What does treating her like a first party have anything to do with her popularity among the hardcore Nintendo fanbase? Sonic and Megaman are mostly beloved among many hardcore fans because of their history with Nintendo. Pac Man too of course. Why is Bayonetta an exception to that rule?
She's not a first party, that much is obvious, no one is denying that. The people who got "Pissed" at Bayonetta's exclucivity were fans of OTHER platforms, not Nintendo fans. Yeah, sure, some Nintendo fans might have been upset about that too, but like you said, "Exception, not the rule".
In regards to Bayonetta's votes, I can at least SORT OF see where you're coming from in that regard. I was actually going to vote Bayo along with my other top vote, but like others, the idea of her making it into Smash was a pipe dream at the time. I can at least understand the logic of not generalizing the hardcore votes for Bayo when a lot of us thought we "knew better" before the likes of Cloud and Bayo.
I still don't see how Bayo wasn't who she is now back then. We were hot off the heels of Bayo 2 when the Ballot was relevant. It was loved by a ton of people, and again, sold well. If anything, she was peaking at the time.
But I'm not even arguing the ballot vote right now, my point is you CANNOT generalize an entire section of the fanbase when literally almost everyone against your point right now likely falls under a "hardcore" and there is much more sound evidence against that point than for it. I mean hell, we're on a forum about Super Smash Bros. I'm pretty sure most people here lean more towards hardcore fans than casual fans.
I thought that was the point you were establishing, that Nintendo faithful loved her, or whatever. In the context of today, I would argue that she is more or less Nintendo; however, at the time, nobody was calling her "practically Nintendo" despite Nintendo owning exclusivity rights to publish the game.
Pac-Man? Pretty sure that was because of Bandai Namco. Even Sakurai did not want it at first. Either way, key word there is history, sister.
Bayonetta fans from other platforms. Bayonetta fans that likely did not vote in Nintendo's ballot.
You would know the rules if you voted in the ballot, hypothetically. Casuals are not mentally impaired. Be real, at least some of the votes were from trolls, and not just a negligible percentage. I am not saying it was substantial, but it definitely contributed, fam.
Because the circumstances were different. As of right now, everyone believes she is the safest third-party character to return, even ahead of Sonic, whereas prior to that, she was not on the hardcore fans radar whatsoever. Pretty drastic discrepancy, if you ask me. I am sure that the series peaking helped immensely. That is, realistically, put her on the radar, but for the win? It would a stretch. Tell me the truth, if we did not YET have the ballot results. Regardless of the series peak, if we were discussing Bayo, would you believe she had the capacity to win worldwide?
What evidence? You keep alluding to something that does not exist, darling. Beyond that, almost everyone shut up once they realized they were incorrect. You are and Zeb are seemingly the only ones who are unable to comprehend why she could not have been the definitive winner.
