Characters / Shantae

aka: Shantae Half Genie Hero

A list of characters in the Shantae series.

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Main Characters

Shantae

Shantae, the Half-Genie Hero

Half-Genie Hero

Voiced by: Meagan Glaser (Risky's Revenge), Cristina Valenzuela (all onward installments)

A half-genie, the Guardian Genie of Scuttle Town, and the titular protagonist, Shantae works tirelessly to thwart the plans of the nefarious lady-pirate, Risky Boots, and anyone who would threaten the world.

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• Action Girl: As the Guardian Genie of Scuttle Town, she fights whomever or whatever threatens the peace.
• Affectionate Nickname: "Snack Cakes", courtesy of Rottytops. Though, given that it's Rottytops, how affectionate it is varies.
• Ambiguously Brown: Other than the genies from the first game, most of the rest of the cast aren't as dark as her. There are cultural references pointing towards her being Turkish, however.
• And I Must Scream: Shantae spends the "Friends to the End" DLC trapped in her own body and has to watch it try to kill her friends.
• Animorphism: Most of her magic dances allow Shantae to transform herself into animals. The original game allows her to transform into a monkey, elephant, and spider. Half-Genie Hero adds a crab transformation, and an optional bat transformation. Seven Sirens has more fantastical animals; the dash newt, the gastro drill (a kind of burrowing cone-shelled snail), the bonker tortoise, the sea frog, and the jet octopus.
• Badass Adorable: Shantae, killing armies of pirates, demons and undead with her hair and looking adorable while doing it since 2002.
• Badass in Distress: She gets trapped in her own body during the "Friends to the End" DLC and needs to be freed by her friends.
• Badass Normal: In Pirate's Curse, she has to rely on pirate equipment since her magic was stolen in the previous game.
• Bag of Spilling: Between each game, with varying levels of justification.
  • Risky's Revenge just has an offhand reference to her slacking in her dance lessons, thus she does not start with the transformations she previously learned.
  • Pirate's Curse is justified as she lost her powers at the climax of Revenge, so she has to learn more mundane methods of confronting danger.
  • Half-Genie Hero has Shantae learning new abilities alongside her old ones, and she had returned the gear used in Pirate's Curse so that is no longer available.
  • Seven Sirens revamps how transformations are done, though the Fusion Coins are mostly Suspiciously Similar Substitutes. Dialogue still discusses Shantae's usual transformation dances, so this is Gameplay and Story Segregation. Later on, a justified instance happens at the end of the game: in order for Shantae to defeat the Empress Siren once and for all, she had to return the Half-Genies' powers back to them so they can reclaim their stolen life force.
• Being Good Sucks: By Half-Genie Hero, her constant failures and mess ups have taken a serious toll on her self-esteem.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Her look of a Sultry Belly Dancer includes a open and slender midriff.
• Bedlah Babe: She wears a red colored bedlah as her normal outfit.
• Benevolent Genie: Well, half-genie. Regardless, she is the guardian genie of Scuttle Town, and easily one of the nicest people there. When she gets her magic back at the end of Pirate's Curse, she grants the mayor's wish by restoring the town to before the Ammo Baron destroyed it.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Shantae is easily one of the most friendly characters in the cast of the games and is usually very peppy and upbeat. However, she is also incredibly strong and will never back down from a fight if it means protecting her family, friends and town.
• Boobs-and-Butt Pose: Shantae shows this in the Steam picture for the Shantae: Half-Genie Hero costume pack. Specifically for the Patrica Wagon costume from Mighty Switch Force!
• Braids of Action: Her alternate costume in the iOS version of Risky's Revenge has her hair like this. Her hairstyle returns in the princess outfit in Pirate's Curse.
• Brought Down to Badass: At the end of Risky's Revenge, she loses her genie powers, but can still fight with her hair and items, which she does throughout Pirate's Curse.
• Can't Shift While Shifted: Shantae dances to take on new forms, and her other forms can't dance, so her only form control once she's in the form is to stop the magic and revert.
• Chainmail Bikini:
  • One of the upgrades in Half-Genie Hero is Bikini Armor. It is not visible though as Shantae will still wear her normal outfit.
  • She can also get a set of armor made for her in Seven Sirens - though in this case it is plate bikini. And more revealing than her normal outfit. And meant to imprison her as a 'collectible'.
• Character Catchphrase: Shantae's signature phrase is "Ret-2-Go!" It means "ready to go."
• Characterization Marches On: Shantae is noticeably more abrasive and short-tempered in the first game and Risky Revenge. While she still has a short fuse that's definitely present in later entries, Pirate’s Curse onwards place far more emphasis on her Endearingly Dorky and All-Loving Hero traits.
• Character Tics: In every game she's appeared in, Shantae has an unusual habit of shaking her hips side-to-side (like a cat about to pounce) while she's crouching or crawling.
• Cheated Angle: The poofier side of her bangs switch sides depending on which direction she's facing, Goku-style.
• Childhood Friends: With Bolo.
• Combo Platter Powers: It was implied early on before being outright confirmed in Seven Sirens, but Shantae is actually quite unique in that she has two personal powers at her disposal. She has her genie powers, gotten from her mother's side, through her Voluntary Shapeshifting-inducing magic dances, while it's implied she got her whip hair ability from her father's side.
• Cool Crown: Often wears a tiara. In the first game, she can get a Tiara in Water Town that adds a spin attack after an elbow dash.
  • In Half-Genie Hero, it seems to be a Morphic Resonance for some of her transformations.
  • The Director's Cut of Risky's Revenge has the dancer outfit have a Uraeus on her tiara. It returns as the princess outfit Shantae (along with Rottytops, Sky, and Risky) wears in Pirate's Curse.
  • In Half-Genie Hero, after collecting all the Gallery Keys and unlocking all the Art Gallery doors, you can receive a Magic Tiara that gives you unlimited magic.
• Cute Monster Girl: Well, Cute Half-Monster Girl, at least in her normal appearance. Most of her non—animal forms center on this. The original Shantae game has the Harpy as its final transformation. Risky's Revenge introduces the Mermaid. Half-Genie Hero redesigns the Spider form into a cute spider-girl Shantae and has an optional, unlockable Dryad form that makes Shantae immobile but invulnerable and lets her spend mana to sprout health-restoring oranges. Succubus and Naga forms were considered for Half-Genie Hero, but ultimately scrapped.
  • Seven Sirens introduces the new Fusion Dance mechanic, where Shantae can cast spells by calling upon four of her fellow half-genies. These dances all cause Shantae to transform into a new cute yet monstrous form, but unlike her normal transformations, these only last for an instant before she reverts to normal. Seer Dance invokes Plink and turns Shantae into a cute demonic sorceress, with teal skin, purple eyes and elaborate gothic robes. By Fusion Dancing with Vera in the Refresh Dance, Shantae's hair turns into long vines and her body becomes a giant root, making her look like a cross between a Plant Person and a Snake People. Zapple's Spark Dance turns Shantae into a Zora-esque fishgirl, with gray skin, fin-like ears, fins on her ankles and hips, and a massive, fishy tail resembling an electric stingray's sprouting from her head in place of hair. Finally, Harmony's Quake Dance gives Shantae flaming hair and wings of fire, as well as a suit of Boob Plate and a huge hammer.
• Dash Attack:
  • She can do this as her elephant transformation.
  • In the first game, she can get Cuffs in Water Town which allows her normal form to do an elbow dash after holding the attack button.
  • In Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, she can do this with Risky's scimitar and boots.
• Determinator: While she's plagued by self-doubt from time to time, she rarely if ever gives up and keeps fighting the good fight no matter the odds.
• Discard and Draw: Seven Sirens has her using Fusion Coins in lieu of her usual transformation dances. In general, they trade permanence for immediacy, not lasting for longer than an individual action but transforming to take them immediately rather than having to dance and being able to switch between them without returning to her normal form as an intermediary.
• Diving Kick: In the first game, she can get a Sash in Water Town which allows her to do this after a flip kick.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Cristina Vee sings the main theme of Half-Genie Hero, "Dance Through the Danger". She also does it with Seven Sirens' theme song, "Rise and Shine Shantae".
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Briefly happens in Half-Genie Hero after being hit with the Dynamo's magic-reversal beam.
• Dumb Muscle: Shantae's not the sharpest tool in the shed usually, but her continuous meddling causes enough problems for Risky that she figures keeping a "Half-Genie of Mass Destruction" on hand is a worthwhile investment in case worse threats come along. This works exactly as Risky planned against the Pirate Master, but while the Empress Siren's mutiny is appropriately repaid, her gigantification ends with the airship Risky coveted going down in flames.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: It's minor, but in her first appearance, Shantae's trousers were simple and solid red, with a lighter red sash belt. The Fighter's Gear Sash replaces her normal red sash with a golden one, which seems to be the basis for the golden trim that shows up in later installments. The black pelvic part of the costume wouldn't show up at all until Risky's Revenge.
• Endearingly Dorky: This side to her is played up a lot in Pirate's Curse, especially with her expressiveness, the mention of some of her odd habits ("I nibble when I'm nervous!") and her attempts at talking like a pirate.
  Shantae: Moist the main snail! Keel the port blubber! Aye aye, Cap'n!
• Exposed to the Elements: She wears her Stripperiffic bedlah in any environment, no matter how hostile. She rarely complains about heat, but Frostbite Island in Pirate's Curse is a bit much.
  Shantae: Oh my gosh it's freezing! I'll take the burning sand and lava any day over this!
• Final Boss: Of "Pirate Mode" in Half-Genie Hero.
• Fragile Speedster: Shantae's Ninja costume in Half-Genie Hero gives her additional speed, agility, and magic at the cost of defense.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Starts showing signs of this in Seven Sirens, in regards to the mechanics of the other Half-Genies' prisons. She also fixes up a machine with some random scrap as part of a puzzle.
• George Jetson Job Security: She's been fired — and then subsequently re-hired — as Scuttle Town's Guardian Genie three times. Twice by Mayor Scuttlebutt (in Risky's Revenge and Half-Genie Hero), and once by the Ammo Baron when he takes over the town in Pirate's Curse.
• Giant Spider: In the first game, her third transformation which allows her to wall crawl on the background in certain places and can spit venom.
• Good Is Not Soft: While she's normally nice and friendly to others, she has a steely demeanor when facing villains. In some entries, this even extends to her allies, as despite being Not So Above It All (especially in later games), she has a low tolerance for nonsense when she has an important objective and can be quite callous when their behavior gets in the way of it.
  Shantae: (to Bolo) You worthless mop-head!
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Unwillingly does this with Rottytops in the Jammies Mode from Half-Genie Hero. Upon reaching a certain point in the game, Rotty climbs out of Shantae's pillowcase and reveals she was hiding inside of it... which would explain why the pillow is the game's most damaging melee attack!
• Guest Fighter:
  • She appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as both a Spirit that can be equipped on other fighters and a DLC costume for the Mii Brawler. The latter also adds "Neo Burning Town" from Half-Genie Hero to the music selection for stages that are exclusive to Smash.
  • She's in Blaster Master Zero, complete with her own tank.
  • In Runbow, she's one of the many indie characters who can join the party platforming.
• Happily Adopted: She's well-aware that she and her uncle Mimic aren't actually related, but it's clear that she still loves him and views him as a father figure regardless.
• Harping on About Harpies: In the first game, her fourth transformation is the Harpy, which turns her into a Shantae with wings for arms and bird's legs and allows her to fly. This form returns in Half-Genie Hero.
• Hartman Hips: Her hips are significantly wider than her shoulders and waist. Especially seen when she is belly dancing and wearing her bikini in Half-Genie Hero. She also fits the "large buttocks" part of this trope.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Sky and Rottytops.
• Hero Antagonist: For Half-Genie Hero: Pirate Queen's Quest, which is told from Risky's perspective.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Downplayed. While Shantae has been fired from her job as protector of Scuttle Town three separate times, two of them was the mayor blaming her for everything, while the other was just the town being Under New Management. The actual citizens of Scuttle Town remain fond of her regardless.
• Hidden Depths: Most of the time she's a tomboyish and chipper Action Girl, but when things don't go quite as planned she starts to show some significant emotional vulnerability, sometimes even doubting she's strong enough to really be a hero. Also, despite her bedlah outfit and belly-dancing, she claims to be rather modest; and in Pirate's Curse, feels exposed in a Chainmail Bikini.
• Honorable Elephant: Her second transformation which allows her to break certain objects by rushing or stomping.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Genie mom, human dad.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: The Oubliette of Suffering refuses to take her in because she smells "sweet and lovely" and hasn't done anything sinful enough to deserve their torture.
  • Even when Risky used the Dynamo against her to force her into becoming Nega-Shantae, it only takes her three best friends for her to snap out of it.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: She's blue-eyed and can be quite naïve at times. Especially in the Costume DLC modes of Half-Genie Hero.
• Lethal Joke Item: The base damage of her pillow melee and sheep projectiles in Half-Genie Hero's "Jammies Mode" are twice as much as the base damage of her hair in the main game. To be fair, Rottytops is stowing away in the former.
• Lighthouse Point: She resides in a lighthouse that's always a short distance outside Scuttle Town.
• Lightning Bruiser: She's at Sonic the Hedgehog levels when using Risky Boots's... boots in Pirate's Curse, becoming extremely fast, powerful, able to run on water, lava, and spikes, and invincible.
• Magic Dance: This is how her powers as a half-genie manifest. Their effects range from transformations, to warping, to healing herself or damaging enemies.
• Malaproper: When trying to act like a pirate and order her "crew" around. And it is adorable!
  Shantae: Moist the main snail! Keel the port blubber! Aye aye, Cap'n!
• Mermanity Ensues: She's capable of transforming herself into a mermaid, a crab, or a frog via her belly-dancing skills.
• Ms. Fanservice: The fact that her default outfit is a red bedlah that exposes a lot of her body is enough, but she's also prone to boob bounce — complete with a lot of shots that focus on her gorgeous figure — does a lot of belly-dancing, and often has the option to wear even more revealing outfits.
• Nice Girl: She's a friendly girl who'll happily protect the world from evil.
• Objectshifting: In addition to all the transforming into animals Shantae does, Half-Genie Hero has a dance that turns her into a jug that spews gems, and another that transforms her into the Sophia III tank.
• Occult Blue Eyes: She's a blue-eyed genie who has magic powers.
• Our Genies Are Different: She is half-genie and doesn't grant wishes with magic. At least until Pirate's Curse when she returned Scuttle Town back to normal for the Mayor after the Ammo Baron had previously rebuilt it into a massive fortress.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: In Risky's Revenge, her third transformation — which allows her to swim and breathe underwater, and shoot bubbles to attack. It returns in Half-Genie Hero.
• Pajama-Clad Hero: In a free update in Half-Genie Hero, the scenario "Jammies Mode" has her adventure in her jammies. She uses a pillow as her main attack, she can fly for a limited time by sleeping on a cloud and can summon sheep that bounces and damages enemies.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Generally the smallest character in the room at any given time... and usually the strongest, especially during the late-game.
• Plant Person: In Half-Genie Hero, there is a transformation that lets her turn into a Dryad that lets her make fruit.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Bolo. There was one instance where she wanted to ask him out to a dance, but since then, she hasn't shown any romantic interest in him, and Bolo has never shown any interest in Shantae, either. Matt Bozon himself has even stated that Bolo is not interested in Shantae.
• Playing with Fire: She gets the FireBall in the first game, which is an improved version of the Pike Ball. The second and fourth games give her a set of fire spells to play with, from fireball projectiles to flamethrowers.
• Pointy Ears: Subtle, but helps to show she's not entirely an ordinary human.
• Power Pincers: In Half-Genie Hero as a crab, she can snip at enemies and certain obstacles.
• Power Loss Depression: In Pirate's Curse, Shantae is shown to be very upset about the loss of her magic at the end of the prior game and openly wonders if she's nothing without it.
• Prehensile Hair: Her primary way to fight is to whip her hair at her enemies. Interestingly it seems she got the ability from her father rather than the genie half of her heritage.
• Purple Is Powerful: Has purple hair and was able to take down a being that took all the genies just to seal away.
• Red Is Heroic: She primarily wears a red bedlah as a nice compliment to her purple hair.
• Save the Villain: Despite her villainy, Shantae has more than once risked her neck to save Risky Boots. Even in Seven Sirens when Risky had announced her intent to destroy Arena Town and everyone on it, Shantae saved her anyways after she was backstabbed by the Siren Empress, much to Sky's chagrin.
• Secret A.I. Moves: As the Final Boss of Half-Genie Hero: Pirate Queen's Quest, she can do moves that you can't do playing as her, including summoning giant waterfalls, rapid-firing bubbles, and Teleport Spamming in her normal form.
• Secret Character: In the first game, when playing the game using a Game Boy Advance, you can pay 500 gems at Bandit Town to learn a dance that lets Shantae turn into a Tinkerbat. With this transformation, she can fight with a scimitar, and carries abilities equivalent of all the other transformations, making them all unnecessary.
  • This transformation returns in Half-Genie Hero, being limited to only higher tiers of Kickstarter supporters before being made available years later in the "Ultimate Edition".
• Series Mascot: This series is named after her. But in addition, very few of Shantae's friends and allies are ever advertised with her.
• Shaking the Rump: Whenever she is stationary while crouching, she shakes her butt.
• Shock and Awe: The Storm Puff, which lets Shantae summon a cloud to zap enemies with lightning bolts.
• Spider People: The Spider transformation returns in Half-Genie Hero but now Shantae looks like an Arachne with a bow on her head. She retains the venom-spitting, but her background-wall-crawl is exchanged for walking around on ceilings.
• Spike Balls of Doom: The ever useful Pike Ball, which smacks enemies as it protectively revolves around her. Risky's Revenge adds two upgraded versions of this, the Super Pike Ball and the Mega Pike Ball, which deploys more spike balls around Shantae.
• Squishy Wizard: Her Dancer Costume in the iOS version of Risky's Revenge doubles her magic power but halves her defense.
• Status Buff: Pirate's Curse has the Monster Milk which increases her damage, and the Super Monster Milk which increases it even further.
• Stripperiffic: Her primary clothing barely covers her torso.
  • In the iOS and Steam versions of Risky's Revenge, her dancer costume is even more stripperiffic than her regular clothing. She also appropriately takes more damage in the outfit.
  • In Pirate's Curse, she (and the rest of the female cast) get mistaken for the princess of a desert kingdom, and end up in rather revealing (yet regal) garb.
• Status Quo Is God: In the true ending of Pirate's Curse, it turns out that the dark magic Shantae had been gathering was indeed the magic siphoned from her by Risky in the previous game. She reabsorbs it to finish off Pirate Master, and thus is a half-genie proper once again.
• Sultry Belly Dancer: She has the look of one. In the first game, she can be one in a Rhythm Game mini-game to earn extra gems. In Seven Sirens, she tries a hula dance Mini-Game as well.
  • In the iOS version of Risky's Revenge, she has an alternate dancer costume to hype-up the costume swap goal for Half-Genie Hero. The Steam version includes its own variation of said costume (with more gold adornments).
  • Lampshaded by the Ammo Baron in Pirate's Curse, who think she's a belly dancer sent to him to celebrate him wrecking Scuttle Town. She has to admit he is in a sense right about her occupation.
• Tank Goodness: In Half-Genie Hero, in a special free update, she can turn into the SOPHIA III with a magic dance. It is a nod to her guest appearance in ''Blaster Master Zero''.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: Keeps her hair up like this. It helps her whip her enemies.
• Took a Level in Badass: So, about that Pirate Master. You know, the most powerful entity in the series thus far; the one who took all the magic of every last genie just to seal away? Once Shantae has her magic restored, she practically solos him. Admittedly he was in a weakened state compared to his prime, but it was still quite an accomplishment.
  • In the end of Pirate's Curse, after her magic and half-genie nature is restored, Shantae states she's bustling with ideas for new dances. Come the next title and she's put her words into practice, carrying more transformations than ever before.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Seven Sirens. It's not as severe as Sky's uptick — and certainly not as consistently present as her first game's jerkassery — but Shantae gets more easily frustrated at and snaps at her vacation-happy friends more than once, due to their generally passive and unhelpful attitude to the obvious problems going on around them.
• Travel Transformation: Shantae's transformation dances let her turn into various forms that she can use to get around in, like the monkey (able to climb walls), elephant (able to smash through obstructions), and mermaid (able to swim underwater).
• True Blue Femininity:
  • She gains a blue dancer costume in the iOS and Steam versions of Risky's Revenge.
  • There is a Palette Swap blue outfit available in Kickstarter copies of Half-Genie Hero, as well as in the Ultimate Edition. It serves as a Mythology Gag towards the pitch for the original game during the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and PC planning stag, where Shantae would eventually upgrade to a triumphant blue near the end of the adventure.
• Tuckerization: In an interview, it's said that Erin Bozon named Shantae after a camper she counseled:
  Matt Bozon: My wife Erin created Shantae in 1994 while she and I were engaged. We met at Cal Arts, both there to learn animation. She got a flash of inspiration from back in her camp counselor days, and named Shantae after one of the campers.
• Vague Age: Shantae's age is never given, though it's generally understood she's a young adult. For a while, a subsection of Shantae fans asserted that the titular half-genie is 16 years old, pointing to a tweet made on the series' official Twitter in 2016. Series designer James Montagna would later state that it was posted by an intern without approval, and series creator Matt Bozon confirmed that while Shantae's age is intentonally vague, she's an adult◊.
• Video Game Dashing: In Pirate's Curse, courtesy of Risky's Boots. Combined with Risky's Scimitar, it's powerful enough to make her invincible for the duration.
• Voluntary Transformation: Shantae's genie power centers on transforming into different animal or Cute Monster Girl forms that provide abilities she can use get around or even fight. Even the Fusion Dances from Seven Sirens, which function more like traditional spells, involve Shantae turning into a Cute Monster Girl to invoke the magic.
• Waistcoat of Style: She wears an unbuttoned vest in Risky's Revenge and Pirate's Curse, though the former game doesn't show it in her character portrait.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene: Shantae wears a bikini in Beach Mode of Half-Genie Hero. She needs to collect suntan lotion bottles to prevent from burning and taking damage.
• Warp Whistle: In the first game she can do magic dances to teleport to the towns and the Zombie Caravan after returning baby warpsquids to the mother warpsquids in the respective places.
  • In Half-Genie Hero she can warp to previously cleared areas in the respective worlds using the Warp Dance.

Sky

Bird Charmer

Voiced by: Karen Strassman

Shantae's life-long friend and ally, Sky is a war bird trainer whose profitable egg hunts often span the known reaches of Sequin Land. Sky can't wait for Shantae to see more of the world and life's surprises, and seems to be in a hurry to grow up. Sky is a sort of desert rat, always nesting in out of the way places at length. For this reason, Shantae and Sky tend to have more unexpected reunions than planned visits. Even apart, their friendship is a strong one, and Sky's opinions hold equal value to Uncle Mimic's in Shantae's mind. Sky keeps a war bird named Wrench, and she is rarely seen without him.

She is a resident of Oasis Town in the original game, and resides in Scuttle Town starting in Risky's Revenge.

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• Ambidextrous Sprite: Her glove will switch hands depending on which direction she's facing.
• Aerith and Bob: Compared to all the wacky names this series comes up with, Sky is a pretty normal name.
• Badass Cape: In sequels after Risky's Revenge, her hood now has a short cape.
• The Beast Master: Is a war bird trainer. She's always wearing a falconer's glove, and is followed by her pet bird Wrench.
• Cool Big Sis: Of Shantae's friends.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Her in-game sprite in the first game lacks her usual blonde bangs. They show up in her official artwork, however, so this is likely due to limitations of the Game Boy Color.
• Fantastic Racism: She really hates Zombies, and constantly mocks and insults Rottytops, as well as Shantae herself for being Rotty's friend. That said, Friends to the End shows that she has managed to get on more-or-less amicable terms with Rottytops specifically. At the very least, she can tolerate Rotty.
• Hollywood Pudgy: In-Universe by both her own mother and Risky Boots in a short-lived running gag. It's not exactly visible to the player, though.
• In the Hood: Often wears one.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Her entire reaction to the hijinks of the snake palace in Pirate's Curse.
• Long-Range Fighter: In Friends to the End, her bird attacks have impressive range, but are much weaker than Bolo and Rotty's attacks (and a level-up only makes her able to attack more successively).
• Make My Monster Grow: She has a trick that enlarges Wrench for use as a mount in Half-Genie Hero. Apparently, it involves a special salted caramel recipe.
• Meaningful Name:
  • She’s a falconer who trains warbirds to fly, and her name is Sky.
  • Doubly so for her favorite warbird, Wrench. Not only is he part-wren and part-finch, but he can actually act as a wrench in order to help repair things. He gets to demonstrate this ability in the first and second games.
• Ms. Fanservice: Like Shantae, she has an attractive and flattering appearance. Outside of that, there’s also the royal garb she wears in Pirate's Curse, and Seven Sirens has her in a bikini for most of the game.
• Not So Above It All: Is generally the most competent and sensible out of Shantae's friends (and moreso than Shantae herself at times), but she still has her own little eccentricities like the rest of the cast, and has her fair share of moments where she acts just as impulsive, irrational, or irresponsible as they do.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Sky's outfit from Pirate's Curse onwards has her wearing one.
• Only Sane Man: In the Friends to the End DLC, she's the most rational of the trio, though that isn't saying much.
• Pink Means Feminine: Her clothing is mostly sky blue with some pink.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: In the Friends to the End DLC, she attacks by throwing birds like boomerangs. There's an achievement for avoiding their return for a set amount of time.
• Promoted to Playable: One of the successful stretch goals for Half-Genie Hero has her, Bolo, and Rottytops be playable.
• Show Girl Skirt: In the first game and in Risky's Revenge. She switches to pants in the sequels.
• Stripperiffic: In the first game and in Risky's Revenge, she wears a loose top with an open skirt. In the sequels, she wears tight pants and her top seems to be a corset.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Seven Sirens, Sky is extremely unhelpful during Shantae's quest, and extra-rude on top of it.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene: The reason for the above being her trying to get a tan in her bikini, which she does for the majority of the game aside from the start and end.
• Woman Scorned: When Barracuda Joe comes back to life, he dumps Sky, saying there's other fish in the sea.

Bolo

Idiot Hero

Voiced by: Nathan Sharp (Shantae: Half-Genie Hero), Ross O'Donovan (Shantae and the Seven Sirens)

Shantae's sparring partner is a slow-witted knucklehead with a serious lack of reasoning skills. He's hardly awake until he springs into action...usually at the chance to be a hero...and begins twirling his bolo balls. As a fighter, Bolo is very efficient and skillful, as though these moments of competence are sustained by his regular state of mental hibernation.

Bolo has eyes for Risky Boots and nearly anything else remotely female, although a brotherly comfort level keeps Shantae outside his level of vision. Bolo is commonly used as a punching bag or stool pigeon by Rotty, Sky, and Shantae. Mimic often uses Bolo as an errand boy, which given his single track mind works fairly well.

He was a resident of Water Town in the first game, but moved to Scuttle Town with Sky after Shantae lost her magic.

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• Accidental Hero: In Pirate's Curse, Shantae continues to congratulate and take pride in him for sabotaging the Ammo Baron's targeting module, even after Bolo clearly lets on he did it completely by mistake.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Inverted with his crush on Risky Boots, who he knows is Shantae's foe. Shantae even calls him out for helping her in this in the first game.
• Butt-Monkey: As much as he tries to be a good guy, he just... sucks at it. At one point, his attempt to save some maidens ends with his head getting swallowed by a huge tuna. In Seven Sirens he gets a crappy vacation room with an even worse pool, which he's fairly sure isn't a pool at all.
• Casting Gag: Bolo has consistently been voiced by big-name YouTubers, with him being voiced by NateWantsToBattle in Half-Genie Hero and Rubber Ross in Seven Sirens.
• Chick Magnet: Shantae once asked him out, and Rottytops had some choice words for him, calling him out, as "snack cakes".
• Childhood Friends: With Shantae.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Bolo has eyes for any girl — save for Shantae — but, as of Pirate's Curse, he's clearly practiced keeping a lid on it when he's needed.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Given how much trouble he has gotten himself into over the course of the series, Bolo certainly proves himself with his fighting abilities and his ability to swing on his flail during Friends To the End.
• Depending on the Writer: Just how stupid he is varies from game to game. The first and third ones made him out to be an absolute doofus whose few accomplishments are usually by accident, whereas in the second, fourth and fifth ones, he’s as capable as Shantae’s other friends and is just a bit dim from time to time.
• Dumb Muscle: Much less intelligent than everyone on the cast (aside from possibly the Tinkerbats), but carries around a flail everywhere he goes. Half-Genie Hero: Friends to the End gives his melee attacks the ability to shatter stone obstructions that Shantae uses her elephant form on and Risky uses bombs for.
• Epic Flail: His weapon.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Even for Butt-Monkey standards, Bolo is generally only acknowledged by everyone as either a punching bag, an idiot, a shameless pervert, or a perpetual target for scorn. Even at the best of times, his "friends" come off as only tolerating him out of necessity, and at worst, they genuinely seem to hate him; with even Shantae calling him a "worthless mop-head" and physically attacking him on at least one occasion. One major example is when he tries to break up a fight between Sky and Rottytops in the ending of Seven Sirens, only for them both to immediately team up on him and kick him in the face.
• Idiot Hero: It's even in his character title.
• I Just Want to Be Special: He gets hit with this hard in Pirate's Curse, after being the only member of the cast to get left behind (even behind the series antagonist, no less) after Ammo Baron's initial attack. Even Shantae teasing with mention of their risque Tan Line Island outfits wasn't enough to snap him out of his funk.
  • This aspect is brought to light again in Half-Genie Hero, where he laments the fact that Shantae is always the hero while he's left behind and labeled useless.
    Bolo: Ever since we were kids, you get to be the hero and I'm always the GOOF-UP!
• Incest Subtext: In the first game there's a line where Bolo briefly pervs out to his grandmother's sparkling eyes.
• Jack of All Stats: In Friends to the End, he serves as this in combat purposes, having less range than Sky and less power than Rottytops.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Bolo might not be all that bright, but his heart is in the right place.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: A G-rated version, he's got eyes for any girl, except Shantae.
• Magic Feather: The X-Ray Specs. Downplayed in that he's actually nearsighted. Also quickly subverted, as after the moment of competence with the fossil he tackles an engineering project. The result is built upside-down, backwards, and inside-out.
• Martial Arts Headband: Wears a yellow one.
• Noodle Incident: He mentions a second act of heroism he performed in addition to the accidental one of sabotaging the Ammo Baron's machine, but since Shantae unknowingly conflates the two of them, we never get to find out what the other heroic act was.
• The Noseless: It's likely he has a nose; it's just never drawn.
• Promoted to Playable: One of the successful stretch goals for Half-Genie Hero has him, Sky and Rottytops be playable. Earlier, he was to be playable in Shantae Advance's Link cable multiplayer.
• Ship Tease:
  • In a sprite comic made by Matt Bozon during Shantae GBC's release called Bolo gets taken Out, Shantae wanted to invite him to a romantic festival dance. However Bolo already invited Risky, and Shantae boots him into the sky.
  • He's noticeably jealous of Sky and Brandon during the credit sequence in Pirate's Curse...
• Silver Vixen: The official Shantae Twitter describes his grandmother as extremely attractive, though we never see her. A line by Bolo in the first game about his grandmother's sparkling eyes, also implies this.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Wears a shirt with torn-off sleeves, and starting in Pirate's Curse, he wears a short vest on top of it.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Giving him the X-Ray Specs in Pirate's Curse renews his self-esteem, allowing him to identify a fossil for you with rather exact detailing.
• Spanner in the Works: He accidentally saves the day in Pirate's Curse while working for the Techno Baron. He bungles the targeting module for Ammo Baron's cannon so badly it winds up missing its target completely and instead blows up the Techno Baron. Shantae initially assumes that Bolo intentionally sabotaged the module and is briefly in awe of his heroics before talking to him afterwards reveals it was just a lucky blunder.
• The One Guy: Is the only guy of the playable cast in Half-Genie Hero, Watch Quest, and the formerly-cancelled GBA title, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Melba toast, as of Seven Sirens. May double as something of Actor Allusion, as the food is named after an Australian opera singer, and Bolo's voice actor Ross O'Donovan is Australian.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: Inverted, Bolo wants Risky.

Rottytops

Shaky Friend

^{Click here to see her when she was human.}

Voiced by: Cherami Leigh

Rottytops is a free spirit. Friendly, energetic, and headstrong. However, she is also extremely untrustworthy, crafty, and manipulative. She loves ruffling people's feathers or guiding them down the wrong path. She's a tease and a shameless flirt on a near-criminal level, and her scruples know no boundaries. As a family member in a Zombie Clan, Rotty travels the land by caravan gaining worldly skills and threatening to eat people's brains. She has two nasty brothers (Abner Cadaver and Poe) that seem capable of bringing out the worst in her whenever they're all together. Rotty is obsessed with Shantae and the challenge of corrupting her pure nature.

Even among zombies, Rottytops and her brothers are considered bad news. Rottytops genuinely likes Shantae. Whether it's for her heroic stance or her brains is left to the player to decide.

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• Amazing Technicolor Population: Like all other zombies, she has green skin.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Her stitched limbs will flip depending on direction she's facing. Even official artwork has a hard time keeping this consistent. But based on her concept art and Seven Sirens's cutscenes, her left arm and right leg are stitched. The image on this page shows the opposite.
• Ambiguously Bi: She's constantly flirting with Shantae, but she also once made a pass at Bolo towards the end of Pirate's Curse.
• Attractive Zombie: For an undead girl, she's surprisingly cute.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Death has been really kind to her. Abner is missing his nose and has clawed hands; Poe is halfway between The Igor and Frankenstein's Monster and has bat wings. Rotty has some of her limbs stapled together, and she looks like she had a bad encounter with a can of green paint but otherwise she's practically identical to her living appearance. Undeath even fixed her eyesight, seeing how she doesn't wear glasses anymore as a zombie.
• Brain Food: In Friends to the End, she has the ability to eat brains to fully heal the team.
• Character Catchphrase: During Half-Genie Hero, she's fond of saying "Gotta enjoy life while we still can, right?" Lampshaded later in the game when Shantae asks why Rotty keeps saying that. At which point Rotty reveals that the Hypno Baron plans to unleash a creature of unspeakable horror upon Sequin Land later that day.
• Cannot Spit It Out: You learn from her dead human soul in the afterlife that she greatly admires everything about Shantae and feels guilty whenever she does something that seems to seriously upset her. She finally manages to express her feelings to an extent in Half-Genie Hero, when she helps snap Shantae out of her super-powered evil side by admitting that she isn't always the greatest friend and that Shantae being her friend despite her mischievous ways really means a lot to her.
• Character Tics: She's always swinging her hips. Even her soul does it.
• Close-Range Combatant: In Friends to the End, she has the strongest basic attack of the team, but the shortest range.
• Cloudcuckoolander: History has dictated that Rottytops isn't quite all there. Despite insisting being on Shantae's side, her actions have ranged from kidnapping and trying to trade her best friend's uncle to said best friend's archenemy for coffee, helping summon an Eldritch Abomination to destroy a town (also for coffee), getting happily abducted by a cult and falling in love with the skimpy princess outfit they forced her in, stowing away in Shantae's pillow when Shantae goes adventuring in her pajamas...
• Cute Monster Girl: Much like every other monster in the series.
• Dark Is Not Evil: While she is a brain-eating zombie, she is not much evil as she is a mischievous tease who enjoys playing tricks. At least, she's like this around Shantae (and later Sky and Bolo). Other zombies fear her and her brothers, making one question exactly what she gets up to when she isn't following Shantae around.
• Detachment Combat: In Friends to the End, she attacks by ripping off her leg and whacking people with it.
• Equippable Ally: Turns out to be this in Half Genie Hero's Jammies Mode. After Ammo Baron presses Shantae as to why her pillow hurts so much despite her claiming it's just full of feathers, she decides to check and discovers that Rottytops had climbed into the pillowcase at some point and has been happily letting herself be used as a bludgeon the entire day.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Shantae is the only character in the main group who particularly likes Rottytops, while the others only seem to only tolerate her because Shantae considers her a friend. Sky in particular dislikes having to interact with her, with the two regularly verbally and physically sparring even after the events of Friends to the End.
• Genki Girl: Justified. She needs to drink coffee to stay sane.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: It's revealed in Pirate's Curse — both from her older brother Abner, and from her human soul — that Rottytops is a lot happier around Shantae, even if she mostly shows it by being mischievous. In Seven Sirens Harmony even mentions she felt Rottytops, under the alias of "Ima Goodgirl", really wanted to make friends and didn't have the heart to out her as a non-half-genie.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Shantae rescues her from the clutches of the Sirens after having been masquerading as the half-genie "Fillin the Blank" for most of the game in Seven Sirens and reunites with Bolo and Sky later on, she asks them upfront, "Bet you guys missed me, huh?" Note that she is in a Head-and-Hip Pose and is winking straight in the player's direction when she asks this, with this also very notably being the first time that this particular image sprite comes up.
• Losing Your Head: Her main ability in the Friends to the End DLC is to remove and throw her head, which allows the rest of her body to reform from wherever it lands. She also makes use of it as an NPC in Seven Sirens, when she and Shantae must escape from the Deep Sea Domain.
• Meaningful Appearance: Wears a yellow hairband. It's one of the clues as to the identity of her human soul.
• The Medic: Weirdly enough, she takes this role in Friends to the End. Her special ability allows her to full heal the team by chowing down on some brains.
• Must Have Caffeine: In addition to the example mentioned under Our Zombies Are Different below, a more traditional form of the trope shows up in Half-Genie Hero. Rottytops and her siblings teach the Hypno Baron how to summon an unspeakable, world-ending horror in exchange for a bag of coffee. When Shantae calls her out on it, Rottytops justifies their actions by saying that it was before 9:00 AM.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Possibly a mix of Revenant Zombie and Flesh-Eating Zombie. She retains her intelligence by drinking coffee, but would still prefer to eat brains.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Has the highest damage output in Half-Genie Hero: Friends to the End in exchange for having the lowest attack range.
• Promoted to Playable: In Half-Genie Hero's "Friends to the End" DLC, alongside Sky and Bolo.
• Proud Beauty: A downplayed case; she doesn't exactly praise her own attractiveness explicitly and never exploits it for her own gain (with her much preferring to mess with people in other ways), but there are plenty of hints which suggest that she knows very well how good-looking she is and is more than willing to indulge in it a bit on occasion:
  • Overall- and as elaborated further below- she's quite notable for being a Shameless Fanservice Girl and a proactive flirt in an entire cast and setting of attractive females who nonetheless are typically not either of those things.
  • Out of everyone in the main cast, she tends to be the most receptive to not only wearing skimpy or revealing wear, but also flaunting herself in general (regardless of what she's currently wearing). In Pirate's Curse, her reaction to being forced to wear the Chainmail Bikini given to her by Tan Line Temple's staff is complete and unconditional enjoyment- whereas everyone else was uncomfortable to some extent (even Risky Boots, herself a vain Proud Beauty)- and she both insists that she's keeping the costume and offers to do a fan dance while she's in it as a diversion; even her image sprite while in the princess outfit has her showing off much more than the other girls, with her slightly arching her back and popping forward a leg in a way that greatly emphasizes her curves- her hips especially- and even holding the outfit's rear-cloth off to the side for a bit of added flair despite it being the thing that's (very marginally) offering her the most coverage at the moment (compare this to Shantae's blatant and understandable embarrassment and Risky and Sky's irritation over the inconvenience and absurdity of the situation, expressed by their more subdued and casual postures). In Seven Sirens, when she first meets Lobster Girl, the first thing she asks about her is where she can get something similar to what she's wearing while assuming a Head-and-Hip Pose (which- aside from her lobster tail- is pretty much just a simple pair of knee-length loincloths with open sides that leave her legs entirely exposed and a lobster-carapace bra), and towards the end after the day has been saved, she also gladly volunteers herself as a dancer alongside the other half-genies (even after she's been outed as not being one of them), with her claiming that "With me on stage, we'll be a surefire hit!", all while assuming the very same Head-and-Hip Pose as before. Even her human soul is consistently shown to be wearing a very short skirt and having one of her uniform shirt buttons undone in a way that exposes her midriff, implying that she was the same (or at least similar) in this regard even back when she was still alive.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Downplayed, in that she's a zombie with a troublemaking streak, but definitely not evil. It's subverted completely with regard to her human self, who's a perfectly nice girl who just wants to have friends.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: When the girls are forced into the "space princess" outfit, all of them get embarrassed... except Rotty, who's clearly enjoying herself way too much. She even wants to keep the costume afterward. Even when a course of action is being recommended on how to confront the people in the temple, she suggests that she distract them with a fan dance. Shantae notes in Seven Sirens that cosplaying is one of Rottytop's favourite hobbies when piecing together that Rotty disguised herself as a half-genie, and later on when Shantae gets her to drop her act as "Fillin the Blank", she's all but outright said to change out of her disguise and back into her normal clothes right in front of Shantae.
  • Her Human form's schoolgirl outfit, despite being one of the more conservative get-ups in Rottytop's Wardrobe, has some shades of this. For example, her uniform shirt unbuttoned at the bottom enough for her belly button to be visible, plus a skirt hiked up to her lower midriff, and some thigh-highs to go with it.
• Skewed Priorities: Rotty's biggest flaw seems to be how easy it is to convince her to commit questionable acts despite her loyalty to Shantae. A simple promise of brains or coffee is all it really takes.
• The Tease: On top of being a Shameless Fanservice Girl, Rotty consistently has a bit of a flirtatious streak; she has an image sprite in both Pirate's Curse and Seven Sirens where her body language is notably provocative ^note Pirate's Curse has her turning a shoulder whose tank top strap has slipped- implied to be intentional on her part- towards the person she's speaking to, jutting out her left leg in a way that emphasizes the curve of her hip on that side, and folding her arms under her bust in a way that pushes it upward into clearer view, all while she's grinning at them slyly with her eyes half-lidded sultrily, whilst Seven Sirens has her holding a very deliberate Head-and-Hip Pose with her back arched and the hip opposite to her rested hand thrust out, which- similar to Pirate's Curse- is accompanied with a knowing smirk and a wink in the player's direction- with it often accompanied by appropriately suggestive or self-flattering dialogue- and she's made passes at both Shantae and Bolo at least once (with "snack cakes" being a nickname she's used for them both- Shantae more than Bolo generally, but again, she has called him that at least once).
• Token Evil Teammate: While she's one of the good guys, she's still a zombie that constantly asked to eat Shantae's brain, and she once considered eating a puppy. That said, she has pulled a full Heel–Face Turn by the end of Pirate's Curse.
• Villainy-Free Villain: For all her talk of being a troublemaker and rabblerouser, and for all her threats to eat people's brains, she's never seen as so much hurting a fly during the entire series. She thinks about eating a puppy she finds, but returns it as soon as Shantae asks her to. The one actually villainous thing she's ever done is kidnapping Shantae's uncle Mimic, which she regrets almost immediately and runs off crying out of guilt. This may be justified, as she actually does want to be friends with Shantae and secretly sees her as a role model. On the other hand, in her first appearance, other zombies are shown to be wary of her and her siblings, so who knows what she's doing whenever she's not tailing Shantae.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In Pirate's Curse, she pretends to have been bitten by a huge spider, just so Shantae would carry her home.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Has yellow sclerae in the original GBC title and Risky's Revenge. However, they're absent from Pirate's Curse onward.

Mimic

Hunter of Relics of the Past

Voiced by: Xander Mobus

Old Uncle Mimic is one of the Relic Hunters, a consortium of explorers that attempt to advance the future by excavating secrets of the past. Mimic is the closest thing Shantae has to a family.

He lives in his workshop in Scuttle Town, where he houses hundreds of ancient objects. Since townsfolk tend to be skeptical and stand-offish to Relic Hunters (and genies), he and Shantae make a great pair.

Shantae makes Mimic her project, and refuses to let him grow old, sloppy, or comfortable. Although she can get on his nerves at times, Mimic genuinely loves Shantae and strives to keep her safe. Although Shantae has no idea, Mimic is a retired hero of days long gone and still contains dormant skills that could awaken if provoked.

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• Demoted to Extra: While he still has his moments, he's not as significant in Seven Sirens as he was to the plots of the previous games.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Mimic manages to create the Dynamo in Half-Genie Hero, but when he realizes Risky fed him with the wrong blueprint so he could create an invention for her, Mimic also creates a countermeasure based merely on very vague clues.
• Honorary Uncle: He's Shantae's adopted uncle, and seems to have been acquainted with her mother back when she was around.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: Becomes one in Risky's Revenge.
• Meaningful Name: He is called Mimic due to making copies of what he finds as a Relic Hunter.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: A Relic Hunter, and inventor.
• Papa Wolf: It’s quite brief, but in Half-Genie Hero, he threatens Risky Boots after the machine he was tricked into building starts to corrupt Shantae. He doesn’t get a chance to follow through, but it’s the thought that counts.
• Parental Substitute: He is one to Shantae and is ever worried about her especially because of her dangerous occupation as Guardian Genie. The plot of Half-Genie Hero is kicked when he decides to create a machine that would help Shantae with her job.
• Poor Communication Kills: In Risky’s Revenge, he tries to protect Shantae by keeping the magic lamp’s true power a secret, which ends with her genie half being corrupted and destroyed when she goes to face Risky Boots unprepared.
• Retired Badass: He used to be a formidable relic hunter back in the day, and the fact that he still goes on expeditions shows that he's still got it.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Opaque ones that hide his eyes.
• The Noseless: Like most guys in the series, but his facial hair makes it look really weird.

Other Half-Genies

In General

Other half-genies of different backgrounds.

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• Anime Hair: Every single one of them has a rather bizarre hairdo except for Fillin the Blank (because she's not actually half-genie). Harmony has three Idiot Hairs and a ponytail almost as long as she is tall, Zapple has a four-pointed ponytail like a shuriken, Vera has hers styled into six coral-like "branches", and Plink has six-pointed twintails tied up with two eye-like accessories that react with her emotions.
• Damsel in Distress: The five half-genies play this role in Seven Sirens, in a similar vein to the Genies in the Game Boy Color game. With some of the more experienced Half-Genies, it may fall into Badass in Distress, though it helps the Sirens that the cages they're locked in sedates them.
• Half-Human Hybrid: As per the setting's rules on half-genies, their fathers were human and their mothers were genies.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: In Seven Sirens, Harmony, Fillin, Vera, Zapple, and Plink briefly step into this after giving Shantae a fusion coin and explaining how to use their magic.
• Missing Mom: Again, as per the setting: the genies left for their own realm early enough that most only know of their mothers through what their fathers or other family members told them.
• Ms. Fanservice: Similarly to Shantae, their appearances are quite attractive and flattering.
• One-Gender Race: As said by the pink-haired tourist in Arena Town, "And all Half-Genies are women."
• Pointy Ears: Just like Shantae has, though the shape varies between individuals.
• Stripperiffic: Like Shantae, their outfits are rather revealing, with how much skin they expose varying among them.
• Superpower Lottery: As was implied all the way back in the first game, each half-genie has different powers.

Harmony

Voiced by: Cristina Valenzuela

Appears in: Shantae and the Seven Sirens

The first half-genie born between a genie and a human, Harmony is well aware of what her generation represents and feels that it is up to the half-genies to make the biggest difference they can in the world - after all, unless the genies return, there won't be any other half-genies once they pass on.

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• Aerith and Bob: She is the lone half genie to have a normal name.
• Dishing Out Dirt: As is revealed when you get her power, she can cause earthquakes to damage opponents from afar, as well as unearth or bury objects in the ground.
• Great Big Book of Everything: Far less formal than most examples, but her mother's scrapbook contains information on every half-genie that was born because it was written by each of their mothers.
• The Leader: Takes on this role among the other half-genies, particularly before the "practice" run of the show in Arena Town. After being rescued, she has no problems letting Shantae lead them given her success in dealing with the Sirens, which is helped by the fact her power was sucked out of her alongside the other genies.
• Meaningful Name: As the first half-genie, her birth represented new harmony between humans and genies, and her name is fitting. She's also the one that "keeps the harmony" between all of the half-genies with her maturity and caring demeanor.
• Missing Mom: While this applies to all of the half-genies, Harmony deserves special mention as Harmony's mother is the only one who is explicitly dead. Shantae meets her in the form of a ghost dog in the depths of the Sunken City. Harmony's mother is also the one who imprisoned the Sirens in the first place.
• Team Mom: Along with being the leader and oldest, she also is the most mature, assuring Shantae that she believes in her and keeping the other half genies under control. Shantae can only gush in her head how cool Harmony is. In fact, she is so good at being compassionate that she knew Fillin was not a real half-genie at first glance, but Harmony still said nothing about it because she could tell Rottytops yearned for a friend, and so let her have her fun anyway. What Harmony lamented was that she got dragged into the kidnappings.
• Tragic Keepsake: As the oldest of the half-genies, her mother left her the aforementioned scrapbook containing information that all the genie mothers wanted their daughters to know. She ends up giving it to Shantae at the end of the adventure.

Fillin the Blank

Fillin the Blank / Ima Goodgirl / Rottytops (In Disguise)

Voiced by: Cherami Leigh

Appears in: Shantae and the Seven Sirens

A half-genie zombie, quite forgetful and shy.

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• Amazing Technicolor Population: Just like the other zombies, green skin.
• Attractive Zombie: Much like Rottytops, death and undeath have been fairly merciful to her. There's a reason for that, right, Rotty?
• Canon Character All Along: As some more savvy players might've suspected, Fillin is in fact Rottytops in disguise.
• Charlie Brown from Outta Town: She's actually Rottytops, using two aliases.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The reason Rottytops disguised herself as Fillin was because she felt left out by Shantae not inviting her to the Half-Genie event, so she hid herself in Shantae's luggage to smuggle herself in, and disguised herself so she could get in on all the fun events. However, the reason she wasn't invited was because Shantae couldn't find her, as she was hidden in the luggage.
• Hot Blooded Sideburns: Her hair is styled as such, to the point that her ears are completely obscured. Mainly to hide the fact that she's not an actual half-genie.
• Identical Stranger: If the contrary wasn't specified in-game, it'd be pretty easy to think that she and Rottytops are related. This is a pretty big indicator that they're one and the same.
• Lazy Alias: "Fillin" is not a very clever alias. Neither is "Ima". Nor is intentionally misinterpreting her real name as "Rubby Chops" once Shantae figured out who Fillin/Ima really was.
• Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: Well, Half-Genie/Half-Human Zombie, but the trope applies.
• Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Half-Genie/Half-Zombie except she's a full-on Zombie, as Fillin is Rottytops dressed up as a Half-Genie.
• Odd Name Out: She's the only half-genie with a last name.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: She's obviously Rottytops. Shantae fails to see through it at first because she has so little knowledge about half-genies besides herself, so "zombie half-genie" wasn't off the table. Once Harmony reveals that Fillin isn't a half-genie, Shantae connects the dots quick.
• Punny Name: "Fill in the Blank", though this might not be her real name. Ima Goodgirl, or "I'm a Good Girl," the name she gives to Harmony, also qualifies.
• Spanner in the Works: If it wasn't for her disguise to sneak into the half-genies' performance, Shantae would have been kidnapped instead of her, and the Empress Siren would have gotten access to her full power. When this is pointed out, Rotty promptly declares herself a hero.
• Sue Donym: After Shantae discovers who she really is, she tries to play dumb and spurt out "Who's Rubby Chops?"

Zapple

Voiced by: Erika Ishii

Appears in: Shantae and the Seven Sirens

The Guardian Genie of Armor Town. A half-genie with electricity powers who is quite curious as to the true nature of the Sunken City.

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• Chainmail Bikini: Her outfit looks more like a set of armor than the dresses of the other girls while still being quite revealing.
• The Comically Serious: Not quite as down-to-earth as Harmony, but she has a pretty unfazed reaction to even the strangest things. The one time she does crack a joke, it flies right over Shantae's head.
• Properly Paranoid: She has her suspicions about the true nature of the island they're on, as well as with Shantae when she learns she was the only half-genie who wasn't captured during the festival. She's right insofar as there being ulterior motives behind both of these, although not in the way she'd thought in the latter case.
• Punny Name: Her name is Zapple, and she has electric powers.
• Shock and Awe: Her powers are electricity-based.

Vera

Voiced by: Laura Stahl

Appears in: Shantae and the Seven Sirens

The Guardian Genie of Tree Town. While most of her people prefer to hide themselves away due to the tourists, she still felt the desire to come out and show solidarity with her fellow half-genies, demonstrating her Refresh magic.

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• Healing Hands: Her powers involve healing and purification.
• Hidden Elf Village: The guardian of one, though she still came to Arena Town.
• Meaningful Name: She has the power to heal people, and she's named after Aloe Vera, a well-known medicinal plant.
• White Magician Girl: She's a kind and supportive girl whose only magical ability is to heal others.

Plink

Voiced by: Kayli Mills

Appears in: Shantae and the Seven Sirens

A half-genie born with the powers of a Seer, capable of seeing the 'invisible world' that others cannot.

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• Expressive Accessory: Her eye-like hair decs change their appearance based on her emotions.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Her hair is styled to completely hide one of her eyes, which plays into her True Sight power allowing one to see into a "hidden" world.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is one letter away from "blink", and her powers involve a form of "sight".
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: After meeting Vera, she was struck with a serious case of this and became even more curious as to the nature of the Sunken City.
• Older Than They Look: Slightly. Her looks and mannerisms suggest she would be the youngest of the half-genies, but Shantae turns out to be even younger than her.
• True Sight: Her powers involve seeing into an "invisible world".

Antagonists

Risky and her Gang

Risky Boots

Risky Boots, the Queen of the Seven Seas

Voiced by: Cristina Valenzuela

The nefarious lady-pirate Risky Boots, Shantae's sworn nemesis and the primary antagonist of the series, is known throughout Sequin Land for her love of wealth, power and all shiny things. Risky is an unchallenged and self-appointed "Queen of the Seven Seas", and will caution and toll anyone to think otherwise. Risky is a villain with the skills and luck usually reserved for the good guys. Her ultimate aim is to Take Over the World, and she will stop at nothing to do it.

Capable, dominating, and deadly, Risky isn't afraid to claim what's not hers. She commands an endless army of Tinkerbats who follow her orders without question, building her weapons of war and scavenging the resources that make her schemes become reality.

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• Accidental Hero: In the Pirate Queen's Quest DLC, she ends up stopping the schemes of the Arc Villains in her quest to get Dynamo parts from them. For example, she saves the Mermaid Queen from Techno Baron, who had recaptured her. Risky Boots angrily declares that she's a villain, that she only did it to stop her from attacking her, and that the giant mermaid owes her. She also beats up Wilbur and stops Holly from reemerging.
• All for Nothing: In Seven Sirens, she pulls a serious Batman Gambit to try and take control of the technically advanced Siren Airship. It almost goes off without a hitch, but for said airship being obliterated once Shantae defeats the Empress Siren, leaving Risky with nothing.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: She has light purple skin, compared to the relatively realistic tones of the rest of the humans. She is described as being under the effects of dark magic.
• Antagonist Title: Her name is in the title of the second game, Shantae: Risky's Revenge.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: She leads a bunch of pirates and is more than capable of holding her own against Shantae.
• Arch-Enemy: To Shantae, and the two do not like each other.
• Badass Normal: At the times Shantae duels Risky she's notably even more dangerous on her own than she ever is when piloting the Tinker Tub and/or ordering her Tinkerbats around. What makes her truly scary is that she doesn't have any supernatural magic on her, she's just that good with her weapons that she's able to fight with Shantae's genie magic toe-to-toe.
• Bad Boss: She's quite abusive of her Tinkerbat minions, and in Pirate Queen's Quest she actually attacks them for attacking Scuttletown before she gave the order to.
• The Bad Guy Wins: In Risky's Revenge, she actually succeeds in stripping Shantae of her genie powers at the end. The part where she tries to destroy Shantae with them doesn't pan out, but she's more or less neutralized as a threat for her next attack... or would've been if not for the Pirate Master's untimely revival.
  • Ultimately subverted in Pirate Queen's Quest. Risky successfully completes her Dynamo and actually kills Shantae, but due to her Tinkerbats' incompetence, the Dynamo ends up being destroyed anyway, ruining her plans at the very last second. Given that the DLC is Risky telling her own, fabricated version of Half Genie Hero's story, it's pretty obvious that she never actually beat Shantae in the first place.
• Bathing Beauty: Pirate Queen's Quest introduces Risky smirking in a bubble bath while gloating over wrapping everyone around her finger after corrupting Shantae and stealing the Dynamo.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Pirate's Curse has her telling Shantae to find all of the corrupted Tinkerbats and collect the dark magic that they release upon being defeated. If Shantae finds them all, the good ending shows that it was Shantae's magic the whole time. Risky knew that Shantae's goody-two-shoes nature would change the dark magic back into light magic, allowing Shantae to defeat the Pirate Master.
  • In Half-Genie Hero, Risky Boots knew that Shantae would come after her to recover Mimic's plans for his device. So Risky swapped the plans for a fake set that built a doomsday weapon for her instead.
  • She pulls this off again in Seven Sirens, making sure that the Sirens didn't take Shantae so that she can capture the half-genie girl herself and keep her close if the Empress Siren tried to double cross her.
• Better the Devil You Know: As much as she despises Shantae, Risky does regard her as a Worthy Opponent and would rather contend with her than any of the bigger villains in the series, going as far as teaming up should the new threat be worse than expected.
• Big Bad: Of the entire series. She’s Shantae’s Arch-Enemy who drives the plot of each game except Pirate's Curse with her schemes to Take Over the World.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: In Seven Sirens, she and the Empress Siren are revealed to have been working together to capture the half-genies, restore the latter's ship, and Take Over the World — at least until their mutual betrayal in the final battle.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: At one point in the first game, she actually manages to get Shantae Bound and Gagged and completely at her mercy, but instead of just killing her, she leaves Shantae alone (who a few seconds later easily escapes from the ropes). At another point, Risky manages to trick Shantae into falling through a Trap Door... Into a battle with an unwieldy, inert giant robot that Shantae easily defeats instead of say, any other trap that would been actually fatal. Risky could have easily won right then and there if she hadn't put a conveniently placed floating platform right under the place where Shantae lands when the floor under the platform has the ability to instantly kill her.
  • To her credit, in the first one she left Shantae Bound and Gagged in the middle of a tall and cold mountain peak, with no water and no shelter. Shantae did manage to free herself, but in another case, it would have been a cruel and slow death via hypothermia. The second one... She made her fall in front of a mecha tank in the likeness of a Tinkerbat. For anybody else, it wouldn't have been even a Curb-Stomp Battle, but an execution! It's just that Shantae was that awesomely powerful and resourceful with her transformations that she managed to get away in both situations, even taking out the Tinkertank and defeating Risky at her lair for the latter.
• Brought Down to Normal: After the events of Risky's Revenge, she's lost all her gear that she "inherited" from Pirate Master, and can no longer defend herself as such. By the end of Pirate's Curse, however, she's been restored to her usual status and equipment.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Not commonly brought up but it's been noted on occasion that Risky is herself under the influence of some sort of powerful dark magic leading to her purple complexion. Its left ambiguous if she would be evil without that influence but its certainly not helping any.
• Card-Carrying Villain: There's no Freudian Excuse here — Risky is fully cognizant of the horrible things she does, but by her admission it's just who she is, it's what she is good at, what she enjoys, and she sees no reason to change that course.
• The Chessmaster: While by no means weak, Risky learns from her defeat in the first game that she can't defeat Shantae with brute force. Her real strengths lie in her complex plotting and manipulation, making her a far more even match for the half-genie.
• Character Development:
  • Over the course of the first game, Risky goes from considering Shantae beneath her to outright hating her by its end, and it's that hatred that motivates her in the second game... but ultimately backfires on her and forces her to come to Shantae for help. By the end of Pirate's Curse, even though they developed some odd respect for one another, Risky ultimately decides she loves being a pirate and won't give it up. However, her last scene with Shantae shows that most of their mutual animosity is gone, and they only remain enemies due to their occupations.
  • Shades of this still exist in Half-Genie Hero, as Risky's entire plan relies upon her having faith in Shantae's ability to succeed, with many of her actions having the intention of just keeping Shantae and her friends busy rather than do her any real harm. Even when the Dynamo has been destroyed and her plot undone, Risky only goes into an infuriated Villainous Breakdown before leaving to let Shantae escape the island's collapse, a clear contrast to her bloodthirsty Taking You with Me from the first game.
  • Seven Sirens maintains some of the previous game's characterization with Risky keeping Shantae out of the kidnapping as a last resource in case she gets betrayed by the Big Bad. For all her trash talk, Risky knows Shantae is a force to be reckoned with and would be more than capable of standing up against the Empress Siren.
• Climax Boss: She is the penultimate boss in both Risky's Revenge and Half-Genie Hero.
• Clothing Damage: In the first game after the boss battle, one of her pant legs is torn exposing her leg. Happens again after an implied torture session from the Pirate Master.
• Compressed Hair: As shown in the first game, she has long hair but it's mostly kept under her hat. Granted, it's a big hat, but then she pulls the same trick with a bandana◊.
• Crazy-Prepared: When she cut a deal with the Empress Siren, she anticipated the possibility she would turn on her and made sure she wouldn't be too strong for Shantae.
• Creepy Souvenir: She took her captain's face and separated it to become part of her bra and pants seam like a trophy after he fell.
• Dark Action Girl: Risky herself is actually quite a remarkable fighter, and has no trouble taking Shantae head-on when the situation calls for it. Aside from when she's at particular risk, such as when the Pirate Master was reawakened.
• Dash Attack: She can attack by rushing toward with her scimitar during her boss battle in the first game.
• Dragon Ascendant: This was her motivation for letting the Pirate Master die.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In her own way, Risky does care for the Tinkerbats, showing concern for them during Pirate's Curse when she learns that the Pirate Master is controlling them as well as the one trapped in Mimic's lab.
• Evil Is Bigger: She is a bit taller than Shantae, and in Pirate's Curse Shantae notes that Risky's clothes are about a size bigger as well.
• Evil Genius: Look at all of the technically-superior steampunk weaponry and machines her forces are regularly armed with. Who do you think designs it all, the Tinkerbats? This trope is admittedly downplayed, with usually only the existence of these things giving the idea apart from her chessmaster tendencies. By Half-Genie Hero, however, she's accomplished such things as creating a second fully-functional design for the highly-advanced Dynamo on her own, which she switches out and leaves the heroes to construct thinking it's still their design.
• Evil Laugh: "Ho ho ho!"
• Femme Fatale: While she may be a remorselessly evil pirate, several characters find her decently appealing, with Bolo having a crush on her despite knowing exactly how evil she is, and a young NPC mentioning that his mother dresses like Risky for his dad.
• Final Boss: Of the original game. Has the honor of being the first of the final fights in Half-Genie Hero as well.
• Flunky Boss: One of her abilities in Half-Genie Hero: Pirate Queen's Quest. It lets her summon Tinkerbats to march forward and attack. Not only can they attack, but they can also get items for her. Upgrading it to the max lets you summon four Tinkerbats. Seven Sirens also has her summon an increasing number of Tinkerbats in her role as a mid-level boss.
• Full-Body Disguise: She was the Mayor of Arena Town the entire time.
  "It's the imperfections that make the character, don't you agree?"
• Game-Over Man: She's the Game-Over Woman of the first two games.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Has one in Half Genie Hero: Pirate Queen's Quest.
• Hat of Authority: She wears a pirate hat large enough for the smaller Shantae to use as an Improvised Parachute in Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. The same game also revealed that the hat used to belong to Risky's Evil Mentor, the Pirate Master. It was part of the pirate gear that Risky claimed as her own along with his crew after he was sealed by the Genies.
• Hourglass Hottie: Very curvaceous, very buxom, and very aware of it all. See also Proud Beauty below.
• Large Ham: Quintessential for a Pirate Girl. Nearly every moment she's involved in both Half-Genie Hero and Seven Sirens, Risky holds nothing back.
  "An entire realm of evil! MINE TO COMMAND!"
  "So there you have it. I would've had it all if it weren't for these bunglers! Imbeciles! Oooohh! Just talking about it makes me want to PUNISH YOU ALL AGAIN! GET BACK HERE!"
  "It worked! The power of the Sirens belongs to me! OHHH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!"
• Laughably Evil: Her occasional comedic behavior makes it hard not to get a laugh out of her.
• Made of Iron: She's been beaten by Shantae in a direct fight, twice, but never seems any the worse for wear. She also takes an absurd amount of punishment by having far more health than any other boss in Half-Genie Hero, even the last one.
• Manipulative Bastard: Nevermind being in control of a near limitless army of Tinkerbats or being good at fighting, being good at steering people to do what she wants, one way or another, is the reason why Risky is so dangerous.
• Mirror Boss: A strange variantion where she uses the same arsenal you had in Pirate's Curse against you in the sequel game, Half-Genie Hero during her boss battle. Justified since you were using her weapons in Pirate's Curse.
• Ms. Fanservice: Even more-so than Shantae herself.
• The Musketeer: She can fight with her scimitar and/or gun.
• Near-Villain Victory: At the end of Pirate Queen's Quest, she's defeated Shantae, and the Dynamo is ready to turn the Genie Realm into a realm of evil... if the tinkerbats hadn't screwed it up. Since she's an Unreliable Narrator, it's to be taken with a grain of salt.
  • She very nearly gets another one in Seven Sirens. Although she gets betrayed by the Big Bad, Shantae still defeats the Empress Siren as she had planned all along. The only thing that Risky didn't think about was that the battle would cause castastrophic damage to the Flying Fortress.
• Never My Fault: The entire plot of Pirate Queen's Quest is her refusing to accept that Shantae legitimately beat her and instead puts all the blame of her plan's failure on the Tinkerbats.
• Non-Action Guy: She leaves all the action to Shantae in Pirate's Curse because she's afraid of getting possessed by the Pirate Master.
• Not Me This Time: After breaking into the island resort's ruins during Seven Sirens, she gets accused by Shantae of having kidnapped the other half-genies. She mocks Shantae's deduction skills in response, as it turns out that she really had nothing to do with it. Subverted; she went to the island years ago to plunder it for treasure. Finding out the "island" is an airship commanded by the Sirens, she made a deal with the Empress Siren: five drops of Half-Genie life force for the airship. Through her disguise as the Mayor of Arena Town, she invited half-genies from all over to celebrate in order to capture them.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Weaponized in Half-Genie Hero. Her initial attack on Scuttle Town is a joke, complete with a war machine that she really doesn't want you to call P.O.O.P.T.O.O.T.! It's actually how she sets up a Batman Gambit that leads to Shantae being nearly turned to The Dark Side.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Pirate's Curse she decides to accept Shantae's help. Things are that bad.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Disguised herself as Bandit Town's Guardian Genie in the first game. Her disguise in Seven Sirens is far more foolproof, however.
• Pirate Girl: The captain of a crew of evil minions called "Tinkerbats." She even works for a malevolent entity called the Pirate Master. Or at least she did before having Shantae dispose of him.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Inverted. Risky isn't rude when she and Shantae aren't fighting, but Shantae tends to be more polite to Risky especially after Shantae saves her life in Seven Sirens.
• Promoted to Playable: Half-Genie Hero has her as playable in the "Pirate Queen's Quest" DLC.
• Proud Beauty: One of her likes is stated to be "showing off her attractiveness" and one of her dislikes is "modesty". On top of that, in Pirate's Curse, her response to being called fat by the adviser at Tan Line Temple is to threaten to wring his neck, and in Half-Genie Hero on Beach Mode, the end goal for her villainy is to maintain healthy, attractive skin.
• Recurring Boss: You face her no less than five times in Seven Sirens. Justified: she wants to make certain her "Plan B" can handle the Empress Siren, though she never directly confirms it.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: In the first game, due to color limitations. The look returns as a backer exclusive, Palette Swap outfit for her in Pirate Queen's Quest in Half-Genie Hero called "Classic Risky Boots".
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Has red irises.
  • Gets red scleras in her backer classic costume.
• Recoil Boost: Her cannon not only lets the user attack below, but also lets them get mid-air jumps.
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Her clothing has trimmings that gives the look of a skull. In Pirate's Curse, it is revealed by the Pirate Master it is his skull that Risky lined her clothes with.
• Smells Sexy: Bolo is able to follow the scent of her perfume to the Dribble Fountain, presumably because of this.
• Sword and Gun: Her primary weapons.
• Trick Bullet: In Half Genie Hero: Pirate Queen's Quest, her pistol has special ammo she can use in addition to her normal shots. Unlike the normal shot which have Bottomless Magazines, these need to be restocked.
  • Homing Projectile: Seeker, enemy seeking missiles.
  • Spread Shot
  • Bombs
• Turns Red: The boss fight against her in the first game, partway she loses her hat causing her hair to come loose and begins using her scimitar like a boomerang and doing slide attacks.
• The Unfought: She's never fought directly in Risky's Revenge, and due to more pressing matters in Pirate's Curse she aids Shantae to fight an even bigger threat.
• Unreliable Narrator: Pirate Queen Quest has her telling her side of Half Genie Hero's story. To say that it's rather different from what actually happened would it putting it lightly. To wit, Risky insists that she beat Shantae in the Final Boss battle, it's just that her minions screwed up putting together the Dynamo.
• Vague Age: She variously refers to Shantae as a "kid", remembers Shantae's mother, and is at least old enough to have once served under the Pirate Master, yet she doesn't really look significantly older than Shantae. Given Risky regularly handles dark magic and her humanity is in question this may be normal aging for her specifically. Still, her various statements indicate she's at least a generation older than Shantae is.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: In Half-Genie Hero she has an Evil Plan that nearly turns Shantae and all the genies evil, and forces Shantae to destroy the Genie Realm in one of the endings.
• Villain Protagonist: In the Pirate Queen's Quest DLC of Half-Genie Hero.
• Villains Never Lie: She does lie, but she still tries to invoke this when she first shows up in Pirate's Curse.
• Villain of Another Story: Her Pirate Queen Quest in Half Genie Hero has her claim that Shantae is just one of many heroes that she clashes with.
• Villainous Breakdown: Has one after Shantae thwarts her plans in the first game, and again in Half-Genie Hero.
• Worthy Opponent: She comes to view Shantae as a respectable replacement for her mother in the Golden Ending of Pirate's Curse, though Risky stops just shy of outright complimenting her.
• Xanatos Gambit: Risky Boots has one in Seven Sirens. If the deal is successful, and the Empress Siren doesn't pull any tricks? Risky Boots will get the airship, leave the island... then promptly turn around and obliterate the unsuspecting Empress Siren, assured in her destruction due to her not actually having five drops of half-genie lifeforce. If the Empress Siren does betray her? She has Shantae right there in a cage, ready to break out when Risky is endangered and defeat the Empress Siren herself, thus letting Risky get away with the airship regardless. Ultimately subverted, however, as Risky Boots doesn't anticipate that the airship itself would be damaged and ultimately destroyed as a result of the battle between Shantae and the Empress.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Has yellow sclerae on her in-game sprites as of Risky's Revenge. Oddly, this is not reflected in her dialogue portraits. She lampshades this in Half-Genie Hero's "Officer Mode", saying her eye color 'varies' when asked.

Tinkerbats

Tinkering Ones

Appears in: Shantae, Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, Shantae and the Seven Sirens

Tinkerbats are Risky's silent shadow army. Individually they are not very formidable in battle, and tend to huddle in groups of 3 or more. They are intelligent and skillful, yet skittish and non-communicative. Their loyalty knows no bounds, and like drones serving a queen they act as an extension of Risky's will. Where Risky harvests her Tinkerbats is unknown.

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• The Corruption: In Pirate's Curse some of them becomes monstrous due to the corrupting effect of the Pirate Master's magic turning them into Cacklebats giving them a much more menacing appearance and the ability to fly.
• Depending on the Artist: Their in-game sprites in the first three games depict them with skull-like teeth on the undersides of their heads. However, larger sprites and other artwork never depict them with this feature.
• Gadgeteer Geniuses: They are very good at making things such as the Tinkertank and Tinkertub and making Tinker Tools for Risky.
• Henchmen Race: Never really explained what they are or where they come from. All we know is that they're all pirates, and they all serve Risky Boots (and they used to serve the Pirate Master).
• Informed Species: The Tinkerbats look and behave nothing like actual bats. They only become bat-like when mutated into Cacklebats by the Pirate Master's dark magic.
• Land, Sea, Sky: They mostly fight on land. In the Scuttle Town attack in first game some come by sea on boats; in Risky's Revenge they have scuba gear with harpoon guns. In the first game there are some flying with wing packs.
• Mascot Mook: To a certain degree, playing as one was a major bonus feature of playing the original game on GBA, as well as a promotion bonus for people who donated money to Half-Genie Hero.
• Meaningful Name: They are good at making things, hence the "tinker" in their name.
• Molotov Cocktail: One of the weapons they use.
• Pirates: They wear pirate clothing, use pirate weapons and manage Risky's ship.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: These black skeleton-like beings exclusively wear blood red clothing.
• Redemption Promotion: In a variant, the enemy Tinkerbats are fairly weak enemies and usually go down in only one hit, Shantae's tinkerbat transformation on the other hand is an incredible force to be reckoned with and possesses the powers of all Shantae's transformations.
• Sinister Scimitar: One of the weapons they usually carry are giant scimitars.
• Starter Villain: In the original game, Risky's Revenge, and Half-Genie Hero, they're the first enemies you'll fight. You fight them in the very last stages of each of these games, too.
• Steampunk Gadgeteers: It's said Tinkerbats are genius mechanics.
• Video Game Caring Potential/Video Game Cruelty Potential: In Seven Sirens, there are Tinkerbats scattered around the overworld, whose animations imply they're looking for something. They won't attack Shantae, they lack Collision Damage hitboxes, and Risky announces early on that she and her crew are looking for something independent from the missing half-genies. It's up to the player whether Shantae ignores the Tinkerbats or attacks them anyways. Cruelty is subverted when Risky reveals that they're trying to refurbish the airship that is the Sunken City, making their suffering a bit more deserved if the player chooses that route.
• Visible Silence: If they ever do get dialogue boxes, it's always an ellipsis and nothing else.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Tinkerbats have solid yellow eyes outside of their pupils and are the sneaky Mook army of Risky.

The Barons of Sequin Land

In General

A group of thieving bandits who pass themselves off as artifact collectors. They collect all kinds of old magic trinkets including the Magic Seals. Most of then are some variety of Punch-Clock Villain or Affably Evil given that looting or conquering is just a job, but this doesn't make their schemes any less potentially dangerous.

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Squid Baron

Concerned Parent

A warp squid, Squid Baron is greedy, rude and dishonest. But he cares very much for his family (and property).

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• Affably Evil: He comes off as a rather friendly guy despite fighting Shantae on several occasions.
• Big Eater: Both for plot purposes and during his boss fight.
• Badass Normal: Seems to be one by the standards of his own species. He's a Warp Squid, which means that he should have teleportation magic as a natural ability. However, he only uses teleportation magic in Risky's Revenge with the aid of a Magic Seal. After losing it, all of his subsequent fights have him rely entirely on his physical abilities.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Squid Baron seems to give off an anti-fourth-wall aura, seeing as the only instances of anybody breaking the fourth wall happen around him.
• Brought Down to Badass: From Pirate's Curse onwards, he no longer has his Magic Seal and so can't use his teleportation or summoning attacks from Risky's Revenge. He makes up for them with new, non-magic moves.
• Covert Pervert: In Pirate's Curse his only goal seems to be to find a beach with "young co-ed girls" "rubbing each other up with sunscreen" (paraphrased). He also gives Shantae his X-ray glasses. You can only guess what he was planning to do with these.
• Death from Above: He will either warp above you in an attempt to crush you, or his children will do it en masse.
• Defeat Means Friendship: He's a friend of Shantae's, and comic relief character, in Pirate's Curse.
• Denser and Wackier: In his first appearance he was somewhat threatening and had the power of a Magic Seal which made him less of a joke. However, while he remains a good challenge as boss, he becomes sillier and sillier as a character with each subsequent game.
• Fetch Quest: Discussed, then played straight. He describes 'the player' of the game he wants to make going on one of these in Seven Sirens, and puts Shantae through it in order for her to gain access into the depths of the Sunken City.
• Filler: He describes himself as a filler boss, only around so you have something to fight when nothing else makes sense. He aims to make the most of it.
• Flunky Boss: You face him together with his many children in Risky's Revenge.
• Forced into Evil: Is fighting Shantae in Risky's Revenge only to protect his children from Risky.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: In Pirate's Curse. He knows full well he's a video game character and Recurring Boss. Also tends to cause this in other characters while present.
• Friendly Enemy: He's still a Boss Battle in Pirate's Curse and Half-Genie Hero, though without any malice on his part.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Meta-wise, he shows up often enough to the point that he's the only Baron to return in Seven Sirens and keep up a perfect attendance record.
• Heel–Face Turn: Helps Shantae get into Risky's hideout in the end of Risky's Revenge.
• Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: In Pirate's Curse he's afraid of this after his vacation doesn't go as planned. Shantae knocking him around helps snap him out of it.
• It's All About Me: In Half Genie-Hero, he thinks nothing of tearing down other people's artwork to make room for pictures of himself.
• Made of Explodium: It's become a Running Gag with Squid Baron that he'll always explode In-Universe after Shantae defeats him, only to show up again no worse for wear.
• Mascot: In Half-Genie Hero, the Hypno Baron intends to turn Squid Baron into an In-Universe example for evil in general. Hypno Baron's plan is to sell Squid Baron merchandise and use it to fund his future evil plans.
• Powered Armour: During the second phase of his Pirate's Curse boss fight, he can summon a set of robotic armour that makes him impervious to all attacks, except for the scimitar.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He's a nice guy who's doing a job because he's got kids to take care of (or because Risky's threatening said kids). Unlike the other Barons he's really not evil at all.
• Recurring Boss: So far the only Baron who had the honor of being fought in all games since his first appearance. Seven Sirens is the exception, but you don't fight any of the Barons this time.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Seven Sirens, he transitions from a boss battle into an up and out obstacle. Unlike his other outings, where he is either barely malicious or outright helpful, this time deliberately blocks Shantae's way. Whether it's by blocking her way on a pointless Fetch Quest for the Plot Coupon of his theoretical game to try and sell her on the idea, or refusing to let go of his "super-rare Shantae figures" despite being Shantae herself (It Makes Sense in Context), he is far more of a pain to deal with despite not even being a filler boss this time.
• Token Good Teammate: As opposed to most of the barons being straight up villains, he's more of a Friendly Enemy. That being said, Seven Sirens has shown us that he is definitely more selfish and willing to get in Shantae's way if it suits him.
• Unexplained Recovery: He explodes after you beat him in Risky's Revenge. He's back later no worse for wear, which Shantae promptly lampshades. In Half-Genie Hero, he waves these things off, saying that you get over the explosions after a while.

Ammo Baron

Mechanized Militaristic Madman

The leader of the Ammonian Army, he wishes to conquer Sequin Land through military prowess.

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• Affably Evil: Sure he's a megalomaniacal warlord, but he's friendly to everyone he meets, even those that constantly foil his plans like Shantae.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: During his boss fight in Half Genie Hero, the patches on his slacks change position when he turns around.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: In Pirate's Curse he pilots a huge tank in his boss battle and in Half-Genie Hero he's by far the toughest opponent you fight in his army.
• Bad Ass Longcoat: Wears a Blue trenchcoat, which is also standard issue for all of his soldiers (Except Twitch & Vinegar with their Custom Uniforms Of Sexy)
• Big "NO!": After Shantae restoring Scuttle Town with her powers and giving it back to Mayor Scuttlebutt using a genie’s wish.
• The Captain: Is the leader of his own army in the desert region, and is constantly planning strategies in his tent.
• Cyclops: Notably one of the few mono-eyed people in Sequin Land.
• Clothes Make the Superman: In Half-Genie Hero, Ammo Baron crashes a magic carpet race with a fleet of airships to steal all the carpets from the contestants, then re-knits the magical thread into special uniforms that allow him and his soldiers to fly.
• Egopolis: Renames Scuttle Town to Ammo Town after getting the deed in Risky's Revenge.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: His tank was apparently a gift from his mother.
• Flunky Boss: In Half-Genie Hero. He uses his newly crafted uniforms made of Magic Carpet to fly and command his men to fight Shantae directly.
• Goofy Print Underwear: Not only the Ammo Baron, but the entire Ammonian Army wears heart-print boxers.
• Gun Nut: A large caliber version. Apparently, all he and his army do is tear down houses, schools, and every building they can find, and then build giant cannons on top of what's left. He's also really fond of his tank, which according to him was a gift from his mother.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In Pirate’s Curse, he takes the control of Scuttle Town by force and renamed it to “Ammo Town”, but all of his actions are legal since he bought the town from Mayor Scuttlebutt.
• Large and in Charge: Not so much in the earlier games, but in Half-Genie Hero he's more than double the size of his soldiers.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Tried to use Mayor Scuttlebutt’s dumbness to legally own Scuttle Town but after days of hard work building new facilities and weapons for the town, Shantae uses a genie’s wish to return the town to the Mayor. Finally, the credits of the game shows a picture of him and his tank trapped in the quicksand of Tan Line Island.
• Oh, Crap!: Makes this expression every time something gone wrong for him.
• Pet the Dog: He only resorts to stealing magic carpets in Half-Genie Hero because the alternative would involve threatening an endangered species.
• Pragmatic Villainy: In Half-Genie Hero, he chooses stealing magic carpets over capturing endangered (and cute) silkworms to provide his army's flight uniforms.
• Real Men Wear Pink: A big, buff, and burly baron of ballistics...that wears a cute hat with a cat face on it.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Does this a lot whenever he talks. Rat-a-tat! Blamity bloo!
• Take Over the World: His stated goal as of Pirate's Curse.
• Tank Goodness: His boss battle in Pirate's Curse. He fires cannon balls and charges at you.
• The Unfought: You never do get to fight him in Risky's Revenge, but Pirate's Curse and Half-Genie Hero more than make up for it.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He's a relatively-neutral character in Risky's Revenge, as opposed to the straight up Starter Villain he is in Pirate's Curse.
• Verbal Tic: He peppers his conversations with a lot of firearm sounds.
• Warmup Boss: He's the first boss in Pirate’s Curse.

Armor Baron

Ammo's Brother-in-Crime

The brother of the feared Ammo Baron, this man is the Mayor of Armor Town, where Zapple takes residence as their Guardian Genie.

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• Alliterative List: Uses them twice in his first cutscene:
  • When talking about his brother:
    I am not a belligerent, bellowing, buffoon like my dear, sweet brother.
  • When talking about his town's armor:
    The creation of durable...
    Sleek...
    Snug...
    ...and sturdy body armor has been the shared goal in the life of every citizen of Armor Town!
• "Begone" Bribe: If Shantae manages to track him down after escaping his trap, Shantae will extort some gems from him.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Downplayed, as both men are quite hale and hearty (easily overshadowing our main hero), but while Ammo Baron is shorter and wider, Armor Baron is taller and leaner.
• Chainmail Bikini: Well, plate bikini, but this is what his so-called "half-genie armor" amounts to.
• Dirty Coward: If Shantae tracks him down after escaping the Squid Baron, he'll immediately wimp out and choose to pay her off rather than fighting her.
• Faux Affably Evil: Is quite nice to Shantae and Sky. Unfortunately, it doesn't spare them from being sold as life-sized action figures with the help of some bewitched "half-genie/war bird handler armor".
• Karma Houdini: Confronting him after escaping is optional, so it's possible to never see him again.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Overall, he's merely a distraction from the main plot in Seven Sirens and only serves to put Shantae in a position to kick off the doll Fetch Quest.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Inverted: Ammo Baron is primarily dressed in blue and is bombastic, whereas Armor Baron is primarily dressed in red and is fairly calm and affable.
• Taken for Granite: This is what his "special armor" does. Downplayed in that the victims are still flesh and blood, though they are mostly immobilized by the armor pieces.
• The Unfought: He isn't directly fought in Seven Sirens. Shantae wanted Sky to beat him up, while the latter just slunk back to Arena Town expecting the former to beat him up. If Shantae actually confronts him, the Armor Baron turns out to be a complete wimp that Shantae forces to pay 100 gems to leave him alone.

Hypno Baron

Hypnotic Nemesis

An enigmatic shapeshifting skeleton wizard who dwells in Hypno Tower. While absent in Pirate's Curse he makes his return in Half-Genie Hero now owning a haunted castle where he intends to summon a creature that may very well threaten all of Sequin Land...

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• Anti-Villain or Noble Demon: Jury's still out on whether he's evil, but his reason for fighting Shantae certainly isn't: he's trying to keep the lamp sealed so it can't be used to harm her.
  • Denser and Wackier: In Half-Genie Hero. Check Poor Communication Kills for details. However near the end, in order to get the best ending, you must aid him and he shows a much more sinister side to him.
• Blown Across the Room: Is capable of doing this to you with a Finger Gun.
• Finger Gun: One of his attacks in Risky's Revenge has him shooting you with this gesture for a huge amount of knockback.
• Losing Your Head: After you destroy his body, his skull still hops around the floor until you smack it to end the fight.
• Non-Indicative Name: In all his appearances he does nothing like hypnosis, nor hypnotizes anyone.
  • He makes an attempt in Risky's Revenge, but Shantae immediately calls him out, so he settles for a traditional battle instead.
• Our Liches Are Different
• Poor Communication Kills: In Half-Genie Hero, he wasn't actually trying to destroy the world. He was summoning Squid Baron to exercise his merchandising rights. That said, it's not completely benign, since he admits that the whole thing was to use the profits to fund his future evil machinations.
• Put on a Bus: He is nowhere to be seen in Pirate's Curse.
• Squishy Wizard: In Risky's Revenge. While he has a lot of HP, he doesn't react well to damage and a single smack will make him flinch out of his attack animation.
• Summon Magic: In Half-Genie Hero, he learns how to summon an eldritch horror from Abner in exchange for coffee, and he uses the spell he learned when Shantae shows up. He winds up summoning Squid Baron, and they become a Tag Team boss.
• Teleport Spam: In Risky's Revenge he warps all over the place after each of his attacks.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Takes on the form and fighting style of Uncle Mimic for his boss fight in Risky's Revenge, in an attempt to dissuade Shantae. She doesn't hesitate in taking him down at all.

Techno Baron

Technical Genius

Ammo Baron's ally who crafts expensive weapons out in Frostbite Island. Introduced in Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.

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• Gadgeteer Genius: Say what you will, but any engineer good enough for the Ammo Baron has to know his stuff.
• Humiliation Conga: After his defeat in Half-Genie Hero he's sentenced A BILLION hours of community service ^note One year has 8760 hours, so his community service would last centuries.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Techno Baron hires Bolo to build a targeting module for Ammo Baron's cannons. Naturally, it malfunctions and causes the cannon to misfire and blast the Baron in his big smug face. At least Bolo looked smart with his glasses.
• Longer-Than-Life Sentence: One billion hours = 41,666,666 days = 114,155 years and change of community service. All the whistling in the world won't speed that one up.
• Mad Scientist: He considers his weapons "art".
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: He's a bipedal skink-looking thing.
• Slasher Smile: He's got the Smug Snake and Never Smile at a Crocodile look to him.
• The Unfought: He doesn't actually fight Shantae in either of his two appearances, and their only moment of interaction in Pirate's Curse is when he hires her to deliver a part to Ammo Baron.

The Seven Sirens

In General

A group of mysterious, but powerful and sinister sirens who secretly the rulers over the tropical island where Shantae is vacationing, and residing underneath. They are the titular main antagonists in Shantae and the Seven Sirens.

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• Animal Motif: Each siren is named and based after an aquatic life-form.
• Antagonist Title: They are the "Seven Sirens" in the title and the main villains of the game.
• Cute Monster Girl: For aquatic monstrosities with varying levels of inhuman traits, all of the Sirens are quite cute, most of them actually being quite attractive, at least when it comes to the human-like parts of them.
• Heel–Face Turn: After the defeat of the Empress Siren, the other Seven Sirens are playing with a volleyball◊ in the Speedrun bonus image.
• Life Drinker: The main power of the Sirens is the ability to feed off the life force of others. The reason Risky got the Empress' support in the first place is because Harmony's predecessor separated her from physical form, preventing her from feeding as usual and keeping her quarantined in the depths.
• Monster of the Week: This is what most of them besides the Empress and Lobster Girl qualify as, with the others only really acting as boss battles and dropping out of the plot once they're beaten.
• Mooks: Separate from the unique Sirens and commanded by the Empress Siren, these baddies are modified versions of normal enemies that Shantae faces off against during the endgame of her adventure, usually more resilient than the other monsters on the island, to the extent that it requires multiple Quake Dances to knock out the stronger varieties.
• Satellite Character: Only Lobster Girl and the Empress Siren have any direct impact on the plot or interactions with other characters outside of their battles.
• Sirens Are Mermaids: They're called "sirens" in the story, and almost all of them are mermaid-like creatures, with the majority of them having the upper body of a cute girl or beautiful woman attached to a lower body based on some form of aquatic life. The seeming exception to this is the Angler Fish Siren, who just looks like an anthropomorphicized anglerfish.
• Unexplained Recovery: The Sirens all explode when they are defeated, yet the Speedrun bonus image shows them (minus the Empress) playing volleyball with the Lobster Siren with no explanation as to how they came back.

Empress Siren (Unmarked Spoilers)

The Seventh Siren

Voiced by: Laura Stahl

Hear me my soldiers! Turn the ship around! I'm going to drain the life force of every living thing on that island! And then... blow it clean off the map!

The leader of the Seven Sirens. She once ruled Siren Island as a brutal tyrant, sucking the life force from her subjects to stay youthful, but was eventually defeated and sealed away, resting in her appearance decaying. She rests in the Sky Fortress, deep underneath the island. She is revealed to have made a deal with Risky Boots to abduct the five half-genies and take their life force, then manipulate Shantae into helping them activate the Sky Fortress so she could once again bring the world to heel.

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• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: She grows to gigantic proportions in her second phase, dwarfing the other Sirens and Giga Mermaid from Half-Genie Hero. Shantae is only about as big as one of her eyes.
• Background Boss: In her second form, she is massive and primarily attacks through projectiles.
• The Baroness: Once she gets her youth back, she wastes no time in showing off her restored swagger and dominating personality.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: As the leader of the Seven Sirens, she and Risky Boots are revealed to have been working together to capture the half-genies, restore the latter's ship, and Take Over the World — at least until their mutual betrayal in the final battle.
• The Dreaded: Risky implies that this is the case for her amongst the other sirens.
• Evil Counterpart: Essentially one to the Giga Mermaid. Both are similar sea dwellers of enormous size and Statuesque Stunners who rule over their respective species and are bosses who are fought by destroying red buttons connected to shackles on their bodies. But while the Giga Mermaid is benevolent and only attacks Shantae due to being captured by the Techno Baron, the Empress Siren is a tyrant who wants to Take Over the World and drains the life force of other people to keep her youth.
• Evil Old Folks: When she first appears in the final boss area, she is a decrepit old crone due to not being able to drink any life force while sealed away. Once she does get her hands on some, she becomes a Statuesque Stunner.
• Final Boss: Of Seven Sirens.
• Flashy Teleportation: During her first phase, she teleports around the control room in flashes of blue and white light.
• Fountain of Youth: While she initially appears as an old crone, after absorbing Risky Boots' life force she becomes young and agile once again.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Inverted. she was the one to hijack Risky Boots' life force to become whole.
• Immortality Seeker: In addition to wanting to Take Over the World, she plans on drinking enough life force from others to be youthful and living forever.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Even compared to most characters in the series. The Empress in her prime flaunts her figure with nothing more than some claws covering her breasts, and no clothing other than a skirt bottom covering her legs.
• Out-Gambitted: Risky abducted the five half-genies alongside Lobster Girl so that the Empress could give her the airship in exchange for exactly measured-out life force from the hostages; the Empress betrays her and drains her life force too. However, not only was one of the hostage half-genies actually Rotty, but Risky conned the Empress out of draining Shantae as a wild card to eliminate her in case of mutiny. Risky notes that if the Empress got five actual drops of life force from five actual half-genies, she would actually be invincible.
• Sinister Scimitar: Will summon a pair to toss at Shantae before they come flying back.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Ghost Genie robbed her of her body and kept her ship trapped in the depths of the ocean so she can ravage the surface no longer. Lobster Girl teleporting Rottytops into the ship means Shantae has no choice but to break the can open; thankfully, one super-amped half-genie is enough to return the Empress to Davy Jones' hands.
• Showing Off the New Body: Spends a decent amount of time flaunting her features after stealing Risky's life force, gripping her face and asking Shantae, "What do you think?"
• Sibling Murder: Not even her own sisters are safe from her cruelty, as she tries to blow up Paradise Island with them still in it to kickstart her plan to Take Over the World.
• Statuesque Stunner: In her youthful form, she is a tall and very beautiful lady who even had actual statues made of her hidden throughout the island.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The titular seven sirens are mostly amicable despite being villains, but their leader is a tyrant who steals life force from others to keep her youth and wants to do it throughout the entire world. She even tries to destroy her homeland and her sisters just to kickstart her plan.
• Walking Spoiler:
  • Risky calls her "the one of whom [the other Sirens] will not speak", and her role in the plot is quite pivotal, so it's impossible to discuss her at length without spoiling the endgame.
  • Players can also get a Monster Card of her shortly before the endgame begins. The Armor Baron will outright break the fourth wall to warn the player that the card itself is a spoiler due to being an Interface Spoiler.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Her hair is as white as her skirt, and she is one of the vilest villains in the series who drains life force from others and plans to do it through the world.
• Willfully Weak: Her fight's first phase was her holding back, and before growing humongous and staging an Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever, as Ultra Empress Siren.

Water Lily Siren

Sunbathing Seawead

Labyrinth: Water Lily's Den

Well, tickle my tendrils! A delicious little fruit fly has wandered right into my nest! That exquisite aroma... You must be BURSTING with flavor! But will you taste sweet? Or sour? Let's squash you and find out!

The first siren ruling and residing in Water Lily's Den.

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• Boss-Arena Idiocy: Water Lily Siren, if you're going to sunbathe in whatever sunbeam you can find, you should probably keep those out of the chamber you fight in.
• Boss Subtitles: "Sunbathing Seaweed".
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: She has extra eyes on the leaves that show when she's sunning herself.
• Green Thumb: She attacks by summoning giant thorny pistons from the sides of the arena and throwing seeds that hatch into Man Eating Plants or more spikes.
• I Am a Humanitarian: Threatens to eat Shantae in the Definitive Edition.
• Lazy Bum: Not nearly to the extent of the Octo Siren, but what defeats her is her constantly getting sidetracked to soak up some sun.
• Plant Person: Specifically, a water lily.
• Sleepy Head: She's barely awake and constantly yawning when Shantae fights her, to the point where her vulnerable phase is provoked by Shantae distracting her with a sunbeam, causing her to space out and seemingly forget she's fighting to rest.
• Stationary Boss: She doesn't move on her own, so Shantae has to press the switches on the wall to move her into the sunlight and get an opening to attack.

Coral Siren

Drills to the Gills

Labyrinth: Coral Mine

The 2nd siren ruling and residing in Coral Mine.

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• Berserk Button: The Definitive Edition update reveals she's sensitive about being called a seahorse.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: Shantae would probably have a much harder time fighting her if parts of the floor weren't both conveniently diggable and just the right size for Coral Siren to get stuck in.
• Boss Subtitles: "Drills to the Gills".
• Cyber Cyclops: Played With. Her Mini-Mecha looks like one, but it's actually a mask she herself is wearing. People thought of her to be one, too.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: As shown in the Definitive Edition, she was perfectly fine letting Shantae go after admiring her mech, mostly focused on repairing the Mine, but then Shantae hits her Berserk Button and she promptly decides to thrash Shantae first.
• Mini-Mecha: She uses one to charge at, throw bombs at, and divebomb Shantae in her fight.
• Non-Indicative Name: Unlike the other Sirens, the Coral Siren herself doesn't resemble coral at all. In earlier versions of the game, her face was never revealed, but eventually an introductory cutscene revealed her to look like a ordinary woman. A sketch from Matt Bozon's twitter reveals that she's actually some sort of seahorse.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: She has a pair of glasses when not wearing her mask, as fitting with her engineering aesthetic.
• This Is a Drill: Averted; despite what you might expect from her title, she never uses drills herself.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: This is her actual weapon of choice.

Tubeworm Siren

Parasite Petting Princess

Labyrinth: Sea Vent Lab

The 3rd siren ruling and residing in Sea Vent Lab.

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• Animal Talk: In the Definitive Edition, she seems to understand her pet tubeworms' speech.
• Boss Subtitles: She's known as the "Parasite Petting Princess" when she and Shantae meet.
• Lethal Lava Land: The area, despite not utilizing lava as a primary obstacle, takes place in a lava area, befitting an organism whose real-life counterpart lives near hydrothermic vents.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Lets out a good one before she goes into her second phase.
• Noodle Incident: Shoots down one of her tubeworm's ideas on account of not wanting to stain the ceiling again.
• Proportionately Ponderous Parasites: Her main motif.
• Whack-a-Monster: Her overall boss strategy. Her first phase requires hitting her parasitic tentacles as they pop out of holes, while her second phase involves smashing a giant eye on her body with the Bonker Tortoise fusion to unearth the rest of her body. She is then paralysed for a short time as Shantae can attack her.

Angler Fish Siren

Deep Sea Creep

Labyrinth: The Boiler

The 4th siren ruling and residing in The Boiler.

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• Abnormal Ammo: She can fire giant eyes from her lure to attack Shantae.
• Background Boss: She frequently teleports into the background to fire attacks.
• Black Magician Girl: She's the sorceress of the Sirens.
• Boss Subtitles: The game calls her a "Deep Sea Creep".
• Fangs Are Evil: Has large teeth in her lower jaw, like an actual anglerfish.
• Flash Step: She is a master of this, as she shows to Shantae to taunt her.
• Making a Splash: One of her attacks floods the arena, forcing Shantae to use the Sea Frog fusion.
• Right Behind You: Her intro cutscene has her Jump Scaring Shantae, despite being in a prime position to ambush her violently, apparently because it amused her.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: She has attacks that involve entering the foreground to attack, but also has attacks where she stays in the background.

Octo Siren

Eight Times the Terror

Labyrinth: Squid Pit

The 5th siren ruling and residing in Squid Pit.

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• Ambiguously Gay: Her first line interacting with Shantae in the Definitive Edition? "Hey Baby."
• Brain in a Jar: She has six disembodied brains installed in columns in her arena as well as a much larger seventh brain in the floor.
• Cores-and-Turrets Boss: The Octo Siren is comfortably floating inside the head of a giant octopus, and is impossible to reach. The only way to damage her is to hit the brains in her room in a specific sequence, all the while dodging electrical turrets scattered around the arena.
• Foreshadowing: One of Squid Baron's ideas for his game is a final boss that has a near identical description to that of the Octo Siren. It gets lampshaded after you defeat the Octo Siren, as Squid Baron accuses Shantae of stealing his idea.
• Lazy Bum: The Octo Siren acknowledges Shantae's presence in her introductory cutscene by yawning then going back to sleep. She makes no effort to attack Shantae either, instead letting electrical traps around the arena do the work for her.
  Octo Siren: Too comfy to fight right now. Play with this giant Octo instead.
• Tentacled Terror: The Siren herself is not an example, but the giant octopus whose head she's sleeping in is.

Lobster Girl

Lobster Girl

A roaming Siren, who occasionally pokes out from the windows of the Sunken City.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: She's the smallest of the Sirens, and ultimately ends up helping Shantae defeat her fellow aquatic menaces.
• Flashy Teleportation: What her powers boil down to, with the teleportation taking both time to do, and making small flashes of light.
• Heel–Face Turn: She was responsible for abducting the half-genies during the festival, via her teleporting powers, but her next contribution is to free Shantae and Sky from their fates as Squid Baron's living collectibles, and she fully defects to their side for the finale, just in time to provide transport into the Siren Airship.
• Malicious Misnaming: Referred to as a "wretched runaway" by Risky Boots.
• Mysterious Watcher: She can be seen peeking through the Sunken City's portholes long before she meets Shantae in person.
• Shrinking Violet: She's remarkably timid. Each time she pops up before the finale, even if it's to free Shantae and Sky from imprisonment, she'll promptly flee the area before Shantae has a chance to question her.
• The Runt at the End: Unlike her fellow Siren sisters, who are either gigantic normally or utilize a host/machine to dwarf Shantae, she instead appears without anything aside from her hybrid human-lobster body. Additionally, despite ostensibly being counted among them, she's not actually referred to as "Lobster Siren" at any point, only "Lobster Girl".
• The Unintelligible: She only speaks with high-pitched squeaking, represented in text through ellipses and sporadic punctuation, although Shantae is able to interpret the Lobster Girl's intentions easily.

Others

Twitch and Vinegar

Lock and Load! ^note Twitch (left) and Vinegar (right)

Appears in: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Two girls in Ammo Baron's military. Vinegar is a Hot-Blooded gal while Twitch is a Gadgeteer Genius girl.

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• Affably Evil: The two don't seem to have any particular malice towards Shantae, and are in fact quite friendly with her when they're not on their respective "work hours", as seen in Pirate's Curse; up to genuinely thanking her for helping them out at Saliva Island.
• All There in the Manual: In Pirate's Curse, their names originally only appeared in the Steam version's character cards and wallpaper and not in the game itself. Half-Genie Hero introduces them by name when they appear to fight Shantae.
• Beach Episode: Their spring break at Saliva Island is meant to be one.
• Combining Mecha: Not a mecha, but rather two combat jets, and when combined they can use a special Wave-Motion Gun attack against Shantae.
• Custom Uniforms Of Sexy: While the Ammo Baron's soldiers wear jackets and pants as a part of their standard combat uniforms, Twitch wears a white tank top that exposes her midriff and a blue miniskirt, while Vinegar wears an orange bodysuit with a blue miniskirt and pauldrons. Needless to say, their uniforms are much more revealing than what the standard Ammonian Soldier is usually issued.
• The Dividual: They're never seen apart and have nearly the same opinions on everything, aside from preferred weapons.
• Early-Bird Cameo: You don't know much about them when you first see them, but they seem to be relatively high-ranking members of the Ammo Baron's army.
• Fangirl: Both of them are smitten with Brandon/Bran-son so much. Before his transformation, their Tsundere conversations highly complement his physique. They plan to give his secret identity to his evil rival.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: They are clearly way more competent than Ammo Baron and his entire army combined. How and why the duo continue to serve him is anyone's guess.
• Mad Bomber: Twitch has shades of this. In their boss battle in Half-Genie Hero she even attacks Shantae by relentlessly chucking bombs at her.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Their arms are practically noodles, yet they're able to easily hoist and haul away the very big and very muscular, Ammo Baron on a stretcher.
• Navel Outline: Vinegar provides the trope image. As mentioned above, it is a significant example given the rest of the female cast outright flaunting their belly buttons in some form.
• New Meat: According to Pirate's Curse, they're stated to be new recruits and implied to have been hired for their technical skills. Where they are from originally is never specified.
• Nothing Personal: Twitch and Vinegar do not seem to hold any ill will against Shantae throughout the series even though they have fought against each other before, and can usually be seen conversing casually with the half-genie when they are not acting in their official capacity as Ammo Baron's soldiers. On the other hand, Shantae is naturally quite wary around the pair, as their appearance is usually accompanied (eventually) by some form of trouble.
• The Nicknamer: They usually call Shantae "girlfriend" whenever they meet.
• Stealth Pun: During their boss fight in Half Genie Hero, Twitch has a ten second delay when doing stuff.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Twitch seems to be fond on blowing things up. Her uniform artwork has her carrying a bomb and she's in charge of firing missiles at locations or the Pirate Master fighting Shantae atop the palace.
• Sycophantic Servant: Sort of; how Twitch and Vinegar ever came under the employ of Ammo Baron remains a mystery, but it appears that no coercion or blackmail was involved. They also clearly respect him enough to remain loyal to him, as Risky Boots would find out in Pirate Queen's Quest; the battle between them is triggered by Risky Boots suggesting they cast their lot with someone more worthy of their capabilities.
• Tag Team: In Half-Genie Hero, the pair appears as bosses during a high-speed magic carpet race and take turns attacking Shantae in flying fighter-jets.

Holly Lingerbean (Unmarked Spoilers)

Scuttle Town's New Guardian Genie

A "half-genie" for hire who appears in Half-Genie Hero. She initially replaces Shantae as Scuttle Town's Guardian Genie. In truth, she's a memory wraith that has died long ago and only exists through her pet Wilbur.

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• Asshole Victim: Normally such a fate that lies for her would be terrible. Here, however, she's such a self-centered asshole that any sympathy for her is non-existent.
• Cessation of Existence: Holly's ultimate fate. When Shantae frees everyone's memories, no one can remember her any more; and so according to her Ghost Memory makeup, she fades from existence. While she tries to come back during the Friends To The End DLC route, she's then erased permanently by Nega-Shantae as punishment for failing to destroy Sky, Bolo and Rotty.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: It's how she maintains her physical form. As long as she's on peoples' minds, she continues to live forever. The catch, however, is that if nobody remembers her, she completely fades from existence.
• Dead All Along: She's actually a memory of a person who lived centuries ago, who now can only remain tied to this world and live on as long as people remember her.
• Deader than Dead: After Shantae frees everyones' memories from Wilbur, she just goes poof. The Pirate's Queen Quest DLC shows that she's far from gone, however. But then Nega-Shantae erases her forever for failing to kill Bolo, Rotty and Sky within Shantae's mind.
• Faux Affably Evil: Acts friendly and casual to Shantae and co. for the most part with heavy undertones of Sugary Malice, even as she's nonchalantly discussing feeding them to an enormous man-eating worm or stealing everyones' memories of her so that she can live forever.
  Holly: (cheerily) Suppertime, Wilbur!
• Fauxreigner: Well, faux species. What she was before she became a living memory is unknown, but Seven Sirens establishes that Shantae and the other half-genies are the first of their kind, while Holly would have been born centuries ago. So unless time travel or a cover-up was involved, she's unlikely to be one.
• Ghost Memory: What Holly is. So long as people keep thinking of her, she can maintain a solid form. To truly ensure that she stays on everybody's minds, Holly takes all the memories of Scuttle Town's citizens and feeds them to her pet sandworm Wilbur. After Shantae kills Wilbur and the stolen memories return to where they belong, Holly loses all her power and vanishes.
• I Lied: Casually admitted to Shantae she's not a Half-Genie and was instead a Memory.
• It's All About Me: Holly's entire hometown of Tassel Town practically worshipped and adored her, until a centuries-long sandstorm buried the entire town and left her with nobody to stroke her ego. This led to her stealing the memories of all the citizens of Scuttle Town, replacing them with only thoughts about her so that she wouldn't be forgotten.
• Jerkass: Faux Affably Evil nature aside, she's not a very pleasant person, to say the least; having a huge ego to the point she'd steal everyone's memories so she can be idolized.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Beyond introducing Tassel Town and being integral to it, she has no relevance to the overall story of Half-Genie Hero. Even in the DLC expansions, she always gets erased and forgotten by the end; with the sole exception of Jammies Mode, where she returns to join Shantae's slumber party.
• Punny Name: Holly Lingerbean, who's actually a lingering memory.
• Redhead In Green: Has bright orange-red hair, and wears a predominantly green outfit.
• Resurrective Immortality: As long as somebody thinks of her, she'll always come back. Risky found this the hard way, requiring a Tinkerbat to give her some Easy Amnesia so she could be rid of Holly.
• The Unfought: Holly is never directly battled, as she delegates her boss fight to Wilbur.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Although in every other route, Holly ends up being erased through nobody remembering she exists, she does get to come back from it in the non-canon Jammies Mode to attend Shantae's slumber party in Scuttle Town. Notably, it's the only ending in the game where Holly survives.
• Walking Spoiler: The fact that she's actually a memory is hard not to bring up.

Spoiler Characters

These characters contain numerous Late Arrival Spoilers and end-game details, all of which are not hidden behind spoiler tags. You Have Been Warned.

The Enemy Within

Nega-Shantae

Appears in: Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Enslaved Genie

Half-Genies have a... unique reaction when their magic is called upon against their will. Since the human half is capable of refusing orders from their master, the genie half manifests as a separate entity to grant their wishes instead. When this happens to Shantae, this pale-skinned doppelgänger is the result. Following Risky's will, Nega-Shantae only ever surfaces with two objectives: fulfill her master's wishes, and silence her human half.

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• Animorphism: Much like Shantae herself, she can transform into a monkey, bat, spider, mermaid and an elephant.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: She claims she will lock away Bolo, Sky and Rotty in an inescapable realm of eternal torment and agony; yet she makes the classic villain error of designing these very realms of torment to be escapable for each of them based on their respective skills, and seems outright surprised when they actually make it out.
• Complexity Addiction: When she's given agency as a semi-free antagonist in Friends to The End (having not been given any real orders), rather than immediately destroy Shantae's friends, she decides to put them through a series of deathtraps. Possibly justified, as it's implied Shantae's human half is holding her back, and the only way for her to secure control of their body is to trick Shantae into giving up. Thankfully Shantae's friends survive and bring her back.
• Dark Is Evil: She's powered by dark magic instead of light magic. And whether it's by Risky's magic lamp or the Dynamo, she's merciless.
• Evil Is Hammy: When Shantae is transformed into Nega-Shantae in Half-Genie Hero, her speech is appropriately over-the-top with how threatening it is.
  Nega Shantae: I know what you can do... You can suffer! You can squirm like the pathetic maggots you are! Wallow in torment and pain forever in oblivion! Now beg! Beg for your very lives!
• Evil Redhead: Instead of Shantae's usual purple hair, her hair is blood red.
• Enemy Without: Shantae's genie half, corrupted by Risky Boots into fighting her.
• Final Boss: Of Risky's Revenge, as well as the Friends to The End DLC of Half-Genie Hero.
• Glowing Eyes: Her portraits in Half-Genie Hero give her glowing yellow eyes. Curiously, they're red in her actual sprites, and green in Risky's Revenge.
• Grand Theft Me: When Risky reverses Shantae's magic to evil in Half-Genie Hero, Nega-Shantae takes over Shantae's body. The Friends to the End DLC is all about Rottytops, Sky and Bolo freeing Shantae from Nega-Shantae's possession.
• Lack of Empathy: It's hard to tell if she is even capable of emotions in Risky's Revenge, where she is a being created from Shantae's magic by Risky's Magic Lamp. However in Half-Genie Hero, Shantae is turned briefly into Nega-Shantae by Risky's Dynamo and almost goes nuclear on Scuttle Town.
• Nightmare Face: When sufficiently enraged, Nega-Shantae's look completely changes. The area around her face turns a shadowy black, illuminated by her mouth (filled with sharp teeth) and eyes glowing.
• No Name Given: In Risky's Revenge, at least. Wayforward's various comments have dubbed her Nega-Shantae. The name is now official as of the Friends to The End DLC in Half-Genie Hero.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Shantae is already this, but Nega-Shantae's pure magic nature makes her even stronger... and she's a lot more vicious in combat.
• Pure Magic Being: She was born of a magic lamp sucking all of Shantae's magic out. Her destruction introduced the only unbound magic into Sequin Land since the Pirate Master went down. She's also the end result of Shantae's magic being turned evil in Half-Genie Hero, and briefly converses with Shantae's human half before her friends snap her out of it.
• Restraining Bolt: Whoever has the magic lamp and the magic seals can enslave genies. Since it's Risky who has both, she commands Nega-Shantae to kill Shantae.
• Secret A.I. Moves:
  • Risky's Revenge: Her rapid fire Mermaid Bubbles in the air. Downplayed with her version of Monkey Bullet and Elephant Stomp, which are the same as Shantae's moves, just with levels of speed and agility that the player can't match.
  • Half-Genie Hero: She's got the same AI-only tricks that Shantae does for her boss battle against Risky in Pirate Queen's Quest.
• Shapeshifting: Has this ability in Risky's Revenge thanks to being Shantae's genie-half. But it also means that because she has it, Shantae doesn't.
• Superpowered Evil Side: In Half-Genie Hero, she becomes this to Shantae after she's corrupted by the Dynamo's energy. She's much more unrestrained about her power than Shantae is.
• That Man Is Dead: She employs this against Sky, Bolo, and Rottytops in Half-Genie Hero, tricking them into thinking she's destroyed the last vestiges of the Shantae they know in the hopes that it would break their spirits. It only motivates them to defeat her even more.
• Turns Red: Becomes much more aggressive and faster with attacks and dancing transformations after getting hit enough times.
• Undeathly Pallor: Nega-Shantae's skin tone is a sickly, pale shade of purple.
• Walking Spoiler: Her mere appearance is a huge spoiler for Risky's Revenge and Half-Genie Hero.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Unlike the typical comical villains of the series, she is an evil, Ax-Crazy magic being who threatens to take over Shantae's body and destroy Scuttle Town, outright kills Holly Lingerbean for failing to defeat Shantae's friends, tries to trick Shantae's friends into thinking she had killed Shantae twice and trap them in an eternal nightmare, and is played completely seriously, with no jokes at all.
• You Have Failed Me: She erases Holly from Shantae's mind, thus killing her off permanently, for failing to defeat the team of Sky, Rotty and Bolo.

The Pirate Master

The Pirate Master

Appears in: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Scourge of Sequin Land

Risky's former mentor, and the main antagonist in Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.

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• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: When he Turns Red.
• Bad Boss: Zigzagged. While he shows anger on behalf of his defeated minions, he will show you no mercy if you dare betray him, and his revenge will not come lightly. Just ask Risky, who ended up in iron chains and roughed up pretty badly.
• Berserk Button: Defeat is something he can deal with calmly and competently. However... an act of mutiny brings the devil out of him like nothing else.
• Big Bad: Of Pirate's Curse.
• Conflict Killer: Despite Risky having Shantae nice and vulnerable, she forgoes the opportunity and teams up with Shantae immediately after she suspects this guy might be coming. He's that nasty.
• Death Is Cheap: It's not just in appearance. Risky mentions early on that the Pirate Master is physically dead, it's just that he more or less ignored it and kept going. The only thing actually stopping him is the seal keeping him in his grave.
• Dem Bones: Is a gigantic living skeleton.
• Early-Bird Cameo: We've seen the Pirate Master's face/skull as early as the first few minutes of the first game. How? Risky's been wearing it this entire time.
• Evil Mentor: Used to be Risky's.
• Eviler than Thou: He is a major reason why she turned on him.
• Evil Sorcerer: Despite his swashbuckling buccaneer gear he's at his most dangerous when he's channeling dark magic.
• Fantastic Racism: Really hates him some genies, but he's actually pretty good at keeping a lid on it until his Berserk Button gets tapdanced on.
• Final Boss: Of Pirate's Curse.
• Humanoid Abomination: He's not even close to mortal when he's at full power.
• Inexplicably Awesome: There is no explanation as to what he is or where he came from, he's simply a pirate with vast supernatural powers who is so dangerous it takes the intervention of magic to stop him.
• Knight of Cerebus: Things get serious very fast whenever he appears, especially in the endgame.
• Large and in Charge: He easily stands twice Shantae's height (when he isn't turning himself into a Kaiju), and he's the true master of the Tinkerbats and Cacklebats.
• Made of Evil: He can best be described as a sentient, malformed skeleton held together by an oozing mass of dark magic.
• Made of Iron: He has thousands and thousands of hit points in a game where none of the other bosses break five hundred. Even then he's just stunned; it takes the combined might of Shantae's power and Ammo Baron's siege cannons to finally bring him down once and for all. All this while he's barely at a fraction of his full power!
• Me's a Crowd: One of his moves is making clones of himself to attack Shantae.
• Non-Human Undead: Shantae is surprised that he is not human, despite knowing that he was undead. He comments that the pirate weapons are growing on his body, though whether they started that way or not is unknown.
• One-Winged Angel: Downplayed in that it is mostly a matter of size. He grows larger and more powerful when he gets serious.
• Pirate: Obviously, it is in his name.
• Relative Button: He tauntingly asks Shantae which of the genies he killed was her mother. According to Mimic, she wasn't among the dead genies. Half-Genie Hero all but confirms her mother is still alive, too.
  Pirate Master: Which one was your mother? That fire spouting hothead? Or maybe the songbird?
• Revenge: Strong enough to bring him back from the grave! But not against the genies who imprisoned him. No, he wants revenge against Risky, who betrayed him.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: It took every genie to take him down the first time, and though they were able to kill his body his dark magic could only be sealed away by sealing themselves away in turn.
• Shoulder Cannon: An actual one on his right shoulder and it's not just for show; he fires gigantic cannonballs from it!
• True Final Boss: His One-Winged Angel form is the last opponent of Pirate's Curse, but only if you collected all the dark magic.
• Villain Ball: He had Risky Boots right where he wanted her, and managed to get rid of her powers. However, leaving Shantae completely unchecked and letting her drift out at sea puts a stop to him, since he barely does anything to even slow her down.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: While Risky is certainly no angel, this guy is pure evil.
• Walking Spoiler: His mere appearance is a massive spoiler for the endgame of Pirate's Curse.
• Worthy Opponent: Zigzagged. While he remarks that Shantae "doesn't pack much of a punch", in the true ending path, he decides she warrants enough challenge to face him in his true prime, as opposed to the bad ending route wherein he decides she's not worth his time and effort.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He's clever enough to take care of Risky as early as possible and not heeding a word she says, knowing full well the danger she poses to him if left unchecked. However, he fails to address the immediate threat of Shantae, who is daughter to one of the genies who physically defeated him before.
  • To further the point, during the final confrontation, he taunts Shantae over believing Risky's theories about the gathered dark magic actually being Shantae's own scattered magic, and is flabbergasted when it turns out to be the truth. It apparently hadn't crossed his mind that Risky just hates him that much.

Supporting Characters

Mayor Scuttlebutt

Mayor of Scuttle Town

Appears in: Shantae, Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Mayor Scuttlebutt is the mayor of Scuttle Town, and is currently employing Shantae as its Guardian Genie.

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• Comfort Food: In Pirate's Curse, depending at certain points in the game, you can give certain foods you collect from defeating enemies to him at certain amounts and he pays you gems for them. He usually gives some background story of Scuttle Town or reason associated with the food.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the first game, he lacked his trademark white hair, though this could be chalked up to limitations of the Game Boy Color.
• Jerkass: At the end of the first game, he asked Shantae if he could pay half for her services as a Guardian Genie since she is only a half-genie. He may or may not have been joking.
• Karma Houdini: He consistently gets away with his treatment of Shantae and constant screw ups. The worst he gets is that it's hinted that he's not very well liked or respected among the town.
• Mayor Pain: On the verge of being a Running Gag.
  • While a reasonable enough official in the first game, after Risky successfully invades Scuttle Town at the start of Risky's Revenge, he fires Shantae from her job and later sells the town to the Ammo Baron rather than try and deal with his forces and Risky at the same time. Fortunately, Shantae's actions and her friends are able to convince him to take her back on and set things right at the end of the game.
  • In Pirate's Curse he's unable to buy the town back from Ammo Baron, which would have been understandable IF he hadn't spent the between-game interim eating the cheap waxy chocolates bought with the money he got for the deed.
  • In Half-Genie Hero, after Risky's attack leaves Main Street in flames, he fires Shantae again and gives her post to Holly. Even when Holly is erased, Shantae is never officially re-hired until the end of the game.
• Moving the Goalposts: The Mayor's satisfaction with Shantae's job as Guardian Genie seems to drop with every game. In the first game, he was happy just having the pirates driven off, despite the Steam Engine getting stolen. In Risky's Revenge, he fires Shantae after the magic lamp is stolen. Pirate's Curse gets a free pass on the grounds that he's not the one who does the firing. Come Half-Genie Hero, despite driving off Risky and seemingly stopping her from taking off with the Dynamo Blueprints, she gets fired again because she didn't stop the attack from happening in the first place. He should consider himself lucky she's an All-Loving Hero.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: As loosely as the term can be used. In Risky's Revenge he's not a terrible politician, just a terrible person. Selling the town to the Ammo Baron is shown to be the lesser of two evils since the town's treasury is about to go bankrupt. This is promptly dropped in Pirate's Curse, where he admits to selling the town and spending the money on a box of chocolates (and not even good ones). And then he fires Shantae in Half-Genie Hero even though she managed to thwart Risky's attack once more.

Abner Cadaver

Burly Brother

Rottytops' eldest brother. Mentioned in the original Shantae and introduced in Risky's Revenge.

Abner is rough around the edges, but deep down he's a decent guy who looks after his family and will do anything to protect them or keep them happy and has a soft spot for his little sister Rottytops. While he once made a deal with Risky and kidnapped Mimic in exchange for a lifetime supply of coffee, he'd come to bitterly regret this decision and try to make amends with Shantae, in his own way, later on.

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• Amazing Technicolor Population: He has green skin.
• Big Brother Instinct: Fiercely loyal to Rottytops, and Shantae by extension.
• Butter Face: He's tall and well-built (with a detailed eight-pack in Pirate's Curse), but has the kind of face that you'd expect from a zombie.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: In the original game, Rottytops' brothers are mentioned as being out of town when Shantae comes to visit. They appear in person in the sequel.
• Face of a Thug: You'd be forgiven to think he's one of the bad guys if you just looked at his picture.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He comes off as aloof and abrasive to others, but he still apologizes to Shantae for helping out Risky Boots when they meet again in Pirate's Curse. He also points out that Rottytops actually seems a lot happier when Shantae's around, which is one of the first clues for the half-genie that her erstwhile undead peer might genuinely see her as a friend.
• Meaningful Name: A cadaver is a human corpse, usually used for medical studies or dissection.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Similar to his sister.
• Punny Name: His name is a taken from the phrase "Abracadabra!", an incantation which is often heard when magicians perform a magic trick, and used to refer to healing and warding off diseases.

Poe

Chivalrous Cadaver

Rottytops' other brother. Mentioned in the original Shantae and introduced in Risky's Revenge.

Poe is a polite, gentle and caring member of the Cadaver family and is in charge of keeping their caravan in good shape and running.

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• Amazing Technicolor Population: He has green skin.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: He likes his coffee with rotten eggs mixed into it.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: In the original game, Rottytops' brothers are mentioned as being out of town when Shantae comes to visit. They appear in person in the sequel.
• Drives Like Crazy: He has to, to get through the Ghost Forest in one piece. "Hold on tight!" Shantae doesn't seem to mind.
• Named After Someone Famous: Likely named after famous horror poet Edgar Allan Poe.
• Nice Guy: Unlike his mischievous sister and his stand-offish brother, Poe is always friendly and polite to Shantae.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Similar to his sister.
• Proper Gentleman: Unlike Abner he's very, very polite.
• Winged Humanoid: Has tiny bat wings on his back.

Barracuda Joe

Average Joe (?)

Appears in: Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Barracuda Joe is a soldier in Ammo Baron's army. He claims that he did a saucy dance in order to join the army. In contrast to Ammo Baron and some other members of his army, he is a decent fellow - he gives Shantae fair warning of the dangers in the tower, and apologizes when the prize she wins there is not that great in his eyes (the Magic Seal).

His job is running Battle Tower. Barracuda Joe guards the tower, and will let any citizen in for training for a small fee. He keeps track of Shantae's record times and will give her the Forest Key upon her first completion.

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• Ascended Meme: His name is one to the Shantae Let's Play by Brickroad, which called those invincible giant fish enemies in the Waterfall area Barracuda Joe after he kept getting bitten by them.
• Bad Ass Longcoat: While Joe is merely one of the Ammo Baron's grunts, he is still issued one as part of his uniform.
• Nice Guy: Compared to the other soldiers in Ammo Baron's army.
• Noodle Incident: How he joined the army. We know it involved a saucy dance, most likely for the Ammo Baron.
• Put on a Bus: Doesn't appear in Half-Genie Hero at all.
• Taken for Granite: In Pirate's Curse, courtesy of Sky's dad, due to reading a cursed sarcophagus that reads:
  Death ter them what reads it.

Sky's Parents

Their appearances in Pirate's Curse

Appears in: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

The parents of Sky. Introduced in Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.

Sky's father is a Relic Hunter like Mimic.

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• Adventurer Archaeologist: Sky's dad.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Sky feels this way about her mom, and given that she calls her daughter:
  my sweet widdle bedwetting baby bunsies
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: He rigs up a mummy curse to turn Barracuda Joe to stone so he can't marry Sky. To say Sky is not amused by this is an Understatement, and her mother is somewhat resigned:
  Sky: You always do this daddy!
  You want me to be single forever!
  
  Sky's mom: Oh dear... Another boyfriend down the drain.
• Foreshadowing: When Shantae first meet the librarian, he asks if she's the daughter of that one Relic Hunter: she corrects he's actually her uncle. At first it just seems like a cute nod to her relationship with Mimic, but considering the guy has really poor eyesight and that she presented Sky's library card, it was a hint that Sky's dad is a Relic Hunter, before it's revealed by the man himself.
• Pungeon Master: Sky's mom loves bird puns, which combined with an I Want Grandkids attitude causes no shortage of embarrassment for Sky.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Sky's mother is pretty while her dad's face looks like a horse.

"Manly guy in the village of Lost Souls"

"You should go too, before you forget why came here."

Appears in: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

A big, brawny, deceased warrior who helps Shantae enter the Oubliette of Suffering. He was searching for his daughter, but forgot nearly everything about her.

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• Disappeared Dad: For somebody, at least. When you talk to him, he says that the reason he's in the Village of Lost Souls is because he's looking for his daughter. Meeting Shantae seems to stir up a few memories for him...
• Dumb Muscle: He's a big beefcake with below-average oratory skills (though he doesn't go into outright Hulk Speak).
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: He's Karnov in all but name, which is never even revealed. His silhouetted figure resembles Karnov's, he describes events that are not unlike Karnov's gameplay, speaks in a vaguely Russian manner of broken English, and his Leitmotif is highly reminiscent of the Karnov level theme.
• No Name Given: His name is never given.
• Signature Scent: MANLY MUSK
• Sinister Silhouettes: While actually not that bad of a guy, his whole body is obstructed in shadow. Plus the Oubliette of Suffering finds more than a hint of sin in his "manly musk".
• So Proud of You: In a somewhat roundabout way. When he witnesses Shantae's eagerness to get into the Oubliette of Suffering, he admits he would be proud to have a daughter as bold and gutsy as she is.

Bran-Son

Brandon and his super alter-ego, Bran-Son

Appears in: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

An ordinary citizen by the name of Brandon, by wielding his enchanted blade and uttering the mystical words, he transforms into the most capable man in the galaxy, Bran-Son! Except he happened to leave his sword on the bus and can't transform without it.

He's also referenced in Seven Sirens as a doll Shantae must find.

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• Affectionate Parody: From the same studio who brought us Skullmageddon, we get one of He-Man himself.
• Battle Cry: "I gained the advantage!"
• Be Yourself: He sends off Shantae with these words of wisdom.
  Bran-Son: And remember, tell the TRUTH, and BE true... (Beat) to YOURSELF.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: When he holds his sword erect and says the mystical words, Brandon becomes the hero Bran-son!
  Brandon: "Hey guys, we should go get matching purses! No reason they should be just for ladies anymore! Am I right, hey fellas don't leave, fellas come baaaaaaack!"
• Chick Magnet: Sky and other girls are checking him out in the game's ending, which makes Bolo incredibly jealous of him.
• Cyclops: Has one eye, which makes his "disguise" all the more obvious.
• Dumb Muscle: Huge and muscular, but dim as they come.
• Expy: An obvious parody of He-Man, from his appearance, his theme song, giving out speeches, and along with his sword and the mystical words, can transform into a hero. And wearing pink when he's not being one.
• Heroic Build: Just look at the guy.
• Idiot Hero: He left his sword on the bus and transformed in front of a bunch of strangers (including Twitch and Vinegar, who plan to sell his identity to his Archenemy). He also has no idea how to transform back.
• Large Ham: And how. He can't even tell Shantae to be herself without dramatic pauses.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: He's not fooling Shantae or anyone else by pretending that Brandon and Bran-Son are two different people.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: As Bran-Son, the color of his hair changes from red to blue.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Like the character he's based on, he dons a pink shirt when he's not in hero mode.
• Secret Identity: He seems to think so, despite telling Shantae about his powers and transforming right in front of her.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Doesn't like the desert because sand gets in his shoes. Guess where his blade is?