There are tons of celebrities who love Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, from Brie Larson, Chrissy Teigen, Guy Fieri, and even the Sprouse twins. Rapper T-Pain is one of them, who reportedly got into the game after his daughter introduced him. The celebrity routinely updates his Twitter feed of his island and has even made an appearance and performance on Animal Talking.

Most recently, T-Pain shared his passion for Animal Crossing by releasing a song about notorious character Tom Nook. The song, titled ‘Nook’s Bells,’ was released on T-Pain’s official YouTube page and features Cardboard Cowboy and Jayteehazard. T-Pain sings from the perspective of Tom Nook, describing the landlord’s efforts to create a mafia-esque business to earn himself riches

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In the song, Isabelle, the mayor’s secretary and assistant, is introduced as Tom Nook’s partner in crime, implying she’s complicit in his shady schemes. “Meet my new assistant, a southern belle,” T-Pain raps as the money-hungry raccoon. “She old school, she runs the number well.”  “That’s why I brought you here, baby,” T-Pain continues. “Cause the bells ain’t gonna earn themselves.” The song suggests that Tom’s only interest in bringing the player to the island is to make a quick buck, lending credence to theories that the raccoon is, in fact, only looking out for himself.

Is Animal Crossing’s Tom Nook Actually Evil?

Tom Nook Animal Horizons

Even before the 2020 release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there has been discussion amongst the fandom as to whether Tom Nook is actually evil, or at the very least, only concerned with pursuing his own self-interests. Nook has been a feature in all of the Animal Crossing games, acting originally as the manager of Nook Shop before assuming the role as head of Nook Incorporations, the island’s very own development company. As such, over time, the little raccoon has indeed built a company from the ground up and monopolized much of the island’s real estate in the process. Not only that, but he’s the one who players owe a mortgage to, and as such, he’s the reason players live in such squalor at the beginning of the game. Some players have also pointed out that Nook only employs children – Timmy and Tommy, for example – making him complicit in child labor. Nook is clearly the biggest capitalist on the island, which has earned him such a poor reputation.

There are a lot of theories circulating around trying to convince Animal Crossing players why Tom Nook is the villain of the entire game, and some of them are certainly suggestive. But Nintendo has responded to the controversy in order to assure players that Nook is actually a good guy. “I think he’s a really, really good guy,” Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s Hisashi Nogami said in defense of Tom Nook, the Washington Post reports. “You do owe him money, but it’s not like he comes over and then asks you to pay him back. And he doesn’t add interest in any of the loans that you may have. I think he really does stick around and wait for you and then lets you take the lead for paying him back.”

Even though Tom Nook may be Animal Crossing’s number one landlord, as Nogami suggested, he could always be worse, so maybe it’s time to cut the raccoon a bit of slack.

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Source: Washington Post