Kingdom Hearts fans have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. The long-awaited Kingdom Hearts III will finally be arriving this January, and director Tetsuya Nomura recently confirmed that the game has officially gone gold. Even this close to the title’s release, new details are still coming out, such as one recent trailer’s confirmation of Winnie the Pooh and his Hundred Acre Wood returning for this sequel. However, this news experienced some slight censoring with the Kingdom Hearts III Chinese trailer announcing the character’s appearance, and the reason why might shock you.

Chinese sources, such as A9VG, shared on Reddit some stills from the recent Kingdom Hearts III Chinese trailer that censored out Winnie the Pooh’s appearances. The scenes set in the Hundred Acre Wood are still retained, and all of Pooh’s friends are allowed to appear. However, any shots of Pooh censor the silly old bear with a bright white light over his fuzzy frame. The reason for this censoring would require a bit of knowledge of recent Chinese political culture, and yes, it of course involves dank memes.

The image seen above depicting Chinese leader Xi JingPing with US President Barack Obama went viral in China a few years ago, comparing the stature of the two figures to that of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too. This led to the subcultural meme fixation of comparing Xi to the hunny-lover across the Chinese social media landscape. Given the Chinese government’s stance on political criticism, Chinese social media sites saw a barrage of censorship and forced takedowns of Winnie the Pooh imagery across the web.

Thus, appearances of Winnie the Pooh like the one from this trailer have opted to play it safe to avoid backlash from the Communist regime. While it is a shame to see such an adorable character be oppressed, one can only laugh at the government’s need to squash the Pooh rebellion. Hopefully, Pooh’s appearance in the game doesn’t keep Kingdom Hearts III stuck in Rabbit’s house and prevent it from seeing a full release.

What do you guys think about the Kingdom Hearts III Chinese trailer getting censored? Let us know in the comments below! Be sure to stay tuned for the latest Kingdom Hearts news, such as the new line of Kingdom Hearts 3 Funko Pop figures available now, here on Don’t Feed the Gamers! Follow us on Twitter to see updates the minute they go live!