Shantae Conspiracy Theories

Shantae, the lead character from her self-titled indie video game series of the same name, is well-known in Smash speculation for having a fanbase that continuously comes up with some of the most ridiculous conspiracy theories supposedly pointing towards her inclusion (rivaling only the likes of Geno, Isaac, and Skull Kid). This page is meant to document all of the major ones that have led supporters to think Shantae's addition to the Smash Ultimate roster was imminent.

### **The Chart/Jammies Mode**

Early on in Smash Ultimate's speculation period, desperate fans of the Half-Genie Hero went out of their way to try and find as many clues (regardless of how credible and sensible they may or may not be) to make her look like a frontrunner. The majority of these came from Jammies Mode, a free DLC add-on for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. Supposed clues included the presence of "Shantae x Blaster Master Zero" (these people seriously think Smash originated the \_\_\_\_ x \_\_\_\_ crossover naming theme), the word "ultimate" appearing in a line of dialog, and an advertisement saying "JAMMIES MODE IS HERE" supposedly referencing Smash Ultimate's "Everyone is here" tagline.

Furthermore, the sudden, out-of-character silence from Wayforward (who were incredibly pushy and desperate during the Smash 4 Ballot) was also chalked up to being proof of Wayforward being under an NDA due to Shantae's playability (not even factoring in the possibility of an NPC role).

The culmination of all of this was an image that many Shantae fans spread around throughout Ultimate's pre-release, up until her disconfirmation from the base game.

### **August 2018 Nindies Direct**

In yet another instance of the Smash community's inability to learn from past mistakes, the announcement of a Nindies Direct for August 2018 was immediately met with a multitude of Smash reveal predictions (despite characters never being revealed in game-specific or Indie-centric Directs, and this same thing being theorized dozens upon dozens of times in the past, as far back as SSB4's pre-release). The most noteworthy came from Shantae fans, who were riding high following the disconfirmation of Shantae's chief rival, Shovel Knight (who was revealed as an Assist Trophy during a Smash Direct that same month).

Once again using Twitter activity as proof, some users also pointed out that Shantae creator Matt Bozon followed Sakurai's official Twitter mere days before the Direct[1]. This specific action caused some (most notably TheHypist, who, at the time, was on Shantae's bandwagon) to believe a reveal truly was approaching.

Of course, there was no Shantae reveal for Smash Ultimate, nor was there a Smash reveal at all, because, again, Smash reveals do not happen in Directs outside of Smash-specific ones or general Directs. Hype for Shantae cooled down a bit, and eventually, in early November 2018, Shantae was unceremoniously disconfirmed during the World of Light reveal trailer (which showed her off as a Spirit). This also, in turn, provided an explanation for all the questions raised in the proof chart, as this was the reason for Wayforward's silence in the months beforehand.

### **The Window**

On July 5th, 2019, little under a year after the Nindies Direct failed to yield any results, the Shantae army found a new hope when an anime trailer for the next Shantae game, Shantae & The Seven Sirens dropped.....and during that trailer, Shantae could be seen looking out a window that kinda-sorta resembled the Smash logo [2]. Shantae fans ran with this as proof that she would be either the next DLC fighter, or the first in a second pass (as the actual Fighters Pass Volume 2 had not been announced at this time) for about a month, but hype soon fizzled out.

In September 2019, Fatal Fury's Terry Bogard would be announced as Challenger Pack #4, and while a new Pass was announced, the hype train died regardless. In June 2020, ARMS' Min Min was revealed as Fighter Pass Volume 2's first character, further pouring salt on the wound. Seven Sirens, meanwhile, released to minimal fanfare and was pretty much immediately forgotten.

### **The Revival**

While no further theories to help Shantae's case have come up since then, the aforementioned reveal of Min Min disconfirmed the increasingly-widespread belief that Spirits disconfirmed potential newcomers.

However, a new barrier would be thrown in our heroine's way: in an interview with Siliconera, Matt Bozon explained how Shantae's Spirit role came to be:[3]

"*We’ve been working with Nintendo for something like 25 years, and they know that we’re diehard fans. In this case we just sent over some artwork to be used at their discretion, on the off chance they could include her in some way. We didn’t know that she’d be a Spirit, or even what a Spirit was! We were shocked to see Shantae show up during a Smash Direct. It was awesome! Before that moment, we didn’t know any details. In cases like that, our M.O. is to zip it and wait.*"

This essentially confirmed that Shantae did not get into the game as a Spirit organically, and likely would not have even been included in that capacity had Matt Bozon not reached out and asked for it. In fact, Shantae and rival Risky Boots were the last two Spirits added to the base version of Smash Ultimate (as seen on the Spirit list) And if she wasn't even on Sakurai's radar for a non-playable role, that means the chances of her ever being playable are incredibly grim.

Nonetheless, some Shantae fans remained confident that she will be arriving into the game (most notably Shinjin, who bet their account against SmashBurb that Shantae will become a playable character in Fighters Pass Volume 2) despite the implications made by the Bozon interview. In a hilarious case of no self-awareness, another Shantae diehard, Kazoka122, posted a thread stating that Matt Bozon refusing to answer a Smash-related question in a Reddit AMA was proof that Shantae will be playable in Fighters Pass Volume 2[4].....exactly the same way every Shantae supporter was using the lack of responses on Twitter as proof Shantae would be in the base roster.

After Matt Bozon's e-mail to Nintendo has become common knowledge at SmashFAQs, it's now typically brought up in arguments about Shantae's chances. The diehards typically get mad at people who use the term "begging" to describe what Wayforward did. To the point where they don't even try arguing against the letter being a bad sign, and instead focus entirely on how "it wasn't begging, it was asking!". In one especially noteworthy case, Shantae troglodyte Hauteclere told SmashBurb to look up the definitions of "asking" and "begging". When Burb returned with the definitions, and more separate definitions for "begging" fit the situation than "asking", Hauteclere called him a dumb troll and blocked him.

### The End

Shantae would be disconfirmed for a second, definitive time during the *Mr. Sakurai Presents Kazuya* stream, where she was revealed as a DLC costume for Mii Brawler, finally putting an end to Shantae speculation within Smash Ultimate. While the reception to Shantae's costume was largely positive (especially in comparison to Geno's), some were clearly only putting on a good poker face, as Shinjin would begin obsessively making threads about the likelihood of characters who were Mii Costumes becoming DLC fighters themselves. Shinjin also welched on his account bet and began mass reporting anyone who brought it up, effectively destroying his own reputation within the community.

Overall, however, the fandom does not seem to have learned anything from the experience, and many of the supporters now claim that she is a lock for Smash 6 due to the Mii Costume, completely disregarding the fact that no third party Mii Costumes were made into playable characters in Ultimate, the fact that Shantae was lower priority in the base game than Shovel Knight and DLC than Sans, or that the protagonist of a series of monster girl fetish platformers with a good 4 hours of gameplay that get middling to poor reviews and even worse sales probably should have never been deemed likely in the first place.