Well it's been a roller coast since that fateful Tweet about there being a trailer at the Game Awards, eh? I've had quite a bit of time to reflect. I hope I keep this essay a bit hopeful, helpful, relatable, and cathartic. I bring no speculation-insight but I do come bearing aid to the spirit and the mind. You're good people and you deserve it.
So with the 12 or so hours leading up to The Game Awards, we had time for hype, speculation, and anticipation. Then the surprise of the show starting with a Smash announcement.
And oh boy. When Galeem sliced in two, I had wondered if it was Ryu Hayabusa. Shot wise it definitely seemed like a katana was used. I at least got one thing right.
Then.....The
first two notes of One Winged Angel was all it took to
immediately shout in celebratory amazement. As my thoughts immediately acknowledge the mindblowing momentous occasion... the arrival of one of the most iconic villains of video game history, from a Citizen Kane-tier critically acclaimed game that remains on its industry's Mt. Rushmore alongside the likes of
Ocarina and
Galaxy.
In one of the coolest- if not
THE coolest- trailers in Super Smash Bros history...
In a moment where-- had you been in the room with me alongside my family or in the same Discord screening party-- you'd think that I was 100% delighted because I'm 'hooping and hollering' with remarks like '
WHAT?!' and "
NO [SMURF]-ING WAY!!" and
"OH. MY. GOD. REALLY?!!"
as family turned to me going 'what? whats the deal? who is this???' in vain knowing I'm too entranced to say anything of substance....
Deep down... If my heart spoke louder than my head, you'd just hear a stifled sniffle. A tear of grief tempered with acceptance.
Don't get me wrong: I absolutely support the idea of waiting "until we see a corpse" and I think some of you made strong arguments that we are OVER REACTING....
Fatmanonice
gave us some good number crunching that felt like a breath of fresh air and I'll get to that in a bit.
Yet I think of what I trained myself to do if I was ever the passenger of a traffic collision. That entails the following: loosen your body, take a deep breath, and accept that we sometimes have no control. Drunk drivers are statistically more likely to live than their sober victims because sober drivers tense up before a collision while the selfish ignorant drunken fools are too inebriated to react. In fact, I've already experienced this method firsthand back in college but I digress. Sometimes you have to just breathe, anticipate a problem, and remain calm. Not necessarily stoic. Not necessarily happy.... just...
Prepared.
Those first two notes of One Winged Angel hits you like a truck, doesn't it?
Fitting. As over dramatic and theatric as it is to say: of
course the one who boasts of bringing despair would signify writing on a wall for so many.
I've never played FFVII but that song has been memorized and etched into mind. In fact, so has the Advent Children version. When you hear it you know that unless you play your cards right: you stare death and despair in its magnificently powerful eyes. You punch out Cthulhu or perish.
Twenty years later I now hold 'One Winged Angel' in a new frame of reference: it's not the badass song I listened to on loop as a kid after a friend shown me Advent Children. It's not the "swords. are. in my knees. something something magic cheese. head sauce. jim carrey. in a bear. heaven pee. DAFFY-ROTH" memes we've all half-recollectedly mumble off for our friends. It's not the song you hope Kenny Omega enters with to complete his collection of world titles at Wrestlekingdom in the coming years..... It's the song that brings Geno fans despair, now, isn't it?
Ho boy. The trailer ends. The unbiased experience of the
magic of the amazing trailer dissipates. Geoff segues to
other vidya game stuff you likely cannot even remember. You're sitting in your chair thinking "that's it. It's over." Am I right so far? Because I sure felt that way.
then I check on you guys. Most of you were prepared for the worst. Plenty of you were at peace with it. And, to some folks' credit in pointing this out (especially
Fatmanonice
after some poor souls were spiralling): clearly having bigger problems as Geno's supposed deconfirmation was a straw that broke the camel's back.
To those few who fit that description: I really hope you're doing okay and perhaps if you need an additional listening ear in your support network then maybe I can be one of them. If this announcement was the icing on a cake of pain for you during the pandemic then from one Geno Fan to another: I'll try to be there for you when my emotional energy and free time permits safe passage. I got you. <3 My inbox is open.
With that being said: watching the Sephiroth trailer was a weird dichotomous experience. It was objectively really [smurfin'] cool. But it's like someone wash the majority of Geno Fans' talking points for evidence down Wario's nearly clogged and doubly disgusting drain.
Thoughts emerge like "LOL you were so close! All of that wasn't for a Geno
fighter. The evidence was for a Geno Deluxe Mii Costume. This isn't
Brawl where he'd make sense back when it was just Snake and Sonic as guests. Do you really think Geno belongs with Steve, Hero, Cloud, Ryu, Banjo, Mega Man, Snake, Pac-Man and other mindblowingly mainstream third party characters? This is Ultimate, you fool. You're gonna get a mascot cosplay for your Mii avatar and he's going to come with some music and you're going to
like it." (please hang on if you disagree. Follow my journey)
All the while, perhaps you could almost hear the memeified magicial stylings of Simon and Garfunkel going "hello darkness my old friend."
Relating still? Yeah, me, too, bud. Me, too.
Memories of explaining to friends offline about why I was confident Geno was coming seemed to be....
recontextualized. "I guess we're getting the deluxe Mii Gunner after all... Oh [smurf] this is gonna hurt, won't it?"
So after the trailer ended and Geoff moved onto further festivities, I turned to my friend (and host) on the Discord party and said "yo... Umm.. He's a Square Enix character. I think you know what that means for me and uhh... It's cool that he's in but I need to like.... take a breather. I'll be back."
I penned a quick social media status to be the 'bigger man' in advance because for some silly reason I expected my peers to be all "oh look... Johnny was wrong. Geno ain't comin' after all" but we'll unpack that later.
I said something to the effect of "if you are excited to see this new character then you have every reason to feel that way. He's a great character from an amazing game. But y'all can figure out I'm conflicted because of the 'despair' he brings to a certain pocket of Mario RPG fans."
See, when Hero was announced, I had a much easier time being on board and excited.
Brand new series? Check!
Plenty of representation on Nintendo? Check!
Huge cultural impact? Check!
FUN moveset concept? Oh you better believe there's a CHECK!
I won't lie. At Hero's announcement I wrote a jokey status on Facebook to the effect of "Check on your Geno fans. We are NOT okay right now."
but Hero was objectively a wonderful, undebatable, exciting addition to the roster that I would hope to see in future installments.... and I never even PLAYED Dragon Quest games!
To not have Geno after the Hero announcement was like having a crush on a dear friend. You'd be sad if they won't like you back but you're confident that you'd heal, grow, remain dear friends, and maybe even become good friends with their new partner. .... okay, a lot of us are the sort of nerds still in their cocoons so if you don't relate, I promise that you one day will. Stay kind and interesting.
Annnyyyyyyways.
Hero wasn't from a game I ever played before but I was entranced by the RNG moveset gimmick, the DBZ auteur character design, and how the anthology ensemble of protags felt like a medieval JRPG Doctor Who.
Then little bits of trivia like how one of the V.As always wanted to be in either Dragon Quest or Smash yet simultaneously achieved both dreams had really put me into further perspective of what sort of special work was put into that fighter pack.
I sat there
that night last year and wrote "Hey... congrats to any Dragon Quest fans. You absolutely deserve to see Smash Bros fighter representation. The series has been a strong part of Nintendo history
especially to its domestic demographics. I could never question their presence in this Nintendo pantheon and I hope the Heroes return for Smash 6 and onwards."
Sephiroth just.... didn't bring that same enthusiasm for me and I wish he did. It made sense for aforementioned reasons: the villain of one of the most critically acclaimed video games of all time! Awesome! Yet I still foolishly cling to the mental gymnastics of Super Smash Bros fighters needing to be
Nintendo hall of famers. Cloud still made sense to me-- Sephiroth, less so. Whenever people complain about Cloud being a poor fit, I would put on this obnoxious Adam Conover impression and say "
Actually, Cloud was conceptualized when the FFVII team was using a Nintendo 64 developer kit! He was among the final works before Nintendo parted ways from one of their greatest development partners who went on to work with their most consistent rival. Cloud is not just the
divorce baby after 6 breathtaking games but is now a prodigal son who brought FFVII to the Switch"
Years later...
Sephiroth just.... felt like marketing cash grab in comparison?
So then I checked on how you guys were doing. I don't say much here unless I have something meaningful to contribute or
really need to journal and reflect among people who
get what I'm saying. (hello!)
Most of you were taking this well by my brief skimmings despite the cautionary lockdown.
It's healthy to be sad about things that you placed hobbyist
passion and
hope towards. If you don't believe me,then maybe my meager amount of ethos makes a difference. I've earned a bachelors in psychology and continue to practice mindfulness meditation so let me assure that if you're not letting yourself feel a bit sad after putting a PASSIONATE and LONG TERM investment in seeing something from your childhood be revived.... then you're not being kind enough to yourself. Do try to be mindful and observant if it's feeling
painful rather than cathartic, of course. And definitely
talk to someone if the exclusion of this wonderful character in a breatktaking ensemble has added to the misery of the world's present state as we endure a cold and potentially lonely winter. There are resources out there even if you just are in pain and have
no thoughts of drastic final choices.
But also... if you're wondering what to do instead of what "not" to do.... Let the thoughts occur and let the feelings occur. You don't have to dwell on it or let it rule you but if you acknowledge it, confront it, and reflect upon it... Then you will grow. Emotions and thoughts are
mutable. Meaning they are not set in stone. Therefore they are part of your lifelong journey of self improvement. They adapt and change as new information and experiences come upon you or are explored by you.
So for a night, I let myself be sad. I thought about why I felt sad. How Geno wasn't just a clump of coding and pixels simulating a block of wood who shoots BB gun pellets from his finger. I definitely acknowledged he was far more than the Smash Speculation Talking Points we stick to when explaining how he has "historical significance to Mario/Nintendo/Gaming." You know... the stuff you say to appeal to strangers on forums when they find our passion or confidence incredulous.....
To me it is so simple: he is the coolest character from the coolest Mario game. And that ONE game brought story and depth and LORE to a franchise that severely lacked depth.
Geno was the poster boy of HIGH STAKES in a franchise where its titular protagonist has an adventure because..... because.....................uhhhh............. because
"Oh-ah no! My-ah picnic*/ my-ah star festival date/ my-ah vacations/ my-ah "Castle Cake And Chill" hook up / or-ah whatever- was-ah ruined by a monster who captured my pretty friend... and now I gotta jump on platforms in 8 colorful worlds where the stakes never change while you beat-ah my game!"
(*and yes, I know Wart didn't capture Peach in the Super Mario Bros 2 picnic. Just let me have this bit, okay?)
So when people go "why do you want that random puppet in?"
I go "Dude, he was the game changer for Mario fans of the 90s!"
For many of us fans: he
validated our imagination. Mario game stories were whatever we read in the manual and then whatever our imagination plugged in afterwards. Super Mario nerds with a creative spirit would find their thoughts wandering as they dodge goombas, and troopas, and bloopers, and bullet bills while the only storyline changes were... uhhh.
OOH WATER EVERYWHERE
AND THEN
NOW THERE'S QUICK SAND JUST LIKE JOHN MULANEY WORRIED ABOUT. Craaazyyyy!
AND
NOW EVERYONE IS H U G E. WHAAAAAT?
all before Mario reaches world 6 of
Super Platformer Siblings 5: Pressure Your Parents for the "Oh MY Godddd Nintendo Sixty Fouuuurrr" you opened up on Christmas.
I digress a little but I think you all know that feeling. Where you're tired of explaining the appeal to snide sarcastic "experts" at the arcade bars, on your friend's facebook status comment section, at convention hang outs, or when you hung out with your friends at parties full of gamers.
You want him in because why the [smurf] would you not want him in?? He had shown you that the fun vivid colorful world had the storytelling potential that Miyamoto would subsequently block Mario directors from exploring... and while you might understand Miyamoto's protective nature about keeping Mario away from lore-driven experiences, you
never forget that Square Enix and a celestial being posessing an action figure taught you that the video game mascot Jumpy Wahoo Man could tell you a story in video games, as many will attest that Mario RPG was the gateway experience to the JRPG genre.
Geno had you craving for more but if you wanted it to continue in the realm of Mario then... .Well. Paper Mario delivered... for a time. ..... And we all know how that turned out. But you never forget the innovator of the franchise that is
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
What I'm trying to do here.... is validate y'all a bit. I don't post here often but I'm here every stinkin' day for the past two years. And I checked speculation threads like Geno's and whatnot since the pre-Brawl days (shout out to
S
Snakey
for his roster prediction blog. I was
hooked on here after that).
Some of you were in clear pain Thursday night. Some of you were having a mere forgettably 'rough night.' Some of you were putting emotional labor into figuring out how to handle the turn of events AND how your peers were handling it... to those folks, I salute you.
And During a
pandemic?? In the [smurfing] winter??? Wow, folks. Anyone who tells you to somehow not let out a humble (yet somehow manly and sexy) tear, or an admission of weariness, or a few moments of hobbyist despair is not a self-actualized emotionally healthy adult containing
multitudes. Nothing is beneath your feelings. Explore them. Reflect on them.
What does Geno mean to you? Childhood? Whimsy? Imagination? Captivating storytelling? Memories of camaraderie with internet-peers? A fun water-cooler subject whenever a Smash Bros game is announced that suddenly has become apparent to you that it's been nearly twenty years and he's still your #1 pick among the other worthy members of the Nintendo pantheon?
Acknowledge your feelings, articulate your sensations. Tell about it to someone you trust. You'll feel better after you let yourself feel worse.
..... these are the things I wish I knew to say the night where things were at their most intense. But y'all are cool and self-reliant. I'm sure I'm merely reaffirming what most of you already know... but if you're reading this and you needed to hear it- it's okay. I gotchu, fam.
So..... Where do we go from here?
Fatman has crunched some damn fine insightful numbers on Mii Fighter patterns. And us Smash fans sure love our patterns, don't we? And who really ever lost an emotional/mental health battle by calmly saying "it's not over until we see a body?"
I've reflected and decided there is
no harm in waiting until Thursday. And if the costume is our answer then it surely will be a
delight to behold compared to the Sm4sh era Mii Gunner with the freaky looking beady eyed face cosplaying Geno in that trailer. Back then 'good enough' was good enough and I cheered like it was a Superbowl winning touchdown.
And meanwhile, it's so tempting to just .... say "he's not in and to assume otherwise is to cling to a cultist defense mechanicsm." Maybe he's in and maybe he's not but... I think a big reason I kept saying for the past two nights that "it's healthier to say he's not in than hope that he could still be in" is because someone I care about was indoctrinated into what is essentially a cult.
And cultists love conclusion shopping. It's why I had no qualms stepping to tell you (in nicer ways) that this thread's intense over-analysis of the Gamestop debacle was bat[smurf] awkward and unbecoming. You guys are better than cultists. Your world doesn't come crashing down when someone challenges your reality. If Geno is shown off as a costume Thursday, or Sakurai makes a statement that his "chances
drastic go down" to a 33rd and 1/3rd chance... Then y'all are gonna be chill and then reapply that passion into other domains of your life because you
contain multitudes. And then we'll be back for Smash 6- directed by Sakurai or whomever his appointed successor is.
The last thing I want to say is that.... I kinda dreaded the day where Geno fans meet a strong consensus where he isn't likely to arrive. Not because things don't pan out but I kinda.... expected us to be a laughing stock even to the (silent majority of) level headed gaming community circles. I expected a wave of "BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH SEPHIROTH IS IN. YOU SMURFING CULTISTS. HOW'S THAT Q-ERO Q-ERO COLA?"
and what did we get? Tactless trolls, a wave of empathy in various communities, and an even deeper wave of indifference. The majority of the tactless comments I've seen on Twitter come from folks that, after a curious sift through theri tweets, seem like they are far from any sort of people I'd ever want to be seen in a room with.
Hell, plenty said they'd rather break bread with avid Geno stans who grasp at straws than the ignorant insulting trolls who belittle them.
If you've read this far after realizing 3 sentences in that I'm not here to talk about why he might be likely to come back, then I hope this reaffirmed you. This was cathartic for me.
Thank you for
years of insight and fun. It means more than you know.
.
