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Professor Pester
"Victory is mine!"
- Voiced by: J. David Brimmer
- Adaptational Wimp: In the games, he's a Knight of Cerebus, but in the animated series, he went from a legitimate threat to Team Rocket-levels of threatening.
- Artificial Stupidity: In Trouble in Paradise, you can build a wall along the edge of the garden where he normally enters to keep him out. He never thinks to simply go around the wall.
- Bad Boss: He can be really harsh and cruel to the Ruffians, not that you can really blame him. In one episode of the TV show it gets so bad that they leave him and start listening to Hudson instead.
- "Begone" Bribe: Like the ruffians, he can be bribed in chocolate coins to leave the garden.
- Big Bad: He is the one who leads the ruffians and is responsible for turning Stardos into Dastardos. In the TV show, he is also the one who created the sour piñatas.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He knows that he's evil and is very proud of it.
- Catchphrase:
- "Victory is/will be mine!"
- He also sometimes shouts "I have no regrets!" after being defeated.
- Controllable Helplessness: Once he's selected a target, there's no stopping him, so it's important to bribe him away quickly.
- The Corrupter: He used sour candy to corrupt Stardos from a kind gardener who loved Piñatas to a sadistic, creepy Grim Reaper called Dastardos.
- Evil Is Hammy: Especially so in the TV show where he frequently acknowledges himself as a villain in several episodes. He definitely has moments in the games too, but not as frequent.
- Friendly Enemy: In "Ruffians on Strike" and "The Wrong Stuff", he has this kind of relationship with Hudson.
- Fun-Hating Villain: He tends to care only for his own happiness and tries to make piñatas unenjoyable for parties so that he can have all their candy to himself.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He created the sours and Dastardos and only gets involved with the player when their garden is valuable enough to raid.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: In the TV show, where his plans always fail no matter how much he tries.
- Knight of Cerebus: In the first game, he's treated as a dangerous threat having turned Stardos into a piñata-smashing maniac and creating the sour piñatas, and he's also a sign that your garden is valuable.
- Laughably Evil: Especially in the TV show, where he is just a pathetic, but extremely hammy villain.
- Obviously Evil: Dark red color scheme, glowing green eyes, tattoos on the exposed parts of his body, sharp teeth... yep, this guy's up to no good. His Ruffians and Sours fit the same mold, and so does the Sour Candy he used to corrupt Stardos.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: A lot of the disguises he wears in the cartoon are simply a change of hat and sometimes a pair of glasses. Subverted in one episode where he attempts to disguise himself as a baby, which all the piñatas see through. The only reason they put up with him in that instant is because he gets amnesia in that episode.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Has a red outfit and mask, wears a black academic cap and is the main villain of the franchise.
- Surrounded by Idiots: He clearly can't stand how dumb his ruffian henchmen are, and he can't get the sours to listen to him.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: If a Limeoceros is in the garden, it will charge at Professor Pester and send him rocketing out into the sky.
- Volcano Lair: He lives in one that has a large rock shaped like his face ingrained on it.
- Weaksauce Weakness: In the first game, he's terrified of the Captain's Cutlass, but he grows out this fear in Trouble in Paradise and now fears a Limeoceros headbutt.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: A Dragonache can chase him off.
Ruffians
- Adorable Evil Minions: To Professor Pester, even if they are more genuinely malicious than most.
- "Begone" Bribe: You can pay them chocolate coins to go away.
- Dishing Out Dirt: One of their main methods of causing trouble involves vomiting out dirt into your lakes to fill them back up again.
- It's All About Me: Ruffians only care about causing chaos without giving a damn about anyone hurt by it. One of their journal entries even points out that they don't realise they're not the most important people on Piñata Island.
- Kick the Dog: Ruffians will smash things, get into fights with your piñatas, and cough up toxic sour candies, all For the Evulz.
- Poke the Poodle: However, it's not uncommon for one to do nothing more than cough up a sour candy and leave.
- The Smurfette Principle: There are four ruffians, and only one of them is female.
- The Unintelligible: None of the ruffians speak. They only make angry sounds.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Like Pester, they fear the Captain's Cutlass and will stay away from your garden if one is present. Unlike Pester, they retain this weakness in the second game.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Certain Piñatas, such as Mallowolves, can be used to scare them off.
Dastardos
- The Corruptible: He used to be a master gardener named Stardos until Professor Pester tricked him into consuming a sour candy which resulted in him falling down a dark path.
- The Grim Reaper: He invades your garden whenever a piñata gets sick. Upon reaching it, he breaks it open.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Jardiniero expresses that Stardos was a good boy who loved piñatas as much as the rest of his family before Professor Pester warped his mind.
- Tragic Villain: Stardos used to be a kind gardener who loved piñatas before Professor Pester corrupted his mind. Now, he only gets joy out of smashing the things he once loved and cared for.
Sour Piñatas
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Sour piñatas used to be normal piñatas before they got corrupted with sour candy.
- Good Costume Switch: Any sour piñatas that have been tamed will transform into more colorful designs.
- Heel–Face Turn: Sour piñatas can be tamed to serve you.
