A short defense of Tom Nook - not everything I have to say, but I still want to say it nonetheless. I commented it on a YouTube video if you recognise it from anywhere.
In the old games, Tom Nook was freshly hurt from his time in the city - Redd had just scammed him of everything he owned! He had moved to the city to try to accomplish his dreams but he was too pure and kind hearted to thrive in a place like that. Sable will tell you all about it in Wild World, and sometimes you can even get Tom talking about it himself.
“Sweet, young Tom Nook...
His call to arms, his ethos, was
"Dreams before money!"
He was so pure that people wondered if he'd survive this crazy old world. I did too. Every night before falling asleep, I would wish him...
“Please keep Tom Nook's pure spirit protected,"
I'd whisper in the darkness.
"Keep him safe from the apathy that breeds in the alleys of the big city...”
I don't know why I've told you so much about Tom Nook and I...
All those memories of our shared youth must bore you.
Please forgive me."
- Sable
He returned to his hometown with “my tail between my legs” to start all over again. So he didn’t have a house! No money, barely any possessions. In Animal Crossing e+, a version of the game that only released in Japan with some bonus features, you can bang on his door three times with a shovel or axe and force him to let you in. He’ll be in a little nightgown and cap and carry his pillow around, walk super slowly, buy things for less and sell things for more.
This is probably why he seemed more ‘mean’ in those older games. He’s trying to protect you from getting hurt like he did! He’ll even directly say he thinks his real job is to teach young people to not make the same mistakes he did.
“...Young [name]... I bet you think...
...that all I think about is money and how to make more of it, hm? Don't you?
[select Well, yeah.]
Well, perhaps you're right...
But I'm absolutely, 100% OK with that, hm? Indeed!
I like to think that it's my job to show you young people how hard life is!
As an adult, it's my responsibility. It's my TRUE job, if you will, hm?"
- Tom Nook
He donates 90% of his profits to an orphanage 3 towns over from his hometown, and I believe he has a hospital wing named after him - though don’t quote me on that.
And, just to add, while Timmy and Tommy aren’t his biological sons, he did find them and raise them himself!
That man is a SAINT. And I’m not even mentioning the fact that his loans are interest free, but YOU can earn interest on bells you keep in the ATM, and the fact that his loans aren’t even very expensive at all.
Bells are equivalent to Japanese yen (confirmed by the Switch items in New Horizons - the number of bells they cost is the same amount of yen they sold for when first released). Your house in New Horizons comes to around 5.6 million bells (or yen) in the end, which is equivalent to around £29,000 or about $37,000. That is an INSANELY low price for a beachfront house on a nice island like that! He’s mental to sell a house that cheap! He’s an angel.
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