Hoo boy. This one's gonna be controversial.
-♪-
Krystal
Chance: 55%
Seems like Krystal can't get brought up anywhere without controversy following. Her first appearance was a radical departure for the series (even though it was designed to be a
gaiden game all along), and the two Star Fox games that came out afterward are considered kind of...lacking. Some of the fanbase associates her with the series' dip in quality, some dislike how undue of a focus she has in Star Fox Command, while others outside the fanbase loathe her for a
different fandom she's associated with, ironically ignoring how nearly every
other character in the series
also falls under them. Merely mentioning her in some places is enough to incur the commenters' wrath.
And then there's the whole fact that Wolf is considered a near-lock to return already. Lucas is already confirmed, and with a new Star Fox game on the horizon, it'd be the perfect opportunity to make a "look who's relevant again" reveal. Consensus seems to be that the developers wouldn't bother with a second Star Fox character, regardless of if it's actually true.
Krystal has mixed reception, a loud hatebase, a character from her own series likely to get the nod first...and yet,
she may have one of the highest chances of any newcomer. In fact, I think she's
the fourth most likely DLC character.
I get around the Internet pretty well, I've seen quite a few unofficial polls, and I've noticed something:
Krystal has deceptively high fan support. In nearly every one of the aforementioned polls, she ranked among the top 5 newcomers...and the ones where she
didn't came from sites with a history of being...nostalgic. Her supporters just have a way of lying low and not saying much. After all, why would you when openly supporting her for Smash in some places is like waving a sign that says "I am an
acceptable target"?
Meanwhile,
the loudness of Krystal's detractors masks how few of them there are. Vocal minorities creep into every fanbase, and Krystal has some particularly loud ones loathe her for "ruining" the series, making her a scapegoat for it not living up to their idealized version of how it used to be. Again, though, there're fewer of them than they make it seem, they're greatly outnumbered by her supporters and those who have no strong feelings one way or the other, and they can't take votes away from her, now can they?
There's still the problem of Wolf blocking her way, though...or
is there? Even despite Wolf, Krystal is (reportedly)
still getting a lot of ballot votes from her supporters
and from Star Fox fans who believe Wolf is already a lock. It's also worth remembering that
the developers do not think in terms of "repping" a series, so one Star Fox character being DLC
wouldn't rule out another one. In fact, for all the fanbase treats it as a rule, it's been broken repeatedly over the course of Smash Bros. Even the argument that Star Fox will only have six games may not be important going off Smash history: The Legend of Zelda had five characters in Melee--with
four newcomers--despite only having seven games at the time (And you could argue that the Oracle games count as two parts of one story, lowering it to six!). In Brawl, Pokémon gained four characters, something that would've had people cry "over-repped" nowadays despite how big a series it is. And speaking of nowadays, remember how everyone said Fire Emblem couldn't
possibly get two newcomers (granted, one started as an alt)? Remember how people cried foul about the Mario series getting two new characters when it already had so many?
But the likely reason Rosalina and Bowser Jr. both got in is also the reason Krystal has a legitimate chance: both of them had too much potential and too intriguing of concepts to pass up. That's the key detail here:
Krystal has uniqueness and moveset potential in spades. We've seen a willingness from the dev team to use older assets for movesets--they changed Kirby's dash attack in Brawl to a move from the Yo-Yo ability, which hadn't seen light since 1996, the Bowser Bomb goes all the way back to Super Mario Bros. 3, and Robin's Arcfire animation is straight from the GBA Fire Emblem games--meaning her staff from Adventures is in play, especially since most of her supporters are requesting she use it
specifically for the moveset potential it gives her. Where Wolf's moveset is loosely derived from the one Fox uses, and where Falco is still a semi-clone,
Krystal would be the first fully unique Star Fox character since Fox himself. In place of blasters, air-dashes, and reflectors, Krystal could be only the second staff-wielder Smash has had--and with a battlestaff that plays vastly different from Palutena's scepter--and with its innate abilities to shoot small bursts of fire, spray freezing mist, create seismic shockwaves, propel its wielder into the sky, surround them with a magic barrier...all combining for something the roster doesn't yet have, and so tailor-made for Smash that I'm willing to bet you just thought of how at least a couple of them would work as you're reading this.
But her moveset potential doesn't stop there:
if needed, Krystal could also pull from Star Fox Assault's arsenal. There's a pretty good variety there, so much of it completely untouched by Fox, Falco, and presumably Wolf if the lack of changes to Mewtwo and Lucas are anything to go by. Though the staff immediately makes her unique, she doesn't need to rely on it to do so!
There's a third option, though, and it might be the most intriguing: a combination of the previous two. With a mix of staff techniques and spells and the high-tech weapons from the modern Star Fox games,
she could bring a mix of magic and technology that no other character could match. Her moveset potential is among the highest of any DLC candidate, rivaling even Isaac and K. Rool, and if Sakurai's interview last July is anything to go by, it's the biggest thing the dev team looks for in a newcomer.
A character with massive moveset potential from an up-and-coming series, whose biggest draw is representing said series in a way its other characters don't, but who is considered to have no chance because a less unique character from the same series is "more deserving"? Sounds an awful lot like a certain tactician...
Want: 100%
Would I have written that entire essay if I didn't want her in Smash so badly? She has the uniqueness factor, she has
so many possible awesome movesets,
and she could be another battlemage. As of right now, she's my single most wanted DLC character...well, technically tied with a couple longshots who almost surely won't make the cut.
Even with whatever doubts or concerns you may have, if Krystal gets in, she'll be worth it.
Jump to what conclusions you may. I get interested in characters for their moveset potential, remember?
Dixie Kong Prediction: 31.75%
She certainly has an argument...but one obvious problem and one not-so-obvious one could hold her back.
Nominations: Sceptile x5
Oh, and to those of you playing the furbait card? You realize the same card applies to Wolf, right? You realize Rule 34 applies to
everyone on the roster, not just the ones you handpick? And if they were concerned about a character being too sexualized, it certainly didn't stop them from giving Zero Suit Samus two costumes with her in a tank top and gym shorts, giving Shulk a swimsuit costume, or giving Palutena a taunt where she imitates a stripper.
(Hero), 
