La Grande Bagarre de Bar Seize! (The Blogpost, that is, because the translator didn't like that word!)

 Bonjour! Let's begin with the Big Bar Brawl 16 behind the scenes by first admitting that it was actually fairly close to sign-ups when things finally slipped into place!

 

One big part of that was definitely the host. Jacinthe in general was someone I waffled on during the off-season for whether I would include her or not, but after she was confirmed, she felt like a pretty natural host considering Mallory hosted last year and all. However, I was worried Jacinthe's bad reputation from Legends Z-A and her initial negative aspects in RP could have made her a bit controversial as the host, and my plans were changing for her rather rapidly during the Kuranya plot stuff in general. I had expected her to possibly be on the run from the Kobbers after the Tubes terrorism event, where she wouldn't be ready to face them yet. However she'd also be kind of meant to be the Brawl host still, but Montgomery would have taken over in her absence. But also maybe Jacinthe would return and host if we did the plot event? It was a bit of a mess, which is one reason why it was something that came together a bit late because the obvious early plan was being complicated by RP stuff!

 

The arena was a pretty late pick too. A few ideas came to mind over the off-season and even pretty close to sign-ups. One was a glow stone discotheque built out of a cave, which is partially why we ended up getting the Discotheque Dome because it could keep the idea alive. I mostly based my mental image of the Dome on the Disco from TimeSplitters: Future Perfect.

 The level has that second floor balcony as well as some hallways in the back, although it wasn't a 1 to 1 because I wanted more room to work. Dance floor was obviously much bigger too! But, I was nervous about having a space so swamped in glow stone light. Susamaru was an early pick for my entries and later Constance shows up with a similar light aversion, so I tried to retool it into something that exists but wouldn't just bathe our vulnerable fiters. But that actually came later! For quite a while, I had another arena in mind...

 

 Since the previous Brawl was a mountain, I considered this one being in the opposite: a pit! Well, a quarry, with its layout pretty heavily inspired by the quarry as seen in Crackdown. I considered using quarries from Horizon: Zero Dawn for inspiration as well, but the main idea is we'd have some buildings that were steam-powered for interior spaces that fit the underutilized steampunk elements of the Argo setting, while the quarry pit itself would be a huge area with a few different layer and large mountains around its edges for different fite elevations. We'd have some caves in the quarry edges too, but I didn't want to either hew too close to the previous Brawl or the Secret Fiter Scuffle 2 with the arena. One idea was that this was an abandoned quarry from an Argite boom that dried up so quickly it was all left to rust, or that it was a glow stone quarry that didn't do well because of glow stone being a picky material. I basically invented the idea that some glow stone could be tinkered with not to reform when damaged just to make the brawl arena a little less hard to understand, rocks break and stay broken here so that it doesn't get weird writing them reforming or confuse brawl-only readers. I'll note, I was pretty close to modifying the quarry image to have JACINTHE pasted over MASON'S to show it was a slapdash late acquisition or something, but I started moving to other ideas.

 

For a while, I started thinking of where a bunch of lights would feel appropriate. A theme park or such would feel appropriate, maybe a carnival or state fair... but we had done Guppystrand and stuff like that before. Fair was still an idea that stuck in my mind, and as I searched Google for cool visuals, I kept getting like, Christmas light tours and stuff. The glittering forest (capitalization non-commital) was sort of based on those, as well as Singapore Sky-Trees, it giving us a good cover area but one that would eventually fit the theming. One image really helped things come together though...

 Dubai Expo 2020. The lights on those petal shaped areas inspired the eventual "clover" design of the arena, although I did waffle on how many petals to have. Four was the end result kind of because I couldn't come up with a good fifth, but initially I considered the fountain in the center instead of in its own area. I did come up with the bridge as I was trying to make it more than a glowy fountain, and now I feel kind of silly for never adding bridges to water areas before. It can allow for more interesting battle spaces in that often important feature for a brawl arena! The Jacinthe Tower came from the increasing shift to a more World's Fair sort of layout, and I know I considered a Ferris Wheel too before realizing it didn't have too much battle potential. A lot of ideas like the rollercoaster were already in Guppystrand, so I kept to World's Fair, not theme park as a result. The spaces between the "petals" were a bit of an impulsive choice. I was worried about horning in on King of Beasts day by having people be able to drop by the Exposition de Lumiere, like I was taking control of something that isn't mine, but I realized those open spaces needed something and they were good for letting people do what they like on the day instead of just seeing my attractions. My attractions were mostly for fiting anyway!

 

Jacinthe Tower is mostly based on the design of Lumiose Tower, although with more standing balconies so it's not just a monument but an actual battle space. As for why it had a disappointing fall, I just felt it would be funny considering Jacinthe likes big flashy things to deny her that. Give a little something to potential Jacinthe haters, and it's not like the structure falling was something as brawl-shifting as the mountain collapsing last year even if it had been done fully. Unsurprisingly, I didn't give a good picture of it like I often do when I want to edit features on the fly to make them more conducive to what's good for the action!

 

For the double secret fiter and extra single vote, that was really just a petty bit of oneupsmanship for Jacinthe compared to her cousin. It's nice to always have something new there even if it's maybe reaching carrying capacity and I'm not sure how I can dial some of it back, but the extra vote was so small and simple and it's not like it's really mean for Jacinthe to try and show she's better with it. Double Secret was probably the true change and one I'm not sure about coming back or what. Don't want to flood the fite with a bunch of new faces or something like that, but I'll ruminate on it. 

 

For the Mystery Fiter, we already saw some of my thought process in my Mysterio effort post! Lucky the leprechaun has been a back-up for a few years and that post was partly to kill the idea since if it wasn't done by now, it's probably not worth doing. Sarlacc was definitely a good fit for the quarry and the main reason it was a candidate at all, the bottom of the pit having a big mouth felt smart, but even as the arena shifted again, I still just like the idea of fiters using the pit to their advantage or really just having it be a piece of the arena rather than a fiter. Bumper was me kind of reaching the Brawl period without much else in mind, but as the day was approaching, I thought I should have a character Jacinthe would approve of. The comment in pre-fite that she would be happy to be sending criminal brawlers to their death was an early idea, this partially a joke fake-out of sorts since Rare has made the joke Bumper went to jail after Diddy Kong Racing but also ended up working well for our Secret Fiters in a way. Yzma being the choice worked even better, but her choice was because I started thinking a flamboyant villain character would be a good pick for a Mystery Fiter that could also have that "criminal past" but feel more in line with Jacinthe's tastes. My immediate thought when having that idea was "a flamboyant villain like Yzma from Emperor's New Groove", and while I tried to search out other options, I realized I should just go with the inspiration anyway! It quickly became clear she could be fun, personality-wise and because I could use the animal transformation potions.

 

I did expect more potion antics, but also ran into the hurdle that anyone who took them would probably need the human potion to feel accurate to the film. We got our animal chaos moment though because Yzma placed low, and Kronk was able to weaponize them as he stuck around. Kronk being an assistant was definitely me cheesing it a bit, but it wasn't like he was there to be a real threat. His presence was always going to be supportive to other personalities. I had considered him making it all the way to the end and even assisting Amaretti there, but I didn't like tacking him on that way and he ended up having a good use for Bluster Kong's arc. Very "utility", but his himbo energy was also good for some gags. That moment where Tom Turbine's alliance teams up with Bluster and the gang was a very spur of the moment thing, I realized they were close together in the arena and was like "actually, these guys don't feel like they'd just start hitting each other." 

 

I did want to make sure it was Yzma in her little tent to help us have an "as many as I need" amount of potions, although I do wish I had found a use for those pull out wings that show up in the chase scene. You'll notice this year I also just included images of the mysteries and secrets instead of drawing them. Just felt more efficient, made it clearer who was being shown, and unless the reveal has some extra aspect to it, drawing it doesn't feel that important! We would have definitely got more animal antics if Yzma had made it farther, but I think she did her Mystery Fiter job. I have sometimes considered a more overt clue or reference to mystery fiter identities in the pre-show, possibly even as them hosting or talking in the shadows or something that let them do stuff before they show up, but it feels wrong so far and the little hint that they were unscrupulous is all we got, which was easier to do when there were three unknowns!

 

The pre-fite we did get instead starred Camilla! The Tour Guide from the Underworld and related Yu-Gi-Oh! cards were something I had been considering for RP for a bit. I was starting to cook up the idea the tour guide could show up in Studiopolis as a DALI member, giving people tours of the city, but I was struggling to come up with a good personality for her or greater conflict. However, I think it was the Hallowed Haunts in particular that made me come up with this concept, since they'd be good for scaring and I realized Mio getting pre-brawl masks would also benefit from something moving characters around. Camilla, as a name for the tour guide, is a personal invention. I named her after the Vtuber Camilla who is an imp as well, so our Camilla is also an imp. The power I gave her for sensing interesting things was just a way to justify how we ended up at weird locations.

 

For location choices, I almost did Ippongi Dojo where Patty and Nao would have been present for sure, but separating Nao from her allies even if it was acknowledged felt weird and I generally like to have 10 pre-fite segments nowadays so it was the one to get cut and spread. The fiting Yoru section was kind of a spot for people who would struggle in other segments, although it was considered to be bigger with other Secret Fiter candidates we didn't see. I guess I shouldn't reveal them if others don't want me to, but Mt. Lady, Gooper's, was considered for the Echolux Crucible section but I made a point this Brawl to minimize size-changing antics after they were such a common thing last year. Hence, Mio did not get her mask. I almost had Malin take The Driller's drills, hence his appearance, but I kind of forgot about the element and instead she didn't get that little boost! Marisa was chosen for Echolux though because the jewel skin was a unique power that made sense to take. Other Secret Fiters were sometimes ones without major powers to take or relied on weapons, and while I feel bad I couldn't include references (I funnily enough feel bad for making a reference to Pitohui's Cowboy Jed that was so small instead of something more substantial!) but I think it's best to go for what works, like when Hedlok got to enter the Brawl as a power-up.

 

I feel like most pre-fite was pretty explanatory. Saggi being Camilla's ex-boyfriend I did second guess, but the Yu-Gi-Oh! connection plus a reason for her to be sassy with him made it feel right, especially since I didn't want the bus getting too crowded. Little Red was mostly there to set up her New Deadwood targeting and she stuck around a little long despite that, and I avoided having the Haunts do too much spooking so we didn't just have it feel like the Francisco the Frankenfiter's premise all over again. The Emperor was allowed on board because I came up with the premise of the Pre-Fite quiz before a lot of the other parts, even almost made a graphic for the questions. I did worry his all-caps comments would get grating if he spoke too much and was nervous his shtick would wear thin. The CatchMamemon running joke was initially more prevalent, but I dialed it back so it would land better when it reemerged, plus people got to make the joke themselves so it was a bit of a two-for-one deal! The premise of an unanswerable question at the end was always planned, although I put the Nuvelle question in earlier that might as well be too! One thing you'll notice is there weren't alliance names really, New Deadwood's gang kinda got called a lot of things because there was no hard one but it was an old critique that using them can be confusing at parts. It's one reason the Lelementals name never crops up in writing here, and some alliances like Delilah's are referred to through their centerpiece instead. I guess it's not really that much better to call them the Echolux Crucible fiters instead of something snappier, but maybe the information is easier to parse rather than having to commit a new name that you could forget while their associations are better remembered?

 

The Mawile, Leo, Donkey Kong alliance was kind of pieced together just because I thought of the pre-fite gags for them, and the Tom Turbine and Simon the Pieman gag was something I came up with pretty quickly after CKR entered him so that colored their scene coming to life. The Light Expo negotiations were a lot longer in my imagination so I trimmed them down to keep it snappy. Things like QB already allying with Horus before we got to them for example. I feel like the pre-fite was pretty functional and the use of characters doesn't need too much explanation, but maybe in their dedicated sections later they'll come up if I feel I should address them.

 

That just leaves the Secret Fiters before we move into the main attraction! Baku, Chao's pick, is from a webseries that is a bit absurdist but is mostly about one guy getting hassled by a growing group of not-friends who always hang around him. All the characters are from existing media, and we saw a few of them. I knew I had to include Yung Cash Register a.k.a. Lil' Broomstick since he is basically the secondary character of the webseries, and since introducing a Dr. Phil M&M was already a huge bridge for those unfamiliar with the show, I just leaned into it. Not quite Bobobo levels of inexplicable, I wanted to capture Baku's reliance more on slang and wordplay rather than dadaism, but rather than reining it in, I let us have the weirdness of a guy who looks like Hank Hill showing up. They weren't much in terms of fiters from the entry Chao submitted, hence why they all got guns, but suddenly having guns is pretty appropriate for the series anyway, and I even included deeper references like how Lil' Broomstick has guns but doesn't have ammo for them fairly often. We got a small reference that I felt might be too much to show on-screen so to speak when Saggi gets the phone and hears an Italian voice on the other side. Dr. Mario is actually a Baku character but already exists in RP, so we got a plausibly deniable voice version, as well as one that references early Baku videos where he kept asking people for Boneless Pizzas since I realized he wouldn't really get to slip over to Pasqually for the gag I originally imagined with that line. Killing the ever friendly PS2 felt right for him and letting him get away so far to the disco felt like a big stretch, especially after he got the car.

 

You'll notice in Baku's death pic he has no hands, because according to the series creator Sethical he doesn't have them. He does hold guns and phones and stuff still somehow. He also references in his initial appearance a guy called Tickets, which uses an image of Tobi from Naruto for the character which is why he specifically says it to Sasori. Sasori and Tobi are even from the same villain group in Naruto, which made it too perfect not to acknowledge. Baku used a lot of like, third draft style lines. You write it first to communicate information, then punch it up with better humor or jokes, and then come back around later and see if you get inspired for another increase in punchiness. I can't fully capture the original series lingo and all, but I think I did well enough, especially for characters where the dialogue was going to be their big draw compared to powers. Baku's YEET power didn't have too much mileage after all, but I wanted it to do a few fun things and pitting him against Kiwii for example was to get around its potential banishment aspect that couldn't be fixed otherwise.

 

Sasori was a funny inclusion because I am currently reading through Naruto and at the time Brine submitted him, I was literally reading the chapters where the Sasori fite takes place. I hadn't even seen all his powers at the time, but I appreciated that Sasori was a far more serious threat compared to Baku. Sasori's powers were very good for making him an imposing foe and I realized over time that he was really going to to be able to hold his own against large groups. The poison sand was something I was nervous about before I came up with Operation Steal the Heal which was a part I enjoyed writing quite a bit! I was iffy on who should get poisoned, Essy was perhaps the most nervous I was on one since it is said her skin is crystalline... but she is seen drinking coffee in the bar so she has some sort of system in there that can be poisoned, especially since the poison is on one grain of sand! I did Prosciutto's juicing trick to try and fite the fact the poison is far more lethal in the source material, but know I couldn't JoJo logic my way out of it impacting the brawlers fully so instead we made use of Temenos! Funnily enough, there were other options, Kiwii probably could have done it, but I didn't want to undermine the concept, especially since Temenos as a healer brawling was a big focus so it made sense to fite over him.

 

How many of his attacks would get used was a big question though. I wasn't sure at first about the Hundred Puppets since it is so big, but it also justifies his eventual fite against two entire alliances, and Melone gets his moment with the 100 Juniors even if it didn't work out in his favor in the end. Sasori being so cruel made him a pretty good villain and since he has that chakra bundle I picked Pesci for being the one who could fish it out pretty quickly, although Risotto was also chosen to seal the deal because he was a natural counter to the iron sand. I was a little worried about explaining too much about Sasori, like who the third Kazekage was ended up brushed through a bit quickly. I imagine his initial cooler puppet form that wasn't a red hair boy would have got more play if he made it farther, but I am very happy with all he did. Powerful villainous secrets are pretty fun to play with, turns out! I did realize later Pete n VB maybe could have done something with the puppet invasion, but oh well!

 

But there we are, there's the scenes and what's behind them! Pretty much everything else should come up during character sections I reckon, so without further ado, let's take a look at them, from last to first!

 

THE EMPEROR

 While I did worry his shtick could have got annoying if overdone in Pre-Fite, it was also a way to actually let him do a fair bit and leave a mark considering he got last place! He would have been there either way I reckon since I came up with the concept for the quiz so early. His entry mentioning riddles and tongue twisters did make me hesitate on multiple choices being his main thing, but I still made sure there was a bit of variety. Similarly, while his early defeat meant we didn't get time with the Meen monsters he can make, I tried to get a few in there quickly, and his mask was meant to let others use them too, even if it was ultimately not a mask that stole the spotlight. I reckon if Pitohui still wants to use the mask though, it can still make the Meen monster forms. It at least made it more reasonable he could hold Delilah's alliance at bay somewhat, and I bet they would have been more fun if we got more time! However, a clearly antagonistic character was probably doomed in some ways, but, I knew immediately I had to have Delilah be the one to kill him. Not only is the whole anti-education versus a library angle good, but she is smart and powerful, a good mix for feasibly wiping this guy off the board early. Having a hard counter usually is a good way to wipe someone powerful out early after all. I feel Pre-Fite will mean he will have a memorable legacy at least and I'm glad I pushed through misgivings about him... although I almost think maybe it was just the ALL CAPS that made me worry more than the character premise. Maybe even getting a place or two higher would make him an overall less memorable entry funnily enough, so perhaps this was a fortuitous last place, but I hope Spy was happy most of all so I won't try to convince him last is good either!

YUMEMI

 Big oof placement for Yumemi, part of it certainly Chao feeling the champion dropoff and in a fairly large cast of entrants that can take her votes too. I did try to put a good deal of care into the early section of the Brawl where there are so many characters running around it can be overwhelming though. It wasn't her losing a one-on-one or something, it was so many things going on at once that allies couldn't always swoop in or a good combo of some focused fiters could rip you up. The big thing here was of course Tapu Lele scrambling her mind a bit. Yumemi's biggest benefit is her intelligence, and if she's going to go out early, it would be best if she didn't come up short so much as lose her real edge. Giving her the Cinder kill was meant to make it sting less even if that probably stung a bit for Cinder, but it was also sort of having the thing that let Cinder be taken down early then turned back on Yumemi since there's so much power focused in one point that it's hard to handle it all. I do definitely regret not giving her some room to do observations or sciency things more, and I also used magma and the like to soften her up because again, even the best fiters here probably would have struggled against Cinder's powerset so Yumemi taking heavy damage to it wasn't anything to be ashamed of. Nao making it so far after was a bit awkward conceptually, but it's often hard to have characters stop and ruminate on things like that mid-brawl unless I'm building it towards an arc or its something really tight emotionally like Mochi and El. Since Yumemi's power suit is so close to Samus's in function, I definitely felt like I was kind of just writing Samus in a fite again, but that's also why I tried to emphasize powers like the energy blade and shield to at least have it read less similar. I considered her being more prepared and analytical in pre-fite, but I felt doing so might make the early fall sting more since it would directly show it was for nowt. 

PS2 AND PS3

Worst placement for game girls so far! I am not too bothered by it though. It felt like a tractor inevitability and both girls are in their early stages of personal arcs when the Brawl happened. Less room to play with their powers was perhaps the harder part of their low placement, I even wondered if Two's scarf should continue on after Baku's death but ultimately felt it best to resist the temptation, especially since I didn't necessarily need it. You did kind of see the bigger ideas sped through a bit, like Two briefly weaponizing Peter Griffin cutaways or Three going through the Street Fighter cast's powers. I did feel a little funny having Guille's sonic boom come up because I knew people unfamiliar with it would read it differently than the actual move's reality, but I also felt silly trying to write it out and it ultimately achieves the same purpose of hitting someone with a projectile. Two getting killed by Baku was because he would be able to reject her kindness without putting that on any other character. Two's friendliness being hard not to reciprocate is sort of a key part of her eventual arc so I didn't want to undermine it, but she does understand "villains" as a concept so Baku wouldn't have sent her spiraling. Maybe in a better placement we could have got something more meaningful out of her that could move her along. When Baku stole her scarf, I originally wanted to give him a Bugatti, even though I'm not sure why. I like the word at least! But, I tried to gauge what PS2 game he might know, came up with Gran Turismo, and wasn't finding a Bugatti in it, and ultimately scrolled through car models until the Acura felt like the kind of cool looking car someone style conscious would select. I did regret a bit saying there would be no visible body in the vehicle when transformed though, I would have liked to draw Baku driving in the KO pic. If I haven't mentioned it elsewhere, PS2 and PS3 not teaming up with Ankha and Lobco like some people expected was partly determined by this placement, and partly by trying to give Bluster more allies. Having them face off in the actual Brawl thought was more me having ideas and wanting to realize it rather than some drama source. I'm probably not too bummed either since I know I'll get to keep using their powers on plots rather than missing my shot for this power set, although I reckon decent performances from the rest of my cast also means it's easier to take the hit.

CLEE-0

I did worry I kind of overdid it with Clee-0's grumpiness towards humans, but also since Pre-Fite also has a good bit of comedy, it felt wrong to trim some of her more fun sarcastic lines. Also, having both her and Chloe in the Brawl lead to so many typos... Like a lot of other low placers this year, she got to persist, but in a very morbid way. Malin taking over Clee-0 was a pretty early idea, but Nue and Malin also went quiet for so long that I worried dragging the Clee-0 body along for so long was getting awkward. Turning her into a Kenny firing turret ended up being the main use, although I reckon maybe if I had left the cassettes usable maybe it wouldn't have taken so long for her to really start moving again. The coin bag persisting so long was not actually there to pay off the Dr. Coomer mask initially, it was just a good way to give Dorothea expendable items as her reserves potentially stretched credulity. It also just felt like a reasonable way to carry the Kenny fruits to make transferring them around more easy. We never saw her use the coins herself, mainly because it didn't feel like it had the time to be relevant. I reckon it could have been an important piece of another fite or something, but sometimes I don't want to have someone's brief stand interrupted by a glaring weakness of theirs. Notably, the entry doesn't say how long she has between coin insertion, so I probably would have erred on the side of caution and only had it come up maybe once or twice and only when it was dramatic. I do wish I had more time with the Allseer form, I wanted to Wonder 7 more and when her death was coming I felt I could only squeeze in a single good use! I didn't want use missing out on Magikrab though, especially since it felt like a good foe Malin could show her strength against before she becomes more wire focused instead of melee later on. She is the first of the entrants though where I realized playing Cassette Beasts before all this would have made writing them much easier, spent a good bit of time wiki researching and hoping I accurately represent it all, and some Cassette Beasts attacks are so specific to a turn-based RPG in their effect! Altering moves to hit more or less targets for example. Since we'd already see cassette hand-offs elsewhere, Clee-0's were ultimately left to her use only to keep it simple. Looking at her entry again, it's almost like Sheep was begging her to be hacked... 

CHLOE

Chloe is dressed like a cowboy in her entry and holding a pistol, but her entry doesn't mention a gun, and I learned from the ol' Dia with wings picture to not make assumptions! I did elect to not have her join the New Deadwood alliance though because despite the cowboy look, Chloe didn't attend those events! Her ties to Macka is why she ended up part of Delilah's alliance, and the hamper ended up a really nice tool to keep around, especially for Amaretti. I made some good use of that Chloe google doc, I was especially proud of moments where Chloe would unravel one of her robes to force it on someone like when she dressed Tapu Lele to make her lighter. Considered having Lele keep the robe or have it be relevant longer, but it was a small detail lost in the fold. Witch's Hat felt a bit too impactful so it was passed up deliberately, we can say it was shredded by Tornado or something. Tornado was picked to kill Chloe because she'd be so good at messing up the clothes and sending a lot of it scattering or pull the threads to unravel it, the death image originally was planned to have scattered clothing before it felt wiser not to emphasize that too much so it could be scavenged more easily. Robes were also a bit underemphasized, mainly because they feel more restrictive to wear, hence why Amaretti even tore open the front, although that was also partly to make her look cooler with the Slimy Robe on. Chloe not going plushy dragon was a placement thing mainly, didn't like the idea of her shifting to it just to immediately get killed. It's definitely cool in concept, but it didn't feel like it defined her kit and I wanted to get through more of the clothing that Chloe could uniquely use since that did feel more important to her character. It helps it was emotionally triggered, I couldn't reasonably trigger it much earlier so it not showing up feels more believable than it just not getting used for no good reason. 

ILLUSO

Sort of how I felt the Sony girls were just a tractor inevitability, we had to have a lowest placing La Squadra member so Illuso hitting 64th wasn't a big surprise, at least considering how well the others were spread out. I did have things I wanted to do with him, and mainly, did them! Mawile's DrmKrstls armor being so reflective was something I wanted to use against her even if that ultimately lead to Illuso's death here, and his early exit compared to other members was probably for the best. He was less synergistic with the other teammates since he's more about existing outside the battlefield, but I reckon we'd see more of his trickery and he'd definitely play more support. I was a little bummed we didn't also get Gelato and Sorbet to really make it the full team, but Illuso and Formaggio being separate was ultimately good for them since we didn't have them both have to ride whatever placement they hit. I did sort of lose track of how many guns and knives La Squadra was meant to have, but Illuso was kind of useful for that. He both provided some and potentially had some go down with him. I can really see how the arena could have been a huge playground for him, but I tried to get some good stuff from it before the curtain came down. Sorry Sese, your boy toy at least did better last time, and he was in enough of a scramble that it hopefully didn't sting that he got overwhelmed and taken out! 

LITTLE RED

I do feel a bit bad DRAGON isn't doing too well in their Brawl runs, but at least this year it was definitely due to stiff competition from Roserade's many other strong entrants. Little Red did get her Pre-Fite spot on the bus a bit to give her pendant a bit more to pick up on if that helps move DRAGON stuff along better! Having a forest, even an iron one, was a natural fit for a Little Red Riding Hood inspired character's fite, and I did want to make sure she got a kill before going out, hence her getting the early kill on Aimee. Cowboys felt like a natural fit for fiting her, the woodsman doesn't always have a rifle, but he is what kills the wolf! Her entry says Little Red isn't afraid to use "her own claws" which I wasn't sure how far to take that, but she fought well with her regular body too but never to a point where you are left wondering if her hands should be able to slash you apart or something. The wolf of course was the bigger focus, and I did enjoy writing her weaving around it as they struck in tandem or movements that required coordination to pull off. I didn't emphasize the sympathetic pain too much, mostly because Little Red was mostly relevant for her stretch of the fite rather than someone we see worn down over time. I might have done the "one part unconscious" trick if she went farther. I also kept the wolf pretty close, mostly so the five feet limit was never strained, but it did perhaps lean it more towards Stand territory than perhaps intended. I made sure her "common technique" was how she got her kill though! Can't do it too often in a field that would get ruined by it easily though!

 

PATTY

Surprisingly low placement for her, but I think there may be something to the idea a lot of Cornwind's characters carry years of stigma to them that will hold them back, even the more fresh Patty since her last name is still Ravensky. Still, definitely wasn't going to have her go out like a chump, and losing to the champ of last year was a simple enough way to explain the early exit. You go for the top, and sometimes its the top that takes you out! The abruptness of the neck snipe was to add to the surprise factor though, sort of my oft repeated "one good shot" ethos where no one is really immune to getting hit the exact right way at any time to take them down. Of course, we got Kenny sticking around for quite a while after. He's very easy to write for, having played High on Life and watching Rick and Morty makes the voice pretty easy to slip into, but I didn't want him to be too annoying. His gags for a while were the real contribution to the fite, but his Trick Shots were good for introducing a complication and upping the potential of some fiters like Johnny. I don't think I had too big of plans for him besides eventually ending up in Dorothea's hands, although some gags like Ruukoto nearly killing him for not helping were things I thought of in advance. Patty didn't really have the room to emotionally justify using those Lessers powers that did her mom in last year, but you could have definitely expected some angst if she placed much higher. At the same time, last year we got a good bit of Patty, including things we saw little of here. Marvelous coming back in Queen Bee's hands was actually a result of me just realizing the weapons still laying around the arena weren't too flexible. A whip suited the villainess persona QB can assume though, and while I'm not 100% sure on some details about the whip-blade-belt still, I had it be awkward for Queen Bee to use to compensate for questions like "what does it even look like when deployed". I know you will say I can ask, but also, I was clearly in the later parts of writing the Brawl when I needed that info, and it's too late to really ask by then! It's different when Patty uses it because she wears it, but how does it handle when not worn? The neck shot was also because you can't quite cover everything with Intricacies, so it felt like a good instant kill spot. I sometimes worried I'd be using Kenny's Trick Shots too often... even though it's a 20 second recharge time so it's not that crazy. Time is always a rough thing to determine in the Brawl! There was a limit on fruits she brought too, so I think just being somewhat cautious kept it feasible without it ever going so far as being too limited.

SUNNY AND CINDER

I've said it before, so I say it again: sometimes when a group enters, someone will inevitably place lowest! Still, Sunny and Cinder were ones I expected to go pretty far, but that might be my Sunny bias and Cinder being as strong as she is. I did have to stop myself at points where I nearly made Sunny just a fire elemental basically. One thing about all the elementals was trying to determine how much their gel could take damage and how well they could function without parts of it. I did wonder if Sunny being taken out with Octan's net was feasible because of the gel, but I've brought up the concept of magics clashing before and I reckon that might be at play there, especially since other Elementals can be reduced in form by their expected weaknesses. Cinder not being gel made her battle more fun, she could get wrecked in more visceral ways as she was worn down. Sunny was, again, a beneficiary of my school of thought where some characters need a counter to place them where they land. As long as they don't fold too quickly to it, having something like Octan's net swoop in for the kill isn't really much more than a different big blow taking her out. I did identify it as a potential interaction really early, we might have seen situations reverse if the Haunts did worse and Cinder would have stuck it out longer. Which character in a team to kill first is always a decision, and in fact, when I was doing KO allocations at first, I think I nearly left out Cinder's specific killer. Yumemi had no KO to her name so that helped influence it. I could have given myself more time with Cinder technically so I can't be too upset I didn't play with her powers fully, but I did enjoy playing up her power before she went out as she whipped out a bunch of attacks quickly. Sunny basically having lightspeed did feel like it would be more challenging, I think it helps when you're a limited to a sunny personality like hers instead of something ruthless or battle obsessed though. You can travel the speed of light, but still need the speed of thought to do it!  

PETE N VB

Originally I had Pete kill Knoq'oth with an immediate fire back of the dynamite bullets, but decided to give the alien a little longer to fite so it wasn't like he immediately did himself in. For Pete, the cowboy encounter was inevitable, it was just a matter of picking the shape I wanted for it. Pete's entry mentions some rather specific references to uncanny and eerie children's media as part of the Friend Inside activating, but we only get one use no matter how well Pete did, so for the one we did get I decided to lean more into the uncomfortable puppet angle. Gooper basically had free rein on how to draw the image, but I was trying to tap into some I had seen in real life such as marionettes at the Mexican Market that I'm sure would unnerve some people. I wouldn't say I have ever had a puppet phobia, certainly not ventriloquist dummies, but I was also trying to keep it broad so no more specific allusions like the dummy from Goosebumps or Toy Story 3 or something. I did have some puppets described as less formed, sort of like that Guillermo del Toro Pinocchio whose design unnerved some people. I felt they could get that unintentional eeriness across well while also having the more obvious fear angle of being in a dark space with things touching you from all angles as you can't see where to go. Like being caught in spiderwebs or brambles or something. Vigil and Cordie were picked as victims for it partly because of sheer proximity. Vigil would be there after Knoq'oth's death, but Johnny was kept apart for the other reason, which was the girls getting bailed out by their romantic interests. It felt it gave the scene more impact than just a really spooky thing they encounter! I did watch the Pete n VB videos on Youtube and tended to imagine him reloading like he does in the Deltarune animations. I kinda wish I had him eat more stuff, but his enemies weren't exactly hurling things at him. That is why he tries to bite Joy's gun in Pre-Fite though, trying to get gun bullets! His encounter with Knoq'oth was also supposed to ride a line, where you don't know quite how unhinged he is. Maybe talking could work, or maybe he has his own warped worldview that could be exploited, which is why Knoq'oth specifically was talking to him, helping build up that uncertainty about this strange entry. I don't want to lean him too much into eldritch malice, then you lose some of what makes him disturbing!

PASQUALLY

The first of our Whisktakers! I originally thought I'd be able to do something with Pasqually involving that Covid situation where Chuck E. Cheese rebranded their delivery pizza as Pasqually's to trick people on DoorDash and apps like that. I thought the idea of "him getting you to eat his pizza by any means necessary" like mentioned in his entry seemed like one with legs if I used that gimmick somehow. However, it didn't really ever form into something that I felt worked, and he already had the "pizza lab" angle that I ended up focusing on instead. I did enjoy the gag that he would have originally just been entirely intending to serve somewhat weird but still normal pizzas before realizing they could be weapons, giving one half of the Whisktakers a more innocent bent to help it make a little more sense on how the Swedish Chef got in with them. I think the fact he needed to make pizzas and then wield them as weapons did minimize how often I felt I could do weird ones, but I also tried to avoid obvious things like poison. Things like the invincible crust pizza that could break space marine armor are more fun than a standard route, and I wanted it to still be in the realm of pizza. I can imagine a goofy character who just inexplicably has like, a pizza gun, a pizza sword, but it felt a bit off the wall. Pasqually here was a piece of making Simon work a bit more since he'd have more hands for rapidly making death traps, and for a bit they might as well have been one entry split across... well, really three characters since Hamburger Hurter was always kind of doing its own thing. Pasqually was definitely the weirdest choice for the CKR entries this year, but didn't quite have the jokey mileage of someone like Rickle and the team angle, while good in general, can lead to a specific member feeling not so crucial. We got a lot more from the others, but I tried to do the concept a bit of service before his death. Notably, I had him die quite easily once Coronatus actually attacked him, kind of representing the fact that yeah, Pasqually here is just a chef with weird pizzas, once you're in close enough there's not much he can do!

THE PENITENT MARAUDERS, CORONATUS AND TIMAEUS

Can't tell you how worried I was I'd get the identities wrong on them even after asking for clarification! The images being one way and the names on the entry made me nervous. Once we got them though, well, I didn't always have the idea to have them play into the whole "what an absurd and scary world this is" angle. Might have played them more straight... if the tractor didn't place them right next to Pasqually. Their entry skit talking about Bunger and the Tyranibbles possibly triggering some bad memories meant it felt all too perfect to lean fully into that direction, even though I wondered initially if I could at all! I wish retrospectively I had done more with Hamburger Hurter against them, but I feel if he got going too quickly, justifying his presence would be harder. I did feel a touch bad having them face some fairly goofy characters, at least ones like Turtle Bazooka and Tom Turbine were unambiguously strong and dangerous, but I also liked turning one of the marines into a squid. I figured Spy would pick up on what I was going for even before I added Timaeus's little statement at the end, although that was put there so it was more explicit and not dependent on a follow-up. It was a fun little narrative to play with and them also getting involved in the Disco helped fill out the range of characters present in the building. My Warhammer 40k knowledge is still mostly based on RP and what video games feature it so I always wonder if I do their strength justice. Coronatus went down first since I figured he'd get more worked up about the food fiters so it was easier to justify him getting in over his head as the two still didn't know not to underestimate goofy characters in the Brawl. I did try to feature most things that were explicitly mentioned in their entry like Coronatus being stealthy and the acid spit, but I feel I could have done more with Timaeus. One thing was I didn't want their armor too easily broken, even though Simon's eventual kill counted on gaps in the armor, I made sure to have it break to things that were heavy duty or powerful and even resist other things. The invincible pizza crust maybe pushed it I'll admit, but they had to be able to dent the marines a bit! I'm glad to see their team is coming back for Race Yer' Mates, I'm invested in these marines who are baffled by our ways.

BINAH AND LOREMASTER

 It wasn't really until I started writing them did I really realize how humble the powerset of these gals is. It's not weak, but standing next to Doug or the Lelementals they weren't dishing out the hardhitting stuff! I know it was mentioned they'll probably be playing support right in their entry, but Binah's magic limits and Loremaster not having a true weapon was felt as I wrote them! I still made sure people got in close to fite Loremaster so she could do some metal arm tricks, but with Binah I tried to stay pretty conscious of her magic limits. She's a rare case where we see a magic user depleting themselves! I probably would have used Mandela Effect a lot more if it wasn't limited, but it was a reasonable limit. I reckon it could have been very creative as someone's like, central gimmick, kind of like Nue making things unidentifiable. Speak No Evil on Pauline was a very early idea that I made sure to include, a way to limit DK but also not really harm his little companion while doing so. Binah was definitely easier to write providing consistent support with the chains, but I did try to make sure Loremaster's pad counted for moments like the candy corn maze. I did wonder how long Seal was meant to last, I think I might have ended it too soon when she did use it but at the same time, it basically ended when she died. I was happy to have them, but I do feel I could have done more, especially if Loremaster had been able to get her hand on some good equipment. Al ot of our robots or machines placed higher than her though.

CATCHMAMEMON WITH SAGGI

 I did go into the fite probably expecting a digivolution into PrinceMamemon, but I felt there was so much to do with the base forms that I didn't want to leave them behind! The digivice being stolen ended up being my way to excuse them not using it, but I didn't even get through using all of the Yu-Gi-Oh! card ideas I had even with the imposed limit of using Kaiba's Duelist Kingdom deck! I had to slip in the Blue Eyes beam at one point and hiding in the lamp during Pre-Fite because it just felt like there wasn't enough room for them otherwise! I knew I wanted to really play with the roulette wheel so it wasn't all Digimon powers, although I do admit I was perhaps too enamored with Judge Man's two maces since they felt like such a perfect weapon for CatchMamemon. Not using Cyber Jar is a regret, and I think I could have done with more spells or traps in general. I did feel Saggi was a little weak on his own, the dark pixels gave him something but it felt like if CatchMamemon was distracted I wasn't sure how to have him face the people attacking him that well. The entry did mention a lot of ideas of them being emotionally in sync which I felt was kind of funny, like they didn't seem the type to have a deep strong bond, their Pre-Fite at least was to give me wiggle room in them saying they were working on it to make it a touch more believable if they had their moment. However, I think CatchMamemon more than showed he was a threat! He wasn't the only power stealer so I didn't overemphasize it, but being able to tangle with Snow is no small feat! Pretty much an entry I know I could have done more with, but didn't feel I squandered either, just because that's the reality of the fite sometimes!

SANDIA WITH HELASIA

Sandia probably hit the same problem as Loremaster as there was not a lot of available gear or machinery left behind by the dead by the time their own number came up. I reckon I could have got more creative with what was inside her pack, but there was no explicit mention of weaponry in there and I think that made me hesitate. Maybe she could have cobbled something together, but instead it was mostly leaning on the arms. The jetpack didn't feel like it had much room for use either, mostly because QueenBeeMon's throne meant Sandia's alliance did a lot of flat ground fiting and often not against people you needed to fly around. Because Sandia was going down without a big hit I tried to give Helasia more to do, like fighting above her weight class against both Anguirus and Roberta. Maybe they did enter a bit early in terms of their characters existing but also I reckon the hype won't last to next year, but I did try to get the most out of Helasia's tools in her fite. I think one reason Helasia didn't end up getting a kill after Sandia's exit though was just the odd way I handled some eliminations this year. I can't even exactly explained why I spaced some the way I did at times, often just moving things around to make sure some posts weren't too fat or too small. Roberta KOing Helasia could have happened whenever, but I guess I just put it off too long that I eventually had to have Roberta do it before she died. I didn't do Helasia's sound clips too much, Pre-Fite got a few but generally it was easier to do her other mannerism and it hasn't been as consuming a piece of her dialogue since her debut so I hope it didn't feel odd in its absence! Maybe if Sandia had brought the Destroyer we'd have had a lot more scrap to play with, but we'd miss out on Helasia, the bigger travesty! 

SUSAMARU

I expected her to go a lot farther! When I saw her placement though, I knew I had to at least let Matoimaru and Susamaru face off, even if I didn't give Susamaru any other kills. I knew I could handle the emotional hit of her being free of KOs, and I pretty early started concocting ways to force an early fite. One big one that didn't make it was like, Anguirus just rolling over her, bigging up how much power he could do even by accident. Susamaru being forced to fite Matoimaru early since the opportunity looked like it might disappear was the idea after the results, although I do wonder if having it occur the way it did make it clear Susamaru was going to lose from the outset. We haven't actually seen the two marus face off before in RP, so I tried to make it a good intimate fite where we could tell why it always works out in Matoi's favor. Matoimaru just knows Susa too well and Susa hasn't figured out how to alter her game plan enough to get through that barrier. If placements had been different, it was always going to be one eliminating the other to avoid disappointing people. I did add a little sentiment to Matoimaru defeating Susa, wishing for an eventually defeat in a way, try to give it some extra punch and not feel underwhelming for going first. Having CKR's husband draw the kill pic, even though he traced some of it, did add some extra impact, and he at least presently says he wants to do more next year and do it by hand, having been inspired to pick up art again after a long break! One thing about writing my own characters is I've already had a lot of time playing with their powers so I don't have deeper thoughts on how I used Susamaru really. I did wonder about exposing her demonic nature in the way I did, but that's more for plot stuff than Brawl stuff. I had considered entering Mud if Rumia had entered and that might have made a little Burrows alliance, but Echolux was a big faction too so there were two reasons I didn't use Mud. Mud was considered as a Susamaru assistant, and since he's a sniper with explosives in his belly it wouldn't be like he wasn't playing an assistant role. Susa up front, Mud on support. He'd be an odd man out in a purely Echolux alliance otherwise though. 

RUUKOTO

Last year's champ didn't go down like a chump! I feel like it was pretty obvious that I was making sure she didn't go down easy after how she held on so hard last year. I used one of the sifters to hit her specifically to basically reference how she was able to keep on ticking after being wrecked last year. How much to wreck her was another question, but she already had some damage and I figured I'd keep it feasible that she might be able to keep going by leaving enough weapons intact. I did regret a bit having her dump her concoctions so early, probably could have had her do something trickier with them. Her taking up the sniper spot on Jacinthe Tower was originally meant to be contested by more than Anguirus, but her holding him at bay was not only meant to show she's still got it, but I also wasn't sure who would interrupt that. The main reason was definitely I couldn't think of who would want to climb the tower while Anguirus is threatening to push it down or break it to bits. I did want to use all of her new kit, the holographic projector I maybe could have got more use out of though. I didn't reach too far with her choices of holograms is probably why I think that, but that was deliberate as well so she wasn't bogged down referencing someone who needed better introduction. They're not quite Layla level either so details weren't as vital. I hadn't intended the the battery detonation to be as impactful in my original plans, but it is nice to have a sweep up moment that lets things reset or move and I figured if it is finally getting to shine after not being her death knell last year, why not let it go boom big style? Cornwind characters fiting her was intentional though. Taking down Patty was respecting her power, but Veronica was not just a little revenge for Cornwind in a moment where I did let user meta considerations kick in, but also just because taking down the champ is also a bit of an honor in itself. I can't off the top of my head recall how it's been handled in the past, so I wouldn't say it prevents the user who killed the champ from being the winner. It's a nice little extra I can hand out.

SIMON THE PIEMAN

The leader of the Whisktakers, from the moment I read his premise I was certain he would be able to inexplicably construct huge food death traps regardless of logic or materials. The Disco and his allies did certainly help in making it feasible though, and I did keep it to only a few to make it a bit more feasible. I did watch some of the cartoon he was from for some ideas but didn't use any, feeling it more fun to basically just do giant pie-based traps. Most were more like little arenas anyway, and while I did wonder at first if that first filling trap should also have like, super heat or a more lethal element, I decided to keep each one simple enough in concept. There almost wasn't even that last oven part before  realized it would be good to reference the Pre-Fite trap a bit and it could explain what Simon was up to between killing a Penitent Marauder and dying himself. I did copy his affectation from the cartoon of often leading a statement with Simon Says, but I do know I was asking myself how he might kill someone. Probably might have been wiser to let the trap do the job, but we wouldn't have got Timaeus's last stand working the way it did unless he somehow got pulled back into one. I originally had his hideout in Pre-Fite be less absurd, but why not lean into it for a temporary character? Maybe someone we know can buy that pie-shaped den of evil! Maybe not CKR's craziest Batman villain, but it helped color a specific area of the Brawl well until he croaked. 

SWEDISH CHEF

I really didn't intend him to get so cartoony at first, which feels odd to say. More like, I knew pitting Jeff against him would be silly, Swedish Chef is a comedic character so his death should be funny. But as I wrote more and more of it, I couldn't resist going full Looney Tunes. I did mark him as killing Coronatus early and I think I originally imagined it something more serious, like with knives or other kitchen utensils, but the angle was forming gradually and by the time the fite arose, I was trying to think of what could best kill Coronatus and his armor has that exposed scalp! Rather than trying to overjustify it, I kind of let funny do the job, just a bonk with a frying pan that has no doubt been how the chef killed many an ingredient in the past. While her entries for the Whisktakers gave them all roles like sous chef and stuff, I didn't really see how to make that relevant beyond like, Simon being the leader. Swedish Chef was sort of meant to leave the Whisktakers when realizing how villainous they are, but he and Simon died so close together there wasn't really room for him to mend his ways and maybe join Tom's team. We still got hints of it, and one reason he remained pretty light-hearted was to represent he wasn't as murderous as Simon or the Hamburger Hurter. I made a little joke about his puppet nature, but it also wasn't something that could be done at length when the comedic battle with Jeff really took off. From there, everything had to be snappy rather than bogged by details. I was retroactively surprised how little her went Bork Bork Bork, but as I say, there's not a whole lot of dialogue in the Brawl! Plus, I also didn't want him to just bork, so we got me trying my hand at Swedish Chef dialogue that yes, naturally, I said out loud to test.

TEMENOS

Perhaps a lesser man would have seen how many of Temenos's spells basically wipe him out and bemoaned it, but nay, nay I say! I appreciate that it made me think differently on how to use him, and treat him more like a healer! To many obvious attacking spells and I might not have considered moments like Operation Steal the Heal, but he still had enough holy light spells to hold his own in a group battle. I did feel like I leaned on a few a lot rather than consulting the whole list, but it was because I didn't think Temenos should wipe himself out or cast them carelessly. I enjoyed writing him in Pre-Fite and wish he had a little more room in the Brawl to be clever, but him healing without question was a gambit of his that paid off. He knew enough of the brawlers were good people and wouldn't just kill him after he was "exploited" should he not resist once captured. Borrowed Blessing maybe could have had more fun uses, and I know I felt Sacred Shield was just a little too much work considering it only blocks one hit. I am sure that there is another version of events where he used Sacred Effulgence and was properly protected by his allies or revived some other way. I did kind of like having it go a bit more like how you'd expect, he bet it all and his allies weren't able to protect him while he was unconscious. It was definitely one of those moments where I felt like it made more sense for the opponent to be capable enough to exploit it. I never really thought of him using Revive even if it could have been fun to bring back an ally. Of course, that is partially because he was the first of his alliance to go besides a demon, but I do know I had a moment when consulting his spell list where I was like "ah man, wish I could have used that in some creative way!". I figured he'd be too smart to do pointless staff whacks, he fought intelligently but he was in a bind and had to take the risk or be killed, so if anything he bought more time by knocking himself out! 

CONSTANCE

I can understand Sheep's surprise that I didn't do more with her sun-based sadness. Maybe I should have thrown in a few comedic instances or points where she comes up a bit short in a fite for it. I even put her pretty near some light providers like Temenos, Delilah, and Destiny, but those are not sun lights!  I think giving her that hood from Chloe, while a smart touch in-universe, might be why I did not lean on it more. Instead, I did enjoy having her be fairly competent! She is noted to be a very effective mage and got to show it off, casting her spells with forethought and doing pretty smart attacks with them. When she faced off with Claude, I actually wasn't sure how long I wanted that skirmish to be, and when she got all mopey, I felt like I couldn't adequately get her out of that before Claude would see his moment and take it. I did have her magic fizzle out when she suddenly got sad and I hope that wasn't too far, since she doesn't become self-destructive or anything when exposed to sunlight. Saggitae kind of became my favorite because of its efficiency and broad use, not being resisted like Fire and a lot more flexible than Fimbulvetr. Bolting was her set-up move and I did like writing the ominous thundercloud moving into position whenever she was getting clever. She brought her parasol but the Chloe outfit did kind of make unnecessary, but maybe she could have gotten clever with it. A lot of things I can come up with after the fact, but in the midst of writing, there are many characters all doing many things and I have to think as much about an opponent as the subject I happen to be discussing right now! I also reckon she wouldn't have pointlessly like, set it on fire to prod people with it like a burning stick, but still, I like to think of a whole kit even when its an odd piece! I know Sheep wouldn't have minded if I had been rougher with her or deliberately pushed her into a suboptimal area like the disco, but her allies were also too good to let that happen to her! Funny how things like that can work out. 

MLG TOON LINK

After all these years I get MLG Toon Link... and I got exactly what I wanted out of him! I was incredibly pleased that I basically did what I hoped to do, the exact jokes, situations... I mean, yeah, you can always do more, but I feel like if I imagined what he would do in a Brawl, well, I got it! I made the gamer jokes, I had him do flashy moves like his shield surf aerial snipes, and I didn't boil him down to just meme spouting. I did wish I had made better use of his proximity mines after he died, and I left his Master Sword alone in case there was some worthiness thing to consider, but I feel like I got the gags, the action, pretty much the very things I added him to the list for in the first place. I didn't make him too obnoxious either, I'm glad SK added to the entry that he was a little calmer than in the past, and noting that he's capable too meant I didn't hold back on him pulling off actual MLG moves. I'm almost at a loss on what to say about him because somehow, MLG Toon Link of all characters is one of the ones I'm most comfortable with how I used! 

JEFF

 So, Jeff the Land Shark, aka the guy where I had to ask myself "how do I even kill this guy". I pegged Pesci early as the one to do it, a joke about fishing Jeff up, but just having him on the end of the hook was not enough for it to be lethal, and Pesci certainly couldn't do the organ tearing on a character meant to be cute and silly. Maybe if they were all like, Operation board game style pieces or something? I started to think of maybe turning him into food, but then the idea of him being eaten isn't cute! Ultimately, the Big Mouth Billy Bass tribute felt like the only way I could justify it, even if it we did start reaching a little hard to get to it. So glad MLG Toon Link's shield allowed for a serviceable "plaque" to put him on or it would have really been a stretch! I did also sometimes hold back the damage Jeff could do, like he has those big chompers but the entry almost says he can't really use them! That's why we often got at best latching on tight to Anguirus's toes. I had thought I would just treat him as basically his Marvel Rivals attacks, but they were actually ultimately less important than his antics, which I think better fits how Cornwind plays him anyway. The animal buddy idea for Bluster was one of the earlier Pre-Fite combos I conceived of, Jeff feeling like the type who would help an ape on the up out. I don't know what I would have done if he had done overly well to the point he has to face more serious foes, but Swedish Chef turned out to be a perfect match and we could get other silliness like the brief encounter with Yzma. I did think he would do a lot better, the funny little guy vote is a rather common booster, maybe I would have leaned a bit more on the more out there Jeff gags mentioned in his entry. Mainly, no moment where he just inexplicably had an item or pulled off something near impossible, like he had to find Kenny to fire up at Swedish Chef instead of just having a pop gun when he needed it or whatever. I do recall I had the idea of someone getting caught in big Jeff's mouth and then opening his teeth more like a door to break out instead of actually hurting him, but we got a lot more playfulness than ferocity.

ADEMINA AND GRACE

 I do worry I squandered the Longhorn Train a little, but also, it had its big moment in the Rumble. I still put it in there so I wouldn't regret never using it, but I do wonder if people seeing it used to start a fite instead of finish one might have made people figure things weren't going to go well for the girls. Then again, while I do sometimes treat a finisher properly as a finisher, there are times I use it midmatch to subvert the idea of it being a finisher, I'm sure a previous blog would have said something to that effect! Anyway, when they were fiting MLG Toon Link, a Longhorn Train didn't feel right, especially for a foe who could play keep away. I concocted Hell's Hammer partly because Ademina's emphasized long limbs made me realize that was a way to bridge their reach advantage, and Grace grabbing Ademina made her a bit like a weapon, and it all came together. I did hesitate on the name, Grace has an odd relationship with her demon heritage at times, but also Hell's Hammer sounds cool! I did tell myself I could revisit the name come posting day, but I guess I shouldn't have second-guessed it much! Grace facing Tileman was kind of a Kinnikuman reference, she felt like she'd be a fit for a one on one more wrestling style match. I had the Pre-Fite note she did get the glow stone enhancements for her shield that she talked with Monty about near season start, but I didn't ever really think of a moment where she could use them to strong effect, maybe if there were darker places in this arena full of light. Funnily enough, while I did feel the range disadvantage at times, I also didn't think of the Gold Orb being a potential fix for Ademina, it was just more something that made MLG Toon Link better able to hold his own against them. That's why they pilfered some of his kit even if they didn't make huge use of it after. Putting them with La Squadra was partly so they could react to Columnimbus in the Pre-Fite and turn down his offers, but I think subconsciously Ademina and Sese are sort of similar and it felt like they'd get along well with the criminal mercenaries. I did have them get knocked away during the Brawl so their run wasn't defined by La Squadra though, but it kept them busy a bit early and the casual nature of their cooperation made it not feel too odd they never went back to it. 

ROBERTA

 I didn't want Roberta's run to be her just going Rexy the whole time, so I tried to emphasize both sides of her. She got the Helasia kill as her human form and technically took out Riotous was Rexy even though it didn't feel like a big enough thing to draw a picture for (I did consider a "oh and the horse is dead too" joke ot the side of a KO image or even letting Gooper draw it though!). Her facing Anguirus as Rexy was kind of there to sell her threat level well even with the size discrepancy, and she had the smarts to pull off some strategies that left the giant kaiju aching. I didn't want to have him get too brutalized though and make him look weak, but Roberta's transformations also made it easier to mix things up. I'm glad for the thagomizer, it opened up her battle strategies a bit for what is a bit of a brawler/slasher build otherwise. I do regret never having her use the necklace like a little dagger... but that would probably require someone pinning her down or her not having access to many better stabbing options that she's teeming with! I did make sure to put in a sneaky T-Rex moment though! I wasn't sure how often she should be able to shift form so there were points it was spaced to avoid it feeling too rapid fire, and yes, I did feel bad hitting her with some aging mist after her woes about it before. I did expect more Tyrannosaurus antics if I got Rexy, but the Echolux alliance also made it make more sense that she fought in her regular form quite often. I used a whole Pre-Fite section to basically say I don't intend to have her go full Rexy the whole time, and show that it can benefit her to do so! She felt like the right match for Marisa of the options too, lined up well for a decent fite rather than a skewed one or one like a Tatami match that might require too much explanation. 

COLUMNIMBUS

 I quite enjoyed Columnimbus's early approach to the brawl, just kind of showing up and exploding things. With the amount of power his blasts had, he was good to use to clear away people or even draw the focus of someone like Delilah, everyone having to treat this threat seriously even though he's not a serious person. I know the "soot storm" where people had to work to quickly clear it out was an early idea I had for how he could hold his own without getting creamed by anyone who wanted to smack him. I think I could have afforded to do more smaller blasts, but I think he worked well as an independent force because he could back things up with devastating power. I was initially worried he might be a bit vulnerable on his own though, but I also didn't feel like he would be quick to earn allies. I do admit sometimes he was channeling Mallory a bit, they're not too unalike, although maybe if I didn't use Rain's water pressure to kill him he might have done a bit more lapsing into Shadow issues like forgoing first person. Not sure who could have prodded at his Grandaddy issues but I reckon it wouldn't be too hard to justify either, maybe Horus. There was the question of what to do with Kristoff, and as tempting as it could have been to leave him alive, I felt also like he's not like, say, Barbie who could maybe justify time away from Barbara. Finding out what he could do then was another question, and I thought it fun to have him basically be the common sense in a very literal way, making Columnimbus dodge when he was too much in his own head or assured of his power. I did enjoy writing Kristoff showing emotions in Columnimbus's stead. Kristoff being mild-mannered but intelligent basically fit him well for a sterling example of what a Face should be and it felt interesting to emphasize rather than subvert. Columnimbus was definitely the easiest and most effective independent operator to throw around, just come in and blow up things to rattle any situation! It was probably odder there were periods he wasn't too much in focus if you think about it!

ZETT WITH CERVAN

 Being able to make an undead army could have its perks, but I think the limits on it did mean you treat each unit as a more substantial threat, to the point a Wraith was even responsible for a KO! I do think maybe Cervan was killed a bit too early, but I wanted to have Temenos's beam be very effective, and taking out a minion alongside the lich also felt like it was part of making sure it didn't look like Temenos gave his life for nothing. Zett being an arm down and still fiting for a while after might have been clearly on borrowed time after, but I made sure when he did get to fite, it showed he was still a combatant despite his losses. I do wish I had used more of Cervan's spells, I reckon I would have gone crazier with them if they didn't have the two per encounter rule. They're not crazy game-changing spells, but imagining Cervan casting them is pretty cool even when they're an ice storm or something that's not that rare. I think there was some early idea about Goth resources, like increasing them somehow maybe in Pre-Fite, but it wasn't exactly needed. Still, even though it was a bit of a quick interaction, I knew I had to have haunted lumber at least be briefly relevant! One reason why Temenos faced them was to ensure that, and because holy so easily counters them making it both a good way to take them out and prove their strength by taking him out in turn, although the original KO plans hadn't accounted for Temenos's knocking himself out when they were made. Why did Starman kill Zett in the end? ...I don't know man, some things just happen, maybe it did make sense in my head at the time...

JOY

 Somehow, I almost left out her Arcanine transformation despite even asking it would be included! I think it was initially the idea that Joy was going to stick to her cowboy gimmicks like she claimed she would, hence why she didn't do things like lowering her hat to make a protective helm this time despite that being one of the cooler things I like about her kit. Riotous was also not a kill with a plan in the notes, meant to more come up when it was appropriate, but I had figured it could always get crushed alongside her when Queen Bee got the kill if necessary but instead moved it up. I did realize I was leaving Arcanine off the table for no good reason though, especially since its inadvertent, so we got a spell where she got to use it and it be quite capable. I can say the reason she activated her Intricacies was because she gave it a cowboy-appropriate line. I was pretty committed to her being committed to the bit! It's also why even when she did do lightning it was through her gun and things like that. I did briefly consider her using Sho'ma, I believe there was a specific moment in a fite where it would have cropped up and let her do tangle barbs, but again it felt lke it wasn't part of what Joy was going for. Naturally, things change when you start nearing a place like top 10, or an appropriate situation may have drawn stuff out if it felt emotionally right or thematically appropriate. I almost feel like she kind of became the New Deadwood alliance's protector, not having the emotional closeness but when she cropped up in a fite it had some gravitas and impact. Things like helping out against Little Red, or even Pre-Fite when she's the one who senses Pete. The different guns at least meant she could vary up her cowboy attacks so it was less like a limit and more a filter. Queen Bee was also someone I was positioning as a fairly strong fiter so her crushing Joy didn't feel like it was Joy losing because she didn't go all out, she just faced a strong opponent and her allies. 

CLAUDE

 I was a little surprised to see SK caught off-guard by Vasuki dying in the Brawl. Maybe he thought I wouldn't go that extra mile, but I did get to the point where Claude had died and wondered what Vasuki might do with him dead. I didn't see anything saying he can't like, join up with others, or get revenge, or things like that, but I also didn't want to turn out to be wrong and hinge a whole bunch of stuff off a flawed premise. So, when Claude went down, it was treated as just being safe to take out Vasuki too. For Claude's alchemy, I didn't want him to lean too hard on basically being Christopher 2.0 despite having many of the tricks, so while we did get moments like hime changing the ground, his focuses were on Vasuki's shapeshifting and the putrefaction touch. Constance wasn't quite the kill where he could whip it out full force, but I was glad for the Cassette Beasts because then he was able to use it on the Thunder form to really show a powerful applicaton of it, wiping out Lobco's strongest tool in an instant. I do recall that when he got hit towards Jacinthe Tower he was meant to participate in a little more action than he ended up doing there, but I think it was partially just crowded and some fites benefit more from focusing instead of bringing in thrid parties. I mostly can't believe I actually got Vasuki to hit close to his distaste for dirt without it being forced! His death, having his hips crushed, had more joke potential than I thought when it was really just having a moment where I kind of realized that Lobco didn't need to do more to finish the job. The shock was there just to seal the deal, but like, hip crushing would be pretty fatal if not debilitating! I usually do have a few little extra bits for a KO like that just to make sure people don't think I was too gentle though, or like their character should have survived.

AIMEE AND CORDIE

 Sorry Aimee, you had to die first! Part of it was the fact that the Asterisk would let you live on with Cordie, the Guncleaver helping to add extra variety to Cordie's moveset on top of being a nice way to keep her representing her partner despite the early exit. Another was just Little Red deserved a kill and the cowboys were one of the more vulnerable groups with their firearm reliance. Lastly, I just didn't want Cordie to make her comeback and then bottom out again! Aimee was a fun part of New Deadwood, but her dying first means we get pretty much everything but her attitude since the Asterisk could transfer. There were times I did feel like Cordie was a little limited and the Guncleaver gave her a new trick to keep things interesting, although web was also a useful tool. I did crush her abdomen/butt at one point but had her keep webbing. I don't know the answer on what's back there and some things are best played for comedy until we get an answer! That's why it also wasn't too impactful besides pain and general injury tolls though. I did like that Jacinthe Tower gave Cordie some unique ways to support her alliance, being the one who could most easily cover its height save Mochi. I don't think Tatami taking out Cordie started as a callback to Queen Chrysalis who had some similar tricks like string, it just felt like an appropriate match-up that could go either way but also shows Tatami was a skilled fiter for taking Cordie down. I also think it was easier for me to crush my favorite bug with one of my own characters. Maybe if Aimee got to do a little more before her death it might have been more impactful, but there's a lot of economy questions at the brawl start. Like, she could have contributed more to Cinder's death, but then that's less for Yumemi. I did try to get all of her tricks used by her or Cordie though. I did consider whether Cordie should eat someone... but I reckon her options weren't that great so sorry Ademina, you did not get that honor. I did enjoy drawing Cordie, make me wonder if I should do more no-noser art...

TAPU LELE

Well, first and foremost, I don't think I need to explain why we didn't see any Guardian of Ulimaroa. No one really threatened the land or tried to goad her, and it can't be just used for a power boost. I prefered the kill we did get that was a bit different anyway, a psychic attack adding to the mix of kill types. I feel like on plots I already sometimes feel like I should be diversifying what Lele's attacks are like and felt that even more in the Brawl even though like, I could just treat it as a refresh or something since there are new readers and all. Naturally some steel was what did the fairy in, but I think I gave it more to Shashake because it felt like her drilling machine could break through the withdraw shell believably. I don't think I had big ideas for entering her besides fiting alongside the Lelementals and Doug and all, and psychic powers are pretty good for support functions or an unexpected blow. Another thing with brawl writing for my characters versus event writing is I feel like we get to see them talk or view their thoughts a lot during my plot posts whereas I have to be quicker in the Brawl so it does feel a little leaner, like I'm not doing everything I could regardless of how active I make them. I am glad Doug did do better than her, but I reckon she could have lost it if she made it really far or had to see all her allies go down.

TILEMAN AND DEVIL MAGICIAN 

 I had thought of the Hamburger Hurter killing someone by covering their head and grinding it into meat early on, and when I was considering my options, Devil Magician felt like a character I could do it to without it being too brutal or it putting too early of a target on the glove.  I tried to make sure to get all his noted tricks in, but I think maybe that might have lead to me not getting as much out of the full potential of him since I fell back on the familiar instead of new ones. I did try to come up with some decent gags at least, it was tempting to have him keep taking on new identities every time we checked in but I figured that might stretch things a bit or centralize how he approached every fite. Hamburger Hurter also working for going on the fake hand to reveal it is the kind of thing that lines up beautifully, and allowed me to seed what Hurter was really going for early. When I wrote that Devil Magician was potentially faking being poisoned I wasn't sure if I wanted him to be or not, I went for the one that allowed a little comedy. Not like he's taking a hit by revealing that. Tileman, I didn't want him throwing tiles until he was forced to. I get that he might pull them off willingly sometimes, but I felt like in the long haul Brawl he wouldn't weaken himself deliberately so it was only after damage did he start using the trick. I knew I had to do the Tiledriver as a kill after it was catching on with people, I liked drawing it too, Tileman in general is a fun draw. Mawile was picked to be his killer because it felt like she could crack him up good, although I liked the size difference angle of the fite too. The bubbly slippery nature of that fite was an impulsive add, I realized I had Tileman in water Leo made so having it be dangerous was a Fite Yer' Self moment I wanted to avoid, but making him slippery is kind of a neutral thing since it helped and hurt. Appropriately, I think Tileman worked well as an assist to the bigger alliance but still held his own in one on ones, although I didn't have him and Devil Magician show much cooperation or chemistry to suit their different attitudes.

ANKHA AND LOBCO

We know now what the blank tape being used on Plume was for, but the blank tapes were a fun thing to consider. I did give Gooper some forms I knew he would like, but Plume being scanned was 100% for that final moment where Dorothea whips her out for the win. Thunder thought was a bit more of a tougher choice especially since it became the only one where I was making a pick without such a lofty purpose. I definitely thought at first they might get something huge, but Thunder felt like a good mid-range pick. Strong, not super crazy levels like Delilah or Anguirus that might not work, but good for giving the businessladies alliance some extra firepower. Again, I really wish I had played Cassette Beasts in advance so I could really do all the forms justice, I was clicking every move name on the wiki and hoping I was doing them justice! Funnily enough the persistence of the cassettes did mean they got all four forms they entered with seen a fair bit, Dorothea even getting good use out of Ferriclaw and Lobco for Weevilite when I first clocked the Khepri and Lobstacle getting the real time to shine. Lobco getting killed by Hamburger Hurter was because she is a precious little thing and I could survive having the evil glove do it over someone I am meant to like after. Ankha dying of old is one of my favorite weirder death concepts and I figured drawing her wasn't going to be too hard or gross compared to others who could be aged to death. It was kind of weird to consider what form they should be in. Like, I would call them Ankha and Lobco but I reckon they spent barely any time outside of Cassette Beast forms when they could help it.  They did get some of the weirder deaths, but that was more just because businessladies whent up against JoJo characters. I did feel bad back-to-backing them, feels like I would have done it sooner but I just never ended up placing them apart and even if it stings to see two teammates go out like that, at least that means they lasted as long as they could!

FORMAGGIO

The shrinking man is back, and I'm glad he brought those vehicles with him! I wouldn't have minded a few more, but I did appreciate that it makes me think more about him deploying them to only have brought the three. Two out of three had pretty major impacts too, I realized a vehicle was great for Malin and it was only a matter of time before they got it, although I had thought up Doug's size-changing being taken a step farther so I wanted to make sure we got little lizard Doug there to do the actual killing. The ambulance smashing Sasori was a good way of progressing that fite much faster so we could get to the cooler powers. While I was averse to making characters go huge again this brawl, naturally some shrinkage was fair game where it could work, but it's also one of those things you need to be smart about doing so you don't leave someone shrunken you don't want small for the rest of the Brawl. Kiwii being allowed to increase her alliance's size to be one of the few gigantifications was pretty much just to let Formaggio do something in the team fite before it was undone without his elimination. The mansion from BBB14 definitely feels like it can't be topped in being a perfect arena for his power unless I crammed us in another indoor space, but I think I'll always have fun imaging how someone being small can impact a fite like how we got a lot of focus on sending shrunken people flying for a bit. I could definitely keep cooking up things he could make happen if we got him again, I'm even thinking of potential ones now that I wouldn't want to spoil! I mean, keep bringing us new faces Sey, but its funny how shrinking opens so many more doors than growing big, at least in writing flexibility!

MIO THE HAPPY MASK SALESMAN

I used his real name probably more than most people would, but I have a very good excuse: writing Happy Mask Salesman or even Mask Salesman as often as he's mentioned would have been quite clunky! Mio was quick and made the Pre-Fite an easier read since he was one of its main characters, so even if its a name some people are still getting used to, boy howdy was it useful to have! I sometimes feel weird with how many game girls Brawl with their video game console names since it can sound awkward writing them out. Anyway, as we saw, Mio's masks were a big component, and picking who the masks were of was a big deal! Vigil was a power set that flexible but not overpowered, benefitting whoever got it, and is the reason why Mio kills her specifically and why we probably didn't get her being the last cowboy standing. Emperor's been explained, he was going out first but had powers that felt like they could be transferred, so Mio hung around him a bit despite it not truly being an alliance. Making too many masks would probably have been awkward and it was good not to lose sight on the ones he brought with him. I did break a few masks, I do feel bad taking them out of Mio's selection, but I also feel like it helped him move onto others or varied up his choices some. Like Bojack was always his strength one, and Dr. Coomer got his grand moment in the finale to bring its joke home.  Some were just lost and could be recovered, I definitely did not want to get rid of Benedictine and had to make sure he got good use of it too, but after Doug used it I felt it too big a power to be laying around, hence why it got blown out of reach by the backdraft of the super jiggy beam. I do admit Problem Sleuth's mask didn't get much use, it was mostly given to Till so all the Haunts got one, but it was why we got a candy corn maze at all since I noted that potential crossover. I enjoyed trying to write his cryptic dialogue, and made sure to throw in his famous line, but it's fun having a character who clearly has a plan eventually reveal it after feeling no need to do more than hint at something greater before then. Which instruments he used was always something I waffled on. I knew I wanted the organ in there but wanted ot mix it up, and doing the organ in Pre-Fite felt too flashy so I at least got ones like a piccolo and concertina in there. He also got to be sneak with his teleporting so Camilla didn't notice him! Stone Mask was certainly a godsend though for making it more believable he could get a second with Marisa. I did wonder how lucid someone had to be for the song to work, always made sure they were somewhat and only after died. 

PROSCIUTTO AND PESCI 

I did worry at first I made Pesci too nervous, but he was competent in the Brawl, even if I felt I couldn't have him hooking organs left and right. My solution to kind of let him get away with it was people grabbing the line so that when they got pulled, it would take them with it instead of removing something super vital that would basically kill them. However, it was the perfect power for killing Sasori, and his ability to see vitals was good for skipping anyone needing to figure out Naruto powers on the fly. I do wish I had done more with the line being damaged hurting whoever it had hooked. I imagine if Pesci was more isolated or there wasn't a big La Squadra alliance we might have got a bigger focus on a single attempt to reel in someone or pick them apart. Prosciutto's aging power is one of those ones I don't want to too easily invalidate so it was applied carefully. If people just immediately reversed it all the time that's no fun, but Prosciutto also worked well as one of the rougher members of the squad and someone who could keep using the guns deep into the Brawl so even if people were out of gas range it wasn't an issue.  I figure too most people knew to be wary of him so La Squadra was kept at arm's/mist's length, although I think beyond more jokey applicatons like Ademilfa we still got to see a good bit of it. I didn't mention the Stand's presence too much and in general kept that a little to a minimum this Brawl, but Grateful Dead especially is a weird looking fella who doesn't play as active a roll in spreading the power as say Little Feet. I think it was just more we have a few members where the Stand isn't really visible much and a few where it is but you kinda know it's near to the user anyway. I certainly know how to spell Prosciutto after the Brawl now! Ghiaccio lasting as long as he did also made misting it up easier, since Ghiaccio could just keep his allies safe from aging without me having to stretch to make it work too much. 

ANGUIRUS 

 Anguirus had a kind of funny problem. He couldn't fite Doug because they're on good terms. He couldn't fite Delilah or Shashake who had strong tools because that would be Fite Yer' Self. Doug's alliance also meant people like the elementals wouldn't fite Anguirus. So, a lot of the natural sources for keeping a kaiju at bay were not on the table! I did make some decent use of him being cool with Doug but not tight, so to speak, helping spread the power some so the elemental alliance wasn't the absolute priority of people. I did want to do things like mentioned earlier where Anguirus almost accidentally kills Susamaru to sell his difference in size and power, destroying the discotheque fully was kind of that and I worried at points he might wreck the place too much if I let him go near the forest or whatever! I am glad he doesn't have that sometimes beam attack here, him being purely physical made it easier to justify people having a closer fite against him, but I also had him shrug off things like having part of his eye sniped because it is simply so big that it wouldn't be enough to really slow him down! Anguirus used to be my favorite Godzilla kaiju although I think Mothra's replaced him of late. One reason he got a messed up leg was to slow him down a bit to again keep him from being too massive of a consistent danger. It does sound like I'm handicapping him a fair bit, but I think of it more like, if he wasn't taking such blows, he'd be getting into trouble sooner and dying sooner. I did feel bad a bit his tank was used up early and never resurfaced. I did consider having it be scavenged by someone, might have been good for the tinkerers if it wasn't near the tower at the times it would have helped someone like Sandia. He didn't exactly need it, and the arena could have given him more scrap to swing around if I felt the urge, so it was more the magic tank felt lke a Chekhov's Gun that I just never found a use for.

SNOW AND RAIN

Rain getting her big watery dress was something I almost had Gooper do an image for, but I also didn't want it to be a like, godbeast level transformation. Part of it was just me realizing the fountain could only have so much water, but also I felt it a bit more interesting if it had limitations and could be reasonably depleted. Her temperament probably effected it too, which is why while her water helped get some KOs, her true kills were on Columnimbus and his Face to avenge Snow and because explosions were obnoxious enough to make her unable to justify holding back. Of course, it's the kind of thing that didn't impact her much before the KO moments, she is less hesitant to fite than someone like Leo and being in an alliance meant she could keep getting in hits without it seeming too aggressive. Having so many healers in the Lelementals group was something I could have taken more advantage of, although I did like I could wreck Doug a little and still have a healer even this late into the fite. Snow I kind of played opposite to Rain, one of the more fearsome elementals, although it is a bit like every duo had one. Tornado, Cinder, and Snow were the more serious fiters to their lighter companions. I think Snow went down earlier simply because it felt like Columnimbus blowing up ice was an appropriate KO fit, while Vortexer killing Rain was more a moment for the little robot than something tied too much to Rain. I did like having those sort of instant blasts on elementals though, reducing Sunny and Rain instantly to their cores having a visual component I liked to it. At the same time, I made sure it wasn't the only thing I did to avoid it feeling like the only way to take them out!  

RISOTTO NERO

Risotto Nero was lke the perfect mix of a really strong power and his role as leader. With him alive, anywhere La Squadra went was going to be intimidating no matter who else was around. Magnetism is an incredible power as Magneto shows, and while it's not exactly the same, I did want to treat it as a proper threat. I was a bit hesitant to copy some of the stuff he does in JoJo. Like, someone throwing up razor blades in RP would be really rough if it's not an outright villainous character and it might be much for whoever earned that character. One reason we got blood into metal blades on Doug was because he was big enough he could take it, and even then it wasn't in his head or anything. I did elect to not really mention the weird look of the Stand to keep things simpler, but I remember thinking he'd never have room to do his weird disappearing trick until suddenly I was like "yeah, let's throw it in here". It was easier to explain than I expected when I'm pretty sure it's like, actually impossible if you don't use JoJo logic! Picking whether to call him Risotto or Nero was something I waffled on at times, but him being the stern leader did a lot to make La Squadra the powerful force they should feel like. He was more level-headed than Prosciutto deliberately to show that leadership quality. I'm glad he and the other two relatively new ones did so well so that they could show off despte barely debuting pre-Brawl. Funnily enough, Nero having to watch his group's back could have made him less effective than someone who used their magnetic powers freely. Naturally though, once Sasori was confirmed, he was perfect for a clash with the iron sand, helping keep that power from being far more effective. 

TATAMI 

Phew! Glad she didn't win! I mean, I'd appreciate the show of support that it meant for her, but I do think Tatami's arc is important and as much as I was ready to ponder how to take things in a different direction if she did get first, I think 29th is a pretty solid spot! It shows she's doing very well but doesnt' dampen her spirits. Not sure where I'd place her if I had my way, maybe a bit lower, like the exact middle or something, but I think I could have handled even a really high spot because at least it would show she's not all the way there yet. Maybe have her credit the Echolux allies more if she went that far. Placing below Matoimaru was probably the most important part. As for how the Snapping Turtle fought herself, one reason she fought Amaretti was because they would both by physical fiters mostly and we could zoom in more on precise maneuvers. More than most my fiters I feel like Tatami's scrunch technques can be a bit wordy, which works well in giving actual RP battles some more substance since she has to be clever and can learn from all that. But even laying out the logistics of a scrunch tumble can feel a little like it might be hard to explain. Very happy "scrunch" caught on as a way to describe it to cover some conceptual legwork. I gave her the metal needles to help build on some of her then-recent new strategies, I like to have Tatami show that she's building on her base and saving Roberta and some Shoebill coaching had that be a pretty recent trick. We also got one of Tatami's weaknesses crop up, that being her getting overwhelmed and not knowing how best to respond. I mean, technically the head smash that killed her was just a bit off from failing, but I liked the idea of her being force scrunched as the kill too much so the normally snappy scrunches were sped up. I did anticipate the idea of someone stealing her card, but I also didn't feel like it was necessary. She got to fite full power, but maybe against a tricksy type we could have seen it.

SHASHAKE

 Shashake outlasting Vigil was something I reckoned would be a little hard to justify, but the Jacinthe Tower focus was perfect for pulling her away from Vigil. The mining machine can't climb a tower! Menoetius was a name I learned to type well even if I never need to type it again, although also there were times I just didn't type it and used a different phrase as if it was somehow exacting a toll on me to write it. There's just so many close together voewels in there! Malin taking over Menoetius was an early plan and meant to be her big moment of sorts so it had to be the pair of her and Nue to take out Shashake to get it. I looked up how Meneotius is piloted in FF14 and was surprised to see characters riding it like a bike! Shashake is so small next to it in the picture, so I figured maybe it wasn't a player bike first but they made a smaller version? Shashake isn't that tiny it should make up for that discrepancy! There are numbers in the entry so I wasn't really off about the full scope of the machine, more how it is meant to be handled. The bike riding did raise some questions about its logistics, like, what is the cockpit like? How covered is Shashake in that cockpit? You'll see a lot of broad language at points like when the cockpit is attacked and we don't get precise details on moments like Shashake leaving it to avoid factual inconsistencies. I never felt like I held back in what it actually did for concern of size or how the seat is, I still got to do moments like tearing up people with the drills, and I tried to treat the mining lasers as appropriately deadly, which is why they often hit people like the elementals who could both heal it off better and had the gel bodies that didn't have vitals that would be easily obliterated. I did a lot of cute prodding at the idea of Shashake x Vigil but didn't go too far in case it was just a bit of a thing for New Deadwood plot but not after, but you can bet your patootie if one of them really placed near the top we would have seen more!

IGNAMAR 

In my notes I had a point where Ignamar was just supposed to lose it and go full Hate Elemental... but like, it didn't feel right, man! That is where he kills Felicity since that was meant to be part of it, but he had good allies who he helped fairly well so why would he have such a moment? It's not like we had someone to really prod at it. I did figure for his possession trick Amaretti was a good fit since she's a normal enough fiter who didn't have huge tools at first, but I didn't let Ignamar be defined by just being a buff. The giant fox form was another thing I almost had Gooper draw, but since it was more a form shift here instead of a freak out, it might be for the best I decided against it. I think my worry he might spend too much time buffing instead of participating lead to the greater focus on him fiting as the Brawl went on and that helped him feel effective without needing to go godbeast. He was a natural fit for the library alliance because he spent time there, and Amaretti was kind of pulled into that alliance almost solely because Ignamar possessing her felt appropriate for giving her a boost on the way towards second place. His desire not to be a villainous asshole was respected! I did sometimes wonder how much I should let him split into motes but still maintain enough of a form for fiting. I didn't spread him too far across the battlefield for that reason, but also I don't know what I could have done that would have felt appropriate. Maybe spy, but adding to a fite as a little fireball would probably feel a little unnecessary unless it somehow became a recurring bit or set up something else. It is nice to have the option to let a guy like Ignamar go crazy and lose it, but sometimes it's also nice to show that yeah, Ignamar's improved and was able to handle himself intelligently in the fite! 

NUE AND MALIN 

Once they really got going, these two were really fun to write! I think it's just that sort of mischief they feel suited for. Not evil, not nice, just a pair of gals doing their own thing. It's why the pick-up truck felt perfect for them, and jacking Menoetius too. I did wonder how thorough I had to be on killing Malin because of her ability to live as a wire, I remember thinking of her get broken apart more when she took over Clee-0 but it felt like it was too soon. I did want to make sure she did a bit with her body attacks before she was full hijack only, although I mentioned already how I almost gave her hand drills in Pre-Fite. I think the reason she didn't end up feeling limited though was she did basically one fite with her human form skills, then shifted a lot to vehicle stuff. Nue I wanted to do more creative stuff with her unidentified power, not say what I did wasn't but I feel like it's a bit like Binah's Mandela Effect where I could probably keep whipping out uses for it if allowed to. There were times in the middle of a fite it didn't feel like it could contribute too much though, and while there was the note your mind fills in the blanks, I usually tried to keep it still a bit sketchy on what people thought they were looking at rather than it being a full mental replacement. Having an ally for a hijacker entrant was a pretty good idea, it let Nue keep defending Malin as she swaps around. I didn't look up any of Nue's danmaku spreads or stuff like that, tried to focus more on what makes her RP incarnation more unique like having her kill with the metal wings. I don't think I drew that kill particularly well though... They felt like two gals just having a good time, and while I don't know who they could team up with if they didn't enter specifically with the idea of going it as just a duo, I am glad they did because it felt like it made their run fun without holding them back! It being a double KO was more a product of using Menoetius to flatten Nue and then realizing there wasn't much hope for Malin from there. I did originally have it noted that Nao and Mimi would be more responsible rather than having Mochi kind of be the clincher, but she also was good for Malin to face and could more believably wipe out every wire than Mimi.

TOM TURBINE

 Yay, he did well! In my memories, he did even better than 25th. Like I thought we were nearing the top ten when he died as I remembered it, but I think also it might relate to the shift in the Brawl at the time towards the forest and such. I didn't have him do many projectile attacks, I kinda didn't want to pigeonhole him but almost did the opposite as he focused a lot more on brawling, but that is pretty fitting for a golden age hero I'd say! His exact death was a bit of a last minute idea. I hadn't thought of a good use for that battery, closest thing was something related to the barrel plane, but rather than letting it just go unused, I figured El could mess with it. Having her actually take the belt was something I was nervous about even with in-line justifications, but I also let rule of cool shine and it really helped El hold it out longer near the end so no regrets. While his engineer side mostly came from flying the barrel plane, I don't feel he was wasted one bit. He was kind of the heart of some of the groups he was in, not so much emotionally but the pillar of strength and order that helped Bluster and Kronk and all stick it out as far as they did. Without him they got a lot more loosey goosey and lost members more quickly. Writing that old style idealistic superhero was the fun part of using him, and the powers were just gravy! I'm glad I thought of that Pre-Fite bit with Simon early, I think it really set him down a good path for his use in the Brawl and allying up with characters like Starman that suited him well. I can very much see after all this time him entering and just kinda fiting and exiting early, so that he got to be a presence and even go this far was more than I dared to dream! Thank you Chao, the wishlist oldies like him and MLG Toon Link were surprsingly good this year compared to some years where they might flop!

GINEVRA

 So, let's start with how I picked her stocks! Well, it's obvious why she picked Queen Bee and Ankha I imagine. They were in her alliance, and Queen Bee was the most capable attack wise with her throne while Ginevra respected Ankha's business mind the most. She looked down on other entrants though, like Dorothea and Plume for not being well equipped or Sandia for being too casual in business. The alliance size was actually sort of tied to the idea of her making it believable she could bet on all the other entrants (even though like, she'd have to skip team members or assistants if you thought about it). As for Mawile, Matoimaru, and Anguirus, her secret bets, it was entirely unrelated to the placements they'd get. It was fully based on what looked like safe bets. Mawile for getting the most votes, Matoimaru for being the Echolux Champion, and Anguirus because he was the biggest kaiju around. Ginevra was playing it safe and betting on obvious power, and she felt the sting of it sometimes. I did consider her reinvesting, and it is likely she did, but I didn't draw attention to it. I liked thinning down her options for useful magic and emphasizing the impact of the crashes, especially since Ginevra was a hugely important part of bigging up Dorothea! Dorothea's championship spot was based on taking bets and risks, not ones made without thought, but ones Dorothea had a good hunch were right or would pay off despite their appearance. She was willing to go with something that wasn't a sure thing often because she had faith in it, so Ginevra was positioned as the opposite, a smart businesslady who tried to play it too safe and wouldn't take the gambles needed to really succeed. I did pick which stocks to give to which characters based on how well they would do though. I must have deleted it already but I had a sticky note for who she assigned what to but HOUD, the illusions, felt like it was a good one to remove from her kit early without her being too weak so Ankha was the bet for that. Anguirus being BLIS, her ice magic, was to throw off people looking to use the stock investments to try and guess how well entrants would do, but I'm glad I stuck to MORA predictive stuff sticking around so she could be a bit more interesting in her fiting style than just using golems and nature magic once her earlier stocks crashed. I might have done the stocks differently if she had gone farther, can't really say, but I figure reinvestment could have also allowed her to have more rises and falls. Didn't want her judgment to look too bad, Dorothea played things right but Ginevra's approach was still smart enough to get her near the top twenty. I was almost a little meaner to her in the epilogue, but didn't want to lay it on too thick, either because it would feel odd for Dorothea or mean to Ginevra. There was some suspicion based on Pre-Fite that Ginevra would betray people, but I mostly wanted people watching her to pick up on her contrast with Dorothea; she didn't seem so cutthroat she'd sabotage an ally, but she's conveniently let them believe what she wanted to get ahead though!

STARMAN 

If not for the late game remembering Gooper had that Hop Star should be treated as alive, things might have gone a bit different for the old Air Ride vehicle! I didn't want it to be too important which is why it was destroyed quickly in the final fite, but it helped some entrants before its exit. Starman's own powers being about movement with the Hi-Jump did mean it felt a little akward that he was also riding on a vehicle, but admittedly, it also gave him more attacks! Doing things like the Air Ride twirl to hurt people like he did on Yzma gave him more to do than super jumps all over. His superhero bravado was good for giving him more to latch onto, like being Tom Turbine's little buddy. I do reckon Starman can probably eat, despite the jokes I made about it. He probably picks up food in Kirby Air Riders but I haven't played it so I can't absoluetly confirm if he just absorbs it or pulls it to his face or what, but he also doesn't have a clear mouth, so would he be more or less at risk of Yzma's potions? I figured the joke absolved me of some of that at least, and let him do a little more since he could be a force against her rather than turned into like, a starfish or something silly.  I did want to have his kill be his Hi-Jump power though. Way back when I played Kirby's Return to Dreamland co-op with a younger CKR, we had a running joke about the SUUUUUPER JUMP so it had a soft spot in my heart. Being part of a group also made it easier for him to just like, ram into people briefly to keep him busy as he rose up the ranks. Naturally, Octan had to kill him, because Octan makes little stars with their net, and Starman's a little star! It wasn't unintentional in my original plan, but Octan was trying to hurt him, just not smash him against a tree so hard he dies necessarily. A way to kill the friendly little guy without having it be too much of a bummer!

LEO 

Was pretty quick to pick Leo's bath house for a Pre-Fite segment, and ran into the odd issue of me wondering how the place was designed. Like, it's not a dead ringer for Turtle House in Chulip I reckon, and I reread the visit with Rumia and Nue to try and get a good sense for it, but I worried I might be making it too much of a generic anime hot spring or something like that! Again, vague language can help when you're unsure, there are points in the Pre-Fite where you read people are in water but it's not too specific about the area around them. I enjoyed writing Onion Lady but didn't want to overdo her since she was a fairly new character and I don't know her personality too deeply. Like, henpecking Leo was obvious, but I didn't want to make her too mean or whatever. Leo himself, I did worry I made him a little too passive or constantly nervous. His weaknesses said he should be like that but also, I didn't want to overdo it and have him not be much of a fiter! He kind of committed when he got a push like when he helped take out Prosciutto for example, and he recognized the need to defend himself or act at parts. Having Donkey Kong as an ally was good for a supportive sort while Mawile could nudge him into action. I really didn't think I would get use out of the standard bubble bath or Sakura mixture until I realized I almost had the Fite Yer' Self against Tileman in the briefest of ways. I did try to avoid using the Yamazumi pebbles too often because they're a bit more obviously aggressive, but I didn't want him to always be avoiding action either like a coward. Had to have him have his moments where he was clearly trying and having allies to support can motivate a reticent character like Leo I find. I opted for full destruction in his KO instead of something with the heart just to be thorough, but I did reference the heart at least with Pesci just for a little bit of that organ grabbing that could keep Pesci from being accused of not trying it enough. Worst of all... I think I typoed his Graaah at one point... please forgive me Sheep...

VERONICA

 The bunny hops were the big consideration for this entry! I figured early on I might do it to Anguirus since he could survive one and do tons of damage as his body was thrown, but it didn't end up happening. As seen we get Ruukoto because she could survive it, and Delilah was kind of picked for the one that failed for a similar reason. It wasn't too obvious it wouldn't activate since Alexander's form could bounce back, but it would also take a while to activate, giving us room for her showdown with Amaretti. It was partly a way to show Amaretti was improving and a way to give Veronica, Cornwind's last "serious" entrant, a good choice in eliminating her since Amaretti would get second place. I focused a lot on her jumping since it was something thematic and different from other entries. With her swords, I kind of kept asking myself why she wouldn't do the lightsaber mode save for perhaps a little personal safety at times, but we did get a clear optimal use for the electric stun once at least. When the blades were briefly given to Amaretti, I kind of realized she didn't need the much and they'd get in the lightning katana's way later, so they kind of got damaged and disappeared without much comment. It didn't feel like she really fit into any alliance, maybe Patty a little but at that point it's just giving into the habit of Cornwind's characters often working together. Had to avoid just joining up Claude with Cornwind characters habit too this year since it wasn't as easy to justify! Not a problem really, it did mean Veronica was good for keeping certain entrants busy when it wasn't their time to take the stage. She was strong and capable enough to hold them at bay. I did wonder if leaving one Bunny Hop unused so long might make people suspicious, but considering all the other characters I talk about never using one of their big tricks or whatever, who knows how it will swing!

THE HALLOWED HAUNTS 

I came up with their Pre-Fite importance before voting, so one reason I voted for them was to make sure they made a splash! I guess you could say I like their powers then which isn't that weird a motivaton, but I liked Ginevra and other Roserade entries too but prioritized the Haunts to get the most out of them! I think you can see Octan was a bit of a project, they were reticent to be a killer but not quite a pacifist, a prankster but not as much of one without a group. We got to see them bond with other entries and still participate in fites well, and they definitely got to be the one to last because they had that emotional core to follow compared to the sillier pair they entered with. Till's art kind of gave me a somewhat more reserved impression than Belvina so I had Belvina be the really energetic and playful one, Till sort of a tagalong who did get enthusiastic but a little more subdued when left to their own devices. Belvina getting Cole's mask felt like a nice fit so I never had to justify giving Mio a blade to see it, although I was a bit reticent to have any of their special tools work after their death. Tapu Lele got the umbrella but never used any of its special powers for example. Belvina was a bit simpler than the other two to she went down first, Till having all sorts of candy attacks I could invent, but I also wanted to make sure to use some of the examples ones since people no doubt have fun cooking up the examples and want to see them in action! Octan's arena-appropriate power being tied to a less violent character was a good call, it kept them in check a bit rather than a threat needing addressed, although I did want to have them face Delilah and others with light attacks specifically to make really big slow traveling stars as a show of how powerful they could be. Their focus on pranking made it pretty good for them to slip in and out of things as needed. Till, despite the entry saying they're ageless spirits, did kind of feel like a kid to me still, I worried Felicity taking him might seem a little mean because of it, but at the same time I tried to make it more of a spooky turnabout to soften it.  Octan's killer being the out of control Bluster Rool feels fairly obvious, I wrote them to be very sympathetic and someone else doing them in could be a bit mean. I'm glad DK's Bananza characterization has him be gentler with those who are a bit nervous and lonely, it felt a good way to keep Octan in the game after Till's death but also gave Octan a bunch of new pals for a bit that would motivate them. Definitely had to space out the kills for this group, I am very glad I had the room to do so and do a lot with Octan's character!

DELILAH 

 I feel like Delilah was kind of the biggest threat this Brawl, and I constantly treated her as such! Mainly, it was the mix of her incredible intelligence with incredible power, and while it's not full power Alexander, it still was her primal incarnation so it's nothing to sneeze at! I did go back and forth on calling her Delilah and Alexander in hopefully a less than confusing way, but whenever she had the little avatars out they were always Delilahs. I didn't end up using her spell list too much, I basically relegated it to those avatars but didn't want to lose focus on all the tricks Alexander already had. We did miss a few of the listed options, mainly ones she would have no reason to do like Tempering since she got allies the friendly and clever way instead and while making a branch library would be cool, I couldn't see the in-character value for it. If she had squishier allies, or Constance didn't have Chloe to help protect her from lights, things like that might have motivated making one, but it felt like draining a lot of power for little return since fiters like Destiny really wanted to move all about rather than hunker down indoors. Vortexer, I looked up the battle with it from FF14 mostly to understand Ultra Flash. I thought the instant kill nature of it was the kind of thing you usually see me avert and it even did happen once where it was shut down, but having it actually go off and do its thing is fun too! Vortexer was beat up a fair bit to try and keep Delilah's power in check, her assistant not able to be too overwhelming as well because of its lingering damage. I'm glad she made it this far, it feels like a good balance of asserting her might but also she's a clear threat that would probably be prioritized when you reach these ranks. Doug basically having to get a mega Benedictine power-up to take her out was also a big part of trying to make sure I did not undersell her! I am sad my arena choice didn't mean Macka could attend, but she might get a chance next year while Delilah making her stand here was definitely a big deal, so much so I often had to ask myself who is logically keeping Delilah and her allies from tearing it up too much! I feel like they clashed a bit often with the Lelementals for the reason that they're just the two groups who could even hold each other at bay effectively at length. Every Delilah encounter almost felt like a miniature boss fight. Also, good thing she entered in Argo, if Delilah had entered in Whalestrand maybe I would have been badgered into entering Miyoi after all :V

THUNDER AND TORNADO 

I'm so proud Tornado went so far! Even if I'm partly responsible for it since I had her be the last elemental to fall! I knew Thunder was probably the people's favorite though, they basically both got to hold on almost as long as they could. I think originally I had somehow figured Elephant Bananza DK could beat Tornado or something cartoony like that, but I did think exploiting one of the elementals more explicitly listed weaknesses was a good way to take her out (rather than a light net or something!). Thunder, I had put down Ghiaccio down as killing her because I think the gel made me think he would be a good fit for shattering her, only for quick research to say ice is a BETTER conductor than water for electricity! That's why we got the explanations we did, but also him having help was to smooth over the situation to help take down Thunder when she was caught off guard by her gel freezing. She doesn't have cold resistance after all, and at cold enough temperatures energy does eventually stop, and he goes down pretty low! I definitely wanted to get in her superheated blow torch sort of power as well as her moving along surfaces since those sounded fun, and for Tornado I wanted to make some good use of her wind powers sometimes being invinicible. Her and Rain were good for keeping Columnimbus somewhat at bay. I reckon their high power level is why nearer the end they didn't make too many new allies save Essy, Thunder could have easily fallen in with the likes of Turtle Bazooka otherwise I reckon. I am very glad these two plus Snow and Rain made up somewhat for Cinder and Sunny going out earlier, they're my girls! Their powers are pretty easy to write, especially these two comparatively since wind and electricity don't need much shaping. We did sort of see the elementals in general struggle with teamwork which helped contrast with La Squadra's more well-oiled cooperation. More inexperience than something like incompetence, but when they'd see a member fall because they couldn't focus on keeping together, that was sort of to show that they've got the love holding them together well, but not as much time actually working as a fiting team. A way to help explain early drop-outs like Cinder more easily too.

BLUSTER KONG

Bluster Kong did place somewhat high, but for some reason I didn't feel like it was quite enough for Bluster the Benevolent. I think it's mostly because he still had his sour attitude going in, like he was improving but we still had to get through one more hurdle. I've explained it elsewhere as being Bluster realizing he was a bad guy all this time and having to grapple with that finally rather than just getting to go straight to being a nice friendly guy. Like he appreciate his allies and friends here, but in doing so he realized he was the guy who came up short or didn't do what was right, and that hurt him emotionally enough to shift him towards Bluster Rool form but not grant him the time to fully learn the lesson and overcome it. He did realize it in his last moments when he got stabbed, but we were also kind of at the point then where if he had shifted his number was up soon and it would be a bit of a lame shift to heroism only to get killed for it. I did almost have Goops draw Bluster Rool, it was the bonus image he didn't get time for, but I copied the King K. Rool Smash trailer slash on King Dedede pose and realized that showed Bluster Rool off well enough that I didn't need the art. I'm actually impressed I managed to squeeze in all the forms Spy concocted for Bluster Kong! I think if I had done Bluster Rool to benevolent we wouldn't have had the space. I am even more impressed I could do some properly and improperly so we got even more of Spy's ideas in the entry! Some were duds like Kong Fu Tiger, but I knew Barrelworks Beaver would be fun and I honestly could have done even more with it if I had the time. It looks like he might be going into the sunset after this Brawl and I'm a little bummed I didn't get to send him off in glory, I knew that might happen thought considering I can't expect Spy to keep entering him every year! At least it wasn't fully negative, like he had learned his lesson as he died, and I tried to have his friendships feel real for the ones that lasted a bit this Brawl. Not exactly super close, but he was palling around with characters who were generally good and friendly, and Kronk especially was there to give him some unconditional support that he really needed. But also this is a death tournament so a good guy like Kronk can get killed any moment! Keeping Kronk around really paid off with Bluster's arc so I'm glad I chose this specific Mystery Fiter at least for that reason. If this is the end, he had a lot of fun powers and did well, although I am surprised how few of the forms ended up drawn. I figured there would be more images requiring it, but sometimes for expediency's sake I do only show the victim rather than the one getting killed, and I was happy with my Bluster Rool art at least!

KIWII

Spell-crafting was an interesting concept, and a perfect fit for countering Baku's YEET when there wasn't many other obvious ideas in the Brawl. I did try to keep the creative mage side of things her focus, rarely using the same magic twice and not leaning on similar elements too often. Her entry said she was deliberately avoiding food magic so none of that, although it also mentions she would use a bunch of kitchen knives as an attack so we got that. I did emphasize cactus magic more than other magic types and try to concoct some variation within that field since it also received special mention. Her and PS3 were always destined to ally up but since we also got Bluster in there she ended up being fairly active even after the obvious alliance was up. Since spell mastery was kind of her whole deal, that's why she outdid Ginevra, kind of nailing in the lesson on Ginevra playing it too safe with her magic bets and all that but also Kiwii just flexing that she knows all sorts of spells! Then again, we saw this work against her too, where she thinks so much about the magic that she couldn't interpret what Dorothea was going for, thinking surely her opponent would endanger themselves without a really good trick up their sleeve! Her kind of leading Ghiaccio and Turtle Bazooka into killing Thunder was her teacher side showing too. Writing her rhymes was a bit of fun, it actually made her talk more than I expect she'd do so otherwise. One of those things where if a character is known for it, you got to find reasons to throw it in! I tried not to go too out there with the spells she used even if she is a spell crafter, at some point it stops being magic and becomes reality bending, so we often got roots in elements or existing spells or whatever. 

GHIACCIO AND MELONE 

Melone died waaaaaay earlier than Ghiaccio which is one of those things where I don't know how people feel on it. Like, even not as a character specific thing, but does it feel reasonable to do that? It makes sense but also means the characters spend less time working together? At least with these two they're not connected at the hip bosom buddies or something. I do regret that apparently in the pre-fite it sounds like I made them not get along and Sey seemed a bit bothered by that, although it was kind of there to show that they wouldn't be working together too long in the fite itself. Melone dying when he did was because it felt like Sasori deserved a kill and we got that moment where Melone go to go ham with the 100 juniors to counter the 100 puppets. Weaving Sasori's tail through Melone did seem brutal to me and even in chat some people seemed to acknowledge it, but Sasori is a bad guy! I should have probably softened the wording or something I admit. I did feel bad that the exit would be so early, it would probably just happen whenever Sasori was going down, but letting the Juniors go nuts with a bunch of DNA this time even if it was only for a brief shining moment was hopefully to make up for fewer Juniors in the past. I could see them being quite a piece of the La Squadra run if I had kept Melone alive instead, but as mentioned, it felt like him facing off with Sasori was the right call and having Ghiaccio die instead would either feel weird or require some justification like he saved Melone or something. I am glad to give Ghiaccio a much farther run than last time though and while he was still ornery and such, he fought very well. I did wonder about the ice armor breaking, Essy was put up against him because I figured her crystals were tougher, but looking at some JoJo panels and saw a superpowered punch cause it to crack at least and I figure Kobbers can at least muster that level of power if they're already a strong hitter. I did try to focus more on the Juniors than things like the laptop cube trick so we got as much time as we could with them before Melone's exit

NAO AND MIMI 

When writing Nao in RP I'll often pull up a collection of judo moves if I feel like varying her up from throwing big things around, but I didn't here! Her alliances and all meant I didn't feel like she was probably going to do as many special maneuvers and instead be the strong girl throwing things around. At the same time, since that power is purely for throws, there were times I felt limited in how she could contribute in a fite, there weren't always good things to hurl around like there can be on RP plots! I'm proud of my girls for getting this far though. My kill notes literally say "Plume kills Nao? KO" so I wasn't sure I wanted her to exit when she did, but I wanted Plume to get another KO before her exit and taking Nao down with her made a good bit of sense. I did feel that fite was a little awkward though because Nao's options are limited, but Mimi would really turn the tables if she got to focus too much on Plume. Mimi also felt like she had some limits, her various forms of fire not that flexible really and again I think that's why I like writing in regular RP a lot more for my characters because attacks are less about quick action and more about character thoughts. Her being basically unhackable is more something for the upcoming plot than a way to give her an advantage here. Looping back to Malin and Nue actually, if not for New Deadwood and their alliance thoughts, Nao and Mimi would have been a natural fit since they were there for all the space cops stuff last year! Instead they help kill them.

FELICITY AND ESSY 

Feels a bit like I'm reaching the point where characters had a lot of their stuff talked about in other entries! I mentioned my thoughts on poisoning Essy elsewhere, on why she killed Ghiaccio, why Felicity killed Till... I guess why Felicity died befre Essy is new info. I think it was just because Ignamar killing a ghost made a good bit of sense, gets around questions about harming a spirit and all that. I did start to emphasize Essy was getting more and more covered with crystals as the fite went on, to the point it even impeded movement at times, but I don't know how far it actually caps out at. Like, does she become a crystal monster of sort, or will she eventually be so crystalized it does her in? I wouldn't have hit the limit either way I reckon, becuase DK was slated as the perfect guy to kill her! Smashing crystal like he does in Bananza was a great way to break through her growing armor. I did like considering the area reshaping consequences of that power where she makes some crystals burst out, although I did sometimes feel the limits near the end of how most her powers are either standard crystal attacks or ones that are so special like Diamond Dust it would feel weird to repeatedly use them too quickly. I feel like I could have played around with Felicity's candles more, her being able to hurt Ignamar was because her fire hurts souls directly and he in turn to her so they didn't cancel out each other's fire powers. I'm glad we got them win the Echolux alliance, Essy was sort of a stalwart member while I played Felicity more playfully. 

DOUG 

The big lizard was a pretty good focal point for the Lelementals! He was unofficially leading charges and stuff, and he could take a hit and have it get healed! I actually found him shrinking down to be easier to justify than I expected, although it was appropriately situational. Too much heat on him and any allies? Small Doug was less intimidating and allowed focus to shift! I did wonder if I was overdoing it with Jiggy Beams at times. I almost had an image of Doug with the Benedictine mask made by Gooper, I wasn't sure how goofy or epic I wanted it to be though. Like, wearing the mask was inherently goofy, but I didn't want the image to lean it too far in either side, even if there was some intentional dopiness the beam itself was something I wish I could have drawn even cooler! Doug was easier to slot around than Anguirus since he isn't quite as stuck in being the big guy, although it was easy sometimes to forget how big exactly Titan Doug is. Him sniffing out the mask was one of those moments where you're suddenly like "OH YEAH, HERE'S A WAY TO USE THAT GOOD SNIFFER TRAIT" even though it wasn't for meat or whatever. I did have to push past my Tapu Lele style affecton for the guy to rough him up a bit, especially since he had the mass to take it and then keep going. Being a digger was also good for gettng him a bit away from his allies briefly. A lot of people had weakness to water in their entry but I figured they'd avoid the fountain well enough, and even if he was allied with the likes of Snow, she wouldn't be so careless as to freeze him or whatever. I did feel a touch bad this his death was while he was doing the right thing and Turtle Bazooka took advantage of it. Like, it was her villainous side pushing her to be exploitative, but it doing in the good boy Doug still feels mean! He was pretty important in actually taking out Whisktaker though so he's a hero all the same. I did worry that denying Hamburger Hurter from turning him into a hamburger homunculus might disappoint some people, but also I didn't want to rub it in either and it felt time for the glove to exit anyway.  

HAMBURGER HURTER 

I was really worried when I saw the Hurter getting more votes near the end and this is a pretty high placement, but I pondered what he should do and things were gradually coming into place. At first it was just the idea that anything that entered him would turn to meat while his insides were mostly pasta, so he could bulk up by incoporating more meat into him. Eventually though, especially since I had that idea of going over a head for a KO that ended up getting used on Devil Magician, I started to concoct the idea of the Hamburger Homunculus. I didn't want to overuse it or make him an obvious target too soon, and we only got little hints of it before its grand debut. I do think maybe I should have had more time with the form before it got its Whisktaker upgrade to make the two pieces of art more worthwhile. I imagine seeing DK shift into a hamburger being was effective though for those who might think it's permanent, but Pauline had her power to sing him back to normal so that's why he got it first. I was unsure about animating dead meat at first, except like, hamburger itself is dead meat by its very nature!  imagine living meat is more useful for the Hurter though, whose name feels weird to shorten in most any form. Before his bigger moments though I did like him just being this sort of feral creature, hence why we got the sort of spider skittering and him ignoring how knuckles are meant to work. I also gave him that sort of self-sealing power so people could get in their hits and have it count, but he could later recover with more material so that damage could stick and make fites interesting but he could still get to the top. The big Whisktaker form was also not always in the cards, like the idea to renaimate the space marines bodies for the big showdown morphed into it when I wanted it to be more than a mushy meat man. Having the big whisks around brought the alliance concept home! I did wonder if I should have done more with him. Like, originally Turtle Bazooka killing Doug was unrelated to Whisktaker, and Destiny's abrupt killing of the glove was actually meant to come from her and Matoimaru setting their battle aside to take on the big threat HH now presented. The idea was changed before we got to that point though and while it was a big monster form, it also wasn't too crazy big where it was a brawl interrupting issue. I guess I can say it here but CKR had asked if Cooking Mama appeared in RP and would have been part of the Whisktakers too but I told her she had, but as I try to find it now I can't seem to. Maybe it was just a reference or brief picture or maybe my memory is just failing me totally, but that might be why we didn't get the full roster of entries from her. Unlike Swedish Chef, I thought Cooking Mama might have been part of like, an event where she played a bigger role than quick cameos.

NEW DEADWOOD POSSE

While it's come up elsewhere, Johnny making it as far as he did was sort of a product of other things. Vigil needed to go out sooner so she could give her mask, and Knoq'oth could have been fun to have longer, but he did his negotiaton bit with Mawile early specifically becaue I wanted to have it and then he felt a good fit for Pete's uncanny nature. Johnny thus got to go the distance, and it felt appropriate enough since he is the leader of the bunch. I made sure in Pre-Fite he was a big part of the team strategy to show his leadership knack and while he doesn't have any crazy powers, that kinda made him easy to always be helping out but not overwhelmingly so. He is just adding some gunfire to the situation and keeping people on their toes. Giving him Kenny was to keep the Gatlian around but also increase what Johnny could do because even with what I just said, just pistols the whole time was probably going to wear thin. His death being in a classic cover-based gunfite situation though was to give him something that suited him nicely. Dorothea was also a fairly normal person so it was easy enough to justify the shift in battle format. I figured he wouldn't get along with Kenny though but was smart enough not to speak up about it too much, I wouldn't say he didn't like Kenny but some things irked him about the gun, especially when he helped give away their cover. With Vigil it is a question sometimes if you do cheese or bullets because often hitting with the cheese would have been more effective if they had been bullets, didn't want it looking like she was making bad judgment calls on which to use. I think Knoq'oth's extra tools could have seen more use, but his attitude was good for getting Shashake into the group without it being necessarily mean to any one person save the alien wheeler and dealer who wouldn't have any skin off his nose for doing it. Also, it wouldn't be a brawl without wondering about blood color! Although Knoq'oth's death pic gave me trouble enough since the explosion felt like it should cover a lot of him but I kept wavering on how much. Dynamite's blast radius was a puzzling element since I didn't want it too weak, but also Pete was firing dynamite shots which probably had a weaker blast radius. 

DESTINY 

Another character I really wanted to sell the power of, and yet I put her with Delilah who would have been good to fite! At least when I could get them apart Destiny could tackle Anguirus and felt like someone strong enough to take him out. I did have her have moments where she backslid a little, not full conqueror mode but still have some of that temper and desire for control even if not to the level of her mother. It was a good way to send her off on her own sometimes and it wasn't selfish motivations either, she felt like she wasn't taking care of her allies and let those dark thoughts control her for a bit as a result. She felt like a good fit for selling Matoimaru's strength too. Destiny and Matoi felt like they could have a real battle, even if when we did start nearing the KO I felt a bit like they were hard not to leave each other too much of a wreck! Like, it ended up very close quarters and a little brutal! I do like Destiny's little line power where she makes energy burst out of the ground and figured that was good enough to kill Anguirus. Like, she basically cut him neck to tail with a big belly explosion that I didn't get too much detail on because it would be gross, but few things could survive being split like a turkey!  Her teaming with Delilah was an extension of Hannah's close friendship with the librarian. I did have her radiance get damaged so I could knock down her power level some for the later parts of the Brawl, make her a better fit for the groundbound Matoimaru for example who might struggle to catch a full power Destiny. We never really got her running into the Benedictine mask, I reckon it would have depended more on who was using it and how rather than its mere existence. I know blasting away Delilah feels like it maybe should have, but the mask was gone so quickly there. I did wonder if I had Destiny and Matoimaru locked in combat too long was a bit silly, the break away briefly after Doug's death acknowledges it almost, but I think it says good things about them both that it was able to go so long. They're both tough! 

TURTLE BAZOOKA 

I realize Turtle Bazooka's backpack is not necessarily attached to her so she could have yanked it off when Queen Bee plugged the cannon, but it was also meant to be too quick for her to have the time to do so! It was a worry I had when I concocted the kill method though. Also, during Brawl writing time, SK made a post where Turtle Bazooka was doing smaller shots than mentioned anywhere in her entry, but there are moments in the fite where she's generally firing where she might have used these instead of her bigger shots. I was, perhaps unsurprisingly, predisposed to embrace the bazooka part of her, but still wanted to get in moment where she did the laser and missiles and all. Her villainous history followed her around a lot more than I expected it to. It lead to her alliances, even though she was on the side of good with Tom and Starman and all. She wasn't exactly a food themed fiter though so it was more appropriate that if she was in that mix, it was who she ended up with. I did originally have a little more direct Destron references, but that post I mentioned with the smaller shots from Turtle Bazooka also showed her deeper struggles and that she was still a happy gal despite it. So, I was relieved to see my happier writing for her worked. Queen Bee exploitng her villainous past wasn't really meant to be mean but might eventually look that way in retrospect, although Bazooka was getting more flustered than genuinely upset there was my intention. She was kind of a friendly cannon for people to point at problems but also her specific way of firing I think helped her enter smaller battles without it feeling like her power overwhelmed the situation. She was usually firing dead ahead after all, just avoid the ducking turtle! I did think she packed enough punch to take out Doug though, although I made sure to note that beam was particularly hard to pull off unless you had time to really build up the energy by standing still. A bit more of the "Gamera jets" was the only thing I felt came up short at the time, but if she has a lot more firing modes than her entry implied, I'd have loved to know!

MATOIMARU 

Very glad the tractor knew not to bury the Echolux Champ! Although now that we're here, time for a reveal! Originally, DK was slated to kill Matoimaru, and Mawile would have killed Queen Bee! I figured DK had the requisite power to take on Matoimaru, but I wanted Matoimaru to trigger the mega evolution as a show that Mawile needed that boost to be able to handle Matoimaru. DK was supposed to interrupt and shift the fite away from the Mega focus, but like... why? Let Mawile show off her new mega! Matoimaru being a little mean to push Mawile to go a bit farther did make me hesitate, probably again just because I like Mawile a whole bunch, but I didn't want Matoimaru to look bad for picking on the cute Pokemon. I bet I didn't need to make Mawile actually cry for it, but I also figured Matoimaru wasn't really intending to finish her off if Mawile didn't finally Mega Evolve. Early in the Brawl, when Operaton Steal the Heal was happening, Matoimaru and Destiny are fiting and I almost had a Fite Yer' Self where the time stop impacted Matoi too, but realized my error and had the fact Destiny stabbed her make it so she was exempt. JUST to avoid the briefest moment of Draco Fite Yer' Self! I did wonder about her eating someone to recover, I picked Ghiaccio since I figured it would be a kind of uncontroversial choice and one near to her when it felt like she needed to actually get recovered on screen some. She only take a limb is all, so it's not that crazy! While Matoimaru is battle hungry and fierece even here, I tried to play up battle sense and figuring out tactics as why she's such a worthy champion over in Echolux. She's able to tango with Destiny even without projectiles or the ability to summon one hundred spears because she can figure out her opponent's intentions, which helped her easily defeat Susamaru again. I guess it is appropriate that went how it usually goes, Susa hadn't done anything yet to change her approach, but if tractors had been reversed, it would probably focus on Susa finally having that realization, or maybe have the Brawl otherwise encourage her shift in perspective. Near the end I did realize I was breaking a lot of Matoimaru's stuff like her horns and naginata that started to limit her attack options, but she was dying soon anyway! I did worry that I threw her into a few too many inconclusive fites for a while, although one reason she kept coming back to Destiny was to push us towards that eventual desire to close out a battle that had yet to have a victor despite paths crossing so often. Even if she had placed low, I reckon I would have made sure to give her a good powerful sendoff with like maybe 2 KOs before the Susa fite would probably do her in.

QUEEN BEE 

I think writing her so much here made me like Queen Bee more! Just more time to really consider her ins and outs. The Royal Throne I realized was kind of the big hitter of the businessladies alliance, one reason Bluster Rool tears it apart near the end was to help Queen Bee avod being a huge target as other strong foes were being taken out! At the same time, taking it out made me realize she was lacking a little in the power department, especially when I impulsively had her get rid of her fan! Taking out Turtle Bazooka the way she did was pretty much in the cards for a while but I didn't realize it would leave her basically disarmed! No wonder she needs bodyguards! I did feel weird sometimes with names. Her real name is Bella Parma, which is a fun enough one I sometimes wrote it out just because it is fun, but other times calling her QueenBeemon felt off. Just a lot of names layered on one lady! Now that I'm here in the blogpost I realize I could have had her taken more straightforward weapons from bodies than the whip blade, but since she was already shifting to villainess mode to survive the power deficiencies, it felt like the right weapon to grab. Her entry said "various poisons" but I wasn't sure exactly which ones would feel appropriate, so I stuck to ones bees are known for since that just made sense! We had no specifics on which type of bees were being used either so nothing about like, single stings which is unique to honeybees, but they were already being deployed fairly often and killed easily enough. More like ammo than living things. I did look up QueenBeemon and the royal throne but was somewhat hesitant to use it since Bella Parma here is using the power but also isn't quite QBmon so like, I don't know where to draw the lines on what she can or can't do, so defering to entry only was the winner! I probably would have used those arms on the throne more if they had received any mention in the entry, but there are times where you can just figure she's doing stuff with them. Another point where details don't confirm or contradict in order to be safe!

DONKEY KONG WITH PAULINE 

While Pauline does skirt our age rules for the Brawl I feel, the fact she was basically a non-combatant probably made it work. She's just a jukebox to power up DK basically, and I figure for the most part it was best to not worry much about her on his back. I figured they're competent enough to have her protected even when DK was under attack so rarely does it get mentioned exactly how, and when she is relevant briefly it would be things like talking or when she gets targeted in a way that isn't really that bad like when she was silenced by Binah. I figured her auto-removal on DK's death also kept things clean and avoided any Baby Winston sized problems, no one had to kill a kid just to get their top spot. We didn't have too many cruel or evil characters and even those we did didn't have reason to target Pauline in particular. I did feel the absnece of Kong Bananza since that would have just been a good power boost at times, and not having eggs for Ostrich meant his aerial form didn't have as much use. The Snake Bananza biting someone made me have a moment where I realized I have no clue what should happen, so I made that an in-universe thing too, but also made sure it wasn't too brutal to keep DK fun. I didn't do too much of his Toon Force sort of antics, mainly the moment where Kiwii was zapping him with different elements he didn't really take much damage so much as pose in reaction to each one. I feel like Bananza DK didn't need it as much since he can already smash and break things easily enough he didn't need to be pushed farther. I did want some Bananza style tunneling so that ended up a big part of Essy's fite, and it felt like Zebra and Elephant were basically his go to forms since they were strong and flexible compared to the specialized focuses of the others. Compared to DK's last run it did feel kind of like a different character, figuring out how to damage him effectively was a consideration since he also feels like he's much stronger this go. Hamburger Hurter taking a hand away rather cleanly was a help, but I also felt like sometimes even when DK was being game accurate, it's kind of brutal! Like slamming a person repeatedly feels different than a video game baddie, so I tried not to overdo it.

MOCHI WITH EL 

Mochi made it so far I was starting to lose track of the damage dealt to her! Luckily she has so many of those solar panel red domes that as long as it wasn't too specific, usually she could suffer more damage later without it overlapping or being inaccurate. We got some more KO changes here too when I was following the flow of the fite rather than my notes. Amaretti was supposed to kill Mochi, and I just never marked down who would kil El and was kind of letting the fite tell me when she should go... only for her to get all the way with Mochi! The belt helped to make it more believable and breaking the hammer got to be both a cool moment and one that didn't make El useless after. Writing El's dialogue did feel like a challenge. I didn't want to lean too much on similes and have her turn into Sandy Cheeks or something! I tried to think through a few ways to say things to try and hit on a folksy means that takes a little thought to parse, which may not be spot-on but still felt closer than just talking like Rogue from the X-Men or something. I knew I had to give Mochi a judo moment which is why that's how she killed Leo, and I wanted to do her little pylon electrical thing which is why it's an important part of DK's death. However, while I did figure DK killing El made sense, I also thought it might work well to have Mochi go out soon after to help the top 3 go a little smoother instead of Amaretti having to fite all the Pitohui characters. Mochi was emotional enough to push herself to a dangerous level, but I noted she was on borrowed time already there so it wasn't like she was being foolish, just doing what she could in the time she had since her options for recovery were so low. Plus, DK would still be alive if she wasn't thorough, and then he could whoop her butt! Mochi kind of got more KOs than planned since she was a pretty strong force for the Deadwood alliance, even if she often swooped in and out since her battle style felt quite different from theirs. She was good for adding bodies to a fite suddenly though. I'm very happy El got to be useful after all and not just tacked on, I think maybe subconsciously it was kind of a reward for Pitohui deciding to add her in after all, although like I said her making it all the way with Mochi was just me never finding a better moment to kill her! When I realized she had her own hacking means I knew it had to go up against Malin's. 

MAWILE 

I was so certain Mawile would win I was thinking up epilogues. I was so certain I thought up how part of the final fite would go! Mainly, when she was in Mega form, I thought someone could use Dorothea's after death card and cram it in one of the mouth's to blow it up! Of course we didn't get that for obvious reasons. Mawile's epilogue would probably be peopel pampering her like a princess so it wasn't exactly that creative, but before that bubble popped I was wondering how to set it apart from the Skeleton King's royal epilogue. She had more votes than any entrant in history so I think my suspicion she'd win was warranted! I did wonder if during Mega Evolution I should have Sese say something more deep, personal, or meaningful, but also since Mawile wasn't going the distance, I didn't want it to be too sentimental and then Mawile dies a little bit later. Mega Mawile felt like it had to come out unless the tractor was really wacky though, and I mean, third place, if I still think that's not high enough for a super form, what is? Before her Mega I did sometimes feel her limits. Like I didn't want her too often to do things like Flash Cannon, but a lot of her moves use the jaws and rapid firing such things back to back felt a little awkward since they have to swing around each time or do something new like chomp up rocks. DrmKrstls was a good way to bail her out, I had her use it in hand a bit more to help with battle flow and variety. That's not a condemnation of Mawile's battle style at all, in regular RP she doesn't have to do like 10 attacks in the span of a paragraph is all! She was definitely one reason the glow stone lost its chemical rebuilding though, since it would make her munching them a bit awkward. Her briefly getting fussed about QUEEN Bee was, as you might expect, originally meant to lead her to killing Queen Bee before late game KOs started to be wildly shifted around. Her being a scamp at Turtle House was one of the earlier Pre-Fite ideas and pretty much put her in the path of whatever allies Leo would have since her falling for her ruse was always set, but I think their little band with DK and eventually Octan was a nice simple alliance that didn't demand huge attention but still benefitted them. She did often feel pretty small and slow, which is why Hop Star helped her once her allies were gone and not able to like, Zebra Bananza her into the fray. Maybe a different Brawl she could have just thrown herself into various fracases like she does in RP. I did wonder if she went a bit too far into the background for a while considering how far she'd go, but I usually try to ensure some relevance at various points for people who will go all the way and they start coming into focus a lot more when the top spots are filling out.

AMARETTI 

 The cookies were just holding her back... Really though, a great run for her and one that I felt needed a little boost to take her all the way to second. An alliance is always good, but I used Ignamar possession less than I originally thought I'd need to. I think it helped that Amaretti was really easy to write just doing her rocket boot and glove thing! I think that note that she'd do Sonic Adventure style posing really helped it. Meant we got a lot more flip kicks and spin kicks to the point the multiple midair leg flip before bringing it down became like her signature move. I did want to avoid either of the two top fiters being too carried by things they grabbed or stole or whatever though which is one reason the final fite had Kenny and Hop Star destroyed quickly, and while the masks gave us some fun bits, there was still a lot of reliance on the powers they brought with them. The acid on her boots was a bigger limiter on Amaretti near the end than I think the text emphasized, it started to bring her mobility down. At first I did wonder if appealing to Amaretti's treasure hunter nature was a bit like, an overemphasis or something, but it felt like a great way to justify her accumulating new tools and Chloe's hamper was already part of her alliance so at least it wasn't like she was just scavenging around avoiding fites to get suited up. I tried to pick clothes for her that weren't going to alter her fiting too much but still gave her boosts, and even the Sammy Shorts I was a little hesitant on since it gives her a projectile. I didn't want Amaretti to ever feel like a different character because of the new gear, so a lot of it was to let her do flashier strikes or leave cool effects after her brawler fiting style. The people she did manage to kill were definitely to big her up and actually probably be the more threatening of the two in the finale. Veronica for example is definitely someone tough to take in a close quarters battle but Amaretti could show off she's not all strength, she's clever too! She is a bit of a hothead, near the end she was trying too hard to close the deal and leaving herself open, but when she was in control, she could cooly pull it off like against Tatami. I was a bit worried, like with Mawile, she might be a little too humble in early parts of the Brawl, Amaretti really didn't start racking up KOs until later, but helping out in fites is usually a good way to keep in people's heads so it's not like she wasn't doing anything. I do wonder sometimes how much I get caught up on KOs compared to how people might be tracking them or considering them after, sometimes the standings even don't quite agree with my KO assessments so it's like, do I need to be such a statistician? I guess it works out so far to have those concerns at least, so probably yes!

DOROTHEA AND PLUME

People of Duloc, I give you, your champions! Plume was given some early kills so it's no question that she is deserving of sharing the title, although I do feel maybe she was gone a little too long. I think one reason I was wondering if she should kill Nao was almost more like, is that when Plume should go out herself too. I knew I wanted her out before the end so she can be Dorothea's ace in the hole, an ultimate show of trust that she knew Plume's power would pull her out of a jam, especially since Dorothea's legs were straight up broken. But Dorothea held onto it so long because she knew it was that useful, that great a tool if she needed a push over. I did have her use it just a touch before that moment in earlier fites so it wasn't held off on for too long and then an obvious ace though. Plume's more limited power set and nature as a bodyguard did mean she was the one that did feel more appropriate to eliminate first. I won't say that getting first place means your ally or partner or whatever will die before then to make it seem less likely you'll make it, in fact it feels like it could swing the other way now since it's been the case more often where we have entrants like Ashley take the top without Magilou there. I do worry it means part of the team gets less credit, to the point the Pre-Fite was trying to assure Plume her contributions were key. Dorothea did have the narrative arc though! I didn't want her win to feel like luck, like she just kept taking gambles that paid off because she was so lucky. She was portrayed as someone who got good reads on people and situations and took bets, but also knew when not to. Like, her spraying acid below Amaretti rather than at her is one such moment. She could have hit Amaretti with the shot and done more damage, but she figured her odds weren't great and went for something that would help. However, she had such a good read on Kiwii she knew her charge with the halberd would work. Giving her the halberd was definitely part of carrying Plume with her too, although I did wonder with Cassette Beasts like, if Dorothea could make a new halbered by transforming but also use the real one at the same time? Maybe if she dropped it first? Anyway, Dorothea's Pocket Pair was definitely my favorite power to use, both for shenanigans and helping her arm up. It could get something like Vigil's mask into Dorothea's hands to keep her competitive longer. I did think I'd get more use out of Gutshot, but I was also pleased I used Plume's cyclone as much as I did. I did worry delaying the last use of Wild Card towards the end would also be a little obvious, and I had the earlier use be like, a neutral benefit compared to the auto-parry that helps in the finale.  I didn't want to overuse her offensive magic like Burn Card and Martingale, especially with how much time Dorothea would hang around. I also worried Dorothea talking so much about how to split the money with her alliance might make it a little apparent it would matter, as in, someone from the alliance would win, and even being the instigator on screen, while good for making her top spot clearly worthy, was again a potential flag I was worried about! For the epilogue I did waver on where to go. I read the moment Dorothea was doing Dry Country negotiations for some inspiration and to try and get her voice down, but I tried not to make her look too greedy or cutthroat or anything like that. Not too many specifics on the deals or gratuities, but some clear signs that she was going to help her allies by considering investments in Beeyond Honey and Horus and all. Ginevra just got a little sass because she was going against the kind of good business that Dorothea supports. I did wonder I might be overdoing it with how many cards she was burning up, so I had it sometimes be other items for Burn Card. Funnily enough I think Gooper offered to draw Dorothea's Dead Man's Hand and beyond the Mawile use I mentioned earlier, I was thinking of how Plume might use it since in a different situation, it could have been her key to keep her ally around. I don't think it's too unusual to say I bet next year I'll try to do more with Plume, but I won't bury Dorothea either! Her powers, her gambler mindset but a heart of gold, it made her a good victor the more time I had to ruminate on it.

 

I hope you didn't mind waiting until the end to read about the champion! I figured my thoughts on higher placing entries would last longer so it was best to do lower fiters first! That's it for this blog though, a very smooth Brawl writing period and the Brawl itself I'm pretty happy with! A very smooth year with good results I'd say, so I hope you all enjoyed it just as much! Bon voyage!