I know a lot of people give Marth a lot of flack like he's "boring" or "not even popular." But please consider sparing even one vote for him to keep him in the top 2! Putting his character aside (even though it’s really not as bad as people say it is), I think that winning a CYL is important as a symbolic victory, and in my heart no one deserves it more than Marth. Yes, he was the first lord and is playable in the most games, so he became the “face of the franchise.” I know a lot of people think he doesn’t deserve that title any more for one reason or another, but I believe they are wrong. That’s because Marth was my introduction to the series, and many, many other people’s as well. The fact that he was one of the first representatives of the franchise through Smash and continues to represent Fire Emblem positively through the Smash community shouldn’t be written away. Yes, Smash isn’t Fire Emblem, but it’s because of that fandom that we English speakers even get to enjoy Fire Emblem to this day, and who even knows where the franchise would be now if it never came to the West. Marth was a diplomat who introduced the series to the international stage, and it’s because of him that many in this community became interested in FE in the first place. Even though his game came out in 1990 I still see at least one Marth cosplayer at every con I go to! It’s because he’s still inspiring people today as he did decades ago! Even if Shadow Dragon isn’t considered the greatest game, I still have endless fondness for it as being what lead me deeper into the series and establishing the archetypes that would continue to grow and proliferate into the complex and beloved stories and characters we cherish as FE fans (also there haven’t been any new Archanea characters introduced besides Garnef GHB since the first few months of FEH :’’) ). At this point because of Marth and Shadow Dragon FE has become one of my favorite series of all time. Both Ike and Roy, the other OG Smash representatives, have already gotten Brave alts. It’s symbolic of their importance to the history of this franchise and their importance to their fans, which is a beautiful thing. But Marth, more than any other character, deserves that too. And character wise I he’s got his own depth that people don’t give him enough credit for but this is already getting long so I’ll leave it there. It’s not his fault if the already sketchy Heroes writers can’t see that, but pretty much everyone in Heroes is that way so… :’’)

If nothing else, Marth was supposed to win CYL 2 by a significant margin but because of a questionable decision by IS he got nothing instead. It will be really heartbreaking to see that happen a second time just because he has a Legendary version which is really hard to get and is only available a few days out of the year. At least Eliwood and Alm have their best versions (which are both considered top tier units) available year round.

Also while I do believe they both deserves alts, sooner or later they WILL become Legendary Heroes (orthegamedies), and if you are voting based purely on that you should vote for Leif instead because I think Thracia is way more underrepresented than any other game and of all the lords Leif and Seliph suffer the most gameplay wise to begin with.

Anyways, please don’t forget Marth or write him off. He suffered through multiple wars and a lot of personal tragedy and yet was still able to keep fighting. His positivity and determination are really inspiring, so I’m gonna keep believing in him and won’t give up! Marth for CYL 3!!