Oh, and if you can't tell who is who, here's a link to a labeled version: https://res.cloudinary.com/jumpropeman/image/upload/v1720734576/30_second_BBB14_labeled.jpg
Anyway, let's dive right into behind the scenes thoughts and ideas!
First, let's discuss the setting! The Twisted Mansion is so-named because as I tried to come up with a good name for the place, my mind turned back to that one! I didn't actually remember its source at first, but it does share it's name with the race course from Mario Kart 8. As for the mansion concept itself, we need to go back to when Whalestrand was just conceived! I knew I wanted to do a spooky brawl arena on top of the icy arena (although Guppystrand didn't really end up like that) and a very early idea was a haunted mansion! Already the idea it was bigger on the inside and all was thought up although the rooms were a newer idea down the road. I remember an early idea for the potential host for a spooky mansion Brawl was actually Lah, a ghost lady from a Sonic Unleashed tie-in short where he goes to a spooky mansion.
I didn't really have any deeper idea for what she'd be like besides really pepped up that people were coming to brawl in her mansion. I think the idea of the short was that she was happy for guests despite scaring them, so something like that. Lah never really had much thought put into her, and at some point I was reminded of the ghost girls Nikki, Lindsey, and Ginny from Luigi's Mansion 3 and how upon seeing them, I immediately thought "I might like to RP them some day". And thus, when I was reminded of their existence at some point, I was like "oh duh, they can host!". As you know, they also lead to the event that introduced DALI to the Kobbers! I'll keep details on that for a plot blogpost, but I did worry about these potential DALI members hosting, hence why all the magic was said to just activate on its own. Beauregard as the referee was a very late addition, as in I was getting my thoughts in order for the opening post and didn't think Marvin doing the job again fit. At the same time, I was unsure about having a guest ref, and while Beauregard didn't do too much, I think he was a good fit for the eventual idea of having some rules explained more to entrants this year. Of course the old fogey would care more about the rules!
I will note, because I had Lindsey, Nikki, and Ginny host, I had almost considered that grounds for not entering Ginny the thief! I even almost made a joke in the pre-fite about why someone might have two Ginnys running around on purpose, but it felt too meta. JRM and Tut-Tut almost didn't show up at all until I realized the pre-fite should talk about how people would view the Brawl from the stands rather than it just cropping up in the Brawl's first post. Pre-Fite was written first, but this was one of the things I went back and added later.
As for the mansion itself, I did have a sort of mental layout for it. Here's a very weak map I threw together just now of how I imagined it.
The second floor and up is basically a mess since they're actually on different floors and stuff but I didn't feel like making a detailed map for what I felt was ultimately an unimportant element! Also, hallways were probably more abundant and prevalent but I couldn't be bothered to draw those either. Mainly, the first floor's spacing is most important, and there's of course the basement below them. One thing I'll say about this map even if its accurate or not, it's pointless! The brawl isn't a narrative where it's really important on how the characters get to certain spots. If they move from say the music room to the foyer, they did that by whatever route necessary. I even realize the kitchen and dining room aren't placed logically for a house but the place was altered for brawling purposes. Pretty much what I'm trying to say is: While it's a bit neat to try and figure out its layout, only very rarely does it matter much where rooms are placed.
For room designs, the only one I remember rejecting was a nursery. I also realize now I didn't put the bedroom that rotates around on the map, it's probably below the bathroom which should be on level 3 anyway. But, I considered a nursery that would do the gimmick that ended up moved to the kitchen instead, the idea being you were "baby sized" in there. I do believe I considered another bedroom as a possible filler place to put characters briefly. Rooms in general tended to be conceived not too far in advance. I would think "where should the food alliance/la squadra fite happen" and come up with the garage. It was sometimes before I got to that post, other times it was literally within the time of the post. One thing you likely noticed was the early fite in the Great Hall didn't show any gimmickry. It was meant to have the Scooby Doo sort of "doors just lead to other doors" but there wasn't much of a reason for people to use that so it ended up untouched.
While I had halls that did funky things, I ultimately didn't like them too much. The corkscrew hallway from the sniper duel was meant to reference the one found in the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time, although one detail I intended to show in drawing but couldn't pull off was the idea that its shape wasn't just an optical trick. Technically Shirley's end of the hall would be higher, but that fact was masked by the spiral twistiness. Main reason I think the halls weren't so fun was their lack of objects. They're a rectangular space pretty much, a bit tight and maybe you can add a side table or something but they weren't as fun as furnished spaces. The dining room's idea of odd gravity was originally one for a hallway but it was moved in there, and I quickly came to resent the dining room. Why? I felt it was the kind of room where it could easily get bogged down with details or explanations. I feel it would have worked much better with fewer fiters, Puppet Princess ended up there specifically because I thought her powers were good for them but also, it still felt kind of fiddly with too many characters at once. I'd explain it thusly: if this were an anime where one character attacks, everyone else reacts, then one other character attacks, and so on, I think the dining room would be a superb setting where you could do a lot of clever tricks. In the Brawl though, there's this understanding everyone is competent, capable, and active. They're not going to stand around and react, they're all throwing out attacks or making plans. So basically, because it was potentially confusing but without its potential payoff easy to justify, I wasn't a fan.
I did feel a bit self-conscious about constantly moving things back to the foyer, but I actually think the rooms were used rather well! I don't think they were overused or had any obtrusive gimmicks, that was one important idea behind their design. I tried to make sure there wasn't much to grab or steal like, no weapon was full of weapons although I do recall briefly thinking "Armory?" before dismissing it quickly. Music Room was perhaps the most skewed, but even then I had Lyrica upgrade to Piano instead of pilfering something from the room's offerings. I don't think I would have been so self-conscious about people fiting in the "open" in a normal brawl, but the foyer being the "standard" area made it smart to direct bigger action towards, even though it became a trash pit. Yes, having all the trash turn into pickleball courts near the end was partly to clear away the fact it had been a stinking trash pit far too long. I will note, I was hesitant to have anyone break the kitchen rule after those were placed. I was unsure how Demo manifesting Rickles might impact their abilities/personalities, but I'd say looking back it was probably considered a hazard but most people knew by then to just stay the heck away rather than test their luck.
In general I did try to avoid too many similar gimmicks between rooms while halls could be a bit more similar in scope and more subdued in their gimmicks. For the outside, I didn't have too many plans going in for the graveyard areas, they were never meant to be much and more for aesthetic.
Before we move on to talking about things like the Mystery Fiter, I'd like to talk about a little thing called structure. I think I did a really good job of it this year! Mainly, one common problem in brawls is we're watching a fite reach a KO, suddenly lurch elsewhere to see someone get KO'd, and then zoom back to that previous fite as another KO is scored in it. I tried to avoid this by having characters clump up in more conducive way, segment posts at specific spots, and sprinkle a lot more team members and assistants dying well before or even well after each other. I did get some moments like Constanze and Sucy dying back to back, but for the most part I tried to spread it out more and give proper time to them. One thing I also think helped is marking the piece of paper where I assign KO's with lines with specific events like Nom Emissary forming so that it could be made and land two KOs so it wasn't an ineffective godbeast. I wouldn't say I did more planning on paper, I kind of just keep things in my head a lot, but I bet those indicators helped ensure certain things were done earlier. Another element of structure I tried to do was "carrying on" characters who did poorly. Vilfred fell out, but his orb went on with Potemkin. Vulture, his totem carries on, Rickle, Demo can manifest him. I didn't want to force it, but I think it also worked very well with our finalists considering so many high ranking characters had histories to pull from as motivation.
Now then, the Mystery Fiter! For a while I tried to think of an appropriately spooky brawler but I can't recall any that actually stuck as real options. One day, something reminded me of Tubba Blubba, and I think it was actually tied back to my original PlayStation Network account. Before I made one with my bog standard jumpropeman name, my first PSN account was tubbablubba because I mostly like the sound of the name and it's a funny name! I think I only used that account to buy like, Twisted Metal. Anyway, I do like to have Mystery Fiters with some personal importance to me when I can justify it, such as John Freeman who was the technical starting point to me eventually finding Zoofights. However, Tubba Blubba also works perfectly as a guy who likes to eat ghosts! Early on the idea that he just showed up looking to eat the hosts was conceived, and I knew right away that his big thing was going to be the heart separation gimmick as seen in Paper Mario. Also, apologies, I don't think I mentioned the media source of either Mystery or Secret in the Brawl itself this year!
Before the season started I actually played Paper Mario as a bit of a refresher on Tubba Blubba and how he acts and how his gimmick works exactly. I almost commented on reaching him in chat but was worried I might seed the idea of using him in other people's minds, and I was a little nervous how Gooper might react since he RPs Bow, who is tied to Blubba's chapter in Paper Mario. Tubba Blubba doesn't do much of interest with his main body, but the heart hiding elsewhere and having the mansion help protect him was a good way of making him more involved. I did consider him just eating Pukey for the KO but worried since Blubba was shown barfing up ghosts in Paper Mario some canny fans might think it didn't count as an elimination. I think if he made it farther I might have tried to make his body fite in more interesting ways, but I think he was a good mystery fiter for an early drop out since his gimmick was so important. I did enjoy writing out Laila figuring him out, I didn't even have certain elements of it planned until I was in the midst of the post and then went back to edit in more clues so she could reasonably surmise where to go to find the heart.
Volvagia as the secret fiter! One of the few things I outright know I forgot to include was someone in the Brawl making a joke that they thought it would be a cool lady due to Brine's propensity for RPing those. Probably someone like Jaclyn stuck out to me as the one who could say it. Volvagia's weakness in Ocarina of Time is having his face smashed so that was destined to be his KO method. I also knew as soon as he was selected I wanted the monster hunter Stanley to face him since it would basically be a proper monster hunter battle in essence. It is rather fun to think of how to use parts of a video game boss that aren't really used in game like Volvagia's horns and claws. The lava submerging was definitely my favorite part of his kit though. I do feel a little bad in retrospect the Secret Fiter got no kills but the Mystery Fiter did, but Blubba being a ghost eater and Pukey's early demise lined up that way. I did like the subterranean dragon element, hence the basement battle.
Let's move onto the Frankenfiter next! Early on I knew I wanted to give him a name beyond Frankenfiter, and I did consider whether he should be a boy or a lady. I believe Francine was considered as a name, but I felt like we have a lot of ladies in RP, and rather than shifting the name to something simple like Frank or Francis, the name Francisco came to me very quickly and I think adds more character than something basic or easy to think up. When concocting the idea I initially thought to just let people describe in as many words their addition but that could have caused some hesitation or choice paralysis. I did wonder for a bit if the parts should be publicly declared, but it also could have missed out on unusual contributions or funny overlaps. Surprisingly, there was almost no overlap! He had two weapons on the back and the detachable spider arm had to come out the front, but he was pretty cohesive and not even overdesigned. I doubt the idea will ever be reused as is although Goop did come up with an interesting similar idea, but I doubt we'll see that in the immediate next brawl and will probably be in the next one looking for a gimmick. This was the Brawl's entry/voting gimmick this year since every year has one and I think it will be one of the more memorable because it was impactful!
For the Pre-Fite Show it took a bit for the concept to come together. I recall thinking maybe the Shriek Sisters could sneak off and use ghostly powers to spy. I do recall the idea of Frankenfiter hosting the thing came before he was finished in full, but Rose suggesting a tattered edgy cloak also made me start conceiving of his personality. I always wanted him to be a bit fresh-faced and eager, like he was so thrilled to be in this fite. Rose's addition made me add the idea that he not only wanted to brawl, but he was so proud of his new body he wanted to show everyone how scary it looked. From there, the scaring angle was born, but it took until character allocation for me to realize Beelzebub could contribute a means for him to do so. I don't know if I would have pulled the trigger on him entering the scrying booth if she hadn't recently allowed someone else to enter it in RP for the Black Doom event. I did consider ideas like her sticking around or others joining the scrying but dismissed them quite quickly, but as I got to the pre-fite with Lostelle, I realized I really liked their dynamic and Lostelle was basically alike in personality to him so it felt like if anyone deserved to join him on the trip, it was her. Frankenfiter's brawling approach was decided then and there, I had joked about him not wanting to turn every segment into a possible alliance but it ended up giving him one and helping him do more in the Brawl!
Of the many parts, I do think there were almost too many to use effectively. I tried to have them all do something in the pre-fite at least, and really, I don't think Francisco would have left as strong an impression if he hadn't been given room to show his personality in the pre-fite. I wish I had done more with his odd organs. When he had his bumblebee butt removed, it was implied something impacting his balance was in there, but originally I had thought about his brain being in there before I wanted it to get pried off. The heart in the wing being found by Wolfgang was meant to show off the scientist's ability to contribute to the team, but I wish I could have had him find it more naturally. I was surprised I used the scorpion tail for two kills, but at the same time I think getting one in the Brawl after years of jokes about them meant it was earned on some level. I wish I had used the pincers and tongue more, but I think that's one thing about crowdsourcing the construction. I can more easily dismiss not using a character's ability or weapon too often when they're just a character, but each piece of Frankenfiter is someone's invested idea. I think his body coming together into such a cohesive shape helped it be easy to remember what he was working with though.
Moving onto the rest of the pre-fite show. I like to split these into ten segments and they usually end with the behind-the-scenes post on the arena and such, but I almost shook it up this year. It was admittedly just a thought for variety's sake rather than some inspired choice, but it works because it works! Francisco flitting between groups of characters helped a single segment get to cover more characters naturally. Originally, Ian was slated for appearing in the brawl post where Stanley, Christopher, and Leonardo join up as just another fitey guy albeit one who didn't join up! One thing I tried to avoid after it got out of control last year was a glut of named alliances, although that lead to the awkwardness of calling a group the Orb users when only a few really did. I think I overcorrected in that department, but I think it's wise not to name every alliance so that I list who's present for easy tracking, especially since some alliances like Morag's got split up! By now it's obvious that the Mnelrolth scene was almost complicated by him deciding to move out of his cave but Cornwind graciously fixed that. I'm trying to remember if anything was left out besides specific dialogue but I think one advantage of the pre-fite posting is it's very easy to punch it up on the day of posting. Just go in and add things forgotten in the first draft and adjust some elements, like originally Constanze emphasized the idea of machine part stealing more but it never came to pass in the Brawl, so it was taken out. Sometimes I do cram too many characters in a scene, like I wish Roman and Neo had more to do in the orb user alliance post, but Roman speaking up an objection was also a small tip towards the early brawl part where Neo fears they don't actually gel with the group. It's pretty easy to tinker in foreshadowing even if it's ultimately rather small in scope and others like Koakuma and Evolto insult fiting were there to play into that part of them more! It's important to emphasize parts of an entry form I feel will be important too, it's not too rare to find an entry that says something like "is friendly" or "prone to smack talk" when too much dialogue can bog a brawl down. I slip it in when I can and it works but other times the pre-fite's looser rules and lesser reliance on action means we can have a fun moment from them even if it's not in the battle proper.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I feel some pre-fite thoughts can come up in character things, so let's move along now to that big demanding part to write: the character sections!
DEMOCURUS is a very good champion for this year in particular because of the ease with which I could construct a narrative. I know Sheep may not ultimately have him and Reduin back on good terms after this, but with Reduin placing high it was easy to play up that drama of former friends having moments that could build up to the final Wonder Tart moment. Grand Buffet was a quick idea for the finale, and I am very pleased I waited on Supreme Foodon Sauce usage until this year. I didn't want to overemphasize Foodons as much to make him a bit more fresh in how he fought this time, although Snacksnake was an easy way out of the narrative hole of Pete's hearse being hard to keep in tact and functional in the house. There was, actually for quite a while, the idea that the Mega Mango he got in the fridge would become a Foodon, a sort of huge sumo wrestler guy, and I almost had Gooper draw him before I decided, as I wrote, that I didn't like that reliance on a stand-in for Demo's strength. Democurus leans on allies and such a fair bit, one reason the battle between him and Jovita near the end is so humble and small compared to other bombast around that part of the Brawl is it was meant to show Demo could fite on his own merits well and truly, with clever ideas, quick thinking, and persistence. While the Grand Buffet was an almost immediate idea concept once I knew he'd win, the Wonder Tart finale that gives an emotional payoff came a fair bit later. I can't help but write some finales in my head in advance and this was definitely one of them, but it wasn't easy to think of good uses for the Wonder Tart ingredients... until it was. I will note I did eventually come around on finding uses for the others, but the Grand Buffet's meal mixing was also a concept that came later. The Grand Buffet uses nearly all the food options we knew of at the time. I know Sheep wouldn't object to me having Demo suddenly having normal food options in his book, especially with Pete around to provide a ton of food. But I still like using the entry form listed options most of all! I did slip in Gum as a recurring thing that hadn't been listed for him though, and nobody said anything that it wasn't mentioned at all before it was suddenly being used. That was all set-up for Demo saying at the end that he was collecting gum for Reduin! Demo did eat some pizza in pre-fite that didn't get play despite me considering it, I think if he hadn't got the Pikmin Calzone it might have seen a bit of play. There were some points in the Brawl where Democurus eats something and it deliberately isn't noted as being written down so it doesn't appear again. I also really wanted to use the idea of him shoving paper into someone's mouth as a KO to payoff that feature I didn't really touch on, since often it's much easier to just manifest the food. I even wavered on whether the plastic plants should count, before remembering Democurus ate "stabbing his mouth" once so it was hardly too wild. The Rickles he summoned being alive I worried was the real line drawn too far possibly, but they might be dubiously sentient in the way Foodons are was my justification. Steenstealers was also one of those things where it wasn't planned far in advance until I realized its perfect use, the body replacement function letting him get far despite being beat up. I nearly thought the Wonder Tart shouldn't really do anything to him despite it being perfect for the drama of the moment, but the mangosteen flesh was the perfect way to give him something he needed curing! I also wanted to make sure there was a touch more fite after the curing, again having him show he got that kill himself rather than just immediately stabbing Lyrica. I considered having him eat more giant food recipes to use, which is why Avital ends up erasing one because that was basically me irl. Also, he almost nibbled on the platform mushroom that Sucy uses to get to the kitchen island, but that didn't feel too important or useful.
THE PRISMRIVER SISTERS, and yes, we're going in ranking order this year! Ctrl+f your character if you don't remember their placement. Naturally, Lyrica was the one to make it all the way to the end of the sisters. It was partial bias because she's the best, but also her powers are definitely the most flexible and she's been shown favoritism in RP in terms of development. I knew for people to expect a Prismriver possible win at the end, I had to have her keep going. The Prismrivers getting instrument upgrades was of course seeding the eventual final conflict so they didn't look so simple by comparison. I did show last year a big late game upgrade like Little Buddy used doesn't guarantee a win, and this year Democurus won with that instead, so I hope that kept people guessing. Originally though I was a little stumped on how to make Lunasa's violin upgrade really pack some oomph. I almost went with the absurd idea of her using the fuselage of Ishii's plane as a violin. I don't quite remember my idea for having her add strings to it but there was some method that wasn't incredibly weird, but I think the route I went was better. Lunasa using Samhain's gifted violins was another idea that was basically me realizing a perfect concept rather close to the time to write it, because of course there's a violin day! Lunasa could carry on their eventual DALI alliance by her weapon use, again, that carrying on theme present, Lyrica also using Piano playing up the "undead push" connection even though Piano doesn't like DALI. I did waver on how warm the Prismrivers should be on DALI, not for an ideological reason, but more "DALI is my plot and the Prismrivers haven't outright said they're on the team so I don't want to be selfish". The Burnin/Lyrica connection helped stay it and then it was pretty natural after they'd want someone to support with their music. Merlin was definitely slated to die first for pretty much the reasons she said! One Prismriver falling to Reduin meant both Demo and the girls would go into the finale with the weight of their close one falling to the other person's close one. I really tried to push Merlin and Lunasa contributing in ways beyond just playing helpful music that slightly raises or lowers starts. The girls dying and passing on some power was also meant to sort of boost them and trick the audience into thinking they could go all the way on that boost. Similarly, Lunasa getting her power boosted by Hope's transmutation was meant to help her be more effective in the late game and more believable as a threat. I did read up on spell cards for the girls to make their danmaku more interesting even though it's more bullet shape and such rather than patterns. Some things I wavered on mentioning was Lyrica's time with Firebrow or the absent Prismriver since that requires knowledge from reading RP, but I thought... whatever! Makes it more meaningful for us readers and it's quick. Prismrivers not being physical fiters in the slightest also made it easy to maim them without needing to remember if I did or not!
POTEMKIN went on an unexpected tear! That's the big reason he got the Blue Orb really, a way to make him even more formidable and a believable candidate to go the distance as he couldn't stop winning. I think managing his weapon did get a little rough at points, but he probably can put it on his back. If most of his weapons weren't in his arms and he wasn't a grappler it would have been more fluid, but the weapon was instead there when he wanted to. I didn't want it lost or crushed early, but he got pretty far before its time was up. The Blue Orb I did worry about, I very early realized that people with orbs dying would lose them, but I didn't want to cheapen the Vilfred pass on by having it constantly happen. Potemkin being a constant friendly supporter of Vilfred until he dies was all leading up to him being worthy of carrying it on for him. I was worried he might not have "synergy" but I don't think H'aanit is electricity aligned conceptually so I felt more confident giving him water powers. I did worry that maybe Draco didn't want to be committed to orb plot by this connection, but it doesn't need following up on since multiple people can be chosen by the orb. Some people were surprised he busted out the Heavenly Potemkin Buster and kept going far beyond it, and there it was very much just the manner of who he was facing. Zed is monumentally tough and one reason Potemkin was slated to kill him was... okay part of it was two big muscly guys who could do wrestling move kind of things and go all out. But it was also bigging Potemkin up more as he could show he was powerful enough to keep going if he took down Zed. Heavenly Potemkin Buster let me justify it so people aren't like "you said it took a mountain to crush him before!". Well, Potemkin hit like a mountain with it! I think final and special moves tend to get used often for practicality and narrative purpose most of all anyway. Sometimes you get a kill with a punch even when you've got a supermegadeath ray in the back because it flows nicer. I really liked the idea of Potemkin so often being water-propelled to the point I gave him dinky Dragoon wings just to justify him not having easy flight available. I figured something about his cyborg nature or body shape lead to the wings not forming right, but that may not line up with the lore properly since there's been tons of dragoons in the past and some were probably Potemkin shaped or even cyborgs. The visuals of Potemkin using water attacks was a big reason he got the orb really, it's so cool to imagine him smashing the ground and sending out waves! I didn't want the orb to replace him though, but it gave him projectiles most of all and when you got in close, then the other tricks came out. I do feel bad Potemkin didn't defend his allies well, but moments like Neo's death, he had started fiting Walrein and it wasn't like he could just tell the walrus to wait while he saved his friend!
JOVITA AND AVITAL, boy let me tell you about Avital's magic! It's pretty much designed to not work for a kill! My notes all said Avital kills Formaggio, but if you look at her spell list, there's not a lot of directly lethal options! I did wish I had used Futures Trade better, I considered it activating pretty early since a Brawl is long enough she could defer a lethal hit and then possibly go all the way and then let it just kill her or something in a hypothetical victory scenario. I actually did use a lot of Avital's spells, her alliance making for some good synergy like duplicating potions, so I don't feel I squandered her. I do feel she is such a bag of tricks I would never say I'm 100% satisfied. I wish I could have done Speculation with something bigger or more important and maybe do a fancy Silent Auction, but they're pretty situational and yet very impactful so I feared declawing a foe in a way that would make them non-functional. We had so many counterspell options in this Brawl too so it was harder to juggle them all! This isn't a complaint at all, Avital is a rich character magic-wise and plumbing those depths is an enjoyable task even if I can't always do everything that has potential. Jovita, I knew very quickly that I didn't want her locked into just her entry potions, but they were tracked until we got to the brewing bathroom. I knew a bathtub would be a perfect cauldron analogue, but I didn't really think through the ingredients element until I realized it would line up well with the food alliance. I don't know if pizza components are what Jovita really needs, but hey, it's got mushrooms and garnishes and all that stuff! Jovita I definitely have a soft spot for after all the Ani stuff last year but I think she was always going to go further than Avital purely on the back of lethal potential. I remember for a while I was trying to keep post-brewing potions limited in some capacity too, didn't want it to be an infinite resource. I think Morag narration mentions using the last of one and of course I didn't want to just dump too much healing on the group. We ended up getting every potion possible used and early on I had conceived of the idea of feather generation being important in taking out Formaggio in a believable way. It helped against Lanterby, but it definitely could impact a tiny person battle a lot more! I nearly forgot Corrosive Touch was meant to be so limited, but I think the Brawl has a lot of odd power interactions. She shouldn't lose it just for wearing down a waffle wall, and it didn't have to immediately fade I feel either. It's not like it's a switch being flipped, her hands would start to return to normal after the effect's power fades out fully. Also tried to avoid leaning back on Strengthening since it's effective but not so exciting.
HOPE. Let met tell ya about alchemy! I thought reading Full Metal Alchemist some before the Brawl would help me be creative, but with so many brawlers using alchemy, I instead felt like I had to laser in on what sets it apart per character. Hope's obviously goes the wildest, but read her entry, and you'll see some strong limits on what exactly she can do! She needs to put her hands on things after the easier stuff, meaning she can't just fling it around for quick and instant conversions. What's more, there are time limits on things, and one reason the Agama Coven was stationed in the library early on was to buy her time to do a big cast. She got sniped instead, but I felt she could transmute up a solution to a hit that wasn't instantly lethal. I did worry since it was technically body modification, but her entry notes she's modified her own body, the patch might not necessarily be flesh, and what's more, I didn't specify how her neck was hit exactly, meaning it can be right where it needs to be to be plausible for her to transmute and fix. Naturally, Hope's concept transmutation was a big question hanging on my head throughout the brawl, but read her entry, and you'll see it's very hard to quickly do! A fite flows best at speed and the cool back-pocket rule change doesn't work with her limitations. I think they are very good limitations I'll note, but it meant I felt it needed to be one clever and possible moment, and that ended up being her transmuting Lunasa's powers. It's not too crazy wild, I did consider her transmuting Nom Emissary being dead into being alive so it could attack Potemkin but it didn't seem like what she'd do. I did consider the idea of her tranmuting KO into OK to bring someone back as well, but it was too cute an idea and I wouldn't want it even thought a KO was truly undone. Hope was noted to have a high likelihood of failure for one of her crazier transmutes, which is probably why she only does the one of changing Lunasa's powers than trying elsewhere. We might have even missed an off-screen failure or something! Hope was unfortunately a bad guard for the Agama Coven, but going back to Potemkin, Hope was also the one holding her own against the likes of Potemkin, Crim, Zed, and so on when her allies fell. If she turned away from being that bulwark, you have some of the strongest and most powerful brawlers unattended and thus able to contribute their power to their ally. I did consider having Hope follow Ashley and Neo into the basement but maybe getting lost and trying to transmute away it's "void" nature. Hope hasn't acted too much like she did as Alcina since the reveal so she was kind of played like the more serious Ravensky aligned self for the most part, taking stuff rather seriously. Hope was noted as having regular magic available and for me that meant acid was a good attack for her to keep pulling out, something powerful but not too plain like a fireball. I did worry for a bit about her transmuting something and it having momentum or force behind it, but I reread some old stuff and she's done the concept of manifesting something to launch her or ram into something, so it's possible without too much trickery. Her entry mentions various weapons she's used but doesn't commit to one so it took me a bit to get it through my head she shouldn't whip out a broom or whatever. I'll note I kept Redemption off the table deliberately. It takes time to manifest and Nom was huge and the likely target so it wouldn't do the big impact having it appear should probably come with. I don't know if Hope will Brawl again, but I do think I didn't plumb the depths of her transmutation trickery so they could always crop up if she does.
OLD BUN EYE. Spy's entry says you can't use every Bugsnak/Tyranid mix he came up with and I was surprised that ended up being so important! I do know, of the lieutenants listed, I was always committed to the Nachotyrant since it was so unique among the options, but I could see alternate cases where if an assassin was pegged for taking down Bun Eye maybe we could have seen the Licorictor. Most of the options were picked for pretty practical on-the-fly reasons. Tomagants get in because their guns synergized with the Spirited Sauce upgrade from Demo. Steenstealers helped to make Matcluck more potent and work within the context of the attic scene better. I did sort of tweak the mental stuff a bit, I didn't consider it mind control but I thought playing it as a sort of dark suggestion helped to make its moments of influence more potent, especially since it gave Demo a big moment. Carnefex I feel I maybe overly committed to the instruction that they follow Bun Eye like a stampede though, but they were kind of there to give him a horde at times more than be big hitters. I considered drawing a picture of the Nom Emissary, but I looked at the pictures of it and was conflicted. I wanted to add the food parts but worried I'd forget them or ruin the look or something. We get some good looks at parts of the Nom Emissary in its KO pics, and I emphasized Old Bun Eye was a more dominant part of it to avoid any questions about his condition. I ultimately linked a picture I found of the Norn Emissary for reference which isn't usually something I'd do, but I also picked a picture separate from Spy's entry link because it showed the tail clearly and that was pretty important! I will note, the Nom Emissary was written to be psychic at first, but then I thought that Iliesh using her mind break powers on it should prevent those from manifesting. Then I realized as I was editing the psychic powers only showed up after the mind break so I edited them out entirely. At least, I think I did! If any slipped in, we'll just say the brain wasn't mushed to complete disuse! Nom is one of the things Demo ate but didn't write down. Old Bun Eye was something I was nervous about since he needed to be in play a long time but also not inactive, he became a way to keep strong guys like Sirius busy without gaining ground. I considered that room Old Bun Eye came into the Brawl with to be a sort of organic room he'd be fought in, that may have happened if he did worse. The attic scene with Blubba's heart needed spicing up and on reason I think some breaks between posts help a lot was the mental image of Bun Eye just being chucked up there as a wild card so we get some early Bun Eye before he has to be benched for narrative convenience for a while. Nom Emissary also benefitted a great deal from the greater brawl structuring plans, I wanted meaningful changes and upgrades to leave a mark this brawl so we had our godbeast score two kills before being taken out rather than appearing to die.
REDUIN I definitely felt that "sword and board" limit in terms of moves he could pull out, but this year I both explored his emotional side more and played more into his berserker frenzy! I didn't want it too obvious where things were heading when Reduin and Demo brushed near each other during the Brawl and we had moments where Reduin showed he did care, but I also wanted to respect their entry forms saying they had reasons to be separate. Giving Reduin other allies didn't pigeon hole him too much. I think being Demo's partner meant he was shown the door a bit too early last year but this year his necessary sticking around forced some more creative moments to justify his deep run. I do think he almost needs a group or he'll berserk himself into a puddle of guts, his allegiance transferal to Morag's group wasn't even something pre-planned far in advance but it was perfect for keeping him active but not bearing the weight of certain moments too heavily. Just realized I left out the laundry room in the map, I believe it was meant to be near the kitchen. That battle in there was definitely Reduin's moment for showing his pure power, I don't always do it but you can usually expecting high placing characters to have moments that are meant to show even without allies or unusual advantages, they are tough stuff. I do recall thinking of getting Reduin's blade upgraded and Avital resharpening it was kind of a weak carryover of that even though weapon durability is rarely a problem. Writing Reduin's voice might have been the hardest one actually, mostly because I wanted to balance that precarious burden of not writing Sheep's character development for him but wanting to have sweet or meaningful moments. I think I completely rewrote what he said to Demo the day of posting. One big thing when writing the Brawl is sometimes you're pushing through and can't linger on certain moments to try and keep the flow going and I wrote the epilogue by staying up later than usual, but usually when I remember I can jump back in and spice up parts I remember a lingering issue or regret with. Reduin both benefited from and suffered under my art experimentation this year. I was trying a new direction for drawing eyes and even hands but I kept jumping around what I thought worked and struggling to quiet the part of me that wanted to do things the old way. Unfortunately, I've yet to find a nice style yet! I blame Drawfee, for their Drawtectives series Karina drew her character's eyes so simple but effective that I tried it and it lead to the art second guessing during that part of the Brawl process.
FORMAGGIO was the definitely our most unexpected high placer this year. I would have put him third in terms of how I expected them to do, but in retrospect I am very glad it was him that ended up going the distance because his powers were so perfect for very unique fites! I have been reading JoJo thanks to the library and know the sort of writing style of a JoJo fite now, but that mostly manifests in Sirius vs. Illuso and I'll save that I think for Illuso's part. I did consider getting Gooper to draw Formaggio's eye with those two visible within it though for a very cool effective image, but Formaggio also acted a touch goofy after being tasked with getting his eye watery and properly reflective which is something some JoJo fites will feature for a panel or two. Formaggio also uses a catchphrase the wiki assures me he has in the pre-fite: It can't be helped. It shouldn't surprise you Formaggio's powers caused some confusion, especially since the source material doesn't see him doing certain actions with his Stand. Mainly, I considered him carrying around a lot of shrunken things, another rejected image was Formaggio unshrinking Piano as he pulled it from his pocket, a reference to the meme of Eminem throwing the rat but it would be Woe, Piano Be Upon You instead. I even thought maybe the Piano would tear up his pants while it was being carried around in a pocket. I did have him do it with one item but not too many since I wasn't sure how many active shrunken things he could have. "He can shrink a number of objects, like cars and stuff to use later" his entry says so I probably could have gotten away with it, but you know how I be. I did perhaps write Lanterby shrinking faster than others who got shrunk but that was a chaotic early fite and wanted to get to the tiny battle. Elsewhere it was milked for a source of drama as fiters realized they were getting less and less capable, but I just wanted the Louie fite! Definitely a moment of giving people what they want there and it was a fun write so no regrets save maybe I could have had it be longer to explore Louie's abilities more. I wasn't sure how Formaggio's powers would impact Sirius's Stand is another JoJo power thing I had no reference to use. One reason Little Feet and Formaggio attack Ordinary World is to shrink him if he needs to be technically cut too in order to shrink. I don't think Narancia in the source material had his stand impacted but his stand is also a toy plane rather than one of those Stands that is so closely attached to their user. Formaggio also probably has the record for character knocked out most without dying because of it, mostly because that's the only reason I could see for him canceling his Stand powers at parts. Having La Squadra there to bail him out made it easier to justify. I may actually play with the passed out but not dead character again, I think it's a neat concept if it's done believably! Him squishing the Pizza Vampire was the first Brawl pic I drew this year and I tried to be fancy with having his hands be detailed to emphasize the size difference.
SHIRLEY AND KATELYN, what's the deal with snipers getting so far in Brawls? I think at least Shirley handled the concept best of all, and I almost think that first shot on Hope, despite it being undone, helped. It helped she wasn't the only sniper too, so Shirley could be kept busy by someone like Ian without having to close the distance. One thing I was worried about was Katelyn being an ineffective piece of the team, since one is incredibly close-ranged and the other long range, and I didn't want to toss Katelyn out as an easy KO either. The Vulture Totem was a godsend there, because then she could cover distances quickly and then do her attacks while also technically assisting Shirley. Shirely was definitely injured early on so I could make her less effective but also allow her to do more. She could do things like shoot off a nose or just barely miss a lethal shot, and you're meant to get the feeling that if she was healthy, those would have been killshots. I do wish I had thought of a good use for the briefcase, I even mentally noted I wanted it to be used somehow, but when Shirley escaped her fite with Ian with one arm down, by the time I felt it could be useful, it wasn't reasonable for her to still have it. You might also ask why Katelyn wouldn't carry it then, but also Katelyn was starting to do vulture stuff and lugging a briefcase around would really impede that angle. Logic triumphed. Katelyn going into the trash pit to retrieve the Vulture totem wasn't how it was intended to be passed off, it was meant to be a direct hand-off by Sinful, but I really couldn't justify them drifting together since he exits too early and I didn't want Shirley's tactic rumbled too early. Gooper made Katelyn much more fearsome in the image than I expected and it was the right call, I just wanted to give wiggle room in case he felt a version with her hair or a Disney style aesthetic looked better to him. I do wish I had Katelyn lay more traps, but the duo was more mobile and usually only mentioned in times of movement, but we got one on Ian at least. Honestly, I think Shirley versus Reduin might have been one of the harder moments to write because the power and condition of the fiters were so skewed, but I didn't want Shirley to go out like a chump because she's noted to be skilled enough in hand to hand. Problem is, the other guy's a berserker, but that was a moment where I had wished I hadn't thought it wise to wear her down so much in advance. At the same time, Shirley's injuries were easy to track because they were so meaningful to her fiting style.
ILIESH surprised my by reaching a point where I felt a Brine spell list had almost had its depths fully plumbed. On the other hand, I think there were also many moments where I felt there were spells I absolutely could not whip out during a specific situation due to how strong they were. The mental ones were especially tough to figure out, Iliesh being good-hearted at least meant it was easy enough to say that she wasn't going to be cruel just for the sake of victory. You often see those mind attacks used on something monstrous or someone Iliesh figured could take it. Her entry form actually mentions she wasn't likely to ally with others but I also thought she was too good-hearted to outright ignore people, hence why she backed up Stelle so much. I did notably not use her Arcane Mark spell that lets her teleport to people or places she marked with it, it probably happened some in the background but often isolating a character can be important like when Puppet Princess could get a proper spotlight as a threat since she wasn't standing beside a bunch of other huge threats. I did worry I made her fite physically too much but I was looking for it when I was revising the Brawl day of and I think actually besides turning into a sphinx for some heavy situations she did focus on her spells more often than not. Calling her a sphinx even when she wasn't a sphinx felt odd but I did it because it was easy and because it made no question who I was talking about. Many people have no doubt figured out already that Iliesh's targets were definitely meant to show an equal amount of strength between the fiter and her, Nom taking her down established its threat, Iliesh weakening Beelzebub, even Morag was meant to be bigged up. I was worried it might make Iliesh look like she was "playing with her food" with how the Morag battle was structured, it was definitely the moment Iliesh most indulged her entry form's mention of prioritizing curiosity, and one reason I had her drop the illusion to reveal her injuries was to dispel the idea that Iliesh was so in command of the battle. I did worry Samhain potentially trying to spread the Spreading Mark with his death might look cruel for him, but I also realized Iliesh could easily dispel it on her allies. Naturally, the riddles presented by here were written on the spot by me! I knew I wanted one to be part of the Beelzebub encounter, I'm glad it has a helpful outcome for Iliesh either way so she present them even to a clever foe. I did feel a little bad making Samhain get his wrong, but I figured he was more impulsive to justify not thinking it through. Iliesh having a Silence spell did make me rather careful not to put her in situations where you'd go "just use Silence" but also made her good for keeping Hope busy. I do wonder sometimes if others end up getting that close sense for a spell list and would even think such things though.
ENA is back and at first, I wasn't sure how to play her personality! Her entry mentions she still has some of that old moodiness in her but also she's matured somewhat, so I didn't want her too stoic or too moody. The Pre-Fite actually got her moodiness pushed in a little more, and generally, I think a lot of her reactions and dialogue actually did get a bit of touching up to either enhance or pull back on that element. Basically I didn't think she'd debilitate herself with her reactions but also might not handle scenarios too well like the elevator battle once the tables turned. What did ENA write her glyphs with in the Brawl? Well I ain't telling you! Really, I avoided specificity intentionally, although Hope saying outright she can make her writing tools as needed was meant to patch that hole up. That way she can write on Potemkin just as easily as she could write on flesh since conceivably she had options. ENA's magic is pretty close to Owl House's glyphs systems so I definitely used that as my mental inspiration for how things manifest. ENA never used anchor, and part of it was because the situation she found herself in against Potemkin didn't feel like she would have benefited from a guaranteed hit. I didn't want it to be used flippantly in a situation she had command of, especially since it is so taxing so she should take its use seriously. We actually got every one of her Astral Spirits in the Brawl, and I definitely made sure to use a careful hand for when they appeared. I didn't want to exhaust a good one too early or during a situation where ENA was helping others rather than in focus. I think in some ways that encouraged more glyph focus so that was a good call making the spirits only able to be summoned once in the Brawl. Naturally, I wanted to give the people what they wanted with Eos facing Laila, although they didn't get along considering the situation. I bet I'll bring this up again, but one reason I justified Eos's elevator allowing Laila to make an elevator of her own was magic having some oddities when they are from such different schools and powers, but of course the main justification was because the dueling elevators was a cool concept! I think I did write it a bit so I could have adjusted it if I got pushback. I almost didn't use Avarin before I realized he was a decent equalizer against Potemkin so the fite didn't feel too skewed, although his presence likely was a death flag to anyone keeping track of who she had used as they would realize her number is up.
SABRIYE was slated for the head on Justine's shoulders pretty much once I saw the results, although me forgetting that I made a bet they'd place close together did make me feel a little guilty after I was reminded of Zed's bet later. Of course, I won't avoid an idea just because it's been predicted, and as others have pointed out, sometimes they're pointed out because people WANT to see it! Not that anyone did see the two-headed zombie coming as far as I know. Sabriye's power-ups being tied to what's on her head made it too perfect, although it may not surprise you to hear that I wish I had done so much more with non-traditional talisman stand-ins. I was already worried about the car manual being perhaps a step in a wrong direction since it gave her a mental boost rather than a physical one. I actually felt Sabriye's entry form weaknesses really didn't have much room to get play. I am not sure who in the Brawl could make a counter-talisman, I didn't really have a reason to get her near the swamp for some trauma drama, and the money angle from early Brawl disappeared too quickly for her to be tempted. One reason I didn't get too indulgent with cooking up papers she can put on her head was I didn't want to ignore the talismans she came with. I'm sure people want to see fun applications of a power, but if they're going to list them out, that's basically like saying "here's some fun ideas I had!" and indeed, I do like being able to look at the notes really quick and realize what works really well in a situation. Some like Reduction weren't wise to use in the fites she found herself in. I wanted to get across her attitude some, her sort of "too cool for school" demeanor, and I think that means she wouldn't take big risks on unusual strategies like shrinking down against Kae or whatever. Her going against Kae was almost purely concocted for the sake of getting Sabriye's body wrecked beyond use. I did wonder how much control she should have over the shared zombie, I figured one part of the power imbalance would be Wolfgang being reasonable and I didn't want her to look like she couldn't use the body without Justine, hence her starting to get a bit better at control even though it didn't save her in the end. Just didn't want the ENA kill on her to come the moment Justine's head pops off. The Illness talisman really contributed to the subtle Acid theme this brawl had.
MORAG, I mentioned in chat already, had a post that was all about making her look cool, the "Let's Make Morag Look Badass" post, and in part that was because I realized I had her remain a rather calm contributor up until the post where she kills Sirius, helps against Piano, and even leads into the upcoming Mnelrolth versus Bun Eye fite a bit. Funnily enough, it was her competence as a commander that might have lead to that, she lead her allies well and did do some good fiting alongside her alliance, but not in the big noticeable ways since she was defending against tough foes like Violence's Coven where gaining ground would be difficult. Brighid's nature as a Stand is a bit strange, she's more "alive" than most and I bet maybe in the past I'd feel compelled to show her getting killed as part of Morag's death but actually reading JoJo helped me cement that isn't a necessity. At the same time, Brighid is more of a person than many of them! She gets to speak some, but she often acts like a Stand in that she's facilitating Morag's battle style more than she is doing independent action. Another bit of Brawl details being up to the reader to not get hung up on, Morag's sword can make flames, and it does so reliably throughout so whenever she needs the fire, you aren't going to ask where she got from. They're flame manipulators with a source of them and we're not often told they're a huge inferno so it's not a question of how she got so much fire. In fact, when Morag is fiting Iliesh and does her dome trick to find where the imperceptible sphinx is, it's implied the dome only had so much fire to work with, hence why it wasn't just a plan to burn the area and look for the spot where the flames act strange. I appreciated Morag's belt being a bit open-ended in its contents even though it didn't manifest too much. Mostly Draco listed the reasonable ones for her to have and when she was up against characters she didn't often feel herself lacking in terms of an undead counter. I did mention wolfsbane at one point as a sort of sign that she had things she had little use for but she also was prepared enough for possible unknowns thanks to it. I did definitely want to play up her capable nature, from the pre-fite where she's scouting an unknown to her being pretty much always cool and in command of a situation. We see her mind working, and then we also get the Sirius fite where we can instead reveal plans made in advance. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't use her rapiers' chain whip form more, possibly just because she was pretty forceful with her assaults so rapiers fit it more than the middle range whip would.
LOSTELLE AND JACLYN making it so far kind of helped define Morag's alliance and they ended up getting a surprising amount of focus! Them getting so deep is why they die within the same post, the two helping some high placers get more kills in the later brawl but we also got to see a lot more from them because they stuck around. I remember struggling to think which of Banette's moves should kill Neo but I was too enamored with the visuals for Hex that I wanted to do it even though it didn't have the status effect set up. I didn't want it to be forced in to justify the Hex either. Hex works as an attack even without its secondary effect! I already liked the two girls but I became an even bigger fan just by being given so long to write them and their dynamic, Lostelle as we know really got a special focus thanks to Francisco. I did sometimes feel the moveset limitations most in regards to me wanting to go outside the box of ice, water, and ghostly energy, mostly because I wanted a cool back pocket surprise or interesting disruption and sometimes we already saw a trick like Banette's Phantom Force. I didn't actually feel limited I'll clarify, just in some moments you pull up Bulbapedia and you're thinking what could be a neat shift in direction. Jaclyn's mind teleports were almost all accidental but I wanted to show her as not being that mentally flighty, so it was often an unusual or stressful situation. The girls appearing in the crowd after one teleport was the only remnant I had of an idea of Shirley fiting from within the crowd, possibly relying on them for cover and maybe even getting forced out by an ornery audience member. I briefly put the girls in the crowd, then though, nah, I'll stick to mansion shenanigans this year. Jaclyn's teleportation was definitely relied on heavily because of its ease of moving characters around and separating alliances more believably. Walrein having Rest let me justify being rougher with it. Walrein's entry saying the walrus needs water to pull from to use Surf actually lead to the entire concept for the laundry room because I wanted a full power Walrein moment before he had to go away. For Banette, his Poltergeist power was almost too clever, I kept wanting to use it and I had to restrain myself! Role Play on the other hand felt like a fun trick when it came in contact with a non-Pokemon, allowing him to invert things on Crim a bit. Personal weaknesses in personality feel like they could have come up for the girls if they placed lower, but sometimes bad behavior is sheared away to show why they got so far. They had their act together and coordinated well with each other. Also, if you're wondering why Koakuma had Chara crush on Jaclyn specifically beyond the question of proximity, it was because Goop's effort post where he showed Jacyln as a potential finalist. For showing that bit of love, Chara ended up showing it as well, I almost even had him draw it! If it had mattered more maybe I would have, but it was fleeting.
STELLE is not quite a Neptune level memelord, but I did try to surround her with some memey behavior, especially since it has been emphasized in her more often recently. One funny thing about writing Stelle was in her final fite where she does get KO'd, I wrote up to the part where she was about to get KO'd and felt the fite had moved too quickly, before I realized, duh, the Stellaron! We do get references to her reinforced body before then, but Stelle is usually written as almost fully in control, but a near KO felt like a good moment for Stella to start mattering and lead to an interesting end for the character in the fite. I do wonder if Banette and Lostelle should have been able to rip it out, but I also wager Stelle's body was wrecked by then so that helped. It might have been neat for Stelle to unlock a new path from the near-death situation that lead to Stella taking over, but I also didn't want to cheapen a potential cool power get by having her get wrecked just a few paragraphs later. Maybe one did manifest but couldn't be used? That's for Harp to decide! I bet Stelle's Harmony form could have ended up ignored if I hadn't attached to the idea of Stelle helping out the Coven, and while Iliesh being there definitely helped clinch that angle, it really was just because I wanted to make jokes about Stelle liking Zadanost's trash most of all! I think it helped Stelle stay active early on, she's a Brawl late bloomer. The paths being so specialized did lead me to bouncing between them often, and I kept thinking "am I doing this right?" Questions like her fire lance also made me curious if I should look things up and confirm my suspicions on how the game handled it. I didn't want Stelle to just leap into trash whenever it appeared like she had no brain, but in moments where she was rather safe or in control I let her indulge. I did consider the possible garbage situation for the mansion but it never manifested beyond the brief consideration of having dumpsters on the side, but Stelle never fought outside, and Zadanost entered the mansion sooner than I thought she might so there was no need for going to an outside dumpster just for a gag. Her saying "Oi git tat lass mate" to respond to Kaydence's slang is really meant to be her tapping into a meme rather than her knowing anything about Wulf. Funnily enough, I hesitated on calling what Stelle was doing class changes when her entry says it's actually what Stelle prefers to call it even though the entry mostly picks the "path" terminology! Such is the way of referencing notes rather than... idk, rereading entries in their entirety every time I wonder something?
WOLFGANG AND JUSTINE Chao definitely made the right choice in having Justine be the assistant or else I couldn't have really justified Sabriye and her joining up I think. On the other hand, I did feel the specific amount of serums they had was a touch low. Maybe if it was just Justine using them it would be easier but I also thought it was very wise for Wolfgang to hand them out to the allies, but Francisco's parts and Sabriye's joining up with Justine's body was to help alleviate the potential issues involved with the limited serums. I think at one point I wondered if Wolfgang could somehow make a new serum, but it was a flight of fancy. I did want Wolfgang to contribute as more than team doctor which is why he's so responsible for Francisco's defeat, although I also didn't want him to be overly effective in combat since it's not his specialty. Initially, when the DALI group that went to the attic took off, it was going to be Elvira and Wolfgang left behind before I realized it was important to have the zombie maid available for her upcoming kill. Of course we don't see how they handle Tubba Blubba while the others are gone, but I briefly thought it more interesting if Wolfgang was potentially forced to assist people he knew less. Perhaps Justine's phobia of electricity was more likely to come up than Sabriye's own death trauma, but it just didn't turn out that I wanted anyone near her with the powers! I imagine if Wily had helped Borea at length perhaps I'd have that lightbulb moment, but then again that fite wasn't about Justine. I do remember thinking on what to call Doctor Wolfgang Clerval and now he's just solidly Wolfgang in my mind when I think I used to use Clerval more often. I think generally I was a bit weak on using alternate names or titles this Brawl but clarity is king so I'll accept some less pretty sentences for the sake of it.
TIP TOP, SUGAR, AND CATGUT relate to that bit I just said about not using alternate names. I called them hobos, but from what I had seen, Sheep hadn't used the limpet nickname recently or for this specific batch of characters, so I played it safe. As I'm sure you've guessed, Sugar was eliminated early because of his competency, allowing Tip Top and Catgut to better embrace the strange low energy alliance that formed around Ishii's plane. Sugar would likely whip them into shape too much and in some ways, he was less flexible than the other two. Catgut's hair was a wonderland of doing whatever I really wanted, although I did try to keep it all in line with items you can reasonably imagine him getting his hands on. The fire extinguisher was perhaps the most unusual pick but I did want something a little absurd, but otherwise it was items I felt could have ended up in by accident or someone in the group stumbled across it and it got stuck in that mop of hair at some point. I did wonder if Catgut's hair might have some supernatural angle which is one reason we didn't get something like a tiny character fite in it, but I did want a character to go in still, hence vulture Katelyn crashing into it. I didn't want to ruin a potential reveal some day by doing something incompatible which is also why the items were rather grounded and "realistic" to have in there. I think that also meant that I leaned more into unusual choices rather than it always being what was needed at the time. Characters had to make do with the hair lotto. Tip Top, I think his picture almost influenced me to write him a bit too out of it, so I went and read scenes with him to give him the proper sass he has shown. I did wonder about the point where he called Ishii "boss" since I don't know if in-character he might call someone boss, but I also figure he has enough sass he could say it purely for the contrast with the expected. Tip Top's fishing line was definitely a fun tool to use although I might have stretched its limits quite a bit. It was noted as being useful for setting up ambushes but he actively used it to restrict Bluster's movements, although I did have him do a lot of rod waggling to try and make it more believable he somehow wound it all around the plane wheels. I did feel the limits of a solitary fisherman near his death where I wanted him to hold his own against Justine and Sabriye a bit but holding them off felt hard to justify. Tip Top's fishing line was the big inspiration for putting the trio on the plane since he could set things up for above, and Catgut's attitude of not wanting to move about cinched it. However, to justify it was another thing, not so much with Ishii, but with the others I was realizing I wanted on the plane. Luckily, Sugar gave us a good connection through RYM meaning he was chummy with Cafe Sweety at least somewhat. Funnily enough, if anything, that realized connection helped ensure it was only them on the plane. Rather than thinking they should team up and be on the plane, I thought of the different plane riding candidates and realized how well it could work, especially with Frima matching the slow moving ways of Tip top and Catgut. I don't know if I'll often take out the obvious leader of a group like I did with Sugar, but I think the fact they still got so far and Sheep won the overall Brawl made it safer.
ZED It did feel a little weird to only have on DALI rep from my cast, I imagine Perona would really like to Brawl alongside him, but he's much too strong for an ally and I had characters who also needed to get in before they're gone. Zed himself, it was fun to lay out some of the facts of who and what he is after less direct references before. At the same time, the big guy was pretty powerful but not full of unique powers, which I think mostly meant he couldn't be a big contributor to DALI skirmishes until they were up against someone able to take what he dishes out like Crim. Zed was often doing the old alliance trick of having to repel someone super powerful while the others face smaller or tricky foes. I actually had to decide mid-brawl some rules about the column, because I realized Potemkin breaking it was cool but wasn't sure what would happen if it was broken. I figure it's already supernaturally fueled in some way, how else does it always come to him after all. Similarly, it hasn't worn down despite being centuries old, so it probably has something making sure it stays together. Admittedly one reason I wanted to fix it was for Lunasa to use later. I hadn't really had reason to emphasize Zed's mountain god past before, but it was fun to enter a character I could so clearly say was super strong and tough and I think his limited powerset kept him from seeming too obviously OP. I also like to emphasize he is taken damage, the most obvious moments would be in RP's Pale Death battle where his arms were really wrecked to the point he needed days to heal. He is the kind to no sell hits both to show off or intimidate, one reason I concocted him not being weak to holy power was because I was enamored with the idea of him no-selling the holy attacks in the Spirit Girl blogpost. We had some capable team leaders in the Brawl like Violence and Morag, but I'd actually put Zed a bit low since he's not a strategist much and his skill as a leader is more his attitude and when he can sit down and speak. The Brawl did make me consider things like how important his physical form is, Potemkin's kill on him likely broke something important in him that could almost be like a weakness, but it's like saying snapping someone's spine is their weakness, and you need to be a Potemkin tier guy to snap this former death god!
MNELROLTH exceeded expectations to the point I was worried I was trotting out the same abilities from him a bit too often. He never really used his illusions, but I did like focusing on his cunning like how he elected to psyche out Christopher. The amount of damage he took was getting hard to keep track of I admit, but I do know early on he was pegged as someone safe for taking on certain characters if need be. However, being such a big threat perhaps made him a better stalemate source as characters like Samhain could occupy themselves with the dragon for quite a while. One big thing is I never had Mnelrolth use his human form, which was a two-faceted thing. The first was that he was making good use of his size and to shrink would be giving an easier target to the often strong foes or large groups he took on. The second was that I think his pride would make him really enjoy lording over others and using that as a power play. He was a big dragon so people had to respect him and in turn fear him. Christopher was slotted to face him I think because of his "magical weapon" even though that wasn't a motivator in the Brawl, but also Christopher having others helping him likely kept his weapon safe from being scooped up. I do think its nice that a big threat like him got so deep to keep away ideas that big dangers fall early, and while Bun Eye could have hit that mark, I think Bun Eye's slow build is a different thing. Old Bun Eye killing Mnelrolth was meant to be the start of us realizing how threatening the Tyranid/Bugsnak is, but also, it filled in an important element. Bun Eye needed to eat and recycle matter and I didn't want a Deb situation where someone's traumatized after the brawl when they learn what happen to their body. Mnelrolth though was a fairly safe target, a proud dragon with tons of meat on him, and he's not some likeable young hero where you'd feel bad for him. I did sometimes wonder if Mnelrolth was believably not relying on Horrid Wilting's desiccating power in certain situations, but the entry says he's likely got two in him, we saw one when he was on the ropes, and Mnelrolth did so well elsewhere that he probably felt he could afford to wait.
PIANO I think I misread something at some point because I had to keep correcting myself as I referred to Piano as "she" quite often. I misgendered a piano... One thing I did wonder about was if Piano was truly eligible for Lyrica taking over after it was eliminated, because again I'm not sure how much of Piano's details are hiding things the way I thought Catgut's hair might be. Piano was definitely a big inspiration for the music room, but honestly, a lot of the rooms were me thinking of what's in Luigi's Mansion so a music room came to mind very quickly. Piano swapping modes was something I did feel like I nearly lost track of right down to possible name mixups, and its forms having different powers sometimes also slowed things down as I tried to keep them straight. I know Piano was noted of not being an ambush fiter but I kind of wanted it to be more like Piano was ambushing people mostly because it would spot something and boldly go to attack it, the lack of hesitation and quick action the real surprise. I did do some gags on what songs it was playing and considered linking the tunes and I do wish I had named the tune more often just as a fun touch. Piano getting so wrecked briefly made me worry about its usefulness for Lyrica but her personality makes it feel like she'd try to make a broken piano work, although I did make sure Piano died with its tongue and stuff out so that we don't need to answer questions on why they're still present. Piano's activity was slated for later in the Brawl and one reason it fought Vulture at all was to ensure it was involved in a fite it could manage to show it was present and fiting but not see it hogging the spotlight or getting an early kill. Pete and Formaggio fiting on and in it was not planned far in advance, I just wanted Formaggio to have a cool place to fite Pete and I couldn't resist the Tom & Jerry inspired idea of them fiting within it. I was legit worried Piano might win the Brawl just off the back of the glut of Sheep support, not sure how I would have handled that outcome since so much of it is a mystery!
SIRIUS I rightfully feared when the extent of his power was laid out. However, the fact he can't spam it was helpful. I do feel like I've sometimes let down characters with time stop tricks or shenanigans trying to limit them too much, and one thing the narration even pointed out at one point was the idea that Sirius getting hit by Nemu was the potential "good outcome" and at least his specific approach to power use means he basically rerolls a moment so he can't do anything too crazy. It gives him an advantage but as Morag's team effort shows, it doesn't guarantee you'll be safe after invalidating an attack. His speed was a bit harder to always justify, but I did emphasize his weakening physical condition at times to slow him down. Almost mixed up how Charlie and him work with their powers, unsurprisingly, but at the same time when I went to check on the moments I thought I screwed up, it was fine. Like Sirius didn't do any post-feeding regeneration which I thought for sure he did. Him being an alternate Dio did influence some choices I made with him despite not wanting it to define him since he is different. I almost wrote out the kill on Illuso as the tiniest OraOraOra since that's the most familiar one, but Dio specifically says MudaMudaMuda! Ordinary World, for lack of an image, was also basically just me drawing Dio's Stand unaltered. Helped it was tiny so it didn't matter much. I mentioned elsewhere shrinking Sirius was to help keep his strength in check for a while, but there was also the question how small I wanted him to get, and I considered very small. Like microscopic, but he was destined to grow back in size anyway and after Illuso's death it wasn't as important so long as he was too tiny to make a big mark until his number came up. Before then though keeping Sirius busy felt hard since he can dominate a situation. Actually, when he fought Sinful, that was to give him something to do mostly. Sinful felt clever enough to hold him at bay somewhat and inflict some lasting damage, but the Brawl KO assignments I made personally had pegged it purely as Zadanost's kill. I don't disagree with the standings saying Sirius contributed a lot since he did, but it can show how a character needing a brief spotlight can lead to an unintentional elevation of importance.
SAMHAIN was of course a smorgasbord of holidays, but I tried to do some different inspirations for his picks depending on the situation. Like, in the Pre-Fite, he's doing holidays for the day-of, July 9th. I almost had him summon a mountain or something from Nunavut before I looked at their flag and was reminded of inuksuks. I did want him to emphasize Halloween at some point, that's why it was used pretty strongly close to when he took out Beelzebub since that's what he's known for most. The Christmas lights he kills her with were briefly considered to be Halloween fairy lights instead just for that synergy, but it felt like a stretch to make it work and a Holiday God killing with Christmas also feels right. That fite also had him pulling from major well known holidays. Sure, he used a mat from Kwanzaa that most people wouldn't know much about despite Kwanzaa-bot's efforts, but it was still in line with something you've heard of. It is fun to pull on the obscure but I didn't want to dive in too deep for it. I did know rather quickly I wanted to fix Wiggle's limited bomb count with some fireworks, and sometimes it was tough trying to find out a good applicable tool from a holiday for him to fite with. I definitely worked backwards sometimes, thinking of an attack type and trying to find a holiday for it. I didn't want him working too closely with DALI because he was a good powerhouse type fiter who could split off and keep other strong guys busy, and his placement definitely helped with me not feeling like I potentially squandered this day finally coming. I think I did get tempted to do things like King of Beasts Day for an attack but opted not to, I like that he can do it but I think the challenge of pulling from real life ones was already a plentiful cornucopia. And yeah, despite Sese saying he might use disease powers if he really wanted to win, I never would actually write that. I think Samhain's made his goofy fun nature clear, but that is why I was a bit hesitant about him spreading Iliesh's mark since that is almost weaponizing a disease!
CRIM was actually intended to go more full-on Godbeast kind of mode! That point where he got full up on blood, became huge, and even killed Violence was originally meant to make him even more gigantic and imposing, but I was struggling to justify it. Already I had worried crystalizing Nemu meant she likely didn't have much blood to offer. Writing that he stopped from time to time to slurp up a little blood also felt too odd. I had noticed possible synergy (good or bad) with Sinful during entries and I think it was very much going to be a situation of battle flow if anything ever came of it. Dying in trash made it harder for Crim to believably get it and he had no reason to risk it I felt. Crim is essentially a shapeshifter and at times I played into that but also worried about making it too much of a focus. It didn't feel right to treat him a bit like Miracle, or as an odd comparison, the Blob from Clayfighter. I decided he'd tend to commit to forms more strongly, not rapidly shifting but becoming something with a bit more purpose than a single attack. He didn't stick purely to that, I'm sure you can find contradictory examples, but it was a guiding ethos, not a rule. The fire orb was definitely useful in keeping him involved when he wasn't front and center. Like I've mentioned elsewhere, I feel like he was one of those heavy hitters of his alliance that demanded attention, thus meaning people like Hope couldn't ignore him and try to fite someone who was after her allies. One reason Zed got to kill Crim was that lingering idea Crim was going to be so large and in charge it would take someone similarly massive and powerful to take him out. While Crim wasn't gigantic to the point he demanded attention, I think he was still potent after his size increase and it was fun to emphasize a character losing mass as part of a battle's course, wearing him down to size. I don't think the heart squish would have been the kill method of choice if he had become a blood kaiju, but then again, it would have been a less personal skirmish too. Did make me wonder about Zed's blood situation though.
PETE ZAA taught me something interesting about my own characters in the Brawl. Oftentimes by the time I'm writing them, I've used them a lot in RP and really plumbed the depths of their powers. Writing Pete's food attacks when he was knew required creativity and even research, but I've sort of reached the boundaries a bit and he's not a "new toy", so concocting attacks for him in the fite goes a little rougher than when I'm using characters I've never written. Sometimes I get a little self-conscious that a pizza cutter can't be believably sold as a weapon or think it's a bit of a cop-out compared to a unique use of a pizza topping. I did consider having him use the spices Demo had preserved from his cooking, but also, why take that from Demo? I think Democurus actually kind of lead to me pushing more food creativity towards him to help him go the distance. My decision for this to be the old model hearse's swan song was inspired by someone in chat saying they're surprised he'd risk it, but as pointed out, the thing had been through a lot and had room for improvement. I don't think Pete ever had a major chance for joining up with DALI, I considered having someone try and reach out only for the usual rejection as he hides his vampire nature. The Brawl wasn't the place for him to have a change of heart, but he is also bad at hiding his powers. I did worry I wouldn't get to use his onion bread transformation. I gave him blood packs in his hearse and considered having him use them for an attack once, but it felt like a strange place to jump to since he had other ingredients on hand. The hearse's destruction was almost impulsive though, I hadn't meant for entering the kitchen to disable it so quickly, I'm not sure what I would have done if I hadn't thought of the Snacksnake integration so quickly after even if the ingredients didn't play a huge role after.
VIOLENCE... I feel like I did most of what I intended to do with her. The idea that her inspiring touch would push Nemu into crystalization form was a late addition to justify the shift. Nemu almost didn't get to go on that rampage since I didn't feel like I had a good supernatural lead-in, but I figured it worked well enough even though I then needed to justify turning Violence after showing that kindness. I didn't have her make too many faith weapons because I mostly figured her axe in hand did the job. I do know I kept the armor in the back pocket as I wanted it to be a proper shift in how she approached the fite and knew it would be her undoing because of how it is described. She even speaks differently after its on, I even wondered if she should speak at all after wearing it. It wasn't described as berserker mode though, so she got to be lucid but ready to rip it up. I've mentioned elsewhere some alliances were better managed, and I definitely tried to make Violence seem one of the most capable and best at covering her allies. In part it was because she and her allies were so threatening that doing so allowed battles to shift shape or the power dynamic with ease, but she did definitely put the most outside work into managing a team and it should show. I did slate her to kill Marina mostly because of the magic canceling/avenging Zadanost, but I did wonder how often she can snuff out magic. I do like the image of her and Iliesh showing off by counterspelling with ease, basically waving their hand like a quick parry, but as I realized I wanted Marina to hold her own rather than be an easy kill, I think the angle I concocted was believable enough. Taking Violence's need to prove herself into a situation where she technically endangered herself but also wanted to prove a point. She still won the exchange too so it's not like you can fault her. I did perhaps overly treat her wings like proper wings, but that was mostly during the Nemu business where it felt appropriate to not just fite on the ground. I did hesitate a touch on when to have Violence use her rings if at all, but a giant foe can usually necessitate using your big important options. I do remember wishing Violence could Alter Terrain on a much larger scale and also wavering on if Rout would really inspire fear in targets since I didn't want to say something about a character. It is nice to be able to say they bravely resist though, a show of mental fortitude but also a potentially paralyzing one as they resist an urge and end up doing little because of the canceled out actions.
KAE was definitely not a character I expected to get this high! One thing I'll note, and again, so very very sorry harpy, but, there were points where I was like "why is she described as basically androids but also a modified human"? Maybe I missed a clarification, but you'll notice she is killed by a scorpion tail. Could she have been poisoned? Does she have blood? Well, luckily Francisco's Iron Skin helped us as Sabriye could just smash that face in. Kae's big participation moments were pretty easy to plan. She was the instant pick for killing Charlie since she wields fire, got far, and is incorrigible. I really enjoyed her fite hungry energy, I could just slam her into a new fite without having to work hard to justify it. She's fast, durable, and excitable, so she could just throw herself into battles like the one against Nemu that ended in Stanley's death. I didn't want the mansion burning down too quickly though, which was one reason she was often contained in a place like the library were she could burn it up for the fite at hand but conceivably it wouldn't spread as people had to snuff it for their own safety. I didn't use her illusions much because I sometimes get tripped on people using the word illusion for duplicates. We still saw them, but I don't think, for example, Ashley stole control of them. Her effervescent attitude was a nice way to set up a pre-fite transition too since some had pretty tenuous connections that needed patching over.
ILLUSO, now we have reached the illusion man! As mentioned earlier, the fite with him versus Sirius was very much meant to evoke JoJo's big focus on figuring out how weird powers interact and can counter each other. Sirius being separated from his Stand is very much a hard counter a protagonist would have to figure out... I mean, it literally happens in the JoJo arc Illuso is from! Sirius having such an effective Stand meant isolating him was an early obvious idea for having these two face off. Even the fite ending in a punch flurry is meant to mirror how a JoJo fite tends to wrap up. The little ice stabbing trick in the early fite against the foodies was a very early idea I had for team synergy. Illuso's powers always mention a corpse can enter the other side, but it also means lingering attacks and such can be grabbed more safely by Illuso where people won't interrupt him. I think Naoko's leg getting messed up was perhaps undone a little too easily after the cleverness of the trick and lack of pressure on Illuso, but I didn't want to be rid of her cool ninja stunts. Whether or not Naoko could throw her knives at Illuso and have its reflection appear in his world was something I wavered on. There must be some reason he doesn't see floating clothes moving around, right? But the knife would leave a body's proximity eventually. In KO assignments, Illuso was meant to get the KO on Frima, but I actually forgot to add that to my post notes! Meaning by the time I realized Frima's been kicking for quite a while, I realized I hadn't transferred that notation! Illuso was always going to be the one in La Squadra who would struggle most clinching a kill, and I guess my idea for Frima was Illuso could reach her through some reflection on the plane. However, I also wondered how far the mirror dimension let him stretch his legs. Surely he can't walk a huge distance from the entry point or enter a reflection too far from where he can actually reach. Ghiaccio's ice suit being potentially reflective was such an immediate idea that it was more a question of when I wanted to whip it out to show, but it helped with the getaway that also facilitated Formaggio going unconscious so it got early showing. Burning igniting the bedroom to force Illuso out was me operating on limited mirror world rules, but it can also be explained away that maybe they were surrounded in the mirror world by the inferno and saw their only exit being to leave the mirror. I also think the power to pull in just a bit of somebody could have got confusing, I legit linked a picture of it in Sese's votes mostly to justify its use in the Brawl itself!
ROMAN AND NEO did much better this year, a fact that may be overshadowed by Sey's characters in general doing better. It was La Squadra's year to be sure. Neo thought was given a sort of "apology kill" in that she got to take out the champion, Ashley! Since Neo became a character so closely tied to Sey, I felt giving her the champ kill was a nice trifecta. It gives Sey a big meaningful moment to claim despite not winning, it elevates Neo after a poor performance last year, and it sort of seals in the idea she's capable so losses can't be held over her head. She did feel a bit subtle for the kind of company she kept. In the team fites I sometimes felt it hard to come up with a good action for her after Roman died. Roman is certainly the easier to write just doing stuff while Neo is more tricky. I think she should have brought her orb, partly for more fun options, partly to justify me calling it the orb alliance so much. I did quite enjoy emphasizing the tenuous nature of a Brawl alliance early on when Roman was mind-controlled and Neo realized that there's really no reason they should resist killing someone they're not close to beyond as an aligned fiter. At the same time, I didn't have it explicitly shown that's how it felt, but I wanted to tie into their criminal past a touch with that sort of observation. The dust was a nice trick to make them more capable, I read the wiki page but also tried to keep it sort of subdued since it's not just free rein magic and I didn't want to stretch it beyond its intended point. Roman did die first because Neo's popularity makes her the better fit for that champ kill, and a revenge kill can be a satisfying narrative idea. Again, I wavered on Ashley's illusion control in the face of more solid, strange illusions. Neo didn't do it too often to give Ashley a big chance to mess with them, but from what I've seen in the show clips it's almost more like she makes the crystaline substance look like things that shatter. So, an illusion with magical physicality, how much of an illusion is that? It's... however it was safely shown! I don't think I avoided the possible illusion turnaround much actively, as in, it didn't sabotage plans. I think I could have made Neo's kill a more involved fite, but at that point I think she was running on fumes a bit. Roman and Alex can join the club for people who don't use their grappling hook much like intended but often in other ways, it's more fun that way! Also, Roman was picked as the one Lord Felldrake possessed briefly partly because I felt it was an acceptable choice. The fite at that point wasn't about who was possessed but it felt odd for Lord Felldrake not to try, so a guy who could fite his allies without personal drama was the best choice.
ISHII I'm not sure I really wrote "in-character" per se. I think because of the company she kept she might have been boiled down a bit, simplified to accentuate her more lethargic traits. I was aware of this, I think her Piano fight was sort of a show of her other aspects after playing into the disaffected side for most of the plane scenes. She was involved in scenes with memey characters like Bluster Kong though, and I think it's generally wise to let the jokes flow, so we have scenes like Ishii just commenting "Baked Potato". Weaponized parachute to kill Wily was meant to display her ingenuity and cleverness, and I think she was picked to kill Wily because of the idea she could rejigger some of his tech after. I do recall my initial imagined version being a more dramatic crash from the air, but I think the fact she landed and was trying takeoff worked better for that fite conceptually, that way the ram was smarter to justify but also sort of a bleak effort since Ishii knew she was throwing away a big tool to use it like a ram. I have mentioned somewhere I knew about a chapter of the manga she's from where characters try cigarettes is because I had considered whether or not Ishii would chew the can of chewing tobacco she found in Catgut's hair. I wanted something to block Wily's capsule window and I thought of something black and gunky, so chewing tobacco would be something I could justify in Catgut's hair. Ishii chewing it up to give it a liquid element didn't feel right, and in the end I realized it likely wouldn't be enough liquid for a meaningful splat. The damaged plane having its leaking fuel used was both inventive of her and a good sign of the plane's deteriorating state when it was listed as low fuel being a weakness. Bluster Kong really saved the idea of Ishii entering with just a plane as it gave her an immediate obvious foe to face that kept the group up there busy rather than pointlessly circling the mansion. There are some interactions I want to bring up in the relevant entries, but another moment for Ishii and one I didn't plan in advance was her figuring out how to reprogram EMMI Type-R. I had initially planned for him to just like the other side more in the conflict and join up to be lazy too, but it was really fun writing him being a gleeful attacker so it felt harder to transition him to a full-on ally. However, the bootleg nature made a good simple gag about rewiring feel more believable, and Ishii was both experienced enough to do some tech work but the work wasn't so involved that she really needed to work hard to do it. I imagine the on/off switch wasn't glaringly obvious to give the others credit, but it was the kind of thing you can see if you do take a look. Lastly, I remember being oddly concerned about calling the plane just the Twin Otter (it's a bird, not an otter!) and I think my drawings of it represented its wing situation wrong despite me referencing its visuals not only as I wrote to make things make sense, but as I drew!
NEMU I wasn't certain I would do the big crystal transformation for, especially since I was uncertain how to inspire it. In fact, I was pretty deep into planning and a good deal into writing before I realized Violence could cause the problem she had to solve. Generally I wasn't sure how many potential triggers there really were in the field and I think during KO planning I even just thought killing the giant mutant was a cool kind of thing for the lead hag to show her might through rather than the direction I ended up going with. In the Pre-Fite Show we actually saw the fruits of my research labors. I went and reread old stuff, and she reminded me a lot of a young girl, like, almost child-like. So I did the kind reasonable thing and threw a manipulative jerk at her! Okay, the Felldrake connection was one I considered as possibly reawakening the crystal power until I saw the tractor crush him, but it was also a good way of making people think it possible. After that Nemu Muster effort post, how could I not give her the big power-up moment? Her entry emphasizing her ease of manipulation by Low Joe made it feel like a strong angle to seize on, but I also wanted to show she wasn't a complete fool. She knew she shouldn't interact with Felldrake, and Dew was actually the one who turly manipulated her considering her calmer and reasonable approach. Helped she looked like a cute girl I wager too, much easier to believe Dew means what she says! Nemu is oddly hard to draw when you got to pose her, mostly because I feel like it's easy to lose her shape. She's not a whale, I made sure the narration emphasized that, but that also means you don't get the whale shorthand visuals like the tail. Shoulda gave CKR the art for her, I believe she did in the Kuwahawi Brawl Nemu entered! Nemu going further definitely allowed me to emphasize her strength a lot more. I remember pegging Stanley as someont to face her and the tractor decided for it to go another way, and before results I realized I wanted Nemu's water to get tainted by Zadanost's trash. It didn't lead to direct conflict, but the KO idea of being smashed into trash by Nemu was one waiting for a poor soul to suffer. I think crystallized Nemu was considered as a source of organic matter for Old Bun Eye but it hit the same snags as Crim as I was unsure how much would still be organic. I was wary about referencing that Nemu wanted a wish, votes pointed out the Brawl doesn't grant them, but I had thought it for flowery language to represent the opportunity a victory presents. I did still include a reference in the Pre-Fite, similar to how I had Potemkin in the Pre-Fite reference how Draco accidentally said Felldrake brawled last year when it was actually back in 2021. They're just jokes, hence why it felt harmless to say Nemu did believe it, maybe she got wires crossed. It was a good lead-in for the manipulation! Man, even though Nemu did much better than her previous Brawl run, I feel like I was quite mean to her. I do hope Sheep at least namechecks the later suggestion Zed made of letting Nemu reside near Bleak Hills. I won't RP for Brine or Sheep outside of the Brawl, but it feels like the viking zombies could be a supportive new home! That does bring something up though: I didn't want Bellringer revivals to feel attached to DALI by the hip. If they said they'll support DALI that's one thing, but I wasn't going to force support either way. Nemu probably should have got it, but I also don't want to write that narrative arc for the revivers, especially since Nemu's isolation might not gel with the idea of DALI being a support network for her.
IAN I actually felt the absence of his Card as I wrote him. I kept trying to think of a really cool way for him to shoot a gun only to remember he didn't have crazy ricochets or bending bullets! I did try to write him more coolheaded this time, he got out of the Naoko alliance battle the moment he could after all so he didn't face the same fate, and I wanted to make sure his KO also was something he could live with better on this second run. Like, picking on an egotist can be a bit fun, but he's a recovering egotist so he got to be cool. Heck, his kill on Naoko was meant to evoke Dante from Devil May Cry, I think I even linked CKR a picture of Dante doing a pistols akimbo jump to help with posing consideration. A lot of Cornwind characters are unreasonably tough which is a blessing and a curse. I feel it helps make it easier to believe he survived some early things like the back of his head getting grazed without really impacting his battle ability. I remember he was also slated for a different pre-fite before he got his shifted to show his rivalry with Shirley when before I think it was just more a generic fighty thing, maybe with Koakuma and Evolto. He does have the second Brawl touch, where I try to do things he didn't do last time or avoid repeats. He didn't whip out the big laser, and I tried to have him use Incarnate's more standard modes like handguns that, in a first showing, I might think a little low key when he's got so much else to play with. Funnily enough, I think he rarely uses the gunblades as blades, mostly because of how his fites were often long range. I do know I avoided him doing the finger gun trick that he whipped out in his last Brawl specifically because he was noted to not do it regularly. And thus, he didn't do it again!
CHARLIE Oh how I wish I had done head trickery with him! The idea of his head scurrying off to reconnect to his body or extending its tentacles could have been so fun, maybe even Goop art worthy depending on the situation! It just never felt reasonable with what I had planned, I think if he got a Sirius-style unplanned showing it could have happened but Charlie stuck pretty close to the "script" so to speak. I did avoid having him use his projectile nails too much to try and spare Chao some discomfort, but I did think his projectile teeth launching was going to look cooler as a KO pic than it ultimately did. I had wondered if him using Crim to "top off" might be kosher or too strange for him, and honestly with both him and Sirius present I ended up being more careful with traditional vampire weaknesses in play than usual so that I didn't make a mistake having one suffer when it's the other that is vulnerable. Charlie was the super weak to fire one, and so I figured quickly if you got to beat a super fast super strong guy weak to fire, you get the super fast super strong Kae to do it. It actually felt a bit difficult to try and make that face off feel less like an inevitable win for Kae. I didn't feel bad for how much I wrecked him with it specifically because his entry mentions you can revive him from ashes. I don't think I ever seriously intended for Charlie to join up with DALI and his pre-fite was meant to show that, just a guy on good terms with certain entries but never too strongly attached, just as his supposed loner/helper nature is described!
LANTERBY WITH NAOKO Soon as I saw their entry I knew they were teaming up with Pete even though ultimately they didn't do much cooking in the Brawl. I did want Lanterby to be a bit caustic, hence he pre-fite show judging of Pete that I actually reworked a touch when I wanted it to be less mean and more just brutally honest. It was also weird seeding to show that Pete would have more variety in his hearse as if people didn't think he did, but the one ingredient per food type mindset felt like a reasonable critique he could recover from. Lanterby vs. Jovita plus the battle with the little witches was definitely meant to be on Emilia's level, the fiters she was up against fragile and possible for her to take out even if it went different ways. I had actually worried I wouldn't get much good use of her spice abilities, but I think it worked well as a smoke bomb/distraction thing without it feeling like she was straining to work it in unreasonably. Naoko's entry uses the phrase "swapping places with someone" as a ninja skill and in the midst of the Brawl, I hesitated to touch that. I know of the old idea of swapping with a log, but I didn't want to accidentally overextend it and have like, swap in someone to take the hit for her and learn later that's not within her limits. The reason these two ended up being the ones to weaponize the giant fridge's food was definitely an extension of their backgrounds though, I almost think that maybe the kitchen was designed with that in mind but I can't explicitly remember! I did keep wanting to have Naoko use throwing daggers, and kept almost writing her name as Naokoa!
KAYDENCE While landing in 34th is definitely worse than her last showing, I tried to write her quite differently this time! I tried not to lean on the phone powers quite so much. I know it's a creativity grab bag of sorts, but I was worried I would forget her pistols in favor of the more flexible option and tried to keep my focus on her new toy. However, when she did use the digimancy, I wanted it to show her progress as a character! She used it in a lot more strategic ways rather than wanton aggression. She didn't use the pixel grenade, she created holographic platforms in the air to disorient Gabriella and formed shields to protect herself. Her not going as far despite fiting smarter isn't really something I can account for in the writing save for the fact she was getting ganged up on by a pretty smart team. I did sometimes need to recall she wasn't just Tracer from Overwatch with the pistols because they do have a charge function. More importantly, I very much felt the desire to push her back into an alliance with Borea and even used the pre-fite almost to tell myself no. However, they fought near each other early on as a way to keep them busy and I wanted a way to keep some tech together even though nothing came of it since characters like Constanze never got too crazy with tech crafting. She talked less this Brawl I'm pretty sure, I'm still very hesitant to wade into her specific Cyberpunk slang but I wanted to get a few really good ones like the pre-fite one and her quip at Stelle almost to show that this is Kaydence and not just a fighty shape that looks like her. I will say, I was a little happy she did worse this year after SK's post where she was reliving people's deaths as a form of sort of extreme training. Like, I didn't want Kaydence to flop, but I think that's a pretty messed up method of training that shouldn't be rewarded! That didn't really impact my writing of her, I was trying to buoy her as fiting better even if she didn't place better.
DOCTOR WILY I almost didn't delineate his mech form and capsule form properly. That's one reason it's good I make my character notes very close to voting's end, so that I can clear away misconceptions and have things fresh in my mind before it's time to write. I knew I wanted to reference his usual begging scene from the end of Mega Man games somehow and I think the distance he went could have impacted it, but dying on his feet felt like a good way to go out even if being brave didn't spare him from his fate to lose. I know his entry says he might feel a bit of his anger and megalomania slink back in if he's on a roll, but between Spy effort posts and the general tone of his revival, I think it would have required a very specific situation to trigger it so I avoided it pretty hard. I wanted to reference his relationship with Borea but also tried to respect her more independent streak this Brawl, leading to him being in the same fiter cluster as Kaydence without it being a true alliance. Early on before I received a refresher on Spamton's limits I did consider ideas like him trying to enter Kaydence's phone or the Wily Mech but ultimately decided against those, and as said a few times elsewhere, Wily's mech was slated to perhaps be picked apart by Constanze. Ultimately Ishii got it, I specifically had him be the one she crashed into so there's something salvageable and she didn't look hopeless after. The seperation between capsule and mech did mean there were times I had to wipe away an idea, like I intended for him to go invisible for a while but he hadn't swapped machines yet. I had intended for the mech swap to happen sooner I recall, I expected more time with the capsule but his number was coming up so I had to speed it along so we got to see it some. Also, just gonna say it: that entry pic where he's standing with his hands in labcoat pockets? Kinda hot!
LAILA WITH ELVIRA I think we are getting to the point where some people were discussed a fair deal in other entries! Laila's elevator battle was covered back with ENA after all. I did pick Laila to be the one to solve Tubba Blubba's gimmick because of her stronger focus on speaking than fiting, and generally she was the one to speak up because of that. I tried to write some good chilling lines for her when she was going for the kill, like her attempt in the elevator battle that was turned against her. She did kind of disappear in group fites because of her more subdued approach, and I almost didn't have much of any use for the flashlight she brought. I realized it was great for the elevator close quarters though and squeezed in what might be its only mentions. I did wish I had done some sort of elevator shaft fragging or really nifty use of an elevator as a weapon, but I think that's what would have happened if the elevator battle hadn't. The need to touch a door to trigger it limited it but it would be kind of ridiculous without such a condition, but I can imagine her slamming one down to interrupt a fite or something if it was freeform. I remember being surprised Elvira was picked to kill Matcluck after I sorted out the kills and got to writing, I couldn't remember the thought process at all, but it came out rather clean I'd say! I am very proud of the attic battle because it could somewhat logically come together despite its odd outcomes. I do remember Leonardo's shredding kill destorying Elvira so thoroughly was to make sure a zombie was quite clearly KO'd, although I would have been tempted to reuse pieces I wager if I hadn't felt the need. I think in retrospect I wish she had got a serum from Wolfgang at some point, if I hadn't had to keep track of them I might have took the plunge. A crossbow is pretty straightforward in its fiting method! I did want to draw her weird way of firing at Matcluck but it wasn't looking nice.
CONSTANZE AND SUCY I did not use any real mushrooms with Sucy, although sometimes I did mention a visual similarity like with puffballs. Ultimately it felt smarter to just use a wide range of useful magical mushroom types, try to concoct ones you would grow with a purpose. I didn't want to just do typical video game bouncy ones, but I also didn't want to avoid the expected ideas just for the sake of it. Constanze's entry mentions she puts her wand into her creations to power them, and I think I might have stuck to that too stringently. Even now I realize she has base tech skills too so she could make something less powerful but still effective, but when she had her wand in a drone for example I felt like I was disarming her a touch so I didn't do as much robot shenanigans as I might have liked. At the same time, I didn't think the little witches ever reached the point where she'd whip out a crazy creation like a giant mech, although I really really thought I might have reached that point! How many times have I mentioned by now I intended her for to steal more mechanical parts than she did? I did focus a lot on the drone configuration for her wand robot because it was flexible and mobile, meaning she could participate and potentially get her wand back in a hurry. I wish I could say the trick where Ashley pretends to be Constanze was something I had planned as a cool thing to whip out when it seemed appropriate, but it was very much in the moment. The kind of idea that feels perfect when you think of it, because Constanze doesn't talk! It left Ashley vulnerable still, but it was about the surprise. I didn't want Constanze to just default to gun too often either but also wasn't sure how many other offensive weapons could work well for her. She was in a tight knit alliance too so more wacky or weird inventions can't really be at play if they threaten the friends. Sucy infesting the library with mushrooms was the gift that kept giving, it allowed me to get fun ideas into play without having to have Sucy actually spend time working her magic or planting mushrooms.
MARINA With the whole trash vs. recycling thing she and Zadanost could have, I knew I wanted them to face off, but also, not too early! I also got the impression that Marina would want to fite more independently from her potential allies, I believe because of her water affiliation. However, this meant at first I wanted her to be around fites Zadanost got into, but also didn't find those fites good for Marina who could push her recycling advantage too much. I am disappointed in myself for having her recycle up some weapons from the trash that she never used, I intended for them to be but the next time we saw her it felt like using them wasn't right for the situation. I did want to give some love to Prismatic Wall after it got some mentions, but otherwise I was a little scared of just pulling up from the wizard spell list, and there's one big reason why... I misread it :V I misread "duration" as "casting time" for some spells and kept thinking I was more limited than I realized, only to clear that up eventually and thankfully let Marina do more in the fite. But reading a phrase like "Concentration, up to 10 minutes" and mistaking that for casting time instead of how long it lasts reasonably dissuaded me from plumbing its depths! Also, I just generally like pulling from a character's more specific focuses, and to ignore her recycling powers would be a shame. At the same time, I think recycling will always be a touch limited as a battle style, mainly because it requires objects on hand and I didn't want characters losing cool tools. Hence, we saw her recycling actual trash! That's easier to clear from the field without disarming people totally. Actually writing the Prismatic Wall was an interesting challenge because it has a very set lay out and having it work on Marina's targets required some unusual strategies since Zadanost had resistances!
KOAKUMA Ha, from one spell list to another! However, I had a much narrower focus in what I selected for her from the provided spell list link. Mainly, her entry mentions she can cast any level of Enchantment while having weaker spells in other categories. So, rather than digging around the dregs, I had Koakuma be an Enchantment magic queen! The spell selection was by no means limited and very flexible too, if it was just as it sounds that's one thing, but the spell range is quite prodigious! If this is Koakuma's specialty I wager it comes to mind faster than trying to remember other less studied magics anyway. I wasn't certain on how I would use her succubus pheromones, and actually, a funny thing happened on the way to killing Puppet Princess. The premise of that fite was originally meant to be PP taking control of some brawlers and Koakuma using pheromones to command others and they kind of have a proxy war, but it didn't feel right for how Koakuma to make brawlers fall in line for her. Her entry even says she won't make them like her, and while you could maybe reframe the love somehow to make this little battle premise work, I think it was nice that while she ended up present, she instead befriended the people she almost mind controlled! I did ruminate on how I wanted to have her use the power after that, Chara ended up the victim and I think I mentioned the details on that back in Jaclyn's entry. I wanted it to be something the involved users wouldn't sweat. Despite Bloodied and Bolstering being noted as big advantages for Koakuma when she gets low on life, I think one thing behind their premise is she needs to get worn down enough to trigger them and by then it might be a rough situation to get out of. That's basically how it occured in the Brawl, she got a boost but it's less a comeback mechanic and more a way to hang in there. I did definitely lean back on remembering how I wrote Vince's powers with the blocks and all, although I had to remove my mind defaulting to power-ups she didn't actually have noted as available! I did want to write a snarky Koakuma and got in a line here or there, but it's not always easy to set up, especially when fiting someone serious like Hope. I know the energy chainsaw was noted as just a foot long, but it really didn't click until I thought to look it up and see the toy it truly was. I wanted it used in a kill but it was pretty dinky! More like a chain-knife. I wasn't too confident in the "digital magic" aspect of her spells saying they manifest as game effects, I hope your imagination did the work my typing fingers did not!
GABRIELLA AND ALEX Again, a look into my Brawl writing mindset: Gabriella's entry says she has gun wings. It says she shoots bullets because of gun wings. She has, in some form, used the gun wings on plots. But since I didn not explicitly remember or see in writing an indication those gun wings fire while serving as wings, I was afraid I messed up in interpreting them that way! I really don't want to get details wrong and my mind can melt as I realize I'm not remembering an explicity confirmation, but it would be really weird if Gabriella's wings had to be plucked to fire the assault rifles in them! At the same time, she comes wielding a submachine gun, and she has a normal form, and sometimes that makes me wonder why she isn't gun wings all the time and able to shoot because of it. I know there's reasons, but also in the Brawl sometimes that reason doesn't need to exist, people go full power as long as they can as often as they can. It was all a lot of worry over nothing, but smoe thoughts during Brawl writing get to you like that! Alex, I think I mentioned this in Roman's section, but I feel like I could have used her grapple to more effect as a movement tool. She used it as a weapon a lot but the Brawl didn't have too many movement calling for vertical movement. If I had thought of it more like Attack on Titan I bet I would have had her do more tricks, but lacking a weapon besides it and having Puck limited that use some too. She had to use it as a weapon because that's her main means of fiting! And the pre-fite even has PSP draw attention to the fact Puck would just be left behind if she used the grapple too often. PSP connecting Neokama to the orb users was perhaps a bit of a selfish thing, I like their dynamic but it's hard to be upset with the results of it! That Puck funeral picture was not something planned too far in advance. I got to the point where Puck was wrecked and recalled Alex's emotional investment in it, and then the ridiculous image for how it could be set aside was conjured in my mind and it evolved from there. It was originally a crypt, but I think Gooper's use of a grave was better for the image, made it more easily understood instantly. I thought respecting Puck was kind of important after all Alex went through too. I do feel a bit bad Alex was so roughed up she barely fought the Piano after, but it's not like she did nothing before then. Sort of like unconscious Formaggio, the opportunistic attack that can't be resisted well does feel like an interesting angle if one with some emotional risks for users if they do feel it underwhelming. The emotional attachment to Puck also made me reticent to rough the bike up too early! Basically once it started to get wrecked, I went all in, to the point I almost worried the KO on Leo wouldn't feel reasonable to the reader due to that damage.
WIGGLE I saw that big bomb on his back and knew that's how he'd die. Actually, getting him far enough to die to it did raise the question on preserving it for that long! It couldn't get lost before then or end up in peril. I'm not saying he was going to be denied ever using it necessarily if the moment felt right, a double KO was possible, but I did really like the idea of it going off accidentally. Constanze was picked to kill him specifically because she'd have the gun to do it. I was worried about Wiggle running low on bombs, hence him meeting Samhain early and getting the fireworks to make it so it wasn't as much of a concern until I wanted it to be. I did really want to use his spray paint more but ultimately it's not much like his other weapons that required distance. The fact he eats a pill to reform was intended to be my out if he wasn't "believably" broken, I could always say the reforming pills were broken as well or knocked away or something. I think the funniest thing in retrospect was that he joins DALI in pre-fite and does like nothing with them. He faces the wall that is Tubba Blubba and then falls out of the attic and goes off to follow his explosive dreams. I did think him perfect for showing off the opening floors since he could reasonably recover from it even before Samhain was considered for saving him. Again, that attic scene feels like such a clean mixture of so many different ideas, although I did consider having Wiggle rejoin his allies and yet it never happened. Also of note, Wiggle is wearing his streetwear when the Brawl starts and later, after he reforms from his detonation, he's in his more medieval looking clothes! It's becaue the clothes don't survive the blast, naturally! He still kept his spray paint though since it gave him another battle tool. I almost forgot Wiggle could only say his name right up until it was time to write his pre-fite. It wasn't that I thought he said other things, I just was thinking of him making skeleton sounds mostly.
ZADANOST One of my favorites for possibly winning the Brawl because I like to support my favorites to the moon! She got 42nd though. Alas. I think I underused the globlings, but at the same time, I felt like she commanded so much power she didn't need the minions really, especially since there wasn't a huge gang used against her often. I did intend for her to be more of a threat outside the mansion only to have her enter early as I felt she wouldn't ignore her allies for too long if they were ailing. The outside, especially the water, was meant to get much trashier. I didn't want to overblow her anger at Ginny falling, I know she'd be upset but this was also before anything was confirmed between them! Yup, I'm writing this after the confession scene. Sorry for the huuuuuuge delay... But also, I technically didn't know Ginny and Zadanost were a lock then! I really heavily suspected and they were even holding hands in the pre-fite, but Brine could have swerved! Really though, I also feel a little awkward having someone else's character be like "oh no, JRM's character died! Grrrrr." so I emphasized it, but not to a huge degree! I remember thinking just her trash generation and manipulation alone could work well, but once I realized the variety in her spell list I definitely embraced it. Some are kind of just like normal pollution manipulation like Bury in Refuse though so I didn't normally specify when she was chucking trash around if it was a spell. I do regret a bit letting her go so crazy in the middle pit, the mansion basement became a rather nasty place for quite a while! I didn't specify what the trash was for that reason, and since Zadanost generates it, I imagine it's sort of more debris and sludge than specific things like needles or food waste. As mentioned with Marina I did struggle a bit to get Zadanost over the kill line. I worried recycling her too much could be a tough kill for her to recover from. You're un-pollutioning the pollution elemental! Zadanost avoided using some of her meaner spells like spreading despair because she's a good girl, I bet something like Nom could have made her whip it out though.
BEELZEBUB After the Brawl, Draco compared Beelzebub's powers to something like a Green Lantern ring, but unfortunately it was too late to realize the full breadth of her energy powers! It does mention she can create constructs though, but it was more about the full limits of a construct. Making negative energy chains is a different beast than making a negative energy sphinx! I did definitely want to portray her as in command and able to keep people at bay without having to exert herself. I wanted her to demonstrably powerful but also not so serious that it feels like she should be a terror. I called her the Great Fly even before she went into the Great Fly form which I worried was confusing, which matches Iliesh in that I did something similar! She didn't end up doing scrying in the Brawl itself because it felt like something more passive and more importantly, it had featured pretty heavily in the pre-fite show. It felt like the best use of that ability, although I tried to keep it vague where Francisco and Lostelle were. Calling it the Scrying Booth aluded to narration booth phrasing Draco's used before, but also I didn't want this to potentially be them entering some part of Hell they can't leave or whatever and we can explain it away as some other spot she was going to do her observation from. Not really a big worry since I had looked up reference! Same for how she acted in her fite against Black Doom. I did feel like the pancake platter was the exact kind of "weapon" I could forget since it's so simple and silly and also raises the questions on where she'd put it when not using it. I'm sure she could set it down outside our realm or something, but here I went instead with just having her use them early as a focus for some quick humor. I did feel a bit bad that the Prismrivers and Burnin Justice were so handily kept at bay by her, you usually got to be a kaiju before I start letting that kind of thing fly! She's not the only one in this Brawl it happened to I guess, Puppet Princess another example. I did feel bad denying Burnin a chance at getting her revenge on Beelzebub, but I also didn't want her Brawl run defined solely by Beelzebub, especially since placement dictated they'd both be doomed to lose to Beelzebub. Beelzebub liking a good story was definitely why she behaved the way she did and why she ended up against Iliesh, it convenient the two could both go a little harder against each other too. Naturally, her or Justice getting the kill on the other was preordained, and I did put it earlier in the Brawl to have it "out of the way". Not as something to sweep up and move along from, but so that the relevant players could do more but also get that satisfying showdown. At the same time, this battle felt very heavily tipped towards Beelzebub! I guess I'll get into that in Burnin Justice's entry though.
CHARA AND LYNN I referred to the Grenivak Staff as just an antler quite a bit, didn't I? I think it was just to emphasis the important part, but I also did kind of imagine it visually almost like a big old antler like what an Irish Elk had. Funnily enough, I felt like I kept not properly emphasizing Lynn's kick heavy style, but I think it's one of those things where having a weapon means you're not going to risk your limbs as much if you can help it. Generally a leg-heavy fiting style also is less steady, I don't think I underdid it because she showed off in the attic. I hadn't even marked that kill on Blubba down as a sisterly thing, it was only marked for a Laila kill... but come on. I had them in the same spot and the cold touch alone doing the kill wasn't as effective! I did write Chara as rather slow and leisurely despite such characters often getting some boost to their energy thanks to Brawl Motivation, but I think it helps what her powers exactly are. I'm glad she has limits on how often she can make a knife rain though, or else the question I'd probably have mentally often is why isn't she doing a knife rain at the moment. I did like the idea of her arming allies with knives or even having them turned back on Chara, but it's also one of those things I find can be selectively useful. We saw it early against Tubba Blubba some, but also someone like Koakuma is going to have a lot more attack options. She did get the knife rain turnaround on Chara partially as an acknowledgement of that noted weakness of knives being used against them. I did feel Lynn's bond with her sister had to take priority over Vita's and Chara's friendship, and maybe if Vita hadn't been attached to another alliance she could have squeezed in to help the DALI gang. I didn't have much hope of them drifting together later like other alliances sometimes do even before I had the results, more because both groups were packed. Also, really didn't expect Chara to get to acknowledge her chocolate hunger much besides a joke or two, but then Koakuma's blocks were perfect for a little joke and a bit of buffing so Chara was more reasonably able to hold her own in the skirmish. I almost wonder if that's why past me drew them up for the KO. This isn't even me forgetting over time, KO allocation is generally a process of many choices where sometimes there's something I'm clearly thinking and others it's just "this character needs to be KO'd or get a KO"!
KAMEN RIDER EVOL or Evolto, I actually had an odd struggle on which name to use more because I think of him as Evolto but the entry notes him as Kamen Rider Evol! I guess I should have just thought both were acceptable, but name substitution I think was a bit of a failure this Brawl as I was oddly cautious. Anyway, Evolto definitely lead to the most wiki trips of any characters unless you count spell lists. For one, I needed a good look at his weird snake man form, both for art and for considering how his redundant organs work. I do recall wondering if certain elements like his blood would be different or if it was fine to make certain claims about his physiology. I think the idea he's not taking the Brawl seriously really upped the amount of personality he was allowed to show. He was almost just a chaotic jokester, and I felt less pressure to always have him do the smart or cool thing because he could almost come right out and say he's messing around. Charlie killing him might have been me shutting him down with a very serious guy so he couldn't keep having his fun. I do know that the fact he had such organ weirdness made actually writing the kill by way of projectile teeth felt like it had to emphasize that it really was tearing him apart despite being offered the easy way out of hitting the brain if I wanted. I don't always want to have a kill be hitting the spot marked for their death! I know I chose his KO punch on PSP specifically by watching the show's finishers for him and deciding not to rider kick it up for variety and something more specific to him. I almost thought of no rider kicks at all but killing Chara with Koakuma felt like it didn't need brutality or anything too big so we got one after all. He was definitely picked to fite PSP specifically because he and the squirrels could riff a bit. I remember being a touch disappointed he didn't bring his usual stuff like the Black Hole Trigger, but I think SK was very wise in making him a fun mess around fiter instead. There weren't huge expectations on him and I got to write him almost like I do some comedy characters, only for him to sometimes remind us he's actually scarily strong.
SINFUL I remember being worried Sinful was going to do poorly because he's such a serious guy and not as popular as lighthearted characters like Pete, hence him getting my sponsorship. He did outclass some of my entrants, but he also felt like he had a smaller impact on the fite than others. I think part of it is he was inherently going to work alone unless I could connive a real reason why he and Shirley would join up. It took me longer than I thought it would to realize he'd be perfect for killing Vulture. I mean, it happened before KO assignments, but I guess Vulture's gimmick of being a rich brat was something I was slowly building up so it took a bit for me to realize Sinful would be all over killing a rich jerk. I think if all he got was killing Vulture then he'd feel very small in this Brawl, but when it was time to get him to get killed by Zadanost, I think I saved him from looking too bad by having him hold his own against Sirius so well on his own and with clever tactics. I didn't end up giving his blood to Crim at all, it was an early possibility but also the rankings didn't line up well for it to be reasonable. Crim probably wouldn't want it willingly so it would have likely been some trick either by Sinful or another had it happened since that bacteria would chew up more of Crim's blood than just the Sinful borrowed stuff if activated. I did try not to get hung up on the specifics of how the blood worked in keeping the battle flow going. It dissolves stuff essentially, no reason to get deeper now that it's all specified and laid out elsewhere. I did worry when I wrecked his foot that he would be too handicapped by it, but also I realized Gridworks was a good ace in the hole. Sinful generally isn't as reliant on it as Claire or Prosperity so it comes to mind less readily, and in character it is more his back-up plan most of the time than how he thinks of a kill. I did worry that he had too much of an advantage against Vulture which is one reason the foot got wrecked. Zadanost being a hard counter was also a way of having him bow out gracefully to a foe he could lose to without having his reputation suffer.
Skipping Francisco since I talked about him earlier!
ESKALIA By now, everyone's aware of the reference I made to Chao taking some old Big Bar Brawl writing and having AI try to keep writing the story. The rats with the brick gift was one of those moments of serendipity I had to include once I realized we had an entry with a bunch of rats as weapons, although I didn't know exactly when Eskalia would do it. I knew I wanted it part of her entering the mansion, their iron teeth able to make it believable they broke down a brick wall, and the study I think was specifically designed for the big break in. I just didn't know when I wanted it to happen and it also, like with Zadanost, felt appropriate to do much earlier than I expected. I committed hard to the bit, so I was very glad people realized what I did! Trying to balance the Brawl friendly surge of minions with Eskalia's focus on not treating them as expendable was a fun mix and made writing battles with characters like Burnin more interesting to manage. I know early on I had figured Titan Dweevil for swapping to her side since Louie was getting placed low, but I didn't expect that joke to keep going after Eskalia's fall. I did like that she also brought a bit of the Crawling Woods, I wish I had done some more with the trees. Her weaknesses notes she can't get too far from the Crawling Woods, but it's a half mile distance and I feel like that's either a thing that would never come up or come up very specifically, sort of like when Captain Underpants took Remilia around the world to hit her with sunlight. Eskalia does have one of those auras where it feels like people near here should be getting wrecked all the time, but at least her long range army commanding style means it was easier to keep away so not everyone was walking around diseased and blighted. Chewing Aura in particular sounded rather nasty, but I still made sure to mention it against Burnin! I remember wanting to really have her vermin army get out of control, to the point of her duplicating the Dweevil repeatedly, but the duplication is every few hours so it didn't feel feasible because the Brawl probably isn't super long in universe. Five hours in universe maybe? Depends on the events. Poison and rot are hard things to manage in a battle where people keep fiting for a long time too, so trying to be careful when it's applied felt important. I might have underplayed Eskalia's fear of fire I realize, but she did want to get her troops away for obvious reasons. I did wonder for a while if the Crawling Woods trunk should be relevant but it was too far off, specifically said to be in a valley elsewhere. I did also wonder about Eskalia's wings. Her picture has some at rest and in the midst of the Brawl I can very much forget if characters had wings or not (see: Dia) but rather than lean on the visuals or ask Brine about it, I had an out! Shapechange giving her stronger, more maneuverable wings! Problem solved!
BOREA Like with Kaydence, I wanted to emphasize Borea's new approach this time around with the way she Brawls. No flying all around the arena, although because of just character management she did spend quite a while holding people back before she got to fite directly. I think unlike with Kaydence it was much easier to do the strategy and attack shift. Borea's new fans really gave her a mix of new tricks. Her entry lists the fans she brought, but also uses the phrase "to name a few" as if I was being given room to invent new fans. If she had gone much further, maybe I would have been tempted, but I think this Brawl especially I don't want to dismiss people's own cool ideas for what to use just to pursue my own imagination, something that is relevant back to Marina's suggested spells too! So, we got pure reliance on the ones Spy invented since Borea's major focus was pretty much a back to back thing anyway of getting a killed and being killed. After being a bit unsure how to handle Mach last Brawl as a technically alive participant, I gave him a big upgrade to being a more active strategic part of Borea's kit! It got a kill even! I think a bit like Magilou's steel walk backflip kick, the Lynn hoverboard smackdown was one I really liked the mental image of because I imagine the blow having such weight to it. I still wasn't too keen on seperately drawing or making a big deal of Mach's destruction though... sorry hoverboard, you still feel in a bit of an odd spot! It's sort of like Ash with Erdrick to some degree, although it feels more important to wreck Mach than destroy a talking sword, so, maybe that's good or bad? I think there was always going to be a question hanging over my head on how close to play her and Wily, and maybe if Borea wasn't noted as being more casual this time we could have got a bit of drama. Instead, it's more a reasonable shift in Wily noticing her fall and acting rather than babysitting her or something. I was left to wonder if those hand fans can be used to the same degree by someone who stole one; can they guide the winds in the same manner, or is it just the specific gimmicks they get access to? I, of course, pick the safe route, but I will note if I wanted it to happen, we'd probably get it qualified in some way to give the wiggle room! I'm not always hiding from an option, usually I just justify it more if I do go for it!
STANLEY Phew! I was so worried his return would go poorly! Characters who missed their time appropriate Brawls and come back years later sometimes flop hard as people don't give them much vote love, especially since some users don't even know them. I feared Stanley would flounder, and I guess 50th place isn't good if you only care about the results. However, he was very much a powerhouse, and the moment I saw he was leaning heavily into Monster Hunter stuff, I had pegged him for taking on big guys like Volvagia, Nemu, and Mnelrolth. The results would ultimately determine how those conflicts went, but I think it's pretty easy to accept a death to a giant monster too even if that's your specialty. He stuck around enough to face all three and wear himself out too so you can't just say he lost what he was supposed to be good at. I had always thought the pressure powers would be Stanley's focus if he Brawled but the Monster Hunter stuff really decided his direction, and especially because of the small alliance he got into. Him being portrayed as this seasoned veteran was great for him to be the leader of him, Christopher, and Leonardo when the chips were down, and to organize team attacks even. While the less certain Stanley of his time in RP is what I'll remember most, it is rather cool to have a character post-arc come in and show how much they've grown and improved. The Rathalos Axe building up phials for a heavy blow was a cool idea but it felt a bit hard to weave into the narrative too often, more just because it feels silly to keep saying the phials are building and instead just talk of specific moments of effective release. It did again feel a touch odd to have him do full on flying even though I know it's in his power set, again, I remember the young Stanley! While we've definitely had other returns from retirement go much better for Brawlers, I think Stanley is almost a good archetype for what I hope to see: he was effective, he wasn't shot down too easily or early, and he didn't feel out of place. I think having some clear enemies to tackle and some characters I could attach him to in a way that wasn't just him being another face in an alliance helped with that.
VITA AND PSP Vita's power to distort the environment like a finger pushing through the other side of a sheet is one of those powers I always wonder if I've accurately described. Vita's default powers also feel like they are pretty situational, like how many things can she even snag with her stickers in a fite where people aren't going to be losing their weapons or unleashing a lot of items at once. The Silver Orb at least let her remain active, although I did let PSP go further because I felt like, while Vita has the more narrative potential in RP itself, PSP was the more interesting from a fite perspective. The squirrels pull from movies, a sort of untapped territory for the game girls and one I think it's much easier for me to pluck parts from. Like, yes, I know a great deal of Sega Genesis games, but Gale had to pull weapons from Game Gear games which requires on the fly research and Dreamcast used peripherals which was even deeper. PSP though, I just pull up the list of the UMD movies that were made and locate recognizable names! She's even canonically not really aware of the obscurities, so I kept it mostly to big recognizable movies, although Hancock might be considered a deep cut for people not in our generation. I was legit surprised the list had no Superman movies, I was kind of hoping to pull out a Supersquirrel at some point but it's not a valid choice! Deciding how much the squirrels should joke was something I wavered on, don't want them constantly nattering. Almost avoided making any direct jokes about their names before realizing how that wouldn't be fun for people who haven't read their RP moments. If a pair named Deez and Nuts enter a brawl, you should have some immature jokes ready to deliver on that naming! Besides my foiled Superman plan, mostly it was just thinking of what I wanted in a moment and either finding something like Freddy vs. Jason was available or going to consult the list when I had a good sense for the kind of film to borrow.
LEONARDO I did worry that making him not the leader of Stanley's little group was going against character! He's the leader turtle! I think it wasn't too bad since it wasn't explicit leadership. I actually punched up some of his quips between writing the draft and posting, I wanted him to lean more into his penchant for puns. Sometimes being a jokester is hard to write in the middle of trying to write tons of action, and usually I at least scan all dialogue in a brawl post even I can't otherwise edit it to make sure things sound nice. Funnily enough, typos that were pointed out to me this year often came from stuff I added in during the posting, I think this is a supposed real phenomenon were additions to a complete work tend to have more typos? Jaclyn was already slated to do a lot of accidental and imprecise teleports so Leonardo was generally more capable and worked them into his battle plan to set him apart. It still got him into trouble when it did go awry, but it was fun to give him some battle usage for them instead of just being joke fodder or something. His entry does mention he does teleportation "based on" his swords, which of course left me wondering how exactly that applies! Could others teleport with his sword? Probably not since its ninpo, but also, where are the limits? One sword teleports? Does he need to hold them to do it? With his hands only? A lot of little questions, but I think I do overplay how much I worry in these blogposts. Stray thoughts that come up when you're trying to be creative on the fly and considering all your options. I do think I could have had more fun with portals. Also, wasn't sure if him saying cowabunga was kosher since I'm unfamiliar with how much the turtles have updated their lingo, but a lot of vote support the turtles get in the Brawl has been based on their older incarnations influencing opinions too, so why not throw them a bone? I'm actually liking this one turtle per brawl arrangement, I think Mikey's a good lock for next year since we've seen him most of the brothers this year, and maybe Raph for 2026? It feels a little odd in crossovers and the like when you don't get all four turtles, but splitting them up for brawls has let them get better focus!
ASHLEY/MAGILOU As Gooper has pointed out elsewhere, the idea of Magilou pretending to be Ashley was an idea I whipped up in a PM just as he we were discussing potential gimmicks for their return. It was an off the cuff idea but it was really fun, I especially liked the jokes around it during sign-up period. I did want to redeem Magilou since she wasn't getting much love after the Brawl due to her personality meaning she was haughty about being champ. More than anything I wanted her to be redeemed at least as much as I could manage, and if you're wondering why she didn't go further than Ashley, it was because I felt the selfless sacrifice would do more to build her PR than sticking around after "letting" Ashley fall. Ashley even gave the witches a parting gift with a power boost, although I admit it's probably hard to tell when a character's fiting better unless there's specific attention drawn to it. What I'm saying is, Hope's high placement is definitely Magilou's doing! ...Okay not really. An early idea I had for the gimmick the girls use here is the idea of the fakeout, where it looks like Magilou's spell is activating on an Ashley to make people think that was Magilou in disguise, but it was really Ashley! The fakeout fakeout! I did struggle a bit to make it make sense since one thing about that illusion is it like, inherently involves some sort of jeopardy for the one who isn't doing a real attack. Knowing Magilou wanted to Steel Wallwalk so bad, I had that library back flip kicked for a while, and the narration is a little vague on what she ran up. I was thinking of mentioning like, a ladder, or staircase railing, or something. Vita had metal walls up and I don't know why I didn't just rely on those. But, I wanted the kick but didn't want to slow my cool mental image of it by getting too deep into explaining it. Again, don't think I did much good illusion stealing with Ashley, but despite her once looking down on her powers, her trickery is actually flexible and fun to write when the creative juices are flowing. If this wasn't run two I probably would have embraced the depths of Magilou's magic more, I was tempted to whip out Psychic Replay and Fae Mimic but was also trying not to make her feel too similar to the previous Brawl's showing. She's meant to fite differently here too as the team player! I do believe there was some in-universe attempts to make people get along with Magilou better during brawl writing period, was very glad they didn't progress too far or else the pre-fite might have felt strange! Also yes, I have been mostly talking about Magilou. Ashley referencing the hedge maze from late BBB13 as an illusion was something I found rather fun, I have that mental image locked in my head for that location, but otherwise Ashley was mostly up to her same tricks and ideas I had for it often made it into the fite!
BLUSTER KONG/ EMMI TYPE-R Let's lead with the big question: why no Leo Luster? The answer: just didn't feel right. 54th place and the fites he was assigned to, it just didn't feel like he needed that push. This is very much a character I'd like to see again though and possibly get a go at Leo Luster. I even remembering thinking long ago how weird it is Leo Luster never got into RP and yet I'm the one to deny us of it! I think perhaps the Sugar kill could have utilized it in some way, but also, it emerges from confidence and Bluster Kong feels like he can't just whip that out suddenly. Sometimes going into your powered up mode too easily cheapens it too, especially if it's just to tick the box. If we get Leo Luster, I want him to really be able to strut his stuff. However, that gyrocopter made him perfect for going up against Ishii and her allies, and I feel like Leo Luster would be facing a brick wall of sorts with most of those characters. Not the most fun reactions from so many unflappable types! I did worry Bluster using his gorilla strength was a bit against what his entry said, but it's not like he was body slamming Sugar, just using more strength than before. I've mentioned elsewhere the original plans for EMMI Type-R. Originally meant to be a full betrayal of Bluster willingly because he didn't consider the Kong interesting enough, but to make the aerial battle more interesting, having the EMMI actually fite enthusiastically felt the better route. Bluster firing the Klaptrap gun only has so much potential and he has to devote some time to flying his gyrocopter, so EMMI handled some battling. I tried to mix in the Slowbeef Ridley references while still keeping them on topic. Like, he never said "still falling", instead getting the swapped "still fiting" for when he's giving Wily trouble. I did feel like Sugar stabbing the klaptrap was unusually brutal, probably just because it's sort of a wild animal even though they're a bit smarter than a little gator. I legit feel like the klaptraps could have turned on Bluster if his entry specifically hadn't mentioned them being discouraged from unionizing. I remember feeling like his gyrocopter might not do well in the mansion before I realized he was the perfect pair for the plane, it was the kind of thing that might have been a touch awkard otherwise if there wasn't another flyer to focus on.
GINNY I remember seeing the vote support she got and starting to worry she had a chance! And then nope, didn't get that far. Good, to be honest! I like the little thief but she's not supposed to be talented or capable. Her utilizing the Titan Dweevil as a weapon was part of the out of control rise of utility the bug went under, not a plan too far in advance but one with big repercussions as I'm sure it helped fuel my growing bemusement at keeping it around. Her ants/wasps were always destined to go to Eskalia who could use them much better, and it was something I almost didn't include. Ginny really does just have a dagger though so that felt kind of paltry, although throwing bugs at people isn't exactly the best. Since it was Brawl time she didn't get other peculiar parts of her emphasized as much. I can't ramble on and on about her ineffective attacks too much nor have her be as goofy, it's a shared spotlight. I really don't know how she's contribute if she kept going and tried to support Violence's alliance. Her thieving strategy meant she was easy to isolate and eliminate when it was time, I do recall thinking that she might stick too close to her allies until votes pointed out it was wiser for her to work from the periphery. I almost didn't enter her because of her poor abilities, hence why I wavered when it was time for a fifth Brawler. Like, yeah, she's been important to my RP, but she's weak and not very skilled, so possibly including a more capable or interesting fiter made me hesitate. I don't remember what moved the needle, probably the Coven entries with Zadanost in particular. Really had no clue how to justify it in character if she got far, probably a Mac Tonight sort of thing where she gets clearly buoyed for a good stretch by her allies.
BURNIN JUSTICE Despite Justice having a rivalry with Beelzebub, it really felt tipped in favor of The 'Bub. Incredible power, strength, and strategy, and Justice is rather strong and has a cane. It really feels like there's a big power gap there! I didn't want her to go down like a chump, but that little rivalry meant Justice's fate was rather sealed if I wanted to honor it. Justice's cane claw is a neat tool, I was curious how I might be able to use mentioned functions like using it as a little viewing sentry, but alas. Burnin was at least able to do more, and the favoritism in me and her flexibility probably meant she was inevitably going to be the one to stick it out longer even without a Beelzebub rivalry in the cards. One thing I tried to do was not boil Burnin down to her Game Boy role despite the wealth of opportunities it could have provided. In RP we hadn't seen her use it too much, so I kind of played it as if she was still getting a grip on it. She was pulling mostly from better known Game Boy titles... except Panel Action Bingo, which is a Game Hoard reference since it was an odd game choice for a review that Gooper seemed to like. I think I wanted something like the bird I landed on and was thinking through options before I landed on it and realized how fun it would be to include. Mostly I didn't want to forget what Burnin could naturally do without the Game Boy, although I think I leaned on the lance a fair bit because it was a noted use that felt flexible and physical. Like at range it makes more sense to whip out the Game Boy powers, but close up she goes with something reliable but also able to control space. One thing I wasn't too sure of was the limits on the Game Boy, not in a way where I felt I didn't understand, just more I didn't want to imply to Gooper that the fire sprites should only go so big or conversely make it look too powerful. It's his to do with as he likes despite GBC inventing it, so I basically want him to enjoy its use however he likes rather than me defining it too much.
GHIACCIO Let's talk the boob grab, since I almost brought it up in Burnin's section! I did want to emphasize how irritable Ghiaccio is, to the point his pre-fite is just him complaining mostly. However, the part where he complains about people being dumb for trying to melt his hard ice with pizza didn't feel big enough. When I was nearing the end of his fite with Burnin, I had a little thought chain of why he doesn't just try to freeze her heart or something since he wasn't totally at her mercy or anything. Then I had to think of a way out of that situation, why Burnin wouldn't be the one to die, and the concept as we got it started to form. Burnin is confident so she wouldn't be bashful and feels like she would just recognize it as part of the fite, but Ghiaccio getting tripped up on specifics of things, he would of course realize he had honked a boobah and feel he had to say something to avoid others seeing the specific angles he did. I did worry it was an embarassing kill, I've tried to avoid those since the Armstrong drama way back, but Sey is a great sport and it gives him a memorable moment to boot! I wasn't sure I would get in a full on use of Gently Weeps, it's a very powerful skill that could be poorly applied, but I actually got us in the situation of the burning rotating room and needed an out so that the characters could leave it instead of frying. With moments like the pizza not actually melting him I wanted to emphasize the strength of the ice armor, a big deal of it is made in JoJo, and while I was tempted to make that breathing hole relevant, it also wasn't exactly needed considering who he faced. Other things like the instant idea that I wanted Illuso to use Ghiaccio's reflective ice armor I've mentioned in the relevant character entry, although I'm not sure if I mentioned I expected Ghiaccio to do the best since his power was the most straightforward and yet I'm glad he performed the worse specifically because it lead to a lot more unique power uses from the rest of La Squadra. Ice attacks are versatile in their own way but also more common territory. I guess I am a little sad I never did the classic concept of using skate blades like knives though.
MERUKO WITH YUZEN Two obvious questions at play with the pair: when to use the money, and when to have the jig be up. Moneywise, I wager it was always going to be about the placement. I knew immediatley it was a good way to arrange a pre-fite since it's already meant to be used for making allies, but finding moments in the Brawl for it would be harder unless I had the right characters involved. I am however amused that I was like "Avital's a merchant, she should be interested" and that turned into Reduin being her ally by extension for the whole Brawl. I don't have every alliance fracture or separation planned in advance, but it really kept on going far beyond how long I expected. I guess beyond who we saw go for it in the Brawl, I had considered characters like Sugar and the gang, and I wager someone like Shirley or Bluster could be talked into it, but a lot of those potential briberies were separated by space. One thing I did realize is that after Yuzen died people just left a lot of money on the ground without scooping it up, in retrospect maybe I would have had a looter go for it and find trouble or something like that. 12,000 did feel a bit small but understandably so. Like all of Yuzen's bribes were pretty substantial since I felt he really had to break through to the people he was talking to since they're hitching their wagon to his fate. At the same time his short run meant he could make the big bribes without it feeling like it would dry him up too soon. Meruzo was naturally going to be the powerhouse, but writing how exactly she faked her power use was an interesting challenge. I didn't want every moment to screech to a halt to explain how Meruko and Yuzen collaborated on it, but at the same time, it was fun to write the little asides like Yuzen pretending he was working with an opponent to make the psychic powers look fake. Naturally the distance she went would determine how much of the ruse was exposed, and ultimately I decided on her using it effectively but still throwing in touches like trying to make the floating bricks look like they were on strings. I think it was generally more fun to imagine them dangling in the air than just born by psychic power anyway too. The exact strength of the power was another thing that had to be managed and again it was sort of that conservative approach where Meruko sometimes added a little touch but as she got in trouble sometimes the efforts slipped. I kind of let Chao believably go either direction afterwards in terms of it being apparent or having just enough deniability, and it was less wiggling my way out of it and more thinking where the character headspace would be at that point in the Brawl. The literal brick joke being tied to them probably guarantees them some immortality at least, I wager I could have made it work for someone else, but Meruko was a perfect fit since she literally wanted something to fite with!
AMIRA The jacket might have been skirting it just a touch on the weapon rules I feel, probably just the spear and chakram tipped it over. Grenades, knuckles, a shield, and a gun feels like a kit. It was no big deal and no one had a problem with it, but it was at that point where the character really had to shuffle an arsenal about and literally as I wrote them it felt like there was a good deal of shuffling. I know the entry says they're explosives and not specifically holy hand grenades, but it was pretty decent shorthand for getting the concept in there for Mima's death. The entry mentioning angelic rivalries and just the fun lineup of a fallen angel and loyal angel destined Amira and Gabriella to meet, but I did want to actually have some holy weaknesses in a Brawl with many of them see some use. Funnily enough, not on DALI or the demons. I think another reason the chakram felt a touch much was that it's another long range weapon, it didn't seal a gap that wasn't sealed by other tools, and I almost didn't use it. I do recall after the jacket was taken from Amira I considered someone else stealing it, getting all those tools for their own use, but it was damaged on one hand and no one in the moment felt like they would pilfer it too readily. Amira's unclear motives did mean I was a touch hesitant to commit them to a specific approach because of the mystery. Like, they're a noted mercenary, but are they the kind where Yuzen could sway them with a good bribe? Their art is too cool for school though and thus they were a fully un-allied character, I pretty much look over everyone for any sort of potential alliance and sometimes it is very much one of convenience like Bluster and Matcluck, but Amira never sang to me as someone who would work well with others and thus a full on lone wolf with no personal ties. That did mean thinking up a pre-fite for them was a little rougher, the tryout was a fine enough spot but there was not too much to say since their methods and approach were pretty set! Also, did wonder if the jacket taking damage could lead to a problem with its Bag of Holding properties, probably a case where it was in my hands if it did or not I reckon.
RICKLE Once upon a time, when the Teen Girl Squad entered the Brawl, CKR was a touch disappointed they were mostly used for comedic effect rather than capable killers. She definitely likes the silly scenes, but it has stuck with me that such characters, despite being jokes, are her emotional investment in the fite. As such, she gave me a pickleball playing pickle and seemed most excited for his entry, and thus he had to get at least a kill before his number was up! Spamton seemed an achievable sort to kill despite his silliness. Also, that same thought process that lead to me trying to make sure characters leave a mark also lead to me trying to carry low placing character's legacy beyond their own participation, especially since CKR got quite a few low placements this year. Rickle being eaten by Democurus raised some questions on whether or how Demo could manifest him, but I went with the most interesting options. I mostly intended it for the finale, but when it was decided Demo would team up with Old Bun Eye, it was a great way of doing some arena clearing. I did consider the battlefield being a minefield of kitchens but thought it was too distracting. Fun fact, one of the songs Sheep linked for his Brawl playlist features some explanations of pickleball's rules, and that's where a good deal of my early knowledge of it came from and thus the related bits. The idea that you can't enter the kitchen elevated Rickle from a simple joke to one I felt I could give fangs to. The pickleball court manifestation was at least a fun bit of supernatural stuff and made the elevation into his kitchen rage more believable. I did find myself overly wondering if certain characters would accept pickleball into their hearts or not, and I believe initially Yuzen and Meruko were going to be a lot more clever in using that court manifestation aspect of Rickle. I almost made Yuzen too incompetent and nervous, I think correcting my mental image of him also somehow shed that clever side a touch in a way. Pickleball also being opposed to volleys also influenced how he used the paddle, I had set him up in the finale to hit Lyrica before remembering he very much would not be so rough with the paddle, leading to a quick reminder that pickleball is a friendly sport! I did look up pickleball paddle prices and other bits and bobs to write it better, but again, this video really put down an unusual amount of groundwork https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtEWJSc_FJw&t=42s
PUPPET PRINCESS While she placed rather low for a Coven member, I think I sold it well by having her heavily control the situation she found herself in! Despite me mentioning the fact she sprays needles out of her mouth, I almost forgot to include that, but also used its brief appearance to reference Francisco's odd nature a touch more. I mentioned previously that I had expected Puppet Princess and Koakuma to force other fiters to fite in a proxy battle of sorts, I honestly think it worked better with her constantly taking command and losing command of fiters. Honestly in some ways the low placement let her go nuts more. When the roster thins you can't have so many characters twisted into your servant. There was naturally the worry that any character fiting against their will shouldn't have their run ruined too much by it, I don't know if ivel thinks about it much but in retrospect I think Music Meister killing Gino that way can be seen as pretty disappointing. I know her spell list got some use, but I think it would have been much more important if she got further because, again, she wouldn't have been able to do her big trick so easily. I did waver on whether to use the Dirge of Doom at all, but even the Brawl itself compares it to Perish Song so I used its rules... sort of. If it didn't end when Puppet Princess perished herself, then maybe we wouldn't have seen it, but it was perfect for a Pokemon who could be returned and delay that count. Her Bonebreak on Evolto did make me a bit nervous, I perhaps don't factor in resistances as much as you might in a tabletop RPG so I bet in a standard setting it would be less likely Bonebreak devastates someone. Evolto had redundant organs but not so much redundant bones, but he also had different physiology than the usual target, so I chalk it up once again to odd things interacting in odd ways. It can be used as an excuse for Evolto not being too active for a while though. I don't want characters to end up in a bind and just avoid their good moves for no clear reason though. Her not being too mean at least makes some sense on why she didn't do it on other potential targets, Evolto is tough enough to take it. I will note, like with Stelle, it's sometimes tough to work in some poppy performances and singing. Like, they use it to activate abilities, but it's not like Music Meister where it feels like a big number works well. I don't know if people expected it though, and I can see it happening for more comedic situations or if the character is truly isolated.
CHRISTOPHER funnily enough was in a sort of similar situation to Kaydence. I knew him making it only so far would look a little bad for him, but I tried to really construct his death in a character rich way. When he's up against Mnelrolth, he's confident and keeping the dragon at bay well. He was showing his skill, putting his lessons into practice, but since he's not all the way to being an expert, he had a rash flaw, that being that he was losing track of his Mantra use. Mnelrolth, and old soul and one who fought many magical sorts before, could identify this lack of foresight and use it against the young man. If Christopher hadn't noticed, sure he might have run dry at a bad moment, but he could have also used what Mantra he had left to seal the deal. However, with concerns pressing down on him, he's forced away from what was working and leaves himself open since he's struggling to fite differently. Mnelrolth is also one of those entrants where you can't really condemn anyone who loses to him in a fite so long as they weren't instantly squished either. It's another case where I tried to consider where the character is in their arc. His alchemy does have a lot of fun variations but also feels like it has some limits like how reasonably he could Distill something. Him being an apprentice also means it wouldn't feel right to go too big with it, but he wasn't kept from anything clever either like utilizing the different weapon strengths of his trio to bind the weapons together to truly harm Volvagia. Again I didn't want to go too Fullmetal Alchemist despite thinking that would inspire me, mainly because different rules and again the prevalence of alchemical skills this Brawl, so it felt important to focus deeper on what makes Christopher's stuff unique. I bet I could have gotten away with not mentioning the weapon state/sheathe so option but it's the kind of thing that's often important to me and the user who owns the character, and it didn't slow things much compared to some other characters where details can start to get you deep into the weeds. Also very happy I got to use the gas mask, sort of like how I got to mention Violence's night vision. Those little notes in an entry could so easily escape attention or use and aren't even big factors, but I think it helps to flesh things out and doesn't feel forced or anything like if I had tried to make Neptune's eggplant fear work more before it finally got its big moment.
LOUIE I almost thought of having Gooper draw the image of Louie escaping on the UFdOugh because it felt like such a fun picture to me. I did consider what should become of Pikmin after Louie's death but ultimately felt it wiser not to both too much, Titan Dweevil's appearances mostly short and swift and probably complicated by aimless leaf people who had no one to command them. The lack of a commander was the clincher there, it didn't feel necessary to acknowlege them since it was noted only Louie really could guide them, so they're probably inside the onions safe beyond those who died. I do think I could have done more with them, the fite Louie was in was already hectic though. Despite one big reason the characters shrank being to let the Titan Dweevil fite them as a giant, it didn't even do too much during that time with so many things to manage. Mainly I didn't want Louie to go out passively. I do recall almost editing out the Dweevil staying in the hearse after his defeat so it could go skitter off and find Eskalia but it didn't cause any harm to leave it. Won't surprise you to hear the "continued legacy" for Louie was the Dweevil! It was just a joke that got out of control mostly. It was good to keep around for Eskalia, but then it suited Ginny too, and then I wanted it to be in Catgut's hair so it had to stay around longer, and after the joke had grown that much, why not have him in the finale? Did wonder about what weapons it should integrate, it already had quite the arsenal I didn't want to waste, hence it getting mostly small generically effective things like a knife and pizza cutter rather than cool new tools. The funny thing is without it I don't know how I'd justify a Wonder Tart creation, just eating it raw and uncooked I guess. The epilogue picture having the Dweevil was an impulsive choice too, to the point I went and edited the squishing of it in the finale because it was more clearly wrecked initially. I kind of planned to kill it then in a sort of joke as it being a sudden easy kill, but I also didn't think a picture suited the moment and thus didn't plan to make one, that in turn looped back to the kill not being confirmed. We've had things like Wimpod survive the Brawl before so it didn't feel cheap. I do owe Louie for inspiring that first small battle in the hearse, one of the better directed scenes so to speak because so much of it was just leading up the shrink but also I didn't want that to happen too quickly or unreasonably.
Skipping Tubba Blubba because he was in the Mystery Fiter section! Just realized he got 64th, like Paper Mario 64 though. Cute!
MATCLUCK Turns out the name Matcluck comes from a deleted scene of Futurama and most of the time they just call him the Hyper-Chicken lawyer, hence why for a while you saw me using a mix of th ename and title as I needed to mentally adjust! Matcluck is an interesting case of carrying on a character through the Brawl, because in his case, it was mostly just a running joke. Initially I wanted Pukey to barf into Tubba Blubba as just an attack, one that makes more sense when you learn Tubba Blubba is hollow so it's not so gross. However, we hadn't learned that yet, and I still wanted Pukey to have that moment. Thus, I was thinking of explaining why it's not gross and saying you're "legally' not allowed to be grossed out. From there, I realized we had a lawyer in play, and what's more, later down the line I found a few more points I could reference him. Not quite the same as having a power or some such carry on, but it made Matcluck more memorable than the guy who didn't really have the most battle options. Throwing eggs isn't much of an attack and neither is making legal jokes, and that is one reason the Steenstealer ended up inside him. Give him a nice monstrous limb to attack with and he was a more potent threat to the likes of Chara and Elvira. I actually didn't have many big ideas for what kind of jokes he could make while trying to bother people saying something was like, harrassment or whatever. Oftentimes if the joke happened, it's because I already had him in a moment and then had a lightbulb. I think he was meant to help Bluster out more but he did ultimately get a kill. Definitely the kind of entrant where I can suddenly be like, "he's a giant bird, that means he's dangerous on some level" at least.
VULTURE I think the decision to carry on the vulture totem past his death was a very late one, which was also probably why Katelyn had to get it from Sinful's body. In fact, as I wrote Sinful's death, I realized I hadn't made it reasonable for him to pass along the vulture totem after I had adjusted my plans to make Katelyn vulture a thing. Consequently, she had to spot him in the trash pit when it would have been nicer as something natural! I almost didn't even have Vulture use it in his short time with us. I think he's a lot less flexible than other villains CKR has given us, but at least he had the angle of being a rich guy who just used his money to be a villain. From there I could construct a memorable personality and one that allowed him to interact with other entrants like Yuzen and Sinful. Yuzen would have likely never have been able to afford Vulture, he was mostly taunting the guy, although he could have enjoyed taking all the cash just for the pure jerkitude. CKR did say he could have other vulture stuff, but what that entails I could not tell you. He has a visual design that isn't conducive to too many hidden tricks, so it's not like he could have secret wings. For his short time with us though, he had a decent enough assortment to do his little battles. Him fiting Piano was definitely just to give him a little more to do before he died plus show us what Piano was up to, and I'm glad at least he had a hallway that was a bit more impactful on the fite than some others were. He didn't get much vote love I think because he wasn't absurd compared to past villain entrants from CKR. I think I even considered implying they all were sort of connected, not in a big way, more like Vulture heard of this Brawl trend and there's either some sort of pipeline or guy supporting them all getting in that he bought his stuff off of. I think that was when I was still searching for an angle. Another thing is I wavered on how competent Vulture should even be with his kit, he just bought it and is a rich jerk, but I think in order to make the fite with Sinful interesting he had to be somewhat competent, and thus he was!
We've talked about Volvagia earlier, so let's look to our 68th place fiter next instead!
MIMA having the specific angle of wanting to take out evil entrants was perfect to justify Felldrake's shift in fortune since the previous Brawl. It would be hard for most anyone to stand up to the unified might of the alliance she was part of, and she gave them some early direction too by being so committed to the idea. I'm glad she got attached to the PlayStation girls during their plot so we could continue to spread that web and rope her in to a realistic take down of Felldrake's forces. It is a bit of a shame I couldn't have her go nuts with night magic simply because of placement, and I'm not even sure what the Brawl timetable for her being super strong would be. Probably a thing depenendent on placement and her alliance health. I didn't end up cooking too many plans for potential actions because she got 68th. Like, for this Brawl I looked up the Prismriver spell cards and all to make their danmaku patterns varied, but Mima's time with us was short! I do know the sledgehammer Marina made for Vilfred and became Mima's weapon briefly was almost forgotten after the KO. The weapon's existence was mostly to set up the fite so I didn't mentally commit it to Mima. She has a staff anyway so it's not like it was part of a long term plan to arm her or anything where it would be easier to keep in my head. Amira got the kill on her mostly because the holiness being a weakness for a spirit, but I think being in Gabriella's alliance plus Amira being morally dubious made it more than something like Kae vs. Charlie where it was a hard counter picked solely for the hard counter. I don't know if it was mentioned elsewhere, but since Bellringer characters haven't necessarily interacted much I didn't feel they had to force themselves to fite together or line up their goals. Heck, Mima fought Nemu, and they're both Bellringer revivals! I think unless I got express permission to do it I wouldn't have anyone break Bellringer rules although perhaps they could have considered it, but at the same time, it feels like you'd have to be sadistic or something ratehr than merely fiting a Brawl like the rest. I mean, it's full of good guys who get a pass, right?
MILK WITH FRIMA After seeing this result, I felt so bad for Milk, she immediately became a character I was invested in. Unfortunately, results are results, so I couldn't really redeem her this Brawl. Instead, I was left wondering how much damage a Nikke can take before breaking and thus the fall from the airplane was described as basically being as damaging as it needed to be in order to kill Milk. I do recall thinking having Milk's shotgun be relevant much sooner than it ended up beign, but it didn't feel like any character suited it whenever I thought of it again. I do feel a touch bad seeding the idea in pre-fite that she might take the sniping duties away from Frima but it was mostly to justify getting them in the plane when it was kind of a bad position for Milk to be in. Not like she didn't get to fite either, it's just you can't really use a shotgun well from so high in the sky. It was very much setup for Frima who made a much later run than anticipated. She was meant to die sometime before Illuso, looks like either before he died or before Neo did. I guess I thought some reflective surface in the plane would allow it, but I think it made little sense to shove him off over there. Ultimately it was my own notes forgetting Frima briefly that lead to her keeping on, but that was to our benefit! She got to do a lot more and help Ishii's group get more character. I do admit sometimes I forget Nikkes aren't just regular humans, moreso in that I forget just how badly I can wreck them. Still, she was good for setting up a debilitating hit on Shirley early since Frima's sniping skills were never in doubt, just her motivation to do it. Hitting her in the leg didn't feel bad for Frima either because of her lethargy, although I didn't overplay her lethargy either. Once again, you got to consider the situation, characters can muster a bit more when it counts, but it's not like she was the picture of energy or anything either. She just didn't like, fall asleep or anything. I think it goes without saying next Brawl if we get Milk she'll be the star of whatever lineup we get, hopefully not the detriment to the other girls, but sometimes the tractor says some people got to die! Ivel decided Frima was an assistant was great for her though, another good symbol of why sometimes not going for the team entry can benefit you at least in terms of narrative fun. I do like Milk's spunk and now she's got something to prove, I'll add her to my freaking Brawl wishlist if that's what it takes for me to make right by her!
SPAMTON Alas, I feel so bad he got so low! It does help he's not much of a fiter comparatively, but I think his fun way of speaking and his odd approaches to combat could have been fun to keep around longer. He does have some of that "early Brawl" energy where attacks can be more like punchlines and characters can talk a great deal more. The pipis were destined for silliness as were the waves of mini-Spamtons, but of course the thing I wanted to do most but also worried about doing right was his manner of speaking! It's fun to do the strange word swaps, but I wouldn't want to have him say something that isn't feasible for him. The rule of funny does seem in play so I probably would have got anything too odd handwaved by accomodating friends, but I'd prefer to be accurate! I do think his very specific limits on what he can transfer his mind into really hampered some of his potential for fun. It makes sense, but it did mean a lot of the ideas that came to mind like entering Kaydence's phone were shut down just as quickly. I know it said he could try and then likely have problems, but that would be an outright attack to account for. The Pre-Fite was basically me laying out that I had cool ideas but couldn't do them. I realized in real time the Game Boy might be eligible but was also pretty keenly aware that he likely wouldn't have a chance to enter it, least of all because it was Burnin's and then Gooper's characters might be at odds! I don't think I was too worried about Fite Yer' Self much, there was a moment or two I threaded the needle a bit as character groups interacted though. Like, character from a user helps an ally dodge an attack from the user's other character or something. I did wonder if he would have any reason to enter the palm pilot during the Brawl, it's a spot of vulnerability and all, but it had its time. Reading his entry again, he actually did a lot of what he was mentioned capable of doing, even utilizing someone else's weapon. Also, it even notes how he'd like to make alliances but would struggle, and lo and behold! Maybe in the past he could have lead a sort of Omega Mart team... although in retrospect I remember Lanterby is in this Brawl. They knew each other... oh well.
PUKEY Pukey wasn't with us long, and that's one reason why he was given a good amount of humorous attention in the Pre-Fite Show. He doesn't do much, and in some ways that meant he got a bit more description of little things like how he moves. I haven't seen his source movie although I did watch some making of stuff from it, but I did see how he rolls and all that. I think the distance of his run could have determined if we got high speed rolling Pukey. Pukey's barf, I tried to think of as many applications for it as I could before his time was up. The one I wish I did better was him making Tubba Blubba slip on his puke, it felt like a good counter to the chase but Pukey's number was up and I didn't want us to dance around not getting to the kill for no reason. Pukey was slated to just be eaten at first before I thought of the puking counter, and as mentioned before I worried since people survived being eaten by Blubba in Paper Mario it could imply Pukey was still kicking. I think a KO shot of Pukey being eaten would have looked better than the splatter. Pukey was destined for DALI pretty early because it felt like it would just be a nice way for a bit of an oddball out-of-nowhere character to maybe do more. An independent puker could struggle, especially since like... puking on things isn't lethal. Pukey would have to concoct clever uses for it to take people out. Maybe if he got higher he might have been part of some team kill, but Pukey was pretty much destined for this low position in a way. I almost expected a last place for him, he's just so simple and silly and I think CKR invested more heart into entries like Rickle so it wouldn't hurt so bad to have him leave. I do wish he could have been used like a barf cannon by other characters though, just carried around to fire at them. I was careful how I described the puke, didn't want people to really be grossed out because I used a term like upchuck carelessly!
DEW AND FELLDRAKE A lot of people expected big things from Lord Felldrake, but also, he was now a known quantity. Sheldgoose could slip under the radar and pick his moments better, but Felldrake went in with a literal bounty on his head. I didn't really factor that bounty into his fate though, but I didn't want Felldrake to go out like a chump despite the placement. Not only did we get a whole big group going against him, but we had him pick the fight himself and kind of show that being too bold when you're a known problem can backfire quite a bit! Unlike other fiters too, it's less likely people would disengage from such a problematic fiter, especially since he was starting to do things like mind control Roman. Felldrake was good for exploiting Vilfred's water weakness too since he was mean enough to do it, and generally it's good to have characters like Felldrake and Mnelrolth around to poke and prod at elements of other fiters some would be too nice to exploit. I tried to make Dew look completely competent while Felldrake kind of did himself in with some choices and his ego, Dew only able to counterbalance that so much. It's been a while since Felldrake has Brawled, I can't say I remember exactly how well he fought in the past in terms of active power use, but I did try to write him with Dew's direction as being a lot more forceful and swift in using powers well. At the same time, there was going to be no swapping hosts again and again, but he still got to show he was a threat by how well he managed the group he was up against. I remember having Miracle kill him with the Heart Star last time because I was worried the staff was breaking wasn't enough. This time I just said BIG HAMMER and broke it that way. Part of it was I figured the magic could have drifted off or lost its form, I didn't expect the post-Brawl sealing but I didn't want to potentially put him in a bind for Rose's future plans. Writing Dew and Felldrake's dynamic in Pre-Fite was fun while it lasted, Dew being more conniving and strategic with her ability to manipulate Nemu. I don't think I cooked up too many big ideas for the pair before I saw their results, I'm sure we could have seen a power play of some sort but I think the fite we got was a pretty good burst of early action for the Brawl.
VILFRED should have brought a weapon! I think if the orbs didn't have timers then it wouldn't have lead to him getting little support, the orbs usually last As Long As They Need To in RP and would do so even in Brawl writing, but it still feels like a big question on what he'd do during those potential recharge times. That's one reason the early Brawl used the angle of him almost getting a weapon from Marina to set up his unfortunate fall, and him having to immediately confront his hydrophobia, while rather mean, was also an explanation for placing at the very bottom. If Justine or Sabriye or any other character had their fear so instantly exploited they could have probably scraped this spot too, so rather than wondering if Vilfred is a worthy fiter, we're instead left thinkin he was so very unfortunate to immediately be thrust into his worst case scenario. I did try to make sure he still did some decent fiting despite it all, not too capable because he was freaking out but he did push through it some, utilize his orb, so on. He is definitely the big case of having his legacy carry on, I had Potemkin get chummy with him and try to protect him specifically so a character with some connection to Vilfred could carry the orb on rather than it just conveniently going to someone else. Potemkin felt like he fought for Vilfred rather than it just being a nominative thing. I did think if we got Vilfred he'd at least dress as the Ocean Rider although it makes a great deal of sense why not since that whole thing is behind him. Funnily enough, with Blue having the Orb now, she'd probably do better in a Brawl. I think it also helps that Vilfred doesn't have that fiting instinct in him and it's became an interesting character element. It stings to have him place so low and it would have been a real shame if his orb hadn't go to do anything cool at all. I think SK was also a bit hesitant to have the orb be too good, relying on the wiki when Cornwind has given us sort of free rein to command elements with it to some degree. I did try to use ice more specifically because he drew some attention to it though. I think like Futo though he's one of the better last place brawlers, it became interesting character work in a way like, placing 64th or whatever wouldn't have. Still, wish the Brawl had been nicer to SK characters, it's like the voting still remembered he was champ year before last or something!
And that's it! The blogpost is actually done! All those words there for reading with your eyes! I can't rightly say if I forgot anything...
PSYCH!
There's the sticky notes for this year! You might notice the sticky notes even include rejected ideas like Koakuma and Puppet Princess's battle format. You'll notice things too like Pre-Fite not really having listed plans, just the characters in a cluster. I usually have the stuff in my head instead of writing it down, hence why even KOs are marked as pretty basic in the post plans. Any questions, comments, concerns, you know what to do!
And with that, another Brawl, and anotehr blogpost, is behind us! See you in winter when the wishlist for this year will come out! GIVE MILK, IVEL! I DEMAND MORE MILK!
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