Shantae

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Shantae
Official artwork of Shantae from Shantae: Half-Genie Hero.
Universe	Shantae
Debut	Shantae (2002)
Smash Bros. appearances	Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Shantae and the Seven Sirens (2019)
Console/platform of origin	Game Boy Color
Species	Human/Genie
Gender	Female
Place of origin	Scuttle Town
Created by	Matt Bozon
Article on Wikipedia	Shantae (character)

Shantae (シャンティ, Shantae) is the main protagonist of the Shantae series.

Origin

Shantae serves as the Guardian Genie of Scuttle Town, residing in a small lighthouse by the sea where she can spot incoming ships. However, she is initially afraid of the citizens discovering her Half-Genie status. In the original Shantae, she chases the villainous Risky Boots, in order to stop her plans. Along the way to stop Risky Boots, she receives aid from her friends Bolo and Sky, as well as a young zombie girl named Rottytops. Shantae is unable to stop Risky Boots from using four elemental stones to create a turbine to power her war-machine known as the "All-Purpose Steam-Powered Tinkerbot" (or "Tinkertank" for short). After destroying the Tinkertank, Shantae duels with Risky and defeats her, escaping from the collapsing island and offered a chance to enter the Genie Realm, the cost of which being that she can never return to Scuttle Town again. Shantae declines and continues her work serving as the town's Guardian Genie.

The plot continues in Risky's Revenge where Risky attacks a seminar that Shantae's uncle, Mimic, was holding, stealing a Magic Lamp that he had procured within ruins located at Deborah Cliff. Shantae fends off Risky, but the damage caused by her Tinkerbats prompts the town's Mayor, Scuttlebutt to fire her as Guardian Genie. Despite this and Mimic's protests, Shantae resolves to regain the Lamp from Risky, learning from Mimic that the Lamp once caused her mother great suffering while she was still around in Scuttle Town. To banish the dark powers that were sealed away in the Lamp, Shantae sets out to three dungeons in Sequin Land to obtain Magic Seals from the dungeons' Barons. Along the way, she receives help from her friends and Rottytops once more, as well as selling the deed to the town to the Ammo Baron, making him its new mayor. As soon as Shantae has recovered the final Seal, she discovers that Risky has kidnapped Mimic, with the forced aid of Rotty and her two older brothers. After finding her, Shantae gives up the Seals and fights against the Lamp's hidden power, manifesting as her inner darkness, Nega Shantae. With Nega Shantae defeated, Shantae's genie powers are sealed into the Lamp, leaving her as a normal human. Even without her powers, Shantae is rehired by Scuttlebutt, now striving to work together with Bolo and Sky to protect Scuttle Town from anything.

This remains the status quo at the beginning of Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. The plot kicks off with Shantae, Bolo, and Sky fighting off Ammo Baron's army. While successful, the Ammo Baron buys the town. As it turns out, Scuttlebutt had spent the money from selling the town on cheap, waxy chocolates that he had already eaten. The Ammo Baron fortifies his legally-owned town into a military fortress over the course of the plot. Defeated, Shantae heads home to take a bath, only to realize as soon as she got in the tub that she doesn't own one. The tub is a trap that was installed by Risky Boots, now informing the former half-genie of a curse that is overtaking the land in preparation for the return of the Pirate Master, spelling doom for all of Sequin Land. The curse had also stripped Risky of her Pirate Gear and corrupted her Tinkerbats into Cacklebats, forcing the two enemies to work together.

As Shantae and Risky travel from island to island obtaining all manner of gear and fighting off parts of the curse, the two begin to see closer eye-to-eye with each other, even helping to mend relationships with Rottytops and her brothers. During this time, Shantae even meets Rotty's human soul in the Village of Lost Souls and even encounters the soul of a Warrior who could possibly be her father. With all instances of the curse absorbed into the Lamp that Risky gave back to Shantae, the Pirate Master awakens, revealing that Risky once served as his first mate and take his head back from her, as she had previously refitted his skull into her bustier and belt. Complete once more, the Pirate Master begins to shroud the world in darkness, starting from the minarets of Sequin Land's Palace. It is here that Shantae fights and defeats the Pirate Master, regaining her magical abilities to destroy him once and for all. Using her regained powers, Shantae undoes the Ammo Baron's fortifications to the town and restores Sequin Land to its former glory, seeing Risky Boots off as a worthy opponent.

One night, Shantae is awakened from her sleep as she follows a mysterious but familiar voice calling out to her from a beautiful fountain. Touching its waters she is immediately spirited away to the fabled Genie Realm. At her feet a magical seal swells as some powerful evil seeks escape. The chamber trembles with a deep, bellowing roar and a light emits from Shantae as everything goes white. Shantae sits upright, back in her bed. Was it just a dream? Or a vision of things to come? Whatever it was leads to the events of Half-Genie Hero. Once more, Mimic is giving a seminar on his newest invention, a Dynamo that wull keep Scuttle Town constantly powered and safe from attack. As if on cue, Risky Boots appears and steals the blueprints to the Dynamo, prompting Shantae to give chase. Defeating her on the docks, she regains the blueprints, but then Scuttlebutt, Mayor once more, fires Shantae once again and replaces her with a new Guardian Genie, one named Holly Lingerbean. Shantae begins her newest adventure after returning the blueprints to Mimic, setting out across Sequin Land to obtain its components. Little does she know that this was part of Risky's plan, as she had modified the blueprints herself to open a portal to the Genie Realm and negatively polarize its magic, and that she would have Mimic unknowingly assemble the Dynamo for her, as shown in the Pirate Queen's Quest DLC. During the quest, Shantae regains her position as Guardian Genie when she finds out that Holly is nothing more than a memory given form and only able to continue existing so long as one person remembers her. With the Dynamo assembled, Risky springs her trap and uses it to negatively polarize the magic within Shantae, transforming her into Nega Shantae. She is knocked out and restored by Sky, Rottytops, and Bolo, which is expanded upon in the Friends to the End DLC, as they travel through Shantae's memories in order to uncorrupt them.

After being restored, Shantae sets out with Mimic to create a counter measure against Risky, later heading to Risky's hideout with this Magic Polarizer. Upon arrival, Shantae fights against Risky Boots and the Dynamo-powered Tinkerbrain, with Risky revealing her plan to Shantae, even having the messenger from the Genie Realm scream in agony as they are starting to feel the corruption. With no choice left, Shantae decides she must destroy the Genie Realm to keep the world safe and destroys the repowered Tinkerbrain, returning to the real world and escaping the exploding hideout as Risky swears vengeance. After returning home to her friends, Shantae is rehired once more as Guardian Genie, but now feels guilty that she destroyed the entire Genie Realm. A spark of hope appears before her as the messenger appears and tells her that Mimic's Polarizer worked, saving the Genie Realm and revealing that Shantae's mother is still alive and well in the Genie Realm. This newfound feeling of hope prompts Shantae to understand her mother's sacrifice and heads off to celebrate with her friends.

The story continues into Shantae and the Seven Sirens as Shantae, Sky, Bolo, and Mimic arrive on aradise Island, having been invited by the mayor of Arena Town. It is here that a Half-Genie Festival is being held. There, Shantae meets and befriends fellow half-genies Plink, Vera, Zapple, Harmony, and a strange half-genie named Filin Theblank. As the fesitval begins, their performance is interrupted as the other half-genies are kidnapped. Shantae sets out into the island's Sunken City to uncover answers to her questions and rescue her new friends, running into Risky Boots at several points along the way. Risky claims no involvement in the kidnapping, only interested in the mysterious treasure said to reside beneath the island, and that the others were taken by the true rulers of the island, the Seven Sirens. As she explores the island and defeats each Siren, Shantae rescues four of the half-genies, learning from Harmony that she was introduced to Filin as "Ima Goodgirl". At this point, Shantae realizes that Filin is in fact Rottytops, having stowed away with her party's luggage and disguising herself as a half-genie to avoid suspicion, believing that she was uninvited. When she finds Rotty, Shantae learns that the Sunken City is in fact the treasure that Risky was seeking: a giant airship.

After arriving back in Arena Town with Rotty, revealing that she was invited and was absent when she received the invitation, Shantae meets the friendly sixth Siren, the Lobster Siren. However, Risky has already activated the airship, prompting Shantae to face her on board. Cornering Risky, she finds the Mayor, but is surprised to learn that Arena Town's Mayor never existed: he was in fact Risky in disguise and was working for the seventh and final Siren, the Empress. The elderly siren explains that she struck an accord with Risky, offering her the ship in exhange for bringing her five Genies whose life force she could use in a spell to achieve immortality. Although Risky had held up her end of the bargain, the Empress betrays her and steals her life force, restoring her youth. The Empress then announces her plan to Shantae that she will drain the life force from all creatures to make herself immortal, just in time for the young half-genie to break free and defeat the Empress. Upon the defeat, the Empress reverts back into her true elderly form, as the spell was incomplete. As Risky reveals, she had planned that the Empress would double-cross her and had Rottytops kidnapped because she is not an actual genie. The life force and magical powers stolen from the other half-genies is restored and the Empress is destroyed. Shantae carries the unconscious Risky out of the collapsing airship, with the pirate admitting to Shantae that this use of Rotty in the plan was because of a lie that Risky told the Empress, telling her that Shantae's magic was tainted, sparing her from being drained. As Risky leaves the island, the festival resumes with the Lobster Siren joining the fun and helping to rebuild the island. Shantae and friends leave the island, bringing home a scrapbook made by the Guardian Genies filled with messages left for their half-genie daughters, including some written by Shantae's mother.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As a costume

A Mii Brawler in the Shantae costume.

Shantae was released as a DLC Mii Brawler costume on June 29th, 2021, alongside Kazuya. Following Sans and Cuphead, she is the third indie character to appear as a Mii costume. Upon downloading the costume, the song Burning Town is unlocked as an additional music track in the "Other" category. The Mii costume is based on Shantae's signature design, which itself is based on the attire of a typical Oryantal Dans (Belly Dancer in Turkish). This includes red Harem pants, a red bra, red slip-on shoes and gold jewelry. The jewelry includes arm cuffs, earrings, a headband, and a hair clip that forms her long, purple pony tail.

There are a few notable references in the Shantae costume's reveal trailer. Shantae is introduced on The Great Cave Offensive stage, due to most of her games being Metroidvania platformers with large maps similar to the stage. She is shown fighting King K. Rool and an army of Mr. Game & Watches, in reference to her arch nemesis Risky Boots and the Tinkerbats. She is then shown taunting, disappearing in the smoke from a Smoke Ball, and then coming out of the smoke wearing the Monkey Mii outfit, based on her home series's dance transformation mechanics and specifically the monkey transformation.

Spirit

No.	Image	Name	Type	Class	Slots	Base	Max	Base	Max	Base	Max	Ability	Series
1,296		Shantae		★★★	3	2,803	8,413	1,693	5,080	952	2,857	Magic Attack ↑	Shantae Series

Trivia

• With the first Shantae game releasing in 2002, Shantae is the oldest indie character to be represented within the Super Smash Bros. series.
• Like her fellow indie costumes Sans and Cuphead, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate marks Shantae’s first 3D appearance in video games. However unlike Sans and Cuphead, only Shantae’s hair and body are 3D modeled.
• After the official release of the costume, Shantae creator Matt Bozon shared a Shantae Mii created by him and his wife, Erin Bozon (who designed the character), on Twitter.