Insight into the World of Light; What Happened to Wendy and for Whom Does She Fight?

By RAWKHAWK2010 - I... I'm seeing something!

If Shulk had cared more about Wendy O. Koopa during his World of Light omnicide Vision, then the above is what he would have seen. Wendy, who wasn't present onsite, would have been seen at home playing MapleStory 2. I know because *I* saw it and with my own two present-day eyes. Plus that would have been a good guess to make anyways.

Unfortunately, what happens to Wendy at the end is kinda sorta officially her fault. Yes, there's almost no chance she could have escaped regardless when not even Bayonetta or Palutena could (and for reasons (allegedly) put forth by Sakurai that I still can't comprehend), but we'll never be 100% sure because of how impressively-focused Wendy was on things that weren't the pressing matters and the signs that pointed to them. The sky was unusually bright. Bowser hadn't been home in days! But Wendy's priorities still laid elsewhere.

Remember when Shulk said "The future... Doesn't belong to you!" during that one final battle vs. [redacted]? Well, Wendy decided she would similarly fight a boss, hopping from Channel 33 to Channel 3 with the hope that there would be other people in it. It turned out there were people, just way, waaaaay too many, and Wendy's brief thought of "The server... Doesn't belong to you!" subsided before realizing that entering one of the first three channels was a mistake. She had entered the World of Lag by her own hand, no matter how much worse Galeem's interference with existence might've been making it.

This, whatever it is, was on the side of the screen the entire time. (Shulk I SAW IT!)

Even so, she hung around anyway when she should have listened to her avatar and SaVed SoMe StAmInA, if you know what I mean (you probably don't). Can we blame Wendy for being committed though? At least she was engaged in activity of some sort which means she could've possibly dodged a Galeem Beam by accident. You know, unlike Snake who insisted on hiding under a cardboard box. (And to think Snake and the Koopalings are considered poles apart on the preliminary tier lists right now...)

Still, R.I.P. Wendy, much like how she would put it herself. Upon being beamed she was instantly banished to the same fate befalling the rest of the roster sans Kirby, where soulless husks of Fighters become inhabited by "Spirits" who are supposed to somewhat share the Fighter's abilities, appearance, and/or personality. Each Fighter hosts several across all of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but for the game's story mode aka the "World of Light" it appears they're matched with one in particular.

So, the burning question: Just who in the world (of Light) is Wendy O. Koopa's?

Well, we know thanks to an official Nintendo demo that Wendy is possessed by a character known as "Tron Bonne", and if the quotes didn't make it clear, I had absolutely no idea who "Tron Bonne" was before this. My guess was that she was a trainer from one of the Genius Sonority Pokémon spinoffs as opposed to an antagonist/anti-hero from Mega Man Legends (which means no wonder I didn't know). All I knew was that upon first glimpse I was hit with some kind of jolt. They're not remotely the same species. One even has hair and one doesn't. And yet they're still so SAMEY.

They're even ;)ing with the same eye!

As someone who hasn't spoiled myself silly when it comes to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and thus doesn't 100% know how these Spirits work from a plot perspective (or else just wasn't paying that much attention to the Direct), I'm not sure how much of this is a product of Tron Bonne's own free will as opposed to it being forced upon her by the greater masterminded scheme entirely. In any case, my research uncovered that the resemblance goes way beyond color and a surreally-coincidental pose.

To start, Wendy and Tron Bonne both have an affinity for piloted machines. Wendy pilots the Koopa Clown Car and Tron Bonne the "Ferdinand". They also both employ the use of robot minions in the form of Mechakoopas and Servbots, respectively (which explains why the Spirit Match also includes two Robotic Operating Buddies). It should be mentioned that Wendy's minions are all around stupider, though. Wendy even has minions when streaming (the green streambots or the "greenies") and they kinda just say the same thing over and over and over. Those guys desperately need upgrading and hopefully the end of the controversial Nintendo Creators Program paves the way for such.

And oh hey that's a really opportunity for a segue, because remember when Wendy was streaming and got trapped in the elevator and other shit? Well, KoopaTV would obviously never wish disaster upon Wendy in real-life, but when it's in-game it's always pretty amazing. (Note: In-game as in Wendy's in-game. In-game not as in the game you see Wendy but in-game as in the game Wendy sees herself. A Hat in Time's in-game and not Super Mario World's in-game. In-game!) Wendy's "lol fail"s are vital to her success both as a Koopa and a streamer, and this is something Tron Bonne must surely identify with even if she's envious of Wendy's ability to truly find the humor in it herself.

The above shows Tron Bonne after Mega Man Volnutt burnt her to a crisp. It's funny, because back in 2016 I was actually concerned that Wendy might be on literal fire because of this thing. It didn't matter if her own dad started it when we probably hadn't seen her in months, especially what with KoopaTV having been no stranger to staffer deaths. It was just later revealed that Wendy was about as far as you could have been from it while still remaining in Canada. That means no "I'm so ashy!" pity-farming similarity points for Tron Bonne...but now Wendy's house is falling apart so who knows how far that fire really spread. (Meanwhile, I don't know the conditions of Tron Bonne's house or if she even has one.)

So, other Tron Bonne character elements that she may identify with Wendy on? Well, uh...unless Wendy suffers from severe cynophobia which we don't really have any hard proof isn't the case (Stream Wendy just has a cat that keeps making her sick), then that's kinda all the Tron Bonne I got to, because Ultimate comes out on December 7th and I'm sorta running out of time. I didn't get to Mega Man Legends 2 or even her own game The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, and I obviously didn't get to Mega Man Legends 3 because Capcom fucking canceled it. Still, I believe this article speaks volumes about how much a Spirit's relationship with a Fighter can motivate the player to want to learn more about them, and that's whether Tron Bonne likes it or not!

A Spirit saying this is the height of irony!!

This article went from pseudo fan-fic to game feature analysis halfway down the page. Whoops. Also, even though Super Smash Bros. Ultimate doesn't come out for another three days, Rawk considers the World of Light intro to have happened weeks ago because of how much he's screwed around with the footage since then. Feels like years. (Or as they say in Canada, "Feels like years.")