Spectre

Spectreジャーク (Jark)
Voiced By	Maddie Blaustein Sean Schemmel
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Age	Unspecified
Hair Color	White
Eye Color	Black
Affiliations
Family	Goma (son) (grandson in the Japanese version)
Uses
Attribute	Secret
Dinosaurs	Brontosaurus

Spectre (ジャーク Jaku/Jark) is the leader of the Spectral Space Pirates (Zanjark). In the dub, he is also often just referred to as "Boss". He is voiced by Maddie Blaustein in Coliseum Clash and Sean Schemmel in later appearances.

Character Design

Spectre is a humanoid alien of unspecified species and planet with pale green skin, red pupils in eyes that are black instead of white, white hair that is divided into three sharp strips, a combined triangular white beard and mustache, and pointy ears. Physically, he is realistically muscular and one of the most human-like of the Space Pirates. Whether biological or artificial, he has a pair of retractable pale purple bat-like wings on his back. He often wears a purple cloak that surrounds his entire body, he wears a purple tunic with a white belt, black gloves without fingers, leggings and boots. His Dino Holder is seemingly attached to his shoulder plate, but remains on his outfit when he's not wearing the plate, and unlike the other Space Pirates', it shows the Space Pirate emblem instead of just being silver.

Name

"Spectre" and "spectral" mean a ghost or something unpleasant, while "spectral" can also refer to the colors of the rainbow or just light, but may simply have been chosen to sound 'space-like'. Its rainbow relation may refer to him having a Secret Dinosaur (who is Water in the arcade), or to his effeminate persona.

"Jark" (Jaku) contains (at least in pronunciation) "aku", Japanese for "evil", and also sounds similar to the English "jerk", which automatic translators sometimes produce from the Japanese letters. How much is intentional or coincidence is unclear.

Both his Japanese and English names form part of his team's name (Zanjark, Spectral Space Pirates).

Personality

He often is seen humming (in the dub, he is a horrible singer), and has "Brontikens" (his Apatosaurus) sitting on his lap in chibi form much like the villain/pet stereotype, sometimes biting at his hand or handkerchief. Whenever things go wrong, he is seen biting on a pink handkerchief, showing him to be somewhat sensitive or insecure, but always finds someone to blame for the failure. Unlike the other Space Pirates, who fly at least half the time, Spectre rarely uses his wings, instead opting for his floating throne when he needs to leave his ship.

Spectre's personality, unlike most of Dinosaur King's villains, is very feminine and maybe even bisexual. This is proven in quite a few of the Omake manga shorts on the website, in his arcade card, and even in the anime itself, where he is depicted as wearing a frilly apron and winking at Seth a few times, being shocked and disappointed when he is brushed off.

Anime

Mesozoic Meltdown

Spectre spends most of his time on the Space Pirates' ship, normally appearing only to give orders or express his disappointment with his lackeys; he sends all the Space Pirates on their missions even if not seen doing so. He is first (partly) seen in Ancient Rome during Coliseum Clash, where he blames Gabbro and Foolscap for not retrieving the Yellow Cosmos Stone. When Shear offers to retrieve the Stone for him, he says that if she fails, all three of the Space Pirates will be punished. He then gives Foolscap and Gabbro new dinosaur cards (since they lost their previous ones).

After going unseen for two arcs, he first appears fully in Two Shoguns are Better than One, sending Shear to Ancient Japan to find the next Cosmos Stone and, with Seth, pressuring the captured Dr. and Mrs. Ancient into finishing the Cosmos Stone Detector. In the next episode, he sends Foolscap to find the missing Shear and the Cosmos Stone, saying that he may be his favorite if he succeeds (wink).

In Ancient Persia in Desert Heat, he sends Foolscap to retrieve the Red Cosmos Stone. In the next episode, he sends Shear on the mission. And smashes the new Cosmos Stone Detector when it only gives general coordinates, hastily telling Dr. Ancient to fix it again.

In Renaissance Paris in The French Conniption, he tells Shear they won't go after the Red Cosmos Stone the D-Team got, because if they can find the other two Stones first, the kids will trade their Stone for their parents; he then sends Sheer to find the Green Cosmos Stone with data from the new (sabotaged) Detector. In the next episode, he compliments Seth for creating Gigas, Armatus, and Maximus to use the new model of Spectral Armor, sending Gabbro to find the Stone instead. In All For One, it is Foolscap's turn to find the Stone, but he was sent a series of wrong locations, cluing Spectre in on the Detector's sabotage.

In Bad Deal, he is furious at the Space Pirates for losing the Green Cosmos Stone and that he can't count on them to get the Black Cosmos Stone, so he's using his secret weapon (sending Seth instead). First, however, he entertains a deal from the D-Team to exchange their parents for the Red and Green Cosmos Stones…long enough to locate the Backlander and attack it, forcing an emergency landing.

Unlike the other Space Pirates, Spectre only has one dinosaur, an Apatosaurus that he calls Brontikens, who is usually in chibi mode on his lap when he is sitting in his throne and unseen when he is walking around. Brontikens is sent into battle for the first time in The Forestfire Effect when the D-Team interferes with the Black Cosmos Stone search. After the cliffhanger, Brontikens easily fights off the D-Team and tries stepping on the Alpha Gang, being told to break open the volcano the Cosmos Stone is inside with Spectral Destroy, but causes it to erupt, triggering a total retreat. Spectre then berates the Pirates for not grabbing the Stone anyway and makes Dr. Ancient build another new Detector. He authorizes a trade for the Black Stone the D-Team acquired for (fake copies of) their parents, but following Seth's double-cross and theft of all the Cosmos Stones, he is visibly distraught by the personal betrayal and tells the other Space Pirates to attack, but Cryolophosaurus freezes their dinosaurs with Blizzard Smash.

Catching up, he crashes his ship into the Backlander, knocking out its engines so it crashes again next episode. Hearing Seth has already left the ship, he then tries to trade the D-Team's parents for the seven Cosmos Stones, only to discovery they only have six, and for the parents to cancel the trade themselves. Finally repairing the engines and reaching present day, he grabs all seven Cosmos Stones from the rubble of the D-Lab and merges them, forming the Dark Pterosaur, which powers up the Space Pirates' four dinosaurs, but their ship is overtaken by its power. In the finale, he and the others becoming giant all-powerful floating images within the Dark Pterosaur. After the Backlander breaks into the Dark Pterosaur and the D-Team and Alpha Gang defeats the other three altered dinosaurs, Brontikens attacks with Spectral Destroy, but is blocked by the good Pterosaur and defeated by the D-Team combining their Ultimate Moves, Spectre finally losing Brontikens. The Space Pirates try to stop Seth from crashing the empty Backlander into the Dark Pterosaur's inner self, but it flies through them, the Cosmos Stones and Element Stones canceling each other, taking away the Pirates' power.

In the final scene, Spectre is seen in a capsule around his throne with the other Space Pirates, floating aimlessly through space as he sings to everyone's annoyance.

Appearances in Other Media

In Kyoryu-King.com's Four-Frame Manga, Spectre is often seen having a crush on Seth, much to Seth's chagrin.

He also has a son (grandson in the Japanese version), Goma, in the arcade's story, who serves as a hidden final boss.

Statistics

TCG Stats

Spectre TCG card (SAS, French)

• Team: Spectral Space Pirates
• Card Code: SAS-069/100, DKJC-0??/100
• Card Rarity: Gold Rare (SAS), Thai Common (DKJC)
• Image From (SAS): Ep. 69 anime scene
• Image From (DKJC): TBD anime scene
• Abilities:

(SAS) Choose 2 Spectral Armor Dinosaur cards in your deck and move them into your hand. Then shuffle your deck.

(DKJC) (Unreadable)

Spectre TCG card (DKJC, Thai)

Trivia

• Brontikens may have been a girl, as in the original, Spectre calls them "Bronto-chan" (-chan is often used for girls, while -kun is often used for boys). However, pronouns clearly label him male in the English dub, though it wouldn't be the only gender-flipped dinosaur in the dub.
• Spectre's Japanese name shares the Japanese word for the Jamaican cooking style known as Jerk or jerk spice. His dub name might be a pun on the word "Spectrum" which defines the colors of a rainbow that may reflect on his affectionate personality. This can be minorly supported by the fact he uses a dinosaur with the Secret Element in the anime (though it's Water when he uses it in the arcade).
• Due to the different appearance, it can be assumed that Spectre's summoning device was custom-made by Seth, probably due to Spectre's wish to be able to summon Brontikens as a chibi. It's not known whether the summoners of the other Space Pirates could do this either, as they never tried, but since Seth did not intend to summon dinosaurs as chibis, it seems unlikely. Given this, however, it seems strange that Seth was able to develop a summoner for Spectre that could summoned a dinosaur without an Element Stone as a chibi while the copied Element Stones made it impossible to summon a dinosaur as chibi, which is likely the baseline data the Pirates' summoners were made with.
• Despite having a son/grandson, Goma, no wife or other relatives for Spectre are ever mentioned to connect them, though Goma only exists in the little-explained arcade storyline, and the previous main villain had adopted most of his family from an orphanage.

Gallery

Spectre

Spectre's under-cape suit

Spectre's rarely-used wings

Spectre and Brontikens

Spectre communicating with Foolscap

Spectre's arcade card

Back of Spectre arcade card

Spectre in arcade game

Spectre introduction in arcade game

Spectre after his defeat against the player in arcade game (Hard mode)