By this point, all of the characters in Super Smash Bros Ultimate have been revealed. With a staggering 76 playable characters from across multiple game franchises, game genres, and game companies, this latest entry in the Smash Bros series is shaping up to be one of the best games ever. Not just one of the best games in the series, not just one of the best games on the Switch, and not just one of the best games from Nintendo. But one of the best games PERIOD.

Of course, the roller coaster ride of guessing who’s going to be in the game had to stop somewhere. And unfortunately I still have a few character wishes that have been left in the dust. But even though every character in the base game has been revealed, there is a silver lining: six DLC characters are currently in development, and only one of them has been revealed. That means there are still five mystery characters on the way, and the Character Checklist must continue!

And as we continue, we’re going to discuss the Fire Emblem franchise. The tactical RPG series has humble roots, remaining unknown to most gamers until Super Smash Bros Melee on the Gamecube. The games were exclusive to Japan for the longest time. But Melee brought protagonists Marth and Roy around the world and introduced Nintendo fans everywhere to the series.

From that point onward, Fire Emblem games began to see worldwide release (partly thanks to Melee, and partly thanks to the then recent success of the similar Wars series). The games continued to see representation in Smash Bros as well, with Ike being added to the third game, Super Smash Bros Brawl.

But while the series retained some popularity, it wasn’t nearly as successful as the likes of Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon. In fact, sales were poor enough that Fire Emblem as a whole was on the verge of being permanently retired at one point. The future was very uncertain for the franchise.

But then Fire Emblem Awakening happened.

Awakening was massively successful, and what was once meant to potentially be the final game in the series ended up reviving it. It’s the only Fire Emblem game to have more the one character representing it in Smash: echo fighters Lucina and Chrom hail from Awakening, as does the master tactician Robin.

Add in Fire Emblem Fates protagonist Corrin, and the series went from having a measly two characters representing it to SEVEN by Smash Ultimate. To put that into perspective, Nintendo giants Mario and Pokemon have nine and ten representatives respectively. And with the Zelda series only having six playable characters, Fire Emblem takes third place in number of characters on the Ultimate roster. Talk about a massive popularity boost!

It’s to the point that some Smash fans are getting sick of the number of Fire Emblem characters being included in Smash. And it’s understandable, to some degree: all of them are sword wielding fighters, a majority of them have a counter attack Down-B Special, and four of the seven share a base play style. They could be seen as unoriginal, throw-away character choices, with Robin and Corrin being the most unique out of the bunch.

So I wanted to think of a character that could be a another unique addition: a fighter with a lot of variety, that could make both Fire Emblem fans and Smash Bros fans happy. And honestly, it wasn’t easy. I only have three finished Fire Emblem games under my belt, so my experience with the series is slim. But I think I’ve come up with a good one!

It’s the Fire Emblem series’ one true recurring character, ANNA!

Most Fire Emblem games have a unique cast of characters, with the exception of direct sequels and remakes. There really isn’t a consistent line up of heroes and villains like with Mario or Metroid. But Anna is a special case: she’s appeared in nearly every Fire Emblem title. Or at least, one of them has. Because as it turns out, there’s more than one! A whole crew of nearly identical sisters all with the same name. Having so many version of her to choose from makes a great opportunity for multiple costume choices!

While she was a non-playable character for a very long time, starting with Fire Emblem Awakening she became a recruitable unit for battle. She’s even since become one of the main characters in the story of Fire Emblem Heroes, commanding the Order of Heroes. Needless to say, she’s an important character in modern Fire Emblem, and also significant to the history of the series. She would make a perfect addition to the Smash Roster, and would no doubt please Fire Emblem fans with her inclusion.

But what would make her a good fighter? What would set her apart from the other Fire Emblem characters in Smash? For me, it all comes down to her weapons. Sure Anna has fought with a sword like so many other Fire Emblem representatives. But having multiple incarnations of the character means she’s used a multitude of tools as well. Anna has been shown to use a staves, bows, and an axes too. If you were to combine all of these weapons together, it would give you a jack-of-all-trades sort of fighter that would be completely unique to every other Fire Emblem character in Smash.

I imagine she would end up being an energetic fighter of many different talents, and I would love to see what the Smash team could come up with for that style of combat. And the best part would be her Final Smash: summoning in all her sisters from across the Fire Emblem series to deliver a massive beat down! That would be awesome to see.

So what do you think of my suggestion? Would Anna make a good addition to Smash, or would you rather see someone else take to the battlefield? Or maybe you would like Fire Emblem to make some room for other franchises? Let me know in a comment!

Till next time, Sparky is signing off! Here’s looking forward to finally playing Smash Ultimate soon!