^^^^ It was a good Toon Link community, and it is a shame they left. It seems like that wanna-be Batman killed a lot of the Brawl character Boards.
I will say that things are a lot more... quiet this time around. It's kind of hard to explain, but we're not at the level of pre-Brawl speculation. Which is kind of a good thing in a sense considering things are a lot less overwhelming (and marginally less ********).
Well the speculation with characters isn't as crazy because there isn't anyone a ton of people like left. Diddy Kong, Toon Link, King Dedede, Meta Knight, Lucario, Ike, Wario, Olimar, and Sonic are all playable. The only characters who came close to those guys in terms of popularity are Mewtwo (who is seen by most as all but confirmed), K. Rool (in which there is no reason not to add him), and Ridley (who seems to attract the dumbest haters in the universe).
People seem to be more "against" characters than for them, if anything these days.
But still, you are right; the levels of stupidity have gone down drastically, in part because it isn't "The Wild West" anymore; everything is generally more tame, and more gameplay-focused. Honestly, we could use even more gameplay focus. After all, we play smash for the gameplay, not for the characters. Like I have made a habit of saying, the characters bring us to play the games, the gameplay keep us playing the games (for weeks, months, years, and decades).
Oh, and just for the record it seems like the most vocal people tend to be the most stupid. Vocal not as in popular, but rather obnoxious about their beliefs.
The person I am thinking of should support the character of their namesakes' franchise, not characters no one wants.