Man, I REALLY didn't want this to continue like this originally, but now that it has I'm seeing exactly what I wanted, even if not from
whom I wanted to see it from, I guess I'm okay with a bit of derailing.
I'm not sure where this updated list of attacking people who thought Geno wasn't in was at. I apparently didn't get that memo. To keep the discussion about the Geno Thread as minimum as possible here since it just brings up bad old blood for people, if you can DM me this supposed list and who was making it just so we can have a small chat about it that would be nice, because I have to say that as of now this seems like a work of fiction. I'm not calling anyone a liar, but while it's not hard for me to believe that a
certain Geno Fan would do this, it's hard for me to believe as a whole we would have planned to go and harass numerous people. Pretty sure we would have just flipped the bird to the haters on GameFAQs and cried our eyes out at the same time, possibly in all universes simultaneously.
I also don't think this kind of thing is unique to just the Geno Thread, and I doubt this is the first time this has ever happened in Smash speculation. I think this is just the first time it got that bad on this site. But even if I'm wrong about that, now we know what both sides need to do to prevent this from happening again.
The last two things I will say that I think people aren't quite set quite right on is the attacking of people who meant no harm and defending Geno's position. I admit that we did that for the both, I saw it happen. For the former, it's called conditioning: For a positive example, if you come home from work and every Tuesday your SO gives you a peck on the cheek and a wink and that means it's time to Hulu and WooHoo, you may get thrown off when one Tuesday you pursue this first and your SO doesn't want to. A more negative one would be going out for a walk at night and someone comes up to you with specific body language and mugs you, then having thing happen to you once again next week and the week after, all using the same manner of walking and body language before attacking you. The next night you go out (assuming you even would at this point), if another person walked up with similar body language, would you not put up your dukes or otherwise be ready to defend yourselves without even knowing of their motives?
Replace body language with post structure and statements made, and you have what the Geno Thread experienced enough to lash out at people who had genuine questions because many trolls framed themselves the same way. I remember it very clearly that they would either outright be jerks with post structure with backhanded questions or act as if they were asking genuine questions and then proceeded to just blow that cover and do what they came there for. This happened weekly or even daily, so when some people chased away genuine people it starts to make more sense.
The latter is that, up until Sephiroth and not completely until his Mii Costume, there was nothing perceivably bad in Geno's way. Everyone with a brain knew a Spirit PNG wouldn't stop DLC and it got proven right soon enough, and his costume not coming back with Hero was the longest jebait in history that others also experienced before us. So, we had from November 2018 until Dec 2020 in which Ultimate itself gave us nothing but confidence. By all means, we took things that were good for any character and spun it for Geno, and we did bits of revisionist hype here and there (which I also did since my engagement during Brawl is very fuzzy in my memory, and I appreciate those who were honest with me and corrected me about the character hype trains then), and we came up with some wacky theories (although some of them like 7 Theory was a meme more than it was anything serious) but all in all it was, at the core, what Ultimate was telling us and a mix of both real and fake insider information that put us were it did.
So, when the game itself is looking good for Geno, leakers/fake leakers keep coming into your thread to say good things about Geno, Geno was being setup very well for the next Square rep, Sora and Sephiroth seemed like they weren't happening...and that period of time lasts for over two years? I think you can understand the confidence here. Also add in that we were riding the Sakurai Interview high into the first reveal in March 2018, so it was just a mix of things that brought us tall only to fall
HARD and there was essentially no real warning sign until we got there, not from Sakurai, real leaks or Ultimate itself.
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As a FINAL final note on this topic from me (and I'll do my damnedest to stick to that this time), I see some apologies for their actions regardless of whether they really seem warranted. I won't apologize for mine personally, as I don't see anything that deems such a thing. I'll admit I got things wrong for sure and that my attitude to people here wasn't always the nicest, but I'm not the only one who got things wrong and the attitude was very much mutual during those times, but I think we've mostly moved past that and I'm down with not beating each other over the head with theories or trying to character assassinate or strawman people when the only thing we know about each other is a couple hundred posts and a profile picture. I thank those who provided me information to correct me even when it didn't break through at first and sticking with it to make sure it did, extra points to those who weren't rude in the process.
I also won't apologize for the things the Geno Thread did or may have done that were stupid, ridiculous and/or mean, and that's because I can't take the blame and apologize for a group of like a thousand individuals or so. I would regularly tell people to stop hating on characters like Sora or Hero and anyone that they may have been actually hating on because we shouldn't act like the people who come into our thread and mistreat us. I told people multiple times to consider Sora as competition and I was also openly critical of The Janitor in terms of disagreement on things. I was always one of the first to recover from disappointment and encouraged others to do the same, and I myself had to take breaks from the thread because my own fellow Geno Fans would try to put words in my mouth from time to time. If anything, that should have been the hint that something was amiss, but I just chalked it up to people being stupid and not understanding my wordy posts rather than it being an issue with the culture in that thread. For as much as I hyped things up for Geno, I consider myself reasonable and I strive to get close in terms of speculation, regardless of my favorites. Despite my wants, after his costume I said that it's still possible he could make it, but I also thought it was much more likely to be someone else. I was really hoping I could steer the Geno Thread back into a state of reasonable optimism and hope after that reveal, and I think it could have happened over time, but staff decided it was best to just nuke it instead...too which I both understand but also disagree.
At the end of the day, I'm a SMRPG Fan. It was my first RPG, even before Pokemon, and it's one of my favorite games if not my favorite. Without the randomizer, I can fire up the game at any time and just play it and enjoy myself despite having played through it countless times. I'm fighting in hopes for SMRPG to make it to SNES Online. I'm fighting in hopes of Geno and Mallow or any other unique character from SMRPG to return in things like Mario Kart or Mario Party. I'm fighting for a remaster with new content like Square has been doing or for an outright remake. I'm fighting for a sequel that takes place in the same SMRPG universe. I'm fighting for more official SMRPG merchandise. And of course, I'm fighting for Geno in Smash. I will keep doing this until I get results so that a great game that was a product of it's time gets a second chance to shine and perhaps become something even greater. I will get hype for any Smash news as I always do, I'll be excited for each character reveal as I always am. The only thing that has changed is that my harsh criticism of being very stern on leaks and only accepting official Nintendo info or credible info from leakers up until the first time they are wrong: after that they immediately have to prove themselves again.
I won't apologize for getting hype and I won't apologize for being a SMRPG fan. From here on out, my goals in the realms of Smash are to try and band Geno Support together again while avoiding what happened last time and possibly starting up a Skullgirls Support Thread since there really isn't one and I think that's criminal. Other than that, trying to get as close to the truth of what happens to Smash in the future, as always. Ultimate was a wild ride and, while I think too many mistakes were made for it to TRULY be Ultimate, I do think it fits it's name of Special to an absolute T. I'm happy with the results overall, and I hope of most you all are too.
Here's to the future of less-screwed-up Smash Speculation!
