About Geno the character

[Kosheh]

oh good, another nintendo character mythos topic by koopaul. i missed these

On top off that, nothing is stopping another NEW entity from taking control of the Geno doll.

Yes there is. It's called copyright law.
The character rights to almost ALL of those other characters that showed up in Mario RPG (Belome, Valentina, Mallow...yep, and Geno) currently belong to Square Enix, and adding the character to another Mario title requires Nintendo getting the legal OK from Square Enix (and in turn, Square Enix gets a little of said game's profits)

"But Kosheh, Geno appeared in Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga!"

Yes, but so did this text at the end of the credits:

All Rights, including the copyrights
of Game, Scenario, Music and Program,
reserved by NINTENDO.
Regardless of the above-mentioned,
the copyright of Character "Geno",
reserved by SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.

Nintendo has to jump through legal hoops to include a third-party character in their game in all territories. It's a process that involves lawyers talking over a giant table and results in Nintendo having to part with something to make ends meet and ensure that the other party gets treated fairly. I agree, it's stupid and dumb, but this is the decision that Nintendo chose to make almost 20 years ago. Every mention of Geno in a future game would require that small amount of text and another few months of legal negotiation.
In fact, it's probably why the Smash Ballot is taking forever: another third-party character's been added but they need to make ensure full legal clearance before announcing that the character, indeed will appear in the game.


LAWYERS: The only thing more threatening than Smithy regarding Geno's return