Ask Alf

One year anniversary present for @exoddus 💚

My first sculpt that isn’t super simple, done on Nomad sculpt (:

His feather:

Years ago, when I was getting into Oddworld properly I found this lovely rendered image. I was quite intrigued because this Mudokon stood out from the rest, and we can be honest in that the reason for that is because he’s fat. Fat is not a bad word, merely a descriptor. Him being fat is not bad. Then I learned more and became more interested. But why? How? There’s barely any information available about this character. But there’s implications and things that make you think.

So firstly, he’s a Khanzumer (according to a Dear Alf, he doesn’t like being called this). All the Mudokons we’ve seen have either been slaves or natives. Buddy is neither, he is part of Oddworld we haven’t seen yet. He’d be living in a city, perhaps with a job, buying products, a consumer like us. But we don’t have much of an idea of what that side of Oddworld is like, other than it’s an exaggerated version of ours, much like the rest of the planet. What would his daily life be like? What does he know? How was he raised? And another big question I wondered… who is his mother?

Is he one of Queen Sam’s? I thought all of her eggs were used for slave labour. So if he is from Sam, why isn’t he a slave? And if he isn’t, who did he come from and where is she? Many questions about this.

Another factor I find interesting is the topic of his weight. He is large and apparently according to an online daily deception (not the best source) he got to 500lbs, so it seems weight is a genuine struggle with him, and he does have issues with eating and maybe an unhealthy relationship with food. This would be a very interesting topic to explore, as people with these issues in real life are very stigmatised and misunderstood.

Something else I find interesting are his implied relationships with others.

It is said Abe takes Buddy under his wing. Maybe this is to help improve his health, or maybe something more spiritual. I would really love to know more about this.

The other relationship I’m interested in is his relationship with Alf. All we have to go by on this (and most of the information we have on Buddy overall) are Dear Alfs, which isn’t exactly the most reliable source, with information frequently changing and Alf saying genuine bollocks, you have to take it all with a grain of salt. Regardless, what has been said of their relationship in these sounds VERY cute. Maybe I’m being biased, but there are many moments that make it sound like they have a very nice relationship, they care about each other. You can see in one entry Alf respects Buddy for making a map (so he presumably has an interest in cartography, which is another cool thing about Buddy, and shows he may be more intelligent than some would assume). Another entry shows he trusts Buddy too, as he said he left the keys to the rehab to Buddy when he was busy. He has defended him too. I just think their relationship seems cute (even if Alf may occasionally make a joke at his expense) and I would like it to be explored.

I think there’s so much potential with him. I think he could really work as a character in a game, perhaps when the boys visit more urban environments. I don’t know if he’d be in a place like Nolybab, since that’s mostly populated by Glukkons it seems, but who knows. I just hope OWI doesn’t forget about him and that they actually do something with him. Not enough fans know about him and he needs more love.