Big Band
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ATTENTION!
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“ New Meridian's a dangerous city. Even for me. Especially for me. I used to be a cop... and I always tried to do the right thing. But I got one thing wrong, and it just about cost me my life. ” -Big Band
| Ben Birdland | ||
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| Back on the meat grind! | ||
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Birthday |
Ugly Sweater Day | |
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Blood Type |
Musical Bean Soup | |
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Aliases |
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Species |
Human | |
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Likes |
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Dislikes |
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Occupation |
Police Officer (formerly) | |
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Weight |
5000 lbs! | |
Big Band (JP: ビッグバンド Biggus Dickus) is the alias of Ben Birdland (JP: ベン10 Ben10), a former policeman from New Meridian who became a senior member of Order No. 8 after being beaten bloody and left for dead by the CIA gangster crackers for going after the Medici Family. He now works under Dr. Mumley in fighting skullgirls and developing new ways to fight them and the corruption that goes on in New Meridian. He realized this attempt at murder was caused under the mandated orders of Osaka.
General Information[edit | edit source]
Big Band is a DLC character for Skullgirls Encore. Luckily however he was a free DLC character for all to acquire for a limited amount of time (the first 3 months after his release on the 22th of Apr, 2014). He later became available for purchase until the "Free 2nd Encore Upgrade" Update on February 25, 2021, where he was made part of the base roster. Yipee.
Big Bondus is widely considered to be best character in Skullgirls for two main reasons. 1. He has the least amount of porn on average on the internet compared to the rest of the whole cast, and 2. You can actually play songs and other tunes with his trumpet attack by holding MP and pressing other buttons whilst tilting the directions for different notes. And 3. He and Peacock are the easiest characters to to play with and to square up against ur opponents in the game.
Personality[edit | edit source]
Ben Birdland, aka "Big Band", is a senior member of Order No. 8, enhanced by experimental procedures performed on him he is committed to using his abilities to stop Skullgirls and other fuckheads and monsters constantly attacking the city. While he maintains himself to be calm and collected and prefers to talk things out, he will not hesitate to throw a brass fist that can send goons flying across Chicago to LA. He is also a father figure and mentor to the younger members of the Anti-Skullgirl Labs and has shown to be empathetic to others, such as Painwheel.
Character Basis[edit | edit source]
Name[edit | edit source]
Big Band references a type of jazz ensemble that usually consists of ten or more musicians playing saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section.
The character's last name is a reference to "Birdland" a famous jazz club in New York City, named after saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker.
Design[edit | edit source]
Big Band is BIG. The biggest big-shot in this big band of a world born from the big bang.
He's been confirmed to be a fan of scat, especially the skibidi kind.
Big Band was originally intended to have a shitty text to speech voice, but the team felt the filter took away from Rich Brown's smooth voice and filtered with a smooth metal echo to go with it.
Story[edit | edit source]
Backstory[edit | edit source]
Ben Birdland has seen a lot in his time, including the worst of the Grand War and having sex with your mum. But nothing was worse than what he saw as a cop in New Meridian. When he ran afoul of his crooked unit, he was fucking linched!!!
That would have been the end of Ben’s story if he hadn't drawn the ears of the Order No. 8. With little left to lose, he agreed to be rebuilt with their experimental procedures. Melded with the machinery that allows him to breathe a powerful array of pneumatic weaponry, he was reborn as “Big Band”; hornier than ever!
Now a senior member of Order No. 8, he’s become a father figure of sort to the younger Anti-Skullgirl soldiers. A firm believer in their cause, he has stayed with the project through its controversies and still sees his place on the front lines against the Skullgirl, and monsters alike. His technology may be dated, but he more than makes up for it with experience and fortissimo.
Big Band has fought the previous two Skullgirls: Nancy Renoir, alongside the L.O.S.E.R.S. And Selene Contiello alongside Annie, Fanboy, Chum Chum, Squigly and Biffy Jones.
Bro lived long enough to partake in stopping The Avogodo.
He has participated in attacks against the Medici's slave trade alongside Delma, Dr. Gastronomical, Brain Drain and Valentine.
He also knows about Valentine's group, The Last Hope, based off his victory dialogue against her, including their fate since when he's put against Valentine and wins, he will start singing the "The Last Hope Blues."
Skullgirls 2nd Encore[edit | edit source]
After recollecting his past as a cop prior to receiving his current state in an iron lung; musing how inconceivable the New Meridian police force were to take a hit from Osaka and having him beaten and left for dead, he opts to put an end to the current Skullgirl by destroying the source of her power - the Skullheart - as part of his new career at the Anti-Skullgirl Labs. Knowing the current Skullgirl's intent for the death of the entire Medici family, he begins his goal of tracking her down by investigating the River King Casino, a notorious hangout for the Medici Mafia. There he is greeted by Cerebella, wrongly believing his intent was to be an elephant in the room. Despite Big Band's attempt to leave courteously having noted there was no evidence of the Skullgirl, he is forced to fight Cerebella. After winning, he comments how he no longer wishes to waste the Medici's like he used too and spares Cerebella
Big Band then retrieves a distress signal from Dr. Doofinshmirtz alerting him that Order No. 8 is under attack. Realizing how this was likely a set-up by the Skullgirl, he returns to the lab immediately to find the place fucking wasted in the presence of a mysterious doppelgänger of himself. After fighting them off he discovers it was Double, who leaves posthaste. After discovering that Dr. Avian was killed in the incident he briefly searches for evidence regarding who infiltrated the lab - finding a scalpel which isn't the doctor's and reflecting on how the person in question must have known their way around a lab.
Leaving to find the Lab 8 survivors via an escape route, Big Band finds an ordeal amongst the Lab 8 group involving Peacock attempting to leave and defeat the Skullgirl singlehandedly. Despite Big Band's offer of taking out the Skullgirl together, Peacock and Avery rudely dismiss him and attempt to fight him off. Losing, Peacock manages to escape anyway by ordering Tommy to knock him out. It then becomes Big Band's mission to track down Peacock, the Skullgirl and Dr. Avian's killer.
Big Band manages to find the Skullgirls whereabouts after a tip off from his old co-worker, Irvin. Here he meets Brain Drain, an affiliate of Lab 0 who had also come to witness the reveal of Skullgirl. Requesting that Big Band join his services in order to defeat Marie, Big Band declines the offer due to seeing the potential casualties caused by Brain Drain's plan. In his rage, Brain Drain orders Painwheel to attack Big Band, with the latter of which emerging triumphant. Big Band contacts Leduc while Brain Drain is lecturing Painwheel on her loss in order to rescue the girl from Brain Drains' control and rehabilitate her at Lab 8.
Now knowing the Skullgirl's location (and thus Peacock's too), Big Band heads towards the Grand Cathedral and confronts Valentine - confirming his suspicions that she was the perpetrator who killed Dr. Avian, with Double acting as a mere distraction. After defeating them, Big Band heads into the catacombs below to face Marie and retrieve Peacock. Despite defeating Peacock, Marie admits she was unable to kill her due to their strong friendship in the past. Peacock, now accepting Big Band's previous offer, opts to fight alongside him against Marie, to which he agrees.
After Marie's defeat, the twosome escape the crumbling catacombs with Big Band informing Peacock to learn from her initial defeat - having the need to be more cautious with the arise of the next Skullgirl which could potentially be more powerful than the last.
At ease that the next Skullgirl won't come until another 7 years, Big Band, with Peacock by his side, realizes he has learnt something new. He apprehends that Peacock, Painwheel and him are possibly the future of Anti-Skullgirls Labs, and in due time will be the ones that will end up defeating the next Skullgirl.
Abilities & Fighting Style[edit | edit source]
While it is said that his equipment is outdated, Big Band makes up for it in rizz and experience. He has an array of musical instruments that he can use in various ways to attack his foes, Despite his size, Big Band is capable of flight using rocket like thrusters. He is a slow character that packs a punch and is generally very sturdy.
He generally prefers to fight with others and doesn't use lethal methods when not fighting skullgirls.
He was given musically themed powers as Dr. Avian was a fan of jazz music. In the same way to how Peacock employed her extensive knowledge of cartoons when creating unique weaponry for herself, a better understanding of the mechanics of jazz instruments meant that Avian could create mechanisms based on them more effectively.