How to Play Brawl Like A Man

Since the dawn of time, a rift has existed between casual and hardcore gamers. A struggle that has threatened to tear the gaming community asunder. The question on everyone's mind: should games be played to have fun or to win? No side seems to have an advantage over the other, it seems that no resolution will ever be made. However, a small portion of gamers know the truth. The answer lies not on either side, but in an unknown third side. These "sages", as they have come to be known, have kept the secrets of this third answer hidden for fear that the general public was not ready to understand. In early 2008, a game was released that would change everything. That game was Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Although most gamers did not know it at the time, that game embodied the very essance of this third way. The eldest sage called a meeting to be held in his mother's basement and it was decided that the time to teach the public of the mythical third way was at hand. A handful of the third way's greatest sages were gathered and sent off to teach their knowledge to the world. The wisest and most attractive of these sages realized the potential that the world wide web had in spreading his message. He began to work on a great project. A video series to teach others of the third way. It would be his magnum opus.[Record Needle Scratch] Unfortunately, that man would later die in a freak accident while giving his cat a bath. He has left me, his young apprentice, to finish the task at hand. This video is the first in that series.

—Introduction to How to Play Brawl Like a Man.

How to Play Brawl Like a Man is a video series on YouTube by Dairun Cates, which is an instructional series about how to take a third option in the casual vs. hardcore debate, and play like a man. This can be achieved by using the twelve rules of the Third Way.

Rules include:

• 1. Finish with a bang
• 2. Manliness before victory
• 3. Repeat, don't spam
• 4. Melee over range
• 5. Never attack during a taunt (except with Sonic. Always attack during those.))
• 6. Fight your own battles
• 7. No Johns
• 8. Don't take unfair advantages
• 9. Don't Touch the Hog
• 10. Violations Mean Death
• 11. Find your own path
• 12. No Marth

Not only is it informative, but it is also quite entertaining and has a regular cast of characters and a large storyline. These characters are:

• The Apprentice: An Author Avatar and maker of the series. He is played by Toon Link.
• The Muscle Sage: A Small Name, Big Ego type character who constantly talks about how manly and Badass he is, and runs the Spin-Off How to Play Subspace Emissary Like a Badass. He is played by Bowser.
• Olimar: He starred in the first player specific episode, learned to abandon his pikmin and play manly. He is a singer.
• Peach: A Complete Monster who is Nightmare Fuel.
• Marth: A Butt Monkey who is on the bottom of the man tier for no reason.
• The Brawn Sage: A calm but manly fighter played by Donkey Kong.
• Dedede: a Bad Santa. A VERY Bad Santa.
• Ness/"Billy": A Woobie who is tortured by Dedede Clause and Snake.
• Tiaras R Cool: Runs How To Play Brawl Like a Marth. Is VERY MUCH hinted to be Marth himself.

It can be watched here.

Tropes used in How to Play Brawl Like A Man include:

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Peach and Kind Dedede.
• Ambiguously Gay: Marth is in to interior decorating. He often claims he is not gay.
• Angrish: When trying to prove Olimar can be played without Pikmin.
• April Fools' Day: See above. Complete with Naka Teleeli as a guest voice!
• British Accents: Marth has one.
• Butt Monkey: Marth.
• Canon Discontinuity: Played with. Episode 5, Mega Marth, is a little fuzzy regarding it's canoncy. The characters lampshade this.
• Character Tiers: Not which characters are better or worse, though. Rather, which ones have the most potential to be manly. The Man Tier, it's called. However, the creator himself has stated that the placing of a few characters on that list, such as JigglyPuff and Donkey Kong are just jokes and not to be taken too seriously.
• Curse Cut Short: In the beginning of the second episode, the creator's reaction to it's popularity. Used again in episode 3 with Olimar's reaction to the apprentice's claim he was holding back for dramatic effect.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Because Ness hit the Apprentice with a yo-yo, he sent Dedede Clause after him.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: It's in character for the Muscle Sage to call himself "the fan's favourite character" but that doesn't change the fact the he's actually right for once. Let's Play Subspace Emissary Like A Badass was supposed to be only be one episode.
• Eldritch Abomination: Revealed in Let's Play Subspace Emissary Like a Badass that Peach is one.
• Hidden Depths: The Muscle Sage, being portrayed previously as sort of lacking in the grey matter department in his LPs, has been shown to have read, and loves, The Lottery of Babylon (and read through it rather fluently for the most part).
• Hostile Show Takeover: Done by the Muscle Sage, as well as recently by Captain Pegnose.
• Musical Episode: You Had A Bad Brawl.
• No Kill Like Overkill: BIRD MISSILES
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: To illistrate how evil she is, Peach is edited to be given red eyes at one point in Let's Play Subspace Emissary Like A Badass. And Cute Little Fangs.
• Rule of Cool: It seems that Manliness pretty much runs on this.
• Samus Is a Girl: Tiaras R Cool. At least her voice makes her sound like it in Inside Ht PB La M.
• Schedule Slip: The show suffers from it A LOT. That's why a lot of people believed that the show was going to be cancelled during April Fools.
• Shout-Out: Metaknight provides a lot of these.
• Stylistic Suck: Marth's Epic Journey. Also, Let's Play Subspace Emissary Like A Badass has The Muscle Sage play VERY badly occasionally.
• You Suck: This message is said with many Xbox achievements given to the Apprentice while trying to play Olimar solo. On the Wii.