Greystoke Jr.

"Ugala bugala!"

- Greystoke's favourite jubilation

John Clayton Jr., Viscount Greystoke, mostly known just as Greystoke Jr., is the son, the second-born, to be precise, of Tarzan (a.k.a. John Clayton Sr.), the main protagonist of the namesake novels' series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Every second born of the Tarzan clan (the first becomes the new Korak), generation by generation, inherits the name John Clayton, moving from Junior to Senior once they had their second child. Created by Blitzknight.

He's a Rebel more for principle than for real opposition to his tale. He wants to do so many things, and having to tell a story already told would be an obstacle!

Appearence
Greystoke Jr. has a big and flat nose and wide black eyes. His brown hair are always messed up, even if he regularly washes them. Unlike his father and brother, he has a massive body, not suitable to twirl among the lianas. In fact, with his physique and the longer than normal arms, he's more ape-ish than his relatives: often, he even knuckle-walks like a gorilla! In spite of this, Greystoke keeps trying it, with inevitably disastrous results: every time the liana breaks it, and the boy violently crashes on the floor... or on an unlucky student. Even being so huge and round, Greystoke isn't fat: not a single spot of his body is flabby.

Personality
Greystoke is usually a good-natured guy, very expansive and caring for people he likes, though if something really upsets him, he can totally lose the control and acting like a runaway ape. Luckily, these rage episodes are very rare. He isn't stupid, but the continuous barrel-heads due to his liana experiments, added to his eccentricity, make him look like that. He's instead highly educated, mainly thanks to his mother Jane Porter, who didn't want another child completely absorbed by the wild. A curious consequence of this is that Greystoke has matured the purpose of acculturate the Mangani tribe, the apes who raised his father. It was one of his first bizarre ideas. Much to everyone surprise, results were encouraging.

Novels - Tarzan's series
The main, official series is composed by twenty-four books, published from 1912 to 1965. Added to these, there are many other official works written by Burroughs or by others under license. In this purview, we're gonna focus on the first four novels.

Tarzan of the apes

The novel tells the story of John Clayton, born in the western coastal jungles of equatorial Africa to a marooned couple from England, John and Alice (Rutherford) Clayton, Lord and Lady Greystoke. Adopted as an infant by the she-ape Kala after his parents died (his father is killed by the savage king ape Kerchak), Clayton is named "Tarzan" ("White Skin" in the ape language) and raised in ignorance of his human heritage. Feeling alienated from his peers due to their physical differences, he discovers his true parents' cabin, where he first learns of others like himself in their books, with which he eventually teaches himself to read. On his return from one visit to the cabin, he is attacked by a huge gorilla which he manages to kill with his father's knife, although he is terribly wounded in the struggle. As he grows up, Tarzan becomes a skilled hunter, exciting the jealousy of Kerchak, the ape leader, who finally attacks him. Tarzan kills Kerchak and takes his place as "king" of the apes. Later, a tribe of black Africans settles in the area, and Kala is killed by one of its hunters. Avenging himself on the killer, Tarzan begins an antagonistic relationship with the tribe, raiding its village for weapons and practicing cruel pranks on them. They, in turn, regard him as an evil spirit and attempt to placate him. Subsequently, a new party of whites is marooned on the coast, including Jane Porter, the first white woman Tarzan has ever seen. Tarzan's cousin, William Cecil Clayton, unwitting usurper of the ape man's ancestral English estate, is also among the party. Tarzan spies on the newcomers, aids them in secret, and saves Jane from the perils of the jungle. Absent when they are rescued, he is introduced further into the mysteries of civilization by French Naval Officer Paul D'Arnot, whom he saves from the natives. D'Arnot teaches Tarzan French and how to behave among white men, as well as serving as his guide to the nearest colonial outposts. Ultimately, Tarzan travels to Jane's native Baltimore, Maryland only to find that she is now in the woods of Wisconsin. Tarzan finally meets Jane in Wisconsin where they renew their acquaintance and he learns the bitter news that she has become engaged to William Clayton. Meanwhile, clues from his parents' cabin have enabled D'Arnot to prove Tarzan's true identity. Instead of claiming his inheritance, Tarzan chooses rather to conceal and renounce his heritage for the sake of Jane's happiness.

The Return of Tarzan

The novel picks up where Tarzan of the Apes left off. The ape man, feeling rootless in the wake of his noble sacrifice of his prospects of wedding Jane Porter, leaves America for Europe to visit his friend Paul d'Arnot. On the ship he becomes embroiled in the affairs of Countess Olga de Coude, her husband, Count Raoul de Coude, and two shady characters attempting to prey on them, Nikolas Rokoff and his henchman Alexis Paulvitch. Rokoff, it turns out, is also the countess's brother. Tarzan thwarts the villains' scheme, making them his deadly enemies. Later, in France, Rokoff tries time and again to eliminate the ape man, finally engineering a duel between him and the count by making it appear that he is the countess's lover. Tarzan deliberately refuses to defend himself in the duel, even offering the count his own weapon after the latter fails to kill him with his own, a grand gesture that convinces his antagonist of his innocence. In return, Count Raoul finds him a job as a special agent in Algeria for the ministry of war. A sequence of adventures among the local Arabs ensues, including another brush with Rokoff. Afterward Tarzan sails for Cape Town and strikes up a shipboard acquaintance with Hazel Strong, a friend of Jane's. But Rokoff and Paulovitch are also aboard, and manage to ambush him and throw him overboard. Miraculously, Tarzan manages to swim to shore, and finds himself in the coastal jungle where he was brought up by the apes. He soon rescues and befriends a native warrior, Busuli of the Waziri, and is adopted into the Waziri tribe. After defeating a raid on their village by ivory raiders he becomes their chief. The Waziri know of a lost city deep in the jungle, from which they have obtained their golden ornaments. Tarzan has them take him there, but is captured by its inhabitants, a race of beast-like men, and condemned to be sacrificed to their sun god. To his surprise, the priestess to perform the sacrifice is a beautiful woman, who speaks the ape language he learned as a child. She tells him she is La, high priestess of the lost city of Opar. When the ceremony is fortuitously interrupted, she hides him and promises to lead him to freedom. But the ape man escapes on his own, locates the treasure chamber, and manages to rejoin the Waziri. Meanwhile, Hazel Strong has reached Cape Town, where she encounters Jane, and her father Professor Porter, together with Jane's fiancé, Tarzan's cousin William Cecil Clayton. They are all invited on a cruise up the west coast of Africa aboard the Lady Alice, the yacht of Lord Tennington, another friend. Rokoff, now using the alias of M. Thuran, ingratiates himself with the party and is also invited along. The Lady Alice breaks down and sinks, forcing the passengers and crew into the lifeboats. The one containing Jane, Clayton and "Thuran" is separated from the others and suffers terrible privations. Coincidentally, the boat finally makes shore in the same general area that Tarzan did. The three construct a rude shelter and eke out an existence of near starvation for some weeks until Jane and Clayton are surprised in the forest by a lion. Clayton loses Jane's respect by cowering in fear before the beast instead of defending her. But they are not attacked, and discover the lion dead, speared by an unknown hand. Their hidden savior is in fact Tarzan, who leaves without revealing himself. Later Jane is kidnapped and taken to Opar by a party of beast-men pursuing Tarzan. The ape man tracks them and manages to save her from being sacrificed by La. La is crushed by Tarzan's rejection of her for Jane. Escaping Opar, Tarzan returns with Jane to the coast, happy in the discovery that she loves him and is free to marry him. They find Clayton, abandoned by "Thuran" and dying of a fever. In his last moments he atones to Jane by revealing Tarzan's true identity as Lord Greystoke, having previously discovered the truth but concealed it. Tarzan and Jane make their way up the coast to the former's boyhood cabin, where they encounter the remainder of the castaways of the Lady Alice, safe and sound after having been recovered by Tarzan's friend D'Arnot in another ship. "Thuran" is exposed as Rokoff and arrested. Tarzan weds Jane and Tennington weds Hazel in a double ceremony performed by Professor Porter, who had been ordained a minister in his youth. Then they all set sail for civilization, taking along the treasure Tarzan had found in Opar.

The Beasts of Tarzan

Not long after Tarzan claims his hereditary title of Lord Greystoke and marries Jane, their infant son, Jack, is kidnapped in London by his old Russian enemies, Nikolas Rokoff and Alexis Paulvitch. Following an anonymous call about the whereabouts of Jack, Tarzan himself falls into Rokoff's trap and is imprisoned aboard a ship carrying Jack. Jane, fearing Tarzan was entering a trap, follows him and also finds herself in Rokoff's clutches aboard the boat. Rokoff sets sail to Africa, eventually exiling Tarzan on an island near the African coast and telling Tarzan that Jack will be left with a cannibal tribe and raised as one of their own. Using his jungle skill and primal intelligence, Tarzan wins the help of Sheeta, the vicious panther, a tribe of great apes led by the intelligent Akut, and the native warrior Mugambi. With their aid, Tarzan reaches the mainland, kills Rokoff, and tracks down his wife and son. Paulvitch, the other villain, is presumed dead, but manages to escape into the jungle.

The Son of Tarzan

Alexis Paulvitch survived his encounter with the ape-man, wants to even the score. Paulvitch lures Jack, Tarzan's son, away from London and into his clutches, but Jack escapes with the help of the ape named Akut. Akut & Jack flee into the deep African jungle where two decades earlier Tarzan himself had been raised. The young Jack Clayton, now on his own, becomes known as Korak the killer and builds a reputation for himself in the Jungle. Korak, like his father before him, finds his own place in the Jungle among the great apes, and also like his father, meets and rescues a beautiful young woman, Meriem. Meriem is the daughter of a Captain in the French Foreign Legion, who was also a Prince (Prince de Cadrenet), named Armand Jacot.

How does Jr. comes into it?
The second-born of Clayton family came to world right after Edgar Rice Burroughs stopped to write novels of the saga, leaving his characters free to direct their stories wherever they wanted. Unfortunately, Milton Grimm declared that literary masterpieces were part of the Storybook of Legends as well as fairytales. Since Jack/Korak could not take the father's inheritance (he already had a precise role in the saga) Grimm chose John Jr. Jane didn't want to let her son go, but when Grimm told her about the poof, she reluctanctly accepted. Tarzan then revealed that he already knew about the destiny affair, and that, in spite he really cared about the kid, the main motive of Jr.'s conception was exactly keeping their story alive. Furious, Jane separated from her husband for a time, and prayed Korak to keep an eye on his little brother, a task which Jack kept faith by getting hired at the Ever After High as Supervisor of Adventurers and Good Savages.

Friends
He may not be at Apple White's levels, but he's very much appreciated throughout the school ... too bad his several accidents with the lianas and the odd ventures he often decides to undertake penalize enough his "approval rating". His closest friends are Bheka, his roommate, although this latter could strongly object about it, but it's just for pose, and Madeline Hatter, amused by the carefree attitude of the ape-boy.

Family
He's very fond to his mother, who has also imparted him a rich education in order to be closer to her second child, after the experience with the first one. This latter, Jack a.k.a. Korak was the childhood idol of Greystoke, who, however, has developed an inferiority complex towards the more athletic older brother. Mangani apes venerate him as a celebrity, for the work of cultural enrichment of which he has benefited them, and they call him Gundabalu ("chief-brother" in the Great Apes language). Tarzan, his father, has a very troubled relationship with him: at first he only saw him as his successor in the story, but later he gradually realized how Greystoke is profoundly different from him, not just physically. This worries Tarzan both for what might happen to their story and the fate of his child himself, which despite all the doubts loves very much. Greystoke himself doesn't hate the father for what he has done, but surely isn't happy neither. The Waziri respect Greystoke, but they think he's a little bit too cloud-cuckoo-lander to be the next ruler of the jungle.

Pets
Greystoke Jr. has a cub of elephant (or "tantor") named T-Bone.

Basic
As Prince of the Apes, Greystoke has a very minimized clothing: a kind of a kilt made by the fur of a not specified animal, with a liana used as belt, and a rudimental tie with leopard pattern.

Legacy Day
Greystoke Jr. wears a drape around the waist, like his father's one, only larger. On the face-chest zone and around the neck, he sports Waziri war paintings and ornaments.

Trivia

 * Greystoke's intercalate "Ugala bugala!" is a reference to the homonymous song of the Hevisaurus, a finnish heavy metal band for children..
 * He has an elephant as pet just like his father befriended with an adult tantor in "Tarzan of the apes".
 * His tie is inspired by the Flintstones and Donkey Kong.
 * In his first day of school he tried to enter in the Royal Hall, because since Tarzan is the King of Apes, he technically would be a Prince. Daring, Duchess and other Royals were not of this advice. However, Greystoke strongly defends his point, especially since (as he himself always says) he has more solid evidences about his Royal heritage than Blondie Lockes.
 * One of his most memorable rage episodes is when he tried to find the one and true answer to the riddle "Why is a raven like a writing desk?". He snapped out after four days of uninterrupted thinking and spreaded chaos through all school. Headmaster Grimm had to shot him a sedative for elephants.That day is remembered as Greystoke's rampage.
 * His signature exclamation is "Holy Burroughs!".
 * Sometimes he helps Briar Beauty with party planning. Briar is fascinated by his wild style.
 * Among the countless ambitions he wants to realize instead of follow Tarzan's legacy, we can find he want to become: a pirate, a professor of a university for apes, a defense attorney, a singer (he actually has skills for that), a hair stylist, a talk show host and a superhero.