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I have a really spicy rant I've been kicking around in my head for the better part of 2 years. I've wanted to talk about it, but it's highly speculative and might turn some of the more unhealthy hardcore Nintendo fans against me. I'm considering testing the waters on Bluesky. 😛 Do I dare?

Long story short, I think Nintendo did an arguably bad thing that fell under the radar, and they haven't really been called out much for it. I'm really not one for drama/tabloid-type content, but I do feel some responsibility to hold them accountable with my platform.

This concerns Charles Martinet's stepping down from the voice roles of Mario, Luigi, Wario, and co. This is NOT about Kevin Afghani, the current voice of Mario, whom I have nothing but love and respect for. I'm worried that some people might overreact and try to give him a hard time by association.

In the days following the announcement of Chris Pratt's casting as Mario in the SMB movie, fellow VA Tara Strong (a personal friend of Charles) reached out to her Twitter followers to ask for his fans to share stories and pics of meeting him to lift his spirits. The news apparently hit him hard.

Sorry to link to the dead bird site, but for context: x.com/tarastrong/s...

Charles responds gratefully, expressing "My little eyes seem to be leaking today… with tender affection. Thank you…" A day earlier, Tara shared a photo of the pair together with the words, "It should be Charles." This may have threatened Nintendo's squeaky clean image in the eyes of stakeholders.