Pieman I hope you don't mind, but I'm knocking down your Quote Jenga and reorganizing everything. It might like a little ugly until you start replying but I think you'll be fine.
You like
yellow, right? Yeah, everyone does. Yellow it is!
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The problem you have is a lack of perception. It's obvious from your posts.
- "For his role in FE6, he was essentially your standard JRPG fare"
- "Roy and Ike are interchangable because they are both lords who use fire in their attacks."
- "Sigurd doesn't have enough to distinguish him though."
- "See, you're creating personalities, because you've got nothing to go on."
"Maybe it was something I didn't pick up"
Let's look at your description of FE6 Roy's character:
"a kid trying to protect his kingdom from a evil invading empire"
- He's fully aware Bern isn't evil, just that Zephiel is just being a douchebag. Partly because of Guinevere travelling with him, partly because he's familiar with the history of Bern.
"making friends all along the way."
- Recruiting more soldiers is critical to the gameplay, but even then he never gets chummy with the individual soldiers unless he has a support with them.
"He doesn't want to kill or anything, but given the circumstances, he must yadda yadda."
- He never complains about killing, not once. The closest thing to that is his desire to prevent the war, and he gives up on that completely after Hector dies in like Chapter 3.
Nevermind that you completely missed one of his more obvious traits, his intelligence. It's obvious that you're criticizing a character you don't know anything about. I'm not gonna give you guff for not knowing Sigurd though since you already said that you're not that familiar with him (and we don't have to talk about him because I've already mentioned that he has no chance a while ago).
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Now let's look at your description of Roy (and Marth and Ike, while we're at it) in Smash:
"Roy and Ike are interchangable because they are both lords who use fire in their attacks."
- You're not this stupid. I know you're not.
"See, you're creating personalities, because you've got nothing to go on. Really, about three animations (A taunt and three victory poses) are the only significant animations to tell apart their characters, which is the same of all clones. People can tell the difference between Mario and Dr. Mario no? Doesn't mean they are practically the same."
- This is probably the best example of you admitting that you have no perception. Marth stands still and tall, brushes his hair, has a soft voice, and tends to confuse people for a woman. Roy is bouncing, he's got his fist clenched like he's ready to punch someone, his voice is loud, and he's all over the place in his victory poses. EVERYONE sees it, and that's why everyone calls Marth "feminine" and Roy "energetic." The only way you wouldn't know is if you never played as either of them for more than five seconds.
"As for Roy, its because he has less that stands out for him than even the twins (Individually, the twins are probably even more dull than Roy though. I guess its just the concept of two lords that make them stand out, though the execution wasn't done well)"
- I know this wasn't in response to me so I feel like I'm cheating, but I can't ignore this. The twins. TWINS. Seriously. How can you be so blind? At this point I have to wonder if you even own a copy of Brawl or if you actually played the Fire Emblem games you said you've played. If you did, you've easily notice how Marth and Roy fight like a Myrmidon/Swordmaster (especially Dolphin Slash/Blazer), where Ike is like a Mercenary/Hero (especially Brawl Aether being more in line with their crit animation instead of FE Aether). But no, they're twins because "they're both blue-haired swordsmen."
Look, even little kids can tell the difference between Marth, Roy, and Ike. No one looks at them as "blue sword, red sword, blue sword." People notice subtleties and not-so-subtleties when they spend time with the characters. How you don't see them is beyond me.
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As far as I can tell, your main argument is "we need more lances, axes, mages, anything but sword weilders!" And that makes as much sense as "we need more women and villains" or "we need more Mario and Zelda characters!" It doesn't work like that because
people want specific characters, not categories. If people wanted Micaiah it'd be because they think Micaiah rules, not because she has a light tome and boobs. People don't want Ridley because he's "a villian to a series that needs more characters." They like him because he's the man.
Here's a hypothetical situation: Cindy has a dog named Spike. Cindy loves Spike, and he means the world to her. One day, Spike runs away. Cindy is devastated. Her parents ask her if she wants a new dog. But Cindy doesn't want a new dog, she wants Spike back. Her friend says that Spike sucked! This new dog is way better than Spike! But Cindy doesn't care, she only wants Spike.
For those of you who don't get analogies: Cindy has a character named Roy. Cindy loves Roy, and he means the world to her. One day, Roy goes away. Cindy is devastated. Nintendo asks her if she wants a new character. But Cindy doesn't want a new character, she wants Roy back. Her friend says that Roy sucked! This new character is way better than Roy! But Cindy doesn't care, she only wants Roy.
Yes, it's possible for Cindy to become interested in the new, but she won't stop pining for the old. And if you play the "what does one person matter?" card, that just shows that you're completely out of touch with the average fan. The majority of them want Roy and the evidence is all over the place.
- "And they were intended to be cut when the time constraints hit them. They were bumped in favor of other characters, and if they were important enough, they would have gotten in instead of others."
- "Yes people want them back, but some people want Doc and Pichu back as well really. Some people want Master Chief, and some people want Geno. Lots of people want lots of things."
- "If so many people wanted Roy though, he would have gotten into Brawl though."
This is you saying people don't want Roy and Sakurai could've magic'd Roy into the game with the power of love if they did. Nevermind all the people upset over Roy's exclusion. Nevermind all the stuff Sakurai had to do just to release the game three months after the initial release date. Nevermind the fact that very very few people were honestly expecting Doc, Pichu, Master Chief, or Geno (sorry Fatman).
For some reason I'm ending this post with quote tags when I haven't used them so far:
Roy...the second most important...wow, that's....wow. Really now, yes Melee had a important role in Fire Emblem, and did introduce it to the west, but its not something you should base the roster around, since itis not Fire Emblem. Its a different series. Quite frankly, if Melee's influence on Fire Emblem mattered that much, then we would have had Roy in Brawl. If Roy was the second most important character, then how do you explain Brawl? If Roy was the second most important FE character, then how do you explain his game not coming out internationally, instead of FE7? Really now, in the standings of Fire Emblem itself, Roy is about as significant as Leaf.
Here's a question: what has any Lord aside from Marth, Roy, or Ike done for the series to make them important? Oh yeah, that's right.
They haven't done anything. Lyn taught people outside Japan how to play the game and she's an AT. Good for her. Everyone else? Showed up in their one game, maybe had a cameo in another, then they were done. Went on to be a king or a queen or died bravely. Never came back, never stood out.
Being in Smash Bros. means WAY more than being in any individual Fire Emblem game because Smash means WAY more to the average person than any individual Fire Emblem game.
Yes they can, but that doesn't mean that the roster should be decided by these people, rather than the people who became fans of the actual series. Yes Smash got people introduced to FiE, but that doesn't make it a FE game. If you want to have someone who really represents the impact that Smash had on FE's popularity, then you already have Marth.
The funny thing about this is Sakurai has no way of telling the difference between "non-fans" and people who played Fire Emblem. I could tell him that Moltres is my favorite Pokemon. How is he supposed to know whether it's because of Smash or Pokemon?
And no, Marth doesn't convey "the Fire Emblem effect" well enough on his own. People don't write "Fire Emblem was localized because Marth was in Melee." It's "Marth and Roy." Everywhere on every website that has a description. "Are Marth and Roy in this one?" People want them both. My brother used to say "so basically, Roy is Fire and Marth is Emblem, and they fight crime." You can't have one without the other and assume people will accept it. They're bound to eachother forever.
That was a long one and I still think I missed something.