Invictus Maneo/Popeye

**“**Strong to the finich 'cause of me spinach!**”**
— Invictus Maneo selection quip
**Popeye** is a world-famous cartoon character known for his abnormal strength the minute he eats up a can's worth of spinach, a sailor with much bravado and passion for the things he does. He goes on many adventures and takes part in various antics while out to sea, traveling with the likes of his girlfriend Olive Oyl and best friend J. Wellington Wimpy and occasionally clashing with his arch-nemesis Bluto. Despite his tough exterior, he is friendly towards everyone who's willing to befriend him, only kicking ass when he needs to.

Popeye originates from a 1929 Thimble Theatre comic strip, although he's better known for the theatrical shorts featuring him from the 1930s, and his home stage is Sweethaven.

## Fighter Info

### Basics

Popeye is a heavyweight bait-and-punish character who waits for an opportunity before clobbering his foe with his oversized muscles, dealing a lot of damage really quickly. Many of his moves are designed to be finishers, meaning it can be very dangerous to approach Popeye even though he's slower than most of the cast.

Many of Popeye's moves reference the absurd cartoon physics shown off in his theatrical shorts. Popeye transforms himself into a flying corkscrew in his dash attack, transforms himself into an anchor in his down air, swings his enlarged fists around to cover a lot of distance around himself in his neutral air, punches a tree so hard it becomes a coffin for the foe to rest in if it hits in his heavy side tilt, and in his heavy up tilt he punches a Hard Striker game so hard that the weight flies into the air. He can also stretch his fists a bit in his grab and puff smoke into the enemy's face for his "pummel" before throwing them in highly unrealistic ways. Maybe most interesting is that his heavy down tilt will not function if the player doesn't fully charge it; if they do, he will lift and hurl an entire house.

Popeye does have some weaknesses, however. For all the absurd and almost unpredictable moves he has, he lacks a lot of true combos and his heavy weight and slow speed make him easier to juggle than most characters, plus he suffers from poor frame data.

### Specials

* **Special A: Around the World**
Popeye will charge up a huge punch before throwing it. It will knock the foe back so far that it will cause them to fly beyond the blast line at any percent and come back from the other side, giving Popeye enough time to follow up with an ideal attack. At 120% damage, the foe will fly too fast and get K.O.'d.
* **Special B: Terra Uppercut**
Popeye will disappear into the ground, with the texture of the floor appearing above his body as he crawls around. He can damage foes around as he moves around before he does a powerful uppercut with amazing vertical trajectory, able to kill them pretty easily if he lands the sweetspot on his attack. He can be forced out, though.
* **Special C: Wallpaper Climb**
All of a sudden, Olive Oyl will push a platform through the wallpaper of the stage, creating a permanent hole in it. Popeye can then jump from that platform to reach the stage and can use this up to three times before the move becomes ineffective. Only one platform can be out at a time, however.
* **Special D: Spinach Buff**
Popeye will gulp down a can of spinach, although the player must wait for the animation of him opening the can to finish up. Once he's consumed the spinach, his frame data will be cut in half, massively improving his combo game and slightly improving the power and range of his attacks. It lasts for about 8 seconds.
* **Showstopper: I Yam What I Yam**
Popeye will consume several cans of spinach before punching any foes next to him up into the air, multiple times, before hammering them away with his fists clenched together. As they fly around Popeye's universe, he will be waiting for them at the other side, giving them a punch so hard it sends them flying into the sun.