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Hi there fellow users! Admittedly, I’m not overly familiar with the franchise this character comes from, but I know it well enough that I’m confident how I personally feel about them. And I definitely think he at least deserves a proposal to potentially join the ranks of the most selfless, kind, generous and all-around heroic characters that are compiled on the wiki. So without further ado…
What’s the work?[]
The Crash Bandicoot series is probably one of the Sony Playstation’s most popular and long-running video game franchises that was originally developed by Naughty Dog and is currently owned by Activision. Genre-wise, it primarily consists of platforming games, with some occasional kart racing spin-off games and at least one party game spin-off in the mix as well. Most of them are set on the fictitious Wumpa Islands, an archipelago situated to the south of Australia where humans and mutant animals co-exist, and follow the main protagonist, a genetically engineered bandicoot named Crash, who tries to live a peaceful and quiet life there. However, this is often interrupted by none other than his creator, Doctor Neo Cortex, who is the main antagonist of the series, and who wants Crash dead due to considering him a failed experiment, attempting some sort of plan involving world domination, which Crash repeatedly sets out to foil. Each of the individual games has a slightly different plot, and some of them deviate from this formula altogether, but they pretty much all involve protecting and/or saving the world from some sort of threat, whether it’s Cortex, his minions, or some alien invader. Anyhow, his most common help comes from Coco, a female bandicoot who was also created by Cortex and is also his sister, and of course, the topic of this proposal.
Who is he and what does he do?[]
Aku Aku is the secondary protagonist/deuteragonist of the series, a role he shares with Coco. He’s also the guardian of Wumpa Islands, which makes him its biggest overarching force of good. He’s a former human witch doctor who, long before the start of the series, used his magic to fight against evildoers, particularly his villainous twin brother, Uka Uka. However, at some unspecified point, and for reasons I don’t think have ever really been revealed, they both left their bodies behind and their spirits came to inhabit tribal masks, which effectively made them immortal. Sometime afterward, Aku Aku was able to imprison Uka Uka in a temple to protect the world from his evil, before going into hibernation himself for unknown reasons.
Eventually, however, he was woken up and freed by Crash when he broke open a crate he was in while he was setting out to save his girlfriend, Tawna, from Cortex. From that point on, Aku Aku became a very helpful ally not just in that quest, but pretty much every subsequent quest to either stop Cortex, his minions, Uka Uka starting when Cortex accidently freed him in the 3rd game, Warped, or whatever other outside threat comes along. His main method of helping Crash, Coco and any of their other occasional allies is by scattering boxes which contain copies of himself around the island or wherever else they may be. When they break his boxes, he accompanies them and protects them from attacks. Even better, if they break 3 of his boxes without taking damage in-between, he can provide them with temporary invincibility. Also, starting in Warped when he first took on a more active role, he started becoming the bandicoot’s caretaker and protector of sorts, as well as a father figure to them. He would also usually be the first to investigate whenever something was going wrong and inform the bandicoots about it so they could collectively set out to foil whoever was up to no good. This is especially useful in certain games like N-Tranced, when Crash's other allies, Crunch and Coco, are captured by Doctor Nefarious Tropy, who had recruited N. Trance to hypnotize them into doing their bidding. This left Aku Aku as Crash's only initial ally left to help stop Uka Uka and N. Tropy from conquering space and time and save the others, not to mention he saved Crash himself from being captured by N. Tropy at the start of the game when he used the last of his power to save him from being sucked into the same vortex N. Tropy used to abduct the others.
In the spin-off racing games, as you would expect, he once again tends to take on the role of the bandicoot’s mentor and guide, providing tutorials where he gives various helpful racing tips, and not just in the name of fun and games; sometimes, it was for the sake of protecting the world in these cases too, like from Nitrous Oxide in Crash Team Racing. Finally, despite his long, ongoing conflict with Uka Uka, he’s been shown to be completely willing to team up with him against other threats, such as the Evil Twins in Crash Twinsanity (they were defeated, but it’s the thought and effort that counts). There are probably other specific acts and ways he's helped I could mention, but I think that largely sums up his role in the series, as well as the quality of his character.
Corrupting Factors[]
Honestly, it’s hard to come up with much to say here. Aku Aku is a super kindhearted, benevolent and selfless spirit who constantly goes out of his way to do good and protect not just his island, but the world anytime it’s threatened simply because it’s the right thing to do. And while he may be a spirit, there’s nothing implying he’s literally made of good, especially since he used to be human, so he clearly has moral agency and chooses to be like this, not because he’s incapable of evil. As for flaws… hm. Honestly, I’m not coming up with anything that could reasonably be considered corrupting; strictly speaking, he's had a few small moments where he got annoyed with Crash, like in It's About Time, when he yelled "Crash, wake up!" However, it's never gone beyond mild irritation, and that's just him being a little more stern than usual, which was justified, considering the urgency of the situation. Another very nitpicky point you could make is that, if anything, he’s a tad too easygoing on Uka Uka, but not to a particularly problematic extent. After all, he’s always there to oppose him when he’s actually up to no good. He just doesn’t go out of his way to discipline him when he’s inactive, though even that could be because he knows him well enough to be aware that even if he tried to talk sense into, let alone reform him, it would be a futile effort.
Admirable Standard/Goodness Zone[]
I’d say he easily stands out in this respect. Being a spirit trapped in a voodoo mask, he may not be able to personally do as much as, say, Crash or Coco, but I’d say he more than compensates in other ways. For starters, he’s often the first character to take the initiative to stop characters like Cortex and Uka Uka from wreaking havoc not just on Wumpa Island, but the rest of the world as well. Plus, he’s been an invaluable help to Crash in most of the games since the very first one, always making sure to scatter copies of himself in boxes all over the island to protect him from attacks, a courtesy he extends to Coco and anyone else who joins forces with them. As mentioned, there have even been times where’s he’s been Crash’s only main ally to depend on, like in the original game and in N-Tranced, where he was the only other one that wasn’t initially captured, and even saved Crash from being captured himself. Even under normal circumstance though, it’s pretty clear that without him, the journey would often be much harder than it already is (which is saying something, since Crash games are often noted for their difficulty), and the bandicoots simply wouldn’t have as clear of an idea of what their objective is or how to proceed.
Another thing that stands out about him is that he seems to bear little animosity, let alone any real hate, towards those who keep threatening the world, up to and including his evil twin brother, whom, as mentioned before, he’s even shown to be willing to work with to defend the world against bigger threats. That’s… pretty admirable considering both how long and how many times he’s had to keep defending the island, and by extension, the rest of the world from him. When you get down to it, he’s the Crash universe’s biggest and most dedicated protector of all things good and innocent.
Final Verdict[]
Unless I’m missing something important that only someone who’s played every single Crash game would know, I think he’s an easy keeper. Thanks for reading!