WeirdChillFever
Smash Hero
Job 153
Anna (75ε)
(Byleth Echo)
Anna (75ε)
(Byleth Echo)
As a recurring character, Anna has only completely missed out on Gaiden and its remake Shadows of Valentia, otherwise having a perfect attendance record. Most of her appearances are as shopkeeper and tutorial host, but she makes the jump to playability in Fire Emblem Awakening, before reprising her playable role in Fates, Three Houses, Warriors amd Heroes.
In Heroes, she’s even a main character as the commander of the Askran forces. Furthermore, Apotheosis Anna appeared later as a standalone summonable character as a reaction to her high placing in the fan poll, Choose Your Legends.
In the Smash Bros. series, she made her debut as a Trophy in the 3DS version of Smash 4 and currently has a Master Spirit in Ultimate. For this job, I propose she can fill the role as the last first party Echo as an Echo fighter to Byleth in Infinite
For Smash Bros., she could use the regalia weapons that first appeared in Shadow Dragon: The blade Mercurius, the lance Gradivus, the axe Hauteclere and the bow Parthia. These regalia appear in multiple entries in the series, most recently in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, as well as Fire Emblem: Heroes, in which they serve as not only the personal weapons of their wielders back in the first game, but also as the weapons for the Brave versions of Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude to complete the circle of the Fire Emblem saga, a theme best showcased by the girl that has been there since the beginning and has grown into a beloved mascot figure of the series.
If Anna were to use her Heroes design, one could even use the weapons Folkvangr (Alfonse’s sword), Fensalir (Sharena’s lance), Nóatún (Anna’s axe) and Breidablik (Kiran’s gun) as an alternative set. In both of these cases, Anna would most likely play the role of Byleth’s weaker but nimbler counterpart.
A more random approach could be taken where each input uses a different weapon from the series, including other legendary weapons like Siegmund, Fujin Yumi and Armads. This gives Anna her raison d’être: A character that represents the many weapons of Fire Emblem and its long history, packed in a character that has followed that history with every step, as well as a constant force in a cast that revolves its protagonists. Anna can function the same in Smash with her weaponry, incorporating not only the weapons that are in every Fire Emblem game, like Brave weapons that are known for attacking twice, but also the weapons of the lords not in Smash yet.
What weapons will she use? It’s for you to decide!
The gameplay differences can be subtle when simply replacing the Hero’s Relics with Regalia; the only gameplay differences that are obligatory stem from the lack of whipswords in her kit. This at minimum means that she needs a new Up Special and some retooling to other moves that use the Sword of the Creator and a new Final Smash.
To show that Anna’s history in the series give her the license to go the distance with just a few anounts of changes, Anna’s Up Special cannot use a whipsword, which means it has to be replaced and is thus an excellent way to bring in another Fire Emblem staple, whether it be a light magic spell like Warp or Rescue, or a spell of fellow Fire Emblem mage Robin in Excalibur. As a Trickster, Anna is capable of using magic, so her weapon prowess doesn’t just stop on the physical side of things. Anna takes every inch she’s given and uses it to give you the most Fire Emblem for its buck, whether it’s reskinning of weapons or herself, Anna fits in with every kind of Fire Emblem player. In the long History of The Emblem, Anna has been there and she’s ramping up her prominence starting with Awakening.
That’s not where the changes have to stop though: With the large armory she has at her disposal, there’s no shortage of Electroshock Arm-like weapon swaps in her arsenal, with moves being able to be either stronger, faster, weaker, slower etc. than the weapons of the Three Houses lords’, and can bring effects that fit the original weapons’ various skills from throughout the Fire Emblem legacy. This gives her a sort of Mr. Game and Watch-esque appeal, where each input can bring out a different weapon (as opposed to Byleth having a weapon per input direction) and have its own effects. A Back Air that attacks twice at the cost of might because it uses a Brave Lance, coupled with a Forward Air that hits even harder than Areadbhar because it uses Gradivus or Siegmund, the sky is the limit when it comes to effects. If this mechanic is chosen, Anna would feel a bit more random than Byleth and wouldn’t have a clear archetype like “stronger Byleth” or “weaker Byleth”: Each input would have its own strengths and weaknesses.
As said before, there are multiple designs to take as her base from the Fire Emblem series: Her Trickster outfit that appears in both Awakening and Three Houses would further the connection Anna has with Byleth, her Heroes garb would represent the smash hit mobile game perfectly and Apotheosis Anna is infamous in the fanbase and has appeared in Heroes for that reason as well. The Apotheosis garb also gives her a neat backpack stuffed with weapons which can be used to great effects to give Anna that classic salesman flair.
That’s not to mention her iconic catchphrases, poses and personality that can make her stand out from the stiff and stoic Ashen Demon and would make her stand out as an Echo. Echo Fighters have traditionally been used to convey the personality of the character and Anna sure is a personality between her sweet-talking customer service combined with her cutthroat thirst for money to stand out when compared to the Professor that shines in his simplicity and more direct approach to conversation.
Luckily, Anna knows a thing or two about selling a product. Not only is she popular, coming in as high as fifth in one of the Choose Your Legends polls and making the top 50 in both the earliest and the latest installment of the poll with her Awakening incarnation alone (and yes, this is higher than Black Knight scored), Anna is a beloved mascot figure to the series, already giving her a leg up as a legitimately popular character.
Still, Fire Emblem has had a contentious history in Smash. The fanbase bemoans the revolving cast of lords that only wield swords making their appearance in Smash.
The thing is, these issues do not apply to Anna. Instead, a lot of the issues people have with the series’ representation can be solved in one blow. A cast known for only its most recent protagonist would gain one of its only recurring characters to connect to all players. A selection of weapons that only consists of swords despite of its vibrant armory would gain an expert on lances, axes and bows at the very least, and the series that has skipped so many of its older entries that fell between the cracks can finally see a character from their game, using their weapons, coming to join the fray.
Anna is very flexible in her design and can act as the glue that holds the revolving door cast of lords together with her consistent appearances. By including alternate costumes, palette swaps and choosing the right weapons, Anna can connect to any player of any Fire Emblem game, something that the Fire Emblem cast in Smash thus far sorely lacks. As said before, choosing a design of a previously skipped over game can give her the longevity she needs to fit right in with the other characters and make the selection more rounded.
The weapons play a part in this too. If Anna indeed chooses to bring regalia from across the series with her, Anna can bring along references to characters from across the series. It also means that Anna is far from “just another swordfighter” and the fact she takes inspiration from Byleth instead of Marth meams the mean amount of swords in Fire Emblem’s Smash presence would go down, and the amount of bows, lances and axes would go dramatically up. Since weapon selection is such a big part of Fire Emblem, Anna‘s salesman experience makes her a smooth fit. The fact that Anna can do all this as just an Echo is an economical bonus!
Overall, Anna is an evergreen that can take the cheap resources given to her as an Echo and take Fire Emblem representation to new heights. She’s scrappy, more than the sum of her parts and would squeeze the weapon master archetype to its limit all in one popular, flexible and charming character.
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