The Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors tree in multiplayer is obvious for the most part (Water douses Fire, Fire burns Air, Air scatters Earth), but the rest require some explaining:
Earth beats Tech because earth matter can crush machinery (stones) or cause it malfunction and break down due to poor maintenance and cleaning (soil and dust).
Tech beats Magic because Magic is an energy source that technology can harness. Alternatively, science disproves magic.
Magic beats Undead because raising zombies and summoning ghosts is one of the oldest spells in the book. Alternatively, it could be because Magic is being connected to all other Elements, whilst Undead is the absence of a specific element; Life. In other words, it's a multi-component element (Magic) against an Element lacking an component itself (Life).
Undead beats Life because zombies and the like feed on souls and life force.
Life beats Water because water is the element that nurtures life, and all life came from the sea. That, and it's similar to how Grass beats Water in the Pokémon series — plants from Life absorb Water.
Each one of the Skylanders games has a series of enemies that can be considered parallels to the special Skylanders each instalment introduces;
Spyro's Adventure sees the Skylanders doing battle against Kaos' Minions over 4 of the Eternal Sources, who are dark versions of themselves. Or alternatively, since this game introduces us to the basic Core Skylanders, it makes sense for them to fight generic, series-spanning enemies like Trolls and Drow.
Giants has Arkeyan Robots, some of whom are the biggest entities in the series.
SWAP Force involves the use of Petrified Darkness in corrupting good and innocence creatures into beings of evil; their natural alignments are literally swapped.
Trap Team needs the Trap Masters to fight against the Villains, whom are weak to their special Traptanium Weapons. Furthermore, the Golden Queen and later Kaos take control of a weapon that is able to trap entire patches of space within it.
SuperChargers fight against antagonists in their own superpowered Vehicles and Kaos technically wields one in the form of the Sky Eater, although to be more accurate, it's the Darkness that controls and coordinates it.
Imaginators and Senseis fight against the Doomlanders, evil Skylanders created by Kaos with Mind Magic similar to the former group and the Brain Ancient educates Kaos in how to use his newfound abilities, mirroring the role of the latter Skylanders. Kaos' plan to brainwash all of Skylanders also sets up a nice parallel to the Senseis, since whilst they guide and coach Imaginators, Kaos seeks to forcibly brainwash them, a very different concept to the idea of tutelage.
Spyro's Adventure
In the final battle of Spyro's Adventure, Kaos calls on his evil Skylanders minions in certain groups. These groups all represent one stat each of the ones found on the Skylanders' cards. Eruptor, Stump Smash and Slam Bam are brawlers and represent strength. Stealth Elf, Zap and Ghost Roaster attack by rushing towards the player Skylander, representing speed by being Fragile Speedsters. Chop Chop, Zook and Sunburn have ways of protecting themselves, representing defense. And Hex, Flameslinger and Gill Grunt are Long-Range Fighters, which is the attack method most associated with luck (mostly due to Trigger Happy having the highest luck stat and attacking with guns).
Swap Force
Everyone's saying Damn You, Muscle Memory! when playing Swap Force. But did anyone notice it was because something other than the figurines were swapped?
Trap Team
After Wolfgang has escaped to the future, Da Pinchy offers to help the Skylanders travel in time to go after him. But wait, how is this possible after it was established that you need a Portal Master to travel in time? Well, there is actually one Portal Master involved in this who's the reason why the Skylanders are even in Skylands to begin with; the player.
SuperChargers
Buzz is a lot more meaner inSuperChargers compared to Trap Team, with him doing messed up stuff like already having a raid planned on the Cloud Kingdom in case the Skylanders wouldn't get the Thunderous Bolt. But in SuperChargers, the story is that Kaos has a machine that tears apart Skylands that gets stronger and stronger, so it makes sense that Buzz would be more hostile and try to cut corners when it comes to the safety of Skylands.
Every racing villain that can be trappable in SuperChargers aren’t randomly picked for the category they’re in. They fit in their own way.
Sea Villains:
Mesmeralda is an interesting case, as her inclusion as a sea villain has more to do with where she is fought, which is the Frozen Fossil Festival. That level is based on Frostfest Mountains from Swap Force, where there is always a blizzard, making it hard for it to be a Sky race track and snow is more difficult to drive in compared to other terrains, so Sea is the best option.
Frightbeard is a pirate, who normally sails the seas, even if in his debut game, his ship sails across in the sky.
Spellslamzer is in a similar boat as Mesmeralda. He is fought in the Mystic Vault, which is based on the Vault of the Ancients. The vault has no floor, instead waterways inside it, so it makes sense why it would be a sea track. And the way Spellslamzer fits into it is because the Dark Rift Engine is locked up there, and Spell Punks were responsible for unleashing The Darkness using it.
The Golden Queen has many Egyptian motifs and back in Ancient Egypt they had no aircrafts or cars of any sorts, only boats.
Sky Villains:
Stratosfear is a Storm Giant, meaning he fits the Sky category to a tee. During his boss fight in story mode, he is also driving another aircraft that’s not his vehicle in races.
Chef Pepper Jack’s boss fight in Trap Team took place on an aircraft, a zeppelin.
Cap’N Cluck’s vehicle is designed after the suit he was wearing in Tower of Time, and that suit allowed him to fly. Also, he uses that vehicle to fly around his Chicken HQ as shown in the level based on it, allowing him to supervise the workplace better.
Wolfgang was fought in the Future of Skylands, where there were flying cars.
And on a side note, he’s the only one of the three villains to have their faces on the Racing Trophies who isn’t a major villain (even if Kaos took over as final boss after Golden Queen was defeated). But he had a status as The Starscream in Trap Team, taking the chance to travel to the future of Skylands to conquer it for himself there.
Kaos’ aircraft is directly based on the flying machine he used in Swap Force.
Land Villains:
Glumshanks was fought in a tank in Swap Force, which is only capable of being driven on land.
Chompy Mage live for chompies, and those creatures can only be fought on the ground.
Dragon Hunter doesn’t have a lot of information about him, but as a hunter, a land vehicle fits the best for him given not only his physique, but also the fact that on land there isn’t as much openness as in the sky or the sea, allowing him to focus better on his target.
Count Moneybone is undead, and the undead are highly associated with the underworld and being underground, associating him with land. In the 3DS version of SWAP FORCE, to get to him, the Skylanders needed to head to the underworld in order to face him.
Like you, Kaos and his mother are portal masters... however, Kaos's mom actually uses her powers to Interface Screw, and speaks directly to the player - she knows how to fight a fellow portal master, and attempts to attack the player. Just imagine if Kaos learned how to do this...
In Trap Team, he gains the ability to do just that. The horror is mitigated by the fact that he isn't very good at it, and he ends up pulling random junk through the portal instead. However, SuperChargers brings the horror back right from the intro cutscene and even outdoes his mom: Kaos uses his portal skills to cut the player off from Skylands entirely. The only reason the player even manages to get a Skylander into the game is because Hugo, Cali, and Flynn were resourceful enough to re-establish a connection, but if they hadn't, Kaos would be unstoppable.
One of the Story Scrolls in Swap Force mentions that Kaos' Fortress was used for him to experiment on living creatures. In the next level, Motherly Mayhem, you fight Bubba Greebs- a huge, mutated Greeble with eyes on its shoulders and back... Most likely the result of one of Kaos' experiments.
Ghost Roaster's backstory mentions him eating ghosts. If ghosts are the souls of the dead in the Skylander world, what happens to them when they're eaten?
