Mr. D

Mr. D is an antagonist in the Frogger series.

Details
Mr. D is a skeletal being that resembling the Grim Reaper who appears in Frogger: The Great Quest and Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog.

Frogger: The Great Quest


In the PlayStation 2 and PC versions of the game, Mr. D is introduced by Phroi, referring to him as the “Dark One”, when giving Frogger the task of entering the Tree of Knowledge to find and defeat the creature as the second part of a series of tests that our hero must complete in order to meet Princess Holly, ruler of the fairies. Upon reaching the bottom of the tree, Frogger encounters Mr. D, who –after letting out a deep laugh and readying his scythe– engages him in a battle. During the fight, Mr. D attacks by swinging his scythe at Frogger, taking away a sizeable amount of health with each blow, and uses his ability of levitation to actively pursue the player.

After defeating Mr. D, Frogger fires a Frog Goober at the skeleton's face, causing the right side to break off like a mask to reveal his own face underneath. After shocking Frogger with this sight, Mr. D vanishes as his laughter fills the air.

Mr. D is completely absent from the Game Boy Advance version of the game.

Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog
“If you think that you can use the elements against me, you’re dead wrong.”

-Mr. D before the final phase of his boss fight

Playing a much more active role than his last appearance, Mr. D throws Firefly Swamp into chaos by stealing the swamp’s lifeblood- the elements- and scattering them across four continents before hiding in the Temple of the Frog; prompting the Elder Council to send Frogger out to reclaim the elements and stop Mr. D. After traveling through the four continents and reclaiming each of the elements from Mr. D’s most trusted and powerful minions- King Ijnek, Rattlesnake, Stripe, and Sultan-, Frogger confronts the skeleton in the Temple of the frog to finally set things right and save Firefly Swamp. The first phase of the fight involves Mr. D using the four elements to attack Frogger- shooting out fireballs with the Fire Element, creating bottomless pits with the Earth Element, firing ice sickles with the Water Element, and sending out balls of electricity with the Wind Element- while the player dodges and tries to collect five of each element. After the player accomplishes this, Frogger chases Mr. D into the next room where they begin the second part of their battle. By successfully stealing away the four elements from Mr. D, Frogger is finally able to go on the offensive by first pressing a mystery switch in the middle of the arena, creating tiles embedded with a particular elemental power, and then pressing the switch corresponding to the selected element in one of the four corners of the arena when Mr. is standing over one of the element tiles; which causes him to take damage and render the switch inactive. However, Mr. D won’t make this easy for Frogger by chasing him around the arena with his scythe, moving erratically and forcing the player to really think on their feet. Once the player damages Mr. D with all four elements, the skeleton swears revenge prior to the ending scene celebrating Frogger’s victory and the end credits play.

Personality


In “Frogger: The Great Quest”, Mr. D’s minimal screen time, coupled with the fact that he has absolutely no lines of dialogue, does not give us much to work with in terms of knowing who he is as a character. However, given that Mr. D is referred to as “the Dark One” by the people of Fairy Town and that he resides at the bottom of a dark, ominous tree, it can be assumed that he is an anti-social, hostile individual; as seen when he attacks Frogger without a moment’s notice. In “Frogger’s Adventures: Temple of the Frog”, Mr. D’s personality is expanded upon, though not by much. His motive for stealing the elements is not made clear, but it is theorized that he did so just to see Firefly swamp wither away into nothing- suggesting a complete disregard for life.

In the latter entry, Mr. D possesses a mild sense of dry humor- using a few death puns relating to death, reflecting his Grim Reaper-esque appearance.

Quotes
“Do you really think that you can cheat death?”

- Mr. D before battling Frogger in "Frogger's Adventures: The Temple of the Frog"

Trivia

 * Mr. D is based off the Grim Reaper, the classical personification of the concept of death. As such, the “D” in Mr. D’s name is certainly short for "Death".
 * Additionally, he is a reference to Death from the Castlevania series.
 * In the Third Kingdom, magic is considered the source of life; therefore, given that logic, a.k.a. knowledge, is the opposite of magic, death and knowledge are closely related in Frogger’s world. This explains why the Tree of Knowledge appears to be dead and why the Third Kingdom’s version of the Grim Reaper lives beneath it.
 * The fact that Mr. D’s face appears to be a mask with Frogger’s face underneath it brings up two possibilities- either Mr. D represents the inner darkness in every sentient being that can drive them to kill or how every creature that has ever lived eventually becomes consumed by death.
 * The main theme of Frogger Beyond, which is colloquially referred to as the "Frogger Rap," features the lyric, "Mr. D and his crew wanna bump me." Despite this reference, Mr. D does not appear in that game in any capacity.
 * Interestingly enough, Lumpy in that game's opening makes reference to Frogger's adventure to the Temple of the Frog as having taken place prior, but nonetheless does not mention Mr. D.
 * This seemingly implies Mr. D was considered to be Frogger's recurring nemesis before he was replaced by Dr. Wani.