With all the FE controversy and talks about Fire Emblem being "overrepped", I decided to just think to myself about what FE games/characters stood out beyond others, or basically which FE games would be the best to have a playable rep or are most """deserving""" within the context of Fire Emblem:
1.
from FE 1 and 3 because duh
2. Fire Emblem 4 could actually be pretty worthy of a rep, based on the fact that it seems to be one of the most popular or beloved of the classic FE games, and the most talked about of the Japan-only games, atleast from what I've witnessed.
3. Fire Emblem 7 definitely is deserving of a rep considering it was the first FE to release outside japan and thus is many non-Japanese fans first exposure to the game or what got them into FE in the first place. of the FE7 lords I'd prefer Lyn, but Hector is pretty popular and demanded too, so *shrug*.
4.
I think is actually a good choice. Despite the Tellius games not being very successful at all IIRC, Ike is the one of the only ones whose game got a sequel, the other ones being Marth with FE1 and 3, and I guess FE4 and 5 are actually related (found out sometime recently). Also despite being less successful compared to other games in the series, they are still well-liked by those that did play them (Well, Path of Radiance atleast, Radiant Dawn was a bit more divisive)
5. Speaking of the Tellius games, one character I'd likely bring over along with Ike is Black Knight. I mean, the other big Nintendo franchises have their villains or anti-heroes or whatever, so why not FE? And as far as villains go, I'm pretty sure Black Knight is the most popular.
6. Awakening is another easy choice for a FE rep considering, you know, it basically saved FE from being shackled and ignored in Nintendo's dark, scary basement along with F-Zero, Golden Sun, and other franchises. While Awakening does deserve to rep Fire Emblem, I sure as hell don't think it needed 3 characters. 1 character absolutely, maaaybe 2 for being the franchise's savior (that and if I'm thinking the Tellius games could have 2 characters, then Awakening sure as hell probably deserves it...) , but 3 was just overkill imo.
7. Three Houses is a good contender for a playable character too, really. Considering it's the best-selling in the series to date, being incredibly well received, and even managed to appeal and unify to both newer FE fans and older ones (or so I hear anyways). The character I personally wanted was Edelgard, but either of the other House leaders could have been cool as well.
So yeah, thinking over the entire franchise and all of it's main games, I could think up atleast
7 characters that could properly represent Fire Emblem. It could even be stretched to
8 if Awakening were to have just 2. WHich I guess leads me to my main feelings and what have usually always been my main feelings when it comes to FE in Smash. I don't think it's wrong that Fire Elmbelm has a high amount of playable characters, and with all I said above I cannot say I'm necessarily against FE having 8 reps.
Of course the issue is is that not all the characters or games from the FE series that I listed above are the ones that actually got playable characters. We got Roy who, while the nolstalgic Melee fan in me kinda appreciates him, isn't exactly one of the more popular or liked of the FE lords from Fire Emblem fans. We got Corrin who was from an incredibly divisive and controversial FE game, and while Awakening should have gotten a playable rep, again, 3 was just too much. It doesn't help that there is alot of redundancy between the FE characters we have in terms of moveset or how half the characters we have are very similar (not completely similar, but similar enough to still be kind of disapappointing). It's especially unfortunate because it's not like Lucina or Chrom couldn't be more unique; they could have been designed around their promoted class which wields both swords and lances, for example.
I guess to simplify my feelings, the issue with Fire Emblem I don't think is "over-representation", but that "it isn't as best represented as it could be." I'm fine with Fire Emblem having 8 character slots, but some of those slots before Byleth were not used up in the most ideal way.