Roleplay / Xander Quest: Reborn on the Hellmouth

Alexander Harris is ready to fight!

"Your first memory is darkness. Warm, wet, quiet, still, and comforting, it surrounds you, goes on as far as you can perceive, and seems to last forever. You like it, and as you drift in the dark, you dream of Golden Triangles."

— SpaceBattles Judge Mental, on the prologue of Xander Quest

Xander Quest initially appears as a simple crossover Forum Quest between The Legend of Zelda and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but then starts to appear elements from a lot of different sources, for example: Ranma ½, Dragon Ball, Rosario + Vampire, Bleach, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Mortal Kombat etc. The quest was created in January 22, 2013 and is still currently running on the Roleplaying & Quest forum of SpaceBattles.com.

The story begins with the birth of Alexander Harris whose soul is the reincarnation of the King of Evil, Ganondorf. From there his actions are controlled by the collective votes of members of the Space Battles forum.

Run by Judge Mental. It has, at the time of writing, twenty-six discussion threads, a Story Only thread, and a fanwork thread. The current discussion thread (at the time of this writing) is here, the Story-Only Thread is here, and the Omakes and Specials thread is here.

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Xander Quest provides examples of:

• Adaptational Badass:
  • Most distinctly, Cordelia Chase. While her canon self, later in life, proved remarkably capable at martial arts (To the point of having an anime-like growth curve, being able to pick up techniques by just watching them be performed) her Quest incarnation has been training in the School of Five Elements since the age of six, and makes her way to the World Tournament Under Tens division finals.
  • More directly is Alex himself; this is cemented when as part of Navi's Silent Realm test he encounters canon Xander.
• Adults Are Useless: Thoroughly averted, for the most part. Most of the adults seen consistently competent at what they do. Well, except Ambrose, who is usually competent except when it would be funnier not to be.
• All Asians Know Martial Arts: So far is very true, because most of Alex's Japanese friends he met at a martial arts tournament.
• All Myths Are True: It's a Buffy crossover, and several of the component setting also have this trait.
• Alpha Bitch: Cordelia Chase is this, even as an eight year old. It helps that she can back up her attitude with her almost frightening capability. The bitch.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • For a long time, Alex's status as Ganondorf's reincarnation was something of a mystery. While the Hellmouth's presence was known to be a contributing factor, it wasn't known exactly why he reincarnated on Earth. It turns out that it's due to the Mortal Kombat system; with the bad guys on the verge of winning once and for all, as many as twenty major continuities have merged, and Ganon's unusual temporal "mass" led to his soul getting pulled in as well.
  • There's also Lee, who briefly showed up in the Tournament Arc. While the initial theory was that he was like Alex and Beryl, and was Azula's reincarnation using an appropriate name, the fact that the Avatar world appears to be one of the main continuities making up the world raises the possibility that it actually is Zuko's counterpart using the name. However, until they show up again this isn't likely to be answered.
• Animal Battle Aura:
  • When Alex uses his full power against someone else doing the same a giant Boar appears behind him.
  • Altria also has this effect, but with a dragon.
• Animorphism: Alex has taken the form of a monkey like creature before voluntarily. Ganondorf turns into a giant boar monster when he changes to Ganon. Aside from their regular forms, it's implied the Water Tribe can do this to a certain degree as well, at least with their totem animals.
• Another Dimension: After meeting Briar it becomes apparent to Alex that Hyrule and Earth are in separate dimensions.
• The Archmage: Merle Ambrose is as well known for his magical capability as he is for his personality. Given that he's more-or-less explicitly stated to be Merlin, this makes a great deal of sense.
• Artifact Title: Alex goes by such, having not made friends with Willow and been nicknamed by her. As such, the title occasionally confuses newcomers unfamiliar with the Buffy setting.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Arguably Alex's most useful skill is the truly absurd scrutiny he can choose to put something under- varying from various Divination spells, Ki senses to his Power Sight. This has proven capable of spotting should-be-undetectable Hell-woven seals, and seeing into people's souls. Alex has also proven himself capable of too much analysis, having knocked himself out trying to watch the Masters Division finals too closely.
• Bad End: Possible, but so far unreached. Known methods include:
  • Death.
  • Maxing out either the Traumatic Memories/Past Life Experience stats.
  • Reaching a point where there is no feasible method to continue: one given example was Alex, grappling with high-level Past Life Experience, being committed to an asylum.
• Big First Choice: The choice for what Alex would think of as he grew in the womb—which would determine the person he would be the reincarnation of. Ultimately 'Golden Triangles' was selected, which caused Alex to be the reincarnation of Ganondorf. Other possible choices: the Overmind, Queen Beryl, M Bison, Azula, Lolth, and Mother Brain.
  • All of these were later revealed to have reincarnated into different people. Notably, Beryl's reincarnation shows up in the Tournament Arc, and is actually Buffy's cousin.
• Boss Subtitles: Every major fight gets one- be it competitors in the World Tournament or whatever random boss-level monster Alex has managed to accidentally stumble across this week.
• Boyish Short Hair: Tatsuki is an excellent example of this trope, being short haired and strongly tomboyish. Shares an aversion with Altria about wearing pretty dresses.
• Bridal Carry: What Alex does to Altria—to her slight consternation—when running from the life eating abomination Beryl summoned.
• Child Prodigy:
  • Alex is ridiculously capable for an eight-year-old, especially in magic; his casting capability is beyond that of most trained adults. He has driven magical experts to drink with his shenanigans.
    • One particularly ridiculous feat is summoning Counter Guardian EMIYA, a Heroic Spirit, to help make a birthday present for Kahlua.
  • Medaka is also this, to the ludicrous extent that she is in Medaka Box canon.
• Climactic Volcano Backdrop: Arguably the final climax of the tournament arc, wherein Alex fights a crazed sorcerer on a volcano and gets burned by lava. Fortunately he gets healed and doesn't require an obnoxious mechanical breathing apparatus. Still in danger of falling to his dark side, though.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Merle Ambrose. While he might be The Archmage, he's publicly known far more for his attitude than his skill with magic, and his idea of 'discreet' is 'Conspicuous Trenchcoat and enchanted hockey stick staff'.
• Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: Altria is often Ambrose's, and appears to be fluent in a language consisting of nothing but saying his name with varying degrees of inflection.
• Comic-Book Time: Alex was eight for a significant part of the Quest's run, six years IRL. Most of that was the four (IRL) years spent on gathering reagents for the Familiar Binding Ritual.
• Cool Shades: A pair materialised during one of Alex's Large Ham moments.
• Cool Sword:
  • The Blessed Blade, essentially a +1 Sword made by the Golden Goddesses, coming complete with scabbard. It also absorbs Alex's aura; why exactly is still unknown, but it helps a lot with his stealth.
  • Lu-sensei also guards a sword called the Jade Dragon, and looking out for someone to use it.
• Covered in Gunge: What happens to Kahlua as well as some of the guests when Alex uses Sword Beam on a slime and it splatters everywhere, causing her to have a tantrum. Apparently slime gunk falls under 'gross' and not 'beauty facial treatment'.
• Curse: As with all The Legend of Zelda entries, Demise's Curse causes complications. In this case, as Ganondorf's reincarnation, Alex has to worry about becoming Ganon's new incarnation; this is why he looks more and more like Ganondorf the more Past Life Experience he has. This stat maxing out is a known Bad End, and breaking the curse is one of the long-term goals of the Quest.
• Cute Monster Girl: So far, most young female monsters fall under this category. But don't tell Moka that.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Zig-Zagged in the world tournament arc. Some ^note Primarily Ichigo, Kahlua, and Altria of Alex's opponents in the tournament become friends with him, but some of them do not. *cough*sore loser Mohra demon assassins*cough*
• Demonic Possession: At one point stuffed animals become possessed. D'aww, so abominable!
• Demoted to Extra: As the quest goes on, Alex's Sunnydale friends have steadily dropped in prominence, particularly Moblin, whom Alex was utterly inseperable from in the first updates. Part of this is the Comic-Book Time making short stretches of time spin on for a very long span of updates, and partly because time Alex spends with them is often 'downtime' and so skipped over.
• Dream Walker: Alex is a novice at this. Kurumu Kurono, an airheaded succubus younger than him that doesn't even understand basic human morality, is more talented. Right in the pride.
• Dual Boss: The Hawaiian Sorceror, and Searfang.
• Duel Boss:
  • Most of them, because the majority of 'Boss' fights are against Alex's peers in tournaments or spars. The two fights in the Silent Realm against Guardians qualify too.
  • The later boss fight against Dark Link doesn't quite qualify, as the two Hakuba priests were there- but it might as well have been.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Before the World Tournament arc, a lot of things were very different.
  • Firstly, the Quest appeared to be a straight Buffy/Zelda crossover; the only obviously non-Buffy/The Legend of Zelda thing that appeared was 'Lu-Sensei' and his school, and ki-based abilities didn't even start showing up until right before the tournament.
  • Ki abilities themselves were initially portrayed as much less common than what they would become later- Lu-sensei mentions that 'one or two' of the junior division would likely be capable of them or rough equivalents, and that the quarter finals of the adult division would be where they started to be expected. Compare this to the actual tournament, which not only had significantly more divisions (Under 10s, Under 14s, Under 18s, Adults, Masters) but had significantly more supernatural power floating around too, with all but a couple of the participants in the Under 10s final rounds having varying levels of significant supernatural power, and Alex having fought four people who either have or would later obtain (Ranma, Ichigo, Othyrm and Kahlua) significant power of their own.
  • Alex was, while still competent well beyond his years, not quite the Pintsized Powerhouse magical prodigy that has frequently run up against various limits of possibility and proved them wrong.
  • The quest also moved much faster, usually going through months at a time in a single update; a far cry from the Comic-Book Time the quest later became known for.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • One appears in the tournament arc, having been summoned by Beryl, which takes offense at Alex and Altria accidentally eavesdropping. It requires Ambrose and the tournament officials a great deal of effort to banish.
  • Something is aware of Alex whenever he teleports. It turns out to be The Key.
• Eldritch Location:
  • As always, the Hellmouth. Teleporting near it without a Protection from Evil spell gives a distinct impression of teeth.
  • Navi's Silent Realm test is distinctly unearthly.
  • Castle Shuzen is seemingly permanently night, is massive, has various monsters wandering around (which is seemingly perfectly normal) and has enough space and a background of Darkness that some manner of Necromancer skilled enough for Ambrose to consider him a problem to set up shop without being noticed. It also has Dracula sealed underneath.
    • Or more accurately, had.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Alexander Lavelle Harris. Dislikes his middle name enough that he was upset that his little sister didn't get an embarrasing one, but saddled Zelda with a potential Named Like My Name.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The (Celestial) Postman is just 'the Postman.'
• Exact Words: One of the reasons that Demise's Curse is so terrifying. 'The Blood of the Goddess', due to the immense amount of time involved, would likely be triggered by anyone in Hyrule, meaning that the only reason Alex wasn't already Ganondorf before he even could speak was that he reincarnated on a different plane.
• Executive Meddling: In-universe, this happened several times in the Tournament arc. Alex first suspects this when he fights four supernaturally potent opponents in a row, the last being without the normal break time (Though this later turns out to be entirely Kahlua's fault). Later, the Tournament officials fail to report the Eldritch Abomination Beryl accidentally let loose to Akasha Bloodriver, despite prior agreements.
• Extra-Strength Masquerade: Canon Buffy's ESM is in full swing here. Alex and Lu-sensei teleport in front of a Japanese family, which warrants no more effort cleaning up after than a 'let's get going so the normals can start repressing'. Alex's parents require a fair amount of convincing over the course of several days despite both knowing vaguely about vampires already for it to break for them
• Eye Colour Change: Alex's eyes change from golden brown to shining gold when he activates aura-sight. Described as 'pretty' as well as 'distinctive'. Guess which description Alex prefers.
• Facepalm: Briar does this a lot in Alex's presence. As do others, when Alex is trolling or hamming it up. Emiko merits a double facepalm from her aunt for fainting when Alex asks her for her contact information.
• The Fair Folk: Compared to Briar and Navi, who are both more on the Fairy Godmother side of things, the group who attempt to intercept Alex when he first contacts Navi appear to be this.
• Fairy Companion:
  • Briar, a Hylian fairy who managed to wander through a portal to Earth and get stuck.
  • There's also an ex-companion in Navi, who Took a Level in Badass over the many years that passed since Ocarina of Time, and has become a Great Fairy. She's also Briar's mother.
• Familiar: Briar the fairy is Alex's familiar. Ritual to make it more official pending, and has been a major focus of the quest for several real-life years.
• Fish People: The Southern Water tribe are this in this universe. Alex and Briar confuses them with Zora the first time they see one of them.
• Flat "What":
  • The reaction of Alex when he discovers that his "Maximum Power" technique can neutralize youki.
  • Also his reaction to finding out that the Heaven's Feel actually exist in his universe as well as the fact that a magus decided to summon Dracula of all things in his castle for the fourth iteration of the Grail War while (he was sealed but not actually dead, and being summoned for the War allowed him to escape his imprisonment and regain his full power).
• Flight: There are magical, spiritual, telekinetic and ki forms of flight. So far Alex is only capable of the magical version, but it may be possible to learn the other types.
• For Want Of A Nail: Alex's past life and enhanced physical proclivities lead him to be significantly more 'in' with the social crowd, and an early choice of who Alex should make friends with picked led to him making friends with Cordelia, Larry and Amy, instead of his canon friends Willow and Jesse.^note There was an attempt to make friends with them, but incorrect assumptions were made on who merited the 'cheerful' and 'quiet' labels. Willow and Jesse would probably have been the 'annoying' options instead.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Despite having had no proper Big Bads yet, there have been several of these.
  • First is Ganondorf/Demise's Curse, for obvious reasons.
  • Second is Shao Khan, whose past actions shaped the entire world of the quest.
• Guardian Entity: Navi conjured many of these types of spirits for Alex's test of worthiness.
• Hammerspace: Alex has one. Keeps his reagents, sword, and other things inside it. Now uses something like 4% mana to maintain.
• Haunted House: The Shuzen mansion. Dangerous to those who visit it. In constant dusk. Surrounded by black grass and other unusual and dark looking flora. Has statues that come alive and attack innocent little girls. Is haunted by a terrible vampiric monster. Well, was. But my, what a lovely estate!
• Hearing Voices: What happens when Ambrose contacts Alex when he's stuck in (a) hell.
• I Hate Past Me: One of the things that terrifies Alex is becoming like Ganondorf.
• Jerkass Gods: Most of the gods/demons in the setting. Heavens (don't) help us. Fortunately, the Golden Goddesses and Raiden are all Aversions.
• Just a Kid: Alex constantly surprises those around him with his competence and ability despite being 'just a kid'. Does come with an actual penalty though, in the form of the "Young" trait.
• Kill It with Fire: Extremely effective against undead-demon-vampires, the brown rats of supernatural creatures on the Hellmouth. Also works well on regenerators like Mohra Demons, though generally not well enough to take them out of the fight.
• Kill It with Water: Very effective against living/true vampires, who can't even take a bath without specially preparing the water.
• Ki Manipulation: Used by martial artists in the setting which includes Alex. A combination of Physical, Spiritual, and Mental energies that can do all the things the component energies can do, but at reduced efficiency.
• King of All Cosmos: The Golden Goddesses are frequent targets for anniversary PoV Omake. They're not entirely there.
• Kryptonite Factor: Alex's Power is one. Using his Power Sense has repeatedly proven to be able to disrupt ninja stealth (even from master-level ninja), and Maximum Power erodes away Youki for an as-yet unexplained reason.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: Alexander is already this. After seeing Alex fight, Dave Stutler seems interested in becoming one too.
• Large Ham: Sometimes, Alex can't resist the urge of being this. The Raging Boar demands Ham!
• Land of Faerie: The Memorian outpost is located in it.
• Light 'em Up: Alex dips briefly into Light magic to purify his uncle's taxidermy collection, and skips all the way to full-blown holy smiting, mostly by accident.
• Little Bit Beastly: Emiko the kitsune, who has adorable fox ears and tail. Various 'monsters' in setting fit this description, such as the cat-girls Emiko is acquainted with.
• Lost Roman Legion: The nation of Memoria was originally founded by a Roman Legion that was lost in the forests of Gaul and ended in the Faerie before returning to their original world and discovering that centuries had passed since their disappearance.
• Magical Accessory: Alex's uncle has a lot of these in the form of protective charms. Bought from the local magic shop. Very lackluster in potency.
• Magical Clown: The creepy almost-certainly-demon clown who performed at Alex's birthday party. Scary enough to potentially traumatize a young monster.
• Magic Enhancement: One of the schools of magic Alex is proficient in, which functions like Nasu-verse reinforcement. It's a factor in how effective Maximum Power makes Alex.
• Magic Knight:
  • The Drake family (and associates) all use a magic-derived technique to increase their physical abilities.
  • Alex is also moving towards being a more traditional one.
• Magic Mirror:
  • Alex uses one as a pocket dimension, wherein he can perform high circle magic without fear of detection from the Hellmouth's denizens. But with an entire dimension hidden beneath its surface, one can't help but wonder: mirror, mirror, what's behind you?
  • The Mirror of Shadow, which was the subject of an arc to retrieve in order to cure a mad nine-tailed kitsune.
• Mana Drain: Alex attempted to absorb Altria's volatile dragon mana. It didn't work.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: As mentioned in the description, there are a lot of franchises involved in the Quest. Buffy and Zelda aside, there are as many as twenty major continuities rolled up into one timeline^{List of known continuities}Major: Buffy, Fate/Stay Night, Bleach, Dragon Ball, Mortal Kombat, Rosario to Vampire, Avatar the Last Airbender, Inuyasha, Medaka Box, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden/Dead or Alive, Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple and probably more; timelines with more minor influences such as the other reincarnations like Alex include Street Fighter, Sailor Moon, Metroid, StarCraft, and Dungeons & Dragons and dozens more minor ones. Zelda would technically be a minor continuity had Alex not gotten a head start with Briar's presence, leading to multiple instances of cross-dimensional communication and the direct attention of the Golden Goddesses.
• Miko: Kagome is shaping up to be an extremely potent shrine maiden, thanks in part to Alex revealing some of the wider supernatural world to her.
• Muggle: Alex's parents start off the quest only aware that You Should Not Go Out At Night In Sunnydale. Alex breaks the Masquerade after Tony sees him talking with one of Beryl's summoned imps.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: While Ganondorf has the title "Great King of Evil", Ganon himself is an aversion; his name stands on its own. Enough so that when Alex, after 2 years of living with her, revealed to Briar that he is the Gerudo King's reincarnation she immediately panic's and quickly flies away, despite the fact she was the one that stated it didn't matter if his past life was evil.
• Necromancy: A school of magic Alex is proficient in. Also the seemingly preferred magic of whoever attacked Kahlua's group during her birthday party adventuring.
• Ninja: At least four schools of them; Alex is on mildly-friendly terms with two, and has been politely threatened by a third.
• No Name Given: The Hawaiian sorcerer never gives his name before exiting the quest.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Gen the shopkeeper somehow was so important to a Great Fairy that he was given three doses of Great Fairy's Tears. It is explicitly noted that Link, Hero of Hyrule, is incredibly well-liked by fairy-kind in general- but even he is only ever given a single drop of the stuff at a time.
  • In a more traditional Noodle Incident, how and why exactly Ambrose ended up in hell that one time are up for debate.
  • Also, Lu-sensei and Alex had "a busy morning" when they got back from Kahlua's party... one which led to them driving down the highway to Sunnydale in a severely damaged vehicle. All we know is that it happened in LA, so Wolfram & Hart was probably involved.
• Nuclear Family: Alex's family is this. Also in a more literal sense, because they all radiate Hellmouth corruption.
• Old Master: Lu-sensei is this. Bender of time and space, winner of the World Martial Arts tournament, and survivor to a ripe old age in spite of the many enemies he naturally accrued. Don't underestimate him.
• Our Mages Are Different: Alex calls upon internal mana exclusively—unless he has the time and inclination to perform ritual magic. Other magic users tend to make great use of energy in the environment because most have very small reserves of internal mana. Alex also uses Hyrulean style of magic, which is distinct from the various Earth traditions.
• Our Vampires Are Different: There are at least three varieties of vampire lurking around. The first are Buffy's corpse-demon vampires, who despite infesting Sunnydale have had next-to-no screentime. The second are Rosario's living vampires, who have had significantly more, with Kahlua Shuzen being one of Alex's pen-pals. The last is Dracula, who is a mix of the Rosario and Castlevania versions and by all accounts is something else entirely.
• Past-Life Memories: They appear in the form of dreams. They are considered a trait (Past Life Experiences, or PLE for short). The more Alex views the memories of Ganondorf, the more skills, abilities and powers he'll be able to use from them. The more it increases the more Alex's appearance will change to match the same physical traits of Ganondorf. Judge Mental even mentioned that Alex would start hearing Ganondorf himself speaking to him in his head if it ever got too high. He also eventually mentioned that it is considered a Game Over mechanic in that if Alex ever reaches a full A rank in it, Ganondorf will take control. Once SB players found out about this they stopped trying to rely on Ganondorf's memories whenever it could be avoided and have been trying to find ways to either mitigate it's negative effects or lower the trait's rank. Navi has used some form of ritual spell which has reduced Alex PLE from C rank back to D rank. Improving his Spiritual Prowess and Favor with the goddess of wind, Farore offer Alex benefits in that the higher his rank is with both the more he can mitigate the negative aspects PLE. At his current (at the time of this writing) Spiritual Prowess of A-Rank
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Alex won a tournament containing all the martial artists in the world of his age bracket, has repeatedly thrown down with immensely powerful monsters, has been mistaken for a god more than once, and has beaten Dark Link in a straight fight. He's also nine years old.
• Player Character: Alexander Harris, the reincarnation of Ganondorf, is controlled by the participants of the Quest.
• Power Copying: Downplayed. Alex picks up a number of techniques just by watching with his considerably enhanced senses, but usually only to the point where he must spend considerable time and effort (or direct tutelage) improving them to a point where they're usable.
• Power-Up: When Alex kills a suitably powerful beast, a Heart Container is left with their corpse, which Alex can use to power-up in one of three ways. Typically, he can gain an extra Heart (as Link does in the games, represented in-Quest by an additional 33% more "physical energy"), he can improve his affinity with the elements the boss was aligned with, or he can summon the boss (or something related to it) as an ally in the future. Each Heart Container can only be used with one option.
• Psychic Powers: Alex has the potential for them (though he hasn't truly developed that potential as of yet), and the reincarnations of Bison and Mother Brain (and presumably the Overmind) also have them.
• Rage Against the Reflection: Alex defies this trope when he is polite and decidedly non-violent towards an alternate mirror version of himself. Alex embraces this trope when he destroys that same mirror when it reflects a horribly evil Alexandorf version of himself. Met with little success.
• Random Encounters: A Running Gag; Alex can't go anywhere on his own without running into these, and sometimes finds them even when he's not.
• Red Baron: Ganondorf was known throughout many of the Zelda timelines as the "King of Evil".
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The young Shadow Stallion, a reincarnation of Ganondorf's mighty steed. Has dully glowing red eyes, and will become very dangerous when full grown. Also has the potential to go bad, if Alex does. But hey, never mind that, or his intimidating presence. Let's groom him and feed him apples.
• Reincarnation:
  • Alex is the reincarnation of Ganondorf.
  • As it turns out, the other characters who Alex could have been reincarnations of are also around- Beryl and Bison's are seen at the World Tournament and Beryl turns out to be Buffy's cousin, with others being confirmed to exist by Word of God.
  • Unrelatedly, there's also Altria Drake, reincarnation of Nasuverse King Arthur. As seen later, the rest of the Round Table reincarnated along with her.
• Retired Badass: Lu-sensei, with emphasis on the 'Badass' part. While he may be just a teacher at a humble dojo, he's a multiple-time winner of the Masters division at the World Tournament (and places very highly again at the one during the story) and is the most consistent aversion of Adults Are Useless in the story.
• Rich Bitch: Cordelia has the resources and temperament to become this when she grows older, however—as Alex's minion—there's a fair chance Alex's influence will curb her more cruel tendencies.
• Ring Out:
  • One of the victory conditions for the World Tournament arc; Alex notably beats Kahlua this way the first time.
  • Also influential in other ways; in particular, a young Son Goku was disqualified for Ringing Out his opponent so hard he interfered with another match.
• Running Gag: Alex can't go anywhere on his own without running into Random Encounters.
  • Lu-sensei smacking Alex with his Enlightenment Stick, which is referred to as ENLIGHTENMENT.
• Schrödinger's Player Character: Eventually averted. At first, it seemed whichever person the Big First Choice had as Alex's prior incarnation would be the only major influence on the setting (Ganondorf was chosen, so elements of Hyrule popped up occasionally, such as Briar and Heart Containers). It was eventually discovered that all of the other options had also reincarnated, but as different people- Beryl, Bison and maybe Azula's reincarnations showed up in the World Tournament arc.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Kahlua's first appearance was her bending the rules to force Alex to fight immediately after his previous preliminary round, assuming that nobody in the preliminary rounds would even be capable of troubling her and wanting to get it out of the way.
• Sizeshifter: Alex knows Enlarge Person, and trades knowledge of the spell to Ayane and Kasumi in exchange for the Body Flicker technique.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The demon assesor who showed up at Alex's school very early on. He didn't do much of anything and was thoroughly foiled, but the measures undertaken to do so led to the formation of Alex and Briar's initial familiar bond.
• Sore Loser:
  • A number of the tournament competitors didn't take well to losing- Kahlua needed to be immediately talked down on the point that she lost on a technicality, William Marsh and Othyrm attempted to rough Alex up in a break between rounds and Gorn the Mothra demon attempted to assasinate him after the end of the tournament.
  • More recently, and a lot more conventionally, Altria's cousin Kenneth doesn't take his loss to Alex in a spar very well, citing various factors that didn't matter as much as he seemed to think.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Alex's appearance changes more into that of Ganondorf the more influence Past Life Experience holds. Alex has noticeably developed faintly-darker skin, somewhat-reddish brown hair, and slightly-golden brown eyes. These traits are in regression, as Alex has recently greatly reduced the influence of PLE. Rather confusingly, this also applies to Alex's little sister, who somehow looks like a Gerudo too.
• Summon Magic: A school of magic Alex is proficient in, used for both summoning and teleportation. ^{Summons so far}A bunch of small monsters, including Keese, Ganondorf's reincarnated Shadow Stallion, a Deku Scrub salesman, a Celestial Goron and Celestial Postman, Batreaux, three priests picked by the Golden Goddesses as spiritual tutors, Archer EMIYA, Tamamo-no-Mae, and the spirit of one of the Nine-Tailed Kitsune's previous "adoptions".
  • This is particularly notable for being one of the fields that Alex breaks the rules in hardest, because some of his summonings (like Archer and Tamamo) should have been outright impossible without power like the Holy Grail backing it up.
• Super Mode:
  • Maximum Power, every last one of Alex's enhancement abilities activated at once and taken to the max, then further enhanced by the traces of the Triforce of Power still engraved on his soul. It also glows gold. And destroys Youki, for whatever reason.
    • This particular ability has given rise to an entire field of skills, roughly analogous to Ki and Magic. These skills are appropriately categorized under Power Prowess.
  • Altria and Kahlua both have their own Super Mode; Altria's is powering up to the maximum that her Dragon-spirit can handle, while Kahlua's is removing all of the seals on her power.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Alex's eyes become more gold in their default state the more Ganondorf's supernatural hold on him increases. Which makes his golden eyes eldritch, not pretty.
• Super-Speed: The Body Flicker ninja technique grants a burst fast enough to seem like teleportation, and Maximum Power is (later in the quest) every bit as fast. Lu-sensei's high-level School of Five Elements techniques, Altria's Prana Burst and various other techniques have this too.
• Sword Beam: The Silent Realm Guardians can use it, and Alex picks it up off them. He later also attempts to teach Altria the trick, to less success.
• Tastes Like Purple: Cordelia receives a potent dose of shock and synesthesia when teleporting by Lu-sensei's method and Alex's method back to back, causing her to momentarily lose her self control and grip on reality. Also, that never happened, and never bring it up around her.
• Taxidermy Terror: Young Alex discovers his uncle's taxidermy collection is possessed. When purifying them, they come to life and try to attack him. Emphasis on try.
• Telepathy: Alex can copy the effect with magic, and has shown signs of burgeoning true telepathic ability with 'Mental Sense' and 'Mental Sight'.
• Teleportation:
  • One of the most-used spells in the quest. Alex's range with it steadily increases, from intra-city teleportation in the Tournament Arc cooldown to eventually using it to pop all the way around the world more-or-less at will. Ambrose also appears to use this spell.
  • Lu-sensei, despite occasionally seeming to, does not use this; the School of Five Elements technique he uses simply accelerates him to blueshifting speeds for a period of time.
• Took a Level in Badass: Over the course of the tournament arc is when Alex takes the most notable one. He goes from only basic proficiency with Ki abilities and reasonable magic to winning out a slugfest against Altria Drake and gets his Super Mode, Maximum Power. This is most aptly demonstrated when the Hawaiian sorceror appears for the second time; the first time, Alex sat out the fight, having no wish to fight someone who could even briefly keep up with Lu-sensei. When he returned, Alex beat him on his own.
• Tournament Arc: The world tournament arc, is the moment in when the story starts to develop more fully. It's also when the first Massive Multiplayer Crossover elements appear. Just watch the first rounds in the finals of the under eight division!
  • Kurokami Medaka vs Nathan Jones.
  • Mitsurugi Heishiro vs Hitoyoshi Zenkichi.
  • Altria Drake(An expy of Saber) vs Berserker.
  • Sabin vs Vargas
  • Ayane vs Kagekaze Tenma
  • Kasumi vs Cordelia
  • Alexander Harris vs William Marsh
  • Amae vs Connor Hanrahan
  • Taki vs Morgiana
  • Krillin vs Liu Kang
  • Tatsuki Arisawa vs Tifa Lockhart
  • Gorn vs Lee (an assumed name for Zuko who may actually be Azula's reincarnation.)
• Troll: A skill of Alex's. Overshadowed by Ambrose, whose life purpose seems to involve casually upsetting as many people as possible.
• Unfinished Business: Originally, the ghost of the Captain in the Memorian outpost doesn't seem to realize that he and his men are dead. Once the situation is explained to him however, he is enraged at learning that demons and other monstrous creatures have made their home in his base and decides that before he and his men are put to rest they're going to exterminate all current hostiles within the walls of the outpost.
• Witch Classic: Mrs. Lawson, who lives fairly close to (and sealed) the gate Briar arrived on Earth from.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: One for the Tournament arc, showing a number of the competitors returning to their normal routines
• Wrong Context Magic:
  • Alex's magic is distinctly unusual by Buffy standards.
    • Hyrulean-style sorcerers like Alex use their own internal mana for everything, and being Ganondorf's reincarnation means that Alex has a lot of magic to throw around; when Ambrose attempts to slap a seal on him to stop one deity or another getting their hooks into him (and for his own amusement, of course) Alex just goes on with his day, because he doesn't use any external magic sources anyway.
    • The echoes his soul carries from having hosted the Triforce of Power for so long means that some rules simply break down before him. This is most notable in regards to Alex's own Power abilities (including Maximum Power), but also applies for things like summoning - Counter Guardian EMIYA is thoroughly bemused to find himself summoned not for any kind of fighting, but for helping to make a birthday gift. This talent for breaking rules has given Ambrose more than one headache.
  • EMIYA himself has Wrong Context Magic, and gives Ambrose nearly as much of a headache as Alex does. The fact that he has a connection to Avalon is just the icing on the cake, because there are only a bare handful of people who should have that, and EMIYA is none of them.

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