Line #11 Fridge/TheKingOfFighters


1	! Fridge pages are Administrivia/SpoilersOff by default, so proceed with caution. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned
2	Works with their own pages:
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4	* ''Fridge/TheKingOfFightersXV''
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9	[[folder:Fridge Brilliance]]
10	* The original Japan Team members - Kyo, Benimaru, and Daimon - are the personified homages to a Japanese phrase of giving birth to fire. The quote translates to "lighting strikes the earth which sparks the flame" Benimaru is the lightning due to his power to control electricity, Goro is earth due to his ability to cause seismic waves due to his incredible strength, and Kyo is fire due to his Kusanagi heritage's ability to control flames.
11	* Ash Crimson is pretty much The King of [[TheScrappy Scrappies]]. He's a {{Jerkass}} SmugSnake who has gotten away with some pretty controversial stuff in his saga (namely, stealing the powers of [[BarrierMaiden Chizuru]] and [[TheRival Iori]]) simply because ''Creator/{{SNK}} [[CreatorsPet likes him too much]]''. If you've played ''The King of Fighters XI'', you've probably noticed that there's a [[ThemeNaming common motif]] with a few of the team themes, such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24rUGSD_1ms "Jack,"]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ozaXGgFfk "Queen,"]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFy7cHbnTnk "King";]] they're all high level playing cards (in fact, Ace is the only one missing from the bunch). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-1xYnuKZoY "Joker"]] is the theme of the "[[DesignatedHero Hero]]" Team. Given that there's a literal [[DeathDealer card-wielding]] CoolOldGuy on the team, you might think that this theme had [[TheGambler Oswald]] in mind. However, this was subtle foreshadowing at its finest. The Joker is used in a variety of roles when it comes to card games. It can either be the most powerful card to play or the weakest. ''It can even be used as a placeholder for missing cards.'' Ash Crimson only ''appears'' to be a frail, unassuming weakling, but he's a bastard of both the {{manipulative\|Bastard}} and {{magnificent\|Bastard}} varieties. ''He is literally the personification of the Joker, a true WildCard.'' Not only did he run the masses with an {{expy}} of [[ComicBook/XMen Gambit]] and a [[BloodKnight fight-craving]] BadassNormal in order to progress far enough through the tournament, but he set it up with such finesse so that after [[AHouseDivided he turned his former allies against one another]] ([[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness when they had outlived their usefulness]]) [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse by preying on their personal ambitions]] ([[EnemyCivilWar thus eliminating any potential threats by having Shen Woo and Oswald duke it out to the death]] [[VillainExitStageLeft as Ash slips away]]), he could then steal Iori's powers (as ''[[SuperpoweredEvilSide Orochi]] [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity Iori]]'') ''immediately'' after Iori had been worn down in a fight with [[TheProtagonist Kyo]] and [[{{Determinator}} Shingo]]. That's ObfuscatingStupidity so brilliant that you might wonder whether or not Ash is TheChessmaster.
12	** Going back even further, one of Ash's win quotes in ''2003'' was "Don't play your trump card till the end... the ''very'' end!" In hindsight, SNK was pretty much telling us, "Keep your eye on this guy. ''Something's'' gonna happen."
13	** In ''XIII'', Ash's a single entry character. Quite odd, given that he's TheHero of the saga. You'd think that it's because he'll become the TrueFinalBoss at the end as Evil Ash, and that's right - but it's deeper than that: he's prone to manipulate his teammates to his own ends. So him being a single entry is a subtle GameplayAndStoryIntegration - He can make team with any character in the roster, but he'll end up leaving them in the end.
14	*** Additionally, this all seems to tie in with the revelation that Ash [[GoodAllAlong really is on the heroes' side]]. He functions as a GuileHero because of the very probable mindset that if more people (including [[OneeSama sister figure]] Elizabeth, presented here as [[TheRival a rival]] to Ash) knew about [[RetGone his true intentions]], [[BatmanGambit his plans]] to stop [[BigBad Saiki]] and [[StandardEvilOrganizationSquad Those from the Past]] would be less likely to actually succeed. (''Especially'' Elizabeth, as [[MoralityPet she is the person]] [[DeclarationOfProtection he is actually doing most of this for]], and the only one who comes from his past and therefore with the highest level of knowledge about his personality.) The {{Jerkass}} facade he dons is a calculated farce used to further his goals and ensure that the number of other fighters thrown into the crossfire is a bare minimum. Perhaps you could say he didn't want anyone to call his bluff.
15	* There ''are'' three people that are able to sense that Ash's intentions aren't as malevolent as they seem. One of them is King, who refers to Ash's behavior as "a cry for help" among other things. Why would she sense such stuff, considering that she's not a psychic (unlike Athena) and has relatively limited experience (unlike Chin)? Easy: she's a bartender, and bartenders are typically used to listen to the problems of people who are [[DrowningMySorrows drowning their sorrows.]] This means she can catch body language signals that others cannot, whether the person she's speaking to is toasted or not; then, it's not surprising that she can see that Ash's plans and mindset are more complex than he lets other see, even when she obviously doesn't know ''what'' he wants (and never will, now that he's gone forever... until ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXV KOF XV]]'', anyway).
16	* Yuri's Neomax, the Haoh Raiouken, seems lackluster compared to flashier Neomaxes, save for the [[EverythingMakesAMushroom mushroom cloud]] at the end. Unlike fellow Kyokugen practitioners Ryo and Robert, she was only taught the very basics of Kyokugenryu, aptly named the Raiou principle. In a way, her Neomax serves as a TakeThat to her father and brother, showing that she can throw away Raioukens like atomic bombs.
17	** Also, when you examine [[SiblingRivalry Yuri and Ryo's relationship]], some interesting conclusions can be deduced/speculated. Ryo is the dutiful son, the one trained from childhood by his father Takuma to become the heir of Kyokugenryu, alongside his natural talent; Yuri is a late-bloomer, who only started when she was a teenager and mastered the basics within a year. While they love each other dearly, they also intensely clash: Ryo objected to her being trained (though he doesn't object to ''other'' {{Action Girl}}s being around, like King or Mai), Yuri decided to keep training and then add her own variations to the style. Ryo's current objections to have her around don't only come from her being a girl (though that ''does'' play a part), but because he sees Yuri's additions to the Kyokugenryu roster as an insult to the Kyokugenryu style itself... and also as a part of their interactions outside the ring. Ryo had to work ''very'' hard for his martial arts skills and to make the Kyokugenryu style widely known ever since he was a young boy, adding an ItsPersonal layer to what seems to be a mere "StayInTheKitchen"-like SiblingRivalry, even when it's not very fair to [[PluckyGirl Yu]][[TeenGenius ri]] herself.
18	** It's also reflected by the fact that the only moves that Yuri has consistently kept throughout all of her appearances in the series are the [[KamehameHadoken Ko-Ou Ken]], [[RapidFireFisticuffs Hyakuretsu Binta]], [[{{Shoryuken}} Kuuga]] (her version of the Kyokugenryu Kohou), and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown Hien Houou Kyaku]]. While it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the ''Art of Fighting'' team's moves to be shuffled around every other game, it often does for Yuri, seeing as those moves in particular represent her basic grasp of the fundamentals, while everything else represents her tendency to try and make the Kyokugenryu style her own, often with middling results (at best).
19	* For XIV, the "villains' team" and why Chang and Choi (two reformed criminals) of all people would join. Then the Villains Team trailer shows just ''[[AxCrazy what kind]] of person'' Xanadu is.
20	* The meanings behind the name of Warspite, a historical Royal Navy battleship in [=WW2=]. Apparently, it can either mean "despising wars" (a more modern interpretation) or "a symbol of hate/spite towards one's enemies" (an older interpretation). This could explain Iori's apparent hate of violence, despite his otherwise overly violent persona and style. Iori's hatred of violence makes him act like a hateful person towards their enemies so he could scare them or at least make them surrender. Alternatively, Iori's hatred of violence fuels a hatred towards his enemies who makes him fight in the first place, so he tries to violently finish his foes quickly, so he won't be violent for long.
21	* In the Another World Team's ending, it might look like Nakoruru has been taking a little level in either cheerfulness or ditziness, whereas Love Heart's concern about getting back to their world made her the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]]. However, according to Nakoruru's earlier words, she knows that while Verse was beaten, this does not mean the end, there will be an after-effect which will happen in the current world and will cause a mess, and it can strike at any time, in a day or year ([[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXV sure enough...]]). So her idea of 'vacation' just meant a softer way to say 'we're staying in this world to be ready if the after-effect will ruin the multiverse again'. And [[WrongGenreSavvy Love kind of missed the point]], while Mui Mui caught on quick, but only because she's also an excitable girl in the beginning.
22	** Plus Nakoruru is now in a new world, one that she barely understands and is a novelty to her. Who's to say she can't experience it now that she has a chance, before Verse or any other upcoming villain comes up and fucks up everything?
23	* Despite getting unmasked as Tizoc by Clark in ''Manga/TheKingOfFightersANewBeginning'', King of Dinosaurs returns to his current gimmick by the final volume. Why? [[ItsPersonal He still hasn't gotten his grudge match against Nelson yet]].
24	* A subtle one, but Kyo (as in, Kusanagi Kyo; 京) [[FunWithHomophones is a homophone]] to kyo (or kyou; 今日), meaning "today". SNK's motto? "The future is '''now'''."
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28	* Exactly how many people were injured - or worse, killed - when Verse destroyed the arena at the end of ''KOF XIV''? Even worse is that, unlike prior tournaments (namely ''KOF '96''), Antonov actually '''DID''' face consequences even though he had no control of what transpired beyond hosting the tournament, to begin with. Keep in mind, this guy was practically ''swimming'' in money - he had his own airport, had enough money to buy an entire rainforest, and more than enough to pay the Official Invitation team ''double'' than what they were promised initially. All of that ''gone'' by the events of ''XV''. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Reality sure is a cruel mistress, isn't it?]]
29	* On the topic of {{Inferred Holocaust}}s, just ''how much'' was South Town affected by the Zero Cannon's blast during the events of ''2000''? Because it sure seemed like they rebounded pretty well despite, you know... ''being nuked into oblivion with a fucking KillSat''. Even crazier is the fact that, if ''2001'' was any indication, the ''KOF'' tournament was still more popular than ever despite NESTS now openly hosting the tournament. Yikes.
30	* Considering how much of ''[[CardCarryingVillain an utterly loathsome human being]]'' Rugal is, plus [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the rather creepy manner he treats one of his maids]] in the Shingyouji manga, it's more than likely that Adel and Rose [[ChildByRape were not conceived consensually]]; probably through Rugal abusing his MaritalRapeLicense.
31	* ''Manga/{{AKIRA}}'' references aside, one has to wonder how Krohnen replaced the [[BodyHorror fleshy abomination]] from his old SDM into a mechanical claw for the new version in ''XV''. Especially given the disposition that he and Angel left in as well as the fact that, unlike K' or Kula, clearly hasn't had the time to maintain his glove (if you look closely at his render as well as during actual gameplay, its paint is chipping and looking like it's seen better days).
32	** For that matter, ''how much'' experimentation did he go through during his time in NESTS to even ''have'' such an ability? If Nameless' backstory is to be believed, whatever NESTS did with their Kyo clones isn't at all pretty.
33	* On the subject of NESTS' experimentation, how many youths met the same fate as Isolde, tortured to death for the sake of mere scientific results?
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Context Fridge / TheKingOfFighters