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Spade (スペード Supēdo?) is the arch-rival of Team Lilac and a high-ranking member of the Red Scarves, an underground guild of thieves and assassins. He is also a son of the late King of Shuigang and the younger half-brother of Prince Dail, which likely makes him an heir to the throne of Shuigang.
Conception[]
First Design[]
Spade was first designed as a Cavy (South American Rodent). His shoes resembled the Air Shoes worn by the Sega character Shadow the Hedgehog, the rival of Freedom Planet's original inspiration: Sonic the Hedgehog.
Redesign[]
Spade would undergo a redesign later on, being changed into a Panda. There were numerous designs for Spade's Panda form, with the 6th design being the final version used for Freedom Planet.
Appearance[]
Spade is a white and black panda with green eyes and messy hair.
In Freedom Planet, Spade wear a black sleeveless shirt, brown jeans, black shoes, red biker gloves and an oval belt with a buckle shaped like his namesake. In Freedom Planet 2, he wears a black jacket, white jeans and his ears are colored black and red.
For both outfits, Spade wears a pair of red sunglasses and a Red Scarf, which is also a symbol of his status as a member of the Red Scarves.
Personality[]
Spade is a rude and smart-aleck individual who's unwilling to listen to words or reason, such as when Lilac tried and failed to tell him of Lord Brevon's involvement in his father's murder. He also holds grudges, as seen in the way he treats Lilac and Carol after they left the Red Scarves, seeing them as traitors in the years following their desertion. Spade can also be cold and vengeful, but in Freedom Planet 2, he appears to have become a bit more charismatic.
Relationships[]
Sash Lilac[]
Lilac once fought alongside Spade back when she and Carol were part of the Red Scarves. But when he started to cross "certain lines", the girls broke from the Scarves' ranks. Since then, Spade sees Lilac as a traitor and hasn't forgiven her for deserting him, and the two had inevitably became sworn rivals. While Lilac started to call herself by her last name, Spade would still call her by her first name, although he didn't do so in the game.
Carol Tea[]
Even though Spade sees Carol as a traitor after leaving the Red Scarves, he appears to be more friendly to her than Lilac at one point in Freedom Planet 2. He even tried to convince Carol to rejoin the Red Scarves, but she respectfully refused meaning that Spade may miss Carol & Lilac being with the Scarves, but like Carol's sister Corazon, he hates Carol's puns, so much to the point that he threatened to pin her under a boulder under his breathe.
Dail[]
Spade is the younger half-brother of Prince Dail, who hired him to steal the Kingdom Stone in order to flush out their father's killer, with little details of their relationship and history being known. In one point in the story, Torque asked Carol if Spade was also a Prince since he was Dail's brother. Carol stated that he could be, though he never talked about it. Spade knows not to cross Dail, as his brother would "bust him up good", which he did after capturing him for manipulating Team Lilac for personal gain and then returning the inactive Syntax to the heroes.
King of Shuigang[]
Spade's father was the King of Shuigang, though no details of their relationship are told. However, when he learned that his father was murdered, Spade seemed to have taken it personally and was determined to find the killer, even going to the extreme and stealing the Kingdom Stone.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Enhanced Strength: Spade is strong enough for his Card-based attack to damage enemies.
- Enhanced Durability: Spade is able to adapt to any environment in any situation whenever he's doing a job for an employer.
- Enhanced Endurance: Spade is able to endure strong attacks, including Lilac's Dragon Boost, Carol's Wild Claw, and even Milla's Super Shield Burst.
- Enhanced Agility: Spade is dodgy and moves very fast with his Flash Jumps to avoid being hit. Despite this, he apparently isn't able to attack Lilac when she's standing on the ledge during their fight in Sky Battalion.
- Enhanced Reflexes: Spade is able to quickly change where he should attack, based on the movement of the player.
- Enhanced Thievery: Being trained by the Red Scarves, he is able to steal many items the without much difficulty, including the Kingdom Stone.
Abilities[]
- Martial Arts: Spade was trained by the Red Scarves, giving him powerful fighting skills, making him one of the most dangerous mercenaries in the Scarves' rankings.
- Flash Jump: Spade is able to dash in the air twice in a row, enabling him to avoid enemy attacks and catch his opponents off guard as well as attack his opponents by dashing directly into them.
- Card Manipulation: Spade's weapon is a Deck of Cards, possibly full of Cards of his namesake.
- Card Attacks: Spade attacks his opponents by throwing his Cards at them.
- Card Powers: During an attack, Spade is able to charge his Cards with energy, enabling them to damage enemies on contact.
Other appearances[]
Indie Assault[]
Spade made a playable appearance in the crossover fighting game Indie Assault developed by Imagination Vent. Labeled as a "Fast Tech Fighter", his moveset featured many attacks based around his cards and techniques such as his Flash Jump as well as bizarrely, the Spindash from the Sonic the Hedgehog series before later being changed to an original Card Shield attack. The game was initially available on Steam as an early access game, but is no longer available for purchase since 2017 and was eventually pulled from the website. Not only that, Spade was also removed from the roster at some point before the game was made unavailable.
Trivia[]
- Spade was the second playable character to be implemented into the game but was in a semi-unplayable state until Demo version 1.3 (only being able to roll and having no attacks implemented) sprites for his Quick Draw attack can be found in the data of Demos 1.0-1.2 but trying to use the attack in-game results in Spade being unable to jump and locked into his last animation before the attack button was pressed, though getting damaged or using ladder with get Spade out of this state.
- In Demo version 1.3, he had a unique special attack to use one of the four card suits to throw one explosive card until the meter was fully recharged.
- This was used in this demo as well as versions 1.4-1.5 before ultimately being replaced with the Dual Crash.
- Also in Demo 1.3, he was able to Flash Jump a lot more than twice whenever he was in water.
- This was subsequently fixed in version 1.4.
- During the Boss Fight in Sky Battalion, there is a minor glitch that occurs when attacking Spade, causing his color palette to change into a warped, negative color variation.
- In the PAX South Demo of Freedom Planet, Spade is the only character who doesn't receive CPU Assistance during the Boss Fight with the Robopanther.
- Spade is one of two characters to use a swear word, the other being Carol.
- Between those two, Spade's dialogue with the contained word is the only one that made it into the final release (albeit partially censored). However, this character's dialogue is considered non-canon, and is only heard during a Blooper in Freedom Planet's Adventure mode.
- The Freedom Planet lore bible refers to Spade as the "Bastard son of the late King of Shuigang." and "Dail's Brother".
- Initally, Spade was going to be made into a fightable boss and a sparring partner in Gong's Dojo in Freedom Planet 2, but was scrapped during development. Animations for his attacks & movements can be found in the Gallery's GalaxyTrail exhibit.
Videos[]
Gameplay of Spade in the PAX South Demo
References[]
| Characters | |
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| Playable |  •  •  •  •  • 
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| Allies |  •  •  •  • 
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| Enemies |  •  •  •  •  •  •  • 
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| NPC |  •  •  •  •  • Soldiers
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| Deceased |  •  • 
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| Unknown | 
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