El Jefe

"A magnificent likeness isn't it, Cooper? Almost as handsome as the real thing!"

- El Jefe boasting to Sly Cooper about his gigantic statue

El Jefe is a male Siberian tiger with orange, black and white fur and orange eyes. He was the first boss in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, and was part of Cyrille Le Paradox's gang. He was situated in Feudal Japan, the location in "Turning Japanese," as the episode's main antagonist.

He was voiced by.

Biography
El Jefe was a high-ranking mercenary commander who had managed to conquer many small countries across the entire world, selling them to the highest bidder. Being a military strategist of the highest rank, he once boasted that he was capable of conquering a country using only three blind mice armed with nothing more than plastic spoons. El Jefe vanished into obscurity sometime after INTERPOL forces were closing in on his operation.

At some point after this, he was contacted and hired by Cyrille Le Paradox to take on the task of erasing Rioichi Cooper from history. El Jefe was more than likely the fiend who poisoned the feudal era's Shogun's sushi in order to frame Rioichi and have him thrown in jail. While in Japan, El Jefe had a 1,000-foot tall statue constructed that he used as a throne and shrine to himself, as it was built in his image. Several times throughout the gang's visit to Japan, El Jefe is seen traveling the grounds. At one point, Bentley followed him with a microphone enabled RC car to figure out his plans, including how to open the Dragon Gates and a mention of the drawbridge gate on his statue fortress, as well as finding out that he planned to steal Riochi's cane, "the package," and deliver it to his boss. While the gang moved in on the fortress, El Jefe was able to steal the cane, which prompted Sly, the only one who could climb the statue, to follow. Sly defeated El Jefe in combat, but while he attempted to take back his ancestor's cane, Le Paradox's troops gassed the area and were able to take the cane to the massive blimp that hung in the air above the statue.

El Jefe was returned to the present day and arrested. He was then transferred to a South American prison and given the job of rolling cigars, but was forbidden to smoke them, much to his annoyance.

Physical appearance
El Jefe is an orange Siberian tiger with black stripes and patches of white fur on his chest and inner arms. He wears a gray jumpsuit with yellow stripes, a brown belt and red straps across his chest. On his back are a pair of katanas. He is often seen smoking a cigar, possibly a Cuban.

Personality
"BURN, COOPER!"

- El Jefe to Sly

El Jefe has a very self-committed attitude and also thinks quite highly of himself, evident in his claims of being able to conquer an entire country with nothing more than three blind mice armed with mere plastic spoons. He also appears to be somewhat of a narcissist, constructing a colossal statue of himself and comparing its handsome appearance with his own. In Turning Japanese, Sly describes El Jefe as a ruthless and cunning military commander. He also notes that his glory has caused El Jefe to develop a level of arrogance and cowardice when faced with an even battle. This is evident during his battle with Sly, as despite boasts of his superiority over Sly, his constant retreats during the battle say otherwise. El Jefe also enjoys insulting his enemies, constantly mocking Sly throughout their fight, but El Jefe has a short temper when his enemies mock him, roaring in anger. El Jefe is shown to have a perverted side, as shown when he slaps Murray's butt when the hippo was disguised as Madame Geisha.

Abilities
El Jefe is a formidable enemy, easily as fast and agile as Sly himself, even surpassing in some instances. If Sly gets too close to El Jefe during a battle, the tiger could easily overpower the raccoon before he could react. El Jefe has been shown to be capable of jumping incredible distances similar to Carmelita and showing advanced skill in parkour. El Jefe is also physically strong enough to lift Sly and Rioichi in the air with one hand, send Sly flying with a single punch, and destroy a bridge and cut through a metal crane with his katanas. He seemed to be able to use the rail slide when running away from Sly in their fight. He can also roar loud enough to push Sly away from him during their fight. However, he comes with some very unique powers, such as being able to manipulate lightning through his katanas during the storm in his boss fight. He uses the lightning as extensions to his sword and as balls of electricity to block Sly's path. His other attacks include using friction to create fire with his katanas in the form of waves and projectiles. In fact, a fireproof Samurai Armor is required in order to defeat him. El Jefe seems to be very durable; as being hit by his own fireballs does little more than briefly stun the tiger and he could take hits from Sly, who briefly could stagger a mutant primate in the previous game.

Appearances

 * Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
 * 1. "Turning Japanese"
 * "Photo Op"
 * "Breakout!" (cutscene)
 * "Sushi House Startup"
 * "Tiger Tail"
 * "Altitude Sickness"
 * E. "Epilogue" (cutscene)
 * Bentley's Hackpack

Trivia

 * "El Jefe" is a Spanish term meaning "the chief" or "the boss."
 * In the first part of their fight, Sly insults El Jefe for his name meaning "big baby" to annoy him.
 * El Jefe has many similarities to the real life former Cuban president Fidel Castro:
 * Both are/were military commanders.
 * Both are/were often seen smoking Cuban cigars.
 * In his introductory cutscene, El Jefe wears a similar green military uniform to Castro.
 * They speak with Latin American/Spanish accents.
 * His name, El Jefe, was one of Castro's nicknames.
 * El Jefe could also be a counterpart to Rafael Trujillo (True-hee-yo), a military dictator with a nickname of "El Jefe," as well as Fidel Castro.
 * "El Jefe" is also the name of a cigar company.
 * In the game preview, El Jefe can be seen using lightning from a storm to extend his sword reach, similar to Rajan and his staff. Although, where he gains the command of fire is unknown.
 * During IGN Live's gameplay of Thieves in Time, the developers revealed that in real life, the voice actor Nolan North, who plays El Jefe, has a son named Cooper.
 * Nolan North also voices the main villain from Thieves in Time, Cyrille Le Paradox.
 * El Jefe is the third tiger boss in the Sly Cooper series. The first two were Rajan and Neyla in Sly 2: Band of Thieves.
 * One of Sly's taunts during his fight with El Jefe has him telling the tiger, "You know I beat your cousin Rajan too, right?"
 * The part about El Jefe being Rajan's cousin is very illogical since the two of them are completely different species of tiger. Sly also did not defeat Rajan; Murray did.
 * According to Bentley, El Jefe would only leave his palace to speak with Madame Geisha.
 * Strangely, when Le Paradox was arrested, El Jefe was seen in his prison cell along with Miss Decibel. How they got back to their own times was unknown. Although, it can be assumed and is highly probable that El Jefe went back to the present in the same way the ancestors did, the temporal abnormality correcting itself.
 * El Jefe is one of six characters in the series to smoke. The others include Conner Cooper, Muggshot, Inspector Barkley, "Tennessee Kid" Cooper and Dimitri, although Dimitri smokes a cigarette and Conner smokes a pipe as opposed to the other four who smoke cigars.
 * Due to the "no smoking allowed" policy at his prison in South America, he is one of four smoking characters ever known to stop. The others were Muggshot, Dimitri, and Tennessee.
 * El Jefe shares similarities with three different previous Sly villains: the Panda King, Rajan and General Tsao. Like all of them, his stronghold is held within Asia. Like the Panda King, his name is associated with high social status, he uses fire attacks, and his boss fight takes place close to a statue of himself. Like Rajan, he's a tiger that attacks the Cooper Gang with lightning attacks and has an impressive criminal record. Like General Tsao, he's a narcissist and a master military strategist.
 * While Murray is dancing in a Madame Geisha costume during the job "Pretty in Pinker," one of the boars is holding money with El Jefe's face on it.
 * Despite being a Siberian tiger, El Jefe speaks with a Spanish accent, suggesting he's Cuban.
 * El Jefe is the only boss in the game whom we see actually delivered to jail directly after his defeat.
 * His arrest is the only time that South America is referenced in the game series.
 * His swords cannot generate their own lightning or fire.
 * Unlike Rajan and Octavio, El Jefe has a more realistic growl, to the point of roaring.