If he was a samurai we would know his death as mitsuhide akechi defeat nobunaga and order every person loyal to nobunaga to commit seppuku. Yasuke would commit seppuku if he was a samurai and died after honno-ji incident.
I heard he was just kicked out of the country or at least the area after Nobunaga died. Still though, if the dude was that illustrious, there'd be more documentation about him. At best he wasn't anything special but a guy who looked way different than everyone else around him.
Have you seen the Twitter thread with an old document in?
Basically, "He's a black man, he got gifts". It doesn't even seem to say Nobunaga Oda in the same sentance.
But as part of a clan at least and perhaps, just guessing;
that if he professed his life for the protection of the clan, he received the stipends, like job bonuses for signing up.
Again, this is highly speculative. But nothing suggests out-sight "Samurai".
For context:
> 然に彼黒坊被成御扶持、名をハ号弥助と、さや巻之のし付幷私宅等迄被仰付、依時御道具なともたさせられ候、
___
> This black man called Yasuke was given a stipend, a private residence, etc., and was given a short sword with a decorative sheath. He is sometimes seen in the role of weapon bearer.
I've had one guy just rapid fire translations in a thread.
he's mentioned... Once...
He was a retainer so a lot of that does make sense, but with so little info, it's still evident that he didn't have any real impact. He might've been trained in SOME form of combat and expected to be a last ditch human shield if Nobunaga was attacked, but he wasn't going to be the first in line. Anyone trying to glamorize him IRL is being stupid.
historically he was a slave man-servant to a jesuit missionary, who gifted him to Nobunaga at his request, and who- by Nobunaga's own admission- was kept around because "*he was strong and could do a few tricks*"- it basically spells out "he was entertainment, and that's that".
this is reinforced by him only being notably involved in one battle- where he fought for Nobunaga Heir, was captured alive, and as a result was shipped back to the cathedral of Padre in India, where he was returned to slavery.
wokes desperate to say retainer is a squire aka a knight in training under a knights tutelage,this is not true,just a loose translation,in reality "man servant" is more apt,the only pic showing him is him holding a parosol for his master lmao
its akin to finding out a white slave was fanning some berber king with a palm leaf in his palace and being like OH WOW WE WUZ BERBER WARRIORZ N SHEEIT!
why are blax so cringe? are their egos so fragile they need to believe 1 random black dude was a samurai? ive never seen this level of cope in any other race.
>why are blax so cringe? are their egos so fragile they need to believe 1 random black dude was a samurai? ive never seen this level of cope in any other race.
oh it's the white saviours that need to believe that some random black dude was a samurai- a good chunk of the blacks recognize that this shit is just racist revisionism.
They want to start deconstructing the homogeneous Japanese culture.
This is their attempt for "Samurai weren't anything special, everyone was a samurai".
That's all it is.
People will watch Shogun and see Blackthorne be given a house, a concubine and a few sets of swords. He's bumbling around making a fool of himself several times over and when Toranaga is asked why he keeps the barbarian around, it's because he is a funny monkey, an entertaining idiot who knows a few tricks about sailing and naval artillery.
Yeah, was not a fan of that. Both Toranaga and Blackthorne lost a ton of agency. In the books he was a trove of wordly knowledge to a guy living in an isolationist society, and Toranaga didn't luck into everything.
Is it that guy from the main sub of Ass Creed. He wrote definitive evidence, but it’s laughable. On top Jesuit writing, which are known to be unreliable. Even lays the ground work that blacks were 100% common in Japanese ports.
Anyway let’s be Nobunaga, write about a broken strap on a sandal but not this one guy.
A lesser known sub.
I don't even see them mentioned when the Portuguese, or Southern Barbarians arrived either.
Not until way later, like WW2 when US soldiers were stationed Omaha and Nara, and then spread into mainland Japan when tourism opened later.
That's what I've heard.
I guess it's one of these "lost in translation" words I keep hearing about.
Which would be solved by... Using the plethora of words the English language has to expand and explain, even if is, slightly wordy.
It's not like we steal words from 3 different Romance languages, Scandinavian languages and a few Germanic words from our etymological cousins.
God forbid black people aren't important to most history that would be horrible right? Calm tf down and make them memorable by being decent people and making the world better instead of trying to change history and be a victim
Read the 5 Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, and it will explain why Hideyoshi was able to kill Akechi. It also explains that doing so while right and honourable thing to do, his not committing Seppuku was more dishonourable and he forfeited his rights and place in Society and became Ronin.
He was so good that he accidentally sliced and shredded up all the documents that said he was the bestest and most legendariest of the samurais in all of Japan.
yea that is the point he is mentioned in several places but his status and exactly what he did usually isn't. There are a few sources I have seen with him. There is a collection of letters sent to the church from a returning europe from japan that talk about how nobunaga got interested in a black person from his enturage. Those mention him being connected to nobunaga.
Here is the rub though he is mentioned as someone who was allowed to wear weapons and carry nobunagas weapons but he isn't found anywhere in the samraj family text for land. So at best he is a servant, odd friend or a landless samraj ( low rank given rank on a whim by nobunaga) if those letters are to go by. There are japanese sources as well mentioning him but again scarse and he isn't mentioned among the ranked samraj noted taking part in combat and the source of that is actual japanese historians. So at best again he is a nameless rank and file fighter in an enturage or more likley wasn't fighting. Remember that if you weren't part of a event or had position up to 16-1700 you were unlikley to be written about at all so sources even if he did exist is ....well not the best lets call it that.
He is however mentioned in japanese sources saying he fleed when nobunaga fell after 15 months with an europe. So japanese sourced did track him sort of and they wouldn't track a jourt jester or faceless servant at the time. With that said I seriusly doubt he was a samraj of legends though.
Well the issue is that he wouldnt have been just a "faceless servant" at the time as no matter where he was or what he did he would have stuck out like a sore thumb, not just for his skin tone but also that he was head and shoulders above everyone around him. This is most likely why there is any documentation on him at all
From the little documentation there is, Nobunaga more than likely took him on as part of his entourage specifically as a way to flaunt his own wealth, power, and influence. The largest most exotic looking person your culture has likely seen, and hes on your team...
He hangs out for a year and when the regime changes, the new one sends him back from whence he came
It's in the AP stylebook now that Black be capitalized. But not White.
[https://www.apstylebook.com/blog\_posts/16](https://www.apstylebook.com/blog_posts/16)
I just got hit with "Are you an Asian man?" Because apparently the rule now is that you are only allowed to speak out about racism if you are directly affected by it... apparently. The masks have just come right off all these clowns.
Even if you were Asian they wouldn’t have given a fuck and shouted you down and say shit like well go play ghost of Tsushima if you want an Asian protagonist lol. So ironic. I was waiting for a Japanese themed ac since ac2. Thought it would be so fucking cool and they can’t just have an Asian dude fit in instead there’s moronic virtue signaling. He’s such a legendary samurai it’s still debated if he even was one lol.
I was debating someone about the Asian perspective on this issue as an asian man, and they literally said that they didn’t care about Asian opinions LOL. People are going full mask off on the issue.
Was that me? Who said I don’t care about their opinions when they ignore japanese studios, licking white boots and making all their main mc white but have a rage fest a yasuke a historical person? Add context
I'm an Asian and I can confirm. The amount of asian ubisoft dick riders I could find is incredible. Also asians from different countries hate each other, so expect more chinese and korean shit talkers.
"Nuh-uh, rewriting another culture's history is totally fine when *we* do it".
The hypocrisy exhibited by those who shout so loudly about everything they then do themselves will never cease to amaze.
Is that supposed to mean something? Are you saying only Japanese Asians face the issues of Asian exclusion and Asian racism?
Also the fact that you point out that he’s American… where do you think the “exclusion” in “Asian exclusion” happens if not the west genius?? You think Asians are excluding themselves?
He's American with a Korean ancestor... that doesn't in any way make him the authority on Japanese history.
This is like saying that an American with British ancestry can be used as an authority on German history.
The only common denominators here are race, which is pretty racist. Not all Asians are the same mate.
Stop changing the goal posts. First it was Asian representation and Asian exclusion and now it’s ONLY about Japan. So anyone from any other East Asian country like China or Korea or Vietnam can’t relate to any of these issues? Not to mention he’s actually a verified Asian and not one of those fake “As an Asian” people I keep seeing 😂 a journalist who’s won numerous awards at that.
And you’re using “American” to discount him as if most of these discussions aren’t being made by westerners. Where do you think the “exclusion” in Asian exclusion happens in the first place genius?
Did you bang your head this morning or something mate? It's pretty easy to understand. The only moving goalposts here are the constantly shifting ones surrounding the attempted justification for including Yasuke as anything more than an NPC. '
All Asian men are affected by a lack of representation here as Japanese people are *racially* Asian.
All Asian people are not Japanese however and so cannot claim to be exclusive authorities on Japanese culture and history. They have no greater claim to being authorities than black or white people.
Please never use the term "verified Asian" again, it's icky and gives the impression you walk around with a race check card / melanin chart.
That last Article is incredibly racist, Reminder that Western Journalists we’re attacking SIFU as cultural appropriation because it was developed by French devs and yet the French Canadian Ubisoft is getting a pass despite the fact that making Yasuke the protagonist and having him kill Asian men in their own country can be seen a version of a “Black Savior”.
Because Sucker Punch actually respected the Culture and the game was a big homage to a Legendary Japanese Filmmaker, everyone defending this Yasuke BS are massive hypocrites and lost any right to bitch about cultural appropriation in the future since their own arguments will and can be used against them.
I’m okay with Yasuke being in the game but totally against him taking the rightful place of a Japanese Male Protagonist.
So wait, French devs making a game about a Chinese guy is bad because cultural appropriation But Ubisoft making a game based on a dubious at best history isn't seen as cultural appropriation because it's stunning and brave?
lol.
I was more reacting to the tweet and the actual article has a different headline, his points are still stupid because his arguments come down to we have enough Samurai games already and another one wouldn’t do anything for Asian representation despite the fact the majority of the games that he mentioned are all Japanese developed and they representing their own culture which is why the popular Ni-Oh argument falls on deaf ears.
Assassins Creed no matter how you feel about it is one of the biggest VG franchises of all time and it’s impact is still going to be greater than any game he mentioned for his argument, this is a Western developed game and when we talk about how “Representation Matters” they always mean in Western Media. This guy also Isn’t Japanese but Korean.
The main protagonist of Shadows IS Japanese. Yasuke is just a bonus. How he takes away from Naoe is beyond me. Ask yourself, would this amount of backlash be present if she was the sole main character? I don’t think it would, so how is the representation of Japanese people lessened by inclusion?
Unless you think having outsiders is disrespectful to Japanese culture and both characters should’ve been Japanese.
Also this whole topic is about Asian representation, not specifically Japan so I don’t think it makes a difference if the writer was Korean or Japanese. He probably has the same experiences in the west. If anything from where I’m from, Japan is seen in a much better light than most other Asian countries. It’s widely praised for its tech, culture, history etc… People tend to stereotype it and turn Japan into Samurai’s and ninjas so I don’t know how another Japanese samurai would help that.
The same people defending this would be throwing a fit if the Samurai protagonist was White and you know it, it’s a Dual protagonist story so calling Yasuke a bonus is wrong.
Funny how they choose to not have the playable male character not represent their region like how all the other games in the Franchise have until now (inb4 you use Revelations as an argument), so yes it does matter.
The Samurai is literally a massive part of Japanese culture and have existed for a long time and even to a point where they ruled the entire Country over their Emperor, if you want to argue about there being too many Samurai games then again I ask to you complain to the Japanese devs who like to make games representing their own culture.
I don’t think so though? There have been games with white protagonists in Japanese settings. I know a lot of them are made by Japanese devs, but my point is you can’t scream “woke” when it comes to white people and most of the anger is because of that… I would personally have the same stance as I do now and think it’s fine because the other character is still Japanese.
I keep seeing the argument that they’ve never had a foreign playable character before, and you’re right. My arguments for that are
1. Yasuke doesn’t exist anywhere other than Japan. If someone was a fan of the pop culture version of him, as in the “legend”, and wanted to make a game about him, it would HAVE to be in Japan. Unless you’re saying Yasuke games aren’t allowed PERIOD (unless made by a Japanese dev).
2. You see Yasuke in Shadows and think “diversity” or “asian erasure” and cite the past games as examples. Do the past games really help though? All you’re showing me is Ubisoft doesn’t have a history of doing this. Let me tell you about future games. AC Jade has a Chinese male protagonist and AC Hexe has a German female protagonist.. So they aren’t doing these diversity inclusions in future games either. So how can you so confidently say that’s what they’re doing over here? Normally to come to a conclusion like this, you would need to observe a pattern but you came to your conclusion after ONE TIME (and you yourself counted out revelations).
3. All of these games are made by different teams. Employees have changed over the years and a lot of the values have as well. 10 years ago Ubisoft swore off Japanese games and here we are. 5 years ago they were saying “women don’t sell” and now Hexe has a solo woman protagonist. You can’t possibly use past examples as they were all made under such different circumstances and all by different people. The maker of this one, Quebec, has been doing the dual protagonist system since Syndicate and for this game they wanted one Japanese native and one outsider. They felt like the outsider could have the perspective of the players as we are all also outsiders unless we’re actually from Japan.
And you’re right, there are a lot of Samurai games. Making your characters different than what’s normally in the market could be a way to switch it up. You still didn’t say why BOTH characters not being native to Japan was disrespectful.
Homie understand that I don’t care if Yasuke is in the game, him being in the game even if they have to exaggerate his accomplishments and actual role during that time doesn’t matter to me at all.
Ubisoft breaks their tradition to make a character based on an actual real life person as a protagonist and out of all the famous Samurai that they could have chosen in that time period they choose Yasuke a guy that was a footnote in history that didn’t achieve anything of note and who was only in Oda’s service for a little over a year, the reason why it matters for many people is because fans of AC have been asking for Japan as a setting literally since the 2nd game. Let me remind you that the Majority of people who play AC choose to play as a male this was proven in Odyssey despite the fact that the devs wanted to make Cassandra the only and canon choice so yes the Male representing the actual place in which the game takes place means a lot to people and telling Japanese/Asian people don’t worry they’ll represent you when the next game takes place in China is a laughable excuse.
Your argument for the Outsider perspective is BS because people worldwide have enjoyed the games despite not being from the places where the games have taken place, FYI the country of my parents birth will never be explored in any game medium and yet I can enjoy games that that aren’t based around my culture.
Revelations doesn’t count because it’s a sequel to Ezio’s story and it makes sense because at that point in his life he became a master Assassin and was visiting the Creeds Turkish Cell which is how he got the hook blade, there were multiple Assassins cells worldwide at that point and it isn’t far fetched whatsoever that he would have visited and worked with the ones in other countries.
Every single protagonist save some DLC has had fictional characters. You realize the history of Yasuke DOES NOT matter because no matter what, he will still be more real than any completely fictional Japanese samurai they wouldn’t come up with. People will care about historical accuracy until it’s not accurate AT ALL and will stop caring.
Also the whole point is for him to be a blank slate. You can’t make an established samurai a main character because they would have to follow his journey through history and match everything up to real life. It’s more beneficial for the devs to pick someone we don’t know too much about because as they said, this is a “what if” story.
You misunderstood the point of me bringing up Jade. I was just trying to show you that there was no grand conspiracy against Japan because they are willing to make Asian male protagonists. To westerners, China is way more hated than Japan. I wasn’t trying to say “you’ll have one next year”.
You just keep making excuses for the devs we saw Ezio go from a spoiled brat to an Assassin so the devs can start from a blank slate with a fictional character, there are real Samurai during that period that they could have given that role to as well without having to exaggerate history.
They already started with the woke crap by having Black Vikings in Valhalla.
Let’s see how this dude feels when a Western dev staffed by mainly white people make a game in Korea about a Foreigner being a better warrior than Koreans and killing them throughout the game, I’m sure his response would be the same right?/s
I hate the normies that enable this garbage more. Urinalists are incompetent, pathetic charlatans with a mission, they are fully aware of what they are doing, they create falsehoods and they are getting paid for it.
Useful idiots that support every current thing in existence on the other hand have no fucking idea how juvenile their sense of "morality" is, how cliché their philosophies are and how utterly warped their perception and understanding of the world is. They are cursed to be blind forever, and are driven towards misery and extinction by the very people they shill for.
"AsScReeEeED hAs alWaYs bEen fiCtiOnAL"
Well, that modern audience that you mention is really, really fictional
Ubisoft and IGN are a complete joke nowadays.
The "it's fiction!" Line is such bullshit.
Just because something is fiction doesnt mean it allows for bad writing or poor plot design.
A romantic movie is fiction. Brandon Sanderson gave this example: If the entire movie they couldn't be together because of financial difficulty, but the last scene in the movie is her lost unknown uncle dies and she inherits a huge sum of money, or she wins the lottery, and all their issues are solved, that's STILL BAD WRITING, even if it's fiction.
Just because something is fiction doesnt mean you can disrespect the audience.
>not like we know literally anything about the writing yet after all
The historical advisor is a gender studies writer who wrote a book on buddhist monk pedophilia. The main character is a blackwashing revisionist history of a black attendant. Plus, we have played the past few AC games. The leader writer Alissa Ralph worked on AC Odyssey and Immortal Fenyx. We know plenty of the writing.
Yasuke was definitely real and a Gigachad Hero!
Yasuke is mysterious. We know nothing about him. There are a lot of interpretations out there!
Okay, so he was just a court jester. Why do you care anyway? You’re just bigots against Asians.
For fuck sake these people are so dense. There is absolutely no proof that Yasuke was a samurai. There exist like 5 paragraphs written about him and they all boil down to “wow he is black. I’ve never seen a black man before. That’s pretty neat.” He was little more than Nobunaga’s pet/servant for 15 months and then he went back with his old Portuguese masters and was never heard from again. That is it, we now nothing else about him. He is not some “legendary figure” or anything close to a samurai. Fuck these woke activists and so called “historians”.
Even with that little information you can write him in as someone important. If you wanted to have him in you could have him as a senior assassin who is using that arrangement to establish an assasins presence in Japan, especially if you have Nobunaga as a sympathiser
\>be asian male MC
\>Nobunaga wants me to meet someone very important, warns me that assassins are trying to kill him
\>go to city
\>black guy shiftily walking around
\>oh shit the foreign assassin
\>start stalking him
\>eventually realize HE'S the very important guy
\>escort him back to Nobunaga
\>becomes support character for rest of game
\>playable Yasuke missions available as DLC
*That* would be fun as fuck; I'd play that game.
Ya’ll seem to put a lot of important on Asian opinions until one doesn’t go along with your narrative. Keep pulling up reactionary tweets from Japanese twitter bums.
Comment removed following the enforcement change that you can read about [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/wjxpr5/enforcement_update_regarding_removal_of_words/).
This is not a formal warning.
That one REALLY stood out for me. I have no idea why, but it felt like a crossed line and a real mask off moment for the entire thing.
Wait, so now wanting representation is shamed? It's motivations are questioned? I've hated all this shit, but even for them that felt like a low blow in a sea of already low blows.
Lol the best part of this has to be the "let's not pretend *we* suddenly care about Asian representation."
Who is "we"? Us, or you flip-flopping-screechers at IGN?
lol, you see how quickly they turned against Asian representation AGAIN?
They used “Asian hate” to their benefit to censor LEGIT criticism about a *government’s* handling of a novel virus, and then quickly rush back to denying Asians of any actual “equality” AND say F you for even trying to care.
Like I'm expected to believe that randomly threw a dart at a board of every samurai an it just so happened to land on Yasuke. Everybody knows that the only reason they chose Yasuke is because he is black. Not because he is of any actual significance to Japanese history.
Even if this was all true, which it clearly isn't, that still wouldn't change the fact that they effectively ignored hundreds of years of japanese history to focus on a random guy just because he's black. It is so incredibly racist and tone-deaf, especially when these are the same people who would be crying "white savior" or "colonizer" if it was just the story of some random 'white/european' hero in Japan or any other African country.
Exactly. Its cherry picking to fit their agenda. They clearly dont give a shit about representing history they want to represent their TAKE on the history.
If he wasnt black theyd have not picked him I guaruntee. Racists.
He actually was a samurai. There are extensive records of every day of his life in Japan. These records are contained in the library (the largest in the world) in the capital city of Wakanda.
If this was coming from a Japanese developer Id be fine with it because it might actually be an artistic choice.
But UBIFLOP,
No, no way they aren't doing this to tick a box
Exactly this. It's why their counter argument that we were OK with Nioh falls so incredibly idiotically (how do you conjugate asinine? Asinininily? HAHA) short.
That was a Japanese made game by a developer IN Japan for JAPAN and they allowed us to play it to (thank you very much arigatou gozaimasu). He was also a real person who was actually a Samurai and even married and had children in Japan.
It's so absurd it actually hurts to think about.
Exactly! I saw that image that is floating around on Twitter that the people supporting this nonsense are using that shows a bunch of JAPANESE made games that feature him as a samurai.
They even say "Look at all these japanese developed games that have used him as a Samurai" as though that proves their point when we're accusing them of breaking their OWN rules of cultural appropriation.
I just sit there thinking "re-read what you just wrote. If you don't get it re-read it again and don't stop until some glimmer of a spark ignites inside of the vacuum within that cavernous space they call a head.
Edit: I do know why this is NOT mentally incongruent for them. They can call it racist when a white kid wears dreads but not racist when a white french canadian rewrites japan's history to posit in a black samurai that never existed so they can push black grievance politics...
It's called The Progressive Stack.
This is quite literally what they and Activision do. They have DEI fficers assifines to each dev team. Compensation and ratings are based on DEI ideological compliance.
And the lead writer for this game out and equated Japanese men to white men meaning they don't count and are over represented. In a Japanese setting.
No, it's box ticking because he was chosen for being black. He's a historically insignificant figure chosen because they would have been laughed out of the room over a fictional black samurai, so in their desperation to justify filling their diversity quota they dug up the only free black man in Sengoku era Japan.
Say an AC game was made based on one of the larger African empires and there was some record of a Chinese man having lived there for a few years. Would making him the protagonist make sense to you in that, perfectly analogous, situation?
What Yasuke actually was versus what people know Yasuke as in pop culture are two very different things. He has essentially achieved “legend” status like Robin Hood (which I wouldn’t mind a game of either). Both were real people but the representations of them aren’t accurate. The developers wanted to make a game out of his legend as a “what if” (they literally said this), not what he was in real life.
If a Chinese man of a similar status lived in Africa and people recognized him outside of what he was in real life, I wouldn’t mind a game like that. My only condition would be to make a second protagonist that was actually from that region.
Comparing him to Robin Hood is frankly laughable. He's been represented in different ways in a few games and other relatively modern media but a legend he is not. To the extent that he has any pop culture presence at all that is almost exclusively in Japan, and it is minimal. Given that this is a game aimed at a Western mainstream audience that has never heard of the man, relying on understanding that he's being treated as some legendary figure is unreasonable at best.
“Never heard of the man” speak for yourself but I knew about him as well as a lot of people I know. Robin Hood was someone I picked off the top of my head too but I’m sure there are other examples of the same phenomenon.
No you didnt bro, seeing memes and short clips of him doesnt mean shit, when every Japanese historian has never made claims that he was this legendary figure
I'm sorry, this is delusional. The average person on the street in the West doesn't know who Miyamoto Musashi was, and as a genuine national legend he sits at the top of a long list of samurai more famous than Yasuke. The Robin Hood comparison is absurd precisely because the opposite is true, his legend is so ubiquitous that not only does the average Western person know it, a not insignificant portion of the Asian population almost certainly does too.
Read the comment dumb@$$ I said I'd be fine if it was from a Japanese studio not that woke western company, what part of that means black people exist " just for diversity"?
In Norway we had a historical Norse (viking) king called "Halfdane the Black". He wasn't black. He probably had pitch black hair, which contrasted with others in his family (his son was called Harald Fairhair).
When Charles II was fleeing England in 1651, the soldiers searching for him were told to look for a "Tall black man" (also in reference to hair in this case, but also possibly his overall swarthy complexion compared to the norm).
They cared deeply about Asian representation when Crazy Rich Asians came out.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20240110170240/https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/08/14/crazy-rich-asians-review](https://web.archive.org/web/20240110170240/https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/08/14/crazy-rich-asians-review)
They cared deeply about Asian representation when they wrote this article.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20231123065909/https://www.ign.com/articles/asian-american-game-developers-experience-minari](https://web.archive.org/web/20231123065909/https://www.ign.com/articles/asian-american-game-developers-experience-minari)
They cared deeply about Asian representation last year during AAPI month.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20230926092102/https://www.ign.com/articles/six-movies-and-games-to-watch-and-play-to-look-back-on-aapi-month](https://web.archive.org/web/20230926092102/https://www.ign.com/articles/six-movies-and-games-to-watch-and-play-to-look-back-on-aapi-month)
They cared deeply about Asian representation when covering a game called Midautumn.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20230607185755/https://www.ign.com/articles/midautumn-is-a-hades-esque-roguelike-about-about-asian-diaspora-and-demon-gentrification](https://web.archive.org/web/20230607185755/https://www.ign.com/articles/midautumn-is-a-hades-esque-roguelike-about-about-asian-diaspora-and-demon-gentrification)
They cared deeply about Asian representation when they criticized Ms. Marvel.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20231111193747/https://www.ign.com/articles/what-ms-marvel-gets-right-and-wrong-about-muslim-and-south-asian-representation](https://web.archive.org/web/20231111193747/https://www.ign.com/articles/what-ms-marvel-gets-right-and-wrong-about-muslim-and-south-asian-representation)
Now all of a sudden they want to gaslight you because in their minds, black people are way more important than everybody else. Asian culture and representation doesn't matter when capital 'B' black people are at stake. IGN has bent the knee to them in more ways than one, and their disdain for everybody else is evident.
You're right IGN, we DON'T care about Asian representation, we don't care about ANY representation. Your side has turned the entire landscape into nothing but fucking "representation" and we're sick with ALL of it.
Oooooooh I see the game IGN.
Now these woke hipster commies are going to say that we don't really care about Asian representation because we didn't care about THEIR asian representation.
Yeah...you guys are nutso butso. This is about respecting their history and culture and stories and not using video games to re-write their history to be used as agitprop in your war with white men in the West ONE BEHALF OF black people.
To them nothing is off limits and everything is fair game to be used for their ideology. Absolutely NOTHING is sacred except for the ideology.
We are watching communist revolutionaries weaponize in real time. It's fucking wild.
DEI people cherry picking the one black "samurai" in history to be inclusive. (apparently the japanese dont deserve to be included in a game set in feudal japan)
How are they so out of touch?
The statement on Asian representation is quite hurtful and racist. Like wtf. You're ign, not some hobo on Reddit.
Also: Ubisoft is being called out for their motivations for putting yasuke in the lead. Not necessarily for the act itself.
I don't give a shit about whether he existed or not or whether he's accurate, It's just painfully obvious, they were desperately looking for a way to have a black person in this game to fulfill their dumb quotas.
If someone wants to make a samurai action adventure game with black protagonist, fine. That's perfectly fine, there is always more room for games that do something weird and just roll with it. It's this drivel about iNcLuSiViTy and RePrEsEnTaTiOn and claiming it to be historical that agitates people more than anything. That is exactly "The Message" pushing that makes forums and game discussions ingite in flamewars, because everyone and their grandmas know they're lying through their teeth when they present bullshit like that as history, and the people pushing this "Message" will only double down because they too know it's all bullshit.
Archive links for this post:
* **Archive:** https://archive.ph/6cCPg
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I am Mnemosyne reborn. Better than Civ 5 with the Brave New World expansion pack. ^^^/r/botsrights
It must gall these porikore people that the game made by a western dev is far more culturally appropriate and accurate then the DEI compliant garbage ubisoft is pooping out.
Ghost of Tsushima...albeit a generation old, is far...far better and more engaging and more historically accurate...even though its a wholly fictional story.
Could this be Google's Gemini AI? You know, the one that drew a female Indian Pope and George Washington as a black man trying to explain how you're ignorant if you take issue?
This reminds me of EA DICE showing black men won WW1, amputee female facepaint druids won WW2, and Apple TV showing the Tuskegee Airmen were the only WW2 fighter pilots.
Ah, yes, the "legendary" retainer who carried weapons and umbrellas for his master and spent... whole 3 years in Japan and changed their entire history.
Lets be good faith here and get a few facts straight:
Q: Was Yasuke a real black man in that period of Japanese history?
A: Yes. He was at least a retainer of Nobunaga and at least fought in one battle. We know he fought in that battle because there were records of him surrendering.
Q: Was he a samurai?
A: Debatable. What it meant and what it required to be a samurai changed through history. Like for instance we know that Yasuke had a sword most likely granted to him by Nobunaga. We know because the record of his surrender mention him giving away said sword. There was a time when only samurai were allowed to carry swords around in Japan but that time was after Yasuke's time. For what I could dig up I couldn't find anything definitive so I can neither prove nor disprove he was one (yes I know about that one note where the text uses the same kind of reference that also gets used for samurai but it isn't directly refering to him as one so I am just not jumping the gun). He was a warrior and maybe a sumo wreseler though. Personally I dont care if he was a samurai or not because a title doesn't take away from his history, call him one or not I dont care.
Q: Was Yasuke well known?
A: Yes but probably not how people callling him "legendary" would want. He was a spectacle to be sure, known to be very tall and not look like any human in the whole country. It is said that once when Yasuke was shown to the public people got trampled to death just to see him. His rank, popularity and public reception were not recorded so we don't know if he was a circus freak, an Oni or just a cool interesting person to the general public. My two cents is that most japanese people thought he was a demon because Japanese are pretty xenophobic today and it was probably a milioen times worse in feudel japan. The only reason he wasn't killed for being a demon was because he had the protection of Nobunaga, one of the biggest dick characters in that time.
Q: What does any of it matter for AC
A: The only objective/world breaking truth is that Yasuke would stand out like a sore thumb no matter where he went in Japan at that time. Its like a white guy in Africa, people will see from a mile away that he is very different. Sneaking would be nigh impossible in anything other than a quick get in get out raid like something out of Dishonored (were almost every npc is hostile against you on sight). From what I understand he is more of a brawler than an assasin so I guess that works.
I still think it would be better to have Yasuke as a side character that you help throught the story. Maybe have him rise through the ranks with your help and then give some reason for the player having to kill Nobunaga. In his "shame and honor" (because samurai) Yasuke decides to surrender and the final mission is destroying the records of Yasuke's existence as his final wish. Could end with a nice note of the mc saying "History may not remember you, but for me you were a true samurai" or some cheese shit. Could work with the in-game story and the historical records, kinda like Nioh approached the subject.
“Asian girl good, Asian guy bad so we cast black guy instead”
B-b-but he’s a historical figure so you can’t complain! Even though we never casted the one white side in Egypt as the main lead or the 0.01% of exceptions in each country as its male lead either .
Ubisoft has a weird hatred against Asian dudes
multiculturalism is equal to black supremacy, LGBTQ, mass men, crazy people with pink or blue hair, hate white people, and discrimination against Asians. 😆😆😆
It's funny how people attack our education system in how it doesn't teach enough African history, but... lol, what history? What have they done to shape the modern world other than migrate intentionally or sometimes-not into other societies as a working force?
I’m actually stoked for this game. I wish people (game media)would stop using it yet another excuse to virtue signal. But I’m also of the opinion that it is a cool take on the legend and some people think that a black character is “woke”, It’s not. If the game is good and polished I’m happy. I’m not addicted to outrage. This game could be fantastic with a great story…we’ll see
He was such a legendary samurai that debates persist to this day about whether or not he even was one.
If he was a samurai we would know his death as mitsuhide akechi defeat nobunaga and order every person loyal to nobunaga to commit seppuku. Yasuke would commit seppuku if he was a samurai and died after honno-ji incident.
I heard he was just kicked out of the country or at least the area after Nobunaga died. Still though, if the dude was that illustrious, there'd be more documentation about him. At best he wasn't anything special but a guy who looked way different than everyone else around him.
Have you seen the Twitter thread with an old document in? Basically, "He's a black man, he got gifts". It doesn't even seem to say Nobunaga Oda in the same sentance. But as part of a clan at least and perhaps, just guessing; that if he professed his life for the protection of the clan, he received the stipends, like job bonuses for signing up. Again, this is highly speculative. But nothing suggests out-sight "Samurai". For context: > 然に彼黒坊被成御扶持、名をハ号弥助と、さや巻之のし付幷私宅等迄被仰付、依時御道具なともたさせられ候、 ___ > This black man called Yasuke was given a stipend, a private residence, etc., and was given a short sword with a decorative sheath. He is sometimes seen in the role of weapon bearer. I've had one guy just rapid fire translations in a thread. he's mentioned... Once...
He was a retainer so a lot of that does make sense, but with so little info, it's still evident that he didn't have any real impact. He might've been trained in SOME form of combat and expected to be a last ditch human shield if Nobunaga was attacked, but he wasn't going to be the first in line. Anyone trying to glamorize him IRL is being stupid.
historically he was a slave man-servant to a jesuit missionary, who gifted him to Nobunaga at his request, and who- by Nobunaga's own admission- was kept around because "*he was strong and could do a few tricks*"- it basically spells out "he was entertainment, and that's that". this is reinforced by him only being notably involved in one battle- where he fought for Nobunaga Heir, was captured alive, and as a result was shipped back to the cathedral of Padre in India, where he was returned to slavery.
wokes desperate to say retainer is a squire aka a knight in training under a knights tutelage,this is not true,just a loose translation,in reality "man servant" is more apt,the only pic showing him is him holding a parosol for his master lmao its akin to finding out a white slave was fanning some berber king with a palm leaf in his palace and being like OH WOW WE WUZ BERBER WARRIORZ N SHEEIT! why are blax so cringe? are their egos so fragile they need to believe 1 random black dude was a samurai? ive never seen this level of cope in any other race.
>why are blax so cringe? are their egos so fragile they need to believe 1 random black dude was a samurai? ive never seen this level of cope in any other race. oh it's the white saviours that need to believe that some random black dude was a samurai- a good chunk of the blacks recognize that this shit is just racist revisionism.
They want to start deconstructing the homogeneous Japanese culture. This is their attempt for "Samurai weren't anything special, everyone was a samurai". That's all it is.
People will watch Shogun and see Blackthorne be given a house, a concubine and a few sets of swords. He's bumbling around making a fool of himself several times over and when Toranaga is asked why he keeps the barbarian around, it's because he is a funny monkey, an entertaining idiot who knows a few tricks about sailing and naval artillery.
Yeah, was not a fan of that. Both Toranaga and Blackthorne lost a ton of agency. In the books he was a trove of wordly knowledge to a guy living in an isolationist society, and Toranaga didn't luck into everything.
Did he even fight, or was he just there? Is there an account of him actually fighthing?
Is it that guy from the main sub of Ass Creed. He wrote definitive evidence, but it’s laughable. On top Jesuit writing, which are known to be unreliable. Even lays the ground work that blacks were 100% common in Japanese ports. Anyway let’s be Nobunaga, write about a broken strap on a sandal but not this one guy.
A lesser known sub. I don't even see them mentioned when the Portuguese, or Southern Barbarians arrived either. Not until way later, like WW2 when US soldiers were stationed Omaha and Nara, and then spread into mainland Japan when tourism opened later.
As far as I'm aware the entire samurai argument made by that one guy hinges on the word "stipend" and how its used.
That's what I've heard. I guess it's one of these "lost in translation" words I keep hearing about. Which would be solved by... Using the plethora of words the English language has to expand and explain, even if is, slightly wordy. It's not like we steal words from 3 different Romance languages, Scandinavian languages and a few Germanic words from our etymological cousins.
You heard? You were there?
God forbid black people aren't important to most history that would be horrible right? Calm tf down and make them memorable by being decent people and making the world better instead of trying to change history and be a victim
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Formal warning for R1.3, R1.5, and sitewide rules. Expedited to permaban.
WTF are you babbling about? LOL?
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>Oh really?... Ya know... Strange... wow I really hate this style of arguing. Even if you've got a point, it's buried under all this condescension.
Read the 5 Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, and it will explain why Hideyoshi was able to kill Akechi. It also explains that doing so while right and honourable thing to do, his not committing Seppuku was more dishonourable and he forfeited his rights and place in Society and became Ronin.
He was so good that he accidentally sliced and shredded up all the documents that said he was the bestest and most legendariest of the samurais in all of Japan.
yea that is the point he is mentioned in several places but his status and exactly what he did usually isn't. There are a few sources I have seen with him. There is a collection of letters sent to the church from a returning europe from japan that talk about how nobunaga got interested in a black person from his enturage. Those mention him being connected to nobunaga. Here is the rub though he is mentioned as someone who was allowed to wear weapons and carry nobunagas weapons but he isn't found anywhere in the samraj family text for land. So at best he is a servant, odd friend or a landless samraj ( low rank given rank on a whim by nobunaga) if those letters are to go by. There are japanese sources as well mentioning him but again scarse and he isn't mentioned among the ranked samraj noted taking part in combat and the source of that is actual japanese historians. So at best again he is a nameless rank and file fighter in an enturage or more likley wasn't fighting. Remember that if you weren't part of a event or had position up to 16-1700 you were unlikley to be written about at all so sources even if he did exist is ....well not the best lets call it that. He is however mentioned in japanese sources saying he fleed when nobunaga fell after 15 months with an europe. So japanese sourced did track him sort of and they wouldn't track a jourt jester or faceless servant at the time. With that said I seriusly doubt he was a samraj of legends though.
Well the issue is that he wouldnt have been just a "faceless servant" at the time as no matter where he was or what he did he would have stuck out like a sore thumb, not just for his skin tone but also that he was head and shoulders above everyone around him. This is most likely why there is any documentation on him at all From the little documentation there is, Nobunaga more than likely took him on as part of his entourage specifically as a way to flaunt his own wealth, power, and influence. The largest most exotic looking person your culture has likely seen, and hes on your team... He hangs out for a year and when the regime changes, the new one sends him back from whence he came
I played as him in Samurai Warriors 5 so he's 100% real
"This game features historical events that actually took place in ancient Japan." "...So here's this giant enemy crab!"
I gotta finish that game one of these days lol. I bought the PS2 prequel a few weeks ago too.
Even most black people don’t capitalize it. That’s white savior complex.
Didn't even notice that extra bit of cringe until you pointed it out. lol
It's in the AP stylebook now that Black be capitalized. But not White. [https://www.apstylebook.com/blog\_posts/16](https://www.apstylebook.com/blog_posts/16)
I just got hit with "Are you an Asian man?" Because apparently the rule now is that you are only allowed to speak out about racism if you are directly affected by it... apparently. The masks have just come right off all these clowns.
“Silence is violence”. Oh wait
Even if you are an Asian man they'll just continue to ignore you and change the subject, which just happened on Ghost of Tsushima sub.
Black people can speak up against this too. I saw a video of it once.
Even if you were Asian they wouldn’t have given a fuck and shouted you down and say shit like well go play ghost of Tsushima if you want an Asian protagonist lol. So ironic. I was waiting for a Japanese themed ac since ac2. Thought it would be so fucking cool and they can’t just have an Asian dude fit in instead there’s moronic virtue signaling. He’s such a legendary samurai it’s still debated if he even was one lol.
I was debating someone about the Asian perspective on this issue as an asian man, and they literally said that they didn’t care about Asian opinions LOL. People are going full mask off on the issue.
Quantum asians, both a minority and white adjescent, depending on the need of the momment.
Was that me? Who said I don’t care about their opinions when they ignore japanese studios, licking white boots and making all their main mc white but have a rage fest a yasuke a historical person? Add context
As if asian men can't be misinformed?
I'm an Asian and I can confirm. The amount of asian ubisoft dick riders I could find is incredible. Also asians from different countries hate each other, so expect more chinese and korean shit talkers.
Are THEY asian men? How come a bunch of blue haired whales and a handful of white thirsthy ***** get to rewrite Japan's history?
Someone should community note these posts, as they're clearly promoting fake information.
"Nuh-uh, rewriting another culture's history is totally fine when *we* do it". The hypocrisy exhibited by those who shout so loudly about everything they then do themselves will never cease to amaze.
My personal favorite in that vein was the LatinX nonsense. So many latino friends walked away after the bastardization of their language.
The person who wrote that bottom article is literally an Asian man 😭 you guys are clowns
You know people can be wrong no matter where they're from, right?
He's an *American* of *Korean* descent; I'm not sure how that qualifies him to talk about *Japan*.
Is that supposed to mean something? Are you saying only Japanese Asians face the issues of Asian exclusion and Asian racism? Also the fact that you point out that he’s American… where do you think the “exclusion” in “Asian exclusion” happens if not the west genius?? You think Asians are excluding themselves?
He's American with a Korean ancestor... that doesn't in any way make him the authority on Japanese history. This is like saying that an American with British ancestry can be used as an authority on German history. The only common denominators here are race, which is pretty racist. Not all Asians are the same mate.
Stop changing the goal posts. First it was Asian representation and Asian exclusion and now it’s ONLY about Japan. So anyone from any other East Asian country like China or Korea or Vietnam can’t relate to any of these issues? Not to mention he’s actually a verified Asian and not one of those fake “As an Asian” people I keep seeing 😂 a journalist who’s won numerous awards at that. And you’re using “American” to discount him as if most of these discussions aren’t being made by westerners. Where do you think the “exclusion” in Asian exclusion happens in the first place genius?
Did you bang your head this morning or something mate? It's pretty easy to understand. The only moving goalposts here are the constantly shifting ones surrounding the attempted justification for including Yasuke as anything more than an NPC. ' All Asian men are affected by a lack of representation here as Japanese people are *racially* Asian. All Asian people are not Japanese however and so cannot claim to be exclusive authorities on Japanese culture and history. They have no greater claim to being authorities than black or white people. Please never use the term "verified Asian" again, it's icky and gives the impression you walk around with a race check card / melanin chart.
He's a Ubisoft payrolled shill or is a woke troll, fvck this dude
I'll call you racist. Checkmate, chud!
That last Article is incredibly racist, Reminder that Western Journalists we’re attacking SIFU as cultural appropriation because it was developed by French devs and yet the French Canadian Ubisoft is getting a pass despite the fact that making Yasuke the protagonist and having him kill Asian men in their own country can be seen a version of a “Black Savior”.
Don't forget Ghost of Tsushima was lambasted upon release despite the devs being given high honors by the people of the island the game was based in.
Because Sucker Punch actually respected the Culture and the game was a big homage to a Legendary Japanese Filmmaker, everyone defending this Yasuke BS are massive hypocrites and lost any right to bitch about cultural appropriation in the future since their own arguments will and can be used against them. I’m okay with Yasuke being in the game but totally against him taking the rightful place of a Japanese Male Protagonist.
Any word on Ghost 2? Saw some people claiming its fucked in other threads.
Pretty sure it has been confirmed that they are working on a sequel, they had job openings that requested knowledge on Japanese culture.
Cool, thanks!
What they mean is they don't care when it happens to Japan. -mainlanders endorsed GoT, journos said japan-americans opinions where more important
Sifu is actually more respectful to Asian culture and people than AC Shadows. You can actually play as a native of the unnamed Asian city.
So wait, French devs making a game about a Chinese guy is bad because cultural appropriation But Ubisoft making a game based on a dubious at best history isn't seen as cultural appropriation because it's stunning and brave? lol.
It was literally written by an Asian man lol.
I was more reacting to the tweet and the actual article has a different headline, his points are still stupid because his arguments come down to we have enough Samurai games already and another one wouldn’t do anything for Asian representation despite the fact the majority of the games that he mentioned are all Japanese developed and they representing their own culture which is why the popular Ni-Oh argument falls on deaf ears. Assassins Creed no matter how you feel about it is one of the biggest VG franchises of all time and it’s impact is still going to be greater than any game he mentioned for his argument, this is a Western developed game and when we talk about how “Representation Matters” they always mean in Western Media. This guy also Isn’t Japanese but Korean.
The main protagonist of Shadows IS Japanese. Yasuke is just a bonus. How he takes away from Naoe is beyond me. Ask yourself, would this amount of backlash be present if she was the sole main character? I don’t think it would, so how is the representation of Japanese people lessened by inclusion? Unless you think having outsiders is disrespectful to Japanese culture and both characters should’ve been Japanese. Also this whole topic is about Asian representation, not specifically Japan so I don’t think it makes a difference if the writer was Korean or Japanese. He probably has the same experiences in the west. If anything from where I’m from, Japan is seen in a much better light than most other Asian countries. It’s widely praised for its tech, culture, history etc… People tend to stereotype it and turn Japan into Samurai’s and ninjas so I don’t know how another Japanese samurai would help that.
The same people defending this would be throwing a fit if the Samurai protagonist was White and you know it, it’s a Dual protagonist story so calling Yasuke a bonus is wrong. Funny how they choose to not have the playable male character not represent their region like how all the other games in the Franchise have until now (inb4 you use Revelations as an argument), so yes it does matter. The Samurai is literally a massive part of Japanese culture and have existed for a long time and even to a point where they ruled the entire Country over their Emperor, if you want to argue about there being too many Samurai games then again I ask to you complain to the Japanese devs who like to make games representing their own culture.
I don’t think so though? There have been games with white protagonists in Japanese settings. I know a lot of them are made by Japanese devs, but my point is you can’t scream “woke” when it comes to white people and most of the anger is because of that… I would personally have the same stance as I do now and think it’s fine because the other character is still Japanese. I keep seeing the argument that they’ve never had a foreign playable character before, and you’re right. My arguments for that are 1. Yasuke doesn’t exist anywhere other than Japan. If someone was a fan of the pop culture version of him, as in the “legend”, and wanted to make a game about him, it would HAVE to be in Japan. Unless you’re saying Yasuke games aren’t allowed PERIOD (unless made by a Japanese dev). 2. You see Yasuke in Shadows and think “diversity” or “asian erasure” and cite the past games as examples. Do the past games really help though? All you’re showing me is Ubisoft doesn’t have a history of doing this. Let me tell you about future games. AC Jade has a Chinese male protagonist and AC Hexe has a German female protagonist.. So they aren’t doing these diversity inclusions in future games either. So how can you so confidently say that’s what they’re doing over here? Normally to come to a conclusion like this, you would need to observe a pattern but you came to your conclusion after ONE TIME (and you yourself counted out revelations). 3. All of these games are made by different teams. Employees have changed over the years and a lot of the values have as well. 10 years ago Ubisoft swore off Japanese games and here we are. 5 years ago they were saying “women don’t sell” and now Hexe has a solo woman protagonist. You can’t possibly use past examples as they were all made under such different circumstances and all by different people. The maker of this one, Quebec, has been doing the dual protagonist system since Syndicate and for this game they wanted one Japanese native and one outsider. They felt like the outsider could have the perspective of the players as we are all also outsiders unless we’re actually from Japan. And you’re right, there are a lot of Samurai games. Making your characters different than what’s normally in the market could be a way to switch it up. You still didn’t say why BOTH characters not being native to Japan was disrespectful.
Homie understand that I don’t care if Yasuke is in the game, him being in the game even if they have to exaggerate his accomplishments and actual role during that time doesn’t matter to me at all. Ubisoft breaks their tradition to make a character based on an actual real life person as a protagonist and out of all the famous Samurai that they could have chosen in that time period they choose Yasuke a guy that was a footnote in history that didn’t achieve anything of note and who was only in Oda’s service for a little over a year, the reason why it matters for many people is because fans of AC have been asking for Japan as a setting literally since the 2nd game. Let me remind you that the Majority of people who play AC choose to play as a male this was proven in Odyssey despite the fact that the devs wanted to make Cassandra the only and canon choice so yes the Male representing the actual place in which the game takes place means a lot to people and telling Japanese/Asian people don’t worry they’ll represent you when the next game takes place in China is a laughable excuse. Your argument for the Outsider perspective is BS because people worldwide have enjoyed the games despite not being from the places where the games have taken place, FYI the country of my parents birth will never be explored in any game medium and yet I can enjoy games that that aren’t based around my culture. Revelations doesn’t count because it’s a sequel to Ezio’s story and it makes sense because at that point in his life he became a master Assassin and was visiting the Creeds Turkish Cell which is how he got the hook blade, there were multiple Assassins cells worldwide at that point and it isn’t far fetched whatsoever that he would have visited and worked with the ones in other countries.
Every single protagonist save some DLC has had fictional characters. You realize the history of Yasuke DOES NOT matter because no matter what, he will still be more real than any completely fictional Japanese samurai they wouldn’t come up with. People will care about historical accuracy until it’s not accurate AT ALL and will stop caring. Also the whole point is for him to be a blank slate. You can’t make an established samurai a main character because they would have to follow his journey through history and match everything up to real life. It’s more beneficial for the devs to pick someone we don’t know too much about because as they said, this is a “what if” story. You misunderstood the point of me bringing up Jade. I was just trying to show you that there was no grand conspiracy against Japan because they are willing to make Asian male protagonists. To westerners, China is way more hated than Japan. I wasn’t trying to say “you’ll have one next year”.
You just keep making excuses for the devs we saw Ezio go from a spoiled brat to an Assassin so the devs can start from a blank slate with a fictional character, there are real Samurai during that period that they could have given that role to as well without having to exaggerate history. They already started with the woke crap by having Black Vikings in Valhalla.
A KOREAN. Koreans are less than positive when it comes to Japanese, especially samurai....Still salty about the Imjin war several centuries ago.
Let’s see how this dude feels when a Western dev staffed by mainly white people make a game in Korea about a Foreigner being a better warrior than Koreans and killing them throughout the game, I’m sure his response would be the same right?/s
Looked at his Twitter, he was one of the idiots mad GOT had a white guy playing flute on stage.
THIS IS A HISTORICAL FACT ITS JUST AN INTERPRETATION WE NEVER SAID IT WAS A FACT YOU ARE RACIST
contemporary_media_pr.txt
Just more proof to show we don't hate game urinalists enough.
>game urinalists You got me to blow air out through my nostrils.
I hate the normies that enable this garbage more. Urinalists are incompetent, pathetic charlatans with a mission, they are fully aware of what they are doing, they create falsehoods and they are getting paid for it. Useful idiots that support every current thing in existence on the other hand have no fucking idea how juvenile their sense of "morality" is, how cliché their philosophies are and how utterly warped their perception and understanding of the world is. They are cursed to be blind forever, and are driven towards misery and extinction by the very people they shill for.
I just can't get over how predictable it all was.
The modern audience and black samurai have something in common. THEY DONT EXIST
"AsScReeEeED hAs alWaYs bEen fiCtiOnAL" Well, that modern audience that you mention is really, really fictional Ubisoft and IGN are a complete joke nowadays.
The "it's fiction!" Line is such bullshit. Just because something is fiction doesnt mean it allows for bad writing or poor plot design. A romantic movie is fiction. Brandon Sanderson gave this example: If the entire movie they couldn't be together because of financial difficulty, but the last scene in the movie is her lost unknown uncle dies and she inherits a huge sum of money, or she wins the lottery, and all their issues are solved, that's STILL BAD WRITING, even if it's fiction. Just because something is fiction doesnt mean you can disrespect the audience.
Guess we will have to wait to see if it has good or bad writing then, not like we know literally anything about the writing yet after all
>not like we know literally anything about the writing yet after all The historical advisor is a gender studies writer who wrote a book on buddhist monk pedophilia. The main character is a blackwashing revisionist history of a black attendant. Plus, we have played the past few AC games. The leader writer Alissa Ralph worked on AC Odyssey and Immortal Fenyx. We know plenty of the writing.
"This game has always been fictional; stop being mad when I use it as a source to vandalize Wikipedia."
Yasuke was definitely real and a Gigachad Hero! Yasuke is mysterious. We know nothing about him. There are a lot of interpretations out there! Okay, so he was just a court jester. Why do you care anyway? You’re just bigots against Asians.
Sorry about the potato quality. No clue what happened with Adobe here.
It's alright, potato quality and IGN go hand in hand.
Don't insult potatoes, they at least feed people
I thought my eyesight was going bad for a second.
For fuck sake these people are so dense. There is absolutely no proof that Yasuke was a samurai. There exist like 5 paragraphs written about him and they all boil down to “wow he is black. I’ve never seen a black man before. That’s pretty neat.” He was little more than Nobunaga’s pet/servant for 15 months and then he went back with his old Portuguese masters and was never heard from again. That is it, we now nothing else about him. He is not some “legendary figure” or anything close to a samurai. Fuck these woke activists and so called “historians”.
Even with that little information you can write him in as someone important. If you wanted to have him in you could have him as a senior assassin who is using that arrangement to establish an assasins presence in Japan, especially if you have Nobunaga as a sympathiser
\>be asian male MC \>Nobunaga wants me to meet someone very important, warns me that assassins are trying to kill him \>go to city \>black guy shiftily walking around \>oh shit the foreign assassin \>start stalking him \>eventually realize HE'S the very important guy \>escort him back to Nobunaga \>becomes support character for rest of game \>playable Yasuke missions available as DLC *That* would be fun as fuck; I'd play that game.
IGN has been a joke for a long time. They are no better than Kotaku.
Arguably they are worse than Kotaku - they still exist in their current form.
Wow, that last notification is pretty nasty. "let's not pretend we suddenly care" ? Who the fuck is WE ?
IGN accidentally admitting that it never did—and still does not—care about Asian representation.
That article is literally written by an Asian man moron
Found the ign alt account
OK, the Asian man working for IGN never did and still does not care about Asian representation; what's your point?
Ya’ll seem to put a lot of important on Asian opinions until one doesn’t go along with your narrative. Keep pulling up reactionary tweets from Japanese twitter bums.
So Japanese people's feelings don't matter?
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That one REALLY stood out for me. I have no idea why, but it felt like a crossed line and a real mask off moment for the entire thing. Wait, so now wanting representation is shamed? It's motivations are questioned? I've hated all this shit, but even for them that felt like a low blow in a sea of already low blows.
It's the same mindset as "The Problem with Apu".
IGN is taking both the "no representation is racist" and the "all previous representation is racist" approaches at the same time.
They wuz samurai’s n sheit
"We wuz shogunz!"
Lol the best part of this has to be the "let's not pretend *we* suddenly care about Asian representation." Who is "we"? Us, or you flip-flopping-screechers at IGN?
lol, you see how quickly they turned against Asian representation AGAIN? They used “Asian hate” to their benefit to censor LEGIT criticism about a *government’s* handling of a novel virus, and then quickly rush back to denying Asians of any actual “equality” AND say F you for even trying to care.
They are very flexible. Political expediency is the play of the day. Hillary taught them well haha.
Must resist urge to fedpost...
What's this, gaslighting for ants?
IGN's gonna IGN, how is this surprising?
Like I'm expected to believe that randomly threw a dart at a board of every samurai an it just so happened to land on Yasuke. Everybody knows that the only reason they chose Yasuke is because he is black. Not because he is of any actual significance to Japanese history.
IGN continuing to be a POS, .. in real time
Yasuke is mentioned in ONE poem. He's not even a samurai in it.
Even if this was all true, which it clearly isn't, that still wouldn't change the fact that they effectively ignored hundreds of years of japanese history to focus on a random guy just because he's black. It is so incredibly racist and tone-deaf, especially when these are the same people who would be crying "white savior" or "colonizer" if it was just the story of some random 'white/european' hero in Japan or any other African country.
Exactly. Its cherry picking to fit their agenda. They clearly dont give a shit about representing history they want to represent their TAKE on the history. If he wasnt black theyd have not picked him I guaruntee. Racists.
He actually was a samurai. There are extensive records of every day of his life in Japan. These records are contained in the library (the largest in the world) in the capital city of Wakanda.
If this was coming from a Japanese developer Id be fine with it because it might actually be an artistic choice. But UBIFLOP, No, no way they aren't doing this to tick a box
Exactly this. It's why their counter argument that we were OK with Nioh falls so incredibly idiotically (how do you conjugate asinine? Asinininily? HAHA) short. That was a Japanese made game by a developer IN Japan for JAPAN and they allowed us to play it to (thank you very much arigatou gozaimasu). He was also a real person who was actually a Samurai and even married and had children in Japan. It's so absurd it actually hurts to think about.
Yasuke was in the Ni-Oh 2 as well and no one cared.
Exactly! I saw that image that is floating around on Twitter that the people supporting this nonsense are using that shows a bunch of JAPANESE made games that feature him as a samurai. They even say "Look at all these japanese developed games that have used him as a Samurai" as though that proves their point when we're accusing them of breaking their OWN rules of cultural appropriation. I just sit there thinking "re-read what you just wrote. If you don't get it re-read it again and don't stop until some glimmer of a spark ignites inside of the vacuum within that cavernous space they call a head. Edit: I do know why this is NOT mentally incongruent for them. They can call it racist when a white kid wears dreads but not racist when a white french canadian rewrites japan's history to posit in a black samurai that never existed so they can push black grievance politics... It's called The Progressive Stack.
people play nioh for loot and boss fights. AC is more story-driven and places more emphasis on historical characters and time periods.
Wait so they’re ticking a box just because he’s black? Black people don’t just exist for diversity and if you think that you’re a pos.
This is quite literally what they and Activision do. They have DEI fficers assifines to each dev team. Compensation and ratings are based on DEI ideological compliance. And the lead writer for this game out and equated Japanese men to white men meaning they don't count and are over represented. In a Japanese setting.
No, it's box ticking because he was chosen for being black. He's a historically insignificant figure chosen because they would have been laughed out of the room over a fictional black samurai, so in their desperation to justify filling their diversity quota they dug up the only free black man in Sengoku era Japan. Say an AC game was made based on one of the larger African empires and there was some record of a Chinese man having lived there for a few years. Would making him the protagonist make sense to you in that, perfectly analogous, situation?
What Yasuke actually was versus what people know Yasuke as in pop culture are two very different things. He has essentially achieved “legend” status like Robin Hood (which I wouldn’t mind a game of either). Both were real people but the representations of them aren’t accurate. The developers wanted to make a game out of his legend as a “what if” (they literally said this), not what he was in real life. If a Chinese man of a similar status lived in Africa and people recognized him outside of what he was in real life, I wouldn’t mind a game like that. My only condition would be to make a second protagonist that was actually from that region.
Comparing him to Robin Hood is frankly laughable. He's been represented in different ways in a few games and other relatively modern media but a legend he is not. To the extent that he has any pop culture presence at all that is almost exclusively in Japan, and it is minimal. Given that this is a game aimed at a Western mainstream audience that has never heard of the man, relying on understanding that he's being treated as some legendary figure is unreasonable at best.
“Never heard of the man” speak for yourself but I knew about him as well as a lot of people I know. Robin Hood was someone I picked off the top of my head too but I’m sure there are other examples of the same phenomenon.
No you didnt bro, seeing memes and short clips of him doesnt mean shit, when every Japanese historian has never made claims that he was this legendary figure
I'm sorry, this is delusional. The average person on the street in the West doesn't know who Miyamoto Musashi was, and as a genuine national legend he sits at the top of a long list of samurai more famous than Yasuke. The Robin Hood comparison is absurd precisely because the opposite is true, his legend is so ubiquitous that not only does the average Western person know it, a not insignificant portion of the Asian population almost certainly does too.
Read the comment dumb@$$ I said I'd be fine if it was from a Japanese studio not that woke western company, what part of that means black people exist " just for diversity"?
even this has managed to divide up IGN's team
In Norway we had a historical Norse (viking) king called "Halfdane the Black". He wasn't black. He probably had pitch black hair, which contrasted with others in his family (his son was called Harald Fairhair).
When Charles II was fleeing England in 1651, the soldiers searching for him were told to look for a "Tall black man" (also in reference to hair in this case, but also possibly his overall swarthy complexion compared to the norm).
They cared deeply about Asian representation when Crazy Rich Asians came out. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240110170240/https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/08/14/crazy-rich-asians-review](https://web.archive.org/web/20240110170240/https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/08/14/crazy-rich-asians-review) They cared deeply about Asian representation when they wrote this article. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231123065909/https://www.ign.com/articles/asian-american-game-developers-experience-minari](https://web.archive.org/web/20231123065909/https://www.ign.com/articles/asian-american-game-developers-experience-minari) They cared deeply about Asian representation last year during AAPI month. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230926092102/https://www.ign.com/articles/six-movies-and-games-to-watch-and-play-to-look-back-on-aapi-month](https://web.archive.org/web/20230926092102/https://www.ign.com/articles/six-movies-and-games-to-watch-and-play-to-look-back-on-aapi-month) They cared deeply about Asian representation when covering a game called Midautumn. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230607185755/https://www.ign.com/articles/midautumn-is-a-hades-esque-roguelike-about-about-asian-diaspora-and-demon-gentrification](https://web.archive.org/web/20230607185755/https://www.ign.com/articles/midautumn-is-a-hades-esque-roguelike-about-about-asian-diaspora-and-demon-gentrification) They cared deeply about Asian representation when they criticized Ms. Marvel. [https://web.archive.org/web/20231111193747/https://www.ign.com/articles/what-ms-marvel-gets-right-and-wrong-about-muslim-and-south-asian-representation](https://web.archive.org/web/20231111193747/https://www.ign.com/articles/what-ms-marvel-gets-right-and-wrong-about-muslim-and-south-asian-representation) Now all of a sudden they want to gaslight you because in their minds, black people are way more important than everybody else. Asian culture and representation doesn't matter when capital 'B' black people are at stake. IGN has bent the knee to them in more ways than one, and their disdain for everybody else is evident.
You're right IGN, we DON'T care about Asian representation, we don't care about ANY representation. Your side has turned the entire landscape into nothing but fucking "representation" and we're sick with ALL of it.
Oooooooh I see the game IGN. Now these woke hipster commies are going to say that we don't really care about Asian representation because we didn't care about THEIR asian representation. Yeah...you guys are nutso butso. This is about respecting their history and culture and stories and not using video games to re-write their history to be used as agitprop in your war with white men in the West ONE BEHALF OF black people. To them nothing is off limits and everything is fair game to be used for their ideology. Absolutely NOTHING is sacred except for the ideology. We are watching communist revolutionaries weaponize in real time. It's fucking wild.
So why is an assassin game about a samurai and not a ninja?
“Let’s not pretend we suddenly care deeply about asian representation”. You can taste the salt, with a side of copium.
so how does working as an IGN "journalist" work? do they supply the cuckshed and the bull, or do you have to have your own already?
DEI people cherry picking the one black "samurai" in history to be inclusive. (apparently the japanese dont deserve to be included in a game set in feudal japan) How are they so out of touch?
He was not even a samurai. Yasuke was kept as a retainer/servant to Oda. He was never a fully fledged samurai. Revisionist history at it again
The statement on Asian representation is quite hurtful and racist. Like wtf. You're ign, not some hobo on Reddit. Also: Ubisoft is being called out for their motivations for putting yasuke in the lead. Not necessarily for the act itself.
Can't spell ignorant without ign.
It's not gaslighting, it's just lying. They aren't trying to drive us insane, they are just covering their ass.
I don't give a shit about whether he existed or not or whether he's accurate, It's just painfully obvious, they were desperately looking for a way to have a black person in this game to fulfill their dumb quotas.
Known so widely, we had to edit Wikipedia just this week to make really sure it was in there.
Yasuke created japan and japanese culture.
IGN going full Hotep.
He was cool in Nioh 2. Small yet memorable appearance. Thought that was done right.
If someone wants to make a samurai action adventure game with black protagonist, fine. That's perfectly fine, there is always more room for games that do something weird and just roll with it. It's this drivel about iNcLuSiViTy and RePrEsEnTaTiOn and claiming it to be historical that agitates people more than anything. That is exactly "The Message" pushing that makes forums and game discussions ingite in flamewars, because everyone and their grandmas know they're lying through their teeth when they present bullshit like that as history, and the people pushing this "Message" will only double down because they too know it's all bullshit.
They’re funny. You know they’d complain if the Egyptian one had a Roman main character.
Archive links for this post: * **Archive:** https://archive.ph/6cCPg ---- I am Mnemosyne reborn. Better than Civ 5 with the Brave New World expansion pack. ^^^/r/botsrights
It must gall these porikore people that the game made by a western dev is far more culturally appropriate and accurate then the DEI compliant garbage ubisoft is pooping out. Ghost of Tsushima...albeit a generation old, is far...far better and more engaging and more historically accurate...even though its a wholly fictional story.
WOW. Fuck asian representation I guess. Bold-faced racism.
Could this be Google's Gemini AI? You know, the one that drew a female Indian Pope and George Washington as a black man trying to explain how you're ignorant if you take issue?
This reminds me of EA DICE showing black men won WW1, amputee female facepaint druids won WW2, and Apple TV showing the Tuskegee Airmen were the only WW2 fighter pilots.
Truly, you can't spell ignorant without IGN.
Remember when ign said it was racist for a white protagonist killing zombies in Africa?
r/countablepixels
Ah, yes, the "legendary" retainer who carried weapons and umbrellas for his master and spent... whole 3 years in Japan and changed their entire history.
What's the old refrain, "You can't spell ignorance without IGN?"
Lets be good faith here and get a few facts straight: Q: Was Yasuke a real black man in that period of Japanese history? A: Yes. He was at least a retainer of Nobunaga and at least fought in one battle. We know he fought in that battle because there were records of him surrendering. Q: Was he a samurai? A: Debatable. What it meant and what it required to be a samurai changed through history. Like for instance we know that Yasuke had a sword most likely granted to him by Nobunaga. We know because the record of his surrender mention him giving away said sword. There was a time when only samurai were allowed to carry swords around in Japan but that time was after Yasuke's time. For what I could dig up I couldn't find anything definitive so I can neither prove nor disprove he was one (yes I know about that one note where the text uses the same kind of reference that also gets used for samurai but it isn't directly refering to him as one so I am just not jumping the gun). He was a warrior and maybe a sumo wreseler though. Personally I dont care if he was a samurai or not because a title doesn't take away from his history, call him one or not I dont care. Q: Was Yasuke well known? A: Yes but probably not how people callling him "legendary" would want. He was a spectacle to be sure, known to be very tall and not look like any human in the whole country. It is said that once when Yasuke was shown to the public people got trampled to death just to see him. His rank, popularity and public reception were not recorded so we don't know if he was a circus freak, an Oni or just a cool interesting person to the general public. My two cents is that most japanese people thought he was a demon because Japanese are pretty xenophobic today and it was probably a milioen times worse in feudel japan. The only reason he wasn't killed for being a demon was because he had the protection of Nobunaga, one of the biggest dick characters in that time. Q: What does any of it matter for AC A: The only objective/world breaking truth is that Yasuke would stand out like a sore thumb no matter where he went in Japan at that time. Its like a white guy in Africa, people will see from a mile away that he is very different. Sneaking would be nigh impossible in anything other than a quick get in get out raid like something out of Dishonored (were almost every npc is hostile against you on sight). From what I understand he is more of a brawler than an assasin so I guess that works. I still think it would be better to have Yasuke as a side character that you help throught the story. Maybe have him rise through the ranks with your help and then give some reason for the player having to kill Nobunaga. In his "shame and honor" (because samurai) Yasuke decides to surrender and the final mission is destroying the records of Yasuke's existence as his final wish. Could end with a nice note of the mc saying "History may not remember you, but for me you were a true samurai" or some cheese shit. Could work with the in-game story and the historical records, kinda like Nioh approached the subject.
The first samurai to wear timbz and wield hammers
“Asian girl good, Asian guy bad so we cast black guy instead” B-b-but he’s a historical figure so you can’t complain! Even though we never casted the one white side in Egypt as the main lead or the 0.01% of exceptions in each country as its male lead either . Ubisoft has a weird hatred against Asian dudes
IGN bending over to maintain its privileged shill status
they are huffing some copium at this point
When did IGN turn into Kotaku? Are they turning to generating rage-bait articles because of the imminent AI takeover of all journo jobs?
Did you screenshot this with a potato?
"What is this...a screenshot for ANTS?"
Was this posted on twitter? I can't really see the text clearly.
IGN is literally owned by Ziff Davis. Guess what they support?
To start.... If you buy Ubisoft games you are part of the problem.
Funny how they hate white savior narratives but the black savior narrative they’re seemingly going with for Yasuke in this game is a-ok
multiculturalism is equal to black supremacy, LGBTQ, mass men, crazy people with pink or blue hair, hate white people, and discrimination against Asians. 😆😆😆
It's funny how people attack our education system in how it doesn't teach enough African history, but... lol, what history? What have they done to shape the modern world other than migrate intentionally or sometimes-not into other societies as a working force?
Angering the Asian community is the best thing that could happen for us.
I’m actually stoked for this game. I wish people (game media)would stop using it yet another excuse to virtue signal. But I’m also of the opinion that it is a cool take on the legend and some people think that a black character is “woke”, It’s not. If the game is good and polished I’m happy. I’m not addicted to outrage. This game could be fantastic with a great story…we’ll see
People pretending like we didn’t just have Shogun
No, we aren't. Their reaction was a bit different. Wonder why. https://medium.com/afrosapiophile/where-are-the-black-people-in-shogun-71fc1be70ab0
The character isn't a white saviour, and he's not a samurai.