How the heck did I get here? Oh well, might as well put my two cents in the jar...
One question: Why?
The question is twofold. First, why do we need another Pokemon? Granted, its been said that there is no Pokemon representation in the heavier class of fighters (what constitutes heavy, anyhow? Where are we drawing that line?), which I agree with, but why does this game need Pokemon representation in the heavier class of fighters? The Earthbound, F-Zero, Metroid (assuming, of course, that Z-suit Samus and Normal Samus are the same character in two different transformation modes), Donkey Kong, and Yoshi series have only one character included, and countless other Nintendo games have no characters included at all, but we need a Pokemon in every weight class? Now don't get me wrong, I love the Pokemon games. I'm on my third time through Ruby as we speak. But the problem with Pokemon is that only a select few of the creatures in the Pokemon games are actually characters, the rest are all concepts. That is, they are species of creatues, much like Goombas, Metroids, or Like-Likes. Therefore, the necessity of their inclusion hinges upon their ability to produce characters which have unique personalities, something which the game (albeit not necessarily the anime, but the characters are taken from the game, not the anime) has not included into the creatures themselves, with a few exceptions (the Pikachu from Yellow, the Mewtwo from Red/Blue, ect.) has seldom even attempted. I recently saw a suggestion that Red/Ash from the Pokemon Red/Blue be included. I thought that was an amazing suggestion, because he is an actual specific character who even returned for a brief cameo in Gold/Silver. But as of yet, I just haven't seen any justification for the inclusion of any more Pokemon, given the provision that if there were, they would fall into the heavy weight class, besides the fact that you (the generic SWF poster) happen to like Pokemon, because there are at least as many people in the world, in this forum, or on the development team of Brawl who happen to feel the same way about generic franchise X, which unless it is the Mario series, has less representation than the Pokemon series. The question stands; Why do we need another Pokemon? Why do we need a Pokemon in every weight class?
Secondly, assuming we can establish that Brawl actually needs another Pokemon, why Heracross. A better question would be why a Heracross, because unlike Mewtwo, Pikachu, and Jigglypuff (excluding Pichu, because he was shamelessly included to promote his attempted rise as the new Pikachu of the second gen Pokemon), there is no one Heracross that stands out. Therefore this Heracross would be just a generic Heracross representing the whole of the species. What warrents the Heracross species from representation above all of the other countless species which do not have playable characters yet? So far I've heard reasons which all revolve around the fact that the people in this thread happen to like him. Good for you. But that doesn't make him better or more deserving than anyone elses favorite character, because your like/dislike of him is purely subjective, and therefore there will be at least least as many people in the world, in this forum, or on the development team of Brawl who happen to think the exact same thing about generic pokemon X. Therefore, if you want to be taken seriously in your support of Heracross, list some things that make Heracross unique from every other Pokemon that don't fully depend on your readers agreeing with you before they read your post. Question stands: Why Heracross? What makes him unique over every other Pokemon?
I don't mean to pick on Heracross, as I could easily post this on every "X Pokemon for Brawl" thread out there, but that would take way too much time, and I happened to be reading this one.
And who knows, perhaps there are some splendidly logical reasons why more Pokemon, and why Heracross should be included, which I have failed to consider, in which case I am curious how my 'why' questions are to be answered. But the truth is, I haven't seen those answers yet. And "X Pokemon rox!" is not a reason, it is an opinnion. Later.
Andy