darkSpyro

Why does Buzz shares a VA with Flynn when it's so noticeable? Why can a single shard of Traptanium hold an entire rock plataform on its own? Cloudcracker Prision looks like an awesome final level or not?
These,and many more questions we can discuss here, exclusively discussions about the game's plot and canon - no marketing strategies, no figure prices, just good old storytelling!
As expected of pretty much any thread on the forum, try to be nice and respectable to each other. The game isn't out yet, so what you think of a character could still change at any moment - a different interpretation of it isn't necessarily wrong and worth fighting over. And try to stay on topic, there's more than enough places to discuss other things - though you can bring up lore from other games, it's expected to be important in this game as well :3

Starting with one I found out recently. Ghost Roaster keeps eating undead in Lost Islands and never really specifies they're evil (nor can you do anything about it, he'll get his spectral burgers with your permission or not if you complete his quests). What was stopping him from ending up being a villain in the Undead's eyes, and thus arrested, anyway?

IT would be cool *but doubtful* if they retroactively changed characters...some were saying *name eludes me - purple panther swap character* shou;ld be a trap master, and someone like Ghoast Roaster would make a perfect villain.
- Unreall

I think Ghost Roaster isn't a villain because Eon, and maybe the other Skylanders, trust him. Ghost Roaster was part of Eon's (Core) Skylanders, and he joined them of his own free will and Eon's permission. I think it's Eon's trust that separates Ghost Roaster from the villains from Cloudcracker Prison.

Similarly, the "guest stars" of other games aren't Eon's Skylanders (correct me if I'm wrong. I know the Giants aren't, but I haven't payed too close attention to the Swap characters backstories). These characters are classified by what group they are a part of. Maybe they were under the control and protection of other Portal Masters before they were sent to Earth, or maybe they specialized in a certain area. For example, the Swap Force patrolled the Cloudbreak Isles, while the Trap Team were perhaps guards at Cloudcracker Prison. Maybe the the reason Core characters are called that is because they protect the Core of Light.

So I don't think it has much to do with who the character is, but who they associate with. I'm sure the Core Skylanders who work with Ghost Roaster know him and his intentions well enough that they trust him, and wouldn't dream of trapping him in Traptanium like the real villains.

Well, yeah, even if GR's hunger got the better of him, he probably got saner over the years - he did go from solely laughing as his lines to actually sounding just a bit too excited about spooky things.

But changing character teams would be a pretty good idea - they could just alter the title for newer games(keeping the old one in previous ones preventing plot holes) and give the character a second part of their backstory where they go to the new group. It's easier to explain than Series 3s and on,to say the least(why the heck the Skylanders need to keep changing their toys' appearances to reflect their powers? If they can do that so frequently you have to wonder why they don't try breaking out of the plastic once and for all).

Yeah, I do wonder if there is a canon explanation of Series 2+. It doesn't really make sense for the same character to have different abilities if the Portal Master just so happened to find the character in a different pose.

Maybe, since I'm assuming canonically a Portal Master is only supposed to have one of each character, the ones who the Portal Master didn't find the first time around trained on their own, learning new abilities? Although it doesn't explain why the characters are still level one with no upgrades when you first use them, or physical changes (ie Mega Ram Spyro). And are the variants the same character? Or some alternate-universe character? Legendaries and Darks have explanation, but what about the likes of Punch Pop Fizz and Volcanic Eruptor?

Changing what team a character is part of would be an interesting way to get more of that character out there, that's for sure. Actually, now that I think of it, it'd be kind of cool, but it'd all depend on what happens to the original figure. Like if Trap Shadow became a Trap Master, would a blue base Trap Shadow be a Trap Master in Trap Team? Or, since the Portal Master found him before he switched teams, would he still be part of the Swap Force only?

Series 2 are explained as being some sort of magic reaction to the Skylander's upgrades from SSA,I think it was on some of the Giants website's videos. For some reason they can change plastic and paint but not, dunno, permanently leave it. They just got a Wow Pow from Giants, however, why would they change to Series 3 then if it wasn't even half the magic usage from the last adventure?

The previous game wouldn't know about the future team name,so maybe it'd show Trap Shadow as Swapforce in that game and Trap Team on following games - or, if for example, Tree Rex became a Nano Force or some crap, he'd be Giant rank from SG to STT and on the Nano Force game and on he'd get the new title. Not only it preserves some continuity, it makes it feel like those guys still sort of live their lifes the best way they can when they're in a Portal of Power.

I'm curious about where these core skylanders introduced from Giants on came from. Kaos blew up the SSA crew with Eon, thus shoving them into the planet Earth. Where was Pop Fizz? Dune Bug? Chopper? How did these, and countless other ones that Activision will eventually grind out get stuck on Earth?

Also, I presume that "Skylander" implies that those characters have a portal master. So who was the Portal Master of the Giants, Swap Force or Trap Team? What happened to those portal masters, since if these guys are Skylanders you would assume they had one. Of course, I guess with the gimmick ones maybe they never really were Skylanders until now. Each one has gotten blown up (except the Giants who got zapped) and then sent to Earth and now become a Skylander.

Leads me to another question: why is everything so unstable in Skylands? Crap keeps blowing up and shooting more of these guys to Earth! You'd think they'd get a hold of everything blowing up already

I was actually thinking of how the new cores show up. Maybe, they (meaning every core made so far, and every one that is gonna be made) were all at the Battle of The Core of Light, all went to Earth, though some were either not discovered, or took longer to reach Earth.

Quote: Eggers

Kind of paraphrasing from the Story Scrolls from SSA; Portal Masters show up when they're needed and they become the leader of the Skylanders group. Giants are the only ones who didn't start out as Skylanders but during the game they kind of are (maybe after being banished by the Iron Fist of Arkus, being brought back via Portal instantly creates a link between you and them), Swap Force and Trap Team were just smaller groups that worked on specific islands.
Now things get a little weirder because of Kaos.(Ignoring the SF's giant plot hole,) He isn't really a Portal Master that showed up when "needed" yet he controls dopplegangers of part of the S1 cast. Since he did the reverse of a PM and attacked his future soldiers, does that mean that you take a place that he'd probably have if he ignored his parent issues and let Eon lose power the normal way?

And wouldn't be surprised if, villain shenanigans aside, people get stranded really easily in Skylands. It's a rift in the center of the universe(meaning falling out of the sky takes you ANYWHERE) and gravity's pretty crazy; just an earthquake in a continent-sized island probably nets you a lot of floating heavy chunks of rock going wherever physics make them go at high speeds.

Do you have a link to any of those videos? I don't remember that, but I don't check the official website all that often. Just looked now, and couldn't find anything other than gameplay videos for the Series 2, and of course that Giants reveal trailer, but that only talks about the Giants themselves.

For the new cores, I assumed that Eon just had a lot of Skylanders, and not all of them were discovered by the Portal Masters at the same time. This even ties into the release waves, since essentially there is a continuous stream of Skylanders being discovered all the time. Some of them just weren't discovered until after the Core of Light was restored, Skylands was saved from Kaos' second plot, etc.

And I'm not sure the guest stars even were Skylanders until they were sent to Earth. The Giants seemed like a group of friends who rebelled against the Arkeans, and the Trap Team might just have been elemental guards at Cloudcracker Prison. Not sure about the Swap Force, though. They seem like they might have been Skylanders beforehand, but they might also have just been a team of peacekeepers.

This brings up the question: what makes a Skylander a Skylander? Is it having a Portal Master? Why aren't there any Mabu Skylanders; SSA showed that why could fight if they put their minds to it. Can Portal Masters become Skylanders? I would assume not, since in Giants, Glumshanks said that Portal Masters weren't supposed to use Portals on themselves, but what if some other Portal Master does it? With Kaos being trappable, maybe we'll get an answer to that in Trap Team. Maybe not, who knows?

Quote: Eggers

I'm curious about where these core skylanders introduced from Giants on came from. Kaos blew up the SSA crew with Eon, thus shoving them into the planet Earth. Where was Pop Fizz? Dune Bug? Chopper? How did these, and countless other ones that Activision will eventually grind out get stuck on Earth?

Also, I presume that "Skylander" implies that those characters have a portal master. So who was the Portal Master of the Giants, Swap Force or Trap Team? What happened to those portal masters, since if these guys are Skylanders you would assume they had one. Of course, I guess with the gimmick ones maybe they never really were Skylanders until now. Each one has gotten blown up (except the Giants who got zapped) and then sent to Earth and now become a Skylander.

Leads me to another question: why is everything so unstable in Skylands? Crap keeps blowing up and shooting more of these guys to Earth! You'd think they'd get a hold of everything blowing up already

According to the Mask of Power novels, every core Skylander were Skylanders before the Core of Light exploded. And Master Eon was the one who made the Swap Force Skylanders( he's mentioned in their backstories).

Quote: ladala

I think Ghost Roaster isn't a villain because Eon, and maybe the other Skylanders, trust him. Ghost Roaster was part of Eon's (Core) Skylanders, and he joined them of his own free will and Eon's permission. I think it's Eon's trust that separates Ghost Roaster from the villains from Cloudcracker Prison.

Similarly, the "guest stars" of other games aren't Eon's Skylanders (correct me if I'm wrong. I know the Giants aren't, but I haven't payed too close attention to the Swap characters backstories). These characters are classified by what group they are a part of. Maybe they were under the control and protection of other Portal Masters before they were sent to Earth, or maybe they specialized in a certain area. For example, the Swap Force patrolled the Cloudbreak Isles, while the Trap Team were perhaps guards at Cloudcracker Prison. Maybe the the reason Core characters are called that is because they protect the Core of Light.

So I don't think it has much to do with who the character is, but who they associate with. I'm sure the Core Skylanders who work with Ghost Roaster know him and his intentions well enough that they trust him, and wouldn't dream of trapping him in Traptanium like the real villains.

All this makes sense to be . particularly the about the cores. Does anyone think fist bump was a gargoyle or statue of Kaos before he became a skylander?

Quote: spyrocrash

Quote: Eggers

I'm curious about where these core skylanders introduced from Giants on came from. Kaos blew up the SSA crew with Eon, thus shoving them into the planet Earth. Where was Pop Fizz? Dune Bug? Chopper? How did these, and countless other ones that Activision will eventually grind out get stuck on Earth?

Also, I presume that "Skylander" implies that those characters have a portal master. So who was the Portal Master of the Giants, Swap Force or Trap Team? What happened to those portal masters, since if these guys are Skylanders you would assume they had one. Of course, I guess with the gimmick ones maybe they never really were Skylanders until now. Each one has gotten blown up (except the Giants who got zapped) and then sent to Earth and now become a Skylander.

Leads me to another question: why is everything so unstable in Skylands? Crap keeps blowing up and shooting more of these guys to Earth! You'd think they'd get a hold of everything blowing up already

According to the Mask of Power novels, every core Skylander were Skylanders before the Core of Light exploded. And Master Eon was the one who made the Swap Force Skylanders( he's mentioned in their backstories).

Well if that's the case, then take this lesson to heart children: if Eon asks you to be a Skylander, just say NO! Chances are, you're just going to get blown up and become a cheap plastic toy on Earth!

The team apparently opens their door to most anyone. I thought Justice League and Avengers had too many people in their team....nope. Skylanders has them beat!

Well given how often members are getting blown up and turned into toys, I guess the screening process to actually get a membership to being a Skylander had to be a bit lax. I'm sure the Skylanders Training Academy pumps out recruits at fairly lowered standards than in the past. Of course given how cowardly most the Mabu and other citizens of Skylands are, I'd imagine if you found anyone willing to not just roll over and die, it'd be a good idea to recruit them.

Quote:

Why aren't there any Mabu Skylanders

I always assumed that Boom Jet was a Mabu. He has the same fingers as Flynn and from his chin you can tell he has fur like other Mabu.

It seems like anyone who saves an important character or a big enough group of people gets invited to the Skylanders (except Drobot who invited himself in), but for some reason people who turned it down aren't ever mentioned. It's probably cool for a hero to have so many people to help, but there's that risk of having your life tied to the Core of Light and probably getting a vacation close to never (since you get summoned everywhere the PM's help is requested). Heck, maybe even retired Skylanders would make awesome NPCs.

Reposting here because it's about the story and this topic deserves more discussion,

Quote: Arc of Archives

Quote: jckelsall

Some of you may think that removing old characters from the game is a good idea - but answer this:
What in-story reason could they give to a child for their figures not working from game 5 onwards?

• Saying that a character died would upset young children
  
• Saying that a character is 'on another important mission' would only work for one game.
  
• ...
  

Neither of those would make sense anyway, because the Skylanders are frozen into toys. They can't be on missions while you aren't playing with them since they're frozen into statues (and it would be awfully convinient if they, somehow, only go on missions when you aren't using them) and for the same reason they couldn't die without you seeing it.

Then again, we have the iOS games and SF 3DS, which IIRC don't offer explanations for how you can keep the characters in them without toys. I think SF 3DS had an explanation about how Hugo kept the Skylanders in a Portal or something, but it's glossed over and explained poorly (and if it was mentioned, I think it's only at the start of the game).
SA 3DS and Giants allow you do store two characters on them at a time, but actually have a good explanation for that (using Seeker magic/a machine made by Hugo, they're kept in crystals). It doesn't explain how you can play them on both the 3DS and console versions at once, if they're supposed to be stored in one yet also frozen and usable in the other, but situations you'll be playing both at the same time are uncommon and regardless, it's a better explanation than... Well, no explanation.

...

The best explanation I could come up with would be something about the magic of Skylands going wack and your Portal not recognising some older Skylanders, in a Skylanders game that would limit character choices, because of that.

It always bugged me how the Skylanders were just kinda "in" Battlegrounds and Cloud Patrol and Lost Islands and I've always disliked how they never explained how they're stored in SF 3DS. Guess they could be stored in Hugo's Portal because it seems Kaos stored a Fire Viper in his and that doesn't contradict anything I remember, though I don't understand how you could switch mid-stage if that's the case (because the Portal would just be stuck in Boom Town).

I always imagined that the crystals which store Skylanders in SA/Giants 3DS really just stored "copies" of them based on their state (aka level/hat) read from the Portal, which would also explain why you can keep them with different data in multiple saves and games at the same time.

Though none of this explains why they have different abilities between the console and 3DS games (but playing them with their console movesets would work horribly on the 3DS games, so it's excusable anyway.)

In Lost Islands they're summoned like in the games, it's just that there's a way bigger limit in how many. I have to summon a guy every now and then because he decided to leave Skylands just as I was getting a quest from him, but most of the time they wander around in there waiting for orders(because there's a ton of mean sheep and troll camps that appear in there with no provocation; you'd expect the Mabu to hire real security eventually) or go on older levels from the games for quests and smaller jobs.

And I doubt the Skylanders are reduced to having just signature abilities in-universe. That's silly, and unlike what the SF backstories make it seem, you definately can't defend an entire dimension knowing just two or three special abilities.

Quote: Rickorio

I was actually thinking of how the new cores show up. Maybe, they (meaning every core made so far, and every one that is gonna be made) were all at the Battle of The Core of Light, all went to Earth, though some were either not discovered, or took longer to reach Earth.

I always assumed that was the case. All the core skylanders were banished to earth at the Battle of the Core of Light.