Papu Papu

Papu Papu (or just Papu) is the leader of the tribesmen who appear on N. Sanity Island.

Crash Bandicoot
Papu Papu's first appearance was in Crash Bandicoot. He is infuriated when Crash awakens him from his slumber. Papu Papu attacks Crash and a battle ensues. Papu Papu uses his tribal staff to fight Crash; however, the marsupial outsmarts the strong native and defeats him by knocking him out by jumping on his head when his staff is down upon the ground.

Crash Bash
In Crash Bash, he is the first boss of the game. His battle arena is similar to boards like Jungle Bash, etc. He is surrounded by a ring of fire for protection. He summons Crash clones to fight you. When you defeat them, Papu laughs, disabling the fire and leaving him vulnerable, so at this time you have to hit him with a block or TNT. When his HP is at its lowest, he is ultimately defeated when a block crushes him.

Crash Team Racing


Papu reappears in Crash Team Racing as the second boss in the game. His home track is Papu's Pyramid. He throws both green and red beakers to try to slow his opponent down. Like Tiny, Dingodile and Doctor Nefarious Tropy, Papu was a speedy racer at the expense of bad turning and acceleration. He can be unlocked by completing the Green Gem Cup in adventure mode or by holding L1 + R1 buttons while pressing Left, Triangle, Right, Down, Right, Circle, Left, Left and Down on the main menu. His kart was yellow. Stats:

Speed: 5/5

Accel: 2/5

Turn: 1/5

Crash Twinsanity
This was his latest appearance. He captures Doctor Neo Cortex. After Crash frees him, Papu Papu sends the rest of the tribe after him.



Personality
Papu is bilingual, able to speak two languages; English and his native language (possibly aborigine). In Crash Team Racing, Papu speaks in third-person and with lack of pronouns, much like Tiny Tiger; i.e. "Papu move so fast, you munch tracks". In Crash Twinsanity, however, he speaks his native language, though mostly only to his people, presuming they only speak the native language.

Culture
Judging that the ancient carvings all around the islands closely resemble the carvings in the Native Villages. They could be based off of a dead civilization, or they come from a long line of tribesmen. The masks in the game could be related to this civilization, reincarnations of past leaders. If this is true, then the masks on the leaders' heads was what their souls were reincarnated into their masks. The masks in stone all around the islands could be former leaders. Uka Uka and Aku Aku themselves could have been former leaders. So if Papu Papu died, his soul would embody the mask on his head. This would make sense, as the names of Papu Papu and Aku Aku or Uka Uka are closely designed, both repeating the same short word twice.

Trivia

 * One of Papu's prides is perhaps his beer belly, perhaps his most known characteristics. In the epilogue of Crash Team Racing (after completing at least 100% of the game), he became a wrestler and changed his name as "Mr Bad Belly". Unfortunately, his signature move, the Bad Belly Bounce, was eventually banned after several of its victims suffered severe rope friction burns.
 * In CTR, Papu is the tallest playable character, even taller than Tiny. On the track, this honor belongs Oxide. However, Papu still beats Oxide's size on the podium. Oxide only appears taller on the track because his kart hovers.
 * In Crash Twinsanity, Papu is the only villain of Crash that didn't attend Crash's "Birthday Party" (with the exception of the Komodo Bros, Doctor Nitrus Brio, and N. Tropy). He shares this trait with the Komodo Brothers, who don't appear in the game at all. This is probably because he would be appearing very soon in the game anyway.
 * When you fight Papu Papu in Crash Bandicoot and during his victory dance in CTR, a plumber's crack is visible.
 * In the Japanese version of Crash Bandicoot, Papu had 5 hit points instead of 3.
 * Papu, along with Komodo Brothers, Pinstripe Potoroo, Penta Penguin, and Ripper Roo do not return as racers in Crash Nitro Kart.
 * Papu Papu is the first boss ever fought in a Crash Bandicoot game.
 * He had many hat variations in each one of his appearances.
 * It is unknown if Papu was affiliated with Cortex in Crash 1, or if Crash just battled him in his tribal hut; however, in Crash Bash (if the player plays an evil character in adventure mode), Uka Uka refers to him as "an old friend".
 * In Twinsanity in the Worm Chase part of Totem Hokum, you can go into his hut when he is sleeping. Nothing really happens when you go in, except that you can jump on him.
 * In CTR, in his character icon, he looks like a whole different character, his chin looks like a happy mouth, his red painted mouth looks like a red nose, and his actual nose somewhat looks like eyes, causing his actual eyes to look like part of his hat.
 * A small joke (Possibly a bug) is that Papu Papu, when chanting, says the very same chant that Aku Aku does whenever he is summoned. This could hint at the two either knowing each other, being in the same tribe, or they may just be able to speak the same language. If Papu can speak aborigine, then Aku Aku must be speaking the same language, which would explain the same sound being heard from two very different characters.
 * It is hinted that Aku Aku was a "witch doctor." This is common in Native American and other native tribes, which further implies that Aku and Papu may be from the same tribe.
 * Throughout the series his character model hasn't changed a lot with only little changes to his tribuial clothes so he looks almost exactly the same in all his appearances.
 * He has appeared in two main series games and two spin-offs.
 * In Crash 1 he can easily be defeated In less than 1 minute.
 * In Crash Bash he has his yellow hair ornament which was first seen in his artwork for Crash 1.
 * In some early NTSC copies of CTR Papu Papu had a different icon: his mouth was a darker shade of red and the hair ornament was a blackish grey. He shared this trait with Pinstripe.