XD

Due to my various neurological idiosyncrasies, I have a brain chunk that is specifically dedicated to fucked up little cartoon aliens. I own a frankly embarrassing amount of Marvin the Martian memorabilia and also several collectible items of the cereal called Quisp, which was discontinued in the 1970s*, because it has a little cartoon alien on it. (*it came back on-and-off later and the last time it was discontinued was actually the end of last year, which was very sad for me, the sole Quisp enjoyer in the world.) And yes i am just as insane and anal-retentive about these cartoon aliens as The Big Man Himself. So that was the hook

THEN, I realized that orbulon is not just the typical freaky little megalomaniac alien, but a DEEPLY INSECURE and SURPRISINGLY INTROSPECTIVE freaky little megalomaniac alien. This is important to me for the same reason that I am a fan of the Muppets. His endless internal struggle to not be seen as stupid on a planet full of ants is very compelling to me

Continuing that thought, the fact that despite his dubious motivations he is genuinely enamored with the beauty of both Earth and space really rounds out his character. Not only is he trying his best to connect with the creatures of the Earth after one thousand years of being here and not doing that, but one of his favorite ways to do so is to bring people onto his spaceship and show them the wonders of the cosmos. And I love it every time because on earth he is just a weird thing but when he takes them in his spaceship they are amazed and speechless at the beauty of space...it is like he is letting them into his world, and they can finally see and understand what he sees. Effervescent

Also, the fact that he is so god damn old leads to a lot of fun story opportunities (like it being possible for him to meet the four heroes from ttyd) but also opens the door for some extremely poignant and heart wrenching implications, summed up very subtly by one of my favorite Orbulon quotes:

5. On a similar note, the fact that Orbulon plays it fast and loose with the "alien traits" he has makes it EXTREMELY fun for the biology freak in me to go wild with the speculations. I won't go into it too much here because i've already covered this extensively but just know that this is a very big bullet point.

6. The fact that his luck is constantly in the shitter is very relatable. I like orbulon because things are always happening to him

7. I would be remiss to make a list like this without including his gender. The fact that he shapeshifts so freely for the purposes of both self-expression and disguise is very genderish indeed

8. He's just got a kickass design. The shades that are evocative of both the glassy eyes of a stereotypical grey alien and Men in Black, the amphibian proportions, the awesome wardrobe. The bowling pin head is both inexplicable but also feels effortlessly natural. He's truly got it all. Similarly, the fact that he is a space alien that crash lands onto earth simply because he is shit at driving is such a funny and seemingly obvious direction to take this kind of character, and yet he's the only one I've really seen cash in on that. I like orbulon because things are always happening to him pt. 2