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Digging on the 5chan leak.![]()
A troubling foe, and yet, I can't resist! Overcome with an unearned hubris, I'll rise to the task~
Good evening! As of... let's see... December 13th 2020, this is my hard prediction, fueled by confirmation bias and nothing else. I'm an irrational knobgoblin, and who would I be to be better than that? No, of course not. This is my time to go at it, make the fool out of myself~
Now, I'm adhering pretty strongly to the 5chan leak here - almost seems stupid of me. It probably is. Surely out of so many tommyrot text leaks, one might hit the nail on the head with a single fighter, even in regards to a pick like Sephiroth! Indeed, the leak has not yet proven itself to be more than a fluke. It has not done so in the slightest.
And so I tried to seperate the leak itself, from the idea of the latter half of the pass looking like this... and the more I thought about it, the more sense I found it to make. I'm going to go over these three and what I'm thinking about them, if you'll let me... You can't stop me~!
KOS-MOS
I know KOS-MOS is a bit divisive around these parts, but hear me out. And then make fun of me, if you'd like. Whether Xenosaga is particularly relevant or not... probably doesn't matter as much as whether KOS-MOS herself is a character that those in charge think people will buy. On that front, I think there's just a little more merit than she's given credit for. KOS-MOS is demonstrably a marketable character, idependently so of Xenosaga. I was actually surprised just how much material involving her seemed to exist. I think KOS-MOS is a recognizable enough face to at the very least make sense as an oncoming fighter.
There's also the more intangible aspect that is purely percieved on my part: those upstairs really just seem to love her to bits, that lot. Monolith in particular seems to hold her in very high regard, perhaps the closest thing the studio has to a mascot of sorts. While it may be mostly internal, she has a sort of clout few other characters have, not that I think any character particularly needs it. And, surely, those working on this game will have a very easy time getting in touch with those that own KOS-MOS, Bandai Na- wait a minute...
All waters aside, I think these two aspects of her situation come together to put her in a much better spot than people realize. I would compare her to Bayonetta in the sense of almost being a sort of honorary first-party, if you'll entertain that.
Crash
Now, Crash... Crash is Crash. He's probably the single most requested fighter in general as it currently stands, and I think he's had the momentum long enough for that to have mattered when these decisions were made. It seemed as though this muppet had all the cards back in October, and even three days ago, he was seen as in the running.
I fail to see why he's any less prominent than before, especially since as per the timeline I will present soon enough, he'd likely be unveiled at the best time to do so with a crowd-pleaser like this. His odds have looked quite strong for about as long as this pass has been ongoing, to the point where I have precious little to add, speaking as somebody not particularly invested in his chances. You know where we do have a conflict of interest, though...?
Reimu
I'm going to keep it real here. I want Reimu in Smash. A lot. Has this clouded my judgement on the matter when it comes to the 5chan leak? You better believe it. But for the sake of this thought exercise, I'm happy to own that, and truck on anyway.
To say Reimu is "popular in Japan" would be, uh... rather modest. She's a downright unrivalled indie icon, sat atop an empire of official work and oceans, oceans of fan content. There is no sidestepping her prominence. A solid chunk of those on the roster would cower in fear in her shadow.
The main thing people bring up to respond to this is that she's not known overseas. Once upon a time this was very true. However seeing as people here have been, uh, talking about her, clearly it's not quite the case. Indeed, thanks toRonald McDonaldthe power of the internet, Touhou has been successful in gaining an impressive western following, the tireless efforts of fans allowing this to be the case long before official work was even distributed there. Perhaps to us she's "niche" but you could say the same about plenty of fighters in Smash. She's present here, and a truly unstoppable force in the birthplace of Smash Bros. A character like this is absolutely pass-finishing material, as I'd like to present in a moment, able to flaunt a kind of cult following we've seen of Mr. Bogard.
Timeline
When I was ordering these three, I had reasons for my placements. I'm going to present a somewhat rough timeline for this scenario and then explain myself best I can.
KOS-MOS - March 2021
Crash - Summer 2021
Reimu - Winter 2021
There's been a bit of buzz about the prospect of a March reveal for Challenger 9, and I think it largely checks out. It's a sensible gap of time with the good ol' amiibo indicator. I don't feel like there's a whole lot I'd need to say for why I feel this way. KOS-MOS being where she is has to do with this simply being where she ended up after thinking about where Crash and Reimu oughta go.
Crash is where he is for two reasons. First off, if he's in this pass and they've held off so long, I would say that it points to an E3 (or E3-adjacent, love ya COVID) reveal. There's hardly a better time and place to bring out the show-stopper, which I'd imagine most would consider Crash to be. I also can't imagine KOS-MOS and Reimu being back-to-back. Crash not only fits into the best time to reveal him (IMO), but also neatly breaks up two fighters with somewhat similar appeal.
Ending the pass, and just in time for that deadline would be Reimu. The resolution following Sephiroth's rising action, and - hmm... y'know what, I'm not giving anyone that line. Anyway, such a resolution is embodied quite nicely with a fighter who can feel simultaneously a bit outlandish, and yet also have the appeal to back it up. I think that's Reimu, and I think this is when she'll present herself. She'll bring ire to some, confusion to others, and something real special to many. And with that, our golden Fighters Pass would draw to a close. Would it be the end? I have no idea; my intuition draws a blank.
Before signing off here, I'd note that I put more than a bit of work into the little mock-up you see before you. I wanted to make it stand out a bit from most templates. I hope it's a pleasure to see. The renders of KOS-MOS and Reimu used for it were made by newt and GGalactigal respecitively.
Honestly, I feel like Reimu is the likeliest out of the others you mentioned, because of your reasons. Good post!
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. I'd say that Masamune's lack of width and something else (probably what 
