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Manuel "Manny" Calavera
"Real" Name: Antonio PlanaRoom Number: M92
Roommate: Phoenix Wright
Age: Unknown (Real Age: 45)
Hair Color: Dark brown, some greying
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5' 4"
Other: Ex-Salesman, Ex-Manager, Ex-Captain, Ex-Hero. She is the cause. Dark circles under eyes. Scarring on left side of chest consisting of thin lines extending out from mark over heart.
Timeline: End of game.
Backstory
In Grim Fandango, we only know what happens during one day (the Day of the Dead) of each year and are expected to guess the events leading to each transition. I’m going to be briefly describing some of the speculations Charles Frederick’s novelisation made about what occurred in each year gap to create a flowing history. (The novelisation, while merely a fan creation, fills several of the canon’s plot holes with educated guesses). It might be wise to refer to the world information, because without an understanding of that, it might be difficult to understand the character's history.
Manuel Calavera was a pretty average guy who led a pretty average life. He wasn’t aware he had failed to live a decent life until he died. He was informed of his ‘debt’ and the means by which he had to pay it off: by becoming a reaper. As the years passed, Manny steadily climbed his way up the ladder, earning himself a lovely office at the top of the building. He also befriended Eva, the division’s newest secretary. Manny’s boss was later promoted out and replaced by Don Copal. By that time, Manny was the top agent at the DOD. He wanted out and nobody stood in his way as he sold numerous premium packages.
A new agent by the name of Domino Hurley walked in among the senior agents soon after Don’s arrival. Manny hated Domino for a number of reasons. Never mind that Don treated him like his “golden boy”; just as Domino’s success in selling was starting to become a constant, Manny suffered a slump. Weeks flew by without a single premium sale. Weeks turned to months, months turned to (estimated) nearly two years. Once the hottest salesman at the DOD, Manny was reduced to a nobody agent who was failing to work off his debt. Slowly but surely, he started slipping back into the self-seeking personality he thought he had abandoned.
Domino was moved into Manny’s office. Manny was forced to convert the supply closet next door into an office. At his last DOD Christmas Party (from the hints dropped in the game) it would seem Manny got hopelessly drunk and engaged Domino in a fist-fight before passing out. Manny had turned into a pitiful mess.
1
The game begins almost a year later, on the Day of the Dead (2nd November). Manny returns to his office after selling his latest client a walking stick, grumbling until he hits upon an idea; to look for a lead on a good client. A message from his boss informs all agents of a mass poisoning in the Land of the Living. “All clients are first come, first serve!” The reaper searches for his driver. Instead, he meets a giant demon mechanic named Glottis. According to him, Domino sent Manny’s driver home. Manny has Glottis illegally modify a car as the demon goes about being his (unregistered) replacement driver. Manny retrieves a client, who isn’t eligible for a package upgrade. Don advises Manny to sell a premium package soon or he’ll fire him.
Manny learns Domino has just sold a Double-N ticket to a nun, which explains why he dismissed Manny’s driver—to ensure Manny didn’t reach her first. The reaper decides to settle the score by stealing a client from his rival. Intercepting a work order, Manny reads the file of a woman named Mercedes Colomar. Convinced she is a “saint”, he rushes to the garage with his cloak on and scythe ready. There he finds Glottis in the driver’s seat of the car; a car that is now officially a hotrod. They easily win the race to Ms. Colomar.Back in Manny’s office, he pulls up her file and is shocked to discover her eternal reward is missing. He grills her for information about her past that might be acting against her. The woman (“Meche”) is a saint in every sense of the word. He asks her to wait while he goes to investigate, completely ignoring his client’s discontent.
Don orders him into his office. When Don tells Eva to send in Ms. Colomar so Manny can apologise and probably introduce her to Domino (her assigned agent), Eva informs them the woman has already left to begin her journey on foot. Don flies off the handle at this news, claiming Ms. Colomar did have a ticket on the Number Nine and that Manny was just hopeless for not being able to find it.
Manny is locked in the garage, left alone with the thought he’s going to pay hell for this. A stranger outside the door enlightens him by saying “the boys downtown” are going to “sprout” him. When he is sure Manny is an enemy of the DOD, he unlocks the cell and escorts him to the underground Headquarters of the Lost Souls’ Alliance (LSA). His name is Salvador Limones. An ex-reaper like Manny, he suspected the presence of a dark conspiracy and has since gone into hiding. He wants to build a revolutionary army to fight against the DOD’s corruption. So far, Eva (recruited as a spy a year ago) and Manny are his only recruits. He thinks the Bureau of Acquisitions is somehow robbing the newly dead of their tickets on the Number Nine and selling them to less deserving souls for profit. Manny is promised a safe way out of the city on the condition he helps them in their intelligence and communications unit. With no other option, Manny does as he’s told. Now a friend of the revolution, Manny is taken to the edge of the Petrified Forest. His plan is to find Meche and use her to uncover the DOD scam, which will get him his job back. Salvador asks if Manny is in love with her–to which Manny replies “I’m only after her for one reason: she’s my ticket out of here.”
He discovers Glottis and the “Bone Wagon” (their hotrod). It turns out the company fired him too. Manny literally saves the demon’s heart from flying spiders. They then tear through the Petrified Forest, acquiring high-lift shocks for the Bone Wagon and the key to an outer gate, all the while evading monsters. They arrive in the port town of Rubacava early the next morning. Dockmaster Velasco offers the newcomers a place to store the Bone Wagon. Manny gets a job at the automat. His plan is to wait in Rubacava for Meche’s arrival, for all souls must stop in the town to gain passage on a ship.
The following two paragraphs contain educated guesses Frederick made about the transition from Year One to Year Two:
Manny arranged for Glottis to occasionally take the route between Rubacava and the Forest to look for signs of Meche, asking the people and demons at stops along the way. Lola, a waitress they met the first time they passed through, came to Rubacava to work with Manny. They both worked in the automat until the owner, impressed by Manny’s efforts with the customers, left the business in his capable hands before leaving town. Judging by the way he flirts with her in canon, Manny may have dated Security Officer Carla. Probably not as worthy of mention is how he flirts with the telephone operator, though this is more likely an ongoing prank than a hint he used to date her as well. Manny also became familiar with Maximino (the “big boy in town”) and Olivia Ofrenda, girlfriend to Max and owner of the Blue Casket. After clearing it with them, Manny set to work converting the automat into a nightclub.
Nearly a year later, the Calavera Café opened for business. Manny put his name on the outside to ensure that Meche knew where to find him. Lola quit her position as his employee to start her own job as a souvenir photographer. Meanwhile, Salvador promoted Manny to ‘Special Agent’ status within the LSA while sending news of the revolution’s developments. He learns that a man named Hector LeMans is at the centre of the DOD’s corruption.
2
Manny pursues the customer who apparently asked for him. On the sightseeing platform, he mistakes a demon raven perched on binoculars for Meche. Manny uses the binoculars to watch it swoop over a dock and sees Domino forcing Meche on to the S.S. Lambada. He races for the remaining gangway as the ship departs, managing to jump and hang on to it. Meche then throws a champagne bottle at him, knocking him off the ship.Manny learns that the Lambada is headed for Puerto Zapato—the other side of the Sea of Lament—and the S.S. Limbo, a cargo ship, is the only ship in port that’s headed there too. There’s an opening in the engine room that Glottis can fill if he brings his own tools: Authentic Sea Bee equipment only. Manny won’t be allowed aboard unless a sailor named Naranja doesn’t show up. He’ll also need a maritime union card.
He spikes Seaman Naranja’s drink to knock him out and steal his dog tags, planting them on an unidentified sprouted corpse in the Morgue. The coroner uncovers the I.D. and notifies Velasco.
One of Manny’s shady customers proposes a deal—if Manny can retrieve a suitcase of ‘money’ from Maximino, he’ll print him a fake union card. The customer keeps his promise when Manny returns with the suitcase. He receives a union card.
A Sea Bee incites a riot. Manny comes across Lola’s photograph of Nick Virago (Max’s private lawyer) and Olivia kissing, and then blackmails Nick into freeing the Bee from incarceration so he can lead the other Bees in a strike, enabling Glottis to claim the abandoned Sea Bee equipment for himself. Manny’s farewell to Nick is a punch in the face, prompted by the fact Nick shot Lola when she wouldn’t give him the photograph (because if Max has proof that an associate is messing around with his girlfriend, he will probably have them sprouted). Manny is only able to find the photograph by following a set of clues Lola leaves for him. Lola’s sprouting scene is perhaps the most important turning point for Manny as a character—it heightens his awareness of the people around him and alerts him to the injustices he can prevent. Her last words to Manny entail a confession—she used to be in love with him, but because he was "so hung up on that Meche woman", she figured she wouldn't have had a chance.Manny’s ready to sail—except Glottis’s gambling problem has him chained to Maximino’s High Rollers’ Lounge. As half-owner of the Calavera Café, Glottis has credit. Manny ends Bogen’s “lucky streak”, knowing the Police Chief will raid his nightclub and have it shut down, which in turn ends Glottis’s term as a VIP.
Manny and Glottis depart from Rubacava aboard the Limbo before dawn.
Frederick forwards the following speculations: The Captain posted Manny to a variety of duties, eventually promoting him to first mate. Nearing Puerto Zapato, the Captain apparently went overboard during a major storm. After the inquiry, the ship dry-docked to undergo repairs. Glottis had replaced the diesel engines, but the ship itself didn’t get the extreme makeover until this stage. The line permitted Manny to take command of the ship. As the newly appointed Captain, he could rechristen the Limbo. It relaunched as the S.S. Lola, and thanks to the massive repairs and Glottis’s modifications, their ship started gaining on the Lambada.
3
The Lola lands in Puerto Zapato. Captain Calavera is told there are custom officials on board. An LSA carrier pigeon arrives to inform Manny of recent developments—a spy in Zapato has said Meche supposedly threw herself overboard at the Pearl. The message also warns him not to land in Puerto Zapato because assassins will board his ship. Manny goes down below to make a horrific discovery—his entire crew has been sprouted. He and Glottis escape Hector’s assassins, but the engines eventually fail and they sink to the bottom of the Sea of Lament.When they reach the Pearl, Manny and Glottis stowaway on a sub while its demon octopus driver is distracted. It propels them southward to a deserted factory island on the edge of the world. Manny is reunited with Meche, though he ruins the moment by suggesting she and Domino are lovers. The latter stresses that Manny is working for him now, that he’s going to train him to take his place as the boss of the enslaved coral miners.
The ex-Captain searches for Meche after being knocked out cold. He tries to coax her into eloping with him. She requests his gun in return for her trust. Manny trades for one and gives it to her, realising his mistake when she then takes him hostage. Using him to further her agenda—much like he used her—she threatens to shoot Manny if Domino doesn’t set them free. Domino locks her in a safe when she turns the barrel on him.Manny learns that the slaves are Domino’s old clients; the scheme involved transferring the Double-N tickets to a secret holding fund while Domino covered their tracks and arranged for the saints to “jump overboard” at the Pearl, where the octopus would then transport them to the island. Manny is the only soul other than Hector and Domino who knows of the hideout, which is why Domino lured him there with Meche as bait; to be certain word didn’t get out of the fact a group of saints remained in the Land of the Dead because their tickets had been stolen.
Manny breaks the safe open to free Meche. A pile of suitcases in the corner are filled with Double-N tickets, and it is then he realises the tickets are counterfeit; he remembers from his days as the top DOD agent that unlike these ones, the real article twitches around human souls. Hector has been selling fake tickets to the unsuspecting rich.
Everyone (except Domino) escapes on the S.S. Lamancha. Meche asks her travel agent what he intends to do with her. He states that the only job he has now is to bring them safely to the End of the World. “But if you aren’t going to use me to get your job back, why did you spend all this time trying to find me?” After a long pause, Manny answers: “I needed to find you.” They’re interrupted by the unceremonious arrival of Domino and his demon-steered sub. Manny confronts him, loses the scythe duel by a long shot, and so puts a separate plan into action, resulting in Domino’s ‘death’ by coral crusher.
We know that when they arrived in Puerto Zapato, they traded the Lamancha for a team of sled dogs. Between there and the End of the World, the group travelled across frozen tundra for a year. By the next Day of the Dead, Manny and Meche are romantically involved.
4
Upon arriving to the End of the World, the saints are accused of selling their tickets and are sentenced to detainment. Manny tries to explain their situation, to which the Gatekeeper replies, “You need to get your friends... their tickets”. Worthy of note is Manny’s decision to even stay with them—he could’ve walked through the portal to the Land of Eternal Rest, but he claims he “can’t do it” because he promised his friends he would save them. In the meantime, Glottis has fallen gravely ill due to the fact he hasn’t fulfilled his created purpose—“to drive”—for the past year. Once Manny has discovered the fuel for a rocket sled, the sled is set upon the train tracks with Glottis strapped on top and a gondola on the bottom for Manny and Meche (who is allowed to accompany them to El Marrow).The sled crashes in Rubacava when Glottis’s spirit is revived. With Glottis’s ‘help’, Manny disarms the bomb Domino set on the Bone Wagon. With Olivia in tow, they drive to the outskirts of El Marrow—officially Nuevo Marrow now that Hector rules it—only to be held at gunpoint by LSA agents. They reunite with Salvador, who tells them an LSA assassin has infiltrated Hector’s weapons lab. Victory unfortunately eludes them, for they soon discover it was a trap. Salvador and Olivia leave the HQ together while Manny explains his own plan to Meche—he’s going to assassinate Hector; he needs a disguise and a gun. Meche provides him with a suit. Manny disguises his face with make-up and has Hector’s weapons manufacturer arrange a gun for him.
Manny blows his cover after Hector shows him the real Double-N tickets. Hector has hoarded them for himself, because he believes his life record is that bad that he’s going to need them to help him leave the Land of the Dead. Hector flees without the tickets. Manny meets Meche and Glottis at the train station, giving Meche the tickets and bidding her farewell, since he can’t ride on the train. She is attacked by a demon raven and chucks the suitcase back to Manny, who then escapes with Olivia by car. He learns a little too late that Olivia has betrayed them.
Manny and Salvador are driven to the Meadow; a field Hector uses as a dumping ground for his sprouted victims. Olivia reveals that she is now Hector’s girlfriend before forcing Manny to confront him in the greenhouse. Hector shoots him with slow-acting sproutella. Manny luckily recovers by pouring liquid nitrogen on the one flower that has bloomed from his chest, which halts the sprouting process. It isn’t long after returning to the car that Salvador bites down on his explosive tooth, sprouting himself along with Olivia. Manny heads to the greenhouse for a shootout with Hector, but in the end fires a few rounds into the greenhouse’s water tank. The sproutella filters through the sprinkler system and effectively finishes Hector.
We don’t know the exact events between Manny departing the Meadow and hopping on the Number Nine with Meche and Glottis. What we do know is that the DOD gives him a Double-N ticket, because by ending the company’s corruption, he has paid off his debt. They show the tickets to the Gatekeeper, who then frees the saints from detainment. Manny says goodbye to Glottis and gets on the train with the others. Meche asks if she will be with him in the next world. Manny figures they might as well enjoy the trip. They kiss, and the Number Nine disappears through the portal to the Land of Eternal Rest.
Personality
There is no solid evidence as to what Manny was like when he was alive, but we can make a stab at it by putting the known pieces together. We know he doesn’t care for anyone in the Land of the Living, apparently having never visited living relatives from how his lack of interest borders on total aversion. He makes offhanded reference to them in the game: “No one back there I wanna see”, “there’s nothing for me there.” Given the evidence, it isn’t difficult to imagine Manny must have lived life for himself rather than for others. It seems obvious he didn’t strive for virtue. Manny reveals that he doesn’t quite know how he screwed up at life. Perhaps it was due to his ignorance of the world around him, busy living his own life and never changing it to help anyone else.
The above conjecture isn’t of consequence to his canon characterisation, but it is something I had to think about, as it is what the man’s personality may have developed from.
Manny is fairly composed unless presented with a situation that immediately endangers his friends. When he talks he usually sounds tired. Serving as a reaper taught him he was at the bottom of the ladder. He admits he must’ve got what he deserved, as he worked the system long enough to learn not to question it, but the fact he drew the short straw without actually understanding what he did wrong in life has created an apparent grudge, and this carries into his tendency to sound bitter sometimes. He has also grown to be a cynical man. As previously mentioned, this is presumably due to the reluctant acceptance of his destiny; his self-ignorance is ironically where his fault lies.
This part of his personality isn’t to be mistaken for an impediment, however. If anything, it compels him to fight off signs of insecurity. As well as being calm and collected in his conduct, Manny displays a great deal of self-confidence around others. He has a distinctive charm about him when speaking to anyone. He retains his qualities as an ex-salesman by how he can sway people into a deal, intuitively aware of what may please a person while occasionally taking advantage of knowing what may annoy them.
That said: he’s a natural-born troublemaker. According to the man himself, he was in detention all the way through high school. He has a habit of cracking jokes when you would least expect it. His sense of humour ranges from plain silliness to harshly applied sarcasm, though he normally reserves the latter for people who have incited some type of anger in him. His affinity for light-hearted jokes seems to grow after travelling with Meche and the others for a year (“say hello, Mr. Rag! ‘Hello Mr. Rag’”; “no, it might come in handy”; raising an amputated hand to his forehead in a salute and saying, “thank you, SIR!” etc). When he flirts, he goes for the teasing approach rather than laying it on thick.
When he assumes a hard-boiled guise in parts of the game, we can tell he is fond of it. However, no matter what he does, he can’t seem to shake off the ‘regular guy’ air about him. He was even accused of using comic book one-liners when duelling with Domino. When Manny has to be violent, it’s as though he’s just stepping in to test waters. He isn’t hardened enough, for example, to punch someone without good reason. The shootout with Hector was the most daring event he ever engaged in, but it was initiated on reasonable grounds. If there hadn’t been a suitcase of Double-N tickets and his friends’ wellbeing on the line, in addition to the fact so many people had suffered by Hector’s hand, Manny would not have gone through with it.
But if it’s up to him to achieve something he wants, he is always ready to take it upon himself as a duty he must fulfil. Once Manny sets his mind to completing a task, his highly competitive nature fuels him to carry it out. This drive helps to expand his imagination when he has to consider his options, making him an admirably resourceful person, as well as a fast learner.
At first, Manny’s motivations for being heroic were not clear. He didn’t seem to understand the reward in saving people, misinterpreting it for personal desire, until over time his experiences began to influence his self-indulgent nature. Lola’s sprouting acted as the first trigger. The incident opened his eyes to his lowered awareness of the people around him. He realised that seeing those he cared about in pain was something he hated more than anything. He wanted to prevent people of greater value than himself from suffering a fate he knew they didn’t deserve; perhaps it was his way of hitting back at the system. Manny’s journey across the Land of the Dead brought out the better in him, the good that was buried beneath his own ego. It transformed his goals into dignified ambitions befitting of a hero. During the shootout, he let off a shot for Salvador, his crew on the S.S. Lola, and “Lola herself”. This proves without a doubt that his experiences throughout the game were what caused this gradual change of heart. Manny’s friends helped to expose his valiant qualities to the point their own suffering deeply affected his thought process.
It is important to note that his enthusiasm for helping his friends is because his own interests still count for something - when it is in his interests to save people, to set things right, to overcome hardships on behalf of his allies... then of course he will stick to his word.
At Landel's
He’ll want to explore the area and collect items for his new inventory, taking a practical stand on the situation by interacting with his environment and the people in it. He’ll want to stay by Meche’s side, but he will regularly leave it to form alliances with those in the population who can provide him with the goods he needs, whether it’s materials he’s after or information. He’ll want to please the ‘leaders’ among the patients. He will try to accomplish the trickiest tasks to gain recognition; he’ll arrange everything as best he can in order to boost his chances each time he embarks on a specific nightshift mission. Acting as a surrogate parent to Pugsy and Bibi for a year has made him a little more inclined to interact with children as well, so his interest won’t be limited to adults. He won’t be above the idea of meeting people for curiosity’s sake, either.
Current Relationships: here.
Pyramid Head (actual/mental crimes): uno
Aquilas (virgin y/n): dos
Telepaths (open book y/n): tres
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