Pillar John is a large purple pillar bearing a tired expression. He has yellow ringed pupils in his black eyes, a distinguished wrinkly forehead, a large nose and eyebrows, and an underbite, which hides his teeth. He is also slightly bandaged and cracked.
He has a different appearance in The Crumbling Tower of Pizza. His body is far more damaged, having deep cracks and being covered in pizza toppings, as well as having missing teeth and eyes devoid of pupils. He also has his small orange hat on his head. This doesn't have a defeat sprite, instead using the same sprite when killed.
It is unknown what exactly Pillar John is or how he was created, but he is heavily tied with the entrance gate to each level. As said by Pizza Tower Guy in a Discord discussion, "The lore explanation is that the gates are like portals to pocket dimensions, and what keeps the portal connected is the pillar you destroy in each level." Though, do note that this could be outdated. He seems mostly displeased with this role, as shown in his mostly grumpy expressions and his Toppinbot quote.
Behaviour
Pillar John stays in place at the end of most levels, doing nothing. Killing him starts Pizza Time. Pillar John also increases combos, but can't be used to start a P-rank.
According to McPig, John and Gerome are brothers. The duo took care of the tower until one day, Pizzaface placed a curse upon John, turning him into a multitude of giant, hive-minded pillars. He was forced to hold the portal gates open forevermore, with Gerome stuck as the tower’s only janitor. The hat-wearing Pillar John from The Crumbling Tower of Pizza is the original John, worn and torn over years of neglect.
After Peppino and company escape and destroy the tower, he returns to the remains of the tower, where a dead John's crumbled remains are seen. Alongside the defeated Pizzahead, Gerome silently mourns the loss of his brother, cap in hand and hand to heart.
However, if the player has collected all of the Tower’s Secret Treasures, they will fly out of Peppino and into the dead John. The treasures bring John back to life and to his original form, in which he gains limbs and pants. Pizzahead gets back up completely unscathed, but John uppercuts him, sending him off into the horizon. The brothers, now reunited, happily celebrate as Peppino gives a confused and anxious smirk.
After collecting all the treasures and resurrecting John, the save file on the file select will show a stamp of John giving a thumbs up, labeled "John Approved".
This section is dedicated to trivia and miscellaneous information about Pillar John. Remember to read the wiki's trivia guidelines before adding trivia or making changes.
While not possible through normal unmodded runs, Peppibots have the capability to kill Pillar John and start Pizza Time.
In Tumblr posts before Early Test Build, Halloween Demo and Demo 2, Pillar John must be fed all five Toppins to proceed. If John was satisfied, he would allow access to the Tower Secret Treasure, collecting which triggered Pizza Time. Therefore, it was impossible to initiate Pizza Time without all 5 Toppins.
In the Beachandforest build, in any room that Pillar John is in, Meatophobia would start playing. This has since been changed in PT_Eggplantv15, where it will only start playing if Pillar John is on screen, and the transition is smoother.
Meatophobia used to only play in the bottom level of Bloodsauce Dungeon, serving as that level's second track.
Pillar John's name may be a play on Papa John's, a well known pizza restaurant chain.
Pillar John's statue giving a thumbs up on its way down in the background of The Crumbling Tower of Pizza is likely a parody of T-800 giving the same dying gesture in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
In Pizza Tower's files, Pillar John is often referred to as "Hungry Pillar". This is a remnant of the earlier demos where instead of destroying Pillar John, players fed him the Toppins they collected.
Like Fake Peppino, In the lab background of WAR, Pillar John can be seen in a lab tube. This would explain why there are multiple Pillar Johns across the 20 levels in the game.
In an early version of the game's story, Pillar John was the main antagonist. He would trick the player into feeding him Toppins to make him stronger, and insult Peppino if the player got a low rank in a stage. At the end of the game, he would reveal his true form, that being the Pizza Tower itself, and his boss battle would be similar to the boss fight with Rudy the Clown in Wario Land 3.
The giant Pillar John statue in the background of Staff Only's hub may be a reference to this early concept, though this could be just a coincidence.
In an April 14th 2018 video, when a level is collapsing, it is given a time limit and Peppino must go to a place where Pillar John is found and feed him five Pizza Boxes instead of Toppins, After feeding him, The time will stop and the level will go back to it's normal state.
McPig has stated that, despite his appearance, Pillar John is actually made of wood.
The original Pillar John seen at the start of The Crumbling Tower of Pizza is referred to as "protojohn" in the files.
The giant Pillar John statue on Floor 5 has a singular pepperoni on his arm that was mistakingly left uncolored.
Pillar John dead after the tower collapses in the normal ending.
Resurrected Pillar John, seen in the true ending.
Resurrected Pillar John noticing Pizzahead.
Resurrected Pillar John uppercutting Pizzahead into the horizon.
An enormous statue of Pillar John, seen in the Staff Only Hub.
Pillar John's statue seemingly being grateful towards the player as it crumbles during The Crumbling Tower of Pizza.
Pillar John's old idle animation. Seen in the Old Tower secret in the Tower Lobby Hub.
Pillar John dressed up as The Noise, seen at the end of the game after collecting every tower secret treasure as The Noise.
Old & Scrapped animations
Pillar John with an angry expression when the player gets close to him. Was used in older demos when the player didn't have enough Toppins to feed him. Used as a placeholder defeat sprite in the Blue Block Land build.
Pillar John smiling when the player goes away from his vicinity. Was used in older demos when his hunger was satisfied.
Pillar John's old defeat sprite.
Pillar John opening his mouth to be fed Toppins in older demos.
Pillar John talking.
Pillar John on the old TV HUD.
Miscellaneous
Toppinbot's description of Pillar John on the Pizza Tower Discord.
Toppinbot's portrait of Pillar John.
Pillar John in concept art. Interestingly, Pizza Time seems to have started despite Pillar John being alive, though this may have been made in earlier phases of development.
Pillar John promotional art, Used to promote Demo 2.
John approving a save file. Shown in the main menu if John was resurrected in the selected save file.
An icon of John smiling. Replaces the Pizza Boy image in the menu if the selected save file's tower status is 100%.
A recolor of the previous image, shown if the tower status is 101%.
The previous image as a Steam badge, which is shown when extremely rare foil cards are combined.
Pillar John partying With Swedish Monkey. Appears in the game's ending for when John is saved.
Ditto, but with John covered in shade. Shown instead of the previous image if John wasn't saved.
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