I'd like to point out that there's no such thing as character locks.
Not even confirmed characters?
But honestly... I can't imagine a final roster without Chrom or Palutena.
The only argument against him is that his hair is blue. Which is dumb. His color swaps will give him different hair colors anyways.
People also pick on him for being a lord, but that's just a class, and it also means you're important. So, bad argument.
And then they mention he wields a sword just like Marth and Ike... but he can just as easily fight with a lance. So that's dumb too.
He can easily be unique, and could be paired with Lucina to add a gimmick we've yet to see. (Not 2 fighters in general, other potential)
He is the most requested Fire Emblem character.
Even on Shortie's poll on this website, Chrom is 1st and Robin is either 3rd or 4th.
All of the hatred for Chrom has happened AFTER the roster was decided.
And the hatred for Chrom, hasn't even reached Miiverse, which Nintendo actually looks at!
He's only getting recent hate on this website, and people seriously think that touches his chances...
He's also from a series definitely getting/deserving another rep.
Recent revival, many games, many sales, many requests, future plans, 3 planned for Brawl... blah, blah, blah.
He is recent, 2013. No argument there.
So uniqueness, requests, deserving-ness, popuarity, recency...
What is he going against, what is he losing in?
Well, the only thing is...
Competition:
-Lucina
-Robin
-Anna
-Tiki
-Micaiah
-Lyn
-Black Knight
-Tharja
-Roy
Let me explain why Chrom is more likely than all of these.
Lucina first. Both Chrom and Lucina were prominent lords in Awakening, but Chrom was the more prominent of the 2. And is more requested. He is the face of Awakening, and who can question that? However she may not be in his way, as the possibility of them together in a team is not out of the question.
Robin... he has recently surpassed Chrom's popularity in certain places on SmashBoards. But that's not enough.
Chrom is more popular in general. On other sites, and like stated before, the Anti-Chrom stuff is too recent. The Robin love is also pretty recent, seems like nobody noticed him until like 6 months ago. They're equally recent, both viable to be completely unique, and both deserve a spot. So it just comes down to overall popularity, where Chrom definitely wins. He's still the current most prominent recent character.
Anna... despite importance throughout the entire franchise, her support is much lower. She's more unique but is not always seen as a Smash character. She gets decent support here, but her thread is half the size.
Tiki... basically the exact same situation as Anna. Both are more unique and important, but have minimal requests, whereas Chrom is among the top 10 most requested characters.
Micaiah... Unique, yes. Important, hmm... kind of. Recent, no... Her prominent appearance was in 2007(much bigger pre-Brawl, similar to my lovely Midna), an Awakening character will take precedence over a 2nd Radiant character.
Lyn... Similar situation as Micaiah, although she was a lord, and an assist in Brawl, and the first FE game to be localized was hers...
- There are many lords before and after her
- The assist occured when she had an unarguably better chance
- That means almost nothing to Japan other than it sold the best... UNTIL AWAKENING!
Black Knight... same as Micaiah, and that a villain from Fire Emblem won't happen until we get all of the protagonists that are far more prominent, AKA everybody listed so far.
Tharja... How is a less popular and more obscure character going to get in over the lord if their both from the same game. For characters that have only been in Awakening... Chrom and Lucina obviously come first. I mean... would you expect Florina before Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector?
Roy... people sometimes argue Roy over Chrom to chose a clone for a 3rd rep. Ugh... no, no, no... Chrom actually has the potential to be unique, Roy was already a clone. Roy's game did not make a big impact on the series, he was a filler character as a clone at the end of development, and because they ended up having to remove him from Brawl, I don't see him coming back. He's the least recent of all of these, the least unique of all of these, yet... the 2nd most requested... *throws up a little* Yes, people want this insignificant clone back just because he was in Melee. All I have to say is... play Project M and shut up. Ike isn't even a semi clone of Marth, but their playstyle is similar, we don't need 3 of these. Chrom could be a lance team with Lucina, there's much more to work with. But Roy? Well, he'd play like he did in Melee. I'm glad to see unique newcomers this time around. Definitely don't see Roy happening this game if he didn't in Brawl. Mewtwo re-established relevance and is the most popular choice, they are in very different situations.