Agreed, but sadly to a profit driven company like Nintendo, they are still customers, and the anti LGBTQ lobby in the US is still very powerful, and they would definitely makes things miserable for Nintendo if they decided to go "lol, bigots stay mad XD"

You're definitely seeing this with Disney, which has become the whipping boy of the republican party and are actively being legislated against due to their stance on LGBTQ inclusion. Nintendo being a foreign company who has a history of being targeted by conservatives in the past (as a video game company and a Japanese company) probably wants to avoid any controversy it can.

[–] Tetra@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Ah right, I forgot Vivian isn't trans in the US version, she is in French, which is what I'm most familiar with.

As evil as Disney is as a company, it's been awesome to see them stick to their guns and unapologetically keep including LGBT+ characters in their movies and shows. You can be cynical and argue they're doing it for money and PR, but we really need more big companies to follow their lead and plant their feet. I'd love for Nintendo to do the same, though I'm not sure I'll even live to see that, sadly.

Japan is overall making good progress in that regard these past few years, but Nintendo is another story. I can't think of a single company more paranoid about protecting their IP, and that's really the root for a lot of their shortcomings.