Gabaleth's name of the time Sephiroth was in the Smash Mansion is known as 'Sephiroth Brings Despair', it could be an un-official name for his arc. But the whole 'bring despair' gimmick works on both an in-universe and meta example. He's been bringing despair through the fake invite letters and his antics at the mansion, but it's all Played for Laughs. Nothing serious, but then comes DinnerDespair, he poisons everyone, creating his masterpiece. In a sense, you, the reader, found his antics before hand and his Laser-Guided Karma injuries funny, but then the dinner comes. You could be feeling despair that everyone is dead. Kazuya's late arrival is a "Ray of Hope" Ending, sparking that hope again. Sephiroth himself really does bring despair, be it to the comic's characters or the reader themselves.
He too may be the embodiment of the Hope Spot. Until Sora at the Door-ah, you could believed Sephiroth would be none the wiser about his masterpiece being slowly undone. But then he brings despair by realizing that his magnum opus is being undone, and tries to settle the score
Hellrasiers may be the biggest Hope Spot. The fighters had Xerneas to undo EVERYTHING, but then Sephiorth brings despair with Giratina, thwarting the plan and taking Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, and Xerneas.
During the "Sephiroth Brings Despair" arc, Falco accuses Sephiroth of painting Kazooie's chicks blue. However, it's impossible for Sephiroth to be the one who painted Kazooie's chicks, since Sephiroth was painting Easter Eggs, which can't hatch because they're hard-boiled. And an egg's color doesn't determine the chick's color anyway. So in spite of the fact Sephiroth was lying when he was telling Falco he changed his ways, Not Me This Time was played straight in that instance.
Kirby's survival could be credited to some errors on Sephiroth's part. According to the anime, Kirby doesn't need to eat an enemy to gain a Copy Ability, just something associated with the ability. And Poison Kirby is a thing. So Kirby simply turned into Poison Kirby without Sephiroth noticing and dropped the ability behind Kazuya's back.
How did the assist trophies survive Sephiroth’s poisoning scheme? They celebrated E3 (or not) in their own residence, the Assist Throphy Campsite. Sephiroth wouldn’t have targeted them due to their status, and Alucard, Waluigi, Spring-Man and Isaac are alive and well. In a sense, it was their very status as assist trophies and their own celebration that they avoided a poisonous fate. This is also ironic that the very status Waluigi hated for so long saved his hide in the long run.
Not only that, this error in judgement really became a detriment to Sephiroth seeing as the assist characters have been invaluable in reviving everyone, especially Waluigi.
Why does Death grovel before Kirby? Horrible implications and Kirby’s Memetic Badass status aside, Death's master Dracula bears similar powers: Kirby eats foes and transforms to use their powers, and can even eat a foe and summon it as an ally. Dracula steals souls to use their powers, can go One-Winged Angel, and can also summon monsters from souls. And given how much Dracula's appearance changes between games, it's possible that Death mistook Kirby for Dracula.
Kirby is implied to be a creature of darkness, which is another similarity to Dracula, (vampires being creatures of darkness).
Incineroar being unable to catch any of the remaining Pokémon fighters makes a bit of sense since he was on the first route. Plus, the remaining Pokémon fighters (except Mewtwo) are all gift Pokémon in X and Y. He also had to keep his presence in Kalos secret since he is from a later generation, so he could not obtain them the way a player could. Although that does question why he was able to get into Kalos in the first place.
Incineroar catching other Pokémon. He's in the same Egg Group as Oranguru, which is stated to be able to use items like trainers.
Meowth is also in that same Egg group. As noted below, Incineroar is an Expy of Team Rocket's Meowth.
Incineroar is aware of Sephiroth's Long Game. He’s part Dark type, so he can notice if people are being evil. He's also based on a Heel, so he knows acting!
Reinforced in Miis Aplentii where he dresses a bunch of Mii Gunners as Doomguy to scare off Sephiroth and his Awoofy. Incineroar was likely aware that Sephiroth was trying to spy on them or launching an attack soon, and thus Invokes Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? on Sephiroth to chase him out.
How come Shulk was simply able to be revived using normal healing spells? It shouldn't work on allies that are dead, right? Well, if you think about it, Shulk's basically a zombie before losing the Monado in his game, so...
Dr. Light giving Mega Man a new head (or 1-Up) to fix him seems like a cop-out, but it actually makes sense lore-wise. All Robot Masters in the Mega Man series (and according to the wiki, Mega Man is a Robot Master) have a special cognitive circuit in their body that gives them their personality and thought processes. As long as this circuit is intact the Robot Master can be rebuilt good as new no matter how severely they are damaged, and canonically Mega Man always avoids damaging the cognitive circuit when fighting Wily's Robot Masters so they can be rebuilt and rehabilitated. Now whoever said the cognitive circuit was necessarily in the head of the Robot Master?
It makes sense why Waluigi didn't ask Incineroar a spot in the roster, instead of a photo of him acting like he is, in return of helping him and the living fighters. Waluigi knows Incineroar doesn't have the power to grant that, plus he had years of experience trying to sneak in and failing, at this point he's given up on the unconventional methods. It also is bit heartwarming given that he's taken Ridley's pep talk from Christmas eve to heart, he's simply waiting now, as well as enjoying his internet fame while it lasts. It also explains why he was so willing to help them bring the Mario characters back, he's more accepting of his position and has mellowed out, given how he was so quick to help Incineroar and Kazuya.
It also saved him from a fake entry ploy that King K. Rool used on Spring-Man to bring back Min Min, Waluigi probably would have not fallen for it, thinking it'd be too good to be true. It can also indicate that Spring-Man might take Waluigi's place as well, since he made it clear that he hates Min Min for supposedly stealing his spot.
Reinforced in "Super Sun Bros.", which states that Waluigi is welcome via a sign on the door, and "A Friendly Awakening", where Waluigi, while confused, willingly helps with reviving Robin. Finally, "On Sephiroth's Left", he cements his Heel–Face Turn by being part of Byleth's cavalry. Also interesting to note, Spring-Man is not seen in as part of Byleth's calvary, implying that he has become what Waluigi once was.
Why didn't Mipha's Grace kicked in when Link was dead? Other than her spirit moving on or game mechanics, she most likely did not know his predicament. Everyone is shocked to find their respective smash fighter who is a Family/Friend/Companion dead, so they are just finding out about it the day of. Some exceptions are when they figure it out themselves through other means, but in Mipha's case, no one bothered telling her or anyone. Not only that, if Isabelle did know, they probably lacked any sort of methods in contacting her too.
It makes sense why Richter was freaking out about Link being sealed in the Shrine of Resurrection for a hundred years, but what about Rosalina? As a Physical Goddess, surely she could live that long, right? Maybe, but her motherly nature means that she knows everyone else in the Smash House (with the exception of Palutena, Pit, Dark Pit, and possibly Bayonetta and Ridley) would be long dead. And Link would wake up to a largely empty Smash House. She couldn't handle the idea of someone being that sad due to her nature.
Link might be in a Stable Time Loop right now. Because Kass failed to mention that it takes one hundred years in order for Link to be revived via the Shrine of Resurrection until after he had locked Link's body inside the chamber, it forced the group to use Dialga and Palkia in order to travel into the future to pick up Link, but because they go back in time, Link is still healing inside the Shrine, which he will be healed just in time for the group to pick him up again in the future.
Why was Steve unable to get any sleep despite the only thing that was bugging him and Ganondorf was rain getting into their tent. Well, Ganondorf is the king of monsters. Steve could not sleep because Ganondorf was right next to him.
King Dedede refers to himself and Meta Knight as "Kirby Villains", despite the fact they rarely get any villainous nowadays. However, Sephiroth is the only villain who averts Mean Character, Nice Actor, so it's likely that Dedede and Meta Knight's heroic actions are caused by the fact the two made the fact that they are Mean Character, Nice Actor public.
How did Sephiroth somehow end up between the world of Elden Ring and the Forgotten Land at the end of Go Touch Some Grace? He probably used Palkia. If you look closely at his waist, you'll see Poké Balls. Whether those balls contain Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, Xerneas, and Giratina (the bonus preview shows Sephiroth possibly exploring with Giratina) is unknown, but considering how he dimension-hopped that quickly, it's unlikely a farfetched idea that he still has the legendary Pokémon with him.
That would explain why he only got off with a black eye when the other fighters would have made what Doomguy did to him with the dickbutt prank look tame.
Why is Sephiroth still evil while the other villains are friendly, even ones who weren't Affably Evil in their home games like Ganondorf, Dark Samus or Ridley? Because Sephiroth was never invited to Smash Bros, he just showed up, skipping whatever normal procedures prevent the fighters from causing too much trouble.
Depending on the game the fighter is from, they can just revive themselves, as shown by how Steve simply respawns in Bayonetta's bedroom after he died, revive when a certain state is reached, as once Bayonetta announces "Round 2", the fighting game characters automatically revive using After-Combat Recovery, since they're already "KO'd", or even revive from a character that's always with them, as shown by how Sothis revives Byleth immediately after she drank the poison.
The bonus panels show Dark Samus getting annoyed at Wii Fit Trainer for trying to correct her yoga pose. This makes sense when you consider that Dark Samus is actually a Metroid turned into a clone of Samus via a combination of her DNA and Phazon. Naturally this means Dark Samus would have many of the same abilities, including the ability to change into the Morph Ball, which requires quite the degree of flexibility. So you can imagine why Dark Samus would be annoyed at someone questioning her ability to do yoga.
Why was Pac-Man's world the only one to be so strict about it's rules in reviving people? Well it's not really a world, just a game. Granted they followed game rules before, such as F-Zero, but unlike F-Zero, this time they decided to try to use a method that would really just go against the game, which is kill a ghost that isn't vulnerable.
Given how strict it was for Pac-Man's world was, it's a good thing Sora found a clever way to bring back Mr. Game and Watch and not having to go to Flat-World.
Palutena doesn't look any younger after her dip in the Rewind Spring, while Little Mac was de-aged into a toddler very quickly when Samus was distracted and left him in just a little too long. This should be no surprise, since Mac is a mortal while Palutena is an ageless goddess (with the added implication that her human form is not her true form and that she's actually an Eldritch Abomination). She could have stayed in there for a very long time with no issue, if not indefinitely.
Why didn't Snake wind up getting younger? Most likely he wasn't in there very long. In addition, as a clone of Big Boss and enhanced by nanotech, his body's genetics aren't the same as Little Mac's (ironically, the same combination would cause him to age rapidly in his home series).
Bandana Waddle Dee being able to wield four weapons that Only the Chosen May Wield might come down to the context of when he wielded them. The Monado and Keyblade require great strength of will and heart respectively for someone to properly wield them, and at the time Bandana Waddle Dee was determined to use NOVA to revive King Dedede, so that's covered. As for the other two, the Master Sword is inhabited by Fi, a servant of the Goddess Hylia. And the Vampire Killer was forged from the soul of Sara Trantoul, betrothed of Leon Belmont, ancestor to Simon and Richter. Normally these two will only let a reincarnation of Link (for the Master Sword) and a member of the Belmont Clan (for the Vampire Killer) wield them. The fact that they make this one exception is likely due to how much they want Sephiroth to pay for killing those they are close to.
A later comic reveals that there's a schedule on who takes care of Little Mac, with Rosalina getting Wednesday. This makes sense, given that she's a mother figure to the Lumas and has been taking care of them for centuries.
Richter taking care of Little Mac on Fridays makes sense when you consider that he did rescue and go on adventures with 12-year old Maria Renard during his first encounter with Dracula.
Why is Wario one of Little Mac's caretakers? Because some of his employees are children: Kat and Ana, 9-Volt, Penny, and Lulu. He also has 5-Volt, 9-Volt's mom, so she might've given him some advice as well.
It makes sense that nobody noticed that Byleth's "body" was an obvious dummy doll up until now. Incineroar insinuated that there were already a lot of Anime Sword Fighters, so many that he mistook Alm and Celica as fighters as well. Everyone just never bothered checking each one.
Given how some of the characters are Only Mostly Dead, it gives the term "revive" a whole new meaning as it basically means to wake them up from their coma.
Why did Byleth know that Joker knows a way to help change Sephiroth's heart? She saw that he could do it with the smash fighters, as it was hinted in his official trailer doing it to King K. Rool, leading him hanging out with the Kong family in Banjo's trailer. We know that their reveal trailers are available to watch seeing as Lakitu is the official cameraman for them, since Incineroar and Kazuya used the latter's to prove Kirby is alive.
Why do we only see four of Joker's fellow Phantom Thieves when they come to help him? Morgana is obvious, since he lives with Joker. Futaba as well, since Joker usually stays in her adopted father Sojiro's cafe. Ann and Ryuji are in the same school year as him and attend the same school (Ann is even in Joker's class). So why don't Yusuke, Makoto, and Haru show up? Assuming the comic takes place after Persona 5 Strikers (evidenced by Sophia showing up as a Spirit) Makoto and Haru are likely too busy with college. As for Yusuke, he goes to a completely different school from the rest of the Phantom Thieves and his art career has recently been taking off big time, so he's likely too busy as well. Either this or the three of them simply just stayed back at Tokyo.
In order to revive Cloud, the group needed a Phoenix Feather, the bigger the better, Barret just plucks one from Kazooie and it work, meaning that Kazooie counts as a Phoenix in Final Fantasy. Why is this? Kazooie is a Breegull, and they are said to have a strong resemblance with the Hoatzin, a real life bird species, and they do look like a Phoenix themselves, at least by their usual depictions. Given how this entire journey hinged on bending the rules here and there with different game logic, this was a good enough reason for it to work.
Also, while the group was in the Pokemon world trying to revive the Pokemon characters, Kazooie took the form of Ho-oh, a legendary Pokemon often referred to as a phoenix.
Morgana seems a bit battle hungry in Sephiroth's Palace, encouraging beating up the Shadows. Normally he's the one encouraging more subtle tactics, including negotiating with the Shadows. The reason for his more berserker idea is likely two-fold. One, they're short on time. The Phantom Thieves don't know about Byleth's army of heroes holding back Sephiroth's army of villains, so for all they know time is of the essence. Two, Joker likely already has a full Persona Compendium, meaning there's no need to negotiate since most players use that mechanic to gain new Personas rather than money or items.
While The Rant implies Meta Knight pulled a Face–Heel Turn due to being bitter over being nerfed after Brawl, it's also possible he's still pissed over wasting his time and talents on the arduous quest to get the Drink of the Gods to revive Pit when the others could have used Floor Ice Cream the entire time, making his efforts All for Nothing. Dark Pit being revived by the Drink but pretending to stay dead just because it was pink was some extra embarrassment.
Subverted; turns out that was actually Kirby in disguise.
However, the reveal that it was lovable Kirby as part of a trick is another case of Brilliance. Why would the other Smashers go through the trouble of having Kirby wear Meta Knight's armor and join Sephiroth's side, only to do nothing to help and then reveal the ruse when Seph is in a chokehold by Snake? Why not just have Kirby devour all the villains in his path as himself to toss that Friend Heart? Sephiroth tricked all of them into thinking that he had turned over a new leaf and then killed (almost) all of them after they had let down their guard, and even before that had a habit of malicious trolling. The fighters are giving him a taste of his own medicine before they deliver their trump card.
It makes complete sense into why none of the Smash Villains sided with Sephiroth in the final battle. Barring Kazuya and Incineroar, who started the whole quest to begin with, they were all brought back by choice, even Samus decided to bring Ridley back (though it's stated that she did so since he would just come back from the dead anyway). In turn, they all pitched in their fair share of the work as well, and a bond grew for it. Also just as importantly, Sephiroth still killed them, they would still be mighty nettled by it. Best case scenario, they choose to fight with their friends, worst case scenario, they want to hurt Sephiroth for being an asshole.
Adding to that, with the execption of Sephiroth, all the villains are Mean Character, Nice Actor(s); Ganondorf saved the ones who revived him (which included Sheik) from being sacrificed by the Yiga clan. Ridley was dedicated to bringing Ness and Lucas back (and before that, gave Waluigi advice to enjoy his time on the internet spotlight, leading to Waluigi's Heel–Face Turn). Bowser fought off Sephiroth, and helped revive the space fighters with Sora. Wario, despite being a crass jerk who pulled the Karma Houdini card multiple times, still chose to help reviving the other fighters rather than sit around and do nothing. Even when K. Rool used a more unconventional method (interrogating and then pranking Spring Man), he was still attempting to bring Min Min back (and Spring Man was being a dick about it, so his pranking was deserved). Dark Samus is in a relationship with Simon so she'd definitely be against Sephiroth (and a bonus panel would later have the two have Bayonetta join said relationship as well).
Isabelle 2 notes that the Change of Heart takes a while to take effect, that could also be due to the fact that they also took Sephirtoh's Treasure, which players of Persona 5 would note that, if you decide to beat the Palace's boss before the deadline you're given, you have to wait until the deadline for the change of heart to happen.
In Brotrip, Incineroar is disguised as a Paldean trainer despite also being a Pokemon. Since we don’t know if his species is in the Paldean Pokedex, this may be to prevent border control from affecting them. And he had encountered it before, so he’s not taking any chances this time.
The three Smashers fighting themselves instead of a Pokemon battle could be chalked up to them being used to fighting each other. Also, Incineroar, despite his disguise is still a Pokemon so him fighting is still technically a Pokemon battle.
Sephiroth preferring Fuecoco over Quaxly. Given the Memetic Mutation of Quaxly being Donald Duck, someone Sephiroth has been up against and lost to, he would avoid anything resembling Donald!
A lot of the cases of Gameplay and Story Segregation when it comes to reviving/healing/replacing the fighters such as Morgana being able to summon Zorro in the real world can be justified by the note in the Xenoblade Chronicles comic "Silly fan comic logic > Xenoblade Chronicles logic".
Bayonetta is using her Bayonetta 2 design rather than her Bayonetta 3 design. It makes more sense when Bayonetta 3 reveals that there is a multiverse and thus Bayo 2 and Bayo 3 are distinct characters. It also makes it easier for Bayo 2 to be in a relationship with Simon and Dark Samus in comparison to 3 when she and Luka Redgrave are together.
Sora capturing Arceus is something related to some stuff about Sora in the Kingdom Hearts lore. In KH1, a big deal is made about Sora opening a door of some kind. While this was mostly dropped since Chain of Memories, the Dark Road finale brings it back in a way with the "Child of Destiny" Xehanort heard about from his caretaker. This "Child of Destiny" will supposedly fix every bad thing with the Kingdom Hearts universe. And Xehanort thinks he's the Child of Destiny. Now, the caretaker's description of the Child of Destiny fits Sora pretty well. And Xehanort's life ambition was opening the door to Kingdom Hearts. But where does Arceus fit in all of this? He's a Pokémon, not a Kingdom Hearts character. Well, in this comic's setting, all video games share the same universe, or at least co-exist as if they always have (don't dwell on the logic for that). Arceus is the creator and Top God of the Pokémon universe, and so is the Pokémon equivalent to Kingdom Hearts itself. By capturing Arceus, Sora may have "opened the door" without realizing it, without ever learning about the Child of Destinyand without connecting the dots between Arceus and Kingdom Hearts.
At one point, Incineroar googles whether it's morally acceptable to have feelings for a friend's Pokémon. The thing is, Incineroar himself is a Pokémon, and the "friend's Pokémon" in question is Kazuya's Meowscarada. According to Pokémon breeding rules at least, Incineroar having feelings for Meowscarada is acceptable, since they share an egg group.
Ann being aware of Morgana's attraction to her (which allowed her to incite him to action just by saying she'll be heading out in her Panther suit) seems to indicate the comic is following the Persona 5 Royal continuity. After all, can't get more obvious a sign of attraction then presenting a lady with a bouquet of roses every time Ann and Morgana pull off their Showtime attack.
Sakurai ensuring that Incineroar was put under house arrest for nearly leaking out the final two Smashers seems excessive, but he probably did it to ensure that Sora would be safe from whatever Sephiroth planned for him. Sora was the only person that could make Sephiroth run for his mother and he even mutters how "No one told me he was coming!". Had Incineroar revealed this out in the open, Sephiroth would've gone for Sora and killed him to ensure that no one could stop his plan. It also could explain why he went into hiding — if Sephiroth learned that this was Sakurai's intent the entire time, well, the creator of Smash Bros. wouldn't have long for this world and since he isn't a video game character, there's nothing to revive him.
It also serves as a unique Mythology Gag as well. In Subspace Emissary, Dedede was doing dickish moves but ultimately he became the hero of the entire story. Who voiced Dedede again?
During the Revival Arc, Pichu is revealed to have been wearing a Focus Band which Byleth took and put on Joker to get his help. Being the lightest fighter, Pichu would of course be wearing these to survive a big hit and retaliate and it's also most likely a nod to how the early strips depicted Pichu as a masochist who preferred to be called "Blackrose" before it was phased out.
In the Revival Arc, Hades closes off the Rewind Spring to the fighters after they revive Little Mac and Palutena, but has an Idiot Ball moment where he falls for Shulk's plan to revive Snake by disguising a box with his corpse inside as a box of cleaning supplies for the Spring. However, bear in mind that the Spring is noted to work incredibly fast, to the point that what had to be less than a minute submerged turned Little Mac into a baby. Hades probably assumed that, even if it was a trick, the Smasher inside would be rewound out of existence, especially given the fact that no one would be there to pull them out and there would be a box trapping them. He just didn't know that Snake would be able to wake up and get out in time.
Although he isn't a Pokémon, Sonic's love of spicy food does fit with an aspect of his personality: he can be very adamant at times and adamant is a nature associated with the spicy flavor in the games.
Young Link Tarzan-like story with the Lynels has some weight to it. Young Link was adopted into the Kokiri Forest thanks to his mother's dying wish to the Great Deku Tree. He never learned more about his parents, nor did he even fit in with the other Kokoris, some even hated him after the Great Deku Tree dies and they blamed him. Throughout his adventure, he's never really had any sort of comfort as parental love. The Lynel couple, at least the mother, already loves him, so it makes sense why he's going along with it, he wants more of that love.
When Incineroar Gigantamaxed, his uniform got turned to shreds, and he's back to his regular naked self when he changes back. But then, he spends the rest of the arc wearing Team Star's flag as a toga (Ortega's flag, to be more specific). It might have a few explanations as to why:
He spent the entirety of the Paldea arc passing off as a human, so if he wore nothing after getting his clothes destroyed, it might've raised some eyebrows to the Paldeans. Considering he eventually takes it off when fighting against the Maushold infestation back in the Smash House, this is the most likely explanation;
He must've gotten used to wearing clothes since he spent so many weeks with the uniform (and even before that in the previous arc, he temporarily had to wear full outfits when his fur was shaved off, but stopped once it grew back), so he might have developed a slight sense of modesty because of that;
He was also going through conflicting feelings with Meowscarada, and if he had remained naked like the latter was, it would've their interactions even more awkward. This was resolved when Meowscarada eventually falls in love with Feral Fangs (Incineroar's fan-made Paradox variation), who is also only clad in a toga-like attire.
In "(Re)Call Home", one of the houses wrecked by Pikachu shows Geralt and 2B are living together. Both characters are not only popular crossover characters in multiple games, but are even in the same one in Soulcalibur VI.
Why did Rauru give Pikachu his left arm when Pikachu's left arm was intact a few panels ago? Well, if you remember, in Tears Rauru gave Link his arm because Ganondorf crippled it. Here, Tears Ganondorf couldn't cripple Link's other arm because Link was already pissing Tears Ganondorf off, he couldn't cripple the other Links because doing so would have caused a time paradox (nevermind that the Zelda timeline is extremely messed up anyway), he couldn't cripple Zelda because she's a reincarnation of Hylia and, in Tears, she's also Rauru's descendant, and Tears Ganondorf was already dealing with Rauru's arms so Zelda had ancestral protection from two fronts, and he couldn't cripple Smash!Ganondorf because he doesn't want to cripple himself, leaving Pikachu as the best option.
In the Yet Another Christmas Carol arc, it makes sense that King Dedede is the Ghost of Christmas Present and that Sans and Sephiroth share the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come.
For King Dedede as Ghost of Christmas Present, we need to take in account Dedede's character evolution in his home series throughout the ages. Dedede started out as a greedy Jerkass, just like Wario, but became softer and nicer throughout the years. How it happened? It was all thanks to Kirby showing him how nice is to be kind. The role of Ghost of Christmas Present fits him because "present" in this context is "now" (as he himself points out), and the very tactics that Kirby used to bring Dedede's Heel–Face Turn are something the Ghost of Christmas Present would do to someone like Wario.
For Sans and Sephiroth as the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come, let's take a look at that spirit's role in the original story. That spirit was showing Scrooge the despair he and everyone he knows would face if he'd going on the way he is. And despair is a bad time. Sephiroth is the Bringer of Despair, and before fighting Papyrus on the Genocide Route, Sans warns you that you'll have a bad time if you keep going the way you are.
Zelda riding Farosh instead of Dinraal or Naydra to get out of The Depths is either a lucky stroke for her or a proper planning on her part given that the three elemental dragons in TotK are surrounded by appropriate severe weathers. Dinraal and Naydra are too dangerous for Zelda at that point, since she's only wearing a Yiga outfit which offers no protection against either burning or freezing weather. But Farosh's weather effect is thunderstorm, which not only doesn't affect ambient temperature but also will never harm Zelda since she's not carrying any metal equipment.
Rayman working alongside the Rabbids in the battle royale - he’s more tolerant of them since the Phantom Show DLC for Sparks of Hope, and the Rabbids depicted in the comic either uses Kingdom Battle weapons or is an Original Generation from the Mario + Rabbids games (Rabbid Kong).
Characters that can be revived with items (Mario, Pokémon, Donkey Kong) can retain their personality and don't need to be replaced. But there are some characters that can’t be revived that easily. One comic has Kazuya and Incineroar going to an island to find another Isabelle. Meaning the original Isabelle is truly dead. How many fighters might fall under this condition?
Becomes Ascended Fridge Horror in Cranky King, with the text "For newcomers: Sephiroth murdered all the Smash fighters and Kazuya and Incineroar are on a quest to revive/replace them."
Although, on a comforting note, the replacing aspect was only used with Yoshi (replaced by a new identical Yoshi), Isabelle (replaced by one of her many clones) and Piranha Plant (grown from a seedling the original Piranha Plant left behind). Incineroar does try to catch replacement Pokémon but fails and they revive their old ones anyway with Xerneas.
The replacement Isabelle is referred to as a clone of original Isabelle. Although in Hellrasiers, the original returns (and both her and the replacement Isabelle are refered to as "Isabelle 1" and "Isabelle 2" respectively). This may offer a possibility of not needing to replace all the fighters.
Sephiroth was able to poison Ivysaur, Lucario, R.O.B. and Mega Man. He was able to create a poison that characters who are immune to can get poisoned by. Or he made them drink herbicide and a metal corrosion agent.
Alternatively, they weren't killed by the poison, but by Kazuya throwing them into that volcano with the other fighters. Both Ivysaur (part Grass-type) and Lucario (part Steel-type) are weak to Fire-type attacks. This, of course, comes with it's own brand of Fridge Horror: given that Kirby was already alive when Kazuya was in the process of bringing him to the cliff, just how many other fighters survived the poison only to meet their end via volcano, and how did Kazuya not notice they were still alive?
Wouldn't have Sakurai and the Hands intervene Sephiroth’s poisoning scheme? Where were they when the poisoning occurred? Were they aware of the plan and allowed it to happen, or were they not?
Hellraisers reveals that Sephiroth is a Pokemon trainer to some extent and captures Giratina. Then he takes Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, and Xerneas for himself. And if it weren't for Doomguy's intervention, would have succeeded in killing everyone again. While tragedy was averted, the fact that Sephiroth has the Creation Trio and Xerneas and what plans he might have to keep his masterpiece in check is very worrying. Makes his final line before his departure much more ominous, like he's already planning something big: "See you REAL soon, nerds!"
Thankfully, if one looks back, Dialga, Palkia, and Arceus' Poké Balls are with Sephiroth, so Cyrus' presence is a Funny Background Event.
Reinforced in "Endgame Enemies", as Cyrus is absent from Sephiroth's Legion of Doom. Finally, in "Last Plane Home", Arceus, Dialga and Palkia are returned to their respective trainers (Sora, Samus and Wario), and while Xerneas is absent, Cyrus was only gunning for the Sinnoh legendaries, all of which are in the Smashers' possession now (Giratina was likely confiscated from Sephiroth). This all means that Cyrus's cameo was just that, a cameo.
Actually, no. The Smashers don't actually have all Sinnoh Legendaries. Only the Creation Trio and their boss/father. The Lake Guardians, the Lunar Duo, the Sea Guardians, Shaymin, Heatran and Regigigas are unnaccounted for. However, among those, Cyrus only needs the Lake Guardians to form the Red Chain so he could catch Dialga and Palkia. And since the two are in the Smasher's possession, the Lake Guardians are now useless for Cyrus.
It's Played for Laughs, but the question still remains why Isabelle was in Hell...
Isabelle going to Hell when she died might be for less nightmare-inducing reasons than one might think. Remember, she's a Workaholic. This means she's likely guilty of the Deadly Sin of Gluttony, which in this context would simply be an overindulgence of work even when it's not needed.
In Waddle Dee's Big Adventure, Shulk proposes they fix the Inklings' faces by splatting them again to do the process with the respawn point correctly. At the end of the comic, the Inklings are alright with their correct faces. While it's likely that Bandana Waddle Dee fixed the Inklings’ faces with his wish, if Shulk’s method actually happened, this means that the fighters essentially murdered them all over again, especially bad since Inklings are canonically 14 years old.
While it's cathartic as hell Sephiorth got another beatdown in the world of Elden Ring, the fact that he ends up in the Forgotten Land after said beatdown is worrying, especially considering if Fecto Forgo is alive in this particular universe.
With the Miis revived, it's fortunate that "Sans" is just Mii Gunner in a costume. According to Undertale lore, killing a monster (like Sans) turns them into dust, meaning reviving Sans is impossible. This really should be a wake-up call for the Smashers, since they've been jerks to Gunner ever since the Sans costume was revealed.
It might, since they've been revived via the Mii Channel like Brawler and Swordfighter. And in the revived Smash fighter pictures, they use their picture waving with the Sans head off, smiling. Whether the fighters have a Jerkass Realization remains to be seen, but it is a nice touch and a good start.
They're at least trying. In a later comic (when reviving Chrom), Isabelle 2 calls Gunner Sans, but then corrects herself right afterwards.
Pyra and Mythra have their halved core crystal in Smash Bros, indicating they're sharing their lifeforce with Rex. When they died, he died too.
Given how Isabelle 2 burned up the Xenoblade Chronicles lore books in a fit of frustration, the group is gonna have an extremely tougher time with their limited knowledge as is.
Luckily, this is proven false, as not only were they brought back basically with the same method as Shulk, but they were never dead to begin with, just fainted.
Among Sephiroth's Legion of Doom, a Shadow Heartless can be seen. The Heartless have a habit of turning evil people into other Heartless. And while it's just a Shadow, which should be easy to defeat (after all, Sora is among the Smashers), keep in mind that Sephiroth has been in Kingdom Hearts, so he knows how the Heartless work. Sephiroth brought the Shadow to turn his Legion of Doom into a Legion of Heartless in case something goes wrong!
GLaDOS might not turn into a Heartless. Given how she sees everything as a test and everyone as her test subjects, she might notice what the Heartless do to evil people. And, given that she was killed once, she's smart enough not to use the darkness near the Heartless (usually the Heartless assimilate persons if they overuse the darkness, which villains often do).
On that note, a Clicker is among the army's ranks. In other words, a zombie that also releases infecting spores. Plus, there's Giratina (a godlike Pokemon controlling antimatter), Zeus (the king of the gods), Dracula (the lord of all evil on his world), and Flowey (who can reset). Byleth and the Phantom Thieves better hurry indeed.
What happened to Xerneas? He's absent in both "Last Plane Home" and the Paldea arc. And given he was obtained via Incineroar starting a Wonder Trade, it means Incineroar owns Xerneas.
By the end of the "Sephiroth Kills Everyone" saga, there are still a few characters who remain dead or still recovering but forgotten. Yoshi and Pirahna Plant were simply replaced, despite the former more than likely could have been revived just as easily as the rest of the Mario cast, Link is technically still recovering in the Shrine of Resurrection, with his future self having taken his place, and had Isabelle not found a way to come back from Hell like Bayonetta and Villager, she would have been kept replaced. With all this happening, the Pokemon cast were simply lucky they actually made the attempt to revive them and not replace them, which they easily could have.
In "Sora at the Door-ah", Sora's invitation has a note saying "Don't tell the mouse". While it's a poke at the legal tape from Disney to get Sora into Smash Bros., it's probably to ensure their safety in case Sephiroth tried to go after them as well. After all, who's to say that Sephiroth was satisfied with killing the Smashers?
Well, Sephiroth may just kill the heroes if he gets into it, but if we also know of the Revival Endgame Arc, Sephiroth brought both a Shadow heartless AND Master Xehanort towards his side, and since they're from the same franchise like Sora, it's also means that (if it wasn't for the lawyering), Sephiroth would have also BROUGHT Most of the Disney Villains towards his side to defeat the smashers... and Disney's FULL of villains too...
Speaking of which, Sakurai vanishing isn't just due to Chuck Cunningham Syndrome; Sakurai's the one who negotiated Sora to get into Smash. He's in hiding because Sephiroth might have tried to kill him as well.
, Incineroar is disguised as a Paldean trainer despite also being a Pokemon. Since we don’t know if his species is in the Paldean Pokedex, this may be to prevent border control from affecting them. And he had encountered it before, so he’s not taking any chances this time.