Man, Sanzaru really saw my man Bentley get some bitches and said "absolutely not".
replayed the sly cooper series recently and I missed these two so badly
I haven’t used pencil crayons in so long. Drew Penelope, just cuz her redesign was really cute, even with all the shit that happened.
Seriously, fans? Why does Sly get to have all the fun?
I know having Penelope go that hard is a bold move, but come on. If she started this whole mess, and feels a need to correct her mistakes, shouldn't she end it herself?
We can even have her feel like she has to do it alone, or else her attempt to atone for what she did won't count.
But because I'm not a monster, let's also have the rest of the playable cast join her so they can kick some skunk tail!
And for good measure, Penelope also gets to finish Le Paradox off. Complete with a speech on what she learned about friendship.
Of course, she will have to be told her attempt did count. And that she nailed it. And no, Sly will not be lost in time.
Da Gang
Sly 4 was a fever dream and didn’t happen.
1. Penelope (under the Black Baron disguise) serves as a pretty solid combat match for Sly. Bentley over binocucom claims the Black Baron has trained for 10 years as a boxer. Why is Penelope thus regarded as so useless out on the field by herself, and only used for her RC car, when she’s actually a decent fighter, especially when you count this was all made more difficult underneath a massive costume?
2. Penelope mentions in a cutscene that she used the Black Baron disguise because of strict age requirements. The age requirement would probably be either 18 or 21, considering the ruthless and unforgiving nature of dogfighting. Does this mean she’s still a minor when Bentley is dating her? (Or, has she been using the Black Baron as a persona for a few years now?). Still…..d r a m a .
Murray wasn’t kidding when he said you’ve got more devious over the years
i was thinking in the shower about how things would have turned out had Bentley managed to break into the Cooper Vault without needing to recruit anyone. for starters, there wouldn't be a Sly 3 lol... i mean Sly and Bentley would definitely have gone after Murray so An Opera of Fear and Rumble Down Under would have happened i guess but for the sake of the post let's say they wouldn't have asked the Guru to join the gang. so no Netherlands and no China meaning no Penelope and no Panda King, and by extent no Dimitri because of no deal in Netherlands.
removing Sly 3's secondary characters kinda puts things into perspective in terms of character development. in Sly 1 we collected Thievius Racconus pages as we got closer to the truth and Sly learned new tricks and honed his skills in preparation for his encounter with Clockwerk. Sly 2 was just a traumatic trainwreck altogether like SP really put the gang through the wringer idk how they survived.
in Sly 3 this development is brought about through the secondary characters and their relationships with the protagonists. Penelope drives a wedge between Sly and Bentley forcing the latter to muster up the courage and step outside of Sly's shadow for a minute; Panda King's return demands Sly to mature and let go of the past; Dimitri tests the gang's patience; both Penelope and Panda King contribute to the Murray van storyline which kinda exhibited that yea! in the long run, Murray might be the dummy of the group as Dr Michael chastises at the end but he is definitely the heart of the gang.
but if all this never happened then how would Honour Among Thieves play out? funny thing is, even if they recruited the extended gang, shit hit the fan almost immediately upon arrival so i'm assuming the same would apply if the original trio had tried to pull it off on their own? no? as a sidenote: i'm also thinking that Sly 2 is the only game in the series that kinda had like the aspect of urgency if you think about it. someone stole the Clockwerk parts and they were going to rebuild him so tick tock bitch. Sly 1 and 3 however don't really have that sense of time pressure. the Fiendish Five were sitting on their asses for literally a decade before Sly popped up for the pages and don't even get me started on the possibility of Dr Michael managing to crack the Cooper Vault open like what a loser lmao. with this in mind, Bentley would have the time to develop his tech in order to do the tasks that the extended gang members would have done. i mean if he managed to build a time machine surely he could make his tech waterproof ?
so the entire heist goes according to plan with the possibility of them tripping that stupid alarm still at play. i never intended to do a full play by play "what if...?" of Honour Among Thieves but suffice to say Carmelita would 100% show up to save the day even with the change of context. i think the most important change would be that Bentley's run-in with Dr Michael would go down very differently. i don't think he'd defend Sly; i actually think Dr Michael would get to him even without Penelope's introduction because she only brought out feelings that were brewing deep in Bentley's subconscious (especially after the end of Sly 2, becoming disabled for a cause that was never his and that dedication arguably never being reciprocated). he might not have shown it in the moment but i think that conversation would significantly shape Bentley's character and if Sly got out of the episode unscathed, the gang would probably split. leaving the Guru behind would also give Murray the motive to go his own way.
it's clear that Sly 3's secondary characters helped the gang get over some unspoken issues they had between them, even if they got resolved behind each other's backs (because Bentley only vents to Penelope about his feelings and doesn't go straight to Sly, who, in turn, doesn't even know there's an issue to begin with). personally, and i feel kinda stupid for suggesting something so simplistic in relation to how this game would be better like 7-8 years after being on this godforsaken website and analysing it to the point where it feels like the bible, i feel like one more episode would help really flesh out the problems the gang had. we never get direct acknowledgment or accountability from Sly and it feels like he's too focused on entering the Vault to care about Bentley's feelings, or anyone else's for that matter (there's like 7 anon asks gathering dust in my inbox about why i have anti-Sly sentiment and that number better not go up). all it takes is a 'you know what guys? you should enter the vault with me after literally sticking by me since childhood and risking your lives fighting my own battles' and they shoot up the van like it's a guest on Wendy.
Sly 2's ending proved that the protagonists aren't Riverdale characters who just go through weekly life-threatening events without any guilt, trauma and anxiety; and then in Sly 3 we get high-stake situations akin to the ClockLa saga, like the Dragon snatching Penelope, but because it's crammed between episodes instead of games, the characters come out of it seemingly unfazed. the complete lack of recognition for all of this makes it seem like Sly is an awful leader for the gang. like i think Penelope would genuinely snap when she got taken hostage by LeFwee after the dragon thing.
i think the internal politics of the gang could have been explored way better but i understand that juggling that and the introduction of one new character per episode would be impossible. i'd love to see Bentley confronting Sly, Murray realising that he's getting more support about what matters to him (the van, the Guru's wellbeing) from the literal strangers they've recruited than his best friends, Sly realising that his lack of involvement in the gang's friendship is what turned Dr Michael against ConnEr. maybe Honour Among Thieves could have been a two-parter honestly. maybe the Dimitri Dr Michael piranha hybrid bossfight should have never made the cut.
I forgot about my Thieves in Time Rewrite ideas so Imma just post them here:
The story will have three major plot points: the first is the disappearance of Inspector Fox, the second is a robbery of the time travel technology by the Villains - which Sly is framed for because his calling card was left at the scene, and the third is the erasure of the Thievious Raccoonus.
Sly is obviously distraught by all of this, but Bentley, Penelope and Murray break him out of jail.
Penelope betrayal arc is scratched. Instead she helps them by staying in Paris.
Bentley recruits the original creator of the Time Travel technology, Dr. Paradox. A disgraced genius scientist and historian who was robbed of his plans by the Villains. He is going to be a crow.
The Villains are an organization simply called The Plague. You'll find out why they're called that eventually.
El Jefe is scratched. He is replaced with a japanese rabbit named Usagi.
Toothpick is kept, but he is from America instead of Russia, and has a western accent. He also doesn't get large when he's upset. That was just odd.
The Grizz is kept, he is just moved to Medieval England. Also he isn't an artist he's just a former rapper who didn't make it big.
Decibel is scratched, she is replaced with a female fennec fox who goes by the codename Oasis. Her motives are unknown, but it is rumored she was formerly with Interpol.
The levels go as followed: Feudal Japan, Old American West, Ice Age (yes I'm keeping it, you'll understand why later), Medieval England, Ancient Arabia, and back to Paris. I'm debating adding a bonus level, or making the rewrite also end on a cliffhanger and then writing a part 2.
Riochi is the same, Tennessee is the same, Bob is renamed "Kuba" (seriously? Bob? Unoriginal), Galleth is the same, and Salim is buff and younger by a few decades like the Thievious Raccoonus depicts him.
There's a huge plot twist (hint: it's an unexpected betrayal), and it's followed by another reveal.
These are the final titles of each Episode:
Episode 1: Samurai Away (play on Spirited Away)
Episode 2: Unrest in the Old West
Episode 3: The Land Before Crime
Episode 4: Kings and Thieves
Episode 5: Arabian Heists
Carmelita does reappear eventually, but NOT in the Old West. And I'm not telling you yet because Spoilers.
I don't know when I'll start this project for sure. It's going to be a huge undertaking, and once I'm done with Pillow Talk I'll probably focus on it more.
Extremely Intelligent RC expert, Ace Pilot, Buff Fist-Fighter & very flirty mouse, Penelope, hanging out with one of her fans~! . Yet another for the cartoon crushes series! Always adored this girl in Sly 3 & need to write an essay on how they dropped the ball with her in Sly 4
Episode 2, for context. This happens just before Cooper For Hire.
Bentley's a bit overprotective, isn't he? And you can't blame him. His girlfriend did run off on her own last episode... The fact that she's also being targeted by kidnappers doesn't help, either...
He does agree to her request, though. Mainly because Murray's also going to be there.
I gotta say. Sometimes it's way more fun writing memes for my fanfiction than actually working on it.