Speardovich

"My promotion's at stake!"
Yaridovich
Species	Machine
Eye color	Yellow
Relatives	Smithy (creator)
Debut	Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Speardovich (known as Yaridovich in the Super NES version) is a boss character from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. The third member of the Smithy Gang to appear, he is is the last boss faced in the game's Star Hill region and must be battled to retrieve the fifth Star Piece.

Background

Speardovich was one of Smithy's creations made in his factory. He had a tall humanoid form with features based on spears, as well as wielding a spear separately. He was intent on rising through Smithy's ranks and, in addition on being set on getting a promotion, he apparently also took jabs at his colleagues to look better in his master's eyes. After Smithy found out about the Star Pieces, he sent Speardovich to Seaside Town in search of one. He took a unique approach by capturing all of the townspeople (save for a Frog who recently emigrated to the city and did not seem to be aware of what was happening) and locking them all in a storehouse. He proceeded to split himself into multiple pieces, which each took on the form of a Toad. Thus, he posed as the entire populace of Seaside Town, but his performance was riddled with flaws that made him obviously suspicious. His Toad copies would move around erratically (such as shuffling back and forth behind counters or standing atop furniture) and they would speak very slowly or with confusion. Regardless, once Mario came to the town, they clued him into a Star Piece that had landed in the Sunken Ship so that he could find it for them.

After Mario returned with the Star Piece, Speardovich revealed the truth and got Mario to hand over the Star Piece by threatening the town elder with tickle torture. Once they had the Star Piece, they fled to the side of the town where Blade would be coming to pick them up. Mario and his friends caught up while they were waiting, so Speardovich considered escaping through the sea and dealing with the ensuing rust, but Jonathan Jones and his crew showed up to block off his escape route. Deprived of options, Speardovich assumed his true form and battled Mario's group. He ultimately lost and was destroyed by Mario's group, leaving behind the Star Piece and the storehouse key.

Much weaker monochrome "Machine Made" clones of Speardovich were still created on an assembly line in Smithy's Factory until it was destroyed. Speardovich was also seen with the other bosses during the ending parade.

Abilities

• HP: 1500, Attack: 125, Defense: 85, Magic Attack: 70, Magic Defense: 75
  • Thought Peek: "My promotion's at stake."
  • Thought Peek (Copy): "I'm not the real McCoy!"

Speardovich demonstrated the abilities of shape-shifting and splitting his ability into multiple parts, often in conjugation. In battle, he would use his body-splitting ability to confuse Mario's group by summoning a fake Yaridovich. The fake could be determined by his lower stats or through Mallow's Thought Peek ability. Speardovich also used his spear in battle, with attacks such as Pierce. His other special abilities included Water Blast, Willy Whisp and Flame Stone. His weakness was Thunder attacks.

The Machine Made Speardoviches also demonstrated the ability to transform into multiple smaller units known as Drill Bits.

Trivia

• His original Japanese name was "Yaridovihhi", as a play off of "yari", the Japanese word for "spear", combined with the Slavinc name ending "-vich". In the Super NES version, he was called 'Yaridovich', retaining the Japanese part of his name, but the Switch remake replaced that part with the English word 'spear', likely for the sake of making his name clearer and for the sake of consistency among boss names.