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One thing I've really come to appreciate about this speculation cycle is how open people are about where they are from, especially the Geno fans here that are from Mexico, Central America, and South America. Doing this for eons, it's wild to me how much different it is from the Brawl days. In the Brawl days, nobody really wanted to rock the boat so hardly anyone went out of their way to say where they were from, what ethnicity they were, etc. "White, straight, male, and American" was quietly considered the default because, unfortunately, the Smash community does have a long history of totally blowing off people who aren't these. Hell, I remember fighting with people back in the day for typically blowing off the skill of prominent European, Australian, and Japanese players.
Brawl passes and Smash 4 brings a new era. Suddenly, non-Americans are being treated with more respect. Suddenly, people are a lot more open about their ethnicity and sexuality (not in a creepy, well, at least most of the time...) Competitive experiences of players around the world are now considered a lot more important to the overall narrative. Ultimate then comes along and things open up even more. YEET Smash is a great example of this and how some of the videos I only understand like half of what the players are saying but their experience is considered important and part of the grander community. Still a long way to go but women have become a lot more prominent in the Smash community with Ultimate too. The community is growing and the world is getting smaller and it's honestly fantastic.
This brings us to this thread and times that I've found myself reading stories about Geno and SMRPG in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, etc and it's really something else. In the Brawl days, it was hard to imagine the Geno fanbase as a "global effort." In those days, you largely just assumed everyone was a white red blooded 18-25 American male and it was never really something that people asked about or made a point of highlighting. It's so much different now because of social media. You have artists here. You have animators here. You have people who run YouTube channels and podcasts and even fan sites.
The ease of communication is astounding for someone like me who's older than time itself. I just really appreciate it how so many of you insert yourselves into the overall narrative. Being a part of the Geno fanbase is a part of you and it's something you share with people all around the world. Regardless of how tomorrow turns out, don't lose sight of that. Don't lose sight of how you can hop online on your computer and phone and interact with people clear across the world you likely wouldn't have met if not for Geno and SMRPG.
At the end of the day, that's Ultimately what's important: comraderie and having a group of people you can be yourself around and share the ups and downs of life with.
