Uh-huh, that's right, the Kid is back in business!
― "Tennessee Kid," while reclaiming his gun[src]
"Tennessee Kid" Cooper was Sly Cooper's North American ancestor from the late-nineteenth century United States. He left his revolvers and his hat in the Cooper Vault alongside his wealth and legacy. Tennessee guarded his loot by testing the intruder with his signature move, which consisted of rail sliding a figure-eight railroad track powered by inertia. Tennessee is the second ancestor the Cooper Gang encountered in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.
He was voiced by Sam Riegel.
History
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
In Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Tennessee's section of the Thievius Raccoonus was taken 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 his ancestor's history in the Old West as an outlaw who stole from rich landowners by carrying out old style train robberies, and by using his invented technique of walking the rails to escape capture.
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Go West Young Raccoon
After helping Rioichi Cooper, Sly and the gang time traveled to the year 1884 AD, to the Wild West in order to help Tennessee. At the time, Tennessee had been jailed for his crimes by the ever-egotistical and self-centered Sheriff Toothpick and was sentenced to be hanged.
Sly meeting Tennessee in prison
In his quest to bust out his ancestor, Sly got himself arrested and thrown in the same jail cell as Tennessee. He introduced himself, but Tennessee did not trust Sly at first, believing him to be someone "funnin' his family name". With Bentley's help, Sly broke out of the prison with Tennessee, proving to him that he was indeed a Cooper, 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 Sheriff 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.
Tennessee holding Carmelita after her rescue
Later, Tennessee retrieved his gun from one of Toothpick's unsafe mines. Tennessee soon spotted a fox being dragged around by Toothpick, whom Bentley identified as Inspector Carmelita Fox. Mentioning how important it was that she lived, Bentley requested that Tennessee go rescue her, since he was the fastest in the gang and closest to the action. After rescuing her, the gang arrived, as well as Toothpick and his men, who placed them under arrest. Forced to team up, Carmelita and Tennessee broke Sly and the gang out, with Carmelita joining them, as it was the only way for her to get back to Paris.
In their plan to get back at Toothpick, Tennessee was required to take the gold from Toothpick's personal train, which he happily exclaimed that this would be his greatest heist. Tennessee attempted to confront Toothpick, but several rats appeared and took his gun, which was then sent to Cyrille Le Paradox. After Sly defeated Toothpick, the small armadillo was sent flying towards Tennessee, who happily took him as his prisoner. Unfortunately, the Cooper Van's brakes were malfunctioning, forcing the gang to drop the gold and travel through time once more, much to Tennessee's confusion as he took the dropped gold.
Déjà Vu All Over Again!
Just what I was hoping for Bentley! I've been itching to get up on the action!
― "Tennessee Kid" Cooper to Bentley
Later, Bentley and Murray brought Tennessee and the other ancestors to the present world to retrieve their canes back from Le Paradox. After Sir Galleth Cooper retrieved Tennessee's cane, Tennessee used it to free Sly and Carmelita from their bonds before returning to his time period.
Tennessee recovered his gold and his place in history as the greatest outlaw of the Wild West. His legend grew even bigger when he began stealing from crooked law men exclusively.
Characteristics
Physical appearance
Tennessee is a brown raccoon with brown eyes. He wears a brown bowler hat, a black domino mask and an orange long-sleeved shirt with a brown vest over top. Around his neck is a yellow bandana, and on his hands are brown gloves. He wears a leather holster around his waist and leather boots with gold trim, as well as spurs on his feet. His cane is in the typical shape and is held the same way but can 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 wore a long-sleeved shirt under his vest. In later appearances, the shirt was 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 in his mouth during cinematics of Thieves in Time. He does, however, seems 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. The Thievius Raccoonus depicts Tennessee with 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" when he believed that Sly is mocking the Cooper Clan[src]
Tennessee has an enthusiastic and confident personality and acts 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.
Carmelita's appreciation of Tennessee
Carmelita finds 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 fear of them, 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 Cooper Gang found him in Thieves in Time, Tennessee began carrying a six-shot revolver rifle with a hooked handle as his Cooper cane, with which he would demonstrate spectacular gun-slinging skills, which were his unique ability among the Coopers. He named the cane "Ol' Blue." He could also use his gun for pickpocketing and hand-to-hand combat, when held by the barrel.
- Rail Walk and Rail Slide: This was a move perfected by Tennessee as a method of escape during his stage coach and steam engine heists. During missions in Thieves in Time, Tennessee could uniquely jump from rail to rail by leaning towards the adjacent rail and jumping.
- 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 creatures that roam around. Also, he could easily shoot down smaller enemies with one shot versus larger ones.
- Crackshot: This was 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.
Gallery
Trivia
- Tennessee Kid's name is similar to the two (unrelated) western outlaws "The Sundance Kid" and "Billy the Kid."
- The state animal of Tennessee is the raccoon.
- Tennessee's signature color is orange, but he has bright yellow stealth auras.
- His picture in the Cooper Vault showed he had a bounty of $5,000, meaning he committed various crimes in the Wild West.
- His Crackshot technique is very similar to level 2 Dead Eye from Red Dead Redemption, which allows the main character to "paint" over his targets in slow motion.
- He may be the only Cooper ancestor to have violated his family's code of honor, as robbing banks would have involved stealing money from the accounts of innocent people. He changed this behavior after Thieves in Time.[1]
- Tennessee is one of six characters in the series seen smoking, along with Dimitri Lousteau, El Jefe, Conner Cooper, Muggshot, and James Barkley. However, Dimitri smokes a cigarette, and Conner smokes a pipe, whereas the others all smoked cigars.
- In Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, pictures of Tennessee show his cigar floating in the air beside his mouth, instead of it actually being inside his mouth.
- On the contrary of Thieves in Time, Tennessee no longer smokes, as his cigar has been replaced with a toothpick.
Appearances
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References
- ↑ Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time; Credits.