Fanfic / Super Smash Brothers: Guardians Arise!

Super Smash Bros.: Guardians Arise! is a Super Smash Bros. fanfic written by PitFTW. It was released on February 10, 2010, and finished on April 19, 2012.

After the Subspace Emissary, Tabuu is not actually dead, and swiftly defeats all of the Smashers. Master Hand manages to save their souls and locks them in jars as balls of inert gas for them to eventually be released and occupy a compatible body at some point in the future. A century later, Psyche and Austin, a pair of slaves in Tabuu's new regime where soulless puppets of the Smasher's bodies are now his feared elite soldiers, find Master Hand's diary when Marth comes upon them and attacks, killing Austin as Psyche attempts to escape.

Just as she's about to die, Pit is released and it turns out she's his Guardian. He takes over and fends Marth off before the two of them escape. And thus begins the awakening of the Smashers and their bonding with their respective Guardians.

Each Smasher has their own Guardian, with chapters dedicated to their awakening. As the story progresses, more of the Guardians awaken and bond with their Smashers, culminating in a small group slowly turning into a powerful united front.

A sequel, The Awakening, is here, but as of 2023, it hasn't been updated in nearly a decade.

Guardians Arise provides examples of:

A-M

• '90s Anti-Hero: Many of the Guardians are this. To wit:
  • Golfer is a trained bounty hunter by Tabuu whose treatment and refusal to get involved with anything involving Traca lands him somewhat in this position.
  • Pikana utilizes much of the violent weapons associated with such antiheroes, such as chainsaws and bazookas, all while donning a rather boisterous and loose cannon personality.
  • Cameron is noted to have killed countless laguz in order for him to survive, and he is shown in one of his opening chapters eviscerating a dead laguz cat after he killed them.
  • Heather, while somewhat of the nicer side, has the brutal Blood Heather in her psyche, who is all the more bloodthirsty and violent than her regular self. Her name, Heather Elektra Wolfon, is also something one would also find of an antihero of the same caliber.
  • Traca is basically a Fire Emblem Manakete with this kind of personality, a bit on the brooding side complete with explosive bouts of anger that nearly kills someone she is supposed to side with (Nask).
  • Wrath is a slightly downplayed example, as he's willing to leave Tabuu's side, though he's still not the 100% nicest person on the block in a group of characters who aren't nice as well. Not to mention the edgy name as well.
  • Aly is the Arwing Pilot who wields as many guns as possible that would give The Punisher a run for his money.
  • Squall is a direct Captain Ersatz of FFVIII's similarly named protagonist, in addition to owning a pirate crew who's in it for the money, and said pirate crew also houses an imprisoned pirate that nearly sexually assaults Mah.
  • KOR, aside from the already edgy name, is a disfigured, zombielike fighter with a tendency to use his guns a lot. Thanks to him being the ICs' guardian, he essentially has the outer appearance of Deadpool with a touch of Captain Cold. During his battle against the Ice Climbers' and Link's bodies, he suddenly ditches his guns to use his disfigured hands to go berserk, with the ICs begging him to cull his violence.
  • Sol/Eclipse angsts and broods a lot, espeically when he's Walking the Earth as part of his backstory.
• Actor Allusion: Ness and Kirby are awakened at the same time and are bonded to a group of twins. It's subtle, but it's a nod to both characters sharing Makiko Ohmoto as their Japanese VA.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The Smashers go through a good deal of angst in this fic due to losing their homes, loved ones, and other important things due to Tabuu's regime.
  • Ike spends most of the story grieving and mourning the death of Mia in levels that are far greater than when his father Greil died.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Wolf O'Donnell was a rather gruff person who does show a bit of niceness towards his fellow Star Wolf crew. Here, while he's still a bit gruff, he's far more nicer in part because of Heather's influence.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Some of the Smashers themselves go through rather jerkish behavior changes that's slightly justified by the century they have been stuck in. The most prominent examples being Pit and Ness.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In the Tellius Saga, Ike was never mentioned as having a really close relationship with Mia throughout the story, seeing her as a good member of the Greil Mercenaries. Here, it's stated that they're lovers and she dies in the beginning to establish her as a character that Ike spends so much time grieving over.
• Adults Are Useless: Despite having a cast of adult Smashers, majority of the fic focuses on the teenage Guardians. There is an adult on the Guardians (Heather) but she's heavily burdened by the presence of her psychopathic Superpowered Evil Side. The adults that aren't Guardians who do exist collaborate more with Tabuu (King Sorius, Arenafan Woundvictor) or are sleazy individuals (Nask's father).
• Aerith and Bob: Applies to both Smashers and Guardians. Some have common names like Joe, Sam, Anna (before changing her name to Pikana) and Heather; while others have names like Squall, Golfer, Nask and Wrath.
• Anime Hair: Some of the guardians' hair, as well as some of the smashers.
• Attempted Rape: Almost happens to Mah. Fortunately, she managed to defend herself.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Heather was to be hanged for crimes such as treason, attempted murder and littering.
• Author Avatar: The Guardians themselves are this, consisting of people who have sent their OCs to the author (whose avatar is Psyche). This is compounded by the reviewers, a good chunk of them consisting of the people who have submitted their characters, referring to their characters in the first person. Many of them have similar names and/or usernames to the Guardians themselves.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Psyche and Pit started basically bickering at each other. As the story progresses, they soften up and start acting more like partners.
• Axe-Crazy: Pikana in a nutshell.
• Badass Crew: The Smashers, and also the Guardians.
  • Badass Normal: Cameron, Nask, Golfer, Squall, and Ridere before being possessed with their smashers.
  • Badass Longcoat: Squall, Chester, and Eclipse.
  • Badass Bookworm: Cimar.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Every Guardian after possession.
  • Little Miss Badass: Some of the younger Guardians, such as Sakura, apply here.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Golfer.
• Big Fucking Sword: Ragnell.
• Big Fucking Gun: While some guardians have some type of gun, KOR is noted to carry the biggest ones, as he has been seen with a minigun and a large machine gun (though he switches for a sniper later).
• Big Damn Heroes: Rinku is kind of fond of this.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: On one hand, you have the progenitor of the Smashers' traumas and defeats with Tabuu, whose forces are almost all unambiguously evil and remorseless in their deeds. Many of them are willing to spill blood without any wanton remorse or simply big jerks. But that's not saying the Guardians are any better, with one of them considering genocide for survival, others being rather ungrateful and still believe the Smashers to be evil, and many more unscrupulous actions that fit darker antiheroes as a result.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Picho and Pichn are this to Rinku and Cimar. But especially Rinku.
• Caps Lock: Heather has an entire rant filled with this in a certain chapter. Xavier also has one when he's introduced, moping about him not being able to save his own village.
• Captain Ersatz
  • Squall is pretty much his Final Fantasy namesake, complete with his mercenary background and weapon of choice.
  • MS is designed similarly to Travis Touchdown, complete with receiving a pair of red beam katanas of a similar design.
• The Chosen Many: The Guardians, all having been dictated by the prophecy to save the world of Smash.
• Clueless Aesop: It's a fanfic about Super Smash Bros., a lighthearted fighting game, that tacks in themes such as slavery and genocide. The story takes both of these matters seriously, but forgets that the source material isn't normally geared for fanfics like these.
• Crapsack World: Much of Smashville under Tabuu's rule, with the area surrounding the Smash Mansion where Tabuu resides looking really grim and villainous. The people of Smashville are forced into perpatual slavery regardless of race or gender and a horribly mistreated in doing so. That's not to say that the other worlds are safe either; Hyrule is reduced to a bunch of warring states with most of its unique races killed by King Sorius' new regime, Archanea is locked in a perpetual state of warfare with an unfit and morbidly obese king on throne (it's unknown if they're at war with what's probably Valentia), Tellius is once again under the Begnion Senate and many of the laguz are forcibly turned feral, the Pokémon world is overrun with Team Rocket grunts all carrying murder-happy Pokémon in their hands, and the Mushroom Kingdom is currently presided over by a somewhat-unaging Bowser Jr. Suffice to say, just about EVERYTHING that can go wrong in the world went horribly wrong.
• Dark Fic: A gritty and brutal fanfic about video game characters duking it out in a fun, bright fighting game.
• Darker and Edgier: With many of the Smashers' friends and allies dead, and the world reduced to slums, slaves, and many horrible things, it's one of the darkest Super Smash Bros. fanfics in the internet.
• Death by Adaptation: Many of the casualties in the fanfic are characters who have never legitimately died in their home series. Meta Knight, Samus, Captain Falcon, Diddy Kong, Mr. Game and Watch, Wario, and Pichu meet their deaths here.
• Decomposite Character: In the original Wolfon Chronicles, Clark Wolfon was the human form of Crazy Hand (given Adaptational Villainy). Here, he's his own character working in cahoots with Tabuu while Crazy Hand aids the Guardians.
• Doomed Hometown: A good majority of the Guardians have this as their backstory, losing their villages to Tabuu's various machinations. Xavier even mentions that some of the residents of said hometowns are taken in as slaves to work in his factories.
• Dysfunction Junction: A good chunk, if not, all of the Guardians have Dark and Troubled Pasts, either by slavery, being former members of Tabuu's elite, losing their friends and villages to Tabuu, and so on.
• Dystopia: The scenery of the fanfic matches that of YA dystopia novels, but they're applied to the worlds affiliated with the Super Smash Bros.
• Evil Overlord
  • Tabuu is a textbook case of this, ruling Smashville with an iron fist, enforcing slaves to create Fake Smashballs for him to use, and sending out other people to control the Smashers' worlds.
  • King Sorius, Ganondorf's first Guardian, acts like this when he's King of Hyrule, even grooming his son Rinku to follow his stead.
• Fate Worse than Death: Mah explains to Golfer that the slave humans are so mistreated by Tabuu, that most think death is the best thing that could happen to them.
• Flanderization
  • Sonic in this fanfic is reduced to basically being a bit of a jerk who constantly talks about speed almost every scene he appears in.
  • Kirby couldn't last a single scene without the mention of food or the like, which forms essentially the bulk of his characterization here.
  • Tabuu goes from someone who wants to pulls worlds into his domain of Subspace to being a classic Evil Overlord.
• Flat Character: The later Guardians have little to do in terms of characterization or character development, and most of them are simply just hanging around or being tortured by the antagonists as their only significant role in the story.
• Freudian Trio: Many trios are introduced in the same chapter, and balance each other out.
• Genre Refugee: Ridere is a slapstick comedy character thrust into a bleak dystopian world and stands out for this nature.
• Ghost in the Machine: The Smashers are essentially this inside of their respective Guardians, being able to live inside their minds and read their thoughts.
• Guest Fighter: Played with for the two Guardians whose universes have no connections to Smash.
  • Chester is still by all accounts an OC, but he hails from the world of The Nightmare Before Christmas ^note with no Broad Strokes to Kingdom Hearts name-dropping both Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie in his backstory.
  • Sol/Eclipse is also another OC and hails from the world of Touhou Project, with the spirit of Mima in his head, but oddly doesn't name-drop Reimu or Marisa.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Surprisingly enough, the Trope Namer does this in a Smash-related fanfic, being the Guardian of the supposed new-antagonist King Sorius before it's revealed that he is the Guardian of Ganon.
• Human-Focused Adaptation: While most of the Smashers are indeed human, the Guardians tend to get most of the focus in the fanfic, carrying much of the backstory and angst, as well as the narrative spending more page time and focus on them rather than their Smashers.
• It's All About Me: To a lesser extent, Traca. Explaining her motives for finding out who she is brings out the bulk of the conflict regarding him and Golfer, and this leads to Heather promptly telling her to manage her own rage regarding the situation.
• Karma Houdini
  • Psyche, who never once considers Pit's perspective and constantly does abrasive things in battle despite the insistence of her Smasher, gets amnesia in the final act and gets away with all of the things she said.
  • Squall regarding his treatment of Mah, intending to sell the girl to slavery and locking her up near a pirate who nearly sexually assaults her.
  • Downplayed with Cameron, who, while feeling remorse for his actions upon Ike possessing him, willingly killed and eviscerated millions of laguz to survive, essentially justifying genocide.
  • Traca never once admits that she had been a selfish person who cared more about her own desires (finding her identity and parents) and never formally apologizes to Golfer.
• Killed Off for Real: At the end of the story, Meta Knight, Samus, Captain Falcon, Mr. Game and Watch, Diddy Kong, Wario, and Pichu all die in the end despite having reclaimed their bodies through their Guardians.
  • Heather is the only Guardian to die in the story.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Nao. He stole those pages from the diary.
• Limit Break: The Guardians inherit the Final Smashes of their respective Smashers when they come into possession of their Smash Ball. It's also the main attack that returns the Smashers' souls into their bodies.
• Made a Slave: What Squall intends to do with Mah. The real motive behind this is that he hates being a pirate and intends to sell her and the ship so he could buy a piece of land with peers he wants to befriend.
• Mistaken for Gay: Rinku and Cimar are pretty much the butt of everyone's gay jokes, starting with Picho and Pichn noting how rather close they are since they're the Guardians of Link and Zelda, respectively. Then a good chunk of the Smashers and Guardians get in on the joke.
• Mood Whiplash: The dissonant mood is rather common throughout the story. One minute, it shows how cruel and crapsack the world brought about by Tabuu is, with people forced to horrible conditions because of it. The next scene could possibly have either Mars, Eric or Aly in their usual antics, Ridere breaking out into slapstick in the middle of a conflict, or Picho and Pichn cracking a gay joke at Rinku and Cimar's expense. One minute the Guardians break into the Smash Mansion to try and gain the rest of the weapons of the Smashers, and later on, Rinku gets a sword he calls the "Gamersword".

N-Z

• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sonic crashing into Tabuu's wings during the finale of The Subspace Emissary causes one of the wing's shards to crash into Sol/Eclipse, which slowly makes Tabuu's mind slowly consume him.
• No Sympathy for Grudgeholders: Golfer pretty much gets a lot of flak from the rest of the Guardians for this reason. He still maintains a grudge against Traca for abandoning him in the middle of a critical mission even though her motive at the time was that she was swayed by Clark Wolfon to abandon him in exchange for finding out about her parents.
• Non Sequitur: Cam and Cimar have a little debate on whether to teach the Guardians basic language skills or prep them up for the upcoming battle. Eric cuts in the middle of their conversation. While Cimar points out that it's better to learn tactics in the middle of battle...
  Cimar: Books are not useless! They are filled with plenty of-
  Eric: Random crap we don't need on a battlefield! I don't give a damn on how many times Edward kisses Bella in an hour!
• Original Generation: The Guardians are original characters created for the fanfic to hold the souls of the Smashers until they can return to their bodies. By the end, with most of the Smashers dead, they take up the mantle as the "next generation of Smashers".
• Our Zombies Are Different: Chester and to an extent, KOR.
• Out of Focus: You'd think it happens to a majority of the Non-Main Guardians, who disappear for chapters and then reappear for small but important scenes. Example: Sam doesn't appear for a few chapters except as small bits of no importance, then mentions the missing Guardians and goes to find them, needing to be rescued himself later.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Ridere, whose primary source of comic relief revolves around internet memes, references to pop culture in a dystopian setting, and many other slapstick antics that stick out from the dysfunctional world.
• Really 700 Years Old: Traca, despite looking and thinking like the mostly teenage cast, is actually a manakete with years behind her.
• Ruder and Cruder: For a fun party game-based fanfic, there's really copious amounts of swearing both from the Smashers and Guardians.
• Self-Insert Fic: The fic is composed of various characters who are self-inserts of the people who assisted in the fic's writing. Of the Guardians, the author of Heather denies that she is a self-insert of their own making.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Link keeps saying Zelda is not his girlfriend, while Zelda refuses to admit she has feelings for Link at the story's beginning.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Tabuu pretty much forces the humans of Smashvile into producing Fake Smashballs for him to use.
• Soul Jar: How the Smashers still live despite losing their physical bodies to Tabuu. Many of them are disembodied from their previous bodies which have been taken over by Shadow Bugs, and their souls, taking the form of gases, are sealed within specialized containers that only awaken when their respective Guardian is "ready for their presence". This, in effect, makes two instances of this trope in the same context: the actual Soul Jar item itself and the Guardian, who's a living, breathing being. Wolf manages to exit his Guardian and regain his body far earlier than the rest, though Heather, his Guardian, is still alive.
• Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: By far the franchises with the biggest amount of focus are The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Fire Emblem (even then the Tellius lore and games get more attention), and a slight lean on Kid Icarus.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Despite merely being vessels to hold the Smashers' souls, the Guardians have more focus than the supposed Smashers they are supposed to share the spotlight with.
  • Heather becomes this as the story progresses, with much of the story focusing a lot on her angst and her involvement with the Wolfon family.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Naskara, who at her first appearance used her helmet to conceal her identity.
• Token Adult: Heather, who is the oldest (discounting Traca, who still acts like a teenager despite being a manakete who lived for many years) of the group at 25.
• Trigger-Happy: Aly, a gun-toting Arwing Pilot who flaunts her firearms so much.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Psyche treats Pit, the Smasher who saved her life by taking over her weak body to fend off a soulless Marth that just killed her friend, like crap. Both parties end up being jerks to one another up until the near-finale where Pit apologizes to her even though she's said quite the amount of badmouthing to him as well.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Eric and Mars are very prone to having petty arguments over each other, with Aly sometimes joining in the fun. Despite this, all three are staunch friends with one another.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Golfer is on the receiving end of this over the course of multiple chapters. Cam being the main source of pain.
• Why Won't You Die?: Cam is the living embodiment of this, possessing the Miracle skill.
  Ike: Basically kid, you're one walking anti-death machine.
• With Friends Like These...: Psyche and Pit are supposed to be "professional partners", yet they don't have the best relationship amongst the Guardians.