Bolo (Shantae)

**Bolo** is a character from the *Shantae* games.

Shantae's sparring partner is a slow-witted knucklehead with a serious lack of reasoning skills. He's hardly awake until he springs into action, usually at the chance to be a heo .and begins twirling his bolo balls. As a fighter, Bolo is very efficient and skillful, as though these moments of competence are sustained by his regular state of mental hibernation.

Bolo has eyes for Risky Boots and nearly anything else remotely female, although a brotherly comfort level keeps Shantae outside his level of vision. Bolo is commonly used as a punching bag or stool pigeon by Rotty, Sky and Shantae. Mimic often uses Bolo as an errand boy, which given his single track mind works fairly well.

Bolo was a resident of Water Town in the first game, but moved to Scuttle Town with Sky after Shantae lost her magic.

In the AWA fics, Bolo is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

Bolo has navy blue hair, a yellow headband, and frequently wears a determined expression. A white bandage is wrapped around his right upper arm. He wears a white tank top underneath a short blue vest and has dark blue shorts. He also wears tan gloves with metal rings around the cuffs. In Risky's Revenge, he has bandages wrapped around both arms and does not wear a jacket. Throughout all of the games, his shoulders appear to be very boney.

## **Personality**

Bolo is described as a "block-head hero for hire". Supposedly, he springs to life when he has a chance to fight, but he's often left behind during Shantae's adventures and has yet to show off these skills.

Bolo is frequently trying to seduce girls or spy on them, including Risky Boots in the first game, but fails every time. He's shown to be jealous of Bran-Son's popularity. However, he has a more argumentative brother-sister relationship to Shantae. Bolo serves as a sparring-partner and punching bag for Shantae, and as an assistant for Mimic. Bolo is the one who taught Shantae her **Fighter Moves.**

It is revealed in the third game that Bolo is nearsighted, although this *may* be just him being too literal.

## **Abilities**

As a Shantae's sparring partner, punching bag and partly combat teacher, he possess huge strength lying within him. During combat Bolo relies mostly on martial arts, brute strenght and his own equipment, however he's capable of using magic to summon some items to help him out in dire situations.

In the game Bolo's abilities and weapons which he can use are:

* **Bolo's Flail** - Bolo's main and strongest weapon. It possesses a decent range and deals six damage points at maximum level. He's capable of destroying large stone blocks with it and pushing boxes.
* **Spring Claw** - Bolo uses his grappling hook to grab onto pegs, rings and attack flying enemies.

* **Spike Balls**- By using **Special Move** that consumes his **Dream Magic,**Bolo can create spike balls that bounce and attack enemies. He can create up to two balls that deal five damage points at maximum level.
* **Determination**- It's revealed by Sky in the battle against Nega-Shantae that while not being the smartest, Bolo possess incredible will to fight that allows him to see through any obstacles.

## **Trivia**

* Between himself, Shantae, and Sky, Bolo is the tallest of the trio - until Half-Genie Hero, where Sky is slightly taller.
* Watch Quest! Bolo is strikingly similar to Ike from the Fire Emblem series.
* Bolo is always going on about how cute various girls in the franchise are (including zombies and mermaids), but has been unsuccessful in landing a date for the entire franchise.