If you've been following my activity on this subforum for a while, you could guess this story was going to be a lot different to how it turned out. It was just meant to be an epilogue that would have been roughly the same as what we got - Mefilas tries once more to take over (with kind of the same attitude), has a scuffle with our main trio before Mebius returns and bonds with Misato once more to fight Mefilas! No Ultraman Hikari or any of the other UB, and certainly no Gymaira, Dinozaur or Eva 13. It would have ended with Mebius straight up killing Mefilas, although Mefilas expresses regret as he dies, and then goodbyes.
Eventually, one by one, new elements kept getting added. Hikari and Gymaira were next, and at about that time, strangely enough, the Mantle Ceremony came about this early on in planning. It's just a thing I wanted to see since Zero and Z have capes but Mebius doesn't. Interestingly, I was going to have pretty much every Ultraman appear at the ceremony, which is carried on (kinda?) as I'll explain. Anyways, the Ultra Brothers were added soon after and with that the Dinozaur. The match was going to end after Mefilas was beat and the Dinozaur eliminated, but I just wanted to spice it up that extra bit, and thank God I did. Evangelion-13 drastically shifted the match, and I think without its presence, the match would have turned out a lot differently. The stakes were made so much higher and we got tons of great moments out of it.
So, with all the pieces in place, we can (not) look at the trivia!
This match (and the greater trilogy as a whole) takes place in the unspecific 'years following Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Destined Crossroad'. We haven't really seen much of the main universe since then, so it's not intrusive on the canon. If I had to give it a specific time, I'd probably say concurrent with the events of Ultraman Arc or a little afterwards, albeit in a different universe.
I said in the trivia for last match that Mefilas was kinda sorta maybe implied to be the '66 incarnation directly, but this match confirms that he is his own individual with his own history. Though, connecting him to the OG Mefilas through idolisation was still added to connect the two. A weird inspiration I actually had with Mefilas in this match, particularly his more bestial and violent side, was Anastasia's Rasputin.
I can't remember if I ever mentioned this, but Toji Suzuhara's distinct kansai accent is based on his characterisation from the slice of life doujinshi Shinji Ikari Raising Project. I think giving him an accent fits his character well and sets him apart from Shinji and Kensuke rather than just being another teenage boy.
Hikari references Jiro Sakata from Return of Ultraman during the house gathering scene.
The Land of Light and their customs are very much inspired by the Christian Knights of the medieval era, though with a futuristic space-military aesthetic.
As hinted at earlier, this match has a ton of Ultra cameos, both physically shown and implied! Whilst at the Defence Force meeting Xenon, Max, Powered, Great, the Ultra Force, Seven 21, Sora, Zero, Taiga, and Z have speaking lines or are mentioned, you can take it from the author that others including Neos and Ribut were in attendance. Also in this scene, we hear about the New Gen Heroes (which we'll get to), the Tri-Squad (Titas and Fuma) and Planet U40, pretty much referencing Joneus getting involved. During the climax as Mebius Infinity destroys Eva-13, the Heisei Ultras are all referenced. We get to see Tiga, Dyna, Gaia and Agul, Cosmos and Justice, and then Noa/Nexus respectively. And finally, during Mebius's knighting ceremony, it's mentioned that Ultras from various universes attend appearing as young men. These are Zero taking on Leito's form, Hikaru/Ginga, Sho/Victory, Daichi/X, Gai/Orb, Riku/Geed, Katsumi/Rosso, Isami/Blu, and Asahi/Grigio (I know it wasn't mentioned there was a woman too but you can't have only 2 of the 3 siblings, right?), Taiga taking on Hiroyuki's form and Z taking on Haruki's form.
Misato and Mebius's romance was... actually unintentional, something that just naturally formed as I wrote. Their love for each other is so pure, it really should transcend what we'd consider normal love. I mean, being an Ultra host must do something to the brain, right? Shinji and Asuka getting together is something I've been waiting for since NGE, and it's never actually happened in any official media, so why not! Everyone gets a happy ending, well, except Fuyutsuki... and Ritsuko and Kaji.
Most of all, this entire series was conceived as a crossover between my two favourite shows of all time, as well as my favourite characters from those shows respectively. I just wanted to see Mebius and Misato interact, and to have that small wish turn into a trilogy of beloved KWCE matches, it's just phenomenal.