While comics, signatures, and many other artworks featuring myself have existed for over a decade now, for the longest time, actual guidance over my design had been very limited. Indeed, for much of this time, the only official “reference” for Mallow the Garbodor’s appearance came in the form of: A “sheet” consisting solely of basic character notes, and some poorly edited Pokémon Black and White Garbodor sprites customized with my unique details. Finally, in 2024, I decided it would be a good idea to officially formalize my design. Luckily, my good friend Kumada Panda was only too happy to help!
Reference Art, in full:
Individual poses and detailed character overview:
- Mallow is a large, bulky and round example of a Garbodor who is constantly dirty and stinky.
- His pattern of blobs differs significantly from a normal Garbodor, with many unique shapes and sizes of both pink and blue pieces than is typical. Most notable, however, is the pink heart ❤ directly in the centre of his chest.
- Mallow is a cheerful, friendly personality who is welcoming to everyone he meets. He has a very positive outlook on life in general, and is generally always looking to have fun and make new friends. The pink heart emphasizes this trait, as does the open mouth with toothy grin he almost always sports.
- Making friends is difficult for Mallow, however, mostly due to his incredibly foul stench, which never dissipates. While Mallow does sometimes make efforts to control his stench through the use of strong deodorants and the juices of Pecha Berries, it never ever fully disappears, and will gradually worsen again over time.
- Due to this, most of Mallow’s closest friends are also Poison-type Pokémon like him, who due to their nature are perfectly comfortable with both his stench and general grossness.
- Mallow is extremely loyal to his friends, and will look after them and include them in activities as much as he’s able.
- Mallow also absolutely loves hugs! Anybody who makes him happy is likely to receive his warm, stinky embrace without any hesitation. Being made of sludge and refuse, and having a very round and bulky body, this can often result in some very messy and disgusting situations (see Additional Notes, below)
- Despite Mallow’s inherent friendliness, however, he is perfectly capable of defending himself and his friends whenever they feel threatened, and is capable of some major aggression when angered.
- Whenever Mallow feels threatened or is overcome with any sort of strong emotion, his disgusting stench intensifies.
- Mallow is actually extremely toxic, and even short-term exposure to his stench, sludge, or the toxic attacks and gasses he can generate are all very likely to have serious harmful effects if he isn’t carefully controlling himself.
- Despite this, Mallow never willingly seeks to cause harm.
- A key source of why Mallow is so disgustingly stinky and toxic can be seen on the right side of his body, where a metal canister can be seen embedded within his sludge. The internationally recognized symbol for “biohazard” ☣️ can be clearly seen on the visible portion of this metal protrusion.
- It’s thought the origin of this object relates to the discovery of toxic waste having been dumped with the grounds of the large tip Mallow once called home (see About Mallow for further details).
- Though it is impossible to know for sure, the presence of the can is thought to imply that Mallow himself may contain toxic waste in his bodily composition. This may help to explain why his toxicity and stench is far beyond that of any other known Garbodor; and may also hint to his actual origins, which are unknown even to him.
- Before Mallow left the dump to explore the wider world, he used to spend a lot of his time resting against the many large heaps of rubbish within it. This has resulted in permanent staining to the remains of his bag on his back.
- Mallow also has visible burns on his back dating from the time he was forced to fight a rigged battle against a bully Trainer not long after his first time out of the dump. These scars also appear to be permanent in nature.
Additional notes:
- The exact texture of my body can vary based on many factors. In general, my body is quite solid, but will leave bits of sludge on anything I come into contact with or which comes into contact with me. However, conditions such as getting wet, coated in dirt or sludge, or using my Sludge attacks frequently will cause my body to become less dense and more sludge-like, oozing and dripping.
- My hugging style varies: For close friends or sad situations, I try to take long and slow hugs, breaking off slowly, which allows less sludge to stick to them at the end. For other people, or if I’m feeling extremely excited, my hugs can be more forceful, slamming myself into them and leaving them very messy!
- I am adverse to baths or long or heavy bursts of rain, and can only take short, infrequent showers; as being exposed to too much water for too long can actually cause my body to become waterlogged and may lead to bits of me breaking off. Getting too wet for too long may have serious adverse effects to my health.
- For more information about my stench and how it can be controlled or worsened, see “A brief overview of my pungency”.
