Skull Kid in Smash...

[The darn 4th chaos emerald]

So I've never played nor have I the intention of playing Majora's Mask but it seems like Skull Kid might be coming to Smash with the hints (sort of) dropped in the last direct. Is he really that requested/popular and could he work in Smash? I'm asking because with the limited newcomers I'm kinda picky about who gets in, and I think ANOTHER Zelda character is overkill but I want to know if he's be a good choice. (Although since we have Chrom and K. Rool and it's likely Shadow could get in I guess I can't complain too much )

[Autumn Zephyr]

I feel like complaining about another Zelda character is a little unwarranted, given that it's really just Link 3 times (so, same basic archetype with minor moveset tweaks and stat differences), Zelda twice (albeit with drastically different stat spreads, playstyles, and general archetypes), and Ganondorf once (who finally uses his sword<s>!) So really, blame Link for that part of the roster being seemingly overgrown. The guy needs to chill out a bit!

 

Anyway, back on topic: Skull Kid seems like a pretty solid candidate if they do opt to add another Zelda character for the roster for a few reasons:
A) He's not Just Another LinkTM

B) He isn't a skilled swordsman (the Links, new!Ganondorf), a powerful magician (Zelda), a swift ninja (Shiek), or a brutish fighter (Ganondorf in general), he's a puppeteer (and a pretty dang good one, if his Twilight Princess cameo has anything to say about it) who happened upon an immensely powerful artifact (two, if you want to count the brief period where he had possession of the Ocarina of Time). This alone gives the Smash team a pretty significant amount of design space when it comes to separating him from from the series' other representatives- the fact that Tattl and Tael actually fight with him in Hyrule Warriors also adds a little bit more for them to work with in terms of filling out his moveset.

C) Out of all of the antagonists the Legend of Zelda series had in games where Ganon and/or Ganondorf aren't around, Skull Kid is by far the most easily recognizable for a combination of factors: his janky motions and especially his distinctively deranged laughter are quick to burn themselves into players minds anyway, Majora's Mask is an impressive piece of design work otherwise, and he did kinda, I dunno, set in motion a clearly apocalyptic event that took Link's unique Groundhog Day shenanigans to even have a chance at stopping (which he didn't have access to until the last few hours of the first loop because the puppeteer himself had the Ocarina of Time until that moment), just to see how the local townsfolk would react! Despite the fact that he isn't explicitly evil, he manages to create the scenario for what is easily the darkest Zelda game to date in a mere 3 days- in comparison, Ganondorf, the so-called Lord of Evil, took seven years to truly ruin one town in the previous game. Talk about your grand achievements!

 

So really, my question is less 'does he have the potential to be in Smash?' and more 'if he does get in, what will his Final Smash be?'. The most obvious option, just drop the friggin' moon onto the field, doesn't work since that's been revealed to be a standalone Assist Trophy, so the team now has room to get a little more creative. Will Majora briefly rip off of his face to mess up some peeps itself, similar to how Ganon temporarily drops his humanoid facade in his FS? Will he call upon the Boss Remains to rain havoc upon the unassuming masses, similar to how they helped Majora in the final fight? Or maybe they'll go way out of left field and do something with the masked kids on the moon, or even the very giants that were integral to stopping his scheme in the actual game? I think it'd be interesting to see what they go with should the theories strike true in this regard~!

[Wolfox]

honestly, as much as I'd like Skull Kid, I kinda hope that if we get a new Zelda Character, it would be Ghirahim. Now, before you tell me to f*ck off with my swordsman, hear me out. Ghirahim, hands down, is one of the best antagonists of Zelda thus far, and he's just the Sword of Demise (See, this creates the Echo Fighter potential for Fi. And that works because some people like Fi and others wanna beat the living daylights out of her). not really sure what his moveset could be, but eh. But, back on Topic, I can see Skull Kid but idk how Skull Kid's personality can be portrayed in a fighting game

[Godot]

1. Link, Zelda, and Ganon are really the only real options for a new zelda rep.  The next most important character is Impa, but we already have Shiek and Impa would be a Shiek echo.  A lot of people go OMG WUT ABOUT HYRULE WARRIORS!?! and well... that's not canon nor nintendo.  And regarding actual Zelda canon, it wouldn't make sense for impa to fight like Cloud or use a Naginata. 

2. Zelda fans never really make up their minds as to who they want.  In the melee days people wanted Skullkid, in the Brawl days it was Midna and Vaati, and in the smash 4 days everyone was saying "Give us Ghirahim and Groose, and boot Ganon for Dhelmise!  Ganon isn't even an important zelda character!"  Now with smash Ultimate people have gone back to wanting Skullkid.... funny how things work.  Except for the times I see Ravali and Mipha...

 

3.  Skullkid comes from a beloved Zelda entry that people never really get tired of.  People forgot Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Minish Cap, and soon Breath of the Wild... (trust me they will)

 

4.  People are claiming that there are a lot of hints and teases when realistically they weren't.  People read into certain things and overthink or assume things that are clearly not actually hints.  Only real character hints we got were Chrom, Dark Samus, Isabelle, and Shadow.

 

5.  If Skullkid did get in, he'd be a tricky dodger aerial character.  Think a mix of Shiek, Pacman, and Jigglypuff... if that makes sense.

[Dreamy]

but what about toon zelda/tetra!?

[Wolfox]

4 hours ago, Godot said:

3.  Skullkid comes from a beloved Zelda entry that people never really get tired of.  People forgot Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Minish Cap, and soon Breath of the Wild... (trust me they will)

 

people forgetting Skyward Sword? I wish. It's probably one of the more remembered due to it being hated so much (completely undeserved hate IMO)

[Autumn Zephyr]

Well, seems like someone's a negative Nancy over here...

 

Anyway, since the thread is apparently about Zelda candidates in general now instead of just Skull Kid, I guess I should lay down the rest of my thoughts here. As much as I don't personally put much stock in the rumors for the sake of rumors, I do believe it's rather likely that we'll get a new Zelda rep. this time, since Smash 4 didn't have any. The issue I've found, however, is that out of the three characters I personally expected to have a fighting chance to get promoted to playable, Midna and Girhahim have already been deconfirmed the same way Waluigi was. 

 

On the other end of the argument, Skull Kid isn't the only Zelda Assist Trophy that's currently MIA- we're also still lacking Tingle. And while he isn't particularly liked on this side of the Pacific, he is apparently fairly popular with Japan, and I wouldn't put it past Sakurai to go for the trolly path like this; the supposed Termina hinting could be pointing in that direction as well since Majora's Mask was the wannabe fairy's debut game as well. I'd personally rather them not go that route, but it's a possibility that wouldn't surprise me either.

 

Looking at the other possible characters, I guess I should start with the others that have been mentioned here already. Impa has some chance, I believe, due to being the recurring character that hasn't been on Smash's battlefields in any capacity quite yet, but she doesn't seem particularly popular anywhere and her appearances have been spotty at best (read: she isn't in Twilight Princess or Wind Waker, to my knowledge). If she does somehow get in, however, she'd almost certainly be a slower but stronger Shiek Echo- she is the one who taught the not-so-secret ninja her skills in OoT, after all. Groose, on the other hand, seems extremely unlikely to me. Even if you were to disregard the controversy around the one main game he's appeared in, we have to remember that the one combat scenario we've actually seen him in had him in the background with a mobile catapult- that's not exactly conducive to making a fighter's moveset (but does make him a perfectly valid option for an Assist Trophy)! Tetra presents another sort of conundrum: outside of Hyrule Warriors (which gave her a rifle for some reason), all she really has going for her moveset-wise is her sword (*insert booing crowd noises here*) and the fact that she is, in fact, her world's Zelda; Similarly, Toon Zelda's other gimmick has already been commandeered by her more realistically-proportioned counterpart. I suppose they could realistically stat her out like Toon Link, but with Zelda's Specials, but Zelda's spells are kinda stolen from OoT Link's repertoire to begin with, so... it's probably not the greatest idea, in my eyes.

[Wolfox]

14 minutes ago, Autumn Zephyr said:

Well, seems like someone's a negative Nancy over here...

 

Anyway, since the thread is apparently about Zelda candidates in general now instead of just Skull Kid, I guess I should lay down the rest of my thoughts here. As much as I don't personally put much stock in the rumors for the sake of rumors, I do believe it's rather likely that we'll get a new Zelda rep. this time, since Smash 4 didn't have any. The issue I've found, however, is that out of the three characters I personally expected to have a fighting chance to get promoted to playable, Midna and Girhahim have already been deconfirmed the same way Waluigi was. 

 

On the other end of the argument, Skull Kid isn't the only Zelda Assist Trophy that's currently MIA- we're also still lacking Tingle. And while he isn't particularly liked on this side of the Pacific, he is apparently fairly popular with Japan, and I wouldn't put it past Sakurai to go for the trolly path like this; the supposed Termina hinting could be pointing in that direction as well since Majora's Mask was the wannabe fairy's debut game as well. I'd personally rather them not go that route, but it's a possibility that wouldn't surprise me either.

 

Looking at the other possible characters, I guess I should start with the others that have been mentioned here already. Impa has some chance, I believe, due to being the recurring character that hasn't been on Smash's battlefields in any capacity quite yet, but she doesn't seem particularly popular anywhere and her appearances have been spotty at best (read: she isn't in Twilight Princess or Wind Waker, to my knowledge). If she does somehow get in, however, she'd almost certainly be a slower but stronger Shiek Echo- she is the one who taught the not-so-secret ninja her skills in OoT, after all. Groose, on the other hand, seems extremely unlikely to me. Even if you were to disregard the controversy around the one main game he's appeared in, we have to remember that the one combat scenario we've actually seen him in had him in the background with a mobile catapult- that's not exactly conducive to making a fighter's moveset (but does make him a perfectly valid option for an Assist Trophy)! Tetra presents another sort of conundrum: outside of Hyrule Warriors (which gave her a rifle for some reason), all she really has going for her moveset-wise is her sword (*insert booing crowd noises here*) and the fact that she is, in fact, her world's Zelda; Similarly, Toon Zelda's other gimmick has already been commandeered by her more realistically-proportioned counterpart. I suppose they could realistically stat her out like Toon Link, but with Zelda's Specials, but Zelda's spells are kinda stolen from OoT Link's repertoire to begin with, so... it's probably not the greatest idea, in my eyes.

What about Linkle tho?

[Autumn Zephyr]

I highly doubt Sakurai would look to Hyrule Warriors for new characters. He'd probably look that direction to fill out the standard movesets, similar to how a few of Clouds non-Specials are pulled from Dissidia (Final Fantasy's own non-canon multi-game crossover spinoff), however.

[DigitalAmber]

I can see Skull Kid being an aerial guy because he can seemingly float at will and considering the option for bringing the Moon Down as a final smash is taken, I guess maybe the Mask would do something, because apparently it is powerful enough to be sent to the shadow realm. However, considering the prominence of Link in Smash(I haven't kept myself updated on the new one that is unreleased) It would be interesting to see somewhat of a mix between Link and Pokemon Trainer for a Majora's Mask link. He'd be able to switch masks similar to the Trainer's abillity to switch Pokemon. I'd say that would at least give Link more variety in the game. His Final Smash could be the fierce deity mask or maybe the Song of Time or something. 

[Autumn Zephyr]

Er, that went off on an odd tangent with no clear transition, so I can really only guess what you're trying to say, but I'll respond to what I understood from it. Namely, the Link from Majora's Mask is already in the game- he just doesn't do any MM-exclusive stuff due to the fact that he's also the OoT Link. It's certainly a shame, given how unique the Mask mechanics were compared to what the rest of them had in their arsenal, especially since OG Link's Bomb Rune (and both the Clawshot and the Gale Boomerang before that) show that the team is willing to alter the characters' movesets somewhat to fit the advancements in their character. If nothing else, dropping the Fierce Deity's Mask instead of the weird, made-up Triforce thingiemajigger would've given him a falshier way to further differentiate Young Link from Toon...