Super Smash Bros. Infinite Project (Finally Finished!???)

[WeirdChillFever]

Job 153
Anna (75ε)
(Byleth Echo)​

Who is Anna?

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Anna is a recurring character in Fire Emblem, and has gained a sort of mascot status because of this. Known for her keen business acumen and her sizeable family of identical sisters across space and time, Anna appears as a shopkeeper in most of her appearances, although she is recruitable in some entries, and even has served as an optional endgame boss such as the Anna seen above. This Anna is known as Apotheosis Anna and served as a DLC boss in Awakening and is now summonable in Fire Emblem: Heroes.

As a recurring character, Anna has only completely missed out on Gaiden and its remake Shadows of Valentia, otherwise having a perfect attendance record. Most of her appearances are as shopkeeper and tutorial host, but she makes the jump to playability in Fire Emblem Awakening, before reprising her playable role in Fates, Three Houses, Warriors amd Heroes.

In Heroes, she’s even a main character as the commander of the Askran forces. Furthermore, Apotheosis Anna appeared later as a standalone summonable character as a reaction to her high placing in the fan poll, Choose Your Legends.

In the Smash Bros. series, she made her debut as a Trophy in the 3DS version of Smash 4 and currently has a Master Spirit in Ultimate. For this job, I propose she can fill the role as the last first party Echo as an Echo fighter to Byleth in Infinite

From Weapon Master to Secret Seller: Anna as an Echo

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Anna is a shopkeeper, and thus has access to many different weapons throughout the series. This already gives her an easy way in as a character thay wields various weapons. What was arguably contrived for Byleth to wield Hero’s Relics (in a scenario impossible in Three Houses), Anna is used to using multiple weapons. Besides, Byleth only wields four Heroe’s Relics from Three Houses, Anna could give the player access to legendary weapons from across the series.

For Smash Bros., she could use the regalia weapons that first appeared in Shadow Dragon: The blade Mercurius, the lance Gradivus, the axe Hauteclere and the bow Parthia. These regalia appear in multiple entries in the series, most recently in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, as well as Fire Emblem: Heroes, in which they serve as not only the personal weapons of their wielders back in the first game, but also as the weapons for the Brave versions of Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude to complete the circle of the Fire Emblem saga, a theme best showcased by the girl that has been there since the beginning and has grown into a beloved mascot figure of the series.

If Anna were to use her Heroes design, one could even use the weapons Folkvangr (Alfonse’s sword), Fensalir (Sharena’s lance), Nóatún (Anna’s axe) and Breidablik (Kiran’s gun) as an alternative set. In both of these cases, Anna would most likely play the role of Byleth’s weaker but nimbler counterpart.

A more random approach could be taken where each input uses a different weapon from the series, including other legendary weapons like Siegmund, Fujin Yumi and Armads. This gives Anna her raison d’être: A character that represents the many weapons of Fire Emblem and its long history, packed in a character that has followed that history with every step, as well as a constant force in a cast that revolves its protagonists. Anna can function the same in Smash with her weaponry, incorporating not only the weapons that are in every Fire Emblem game, like Brave weapons that are known for attacking twice, but also the weapons of the lords not in Smash yet.

What weapons will she use? It’s for you to decide!

The gameplay differences can be subtle when simply replacing the Hero’s Relics with Regalia; the only gameplay differences that are obligatory stem from the lack of whipswords in her kit. This at minimum means that she needs a new Up Special and some retooling to other moves that use the Sword of the Creator and a new Final Smash.

To show that Anna’s history in the series give her the license to go the distance with just a few anounts of changes, Anna’s Up Special cannot use a whipsword, which means it has to be replaced and is thus an excellent way to bring in another Fire Emblem staple, whether it be a light magic spell like Warp or Rescue, or a spell of fellow Fire Emblem mage Robin in Excalibur. As a Trickster, Anna is capable of using magic, so her weapon prowess doesn’t just stop on the physical side of things. Anna takes every inch she’s given and uses it to give you the most Fire Emblem for its buck, whether it’s reskinning of weapons or herself, Anna fits in with every kind of Fire Emblem player. In the long History of The Emblem, Anna has been there and she’s ramping up her prominence starting with Awakening.

That’s not where the changes have to stop though: With the large armory she has at her disposal, there’s no shortage of Electroshock Arm-like weapon swaps in her arsenal, with moves being able to be either stronger, faster, weaker, slower etc. than the weapons of the Three Houses lords’, and can bring effects that fit the original weapons’ various skills from throughout the Fire Emblem legacy. This gives her a sort of Mr. Game and Watch-esque appeal, where each input can bring out a different weapon (as opposed to Byleth having a weapon per input direction) and have its own effects. A Back Air that attacks twice at the cost of might because it uses a Brave Lance, coupled with a Forward Air that hits even harder than Areadbhar because it uses Gradivus or Siegmund, the sky is the limit when it comes to effects. If this mechanic is chosen, Anna would feel a bit more random than Byleth and wouldn’t have a clear archetype like “stronger Byleth” or “weaker Byleth”: Each input would have its own strengths and weaknesses.

Selling the Sisters: Designing Anna

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Her own legacy means she wouldn’t be just a vehicle for various weapons. With each incarnation (or sister, according to Anna herself) comes a new chance for costumes. A costume based on her role as the Commander of Askr in Fire Emblem: Heroes, or a baret as she has in Fire Emblem: Warriors can all fall under her wardrobe. These can either be alternate costumes (making Anna the only character to have all alternative costumes rather than palette swaps) or simply palette swaps. Still, the sky is the limit when it comes to Anna designs. Smash can even bring in a brand new Anna specifically designed for Infinite! Alternatively, an Anna from a lesser represented game can fill in the gaps in the series’ representation in the same way The Legend of Zelda uses incarnations from all over the series.

As said before, there are multiple designs to take as her base from the Fire Emblem series: Her Trickster outfit that appears in both Awakening and Three Houses would further the connection Anna has with Byleth, her Heroes garb would represent the smash hit mobile game perfectly and Apotheosis Anna is infamous in the fanbase and has appeared in Heroes for that reason as well. The Apotheosis garb also gives her a neat backpack stuffed with weapons which can be used to great effects to give Anna that classic salesman flair.

That’s not to mention her iconic catchphrases, poses and personality that can make her stand out from the stiff and stoic Ashen Demon and would make her stand out as an Echo. Echo Fighters have traditionally been used to convey the personality of the character and Anna sure is a personality between her sweet-talking customer service combined with her cutthroat thirst for money to stand out when compared to the Professor that shines in his simplicity and more direct approach to conversation.

Fire Emblem, Smash Bros. and you.

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Adding another Fire Emblem character might seem counter-productive to the wishes of the fanbase. With Echoes being a potential way to add to series that have been down on their luck, adding a Fire Emblem character might seem like poor manners.

Luckily, Anna knows a thing or two about selling a product. Not only is she popular, coming in as high as fifth in one of the Choose Your Legends polls and making the top 50 in both the earliest and the latest installment of the poll with her Awakening incarnation alone (and yes, this is higher than Black Knight scored), Anna is a beloved mascot figure to the series, already giving her a leg up as a legitimately popular character.

Still, Fire Emblem has had a contentious history in Smash. The fanbase bemoans the revolving cast of lords that only wield swords making their appearance in Smash.

The thing is, these issues do not apply to Anna. Instead, a lot of the issues people have with the series’ representation can be solved in one blow. A cast known for only its most recent protagonist would gain one of its only recurring characters to connect to all players. A selection of weapons that only consists of swords despite of its vibrant armory would gain an expert on lances, axes and bows at the very least, and the series that has skipped so many of its older entries that fell between the cracks can finally see a character from their game, using their weapons, coming to join the fray.

Anna is very flexible in her design and can act as the glue that holds the revolving door cast of lords together with her consistent appearances. By including alternate costumes, palette swaps and choosing the right weapons, Anna can connect to any player of any Fire Emblem game, something that the Fire Emblem cast in Smash thus far sorely lacks. As said before, choosing a design of a previously skipped over game can give her the longevity she needs to fit right in with the other characters and make the selection more rounded.

The weapons play a part in this too. If Anna indeed chooses to bring regalia from across the series with her, Anna can bring along references to characters from across the series. It also means that Anna is far from “just another swordfighter” and the fact she takes inspiration from Byleth instead of Marth meams the mean amount of swords in Fire Emblem’s Smash presence would go down, and the amount of bows, lances and axes would go dramatically up. Since weapon selection is such a big part of Fire Emblem, Anna‘s salesman experience makes her a smooth fit. The fact that Anna can do all this as just an Echo is an economical bonus!

Overall, Anna is an evergreen that can take the cheap resources given to her as an Echo and take Fire Emblem representation to new heights. She’s scrappy, more than the sum of her parts and would squeeze the weapon master archetype to its limit all in one popular, flexible and charming character.

 

[Venus of the Desert Bloom]

So I’m bending my own rules a bit with this submission but technically speaking, we are throwing out some of the costumes that we submitted for 64 and Melee veterans that were deemed unrealizable in favor for recolors. This came about because I didn’t think about costumes and colors throughly and just did a first come first serve basis so several costumes and colors were submitted that are wouldn’t make much sense. I mean, I don’t think we can justify Boshi being included as an Yoshi alt when we don’t even have Geno or Mallow.

This is probably my most wanted Echo fighter after Black Knight and Hilda and one I really want to see us consider.

Dry Bowser

We submitted this character costume without proper vetting from the leadership or the thread so I would like to put it’s fate to rest by submitting it as an Echo fighter rather than an alternate costume. While the Mario franchise certainly doesn’t need to be increased, it goes without saying it’s one of the most important series in Smash. Dry Bowser represents a a resurgence in Mario platformers during the Wii days if I am correct and would be a great way to bring that back. Dry Bowser would have all of the attacks as Bowser but would also possessed different effects (purple-blue flames) as well as slightly different state. Lighter and faster with less defense and power. Plus, we don’t have any skeletal characters in Smash. Since alternate costumes form 64 and Melee are in a gray category currently I want to capitalize this by giving Dry Bowser a fighting chance to redeem himself.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Time to Funky!

I admit, I never really thought much of Funky prior to starting this thread but this thread showed me that this character has a lot going for him more than I thought. While I still would prefer Dixie, having Funky seems like an excellent way to fill out the DK roster if we can’t get Dixie in as an echo. In terms of content, Funky would be an Echo of Donkey but will forgo DK’s comical expressions in favor for more cool and hip ones. We can decide what sort of moves and content would be likened to DK or ones that are more akin to Funky. I want to leave the thread to decide what sort of clone Funky would be.

It can’t be denied though, Funky would be a truly funky newcomer to bring in.

Not to be that person but Funky has already been submitted.

 

[Venus of the Desert Bloom]

Not to be that person but Funky has already been submitted.

Yeah I wrote this out earlier and meant to sent it but got distracted by work. I’ll be editing mine to add someone else.

 

[Adrianette Bromide]

Resubmitting because I thought we already added a Mario echo character

Job 153: Gooigi
as a Luigi echo fighter

It's Gooigi from Luigi's Mansion! He made his debut in the 3D remake of Luigi's Mansion but has a more prominent role in the main story of Luigi's Mansion 3. He's the creation of Dr. E. Gadd who lives inside of Luigi's brand new Poltergust. When push comes to shove, Luigi calls him out and the two get to work solving puzzles and busting ghosts.

In Luigi's Mansion 3, Luigi is resistant against spikes which would otherwise hurt Luigi but he has less health and has a critical weakness to water. If he was an echo fighter of Luigi, I would imagine that he'd take damage in water like Inkling. For his moves, he could shool balls of green goo instead of fire and as an aesthetic effect, he could leave drops of goo wherever he runs instead of the usual dust effects.

Additionally, he sounds super funny!

 

[warpenguin55]

Job 86: Black Shadow- Fighter 11ε

Ganondorf's rework was a much needed thing. The problem with a rework that big is that the Ganondorf mains will lose their character. Some of them won't care, as they just wanted to play as Ganondorf. Some might not care about the moveset, but some of them definitely would. This is where Black Shadow comes in.

Even though I've talked a lot about Ganondorf, Black Shadow is still a Captain Falcon Echo Fighter. His Neutral, Up, and Down specials are the same moves, but made slower and given more power. Instead of a Darkness Choke, he'd more of a chokeslam move.

 

[airConditioner]

"...Move. One such as you cannot stop me."

Fighter #32ε: The Black Knight
First Appearance: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (2005)
Latest Appearance: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)

Who is the Black Knight?

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Introduced as a major villain in the Tellius Saga of Fire Emblem games, the Black Knight is the armor-clad rival of Ike, wielding the sacred sword Alondite. Born with the shame of having Laguz blood coursing through his veins, the man who would become the Black Knight joined the military to escape abuse. Eventually, he made his way to the Begnion military and rose quickly through the ranks. This led to him becoming a military hero and earned him quite the praise. He was eventually employed under the Mad King Ashnard, with ulterior motives. This is where the man formerly known as Zelgius would become the Black Knight, a mysterious soldier clad in Ashera blessed armor and capable of wielding Ragnell's counterpart Alondite.

This man would go on many exploits later on, including a final duel with his master Greil. The fierce battle between the two led to him killing his master in front of the latter's children, Ike and Mist. He would continue to work under Ashnard as well as his original allegiance to Begnion, thus effectively making him a double agent. When he encounters Ike in their final duel, the two fight with their respective relic weapons. Wielding Ragnell, Ike defeats the Black Knight, who seemingly perishes under a collapse. It is revealed that 1. Greil crippled himself to let the Black Knight win their duel and 2. the Black Knight purposefully lets Ike win their duel. It is also revealed that Zelgius had indeed survived the collapse and worked under his own identity to assist Begnion and Ike in the Mad King's War.

With the man known as the Black Knight seemingly deceased, it should come to no surprise that his return after three years was met with great shock. He abruptly appears in front of Micaiah, the main character of Path of Radiance's sequel, Radiant Dawn. The masked man protects Micaiah from an ambush and after a series of events, swears his loyalty to her. Micaiah's group, including the Black Knight, would eventually recapture Daein Keep. He would disappear after this and reemerge as a commander of the Begnion army. In the war against the Laguz Alliance, a series of missteps eventually leads Ike to betray orders from Senator Valtome in order to respect Queen Elincia's ceasefire. This act of treason put the hero of Begnion at the doorsteps of execution. He is rescued by Empress Sanaki and eventually joined his forces with the side of the Empire. Ike was appointed commander of these troops while Zelgius went on to rally support for the empire in the Begnion civil war between Sanaki and Valtome. Because of the constant warring on the continent of Tellius, the goddesses Ashera and Yune were awakened, with the former passing judgement on the Laguz and Beorc. The army arrived at the Tower of Guidance, with the Black Knight awaiting inside. Uninterrupted, he and Ike continue their duel, with Ike learning of the Black Knight's true identity. Zelgius is slain by the hand of the Radiant Hero, but not before he thanks Ike for the duel and acknowledges his growth as a warrior.

Presence in Smash

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Being one of the most popular Fire Emblem characters and one of two recognizable to those who have never played Fire Emblem (the other being Lyn), it should be no surprise that this man has quite a bit of representation already in Smash. The Black Knight has been present since Brawl, with his banger of a theme "Against the Black Knight." He has also been represented with trophies and stickers in Brawl and Smash 4. He is present in the form of 2 (two) spirits, being his original form Zelgius being able to be enhanced into the Legend Class Black Knight. His colors are also referenced in Ike's palette swaps, changing the Radiant Hero's outfit into a dark maroon. He was also introduced as a Mii Costume in Smash 4, with his armor and Alondite as part of the Mii Swordfighter's kit. However, his greatest role has been introduced in Ultimate, with his inclusion as an Assist Trophy alongside other popular FE characters Lyn and Tiki.

As an Echo of Ike

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Certainly, the notion of the Black Knight as an Echo of Ike has appeared in speculation more times than one can remember. He's always been one of the most popular speculated Echoes during Ultimate's pre-release phase, his name appearing with characters like Shadow and Dixie Kong. This is great and all, but how would he actually play?

As evidenced by his heavy armor, the Black Knight is an extremely powerful character with a strong defense thanks to Ashera's blessed armor and heavy attacks that rival his rival's in strength. His sword Alondite is the counterpart to Ragnell and has similar stats to it in Fire Emblem. It and its sister blade also have a function that allows them to throw energy projectiles, similar to Link's sword beam. With his near invulnerable armor, it would make sense to give him a mechanic similar to Bowser's Tough Guy or K. Rool's Belly Armor - thus helping to make up for his dismal speed.

As another student of Greil, the Black Knight could feature similar attacks to his base character, with some different moves, depending on the character. For example, the Warp Powder he was granted while at the post of Ashnard would function as teleport recovery. Ideally, he'd remain pretty similar to Ike with only a few moves changing, being specials. He can pull moves from his appearances in Fire Emblem Heroes as well as in his starring roles in the Tellius Saga. As an example of how the Black Knight can be implemented in Smash, here are some videos detailing his moves in mod Project M EX Remix (which you should play)

Why another Fire Emblem character from the Tellius Saga?

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It has been made abundantly clear that this will be the final opportunity to have a first party Echo character in our base game. Cool! Why are we wasting it on yet another Fire Emblem character? If I had to answer this question from a business perspective, I would say that the Fire Emblem series is growing quite rapidly, with it being one of Nintendo's money makers, regardless of whether or not you like that. It is quite obvious that this is why Nintendo keeps pushing Fire Emblem characters in Smash, continuing games such as Heroes, and making high quality official merchandise in the Year of Our Lord 2021.

However! From a more emotional, Smash fan perspective, I believe that we should be adding another Fire Emblem character because our representation right now is... shoddy to say the least. This is as a result of "Everyone is Here," where every character is back, but not everyone should be. We have 3 (three) characters from Fire Emblem Awakening, which might be because it's the game that saved the franchise, but it is still quite a lot. Of the currently 8 characters we have in Smash, all are pure sword wielding heroes. All are main lords of their games or sagas. Plus, we already have the Tellius saga represented with its main hero, Ike. Why shouldn't we add a character from an unrepresented saga like Jugdral or Magvel?

The Black Knight, while continuing the trope of being a swordfighter, serves to provide a visual and story contrast to those currently represented in Smash Bros. He is completely clad in armor (unless we want to take it off for his alts) and a major villain at that. While this isn't really a strong argument, he is also by far one of the most popular villains in the series. He is the highest ranking antagonist (read: actual antagonist, not a character who is bad in one route and good in another) placing 54th (out of 791) in the first Choose Your Legends poll, only coming behind main protagonists and popular unimportant characters. The Tellius Saga is also one of, if not THE most beloved sagas of Fire Emblem, to the point that it is one of the games that constantly gets rumors of remakes. Despite not selling too well because of bad market decisions on Nintendo's part, it still remains one of the sagas that get constant streams of new content, with a high quality Ike figurine releasing soon. The Black Knight himself has a decent presence in Heroes, with two versions of himself (the Knight and Zelgius), as well as appearing in Fire Emblem Awakening as a DLC bonus character. The Black Knight is representative of this saga, along with lords Ike and Micaiah. Thus, by including the Black Knight, he can serve as a visual and story contrast to the existing Fire Emblem cast and provide representation to the most beloved parts of Fire Emblem.

Closing Thoughts

1. The Black Knight is an extremely recognizable important villain, even to those unfamiliar with Fire Emblem
2. He would provide Fire Emblem with its first true villain
3. Being trained by the same master as Ike, he would mesh perfectly into the role of Echo
4. The Tellius Saga is extremely popular and relevant in Nintendo's eyes, as it constantly gets new content

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[Janx_uwu]

Job 153
Anna (75ε)

View attachment 327703

Who is Anna?
Anna is a recurring character in Fire Emblem, and has gained a sort of mascot status because of this. Known for her keen business acumen and her sizeable family of identical sisters across space and time, Anna appears as a shopkeeper in most of her appearances, although she is recruitable in some entries, and even has served as an optional endgame boss such as the Anna seen above. This Anna is known as Apotheosis Anna and served as a DLC boss in Awakening and is now summonable in Fire Emblem: Heroes.

As a recurring character, Anna has only completely missed out on Gaiden and its remake Shadows of Valentia, otherwise having a perfect attendance record.

For this job, I propose she can fill the role as the last first party Echo as an Echo fighter to Byleth.

From Weapon Master to Secret Seller
Anna is a shopkeeper, and thus has access to many different weapons throughout the series. Whereas Byleth only wields four Heroe’s Relics from Three Houses, Anna could give the player access to legendary weapons from across the series. For Smash Bros., she could use the regalia weapons that first appeared in Shadow Dragon: The blade Mercurius, the lance Gradivus, the axe Hauteclere and the bow Parthia, but a more random approach could be taken where each input uses a different weapon from the series, including other legendary weapons like Siegmund, Fujin Yumi and Armads. This gives Anna her raison d’être: A character that represents the many weapons of Fire Emblem and its long history, packed in a character that has followed that history with every step, as well as a constant force in a cast that revolves its protagonists. Anna can function the same in Smash with her weaponry, incorporating not only the weapons that are in every Fire Emblem game, like Brave weapons, but also the weapons of the lords not in Smash yet.
View attachment 327707
What weapons will she use? It’s for you to decide!

The gameplay differences can be subtle; the only gameplay differences that are obligatory stem from the lack of whipswords in her kit. This at minimum means that she needs a new Up Special and some retooling to other moves that use the Sword of the Creator.

That’s not where the changes have to stop though: With the large armory she has at her disposal, there’s no shortage of Electroshock Arm-like weapon swaps in her arsenal, with moves being able to be either stronger, faster, weaker, slower etc. than the weapons of the Three Houses lords’, and can bring effects that fit the original weapons’ various skills from throughout the Fire Emblem legacy. This gives her a sort of Mr. Game and Watch-esque appeal, where each input can bring out a different weapon (as opposed to Byleth having a weapon per input direction) and have its own effects. A Back Air that attacks twice at the cost of might because it uses a Brave Lance, coupled with a Forward Air that hits even harder than Areadbhar because it uses Gradivus, the sky is the limit when it comes to effects. If this mechanic is chosen, Anna would feel a bit more random than Byleth and wouldn’t have a clear archetype like “stronger Byleth” or “weaker Byleth”: Each input would have its own strengths and weaknesses.

Anna can also simply pick a different set of four weapons. As said before, the Archanea regalia Mercurius, Gradivus, Parthia and Hauteclere can be used to replace the Hero’s Relics wholesale for the same mechanic as Byleth (Pairing well with both the Three Houses incarnation of Anna as well as the classic one, since the Regalia appear in Fódlan as well). If Anna were to use her Heroes design, one could even use the weapons Folkvangr (Alfonse’s sword), Fensalir (Sharena’s lance), Nóatún (Anna’s axe) and Breidablik (Kiran’s gun) as an alternative set. In this case, Anna would most likely play the role of Byleth’s weaker but nimbler counterpart.

History of the Emblem
Her own legacy means she wouldn’t be just a vehicle for various weapons. With each incarnation (or sister, according to Anna herself) comes a new chance for costumes. A costume based on her role as the Commander of Askr in Fire Emblem: Heroes, or a baret as she has in Fire Emblem: Warriors can all fall under her wardrobe. These can either be alternate costumes (making Anna the only character to have all alternative costumes rather than palette swaps) or simply palette swaps. Still, the sky is the limit when it comes to Anna designs. Smash can even bring in a brand new Anna specifically designed for Infinite! Alternatively, an Anna from a lesser represented game can fill in the gaps in the series’ representation in the same way The Legend of Zelda uses incarnations from all over the series.

That’s not to mention her unique catchphrases, poses and personality that can make her stand out from the stiff and stoic Ashen Demon. Overall, Anna is a choice that always somehow brings more to the table than the sum of her parts, which is why she is the perfect pick to round out the Fire Emblem representation in Smash and thus the best pick for a first party echo. Being an echo is just her way of being economical, bonus!

As one of the few vocal Morshu supporters in existence, I fully back any character that fits the shopkeeper archetype.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

As one of the few vocal Morshu supporters in existence, I fully back any character that fits the shopkeeper archetype.

Oh you should see my Kilton concepts! I see that I’ve already been outmatched in the “Writing a long write up for a Fire Emblem Echo” department but I’ll always love me a good shopkeeper character.

Actually, wait, no, I believe Anna would be super cool as an Echo even if Black Knight is the quote-unquote popular choice and I Will update my post to make my case even better

 

[PeridotGX]

I'm ready for the Unique FE round. I have an essay lying around that i can't wait to copy and paste.

 

[Krookodilian]

Job #153: Birdo Causes a Panic!

"Hello gorgeous! Long time no see! It's me!"

Who is Birdo?
Despite being a mainstay of the Mario roster these days, Birdo's origins are a bit more complicated. While her first Mario appearance is quite clear, being Super Mario Bros. 2, that game itself is a product of its own strange circumstances. The original Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in Japan on June 3, 1986 featuring the same engine as the original Super Mario Bros., but with new harder levels featuring wind, springs, and poison mushrooms, which is even an item in smash. Fearing that Western gamers would find these new levels too difficult, Nintendo didn't officially release Super Mario Bros. 2 in the west until Super Mario All Stars on the SNES, with SMB2 referred to as Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. Instead, Nintendo retrofitted Miyamoto's Doki Doki Panic to feature Mario characters, and released it as Super Mario Bros. 2 in the West and Super Mario Bros USA in Japan. Birdo was a boss in Doki Doki Panic, and was naturally carried over to SMB USA.

While her status as a Doki Doki Panic original character may draw into her question her validity as a Mario character, multiple elements of the Mario franchise, such as Shy Guys, Bob-ombs, Pokeys, and Ninjis all originated here, so its not as big as a problem as it may seem. If you still need more confirmation, all of these elements that have been in smash are sorted under the Mario umbrella, so regardless of ones personal thoughts on the matter, they all count as Mario characters in the context of smash.

So that explains her origins, but what about Birdo herself? I would like to say Birdo is more simple than her origin story, but unfortunately that is not the case. The original manual description of Birdo, mistakenly called Ostro, describes Birdo as male, and claims the she prefers to be called Birdetta. This does seem to imply that Birdo is transgender, or at least a cross dresser; However just like with Sheik, Nintendo unsurprisingly glosses over this nature of her character, overwhelmingly referring to Birdo as "Birdo" while using female pronouns. It is worth noting however that male pronouns are used for Birdo in some European localizations, and there is often Dialogue in Mario RPGs and Captain Rainbow hinting at Birdo's ambiguous gender. So in a sense Birdo could be considered the first trans character to be added to smash.

Birdo is also technically a species just like Yoshi, although there is a "main" Birdo who features in Mario spin offs which would inspire her smash incarnation.

Her Powers mainly stem from her snout, including the ability to vacuum opponents, envelop opponents and herself in eggs, and fire eggs, although she also possess vague heart related abilities as seen in multiple Mario sports titles. Her Tail, large head, and feet can also be used to attack, in the same manner as Yoshi, who is her sometimes romantic interest, other times just regular partner.

Mario Series Prominence
With the number of Mario characters now in Smash, I can see how Birdo may be viewed as bottom of the barrel, however she's quite the opposite. As I mentioned earlier, Birdo debuted in Super Mario Bros. USA, making her one of the first new additions to the Mario cast after the original. She predates Daisy, Waluigi, Bowser Jr., Rosalina, Diddy Kong, and Even the modern design of Donkey Kong. She even predates Yoshi! While she wasn't present in SMB3, she made another appearance on the NES as a boss in Wario's Woods. She didn't appear in SMW either, but she did make an appearance on the SNES in Super Mario All Stars, featuring on the Box Art and Title Screen, as well as a being a boss in Super Mario RPG. In fact she even made a cameo in Kirby Super Star during Megaton Punch and Kirby and Dedede's battle!

In terms of spinn offs, Birdo has quite the history. Covering all the spin offs she been in would take too long, but she's been a consistent member of Mario Party, Mario Kart, Mario Golf, Mario Strikers, Mario Baseball, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. But, unlike other spin off characters such as Waluigi and Daisy, Birdo even has a history in the Paper Mario and Mario RPG series. Birdo has prominent roles in Sticker Star, Color Splash, and Origami King all three of which hardly feature any non Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser or Toad characters. In terms of Mario RPGs, shes appeared in the aforementioned Super Mario RPG, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and even has an expanded role in the Bowser's Minions mode of the remake. Also worth nothing are her playable appearances in Fortune Street, Mario Hoops 3-on-3, and Itadaki Street DS, which are all crossovers with Square Enix, and her playable official skin in the Mario Minecraft Mash-up expansion.

Furthermore, Birdo is featured in 5 amiibo cards, has multiple official plushes but I believe this is the most recent one, and is even a chess piece in Mario chess.

So as a whole Birdo is anything but bottom of the barrel. She has appeared in plenty of spinoffs, more mainline games than Daisy and Waluigi combined, multiple Mario RPGs which no other primarily spin off Mario characters can say about themselves, and predates most of the Mario cast, including the fighter she would be echoing! Her presence is still strong today, appearing on mobile and on switch in Mario Kart Tour, Mario Tennis Aces, Super Mario Party, Super Mario Maker 2, Paper Mario Origami King, Mario Golf: Super Rush, and already being revealed as playable in the upcoming Super Mario Party Superstars.

This isn't too related to why she should be in smash, but Mario Kart Tour has given her new color options like Shy Guy and Yoshi got in Mario Kart 8, which are too neat not to mention, and would obviously make for perfect alts.

Function as an Echo:

As Yoshi's partner in various Mario Spinoff Titles, Birdo would obviously be an echo of him. While at this point I think most ideas for echos require some form of compromise or mental gymnastics to truly work as an echo, but Birdo doesn't really have this issue. Birdo is capable of performing all of Yoshi's attack , including; Tail Swipes, Kicks, Headbutts, Egg Laying, Egg Shooting, and Egg Shielding. However, there is one aspect of Yoshi's moveset that she is unable to perform, his tongue attacks. Fear not, as there is a solution. As mentioned earlier, Birdo can simply suck air in similar to Kirby and Dedede's inhale for Yoshi's Neutral Special and Grab. Even changing those moves to something entirely different would still place her under the echo umbrella, but those measures aren't necessary to have her function, although we certainly could.

In terms of differences, her taunts, idles, and victory animations would display her more flirty and romantic nature, featuring plenty of kisses and hearts. She could function as a Paisy clone having the exact same stats, but if we want to set her apart we could really take any direction in terms of sacrificing damage, speed, and weight in exchange for each other, as she's an all rounder in the Mario sports games. Yoshi is typically classed as a speed class though, so I would lean to lowering her speed in exchange for damage if we do aim to change her stats. A different final smash would also be desired, although as Yoshi's Final Smash is entirely smash original I'm sure it could work for Birdo as well.

Existing Presence in Smash:​

Smash Installment	Content	Description
Melee - Stage Hazard & Trophy​		The Birdo trophy is obtained randomly: when this happens, Mushroom Kingdom II is unlocked. As with the stage, Birdo appears as her SNES sprite. First seen in Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdo is known for shooting eggs and fireballs from her mouth. Mario and friends would have to jump on to the eggs in midair, pick them up and throw them back at her. Long missing from the Nintendo scene, Birdo recently reappeared in Mario Tennis and Super Mario Advance.
Brawl - Trophy​		A pink creature of indeterminate gender that some say would rather be called Birdetta. A big ribbon on its head is its most distinguishing feature. In Super Mario Bros. 2, you can return fire on Birdo by jumping on the eggs shot from its mouth. Be careful not to get psyched out by fake-egg fireballs!
Smash 4 - Trophy​		Birdo's debut wasn't in a Mario game at all but in a game called Doki Doki Panic. Originally released in Japan, a version of that game made it to the West under a different name. Mario and friends replaced the main characters, and the game was called Super Mario Bros. 2. That's how Birdo joined the Mario Bros. family!
Ultimate - Returning Stage Hazard and Ace Spirit​		No descriptions for spirits

As you can see, Birdo has been present in the smash all the way since Melee, so this wouldn't be a strange promotion for her. Additionally, she plays an important role as a stage hazard on the Mushroom Kingdom II stage appearing in both Melee and Ultimate. On this stage she takes her sprite form, so her 3D fighter could exist at the same time, or it could simply be disable while Birdo is playing like with the flying Dedede in the background of Dreamland. furthermore, her Melee trophy is the unlock criteria behind the stage, placing even more importance on her in smash. Her spirit is also Ace class, signifying her importance to the Mario series, as its pretty much the highest class otherwise normal characters can be.

Potential Issues:

Yoshi is classified as the Yoshi series yet Birdo is a Mario character!

While cross series echos are allowed in the first place, I'm also not a fan of otherwise unrelated characters being echos of each other. Luckily Birdo is Yoshi's romantic interest and frequent sports partner, so they are definitely related despite technically being from different series. Additionally, Yoshi has moved around on the character select screen to be between Mario characters in Smash 4, so having Birdo next to Yoshi on the roster wouldn't be an issue.

Birdo is already a stage Hazard!

Other playable characters such as King Dedede are stage cameos, and are simply disabled whenever the fighter is in the match. Additionally, Birdo's appearance is in sprite form so both could exist at once and be distinguishable. Furthermore, this doesn't break the established lore like having King Dedede appear in the background of Dreamland while fighting would, as Birdo is a species which has multiple members.

Do We really need another Mario character?

While Mario does have a lot of characters, its not undeserved. Mario is Nintendo's mascot series and the highest selling video game series ever by 250 million units, so its really only to be expected. Furthermore, smash installments usually see multiple Mario universe characters per installment, as demonstrated in this table:​

Smash Installment	Mario Fighters
64​	Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong​
Melee​	Peach, Bowser, Dr. Mario​
Brawl​	Wario, Diddy Kong​
4​	Rosalina, Bowser Jr.​
Ultimate​	Daisy, Piranha Plant​
Infinite​	Waluigi​

(King K. Rool and Ashley aren't included as they are only Mario universe characters by proxy and have never appeared in a Mario game, or only one in the case of K. Rool)

In every single smash installment multiple Mario characters have been added, so if anything the lack of Mario fighters in Infinite so far helps her case, especially with smaller series (in comparison anyways lol) like Resident Evil, Splatoon, Kirby, and Zelda getting multiple fighters.

Final Arguments:

1. Birdo is one of the oldest Mario characters, and has a long legacy in her home series, arguably more than Daisy, another echo, and Waluigi, a completely original fighter.

2. Birdo would be our first Transgender fighter, and while her being transgender isn't super integral to her character, representation still matters and there aren't too many other prominent trans characters I can see getting into smash.

3. Finally, perhaps the best argument, Yoshi is very lonely in the current roster. This may seem like a joke point but its one of my main reasons behind submitting Birdo. Yoshi has been alone since the first smash installment, and unlike Captain Falcon (the other lonely smash 64 fighter) Yoshi's series is still getting games. While Poochy and Kamek seem like good choices, Poochy has been assisted, and Kamek seems a lot less interesting with Ashley here. Birdo is more or less are last option to throw Yoshi a bone. Furthermore, every main mario character has their partner in smash except Yoshi!​

Mario	Peach	Wario	Bowser	Rosalina	Donkey Kong	Yoshi
Luigi	Daisy	Waluigi	Bowser Jr.	Luma (lol)	Diddy Kong	Nothing!

The Main Mario cast all has their partner from Double Dash except for Yoshi
This issue is pressing and you can help solve it by voting Birdo!

​

 

[SharkLord]

Personally I'm against an FE Echo. Aside from the franchise's already-contentious reputation regarding swordfighters and clones, if we do an FE character now it would most likely take out the dedicated FE round, and I want to see what sort of unique submissions we can get for that day. I'd prefer we not stifle that potential.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Personally I'm against an FE Echo. Aside from the franchise's already-contentious reputation regarding swordfighters and clones, if we do an FE character now it would most likely take out the dedicated FE round, and I want to see what sort of unique submissions we can get for that day. I'd prefer we not stifle that potential.

I was unaware that a dedicated FE round would be on the horizon, are there any other series for which an Echo would mean there’d be no unique character?

 

[Krookodilian]

I was unaware that a dedicated FE round would be on the horizon, are there any other series for which an Echo would mean there’d be no unique character?

its been a long running joke that we'll have a dedicated Fire Emblem job, although getting an echo fighter now would sort of fulfill our mandatory fire emblem quota. None of the other submissions here should change any of the few remaining fighter jobs.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

its been a long running joke that we'll have a dedicated Fire Emblem job, although getting an echo fighter now would sort of fulfill our mandatory fire emblem quota. None of the other submissions here should change any of the few remaining fighter jobs.

Thank you! I can definitely imagine that a dedicated Fire Emblem job would yield very creative results and that Shark’s looking forward to it coming to fruition, but I stand by my opinion that choosing Anna as a Byleth Echo Fighter would create the best possible status quo for the series (even if establishing a 17k words long document on an Arden moveset for a dedicated FE job sounds exciting) and it would be unfortunate if some very valid Echo possibilities were passed up on because someone got too excited for a FE Day because they know that I can and will whip up said Arden document for it.

I think the rest of the discussion could best the kept to the usual discussion phase after the job is closed. We’re far from the point where we’ve examined all possible first party fighters, so I’d love to see those submissions coming without derailing even this thread into a Fire Emblem discussion.

 

[PeridotGX]

i mean, the only series that got an echo that doesn't also have a unique newcomer is KI. I don't think adding a FE echo would stop us from adding a unique character later on.

it would mean 10 FE reps though. good lord the fanbase would be hell.

 

[Wario Wario Wario]

i mean, the only series that got an echo that doesn't also have a unique newcomer is KI. I don't think adding a FE echo would stop us from adding a unique character later on.

it would mean 10 FE reps though. good lord the fanbase would be hell.

Job: Add another Zelda character so it can surpass FE
unironically

 

[Venus of the Desert Bloom]

Submissions are closed! I will be compiling submissions and we will launch into a discussion round.

 

[Krookodilian]

i mean, the only series that got an echo that doesn't also have a unique newcomer is KI. I don't think adding a FE echo would stop us from adding a unique character later on.

it would mean 10 FE reps though. good lord the fanbase would be hell.

Fire Emblem characters could still get in, we just may not have a dedicated job for them anymore.

 

[Venus of the Desert Bloom]

Job 86: Black Shadow- Fighter 11ε

Ganondorf's rework was a much needed thing. The problem with a rework that big is that the Ganondorf mains will lose their character. Some of them won't care, as they just wanted to play as Ganondorf. Some might not care about the moveset, but some of them definitely would. This is where Black Shadow comes in.

Even though I've talked a lot about Ganondorf, Black Shadow is still a Captain Falcon Echo Fighter. His Neutral, Up, and Down specials are the same moves, but made slower and given more power. Instead of a Darkness Choke, he'd more of a chokeslam move.

Job 153: Dixie Kong (Donkey Kong series)
Diddy Kong's Echo Fighter
View attachment 327635

Why Dixie?
Dixie is the last major playable member of the Kong family/DK Crew that's been playable in multiple games in the series, as well as a former considered fighter for Smash, being initially planned for Brawl. While it's not the 100% best way of including her, plenty of echoes share less with their base fighter in canon than her, and we can add a few moves to help make her more unique. She's a fan favorite and was the star of her own game in DKC3.​

View attachment 327639
Fighter #49e: Mr. Sandman (Punch-Out!!)

Mr. Sandman here is the final boss of Punch-Out!! for arcades, as has appeared in all games in the series since. He's important to the series because he serves as a real test of skill for the protagonist, Little Mac. In Smash, he would be a Dark Samus-style Echo Fighter who's generally heavier and more powerful, but much slower than Little Mac. He even fits the man, too. Just have him hunched over like Mac, and he should match.

NEW ECHO FIGHTER: BLAZIKEN (11e)
View attachment 327636
Blaziken is a third generation Pokémon, and the final evolution of the fire starter, Torchic. Blaziken is a very popular Pokemon - in the google poll, it was crowned the fifth most popular Pokemon from Hoenn, beating out titans like Mudkip. Metagross, and Deoxys. Many think echoes cant be from a different series from their base fighter, but I think that it's fine so long as they fit - which Blaziken does exellently.

As for how Blaziken would work? Blaziken could acttually get away with being one of the least unique echoes, that's how good of a fit it is. Blaziken is a very fast Pokemon, and most of it's attacks use it's legs (but it does also use it's arms). That's also a pretty decent description of Captain Falcon (Blaziken's even doing the knee in it's Sugamori art!). That being said, there should be a few changes, mostly animation wise. Obviously the enter stage animation and Final Smash need to change, and Falcon Punch and F-Smash should be changed to kicks. Up Special should be swapped out for a completely different move, albeit one copied from another character: Sky Uppercut (reskinned Shoryuken).

Also, a fun thing: if we add Blaziken, we would have an echo who was based on a character from each smash game. Blaziken, Impa, Galacta Knight, Medusa, Octoling, and Leon.

Job 153

Fighter 48e

Pauline & Tiara

Pauline & Tiara would be an echo of Rosalina and Luma.

This would be a strange echo and it would be a fun choice as the last first party echo, It would certainly get a lot of reactions and would be a call back to the first new echo revealed in Daisy.

There is probably a lot of doubt as to how this could work, Maybe with a few visual changes like replacing Star Bits with Music notes and a move replacement this could be a fun option for an echo.

View attachment 327640

Ninten (Echo of Ness)

Ninten is the original protagonist of Mother, since the other protagonists were represented why not give this guy a chance to shine

Due to the ongoing theory of Ninten being a past relative of Ness he would be slower yes but his attacks are more methodical, his PK Fire could be slightly manipulated up or down in exchange for shorter range, or his PK Flash could only damage if it connects put is twice as strong, regardless Ness' easy to edit moveset would be perfect for a more older hero.

The Ice Climbers and Mr. Game & Watch
Pit and ROB
Little Mac and Duck Hunt
Uhhh... K. Rool and Banjo??
Takamaru and...

The Amazon Bites Back! (Pro Wrestling)

The Amazon would be Incineroar's echo fighter, a swamp monster heel with an irresistsble appetite for victory! Despite being from a different series, none of Incineroar's moves would be that OOC for The Amazon as he doesn't use any cat-themed moves and his few fire moves could be rethemed to noxious swamp gasses. The Amazon would follow the pre-SSBU tradition of quirky retros being saved for last while more serious and popular retros show up first. The Amazon's Piranha Bite and Outlaw Choke signature moves don't exactly have equivalents in Incineroar, so Amazon would likely be more on the Chrom side than Dark Samus.

While maybe not popular to today's Nintendo fandom, The Amazon is a beloved character to 80s kids and wrestling-crazy gamers. Homebrew action figures of Pro Wrestling's lineup are not at all an uncommon sight in custom wrestling toy communities, and seeing this notorious heel bite back - especially in a fight with Little Mac - would make the Smashers of Gen X very pleased. Now, those "Literally WHO?" responses from the Wii generation? He is a heel, that's what he wants.

We could portray The Amazon as a guy in a suit, but I personally prefer to have him as a real, oozing swamp creature

Job 153

E76 - Spring Man

Why Spring Man?

I'll go numbered list format since I'm very tired right now:

1. ARMs still only has one character in the game, with that being Min Min. Given that it's a new series with a lot of interesting characters this wouldn't be a bad way to go.
2. Spring Man would be a very fitting echo. A lot of the other interesting picks(Max Brass, Twintelle, Helix) wouldn't make a ton of sense as her echo while Spring Man would pretty much copy her fairly closly gimmick and weight wise.
3. Spring Man would still be fairly different as far as arm selecting goes, with his 3 defaults being the toaster, boomerang, and tribolt. It would be possible to work him into a different playstyle perhaps?
4. Spring Man is really important to the ARMS series itself. He felt like the implied protagonist given that he's in the boxart and his lore feels like setting him up as a challenger to Max Brass and his title. Pre the everyone is the protag quote, most probably would have argued that it was him the whole time.

Job #153
08ε: Raichu

​

Yeah that's right! Pikachu's cooler, stronger, oranger cousin!

Another Gen 1 Pokémon!?

Yeah okay, I get that a lot of people aren't on board with yet another OG 'mon joining, but come oooonnn...it's just an echo fighter. It's not like I'm requesting Meowth or anything, right? pain Really though, I've long held the belief that the generation a Pokémon is from should hardly matter. Just because Raichu is from Red/Green, doesn't mean that they're only in Red/Green. It isn't like Fire Emblem where they completely rotate the cast every game, Pokémon instead adds to its cast every game. Raichu makes an appearance in way more than just one generation and even has an Alolan form that could potentially be used as an alt, though that might be a wee bit of a stretch. Either way, I don't believe that a Pokémon's gen should keep them being included in Smash. It's unlikely that we'll ever have one 'mon for every gen anyway, so we might as well just judge them by their individual merits, rather than their game of origin.

Another Pikachu!?

Yes, we already have both Pikachu and Pichu. In a lot of ways, it kind of feels like Pikachu already has an echo fighter. That said, the fact that we have 2 out of 3 members of the Pikachu line just makes me want Raichu even more. It's always bothered me that Pikachu is used so frequently in promotional material, while his bigger, stronger evolution is always overshadowed. Raichu is Pika's final evolution, meaning that he is easily the strongest and most suited for battle, so why wouldn't he be in Smash? Even Pichu, a baby Pokémon, managed to join Smash first. And honestly, the Pikachu line is certainly iconic enough to warrant three variations on the roster, the same way that having Link, Young Link, and Toon Link is justified.

So how would Raichu play?

While I obviously wouldn't mind having a few unique moves, animations, etc. I would personally prioritize Raichu's stats. The same way that Pichu is essentially just a faster, lighter, weaker Pikachu - Raichu would be a slower, heavier, stronger Pikachu with a decently enlarged hitbox/hurtbox (yes that would probably include his big 'ol tail, which would both make him a much bigger target, while also giving him a little extra range on his tail attacks). Bing, bang, bop, you now have an echo fighter!

It’s his last chance to appear

Dark Bowser
View attachment 327682
Debuting in Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, he is the final boss of the game. He also has some deadly moves like a curl ball attack, Boulder launch and a final Smash that traps opponent said I never a cage before unleashing an energy attack.

Also we need more representation of the Mario and Luigi series, and Dark Bowser could help.

Job #153:
Get Ready for....

Leon Powalski from Star Fox!​

Leon Powalski would be Wolf's echo Fighter and he would be lighter, but stronger and faster.
He would have similar moveset to Wolf's, but in faster motion.

Since we have Falco as Fox's clone, so why not Leon Powalski as Wolf's Echo?

​

It's the man! The myth! The legend...this echo is ready to ride the waves of Smash!
JOB #153: FUNKY KONG

Background info

Funky Kong debuted in the game Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. Rare had a go at the DK series with this one, since they were still owned by Nintendo-and they took a lot of liberties with the series-in fact, in many ways it can be compared to how a character like Sonic transitioned to the third dimension. DK was made "cooler", with more personality, a little more flair if you will. Sprites were now 3D-like, and gameplay was more focused on brutally tough platforming than the timing-based puzzle platforming of the arcade games. Diddy was added as a fun sidekick or second playable character-and a very fitting crocodile with a disgusting appearance was made the main antagonist. However, there was one new character that may have seemed a throwaway addition at first, but would very soon become much, MUCH more...

A radical surfboarder named Funky Kong-largely suspected to be DK's brother, given the similarities in appearance-was the operator of Funky's Flights. Rather than give direct help to DK and smash some Kremling butt himself, FK preferred helping from the sidelines-and this was made evident in nearly every DK game afterwards. He often helps the DK Crew by giving them free transportation, rentals of vehicles, items, and weapons. Funky has a keen fashion sense, always dressing like a surfer-as that's what he is of course! There's possibly nothing Funky loves more than getting some good airtime at sea-well, other than his beloved family at least.

Also, shoutout to Funky Kong's DK64 model, gotta be one of my favorite genders.

Speaking of which, Funky Kong disappeared after 64 (as far as main-series Donkey Kong goes), not reappearing until DKC Returns: Tropical Freeze, where he owns Funky's Fly N Buy, the game's equivalent to Cranky's shop from the first Returns game. In the Nintendo Switch port of the game, Squaks takes over the shop so that Funky can become playable in his own mode!-a "Funky" mode which reduces difficulty by giving FK all of the partner ability advantages as well as an extra heart, making it very popular in speedruns of the game. This wasn't Funky's only playable appearance though-he also is playable in many DK and even Mario spinoffs, even being the best character in Mario Kart Wii-fitting given his vehicle-obsession. Funky's always been a mainstay DK character, not often taking large playable roles yet still beloved by fans.

Funky as an echo of Donkey Kong

In Smash, DK is a super-heavyweight grappler with strong offense and very poor defense. While Funky is more known for speed-given his MK status, his presence in DKCR:TF speedrunning, and his vehicle-buisness, this doesn't mean he can't be an echo of DK. We could make him slightly faster than DK, as Ken is faster than Ryu. Given the similar body type, their moves would largely be the same, however to go with his often radical appearance, FK would have slightly different, more flashy animations. Funky's main difference would be having one or two attacks, as well as a Final Smash, unique to him. These could be references to his surfboard, his weapons, his vehicles, or all three somehow. It would be really cool if we could get an alt costume for him referencing his military gear from 64 or his orignial DKC design, but given that DK doesn't have an alt (to my knowledge), it wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't have something like that.

Why him over Dixie Kong?

I just think he would be a much more interesting choice. No evidence or facts to back this up, I just think he's way cooler and that Dixie is overrated. But that's entirely subjective. But in more objective reasoning, Funky is on the come-up recently, with his first mainline playable appearance and just a rise in popularity in general. Plus, with multiple playable roles and entire game to her name, I think Dixie is more deserving of an original fighter status than anything. As I've said in previous Funky submissions, I don't mean to pick on one character specifically, but when fighting for a position like a DK series ehco, it's kind of hard not to-I'd be doing the same thing if, say, I was submitting Shadow and had Metal Sonic as competition, in a general third-party echo voting.

Why him over other first party echoes?

It's no secret that this will be a VERY competitive job, as it's our final first-party echo. Funky has to compete with every single Nintendo echo that is submitted during this round. But as said before, Funky has really been on the come-up recently and is practically on the brink of becoming a mainstay playable DK character. He also just makes a lot of sense as an echo, whereas I feel a lot of characters who got submitted barely cross that line, lore-reasons or otherwise. But at the end of the day, it's all about gameplay-and given that DK has been basically the same fighter since Smash 64, and DK fans either want a new moveset or some major buffs, I think Donkey Kong would largely benefit from having an echo that's more speedy and stylish than the OG beeg gorilla.

CLOSING ARGUMENTS

1. Funky is a fan-favorite mainstay DK character who has also been featured in a mainline playable role very recently.
2. Funky Kong is the (theoretical) brother of DK, and shares the same body type, making him a perfect fit for echo status.
3. Funky could bring a breath of fresh air to an OG 8 character whose fans have been clamoring for a new moveset since.

Time to give 'em the ol' Banana Slamma-vote Funky Kong for Super Smash Bros. Infinite!​

View attachment 327704
For an Echo Fighter, I'm pitching Morgan from Fire Emblem: Awakening

Morgan is the child of Robin, The Main Avatar Protagonist. She is recruited from The Ruins of Time after Robin marries one of the female shephards(Lucina is my go to), She would play similar to Robin being a miniature version of him/her albeit with a few advanced versions of her spells.

His/Her Final Smash would work just like Robin's with an exception being Lucina replacing Chrom, Her alternate costumes would switch her hair colors based on who's child he/she is.

There isn't a good reason why morgan would be in here, personally, i think i'd be nice to have her reunite with Robin & possibly Lucina, though she could balance a little bit of the fire emblem roster with two magic users & swordfighters from the series.

Job 153
Anna (75ε)
(Byleth Echo)​

View attachment 327703

View attachment 327764Who is Anna?View attachment 327765​

Anna is a recurring character in Fire Emblem, and has gained a sort of mascot status because of this. Known for her keen business acumen and her sizeable family of identical sisters across space and time, Anna appears as a shopkeeper in most of her appearances, although she is recruitable in some entries, and even has served as an optional endgame boss such as the Anna seen above. This Anna is known as Apotheosis Anna and served as a DLC boss in Awakening and is now summonable in Fire Emblem: Heroes.

As a recurring character, Anna has only completely missed out on Gaiden and its remake Shadows of Valentia, otherwise having a perfect attendance record. Most of her appearances are as shopkeeper and tutorial host, but she makes the jump to playability in Fire Emblem Awakening, before reprising her playable role in Fates, Three Houses, Warriors amd Heroes.

In Heroes, she’s even a main character as the commander of the Askran forces. Furthermore, Apotheosis Anna appeared later as a standalone summonable character as a reaction to her high placing in the fan poll, Choose Your Legends.

In the Smash Bros. series, she made her debut as a Trophy in the 3DS version of Smash 4 and currently has a Master Spirit in Ultimate. For this job, I propose she can fill the role as the last first party Echo as an Echo fighter to Byleth in Infinite

View attachment 327767From Weapon Master to Secret Seller: Anna as an EchoView attachment 327768​

Anna is a shopkeeper, and thus has access to many different weapons throughout the series. This already gives her an easy way in as a character thay wields various weapons. What was arguably contrived for Byleth to wield Hero’s Relics (in a scenario impossible in Three Houses), Anna is used to using multiple weapons. Besides, Byleth only wields four Heroe’s Relics from Three Houses, Anna could give the player access to legendary weapons from across the series.

For Smash Bros., she could use the regalia weapons that first appeared in Shadow Dragon: The blade Mercurius, the lance Gradivus, the axe Hauteclere and the bow Parthia. These regalia appear in multiple entries in the series, most recently in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, as well as Fire Emblem: Heroes, in which they serve as not only the personal weapons of their wielders back in the first game, but also as the weapons for the Brave versions of Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude to complete the circle of the Fire Emblem saga, a theme best showcased by the girl that has been there since the beginning and has grown into a beloved mascot figure of the series.

If Anna were to use her Heroes design, one could even use the weapons Folkvangr (Alfonse’s sword), Fensalir (Sharena’s lance), Nóatún (Anna’s axe) and Breidablik (Kiran’s gun) as an alternative set. In both of these cases, Anna would most likely play the role of Byleth’s weaker but nimbler counterpart.

A more random approach could be taken where each input uses a different weapon from the series, including other legendary weapons like Siegmund, Fujin Yumi and Armads. This gives Anna her raison d’être: A character that represents the many weapons of Fire Emblem and its long history, packed in a character that has followed that history with every step, as well as a constant force in a cast that revolves its protagonists. Anna can function the same in Smash with her weaponry, incorporating not only the weapons that are in every Fire Emblem game, like Brave weapons that are known for attacking twice, but also the weapons of the lords not in Smash yet.
View attachment 327707
What weapons will she use? It’s for you to decide!

The gameplay differences can be subtle when simply replacing the Hero’s Relics with Regalia; the only gameplay differences that are obligatory stem from the lack of whipswords in her kit. This at minimum means that she needs a new Up Special and some retooling to other moves that use the Sword of the Creator and a new Final Smash.

To show that Anna’s history in the series give her the license to go the distance with just a few anounts of changes, Anna’s Up Special cannot use a whipsword, which means it has to be replaced and is thus an excellent way to bring in another Fire Emblem staple, whether it be a light magic spell like Warp or Rescue, or a spell of fellow Fire Emblem mage Robin in Excalibur. As a Trickster, Anna is capable of using magic, so her weapon prowess doesn’t just stop on the physical side of things. Anna takes every inch she’s given and uses it to give you the most Fire Emblem for its buck, whether it’s reskinning of weapons or herself, Anna fits in with every kind of Fire Emblem player. In the long History of The Emblem, Anna has been there and she’s ramping up her prominence starting with Awakening.

That’s not where the changes have to stop though: With the large armory she has at her disposal, there’s no shortage of Electroshock Arm-like weapon swaps in her arsenal, with moves being able to be either stronger, faster, weaker, slower etc. than the weapons of the Three Houses lords’, and can bring effects that fit the original weapons’ various skills from throughout the Fire Emblem legacy. This gives her a sort of Mr. Game and Watch-esque appeal, where each input can bring out a different weapon (as opposed to Byleth having a weapon per input direction) and have its own effects. A Back Air that attacks twice at the cost of might because it uses a Brave Lance, coupled with a Forward Air that hits even harder than Areadbhar because it uses Gradivus or Siegmund, the sky is the limit when it comes to effects. If this mechanic is chosen, Anna would feel a bit more random than Byleth and wouldn’t have a clear archetype like “stronger Byleth” or “weaker Byleth”: Each input would have its own strengths and weaknesses.

View attachment 327769Selling the Sisters: Designing AnnaView attachment 327770​

Her own legacy means she wouldn’t be just a vehicle for various weapons. With each incarnation (or sister, according to Anna herself) comes a new chance for costumes. A costume based on her role as the Commander of Askr in Fire Emblem: Heroes, or a baret as she has in Fire Emblem: Warriors can all fall under her wardrobe. These can either be alternate costumes (making Anna the only character to have all alternative costumes rather than palette swaps) or simply palette swaps. Still, the sky is the limit when it comes to Anna designs. Smash can even bring in a brand new Anna specifically designed for Infinite! Alternatively, an Anna from a lesser represented game can fill in the gaps in the series’ representation in the same way The Legend of Zelda uses incarnations from all over the series.

As said before, there are multiple designs to take as her base from the Fire Emblem series: Her Trickster outfit that appears in both Awakening and Three Houses would further the connection Anna has with Byleth, her Heroes garb would represent the smash hit mobile game perfectly and Apotheosis Anna is infamous in the fanbase and has appeared in Heroes for that reason as well. The Apotheosis garb also gives her a neat backpack stuffed with weapons which can be used to great effects to give Anna that classic salesman flair.

That’s not to mention her iconic catchphrases, poses and personality that can make her stand out from the stiff and stoic Ashen Demon and would make her stand out as an Echo. Echo Fighters have traditionally been used to convey the personality of the character and Anna sure is a personality between her sweet-talking customer service combined with her cutthroat thirst for money to stand out when compared to the Professor that shines in his simplicity and more direct approach to conversation.

View attachment 327772Fire Emblem, Smash Bros. and you.View attachment 327773​

Adding another Fire Emblem character might seem counter-productive to the wishes of the fanbase. With Echoes being a potential way to add to series that have been down on their luck, adding a Fire Emblem character might seem like poor manners.

Luckily, Anna knows a thing or two about selling a product. Not only is she popular, coming in as high as fifth in one of the Choose Your Legends polls and making the top 50 in both the earliest and the latest installment of the poll with her Awakening incarnation alone (and yes, this is higher than Black Knight scored), Anna is a beloved mascot figure to the series, already giving her a leg up as a legitimately popular character.

Still, Fire Emblem has had a contentious history in Smash. The fanbase bemoans the revolving cast of lords that only wield swords making their appearance in Smash.

The thing is, these issues do not apply to Anna. Instead, a lot of the issues people have with the series’ representation can be solved in one blow. A cast known for only its most recent protagonist would gain one of its only recurring characters to connect to all players. A selection of weapons that only consists of swords despite of its vibrant armory would gain an expert on lances, axes and bows at the very least, and the series that has skipped so many of its older entries that fell between the cracks can finally see a character from their game, using their weapons, coming to join the fray.

Anna is very flexible in her design and can act as the glue that holds the revolving door cast of lords together with her consistent appearances. By including alternate costumes, palette swaps and choosing the right weapons, Anna can connect to any player of any Fire Emblem game, something that the Fire Emblem cast in Smash thus far sorely lacks. As said before, choosing a design of a previously skipped over game can give her the longevity she needs to fit right in with the other characters and make the selection more rounded.

The weapons play a part in this too. If Anna indeed chooses to bring regalia from across the series with her, Anna can bring along references to characters from across the series. It also means that Anna is far from “just another swordfighter” and the fact she takes inspiration from Byleth instead of Marth meams the mean amount of swords in Fire Emblem’s Smash presence would go down, and the amount of bows, lances and axes would go dramatically up. Since weapon selection is such a big part of Fire Emblem, Anna‘s salesman experience makes her a smooth fit. The fact that Anna can do all this as just an Echo is an economical bonus!

Overall, Anna is an evergreen that can take the cheap resources given to her as an Echo and take Fire Emblem representation to new heights. She’s scrappy, more than the sum of her parts and would squeeze the weapon master archetype to its limit all in one popular, flexible and charming character.

So I’m bending my own rules a bit with this submission but technically speaking, we are throwing out some of the costumes that we submitted for 64 and Melee veterans that were deemed unrealizable in favor for recolors. This came about because I didn’t think about costumes and colors throughly and just did a first come first serve basis so several costumes and colors were submitted that are wouldn’t make much sense. I mean, I don’t think we can justify Boshi being included as an Yoshi alt when we don’t even have Geno or Mallow.

This is probably my most wanted Echo fighter after Black Knight and Hilda and one I really want to see us consider.

Dry Bowser

We submitted this character costume without proper vetting from the leadership or the thread so I would like to put it’s fate to rest by submitting it as an Echo fighter rather than an alternate costume. While the Mario franchise certainly doesn’t need to be increased, it goes without saying it’s one of the most important series in Smash. Dry Bowser represents a a resurgence in Mario platformers during the Wii days if I am correct and would be a great way to bring that back. Dry Bowser would have all of the attacks as Bowser but would also possessed different effects (purple-blue flames) as well as slightly different state. Lighter and faster with less defense and power. Plus, we don’t have any skeletal characters in Smash. Since alternate costumes form 64 and Melee are in a gray category currently I want to capitalize this by giving Dry Bowser a fighting chance to redeem himself.

Resubmitting because I thought we already added a Mario echo character

Job 153: Gooigi
as a Luigi echo fighter

View attachment 327715

It's Gooigi from Luigi's Mansion! He made his debut in the 3D remake of Luigi's Mansion but has a more prominent role in the main story of Luigi's Mansion 3. He's the creation of Dr. E. Gadd who lives inside of Luigi's brand new Poltergust. When push comes to shove, Luigi calls him out and the two get to work solving puzzles and busting ghosts.

In Luigi's Mansion 3, Luigi is resistant against spikes which would otherwise hurt Luigi but he has less health and has a critical weakness to water. If he was an echo fighter of Luigi, I would imagine that he'd take damage in water like Inkling. For his moves, he could shool balls of green goo instead of fire and as an aesthetic effect, he could leave drops of goo wherever he runs instead of the usual dust effects.

Additionally, he sounds super funny!

"...Move. One such as you cannot stop me."

Fighter #32ε: The Black Knight
First Appearance: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (2005)
Latest Appearance: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)

Who is the Black Knight?

​

Introduced as a major villain in the Tellius Saga of Fire Emblem games, the Black Knight is the armor-clad rival of Ike, wielding the sacred sword Alondite. Born with the shame of having Laguz blood coursing through his veins, the man who would become the Black Knight joined the military to escape abuse. Eventually, he made his way to the Begnion military and rose quickly through the ranks. This led to him becoming a military hero and earned him quite the praise. He was eventually employed under the Mad King Ashnard, with ulterior motives. This is where the man formerly known as Zelgius would become the Black Knight, a mysterious soldier clad in Ashera blessed armor and capable of wielding Ragnell's counterpart Alondite.

This man would go on many exploits later on, including a final duel with his master Greil. The fierce battle between the two led to him killing his master in front of the latter's children, Ike and Mist. He would continue to work under Ashnard as well as his original allegiance to Begnion, thus effectively making him a double agent. When he encounters Ike in their final duel, the two fight with their respective relic weapons. Wielding Ragnell, Ike defeats the Black Knight, who seemingly perishes under a collapse. It is revealed that 1. Greil crippled himself to let the Black Knight win their duel and 2. the Black Knight purposefully lets Ike win their duel. It is also revealed that Zelgius had indeed survived the collapse and worked under his own identity to assist Begnion and Ike in the Mad King's War.

With the man known as the Black Knight seemingly deceased, it should come to no surprise that his return after three years was met with great shock. He abruptly appears in front of Micaiah, the main character of Path of Radiance's sequel, Radiant Dawn. The masked man protects Micaiah from an ambush and after a series of events, swears his loyalty to her. Micaiah's group, including the Black Knight, would eventually recapture Daein Keep. He would disappear after this and reemerge as a commander of the Begnion army. In the war against the Laguz Alliance, a series of missteps eventually leads Ike to betray orders from Senator Valtome in order to respect Queen Elincia's ceasefire. This act of treason put the hero of Begnion at the doorsteps of execution. He is rescued by Empress Sanaki and eventually joined his forces with the side of the Empire. Ike was appointed commander of these troops while Zelgius went on to rally support for the empire in the Begnion civil war between Sanaki and Valtome. Because of the constant warring on the continent of Tellius, the goddesses Ashera and Yune were awakened, with the former passing judgement on the Laguz and Beorc. The army arrived at the Tower of Guidance, with the Black Knight awaiting inside. Uninterrupted, he and Ike continue their duel, with Ike learning of the Black Knight's true identity. Zelgius is slain by the hand of the Radiant Hero, but not before he thanks Ike for the duel and acknowledges his growth as a warrior.

Presence in Smash

​

Being one of the most popular Fire Emblem characters and one of two recognizable to those who have never played Fire Emblem (the other being Lyn), it should be no surprise that this man has quite a bit of representation already in Smash. The Black Knight has been present since Brawl, with his banger of a theme "Against the Black Knight." He has also been represented with trophies and stickers in Brawl and Smash 4. He is present in the form of 2 (two) spirits, being his original form Zelgius being able to be enhanced into the Legend Class Black Knight. His colors are also referenced in Ike's palette swaps, changing the Radiant Hero's outfit into a dark maroon. He was also introduced as a Mii Costume in Smash 4, with his armor and Alondite as part of the Mii Swordfighter's kit. However, his greatest role has been introduced in Ultimate, with his inclusion as an Assist Trophy alongside other popular FE characters Lyn and Tiki.

As an Echo of Ike

​

Certainly, the notion of the Black Knight as an Echo of Ike has appeared in speculation more times than one can remember. He's always been one of the most popular speculated Echoes during Ultimate's pre-release phase, his name appearing with characters like Shadow and Dixie Kong. This is great and all, but how would he actually play?

As evidenced by his heavy armor, the Black Knight is an extremely powerful character with a strong defense thanks to Ashera's blessed armor and heavy attacks that rival his rival's in strength. His sword Alondite is the counterpart to Ragnell and has similar stats to it in Fire Emblem. It and its sister blade also have a function that allows them to throw energy projectiles, similar to Link's sword beam. With his near invulnerable armor, it would make sense to give him a mechanic similar to Bowser's Tough Guy or K. Rool's Belly Armor - thus helping to make up for his dismal speed.

As another student of Greil, the Black Knight could feature similar attacks to his base character, with some different moves, depending on the character. For example, the Warp Powder he was granted while at the post of Ashnard would function as teleport recovery. Ideally, he'd remain pretty similar to Ike with only a few moves changing, being specials. He can pull moves from his appearances in Fire Emblem Heroes as well as in his starring roles in the Tellius Saga. As an example of how the Black Knight can be implemented in Smash, here are some videos detailing his moves in mod Project M EX Remix (which you should play)

Why another Fire Emblem character from the Tellius Saga?

​

It has been made abundantly clear that this will be the final opportunity to have a first party Echo character in our base game. Cool! Why are we wasting it on yet another Fire Emblem character? If I had to answer this question from a business perspective, I would say that the Fire Emblem series is growing quite rapidly, with it being one of Nintendo's money makers, regardless of whether or not you like that. It is quite obvious that this is why Nintendo keeps pushing Fire Emblem characters in Smash, continuing games such as Heroes, and making high quality official merchandise in the Year of Our Lord 2021.

However! From a more emotional, Smash fan perspective, I believe that we should be adding another Fire Emblem character because our representation right now is... shoddy to say the least. This is as a result of "Everyone is Here," where every character is back, but not everyone should be. We have 3 (three) characters from Fire Emblem Awakening, which might be because it's the game that saved the franchise, but it is still quite a lot. Of the currently 8 characters we have in Smash, all are pure sword wielding heroes. All are main lords of their games or sagas. Plus, we already have the Tellius saga represented with its main hero, Ike. Why shouldn't we add a character from an unrepresented saga like Jugdral or Magvel?

The Black Knight, while continuing the trope of being a swordfighter, serves to provide a visual and story contrast to those currently represented in Smash Bros. He is completely clad in armor (unless we want to take it off for his alts) and a major villain at that. While this isn't really a strong argument, he is also by far one of the most popular villains in the series. He is the highest ranking antagonist (read: actual antagonist, not a character who is bad in one route and good in another) placing 54th (out of 791) in the first Choose Your Legends poll, only coming behind main protagonists and popular unimportant characters. The Tellius Saga is also one of, if not THE most beloved sagas of Fire Emblem, to the point that it is one of the games that constantly gets rumors of remakes. Despite not selling too well because of bad market decisions on Nintendo's part, it still remains one of the sagas that get constant streams of new content, with a high quality Ike figurine releasing soon. The Black Knight himself has a decent presence in Heroes, with two versions of himself (the Knight and Zelgius), as well as appearing in Fire Emblem Awakening as a DLC bonus character. The Black Knight is representative of this saga, along with lords Ike and Micaiah. Thus, by including the Black Knight, he can serve as a visual and story contrast to the existing Fire Emblem cast and provide representation to the most beloved parts of Fire Emblem.

Closing Thoughts

1. The Black Knight is an extremely recognizable important villain, even to those unfamiliar with Fire Emblem
2. He would provide Fire Emblem with its first true villain
3. Being trained by the same master as Ike, he would mesh perfectly into the role of Echo
4. The Tellius Saga is extremely popular and relevant in Nintendo's eyes, as it constantly gets new content

​

View attachment 327709Job #153: Birdo Causes a Panic!View attachment 327710
"Hello gorgeous! Long time no see! It's me!"
View attachment 327666
Who is Birdo?
Despite being a mainstay of the Mario roster these days, Birdo's origins are a bit more complicated. While her first Mario appearance is quite clear, being Super Mario Bros. 2, that game itself is a product of its own strange circumstances. The original Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in Japan on June 3, 1986 featuring the same engine as the original Super Mario Bros., but with new harder levels featuring wind, springs, and poison mushrooms, which is even an item in smash. Fearing that Western gamers would find these new levels too difficult, Nintendo didn't officially release Super Mario Bros. 2 in the west until Super Mario All Stars on the SNES, with SMB2 referred to as Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. Instead, Nintendo retrofitted Miyamoto's Doki Doki Panic to feature Mario characters, and released it as Super Mario Bros. 2 in the West and Super Mario Bros USA in Japan. Birdo was a boss in Doki Doki Panic, and was naturally carried over to SMB USA.

While her status as a Doki Doki Panic original character may draw into her question her validity as a Mario character, multiple elements of the Mario franchise, such as Shy Guys, Bob-ombs, Pokeys, and Ninjis all originated here, so its not as big as a problem as it may seem. If you still need more confirmation, all of these elements that have been in smash are sorted under the Mario umbrella, so regardless of ones personal thoughts on the matter, they all count as Mario characters in the context of smash.

So that explains her origins, but what about Birdo herself? I would like to say Birdo is more simple than her origin story, but unfortunately that is not the case. The original manual description of Birdo, mistakenly called Ostro, describes Birdo as male, and claims the she prefers to be called Birdetta. This does seem to imply that Birdo is transgender, or at least a cross dresser; However just like with Sheik, Nintendo unsurprisingly glosses over this nature of her character, overwhelmingly referring to Birdo as "Birdo" while using female pronouns. It is worth noting however that male pronouns are used for Birdo in some European localizations, and there is often Dialogue in Mario RPGs and Captain Rainbow hinting at Birdo's ambiguous gender. So in a sense Birdo could be considered the first trans character to be added to smash.

Birdo is also technically a species just like Yoshi, although there is a "main" Birdo who features in Mario spin offs which would inspire her smash incarnation.

Her Powers mainly stem from her snout, including the ability to vacuum opponents, envelop opponents and herself in eggs, and fire eggs, although she also possess vague heart related abilities as seen in multiple Mario sports titles. Her Tail, large head, and feet can also be used to attack, in the same manner as Yoshi, who is her sometimes romantic interest, other times just regular partner.

Mario Series Prominence
With the number of Mario characters now in Smash, I can see how Birdo may be viewed as bottom of the barrel, however she's quite the opposite. As I mentioned earlier, Birdo debuted in Super Mario Bros. USA, making her one of the first new additions to the Mario cast after the original. She predates Daisy, Waluigi, Bowser Jr., Rosalina, Diddy Kong, and Even the modern design of Donkey Kong. She even predates Yoshi! While she wasn't present in SMB3, she made another appearance on the NES as a boss in Wario's Woods. She didn't appear in SMW either, but she did make an appearance on the SNES in Super Mario All Stars, featuring on the Box Art and Title Screen, as well as a being a boss in Super Mario RPG. In fact she even made a cameo in Kirby Super Star during Megaton Punch and Kirby and Dedede's battle!

In terms of spinn offs, Birdo has quite the history. Covering all the spin offs she been in would take too long, but she's been a consistent member of Mario Party, Mario Kart, Mario Golf, Mario Strikers, Mario Baseball, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. But, unlike other spin off characters such as Waluigi and Daisy, Birdo even has a history in the Paper Mario and Mario RPG series. Birdo has prominent roles in Sticker Star, Color Splash, and Origami King all three of which hardly feature any non Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser or Toad characters. In terms of Mario RPGs, shes appeared in the aforementioned Super Mario RPG, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and even has an expanded role in the Bowser's Minions mode of the remake. Also worth nothing are her playable appearances in Fortune Street, Mario Hoops 3-on-3, and Itadaki Street DS, which are all crossovers with Square Enix, and her playable official skin in the Mario Minecraft Mash-up expansion.

Furthermore, Birdo is featured in 5 amiibo cards, has multiple official plushes but I believe this is the most recent one, and is even a chess piece in Mario chess.

So as a whole Birdo is anything but bottom of the barrel. She has appeared in plenty of spinoffs, more mainline games than Daisy and Waluigi combined, multiple Mario RPGs which no other primarily spin off Mario characters can say about themselves, and predates most of the Mario cast, including the fighter she would be echoing! Her presence is still strong today, appearing on mobile and on switch in Mario Kart Tour, Mario Tennis Aces, Super Mario Party, Super Mario Maker 2, Paper Mario Origami King, Mario Golf: Super Rush, and already being revealed as playable in the upcoming Super Mario Party Superstars.

This isn't too related to why she should be in smash, but Mario Kart Tour has given her new color options like Shy Guy and Yoshi got in Mario Kart 8, which are too neat not to mention, and would obviously make for perfect alts.

Function as an Echo:
View attachment 327669
As Yoshi's partner in various Mario Spinoff Titles, Birdo would obviously be an echo of him. While at this point I think most ideas for echos require some form of compromise or mental gymnastics to truly work as an echo, but Birdo doesn't really have this issue. Birdo is capable of performing all of Yoshi's attack , including; Tail Swipes, Kicks, Headbutts, Egg Laying, Egg Shooting, and Egg Shielding. However, there is one aspect of Yoshi's moveset that she is unable to perform, his tongue attacks. Fear not, as there is a solution. As mentioned earlier, Birdo can simply suck air in similar to Kirby and Dedede's inhale for Yoshi's Neutral Special and Grab. Even changing those moves to something entirely different would still place her under the echo umbrella, but those measures aren't necessary to have her function, although we certainly could.

In terms of differences, her taunts, idles, and victory animations would display her more flirty and romantic nature, featuring plenty of kisses and hearts. She could function as a Paisy clone having the exact same stats, but if we want to set her apart we could really take any direction in terms of sacrificing damage, speed, and weight in exchange for each other, as she's an all rounder in the Mario sports games. Yoshi is typically classed as a speed class though, so I would lean to lowering her speed in exchange for damage if we do aim to change her stats. A different final smash would also be desired, although as Yoshi's Final Smash is entirely smash original I'm sure it could work for Birdo as well.

Existing Presence in Smash:​

Smash Installment	Content	Description
Melee - Stage Hazard & Trophy​	View attachment 327676​	The Birdo trophy is obtained randomly: when this happens, Mushroom Kingdom II is unlocked. As with the stage, Birdo appears as her SNES sprite. First seen in Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdo is known for shooting eggs and fireballs from her mouth. Mario and friends would have to jump on to the eggs in midair, pick them up and throw them back at her. Long missing from the Nintendo scene, Birdo recently reappeared in Mario Tennis and Super Mario Advance.
Brawl - Trophy​	View attachment 327677​	A pink creature of indeterminate gender that some say would rather be called Birdetta. A big ribbon on its head is its most distinguishing feature. In Super Mario Bros. 2, you can return fire on Birdo by jumping on the eggs shot from its mouth. Be careful not to get psyched out by fake-egg fireballs!
Smash 4 - Trophy​	View attachment 327679​	Birdo's debut wasn't in a Mario game at all but in a game called Doki Doki Panic. Originally released in Japan, a version of that game made it to the West under a different name. Mario and friends replaced the main characters, and the game was called Super Mario Bros. 2. That's how Birdo joined the Mario Bros. family!
Ultimate - Returning Stage Hazard and Ace Spirit​	View attachment 327680​	No descriptions for spirits

As you can see, Birdo has been present in the smash all the way since Melee, so this wouldn't be a strange promotion for her. Additionally, she plays an important role as a stage hazard on the Mushroom Kingdom II stage appearing in both Melee and Ultimate. On this stage she takes her sprite form, so her 3D fighter could exist at the same time, or it could simply be disable while Birdo is playing like with the flying Dedede in the background of Dreamland. furthermore, her Melee trophy is the unlock criteria behind the stage, placing even more importance on her in smash. Her spirit is also Ace class, signifying her importance to the Mario series, as its pretty much the highest class otherwise normal characters can be.

Potential Issues:

Yoshi is classified as the Yoshi series yet Birdo is a Mario character!

While cross series echos are allowed in the first place, I'm also not a fan of otherwise unrelated characters being echos of each other. Luckily Birdo is Yoshi's romantic interest and frequent sports partner, so they are definitely related despite technically being from different series. Additionally, Yoshi has moved around on the character select screen to be between Mario characters in Smash 4, so having Birdo next to Yoshi on the roster wouldn't be an issue.

Birdo is already a stage Hazard!

Other playable characters such as King Dedede are stage cameos, and are simply disabled whenever the fighter is in the match. Additionally, Birdo's appearance is in sprite form so both could exist at once and be distinguishable. Furthermore, this doesn't break the established lore like having King Dedede appear in the background of Dreamland while fighting would, as Birdo is a species which has multiple members.

Do We really need another Mario character?

While Mario does have a lot of characters, its not undeserved. Mario is Nintendo's mascot series and the highest selling video game series ever by 250 million units, so its really only to be expected. Furthermore, smash installments usually see multiple Mario universe characters per installment, as demonstrated in this table:​

Smash Installment	Mario Fighters
64​	Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong​
Melee​	Peach, Bowser, Dr. Mario​
Brawl​	Wario, Diddy Kong​
4​	Rosalina, Bowser Jr.​
Ultimate​	Daisy, Piranha Plant​
Infinite​	Waluigi​

(King K. Rool and Ashley aren't included as they are only Mario universe characters by proxy and have never appeared in a Mario game, or only one in the case of K. Rool)

In every single smash installment multiple Mario characters have been added, so if anything the lack of Mario fighters in Infinite so far helps her case, especially with smaller series (in comparison anyways lol) like Resident Evil, Splatoon, Kirby, and Zelda getting multiple fighters.

Final Arguments:

1. Birdo is one of the oldest Mario characters, and has a long legacy in her home series, arguably more than Daisy, another echo, and Waluigi, a completely original fighter.

2. Birdo would be our first Transgender fighter, and while her being transgender isn't super integral to her character, representation still matters and there aren't too many other prominent trans characters I can see getting into smash.

3. Finally, perhaps the best argument, Yoshi is very lonely in the current roster. This may seem like a joke point but its one of my main reasons behind submitting Birdo. Yoshi has been alone since the first smash installment, and unlike Captain Falcon (the other lonely smash 64 fighter) Yoshi's series is still getting games. While Poochy and Kamek seem like good choices, Poochy has been assisted, and Kamek seems a lot less interesting with Ashley here. Birdo is more or less are last option to throw Yoshi a bone. Furthermore, every main mario character has their partner in smash except Yoshi!​

Mario	Peach	Wario	Bowser	Rosalina	Donkey Kong	Yoshi
Luigi	Daisy	Waluigi	Bowser Jr.	Luma (lol)	Diddy Kong	Nothing!

The Main Mario cast all has their partner from Double Dash except for Yoshi
This issue is pressing and you can help solve it by voting Birdo!
View attachment 327748
​

Man we got a crap ton of submissions! It really warms my heart (and cramps my fingers) knowing you all had a voice in this!

Here are our total submissions:
Dixie Kong (Diddy Kong Echo) Donkey Kong series
Mr. Sandman (Little Mac Echo) Punch-Out!!
Blaziken (Captain Falcon Echo) Pokemon
Alph (Olimar Echo) Pikmin
Pauline & Tiara (Rosalina & Luma echo) Super Mario
Ninten (Ness Echo) Earthbound
The Amazonian (Incineroar Echo) Pro Wrestling
Springman (Min Min Echo) ARMS
Raichu (Pikachu Echo) Pokemon
Dark Bowser (Bowser Echo) Mario
Leon (Wolf Echo) Star Fox
Funky Kong (DK Echo) Donkey Kong
Morgan (Robin Echo) Fire Emblem
Anna (Byleth Echo) Fire Emblem
Dry Bowser (Bowser Echo) Mario
Gooigi (Luigi Echo) Mario
Black Shadow (Captain Falcon Echo) F-Zero
Black Knight (Ike Echo) Fire Emblem
Birdo (Yoshi Echo) Mario

So we will be jumping into a Discussion period which will last little over 12 hours. From there, we will begin voting. Runoff voting is being considered.

 

[airConditioner]

Don't have much to say this discussion period besides that Anna is by a large margin my favorite. The idea of her being a Byleth echo just works so well. Though one of the problems I see is the up-smash and other moves that use the Sword of the Creator's whip form specifically... but I feel like we can solve that problem pretty easily.

 

[GolisoPower]

There's too many here to list, so I'm gonna talk about the ones that stick out to me:

Anna as a Byleth Echo Fighter sounds...logical. Considering her background and her stock, it makes some modicum of sense.

ARMS should have more time in the spotlight, give Spring Man a chance to be a Min Min Echo. Give him some new attacks to replace Min Min's kick attacks, and we'll be good to go. Maybe replace her Dragon Arm with a Rage Mechanic a la Kazuya?

The Amazonian as an Incineroar Echo is big brain right there. The idea of Pro Wrestling getting a rep in Smash sounds fun, but this? This is just so damn smart.

 

[Krookodilian]

Obviously in terms of who I want its gonna be Birdo, as I really think Yoshi should get some love after being the only fighter from his ongoing series for 6 games now? Plus shes a trans icon.

I'd also still like to see Dixie Kong get in, although I do think she's better suited as a fully original fighter. Subsequently I'd rather not include Funky Kong as I'd like Dixie's chances to be the best in the next job she's eligible for and not have the thread be burnt out on DK content. At the end of the day these two make good echos but in my ideal world these two wouldn't get in here.

Black Knight is another good pick that would add some much needed visual diversity to our Fire Emblem reps, but I'm much more interested in seeing ideas for original Fire Emblem characters in a dedicated job.

Anna is in the same boat, but seems somewhat strange considering her and Byleth have no connection lore wise as far as I know, and her Up Air, Up Smash, and Up Special would all need to be reworked. However she is a prominent and popular FE character who even has a unique hair color, so I would welcome her to our roster. Although, given her access to all sorts of legendary weapons she also seems more suited for an original fighter rather than to have her limited to Byleth's moves.

 

[PeridotGX]

Anna as a Byleth echo wasn't even something i had thought of, but it makes perfect sense. I'm really impressed with that.

 

[SharkLord]

its been a long running joke that we'll have a dedicated Fire Emblem job, although getting an echo fighter now would sort of fulfill our mandatory fire emblem quota. None of the other submissions here should change any of the few remaining fighter jobs.

Just for reference, are gonna have an FE job or is that just a joke? I was under the impression that yes, that was set-in-stone, and a couple voting processes were influenced by the assumption that we'd get an FE-specific job, but the wording here muddies that a little. Just asking for clarity.

 

[Krookodilian]

Just for reference, are gonna have an FE job or is that just a joke? I was under the impression that yes, that was set-in-stone, and a couple voting processes were influenced by the assumption that we'd get an FE-specific job, but the wording here muddies that a little. Just asking for clarity.

Sorry, yeah, there is a definite Fire Emblem newcomer job planned. However, whats undecided is whether or not a Fire Emblem echo now will invalidate that job. We are leaning towards dropping the job if a Fire Emblem characters gets in here but we will have a final decision before voting starts.

 

[ivanlerma]

Anna(She'd make up for a very interesting Fire Emblem Character, while she'd borrow Byleth's Moveset it wouldn't look like it's a character people aren't complaining over appearances)
Funky Kong(I'd prefer Dixie, although Funky would be a funny addition for a DK rep)
Dixie Kong(Eh, Why Not)

 

[Capybara Gaming]

A few standouts to me.

Dixie (my own submission) vs. Funky - I'm sorry, I love Funky to death, but between DK and Diddy, Diddy has the more interesting kit and seems more realizable to have stuff changed to Chrom-ify Dixie.

The Amazon? That's a cool idea; normally I hate the prospect of cross-series echoes, but that's just too cool; though admittedly, I think Starman would fit that mold a little better (considering the dude canonically has Incineroar's up special and he's a face instead of a heel)

Anna - I'm not screaming for another FE rep, but if this can take that spot and leave a spot open for a different series, I'm all for it. Plus, as the character Anna is, her echoing Byleth actually makes some level of sense.

I've always advocated for Raichu to complete the Pika-trio, and Dry Bowser's always cool in my book (though I think he'd be a better alternate costume).

Alph's Rock Pikmin alone make him worthy of a spot, and removing the White Pikmin from his kit (since he can't even use them in the first place) might make him different enough to warrant that treatment twice over.

As for stinkers...

Birdo just isn't super great in the first place or memorable besides being somewhat controversial, and Yoshi's kit isn't interesting enough to warrant having it a second time.
Dark Bowser...? Really? He's LITERALLY a palette swap waiting to happen.
Leon? He's just not that important of a character to warrant a spot, imo. Not to mention we have a much BETTER and less irritating Leon already. Do we really need another spacey with a samey kit? From a basically dead series too?
Pauline is interesting in theory - but two things stand out. One, she's not even remotely associated with Tiara in Odyssey, and two, she's taller than Rosalina, by a relative margin. Her skeleton MIGHT work as an echo if you shrink her a bit, but I'd rather a character in who actually has something to offer that they can ACTUALLY do in their game.
Mr. Sandman has a similar problem to Pauline - but he's EVEN taller than Pauline to Rosalina's height, about twice the size of Mac in Punch-Out Wii. A semiclone for sure, but as a true echo? It's impossible.
Blaziken has enough moves and different things it can do that I feel slapping Falcon's moveset over it would be a disservice to such a beloved 'mon.
Lastly, Springman. ARMS is cool. But if we're getting a second ARMS fighter (which already seems like one is pushing it consider it's forgotten almost immediately after being put down) it really should be someone with something more unique, imo. Mechanica, Dr. Coyle, or Ninjara feel like infinitely more interesting characters, and honestly Ninjara would probably fit BETTER as an echo of the Ramen Bomber than Spring Man would.

 

[Krookodilian]

Crazy Dave Moveset: Its About Time!
(Apologies again for the delay. Apologies for the relative lack of polish as well but its better to get it out sooner rather than later with us about to be on our next fighter.)

Design:
Crazy Dave takes his design from his mainline appearances in the Western versions of Plants Vs. Zombies 1 & 2. The designs are identical aside from the art style change, except for a dent in the pot hat present in his pvz 2 design, which will be appearing in his smash design. Dave will also constantly be holding a flower pot in one of his hands, which the plants in his moveset will appear in.

Unlike Dave, the plants' appearances change in each installment they appear in, as shown here with the peashooter; so a design will need to be established for them.

Since Plants from both PvZ 1, and PvZ 2 will be appearing, the plants will largely pull front their PvZ 2 design, although some elements from 1 will be present in plants that appeared from that game, making for a somewhat smash original design.

Overview:

Following the trend set by Hero, Steve, and Kazuya, Crazy Dave is intended to play like you’re playing a round of Plant’s Vs. Zombies. This means he zones, camps, and relies on projectiles and traps for the majority of his damage with explosive smashes to end your opponents after enough damage has been racked up.

Like Plants Vs. Zombies, you can plant random plants and it will sometimes work, but in order to beat the harder levels, and to win tough matches in smash, its vital to conserve your sun and use plants that combo well together in the right positions, both on the lawn, and on the stage. Additionally, as Plants Vs. Zombies is a very grounded game, with only very few plants being able to deal with air units, Dave will be strongest on the ground. His aerials aren’t great, and his plants almost exclusively affect opponents on the ground and not the air.

Dave Uses Twiddydinkies for his tilts to avoid relying entirely on plants, but his smashes and aerials do still use plants, albeit without a sun cost, to represent as many as possible.

Stats:​

Weight: Crazy Dave is on the heavier side of characters, weighing in at 110 being heavier than Samus but lighter than Kazuya

Movement Speed: As he’s one of the heavier fighters, Crazy Dave will be one of the slower ones, with a run speed of 1.5, between Faster than Dedede but Slower than Ike. His walk speed would also be relatively slow, being 0.92, the same as Pyra’s.

Fall Speed: As a ground fighter, he falls somewhat fast, at 1.82, falling faster than Wolf but slower than Sephiroth

Air Speed: Pretty Average, being 1.02, the same as Isabelle’s

Moveset:

Neutrals:​

Move	Description
Jab: Potted Prattle Venus of the Desert Bloom​	Crazy Dave takes his trusty flower pot and swipes forward with it. Inputting jab again results in another returning swipe. A third and final input delivers an overhead slam, which inadvertently smashes the pot, causing an additional .80% from falling ceramic shards. Following this, Dave looks mortified only to pull out another pot. This won't deal much damage or knock-back but is one of his best out of shield options.​
Forward Tilt: Cooking Swipe Adrianette Bromide​	With his free hand Dave removes his trusty cooking pot and swipes it horizontally in front of him, and then returns his cooking untensil back to his head for extra zombie protection.​
Down Tilt: Dig Up Adrianette Bromide​	Crazy Dave digs into the ground shooting some dirt upwards and onto the ground. The attack is the strongest when the shovel hitbox is out and the dirt projectile is drastically weaker. It launches the opponent at a very shallow angle, being able to kill at the ledge if the sweet spot connects while the opponent is trying to recover. When used next to a plant, it will dig them up and remove them from the stage, allowing Dave to plant another plant tied to the special of the plant he dug up.​
Up Tilt: Rake Take SharkLord​	Crazy Dave stomps on a rake, causing it to flick upwards and whack whoever is standing in front of him, as well as himself. Dave quickly shakes it off though after giving a slapstick reaction. This would not launch far, and would instead set up for combos. However there is a sweet spot on the very edge of the rake that will send the opponent behind Dave horizontally, which can kill at the ledge if Dave is facing away from the blast zone.​
Dash: Mow Down SharkLord​	Crazy Dave pulls out a lawnmower and gleefully drives it forwards, as if literally mowing his lawn, except this time it's his opponent's face. This serves as a multi hit similar to Luigi’s dash attack, although only on the lower part of the lawnmower, as being hit by the handle or dave himself will only result in a singular weak hit. The final hit on the lower part of the dash is quite strong, although equally as difficult to land.​
Ledge Attack: Mallet Strike (leadership)​	As Dave returns back to the stage he swipes his whack a mole mallet down in front of him, with a small POW!! Appearing if it connects.​
Get Up: Spray (leadership) (Bug Spray)​	Crazy Dave sprays a mist of bug spray on both sides of him as he gets up, which deals low knock-back upon squeeze, but leaves a cloud of lingering spray that can deal a couple of percent if the opponent stays in the lingering hitbox​

Smash Attacks:​

Move	Description
Forward Smash: Chomp Krookodilian	A Chomper grows out of Dave's pot and opens up wide before chomping down on the opponent. The Chomper licks its lips before despawning, making for a quite length endlag animation. There is also a sweet in the Chomper’s Maw, as opposed to the sour spot in the stem and pot, similar to Mario’s forward Smash. While it may seem reminiscent of Piranha Plant, his forward smash involves bashing his head as a spiky ball, so in function it's quite different.​
Down Smash: Explodonator Krookodilian	Dave would place a cherry bomb, Pull his cooking pot down in an attempt to hide his face, and the cherry bomb would swell up before exploding in a POWIE!!. Dave would be left covered in ash like the zombies from the games, and would shake it off before being able to act again. This would be one of the strongest smash attacks in the game, with a large hitbox, but also long start up and end lag.​
Up Smash: Cactus Growth GolisoPower ​	Crazy Dave will place his pot on the ground beneath him. After a few moments, the Cactus will extend up to about ⅔ the height of Palutena’s Up Smash, while Dave raises his hands to the sky with a goofy smile on his face. The initial Cactus growing hitbox would be decently strong, although not as strong as his other two smashes, mainly serving as an anti air. The Cactus will linger for a little while longer before retracting, dealing small damage from her spines to anyone who comes into contact before it completely disappears back into the pot.​

Grab & Throws:​

Move	Description
Grab: Gardening Glove Krookodilian​	Crazy Dave clumsily reaches forward with his free hand donned in the Gardening Glove from the Zen Garden. Doesn’t have much range or speed, but isn’t particularly laggy either.​
Pummel: Bonk Choy Krookodilian	In Dave’s other hand, a Bonk Choy sprouts out of his flower pot and angrily throws a right hook on every pummel input.​
Forward Throw: Cabbage Pult Krookodilian	A cabbage pult would grow out of the pot, The opponent would get into the cabbage holder, and they would get chucked forward at a close to 45 degree angle. It would be a strong throw but not his strongest.​
Back Throw: Coconut Cannon airConditioner	Dave tosses the opponent behind him and a Coconut Cannon appears beside him. Dave sticks his fingers in his ears and braces for an explosion, which of course happens. The opponent is shot with a coconut cannonball and is sent flying. This is another one of Dave's kill throws, sending the opponent flying backwards with large damage. It has the fire attribute.​
Up Throw: Umbrella Leaf Krookodilian	Dave will throw the enemy up, only for them to start falling back on top of him. To protect himself, Dave raises the pot above his head and an Umbrella Leaf sprouts, expands, and protects Dave while launching the opponent up. This would be a kill throw, sending straight up.​
Down Throw: Spring Bean Commander_Alph	A spring bean appears on the ground, and squashes itself to the floor, ready to spring itself back up. Dave pulls his arm behind his head and slams the opponent down, with the spring bean springing itself up and launching the opponent forward at a low angle.

Aerials:​

Moves	Description
Neutral Air: Starfruit airConditioner	Dave will pull out a Starfruit in a pot and hold it close to him. It will fire a wave of 5 small projectiles in a star formation, each dealing small amounts of damage. In the beginning of the move they will flinch, but as they travel further away they will lose this property. This attack works as a combo starter.​
Forward Air: Snapdragon airConditioner	Dave holds out a potted Snapdragon directly in front of him, which breathes out a vertical bar of fire with decent vertical reach up and down. It doesn't deal too much knockback, but it has decent damage with the fire attribute. Multiple of this move can be strung together in succession at low percentages due to its wide range and low knockback.​
Back Air: Fume-Shroom Commander_Alph	Dave turns around and a Fume-Shroom grows out of his pot which immediately releases its fumes as a multi hit, while also propelling Dave Forward, Similar to Corrin’s bair. This isn’t a kill move but can rack up a lot of percent if every hit connects, as well as being a decent offstage edge-guarding tool.​
Up Air: Lightning Reed Commander_Alph	Dave raises the pot over his head and a Lightning Reed sprouts up, raising up to the sky and sparking with electricity. Dave’s beard crackles with electricity while the move is active. This has the electric effect, and is a multi hit similar to Joker and Sheik’s up air.​
Down Air: Squash (leadership) ​	Dave lowers his pot, and a Squash jumps out of it slamming straight down, similar to Steve’s Anvil. It has a spike effect during the first part of the moves, and can bury grounded opponents. While it falls extremely fast, it does take quite some time to jump out of the pot in the first place.​

Special Gimmick: Sun

Of course, every plant in Plants vs. Zombies needs sun and it is no different in Smash. Dave will passively gain increments of 25 sun over time, though he can accelerate this with certain types of plants. His current sun total will be displayed over his damage display. It will go up as time goes on and go down as Dave plants and upgrades plants. Plants present in Dave's moveset outside specials, such as in aerials, smash attacks, and grabs, will not cost sun. The maximum amount of sun that Dave can have at any given time is 1000, and it will reset to 250 every time Dave is KO'd. Crazy Dave will need this sun to plant... plants and without the proper amount of sun for some plants, he might not be able to keep his brains safe.

Like with Officer Howard before him, Crazy Dave makes his selection of defenses via inputting the Special Button in tandem with his Shield button. This means that neither will be able to make their selections in the air, though luckily both are rooted in ground based games so it works out in the end. Each of Dave's other specials aside from his Up-Special are tied to his plant mechanic and thus, he is able to select three types of plants, one per special via the Shield Special input. Every Dave on screen is able to have a maximum of three plants active on screen, one per Special input.

As for selecting plants, pressing the Shield Special input would pull up a menu above Dave himself. It would take the form of three bars - each reminiscent of the player's plant selection bar in the first Plants vs. Zombies game. The bars are vertically stacked on top of each other, with each one representing the types of plants per special. Of course, the bar would also be labelled with an indicator of what special that plant is tied to as to help guide new players.

The selected middle bar is the largest, while the other two are dimmed out and smaller. The player can then choose which menu they want to choose plants from by using the up and down directional inputs, moving the selected bar to the middle and enlarging it while shrinking and dimming out the previous selection. While the player is on the selected bar, they can use the left and right directional inputs to move their cursor over their chosen plant. To finish the plant selection process, the player must then input the shield special again. The plants the player has selected will be displayed in their damage display (see graphic) after every successful selection. These plants will then be planted whenever Crazy Dave inputs the special associated with that plant.

As mentioned before, the player can only have one plant of each special input on stage at a time. These plants can be attacked. Plants planted by Dave would have a limited amount of time on screen, after which they would disappear. This can be accelerated by having the plants attacked or using Dave's down tilt, the Shovel, which removes plants instantly. If Dave is KO'd, every plant belonging to him on screen will disappear. Dave starts out each match with the leftmost plant selected, so managing which plants to use at which time as well as the plants' health is crucial to using Dave effectively.

Dave is capable of upgrading plants, which is a risky, expensive maneuver that may pay off in the end. However, only several types of plants are able to be upgraded. These plants will be denoted with an icon next to their seed packet. When the player places down a plant, the damage display will update according to whether or not the plant is able to be upgraded. If it is not able to be upgraded, the seed packet will simply gray out until the plant disappears. If it is able to be upgraded, however, the seed packet will change to that of the upgraded plant. Once this occurs, the player can reinput that plant's special input next to the plant to upgrade it. For example, if a Repeater is on stage, Dave can input the side special next to it to turn it into a Gatling Pea. This costs sun of course, and usually a large amount of it. The seed packet will then gray out as normal after the plant has been upgraded.

Specials:
Plants in the same column are upgraded forms, and each column is one of the five selectable plants per specials. We tried to mainly stick to the most iconic plants, as well as ones with unique functions. We also made sure to include one mushroom, one pool plant, and one PvZ 2 plant per special. There were many great submissions so it was quite tough!

Neutral Special: Defensive Plants​

Sunflower (50 Sun) Yiptap The crux of any good defense in both Smash and Plants vs. Zombies, the Sunflower behaves as one would expect it to. It bounces idly and produces 50 Sun every 3 seconds. The Sunflower would glow a bright yellow as it does so and the Sun would automatically add itself into Dave’s counter.​	Torchwood (100 sun) Krookodilian Any pea that passes through the torchwood will have its damage multiplied by a factor of 2, leading to massive amounts of damage if a full gatling pea + torchwood combo lands. It has more health than a standard plant, and does not deal contact damage despite the fire.​	Wall-nut (50 sun) Krookodilian Pretty simple, a wall-nut will sit there and soak up damage. Acting like a Minecraft block, it cannot be passed through, and will need to be jumped around. However regular peas and other Dave plant projectiles will be able to pass through it. Unlike a Minecraft block, the wall-nut cannot be stood on.​	Garlic (100 sun) GolisoPower This little guy is a small plant that's rancid enough to turn zombies away. In Smash, the Garlic will release smelly fumes every few seconds with a radius equivalent of a 50-MP Magic Burst that flips opponents, like Mario’s cape does, making it difficult for opponents to hit Crazy Dave while he's close by, as well as a dangerous edge guarding tool.​	Escape Root (225 sun) Glubbfubb When placed, the Escape Root won’t do anything at first, however, when neutral special is inputted on the ground while the Escape Root is planted, Dave will be taken to the Escape Root’s location and it will disappear after. This can be used for extreme combos and avoiding nasty situations.​
Twin Sunflower (125 Sun) The Twin Sunflower would behave exactly as its downgrade, but instead of spawning 25 Sun, it would spawn 50 Sun (25 per Sunflower, of course). It also spawns Sun in 3 second intervals, but it is more durable (though not by much)​		Tallnut (125 sun) The Wall-nut can be upgraded to the Tall-nut. It will act the same as a wall-nut, except it will be twice as sturdy and around 2.5 times as tall, requiring multiple jumps for some characters to climb over.​

Side Special: Turret Plants​

Peashooter (100 sun) Adrianette Bromide When a Peashooter is planted, they will routinely fire peas at the closest enemy damageable entity in a medium interval. Whichever way Crazy Dave was facing when he planted them will be the direction it will fire too. The Peashooter will automatically aim either up or down depending on where the closest player is but only slightly.Their peas are also fairly weak doing minimal damage and flinching but this will put some pressure on the opponent and can lead into combos from Crazy Dave.​	Repeater (200 sun) Krookodilian The repeater will act identically to the peashooter, except will fire two peas instead of one, dealing twice as much damage in total.​	Kernel Pult (100 sun) GolisoPower When planting this guy, the Kernel-pult will throw nuggets of corn the size of Pikmin at opponents, dealing a measly 4% damage per kernel and deals hitstun. However, there's a 25% chance that they will launch a large block of butter if all things that deals double the damage, and inflicts the Butter effect, which is essentially a stun.​	Melon-pult (300 sun) airConditioner The last of the pult family in the first Plants vs. Zombies, the Melon-pult is the heaviest hitting of the three. It will lob melons every few seconds at opponents, which deal 17% per successful hit and 4% in splash damage if anyone gets hit by melon shrapnel.​	Bloomerang (175 sun) Krookodilian The Bloomerang will fire off boomerangs at a slower rate than that of a peashooter, which will fly around 3/4 of a stage distance before traveling back, being able to hit the opponent once in both directions, similar to K. Rool's crown. It is a relatively slow moving projectile, but deals more damage than a peashooter.​
Split Pea (125 sun) The Split Pea will fire weaker shots behind it and has less of an angle when aiming but keeps pressure on both sides of the stage.​	Gatling Pea (250 sun) The Gatling Pea can be upgraded from the repeater, and will fire four peas at once, dealing four times as much damage as the peashooter in total. This will keep the opponent in hit stun or in their shield for quite a while, leaving them open to be punished, however it costs a lot of sun to get to this plant.​		Winter Melon (200 sun) One of the plants Dave sells at Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies, the Winter Melon is an upgrade to the Melon-pult. It hits even harder than its counterpart and has a slowing effect to boot. It will attack at the same rate as the Melon-pult, but it will deal slightly more damage (24%) and its projectiles will inflict a slowing effect on the enemy's movement for a short amount of time.​

Down Special: Trap Specials​

Potato Mine (100 sun) Venus of the Desert Bloom This explosive land mine functions much like Snake’s Down Special. Dave buries the Potato Mine who lies in wait for opponents to walk by. Once they do, the mine explodes with a SPUDOW!, provided its had enough time to arm itself. It has a high radius of damage with more damage dealt to those who stepped directly on the mine with less damage dealt to those on the outside.​	Hypno Shroom (125 sun) Adrianette Bromide When placed, the Hypno-shroom will sway from side to side in a trance. Any opponent that comes into contact with the Hypno-shroom beware, as the Hocus Pocus of Dave’s kit, they will randomly gives the opponent a status effect to their detriment. They will be affected by one of the following: ​	Tangle Kelp (75 sun) airConditioner When Zombies invade the player's pool, the Tangle Kelp drags any pesky zombies that get past the first few lines of defense down to their watery demise. In Smash, they will function sort of the same, being planted in a flower pot with water. When an opponent makes contact with the Tangle Kelp, they will be held in place for a few seconds, similar to a grab. At this point, Dave can rush over and attack or sic more plants on the enemy. After being used once, it will go away.​	Spikeweed (100 sun) Krookodilian The spikeweed will be placed on the floor, Keeping a low profile. Any enemy that steps over it will be launched up with extremely low knock back, dealing 6% damage. Its good for ledge control as well as comboing with other plants.​	Phat Beet (150 sun) Krookodilian Whenever opponents get near it will jump up and slam back down, sending out a shockwave. This shockwave doesn't deal much damage, only around 1.2%, but has a guaranteed trip on the opponent. This sets up for roll chases or just standard punishes as well as stage control. In order to combat the power of a trip with such a large radius it doesn't stay out for very long, and is vulnerable from attack from above, as it cannot attack there.​
	Be put to sleep for 3 seconds. Have their controls be inverted. Be slowed down for 5 seconds. Have a flower on their head. Have their jump height be drastically lowered.		Spikerock (125 sun) For 125 sun, the Spikeweed can be upgraded to the Spikerock, which deals twice as much damage, and has three times the amount of health.​

Up Special:​

Move

Description

Up Special: Blover Yiptap

Crazy Dave raises his a pot with a Blover that grew out of it. It would then spin its leaves, causing it to propel Crazy Dave upwards. It’s very similar to K. Rool’s Up Special, but the Blover can last longer than K. Rool’s propeller pack in exchange for not dealing as much damage. Once finished, the Blover would retreat back into its pot, causing Dave to go into free fall with a confused look on his face.​

Final Smash:​

Move

Description

Final Smash: Garden Warfare airConditioner​

Penny speeds past Dave, who gets inside. This triggers a hitbox around the truck, which when activated, would take up to three opponents into a Final Smash. The opponents would fly through time to be dropped onto Dave's lawn and pool, where a large defense awaits them. Twin Sunflowers glow with large amounts of solar energy, Gatling Peas fire rounds of peas at rapid speed through Torchwoods, Winter Melons lob melons, Cattails throw swathes of their homing spikes, and Gloom Shrooms spew their spores at the opponents, still trapped on the lawn. All while this is happening, Dave upgrades some awaiting Kernel-pults into Cob Cannons. He launches several corn nukes, blasting the opponents and ending the cutscene with a screen of popcorn.​

So thats his moveset! hopefully it turned out well as it was quite complicated to put together. I'll post his misc content sometime soon, but here are at least his alts now for the sake of his spirit battles.
​

Default	Green (Peashooter)	Yellow (Sunflower)	Red (Cherry Bomb)
Brown (Wall Nut)	Blue (Snow Pea)	Purple (Chomper)	Pink (Cattail)
Greyscale (imitater)	Cray-Z (Black)	Browncoat Zombie (Dark Green)	Dr. Zomboss (Grey)

While alts were submitted from Chinese cartoons and the comics, we'd like to keep the content in smash mainly from PvZ 1, 2, and some from GW, so those were not used.

Additionally....

Plants Vs Zombies Spirits
With his moveset finally complete, we can move onto Plants Vs. Zombies spirit battles! Plants and Zombies from PvZ 1 and 2 (Western) will be able to be submitted with the art from the game they were introduced in. For example the Peashooter and Newspaper Zombie would use PvZ art, and Bloomerang and Ra Zombie would use PvZ 2 art. GW spirits may be submitted as well, although we will only accept a couple spirits as it is a spin off and this is a third party series. Chinese exclusive, PvZ Heroes, and PvZ 3 plants or zombies will not be accepted.

All of the upgradeable plants in the original PvZ will evolve/enhance from their base form, so please don't design a spirit battle for Twin Sunflower, Spikerock, Gatling Pea, Cattail, Winter Melon, Cob Cannon, Gloom Shroom, or Gold Magnet as none of them will have one. I recommend referencing these upgrades in the base plant's spirit battle.

There aren't any hard rules on which plants or zombies will be accepted, but plants which have made more appearances or are otherwise iconic will obviously take precedent over those which are less relevant. Additionally, Free plants in PvZ 2 will generally take priority over premium plants in PvZ 2. All the Plants in Dave's moveset should be ok to make a spirit of though.

While this isn't a rule for spirit battles, I suggest when making a battle for a plant in Dave's moveset to have a main fighter represent the plant, and then have a backup dave favor the move that corresponds to whichever plant the battle is of.
​

 

[Commander_Alph]

	Citron (Plants Vs. Zombies 2) Class: Advanced ★★ Type: Primary Attack Effect: Can be Enhanced at Lvl. 99, 1 Slots Puppet Fighter: Samus 2x (Orange) Stage: The Lawn Music Track: Punk - Neon Mixtape Tour (Plants vs. Zombies 2) Match: Stock (1) Conditions: The enemy favors Neutral Special
	Citron (Garden Warfare 2) Class: Ace ★★★ Type: Primary Attack Effect: Super Scope Equipped, 2 Slots
	Rose (Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2) Class: Ace ★★★ Type: Support Neutral Effect: Transformation Duration ↑, 2 Slots Puppet Fighter: Rosalina & Luma (Red) Stage: Garden of Hope Music Track: Main Theme (Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare) Match: Stock (1) Conditions: You are tiny after a little while Item Spawn (Timer)
	Z-Mech (Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2) Class: Advanced ★★ Type: Primary Defense Effect: No Effect, 1 Slots Puppet Fighter: Dr. Eggman Stage: The Lawn Music Track: Main Theme (Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare) Match: Stock (1) Conditions: Take your strongest team into this no-frills battle
	Super Brainz (Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2) Class: Ace ★★★ Type: Primary Attack Effect: Fist Attack ↑, 3 Slots Puppet Fighter: Captain Falcon (Purple) Stage The Lawn Music Track: Main Menu (Plants Vs. Zombies Heroes) Match: Stock (1) Conditions: The enemy's punches and elbow strike have increased power The enemy's Smash Attack have increased power

Reasons: All fan-favorite, even appearing in Neighborville and Heroes

 

[GolisoPower]

Gargantuar
Attack Primary, 1 Slot
Effect: Ore Club Equipped
Stage: House (Roof)
Opponents: Giant , Bandana Waddle Dee
Match: Stamina, 1 Stock. (Player has 100 HP, Ganondorf has 300 HP, Bandana Dee has 50HP)
Conditions:

• The enemy is equipped with an Ore Club.
• The enemy has increased attack power.
• The enemy has slow armor. (Ganondorf)
• Defeat the main fighter to win.

 

[airConditioner]

Spikeweed (Plants vs. Zombies) Category: Support Type: Defense Class: Advanced ★★ Ability: Evolve at Prof. Oak Puppet Fighter: Crazy Dave, Isaac [Brown], Isaac [Gray] Stage: House Music Track: Watery Graves Match: Stamina Conditions: Stamina Battle Player [100 HP] David [200 HP] Brown Isaac [150 HP] Gray Isaac [250 HP] The enemy prefers Down Specials [Crazy Dave] The enemy prefers not to move [Isaacs] You constantly take minor damage. Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd [Brown Isaac -> Gray Isaac]

Spikerock (Plants vs. Zombies) (Artwork: Plants vs. Zombies 2) I couldn't find PvZ1 artwork of him. Society. Category: Support Type: Defense Class: Ace ★★★ Ability: Gravity Change Immunity Evolve the Spikeweed spirit

 

[Venus of the Desert Bloom]

We will be closing discussion in about seven hours so please feel free to discuss about the submissions or submit your own PvZ spirits!

 

[WeirdChillFever]

I’m just going past each submission one by one, though I might cluster some together because they’re from the same series or whatever.

Dixie Kong right now is my favorite submission. Dixie Kong has big potential on her own, but the DK franchise is lacking a newcomer thus far and if this is indeed one of the final chances to add a first party character, I believe it’s a huge boon to add a requested Echo that is as high-profile as Dixie Kong. Her moveset will be interesting to discuss, since getting her air mobility right will hinge on replacing the Up Special first and foremost, putting her in the prime position for a Chrom-treatment.

For Funky Kong, I’m not so sure how well DK’s moveset fits him. I appreciate their similarities in games like Mario Kart Wii, but DK in Smash Bros. is much more your typical King Kong brute than a laid-back protector of bananas, so I’m not sure how “surfer dude” that aggressive and primal moveset is. Funky Kong as a character is hella rad though and I’d love to welcome him to the fray in a more unique capacity, again considering the DK representation in Infinite so far and if DK fans more dedicated than me can give their blessing to Funky Kong doing DKs various banana slammah aerials I’m all for it.

Mr. Sandman sounds like a great idea! I wish we would see more Punch Out! boxers playable to make Little Mac stand out more. Just wondering how Mr. Sandman would fit the skeleton. Glass Joe might actually fit as a Little Mac joke echo who is somehow worse on the ground than in the air but again I’d love to see any boxer join the fight. Question is whether as an Echo or as a unique character.

Blaziken, tried and true Captain Falchon Echo, but I personally prefer Black Shadow to bump up the amount of racers to two.

Alph is great, gotta think of something to make him stand out more by making Rock Pikmin absolute shield shatterers or something but if any moveset can benefit from an Echo it’s Olimar’s since Pikmin occur all throughout the moveset. I’d also advocate for replacing White Pikmin with Winged Pikmin to get the most out of the Echo formula. Simple, tried and true, but can make a world of difference if we get it right. The same goes for Ninten, with the additional benefit of getting the band back together. Both have the representation factor on their side as well, and would be a neat bone to throw to a series that otherwise will be hardpressed to find new representation.

Pauline and Tiara I just love. Is it odd? Sure. But giving a love letter to Odyssey in the form of the love letter to Galaxy is pretty great and I think there’s great potential to be had in implementing the hat physics from Odyssey, as well as the general visual overlays for Star Bits for example. Can be one of the more unique Echoes since the way Luma/Tiara moves is essential to the playstyle of the whole set, and changing that can make Pauline a compelling alternative to Rosalina. They’re both tall so skeleton-wise it fits, and I’m sure Odyssey has a nice substitute for the galaxy attacks.

Amazonian is somehow even odder but doesn’t lose the spark. Might move a bit more towards the Chrom side of things to implement its signature abilities, but I feel that’s okay.

Spring Man has struck gold. I think ARMS is pretty much the perfect series for an Echo and Spring Man is one of the mascots. ARMS selection is going to be important though, since Spring Man’s basic ARMS might not be the greatest choice when it comes to getting the most bang for your buck. If we choose to let go of the basic gloves for Spring Man and select three ARMS from unrepresented elements and ARMS types, I think Spring Man is one of my favorite choices in the batch.

Raichu brings a band back together as well, with it representing almost all of the Pikachu line in Smash (except Alolan Raichu, which would need to be its own semi-clone of Raichu). Getting all three rats in one game might be overkill though and considering the amount of unique characters submitted I’m not too fond of Raichu.

Dark Bowser and Dry Bowser, of which I prefer Dry Bowser, can both bring back the car rally Brawl Bowser or even Melee Bowser with its Koopa Klaw. That‘s a gameplay reason to give these Echoes, since visually not even the Mario series is pretending they‘re more than palette swaps.

Leon I’m just not convinced with character-wise, same with Morgan. I personally love them both, but they’d be quite niche when it comes to Smash, when Echo fighters have usually been about implementing requested characters. Gooigi suffers the same, though he did get his time in the limelight from Luigi‘s Mansion 3’s marketing team.

Black Knight is one of those requested choices for an Echo, and I can definitely see him work as an Ike echo. Would be fun to go over his palette swaps and the idea of a true knight in Smash is definitely appealing.

Birdo is a great pick and you are lying to yourself if she’s not in your top 5. Whether Yoshi‘s moveset can be easily Chrom-ified is a good question though, and I think the best course of action is to change Up Special to either (conservatively) change the trajectory of the thrown Eggs or (progressively) change the Up Special and double jump entirely to make Birdo a bit of an easy-bake take on one of the more weirdly technical sets in the game.

Overall, there’s two categories for a good Echo fighter: There’s the Echo Fighter that is a requested or fan-favorite character that makes for an easy fit of the set, and there’s the more creative Echo fighter that seeks to change a moveset as effectively and creatively as possible. Luckily, some of the submissions possess both qualities.

 

[Krookodilian]

Just a reminder regarding Alph’s potential as an echo, we did add a rock pikmin item all the way back in April. I’m not sure this means Alph couldn’t use them, but its worth noting.

Voting for Items has been closed. Here is the tally!

Rock Pikmin Glubbfubb	15 Votes!!
Barnacle SharkLord	5 Votes
Wisp Capsule @cashregister9	13 Votes!
Fuzzy Wario Wario Wario	9 Votes
Pinwheel and Demon Yiptap	2 Votes
Poochy Pups @Otoad64	13 Votes!

Spoiler: Full Item Results

View attachment 310895

The winner of the Item Prompt is Rock Pikmin! Congrats Glubbfubb !

View attachment 310897
​

Their function in Infinite is as follows: Rock Pikmin spawn in the ground and there are two types. The variants that could appear are either with the leaf bud or with the flower; the flower variant being a tad stronger and faster. When they are plucked, the Rock Pikmin's leaf will change its color to match the player's, as they are the only one that can use it.

When the Rock Pikmin gets tossed, they do a lot of damage but can't latch onto the foe. After they get thrown, they continue to follow and attack their target on their own. After a minute, taking too much damage or if they fall off the stage, they disappear.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

I also wanna say that DK can and should have both an echo and a unique newcomer so there’s no reason to be tactical and “save” Dixie or Funky to get a unique DK newcomer down the line. There’s plenty of unique Kongs to go around and the series is definitely the most worthy of all of a double dip.

 

[Golden Icarus]

For the most part, I feel pretty confident in which submissions I really like and which ones I personally don't care for.

But one that I feel somewhat torn on is Spring Man. I do really like ARMS and wouldn't mind seeing it get another character. I just have a difficult time picturing him as a Min Min echo, especially if we're going either the Dark Samus or Chrom route (which is what Venus specified). Obviously, if we want to do him justice, we would need to replace his ARMS with the toaster, boomerang, and tribolt, which is already a pretty big change. Then we would likely want to replace most, if not all of the kick attacks as kicking is literally Min Min’s gimmick in ARMS and doesn’t really suit Spring Man all that well. This would include jab, up tilt, down tilt, up smash, down smash, up air, down air, and pretty much all of the throws.

Now if we could make all of these changes, then I would be absolutely down. I’m just unsure if he would qualify as an echo at that point, especially to the Chrom/Dark Samus degree. And I really don’t want to make too many compromises with his moveset, as I honestly feel that most of these changes would be necessary to make him feel like Spring Man.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

For the most part, I feel pretty confident in which submissions I really like and which ones I personally don't care for.

But one that I feel somewhat torn on is Spring Man. I do really like ARMS and wouldn't mind seeing it get another character. I just have a difficult time picturing him as a Min Min echo, especially if we're going either the Dark Samus or Chrom route (which is what Venus specified). Obviously, if we want to do him justice, we would need to replace his ARMS with the toaster, boomerang, and tribolt, which is already a pretty big change. Then we would likely want to replace most, if not all of the kick attacks as kicking is literally Min Min’s gimmick in ARMS and doesn’t really suit Spring Man all that well. This would include jab, up tilt, down tilt, up smash, down smash, up air, down air, and pretty much all of the throws.

Now if we could make all of these changes, then I would be absolutely down. I’m just unsure if he would qualify as an echo at that point, especially to the Chrom/Dark Samus degree. And I really don’t want to make too many compromises with his moveset, as I honestly feel that most of these changes would be necessary to make him feel like Spring Man.

IMO the kicks can fall under creative liberty since they‘re the only non-elongated limbs the character has in general, so I don’t feel like they’re exclusive to Min Min to the point where all kick moves have to be replaced. The question is whether his selection of ARMS is actually interesting enough, considering they’re meant to be the most basic of the bunch in ARMS itself.

 

[Adrianette Bromide]

I mean if Springman got in, I'd just scrap the whole echo thing and make him a semi-clone under the logic of "Oh haha wow we wanted to make a clone of Min Min but we had too many ideas so we just haha wow made a unique fighter instead." That is of course if he wins.

 

[Venus of the Desert Bloom]

Voting is Live

Here are our submissions. We haven’t fully committed on a runoff vote but it’s within the realm of possibility.

Job 86: Black Shadow- Fighter 11ε

Ganondorf's rework was a much needed thing. The problem with a rework that big is that the Ganondorf mains will lose their character. Some of them won't care, as they just wanted to play as Ganondorf. Some might not care about the moveset, but some of them definitely would. This is where Black Shadow comes in.

Even though I've talked a lot about Ganondorf, Black Shadow is still a Captain Falcon Echo Fighter. His Neutral, Up, and Down specials are the same moves, but made slower and given more power. Instead of a Darkness Choke, he'd more of a chokeslam move.

Job 153: Dixie Kong (Donkey Kong series)
Diddy Kong's Echo Fighter
View attachment 327635

Why Dixie?
Dixie is the last major playable member of the Kong family/DK Crew that's been playable in multiple games in the series, as well as a former considered fighter for Smash, being initially planned for Brawl. While it's not the 100% best way of including her, plenty of echoes share less with their base fighter in canon than her, and we can add a few moves to help make her more unique. She's a fan favorite and was the star of her own game in DKC3.​

View attachment 327639
Fighter #49e: Mr. Sandman (Punch-Out!!)

Mr. Sandman here is the final boss of Punch-Out!! for arcades, as has appeared in all games in the series since. He's important to the series because he serves as a real test of skill for the protagonist, Little Mac. In Smash, he would be a Dark Samus-style Echo Fighter who's generally heavier and more powerful, but much slower than Little Mac. He even fits the man, too. Just have him hunched over like Mac, and he should match.

NEW ECHO FIGHTER: BLAZIKEN (11e)
View attachment 327636
Blaziken is a third generation Pokémon, and the final evolution of the fire starter, Torchic. Blaziken is a very popular Pokemon - in the google poll, it was crowned the fifth most popular Pokemon from Hoenn, beating out titans like Mudkip. Metagross, and Deoxys. Many think echoes cant be from a different series from their base fighter, but I think that it's fine so long as they fit - which Blaziken does exellently.

As for how Blaziken would work? Blaziken could acttually get away with being one of the least unique echoes, that's how good of a fit it is. Blaziken is a very fast Pokemon, and most of it's attacks use it's legs (but it does also use it's arms). That's also a pretty decent description of Captain Falcon (Blaziken's even doing the knee in it's Sugamori art!). That being said, there should be a few changes, mostly animation wise. Obviously the enter stage animation and Final Smash need to change, and Falcon Punch and F-Smash should be changed to kicks. Up Special should be swapped out for a completely different move, albeit one copied from another character: Sky Uppercut (reskinned Shoryuken).

Also, a fun thing: if we add Blaziken, we would have an echo who was based on a character from each smash game. Blaziken, Impa, Galacta Knight, Medusa, Octoling, and Leon.

Job 153

Fighter 48e

Pauline & Tiara

Pauline & Tiara would be an echo of Rosalina and Luma.

This would be a strange echo and it would be a fun choice as the last first party echo, It would certainly get a lot of reactions and would be a call back to the first new echo revealed in Daisy.

There is probably a lot of doubt as to how this could work, Maybe with a few visual changes like replacing Star Bits with Music notes and a move replacement this could be a fun option for an echo.

View attachment 327640

Ninten (Echo of Ness)

Ninten is the original protagonist of Mother, since the other protagonists were represented why not give this guy a chance to shine

Due to the ongoing theory of Ninten being a past relative of Ness he would be slower yes but his attacks are more methodical, his PK Fire could be slightly manipulated up or down in exchange for shorter range, or his PK Flash could only damage if it connects put is twice as strong, regardless Ness' easy to edit moveset would be perfect for a more older hero.

The Ice Climbers and Mr. Game & Watch
Pit and ROB
Little Mac and Duck Hunt
Uhhh... K. Rool and Banjo??
Takamaru and...

The Amazon Bites Back! (Pro Wrestling)

The Amazon would be Incineroar's echo fighter, a swamp monster heel with an irresistsble appetite for victory! Despite being from a different series, none of Incineroar's moves would be that OOC for The Amazon as he doesn't use any cat-themed moves and his few fire moves could be rethemed to noxious swamp gasses. The Amazon would follow the pre-SSBU tradition of quirky retros being saved for last while more serious and popular retros show up first. The Amazon's Piranha Bite and Outlaw Choke signature moves don't exactly have equivalents in Incineroar, so Amazon would likely be more on the Chrom side than Dark Samus.

While maybe not popular to today's Nintendo fandom, The Amazon is a beloved character to 80s kids and wrestling-crazy gamers. Homebrew action figures of Pro Wrestling's lineup are not at all an uncommon sight in custom wrestling toy communities, and seeing this notorious heel bite back - especially in a fight with Little Mac - would make the Smashers of Gen X very pleased. Now, those "Literally WHO?" responses from the Wii generation? He is a heel, that's what he wants.

We could portray The Amazon as a guy in a suit, but I personally prefer to have him as a real, oozing swamp creature

Job 153

E76 - Spring Man

Why Spring Man?

I'll go numbered list format since I'm very tired right now:

1. ARMs still only has one character in the game, with that being Min Min. Given that it's a new series with a lot of interesting characters this wouldn't be a bad way to go.
2. Spring Man would be a very fitting echo. A lot of the other interesting picks(Max Brass, Twintelle, Helix) wouldn't make a ton of sense as her echo while Spring Man would pretty much copy her fairly closly gimmick and weight wise.
3. Spring Man would still be fairly different as far as arm selecting goes, with his 3 defaults being the toaster, boomerang, and tribolt. It would be possible to work him into a different playstyle perhaps?
4. Spring Man is really important to the ARMS series itself. He felt like the implied protagonist given that he's in the boxart and his lore feels like setting him up as a challenger to Max Brass and his title. Pre the everyone is the protag quote, most probably would have argued that it was him the whole time.

Job #153
08ε: Raichu

​

Yeah that's right! Pikachu's cooler, stronger, oranger cousin!

Another Gen 1 Pokémon!?

Yeah okay, I get that a lot of people aren't on board with yet another OG 'mon joining, but come oooonnn...it's just an echo fighter. It's not like I'm requesting Meowth or anything, right? pain Really though, I've long held the belief that the generation a Pokémon is from should hardly matter. Just because Raichu is from Red/Green, doesn't mean that they're only in Red/Green. It isn't like Fire Emblem where they completely rotate the cast every game, Pokémon instead adds to its cast every game. Raichu makes an appearance in way more than just one generation and even has an Alolan form that could potentially be used as an alt, though that might be a wee bit of a stretch. Either way, I don't believe that a Pokémon's gen should keep them being included in Smash. It's unlikely that we'll ever have one 'mon for every gen anyway, so we might as well just judge them by their individual merits, rather than their game of origin.

Another Pikachu!?

Yes, we already have both Pikachu and Pichu. In a lot of ways, it kind of feels like Pikachu already has an echo fighter. That said, the fact that we have 2 out of 3 members of the Pikachu line just makes me want Raichu even more. It's always bothered me that Pikachu is used so frequently in promotional material, while his bigger, stronger evolution is always overshadowed. Raichu is Pika's final evolution, meaning that he is easily the strongest and most suited for battle, so why wouldn't he be in Smash? Even Pichu, a baby Pokémon, managed to join Smash first. And honestly, the Pikachu line is certainly iconic enough to warrant three variations on the roster, the same way that having Link, Young Link, and Toon Link is justified.

So how would Raichu play?

While I obviously wouldn't mind having a few unique moves, animations, etc. I would personally prioritize Raichu's stats. The same way that Pichu is essentially just a faster, lighter, weaker Pikachu - Raichu would be a slower, heavier, stronger Pikachu with a decently enlarged hitbox/hurtbox (yes that would probably include his big 'ol tail, which would both make him a much bigger target, while also giving him a little extra range on his tail attacks). Bing, bang, bop, you now have an echo fighter!

It’s his last chance to appear

Dark Bowser
View attachment 327682
Debuting in Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, he is the final boss of the game. He also has some deadly moves like a curl ball attack, Boulder launch and a final Smash that traps opponent said I never a cage before unleashing an energy attack.

Also we need more representation of the Mario and Luigi series, and Dark Bowser could help.

Job #153:
Get Ready for....

Leon Powalski from Star Fox!​

Leon Powalski would be Wolf's echo Fighter and he would be lighter, but stronger and faster.
He would have similar moveset to Wolf's, but in faster motion.

Since we have Falco as Fox's clone, so why not Leon Powalski as Wolf's Echo?

​

It's the man! The myth! The legend...this echo is ready to ride the waves of Smash!
JOB #153: FUNKY KONG

Background info

Funky Kong debuted in the game Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. Rare had a go at the DK series with this one, since they were still owned by Nintendo-and they took a lot of liberties with the series-in fact, in many ways it can be compared to how a character like Sonic transitioned to the third dimension. DK was made "cooler", with more personality, a little more flair if you will. Sprites were now 3D-like, and gameplay was more focused on brutally tough platforming than the timing-based puzzle platforming of the arcade games. Diddy was added as a fun sidekick or second playable character-and a very fitting crocodile with a disgusting appearance was made the main antagonist. However, there was one new character that may have seemed a throwaway addition at first, but would very soon become much, MUCH more...

A radical surfboarder named Funky Kong-largely suspected to be DK's brother, given the similarities in appearance-was the operator of Funky's Flights. Rather than give direct help to DK and smash some Kremling butt himself, FK preferred helping from the sidelines-and this was made evident in nearly every DK game afterwards. He often helps the DK Crew by giving them free transportation, rentals of vehicles, items, and weapons. Funky has a keen fashion sense, always dressing like a surfer-as that's what he is of course! There's possibly nothing Funky loves more than getting some good airtime at sea-well, other than his beloved family at least.

Also, shoutout to Funky Kong's DK64 model, gotta be one of my favorite genders.

Speaking of which, Funky Kong disappeared after 64 (as far as main-series Donkey Kong goes), not reappearing until DKC Returns: Tropical Freeze, where he owns Funky's Fly N Buy, the game's equivalent to Cranky's shop from the first Returns game. In the Nintendo Switch port of the game, Squaks takes over the shop so that Funky can become playable in his own mode!-a "Funky" mode which reduces difficulty by giving FK all of the partner ability advantages as well as an extra heart, making it very popular in speedruns of the game. This wasn't Funky's only playable appearance though-he also is playable in many DK and even Mario spinoffs, even being the best character in Mario Kart Wii-fitting given his vehicle-obsession. Funky's always been a mainstay DK character, not often taking large playable roles yet still beloved by fans.

Funky as an echo of Donkey Kong

In Smash, DK is a super-heavyweight grappler with strong offense and very poor defense. While Funky is more known for speed-given his MK status, his presence in DKCR:TF speedrunning, and his vehicle-buisness, this doesn't mean he can't be an echo of DK. We could make him slightly faster than DK, as Ken is faster than Ryu. Given the similar body type, their moves would largely be the same, however to go with his often radical appearance, FK would have slightly different, more flashy animations. Funky's main difference would be having one or two attacks, as well as a Final Smash, unique to him. These could be references to his surfboard, his weapons, his vehicles, or all three somehow. It would be really cool if we could get an alt costume for him referencing his military gear from 64 or his orignial DKC design, but given that DK doesn't have an alt (to my knowledge), it wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't have something like that.

Why him over Dixie Kong?

I just think he would be a much more interesting choice. No evidence or facts to back this up, I just think he's way cooler and that Dixie is overrated. But that's entirely subjective. But in more objective reasoning, Funky is on the come-up recently, with his first mainline playable appearance and just a rise in popularity in general. Plus, with multiple playable roles and entire game to her name, I think Dixie is more deserving of an original fighter status than anything. As I've said in previous Funky submissions, I don't mean to pick on one character specifically, but when fighting for a position like a DK series ehco, it's kind of hard not to-I'd be doing the same thing if, say, I was submitting Shadow and had Metal Sonic as competition, in a general third-party echo voting.

Why him over other first party echoes?

It's no secret that this will be a VERY competitive job, as it's our final first-party echo. Funky has to compete with every single Nintendo echo that is submitted during this round. But as said before, Funky has really been on the come-up recently and is practically on the brink of becoming a mainstay playable DK character. He also just makes a lot of sense as an echo, whereas I feel a lot of characters who got submitted barely cross that line, lore-reasons or otherwise. But at the end of the day, it's all about gameplay-and given that DK has been basically the same fighter since Smash 64, and DK fans either want a new moveset or some major buffs, I think Donkey Kong would largely benefit from having an echo that's more speedy and stylish than the OG beeg gorilla.

CLOSING ARGUMENTS

1. Funky is a fan-favorite mainstay DK character who has also been featured in a mainline playable role very recently.
2. Funky Kong is the (theoretical) brother of DK, and shares the same body type, making him a perfect fit for echo status.
3. Funky could bring a breath of fresh air to an OG 8 character whose fans have been clamoring for a new moveset since.

Time to give 'em the ol' Banana Slamma-vote Funky Kong for Super Smash Bros. Infinite!​

View attachment 327704
For an Echo Fighter, I'm pitching Morgan from Fire Emblem: Awakening

Morgan is the child of Robin, The Main Avatar Protagonist. She is recruited from The Ruins of Time after Robin marries one of the female shephards(Lucina is my go to), She would play similar to Robin being a miniature version of him/her albeit with a few advanced versions of her spells.

His/Her Final Smash would work just like Robin's with an exception being Lucina replacing Chrom, Her alternate costumes would switch her hair colors based on who's child he/she is.

There isn't a good reason why morgan would be in here, personally, i think i'd be nice to have her reunite with Robin & possibly Lucina, though she could balance a little bit of the fire emblem roster with two magic users & swordfighters from the series.

Job 153
Anna (75ε)
(Byleth Echo)​

View attachment 327703

View attachment 327764Who is Anna?View attachment 327765​

Anna is a recurring character in Fire Emblem, and has gained a sort of mascot status because of this. Known for her keen business acumen and her sizeable family of identical sisters across space and time, Anna appears as a shopkeeper in most of her appearances, although she is recruitable in some entries, and even has served as an optional endgame boss such as the Anna seen above. This Anna is known as Apotheosis Anna and served as a DLC boss in Awakening and is now summonable in Fire Emblem: Heroes.

As a recurring character, Anna has only completely missed out on Gaiden and its remake Shadows of Valentia, otherwise having a perfect attendance record. Most of her appearances are as shopkeeper and tutorial host, but she makes the jump to playability in Fire Emblem Awakening, before reprising her playable role in Fates, Three Houses, Warriors amd Heroes.

In Heroes, she’s even a main character as the commander of the Askran forces. Furthermore, Apotheosis Anna appeared later as a standalone summonable character as a reaction to her high placing in the fan poll, Choose Your Legends.

In the Smash Bros. series, she made her debut as a Trophy in the 3DS version of Smash 4 and currently has a Master Spirit in Ultimate. For this job, I propose she can fill the role as the last first party Echo as an Echo fighter to Byleth in Infinite

View attachment 327767From Weapon Master to Secret Seller: Anna as an EchoView attachment 327768​

Anna is a shopkeeper, and thus has access to many different weapons throughout the series. This already gives her an easy way in as a character thay wields various weapons. What was arguably contrived for Byleth to wield Hero’s Relics (in a scenario impossible in Three Houses), Anna is used to using multiple weapons. Besides, Byleth only wields four Heroe’s Relics from Three Houses, Anna could give the player access to legendary weapons from across the series.

For Smash Bros., she could use the regalia weapons that first appeared in Shadow Dragon: The blade Mercurius, the lance Gradivus, the axe Hauteclere and the bow Parthia. These regalia appear in multiple entries in the series, most recently in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, as well as Fire Emblem: Heroes, in which they serve as not only the personal weapons of their wielders back in the first game, but also as the weapons for the Brave versions of Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude to complete the circle of the Fire Emblem saga, a theme best showcased by the girl that has been there since the beginning and has grown into a beloved mascot figure of the series.

If Anna were to use her Heroes design, one could even use the weapons Folkvangr (Alfonse’s sword), Fensalir (Sharena’s lance), Nóatún (Anna’s axe) and Breidablik (Kiran’s gun) as an alternative set. In both of these cases, Anna would most likely play the role of Byleth’s weaker but nimbler counterpart.

A more random approach could be taken where each input uses a different weapon from the series, including other legendary weapons like Siegmund, Fujin Yumi and Armads. This gives Anna her raison d’être: A character that represents the many weapons of Fire Emblem and its long history, packed in a character that has followed that history with every step, as well as a constant force in a cast that revolves its protagonists. Anna can function the same in Smash with her weaponry, incorporating not only the weapons that are in every Fire Emblem game, like Brave weapons that are known for attacking twice, but also the weapons of the lords not in Smash yet.
View attachment 327707
What weapons will she use? It’s for you to decide!

The gameplay differences can be subtle when simply replacing the Hero’s Relics with Regalia; the only gameplay differences that are obligatory stem from the lack of whipswords in her kit. This at minimum means that she needs a new Up Special and some retooling to other moves that use the Sword of the Creator and a new Final Smash.

To show that Anna’s history in the series give her the license to go the distance with just a few anounts of changes, Anna’s Up Special cannot use a whipsword, which means it has to be replaced and is thus an excellent way to bring in another Fire Emblem staple, whether it be a light magic spell like Warp or Rescue, or a spell of fellow Fire Emblem mage Robin in Excalibur. As a Trickster, Anna is capable of using magic, so her weapon prowess doesn’t just stop on the physical side of things. Anna takes every inch she’s given and uses it to give you the most Fire Emblem for its buck, whether it’s reskinning of weapons or herself, Anna fits in with every kind of Fire Emblem player. In the long History of The Emblem, Anna has been there and she’s ramping up her prominence starting with Awakening.

That’s not where the changes have to stop though: With the large armory she has at her disposal, there’s no shortage of Electroshock Arm-like weapon swaps in her arsenal, with moves being able to be either stronger, faster, weaker, slower etc. than the weapons of the Three Houses lords’, and can bring effects that fit the original weapons’ various skills from throughout the Fire Emblem legacy. This gives her a sort of Mr. Game and Watch-esque appeal, where each input can bring out a different weapon (as opposed to Byleth having a weapon per input direction) and have its own effects. A Back Air that attacks twice at the cost of might because it uses a Brave Lance, coupled with a Forward Air that hits even harder than Areadbhar because it uses Gradivus or Siegmund, the sky is the limit when it comes to effects. If this mechanic is chosen, Anna would feel a bit more random than Byleth and wouldn’t have a clear archetype like “stronger Byleth” or “weaker Byleth”: Each input would have its own strengths and weaknesses.

View attachment 327769Selling the Sisters: Designing AnnaView attachment 327770​

Her own legacy means she wouldn’t be just a vehicle for various weapons. With each incarnation (or sister, according to Anna herself) comes a new chance for costumes. A costume based on her role as the Commander of Askr in Fire Emblem: Heroes, or a baret as she has in Fire Emblem: Warriors can all fall under her wardrobe. These can either be alternate costumes (making Anna the only character to have all alternative costumes rather than palette swaps) or simply palette swaps. Still, the sky is the limit when it comes to Anna designs. Smash can even bring in a brand new Anna specifically designed for Infinite! Alternatively, an Anna from a lesser represented game can fill in the gaps in the series’ representation in the same way The Legend of Zelda uses incarnations from all over the series.

As said before, there are multiple designs to take as her base from the Fire Emblem series: Her Trickster outfit that appears in both Awakening and Three Houses would further the connection Anna has with Byleth, her Heroes garb would represent the smash hit mobile game perfectly and Apotheosis Anna is infamous in the fanbase and has appeared in Heroes for that reason as well. The Apotheosis garb also gives her a neat backpack stuffed with weapons which can be used to great effects to give Anna that classic salesman flair.

That’s not to mention her iconic catchphrases, poses and personality that can make her stand out from the stiff and stoic Ashen Demon and would make her stand out as an Echo. Echo Fighters have traditionally been used to convey the personality of the character and Anna sure is a personality between her sweet-talking customer service combined with her cutthroat thirst for money to stand out when compared to the Professor that shines in his simplicity and more direct approach to conversation.

View attachment 327772Fire Emblem, Smash Bros. and you.View attachment 327773​

Adding another Fire Emblem character might seem counter-productive to the wishes of the fanbase. With Echoes being a potential way to add to series that have been down on their luck, adding a Fire Emblem character might seem like poor manners.

Luckily, Anna knows a thing or two about selling a product. Not only is she popular, coming in as high as fifth in one of the Choose Your Legends polls and making the top 50 in both the earliest and the latest installment of the poll with her Awakening incarnation alone (and yes, this is higher than Black Knight scored), Anna is a beloved mascot figure to the series, already giving her a leg up as a legitimately popular character.

Still, Fire Emblem has had a contentious history in Smash. The fanbase bemoans the revolving cast of lords that only wield swords making their appearance in Smash.

The thing is, these issues do not apply to Anna. Instead, a lot of the issues people have with the series’ representation can be solved in one blow. A cast known for only its most recent protagonist would gain one of its only recurring characters to connect to all players. A selection of weapons that only consists of swords despite of its vibrant armory would gain an expert on lances, axes and bows at the very least, and the series that has skipped so many of its older entries that fell between the cracks can finally see a character from their game, using their weapons, coming to join the fray.

Anna is very flexible in her design and can act as the glue that holds the revolving door cast of lords together with her consistent appearances. By including alternate costumes, palette swaps and choosing the right weapons, Anna can connect to any player of any Fire Emblem game, something that the Fire Emblem cast in Smash thus far sorely lacks. As said before, choosing a design of a previously skipped over game can give her the longevity she needs to fit right in with the other characters and make the selection more rounded.

The weapons play a part in this too. If Anna indeed chooses to bring regalia from across the series with her, Anna can bring along references to characters from across the series. It also means that Anna is far from “just another swordfighter” and the fact she takes inspiration from Byleth instead of Marth meams the mean amount of swords in Fire Emblem’s Smash presence would go down, and the amount of bows, lances and axes would go dramatically up. Since weapon selection is such a big part of Fire Emblem, Anna‘s salesman experience makes her a smooth fit. The fact that Anna can do all this as just an Echo is an economical bonus!

Overall, Anna is an evergreen that can take the cheap resources given to her as an Echo and take Fire Emblem representation to new heights. She’s scrappy, more than the sum of her parts and would squeeze the weapon master archetype to its limit all in one popular, flexible and charming character.

So I’m bending my own rules a bit with this submission but technically speaking, we are throwing out some of the costumes that we submitted for 64 and Melee veterans that were deemed unrealizable in favor for recolors. This came about because I didn’t think about costumes and colors throughly and just did a first come first serve basis so several costumes and colors were submitted that are wouldn’t make much sense. I mean, I don’t think we can justify Boshi being included as an Yoshi alt when we don’t even have Geno or Mallow.

This is probably my most wanted Echo fighter after Black Knight and Hilda and one I really want to see us consider.

Dry Bowser

We submitted this character costume without proper vetting from the leadership or the thread so I would like to put it’s fate to rest by submitting it as an Echo fighter rather than an alternate costume. While the Mario franchise certainly doesn’t need to be increased, it goes without saying it’s one of the most important series in Smash. Dry Bowser represents a a resurgence in Mario platformers during the Wii days if I am correct and would be a great way to bring that back. Dry Bowser would have all of the attacks as Bowser but would also possessed different effects (purple-blue flames) as well as slightly different state. Lighter and faster with less defense and power. Plus, we don’t have any skeletal characters in Smash. Since alternate costumes form 64 and Melee are in a gray category currently I want to capitalize this by giving Dry Bowser a fighting chance to redeem himself.

Resubmitting because I thought we already added a Mario echo character

Job 153: Gooigi
as a Luigi echo fighter

View attachment 327715

It's Gooigi from Luigi's Mansion! He made his debut in the 3D remake of Luigi's Mansion but has a more prominent role in the main story of Luigi's Mansion 3. He's the creation of Dr. E. Gadd who lives inside of Luigi's brand new Poltergust. When push comes to shove, Luigi calls him out and the two get to work solving puzzles and busting ghosts.

In Luigi's Mansion 3, Luigi is resistant against spikes which would otherwise hurt Luigi but he has less health and has a critical weakness to water. If he was an echo fighter of Luigi, I would imagine that he'd take damage in water like Inkling. For his moves, he could shool balls of green goo instead of fire and as an aesthetic effect, he could leave drops of goo wherever he runs instead of the usual dust effects.

Additionally, he sounds super funny!

"...Move. One such as you cannot stop me."

Fighter #32ε: The Black Knight
First Appearance: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (2005)
Latest Appearance: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)

Who is the Black Knight?

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Introduced as a major villain in the Tellius Saga of Fire Emblem games, the Black Knight is the armor-clad rival of Ike, wielding the sacred sword Alondite. Born with the shame of having Laguz blood coursing through his veins, the man who would become the Black Knight joined the military to escape abuse. Eventually, he made his way to the Begnion military and rose quickly through the ranks. This led to him becoming a military hero and earned him quite the praise. He was eventually employed under the Mad King Ashnard, with ulterior motives. This is where the man formerly known as Zelgius would become the Black Knight, a mysterious soldier clad in Ashera blessed armor and capable of wielding Ragnell's counterpart Alondite.

This man would go on many exploits later on, including a final duel with his master Greil. The fierce battle between the two led to him killing his master in front of the latter's children, Ike and Mist. He would continue to work under Ashnard as well as his original allegiance to Begnion, thus effectively making him a double agent. When he encounters Ike in their final duel, the two fight with their respective relic weapons. Wielding Ragnell, Ike defeats the Black Knight, who seemingly perishes under a collapse. It is revealed that 1. Greil crippled himself to let the Black Knight win their duel and 2. the Black Knight purposefully lets Ike win their duel. It is also revealed that Zelgius had indeed survived the collapse and worked under his own identity to assist Begnion and Ike in the Mad King's War.

With the man known as the Black Knight seemingly deceased, it should come to no surprise that his return after three years was met with great shock. He abruptly appears in front of Micaiah, the main character of Path of Radiance's sequel, Radiant Dawn. The masked man protects Micaiah from an ambush and after a series of events, swears his loyalty to her. Micaiah's group, including the Black Knight, would eventually recapture Daein Keep. He would disappear after this and reemerge as a commander of the Begnion army. In the war against the Laguz Alliance, a series of missteps eventually leads Ike to betray orders from Senator Valtome in order to respect Queen Elincia's ceasefire. This act of treason put the hero of Begnion at the doorsteps of execution. He is rescued by Empress Sanaki and eventually joined his forces with the side of the Empire. Ike was appointed commander of these troops while Zelgius went on to rally support for the empire in the Begnion civil war between Sanaki and Valtome. Because of the constant warring on the continent of Tellius, the goddesses Ashera and Yune were awakened, with the former passing judgement on the Laguz and Beorc. The army arrived at the Tower of Guidance, with the Black Knight awaiting inside. Uninterrupted, he and Ike continue their duel, with Ike learning of the Black Knight's true identity. Zelgius is slain by the hand of the Radiant Hero, but not before he thanks Ike for the duel and acknowledges his growth as a warrior.

Presence in Smash

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Being one of the most popular Fire Emblem characters and one of two recognizable to those who have never played Fire Emblem (the other being Lyn), it should be no surprise that this man has quite a bit of representation already in Smash. The Black Knight has been present since Brawl, with his banger of a theme "Against the Black Knight." He has also been represented with trophies and stickers in Brawl and Smash 4. He is present in the form of 2 (two) spirits, being his original form Zelgius being able to be enhanced into the Legend Class Black Knight. His colors are also referenced in Ike's palette swaps, changing the Radiant Hero's outfit into a dark maroon. He was also introduced as a Mii Costume in Smash 4, with his armor and Alondite as part of the Mii Swordfighter's kit. However, his greatest role has been introduced in Ultimate, with his inclusion as an Assist Trophy alongside other popular FE characters Lyn and Tiki.

As an Echo of Ike

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Certainly, the notion of the Black Knight as an Echo of Ike has appeared in speculation more times than one can remember. He's always been one of the most popular speculated Echoes during Ultimate's pre-release phase, his name appearing with characters like Shadow and Dixie Kong. This is great and all, but how would he actually play?

As evidenced by his heavy armor, the Black Knight is an extremely powerful character with a strong defense thanks to Ashera's blessed armor and heavy attacks that rival his rival's in strength. His sword Alondite is the counterpart to Ragnell and has similar stats to it in Fire Emblem. It and its sister blade also have a function that allows them to throw energy projectiles, similar to Link's sword beam. With his near invulnerable armor, it would make sense to give him a mechanic similar to Bowser's Tough Guy or K. Rool's Belly Armor - thus helping to make up for his dismal speed.

As another student of Greil, the Black Knight could feature similar attacks to his base character, with some different moves, depending on the character. For example, the Warp Powder he was granted while at the post of Ashnard would function as teleport recovery. Ideally, he'd remain pretty similar to Ike with only a few moves changing, being specials. He can pull moves from his appearances in Fire Emblem Heroes as well as in his starring roles in the Tellius Saga. As an example of how the Black Knight can be implemented in Smash, here are some videos detailing his moves in mod Project M EX Remix (which you should play)

Why another Fire Emblem character from the Tellius Saga?

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It has been made abundantly clear that this will be the final opportunity to have a first party Echo character in our base game. Cool! Why are we wasting it on yet another Fire Emblem character? If I had to answer this question from a business perspective, I would say that the Fire Emblem series is growing quite rapidly, with it being one of Nintendo's money makers, regardless of whether or not you like that. It is quite obvious that this is why Nintendo keeps pushing Fire Emblem characters in Smash, continuing games such as Heroes, and making high quality official merchandise in the Year of Our Lord 2021.

However! From a more emotional, Smash fan perspective, I believe that we should be adding another Fire Emblem character because our representation right now is... shoddy to say the least. This is as a result of "Everyone is Here," where every character is back, but not everyone should be. We have 3 (three) characters from Fire Emblem Awakening, which might be because it's the game that saved the franchise, but it is still quite a lot. Of the currently 8 characters we have in Smash, all are pure sword wielding heroes. All are main lords of their games or sagas. Plus, we already have the Tellius saga represented with its main hero, Ike. Why shouldn't we add a character from an unrepresented saga like Jugdral or Magvel?

The Black Knight, while continuing the trope of being a swordfighter, serves to provide a visual and story contrast to those currently represented in Smash Bros. He is completely clad in armor (unless we want to take it off for his alts) and a major villain at that. While this isn't really a strong argument, he is also by far one of the most popular villains in the series. He is the highest ranking antagonist (read: actual antagonist, not a character who is bad in one route and good in another) placing 54th (out of 791) in the first Choose Your Legends poll, only coming behind main protagonists and popular unimportant characters. The Tellius Saga is also one of, if not THE most beloved sagas of Fire Emblem, to the point that it is one of the games that constantly gets rumors of remakes. Despite not selling too well because of bad market decisions on Nintendo's part, it still remains one of the sagas that get constant streams of new content, with a high quality Ike figurine releasing soon. The Black Knight himself has a decent presence in Heroes, with two versions of himself (the Knight and Zelgius), as well as appearing in Fire Emblem Awakening as a DLC bonus character. The Black Knight is representative of this saga, along with lords Ike and Micaiah. Thus, by including the Black Knight, he can serve as a visual and story contrast to the existing Fire Emblem cast and provide representation to the most beloved parts of Fire Emblem.

Closing Thoughts

1. The Black Knight is an extremely recognizable important villain, even to those unfamiliar with Fire Emblem
2. He would provide Fire Emblem with its first true villain
3. Being trained by the same master as Ike, he would mesh perfectly into the role of Echo
4. The Tellius Saga is extremely popular and relevant in Nintendo's eyes, as it constantly gets new content

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View attachment 327709Job #153: Birdo Causes a Panic!View attachment 327710
"Hello gorgeous! Long time no see! It's me!"
View attachment 327666
Who is Birdo?
Despite being a mainstay of the Mario roster these days, Birdo's origins are a bit more complicated. While her first Mario appearance is quite clear, being Super Mario Bros. 2, that game itself is a product of its own strange circumstances. The original Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in Japan on June 3, 1986 featuring the same engine as the original Super Mario Bros., but with new harder levels featuring wind, springs, and poison mushrooms, which is even an item in smash. Fearing that Western gamers would find these new levels too difficult, Nintendo didn't officially release Super Mario Bros. 2 in the west until Super Mario All Stars on the SNES, with SMB2 referred to as Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. Instead, Nintendo retrofitted Miyamoto's Doki Doki Panic to feature Mario characters, and released it as Super Mario Bros. 2 in the West and Super Mario Bros USA in Japan. Birdo was a boss in Doki Doki Panic, and was naturally carried over to SMB USA.

While her status as a Doki Doki Panic original character may draw into her question her validity as a Mario character, multiple elements of the Mario franchise, such as Shy Guys, Bob-ombs, Pokeys, and Ninjis all originated here, so its not as big as a problem as it may seem. If you still need more confirmation, all of these elements that have been in smash are sorted under the Mario umbrella, so regardless of ones personal thoughts on the matter, they all count as Mario characters in the context of smash.

So that explains her origins, but what about Birdo herself? I would like to say Birdo is more simple than her origin story, but unfortunately that is not the case. The original manual description of Birdo, mistakenly called Ostro, describes Birdo as male, and claims the she prefers to be called Birdetta. This does seem to imply that Birdo is transgender, or at least a cross dresser; However just like with Sheik, Nintendo unsurprisingly glosses over this nature of her character, overwhelmingly referring to Birdo as "Birdo" while using female pronouns. It is worth noting however that male pronouns are used for Birdo in some European localizations, and there is often Dialogue in Mario RPGs and Captain Rainbow hinting at Birdo's ambiguous gender. So in a sense Birdo could be considered the first trans character to be added to smash.

Birdo is also technically a species just like Yoshi, although there is a "main" Birdo who features in Mario spin offs which would inspire her smash incarnation.

Her Powers mainly stem from her snout, including the ability to vacuum opponents, envelop opponents and herself in eggs, and fire eggs, although she also possess vague heart related abilities as seen in multiple Mario sports titles. Her Tail, large head, and feet can also be used to attack, in the same manner as Yoshi, who is her sometimes romantic interest, other times just regular partner.

Mario Series Prominence
With the number of Mario characters now in Smash, I can see how Birdo may be viewed as bottom of the barrel, however she's quite the opposite. As I mentioned earlier, Birdo debuted in Super Mario Bros. USA, making her one of the first new additions to the Mario cast after the original. She predates Daisy, Waluigi, Bowser Jr., Rosalina, Diddy Kong, and Even the modern design of Donkey Kong. She even predates Yoshi! While she wasn't present in SMB3, she made another appearance on the NES as a boss in Wario's Woods. She didn't appear in SMW either, but she did make an appearance on the SNES in Super Mario All Stars, featuring on the Box Art and Title Screen, as well as a being a boss in Super Mario RPG. In fact she even made a cameo in Kirby Super Star during Megaton Punch and Kirby and Dedede's battle!

In terms of spinn offs, Birdo has quite the history. Covering all the spin offs she been in would take too long, but she's been a consistent member of Mario Party, Mario Kart, Mario Golf, Mario Strikers, Mario Baseball, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. But, unlike other spin off characters such as Waluigi and Daisy, Birdo even has a history in the Paper Mario and Mario RPG series. Birdo has prominent roles in Sticker Star, Color Splash, and Origami King all three of which hardly feature any non Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser or Toad characters. In terms of Mario RPGs, shes appeared in the aforementioned Super Mario RPG, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and even has an expanded role in the Bowser's Minions mode of the remake. Also worth nothing are her playable appearances in Fortune Street, Mario Hoops 3-on-3, and Itadaki Street DS, which are all crossovers with Square Enix, and her playable official skin in the Mario Minecraft Mash-up expansion.

Furthermore, Birdo is featured in 5 amiibo cards, has multiple official plushes but I believe this is the most recent one, and is even a chess piece in Mario chess.

So as a whole Birdo is anything but bottom of the barrel. She has appeared in plenty of spinoffs, more mainline games than Daisy and Waluigi combined, multiple Mario RPGs which no other primarily spin off Mario characters can say about themselves, and predates most of the Mario cast, including the fighter she would be echoing! Her presence is still strong today, appearing on mobile and on switch in Mario Kart Tour, Mario Tennis Aces, Super Mario Party, Super Mario Maker 2, Paper Mario Origami King, Mario Golf: Super Rush, and already being revealed as playable in the upcoming Super Mario Party Superstars.

This isn't too related to why she should be in smash, but Mario Kart Tour has given her new color options like Shy Guy and Yoshi got in Mario Kart 8, which are too neat not to mention, and would obviously make for perfect alts.

Function as an Echo:
View attachment 327669
As Yoshi's partner in various Mario Spinoff Titles, Birdo would obviously be an echo of him. While at this point I think most ideas for echos require some form of compromise or mental gymnastics to truly work as an echo, but Birdo doesn't really have this issue. Birdo is capable of performing all of Yoshi's attack , including; Tail Swipes, Kicks, Headbutts, Egg Laying, Egg Shooting, and Egg Shielding. However, there is one aspect of Yoshi's moveset that she is unable to perform, his tongue attacks. Fear not, as there is a solution. As mentioned earlier, Birdo can simply suck air in similar to Kirby and Dedede's inhale for Yoshi's Neutral Special and Grab. Even changing those moves to something entirely different would still place her under the echo umbrella, but those measures aren't necessary to have her function, although we certainly could.

In terms of differences, her taunts, idles, and victory animations would display her more flirty and romantic nature, featuring plenty of kisses and hearts. She could function as a Paisy clone having the exact same stats, but if we want to set her apart we could really take any direction in terms of sacrificing damage, speed, and weight in exchange for each other, as she's an all rounder in the Mario sports games. Yoshi is typically classed as a speed class though, so I would lean to lowering her speed in exchange for damage if we do aim to change her stats. A different final smash would also be desired, although as Yoshi's Final Smash is entirely smash original I'm sure it could work for Birdo as well.

Existing Presence in Smash:​

Smash Installment	Content	Description
Melee - Stage Hazard & Trophy​	View attachment 327676​	The Birdo trophy is obtained randomly: when this happens, Mushroom Kingdom II is unlocked. As with the stage, Birdo appears as her SNES sprite. First seen in Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdo is known for shooting eggs and fireballs from her mouth. Mario and friends would have to jump on to the eggs in midair, pick them up and throw them back at her. Long missing from the Nintendo scene, Birdo recently reappeared in Mario Tennis and Super Mario Advance.
Brawl - Trophy​	View attachment 327677​	A pink creature of indeterminate gender that some say would rather be called Birdetta. A big ribbon on its head is its most distinguishing feature. In Super Mario Bros. 2, you can return fire on Birdo by jumping on the eggs shot from its mouth. Be careful not to get psyched out by fake-egg fireballs!
Smash 4 - Trophy​	View attachment 327679​	Birdo's debut wasn't in a Mario game at all but in a game called Doki Doki Panic. Originally released in Japan, a version of that game made it to the West under a different name. Mario and friends replaced the main characters, and the game was called Super Mario Bros. 2. That's how Birdo joined the Mario Bros. family!
Ultimate - Returning Stage Hazard and Ace Spirit​	View attachment 327680​	No descriptions for spirits

As you can see, Birdo has been present in the smash all the way since Melee, so this wouldn't be a strange promotion for her. Additionally, she plays an important role as a stage hazard on the Mushroom Kingdom II stage appearing in both Melee and Ultimate. On this stage she takes her sprite form, so her 3D fighter could exist at the same time, or it could simply be disable while Birdo is playing like with the flying Dedede in the background of Dreamland. furthermore, her Melee trophy is the unlock criteria behind the stage, placing even more importance on her in smash. Her spirit is also Ace class, signifying her importance to the Mario series, as its pretty much the highest class otherwise normal characters can be.

Potential Issues:

Yoshi is classified as the Yoshi series yet Birdo is a Mario character!

While cross series echos are allowed in the first place, I'm also not a fan of otherwise unrelated characters being echos of each other. Luckily Birdo is Yoshi's romantic interest and frequent sports partner, so they are definitely related despite technically being from different series. Additionally, Yoshi has moved around on the character select screen to be between Mario characters in Smash 4, so having Birdo next to Yoshi on the roster wouldn't be an issue.

Birdo is already a stage Hazard!

Other playable characters such as King Dedede are stage cameos, and are simply disabled whenever the fighter is in the match. Additionally, Birdo's appearance is in sprite form so both could exist at once and be distinguishable. Furthermore, this doesn't break the established lore like having King Dedede appear in the background of Dreamland while fighting would, as Birdo is a species which has multiple members.

Do We really need another Mario character?

While Mario does have a lot of characters, its not undeserved. Mario is Nintendo's mascot series and the highest selling video game series ever by 250 million units, so its really only to be expected. Furthermore, smash installments usually see multiple Mario universe characters per installment, as demonstrated in this table:​

Smash Installment	Mario Fighters
64​	Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong​
Melee​	Peach, Bowser, Dr. Mario​
Brawl​	Wario, Diddy Kong​
4​	Rosalina, Bowser Jr.​
Ultimate​	Daisy, Piranha Plant​
Infinite​	Waluigi​

(King K. Rool and Ashley aren't included as they are only Mario universe characters by proxy and have never appeared in a Mario game, or only one in the case of K. Rool)

In every single smash installment multiple Mario characters have been added, so if anything the lack of Mario fighters in Infinite so far helps her case, especially with smaller series (in comparison anyways lol) like Resident Evil, Splatoon, Kirby, and Zelda getting multiple fighters.

Final Arguments:

1. Birdo is one of the oldest Mario characters, and has a long legacy in her home series, arguably more than Daisy, another echo, and Waluigi, a completely original fighter.

2. Birdo would be our first Transgender fighter, and while her being transgender isn't super integral to her character, representation still matters and there aren't too many other prominent trans characters I can see getting into smash.

3. Finally, perhaps the best argument, Yoshi is very lonely in the current roster. This may seem like a joke point but its one of my main reasons behind submitting Birdo. Yoshi has been alone since the first smash installment, and unlike Captain Falcon (the other lonely smash 64 fighter) Yoshi's series is still getting games. While Poochy and Kamek seem like good choices, Poochy has been assisted, and Kamek seems a lot less interesting with Ashley here. Birdo is more or less are last option to throw Yoshi a bone. Furthermore, every main mario character has their partner in smash except Yoshi!​

Mario	Peach	Wario	Bowser	Rosalina	Donkey Kong	Yoshi
Luigi	Daisy	Waluigi	Bowser Jr.	Luma (lol)	Diddy Kong	Nothing!

The Main Mario cast all has their partner from Double Dash except for Yoshi
This issue is pressing and you can help solve it by voting Birdo!
View attachment 327748
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Here are our total submissions:
Dixie Kong (Diddy Kong Echo) Donkey Kong series
Mr. Sandman (Little Mac Echo) Punch-Out!!
Blaziken (Captain Falcon Echo) Pokemon
Alph (Olimar Echo) Pikmin
Pauline & Tiara (Rosalina & Luma echo) Super Mario
Ninten (Ness Echo) Earthbound
The Amazonian (Incineroar Echo) Pro Wrestling
Springman (Min Min Echo) ARMS
Raichu (Pikachu Echo) Pokemon
Dark Bowser (Bowser Echo) Mario
Leon (Wolf Echo) Star Fox
Funky Kong (DK Echo) Donkey Kong
Morgan (Robin Echo) Fire Emblem
Anna (Byleth Echo) Fire Emblem
Dry Bowser (Bowser Echo) Mario
Gooigi (Luigi Echo) Mario
Black Shadow (Captain Falcon Echo) F-Zero
Black Knight (Ike Echo) Fire Emblem
Birdo (Yoshi Echo) Mario