The Legend of Korra

Obviously, Cabbage Merchant's there as a gag fighter, but you know who would work even better in the role? Samurai Momo. He can fight against Nuktuk, Hero of the South.

On a more serious note, I'd also include Hiroshi Sato in a mecha-tank and Zhu-Li in a mecha-suit, as they are a) both important characters and a sign of how the world has progressed, and b) both the suits and the characters are really cool.

Varrick would be a cool counterpart of the Cabbage Merchant.

If it were me, I'd drop Cabbage Merchant and add Ty Lee and Mai, rounding out the roster to 16. Cabbage Merchant should still totally be in the game, but he'd work better as a stage element you can destroy than as a playable character.

On Korra's side, I'd drop Old Aang and add Avatar Kuruk, and I'd also add Jinora as a playable character with Ikki and Meelo as assists.

I like the idea of Cabbage Merchant as a Lethal Joke Character. A top-tier badass whose attacks are crazy and difficult to counter if he's played masterfully, but generally sucks for players who don't put in the time to learn how to to use him.

With a super attack that starts with an enraged Hulk cry of "NOT. MY.    CABBAGES   !!!"

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 20th 2018 at 8:15:22 AM

That sounds goofy and fun, but again, he's a running gag and a background character. Literally, his only contribution to the series is being outraged that his cabbage cart is getting destroyed over and over again. To me, that screams "interactive stage element" much more than "playable joke character".

I think having him be playable would be stretching the character too thin. Not to mention that any stage where you can destroy his cabbages, Injustice-style, would be automatically the best stage and people would totally make destroying his cabbages into an unspoken rule of the stage.

On the other hand, being a stage element risks having to hear "NOT MY CABBAGES" every single time you play on the stage. That's a surefire way to make it stop being funny and instead become the Most Annoying Sound. It'll be funny the first time but eventually it's just a nuisance to someone trying to focus on a hard match.

As a playable character, however, it can either be an attack's audio cue that players can learn to listen for and adopt their strategy around, a complementary sound to the player when something awesome is happening, or a rewarding acknowledgment to the other player that they won the match.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 20th 2018 at 1:09:33 PM

People don't seem to get tired of screaming along with Cell in Fighterz, and the Cabbage Merchant wouldn't get too annoying if he's only on one or two stages. I just feel like a background character with a running gag of getting his cart destroyed would best be served as a background character whom you can destroy the cart of, not as a playable fighter.

Maybe Korra can yell, "DEAL WITH IT!" when she uses a hyper combo.

Toddler Korra is god-tier.

Cabbage Merchant could be a special cinematic finish unique to whatever stage he appears in, like stage fatalities in Mortal Kombat.

And he wouldn't have to be the only one, either — a perfect win on Kyoshi Island, for instance, would result in Crazy Foaming Mouth Guy crazily foaming and collapsing at your magnificent performance.

I still don't see Cabbage Merchant as realistically playable, but Foaming Mouth Guy absolutely needs to be a background character on Kyoshi Island.

I think a stance system for the characters in vein of Mortal Kombat X could work. Korra and Aang's could be their different bending styles, Zuko could switch between firebending and his swords, Toph switches between Earth and Metal etc.

The big problem with any Avatar fighting game remains the Avatar State. It's a huge advantage to Aang and Korra, and it's basically impossible to balance. The only thing I can think of that might work is to have the Avatar State be a completely different character, deliberately overpowered, and just have them be illegal in tournaments and the like.

Or just ignore the Avatar State altogether and handwave it as something like an in-universe tournament where obviously they're not allowed to use the Avatar State.

Fighting games often muddy the waters as to the in-universe power levels, because in order to have a good fighting game, Sokka totally needs to be able to beat the shit out of Firelord Ozai.

Because of this, the Avatar State isn't a problem. It can be Aang and Korra's Ultimate/Super/Whatever Move. Super forms where the character, like, hits harder and moves faster and whatnot for a few seconds aren't unheard of in fighting games. It won't be 100% accurate to the Avatar State's power in the show but instead a small boost because, again, this is a medium where Sokka needs to be able to beat up Ozai.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 20th 2018 at 11:55:30 AM

Are you really saying that Sokka beating up Ozai is unrealistic? Shame on you, Tobias.

Fine, let me rephrase.

Fighting games are a medium in which Unalaq needs to reasonably be able to defeat Nuktuk, the Hero of the South.

But Amon said he and Unalaq needed to team up because Nuktuk is too powerful and awesome for them to fight individually. XD

Goddamn now I can't stop thinking of an Avatar fighter and I'm sad it'll never happen.

There are two ways to play the Avatar State: either have it be a temporary Install Super, or have them transform into it for a cinematic Ultimate and then transform back after the Ultimate is finished. If you ask me, the Avatar State is too pedestrian for Korra's Ultimate. Her Ultimate should be giant Spirit Korra.

No, that was Bolin. Nuktuk was merely playing him.

It's not like licensed games don't exaggerate characters' abilities for the sake of Rule of Cool and an equal playing field. I'm reminded of some of the super moves from the MHA game.

Giant Spirit Korra was a one-time deal that she can't do on a whim, though. It makes as much sense as an Ult as having Aang's Ult be Koizilla.

So who would be the final boss in this theoretical Avatar fighting game?

Good question. I think some Spirit would work. Since they're immortal you don't have to explain why it's present in both eras.

Vaatu seems like a good SNK boss to have.