Brawl in the Family is a gag-based webcomic hosted on Keenspot starring Kirby, and featuring various video game characters, mainly those that have appeared in the Super Smash Bros series, but most of the plots and running jokes are based on Kirby and King Dedede. It is written and drawn by Matthew Taranto, AKA TriforceBun from the Phoenix Wright Musical Project.The comic usually uses a fairly simplistic art style, originating from bored-in-class sketches and doodles. There is more complex art on occasion, including homages and tributes to the styles of other artists.It's also very funny and very cute. (That is, when it's not super disturbing.) If you are a Nintendo fan, this is a web-comic you must read.Due to Matt's Crohn's disease acting up, the series went through a Series Hiatus just before the 400th comic for over a month and a half, and fans wished him well in this forum thread. However, on April 10th, he announced that the series will be regularly updated again now that he's been taking medicine. He later got married in June 2012 and took another hiatus due to his honeymoon. That hiatus ended July 3, along with the belated announcement that the first Brawl in the Family book would be released with at least the first 150 comics along with a huge amount of content depending on how much money is raised.
All There in the Manual: Dedede's teacher in Cocoon Academy is a Mr. Dragmire. Sound familiar? It shouldn't. This is the last name given to Ganondorf in the English manual of A Link to the Past, and hasn't been mentioned in canon since.
2013: Matt claimed to be a bit tired of doing BITF, so he drew "B.Royale In The Family."
Art Evolution: After experimenting with a particular shading style for the monochrome comics, it ascended from a one-time visual effect to a distinct style.
Ascended Extra: Considering the original media of the characters, Adeline.
Ascended Fanboy: Matthew recently got the chance to work with Howard Phillips of Howard & Nester fame after Howard was impressed by Brawl in the Family's Howard and Nester tribute. He's hard at work updating a weekly comic strip detailing Howard's life and work with Nintendo!
Ass Shove: No, seriously. One time, a while a Yoshi sat on its egg, the egg pushed through its bottom. it then spat a Shy Guy out of its mouth.
The Bad Guy Wins: In "A Mushroom Kingdom Carol," Bowser finally beats Mario basically by leaving the Mushroom Kingdom until old age catches up with the hero and then an adult Bowser Jr. comes back with a vengence.
In 2010, we get Jolly, Happy Jerk, in which he steals the presents from Whispy Woods while wearing the signature Grinch "crooked, jerky smirk"
For a literal brick joke, the dangers of invisible blocks are shown- with almost identical panels- in comics 71 (see Platform Hell) and 237's fourth comic.
The Gooey Bomb.
There's a (possibly unintentional) brick joke between this comic and this one. Certainly helps explain why the Noddy felt the need to give Kirby his own revenge.
Subverted in ''Cloud Watching''; Matthew originally intended for Luigi to get hurt, but he decided against it with a stern no and made Mario the victim.
This webcomic might be one of the few examples where Mario takes just as much abuse as his brother if not more.
Meta Knight in his first few appearances.
King Dedede gets a good share of the abuse (sometimes he deserves it, sometimes it just seems to be baaad juju).
Peach's appearance in "If it Takes a Lifetime" is meant to imply that it takes place in the same continuity as The Captive Princess.
One that almost happened, but didn't (still brought up in the mouse-over text) - Link pays a gossip and she would've mentioned hearing about Moblins playing with dolls, which references an earlier strip where a Moblin was playing with dolls.
Dream Land Mix calls back to multiple unfortunate situations involving Kirby's eating habits.
Christmas Special: How the King Stole Christmas for the 2008 holiday season, complete with a catchy Filk Song.
A Mushroom Kingdom Carol, for 2009, depicting Mario as Ebenezer Scrooge, Luigi as Bob Cratchett, Wario as Jacob Marley, Rosalina as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Kirby as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Shadow Mario as the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.
One in-universe strip features one between Lakitu's Cloud and Mother Brain. And she got pregnant!? Matt admits that this is one of his sillier ones. And their baby? Kracko, thus making this A Kracko pairing!
#409 Zora Lineage◊ has Ruto marrying Lord Jabu-Jabu. Their children are the River Zoras.
Meta Knight/Adeleine has been implied, mainly from Adeleine's side. One of her paintings portrays Meta Knight giving her a flower.
Deliberately Monochrome: While the comic is usually monochrome except for every 5th strip, A Mushroom Kingdom Carol made creative use of color. Christmas past is in color, red and green reappear once Mario regains his resolve, and once he saves the queen, full color returns.
We eventually see what his face looks like in the Cocoon Academy arc. It's not what you might think. Or exactly what you think, if you played any Kirby game with him as a boss.
Peach: "Actually, I'm fine! He never laid a finger on me."
Bowser Sr.: "Well, I'm not a monster."
Everyone Went To School Together: Most of the comic's characters went to Cocoon Academy, in a flashback story arc. Though a few did not.
Everything's Better with Penguins: Dedede, of course, who was much, much more penguinish when he was a kid. His father was a photorealistic Emperor penguin, and his mother regurgitated chum for him to eat, despite them all living in a suburban house.
Flat Scare: A variation. When Dedede and Meta Knight are stuck together by a Gooey Bomb and as Dedede is sweating Meta Knight flatly says "Boom" to get a rise out of Dedede.
Snake: But first, a drink. Waiter! Something light. Hm, water or punch? Yeah, punch sounds good. Punch. I'll take the PUNCH. NOW.
(Samus nods at Captain Falcon. He grins and adjusts his tie)
Captain Falcon:FALCOOOON...
Foreshadowing: A minor case, but Shadow Mario being the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come in "A Mushroom Kingdom Carol". Now, if you played that game, you should know who that really was... And now, consider who shows up near the end...
Four Philosophy Ensemble: In the Return to Dreamland comics, we have King Dedede as the Cynic, Kirby as the Optimist, Meta Knight as the Realist, and Waddle Dee as the Apathetic.
Fridge Logic: A lot of the In-Universe humor comes from applying the funny stuff from Nintendo games, and seeing what happens.
In "Where's Waluigi", in the lower left part of the scene Ike is seen showing off his enormous sword. Marth, who has a normal sized sword, is standing next to him looking annoyed, while Toon link is standing nearby looking a bit anxious about his very small sword. Does This Remind You of Anything?
Guest Strip: To celebrate Matthew's birthday, he allowed his family and his fiancé to each draw a comic for the week (the only person who didn't contribute was his mother).
Heroic Mime: Link, as always. It's been stated that, when necessary, he lets Navi do the talking for him. Subverted when the spirit of his CD-i selfpossesses him.
Subverted again in resolutions, Link's resolution is apparently "To speak his mind more." But before he can say it Navi shouts it out for him, drowning his voice.
Hidden Depths: Peach proves to be more cunning than she seems in this comic.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Played for laughs here. The idea is to look for Waluigi in the midst of a MASSIVE host of characters... but he's that easy to find because everyone in his immediate vicinity runs away from him.
Invoked also in the Kirby Super Star homage multi-comic, in the Spring Breeze strip. After Kirby sucks in one of the stars that come from Dedede's ground pound attack, he stops and thinks "What did I just eat...?'
Interface Screw: A rare non-gaming example. If you're going on an Archive Binge using the old version of the site, you'll hit the 2009 Waluigi April Fool's page. There's no "next" button, so the only way to continue is going to the archive page and clicking the next comic in line.
Ironic Echo: Dedede's line, "I'm gonna get you, Kirby" has been turned back on him on a few occasions:
Once in the Cocoon Academy arc, when he got into a cafeteria fight with Pinky.
In the Alt Text for one strip in the sleepover arc.
Klingon Promotion: Pichu is kicked out of Brawl for being (gameplay-wise) a clone of Pikachu, but evolves into one soon after. He then uses a Poké Ball on Melee's Pikachu, and takes over his position. See Cheshire Cat Grin above.
Lampshade Hanging: They love doing this, mostly with Mario universe conventions.
Morton's Fork: If the waiter brings the soup that Waluigi hates, Waluigi will throw it in his face. If the waiter brings the soup that Waluigi likes, Waluigi will throw it in his face. If Waluigi brings the soup that Matt likes, Matt will throw it in his face.
The second as a tribute to common minions, sung by Bowser
Christmas 2010 featured parodies of Christmas songs, including Frosty the Snowmanhere, the Carol of the Bells here, and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" here.
Christmas 2011 featured a tongue-in-cheek homage to the Slippy Slidey Ice World, set to the tune of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas", here.
Comic 400, which also marked the comic's return after a long hiatus due to Matt's sickness.
The Playstation characters in "B.Royale In The Family." Word Of God is that this was intentional — he drew the characters from memory, then altered them. Kratos has an eyepatch (which, along with his facial tattoos, constantly changes position) for example.
One Person Birthday Party: One of the Waluigi-themed comics depicts Waluigi as the only attendee of his own birthday party. As mentioned in the newspost, one forum member rewrote the Downer Ending of the strip to portray Waluigi as someone who prefers to celebrate alone.
Remembered I Could Fly: Strip 384 has Kirby, Meta Knight, Dedede, and Waddle Dee preparing to launch themselves upward out of a cannon to get an item. When an accident sends them flying into a wall, Dedede points out that they should just fly up there instead.
The Rival: Snake is this for both Captain Falcon (Romantically regarding Samus) and Olimar (In a contest of one-upsmanship in a vein similair to Spy vs. Spy.)
Round Robin: Turns out the Zombie Apocalypse was this all along, started by Dedede, disappointingly followed up by Adeleine, and horrifyingly concluded by Kirby.
Rule of Funny: The Pokéwalker can only give 1 level up per transfer to the device, and 24601 EXP is not nearly enough to get a Pikachu to level 74. Doesn't stop this from being goddamn hilarious.
Running Gag: Several, including Kirby's "Food!", and King Dedede's "We gotta get that Kirby!"
Don't forget Kirby eating Dedede and turning into a minature version of him.
Self-Imposed Challenge: Comic #200 has led to Pacifist runs of games, where the goal is to kill no minions (except those who are used to kill bosses) and if any minions are to die, have it be due to anyone other than the player i.e. a Koopa walking into a lava pit.
Played literally in "Cocoon Academy": Meta Knight was originally pink, like Kirby. He gets a blue color after swallowing Dark Matter.
One unconfirmed fan theory is that, since the only characters shown to have been covered in dark slime are confirmed future villains (and a raccoon from Animal Crossing), that entire fight was the incidental start of darkness for many characters.
Tomato Surprise: At the end of the "Cocoon Academy" arc, we learn that "Pinky" is actually Meta Knight. And Headmaster Hand is Crazy Hand. Master Hand and Kirby were never actually in the strip at all.
Took a Level in Badass: Mario is shown to be a dork in Cocoon Academy, with Luigi of all people being the popular one. But when Dark Matter attacked, Mario gains admiration upon spinning Bowser around and using him as a living flamethrower.
Traitor Shot: In the "Turnabout Kirby" arc, after Meta Knight gives the Judge evidence that Dedede may just be framing Kirby by showing his own flaws, Dedede angrily demands to know where Meta Knight got such evidence. He replies "Let's just say... I have an informant". Cut to the jury bench. The scene then zooms in on Waddle Dee as his eyes shift.
Also, when Meta Knight is "banned" (reflecting his real-life ban from Brawl tournaments): as Master Hand takes him away, he angrily raves about how he thinks it was Dedede who orchestrated this. It was actually Kirby, as the scene zooms in on him and he gives a barely noticeable smile.
Triang Relations: Type 4 between Samus, Captain Falcon, and Snake in "Snake in the Grass".
Video Game Cruelty Potential: Strip 200 makes you realize what a horrible, horrible person you are for playing the average Mario game the way the developers intended.
Hype Backlash: Some people, however, would like to point out that they're all trying to kill YOU.
Visual Pun: Comic #249 is advertised repeatedly as containing "excess gore, racism, foul language, public indecency, and frightening imagery". None of them are quite as severe as expected:
Excess gore: A number of televisions displaying Al Gore.
Public indecency: The Sneech and the Pokémon are naked.
Frightening imagery: A particularly creepy image of Tingle. Teddie too if you're familiar with Persona 4.
Wacky Marriage Proposal: Matt considered proposing to his girlfriend through the comic, complete with a Waluigi Time joke... but ultimately ended up going with a more serious proposal. Still, in terms of What Could Have Been, it's pretty wacky. ("Expecting a ring? TOO BAD. WALUIGI TIME.")
White and Grey Morality: The villains usually have a soft side to them, the heroes can be honest but have some bad habits, and most of the trouble of the world-ending kind is usually unintended. The only truly evil character is Dark Matter.
is a gag-based webcomic hosted on Keenspot starring Kirby, and featuring various video game characters, mainly those that have appeared in the Super Smash Bros series, but most of the plots and running jokes are based on Kirby and King Dedede. It is written and drawn by Matthew Taranto, AKA TriforceBun from the Phoenix Wright Musical Project.The comic usually uses a fairly simplistic art style, originating from bored-in-class sketches and doodles. There is more complex art on occasion, including homages and tributes to the styles of other artists.It's also very funny and very cute. (That is, when it's not super disturbing.) If you are a Nintendo fan, this is a web-comic you must read.Due to Matt's Crohn's disease
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