While wandering along the scenic beach of your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island paradise you may have occasionally come across something that looks like the water-logged corpse of Donald Duck washed up on your shores. This is Gulliver, the sea-faring seagull who, despite being a seasoned ship captain, seems to fall overboard rather frequently. There’s something very odd about Gulliver’s situation. You’d think by now an old sea dog - or bird in this case - would be better at not tumbling into the ocean and nearly drowning.
Unless it’s not actually his fault. Perhaps there’s a much more sinister reason that Gulliver ends up stranded on your island…
The Curious Case Of Captain Gulliver
Gulliver has been a part of the Animal Crossing games since the very beginning of the series. He normally washes up on beaches and then asks for the player’s assistance in getting back to his ship. He then sends an item such as a nice piece of furniture as a reward for helping him. In New Horizons, each time he winds up on your island he tells you that he should be able to contact his crew using his communicator. Except the communicator’s parts have been broken and buried along the beach. This happens each and every time you discover him.
How does this exact same scenario keep occurring? If it only happened once that would be weird enough, but you’ll find Gulliver lying face down in the sand several times and you’ll have to keep digging up his communicator. It happens so regularly that he might even complain to Isabelle about your island’s lack of infrastructure! You would assume that since this seems to happen on a daily basis that his ship would have a life preserver handy for when he falls overboard and his crew would save him.
Unless of course, his crew doesn’t want to save him…
Mutiny’s Afoot!
We have a suspicion that Gulliver’s crew might not like him very much. In fact, they may even be actively trying to get rid of him.
If we go by the entirety of the Animal Crossing series, Gulliver has been a sailor of some form or another for over 19 years. That’s a decent amount of seafaring experience. After running his own vessel and being out on the open water for so long, there’s simply no excuse for constantly falling off of his boat, unless he’s a truly awful shipman (which to be fair, is quite possible.)
Then there’s the fact that his communicator is not only broken but also buried. Sometimes the pieces aren’t even buried on the same beach he washed up on! Also, how can his crew have no idea where he is? How could they lose track of their captain so easily?
The answer is simple: mutiny. Maybe he’s a terrible captain who’s hard to work for. Maybe they’re tired of his outlandish stories. Maybe they’re just sick of hearing him constantly talk in his sleep. Whatever the reason is, it looks like his shipmates are throwing him into the water.
Gulliver is an exceptionally deep sleeper, as demonstrated by how many attempts it takes for the player to nudge him awake when he’s found. He also never has any memory of his crew chucking him into the sea. We think they wait until he’s completely passed out, lift his unconscious carcass, and dump him into the ocean.
Much to his crew’s chagrin, he just keeps coming back. So in order to step up their plans to be rid of Gulliver once and for all, they’re going the extra mile and breaking his communicator and burying the pieces on a deserted island. However, due to either their incompetence in finding a good place to ditch the seagull or just sheer bad luck, the player keeps helping Gulliver repair his communicator and return to his ship. It seems like his crew would have gotten away with their plot if it wasn’t for us meddling villagers.
Might Be Time To Hire A New Crew
Of course, we may be reading a little too much into this situation. It’s possible that Gulliver’s crew isn’t out to get him. But the alternative explanation is that Gulliver is so clumsy that he somehow keeps ending up washed up on random beaches with no recollection of he got there. Does he sleepwalk? Does he have narcolepsy? Or is he just that bad at sailing? It’s also plausible that his crew isn’t being malicious when they lose sight of him. Maybe they’re just as incompetent as he is. This could just be the worse run ship currently out on the water.
But even the least prepared crew couldn’t be this terrible at keeping track of their captain. We have a sinking feeling that Gulliver may be in more danger than he realizes. We hope that he quickly figures out that mutiny is afoot on his ship and takes the necessary steps to prevent himself from ending up in a watery grave.
And if he doesn’t, well, he can at least start wearing a life jacket. Come on Gulliver, that’s like Sea Safety 101.
