Tabuu

**Tabuu** (タブー, *Tabuu*) is the leader of the Subspace Army who serves as the main antagonist, as well as the eighth and final boss of Subspace Emissary. He uses the Subspace Bombs to send whole locations to his dimension, where he absorbs their power to increase his own.

"*.*"

—About Tabuu.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Not Known (English), Not Known (Japanese), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (German), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (French), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)

### Biography

The ruler of Subspace and master of operations. Tabuu controls Master Hand with chains of light to excise this world and build up his great maze. He used Shadow Bugs to form Subspace and manipulates the servants of Master Hand to his heart's content. Born in a vastly foreign realm, he also possesses great leadership powers. Tabuu...No name is more suitable.

When Tabuu extends his with wings, The dreadful energy surges cast from these wings instantly takes all fighters out. Knowing this, King Dedede assembles all able-bodied troops and sets a timed device on each of them. This device is a brooch that, after the designated time runs out, revives all fighters wiped out by Tabuu.

### Appearance

He is a blue anthropomorphic figure with a red eye-shaped object in his chest who lives in Subspace.

* Hair Color: N/A
* Eye Color: Not Known
* Height: Not Known
* Weight: Not Known

## Powers and Abilities

As the last boss of Subspace Emissary, Tabuu possesses a wide variety of dangerous attacks, which increase in power and speed at higher difficulties. Additionally, Tabuu's attacks are faster and stronger in The Subspace Emissary than in Boss Battles at comparable difficulty ratings.

### Attacks

* **Shark Blade** (シャーク・ブレード, *Shāku Burēdo*) - Tabuu transforms into a giant blade (also bearing a resemblance to ocean shark), which flies horizontally across the stage. It is dodgeable by air dodging or, if at ground-level, ducking (unless playing as Meta Knight). A perfectly timed sidestep dodge may also work.

* **Diving Slash** (ダイビング・スラッシュ, *Daibingu Surasshu*) - Tabuu appears high above one side of the stage and dives, turning his arm into an energy blade. Because he will always go near the ground, it can be dodged by jumping over his attack in the middle of the stage or going on the edge of the stage.

* **Golden Bracket** (ゴールデン・ブラケット, *Gōruden Buraketto*) - Tabuu transforms into a cage of energy, resembling two glowing yellow brackets and flies across the stage, grabbing the character and plows him/her/it into the floor. On the top, there is a Motion Sensor Bomb, making it explode. There is no predetermined way the brackets fly. Air dodging can be used to avoid it.

* **Chain of Light** (光・の・連鎖, *Hikari no Rensa*) - Tabuu creates a golden chain, similar to the one he used to bind Master Hand, and throws it in front of him in an attempt to catch the player. If he succeeds, he will swing the player around before smashing them into the ground. If played in Co-op mode, he will smash the player he caught into the other player.

* **Electrical Shield** (電気・シールド, *Denki Shīrudo*) - Tabuu teleports right next to the player. The purple sphere inside his torso splits into several fragments, which fly in circles around him for a short time while emitting electricity. This attack has a decent range, but leaves Tabuu wide open for projectile weapons. It somewhat resembles an atom, with Tabuu being the nucleus and his fragmented energy core being electrons.

* **Rapid Chop** (迅速な・チョップ, *Jinsokuna Choppu*) - Tabuu teleports behind the player and repeatedly slashes the area in front of him, creating visible purple slashes. This move can easily catch and juggle players, but it has less range than the visible slashes would indicate. Again, Tabuu leaves himself wide open to projectiles, and melee attacks are also viable behind him.

* **Pinpoint Explosion** (ピンポイント・の・爆発, *Pinpointo no Bakuhatsu*) - From one side of the stage, Tabuu performs a pointing gesture. Five locations along a line leading to the player's current location will flash golden once and explode after about two seconds. Avoided by taking note of and staying away from the golden flashes before they explode.

* **Ghost Projection** (ゴースト・投影, *Gōsuto Tōei*) - Tabuu splits himself in half and shoots out many ghost images of himself in every direction, which explode after achieving a certain distance. The projections can be dodged, but take note that they explode when they make contact with the ground, so by sidestepping the projection itself, damage can still be received. They can also be destroyed, preferably by projectiles.

* **Dragon Laser** (ドラゴン・レーザー, *Doragon Reza*) - Tabuu appears on the side of the stage and manifests a head of the dragon (also bearing resemblances to the Dark Cannons), which floats beneath Tabuu as it fires a powerful laser horizontally across the stage. Jumping is advisable, although some characters may have a harder time of it. The attack can also be blocked by the shield without breaking it when timed correctly.

* **Bullet Rain** (弾丸・の・雨, *Dangan no Ame*) - Tabuu appears in a random area in the air and bombards a character as he fires a barrage of small bullets, the attack ends with a huge ball of energy. Easily avoided by staying behind him, or, for some characters, by distancing and using all jumps. This seems to be the least frequently used attack on the Third Move, but punishes overzealous jumping that would be done to avoid the other two attacks. Still, pattern memorization will give his location away if he's about to use this attack - namely, if Tabuu appears anywhere not off the edge of the stage, he's going to use Bullet Rain. This attack's projectiles cannot be reflected.

* **Shuriken Boomerang** (手裏剣・ブーメラン, *Shuriken Būmeran*) - Tabuu appears on one side of the stage and throws a huge, circular, three-bladed chakram, which flies across the stage like a boomerang before he catches it. Avoided by jumping. Use the Up Special Move to avoid the second swing, but this depends on character. The boomerang only has three blades, but the speed of its spin makes it look like it has about nine. Note: At higher levels, the throw and the return must be evaded in one jump.

* **Off Waves** (オフ・ウェーブ, *Ofu Uēbu*) - Tabuu appears in the background and spread out his wings. He then proceeds to unleash three massive circular shockwaves that encompass the whole stage. To avoid these shock waves, a character must either roll or sidestep with accurate timing. If playing as Ash or Zelda/Sheik, using their Down Special Move the instant Tabuu extends his wings also works. It can also be avoided by using Perfect Shielding, or by using moves with Super Armor, but the timing is almost impossible. Air dodging is possible if a high enough jump is used with characters like Kirby and Jigglypuff. Used as the first 4th move, and every eight moves after that.

* **Eye Lasers** (アイ・レーザー, *Ai Reza*) - Tabuu grows to a gigantic size, so giant that only his head appears on the side of the screen. He then fires a red laser from each eye. This attack is used every 8 moves. Can be very easily avoided by hiding right at the end of the stage, literally under Tabuu's chin, allowing easy damage, mainly, by using Up Tilts. Be careful of not using moves that push characters backwards, since these may fall into the beams. Unlike Master Hand and Crazy Hand's lasers, Tabuu's lasers do not drift off the stage, so one will be hit as long as they are in front of him. Only the endpoints do damage.

### Random

* **Teleport** - Tabuu teleports around the stage and appears at a set spawn which is randomly decided from the large amount of spawns available. He also sometimes teleports behind the character and attacks with one of the available attacks. Tabuu makes a distinctive sound on his last use of teleport.

* **Explosive Teleport** - Tabuu teleports around, leaving a red explosion everywhere he teleports. On higher difficulties, this can KO a player at low percentages, meaning that one must not be too eager to attack Tabuu during his teleports.

## Winged Tabuu

Tabuu reveals his wings, resembling a butterfly's in shape (but made of intricate curving symbols), only when he is about to unleash his very powerful attack: the Off Waves. With his wings extended, he charges energy, then releases a powerful explosion of crimson shock waves that annihilate everyone in their path. This attack is possible to avoid by sidestepping 3 times perfectly or switching Pokémon if you are controlling Ash. Right before the final battle, Sonic appears and shatters Tabuu's wings, severely weakening their power.

## External links

* Subspace Army *Smashpedia*
* A confirmation of the "Tabuu Whip Glitch"
* A Youtube video of playing as Tabuu by hacking

## Notes & Trivia

* Tabuu's wings are almost completely destroyed by Sonic in the pre-battle, but they are shown full in the battle, and afterwards, they're back to being shattered.
* Tabuu is one of four bosses in the series who can grab characters. The others are Giga Bowser, Master Hand, and Crazy Hand.
* Tabuu's moves are similar to Marx's moves from the *Kirby* series.
* Tabuu's moveset has the widest diversity of attacks in the entire game.
* Tabuu's dragon cannon attack roar is similar to Palkia's from the *Pokémon* series.
* It is likely that Tabuu's name came from the word *Taboo,* meaning "prohibited" or "disallowed".
* Tabuu appears to have a strange glowing object inside his chest. When he activates his laser attack, this is shown to be a heart.
* Tabuu might be meant to represent adulthood and the loss of imagination (all the Smash Bros. characters being born from a child's imagination).