Scaramouche posted:

It's funny, I was going to say it's real weird the rivals showed up when they did, because the last episode emphasized that Peppy's sacrifice was the only thing that opened the regenerating "shield", and it closed immediately after Fox et al passed through. So how did the rivals also get through? I was going to say it trivializes Peppy's sacrifice since they could just shoot their way in, but the game makers pre-empted me by trivializing the sacrifice in a different way in the post credits sequence!