Alright. Here's my Sigurd fighter concept as a pure horse character. He's very esoteric in how he functions compared to most Smash characters. He's on his horse. All the time. He gets knocked down, the horse gets knocked down. There is no dismount, there is no Abandon Ship, there's no jumping off Yoshi, Sigurd and the horse are one. This means he's a very large character and a very easy target. It also means he has a number of distinct idiosyncrasies.
*No middair jump. This is going to be the strangest and hardest to adapt to aspect of Sigurd. He simply has no midaiar jump at all. This sounds fatal to a character, but he has a number of tricks up his sleeve that gets around it.
*Huge initial jump. Horses are able to jump very high so Sigurd's inital jump is like Yoshi's midair jump, though only in jump size, Sigurd has significantly less mid air control over it. Once you choose a direction for his jump that's where he's going, making it a bit like Super Dedede jump. He also has invincibility frames at the start of the jump and deals light damage during the jump. So, yeah, his regular jump is basically an attack that is akin to an up special.
*Immune to grabs. Enemies straight up can't grab Sigurd, because he's on a horse and it'd be silly to grab a whole horse and jab at it. If an enemy tries to grab Sigurd, both will be break away as if two characters grabbed each other. Sigurd himself also lacks grabs and throws entirely, meaning he has a lot of trouble against characters who can shield. He can still be grabbed by characters with a grab on their special move like Ridley or Ganondorf, since it'd be a bit too powerful to wall out those attacks and it's usually larger characters with Special Move Grabs that would look okay interacting with him. Some of them would have unique alternate animations to compensate for Sigurd's unique situation.
*No ledge cling animation. Sigurd cannot cling onto the ledge, because he has a whole freaking horse and it would be ridiculous. Instead, if Sigurd comes in contact with a ledge, his horse will automatically do a ledge attack where it scrambles back up onto the stage. This ledge attack is quite strong and grants generous invincibility frames, but given it's automatic and Sigurd has no work arounds if trying to get near a ledge, it's also very predictable for enemies to exploit.
*Turning animation. Sigurd needs a few frames to turn around and direct his horse to go in a different direction. This is a net weakness for him that is designed to curb his immense speed and power. It means when you make a decision with Sigurd, you really have to commit to it. He can still roll left and right (though it's less a role and more like the horse hops back or forward) to gain distance without turning, but if you want to make him face another direction, you need to accept a few frames of vulnerability.
*Running animation deals damage. See horse.
Now onto his attacks.
Normal Attacks
Sigurd uses a lance for all his attacks outside his final smash. There are two reasons for this. 1. Fire Emblem and Smash's bias in favour of sword users leading to a reverse bias against them. 2. While cavalry swords to exist, a lance just works better for reach, and Sigurd is already going to be pushing it in how natural his animations look in a Smash context.
*Jab: Sigurd thrusts forward with his lance from a stationary position. Can be used multiple times in succession.
*Forward Tilt: Sigurd slashes left and right (relative to him, so only forward in Smash terms) like Oscar briefly does in the rescue Lucia cutscene of Radiant Dawn. This forward tilt is special as it does not actually interrupt Sigurd's regular walking speed. And while it does have cooldown lag in which Sigurd can't attack, Sigurd can still move and turn around (and possibly jump, not sure). In other words, Sigurd can attack while walking.
*Up Tilt: Sigurd slashes his lance in a wide overhead arc, protecting him from foes attacking from above
*Down Tilt: Sigurd slashes horizontally with his lance. Sigurd's horse has a very small crouching animation, leading to this attack being more like a traditional side tilt.
*Dash: Sigurd ushers his horse on, increasing its running speed and dealing damage. Has similar properties to his forward tilt in that it does not interrupt his running speed. If the stage is long enough, you could even do it multiple times in succession, though like his forward tilt the cooldown lag for the attack is still there, Sigurd can just continue to move during it.
*Side Smash: Sigurd throws his lance like a javelin, it can be directed up and down to alter its distance. Has more power directly after Sigurd throws it.
*Up Smash: Sigurd stabs directly upwards with his lance for a powerful, but quite precise strike.
*Down Smash: Sigurd's horse rears up and stomps on the opponent. Unlike most down smashes, it only hits in front of him.
Special Attacks
Neutral Special: Luna
Sigurd's way of dealing with shielding enemies. It's a bit cheating using Luna, since it exists in his game and he doesn't have access to it, but Luna has come to be associate with cavalry classes in some Fire Emblem games and Sigurd's role here is to also represent Fire Emblem's Paladins. In manifests here not as an attack, but as an aura surrounding Sigurd that allows him to deal significantly increased shield damage to punish enemies who overshield against him. The effect lasts for twenty seconds and has a ten second cool down between uses.
Side Special: Override
Sigurd is surrounded in energy and rushes forward like his animation in Engage. In practice this works very like Fox and Falco's side special. It is vital for him getting back on the stage due to his lack of a middair jump. The range of the attack alters based on whether or not it hits something. If used without making contact with anything, it travels as far as Fox Illusion, however, if it hits something, be it an enemy, a stage element or even a shield, it will travel twice as far, and the second object or character it hits will receive more damage than the first (this also increases the more things he hits).
Up Special: Return Ring
Sigurd's ace in the hole for recovering without a middair jump. Use the special once and Sigurd will raise his free hand causing a flag to magically appear where he is standing. Use the special a second time and Sigurd will warp from wherever he is directly to that spot. This means Sigurd has, effectively, an infinite recovery. No matter how far off the stage he is, even without a middair jump, he can return to safety if you've set it up in advance. However, much like a lot of Sigurd's attacks, it's something you need to commit to and for the opponent it can be very predictable. During battle this kind of means Sigurd has a home "castle" in which he needs to defend making it reflect Genealogy's gameplay in a nice way.
Down Special: Crusader's Ward
Sigurd's way of dealing with projectiles. Most characters with a projectile defense reflect or absorb them in some way, Sigurd outright negates them. When this attack is used, Sigurd strikes a pose and gets a holy aura. For a brief window of time projectiles simply disappear without hurting him. The effect lasts for about twenty seconds with a cool down in which it can't be used for about ten seconds. So he's not immune to projectiles entirely and you can still snipe him with them, but if he's vigilant he will reapply his barrier regularly. However, it can't be used at the same time as Luna. Using one cancels out the other. The cooldown is also still in effect, so if you use Crusader's Ward, immediately then use Luna, you still won't be able to use Crusader's Ward for another ten seconds.
Final Smash: Tyrfing Miracle
Sigurd slashes in front of him. He and his enemies are brought to a field in Jugdral where Sigurd quickly embraces his dying father who gifts him Tyrfing. Sigurd then raises the holy sword and swipes at his foes in a large, dramatic swipe, dealing decent damage. However, this Final Smash has a unique second aspect to it. Not only does it deal high damage, but, if successfully used, it will give Sigurd the Miracle Status on his portrait. This status lasts for about thirty seconds. If Sigurd happens to be KO'd in this period, he will not lose a stock (or if it's in Smash fest, he will not lose a point and the enemy will not gain a point), he will then re-spawn with 999% damage already accumulated, meaning he can be killed again rather quickly. But saving him from death, even briefly can be a big decider of a match.
Another thing I considered for him is the Life Ring, since that's what he passes down to Seliph in their unique event, so it has direct importance to Genealogy and being able to recover HP in some fashion would help him protect against his weakness, but it feels like the four specials he has and the niches they bring him (dealing with shields, horizontal recovery, infinite recovery and protection from projectiles) were more necessary. So consider Life Ring potential for an alternate custom special, as that's something I wish dearly to become a thing again.
So, all in all, Sigurd is a character of huge extremes. He has extreme power and extreme speed (horses run fast after all), but needs to commit to things and his lack of middair jump means he's stuck to ground combat (I didn't even go over his middair attacks, and maybe he doesn't have any, though I like the idea of him chasing an enemy off the stage and using Return Ring to get to safety after securing a KO, so he'd have middair attacks of some from, I just don't have any specific ideas as to what). He's a bit like Little Mac, craving out the same niche of a grounded rush down character, only with a lot more oddity to him. I think among high level play he'd be considered pretty low tier for his predictability, but for the average player he'd be a huge noob killer and a blast to play as.
