Can we all just agree to call the lead climber "Popo"?

[| Big D |]

When people are commentating matches, it can be misleading to viewers when the lead climber is referred to as both "Popo" and "Nana". Even just describing situations, referring to the lead climber as a single name makes things much simpler. I believe smashwiki put it best.

• When referring to the individual Ice Climbers, use Popo to refer to the leader Climber, and use Nana to refer to the partner Climber. While technically some palette swaps have Nana as the leader and Popo as the partner, Popo/Nana is the default leader/partner configuration, and in the competitive community the leader climber is referred to as Popo with the partner being called Nana regardless of costume. Additionally, "Popo" and "Nana" are easier to use and flow better in articles than "leader climber", "partner climber", and the like.

I understand that it can be hard to just overlook that you are essntially calling Nana "Popo" and for all those out there who want to remain technical I challenge you by bringing up the relationship between the Ice Climbers.

To quote smashwiki -

Relationship-wise, several fans believed them to be siblings, or even spouses, despite their young appearance, but according to Nintendo, the nature of their relationship is up to the player's imagination. However, during Melee's development, it was said that Sakurai wanted them to be lovers.

Also in the melee intro you can clearly see the climbers gazing into each other's eyes and a heart is formed as a visual manifestation of their live for each other.

All this strongly suggests they are lovers.

However in Brawl things take a different turn as shown in the codec used for Ice Climbers on Shadow Moses Island.

In Meiling's description of the Ice Climbers, she uses the phrase "Blood Bond" and paraphrases a poem used to describe siblings. That said poem is what I believe to be "None Equal to Brothers" which can be read here. This strongly suggests they are siblings.

What does all this mean? Are they lovers? Siblings? Both? It means that the interpretation of Ice Climbers is sketchy. There are many ways we can view the Ice Climbers, I'm only suggesting we choose the interpretation that makes them easier to refer to. If calling Nana "Popo" is too much to bear I put forward this viewpoint.

Perhaps costumes with Nana as the lead are really just Popo with a different haircut and a slight change of voice. Both Nana and Popo have the same voice actor so this is entirely possible.

All I'm saying is that nobody really knows what's going on so let's just call the lead climber "Popo" and secondary climber "Nana".

Thank for your time.

 

[KuroganeHammer]

I know someone who just calls the partner IC "Popo".

He has no clue that it's the main IC that's "Popo".

 

[JB IV]

(Respectfully) Disagree

I actually prefer it when the commentators call the lead climber by their proper name because it demonstrates ICs knowledge and it's not the commentator's responsibility to lower the bar for everyone else who is unaware, but instead to inform them. If they explain why the lead climber is Nana instead of Popo they inform everyone of how to tell the difference between who is the lead climber based on palette so that the viewer will know in future instances when Popo is not the lead climber.

 

[DeLux]

In terms of top IC players who uses which colors?

Nakat/Vinnie/9B use White
Esam uses Standard
Big D and I use Double Blues .5 pts

3 to 2, the Nana's have it?

 

[AlphaQHard]

I disagree i think it's awesome that you can play as Nana (lead character)

(Respectfully) Disagree

I actually prefer it when the commentators call the lead climber by their proper name because it demonstrates ICs knowledge and it's not the commentator's responsibility to lower the bar for everyone else who is unaware, but instead to inform them. If they explain why the lead climber is Nana instead of Popo they inform everyone of how to tell the difference between who is the lead climber based on palette so that the viewer will know in future instances when Popo is not the lead climber.

agreed!