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Cheburashka mentions a similarity to AC. Make this easier to find given the lack of section anchors in Pm Wiki articles.


In the game, a sign transforms into an NPC villager's house overnight. This is plausible even in [[RealLife our world]]; see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%B7_unnos Welsh one-night houses]].

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In the game, a sign transforms into an NPC villager's house overnight. This Such RidiculouslyFastConstruction is plausible even in [[RealLife our world]]; see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%B7_unnos Welsh one-night houses]].
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[[WMG: Brewster is somehow secretly related to Sanae from TheWorldEndsWithYou]]
Think about it: they both run coffee shops, have a rather laidback attitude towards life, Brewster is an animal and Sanae [[spoiler: can transform into Panthera Cantus]].

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* Alternately the Gyroids are the contact message and once one of every type is assembled the noises they make will play the message with instructions on how to contact the aliens. Or they are pieces of a mathematical equation for faster then light travel that humans will decode when they are ready.
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* A rabbit named Ruby, a cat named Tom, a fox named Red(d), a bird named Ace, and someone named Filbert.
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[[{{Discworld}} Golems]]. Also [[DoctorWho Ood]]. Long ago, they Gyroids worked for the civilization that built and knew how to control them. The civilization died out, either by landslide/volcano or by plague. The gyroids that were inactive simply stayed where they were, and those that were preforming a task when their controllers died either stopped, kept going until the task was complete or the object of the task was destroyed, or still wander the earth to this day. After a few hundred million years, they started singing (either because they're [[WhoWantsToLiveForever sick of immortality]], or the humming is a sort of "check engine light".)

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[[{{Discworld}} Golems]]. Also [[DoctorWho [[Series/DoctorWho Ood]]. Long ago, they Gyroids worked for the civilization that built and knew how to control them. The civilization died out, either by landslide/volcano or by plague. The gyroids that were inactive simply stayed where they were, and those that were preforming a task when their controllers died either stopped, kept going until the task was complete or the object of the task was destroyed, or still wander the earth to this day. After a few hundred million years, they started singing (either because they're [[WhoWantsToLiveForever sick of immortality]], or the humming is a sort of "check engine light".)
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* This Troper has been trying to bring herself to get rid of her copy of animal crossing for the gamecube. her reason not to was her large collection of Gyroids in her basement (you can hardly get around theres so many)that took her so long to collect. that is now the reason she wants to get rid of it.
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* humans are rare in the animal crossing world and The Players mother and father are some of the last humans left but could not reproduce on their own, so they got the animals to clone one of them, when the player is of age they are shipped of to live in the village and rover is waiting on the bus to sereve as your guide and the reason you have to work for Nook is to understand how to work in this world, It also explains why the player dosn't know any emotions besides that smile they have.

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* humans are rare in the animal crossing world and The Players mother and father are some of the last humans left but could not reproduce on their own, so they got the animals to clone one of them, when the player is of age they are shipped of to live in the village town and rover is waiting on the bus to sereve as your guide and the reason you have to work for Nook is to understand how to work live properly in this world, It also explains why the player dosn't know any emotions besides that smile they have.
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[[WMG:The Player is an artificial human.]]
*humans are rare in the animal crossing world and The Players mother and father are some of the last humans left but could not reproduce on their own, so they got the animals to clone one of them, when the player is of age they are shipped of to live in the village and rover is waiting on the bus to sereve as your guide and the reason you have to work for Nook is to understand how to work in this world, It also explains why the player dosn't know any emotions besides that smile they have.
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narcolepsy?



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* Not narcoleptic, just nocturnal. Visit the museum after the sun has set and he'll be alert.
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*** This has to be canon.
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** New theory! Tom Nook is Ford and your town is Whispering Rock in disguise and Psychonauts is Post-Apocalyptic Holes.
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** This is also true for the Gamecube game. If you have two memory cards, you can get rid of villagers you don't like (or who don't like you) by visiting your second town. However, sometimes you'll lose well-liked villagers this way.

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Tŷ unnos; lack of emigration in PG and CF


When you are first taken there, it's dark and rainy outside. You then have to pay the taxi driver, like Charon across the River Styx. Once there, you can't escape. You're forced to perform repetitive tasks to pay off an arbitrary debt. And have you ever thought why you have to collect Bells? It's a pseudo-reference to the OneHundredAndEight bells that must be tolled before you can enter the cycle of reincarnation in Buddhist mythology.

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When you are first taken there, it's dark and rainy outside. You then have to pay the taxi driver, like Charon across the River Styx. Once there, you can't escape. You're you're forced to perform repetitive tasks to pay off an arbitrary debt.debt. And even after you pay it off in two months, you still can't escape. And have you ever thought why you have to collect Bells? It's a pseudo-reference to the OneHundredAndEight bells that must be tolled before you can enter the cycle of reincarnation in Buddhist mythology.



** or he dosen't because.. eveyone is dead. The game may take place thousands of years ago, in my opiniom.


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** or he dosen't doesn't because.. eveyone everyone is dead. The game may take place thousands of years ago, in my opiniom.

opinion.
*** So based on the in-game calendar, I guess that'd make it a reverse [[spoiler:''TheVillage'']].

[[WMG: NPC houses are built Welsh style.]]
In the game, a sign transforms into an NPC villager's house overnight. This is plausible even in [[RealLife our world]]; see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%B7_unnos Welsh one-night houses]].

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If you have a Nintendo Gamecube, chances are, you have played Animal Crossing, and if you get through all of the quests Tom Nook sends you on, you will be forced to let the Happy Room Academy, or HRA, go into your house and give it a rating based on how well-designed it is. For most gamers the HRA is nothing more than an annoying group of people who examine your house and then give you a rating. For some gamers, impressing the HRA is an important quest because they want that elusive manor model to finish their re-creation of their town that they have in the basement. However, the HRA is not just this RPG’s “Evil Empire.” The HRA is actually a major symbol in Animal Crossing; the HRA symbolizes the main character’s insecurity. The main character, who we will call Spike for his Viking helmet, pays off tons of Bells to get his house remodeled and re-furnished so that he can get a high HRA score, but as he gets closer to having the required score of 100,000 HRA points needed to earn the respect of the HRA, and of course the manor model, Spike’s insecurity continues to make the HRA stronger. This analytical essay will take you all the way through the inner workings of the HRA and how these villains create the symbol of Spike’s insecurity flawlessly.

When a new file is created, the first character in Animal Crossing Spike meets is Totakeke, also known as K.K. Slider. Like the HRA, K.K. Slider is also a symbol, but K.K. Slider is a symbol of a being a free man; he does not play his guitar to look “cool,” and he does not play his guitar to make money, which is demonstrated by the fact that he gives Spike his music for free. He represents an ideal of breaking free from inhibitions and insecurity. However, after Spike meets him and takes the train into town, Spike goes into town where he meets the main villain of Animal Crossing, Tom Nook. When Spike meets him, he has Spike pick one of four houses to live in, and then after Spike selects his house, Nook charges him 19,800 Bells, even though Spike only has 1,000 Bells. As a result, he forces Spike to fall into his trap by making Spike work at his store until he has enough money to pay off 1400 Bells of this huge 18,800-Bell debt. This part of the game makes Tom Nook seem less evil than the rest of the game does because he is the character who is running the “tutorial level” of Animal Crossing, thus gaining Spike’s trust. However, as soon as Spike finishes his part-time job, Tom Nook then waits at his store in ambush, and the next time he goes in to buy something, he forces Spike to represent the town in HRA inspections. This event is a turning point in the plotline of Animal Crossing because as soon as Spike gets his first letter from the HRA, he loses that free personality that is represented by K.K. Slider and then Spike is filled with the insecurity that is represented by Tom Nook and the HRA.

The events of the beginning of Animal Crossing make this game an epic story of insecurity and breaking free of one’s inhibitions. Tom Nook and the HRA dominate Spike’s life for most of the game, as best seen in the mail that Spike receives. Every few days, the HRA sends a letter telling Spike his HRA score, a score based on the appearance of his house. This score raises Spike’s insecurity, especially if the player knows that the house model can be obtained by getting a score of 70,000, and that the manor model awaits for the great gamer who has a house that has a score of 100,000 points. While these letters already portray the HRA very well as a beast of insecurity, another series of annoying letters from Tom Nook himself truly reinforces this portrayal of the HRA as the ultimate symbol of Spike’s insecurity. Sometimes, Tom Nook sends a letter to Spike advertising some furniture that he carries at his store. When the player receives Nook’s letter and the HRA’s letter on the same day, a realization occurs; the HRA tells Spike that his house is nothing more than a smoldering pile of garbage, but then Tom Nook’s letter tells Spike that this problem can all be fixed by spending a few thousand Bells on some piece of furniture that Tom Nook carries, so the HRA and Tom Nook, the masters of Spike’s insecurity, are working together to control Spike. In addition, the mail also continues to be a means of binding Spike’s life to the insecurity that is the HRA through Pelly and Phyllis. Pelly and Phyllis run the counter at the post office, where Spike can pay off his debt on his house, making this house bigger. This relates to the HRA being a representation of Spike’s insecurity in a few ways. Pelly, Phyllis, and Pete, the post office staff, have no intentional connections to the HRA themselves. However, Pete carries the mail, including the letters from Tom Nook and the HRA, and also, in order to pay off his debt, Spike must go to the post office and talk to Pelly and Phyllis. Spike pays off his debt to Tom Nook, and in return, Nook gives Spike a larger house and more debt. Early in the game, Spike gets letters from the HRA telling him that his house is too small to have a high HRA score, so as a result, Spike’s insecurity is made stronger by the mentality that “bigger is always better,” and as a result, Spike gives his hard-earned money to Tom Nook, the master of his insecurity. Because of this, without even realizing it, Pelly, Phyllis, and Pete are actually puppets of evil, working for the HRA despite not being evil themselves.

Like the mail, the very ways of raising one’s HRA score also demonstrate the HRA’s symbolism of Spike’s insecurity. For example, to have a high HRA score, Spike almost absolutely MUST have a theme to at least one floor of his house. This quest for a theme leaves Spike trying to find about ten different pieces of furniture as well as matching flooring and wallpaper. This quest, which can take a gamer a few months to complete without timetravel and universal codes, conveys the idea that Spike’s insecurity leads him to always need more. It does not matter if Spike manages to collect every NES game and then the player uses Action Replay to get Spike copies of impossible-to-obtain games like Zelda and Super Mario Bros. The HRA will still tell Spike that he will never have a good gaming-themed house unless he gets his hands on Cyberball for the Sega Genesis (which was NOT put into Animal Crossing, so don’t go and try to use a universal code there). Spike’s insecurity is also seen in the quest for a high HRA score because of the fact that to get the highest possible HRA scores, he must have a theme, and cannot deviate from that theme. Why can’t Spike blast some sweet tracks from his retro stereo in the same room that has cabana flooring? I’ll tell you why. It is because they are from different themes, and Spike’s house can only have one theme; Spike needs to be labeled! Surprisingly, this form of HRA-driven insecurity is not just a form of insecurity that exists exclusively in Animal Crossing; it exists in the real world as well, despite the fact that there is no HRA in the real world. In middle school and high school, while the HRA does not actually exist as a formal organization, the same pressures exist as students try and maintain a label. These students will try to look like punks, goths, jocks, emo kids, skaters, preps, rappers, geeks, nerds, or all-around popular kids, all to gain the acceptance of their school’s HRA, the cliques that are in the school, and as a result, the quest to fit into a clique makes it so that many students give up their individuality to fit a label instead of being themselves, much like Spike is forced by the HRA to abandon his own idea of a house design in order to fit the label of the themes, series, and sets that will give him a high HRA score. The fact that insecurity exists in this form so commonly in the real world is surprising, but the fact that a real form of insecurity that is so remarkably similar to that of the HRA in Animal Crossing exists further strengthens the HRA’s appearance as the embodiment of Spike’s insecurity. Another thing that demonstrates the way the HRA symbolizes Spike’s insecurity is the fact that if Spike designs a wallpaper or floor design himself, he only gets a few HRA points for it, which once again demonstrates the fact that the HRA is forcing Spike to live with a label instead of being an individual. In addition, if in a town there is more than one player, the players in the town may compete with each other to get the highest HRA score, and since HRA scores are given in a measurable unit, Spike may end up competing with other human villagers in town in order to get the highest HRA score, once again giving Spike a “bigger is better mentality” that puts him on a quest to catch as many red snappers, barred knifejaws, and coelacanths and slam his shovel against every money rock in order to get the Bells needed in order to complete those themes and get any other valuable items that can maximize his HRA score. Also, the method by which the HRA looks at Spike’s house also relates to the HRA being a symbol of Spike’s insecurity; the HRA is able to go into Spike’s house at any time, and then they just keep looking at his house to determine a score based on the appearance of the house. The HRA employees are completely invisible to Spike, so there is nothing Spike can do about them coming into his house, rating his house, and then mailing him an HRA score. This further strengthens the HRA’s depiction as a symbol of Spike’s insecurity; the insecurity has complete access to his mind, much like the employees of the HRA having complete access to his house, and because of this, his insecurity could do anything to him. Therefore, the letters from the HRA, a symbol of Spike’s insecurity, represent Spike’s insecurity strengthening itself.

The ideas of labeling one’s character and Tom Nook and the HRA symbolizing Spike’s insecurity are also further extended into Spike’s life in Animal Crossing when Spike leaves his town to go visit another player’s town. Tom Nook exists in every Animal Crossing town, which symbolizes the idea that Spike cannot escape the insecurity that haunts him even as he leaves his town to visit a friend. In addition, sometimes in order to get more furniture to complete a set and ultimately have a higher HRA score, some players choose to take Spike out of town to Animal Island and collect the island furniture, which can only be obtained using a Game Boy Advance. This is a particularly interesting symbol, as the Game Boy Advance costs money in real life. Since you control Spike and you are buying that Game Boy Advance, the act of getting Spike to Animal Island symbolizes Spike’s insecurity becoming so powerful that it reaches out as far as Spike’s Higher Self. However, the biggest example of the idea of labeling one’s character that exists when Spike leaves his town in Animal Crossing actually is related to a character that has absolutely nothing to do with Tom Nook or the HRA. This character is none other than Blanca, the faceless cat. Most of the time when Spike goes to another town, he meets Rover, the cat that he met at the very beginning of the game who he talked to on the train ride into town. However, occasionally on the ride into another town Spike will meet Blanca, a cat who has no face. The symbolism is obvious here. Blanca has Spike draw her a new face, which could be just about anything. In other words, she is letting him force a label onto her, much like Spike is insecure, and is therefore letting the HRA force a label onto his room design. Spike and Blanca have this similarity: they are both insecure characters who let others make their decisions instead of thinking for themselves in order to gain the acceptance of others.

Earlier in this essay, I mentioned how K.K. Slider is a symbol of Spike being a free man. Because of this, I will now elaborate a little more about how he fits into the symbolism of Animal Crossing. K.K. Slider’s appearances in the game are mostly the appearances on Saturday nights to play his guitar at the train station. Saturday night itself is connected to Spike being a free man because Saturday is part of the weekend, so with Spike now enjoying the weekend, he can go to a K.K. Slider concert and enjoy being free from the evils of Tom Nook and the HRA, even if it is only for a little while. As I mentioned before, K.K. Slider has the cool personality of a guy who is just being himself. At the very beginning of the game, K.K. Slider talks to Spike about the beginning of a new life as a free man, and being the first character in Animal Crossing that the player and Spike meet, K.K. Slider takes the appearance as a role model and a hero. Even after K.K. Slider’s message of freedom is destroyed by Spike’s encounters with Tom Nook and the HRA, K.K. Slider still enters the town on Saturday nights, which symbolizes him entering Spike’s mind and reminding Spike that he is a free man and that he should not let the HRA, Tom Nook, or any other forces of evil defeat him and create a new and insecure Spike.

Tom Nook and the HRA are two of the most evil villains in the history of gaming, as well as the ultimate symbols of Spike’s insecurity, Blanca’s insecurity, and even the insecurity of real people. They clash with K.K. Slider, Animal Crossing’s symbol of freedom from inhibitions, so that they can try to control Spike and force him to work in the quest to live under a label, compete with other human villagers to have the best looking home, and throw away individuality, all in the name of one pointless and evil number: Spike’s HRA score. The fact that there is no escape from Tom Nook and the HRA even if Spike goes into a friend’s town or Animal Island as well as the fact that the HRA employees can waltz into Spike’s house at any time demonstrate that Spike has a quest to break free of his inhibitions, but that this quest is very difficult to succeed in. The quest seems impossible, but the fact that Spike is a human villager in a town of animals conveys the idea that Spike is an individual, and that no matter how powerful Tom Nook and the HRA are in Spike’s mind, Spike will not give in to his insecurity and become less of an individual just to please the villains of Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing is not about having a theme for Spike’s house and the quest to get the 100,000 points needed to get the coveted manor model. That is just what the villains of the game are telling Spike so he gives up his individuality and gives in to his insecurity to get a six-digit HRA score. Animal Crossing is a man’s quest to break free of an insecurity that has dominated his life, no matter how far he has to escape to. This symbol is seen most strongly in the fact that whenever Spike listens to K.K. Slider play his guitar; the credits roll, which symbolizes Spike’s victory.
Maybe someday in a later game, Spike will have a boss battle with Tom Nook and finally defeat this insecurity that has left players trying to impress the HRA for three games, but until that game is released, just fill Spike’s house with whatever furniture you want, get out an Action Replay, use the C-Stick to grow, and Z-button jump over Tom Nook and the HRA once and for all!

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If you have a Nintendo Gamecube, chances are, you have played Animal Crossing, and if you get through all of the quests Tom Nook sends you on, you will be forced to let the Happy Room Academy, or HRA, go into your house and give it a rating based on how well-designed it is. For most gamers the HRA is nothing more than an annoying group of people who examine your house and then give you a rating. For some gamers, impressing the HRA is an important quest because they want that elusive manor model to finish their re-creation of their town that they have in the basement. However, the HRA is not just this RPG’s “Evil Empire.” The HRA is actually a major symbol in Animal Crossing; the HRA symbolizes the main character’s insecurity. The main character, who we will call Spike for his Viking helmet, pays off tons of Bells to get his house remodeled and re-furnished so that he can get a high HRA score, but as he gets closer to having the required score of 100,000 HRA points needed to earn the respect of the HRA, and of course the manor model, Spike’s insecurity continues to make the HRA stronger. This analytical essay will take you all the way through the inner workings of the HRA and how these villains create the symbol of Spike’s insecurity flawlessly.

When a new file is created, the first character in Animal Crossing Spike meets is Totakeke, also known as K.K. Slider. Like the HRA, K.K. Slider is also a symbol, but K.K. Slider is a symbol of a being a free man; he does not play his guitar to look “cool,” and he does not play his guitar to make money, which is demonstrated by the fact that he gives Spike his music for free. He represents an ideal of breaking free from inhibitions and insecurity. However, after Spike meets him and takes the train into town, Spike goes into town where he meets the main villain of Animal Crossing, Tom Nook. When Spike meets him, he has Spike pick one of four houses to live in, and then after Spike selects his house, Nook charges him 19,800 Bells, even though Spike only has 1,000 Bells. As a result, he forces Spike to fall into his trap by making Spike work at his store until he has enough money to pay off 1400 Bells of this huge 18,800-Bell debt. This part of the game makes Tom Nook seem less evil than the rest of the game does because he is the character who is running the “tutorial level” of Animal Crossing, thus gaining Spike’s trust. However, as soon as Spike finishes his part-time job, Tom Nook then waits at his store in ambush, and the next time he goes in to buy something, he forces Spike to represent the town in HRA inspections. This event is a turning point in the plotline of Animal Crossing because as soon as Spike gets his first letter from the HRA, he loses that free personality that is represented by K.K. Slider and then Spike is filled with the insecurity that is represented by Tom Nook and the HRA.

The events of the beginning of Animal Crossing make this game an epic story of insecurity and breaking free of one’s inhibitions. Tom Nook and the HRA dominate Spike’s life for most of the game, as best seen in the mail that Spike receives. Every few days, the HRA sends a letter telling Spike his HRA score, a score based on the appearance of his house. This score raises Spike’s insecurity, especially if the player knows that the house model can be obtained by getting a score of 70,000, and that the manor model awaits for the great gamer who has a house that has a score of 100,000 points. While these letters already portray the HRA very well as a beast of insecurity, another series of annoying letters from Tom Nook himself truly reinforces this portrayal of the HRA as the ultimate symbol of Spike’s insecurity. Sometimes, Tom Nook sends a letter to Spike advertising some furniture that he carries at his store. When the player receives Nook’s letter and the HRA’s letter on the same day, a realization occurs; the HRA tells Spike that his house is nothing more than a smoldering pile of garbage, but then Tom Nook’s letter tells Spike that this problem can all be fixed by spending a few thousand Bells on some piece of furniture that Tom Nook carries, so the HRA and Tom Nook, the masters of Spike’s insecurity, are working together to control Spike. In addition, the mail also continues to be a means of binding Spike’s life to the insecurity that is the HRA through Pelly and Phyllis. Pelly and Phyllis run the counter at the post office, where Spike can pay off his debt on his house, making this house bigger. This relates to the HRA being a representation of Spike’s insecurity in a few ways. Pelly, Phyllis, and Pete, the post office staff, have no intentional connections to the HRA themselves. However, Pete carries the mail, including the letters from Tom Nook and the HRA, and also, in order to pay off his debt, Spike must go to the post office and talk to Pelly and Phyllis. Spike pays off his debt to Tom Nook, and in return, Nook gives Spike a larger house and more debt. Early in the game, Spike gets letters from the HRA telling him that his house is too small to have a high HRA score, so as a result, Spike’s insecurity is made stronger by the mentality that “bigger is always better,” and as a result, Spike gives his hard-earned money to Tom Nook, the master of his insecurity. Because of this, without even realizing it, Pelly, Phyllis, and Pete are actually puppets of evil, working for the HRA despite not being evil themselves.

Like the mail, the very ways of raising one’s HRA score also demonstrate the HRA’s symbolism of Spike’s insecurity. For example, to have a high HRA score, Spike almost absolutely MUST have a theme to at least one floor of his house. This quest for a theme leaves Spike trying to find about ten different pieces of furniture as well as matching flooring and wallpaper. This quest, which can take a gamer a few months to complete without timetravel and universal codes, conveys the idea that Spike’s insecurity leads him to always need more. It does not matter if Spike manages to collect every NES game and then the player uses Action Replay to get Spike copies of impossible-to-obtain games like Zelda and Super Mario Bros. The HRA will still tell Spike that he will never have a good gaming-themed house unless he gets his hands on Cyberball for the Sega Genesis (which was NOT put into Animal Crossing, so don’t go and try to use a universal code there). Spike’s insecurity is also seen in the quest for a high HRA score because of the fact that to get the highest possible HRA scores, he must have a theme, and cannot deviate from that theme. Why can’t Spike blast some sweet tracks from his retro stereo in the same room that has cabana flooring? I’ll tell you why. It is because they are from different themes, and Spike’s house can only have one theme; Spike needs to be labeled! Surprisingly, this form of HRA-driven insecurity is not just a form of insecurity that exists exclusively in Animal Crossing; it exists in the real world as well, despite the fact that there is no HRA in the real world. In middle school and high school, while the HRA does not actually exist as a formal organization, the same pressures exist as students try and maintain a label. These students will try to look like punks, goths, jocks, emo kids, skaters, preps, rappers, geeks, nerds, or all-around popular kids, all to gain the acceptance of their school’s HRA, the cliques that are in the school, and as a result, the quest to fit into a clique makes it so that many students give up their individuality to fit a label instead of being themselves, much like Spike is forced by the HRA to abandon his own idea of a house design in order to fit the label of the themes, series, and sets that will give him a high HRA score. The fact that insecurity exists in this form so commonly in the real world is surprising, but the fact that a real form of insecurity that is so remarkably similar to that of the HRA in Animal Crossing exists further strengthens the HRA’s appearance as the embodiment of Spike’s insecurity. Another thing that demonstrates the way the HRA symbolizes Spike’s insecurity is the fact that if Spike designs a wallpaper or floor design himself, he only gets a few HRA points for it, which once again demonstrates the fact that the HRA is forcing Spike to live with a label instead of being an individual. In addition, if in a town there is more than one player, the players in the town may compete with each other to get the highest HRA score, and since HRA scores are given in a measurable unit, Spike may end up competing with other human villagers in town in order to get the highest HRA score, once again giving Spike a “bigger is better mentality” that puts him on a quest to catch as many red snappers, barred knifejaws, and coelacanths and slam his shovel against every money rock in order to get the Bells needed in order to complete those themes and get any other valuable items that can maximize his HRA score. Also, the method by which the HRA looks at Spike’s house also relates to the HRA being a symbol of Spike’s insecurity; the HRA is able to go into Spike’s house at any time, and then they just keep looking at his house to determine a score based on the appearance of the house. The HRA employees are completely invisible to Spike, so there is nothing Spike can do about them coming into his house, rating his house, and then mailing him an HRA score. This further strengthens the HRA’s depiction as a symbol of Spike’s insecurity; the insecurity has complete access to his mind, much like the employees of the HRA having complete access to his house, and because of this, his insecurity could do anything to him. Therefore, the letters from the HRA, a symbol of Spike’s insecurity, represent Spike’s insecurity strengthening itself.

The ideas of labeling one’s character and Tom Nook and the HRA symbolizing Spike’s insecurity are also further extended into Spike’s life in Animal Crossing when Spike leaves his town to go visit another player’s town. Tom Nook exists in every Animal Crossing town, which symbolizes the idea that Spike cannot escape the insecurity that haunts him even as he leaves his town to visit a friend. In addition, sometimes in order to get more furniture to complete a set and ultimately have a higher HRA score, some players choose to take Spike out of town to Animal Island and collect the island furniture, which can only be obtained using a Game Boy Advance. This is a particularly interesting symbol, as the Game Boy Advance costs money in real life. Since you control Spike and you are buying that Game Boy Advance, the act of getting Spike to Animal Island symbolizes Spike’s insecurity becoming so powerful that it reaches out as far as Spike’s Higher Self. However, the biggest example of the idea of labeling one’s character that exists when Spike leaves his town in Animal Crossing actually is related to a character that has absolutely nothing to do with Tom Nook or the HRA. This character is none other than Blanca, the faceless cat. Most of the time when Spike goes to another town, he meets Rover, the cat that he met at the very beginning of the game who he talked to on the train ride into town. However, occasionally on the ride into another town Spike will meet Blanca, a cat who has no face. The symbolism is obvious here. Blanca has Spike draw her a new face, which could be just about anything. In other words, she is letting him force a label onto her, much like Spike is insecure, and is therefore letting the HRA force a label onto his room design. Spike and Blanca have this similarity: they are both insecure characters who let others make their decisions instead of thinking for themselves in order to gain the acceptance of others.

Earlier in this essay, I mentioned how K.K. Slider is a symbol of Spike being a free man. Because of this, I will now elaborate a little more about how he fits into the symbolism of Animal Crossing. K.K. Slider’s appearances in the game are mostly the appearances on Saturday nights to play his guitar at the train station. Saturday night itself is connected to Spike being a free man because Saturday is part of the weekend, so with Spike now enjoying the weekend, he can go to a K.K. Slider concert and enjoy being free from the evils of Tom Nook and the HRA, even if it is only for a little while. As I mentioned before, K.K. Slider has the cool personality of a guy who is just being himself. At the very beginning of the game, K.K. Slider talks to Spike about the beginning of a new life as a free man, and being the first character in Animal Crossing that the player and Spike meet, K.K. Slider takes the appearance as a role model and a hero. Even after K.K. Slider’s message of freedom is destroyed by Spike’s encounters with Tom Nook and the HRA, K.K. Slider still enters the town on Saturday nights, which symbolizes him entering Spike’s mind and reminding Spike that he is a free man and that he should not let the HRA, Tom Nook, or any other forces of evil defeat him and create a new and insecure Spike.

Tom Nook and the HRA are two of the most evil villains in the history of gaming, as well as the ultimate symbols of Spike’s insecurity, Blanca’s insecurity, and even the insecurity of real people. They clash with K.K. Slider, Animal Crossing’s symbol of freedom from inhibitions, so that they can try to control Spike and force him to work in the quest to live under a label, compete with other human villagers to have the best looking home, and throw away individuality, all in the name of one pointless and evil number: Spike’s HRA score. The fact that there is no escape from Tom Nook and the HRA even if Spike goes into a friend’s town or Animal Island as well as the fact that the HRA employees can waltz into Spike’s house at any time demonstrate that Spike has a quest to break free of his inhibitions, but that this quest is very difficult to succeed in. The quest seems impossible, but the fact that Spike is a human villager in a town of animals conveys the idea that Spike is an individual, and that no matter how powerful Tom Nook and the HRA are in Spike’s mind, Spike will not give in to his insecurity and become less of an individual just to please the villains of Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing is not about having a theme for Spike’s house and the quest to get the 100,000 points needed to get the coveted manor model. That is just what the villains of the game are telling Spike so he gives up his individuality and gives in to his insecurity to get a six-digit HRA score. Animal Crossing is a man’s quest to break free of an insecurity that has dominated his life, no matter how far he has to escape to. This symbol is seen most strongly in the fact that whenever Spike listens to K.K. Slider play his guitar; the credits roll, which symbolizes Spike’s victory.
Maybe someday in a later game, Spike will have a boss battle with Tom Nook and finally defeat this insecurity that has left players trying to impress the HRA for three games, but until that game is released, just fill Spike’s house with whatever furniture you want, get out an Action Replay, use the C-Stick to grow, and Z-button jump over Tom Nook and the HRA once and for all!




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** or he dosen't because.. eveyone is dead. The game may take place thousands of years ago, in my opiniom.

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Changed: -272

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If you have a Nintendo Gamecube, chances are, you have played Animal Crossing, and if you get through all of the quests Tom Nook sends you on, you will be forced to let the Happy Room Academy, or HRA, go into your house and give it a rating based on how well-designed it is. For most gamers the HRA is nothing more than an annoying group of people who examine your house and then give you a rating. For some gamers, impressing the HRA is an important quest because they want that elusive manor model to finish their re-creation of their town that they have in the basement. However, the HRA is not just this RPG’s “Evil Empire.” The HRA is actually a major symbol in Animal Crossing; the HRA symbolizes the main character’s insecurity. The main character, who we will call Spike for his Viking helmet, pays off tons of Bells to get his house remodeled and re-furnished so that he can get a high HRA score, but as he gets closer to having the required score of 100,000 HRA points needed to earn the respect of the HRA, and of course the manor model, Spike’s insecurity continues to make the HRA stronger. This analytical essay will take you all the way through the inner workings of the HRA and how these villains create the symbol of Spike’s insecurity flawlessly.

When a new file is created, the first character in Animal Crossing Spike meets is Totakeke, also known as K.K. Slider. Like the HRA, K.K. Slider is also a symbol, but K.K. Slider is a symbol of a being a free man; he does not play his guitar to look “cool,” and he does not play his guitar to make money, which is demonstrated by the fact that he gives Spike his music for free. He represents an ideal of breaking free from inhibitions and insecurity. However, after Spike meets him and takes the train into town, Spike goes into town where he meets the main villain of Animal Crossing, Tom Nook. When Spike meets him, he has Spike pick one of four houses to live in, and then after Spike selects his house, Nook charges him 19,800 Bells, even though Spike only has 1,000 Bells. As a result, he forces Spike to fall into his trap by making Spike work at his store until he has enough money to pay off 1400 Bells of this huge 18,800-Bell debt. This part of the game makes Tom Nook seem less evil than the rest of the game does because he is the character who is running the “tutorial level” of Animal Crossing, thus gaining Spike’s trust. However, as soon as Spike finishes his part-time job, Tom Nook then waits at his store in ambush, and the next time he goes in to buy something, he forces Spike to represent the town in HRA inspections. This event is a turning point in the plotline of Animal Crossing because as soon as Spike gets his first letter from the HRA, he loses that free personality that is represented by K.K. Slider and then Spike is filled with the insecurity that is represented by Tom Nook and the HRA.

The events of the beginning of Animal Crossing make this game an epic story of insecurity and breaking free of one’s inhibitions. Tom Nook and the HRA dominate Spike’s life for most of the game, as best seen in the mail that Spike receives. Every few days, the HRA sends a letter telling Spike his HRA score, a score based on the appearance of his house. This score raises Spike’s insecurity, especially if the player knows that the house model can be obtained by getting a score of 70,000, and that the manor model awaits for the great gamer who has a house that has a score of 100,000 points. While these letters already portray the HRA very well as a beast of insecurity, another series of annoying letters from Tom Nook himself truly reinforces this portrayal of the HRA as the ultimate symbol of Spike’s insecurity. Sometimes, Tom Nook sends a letter to Spike advertising some furniture that he carries at his store. When the player receives Nook’s letter and the HRA’s letter on the same day, a realization occurs; the HRA tells Spike that his house is nothing more than a smoldering pile of garbage, but then Tom Nook’s letter tells Spike that this problem can all be fixed by spending a few thousand Bells on some piece of furniture that Tom Nook carries, so the HRA and Tom Nook, the masters of Spike’s insecurity, are working together to control Spike. In addition, the mail also continues to be a means of binding Spike’s life to the insecurity that is the HRA through Pelly and Phyllis. Pelly and Phyllis run the counter at the post office, where Spike can pay off his debt on his house, making this house bigger. This relates to the HRA being a representation of Spike’s insecurity in a few ways. Pelly, Phyllis, and Pete, the post office staff, have no intentional connections to the HRA themselves. However, Pete carries the mail, including the letters from Tom Nook and the HRA, and also, in order to pay off his debt, Spike must go to the post office and talk to Pelly and Phyllis. Spike pays off his debt to Tom Nook, and in return, Nook gives Spike a larger house and more debt. Early in the game, Spike gets letters from the HRA telling him that his house is too small to have a high HRA score, so as a result, Spike’s insecurity is made stronger by the mentality that “bigger is always better,” and as a result, Spike gives his hard-earned money to Tom Nook, the master of his insecurity. Because of this, without even realizing it, Pelly, Phyllis, and Pete are actually puppets of evil, working for the HRA despite not being evil themselves.

Like the mail, the very ways of raising one’s HRA score also demonstrate the HRA’s symbolism of Spike’s insecurity. For example, to have a high HRA score, Spike almost absolutely MUST have a theme to at least one floor of his house. This quest for a theme leaves Spike trying to find about ten different pieces of furniture as well as matching flooring and wallpaper. This quest, which can take a gamer a few months to complete without timetravel and universal codes, conveys the idea that Spike’s insecurity leads him to always need more. It does not matter if Spike manages to collect every NES game and then the player uses Action Replay to get Spike copies of impossible-to-obtain games like Zelda and Super Mario Bros. The HRA will still tell Spike that he will never have a good gaming-themed house unless he gets his hands on Cyberball for the Sega Genesis (which was NOT put into Animal Crossing, so don’t go and try to use a universal code there). Spike’s insecurity is also seen in the quest for a high HRA score because of the fact that to get the highest possible HRA scores, he must have a theme, and cannot deviate from that theme. Why can’t Spike blast some sweet tracks from his retro stereo in the same room that has cabana flooring? I’ll tell you why. It is because they are from different themes, and Spike’s house can only have one theme; Spike needs to be labeled! Surprisingly, this form of HRA-driven insecurity is not just a form of insecurity that exists exclusively in Animal Crossing; it exists in the real world as well, despite the fact that there is no HRA in the real world. In middle school and high school, while the HRA does not actually exist as a formal organization, the same pressures exist as students try and maintain a label. These students will try to look like punks, goths, jocks, emo kids, skaters, preps, rappers, geeks, nerds, or all-around popular kids, all to gain the acceptance of their school’s HRA, the cliques that are in the school, and as a result, the quest to fit into a clique makes it so that many students give up their individuality to fit a label instead of being themselves, much like Spike is forced by the HRA to abandon his own idea of a house design in order to fit the label of the themes, series, and sets that will give him a high HRA score. The fact that insecurity exists in this form so commonly in the real world is surprising, but the fact that a real form of insecurity that is so remarkably similar to that of the HRA in Animal Crossing exists further strengthens the HRA’s appearance as the embodiment of Spike’s insecurity. Another thing that demonstrates the way the HRA symbolizes Spike’s insecurity is the fact that if Spike designs a wallpaper or floor design himself, he only gets a few HRA points for it, which once again demonstrates the fact that the HRA is forcing Spike to live with a label instead of being an individual. In addition, if in a town there is more than one player, the players in the town may compete with each other to get the highest HRA score, and since HRA scores are given in a measurable unit, Spike may end up competing with other human villagers in town in order to get the highest HRA score, once again giving Spike a “bigger is better mentality” that puts him on a quest to catch as many red snappers, barred knifejaws, and coelacanths and slam his shovel against every money rock in order to get the Bells needed in order to complete those themes and get any other valuable items that can maximize his HRA score. Also, the method by which the HRA looks at Spike’s house also relates to the HRA being a symbol of Spike’s insecurity; the HRA is able to go into Spike’s house at any time, and then they just keep looking at his house to determine a score based on the appearance of the house. The HRA employees are completely invisible to Spike, so there is nothing Spike can do about them coming into his house, rating his house, and then mailing him an HRA score. This further strengthens the HRA’s depiction as a symbol of Spike’s insecurity; the insecurity has complete access to his mind, much like the employees of the HRA having complete access to his house, and because of this, his insecurity could do anything to him. Therefore, the letters from the HRA, a symbol of Spike’s insecurity, represent Spike’s insecurity strengthening itself.

The ideas of labeling one’s character and Tom Nook and the HRA symbolizing Spike’s insecurity are also further extended into Spike’s life in Animal Crossing when Spike leaves his town to go visit another player’s town. Tom Nook exists in every Animal Crossing town, which symbolizes the idea that Spike cannot escape the insecurity that haunts him even as he leaves his town to visit a friend. In addition, sometimes in order to get more furniture to complete a set and ultimately have a higher HRA score, some players choose to take Spike out of town to Animal Island and collect the island furniture, which can only be obtained using a Game Boy Advance. This is a particularly interesting symbol, as the Game Boy Advance costs money in real life. Since you control Spike and you are buying that Game Boy Advance, the act of getting Spike to Animal Island symbolizes Spike’s insecurity becoming so powerful that it reaches out as far as Spike’s Higher Self. However, the biggest example of the idea of labeling one’s character that exists when Spike leaves his town in Animal Crossing actually is related to a character that has absolutely nothing to do with Tom Nook or the HRA. This character is none other than Blanca, the faceless cat. Most of the time when Spike goes to another town, he meets Rover, the cat that he met at the very beginning of the game who he talked to on the train ride into town. However, occasionally on the ride into another town Spike will meet Blanca, a cat who has no face. The symbolism is obvious here. Blanca has Spike draw her a new face, which could be just about anything. In other words, she is letting him force a label onto her, much like Spike is insecure, and is therefore letting the HRA force a label onto his room design. Spike and Blanca have this similarity: they are both insecure characters who let others make their decisions instead of thinking for themselves in order to gain the acceptance of others.

Earlier in this essay, I mentioned how K.K. Slider is a symbol of Spike being a free man. Because of this, I will now elaborate a little more about how he fits into the symbolism of Animal Crossing. K.K. Slider’s appearances in the game are mostly the appearances on Saturday nights to play his guitar at the train station. Saturday night itself is connected to Spike being a free man because Saturday is part of the weekend, so with Spike now enjoying the weekend, he can go to a K.K. Slider concert and enjoy being free from the evils of Tom Nook and the HRA, even if it is only for a little while. As I mentioned before, K.K. Slider has the cool personality of a guy who is just being himself. At the very beginning of the game, K.K. Slider talks to Spike about the beginning of a new life as a free man, and being the first character in Animal Crossing that the player and Spike meet, K.K. Slider takes the appearance as a role model and a hero. Even after K.K. Slider’s message of freedom is destroyed by Spike’s encounters with Tom Nook and the HRA, K.K. Slider still enters the town on Saturday nights, which symbolizes him entering Spike’s mind and reminding Spike that he is a free man and that he should not let the HRA, Tom Nook, or any other forces of evil defeat him and create a new and insecure Spike.

Tom Nook and the HRA are two of the most evil villains in the history of gaming, as well as the ultimate symbols of Spike’s insecurity, Blanca’s insecurity, and even the insecurity of real people. They clash with K.K. Slider, Animal Crossing’s symbol of freedom from inhibitions, so that they can try to control Spike and force him to work in the quest to live under a label, compete with other human villagers to have the best looking home, and throw away individuality, all in the name of one pointless and evil number: Spike’s HRA score. The fact that there is no escape from Tom Nook and the HRA even if Spike goes into a friend’s town or Animal Island as well as the fact that the HRA employees can waltz into Spike’s house at any time demonstrate that Spike has a quest to break free of his inhibitions, but that this quest is very difficult to succeed in. The quest seems impossible, but the fact that Spike is a human villager in a town of animals conveys the idea that Spike is an individual, and that no matter how powerful Tom Nook and the HRA are in Spike’s mind, Spike will not give in to his insecurity and become less of an individual just to please the villains of Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing is not about having a theme for Spike’s house and the quest to get the 100,000 points needed to get the coveted manor model. That is just what the villains of the game are telling Spike so he gives up his individuality and gives in to his insecurity to get a six-digit HRA score. Animal Crossing is a man’s quest to break free of an insecurity that has dominated his life, no matter how far he has to escape to. This symbol is seen most strongly in the fact that whenever Spike listens to K.K. Slider play his guitar; the credits roll, which symbolizes Spike’s victory.
Maybe someday in a later game, Spike will have a boss battle with Tom Nook and finally defeat this insecurity that has left players trying to impress the HRA for three games, but until that game is released, just fill Spike’s house with whatever furniture you want, get out an Action Replay, use the C-Stick to grow, and Z-button jump over Tom Nook and the HRA once and for all!

to:

If you have a Nintendo Gamecube, chances are, you have played Animal Crossing, and if you get through all of the quests Tom Nook sends you on, you will be forced to let the Happy Room Academy, or HRA, go into your house and give it a rating based on how well-designed it is. For most gamers the HRA is nothing more than an annoying group of people who examine your house and then give you a rating. For some gamers, impressing the HRA is an important quest because they want that elusive manor model to finish their re-creation of their town that they have in the basement. However, the HRA is not just this RPG’s “Evil Empire.” The HRA is actually a major symbol in Animal Crossing; the HRA symbolizes the main character’s insecurity. The main character, who we will call Spike for his Viking helmet, pays off tons of Bells to get his house remodeled and re-furnished so that he can get a high HRA score, but as he gets closer to having the required score of 100,000 HRA points needed to earn the respect of the HRA, and of course the manor model, Spike’s insecurity continues to make the HRA stronger. This analytical essay will take you all the way through the inner workings of the HRA and how these villains create the symbol of Spike’s insecurity flawlessly.

When a new file is created, the first character in Animal Crossing Spike meets is Totakeke, also known as K.K. Slider. Like the HRA, K.K. Slider is also a symbol, but K.K. Slider is a symbol of a being a free man; he does not play his guitar to look “cool,” and he does not play his guitar to make money, which is demonstrated by the fact that he gives Spike his music for free. He represents an ideal of breaking free from inhibitions and insecurity. However, after Spike meets him and takes the train into town, Spike goes into town where he meets the main villain of Animal Crossing, Tom Nook. When Spike meets him, he has Spike pick one of four houses to live in, and then after Spike selects his house, Nook charges him 19,800 Bells, even though Spike only has 1,000 Bells. As a result, he forces Spike to fall into his trap by making Spike work at his store until he has enough money to pay off 1400 Bells of this huge 18,800-Bell debt. This part of the game makes Tom Nook seem less evil than the rest of the game does because he is the character who is running the “tutorial level” of Animal Crossing, thus gaining Spike’s trust. However, as soon as Spike finishes his part-time job, Tom Nook then waits at his store in ambush, and the next time he goes in to buy something, he forces Spike to represent the town in HRA inspections. This event is a turning point in the plotline of Animal Crossing because as soon as Spike gets his first letter from the HRA, he loses that free personality that is represented by K.K. Slider and then Spike is filled with the insecurity that is represented by Tom Nook and the HRA.

The events of the beginning of Animal Crossing make this game an epic story of insecurity and breaking free of one’s inhibitions. Tom Nook and the HRA dominate Spike’s life for most of the game, as best seen in the mail that Spike receives. Every few days, the HRA sends a letter telling Spike his HRA score, a score based on the appearance of his house. This score raises Spike’s insecurity, especially if the player knows that the house model can be obtained by getting a score of 70,000, and that the manor model awaits for the great gamer who has a house that has a score of 100,000 points. While these letters already portray the HRA very well as a beast of insecurity, another series of annoying letters from Tom Nook himself truly reinforces this portrayal of the HRA as the ultimate symbol of Spike’s insecurity. Sometimes, Tom Nook sends a letter to Spike advertising some furniture that he carries at his store. When the player receives Nook’s letter and the HRA’s letter on the same day, a realization occurs; the HRA tells Spike that his house is nothing more than a smoldering pile of garbage, but then Tom Nook’s letter tells Spike that this problem can all be fixed by spending a few thousand Bells on some piece of furniture that Tom Nook carries, so the HRA and Tom Nook, the masters of Spike’s insecurity, are working together to control Spike. In addition, the mail also continues to be a means of binding Spike’s life to the insecurity that is the HRA through Pelly and Phyllis. Pelly and Phyllis run the counter at the post office, where Spike can pay off his debt on his house, making this house bigger. This relates to the HRA being a representation of Spike’s insecurity in a few ways. Pelly, Phyllis, and Pete, the post office staff, have no intentional connections to the HRA themselves. However, Pete carries the mail, including the letters from Tom Nook and the HRA, and also, in order to pay off his debt, Spike must go to the post office and talk to Pelly and Phyllis. Spike pays off his debt to Tom Nook, and in return, Nook gives Spike a larger house and more debt. Early in the game, Spike gets letters from the HRA telling him that his house is too small to have a high HRA score, so as a result, Spike’s insecurity is made stronger by the mentality that “bigger is always better,” and as a result, Spike gives his hard-earned money to Tom Nook, the master of his insecurity. Because of this, without even realizing it, Pelly, Phyllis, and Pete are actually puppets of evil, working for the HRA despite not being evil themselves.

Like the mail, the very ways of raising one’s HRA score also demonstrate the HRA’s symbolism of Spike’s insecurity. For example, to have a high HRA score, Spike almost absolutely MUST have a theme to at least one floor of his house. This quest for a theme leaves Spike trying to find about ten different pieces of furniture as well as matching flooring and wallpaper. This quest, which can take a gamer a few months to complete without timetravel and universal codes, conveys the idea that Spike’s insecurity leads him to always need more. It does not matter if Spike manages to collect every NES game and then the player uses Action Replay to get Spike copies of impossible-to-obtain games like Zelda and Super Mario Bros. The HRA will still tell Spike that he will never have a good gaming-themed house unless he gets his hands on Cyberball for the Sega Genesis (which was NOT put into Animal Crossing, so don’t go and try to use a universal code there). Spike’s insecurity is also seen in the quest for a high HRA score because of the fact that to get the highest possible HRA scores, he must have a theme, and cannot deviate from that theme. Why can’t Spike blast some sweet tracks from his retro stereo in the same room that has cabana flooring? I’ll tell you why. It is because they are from different themes, and Spike’s house can only have one theme; Spike needs to be labeled! Surprisingly, this form of HRA-driven insecurity is not just a form of insecurity that exists exclusively in Animal Crossing; it exists in the real world as well, despite the fact that there is no HRA in the real world. In middle school and high school, while the HRA does not actually exist as a formal organization, the same pressures exist as students try and maintain a label. These students will try to look like punks, goths, jocks, emo kids, skaters, preps, rappers, geeks, nerds, or all-around popular kids, all to gain the acceptance of their school’s HRA, the cliques that are in the school, and as a result, the quest to fit into a clique makes it so that many students give up their individuality to fit a label instead of being themselves, much like Spike is forced by the HRA to abandon his own idea of a house design in order to fit the label of the themes, series, and sets that will give him a high HRA score. The fact that insecurity exists in this form so commonly in the real world is surprising, but the fact that a real form of insecurity that is so remarkably similar to that of the HRA in Animal Crossing exists further strengthens the HRA’s appearance as the embodiment of Spike’s insecurity. Another thing that demonstrates the way the HRA symbolizes Spike’s insecurity is the fact that if Spike designs a wallpaper or floor design himself, he only gets a few HRA points for it, which once again demonstrates the fact that the HRA is forcing Spike to live with a label instead of being an individual. In addition, if in a town there is more than one player, the players in the town may compete with each other to get the highest HRA score, and since HRA scores are given in a measurable unit, Spike may end up competing with other human villagers in town in order to get the highest HRA score, once again giving Spike a “bigger is better mentality” that puts him on a quest to catch as many red snappers, barred knifejaws, and coelacanths and slam his shovel against every money rock in order to get the Bells needed in order to complete those themes and get any other valuable items that can maximize his HRA score. Also, the method by which the HRA looks at Spike’s house also relates to the HRA being a symbol of Spike’s insecurity; the HRA is able to go into Spike’s house at any time, and then they just keep looking at his house to determine a score based on the appearance of the house. The HRA employees are completely invisible to Spike, so there is nothing Spike can do about them coming into his house, rating his house, and then mailing him an HRA score. This further strengthens the HRA’s depiction as a symbol of Spike’s insecurity; the insecurity has complete access to his mind, much like the employees of the HRA having complete access to his house, and because of this, his insecurity could do anything to him. Therefore, the letters from the HRA, a symbol of Spike’s insecurity, represent Spike’s insecurity strengthening itself.

The ideas of labeling one’s character and Tom Nook and the HRA symbolizing Spike’s insecurity are also further extended into Spike’s life in Animal Crossing when Spike leaves his town to go visit another player’s town. Tom Nook exists in every Animal Crossing town, which symbolizes the idea that Spike cannot escape the insecurity that haunts him even as he leaves his town to visit a friend. In addition, sometimes in order to get more furniture to complete a set and ultimately have a higher HRA score, some players choose to take Spike out of town to Animal Island and collect the island furniture, which can only be obtained using a Game Boy Advance. This is a particularly interesting symbol, as the Game Boy Advance costs money in real life. Since you control Spike and you are buying that Game Boy Advance, the act of getting Spike to Animal Island symbolizes Spike’s insecurity becoming so powerful that it reaches out as far as Spike’s Higher Self. However, the biggest example of the idea of labeling one’s character that exists when Spike leaves his town in Animal Crossing actually is related to a character that has absolutely nothing to do with Tom Nook or the HRA. This character is none other than Blanca, the faceless cat. Most of the time when Spike goes to another town, he meets Rover, the cat that he met at the very beginning of the game who he talked to on the train ride into town. However, occasionally on the ride into another town Spike will meet Blanca, a cat who has no face. The symbolism is obvious here. Blanca has Spike draw her a new face, which could be just about anything. In other words, she is letting him force a label onto her, much like Spike is insecure, and is therefore letting the HRA force a label onto his room design. Spike and Blanca have this similarity: they are both insecure characters who let others make their decisions instead of thinking for themselves in order to gain the acceptance of others.

Earlier in this essay, I mentioned how K.K. Slider is a symbol of Spike being a free man. Because of this, I will now elaborate a little more about how he fits into the symbolism of Animal Crossing. K.K. Slider’s appearances in the game are mostly the appearances on Saturday nights to play his guitar at the train station. Saturday night itself is connected to Spike being a free man because Saturday is part of the weekend, so with Spike now enjoying the weekend, he can go to a K.K. Slider concert and enjoy being free from the evils of Tom Nook and the HRA, even if it is only for a little while. As I mentioned before, K.K. Slider has the cool personality of a guy who is just being himself. At the very beginning of the game, K.K. Slider talks to Spike about the beginning of a new life as a free man, and being the first character in Animal Crossing that the player and Spike meet, K.K. Slider takes the appearance as a role model and a hero. Even after K.K. Slider’s message of freedom is destroyed by Spike’s encounters with Tom Nook and the HRA, K.K. Slider still enters the town on Saturday nights, which symbolizes him entering Spike’s mind and reminding Spike that he is a free man and that he should not let the HRA, Tom Nook, or any other forces of evil defeat him and create a new and insecure Spike.

Tom Nook and the HRA are two of the most evil villains in the history of gaming, as well as the ultimate symbols of Spike’s insecurity, Blanca’s insecurity, and even the insecurity of real people. They clash with K.K. Slider, Animal Crossing’s symbol of freedom from inhibitions, so that they can try to control Spike and force him to work in the quest to live under a label, compete with other human villagers to have the best looking home, and throw away individuality, all in the name of one pointless and evil number: Spike’s HRA score. The fact that there is no escape from Tom Nook and the HRA even if Spike goes into a friend’s town or Animal Island as well as the fact that the HRA employees can waltz into Spike’s house at any time demonstrate that Spike has a quest to break free of his inhibitions, but that this quest is very difficult to succeed in. The quest seems impossible, but the fact that Spike is a human villager in a town of animals conveys the idea that Spike is an individual, and that no matter how powerful Tom Nook and the HRA are in Spike’s mind, Spike will not give in to his insecurity and become less of an individual just to please the villains of Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing is not about having a theme for Spike’s house and the quest to get the 100,000 points needed to get the coveted manor model. That is just what the villains of the game are telling Spike so he gives up his individuality and gives in to his insecurity to get a six-digit HRA score. Animal Crossing is a man’s quest to break free of an insecurity that has dominated his life, no matter how far he has to escape to. This symbol is seen most strongly in the fact that whenever Spike listens to K.K. Slider play his guitar; the credits roll, which symbolizes Spike’s victory.
Maybe someday in a later game, Spike will have a boss battle with Tom Nook and finally defeat this insecurity that has left players trying to impress the HRA for three games, but until that game is released, just fill Spike’s house with whatever furniture you want, get out an Action Replay, use the C-Stick to grow, and Z-button jump over Tom Nook and the HRA once and for all!


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[[WMG: ''SonicTheHedgehog'' and ''AnimalCrossing'' are set in the same world.]]
Both feature humans living alongside large-headed anthropomorphic animals, with nobody considering this unusual. Sonic is a distant relative of the Able Sisters, but doesn't often visit because he interferes with people's fishing by running everywhere.
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[[WMG: Blathers has narcolepsy.]]
He gets excited telling people about filling up the museum with exhibits. Then he falls asleep.
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** This makes both a lot of sense and no sense at all.
* See... the truth is a sortof LighterAndSofter version of TheTerribleSecretOfAnimalCrossing. Moving to town, you meet a bunch of furry animals. None of them seem to think it's odd that they're all furry animals, or that you're the only human on the island. In fact, they're very friendly and accepting of you! Gradually you become more comfortable around them, helping them out with odd jobs, choosing friends and favorites. Eventually, however, you'll probably stop playing. When you've truly abandoned your town, your character transforms into an animal just like the others, becoming just another animal resident, just another NPC. But as long as you keep playing, you'll stave off the transformation.

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** This makes both a lot of sense and no sense at all.
all.
** Traits such as? Refresh me; I haven't played the game in a while.
* See... the truth is a sortof LighterAndSofter version of TheTerribleSecretOfAnimalCrossing.''{{The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing}}''. Moving to town, you meet a bunch of furry animals. None of them seem to think it's odd that they're all furry animals, or that you're the only human on the island. In fact, they're very friendly and accepting of you! Gradually you become more comfortable around them, helping them out with odd jobs, choosing friends and favorites. Eventually, however, you'll probably stop playing. When you've truly abandoned your town, your character transforms into an animal just like the others, becoming just another animal resident, just another NPC. But as long as you keep playing, you'll stave off the transformation.
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* To make matters worse, the gyroids look similar to a Haniwa, clay figures which in Japanese rituals, would be buried with the deceased.
** In the Animal Crossing Movie, they call gyroids Haniwas.
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removing missused trope


[[{{Discworld}} Golems]]. Also [[DoctorWho Ood]]. Long ago, they Gyroids worked for the civilization that built and knew how to control them. The civilization died out, either by [[RocksFallEveryoneDies landslide/volcano]] or by plague. The gyroids that were inactive simply stayed where they were, and those that were preforming a task when their controllers died either stopped, kept going until the task was complete or the object of the task was destroyed, or still wander the earth to this day. After a few hundred million years, they started singing (either because they're [[WhoWantsToLiveForever sick of immortality]], or the humming is a sort of "check engine light".)

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[[{{Discworld}} Golems]]. Also [[DoctorWho Ood]]. Long ago, they Gyroids worked for the civilization that built and knew how to control them. The civilization died out, either by [[RocksFallEveryoneDies landslide/volcano]] landslide/volcano or by plague. The gyroids that were inactive simply stayed where they were, and those that were preforming a task when their controllers died either stopped, kept going until the task was complete or the object of the task was destroyed, or still wander the earth to this day. After a few hundred million years, they started singing (either because they're [[WhoWantsToLiveForever sick of immortality]], or the humming is a sort of "check engine light".)
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[[WMG: The village of Animal Crossing is located in a totalitarian [[CrapsaccharineWorld]]. (Inspired by the previous WMG)]]

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[[WMG: The village of Animal Crossing is located in a totalitarian [[CrapsaccharineWorld]].CrapsaccharineWorld. (Inspired by the previous WMG)]]
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[[WMG: The village of Animal Crossing is located in a totalitarian [[CrapsaccharineWorld]]. (Inspired by the previous WMG)]]
Think about it. Tom Nook (the actual leader of the village) has near-complete control of the village's economy and when he tells the player about the HRA (which is actually a government organization which aims to keep tabs on the town's citizens), he either persuades him/her to join it (if the player says yes) or signs them up anyway (if s/he says no). Tortimer is just a puppet leader so the locals don't get suspicous of what is going on. Boondox is a hoax (as stated in a previous WMG) in an attempt to get citizens to donate to the government, funding the further oppresion of the people and the facade of a SugarBowl. Resetti appears so the player does not interfere with the governing of the country by resetting the game. After all, the government can't have citizens being granted god-like powers over the town! Crazy Redd is actually a freedom fighter who sells counterfeit goods to raise money for the anti-goverment resistance.

...And that's about it.
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* And now I will never play Animal Crossing again. Oh god,the NightmareFuel...
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The game was an experiment by the Gyroids to see how animals and/or people would react to living in a situation were they had little to no contact with the rest of society or something similar to that. The Gyroids in the game are actually cameras used to monitor everyone. [[{{XanatosRoulette}} The Gyroids are actually planning ''everything'' down to the last detail.]] What? Don't look at me like that, this is a WMG.

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The game was an experiment by the Gyroids to see how animals and/or people would react to living in a situation were they had little to no contact with the rest of society or something similar to that. The Gyroids in the game are actually cameras used to monitor everyone. [[{{XanatosRoulette}} The Gyroids are actually planning ''everything'' everything down to the last detail.]] What? Don't look at me like that, this is a WMG.
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[[WMG: [[{{TheDogWasTheMastermind}} The Gyroids are controlling everything.]] ]]
The game was an experiment by the Gyroids to see how animals and/or people would react to living in a situation were they had little to no contact with the rest of society or something similar to that. The Gyroids in the game are actually cameras used to monitor everyone. [[{{XanatosRoulette}} The Gyroids are actually planning ''everything'' down to the last detail.]] What? Don't look at me like that, this is a WMG.
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* They could wear reading glasses.
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* Really? This troper found it creepy, but not enough to lose any sleep, although he still can't bring himself to play the game either.
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** Holy shit. Mind = blown.
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* This made my day.
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* See... the truth is a sortof LighterAndSofter version of TheTerribleSecretOfAnimalCrossing. Moving to town, you meet a bunch of furry animals. None of them seem to think it's odd that they're all furry animals, or that you're the only human on the island. In fact, they're very friendly and accepting of you! Gradually you become more comfortable around them, helping them out with odd jobs, choosing friends and favorites. Eventually, however, you'll probably stop playing. When you've truly abandoned your town, your character transforms into an animal just like the others, becoming just another animal resident, just another NPC. But as long as you keep playing, you'll stave off the transformation.

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