Except for the fact that this is a gaming website, being asked to vote for characters who have been in video games, and that will inevitably weaken non-video game originating characters. Can you name 64 characters who have been in a game but didn't originate there that would do well? Probably not. Remember who's voting. You may be able to name 64 popular characters, but that sure won't translate into contest strength. There'd be a few who do well like Batman, but the overwhelming majority would bomb.
And even Batman wouldn't be a Link beater. In my opinion, the book was closed on allowing non-VG characters in when Link beat Santa on Christmas Eve with several amazing pic disadvantages. With 60%. Santa, the most known fictional character, and possibly the most beloved, with every advantage in his court, only looked low Noble Nine at best. Batman isn't beating that. Nobody is beating that. You allow other fictional characters in, and Link still destroys. You could have some fun matches, but you could have those anyway. The last character battle was a big success other than Link obliterating his half of the bracket.
That's why you need to remove Link (and place him in a championship match spot). Imagine how awesome the 2010 character battle would have been if you'd simply removed the Link matches. Hell, Mario probably would have beaten Cloud in the final, that would have been cool.
Thing is, if you take out Link, you have four potential winners depending on bracket set-up and shenanigans (Mario, Cloud, Snake and Samus). If you put in characters who didn't come from games originally, you have one possible winner. Spoilers: It's Link.
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^Poorly disguised anti-caps sig