When I came back, suddenly tons of people cared about what I had to say. Suddenly people were taking Geno seriously as a character. People listened to my theories and even defended me. I never really had that before. Of course, Geno wasn't in Brawl in the end. I looked like a fool and all the lengthy theories I had seemingly turned to dust. Again, I was back to being a weird guy who was excitable and felt like a crazy person who screams at traffic from the sidewalk. You can go back and look at my posts from that time period and see, no, I didn't handle very well (or maturely) but could anyone really blame me? Of course, the fall out caused me to be a bitter ******* during Smash 4. The Geno fanbase was still going but I found myself scolding fans for their optimistism like
kiteinthesky
and even PapaGenos before he became a monolith in the Smash fanbase. I was kind of a **** and I'm sorry...
Don't sweat it, bro. I knew you'd come around eventually. The collective power of the people has that way of bringing us back to life when we think all is lost.
Everybody loses faith at some point in their life. It happened to me, too (over unrelated things). What matters is remembering during those times that no matter how dark and bleak things might seem, that it too shall pass and the sun shall come again. It sure as hell has for our fanbase. For our lives. Hopefully for our and future generations, too.
People, whether Geno actually makes it in or not (he most likely will by next year at the latest), what we've done not just as a group of schmucks on an internet forum, not just as a fanbase, but as people has had a deep and profound impact on the rest of us, on the rest of this site, the internet, the whole gaming world. Despite everything, despite every setback and letdown, we picked ourselves back up again, dusted ourselves off, and with the grit that can only be expected of a fanbase for a character like Geno who is the literal embodiment of the concept, we kept marching on, kept making our voices heard, kept trying over and over and over again despite the impossible odds against us. And it's looking like, this time, it might actually pay off. That is the real value of the Geno cult: we've shown the world the intrinsic value of courage and perseverance. That marching onward no matter the odds is not only worthwhile, for its own sake, but vitally important for the health of the human soul. It is the quality that MAKES us human.
And that's why I'm a Genobro. Mallow's actually my favorite character believe it or not. But the real moral of the game is that with enough boldness, pluck, moxie and togetherness, we can stand against ANYTHING, and that is what we've done. That's what we've shown the world. So no matter what happens, I'm in it 'til the end, and I hope you all will be, too. Especially you,
Fatmanonice
.