Alva Gunderson is a citizen of Steamland and Sky Gunderson's brother. He is also the founder of Steamland and head of Gunderson Steamwork company. He was the first to discover the potential of steam engine and is the head of the biggest company in the town, which makes him practically the ruler of Steamland.
While he has some connections to Satan (the steam that powers Steamland comes from Hell) and Queen Dagmar (he supplied Maru with technology), he mostly acts as a seperate villain who follows his own agenda rather than conspire with Dagmar. His plans all involve getting his hands on Bean's magic and ultimately making her his bride.
History[]
At some point Alva hired the Arch-Druidess to go to Dreamland as his spy with the ultimate intent to lure Bean to Steamland. He even gave her an expense account, which she was supposed to keep receipts for (but presumably did not).
While he does not appear yet in Part 2, he did send his brother Sky Gunderson to deliver a gun to Dreamland for the Arch-Druidess to assassinate King Zog with, thus kicking off the events of "The Electric Princess".
Alva himself is first seen in "Steamland Confidential", in which he found Bean in Steamland and he passed himself off as a regular employee of the company he actually runs under the alias "Gordy Stewson" to find out how Bean was like. Alva and Bean had a good time working and attended a carnival together until she ditched him to find the Arch-Druidess. But by the time she reached Alva's office, he was already waiting for her there. Alva revealed his plans to Bean and when she told him about what the Arch-Druidess did to her family and Pendergast, he fired her on the spot. He then proposed to Bean an alliance between Dreamland and Steamland since he too seems to want what hidden power or magic lies within the kingdom.
However, when Bean finds out that Alva wants to marry her (most likely for the sake of the alliance) Bean quickly escapes. He obsessively attempts to bring her back by using his robots and trying to get the citizens of Steamland to look for her by publishing a photo of her using blimps.
It is later revealed that he can spy on Dreamland thanks to the royal crown whose small antenna is in fact the transmitter of a spy camera. Unfortunately for him, Bean ditched the crown at her coronation since it's too big for her head so Miri threw it in a closet.
In Part 4, he is revealed to have his own elevator to Hell and that he has made some kind of deal with Satan. The steam that makes Steamland comes straight from Hell.
In Part 5, Alva once again tries to get on Bean's good side by rescuing King Zøg, who was captured by a group of Wrestlers, and by inviting Bean and Mora over to his penthouse. He also reveals himself to be a huge fan of Squalid Squirrel, the cartoon series Mora provide the voice for. However, it once again turns out to be a trap; he lures Bean into his secret laboratory where he locks her into a robotic suit designe to harness her magic lightning. Bean again manages to escape when she gets mad enough that her lightning shorts out the lab.
After this failure, Alva decides to move ahead with his ultimate plan; go to Dreamland and use the Trøg's Sacred Goo to power up a Rocket with which he hopes to abduct Bean to the Moon. The plan goes south when the Arch-Druidess, who herself is in love with Alva and tired of him ignoring her, hijacks the rocket and has the Trøg's capture Alva for her instead. With Alva as her prisoner and the Trøg's as passengers, the Arch-Druidess launches the rocket to the moon, where it crash lands. Alva is last seen when the Arch-Druidess and him are in the wreckage of the rocket, and she smashes his helmet with a hammer, effectively dooming them both to suffocate on the Moon once the oxygen in the rocket runs out.
Appearance[]
He has curly brown hair and tan skin. He also wears a fake moustache on a regular basis. It is implied in Part 4 that he has a small penis.
Personality[]
At first sight he seems like a nice and polite man but Bean still remained distrustful of him due to her experience with his brother Skybert. It is implied that Alva may not be as nice as he seems since even the Arch-Druidess warned Bean not to trust him.
Trivia[]
- Strangely, it is under his real identity that he wears a fake moustache. When he wants to be incognito he takes it off, which is the reverse of using a false moustache.
- It's possible he doesn't like spending too much money since he complained in his messages to Bean about how expensive they were. This fact mirrors the extreme capitalism in the age past before social reforms.
- HIs first name is possibly a reference to Thomas Alva Edison, an American inventor and businessman who has been described as America's greatest inventor. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures, such as the phonograph and the motion picture camera as well as improving the telegraph and telephone. Many of these devices are found in Steamland. Edison is best known for creating early versions of the light bulb, which is the head part of Gunderson's robot minions.
- The last name of Gunderson may be a reference to Futurama, specifically Gundersons Nuts.
- He has an elevator that leads directly to Hell.