• MeaanBeaan@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I genuinely do not get why people get so angry about the color of a character’s skin in a work of historical FICTION. I dgaf about things being historical accurate in my video games. Does the guy look cool? Yup he sure do. Is the game gonna be good? It’s Ubisoft so probably not. But let’s assume that it will be for arguments sake.

    Why is it so important to you that the character not be black? Assassin’s creed as a franchise has been around for like what? Almost two decades now? And in all that time we’ve basically played as only white characters (with some exceptions). I don’t see anything wrong with increased representation in works of art or entertainment. The more representation we see in media for any minority group the less likely it will be for the kids that grow up playing these games to grow up as racist assholes. And if you belong to a minority group, seeing someone with your skin tone represented in media will make you less likely to grow up with internalized self loathing. Like you might if all you see in media is the white dude saving the day.

    At the end of the day these are works of entertainment. Their purpose isn’t historically accuracy. It’s entertainment and escapism. If we can’t escape racism in a fucking video game how tf are we supposed to prevent it in real life?

    • tomkatt@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Dude, these same folks flipped their shit when the default main character in Crackdown was black, way back in 2007. These idiots don’t quit. I mean, we’re talking about a game where you’re a genetically engineered super-cop and had multiple choices of character race but their fragile egos were shattered because the default choice wasn’t the white guy.

      It’s pathetic.

      Mind you, I’m sure they were all fine and nodding their heads when Tom Cruise did the whole white savior thing in The Last Samurai.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        Tom Cruise did the whole white savior thing in The Last Samurai.

        Did you actually watch the movie?

        Spoilers: The Samurai all die in the end. White guy does NOT save the Samurai. In fact the he is the one saved by the Samurai, in a mental health kind of way.

        It’s not at all a white savior movie. Tom Cruise is more of an audience surrogate character. When they explain Japanese culture to Tom Cruise, the audience also learns about Japanese culture. It wouldn’t make any sense for Japanese people to be explaining Japanese culture to each other so there needs to be an outsider in the story for it to work.

        You should watch the movie instead of judging it from the movie poster. It really pays a lot of respect to Japanese culture and portrays a sense of loss that happened in the rush to modernize during the Meiji era.

        It was also a huge boost to Ken Watanabe’s career. He was actually the star of the movie, just that he was an unknown in the west at the time. So they put Tom Cruise on the poster to bring in an audience, but it’s really Ken Watanabe’s movie. You’re missing out if you can’t get over the movie poster.

        • tomkatt@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I’ve seen the movie multiple times. Despite my comment, it’s a decent enough movie. But the entire situation that led to Cruise’s character not dying initially (where he’s taken prisoner instead of executed) was kind of absurd, and then for him to actually be allowed to meet with the emperor at the end, after essentially engaging in a rebellion and convincing Katsumoto of the same instead of committing sepukku (and then him doing it anyway???)… The whole thing would have been considered shameful, and just stretches belief generally. And Algren (Cruise) was basically the pivot point for the whole thing.

          When I refer to the “white savior” thing, he didn’t save an individual, he saved “Japan’s honor.” It’s kind of bad in that regard.

          Oh, and he wins the heart of the widow who’s husband he killed in that first battle. Woo.

    • Jumi@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      From the trailer he just seems so terribly out of place. Also, it’s bullshit to have a samurai in Japan in a game about assassins when they had fucking ninjas, the Japanese equivalent of assassins.

      • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        The AC games haven’t been about covert assassination since Syndicate. They’re much more focused on open combat now, and playing a samurai fits that better. Yeah, it’s pretty stupid that a game series about assassins isn’t really about assassination anymore, but that’s where they’re at.

        • AeonFelis@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Origin was still about stealth and assassinations. It’s only Odyssey and Valhalla that broke away from it.

        • Jumi@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I wasn’t really following it but didn’t Mirage go back to its roots somewhat?

      • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        I’d wager there’s no accurate historical depiction in any media.

        Everything is stylized or fictionalized to some degree.

        Maybe The Passion of the Christ is closest I can think of as they did all the speech in Aramaic and Old Latin

        • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          If we are talking about ethnicity, there were huge liberties taken. I think a few of the romans were actually Italian but no one else was close to plausible.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            I haven’t seen the film and don’t plan to, but most Romans weren’t Italian by that point, especially in the military.

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        He’s for players like me who like to hit stuff, not sneak around. There’s another stealth main character for people who wanna be sneaky.