Web Animation / Smash King

An unlikely hero... In an unlikely scenario...

"This is a unique world, a world of trophies."

Created by Tigura21, a member of the Smash Bros. machinima group Virtual Smash, Smash King is a Machinima which is filmed in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The world in which the series takes place is generally similar to Brawl, with the same characters, settings and even a similar concept: loads of characters fighting together in a tournament.

The series is set shortly after the games characters make the jump from Melee to Brawl. The annual Smash King Tournament is about to be held. The winner gets the chance to meet God and is granted one wish. The series begins at a fight between Bowser and Peach. Bowser wins, and Peach agrees to join his team for the upcoming tourney. The story focuses on Bowser's team and Mario's team as they fight in the tournament, and the story of what really happened during the last few days of Melee is slowly brought to light.

Smash King has also spawned three spinoffs:

• Racconto is a canon prequel series filmed and set in the world of Super Smash Bros. Melee. 6 "files" have been intentionally released out of order, as the very nature of Racconto would spoil the events of the main series if they were viewed in chronological order.
• Smash King HD is a non-canon series of stand-alone, comedic shorts filmed in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate; 10 episodes have been released so far.
• 2Decades is a canon sequel series also set in the world of Ultimate, following a 20-year Time Skip after the events of the original series and focusing on a new cast of characters.

Here is a list of the main characters in Smash King.

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Tropes A-H

• Aborted Arc:
  • The subplot of Ganondorf and Jigglypuff working together in Smash King HD, as well as the appearance of two Greninjas spying on Lucario, was never followed up on. This is mainly due to the series being a spinoff of the main Smash King, and Smash King 2Decades more or less fills the role of a canonical "sequel."
  • This seems to be the fate of Racconto, likely due to Episode 17 providing abbreviated retellings of the events that occurred in Melee.
• Action Girl: Samus and Sheik. Peach tries to be this, but she doesn't always succeed.
• Animesque: Japanese intro/ending songs, Cold Openings, and Eye Catchers? Check, check, and check.
• All There in the Manual: Details about specific moves, events, and characters not mentioned in show can be found in the Bios posted on Tigura's Deviant Art page.
• Alternate Universe: The personality discrepancies in characters, along with two versions of Fox, Falco, and Peach existing, it's implied that at least, these are not the same characters from their respective titles. It's confirmed that all the characters in this world are "trophies" of the characters they're based on: in other words, they may retain the knowledge and memories of whoever they're based on, but different in many other aspects.
• Anachronic Order: The prequel series Raccanto are released in non-sequential files. So far it's 12, 1, 2, 6, 8, 5.
• Art Evolution: As a result of it being a machinima, various characters will get their models updated or tweaked during production, with characters that weren't originally a playable character in Brawl being the most noticeable, such as the different models used for Daisy, Roy, and Midna.
• As You Know: Spoken word-for-word by Bowser in Episode 6's remake as he's explaining what a trophy's matrix is, and how his Ascent Mode works in relation to it.
• Axe-Crazy: Link is a very dangerous and disturbing example of this, being the only smasher who actually wants to kill people.
• Brick Joke: A long-running example that occurs from a filler moment to an actual episode. In the Smash King Winter Festival, Mewtwo remarks that he doesn't need to wish for anything, as he already has fur in Lucario's body. Seven years later in Episode 18, Mewtwo laments the loss his "beautiful fur coat" after returning to his own body in the Twilight Realm.
• Broken Pedestal: Samus becomes this towards Peach, who initially saw her as a role model before Samus and her team attempt to take Bowser to the Creator against his will. This trope also applies to Wario, as his one-sided crush on her completely vanishes once this is revealed.
  • Link as well towards Ike. Though his reason is a little...different.
• Butt-Monkey: A lot of the minor characters are this, notably Toon Link, Captain Falcon until his Heroic Sacrifice, and Mr. Game and Watch. Subverted with characters like Wario, Dedede, Ike, and Meta Knight, as they can show that they can be serious if they have to.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: A character's various Ascent Mode forms indicate what powers they will likely use, with the powers usually associated with the colors they take on. For example, Mario's Ascent Mode is based on the power-ups he uses in his home games (particularly the ones from Super Mario Galaxy), Link's Ascent Mode is Dark Link, which allows him to use darkness-based attacks, and Sonic's Ascent Mode is the cyan-colored Hyper Sonic, which allows him to move at ridiculously fast speeds.
• Cool House: The aptly named "Hotel Bowser" is Bowser's Big Fancy House that comes with flatscreen TVs for watching the news or playing video games, a really nice couch, and a minion-summoning system to assist Bowser with things or to ward off intruders. The end of Act II has Bowser moving out due to all the events that have happened, on top of a wild group of Yoshis temporarily infesting the place.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Mewtwo's "Merry-go-Round" or "Carousel" are usually used as a threat to Bowser for one reason or another during his mentorship, which appears to be Mewtwo throwing Bowser upwards while the Koopa spins around constantly.
• Continuity Nod: Between actual referencing things in the prequel series, Racconto, and references to each the games each character belong to, there is quite a lot.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
  • President Dedede is seen by many as an ineffective and self-serving President who only cares about his own pleasure and the tourney's progression. But when things turn ugly, Dedede is capable of not only being a Reasonable Authority Figure, but is more than capable of handling himself in a fight. Peach lampshades this in Episode 8 after he talks to her about her exhibition match at Jungle Japes.
  • Wario also applies. In Episode 5, he's adamant that he doesn't enjoy fighting, thinks the tournament is a cheap way to get what he wants in life, and is more content to just chase Samus forever. However, his fighting skills aren't terrible at all, which he's quick to demonstrate whenever Bowser's in trouble.
  • Because of his split personality disorder, Meta Knight fits this trope like a glove. His clumsy and nervous red mode is likely to make many people roll their eyes at how incompetent the small swordsman sees, but his Genre Savvy, intelligent blue mode can kick the crap out of most opponents, and can even stand up to an Ascent Mode longer than most. During Acts II and III, the "badass" side become much more prominent to emphasize Meta Knight's growth as a person.
  • Also applies to Team Falcon after Captain Falcon becomes reincarnated and their sudden turnabout in episode 17. While it unfortunately means absolutely nothing, given the team is so far behind, it's still satisfying to actually see them win a few matches.
    Ness: Okay, seriously, WHAT THE CRAP!? How did these guys get so good all of the sudden!?'
• Darkest Hour: Definitely the end of Episode 18. Ganondorf and Meta Ridley have conquered New Pork City, populating it with Ridley offshoots: Ridley uses this to his advantage, threatening to raze the entire city (and by extension, the entire world) if the BS Society or Samus' mercenaries try to stop him; one of Ridley's clones is also stalking Liz, presumably plotting to kill her so as to intimidate Bowser; although he is wanted by the BS Society, Link manages to make his way to Saffron City, where the finals are scheduled to take place. Basically, everything that could go wrong does go wrong.
• Death Seeker: Bowser willingly instigated a fight with Mario at Episode 13/14 for the hope that Peach would be happy with him again.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: There's a few in this series, but the biggest emphasis is on Designated Hero and Designated Villain, as is shown through the characters of Bowser, Ganondorf, and Link.invoked
  • Being trophies means that they bear the appearance and a lot of the personality traits of the characters they represent. However as the story shows, looking like those iconic characters and being similar does NOT mean that they are exactly the same, and the issues shows in how Bowser and Ganondorf were mistreated due to their resemblance to major villains as well as the bad reputations of their past incarnations. Bowser ultimately manages to overcome this for the most part, while Ganondorf ultimately succumbs, deciding that he'll play the role they expect of him while still trying to make a difference...by any means necessary.
    • On the flip side of the situation is Link. Link was revered and looked up to in the past due to his expected role as the Hero of Time. This however resulted in Link feeling like he was under enormous pressure to live up to the expectations of his role, and when he failed in the past and returned in Brawl, he was easily swayed by Ganondorf into changing sides, since it became evident that he didn't HAVE to live up to the role that was expected from him. The end result is the Ax-Crazy Blood Knight he is today. This is also a subtle Take That! to the other machinima clichés, particularly how Link's ALWAYS the hero, ALWAYS saves Zelda, and ALWAYS beats Ganondorf.
  • Over time, Mario starts to deconstruct the Hero Antagonist. His unwavering determination to put Bowser down and expose him for who he really is initially shown in a positive light, as Mario's experiences have little reason to be doubted, and said determination allows him to get even stronger as a fighter. However, as much of the main cast discovers how complicated Bowser's situation was/is, that he's genuinely changed as a person, and feels nothing but shame and remorse for his actions suddenly starts making Mario's rather static motivation look unreasonable and selfish. Even after learning the truth about what happened in Melee from Mewtwo, Mario still wants nothing more than to take Bowser down, even if it sends him to death row. There's also the fact that his goals are gradually alienating even his closest friends, thus making Mario seem even more like a jackass when he decides that defeating Bowser is the only way he can receive any form of justice or closure.
  • Sonic's arc in the first two acts of the series have him deconstruct the Glory Hound. For much of the first two acts, Sonic's only motivation is to be the one and only fastest thing alive, and will stop at nothing to win the tournament to prove it. This includes insulting and deriding Captain Falcon for wanting to share the idea of being fast, stringing along Ike and Mario with little regard for their wellbeing unless it personally affects him, and generally just being a selfish dick For the Lulz. It's not until Dark Link murders Captain Falcon that Sonic finally realizes that his goal is utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things, and that his desire to fulfill it has done nothing to aide his allies. This results in him going away from this archetype in exchange for being a better friend towards those he's close with.
• Different World, Different Movies: Or in this case, Different Video Games. During some downtime, Bowser is shown playing Mario Kart in the main series and Super Mario Galaxy in the Halloween special. Both games include Bowser himself in it, and it's particularly egregious with the latter example as Bowser is shown fighting himself as a boss in one of the galaxies.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In the early episodes, Bowser's voice was a lot less growly and bombastic as seen later on. This is because it wasn't until around the production of Episode 6 that Tigura figured out how Bowser's voice sounded and how to use it. Thankfully, most of these episodes that had this problem have been remade, preventing Bowser from suffering from this trope.
  • Much of the cast in the beginning suffers from this. Many of Tigura's characters often spoke quietly (it didn't help that early, he voiced nearly every major character), and some characters (Marth being a good example) had different VA's entirely. Thankfully the remade episodes (mostly) alleviate these issues, with lines being redubbed to better match the characters as they currently stand.
  • Earlier episodes also primarily relied on custom stages and in-game battlefields to help with world-building, due due to Tigura using older technology to create the series at the time. There were also poorer lighting issues and limited movement from the characters due to the limitations Tigura had at the time. Later episodes would give more unique locations and animations for the characters to flesh out the world of Brawl.
• Easter Egg: Jigglypuff is occasionally seen sleeping somewhere within the world of Brawl, and each episode has one sighting of the Balloon Pokemon. Word of God says the "Jigglypuff Sighting" is like a game of Where's Waldo? and are subliminal messages like what Smashtasm has.invoked
• Egocentric Team Naming: Every team in the tournament is named after whoever put the team together (Team Bowser, Team Sonic, etc.). Daisy's Caravan is another example, the band being named after the eponymous lead singer.
• Fantastic Caste System: The tier system, which divides tiers into five classes: tops, highs, mids, lows, and bottoms.
• Filler: Several "filler moments" were created that take place in the middle of the Time Skip between Seasons 1 and 2. Some of the stuff that happens includes two holiday specials, Dr. Mario treating patients as part of his day job, Bowser working out at the gym while also deciding to become Meta Knight's personal trainer, and a news scandal regarding a Cracker Launcher that shoots people out of it being used during a match.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: During Wario's flashback where the Yoshis invaded Bowser's house in Episode 15, one Yoshi remarks how Bowser isn't a true gamer because he doesn't have Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2^note The 2009 original, not the reboot. A brief line of text appears, which reads "Goes to show how old this script is."
• George Lucas Altered Version: The Enhanced versions of the opening and ending sequences that were created in 2012. These enhanced versions are all in widescreen HD, use new footage, models, animations, and special effects that Tigura had learned or obtained throughout the years. While the original versions of these episodes before 2012 have the older sequences, reuploads of previous episodes (the ones after Episode 6) or episode remakes use these enhanced versions. This can result in a bit of disparity, where the opening of the re-uploaded episode will be in proper HD, while the episode itself will be in the same quality when it released but now upscaled.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Bowser was meant to be contained and de-energized from one of Samus' shots. What it really did was give him so much power he was almost immobile... so he resorted to turning into Giga Bowser, which extended his Ascend Form to THAT as well. Then, he expells all the power that shot had, giving everyone in Brawl a share of the Creator's power, and also reawakens Ridley.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Aside from some of the lighter ones such as "crap", "dammit", and "ass", there's surprisingly very little swearing in this series. This is especially interesting, since the series doesn't shy away from adult humor at all.
• Growling Gut: After Fox asks Bowser if he's still hungry in Episode 17, he responds by saying he'd like a few more drumsticks.....only to have his stomach growl quite loudly in disagreement, prompting him to demand a crate of them instead.
  • It also happens to Fox in the remade version of Episode 5, while pondering whether or not to accept Liz's challenge.
  • Then it happens to Liz herself, before her battle with Captain Falcon on the bridge.
• Hammerspace: GOLF CLUB ATTACK!
• Heroic Sacrifice: Captain Falcon, after a long fought battle, sacrifices himself in Episode 13, expending his last stock to land a decisive blow.
• Heel–Face Turn: Lucario, and by extension, Mewtwo, who was possessing him. Lucario was unwillingly possessed by Mewtwo when the latter arrived in the world of Brawl, and was forced to fight alongside Ganondorf and Link during the Smash King tournament, Mewtwo looking to claim revenge against his former student. However, once Mewtwo recognizes that Bowser recognizes him as an ally, he's suddenly forced out by Lucario's true personality, allowing Lucario to take control of his own body again. Shortly after a brief scuffle between Bowser and Lucario, the latter leaves Ganondorf's team and becomes one of Bowser's allies. Mewtwo similarly seeks to return to Bowser in order to warn him of Ganondorf's plans.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door:
  • Zelda. She initially seems like a mysterious, but friendly individual who seems very optimistic about the world around her. Over the course of the series however, we learn that she was part of a mercenary group intent to take Bowser out due to his power that rivals the Creator himself... only to defect from the group due to disagreeing with forcibly taking Bowser away from his friends. To make matters worse, she's also under the thumb of Midna (both metaphorically and literally), who wants to perform a villainous Matchmaker Quest between Peach and Bowser.
  • Mewtwo as well. He starts off working with Ganondorf, then begins warming up to Bowser and wants to see his life improve. Then he's killed by Ganondorf, yet wrongfully believes it was Bowser who killed him: his soul possesses Lucario, and he rejoins Ganon (although he has his own ulterior motives), only to betray Ganon again and forgive Bowser.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Lots of characters have this, but Link is probably the most memorable, despite his incredibly psychopathic and sadistic personality.
  • Dedede is shown to be perverse, and a bit of a womanizer... But he's also fairly good-hearted, and incredibly perceptive, going into detail about Bowser's fight with Donkey Kong.
  • Ganondorf, surprisingly. Although he's the Big Bad, this tribute video (made both as a tribute to the character and his original VA Lioncourt) paints Ganon in a more sympathetic light.
• Hilarious Outtakes: As seen here.

Tropes I-P

• I Just Want to Be Special: Sonic feels that as the "fastest thing alive" he is suppose to be the sole speed demon in brawl, with no close second. However, he knows that Captain Falcon is a close second and thinks if he admits it he won't be special anymore.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Inverted with Mario in Episode 11. His claim that he’s a friend of Bowser’s trying to help him fight off Ganondorf seems pretty substantiated for the most part, fooling both Wario and Meta Knight for a few minutes. However, Meta Knight's blue side quickly realizes something’s amiss when he takes into account that all of Bowser’s friends know where he lives, so the fact that Mario needs to be directed to his place of residence is nothing short of suspicious.
• Imagine Spot: Captain Falcon has two of these considering possible outcomes on who wins the race. If he wins, Sonic wears a Falcon uniform and becomes his number two. If Sonic wins, Falcon wears a Sonic uniform and be forced to lick off his shoes like a slave. Sonic is disturbed by both of these.
  Sonic: Don't you have any pride for yourself? Or me? ESPECIALLY ME?
  • Episode 15 has Wario and Squirtle have one each as well, centered around Bowser. Wario's being Bowser ruling a post-apocalyptic version of Brawl like a tyrant, while Squirtle's is a very cute childish story of him breaking out of his prison and beating up the B.S. Society, minus Pit, before making his escape. Both sequences were homages to scrapped ideas the creator had for ending the series.
• Insistent Terminology: It's not just Bowser. That's the powerful, the pleasurable, and the respectable, King Bowser!
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Applies to Ganon, Bowser, and Mewtwo, who make up the "Creator's Triune." Their immense latent potential to become insanely powerful that they eclipse the strength of the rest of the trophies with the proper training is because they were given attributes by the Creator to evolve faster than the rest of their society, in order to be suitable competition to help foster their growth and evolution. However, this status leads to all three of them being ostracized in different ways. Ganon is viewed as a monster despite his most recent incarnation never doing anything wrong, and everyone fears and hates him. Mewtwo and Bowser were bullied for supposedly being villains who were weak and ostracized from society, which causes them to endure a lot of trauma as they try to fight to better their world during Racconto. And once Bowser truly starts tapping into his latent potential and becomes truly strong, he's targeted by Wolf, Samus and Snake who were hired by the Creator to kidnap Bowser and steal him away from the world permanently, so the Creator can keep Bowser under his thumb and prevent him from becomign stronger than himself. Being "chosen" by God in this series truly sucks.
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Given that Smash King is very much inspired by anime, it's no surprise that this series falls under this trope. The story thrusts you into the middle of Bowser's daily life as a trophy without much preamble, while he's gathering teammates for the upcoming Smash King tourney, and many mysteries such as why Mario and Lucario want revenge against Bowser, Bowser's past, the Twilight Realm, the goals behind Snake's trio, Ridley, and so on are thrust upon the viewer with information slowly drip fed about all of them leaving you questioning and trying to figure out what's going on for a long time before you start getting large bouts of answers. The series rewards the viewers who try to analyze every little detail said by the characters as the mysteries slowly get pieced together over time.
• Kiai: Most notably when Bowser, Sonic and Link go into their Ascent Modes.
• Killed Off for Real:
  • In Melee, Pichu, Mewtwo, Roy and Fox. In Brawl, it's subverted: Fox and Mewtwo are alive, and Roy is alive, though as a lesser trophy inside of the Twilight Realm. Captain Falcon also dies after pulling a Heroic Sacrifice, but returns a short time later (albeit as a new incarnation with no memories of his previous life).
  • Samus in Episode 19 is very incapacitated by Ridley rechanneling a shot of the Creator's Power from Samus and firing it back at her, dealing enough damage to render her unable to move. He then proceeds to eat her whole, and she remembers Wario in her final moments.
• Knight of Cerebus:
  • Ganondorf. Every single time he appears, everything starts to go to hell.
  • Link as well. Aside from Ganondorf, he became very violent and murderous due to being tired of always being the hero that everyone envisions, and was responsible for the death of Captain Falcon.
  • Midna's introduction midway through Act II emphasizes just how scary she is by mocking and threatening Zelda during their meeting in Episode 16, and managing to take control of her body like Mewtwo did with Lucario in Episode 19.
  • Act III introduces Ridley, who proves to be one of the most dangerous villains of all. Specifically, his Zero offshoot manages to No-Sell all of Dark Link's attacks, and beat the absolute shit out of him with no effort.
• Legacy Character: Technically the entire cast. Everyone with the possible exceptions of The Creator, Midna, Ridley, and Shadow is a reincarnation of the specific character they were based on, and are reborn anew when the current incarnation loses his/her 10 life stock.
• Limit Break: There's the Final Smash, which unleashes one Smasher's power all at once into a powerful attack, like the game it's based on. Then there's the Ascent Mode, accessible only for certain characters through much practice and tribulations, allowing them to enhance their abilities to a new level. Most Ascent Modes are based on the desires of the Smasher to improve their qualities and fulfill their personal and objectives. A few examples of this:
  • Bowser's Ascent Mode has him perform a Split-Personality Merge with Giga Bowser, that allows him to be stronger and faster in battle, as well as give him a few extra abilities to turn the tide of battle, including brief invincibility and Teleport Spam. It's born out of Bowser's desire to stand out as a powerful smasher, and not as the walking punchline he's been most of his life.
  • Mario's Ascent Mode has him changing into his power-ups from the main games based on what element he's feeling (i.e: Fire Mario for when he's in the heat of the battle, Ice Mario for when he's frozen solid). Roy's sticker turns this up to eleven, allowing him to access all of his powers from the Super Mario Galaxy games. This Ascent Mode is made from Mario's sheer willpower to destroy Bowser at any and all costs, no matter how difficult it is.
  • On top of Link's Final Smash, he has an Ascent Mode that transforms him into Dark Link, which gives his attacks a darkness-tinged effect, and also gives him the ability to cause his opponents to bleed at points, due to being able to attack trophies directly at their matrix. Link's Ascent Mode is fueled with the sadistic, homicidal desire to inflict as much pain on his enemies before he kills them.
  • Sonic has his Super Sonic Final Smash, which is the catalyst to obtaining his Ascent Mode; where he stacks two Final Smashes on top of each other. This allows him to become Hyper Sonic, allowing him to go even faster than before, to the point of almost teleporting from place to place at times. Sonic's Ascent Mode is born from his wanton belief that he should be the fastest thing on Earth, and that nobody else can take it from him.
  • In Episode 17, Lucario unlocks his Ascent Mode, his Mega Evolution, after expelling Mewtwo's soul out of his body and regaining control, thanks to the fragment of the Creator's power that he gained after Bowser inadvertently spread it across the world.
• Limited Wardrobe: Averted; Word of God points out that the characters wear recolored skins of their costumes from time to time, like how real people would change clothes. However, this trope is played straight with a few characters, such as Captain Falcon (Word of God says this was intentional to make Falcon seem like a hobo) and "animal" characters such as Pokemon and Bowser who don't technically wear clothes.invoked
• Mass Super-Empowering Event: In episode 15 Bowser choses to let go of most of the godly power he had gain. This gave everyone in the world (even Ganondorf) a fraction of the Creator's power.
• Minus World: Negative Space, a vast area with nothing but darkness.
• Missed Him by That Much: A Running Gag that was quite popular in Season 1 is Mario being in the same location as Bowser, and just barely missing him.
• Mythology Gag: Many, many aspects of the series reference some of the character's home games one way or another.
  • The voice that Tigura21 uses for Bowser is somewhat based on Bowser's voice from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.
  • In a similar vein, Sonic's voice is based on Jaleel White, his voice from AoStH and Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM). Dedede's voice takes inspiration from the Kirby! Right Back at Ya! anime.
  • Sonic's Ascent Mode, Hyper Sonic, is directly based on the same transformation from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, with his "Hyper Flash" being an attack he can only use exclusively in this form.
  • When Bowser is shown confronting his inner darkness in "Ganon's Class Reunion", his negative/evil half is shown taking on the appearance of Dark Bowser from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Furthermore, when Bowser shows up on the Emeraudefest battlefield to fight Zero Ridley, he dramatically utters "SHOWTIME!", just like he does when getting into a battle in that game.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Episode 11 and on likes to throw in more than we're familiar with. Rule of Cool in spades though, so no worries!
  • There was a Time Skip after Episode 8, so it would make sense that guys like Ganondorf and Bowser learned a few tricks. Mario's potential also doubled due to a particular sticker given by Roy. A brief flashback in Episode 19 implies that Mario's new Fire Sword ability was similar to Roy's neutral special, the blade of fire.
  • Episode 6's remake reveals that Mario has the ability to use elemental powers depending on what he's feeling at the time (in this case, becoming Ice Mario as a result of being frozen by the Ice Climbers). This means that the sticker seemingly gives Mario more control over those abilities, rather than actually granting him that power.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Snake, Samus and Wolf (and indirectly Bowser, considering he's the one who released the Creators Power throughout the world), are responsible for the re-awakening of the Tetra Cardinal Ridley himself when the power spread across the world into every trophy. Because they'd hidden the fact that he had even been a threat to begin with (they put him down off screen and behind the scenes) and figured he wouldn't be a problem now that was presumed dead, Ridley was able to become the perfect replacement for Bowser in Ganon's plan to overthrow the Creator, and now Ridley is able to hold all of New Pork City, the very backbone of the world of Brawl, hostage.
• Noodle Incident: Wario is never allowed to use Bowser's bathroom again. We probably don't need to think too hard on that.
  • Wario is the subject of one of these again in Episode 20, where he apparently "greeted" Lucario by going full Groin Attack on him. Though this one's a bit more justified, as the last time Wario saw him, Mewtwo was using his body to try to kill Bowser, and no one informed him that Lucario now wants to help Bowser.
    Lucario: I am still sore, both figuratively and literally.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Mewtwo took pity on Bowser for his weakness, because he personally understood that pain. It was enough to convince himself to take Bowser as a pupil.
• "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: After the credits roll, sometimes the Episode will end with a preview of the next episode, which is capped by Bowser stating "Long live me, the Smash King!"
• Orwellian Retcon: As the series went on, some aspects of the series would change to reflect those that were made to the franchises and characters that Smash King were using.
  • The Spoiler Opening and ending sequences for Act II originally showed an Ascent Mode for Lucario, where he had taken on his Shiny Coloration, and was included for all original episodes that released for Act II. However, after the release of Episode 17 (Part 3), Lucario's Ascent Mode was changed from a Palette Swap to his Shiny Color to his Mega Evolution introduced in Pokémon X and Y (which released the same day the first part of Episode 17 was uploaded). A deleted scene of Episode 17 even shows Lucario transforming into Shiny Lucario instead of Mega Lucario. Subsequent Episode releases have had the opening changed to show Mega Lucario firing an Aura Sphere instead of Shiny Lucario ready to fight Bowser. Episode 16, which first showed off the Shiny Ascent Mode, was re-uploaded to the SmashKingArchives channel, with Mega Lucario in its place instead. Some of the re-uploaded Episodes from Act II also reflect this change in the opening.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Sort of a subversion; Mario, upon meeting Wario and Meta Knight (and realizing one of him is Bowser's teammates), insists he is a friend of Bowser and needs to take him to Bowser's home to see him. Since they never met prior, they took his warning of Ganondorf at face value. However, Meta Knight caught on the slip-up that he's a friend of Bowser's, yet doesn't know where he lives.
  • Bowser when Dedede gives Bowser the Ultimatum that he has to win the Tournament or face death otherwise. He's noticeably shocked at first, but then bursts out into laughter at how generic this kind of deal is. This may seem in character for him at first, but it's heavily implied that he actually is hiding his fear at the prospect of losing his life if he fails, and was just putting up a front for Peach and the others so they wouldn't worry.
• Poor Communication Kills: A lot of the conflicts in the series stem from characters failing to properly explain their sides of the stories to each other, firmly set in their biases about what they believe instead of listening to one another. It's a widespread problem amongst all the characters, where things blow way out of proportion when they could have been fixed much sooner had all relevant parties had talked things out properly.
  Snake: Failure to communicate...despite what Peach said, we just keep repeating history, huh?
• Power Trio: All contestants in the Smash King Tournament are set up into three man teams.
  • The Creator's Triune, consisting of Bowser, Ganondorf and Mewtwo (replaced by Dedede in Brawl), who were created to be challenges to the other Smashers to help them evolve, and thus were given different attributes for this goal. This is the reason they are so mistreated as well, as these qualities among other things made the other Smashers start to dub them as villains.

Tropes Q-Z

• "Reason You Suck" Speech: Bowser to Ganondorf in episode 13.
  Bowser: You think I don't know? You think I'm not aware of my position here? Why you're so fixed on getting me under your control? Why you keep calling me your "pet"? Your goal is beyond you. You can't do it without me. Every pretty word, every twisted lie, everything you do is related to me. Because you're too weak-no, no-limited to do it all on your own. But, want to know what's funny about that? You can't do anything about it, even if you wanted to, even with the great powers you have now. You're still the same as you ever were, and always will be...number two.
  • He gives a two-for-one speech in Racconto File 6 To Mario for spoiling Peach and Peach for wasting her potential.
• Reincarnation: It has been implied that some characters, like Bowser, are actually different from their previous selves over the time of being trophies.
  • This also happens to Captain Falcon in Episode 16 after his Heroic Sacrifice.
• The Remake: Tigura21 has already remade a few earlier episodes of Smash King. He wanted to fix some of the errors he made before, clear a few unexplained points up, film the scenes in HD, as well as add the new intro and outro. Only episodes 1-6 will be remade.
• Reset Button: Anyone who exhausts their 10 Life Stock is reincarnated as a blank slate of their original character. All memories and experiences built up are erased.
• The Reveal: The group consisting of Zelda, Snake, Samus, and Wolf was hired by the Creator to capture Bowser, and take him to Him. Bowser, along with Ganondorf and Mewtwo/Lucario, is one of the Creator's Triune, three beings the Creator made to challenge the other trophies. As a result, the members of the Triune evolve and grow faster than the others, Bowser especially. To this end, Bowser could become as powerful as the Creator. Ganondorf seeks to use Bowser to overthrow the Creator, and remake the world as he sees fit.
  • Ridley, one of a group of powerful Trophies that are new and unique to Brawl known as the Tetracardinals, is now Ganon's pawn that he will use to overthrow the Creator as a result of the Creator's power that was spread across the world in Episode 15, and now he's holding New Pork City hostage to get President Dedede to co-operate.
• Running Gag: Mario and Bowser manage to keep missing and passing each other, even when they're on the same stage. Until Episode 13 that is.
• Same Character, But Different:
  • While a few characters act in line with what most people know them as, many characters in the series have many differences that separate them from their traditional counterparts. Examples include Mario forgoing his Italian accent and speaking normally most of the time, Peach being a fierce battler and determinator, Wario caring more about his friends than himself, Meta Knight having a Split Personality between a serious side and an awkward side, and Link being an Ax-Crazy villain with an insatiable bloodlust.
  • Exaggerated in 2Decades, in which no one, not even Bowser are the same characters that they were from the world of Brawl, due to being different incarnations of their characters and taking place 20 years later.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Episode 13, Bowser uses an attack similar to a Mystic Arte, incantation and all.
  • Also in Episode 13, one of Bowser's visions depicts an army of Dark Bowsers, led by Dark Giga Bowser, wreaking havoc on the World of Brawl. The whole scene is a reference to The Wrath of Giga Bowser, right down to the music used (Liberi Fatali).
  • Episode 17, this time referencing Smashtasm:
    Bowser: I'm aiming my laser.....IMMA FIRIN' MY LASER!
    (fires at Diddy Kong and the shot bounces off him and back towards Bowser)
    Bowser: OH SHI-
    (gets blasted off the stage)
  • Bowser has a vast collection of video games to play, from Mario Kart, Tales of Vesperia, Gears of War, Super Mario Galaxy and BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. When he and Liz play the latter, he doesn't pick a character so he could listen to the menu music. Liz is confused because he's supposedly tone-deaf (a reference to DDR Mario Mix).invoked
  • Captain Falcon's Heroic Sacrifice involves him landing a powerful Falcon Punch on Link. The entire scene (right down to the "FALCON... PUUUUUUNCH!") is a shout-out to the F-Zero: GP Legend anime (where Falcon punches Black Shadow into an explosion that destroys a fraction of the universe).
  • In many episodes where a character is watching TV, the show in question will usually be an older Smash Bros. machinima.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Since Liz doesn't know English, her speech is usually roars. Bowser, Fox, President Dedede, Wolf and other Pokemon can understand her perfectly however.
• Split Personality: Meta Knight only has two outfits in the series for this reason: an orange texture, and his normal appearance, The former shows when he's more or less of a Butt-Monkey, whereas the latter is how normal Meta Knight would act. However, as of the events of Darkness Ascending, his serious personality is more prominent.
• Status Quo Is God: Averted. A major theme of the series is characters living with the consequences of their past actions, for better or worse.
• Stop Copying Me: Kirby's gimmick; whenever he copies someone's abilities, he imitates their moves and words. That being said, Kirby's abilities aren't exactly perfect: when Ganondorf utters the word "honorificabilitudinitatibus", he struggles to repeat it for a few seconds before giving up with a resounding "I hate you".
• Stripperiffic: Dedede's Zero Suits.
• Sudden Contest Format Change: In "R n' R," President Dedede formally reveals the Tetracardinal trophies, a set of supremely powerful Fighter Trophies, specifically Ridley. He declares that being at the top of the Smash King tournament rankings won't be enough, where they must also defeat Ridley in order to truly meet with The Creator. The winning team of the tournament has only one chance to defeat him, and if they fail, then no wishes will be granted. This goes against how the tournament had been structured, where it had advertised a meeting with the creator as a prize for standing atop the rankings, especially when the tournament had been going on for a month. Rightfully, the participants call out the Brawl Spectator Society for Moving The Goal Posts, but Bowser figures out that this is was done so Ganondorf could secure his chances at meeting with the Creator (as Ridley is under Ganondorf's control).
  Donkey Kong: You're only telling us this, now?!
  Pikachu: What a load of crap! We fight for a month, and the winner isn't even fully guaranteed a wish?!
  [...]
  Dedede: We are aware how sudden this announcement was. We had originally planned to spring this on ya during the finals, but in order to be a bit fair, we had Ridley personally show up for Char-Char's event to show the world what he's made of.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Link, though due to characters having a ten life stock outside of the tournament, he has yet to actually kill anyone.
  • Bowser dry humping Donkey Kong
• Three-Act Structure: Act I chronicles the early days of the Smash King tournament; Act II covers events around the final days of the tournament; Act III is set to take place during the finals.
• Time Skip: Nearly a month has passed between episodes 8 and 9.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Dedede. He is first seen as a Spoiled Brat who cares about nothing but power, food, and girls. But in "Wario: Portrait of a Smasher", he is able to beat up Wario, and in "No More Womyn", he is able to talk some sense back into Peach after she and Bowser have a falling out. Justified once it's revealed that he's the the third member of the Creator's Triune, replacing Mewtwo.
  • This shows up after the Time Skip as well, when he and Mario work together to fight Ganondorf.
  • Team Falcon finally scoring their first win since the tournament started.
• Truce Zone: New Pork City serves as this for the tournament. Other teams are capable of challenging each other in any location throughout the world of Brawl except for New Pork, which is designated as a safe zone where people are encouraged to rest up after fighting. By the end of Act II however, Dedede is forced to lock down New Pork for everyone else's safety, due to Ridley reawakening and threatening to destroy it unless Dedede goes along with Ganondorf's plans - something that will further destroy the rest of Brawl due to New Pork being the backbone of the world.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Sonic and Captain Falcon's rivalry starts due to Sonic turning down Falcon's offer to form a team together, saying he doesn't need any "slowpokes" on his team and already has a team in mind. Then Sonic says it was obvious he was going to win their race with each other from the start, even though he only beat Falcon by a short distance.
• Wham Line:
  • From Episode 13, after Mario and Bowser have finally reunited alongside Peach, only for the latter to suddenly attack:
    Mario: Bowser was tricking you all along, Peach! He was the one who tried to kill me back in Melee!
  • From Episode 17, after Lucario powers up, expels Mewtwo from his body, and reveals his own Ascent Mode:
    Bowser: No...you're not Mewtwo.
    Lucario: You are correct. I am Lucario - the real one.
  • From Dedede to the Creator's Mercenaries when they find themselves underground, in order to get them to stand down from fighting Ridley and Ganondorf, else they destroy a critical foundational city of Brawl's world.
    Ganondorf: Lower your gun.
    Wolf: Bah, don't pay attention to this drivel.
    Dedede: (sighs) We're directly beneath New Pork City.
• Wham Episode: So many that it has its own page!
• Wham Shot: From Episode 19, where Ridley drops Samus into his mouth and swallows her whole, raising the stakes and killing one of series' major characters on-screen.
• Wrong-Name Outburst: Episode 15 has Peach call Mario "Bowser" while on a romantic date with him, accompanied by an Imagine Spot of seeing Mario as Bowser. Which really shows the contrast between how Peach was and how she is now, seeing how she imagines Bowser as Mario several times near the beginning of the series.
• The Worf Effect: Link is on the receiving end of this in Episode 21 when he squares up against Zero Ridley, to demonstrate just how powerful he is in comparison and to set him up as the final obstacle. Link, who already was powerful enough on his own, struggles fighting against this offshoot of the space dragon, which forces him to transform into his Ascent Mode. Link required the combined efforts of Ike, Hyper Sonic, and Team Falcon to be taken down, even forcing Falcon to sacrifice himself. Link, after using his Ascent Mode enhanced Triforce Slash Final Smash, is immediately taken down by Zero Ridley, due to Ridley himself being constructed with Giga Bowser's durability, Lucario's aura, and Link's ability to attack trophies internally. Ridley gloats just how much more powerful he is due to Ganondorf's experimentation.
  Ridley: This is only the cusp of what I am capable of, and I already feel unstoppable.

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Bowser: Long live me, the Smash King!

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