Grodus

Grodus in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
Grodus
Affiliation	X-Nauts
Base	The Moon
Debut	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Grodus was the evil cyborg who was in charge of the X-Nauts and led them in their quest for power and world domination.

Background

Grodus was eventually contacted by Beldam and her Shadow Sirens. They told him about the legendary Thousand-Year Door, which held an ancient demon known as the Shadow Queen. Beldam lied and told Grodus that if he could revive the Shadow Queen, she would obey his every wish. Grodus was inspired by this and devoted his entire X-Naut legion to gathering the seven Crystal Stars needed to open the Thousand-Year Door. He also had his men kidnap Princess Peach, whom Grodus believed would make a fitting host body for the Shadow Queen.

However, Grodus's plans ran into some bumps in the road. Mario and his teammates sought the Crystal Stars in hopes of finding a way to save Peach. Grodus constantly sent his men to defeat Mario and regain the Crystal Stars. However, his servant Lord Crump failed at every turn. Even the Shadow Sirens were defeated by Mario. Eventually Mario had six of the Crystal Stars, with Grodus having the last one in the X-Naut base. Grodus detected a traitor amongst the X-Naut in the form of the supercomputer he built, TEC-XX. TEC had learned how to love and was helping Princess Peach, so Grodus had it shut down.

Grodus then formed an ingenious plan to gather the seven Crystal Stars. he left Lord Crump in the X-Naut Base with the last Crystal Star while he and the Shadow Sirens hid in the Rogueport Sewers. Grodus saw it as a win-win situation; even though Crump was predictably defeated, and Mario had gained all the Crystal Stars, Grodus was able to trick Mario into using the stars to open the Thousand-Year Door. Grodus then slipped in and made his way towards the Shadow Queen's tomb with Peach in tow.

Mario eventually faced off with Grodus and engaged him in battle. Grodus utilized powerful magic against Mario and summoned special Grodus-X's that generated force shields to protect him. Despite his advantages, Grodus was defeated by Mario. He then tried to ward off Mario by threatening to harm Peach if he got any closer. Mario was soon distracted by a battle with Bowser, at which point Grodus fled with Peach to the Shadow Queen's lair. He revived the Shadow Queen, but found she was insulted when Grodus tried to order her around. She used a bolt of lightning to destroy Grodus's body, leaving only his mechanical head around. She used a second bolt of lighting to send the head flying.

Grodus lived on as a disembodied head. He was seen in Poshley Heights with Lord Crump and the remainder of the X-Nauts, having learned the error of their ways.

Trivia

• In battle Grodus has 50 HP.
• His Japanese name is Batsugaruf.
• In Super Paper Mario he is referenced in the form of an epic cartoon series called "The Grodus Chronicles".