That's kind of the same thing for me, which is among the reasons why I kinda fell out of the Smash speculation cycle. As for Piranha Plant specifically, while I understand that Sakurai likes his WTF picks (I mean, that's what got us Wii Fit Trainer, after all), it seemed like a tone-deaf pick given the lack of women on the roster. Granted, it wasn't as bad as it is now, but I suppose hindsight is 20/20.
Still, while the industry at large is the major problem that should be corrected, you're right in that Sakurai also bears a decent chunk of the blame. He (& Nintendo, at least for DLC) is(/are) in a position where they could bring in some popular women. But for one reason or another, he(/they) just doesn't(/don't). Like you, it's kinda made me indifferent towards Sakurai's picks as of recently.
Yeah, the industry as a whole isn't super helpful on this front. We're living in an age where indies and small games are exploding onto the scene in part because many creators are willing to make interesting, diverse characters well many of the big bois stick to generic blank white dudes.
But that being said the West has been more diverse with their company leads through out time. Portal was one of those break out hits and it's Protag (Chell) was an East Asian woman. Lora Croft is prob the most iconic stand alone female in all of gaming. PoP USE to be a big deal for Ubisoft before they started pumpin out Asscreeds. Tracer is currently the face of the OW. EA had Mirror's Edge, Ubi had beyond good and evil, even Nintendo had Eternal Darkness made by a western dev back in the GC days. TellTale gave us a series about a black man taking on the daddy role for a lil black girl who becomes the series protag after he dies.
Am I listing these characters to say that they could ALL be in smash? Nope. I mean, LC is a no brainer. She's one of the great gaming icons and even as she struggles to find an identity in today's climate she's still relevant today. Tracer could also easily make it into smash now and no one would call BS. But characters like the PoP and Jade would be questionable because of how their companies have moved past them over the past decade and the rest are just straight never-evers.
Are Western devs "doing just fiiiine" with diversity? Nope, all the Shantaes and Dandaras in the world aren't gonna mean shit if the big bois don't make more big stars outta characters like them or if they don't break out to become the faces that make their lil companies become big bois.
But I feel like the West is far more aware of this and has had far more diversity than the JPN devs and it becomes very clear when you have Sakurai openly pushing for more 3rd party JPN dev reps annnnnd yeah, they're all dudes
You know, people whine about Fire Emblem, but Byleth, implemented in the style of pokemon trainer( three house lords doing the actual fighting), would give us both a female rep and a PoC rep at the same time.
I can't believe how many people are sleeping on a such an obvious idea.
Also, Three Houses is popular AF and this would sell as well as most 3rd party DLC they can think of.
I've been screamin this for the longest, people whine about it not making sense for the game.
To that I say "Shove it". The whole point of the game is you're their loving and attentive Prof who, through your relationship with who ever you decide to teach, guilds and elevates them to being their best self and enacting the change they wish to see in the world.
Could easily see a trailer where Rhea says "Prof, we got this invitation in the mail. It seems like a combat field mission ... Who would you like to bring?" And Prof chooses all 3 as a play on Corrin's Smash trailer.
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