Skylanders: Giants is the second game in the Skylanders series, developed by Toys for Bob and published by Activision for Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U^note Developed by Vicarious Visions. It was released during October of 2012 with the Wii U version releasing a month later of that year as a launch title for the system internationally.

10,000 years ago, a robot race called the Arkeyans ruled Skylands with an iron fist (literally, the robot king had a fist called the Iron Fist of Arkus) until the very first Skylanders, the Giants, fought the Arkeyans on their home turf, the Island of Arkus. They defeated the Arkeyans, but that came at the cost of being banished from Skylands.

Fast-forwarding to the present, following from Spyro's Adventure, Kaos has been banished to Earth where he is stuck in a frozen state like what happened to the Skylanders. But thanks to his Portal Master powers, he is freed. He then uses a portal to get back to Skylands. And almost immediately, he accidentally revives one of the Arkeyan Conquertrons who swears loyalty to him for it. Seeing a new oppurtunity to conquer Skylands, Kaos uses his newfound giant robot to look for the ancient Iron Fist and it's up to the Skylanders and the Giants to stop him.

New to the series are the titular Giants, one for each element, who move slower than normal "Core" Skylanders, but are much more powerful and have more health. They are also capable of finding new areas using methods that Core Skylanders are unable to do, like breaking holes in the ground or pulling entire islands to them. Alongside them, there are eight new Core Skylanders for every element. Also, there are 24 Skylanders from Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure return as new Series 2 Skylanders, and have a new ability called a Wow Pow. And finally, one Core Skylander from every element has a seperate figure called a LightCore that lights up when you place them on the portal.

The game was followed by a sequel, Skylanders: SWAP Force, released the following year. This time developed by Vicarious Visions.

This game contains examples of:

• 100% Completion: Unlike Spyro's Adventure where you needed all 32 Skylanders to unlock all the achievements, here you'll only need one Skylander of every element to access every Elemental Gate to get 100% on your safe file. Heroic Challenges, the Adventure Packs from Spyro's Adventure, and the achievements are optional, meaning you don't have to get every collectible, not even hats.
• 10,000 Years: The Giants took down the Arkeyan empire 10,000 years ago. The very first level takes place around this time in the form of a flashback so the players will get an idea of how awful the Arkeyans were. However, this doesn't mean that they are only restricted to only using Giants. Core Skylanders who wouldn't exist in this time period can also be used.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: Ermit and the Machine Ghost help the Skylander out against Robo-Kaos in Ermit's reconstructed Arkeyan robot.
• Achievement Mockery: In the final trial of the Oracle, you have to pick between riches and knowledge. The former as expected leads to treasure, while the latter leads to a hat that’s… a bowling pin. Called “Pin Head”.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: The hats and Skystones that are only purchasable in Auric's shops throughout the levels will be better and better the further you get, but they also get more and more expensive.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: The Charm items ("Clever Clover", "Bright Blade") and Difficulty Levels ("Chompy Cuddler", "Heavy Hitter") have alliterative names.
• Advancing Boss of Doom: In the first phase against Robo-Kaos, you have to run away from him on a bridge and stay out of his reach when he's gonna slam it, or else be caught up in a One-Hit KO.
• The Alleged Car: Flynn gets a brand new ship called the Dread-Yacht and at the start, it is a bit of a fixer-upper, with parts of it falling off and it pumping out a lot of smoke, and Flynn notes that the guy he bought it from seemed pretty desperate to get rid of it. But no matter how often the heroes try to fix the ship, something will come around that will damage it, and two Molekin at Molekin Mountain will tell you in an optional dialogue that the ship is cursed. Apparently, it's because of the Luck-O-Tron machine, which was built by the previous owner in hopes that it would make him lucky to make up for his terrible flying skills. Instead, because the guy wasn't either a great inventor, the machine drained the ship of luck all together, giving it the curse the Molekin were talking about.
• Amusement Park of Doom: Cutthroat Carnival, which is mostly a doom park because it is run by pirates. The story scroll in "Bringing Order to Kaos!" gives out more insight on how the pirates ran it, like how their biggest attraction was to lock people in cells and then shoot them with a cannon.
• Anti-Frustration Features: There are parts of certain levels where Giants are needed to proceed. But if you don't have one available, there are ways around them that you can use a normal Skylander for.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The end of Chapter 9 in, after defeating Brute the Jawbreaker:
  Brute: You'll never stop Master Kaos. He has an ingenious plan to get that Iron Fist of Arkus. Then he'll rule Skylands! Then he can finally take me fishing...
• Artificial Stupidity: Several Skystones matches will be on a board with an element space where the stone that can be placed there are ones with the same element as otherwise the stone will break and not count. But the character you face will often waste their one elemental stone on a normal space, which forces them to waste their fifth and final stone by placing it on the elemental space.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Both Drill-X and Robo-Kaos' fights relies on this, for the former it's his drill and for the latter the Iron Fist of Arkus.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Subverted. Right before the third and final round of the arena battle in Molekin Mountain, Pipsqueak tells you that now you’re gonna go against the big guy, and the camera pans to the Shadow Knight standing behind him, before he steps forward saying that it's gonna be against him, and he jumps in. But after getting hit once, no matter how strong the attack is, he gets an owie, and instead sends in the Shadow Knight to do the heavy work.
• Behemoth Battle: At the end of the game, Robo-Kaos square off against Ermit and the Machine Ghost in their Arkeyan Robot while the Skylander fights Kaos' Arkeyan minions.
• BFS: Arkeyan Joust Masters enemies are equipped with giant swords.
• Big Damn Heroes: When Kaos has the Skylander cornered during the final battle, Ermit and the Machine Ghost in Ermit's Arkeyan Robot jump in to assist the Skylander.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: The three arenas all have their own stage hazards that can be used against the enemies, including the final big one. This is invoked in Arena Challenges, as all three levels each have one challenge where you can't hurt the enemies with your normal attacks and have to rely on said stage hazards.
• Boss Arena Recovery: Between each round of arena battles, the audience will be throwing food to you.
• Bragging Rights Reward: For completing the game on Nightmare Mode, you unlock the knight helmet, the most powerful hat in the game.
• Call-Back: One of the first things Kaos does with his new robot? Use it to destroy dozens of trees.
• Critical Status Buff: Acquiring the "Clever Clover" charm grants a Defense boost any time a Skylander is low on HP. Curiously, enemies seem to get this property as well....
• Cutting the Knot:
  • Don't wanna waste your time playing Skystones or solving a Lock Puzzle? Don't worry! You can buy passes from Auric in certain levels that allow you to bypass these without engaging in them.
  • Walls that are cleared with the help of a bomb can also be cleared by using a Giant that simply attacks them.
• Darker and Edgier: Downplayed. This game does have its comedic moments, and it still doesn't take itself that seriously. Most of what makes it seem darker is simply because it's a step up compared to Spyro's Adventure. Most of all the story that has a more underlying darker side to it as it gives off the impression that Kaos could win at any moment. There's also some of the game's set pieces that have a much more darker aura to them, like Cutthroat Carnival and Drill-X's Big Rig.
• Dance Party Ending: The Stinger when beating Nightmare Mode is nothing more than millions of chompies having a party inside the ruined City of Arkus.
• Decapitated Army:
  • As shown in the cutscene where the Giants defeated the Arkeyans long ago and the cutscene after Kaos' defeat, if the Iron Fist of Arkus is removed from the bearer, all of the Arkeyan robots will shut down.
  • During the final round of the arena battles in chapters 3, 9 and 12, the level will be cleared as soon as you take out the final big enemy no matter if there still smaller enemies present.
• Defector from Decadence: When Kaos acquires the Iron Fist of Arkus, some Arkeyan soldiers declare that they won't fight for him, and choose to play Skystones instead.
• Demoted to Extra: This game saw to mix up the release order of the returning Skylanders from Spyro's Adventure, with some that released in later waves of that game getting the chance to have their new figures come out in wave 1 or 2 while some from the earlier wave Skylanders releasing in Giants' later waves.
  • For instance, Flameslinger, Sonic Boom, Bash, and Stump Smash were three Skylanders that released in wave 1 of Spyro's Adventure and their Series 2 figures were released in wave 2, and the same goes for Gill Grunt, who was a Spyro's Adventure starter pack Skylander.
  • Stealth Elf and Zap were another two Skylanders released in wave 1, and in Giants they were released in wave 3.
  • The most prominent examples are Spyro and Wrecking Ball, who were released in waves 1 and 2 during Spyro's Adventure respectively, and then in wave 4 of Giants.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Chapter 6 takes place at the "Secret Arkeyan Vault of Secrets", since it houses many Arkeyan secrets.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Jet-Vac is the only Skylander with a flying ability who cannot traverse over water, because his jet-pack is fueled by an air meter.
  • The "One Shot Thrill" arena challenge doesn't provide any sources to naturally heal. Because of this, the average player likely won't notice the game having measures to prevent 'cheating' through means like upgrades that provide regeneration and healing magic items. If the player somehow breaches 1HP, the game will periodically damage them until they return to it.
  • Since the game has its own set of Treasures and other Collectibles separate from Spyro's Adventure (aside from hats), the stuff from the four Adventure Packs aren't in the collectibles menu, and that includes the Story Scrolls, which are stones with text on instead of actual scrolls in these levels. Despite this, you still have the ability to read them again by finding them in the levels again.
  • Whirlwind's Heroic Challenge "Lobs O' Fun" returns in this game, where you throw bombs at enemies standing on higher platforms. In Spyro's Adventure, there were bombs all around for you to pick up, but in Giants, the enemies on platforms are Bag O' Bombs, who throw out bombs for you to use. Because of this, there are no bomb supplies for you to pick up.
• Difficulty Levels: This game introduced difficulty levels to the series, which you can change between at any point in the game. Beating the game once unlocks the hardest difficulty, Nightmare Mode, which you can only pick when starting a new file, and once done, you can’t switch it out to something simpler.
• Double Take: When Hugo informs Flynn and Cali about the Portal Master who can send the Skylanders and the Giants to help them, Flynn first goes on one of his boasts before stopping and processing that Hugo just said "Giants".
• Dual-World Gameplay: Similar to Darklight Crypt from the first game, Wilikin Village is built around switching between two worlds, one where the Wilikins are awake and one where they’re asleep. Both also have their own advantages and obstacles, the sleep world has more dangerous enemies in them but roadblocks are easier to get past, while the awake world tones down on enemies and battles, but features said roadblocks that must be switched to the sleep world to bypass. The battle at the end against Chompy Mage also requires switching, so that you can make it through the Bullet Hell without the ability to jump.
• Elemental Giant: The titular Giants are an ancient team of Skylanders, each of whom are categorized by the eight Elements. Tree Rex the Life Giant, Thumpback the Water Giant, Bouncer the Tech Giant, Swarm the Air Giant, Eye Brawl the Undead Giant, Crusher the Earth Giant, Hot Head the Fire Giant, and Ninjini the Magic Giant.
• Eternal Engine: Drill-X's Big Rig, which is the hideout of a giant drill robot.
• Evolving Attack: Some Wow Pows are simply upgrading one of the Skylander's already existing attacks. Examples include Spyro's ground pound now firing fireballs from the sky before slamming down, Drill Sergeant's energy pulse cannon being upgrading to fire stronger pulses that haven't even been invented yet, and Wrecking Ball's roll attack being upgraded from a force field a much stronger disco ball.
• Fireworks of Victory: When a level has been beaten with all three stars achieved, fireworks will go off behind the tally screens.
• Follow the Bouncing Ball: The Molekins that are working at Drill-X's Big Rig despise the gigantic in primarily due to its singing. When it finally shows up, a small robot-face icon bounces across its dialogue subtitles as it raps them out.
• Foreshadowing: The Wilkin Wellsley says that he was "always" able to smell Kaos. This hints that their "maker" was actually Kaos.
• Gainax Ending: The second stinger seen when beating Nightmare Mode, which is a Chompy Dance Party Ending inside the ruined Island of Arkus using the Iron Fist.
• Ghost Ship: The Dread-Yacht is attacked by an armada of ghost pirates in chapter 10, and at the end of it, you jump onto their biggest ship to blast it down from the inside. The enemies are ones you’ve fought previously, but this time, they are hollow like phantoms.
• Global Currency Exception: The pirates at Cutthroat Carnival won't take any treasure you've collected on your travels as payment for fixing the ship, they will only take Pirate Chips. Funnily enough, you get Pirate Chips by beating the pirates at the carnival in Skystones, so you're basically just giving the pirates back money they already owned.
• Gotta Catch Them All: There are 80 different Skystones to collect, and you get them by either winning against NPCs throughout the chapters or buying from Auric's shops.
• Gusty Glade: The Air Elemental Gate in Aerial Attack takes you to a group of islands in a stormy environment. You jump to each island by walking to the ledge and letting the wind carry you over.
• Harder Than Hard: Beating the game for the first time on any difficulty unlocks Nightmare Mode, where the enemies will be stronger than ever. And once you've picked it, you can't change to an easier difficulty level.
• Heavily Armored Mook: Some enemies from earlier levels get updated in later levels to wear armor, so they can take a few more hits in. There is even a unique Chompy enemy that is simply a Chompy with a helmet on it.
• Heel–Face Turn: Brock the Goliath Drow is keeping Ermit captive, and lures the Skylander to his arena to provide entertainment for the other villagers. After he is beaten, you can find him on Flynn's ship where he is now a lot more friendly and invites the Skylander to his arena club. And he stays like this when he returns for later installments.
• Hospitality for Heroes: In chapter 2, Auric would normally sell the engine the Skylanders and Flynn need for the ship for a hefty price, but he’s willing to only let them pay one gold coin for it if he’s allowed to travel with them and set up shop on the ship.
• Hub Under Attack: At three separate moments, the Dread-Yacht will be attacked and the heroes will have to take a detour to fix it. First it's by a thundercloud, then an Arkeyan chopper that followed them from the Vault, and for the third and final time, it's ghost pirates, but unlike the previous two moments, the Skylanders fight back, and chapter 10 is about doing just that.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Pipsqueak, the Cyclops king who despite having led the invasion of creeps on Molekin Mountain, is taken down pretty easily.
  Barnsby: Hard to believe we were ever scared of that guy.
• Infinity +1 Sword: You can buy the Arkeyan Conquertron Skystone from Auric's shop in the final chapter for a hefty price, and that stone has four swords on every side, making it the best stone in the game, as well as potentially your last one.
• Informed Attribute: Upon Kaos waking up on Earth, Glumshanks warns him that Portal Masters aren't supposed to use portals themselves, with the implication of something bad happening to those who do. This goes nowhere, as Kaos is able to use the portal and merely suffers a bit of jet lag from the travel but is otherwise fine, having completely recovered in just a couple of minutes.
• Ironic Fear: Ermit the hermit has a fear/paranoia of clouds. And considering what Skylands is...
• Large Ham: Brock. You thought a Goliath Drow wouldn't be this? WRONG ANSWER, PAL!
• Literal Metaphor: The Arkeyan King ruled his empire with an iron fist. No, really, it's the Iron Fist of Arkus. The strategy guide even lampshades it; saying that it happened because the Arkeyans were so Literal-Minded: they heard people say they ruled with an iron fist, so they figured they should make an iron fist to rule with.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: The Skylanders and the Machine Ghost make it to the Arkeyan Vault before Kaos, despite him having a massive head start. This is because Kaos was waiting for them to open it up for him so he could then sweep in and take the map while also creating setbacks for the heroes, like crushing the Skylander with rocks, which makes the Machine Ghost perform a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Macro Zone: One trial in The Oracle involves you picking if you'd rather be a small fish in a sea or a large fish in a lake. The former leads to a section where you're way smaller than the enemies.
• Mighty Glacier: The titular Giants, all of them hits like a truck and moves like a bulldozer.
• Mind Over Matter: Unlike the other Giants, Ninjini doesn't use her strength to lift boulders or statues, she instead uses telekinesis. It works alongside the stats shown on cards (even if they don't mean too much), as Ninjini is the weakest Giant in terms of physicality.
• Mook Medic: The Life Spell Punks return, and are in fact, the only kind of Spell Punk to return from Spyro's Adventure.
• Mounted Mook: Slobbering Mutticuses are enemies that start off with a Cyclops riding them. When you've damaged them enough, the rider will fall off, which makes the beast act much more aggressive.
• Multi-Mook Melee: When you enter Kaos' Kastle after opening the gate, there will be a longer than average fight against some of the castle's minions in the main hall.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: In the final chapter, there is one Arkeyan who refuses to fight for Kaos and instead just want to play Skystones, even challenging the Skylander to a game if asked.
• No-Damage Run: There are two different versions of this. The first is the final challenge of all three arenas, where you only have one HP. The other is a quest for all the Skylanders, which is to complete a Heroic Challenge without taking any damage.
• Noodle Incident: Flynn mentions that he has been two occasions where he got himself into trouble in the past. First is at the Junkyard Isles, where he once tried to get the Drows' compass, and that attempt led to him being forbidden from setting his foot on any of the islands in that area. Second is at Cutthroat Carnival, where there are people that don't like him very much, as he puts it. Playing through the level reveals that it is because Flynn owes some of the pirates five gold coins.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Camo's unique quest is for him to eat 10 watermelons. Hot Head's Heroic Challenge involves eating a lot of watermelons, but if you use Camo, it won't count for his quest no matter how many he eats.
• Old Save Bonus: The four Adventure Packs from Spyro's Adventure can also be accessed in this game. And just like it was there, the stars from these don't count to the overall completion, perhaps even more so, as you can't view the Story Scrolls in the collections menu.
• The Omniscient: The Oracle, whose knowledge is what the heroes uses to find their way to the Lost Island of Arkus.
• Once per Episode: Every chapter has at least one character (except for Time of the Giants and Aerial Attack) who you can challenge to a game of Skystones and earn new stones from them. This includes chapters before the one where you learn the basics of the game, but you can't play against them until after chapter 4.
• Player Nudge: The Story Scrolls in Giants serve a more unique purpose compared to other games, where they give out hints for where to find a collectible in another chapter, usually by mentioning treasure or other forms of fortunes. For instance, the Story Scroll in Junkyard Isles mentions Chompy pits and there apparently being something about a reward about jumping into them, which clues you in that you need to enter the Chompy pit in Time of the Giants a second time in order to find the Luck-o-Tron wheel.
• Power Glows: This was the first game to have LightCore Skylanders, figures that light up when you place them on the Portal and unleashes a powerful wave that can only be used once a level per figure.
• Precursor Heroes: The Giants were the very first Skylanders, and the heroes who brought the Arkeyan Empire to an end. After being banished 10,000 years ago when they won, they have finally returned.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Hugo was the most prominent NPC in Spyro's Adventure, but in this game, he only appears in one of the opening cutscenes to see Flynn and Cali off.
  • One Skylander from every element in Spyro's Adventure was excluded from getting a series 2 figure, these being Camo, Dino-Rang, Wham-Shell, Voodood, Boomer, Sunburn, Warnado and Ghost Roaster. They aren't completely excluded from the game, however, as they have new Soul Gem previews alongside every other Skylander, quests in the stat menu, and are fully voiced.
• Race Against the Clock: The entire game is about getting to various locations and MacGuffins before Kaos either gets there first or gets further in his quest to reawaken the Arkeyan Empire. The urgency rises in the final few chapters, when Kaos makes it to Arkus before the Skylanders, takes over the Iron Fist of Arkus and is ready to send his newly revived army of Arkeyan robots out to conquer Skylands.
• Remember the New Guy?: While the Giants gets properly introduced and is provided a reason as to why we haven't seen them until now, the eight new Core Skylanders gets nothing of the sort. They are just introduced in the game with no explanation on why they weren't in Spyro's Adventure. Outside media even show that they became Skylanders even before Spyro's Adventure takes place, like the Mask of Power book series that takes place before the games and the "Tall Tales" trailer for this game that has Jet-Vac and Pop Fizz alongside some Skylanders from Spyro's Adventure, talking as if they've all are familiar with each other.
• Right Hand of Doom: The Iron Fist of Arkus gives whoever wears it command of every Arkeyan robot in Skylands. It also just happened to be right-handed.
• Ring Out: A new game mode added in Battle Mode shares the same name. In this mode, the health bar of the Skylanders is replaced with a meter that fills every time you land a hit on your opponent. When it has been filled, your next attack will be dealing a big knockback and you try to use this to send your opponent flying off the arena.
• Rule of Three: There are three different points where the Dread-Yacht gets attacked by something or get damaged, forcing the heroes to take a detour. And on the third attack, they decide that they have had enough and defend themselves.
• Secret Level: Some shops contain a Heroic Challenge of one of the eight Skylanders who didn't return from Spyro's Adventure (except for Boomer, Voodood, and Dino-Rang's challenges).
• Shaped Like Itself: Among Cali's various congratulations for completing a Heroic Challenge is "Please take this reward as ... a reward!" Then there's the Great Pancake Slalom (Chill's Heroic Challenge) in which you avoid balloons representing danger while collecting pancakes that represent ... pancakes.
• Ship Level: The second half of chapter 10 has you going aboard a Ghost Ship that is attacking the Dread-Yacht.
• Shout-Out: In the opening at the toy store, there's a toy fire engine on the shelves that bears a strong resemblance to Jupiter.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Glacier Gully is a frozen wasteland populated by ice ogres and is also where Ermit last parked his Arkeyan robot. It starts at palace-likerock platforms before moving on to a rock with ice bowls.
• Spanner in the Works: Kaos' Arkeyan Empire plan would've worked for him if the place in Skylands where he returned wasn't the where another person was on, that person being Ermit.
• Squashed Flat: In the intro to Glacier Gully, an Ice Chompy will be flattened by the dinghies' boarding plank.
• The Stinger: There are two actually. One is shown when beating the game on any of the three starter difficulties and it features Kaos and Glumshanks arriving back home at their castle as Kaos plans his next scheme, and also meeting his mother. The other is shown when you beat the game on Nightmare Mode, and it is a Chompy dance party where they are dancing around the remnants of the Iron Fist of Arkus.
• Stranger Safety: Giants is the only game in the series that utilized the mechanic to enter any house you come across, with some being mandatory and some that are optional. When you've entered, you can then go destroy all of the things inside to dig for money and take chests or Legendary Treasures. The Mabu in the first house you can enter in Junkyard Isles even say it's okay for you to do it!
• Suddenly Voiced: Every Skylander is now capable of speaking full lines and not just gibberish.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: The end of Secret Vault of Secrets takes a dark turn when Kaos hits a mountain with his Conquertron to crush the Skylander with boulders, but they are saved by the Machine Ghost who uses its Arkeyan robot body to shield them. The damages on the body causes it to shut down and the Machine Ghost disappears because of it.
• Suspicious Video Game Generosity: Huh, why is Auric's shop located at the end of Rumbletown, Kaos Kastle (because of the level's design regarding its progression, he can be accessed both in the middle and before the final part), Drill-X's Big Rig, and Bringing Order to Kaos rather than the middle like how it is in all the other levels? And would you look at that, the one thing he will always have is the Regeneration Power Up, because maybe you will need something to regain health in preparation for a tough fight against a lot of enemies or a boss?
• Tempting Fate: In the opening to Troll Home Security, Flynn learns the hard way not to underestimate the trolls that are stationed around it, as he believes there's nobody guarding it when he and the others first arrive. Cue the defense cannons popping out and trying to shoot down the dinghy.
• Time for Plan B: After Drill-X has been destroyed by the Skylanders, Kaos immediately finds another method into the Island of Arkus, which is simply taking an already built passageway into it.
• Underground Monkey:
  • Enemies who wear armor are counted are separate enemies, given that they have their own enemy introduction.
  • On the same level, there are five different kinds of Chompy enemies. Normal ones, Bone Chompies which are basically the same except they are only bones, Fuego and Frigid Chompies that have different attacks compared to a normal one, and Armored Chompies that have a helmet and can take one extra hit because of it.
• Unique Enemy: The Shadow Duke is the only enemy to be met exactly once in the game, and that’s at the end of Molekin Mountain.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Drill-X, as Kaos planning to use him to find Arkus' Island is what ultimately causes his downfall. When the Skylanders goes to the robot's rig to destroy him, Cali meets a Molekin worker who tells her about the Oracle, who provides them their way of finding the island and confronting Kaos.
• Weaker in the Real World: Subverted. When Kaos first arrives at Earth, he gets shrunken and frozen just like the Skylanders, but he is able to break free of it thanks to his powers from being a Portal Master. He is also able to use a Portal to get back to Skylands similarly to the Skylanders, even though Portal Masters aren't supposed to use the portals on themselves.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Kaos' Kastle is never seen again in the series, despite being a worthy lair for Kaos. Instead, he has a completely new lair in Swap Force. It could be possible that, just like his flying fortress, the Skylanders destroyed it, but there's nothing that indicates that. ^note  Swap Force at least has the excuse of taking place in a specific, distant region of Skylands called the Cloudbreak Islands, so Kaos has to use a different, local base of operations for his scheme. Trap Team onwards have no such justification.
• Who Is Driving?: After repelling ghost pirates from attacking the Dread-Yacht, Flynn boasts how he's gonna be able to steer the heroes to where Kaos' giant drill is. Cali then asks who's steering right now, which makes Flynn come back to reality.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: The attempt to stop Kaos from getting his hands on the map to Arkus’ island ends up being a bust. He bides his time at the ancient vault waiting for the Skylanders to come in their own Arkeyan Robot, and once they've opened it, jumps in to stall them by attempting to crush the Skylanders with boulders, prompting the Machine Ghost to do a Heroic Sacrifice, and then enter the vault and take the map.
• You Shouldn't Know This Already: Both chapter 2 and 3 have one character you can challenge to a game of Skystones before you learn for the first time in Cutthroat Carnival. But as such, you can't play against them until that first time, even if you already know the basics from a previous playthrough.
• Your Other Left: In Chapter 10, Flynn would at one point warn the player that there would be an enemy ship attacking the Dread-Yacht on the starboard, though then he'd wonder if he actually meant port.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Kaos gets the map to the Island of Arkus, but unfortunately, his Conquertron accidentally crushes it, forcing him to take a detour to be able to continue his quest.

3DS Version

• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Carrying on from Spyro's Adventure, you can only have two Skylanders scanned in at a time and can only change in-between levels.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Frightbeard's terror across Skylands was something so heinous that the Arkeyans locked him, his crew, and his ship inside the Chest of Exile. Though this could more be a case of Evil vs. Evil as they are different in their evil. The Arkeyans chooses to rule over Skylands while holding the Mabus as slaves, while Frightbeard terrorizes Skylands and takes whatever he wants, including entire islands.
• Lightning Bruiser: Compared to their gameplay in the console games, the Giants move a lot faster in this version and can even dash like the smaller Skylanders.