Falcon's actually always been well-represented considering his weakness is the game. Part of it IS his perceived weakness people played him to show they could beat people with the worst character in the game. Part of it is his coolness. Part of it is his hold-over audience from melee.
He may not be well-represented, but relative to the number of players he SHOULD have, he's extremely well-represented, and reletive to the number of Zelda players, he is very well-represented.
The latter was really my point, in spite of his known inferiority, he got more players then Zelda.
This illustrates that it's not just Zelda being a bad character that makes her have few players, weaker characters are better off in that department. It's part of the picture, but her simple lack of popularity also plays a major role.
...Somehow this makes sense... I myself play Falcon in friendlies/lulz matches when Sonic's gone a bit dull... and to be quite honest, his stigma of being (very) bad is quite over-rated... Reall,y he's pretty decent... like Sonic in a way.... probably why I could play him so well in the first place (and that I'm not playing his Melee version... oh God I'm so bad @ Melee it's laughable).
...Although there are many other reasons why some characters aren't played besides being bad. We all know how easy it is to just pick up MK and get good with... say compared to a character on the lower half of this list that requires a little bit/lot of work... and arguably for less reward. There's also the characters who just don't feel right. I am much worse with MK than I am Sonic... and out of the whole cast, I feel much more comfortable with Falcon than I do Zelda... I just can't coup with Zelda's precise attacks and her overall sluggishness/limitations (Sonic's Bair spoils me, Zelda has nothing in the air like this), I just can't.
Although be honest here, Falcon may have a lot of people playing him, undeniably agreed to because of his "cool" factor alone, but how many people do you see busting him out in tourneys? I've seen people use him, but not once out of
ALL the tourneys have I been too have I seen him been
seriously used.
I've seen one Zelda player... he's pretty common in the Vegassmash scene, does decent for himself... but psh fighting his Zelda? I myself have little trouble with the guy/ the character... I find a good Falcon more threatening TBH...
Err... don't get that confused now! I'm not saying I find a good Falcon more threatening than the Zelda player, but Zelda as a character... is not really that intimidating. :/
Eh but I play Sonic, I'm sure if I used the right character Falcon is just meh *shrug.*