Nugget

Nugget is Meat Boy and Bandage Girl's infant daughter, who first appeared in Super Meat Boy: Forever, born a few years after the events of the first game and prior to the events of the the sequel. Nugget is the game’s “damsel-in-distress,” second to her mother, as seen in the opening cutscene, Nugget got kidnapped by Dr. Fetus after he attacked Meat Boy and Bandage Girl. This is perplexing to most, as Dr Fetus is presumed to be deceased, although it's also very well possible that Dr. Fetus either survived the ending of the first game or he can regenerate like Meat Boy.

Though unintentionally, Nugget demonstrates how to make the Manipulator and Lab Guardian vulnerable in their intro cutscenes. For the Manipulator, she toys with a light switch that also turns fans on and off which slowly repel the Manipulator’s shrapnel. The Lab Guardian’s weaknesses is revealed by Nugget throwing a ball of scrap at one of the shield cores.

Description

Nugget, based on her size and age, is a toddler girl who has the same red body color as her father Meat Boy, but only lighter and shown on her face.

She wears a pink bunny onesie complete with ears and a tail, covered with bandages similar to her mother Bandage Girl; with a light pink belly with two buttons on the center. The onesie covers most of her body including her hands and legs, with only her face revealing her true pigment. It’s revealed in an illustration in the credits that her onesie flexible, as Meat Boy hands her to Bandage Girl when climbing down the cliff at Chipper Grove, by holding her onesie as he passes her to her mother, who’s at the bottom of the cliff.

Her hands are mitten-like with visible fingers occasionally appearing in four cutscenes in the game (twice with her middle fingers, twice with her index finger, and her thumb in the post-credits cutscene). Due to her onesie, her legs and feet are obscured as if they’re nonexistent, her knees are slightly visible when bending down and when her belly is on the ground.

Throughout the game, Nugget is seen with a light blue one-piece pacifier in her mouth with a heart-shaped shield and a rubber symmetrical nipple. Even with the pacifier in her mouth, her mouth is clearly visible throughout the game, even when she cried after the army of animals from Chipper Grove and Manic were on the verge of death upon the self-destruction of the Big Slugger. In the ending cutscene and throughout the credits montage, Nugget is shown to have grown three baby teeth, one on her top jaw and two on her lower jaw when her pacifier is not attached.

Nugget is shown mostly standing throughout the game, yet her locomotion is varied based on her age. She crawls in four cutscenes, including the intro, the ending, and the post-credits cutscenes. She is also seen walking unassisted through the game, as shown in the Lab Guardian boss intro cutscene as she was seen stacking a saw blade on top of two identical saw blades to build a table out of them, one pause menu animation when she walks off to the left end of the screen while giggling after Dr. Fetus grabs and places her on the ground after climbing around his jar suit’s body, the cutscene after the boss battle with Dr. Fetus when his untied shoe bounces on her head and lands right next as she was watching videos from his tablet where she curiously approaches and starts playing with it; as well as walking to Dr. Fetus while playing with the shoe, the ending cutscene where she walks to the seemingly-lifeless fetal genius, where she starts clapping and giggling and picks up a piece of glass from Dr. Fetus’ shattered jar suit before being picked up by Bandage Girl to get her away from any more trouble, and in the credits montage where she is seen chasing a rocket drone in the Lab with her parents chasing her to get her out of trouble.

Personality

Nugget is described in the intro cutscene as “Meat Boy and Bandage Girl’s little bundle of joy.” Throughout the game, she is shown to be a bouncy, playful, curious, and mischievous baby who likes to get her hands onto anything she sees as fun, much to Dr. Fetus’ annoyance and frustration.

Despite being kidnapped and being abused by Dr. Fetus, Nugget just likes to play and giggle like any girl her age as she’s too naïve and young to understand that he abducted her. She’s also shown to be very happy and loves to explore everything around her with mischief and curiosity. In the pause menu animations, it is shown that Nugget is very friendly and playful towards Dr. Fetus, where she plays Hide and Seek/Peek-a-Boo in his hat, climb all over his jar suit, put stickers inside his jar suit, and give him a doodle self-portrait of him that she drew, in which he gets annoyed, becomes confused, and rejects her drawings and stickers. Eventually, she won Dr. Fetus over when she gave him her spare pacifier after he rematerialized when she offered it to Omega Alpha as a token of friendship and kindness, in which he graciously accepts it and her kindness.

During her time of being kidnapped, Nugget is shown to be developing new milestones including learning to stack using saws as building blocks, walk on her own, take out her pacifier and back in her mouth when drinking, and tumble when she and Dr. Fetus were at the Clinic shown in the second boss intro. As seen in the cutscene of the Lab Guardian’s defeat, when Dr. Fetus went into a fit of anger and showed two middle fingers to Meat Boy and Bandage Girl, Nugget (who watched his fit) began to accidentally learn this gesture and mimic him to a group of butterflies as she found the gesture funny, much to Bandage Girl’s amusement and Meat Boy’s shock and disappointment.

In the boss level “Burly Brawl,” it is revealed that Nugget often entertains herself as she is shown watching videos on Dr. Fetus’ tablet and drinking soda in the boss intro cutscene and during the boss fight with Dr. Fetus.

Nugget is always very happy and see everything around her in bright colors. But when Dr. Fetus activated the Big Slugger’s auto-destruct function as the army of woodland critters from Chipper Grove and Manic (who joined the army) charge towards him, the destruction of the Big Slugger and the casualties from the explosion made Nugget feel heartbroken and saddened to the point where her pacifier fell out of her mouth and began to cry. Eventually, she calmed down when she rematerialized after the final boss fight with Omega Alpha, and returned to her cheerful disposition.

Nugget is revealed to easily recognize Meat Boy and Bandage Girl as her parents regardless of their age, especially in the Other Side.

Nugget also happens to be a “daddy’s girl” who loves her look-alike father Meat Boy, as shown in the ending, credits montage, and post-credits cutscenes as she hops onto her father’s arms, in which Meat Boy gives her an affectionate kiss on her forehead (in which she giggled for a bit), likes to be carried by him, laughs at his funny faces, and takes his hand to hold onto.

Just like all infants who are learning to walk, Nugget is also clumsy, as seen in the post-credits cutscene when a butterfly approaches, in which she temporarily loses her balance, stumbles, and plops onto the ground belly down, but otherwise she was okay and crawls to follow the butterfly.

History

Early Life

Little is known about Nugget’s birth, but it’s revealed that she was born a few years after the events of Super Meat Boy, and that Meat Boy and Bandage Girl love her very much.

Kidnapped

In the game’s intro cutscene, Nugget and her parents were shown having a picnic outing and enjoying life as a family. Then, Dr. Fetus attacked Meat Boy and Bandage Girl out of the blue with a shovel, and then kidnapped Nugget by grabbing her and putting her in a sack. This incident prompted her parents to go on a perilous adventure to rescue her.

Chipper Grove

In the first boss fight intro, when Dr. Fetus approached Meat Boy and Bandage Girl with his creation the Big Slugger, Nugget popped up to look around the cockpit of the tank while the evil genius laughed. Nugget spots a large red button and curiously pushes it, triggering the ejection alarm. The discovery of the flashing lights and alarm sirens gets Dr. Fetus startled and Nugget entertained that she claps and laughs. Dr. Fetus, annoyed, grabs the toddler and tossed her across the cockpit to the floor, before shutting off the alarm and commencing the battle with Meat Boy and Bandage Girl.

After the battle, just as Dr. Fetus was about to make minced meat out of her parents, Nugget climbs up to the control panel of the cockpit, slinks to where the ejection button is, stands up, and hops onto the button, startling Dr. Fetus once again. Nugget giggles with mischief as she bounces on the ejection button, causing the Big Slugger to lose control and eject the cockpit’s escape pod after Dr. Fetus grabbed her by the ears of her onesie; sending them to the Clinic.

The Clinic

In the second boss fight intro, Nugget is seen on top of a construction platform with a harness and safety tether connected to Dr. Fetus. Nugget somersaults down a ramp on the platform and laughs and giggles when she flops onto her belly, while Dr. Fetus prepares the experiment, a sentient brain named Manic, for battle.

When Manic telekinetically gathered all shrapnel and became the Manipulator, Nugget begins playing with the light switch, which also triggers the fan switch simultaneously, accidentally revealing the Manipulator’s point of vulnerability. Dr. Fetus gets annoyed, Nugget is whiplashed by him via the tether of the harness, and she is dragged away (while happily waving goodbye) before the boss ensues.

Tetanusville

In the third boss fight intro, Nugget was stacking saw blades as Dr. Fetus was entering the passcode to his laboratory. She spots Meat Boy and Bandage Girl from above and waving hello to them, before picking up a ball of scrap metal. When Dr. Fetus activated the Lab Guardian to dispose of the couple, Nugget was about to put the metal ball on top of the saw blade she had stacked on top of two identical saw blades; until Dr. Fetus pushes the blades out of the way for him to pull out a folding chair to watch the action. Confused and bored, Nugget chucks the metal scrap ball off the top and accidentally hits one of the shield cores to the Lab Guardian, again unintentionally revealing a vulnerability point. Before the battle commences, Nugget chucks a saw blade of the the top entrance and giggles, much to Dr. Fetus’ annoyance.

Upon the defeat of the Lab Guardian, Nugget watches Dr. Fetus going into a fit of anger, who slams his drink on the ground and gives the duo two middle fingers. Nugget giggles at his gesture, becomes fascinated, and accidentally imitates his gesture to a butterfly that approached her. Pretty soon, she shows her newfound gesture to a group of butterflies, while squealing and laughing, much to Dr. Fetus’ confusion, Meat Boy’s shock, and Bandage Girl’s amusement. Nugget is then taken by Dr. Fetus into his laboratory, prompting her parents to pursue them.

The Lab

When Meat Boy and Bandage Girl reached Dr. Fetus’ throne room, Nugget is shown lying on the floor beside the throne curiously watching videos on Dr. Fetus’ tablet (similar to an iPad) and drinking soda.

The Other Side

After the hollow defeat of Dr. Fetus, one of Dr. Fetus’ shoes (which was untied) flew off, bounced on Nugget’s head, and landed right next to her as she was watching videos on the tablet. Curious of what’s next to her, Nugget picks up Dr. Fetus’ untied shoe and starts playing with it.

She shows the shoe to Dr. Fetus, showing a trick or two; only for the jerky genius to snatch it from her hand and put it back on his foot. Curiously, she turns around, spots the animals from Chipper Grove and Manic (who’s controlling the Big Slugger), and joyfully points and giggles at the sight of the cute animals. Nugget’s joy then turns to heartbreak and sorrow when Dr. Fetus activated the Big Slugger’s self-destruct function, bringing heavy casualties to the Chipper Grove army.

Trivia

• Nugget is confirmed to be 2 meat-years old (possibly 11 months old in human age).
• The pink bunny onesie Nugget wears is questionable whether it’s her true body or an actual article of clothing, and the origin of the aforementioned onesie is unclear throughout the game. In which the ears are often held by Dr. Fetus, and one of them was dropped down as she calmed down and stopped crying in the ending cutscene, the bandages patterned on it, and the two buttons on the belly of her onesie which may resemble navels (belly buttons); it is unclear whether or not Meat Boy and Bandage Girl’s people have two navels on their stomachs. Yet in the credits montage, Meat Boy was holding on to Nugget by her onesie as he handed her to Bandage Girl while they were climbing down the cliff in Chipper Grove, indicating that her onesie IS her attire as it is shown to be stretchy and flexible. It’s hypothesized that Bandage Girl handmade the onesie for Nugget while pregnant with her and clothed her with it when she was born.
• Nugget’s name is based on her body composition of meat like Meat Boy, in reference to chicken nuggets, and an affectionate nickname for a baby or toddler based on their cuteness.
• The shape and appearance of Nugget’s pacifiers (which are collectible in the game, similar to bandages in the first game) resemble NUK brand pacifiers in the real world, although the one she has in her mouth is slightly detailed in the game.
• How Nugget was born prior to the events of Super Meat Boy Forever is unknown. However, there are fan theories suggesting that Super Meat Boy happens before Meat Boy (the Flash prototype game). Bandage Girl probably gave birth to Dr. Fetus (Even if he's still a Fetus) as seen on the Dark World Ending, then Bandage Girl gives birth to Nugget, probably because of the "Hot Coffee Cutscene" in the Meat Boy prototype game.
  • On 13th of March 2020, Tommy Refenes responded to the question of the hot coffee cutscene being canon to the birth of Nugget with: "You don't get pregnant every time you have sex." Later, he expanded on by saying: "No, Nugget was not conceived during the Hot Coffee scene from the flash version."
    • Also, because of Tommy wanting it to be put in as "Sorry fellas, no fetish and porn at the end of the Meat Boy flash game.”