User:Exotoro/Smash Lore

Who was Master Hand?
Master Hand is typically seen as a child's hand by the fandom, merely playing with his toys. While this is somewhat supported by the beginning of the first game, later games stray a bit away from this depiction. Melee also supports this theory with their description…


 * Melee Description: The Master Hand awaits anyone who survives the long difficult road to the Final Destination. This symbolic link between the real world and the imaginary battlefields of Super Smash Bros. Melee is quite a handful in battle, and just because he wears a white glove doesn't mean he fights clean. Get ready to get flicked, swatted, punched, and poked like crazy!


 * Brawl Description: A being tied to the link between this world, where trophies fight, and the world beyond. The meaning of his existence is unknown, as are his goals, but he seems to have obtained (and kept hidden) a power that borders on absolute. He also seems to feel a certain joy in challenging chosen warriors who've claimed many victories. He waits even now in Final Destination.


 * SSB4 Description: The mysterious Master Hand is the source of creation in the Smash Bros. universe. He appears in Final Destination when all other rivals are defeated. He fights with a diverse move set and only grows stronger if you make him angry. If you know when to fight and when to dodge, you'll take him down!

Assemble, which is my game prior to Discord, depicted him more as a friend to the Smashers, depicting the situation more akin to a fighting tournament of sorts. Traveling, one might say, from the worlds before they slowly became merged as of Brawl, since the universe is now officially known as the World of Trophies. To do this, Master Hand seeked out Tabuu to give him the increased power to do this.

Melee's Adventure Mode depicts the player traveling from world to world, where as Brawl depicts the World of Trophies as more of a singular entity. While Master Hand could always animate the characters and form the stages, he needed more power to do more than just that… a world that was breathing and living without his control.

Who was Master Core?
This in turn also allowed him to transform into Master Core, who appears incredibly similar to the Shaydas and even features notable similar elements and wording- such as a "Swarm of shadow bugs" and a core. Master Edge notably exists, appearing somewhat similar to the blades that the Shaydas bring around. I believe that while Tabuu granted Master Hand some of his power, he also put him under his control until he was freed during the events of the Subspace Emissary.

Ganondorf seemed eager to work with him, and why not? Master Hand is the most powerful person in the world of trophies, and Ganondorf would obviously seek that power for his own, even if he had to cross others for it.

Who was Crazy Hand?

 * Melee description: Where the Master Hand loves to create, its alter ego is impulsive and destructive, consumed with that hollow feeling which comes from destroying your own creations. The Crazy Hand appears when a player clears obstacles quickly and the Master Hand's power is low. You have only one chance to defeat the Crazy Hand.


 * Brawl description: Seemingly a manifestation of the destructive spirit in direct contrast to Master Hand, who is the manifestation of the creative spirit. Crazy Hand appears out of nowhere when Master Hand's power begins to ebb. His repeated attacks evoke the bizarre. Those who must face Master Hand and Crazy Hand at the same time face a long and painful battle to the death.


 * SSB4 description: The erratic Crazy Hand embodies destruction in the Smash Bros. universe. You can see madness in the way he moves and the attacks he unleashes. Pairing up with Master Hand makes him an especially dangerous foe. Be ready for an intense battle when their laughter fills the air.

Basically what we can tell: a creation of Master Hand's more impulsive, destructive desires to aid in battle. Probably could be shrugged off as a way to keep the fights entertaining for the crowds- whether he actually exists as his own separate being is unlikely as he can transform into Master Core himself, suggesting that really, the two are the same. It is a alter ego of sorts after all.

Who was Tabuu?
So, this is actually the hardest question to answer.


 * Tabuu trophy: The ruler of Subspace and master of operations. Tabuu controls Master Hand with chains of light to excise this world and build up his great maze. He used Shadow Bugs to form Subspace and manipulates the servants of Master Hand to his heart's content. Born in a vastly foreign realm, he also possesses great leadership powers. Tabuu...No name is more suitable.


 * Tabuu {Wings): Tabuu with wings extended. The dreadful energy surges cast from these wings instantly turn all fighters back into trophies. Knowing this, King Dedede assembles all able-bodied troops and sets a timed device on each of them. This device is a brooch that, after the designated time runs out, revives all fighters wiped out by Tabuu.

Tabuu is the ruler of another dimension, which invaded the World of Trophies and seemed to have a maze in mind given he was absorbing various areas as his own. Shadow Bugs are implied to not be his own creation as he crafted Subspace and those who serve under Master Hand, aka the fighters brought to life by Master Hand. Additionally, he doesn't seem like he was born in Subspace.

Fighters of Lapis implies Tabuu is just one of many beings like himself, which was also created by myself. Brawl seems to imply he was born elsewhere and not in Subspace. So this is what I'm thinking: Tabuu may have the power to MERGE universes but not the power to create ones alike the World of Trophies. The World of Trophies featured doors much in the way of Tabuu's Great Maze, so the idea that Tabuu gave Master Hand this power holds some weight- it's how the universes are more or less chained together.

The World of Trophies looks a bit different from any other universe seen in Smash previously, but let's just say it's all taking place in a world that Master Hand himself created and not necessarily built from Nintendo worlds. The Classic mode map from SSB4 (3DS) featured an original background too- perhaps the World of Trophies is where the Smashers are brought from their respective universe to fight and Master Hand constructs stages based off their universes. A more traditional stadium styled arena is seen in both Brawl and Classic Mode in the Wii U edition of SSB4, as well as in the opening of Melee.

These versions of characters are perhaps pulled from the idea of those characters and animated and given life, or perhaps they really are some version of those characters before. Regardless, they are the same versions of the characters we've seen throughout the games before.

Back to Tabuu. Since he couldn't create anything like the World of Trophies himself, he perhaps decided that it fascinated him enough to steal it from Master Hand. Taking Master Hand under his control and creating the Great Maze, he forced the smashers to go through it, to see his version of their world, hoping to perhaps make them see his version of their world. The final fight is a rejection of that idea, perhaps.

It's really hard to say for sure. Perhaps defeated by the loss, Tabuu gives up and lets them go back to way things were before… but the Island of the Ancients was unable to be brought back due to their technology working a little harder than intended.

What are Shadow Bugs?
Pretty easy answer.

Shadow Bugs trophy: ''Embodiments of a primordial substance that can take the form of any number of lesser Subspace foes. They can also copy the forms of trophies to create evil doppelganger versions of them. The mysterious substance inside Mr. Game & Watch can be extracted endlessly. Once Tabuu discovered this, he used Mr. Game & Watch to create the Subspace Army.''

So this means that evidently, Tabuu came across Game and Watch prior to creating Subspace. Perhaps while in talks with Master Hand? Pit and Palutena both seem to know about them (SSB4 Palutena's Guidance), so it's possible that while Tabuu had his own source of Shadow Bugs, it might have been more limited and he seeked Game and Watch due to his infinite supply of them. It's a primordial substance, after all, I don't think Tabuu was the only one to use them. As a side note, all the Subspace enemies seem to be either entirely made out of Shadow Bugs or use mechanical parts, ala the Shaydas and countless other examples.

What is the Isle of the Ancients?
I've already done a big write up on it's article on Fantendo. You can read up just about everything there. Evidently, Tabuu wanted their advanced technology to enhance his own army and create Subspace Bombs, because while he could merge the worlds, he may have not had the means necessary to accomplish this in the time he wanted it. It is now gone, and is probably lost somewhere between Subspace and the World of Trophies, as the Research Facility was part of it as well as the Subspace Bomb Factory and those are playable after the Great Maze is defeated but this is likely just for gameplay purposes.

How is the Subspace Army back after Brawl in 4?
No easy answer. The enemies that appear in Smash Run only really state that they are from the Subspace Emissary from Super Smash Bros. Brawl- perhaps Master Hand himself brought them back given how specific the wording is. It's also possible that they aren't truly creations of Tabuu, but rather forces he collected himself, although this theory is fairly dubious. Perhaps they're his versions of the Smash fighters and he animates them to life? Hard to say.

The similarities between Kirby Super Star and Subspace Emissary's elements perhaps shouldn't be overlooked given how similar some enemies act.

How did Dedede know about Tabuu?
This is pure speculation, but Kirby did fight Master Hand and Crazy Hand in his own games after Melee. Dedede seems to know about a lot of dark and arcane stuff like Nightmare, so it's fair to say he would probably know the connection eventually, even as Master Hand and Crazy Hand visited Dream Land.