Nega-Shantae

"I know...what you...can do...YOU CAN SUFFER! YOU CAN SQUIRM LIKE THE PATHETIC MAGGOTS THAT YOU ARE!! WALLOW IN PAIN AND TORMENT FOREVER IN OBLIVION!!! Now BEG!! BEG FOR YOUR VERY LIVES!!"Nega Shantae is a minor, yet extremely important antagonist in Wayforward 's Shantae series.

Nega Shantae, originally, was an evil clone of Shantae created by Risky Boots when she used the Genie Lamp to drain Shantae's magic, corrupt it and bend it for her own evil purposes. Later, Nega Shantae reappears when Risky infects Shantae with a giant blast of dark magic, turning her evil.

As a stereotypical evil clone character, Nega Shantae has all of Shantae's magical powers, except they are based on Dark Magic instead of Shantae's Light Magic, making them far more powerful and deadly.

After Nega Shantae destroyed by the real Shantae in the final boss of Risky's Revenge, her destruction leads to all of Shantae's magic being destroyed as well, an action that majorly affects the plot of Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.

Shantae: Risky's Revenge
After Shantae gives Risky Boots the Three Magic Seals she collected from the Three Barons of Sequin Land (Squid Baron, Ammo Baron and Hypno Baron), in order to save her Uncle Mimic, Risky uses the power of the Genie Lamp to remove Shantae's magic, stating that the real purpose of the Lamp was to remove the magic of Genies. Using the Lamp, Risky turns Shantae's magic into Nega Shantae (who is not referred to by that name at this point) and orders it to attack the original Shantae, who fights her as the game's final boss.

In the boss fight, Nega Shantae attacks Shantae by running and jumping across the screen and using evil, more offensive versions of Shantae's own transformation dances; using the Monkey Dance, she climbs up and down the walls as a monkey and uses the Monkey Bullet attack to shoot back and forth between the walls, using the Elephant Dance, she dashes at Shantae and then uses the Elephant Stomp technique to try and squash her and using the Mermaid Dance, she jumps into the air and uses the Mermaid Bubble attack to shoot waves of bubbles at Shantae. Halfway through the fight, Nega Shantae absorbs more Dark Magic and uses it to make her animal forms last longer and become even more powerful; her Monkey Form scales the walls even quicker, the Elephant Form uses the Elephant Stomp across the whole screen and her Mermaid Form shoots even more rounds of bubbles in a quicker fashion. After Shantae manages to destroy her using nothing but her own skill and items, Nega Shantae explodes, destroying all of Shantae's magic in the process.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
In Shantae and the Pirates Curse, while Nega Shantae never physically appears, her very existence is responsible for the events of the game. After her defeat, the Dark Magic she was composed of helped revive The Pirate Master, who used her Dark Magic to turn all of Risky's Tinkerbats into Cacklebats. During the final battle against The Pirate Master, Shantae gives him all of the Dark Magic she had collected from the Cacklebats in order to save Risky (who called a temporary truce with her), but it soon turns out that the Dark Magic was the (now purified) Light Magic Nega Shantae corrupted, which she uses to defeat Pirate Master.

Shantae: Half Genie Hero
Towards the end of the game, Shantae gives Uncle Mimic the final components required to finish his Dynamo, only for the Dynamo to blast her with Dark Magic, as the machine's blueprints had been altered by Risky Boots. After Risky arrives to brag about what she had done in front of Mimic and the rest of Shantae's friends, the Dark Magic finally corrupts Shantae, turning her into Nega Shantae. Risky then explains that her true plan is to use the Dynamo to corrupt the entire Genie Realm and take over Sequin Land and leaves Mimic, Sky, Bolo and Rottytops to deal with Nega Shantae. After Risky's departure, Nega Shantae violently threatens to destroy all of Shantae's friends, referring to them as maggots. The screen then enters Shantae's subconscious, where Shantae is desperately trying to talk Nega Shantae out of being evil, however, she is ignored. Shantae's friends then try to reach Shantae and encourage her to fight the Dark Magic by reminding her of her greatest strengths; Sky reminds Shantae of her loyalty and honesty, Bolo reminds Shantae of her strength and courage and Rottytops reminds Shantae of her kindness and compassion. With all her friends supporting her, Shantae's love is able to overpower Nega Shantae and the Dark Magic dissipates from her body.

Trivia

 * Nega Shantae is never referred to by her name until Half Genie Hero
 * In the kickstarter for Half Genie Hero, one of the stretch goals was to feature Nega Shantae in the A Dish Best Served Cold Chapter, in which she served as an enemy. However, the kickstarter was left 50 000 dollars short, resulting in Nega Shantae only appearing in the game briefly.