Look at this:
You are obviously trying to portray anyone who disagrees as saying "Being a protagonist is 100% irrelevant, every single character is equally likely". When most are just saying "It happened once, it can happen again".
Frankly I think your own biases are clouding your judgment a bit. And other people's judgment as well. Let's recap the ARMS speculation for these past 3 months, to simplify things a bit there have been two major groups:
1. The rep will be Springman or Springman with other characters as alts. This is because Springman is clearly the protagonist or mascot of ARMS and logic dictates that he will always get first before anyone else. Since this logic has always held true in the past there is no possible way it can be anyone else, and people who argue otherwise don't really have an argument that can overcome this.
2. The rep will be someone other than Springman and also an individual character. This is because Nintendo has intentionally started a guessing game and there are plenty of circumstances that could lead to someone other than the protagonist or mascot being the chosen character for the first time, the stars are aligning for it to happen so to speak. Opinions on who the character would be were quite varied but I think it's fair to say the majority went with Min Min, myself included.
You have firmly belonged in the first group for this entire speculation period, making a lot of posts about why you thought Springman was the choice, because of the protagonist or mascot first reasoning. You only buckled from this position very slightly a few days before the presentation, when insiders started teasing Min Min.
The presentation arrives and the first group was wrong, while the second group was right. Oh but what is this? Wait a minute... Sakurai said that ALL ARMS characters are a protagonist! This means, in spite of everything, the first group was RIGHT despite getting the character wrong, while the second group was WRONG despite getting the character right. You've all just made a 180º and took a position that none of you would have ever considered just a week ago (Someone other than Springman? Ridiculous. He's the ONE AND ONLY protagonist!) just so you can continue being in the right and the "detractors" being in the wrong.
Well, I'm not swallowing it. Min Min has been clearly not treated the same as Springman for the past 3 years by the ARMS team, Nintendo, and even Sakurai himself (Springman got assist trophy, mii costume and spirit in the base game, Min Min only got a spirit). All of that is more important than a single throwaway line. To me this clearly proves the "Protagonist or mascot first" is in fact, not a rule. Just a factor. A very important factor for sure, but still just a factor. And even if you insist on labelling it as a rule, it's a rule that can be trivially bypassed, as Mr. Yabuki just demonstrated.
What I believed before Sakurai said that means nothing when Sakurai specifically mentioned protagonists and that Min Min is considered one.
I’m not the one who said Min Min was a protagonist. Sakurai was. Mr. Yabuki was.
I’m not sure if you’re implying I should be ashamed of being wrong, or changing my opinion based on new information, but that’s why people do. They don’t blindly hold onto information when the reality in front of them changes. That’s called being foolish.
Was it logical to assume Spring Man was “the” mascot? I don’t see why not, he was on the cover.
It’s not that Spring Man isn’t a mascot or protagonist, it’s that Min Min is
also a protagonist.
Like, I get it that people disagree with me on things and then evidently let it get under their skin such as you are right now. I’m not even trying to do that. You are not the only one to criticize me for “being wrong”. But here’s the thing- I’m not afraid of being wrong, because people are wrong all the time.
All I have been saying is based on actual, measurable, quotable things. That’s it, and that is why people evidently find it compelling.
If I sat here and stuck to a rigid ideology, would people agree with me? No, I heavily doubt that they would. It’s because I adapt what I think to what is in front of me.
Obviously Min Min wasn’t treated the same way as Spring Man because ARMS
grew as a title.
Min Min didn’t have a measured popularity at the time of base game and at the time, Spring Man was a logical Assist Trophy pick.
I guess I’ll leave it there because there’s really no reason to get mad about any of it. I don’t give a **** if people disagree, I just think that looking at every series in Smash getting a mascot or protagonist, loophole or not, is substantial to consider.
EDIT: Also, to be fair, while I did think it would be Spring Man I always said it would be Spring Man or Min Min, so to say I only thought it would be Spring Man is not accurate.
