A Look Back on the Controversy Surrounding Fire Emblem and Super Smash Bros. 

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Idk I was super happy about all these characters in ultimate but I really want Hector in smash. An axe wielder like him would be a breath of fresh air.

If Nintendo really knew what the fans wanted they would’ve given us the smash fighter we all wanted: Brigand Boss

I think having Byleth being the last character revealed for Fighter Pass 1 was the bigger issue moreso. Considering the other characters that were in the pass were all third party or long time requests, the expectations set by speculation were incredibly high. To end it with Byleth and Fighter Pass 2 hadn't been announced until the Sakurai Presents for Byleth sort of let it end with a fizzle rather than a bang. That being said, I really enjoy playing Byleth. I think if the roster gets trimmed in the next game, I hope they stay just because their gameplay is so unique compared to other FE characters in the roster.

The controversy around Byleth's inclusion into smash is one of the dumbest things in smash history.

Even if I like Fire Emblem in Smash (a lot actually, all but 2 of the characters I use are from FE), it's extremely dumb that Awakening gets 3 whole representatives, with 2 of them being derivative of other FE characters in some way or form, specially considering that Lucina playing like Marth goes against the lore.

My only gripe with the FE character inclusions is that because they seem to only want to include main protagonists we keep getting foot locked sword units. If we got some other fan favorites like Caeda, Tharja, Camilla that gave some uniqueness to the FE characters people would be a lot more welcoming to more.

I kinda wish the Vault Boy Mii costume was revealed alongside Byleth instead of Cuphead because the few moments of silence followed by the whiplash reaction would be legendary.

Holy crap, I remember the night Byleth was revealed. Saltiness time to ever be on the Smash Boards. I think them being the final for the first wave of DLC is what really set people off. IDK, maybe new FE characters should only be base roster and not dlc.

You know what? I think the worst about the Byleth inclusion's drama is it has nothing to do with Byleth themselves but only with the fact it's once again a Fire Emblem character and not as different as Robin gameplay wise. Byleth was just the scapegoat of the Smash fans and paid the price for Corrin's inclusion when things started to go too far. When you look at it objectively, Byleth the character did nothing wrong and their inclusion made perfect sense for a new entry of a Nintendo franchise on Switch. The only problem is it was Fire Emblem though, a series that already received way too much representation compared to its legacy. It's not Byleth people hate, it's always more similar Fire Emblem characters.

I don't understand why they don't look to popular FE characters who wield other weapon types. Imagine Caeda, Hector, Camilla, Tharja, Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude or Tiki that would be so much cooler than just another sword user.

In the assumption that the next Smash game cuts characters, Byleth is the one I sincerely hope they keep. Not only is he the sole rep for the switch era of FE (unless they add Alear or heck even Shez) he's just ridiculously crazy fun to play, the most fun out of all the FE characters imo. Maybe this is a hot take but if they cut anyone I hope they cut the echo fighters. I mean Awakening has 3 whole reps, yes 2 are echo fighters but they're still 3 characters from the same game.

Is it just me or is Smash Bros Roy cooler than FE6 Roy?

Honestly, I feel that the fault of controversy doesn’t lie with Nintendo, but rather IS themselves. For the love of Kaga, please IS, please, make a protagonist that isn’t a swordie. Not a Lyn or Sigurd cop out where they co-use a sword along with a bow or lance, just DEDICATED WEAPON SPECIALIST, PLEASE 😭

Another problem I don't see too many people point out about Byleth was with the Xenoblade Chronicles community. Sakurai stated the reason why Rex didn't make the cut in the base game or Fighter Pass 1 was because Xenoblade Chronicles 2 didn't release soon enough to be considered. XC2 was 2017 and Smash Ultimate was 2018. That reason alone would've been fine and understandable... if a character from a 2019 game didn't get in instead. (That and the game not being released yet didn't stop Roy or Corrin.) Xenoblade fans were understandably upset and confused at the time, but that pretty much mulled over with the release of Pyra and Mythra. Also, I'm upset that Chrom is an Echo Fighter of Roy. That makes no sense lol

You should do a video on how to fix fire emblem representation in Smash. Change movesets, characters, skins, stages, music, anything you can come up with. I feel the Fire Emblem strategy aspect should be better implemented somehow

Another terrific video as always Faerghast! I love hearing your thoughts on things and the way you put these together.

I think the biggest mistake was including them after bombshells like Joker and Banjo and being the last character in the first Fighter Pass just kinda ending it on a whimper.

The Alear bit for the survey was some comedy gold.

Imagine the next Smash game be only FE characters featuring the Gatekeeper as a DLC

I was thinking about this topic recently too, i remember people say that "its like smash bros only has fire emblem characters" or something to that effect. The controversy is dumb, but a Traditional 2D fighting game with only Fire Emblem characters would be cool as heck

My wish for a future Smash is to put Marth, Roy, Lucina and Chrom under the same character, similar to what they did with Bowser Jr and the Koopalings. They just have to rework their moveset. They could even add more lords as alts. Keep Ike, Robin, Corrin and Byleth as unique characters.

As someone who loves both Smash and Fire Emblem (odd combination, I know), this hits home; I got into Fire Emblem late into the series because of Smash. It's hard to enjoy the series and characters in it when its bashed upon. You want to know what I think the sad part is? We'll be right back to where we started when the next Smash game comes, regardless of what form it takes, or how many FE characters stay or get axed.

I really liked the idea of Lucina being in smash as a clone of Marth at first...but even when Ultimate came out. Marth was my main and Lucina just COMPLETELY overshadowed him because her sword can do damage on all sides while Marth still heavily relied on the tip of Falchion (which sometimes glitched out from what I have seen recently). I still like Lucina in Awakening, but I do have some resentment now towards her since no one plays Marth, especially in tournmeants due to her inclusion...

6:57 love the pause to check the time between the smash ballot and FE Engage’s release year

Ah the classic Smash-Fire Emblem discussion. Thank god we're past all that now. But yeah honestly the main issue with FE's constant inclusions to Smash was really how the perception of most Smash fans had towards the series' characters. The whole "It's just another swordie, how lame". Even when FE did interesting spins to it with Byleth, Corrin and Robin it still got a decent amount of hate cause the stigma of "anime swordfighter" was already around. Plus people's expectations for other characters only to be dashed by someone they didn't expect. I remember so many people wanting Dante sooo badly when Byleth got revealed instead. So many people were upset.

My take is that Byleth was a great inclusion to Smash and absolutely deserves to be brought back in the next installment. If there was a problem it's is that they were revealed at the wrong time. The first fighter's pass was stacked with 3rd party inclusions with wild options like Joker who nobody would have expected had a real shot getting in. Ending that with a Fire Emblem character was going to be a letdown for just about everybody except people who were a fan of the game. If Byleth had been bumped to the second pass there still would have been people who would have been angry, but it probably wouldn't have been as wild. I also suspect that Byleth caused a negative reaction because it was a reminder that the fans don't actually have a lot of say in the Smash roster nor have they cracked any sort of code over who gets in over who. Fans have SOME say. There's no way you can convince me that Banjo would have been included in Ultimate if fans hadn't been begging for him for years. But ultimately the roster is who Nintendo thinks would be a good character (and if they can get them) and maybe to an extent wether Sakurai can make a fun character out of them. That's likely all there is to it.

and kirby has THREE REPS

Fire emblem is under represented in smash like we don't even have a villain character

I guess the mere sight of a sword triggers the entire Smash fanbase.

The sole reason we got so many Fire Emblem characters is because people wanted to bring back Roy.

I still like the theory (though I don't know of any evidence for or against it) that Byleth was an "emergency solution" because they couldn't finalize the licensing with some third party character. Mostly because it made no sense to have Byleth as the final one of that DLC pack (not earlier) instead of someone with more prestige and the trailer felt really half-assed and weird.

I have always wanted to know more about this. Thanks

I think I always know enough about a topic and then you come with new pieces of info hahah, it was very interesting as usual. Back when I was a kid I mained Roy because I was just like "wooo flaming sword goes boom!", it's funny to think that that was my very first introduction to the franchise that would've meant so much to me.

I've heard of fire emblem ruining fire emblem. Also Fe fans being the biggest haters of fire emblem but excited when smash gets another one. Best to pick a lane guys

One thing I always find impeccably dumb about this 'issue' is the matter of Corrin and why it is warranted for their removal. When it comes to Fire Emblem reps, everyone says 'We need variety', we can all agree on that. So then why remove one of the reps that actually has that variety element? Corrin uses stones, something which is only really used by a few units. Even then people either ignore that fact, or state they still use a sword, meaning they are still unwarranted. Even though having someone who uses exclusively stones could end up having difficulties fitting in, and a sword is as reliable enough as a weapon to warrant the Links, Kirby, Ganondorf, Cloud, Pyra/Mythra, Sora, Hero, Sepiroth, Steve, the Pits, Meta Knight, Shulk and every other Fire Emblem rep all using a sword in their moves to varying degrees. Otherwise, people will state, "Corrin is a bad character", which, sure, he has as much character as a refrigerator. Even though all main characters will naturally lose a varying sense of identity, as players are meant to play as and project themselves as these characters. Couldn't this also be stated for someone like Link, who never speaks and is also a member of a franchise that has a vast degree of storytelling? Is character even needed in a fighting game when all I will hear of them is them being hurt and a victory line? Or even needed in a game that features Pokémon, which most just state their name when speaking? Though most important of all. Corrin is fun to play as. Byleth as well, who also has this exact same argument given towards. Why does a character need to be removed when they're fun to play as? Let alone have them be removed as quickly as someone like Dr. Mario.

I will say while I know they all play slightly differently I think I would enjoy the fire emblem characters more if they had a more varied move set like if Lucina was played much quicker as if she were Lyn with a Lyn skin included and had bow moves and a heavy hitting ax wielded for Ike using urvan with a Hector skin and having Robin focus on tomes and magic with no sword with a Micaiah skin…I feel like this could help really separate them and get rid of the sword complaint

I gotta admit I was “lucky” that my first Fire Emblem game was Three Houses (goated game, so recommended) and I was halfway through it JUST as Byleth was announced. So I was actually really excited because I was loving Three Houses and I didn’t care about it being” Fire Emblem AGAIN” because for me, it just meant a great game is being represented in Smash. Later down the line I wished it could’ve been represented in a better way, but I’m still happy Byleth in Smash is a thing to begin with.

Huh I was not expecting the stuff about the cut Tharja trophy for 3DS to be brought up.

I'm probably echoing what others have said before, but I feel a little bad for Fire Emblem fans. Besides maybe Pokemon or Mario, I can't really think of a series in Smash where newcomers are treated as an inevitability rather than a nice surprise by the Smash community and general players who don't particularly care for Fire Emblem. With the way things stand now, when it comes time for Smash 6, ANY Fire Emblem character that's announced is going to draw complaints, since a good chunk of the overall fanbase is going to see it as yet more favoritism and advertisement.

Honestly, how would 3 houses play out if Byleth just choofed off with the main relics?

Smash is the reason FE even got on my radar and I immediately fell in love with the characters, story, world, and music (OMG THE MUSIC) so I for one am thankful for byleths inclusion

As a Fire Emblem fan, I hated Byleth’s inclusion because I loved Three Houses’ characters so much. Dimitri, Edelgard, and Claude are all so cool and we got a character with all the personality of a brick.

The RU-vid comments for the Byleth reveal shortly after it was uploaded are something I'll never forget. People were trying REALLY hard to be optimistic about it and not say something negative. There was a lot of "Haha this trailer is so funny, Sakurai is a master of trolling!". I don't even know where they got that from. Nothing about the reveal is a troll. He just revealed a character the same way he did many times before 💀

Considering how crazy FE3H sales were, I felt the controversy for Byleth's addition was misplaced? Definitely big fan of the Hoes Mad movement though hahahaha That being said, I owe a lot to Smash for introducing me to FE, too!

Oh man, I remember being the only one excited about this! I really felt like the only one who loved Byleth’s inclusion! I felt like the meme of the kid smiling while the house burned down in the background

It's not that there were too many FE characters. It's just that there so many better characters than the ones they chose.

I don't mind having 7-8 FE characters, but only if series like Zelda gets as many. FE is an old series which is now among the top sellers. So I think series like Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, FE and Animal Crossing should get a higher number of reps. The issue of course is the variety. FE has many weapons, but the majority in Smash uses swords only. It's like if every Pokemon rep in Smash was a Fire type starter. Personally I would love to see in Smash: -Marth -Ike (with his projectile) -Lyn, using her sword, bow and traps (that fire item you get in her game that you can place next to you) -Robin -Byleth, but make him switch weapons with his down special. So he'd work a bit simmilar to Pyra/Mythra -Veronica from FEH, since she uses magic -Corrin could still be but she needs a different down special, maybe a Dragon-vein effect in the stage.

The moment BYLETH (my FE character in my honest opinion of course) made it inta Smash Ultimate as a DLC boi was the like and dislike ratio was something else

I will admit, I wish they took their approach with Byleth differently, with a more original reveal trailer and not being the last fighter of pack one, before pack 2 was known. However, it was pretty funny, as a huge Fire Emblem fan, to see Byleth as the last pick, when even I had thought Three Houses wasn't getting a representative at the time of the reveal. I remember laughing out loud when I saw the animation start, and knowing it was Fire Emblem right away. The Hoes Mad memes were really the cherry on top, and I will admit I got a little too into it at the time without being outright toxic to those upset. But I got my just desserts when Steve was included against my better wishes, even though he is such an in depth character that I am highly impressed by the amount of effort that was put in to make them work. At the end of the day though, despite its ups and downs, and all the emotions involved with it, the whole era of Smash reveals leading up to and after Ultimate's release was such a fun time all around. I truly do look back fondly at each reveal, and find myself missing getting involved with the hype and speculation. And the Smash Bros team put a lot of love into designing each character and making them all fun and unique to play. I am not sure how they will top Ultimate, and honestly, they probably can't with the next installment, but I would be satisfied with Ultimate being the swan song for the franchise for the experience it gave within and outside the game.

Amazing vid! Imagine the reaction if we get Veronica or Alfonse in Smash 6 lmao

Byleth is an addition that aged well given the weapon variety and how Hopes retroactively made it so Byleth counts as an antagonist rep. That being said imo the biggest issue with Byleth's inclusion was that the trailer just...was not good. It doesn't represent the crossover element of smash, the interactions weren't all that interesting (especially since Solon is just doing his normal thing), and weird oddities like Female Byleth getting her own splash screen and then flying away for no reason just make the trailer confusing overall. Honestly I could easily see the trailer fitting more had Ganondorf been in Solon's stead and it being framed as Byleth had already gotten the invitation like most smash trailers.

Has this horse been beaten to death enough yet? We could have three FE lords or we could have 20. We were never getting Geno or Waluigi regardless. If you don’t like all of the clones, then just don’t play them. I feel like this is not that complicated.

Any plans to make new Support Science videos? That was the content that first drew me to your channel, and it seems like forever and a day since you've made one.

4 Marths, but people complained when they stopped being clones

Byleth is one of my mains and is actually the reason I got into fire emblem. I liked playing Byleth, I asked my dad to get me the game, and I loved it. So yeah, Byleth's great :)

@5:20 I was hype during Corrin's inclusion. That was memed to high-heaven.

I like how smashers say they want original fire emblem characters yet when asked which ones to get rid of for the next smash game, it's always Robin, Corrin or Byleth

One thing I just automatically assumed with the ballot, was it wasn't to determine the dlc. But newcomers for the next game entirely Just look at how many characters who were pushed HARD on the ballot, made it into ultimate. While the only one I feel got a realistic push for Wii U dlc, was Cloud, maybe Ryu as well

It made no sense why people were angry with Byleth. We already knew that there was a 2nd Fighter’s pass. Besides there’s more Mario and Pokémon characters yet I don’t see people complain about them.

I used to be one of those people. A bit tilted that there were so many characters I didn’t know from the same series. Now that I’ve played the series, FUCK YEAH GIVE ME MORE SHEZ AND ALEAR IN SMASH 6 BABYYYYYY

I remember when Byleth was first revealed, my reaction was "Oh, okay." Nowadays, Three Houses is one of my favourite Switch games, and his Amiibo sits proudly in my collection. Funny how much an impulsive purchase can change your perspective.

FYI mario has 9 characters

I have always thought that instead of constantly adding more sword Lords from FE, they could have done well to include characters like Ephraim from Sacred stones as a Lance user and Hector from FE7 as an Axe Fighter. Both are cool characters that could easily have been used to spice up the Fire Emblem corner of Smash.

I think the stars could align so that Sigurd is added to Smash if FE4 remake comes soon. I'd love a cavalry unit in Smash.

I would've liked if they added different FE characters that wasn't the lord, like Tiki or Anna or even Camus who all appear in more than one game. Not sure if it's mendela or not but i feel like I heard about Sakurai's consideration for adding Caeda to the game way back in early smash but didn't work it out.

FE characters are always popular in Smash, so the controversy is really surface-level. Roy (clone) was brought back by popular demand, Corrin is popularly used in both games she's in, and Byleth followed suit in Ultimate.

The big thing a lot of detractors don't get? Fire Emblem and its constantly changing cast was never meant to have all of its reps in the same game. Once it took off, FE was positioned to be treated just like Pokémon in Smash, having veteran fighters rotate in and out based on variety, practicality, etc. But then Ultimate brought back literally everyone. And as it turns out, Sakurai et al don't consider "this series has a lot of playable fighters already" to be a deal breaker if there's an interesting newcomer on offer. Says something that, despite the initial backlash, Byleth has actually aged pretty well as a DLC pick! The character is still commonly played to this day despite not being a top tier bandwagon magnet, the weapon-master moveset still stands out, and Three Houses has remained popular nearly five years after its release.

I think what not a lot of people consider with the fire emblem inclusions is not only the amount of characters being too high, it's also the amount of new characters. People compare FE to Pokémon when it comes to oversaturation, but most of the Pokémon were from earlier games and they were interchangeable, with six Pokémon in the franchise in brawl, but only four were in a game at a time. Since then there's only been two Pokémon added, one newcomer a game (it also doesn't help that they were also both characters that were not only super unique, but they also happened to be the most popular Pokémon and the most competitively viable Pokémon, making both inclusions impartially pretty great), meanwhile FE only had half of that in brawl, with three total characters and two at a time, but since then we've had over double the newcomers that Pokémon had with FIVE, three in sm4sh and two in Ultimate. Not to mention the inclusions were pretty mediocre, as either they'd be decent characters with incredibly uninspired movesets like Lucina and Chrom, or they'd have decent movesets but would be incredibly boring characters like Robin and Corrin. Byleth is the one exception, but by that time people were already fed up with new FE characters, which is understandable because like I said, we've had FIVE newcomers within the span of five years (even their biggest franchise mario only had four newcomers), so yeah Byleth really was the straw that broke the camel's back.

If Mama Byleth trailer was recreated through CGI and Ganondorf Ridley Dark pit and Bowser got added to her trailer, that would've been amazing. Let's just say the trailer were to take place during the fight with Rhea at the monastery with all the demonic beasts

Didn't the Cindered Shadows trailer get dislike bombed because people were mad at Byleth being in Smash? I remember those being revealed around the same time. Allegra Clark's "hoes mad" tweet was very funny, though.

I can also see Alear being added since she’s the recent character and Engage is the newest game that came out recently

Yo your actually cracked at smash your combos were really good. Also great video!

as an fe fan first, smash fan second, the HOES MAD meme was peak comedy lmfao, that was the funniest thing to ever hit the internet

Marth has been my main since before I even played Fire Emblem lol

Forgot to mention that Female Corrin also got the censor treatment as well. It's not really noticeable like Pyra or not as revealing as Mythra. The only thing that is changed are the thighs are fully covered to make the pants armor

Anyway, I hope Alear and even Shez come to Smash 6. They and Corrin are my FE holy trinity

How did they get the idea to put 3 smash characters from one single game? It's not only too much FE characters but it's especially too much Awakening characters, although 2 are echoes (and we didn't get yet our second echoes games).

I think we can thin the roster a bit while keeping good representation. Here’s what I think about each character: Marth: Keep. He represents the origins of fire emblem and represents the nimble sword lord Roy: Tentative remove. I kind of would like to keep Roy because he represents the GBA games, but he’s too similar to Marth. Maybe we can replace him another GBA lord who would play differently (Hector?) Ike: Keep. He represents the Tellius games and he has a unique “heavy swordsman” play style. Robin: Keep. They represent the DS games and also represent a lot of other mechanics in FE not used in other reps. These include magic and weapon durability. They also have a wholly unique play style, playing as close to a mage as you can get. Lucina: Remove. They are just marth again and Robin is already a better DS rep. Chrom: Remove. Same reason as Lucina Corrin: Remove. While they do have a somewhat unique play style, they still serve the same “nimble sword lord” archetype. Robin is already a better DS rep. Byleth: Keep. They represent the switch era of games and has a very unique play style. They also represent a lot of different weapon types in FE that aren’t represented otherwise (Lance, Axe, Bow). The big thing for me is that the FE reps that should all represent a different FE era and should play differently, ideally representing different aspects of fire emblem gameplay.

I had a friend who got mad because Byleth ruined Cinderace's (Gen 8 Starter Pokémon) chance of getting in but Min Min exists

My history with Nintendo as a console manufacturer, funny enough, started with SSB64 (while I was aware of the NES and SNES, we couldn't exactly afford them, so the only Nintendo exposure I got was arcade games ported to the Commodore 64/128, since my dad had taken up coding in his spare time back in the day). Obviously, I knew who Mario was - the classic Jumpman was just about everywhere, even back then - and I was even familiar with Pikachu due to a pal having Pokémon Blue and the anime having already started taking off around that time, but it was my first time meeting other legendary heroes like Link and Samus (and believe me, it wasn't long before I'd amassed a sizeable library of N64 titles, thanks mostly to my uncle). However, like you, Melee was my introduction to Fire Emblem, and I immediately attached to Marth as my fighter of choice. Mind you, I never got close to the skill level of pros like Mew2King, but I was still pretty proficient. Anyway, I remember the NA trailer for FE7 (it didn't air often, that I can recall, but I definitely remember seeing it), and both me and my brother (who, understandably, picked up Roy) were extremely excited. We played that game SO MUCH that I'm shocked that it even works to this day (and that was the day my love for spunky, outspoken healers began). We played Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, and even Radiant Dawn often. Of course, as we all know, life can be a real you-know-what, so around the time of RD we both ended up drifting from each other and videogames (now, mind you, it didn't help that RD was rushed garbage that is incoherent in its own storytelling, but I was also battling major depression at the time). When Awakening came out, I was understandably cautious, and at the time I'm pretty sure I nitpicked at the game far too hard to enjoy it, and it didn't help that Fates not only decided to provide what I thought was a false dilemma (you can't tell me that Hoshido isn't hard-coded to be the 'good' side while Nohr isn't the 'evil' side) that was then, for seemingly no reason other than to make more money, sidestepped with Revelations as a "golden route" that felt more of a cop-out. Honestly, I thought at that point my time with Fire Emblem was done (although I still enjoyed playing Marth in Brawl and 3DS). And then Three Houses came out. Honestly, I still wasn't sure whether I was going to enjoy it, but it was intriguing enough for me to try. And while my initial suspicions were correct (of Edelgard being the "traitor" and instigating the ensuing war on behalf of the actual villains), the gameplay was fun and varied enough that I was able to complete a playthrough. Of course, the shortcomings of the game have prevented a second playthrough, I do appreciate the thoroughness of the developers to cover most of their bases. Sadly, it seems they learned the wrong lesson from Revelations - sometimes it's good to have a "golden route," but it does require thoughtful planning and execution - and so opted to not have such a thing for 3H. Hopes did manage to fix some of the issues of Houses, and as a Musou fan I really enjoyed the gameplay of that game, but I do think it was too little, too late. As for Ultimate, I still play Marth, but I use Ganondorf a LOT more nowadays, and I honestly can't get used to Byleth's style of combat, but it's by far my favorite entry in the Smash series nonetheless.

I think it'd be funny if Alear's Smash gimmick was using the Emblem Rings and bringing other FE lords, kinda like Shulk using different Monado symbols. Screw it, if people are gonna be upset at another FE character, let's have one that like 10 in 1

Low-key I think the problems in perception come from the four Marth clones. Corrin and Byleth are all objectively unique and Robin has a cool concept and move set even if his character is just a blank slate. Having the split gender protags also doesn’t help making them distinct

I love Byleth and Corrin, FE is my second favorite game series. But more reps than Zelda and Kirby is nuts. Zelda is Nintendo’s 3rd best selling IP and hasn’t gotten a new smash rep since Brawl. And Kirby is way more popular than FE as well as Sakurai’s brainchild, yet the IP only has 3 reps in smash.

As someone who into lost media I'm sad that Tharja Statue and model is not like a holy grail to find

I got into FE via FEH back in 2018. I had smash 4 and brawl but didnt care much for them. FEH got me really into FE (specifically Fates) and so when ultimate announced everyone returning and I saw Corrin it made me love Smash so much more, and I've mained Corrin for 6 years now, and it has helped FE become my favourite series too, both help eachother so much

Byleth being so fun was why I decided to get FE16 despite how weird the switch from sprites to models seemed to me.

keen for the alear drop

Thank you so much for this video

I remember being so pissed off when Corrin got in Smash bros Wiiu

I think overall the amount of representation is fine but they should have chosen better reps since chrom and definitely corrin (and even lucina arguably although i think her as a echo is fine) leaves a lot to be desired. I dont even think having a lot of swords is an issue its just that half the reps is based off marth so it does bother a lot of us including me who is a fire emblem fan. If they chose other lords like lyn, celica, micaiah, and maybe hector id like the representation way more.

The only party that should reasonably be blamed is IS, as the only actual "problem" is they keep giving the protagonist a sword based class/legendary weapon, if they just didn't do that I don't see anyone reasonable having a problem

I main byleth, love her playstyle. However, to this day i dont think the character was necessarily designed to be byleth. I honestly think it was supposed to be a monster hunter rep (hunter) the moves just seem to line up too well. The sword was meanth to be sword and shield, the spear to be lance, axe to be great sword, bow stays bow, up b to be the clutch claw or wire bug.

Byleth buffs would be cool. Big fan of Chrom up b buffs, personally.

Part of the problem is that they always choose Lord characters (or later the self-insert character) to include in the Smash series. Which makes sense--if you're trying to include a representative of a game, to potentially entice new players into a franchise, you're going to use the most recognizable main character in a given game, the one that reps that particular game. The problem is that Lord/player characters traditionally use swords. That's not a problem in Fire Emblem games when you have an entire army of other weapon types and characters to cover your bases for a well-meshed team, but it is a problem when you only pick and choose one character per game. So the options are either use the most recognizable character (and go all swords) or choose less recognizable characters that players may or may not even encounter or connect with that use other weapons (which will also inevitably start the "well, why didn't you choose MY fave, though?!" discourse). I mean, imagine if they included Claude as the FE3H rep to change it up with a bow--you'd have tons of fans who were pissed that it wasn't Edelgard or Dimitri!

Fire emblem does have a lot of characters in smash, but the reactions to it are always so overdramatic. Especially during byleth’s reveal because there they tried something different definitely made them unique compared to the others. I can understand if you don’t like it, but they acted like it ruined the entire game or something

The problem with Byleth’s trailer is that it was direct trailer, not a Sakurai presents trailer. Imagine if the reception of the Pyra and Mythra trailer was a Sakurai trailer presents trailer. I find complaining about Fire Emblem’s Marth clone problem disingenuous when Zelda has 2 Link clones and a Captain Falcon clone, while Star Fox is nothing but Fox clones.

i kind of wish they gave us different reps instead of roy, ike, corrin and lucina that arent sword wielders like hector, micaiah, azura and tiki (though im aware at the time of ike’s release micaiah wouldnt have been a lord yet)

was Byleth's trailer the one where Sakurai was counting weird with his fingers and then spent like 3 min explaining it? cuz THAT was fucking weird lol

I wasn't into FE at the time, but I was super hyped by Corrin's introduction because he (yes, I'm that guy) has dragon powers. Didn't care about the game and I still haven't played Fates to this day - he was a DRAGON with a SWORD and that's AWESOME! My only FE game is Blazing Sword on Wii U and I regrettably still haven't beaten it. I'm trying to get back into Fire Emblem though and I'm considering the 3DS games. For whatever reason, I think that Echoes sounds like fun.