Headscratchers / Banjo-Kazooie

• Why is it that Banjo and Kazooie never question Gruntilda's enormous lair that's only about 350 metres from their own house until after Tooty is captured?
  • Grunty wasn't bothering them, so they weren't bothering her.
  • It's a neighbor thing. It's bad form to yell at the neighbors for no reason, and they had no idea she was evil until Tooty was kidnapped. Perhaps she simply likes huge elaborate evil looking houses. Her prerogative.
• Why do Banjo and Kazooie keep a portrait of Bottles in their house despite having no knowledge of his existence until after Tooty is captured?
  • Tooty lives there too.
  • Ah, right. I thought that in the intro it seemed that Tooty and Bottles had never met before. Re-watching it, I realise that Bottles did in fact say her name, meaning they both must know each other. Still, it begs the question: Why does Tooty address Bottles as Mr. Mole, and why didn't Tooty ever mention anything about him?
    • Perhaps they had only met one other time and barely knew each other. Bottles' last name may be Mole.
    • I don't keep huge pictures of acquaintances above MY fireplace.
    • Perhaps Tooty was already great friends with Bottles prior to the first game but was just being polite and well-mannered like Banjo, who himself is pretty respectful and nice to others.
    • The manual for the first game confirms that Tooty and Bottles are long-time friends.
• One of Brentilda's "Facts" about Grunty is that she subscribes to "Fat Hag Monthly". If she wants to steal Tooty's youth and beauty so much, why does she subscribe to a magazine with a self-derogatory name and subject matter? And how could such a magazine exist in the first place?
  • As for why it exists, it's probably an independent magazine. Those can be about some odd things that aren't seen in the mainstream. Hence the myriad of say, furry magazines or fat-themed ones. They aren't something you would see on a bookshelf of a store, but they exist. A "Fat Hag Monthly" would be unusual, but not utterly impossible. Alternately, it could just have an odd name that doesn't fully reflect the contents, or be a magic-themed book that uses the title ironically.
  • It's probably some kind of fetish. She likes fat hags, but for her to be respected, she herself must become beautiful.
  • Perhaps it covers how to STOP being a fat hag?
  • There is a legitimate weight-loss website called 3 Fat Chicks
  • Grunty admits she's a big fat hog. What she really needs a nice hot bod(y).
    • That's atrocious.
  • Let's not forget that that's one of three random choices for that fact, so it might not be true.
• What happened to Tooty? She kinda disappeared after Kazooie.
  • She either went missing or got arrested by the 'Rubbish Characters in Video Games' Police.
    • It's funny because you actually DO see her face on a milk carton in the second game. Although, it is in a trash can...
  • My personal theory is that she went to live with her parents, who were upset about the whole "getting kidnapped by the neighbor" thing.
    • In other words, she got kidnapped once and her mom got scared; she said, "You're not living with your brother so close to Gruntilda's lair."
    • To add on to that, the "Tooty Fruity" shop in Nuts and Bolts, It might actually be run by her. As the story goes, she got kidnapped, her mother got scared and she lived with them (with Banjo visiting often in between adventures), then in the future Nuts and Bolts happens and Tooty runs a candy shop.
  • Silk they sent her to her uncle in a town called Bel-Air?
  • I figure that they forgot her on the beach.
• Is Banjo his world's police officer?
  • No, he is just a bear who happens to live in the same place as an evil witch.
  • Banjo-Kazooie, Freelance Police?
  • Given that nothing happens in the world without Banjo's direct intervention, it can be surmised that Banjo is actually God, and his people give him Jiggies as sacrifices for his various wonders. Presumably, somewhere, there are a bunch of monkeys smirking because Banjo evolved bipedal locomotion for them and didn't even come back for the Jiggy afterwards; it could be argued that Grunty is human, but the differences between her and a trash compactor seem to be largely cosmetic.
    • Perhaps Banjo himself is not god, but Master Jiggywiggy is, and Banjo, Kazooie, and Mumbo are his other disciples (i.e. not the one who guards the door to the temple).
• Why is the first area called Spiral Mountain, when the terrain immediately surrounding it is elevated significantly higher? Wouldn't Spiral Valley be more appropriate?
  • Because the defining feature is an enormous spiral-shaped mound that one might call a "mountain"?
• How big is Banjo, anyway? He's a bear, but Kazooie and Bottles (a mole) are all roughly the same size as him. This could be passed off as some trait of Funny Animal people in this world, but in Click Clock Wood, an ordinary eagle and a squirrel are bigger than he is. He's the same size as Mumbo, who's vaguely humanoid, so maybe the other animals are just huge... But then we meet Humba in Tooie, who is a totally normal human, and she's twice the size of Banjo. Is Banjo a really tiny bear, or...?
  • Humba is pretty much the same size as everyone else at the end of the game, so I'm assuming she was just giant in her wigwam because the designers thought it looked better. The eagle is also bigger than a bull or a crocodile, and many bugs are close to the same size as everything else, so take those how you will.
    • Not to mention Captain Blackeye, who's at least five times taller than Banjo.
  • Yes, Banjo certainly seems smaller in comparison to the other characters, but he seems to have grown in Nuts and Bolts. Now he's taller than most of the other characters, though not by a whole lot.
    • Taking this into consideration, Banjo appears to be about the size of a normal bear in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, being taller than just about everyone but Eggman, who is slightly taller than him. This would make Kazooie about the size of an Albatross, at LEAST.
• Maybe I'm looking too far into this, but the thought that Tooty is the fairest in the land is just incredibly Squicky.
  • Well... yes, kind of. For starters, there isn't exactly a huge assortment of women in any of the games, let alone attractive ones, and also the key word is "fairest". Not sexiest, or hottest, fairest, in a pure sense. Basically, it's just a comment of being aesthetically flawless. Like saying she received good genes.
  • This is actually accurate to the original Grimm version of Snow White, in which the titular character was only 7.
• When Banjo is transformed, what the heck happens to Kazooie?
  • Well, given they refer to themselves as "we" in Banjo-Tooie, and Kazooie describes their Stony form as a "Bear and Bird in disguise", it seems to be a case of two minds, one body.
  • She's still in the backpack, probably. You'll not that every transformation still has it in plain sight—its only Banjo that changes.
• Why is Banjo the only person in the entire universe that Kazooie doesn't hate?
  • Because he's one of the only people in their universe who's not annoying, or a jerk. Most of the other characters they meet have them bending over backwards for Jiggies, even when these problems could be pretty easily solved by themselves. The enemies they encounter seem to be spoiling for a fight 24/7, like the giant crab who tries to slice them up because of a petty insult or a giant coal monster who tries to crush them for daring to ask him permission to use his train.
  • Another thought is that Kazooie doesn't "hate" anyone particularly, so much as that she's simply very acerbic towards pretty much everyone. Banjo is the exception because A) she's well aware that he *is* stronger than her by a large margin and B) because she basically is living in his pack, so she's slightly nicer to him because he's her house
• Where, exactly, are the worlds in the original game? My Willing Suspension of Disbelief will let me believe that those mountains are deep enough to house a series of caverns big enough to be Grunty's lair, but given that many of the worlds are clearly outdoors... wha? Are they just on other parts of the Isle, linked there by magic? Are they in other dimensions entirely? How does Mumbo get to all of them, then? Is it his house? Or Bottles, for that matter? And if they're on the Isle O' Hags, then where are they in the overhead view you see in Cloud Cuckoo Land in the sequel?
  • There are portals: it's what the start pads are for.
  • In the first game, Grunty made the worlds both as challenges and to brighten the place up (or for more practical purposes, as in Clanker's Cavern). It's easy to assume they're pocket dimensions or something. Mumbo can probably just teleport between them - he'd never teach Grunty something he couldn't sneak by, after all. Bottles probably just uses the pads like Banjo, but he can get there before you because he can dig, or he's got a bit of magic as well (he can talk to you without being actually there, implying telepathy). As for Banjo Tooie, I have no idea.
  • The same place the paintings in Super Mario 64 lead, I would assume. Or at least a similar dimension.
  • Wait, what? The tower doesn't even connect to mountains aside from slightly jutting out.
  • I've always just assumed that the entrances to the worlds in Grunty's lair act as portals that lead to different places. In Cloud Cuckooland in Tooie, you can actually see some of the Tooie worlds on the Isle'o'Hags below; presumably, the Banjo Kazooie worlds are also down there somewhere as well.
  • Clanker's Cavern is under Rusty Bucket Bay. Mad Monster Mansion is Grunty's vacation house.
  • Check the WMG.
• How did Bottles tunnel a molehill into the belly of a cyborg-shark-whale? Likewise, in the sequel, how did Jamjars build a silo that links to a cave in a floating mountain in the sky?
  • Do you mean the hatches? The Silos only appear on the Isle O' Hags.
    • Yes, actually. Thanks for clearing up the misconception.
  • At the end of Tooie, Kazooie tells Jamjars "At least we weren't hiding in our silos", so there are two types of Silos, the kind that Banjo and Kazooie use to warp in Isle O' Hags, and the ones Jamjars uses. In this same sense, how can Bottles tunnel into worlds created by Gruntilda's magic? And how does he move around so FAST anyway? One can only assume the molehills and silos are magic as well.
    • The worlds weren't created by Gruntilda's magic, the entrances in Grunty's Lair are portals to far-away lands.
  • I'm far more concerned about the molehill in Treasure Trove Cove where you learn how to fly. It's on top of a ship's crow's nest, the floor of which cannot be more than about 12 inches thick...
    • He burrows through it. As for Clanker's Cavern, he goes through the lock and each link in the chain to the underbelly.
  • He swims into Clanker. Who said he had to stay underground all the time?
• Where exactly does Kazooie poop when she's confined to Banjo's pack? Makes you wonder if there was more to her being happy to leave than we think...
  • It's contained in the Blue Eggs, of course.
  • She probably just gets out. We just don't get to see when it happens since it'd be gross.
    • We don't see Banjo poop either... why does it matter?
  • Nobody Poops. Really.
    • This raises questions about Loggo.
    • Loggo is one of Grunty's toilets, duh.
    • Also, if nobody poops, then what the heck are the Clinker's in the Clinker's Cavern Mini-game in Grunty Industries in Tooie? They sure look a lot like feces.
    • Mold. They're mold. Not feces in industrial air ducts.
    • Mold doesn't usually make fart noises.
    • This is leading into Fridge Hilarity. Why do the turdlets make fart noises?
  • To be fair, as seen in Banjo-Tooie, have you seen how much Banjo's backpack can carry when he's not at risk of crushing Kazooie? (Hint, a baby triceratops much bigger than he is.) Perhaps it's a portable Hammerspace that contains Kazooie's apartment (she just craps whenever she's in the backpack).
• About the vehicles...
  • Games that only contain Banjo the Bear and no vehicles:
    • Banjo-Kazooie
    • Banjo-Tooie (debatable as there are several minor vehicle segments)
    • Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge
  • Games that contain both Banjo the Bear and vehicles:
    • Diddy Kong Racing
    • Banjo-Pilot
    • Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
    • Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing with Banjo-Kazooie
  • So, what's all this about vehicles being "un-Banjo"? Seems to me like he's been drivin' it up since Day One (note that I'm talking about the character himself and not the series).
  • I think the comment was referring to Nuts & Bolts gameplay taking away from the previous games rather the character's driving; if Nuts & Bolts retained the previous gameplay and limited the vehicle driving, it would have been more accepted.
• So what's the deal with Grunty's Industries, anyway? The place is an enormous industrial factory that spews waste out of every corner. The air is polluted, the water is polluted, the ground is polluted, and the factory pumps out barrel after barrel of toxic waste. But the question still remains: what exactly does the factory produce? Twinklies? What does Grunty want with Christmas lights? And, if the factory does produce twinklies, why does 90% of it have nothing to do with them? As far as I can see the factory just manufactures toxic waste
  • Looks to me like it's a combination of Toxic Waste Plant (Everywhere), Freight Station (Train station on floor 1), Storage Facility (Floors 3 and 5), Mook Factory, and Sewer/Sewage plant (The fourth floor).
  • Keep in mind that Grunty also has an amusement park that (A) serves food that certainly violates FDA guidelines, (B) has rides which are very dangerous if working at all, and (C) has employees that try to kill the guests. Productivity seems to not be high on her list of priorities.
  • I read somwhere that it manufactures underwear. I think it might have been in the manual or Nintendo Power's Player's Guide.
    • Right, the Nintendo Power Player's Guide. The manual for the game states, and I quote, "Nobody knows what Grunty's monstrous factory produces." Probably whatever Kremcroc Industries, Inc. does.
    • The Prima stategy guide says that it's an underwear factory. That would make sense, considering the level's transformation is a washing machine that shoots underwear.
  • Based on the wild mass guessing, I'm gonna say, just because It Amused Me, that Grunty's Industries manufactures radioactive underpants for... experimental medical purposes. All the toxic waste is just a by-product, and everything else in the joint is just due to Grunty's... business myopia.
    • Well, there's a market. "Now, maybe you don't have any tumors. Well, don't worry. If you're wearing these underpants, we took care of that too."
  • They make factory parts for Kremcroc Industries, Inc. Kremcroc Industries, Inc. makes factory parts for Grunty Industries.
• The entrance to Freezeezy Peak. Why, exactly, does Gruntilda have a gigantic mural of Banjo and Kazooie in her lair?
  • It's possible that the worlds are enchanted by Grunty to show the face of whosoever is attacking her lair - Gruntilda's the kind of person who would taunt someone who's attacking her tower.
  • If it helps explain things, it's not a "mural" but an Advent calendar, to go with Freezeezy Peak's Christmas theme.
• Why doesn't Ssslumber wake up anymore when you take his Jiggy?
  • The Jiggy was giving him fuel/life force, with it stolen he is locked into an eternal sleep, never to waken again.
  • He's just lazy- "Eh, I wasn't doing anything with it anyway. No point in trying to bother them about it."
• "Chompasaurus: Can you hear me in there? I won't digest you if you help me out with my little stomach problem." How exactly does that work? Last time I checked, the stomach is a Homeostasis, meaning its fuction is done without thinking (in other words, it digests food automatically).
  • Chompasaurus' stomachs don't work that way?
  • I think there are some organisms that digest voluntarily.
• Witchyworld has a dark, starry night sky, but when you go into the Wild West Zone's Crazy Castle Stockade, the sky is bright blue, with slowly-drifting clouds. There's even brightly-lit desert scenery! How this area is connected directly to the main Witchyworld is beyond me. I refuse to believe that all of it is indoors, either.
  • Blue skies must fit the wild west aesthetic too well to pass up, I guess.
  • It takes Banjo and Kazooie twelve hours to walk through the doorway.
    • If that's the case, then Grunty should have been able to blast the entire island.
  • A Wizard Did It. No, really. Grunty is the one that owns Witchy world, so there's probably some magic in effect.
• They couldn't have Tooty appear even as a random NPC in any game besides the original? I get the feeling the devs hate her.
  • Maybe they did.
  • They did and do. Hence why, according to them, after the first game she was hauled off by the "Rubbish Video Game Character Police". Their words.
• According to one of the random quotes said by Gruntilda throughout the first game, she wants to be beautiful just so she could gorge on fast food. Isn't that a bit of a "Shaggy Dog" Story, since she'll just bloat up again?
  • Well from the certain artwork I'd have rather prefer to have not seen Deviantart some people do have a kind of fetish for large women so long as their facial appearance is attractive, you wouldn't believe some of the fan art of characters in all forms of media I've seen be large yet still retain a pretty face yet I'd have rather not seen these kind of fan arts in the first place.
  • Maybe the magic would keep her beautiful, even when she's eating stuff that works against it?
• This has bugged me since I first played Banjoland in Nuts and Bolts and now recently with Rare Replay, and that involves the canon status of Grunty's Revenge. The game hasn't been referenced in any capacity since it was released, Banjoland didn't have anything from it and Rare Replay didn't include it. So what gives? Is the game considered non-canon? Does Rare just hate it for some reason? Maybe it didn't sell well, but so that's no reason to ignore it entirely.
  • Originally, it was meant to not be a midquel, but an alternate, 'what if' sequel to Kazooie detailing what would happen if Grunty's sisters never came for her (so instead, she makes the robot body). It became a standard midquel at some point, but its hard to argue that it still doesn't really contribute much to the overall story: the new characters are from the past, so they're long gone, and the main cast is pretty much left where they were at the end of Kazooie. So its no so much that they ignore it, theres just nothing from it thats really relevant anymore.
• Why does the game's logo have two hyphens◊? Banjo- -Kazooie? (This also applies to Yooka-Laylee.)
• Infinite life mechanics aren't meant to be thought all the way through in general, but Banjo and Kazooie seem straight-up indestructible in Tooie. Every Jiggy, note, Cheato page, and other such collectible remains in their inventory upon their deaths and bosses will make reference to their previous encounter if they run out of health during the fight. Seems like nothing they find in Tooie is capable of keeping them down permanently, even if it literally blows them to bits like with their detonator form.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation combined with Rare's penchant for No Fourth Wall, to the point where they almost seem to cancel each other out.
• When Mumbo Jumbo enlarged Humba's Wigwam to improve T-Rex Banjo, did he unintentionally make Humba Wumba a giantess?
• How does Grunty know Banjo and Kazooie's every move?
  • At least in the first game, it's her lair and her grunts (mostly) in every world. In the second game she does have Cameras but I don't know how she can see their other moves.
• How come Tooty didn't just run into Banjo's house upon seeing Gruntilda coming for her?
  • Paralyzed with fear, most likely.
• Tooty is the fairest lady in the land? Compared to Humba Wumba and some of the other more adult women in the land? I understand that Banjo-Kazooie doesn't have a lot of women and that most of the other fair women come in Tooie, but even then there are characters like the female Squirrel and even Kazooie who are outright more fair then Gruntilda...
  • It follows the aesop of the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. "Fair" by definition doesn't just mean pretty, but also just, honest and honorable. Just like the evil queen, Grunty misunderstood this criteria and opted to steal her conventionally pretty looks instead. Humba Wumba and other women might be prettier than her to some people, but are they pure-hearted? Humba Wumba has a continuous, petty rivalry with Mumbo and Kazooie isn't exactly the nicest when talking to people. Tooty, though, the little we see of her is polite and mild-mannered.
    • Alternately, Humba might not have lived in the same land as Tooty by the time the first game takes place.
• Glitter Gulch Mine has two similar variants on its level theme. Dark n Dingy Interiors, which plays in the caverns and has a more subdued, melancholy feel to it, and Dark Rooms, a chilling, ominous tune with psycho strings playing in the background that plays only in the darkest and creepiest areas in the game. So for some reason, they have Dark Rooms play in the waterfall cavern, a fairly decently lit area with glistening crystals and a roaring waterfall, while Dark n Dingy Interiors plays in the flooded caverns, an extremely dark and claustrophobic area that is almost pitch black in the area you collect the jiggy. What's up with that?
• Why can't Kazooie use Wonderwing when separated from Banjo?
  • Maybe the gold feathers are kept in Banjo's bag and Kazooie can't carry new ones without hands.

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