And here I am again, on the other side of a massive event that takes over half a month to organize and complete, and like always, it was a blast to do. Reading the reactions and seeing that everyone enjoys it is what drives me to keep putting on this crazy spectacle every year, but gushing about it won't do me any good here! This is a behind-the-scenes blogpost! Not a "that was fun" blogpost! I'm here to give you a glimpse behind the curtain on this massive event, which this year had 60 entrants, almost 85,000 total words if you count the pre-fite show, and 100 images!
Let's start with the preliminary stuff! A peek behind the pre-fite show!
PRE-FITE SHOW
This year's pre-fite show was probably the best yet even though it was wrapped around a gimmick. So much more of the information was relevant and even if not everything presented ended up being completely relevant, I felt like there was a lot less fluff and I didn't have to force many characters into spots. Even the pre-fite show I literally labelled "dump the others here" didn't need it, that one being the Bon Para Para one.
Anyway, from the top! Bluez, the new character doing the filming instead of the Snappers, was part of the gimmick to have the pre-fite show orchestrated instead of just happening to catch people pre-brawl, which I think works a lot better and makes more sense in context. Back in BBB1 the Snapper cameras made more sense, but the more fiters we got, the less likely these little meetings would happen. Bluez himself was based on a misremembered character from my Lemmy's Land days, where I had a cameraman for the interviews called Bluez who I thought was a ghost but was actually a Toad. I liked the idea of the ghost better, so I just made him that. He's actually a shadowghost, and if anyone ever asked a shadowghost is a type of ghost that is normally invisible and living basically on the side of our existence. They are people who had no belief in afterlife but still had a lingering spirit, and they are jammed in a side existence where they can't interact with us or us them. If you could see them, you'd see a bunch just moving around, so Bluez wouldn't stick out.
This info will probably never matter, but I keep my bases checked. I also tried to deemphasize JRM's crew and their involvement this year. No Tut-Tut, no Snappers, JRM isn't really mentioned much in the Brawl proper either. It's Borax Kid and Bluez, baby, and Whitey because he's the ref.
Now, the Secret Fiters getting their chance to shine was born from the WCW idea. Goops sent me the Patchisaurs and I began cooking up the invasion you'd see later, with Steel Komodo's Guiron and Draco's Mosasaurus tacked on when they didn't get in through Secret Fiter roulette either. I think Cornwind said Rex miscounted his entrants after Rex said he gets three, but the Patchisaurs are a team entrant so he only had three.
Anyway, with three Secret Fiters showing up in Brawl, I was like, "what about the others?" So the pre-fite show began to form. Para Para was one of the first ideas, and slowly the others slipped into place, although I felt Azula could have been done better and I do regret that Scoopa Koopa's feed didn't have one. I considered having Koopa paint the Happy meal mascot and present it as a Koopy Meal to show he's trying to be friendly and he's fed up with it, but it seemed forced and it was already cramped. They instead got a token reference in the bad guy alliance pre-show.
Another scrapped part of the Scoopa Koopa feed was that Koopa was gonna say you couldn't pay for an alliance with him, and then Lauren would offer 20 bucks. Koopa would say that's hardly enough, then it would go up to 40, than 60, and then Koopa would say some ridiculous number he'd require only to accept the 60 when he gets a "really?" look. The alliance might have given Koopa some early game presence but other than that it seemed unnecessary.
Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with how each Pre-Fite Show did something meaningful. Setting up alliances (although I was never happy with the Light Guardians name, I just didn't want to copy the Warriors of Fite again and couldn't think of a cohesive name for the group), Junko foreshadowed that Guiron and Mosasaurus were on board although Wailord faked out that, Jackal got the vials, we got to know who the Blind Scorpion Nun is, and all the while all of 2014 and 2015 Secret Fiters got cameos. Here's a small list if you want a who's who, although as I've said elsewhere, Secret Fiters who appeared in RP after being rejected didn't show up here (like Lucemon, Gigan, Male Wii Fit Trainer).
1:Para Para Dancers- Spy
2: Azula- Brinehammer
3: Dex Dogtective- Spy 2014
4: Letho of Gulet- Ven
5: Hale and Hardy- Ruby Chao
6: Roman Reigns- Cornwind
6: Happy- Harpy 2014
8: Arle Nadja- Harpy
9: Inferno Cop- Ruby Chao 2014
9: Problem Sleuth- Draco 2014
9: Christopher Walken dancing to Attack on Titan: Hypothetical Tom Fiter 2014
9: Swarm Lord- Sheep 2014
I'm pretty happy with the Secret Fiter we did get in the Brawl proper, but it was nice to get the rejected faces out there.
Now then, let's move towards actual Brawl Stuff!
BORAX KID, THE ARENA, AND YOU
Okay, so there is no you, but this portion will cover the setting and setup of the Brawl! Borax Kid was chosen after being denied a spot as an entrant last year mainly because of the Vegas craze making everyone want to set up a character running a casino or an arcade or some other business around the place. I knew if I gave Borax Kid a place to run even after setting it up last year in August or something that his place would get ignored. So, Borax Kid was put elsewhere, and that elsewhere was here-where! I always try to have some water in the arena these days, it helps fiters like Wailord who would suck on land have their normal advantages. I also try to give an obscured zone, the rock spires of last year or the borax spires of this year. Things that make the arena not a big flat terrain. Well, these ideas rolled together into the idea of having Borax Kid convert his river boat casino into a riverboat arena!
Matter alteration powers made the lake's existence easy, and I made sure it's not drinking water because I'm concerned with destabilizing the Las Vegas setting, although we've already been pretty rough to this city so far. Still, precautions. Originally, I didn't even think much of how the bottom decks could be used, and we only saw them in use really for the three-way battle of Jackal, the nun, and Courier and the hallway fite of Edea and Rainbow Dash. I never want the fiters too scattered, and this year we even had that alarm come up telling Courier he has to go above deck so no one can camp out in a hiding spot (Rose's perch is perfectly fine because she can be attacked while on it). Mostly I just planned the obvious sinking of the ship, tipping of the boat, minor things. Captain Haddock was put on board just to tease ya'll really. I knew you guys would expect me to kill him! But nope, he just did his captaining duties and served as one reason why Junko was on ship before the Brawl. Having actual characters show up to die or fite feels wrong, whereas Arthur Bishopfish or Swackhammer first appeared for the Brawl and only to be in the Brawl. If Haddock or Borax Kid want to join the battle, they have to sign up proper.
But what of Clint Hurdle you ask? And why was he there? First off, the joke of a boring celebrity, and I was even asking my roommate about baseball managers YEARS ago. Like, this setup has been planned I think since 2013, with the Mystery Fiter being the sole impetus. The Flying Dutchman has been spinning around in my head that long as the Mystery Fiter, and Clint Hurdle was setup solely to be why he shows up and replaces our fakeout Mystery Fiter. He didn't get involved at all mostly because the Flying Dutchman placed low, or else he might have been used as a hostage or something to manipulate the Dutchman. No plans ever really formed beyond that and he's given very few mentions in the Brawl itself, to the point I wasn't sure if he should be in attendance at all :V
Anyway, you want to hear about Dunston right? Dunston was meant to be the ultimate joke at my expense in picking these Mystery Fiters. A reference to a movie no one but me and a handful of people remember because it wasn't very good but also hard to forget. The last four Mystery Fiters were all recognizable to most, Mac Tonight or B-Rex less so then Monstars and Green Giant but still mostly recognized. I would actually like to know how many of you knew Dunston beforehand! But I was hoping people would be like, "man, that's a terrible mystery fiter" so I could have the Dutchman show up and kill him before the Brawl even started. That's why Dunston is in the first post after all! Usually Mystery/Secret show up in post 2.
The Secret Fiter ended up being Adventure, a pirate book, and the two other books from Pagemaster. One thing about Secret Fiters is I'm always surprised what people end up picking. Sheep submitting Pagemaster characters was a great surprise, and that they got in allowed me to do a Secret Fiter fakeout too! Gooper drew the image of the empty box and had the cute Easter Egg of the Mystery Fiter items, and I didn't want to tell him it was the Secret Fiter missing since that would mean, like, there would just be a Twilight book in there or something. It would be a book though, which the Secret Fiter was! But I like the Mystery Fiter trinkets better because there were more of them and you could deduce what was going on. I'll say more on the Pagemaster books later in the character section.
The last bit of setup was the Gorillion dollars. This idea came pretty early when the Vegas setting was locked-in, but I think at first I was thinking 5 votes again and the Gorillion. Eventually, I caved and changed it. I also waffled on how much it should be worth, in the end deciding 8 votes so it is basically a step above a first place vote for the lucky recipient. Just wanted to add some luck to the votes without tipping them too much.
Also, the regular lotto should be mentioned. Some awesome characters were sadly missed, and I am disappointed that Aiden not getting in seems like an omen that he won't be appearing this year based on Ven's words. Even if I wanted to put in the whole lotto, Blue... come on, I didn't want that in the Brawl! Well, I could have done quite a few jokes actually, so it's not like she killed the chance of full lotto acceptance, it really was the fact I didn't know if I could handle 60 fiters even.
Besides my normal mid-writing meltdown, this year really wasn't that different from last year. There was more work yeah, but after a single day delay compounded with the already adjusted schedule I did get finished on time (although Rainbow Dash was slow on pictures because she didn't adjust her schedule) and I didn't feel the crunch except at the usual Crunch-Feeling point. I had points where I could decompress and relax and still the Brawl was almost completely done the day of the pre-fite show. A little tinkering, and next year I certainly can handle the fabled Big Bar Brawl 64.
Probably going to shorten sign-ups by one day to accommodate. Don't want the actual Brawl date sliding around too much. There were days we got like one or two signups so its clear some people drag their feet because they have room to do so.
THE BRAWL, THE EVENTS, AND THE RESULTS
Let me start by saying: Thank fucking goodness Gooper finally won. Although I would love for everyone to one day snag a win, Gooper had victory teased twice and I would have felt so bad if Silence got second instead of first this year. The epilogue this year was easy to come up with, although I think my art failed in conveying the emotion I tried to evoke with Silence, although I think Blade was spot on there!
Before moving on to the brawl events and the course of the thing, I'll just answer what's on everybody's mind: Why did Blade make it to the end? One reason is because Silence is the first entrant with an assistant to win, and with her going the distance, I wanted to prove that assistants weren't just there to give some kills to people who might not otherwise get them. Blade got a kill of his own, he made it all the way to the end, he's a shining example that assistants aren't useless, even if he did get kind of crushed ignominiously under some rocks last year. He helped Silence take the win LITERALLY, he weakened Cauren with the noisy attack on Ensemble, who was kind of Cauren's assist, so he beat another assistant in the finale! Anyway, another reason was just the novelty of an assistant making it to the end. It was so fun to see people in chatzy saying "we all know Blade is going to die" as I wrote the Brawl.
Also before I move on to discussion of the brawl: who did I want to win? ...I dunno, but I would have voted for Wailord that's for sure. Although we had an amazing cast this year and had multiple entries I've been wanting for years finally show up, I never really thought of who I wanted to win much or who I would vote for. Wailord was a quick pick, although I would have likely tossed a vote to Courier too in hopes of bumping him up the rankings. I'm pretty happy with the end results, although I'm not happy that some people aren't happy. Cornwind finally got a high ranking spot with a #3 position, and SK continues to dance around in the high end of the results. Rainbow Dash did surprisingly bad, although her rushed entry probably explains that. Kevin got the most votes with around 50 or so and placed 5th so he wasn't cheated, and many of our highest placing guys felt they belonged there.
Sadly, I don't think I was very good at KO assignment this year. Siren managed to die with no KOs on her belt, because when I did the spider-web where each character gets lines drawn on a sheet of paper to show who they kill and who they are killed by, some mistakes were made. Both Junko and Siren were slated to kill Beck, and Junko got hers planned out before I realized my error. Wailord's kill on Lanky Kong was supposed to be a separate battle rather than a double KO, with the fite going down like the Puftos battle in DK64 before Wailord eats Lanky Kong to kill him. Junko would even find the orangutan's skeleton inside the whale later even though Lanky Kong died like ten minutes earlier. I am disappointed that the Silence victory seemed so obvious at the end, since I gave Cauren the Ash kill and syntax and all that. Silence killing Ash would have been difficult to manage but not impossible, but I don't think I would have done it different if Cauren had won instead. Silence had the previous champion as a KO to make you think "well, she has killing Mac to brag about," and Blade had killed Junko just before. Cauren had a bunch of kills by then though so I think I handled that badly.
Anyway, away from the results, we have the course of the brawl! The Mystery Fiter having a ghost ship made for a very good focal point for early action, and its clear and present danger meant it was reasonable to not ignore it. The Be Brave Guy was put on board when a spark of inspiration hit me, Chao's recent interest in Raven's Cry and its presence in chatzy reminding me of a great video by Jerma with the Be Brave Guy in it. It's a small joke that works for those who get it and is harmless if you don't.
The alliance battles were fun little diversions too, centralizing action although I probably should have thrown Tenshi on the good side or something to placate the need for her to show earlier. Last year we had the two alliances, but they never really fought at full membership. This year, the Light Guardians and Deadly Nightshades had two showdowns, and I was really happy when I was able to make the more threatening, more serious second alliance, especially since I could have a reversal of their fortune. First time round the bad guys got their butt kicked, second time the good guys were faltering before a strong push back.
The WCW invasion was in the same vein of Blade lasting in that it was meant to play with your expectations. We've had random guys show up mid-brawl before just to be killed, but the invaders made a mark and took down two entrants. I selected Moosh and WALL!! carefully, with WALL!! always dying in unusual ways allowing the Rust Monster to work and Moosh being a Rainbow Dash entrant and she likely wouldn't mind the loss to an invader. Killing a big entry like Sarah or Jonesy with an invader might lead to a sour taste in their owner's mouth, big names need to go down big or something like that. Comedic characters or people with a more casual air towards the Brawl could be sacrificed to make the WCW impress with their entry. We can't have everyone being Hella Jeff and showing up just to die after all! Ruins the gravity of the invasion!
The boat had to sink. If it didn't, people would have been sad it didn't. Some people say they would have liked to see it last, but they would also being singing the opposite tune if that was the case. You can't have a boat arena that doesn't sink! The engine room filling up with water was an afterthought as I wrote the Lheg'ho and Shimmer battle, and I was worried people thought it should be sinking because of that, but it's a big boat! Guiron left a huge gash in it and it didn't sink either! I knew it had to be Regigigas to sink it though, the big guy pulling it over and changing the arena a bit worked so well. I put it near the end mainly because keeping the characters focused in one area is vital when the numbers are big, and I wanted to get as much from the boat as possible before I ditched it.
Not much of the battle happened in the water, save where Wailord was involved. Moosh and Keiran ended up dying in it, but for the most part these fiters weren't fit for swimming battles, so I kept most action on deck. The balconies, the engine room, the banquet hall, and the pillars were the only real areas besides the boat and the desert that played a big role at any point, and I think its better that way. The arena needs to be simple on most levels with little areas of complexity. You don't want to have to tax your mind to figure out where the action is going on!
Probably this year more than most I feel I got most of the things I planned in without sacrificing much. Tiny things were scrapped or changed to be better. Small scrapped things: Tenshi takes on Kevin to prove she's the best instead of just natural course; Blade would have used Jonesy's flamethrower and other heat sources to hurt Ensemble as well, Silence and Blade escaping on motorcycle into the desert as giant Cauren chases, Amity turns into a big mass of various different transformations of entrants just to lift the bad guys and good guys solely to set them apart like a mom punishing naughty children.
Surprisingly, the art was one of the bigger issues this year. I think it came out fine with some of the best work yet, but my helpers went off on their own quite often or misinterpreted things. Gooper made a pair of images with Ko I couldn't fit anywhere, Ko methods had to be slightly altered to make sense, and some people had battle damage missing (Yuugi's horn was broken before she died). I think the art was the best its ever been, but the miscommunication as real.
Any other events will be discussed in the character section as they are more specific.
THE CHARACTER SECTION!
Alright folks! The big attraction! Last year you asked for it, so this year I WILL talk about each and every entrant, and even if you don't want to read all of it, I'll label each small section with a character's name so you can find who you want to read about! But first, a general look.
You'd think 60 entrants would lead to a field of filler and the like, but while I was updating the sporcle quiz to include this year's entrants, I realized how strong the pack is in comparison to the other years. That's not to say other years were packed with filler, but I feel like each character this year had a place and role, I didn't squeeze anyone anywhere. Some unfortunately got skewed attention and the like, but I felt like things were grouped nicely, we had a good cast of new and old, returning and just arriving, all that razzmatazz. Even Rainbow Dash and CKR brought back familiar faces, and characters like Moosh have a bigger presence in RP than some characters who actually appear in the bar and plots because of their consistent appearances in fites and the Brawl.
I am very happy with our big group, and I hope no one felt like their character wasn't given attention, because I felt like I did a good job considering the load! The brawl is nearly double the length of last year's because of all the time spent describing stuff!
Before I begin the breakdown of each character, I'll explain my entrants: Shimmer is a favorite on my cast, and I felt it would be strange not to have her enter at least one Brawl. I feel like the Brawl needs those big names and faces, and even if we don't get them all, the Brawl is a good point where you can look at RP in a broad stroke. So many faces all in one area, even just the title card is good for sizing up our scope. Also, thank goodly gracious Goops did that this year. It is so beautiful and I want it as my wallpaper so bad and it really got things off to a good start whereas the other title cards in BBB3 and BBB4 were admissions of limitations. So... next is Mac, who had to come back, then Blajboa who I did for plot reasons mostly, but I was very happy with people's reactions to her this year so far so I didn't feel like I was throwing her in against people's wishes. The last entry was a task and a half. At first, Vector entering with MAC was considered, but I felt it wasn't in character for him when I actually fleshed him out a bit. Samurai the Cleric was considered to make a comeback because I have a cute thing planned if he ever does enter, Jaws still feels like he needs a chance to enter and be himself, Reject is still on my own wishlist although I feel like he's gone for good now. Jokerton wasn't considered but I would have liked him back when he was emotionless... but mostly it was down to Broderick and Jasper. Jasper had the stronger personality and history and I could have him do something a dick needed to do like kill a cutie or something, but Broderick had the potential to get a new hat! Broderick also had greater versatility, and Jasper might still get his chance in the future whereas Broderick probably wouldn't.
Anyway, let's forget about me and move on to everybody! We'll go in reverse standings order, so... I guess never mind, let's start with me :V
Blajboa: Blajboa was a difficult entry for me and I was worried her complex biology would lead to situations where it got overly complicated for no good reason. Last place was probably the best place for her, so that casual readers can quickly move passed her instead of tripping up when she fought and used her weird biology to full effect. It also means bad things for her character, but she'll pep up eventually since she's not going to dwell on it forever. She just really took a blow to the ego that may be irreversible but at the same time, maybe also needed in the long run. I never once call her Boa in the Brawl I don't think, so no one who doesn't know the nickname will be confused. I also described her movement in vague terms so nobody gets bored with the longer descriptions I do in RP when she attacks. You don't read about her mass redistribution in the brawl, so she's basically Mr. Fantastic if you don't know her. An early kill meant an easy kill method too, and no need to pull over when a loud noise goes off to show her falling apart. Also, I am perfectly fine with last place and prefer I get it over someone who might resent it.
Secret Fiters: Adventure, Fantasy, and Horror. I wish I had made more book puns. Their death order was done with Adventure last so I didn't have to clarify if they were a team entry or if Adventure simply had two allies. I do also wish I had them pull more props from the pages, but I think I got some fun KO methods out of them with characters who might struggle to earn some otherwise. So and So got some good book-reader jokes in, Tit got to kill something it could believably kill, and Bottleman got to do something really neat looking. Adventure being a pirate was so fortuitous too, allowing their dramatic entry with the Dutchman. I'm not sure if the Secret Fiter would have been absent from the box if we had anyone else, save maybe Letho of Gulet or something. All in all, they were fun and quick, although I feel I let Fantasy down a bit. Not enough sass from her!
Tit: My objection to Periwinkle's possible entry in the Brawl was that it was just a talking cat. The Tit is less than that. Periwinkle had a personality, it could talk and maybe be a morality pet for someone like Cauren. The Tit, it was just a bird with a funny name that can sing one song. So many of the jokes at its name's expense would be made before the Brawl that anything I could do would be stale, and the one song it could sing was not only given away in the entry, but it did a similar performance as an effortpost. At first, the Tit's entry really worried me because I was given little to work with, but I turned it around with some time. I explained its presence with a cute bit in the pre-fite show where JRM is just being grumpy with a bird messing with his Brawl and being petty by getting folks to kill it. Luckily, most of the jokes about the name pre-brawl were always on the nose and attention was drawn to them without any subtlety. Characters always laughed as they mentioned it or something. I find a joke better when you don't point out its a joke, so a lot of narration about the Tit was the kind you could read and say "that sounds so wrong!" without a character coming in and saying "IT'S A TIT GET IT" and then laughing. Also, the song was used more as an attack than a performance, so it wasn't quite the show the effortpost put on. It was its own beast. At one point Gooper suggested to Tom it should enter with a Literal Ass as its assistant, which I'm glad it didn't because that would have derailed the pre-fite show plans, although the jokes would have been easier. People make jokes about an ass, but when people make Tit jokes, its usually about tits or titties, not a singular tit. It's early defeat meant I didn't need to worry about it doing too much, so my initial misgivings were quickly dispelled and I made the joke work. I think. I hope. All in all, the Tit was good, and I enjoyed it.
Also, because of the Tit, I listened to a lot of Frank Sinatra when I did fite art :V
Lauren: The treasure hunter alliance was probably the first and only time all of a user's characters will be grouped under the same umbrella. Lauren's power to make lava is something we haven't seen yet in the Brawl and presented a unique challenge because I don't like to write lava that doesn't act like lava except when I do shut up. What I mean is I tried to make this lava more realistic and since she fought just Jewel Man really I was able to ignore things like "why isn't his skin burning from being so close?" because he's a robot! Also, the treasure hunter bit made it easy to pick who would take her down, but what surprised me was how early she went down. One strange thing I noticed is that it seemed like RCG was entering characters into RP with his entries rather than just the Brawl, as in I don't know how I could incorporate some of the info given despite my best efforts to do it as a joke. Still, it was a shame she went down first of the hunters but she had a decent fite before she left.
Nightmare/Ziggo: After a bit of plying, CKR decided to actually go through with her idea of using the Battlebots in the Brawl! Initially people were wondering if they were remote controlled but thankfully the WCW stuff allowed me to make them their own entrants, although I considered just having dudes off to the side remote controlling them. I did like my idea of the Jackal adding Ziggo to his dagger as a modification, but it ended up only mattering once and I wish I could have used it some more. It was probably for the best these two went down early, since being around late game would be a little weird for these two robots.
Mystery Fiter: As I said earlier, the Flying Dutchman was in the works as a Mystery Fiter for a while. Back in the day, any Spongebob episode this guy was in was always guaranteed to be a good one, and he's a cool ghost with a range of powers! He's probably one of the few Spongebob characters who can appear in RP without some contrived reason as well, since the others are Sandy and a bunch of sea creatures who would dry up on land. He was a perfect fit to kill Dunston out of the blue and as soon as Labrys entered I knew she would end up killing the Dutchman. I've said before I was worried he would appear in Ven's pirate plot last year, but I lucked out and got to use him in the end!
Edea: Poor Edea. I didn't expect her to place so low! I did have fun with the asterisks though, trying to use ones we haven't seen much of or using them in unusual ways. The Dark Knight thing was originally more brutal where she kills Nightmare by pushing its blade back into it while it cuts up her hands. If she had made it further we might have seen something crazy, and I already had considered her becoming a summoner and summoning the jet plane bird Hresvelgr or however you spell that to fite Rainbow Dash. Ultimately though, low placement meant she didn't get to shine like a crazy diamond, but I had fun with the impromptu Bravely Default alliance with Jackal. Edea was mostly a huge bag of ideas that I was forced to only grab a few from in the end.
Bottleman: Bottleman, Bottleman, wish I had more info on Bottleman. I wanted Bottleman to die when Lheg'ho went inside him and pushed out, shattering him, but I wasn't sure if that was possible since Bottleman's storage is unusual. I did like the picture I drew of him drowning Horror, and I think the small part where Bottleman was already crushed but people on both sides fought to try and either allow or prevent him reforming was a twist on a battle we haven't seen yet. I almost wonder if I should have had him come back together, but then he would have just been crushed immediately afterward! Even though he placed higher than Lauren, getting a hold of the God's Stone would have been a chore considering the set up of her KO, so he never got to use lava powers. Instead, he got to be a bottle!
Emma: ELF WITH A CHAINSAW?! Perfect for getting rid of Cauren's pesky nanoplates! Really, that was one of the first things I thought of when I read her chainsaw can cut through starship hulls. At once I didn't want to ignore the nanoplates but wanted them out of the way so Cauren isn't an invincible powerhouse. Emma also was great in that I could have used her to kill most anyone, although low placement meant she only killed What's-Her-Face and spurred Cauren on to get an early kill to make people think she might be eliminated in the first half or something. Her chainsaw also was a huge player in the brawl, able to turn some one-sided battles around, make Blade a threat, give Amanda something to put her on even ground with some of the late game. An overpowered chainsaw opened so many possibilities!
Rainbow Dash: Sometimes I say I don't want Rainbow Dash to enter every year. Sometimes I think I would be sad if she didn't. One thing though, is I liked that she brought something new every year, and apparently, this year, bringing nothing was her new thing. I noticed people bringing up her lack of a weapon a lot so I decided to use that as a niggling thought in the pony's head. She wanted to be the best but everyone was like "pffft, shoulda brought a weapon!" and that was getting to her head. She's always been proud and tried to steal the win, but this time around she was always trying to prove herself in a different way. She didn't want to look useless, to be defined by what she brought with her, but she ultimately had to cave in and claim a weapon to accommodate her lost wing. Also, her and Mac had to have their final showdown, and I'm glad Mac won that. These two have been with us since the start so they had to have one last hurrah together, although I bet Rainbow Dash will be back next year with a proper weapon. Incidentally, Rainbow Dash the user tried to make Tank her Secret Fiter, because she never reads the Secret Fiter rules :P
Jackal: THE JACKAL! A JACKAL! ITS A JACKAL! A JACKAL? The thief from Bravely Default was an interesting addition in that I had him do thiefy things! Getting Letho of Gulet's vials was a decision on the spot rather than a preplanned action. This was the first year I wrote the Pre-Fite show before the brawl, save BBB1 and BBB2 where they were both written live, so I could adjust later things in accordance to my whims. The ice vials were one of them, and they added a new dimension to the banquet hall battle. I think I used most of his kit pretty well and he probably got more injuries than anyone else thanks to the Blind Scorpion Nun and Courier and Hulk Hogan and Rainbow Dash and Ziggo picking on him. The only issue I faced was how loyal he should be to Edea, and in the end I settled on kind of helping her but with a cut and run attitude if need be.
Jewel Man: Oh Jewel Man~ You were fun to play with in the Pre-Fite show, and your stand against Belinda was quite a way to prove how cool you are, although your death method was one I was particularly proud of. Working in the wrestling moves here was harder than Fite 100 and I think one goes without being named because it didn't really need to be namedropped, but what at first was a hurdle became a pretty decent inclusion when I got creative with the balcony for the Malachite Swan and such. Between his battle with Belinda and Lauren, I think I've used Jewel Man more creatively than previous fites, although we didn't get to see cute things like his jumping when you jump bug and the like. Don't have to use everything in the bag, as long as what you use works well!
Blind Scorpion Nun: Rainbow Dash's first OC, she arose from a joke I made about my sister's idol being, well, a blind scorpion nun. The idea is the nun is incredibly devout but also incredibly murderous, and a running joke with me and my sister is that since my room neighbors her closet and there is a lot of banging in there, that she's doing evil rituals and sacrifices. SO, these coalesced into this lady, and after some suggesting of it, Rainbow Dash eventually decided entering her was a good idea, even though I had to hastily make the art because it was a surprise in the end. The Pre-Fite Show established the nun's personality, a strong believer in Christ but a murderous monster to the sinful, and it basically made it easy for her to pick targets in the Brawl. Picking on the sinful debauchees, which is apparently the word for someone who partakes in debauchery, evolved into attacking the murderer and thief in the banquet hall. Her Christian affiliation also allowed an inversion with Courier where he says he's the angel and her the demon. Also, I played her as straight as a blind competitor can be done without being useless. Sister Alice was always aware of the place, but this nun felt her blindness as an impediment. Being a big scorpion helped accommodate that though, and it opened a path for some Fallout references and made Courier a perfect opponent for her.
Belinda: I had tons of fun playing her sound manipulation in interesting ways, and the BELINDA WHIRLWINDA is one of those small events that mix things up a bit. Gooper's art with the gifs and all made it even cooler, so even though Belinda placed surprisingly low, I still like I got a lot of work out of her. Sound manipulation isn't a stranger in RP, but I tried to use it in ways we don't see often, and I did some little bits and bobs with her control over sheet music or whatever you want to call that. Aoide herself made no appearances besides being mentioned as a power source because I felt like that would sort of break the weapon/assistant rule in some way, but a god's blessing is hardly either of those. Belinda didn't use her muscles much though, mostly because despite being a hefty and built lady, her other powers are just so much more interesting than "punching hard" :P Also, the pre-fite show was meant to show that she was somewhat prideful but able to step away from it once she's cooled down. Belinda was able to refuse Azula's note because it wasn't an immediate thing to address whereas WALL!! taunting her riled her up until she could pull herself away. Not a big thing really, but a thing!
Bikker: Bikker, the mutant with complicated biology who is actually rather easy to describe! Bikker had to get their kill with their Stinger missile, and they just had to not use that crown because it is so perfect for them not to. When I had Bikker attack Keiran and the Light Guardians and Pech, I didn't expect the crazy battle that ensued, especially since none of Kevin's random powers were planned before the writing started. So the bee body swapping was a bit of fun and I liked Bikker's KO method because lately I keep making similes to hitting hornet's nest and such and at some point we had to see a beehive break, so why not Bikker? Also, I wrote some of the Stinger missile description out so that we got that part of Bikker but I couldn't write all the mutant would say because we don't have the time for that! Still, the swarm of bees was fun and I liked beestings being a different means of attack.
Keiran: At first I was kind of sad Keiran wasn't bringing a lightsaber or a blaster, but then I came up with 1001 Ways to use a Grappling Hook and I'm so glad he brought the liquid cable launcher. Between tearing down the balcony, blocking the trumpet's horn, and pulling apart Bikker, that thing put in a lot of work! I had considered using more Force powers like the drain to help increase his stamina, but as Keiran got hurt more I thought he'd have less control of the Force rather than more. Yes, the Force can normally push Sarah, but he was weakened and couldn't do the push on such a heavy object :V Despite having Keiran in the couple's fite, I felt like I really did more with the character here, even though we didn't see everything he could do. I also didn't know how much I should mention Lyssia and went with not at all, since it would probably just be bad news or explaining power that never ended up being borrowed.
Courier Six: Ah, the Courier. He was meant to be my instrument to kill fan favorites, but he didn't place high enough for that. I still had him target Amity to get Ash in trouble, but otherwise he was pretty much just a schemer and while he was a ruthless killer, no one wanted to shanghai him for killing the nun. I've said it elsewhere, but this year people who brought guns were allowed to get in tons of shots. Expert marksmen shouldn't be missing with their bullets, but I did connive it so that those who got shot could usually take it. Courier only missed when he was doing lazy sprays and cover fire. Attacks he focused on targeting during hit. I did like making Fallout references when I could and having Courier be kind of smarmy and mysterious at times, and had he made it further we might have seen some sort of grand plan or something to show how crafty he is. But this spot meant he just got to do some neat things before Ash turned that "poison filter" mention left over from his profile against Janet and Gaea into something relevant :P
Wheatley/Meat Boy: Team Meatley's little vehicle was a difficult little contraption in that the less I tried to understand it the better. It wasn't hard to work with or anything, but I felt like it was a difficult beast to imagine, especially since only one Meat Boy was pulling the vehicle around. It was almost like a rickshaw! Had I known there would be a Meat Boy death counter I would have made sure to mention his deaths quantitatively, but ultimately I just kind of tossed them around with reckless abandon instead. Little meat cubes exploding all the time, what's not to love? Kisume killed him who knows how many times to say the least. Wheatley himself has that ridiculous personality that is easy to work with, and his stuff earlier this year made him a natural fit in the Deadly Nightshades V.1.0. Their combat capabilities, though, were hilariously limited, so that's why they stuck to small scuffles like launching Kisume or catapulting Bottleman and Horror away. They were no match for someone like Beck though, hence his defeat of them. And since Meat Boy was basically unkillable, I didn't see the need to make some reason for him to stay permadead, especially with him agreeing to be a good little guy and leave when Wheatley died. We didn't kill Widow Baby in BBB1 after all, and she revived after death!
WALL!!/Kletchatyy: What better year for Moosh to return than the year where a tablecloth can make him a bunch of food. The moment these two entered they were destined for each other, which was good because if there were no big eaters Kletchatyy might have been dead weight. Maybe I would have gotten creative with WALL!! dragging her around and dumping food on opponents, but even without Moosh we could have done Sarah, who would have been more respectful throughout and Kletchatyy would have likely died inadvertently instead of when a bear's tumbly got to rumbly. WALL!! is great for fites because of his crazy personality, and he always dies in crazy ways in the end. At the same time I have to find ways to make a face in the wall useful, I have to find ways for such a character to die, and between being dissolved on a salt wall and eaten, leaving to whine to his mom (soon to be nan, retcons ho!), drinking to the point he fell apart, or this year devoured by the Rust Monster, he's had a few crazy ways to kick the bucket. I also was glad I found a unique use for him, basically beavering down the first borax pillar and making them more than just Rose's perch. I feel like I could go many rounds with ol' WALL!! before I run out of ways to make him both ridiculous and somehow effective in battle.
Moosh: Moosh bumbles back into the Brawl just in time to find foes tailor made for him. The Custard Cats came back with his rib and Kletchatyy was a match made in heaven, and ultimately, despite it being an old character back with little changes, Moosh is the other cornerstone of Rainbow Dash's cast, with Commanderson a far third. The bear didn't get to be as fierce this year, mostly being a joke except when he got rough with the cats and had to fite a kaiju as best he could. Initially Moosh barely put up a fite against Guiron and I felt that sucked, so he has a small struggle to show he's not just going to go down without a fite. Still, it was one of those battles that was so severely skewed that Moosh would have had to make a Herculean effort to hope and actually scathe his opponent, and the bear is a lazy, dopey fellow who needs the proper food motivation to do so! Sadly, eating the two remaining Custard Cats never came up in his mind and it likely wouldn't be reward enough. I'm sure he's scarfing down a lot of hospital food as he recovers from being impaled on a giant knife nose.
Labrys: I still haven't played a single Persona game despite owning Persona 4 Golden and I have no idea how to transcribe a Boston accent without it sounding more like a New Yorker. The Boston accent translator I used just gave me the same things I typed in out the other end, so I just snooped at Draco's RP and snatched the more obvious Boston bits to use. Maybe it still didn't come out perfectly, but dialogue is not too important in the Brawl and is usually used for jokes or to set up big changes in flow. The moment Labrys entered with her Shadow stuff I knew the mystery fiter I had lined up was a perfect kill for her. Also, sorry if I've repeated myself in this character breakdowns, its taking a long time and they intersect a lot! Anyway, I got to do fun little things, especially with the chain-knuckles, in her battles, and despite having a giant axe I felt that was her most versatile piece of equipment. It's probably for the best I never had to get to the point where she fought a good guy, because that would have been hard to justify, and although Jonesy ain't a bad guy, she's definitely crazy enough to force Labrys's hand.
Saxton Hale: Saxton HAAAAAAALLLEEEE... gets 39th place. A running joke loses legs eventually, although I was surprised how far Hale sank in the rankings. I think I got to do most of what I wanted to do with him at least, a showdown with Regigigas was a must with the two being the biggest muscly meatheads around, and strange scaling in the art aside, he was the perfect person to do the crazy kill of tearing Guiron's knife nose (knose, if you will) off and jamming it back into the rest of him. If Gamera had entered though, those two would have had to face off instead, but we got Hale being Hale a bit before he had to die to Regigigas. One reason Broderick ended up with Hale's hat was to preserve that crazy flavor Hale brings to the Brawl, and also because Hale would be the least likely to ever give it otherwise. Mostly though, Broderick took on the role to keep the spirit alive, although he fell 10 short of filling Hale's famous 5th place. A lot of Hale ideas just ended up funneled into Broderick basically, so it was like we never lost the Australian :V
Beck: When Beck reentered this year I was worried I wouldn't be able to do much with him. I used all his powers pretty much last year, but when I wrote him this year, I didn't feel any of that initial perceived issue. I used his powers differently, which is one of the awesome things of having characters enter multiple times. We know what Beck can do at this point so I don't have to showcase everything, I just pick what works in the situation. I also made sure Beck got to be by his buddy Ash's side this year to make up for last year, although oftentimes factors kept them apart when either Ash or Beck got the main focus of attention. It's a bit strange to believe that even after two Brawl runs, the game he's the star of hasn't been released yet! Maybe if he does decide on going for round 3 we'll have an idea of what he can do in his source game, but until then, his current moves and abilities are apparently not an issue!
Jonesy: Jonesy has been on my Brawl wishlist since 2011, although I'm glad she entered it now. Old Jonesy was a more complex and nuanced character, which is great in RP, but in the Brawl you can't see much of that depth unless they make it to the very end. As time wore on, Jonesy began to confirm my theory that everyone save Gooper's characters are basically poisoned by their time with the bar, and her devil-may-care let's-get-crunk present attitude is a lot more fun and crazy to play with. Old Jonesy could have fought pretty awesomely with her flamethrowers and all, and she was awesome in 2011 fites, but new Jonesy's attitude allowed her to say crazy stuff, rile up Labrys, get pissed at the Nun, use her omnus powers in fun but not overpowered ways. She's an extremeophile, much like Impossibear, which is the weirdest comparison I've ever made, but she got to use it in ways the bear could only have dreamed of doing. I did wonder if she should have made a cherry blossom tree sprout and call it "stupid weeaboo shite" or something, but I thought she might also say "I don't care if its anime, these trees are pretty as hell." So the tree stayed, and she just insults the crappy cigar she smokes instead just to look cool. Jonesy died the way she died just so I could write that Yuugi punches someone so hard they explode, although I did figure Jonesy would just go around fiting cool chicks for fun anyway, so Yuugi killing Jonesy was a snug fit.
Sunflower: Sunflower~ If you are wondering if the Sunflower evoked the same initial reaction the Tit did, than here's your answer: it didn't! Even though the Sunflower was definitely the more frequent butt of "this character winning would be ridiculous" jokes, the moment I heard the idea for it I was like "cool! It can summon the Plants vs. Zombies plants! That has legs! ...roots, actually, but my point stands!" CKR's vague entries often let me do as I please too, and if you are going to say that is the player planting the plants in PvZ, then I point you to the song the Sunflower sings where it makes peashooters without any help with sunlight. So, the Sunflower got occasional references to it gathering sunlight as a half joke on it not doing anything really and a half foreshadowing on its eventual coup-de-grace. I immediately made up the idea of Chica getting her ass literally devoured by the Chomper plant, to the point it was probably one of the first ideas at all for the Brawl's course of events. I do feel her final attack was much shorter than expected, but the Sunflower itself is easily killed and dragging out the attack without any other progress might wear out its welcome quick. I think I did a decent job of having all the plants attack, and the joke about Freddy asking for pot and getting a Literal Pot was another early planned joke. Although some lotto entrants sadly didn't get in to make room for this flower, it certainly had my mind swimming with ideas at least.
Siren: SIREN! Sorry I didn't give you any KOs! I meant to, the paper I planned the kills on said you were gonna kill Beck, but I didn't realize that until I later realized I didn't plan any KOs for you because the paper also said Junko kills Beck! Still, we had fun, right? Your death fakeout were more fun than the usual fare, since most characters use an illusory death to sneak up and strike their opponents. You're just a fun loving fey who had a blast being a goofball, and you were a fun personality to work with. You didn't do much with noise because Belinda did quite a bit and I wanted you to be a unique competitor instead of an echo of an earlier entrant, so your multiple body jazz was your main schtick and being baffled by DK's ignorance of real world logic was how you squeezed a fun fite out before you had to die. You also had to be a sacrifice to the coconut gun, because that thing DOES hurt, but it's often treated as something firing beanbags rather than hard-shelled fruits. You could probably kill a real person with a coconut moving at even a fraction of the speed of a bullet, and being so frail, it made it easier to believe you'd break under pressure after the gun lost some of its oomph from just being an absurd weapon concept. Until we meet again Siren, tootaloo~
Meiling: As I wrote the Brawl and saw Meiling getting slowly more infatuated with Dimitri, I feared she'd lose interest in Yuugi and I'd have to scrap a bunch of stuff. Namely: the pre-fite show bits, the fite with Aura, and her bid to prove herself after fiting Yuugi. They probably wouldn't have changed too much, since I kind of wrote them without Meiling gushing and tripping over herself. She was just being herself with some Yuugi admiration tossed on that salad, but if she had completely gotten over Yuugi or something, that would have been an issue. Meiling's fites had to be tough opponents, and her placement meant that only really Mr. Crank fit that bill very well. I wanted to use her forms, especially the dragon, and got most out with the Aura and Mr. Crank battle even if some only cameoed at best. I also felt it odd to call her a dragon beside when she was actually a dragon, much like I wouldn't call Utsuho a bird in narration, so she was always Meiling or youkai. Although it didn't come out much in the narration, the dragon transformation did wear Meiling out, making it possible for Hogan to come in and learn the hard way you don't pick on a girl when she's worn down. Initially, the plans said she would challenge Hogan to try and impress Yuugi more, but it worked better the way it happened in Brawl. Also, I did the only art of Meiling human form, because I know if I told someone else to, and even made notes not to, they would have drawn her hat. I don't know why she didn't bring it, maybe she just hates Broderick :V but I made sure that small detail was represented in the only art we see her human form. Save the title card, but that's a different beast and I think it works better with her wearing it anyway.
Fazfucks: Although its gonna be awkward when I read the Brawl with my sisters this year, I made sure the Fazfucks were as lewd and crude as they usually are. Del entered them wanting them to go crazy, and crazy they went. Ultimately, they didn't do much combat, instead setting up a lot of gags and being crazy motherfuckers instead. They did small things, like Freddy fiting Amity and helping Jonesy battle Labrys, but their joke potential was too big to ignore, so instead we got a lot of crazy crunkness from these four. If you had any doubts whether this team of four was a fair entrant, than their actual combat performance should probably get rid of them. I do wish I had thought of a better use for Bonnie's guitar, and killing the most combat capable (Foxy) first was a fun but limiting factor, Freddy was the face of the gang and he got the most action of the group. The other three just got funny deaths, and its probably for the best I didn't have Chica heal anyone with those gross pizzas :P Although I still don't like the actual Five Nights at Freddys at all, the Fazfucks were a blast to write and Rainbow Dash drew some pretty crazy pictures of Freddy himself, so the Fazfucks have further cemented themselves as the one good thing to come out of that series. I don't think I'll be playing their actual game to completion though. Seems I DO actually know most of the jokes from the game, despite earlier misgivings about it during the plot where Del left us in charge of the Fazfucks.
Statler/Waldorf: I only wish I could have matched the level of with with which Draco writes these guys, and during the Brawl I had hoped he might be on hand to leave some scathing comments from these two, but the timeframe didn't work out. Their japes and jabs were fun and small diversions to pull away from dramatic battles and such a bit, and I kept them as a figurehead mostly to A: give them a safe place to just be critics from and B: so I didn't have to figure out if they were meant to still be figureheads or if they had switched back to their normal suits for the Brawl. The picture was never swapped after all :V Although they weren't masters of combat or particularly good for a scuffle, they brought something wholly unique to the battle, and I got to make fun of myself throughout with them as the means. Had their been a fiter with a rapier wit maybe they would have had a battle similar to theirs with Guybrush in Fite Club, but instead we just get a bunch of fun commentary that unfortunately had to end at some point, and the Mosasaurus worked as a quick and easy means to say goodbye to them.
Raginold: Thanks to a vote from Rainbow Dash, Raginold went surprisingly far! The supposedly lazy bartender was easy to work with at the start, just standing by and helping the treasure hunters, but when he was on his own he needed a new angle. So enters the Mosasaurus. Rather than just having the beast get creamed, this former adventurer got his chance to make a huge mark by commandeering the aquatic creature, making the battle boatside more interesting and also giving him a big way to show-off where his knife-throwing and bulk might have not done so on their own. The two became unwitting allies, and I made sure it showed when the two began to disagree on how to fite Wailord. Ultimately, Pech cleaving the Mosasaurus in half was too awesome a kill to pass up, and Raginold got caught up in it as well. I like to take unassuming characters and make people say "HOLY CRAP LOOK AT EM GO", and Raginold's placement near the middle coupled with the WCW arrivals made it easy to figure out a way to make you take this guy seriously despite his lax nature.
Amity: Part of the trifecta of "these guys will have to die and no one will be happy with how I do it no matter what" with Sarah and Kevin, Amity was a difficult blob to kill. Ultimately, Raspberry got to do the deed to make him switch to the more evil alliance, and Raspberry wasn't fiting Amity out of malice, he just ended up in a bad place when she turned her attention on him. Up until then, Amity was a breeze to write, with many fun things she could do, although I was worried whenever I had her speak since she has some complex rules for her not-so-complex speech. One thing I thought was interesting that her having so many frands led to small conflicts of interest, where she would pretend to be ebil but be forced to fite her friends because of it. She passed by simple kills because compassion her pushed her to help first and kill second, sparing the Courier to heal Ash quickly at one point. I also preferred the idea of having her usually in her goopy Ditto form, usually shifting back to it because so many things Amity does are so much cuter when she is just a Ditto instead of someone like Teshni or a different copy. I was also hesitant to bring in forms that didn't have a Brawler equivalent, although she did use Cerise and Buttercup still, although those forms are quickly explained. The Brawl is meant to be a product of its time while also timeless, meaning you can reread it and understand it, but it still represents when it was made, with trends and jokes of the time showing. Having forms pop in that aren't explained and might be forgotten by future readers or even present casual readers with no RP context just won't do. Also, before we leave Amity: smuggling in Jester Chao grew from an idea Bree had to sneak in the other Alliance of Evil members. At first it was all of them, but Chao said no Corporal Guy, and then I thought Axem Blue was simply an extra combatant in an increasingly crowded arena, but the idea survived with Jester Chao. Jester Chao was less a fiter and more of a joke, a colorful personality to burst in and deliver his anti-jokes and ineffective combat to create some goofy situations, mainly the small-scale Kevin fite.
DK: Despite me joking that Donkey Kong is my favorite Cornwind character (I actually don't do many favorites these days in that regard), DK was definitely a great addition and tons of fun! Although I don't stretch his cartoon logic quite as far as Cornwind when I have him, I try to keep him the Kong we see in the games, often using powers Cornwind has yet to mention to show off this Kong's history. This time round it was a power I thought of mentioning in the past: his ability to resist hypnosis! In Donkey Kong Country Returns the Tikis can't mind control him, so DK got to keep his head and fite Siren. I also used his inconsistencies between games in that a fall won't kill him sometimes, but other times he fears falling because it will suddenly. I did a couple things with his goofy nature because DK has always been goofy both in his games and out of RP. He doesn't take himself seriously and I don't think people are ever really intimidated by him despite him being a massive gorilla. His alliance with Lanky Kong was obvious but they didn't really fite together much because, well, you aren't supposed to have two Kongs out of the Tag Barrel at once after all. DK's pre-fite show bit wasn't that important but it was to set up that Shimmer was getting bothered by him monkeying around to ultimately be the one to take him out. Also, I agree with Cornwind: there totally should have been a pic of him being baffled by the swans appearing in front of him without explanation. Sadly, some things cannot be.
Hulk Hogan: WELL LISTEN HERE BROTHER! Hogan was one of the characters I was most nervous about writing, along with the Fazfucks. Both have very specific memes and personas that are well known to those who know the material but I'm quite unfamiliar with. I've absorbed enough Hogan from his parodies and his short time in RP, plus the Coneheads of course emulating him, but I've already said I know him more from the reality show he was in, which this Hogan is completely unrelated to. I was worried I wouldn't do the dialogue right or get his motivations wrong, and when the WCW invasion was planned I knew he'd go bad and go Hollywood Hogan, but I also had no idea AT ALL what Hollywood Hogan was. Period. I did research but I'm still pretty clueless. Still, I did what I could and I tried to use his moves, especially his finisher, as well as some of the RP specific gimmicks. People were expecting a joke about Hogan touching water but there was no real spot for it in the plans, not that I didn't consider it all. I didn't want him to hit water just to make a joke that would be here and gone without doing anything besides acknowledging that video. If anything, we might have seen Hogan, had he gone a little further, swim out of the lake after the boat tipped and say "BRRRR, IT'S NOT COLD!" instead, because there is no way that lake wasn't warm as hell. Also, Aura fiting him was part of throwing a bone to Cornwind and giving her a little bit of maybe development? We'll see how Cornwind rolls with that. I am a bit sad the only KO I gave him was while he was a heel, but otherwise he was just too good a guy to kill people in the arena.
Mac Tonight: Hello darkness my old friend, it's time for you to Brawl again. But finally, for the last time. Mac Tonight has been a great staple of the Brawl, but you have to retire even the best jokes and running gags eventually. They stop being funny or interesting and are just there, and after a victory with the clincher of his necessary return, Mac was able to have a send-up that wasn't bad at all. Erdrick being his weapon removed the piano fun, and at one point I even considered him pulling out a happy meal (at one point, possibly even Happy, Harpy's 2014 Secret Fiter!) just to pull out a plastic kazoo toy and use that as his musical impetus to make a cloud or burger to fly on, but Erdrick was a voice in his ear that let him talk and stand tall despite basically wanting to die the whole time. I have plans for the future of the Brawl anthem, but Mac Tonight will not die in the Brawl again, especially after finally getting revenge on Rainbow Dash and being taken down by the new champion. Everything is sealed up tight, and although the KO picture didn't have him smiling (I justify Rainbow Dash's direction with that art as "would you be able to smile as your neck is snapped?"), the book on our first mystery fiter is finally closed. TUNE IN NEXT YEAR WHEN THE MONSTARS REPLACE HIM AS THE- no.
Yuugi/Kisume: When Yuugi was signing up I didn't think she even needed Kisume on hand, but I'm glad we got Kisume in the end. She was a perfect opponent for Wheatley and Meat Boy with their limited abilities and she got to know another pillar done by just being in a bucket, and Rainbow Dash's art of her looks hilarious. She thought Kisume was being washed away though, hence that blue all around her, which is another example of that art miscommunication from earlier. Still, it just looks like background if you don't know, but now you do know, and it's RUINED FOREVER. Anyway, Yuugi is the main attraction, and I was psyched she got in through the lotto. Even though she outlasted most of her buff possible opponents, Broderick got the kill on her to continue that Saxton Hale legacy as far as it could go. Even though she died to a stinger, I wanted her to lose a battle of muscle first and foremost. Also, totally had to do a Knockout in Three Steps KO, since that's Yuugi's signature thing and it worked with my "she punches someone so hard they explode" joke. One thing about Touhous in general is they all look pretty similar in body type but we're told things like "Utsuho is busty, Yuugi is muscly, Patchoulli is fat and lazy," and yet they all have the same body type :P Hence CKR drawing her like, well, how she looks rather than the fanart where she's bulging and muscled.
Teen Girl Squad: With a character group like this, you have to ask yourself: how many of their jokes do I reuse? Answer: very few. Only the staples really. The introduction, the OW! MY BLANK, SO GOOD, and the garbage disposal were carried over, but the reason Teen Girl Squad works in their universe is they bring fresh new jokes every episode built on the old standbys. So, I ultimately tried to make them their own thing, trying to mimic the style of humor without borrowing from it wholesale. They are another group of "mostly here to make jokes" characters and that shows as... well, you read the Brawl, right? Cheerleader dying to Lanky Kong's lack of style felt so right too. This year the group leader usually lasted until the end to be the one KO'd, partly to dispel any confusion so people don't wonder if the leader's death means the others are KO'd because big teams are kinda weird to rank. I'm surprised how far they made it in the end, but I was happy to have them around to inject some surreal and unusual humor in the late game as well as coming out early for some good jokes and to sacrifice easy kills to some early eliminations. Also, originally the Ugly One's elimination had the entire Teen Girl Squad standing around watching it with blank expressions, because CKR dared to dream they all made it that far.
Pech: PECH, THE NOTORIOUSLY DIFFICULT TO DRAW... isn't that bad really when I allow myself to simplify him a bit. I am so glad he came back for this, I was finally able to tick one of the longest standing characters on my wishlist, and I got to play around with psychic powers. It's been so long since we've seen him I was worried I might not get his powers right, but I did have his 2011 fites relatively fresh in my mind thanks to the archive blog. He bled out of a lot of faceholes this year, to the point I thought I might be overdoing it, but lifting the Mosasaurus with his mind was overdoing it, and that was awesome. Mostly Pech was a platform to play with mind powers this year, pushing Alex's sword and doing crazy stuff before he'd move in with equally crazy acid spit and green lightning. I feel both his KO on Raginold/Mosasaurus and KO by Alex/Sarah were both really good KOs because of their setups and such. Pech, it was great to have you, maybe send some other old Erebus characters our way next year as well ;D
Custard Cats: Back and finally grown up, the Custard Cats brought the strange gimmick of being dancers in a musical, which made them even more perfect to be the ones to kill the Tit. They also brought with them the classic way of dying because they are food, being killed by WALL!! and Koopa because of it. Bent Cat wearing the suit was my favorite part, and I got express permission from CKR that the only line he could ever say was "You guys are being absolutely ridiculous," which tickled me pink even if no one else liked it. I tried to remind everyone the Cats were, in fact, ruthless creatures because of their history with us, pulling out Hugh London's heart and doing other brutal things, ultimately so they could eat the Tit with impunity. These are dangerous cats people! Making them taller also made them kind of harder to work with, since their size used be one of their greatest assets, running all over the place and having speed on their side. I mean, the Frozen Cat got renamed to Big Cat for Christ's sake! That's a real step up in perception. They also led to a couple of the many callbacks to the old Big Bar Brawls, a thing that just happened as I wrote but felt appropriate as we move into our fifth year and have such a history to pull from.
Shimmer: Shimmer! If you weren't my own character I'd have liked to see you go this far, but I am also fine with you going this far because I also like you! I played up her irritation with DK quite a bit and tried to emphasis that she is younger in mind than many fiters in the arena, making rash decisions and making big mistakes. I was worried Spy might not like Lheg'ho killing her but that proved to be not an issue I think, although for some reason whenever I write my own characters I feel like I'm both describing the natures of their powers too much and not enough. That also reminds me, before we move on: Shimmer and the Light Guardians with magic powers were meant to do a magical girl pose pic in the early stages of planning, but no place was found for it. Sarah would have gone magical girl, she, Kevin, and Shimmer would have posed, and Alex would just be kinda standing there with no idea what to do. Also, Shimmer's KO method on Donkey Kong was inspired by Gooper's title card image of her, with the stargirl creating a body double made of light that basically looked just like that to launch DK into the air with. And the KO art was also based on DK getting hit by I think a Shadow Ball or Samus's Power Beam in the opening of Melee. Shimmer will probably never be in a fite again, so I hope she put on a good show in this biggest of fites.
Alex: The tiny knight returns for round two in the arena, bringing a few more powers this time around and no janitor gimmick in sight! Although I got to use various types of wind and earth magic, I never saw a point where I felt he should try to teleport, especially since I imagine he'd be nervous how luck-based it is with a bunch of allies standing around him. He's had both bad experiences with teleportation and bad experiences with friendly fire in fites, so I imagine he would only put it in luck's hands if he was on his own or safely fiting in a different area. Instead, I just played with his magics and had him due what I thought was a cute KO of Pech, cute as in they look cute in the pic. His arm was hell to draw though, I could not get the angle right. It was harder to draw than Pech! Alex going down to Gallade was part of the "oh crap the new villain alliance is competent AND a threat," and Mega Gallade needed to come out with a bang to prove the use of his stone. Gallade wasn't the most evil, but he was the face of the group, and although Alex wasn't quite the leader in any way, he fit the hero tropes well enough that the defeat would sting if you thought the good guys would just triumph again. There was no need for Excalibur's scabbard to heal bleeding this Brawl since Alex has his own white magic now, and I did like that the two entered as an engaged couple rather than already married. It's cuter to pull on those strings than on a married couples after all.
Lheg'ho: I was about to type LHEG'HO but how many times have I started a blurb like that already? Lheg'ho is basically a shapeshifter at his core with little minions as well, except he turns into shapes rather than people. I tried to think of interesting uses of the LEGOs, which I capitalized throughout the Brawl as if it was some official LEGO product because they do that sort of thing when they have to mention their copyright after every mention. One thing I probably worried about for no reason was the word "minifigs", since I wasn't sure how ubiquitous the term is and I eased its use in because of it. Also, Lheg'ho's elder god status and such is still being defined, meaning I was unsure of how far to push it. I was worried feasting on the Mosasaurus carcass might not make sense! I made a couple LEGO jokes here and there, mainly the licensed playset one and the joke about 2-dimensional builds although that was a joke more towards Minecraft builders which is basically LEGO anyway. Fun Fact: CKR at first drew a LEGO spear crushing Shimmer instead of LEGO sphere. My handwriting apparently sucks :V Also, I really liked what Rainbow Dash did with the LEGO cauldron's colors, reminding folks that its not just a mass of red bricks. Maybe in a one on one fite we might see more complex and astounding builds from Lheg'ho, but here he was practical and simplistic, although he did things like make a sandstorm but with LEGOs to tear at Shimmer's skin. He's kind of at his Green Lantern "make giant green fists" phase, making the shape that works well instead of making something crazy and risky like a giant LEGO elephant. Although Lheg'ho is an elder god of some description, I didn't feel like he would go Godbeast, at least not yet, because he's been struggling to get his legs as one. He'd also probably need more bricks. Lheg'ho's schtick is a very creative idea and I love it and I wish I could've written more of his unique dialogue. Naturally, Selah was a good opponent to ruffle his feathers.
Selah: Hey! I just mentioned you! And this is crazy! But you entered my brawl, so I'll describe you maybe. Selah came with a silly personality that basically let me tell a few jokes through her, like dropping the trumpet overboard and her frivolous alliance making based solely on "making things fair". Selah was fun, but her powers were incredibly deadly and powerful, making me wonder just how some of them work still. I wasn't sure how she got in or our of her Dark Matter Armor exactly, and she kinda just pops in and out of it during the Brawl without a more detailed description to avoid any false details. But with her armor, her powers to destabilize molecules and create little basically black holes, I had to pick her foes carefully. Lheg'ho was a good choice because he was both fun, meaning Selah would enjoy fiting him because he's literally LEGO bricks, and he could afford to be both injured and killed by Selah's attacks that would either kill to quickly in others or make them unable to be revived. Amanda was in a tough spot fiting her in that she needed that chainsaw to make a dent, but initially I had her cutting THROUGH that dark matter to cleave Selah apart, which didn't make sense because it absorbs kinetic energy and could easily stop the blade. Instead, we get Amanda creatively using her seduction-like powers to keep Selah at bay until the downside of the armor screws her over. Amanda had to be super clever to triumph over her foe, which is a testament to just how incredibly powerful Selah is. There was a joke in the FYM rules about not bringing a black hole as a weapon, Selah brings a miniature one instead :V It doesn't bother me though, I liked the power set a lot! Was just lucky I had opponents I could actually have her use it against.
Sarah: Sarah is like, the holy grail of fiters I needed in the Brawl. I was surprised she only got 18th, and that 18th place came with one of the three difficult kills of the Brawl. Whoever killed her had to be some who could weather the heat, and the inner turmoil that is Rose ended up with the difficult task. Up until then I used her as best I could, mostly as one of the few Brawlers ever who provides aid to most anyone, healing people who were taking damage just because, well, she's Sarah! Healing is what she does! She got a KO with her hubby-to-be instead of on her hubby-to-be like in her last fite by him, she used many of her powers, including ones like Float and the Nuls that don't always get to show, and thanks to Goops she got a cute moment with Mac Tonight amidst the tempest that was the BELINDA WHIRLWINDA. Sarah is a cornerstone of RP, and one of the few who are one who hadn't been in a Brawl til now, and I thank Gooper for finally putting her in! Maybe that's what pushed his other entry to the top! Take a note people, fulfill my wishlist requests and maybe you can win! (note: this has no grounding in reality, but pretend it does and gimme gimme). I was concerned I might have had Sarah use too much magic, to the point it was a miracle she wasn't drained earlier in the Brawl, but she's got to be like, a max level mage by now? That robe probably gives her a bonus to magic efficacy or something. She shouldn't be draining herself too quickly! Also, originally Kevin would see immediately that Sarah was shot by Rose and go to try and take her down immediately, but Kevin had other business to attend to first. In the end, I feel like even if Sarah got 5 KOs or something I still would have wondered if I did enough with her, so hopefully what she did do was adequate.
Amanda/Mr. Crank: I'm sorry Mr. Crank, I did what I could with you when you fought Meiling, but you had to be sacrificed at some point. Besides, we know you can fite awesomely, you are big bad golem! I made sure to use your heating up powers, and you did show how strong you were, but this was Amanda's time to show what she's made of! Her hypnotic seduction kind of power was used to her advantage, not so much gaining a long standing ally and having get grumpy their character is under mind control, but getting some heals out of Sarah and managing to stall Selah out felt like good uses that didn't push the limits of manipulation. I also had her mucus come up a bit but it never felt to be much more than a detail. I also felt she was the least evil of the evil alliance near the end, hence the incentive of the chainsaw being provided to rope her in. Still, the changeling likely would have taken the allies anyway, maybe with the intent to switch sides if things went south or manipulate them some other way, but its hard to argue with a chainsaw gift! Amanda Dime, you were sublime.
Raspberry: Raspberry, the grunt, the mook, the... killer of multiple fiters? Raspberry's nature as a background soldier let me slot him into big group fites as just a bit player and have it be perfectly in line with his character, and when he accidentally crossed those boundaries, we got to see what he could really do. He was just trying to shoot DK and Gallade without engaging either when he didn't account for Amity trying to protect them, and even he was surprised when he actually got the kill. I love so much that this background troop who suddenly appeared in a DBZ game randomly as if he mattered got pushed this far into the Brawl, and I love even more how I got to make fun of the perception of him. He's a perfect ZFRP character: a background character with little personality in his source material being developed and allowed to grow in a new setting. Also: while on my Arkansas trip, I came up with the pre-fite show bit about Jewel Man talking about raspberries the fruit, but it was while we were at a restaurant. I've never had a raspberry, so I asked my dad, whose in the food industry, if raspberries are sweet or what. He actually knew the scientific classifications of what makes food sweet or sour, so I have scientific evidence to present that Jewel Man saying raspberries are sour but can become sweet with time and preparation is factual!
Broderick: He was never gonna use the kid's hat. No matter what. The kid's hat is too big a push for him. All the hats he has now belong to adults with at least a similar level of mental maturity, and even then the Courier and Hale personalities overpower him so much he loses himself easily in them. To push his mind back to a younger age with an unpredictable personality is a huge fear of his, as he is unsure how it would turn out. Anyway, the other hats got barely any showing because, actually, of how far he made it! And early KO might have meant we'd see more of a specific hat or two before he went down, he might have not even been able to get a new hat, but he made good on his promise to Bikker at least not to pilfer the crown, although Bikker paid the price when they found out an alliance not built on hats is ephemeral! Because he somehow got propelled to 15th place, I decided he needed a hat, and Saxton Hale's is one he could never get normally, one Hale would never give up willingly, one that brings a cool and crazy new persona to the fat bee, and gives him the power that we would have missed after seeing Hale get killed so early. Despite being more legend than the man, he still never did anything quite as outrageous as Hale managed because he can't. He gets all the pigheadedness of a man who can slam you into the earth's core and the drive to try it, but he couldn't do it in the end. He's still super powerful and can send Regigigas flying out across the desert with a single punch, but he'll never top Hale despite being based on the jokes of his strength rather than the reality. Guess that's what happens when the reality is already so insane!
Lanky Kong: This Kong, made it so far somehow. Joke votes tend to cause this situation. Lanky Kong came out of left field and although I usually try to make sure a character isn't just their meme, his no style, no grace thing was the perfect fit against the Teen Girl Squad. Some opportunities you can't let pass you by. Other than that, he was basically a goofy orangutan, almost like one out of those bad kid's movies where a monkey is placed in as if that ensures comedy. In fact, it's almost like Dunston Checks In... don't worry, Lanky Kong wasn't a Dunston surrogate, although having two orangutans was a hilarious coincidence. Dunston wouldn't have been such a goofball or as competent, and I realized as I wrote the Brawl I'm not sure if the Baboon Balloon is caused by Lanky Kong filling up with farts or just inflating. Not sure either answer is preferable, but I made sure to use his powers to the best of my ability, although the grape blowgun didn't get much love in the end. Fruit guns can be fun, but Lanky's stretchy limbs are moreso.
Gallade/Lord Crump: The Alliance of Evil was a perfect way to set up the bad vs. good alliances, all they had to do was expand their ranks and get a rebranding. However, after the initial belief that the alliance was mostly goofballs, this allowed the renewed alliance to impress by being credible threats. Unfortunately, this meant throwing out Crump early. I worked in his Crumpabomb and tried to have him reference how he always fought with robots in Paper Mario by having him trying to take over Beck, and ultimately that his presence: there for a good laugh. Crump was thrown so far away that, initially, he was going to land in the Alliance of Evil headquarters on a table between Corporal Guy and Axem Blue as they played cards. Ultimately, I knew the two would be in the stands so that idea was exchanged for the pokey death by cactus. Gallade, after being a bit of cool guy near the start when he just fought and was fiting and fites with fiters fitily, got a kick in the pants when I finally decided the Mega Stone should be used. Suddenly, Gallade's moves all came out, and I tried to incorporate as many as possible, finding unique uses for Power-Up Punch and pulling out Stored Power as his final saving throw, even if it didn't work. He never did anything actually evil, in that he was just fiting guys who called themselves good, but he certainly didn't look like a pushover
Rose: I hope these aren't getting long or stating the obvious or being repetitive, but here we are at 12th place: Rose! Rose was my attempt to do a sniper right, in that she was cracking off shots almost the whole brawl, only taking a break to make the long scale down a very high perch. I felt last year I delayed Santos's actions too much, so Rose was firing from the starting gate, just never managing a kill because of the targets being resilient, having help, or being shot to disable rather than kill like with the Emma hipshot. A running target is better to shoot in a wider target than the tiny head after all. The big thing though was that Rose was self-destructive, self-doubting, and self-loathing. She had an inner turmoil that made her more than just an emotionless angel of death, and that caused her to make a mistake even though she knew it was one. Sarah was a hard target to kill and Rose wasn't chosen lightly. She was doing it even though she knew how wrong it was, but it hurt her to see Sarah. It was a reminder of her failures throughout the Brawl so far, it was a person somehow smiling as Rose fell apart, and it was too much that the sniper instinct took over. She was battling the old her, a part she wants to forget and suppress but can't because of how long it was with her. Originally, her death by sand-hand had her accepting death completely, not even an attempt to move away or find an out. She still accepts her fate, but I didn't want it to be completely rolling over and dying. There's a minor tinge to escape suppressed as now her new self takes control and pushes away the old. A real psychological battle, and a unique addition to the Brawl!
Aura: I didn't think the gimmick of becoming a bad guy would help Hypotenuse get closer to winning, but it's hard to argue with results. I also didn't realize how much it would help change her actions in the Brawl. No longer just here to prove herself, she's trying to make herself look bad on purpose, but that path lead her head-to-head with Hulk Hogan. Ultimately, after falling to unpredictable and unusual means, she learns a lesson that will hopefully stick with her: you can't fite funny with serious. You have to bend to the rules around you, not try to power through them. Hence, the Egyption Hypnosis, the ridiculous KO methods, and playing by Hogan's rules. Of course, Regigigas had no such rules, he was just a big strong Pokemon, so Aura had to fite him normally and ended up losing, but she adapted, which is something she hadn't done before despite being a supposedly adaptable robot. That's what happens when you adapt only to the serious and not the atypical. Aura's wires were an interesting weapon too, they allowed for some small confrontations with folks like Yuugi where she went whole hog with them, but big foes like Regigigas could tough em out and prove that wires have limits no matter how sharp. Aura faced a few hurdles in the final fite with Regigigas, ones that weren't flaws in her design so much as flaws anyone would have, although I'm sure Sine'll try to patch them out. She was so broken that any waterproofing failed, and confusion does make you hurt yourself by Pokemon rules. It made more sense than ever as she fell victim to the status effect that confuses generations of Pokemon fans.
Ko: Ko brings a bunch of different and unique spells with her into fites, much like the Pit brothers, and this time around the power of the hour was Steal Size. I like going through and finding which powers of a characters I should use, and this time around I made sure to use Ko's famous scarred side to catch a blade, to the point that Gallade straight up lost it and later Ko used it to her advantage even more. Ko was probably the character most excited for the Brawl in universe and her enthusiasm for it was enough to impress me, so I'm glad we snagged tenth place so that all that time spent training payed of somehow. Save BBB1, Erebus characters always place pretty well it seems. I'm sad I wasn't able to find a good spot for Gooper's small photo pair of the Ko-KO joke, but the joke is kind of clear on its own even without the Brawl context so it works well even just seeing it in the Artchive. In regards to Ko art, initially her KO was just being squashed by the World Creation Press, but CKR drew Tenshi holding the tiniest of tiny rocks, so instead Ko is able to shatter it and leave Tenshi only with a tiny rock to finish the job. Art mistakes that lead to someone being more of a badass are A-OK in my book! I did wonder if I was making Ko TOO resilient, but then I remember she's and Erebus character and some post-Brawl reveals at least make it clear she's more than just a woman in armor. I also wasn't sure if Non had a way of getting back to Ko if it was knocked away, but using the blade in her side was more badass than simply getting her nodachi back, so sacrifices were made.
Wailord: Speaking of art that changed the narrative, originally Wailord was gonna blast the Rust Monster so hard against the side of the ship with water it dissolved. Instead, we got that, but then it fell on Wailord and dissolved there. BIG CHANGES. Wailord being the only water-based fiter entirely gave him a domain that was rarely encroached but he could always participate in when it was. He did things like tip the boat and provide cool lemonade in between fites from the water, and he swam away with 3 total KOs. Fiters this year grabbed more KOs than usual it seems! Some of them anyway. I liked having Wailord be a battle arena for Mac and Rainbow Dash, with dramatic water spout rain to really sell that final battle feel for those two. When Wailord had to fite on land though, he quickly proved why the water is so important to have around. A big whale IS a big whale, but so many fiters can life big whales for breakfast! I was surprised that people thought Wailord's KO method was brutal, especially since I described the internal damage rather vaguely whereas in old fites like Dudemanguy vs. Ogopogo we got the whole details on the battle inside the beast's body. Wailord stayed a bro most the battle instead of a fiter because hey, he brought that lemonade to share after all. He only fought when he needed to fite until the very end where it was time to get serious... and also he had no lemonade left so he had to do something! I am very happy he made it so high, although getting that double KO near the end sadly proved to be the writing on the wall for most people who were taking his slow pace as a sign he'd go far. Well, you either give him KOs and make people fear his oncoming death, or you kill him without KOs at all. And Wailord got like the second most votes I think so he got to throw his weight around in a quite literal way. Also, the Double KO delayed Lanky Kong's death slightly to show it wasn't a same time elimination for standing's sake, but I decided to milk it for drama. WAIIIIIIIIIL indeed.
Regigigas: Yo bro, let me tell you about this big guy whose name I never abbreviated for some reason! I never allowed myself to abbreviate Regigigas to Gigas for some reason, although I also didn't call Blajboa Boa at all, but she also died first. I was even hesitant to call him a golem at first with Mr. Crank still around, as if you'd suddenly think I swapped in Crank during a Gigas battle. And then there was using the name "tower of the Continents" once, and I was like, that reads like the building kind of tower and not someone who tows, I just hope people are context sensitive! The small things I worry about sometimes. On the other hand, Regigigas was the perfect sinker of the ship, with his high placement making sure I could do it late game and the rope being the perfect tool. Although I mostly preferred to have him rock em sock em with his major strength, I made sure he used that rope creatively at least once to utterly pummel Saxton Hale. Another thing, I wasn't sure if I should make him losing Slow Start a big deal, since the first time he really did something of major importance it was no doubt gone already. Maybe if he had done really poorly it might have been a dramatic thing, losing his Slow Start, but when you place in the upper ranks, an early battle power up isn't that big of a deal comparatively. Yelling "I'M READY TO FITE FOR REAL NOW!" and then lasting forty more entrants isn't quite as dramatic as it should be. I also wasn't sure about his dialogue sometimes, unsure how much of his Bro attitude to slip in, but high-fiving Junko was hopefully enough to prove he was still the bro we know. As for actual Pokemon moves, I tried to use them creatively, especially Confuse Ray, but unlike Gallade or Wailord, Gigas seems like he could do entire battles without name dropping a single attack except maybe the elemental punches. Still, when you got tools like Wide Guard, use them, even if its just in small throwaway bits!
Tenshi: Whenever Tenshi isn't on screen, people in chatzy should ask "Where's Tenshi? I want to see more Tenshi!" Tenshi being a big name and getting only token references until the end was a failing on my part, and there were points where I feel I should have slotted her in to keep her around. Instead of small offscreen battles like the one with Ash that went nowhere or keeping Koopa busy, maybe I could have slotted her into alliance battles and at one point I considered having her appear to fite Siren, which made no sense because she's susceptible to illusions, or even just being one of the people to kill some of the Sunflower's plants, which was just the same as the other "she's over here doing this" sentences that didn't satisfy anyone :V Someone was bound to not get too much of a showing at first with 60 entrants to work through, but she had a big late-game run taking down two huge fiters. I tried not to draw on her spellcards as much as I do in regular fites, since by this point I've got most memorized and name-checking them is the only reason I need to open the wiki, but I want to pull on more creative uses of her keystones than just borrowing her spellcards wholesale. Originally, Tenshi's pride would have been played up more, and her taking on Kevin was meant to be her trying to prove she's better than the fan favorite. One word I avoided using to describe Tenshi was "tanky", since that word is very much a video game term that could make sense to people who don't play games with a Tank class, but probably doesn't. I avoid it in RP with my characters too, just like I avoid wrestling terms since I didn't know them before RP and TVtropes myself. Heel heat is very much a wrestling thing so none of my characters will get caught saying it unless they are in wrestling :P Anyway, terminology aside, her tankiness is also in flux, much like Ash's, so her KO method could have been simple and probably I could get away with it, but I thought up Kevin's power sap power and it at least explained it somewhat if people try to get picky. I wasn't even sure if Tenshi should say "Screw you" to Kevin at the end because I know Chao probably wouldn't say that to Kevin but Tenshi probably would considering the situation.
Junko: Junko made it so far! I wasn't sure how much she should struggle with her version, and I chose her foes mainly based on how easy I thought Junko would be able to see them with her vision issues. Both Beck and Wailord she used her powers to her advantage to gain an edge other competitors couldn't have so easily gained, and she was so agile that it was easy to put her against opponents that could normally cream her... if they could catch her. I believe there was a line in her entry about her foes underestimating her, and apparently everyone underestimated her in getting as far as she did. Sheep gave me permission to show her eyes if I wanted, but even though I cracked her lenses, I didn't think she needed to fully lose the glasses, and I didn't think she would discard them in her fite against Blade and Silence even through the cracks were an impediment. They help her focus and even through the cracks they are probably better than straight unfiltered looking at two humans. She certainly showed she can run with the best of them despite being a tiny little girl, we'll just see if she reincarnates as a snail after the Brawl.
Kevin: The last member of the difficult to kill crew, although his placement made it easy to pick who would kill him. Five entrants left, one who stuck out as a villain and the obvious means to Kevin's end. Koopa overloading Kevin was originally going to have Koopa get filled with random powers as well, but Koopa would have been able to use them to stand a better chance against the three other finalists. Instead, he just put up a decent fite with his own strength and Kevin blew up. I didn't know how Kevin's death art would go over, but apparently CKR's drawings of him were so cute it didn't matter :3 Kevin's random powers were not really decided before I started writing and I thought them up on the spot, with the notes saying "Kevin kills with random power" or the like. He also had three magical girl beamus but I only used one to keep him mixed and varied. At first I tried to give him powers that backfired or worked strangely, since having random powers shouldn't always turn up a great pick. So, he got body swapping and double-edged shrinking, swan generation (wasn't even meant to be a reference to Swanmass or anything) and then finally the lucky breaks of sand manipulation and power draining. His entry never said he could go Magical Girl Kogasa so I didn't have him do so. Also, CKR's drawings of Kevin as well as a few other characters converted her much as she began to like Saxton Hale. Drawing Kevin and Beck both made her like them more, same for Raspberry, because none of them really jumped out at her before she had to draw them. Naturally, random powers opens a whole bin of possibilities as fite writer, although I'm definitely not going to be as kind as providing useful ones as Harpy is for Kevin :V
Koopa: SK gets fourth place again this year, this time with Koopa! A surprising high placer, not that he's bad or anything, well, he is bad, he's evil! But, I initially had the idea of offering a prize to someone who could make the most accurate Brawl bracket, but I didn't want to influence voting by making people try to win through it rather than voting for favorites. If I had, I don't think many folks would place Koopa this high in the bracket is all I mean. I'm glad he got far, and he did sort of suffer the same as Tenshi a bit, although he got in a bit earlier and did his thing with the borax pillars to break up the battle on Guiron. Koopa being a cook is why he got the kill on the Custard Cats, and I already explained his Kevin kill in that paragraph above, but I liked having the wand used for its main purpose most of all. Animating objects is super interesting, especially when Magnificence was forced to his side. It makes every weapon brought in a double-edged sword since it could suddenly come to life and try to kill you! It also helped neuter Kevin's incredibly powerful sand abilities now that the battle was in a desert. I didn't want Koopa to go full villain, although he was definitely basking in being evil, but he never crossed into anything beyond his old cartoonish villainy. He was still calling people goofy insults right until he got his head cut off. I am glad I had my sisters draw Koopa's pics, because they did an amazing job and much better than I could have done.
Ash: I was quite happy to see Cornwind place high, and it was appropriate that Ash got pushed near the top this year now that no Dufe is around to weaken him. His loss this time was on his own strength, but even that can't keep you going when Cauren and Silence team up. Ash got a lot of early mentions as part of alliances and holding certain foes back, but he took a while to begin to KO people. He got Courier relatively early and then rested on his KO for a while, getting Erdrick back but not really benefiting from it much. I had no problem with him having both Erdrick and Magnificence since dual wielding them would do him no favors really so he would need one or the other out, and its not like it was done as a means to sneak a weapon in for Ash. Cornwind once had the idea of Sine signing up for the Brawl with a weapon that she'd just give to Hypotenuse and immediately forfeit afterwards. This idea was vetoed with extreme prejudice, because it's no fun at all. Ash got to do a lot of his tricks this year, the poison sword, using Center powers cleverly, and even using Tapestry Mode, so hopefully it makes up for his performance in BBB4 where a lot of it was robbed from him by the Dufe spray. Still, I don't think the Dufe spray was a bad idea, especially now that we got to see Ash fite with his full power and get this far because of it. Ash's durability levels are random and nebulous like Tenshi's, but I find most fiters can't take a spike through the head, hence Cauren's KO method. My initial notes said Cauren would reclaim a bunch of dropped weapons and jab them all into Ash with Ensemble's tendrils, but that's hard to do when most weapons were at the bottom of the lake at that point, to the point I had to make a joke to justify Junko having the Black Talons. I thought of going to edit that in somewhere but sometimes you got to preserve the flow and just having the Black Talons worked with a Junko joke anyway.
Cauren: Second place for one of the major faces of last year is really good! Cauren was not holding back this time... except when she did, because of the strange "yield" thing she went for. She never got anyone to yield, because she tried it 1: against Emma so early, 2: against Amanda who wouldn't quit so easily and say an oppurtinity, 3: Ash who kind of didn't have the option and was too close to victory to quit, and 4: Silence, who would not miss a chance on first place when the only threat for not going for it is just death again. It's hard to make people quit when the threat is death and the reality of death when entering is already super likely. It's like threatening someone who is about to go swimming with a water balloon. Still, it made Cauren's fiting style different, and led to some unique moments, but mostly I wanted to make sure that Cauren's nanoplates were given the power they are meant to have, even if I did probably give them too much power if anything. Ensemble also pushed herself to her limits even before Blade's sound attack. We are told Cauren is basically indestructible and Ven does often say her defenses didn't work in the fite... and then he writes her in his own stuff getting owned more easily than she did in the fites :V Either way, withstanding sniper shots, chainsaws that can tear through starships, and a myriad of other stuff was more than enough to kill all but a few straggling nanomachines, and Ensemble put up a valiant effort until her weaknesses were exploited. I'm sad the ending seemed predestined due to narrative, although I don't think I would have written it much different. Cauren was more fit to kill Ash, and she had to go big for the finale. That's how finales work. Characters go to their maximum and then get knocked down to an even level where one triumphs. Initially, Erdrick didn't even offer himself to Cauren, a mistake I quickly fixed when I realized it did make it seem like Silence was set to win and that Erdrick would have no qualms helping either girl win. Cauren's uneccessary flail and shield were taken out rather unceremoniously though, if only because they couldn't do much for her with her size shifting and all, and Ensemble and her defenses filled those roles better anyway.
Silence/Blade: OUR WINNER LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I was so happy that Gooper finally got a win, especially since he's already had second place twice and if Silence had gotten second it would have been such a tease to him again. Silence wouldn't have been my first pick of his cast to win it, but she did debut for the Brawl last year and has been working to be more of a character than just a body for the Brawl, even beginning some crazy development post-brawl that is super awesome. Not since ROB has being the champion meant as much, although Silence is definitely taking it further. I've always wondered what's under the mask and thought twice about tearing it off, so I never did! But I felt the temptation to do so. Anyway, Blade, I'm sure I said it somewhere else already, was allowed to live for both the novelty of an assistant lasting the whole Brawl without being eliminated and because Silence is the first to win with an assistant. Blade is the inspiration to all assistants out there to prove they can help their entries make it, and Blade's big moment at the end removing Cauren's advantages was what helped Silence overcome what would have been a monumental stretch of imagination to defeat otherwise. I'm glad we got some off-season development on Silence's history so I could do the epilogue the way I did, although I'm not happy with how I drew Silence there. Blade in the epilogue, however, was the first piece of Brawl art I did! Silence's wrestling moves seemed more useful in a death battle this time around because of the opponents she fought. Mac Tonight and Junko were both pretty frail, making the moves more dangerous than they would be on foes like Checkmate or Shuma. Cauren had to be killed by Silence's signature self-named finisher though, that's just how these things work. When Silence returns next year to defend the title we'll see who she fites then, but this year I made sure she not only killed Mac so he could be freed of any loose ends, but also so that it seemed like she had some sort of claim even if she didn't get first place. Something for Blade to shout and make the ending more up in the air. Also yes, that picture of Blade using the chainsaw, Rainbow Dash thought it said chain and to try and somehow fix it we drew a black triangle in the middle and yelled ITS A CHAINSAW until the world believed us. Before that triangle though, she drew a sick set of abs on Blade.
Well, that's it folks! That was probably way too much to say about the Brawl, I probably repeated myself too much, and I probably said things that might not even be true now! Who knows! This post is a mess and I only hope you managed to mine some interesting nuggets of information from it! I don't know if I should do the character thing next year because I feel like at some points I was just like "here's what the character did. You saw that, right?" It also probably sounded much more negative at parts than I intended, especially that Tit section, but sometimes the word "nervous" is the only one you can use to describe a rather complex emotion. But whatever! It's over! Time to pack up the Brawl season toys and move on with our lives!
Thank you all for your support and reading even a bit of this monster. See you next year!
Some various thoughts:
ReplyDelete* Thanks SO MUCH for the in-depth look! I know you're not confident in these posts being interesting or fun for everyone, and perhaps they aren't for everybody, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to read so much about your thoughts on the Brawl and the Brawl's creation. I have always enjoyed meta posts that examine characters and plots in a behind-the-scenes manner, and for a blog named "Behind The Fites" it's not just acceptable - it's expected!
* You got me, I thought Dunston was a pretty weak Mystery Fiter choice, ha. The thing is, though, I had a theory. When looking through the votes, I noticed Mystery Fiter was dead last - nobody voted for it, and it wasn't able to get any effort. It also couldn't snag the "I Voted" bonus since it was your character. As a result, it was in the same situation as Yahoo Bot in 2013 - only a single tractor spot, with literally everyone else on the field doing better. So when Dunston Checked In, I thought perhaps you'd had a better Mystery Fiter in mind, but since they probably got last place you swapped in a joke fiter to justify their quick loss. (By the way, no, I did not remember the film Dunston Checks In)
* Koopa got quite a pile of votes, it turns out, so him placing fourth was actually reasonably likely, though it was still an "upset" numbers-wise and I don't think many people expected him to do well since almost all of his votes came in towards the end of the voting period. It was pretty cool seeing him go so far. The top ten in general was exceptionally strong and, while there were winners I wanted more than others (Silence, Gigas, and Kevin, big surprise) there were definitely no duds left. Of the remaining entrants, I pretty much just didn't want Aura to win since that would send a possible negative message to her often-addled AI that being a jerk was what she had been lacking in prior efforts. Also, in hindsight, Cauren winning probably wouldn't have gone well based on what FV said he'd do if he actually won (it doesn't end well for the winner). But yeah, great group of finalists, really fun! Between that, the lotto picks, and the Gorillion pick, the tractor was overall really agreeable this year! It was almost like it was apologizing for upsetting you last time, unless last time was a bit of #comeuppance for the tractor choosing your own personal pick to win the year before.
* I'm so happy to hear the Patchisaurs were such a major inspiration and led to the Secret Fiters all making appearances! I had always thought that getting mileage out of secret fiters was a good idea, hence why Gigan became a BBBBP opponent when he didn't get picked last year. And I was super happy to see them interfere in the actual Brawl as part of a WCW miniplot, even snagging a KO! They pretty much did everything I could have possibly wanted from them if they'd been picked for real, since I didn't expect nor want my Secret Fiter to win if chosen.
* I too was very surprised at Edea and Belinda's poor placement. Going by the straight numbers, both of them should have made it into the top half of the standings, and Belinda had a good shot at the top third. Instead they went out very early along with Saxton and Meiling, two other characters that did much worse than the numbers indicated. Rainbow Dash is kind of in this category, too, as she got enough votes for a good shot at a midcard position but instead couldn't escape the bottom ten. But in exchange we got some really surprising pushes from characters like Raginold, Teen Girl Squad, Lanky, DK, The Custard Cats, Moosh, and probably the biggest surprise of them all to me, Broderick. I was happy to see Broderick do so well, as he was one of those characters I wanted a good performance out of but not a win (since, y'know, >JRM winning two years in a row).
* I remembered you said last year that you loved M Sheep's entrants because they have so many tricks and angles to use, and that was one of the reasons I decided to submit Edea as my lotto. I had a lot of ideas for that slot, but the two besides Edea that got the furthest were DJ Candy and Tron Bonne. Edea has a huge potential bag of tricks, and it's entirely possible I'll enter her into another fite later on so you can try some of the stuff you weren't able to do.
Delete* Sarah's performance was great fun. You did a good job with her magic - while it may have been a bit more than I would use in a plot, even a really big plot doesn't often see nearly as much action as the Brawl, and she still wound up running out of mana about two-thirds in. The KO with Rose probably shocked me the most since it was so sudden - Sarah wasn't in focus at the end of the post before it, and she hadn't yet performed her "magical girl" transformation so I thought she still had a way to go, but even a top-third placer can't always get to use all their tricks. I'm glad I was able to cross off one of your longest wants for the Brawl, and I may well continue to hack at that wishlist in the future (speaking of, an updated version might come in handy to accommodate the new characters that have arrived since the last one was made).
* You did a great job with Regigigas! He definitely got enough lines to make it obvious we're dealing with my own version of the character and not some other less bro-y version. He got a lot of time to shine, even early on when he was depicted as getting ganged up on during Slow Start and then a while later when he tried to fight WCW and wound up tangling with Saxton Hale. Their interactions earlier in the fite, especially using Wide Guard to protect Hale, really made me smile and were absolutely in-character. Another very Gigas moment was the "high five" with Junko, and then his immediately confronting Tenshi because HELL YEAH BRO WE'RE FIGHTING. You have nothing to be ashamed of, you did him justice.
* I was definitely curious as to how Hullbreacher ended up looking like that in the Blade KO, haha. Sorry for making you worry with the Ko pics, they were quick jokes I threw together in less than five minutes primarily to make you laugh more than for any actual Brawl application. Please don't feel bad that you didn't have a spot for them, it was all in good fun. :)
Delete* Silence winning seemed fairly telegraphed once we were down to two, yes. Cauren had a stack of 3 KOs and a swarm of advantages, Silence's single prior KO being Mac Tonight felt more like foreshadowing than it did a runner's-up accolade, and Blade, while removed from the action temporarily when the final standoff was beginning, hadn't received a KO pic so I knew he wasn't out, and him making it that far had been making me suspicious since the top ten or so. HOWEVER: That doesn't mean it was bad! You DO still subvert expectations on the regular, expectations that have been built up since the Zoofights days. Between Zoofights, FYM, Monster Mash, and the GB Royal Rumble, our community has seen hundreds of tractor-based battles of this type by now, so there are certain tropes and conventions that happen as a matter of course, but they ARE still sometimes upended, and that upending is what keeps things suspenseful no matter what. You've always been a creative sort who likes to toss in surprises, so while I was growing confident in Silence, especially when she seemed to be getting depicted as a heroic underdog against Cauren going all-out against a much weaker opponent, I knew better than to think I'd won until the final KO.
* So what's next? Silence will be back to defend her championship, of course, and another entrant everyone knows already is Josephine, who will be entering to complete the sugar mage quartet. Aside from that, the rest of my entrants are totally up in the air and I probably won't know for sure until next June who will be joining the sixth Brawl. All I can say is, I hope they don't disappoint!