Lost Video Game Villains: Master Hand + Crazy Hand

Name: Master Hand and Crazy Hand
Title: The Gatekeepers
Goal: Keeping the characters in the Super Smash Bros. world from ever escaping
Current Whereabouts: Final Destination

History/Origins:

The Super Smash Bros. world, also known as the World of Trophies, is a magical place where heroes and villains across multiple universes live and breathe as if there were no boundaries ever separating them, coexisting in a strange peace where everything is settled only within the confines of battle. But behind this wondrous facade, the player is only allowed to see so much and cannot join them or otherwise have these heroes join the confines of other worlds on their own. The reason for this is not because the two worlds cannot coexist with one another; it’s because there is somebody that really does not want to see the two worlds converge. That individual is Master Hand and, by association, his brother, Crazy Hand. The identity of these creatures is something that no character in any world can really answer, but their intentions are more than noticeable to anyone who pays attention. Master Hand is the prime player in this world, and it is his job to set up the battle arenas, choose the players in a game, and effectively declare everything needed from an announcer including the starting point of a match, its ending point and even the names of the winners. As Master Hand has come to learn, however, the power he possesses to bring to life the many hero trophies scattered across the world, not to mention all of the villain trophies and even enemy trophies, comes with a cost in that his characters gain full sentience and believe that they are who they really appear to be. In this struggle, these animated trophies often try to beat others just so they can get the chance to go back to their home world; doing so, however, would break down the dimensional barrier surrounding the World of Trophies, creating time and spatial discontinuities that could potentially destroy not only the World of Trophies but any world that they try to enter. In response, Master Hand must step in from time to time and battle against these animated objects, making sure that they never escape their world. To the denizens of the World of Trophies, Master Hand is a villain unlike any other and does everything he must to ensure that they never leave this place, but this is an unfair account seeing as the consequences of letting them out are far too great to even consider. He shirked this duty for a time when he was being mind-controlled by Tabuu, but since the defeat of him and the Subspace army, Master Hand has returned to his old post with little problem. Nonetheless, Master Hand is more than villainous when it comes to his tactics, as he will literally crush and destroy anything that dares to get in his way. Despite all of his power, however, Master Hand is occasionally not strong enough to prevent total destruction of multiple worlds; when he becomes weakened or is in need of immediate backup, he will gladly call on his brother, Crazy Hand. This psychotic counterpart is about nothing more than crowd control and rarely steps in the world on his own, which makes sense considering his personality is twisted and borderline insane, using pure destruction and uncertainty to mash and decimate anything that gets in his way. Even if one or both of them loses, Master Hand will always make a parting shot stick to their target when their guard is down, turning them back into a trophy and starting the game all over again. Because time never passes in the World of Trophies, these two are effectively immortal and will likely be in their home stage, the Final Destination, for all eternity, making sure that the World of Trophies does not leak into others and cause chaos far beyond what any deity could possibly control.

Personality:

Master Hand and Crazy Hand may be brothers, but the two could not be further apart when it comes to ideologies and behavior. Master Hand is the calmer of the two and is the deity responsible for the creation of the World of Trophies and all of its denizens, all made by his power to animate trophies made of nonliving materials. Master Hand generally prefers to stay out of the limelight in most cases, simply watching and calling matches between his little puppets and living out his entire life in this fantasy world without any complaints or fears. If, however, he is challenged by one of his subjects, Master Hand will transport them to his home dimension in the World of Trophies, a mechanical island known only as the Final Destination. When confronted up close, Master Hand will gladly reveal himself in a hearty manner, laughing at his challenger knowing that they will never make it out even if he is defeated in battle. Master Hand is much more powerful than he appears and will gladly use every trick in the book to take out his challenger, striking fiercely and without mercy in an attempt to subdue his target as quickly as possible. Despite this aggressive nature, however, Master Hand is fairly complacent most of the time and just likes playing with his toys, so calling him a villain outside of the Super Smash Bros. world itself would be a crime. Crazy Hand, however, is the complete opposite of his brother; while he only ever shows up to assist Master Hand if he is struggling in battle, Crazy Hand immediately makes his presence known to his target and attacks them erratically, striking with quick, unpredictable attacks that are slightly weaker than those of Master Hand but are otherwise rife with nasty elemental after-effects that are absent from Master Hand’s moves. Crazy Hand cares only about destroying whatever opponent his brother might be facing and will do so gladly, even at the expense of his own self-being. Despite the fact that their personalities clash in more ways than one, these creatures are paramount tag-team champions in their world and are able to use several powerful moves together that are capable of destroying a target in seconds; they might not always agree on everything, but these two work better together than they ever could on their own.

Powers:

While it might be obvious, the greatest power that Master Hand is his inherent ability to essentially turn lifeless, cheap trophies into fully sentient beings with just a touch of his finger, creating hundreds if not thousands of different worlds with whatever fighters or creatures he wants, never having to worry about rules; in effect, he is the rulebook. Everything that Master Hand creates is not dictated to follow his orders, which works well for him as it makes his interactions with his toys much more lively. When they become too rambunctious, however, Master Hand will gladly lay the smack down on his target, striking them in a multitude of different ways, including poking, slapping, slamming, walking over, drilling, grabbing, punching and even sweeping his opponents away with great physical force. His abilities go even beyond these otherwise simple physical strikes, as he can also generate and fire fiery bullets from his fingers and even generate small laser beams from his fingertips that sweep across the battlefield and inflict decent damage on a target. Unlike most everything else in the World of Trophies, Master Hand does not take damage indirectly from attacks but directly, so instead of a percentage damage bar, he actually has a set amount of energy available and thus can only take so much damage before he must retreat to the shadows and turn his opponent back into a trophy. Crazy Hand has a similar array of attacks at his disposal, but instead of working as a creator, his entire purpose is to assist Master Hand in crowd control; as such, his attacks and powers are focused more on sheer destruction than creation, a fact reflected in his abnormal attacks and abilities. Unlike Master Hand, who tends to follow a set strategy in battle, Crazy Hand’s actions are completely erratic and he will gladly strike at any place at any time without so much as a thought beforehand, making him slightly less effective but much more unpredictable than his brother. What he lacks in creation-based powers, however, Crazy Hand more than makes up for in attack, as although his attacks are slightly less damaging than those of Master Hand, most of his basic physical and projectile-based attacks carry a nasty side-effect with them, such as freezing, electrocuting, planting an energy-sapping plant and even enshrouding his target in darkness for a limited amount of time. In addition, he is known for simply flopping around on the ground of Final Destination violently in an attempt to trap a target underneath him (inflicting considerable damage in the process) and can even conjure up fiery bombs that he randomly drops in his unsuspecting target. Together, these two are even more damaging, as they can combine simple slaps, catches and punches together to deal massive damage to any target caught in between them and in turn inflicting devastating burns, shadow damage, electrocution and even incapacitate their target with sleep. These two hands might not look that dangerous, but get in their way, and there is absolutely no telling what they might be capable of.

Following his possession by Tabuu, Master Hand in particular has become even more unstable than Crazy Hand, and when the pair are pushed to their limits by an opponent of extreme technical skill, Master Hand will dismiss his brother and reveal his true form, the diabolical Master Core. In doing so, the white, glove like covering that shields Master Hand’s true presence is violently ripped apart, revealing the glowing ball of energy that serves as his core and the violent storm of chaotic matter that comprises his conscious mind, the Swarm. At this point, Master Core will attempt to attack its opponent by assuming a variety of different forms depending upon the skill level of its current challenger. As the Master Giant, the Swarm will take on an enormous humanoid form that attacks with physical sweeps of its limbs, energy balls, moving the stage arena itself and unleashing forceful screams. As the Master Beast, the Swarm will form into a feral monster and will strike with vicious biting attacks, electric currents, body slams and moving spikes. As the Master Edges, the Swarm will morph into a series of five blades that attack with a variety of slashing strike and massive energy balls. As the Master Shadow, the Swarm will take on the appearance of a larger version of the opposition, attempting to destroy them by mimicking all of their powers and abilities and turning said power against them. If faced with a challenger that is still able to make it past the best the Swarm can throw at them, Master Core will enable said challenger to recover their energy fully before commanding the Swarm to form into a massive, living complex known as the Master Fortress, where a challenger must destroy four target energy sources for the Swarm inside of the complex, fighting off shadowy monsters spawned within and dealing with an ever evolving and changing organic structure. Only upon defeating a set number of these challenges will enable fighters to disperse the Swarm and leave Master Core defenseless, though even without the Swarm he still retains its ability to fire a devastating shockwave capable of defeating any opponent and reverting them back to a trophy state.


Future Potential:

Oddly enough, the future potential of Master Hand and Crazy Hand is indeterminable, as they are both immortal and the sole gatekeepers of the World of Trophies; the moment they vanish, so to will the world that they treat as their playground. As far as villains go, these two will likely remain in the same position they have had from the very start and will almost never decided to leave, especially considering how much fun they seem to have. Outside of the World of Trophies, these two could be hands belonging to just about anyone, even a small child who just got a brand new toy to play with. Within the confines of the World of Trophies, however, these two will likely remain as rulers of the land and will never let up on their duty, hopefully for the sake of everyone else in other universes. There’s not telling what these two will do as they continue to introduce new characters and creatures into the World of Trophies, and for all anyone even knows, they might even be planning to expand their empire beyond the boundaries of their world and possibly into other worlds. If this was ever to be the case, it would be disastrous because only Master Hand and Crazy Hand are able to control the World of Trophies; if another gets fused to it by their authority and theirs alone, it too will come under their influence and will be lost forever to whatever games they might play in the future. Master Hand and Crazy Hand might not mean any true harm to their subjects, but as long as they are around, there is little doubt that peace will never be the norm, a fact that could become extremely devastating to the lives of their toys and innocents in other universes if they ever get tired of playing or decide to expand their playground even further than it is already spread.