#glukkons

[sinistarz]

[lair-of-the-white-worm]

Yaoi or something idk

[vykker]

Oddworld Headcanon 2/?: Where do new Queens come from?

In Soulstorm we're introduced to the Keeper, a female mudokon who is a little old granny with an awesome and cute design. I was so delighted by her!! This got me thinking about 2 of my favorite things, Oddworld and Girls. We've known about the existence of queens for a long time, but where do they come from, and is/was the Keeper a queen?

When you start learning about irl animals and their queen systems you end up with a ton of interesting possibilities. For instance, you have queen bees, who are just regular female bees who were fed a special jelly [royal jelly] and put in a special, roomy honeycomb to turn into queen bees. However, hives may have more than one queen at a time, in which case the two young queens instinctively fight to the death.

Soulstorm leans heavily on the bee aesthetic for the keeper & the Sanctum where she resides. It could be that mudokon tribes produce multiple queens, but only the one with the strongest will/chosen by fate gets to become queen. Even though becoming queen doesn't seem so great to me as a human, to mudokons it's probably the highest honor one can earn. I imagine it would be crushing for a female to NOT become a queen, especially if it's something you've been hyped up about your entire life, have presented as being the highest possible achievement and so on.

But getting back to the bee thing- mudokons don't make honey, by which I mean, they probably don't have a chemical way of ensuring an individual is able to become a queen, in the way that bees can choose who gets to eat the royal jelly. [Though, if they could, you KNOW the industrialists would be selling it. I used to work at a store that sold royal jelly for like 50 bucks in a little jar. It was weird.] Thus, I feel it's probably random chance if a mudokon is born a "princess" or not.

Being born a princess does not ensure one will become a queen. The transformation into a queen is probably tied to ritual in mudokon culture regardless of whether it's pure biological randomness or not, and although it would be healthy for a tribe to have a few princesses as insurance rather than one, I also believe NOT being "picked" to be queen can be very depressing and alienating for them. This could be a possible backstory for the Keeper; either 1. she was not chosen to be queen, which she took as a personal failure for many years before devoting herself to becoming the Keeper; or 2. she fled from her tribe in order to NOT become a queen, and suffers from guilt now that her species' only surviving queen is being kept captive & she's way too old to become queen now.

Anyway, I believe you could apply similar logic to the other queen-centric races, HOWEVER, I think things are a little different depending on each queen's species and role in society. For instance, I imagine mudokon queens born of Sam would be highly sought after and prized. However, it would not surprise me if they all fail to become queens, just due to the industrialists failing at meeting their needs in captivity. Even if a princess were kept in relative luxury, being separated from the land and nature would prevent them from ever becoming queens.

I would imagine things as being similar for sligs- however, I personally imagine slig eggs being produced at a much higher rate, since it's mentioned that queen Skillya has 5 ovipositors, so maybe there's less stress around trying to find the next slig queen. Or maybe she can recognize what they are and keeps crushing them on purpose. I think Skillya would feel very threatened by another girl being called "cute" in her presence.

Now glukkons, I believe, actually have it worse out of all options. Lady Margaret is just one glukkon queen- there's implied to be more & its further implied that there are queen glukkons higher up the chain than her. However, I cannot imagine a glukkon queen choosing to share power with an incompetent daughter. Glukkons don't like to share power even in the best of times!

Thus, I believe that when glukkon princesses are born, the queen's in-house surgeons sterilize them temporarily, putting their reproductive organs on ice to completely eliminate the possibility of them starting their own lineages or hijacking the company. Competition between glukkon princesses is UNFATHOMABLY brutal. Whereas their brothers are just competing to become glockstars or whatever, the princesses are competing to become dynasty builders. Thus, a glukkon princess has to bust her ass from the day she's born to impress her mother & torpedo her sisters' efforts. Then, finally, when the current queen is too old to keep working, her favorite daughter is promoted to queen, uterus privilege no longer revoked, the vykkers thaw out her reproductive parts & put her back together again.

This would make Lady Margaret even scarier in my opinion- if her position as queen was not just pure happenstance, if she had to do absolutely atrocious things to her fellow princesses to get where she is today- you'd understand why she grasps on to power so tightly, why she refuses to forgive even the slightest weaknesses in her sons, considering all she has been through to get to where she is today. It would be rather boring if Lady Margaret became a queen just from a biological dice roll, right? Instead, imagine her as a vicious, power-hungry monster who FOUGHT to be queen, with a line of glukkon princesses below her, anxious for her to retire or die already so they can have the ultimate promotion- and she KNOWS it.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts. Since we met the Keeper in Soulstorm I am INCREDIBLY hopeful we will get to meet more girls in future games. I would especially like to meet a no-nonsense 80's style glukkon business woman with shoulder pads, I think I would die of happiness. What are your headcanons for Oddworld's queens? I really wanna hear them!!!

[vp-aslik]

how is your family name aslik? arent all the glukkons brothers?

Gee, ya stinkin' worms don’t know how a business works, do ya?

First off, let’s get one thing straight—I ain’t part of the Uggae Family. Not by a long shot. That's Molluck. My connection to the Estate ain’t through some family tree nonsense; it’s business, plain and simple. And if ya ask me, that’s a hell of a lot more important. Blood ties are sentimental. Business? That’s where the real throne is.

See, the Magog Cartel? They’re at the top of the food chain. No question. The Uggae Estate? That’s just one large branch on the Cartel’s big ol’ moolah tree—a particularly lucrative branch that's held a lotta power for a lotta time, sure, but still just one of many.

You could call the Uggae a crime— [stops and clears throat] —a well-respected family. The Magog has lots of, let’s say, ‘associations’ like that. The Uggae Estate is big n' vast n' keeps its nose in certain ventures, but they all answer upward.

And it ain't just big family investments like the Uggae, either. The Magog plays ball with other heavy hitters, like the Vykker Conglomerate—business partners, if ya will. All part of the same system, greased wheels turning for maximum profits. So while folks like to whisper about the Uggae, just remember: The Cartel runs that show. Lady Margaret may be the one sittin' in the big seat right now but she ain't some all-powerful goddess. Her family is the big guns, but there's plenty more that keeps the show goin'.

If there's one thing they teach ya in Glukk Business College it's that theres always a bigger fish..

[normal-girl-in-an-odd-world]

[violetfoxviolarose]

The absolute state of US healthcare inspired me to make a low-effort Oddworld gif again (not to get p*litical or anything silly like that 👉👈)

And here's a blank copy of anyone else wants one lol

[incorrect-oddworld-quotes]

Molluck in rupture farms after being hit with lighting: uughhh my bones! That’s it, I knew I soulda- -Violent coughing-

-Bigface teleports in to save Abe-

Molluck: who the- how- why are you doing this?!

Bigface: Happy April fools! :) -chants and teleports him and Abe out of rupturefarms-

Molluck:

[romaine-arts]

i could be getting into this series for the wrong reasons

[sutzrainbow]

If I may, I’d like to draw your attention to this post and you will see this is a regular theme in the Oddworld games. Apparently even Abe himself is somewhat androgynous-looking by Mudokon standards. Mudokon workers identify as male but they’re technically genderless. So, make of all this what you will.

Glukkons and Oktigis just go around hiding their bodies in their manly, broad-shouldered, imposing suits with a completely different apparent shape to their actual anatomy and I just think that's very trans (masc) of them.

[clobertina]

It is now finally done

I give you, Abe’s Oddysee in the Ultimate Recap Cartoon style!

It’s not 100% perfect style wise imo, but I think I did good for an attempt!

[huntressao3]

Oddworld-tober Day 24: Tasty

Alf, I don’t think the lady gluks think you’re too cute

The lady glukkons are actually really fun

[lair-of-the-white-worm]

Very Serious Business

[vykker]

Do you think the stilted and particular way that Glukkons speak was a deliberate choice, or was it just a side effect of straining your throat while trying to be nasally and deep at the same time?

In Soulstorm especially, when the Glukkons speak, there's a noticeable pause between each word. If it was a deliberate choice then I wonder why. It's like speech doesn't come that naturally to them.

[phantomtoff]

Molluck in duckie crocs.

[gen-toon]

[glenglam324]

(@bosskie )

Baby Molluck needed to be in my life more then anything