he's very, very aware

And probably laughing at us.

are u sure bud

I kinda don't think the man spends much time perusing english-speaking internet web sites

yes and yes

and if he was to be the oblivious type, he'd probably have an idea by now that waluigi is a "popular" topic amongst American smash fans

First off, I'm under the impression that the Waluigi "harassment" was enormously exaggerated. The article you posted is the first time I've actually seen an incriminating tweet, and even that article can only post one tweet for evidence, opting instead to post two tweets condemning said harassment rather than providing examples of it. This kind of thing can happen a lot in online circles - if your issue is with "those people", but examples of "those people" are rare, you might want to examine where your knowledge of the issue comes from in the first place

Secondly, since Sakurai is a Japanese man with a very limited knowledge of the English language, I imagine most of the discourse about Waluigi online - at least from the Western audience - goes over his head. While the quoted 9/11 tweet is hard to argue, a text only tweet saying something like "put walu in smash or kys f*****" would probably go over his head (if he even saw it at all, given the number of @s he likely receives a day). Which leads me to:

Thirdly, I'm not under the impression that Sakurai is very active on Twitter. In fact, I follow him, and he very rarely tweets anything non-promotional. He recently made a couple of tweets about how he avoids tweeting personal opinions about games because he doesn't like people immediately asking if those games will be in Smash. I think it's reasonable to assume he doesn't pay that much attention to his @s on social media. The man is managing an enormous game franchise while also finding time to play tons of new releases (he mentioned Katana Zero, among several others, in the tweet). Frankly, he probably doesn't have time.

Lastly, the comments in the second article come entirely from Reggie & none of the above issues relate to him in the same way. Reggie's more down to earth in interacting with his English-speaking fans, and I have no doubt he understands the Waluigi discourse. But I doubt he's going to Sakurai's office and saying, "you know, I saw somebody on twitter call Waluigi daddy, and it made me uncomfortable". He's just gonna sit Sakurai down and be like, look, the western fans really like Waluigi, so maybe take that into consideration next time. At best. Point is - Sakurai being aware of the character's popularity and Sakurai being aware of the controversial nature of it in western spaces are two entirely different things

To address two fair counterpoints: 1) It's entirely possible that Waluigi has a similarly controversial nature in Japan. I wouldn't know about that, since I don't speak Japanese, but I suspect this isn't the case, since I think we would've heard more about this if it were a wider-spread phenomenon. I don't suspect Waluigi is the kind of character the Japanese gamers would identify with in the same way we do anyway

Secondly, I used a lot of "I assume" and "I imagine" in this post. To be honest, nobody really knows what's in Sakurai's head but Sakurai. I can only use logic to try and guess at his perspective on this. I could be completely wrong about all of it

Damn that was a wild post though. Wah

Mg is no longer dead

That's good, right?

nah the harassment was very real, like I witnessed that s***

if it was exaggerated, he wouldn't have had to start blocking ppl in the first place.

most of the harassment was probs ppl having a laugh but knowing the internet, peeps went to far. even as far as sending death threats to the poor guy. it was THAT real lol

if fans are going that length to push sakurai into adding wah as a playable, im sure he'd think that there's controversial notions regarding the character in the west

remember that ppl like reggie and daddy sak are individualities. yes they're short on time but they can come across anything on the internet during their free periods. they may just choose not to comment on em

the harassment was from like 3 people
It just happened that gaming news site were all like "WOW checK oUT tHIS DRAMA: WALUIGI FANS ARE TOXIIIICCCC???????", like people will take anything mildly negative and exaggerate it so much to the point that this becomes general knowledge


Also, to anybody reading this, here's my piece of advice: Keep expectations low. I used to have super high hopes for Smash 4 only to be really disappointed by the final product and roster.
Most of my enjoyment of the series has been tarnished by my ridiculously high expectations after I followed Brawl news when I was a kid. I got severely disappointed at inclusions like Corrin or Piranha Plant, but honestly, I now realized that it's not worth getting angry about.
I used to make long a** posts basically saying "Why You Should Support This Hot New Kirby Character In Super Smash Brothers." but looking back, what's the point of complaining?

So my advice: keep expectations low, if you get thrown something you're not into you won't get as much damage as if you had high hopes in first place. Plus, if you receive good news, it'll feel a lot better.



And sorry for bumping the topic, but felt like contributing at least something

I feel like I've made fun of you for this before but it deserves to be repeated

Astoundingly bad take

It's almost like people can have differing opinions or something

Also nice way to trim my quote:

I mentioned these two characters because those two I had an awful initial reaction but they grew on me on time.

But no, I'm not allowed to have ever had negative opinions on your main, cool.

putting the dragon quest guys in smash was so cool i love akira toriyama

Not instantly loving Plant is a crime worth being called out on

Also I don't think you've commented on my mains but feel free to guess. Y'all got around a 2/75 chance

Cool.