Hey guys, I just wanted to start a little bit of a discussion on this topic. I wasn't really sure what to call this thread, but what I mean by this is that I often see fans arguing that a character is not "relevant" and thus shouldn't be included over other characters who are more recent. The standard case brought up here is generally Lucario and Ike getting in Brawl over Mewtwo and Roy respectively. My question is.. why is it important at all?
As we just recently saw, Olimar was confirmed as being part of the roster and not replaced by a protagonist in Pikmin 3, despite Olimar not being a main character in that game (even if he is confirmed by Miyamoto to be in Pikmin 3 in some way). This says, to me at least, exactly the opposite of the argument that a character should be replaced by the most recent main character. The only reason recency really matters is because it makes a character more well known among the fans, at least the newer fans.
In the case of Lucario, from what I gather, the Pokemon Company did push for Lucario to be added (probably because of recency), but Lucario was a popular character, also. He had been used in promotions for Diamond/Pearl and the anime. Ike might not have been the most popular Fire Emblem character, and Intelligent Systems definitely did tell Sakurai that he should add him, but I would like to point out here that Micaiah was also actually the most recent Fire Emblem main character at that time. Yes, I know Ike is also in her game, but he doesn't come until after the beginning segment of the game, and isn't really advertised as the main character. For the sake of the argument, though, we'll say that Ike was the most recent character. The point here is that, from what we can make of the evidence on the Brawl disk, they were never intended to be replacement characters. They were meant to be alongside Mewtwo and Roy in the roster. It's my assumption that the newcomers they decided to add for the series just simply got priority time in development because they were newcomers.
You can see though that this isn't always true. Sheik was included in the Brawl roster over the planned newcomer Toon Zelda (and presumably Tetra), despite the fact that Sheik hadn't been in a recent game in almost a decade at that point. For this case, I know you could make the argument that Toon Zelda could've just been a last minute almost addition, but the fact that this is true means that she was at least considered important enough to be added to the roster at one point. Another example of this is Ness and Lucas. It's been stated that Ness was supposed to be replaced by Lucas in Melee but Mother 3 was delayed/cancelled at this point (I'm not sure whether this was before its development switched to GBA). Ness wasn't removed from Brawl due to Lucas's addition to the roster as a newcomer, even though Ness hadn't been in a game since the SNES. They both made it.
My point here is, besides characters being popular because they're recent, I don't see how it can be an argument. I don't want this to be another one of the 15 Fire Emblem threads going around right now all discussing the same thing, but I want this to be saying that Chrom or Lucina being the most current main character means that he'll get on the roster over Ike, Roy, Lyn or whoever. Also that Zoroark, Genesect, the new Mewtwo or whoever will get in over Lucario, Pokemon Trainer, Mewtwo, etc. Or that Matthew or Isa Jo will get in before Isaac or Saki. Or whatever other series character you want. Popularity seems to be the reason that characters get into Smash from games where the character roster in the series is constantly changing.
I only could see it matter if Sakurai got pressure to add characters from the game developers themselves or from higher ups. So far, it seems to have been mostly based on who the fans requested the most.
Idk that's my two cents.
As we just recently saw, Olimar was confirmed as being part of the roster and not replaced by a protagonist in Pikmin 3, despite Olimar not being a main character in that game (even if he is confirmed by Miyamoto to be in Pikmin 3 in some way). This says, to me at least, exactly the opposite of the argument that a character should be replaced by the most recent main character. The only reason recency really matters is because it makes a character more well known among the fans, at least the newer fans.
In the case of Lucario, from what I gather, the Pokemon Company did push for Lucario to be added (probably because of recency), but Lucario was a popular character, also. He had been used in promotions for Diamond/Pearl and the anime. Ike might not have been the most popular Fire Emblem character, and Intelligent Systems definitely did tell Sakurai that he should add him, but I would like to point out here that Micaiah was also actually the most recent Fire Emblem main character at that time. Yes, I know Ike is also in her game, but he doesn't come until after the beginning segment of the game, and isn't really advertised as the main character. For the sake of the argument, though, we'll say that Ike was the most recent character. The point here is that, from what we can make of the evidence on the Brawl disk, they were never intended to be replacement characters. They were meant to be alongside Mewtwo and Roy in the roster. It's my assumption that the newcomers they decided to add for the series just simply got priority time in development because they were newcomers.
You can see though that this isn't always true. Sheik was included in the Brawl roster over the planned newcomer Toon Zelda (and presumably Tetra), despite the fact that Sheik hadn't been in a recent game in almost a decade at that point. For this case, I know you could make the argument that Toon Zelda could've just been a last minute almost addition, but the fact that this is true means that she was at least considered important enough to be added to the roster at one point. Another example of this is Ness and Lucas. It's been stated that Ness was supposed to be replaced by Lucas in Melee but Mother 3 was delayed/cancelled at this point (I'm not sure whether this was before its development switched to GBA). Ness wasn't removed from Brawl due to Lucas's addition to the roster as a newcomer, even though Ness hadn't been in a game since the SNES. They both made it.
My point here is, besides characters being popular because they're recent, I don't see how it can be an argument. I don't want this to be another one of the 15 Fire Emblem threads going around right now all discussing the same thing, but I want this to be saying that Chrom or Lucina being the most current main character means that he'll get on the roster over Ike, Roy, Lyn or whoever. Also that Zoroark, Genesect, the new Mewtwo or whoever will get in over Lucario, Pokemon Trainer, Mewtwo, etc. Or that Matthew or Isa Jo will get in before Isaac or Saki. Or whatever other series character you want. Popularity seems to be the reason that characters get into Smash from games where the character roster in the series is constantly changing.
I only could see it matter if Sakurai got pressure to add characters from the game developers themselves or from higher ups. So far, it seems to have been mostly based on who the fans requested the most.
Idk that's my two cents.
