I thought we could use a thread like this to outset the many negatively based topics on Roy (un)popularity in FE-fandoms and Smash-fans across the globe, providing reasons on why he has such a loving fanbase beneath what is quite diminishing hate and rising popularity on use upon him getting semicloned to very favourable character. Basically what Palutena/Lucina-boards are doing.
This doesn't mean that playstyle praises aren't also welcome to show how just truly well-done he has been made in this game. I'm sure a lot might play him for that.
We could also archive our speeches from the social here for everyone to see in bigger scale. Anyways, let's go~
Back in 2010, freshman year of high school, I gave Pokemon Silver to a kid I felt bad for in a trade. I didn't know anything about the games he was gonna give me, but I looked into them regardless. Fire Emblem 7 (Eliwood's game) was extremely fun, I was expanding my variety on RPG's as much as I could around that time and actually did so poorly my first run that I scrapped my file at Ch23 or so. I started a whole new run, got gud, and beat the game. Eliwood in particular stood out to me since first booting up my buddy's file at Ch11 while I was still doing Lyn's mode. Seeing these cool, mysterious knights on a small mission to rout all these bandits caught my eye and I'll never forget that moment, and finally getting to that point was great. I fell in love with his character (being within noble cliches and tropes yet being an incredibly human character through clever use of humor, adversity, character development, and contrasting his personality with other different personalities) throughout the course of the game and his hardships and romance with Ninian in particular resonated strongly within me.
Online, I found out that it was a prequel to Roy's game. I was huge on coolROMs and emulation at the time, so I naturally picked up the rom, found a translation patch, and got to work. I absolutely loved Sealed Sword, everything about it from the music to the characters to its smart gameplay design in mechanics and maps to it being difficult yet rewarding skilled play and making smart tradeoffs stood out to me. Roy's character resonated well with me, remaining one of my favorite lords and characters to this day after completion of the series. He had some similarities to his father, but enough differences to not simply be Eliwood 2.0 or vice-versa. Few characters in the series have quotes quite as dynamic and hard-hitting as his in critical moments and support conversations, and I never saw him as weak like the GameFAQs bandwagon at the time, back when I was largely invested in their boards overall.
From 2010 to 2013 or so, I was a dedicated Marth main since I wanted to play the strongest swordsman on the roster, and I was overjoyed when I saw that he indeed was higher on the tiers than other swordsmen, but I would sometimes play as Roy for fun in friendlies or to experiment with his unique properties in events or harder difficulties in the story modes. Once I replayed FE6 for the third time in 2013, I felt dedicated to becoming a competent Roy in Melee, and his reveal in Project M was the greatest thing ever to me even if I ended up not really liking how PM handled him. I was already a Project M supporter since 2.1 and loved Ike and Fox, really technical yet strong characters. I actually didn't prefer Roy's playstyle over anyone else's until playing through FE6 a few times and deciding to make his playstyle fit around me in 2013, now he's a lot more solid than my long-abandoned Marth and I'm now looking to improve my Captain Falcon to Roy's level with 20GX technology and getting used to him more.
From the 2010 to 2015 range, I always supported Roy's return to Smash. I became vocal in 2014 and posted about 500 or so times total in the Roy for DLC support thread, with tons of time spent in the Facebook group, and I managed the royforsmash4 website while posting to tons of social media outlets. He might not be my #1 favorite FE character but he was always the most justifiable pick and I always wanted him in to give many people their mains back and make as many people as possible happy. Now that wish is granted and I'm finally free of this five year burden of being ridiculed for wanting a clone, a third Marth as of 2014, a second Roy, "the worst lord" even though I'd pick him statistically over a handful of lords and personality-wise over almost all lords, another swordsman, another FE rep, a character who is low-tier in Melee, a character that some are convinced nobody likes despite his huge fanbase and request amount, a bunch of lies about FE6 being a rehash of FE1 or otherwise bad, a bunch of lies about how smash inclusion, the ballot, etc. work, and tons of other things I countered with many hours of critical thinking and research. Before 2014 I wouldn't have been able to justify his return one bit, now I have everything in the book covered.
Roy will always be my boy, even after FE: Fates, SMT x FE, and anything else the series has in store. He helped me through hard times in high school by being a highly respectable, human character who I could look up to. He knew his weaknesses and where he needed help, which allowed him to surpass Eliwood, Hector, Lyndis, and even Hartmut himself to become the greatest hero of Elibe by standing up to Bern and dragonkind, and most importantly bringing peace to both in the end. He truly is one of the greatest heroes of the series, and I pity those who can't see that.
