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Agrajag is a creature (or a consciousness) who continuously reincarnates into different forms throughout the timeline, and is killed by Arthur Dent in every one. Agrajag's reincarnations do not necessarily follow the timeline, so he experiences his deaths in a different order to Arthur causing them.

In his final life, seen in Life, the Universe and Everything, Agrajag built a large, and particularly malicious looking statue of Arthur with multiple arms and feet, swatting flies, squashing ants, and even using one of them to summon into existence a bowl of petunias. Agrajag confronts Arthur in a cave he lives in, in the form of an ugly batlike creature. Agrajag hates Arthur with a passion and believes he is out to get him, although it is all one giant coincidence, along with hundreds of others that go on throughout the universe. (It is possible that this coincidence, along with all of those others were caused by the improbability drive.) Agrajag attempts to kill Arthur in the cave, but Arthur manages to escape, impaling Agrajag on the statue, causing him to cry out in frustration that Arthur has now killed him in every life.

During the confrontation, Agrajag blames Arthur for killing him on "Stavromulra Beta", a planet that Arthur has never visited at that point. When told this, Agrajag screams that "I brought you here too soon!" but attempts to kill Arthur anyway. After defeating him, Arthur reasons that since he is predetermined to kill Agrajag on Stavromulra Beta at some point in the future, it was actually impossible for this version of Agrajag - or in fact anything else - to kill Arthur before he does so.

Arthur continues to believe that he lives a "charmed life" while investigating the potential location of Stavromulra Beta. In Mostly Harmless, Stavromulra Beta is revealed not to be a planet but a nightclub on Earth named "Stavros Muller - Beta". Agrajag appears as a random bystander who is accidentally shot by Random Dent, but Agrajag blames Arthur for this since the bullet was meant for Arthur. In the original ending of Mostly Harmless, Arthur is then immediately killed by the destruction of Earth; in the revised ending for the Quintessential Phase and And Another Thing... Arthur survives, but his life is no longer charmed.

One of Agrajag's reincarnations, described in Fit the Thirty-Second of the Hexagonal Phase, actually had extreme good luck to balance out Arthur's bad luck. However, Arthur had some good luck shortly afterwards, and Mr A. G. Rajag was fed to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.

Agrajag is also the name of Bob and Suzie Boreton's dog in the television show loosely based on Adams' "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency".

Known incarnations of Agrajag[]

  • A dog in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Television Show.
  • A rabbit that Arthur hit with a flint during his period on prehistoric Earth.
  • Flies, swatted by Arthur on prehistoric Earth using the bag he made out of the rabbit's skin.
  • Newts that Arthur stepped on.
  • An oyster Arthur ate live.
  • A cow that Arthur ate a fillet of.
  • Ants that Arthur stepped on.
  • A fish caught by Arthur, but he then decided he didn't like and left on the side of the plate.
  • Arthur Philip Deodat, a man at a cricket match who had a heart attack when Arthur and Ford materialized on the field with a sofa in Life, the Universe and Everything.
  • A man at the club Beta, owned by Stavro Mueller, where he gets hit with a bullet Arthur dodged.
  • A bowl of petunias, which came into existence (and thus died) at Arthur's hand after activating the Infinite Improbability Drive. The petunias' final thought of "oh no, not again" was revealed to be a reference to Agrajag having previously been killed by Arthur so many times.
  • (debated) A whale, which came into existence (and thus died) at Arthur's hand after activating the Infinite Improbability Drive.[1]
  • Fleas he picked out of his hair.
  • The NowWhattian BogHog who was killed when Arthur visited NowWhat.
  • A bestial battle form arranged by Agrajag to intercept Arthur in transit and kill him. Defeated in combat by Arthur due to Agrajag having confronted Arthur at the wrong point on the timeline, when Arthur was still predetermined to kill Agrajag again in the future.

When pressed for an explanation, Adams stated that he was aggravated in traffic by a Jaguar, and this was his revenge.

Trivia[]

  • In the BBC America television series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, based on another of Adams' works, a pet dog is named Agrajag. This could either be merely a reference to the character, or, for those who believe the Dirk Gently and Hitchhiker's universes are the same, that it is another iteration of Agrajag.

Notes and references[]

  1. The whale being an incarnation of Agrajag is predicated upon him recalling his time as a bowl of petunias and referring to it as 'his spirit brother.' However, it could be that he simply referred to it that way since they both came into existence together bearing in mind the whale, unlike the petunias, did not show a knowledge of being Agrajag.
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