#also some professor Goomba keeps interviewing him and prodding him like he wants to study the Crystal Star's effects on his brain

[turquoisephoenix]

You mentioned that you think after Grubba gets out of jail he has an uneasy friendship with Prince Mush. Do you think you could elaborate on that some? Like what do their interactions look like? Just curious as to how you think a murderer and a revived victim of his would act as friends

Okay, this one might be a little long, takes a bit of setting up, and involves some headcanons.

And I will emphasize that the relationship is "uneasy" and they're not exactly inviting each other to watch movies or anything. Grubba should be thankful that Prince Mush even wants to speak to him and give him occasional updates on how the Glitz Pit is running, at his request, while he's sitting in jail and later under house arrest (albeit a cozy house arrest at his tacky rodeo clown of a home, but he has to do it all with an ankle monitor).

Prince Mush is just something of a saint, very mellow, and extremely forgiving. He's just a bit of a wide-eyed shonen protagonist fueled by the power of friendship.

To explain why Prince Mush is so understanding where Grubba was coming from with his most terrible actions, both Prince Mush and Grubba have similar backstories - they were originally from poor backgrounds but then climbed their way to the top to become champion fighters.

This leads me to believe that Prince Mush grew up as a fan of Grubba. Especially since I made Grubba the type of fighter that had a LOT of merchandising and star appeal thanks to some rather aggressive contracts by his fight promoter/agent, who swooped in and saw a business opportunity. Prince Mush had secondhand toys of Grubba that they found in the local Rogueport goodwill because the store shelves were just flooded with them. Prince Mush bought some of his T-shirts and had a few of his toys.

And Prince Mush and Grubba got along for a good several years! Prince Mush had a very cushy Champion's life and his family got to see all of his matches and he was very comfortable! Grubba made sure to NOT treat Prince Mush the way he was treated in the past. Prince Mush had health benefits and vacation plans. Everything was good! Grubba was a good maybe-a-father-figure, maybe-just-an-older-friend type of cool old dude.

Until, one night, Prince Mush alerted Grubba to a strange machine that he found underneath the Glitz Pit Arena while he was training late one night. After Grubba asked him if he told anyone else (Prince Mush thankfully said no, so no killing spree for Grub), Prince Mush lead him to the strange machine and asked him "who could do such a thing?"

Grubba responded by hitting him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. They didn't even have an epic battle between champion and monster; instead Grubba panicked, acted like a cornered rat, and then immediately had to cover up the resulting disappearance.

Cut to a few more years later where Prince Mush is suddenly waking up in the Glitz Pit Arena and his own sister is telling him how he straight up died and his blood was on Grubba's hands, all while a little Italian plumber is waving at him and going "wahoo".

So in short, Prince Mush doesn't remember his own death and has to get all of his information secondhand from other people who were way way more traumatized about the events.

And Mush, being Mush...can't bring himself to hate Grubba.

At least, not totally.

Jolene hates Grubba with every fiber of her being and is very much a "if I see you outside of prison, it's on sight, mfer" type of person. Rawk Hawk has really mixed feelings about Grubba and oscillates between rage-filled hatred and survivor's guilt where he second-guesses all the nice things Grubba ever did for him, knowing that he could've been drained and shoved in a dirty old attic. He even visited Grubba in jail and had a shouting match with him as both of them had to unpack a lot of mental baggage. Rawk Hawk's change of heart is fueled by the fact that Rawk Hawk has grown self-conscious and scared of becoming as lost as his mentor.

Prince Mush? When he pieces the story together - the young star exploited at a young age so afraid of aging, so afraid of giving up his own business, that he'll use a magic demon artifact to render himself immortal at the cost of his own humanity and becomes a paranoid monster that can't get close to anyone without hurting or killing them...

He just finds Grubba sad.

And when he tells Grubba to his face while he's sitting in the prison cell, Grubba wishes he got the anger instead.

Having his whole empire crumble and having to live with the consequences of his actions just renders him a pathetic, broken man. He needed wellness checks during his first week of prison just to make sure he didn't do anything drastic. (being away from the Crystal Star that made him young and strong for the first time in 40 years and realizing that he was gonna wither and turn into an old man made him just a touch suicidal for a little while)

On top of all of this, once it becomes more common knowledge that the Crystal Stars were connected to the Shadow Queen, Grubba isn't even sure how much of his actions were his own or if he was Corrupted By the Amulet. Everyone - including him - believes he was mostly in control, but it sure doesn't feel good either way having to second-guess just how much of the past few decades were of your own free will and how much of it was demonic influence and you were just Golluming your way into murder because the shiny rock needed more blood for the blood god.

TTYD is very much a game that ends on the idea of forgiveness for the villains. I'm not going to have Prince Mush stay with Grubba ala Vivian hanging out with her shitty sister Beldam, but Prince Mush seems like a cool enough dude to at least extend a hand and say "yeah you killed me, but now you're in a position where you can't harm anyone else ever again and since you're a paranoid and have like 60 mental illnesses, I'm not going to kick you while you're down and instead tell you that the Glitz Pit isn't on fire and that my sister Jolene is doing a GREAT job".

And eventually Grubba...feels more at peace with himself than he's been in over 40 years.

TL;DR, Prince Mush forges a shaky relationship with his own murderer because his murderer's mental health was impacted by both demonic magic and the exploitation of Hollywood stardom but things are actually kinda looking up? Prince Mush actually wants Grubba to get better, Jolene wants Grubba to choke and perish, and Rawk Hawk is unsure whether he sides with Mush or Jolene.