Banjo-Kazooie/Characters

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Banjo the Bear

The hero of the games, Banjo is a gullible, lazy being who, unless forced to go on an adventure, is usually just laying around Spiral Mountain, sleeping, eating, or playing video games.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Adventure Duo: With Kazooie, obviously.
  • Awesome Backpack: His trademark blue backpack, used to carry Kazooie.
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite their griping, when he and Kazooie are separated in Banjo-Tooie and go in radically different directions, the left-behind character will tell the other to come back for them. Also, in Grunty's Revenge, when Kazooie picks up the Distress Ball, and Banjo reunites with her, the two are happy to see each other again!
  • Beary Funny
  • Blue Eyes
  • Dumb Is Good
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Banjo's first appearance was actually in Diddy Kong Racing (although Kazooie does not appear in game, she is mentioned in the manual).
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: Averted, unless you're on Gruntilda's side.
  • Funetik Aksent: Has an exaggerated southern voice, judging from his sole line of dialogue in Diddy Kong Racing. His normal in-game grunts are more falsetto-esque.
  • Genius Ditz: Possibly. He manages to win at Gruntilda's trivia games in both Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.
  • Nice Guy: He's a brave and selfless hero to everyone.
  • Only Sane Man: In a world with giant cyborg sharks and sentient, visually impaired welding torches, he will make the utmost effort to not notice and carry on as normal.

Kazooie the Breegull

Banjo's snarky, mean-spirited sidekick. Most of the time, she resides in Banjo's backpack, although Tooie finally allows her to trek outside of it.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Abnormal Ammo: Eggs, which she can fire out of her rear, or... her mouth... Toon Physics?
  • Action Girl: Banjo can only do four things without Kazooie's help: punch, jump, run and roll. In Banjo-Tooie, the punch is replaced by Kazooie's beak attacks, and she even helps with the rolling. She also runs faster than Banjo and extends his jumps.
  • Adventure Duo: With Banjo, of course.
  • Anti-Hero: She has a habit of being rather snarky, though she never, ever insults Banjo.
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Separating from Banjo for an extended period of time in Banjo-Tooie causes her to wonder aloud about where Banjo is.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Distress Ball: Picks this up at the beginning of Grunty's Revenge. Justified due to the fact that Gruntilda was using time travel.
  • Fourth Wall Observer: She loves to question the nature of her video game, while everyone just goes along with it.
  • Green Eyes
  • Green Eyed Red Head
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She may snark a lot and come off as a jerk a lot of the time, but her heart's still in the right place.
  • Non Action Girl: Inverted. She usually spends her time inside Banjo's backpack unless her abilities are called upon.
  • Tsundere: Speaking to a lost baby alien in Banjo-Tooie reveals her soft side. Actually, Kazooie is an interesting THIRD type of Tsundere: she manages to be both caustic and sentimental at the same time, always.

Mumbo Jumbo the Shaman

The former mentor of Gruntilda the Witch until he turned his back on her, prompting her to magically trap Mumbo's face inside of a wooden mask. In the first game, he helps out Banjo and Kazooie by providing transformation spells in exchange for Mumbo Tokens. In Banjo-Tooie, he takes a more active role, allowing you to play as him and use spells in certain locations. In Nuts & Bolts, he's taken up a job as a garage mechanic.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Blue Eyes
  • Body Horror: Grunty's spell on his face, which apparently never wore off after she was beaten. In Nuts & Bolts, it's gotten to the point where it's even become his actual face... and he can even pull out his eyes and juggle them!
  • Deadpan Snarker: He makes jokes about his transformations in the first game, and a joke about the first time you need him in the second.
  • Heel Face Turn: Was a mentor to Grunty until she turned his face into a skull.
  • You No Take Candle: Talks like this.

Bottles the Short-Sighted Mole

The mentor of Banjo and Kazooie in the first game. Throughout the game, he pops up via molehills, providing new abilities to help them beat Gruntilda. In the opening of the second game, he is killed by Gruntilda when she destroys Banjo's house, prompting Banjo to get revenge on Grunty... although he is revived in the end of the game. He has a minor role in Nuts & Bolts.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Humba Wumba

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Gruntilda Winkybunion

The villain of the series.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Ambiguously Human: And she manages to look less human with each passing game: she's reduced to a skeleton and then a skull in Banjo-Tooie, then gets a robotic body in Nuts & Bolts.
  • Badass Boast: Grunty manages to make ones that rhyme!
  • Big Bad: She plotted the abduction of Tooty, leading to the events of the first game. Her defeat leads to a strong desire of revenge in all subsequent games.
  • Dem Bones: In Banjo-Tooie.
  • Efficient Displacement: She leaves a Gruntilda-shaped impact after falling from the sky, moments before a falling boulder lands on her to seal her in.
  • Evil Laugh: And a very impressive cackle it is.
  • Expy: Of The Wicked Witch of the West. Although most likely coincidental, it should be noted that her new form in Nuts & Bolts bears several similarities to Dr. Weil from the Mega Man Zero series.
  • Hot Witch: On the first game's "Game Over" sequence. Even Mumbo thinks so.
  • Large and In Charge: Unless you get a game over, she's fat and bossy.
  • Nice Hat: A witch's hat.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Played straight in Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, but averted in Grunty's Revenge and Nuts & Bolts.
  • Rhymes on a Dime: In the first game, all of her dialogue consists of rhymes. Her sisters force her to stop it in Banjo-Tooie, although she goes right back to it in Nuts & Bolts.
  • Robot Me: Posseses one in the midquel Grunty's Revenge to escape where she was trapped. When it's destroyed, she goes back below the rock to wait until her sisters can get her out.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: She has a scarf like most classic witches, and despite her gross habits, kicks a lot of ass.
  • Spanner in the Works: Implied in the Stinger for Nuts & Bolts, where she mentioned that being sent to work at the video game factory due to losing the deed for Spiral Mountain was a big mistake, as now she has the resources to create her own game.
  • Vain Sorceress: Considers herself the World's Most Beautiful Woman, and her vanity is what caused the events of the first game (and by extension her entire rivalry with the titular duo).
  • We Will Meet Again: "I'll be back in Banjo-[Sequel Name]!"
  • Wicked Witch

Tooty

Banjo's younger sibling, who was kidnapped by Gruntilda the Witch in the first game due to her being "the fairest in the land", so that Grunty could swap her ugliness for Tooty's beauty. Aside from a milk carton cameo in Banjo-Tooie, she has not made any appearances outside of the first game.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Came Back Wrong: In the alternate ending of the first game, where she is turned into a large, hideous monster after having her beauty sucked out and Grunty's ugliness put into her.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Enough to even get a lampshade from Rare, explaining that her reason for not appearing in Nuts & Bolts was because she was hauled off by the "Rubbish Video Game Characters Police". Her absence was also lampshaded in Banjo-Tooie where her face is seen on a milk carton.
  • Damsel in Distress: She's abducted by Gruntilda because she is considered to be more beautiful than her. However, Grunty does promise to let her go after she steals her beauty.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Has a girly personality and pigtails to boot. She keeps the pigtails after becoming ugly in the bad ending, but her personality becomes nasty.
  • Satellite Character: Really dosen't have much personality: she's really just there to give Banjo a reason to go on his adventure.

Klungo

The Egor-esque right hand monster of Grunty in the first game. He had a minor role in the first game, but was presented as a loyal, competent sidekick to Grunty. This gets thrown right out the window in Banjo-Tooie, making him a minor boss character who gets physically worse and worse as you meet him in the game, due to his beatings from Grunty. Afterwards, he left to become a video game designer.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Ascended Extra: He has a very minor role in the first game, where he only appears in part of the intro, the Game Over screen, and the ending when he tries in vain to free Grunty; the duo never even meets him. In Banjo-Tooie, not only is he a Recurring Boss, but he also gets more screentime and characterization. Taken even further in Nuts & Bolts where not only is he a more recurring NPC, but he also has his own mini-game that can land you some extra notes.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: When he uses his growth potion.
  • Genius Ditz: He invented the beauty sucker and made lots of potions, but is very clumsy and speaks in grunts and hisses.
  • Heel Face Turn: After getting one beating too many from Grunty, getting beaten one last time by Banjo, as well as by suggestion of the latter, Klungo finally leaves Grunty's side.
  • Iron Butt Monkey: To Gruntilda in the second game.
  • Mad Scientist: He's stereotypically portrayed as one, being an ill-intentioned creature who uses his intellectual skills to assist Gruntilda in her plans. In Nuts & Bolts, long after having stopped serving her, he uses that intellect to make video games instead.
  • Recurring Boss: In Banjo-Tooie, he's fought three times, and in each fight he uses a different potion.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After his final battle with Banjo.
  • Snake Talk: A non-snake example.
  • Stylistic Suck: The So Bad It's Good mini-game staring him, Hero Klungo Saves teh World!
  • Super Serum: Used in his boss encounters.

L.O.G. (Lord Of Games)

The driving force of Nuts & Bolts, but is neither a villain nor a good guy.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
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