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Phlovomites are a race of blue aliens from the planet Phlovos created by Splapp-me-do. They are usually seen as evil creatures, and they have had many appearances during Splapp's successful Impossible Quiz series, most prominently during The Impossible Quiz Book as the villains of the saga.

Design and overview[]

Long before releasing the full-length version of The Impossible Quiz, more specifically in 25 May 2005, Splapp had uploaded a drawing to his deviantArt page with its title simply being: "Hmmmm...?". This drawing depicted two different kinds of aliens angrily glaring at each other, saying stuff in an unknown language.

AliensOriginalArtwork(Splapp)

The earliest drawing of both aliens.

He didn't state what these aliens were until 31 May of the same year, when he uploaded a huge drawing named "Phlovomites Vs. Spatulons", depicting a war going on between the races of the aliens from the aforementioned picture: the green aliens with big metallic spatula helmets, called Spatulons, and the invading blue ones, called the Phlovomites.

This kind of aliens have always been portrayed as tall blue creatures wearing white sleeveless jackets and shorts with details in yellow. Their eyes are completely exposed all the time, supported by long eyestalks, and they have big red-lipped mouths. They have two three-fingered hands with nails, with an extra pair of smaller arms coming out from the sides of their torsos, as well as plunger-shaped legs, and their blood is green. It's known that Phlovomites and Spatulons are natural enemies. Splapp stated that he simply created them just for the sake of having two different character types that hated each other's guts.

Inventions[]

Phlovomites have manufactured lots of inventions of their own, from video games to spaceships, though oddly enough they are unable to store information of any kind in their heads; this is what led them to create a device called the Guide to the Galaxy, where they would deposit all of the information they should ever know.

The Phlovomite's Guide to the Galaxy is some sort of book-like tactile device that has many features. In order to access them, however, whoever the user is must answer a total of 50 questions in order to prove that they are a Phlovomite. These questions are all themed after games and technology. The Guide's firmware will have to be updated after a certain amount of questions, with graphics going from the Monochrome era to the ZX Spectrum era, then to the 8-bit and 16-bit times and finally reaching the graphics of contemporary games.

The Guide also seems to have features of a television (judging by how its channel is changed at specific moments) and a computer, more specifically of an internet browser (seeing how it had ads randomly popping up on screen during a specific question of the game).

Phlovomite video games, or at least the ones featured in the Guide, bear striking resemblance to those of our own planet, including "Star Fox", "Pong", "LittleBigPlanet", "LocoRoco", "Pac-Man", the "Sonic the Hedgehog" series and the "Pokémon" series, among many others.

These aliens have also manufactured laser guns and loads of spaceships, which they most probably use whenever they're in the need of attacking the Spatulon race or invading a planet. Their mothership even had a time machine built into it; it's never stated if Phlovomites had actually used it.

Appearances in the Impossible Quiz series[]

Like many other characters by Splapp, both Phlovomites and Spatulons have made appearances in all of his main Impossible Quiz games. Phlovomites have made cameos in both The Impossible Quiz and its sequel, and they were given major roles in the plot of the episodical Impossible Quiz Book.

Leading roles in TIQB[]

PhlovomiteKing

The Phlovomite King

Three particular Phlovomites have appeared throughout the Impossible Quiz Book's plot. The first one of them is the Phlovomite King, the head of the race and the one in charge of their mothership. The Phlovomite King managed to connect their devices to the Earth's internet; however, the only thing he was known to be doing was to play an online game called "The Impossible Quiz", which is none other than Splapp-me-do's hit Flash game.

Due to being unable to remember the questions's answers as he played along, the Phlovomite King has usually found himself stuck on the very first question of the game. However, he found about the existence of a book on Earth called the "Impossible Quiz Book", which is said to contain the answers to every question of the game, so he and his fleet of spaceships set off to obtain it.

Eventually he found out that said book was in the paws of a cat named Chris, who used his shotgun to destroy one of the mechanical claws of their mothership when they attempted to snatch it. This is what led into the Phlovomites capturing HIM instead, along with the book, at the end of Chapter 1.

After finally being abducted in Chapter 2, two other Phlovomites, named 109 and 42, debated what they should do with him. They were considering the idea of removing all of his fur and eating him, but for the time being, they just threw him into a prison cell.

Without them noticing, Chris took hold of a copy of their Guide to the Galaxy they had accidentally left inside of his cell, and with the help of Spatulon ally Norman, they managed to decipher the code that would open their cell doors. When the Phlovomites found out about this at the beginning of Chapter 3, a horde of them set off to capture them, but they managed to escape using a conviniently placed time-machine.

By the end, when Chris and Norman decided to erase the original Impossible Quiz from existence, everything went back to normal, and none of the aliens have ever intended to invade Earth or snatch Chris in the fixed timeline.

Question appearances[]

Below is a list with all of the appearances of Phlovomites throughout the games.

Note: Questions in blue mean that Phlovomites are "somewhat" there (ex. name/mention).

The Impossible Quiz 1 and 2[]

Q51

Their first encounter in the series.

  • TIQ Question 51: a perfect example of their rivalry. You will be presented with a Phlovomite and a Spatulon facing each other; you must simply click on them repeatedly so that they hit each other, until eventually the Spatulon knocks the Phlovomite outside of the screen.
  • TIQ2 Question 78: you are presented with a red jack-in-the-box with a yellow question mark. You have to move your mouse in circles around the box's crank, until it opens and a Phlovomite's head comes out of it, sticking his tongue out as an odd laugh is heard in the background.

The Impossible Quiz Book[]

Screen Shot 2017-03-17 at 8.44

A Phlovomite about to shoot the lives counter as a result of selecting the wrong answer.

Phlovomites are known to appear during the plot of each individual Chapter of The Impossible Quiz Book, and they are particularly prominent in Chapter 2's game, where the lives counter will be shot by a Phlovomite every time a mistake is made. Their specific question appearances are:

  • Question 49: You may have to click around craters and dry parts of Mars as one of the two variants of the question. You have to search for a Phlovomite in this variant, who will then appear and hold a sign stating "Yes!".
  • Question 60: the "Phlovopong" mini-game. In this short game manufactured by Phlovos Intense-Gameplay Manufacturers, you must simply beat the "Extremely Intelligent Phlovomite Programming" in an intense game of "Pong".
  • Pre-Question 61 loading screen: after updating the Guide, one of the screen presents states that "Questions 61-70" were written by Roberto Phloverto.
  • Post-Question 70 firmware update: while the second update to the guide downloads after the Question 70, a pixelated gang of Phlovomites is seen on screen.
TIQB - 070 Update2

The Guide's second firmware update.

  • Question 72: homaging "Duck Hunt", you must click on all four Phlovomite-like ducks that fly across the screen to shoot them, after which a Phlovomite will come out of the grass holding their dead bodies. If you fail, the Phlovomite will rather laugh at your utter failure, as you watch the timer on the bomb reach zero.
  • Question 80: the "Phlovomite vs. Spatulons" mini-game. In this homage to platformers, you must travel across the level inspired by the Spatulon's home planet, making sure to grab the glowing orbs as they appear and killing the natives in the process.
  • Pre-Question 81 screen: following the third and final firmware update, a screen will tell you that you have completed the demo version of the Guide to the Galaxy, with a drawing of a Phlovomite, Chris and the Impossible Quiz Book appearing in the bottom-right corner.
TIQB - 090 (2)

Screenshot of question 90

  • Question 90: the "Pokémon" battle mini-game, where Chris is pitched against a random Phlovomite and one of his two possible "Pokémon" (either Bacon or an Eye-On-Legs). You must engage in a Pokémon-like battle and defeat your enemy before the Phlovomite gets the upper hand.
  • Question 150: not during the question itself, but rather during the ending sequence, where a pixelated Phlovomite (from their Guide) can be seen being abducted by the black hole that's wiping the Impossible Quiz series out of existence. Some more can be seen when different elements from the games rapidly flash on screen as they're erased as well.

Appearances in Splapp's other works[]

Splapp's current deviantArt ID features an image called "Big Happy Retarded Family"; where a great number of characters by Splapp can be seen on top of Mars, including a Phlovomite, who appears behind and slightly to the right of leading character Frank.

On 16 March 2010, Splapp uploaded to his deviantArt page a new huge drawing called "Spatulons Vs. Phlovomites", depicted as a sequel to his original "Phlovomites Vs. Spatulons" drawing. Here, the Spatulons are the ones invading the other race's planet.

A Phlovomite also makes a cameo appearance in a special drawing made by Splapp called "Impossible Chris", which features the series's mascot holding a bunch of Skips in front of a starry night background. The Phlovomite can be seen behind Chris, near the left border of the image, along with a Fusestopper, a bomb, a Spatulon and many other characters who also make cameos, as well as constellations that resemble question numbers, references and options.

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