Characters / Sly Cooper: The Main Trio

The main characters of the series who form the core of the Cooper Gang are listed here. Sneak through here to get back to the other character pages. Warning: unmarked spoilers ahead.

The Cooper Gang

Our protagonists. They were initially a Power Trio, but by the third game their ranks had grown to seven, but then reduced to six as of the fourth game.

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• Anti-Hero Team: They may be a group of thieves who break the law, but they primarily steal from worse people. However, they seem to have no problem with murder, unless it's against innocents as they've gone on record to having many mooks of various criminal enemies slaughtered by the dozens to suit their needs.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The main trio are a Rare Male Example, with Sly explicitly described as "the looks" while Bentley is the brains and Murray the brawn.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Murray is Big, Sly is Thin & Bentley is Short.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: They're professional thieves, yes, but most of their targets are crooks worse than they are, such as murderers and "spice" dealers. In Sly 2, the Contessa describes their morality as "lopsided."
• Caper Crew: Smaller than a usual crew, but the team gets by. Sly generally covers any jobs that requires sneaking, burglary or disguises. Bentley covers tech-based jobs such as demolitions or hacking while Murray serves as the team muscle/driver. In the third game, the Guru is recruited as a supernatural specialist, the Panda King is a dedicated demo man, Penelope was an RC vehicles expert and Dimitri is a scuba diver.
• Caper Rationalization: They primarily target criminals, usually for the challenge.
  • In the first game, their primary goal is to steal back the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus from the Fiendish Five, who murdered Sly's parents in cold blood and stole the book in the first place.
  • The second game has them trying to steal the body parts of cybernetic Clockwerk from the Klaww Gang so that they can't be used for bad things (or worse yet, to bring Clockwerk Back from the Dead).
  • The third game centers on Sly trying to break into his family vault and reclaim his family legacy.
• Challenge Seeker: One of the reasons they primarily steal from other criminals. As Sly puts it, stealing from innocent people is boring, and the real challenge comes from beating criminals at their own game.
• Character Development: Each of the game develop as characters throughout the original trilogy in surprising ways.
  • Over the course of the games, Sly more openly expresses his faith in Bentley and Murray as teammates and friends, and becomes more focused on their needs as a result. He also goes from smarmy and bitter in the first game, to more openly smug and self-confident in the second. The dramatic events of the second game's plot and the sacrifices that Bentley and Murray go through help him greatly, and begin causing him to consider the positive and negative impacts he's made on the people around him. His talk with Doctor M. during the climax of the third game also demonstrates how fortune and wealth were never goals for him to attain, and he ends the trilogy choosing to duck out of a life of crime to live with Carmelita. He also hands over his family's massive fortune to the Cooper Gang, letting go of his heritage now that he's satisfied in proving himself.
  • Murray starts off as a Lovable Coward, but develops more confidence in the two-year Time Skip, and becomes "The Murray", but his deeper voice tone implies this is all an act for the sake of his friends. It comes crashing down when Clock-La cripples Bentley, and it takes Octavio kicking Bentley out of his wheelchair and insulting him for Murray to toss his cowardice (and pacifism) for good, and his voice returns to the way it was in the first game.
  • The bulk of character development is done by Bentley, who changes radically with each game. In the first, Bentley is the Mission Control Non-Action Guy, content with giving Sly intel through the binocucom and helping you navigate the levels. During the climax, when Sly is trapped by Clockwerk, Bentley steps up and uses his hacking knowledge to save Sly from certain doom. His growing confidence continues into 2, where Bentley becomes a field operative, begins planning the heists that the player goes on, and saves the day in Jailbreak when the rest of the gang becomes captured. After being crippled during the climax of 2, Bentley becomes saddled to a wheelchair. Rather than weigh him down, Bentley uses his ingenuity to become much more dangerous than ever before, even coming to rival Sly in mobility and Murray in destructive potential. He also begins to question his relation to Sly and the rest of the gang, with Doctor M. trying to prey on his feelings of inadequacy towards Sly. After Murray gives him a pep talk by pointing out how Sly would never abandon them and reminding him of how much Sly values their companionship, Bentley rebukes Doctor M. and stays loyal to Sly. His reward is a veritable fortune and a new love in Penelope, though even when Penelope turns traitor, he showcases the strength he's gained over the years by saving his friends in the nick of time.
• Childhood Friends: Sly, Bentley, and Murray grew up together in the same orphanage.
• Chromatic Arrangement: The classic trio roughly fit within the primary colors of light— Sly's signature color is blue, Bentley's is green and Murray's is a magenta/pink variation of red. If Carmelita Fox is around, she adds yellow to the mix.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: The original three fit this mold:
  • Murray is the Fighter of the group, being the best at close-range combat and the group's muscle;
  • Bentley is the Mage, being physically frail but excelling in powerful gadgetry and the group's brains;
  • Sly is the Thief, being the most agile and adapt at stealing, and the group's leader.
• Egocentric Team Naming: As pointed out by Dr. M, despite the fact that the team are supposedly equals it's still ultimately known as the COOPER Gang.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Between the main trio and Carmelita:
  • Phlegmatic: Sly Cooper himself — the suave, honor-driven Gentleman Thief.
  • Melancholic: Bentley — the meticulous yet prone-to-panic Gadgeteer Genius.
  • Sanguine: THE MURRAY — the boisterous and cheerful Bruiser with a Soft Center.
  • Choleric: Carmelita Fox — the frequently stubborn and task-focused Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist.
• Heel–Face Turn: Three of the recruits in the third game (Penelope, Panda King, and Dimitri) started off as villains in their debut. Penelope eventually returns to villainy, in another Black-themed persona.
• Informed Attribute: Supposedly they only steal from other criminals and never ordinary people, but numerous cutscenes throughout the series say otherwise. Of course, Sly does say the Coopers specialize in stealing from criminals, not that they only steal from them.
• Just Like Robin Hood: They occasionally donate some of their wealth into charities like orphanages.
• Lovable Rogue: They have a Robin Hood-style of thieving and are all very loveable, to the point where Sly was able to endear himself to a police officer.
• Multinational Team: Sly, Bentley, and Murray are Americans who live in France, Dimitri is French, the Guru is Australian, Panda King is Chinese, and former member Penelope is Dutch.
• Nice Guys: They may be thieves, but they’re also sweet and compassionate guys who care greatly for each other.
• Nice Mean And In Between: While all of them are honourable thieves, Murray is a Bruiser with a Soft Center (nice), Bentley is the most cynical and temperamental of the group (mean), and Sly is a Gentleman Thief but won't back down from a fight (in-between).
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Sly and his entire family have spent all of their lives primarily robbing master criminals rather than ordinary people, as the latter poses absolutely no challenge at all. Sly sums up their attitude in the first game:
  Sly: There's no honor, no challenge, no fun in stealing from ordinary people. You rip off a master criminal, then you know you're a master thief.
• Parental Abandonment:
  • Sly's father and mother were murdered.
  • Bentley and Murray are both orphans and there's no information about how they became so. Bentley's late mother can be seen in a photo at several points in the second game.
• Power Trio: The original group, Sly, Bentley, and Murray.
• Rule of Seven: The group expands to seven by the end of the third game, with The Guru, Penelope, the Panda King, and Dimitri joining. Penelope's betrayal reduces the number to six.
• The Smurfette Principle: Penelope was the only woman in the team for awhile. However, she pulls a Face–Heel Turn, leaving the team as an all-male group again.
• Stealing from Thieves: Their primary MO is stealing from other criminals.
• Super Drowning Skills: Sly, Bentley, and Murray can't swim. It was lampshaded in the manuals that they probably shouldn't have skipped swimming lessons during their orphanage days. Oddly, Murray swims in a scuba suit in game 4 during a cut scene.
• Token Evil Teammate: In Honor Among Thieves, the Panda King, one of the Fiendish Five who killed Sly's father, is recruited into the gang. Whereas his teammates are simply thieves, he's expressly guilty of domestic terrorism, having buried entire, innocent villages in snow during the first game. While the tensions between them ease over time, Sly never outwardly forgives the Panda King. Penelope retroactively takes his place as the true Token Evil Teammate before she defects to Le Paradox's group.
• True Companions: Sly, Bentley, and Murray have been together since they were young children, and explicitly call one another family on multiple occasions. Near the end of the third game, Sly even calls the new recruits family as well (even if Penelope turned out to be a False Friend later on).
• Vocal Evolution: All three of them have gone through this over the course of the games as their voice actors have become more experienced and comfortable in the roles.
  • Sly's voice was raspier and higher pitched in the first game. He has a deeper, more suave voice in future installments.
  • Bentley's voice was deeper and more nasally in the first game, compared to the more high-pitched voice he has from the second game onwards.
  • Murray actually went through it twice; his voice was higher pitched and flamboyant in the first game, significantly deeper and raspier in the second game, and he settled into a voice somewhere in the middle in the third game.

Sly Cooper

Sly Cooper

"Crime? I haven't stolen anything...yet."

Voiced by: Kevin Miller (English), Cédric Dumont (French), Mattias Knave (Swedish)

"The Thievius Raccoonus doesn't create great thieves, it takes great thieves to create the Thievius Raccoonus."

The titular character of the series. An American-born raccoon and the last living member of the Cooper Clan, an incredibly ancient family of master thieves who preyed upon criminals for the sake of testing their abilities and honor.

Just as he was about to inherit his family's greatest heirloom as a child, his parents were killed by a rival gang of five criminals, leaving him penniless and alone. After being taken in by the Happy Campers Orphanage, he met turtle brainiac Bentley and hippo wild card Murray, and the three became fast and lifelong friends. Together, the three founded the Cooper Gang, a band of thieves dedicated to traveling the world, continuing the Cooper Clan's legacy, and bringing some of the worst crime lords out there to justice along the way.

As a self-professed master thief with the acrobatic ability to match, Sly is suave, cunning and oftentimes smug in his demeanor, the latter of which he can even be to close friends and allies. Make no mistake, however. Sly is still righteous, courageous, undoubtedly loyal and can't imagine a life without his best pals.

If you're interested in seeing how he would describe himself, head over here.

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• Ace Pilot: Seems to have become one of these by the third game.
  • Universal Driver's License: Seems pretty handy with a submersible and hovercraft in the first game, and can fly a customized biplane in the third game.
• Aesop Amnesia: Between the third and fourth games. In the third, he decides that the cat-and-mouse game with Carmelita is actually him being cowardly, and he even fakes amnesia, giving up his life of crime and his family legacy, so that he can be with her. In the fourth game, Sly's begins considering getting back into crime (out of boredom) before the bigger picture even gives him an excuse to. He doesn't even seem to consider jeopardizing his relationship with Carmelita as a Sadistic Choice.
• Always Save the Girl: Both Clockwerk and Le Paradox have used this against him, knowing that if Carmelita is in danger, Sly will rescue her no matter how obvious the trap is.
• Amnesiac Lover: Played with. He fakes amnesia in order to finally get together with Carmelita in the third game.
• Ancestral Weapon: His cane downplays this. The cane itself was only used by his father before he came to own it, but the general design of the cane has been used by his ancestors for generations, going back to at least ancient Egypt.
  • Though considering all of Dr. M's attempts at using replicas of it to open the Cooper Vault had failed, it is likely that Sly's cane really is a Cooper Family heirloom and the other canes the clan had used were custom made for each of them.
• Anti-Hero: Downplayed. Sly may be a thief, but he's a thief with a heart. He and his pals primarily steal from other crooks, and most of the people that they take on are criminals that are worse than they are, like murderers and drug dealers.
• Back Stab: The best way for him to clear out enemy mooks. The Non-Lethal K.O. nature of the game means no actual stabbing is involved, but the concept is the same.
• Blatant Burglar: Domino mask, burglar-style cap... yep, he's a thief.
• Blow You Away: Sly's upgraded stealth kill has him run very fast around his enemy, making a small tornado and sucking them into it, which won't alert the other guards.
• Blue Is Heroic: His primary color is blue, and he is the protagonist and leader of the Anti-Hero Team.
• Break the Haughty: Downplayed. While he never loses his self-confidence, his narration starts fairly arrogant in the first game. After dealing with Clockwerk twice, he's much less arrogant and emphasizes his affection for his friends more often.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the Sly 2 commercials, Sly looks directly at the viewer, asking if they're "in" on the job.
• But Not Too Foreign: Sly was born in America and has roots in England, Japan, Egypt, Arabia, Scotland, Germany, and quite possibly more.
• Calling Card: Literally. He even made a calling card out of a laser beam security. At one point in 3, he used said calling card to his advantage to trick Carmelita into arresting General Tsao.
• Cane Fu: That crescent-hooked cane of his isn't just his most reliable tool; it's also his primary weapon, and he knows how to use it.
• Can't Stay Normal: While he clearly loves spending time with Carmelita, by the fourth game he admits he can't resist the itch to pull a heist again and was even planning on doing a solo job before the bigger picture was revealed.
• Chick Magnet: As pointed out by Bentley in the third game, ladies tend to flock for Sly. Subverted with Neyla and Penelope, who flirt with Sly and are both evil.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Around Carmelita, of course.
• Chronic Thievery: Part of the reason he comes out of retirement in the fourth game. Despite having a chance to live happily ever after with Carmelita, he can't resist taking One Last Job.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Very much averted. He may be one, but it's a major plot point, and his family plays a enormous role in the history of the series as a collective Posthumous Character.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Sly ends up becoming this in the fourth game whenever Carmelita intentionally flirts with his ancestors.
• Criminal Amnesiac: Inverted and subverted; he only pretends to have amnesia to hook up with Carmelita.
• Dating Catwoman: His relationship with Carmelita amounts to this; they may be on opposite sides of the law (he being a master thief and she being a cop), but for him, that's no excuse to resist flirting with her.
• Deadpan Snarker: Dips into this in his conversations.
• Disappointed by the Motive: How Sly viewed Le Paradox's motive for the whole time travel debacle in Thieves in Time. He would have at least accepted Le Paradox doing it in revenge for what happened to his father, but when he heard the real reason, Sly just calls him an idiot. See "The Reason You Suck" Speech below.
  • He also expresses his disappointment at Arpeggio's motivation for wanting Clockwerk's body so he can fly like other birds.
• Domino Mask: He has never been seen without it outside of some of his disguises, even as a child, while disguised for Rajan's ball and while faking amnesia to get with Carmelita.
  • And, of course, being a raccoon, he also has a similar mask-shaped fur pattern.
• Easy Amnesia: Subverted in the ending of the third game, where he only fakes amnesia to get with Carmelita.
• Enemy Mine: With Carmelita during the final level of each game, sans Thieves in Time.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: He is a heroic, wisecracking Gentleman Thief who tries to be civil with everyone, even most of this foes. However, with General Tsao, he didn't even bother being pleasant and straight up called him the worst person he has ever fought.
• Everyone Has Standards: Being a thief, Sly has no problems with stealing, but usually limits his targets to other crooks. He's utterly disgusted with General Tsao's extreme misogyny and classism, stating that out of all the bad men he's dealt with, Tsao is undoubtedly the worst of them all. Sly also doesn't condone stealing credit for others' work, which he calls Le Paradox out on, since to Sly, that's the worst kind of theft.
• Family Honor: The Cooper lineage is a line of honorable thieves, and Sly intends to preserve that aspect.
• Flanderization: His portrayal in Thieves in Time steps back on some of the maturity he's gained over the course of the original trilogy, with his playful attitude being given more spotlight via him being more prone to making corny jokes, combined with how his urge for thievery comes back. It's still relatively downplayed compared to Murray or Carmelita, however, as his sense of justice is still present and he manages to keep his genuine love for his friends intact, such as vowing to avenge Bentley when Penelope betrays the gang.
• First-Person Snapshooter: Indulges in this for some missions from the shadows. Though one actually involved him posing as a professional one.
• Foe Romance Subtext: With Carmelita. Not only does he like having her chase him, he states that his thefts wouldn't be as fun without her.
• Foil: Plays this to quite a few of the people he’s met on his adventures:
  • The first game especially has him play this role to a pre-Character Development Bentley. While Sly himself is the confident thief out in the field fully willing to get his hands dirty, Bentley is the analytical Mission Control concerned for the gang’s safety and prone to panicking up a storm at worst. Their roles as straight foils become less evident as Bentley himself gains self-confidence and begins to work more openly in the field, but their dynamic mostly stays the same, with Bentley giving straight responses while Sly snarks it up like always, even if the former now has more Deadpan Snarker tendencies.
  • Inspector Carmelita Fox’s role in the series makes her the most prominent foil to Sly in a number of ways. Both are greatly skilled in their fields, have a strong sense of righteousness, and even a family legacy to live up to (the strategy guide for The Sly Collection describes Carmelita as a fourth-generation police officer). However, the two work on opposite sides of the law as a thief and cop, and have quite a number of contrasts personality-wise: Sly as a Gentleman Thief is easygoing, collected and friendly towards his teammates, while Carmelita is serious, obsessive and temperamental to the point of performing recklessness conduct when tailing Sly. To drive the point home, Sly and Carmelita are also a raccoon and fox respectively, with Sly embodying the playful jovialness associated with his species while Carmelita embodies the more aloof elegance associated with her species, even if lacking the more deceitful (or “sly”) traits of the archetypical fox. But if anything, this may as well be a case of Opposites Attract.
  • Clockwerk: Both were heads of a grand group of thieves, only their priorities were quite mirrored to each other. Sly wants to live into the reputation and legacy of his family lineage, while Clockwork only cared about his own glory and revenge. Eventually gaining immortality through his sheer hatred of the Cooper family and his trading ordinary skill for an entirely mechanical body. Sly may be a thief, but he's still empathetic towards many on his journey (carmelita, jean bison). Clockwork meanwhile is nothing but a sociopathic monster who wanted to prove he was right that the Cooper Clan would be nothing as he hunted them all down
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic—laid-back, calm, friendly and dependable.
• Fun Personified: Makes an effort to have fun or make fun in any scene appears in, unless he's serious for some reason.
• Gentleman Thief: Fits several aspects of the trope: he steals for the challenge of it, leaves behind Calling Cards, usually limits his targets to other crooks, and often halts the operations of more dangerous crooks.
• Greater Need Than Mine: Near the end of Sly 4, Sly tells Bentley and Murray to take Carmelita and get off of the blimp before it collapses while he goes to finish Le Paradox himself.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Maybe. It's possible he's wearing pants, but it's kinda hard to tell. One artbook with a "how to draw Sly" tutorial refers to him as wearing frayed grey pants.
  • Definitely played straight in Thieves in Time, which adds fur streaks to his texture and makes it obvious. Unless he wears furry frayed grey pants?
• Hard Light: In a sense. Sly's father somehow managed to create a modified railwalk/slide that allowed him to do so on laser beams as if they were solid rails. Sly was quite surprised by this. This becomes a Chekhov's Skill as it's used again in the fight with Ms. Decibel one game later (however, none of the other laser beams in the game can be walked on).
• Hartman Hips: A male example. His Thieves in Time design gives Sly some rather wide hips.
• The Hero: He is the main hero of the series, even though he's a thief. Even though he's considered a criminal because he steals, but he usually steals from criminals who actually are evil and have devious intentions.
• Honor Before Reason: His main motive, along with the Cooper Family's, for centuries.
• In a Single Bound: In Sly 4, when Sly wears the Saber-tooth fur, it somehow grants him the ability to jump great distances provided there's a target for him to pounce on.
• In-Series Nickname: He's often called "Ringtail" by Carmelita.
• It's Personal: In Sly 4, Sly says this verbatim when the gang learns of Penelope's betrayal. It's one thing to betray their trust and friendship, but she crossed the line by betraying Bentley's heart.
• I "Uh" You, Too: A double-whammy exchange at the end of Thieves in Time:
  Carmelita: Sly, I, uh...
  Sly: I know. Me too.
• Jack of All Stats: He's strong and durable but not as much as Murray, and he doesn't have as many combat gadgets as Bentley, but he's the fastest and most agile of the three.
• Just a Stupid Accent: As lampshaded by Bentley, Sly does a very terrible Italian accent while disguised as a Venetian crook. Does this again in Sly 4, and even more awkward since he was supposed to be disguised as an Arabian deliveryman.
  Bentley: "It's a good thing we're in Arabia, Sly, because if we were in Italy, that accent would be considered a felony!"
• Just Like Robin Hood: He's occasionally shown donating his purloined wealth to charitable causes such as orphanages. Considering the rich, evil sorts that he steals from, and the fact that he sends said evil rich sorts and their underlings to jail more often than not, leaving the treasure unguarded, they must donate a fair amount; the Cooper Gang pretty much lives in their van (though they do have some pretty wonderful toys).
• Karmic Thief: He usually steals from dangerous criminals.
• Kiss of Distraction: Sly is quite fond of these, using them on Carmelita. First in the first game's ending where he kisses Carmelita, while at the same time cuffing her to the railing to prevent her from following him. Second time in the special "Timing is Everything" short when Carmelita has Sly at point-blank gunpoint, then he takes her by surprise and kisses her before escaping.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Being a Karmic Thief and really good at being one, Sly devolves into this at times, though not to the same extent as other examples. This is best exemplified at the start of Thieves in Time where he comes out of retirement and ruins whatever relationship he had with Carmelita just for the simple fact that he missed stealing stuff.
• Last of His Kind: The last known living member of the Cooper Lineage. There's no sign of him having any cousins or distant relatives in game, seeming to say that there's no one else left in the clan after what Clockwerk did to them all.
• The Leader: Levelheaded and Charismatic Type.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Downplayed since his father's true character isn't too known. In his final confrontation with Dr. M, Sly has enough of Dr. M's equating him with his father Connor and declares that he's his own man, not an exact carbon copy of Connor or his other ancestors. Specifically, whatever went down between Connor and Dr. M is highly improbable to repeat between Sly and Bentley due to their genuine mutual respect for each other, which Connor and Dr. M supposedly never had.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Much is made of Sly's father and his thieving antics and how much Sly resembles him. Either his mother was not a thief (perhaps Dating Catwoman is In the Blood?), or this trope is in effect.
• Love Epiphany: Sly has always harbored a crush on Carmelita, but it's not until Honor Among Thieves's final episode that he realizes how serious his feelings are. The catalyst for this realization occurs in the episode's intro cutscene. Near-death and reflecting on his life, Sly explicitly recalls Bentley and Penelope's loving relationship and decides that's what he wants, too. He vows to confess as much to Carmelita if he escapes Kaine Island alive. Sly ultimately makes good on his promise, leaving his thieving lifestyle behind to live with Carmelita as a changed man (until Thieves in Time, that is).
• Mascot with Attitude: More or less a modern attempt at this kind of character, being way classier and more mature than the usual example (mostly thanks to not relying on Totally Radical and starring games that are the essential opposite of intense), but still keeping a cool and snarky attitude.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The suave, calculating, Feminine Boy to Carmelita's hotheaded, aggressive, Masculine Girl.
• Motive Misidentification: In Sly 2, he initially believes that Arpeggio reassembled Clockwerk's frame solely because he couldn't fly, outright calling him pathetic for it. As it turns out, Arpeggio actually did so because he's after Clockwerk's immortality.
• Nice Guy: Despite being a thief, he's a pretty decent, friendly guy.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Near the end of Sly 2, he attempts to stop Clockwerk's reassembly by reversing the polarity on the magnetic fields they are using to do so in the hopes that Clockwerk will be pulled apart. Instead, he only ends up locking the Clockwerk parts together.
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Inverted in the most literal sense of the idea: Sly absolutely loves the game of cat-and-mouse he and Carmelita play.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Sly makes this exchange with Carmelita in the comic, as since he primarily targets criminals and crime lords, they are technically on the same side. Carmelita, however, is quick to point out that since said criminals nonetheless steal the loot that Sly steals for himself, he's still breaking the law regardless.
• Only Sane Man: Despite Bentley being the brains of the team, Sly often keeps a cool head and acts as the voice of reason.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: He was this in the first game, and could gain up to 2 extra hitpoints with horseshoes. He gains a health meter in later games.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If he drops his fun loving Deadpan Snarker demeanor, it means he's getting serious. Tsao, Penelope, and LeParadox would all learn the hard way.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: His cane, the symbol by which the Fiendish Five recognize his identity. It's also the key to the Cooper Vault.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • When showing up for Rajan's ball in the second game, he wears a tuxedo and ditches his hat and shoes, but keeps his mask.
  • In the third game, the fact that he is far less bulky than the Venetian flashlight guards and the Blood Bath Bay lantern-carrying guards he impersonates may explain the constant password requests from the guards. Strangely, his wedding photographer disguise in the same game's fourth level still works even after General Tsao identifies him.
  • In the fourth game, he manages to pass himself off as a samurai officer in the Japan stage, even referring himself as "Major Muggshot".
• Phantom Thief: This guy is very sneaky, he has not been to prison for all the laws he broke. :The sole exception is when Neyla betrays him and Murray to The Contessa, who throws him into her private prison, with Bentley breaking them out after exposing her treachery to Interpol.
• Power-Up Magnet: One of Sly's unlockable abilities in the first game. Seems to have stuck with him into other games, as you start with the ability to pick up coins from a slight distance.
• Precious Photo: Carries one of him and Carmelita during happier times during the events of Thieves in Time. It ends up in Carmelita's possession after he disappears in the end.
• Primary-Color Champion: While he mostly wears blue, he has a red backpack and his cane, sleeves, belt, and scarf are yellow.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Sly is the laid-back, snarky blue to Carmelita's hot-headed red. He is also in-between Bentley's blue and Murray's red.
• Rolling Attack: One of his unlockable special moves in the first game.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: For all his reasons for being a thief — family heritage, the good of the many or just for the challenge of it — amassing wealth is not one of them.
  Dimitri: Look, I'm sure that two cats in a bag like us can work something out, yeah? We smoove, yeah? Look... see the money? You like the money? You can take all you want. I can—
  Sly: No deal. You and the rest of the Klaww Gang have to be stopped.
• Shock and Awe: He gains a few electrical abilities, namely the Electromagnetic Raccoon Roll (Exactly What It Says on the Tin) and the Voltage Attack (which lets him charge his cane with electricity for a One-Hit KO).
• Simple, yet Awesome: Sly's cane is not only iconic, but it earns its keep as the ultimate thieving tool. It's durable be used to bludgeon people, rocks and solid steel, strong enough to hold Sly's weight as he swings from hooks with it, it can pick pockets and locks, it can carry smoke bombs and is even used as the key for the Cooper Vault, Dr. M's attempts to replicate it for such purposes failing at every turn.
• Spin Attack: The Cane Spin, natch.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Him and Carmelita. It's played with in the first game with Carmelita's Mercy Lead, and he is rescued by his friends just as Carmelita was about to break out a glass of wine for the occasion of his arrest with him in the second. In the third game, he fakes amnesia after being injured by Dr. M. and ends up with Carmelita in Paris. In the fourth game, he vanishes without a trace to ancient Egypt as Carmelita and the Cooper Gang try to bring him back home.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: He's a master at this, somehow he's been able to: handcuff Carmelita to a rail after the ten second head start — 9 he used to get to her and one to kiss her on the lips, no less! — escape Rajan's palace and leaving a calling card in her hair, and even escape just as Carmelita wakes up from being possessed by an ancient mask.
• Sticky Fingers: Though he seems to enjoy his thievery and usually limits his targets to other criminals, Thieves in Time shows it's a bit of a compulsion: while he gave it up at the end of Sly 3, he's got the itch to pull another heist even before Bentley informs him of the historical mishaps.
• Strong as They Need to Be: When Sly wears the jailbird outfit in Sly 4, he can use a huge ball and chain as a weapon. The ball is nearly as big as he is, and yet he's able to throw it far and with enough force to break things. You'd think if he were this strong, he'd be able to grand-slam enemies with his fists.
• Super Drowning Skills: He can't swim.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: In the first and fourth games, a Power-Up grants him (and in the case of the later, every other playable character) this ability.
• Sympathy for the Devil: In the second game, he expresses pity of Jean Bison due to his Fish out of Temporal Water status.
  Sly: He's just a normal guy from the 1850s. Back in his day, he'd be a hero. But today... he's a villain.
• Taught by Experience: Sly basically had to learn his thieving skills on his own before completing himself once acquiring all of the Thievius Raccoonus.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In Sly 3 with Panda King. Both eventually get over this.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In Sly 4, Sly gives this to Le Paradox when told of his revenge plan regarding the Cooper lineage — to be known as the world's greatest thief by stealing their canes. Sly calls him out on this, pointing out that Le Paradox never did the actual stealing; rather, he got his "partners" to do all the dirty work before tossing them aside and claiming credit for what they did. Furthermore, Sly also mentions that going after the Cooper line for such a petty reason — for no other purpose than to feed his ego — was just downright stupid, because it not only ended up drawing Sly's attention (and thus interference) in the first place, it also drew Carmelita's attention to his stolen treasure smuggling ring. Put straight, Le Paradox lost everything because he couldn't resist showing off.
• This Is Unforgivable!: His reaction in Thieves in Time when he discovers that Penelope betrayed the team, broke Bentley's heart, and sold out to Le Paradox is outrage. Sly immediately declares It's Personal and goes out to make them pay.
• Time Master: Downplayed for the most part, but three of the unlockable special moves in the first game were the ability to speed up time (to make long, boring heists and stake-outs go by in a flash), slow down time (in order to more easily dodge traps and security lasers), and stop time (causing all enemies to freeze for a few seconds). The Thief costume in the fourth game allows him to slow down time by using the powers of a genie.
• Trapped in the Past: By the end of Thieves In Time, he's been stranded in Ancient Egypt.
• Variable-Length Chain: Thieves in Time includes a jailbird costume with a ball and chain, which can of course be thrown as a weapon or used as a tool to move or demolish obstacles. Possibly played with, as the chains themselves don't change length, but the disconnected ends behave as if they are connected by an invisible, elastic band of variable length.
  • Precision-Guided Boomerang: Despite the fact that the chain on Sly's ankle and the chain on the giant metal ball are not connected, the ball always comes back instead of stopping where it hit. It also somehow manages to not take Sly along for the ride, despite being as big as he is and likely heavier. Bentley never comments on this unusual turn of physics.
• Unknown Rival: Sly had no idea that Penelope is plotting to murder him out of jealous spite until it was almost too late.
• Visible Invisibility: Type 3 while utilizing the invisibility power from his ancient Egyptian ancestor.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: In Sly 4, Sly is locked in an area, facing off against a giant mech knight. He managed to destroy the huge thing using only arrows sniped at crucial points.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Does this in Sly 3 with Carmelita where he had to charge up a battery, and how? By getting Carmelita to shoot him. He pretends to be down for the count, but once the battery is fully charged, he makes an easy escape.
  • When he wears the saber-tooth fur in the fourth game he can play dead before pouncing on unsuspecting targets.
• You Never Did That for Me: In Sly 4, Sly seemed a little jealous when Carmelita goes to follow Galleth to see if he's all right during his mission.
  Sly: I don't recall you ever watching my back on any jobs.
  Carmelita: Only when I'm trying to catch you.

Bentley Turtle

Bentley Turtle

Voiced by: Matt Olsen (English), Yann Pichon (French), Hans Jonsson (Swedish)

"It doesn't take an engineer to figure out how to blow up a bridge."

An American turtle, and the brains of the Cooper Gang. He appeared solely in radio comms and in a hacking level in the first game, then Took a Level in Badass and played an active role in the second game and beyond.

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• Annoying Arrows: The worst you can do with his crossbow in the second game is put mooks to sleep. You can supplant this, however, by either just sneaking past the mook or blowing him up with a timed bomb.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Averted. Despite his scientific outlook, he has apparently found verifiable paranormal activity even before the first game, and does not hesitate to act upon it and utilize it to his advantage. Taken even further in the second game, where he is perfectly willing to fight one of the villain's black magic with "bad mojo" bombs and camera-rolls filled with ghosts. He is slightly skeptical of the Mask of Dark Earth's importance in the second level of the third game, however, but doesn't overlook it as a threat because of all the ghosts and demons they've encountered thus far. Played straight again in the fourth game, where he doubts the Moat Monster is real. He turns out to be partly right: there is a monster, but it's a giant machine, not a flesh-and-blood creature.
• Arch-Enemy: Of Mice and Mechs ends with Bentley and Penelope as enemies, and will eventually clash again if her postcards are to be believed.
• Badass Adorable: Look at that picture of the little turtle, and know that he's blown up or otherwise destroyed enough property and landmarks that he could be classified a terrorist. In the second game alone he heavily damages one bridge and outright destroyed another, and that's not even mentioning the time he destroyed a dam. He's also something of a Mad Scientist, given that his arsenal consists of gadgets designed to shrink people and many, many variants of bombs. In the fourth game, his bombs can be upgraded to home on enemies, turning him into a wheelchair-bound nerd with robotic arms, impressive movement capabilities in every direction and homing missiles.
• Badass Bookworm: From the second game onward, he's become a competent field man, but remains the Mission Control and brains of the operation.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: One of the few characters who does not wear any sort of soled shoe, opting instead for just a pair of white spats. Makes sense after the end of Sly 2, in which case his feet are no longer useful for walking on.
• Berserk Button:
  • Jean-Bison, never ever tell the genius turtle in front of you about your opinion of their intelligence; it just ends badly.
  • Also, judging by his reactions to Jean-Bison, Don Octavio, and the Australian miners, harming the environment does not sit well with him.
• Birds of a Feather: He and Penelope connect over seeming to have many things in common: technological geniuses, apparently having similar interests, looking for love, etc. Subverted in Thieves in Time, when Penelope reveals her true colors as a ruthless, power-hungry villain in contrast to Bentley's loyalty to Sly and Murray. It turns out Penelope was faking her feelings to take advantage of Bentley and get make a huge fortune in weapon designs.
• Break the Cutie: Literally in the end of Sly 2. Brutally straight in Sly 4. See Heroic BSoD below.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In Sly 4, when Bentley fights against Penelope, he will sometimes taunt, "That mech design is so 2005!", which was the release year of Sly 3.
• Breakout Character: He started out as Mission Control, then took an active role in the field. By the third game, he's pretty much the Number Two of the Cooper Gang.
• Cassandra Truth: In Sly 2, he explains that the water tower in the Contessa's prison area is a robot. Sly doesn't believe him until the end of the mission.
  Bentley: Like I said... Giant... Attack... ROBOT!
• Cowardly Lion: At least in the second game, anyway. Multiple times, Bentley is shown to be scared to death in the field, to the point that he cuts off a conversation with Sly in Paris in fear. But he presses ahead regardless, not letting it slow him down. Strangely, being confined to a wheelchair actually seems to make him more courageous, as in 3 and 4, he doesn't show nearly as much fear as before, likely having become much more comfortable with field work.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Played straight in the third game, when Penelope falls for Sly and compliments him all the time, best shown in the fourth level's opening episode, when he cuts off her flirting with him by telling him to climb up to Murray. Eventually Bentley would earn Penelope's love when rescuing her from Captain Le Fwee. Too bad Love Makes You Evil on her part.
  • He also expresses annoyance that the ladies tend to go for Sly, indicating that this is not the first time this has happened.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Something Penelope calls him out on in Thieves in Time. As they point out, Bentley could easily change the world and make a fortune with his inventions, but instead, he chooses to waste his talents by being the brains of a gang of thieves.
• Demolitions Expert: He serves as the main demolition of the crew and can utilize bombs to blow up both obstacles and enemies, though in the third game the gang is forced to hire the Panda King since he's better with explosives than even Bentley.
• Deuteragonist: Becomes more evident by the third game.
• Disability Superpower: Bentley becomes paralyzed from the waist down, however both game-play-wise and story-wise, he's still just as functional as he was in the second game for both the third and fourth if not more.
• Everyone Has Standards: He's irate when he discovers that The Contessa is a Dirty Cop who hypnotizes criminals so she can steal their loot. He calls it a disgrace to both thieves and law enforcement.
• Exalted Torturer: At one point in the second game, Bentley forces a Mook into giving up some security codes... with a feather. It's Played for Laughs, but the same game also used "illegal spices" as a kid-friendly stand-in for cocaine, and the sequel made Bentley "more devious" and outright-murderous in many of his plans, which casts the scene in a darker light.
• Eye Glasses: They change shape with his expressions.
• False Soulmate: His first girlfriend, Penelope, turned out to be a sociopathic Gold Digger who never loved him. Bentley has yet to find a Second Love.
• Firing in the Air a Lot: When he completes a hacking level in Thieves in Time, he spins the turret on his tank wildly firing in all directions for sheer glee.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: Subverted. Despite his initial Heroic BSoD, Bentley quickly gets over his break-up with Penelope, mainly because he caught her trying to murder Sly, and saw her true nature as a gold-digging Yandere. Sly himself points out that Bentley became much happier and confident without her.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic—heavily analytical and organized, often even playing the role of the cynic.
• Friend Versus Lover: Bentley ends up in this dilemma when he realizes that Penelope irreconcilably hates his friends, conflicted by having to choose her or his friends. When he talks with her and learns she's nothing but a vile scumbag with no morals whatsoever, Bentley chooses Sly and Murray and abandons Penelope for good.
• Genius Cripple: In the third game onward, due to Clock-La crippling him with her beak at the second game's climax.
• Glass Cannon: Ironically, despite being a turtle, Bentley takes more damage than Sly and a lot more than Murray. However, he compensates for his frailty with a variety of powerful bombs and other weapons that allow him to fight from every angle.
• Guile Hero: He's not called "The Brains" for nothing. He's the one who comes up with all the plans the gang then executes on, which often involve playing multiple factions in the local area off each other, and frequently verge on being a Rube Goldberg Device in heist form.
• Handicapped Badass: In the third game and beyond. A wheelchair doesn't stop him from risking his life in the field and he has a much more useful melee attack.
• Heroic BSoD: Once Bentley realized that the reason why Penelope vanished in the beginning of Sly 4 was because she was The Mole for Le Paradox and that she betrayed him and the gang. Needless to say, he did not take it well, tucking inside of his shell. Due to this, Carmelita, Sly, and Sir Galleth were the ones narrating the chalk talk plan, which was usually exclusive to Bentley being the planner and all.
• Heroic Second Wind: He gets over his Heroic BSoD soon enough and shows up to take Penelope on himself with his own Mini-Mecha, Just in Time to stop her from killing Sly. As pointed out in Sly's narration afterwards, he bounced back stronger than ever.
• Jet Pack: Available to him in the second game, and he gets rockets in the third.
• Kirk Summation: He calls out Penelope for her selfishness, telling her that she's an idiot for siding with Le Paradox for petty reasons, and is now his puppet who's strings will be cut when she's outlived her usefulness. Penelope responds by attacking him, proving that she's never truly cared for Bentley but saw him as a mere object, and always acted purely in self-interest.
• The Lancer: Though as the series goes on, he practically becomes the unofficial leader of the Cooper Gang.
• Magikarp Power: He becomes surprisingly powerful in Thieves in Time if he's upgraded regularly; a fully upgraded Bentley can shoot 5 different variants of remote-controlled homing bombs, glide and boost for several seconds, and use his robotic arms to rob enemies just as easily as Sly can. Even Murray is limited by the range of his attacks, while Bentley can now shoot darts that actually damage enemies, and as sleeping enemies die from one hit, he can just toss sleep bombs everywhere and kick the enemies to death afterwards. Pretty much the only thing he cannot do is reach certain locations like Sly, but he never really needs to.
• Missing Mom: Like Sly and Murray, Bentley's mother is deceased, and he keeps a photo of her with him that is sometimes seen in the second game.
• Mission Control: Mostly in the first game, but he still has this role in the sequels.
• Nerd Glasses: He wears a nice pair of these glasses.
• Nice Guy: He acts very cordially towards his friends, sometimes even moreso than Sly.
• Non-Action Guy: In the first game, all he did was talk to Sly through a communicator while sitting in the team van.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Dr M. points out that they both play the same role in the Cooper Gang, a role for which Dr M. felt marginalized. Bentley, though, gives a Shut Up, Hannibal! in response.
• Only One Name: His Species Surname is only mentioned in supplementary materials.
• Opaque Nerd Glasses: The only time we actually see his eyes, he's pulled inside his shell and not wearing glasses.
• Pair the Smart Ones: Him and Penelope at the end of the third game... not so much the fourth game.
• Pistol Whip: His melee attack in the second game. It is more a last resort than anything.
• Playful Hacker: Bentley is the team's tech expert and can hack practically any computer they need him to. He's also technically The Cracker as he's part of a gang of thieves, albeit a largely heroic gang.
• Power-Up Magnet: A literal magnet on a fishing pole used to draw coins and keys from an enemy's back pocket. In Thieves in Time, he uses another literal magnet on a fishing pole to catch fish, and did.
• Precious Photo: Bentley is known to have two of them with him at all times, one of his deceased mother, and the other of Penelope. The latter succumbs to Mustache Vandalism when Penelope betrays him.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Murray's red, with Sly in-between.
• Removable Shell: While he's never seen outside of it, he's capable of withdrawing all his limbs and sitting curled up inside it with room to spare in Sly 4. It's definitely Bigger on the Inside.
• The Resenter: He comes close to this to Sly in the third game. He gets over it before it can become a problem with a little help from Murray.
• Scars Are Forever: There's a reason why he's in that wheelchair...
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Bentley uses big words, to the confusion of Sly and Murray.
• Shock and Awe: Bentley can upgrade his crossbow darts and bombs to be electrical in Sly 4.
• Shy Shelled Animal: He's an ally to Sly, who originally acted as his Mission Control. Subverted in later games, where he starts to take a more active role.
• Species Surname: He's a turtle who's last name is "Turtle". The original Japanese release of the first game refers to Bentley's surname as "WiseTurtle" instead.
• The Smart Guy: In every game he's in, he's always introduced as "The Brains".
• The Strategist: He's the brains of the Cooper Gang, and often comes up with the plans.
• Super Drowning Skills: Ironic, even though he's a turtle. However, this becomes justified from Sly 3 onward.
• Super Wheelchair: Due to the events of Band of Thieves. He updates it with stuff like bombs and rocket boosters. In PlayStation Move Heroes, he's updated to a full-fledged hoverchair. It also gives him a better melee attack than before.
• Supporting Protagonist: Arguably: while it's Sly's name in the title and he has the most screen-time in each game, Bentley gets the most Character Development of the three.
• This Cannot Be!: He does not handle Penelope's betrayal well. At all.
  Bentley: It's not possible! Penelope... But why would she...?! [...] Aah! I think I'm going to be sick.
• Twofer Token Minority: He's the only reptile in a gang with two mammals, and he's wheelchair-bound.
• Took a Level in Badass: Over the course of the series, he becomes more capable on the field. In the first game, he was purely Mission Control. In the second game, he becomes a field agent who can use bombs and a crossbow to fight and eventually breaks Sly and Murray out of prison by himself. In the third game, he gains access to a wheelchair full of gadgets and gains more confidence in himself.
• Trick Arrow: Sleep darts, electrical ones, and so on.
• Undying Loyalty: Twice in the series, he's offered a chance to join the opposing faction rather than work with Cooper (In the third game by Dr. M and in the fourth game by Penelope). Both times he refuses.
• Weak, but Skilled: He's weaker than Sly, and much weaker than Murray, in hand-to-hand combat, but makes up for it with his high intellect and great arsenal of gadgets, from timed bombs to sleeping darts.
• Wham Line: The line that shocked everyone just as Clock-La had been defeated.
  Bentley: "Pick me up... I can't walk!"
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In Sly 4, Bentley really doesn't like penguins for some reason.
• Wrong Guy First: Bentley shows nothing but regret for giving his heart to the sociopathic Penelope, who gleefully crushed it behind his back. He has yet to find another girlfriend, though.

Murray Hippo

Murray Hippo

"I may be big, and not as smart as the other guys, but one thing I'm not… is weak!"

Voiced by: Chris Murphy (English), Gilbert Lévy (French), Per Sandborgh (Swedish)

"The "Thunder Flop" knows neither friend nor foe, only DESTRUCTION!"

An American hippo, and The Big Guy of the team. He plays a supporting role as a truck racer and key retriever in the first game, and takes about ten levels in badass starting from the second.

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• Achilles in His Tent: The third game, due to his guilt over Bentley's crippling. It stops when Murray sees Octavio kick Bentley out of his wheelchair, and he exclaims that "The Murray" is back.
• Acrofatic: He's able to pull off some impressive ice-skating maneuvers in Thieves in Time.
• Ambiguously Gay: Murray is pink, prone to tears, comfortable with crossdressing, and is the only guy in the trio without a Love Interest. In Second Funniest Podcast episodes 305-306, Murray's voice actor reveals that he was originally meant to be bisexual, but the concept was dropped because several test players were confused by the dialogue Murray said that concerned his bisexuality. The traits remain, but are extremely downplayed in the actual games.
• Angry, Angry Hippos: Murray's a nice guy, but like a real hippo, threatening his loved ones is a sure-fire way to earn yourself his fury. There's a reason he's The Big Guy on the team.
• Ascended Fanboy: Murray is apparently a superhero fan, as he sports a hood, mask, and a Scarf of Asskicking where he becomes "The Murray".
• Attractive Bent-Gender: When he disguises himself as a geisha in Thieves in Time and dances for the guards, just about every guard in the place is damn near drooling over him. Even Rioichi becomes transfixed if the rhythm game is done perfectly.
• Badass Driver: Shown in the games, and he's a professional race car driver at the end of the third game.
  • In the fourth game, Sly mentions that he becomes very infamous for his destruction in the pro-circuit. When he couldn't find any sponsors, he went to demolition derbies where he's been undefeated until Bentley comes and requests his help.
• Badass Boast: Fond of these from time to time.
  Murray: THAT DOES IT! I’LL FLOSS MY TEETH WITH YOUR SPINE!
• Berserk Button: He is aware that he is quite large and not as bright as Sly and Bentley, but whatever you do, don't call him weak. Rajan learned that the hard way.
  • Hurting his friends is also known to set him off big time as Octavio found out.
• Be the Ball: Thanks to his Dreamtime training, Murray can use the Aboriginal Ball Form, where he tucks himself into a ball. The gadget grid even name-drops the trope as the move's name. Alongside the typical rolling and bouncing, he can also generate a damaging field of energy around himself when he is moving fast enough. Said energy field can even generate a shockwave upon bouncing at sufficient heights.
• Big Eater: He's only outmatched by Bob Cooper and Salim al Kupar.
• Big Fun: He's a fat friendly hippo.
• The Big Guy: Murray is called "The Brawn" of the Cooper Gang in Sly 2 and he relies on brute strength more than his teammates, both gameplay and cutscenes. Sly even has "Big Guy" as his In-Series Nickname for him.
• Blood Knight: By the second game onwards, Murray's rather eager to jump into the fray.
• Boisterous Bruiser: THE MURRAY will gleefully chew the scenery as hard as he punches whatever is blocking his path.
• Bound and Gagged: In the third game, when tied to a bomb in China. A rare case where a character isn't gagged.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In Sly 2 when he was in solitary confinement in The Contessa's correctional facility where he was turned into a raging berserker. Sly managed to break him out of it, though.
• Break the Cutie: The last few levels of Sly 2 put him through the wringer.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: He's the muscle of the group but also tends to be the most emotional.
• Characterization Marches On: In the original game he had little personality besides being a Lovable Coward and the getaway driver. The second turned him into the Large Ham that would play a more active role in the series, but it's shown several times that he's a Stepford Smiler and is still somewhat of a coward, but he eventually gets over it.
• Companion Cube: The team van. It even had a part to play in getting the Panda King to be a member of the team and extremely essential to the team in the fourth game. Whenever Murray loses it or finds it in trouble he'll run to save it by any means necessary.
  Murray: Don't worry, baby! Mama's coming!
• Dash Attack: His Berserker Charge will knock any guards unconscious with a Wheel o' Feet.
• Department of Redundancy Department: This exchange between him and Octavio during their fight in Honor Among Thieves:
  Octavio: "You may have more tar, but I'm-a not holding back no longer! Listen to the song-a your death!"
  Murray: "The Murray knows no song but the triumphant horn section of his own triumph!"
• Disguised in Drag: In Sly 3's in-game hidden short, "Goodbye My Sweet", Murray is dressed as a bar maid, complete with blonde curly locks.
  • In Thieves in Time, he's disguised as Madame Geisha, a prominent member of the geisha house during the Feudal Japan chapter. Could be seen as Ambiguously Gay when he seemed a little too willing to offer to disguise himself as a belly dancer when Carmelita voiced her displeasure of dressing up as one (but she was made to anyway, thank goodness).
    Murray: Listen! Silk is very elastic!
• The Driver: He's the primary driver, and originally the only one who could drive stick.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Feels this way in the Ice Age level when Bob is relied upon more than him. But he gets over it by the end of the level and fight with Grizz.
• Dumb Muscle: A semi-heroic example (he IS a thief, remember).
• Elemental Punch: Includes fire, lightning, and explosions.
• Emotional Bruiser: He certainly cries more than the other members of the Cooper Gang. He is also deeply affected when Bentley loses his ability to walk. As a result, he leaves the gang, overcome with guilt at not being able to save his friend.
• Extremity Extremist: Fights almost exclusively with punches.
• Flanderization:
  • In Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves he became much more of a Blood Knight obsessed with violence and destruction. Almost every scene he is in will involve him suggesting the gang breaks something or have him giddy at the idea of getting to fight people and/or break things.
  • Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time removes most of his Blood Knight tendencies from 3, but his character is instead played much more for comedy with a lot of the jokes centered around him being a Big Eater.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine—emotional, fun-loving and energetic.
• Gentle Giant: Downplayed. While Murray starts as this and remains pretty nice to his friends, he gets more and more vicious as the series goes on. Especially notable in Honor Among Thieves, where he was a total pacifist and wouldn't engage in a fight until Octavio kicked Bentley out of his wheelchair.
• Getaway Driver: He's the team's designated driver.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Murray's style of fighting is relying on his two fists.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Can pick up and throw enemies at others.
• Ground Pound: "THUNDER FLOP!!"
• Guest-Star Party Member: In the second and third games, there is at least one episode where he isn't playable in the hub world but is still temporarily used in missions. In 2s "Jailbreak", he's captured by the Contessa and only rescued at the very end, while in 3s "An Opera of Fear", he has a strict vow of pacifism and only rejoins the gang after Octavio attacks Bentley.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: His lack of pants is immediately noticeable. Murray even addressed the issue in one of the promotional videos for Thieves in Time. It's apparently because he can't find any pants that fit a husky hippo frame.
• The Heart: This is shown best in Honor Among Thieves, as he’s the one who convinces Bentley to let go of his resentment and jealousy towards Sly.
• Heroic BSoD: In-between Band of Thieves and Honor Among Thieves, he goes through one because he blames himself for Bentley's crippling injury at the hands of Clock-La. He gets over it during the fight with Octavio.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Verges on this in Honor Among Thieves, to the extent that he gleefully throws mine guards to a crocodile in the second level of the game.
• Heroic Seductress: A Crossdressing, Played for Laughs example during Thieves in Time when he had to pose as a geisha and do a dance to distract some guards.
• Hero-Worshipper: In the first game, at least, Murray thinks that Sly is the coolest, and really wishes to be like him, with art director Dev Madan even confirming that this is why Murray wears a blue shirt. He isn't as obsessed with Sly in later titles, thanks to him gaining confidence within his "The Murray" persona, but his respect for Sly hasn't fallen one bit.
• He's Back!: "THE MURRAY RETURNS!" when he fights Octavio.
• Hot-Blooded: As part of his character development from the first game. Murray started as a meek goofball, and then by the second game became the hot blooded masked bruiser due to a confidence boost.
• Huggy, Huggy Hippos: This pink hippo is The Heart of the Cooper gang.
• Instant Waking Skills: Just look at the safe houses in Thieves in Time. If Murray isn't selected by the player, he'd just be seen snoozing in his chair. The second the cursor selects him, he's geared up and ready to go.
• It's All My Fault: Murray blames himself for the damage dealt to Bentley by Clock-la during the ending of the second game, and refuses to go back to fighting as long as he has Bentley's blood on his hands (as far as he sees it). Bentley has a heart-to-heart with Murray during the third game where he tells Murray that, despite his injuries and paralysis, he has never blamed Murray for a moment for it. It takes Murray seeing Bentley knocked to the ground out of his wheelchair for him to throw his guilt away and save his friends.
• Large Ham: By the second game onward, he seems to be taking cues from lucha libre wrestlers.
• The Load: "Part-time driver and full-time burden" indeed; in the first game, at least. Then he got over it with a blazing pink VENGEANCE!
• Lovable Coward: Mainly in the first game, but this is also shown several times in the second whenever Murray's confidence is shaken.
• Made of Explodium: The Dukes of Dynamite in Sly 4... explosive punches.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: The Guttural Roar attack from Sly 2 and Sly 3.
• Mighty Glacier: Normally less agile than either Sly or Bentley, but much more capable in combat and can take more punches.
• My Greatest Failure: He blamed himself for Bentley's injuries at the end of Band of Thieves and quits the gang to try and find a more peaceful way of life during the time between the second and third games.
• Nice Guy: Murray is a real Blood Knight, but he’s Big Fun incarnate and The Heart of the trio.
• Noodle Incident: In the third game, he mentions that his master, The Guru, doesn't live in his hut anymore because of an incident Murray calls "the Unspeakable". All we know is that there's purple smoke, and that Murray had to apologize for a whole month before he was forgiven.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: In the first game, he was no more durable than Sly and even cowered from enemies.
• Only One Name: See Bentley's entry.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Like Sly, Murray did not take Penelope's betrayal well. This motivates him into walking into a moat in scuba gear to blow up a drawbridge, all while sporting a Psychotic Smirk. Never mess with "The Murray"!
  • No matter how Murray feels, he'll always have a big appetite. In Sly 4, when it was decided that Bob would be better suited for the ice wall climbing (since Murray obviously can't do it), he felt rather dejected. When Bentley tried to cheer him up by offering him food once returning to the hideout, he stated that he wasn't feeling hungry.
  Murray: I'm not hungry... whoa, so that's what it feels like.
• Playing with Fire: One of Murray's upgrades allows him to charge his fists with flame for damaging flame punches.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Well, real men are pink, in his case.
• Red Is Heroic: He wears a red mask and sleeves and is The Heart of the gang.
• Red Is Violent: While a kindhearted character, Murray also serves as the muscle of the Cooper Gang.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Bentley's blue, with Sly in-between.
• Roundhouse Kick: An instant kill move than can be used on juggled guards or as a sneak attack.
• Scarf of Asskicking: He sports one as part of his superhero persona as "The Murray".
• Shake Someone, Objects Fall: His method of pick-pocketing. He robs the guard that he is holding by shaking out their loot, which is done by the same button for picking up things.
• Shock and Awe: One of Murray's upgrades allows him to charge his fists with electricity for shocking punches.
• Shockwave Stomp: How he typically picks things up: he stomps the ground, and the resulting shockwave propels the object into the air and into his arms.
• Species Surname: He's a hippo whose last name is "Hippo".
• Spell My Name with a "The": He prefers "The Murray," though he's not as big about it as most examples.
• Stepford Smiler: It is made clear several times in the second game that Murray's confidence is all an act, and is still a Lovable Coward, but he cares for his friends so much, that he's willing to fight in the front lines for them. The act drops when Bentley is crushed at the end.
• Stout Strength: He's been pudgy from the start, but behind that fat is a lot of muscle, and a world of hurt if you get on his bad side.
• Strapped to a Bomb: In the third game, he's strapped to dynamite in China.
• Super Drowning Skills: He's a freaking hippo...
  • One of the manuals handwaves this by Sly mentioning that the three shouldn't have "skipped those swimming lessons" back at the orphanage.
  • Averted in the England job in Sly 4 as he was seen swimming in the castle moat to detonate the drawbridge. Doubles as both Gameplay and Story Segregation and Cutscene Power to the Max.
  • This however should be excused, as hippos cannot swim in real life anyway. They can only stand in water and only as long as their head remains above the surface.
• Super-Strength: While strong enough already, a powerup he gains in Sly 2 is called Atlas Strength, making him able to run while carrying larger enemies at a time. He is also the only one of the trio who can beat Flashlight Guards in a straight fight (from the second game onwards, at least).
• 10-Minute Retirement: He quit the gang after Sly 2, but rejoins in the first level in Sly 3.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the first game, he was no more durable than Sly and cowered from enemies. In the second game onwards, thanks to the last adventure boosting his confidence, he could take more hits than any other member of the team, and gained huge strength to boot. By the third game, Dr. M even states that Murray was far stronger than the previous Cooper Gang's heavy hitter, McSweeney.
• Unknown Rival: Murray didn't know that Penelope was plotting to murder him out of jealousy and spite.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Demolition Driver by the end of the 3rd game and Professional Wrestler by the 4th.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Though not formally trained, Murray's bulk and strength let him do this. He then becomes one officially in the epilogue of Sly 4.
  • In the boxing match of Episode Two, he's even introduced as being from Parts Unknown.

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