It was not my intention to suggest uair was not a kill option, it most certainly was; however, it's more than just an idea that knee, smashes, and raptor boost are all good kill options that killed earlier by 30% at least. Dsmash has very little start up or end lag. Fsmash can kill sub-100, has a deceptive range, decent active frames, and is safe on shield with proper spacing (which then becomes more or less lenient depending on MU). Raptor boost probably doesn't deserve to be included in this list, but it's a decent mix up that can net a kill when used selectively. Fair is a decent option with its own short list of set ups and pseudo air traps. The worst offenders here are raptor boost and fair due to commitment.
But for the most part, we agree on the subject of uair and its role. I didn't intend to give the impression of a polarized view of uair being trash and raptor boost being king. Each option has a different role in the captain's kit and thinking otherwise would be short-sighted of us.
Okay I was wrong you do know what you're talking about to some degree (and hell, you might be better than me with how little I've been practicing, so no shots), but I don't agree with everything you've said here. Using raptor boost as an approaching mix up to cover spot dodges and rolls rarely works because its range is pretty short and timing it takes an additional read of when so I guess its best use is catching landing lag? But that still takes a read, and will almost never happen against a competent player. I honestly think raptor boost is a pretty bad move, I wish it would ledge cancel like ZSS's flipkick and have faster start up.
But smash attacks? Falcon's smash attacks are amazing for the reason you mentioned but smash attacks in general are very situational. Yes f smash can be hard to punish out of shield, but its start up, though amazing for a smash, is long enough that the move should almost never be thrown out in neutral. Most people holding their shield will be able to react to the move before it hits unless you get a read, but then why would you ever use it as shield pressure? I suppose this feature could make it a low risk mix up to go for a pivot f smash, but it wouldn't have the option coverage to ever be useful. It distorts your hurtbox though, so I've found it is a good counter to approaches with a hitbox, but that usually takes an opponent that telegraphs their approaches or a crazy read on your part. So this wont happen at a high level either really. You could read a roll with it, but high level players won't have such obvious roll patterns and I think down smash does a better job at this.
Down smash I think is an okay option for killing, and an amazing one at the low to mid level because the back hit is safe on shield and can cover many options in the neutral. If your opponent is shielding, then they are likely to try and escape from a pressure situation by either spot dodging or rolling behind you and down smash covers both of these options handily. At a high level this mix up will rarely fool anyone though. Rolling away from your opponent and throwing a hitbox out of shield can deal with down smash pretty well and if your opponent reads that you're going to downsmash in those situations then you can be punished pretty easily. I still think this move is an okay kill option though.
And then there's the knee--I actually think some of the setups for this move are close to broken. Up air knee and dash grab knee? Killing your opponent off of something safe in neutral or a grab at like, 70 percent? Yeah THAT is kill power. The only problem is these setups are percent/character weight specific as well as actually taking some pretty solid execution on the part of the player (well, stomp knee and up air knee do at least, dash grab knee just requires the ability to buffer dashes and react to di and if you can't do those things then why are you playing falcon or even this game). When I said that up air was a better option than the knee i simply meant that it was a move that could cover a crazy amount of options and was even easier to set up into at a wider range of percentages while the knee has very specific set ups and is NOT a move you want to be throwing out in neutral.
But back air? I think that is just caption falcon's best move in general. You can pretty much kill people at ~110 percent with your best approach option, and if the opponent isn't at kill percents it combos into grab or dash attack. Glad Nintendo didn't nerf this move, it's how I get 80% of my kills.
