WMG / Shantae

Risky Boots is actually Shantae's mother.

Could explain why there's an obvious connection between the two.

• Genies are Always Female in this 'verse, though, and Risky's not a genie. Since Shantae is half-genie, it would have to be her father who was mortal.
  • Risky's not a Genie now. In fact, we don't really know what she is, and was most likely transformed by the Pirate Master when she joined his service(or in order to serve him)
• Risky also has extremely long purple hair, convincingly disguised herself as a genie in the first game, and has a very similar colour scheme as Nega-Shantae. And although she was old enough to be the Pirate Master's lieutenant before Shantae was born, she doesn't seem to have aged much, so she may not be human. On top of that, she more than once refers to herself as Mommy jokingly, which fits Matt Bozon's sense of humour.
• Jossed. According to the end of Half-Genie Hero, Shantae's mother is still in the Genie Realm.
• And at the end of Pirate's Curse, Risky goes out of her way to tell Shantae that she's just like her mother. The two of them obviously have very little in common, and she wouldn't go out of her way just to lie to her about that.

Risky Boots and Shantae are half-sisters.

They share their father. With the age gap, it explains Risky knowing Shantae's mother. It also might add an extra reason for her to resent Shantae after initially meeting her, as well as for her eventual friendliness after working together. Also, they both have purple hair.

• I can get behind this. My half-sister is about twenty years older than me (I'm guessing Risky's probably ten to fifteen older than Shantae, depending on when the events that left her an orphan occurred), so it's entirely possible that the reason Shantae's dad isn't around (and isn't mentioned) is because he was rather old when helping to make Shantae...
• There's no exact reason is stated they share a father as opposed to the same mother, however I can still get behind this regardless.
• There's also no reason to assume they're sisters in the first place, but Risky is never mentioned as being half-genie like Shantae is.

Risky Boots is Shantae's aunt.

On her father's side, of course.

• Then wouldn't Uncle Mimic recognise her? Besides, Pirate's Curse hints that whatever Risky is, it's probably not completely human.
  • Uncle Mimic is an Honorary Uncle rather than a literal uncle - as far as we know. And even if he and Shantae are actually related by blood, that wouldn't mean he knows everything about the side of the family he's not a part of.
  • Never understood where people got the idea Mimic was an Honorary Uncle. All four games and one of the manuals describe him as though he's her biological relative, and his physique even somewhat resembles the shadowy warrior guy in the Village of Lost Souls, who's hinted to be Shantae's father. And this theory would therefore mean that Risky, Mimic, and Shadowy Warrior Guy are all siblings (and would probably recognize each other as such) - Shantae's mother is a genie, so Mimic can't be from her side of the family.
  • Mimic and Shantae are not related.

Risky Boots and the Tinkerbats set up a blockade on the nearest source of coffee.

It would certainly explain why there's exactly one source of coffee beans in the entirety of Risky's Revenge, and it's a long-abandoned storage area. The purpose is, naturally, to more easily manipulate the intelligent zombies, seeing as coffee is the only thing keeping them that way.

• She is still hoarding it to manipulate Rotty and her siblings in the future.
• This sounds pretty unlikely. Risky hasn't made another move to manipulate Rotty in two games, and Rotty's loyalty to Shantae seems clear at this point. And the zombies have to be getting their coffee from somewhere in the meantime, otherwise they probably would've gone nuts by now. Half-Genie Hero even mentions that the Hypno Baron was willing to trade some of it for information on what turned out to be a merchandising deal.

Nintendo will create a full console Shantae game rather than just a small download one.

And if it does well, they'll turn it into a big franchise.

• Semi-Confirmed. WayForward are currently kickstarting a Shantae game for Wii U, PS3, PS4, 360, XB1, and Steam.

The next game, Half-Genie Hero, will feature Shantae going into the Genie World.

The Genie World has been mentioned but never really explored, and multiple times Shantae has expressed a desire to learn more about her genie heritage.

• Confirmed; she enters pocket-portions of the Genie Realm throughout the game in order to learn new transformation dances and their associated abilities, and a portion of the final battle even takes place there. She also learns that her mother is living there and is alive and well in the present, having left Shantae in Mimic's care so that she and the other genies could protect the world from greater threats.

Shantae still had a little magic left in her at the end of Risky's Revenge.

As evidence by her retaining her hair-whipping ability. Uncle Mimic was wrong about the hair whipping not being a genie power.

• Alternatively It's Magic She got from her father who was an Oni (Japanese Demon) making her full Oni in Pirates Curse and why she could use the Pirate Master's gear as her native Oni magic kept her safe.

Shantae takes place After the End

The Lost Technology Uncle Mimic finds all sounds like stuff we have now. Something must have happened that destroy the world and brought back monsters.

• If it's an Adventure Time style scenario, it would explain the Schizo Tech and cultural references.
• Plausible. At the end of Half-Genie Hero Uncle mentions unearthing the designs for something called a bicycle, or an 8-bit handheld depending on the ending you get.
• Confirmed. In Uncle Mimic's bio on the Half-Genie Hero manual, it specifically references the lost age as being our general time.

The shadowy brawny man in the Village of Souls is actually Shantae's dad

• He states he is looking for his daughter but doesn't know how she looks like. Since people at the village don't fully remember their pasts...
  • It's worth noting that his memories seem to return a bit when he meets Shantae, just like Rottytops remembers a bit more about herself when she gets her locket back.
  • Him being all shadowy could tie into this, too - Shantae can't make out what he looks like because she can't remember what her father looks like. The appearance of both of them is a complete mystery to her.
  • Seven Sirens shows us one of the other half-genie's fathers, who's also a big, hulking guy with limited intellect who speaks somewhat-broken English. The similarities are a little astounding. Maybe it's a thing for genies to be interested in guys like that? Or Shantae's and Vera's mothers just had similar taste in men.

The mysterious light guiding Shantae in Half-Genie Hero is the spirit of her mother.

• Her mother comes up more often in this game than any other. Their familial bond would likely also help her reach out to her daughter from the Genie Realm in order to inform her of the danger and kick-start the plot.
• The mysterious light is also quick to reassure Shantae that her mother is alive and well in the Genie Realm and loves her very much, tells Shantae how proud they are of her selflessness, and that her family is "not as far away as (she) thinks.
  • This troper has considered that, too, but then why wouldn't she just tell Shantae? You could say she kept quiet about it at first because she needed her to destroy the Genie Realm without hesitation if it came to that...but the voice speaks to her again during the ending, after the threat of that has passed, and she still only acts as a messenger from her mother.
  • Simple - it's because she has to return to the Genie Realm. For her to reveal herself only to leave immediately afterwards would just be cruel.
    • That depends on how you look at the situation. She has to return to the Genie Realm either way, and Shantae was fine with not being able to meet her mother again and understood why she couldn't be with her. With that in mind, it seems even crueler to keep her in the dark about it, thereby denying her the only chance she'll ever have, however briefly, just to spare her from something she's going to experience anyway.
  • It's possible, but it still sounds a little too predictable. Risky tells Shantae that she's "just like her mother" (only shorter...and more annoying) in Pirate's Curse, whereas the genie speaking to Shantae here doesn't seem particularly like her, from what little we see of her. And if she were Shantae's mother, wouldn't Mimic have recognized her voice?
  • Mimic's kept information about Shantae's magical heritage secret from her before. It's practically par for the course for him at this point.
    • We only know of two instances of him keeping secrets from her, and both of them had pretty good reasons why. The first was the lamp, because it's so dangerous to genies that her mother swore him to secrecy. And the second was when he experimented on the Tinkerbats in the hope of finding a way for Shantae to regain her genie magic, which he kept secret out of guilt over his lack of success at said experiments. In this instance, he doesn't really have an excuse.
  • I also wasn't under the impression that the messenger had to return to the Genie Realm because it was being permanently cut off or anything - maybe she just had to go back to assist in cleaning up the Dynamo remains or something. Genies might be able to cross over or send messages anytime; it's just that most of them (including Shantae's mother) are preoccupied with holding off greater threats.

Shantae is the reason Risky Boots gets so much character development in The Pirate's Curse.

• Risky has Shantae collect all the stray Dark Magic in her lamp and figures that her positive influence will change it back into Light Magic. Risky's the same ghoulish purple as the Genies she corrupts using the Dynamo, as well as Nega-Shantae, and is likely corrupted by dark magic herself. What's to say that Shantae's influence wasn't working its way through the magic corrupting Risky? They're traveling together for nearly the entire game, after all.
  • If this is true, then Shantae's lack of presence could be a key factor in why Risky snaps back to scheming so quickly for Half-Genie Hero - there's nothing actively fighting her corruption anymore. (Maybe this also explains why her scheme is her most brutal yet...)
  • The Hypno Baron tells Risky she's possessed of dark magic during the Pirate Queen's Quest in Half-Genie Hero, so this theory does definitely have merit. It would seem that the curse on her gear wasn't as broken as she thought it had been...
  • The curse is explicitly stated to be broken at the end of Pirate's Curse. I personally think it's more likely that Risky's so saturated with dark magic that she's simply too far gone without a force of light magic working against it constantly.
  • Risky tells Shantae that there were no sources of dark magic before she used the lamp to create Nega-Shantae in Risky's Revenge, whose scattered magic was put to use by the Pirate Master soon afterward before being recaptured and converted back into light magic.
  • The 'no sources of dark magic' is clearly a lie, given she collects more of the stuff to upgrade her gear in HGH. I never said Risky was a source of dark magic herself, but she's pretty clearly under its effects.
  • Technically, the only person who claims that the curse is broken is Risky herself, and she has no proof that that's actually the case - to me, it comes off more as her saying, "I won't let this curse get the better of me anyway." And the dark magic she collects plays strictly a gameplay role. It might not actually have been there in-universe.
  • The Pirate Master's implied to take Risky's curse with him when he dies. The Tinkerbats all seem to be rather un-cursed in the Golden Ending, besides. I'd say that's proof enough. You may be thinking of the bad ending. ;) Considering that the player character is likely to have poured a lot of dark magic into their upgrades in PQQ by the time they reach Hypno Baron, it's safe to say it exists in-game.
  • The scenario I’m thinking of is from the good ending: Risky asks Shantae for her gear back, Shantae asks nervously about the curse that could still be on it, and Risky assures her by saying something to the effect of “I’m not afraid, and won’t let it control me,” not that it fore sure was broken by the defeat of the Pirate Master. It’s not 100% clear, but there’s enough evidence to suggest that the curse could still be in effect. And it’s given merit by how Risky is less Axe-Crazy and closer to her normal self in the DLC modes, as well as Seven Sirens, because the polarizer Shantae used against the Tinkerbrain might have nullified the dark magic affecting Risky as well.
    • Risky outright states that the curse is broken, and has no reason to lie to Shantae at that point.
    • I'm not saying she was lying, just that maybe she didn't actually know if the curse was broken and was just assuming it was.

Shantae is still riding off the magical high from the end of The Pirate's Curse, and that's why Half-Genie Hero feels so easy.

• She's just gotten her magic back in a glorious surge and taken down the Pirate Master - a.k.a. the Biggest, Baddest Pirate that Sequin Land has ever known - practically on her own. Of course anything after that is gonna feel like a cakewalk!

Shantae was fighting Nega-Shantae from the inside at some points.

• That would explain why the realms in which Shantae's friends were trapped in were actually not inescapable: Shantae had enough influence to make escaping them possible.
  • Likely confirmed - in the main game, we saw Shantae trying to convince herself to back down after she'd been corrupted, even before the arrival of her friends gave her the strength to actually accomplish it.

Scuttlebutt will lose his position as mayor.

• After all, it's kind of his fault that Ammo Baron took over Scuttle Town, and that Holly stole everyone's memories.
  • He sold the town to the Ammo Baron because it was bankrupt and he needed to do something to keep it from falling apart. And Holly probably would've stolen everyone's memories whether the mayor had hired her or not. Now, he could be docked points for firing Shantae from her job in two different games, but he does rehire her both times by the end. And even Shantae acknowledges that he does care about the people of Scuttle Town.

The next game will feature Shantae learning more about her father.

• Wayforward has had an interest in exploring the details of both her parents; they just wanted to start with her mother as they felt her story would be more interesting to both Shantae and the player. Now that Half-Genie Hero has that covered for the time being, Shantae can instead focus on her father. And the events of Pirate's Curse tell us that her implied father, Shadowy Karnov Lookalike, has resolved to escape from the Village of Lost Souls and continue searching for his missing daughter - maybe he could make a reappearance.
  • "Your mother is alive somewhere in the genie realm" isn't really going into very many details, though. I wouldn't say Wayforward's actually covered anything.
  • Yeah, but the way the realization about her mother was framed was as if it was the last Shantae would hear from or about her, for at least a little while — she can’t be with Shantae because she’s busy protecting her world from greater threats. Regardless of how much we found out, there was a sense of closure regarding what happened, meaning a possible opportunity for Shantae to learn about her father in the meantime.
  • Jossed. Her father isn't mentioned at all in Seven Sirens.

The Sultana of Sequin Land was taking bribes from the Ammo Baron.

• Let's compile the facts: she refused to send Scuttle Town any aid when it was in financial trouble due to pirate attacks, forcing Mayor Scuttlebutt to pursue the only other option - selling the town to the Ammo Baron. Then once Ammo Baron starts to tear down the town and rebuild it, she does end up sending support...to tell the town's Guardian Genie to stand down and let him do as he pleases. Then, despite being placed on house arrest, Shantae is able to travel freely to Sequin Land Palace (where it's revealed that the sultana is currently on vacation, meaning she must've told the guards to issue the order in advance) and back, up until the charges are dismissed due to a very shaky technicality. All this definitely hints that either the Ammo Baron's projects are government-funded, meaning the sultana has a stake in his operations, or that he was just paying her to look the other way for him. In which case, the only reason he forfeits ownership of the town at the end of Pirate's Curse is because of his botched attempt to take down the palace and assume control of Sequin Land himself. He wants to get out of there before the Sultana returns from her vacation and realizes what he's been up to.

The next game will deconstruct the series' entire formula.

• Scuttlebutt losing his title as mayor for his Mayor Pain tendencies. And for his tendency to fire Shantae for just one failure. To the point where he admits that Scuttle Town deserved a better mayor.
• Risky turning predictable. As well as suffering from in-universe Villain Decay. Which will be acknowledged.
• Rottytops and her brothers' shared backstory somehow deconstructing Our Zombies Are Different. They could even question where their addiction to coffee came from.
• Uncle Mimic having gotten wiser since Half-Genie Hero.
• Jossed, Seven Sirens is a fairly standard adventure.

Rottytops is special compared to other zombies

This explains why she’s got such a different appearance from even her brothers, and this isn’t mere sexual dimorphism, as shown in the original GBC game (which had female zombies with similar faces to the brothers). This is also why she has a soul in the Village of Lost Souls.

• Alternatively, Rotty's change in appearance is because her friendship with Shantae has restored some of her humanity.
• Jossed, in Seven Sirens we see two zombies who are more Rottytops-like. Perhaps they’re a similar case?

Risky will receive a considerable buff in her chessmaster skills and intellect in a future Shantae game (After Half-Genie Hero)

In a similar manner to Doctor Doom and Lex Luthor. They used to be idiot villains with "Death ray" schemes, now they're the most powerful minds in the Marvel and DC universes respectively, pulling Batman Gambits on the daily. She already displayed signs of this with her big Batman Gambit in Pirate's Curse and Half-Genie Hero.

Uncle Mimic is playable in Seven Sirens.

Since it's very odd to see him animated in action in the intro...

• Jossed, it's just Shantae this time around.

The Seven Sirens are working for Risky. But will turn on her.

If we're under the assumption that said sirens are partially inspired by the ones of Norse myths. And that pirates are technically sailors.

• Confirmed, betrayal and all!

The Mayor of Arena Town turns out to be the Big Bad and not Risky Boots this time around.

And at the climax, he'll attempt to absorb the power of the captive Half-Genies in order to turn himself into the ultimate doomsday mage, potentially utilizing a Magic Lamp-like object/device to accomplish it. It's too easy to just invite every Half-Genie to one area, have them perform in the arena floor, only for all but one Half-Genie to disappear during a freak black-out. As for the one that's still there? Easy: Frame her, try to lock her and her friends up in the dungeons, take over the world. Risky would be the one to free them, citing that Shantae and her friends are hers alone to deal with.

• Played with. The Mayor's technically responsible... but is also Risky Boots in disguise.

Fillin the Blank is Rottytops in disguise as a Half-Genie.

Fillin's appearance appears to heavily resemble Rottytops. A look at their game world sprites show that they are approximately the same height, and have exactly similar faces, despite Fillin having longer hair. Fillin's first words upon encountering Shantae were "Yikes!", which might imply that Rottytops was worried that Shantae might have seen through her disguise. When asked for her name, Fillin has been hesitant in telling Shantae her name, and the name "Fillin the Blank" sounds like a Punny Name, and an Atrocious Alias. In a later cutscene, Fillin is seen winking at Shantae, which hints this possibility even further.

• Also notice how we never see "Fillin's" ears.
• Rottytops is all over promotional material for Seven Sirens, in contrast to 'Fillin', who is nowhere to be seen. In the "Part 1" demo, Fillin is present, but Rottytops is nowhere to be found.
• Confirmed!

Fillin the Blank is actually a Siren.

She's incredibly concerned with whether or not a Zombie half-genie is 'normal' or not and doesn't show her ears, her alias is hastily put together, and she acts like she knows something's going to happen during the performance shortly before everyone else on stage vanishes. And there are only four spell slots in the "dance" menu, but 5 new half-genies...

• Jossed. All seven Sirens are shown in the game's new key art, and Fillin's not with them. And she's actually just Rottytops.

Whenever Shantae utilizes Fusion Magic, it calls forth the Half-Genie's mother to utilize their power.

Whenever Shantae utilizes a Fusion Coin for her on-the-fly transformations, she can just transform instantaneously to whatever she needs to be at the moment. However, since the Half-Genies she rescues are giving up some of their own power to allow Shantae to tap into their powers, she can briefly see their full-fledged Genie mothers before their power activates. Perhaps that'll be how Shantae (and the rest of the audience) may eventually see her own mother?

• This seems to be jossed, since you meet who is implied to be Harmony's genie mother near the end of Seven Sirens, and she does not particularly resemble the Quake Dance fusion.

One of the Half-Genies will not give Shantae a dance.

There are apparently five half-genies (not counting Shantae) but only four dance slots. One of the half-genies will be the odd one out, and it will be either Harmony because she's important, or Fillin where the plot twist is that she's actually Rottytops.

• Confirmed! Fillin/Rottytops does not have a dance for Shantae, though she does give her the last Fusion Coin.

Sky's father isn't actually her father.

He's her stepfather. Her real father was killed by zombies, which is why she hates them.

"Rottytops" isn't Rottytops' real name.

It was confirmed all the way back in Pirate's Curse that Rottytops was once a living human and also most likely doesn't seem to have any memories from when she was alive. It's entirely possible that "Rottytops" is just a an alias she or one of her brothers came up with for her as a zombie.

The Half-Genie's ages.

In order from oldest to youngest.

Oldest: Harmony. This is stated in game, so it's canon.
Second Oldest: Zapple. After Harmony, she seems to be the most mature and sounds older then the others.\\Middle: Shantae. She seems to land right in the middle. She is more mature and developed then Plink and Vera, but it's clear she still has some growing up to do.
Second Youngest: Vera. She seems a little older then Plink, but still seems pretty young.
Youngest: Plink. She is the shortest and sounds the youngest.

• The mayor actually states that Shantae's the youngest of the half-genies after you hand him the codebook from Armor Town.
  • The Mayor is also Risky, who isn't the most trustworthy person in the world.
    • There's no reason for her to be making it up, though. It's such a trivial and unnecessary thing to lie about.
    • Considering that Risky told Empress Siren that Shantae's life force was inferior and tainted, which is why Empress Siren never went after Shantae, it's possible that Risky claimed Shantae was the youngest as a reason for her inferiority. Shantae is also never stated to know the others' ages besides that Harmony is the oldest, so it's possible Risky made her believe she is the youngest when in reality she could be older.
    • Then that's a reason for her to lie to the Empress Siren, not anyone else. Risky isn't just a compulsive liar who frivolously falsifies things for no reason; she's only been known to lie because she had a good reason for doing so at the time.
    • She could have told Shantae she was the youngest to mess with her head and throw her off like with Empress Siren. Risky has a habit of present a false or ambiguous reality to people ("Would I lie to you?"), like handing Shantae the fake blueprints with the implication they're actually real.
    • She lied about the blueprints for the purpose of getting Shantae and Mimic to build her latest doomsday machine for her, which is explained directly to us later in the game. You still haven't said what specific goal she achieves from lying about Shantae's age, or why you're so insistent on arguing this point. It's just a question of seniority between the five girls; there's no reason for it to be looked into to this degree. Until we have a direct and specific reason why Risky would lie about it, we take what was conveyed at face value, or else we'd have to start questioning everything she says.
    • The reason I question it is because Risky does lie quite frequently. The entire plotline of Pirate Queen's Quest is her lying to herself to create a fantasy land where she actually defeated Shantae for once, which would make you question her integrity at least in some cases. And I think WayForward themselves don't even have a concise answer on the age order, telling fans to keep speculating.
    • I don't disagree with you; lying, withholding crucial information, and twisting the facts are perfectly in character for Risky, but it's when she has something to gain from doing so, like making herself look better or fooling her enemies into helping her. I don't believe there's a strong enough potential motive for her to lie about this sort of thing (especially when it's her "Mayor" disguise, not her, who's telling the lie) that we shouldn't take it at face value.
    • I understand what you're saying and I get your reasoning. I believe my interpretation is correct and you believe yours is correct. Thanks to WayForward telling us to keep speculating, we can both be right and wrong at the same time!

• In addition, Plink is taller than Shantae. And the apparent maturity of each girl also ties into her past experience and lifestyle in addition to how old she is; Shantae could be the youngest, but still seem more mature than some of the others because she's been through more than they have, possibly.

We are going to get a DLC campagin for Seven Sirens that will be a What If? scenario detailing what would have happened had Shantae been captured

I am pretty sure that every fan who played the game wondered what would have happened if Shantae had been taken. So, WayForward Technologies would take that idea and turn it into a DLC story. It would either star one of the other half-genies(most likely Harmony) or take a "Friends To The End" approach and have Bolo, Sky, Rottytops and possibly Mimic take up the quest.

• Wayforward has already stated that Seven Sirens is not going to have DLC.

Risky Boots is actually some kind of undead.

Note that the claim her is not that Risky is a zombie, rather shes a different kind of undead much closer to the Pirate Master then anything else. The powerful dark magic Hypnobaron detected is the undeath spell keeping her animated, it explains why she appears visually similar in age to Shantae but dialogue repeatedly has her imply shes older, her weird skin color that has no equal anywhere, and how she could have personal knowledge of Shantaes mother who has been gone from the mortal world for decades at least. At some point Pirate Master used dark magic to turn Risky into something that was not a zombie but also wasn't technically alive halting her aging process so she could continue serving him forever after which she overthrew him. It also keeps her at least nominally evil no matter how much character development she undergoes.