I'm glad they did the smart thing and put the first-party and third-party characters in separate polls. It's nice to see a large-scale ballot poll that isn't just crapping on characters that aren't Nintendo IPs.
I'm honestly surprised at how high Shantae ranked in a poll that puts both third-parties and indies together - another smart move - especially since she seems within firing distance of second place, given Sora's and Bayonetta's unlikelihood (the former because of Square/Disney no doubt being clingy, the latter because of... well, more obvious reasons). Seeing her having more votes than Shovel Knight and even
Snake tells me that she does indeed have a strong and vocal fanbase, and that gives me hope.
...Though my general cynicism was quickly restored when I looked at the first-party poll and I had a facial expression somewhat resembling this:
I'm a trifle miffed.
I'm not usually one to slander people's choices, but I thought it had been established the world over by Smashfans, Emblemfans and
Masahiro Sakurai himself (by way of the final game) that 1) Chrom wasn't bringing anything new to the table, and 2) he's already drafted into another character's Final Smash. I'd have expected him to be a joke vote at best, not
first place in lieu of the more deserving characters like K. Rool or Isaac. People need to stop being in denial!