WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON!!!!!
I remember when I first joined this website... with my very first playable character predictions, I put Robin on the roster selection, rather than run-of-the-mill suggestions in Chrom or Roy. Do you know what I received in return? Flak, for not putting Chrom or Roy. "Robin is not a main character." "Robin is just another avatar." "Robin is already out-prioritized by popularity." Well... none of that seemed to matter in the end. Move-set potential and diversifying the roster did.
In reply to SaturnGamer64's skepticism, I provided my rationalization towards Robin's inclusion as a playable character and even used reference points from this thread (I do not remember if I posted this before, so if I have, I apologize in advance):
Truly, I believe the Avatar (or Robin, as you may prefer) is a far more advisably wise, excitably advantageous even, decision for Fire Emblem representation, rather than the mundane choices in Chrom or Roy. With the Avatar, you already have an essential aspect of Fire Emblem not already represented, that being a non-blue-haired tactician capable of not just swordplay, but also magic-using tomes. Therefore, you have a dual-wielding Fire Emblem character who is capable of not just close combat, but also long-range projectiles, which isn't yet showcased by the series in Super Smash Brothers. Also considering the Avatar's crucial importance within FE13's storyline, thus allowing the tactician the same major character rights as Chrom and Lucina.
With Chrom and Roy, however, you are simply left with a retreat of previously established Fire Emblem tropes. In Chrom's case, most either speculate one of two options. There is taking over Ike's status as the hard-hitting heavy-set fighter, but the idea of replacing an extremely popular character like Ike is beyond unimaginably ludicrous, so it isn't even an option worth considering. The other option, of course, is for Chrom to play as a middle-man - best of both of Marth and Ike's worlds, yet it may seem an unsatisfying choice to consider. Then you have Roy, who is already nothing more than an inferior clone of Marth, and would add nothing to the meta-game of Fire Emblem that Marth doesn't already provide. Of course, there is always the option of semi-cloning either Chrom and Roy, but again, it does nothing to establish the layered multitudes of diversification from the Fire Emblem universe.
As a result of the Avatar's general importance and potentially uniquely-inclined attributes, both qualitative and quantitative, he or she would bring far more essential aspects of what Fire Emblem has to yet offer, while Chrom and Roy deliver almost nothing else that hasn't already been provided for elsewhere by their counterparts.
...
Admittedly, it is only a skeletal structure, of what should be a main body of persuasive argumentation. I will, however, provide the rest of the meat and flesh as to the importance of the Avatar, all in carefully meticulous detail.
• Essential and important character in FE:Awakening
This is obvious, as the Avatar is not only a major character in Fire Emblem: Awakening (henceforth referred to as FE13), but also an integral plot-driven device that writes the entire story itself, even with a mirror-image counterpart acting as the final boss of the game. It is also equally obvious, however, that Chrom is another essential and important character in FE13. Both Chrom and Avatar are the main characters of their stories, occupying considerable amount of screen time in story-line cut scenes. Yet, Chrom is arguably more crucial from a financial standpoint, as he remains on various promotional advertisements, merchandising items, and marketing for FE13. So, how could the Avatar be considered over Chrom (or Roy, by extension)? Consider these two terms.
1. Lucina is just as marketable and promotional as Chrom, if not more-so within advertisements, yet most people seem already designated towards Chrom's inclusion over Lucina. So, commercial endorsements shouldn't be the sole factor rendering the Avatar useless, because then both Chrom and Lucina would be most certainly assured for the character selection of Super Smash Brothers 4. If you're going to have one over the other, then choice have to be made, as well as chances.
2. Precedence.
Let me explain, as follows.
•Extremely unique moveset potential involving FE tomes, swordplay, and possibly tactics.
•Aesthetically unique.
•Fills in gaps of representation in the FE roster (strategy, magic/tomes)
Consider the fact that Marth and Ike are both blue-haired swordsman main-lords who, while they play entirely differently from each other, only represent very few core aspects of the Fire Emblem universe. With Chrom, you not only add another blue-haired fighter, another swordsman, and another main-lord, but also nothing else at all that would give Fire Emblem any assortment of diversification. Within that time period, the series will gain a notoriously dubious reputation within the Smash community, a reputation built upon the structural foundations of repetition and redundancy. Eventually, everybody will start to predict blue-haired swordsmen main-lords in future installments of Super Smash Brothers (assuming there are sequels for both titles down the line) and lose interest because everything is same-old same-old. It will be infamous.
While I will not pretend to know the fascinatingly complex mind of Masahiro Sakurai (and nor should anybody else in this forum, for that matter), I do sincerely believe that, as Sakurai stated he is a fan of the series, he is aware of other core fundamental elements within the Fire Emblem, namely war-time strategy and various methods of attacking. I do believe Intelligent Systems is also aware of this, and with the Avatar's presence nearby, it would not go unnoticed.
With the Avatar, you have a playable Fire Emblem character who is not a blue-haired swordsman main-lord (gods, in terms of terminology, I have ran that well dry), but is a potentially unique character in possession of both a varietal array of attacks (swords and tomes) and an aesthetically unique dynamic (white hair and overcoat outfit). Chrom would be a sleep-inductively boring choice in place of a more exciting and productive decision made within the Avatar.
Considering the main character status of the Avatar, his/her inclusion as a playable character would not be out-of-place. This is a most opportunistically advantageous time to install a Fire Emblem character that would change the series landscape forever, within broad range and scope.
• Interesting personality and back story
Self-explanatory. The Avatar would not feel like an out-of-place fish on land with Marth and Ike.
• Represents the core elements of Fire Emblem, tactics, character, story differing classes/roles and warefare.
"I think the Avatar is a bad idea because it represents a feature that just debuted in Awakening and thus is not an important or iconic part of Fire Emblem History."
While you are technically correct in certain aspects, you are also technically wrong in many others. Indeed, the unique Fire Emblem starting class of the Tactician only just debuted within FE13, but consider now what the role not only means in a narrow sense of definition, but also broad. In a narrow sense, the tactician class is just that - a class. A story-line important main character class, nonetheless. However, consider now the expansively long-reaching implications of what the tactician represents, perhaps the most important essence of the entire Fire Emblem series.
The tactician is you. The tactician is not just a main character starting class on par with the lords, but also the commander of an entire army of soldiers, ready to fight for a rightfully just cause. The Avatar is the strategically-gifted, chess-playing, tactical grand-mastermind who must be responsible for several crucial decisions; the responsibility of commanding said army into battle with the consideration of the soldiers who fight those battles, and the life-saving or life-threatening strategies that may make-or-break the entire war; the responsibility within training individual fighters to their fullest potential, ranging from paladins and archers to generals and mages; the responsibility of financial arrangements within procuring the army's supplies, from a varietal selection of weaponry, to armory and accessories, to vulneraries and elixirs; and the responsibility of match-making several units together for supports, whether friendships, rivalries, or marriages. The Avatar is the ultimate representation of hours-long practice of menu-scrolling preparations for upcoming and ongoing battles, and the triumphs and tragedies of winning and losing. That is what the Avatar is to the history Fire Emblem - the skill and smarts of the player.
It actually happened.
For a man of many words, I am at a loss for any to hold meaning now, expect in the description of the experience of happiness. I am happy. In the first time for the longest time within the speculation scene of Super Smash Brothers, I am happy. The traditional establishment of only blue-haired, main-lord swordsmen is finally broken. While I do sympathize with Chrom supporters, especially since that ending was a brutal kick in the ribs, Robin was the best possible result for a playable Fire Emblem character (as well as my future main). A fourth character in Lucina is a much-appreciated added bonus, one I did not expect but fully enjoy.
Also, the Gematsu Leak is deader than my suggestion for Robin DLC the combatants of the Battle of Belhalla (unless Chrom was scrapped in early development, which I somewhat doubt)... and so should the pessimism that prevailed prior to this astonishing announcement. Let us bask in the radiant glory of this fateful day. The scales of success have tipped for Robin, and for us.
The world is full of possibilities.
