Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: World of Light
is a Super Smash Bros. Fan Fiction by Krosshair.
Following up on a prequel story/companion piece by the author, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Everyone is HERE!, this fic is an Adaptation Expansion of the World of Light, including some extra fighters like Geno, Isaac, Matthew, and Banjo-Kazooie.
Tropes featured in this fanfic:
- A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 37 focuses on Galeem and Dharkon, rather than the Smashers.
- Adaptation Expansion: Galeem gets a lot of reasoning for his motivations as explained in Chapter 37.
- Who is he? He (and Dharkon) is a primordial being that existed ever since the universe's inception.
- His long-standing rivalry with Dharkon? The two came into conflict due to being polar opposites of each other.
- And most importantly, the very reason why he captured nearly all of the fighters and turned everyone else into Spirits? For the former, it was because of the dynamic of good and evil—or light and dark—teaming up. After observing Tabuu's defeat during the events of The Subspace Emissary, he determined that the alliance of light and dark couldn't be reversed, so he used his lasers to rewrite the universe in order to eliminate that dynamic. For the latter, it's because Galeem planned ahead, taking out any potential opposition that could hinder his plans.
- Adaptational Deviation:
- King K. Rool's look in Mario Super Sluggers is one of his personalities called Tutan K. Roolmon. In the game, it was just King K. Rool in Egyptian clothing.
- Mad Jack is depicted as a Mad Scientist who performs a Body Horror-infused transformation on Ridley to turn him into Meta Ridley while in Donkey Kong 64, Mad Jack was just a creepy-looking toy.
- Ash's Greninja as Ash-Greninja was able to beat Alain's Mega Charizard X in the adaptation of the Kalos League.
- Adaptation Name Change: Erdrick (known as Arusu) is now called Arvus.
- Adaptation Personality Change: The Puppet Fighters. As seen in Hero's reveal trailer, the Puppet Fighters are seen as emotionless killing machines. In this fanfic, the Puppet Fighters channel the appearances and personalities of the Spirits powering them—to the point where they're the Spirits in everything but appearance. That being said, this fanfic began long before Hero's trailer was released.
- Adaptational Sexuality: The Luminary in his home game is either straight or bisexual, depending on who the romantic partner is chosen to be. Here, he's explicitly stated to be gay and in a relationship with Erik.
- Amusing Injuries: Wario is often on the receiving end of this trope, due to his Nigh-Invulnerability.
- Ascended Fanboy: Joker became a fan of the Smash tournament through watching the fourth one, and now he joins their ranks.
- Badass Adorable: Kirby, naturally.
- Badass Boast: Master Hand makes one in Sephiroth's introductory chapter of Everyone is HERE!:Master Hand: I am the symbol of creation, be it good or bad. I can create, among other things, life, wealth, resources, war, conflict... and strife.
- Beat the Curse Out of Him: This is how most of the turned Smashers are brought back.
- Big Bad: Galeem, like in the actual game. And Dharkon as well.
- Big Damn Heroes: Byleth's debut in the story is this. Specifically, she saves both Simon and Richter when they're about to be killed by Death.
- Bilingual Bonus: Min Min speaks some amount of Chinese. The writer of the story knows some.
- Body Horror: Ridley's transformation into Meta Ridley is not pretty.
- Co-Dragons: Galeem gets two of them—previous Smash Bros. Big Bad Tabuu and fellow Eldritch Abomination Ultra Necrozma.
- Composite Character: Wario's portrayal is based on both his treasure-hunting roots from Wario: Master of Disguise and the Wario Land series of games as well as the gross game tycoon he is in WarioWare, with emphasis on the former characterization.
- Crash-Into Hello: Solo makes his debut in the story by knocking into Cloud.
- Darker and Edgier: While the overall story itself is still fairly lighthearted, the Dark Realm begins to take a delve towards introducing more fearsome foes and particularly gruesome moments, most notably Ridley's re-cyberization at the hands of Mad Jack, who himself is reworked from "aesthetically nightmarish toy" to "Josef Mengele if he was a jack-in-the-box."
- Deadpan Snarker: Wolf usually throws snarky responses to anyone who talks to him.
- Defiant to the End: Wolf and Ridley are this in the opening chapter of World of Light, with the two of them opting to take potshots at Galeem before going down, while everyone else either flees or gets captured.
- Wario, in the same chapter, dodges several beams, TANKS a beam, before charging at the beam that finally takes him down.
- Distressed Dude: Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong are kidnapped by King K. Rool in chapter 24.
- Dual Boss: Occasionally, the Smashers fight a group of more than one opponents.
- The Axem Rangers return in Chapter 5.
- Two incarnations of Snake are fought together in chapter 30—Venom Snake and the franchise-spanning Big Boss.
- Dimentio and the Shadow Queen are fought in chapters 32 and 33—with the latter possessing some of the Smashers' bodies.
- Death summons many of his revenants to fight alongside him. Among those revenants is Kabal.
- Smithy summons Mack, Bowyer, Yaridovich, and the aforementioned Axem Rangers to aid him in chapter 38, effectively making him this for the first half of the battle against him.
- Enemy Mine: It's a given since the Smashers share a common enemy in Galeem. Although for Samus and Ridley, it's a case of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork.
- This trope is actually the main reason why Galeem did what he did. He couldn't fathom the idea of the purest of light and the darkest of evils teaming up, so he unleashed his Beam Spam to erase this dynamic... not that it stopped this concept from returning, though.
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: Not even Pikachu approves of Samus’ claim that she would abandon her allies for dead if Ridley’s among them, refusing to let her pet him with a growl and sparking cheeks
- Expanded Universe: The author does a surprisingly good job at constructing one of these through all sorts of references to the characters' source material.
- Face Death with Dignity: More like capture, but Peach, Daisy, Dr. Mario, Ryu, Ken, the Ice Climbers and R.O.B. accept their disintegrations in chapter 1.
- Facial Horror:
- When Artorias' armor finally gives way, those present are greeted with the grisly details of his face, including a missing eye and several missing patches of skin that reveal his skull.
- Kabal ends up slicing part of Isaac's face open.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence:
- What Mad Jack does to Ridley in chapter 27 while recyberizing him definitely qualifies. For reference, Ridley's eyes are burnt out, he receives a partial lobotomization, his wings and tail are ripped right off him, and his lower jaw is ripped right off his head. It's no wonder why he goes into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge shortly after waking up. The final nail in the coffin is that the procedure was done without any anesthetics whatsoever.
- With Stryker and Kabal's cameos during the fight against Death, this was bound to occur. Stryker makes good on his Battle Intro from Mortal Kombat 9 by utterly brutalizing Ken, while Kabal's fight against Isaac features the latter getting his face sliced open and stabbed through his midsection.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Raiden fulfills this trope when the cast meet him in the Mysterious Dimension, only sticking around for the fight against Metal Gear EXCELSUS and then being chucked into the distance by Mewtwo once that particular fight ends.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Yoshi throws Mario out of the way of one of Galeem's lasers in the first chapter of World of Light, which hits the dinosaur head on.
- Heroic Second Wind: Red gets this during the fight against Galleom after a pep talk from Toon Link manages to snap him out of his PTSD.
- Humongous Mecha:
- Metal Gear REX appears in chapter 7, restored to its original state.
- Project EXCELSUS is mentioned in Chapter 24 and finally shows up in chapter 36.
- I Lied: Galeem promises to free Crazy Hand if Master Hand undergoes a full brainwashing. After Master Hand complies, Galeem doesn't keep his end of the bargain and banishes Crazy Hand to the Dark Realm.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Cloud, Snake, and Captain Falcon all collectively make their disapproval of clones known given their past experiences with copies on their adventures, to which Mewtwo reacts with disapproval.
- Killed Offscreen: Or rather, defeated offscreen—Ryu's fight with Revali at the beginning of Chapter 16 isn't shown in favor of Little Mac's battle against King Bulblin. However, Ryu's appearance and comments after Little Mac's fight made it very clear who he was up against.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: The Spirits possessing Isaac, Red, and Matthew release their vessels when threatened with an unwinnable situation.
- Legacy Character: The Pichu in this story is actually the daughter of the Pichu from Melee, who has since evolved into a Raichu.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Done numerous times throughout the story to allow the Smashers to cover more ground.
- Light 'em Up: Galeem and Ultra Necrozma.
- Mad Doctor: Mad Jack fits the bill to a frightening T. Dr. Mario also ends up becoming this after his possession.
- MacGuffin: The Apollo Keys (an entirely new concept) are these during the Dark Realm portion of the story. As of Chapter 41, five of the thirteen keys have been found.
- Mercy Kill: Artorias begs for Matthew to kill him to end the Abyss' spread.
- Mind Rape: Dharkon gives Young Link one in chapter 37, and attempts to do the same with Matthew a couple of chapters later.
- The Mole: Sephiroth eventually becomes this to Galeem, deciding to assist Master Hand in taking him down while keeping the facade of being his underling.
- My Greatest Failure: Cloud, as revealed in chapter 21, regards Aerith's death as this. Additionally, Mario blames himself for not being able to find Geno in the five years or so after the events of Super Mario RPG, even though some of the reasons were beyond his control.
- Mythology Gag: A whole lot of them, too.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Mario brutally beats up Bowser in chapter 25 once the latter insults Luigi. He gets so violent to the point that Snake has to grab him in a chokehold to get him off of Bowser, and even then, Mario is still so enraged that he bites him in the arms.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Little Mac's full name is Mackie Davis, but everyone prefers to call him Mac.
- Orcus on His Throne: Galeem doesn't fight the Smashers until they reach him, preferring his own minions to do the fighting for him. Dharkon actually avoids this—he sprouts seeds of himself to spy on Smashers, give a Mind Rape to Young Link, and possess Matthew in the Mysterious Dimension.
- Papa Wolf: Bowser, upon learning that Bowser Jr. is being held captive in Gruntilda's Lair, splits up from his group to rescue him.
- Precision F-Strike: Matthew and Ridley curse a couple of times during the story. Raiden also lets one out during the battle against Metal Gear EXCELSUS.
- Promoted to Playable: In a way—Geno, Isaac, Matthew, and Banjo & Kazooie were added to the story as Smashers (in the game itself, Geno and Matthew were Spirits, Isaac was an Assist Trophy and a Spirit, and Banjo & Kazooie weren't in the game at all).
Banjo & Kazooie would eventually gain playability in the actual game later down the line, funnily enough.- Sephiroth is an interesting case. He was set up to be a major villain in the story, serving under Galeem. After he was revealed to be DLC in Ultimate proper, he (secretly) joined the Smashers after forming an alliance with Master Hand to take down Galeem.
- Related in the Adaptation: In this story, Dr. Mario is not just a separate character from Mario like in the games, but he's also Mario and Luigi's cousin, and his full name is Stefano Mario. The story alternates between calling him Stefano and calling him by his original name.
- Retcon: Jigglypuff, Toon Link, and Wolf have been given bigger roles in the past Subspace Emissary adventure, rather than them just showing up in the post-game. For Jigglypuff, she was turned into a trophy by Wario, much like Peach/Zelda and Ness before her. Toon Link was stranded in the Great Maze before he was found by Mario, while Wolf was one of the villains roped into Tabuu's service, similar to Bowser and Ganondorf.
- Serial Escalation: The bosses fought in the story take longer to defeat as the story goes on. To clarify, the first boss, Duon, was fought and defeated in Chapter 4. The battle against Galeem and his Co-Dragons began in Chapter 23, and ended a chapter later. The battle against Artorias began in Chapter 33 and ended in Chapter 36—that's four chapters, twice as long it took to initially defeat Galeem.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Red had some traumatic memories of his adventures during The Subspace Emissary—specifically when Galleom attempted to pull a Taking You with Me with him and Lucas. It's the in-story reason why he didn't come back for the fourth tournament. Understandably, when Red comes face to face with Galleom in the Dark Realm, he's too scared to fight. However, a pep talk from Toon Link manages to get him out of this status for good.
- Shout-Out:
- The way Pikachu implements costumes in his fighting style is reminiscent of the Cosplaychu from Ashes of the Past.
- Snake mentions Death Note as one of the manga that Otacon reads.
- Cuphead is referenced in chapter 24 in the form of a Spirit that strongly resembles Goopy le Grande.
- In chapter 28, Bowser takes note on how he can flail his arms wildly after Ness accidentally frees the Shadow Queen and Dimentio, bringing to mind Chuggaaconroy's amusement with Bowser's arms in Super Paper Mario.
- Perhaps most shockingly, Knight Artorias appears as an adversary in chapter 33.
- Demise says "I am inevitable" in reference to his home series' cycle of reincarnation.
- Snake calls Bayonetta Sex Pistols during the fight against EXCELSUS.
- In chapter 43, Dracula makes use of an attack that greatly resembles the Space Ripper Stingy Eyes while also attempting to drink blood in the same way that vampires from JoJo do.
- Matthew disposes of four faceless nurses towards the end of chapter 41. Fittingly enough, Pyramid Head himself shows up in the very next chapter.
- Olimar's closest friend? A Red Pikmin named Steve. As if the reference weren't obvious enough, Olimar calls Steve a "trooper," to which the Pikmin reacts with an unamused look, also referencing Chugga's own distaste for the meme after his Pikmin Let's Play.
- Giegue's transformation into Giygas in chapter 43 is heavily based on page 199◊ of The Chosen Four.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Donkey Kong and King K. Rool. To coin a phrase explaining Galeem and Dharkon's chemistry, they can't stand one another, always fighting whenever their eyes meet. Even when trying to escape Galeem's attack at the beginning of the story. That being said, their upgrade to a reluctant Enemy Mine happens much faster than Samus and Ridley.
- Sole Survivor: Averted. Snake manages to escape the Beam Spam that Galeem unleashed on the Craggy Outlook along with Kirby.
- Split Personality: King K. Rool takes this trope to its logical extreme, having no less than five different personalities that can manifest on a whim, those being his original King K. Rool personality, Kaptain K. Rool, Baron K. Roolenstein, King Krusha K. Rool, and his pharaoh outfit from Mario Super Sluggers note .
- Synchronized Swarming: Olimar abuses this trope to its fullest, creating military formations, fists, and pillars out of his massive horde of Pikmin to create a versatile and adaptable Advancing Wall of Doom.
- Take That!: In chapter 27 of Everyone is HERE!, Master Hand, when listing off the numerous exploits of Sephiroth, mentions "crossing dimensions to fight whimsical beings who wield keys as weapons" as one of them before promptly dismissing it as a ridiculous concept.
- Talking with Signs: Diddy Kong did this in lieu of speaking for the earlier chapters.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Samus really doesn't like the idea of pulling an Enemy Mine with Ridley, and for good reason. She even gets into a fight with Mr. Game & Watch, saying that she's willing to leave her friends to die if Ridley's among them—something that the rest of the Smashers briefly shun her for, resulting in Mr. Game & Watch getting angry and yelling at her for her selfishness, which causes her to feel guilty.
- The End of the Beginning: Chapter 22 is titled this ad verbatim, and it marks the end of the Smashers' quest to reach Galeem.
- The Stoic: Snake and Cloud fulfill this role. However...
- Not So Stoic: Snake isn't above making the occasional wisecrack.
- The Voiceless: Donkey Kong, though he is capable of speech, prefers to communicate through Signed Language.
- Villain Team-Up: Kazuya and Sephiroth form an alliance of sorts after the former's arrival.
- Undying Loyalty: Red's team is devoutly loyal to their trainer.
- Wipe the Floor with You: Ridley does this to Samus and Banjo, on a Lethal Lava Land, no less!
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Snake when he realizes he's fighting against Liquid Snake,
