X-Naut
- “You rang, dude? I mean, sir? You rang, Sir Grodus, dude? Grodus? Sir Grodus, sir? ”
- —X-Naut, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
X-Nauts are aliens that work for Grodus and Lord Crump of the Secret Society of the X-Nauts; they all appear in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. These guys are short and individually weak, but rush to defend their threatened leader, often Lord Crump.
In recent years, X-Nauts have (according to Super Paper Mario) been featured in two sci-fi TV shows: Starship X-Naut and The Grodus Chronicles (the latter of which is only known to have featured one X-Naut whose lover had dumped him). There have been many seasons of Starship X-Naut, and the show is a favorite of geeks such as Francis. Apparently, he favors people who would dump somebody over a conversation about the propulsion system of the X-Nauts' spaceship on the show. An X-Naut made a cameo appearance on the Nintendo Monopoly board.
Varieties of X-Nauts (I.E. Sub-Species)
- X-Naut Troopers are the lesser X-Nauts, also the weakest. These types of X-Nauts are field troops and the lowest of Grodus' underlings. When led by high-ranking commanders, such as Lord Crump, they can use more attacks.
- Elite X-Nauts
- X-Naut PhDs
Notable X-Nauts
- Sir Grodus – Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
- Lord Crump – Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
- Johnson – Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
X-Naut Platoon Stats
- HP: 10
- Attack: 5 (Decreases as HP is lost)
- Defense: 0
- Location: Keelhaul Key
- Tattle: That's an X-Naut platoon. Crump commands them all. Where'd they come from? Their Max HP depends on their condition, but Attack is 5 and Defense is 0. They're gonna come at us with coordinated group maneuvers, I'm sure. ...But they're pretty wimpy, so we should be able to handle it, don'tcha think?
Trivia
- The X-Nauts' name was possibly derived from the letter "X" (or the word "cross") and the word "astronaut".
- Due to the lack of voice acting in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (aside from small voice clips from Mario, Peach, and Bowser), the actual pronunciation of "X-Naut" is unknown. It's possible that it's pronounced "ex", like the letter "X", or it could be pronounced "cross", like the X-Yuxes. Although the word "an" was applied to the X-Nauts, it should also be noticed that it was incorrectly applied to the X-Yuxes in Goombella's Tattle, as well (unless she pronounced it "Ex-Yux" first, before revealing its actual pronunciation).
- In Super Paper Mario, there is a Sammer Guy by the name of "Laughing X-Naut."
- The only two X-Nauts with names are Lord Crump and a random X-Naut named Johnson. Perhaps by coincidence, Crump and Johnson are also the names of two of the Big Five from the Yu-Gi-Oh anime. In addition, during Goombella's email at the ending scene of the game, five X-Nauts (a regular X-Naut, a PhD, two Elite X-Nauts, and Crump) are seen alongside Grodus in Poshley Heights.