In Defense of Tom Nook
by Katey Clausen
In honor of last week’s release of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the Rival American has decided to take a closer look at a controversial figure that has been absolutely lambasted since the game’s 2001 inception. I’m not talking about Mr. Resetti, Kapp’n, or the famous K.K. Slider; that’s right, I’m talking about Tom Nook.
Most players know Tom Nook from the Animal Crossing franchise as a tanuki with a business venture or two up his sleeve. For a long time, he has been painted as nothing but a selfish, greedy businessman taking advantage of you. You’re only a newcomer, after all, trying to make your way in the underground capitalist nightmare we call Animal Crossing.
The resentment is very real, and frankly, completely unreasonable.
Only recently has the same tune changed for some fans. In a March 18th article from The Verge, New Horizons producer Hisashi Nogami stated, “... Tom Nook is a very caring, really great guy.” However, if you’re still feeling skeptical, here are a few facts to sway you.
1. He gives you a job and a place to live.
Tom Nook is actually the first person/animal you meet when you arrive in your town. Upon meeting you, he automatically gives you a job at his store, Nook’s Cranny - no interview, no screening - and you even get a free uniform. You plant flowers and deliver items to different people in the town. Nook gives you these tasks with the intention of helping you meet your new friends and neighbors.
He also builds you a place to live with his bare hands. Following that, he asks you to pay off the mortgage on the house he built for you. Fair enough, right? Of course it is. There’s 0% interest on that mortgage or any of the loans he gives you. Not to mention, you technically never have to pay Mr. Nook back afterward. You could feasibly keep playing the game at no consequence; what’s he going to do, evict you? He would never.
2. He donates his spare bells to charity.
Tom Nook is, at his core, a good person. In Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, released in 2015, Nook confesses to you in a private conversation what exactly he does with some of the bells he’s amassed over the years.
Tom Nook is a man of the people. Nay, the parentless children.
3. He cares about the community.
Following his recent foray into commercial island living with New Horizons, Nook entrusts you to develop your very own island into something, well, livable. With that mission, he encourages players to catch fish, find fossils, and capture as many bugs as possible and donate them to him and Blathers, an owl with a penchant for becoming more knowledgeable.
Once you work together and give him these things, Nook uses his own money to build a museum. He is the one that makes it possible for the community to be enriched and made better for you, your villagers and future visitors.
If this article doesn’t make it clear enough, I personally love Tom Nook, and I simply won’t tolerate any sort of slander or libel that makes him seem like anything less than a financially responsible, fair, easy-going successful used-to-be small business owner.