I just had a heart-pounding gribment (Gribbly moment). I’d made it to the baby cave with the second-to-last gribblet, but in that exact moment, Seon (or Murder Mickey, as I’d known him up until consulting the manual) appeared to demand his grisly fee. Being on my last life, I kissed my gribblets goodbye and told them to close their eyes, but in that exact moment, one of the pincermen (those flying crane game cranes) appeared, carrying the last gribblet! It had brought the final child home! In the tizziest of tizzies, I mashed the buttons just so, that I bubbled the pincerman, who disintegrated and dropped the gribblet safely directly onto the platform. (…Either that or it perished, and that counts as finishing the level as well.)
It just so happens, however, that in the very same moment, Seon got his grubby claws around Gribbly’s ankle-neck, and he breathed his last.
But. I was presented with the introduction screen for the next level! A classic “defeating the boss after you conk it” moment! However, after that introduction screen, it sent me back to the instructions to start all over again. I choose to interpret this in the following way: Gribbly’s soul went on to the Flooded Cavern, but I – the guiding hand on the other side of the screen – am not privy to his continued day out in the afterlife.