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- “I haven’t made such easy money since the Sorceress bought that mayonnaise for sunscreen.”
- —Moneybag
Moneybags is a bear from Avalar and a neutral character who first appeared in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!.
Physical appearance
Moneybags is a large, brown, chubby anthropomorphic bear.
Personality
Moneybags is an upper-class, money-grubbing and somewhat deceitful conman who is infamous for charging Spyro exorbitant fees, paid in Gems, in order for Spyro to advance in certain areas (whether it would be by learning a new skill, unlocking doors, making passages, or releasing an ally). The costly prices are eventually paid by Spyro, much to the delight of Moneybags (in one instance, he refused to admit a password to a door until Spyro coughed up; when he did, Moneybags revealed the password to be "Gullible").
In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, he gained a change in personality, becoming more jolly and friendly, but retains his delightful need for gems. He doesn't associate with individuals who don't have the required amount of gems needed for his shop to open.
Story
History
Not much is known about Moneybags' past, but he mentioned going to University and became a champion in Bantamweight boxing. In later years however, he seemed to have lost his spark.
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
Moneybags first encountered Spyro in the Glimmer realm where he charged gems in order for Spyro to cross a bridge. He appeared many more times during Spyro's journey in Avalar. In each instance, he imposed a hefty price (or in his own words, "a small fee") for a certain service, such as opening a portal or teaching Spyro a new ability. Moneybags was (apparently) already quite wealthy at this point, as is indicated by his fine apparel and the bag of gems he always carries with him. After Ripto's defeat, Moneybags was forced to give back all the gems he had taken from Spyro. In the epilogue of the original game, Moneybags had swindled the Bonebuilders in Skelos Badlands one too many times and they had their pet Lava Lizard chomp on him.
Level Appearance
- Glimmer: Bridge Crossing - 100 Gems.
- Summer Forest (1): Learn to Swim - 500 Gems. (2): Lower Wall to Aquaria Towers. - 400 Gems
- Aquaria Towers: Borrow Submarine - 100 Gems
- Autumn Plains (1): Learn to Climb - 500 Gems. (2): Open Zephyr Portal. - 400 Gems. (3): Access to Shady Oasis - 400 Gems. (4): Open Icy Speedway Portal - 100 Gems
- Crystal Glacier: Bridge Crossing - 200 Gems
- Magma Cone: Use Elevator - 200 Gems
- Winter Tundra (1): Learn Headbash - 1000 Gems. (2): Open Canyon Speedway Portal - 200 Gems
Total: 4100 Gems (5900 Gems total for Spyro before Ripto)
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
Moneybags continued to annoy Spyro by charging him for services in the Forgotten Realms the following year. According to him, his business plummeted after Spyro left Avalar, so he struck a deal with the local Sorceress and began working for her. Moneybags was also keeping Sheila, Sgt. Byrd, Bentley and Agent 9 imprisoned for the Sorceress and made Spyro pay fees for their release. In response, each of the captured characters gave the ursine some well-deserved punishment. Moneybags also displayed numerous skills during this time, such as a mastery of haiku and magic, all of which he used to make more money.
However, he pushed Spyro one step too far by plotting to sell a dragon egg, which resulted in the purple dragon chasing him around Midnight Mountain and forcing Moneybags to give up the treasure and the dragon egg he had taken. After that, Moneybags said that he would retire to Spooky Swamp to become a haiku poet, but he disappeared through the portal to Crystal Islands (after that, he is no longer seen anywhere in the game, not even in Crystal Islands or Spooky Swamp).
However in the epilogue, it is revealed that Moneybags somehow got to Dino Mines and became an easy target for the Bailey Gang.
Level Appearance
- Sunrise Spring: Release Sheila - 300 Gems.
- Cloud Spires: Activate Bellows - 200 Gems.
- Molten Crater: Open Door to Thieve's Den - 300 Gems.
- Midday Gardens: Release Sgt Byrd - 700 Gems.
- Icy Peak: Open Door to Ice Dancing Show - 500 Gems.
- Spooky Swamp: Open Door - 500 Gems.
- Evening Lake: Release Bentley - 1000 Gems.
- Frozen Altars: Open Door to Cat Hockey Match - 800 Gems.
- Charmed Ridge: Persuade Cat Wizards to use moving stairs - 600 Gems.
- Midnight Mountain: Release Agent 9 - 1300 Gems.
- Crystal Islands: Bridge Crossing - 1000 Gems.
- Desert Ruins: Open Door - 800 Gems.
Total: 8000 Gems (6800 Gems total for Spyro before confronting Moneybags)
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly
Moneybags later appeared in Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly in the Dragonfly Dojo, making Spyro pay 200 Gems to cross a bridge. He was dressed in a blue robe with pink flowers and stood nonchalantly by one of the frozen dragon masters. He mentioned in this game that the shine of gems "helps him to write his poetry," showing that he may still be a haiku poet. However unlike in previous games, Moneybags disappears after this encounter, and never repays Spyro. In unused dialogue for the game, he was to repay Spyro and leave his occupation of taking gems and turn to gold.[1]
Spyro: A Hero's Tail and Spyro: Shadow Legacy
In Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Moneybags underwent a change in character, now wearing different attire and having a Turkish accent[2] as opposed to his former well-spoken British accent. At this point, he had gained a good deal of business by starting several shops across the Dragon Realms. In A Hero's Tail, when you come close to a Remote Shop Pad, he talks to you saying things like, "Go ahead, Spyro! If you have money to spend, I am here to relieve you of the burden."
In Spyro: Shadow Legacy, he has a wife and four sons who are not as obsessed with gems as he is. His sons are Maxwell, Marvin, Merton and Marshall. He is not seen much in Shadow Legacy, but his sons are around to sell items to Spyro.
Other Appearances
Spyro: Season of Ice
After finding that being a haiku poet wasn't as profitable, Moneybags ventured into the Fairy Realms and struck a deal with the invading Rhynocs. He was paid by Grendor to keep Spyro from accessing the Sparx Realms, but the greedy bear can be persuaded into granting the hero passage by paying the bear gems.
Spyro 2: Season of Flame
In Spyro 2: Season of Flame, Moneybags had given up on his haiku poetry career. He still had a flair for gaining gems.
Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs
Moneybags made a few appearances in Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs with his own level called Moneybags' Mansion and his nephew Minibags, both of whom wear the same sort of glasses and move about as the characters in that game do from side to side. Minibags seems to always be in two places at once, as he appears in the Main Hall and the Entrance outside the mansion. The music for this level is the same as that for Moneybags' Vaults in this game. All of Moneybags' Vaults have to be opened by pressing two red switches in a period of time. Obviously, Moneybags still had his intention of taking Spyro's gems.
Crash Team Rumble
Moneybags makes a cameo in Crash Team Rumble as a common relic station in the Summer Forest map.
Gallery
- Main article: Moneybags/Gallery
Trivia
- His given name, Moneybags, is actually his surname (revealed in Spyro: Shadow Legacy, given his family has the name as their last name).
- Moneybags appears twelve times in both Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon. The most appearances he has in a level is Autumn Plains.
- In Ripto's Rage!, Moneybags can sometimes be seen wearing different colored suits. For example, Moneybags wears a denim blue coat, a sky blue dress shirt, and a blue pendant (instead of his usual black suit jacket and green or violet pendant) when he is encountered at Crystal Glacier. This also makes him one of the few recurring characters to have multiple outfits in the same game.
- This may just be due to the cold, however, as Moneybags appears to turn blue all over.
- In the Crystal Islands, Moneybags threatened to turn Spyro into a blue hedgehog if he didn't hand over the gems required to lower the bridge. This is a reference to Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog.
- In the same level, he told Spyro at another point that he knows a little bit of magic himself if given enough gems. This seemed like an obvious lie just to get more gems. However, in the following game, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, he is seen performing a little bit of magic with his hand (indeed when given gems). This is despite being from the species of creatures unable to perform nor sense it, as said by Tomas in Spyro: Shadow Legacy.
- It is entirely possible that he is not like any regular bear.
- In the same level, he told Spyro at another point that he knows a little bit of magic himself if given enough gems. This seemed like an obvious lie just to get more gems. However, in the following game, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, he is seen performing a little bit of magic with his hand (indeed when given gems). This is despite being from the species of creatures unable to perform nor sense it, as said by Tomas in Spyro: Shadow Legacy.
- His appearance has changed several times throughout the classic Spyro console games after the original trilogy. In Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, he wears a kimono, while Spyro: A Hero's Tail, he dresses like a Turkish bazaar shopkeeper and speaks with a Turkish accent. In others, he dresses more for the higher class with a suit and a monocle.
- In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, every time Spyro released one of the other playable characters, Moneybags would always get attacked by them and forced away: Sheila kicked him into a wall after pretending to forgive him for keeping her in a cage, Sgt. Byrd used one of his BAM missiles to blast him away, Bentley whacked him angrily with his club (even asking Spyro for one more whack), and Agent 9 humiliated him by using his laser to "make him dance."
- Through glitching, many of Moneybags' areas and required payments are skippable, most of them being possible in Year of the Dragon.[3] Note, however, that these areas will still be locked until you complete the game, and Moneybags will not drop any gems when you chase him because you did not give him any.[4]
- The Japanese voice actor of Moneybags, Masuo Amada, also voiced Jecht in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy X. It's also interesting to note that Jecht's English voice actor, Gregg Berger, also voiced Hunter and Ripto in the English version of Ripto's Rage!
- Neil Ross, Moneybags' English voice actor in Year of the Dragon, also voiced Bentley in the same game.
- In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, when you get your money back from Moneybags, all previous places where Moneybags asked a fee, and you didn't pay, get unlocked.
- It's also possible to bypass Moneybags, with the Swim-in-the-Air and (for Evening Lake) Dead Mode glitches, to enter Sheila's Alp, Sgt. Byrd's Base and Bentley's Outpost. Once these worlds are completed, their sub-areas in other worlds are automatically unlocked.
- It is also possible to bypass some events in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! by various methods.
- In the Skylanders series, Moneybags was to be included in Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, but was renamed and reimagined as the character Auric during development.[5]
- Even if one attempts to perform a skill that Moneybags teaches without paying him, Spyro can not perform it.
- In Spyro: Ripto's Rage!/Gateway To Glimmer, Moneybags occasionally mentions what he plans to purchase with the Gems that he receives from Spyro, such as a condo in Hurricos and a Lizard Burger shack in the Skelos Badlands.
- He also mentions having a house in Aquaria Towers, despite the fact that the entire area is underwater.
- On more than one occasion, Moneybags has proven to be willing to aid villains and enemies if it involves making a profit. This is especially seen in Year of the Dragon.
- If spoken to after activating the portal to Zephyr in Autumn Plains, he will say, "Those darn birds in Zephyr never paid me for all the bombs and TNT barrels I gave them...," confirming that he sold the Breezebuilders weapons for an assault on Zephyr.
- In a similar fashion, during the cutscene in which Ripto steals the Power Gem from the portal in Winter Tundra, Ripto claims to have bought the bombs he used from Moneybags.
- It is possible, however, given Ripto's nature, that by "persuaded... to sell..." he meant "threatened."
- Even though he has no reaction to getting flamed or charged into in the original trilogy (being one of the few in Year of the Dragon to not react), he now has a reaction in the Reignited Trilogy, where he will give Spyro an angry look whilst protecting his bag of gems in the second game and will jump and bellow with his bag of gems in the third installment.
- Despite being hired by the Sorceress, they have never been seen together on-screen.
References
- ↑ TCRF.net.
- ↑ Spyro: A Hero's Tail - Developer Answers, Steve Bamford (character lead).
- ↑ Spyro 3 Skip All Moneybags - Part 1 [Sunrise Spring and.... (Date Posted - Oct. 15, 2009). YouTube
- ↑ Spyro 3: Pounding Moneybags without gems. (Date Posted - Nov 3, 2009). YouTube
- ↑ Skylanders Spyro's Adventure DEVELOPER COMMENTARY - Episode 2: Toy & Character Director, I-Wei Huang. (Date Posted - Jan 26, 2020). YouTube.
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