News

Man Allegedly Hate-Hoards Rosalina Amiibos

by Chris Tognotti

Okay, first things first: do you know what an Amiibo is? Unless you're into video games, you may not have heard of them — they're figurines of Nintendo characters that can be scanned into games on their 3DS and Wii U consoles. And there's a pretty strange story about one type of Amiibo kicking around the internet right now, a unique blend of funny, sad, and irritating: a man allegedly bought 100-plus Rosalina Nintendo Amiibos, because he hates her, and wants to hurt her fans buy snapping up the supply so they can't buy any.

In other words, he allegedly embarked on a completely senseless, ineffectual campaigns of all time. As anybody even slightly familiar with consumer capitalism will tell you, this is a flatly bone-headed strategy. Sky-high sales figures for Rosalina Amiibos won't dissuade Nintendo from producing more — quite the contrary, it'll convince them that people love Rosalina, and want to see more of her. Even if this guy were able to buy all the Amiibos on Earth (instead of pre-ordering a mere 100 or so, which will have no discernible impact), the laws of supply and demand ensures that it would work in exactly the opposite fashion. Remember, everyone: hate-buying never pays.

Of course, there are also other, more sensible possible explanations.

  • He's just doing this to try to sell off the figurines at a marked-up price, and turn a tidy profit for himself. His Twitter account, which I won't link here (because it's full of homophobic slurs, among other things), certainly alludes to this possibility. He claims he will "fucking be controlling the Rosalina prices." He also said in an interview that he "will enjoy selling her for big bucks."
  • He's animated by sexism. I suggest this based on similarly derogatory remarks he made about other female Nintendo characters of the recent era, detailed by Destructoid — he apparently also hates Palutena, Robin, Zero Suit Samus and Lucina, accounting for over half of the female characters in the most recent Super Smash Bros. game.
  • He's a garden-variety troll.
  • All of the above. (Ding, ding!)

Of course, it could also be that he's just putting on an elaborate hoax, for one reason or another. The stated objections he's made about Rosalina are pretty inane, after all.

I hate her fans, too. I know for a fact her Amiibo will be among one of the most popular, which is why I took the time to wait and pre-order over 100 of her. I do not want her fans to be happy... It just crushes me Nintendo from the good days went to this shit for character designs.

I'm no character designer, I grant you, but complaining about Rosalina's design as compared to the "good days" is kind of hysterical. In a strictly aesthetic sense, to be frank, she's basically just Princess Peach with bangs and a blue dress. That's not to impugn her as a character — I like her a lot — but it's plain to see that this isn't a very cogent manifesto. It's like complaining that Luigi is crap while lionizing Mario.

In any event, I can only hope that any big Rosalina fans are able to get their hands on one. And if you resort to looking on eBay, just remember — make sure you're not buying from this guy.

Images: _GamesStory/Twitter; Nintendo