I always used to think that Abe stumbled upon plans to kill off the entire mudokon workforce for Mudokon Pops. However, it appears to be a more subtle plan to avoid suspicion.
At EGX and I believe in some interviews before, Lorne talks about 'the retirement plan being a lie'. It's heavily implied that Mudokon Pops are made selectively of muds that are no longer useful as slave labour - those too old to work, injured, and the occasional whistleblower. Those who could disappear from the factory floor permanently with a decent alibi. I guess there's a fast enough turnaround of workers to facilitate this, with new eggs constantly being hatched and trained (though this itself is absent from both AO and NNT).
The retirement plan element wasn't referenced to my knowledge in AO. Though references can be found in NNT (signs reading 'Happy Early Retirement Wiloum, you deserve it!' etc. To me, this suggests Mudokon Pops have been in production for some time, right under the muds' noses. This could of course have been an internal prototype/product development stage, reinforced by the fact that the Gluk investors seem unaware of Mudokon Pops until Molluck's presentation. Something New and Tasty! is 'coming soon' after all.
Though, this doesn't fit with the timeline + poster seen in AE, as you guys have said. You wouldn't have the marketing machine prepped and ready to deploy posters of the finished product, on the same night you first pitch the idea to the board! Unless Molluck was that confident in his plan. I guess it's a moot point if discussing NNT/Soulstorm anyway, since the poster in AE is no longer canon.
While we're on Mudokon Pops, something about them has always confused me. The consumers on Oddworld are analogous to the real world, largely unaware of the atrocities being committed. Surely marketing Mudokon Pops to a population with a mudokon contingent would be a little too obvious? Or is Oddworld society so far gone they still don't realise or care?
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