The "too many swordfighters" complaint is just dumb. Kinda started as a meme, and then grew into something bigger to the point even non-Smash players have heard about it and think no one wants sword characters in Smash, which is just stupid.
First of all, yeah, the increase in characters from Fire Emblem probably in the past 2 games would probably explain why that infamous line has become so frequent in the community, but still... what do you expect?
Swords are the main weapon of choice not only in videogames but also a lot of fiction beyond videogames. If a game involves fighting, chances are that the protagonist will either use some kind of gun or sword.
Smash is a crossover game and it's been very mascot/protagonist driven since the beginning. Therefore, when they add characters from new series, they will obviously pick the protagonist. Swords are very flexible weapons in general and work very well as the weapon of choice of main characters in stories. So again, chances are that if Nintendo is adding a new series, the protag will either use some type of gun, sword, or just his/her fists.
And if we simplify things a little bit, that's precisely the main 3 archetypes we could find in Smash: swordfighters, brawlers, and gunners. We have more characters fighting with kicks and punches thant sword users, and no one complains about those, and just like there are just many ways you can swing a sword, the same could be said for the brawler archetype. Then we have people that unironically group the likes of Ganondorf, Joker or Pit as swordfighters lmao
I do understand that some weapon variety would be cool. And I agree with that. But if you're adding a Final Fantasy character, you're not going out of your way and pick Caith Sith if you wanna rep FFVII, that would be just trying too hard. In FFVII's case. there's only one choice and it's Cloud. This is just an example, but you get my point.
Not to say... Smash is a 2D fighting game. I don't think having fighters with lances or axes would change things that much. In terms of gameplay and functionality, these weapons could just be viewed as "long sword with small hitbox" (lances) or "strong sword that covers less space" (axes). Like, I don't think it's that hard to imagine some of the moves of Palutena has with a sword instead of her staff.
