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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.

I have become convinced that Charles Martinet was let go from his voice roles (and assigned an ill-defined honorary role of "Mario Ambassador", an intentional PR decision) by Nintendo, likely as a result of some completely benign Twitter posts that Nintendo leadership may have been disgruntled by.