Headscratchers / Super Smash Bros. Brawl

• Why does Crazy Hand's trophy appear under the Subspace Emissary category in the trophy collection when Crazy Hand never even appeared in that mode and clearly had no role in its story?
  • It's another problem with simply not doing the research. All the bosses fall under the SSE, so his trophy was just added because he's a boss just like the rest. Master Hand is there, so why not add his brother?
  • The SSE category is a default for most Original Generation things. Master Hand is Original Generation, so "Master Hand's category" is really the best place to have Crazy hang around.
• The arena where Mario and Kirby fought at the beginning of Subspace Emissary—who exactly are those spectators? They don't even react when the Subspace Bomb goes off and consumes them along with the stadium.
• Why is Rayquaza in a lake? It's supposed to live in the ozone layer.
  • It's on vacation.
  • I like to think that the Subspace Army chased it out of its natural habitat, so it's staying in the lake, waiting for them to bugger off.
  • Nah, it's just that Rayquaza has the worst luck. When Fox's Arwing was shot down by the Halberd, he probably smacked right into Rayquaza's head and knocked it into the lake. That's why it's so pissed at Fox.
  • Rayquaza believes that anyone who enters the ozone layer is invading his territory, so he was probably mad at Fox for flying through it. I guess he was hiding in the lake for the Arwing's pilot to come out, and he thought it was Diddy.
  • Deoxys pissed it off again, probably. By the way, why does it know Dig?
    • Maybe it's using Dive on land? (Hey, you can do that in the games!)
• In Brawl, how is it that Mario can be at a stadium with Zelda, but then not recognize Link when he's teamed up Yoshi, one of his best friends?
  • A better question would be: how could Yoshi believe that Mario is capable of what they thought happened? However, there is more than one Yoshi.
    • http://silentkv.deviantart.com/art/Yoshi-falling-48605263
    • Perhaps the trophies just jump up and fight at the first opportunity.
    • It's not that Mario doesn't recognize Link and Yoshi. It's that he's just seen Peach's trophy dissolve, which is tantamount to being Killed Off for Real in the Smash world. It's entirely understandable that he'd be a bit ticked off at Link under those circumstances.
    • I think it's important to point out that there are two alternate ways this scene plays out, just to avoid confusion.
    • Yeah, alternatively, one could see Link trying to stab Mario from above with a vicious downstab.
  • For those of you who did not comprehend the above, the princess whose "trophy" dissolves can be either Peach or Zelda, depending on which one you saved as Kirby. Furthermore, the character whose duty it is to constantly rescue that princess sees the other one on the scene, assumes the worst, and is justifiably pissed.
  • Hadn't by that point in time both of them experienced the doppelganger powers of the enemies? Perhaps they assumed the other one wasn't the real Mario or Link.
  • Why is this seriously here? Pay attention! In "Link's Misunderstanding", where Zelda seems to die, Yoshi looks reluctant to fight and even a bit confused. When it's "Mario's Misunderstanding", Mario is acting irrational. Yoshi and Link just defeated a FAKE Peach, but Mario thinks it was the real Peach because all he saw was the Trophy dissolving. Therefore, Yoshi wants to make Mario calm down, and since he's certainly not there for tea, the best thing to do is kick his ass, wake him up, and explain when he's too tired to try fighting again. NOW DO YOU ALL GET IT?! BTW, this same can all be said for Link's Misunderstanding, with some differences.
• In Subspace Emissary, how in Din's name does Ganondorf, a wizard from a medieval world who spends most of his time either dead or sealed away, know how to use a computer?
  • He doesn't. The R.O.B.s do all the grunt work while he just stands in front of the screen and acts menacing. Alternatively, the bad guys buy their electronic systems from the same place most first-time mecha pilots do.
  • He's a wizard. He probably has spells for understanding things.
    • He's also depicted as an intelligent man in general, and it isn't really known how long he's had to cook up his current plan before it was set into motion. He could have had plenty of time to learn.
    • Well, seeing as the Subspace Emissary takes place in some kind of parallel universe where all the Nintendo characters coexist, it isn't much of a stretch to assume that that world's version of Ganondorf would know how to use computers. Even if he were the original Ganondorf, though, I'm sure that he would teach himself how to use them. He'd gladly use anything he can if it furthered his goals.
  • I imagine there was a really awkward scene that they didn't show where Ganondorf slowly learnt how to use a computer screen, probably under Wario's instructions. Doesn't quite fit the rest, does it?
• What makes no sense is after Lucas and the Pokémon Trainer beat Galleom, why couldn't the Trainer release his Charizard as they were falling to their doom? I'm sure Charizard is strong enough to carry two boys.
  • Either he couldn't reach the Pokéball grabbed like that, or he was unconscious.
• Regarding the Subspace battle where Mario/Pit fight Link/Yoshi because of a misunderstanding with the princess. A huge part of Poor Communication Kills, but Mario's FRIEND was with Link at the moment ... why couldn't they just recognize each other and try to explain things?
  • From Mario/Link's point of view, this man had just killed off their princess. With Mario/Link's knowledge that Peach/Zelda would never intentionally start a fight, they would have assumed the other pair started it. It was more or less blind anger at that point, they weren't willing to listen to reason at the time.
  • Yoshi probably still holds a teensy bit of resentment at Mario for spontaneously kicking him in the shins on that one outing.
    • Really? Just the shins? What about all those times Mario used him to get over large gaps in Super Mario World?
    • Everyone ignores that Yoshi looks reluctant if you watch the scene where fake Zelda is beaten.
  • I'm pretty sure the trophies in this world live for the fight - they just needed a reason to set them off.
  • As stated above, Mario/Link is in a BLIND RAGE because a woman they care about has seemingly DIED PERMANENTLY! All they saw was the trophy dissolve, and that's all it took. In Link's Misunderstanding, Yoshi is CLEARLY reluctant to fight/confused as to why Link is upset with Mario. When it's Mario in a blind rage, he clearly knows that hot-blooded, rage-fueled fighter isn't gonna back down with a peace offering. Being trophified clearly tires you out: Obviously, the best way to handle this is kick his ass (MAYBE in some revenge, we all should know those were the PLAYERS' CHOICES) and explain once he's all tired out and ready to see what's actually there.
  • How do you know that Link's Yoshi is Mario's friend?
    • Exactly. It's the same thing with Toads; he is just a Yoshi. It, as far as we know, was just some random 1 out of millions of Yoshis just having a nap. He isn't THE Yoshi, he is just a Yoshi.
• Why did the R.O.B.s need Pikachu as a power source? Don't they have their own generators or something? And what was Ridley doing in their base? Was he working for Tabuu like the other villains?
  • Clearly Ridley just busted into their base to harass Samus. It's all he does.
    • Or Ganondorf got an alarm from the facility, told Ridley that it was Samus, and things just fell into place.
  • Most likely, it was as much to keep Pikachu out of the way as it was to get a power source. He's proven himself a hero in the past, so he's as much a threat as any. Note that they seemed to be specifically targeting Pokémon — separating Trainer from his partners, aggravating Rayquaza, etc. Pikachu's kidnapping fits into the pattern.
    • It seemed more to me that Trainer was catching Ivysaur and Charizard for the first time. To fill out his Pokedex, presumably.
  • Pokepunk.
  • My guess is that Ridley was working for the Subspace Army, and he was there to make sure Samus doesn't take back her armor. And I think that they were using Pikachu to power everything because he can produce more electricity than a generator.
    • Pikachu can produce a great deal more power than anything they had, so they may have been using Pikachu to power the machines that were copying the Power Suit. Freeing Pikachu shut production down, which is why you didn't have to fight an entire horde of SA-X.
  • The experiments looked like classic Space Pirate hijinx (namely, hurting others to benefit themselves). The pirates could have had a role similar to Bowser, or maybe one similar to Wario... in either case it seems they weren't popular enough for the game to bother clarifying.
  • Here's an idea: Ridley burst into the Island of the Ancients because, well, he's Ridley, and Ganondorf sealed him in the huge hallway so he'd be extra angry when Samus showed up.
  • It's possible that Ridley was contacted by Ganondorf and asked to help, likely with some big rewards in return (which I assume would be used by Ganondorf to ensure Ridley's loyalty); including the possibility of fighting Samus, who he has a personal rivalry with.
• What the hell were Ike and Marth doing after Meta Knight left them up until they all battled Tabuu?
  • In the cutscene right before Mario's party arrive for the battle in the canyon, you can see them chumming up with Lucas and PT. Presumably, they didn't follow Meta Knight up the mountain because they figured him retaking the Halberd was something he's got to do himself. Alternatively, since Meta Knight can fly, and therefore scale the mountain faster then any of them, they assumed that by the time they climbed the mountain, let alone reach the Halberd, the battle would be over.
  • They took the kiddos out for ice cream.
  • Well, it's possible that they couldn't even climb the mountain. MK could only do it because he has wings.
    • Indeed, they aren't Berserkers. Nor Brigands. And even then they'd go rather slowly.
  • They're master tacticians. They probably saw it best to keep the ground clear while everyone else took out the Halberd. For all we know they stopped the Meta Knight team being swarmed by Primids on landing.
    • The trainer looked pretty alive after he was grabbed and I think he could have gotten the ball after Lucas broke them free. If you meant Charizard, I don't see why it would be KO'd in the storyline since it was alive and kicking beforehand, and usually you can have all but one guy knocked out during the game and they magically come back in a cut scene.
    • He got knocked unconscious on the way up. Probably G-Forces. That's why Lucas had to grab him in the first place.
    • Alternate explanation: He doesn't have the badge needed to use Fly outside of battle.
    • Makes sense: For the FR/LG fly, you need to beat Lt. Surge. All our plucky hero had was a Squirtle...
    • How'd he catch Ivysaur and Charizard so easily though? Are they wild or did they belong to him and become separated?
    • I assumed he was always their trainer. He has pictures of them, like you'd have of a friend, and when he gets them back, the Poké Ball shoots out a red light, similar to how trained Pokémon return in the anime.
    • The respective cutscenes for capturing them are titled "I found you, Ivysaur!" and "I caught you, Charizard!" Make of that what you will.
    • He wanted to fill his Pokedex, of course. The real question is: How do you capture wild Ivysaur and Charizard on the Pokémon games?
    • Mew glitch.
    • Have you tried to fly as Charizard? He can barely carry himself up for a metre, imagine what it woud be like to carry a man and a boy up a massive tunnel.
    • Ever played Pokémon? Charizard learns the HM Fly which allows it to fly its trainer somewhere. Adding a little boy in the mix isn't that much more weight.
    • The Pokémon Trainer probably didn't use Charizard to save them because by the time he got it out of the Pokéball and issued the proper commands they'd be pancakes, they were falling pretty fast.
    • Alternatively, I'm sure people other than the owner can send out a pokemon, so why didn't Lucas send out Charizard? I'm just going with the explanation that Charizard fainted...
    • Because Lucas doesn't OWN Charizard, Pokémon Trainer does. The Poké Balls in regular fights are just Gameplay and Story Segregation.
    • Yes, but one doesn't have to be the mon's trainer to send that Pokemon out.
    • He does not have to own Charizard to send him out. But, he doesn't have the Pokeballs on him at all times, and they all look the same. Lucas doesn't know which Pokeball Charizard is in. He probably didn't want to accidentally send out Squirtle or Ivysaur and get them killed as well.
    • Doesn't a Pokéball have to hit the ground in order to release it's Pokémon? At least that's how it's in this game's battles and cutscenes. Not sure how it works in the Pokémon-games.
• In SSE, if you enter a certain door at a certain stage (don't remember right now, please edit in case you do), you get to see Jigglypuff's introduction movie. She's performing at a Pokémon stage, nothing wrong with that... no, wait. We know that the bomb exploded to make the Stadium part of SubSpace, and I can't see any cities anywhere (and the ruins that exist don't seem too city-like in a modern way). Can anybody explain where the heck the Pokémon Stage is supposed to be in this 'verse?
  • Different stadiums. The Stadium Jigglypuff is in does not exist until Tabuu is defeated, so it likely was not built yet.
    • Since all 3 stages where the post-story characters are fought are NOT part of the Subspace story, it's all non-canon and an excuse for those who don't want to bother with unlocking them via "playing many matches", or some such crap.
• In the cutscene when Mario notices Princess Peach in King Dedede's possession, why doesn't he give a shit that his own brother is also trophified?
  • Anyway, to answer the question, I suppose, since Luigi was upside down at the time, that it's possible that Mario just plain didn't see him.
  • Luigi doesn't have boobs.
  • Possibly he noticed them all, but zeroed in on Peach because she got trophyfied and captured while he was there, and also because she's in the first lineup and not a secret character like his brother. (IIRC)
  • Err... has anybody noticed that everybody in the Mario-verse despised Luigi? And that's it's been a running gag for Luigi to suck for the last 9 years or so.
  • It's so that the scene will work with minimum changes in the alternate campaign path in which Zelda is the trophy and it's Link who notices her.
  • Mario has faith in his brother to escape by himself, so he focuses on the less-capable princess.
  • Peach is usually completely incompetent when it comes to make her escape, therefore Mario acts out of habit. It isn't common for Luigi to get kidnapped, so he doesn't react as hard when he sees him trophified.
• Mario chases down Bowser, and he's about to catch him when Bowser defends himself with his hostage. This stops him and allows Bowser to get away. Now, there's something to be said for a plan that works, but can anyone conceive of a possible universe in which Bowser would deliberately use Peach as a human shield?
  • Given that he knows Mario won't hurt Peach? It seems reasonable that Bowser would bluff the hero.
    • In that same scene, the Peach trophy might be a Zelda trophy instead. Bowser knows that Mario wouldn't hurt a princess.
  • Besides, look at all the abuse Bowser gave Ganondorf's trophy. Not a scratch on it after all of that, though Ganondorf did "wake up" with a headache and no other character did, perhaps it was from Bowser's abuse?
  • On a related note, couldn't Mario have pulled his punch and... reached out his hand, touching her and restoring her to normal?
    • From the angle Mario was coming at, he couldn't have extended his hand in time to touch the trophy's base, he just would've punched it and hurt his hand.
• OK, why was there no confrontation between R.O.B. and Ganondorf near the end of Subspace Emissary? Ganondorf murdered all of R.O.B.s friends/subjects, laughing his ass off all the while! How could R.O.B. not confront Ganondorf when they teamed up?
  • 'Cause Ganondorf is friggin' scary.
  • I have to admit, they didn't cover all the bases right before the Great Maze. One, they didn't have much-braver Lucas meet with Ness. Still, the above could be explained by R.O.B. not seeing Ganondorf or that R.O.B.'s still BSODed from the destruction of his homeland.
  • Link and Zelda have way more rights to that beating than ROB does.
  • The Godzilla Threshold.
  • His programming has diagnosed a way more important problem at that point.
  • We never saw what happened after the story ended...
• Meta Knight's alignment in Subspace Emissary. In the Kirby games, he is MORE evil than Dedede, yet he is a protagonist in SSE. Sure, the Halberd was stolen, and you could use that as motivation to put him in with the good guys, making him simply Neutral in alignment, but he saves Lucas's life later on! Without any kind of motivation to do so that we saw! What's MORE bothersome to me is that Super Smash Bros was directed by the same person who directed his game!
  • He isn't evil in the Kirby games, just a Knight Templar.
    • He was the leader of a group of soldiers bent on destroying Dream Land with a giant ship that doubled as a massive weapon. How is that not more evil than Dedede who just stole Dream Land's entire food supply at worst?
    • That's the American version of "Revenge of Meta Knight". The Japanese version has Meta Knight wanting to end Pop Star's lazy ways and get everyone motivated to do stuff. Kirby does not agree with not being lazy and fights him.
    • That's not even the American version. The American version has him wanting to end laziness. The Japanese version mentions something about cleansing Dream Land's "corruption". It's never made clear on exactly what he means by that, but he's unquestionably good in Amazing Mirror and Squeak Squad, and is implied to be a Stealth Mentor to Kirby in Adventure, so it's likely that he had some Well-Intentioned Extremist ideas in mind. The worst you can accuse him of is being an Anti-Hero Antagonist, albeit one with very poor communication skills, Blood Knight tendencies, and an inability to tolerate Kirby's methods.
    • Wait, so, in order to be lazy, Kirby takes out an army?
    • It's the Principle of the Thing!
    • He went through Squeak Squad / Mouse Attack to get his cake back, so...
    • Plus, launching a massive gunship on Pop Star did seem to be crossing the line on "motivating".
  • He launched a giant weapon filled gunship that was also powered by wheelies, one of which sticks around to help Kirby against Meta Knight, suggesting resentment and possible forced labor. Meta Knight's at least as evil as Dedede, even if he has good intentions.
  • The events of Revenge of Meta Knight may have been staged in order to train Kirby (who just proved to be stronger than anticipated, destroying the entire ship), and that Meta Knight never actually wanted to take over Dreamland, seeing as he never tried anything of the sort again. Super Star was also only Meta Knight's second appearance, clearly the developers didn't really know where to go with Meta Knight's character, so we shouldn't base our views on him too much on this game since Early-Installment Weirdness applies.
• Sakurai told us that in the Subspace Emissary we would "see the characters struggle under the weight of their personal histories". And we saw Lucas go from being a wuss to a hero (since Mother 3 was never going to come to America)... Samus and Ridley have yet another confrontation... um... Pokémon Trainer catch some Pokémon... Diddy Kong almost get eaten by Rayquaza... yeah, Lucas is pretty much the only character who has anything worth calling "struggling under personal history". Unless Peach being kidnapped (yet again), Donkey Kong getting his bananas stolen (yet again), Zelda being captured (yet again), King Dedede doing something suspicious that turns out to be helping (yet again), etc. etc. somehow count.
  • Most Nintendo characters lack Character Development, so there wasn't much to do with them on that regard. Lucas is one of the exceptions. Still, it could've been handled better.
    • Well, Diddy rescued Donkey Kong after he got captured, which could be this, seeing as he was DK's partner in Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country Returns (yes, I know it already happened in Donkey Kong Country 2. Peach and Zelda kicked some butt after Snake found them on the Halberd, to contrast with their Damsel in Distress roles. Luigi saved pretty much everyone at the end of the game (along with Ness and King Dedede, but still). Master Hand (tried) to help out the heroes after two games of being the Big Bad. Samus... learned to work together with others? And... um, Pit got to do something after sitting around for 17 years.
• Why doesn't Zelda just teleport or switch to Sheik to break out of the cage?
  • Because both her and Sheik's teleport moves are blocked by terrain. The walls of the cage would have stopped her anyway.
  • She doesn't transform into Sheik because if she did, everyone would know her secret identity!
    • ...except that you can still transform in front of everyone... let's just chalk it up to Gameplay and Story Segregation.
• In The Subspace Emissary, something about two particular levels bugs me: The opening Mario VS Kirby fight, and the Meta Knight VS Lucario battle later on. You can play as either character and fight the other, which is a good idea and all, but here's what bugs me: if you lose, you get a Game Over, when really, shouldn't it have instead triggered the cutscene for the other character winning and just continue? Plot-wise it makes no sense, and when playing on Intense Difficulty it'd be a nice relief in case you lose.
  • It's Up to You in full effect. Yeah, I agree this one wasn't thought too far.
    • In addition to the above, it's probably also so the player doesn't get lazy and... well... stop fighting.
• When Lucario and Meta Knight discover Snake on Meta Knight's ship, Meta Knight and Snake almost fight due to a misunderstanding, but Lucario lets Meta Knight know that Snake is on the same side as them since Lucario sensed Snake's aura. So, if Lucario can tell that a person is good by sensing their aura...why didn't he do that when he and Meta Knight encountered each other on the summit? He has the abilities to know that Meta Knight isn't evil, so why did he fight him? Did Lucario just feel like getting in a good fight that day?
  • Perhaps both of them sensed a warrior's spirit within each other, and decided to communicate through their fists?
• What Link and Zelda were thinking when they revived Ganondorf. They're obviously hesitant about it, but do they really need the power of the unified Triforce so much that they revive the guy who has followed them across history, "dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time"? I mean, the guy has a history of backstabbing his "allies", and the moment they turn their backs he clenches his fist and covers it in purple energy before dispersing it and following them up the stairs.
  • They were about to fight an entity that OHKO'ed all of the heroes in one fell swoop before, and who Ganondorf clearly antagonizes (at the moment they find him), seeing how he's trophyfied. An entity who completely overpowered the Master Hand, which seems to be the closest thing to a god in the Smash Bros. canon (even if a malevolent one). Yes, they needed all the help they could find, that was an Enemy Mine situation if there ever was any.
    • Plus, the Power Creep, Power Seep of the Super Smash Bros. universe means that all it takes for Link to defeat him is a quick battle as opposed to a quest though the dungeons of Hyrule.
  • Essentially the Godzilla Threshold invoked in Brawl. If you're going to be going up against a Physical God, you may find yourself needing the warlock who wields the Triforce of Power.
• Just what exactly does most of Team Mario (Mario, Pit, Link, and Yoshi, specifically) accomplish in the Subspace Emissary storyline? Their appearance-to-accomplishment ratio is very wonky, since despite appearing for most of the early parts of the story they basically spend all their time chasing around the Ancient Minister or Dedede, but don't manage to actually do anything.
  • A surprisingly good point, especially since their most obvious goal of saving Peach/Zelda doesn't get accomplished until Snake, Meta-Knight and Lucario take over the case. They don't even recruit anyone to the cause. Their only true contribution to the final outcome, aside from being possible party members in the final assault, is hiding Dedede, Ness, and Luigi from Bowser, and that was by accident.
  • While they don't, they're all main heroes (except Yoshi, who's a pet), so they get a surprisingly good amount of screentime solely based upon their status. As for Pit, he's just a main hero, which is also why Kirby has nearly equal screen time (not counting being a Kirby character, and guaranteed importance in an obviously Kirby-inspired game and story). As for actual purpose, Pit and Yoshi bother me more. They literally do nothing important. Mario and Link least have a small rivalry during the Zelda/Peach statue scene.
    • Pit was sent by Palutena to help out in any way he could. He just happened to come across Mario first
    • I don't know, Pit seemed to have at least have a (relatively small and unexplained) story behind him. Yoshi was just really random. "Hey, I was just sleeping over there but I think we should go stop that army, Mr. Armed Green Hero Boy!"
    • I think by now Yoshi has got used to having to drop everything to fight bad guys again. He wandered over to see what the noise was, then realised 'Oh, they actually kind of need my help.'
• What exactly are Dedede's badges? Why does he even have timed devices to release characters from trophy-age? He probably doesn't know what they do, because if he was intending to help the heroes, he could have just touched their trophy stands.
  • He wouldn't be able to because he was already a Trophy. The Timed Badges were a case of Crazy-Prepared, and perhaps doing the research a bit. Basically, he must've known about Tabuu's Off Waves attack, and/or his ability to turn people into a trophy. The only way to prevent it was to make sure he was partially defeated first. But if everybody's already a trophy, it won't work.
    • Word of God states that there were a handful of cut cutscenes that extrapolated on Dedede's plot and showed how the Subspace Army seized contol of Meta Knight's ship.
  • When you think about it, the bigger headscratcher is why didn't anyone do it before. There is plenty of Fridge Horror involved in becoming something inert and lifeless (even if it beats realistic death, because you can be revived). Anyone sensible (and/or Genre Savvy) in the setting would want a self-revive ability to avoid And I Must Scream. Especially when there are Jerkasses like Wario who collect trophies for kicks with no intent of reviving them.
    • I think it's more implied that trophication is more like an unconscious coma than And I Must Scream...
  • And to answer the question directly, the badges were basically extra lives, just like the characters have in regular stock matches. It's a pretty awesome case of Gameplay and Story Integration. You "die", the badge revives you, and presumably stops working for following deaths.
• Ok I know Sonic was added late in development but considering you never see him ever get turned into a trophy wouldn't that make Dedede's plan with the badges utterly pointless in the first place? I mean when you consider Sonic's Chronic Hero Syndrome I doubt he would have left any of the trophyfied heroes behind, I don't know it just makes it seem unnecessary to even have Dedede's badges in the plot if there was still one fighter who was still active and hadn't been defeated and had enough power to weaken Tabuu's Off Waves out there while the rest were basically all incapacitated, it just makes Dedede's whole badge plan less exciting and pointless since Sonic was still out there, I know they didn't have a whole lot of time to make Sonic's appearance make more sense but considering Sakurai put up a whole page explaining the story on the Dojo he could have Hand Waved why Sonic didn't act sooner when putting up the Mysteries of the Subspace Emissary section on the website and actually justify it and still make it so that Dedede's badges wouldn't seem so pointless as it just makes it seem like it didn't really even matter if Dedede made them or not considering Sonic could have revived everyone considering he shows up in Subspace at the end so he obviously was in the area and very well could have done just that.
  • Um... Dedede had absolutely no way of knowing Sonic would show up out of nowhere and weaken Tabuu's Off Waves. It's likely King Dedede only barely knew who Sonic even was, and if he did, he still wouldn't know Sonic would pull a stunt like that. And Sonic was probably lucky to get that far in the first place - he could've ended up getting defeated and turning into a trophy, just like everyone else.And even if King Dedede was prepared for Sonic's Big Damn Heroes moment, he would also have to be prepared for the chances of Sonic not making it, therefore he would still need to make the Dedede Brooches and get some trophies, whether by stealing them (Ness, Peach/Zelda) or smacking them with his hammer and turning them into a trophy (Luigi). So while Sonic DID weaken Tabbu's power, there's a chance he might not have been able to do such a thing - so yeah, the Dedede Brooches DID matter.
• At the end, everybody would have been doomed if it weren't for Sonic. So, why the hell was Dedede planning the whole thing, without coming up with a way to avoid the Off-Waves after they got there? What point is it getting there again to be frozen again?! Adding three more to the roster wouldn't make those waves any less potent...
  • Maybe he thought that Tabuu would only use the Off-Waves ONCE? Or that he figured they would be able to go after him while he was gathering energy for another shot, but didn't expect all those clones and revived bosses to slow them down?
  • Perhaps he did have a plan, although goodness knows what, but Sonic appeared before he could use it.
• Why weren't Toon Link, Wolf and Jigglypuff included in the main plot?
  • It makes the final characters extra-final.
  • Those among us who are actual authors will tell you that creating a contingent story with over thirty characters all having to do something relevant and valid is already hard enough without having to include three extras as well, two of which have very little connection to most of the others.
  • Considering that two are clones and one is a returning character, I wouldn't be surprised if they were very late additions to the game.
    • They were very late additions to the game, according to Sakurai. The development team didn't have time to add them into the story mode, and they barely got in.
• In-Universe, how does one turn into a trophy without the Dark Cannons? Seems that defeating them must have some sort of rule to trophify them. What, is there some large square that only the characters can see, and touching the edge of it instantly turns them into the trophy? What about falling into pits, how do they get the trophy character then?
  • The same reason bosses in Role Playing Games explode in colorful rainbow rings upon death and are still in one piece and talking when the battle ends. Gameplay and Story Segregation covers it for the most part; as soon as anyone gets KOed in the fighting plane, by any means necessary, the game shifts back into the story plane, where a trophy will take the place of their original position before the battle began.
• Why did the Subspace Army bother putting chains on DK's trophy if he can't move, unless his trophy base was touched?
  • They weren't taking any risks.
  • It would (theoretically, but not in practice) slow down anyone who was trying to rescue him. You couldn't just grab it and escape, you'd have to break those chains first.
  • They didn't realise DK was so strong.
  • To stop him falling off the Flyer.
  • Primids don't seem like the brightest of troops. It seems all too likely that one might trip and accidentally revive DK.
• Why are parts of the Halberd in the Great Maze if it was never seen getting sucked into Subspace?
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation? Seems to cover a lot of issues in this mode...
  • For that matter, why are areas like the Glacial Peak in Subspace?
• Look at the pictures of Ridley and Meta Ridley on the character page. Why did Ridley lose a finger on each hand during the augmentation process?
  • He wasn't so much augmented as destroyed and rebuilt.
  • There wasn't much to save considering Samus blew him to hell and back during the original Metroid.
• Why is Subspace so echo-y? What, exactly, is the sound echoing off of? It seems to be ninety-nine percent void and Pure Energy!
  • Rule of Cool and/or Rule of Scary?
• How did Snake find out about Samus? The explanation is because of how she walks, but she doesn't have a feminine walk at all.
  • He's Snake. He can tell.
  • A woman with Samus'... "talent"... would probably have a slightly different distribution of weight across their body, possibly enough to effect the way they walk.
  • It's a reference to the original MGS where Snake recognizes Meryl in disguise.
    • He, like pretty much everyone who's kept up to date on characters, knows of her gender immediately.
• Manaphy. Heart Swap. Ice Climbers or Pokémon Trainer. Explain.
  • For the Ice Climbers, the leader's heart gets switched, and the follower doesn't realize it and keeps following him/her. But you've got me on the Pokémon Trainer.
  • I guess you could say the trainer and his opponent switch hearts, so the opponent now commands the Pokémon (who don't realize that they're actually taking orders from a fraud and beating up their master).
    • But the problem with that is that it shows the switch between the Pokémon and the opponent, not the trainer and the opponent. Which means that the trainer could use Pokémon Switch and make a huge mess of everything.
  • And while we're on the topic, what about ROB?
    • ROB, I assume, has an actual "spirit" (Or whatever it is that actually gets switched.) and as such could switch just fine with the organic characters. Adapting to an organic body would be difficult though, I imagine.
    • Because it is a game that was laid out before R.O.B. was considered a playable character. The kid(s) just go with it because "why not?"
• Regarding about Snake's codec conversations. He's aware of who Mario and Luigi are, but not Princess Peach or Bowser?
  • Easy, he never beat Super Mario Bros, and played an earlier version where Peach wasn't named and had a crappy eight bit sprite. Alternatively he played a version that didn't feature Bowser or Peach like the original Mario Bros arcade game. Alternatively he just knows Mario by Pop Culture Osmosis.
  • Definitely Pop Culture Osmosis; more non-gamers can name Mario and Luigi than they can Bowser or the princess' actual name.
  • That being said, Snake was really defensive of Luigi when "Colonel" insulted him, so who knows.
  • Does anyone else find it weird that the codec screen also displays "Press Select", something only available on a Playstation?
    • Or, you know, a Wii Classic Controller.
    • Nope, a Classic Controller has a - button where Select would be, just like the Wiimote. Last time a Nintendo home console had a Select button was the SNES.
    • It's actually both.◊
• What's up with Ivysaur's appearance/capture? He's just a trophy standing in the middle of a hallway for no reason. At least Charizard had been seen before and was then battled...
  • I just assumed that Ivysaur challenged Charizard, who beat him and continued, leaving Ivy a statue.
  • And speaking of, you spend quite a while with just Squirtle, and then suddenly they give you the two other mons in a row. Spacing them out a little would've been nice.
• Why does the Japanese version of Brawl have the song "NES Medley", but in the English version, it's titled "Famicom Medley"?
  • The song is called "Famicom Medley" in both versions. However the reason for that is because some of the games used in the medley had No Export for You. The Mysterious Murasame Castle was only released in Japan at that time. Devil World on the other hand was only for the NES (although only released in Europe). Most American gamers do know what a "Famicom" is.
    • Excluding those who don't have internet.
• In Snake's Codec for Luigi, why is Snake angry at Colonel for making condescending comments at Luigi's expense?
  • Maybe he respects Luigi. Who wouldn't want to, the poor guy?
  • Considering Liquid, it makes sense that Snake would be defensive of the "Inferior" brother.
• Why are Japanese versions of Ashley's Song, Mike's Song, and Mona's Pizza Song in the American version of Brawl? I can understand the French version of "Ai No Uta", since NTSC Wiis have a French setting (and Brawl is one of the few games where changing the language actually does something), but most people who live in America don't understand Japanese.
  • You don't need to understand the lyrics to appreciate the songs.
    • Same reason Roy and Marth were kept in international versions of Melee.
• Why is Shadow the Hedgehog not mentioned, while Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic and the Secret Rings are?
  • Presumably Sega wanted to avoid mentioning the one game that blew an overload of swears.
  • It's mentioned in Shadow's trophy.
• Despite Porky Minch being a boss, how the heck was he able to get out of the Absolutely Safe Capsule?