For a moment, we'll ignore that, Risky's outfit is almost identical to Shantae's except stylistic differences. I pointed out that these people are fucking morons when it comes to cultural awareness enough. Again, Sequin Land is an Arabian setting and, as a rule, it's fucking hot.
That said, take a close look at her top and her belt. Notice that it resembles a skull? There's a reason for that: It's the Pirate Master's fucking
head. In the past, The Pirate Master, a terrifying undead abomination of
ridiculous power, ruled the land through fear, and Risky was his first mate. In this role, he was not terribly nice to her. It's patently obvious that he did some
fucked up shit to her, and Risky was helpless to do much of anything about it.
The Pirate Master is, in
Shantae canon, the single greatest threat that the region
has ever known.
It took the combined efforts of
every single Genie in Sequin Land to kill his ass, and the overpowering majority of them didn't survive the battle, including Shantae's mom (her body was never found, leading Uncle Mimic to believe Shantae's mom is alive somewhere). Shantae, a half-breed, is literally the closest thing to a Genie Sequin Land has anymore, and it's all because of this lich-like asshole:
When the Pirate Master got his shit kicked in, Risky mutinied. She broke her chains, usurped control of the Tinkerbats, and using her skill with engineering, built herself a new ship and essentially took over his throne once the Genies killed his ass.
Because of his being an abusive prick, Risky decided to give the ultimate "fuck you" to her old boss, and rip his fucking skull off to help ensure he couldn't revive. It now serves as a decoration. That's how she rolls. Risky, if she has her way, is rarely in the thick of fighting, considering she has a ship and a goddamned army of Tinkerbats to handle that crap for her. She doesn't rely on armor, and
she doesn't really need to.
In Risky's eyes, her getting into the thick of things means shit has
failed, and now she needs to handle it the rough way.
It's
Pirate's Curse though that gives us the most insight into this buxom buccaneer. By this point in the game, she's tried to take over Sequin Land and failed at it twice. Even at her worst (and Risky can be
exceptionally cruel), she is
nothing like the Pirate Master was. And yet despite this, she's still an adversary. She self-identifies as the bad guy. Other people call her a villain and she wears that label with pride. She's a bad girl, she knows it, and she makes no exceptions about this. She opposes Shantae not because she hates her, but because Shantae's the one fucking up her plans. She's also a fucking genius, as evidenced by the fact that she designs her own traps, weapons, vehicles, and equipment, ranging from a booby-trapped bathtub that she uses to capture Shantae to a boat that doubles as a walking tank. And in Pirate's Curse, she has to rely on her old enemy, because
no one else will help her.
All of this is reflected in her character design.
She's the kind of asshole who taunts her enemies, brings a gunboat to a knife fight, and plays enemies off one another (she did this to brutal effect in
Risky's Revenge). She's both a skilled manipulator
and completely aware of her own appearance. In her eyes, her outfit is just one more way of showing she's the best. She's acutely aware she's got a killer body, and is also keen on getting across that she is nobody to fuck with, and to drive this point home, is wearing the skull of the most powerful beast in the land
as her fucking bra.
She's the most feared (and shockingly,
admired by several of the townspeople) thing in Sequin Land after her old boss, one of the smartest people in the region, and with an eye for the big picture that's unique amongst the villains Shantae's fought. She's used to relying on nobody but her Tinkerbats (and they have barely any personality whatsoever), because relying on others leaves her vulnerable, and she despises being vulnerable above all else. Having to ask Shantae for help is hilariously hard for her in
Curse, and a big part of where the humor from her interactions come from.
And the irony? She was kept by the Pirate Master essentially as chattel. She makes completely clear to Shantae that she had no free will under his power, and the Pirate Master, once revived, goes out of his way to
humiliate her as brutally as a T rating will allow. He treated her like shit, and now he's fucking dead whilst she rules what used to be his. She's a brilliant metaphor for someone who wants to be remembered for more than her appearance, and someone infinitely more capable than her looks suggest. Thus, she seeks to conquer Sequin Land - because in her eyes, she
is that fucking strong.
