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Gruntilda Winkybunion, often referred to as Grunty, is the main antagonist of the Banjo-Kazooie series. She is a witch who constantly rhymes.
History[]
In Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntilda kidnaps Banjo's younger sister, Tooty, in an attempt to switch looks with her so that she will be beautiful and Tooty will be ugly. She remains at the top of the tower for most of the game, taunting and insulting Banjo and Kazooie along the way, until finally, they reach Gruntilda's Furnace of Fun, a quiz show in which she'll give back Tooty if they win, or drop them in boiling lava if they lose. They win, though, and Gruntilda runs off. Later, Banjo and Kazooie follow her up to the very top of her lair where they have their final battle. Through a huge climax and with the help of the Jinjos, they knock Gruntilda off the tower and she falls to the ground, where upon she's immediately buried under a giant boulder. As her loyal minion attempts to move the boulder, she swears her revenge in Banjo-Tooie.
If the player loses all of their lives, Gruntilda will succeed in doing the swap, with her looks being impressive enough that even Mumbo Jumbo is smitten.
Gruntilda in the game over sequence
Banjo-Tooie[]
At the beginning cutscene of Banjo-Tooie, it's shown that Grunty's minion, Klungo is trying to move the boulder to free Gruntilda. She is ultimately released from the boulder via the help of her sisters Mingella and Blobbelda, although because of the time she spent underneath the boulder, her body is reduced to a skeleton. This ultimately has them decide to aid Grunty via the BOB weapon at Cauldron Keep, with Gruntilda eager to use it and then exact revenge on Banjo and Kazooie. After they witnessed Mumbo Jumbo fleeing (as he witnessed the entire thing), Gruntilda proceeded to pursue him, and then proceeded to take the opportunity to exact revenge by blowing up Banjo's House. However, all except for Bottles (who remained inside due to being reluctant to believe Mumbo due largely to Kazooie's manipulations during their poker match) fled before the spell made contact and detonated. She then left aboard the digger device HAG-1, leaving Klungo behind. She then learned how to use BOB, although at the cost of having to stop her trademark rhyming dialogue due to her sisters finding the trait annoying, also using Jingaling, the ruler of the Jinjos, as the test run for the cannon. She then considered using the cannon on the entire Isle of Hags, although its charge time was such that it left the likelihood of Banjo and Kazooie making it in time to stop her, although she was largely unconcerned due to Bottles being dead. Barring commentary, mentions by Klungo during the boss fights (including that she repeatedly beat Klungo for failing to beat Banjo and later threatened to feed him to a monster if he failed a third time) as well as an ambiguous appearance as Madame Grunty at WitchyWorld, she makes no further appearances until nearing the end of the game where, similar to the first game, she helmed the game show Tower of Tragedy, depicted as a Jeopardy-style questionnaire game show. The results of the game show were Gruntilda slaying her sisters due to failing to beat Banjo in the various rounds, as well as Gruntilda having to flee at Kazooie's suggestion. Banjo and Kazooie then used the BOB to restore Jingaling and Bottles to life before confronting Gruntilda inside the HAG-1 at the top of Cauldron Keep, which ultimately resulted in Gruntilda being blown apart in a backfired spell and her head being used in a game of kick-around with Banjo, Mumbo, Humba Wumba, and JamJar as compensation for failing to make it to the celebratory party at Bottles' place (as Klungo ended the party early by eating everything).