He did mislead already. That is what you would call "trolling". I don't like this word because of how I realised it was actually smart.
Seriously tough, read from page 19 and it's exactly how it should happen. At least 10 people claimed to gave been reached emotionally while meaning that Sakurai "toy with emotion".
That's supposed to be the point of the tease and since I'm probably the biggest supporter here, I was probably the most targeted.
As for the others, the simple existence of the counterargument "it reps existing mario characters" even helps this.
If you don't get it, here's the global theory I was talking about:
[collapse=The HTSRST theory]
I call them HTSRST, or "Hidden Tease by Stage Reveal with Selected Targeting"
Seems kinda long, but it explains the most of what's happening.
First, those tease are done by a stage reveal. To tell that it's HTSRST, it has to be hidden and done with selected targeting.
And that's the most interesting part here. See, Sakurai already acknowledged how any fan should feel upon deconfirmation of their favourite character. I could give a source, but I don't remember where he said that, but I think it was when he said that he would have to cut characters when it was needed or something.
So, I think it makes sense to say that he can understands the feeling of his fans.
Those tease are done with SELECTED TARGETING. It means that Sakurai will specifically design the tease to only work on a previously selected target of people. The target are the one who care about the character teased and the most determinate are the most targeted. For people who are not targeted, not only the tease doesn't work, but it also make those people assume the truth since the tease is hidden.
Upon the revel of the stage, what triggers the tease is NOT saying something crucial for speculation, or at most, mention it, but by being intentionally UNCLEAR. For the target, they would get the tease because they would care so much that they would be tempted to analyse the material Sakurai gave with the reveal to realise that there's "something fishy". They would get that not being clear on this piece of info shouldn't happen and this is what triggers investigation to know what's going on.
But for the one who aren't targeted, they won't investigate and they won't get something weird since those don't care enough about the character. It makes them ASSUME the truth for what is first IMPLIED without actually have been said by Sakurai.
That's when the tease becomes hidden. By implying this truth, it would actually contradicts what the tease is trying to tell. This would make the people who aren't targeted DENY the tease and the only one who would get it is the target.
Because of this unbalanced knowledge, it creates speculations and so, the tease is more talked. For the people who denied it, the reveal would make more surprise since the possibility was denied.
The reason it's by stage reveal is because the stage is probably the best evidence you could provide to change the situation of any character's chance. Most stages has at least one playable character related to it and Sakurai choose stages that are more related to one character for his tease.
Making a stage requires a huge amount of work. There's so much details in them that the amount of work put into it has to be for a special reason. The teased stages are specifically related to one character to make a "home feel" for him.
That's why selected targeting works here. By caring about the character, you probably care about the stage choice too. By not caring, the tease has less chances to work as it's not something you would understand perfectly.
[/collapse]
So far, and I even bring this on another thread to be sure about something, nothing seems to be wrong with it, but the more I think about it, the more the foundation of this is solid.
Seriously, I think I'll pm a mod to make a thread on this. Because to be frank, I expect at least another one until direct. That is why he's playing with stages in a weird fashion. I spotted nothing on the starfox and pokemon stage we got recently, but I did on Paper Mario. For the starfox one, I asked in Krystal's thread and nothing points towards an HTSRST, but there's something fishy already.
The starfox stage would be so far the only unclear WiiU stage showed. I read some theories of supporters and what I got is impossible to prove for now, but it's intriguing.
So, since it could help any case of this which includes Paper Mario, expect nothing, but be VERY careful on the following POTD.
I'm serious. I don't know what will happen and quite honestly, it makes me scared.
So, here's Sanctuary guardians...
I will PM a mod tonight. It became way too scary to hide this and I'm confident it's mostly accurate. I may not have enough foundation, but I can't wait any more.