onceler flower set

Cagney Carnation

Cagney Carnation is one of the many bosses in hit Xbox One exclusive Indie title Cuphead. Like most of the bosses in Cuphead, Cagney has basically no backstory, and exists to be a boss, but that is one hundred percent okay. Cagney himself is a very big flower, most likely a generic cartoon flower considering he doesn't really resemble anything. He uses a number of plant based attacks, and can also turn his head into a gun in reference to a 30's gangster movie actor that he's named after. Really.

In Smash, due to Cagney being rooted firmly to the ground in his boss fight, he gains a few new moves. When the match starts, Cagney will pop up from the ground, and then uproot himself, revealing his tentacle-like roots. These then quickly fuse together into two spindly legs, which still resemble roots. This allows Cagney to walk and such, making him playable at all.

Also of note is that people on the internet draw a lot of lewd drawings of him. I dunno, it's the internet.

Floral Stats
Weight - 90
Run Speed - 1.5
Walk Speed - 0.94
Air Speed - 0.91
Fall Speed - 1

Cagney has an odd model/stat relation. Size-wise, he's actually around the size of Ganondorf, with his topmost flower even stretching past Ganon's head a bit. He also has a very wide stance, nearly one of the wider character, with his hands always out to his side, like he's about to do something sneaky (Because he probably is). His legs are relatively short, and only add just a bit to his actual size, but he'll take what he can get. His hitbox is also strange, since you're most likely not going to be attacking Cagney's actual body, mostly his hands and head, due to how ridiculously thin his stem is.

Stat-wise, Cagney is both incredibly light, but also very slow. He isn't particularly used to moving around, period, which is the main problem. His run animation is an awkward looking (But still well animated!), silly run, similar to the flower enemies in Forest Follies. His walk has him tip-toeing slowly. While Cagney is definitely not used to moving on the ground, moving in the air is another thing he has an incredible amount of trouble with. His jumps are mediocre, and his movement speed is pretty pitiful. His fall speed, thanks to his lack of body density, is fairly slow as well.

Overall, Cagney isn't extremely great at the whole moving thing... maybe he can work something out to give him some advantages...

Specials
Neutral Special - Magic Hands
For the starting animation, Cagney's grin grows even more, as he cups his hands together, both of them forming into more literal cup shapes. Cagney can hold this for an indefinite period, as long as you're holding the button. This is an incredibly quick animation, but it is important to wait a bit while using this... that is, if that's what you want. Basically, once the button is released, Cagney will un-cup his hands, revealing one of three different things.

With no charge at a minimum, his hands will reveal a Boomerang Seed. This is one of those floating seeds you see, the ones shaped like boomerangs. You know the ones. Anyway, this is a fairly standard, basic projectile, perfect for starting out. Size-wise, the Boomerang Seed is slightly larger than Link's boomerang, by a noticeable amount. It is at least 1.5x its size, and is animated similarly. When summoned, it will hang out in between Cagney's hands for a few frames, before flying forwards. This behaves considerably differently compared to Link's boomerang, aside from the fact that it moves forward. There's no suction effect, and it moves considerably slower. To make up for that, it also has considerably better range, traveling the length of the main Battlefield platform before it turns around. And yes, as a boomerang, it turns around. This, again, acts considerably different compared to the standard boomerang.

Depending on the altitude of the boomerang, it will swerve either up or down once it turns around. For example, when using it close to the stage's main ground/lower half, it will swerve upwards, around half a Mario in terms of height. The inverse is true for when Cagney uses it on the upper half of the stage, where it will instead swerve downwards. When this happens, the Boomerang Seed will not actually increase in speed, and continue along its path until it either hits an opponent, or goes offscreen. If it does manage to hit an opponent, it will deal a fairly mediocre 8% damage, with knockback equivalent to Link's boomerang... meaning not that great. This isn't a great projectile, considering how slow it is, but Cagney can have two out at the same time, making it somewhat spammable, and it can be good at edgeguarding. As a note, if the seed goes offscreen while traveling forwards, it will still disappear. Cagney is able to move around as soon as the seed is launched, giving this some rather harmful endlag.

The second object only appears after 45 frames of charge. This time, Cagney will open his hands to reveal 3-4 acorns (The amount changes depending on how long you charged it past the minimum). These are Homing Acorns, and when they're summoned, they will lock onto an alive opponent, and aim at them for a few frames. Once those few frames pass, the acorns will fly off like rockets, tracking after their opponents and acting as homing missiles, traveling straight from the position they were in when fired. They do, however, curve a bit if an opponent is close to the trajectory. Cagney can only start to move around after the acorns are fired, but getting close to him makes opponents far more likely to be hit by the acorns. On contact with an opponent, they will explode and deal 12% damage, with knockback capable of KOing at a relatively bad 200%. These are relatively simple projectiles, but the number of them Cagney is capable of firing makes them something to fear. They aren't spammable at all, but maximizing their use can lead to great results, especially when you're only up against one opponent.

The final object Cagney reveals from his hands is only available at a charge of 70 frames. When this is reached, Cagney will fire 3-5 smaller seeds out (Like the acorns, this changes depending on how long its charged after the minimum, with the max being 120 frames of charge.). These seeds are small, smaller than even a Pokeball is. They aren't projectiles either, and will simply fall into the ground once fired, seemingly doing nothing. This is actually the fastest of the three, with the seeds popping out practically instantly. However, it takes an additional 30 frames for the seeds to do anything.

The seeds will suddenly pop into flowers colored a lot like Cagney himself, which then also suddenly sprout faces and limbs. They will then break free from the ground, and start walking around. Visually, these look exactly like the flower enemies in Forest Follies, except colored more like Cagney than their previous yellow coloring. Anyway, these technically count as minions, and stand around half a Mario tall, maybe slightly taller, making them... short, even for minions. They skip around the stage at the speed of Ganondorf's run, making them fairly slow, but they will relentlessly pursue opponents once they lock into one. They'll even drop off the stage and use their petals as brief hovering tools in order to reach them, they're THAT dedicated. They can also jump, but not very well.

These guys are actually real heavy hitters, compared to the others. Despite technically being minions, in that they have some form of AI, they function a lot like projectiles. On contact with an opponent, any opponent, they will burst into an explosion of pollen. This is a small hitbox, unlikely of actually hitting a second opponent, but its nearly instantaneous, leaving the opponent with no real escape if they get too close. To note, they only explode when touching hurtboxes, touching them with hitboxes works. Anyway, the explosion can KO at 180%, and deals 18% damage, pretty heavy stuff. Unfortunately, the previous issue of their horrendous speed is brought down by these flower fiends only having 10% stamina, and will explode harmlessly when its depleted. These guys can be hard to get off, but with a lot of them running around the stage, they can become destructive little guys.

Magic Hands is one of Cagney's main attacking tools. They all have decent range to them, and are capable of covering incredible distances, making up somewhat for the flower's poor transportation.


Side Special - Thorn in the Side
Imitating his transition into his final phase, Cagney jabs his hands into the ground, causing thorny vines to burst from the ground. The vines will travel across the ground, with their distance limit being either until they hit a ledge, or they travel the distance of Final Destination. While the start-up animation is rather slow, meaning that Cagney can be knocked out of it fairly easy, but the vines start appearing fairly quickly. They travel across the ground slowly, however, and Cagney must continue using the move in order to have them actually cover any area. Cagney cannot move, and the default amount covered when using the move without holding it totals to around 1 Battlefield platform.

Once the vines are out and Cagney has returned to his normal position, the vines will now stay around for the next 5 seconds, before the absorb themselves back into the earth. These vines are a pretty simple trap, acting as a full hitbox that will deal 5% damage and weak upwards knockback whenever an opponent touches it. At large coverage, this can make certain platforms completely unsafe for opponents to land on, though this is a very rare occurrence. The hitbox of the vines only travel slightly above the ground, roughly as tall as a ducking Kirby. Cagney can only have one patch of vines out at a time, with the previous patch disappearing instantly as soon as he tries to use it again.

However, while these vines might be deadly to the opponents, they are only helpful towards Cagney himself, and not just because they deal damage. When Cagney walks over the vines, his roots will be absorbed into them, making him lose some height, but the mixture with his own vines causes him to gain an additional burst of speed, knocking him up to 2 units of speed at all times he is attached to the vines. He can still be knocked out of the vines, however. This gives a bit more incentive to covering as much ground as you can with vines, since Cagney's movement is very lackluster. The flower minions will also have their speed doubled if they walk through the vines.

This isn't all that the vines can do, either, as it has another function built in for Cagney to use. Pressing the special button while the vines are crawling will cause the vines to stop in place, and then a spike of vines to burst upwards. They fire up around the height a Battlefield platform hovers above the ground, and deal 12% damage with heavy upwards knockback, making this a good KO attack. However the spike is also thin, and the actual attack is very fast, making it hard to hit with. Fortunately, this isn't all that the attack is good for. If the spike manages to hit a thin platform from below, the vines will start to grow over it as well!

This applies the vine effect directly to the platform, and cover it completely, but also counts as ending the vine spread, with the vines covering both the ground, and then extending up to the platform. This small wall of vines still counts as a hitbox, and can block projectiles if need be. A good spread across the ground, and onto extra platforms can help Cagney cover multiple layers, but this may still take a bit of trouble to do. This is one of Cagney's heavily important moves, even more-so than Magic Hands, due to its many utilities. A number of other moves can be affected by it as well, but Cagney will mostly be using it to make the ground a very dangerous place for opponents.


Up Special - Piranha Platforms
Cagney folds his petals inwards, leaving only a small hole. The petals start to form into the shape of lips, before spitting out a large, round object, colored in a very similar red-with-white-polka-dots color scheme. Cagney will, by default, spit the seed upwards, where it will float up for a bit, before falling back down. Once it hits an altitude of roughly the distance between a Battlefield platform and the ground, but only in relation to where Cagney fired it, it will unfold into a platform, as seen in Cagney's boss fight. This starting animation can be aimed, either upward-left or upward-right, with the seed being fired in the same way, except traveling in an arc, but still following the same property of how it unfolds. In the air, Cagney can fire the platform below him, causing it to unfold instantly, and saving him from a fall.

While the seeds are curled up, they act as projectiles, dealing 3% damage and weak knockback on contact. If they hit an opponent, however, they will lose all momentum, and fall to the ground. The same will apply if they hit walls as well. They will still unfurl using the same rules, however. Anyway, not very good as a projectile, but the seeds are completely invulnerable besides that, but will automatically disappear after 7 seconds once they turn into platforms.

Speaking of them as platforms, they're around 2/3rd the size of Battlefield platforms. Over their existence, the platforms will slowly drift downwards, which is only enhanced when someone, including Cagney, stands on them. If the platforms touch the ground, they will also disappear automatically. Anyone can technically stand on the platforms as well, but only Cagney can do it safely. After around a second of an opponent loitering on top of them, teeth will suddenly appear around the rims of the platform, before it snaps its jaw shut. This bite deals a pretty decent 8% damage, and also does mediocre upwards knockback. Opponents can dodge it fairly easily, however.

Cagney can only have two of the platforms out at a time, which might make it seem like he's incredibly good at camping, except that Cagney will have to wait for a the second platform to disappear before he can create another one, if there have been two on screen at the same time. As you might expect, this is also Cagney's primary recovery move, fittingly mediocre considering the rest of his movement options. It might not seem like it, considering he can just summon platforms, but aside from the limit previously mentioned, the platforms will not restore double jumps, meaning that Cagney might end up having to plan well in advance for recoveries.

Cagney's vines can also interact with these, since they're platforms. This is entirely similar to how it's performed with other thin platforms, since it is a thin platform, but the spire of vines that wrap around it will keep the platform from floating downwards. This allows Cagney to basically form makeshift platforms most ares on the stage that only he can use, leading to some interesting set-ups.


Down Special - Shrinking Violet
For this attack, Cagney will perform his opening animation, quickly pulling back as his hands turn into actual leaves and he becomes considerably... cuter. Cagney will cover his face up, looking a bit bashful. This acts as a counterattack, and if an opponent manages to hit Cagney while in this animation, he will return to looking like the smug flower he is, and let out an ear-piercing scream for the attack. If  no one hits him, he'll gain a grumpy looking face, before shifting back to his original model. The frame data for this is a bit trickier to pull off than most other counters, as the opening of the animation takes longer, though the actual period where the counter can be activated is longer as well. This can make the move a lot more telegraphed, but it can still be possible to hit with. The ending lag is also fairly bad, starting as soon as Cagney's face starts to look more grumpy, meaning a whiff can lead to some punishment if used at the wrong time.

For the actual attack itself, it's one of Cagney's prime KO moves, which helps make up for how hard it can be to actually activate. The scream has a hitbox that's noticeably larger than most other counters, and is even capable of dealing damage to other opponents if any happen to be really close. Of course, the one who activated the attack will take the brunt of the attack, taking 20% damage with knockback that can KO at a fairly ridiculous 100%. Other opponents will take half of that damage, but again, they need to be REALLY close in order for that to happen. Cagney only has one other really effective grounded KO move, and it isn't as strong as this attack can be, so this is Cagney's best way of finishing off heavier opponents.


Standards
Jab - Swing you Seeders
Cagney quickly jabs one of his hands forwards, and then jabs the other one forwards while pulling his other hand back. He then continues this for as long as the button is mashed, as this is an infinite jab. The animation, if you can't tell, is similar to Cagney's dance from his idle animation, except he thrusts his hands forward a bit more forcefully, and his hands slightly expand with each hit, allowing them to hit easier.

This is a simple jab, all considered, though it has considerably good range to it. Each hit will deal 2% damage, and like with most other infinite jabs, this has an ending hit that launches the opponent. In this case, Cagney will thrust both hands, palms out, hitting the opponent. This palm strike deals an additional 4% damage, and weak knockback that can KO at 220%. For most of the jab, the hits are fairly fast, but have enough push that Cagney won't be able to get off that many hits before he has to end it. The finisher is fast as well, but has a nasty bit of ending lag that can leave Cagney fairly open.


Forward Tilt - Touch Fuzzy...
Cagney pulls himself back, puckering his lips, before spitting a small, white ball of fluff from his mouth. This opening animation is a bit slow, but the resulting projectile is rather large, 2/3rd the size of a Party Ball. The ball of fluff will float forwards, dipping up and down slightly as it does. It moves rather... slow, however, one of the slowest projectiles in the game, in fact. It can only traverse the full distance of Battlefield's main platform before it poofs out of existence, giving it a lot of time to potentially hit someone.

If the ball of fuzz manages to hit an opponent, it will deal a mediocre 5% damage, with no knockback. Instead of knockback, the opponent will be sent into their dazed animation for a a handful of frames if they're on the ground, or put into freefall for slightly less if they're in the air. If the opponent hits the ground while in the air, they will transition from the freefall to the dazed animation, and remain in the dazed animation for a brief period if they haven't been in freefall for more than half of the freefall stun's duration, EG. they will still be put into the daze stun if thrown into the fuzzball. This is very useful for Cagney, obviously, as he can use this brief period to start up his vines, make a quick escape, or land a heavy attack. The main downside is the length of the starting animation, which has no hitbox on it at all. This is a move that Cagney will have to prepare in advance, or knock opponents into, in order to make full use of.


Up Tilt - Hedge Trimmer
Cagney pulls his head down a bit as his petals jut out, now more resembling blades than flower petals. They start to spin as he sweeps his head forwards, facing the screen as he does so. That's right, Cagney turns his head into a buzz saw. The attack is rather fast, with only a brief pause as Cagney leans downwards and his petals sharpen, but it isn't a very major pause. The sweep itself is quick, and only has minor ending lag. Cagney's head is large, so this is fairly easy to hit with, and can even hit certain, larger characters while they're ducking.

The downside with the move is, despite Cagney's large head making it easy to hit with, it doesn't have much range to it, only covering a distance equivalent to Mario's UTilt. When the attack hits, it deals a decent 7% damage, with upwards knockback that can KO at 200%. The endlag might not be that bad, but it is enough to prevent this from being a good juggler, especially with the pause in the middle. Overall, a fairly basic, simple upwards attack that Cagney can put to good use.


Down Tilt - Root of the Problem
First, Cagney's ducking animation. Cagney's duck has him put his two root legs in the ground, and THEN bend down slightly, meaning he resembles his original self... except bending down, with his hands to the ground. Anyway, with his roots already in the ground, Cagney can cut out some of the middleman in ducking animations and go straight for the poke. Cagney's roots will burst from the ground at diagonal angles on either side of him, jutting out quickly and then retreating. This attack is incredibly fast and spammable, and has some great range to it for a DTilt, both reaching just under 1/3rd of a Battlefield Platform.

Being fast and having great range makes this, obviously, an incredibly potent poking tool. As you might guess from this kind of speed, the attack deals 4% damage, with very little knockback to it. However, that isn't all there is to the attack. If Cagney ducks while in a patch of thorns, he'll now shrink down entirely to just his head poking out, making him around the size of Kirby, a pretty significant change in stature. Anyway, in regards to this move, since he now has every possible limb buried, this attack gets a significant upgrade.

now, when the attack is used, SIX roots will burst from the ground, now covered with spikes. They reach out all at different angles, as you might expect, with the lowest roots going the farthest, and the others being slightly shorter. The range is actually increased to slightly over 1/3rd of a Battlefield Platform as well, giving them significantly more reach. In addition to that, the roots now also deal 10% damage, with actual knockback capable of KOing fairly late, but is considerably stronger than most of Cagney's other attacks.

If you can't guess, there's a bit of a downside here. The roots jutting out takes quite a bit longer, and has some endlag to it as well. This added slowness makes it far worse at poking, and better as just a normal use attack. The roots in this version will "hang" for a bit as well, with their hitboxes still active thanks to the spikes, before they retreat in, making it slightly more likely that you'll be able to hit someone, in combination with the additional range.


Dash Attack - Tumbling Weed
Cagney, as he's running, pulls his body in behind his head,causing him to drop to the ground. His petals then start spinning like a wheel, and propel him forwards at a fairly decent speed, faster than his usual dash. Because of the severe model change during this attack, Cagney becomes around the same size as his ducking animation while in thorns, mentioned above. His entire body at this point is a hitbox, letting him ram into any opponents. This wheel dash has a bit of an automatic travel to it, pushing Cagney forwards 1 Battlefield Platform whenever its used. Thankfully, the end lag for this isn't that bad, as Cagney's body simply pops back out from behind his head as soon as it finishes. This does constitute some endlag, but it isn't that bad.

When the attack hits an opponent, it will deal 10% damage, along with some above average knockback. When Cagney's wheel body hits the opponent, it will instantly cancel him out of the attack, and return him to normal. The wheel also doesn't ignore edges, thankfully, and will stop as soon as it reaches one. The starting lag on the move, before the hitbox activates, is fairly bad, but doesn't constitute any of the attack's range.

When the wheel attack is used on a patch of vines, Cagney will instead speed off at an even faster speed, comparable to Rollout, for the entire distance the vines cover. This is another great way for Cagney to augment his traversal abilities, but it doesn't increase the damage of the attack, only the speed and distance. The attack will now end as soon as Cagney hits the end of the vines or a ledge.


Smashes
Forward Smash - Face of Flow-ear
Cagney pulls his body back as his petals start to cover his face. This acts as the charging animation, which Cagney holds for the entirety. Once the actual attack starts, Cagney will thrust himself forwards, causing his face to extend out! This terrifying attack looks exactly how it does in his original boss fight, though the hitbox is considerably more generous. Only Cagney's extended face, which reaches out 1/2 to 1.5 Battlefield Platforms forwards depending on the charge, acts as the hitbox of the attack, meaning that his nose is out of the equation.

Cagney's face gets slightly larger during this animation, thanks to his fluid, shapeshifting-like animations, resulting in his face hovering above the ground by around almost a full Mario. The face's hitbox is odd, acting as a large, long hitbox that is capable of hurting opponents no matter which part they touch. Cagney's face will jut forward quickly, but it hangs around for a few frames after reaching its maximum distance, before retreating back to the rest of Cagney's body. This is a very slow move because of this, and requires decent timing to pull off.

Thankfully, though, in exchange for this slow speed comes some incredibly heavy damage. It even has a sweet spot to it, which consists of the part of the hitbox that has Cagney's face attached. Hitting with that deals 15-28% damage and is capable of KOing in the early 100%s, while hitting with the rest of the extended face results in 7-14% damage, and much weaker knockback. This is Cagney's most basic KO option, and one of his few so far. Though there isn't major changes while used in a patch of thorns, the decrease in Cagney's height allows the attack to hit opponents far closer to the ground than the normal version does.


Up Smash - Bullet Seeds
For the animation, Cagney turns his head into a crank-powered tommy gun, and starts firing up into the air. This Smash is unique compared to most other Smashes in terms of how it charges. The longer the button is held down, the more  Cagney will fire up into the air - but there is still a limit. Cagney will fire a maximum of four times at maximum charge, before the move cancels itself and Cagney has to move on. At no charge, it will always fire one projectile, but the endlag is bad enough that charging for the multiple shots is quicker than spamming it.

Anyway, what is Cagney firing? Well, he's firing seeds into the air as projectiles! Like bullets, you might say. They're small projectiles, around the size of a capsule, if not a bit smaller. They're fired fast enough that, you won't even really get to see what the seeds look like, even though they do still exist as hitboxes at this point. Coming in contact with one will deal 5% damage, and fairly minor knockback, but the hitstun makes it so that multiple shots are likely to hit the opponent, no matter how high up in the air they are.

The seeds, after being fired, go directly off screen, Cagney being able to move once they have. A few frames after this, the seeds will start to drop from the sky at a considerably slower pace, though they're still very fast. Now you're able to see the seeds, and their multiple colors. There are three types of seed, blue seeds, purple seeds, and pink seeds, which are chosen randomly. Blue are the most common, purple aren't as common, and pink are the rarest These still count as projectiles while falling, and deal the same amount of damage, but the seeds now fall from the sky randomly, though within 2 Battlefield Platforms from where Cagney fired. Once the seeds hit the ground, they will plant themselves in the dirt (doesn't matter if its a solid or thin platform) and then sprout into a bud. These buds are fairly large, maybe the size of a Smoke Ball, and are invincible.

After a few seconds, the bud will bloom into one of three different minions for Cagney to make use of. The type of minion depends on which seed ended up being planted. Blues will burst into flying, toothy flowers that will instantly give chase to the nearest opponent. These act as slightly more precise versions of Cagney's acorn missiles, as they will track the opponent completely. They move slower, however, and the opponent is also capable of killing them, as they have 10% stamina. However, if they do manage to hit an opponent, they will deal 4% damage and weak knockback, but not die. As long as their health isn't drained, the toothy plant can remain on the field and chase the opponent. They're roughly the size of a Smoke Ball as well, though slightly larger.

For the purple seeds, a second toothy plant will spawn, these ones black and orange and with much sharper teeth. Unlike the flying plant, these ones remain grounded, and will continually hop upwards and snap from the area they spawned. They're roughly the same size as the other toothy plant. Their biting jump attack deals 7% damage on contact with an opponent, and deals pretty decent knockback. These black plants have 15% stamina, but are considerably more vulnerable than the other sprouts.

Finally, the pink seed summons an orange plant, which uses its leaves to flap up into the air. They then hang around at the top of the stage, fluttering back and forth. Every so often, the plant will open its petals up, revealing that it resembles Cagney himself, but with a large mouth instead of a face. When the petals have unfolded, the plant will spit out three projectiles, all in the direction of an opponent. These aren't homing, but they fly quickly and are roughly as large as the seed projectiles. They also deal 3% damage on contact, with weak knockback. After firing those projectiles, the plant will then curl back up. While the petals are folded in, the plant becomes completely invincible for that brief amount of time, and is only vulnerable to damage while it is open. Luckily, there is a delay between the two motions. They have 10% health.

Cagney can only have four of these minions out on the stage at a time, and the move changes slightly when all four plant minions are on stage. Instead of firing, the attack now behaves more like a normal smash, with Cagney turning his crank as the charge. He will then fire an explosion of smoke from his gun-tip in a fairly standard Smash attack. The hitbox is nothing special, though it really isn't likely to hit smaller, grounded opponents. It deals 8-17% damage depending on the charge, and has average knockback to it.

Finally, if you want to get over the long wait time between the seeds planting and the seeds blooming, that's an easy fix. Well, sort of. If a seed manages to land in a patch of vines, instead of just the bud sprouting, an entire vine will sprout from the vine patch. It will reach up around a Ganondorf high, and then sprout a bud, which instantly bursts into the minion. The flying minions will instantly head off, while the hopping chompers will fall to the ground. This entire process takes around a second, considerably less time. The vine that sprouts acts as an upwards sprouting vine as described in the Side Special while it is out, and will instantly slip back into the ground once the minion has been released.


Down Smash - Unrooting
For the starting animation, Cagney jabs his arms into the ground. After this is when the charging animation begins, as he continues to push his arms further into the ground as he charges. The actual attack has Cagney's arms burst out of the ground on either side of himself, stretching upwards as they turn into red boxing gloves to deliver a knock-out uppercut! This is actually a fairly quick attack, with some annoying endlag as Cagney has to reel his arms back in.

The uppercutting vines don't change depending on the charge, making this a very simple Smash compared to the other two. The vines reach up just above Cagney while he's bending down, putting them at around the same height as Cagney while he's standing normally. They also come out roughly 1/3rd of a Battlefield Platform away from him. The vines are covered in thorns, making them hitboxes, but they behave like the upwards vines mention before. Instead, the boxing gloves are the main hitbox of the attack, dealing heavy upwards knockback, capable of KOing at around 120%, while also dealing a fairly staggering 13-30% damage depending on the charge. This is Cagney's absolute best KO option, but its speed is definitely a detriment.

Well, there is somewhat of a way around that. if used while walking on a patch of vines, the start and end lag will be cut considerably. Cagney will now just place his hands on the ground, and cause the vines to punch upwards. He then removes them from the ground in order to cause the vine to zip back into the patch. In the exchange for this speed, the punches are slightly less knockback power, and only deal 13-25% damage now.


Aerials
Neutral Aerial - Sun Flower
Similar to his Dash Attack, Cagney pulls his body behind his head, leaving him ass only a head. However, this is the only similarity. As he pulls his body in, Cagney will face the screen, still grinning, leaving him as just a flower head pointing towards the camera. He then lets out a laugh as his grin stretches even wider, his petals stretching out into spikes. The petals stretch out fairly far, around half a Battlefield platform from where they usually are, but retract back in quickly, almost as soon as they reach their maximum distance.

The actual petals jutting out is a fast motion, but the attack itself is very slow through the starting and end animations (The end animation has Cagney's body unfurling out). Of course, the attack has incredible range on every side of it, but its impossible to use multiple times in the air, or even out of a shorthop. The range is all it truly needs, however, as it deals 14% damage, with knockback that can KO at around 160%. Of course, while a good KO move, it becomes rather telegraphed, making it easy for skilled opponents to dodge. That doesn't change how good of an attack it is.


Forward Aerial - Petal Pummeler
Cagney pulls his body back as his petals fold over his face. They form into a very realistic looking fist, and then punch forwards.  As Cagney punches forward, with his head, he's given a fairly decent amount of range, stretching the rest of his body out as if it were an arm. Once the punch reaches its full distance, he flips around and returns to normal. This is a fairly basic aerial attack, though it does have a caveat of having a very elaborate and long animation, giving it some bad lag at the start. Endlag, however, is remarkably little.

The fist is the entire hitbox, and considering Cagney's large head, it's a big one as well. The fist remains a hitbox as it flies forwards, and only stops being active once the flip back to normal starts. This gives it an incredible amount of range, around nearly a full Battlefield Platform forwards, but the actual hitbox comes out very fast, and ends just as quickly. The punch deals 12% damage, and has knockback that can KO at around 170% percent, making it a decent KO move.


Up Aerial - Clapping Carnation
Cagney, in a rather simple animation, claps above his head. His hands expand in size as he claps, however, to rather exaggerated proportions. The hitbox reaches a surprising size, around as large as DK's USmash is, though it doesn't activate while Cagney's hands are going up, only while they perform the clap, making it much harder to hit grounded opponents, or opponents off to the side. Either way, this is a fast attack that deals fairly decent knockback, and 10% damage on contact with the opponent. It's good out of shorthop, and is fast enough to make a decent juggling move out of.


Back Aerial - Pitch(er Plant) Fork
Cagney flips around so that he's sideways, and rears his roots back, before thrusting them out. They come out in the shape of a four-pronged pitch-fork like shape. As a hitbox, Cagney's legs are much larger than they are normally, expanding out into a size they might actually be able to hit with. The two inner prongs are slightly longer than the ones on the outside. The lag, on both ends of the move, are fairly fast, making this a decent quick, aerial attack for Cagney to perform. This functions sort of like a sex kick, with Cagney holding the kick out for a handful of frames, or until he manages to hit the ground. The attack is fairly basic outside of that, dealing 12% damage, with rather mediocre knockback. It can still be used to get opponents away, however.


D - Turns his roots into a large, dirty boot, firing off dirt projectiles downwards



Grab Game
Grab & Pummel
Cagney thrusts one of his hands forward, it morphing into a single, thorny vine as it does so. This is a tether grab, reaching out slightly farther than Link or Samus' do due to Cagney's larger size. The hitbox acts nearly the same, however. Like with other tether grabs, Cagney can use this in midair, and like the other tether grabs, this acts as a form of recovery. If Cagney's vine manages to hit an edge while it's out, it will reel Cagney to the wall, letting him climb back up.

When the opponent is grabbed by this, the vine will wrap around them, and then pull back towards Cagney. The vine will then turn back into a hand as he starts to grip the opponent with both. Cagney will lean in on the opponent for the grab animation, sticking his head very close to their face. This plays into his pummel, which has Cagney exaggeratedly spewing a cloud of yellow pollen in the opponent's face. This deals 1%, pitiful for even a pummel, and is even slightly slower than most other pummels, meaning you aren't likely to get in much damage.

This is because of the pollen's effects. After the opponent is hit by the pollen, they will turn slightly yellow. With this yellow tinting, the opponent has now become significantly slower than before, and are now at 2/3rds their normal speed. Luckily for the opponent, this effect only hangs around if Cagney manages to get off a throw after performing the pummel. If the opponent manages to break free, the pollen will disappear with a puff. This debuff is obviously worse for certain characters, but its helpful for Cagney considering his already terrible speed. Putting the opponent at a disadvantage, even if they still manage to be faster than him, is an upside and allows him to get in some heavier hits more easily. The pollen effect only lasts around 8 seconds.


Forward Throw - Feeling De Vine
Cagney's grin grows more vile as he starts to squeeze the opponent in his hands, which start to shift into thorny vines which wrap themselves around the opponent. He then somehow... pulls his hands out from the vines, and pushes the opponent off. Cartoon physics. Anyway, this is a fairly basic throw by itself, though it's actually very weak, only KOing well past 200% and dealing 5% damage. Not a very good throw, really.

However, the opponent is still covered in vines after the throw! While the vines don't impede their movement, they do hurt. Every second, the attack will deal 2% damage, for the next 5 seconds. Once the five seconds pass, the vines shrivel up and die. This is a perfect companion status effect to his pummel pollen, as it can leave opponents dangerously weakened for quite a while. However, there is a caveat with BOTH of these effects. There's around a ten second period after each status effect ends where you cannot apply them to the same opponent again.


Up Throw - Flower Picking
Cagney throws the opponent upwards, and then lets out a laugh as he grabs onto his own neck. He then squeezes really hard, causing his own head to pop off! The opponent is throw to a set distance for the first part of the move, up around half a Mario above Cagney. Once Cagney's head launches off, the opponent should be in that position. His petals start to spin around like a buzzsaw as his he starts to cleave into the opponent rapidly. The attack deals 10 hits of 1% damage, with the last hit dealing the knockback, which turns out to be rather weak, only KOing at 170%. The opponent is launched before Cagney's head starts falling back down to his body, which consitutes some bad ending lag for the attack.


Back Throw - Love Me or Leaf Me
Cagney spins around, without actually moving his legs, and transforms his head into a tommy gun. He then jams the opponent into the barrel, and starts to crank it. Cagney's head starts to inflate, before it fires the opponent off in a burst of smoke. The opponent is fired at an upwards diagonal direction, depending on which way Cagney is facing. This is a fairly fast throw, and is capable of dealing a pretty 9% damage. The knockback is one of the best in Cagney's throws, able to KO at 140%, making it one of his better KO options. However, this also has bad end lag, as Cagney has to shake the shot off afterwards, leaving him very open for any potential minions or other opponents to attack.


Down Throw - Plant a Little Seed...
Cagney, alongside the grabbed opponent, zips into the ground. Once this happens, the ground will start to bump around in a cartoony way, signifying that Cagney is beating up on the opponent. The attack deals multiple hits of 2%, with each hit causing the ground to bump, no matter if it's solid or thin ground it was used on. The total amounts is 4, for 8% damage, with Cagney then uppercutting the opponent out of the ground for a final 2% damage. Both characters will come out of the ground once this final hit is landed, and it will also launch the opponent.  This knockback is capable of KOing at 160%, making it fairly weak.

This is a rather slow throw, though still relatively fast. It takes maybe around 1.5 seconds to fully pull off. If the attack is used while in a patch of vines, only capable by using Cagney's tether grab and pulling in an opponent who's on normal ground, it will gain a buff. The buff being an extra 1% damage to every hit Cagney performs, except for the final one. This boosts the total damage to 18%, fairly impressive for a throw, but hard to perform due to its specific nature. This buff does not increase knockback.


Final Smash
Fury-lization!
Cagney has the Smash Ball! When used, Cagney becomes completely enraged, planting himself in the middle of the stage and entering his final form, while also growing to giant size! The entire stage becomes covered in thorny vines, every single inch, from the bottom of the stage to the top, from solid platforms to the thin ones! These thorns act different from his normal ones; instead of causing knockback, the thorns will deal 1% damage every other frame. This can rack up quickly, considering it lasts 10 seconds!

That's not all. By pressing the attack button (Any will do), Cagney can make spirals of thorns burst up from any (standable) surface. They pop out in random areas, but mashing can quickly have it covered in no time. Each of these deals 5% damage, and upwards knockback. Once time has run out, the thorns will vanish, and Cagney will return to normal. The ideal method for an opponent to avoid this attack is to stay off the ground for as long as possible - which they're likely to fail.