Deff I really like your optimism and your answer, and out of respect for your amazing play style with 3.5 bowser I'll try to be as such. If bowser were to get buffed (he should, he got more nerfs than buffs last patch and lost a lot of his standout attributes) what would you like to see?
Thanks a lot, I truly appreciate it. Though it may not be the answer you're looking for:
This is the single most important buff that Bowser could receive. It would really prevent him from getting screwed over in simple tech chase situations, something that costs us way too much due to our character being able to get combo'd so easily (especiallyyyy into kill setups)
I'm still mostly stuck on the idea that just like any other character, Bowser does get rewarded by smart, safe gameplay and avoiding as much unwinnable situations as possible. Even with all the original armor and attacks he still struggled in this aspect due to his options/slow speed/large size.
What we need to realize is that Bowser is now smaller and faster, addressing the issue exactly. The weird thing though is that it only benefits and compliments top-level execution, something that, to be fair, is not accessible to just about anyone, not even myself.
I've been pouring countless amount of hours into PM Bowser since 2.5, and I've enjoyed it the whole way through. I will admit that while I've pushed personal boundaries with the character I never thought I could achieve, their is still tons of potential that I feel can be pushed out of Bowser just the way that he is.
I don't want to get into it too much, but just remember that buffs/nerfs/changes shouldn't be the driving force in your passion for this game. Melee has been out for 14 years and to this day there are still people taking sets with Link/YL, Yoshi, Pikachu, day by day the metagame advances even in its permanent state. We need to learn to take the good and the bad and work our hardest to be complacent and solid. No excuses, no relying on updates to validate our efforts.
Character mechanics are great and all, but in the end of the day it's things like dash dance/spot dodge/tech roll that will make Bowser a stronger character in high level play, even a frame or two advantage goes a long way for someone like him. It's all about improvement in the neutral. In the end of the day though, to be honest I rely on a secondary. It wasn't always like that, but regardless of the state of Bowser is simply is just very smart to at least have one other character with radically different properties to gain an edge..