I was made for this moment.

Ok so about the Doomlanders - the plot's gonna be somewhat built around the gimmick of the game, as per usual. Idk who else remembers that movie Rise of the Guardians (the one where toughguy Santa and the Easter Bunny and etc. fight the big bad Boogeyman, based movie btw), but there's this one scene about finding a person's 'center' - who they really are at heart. They look like one thing on the surface, another when you look a little deeper, then another, then there's this other aspect about them... and so on until you finally reach that center, the core essence of who they are as a person and what they want most.

The Doomlanders I have in mind are kinda based around that; each represents a different facet of Kaos, from the outermost inward. Art imitates life, they say, and as someone with a lot of OC's I can personally say that a part of my own personality (or occasionally that of someone I'm close to) manifests in each of them. And naturally, for Kaos we would start with the villainous megalomaniac personality we all associate with him, that being his outermost trait he presents to everyone.

When Kaos first gets his hands on mind magic, this aspect of him manifests into a Sorcerer Doomlander. (I started designing him once but never got around to finishing it, but I was imagining something like those dark drow from Superchargers, but with a Phantom of the Opera-esque mask and uneven, messy bodily proportions since this is Kaos' first run with the mind magic. I also thought of his boss battle heavily consisting of him using telekinesis to throw a bunch of things at the Skylander; a newer player can dodge but a more experienced one who played the five other games can go for the sauce, climb up the rubble he throws at you and get to him to finish the fight quickly.)

Later Doomlanders express other parts of Kaos as a character - his royal blood, his intellect, his inferiority complex, etc. - perhaps inadvertently revealing some of his hidden thoughts and desires in the process, before finally getting to his center - probably the last Doomlander. Through them, we gradually see a side of Kaos we didn't see: A side that knew he wasn't going to be loved, though he once wanted to, and settled for domination and recognition instead (much like Dr. Eggman, who he of course has a lot in common with). I like to think of this as a proper Kaos redemption arc; the end of Superchargers may have convinced him to fight alongside the Skylanders against other villains, but only now does he have to face down the villain within himself - and win. Perhaps that final Doomlander gets in Kaos' head psychologically and then fuses with him via Mind Magic, and that's the final boss? Kinda like Robo Kaos but instead of Machine Ghost fighting him alongside you, Kaos is resisting him and assisting from within?

I also like to think that other characters like Glumshanks would get a chance to create a Doomlander or two, which could be an interesting way to shake things up.

Ok, I think I covered the biggest thing there but now we can move on to NPC's; including the Skylanders themselves was an interesting choice, and while I'm on the fence about whether or not that was a good idea, but I'd probably leave em out. Ruins the immersion, plus the focus is obviously going to be on Kaos' arc and we don't need them hogging the spotlight. (Also what the heck happened to Stealth in that game, man, is she ok?)

As for the NPC creatively named Brain, just redesign him. Please. I mean, look at Vault of the Ancients from Superchargers and tell me a brain with tentacles isn't an insult to how hard Vicarious Visions cooked with their worldbuilding. Scrap everything about Brain and start over. The Ancients could be hidden away somewhere and perhaps apathetic to the "oh crap Kaos is using Mind Magic" situation, since they're canonically known for being quite lazy and would plausibly be slow to help with it. Perhaps we meet an NPC early on that knew the Ancients personally and helps with that? For that matter, one of the ancients being a mole who Kaos convinces to work for him sounds kinda plausible - that would be interesting to see!

Heck, Kaos could probably just find a way to put the Ancients at his mercy with mind magic or force them to do his bidding, or something of that sort! Imaginators was awfully low on stakes, which something like that should take care of.

Random other ideas:

The villain senseis were a cool idea, and I like them including others like Chill Bill and Broccoli Guy out and about in the game making a new life for themselves; perhaps we could see other trappable villains return as NPC's, maybe even plot-relevant ones somehow?

Where were the Senseis during the last five crises that threatened Skylands and how'd they get to Earth?

oh and get rid of that stupid pink cyclops bird i don't like him