Nul is the main antagonist of Grapple Dog, a 2022 indie game by Joseph Gribbin.
He is a powerful robotic overlord who poses a threat to the world of Partash that Pablo feels responsible to stop.
What makes him Magnificent?[]
- His villainy is motivated by a legitimate tragedy. He presumably had his memory wiped before being turned on by the Inventor, who claimed to love him as his greatest creation. However, Nul would soon find out that the Inventor was exploiting his real people for his own gain and likely didn't love him. Nul attempted to warn everyone of the Inventor's treachery, and in response was sealed in a temple for a thousand years by the Inventor. This made him bitter and misanthropic, and thereby sympathetic and relatable to the audience despite his heinous actions.
- He also has a cool design that makes him an imposing threat and a legitimately charming personality.
- He successfully manipulates Pablo into opening the room containing his body, genuinely thanking him before he kickstarts his plan to find the cosmic gadgets.
- While he doesn't get any of the cosmic gadgets at first, he still has several resources to go after Pablo and consistently keeps him on his toes throughout the course of the adventure, especially during the boss fights where he summons a more prominent member of his army.
- He comes close to killing Pablo at the end of world 4 by summoning a dragon, which broke the floor below him. This rendered Pablo helpless for a moment and forced Toni to intervene.
- He pilots a giant mech that has several attack patterns and powerful fists in his attempt to kill Pablo near the end of the game.
- Most impressively, after his mech is destroyed, Nul leaves for the portal. Pablo pursues him, and Nul catches him mid-flight, throws him to the ground, collects all four cosmic gadgets at once, and successfully opens the portal to his home world in one fell swoop. His disappointment afterwards is also understandable and relatable, as he himself didn't and couldn't know what to expect.
- In his final duel with Pablo, he's shown to be very resourceful with the other worlds' items. For instance, he throws swords directly at Pablo, takes fiery, bouncing slimes to inadvertently harm Pablo, and even brings in cars from his home world to run him over. He also flies in the air and throws energy balls at Pablo from above, which would have been impossible to counteract if it weren't for mysterious beings intervening on Pablo's behalf.
- After he's defeated and the portal grows unstable, he goes through in order to close it, knowingly sacrificing himself in the process.
- in the sequel, Nul was revived and gets his new body instead of his old body.
What makes him a Baddie?[]
- He was fully aware that opening the portal to his home would tear apart Pablo's reality, and couldn't have cared less about it.
- He kidnaps the Professor and holds her for ransom. When Pablo approaches him, he abandons the ransom in favor of killing Pablo himself.
- He also successfully opens the portal, which would have destroyed Pablo's world hadn't he sacrificed himself at the end of the game.
Trivia[]
- Nul is the only documented character by Joseph Gribbin to be a Magnificent Baddie.