A green Toad as a JP exclusive character rumor

[Midnox]

So, I haven't seen this green Toad, who's supposedly a mascot for a Nintendo Japan service, was playable in the japanese version of FEH. Never seen anything of the sorts anywhere, but there were rumors of him being an axe infantry back in the first days of the game's release. Anyone stumbled upon these rumors as well? 

Edited April 6, 2018 by Balcerzak

[Anacybele]

Surely fake. It wouldn't be fair for a unit to only be available in a certain part of the world. It was probably an April Fool's thing.

[Rezzy]

It's probably a joke, and I don't think the game is region locked, so they couldn't do region exclusives units if they wanted to.  I think we've gotten bonus Orbs in the past from contests that only went on in Japan before.

[IGdood]

Collab units would be nice.

 

Mario and Luigi with hammers would be great axe infantry.   Or the flower fireball can be red mage.

[Vince777]

I expect crossovers at some point but I'm still hoping it'll never happen.

Less popular/known characters already have to cope with alternates and a reduced flow of releases. 

[Acacia Sgt]

I think it was just the account having fun.

I mean, look at what they had as their first "summoning pull". Not really, by the way.

52 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Surely fake. It wouldn't be fair for a unit to only be available in a certain part of the world. It was probably an April Fool's thing.

This was up way before April Fools.

Just for the record, fairness or unfairness does not always play a factor whether something happens or not. If I remember correctly, back in the early days of Pokémon Go, there were like four Gen I Pokémon who were continent exclusive. I'm pretty sure that changed later down the road, but it was still "unfair" at game launch.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Acacia Sgt

[Midnox]

3 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I think it was just the account having fun.

I mean, look at what they had as their first "summoning pull". Not really, by the way.

Yeah, that pic made me curious of that Toad, but since it died down, I've figured it was a fake

4 hours ago, IGdood said:

Collab units would be nice.

 

Mario and Luigi with hammers would be great axe infantry.   Or the flower fireball can be red mage.

Since most Nintendo protagonists don't speak, I don't really expecting them. However, I DO expect FE characters cosplaying as them, with their abilities and all (I'm picturing Zelgius or "Sirius" as Meta Knight, with Galaxia)

[DarkDestr0yer61]

Hey. I know you're just trying to use shorthand for japanese, but can you change it to "jpn exclusive". "Jap" is a racial slur

[Humanoid]

24 minutes ago, DarkDestr0yer61 said:

Hey. I know you're just trying to use shorthand for japanese, but can you change it to "jpn exclusive". "Jap" is a racial slur

Whether it's considered offensive varies by region, it's fine in most countries outside of the US.

[Vaximillian]

9 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Whether it's considered offensive varies by region, it's fine in most countries outside of the US.

Everything is offensive these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if the words “everything”, “is”, “offensive”, “these”, and “days” are racial slurs in some circles.

[DefyingFates]

3 hours ago, Vaximillian said:

Everything is offensive these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if the words “everything”, “is”, “offensive”, “these”, and “days” are racial slurs in some circles.

Fair, but the word in question has /always/ been a slur, so I hope it gets taken out soon!

Edited April 6, 2018 by DefyingFates

[Humanoid]

1 minute ago, DefyingFates said:

Fair, but the word in question has /always/ been a slur, so I hope it gets taken out soon!

It's only held negative connotations since WW2, but that's long enough, fair. The other issue though is that it's mostly a US-centric thing - over here I could talk about things like Jap cars or Jap electronics and no one would raise an eyebrow.

I remember a classic Toyota ad aired in both Australia and New Zealand that featured repeated usage of the word "bugger". In the former, it was taken in good humour and is considered an all-time classic ad. Over the ditch, there was outrage.

[mampfoid]

Perhaps it's mostly a US thing, but not exclusively. 

[Midnox]

This is the first time, EVER, I'm been told "jap" is, or has been used as a slur . I've seen the term used many times and none of them was with any ill purpose 

[Emerson]

Er, I looked into this a while ago when the image first started circulating, and its just part of an ad for FEH related to LINE, which Nintendo JP put out stickers and other stuff for and uses Green Toad as their mascot in. Nothing more.

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, Midnox said:

This is the first time, EVER, I'm been told "jap" is, or has been used as a slur . I've seen the term used many times and none of them was with any ill purpose 

Historically speaking, it goes back to World War II. "Jap" was used purely as shorthand then, but the issue is that the US was so vehemently racist towards the Japanese who they were fighting. Decades later, the shorthand became seen as racist owing to its heavy use during WWII. It isn't quite the same as the N word, which was always racist, but only because the symbol of racism later. 

Abbreviating to JAP or Jap might make sense on business documents when referring to Japan if you need a three-letter shorthand (although Jpn works for this just as well), but not so much when referring to the Japanese.

[IGdood]

Since we're on the topic of racial slurs this reminded me of a time when I mentioned that in the UK East Asians are sometimes referred to as Oriental and immediately some friends reacted with extreme distaste at the term and told me that in the US it's very offensive.  Didn't even know but they're the well-informed political ones. 

[Humanoid]

50 minutes ago, IGdood said:

Since we're on the topic of racial slurs this reminded me of a time when I mentioned that in the UK East Asians are sometimes referred to as Oriental and immediately some friends reacted with extreme distaste at the term and told me that in the US it's very offensive.  Didn't even know but they're the well-informed political ones. 

The term Asian in the UK is usually used to refer to South Asians (subcontinental i.e. India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka) because the Brits have much closer ties to the region than they do to East Asia - having an alternative term for East Asians is useful in that context. The US and Australia by contrast have a greater population from East Asia and thus Asian is usually used in this context instead. It's one of the relatively few times the Aussie definition aligns more closely to the US one than to the British one.

The degree to which the term Jap is considered offensive is likely similar, people of Japanese origin make up a negligible demographic in both the UK and Australia (and there was also the whole internment camp thing in the US).

[XRay]

42 minutes ago, IGdood said:

Since we're on the topic of racial slurs this reminded me of a time when I mentioned that in the UK East Asians are sometimes referred to as Oriental and immediately some friends reacted with extreme distaste at the term and told me that in the US it's very offensive.  Didn't even know but they're the well-informed political ones. 

That is an offensive term? Where in the US is that considered offensive? I never heard people describing me (or anyone for that matter) as Oriental except maybe in really old books or writing. It sounds more archaic than offensive when I hear/read it.

When I encounter the word oriental, it is usually as an adjective for certain things like oriental art/music, or it is part of a business name where the owner is too lazy to come up with something creative (looking up Google Maps, in my city, there is an Orient Restaurant, Oriental Restaurant, Oriental Market, B&S Oriental Market, T&Y Oriental Market, etc.).

[EricaofRenais]

1 hour ago, XRay said:

That is an offensive term? Where in the US is that considered offensive? I never heard people describing me (or anyone for that matter) as Oriental except maybe in really old books or writing. It sounds more archaic than offensive when I hear/read it.

When I encounter the word oriental, it is usually as an adjective for certain things like oriental art/music, or it is part of a business name where the owner is too lazy to come up with something creative (looking up Google Maps, in my city, there is an Orient Restaurant, Oriental Restaurant, Oriental Market, B&S Oriental Market, T&Y Oriental Market, etc.).

I think that is fairly new, my mom works in a history museum and she was writing something and used that term in a historical context and got called a racist by her boss (my mom is the nicest least judgmental person I know) and when my mom was telling me about it she said she had no idea it now meant something bad and she did not mean to write anything racist.

[Vaximillian]

ITT: political correctness gone terribly, terribly wrong.

[XRay]

37 minutes ago, EricaofRenais said:

I think that is fairly new, my mom works in a history museum and she was writing something and used that term in a historical context and got called a racist by her boss (my mom is the nicest least judgmental person I know) and when my mom was telling me about it she said she had no idea it now meant something bad and she did not mean to write anything racist.

That is so weird. Did the boss explain why or how it went from a neutral term to an offensive one?

33 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

ITT: political correctness gone terribly, terribly wrong.

That reminds me of Newspeak, except in this case, it is not the government doing the censoring, but the people themselves doing it.

[EricaofRenais]

@XRay No her boss just told her she should not use that term and that since she used it she must be racist.  Her boss at that time was Hispanic but I don't know if that makes a difference since I have never heard that term be used in a bad way in Spanish before and I understand a fair bit of Spanish.  My mom was pretty upset at that time, not that I blame her being called a racist with no real explanation is not something that anyone would like.  I guess it is just people being overly PC and my mom is now very careful what she writes even if she is writing in a historical context.

[silverserpent]

People just like to jump on others and label them "racist" because they can. My best friends are a Phillipino and a Hispanic, yet, because I'm white, I get an automatic "racist" label. So stupid.

[Johann]

"Jap" is definitely a slur. "Oriental" is generally considered offensive due to how it lumps Asian cultures together, often to fetishize or exoticize them.

1 minute ago, silverserpent said:

People just like to jump on others and label them "racist" because they can. My best friends are a Phillipino and a Hispanic, yet, because I'm white, I get an automatic "racist" label. So stupid.

I don't know you at all and I don't mean to suggest anything negative about you, but bear in mind that the "my best friends are X" argument is a bad one-- it's using your friends as a shield from criticism, and carries the implication that you think you get a free pass. Again, I don't mean to imply anything about you, but keep that in mind.