Good work keeping the hope alive. There is not many of us, but those who are here truly appreciate and cherish the character which is more than I can say for a lot of character support bases (of which a lot of them are there for the "community" or "want to be on a winning team"). I already said before that I am not optimistic on Toad (any form of him) being playable in Ultimate, either on the base roster or as DLC.
Toad quite frankly has the most uphill battle of any deserving character ever for Smash Bros. In his own series he has to deal with Waluigi and Geno, whom have hordes of fans that shout endlessly on social media about how its an injustice those characters are not yet playable in Smash Bros., so the game designers likely see both of those characters as a higher priority than any form of Toad. We also have Paper Mario whom has an entire sub-series dedicated to him and received a new game as recently as 2016. There is also the expectations from many that Toad "is boring" or "not a fighter". I feel Isabelle puts to rest the latter argument as well as his new depiction of him within Peach's moveset.
With regards to Captain Toad, I am curious whether the player or the Captain himself can interact like you can with Pauline and her band. If he merely has a background cameo role, he easily could be swapped out if they decide to make Captain Toad DLC.
The recent direct has quite literally cemented Toadette as a "rising star". Toadette has a lot of critical roles in recent years. She was a playable character in Super Mario Run (of which even Daisy was playable, and the only two characters that were playable in that game that are not yet playable in Smash Bros. are Toadette and Toad himself). She was the co-star of Captain Toad. She had a very important NPC role in Super Mario Odyssey (she hands you more moons than any other character in the game). And now she has replaced Blue Toad as one of the playable characters for New Super Mario Bros. Deluxe.
I am wondering how Toad fans would feel if somehow Toadette were to make it in as a playable character. I am uncertain of this myself. I very much doubt it would happen, however, hypothetically, if it did, I would be okay with it as long as it was a backdoor way to get Toad in as an echo fighter. I might also be endeared to Toadette if they remade Wario's Woods with her as the protagonist, but I doubt that game is ever getting a new installment (which is a shame considering its my favorite Nintendo made puzzle game ever). Toadette is a charming, cute, and endearing character to be sure, but she certainly does not have the credentials to be in over Toad. However, I will say right now her resume does look more impressive than Waluigi and Geno, however, unlike those two, she does not have legions of passionate fans, which thus, most likely makes her viewed as a lower priority than those two.
Its a shame what happened with Toad in the Smash Bros. series. Becoming part of Peach's moveset could very well have been an eternal hell that condemned all forms to the character. If Peach had anything else for her neutral special back during Melee, I am confident Toad would have been playable by now. However, as it stands, I am not optimistic on Toad ever happening. However, as I said before, I felt the same way about Ridley after what Sakurai said about him back during November 2014, and it was a miracle for Sakurai to do a 180 on the character only a year after having made those statements.
Despite all odds, Toad fans must press on. There is no other fanbase out there for a character that has the odds stacked against them yet at the same as deserving, as Toad is. Hopefully someday, Toad will join the roster too.
