...six years.

More precisely, six years, eight months, and twenty-three days.

It was that long since I felt nothing but utter hatred and disdain for so many. I felt wronged. I felt personally attacked, by a number of people, both in and out of the Pokemon fandom.

I hated Sakurai, for being the one who made the final decision to cut Mewtwo from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

I hated the tournament community, who I felt partially contributed because Mewtwo was such a poorly made fighter in Melee that the idea of "Mewtwo sucks" that came from them, while valid in the gameplay sense for Melee, could have been construed as "We don't want Mewtwo in future Smash games."

I hated Nintendo, for not putting their foot down, as they could have, and telling him Mewtwo needed to be in.

I hated everyone making fanart and fanfiction delighting at our expense.

...and on September 11, 2014, I was beginning to live all of that over again. Hating Greninja, for being included before his design was even finished, hating everyone who was still buying the game despite calling themselves a Mewtwo fan...

The hate is gone.

Mewtwo, through his inclusion in Super Smash Bros. for WiiU and 3DS, is guaranteed most likely another decade of new fans and new fandom. Fresh blood will come into our group, people who may know little to nothing of Mewtwo, new gamers, non-Pokemon players...who might see what Mewtwo is like and take interest in him.

I can stop worrying about what people post that involves Mewtwo. I can stop worrying about people doing Nuzlocke run art showing Mewtwo's death. Oh my God, how wonderful that feels to say. My biggest gripe about hate art against Mewtwo is that enough of it could lead the powers that be to think Mewtwo is hated and not worth bringing back. Now, no one that dislikes Mewtwo would be able to do any real harm to his image, as he's immortalized as one of the most important parts of gaming history.

I can stop boycotting Nintendo. True to my word, I picked up a WiiU on the way home tonight, will be purchasing a 3DS, Smash for both consoles, and a vast number of games I wanted to play but never could bring myself to do. I've got almost seven years of gaming to catch up on!

Barring truly blatant trolls, I'm clearing my entire blocklist tonight. This is a night of not only celebration, but second chances, both for others and hopefully for others to give me one as the reason for my past transgressions has been dealt with.

Today is, truly, quite possibly the greatest day of my life.

Once I get myself settled and situated with all the purchases I need to make and all the catching up I need to do, I look forward to seeing you in the world of Nintendo. All of the Lucario and Greninja mains...see you on the battlefield. ;)

Time to start the next chapter of my life!