One ofMario's idle poses inUltimate

Idle poses (sometimes referred to asidle animations, and referred to asWait internally in all games sinceSuper Smash Bros. Melee) are minor, mainly nonconsequential animations that play at random if a character stands still for a length of time.

Though mostly aesthetic, idle poses can change the direction of thepassive shields carried byToon Link andYoung Link, as well asLink prior toSuper Smash Bros. 4, therefore affecting their ability to block projectiles.

Lists of idle poses[edit]

List of characters without mirrored stances[edit]

Trivia[edit]

• InUltimate,Bowser,Zero Suit Samus,Mega Man,Bowser Jr.,Ridley,Incineroar,Joker, andBanjo & Kazooie are the only characters to make any sort of sound in their idle animations.
  • InMelee, this only applied toBowser, while inBrawl, this was applied toMario,Wario,Pit, andKing Dedede, and inSmash 4 it only applied toMega Man,Zero Suit Samus, andBowser Jr.
  • Bowser (Melee andUltimate) and Ridley are the only characters whose idle animation have them vocalize rather than using sound effects.
• Master Hand has an idle pose, but it is never seen in normal gameplay because the AI never allows enough time between his attacks. It can be seen if Master Hand is controlled by the player, either by using theMaster Hand glitch inMelee or playing as him inAdventure Mode: World of Light inUltimate; for his idle pose, he simply clenches his fist.
  • InSSB4, there is also a chance that Master Hand will stay still for a while while Crazy Hand attacks solo, resulting in him doing the idle pose.
• InSmash 4 andUltimate, there is a chance that a character will instantly perform one of their idle poses once they climb on top of aladder.
• Normally, idle poses will not play when a character is holding a small item, like aCapsule. There are some peculiarities with how this functions, however:
  • InMelee,Mewtwo can still perform any of its idle poses when holding an item, since it uses telekinesis to carry items rather than directly holding them.
  • In all games where he is featured, Sonic unclenches his fists when holding an item.
  • InSmash 4,Yoshi,Link, andSheik will revert to theirBrawl idle animations if they hold an item.Dr. Mario,Lucas, andRoy will revert to the animation of their base character (Mario,Ness, andMarth respectively).
    • InUltimate,Yoshi,Link, andDr. Mario use their correct idle animations, butSheik still reverts to herBrawl idle animation.
  • InUltimate, there are multiple cases of characters using nonstandard idle animations while holding an item:
    • Fox,Luigi,Jigglypuff,Sheik,Falco,Pit,Diddy Kong, andWolf revert to theirBrawl idle animations.
    • Mewtwo andDark Pit revert to theirSmash 4 idle animations (which in Dark Pit's case is the same as Pit's), andDaisy will performPeach's idle animation.
    • Marth,Lucina,Roy, andChrom all use Marth'sBrawl idle animation.
    • Lucas will revert to Ness'sBrawl idle animation despiteNess not doing so.
    • Simon andRichter will perform the same alternative idle animation that neither normally possess.
    • Inkling Boy and female Byleth do not perform their altered idle animations.
    • Some characters that do not reuse previous animations still have nonstandard behavior while carrying an item: Bowser's lower jaw clips through his mouth, Toon Link reuses his facial expressions fromSSB4, Mega Man does not look forward, andKazuya's stance is altered.
    • Almost all characters do not blink when carrying an item, with the only ones to blink beingYoshi andPyra.
    • Sora's stance changes entirely when holding an item, slinging the Keyblade over his shoulder while holding the item with his free hand, a reference to his Valor Form battle stance fromKingdom Hearts II.
• Some characters have an animation that actually is part of their regular standing animation, but are often mistaken for idle poses. Unlike idle poses, they play at regular intervals instead of randomly (and they can be seen in the character customization screen on both 3DS and Wii U versions, or by holding a item, where idle poses never play). Some examples includeDaisy,Sheik andRoy.
  • In some cases, this animation is used to transition into the default idle animation, either from their previous one (in the case of Sheik) or their base character's (in the case of Daisy, Roy, and otherclones). Other characters, such as Chrom,Dark Samus,Mythra and Mii Gunner (SSB4 only) have separate animations for this purpose.
• Lucina, Dark Pit andKen are the only characters to share their default idle stance and idle poses with another character. Richter has a unique idle stance, but he has the same periodic idle poses as Simon.
  • Daisy, Dr. Mario, Roy, Inkling Boy, Richter, and female Byleth share the same initial frame of idle as their original counterparts despite having altered idle stances, likely so that their shared animations can transition seamlessly into their idle pose.
• While Bayonetta has two idle poses, only one of them appears under normal circumstances.
• SinceBrawl, six characters have not had the traditional two idle poses, those beingPeach,Zelda (prior toUltimate),Jigglypuff,Pokémon Trainer (Brawl only),Byleth, andSteve. Peach has four, the most of any fighter; both Zelda and Pokémon Trainer had three before losing one inUltimate, both characters are the only fighters to lose an idle pose; Jigglypuff and Byleth only have one (though in Byleth's case it differs between the male and female variants, effectively resulting in two); Steve does not have any idle poses at all. Jigglypuff technically did not have an idle pose beforeUltimate, as its idle pose was simply part of its regular animation, but it has always had two identical idle poses programmed in.
• Steve is the only character in the series to lack idle poses in any game. While idle poses did not exist inSmash 64, andDonkey Kong,Link,Samus,Yoshi,Pikachu,Ness,Jigglypuff, and theIce Climbers did not have any inMelee, they all did have idle poses fromBrawl onward (or in the case of Roy and Jigglypuff,Smash 4 onward andUltimate respectively).

References[edit]

Every idle pose inSmash 4

• Unofficial lingo