actually i disagree on the "wants to win" part -
that
opens itself to out of character behavior. like... if courage the cowardly dog were nominated, knowing he's in a fight would result in him bailing, not wanting to win. knowing there's a fight should be enough, especially when we're actually MAKING them after all. if a character is super powerful but doesn't want to actually fight then it lends itself to 'well, can the opponent win without fighting directly?' which i think is fine. of course that'd have its own set of problems - the issue of "Well, either they talk him out and win or they don't, pick a fight, and lose." but the
idea
is being forced to want to win always seemed... unnatural.
and yes, terrains will always be what decides fights a majority of the time. we've seen it in the spell contest too. with that said though, if we have a list of possible terrains and some that are favored, some that aren't, you can have a fight in the element for 2 people, or not a bad place for 1 of them. snake vs. sam fisher is more interesting in a place with stealth than on neutral after all, but snake vs. wolverine would suck on 'neutral', despite it being more interesting if you included stealth (even WITH the damn nose). if there's options, it'd help. like... i understand it exists for stuff like the good guys who may or may not want to insta-win (supes, flash) and not go all out, but i'd rather they be themselves. "Flash knows he's in a fight" leans on Flash being how he always would be. "Flash knows he's in a fight and wants to win" leans on GameFAQs Flash. after all, he wants to win.
i do agree with nothing wrong for speed blitzes fundamentally and everything wrong with that it's usually not a balance made. Ichigo vs. Ryu Hayabusa isn't interesting because it's a case of "speed from 1 is better than speed from 2 and that's all that matters." that though ends up being a matter of scale - if Hayabusa had a more appropiate person to fight (e.g., movie Luke Skywalker) then it's better because the gap isn't as big and the other tricks come to play. they want to speed blitz, but it's not entirely possible. or if you have the classic speed blitz vs. tank, where the question is can he do it before he gets tagged, can he take a hit, etc.
basically, i agree that 'knows they're in a fight' is enough because it lets the characters be themselves. i disagree with a speedblitz problem, because i neither see it as a problem nor do i think it's relevant for most people (most aren't Flash or Courage and will try to win if they're in a fight anyway).
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"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.