Tom Nook is the business-man turned bellionare landlord who is subject to the brunt of hate from a select group in the Animal Crossing community - but a lot of the hate seems to come from misjudgement of his character rather than genuine negative qualities. These concerns often stem from his character in Gamecube, who was known for non-optional house upgades with ever increasing loans, leaving the player in a seemly bottomless pit of debt, however the case for Tom Nook being more of a victim of angry players than an actually bad man is strong when considering the information Nintendo has slowly shared with us over the past 21 years. Therefore I present today: In defence of Tom Nook: The only good landlord.
It is made abundantly clear that in Animal Crossing houses are just as expensive and as big of a commitment as in the real world, and yet despite this Tom Nook is willing to give the player an entire house - free of charge if the player is never interested in paying off the loan given to them. There is no interest on the payments and profit margins don't appear to concern Nook. While it's true that in older games there was the expectation for chores to be completed for him, planting flowers and delivering carpets for a 20K bell house is still a fantastic opportunity for the player and these tasks can be easily completed in around 20 minutes.
If the player is not satisfied with their house - since it is a fact that if you do choose to never pay your loans your house will remain a measley 4x4 room - then New Horizons might be the perfect solution because Tom Nook provides the player an entire island, leaving it up to the player to decide how the island will look, feel and operate. The island belongs to Tom Nook (Specifically Nook Inc.) and so, reasonably, if he wanted to take full control and manage the beautiful getaway himself he could; and yet he is happy for you to take control and for him to take a backseat simply excecuting whatever land development wishes you come to him with. It could be argued that maybe he lets you design it because he wouldn't be sure on how to do it himself but even then Nook could still retain a lot more control than he does.
Some may argue that Tom Nook's major drawback is not the loans but instead the view that he is harsh and tough - too harsh and tough. This can be seen in older games where he was abrasive and sometimes outrightly rude, at times questioning the player for slacking or accusing them of making chit-chat when they're supposed to be running his errands. However it is not the case that Nook is just uncessarily rude because his blunt and sometimes seemingly unfair attitude towards the player comes from a place of concern and care. Nook is a life long business man and some of his experiences have left him with a hardened view of the world that the player should be mindful of when considering his personality. It is known when Tom Nook entered the business world he faced hardship - leaving his home town to go to the city with plans of being a successful business man and ultimately being unable to see his dream become reality, in part due to negative experiences with Redd. Tom Nook says himself that he is ok with being viewed as intimidating because it may enourage people to pay back their loans and I therefore believe that criticising him for being 'too tough' is unfair, given that the rough exterior comes not only from a place of care but from real world experience. For Nook, unprofessional behaviour is something that has negatively impacted his life before, so its not unreasonable that he would have a low tolerance for such behaviour - even Nintendo officials said that Tom Nook wanted to teach the player about responsibility as well as the fact that if the player doesn't repay their loans he wont be mad or make an issue of it.
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