's implied race in the MGM adaptation. A notable difference, however, is that Gruntilda is implied to be unaffected by water for the most part (especially in Banjo-Tooie where she was in a torrential downpour and wasn't affected at all) while the Wicked Witch of the West was ultimately killed via water being splashed on her as a result of it being a solvent to her. Finally, her use of a cauldron and her two wicked sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda, resemble the wicked witches from William Shakespeare's Macbeth. According to Gregg Meyles, Gruntilda was in part modeled after Grotbags, a character from the British children's TV series Emu's World.[1]

Voice actor[]

Gruntilda's vocal effects are provided by Chris Seavor, who also provides the voice of title character Conker the Squirrel in Rare's adult-oriented platformer Conker's Bad Fur Day, as well as almost all male characters in the game, with the exception of the The Great Mighty Poo, who is voiced by Chris Mallow, in addition to Star Fox characters Peppy Hate and Slippy Toad in the Rare developed Star Fox Adventures. Gruntilda's vocal effects varied slightly: Her default appearance was composed of screeches, while her game over appearance had sultry "oohs" and "ahhs" being utilized. Although she retained her screeching effects for her vocals overall in Tooie, they were slightly modified to have an echo to them due to her undead status in the game.

Trivia[]

  • All of Gruntilda's sisters have appeared in only one game so far: Brentilda has appeared in only Banjo-Kazooie while Mingella and Blobbelda have appeared in only Banjo-Tooie.
  • Gruntilda does not rhyme in Banjo-Tooie as a condition to enlisting her sisters' help, even after she kills them in her Tower of Tragedy quiz. She starts the game rhyming until the point where the three witches start to steal King Jingaling's life-force.
  • On the box cover of Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntilda has a red ring on her left ring finger, but she has no ring in game.
  • Gruntilda seems very fond of game shows as she hosts three of them at the end of Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie and Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge. However, L.O.G. replaces her as the game show host in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
  • In Project Dream, Gruntilda was intended to be a giant instead of an evil witch. (This may be referenced on the box art of Banjo-Kazooie as her size has been increased dramatically from the game itself).
  • She is the only boss to take longer than any other bosses in Banjo-Kazooie.
  • Gruntilda has been relying more and more on technology and less and less on magic as time went by, as proven in Banjo-Tooie, where she needed B.O.B. to suck the life force out of the island and where she used the Hag-1 for most of her battle with Banjo and Kazooie. This is also proven in Nuts and Bolts, where she claims to have created the Gruntbot minions on her own and uses vehicles like Banjo and Kazooie to fight them in her challenges. Though she has a robot body, this was provided by L.O.G., so she had a fighting chance against Banjo and Kazooie. She also uses a life transfer machine in Banjo-Kazooie and, although built by Klungo, she needs a Mecha-Grunty suit in Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge.
  • Gruntilda's last spell before being knocked over by the Jinjonator was originally supposed to hit Banjo and Kazooie and turn them into a frog, resulting in Mumbo Jumbo trying to restore them to normal. It was cut out of the final version due to time constraints.
  • She would put on sunglasses in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
  • Her appearance is similar to that of the Looney Tunes character Witch Hazel.
  • She shares a similarity to the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, as they share very similar defeats. Both fall off a mountain and are crushed by a boulder.
  • During one of her taunts throughout her lair in the first game, she says "When I'm nice and slim once more, burgers, fries, and chips galore!". In actuality, under British terms, fries and chips are actually the same thing (Chips being the British equivalent of fries), with potato chips in Britain actually being Potato Crisps, so her line should be "When I'm nice and slim once more, burgers, chips, and crisps galore!", as Rare is a British company; However, this could've been done to not cause confusion in countries like the US where Chips and Fries are different.
  • In the Japanese versions of the first game, instead of showing her to be rhyming in her dialogue, she is instead given a stereotypical (and exaggerated) old woman's drone. On a similar note, the Japanese version tones down her more spiteful reaction towards Tooty being more beautiful than her slightly, with her final line when departing being changed from her saying "Well, we'll see about that!" to her calling her broomstick to accompany her to Spiral Mountain and investigating whether the claims were indeed true.
  • Oddly enough, when fighting Banjo and Kazooie in Banjo-Tooie, she still speaks normally, despite the fact that her sisters' deaths no longer had her obligated to stop speaking in rhyme. She does, however, return to her trademark rhyming dialogue in Nuts and Bolts.
  • In Grunty's Furnace Fun, her favorite smell would be one of the following: Putrid Parrot Puke, Smelly Gorrilla Feet or Freshly Burst Boils. But in Banjo-Tooie, during the final battle when Grunty releases the toxic gas, she says "MMMM, cyanide and mustard gas flavor. My favorite!", which makes a little controversy about her favorite smell. Although the latter could just be meaning her favorite type of poison gas.
  • Gruntilda Winkybunion appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a background character. She is featured with her original green skin as in the first game and is seen on Spiral Mountain flying along on her broomstick around the mountain in circular patters. In addition, Gruntilda's Spirit can be obtained. It is a Support Spirit, has a rarity of four stars (Legend class), requires a Primary Spirit with all three slots to use, and its ability allows the player to greatly increases their power, defense, and speed through poison, rather than take damage (a subtle reference to Gruntilda's durability in the games). In Banjo Kazooie's debut trailer "Best Friends", King K. Rool in the ending of the trailer is seen falling down a cliff and causing a crater in his shape only for a boulder to fall down on top of the crater, referencing Gruntilda's defeat in the first game.
    • On a similar note, her appearance in Ultimate is the first time she used her original skin since Banjo-Pilot.
  • Gruntilda's name is a reference to the series composer Grant Kirkhope, who at times would be referred to as "Grunt" instead of Grant. Her surname Winkybunion is based off British slang for penis and wart, respectively, in contrast to the game's E Rating by the ESRB, as well as the fact that the development team would occasionally refer to Steve Mayles as "Winky Boy".[2]
  • Despite being immensely vain about her physical appearance, she ironically has no qualms using terms that had a negative connotation in regards to herself, such as referring to herself as a wench in the beginning of the game (as Wench is a 13th century term that, while technically meaning girl or woman, generally has the connotation of a prostitute).
  • According to the manual for Banjo-Tooie, she is the eldest between herself, Mingella, and Blobbelda.
  • In the Japanese version of Banjo-Tooie, the ending scene where Gruntilda's head is used as a ball during a game of "kick around" was censored to have them kicking a sack (though it containing Gruntilda's skull was still implied), due to the events of the Kobe child murders that occured at the time (with one of the victims being decapitated).
  • Gruntilda's motivation for abducting Tooty was given a subtle reference in Conker's Bad Fur Day with the boss character Buga the Knut. When his girlfriend Jugga informs Buga that Conker has "a bigger bone" than Buga, the latter gets angry and promptly attacks Conker over the slight, especially when he claimed to have the biggest bone in existence. Not only is both Conker's Bad Fur Day and Banjo-Kazooie made by Rareware and Nintendo, but as noted above, Buga the Knut and Gruntilda also share the same voice actor.
Language Name Meaning
Japanese グランチルダ Guranchiruda
Spanish Gruñona (BK)
Juanetes (BT)
Guiñajuanetes (BKGR)
Winkybunion (BKNB)
Grumpy
Bunions
Winkbunions
-


See also[]

Other sisters[]

Gallery[]


References[]

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