| “ | These are a few of my favorite things: kickin', stomping', and kickin'! | „ |
| ~ One of Arizona's victory voicelines. |
Arizona is one of the seven playable characters of the indie fighting game Them's Fightin' Herds. She is a young calf, daughter of the leader of cattlekind, who volunteers to be the Champion of the Prairie after hearing word of the Predator's return and the need for a Champion to find The Prophet's Key to re-contain them. Reluctantly her father lets her go, and she sets off to find any clues on where to look for the key.
She is voiced by Tara Strong and speaks with a Southern accent.
Biography[]
Book of Lore[]
After hearing of the Predator's return, the Council of Ungulates sends a decree for each faction of Foenum to send their most capable warrior on a quest to find the key and stop the invasion. Hearing this, the cattle decide to hold a ballot in which they stamp their snouts with mud onto a small piece of cloth and puts it into a barrel to be drawn from the next morning, where whoever's print is pick will be the Champion.
That night, Arizona sneaks out while everyone else is asleep and adds her own print to the barrel. The next day, her print is pulled out of the ballot, but her father refuses to let her take on the quest, as she is too young. She challenges him to a battle, which ultimately results in her victory. seeing her strength and skill first-hand, he at last agrees to name her the Champion of the Prairie.
Story Mode[]
Chapter 1[]
In a slight alteration of the Book of Lore story, Texas announces to the cattle the Council's decree, recounting the story of how the Predators had attacked the ungulates and were sealed away in The Hold long ago. He then asks for a volunteer to go seal them back in, but everyone else quickly flees. With only Arizona left willing to go, her father is convinced by Minnesota to let her be the Champion, and he begrudgingly obliges.
She decides to start her search for clues at the city of Reine, running into a cow named Madison while travelling through the canyons who lets her shelter with her until the nearby bridge is repaired. During the night though, the young calf is too exited to sleep and sees a wolf going into the salt mines, following it in and fighting off many predators within as she journeys through the caves.
By the time she exits the cave through the other side, it's now dawn and she finds herself close to Reine City, bribing the gate guards with food to let her in. While there, she briefly encounters Pom, the latter of which is trying to catch up with her sheepdog puppies as they chase around some Winter Sprites. She then goes to the museum for clues, finding an ancient relic depicting the sealing of the Predators. As she looks at it, Velvet approaches her and they strike up a conversation about the key in which Arizona tells the reindeer that she's the Champion of the Prairie. Velvet herself reveals that she's the Champion of the Tundra, challenging the cow to a fight to see who is better. They take it outside per the recommendation of one of the museum's staff, and through the struggle Arizona comes out victorious once more. Velvet leaves in a fit of rage, and one of the citizens advises her to go to the Temple of Gloom in the High Plains for answers about the key, giving her a ticket to a ship that's about to head there.
Sailing to the High Plains, Arizona encounters the Alpake Tribe after climbing up the mountains. The tribe's leader, Adobo, tries to dissuade her, but when she refuses, he gives her directions to the temple while warning her of a dangerous monster that lurks near it. While she crosses through the Foggy Mountaintops, she notices someone watching her from within the fog, but is unable to catch who it is. When she at last reaches the Temple of Gloom's entrance, she inspects an important-looking stone, which is actually the one watching her in disguise, revealing themself to be a bright yellow alpaca. Arizona finds out that her name is Paprika, and asks why she's separated from the rest, but is unable to understand her odd communicating. Paprika invades the calf's personal space and refuses to leave, forcing Arizona to fight her off. After she knocks the lone alpaca out, she proceeds into the temple and begins to investigate.
She encounters many predators while exploring the ancient ruins, eventually happening upon a large monolith. As she's about to investigate it however, a gray unicorn steps out from behind it and introduces herself as Oleander. The unicorn inquires Arizona as to why she's here, and the cattle explains that she's looking for clues about The Prophet's Key, as she is the Champion of the Prairie. Oleander tells her that she's the Champion of the Woodlands, stating that one one Champion can have they key and insisting that it will be her before starting a fight, growing more engaged and powerful the more Arizona prevails. If Arizona wins the fight, Oleander's demon companion nicknamed "Fred" will fly into a rage and belittle the calf for ruining his plans before attacking her. Either way, Arizona is knocked out and the duo rummage through her stuff, finding a longma ball (if the player had found one previously) before leaving. After their departure, Arizona wakes up and weakly gets to her hooves, trying to inspect the monolith but finding that she can't understand anything that's written on it. frustrated but refusing to give up, she exits the temple to search elsewhere.
Appearance[]
Arizona is a small brown calf with her lower legs, underbelly, lower jaw and the top of her snout being cream-colored. She has green eyes and beige hooves, with her nose and the insides of her large ears being peach coloured. She has small white horns and a large tuft of fur atop her head, and always wears a red bandanna around her neck.
Personality[]
Arizona is very headstrong and prideful, often solving her problems with brute force. She has a deep love and protectiveness for her homeland of the Prairie, and refuses to give up on her goals no matter the circumstance. She's also rather brash, refusing to take "no" for an answer and instinctively charging into things head-first (both figuratively and literally).
Trivia[]
- Like the other initial main characters, she was designed by Lauren Faust as a replacement for the Mane 6 from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic after the fangame Fighting is Magic was taken down by Hasbro for copyright infringement. Arizona herself is based off of Applejack.
- She and Shanty are tied as the youngest characters in the roster.
- She's implied to have siblings, as she's referred to as the youngest of Texas' and Minnesota's children.
- Arizona and Velvet were the first two characters publicly introduced.
- Her name was originally going to be "Dakota", but it was changed as the developers felt that it was too mundane of a name. However, the name Dakota influenced the decision to name her Arizona, and was later reused as the name of one of her alt colour pallets.
- Due to cattlekind culture's preference of preserving stories by speech instead of writing, Arizona is illiterate.