Link's Wake Up Call Opponents

It turns out that Sonic and King Dedede are actually wake up calls for Link. Although the latter is significantly less rude about it, funnily enough.

Sonic is a wakeup call for Link by testing how willing he is to actually be in the air at working frequency. I had a match against another Sonic earlier (one who definitely mains Sonic) where I figured this out thanks to a plan to stagger Sonic's attacks, which proved inefficient, and thus would have failed if not for allowing me to notice that I was having severe ground slant, contrary to my matches especially of late where I dare to even space with Link's Forward Air and its solid cooldown on consistent basis. And that brings up something: I had in the past been holding to a ground slant, period, because I would feel so pressured in general, even though anybody who has seen videos like Making A Fool Out Of K. Rool would attest that I'm fond of doing skill-based challenges. Nowadays, I'm more willing to go into the air because oh look, Link's Neutral Air even plows through Samus's Super Missiles. Well, and characters like to have ground busters anyway, but still. This becomes relevant when Sonic scares me enough into going back into old habits. He's basically an extreme of all the worries that SSB in general likes to provide.

I'm using Link, the bearer of the Triforce of Courage and thus supposed to represent that very virtue, and hey, he believes in it, even if he uses other tools to avoid being Stupid Brave. But let me put this out there: bravery innately implies idealism. If it's a self-standard, it's very welcome, but it's a problem when it's forced down people's throats. Nobody would like to have to follow an external law like like "Thou shalt fight to the death if challenged, or thou shalt be banished as a coward." This may be a fighting game, but that's just more reason the lack of empathy in fighting game communities' members is disturbing. One does not simply "git gud" when by definition of the message it just invites people to try to be Stupid Brave, corrupting the message of the character himself. You can't force people to be brave. If you try to, then you're "lucky" if they're just going to be doing whatever they're supposed to do out of FEAR.

As for King Dedede, Link ends up with his work cut out for him, because he suffers the very reasons why people complain about him in general, not just those spammers who give him a bad name. To start, his self-proclaimed majesty of Dream Land has a general melee reach advantage over Link, and though it's not particularly big, key move matchups such as Link's Down Air VS King Dedede's Up Air rule in the big guy's favor which makes Link suffer in given scenarios where he could otherwise just plow through. (In the example when it tends to happen, Link is high up in the air where King Dedede's Up Air would kill him.) Add to it that King Dedede has more power than Link, offensive AND defensive, and Link is going to have to play smart.

But that brings up another problem: King Dedede's Gordo Throw.

I will inevitably have somebody tell me to just nail the Gordo to reflect it back at the regal penguin. I could do that IF I'm not busy getting out either the Gale Boomerang or a bomb. Both of them have startup problems that the Gordo Throw capitalizes on, and the bow lacks the surface-to-air capability needed to hold it well, even if you could use it efficiently against a guy as durable as Dedede. I end up having to bait the Gordo Throw, and therein lies the rub: if I attempt to bait it, it better be a read, or King Dedede gets to move closer to me, and I only want that happening on my terms, not his, when melee stats rules in his favor as is. He even has a dangerous trick that costed me an earlier match against this Dedede (yeah, I only won majority against this guy): Jet Hammer can break the shield from full shield health. This is especially vicious if you're recovering on stage, because if you get hit, it won't matter if it's a direct hit or on your shield, because it's not going to be nice. Naturally, if your shield is broken when you're anywhere above about 40% even if Dedede is undamaged preventing rage boosts, Ubel would not like this story anymore if he weren't in favor of Dedede, whose full charged Forward Smash would now be impossible to evade.

Even after all that, King Dedede does not make me feel cheated when I lose against him. The guy is still an armor, simply meant to play differently compared to, say, Bowser or Donkey Kong. (If anything, Ganondorf just needs some buffing that isn't stupid, as well as reduced redundancy.) If I lose because I miscoordinate anti-armor, that's on me, not a guy who couldn't do anything more than punish it, however harsh the punishment would be. If I felt that way with Kingdom Rush's armors, I certainly would with Smash's. Sonic, by contrast, has his wins feeling bogus simply because he can just keep sniping you with the fracking Side B and Neutral B to better effect than what they should be pulling. Being a Fragile Speedster isn't even a valid excuse, due to the existence of Meta Knight, a guy who simply is designed to test how well you can make use of your melee RPS ability to wall via plentiful Counter Play despite being an anti-armor swordmaster himself.

I do feel a bit better about Sonic, but it doesn't change some of the issues involved. You know that quote I used earlier in this description? Yeah, I want you to look at its source. If you can tell me after doing that that the behavior of the FGCs is any less stupid, then you obviously believe in a higher power than I do.

BTW, you might notice a replay involving me playing as Olimar. Yeah, it was a part of string of matches and I had an opponent where I lost as him (the replay isn't that match), then I switched to Link and two stock the guy. Yeah, I may as well upload this video with that in mind.