Herman Toothrot

File:Toothrot.jpg

Herman Toothrot as depicted in Escape from Monkey Island.

Herman Toothrot is a fictional character in the Monkey Island series of adventure games developed by LucasArts. Herman is based on the typical shipwrecked, big-bearded sailor who appears in many desert island adventures, other examples being Ben Gunn from the novel Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe, not to mention many a comic story which features similar marooned white men. Toothrot suffers from amnesia and he can't remember his real name. He has appeared in some form in every game of the series, with an increasingly prominent role in the fourth game of the series, Escape from Monkey Island (EMI).

Biography

Herman Toothrot's name was originally Horatio Torquemada Marley, the governor of the Tri-Island Area and grandfather of Elaine Marley. There have been huge debates over whether he is the same person as in LeChuck's stories in the third game. The most logical explanation is that Horatio was thrown into a whirlpool and lost his memory, becoming Herman Toothrot, then going on a cruise to Monkey Island, getting marooned there.

He left his position as governor to embark in a dangerous race off the coast of Australia. He was responsible for revealing the existence of the ultimate insult to Ozzie Mandrill, who much later rescued and allied with LeChuck. Supposedly when he was half way done with the race, Ozzie rammed Marley's boat and pushed him into a whirlpool. This is questionable though, as during the Curse of Monkey Island LeChuck himself claimed that he was the one who sent Marley into that Whirlpool, and had a much better reason for doing so, in that he wanted to prevent Big Whoop becoming public knowledge by killing Captain Marley and his crew. What we do know for certain is that the whirlpool dropped Marley and his shattered ship on the other side of the world on Monkey Island. He suffered amnesia in the process; after seeing the partial monogram "H.T." on his accordion, he invented the name "Herman Toothrot."

At some point, he made his way off of the island. He later met a captain who hoped to uncover the secret of Monkey Island. Since Herman was there once before, he offered to help. They eventually found the island, where they were shipwrecked. The captain died by hanging; whether it was an accident, suicide or homicide is open to interpretation. Herman trained a group of monkeys to sail the ship back to Mêlée Island in hopes that they would return with a rescue party. Since he was unable to remember his original arrival on the island, he told Guybrush this second story when asked how he got to Monkey Island.

The rest of the world assumed he had died during the Australian race. He remained a castaway on Monkey Island for many years, living as Herman Toothrot and slowly losing his sanity. The period of his amnesia, as well as when exactly he reached Monkey Island is a matter of debate, since the scenario has been very confusing.

Game appearances

Guybrush Threepwood meets Herman in the first game of the series, The Secret of Monkey Island. Herman is an old, ragged castaway who was shipwrecked on Monkey Island, where he has lived for over 20 years, losing a little bit of memory and sanity in the meantime. According to Herman, his ship sank long ago after finding the mysterious Monkey Island. Herman trained a group of monkeys to sail a ship, since he couldn't sail one all by himself and didn't want to spend weeks alone with a crew of monkeys; he sent this simian crew for help, but they never returned. He has since whiled away the years arguing with Monkey Island's resident tribe of cannibals, particularly over who borrowed what from whom.

In the second game, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Herman is now living on Dinky Island. After years of meditation, Herman has decided to share his views on philosophy. As Guybrush while on the island, you have the option to talk to him (however futile) and Herman asks Guybrush what the colour of a tree which falls down in a forest with no-one there to see it, will be, where Guybrush can guess a huge variety of colours, none of which are ever the answer; after trying all the colors, however, Guybrush will guess "All colors", the correct answer; his response to Herman's next question, namely that he has learned from the experience that philosophy is a waste of his time, pleases Herman greatly, who claims that most students take years to learn what Guybrush has realized from a ten-minute guessing game. Unfortunately, the only student he can find is a parrot.

The enigmatic character had no "live" role in The Curse of Monkey Island, the third game. Instead, Herman was represented by "Dynamo-Monkilectric" figures in dioramas at LeChuck's infernal theme park, the Carnival of the Damned. The Carnival of the Damned parodied many aspects of the Disney parks, including "audio-animatronics", and the puppet of Herman Toothrot was a part of the exhibit alongside the puppet of Captain Marley.

Herman's biggest role in the series was in the final game to date, Escape from Monkey Island. Still suffering from severe amnesia, Herman gradually begins to remember his past; once he completely regains his memory, his story is quite different from that expected: he remembers that he is actually Horatio Torquemada Marley, the long-lost grandfather of Guybrush's wife Elaine Marley and he returns to Mêlée and reunites with his granddaughter.

The Marley-Toothrot problem

The "resolution" of Toothrot's identity in Escape from Monkey Island directly contradicted the history presented in the first two games, which can be summed up as follows:

• In The Secret of Monkey Island, Herman claimed that he had been shipwrecked shortly after discovering how to reach Monkey Island with his ship, the Sea Monkey, which is later sold to Guybrush by Stan. Several things, even around the island, seem to support this: Stan's story, the ship's log, a skeleton hanging by a jump rope (destined to be a swing) that Herman explains was the ship's captain, a rowboat, and several other items that seem to be parts of a destroyed ship.

• In Escape from Monkey Island, however, Herman suddenly remembers that he washed up alone on Monkey Island after being shoved overboard during a race. Having thoroughly lost his memory, he invented the name Herman Toothrot after seeing the initial "H.T.". This fails to explain the ship's log that mentions the name Herman Toothrot, the hanged captain's skeleton or ship debris from the first game — unless this particular character has a split personality and is completely mad.