Sledgequake

Sledgequake

Art by Samtendo09 (t∣b∣c)

GENERAL INFO NICKNAME(S) Big Sledge, Chief GENDER ♂ Male SPECIES Sledge Bro CURRENT STATUS Alive AGE Approx 40 years old HEIGHT 12'09" WEIGHT 753 lbs lbs NATIONALITY Unknown ALIGNMENT Neutral/Evil

PERSONAL INFO CLASS Leader of Mega Mercenaries WEAPONS Super Sledge, Hammer-based magic

MISCELLANEOUS INFO SERIES Super Mario Bros. (series) CANON APPEARANCES Super Mario Team-Mania

“Nothing personal, Mario, but the poisonous genius paid me to slam you down. Just between you and me... He's smart, but also love to hug the spotlight.”

— Super Mario Team-Mania

Sledgequake is the large, powerful Sledge Bro who is said to be a deserter of the Koopa Troop after wanting to live on his own, and is the leader of the Mega Mercenaries, who are yet to make an appearance.

Biology

Story

As revealed in Super Mario Team-Mania, Sledgequake had deserted from the Koopa Troop as he want to live his own life and not to constantly follow the order of the tyrannic Bowser. Although most of his backstory remained unknown at the moment, he had recruited other deserters to become the Mega Mercenaries and trained to become stronger. He is also magically enhanced thanks to Slanito after the latter payed him for service during the event of his introduction game.

Physique

Although basically similar to a Sledge Bro, Sledgequake is larger (and heavier), and is also quite more muscular. In addition, he also have more intimidating blue eyes instead of cute ones.

His skin, helmet and shell are also notably darker, and his shell also patterned differently, having an explosion-like symbol in the middle of his shell. He also have some patches on his belly, which marks his weak spot.

He also wears fingerless gloves and boots, and even wears two blue Spike Top shells on his shoulders.

Personality

Sledgequake is a calm mercenary who hunt, chase and defeat nearly any target that his patron paid him for to do so. That is to say, despite openly enjoying his job, he have a limit and refuse to attack innocent people. He will fight dangerous children, but he will express regret either physically or verbally.

Despite his rank as the leader of the Mega Mercenaries, he is rather casual and carefree about most events, as "he seen it all" and prefer to stay calm and focus on the big deals. If there is an event that will get into his deals, however, then he will not hesitate to help those who wants to stop it, even for free.

He also treat his companions fair and with dignity, as he do not want to be seen as not-so-different with Bowser, his former leader he did not liked. However, he can and will punish any member of the Mega Mercenaries who betrayed him on a major scale, and he will not give any second chance unless if the traitor showed compassion, regret or is genuinely saddened, in which he simply make sure they won't do it again.

While he try not to hold personal with most of his targets, he do have a low opinion on people who insulted him constantly, who were ungrateful of his service, or who are constantly making fun of him. It is rumored that Bowser had attempted to clawed Sledgequake out of anger despite the latter being a powerful elite, but Bowser tried to deny this, which explains Sledgequake's severe distaste toward ungratefulness.

Sledgequake is also considerably intelligent; he is well aware of the Mario Bros.' strength, as well as several of their friends', allowing Sledgequake to identify their weaknesses. This means that if he confronts the Bros. themselves, he will just overwhelm them since Mario and Luigi does not truly specialize in any category (and in Luigi case, Sledgequake will try to catch Luigi off guard as the latter try to turn back).

He will also immediately distrust and reject any requests of those who try to lie him or who Sledequake finds too evil, even if he would be paid a million Coins. He also don't like to being unpaid despite his service well done, but if he saw that the requester in question is poor, he will simply let them go and tell them to not to lie at him again.

It is recently revealed that he becomes very intimidated and loses courage toward a gigantic threat, and only fights in desperation. He said that he is not used dealing with threats bigger than him. This, in turn, shows that he is not as fearless as he looks, and may know when something looks too dangerous to handle and prefer to avoid the fight for his safety, unless he is forced to fight as a last resort or in self-defense.

Sledgequake is shown to be very stubborn as well, and can be one of his more defining personality traits. If Sledgequake sees a high bounty on someone's head, he will make sure he or his Mega Mercenaries will be the first to take the bounty, and only stops until the target would prove too much for them. He also rarely changes his mind, and tend to make his decisions final, sometimes to his own detriment.

Abilities

As a Sledge Bro, Sledgequake throws sledgehammers and can cause an earthquake after he lands on the ground, but those two techniques are much more powerful does to him being bigger and heavier than a normal Sledge Bro. He can also perform a huge leap, which can surpass even Luigi's jump, but had to charge it for a few seconds beforehand.

He is also magically enhanced; he can transform one of his hands into a bigger sledgehammer which can cause a wavy soundwave that will damage anyone of its vicinity. He can even make Sledge Bros out of his sledgehammers for reinforcement, and those Sledge Bros will only follow Sledgequake's orders, making it impossible to dupe them unless if the opponent managed to transform into Sledgequake himself, long as the real Sledgequake is not nearby.

Sledgequake is also known for impressive resilience; a normal stomp cannot work on his head, and punches will do nothing unless if his weak spot, his belly where some patches are attached into, get hit by this. Projectiles can also damage him, but such damage tend to be very minimal, thus using more powerful projectiles, using a Mega Mushroom or a Star, or tripping him and Ground Pound on his belly, or even a powerhouse such as Wario, Donkey Kong or Bowser punching his belly, will do any real damage.

Appearances

Super Mario Team-Mania

Sledgequake's introduction. He is a reoccurring boss among several bosses, and is one of Slanito's strongest henchmen in this game. Unlike the other bosses, Slanito did not brainwashed him; rather, he only paid Sledgequake and even magically enhanced him to defeat Mario and his allies.

He is fought four times, in Ice Cream Land, Dark Licorice Land, Toxic Danger Island and Special Star World. He is fought normally in the first battle, but in the second battle, he had obtained a combination of Blue Shell and Ice Flower to become Blue-Shelled Sledgequake, and in Dark Licorice Land, he is fought alongside with Aqua Emperor Caccactor, while also being Black-Shelled Sledgequake after using a Magic Wand.

In Special Star World, he becomes Bee-Shelled Sledgequake after using a Bee Mushroom, and is proven to be the most difficult battle as only hammer-like platforms can knock him down, and he is surprisingly faster on the air despite his weight and the size of his bee-form wings.

Relationships

Slanito

Sledgequake have some respect for Slanito, but is rather cautious as he do not wanted that the poisonous Toad would go too far, which the latter would be extremely unlikely to do so. Having a common grudge against Bowser, however, Sledgequake will gladly serve Slanito for free if it is about defeating Bowser.

Mario

Sledgequake actually admires Mario for his skills and will be happy for a rematch, even if Mario is not his current target. That is to say, Sledgequake will not hesitate to smash Mario if the latter try to stop him from defeating someone.

Luigi

Sledgequake tend to look down Luigi for being a coward in the first place, but after the battle in Toxic Danger Island, he eventually changed his mind and consider Luigi "not so much of a coward at heart". Otherwise, he stays to be neutral with the green plumber.

Princess Peach

Sledgequake seems to have no respect to Princess Peach, as he tend to question her responsibility does to her constant shenanigans with Bowser. He even warns her that if he will kidnap Peach for someone he is paid for, even if it is Bowser, he will do it.

Wario

Sledgequake finds Wario a big jerk and warns that if Wario hires him, he will refuse knowing the greed of the yellow plumber. He also nearly called Wario fat once, right before reconsidering as he called himself out for being an hypocrite.

Bowser

Sledgequake have low opinion on Bowser, especially as the former heard about the latter's constant defeat and being a generally pity villain. He even said to Bowser that the latter tried to claw his chest once, but Bowser himself tried to deny that. The two may still work together if Bowser wanted different elite reinforcements, although sometimes this causes both to regret their alliance does to Sledgequake's stubbornness and Bowser's shortsightedness.

Gallery

Sledgequake (Old)

Sledgequake sprite by Exotoro ^(t∣b∣c), edited from Poker's edited version of Super Mario Maker SMW Sledge Bro sprite

Pokerninja2 ^(t∣b∣c)'s version of Sledgequake sprite, based off the Super Mario Maker SMW Sledge Bro sprite

Trivia

• This character is created by Golem Guy (Neo) ^(t∣b∣c), although the ownership of the character is split between him and Samtendo09 ^(t∣b∣c).
• The idea behind Sledgequake is to use a Sledge Bro as a mercenary and can perform some hammer-based magic. The Sledge Bro as a species, although debuted in Super Mario Bros. 3 as part of the classic and oft-referred NES era and despite being a reoccurring species, doesn't appears as much compared to the other Hammer Bro species and sub-species.
  • This, along with the fact that he's one of the few bosses being a pre-existing enemy species but isn't affiliated to the Koopa Troop, was made as a stronger Sledge Bro as a way to make Sledgequake stand out.
  • Sledgequake as a cool and calm but strict individual, in turn, makes him a contrast to multiple quirk or goofy bosses who are "bigger and stronger selve of their species", most notably Petey Piranha, King Bob-Omb and (sometimes) King Boo.
• Another inspiration behind Sledgequake is from the one-time Shady Sledge Bro enemy from Paper Mario: Color Splash, where the enemy and his goons (that aren't fought) were searching for "it" (an invisible Yoshi). The biggest difference is that Sledgequake is both larger and significantly stronger than the Shady Sledge Bro.