Ozzie Mandrill
From Monkey Island wiki
| Ozzie Mandrill
| |
|---|---|
| Home Island | Lucre Island (originally Australia) |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Eye Color | Black |
| Hair Color | Grey |
Ozzie Mandrill is the second primary villain of Escape from Monkey Island and the head of Ozzie Mandrill Enterprises. He is a ruthless Australian business man whose sole goal in life is the gathering of wealth. With LeChuck, Ozzie orchestrates a sinister conspiracy to seize control of the Caribbean and extend his enterprises though crime, political manipulation, and deception. Ozzie's wealth and lifestyle makes it very easy for him to cover his tracks and never be connected to any crime, including attempted murder, frame up, and conspiracy. He also plays integrally into the disappearance of H. T. Marley, the man who unintentionally started Ozzie's obsession for power and money in the Caribbean.
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Name
Ozzie's name is comprised of two distinct words. While Ozzie is a real name (a common nickname for a person named Oswald or Osbourne) it may also be a lead-on from Aussie meaning Australian. His surname, Mandrill, is a species of primate closely related to baboons, and drills. The selection of surname is somewhat odd as the species is a native of Africa and not Australia. However, this name does allow for the pun off Ozymandias, as shown when Mandrill paraphrases the famous poem late in the game.
Business / Modus Operandi
Ozzie takes over businesses by challenging their owners to rounds of insult-games (such as Insult Swordfighting and Insult Armwrestling) which he always wins due to his use of obscure and bizarre insults that no-one can counter. In the game, the player can even challenge Ozzie in a swordfight on Lucre, but will never be able to beat him.
Background
Some 20 years before the games, Ozzie is a down-on-his-luck businessman and a skilled hunter. While at a bar one night he runs into Governor Horatio Torquemeda Marley, a competitor in a dangerous sailing race off the coast of Australia. To cheer Ozzie up, Horatio tells him stories about the various wonders of the Caribbean, such as Big Whoop, the Three-Headed-Monkey, and the Ultimate Insult. With this knowledge, Ozzie begins to slowly plan his hostile takeover of the entire Caribbean. To keep Marley from stopping him, he bumps his boat into a whirlpool with the intention of ending his life.
With the information that Ozzie has obtained from Horatio, he travels to the Caribbean and embarks on many lucrative developments throughout the islands. Ozzie soon begins to obtain so much wealth that he becomes one of the richest people in the entire Caribbean. With his immense wealth, Ozzie capitalizes on several real-estate ventures and creates his own organization known as Ozzie Mandrill Enterprises. His success though is not without hardship as Ozzie becomes increasingly targeted by pirates, making it much harder to make money. Ozzie soon develops a genocidal hatred for pirates and realizes that his plans and visions of extending his enterprises and profits all over the Caribbean will be nearly impossible to achieve with pirates on the loose.
He then decides to use the last piece of knowledge he got out of Horatio, the legend of the forbidden Ultimate Insult, and plans to find this weapon and exterminate piracy. If he were to obtain this weapon, Ozzie would not only be able to use it on pirates, but he would also be able to make them become his obedient slaves. Once that occurs, there would be nothing stopping him from controlling the entire Caribbean. Ozzie then pours all his resources into discovering the secrets of this incredible weapon, making deals with criminals and thugs such as Pegnose Pete, and formulating his plans to conquer the islands.
As Ozzie makes his plans and gains further power and wealth, he practises extensively in all forms of insult dueling to defend himself, learning every possible insult and comeback and incorporating his own Australian insults. These are insults foreign to all pirates and, as result, Ozzie is able to best every pirate he ever faces. Ozzie not only uses this to his advantage in defending himself from being pillaged, but also uses it to buy up several estates and properties from pirates, allowing him to extend his organization throughout the seas. He soon has countless associates and followers who take his orders without question and help keep his hold on the islands he has taken over. Even with his superior skills in insult duels, though, it's taking too long to buy up the entire Caribbean and Ozzie decides to escalate his plans to find the Ultimate Insult.
Escape from Monkey Island
Years later, sometime after the events of The Curse of Monkey Island, Ozzie has apparently made his way to Lucre Island, where he builds a mansion, decorating it with the countless animals he hunted and killed, and traveled to Monkey Island. Once on the island, he frees the Demon-Zombie-Ghost Pirate LeChuck from the mountain of ice under which he was buried from Guybrush's exploits from the previous months. Ozzie's plan is to acquire the Ultimate Insult and use it to turn the pirates of the Caribbean into orderly, constructive members of society, and to control the entire area. LeChuck, who knows he can use the Insult to turn Elaine into a submissive wife, agrees to help, though he also has a secret agenda of his own.
LeChuck and Ozzie then develop plans to both obtain the secrets of the Ultimate Insult and buy up much of the Tri-Island area in one fell swoop. LeChuck uses his plundered voodoo to disguise himself as Charles. L. Charles and run for the governorship of Mêlée Island. By accomplishing this, Ozzie and LeChuck would be able to legally control the entire Tri-Island area, allowing Ozzie to have access to as much land as he needed to build the Insult Amplification Tower, a device used to expose every pirate to the Ultimate Insult simultaneously. The villains also hope that by gaining the governorship powers, it will also grant them the secrets to the last power needed to unleash the power of the Ultimate Insult, rumoured to be be connected to the governorship. Ozzie begins to buy up most of the land around Jambalaya Island and Booty Island and is capable of taking over great amounts of Mêlée Island as well.
Meanwhile, LeChuck arrives on Mêlée Island in his new disguise and convinces the high authorities of the land that Elaine is dead and to initiate a new election for the office of governor. While their plans are in motion, LeChuck explains to Ozzie that Guybrush Threepwood would be sure to get in their way, as he has done so many times in the past. They then decide to arrange a scheme that would take care of Guybrush and get them closer to discovering the Ultimate Insult. The Marley Family Heirlooms are said to contain the items needed to find the weapon, which are actually Elaine's wedding gifts from her grandfather, but no one is allowed to see them unless they are somehow connected to the family. LeChuck and Ozzie decide to lure Guybrush to Lucre Island to get the heirlooms so they can steal them for themselves. LeChuck has Elaine's mansion set up for demolition in order to force Guybrush to go to Lucre Island to obtain the deed for the mansion in the heirlooms.
On this island, Ozzie hires Pegnose Pete to steal the heirlooms disguised as Guybrush while the real Guybrush is getting them at the bank and then rob the bank to frame Guybrush for the crime. Ozzie and Guybrush eventually meet when Guybrush enters his house when attempting to clear his name. Ozzie immediately takes a dislike to Guybrush and reveals his visions of a Caribbean free of piracy and ruled by him. Guybrush eventually learns of Ozzie's scheme to steal the heirlooms and frame him for the robbery and succeeds in capturing Pegnose Pete. Ozzie tries to solve the mystery of the Ultimate Insult using the stolen Marley Heirlooms but is unable to. Guybrush tricks him and is able to follow Ozzie to Pegnose's Booty Showcase, where Guybrush finds evidence to clear his name.
Soon Guybrush is cleared of all charges, returns the loot back to the bank, and brings the heirlooms and the deed back to Mêlée Island and saves the mansion. While their schemes fail, LeChuck believes that they could actually use Guybrush to their advantage. Knowing just how resourceful Guybrush can be, LeChuck tells Ozzie that it would be better to their cause to just let Guybrush obtain the Ultimate Insult for them while he concenntrates on securing power as governor. Ozzie liked the plan and arrived with Pegnose, who was able to escape imprisonment, to start construction of the Ultimate Insult Amplification Tower once LeChuck wins the election. LeChuck's campaign is fueled solely by lies, preying upon the ignorance and desires of the island's populace, and insures of his victory. As Guybrush uses Elaine's wedding gifts to locate the island the pieces of the Ultimate Insult are on, LeChuck tricks Elaine into making herself look crazy to the Mêlée Island citizens simply by revealing his true form to Elaine and Guybrush. This compels Elaine to tell the populace of the island, but actually insures of LeChuck's victory, with the populace believing her to be crazy
Ozzie steps out of the spotlight (though his influence is felt in the tourist-friendly businesses of Jambalaya Island and the resentful pirates exiled to Knuttin Atoll) until the end of Act II when it is revealed that LeChuck and Ozzie are working together after LeChuck wins the election. Relieving Guybrush of the pieces of the Ultimate Insult and stranding Guybrush on Monkey Island once more, they plan the mass annihilation of the pirate-populace of the Caribbean. With LeChuck in power, the villains control the entire Tri-Island Area and succeed in constructing the Amplification Tower. LeChuck also makes use of his powers to enslave the populace and forces them to construct a statue in his honor, which was part of his own secret agenda that even Ozzie didn't know about.
Final Stand
While their plans were progressing smoothly, LeChuck's new position as governor still does not yield any true power that could awaken the workings of the Ultimate Insult. While Ozzie and LeChuck are unable to get the Ultimate Insult working, they are soon able to capture Elaine and realize that the Gubernatorial Seal of Mêlée Island is the last piece needed to make the Insult work. After testing the Insult on Pegnose, no longer in need of his services, Ozzie turns to his Ultimate Insult Amplifier, but fortunately by this point Guybrush has found a way off Monkey Island and sabotaged the Amplifier. Ozzie expresses disbelief that his plans have failed and LeChuck, already having enough of Ozzie, reveals his true intentions and goes to animate his statue to begin his reign of terror.
To make matters worse for Ozzie, Elaine manages to untie the ropes that bind her arms and attacks Ozzie. Guybrush interrupts the fight, yet another unpleasant surprise for Ozzie, and stands with Elaine to stop the crazed villain once and for all. Ozzie nearly manages to use the Insult on Guybrush and Elaine when a rebellious LeChuck, now in the form of a giant statue, interrupts him. LeChuck captures Elaine and Ozzie, one in each hand, but Ozzie manages to take control of him with the Ultimate Insult. Planning to start another assault on piracy, using LeChuck's statue to slaughter them all entirely, Mandrill and LeChuck then do battle with the Giant Monkey Robot.
During battle, LeChuck is tricked into performing the move for a third draw, faltering his arms and smashing his head. As a result, Elaine escapes his grasp as LeChuck drops his arms and Ozzie is left at the mercy of LeChuck as he is about to smash his head. Utterly helpless to do anything to save himself, Ozzie is left shouting orders, only to realize that there is no one around to obey them nor anything in his power to stop LeChuck, even the weapon he spent most of his life trying to obtain. Realizing that he is doomed, Ozzie lets out one final scream as he is smashed repeatedly by his former accomplice, winching in pain as his prized weapon is destroyed and blows up the last of Ozzie and LeChuck. The resulting blast of Voodoo energy seemingly destroys both of them, although LeChuck has returned by the time of Tales of Monkey Island while Ozzie becomes a forgotten man with everything he built his whole life ending in ruin.
Personality
Ozzie Mandrill is a ruthless businessman who became warped by his own ideals for money and expanding his operations across the Caribbean. He has shown that he will willingly and gladly commit numerous criminal activities in order to secure his financial operations and eliminate anyone who stands as an obstacle in his plans. His hatred of pirates stemmed from the fact that they constantly interfered with his business activities, causing Mandrill to develop genocidal anger towards them and seek to obtain the means to their destruction by any force necessary.
Ozzie sees no distinction between right and wrong and operates under the philosophy that what is right for him is good and what is wrong for him is evil. Through this slanted interpretation of good and evil, Ozzie commits many wrongful acts against innocent people, even if it is for the slightest reason. Even before his operations in the Caribbean, Ozzie attempted to murder Horatio Marley to simply insure that he alone is the only person who knows the secrets of the Caribbean and it's voodoo weapons that Horatio told to him.
Beyond that, Ozzie has also made deals with other ruthless villains such as Pegnose Pete and LeChuck in order to further his rise to power. While Ozzie's visions of a Caribbean free of piracy can be seen as helping the general public, the type of control he wishes to exert over the Caribbean would be no better, if not worse, than having piracy run rapid. His background in dealing with piracy makes Ozzie truly believe that he is doing the Caribbean some good rather than harming many innocent people and could potentially end up murdering mass amounts of innocent people in his extermination of piracy.
Ozzie was also no stranger to betrayal, only using people for his own ends and plans to dispose them once they have been used up to the fullest of their abilities. Pegnose Pete, who completed most of his orders efficiently, was exposed to the Ultimate Insult and had his ego shattered, an action Ozzie had planned to do since hiring him. While Ozzie betrayed others, he seemed to posses some respect for LeChuck due to his strength, but failed to realize that LeChuck also had his own designs and plans being formulated in the background and was only using Ozzie to obtain the Ultimate Insult and crush the spirits of all pirates.
While Ozzie claims to want to help the seas, he is seen as being very anti-social to people and insults every single person he comes into contact with. This illustrates that Ozzie truly has no love of concern for anybody or anything and wishes to only build up his own lifestyle and power. This also implies that he has superiority complex and believes that there is no one who is more suited to wealth and power than he is. His superiority complex is what ultimately ended his life, failing to see that his abuse and control over powers that are so much more stronger than him would eventually turn on him and destroy him, leaving him to die with no one to help him as he lived his life betraying anyone who took his orders or helped him in any way.
Prominent henchmen
- Pegnose Pete
- LeChuck (partnership)
Trivia
- Ozzie recites a modified line from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" in a cut-scene by saying 'Look upon my works, ye mighty pirates, and despair!' (The word 'pirates' is added.)
- After Ozzie tests the amplifier out, he quotes Marvin the Martian from Looney Tunes by saying "Where's the kaboom? There's supposed to be a Caribbean-shattering kaboom!" (Again he adapts, by replacing the word 'Earth-shattering' with 'Caribbean-shattering'.)
- Ozzie carries a WD-32 walking stick. He never pays Freddie for his work but the House o' Sticks benefits from the influx of tourists that Ozzie caused, unlike most businesses in the area.
