"Tennessee Kid" Cooper

"Uh-huh, that's right, the Kid is back in business!"

- Tennessee, after reclaiming his gun from Toothpick's mine

"Tennessee Kid" Cooper was Sly Cooper's North American ancestor from the Old West, during the late 19th century. He left his hat and guns inside the Cooper Vault, along with his wealth and legacy. Having made minor appearances in previous titles, Tennessee was the second ancestor the Cooper Gang encountered in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.

He was voiced by.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
Tennessee's section of the Thievius Raccoonus was stolen by Fiendish Five member Muggshot, only to not be put to use at all except for looking at the pictures. After defeating Muggshot, Sly learned of Tennessee's history as an outlaw who stole from rich landowners by carrying out old-style train robberies, as well as walking or sliding along the rails to evade capture.

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
Tennessee's section of the Cooper Vault featured a picture, which showed he had accumulated a bounty of $5,000, meaning he committed various crimes in the Old West. The most modern Cooper, Tennessee had his loot guarded by testing intruders with his signature move, which consisted of rail sliding a figure-eight railroad track powered by inertia.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
"Time to pay Ol' Toothpick back for stealin' the gold I shoulda took!"

- "Tennessee Kid" Cooper, during the train robbery in Cotton Mouth Bluff

The Cooper Gang time traveled to the Old West in the year 1884 AD to help Tennessee, as he had been jailed by Sheriff Toothpick and was sentenced to be hanged.

In order to free his ancestor, Sly got himself arrested and thrown in the same cell as Tennessee. When Sly introduced himself, however, Tennessee did not believe he was a true Cooper. With Bentley's help, Sly broke out of the prison with Tennessee, proving to the latter that he was indeed his ancestor, which Tennessee claimed he already knew and just wanted to test. When they returned to the hideout, Tennessee revealed that he had been planning to pull off a massive bank heist (one that would make him the most famous outlaw of the Old West), but he was arrested by Toothpick before he had even committed the crime. While Toothpick robbed the bank, Tennessee was unlawfully tried, even though he was already in jail at the time of the robbery.

Soon after retrieving his gun from one of Toothpick's unsafe mines, Tennessee spotted a fox being dragged around by Toothpick, whom Bentley identified as Carmelita. Noting how important it was that she lived, Bentley requested that Tennessee rescue her since he was the fastest in the gang and closest to the action. Once Tennessee accomplished the mission, the gang arrived on scene but were confronted by Toothpick and his men, who then placed the three under arrest. Carmelita and Tennessee traveled to the prison to free them, with Carmelita teaming up with the gang shortly after, as it was her only chance at returning to Paris.

In their plan for payback, Tennessee was required to steal the gold from Toothpick's personal train, which he happily exclaimed would be his greatest heist. As Tennessee was prepared to fight Toothpick, several rat troopers swooped in and took his gun, which was then sent to Cyrille Le Paradox. After being defeated by Sly, the sheriff was launched off the train towards Tennessee, who happily took him as his prisoner. With the van's brakes malfunctioning, the gang was forced drop the gold and travel through time once more, much to Tennessee's confusion as he took the dropped gold.

"Just what I was hoping for Bentley! I've been itching to get up on the action!"

- "Tennessee Kid" Cooper, during the final mission in Thieves in Time

Later, Bentley and Murray had Tennessee and the other ancestors regroup in the present world so that they could retrieve their canes from Le Paradox. After having his gun retrieved thanks to Sir Galleth Cooper, Tennessee used it to free Sly and Carmelita from Le Paradox's trap before returning to his time period.

Tennessee recovered his gold and his place in history as the greatest outlaw of the Old West. His legend grew even bigger when he began stealing from crooked lawmen exclusively. He eventually met his death (presumably at the hands of Clockwerk).

Physical appearance
Tennessee was a brown raccoon with brown eyes, wearing a brown bowler hat, brown gloves, a black domino mask and an orange long-sleeved shirt with a brown vest over top. Around his neck was a yellow bandana, and he also wore a leather holster around his waist and leather boots with gold trim, along with spurs on his feet. His cane was in the typical shape and held the same way but could be turned around and used as a revolver rifle.

Several inconsistencies with Tennessee's appearance exist in animated cutscenes and gameplay, as well as the Thievius Raccoonus. When first introduced into the series, he wears a long-sleeved shirt under his vest. In later appearances, the shirt is removed. However, in Thieves in Time, the shirt returns to his design. Also, the Thievius Raccoonus depicts Tennessee smoking a cigar, while he has a toothpick during cinematics of Thieves in Time. He does, however, seem to have a cigarette during gameplay. In the gameplay of the same game, he is depicted with brown fur, while the cutscenes depict him with mid-gray skin. In the Thievius Raccoonus, Tennessee has a bushy mustache, but he has no mustache at all in Thieves in Time.

Personality
"Now son, you should know that I don't take kindly to folks funnin' on my family name!"

- "Tennessee Kid" Cooper, while in jail with Sly Cooper

Tennessee has an enthusiastic and confident personality, acting as comic relief at various points. Despite joking most of the time, he takes his family legacy very seriously, going as far as to threaten Sly out of suspicion of him mocking the Cooper Clan. However, he later told Sly that he knew he was a Cooper from the start and suggested he was merely testing him to confirm it, which goes along with his demand to escape the jail. When meeting his other relatives, he was surprised and somewhat amazed to see more members of his family. He later repaid Sly for saving him by freeing him from Le Paradox before returning to his time.

Carmelita found Tennessee as a "handsome and charming gentleman" for his heroic behavior towards women. This was on account of Tennessee saving Carmelita's life.

Tennessee was shown to have a fear of bugs, and there were times where he expressed this fear, saying things like, "I don't know what's worse, the spiders or the scorpions," and (one time when confronting spiders) "I hate them creepy lil' things."

Abilities
Tennessee initially carried dual six-shooter revolvers. By the time the gang found him in the Old West, he began carrying a six-shot revolver rifle with a hooked handle as his Cooper cane. With this, he would demonstrate spectacular gun-slinging skills, which were his unique ability among the Coopers. He named his cane "Ol' Blue." He could also use it for pickpocketing and hand-to-hand combat when held by the barrel.

His shooting techniques were excluded from the Thievius Raccoonus, as he was the only Cooper to use a ranged cane.


 * Rail Walk and Rail Slide: A move perfected by Tennessee as a method of escape during his stagecoach and train heists.
 * Shooting: As aforementioned, Tennessee's cane doubled as a revolver. Using basic shooting techniques, Tennessee could easily target enemies, as well as objects and minor roaming creatures. Also, he could easily shoot down smaller enemies with one shot versus larger ones.
 * Crackshot: Tennessee's special trademark move. With his revolver, Tennessee could target up to six objects and/or enemies and fire at them all with pinpoint accuracy and blinding speed. This was a one-hit kill for any enemy.
 * Crook Shot Combo: Without aiming, Tennessee could fire a big bullet that would home in on nearby enemies ahead of him.
 * Spinshot Scatter: Tennessee could aim his revolver downwards, then release a barrage of bullets around him to shoot any enemies around him.

Trivia

 * His species, the raccoon, is the state animal of the state that shares his name, Tennessee.
 * The name "Kid Cooper" has some similarity with the two (unrelated) western outlaws "The Sundance Kid" and "Billy the Kid." Tennessee even calls himself "the Kid" in Thieves in Time.
 * Tennessee's Crackshot technique has some sort of reference to level 2 Dead Eye from Red Dead Redemption, which allows the main character to "paint" over his targets in slow motion.
 * Though his stealth auras are shown to be bright yellow, Tennessee's signature color is actually deep golden, as shown in his binocucom during the missions "Blind Date" and "Deja Vu All Over Again!."
 * He may be the only Cooper ancestor to have violated his family's code of honor, as robbing banks and trains would have involved stealing money from the accounts of innocent people. He changed this behavior after Thieves in Time when he began to steal from corrupt lawmen exclusively.