Byleth's Smash DLC Announcement

Overview

Byleth's Smash DLC Announcement refers to the Nintendo Direct in which Masahiro Sakurai announced that Byleth, the player-character from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, would be the next playable fighter in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. The announcement was met with backlash from some Smash fans who were disappointed in the selection, as Byleth is now the eighth character in the Fire Emblem series to appear in the game. In response to the backlash, other fans tweeted "Hoes Mad" to the point where the phrase trended on Twitter.

Background

On January 16th, 2020, Nintendo and Masahiro Sakurai announced in a Nintendo Direct that Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses would be the next DLC fighter added to the game (shown below). Both the female and male versions of the character will be playable. Additionally, the character will be able to use the grand relic weapons present in Three Houses. Additionally, the Direct included news of Cuphead, Assassin's Creed, Mega Man and Rabbid outfits for Mii Fighters. It also announced that six more fighters are to come.

Developments

Byleth marks the eighth Fire Emblem character present in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. The others are Ike, Roy, Chrom, Lucina, Corrin, Robin, and Marth. The high amount of Fire Emblem representation in the game has been a long gripe for Smash fans.^[1] Thus, the announcement was met with a significant amount of backlash from fans who were hoping for a different character. The Washington Post^[2] wrote, "Fans watched a 38 minute Nintendo Direct and all they got was another Fire Emblem character." Twitter user @solidsazz^[3] posted an image of Brainlet Wojaks representing Smash fans excited by the announcement, gaining over 800 retweets and 3,400 likes (shown below, left). User @GunnerSellWhite^[4] posted a picture of a destroyed Switch to display their disappointment (shown below, right).

In response, many fans reveled in the anger of more rabid Smash fans, to the point where "Hoes Mad," a common response to the anger, trended on Twitter. User @ThePunishedSky^[5] posted an image with the phrase, gaining over 680 retweets and 3,000 likes (shown below, left). Another popular response was a screenshot of Sakurai appearing to give the middle finger, which occurred while he was counting in binary in the Direct (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References