Mustache Girl

**Mustache Girl** is the main antagonist in *A Hat in Time*. Her goal is to get all of the Time Pieces before her former best friend turned enemy Hat Kid can, so she can use their power to fight "evil."

## Appearance

Mustache Girl, as her name would suggest, is a small girl with a mustache. She wears a red hooded cape, a rose pink tunic with a purple sash, purple pants, and green shoes. A medallion with the shape of a star engraved into it holds her cape closed. She has tawny eyes and blonde hair, which she styles into loose pigtails with purple ribbon and turquoise beads.

Mustache Girl's red cape gives her a resemblance to Little Red Riding Hood, the titular character of a folktale of the same name.

## Personality

Mustache Girl is unruly, rebellious, and snarky. She has a strong sense of right and wrong, dividing the people of the world into "good guys" and "bad guys". She has stated that she is willing to do "anything that involves messing up the Mafia", a group she has declared "bad guys". Her obsession with justice has led to her preferring to punish those who oppose her ideals instead of forgiving them, usually through death or (in the case of the Mafia Boss) having their brain transferred to a jar. It is implied that she has a fear of loneliness, when the people acquainted with Hat Girl starts sacrificing themselves to give her pons during the final battle and Mustache Girl start to get fearful over the thought of being alone.

In Sugar Crusher (MHA), her akumatized form, she is mostly obsessed on not only Hat Kid, but also Hat Kid's who considered bad guys (such as the Bombermen, Shovel Knight, Bendy, Filia Sash Lilac, etc.). Although later in Troublesome Killers (MHA), her personality in her akumatized form runs the same but she also targets Bomberman like her comrades (Junko, Tord, Jayden, Ichika, Joshua/Bad Captain, Tim, Sam, Reginald, Tinker Knight, Corrupt, and Chompy Mage)

## Nicknames

* Mustached, hatless, hood-wearing, castle-dwelling, ticket-giving peck neck
* ??? (By Amanda, Kaitlyn and Morgan)
* ??? (By River, Hunter and Yutaro)
* The Little Brat (By nearly every hero)
* Sugar Crusher (Akumatized Form)
* The ??? (nickname from Team Harmony’s Adventures Chronicles Season 16 intro)

## TV Tropes

### Canon

* And Now for Someone Completely Different: Is playable for a brief period following Hat Kid collecting her 25th Time Piece.
* Anti-Villain: She only wants to free Mafia Town from the Mafia's influence, but her methods are so extreme that they would only cause more problems then they solve. She's also a tad unhinged, as discussed below.
* Ax-Crazy:
	+ Her plans for dealing with the Mafia are rather morbid, including murdering them, sticking their gory remains in jars, and selling them, just as a final insult.
	+ By the end of the game, her plans include executing criminals and "criminals" alike from her lava-filled palace. Every single character in the game is there, too — it doesn't matter how minor the infraction, she'll mete out justice all the same. The most charitable interpretation is that while she will judge everyone, she won't necessarily condemn them all equally (the only person we see her explicitly judge a "bad guy" is a Mafia member whose only defense was that he once refrained from punching a guy for two days straight).
* Beard of Evil: She has a mustache, and becomes the Big Bad.
* Beehive Barrier: In her boss battle, she starts using one that Hat Kid requires assistance to break.
* Big Bad Slippage: When she's introduced, she's trying to save her island from the Mafia. However, while the Mafia themselves become more affable and friendly with Hat Kid, Mustache Girl's obsession with defeating them and being the hero drive her to be much more obsessive with the Time Pieces and their power. By the end of the first boss, she resolves to use their powers for her own means.
* Butt-Monkey: She often gets the short end of the stick, ending up captured twice in the same Chapter, and an intermission that was cut from Subcon Forest ends with her being personally kicked out by the Snatcher.
* The Corrupter: Neither DJ Grooves nor the Conductor knew how the Time Pieces worked during the entirety of their chapter, and none of the "props" break where they can see them. Someone had to have told them, and given the "Mustaches Rule" graffiti you find in the depths of the studio...
* Damsel in Distress: She gets captured by the Mafia twice and needs help being rescued by Hat Kid before she discovers the time-altering effects of the Time Pieces. She is even left in Unwilling Suspension during the Mafia Boss fight.
* Dare to Be Badass: The Mustache Girl's motivation. She finds out that the Time Pieces can rewind time, and wants to become a time-traveling crime fighter to defeat the Mafia. Hat Kid doesn't agree with this plan, which makes them enemies.
* Dastardly Whiplash: Stays true to this, especially after stealing Time Pieces from Hat Kid.
* Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Lawful Neutral archetype, especially in such a morally grey world; initially just willing to bloodily fight against the Mafia who took over her home, she decides to get all of Hat Kid's Time Pieces to get rid of all crime once she discovers their power. The result is a vicious, tyrannical Knight Templar who has no reservations against severely punishing people she judges as "bad guys" regardless of the crime committed, while she completely ignores her own flaws because she sees herself as the "good guy" and thus making the world a better place.
* The Dreaded: There are wanted posters of her in Mafia Town that describe her as a "Scary Little Girl", implying she's had a least some moments where she's done enough damage to the Mafia's operations to be a cause of concern for them. Or at least that they know she's Ax-Crazy.
* Establishing Character Moment: Most of Chapter 1 is this for her: Act 1 shows her distaste for the Mafia of Cooks and willingness to find someone to aid her. Act 2 has her getting kidnapped by a Mafia goon and showing she has limits when it comes down to fighting the Mafia. Act 4 is when she finally shows her more extreme side after realizing what the Time Pieces are capable of when it comes down to fighting "bad guys". Everything that happens in these three Acts serves as motivation for Mustache Girl to steal the Time Pieces from Hat Kid's spaceship and create her own timeline.
* Evil Brit: At least when she has proper voice acting.
* Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep": She's named Mustache Girl and she's a girl with a mustache!
* Face–Heel Turn: Mustache Girl spends the first few Acts as Hat Kid's friend before a difference of motives arises after defeating the Mafia Boss.
* Faux Action Girl: She shows up knocking out a Mafia goon... And then on the following chapters she gets kidnapped twice and Hat Kid has to save her. Then this is subverted when she steals the Time Pieces and creates a corrupted timeline of her own.
* Final Boss: She is fought by Hat Kid for all of the Time Pieces she stole at once.
* Flash Step: In her boss battle, she moves so fast she might as well be teleporting.
* Foil: To Hat Kid. While Hat Kid acts out of self-interest to get every Time Piece, she still has to work for them; Mustache Girl, on the other hand, simply steals them from Hat Kid's spaceship instead. Their attitude towards the power of the Time Pieces also differs greatly: Hat Kid is clearly reluctant to use the time-rewinding power at all, when she could simply use one and prevent the events of the game but would rather go through a whole lot of trouble to get each one... Mustache Girl, however, abuses this power, going as far as to create her own "perfect" timeline where she is almighty and capable of getting rid of everything she may consider "evil".
* Foreshadowing:
	+ Even before she establishes herself as the game's villain, she seems a bit too excited about inflicting extreme violence on the Mafia. It's easy to see it as Black Comedy the first time, but in hindsight, there's no way someone who wants to not just kill people as their first resort, but also stuff their remains into jars and then sell the jars for pocket money could be a nice character.
	+ In Act 6 of Mafia Town she floods the entire town with freaking lava with no regard for anyone—Mafia or innocent people. And she basically does this for the entire world in the last Chapter of the game.
* Freudian Excuse: Hinted at. She appears to live alone in a cave in Mafia Town, with no possessions, friends, or companions to speak of, and the island's other inhabitants are all criminal invaders who enjoy terrorizing the town's other inhabitants seemingly just For the Evulz. A Time Rift storybook in "Seal the Deal" confirms that she lived on the island in peace until the Mafia arrived and took over. Not surprising she turned out the way she did...
* From Nobody to Nightmare: At first, she can barely hold her own against the Mafia of Cooks... Then she steals Time Pieces from Hat Kid and becomes powerful enough to create her own timeline, rule over an ominous castle, and become basically the most powerful being on the planet; for reference, even the Snatcher is seemingly unable to do something to stop her.
* Girls with Moustaches: As her name implies, she has a tiny mustache. As revealed in her Time Rift storybook, her home's former inhabitants all had mustaches.
* Graffiti of the Resistance: Implied to be the main source of anti-Mafia graffiti in Mafia Town. The secret "Mustaches Rule!" doodle in the corridor to Hat Kid's bedroom is just being petty, though.
* He Who Fights Monsters: After stealing the Time Pieces, she decides to use it to take over the entire world, and judges what's right and wrong based on her rules. In the end she isn't any better than the Mafia of Cooks that she hated so much.
* Hostile Show Takeover: Messes with the loading screen right before her brief moment as a playable character.
* Hypocrite: Before the boss fight with her, she admonishes Hat Kid for being selfish, even though she's created an entire fortress for herself, and makes judgment calls on what's right or wrong according to her word.
* I Just Want to Have Friends: Has hints of this. When Hat Kid first lands in Mafia town, Mustache Girl immediately attempts to recruit her (and later comments she thought they could be best friends). In the final boss fight, she acts with shock and dismay when everyone starts telling her to get lost, then starts panicking when she realizes that she'll be all alone if she wins.
* It's All About Me: She uses the power of the Time Pieces to create an alternate reality where she rules and acts as Judge, Jury, and Executioner to the entire world, deciding who's good and who's bad based on her personal ideas of good and bad.
* Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even at her worst, it’s hard to deny she’s doing what she thinks is best out of the desire to make everything better. She just goes overboard and refuses to acknowledge her own faults.
* Judge, Jury, and Executioner: In the finale, she decides to kill everyone she deems a "bad guy". Her standards are quite high, judging by the huge line in front of her castle. In the soundtrack, the trope name is the name of the music that plays during the final level.
* Knight Templar: What she ultimately becomes after gaining the power of the Time Pieces.
* Last of Her Kind: Is implied to be one of the last remaining original inhabitants of the island town before the Mafia took it over. The rest have either fled, or were punished and used as literal Human Cannonball ammunition for their cannons.
* Leitmotif: "A New Friend in Mafia Town", "Judge, Jury, and Executioners" (her stage theme), and "You Are All Bad Guys" (her final boss theme).
* Lightning Bruiser: During her boss battle she's extremely fast and dishes out powerful attacks like there's no tomorrow all while being one of the beefiest bosses of the lot.
* Mirror Match: The final battle has her use moves similar to Hat Kid's, such as throwing explosives (Time Pieces instead of potions), a charged Kamehame Hadoken, and a diving Goomba Stomp.
* Nice Girl: Tragically used to be this. She was a happy girl living in peace, and when the Mafia arrived, she happily greeted them, only for them to push her and take over. Trying and failing to drive the Mafia away has clearly slowly started to eat away at her kindness.
* Obliviously Evil: She genuinely believes she's doing the right thing, and can't understand why anyone has a problem with her ridding the world of "bad guys" even when she uses the power of the Time Pieces to become an authoritarian tyrant. She only starts to feel regret when she realizes that succeeding at her plans would leave her all alone. Given that her town was taken over by the brutal Mafia and she's tried to rid the town of them all by herself without success, it's not hard to understand why she would become so desperate. Mustache Girl: Wh, wha? But I'm fixing everything! No more bad guys! Why can't you see that I'm doing this for all of us?
* The Rival: To Hat Kid, after learning how the Time Pieces could potentially get rid of bad guys.
* Tautological Templar: Constantly views herself as the good guy and the keeper of justice, even with how violent some of her methods can be. Even as every character in the game rallies against her when she becomes an authoritarian tyrant, she refers to herself as the Justice and still believes she's in the right because the world would be better with "no more bad guys", and only shows regret when she realizes that actually succeeding with her plans would leave her all alone.
* Teleport Spam: In the final battle, she's pretty fond of teleporting. It becomes enough of a problem that Hat Kid needs the help of the Mafia and Conductor to deal with this.
* Tragic Villain: The Mafia quite literally took everything from her. So while she does become worse than them, it's not hard to understand just why she became the way she did.
* Used to Be a Sweet Kid: A Time Rift storybook added in the "Seal the Deal" DLC expansion shows her greeting the Mafia with a wave and smile, before they push her away and start wrecking her town.
* Villainous Breakdown: Starts to lose it when the Hat Kid's former enemies perform their Enemy Mine to help Hat Kid defeat her. She starts to really lose it when they also perform a Heroic Sacrifice, as she realizes that she'll be alone even if she wins.
* Villain Has a Point: For all her extremism and hypocrisy, she is correct that her world is full of bad guys. Her hometown is controlled by the Mafia, the film industry is run by corrupt directors, the forests are terrorized by murderous, soul-stealing ghosts and magical abominations and even the peaceful Alpine Skyline is plagued by a gang of cat thieves and corrupting flowers. Of course, trying everyone, including the victims of these bad guys, really erodes her point.
* Video Game Cruelty Potential: After you defeat her, you can bounce off of her head before getting the Time Piece Ball.
* Walking Spoiler: It's no secret she becomes the main antagonist, but the stuff she does later in the game may come as a surprise, especially how she fights as the game's Final Boss.
* Well-Intentioned Extremist: While she's Ax-Crazy, and the definite Big Bad of the story, her underlying motives are to free the island from the Mafia (who are big enough jerks to punch a little girl during a game of patty-cake).
* We Used to Be Friends: With Hat Kid, until their clashing motives concerning the Time Pieces put an antagonistic strain on their relationship.
* Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: She has yellow eyes, and is willing to do any underhanded trick to achieve her goals (such as stealing all the Time Pieces Hat Kid had collected up to that point).
* You Will Be Spared: When Hat Kid shows up to her fortress, Mustache Girl originally thinks she's here for sentencing, and decides that while she refused to use the Time Pieces with her on her crusade, it's only because of Hat Kid she even got or learned about them in the first place... so she figures that makes Hat Kid a "good guy" in her book, and tells Hat Kid that she can go. It's only when Hat Kid attacks her that she gets mad and begins the final battle.

### In Starable’s Projects

* Cool Mask: She wore one of Plague Knight's bird mask
* Death from Above: Hers, along with tsumugi and the remaining members of the Elements of Darkness during the ultimate annihilation caused by k1-b0
	+ To Queen Chrysalis.
	+ To Cozy Glow. Both of these villains seem to be nice at first before revealing their true villainy
* Leitmotif: Still "You Are All Bad Guys". "The Decadent Dandy" from Shovel Knight, "Dramatic Fanatic" from Cuphead
* Red Oni, Blue Oni: Mustache Girl is the Blue to King Knight's Red

## Development plan

Mustache Girl/Ultimate Talent Development Plan

## Theme songs

* You Are All Bad Guys
* Dramatic Fanatic (Cuphead)
* The Decadent Dandy (Shovel Knight)

## Songs she sang

* Meta Knight's Revenge (Juno Songs cover; alongside Reginald Copperbottom, Tord Larsson, Black Knight, Dr. Krankcase/As one of Meta Knight's henchmen)
* Champion of Destruction (Man on the Internet cover; alongside Fallen Ange/Bill, Joshua (Bad Captain), Plague Knight and Golden Queen/As Mimi the Shapeshifter) (in Fallen Ange 2 (MHA))

## Trivia

* She will face Starable, Team Harmony, Bell and the Guardians of Friendship in Team Harmony and A Hat in Time and will become a member of The Elements of Darkness until ???
	+ Until in Team Euphoria’s Adventures Series, she will reform alongside Tord and Chloe.
* Her reason to be witched out: