Wario Wario Wario

On the Infinite thread we recently did a job to add posters for a customisable house in story mode...

and I must say, my posters certainly stick out a sore thumb - most of them are super cool and epic, you know, things people would actually want on their wall, like these:


And then mine tend to look like this:


I am absolutely cherry-picking both sides of the coin, I submitted some epic gamer posters and other users submitted cringe baby meme posters, but most of the cringe baby memes were on me.

Every time Bandana Waddle Dee discourse pops up it often seems like people on both sides don't understand that "Goomba in a hat" isn't a critcism of Bandana Waddle Dee as a character or a Smash fighter, but rather as a character design.

The fact that he is the highest ranked member of Dedede's army or has a unique spear moveset, for many people (myself included), does not negate how HAL took an inherently emotionless design for a disposable enemy, gave it a weapon, and called it a day without as much as a unique face. It can go both ways of course, some people may consider BWD's design as being in a vacuum while his
personality and/or powers take center stage, which is a valid position to have, but also one you need to be honest about when talking about such a divisive character.

For example, I'm a huge Waluigi supporter, but I don't want Waluigi for his canon powers - air swimming, moonwalking, and vine creation aren't exactly striking fighter moves IMO - I want him for his personality and how that could shape his moveset as a result. When you argue in favour of a character you shouldn't try to prove every "criteria", you should just prove your character's strongest strengths and hope those can outweigh other concerns, otherwise you'll make yourself look like a fool explaining how Golden Sun changed the gaming industry forever or Crash Bandicoot is a more important part of Nintendo's history than Sony's.

For Steve most of the problems and concerns people had with him as a Smash fighter came true - next to no music, stiff animations, out of place aesthetic, lack of personality - but Steve's strongest qualities negated every single one of those issues to the point nobody really complained. A similar story can be told about Ridley, "too big" turned out to be a pretty accurate assumption as Ridley ended up looking really weird when shrunk, even with him being bigger than his terrible posture lets on - however, they made that cold and cunning brutality come off so well that it's hard to complain about his depiction, even if you were strictly opposed to Ridley beforehand. In a way Smash speculation is like Smash itself - no character is without weaknesses and some characters even have more weaknesses than strengths, but it's the quality of those strengths - not the quantity of strengths a character has or what their strength-to-weakness-ratio is - that puts a character on top.

It's OK to want a character in Smash or criticise those who oppose them, but with that it's also OK to not want a character in Smash or criticise their fans - even if it's a character you like outside of the context of Smash. Nobody wants an echo chamber where "they're cool and popular" is the full extent of Smash roster discussion and concerns or complaints about both past and future characters, even ones you like, becomes taboo. Negativity, criticism and dissapointment are all essential parts of the human experience, and if we supress it to "be more hype" or "let people dream" we're not gonna have a more welcoming or inclusive community, we're gonna have a creepy self-assuring hivemind slaving away to make honey for Queen Doomguy.