Geno (♥♪!?): Return of the Starsend Savior

[MisterMike]

Ryu Hayabusa is solid and strong while Waluigi could easily cause enough chaos to bring back Mark Hamill's voice out of retirement for even just a moment.

Wait, Mark Hamill retired? Isn't he voicing Don Corneo in the FF7 Remake?

 

[TriggerX]

Im surprised Waluigi is even being mentioned when there are so many other AT characters that are probably more popular. Skull Kid, Shadow, Shovel Knight, Isaac, etc.
Plus he seems like he’s just a character used for spin off games.
Also personally I feel like Waluigi would lower the chances of Geno being his own character. 2 characters from the Mario universe just seems unlikely.

 

[Izanagi97]

It makes you wonder: what else does Nintendo need to convince them to just make Geno playable already? It's like none of them want to give him that little push over the finish line to playability unless they literally have no option left.

I'd imagine it's got something to do with Square Enix (because of course it does)

 

[JarBear]

That's the rub when it comes down to it. Who is the issue really? Is it one of the three parties? all of them? Partially some?

I say that since on the one hand, you can say "It's Square, they won't let him be used!" But at the same time, Square has "allowed" Cloud and Hero, their big poster boys.

Nintendo of America has "heard" our desire for both Geno and Waluigi ... which is nice ... but does that translate onto "Ok, let's get them in since the people want him!" But ... no?

I go back and forth and just hope all the parties will finally do this. It would be a money maker for all parties. Compared to Cloud and Hero, Geno's licensing would be cheap and people have been calling for him for years and years!

EDIT: I am really trying not to be a downer on this, more of a pondering thought. A product that both parties need to be working together with, that hasn't been used in a LOOONG time, demand is there and the cost is cheap.

I am much more optimistic in the next round of DLC for Geno, it still comes down to why not maybe earlier OR if he isn't in this pass, why not?

 

[MonkeyDLenny]

At least we can all take solice in the fact that Joker got nerfed

There was a problem fetching the tweet

 

[Icewolff92]

,

Wait, Mark Hamill retired? Isn't he voicing Don Corneo in the FF7 Remake?

He has not retired. He just ain't as active as a voice actor like he used too

 

[cosmicB]

Like I said, Joker was the second most popular pick of the Fighter's Pass while Banjo was the first.

Are you basing this on online discourse or actual sales of individual DLC (and in more than one region)? Do one of your guys have access to that info because that would be pretty pertinent information as it probably helped decide on the final 6.

 

[xpnc]

Anyone saying "Square won't let him be used" needs to remember that out of all the series Square Enix has produced, the only one outside of Final Fantasy in the base game at ALL was Super Mario RPG. No Kingdom Hearts spirits, no Nier spirits, there weren't even really Final Fantasy spirits besides Cloud. They sat down in the negotiation room and gave the go-ahead for exactly 2 of their characters and NOTHING else

The ball is 100% in Sakurai and Nintendo's court. Square would literally be getting free money from Geno DLC

 

[Dynamic Worlok]

Are you basing this on online discourse or actual sales of individual DLC (and in more than one region)? Do one of your guys have access to that info because that would be pretty pertinent information as it probably helped decide on the final 6.

likely based on discourse, as the sales numbers are not terribly useful for guaging popularity, since a vast majority of people bought the fighters pass sight unseen. And since joker was revealed before the fighters pass went on sale, it's virtually impossible to tell how much of the initial sales were made due to joker's popularity.

 

[Brothanigus]

You guys ready for another 6 characters no one wants besides, maybe, one. You guys ready for another FE character, another Pokemon, another crappy Mario enemy, another generic weeby rpg guy, maybe something good, and another generic nobody no one wants?

 

[TriggerX]

In terms of the second pass, I’ve looked at it from a perspective of probability and I wouldn’t be surprised if it pans out.
For example The points listed below I can see holding true for the next pass:

-We’re unlikely to get a pass that has 2 characters from the same universe.

- We’re less likely to have a pass with all humanoid characters. At least one will be some kind of animal based character

- We’ll see at least 1 female character.(Or alt at least)

- Likely to see at least one character whose weapons set is a gun or projectile of some kind.( We’ve gone 5 characters without a cannon/gun/projectile weapon based character, I doubt we’ll go another 6)

- It’s unlikely we get two characters from the same parent company unless it involves additional Nintendo characters and/or Geno.

 

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

Anyone saying "Square won't let him be used" needs to remember that out of all the series Square Enix has produced, the only one outside of Final Fantasy in the base game at ALL was Super Mario RPG. No Kingdom Hearts spirits, no Nier spirits, there weren't even really Final Fantasy spirits besides Cloud. They sat down in the negotiation room and gave the go-ahead for exactly 2 of their characters and NOTHING else

The ball is 100% in Sakurai and Nintendo's court. Square would literally be getting free money from Geno DLC

Only thing I can think of when I see "Square won't let him be used" is the fact he was stright up taken out of the mario and luigi rpg remake on 3ds. If square was gonna let nintenso use their character, wouldnt his cameo have stayed in the game?

 

[TriggerX]

Only thing I can think of when I see "Square won't let him be used" is the fact he was stright up taken out of the mario and luigi rpg remake on 3ds. If square was gonna let nintenso use their character, wouldnt his cameo have stayed in the game?

That’s more on Nintendo if anything. You can’t just use someone else’s property without permission/ or paying for it.

Chances are Nintendo did not want to pay whatever fee is associated with using the characters from the SMRPG IP. Therefore they took it out, cuz what did it really add?
Probably wasn’t worth the cost to keep a single sprite in the game that was literally just a cameo.

 

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

That’s more on Nintendo if anything. You can’t just use someone else’s property without permission/ or paying for it.

Chances are Nintendo did not want to pay whatever fee is associated with using the characters from the SMRPG IP. Therefore they took it out, cuz what did it really add?
Probably wasn’t worth the cost to keep a single sprite in the game that was literally just a cameo.

Yeah, makes sence. The minigame that was in probably didnt even last long anyway to justify keeping it in

 

[cosmicB]

likely based on discourse, as the sales numbers are not terribly useful for guaging popularity, since a vast majority of people bought the fighters pass sight unseen. And since joker was revealed before the fighters pass went on sale, it's virtually impossible to tell how much of the initial sales were made due to joker's popularity.

Discourse is inherently anecdotal though. Of the 16+ million people playing Smash Ultimate, a fraction of a fraction are actually talking about it online in any way. Nintendo isn't going to be looking at how well received someone is on the dying aspect of online discourse that is specialized forums, they're going to be looking at individual sales, and in multiple regions.

And even online, while Banjo certainly seems to be the least hated as far as ratios go, he also has the least amount of engagement and views among all the showcase videos. Being the least divisive is not the same as being the most popular.

 

[KCCHIEFS27]

Only thing I can think of when I see "Square won't let him be used" is the fact he was stright up taken out of the mario and luigi rpg remake on 3ds. If square was gonna let nintenso use their character, wouldnt his cameo have stayed in the game?

For the same reason that the Donkey Kong team wasn’t allowed to add King K. Rool to the Tropical Freeze Switch port. The team wanted to add him as a secret final boss to the port and were told no and not given a reason why. Later they found out it was because Sakurai had already called “dibs” on reviving their own character in Smash and he wanted maximum impact. That’s the power Sakurai has. He can stop the DK team from using their own most iconic villain.

https://smashboards.com/threads/news-how-fans-brought-back-k-rool.457451/

 

[Polarthief]

Yup, the Starvation Strategy™ is already working its magic. Thanks, Nintendo.

The problem with this theory is that when starved for info, negatives feel a lot worse (see Byleth and Kencineroar). When starved, your mind basically tells you "well there's going to be a payoff, right?", which is why E3 last year felt so good. The theory doesn't exactly hold to "well now we'll settle for anyone", as even Terry left people a bit disappointed, Byleth much more so.

But yeah, we really do need a direct at this point with a popular but not E3 popular character.

 

[Icewolff92]

In terms of the second pass, I’ve looked at it from a perspective of probability and I wouldn’t be surprised if it pans out.
For example The points listed below I can see holding true for the next pass:

-We’re unlikely to get a pass that has 2 characters from the same universe.

- We’re less likely to have a pass with all humanoid characters. At least one will be some kind of animal based character

- We’ll see at least 1 female character.(Or alt at least)

- Likely to see at least one character whose weapons set is a gun or projectile of some kind.( We’ve gone 5 characters without a cannon/gun/projectile weapon based character, I doubt we’ll go another 6)

- It’s unlikely we will see 2 characters from the same parent company within the same pass.( Only exception to this I could see is Geno since despite his parent company being square, he’s only been used along Nintendo properties)

I would not disqualify Sylux or Urshifu as a possible rep. Especially the latter concidering the DLC that arrives this year.

 

[Dynamic Worlok]

Discourse is inherently anecdotal though. Of the 16+ million people playing Smash Ultimate, a fraction of a fraction are actually talking about it online in any way. Nintendo isn't going to be looking at how well received someone is on the dying aspect of online discourse that is specialized forums, they're going to be looking at individual sales, and in multiple regions.

And even online, while Banjo certainly seems to be the least hated as far as ratios go, he also has the least amount of engagement and views among all the showcase videos. Being the least divisive is not the same as being the most popular.

That's fair to say. And being a company, nintendo is absolutely going to look a their sales numbers first. Which is why it's hair-pullingly frustrating when I see people just buying the pass blind. It's the reason the term vote with your wallet exists, because a company is always going to look at it's bottom line first. Granted, these blind purchases have beneficial effects as well, since the abundant faith in nintendo's DLC choices is more than likely what secured us this second pass to begin with.

 

[TriggerX]

I would not disqualify Sylux or Urshifu as a possible rep. Especially the latter concidering the DLC that arrives this year.

You are right, that brings me to what I should have clarified earlier.
-It’s unlikely we get two characters from the same parent company unless it involves additional Nintendo characters and/or Geno.

 

[Icewolff92]

That's fair to say. And being a company, nintendo is absolutely going to look a their sales numbers first. Which is why it's hair-pullingly frustrating when I see people just buying the pass blind. It's the reason the term vote with your wallet exists, because a company is always going to look at it's bottom line first. Granted, these blind purchases have beneficial effects as well, since the abundant faith in nintendo's DLC choices is more than likely what secured us this second pass to begin with.

Most people (myself included) are open-minded on who gets in (as long as we don¨t get the likes of Son Goku, I¨m fine and both Sakurai and Nintendo has pretty much stated that it won¨t happen). Preference sure, but its not a deal breaker

 

[Polarthief]

I would not disqualify Sylux or Urshifu as a possible rep. Especially the latter concidering the DLC that arrives this year.

Urshifu would be such a massive disappointment, probably even too Pokémon fans though, and for what? Just to advertise the DLC?

Toxtricity or Obstagoon represent gen 8 a thousand times better and are both very well-received. If you see the game they're from, you likely will see the DLC associated with it too.

Legit, the only character that could really upset me, even with Geno getting in, would be Urshifu at this point, moreso than Sora, MC, or even another FE rep. I wouldn't mind any of the ones I don't want to see if Geno gets in other than Urshifu because it means Obs and Tox won't ever be in, and they'd be vastly more interesting than Pangoro Alt.

 

[EntropyAtrophy]

I'm guessing a couple of characters are developed and ready. If the pass sells well blindly, it'll open boringly and they'll save a heavy hitter for E3 or holiday season. If it isn't selling as well as they'd hoped, the first character will be a more exciting choice.

 

[Icewolff92]

Urshifu would be such a massive disappointment, probably even too Pokémon fans though, and for what? Just to advertise the DLC?

Concidering Nintendo don¨t mind putting adds (let¨s face it, no matter what you are on the spectrum when it comes to Byleth, the inclusion were meant as a add) in the DLC, I think Urshifu is a 99% likely concidering the bear is the main part of the first wave of DLC for Sword and Shield

 

[Firox]

I'm guessing a couple of characters are developed and ready. If the pass sells well blindly, it'll open boringly and they'll save a heavy hitter for E3 or holiday season. If it isn't selling as well as they'd hoped, the first character will be a more exciting choice.

Hence why I keep telling people to hold off on buying the mystery bundle until AFTER we get fighter #6.

 

[cosmicB]

That's fair to say. And being a company, nintendo is absolutely going to look a their sales numbers first. Which is why it's hair-pullingly frustrating when I see people just buying the pass blind. It's the reason the term vote with your wallet exists, because a company is always going to look at it's bottom line first. Granted, these blind purchases have beneficial effects as well, since the abundant faith in nintendo's DLC choices is more than likely what secured us this second pass to begin with.

Not disagreeing there. Blind faith buys are pretty dumb and anti-consumer imo, though I won't fault people for taking them, especially pro players.

I do think the whole pass being available the way it is can potentially skew perception among the people that actually have the statistics available. There's no way to prove more people would have bought any given character individually compared to other characters had the pass not been available. You unfortunately just have to take it as fact that whoever has the most individual sales would have done so either way based on whatever methodology they utilize.

If I were to make an educated guess, I'd say Hero would be the highest individual seller based on regional obsessions and actual fighter wonkiness that had both the competitive and casual scenes at least showing some interest unlike virtually all the other characters (Joker leans competitive, Banjo leans casual, Terry is both but is also attached to one of the weakest regions, and Byleth is Byleth).

 

[Icewolff92]

I'm guessing a couple of characters are developed and ready. If the pass sells well blindly, it'll open boringly and they'll save a heavy hitter for E3 or holiday season. If it isn't selling as well as they'd hoped, the first character will be a more exciting choice.

You do know "open boringly" etc is subjective right?

 

[Polarthief]

Concidering Nintendo don¨t mind putting adds (let¨s face it, no matter what you are on the spectrum when it comes to Byleth, the inclusion were meant as a add) in the DLC, I think Urshifu is a 99% likely concidering the bear is the main part of the first wave of DLC for Sword and Shield

But the equivalent would be putting one of those new playable FE characters in the DLC over Byleth or any of the house leaders. If they really, REALLY wanted to go against the fans' wishes, then yeah stick Ur****er in there. If they wanted to advertise but also pick a character people like, Obs or Tox (or a starter) are way more likely.

Edit: I'm also sure Sakurai is aware of the ****show that was Gen 8's rocky E3 presentation, as well as its launch (and still to this day). Throwing a shill pick from that game would do nothing but anger people further. Picking a popular/well-liked character would be a completely different message.

 

[CannonStreak]

Not disagreeing there. Blind faith buys are pretty dumb and anti-consumer imo, though I won't fault people for taking them, especially pro players.

I do think the whole pass being available the way it is can potentially skew perception among the people that actually have the statistics available. There's no way to prove more people would have bought any given character individually compared to other characters had the pass not been available. You unfortunately just have to take it as fact that whoever has the most individual sales would have done so either way based on whatever methodology they utilize.

If I were to make an educated guess, I'd say Hero would be the highest individual seller based on regional obsessions and actual fighter wonkiness that had both the competitive and casual scenes at least showing some interest unlike virtually all the other characters (Joker leans competitive, Banjo leans casual, Terry is both but is also attached to one of the weakest regions, and Byleth is Byleth).

About blind faith buys, I usually don’t care of the results of such things, for video games, anyway. I already bought the second pass, and if it has characters I like, that is great. For characters I don’t like or care for, that is still fine to me.

 

[Polarthief]

About blind faith buys, I usually don’t care of the results of such things, for video games, anyway. I already bought the second pass, and if it has characters I like, that is great. For characters I don’t like or care for, that is still fine to me.

Well at least it can't possibly be worse than Warcraft 3 Reforged's release! (seriously, do not buy WC3R. I got it for "free" via WoW tokens and I'm feeling extremely ripped off)

 

[YsDisciple]

As a continuation of my last post, I've noticed that the first reveals of "Seasons" are surprises or fakeouts and its been this way since Brawl:

Brawl- At E3 2006, they had a bunch of people come into a room and nobody was told what they would be shown.

Smash 4- Posed as an Animal Crossing trailer. Later in the show, Wii Fit was posed as a new Wii Fit game.

Smash 4 DLC- Randomly announced in the 50 Fact Extravaganza in October 2014. "Time for a special announcement!" *suddenly Mewtwo*

Smash Ultimate- Posed as a Splatoon trailer.

Joker- Posed as a surprise Persona 5 announcement.

This is why I think 6 is likely going to be a bamboozle too. We probably won't know it's even a Smash trailer until it's too late.

Following this line of thought, these days I just haven't been able to shake off the idea that... something might actually come out of the last two remaining Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition announcement dates. Before Byleth's "Smash Direct", we were teased to keep an eye on three specific dates for DMC 3 SE news:

- January 16th
- January 30th
- February 13th

A few days later when we got the announcement that Sakurai was going to present the 5th DLC fighter, and on JANRUARY 16TH, of course most people thought that it was definitely going to be Dante. Again, the echoed character reveal patterns mentioned on this thread serve as proof that this being the 5th DLC fighter, unfortunately wasn't (and didn't end up being) Dante.

HOWEVER, we still have two more dates to keep an eye on. Tomorrow comes January 30th; the second date they teased. Now, I thought "what other relevant details could they announce for DMC 3 SE other than the style switching mode that was announced on the 16th?" The style switching mode is actually a BIG deal. Personally it is a much relevant feature of the game than say, being able to play as Vergil (just like in the Playstation 2). So, I still feel that Dante could end up being the "surprise" Challenger Pack 6. We're still waiting on a General Nintendo Direct to now most likely take place during February. Heh, truly, if Nintendo announces the Direct for February 13th (third and final teased date for DMC 3 SE news), party's gonna get crazy.

On a side note (and Geno related), I hope whenever the Direct happens, they announce SMRPG for the SNES library.

 

[CannonStreak]

Well at least it can't possibly be worse than Warcraft 3 Reforged's release! (seriously, do not buy WC3R. I got it for "free" via WoW tokens and I'm feeling extremely ripped off)

Well, I was just saying, saying that I technically like to download all DLC characters for a video game, regardless of how good they are; though that may change if an exception comes in the future.

 

[Icewolff92]

But the equivalent would be putting one of those new playable FE characters in the DLC over Byleth or any of the house leaders. If they really, REALLY wanted to go against the fans' wishes, then yeah stick Ur****er in there. If they wanted to advertise but also pick a character people like, Obs or Tox (or a starter) are way more likely.

Edit: I'm also sure Sakurai is aware of the ****show that was Gen 8's rocky E3 presentation, as well as its launch (and still to this day). Throwing a shill pick from that game would do nothing but anger people further. Picking a popular/well-liked character would be a completely different message.

The biggest issue with your Pokemon argument is that, with Three Houses, you had 4 to pick between... with Pokemon, you have around 100 to pick between, with the starters being their answer to the "house leaders". People will call the choice a shill pick regardless on who it is if we are getting a Pokemon, which is why I hope for Sylux concidering Metroid is rather under representative and MP4 could need some advertisement

 

[Polarthief]

Well, I was just saying, saying that I technically like to download all DLC characters for a video game, regardless of how good they are; though that may change if an exception comes in the future.

Oh I know, I was just taking a (well-deserved) jab at WC3R. That said, even if I don't like the characters and the entire pack sucks, I think Ultimate is so good that it's one of those rare games that deserves more money, so I don't feel too bad about just pre-buying the FPs, Sans, and Cuphead. They're all also just worth it to me. Just my $0.02 and my opinion but it's how I feel. I just wanna support Sakurai even if I don't get Geno, Paper Mario, and my other top picks. Plus he gave me Banjo-Kazooie, so...

The biggest issue with your Pokemon argument is that, with Three Houses, you had 4 to pick between... with Pokemon, you have around 100 to pick between, with the starters being their answer to the "house leaders". People will call the choice a shill pick regardless on who it is if we are getting a Pokemon, which is why I hope for Sylux concidering Metroid is rather under representative and MP4 could need some advertisement

I don't necessarily agree with it being a shill pick if it's a character that people like. Byleth isn't even a shill pick, they're just a selfish pick, and Sakurai's allowed to have a selfish pick after bringing us Banjo-Kazooie, Ridley, King K. Rool, the Belmonts, Sans and Cuphead (sort of) and everything else he's managed to stuff in Ultimate. Again though, had Byleth been replaced with one of the new DLC characters, that would be both selfish and shill.

A Gen 8 rep would be an "obligatory pick". Urshifu would be both obligatory and shill. A favored character from Gen 8 (pick ANY of the ones already in the game) is still obligatory but not shill, yet still does a fine job advertising the game anyway. Honestly, I don't see him picking Urshifu if we are getting a Gen 8 rep, unless heavily pushed by Nintendo/TPC. He himself simply wouldn't pick it though when we have enough fighting-esque characters, two of which are FROM POKEMON ALREADY: Lucario and Incineroar. Tox would bring a lot to the table, especially if you focus on their poison and "sound" typing ("sound" not being an official type, obviously, but focus more on it than doing things like Thunderbolt), along with its punk/rocker vibe.

Or just add kung fu bear and let him chill with Ryu and Ken I guess, whatever. Edit: and Terry. We have enough "fighting" characters, if that makes sense.

 

[CannonStreak]

Oh I know, I was just taking a (well-deserved) jab at WC3R. That said, even if I don't like the characters and the entire pack sucks, I think Ultimate is so good that it's one of those rare games that deserves more money, so I don't feel too bad about just pre-buying the FPs, Sans, and Cuphead. They're all also just worth it to me. Just my $0.02 and my opinion but it's how I feel. I just wanna support Sakurai even if I don't get Geno, Paper Mario, and my other top picks. Plus he gave me Banjo-Kazooie, so...

I know you were. In regards to your thoughts on Ultimate and DLC, I am rather inclined to agree. I pretty much have the same thoughts. I'll buy DLC no matter what, and if any DLC happens to be anything I want or like, then all the merrier! (Even though any DLC is fine, like I said, regardless of what it is) In regards to WC3R, If I ever do play that game, I can see myself not buying DLC for that game, or any DLC for any game that is similar, or has similar problems to such DLC.

 

[Icewolff92]

I don't necessarily agree with it being a shill pick if it's a character that people like. Byleth isn't even a shill pick, they're just a selfish pick

Polar.. the trailer for the last wave of DLC for 3H were shown at the end of the presentation in the european version. Byleth was a shill pick

 

[Deleted member]

https://mobile.twitter.com/WalmartCAGaming/status/1222323597756313600


Walmart Canada posted this it's just Predictions for who they want in season fighters pass 2 full credit to them.


Pretty solid choices. The awesome looking puppet, orange marsupial and, punk electric/poison rocker are highlights for me!


I hope everyone is enjoying Byleth he seems pretty awesome and people seem to be enjoying the character!

 

[Polarthief]

Polar.. the trailer for the last wave of DLC for 3H were shown at the end of the presentation in the european version. Byleth was a shill pick

Advertising pick != shill pick, at least not IMO. Shill is when there could have been a much better choice (i.e., Byleth/house leaders), but you went with the new one because they're new and from the new thing you're selling (new DLC characters).

Tox/Obs/Starters would be advertising picks. Urshifu is a shill pick.

Walmart Canada posted this it's just Predictions for who they want in season fighters pass 2 full credit to them.

Pretty solid choices. The awesome looking puppet, orange marsupial and, punk electric/poison rocker are highlights for me!

Yeah we talked briefly about it yesterday. I would remove Travis (didn't someone say he was deconfirmed? I wouldn't know) and RFT. Put Doomguy or Master Chief (somehow I feel like it'll come down to one or the other but not both), Dante, and Waluigi on there. Not necessarily picks I want, but that would be a pretty jam-packed, amazing, FP2 that's pretty well-rounded.

 

[Deleted member]

Advertising pick != shill pick, at least not IMO. Shill is when there could have been a much better choice (i.e., Byleth/house leaders), but you went with the new one because they're new and from the new thing you're selling (new DLC characters).

Tox/Obs/Starters would be advertising picks. Urshifu is a shill pick.



Yeah we talked briefly about it yesterday. I would remove Travis (didn't someone say he was deconfirmed? I wouldn't know) and RFT. Put Doomguy or Master Chief (somehow I feel like it'll come down to one or the other but not both), Dante, and Waluigi on there. Not necessarily picks I want, but that would be a pretty jam-packed, amazing, FP2 that's pretty well-rounded.

Agreed and yeah should have seen that. Anyway yeah good picks in there part. Excited to find out whoever we get.

 

[CannonStreak]

Yeah we talked briefly about it yesterday. I would remove Travis (didn't someone say he was deconfirmed? I wouldn't know) and RFT. Put Doomguy or Master Chief (somehow I feel like it'll come down to one or the other but not both), Dante, and Waluigi on there. Not necessarily picks I want, but that would be a pretty jam-packed, amazing, FP2 that's pretty well-rounded.

I guess I can understand removing Ring Fit Trainer from the predictions made by Walmart Canada, even though I would like to see that character as playable in Smash Bros. Ultimate. I am not the only one who wants such a character, am I?