Zoofights/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Elohim isn't evil, he was just trying to save us from Seanet!
  • Badass Decay: Black Rabbath's incarnation in the Losers' League, Thumperstruck, is far weaker than the Metal-powered monstrosity the Pangolins fought against.
  • Dork Age: Zoofights 2, supposedly.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: During the voting for Sturgeon General and Smash Gordon, some people voted for Smash Gordon's bulldog, Nelson, due to Gordon's implied unintelligence. To the fans' delight, Nelson survived.
    • Among the many monsters that have appeared, Wolfbike, Steamcrab, Oh, the Huge Manatee! and Croctopus have gained a substantial amount of fans.
    • The Mangolin' Pangolins gained a whole lot of popularity from their glorious first round victory against the Hippos. Their victory against Black Rabbath just fueled the Pangolin hype even more.
    • A couple of the spectators have themselves acquired a following, especially Gezora the giant squid bartender. Zoofights 5 also offers the ridiculously nonsensical rivalry between, of all characters, Matthew Lesko and Dr. Robotnik. Lesko managed to win all seven of Robotnik's Chaos Emeralds and used them to transform into Super Lesko, forcing Robotnik to face down the now dangerously powerful salesman for the good of the world.
    • Among the WCW fighters who showed up in the Zoofights VI Royal Rumble, Biguana stood out from the rest for being charmingly oblivious to what was going around him. Also, he was the only WCW creature to kill a Zoofights competitor: specifically, Angsteater. And he now returned as Giguana.
    • Teslacorn (sorry) Only because we don't know anything about her.

We know not what she cares about, or even if she cares at all. We do not even know how she functions, although we do know she is a horse.

  • Game Breaker: Seanet. Fortunately, Seanet decided to pull out of the tournament to face down the other Game Breaker of Zoofights 4, Elohim, instead.
  • Genius Bonus: Several competitors are based on decidedly obscure creatures (Dunkleosteus, anyone?). Another great Genius Bonus is the name of Slammonite's finishing move: The Cambrian Explosion.
  • Hilarious At That Very Moment:
    • ZFV fighter Smash Gordon (a rules-skirting cave man) debuted at the same time Gordon Brown was being smashed in the UK elections. Major Failure swears this was completely coincidental.
    • Mr. and Mrs. Major Failure are Brits so this has to be a coincidence: The symbol of the San Diego Chargers used to be a rearing horse and now it's a lightning bolt. If Teslacorn gets to the semifinals but loses the penultimate match she's the perfect unofficial mascot. She did, and has now been defeated by a ball of water.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Did reading Zoofights 4 and 5 make you want to see Space Amoeba for a better look at a certain spectator?
  • Magnificent Bastard: Cray Fish, A.K.A. Hardcore Prawn. Through a knack for devious plans and a willingness to fight dirty, he became the 6th King of Beasts over more physically gifted competitors.
  • Memetic Mutation: A number of phrases and running gags have caught on amongst the fans.
    • "We sort of cloned a seventh tapogre. :shobon:"
      • In its early months, the Zoofights Forum was plagued with spambots, which were affectionately referred to as tapogres after the pathetic Zoofights 3 entrants.
    • "Happy to be a wolf. Ecstatic to be a motorbike. Wolfbike."
      • Wolf. Bike. Wolf. Bike. Wolfbike Wolfbike WOLFBIKE AROOOOOOO
    • "A Gorillion Dollars" was originally just a one-off joke picture. It eventually evolved into a much sought-after prize (15 votes redeemable on any match!) and even an emoticon on the Zoofights Forums.
    • Croctopus' Catch Phrase, "I'm building a bote".
    • The Snapture acting like a very angry Kanye West.
    • After Bull Market's osmium phone weapon and the in-fight reveal of Luchadillo having an osmium shell, osmium itself became both an oft-suggested upgrade and an Ascended Meme.
    • "X? X?! FUCK X!!!
    • The Manglin' Pangolins were given quick one-line descriptions of their personalities on their blueprints. It soon became common practice to refer to them by always including the tagline, as in "Drillz (he's the leader)". This meme also ascended.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Hardcore Prawn crossed the line when he threw Fight Rider to his death right after he had offered his hand to save Prawn from the pit of lava below. Even though combat pragmatism is a perfectly acceptable tactic in Zoofights, this act was considered below the belt by a lot of those who voted for the Prawn, costing him a good chunk of his fans.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • It's emphasized both in-universe and in people's votes that Burger Lord is bad news.
    • Huggles T. Bear weaponises it in the second round, with his laser being upgraded into a device that causes waking nightmares as well as its regular beam.
    • What a few SA voters put for Hippos With An Eating Disorder instead of its proper name: Whatever the fuck that thing is, PANGOLIN-HIPPO-ABORTION, fuckmaremonstrosity, Hippo Monstrosity, and Weird Hippo Thing.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Thumperstruck was booed by the Zoofights spectators for general lameness and past failures. He took all of this to heart and went balls-out crazy when it was actually time for him to fight. Needless to say, people gave him a lot more respect when he was rampaging.
  • Rooting for the Empire: There are always people who vote for the competitors that are likely to become tournament-ending god-beasts, or have already become tournament-ending god-beasts. All the major Big Bads have or had a good deal of votes and fans. The only exception seems to be Hyperfauna, which was a rare case of a villain receiving absolutely no support once it was revealed.
  • This Is Your Premise on Drugs: In 2007 Major Failure wrote an acid trip report with Al Swearengen as his "spirit guide" (the "actual" Al Swearengen, not rollplaying him).

MrGreenShirt: Zoofights suddenly makes much, much more sense.
saberwulf: Holy shit, now I understand how he came up with Achilles Eel and Croctopus. The Major does a fuckload of drugs.

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